Speaker 1: Wow, the NFL daily where we totally forgot President's Day
Speaker 1: is a real holiday. I'm Greg Rosenthal in the garage
Speaker 1: talking to my friend from across the country.
Speaker 2: I haven't spent a.
Speaker 1: Lot of time in real life, but I love his
Speaker 1: work on The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. It's Danny Hifitz,
Speaker 1: also a great writer. Danny, what's happened?
Speaker 3: I'm good man. How are you doing.
Speaker 4: We're just getting ready for when the President's Day is
Speaker 4: just going to become the day after the super Bowl
Speaker 4: and then suddenly everyone's going to get the party on
Speaker 4: the super Bowl like it's like there's no work the
Speaker 4: next day.
Speaker 3: So we're just kind of getting ahad of the curve.
Speaker 1: Okay, people have mentioned that, and for that to happen,
Speaker 1: that means the NFL has to start a week earlier,
Speaker 1: though too write or they don't add the second bye week.
Speaker 1: But I keep thinking they're going to add a second
Speaker 1: bye week.
Speaker 2: That's been what it's been talked about a little bit.
Speaker 1: If you add an eighteenth game and then do we
Speaker 1: start like Labor Day weekend weekend before rather, it would
Speaker 1: cut into my US Open tennis watch and it would
Speaker 1: be a little tricky.
Speaker 4: One of us is you know, a little more plugged
Speaker 4: into the NFL than me. So, but I do think
Speaker 4: that I know they love the starting after Labor Day,
Speaker 4: but I also know they want to make the Super
Speaker 4: Bowl even bigger in the fact that you could make
Speaker 4: the Super Bowl like an actual holiday. I wonder if
Speaker 4: they kill the two week gap between the conference championships
Speaker 4: and the super Bowl. Yes, make bring it back into
Speaker 4: a week so that way you can add the eighteenth game.
Speaker 4: They make more money, add the second buy so the
Speaker 4: players don't get that mad. But then you collapse that
Speaker 4: into two week period into one week, and now the
Speaker 4: super Bowl is the day before President's Day.
Speaker 3: Which honestly is I would always should have been. It's
Speaker 3: kind of perfect.
Speaker 2: I am with you.
Speaker 1: I get why it started that way way back when
Speaker 1: it's like a different media cycle, like gets everyone chance
Speaker 1: to really crank up the game for seven days and
Speaker 1: everyone gets in position. We're like in a different time.
Speaker 1: Football is meant to be played weekly. Everyone does those
Speaker 1: those tweets of like, oh, it's our first Sunday with football.
Speaker 1: Chris Long had a funny video about that. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: we just had one the one Sunday before. Sorry, Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl as my voice is already losing.
Speaker 2: I mean, New Orleans.
Speaker 3: How are you doing?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought you were supposed to be immune to
Speaker 4: New Orleans by now.
Speaker 1: I thought I was in better shape until starting to
Speaker 1: talk loudly to you right now. But Danny ring your
Speaker 1: Fantasy Football show, one of the funniest, one of the best,
Speaker 1: most incisive creative podcasts out there. Craig Horlbeck, Danny Kelly,
Speaker 1: everyone check it out. Danny on the Ringer had you
Speaker 1: on today because we're doing NFC East off season previews.
Speaker 1: So I'm really excited to kind of dive into this
Speaker 1: portion of the offseason, the kind of the pre draft,
Speaker 1: you know where draft is the sole focus after free
Speaker 1: agency portion, and I wanted to kind of preview like
Speaker 1: what each team needs now, like in the next month
Speaker 1: free agency. Not we'll talk a little bit of draft,
Speaker 1: but the whole thing, like looking at the whole package.
Speaker 1: Guys are going to get cut soon, that's already happening.
Speaker 1: The tag we put that out last week. We talked
Speaker 1: about trade. So Danny's a Giants fan. We're gonna put
Speaker 1: ten minutes on the clock to kind of stop us
Speaker 1: from honking.
Speaker 2: We'll do a little bit of.
Speaker 1: News halfway through the show as a break talk a
Speaker 1: little Travis Kelcey.
Speaker 2: But let's actually put it on the clock. Eric.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we have a buzzer or what
Speaker 1: we're doing here, but ten minutes it'll stop us, and
Speaker 1: I want you to get us going with the Giants
Speaker 1: kind of one big question.
Speaker 2: We'll have each team to kick this off.
Speaker 3: So first, well, good luck.
Speaker 4: I have an abstract concept at the time, so we'll
Speaker 4: see if I just blow past this time or not.
Speaker 4: We actually shameless plug Ringer Fantay Football Show. We actually
Speaker 4: do the mock draft oscars where we actually play Danny
Speaker 4: Kelly off with music if he goes too long, So
Speaker 4: you can do that with me here too.
Speaker 3: But my question for the Giants is very simply.
Speaker 4: Who was playing quarterback for this team in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 4: because right now it's going to be Drew Locke or
Speaker 4: Tommy Cutlets. And then it's like, you know, and again
Speaker 4: because you mentioned, oh, we're gonna talk draft free agency,
Speaker 4: the draft prep starts with free agency and who teams
Speaker 4: sign now, because ideally you can't do best player available
Speaker 4: in the draft unless you kind of like round yourself
Speaker 4: out in free agency. So I look at the Giants
Speaker 4: and I'm like, they have the third pick at the
Speaker 4: end of the day. You can mock up dual Carter
Speaker 4: to the Titans all you want. But if the Giants,
Speaker 4: if they go, if there's a world where they start,
Speaker 4: should a Sanders first pick and then the brown stick
Speaker 4: cam Ward? The Giants have to acquire quarterback that they
Speaker 4: could play this season in case they're not able to
Speaker 4: get one in the draft. So now you're looking at
Speaker 4: Sam Darnold. I mean, you look, we could go through
Speaker 4: all the free agents. But to me, that's the defining
Speaker 4: question for the Giants is who, Like it's actually crazy
Speaker 4: to think how horrible the Giants options a quarterback are.
Speaker 1: It is so funny to me that Joe Shane, who
Speaker 1: single handedly ended the Hard Knocks offseason franchise. I don't
Speaker 1: it really seems like no team's taking that this year
Speaker 1: they already would have started, is entering year four.
Speaker 2: Year three is supposed to be the big year.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the year where Joe Shane when he
Speaker 1: was the assistant in Buffalo and Brandon Bean like, the
Speaker 1: plan comes together and you get a good, big push.
Speaker 1: But now we're year four the year after the big
Speaker 1: push year, which they obviously didn't push. And they literally
Speaker 1: don't have a quarterback on the roster. I've never seen that.
Speaker 1: I don't mean like they don't have a future quarterback.
Speaker 1: I mean there's literally not one on the Giants roster
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Technically, Tommy DeVito's an exclusive rights free agent. If they
Speaker 1: want to keep Tommy DeVito, they will and can keep
Speaker 1: Tommy DeVito. But it's not even like they have like
Speaker 1: a fifth round option as a backup or some veteran
Speaker 1: that makes sense as a third quarterback, Like there is
Speaker 1: no one. And to me, the question for them is
Speaker 1: just like how big did they go on Stafford? They
Speaker 1: are the Stafford They're the Stafford team. Why wouldn't they
Speaker 1: be the Stafford team. They make a lot of sense
Speaker 1: for Stafford, Danny. I actually think they're more turnkey than
Speaker 1: you realize. I actually don't think they need quite as
Speaker 1: much as these other teams that don't have quarterbacks out there.
Speaker 2: You put Stafford on this team, you're competitive.
Speaker 4: That's my It's weird because you know, look, obviously the
Speaker 4: Giants are my team. I'm a Giants fan, and at
Speaker 4: the same time, every fan wants to see, like, no,
Speaker 4: no one has it worse than us, and also we're
Speaker 4: closer than you think.
Speaker 3: So I look at the.
Speaker 4: Giants and I'm like, this is the worst quarterback situation
Speaker 4: in the league because they don't have any and we're
Speaker 4: still talking about Tommy Cutlets two years later. How is
Speaker 4: that a thing? And then I mean the fact that
Speaker 4: his agents kept it going this long. But then the
Speaker 4: flip side is this is sacrilege to say, but looking
Speaker 4: at Washington's roster and looking at the Giants roster, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, they kind of have a lot in common
Speaker 4: once you get past Jaden Daniels, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: Like they actually like And that's the thing is I'm biased,
Speaker 4: But the Giants, there's good bones to this fixer upper house.
Speaker 4: You've got a left tackle Andrew Thomas. You've got a
Speaker 4: top three defensive tackle on Dexter Lawrence. You've got I
Speaker 4: think an underrated defensive end in Brian Burns. And then
Speaker 4: you've also gotten laked neighbors at wide receiver one, Like
Speaker 4: those are hard.
Speaker 3: Things to find.
Speaker 4: An elite receiver, an elite left tackle on elite defensive
Speaker 4: tackle A really like B plus to a minus defensive end.
Speaker 4: Those are hard things to find. Everything else is a
Speaker 4: mess and they need a quarterback. But yeah, if you
Speaker 4: threw in Stafford, I would talk myself into a Super
Speaker 4: Bowl run.
Speaker 3: At twelve to one. There actually was.
Speaker 2: Now that's a little that's a little rich for me.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know if I'm allowed to mention certain
Speaker 4: things of the show. I actually put down and say
Speaker 4: whatever you want. FanDuel made a mistake and they had
Speaker 4: the Giants at plus four seventy sorry, four to four.
Speaker 4: I can't say the number four hundred and cent. I
Speaker 4: put ten bucks down. I win forty seven one hundred
Speaker 4: dollars if the Giants win the Super Bowl, which I
Speaker 4: was like at that point, I'm just betting on a
Speaker 4: Stafford trade. But no, I mean you're the objective one,
Speaker 4: like should the Giants trade for Stafford? Or does that
Speaker 4: reek of desperation to you for a dable Joe Shane
Speaker 4: brain trust that just has to compete. And I think
Speaker 4: that's the tough thing the right now where they have
Speaker 4: this like playoff mandate, and so does it make sense
Speaker 4: to the Giants that gets Stafford or should they.
Speaker 1: Just get It's both, it's desperate and it makes enough
Speaker 1: sense for where they're at, Like what would he cost
Speaker 1: a second and a third something like that you mentioned.
Speaker 1: They have a good situation otherwise and in like the
Speaker 1: great players that are there, but the rest of the
Speaker 1: rosters messing. I would say their offensive line played a
Speaker 1: little better than people realized last year. You know, even
Speaker 1: some of the like Keevon Thibodeau wasn't a hit, but
Speaker 1: he's an okay starter. So your defensive line is an
Speaker 1: absolute strength. You had a good rookie class. You found
Speaker 1: a like a running back you can get going with
Speaker 1: with Tyrone Tracy in general, the rookie class. You got
Speaker 1: some DB's in the secondary. I made little categories for myself.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to give you too much homework, but
Speaker 1: last minute doing this, I was like, okay, what do
Speaker 1: they need? The QB is obviously first that they need
Speaker 1: like some cornerbacks. They need wide receivers after you know,
Speaker 1: neighbors absolutely in maybe some like defensive line, defensive tackle depth.
Speaker 2: But here here's a win.
Speaker 1: I had a little category of like easy win and
Speaker 1: easy wins for each team in this part of the offseason.
Speaker 1: The easy win for them is like they don't really
Speaker 1: have many free agents. I care that much about Darius
Speaker 1: Slayton could be a good player for another team. At
Speaker 1: some point, they got to just give up the ghosts
Speaker 1: like they never they never like them. And then after
Speaker 1: that it's like a Zizo Zulari and Jason Pinnock. They
Speaker 1: are not losing much this year. Of those guys like
Speaker 1: Slayton is the most likely to be gone, but they
Speaker 1: have forty three million dollars in cap space. They do
Speaker 1: have an extra second round pick. No, no, an extra
Speaker 1: like a fifth round pick from the Leonard Williams trade.
Speaker 1: Like I think, like, yes, it's desperate to get Matthew Stafford,
Speaker 1: but you're you're not gonna do any better, so I
Speaker 1: would just do it.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, I would kind of just do it too,
Speaker 3: because why not.
Speaker 4: But I agree And again the Giants again, they have
Speaker 4: they have pieces in the trenches.
Speaker 3: The secondary.
Speaker 4: It's kind of a mess because actually Drew Phillips is
Speaker 4: their best cornerback now. They drafted Deontay Banks in the
Speaker 4: first round a couple of years ago. Frankly, he's been
Speaker 4: on borderline unplayable. He's one of those where if he
Speaker 4: was the third rounder, they wouldn't be playing him. They
Speaker 4: have to play him because he's a first rounder. But
Speaker 4: I mean, Terry mclaurin's talking about how easy it is
Speaker 4: to beat Deontay Banks at the line of scrimmage and
Speaker 4: for touchdowns like on heart on the when he's micd up.
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable.
Speaker 4: So Thibodeau's been disappointing, you know, I Evan Neiel was
Speaker 4: a mess, you know, Deontay Banks, and suddenly you know,
Speaker 4: Joe Shane's had all these you know, maybe four first
Speaker 4: round picks and his three drafts.
Speaker 3: So far kind of missed on three of them.
Speaker 4: Like, it's not great ironically that the Dave Gettleman draft
Speaker 4: picks are holding up this roster between Dexter Lawrence and
Speaker 4: Andrew Thomas, which is funny to think about. But overall,
Speaker 4: I mean, Neighbors is fantastic. I don't know how much
Speaker 4: credit you get for taking the lak Neighbors, especially when,
Speaker 4: like you know, Pannex looks like he might be good
Speaker 4: and Bonux looks like he might be good.
Speaker 3: I don't know if those guys would be good on
Speaker 3: this ross.
Speaker 4: But that's the thing. It's like, basically, the Giants have
Speaker 4: to fortify themselves to what if they can't get a
Speaker 4: quarterback with that third pick in the draft because again can.
Speaker 3: Stress enough, as you said, they don't have one. It's February,
Speaker 3: they don't have a quarterback.
Speaker 1: Well, it's kind of what would you rather have, you know,
Speaker 1: your pick on the litter at number three overall plus Stafford,
Speaker 1: that you trade your second and maybe a future third
Speaker 1: four or Shader Sanders at three.
Speaker 4: So I go back and forth on what the Giant
Speaker 4: should do with this third pick every day. And I
Speaker 4: know that you know, you don't necessarily want to go
Speaker 4: all into the draft right now, But the Giants, I
Speaker 4: think it's hard to separate because I look at I
Speaker 4: think you have to reverse engineer from the draft backward,
Speaker 4: and I look at this, I'm I'm between two. Every day,
Speaker 4: I waffle between two options. Just take a quarterback. You're
Speaker 4: high up in the draft. It's ten times more important
Speaker 4: than any of their position. And like if it's a
Speaker 4: quote unquote bad let's say a good class, you get
Speaker 4: a fifty percent hit rate on the quarterback and it's
Speaker 4: a quoe unquote bad class and you get a one
Speaker 4: out of three.
Speaker 2: Still do it?
Speaker 4: No one ever knows, Like justin Herbert and sixth these incredible,
Speaker 4: Like just take a cam Ward, take a Chadur, and
Speaker 4: if they're bad, whatever, you have to live with it
Speaker 4: and next year you get the quarterback again in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty six. If they're so bad, part of me here's that,
Speaker 4: and the other part of me is like, man, I
Speaker 4: don't know if cam Ward or Shadur could succeed in
Speaker 4: this giant's environment. And it's like if at least if
Speaker 4: you take ab Dull Carter or you take Mason Graham
Speaker 4: and you have an elite defensive line that's like an
Speaker 4: identity that fans can get.
Speaker 3: Around, and like you have something building blocks.
Speaker 4: It's like how many teams have built something for one
Speaker 4: quarterback given it to another work It's like the Lions
Speaker 4: had something for Stafford, gave it to GoF, The Rams
Speaker 4: said sing for GoF, gave it to Stafford. The Bucks
Speaker 4: built sing for James, gave it to Brady. Like you
Speaker 4: build in the trenches. That's my fear of taking Travis
Speaker 4: Hunter is it's like you go neighbors Hunter. How many
Speaker 4: teams are built that way. It's like I want big
Speaker 4: beefy boys on the trenches, and so I could go
Speaker 4: either way.
Speaker 1: I think you also, look, it's the positive and the
Speaker 1: negative of keeping the staff.
Speaker 2: Look, you got.
Speaker 1: Dabel, who I think can call plays. We got We'll
Speaker 1: run out of the tide here. Okay, I didn't know
Speaker 1: if that was thirty seconds. We're getting used to this
Speaker 1: Mike Kafka, who's getting interviews elsewhere. And the good thing
Speaker 1: about how bad the quarterback situation was last year that
Speaker 1: anything is going to be an upgrade, like Jacoby Brissett
Speaker 1: and one of these rookies would be an upgrade. The
Speaker 1: bad part of that equation is I think there's a
Speaker 1: very easy way for Joe Shane and Dable if they
Speaker 1: do get Stafford, let's say, and make a couple of
Speaker 1: good picks, It's like you get right back up to
Speaker 1: eight or nine wins. I don't know if this team
Speaker 1: is going anywhere, but then you're like resigning Joe Shane
Speaker 1: and Brian Dable for another couple of years because it's
Speaker 1: gonna be easy for this team to show improve it.
Speaker 1: But I actually do think continuity was probably the easiest
Speaker 1: way for them to improve this year.
Speaker 4: Underrated is that when you fire a coach, the GM
Speaker 4: can look for the coach. But if you fire a GM,
Speaker 4: the owner has to look for the GM and they're like, ah,
Speaker 4: I don't want.
Speaker 2: To do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Jaguars, even though they have their coaches, they're
Speaker 1: just like announcing finalists. All right, let's let's go to
Speaker 1: the Cowboys. I'll throw out the question for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Can the world in by the world, I mean, the media,
Speaker 1: Dallas fans just kind of like general consensus pressure Jerry
Speaker 1: Jones into doing something big, you know, after a year
Speaker 1: where for whatever reason, he almost wanted to just push
Speaker 1: against the narrative that they had to do anything except
Speaker 1: wait until the very last minute to get Dak signed,
Speaker 1: to get Ceedee Lamb signed. Now, Michael Parsons is up
Speaker 1: for a contract Bill Barnwell and I mentioned possibly him
Speaker 1: being on the trade block. Will the Cowboys actually do
Speaker 1: something big this offseason, for instance, like trademark Michael Parsons.
Speaker 1: That to me, even though it would be getting rid
Speaker 1: of your best player, would be like an aggressive move.
Speaker 1: Or did they just kind of pick around the edges
Speaker 1: like they've been doing lately.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think it's the right question because I mean, again,
Speaker 4: Jerry Jones is older than Joe Biden, and I think
Speaker 4: that Cowboys fans finally realized that this year because I
Speaker 4: think I think there's something cracked in the facade of
Speaker 4: Dallas this year. I think that Jerry Jones frankly has
Speaker 4: been the Wizard of Oz for the entire time he's
Speaker 4: on the team, and I think Cowboys fans saw behind
Speaker 4: the curtain this year, something about that Jerry. For someone
Speaker 4: who says all these weird quotes to media, Jerry, the
Speaker 4: all in quote has resonated with Cowboys fans. Unlike any
Speaker 4: quote I've heard from any owner. I've met all the
Speaker 4: Cowboys fans I know in my life, all the Cowboys fans,
Speaker 4: I don't know that I hear from a month.
Speaker 3: Everyone just keeps repeating this all in quote, and it's story.
Speaker 1: Hall I think gets a lot of pop too, Yeah
Speaker 1: it does.
Speaker 2: He keeps going back to that.
Speaker 3: Lot of pops in Glory Hole. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I like his baggage.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the owls and chickens. Google that one
Speaker 4: with sect worker Sham. There's a lot of things going on,
Speaker 4: But anyway, Jerry again, Jerry has been on a quest
Speaker 4: for two things. He wants to win a Super Bowl
Speaker 4: and get credit for it, Like he wants to recreate
Speaker 4: the nineteen nineties Dallas, where it's like, you know what,
Speaker 4: Jimmy Johnson got to walk in the locker room and
Speaker 4: be like, how about that Cowboys? And it's like, Jerry
Speaker 4: got wanted to do that. You wanted the credit. But
Speaker 4: he also doesn't want to spend money. Jerry wants as
Speaker 4: much attention and eyeballs for as little money as humanly possible.
Speaker 4: That's why instead of making football decisions, he makes business decisions.
Speaker 4: He's a marketer, he's a salesman. They get the Dak
Speaker 4: Prescott extension done on this Sunday morning of week one
Speaker 4: so he can get it on the pregame shows for free.
Speaker 3: He looks at all this as free media. That's what
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 4: It's advertising. He doesn't have to pay for it. That's
Speaker 4: how he looks at the news. So the Michael Parsons thing,
Speaker 4: he doesn't look at it as a football decision. In
Speaker 4: my opinion, Jerry looks at it as well, get all summer.
Speaker 4: They're going to talk about the Dallas Cowboys until Michael
Speaker 4: Parsons deal gets done. Why would we do the deal
Speaker 4: early because then let's stop talking about it. That's why
Speaker 4: he gets Dak and Seed. He done late in the year,
Speaker 4: and so that to me is the question is is
Speaker 4: Jerry going to start treating this like a business that
Speaker 4: he just is trying.
Speaker 3: To get eyeballs?
Speaker 4: So he's going to treat it like a football team
Speaker 4: because he hasn't treated it like a football team in
Speaker 4: like twelve years.
Speaker 1: Okay, some little facts about their offseason. Not much gap
Speaker 1: space right now. They're actually over the cap by a
Speaker 1: couple million. You know, you can restructure, you can move
Speaker 1: money around, you can make cuts. Every team has the
Speaker 1: option to do that. The Cowboys have done it a
Speaker 1: little less than others, but certainly they will for a
Speaker 1: little out. They're missing their fourth round pick because they
Speaker 1: gave it up for Jonathan Mingo, whoops.
Speaker 2: A year after they give up the fourth for Tree Lance.
Speaker 2: Couple easy wins.
Speaker 1: They have two free agents which will make my top
Speaker 1: one on one in Rico Dowdele and Cavante Turpin. Those
Speaker 1: are guys that are worth more to the Cowboys to
Speaker 1: me than they probably would be for another team. Just
Speaker 1: give Rico Dowdle two for ten. He'll take it like
Speaker 1: he's a good enough running back and then move on
Speaker 1: from worrying about that position. And then Turpin is your second, like,
Speaker 1: most explosive offensive player and one of the best return
Speaker 1: guys in the league. Just like, take take care of
Speaker 1: those early. And then I have a category like likely
Speaker 1: gone from the team. Brandon Cooks is likely gone, Zach
Speaker 1: Martin is probably gonna retire and open up some cap
Speaker 1: space for them, and then osa A. Dicky had a
Speaker 1: really nice contract year. He's in my top ten free agents,
Speaker 1: which is crazy. It's such a bad class. But he's
Speaker 1: a good free agent and they're gonna have to say
Speaker 1: goodbye to him because I just don't think they're gonna
Speaker 1: want to have to pay him.
Speaker 4: But to your point, though, I think that actually centuates
Speaker 4: the problems, because I mean, he's one of the cowboys
Speaker 4: better defensive linemen. He's one of the better defensive tackles.
Speaker 4: They need defensive tackle. This is a team that can't
Speaker 4: stop the run. It's one of the worst run stopic
Speaker 4: teams in the league. They're gonna lose one of their
Speaker 4: best defensive tackles. They need to add to dtackle as
Speaker 4: soon as he leaves. I was impressed you pronounce I
Speaker 4: always call him Ohsa. I don't know how to pronounce
Speaker 4: his last name, but as soon as Osa is out
Speaker 4: of there.
Speaker 3: They need that.
Speaker 4: And the same with running back, even if you bring
Speaker 4: back Rico Dwell, I would argue this is probably one
Speaker 4: of the two or three worst running back rooms in
Speaker 4: the league.
Speaker 3: And that's if you bring Dawdell back.
Speaker 4: They have to dip into running back in this draft,
Speaker 4: and they're gonna have to dip into defensive tackle because
Speaker 4: you're not going to be able to replace him. So
Speaker 4: I think they're already kind of flat footed in that
Speaker 4: they're already doing exactly what you're not supposed to do,
Speaker 4: which is they need to hit picks in the draft.
Speaker 4: They need it running back, they honestly should take two.
Speaker 4: They need a dtackle, and then they also need a
Speaker 4: bunch of other stuff. I mean, inside linebacker they're cursed
Speaker 4: because de marve On overshow look great, but he had
Speaker 4: that horrific injury. And so now you've got when Sean
Speaker 4: lead a late and Devander Rush to overshown where that
Speaker 4: position's cursed for them. But then you know you still
Speaker 4: need like receivers behind Ceedee Lamb like they need a lot.
Speaker 1: Their Their roster looks terrible right now, which is I
Speaker 1: disagree on the running back thing. I think if you
Speaker 1: bring Daube back, you're fine. He actually he was good.
Speaker 1: He was good enough. And everyone says you can find
Speaker 1: running backs in the draft, like the Cowboys can't. They
Speaker 1: keep trying, like Malik Davis, Douce Vaughan is there, they
Speaker 1: don't really have any.
Speaker 4: Like that was a baseball pick where it's like the
Speaker 4: twentieth round, you just take some scout son. They just
Speaker 4: just took the guy's son from the God. That's not
Speaker 4: a you can't do that this seventh round.
Speaker 1: Like they need to go back to They got to
Speaker 1: look at like what the Eagles are doing. So to me,
Speaker 1: there they're biggest issues. I mean they have issues everywhere.
Speaker 1: Offensive line, defensive line especially as you mentioned, and then
Speaker 1: the weapons beyond ceedee Liam. But that's like a lot
Speaker 1: it like who is their second best defensive lineman If
Speaker 1: you count Michael Parsons as a defensive lineman, which I will,
Speaker 1: he's basically an edge. Who is their second best defensive
Speaker 1: lineman right now? They have DeMarcus Lawrence is going to
Speaker 1: be a free agent. Chaun Zy Golston, who actually played
Speaker 1: a lot for them, is a free agent as well.
Speaker 1: It's probably Marshawn Neeland who's coming off a big injury.
Speaker 1: But they don't really have anyone, so they need so
Speaker 1: much depth. And then they tried to They drafted a
Speaker 1: couple offensive linemen last year. We'll see if Tyler Goton
Speaker 1: works out at left tackle. He had a rocky rookie year,
Speaker 1: but that happens at tackle. They like Cooper Bebee, who's
Speaker 1: a center, but they only feel like great. I would
Speaker 1: think about Tyler Smith on the offensive line, so that's
Speaker 1: like a lot. I think one of the big decisions
Speaker 1: actually sneaky is do they bring DeMarcus Lawrence back. He's
Speaker 1: one of those veterans that's out there. Would feel very weird.
Speaker 1: If I'm DeMarcus Lawrence, I would rather just end my
Speaker 1: career in a different uniform. But maybe you're like losing
Speaker 1: endorsement money down the line if you leave.
Speaker 3: Jerry loves him.
Speaker 4: Jerry loves to Marcus Lawrence at the be back and oh,
Speaker 4: Terry loves him, and so I think tomorrow also they
Speaker 4: just need pass rushers too. The offensive line, and I
Speaker 4: was worried about, but again it's still a question mark.
Speaker 4: But I think that look, they've proven they can develop
Speaker 4: offensive line that I know it's a different time, different plays.
Speaker 4: But like Geyton, I don't know, he was supposed to
Speaker 4: be young and he was kind of like Cookie Dough
Speaker 4: comeing in and it's like, okay, it's not like Tyron
Speaker 4: Smith was light in the world on fire as a
Speaker 4: rookie and then he's probably gonna go to the Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame. So I mean Tyler Guyton at left tackle,
Speaker 4: I'm not that worried. I really. I mean the development
Speaker 4: on the defensive side of the ball, Like Mazzie Smith
Speaker 4: has been really disappointing at defensive tackle. He's like the
Speaker 4: ultimate like traits guy that has not really into you know,
Speaker 4: translated like the absurd athleticism. I think it was number
Speaker 4: one and Bruce Feldman's Freaks list, like yeah, that has
Speaker 4: a translate at all. But the overall point, though, is
Speaker 4: the roster kind of matches what the overall criticism of
Speaker 4: Jerry Jones is top heavy veneer of talent and sex appeal,
Speaker 4: and underneath you pull up the layer and it's just
Speaker 4: like it's all rotted wood, Like the foundation is totally cracked.
Speaker 4: It's like you got CD, you got DAK And again
Speaker 4: we're still talking about hamstring evulsion.
Speaker 3: You look into what that means.
Speaker 4: It sounds like Barbara, Oh, it's like they pulled off
Speaker 4: the bone, and it's like it's not really exciting. So
Speaker 4: you got Dak coming off this weird injury, CD, Micah
Speaker 4: Parsons who doesn't have a deal yet.
Speaker 3: That's three of the other fifty guys. Tyler Smith.
Speaker 4: I'll give them four crazy question marks everywhere, and that's
Speaker 4: assuming that I'm saying where I'm like, the offensive line
Speaker 4: will continue to develop and still it's just the ceiling
Speaker 4: on this team is really low.
Speaker 1: That's why I actually don't think it'd be that crazy
Speaker 1: to get the mother load for Micah Parsons if.
Speaker 2: You could do it. But that so Unjerry, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it really is.
Speaker 1: But otherwise, as Bill Barmo pointed out on a last
Speaker 1: so you're paying like one hundred and twenty million dollars
Speaker 1: or whatever it's going to be to three players after
Speaker 1: you were weren't that good paying them half that or
Speaker 1: way less a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: Whereas it's very on Jerry.
Speaker 1: But maybe they could impress about him because I look
Speaker 1: at this raster, I think there there is a route
Speaker 1: here where the offseason doesn't go well where they're like
Speaker 1: predicted to go coming forth like behind your giants in
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford next offseason, you got any more hot Cowboys
Speaker 1: steak Before we take a break, I.
Speaker 4: Just really want to reiterate that I mean what I said,
Speaker 4: and I'm not being hyperbolic. Jerry cares more about attention
Speaker 4: and winning in that and if until that changes, this
Speaker 4: team is it's not They're not worth talking about that much.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 1: It's one of those teams that the more I looked at,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, this is more funky. Like then
Speaker 1: I realized, what's the part of the team that you
Speaker 1: actually feel pretty good about? In terms of weapons, it's Lamb.
Speaker 1: The second weapon behind him is Jake Ferguson probably, and
Speaker 1: your second receiver right now is Jalen Tolbert. We mentioned
Speaker 1: like the lack of depth on the defensive line. You've
Speaker 1: got some good players in the secondary. Jordan Lewis, though,
Speaker 1: is a good player for them. That's also a free agent.
Speaker 1: They sneaky had a lot of free agents in my
Speaker 1: top one hundred, Zach Martin, Dowdell, DeMarcus Lawrence, o'diggy's and
Speaker 1: Jordan Lawrence. We're gonna take a quick break, do some
Speaker 1: news on the other side, and wrap.
Speaker 2: Up the NFC off season ProView zero.
Speaker 1: And one of many reasons I wanted Danny Heifitz on
Speaker 1: this show is like he was gonna bring just a
Speaker 1: lot of energy, picked me up here on a Monday
Speaker 1: morning where I gotta I gotta be real.
Speaker 2: With the listeners here.
Speaker 1: We had to stop down at one point during that
Speaker 1: Giants preview because I couldn't speak, like I the super
Speaker 1: Bowl took more out of me than than I expected, Danny,
Speaker 1: Like I I had to go inside get some water.
Speaker 2: Like recollect myself.
Speaker 1: It was a lot even if even if you weren't
Speaker 1: Travis Kelce, like losing that Super Bowl, it seems like
Speaker 1: it took a lot out of a lot of people.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you've seen Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I think that was like I can't carry
Speaker 4: the ring, mister Froud, I can't carry the show.
Speaker 3: But I can carry you.
Speaker 4: But no, I just you know, I just That's how
Speaker 4: Danny Kelly and I started doing the Fantasy Football show.
Speaker 4: At the beginning, was like I didn't know what I
Speaker 4: was talking about, but I had a lot of energy
Speaker 4: and I kind of they just threw me at Danny
Speaker 4: Kelly together, and like, I wonder if, on average, you know,
Speaker 4: they'll have like a normal net energy and that's kind
Speaker 4: of you know how it goes sometimes.
Speaker 2: Well, and you both named Danny, which you guys mean,
Speaker 2: done a lot early, but.
Speaker 3: A little too much.
Speaker 4: Dantasy Football podcast turns out to be a terrible name
Speaker 4: for show because you Google it and Google thinks you're wrong.
Speaker 2: It is really funny to think about.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that was a bad name, but
Speaker 1: I do like, I do like the Ringer Fantasy Football Show,
Speaker 1: although right now it's draft season and they also are
Speaker 1: the Ringer Draft Show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we changed the name of the show during the
Speaker 4: season because there's five million podcasts. Literally, there's five million
Speaker 4: podcasts in the world, and we're the only one who
Speaker 4: changes her name during the year. So it's probably because
Speaker 4: everyone else is wrong, right, There's no way we could
Speaker 4: be wrong about that being a bit bad idea.
Speaker 1: So I listened to the New Heights podcast. This is
Speaker 1: not a flex or trying to be a hipster. It
Speaker 1: was the first time I'd listened to it, and it
Speaker 1: was really good. The this would logically be compelling one
Speaker 1: to listen to Travis Kelce talking about losing, and what
Speaker 1: struck me first of all is that I'd be shocked if.
Speaker 2: He's not retiring.
Speaker 1: Just listening to that, here's the words, the weight of
Speaker 1: the season and what they've accomplished and what they're trying
Speaker 1: to accomplish. It can either motivate you or drive you crazy.
Speaker 1: And this season it kind of drove him crazy, and
Speaker 1: he was as down as he possibly could be about it.
Speaker 1: There was a report Danny from the Athletic that they
Speaker 1: needed an answer by Travis from Travis Kelce by March fourteenth,
Speaker 1: and that, you know, that's when free agency started. And
Speaker 1: I looked at the cap hit and all this sort
Speaker 1: of thing, and I was thinking, it's going to be
Speaker 1: sad for the Chiefs. It's obviously sad for Travis Kelce.
Speaker 1: Every great career has to end, but actually could help
Speaker 1: the Chiefs out. They get seventeen million dollars in cap space.
Speaker 1: It's not they would keep Travis kelcey. I don't know
Speaker 1: if they try to renegotiate his contract, they somehow less
Speaker 1: than that hit. But you don't I don't think you
Speaker 1: want Travis Kelce on the books for like nineteen million
Speaker 1: dollars in salary cap space, and I really think it's
Speaker 1: gonna end in a retirement and you felt for him,
Speaker 1: and what what you realize? I think this is true
Speaker 1: as a fan, but obviously it's true as a player.
Speaker 1: Brady talked about this too, is like, man, it hurts
Speaker 1: way worse to lose in the super Bowl, I think
Speaker 1: than it does in the divisional round in the NFC
Speaker 1: or the AFC or NFC championship game.
Speaker 4: There's a reason losing super Bowls destroys teams. And you know,
Speaker 4: there's a reason the Super Bowl hangover of like losing
Speaker 4: the game. It destroys teams. It destroyed the forty nine ers.
Speaker 4: It hurt that Eagles team like the year before this year.
Speaker 4: And I think Deebo Samuel, I forget someone on the
Speaker 4: forty nine ers team, just keep it said. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 4: everyone's just depressed the whole year, Like get your your
Speaker 4: entire life's aspirations are dangled in front of this collective
Speaker 4: group of two hundred people and it's ripped away from me.
Speaker 3: Right is this in your hands?
Speaker 4: And so yeah, it just it does things to you,
Speaker 4: especially when you have those law things of a three
Speaker 4: pet no one, you'll never get back to the three
Speaker 4: P and all these things you envision to yourself never
Speaker 4: gonna happen.
Speaker 3: I think with Kelsey specifically, every player says this.
Speaker 4: Like, if you make the decision in February, you want
Speaker 4: to retire, Like if you, like Tom Brady, said this,
Speaker 4: Like Tom Brady, the reason it came back was he's like,
Speaker 4: I made the decision in that two week aftermath of
Speaker 4: the season where it's like the weight of it crushes you.
Speaker 4: I think if Kelsey decides and let's the chiefstow in
Speaker 4: February like he's gone, and if he waits right up
Speaker 4: to that deadline when it really like gets a little
Speaker 4: real and you're getting back into like your workout routine,
Speaker 4: that when you start to miss it, I think you
Speaker 4: might come back just because you don't want to know
Speaker 4: if you want to go out that way.
Speaker 3: But I think he probably he probably should retire.
Speaker 4: He should go out this way, like he has this
Speaker 4: wonderful It would have been better if he won, but
Speaker 4: you have this incredible off ram for your career. You
Speaker 4: don't want to go into the season where everyone is
Speaker 4: going to be talking about him as the weak link.
Speaker 3: He doesn't have it anymore.
Speaker 4: And it's like cool to go out and impress the doubters,
Speaker 4: but you don't want to have a season where you're like,
Speaker 4: actually the haters and doubters were right, shout out to
Speaker 4: the haters and doubters.
Speaker 2: I just think he wasn't having as much.
Speaker 1: Like from the sound of it, I don't know how
Speaker 1: fun this season was for the Chiefs.
Speaker 2: The thing that really hit me was.
Speaker 1: Him talking about the weight of like what they were
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish, because I think the way after you
Speaker 1: win one is really heavy that next year, and so
Speaker 1: only a few teams ever even know what that's like
Speaker 1: of the weight the year after that, and then to
Speaker 1: end how it ended, and he was really kicking himself
Speaker 1: being like how he was trying to do too much
Speaker 1: and he wishes, you know, he had known how to
Speaker 1: lead better in that scenario because he had been going
Speaker 1: through it before and that was getting crushed in a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. And I think the way they lost that
Speaker 1: Super Bowl made it even worse. Just you know, they
Speaker 1: use the words like humiliating and all that stuff is
Speaker 1: just it's just brutal.
Speaker 2: And he was very eloquent.
Speaker 1: I thought about how brutal game that it comes for everyone,
Speaker 1: you know, like it can just come for you so quickly.
Speaker 1: I'll transition to a little bit to some offseason news
Speaker 1: before we get back to the.
Speaker 2: Previews. Some cuts.
Speaker 1: We're already into the cap cut season, so like the
Speaker 1: Dolphins are cutting Raheem Moster, Kendall Fuller, some pretty good
Speaker 1: players free up like thirteen fourteen million dollars in cap space.
Speaker 1: The Steelers cut Preston Smith. That was fourteen million dollars
Speaker 1: in cap space. They're up to fifty. We're we're just
Speaker 1: at that time of year where there's going to be
Speaker 1: a lot of cuts in so leading. Yeah, there's eight
Speaker 1: teams right now over fifty million dollars in cap space.
Speaker 1: There's way too much cap space. This is one of
Speaker 1: the things I always bang on about. And then another
Speaker 1: just item. I want to get your thoughts on the
Speaker 1: Texans hired offensive coordinator Nick Kayley. It's just something we
Speaker 1: hadn't hit on the show yet. And I don't know
Speaker 1: where you were in the great CJ. Stroud Wars of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four and maybe what Kaylee means for them.
Speaker 1: He was a guy who's been on this RAMS staff
Speaker 1: that everyone's wanted that he supposedly turned down multimillion dollars
Speaker 1: deal from the Patriots last offseason to become their offensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: He's been a really hot name that's been picking and choosing,
Speaker 1: and the Texans get him to really shepherd C. J.
Speaker 2: Stroud in the next phase of his career.
Speaker 4: So I'm I'm I'm a big believer that Bobby Slope
Speaker 4: was the problem for the Houston Texans. I think, frankly,
Speaker 4: they were really poorly coached, and I thought the play
Speaker 4: calling was really bad. And I don't mean it. I
Speaker 4: think Bobby Slowery, he's a really nice guy. I don't
Speaker 4: mean any like shade to Bobby Slowik. But the reality
Speaker 4: is they were not well coordinated on the Houston Texans
Speaker 4: last year.
Speaker 3: They were uncoordinated as a team.
Speaker 4: The offensive line didn't not to block, they had bad technique,
Speaker 4: they didn't understand their asignments. That's kind of the whole job.
Speaker 4: The play calling, the sequencing, frankly was horrific. They couldn't
Speaker 4: really run the ball the way they wanted to. Side
Speaker 4: of the Dallas game where they did a lot, I'm
Speaker 4: money in football, which actually think preserved, I think they'd
Speaker 4: actually have a worst reputation if not for rocking Dallas,
Speaker 4: I'm money in a football sum at football forget. But
Speaker 4: if you look overall, I believe, and I could be
Speaker 4: wrong on this, but I believe nobody had more third
Speaker 4: and longs than the Texans last year except the Cleveland Browns,
Speaker 4: who were one of the worst offenses ever when the
Speaker 4: show and Watson was playing those six weeks, like the
Speaker 4: Browns and the Texans and the most third lungs, it's CJ.
Speaker 3: Stroud.
Speaker 4: The whole thing in the modern NFL is not to
Speaker 4: put your quarterback in that and the entire Texans offense
Speaker 4: to me was CJ. Stroud bailing them out a third
Speaker 4: and long and then if he could do that for
Speaker 4: a drive, they'd score, and if not, they couldn't. And
Speaker 4: so yeah, Bobby Slow could to go. I think that
Speaker 4: I've seen it with my own eyes.
Speaker 3: CG. Stroud's good.
Speaker 4: I don't want to hear anything else about It's funny
Speaker 4: that Bryce shung out performed in last year. But the
Speaker 4: reality is like when I watched the Texans and it's
Speaker 4: a warshot test.
Speaker 3: I do not think man CJ. Stroud got worse.
Speaker 4: I think what is going on all around this offense,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, And so I am very
Speaker 4: bullish and I think that a lot of the Texans
Speaker 4: hype from twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: I am going to buy the dip on that for
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of when the Bills
Speaker 1: immediately got better with Brandon Bean and Sean McDermott took
Speaker 1: a little step back in year two, and then year
Speaker 1: three they actually were truly a better team, a little
Speaker 1: more stable ground underneath them. Obviously that's when Josh Allen improved,
Speaker 1: but I think CG. Stroud is got to improve. I
Speaker 1: think it's a great hire. And the way they talk already,
Speaker 1: Demico Ryans is like very excited about him. And there
Speaker 1: was a report I believe it was from ESPN dot
Speaker 1: Com that you know, Ryan's went around and asked some
Speaker 1: of the players before he made this final decisions, like
Speaker 1: you know, about getting rid of Sloak, and like what
Speaker 1: did you think?
Speaker 2: And there was not a.
Speaker 1: Lot of like defending of Bobby Slowik from the players.
Speaker 1: There was one player who was like, yeah, we didn't
Speaker 1: know what the f was going on, Like, we honestly
Speaker 1: didn't know what the f we were doing on a
Speaker 1: play to play basis. The Jaguars also hired their offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: a young man by the name of Grant Udinsky, who
Speaker 1: had a million interviews this offseason.
Speaker 2: Is in his twenties.
Speaker 1: Was under Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota, so that's an interesting hire.
Speaker 1: But Liam Cohen's an offensive coach, so it's interesting that's
Speaker 1: the job he ended up with. Liam Cohen is supposed
Speaker 1: to call plays. There just something to watch. Meanwhile, they're
Speaker 1: on their finalists for their GM, which is they're just
Speaker 1: doing everything backwards.
Speaker 4: Wait, I couldn't believe that. Okay, you have been doing
Speaker 4: this longer than me. I was looking through headlines this
Speaker 4: morning and I saw that, and I was like, isn't
Speaker 4: the combine like next week? They don't have a gym?
Speaker 4: What's the latest you can remember gym? Because there are
Speaker 4: teams that fire the gym after the draft, like the
Speaker 4: Bills have done that a lot of things like oh,
Speaker 4: we want to get cagnan.
Speaker 2: Did that right? Then they fire mccagnan after the draft.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they let Mike mccagne give out one hundred million guaranteed,
Speaker 4: which had never been done before, and then they fired
Speaker 4: h much for the draft, But like, I get that
Speaker 4: because at least it makes sense.
Speaker 3: Hey, they've done all this work on the draft, what
Speaker 3: is the and you do it?
Speaker 4: You fire him this after the draft and May What
Speaker 4: is the latest you can remember a general manager being hired,
Speaker 4: because I don't remember a team going into the Combine
Speaker 4: without a general manager.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure they'll get one by next week, but
Speaker 1: it essentially.
Speaker 4: Key Bob and then either he's going to get a
Speaker 4: plane ticket to Indianapolis, is he's gonna go to Indianapolis,
Speaker 4: He's gonna go to Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: First, Tony Basselli is essentially their GM, which is weird,
Speaker 1: like their radio announcer. I mean, they've changed their mind
Speaker 1: four times this sasseason. First they're they're they're keeping uh
Speaker 1: Tred Balkie. Then then they're not keeping Tred Balkie. But
Speaker 1: essentially Liam Cohen is running the team, which is you.
Speaker 2: Know that's a risk. Let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the the NFC East off season preview.
Speaker 1: I do want to get through all these teams. That's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I wanted to do this show.
Speaker 1: I think it's good to give each team a juicy
Speaker 1: ten minutes here so put the commis on the clock.
Speaker 1: You asked me a big question here, Danny about the communiers.
Speaker 4: My question for Washington is just can they retool this
Speaker 4: entire team on the fly again, Because if you look
Speaker 4: at this Washington team, they retooled the whole thing from
Speaker 4: the number two pick to the final four and one offseason.
Speaker 2: That was cool. They got to do it again.
Speaker 3: They they have more.
Speaker 4: Than two dozen free agents, including a lot of the contributors.
Speaker 4: I could go through this list if you want to
Speaker 4: have the whole thing, But in the short do you, like,
Speaker 4: do you think that they can just retool the whole
Speaker 4: thing again and just be a contender just like that.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the flip side of doing all these
Speaker 1: prove it one year deals with veterans who immediately raise
Speaker 1: the floor. It almost worked too well, and now you're
Speaker 1: having to make decisions on like do we bring these
Speaker 1: guys back or not. But I think they sort of
Speaker 1: had their cake and eat it too, because you had
Speaker 1: a great rookie class. You have not just jyde Daniels,
Speaker 1: but you have Sandra Still. You have some guys that
Speaker 1: you can build around uh for the future, and you
Speaker 1: got to, you know, have immediate success. It's just the
Speaker 1: expectations are now going to be so high. But yes, like,
Speaker 1: what would you put highest on their needs? Because they do,
Speaker 1: unlike some of the teams we're talking about, have almost
Speaker 1: infinite amount of cap space to address these needs. Seventy
Speaker 1: five million right now, and you can probably create even
Speaker 1: more if you want.
Speaker 3: Who cares about cap space? You just said it earlier.
Speaker 3: Cap space is it's not the NBA. It's over rated.
Speaker 4: Because again I'm going to read some list to you,
Speaker 4: or I'm going to let you pick what you think is
Speaker 4: their biggest need. Bobby Wagner, who's going to be thirty
Speaker 4: five this year, led them in tackles and played almost
Speaker 4: one hundred percent of snaps. You kind of need Bobby
Speaker 4: Wagner back, So I think they'll do that in a
Speaker 4: linebacker's yeah, yeah, so he's a free agent.
Speaker 1: I might actually might let Bobby Wagner go. Oh, like,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna get better. If you watch that NFC
Speaker 1: Championship game, the game plan was essentially, Bobby.
Speaker 2: Wagner, We're gonna take advantage of you.
Speaker 4: Well, And that's the point, though, is they have a
Speaker 4: lot of stuff like that. Dante Fowler led them in
Speaker 4: sacks and then he's a free agent.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 4: Washington has two receivers under contract next year, two Terry
Speaker 4: McLaurin and Luke McCaffrey.
Speaker 3: They have one tight end under contract next year with
Speaker 3: the rookie Ben Sinnett. Washington. Eight players caught.
Speaker 4: A touchdown for Washington last year eight six of the
Speaker 4: eight are free agents, so you have that is a
Speaker 4: huge problem. They really only need to stick with. I mean,
Speaker 4: four of their five offensive line positions could be upgraded.
Speaker 4: They don't have to, but like you have Sam Cosmy
Speaker 4: at guard. He towards ACL late in the season, so
Speaker 4: they're gonna have to do that. Brandon Coleman's Brandon Coleman
Speaker 4: still at a left eckle for you, Like, is that
Speaker 4: what you want long term?
Speaker 3: With Jayden Daniels.
Speaker 4: So again, Alamade's a Chaius was a nice find, but like,
Speaker 4: is that what you want?
Speaker 3: Slot?
Speaker 4: You do not have a number two receiver for real. Again,
Speaker 4: it's just McCaffrey McLaurin under contract. You don't really have
Speaker 4: a ton of edge rushers under contract. Cornerback is huge concerned.
Speaker 4: Sandrys still is the man at a Michigan I love him.
Speaker 4: But like after that, you cannot count on Marshawn Lattimore
Speaker 4: to play or contribute. They don't have a ton of quarterbacks.
Speaker 4: And that's the thing with this Washington team. They made
Speaker 4: the championship for basically half because of Jayden Daniels and
Speaker 4: half because of this crazy team of like twenty two
Speaker 4: twenty four one year deals jelled.
Speaker 2: Yes, and some of the rookies.
Speaker 1: Coleman was a rookie, So as a third round rookie,
Speaker 1: I think you can expect that position's okay and that
Speaker 1: you had got to hope that he improves. You can't
Speaker 1: upgrade everywhere all at once. Plus you probably need another tackle,
Speaker 1: a right tackle, So the offensive line, like, I'm okay
Speaker 1: with Jade and Daniels, I'm okay with the backfield, You're
Speaker 1: right everywhere else you kind of need issues, all right,
Speaker 1: easy win category for me. The easiest thing to do
Speaker 1: is bring back some of the guys that helped you
Speaker 1: that shouldn't have a huge market. So zach Ertz, you said, okay,
Speaker 1: the guys, like, no one's going to be bidding crazy
Speaker 1: for zach Ertz. What zach Ertz gonna cost. Just just
Speaker 1: bring zach Ertz back. Kick the camp a little bit there.
Speaker 1: Mariota was a was the best Mariota I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Bring him back as your backup. I mean it was
Speaker 1: the best version of Mariota I've ever.
Speaker 3: Seen, Like Randall Cunningham in that band.
Speaker 1: I'm almost a little worried that some other team will
Speaker 1: give him a nice contract. Then then you're having a problem.
Speaker 1: Noah Igbinoghany actually at quarterback was like the next best
Speaker 1: Benogany I'd ever seen. And so there is a concern
Speaker 1: that some of these guys you mentioned Fowler, there's Diami
Speaker 1: Brown could get a nice free agent contract, Jeremy Chin
Speaker 1: who you kind of raise their value that other teams
Speaker 1: are going to come over the top, and that's gonna
Speaker 1: make it tricky.
Speaker 2: And yet I don't know.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of faith because they hit so
Speaker 1: many winners last year. I do think they are a
Speaker 1: team that will make a monster like splash type of move.
Speaker 1: So if that's Miles Garrett, I could see that. If
Speaker 1: that's Trey Hendrickson, I could see that. Charvarius Ward is
Speaker 1: a guy that was with Adam Peters in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: I was trying to think of, like, where are the
Speaker 1: connections there with nine ers. Maybe Debo as a second
Speaker 1: or third receiver that's not gonna cost much. Like that's
Speaker 1: where cap space can help. Oh yeah, Debo, you want
Speaker 1: us to overpay you like a little bit. Sure, Like,
Speaker 1: let's bring in Debo for like a fourth round pick.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna have to give.
Speaker 2: Up much for him.
Speaker 4: I think this was the Deebo Samuel team for a
Speaker 4: couple of reasons. One, obviously, Adam Peters was in San
Speaker 4: Francisco in the front office. That always helps screase the wheels.
Speaker 4: And Two it just makes sense, like because my short
Speaker 4: pitch on Deebo he had pneumonia last year.
Speaker 3: I understand he looked out of shape. It's because he
Speaker 3: was out of shape.
Speaker 4: Like you know, if you ever had normmonia and you're
Speaker 4: a normal person, takes you a month to get your
Speaker 4: win back. You want to reach one hundred percent of nflfleticism,
Speaker 4: it takes a month. So I really think if you
Speaker 4: take out that six weeks after you had pnemonia, I'm
Speaker 4: still a believer in Debot.
Speaker 3: He makes so much sense in this right offense.
Speaker 4: But do you think they should get Miles Garrett, Like,
Speaker 4: do you think way should give up two first and
Speaker 4: change for Miles Garrett.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a bad yeah. I actually people
Speaker 1: get too caught up in like that. Are they trying
Speaker 1: to win now? Like just try to get Miles Garrett
Speaker 1: on your team. I don't know, two first is a lot,
Speaker 1: but now now that first is a late like a
Speaker 1: super late first this year, So you got to see
Speaker 1: what the market is. Maybe all these ed rushers, possibly
Speaker 1: Max Crosby Hendrickson being available drives it down. I do
Speaker 1: think they're a team that can go big. Now they
Speaker 1: don't have the pick that they sent away for Marshall Lattimore.
Speaker 1: I think you got to count on Marshawn Lattimore. I
Speaker 1: put I disagree with you there. Like they they made
Speaker 1: that trade thinking that's a two year deal. You got
Speaker 1: to just hope he stays healthy. He was a little
Speaker 1: better at the end of the season. They also could
Speaker 1: trade Jonathan Allen. Bill Barnell mentioned that on our show.
Speaker 1: That makes some sense to me because you have a
Speaker 1: couple of defensive tackles that opens up even more money.
Speaker 2: But you're right wide.
Speaker 1: Receiver, like tackle, edge pass catchers, these are all like
Speaker 1: major needs for the Commanders. So they are high on
Speaker 1: the list of teams I think that are going to
Speaker 1: be aggressive. We'll get to the Eagles next, but I
Speaker 1: think these are might be two of the more aggressive
Speaker 1: teams this offseason. Are actually the Eagles and the Commanders
Speaker 1: in this division?
Speaker 4: What are the cheer answer is that the twenty twenty
Speaker 4: five Washington Commanders are last year's Texans, where everyone's like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, see just Stroud Darling, you come in
Speaker 4: and then there's a lot of questions. Now I don't
Speaker 4: I think you and Danie Frankly had a better rookie
Speaker 4: year than Droud.
Speaker 2: But I think that you go.
Speaker 4: From that last play schedule to the second place schedule
Speaker 4: and all these auxiliary pieces around him aren't as good,
Speaker 4: and then suddenly high expectations and again happiness just expectations
Speaker 4: minus reality. And I do kind of worry that Washington
Speaker 4: it won't be quite as smooth in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 4: and you.
Speaker 1: Might get the year two Cliff Kingsbury effect. I think
Speaker 1: it'd be less about Jaden Daniels and more just about
Speaker 1: the Commanders. I think Commanders fans they got to understand
Speaker 1: that if they win ten games next year and they
Speaker 1: lose a tiebreaker and don't make the playoffs or they
Speaker 1: win nine games next year, they're like, that's fine, it's
Speaker 1: all like, that's that's part of the progress. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's let's wrap up with the Eagles. My big question,
Speaker 1: what is the how he did it again in trade?
Speaker 1: Because they're gonna make one. This is sneaky, I'm answering.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to answer that question, but I'm going
Speaker 1: to give you context of why I'm asking it.
Speaker 2: This is sneaky.
Speaker 1: A team that is actually going to push your chips
Speaker 1: in the table type of offseason because they've signed so
Speaker 1: many of their best players long term already, aj Brown, Devanta,
Speaker 1: Jalen Hurts, Landon Dickerson, like so many of their best
Speaker 1: players are actually on huge contracts, and they're in this
Speaker 1: very short window before they're going to pay all the
Speaker 1: rest of their next best players already, which is like
Speaker 1: Jalen Carter and Cooper Dejene and Quinnyon Mitchell and Nolan Smith.
Speaker 1: The one guy could come up with this year that
Speaker 1: they'd give an Eagles type deal in June, no one
Speaker 1: notices is Cam Jurgen's. But other than that, they don't
Speaker 1: really have that many guys to pay, and they have
Speaker 1: a lot of upcoming free agents, so they're going to
Speaker 1: feel like they need to replace what is the how
Speaker 1: he did it again type of move.
Speaker 2: I think he's going to do something something big.
Speaker 3: I mean, is Miles Garrett?
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, let's I know that sounds insane, but I
Speaker 4: do think what what the Eagles have been impressive at
Speaker 4: is knowing when to go bargain basement and something and
Speaker 4: knowing when to go all the way. And I think
Speaker 4: they don't. They don't get stuck in no means landed
Speaker 4: positions a lot. And I know that sounds insane, but
Speaker 4: I kind of do wonder if the Eagles just kind
Speaker 4: of pull Trigg because you know, the idea of like
Speaker 4: it reminds me going from Miles Standards to Saquon also
Speaker 4: kind of reminds me of going from Milton Williams and
Speaker 4: Josh Sweat to just adding Miles Garrett into this team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you mentioned Milton Williams. It's crazy. I have
Speaker 1: my preliminary one oh one top free agents ready to go.
Speaker 1: Josh Sweat Milton Williams are in my top seven. There's
Speaker 1: just not that many good free agents. Mackai Beckton is
Speaker 1: a free agent. Zach Bond is in my top my
Speaker 1: top ten too. Between those guys I talked about a
Speaker 1: little bit with bo Wolf last week, you also have
Speaker 1: Dallas Goddter, who they could potentially move on from, or
Speaker 1: Darius Slay who they could potentially move on from. Like,
Speaker 1: they have to figure out who they would want to prioritize.
Speaker 1: My guess is Bond I'll be back. The guys who
Speaker 1: I think will get big money elsewhere are probably most
Speaker 1: likely Josh Sweat, Makai Beckton.
Speaker 2: Would it shock me if they.
Speaker 1: Like found a deal with Milton Williams where actually he
Speaker 1: gets paid a ton of money. No, because he's a
Speaker 1: really good young player and they love playing good young players.
Speaker 1: But the other thing they could do is just go
Speaker 1: big at a different position. Like it could even be
Speaker 1: like a tight end trade that you don't see coming,
Speaker 1: or like an interesting, I don't know, defensive line trade.
Speaker 1: They could they actually could use an interior rusher, as
Speaker 1: crazy as that sounds, the way they think they would
Speaker 1: they would look for another interior rusher just add to
Speaker 1: the mix.
Speaker 4: No, I agree, and I think that I know that
Speaker 4: me and say Miles Garrett probably sounds outlandish. The reality
Speaker 4: is they're going to look for more Zach Bonds. I
Speaker 4: think that you nailed it in that conversation you had
Speaker 4: with Bowl last week where I think they bring Zack
Speaker 4: Bond back.
Speaker 3: I think that that's a guy that you can't replace
Speaker 3: this sarily.
Speaker 4: I think the one hand, yeah, you do want to
Speaker 4: stack the interior rushers, but in terms of paying them
Speaker 4: McMillon Williams, I'm like, I kind of think that the
Speaker 4: same way. McKay Beckton probably the easiest right guard job
Speaker 4: in the league to get coached by just stat Lennaby.
Speaker 4: Part of that, I'm like, it's replaceable at right guard
Speaker 4: for Becton. You know, you got Jalen Carter and Jordan
Speaker 4: Davis there. I'm like, that third spot is going to
Speaker 4: be a turn Like, that's a good place that you're
Speaker 4: going to be able to cycle guys in and out,
Speaker 4: you know, And so I think that those are spots
Speaker 4: that they want to keep investing there.
Speaker 3: But I think Tyler Steen can fill in for Becton
Speaker 3: at right guard. I think that.
Speaker 4: I mean, frankly, there's a lot of defensive tackles in
Speaker 4: this draft. I wouldn't be shocked if what they really
Speaker 4: do is if the Eagles move up in the draft, Like,
Speaker 4: don't forget they quitin and Mitchell. They moved up to
Speaker 4: get Cooper to Jen with Washington, which no one talks about.
Speaker 4: But there's a Chief's Bills dynamic where how do they
Speaker 4: you know, the Chiefs facilitated the home straight up with
Speaker 4: the Bills. I can't believe Washington could have had Cooper
Speaker 4: to Jen and probably didn't have him for medicals. But
Speaker 4: I think that the Eagles moving up for a very
Speaker 4: popular defensive line prospect in this draft, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. I think that's something that I could see happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have three fifth round picks, so they could
Speaker 1: use that to move up a little bit. They're a
Speaker 1: little tighter to the cap than they normally are, but
Speaker 1: they can make that work. They can move things around it.
Speaker 1: Like what they won't do is just like run it back.
Speaker 1: This is not a run it back type of offseason.
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about them, but like they're easy wins.
Speaker 1: When I was thinking, like, well, what's the easy wins
Speaker 1: for them? They can open up so much cap space
Speaker 1: because of those hurts and Antonio AJ Brown rather and
Speaker 1: DeVante Smith deal, so all you have to do is restructure.
Speaker 1: That's where the owners that actually want to spend to
Speaker 1: win make a difference. That's why your giants are selling
Speaker 1: ten percent of the team to get a little cash
Speaker 1: because they don't have as much cash as guys like
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Lorie. It's why Jeffrey Lorie already did this, and
Speaker 1: they're spending that cash. They're selling it to these investors.
Speaker 1: It's this new NFL rule where you can open it
Speaker 1: up and then you suddenly get cash, and then you
Speaker 1: give Hurts and Brown a bunch of guaranteed money and
Speaker 1: then you spend it. So if you're looking at the
Speaker 1: two it sounds crazy to say, but probably the two
Speaker 1: thinnest position this roster is so good is probably it's
Speaker 1: probably the defensive line, Like it's the edge rusher.
Speaker 3: It's just funny to say after watching the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I know, but Brandon Graham might retire or as a
Speaker 1: free agent, like does he come back?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: And then so their best at rushers right now are
Speaker 1: Nolan Smith and Jaylex Hunt. So that's a position I
Speaker 1: think they'll want to address, and it's a position that's
Speaker 1: pretty wide open. And then defensive tackle Jordan Davis is nice,
Speaker 1: but I think you're gonna want another maybe difference maker
Speaker 1: with him. So it's like I can totally see them
Speaker 1: going big on someone. Maybe they're a Jonathan Allen team,
Speaker 1: if the Commanders were bold enough to do something like that,
Speaker 1: or a Trey Hendrickson team, they're gonna do something. They
Speaker 1: might do a couple somethings. Watch out how he's feeling himself.
Speaker 4: I think that I know, I sound like I'm kidding
Speaker 4: about Miles Garrett, but I do think that them just
Speaker 4: adding another force Moold. I think that's the same concept
Speaker 4: as the saque thing, where like Trey Hendrickson, you could
Speaker 4: lead the league in sacks for the Bengals, but you
Speaker 4: don't make the playoffs, but you add him to this
Speaker 4: defensive line, he actually gets better, and Saquon with the
Speaker 4: offensive line. It's very similar. Just stacking Miles Garrett would
Speaker 4: better on the Eagles that he ever was on the Browns.
Speaker 4: Probably maybe the counting stats wouldn't be as good, but
Speaker 4: like his impact would probably be better than it ever was.
Speaker 4: And so I kind of think Trey Hendrickson. Trey Hendrickson
Speaker 4: actually makes a lot of sense to me. If the
Speaker 4: Bengals are interested in moving in, but overall agree the goals.
Speaker 4: They're not going to run it back. And unfortunately they're
Speaker 4: better at this than everyone, which is crushing.
Speaker 1: They're really set up to do well, and yet they're
Speaker 1: also it's tough to handle a super Bowl championship. They
Speaker 1: did an okay job of it last time that that
Speaker 1: team they ran back had a chance to make some
Speaker 1: noise in the playoffs when they came back didn't. Didn't
Speaker 1: happen for him, but they were a decent team. I
Speaker 1: think they might, I mean think they might struggle. Like
Speaker 1: Jalen Hurts feeling himself how he feel everyone's going to
Speaker 1: be feeling themselves.
Speaker 2: I think I think it could be tough. I think
Speaker 2: you hear you.
Speaker 4: But I also think this Eagles team is the Legion
Speaker 4: of Boom reincarnated. I think this defense is exactly like
Speaker 4: the Legion of Boom, the first one when everyone's about
Speaker 4: to get famous and everyone knows their names. I think
Speaker 4: Jalen Hurts is in a lot of ways the new
Speaker 4: Russell Wilson. Different style, but like very similar where the
Speaker 4: offense is his offense. He's a human cliche. Everyone looks
Speaker 4: up to them as kind of a weird dynamic, but
Speaker 4: as long as they're winning, it's fine. And I think
Speaker 4: that they have a lot in common. All they're missing
Speaker 4: is is the nickname for this defense. And there's no
Speaker 4: ceiling on this team for the next season.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm excited. We're gonna have Colleen Wolf on our
Speaker 1: show on Tuesday. We're gonna be back in the studio.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get her thoughts on the charm life. We've
Speaker 1: been having a lot of Eagles here, so I'm glad
Speaker 1: we're getting the NBC East out of the way. If
Speaker 1: we didn't hit your team today, we're hitting them all eventually.
Speaker 1: But we do got to hear from Colleen what it
Speaker 1: was like. She just went to the parade as a fan.
Speaker 1: I don't even think she worked for NFL network. I
Speaker 1: saw her flying there and I was like, Oh, she
Speaker 1: must be working. I don't even think they put her
Speaker 1: on air. She was just out there getting drunk like
Speaker 1: everyone else. The Eagles charm Life. I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Danny Hipetz, always a pleasure. We will We'll see you
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis. Let's let's let's get a beer, Let's do something.
Speaker 3: We'll do it.
Speaker 4: We're gonna save the sinner talk for Indie will go
Speaker 4: live and just give Center Center.
Speaker 1: What do you?
Speaker 3: What do you?
Speaker 1: Yes, they they suspended the number one tennis player in
Speaker 1: the world for doping violations, but it just happened to
Speaker 1: coexist in like the three months of the calendar that
Speaker 1: doesn't include a Grand Slam.
Speaker 3: It's a little little Does it bother you or do
Speaker 3: you not care?
Speaker 2: It doesn't really bother me.
Speaker 1: I mean his excuse that he was getting massaged and
Speaker 1: it was like on the hands of the massagers. I
Speaker 1: just hate when the worst people in the world and
Speaker 1: then the sport are the ones that are the maddest
Speaker 1: about it, which is like Nick Kurios and Djokevich. So
Speaker 1: that immediately makes me think, like I don't want I
Speaker 1: don't want Yanix Center gone for for a year or two,
Speaker 1: so I'm.
Speaker 2: Fine with it. I don't know what, I don't know
Speaker 2: what to think. What do you what do you think?
Speaker 4: Uh? Wellios, I kind of think he's the next Macenroe.
Speaker 4: His commentary is really good.
Speaker 1: O kind of he is good, but he does enough
Speaker 1: that annoys me that now I'm kind of sick of him.
Speaker 1: But yes, I won't get to see him when I
Speaker 1: go to Indian Wells in a couple of weeks, so
Speaker 1: I'll Missonick Center there all right, play the music, Eric,
Speaker 1: Let's get out of here. Uh more to say, I
Speaker 1: can barely speak. Hifitz is the man like I, like
Speaker 1: I said, check out the Rigger Fantasy Football Show with him,
Speaker 1: Danny Kelly, Craig.
Speaker 2: Robooks great impressions.
Speaker 1: I will be back, like I mentioned in the studio
Speaker 1: with Jordan Rodriguez, the Athletic and Colleen Wolf. And yes,
Speaker 1: when when we're gassing up the Eagles again, you know
Speaker 1: it's Greg season.
Speaker 2: See you next time.