Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast, What What What What? From
Speaker 1: the Chris Wesling podcast studio. It's around the NFL. I'm
Speaker 1: Dan Hansa's heroes here, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, What how
Speaker 1: is everybody's weekend? You know what I watched? If you're
Speaker 1: not gonna say anything, I was waiting for. Greg said
Speaker 1: that I enjoyed it just seeing Mark like stare at
Speaker 1: me and Marks like, I don't want to tell anyone
Speaker 1: about my weekend. Tell you I'm staying undercover. That is
Speaker 1: not the case. Um, I watched. Well, everyone listens to
Speaker 1: the show knows. I'm like the baseball fan of the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm watching this World Baseball Classic, which I never have
Speaker 1: in the past, and I've been struck by how like
Speaker 1: kind of the level of juice it has, both in
Speaker 1: the sellout crowds and how much the players care. Salvador
Speaker 1: Perez is the catcher for the Royal and is kind
Speaker 1: of like a grand poobah for a lot of the
Speaker 1: Latino players. Um, it's from Venezuela, I believe actually, and
Speaker 1: he um he said this. The game he played against
Speaker 1: the US that the US went on to win meant
Speaker 1: more to him than Game seven. Of the World Series,
Speaker 1: which he played in a few years back. And then
Speaker 1: it did get me thinking, boys, I was walking the dog,
Speaker 1: not paying anyone. That's your time to think, go into
Speaker 1: a hole and poop in the dark, right, just walking
Speaker 1: the captain thinking about it because we've had so many
Speaker 1: issues with the Pro Bowl and the NFL and and
Speaker 1: how to kind of get the players invested and and
Speaker 1: find something that the fans can enjoy. Is there something too?
Speaker 1: And baseball is a global brand in terms of players
Speaker 1: or come from all over the world here that you know,
Speaker 1: Latin America, the Far East, greg Japan. Massive football is
Speaker 1: getting there internationally in terms of popularity. But the players,
Speaker 1: it's like what ninety eight percent ninety nine percent American players, Yeah,
Speaker 1: getting somewhere would carry a lot of weight on the
Speaker 1: international team exactly. Um, but is there something to regionalism?
Speaker 1: And our country doesn't need more tribalism? I understand that,
Speaker 1: But is there something to some type of competition amongst
Speaker 1: football players that reflects where they come from in the country.
Speaker 1: So what if there was some type of event where
Speaker 1: it's like all the Texas football players, whether they're from
Speaker 1: Texas or they went to college in Texas. They can choose,
Speaker 1: just like Americans in the WBC can choose to play
Speaker 1: for America or where their heritage is from Florida, California.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's a Midwest team and there's something Is there
Speaker 1: something there for from that or is this a terrible idea?
Speaker 1: I would say you probably have a soft version of
Speaker 1: that with college football because a lot of recruiting is
Speaker 1: more localized than you're if you're on the East Coast,
Speaker 1: you're getting everyone from the West. It's like, it's probably
Speaker 1: a soft version of that. On my one issue because
Speaker 1: I've heard some grub only grumbling. I heard about the
Speaker 1: baseball part. There was a major injury. That gets injuries,
Speaker 1: there's been as you add any any time you're attached
Speaker 1: to an NFL team as a fan or coach or whatever,
Speaker 1: and you're watching your players even play pick up basketball,
Speaker 1: you're sitting there with you like your fingers crossed. So sure,
Speaker 1: that's that's the thing. It's too physical, and you're adding,
Speaker 1: what when the schedule be you got these players like
Speaker 1: oh Maryland, Verse, like Oregon. Well that's cool, except if
Speaker 1: you lose like player X for the next twelve is
Speaker 1: different than basketball and baseball and that injuries are a
Speaker 1: much higher risk. But in terms of getting the players juice,
Speaker 1: the way these guys all is completely different than basketball
Speaker 1: just throwing it out there. Is there anything even if
Speaker 1: it's a skills competition, I don't know. I see why
Speaker 1: you're being people. People are very passionate about where they're from.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it would be as much in
Speaker 1: terms of the states, but it would because people, you know,
Speaker 1: players really cape for like the states that they're from.
Speaker 1: But it's such a physical sport. It's like, I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone, even football players who love football, never want
Speaker 1: to play and expose their body and hit that hard
Speaker 1: unless like it really matters, and switch for a Rhode
Speaker 1: Island by the way, I mean, like you'd have to
Speaker 1: Northeast in general would be we want to do well
Speaker 1: the natives of the Northeast. I don't think in that,
Speaker 1: but it would just basically California, Louisiana, Texas, and Georgia.
Speaker 1: Let's just have a semifinals and start and then everyone else.
Speaker 1: How about everyone's Ohio Twitter, It's like Ohio and you
Speaker 1: have provided more people West. I guess for me as
Speaker 1: a fan, I don't I'll start to disengage when it's
Speaker 1: like a bunch of people from Texas shouting at a
Speaker 1: bunch of people from Ohio. Where do I play in?
Speaker 1: This might be something that other sports have on have
Speaker 1: on the old American football, But you know, okay, Henry
Speaker 1: is working on it. We're building players, we're building communities.
Speaker 1: We got players coming from Africa, we got Europe, you
Speaker 1: know Asia, it's coming. But we might have to wait.
Speaker 1: We got a job seventy years, so we'll be quite
Speaker 1: old at the point. Our buddy fa Obada got a gig.
Speaker 1: He's back because they're one. Should we update the keeping
Speaker 1: Up with bow Ringer to keeping Up with Obada? I mean,
Speaker 1: the only thing is that we'd have to find a
Speaker 1: song that is already Really regret bringing up Mobo because
Speaker 1: I didn't mean it in any derogatory. Well, Henry's listening here.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't like it. It's really in your head here,
Speaker 1: isn't he You're like, you're pring his campaign, You're scared
Speaker 1: to offend him, and it's gone. He lives rent free
Speaker 1: in your head, Greg, I hate that. Hate what people
Speaker 1: say that. Um, all right, this is around the NFL
Speaker 1: good show today. We're gonna talk to Bill Barnwell, one
Speaker 1: of the uh great football writers covering professional football. He's
Speaker 1: with ESPN, of course, and with a free agency. Basically
Speaker 1: one weekend, where do we stand? Who's looking good, who's
Speaker 1: looking bad? I do hesitate a little bit, boys in
Speaker 1: terms of the timing on this um. It's it's so
Speaker 1: early in the process. But at the same time, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: we booked Barnwell, let's talk. That's what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: Just those kind of like things have slowed down enough
Speaker 1: to the point where, all right, let's let's take a
Speaker 1: stock where we are. I think maybe a disclaimer, like
Speaker 1: to the teams that we're going to talk about with
Speaker 1: Bill that we're not as high on. Don't like crush
Speaker 1: us or do it if you want, but understand that
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're doing this segment. We're not going to
Speaker 1: rule out these teams from being successful in the shorter
Speaker 1: long term. It's just kind of where things stand. A week.
Speaker 1: Who had a bad week, not a bad week. I
Speaker 1: had bad weeks. We've had good weeks for a bad weeks.
Speaker 1: I think if you don't like what we do, you
Speaker 1: can tell us all you want and see how we
Speaker 1: respond to that. Um. Yes, who is the great defensive
Speaker 1: tackle that jumped from Philly to San Francisco. Did you
Speaker 1: guys know before we get to the news that he
Speaker 1: shares a nickname with a certain person behind the glass?
Speaker 1: That's right, I did learn that over the last week.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about that person behind the glass?
Speaker 1: About what? Sorry, there was a great moment that just happened,
Speaker 1: setting you up. That was the great moment. That was
Speaker 1: the all time set up for the drop. Oh right, oh,
Speaker 1: I know what you're talking about now. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know I'm even going to finish the show at this
Speaker 1: point that there's no coming back from that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know who was first here, because Dan, you
Speaker 1: came up with this nickname for me? Yes, and I
Speaker 1: was For the record, I was unaware that this player
Speaker 1: was connected to the nickname. But he's a prominent star
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Um, I'm sure he's had the nickname
Speaker 1: for some time. I was unaware there's another player in
Speaker 1: the league. I think that that calls himself this nickname.
Speaker 1: Another thing to tackle somewhere. I nail it that time. Nice.
Speaker 1: I mean, if we don't know, that's if none of
Speaker 1: us really knew that was Javon's nickname. Is he doing
Speaker 1: you know, considering we have someone in our in our
Speaker 1: show here that has seven or eight nicknames and they're
Speaker 1: all well branded known, like Javon Hargrave is not doing
Speaker 1: a great job with the grave Digger nickname. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think maybe he doesn't need to do the branding his
Speaker 1: hard because his play on the field and maybe just yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not he doesn't. It doesn't hinge on that for him. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, DJ Reader also has sometimes been called the
Speaker 1: grave digger. Get the hell out of here. I mean
Speaker 1: it doesn't even I mean Hargrave has grave and then
Speaker 1: hell out of here with that. It's disgusting what you're
Speaker 1: trying to tell us. That's a disgrace. Reader. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna talk again this episode. No, that was good. You
Speaker 1: give us good differ. Let's do some news chains on
Speaker 1: Hugh blow shout out, Hublow, Gucci, Um, yeah, no man,
Speaker 1: Me and Gucci partnered up this past year, so we
Speaker 1: do a lot of things, and anytime I got something
Speaker 1: special going on, they want to make sure that they
Speaker 1: got me fitting and stuff. So as soon as the
Speaker 1: trade happened, um, they hit me and my team up
Speaker 1: and was like, I gotta wear Gucci. I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wear a Gucci anyway. So I got y'all
Speaker 1: Jalen Ramsey and you know, early in history press conference
Speaker 1: with the Dolphins, I was thinking that we, uh, we
Speaker 1: don't have a outfitter for our show, not yet. There
Speaker 1: might be a time where we have some type of
Speaker 1: media engagement together, and maybe that's something we need to
Speaker 1: get ahead of. I don't know if Gucci is going
Speaker 1: to approach us, maybe the maybe there's a Sears brand
Speaker 1: that I meant. We did get a suit from the
Speaker 1: NFL where they put our names inside the jacket and
Speaker 1: they misspelled your name and then you had had it fixed.
Speaker 1: The tailor was killed. The tailor was murdered. Yeah, he is,
Speaker 1: but I did get it. He was like, how was
Speaker 1: I supposed to know how to spell the new old
Speaker 1: blue eyes? Um? All right, let's get to the news,
Speaker 1: starting with Brandon Cooks. He is on the move. He
Speaker 1: is the first player. I don't know if this is
Speaker 1: an achievement or what you guys can decide. Since Eric
Speaker 1: Dickerson to be traded four times in his career, Eric
Speaker 1: Dickerson retired like thirty years ago, So yeah, and he's
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame. Take anyway, Absolutely, Cooks has
Speaker 1: been traded to the Dallas Cowboys. The teams will swap
Speaker 1: some late round picks and Cooks slides in to that
Speaker 1: spot that they've been looking to upgrade. And we had
Speaker 1: Cede Lamb on our podcast super Bowl Weekend. He talked
Speaker 1: about how they need more weapons. Brandon Cooks Mark is
Speaker 1: that guy. We'll see if they add more to it. Um.
Speaker 1: I think there's some reporting out there that this likely
Speaker 1: takes them out of the market for Odell Beckham, but
Speaker 1: who knows what Beckham's market is right now? We shall see.
Speaker 1: But Cooks is an upgrade over the version of Michael
Speaker 1: Gallup they got last year. There you go, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I like it better than Noell Beckham. And they got
Speaker 1: the Texans to pay six million of the salaries, so
Speaker 1: that Cowboys are on the hook for twelve. It was
Speaker 1: a year ago that Dallas had to essentially trade Amari
Speaker 1: Cooper away or chose to for next to nothing because
Speaker 1: of their own cap issues. So a year later they
Speaker 1: get Brandon Cooks, and I think if you're traded this
Speaker 1: many times, someone's ready to move on from you. And
Speaker 1: I think that with Brandon Cooks, the obviously contract issues
Speaker 1: with the Texans, wanted to be traded last offseason. Seems
Speaker 1: everywhere he's been it's kind of gotten to a point
Speaker 1: where there's been a little bit of a back and forth.
Speaker 1: It's not turned into a major blow up, but Brandon
Speaker 1: Cookes has kind of wanted to move on, have a
Speaker 1: different role X, Y and Z. So he's movable, but
Speaker 1: there's always someone that wants him. And I think this
Speaker 1: is the Cowboys saying, look, we get it, like we
Speaker 1: need to do more around Dak Prescott. There is a
Speaker 1: lot of this is on Dak Prescott too, but Brandon
Speaker 1: Cooks can still play, and it's not like you've gotten
Speaker 1: this guy beyond the pale. I think you've still got
Speaker 1: a year or two with Brandon Cooks, who's actually only
Speaker 1: like twenty nine years old or something. Right, He joins
Speaker 1: Jalen Ramsey might come up a little later as like
Speaker 1: sneaky young. I would not have guessed Brandon Cooks, who's
Speaker 1: been racking up thousand yards seasons. I know that's not
Speaker 1: the perfect metric for wide receivers. It's not doesn't tell
Speaker 1: you everything, but he's been racking up thousand yard seasons
Speaker 1: since he got in the league. I'm hesitant to give
Speaker 1: the Cowboys too much credit because they are the Cowboys
Speaker 1: and this was a problem with their own making. They
Speaker 1: sat last year without Mary Cooper and twenty million dollars
Speaker 1: in cap space for no particular reason. But this was
Speaker 1: a great use of their cap space, the fact that
Speaker 1: they got the Texans to pay six million dollars of
Speaker 1: his salary. This was a contract Nick Kasserio gave to
Speaker 1: Cooks just last year. So this was kind of a
Speaker 1: problem of the the Texans turnover their own making that
Speaker 1: different coaches and everything. He was not happy there and
Speaker 1: they felt like they just had to get rid of
Speaker 1: him for fifty cents on the dollar. They got a
Speaker 1: fifth and a sixth round draft pick back, so I
Speaker 1: guess they're sort of pain for that draft pick. That
Speaker 1: was probably where the negotiation was bought. I like it
Speaker 1: a lot. Gallup should be better. There is something to
Speaker 1: the idea that a year more removed from surgery he'll
Speaker 1: be better, and then suddenly Cooks and Gallop that's a
Speaker 1: reasonable two and three. Yeah, I think it's okay. They're
Speaker 1: winners between that and Gilmore and then bringing Donovan Wilson back.
Speaker 1: It was a nice season, got a nice little off season.
Speaker 1: Not too flashy, but it's nice. Sor right. I would
Speaker 1: have liked them to keep Dalton Sheltz around and he's
Speaker 1: still never know. They still maybe have a lot of
Speaker 1: cap space. And I'm feeling a lot better about things. Uh,
Speaker 1: but Cooks, you know, I don't. He wasn't great last year,
Speaker 1: but he also was very unhappy. Not a Texans team
Speaker 1: that had a mess in. The Texans have done business
Speaker 1: with Laramie Tunsel again. Three year, seventy five million dollar
Speaker 1: contract extension per rap sheet and includes fifty million guaranteed
Speaker 1: sixty million in total guarantees. See I say that stuff,
Speaker 1: and just like, what what am I even saying? It's
Speaker 1: fifty million fully guaranteed and sixty million in total guarantees.
Speaker 1: What's a guarantee? I think it gets a little muddled.
Speaker 1: It's very problematic that guarantees are not guaranteed. That should
Speaker 1: be that whatever million worth something. It should be something
Speaker 1: different than guaranteed. And then you could don't use guaranteed
Speaker 1: twice because then it completely eliminates any meaning for the word.
Speaker 1: There is no meaning, because what it is is an
Speaker 1: injury guarantee. Uh that like he gets ten million dollars
Speaker 1: next year if he's injured and they want to cut him.
Speaker 1: So it's like it's a language that we need to
Speaker 1: for some reason, his play fell off a cliff, they
Speaker 1: could cut him, and it's not guaranteed anyway, it's a
Speaker 1: good I would say, nothing has any meaning. It's a
Speaker 1: good deal for tunsl who in twenty twenty uh signed
Speaker 1: a three year extension that made him the highest paid
Speaker 1: tackle in the league. And now he is once again
Speaker 1: and now Greg will point out this he represented himself.
Speaker 1: We don't know what about the same individual. There's there's
Speaker 1: it's kind of fascinating the backstory on that that there's
Speaker 1: a Saint Omni guy who the league sent a memo
Speaker 1: out last year. He is not a certified agent. You
Speaker 1: cannot be represented. Do not talk to this man. But
Speaker 1: there apparently Florio wrote about this. There's this there's this
Speaker 1: underground fight club culture of of agent representation where they
Speaker 1: you quote unquote represent yourself. And I'm not saying this
Speaker 1: will happen with Tonsol. I'm just saying this is something
Speaker 1: that Florio put out there. But you could have a
Speaker 1: guy that's not technically your agent, but he basically um
Speaker 1: portrayed is you in written email type conversations that go
Speaker 1: through negotiation without the team, Like so when so he
Speaker 1: was backing Roquan Smith, he's like a ghostwriter, a ghost
Speaker 1: agent basis, and he takes over an email account. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we need a story on this and so, and this
Speaker 1: is what Florio pointed out, but that the Bears started
Speaker 1: to their radar went up during that whole k fluffel
Speaker 1: with Roquan Smith where he wanted to be traded. That
Speaker 1: Roquan Smith was out on the practice field when they
Speaker 1: received an email from Roquan Smith, and so that caused
Speaker 1: some like there's certainly a third party here, and so
Speaker 1: Laramy Tunsel is not his own he is his own agent,
Speaker 1: But it was Saint Omni who announced this deal to
Speaker 1: Ian Rappaport, right, so we could asking about it. But
Speaker 1: there's someone else involved. It's not just lay his own
Speaker 1: offseason Ian Combo. Sure little, this is how the SA siege.
Speaker 1: It's very strange. Gets then again, I think the insiders
Speaker 1: and the agents are on the same team and they
Speaker 1: don't like the same situation. I mean they have motivation
Speaker 1: to make mister Saint Omni look bad. Good job by
Speaker 1: a tunsil uh and saying Omnie apparently h reset in
Speaker 1: that market again and he's only gonna be thirty one
Speaker 1: when he gets back on the friege and market like
Speaker 1: that name, Saint Omni. Yeah, it's a great fake name.
Speaker 1: Just go buy it. Um, don't need a first name.
Speaker 1: I'm saying Omni. Adam Feeland has a new home. The
Speaker 1: Panthers signed the long time Vikings wide receiver h three years,
Speaker 1: twenty five million, fourteen million and guarantees he's gonna answer
Speaker 1: his page thirty three his age thirty three season. So
Speaker 1: you know, the Panthers got to start somewhere and rebuilding
Speaker 1: their wide receiver room. They didn't have a lot of
Speaker 1: depth to start with him, and they traded their clear
Speaker 1: number one DJ Moore to the Bears to get that
Speaker 1: number one pick as part of that deal. So Feeling,
Speaker 1: I think he makes sense as long as he's in
Speaker 1: the right spot within that team. He can't be their
Speaker 1: lead guy. Hes a guy that if you looked at
Speaker 1: if you pop the hood on his UH play. The
Speaker 1: last couple of years, he's been in regression and the
Speaker 1: stats back that up. I mean you have Terris Marshall Junior.
Speaker 1: I think you got something there. She's Smith and like
Speaker 1: you're having a rookie quarterback. So Adam Deal and Hayden
Speaker 1: Hurst like keep your running backs like they're still interested
Speaker 1: in DJ Chark according to Scott Fitterer. So it's like,
Speaker 1: I would do anything you can between now and drafting
Speaker 1: quarterback X to just put players around him and see
Speaker 1: what sticks. Deal and not sneaky young Uh he is
Speaker 1: turning thirty three before the season. More of a red
Speaker 1: Zune guy. Got a lot of money in the first
Speaker 1: year of that deal, ten or eleven million dollars. A
Speaker 1: little surprising, but he's he's the classic like article that's
Speaker 1: going to be released in August of how he's teaching
Speaker 1: the rest of the room how to be a pro
Speaker 1: and that what he's worth to the team is worth
Speaker 1: a little more than just producing. I got another coach
Speaker 1: on the fat. I kind of think there's there is
Speaker 1: something to that. I don't think that's total BS, but
Speaker 1: he's getting a premium for that. Greg. It's like having
Speaker 1: another coach on the field because that's what you want.
Speaker 1: Josh Daniel's running her out there catching a kind of slott. No,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a snitch, but like kind
Speaker 1: of cheating too. Yeah, you're that's that's two positions. Maybe
Speaker 1: we shouldn't be sold. So I've watched approximately seventeen minutes
Speaker 1: of CJ. Stroud tape, and I'm like, my god, this
Speaker 1: guy's amazing. Let's go Stroud. Okay, let's go Strout. I
Speaker 1: can see the offensive line. That's because there's a weirdly
Speaker 1: in Vegas. Now. Stroud is the favorite because there's there's
Speaker 1: sort of reporting, but no one actually knows. We're just guessing.
Speaker 1: But I'm kind of surprised how he's been a little undersold.
Speaker 1: Let's do some odds and ends, ends, odds and ends.
Speaker 1: Everybody tell your friends Je It's it's getting into a
Speaker 1: dark place. I think we might have unwittingly tapped into
Speaker 1: a dark third dimension. Like we're opening up this portal
Speaker 1: and all the demons of Hell and beyond they're going
Speaker 1: to pour into our universe. Yeah, and it will be
Speaker 1: our fault because of a tiny box stitty right. I
Speaker 1: don't know like how this even happened, but it had
Speaker 1: a very Trent Rezner Social Network soundtrack vibe to it,
Speaker 1: where like this is the beginning of the end for
Speaker 1: our society, kind of kind of all right, let's hit it,
Speaker 1: all right, this is an easy one. Nick Scott, the
Speaker 1: defensive back, signed a three year, twelve million dollar contract
Speaker 1: with the Bengals. Greg like that one. Bengals needed to
Speaker 1: get a safety's cheap. They're good at these little myth
Speaker 1: tier signs. Yes, they've proven it. The Steelers add to
Speaker 1: their offensive line signing Isaac Sayamalo. They need help on
Speaker 1: offensive line. They have the now. The tenth rank guard
Speaker 1: from a year ago played every game for the Eagles,
Speaker 1: was injured in the seasons before that, but alongside Mason Cole,
Speaker 1: start to have something on the inside. I do need it,
Speaker 1: no right, how about Greg Gaines, a defensive lineman, Buck
Speaker 1: sign him formerly of the Rams one year deal? Greg,
Speaker 1: Rams have no players left on defense? There enough they
Speaker 1: might come up in a little bit. And finally, in
Speaker 1: haircut news, Kevin Bayard another dude that's been a a
Speaker 1: player with the Titans and an important player. Well, if
Speaker 1: he refuses a paycut, that's another guy out the door.
Speaker 1: It's they're downtime. The reporting is the Titans asked him
Speaker 1: to take a pay cut, and he refused. There is
Speaker 1: no word yet whether the Titans will actually release him,
Speaker 1: which would be pretty surprising if they did, but they
Speaker 1: would save about six million in cap space. Be a
Speaker 1: big dead cap hit. You can't And then he says no,
Speaker 1: and then they just said don't do anything. They're like, Okay, well, graver,
Speaker 1: why don't you tell us about the other Titans news
Speaker 1: that you ought put into our messaging client. The Titans
Speaker 1: also signed Sean Murphy Bunting, who won a Super Bowl
Speaker 1: with the Bucks a couple of years ago. Okay, pretty
Speaker 1: good little piece on the offense. I want to I
Speaker 1: want to be snarky and give you a hard time
Speaker 1: about how bad the Titans might be this year, but
Speaker 1: I've been there, so I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 1: You know it's coming. I know what's coming. I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, they've made a few signings that make me
Speaker 1: think they think they'll be more competitive than they will be,
Speaker 1: but I still don't think they'll be all that competitive.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's hope season. Let's take a break,
Speaker 1: and then we will welcome in Bill Barnwell, welcome back.
Speaker 1: Everybody joining us now is one of our favorites. The
Speaker 1: only reason I have an ESPN Plus subscription. A Northeastern
Speaker 1: alum fellow and one of the great greatest damn football
Speaker 1: writer in this country, Bill Barnwell, Welcome back to Around
Speaker 1: the NFL. What great intro. First, I get some sultry music.
Speaker 1: It feels like I'm in a mid nineties R and
Speaker 1: B song about to come in with here. Then I
Speaker 1: get I'm interest one of the best damned sports writers
Speaker 1: and think I forget exactly how it was phrased, but
Speaker 1: all of that I'm in. I'll take I actually said
Speaker 1: you were a former member of the Best damn Sports
Speaker 1: Show former panelist. Yes, Yeah, that was me and Tom Mardol.
Speaker 1: Happened on and I bdss that that show that was
Speaker 1: on every single Fox SPORTNT affiliate four about fifteen years,
Speaker 1: so unfortunately it was never invited. Happy to go back on.
Speaker 1: Mark Grace was tremendous on that program. Yeah, that musical
Speaker 1: selection that we selected for you. Is that sort of
Speaker 1: the vibe that you would think that you carry around
Speaker 1: town when you're out on the streets. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like late night, but not like a sketchy
Speaker 1: late night, like a late night, like a noir a
Speaker 1: late night Like maybe you're at a jazz club and
Speaker 1: it's in between sets and you're like, oh, let me
Speaker 1: read five thousand words about these offensive lines transactions. That's
Speaker 1: what I want out there for me and my fans.
Speaker 1: I I do like to imagine Bill as a member
Speaker 1: of the mid nineties R and B group H Town
Speaker 1: saying that would be good and little know. In fact,
Speaker 1: I once applied for a job at the best damn
Speaker 1: sports show period as a researcher. Really I did not
Speaker 1: get I did not get that job, denied what was there.
Speaker 1: I have to admit, it's been a long time. I
Speaker 1: don't know. This is not really relevant for sure too.
Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about, a show that was on
Speaker 1: neither of the network. I work for the networks. This
Speaker 1: is our show in general. Yeah, well, I have to
Speaker 1: ask was there a lot of research going on on
Speaker 1: the I never got to find out. I was working
Speaker 1: weekends one day a week on Fox Baseball and football
Speaker 1: and like in the highlights department, and was trying to
Speaker 1: get more of a full time gig. I heard about
Speaker 1: this research job, interviewed, didn't get it all. I know
Speaker 1: Chris Rose, who works on this for this network now
Speaker 1: was a host of that show, and he speaks very
Speaker 1: fondly of the program and what they achieved together. So
Speaker 1: that's that's my insight on it. Dude, any anyone who
Speaker 1: can host a show that's on the air of that
Speaker 1: long did something right. So like you know, like like
Speaker 1: no no bones about that. I just you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a you know, a back and forth.
Speaker 1: I felt like kind of like a you know, a
Speaker 1: taky sort of show. I didn't recall like extensive research
Speaker 1: segments happening right, and maybe it was a little ahead
Speaker 1: of its time, and like research is the guy who
Speaker 1: lets tarm Arnold know like who's on what team right
Speaker 1: before the segments and speaking of like late nights and
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to some way premature winners and losers
Speaker 1: of free agency with Bill Um. I do want to
Speaker 1: mention super Bowl Week in Arizona. Um, we were hanging out.
Speaker 1: We got dinner with Kevin Clark. Yeah, and Clark's plugged
Speaker 1: in with the ringer. Gagna sent they sure, So he
Speaker 1: invites us to the Cimes Gathering, which you know is
Speaker 1: top of the food chain within this whole world, and uh,
Speaker 1: we did go there. Greggy and Gravedigger was with us
Speaker 1: as well, and um, I was remarkably or surprisingly, I
Speaker 1: was intimidated to the point where it's like, there's too
Speaker 1: many Ringer people here. They're all best friends. Here's Barnwell
Speaker 1: in the corner, just like lording over a group of bros.
Speaker 1: I didn't even go say hi to Bill because he
Speaker 1: was said he was he was the bell of this ball.
Speaker 1: I had a drink and I excused myself, but it
Speaker 1: was it was basically walking into like the cool kid's
Speaker 1: wing of a high school. It was like, just be
Speaker 1: careful here, this little treacher you irish goodbye out of
Speaker 1: that a little bit, a little bit that contact would
Speaker 1: have loved to stay hello. I don't know which bros
Speaker 1: I was lording over. I'm not an especially tall person.
Speaker 1: I don't see myself as like a like a Nate Tice.
Speaker 1: I would say it was lording out. You were comfortable, though, Bill,
Speaker 1: you were in your element. I could I could see that,
Speaker 1: and I said, I don't want to roll over there
Speaker 1: and do some awkward hellos. I'm gonna let him enjoy
Speaker 1: this time with his colleagues. Well, very nice of you,
Speaker 1: not not necessary at all. Please the next time you
Speaker 1: see me on the street, stop me, grabbed me? Oh,
Speaker 1: st no problem street. But the time's gathering at the
Speaker 1: super Bowl. Okay, I liked that themed it now that
Speaker 1: you actually did Bill a favor so that he stay
Speaker 1: in element and I had some great conversations that night.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you had to you had to wait it out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, all right, Nate, we remember you were
Speaker 1: that Russell Wilson's backup. Okay, let us let us speak.
Speaker 1: That's not nice, that's not true, mate, mate, mate, I've
Speaker 1: never had a conversation with Nate about football. Um, gathering
Speaker 1: soccer and pro wrestling and zero percent football. Um, all right,
Speaker 1: let's talk. Let's talk football. Okay, let's do it. So
Speaker 1: the they don't want us to say it, but we're
Speaker 1: bad boys. The legal tampering period started a week ago today,
Speaker 1: and there's been a lot of activity. Greggy, how many
Speaker 1: top one on one free agents from your top twenty
Speaker 1: are still remaining? Now? Oh, I've got even more than that.
Speaker 1: Three from my top twenty five. Three also from my
Speaker 1: top twenty eleven, of the top fifty and twenty eight
Speaker 1: I believe are twenty six of the top one on
Speaker 1: one and not that many left. Okay, there's still deals
Speaker 1: to be made, and teams can still get much better
Speaker 1: if they make smart moves. But I'll start with you
Speaker 1: on this one, Bill, when you survey the landscape so far,
Speaker 1: what's a team that's jumped out to you, Because we'll
Speaker 1: do the good and the bad here, what's a team
Speaker 1: that's jumped out to you that's made itself better in
Speaker 1: the past seven days? Yeah, you know, I'll start with
Speaker 1: the team I know is near and dear to your
Speaker 1: guy's hearts. Although I have I do have a question
Speaker 1: that does concern me about them, But I think overall
Speaker 1: mostly a winner the Detroit Lions. I think a team
Speaker 1: where they had a very obvious concern on their on
Speaker 1: their defense dead last in ESPN's total QBR metric last year.
Speaker 1: Secondary that was a bit in shambles, a lot of
Speaker 1: work to be done, and you saw it. They went
Speaker 1: out and upgraded at multiple spots. Camp sudden comes in,
Speaker 1: Manuel mostly comes in, and most recently, Chauncey Gardner Johnson
Speaker 1: signs on a one year deal. That's a rebuilt secondary.
Speaker 1: We don't know what Jeffrey cood is going to do.
Speaker 1: He might be a trade candidate could figure in there
Speaker 1: as well. But I just think given their needs, given
Speaker 1: that the offense did look so good at the second
Speaker 1: half of last year, given that they do have, you know,
Speaker 1: plenty of picks to work with this year's draft, I
Speaker 1: love them focusing on the secondary, getting that taken care
Speaker 1: of squared away. Now they can focus on rebuilding and
Speaker 1: continuing to rebuild that front seven. Here in the draft.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're in great shape heading into heading
Speaker 1: into season, except for one thing, but we'll get to
Speaker 1: that later. I thought the Chauncey Gardner Johnson signing was
Speaker 1: a nice turnaround after losing Jamal Williams. I thought brought
Speaker 1: so much fire and personality to that team. It's my
Speaker 1: one thing, yeah, because I think, like we all, we
Speaker 1: all we met Jamal at the Super Bowl and like
Speaker 1: loved him and thought that he was just as a
Speaker 1: reason in a beating heart behind the Lions. But Gardner Johnson,
Speaker 1: Aaron Glenn's known him since high school. Dan Campbell worked
Speaker 1: with him back with the Saints, so did Aaron Glenn.
Speaker 1: So it's like they went and got a player they
Speaker 1: knew exactly how to use. And he turned around and
Speaker 1: said to the Eagles. I'm just going to Detroit the
Speaker 1: deal that we had in place, forget about it. We're
Speaker 1: not doing that. I think he had to be disappointed
Speaker 1: by the market. I don't know if he read the
Speaker 1: one on one, but he could have said I'm a
Speaker 1: I'm a freaking top five free agent a week ago
Speaker 1: at this time, and he didn't get the contract he wanted.
Speaker 1: I believe that he was probably offered, you know in
Speaker 1: the reporting is that he was offered a much better
Speaker 1: deal from the Eagles, but the money went away. They
Speaker 1: ended up spending it on Sleigh and Bradbury. Jesse Bates
Speaker 1: got paid, but very few of the other safeties really
Speaker 1: got paid. Jordan Poyer didn't get paid, Julian Love didn't
Speaker 1: get played. There were a couple of mid market deals
Speaker 1: with like Von Bell and Donovan Wilson. But understandably, Gardner
Speaker 1: Johnson saw himself better than that. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: James Bradbury year ago. He bet on himself. I think
Speaker 1: his agent probably cost him a lot of money. But
Speaker 1: if he plays well for the Lions, and I think
Speaker 1: it's a great sign that people that know him so
Speaker 1: well want to bring him in, then he can cash
Speaker 1: and hopefully next year. And I like the Lions making
Speaker 1: Aaron glenn um look good and possibly pivot from their
Speaker 1: strategy which has really been about resources in the front
Speaker 1: end and they were really weak in the back end.
Speaker 1: And I love the Sutton signing, especially Mosley is just
Speaker 1: like another guy to have around in case, like they
Speaker 1: are really setting up Aaron glenn for success to potentially
Speaker 1: be a future head coach. Is it possible, Greg, because
Speaker 1: I need to be, unfortunately the official pushback guy of
Speaker 1: your agent assassination tour this spring. Is it possible that
Speaker 1: the agent was suggesting he took the deal, he'd take
Speaker 1: the deal of the Eagles were offering, and he said
Speaker 1: he thought he could do better. I think that it's possible,
Speaker 1: but I think anyone signing now um a one year
Speaker 1: deal like that had ended up like misreading the markets,
Speaker 1: and that's the agent's job. That Michael Steel was very
Speaker 1: heavily backloaded too. Maybe he was looking for something structured differently.
Speaker 1: But I am with you, Dan, that blame me the agent,
Speaker 1: not that you're doing this. Greg, Just like this time
Speaker 1: of year that you're just getting like destroyed left and right,
Speaker 1: and it's like sometimes the player are people around the
Speaker 1: players saying no, no, you can do better than that,
Speaker 1: and then it didn't happen for him, and then but
Speaker 1: how can you do better than being unaligned? I mean
Speaker 1: the lines of historically you could well that. That's my
Speaker 1: concern here is that you guys alluded to this. It
Speaker 1: has there been a vibe shift with Jamal Williams leaving
Speaker 1: for Johnson makes up he replaces a totally different vibe
Speaker 1: that jose Gardner. Johnson's vibe is I may fight you
Speaker 1: at any time you get getting you to fight me
Speaker 1: with no warning at any time. Yeah, that's not Jamal Williams.
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams, I was like, Hey, let's watch anime or
Speaker 1: play video games for twenty straight hours and eat really
Speaker 1: good takeout. Ask Michael Thomas about Gardner Johnson, Yes, exactly. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, who is that? Who is the Bears player
Speaker 1: who punched him twice in the helmet? I can't remember? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there he is a spicy character. He's a spicy meaning
Speaker 1: the Bears wide receiver four. It's gonna bother me the
Speaker 1: rest of the show. Now, I'm sorry. Justin Graver the
Speaker 1: Grave Digger is going to be on that. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about someone a near or something near and
Speaker 1: dear to your heart. Barnwell, Yes, hulagiman Um. I see
Speaker 1: them as a winner, and this extends more than just
Speaker 1: the last week. I liked the way they got the
Speaker 1: business done with Daniel Jones. Maybe you could say an overpay,
Speaker 1: but he's He's in the building. They believe in him,
Speaker 1: and I think that's good enough when you have Brian
Speaker 1: Dabile there, se Quon Barclay's back. Love the Darren Waller
Speaker 1: move for obvious reasons. I think that's a very high
Speaker 1: upside move, and we talked about it last week. It
Speaker 1: ended up being a kind of a Cadarius Tony for
Speaker 1: Darren Waller swap. I could live with that. Paris Campbell
Speaker 1: joins the wide receiver room. He gives them a chance
Speaker 1: to upgrade their receiving game. You know, Odell Beckham's out
Speaker 1: there tweeting at Saquon that he has work to do.
Speaker 1: I believe something along those lines, something insane. In general,
Speaker 1: I feel like Isaiah Hodgens also coming back. I feel
Speaker 1: like Bill, this team's going in the right direction, and
Speaker 1: obviously they I think they overachieved to a certain extent
Speaker 1: or played well considering their schedule now, I think adding
Speaker 1: pieces around Jones is necessary, and they're they're doing that.
Speaker 1: I'm not especially thrilled. Okay, how the Giants approached this offseason,
Speaker 1: and I guess part of it is the big decision
Speaker 1: about Daniel Jones is one part of it, and then
Speaker 1: kind of everything else fits into the other side of it.
Speaker 1: I know you guys already talked about Daniel Jones, so
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get too far into this, but let
Speaker 1: me ask you this one question. If Daniel Jones plays
Speaker 1: exactly the same as he played last year, do you
Speaker 1: think that turns out to be a good deal? Like,
Speaker 1: does he have to improve to justify this contract or
Speaker 1: can he just be the guy he was last year
Speaker 1: and that's good enough for the Giant. The whole deal,
Speaker 1: in my mind when it went down, was this was
Speaker 1: built under the idea of the premise that he's just
Speaker 1: starting to reach his potential, which made it an unusual
Speaker 1: contract in that sense, but also internally, the Giants believe
Speaker 1: so much in Dable and Jones. That's how I saw it.
Speaker 1: So yes that he has to get better if he
Speaker 1: If he plateaus, it's a bad contract. Does he have
Speaker 1: the pieces around him to get better. Well, I think
Speaker 1: that's my question, Like, like you know, I think, yes,
Speaker 1: I love the Darred Waller move. I think it's a
Speaker 1: pretty not risk free because you're giving up a third
Speaker 1: round pick and that is valuable, and you're you're using
Speaker 1: ten million dollars if you're cap space. But I think
Speaker 1: a very logical risk for the Giants to take. I
Speaker 1: don't love the wide receivers like guests bringing in Paris Campbell,
Speaker 1: a guy who's been hurt most of his career and
Speaker 1: who averaged like ten yards to catch last year, Like
Speaker 1: I have no doubt Daniel Jones can find a link
Speaker 1: with a guy who's going to catch the ball and
Speaker 1: fall down. But right now, the only deep beard on
Speaker 1: this roster is Darius Slayton, and that's a guy who
Speaker 1: this organization, much like Jones, didn't want last year, who
Speaker 1: kind of got the opportunity because everyone else in front
Speaker 1: of him either got hurt or they didn't want to play.
Speaker 1: So I like Darius Layden personally. I think he's a
Speaker 1: good player. I don't have a real issue with the contract,
Speaker 1: but I was sort of hoping for more, something more
Speaker 1: significant when it came to the receiving court. They still
Speaker 1: have time to be fair. But the Bobbio Karaka signing
Speaker 1: I wasn't especially thrilled by. That's the guy they spent
Speaker 1: the most on this offseason. As much as attention as
Speaker 1: Waller got, they spent the most. Right, I add a
Speaker 1: position where look, they were maybe the worst and the
Speaker 1: slowest in the NFL, so they needed an upgrade, but
Speaker 1: they spent a lot to fix it. It seems like
Speaker 1: a team that could use Darius Tony that was that
Speaker 1: was something that didn't work out a year ago. But
Speaker 1: I do think with Brian Dable and the draft ahead
Speaker 1: that I liked in general, what's happened with the Giants
Speaker 1: over the last five hundred days. They finally seem to
Speaker 1: have a plan. I have no problem if you if
Speaker 1: you don't resigned Daniel Jones, who fills that void, and
Speaker 1: then you're starting over with a different quarterbacks. So I
Speaker 1: don't mind it as a two year see what you
Speaker 1: got and there's more pieces to come. I'd hope around
Speaker 1: two quick things and then someone else go one. Darius Slayton,
Speaker 1: to Bill's point, was a healthy scratch in Week one
Speaker 1: this year, so that's kind of where his journey has
Speaker 1: gone and he gets a new two year deal too.
Speaker 1: I've never heard anyone use the five hundred day marker
Speaker 1: before Historic you had to go like from January to
Speaker 1: here and next summer. You know, it's good, It's just
Speaker 1: it's unusual, and I like it because if I said
Speaker 1: three hundred and sixty five, I have no idea what
Speaker 1: was happening literally one year ago today, or who I was,
Speaker 1: or who the giants were. So that's a weird days
Speaker 1: in summer. One of the movies where um, I enjoyed
Speaker 1: it the most in the theater too, I probably understand
Speaker 1: it's a bad movie now ratio like it's really high
Speaker 1: in that race. It's in the Garden State Club, right,
Speaker 1: I can't I can't say I didn't enjoy it. I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the hell out of it. But now it was cute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: anything di Chanelle is gonna maybe an age not so hot.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna jump buff and do a winner because it's
Speaker 1: it's related a little bit to your giants, which is
Speaker 1: that because I think they're gonna draft just look at
Speaker 1: me and say your giants, Uh, well, your giants choice
Speaker 1: bill is a weird, like negging giants fan like, he's
Speaker 1: never happy with him, he never wants to totally own it. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: what if they were this year. I'm not gonna like
Speaker 1: like they're bringing the band back and adding Bobby. I'm
Speaker 1: not thrilled by that. Okay, Okay, I'm with you. They're
Speaker 1: logically gonna fall back, and but wing Martindale and Brian
Speaker 1: Dable and Joe Shane for that matter, actually give me
Speaker 1: enough confidence that, like they'll help push the tide of
Speaker 1: what is probably gonna be unrealistic expectations. Um, maybe this
Speaker 1: would be bad for the Giants because I think they're
Speaker 1: almost locked into taking a receiver in the first round,
Speaker 1: or that there should be good value there. But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say some of the winners of this last month
Speaker 1: are the receivers in this draft, because there there was
Speaker 1: so little spending on these sort of second tier receivers
Speaker 1: that were available. I maybe I misread the market in
Speaker 1: terms of artificially like putting these guys higher on my
Speaker 1: list just thinking they were gonna get money and that
Speaker 1: they were like decent players. Guys like Jacobi Meyers in
Speaker 1: Juju and Lazard ended up getting a lot of money,
Speaker 1: but a lot of players didn't and there wasn't much
Speaker 1: of a premium placed on these players. They ended up
Speaker 1: getting paid less than what I would have expected. And
Speaker 1: to me, I think it's because, first of all, this
Speaker 1: draft class isn't amazing at the top, but there's still
Speaker 1: a good group of players that I think could be
Speaker 1: taken in the first round, and maybe now they're gonna
Speaker 1: get pushed up a little higher. And the other thing is,
Speaker 1: I think the receivers now looked at as a premium
Speaker 1: position that these free agents just didn't qualify that you
Speaker 1: need to get those receivers in a trade or you
Speaker 1: need to draft them. And the hit rate on these
Speaker 1: draft receivers is just so incredibly high right now that
Speaker 1: it almost feels like gmproof. That's like, Okay, don't take
Speaker 1: to Kobe Myers and pay them fifteen million dollars, draft
Speaker 1: your receivers, don't take Jujo, don't don't overpay for any
Speaker 1: of these guys. Maybe give up a second for DeAndre Hopkins,
Speaker 1: but like, not even more than that, Let's just draft
Speaker 1: these guys. Because the contracts are so low for the
Speaker 1: draft picks in the hit rate is so high that
Speaker 1: to me, it's it's almost getting treated a little bit
Speaker 1: like defensive end and quarterback like other premium positions, and
Speaker 1: they didn't. It didn't happen for them in free agency.
Speaker 1: But I think they're gonna look at this draft class
Speaker 1: and people say there's not like a true one in it.
Speaker 1: That's fine, but I think it's going to push these
Speaker 1: draft receivers up the board that not many teams really
Speaker 1: solve many of their receiver problems in free agency. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I look at the DeAndre Hopkins situation. I'm
Speaker 1: writing about this for ESPN this week. It's not easy
Speaker 1: to find a landing spot for DeAndre Hopkins right now.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of teams that either don't have the
Speaker 1: cap space or a set at receiver or half an
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator who appeared to be in a blood feud
Speaker 1: with DeAndre Hopkins before treating him in a very ill
Speaker 1: fated trade that costed his job. But there's not like
Speaker 1: an obvious spot where you're like, okay, that is where
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hopkins is gonna go. So you know, I sort
Speaker 1: of wonder if the league as a whole, like you said,
Speaker 1: Greg is sort of looking at the receiver success rate
Speaker 1: and say, okay, as long as I'm not weirdly of
Speaker 1: all people, how he Roseman drafting Jail and Rager like
Speaker 1: it's gonna work out pretty well for me all things considered.
Speaker 1: So I agree, you know, and I think something that
Speaker 1: is very like we all know it but we don't
Speaker 1: talk about it that often, is just how valuable it
Speaker 1: is take players of premium positions in the draft, and
Speaker 1: wide receiver right now is in a tier with left
Speaker 1: tackle and edge rusher, where that is a position where
Speaker 1: you get a significant surplus value over the first three
Speaker 1: years of a guy's rookie deal. If you draft land
Speaker 1: even an average receiver, let alone someone like a Justin
Speaker 1: Jefferson or a Jamar Chase, I'm gonna throw it out.
Speaker 1: I think last year was obviously the year of Geno Smith,
Speaker 1: but like my Geno Smith won b or Gino Smith
Speaker 1: light for at least the first half of the season
Speaker 1: was Jacoby Brissette, And so I'm gonna go a little
Speaker 1: more player focus win because I kind of think of
Speaker 1: all the places where Brissette could have gone, where it's like,
Speaker 1: had he gone Indianapolis like Gardner Minshew, It's like, well,
Speaker 1: they're clearly going to draft someone in the ideas that
Speaker 1: you don't play Gardner Minshew. Ideally, if the rookie's up
Speaker 1: to stop, Jacoby Brissette, I think has a chance to
Speaker 1: continue what he did last year in Cleveland and be
Speaker 1: another example of a late blooming quarterback that last year.
Speaker 1: I mean it could a little bit of Kevin Stefanski,
Speaker 1: but the offense completely changed when de Shaun Watson get
Speaker 1: in there. It devolved in all the wrong ways, and
Speaker 1: I think that's a credit to some degree about Brissette.
Speaker 1: He's also talked about. I know that Ron Rivera would
Speaker 1: rather just have a veteran run the show fit until
Speaker 1: the end of time, but Brissette is a lauded teammate.
Speaker 1: Kevin Stefanski said it was one of the in terms
Speaker 1: of coaching teammates, one of the best he'd ever been
Speaker 1: around his career. I think that's a great thing for
Speaker 1: a Washington team that always seems to have its vibe
Speaker 1: off a little bit. They're just to obviously ownership on down.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of um evil smells coming out of
Speaker 1: that organization. Jacoby Brissette can change things. There's weapons around him.
Speaker 1: I think he can have a good season and continue
Speaker 1: to kind of advocate for himself as a spot starter
Speaker 1: and someone that might get a better chance in this
Speaker 1: if he can fend off Sam Howell, who was spicy
Speaker 1: in week eighteen. I did hear a fun conspiracy theory? Yeah,
Speaker 1: nfluk Hank throughout this. Sure, Henry Hudson fast going around here.
Speaker 1: Uh what if the new Washington owner comes in and
Speaker 1: that's the one who goes over the top for Lamar.
Speaker 1: That would be beautiful because there's there's this talk that
Speaker 1: Dan Snyder that it might be it might be imminent.
Speaker 1: You come in with that Amazon money, you know, you
Speaker 1: pick up NFL media, you know, take care of the
Speaker 1: around the NFL podcast here, and then signing Lamar. You're
Speaker 1: a hero to the whole. The Ravens want to send
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson. There's just gotta spending insane amount of money
Speaker 1: and not give him a choice. It would be that.
Speaker 1: I'm totally Whitney seed. I don't really think and I
Speaker 1: think Jacoby has a nice spot with the enemy and
Speaker 1: all those weapons. I agree with slices me off a
Speaker 1: piece of that, Jake Bristey, I think that would be great.
Speaker 1: Washington fans would be head over if they had new
Speaker 1: ownership and Lamar Jackson. Everything's different, Sava said it, and
Speaker 1: the whole world's on fire. But the Ravens are not
Speaker 1: gonna want him anywhere near what do they call that area?
Speaker 1: What's an area? It has a name, the Baltimore, Maryland.
Speaker 1: You live there, Bill, what is it? The DMV. But
Speaker 1: he's already in the DMV. So I'm confused as to
Speaker 1: like the distinction being made between you don't want to
Speaker 1: stay and you don't want to you want to get
Speaker 1: him out of the V's not gonna be on your team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you know about You live in
Speaker 1: the middle of one of the toughest rivalries in sports,
Speaker 1: Washington versus Baltimore speak out. I have never honestly like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is very juicy. And then I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't know a single person I've ever seen like a
Speaker 1: Ravens friend friend of mine argue with a Commanders fend
Speaker 1: friend of mine. Yeah, it doesn't feel like giants jest
Speaker 1: put it that way. And in fact, the nastiest thing
Speaker 1: that ever happened in the DMV in terms of like
Speaker 1: the sports teams is when the Ravens won the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl and then Angelo. So the Orioles said no, we
Speaker 1: have a we have a baseball game, and you can't
Speaker 1: even host this week one game in your building and
Speaker 1: they had to go on the road after they won
Speaker 1: the damn Super Bowl. That that was some DMV dirt um.
Speaker 1: That game was the game where I remember watching with
Speaker 1: West and we always talk about that. Owen Daniels had
Speaker 1: the like slowest um like move to try to like
Speaker 1: make someone miss that we'd ever seen. I don't know
Speaker 1: why Thames or something in that game. Jake Brisket point,
Speaker 1: So let's say he was very good in his starts
Speaker 1: for the Browns before Watson came and didn't play well.
Speaker 1: Brisket I'll played him. Let's say that's his close to
Speaker 1: his ceiling this year. Does that make Washington a power
Speaker 1: player or make them much better than they were? I don't.
Speaker 1: I just think he's a guy, and that's why I
Speaker 1: see this team just right now kind of stuck in
Speaker 1: the mud. Even with Brissette there. As much as I
Speaker 1: like him, well, I don't think he's a difference maker.
Speaker 1: I would say it's a win for I said it
Speaker 1: about Jacoby Brissette. I think it's a win for him
Speaker 1: to go see what he does with it. If I'm Washington.
Speaker 1: If I'm a fan of the Commanders, I like Brissette.
Speaker 1: I can't can't be the final plan here, and it
Speaker 1: can't be for the eighth year in a run year
Speaker 1: on a run RIVERA like a veteran who might be
Speaker 1: average or better than average. How about a bill I'll
Speaker 1: go ahead. I just want to point out the Commanders
Speaker 1: last year with Taylor Heineke, Carson Wentz and Sam Howell
Speaker 1: at quarterback, we're eight eight and one. They were realistically
Speaker 1: what a game away from making it till the postseason.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't the gotfar probably, but you know the Saints
Speaker 1: are selling out to try and win nine games and
Speaker 1: be in the playoffs. The Commanders weren't an okay quarterback away.
Speaker 1: You know, they were six in the NFL in points
Speaker 1: purpose session allowed on defense without Chase Young or the
Speaker 1: version of Chase Young. We hope it is going to
Speaker 1: be back this upcoming season. And Jacoby Brissette, like he's
Speaker 1: not a superstar, but he doesn't turn the ball over
Speaker 1: since he got into the league. I think the only
Speaker 1: quarterback with with a better interception rate than Jacoby Brissette.
Speaker 1: The only quarterbacks are Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. So
Speaker 1: I think there's sort of a there's sort of a
Speaker 1: Jets thing happening here where it's like, Okay, we have
Speaker 1: this great defense. It's young enough that they're probably gonna
Speaker 1: be good again next year. If we can just get
Speaker 1: a competent quarterback in here, we're a playoff team. And
Speaker 1: for Washington, given how depressing this franchise has been for
Speaker 1: two and a half decades, that kind of feels like
Speaker 1: a victory. Yeah. In fact, when the Rodgers thing was
Speaker 1: very hazy with the Jets, as if it's not hazy now,
Speaker 1: Brissette felt like a fallback plan for the Jets. So yes,
Speaker 1: for the commanders, a sensible one for the commanders. It
Speaker 1: would keep them in the mix for sure. I just hope,
Speaker 1: I mean the woman now you got my head thing
Speaker 1: with the Lamar thing, even though it's not going to happen,
Speaker 1: they really needs something like a whole new breath of
Speaker 1: fresh air for that order ownership would be enough. I
Speaker 1: think they would be excited. Bill. We don't like to
Speaker 1: be overly critical, given you know, it's so hard to
Speaker 1: tell what's good and what's bad at this point. In fact,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's the opposite is the team that spends big
Speaker 1: that ends up not doing well. Although the last two
Speaker 1: years I saw this on network on the lower third
Speaker 1: before I stepped in the studio today, the last two years,
Speaker 1: the team that spent the most in free agency made
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Okay, so maybe it is great. Maybe if
Speaker 1: you can win free agency that last year. Who would
Speaker 1: have been the year before? I don't know, it might
Speaker 1: have been another It might have been the Patriots who
Speaker 1: made it. All right, let's pause right here. We got
Speaker 1: more to do with Bill Barnewell, but first to break
Speaker 1: all Right, we're back. Who's a loser? So far? To you? Bill,
Speaker 1: the loser was tougher, you know, ID a bunch of winners.
Speaker 1: I felt good about a loser. Maybe the Broncos. I
Speaker 1: mean just in terms of teams that spent a lot
Speaker 1: of money and I look at those moves and I'm
Speaker 1: kind of confused. Like Michael Clinchy, I understand wanting to
Speaker 1: improve the protection around Russ. Mike Clinchey is a solid player.
Speaker 1: He has the second largest contract of any right tackle
Speaker 1: in football, and he has never played at that level
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, So tough for me to believe he's
Speaker 1: gonna suddenly be a top five right tackle for the Broncos.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like the Zach Allen move, but even
Speaker 1: Zach Allen one year of playing at the level he
Speaker 1: played at in Arizona, Guys like Alex Singleton, Jared Stidham,
Speaker 1: these are replacement level players. These are guys who, even
Speaker 1: if they played well when you saw them last year,
Speaker 1: Guys so you could have got for very cheap last
Speaker 1: season who you can probably find another version of very
Speaker 1: cheap this season. The Broncos are paying a premium to
Speaker 1: either retain or bring in to their organization. So I
Speaker 1: don't hate the overall plan, but I think the pricing,
Speaker 1: especially in the market where teams have been very reasonable
Speaker 1: with what they've spent. I don't love how they spent
Speaker 1: their money in Denver, right, and they spent it on
Speaker 1: Ben Powers too, was another like premium guy that a
Speaker 1: year ago would have had like a one year, one
Speaker 1: million dollar deal. It just was like paying for guys
Speaker 1: that the rest of the market didn't really look like that,
Speaker 1: Like backup quarterbacks didn't get paid, we could throw them
Speaker 1: out as a loser. In general, backup quart like Jacoby
Speaker 1: Brissette did the best getting eight million. The backup quarterback
Speaker 1: market weirdly is like worse than it was six years ago.
Speaker 1: I don't really like when Chase Daniel was cashing seven
Speaker 1: million dollar checks for never playing and now you get
Speaker 1: like decent players for four and a half. That doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense. And you're right, yeah, Denver spent on a
Speaker 1: guy like ben Ben Power is a good example. Like
Speaker 1: I don't think Baltimore was remotely interested in spending that
Speaker 1: sort of money on a guard. I feel like Sean
Speaker 1: Payton at least is trying to make a case where
Speaker 1: you're I like the theory that you're stripping excuses away
Speaker 1: from Russell Wilson and if if you want to go
Speaker 1: deeper and say McGlinchey and Powers aren't going to save
Speaker 1: your offensive line. But like we tried to, we just
Speaker 1: add stuff around him and like if if he flames out,
Speaker 1: like I think, I think Russell Wilson has like twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three Bronc a stripping excuse ten games to become
Speaker 1: the other Russell Wilson, or do they'll bench him for
Speaker 1: Jared'stnamer whoever else? Um, I'll throw out one and this
Speaker 1: loser is way too strong, But it's more like hmm okay,
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl teams. Uh, the Chiefs obviously they they
Speaker 1: didn't want to pay Orlando Brown juniors. So I can't
Speaker 1: like say, like, oh, they're losers because they didn't decide
Speaker 1: that he was a marquee left tackle. But they're a
Speaker 1: little vulnerable there. They they signed right tackle Juwan Taylor.
Speaker 1: He might play the left side. Uh, Bill, I think
Speaker 1: you wrote about this, um so I'll credit you on this.
Speaker 1: He hasn't taken snaps at left tackle since high school.
Speaker 1: Um So, it bat a couple a couple in college,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't like a start right So I mean
Speaker 1: now and now your job is to protect Patrick Mahomes's blindside,
Speaker 1: arguably the greatest quarterback of his generation. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's their plan, but that's potentially their plan. They
Speaker 1: also lost a key guy in want Thornhill to Cleveland.
Speaker 1: The Eagles. The Eagles and the Eels. It's a trickier
Speaker 1: situation for them because of the economics and how loaded
Speaker 1: their roster was. And they've done a good job with
Speaker 1: keeping certain guys in the building Jason Kelsey, Darius Slay, Bradberry.
Speaker 1: They they got Fletcher Cox back who stayed. They did
Speaker 1: lose though, Now that you'd take a look after Chauncey
Speaker 1: Gardner Johnson leaves for the Lions, I saw that they've
Speaker 1: lost five of nine players on defense who played at
Speaker 1: least seven hundred snaps in twenty twenty two. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a big chunk of their You talk five hundred,
Speaker 1: I got seven hundred here, Mark, that's data points. So
Speaker 1: it's not going to be the same defense. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna be the same team, and that's the economics of
Speaker 1: the business. But both champions. I feel like a little
Speaker 1: lesser right now, isn't it? POV Because I could find
Speaker 1: Howie roseman as a winning figure in the sense that,
Speaker 1: like he was, he was facing a really tough potential outcome,
Speaker 1: and you find a way to keep Bradberry, Slay, Brandon Gamp,
Speaker 1: Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox. I love the Rashot Penny signing.
Speaker 1: It's like they didn't just go null and void and
Speaker 1: everyone hit the exit sign Like Howie rose always seems
Speaker 1: to find a way, and I trust that he'll continue
Speaker 1: to and make more trades around the draft like he
Speaker 1: did last year. It's like he's always working. Oh, he's
Speaker 1: definitely working. I mean the Rashot I don't like the
Speaker 1: Rashot Penny move as much as any everybody else. And
Speaker 1: I like Miles Sanders better, and he's out the door
Speaker 1: as well. What do you think on that one, Barnwell,
Speaker 1: I mean, I see why you would say it. But
Speaker 1: for the Eagles, it kind of felt like they had
Speaker 1: to meet some cutbacks. Like it wasn't really a scenario
Speaker 1: where they could go and say, Okay, we're bringing the
Speaker 1: band back and we're also somehow paying Jyllen Hurts fifty
Speaker 1: million dollars a year, like it's just not gonna work.
Speaker 1: They had to make cutbacks. With the Chiefs. The decisions
Speaker 1: they made were more of their own volition, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not like Orlando Brown signed this enormous,
Speaker 1: other worldly contract. I don't remember the exact specifics, but
Speaker 1: it's not like the Juan Taylor deal was for much more.
Speaker 1: Might even being a little bit more together, but you
Speaker 1: look at a Taylor's deal might be better. Yeah, Ryan,
Speaker 1: So you know, like like that is to me a
Speaker 1: more conscious session. Okay, we're gonna cut Frank Clark, We're
Speaker 1: gonna move on from Carlos Dunlap, We're going to move
Speaker 1: on from one Thornhill. We're going to let Andrew Wiley leave.
Speaker 1: We're gonna let Orlando brownlee, We're gonna replace him with
Speaker 1: the right tackle who, like like you alluded to, it's
Speaker 1: really not played left tackle since high school. Like that
Speaker 1: is a more tangible decisions we're made in Kansas City
Speaker 1: than were made in Philadelphia, or Philadelphia was more about
Speaker 1: just we have, you know, people at travrod Harger's leading.
Speaker 1: We have no choice. We're losing the linebackers. We have
Speaker 1: to we have to make some cutback somewhere. But I
Speaker 1: think it's more difficult because they had to do something.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs didn't really have to make these changes and did,
Speaker 1: and they might be better for it, who knows, But
Speaker 1: I think it's more questionable there. They're putting a lot
Speaker 1: on on spags, like their entire defensive spending is Chris Jones,
Speaker 1: Eric read. I guess they brought in a Mena who
Speaker 1: was like a free agent one year deal, but other
Speaker 1: than that, it's like all rookie contracts are like low
Speaker 1: cost veterans. It's like that's that's sort of the other
Speaker 1: side of spending on offense. And and maybe he can
Speaker 1: handle it. It's like a better version of what the
Speaker 1: Rams are doing. Hell, I'm thrown out a loser. Raheem Morris.
Speaker 1: I mean they're setting up. They're setting up rad he
Speaker 1: Morris to fail. They're basically saying And Jordan Rodriguez reported
Speaker 1: on this look Sean mcvayson, offensive coach. I think I
Speaker 1: don't think they're done. They've been disappointing and Jet, if
Speaker 1: you're a Rams fan, it's been a terrible offseason because
Speaker 1: I thought they would be a little more aggressive and
Speaker 1: doing something that I think maybe there are some moves coming,
Speaker 1: but it really feels like it's coming on offense and
Speaker 1: they're just gonna be like, look, we got Aaron Donald
Speaker 1: still and we've got a good coordinator and Raheem Morris like,
Speaker 1: let's just throw stuff against the wall. There's more variants
Speaker 1: in defense and hope we come in twentieth because like
Speaker 1: their second best defensive linemen now because they've lost Greg Gaines,
Speaker 1: Leonard Floyd Taylor, rap looks like he's out the door.
Speaker 1: Scott Um, Bobby Wagner, Jalen Ramsey. This is just on
Speaker 1: the defense. Ashan Robinson, their second best offense defensive lineman,
Speaker 1: now is probably Bobby Brown. Um, they're best linebackers, Ernest Jones.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who their second one would be. Their
Speaker 1: their cornerback one is dari Dcobe Durant Gooby Durant, good guess,
Speaker 1: a fourth round pick from a year ago. It is
Speaker 1: as talent poor, like a side of the ball, as
Speaker 1: almost you can find in the NFL. And that's crazy
Speaker 1: because Aaron Donaldson out side of the ball. It's just like,
Speaker 1: I mean, I had them. I had them as well,
Speaker 1: and mine was more like some of this kind of
Speaker 1: comes off their plan right now. And they know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. They got a ring, but it feels like
Speaker 1: a half measure right now. And and I don't know,
Speaker 1: they haven't committed totally to a tear down, but they're
Speaker 1: also put themselves in a much weaker position heading into
Speaker 1: the new season. And you have a thirty seven year
Speaker 1: old quarterback who just guarant locked into a guarantee of
Speaker 1: money that's gonna make sure he's on the roster. I
Speaker 1: just don't know kind of where the Rams are right
Speaker 1: now more. Matthew Stafford feels like an odd fit there.
Speaker 1: I just start right, that's a very strange landing spot.
Speaker 1: For him. Yeah, I mean, what would you guys do
Speaker 1: if you were the Rams. Do you lean further into
Speaker 1: this and you do trade Cooper Cup? Do you try
Speaker 1: to trade Aaron Donald? Are you trying to just get
Speaker 1: as many picks as possible, which ironic given the T shirt,
Speaker 1: but um, get any picks as possible and just lean
Speaker 1: all the way into it. Or do you think this
Speaker 1: is more of like a transition or were they They
Speaker 1: get rid of a lot of salary, they have a
Speaker 1: bad year, they get a high draft pick, and the
Speaker 1: next year they're back in signing players, going back into
Speaker 1: you know, full on we're gonna win in the year
Speaker 1: and Donald Darren Mode. I think that's a plan. I
Speaker 1: think they kind of box themselves into a corner last
Speaker 1: year when they gave those contracts, the Stafford Cup and
Speaker 1: and who else Donald, Like all those got twenty two contracts.
Speaker 1: I mean they got and their guaranteed money is still
Speaker 1: guaranteed this year, so they sort of have no choice,
Speaker 1: That's right. It's been very quiet on the Alan Robinson front,
Speaker 1: very frosty market, not a not a stunner. I think
Speaker 1: they were hoping someone would pay like half his salary
Speaker 1: and that like that was the best that they could
Speaker 1: hope for a little bit like the Brandon Cooks deal,
Speaker 1: but maybe bad tape though. I mean that's yeah, it
Speaker 1: never got better really for him. No, anybody out you
Speaker 1: got a bill, you said you had more winners? Do
Speaker 1: you want to do kind of like a oh, did
Speaker 1: you have a loser? Mark? I mean, this is I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to gang up on a team that I
Speaker 1: continually um hammer. But I think a loser is Jonathan
Speaker 1: Cannon who goes to Arizona and is watching a team
Speaker 1: just be torn down before his eyes. Because you lose
Speaker 1: Marcus Golden, Byron Murphy, Zach Allen, JJ Watt retires, DeAndre
Speaker 1: Hopkins solved the door. You've got Kyler Murray, who to
Speaker 1: me stands out as the one quarterback that you've got
Speaker 1: to be concerned about his mood, his mental landscape, and
Speaker 1: if he if he's the kind of guy where things
Speaker 1: are starting to burn down around and he's watching players leave,
Speaker 1: he loses DeAndre Hopkins at some point here. It's just
Speaker 1: an ugly set up for a first year coach, even
Speaker 1: if he was told behind the scenes, we get it,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be tough this year. That's not how fans react.
Speaker 1: It's like this is this was a playoff team two
Speaker 1: years ago. I mean a bit of a bit of
Speaker 1: a false god on that front. But at this point,
Speaker 1: the idea that they are this bad this quickly, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's really depressing. Kyler Murray is in this big contract
Speaker 1: and they're rebuilding around him. I don't like it. I
Speaker 1: can attest to that because I was at that Cardinals
Speaker 1: Rams playoff game with Zamalt and it was one of
Speaker 1: the grizzliest affairs I've ever watched in person in terms
Speaker 1: of like just disparity between two teams. That's their organization's
Speaker 1: a mess. That that was the false God game. I
Speaker 1: think now for perpetuity, I mean, I think they're sort
Speaker 1: of in the same boat as the Rams where they
Speaker 1: know they're not having Kyler Murray for a good So
Speaker 1: they lost forty seven seventeen to the Rams in there
Speaker 1: like high point. As an organization, that's a tough spot.
Speaker 1: It's a tough spot, yes, to be fair, also true,
Speaker 1: but I think they know Kyler is not going to
Speaker 1: be healthy or a good chunk of this year. Wouldn't
Speaker 1: be shocked if they just say, hey, Kyler just take
Speaker 1: the year off. You're good. We don't need you this year.
Speaker 1: Their roster is a mess, their cap situations and mess.
Speaker 1: They need to do this, like like, yes, they are
Speaker 1: losers in terms, so if they are not going to
Speaker 1: be a competitive team this year, it's not going to
Speaker 1: be fun to watch them. Their fans are going to
Speaker 1: be mad. But I think they have to have this
Speaker 1: happened to reset. They have to do the thing the
Speaker 1: Saints aren't doing or the Rams. You know, the Rams
Speaker 1: are kind of doing in last a lot of times,
Speaker 1: but like that reset of Okay, our CAP's gonna be fresh.
Speaker 1: Same think the Falcons did, same things the Bears did.
Speaker 1: But we have a quarterback we know in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: we bring Kyler back, we have cap space, we have
Speaker 1: some young players to work with around him, we'll feel
Speaker 1: pretty okay. I think that had to be what happened
Speaker 1: when he came in. And I think sort of similar
Speaker 1: to what's happening in Tennessee right now as well, with
Speaker 1: the choices they've made with their roster. Now, he's making
Speaker 1: me think the Cardinals might kind of be long range winners.
Speaker 1: And I'm starting differently about the whole thing. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't know about that, Like they haven't. They haven't treated
Speaker 1: like a first year head coach this poorly. Since they
Speaker 1: stuck Steve Wilkes with Josh Rosen and Steve Kimeez is
Speaker 1: GM that was a tough situation. Can we throw out
Speaker 1: one more winner? I at least want to get my
Speaker 1: biggest winner. I mean, I really am drinking. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm drinking that Dolphins kool aid.
Speaker 1: I love it, Okay. I just feel like everything they
Speaker 1: did was smart. I think they had to give the
Speaker 1: fifth year option. We hadn't you know, officially talked about
Speaker 1: that on this show. I think they had to for
Speaker 1: two it's a low enough number. I just think they
Speaker 1: made the smart moves around the margins, Like the Jalen
Speaker 1: Ramsey move non quarterback division is to me, like the
Speaker 1: most impactful move any team would make this offseason. Vic
Speaker 1: Fangio with Jalen Ramsey, to me, is just beautiful. Vic
Speaker 1: Fangio from Josh Boyer is such an upgrade. I know
Speaker 1: that's not free agency, but just look at the group
Speaker 1: that he's gonna be coaching up and then you look
Speaker 1: at the David Long signing. I really liked, and I
Speaker 1: like kind of just the moves along the margins, just
Speaker 1: like just little ones. Mike White like that as a backup,
Speaker 1: like Malik Reid, Deshaun Elliott, Barrios, like the guys who
Speaker 1: are just just take swings on, guys who at one
Speaker 1: point had like a medium starter level of ability. And
Speaker 1: they're coming off a bad year, but they've shown they
Speaker 1: can play at like an NFL level, and it's just
Speaker 1: relatively cheap bringing Moster and Wilson back. Don't spend too
Speaker 1: much at running back, like that's at a low level.
Speaker 1: They just they knew they didn't have a first round
Speaker 1: pick because their owner, uh you know, invited Tom Brady
Speaker 1: onto a boat and tried to hire him and Sean Payt,
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's weirdly underrated. I think of
Speaker 1: the scene in Street Leo Welcome him, the FBI agent
Speaker 1: on the boat tossing money out at the end, same
Speaker 1: s they do not have a first round pick because
Speaker 1: of that. But but based on that, I feel like
Speaker 1: they set up this roster right now to like be
Speaker 1: a championship contender right now. I love him. Do you
Speaker 1: think Stephen Ross looks back and thinks that was worth
Speaker 1: a first round pick to have Tom Brady and kind
Speaker 1: of I could see the the the attraction to that
Speaker 1: well in retrospect, though it didn't quite bear much fruit
Speaker 1: for the organization. Anti fruit. I'd like to think that
Speaker 1: Steven Ross time feeling a lot of remorse over that.
Speaker 1: I just think he doesn't roll that way. Maybe you
Speaker 1: know what I'm looking forward to, um Josh Allen and
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers torching a over the hill. Jalen Ramsey and
Speaker 1: his head as he walks off the field clearly in decline.
Speaker 1: How old is Jalen Ramsey that this is like quick
Speaker 1: Todd Gurley Award for like Todd Gurley's twenty six and
Speaker 1: I'm shocked he can walk down the streets talked about
Speaker 1: they barely barely beat Skyler Thompson and the Dolphins. Forget
Speaker 1: about the defense too, It'll just be that offense. I
Speaker 1: think Mike White is a great pickup as a backup,
Speaker 1: because you know, we don't want to need it, but
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna need a backup in Miami that could
Speaker 1: keep the offense functional. But yeah, I think Xavien Howard
Speaker 1: and Jalen Ramsey on papers like oh, that could be
Speaker 1: the best cornerback duo in the league, Javon holland Brandon Jones.
Speaker 1: They had some injuries at safety, like the secondary secondary.
Speaker 1: Don't be surprised if you're seeing a lot of head
Speaker 1: shaking from Jalen Ramsey and complaining to ref freeze this fall.
Speaker 1: That feels on brand. That was a little cold water
Speaker 1: on it, Greggy. Sorry, that's fine. I know that's the
Speaker 1: one team other than the Patriots that you just can't
Speaker 1: do for Bill. I got him in the top ten
Speaker 1: in the power rankings from Graver it was Javon Wims,
Speaker 1: Johnson way back wins, So that got him. Throws individuals,
Speaker 1: you go through a punch, through a punch, thought about
Speaker 1: it for a second, hit hit him in the helmet,
Speaker 1: and then I believe through a second one, which this, yeah,
Speaker 1: not a good IDEA. Second one's got to be once
Speaker 1: you your hands stinging and I know there's adrenaline pump,
Speaker 1: and second one's got to be a body blow. You
Speaker 1: gotta go to the solar fla somewhere else. Yeah, um, Bill,
Speaker 1: did you have anything else you wanted to add? Any
Speaker 1: other like winners, little speed round Barnwell or did we
Speaker 1: exhaust your list? I like the little Falcons. I think.
Speaker 1: I like Falcons are doing to rebuild there. I thought
Speaker 1: the Raiders have done an okay job. Raiders off season's
Speaker 1: usually pretty bad, so either standards, this was a step
Speaker 1: in the right direction. Okay. And I'm a little concerned
Speaker 1: about the Panthers, Like I want to see what the
Speaker 1: other moves that fill in that roster are around that quarterback.
Speaker 1: But I'm not excited about Adam Feeling wide receiver one
Speaker 1: for my rookie quarterback. We'll see how it goes over
Speaker 1: the rest of the off season. Yeah, you got They're
Speaker 1: the team, Like I wouldn't say they're the perfect connections
Speaker 1: to the Jaguars because Lawrence is entering a second year,
Speaker 1: but they're the team this year that has added a
Speaker 1: ton of guys, so you might reflexibly back. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: best off season, best free agency they've added, but we'll
Speaker 1: see if it works out. They added Miles Sanders are
Speaker 1: running back Feeling as we said, hayden Hurst. They signed
Speaker 1: Von Bell at safety. They got Dalton as their backup
Speaker 1: to whoever they take at number one, a quarterback, Shy
Speaker 1: Tuttle a d tackle, So they've done a lot. Will
Speaker 1: it make them a lot better. I have one question
Speaker 1: for Bill. Do you think that the cults are that
Speaker 1: these theories are floating out there with some of the cuts?
Speaker 1: Do you think that they're gearing up for a bona
Speaker 1: fide jim it swing at Lamar Jackson. Is that the
Speaker 1: team that might be the final home for him? Uh?
Speaker 1: I would say that Jim earsay contains multitudes, and I
Speaker 1: think it's more likely that whatever cuts or roster moves
Speaker 1: they're making, or space they're clearing out, it's more likely
Speaker 1: that Jimmerson just wakes up one day and was like, oh,
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson, I'd like one of those and just falls
Speaker 1: and just just calls them signs into an officer sreet
Speaker 1: without anybody else in the organization being consulted or making
Speaker 1: a decision. So, I think applying logic to what is
Speaker 1: going to happen with the Colts, it is maybe not
Speaker 1: the degree of how how they've handled things in the
Speaker 1: recent past. So I could see the logic, and if
Speaker 1: it was another team, I'd say sure, But with the Colts,
Speaker 1: I just don't know if it is. It's an exciting
Speaker 1: thought that that Bill puts out there, because imagine if
Speaker 1: what happened in twenty twenty two, with the cults as
Speaker 1: unpredictable as they were way jeff Saturday situation station went
Speaker 1: down in the quarterbacks and everything around the cults. What
Speaker 1: if that was just the beginning of of ownerships ride
Speaker 1: into a whole other realm, like a precursor to this
Speaker 1: more enticing madness. What if that's not the outlier season.
Speaker 1: What if it's just starting and we get another like
Speaker 1: five years of total madness the sun like kind of
Speaker 1: living out his father's legacy, like he tried to run
Speaker 1: from it, tried to stay out of the mix forever.
Speaker 1: And uh, sign up, daddy is Uh, Daddy is instructive.
Speaker 1: Daddy's in the Mayflower truck. Um? All right, Bill? Do
Speaker 1: you guys? Do you guys have names for your podcast episodes? No,
Speaker 1: we're always hoping. I mean there are titles. Could we
Speaker 1: call this one Daddy is instructive? Please? Well, you are
Speaker 1: our guests. If we usually have quite boring nicknames, it
Speaker 1: probably would have been free agency winners and losing how
Speaker 1: about this? But I feel like Daddy is instructive. That
Speaker 1: would be more fun. And see, I think we could do.
Speaker 1: I think we could do. We could achieve everything we
Speaker 1: want Daddy's is instructive colon free agency winners and losers.
Speaker 1: I thought you, I thought you were gonna say Daddy
Speaker 1: is instructive. That's also in play Bill. You've said it all.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Check out all Bill's content over
Speaker 1: at ESPN, including a new calm. What is the hook
Speaker 1: of the latest colm that will be up maybe when
Speaker 1: people even hear this depends on whether Aaron Rodgers gets traded.
Speaker 1: There may be something that's been in the can for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, but if not, any finding some
Speaker 1: fits for the remaining free agents and trade candidates who
Speaker 1: are available only at esp and you know that's going
Speaker 1: to be a banger Bill. Thank you very much. Thanks guys.
Speaker 1: All right, there he goes Bill barn Well. I think
Speaker 1: you should have approached him that night in the eatery
Speaker 1: slash wherever you wear a bar room. I mean, it
Speaker 1: seems like he's one of the most approachable individuals. There
Speaker 1: was a little more like kind of a context to it.
Speaker 1: We had gone out to dinner. We went to a
Speaker 1: Mexican restaurant. I think Daddy had a couple of tequila sodas.
Speaker 1: We thought we were gonna get a little later part
Speaker 1: of the night, Daddy earlier there was a delay. The
Speaker 1: party had moved and it was a little later that
Speaker 1: said you left within about ninety seconds, M and I stayed. Uh.
Speaker 1: I stayed for a while and got to got to
Speaker 1: talk to all the people I wanted to. You've neatly
Speaker 1: pumped yourself up as a real night owl, Greg as
Speaker 1: as we all know you are. I did stay for
Speaker 1: one drink. I talked. I talked with Harmon a lot.
Speaker 1: I talked a little bit with because she she came over,
Speaker 1: which was nice. Uh. Maybe maybe there were a couple
Speaker 1: other people. But then Bill was he had a little corner.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you he had a nice time. I remember, well,
Speaker 1: I would have joined you, but I was a little
Speaker 1: bit late getting to Arizona and hadn't. But I had
Speaker 1: flown in sitting next to Mena Kimes and had a
Speaker 1: great conversation like I had my own, like, m, what
Speaker 1: a night, what an evening. But She's like, we had
Speaker 1: a fantastic convers I'm saying, like we I guess we
Speaker 1: heard all the bases. We hit it all. I didn't
Speaker 1: see Bill Barnwroe, though, but I would have gone up
Speaker 1: and given him a big hug. I think big bear hug. Yeah,
Speaker 1: missed opportunity. Yeah, all right. We'll be back on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Connie Fox will join us and we will talk more
Speaker 1: about what's happening in this league coming up a little
Speaker 1: later this week. By the way, I'm excited about this.
Speaker 1: The New York Posts Andrew Marshawn when we take a
Speaker 1: look at what is happening in the booths, what's happening
Speaker 1: in the media world of the NFL. We like that.
Speaker 1: It's like a media media segment with Andrew Marshan that
Speaker 1: time of year. Yeah all right, thanks everybody. That was
Speaker 1: a good showing by Rosenthal, having that you had the
Speaker 1: drink and close down the bad boys. He the call