Speaker 1: Boom, here it is. Here's your breaking news. Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: is going to the Atlanta Falcons. He is leaving Minnesota.
Speaker 1: He is going to Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley now has a deal with the Philadelphicles.
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson for next to no money because the Broncos
Speaker 1: are paying him is going to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2: A massive deal for Christian Wilkins, who now lands with
Speaker 2: the Las Vegas Raiders. The Green Bay Packers are signing
Speaker 2: Josh Jacobs.
Speaker 3: The Andre Swift headed to the Chicago Bera.
Speaker 2: Three years, twenty four million dollars for Tony Pollard and
Speaker 2: the Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, it's Insiders Christmas Day, one of the
Speaker 4: legal tampering period, as we close in on the official
Speaker 4: start of a new league year on Wednesday, and yes
Speaker 4: the moon. Ooh. We're hot and heavy across the NFL,
Speaker 4: and we are here around the NFL to document everything
Speaker 4: that's happened as of four forty pm Eastern Standard time,
Speaker 4: and we'll continue to track things as we record this show.
Speaker 4: And like we said, we'll be doing shows all week.
Speaker 4: So everything you need to know about this big week
Speaker 4: on the lead calendar. We got you. Dan Hands is here,
Speaker 4: Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, and here we go, Here we go, boys.
Speaker 4: It has started, and it is a frenzy as NFL
Speaker 4: Network advertises.
Speaker 5: I don't even know if we need to do a
Speaker 5: show after that intro. We spoiled it all that. That's it,
Speaker 5: that's it right there, Give me those bass drums and
Speaker 5: maybe we'll just just dance.
Speaker 6: I thought that, you know, by doing an extra show yesterday,
Speaker 6: which we do we did not plan to do out
Speaker 6: of the gate, we helped ourselves that we maybe you know,
Speaker 6: cleared the deck and like about a couple hours into today,
Speaker 6: it is a bushel of frenzy, a tornado of news items.
Speaker 5: I feel blinded.
Speaker 6: I'm just sitting in my hotel room getting whip sawed
Speaker 6: by the news coming Van.
Speaker 5: Ginkle in that opening credit. Some say that's a shot.
Speaker 5: It's a shot at Ben Ginkle, But you know what
Speaker 5: he's gonna.
Speaker 4: Do with that. Look at it this way. Mark. If
Speaker 4: we didn't do it Sunday, surprise up, we're looking at
Speaker 4: a killers of the flower Moon length show today Monday.
Speaker 4: So we did take care of business and we got
Speaker 4: ahead of it as best we could. But let's get
Speaker 4: into it and yeah, the big move and you heard
Speaker 4: it there off the bat was Kirk Cousins, and you
Speaker 4: knew Cousins was gonna get paid handsomely. That's what Kirk
Speaker 4: Cousins does. You also knew.
Speaker 5: Some balloons coming up in your room.
Speaker 4: What just happened where the balloons just went up on
Speaker 4: Cessler's screen.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's beautiful. We're just trying to get people
Speaker 5: to check out the YouTube. It's wonderful. I have no
Speaker 5: idea why that would have happened. I think Randy is
Speaker 5: part of all of this Randy focus.
Speaker 4: I know your team made a lateral move at running
Speaker 4: back today in Green Bay, but we don't need to
Speaker 4: be you know, not taking this serious. Gravitas is the
Speaker 4: order of the day. As we get into the Kirk
Speaker 4: Cousins conversation after a run in Minnesota that featured a
Speaker 4: ton of production, not a lot of playoff success, but
Speaker 4: on balance, Cousins, again, over his time with the Vikings,
Speaker 4: just like in his run with Washington, proved himself to
Speaker 4: be a answer at quarterback and a stable figure and
Speaker 4: a well liked individual. You knew he was going to
Speaker 4: get the bag. And on the first day of the
Speaker 4: legal tappering period. He does, and it's from the Atlanta Falcons,
Speaker 4: who agreed to a four year, one hundred and eighty
Speaker 4: million dollar contract that came straight from his agent. His
Speaker 4: agent broke the news, I believe, which is ouchers to
Speaker 4: all the insiders there. So Cousins finally brings some legitimacy
Speaker 4: to the quarterback position in Atlanta greg a team that
Speaker 4: has been making incremental progress in the last couple of years,
Speaker 4: but it was always the quarterback that was holding them back.
Speaker 4: And while Cousins is not so far in his career
Speaker 4: shown us that he is a super Bowl level quarterback,
Speaker 4: a championship quarterback. Man. This is a massive upgrade and
Speaker 4: a no brainer move I think for the Falcons.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it made sense for all sides, which
Speaker 5: is not a hot take, but it's starting with ownership
Speaker 5: in terms of Atlanta saying we need a quarterback, and
Speaker 5: I think they're the ones pushing this that they made
Speaker 5: this happen. Arthur Blank that he was just sick of
Speaker 5: watching what he was watching and he was going to
Speaker 5: make it happen. I think it also makes sense that
Speaker 5: this is the time that Minnesota lets Kirk go and
Speaker 5: the minute and I started really believing Kirk was going
Speaker 5: to Atlanta was on Sunday when we just kept hearing
Speaker 5: over and over how Minnesota's really trying. Every single report
Speaker 5: was like, Oh, Minnesota's really trying. They're staying in it,
Speaker 5: And it's like that those are the reports of a
Speaker 5: front office that knows they're losing their guy and wants
Speaker 5: everyone to know that they tried their hardest. And I'm
Speaker 5: sure they had a reasonable deal, and I think they
Speaker 5: are making a smart move. Even as Atlanta is making
Speaker 5: a smart move in signing Kirk Cousins, I think Minnesota
Speaker 5: is making a smart move in choosing now thirty six
Speaker 5: years old entering next season, coming off of torn Achilles,
Speaker 5: to be the time that you cut the cord and
Speaker 5: stop giving this guy this much money. Yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 5: I think the time ended in Minnesota.
Speaker 6: And you can tell that they're team building in a
Speaker 6: way where they're moving away potentially from Cousins, and it's
Speaker 6: like they have to find a quarterback. But I love
Speaker 6: the landing spot in Atlanta. I think that Cousins, you know,
Speaker 6: he is thirty six, but if you get just three
Speaker 6: more years of him, and I think it could be
Speaker 6: more than that. He goes to a place that essentially
Speaker 6: was missing only a quarterback last year, and like, if
Speaker 6: you're Arthur Smith, you're thinking if you had Kirk Cousins
Speaker 6: a year ago, everything would have been different. I think
Speaker 6: for guys like Drake London, this is a level beyond
Speaker 6: human trigger pulled changes your career. We might finally get
Speaker 6: to see Kyle Pitts the way we've wanted to see him.
Speaker 6: It's great for Bejeon Robinson. You've got Zach Robinson. I
Speaker 6: think it's a good fit for Kirk Cousins. And like
Speaker 6: Raheem Morris, like first year coach here in Atlanta, like
Speaker 6: Lands has he came in saying we want to do this.
Speaker 6: This was the one thing that got the last coach fired,
Speaker 6: and they went and did it in a short order.
Speaker 6: And I really love it Falcons fans because I think
Speaker 6: it changes that division entirely. And it's like you plug
Speaker 6: a quarterback into a team that probably could have made
Speaker 6: the playoffs last year if they had gotten you know,
Speaker 6: thirty forty percent better quarterback play.
Speaker 4: The Falcons ranked twenty six than points per game last year,
Speaker 4: twenty second passing yards. So Cousins, I mean you're paying,
Speaker 4: you're paying big time. It's one hundred million we're hearing
Speaker 4: and guaranteed money for Cousins, So you're playing paying out
Speaker 4: a premium that's going to come with other challenges now
Speaker 4: for Atlanta moving forward. But I think this was a
Speaker 4: move that, while making sense, also was one that was
Speaker 4: almost like they threw their hands up and they're like,
Speaker 4: we've tried it different ways since Matt Ryan got old,
Speaker 4: and now we're just going to throw money at the
Speaker 4: problem and hope that Cousins, yes, coming off a torn
Speaker 4: achilles tendon entering his age thirty six season, will be
Speaker 4: that guy. I thought thinking about the deal and what
Speaker 4: it means in the NFC South, that the Baker deal
Speaker 4: in Tampa Bay, to me, which I already didn't love,
Speaker 4: it looks even a little worse now because they were
Speaker 4: the reason they won that division at nine and eight
Speaker 4: is because in large part Atlanta wasn't ready to make
Speaker 4: the leap. And I think certainly the desert is going
Speaker 4: to establish now that the Falcons are going to win
Speaker 4: that division. How deep can they go or they is
Speaker 4: this a team that can make a run in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: We'll see, But there's pieces Greg. That's the reason why,
Speaker 4: like you guys were always more into the Falcons than
Speaker 4: I was. But this is a roster that is pretty
Speaker 4: close to making a run if they just got that
Speaker 4: competent quarterback play, and that's what Cousins.
Speaker 5: Does, like probably, but they're totally different now. You know,
Speaker 5: their defense was overrated last year. They were good in
Speaker 5: a couple like points per game and stuff like that,
Speaker 5: but like, talent wise, they're fine. And if you kind
Speaker 5: of look beneath the hood, as you would say Dan
Speaker 5: and like Dvoa all this stuff, they were a mediocre defense.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be a totally different different defense. I like
Speaker 5: Rahim Morris as a higher We'll see how that works out,
Speaker 5: like I think it'll work out, but it's a new offense.
Speaker 5: Kirk Cousins fits well in this offense. Drake London is
Speaker 5: a good number one? Is he a great number one?
Speaker 5: Like we'll see. He's a nice guy to have pits
Speaker 5: to me as a question mark. I'm not like suddenly saying, Okay,
Speaker 5: Kyle Pitts is gonna be awesome now. Kirk Cousins is
Speaker 5: a very up and down quarterback. Like he is a
Speaker 5: streaky quarterback who at the end of the season looks
Speaker 5: like he's very consistent, but he'll be on fire for
Speaker 5: seven games, then he'll struggle for seven games or four
Speaker 5: games like Vikings fans know that, and I think he
Speaker 5: was worth the gamble. But it is funny that they
Speaker 5: kind of spent two to three years getting out of
Speaker 5: their old cap hell with Matt Ryan and all the
Speaker 5: dead cap hit they hit that they had on their
Speaker 5: cap a year ago, especially, and now they freed up
Speaker 5: as much cap space almost as any team in the league,
Speaker 5: and then you spend it all on Kirk Cousins. Before
Speaker 5: I get to you, Mark, I do want to mention,
Speaker 5: like what the money is. It's essentially Daniel Jones's contract,
Speaker 5: which makes Falcons fans, I would think feel better. That's
Speaker 5: it's like a two year ninety million dollar contract or
Speaker 5: one hundred million dollar contract with ten million dollars more
Speaker 5: in year three. That will be a penalty essentially, if
Speaker 5: they want to give up on Kirk Cousins in year three,
Speaker 5: they got to give up ten million dollars. But teams
Speaker 5: have shown they're more than willing to do that. They've
Speaker 5: done that more so, it's basically a two year contract
Speaker 5: with like a salary cap inflation bump from what Daniel
Speaker 5: Jones made and that's not bad. Then again, there's such
Speaker 5: little gap between like the Daniel Joneses and the Kirk
Speaker 5: Cousins and the Mahomes and the Lamar Jackson's of the
Speaker 5: world in terms of like one makes forty five, one
Speaker 5: makes fifty one or whatever it is that like, it's
Speaker 5: a nice value when you have the really really great ones,
Speaker 5: and Kirk Cousins I would not put in that category.
Speaker 4: I guess.
Speaker 6: So when you say like they like it's a different
Speaker 6: coaching staff and they are trying to keep their jobs
Speaker 6: and like the last they lost their job because of
Speaker 6: poor quarterback playing, it's like you got two options in
Speaker 6: today's NFL, Like you go get the best quarterback you
Speaker 6: can find, or you don't. And we just saw the
Speaker 6: Falcon Falcons team that chose to not for two or
Speaker 6: three years in a row, and it's like this was
Speaker 6: the best option. It comes with some risk. You could
Speaker 6: also argue that Kirk Cousins was already surrounded by a
Speaker 6: ton of talent in Minnesota, especially the wide receiver position,
Speaker 6: so it's not like he's going from rags to riches.
Speaker 6: But if you're the Falcons, it's like, this was the prize.
Speaker 6: This You don't go get Gardner Minshew, you go get
Speaker 6: Kirk Cousins and it's like and you ride with it.
Speaker 6: And I think if you're a Falcons fan, you can say, like,
Speaker 6: our team is at least they're swinging for the fences
Speaker 6: and we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 4: And congratulations to the Atlanta Falcons, because I know one
Speaker 4: thing you've been thinking about this probably immediately what came
Speaker 4: to mind, and it is true, listeners, I do now
Speaker 4: take your team seriously. So congratulations to the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 4: The Zuzzer's in on a Falcons run in twenty four.
Speaker 4: Speaking of Gardner Minshew's some breaking news. This will not
Speaker 4: be the first time you hear the breaking news drop.
Speaker 4: It is, after all, a free agent frenzy. Ian Rappaport
Speaker 4: reporting that the Raiders have agreed to terms with quarterback
Speaker 4: Gardner Minshew on a two year deal. He'll compete with
Speaker 4: Aiden O'Connell. That doesn't blow my socks off, but I
Speaker 4: guess yeah. I mean, I'm trying to processes as what
Speaker 4: I was thinking, because Justin Fields is still out there
Speaker 4: and his market continues to shrink, and I thought maybe
Speaker 4: Fields in Vegas had some and I feel like Antonio
Speaker 4: Pierce would be able to ride with that. This one
Speaker 4: doesn't do as much for me, but it brings another
Speaker 4: body in there.
Speaker 5: I mean, I guess it's smart of Gardner Minshew the
Speaker 5: sign right after we start taping, because if this had
Speaker 5: been like thirty minutes ago, he would be buried down
Speaker 5: in like, you know, forty five minutes in. But now
Speaker 5: here's the money, by the way, here's the money, jump
Speaker 5: all the way to the top.
Speaker 4: Yeah, here's the money, by the way, which can tell
Speaker 4: you where they kind of want him to be on
Speaker 4: the roster. Two year, twenty five million dollar deal. It's
Speaker 4: fifteen million, fully guaranteed. So wow, that tells me that, yeah,
Speaker 4: there's your starting quarterback for the Raiders in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5: I'm surprised.
Speaker 6: Like I mean, by the way, just let you know,
Speaker 6: from a showman angle, I mentioned Gardner Minshew, you know,
Speaker 6: anecdotally because I saw it in the chat and I
Speaker 6: thought we could and you and you went right off
Speaker 6: that perfectly.
Speaker 4: But I would say even better as a showman would
Speaker 4: not Yeah, I don't mention that, No, we on this
Speaker 4: show shot.
Speaker 5: No on this on this show. When you do something
Speaker 5: of that ilk, you mention it.
Speaker 4: That's how it works.
Speaker 6: But like, uh, I we were killing other teams for
Speaker 6: settling on mid tier quarterbacks, and I like Minshew as
Speaker 6: a plug and play guy in a pinch, but not
Speaker 6: as like we're gonna it's it's gonna be you know,
Speaker 6: March and we decide he's our starter right now?
Speaker 5: Like is that is this? Where's the draft situation? I
Speaker 5: think I still draft someone Dan. I disagree though that
Speaker 5: this deal says he's a weak one starter or a
Speaker 5: starter at all. If that guaranteed money is over two years,
Speaker 5: that's that's like backup money or bridge starter money. It
Speaker 5: shows that like him and Aidan O'Connell are probably competing,
Speaker 5: but it's very possible that they add a rookie to
Speaker 5: that mix too, and then once you get to next year,
Speaker 5: it'd be even more likely than not that Minshew is
Speaker 5: the best baker signed for last year. One year, three
Speaker 5: million dollars.
Speaker 4: I get it. This is fifteen million. Fully, I think
Speaker 4: that this is I don't know, we'll say, we're gonna
Speaker 4: find out, but I think it's bad news for Aidan
Speaker 4: O'Connell and it's like tells me that they're serious about
Speaker 4: him as a starter potentially, I agree, certainly the favorite,
Speaker 4: he's certainly the favorite. But it's a nice threading the needle.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's that much where it's you know,
Speaker 4: it's twelve point five million per year, so it's it's
Speaker 4: above the high end backup money, but it's way below
Speaker 4: the low end starter money for the Raiders. So I
Speaker 4: think it's fine they they targeted him, and look, I'd
Speaker 4: rather pay him twelve million dollars than Bake forty, Like,
Speaker 4: no question if we're gonna kill the Baker deal for
Speaker 4: being a little too much like this, this makes more
Speaker 4: sense if you're you're in the middle, and you raise
Speaker 4: a good point on fields and we'll get to the
Speaker 4: other teams today. But there's been nothing on fields, and
Speaker 4: there are just not a lot of places out there.
Speaker 4: And I I've been personally as a Patriot, like, if
Speaker 4: you want me to get back into the Patriots, give
Speaker 4: me Drake May at three and fields in a trade
Speaker 4: and just see what happens. Sure, I'm with that, I mean,
Speaker 4: the field's. One thing that surprised me so far about
Speaker 4: this offseason is that I really did think the Bears
Speaker 4: had some leverage with fields that you know, even if
Speaker 4: they decided to go with the quarterback in the draft,
Speaker 4: which is obviously probably how this is going to play out,
Speaker 4: that they would get some value back. It's looking increasingly,
Speaker 4: you know, like the fields market is just not much
Speaker 4: of one at all. Let's stick with the Let's stick
Speaker 4: with the quarterback since we're on a roll here with them,
Speaker 4: because we can't. We can't delay any longer because you know,
Speaker 4: welcome to the rust Belt. Russell Wilson is also off
Speaker 4: the board. He over in the middle of the night
Speaker 4: we were out and about here in Austin, Texas. We're
Speaker 4: here for the iHeart Awards, and russ Belt is a
Speaker 4: thing in Pittsburgh because he signs a very low money
Speaker 4: deal with the Steelers. And you know, we talked about
Speaker 4: Pittsburgh with the idea that they might not be sitting
Speaker 4: on their hands here at quarterback, even though they were
Speaker 4: saying outwardly at the Combine and before that that they
Speaker 4: were happy with their QB room. Here comes Russell Wilson,
Speaker 4: Mark who is a depreciated asset. But again, and you
Speaker 4: were just talking about Greg about Minshew with the money
Speaker 4: what you get for the player. This is a signing
Speaker 4: of Russell Wilson. Where Pittsburgh it's a what less than
Speaker 4: two million dollars that they're paying, it's still Denver on
Speaker 4: the hook for his massive salary. So I think it's
Speaker 4: an upgrade. Is it a progress stopper? That's where it
Speaker 4: becomes a conversation.
Speaker 6: I think I don't have a problem financially with taking
Speaker 6: a shot at him. I think actually that's sort of
Speaker 6: a smart move for a team that needs to upgrade
Speaker 6: a quarterback, Like if you remove the Russell Wilson experience
Speaker 6: out of it, I guess for me, just sort of
Speaker 6: ruminating on this situation because again, I think it's like
Speaker 6: he could. He's more productive than I think people think
Speaker 6: over the last you know, year plus where it's like
Speaker 6: people have written him off entirely and he can still play.
Speaker 6: I would believe in an Arthur Smith run, heavy attack.
Speaker 6: I don't hate it, but I would say this, like
Speaker 6: I cannot pick a team out of thirty two NFL
Speaker 6: teams where I would say Russell Wilson fits less with
Speaker 6: my life experience of that team. Everything I think about
Speaker 6: the Pittsburgh Steelers and everything I think about Russell Wilson.
Speaker 6: It is like two magnets on your fridge that you
Speaker 6: try to like press together and they rub against each
Speaker 6: other and they don't want to meet. It's like, I
Speaker 6: just don't see it. It's interesting, but to me, it's
Speaker 6: a very odd fit, and I think fit matters in
Speaker 6: the NFL. Can I think Russell Wilson like announced it
Speaker 6: on his Instagram with a totally Russell Wilson announcement, and
Speaker 6: it's just like, not how I think about what the
Speaker 6: Pittsburgh Steelers have done for the last fifty years of
Speaker 6: my life.
Speaker 5: Right, Because that announcement is kind of like, Hey, Russell
Speaker 5: Wilson's come into town, but Russell Wilson has to make
Speaker 5: the team. I don't consider that a total guarantee. Russell
Speaker 5: Wilson has to win the starting job. I don't consider
Speaker 5: that a total guarantee. When a team invests, everyone's looking
Speaker 5: at it like, hey, they're not giving up anything. It's
Speaker 5: worth a shot. Okay.
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 5: It also means they're not trying harder at the quarterback position,
Speaker 5: but also means that they have nothing invested in Russell Wilson.
Speaker 5: And if he shows up to camp and Kenny Pickett,
Speaker 5: who all those Steelers fans were so excited about after
Speaker 5: last year, and he finished his rookie season strong, fits
Speaker 5: a little better in the Arthur Smith system.
Speaker 4: Just Steelers fans, by the way.
Speaker 5: Fair, I was never big on Kenny Pikett. It was
Speaker 5: a wait and see on how he finished that year.
Speaker 5: But he could improve, Like he could show up and
Speaker 5: be a better different player, and he could win that job.
Speaker 5: I think he'd have a chance, or Dorn or three.
Speaker 5: They have room here to add another player, whether it's
Speaker 5: a rookie or someone else to the mix, like Mason
Speaker 5: Rudolph coming back, Like even that wouldn't shock me. They
Speaker 5: can do that because they didn't really give up anything
Speaker 5: for Russell Wilson. So I hesitate to just assume that
Speaker 5: he's the guy. He's he's the favorite, he's the most
Speaker 5: likely guy to start. But Arthur Smith's offense is all
Speaker 5: about like play action, middle of the field, like back
Speaker 5: to the deep, like Russell Wilson stink said all that stuff.
Speaker 5: So I don't know. I guess I gotta see it first.
Speaker 5: I disagree.
Speaker 4: I think this is their quarterback and if you look
Speaker 4: at some of the the yeah, and he.
Speaker 5: Also is he's the favorite, but I don't assume he
Speaker 5: might just be.
Speaker 4: I just think he's the guy. I think they brought
Speaker 4: him in and it's in line kind of with their
Speaker 4: recent philosophy about the quarterback position and what he maybe
Speaker 4: some of the things you're talking about with the offense
Speaker 4: he doesn't do well, but they also have some talented
Speaker 4: receivers and he could still throw a good deep ball
Speaker 4: and they're going to run the ball a lot. I
Speaker 4: actually what you're saying, Mark, I'm curious kind of what
Speaker 4: you meant, because for some reason, like Wilson and the
Speaker 4: Steelers kind of works for me in my brain. Like
Speaker 4: I don't know why, it just it does. The Magnets
Speaker 4: do connect for me on this, and I don't know
Speaker 4: if he's going to be successful, but again, like he
Speaker 4: is almost like Baker this year, where the Steelers are
Speaker 4: getting this depreciated asset for almost nothing, and you know,
Speaker 4: even if he's a league average quarterback then then it's
Speaker 4: it's a huge win at least in terms of roster
Speaker 4: building because of the money. Yeah.
Speaker 6: So, like I said, like from a football angle and
Speaker 6: from a financial angle, I think it's a smart football
Speaker 6: move for any team in the League, and I do
Speaker 6: think he's has a chance to surprise people. And I
Speaker 6: don't think they would have done this if Arthur Smith
Speaker 6: also didn't sign off. And we've seen Arthur Smith take
Speaker 6: quarterbacks Ryan Tannehill who were you know, thrown into a
Speaker 6: scrap heap, and you know, reclamate their career. I would
Speaker 6: so from that angle, I've known a problem. I guess
Speaker 6: it's just aesthetics, Like it's like looking at a at
Speaker 6: a painting. We could see it differently, like my experience
Speaker 6: of the Pittsburgh Steelers and what I think about Russell Wilson,
Speaker 6: like they do match, but like prove me wrong. I'm
Speaker 6: not saying I'm right about that. It just it's an
Speaker 6: odd fit. Like I could think of him going to
Speaker 6: five or six other places. The Steelers to me are
Speaker 6: just like they've always been something different.
Speaker 5: I'm because I'm sorry, do you mean like me me
Speaker 5: meet because he's sort of all about himself.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is. I think like this.
Speaker 6: I think it's also like, yeah, it's like this is
Speaker 6: like a Mike Tomlin hard newsed defensive team, where like
Speaker 6: the quarterback was Big Ben for twenty years. It's like
Speaker 6: it's something about Russell Wilson is a bit of a
Speaker 6: creation to me, and I can't separate the quarterback from
Speaker 6: like the whole Russell Wilson Broncos and like marketing campaign.
Speaker 6: And he was like in the Entourage of the movie.
Speaker 6: It's like, it's not what I think of like a
Speaker 6: Steelers quarterback. And and you know what, I don't have
Speaker 6: a go I'm not I may not. We could probably
Speaker 6: talk about it for two hours. I may not convince
Speaker 6: you of this. It's just like it's just the way
Speaker 6: that like a player and a team would not fit
Speaker 6: to a sports fan. I find it to be like
Speaker 6: the the ot it's not the fit that I would
Speaker 6: have picked.
Speaker 4: You don't want to convinced me. I was just more curious,
Speaker 4: what what you mean?
Speaker 6: It just strikes me as like I think they'll I
Speaker 6: kind of surprised Mike Tomlin did it. To be honest,
Speaker 6: I seem like a Mike Tomlin guy.
Speaker 4: What I do agree with what I think maybe was
Speaker 4: you that said a last week or earlier this week,
Speaker 4: was that he doesn't seem like a guy that would
Speaker 4: handle being the number two very well. But I don't
Speaker 4: think that's what he's there to do because so but
Speaker 4: if if he is someone that's going to get supplanted.
Speaker 4: You even mentioned Greg he might not make the team.
Speaker 4: I just, yeah, we're kind of in different places on Wilson,
Speaker 4: and maybe that's why this we're I was saying that
Speaker 4: last night in the cab, Like Wilson is such great
Speaker 4: catnip for like podcasters and people talking football because he
Speaker 4: there's just he creates so many different like conversation points,
Speaker 4: even as his play has come down.
Speaker 5: Yeah, to be clear, like I think that the most
Speaker 5: likely outcome is he's their Week one starter, but he's
Speaker 5: a thirty six year old entering a new system, and
Speaker 5: I've just we've just seen this enough that there are
Speaker 5: many potential outcomes and the fact that they have nothing
Speaker 5: invested in, you know, financially in him to me, in
Speaker 5: the fact that he might be like a bad backup
Speaker 5: and and maybe there's too much like suggests to me
Speaker 5: like there's a chance here that it just goes poorly then,
Speaker 5: you know, on the other hand, like he is the
Speaker 5: most big ben like quarterback in the entire NFL. They're
Speaker 5: both divas in totally different ways. They're both very tough physically.
Speaker 5: They both have been knocked for being maybe like a
Speaker 5: little limited in terms of like reading the defenses early
Speaker 5: in their career, but you know they can make some play.
Speaker 5: So who knows. Maybe he's he's the like thirty six
Speaker 5: year old version of Big Ben, which was, by the way,
Speaker 5: still pretty good.
Speaker 6: We can agree on one thing, though, Dan, I think
Speaker 6: that you know, like in that cab late at night,
Speaker 6: you coined this the russ belt, you know, lexicon this tag,
Speaker 6: and I think it's gonna I think it's I think
Speaker 6: it's gonna grow.
Speaker 5: Well, it's gonna grow.
Speaker 4: I don't know if we want to, yeah, the curtain
Speaker 4: on that one, if we want to pull it back
Speaker 4: or not. But as people know, Mark has retired from
Speaker 4: Twitter abruptly with a flaming screed against the analytics community
Speaker 4: and then a a sign off and a wishing well
Speaker 4: of all of us. It doesn't mean Marks out of
Speaker 4: the business as a guy that can punch up some scripts.
Speaker 4: Just leave it at that.
Speaker 5: Well, I think I think we're we're hoping the Russell
Speaker 5: Wilson era just for content just has like a little
Speaker 5: more pop than the russ Belt tweet got because we
Speaker 5: were we had very high hopes. We had high hopes
Speaker 5: that what kind of numbers that would do Dan even
Speaker 5: added at Steelers at NFL.
Speaker 4: That's just that's called tagging, and that that typically leads
Speaker 4: to further engagement. I was also catching some flak in
Speaker 4: the are you able to pull up this tweet by
Speaker 4: any chance? Eric Roberts on short notice? I was also
Speaker 4: catching some flak about the photo that I chose, which, well,
Speaker 4: what needs to be understood. We're in a uber going
Speaker 4: from one establishment to another last night, and the news
Speaker 4: breaks and the idea is, you know, in the car.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to say where it came from because
Speaker 4: certain members of our podcast do not tweet anymore. But
Speaker 4: someone had mentioned, oh man, rust Belt and you know
Speaker 4: rust Belt to do your research on the region in
Speaker 4: western PA. And I at that point I'm scrambling. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I got to get this up. We got to beat
Speaker 4: to market the competition rust belt as a catchphrase. So
Speaker 4: I pulled up the first photo. But I'm being told
Speaker 4: that the photo wasn't good enough. But the engagement's okay,
Speaker 4: so fuzzy in the Broncos thing. Yeah, you can watch
Speaker 4: it on the on the YouTube now, you know, I
Speaker 4: think you.
Speaker 6: Were told by our actual like social team that wanted to,
Speaker 6: you know, elevate it and said you've picked.
Speaker 5: The wrong.
Speaker 4: Not bad engagement over seventy thousand.
Speaker 5: Catty, it's catchy, it'll be I think it could take time,
Speaker 5: but I, like I said, then, I think it's possible.
Speaker 5: Al Michaels will be welcoming us the Thursday night football
Speaker 5: in week eight.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the rust Belt and it's got on. Did
Speaker 4: you know that Russell Wilson this I was reading Barnwell
Speaker 4: today as everyone must ranked twenty first in QBR last season,
Speaker 4: which was one spot behind Joe Burrow. Wasn't that bad
Speaker 4: last year? I mean twenty first is bad though, Like yeah,
Speaker 4: but like go check where Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph
Speaker 4: and every other JABBRONI playing in Pittsburgh was.
Speaker 5: You don't want to look at Mason Rudolph because he'll
Speaker 5: look like he's Joe Montana. I mean he is.
Speaker 6: There's also like a couple incredible numbers about his season,
Speaker 6: because like we've argued about, like his numbers look good
Speaker 6: if you just like to looked at a box if
Speaker 6: you landed on Earth and looked at his box score,
Speaker 6: but for the year, but like like sixty two percent
Speaker 6: of his passes came within five yards of the line
Speaker 6: of scrimmage.
Speaker 5: That's like, that's I played. I mean, that's he doesn't
Speaker 5: get that's a corner offense. Fron Dayton coming with him.
Speaker 4: All right, we're just getting started here. By the way,
Speaker 4: I have NFL plus up on the secondary screen to
Speaker 4: be ready with any breaking news. But let's take a break.
Speaker 4: So quarterback news done. We're gonna dig into the running
Speaker 4: back rooms of teams in next and it is interesting
Speaker 4: there because there's some big names. Not a hot draft class.
Speaker 4: So stay right there and we're gonna get into it.
Speaker 4: All right, we are back. Let's get to the running
Speaker 4: back situation. Like I said, a lot of big names
Speaker 4: out there, and I guess, with some surprise, a lot
Speaker 4: of them came flying off the board on the first
Speaker 4: day of the legal tampering period. Let's start with Saquon Barkley,
Speaker 4: who goes from the New York Giants to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 4: And I could tell you, I could tell you, as
Speaker 4: someone who has a lot of fans of friends who
Speaker 4: are Giants fans, this one hurt. Saquon from the Giants
Speaker 4: to the rival Eagles, stays in the division twenty six
Speaker 4: million guaranteed on a three year, thirty seven million dollar contract.
Speaker 4: So the Eagles had a big day in general, but
Speaker 4: let's start with Saquon. Who goes there gets nice money.
Speaker 5: I love that the kind of analytically driven Eagles. Maybe
Speaker 5: the team that's most associated with the numbers over the
Speaker 5: last ten years are the team that gives Saquon Barkley
Speaker 5: the contract, because that's the thing with moneyball, It's all
Speaker 5: just about, like what the markets are saying. At a
Speaker 5: certain point, running backs have become so devalued that now
Speaker 5: it's come back around, and a guy like Saquon Barkley
Speaker 5: actually is worth quite a bit. If you compare his salary,
Speaker 5: for instance, versus like Gabe Davis today, you could make
Speaker 5: an argument I'd rather have Gabe Davis. I think the
Speaker 5: Eagles rightly made an argument. This is a guy who
Speaker 5: can play all three downs for us and supercharger running
Speaker 5: attack that already was great to like a totally different level,
Speaker 5: and they didn't. I know, it sounds like it's a
Speaker 5: lot of money, but it's really not much more than
Speaker 5: the types of offers I think the Giants were giving
Speaker 5: him over the last couple of years. That he just
Speaker 5: didn't want, I think, from the New York Giants, which
Speaker 5: is crazy. He's getting in a better situation, certainly a
Speaker 5: better offensive line, but he basically only got two years guaranteed,
Speaker 5: and it makes this offense crazy, Like, look for explosive
Speaker 5: difference making ability at any position and don't close your
Speaker 5: eyes to it just because you're the Eagles and you're
Speaker 5: not supposed to like like high paid running backs. Totally agree.
Speaker 6: I think if you're right now listening to wfan out
Speaker 6: in the Tri State area, this is psychological warfare because
Speaker 6: this is a team the Eagles that stole James Bradbury
Speaker 6: away from the Giants when they couldn't figure out what
Speaker 6: to do with James Bradbury and the Giants for you know,
Speaker 6: six hundred days, couldn't figure out how to solve their
Speaker 6: issues with Saquon Barkley last year they franchised them. The
Speaker 6: season's a completely lost cause. The Giants look directionless right now.
Speaker 6: The Eagles swoop in take you know, the star running
Speaker 6: back away from New York and they play them twice
Speaker 6: a year. This is juicy, Like, this is the kind
Speaker 6: of stuff when I tend to think that maybe the
Speaker 6: NFL is like just a deep scripted operation that you
Speaker 6: know is basically a chapter by chapter drama like this
Speaker 6: is this? This fits right because now the Eagles have
Speaker 6: taken Saquon Barkley away from the Giants. I can see
Speaker 6: them playing each other in Week one and it's everything
Speaker 6: you'd ever want from the NFC East revenge game.
Speaker 4: I love that for the ex Yeah, that's that's true, Greg.
Speaker 4: The Eagles also take another player from New York. Bryce
Speaker 4: Huff of the Jets goes to the Eagles on a
Speaker 4: three year deal and he gets good money too, Greg,
Speaker 4: So that you know, we talked about Huff, who is
Speaker 4: has incredible pass rush production. He led the Jets with
Speaker 4: ten and a half sacks and that despite being a
Speaker 4: part time player, I think he played about forty two
Speaker 4: percent of the snap So the Eagles projected that he
Speaker 4: can play more than that. That they for the money
Speaker 4: that they're paying and some other moves that they're making
Speaker 4: on their defense, they're going to have a role for
Speaker 4: him and we'll see if they try to turn them
Speaker 4: into the player the Jets didn't quite think he was.
Speaker 4: But as a Jets van, you're you're afraid you let
Speaker 4: a star out the door.
Speaker 5: Yeah, fifty million dollars over three years. Like he's not
Speaker 5: a run stopper. I think in their defense, they're not
Speaker 5: going to really worry about that that much.
Speaker 4: They don't.
Speaker 5: He reminds me a lot of as on Reddick, which
Speaker 5: makes me think a son Reddick is not going to
Speaker 5: be on the Eagles. Both him and Josh Sweat have
Speaker 5: been reportedly on the trade block, and you figure one,
Speaker 5: if not both of them are gonna get dealt. And
Speaker 5: to me, he's the more one to one comparison with Reddick,
Speaker 5: just a guy who younger in his career maybe didn't
Speaker 5: take advantage. And the Eagles have a good history of
Speaker 5: doing this, finding these guys who have just pure pass
Speaker 5: rush and getting great production out of them. I mean,
Speaker 5: they're we said it coming into the week. They're not
Speaker 5: gonna be done yet. They also gave Lannon Dickerson eighty
Speaker 5: seven million dollars, including fifty million guaranteed their guard. Like
Speaker 5: that's a contract actually that I think he'll see the
Speaker 5: whole deal. But he's one of the best guards in
Speaker 5: the NFL, getting twenty million dollars a year, And like
Speaker 5: you think about that offense with Saquon too, Like that's
Speaker 5: a fantasy football offense. J Parson, like Devonte Smith, Dallas
Speaker 5: gotter In Berkley, and just they just want their defense
Speaker 5: to be good enough.
Speaker 4: I think is the ideot.
Speaker 6: I think the Reddic comparison is right on because there's
Speaker 6: numbers that you know, came out after the signing were
Speaker 6: like Reddick played four hundred more snaps than Huff, eleven
Speaker 6: sacks for Reddick, ten for Huff, thirteen tackles for loss
Speaker 6: for Redick, ten for Huff. It's like the Eagles a
Speaker 6: week ago looked like a malign team, a bit of
Speaker 6: a talking point, and it's like they always find a
Speaker 6: way in the offseason to figure it out, and I
Speaker 6: think they found this one player that we've all looked at.
Speaker 6: It's like, if you can turn Huff into like a
Speaker 6: full time devastator, you've done something that not that the
Speaker 6: Jets couldn't do, but they didn't do last year, and
Speaker 6: you've taken you've taken something away from the Jets.
Speaker 4: So and the Jets they made the they were never
Speaker 4: they never seriously negotiated with him. So they this I
Speaker 4: think goes back a lot to their move to take
Speaker 4: Will McDonald fifteenth overall last year, and sometimes you could
Speaker 4: box yourself in with some of your decisions because you
Speaker 4: took you have Huff, who's a homegrown guy, who's an
Speaker 4: undrafted player, and you turn him into a guy that was,
Speaker 4: you know, a real breakout player, and you let him
Speaker 4: go in free agency because you have so much invested
Speaker 4: now as a draft pick. And Will McDonald I wonder
Speaker 4: if they could do it all over again, and if
Speaker 4: they knew that Huff was going to make the leap
Speaker 4: that he made this year, if they would have made
Speaker 4: a different move in last year's draft. What else? What else?
Speaker 6: I've noticed that we are in these hotel rooms. We
Speaker 6: each have the same painting on the wall, which is
Speaker 6: i'd say slightly uncreative on behalf of the hotel. It's
Speaker 6: a nice hotel. Not complaining about the hotel, but could
Speaker 6: have done a little more there.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, they also didn't expect three bozos to be
Speaker 4: recording and showing the three hotel rooms. I asked them
Speaker 4: one more point. You're not going to get me because
Speaker 4: I know the Eagles will now have an amazing draft
Speaker 4: because Howie's the man. Everything else is still that was
Speaker 4: a problem. At the end of the year. The head
Speaker 4: coach is still there. The quarterback is still there, and
Speaker 4: I know he's very talented, but the locker room seemed
Speaker 4: like i'm and he played a role in that as well.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, AJ Brown right now is still there
Speaker 4: and he was moping by the end of the year.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying, like before we look at them as
Speaker 4: an all star team, Remember this was a team that
Speaker 4: was in chaos by the end of last year and
Speaker 4: they didn't exactly clean house, and in fact, they've lost
Speaker 4: you know, in the center Kelsey. We also had a
Speaker 4: retirement of Fletcher Cox, some leaders out out the door.
Speaker 4: So to me, they're still a little wait and see
Speaker 4: how next season begins. I just don't have that as
Speaker 4: a no.
Speaker 5: I think that's fair. But you know what I like
Speaker 5: is they deliver. Like the free agency year starts and
Speaker 5: it's like, hey, we're going to sign the guy, the
Speaker 5: hot shot pass rusher that we're going to take a
Speaker 5: big chance on. Hey we're gonna sign Saquon Barkley. We'll
Speaker 5: keep our own guy in Landon Dickersonto. It like what
Speaker 5: we'll bring back Brandon Grahm. It's like they're always doing stuff.
Speaker 5: And then that's to me, howie, mother, that's fair.
Speaker 4: The Packers are doing stuff too, So Aaron Jones and
Speaker 4: aj Dillon have been there combo the last few years.
Speaker 4: It's a good guy. Has been a good combo. Now
Speaker 4: that slowed down a little bit last year. Dylan wasn't
Speaker 4: quite where he was and he's walking as a free agent.
Speaker 4: Aaron Jones is still a productive player, but he's injuries
Speaker 4: have been an issue for him and he missed a
Speaker 4: lot of last year. So the Packers, having some extra
Speaker 4: money to spend now that they have a quarterback on
Speaker 4: a rookie contract in Jordan Love, decided to go get
Speaker 4: Josh Jacobs. So the Raiders, who had tried made an
Speaker 4: effort to keep Raiders to keep their running back and
Speaker 4: the rushing champion last year. Ultimately, though, the Packers went
Speaker 4: harder for him and they land Jacobs, and in a
Speaker 4: corresponding move, they release Aaron Jones. So now they essentially
Speaker 4: swap out, as they kind of alluded to at the
Speaker 4: beginning of the show, they swap out Jones for Jacobs.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it makes them a better team,
Speaker 4: to be quite honest with you, but they do, so,
Speaker 4: you know, good luck to them. I don't know.
Speaker 6: I think like Jacobs is when you get the good
Speaker 6: version of Jacobs, a violent, easy to watch runner, and
Speaker 6: if you get that version in Green Bay, that fits
Speaker 6: very well. Aaron Jones was incredibly important to them when
Speaker 6: he was on the field last year. And I'm kind
Speaker 6: of with you, Dan, like, it's not that it's apples
Speaker 6: for apples, but a healthy Aaron Jones personally, I would
Speaker 6: take over Jacob's But that's just me.
Speaker 4: Greg.
Speaker 5: Maybe you totally disagree. I don't know. No, Actually I
Speaker 5: agree with you. I think he's getting up there. He's
Speaker 5: twenty nine. He hasn't been able to stay on the
Speaker 5: field as much. You know, that's been a little bit
Speaker 5: of an issue for Jacobs too, who's like on one
Speaker 5: year off. I think all things being equal, Aaron Jones
Speaker 5: is better. I think they went into the day and
Speaker 5: even signing Jacobs with the possibility that they'd have them both,
Speaker 5: but they he was paid so much money Aaron Jones
Speaker 5: that I think they just felt that was out of bounds,
Speaker 5: and they had a number where they said, like, if
Speaker 5: you take a pay cut down to eight million dollars something,
Speaker 5: I'm just throwing a number out there, then we'll keep you,
Speaker 5: and we'll keep both. And so it wouldn't surprise me
Speaker 5: if they get in the running back market, whether it's
Speaker 5: the draft or another free agent. But they just decided
Speaker 5: he was getting paid too much. And Jacobs is three
Speaker 5: years younger, and so I guess that that's a big
Speaker 5: deal too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you get twenty twenty two Josh Jacobs, the
Speaker 4: steel is gonna look amazing. He's been great every other
Speaker 4: year and like kind of curious the other years, and
Speaker 4: you mean like every other year.
Speaker 5: Yes, So now this is supposed to be a good
Speaker 5: This should be a good year for Josh Jacobs, so other.
Speaker 4: Times seems if that's what they were using internally, is
Speaker 4: their compass on this. I'm concerned about the Packers. They
Speaker 4: also speaking of the Giants, fans and the dumps. Xavier
Speaker 4: McKinney safety. He lands with the Packers on a four year,
Speaker 4: sixty eight million dollar deal. So that's a lot of money.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of scratch, a lot of guap for McKinny.
Speaker 4: But that's a defense in the post Joe Barry world
Speaker 4: that you know, needed some reinforcements in the back end,
Speaker 4: and McKinney can deliver that.
Speaker 6: We just talked to Mina and she talked about the
Speaker 6: fact that, like the Packers, and we all agree that
Speaker 6: it seems like for Ages, they threw a ton of
Speaker 6: money and draft picks at safety and it kind of
Speaker 6: never worked. And like he's only twenty four years old, Like,
Speaker 6: and I thought this was a player the Giants in
Speaker 6: another universe might have franchised tagged when they didn't ha Saquon,
Speaker 6: and they didn't, and they've lost two players, And I
Speaker 6: think the Packers like added a piece to their defense,
Speaker 6: someone who can be around for a long time based
Speaker 6: on his age and his skill.
Speaker 5: I love McKinney. I had him really high in the
Speaker 5: top one oh one, and he got paid because multiple
Speaker 5: teams were after I forget who the third team was,
Speaker 5: but I know the Eagles were in on him. There
Speaker 5: was even a report earlier in the day that they
Speaker 5: were going to close that deal, and so that market
Speaker 5: went like very high for Xavier McKinney. But he is
Speaker 5: a good young player in that defense in that secondary's
Speaker 5: been a nightmare.
Speaker 4: All right. Here are the other running back deals that
Speaker 4: have gone down. DeAndre Swift, So the Eagles decide to
Speaker 4: get Barkley, so Swift goes out the door and he
Speaker 4: lands with the Bears. So he had a nice season,
Speaker 4: I thought after leaving Detroit and now Chicago, as they
Speaker 4: retool their offense, most likely with a new quarterback as well,
Speaker 4: they add a playmaker and a guy that can make
Speaker 4: plays as a rusher and receiver. The Titans, they bring
Speaker 4: in former Cowboys running back Tony Pollard. So Pollard coming
Speaker 4: off a disappointing season in Dallas where he became the
Speaker 4: Bell cow back and it didn't really take. So now
Speaker 4: he lands with the Titans. And the Titans also needed
Speaker 4: offensive line help and they get it in center Lloyd Cushionberry,
Speaker 4: formerly of the Broncos. So they get a new running
Speaker 4: back and a new center. And by the way, if
Speaker 4: Pollard is their running back, now that means Derrick Henry is,
Speaker 4: which we kind of expected, is going somewhere else and
Speaker 4: now just we're waiting to see. I have a few
Speaker 4: I have a really strong feeling about where he's gonna land.
Speaker 4: Maybe at the end of the show we'll each share
Speaker 4: a prediction. Going into day two ahead of the new
Speaker 4: league year, Gus Edwards lands with the Chargers and the Giants.
Speaker 4: By the way, do signed a Devin Singletary according to reports.
Speaker 4: So that's a slew of running back moves.
Speaker 5: You guys got anything, Yeah, Pollard in taj Spears is
Speaker 5: a fun backfield. I think people were a little hard
Speaker 5: on Pollard coming off of a broken angle, But I
Speaker 5: also think that they view Pollard as a one. B
Speaker 5: in Tajy Spears is probably their one on A and
Speaker 5: that I'm just a little surprised how quickly all these
Speaker 5: guys came off the market, but that when people were
Speaker 5: getting all excited to be like, oh, the running back
Speaker 5: market is back, like it's a real thing. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 5: they're getting paid like the same as a fairly low
Speaker 5: level guard low or about half as much as like
Speaker 5: a slightly above average guards, and they're getting paid the
Speaker 5: same as like defensive you know, dotation.
Speaker 4: They've been prioritized on the beginning first day of free
Speaker 4: age two, which is kind of different than the past,
Speaker 4: it is, and.
Speaker 5: They're making more money than they were a year or
Speaker 5: two ago. To be clear, DeAndre Swift people will will
Speaker 5: probably forget this the minute this happens, but he will
Speaker 5: always be the first player signed during the legal tamporeine period.
Speaker 5: So congratulations to DeAndre Swift and the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 4: I think we used to do sandwiches on that. We
Speaker 4: used to take predictions, which is one of the dumber
Speaker 4: things because it's not you know, we don't have an
Speaker 4: official time stamp on these things.
Speaker 6: But I like, I watched this running back market and
Speaker 6: for me, it's the holes that creates an dan. I
Speaker 6: I won't steal your thunder about the Dereck Henry landing spot,
Speaker 6: but there are a couple teams out there that have
Speaker 6: like absolute nothingness at running back right now after these moves,
Speaker 6: and I still think Derrick Henry is the best back
Speaker 6: of every one of these players. I like him more
Speaker 6: than Saquon I like him more than Josh Jacobs. I
Speaker 6: like him more than Aaron Jones. I just do I know.
Speaker 6: I get the age, I get the mileage, but it's
Speaker 6: like I cannot wait to see where he lands. I
Speaker 6: think he's going to be also quite agitated with the
Speaker 6: fact that he's like the eighth running back to go
Speaker 6: off the board here. He's going to devastate someone and
Speaker 6: destroy someone come September.
Speaker 5: It's also funny that the Harba's are now sharing players,
Speaker 5: they share coaches, but like Gus Edward is. The first
Speaker 5: thing he does is go from John to Jim Harbab
Speaker 5: because Greg Roman is over there, and it's bizarre that
Speaker 5: that's the move the Chargers made today. I do think
Speaker 5: we're gonna get some trades, as we talked about, but
Speaker 5: that'll be later in the week.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to hit the breaking news on this,
Speaker 4: but the Giants and their fans could use some good news.
Speaker 4: There's something floating out there right now, but let's wait
Speaker 4: until we hear it from our guys in other news.
Speaker 4: So we mentioned that the Raiders go and they get
Speaker 4: Gardner Minshew and we'll see where he fits at the
Speaker 4: end of the day in their quarterback room. But they
Speaker 4: make a huge move mark on their defensive line, adding
Speaker 4: Christian Wilkins, formerly of the Dolphins, for one hundred and
Speaker 4: ten million, almost eighty five of that guaranteed a lot
Speaker 4: of guaranteed money being doled out to these big time players.
Speaker 4: So this is a huge move for the Raiders, a
Speaker 4: team that seems to be acting in what you hear
Speaker 4: from the coach's doing a lot of talking. He's like
Speaker 4: they think they're closer than other people might think. But
Speaker 4: there's no denying that Wilkins is a big time talent
Speaker 4: in the middle. Is going to tag team with Max
Speaker 4: Crosby on one of the best combos of any team
Speaker 4: up front in the league.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean Max Crosby having to do it alone,
Speaker 6: not onlike a Miles Garrett in years past. Before this
Speaker 6: past season, Eveland still wrecking people. And the idea of
Speaker 6: Wilkins in Max Crosby together is gives you, if you're
Speaker 6: Antonio Pierce, an identity and I think that you're that's
Speaker 6: a defensive coach. You suddenly the Raiders defense. You've got
Speaker 6: to plan for Wilkins. I think if you want to
Speaker 6: find a player like him, you would have had to
Speaker 6: use your first round pick to get a player like him.
Speaker 6: I'm not even sure there's a player in the draft
Speaker 6: like him. You might have to go years till you
Speaker 6: find someone like him. So the money's worth it. These
Speaker 6: are rare players, and I think if you're I for me,
Speaker 6: I know, even in the last couple of weeks, I've
Speaker 6: been killing the idea of like a Chris Jones going
Speaker 6: to a lost team or do we just don't hear
Speaker 6: from him again for four years? That feels like the
Speaker 6: Raiders feel like that kind of team to me, But
Speaker 6: I'm that's just bias. Like I actually think that the
Speaker 6: Raiders made an aggressive move here, and either you do
Speaker 6: or don't like whoever got Christian Wilkins, their defense becomes
Speaker 6: a completely different operation.
Speaker 5: I mean, he owes the Dolphins in some level, on
Speaker 5: some level for letting him go in free agency. He
Speaker 5: got eighty four point five million dollars guaranteed in the
Speaker 5: in the Dolphins could have kept him for one year
Speaker 5: twenty million dollars, so like that change that changed his life.
Speaker 5: They have the I don't know what the word is,
Speaker 5: like the most starting you know, we'll have to beat
Speaker 5: that out, like defensive line in the league by far,
Speaker 5: like because who annoys offensive linemen more than Christian Wilkins,
Speaker 5: Like he gets in fights like everyone like thinks he's
Speaker 5: sort of on the edge or over the edge and playing.
Speaker 5: Putting him next to Max Crosby, that's just like kind
Speaker 5: of an insane duo. They also both of them never
Speaker 5: leave the field, Like Christian Wilkins is almost the defensive
Speaker 5: tackle version of Max Crosby. You can't stay on the
Speaker 5: field every step of fear a defensive tackle. But he's
Speaker 5: pretty close to that. I also like Malcolm Kons there
Speaker 5: at the end of last season. So that's three guys
Speaker 5: like the Raiders doing something.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 5: That's the most by the way, anyone's gonna make I
Speaker 5: think in free agency other than Kirk Cousins, it's gonna
Speaker 5: be Christian Wilkins will go down that used to be
Speaker 5: up sandwich prop we used to make too. Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 5: I guess would have won it, but but Wilkins will
Speaker 5: be second.
Speaker 4: The Vikings. So we mentioned Kirk Cousins is no longer
Speaker 4: their quarterback and that leads a gaping void for that team,
Speaker 4: but there's still other work to be done, and Jonathan
Speaker 4: Garnard there is a nice piece of the puzzle for
Speaker 4: them pass rusher. He goes to the Vikings for forty
Speaker 4: two million guaranteed four for seventy six. Blake Cashern, line
Speaker 4: veteran linebacker, also to Minnesota on a three year deal,
Speaker 4: so that defense definitely needed some enforcements. So on that
Speaker 4: side of the ball, it's been a good day in Minnesota. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think he was, like again a guy who kind
Speaker 5: of was helped out by his team, which is maybe
Speaker 5: a red flag. I don't know, because Houston was not
Speaker 5: in any cap struggles. They just decided, like, we don't
Speaker 5: want to invest that much in Jonathan Garnard, but in
Speaker 5: terms of like pressures in his age and pass rush
Speaker 5: win rate and everything you would want, like he is
Speaker 5: a one for one replacement for Daniel Hunter, who is
Speaker 5: still out there. I think he's the top player left
Speaker 5: on my top one on one. I did a quick
Speaker 5: check before we started. I think players that entered the
Speaker 5: day on the top one on one have been signed.
Speaker 4: But that's it.
Speaker 5: That means eighty are still out there, but twenty five
Speaker 5: to thirty more were already taken off the board, like
Speaker 5: before it even happened, as that list kept changing. But
Speaker 5: that that's a nice move. But it showed me like
Speaker 5: the Vikings knew they weren't getting Kirk Cousins because this
Speaker 5: move happened right off the bat. This was one of
Speaker 5: the very first moves of free agency. It was them
Speaker 5: making sure that they got Jonathan Grenard.
Speaker 4: I mean even their decision and you know, the GM
Speaker 4: put out a statement like you said, and the decision
Speaker 4: that they made before last season when they decided to
Speaker 4: break off the extension talks it seemed like the writing
Speaker 4: was on the wall, and they want to build this
Speaker 4: a different way. You can't really, you can't really hate
Speaker 4: on them because when you look at what he actually did, Cousins,
Speaker 4: despite all the production, they never really got close. And
Speaker 4: now that it's time to change things up. So I
Speaker 4: understand that it does I do have to say. I mean,
Speaker 4: I will say it. You know, I've been waiting, you
Speaker 4: know this, this this moment for Sam Darnold. Like you
Speaker 4: keep on hearing whispers about Donald and the Vikings, I've
Speaker 4: been waiting for this guy to get a fair shout
Speaker 4: at a reboot, a proper reboot since his Jets fiasco
Speaker 4: uh career, And that would work. That give me Donald
Speaker 4: as as the QB with Kevin O'Connell, uh, and have
Speaker 4: Justin Jefferson. Hopefully they'll get under contract. Then you guys,
Speaker 4: if he if he bombs out of there, you guys
Speaker 4: can bury him for it and laugh at me. But
Speaker 4: I think that would be a nice setup for him
Speaker 4: to potentially have his own type of Baker renaissance.
Speaker 6: They also have the eleventh pick. They could move up
Speaker 6: someone like JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 5: I mean, some people think they might trade up with
Speaker 5: the Patriots all the way to three and take take
Speaker 5: one of the top.
Speaker 6: Right, there just has to be another There has to
Speaker 6: be another move, like but Dan, Like, honestly, if the
Speaker 6: the whole master plan here in two off season rebuild
Speaker 6: was to get Sam Donald, like you've god of gotten
Speaker 6: Sam Donald.
Speaker 4: It's a transition here for them. So if you go
Speaker 4: and get a guy and maybe it works, I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I don't know how many transition years you get in
Speaker 6: a row. It's like you like, they were they they
Speaker 6: sold players on the cheap last year.
Speaker 5: And I know they won thirteen games and what was
Speaker 5: supposed to be a transition year and then this this
Speaker 5: truly was, and they were they were kind of peaking
Speaker 5: at the moment that Cousins got hurt. I think it
Speaker 5: was absolutely the right time to say goodbye. You got
Speaker 5: to make tough decisions sometimes, and I think QUESSI made
Speaker 5: it at the right time. I think the injury ended
Speaker 5: up making it a lot easier for them to do that,
Speaker 5: And I actually do think Donald would would make sense there.
Speaker 5: But that is the ultimate team of zeus til I mean, forget,
Speaker 5: We're not We're not doing the Vikings ever. Again, but
Speaker 5: if never again. And Dan is the most loyal team
Speaker 5: of any person I know. But uh, if there was
Speaker 5: ever going to be a strong number two for Dan,
Speaker 5: it is Sam Donald starting to freaking vit you always
Speaker 5: like for some reason, I don't really know why.
Speaker 4: Is everyone I know as everyone knows that Jets are
Speaker 4: testing my patients like uh like never before, and uh
Speaker 4: if if that becomes very interesting to me, like like
Speaker 4: my fifty percent g my, my buddy Greg who was
Speaker 4: at the super Bowl this year is a die hard
Speaker 4: Vikings fan, So I would even have like a buddy
Speaker 4: that I could, you know, connect with on it. It's
Speaker 4: let's just leave it out there and let it hang.
Speaker 5: They also signed Blake Cashman to a twenty six million
Speaker 5: dollar deal, a linebacker who, what I think Mina mentioned
Speaker 5: is one of her favorites. And they're definitely signing sort
Speaker 5: of like the hipster football Twitter favorites and Grenard and Cashman.
Speaker 4: So you got that group there too, right, I said it.
Speaker 4: I said you said it. You said, oh you said that.
Speaker 5: I mean you said that, you that he was one
Speaker 5: of your favorite guys in free agency.
Speaker 4: No, I said that. I mentioned that in the news
Speaker 4: when we set up this spiking Dan.
Speaker 5: Our list is still coming out, so I mean, he's
Speaker 5: not going to be on our list.
Speaker 4: Coming out, yeah, tomorrow midnight.
Speaker 5: So we have a lot, you know, more news to
Speaker 5: get to and everything. But are you guys a little
Speaker 5: feeling like you're getting caught with your pants down that
Speaker 5: all these free agents? I mean, you are literally reporting
Speaker 5: on the biggest names of free agency signing your list
Speaker 5: is if you are like NFL Network the first year
Speaker 5: that they did the legal tampurine period and didn't realize
Speaker 5: the big day was going to be Wednesday and not Monday.
Speaker 5: And on Monday they only like two people on air
Speaker 5: for four hours and they were like, haman, Hamana, we
Speaker 5: didn't know this was going to be the big day. Well, yeah,
Speaker 5: we feel totally confident about.
Speaker 6: It's coming out when it needs to come out, at
Speaker 6: the problem out.
Speaker 4: When it comes out, which is on the eve of
Speaker 4: the new league year.
Speaker 5: It's up for the readers to decide what they prefer,
Speaker 5: all right, And.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know everybody and I see it, and I
Speaker 4: see it in my mentions. People don't want to hear
Speaker 4: about Dan's always on about Darnold. It's true. I'm so
Speaker 4: happy it is finally like I was felt like I
Speaker 4: was seeing Mina Chimes, who everyone respects Mina Kaimes' opinion.
Speaker 4: I'm not alone on this, no alone on the annoience.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of Darnald love out there in the football.
Speaker 4: And remember, but I remember, I was thriving that if
Speaker 4: it ever turned out into something, just remember before everyone
Speaker 4: else found it fashionable?
Speaker 6: Dan, Why would we have to remember when we will
Speaker 6: be reminded every single show about it, like.
Speaker 4: Oh, you, I know you don't want this to happen,
Speaker 4: because it's.
Speaker 6: Not that I don't, but it's like, like, well, I
Speaker 6: wonder we're not going to.
Speaker 5: I mean, Jeremia had him number one with like a
Speaker 5: bullet in a class with Josh Allen and Lamar Like,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of people that are invested in Sam
Speaker 5: Darnold Sam.
Speaker 4: All right, let's oh well say all right, let's take
Speaker 4: a break and we'll roll on a right. Welcome back,
Speaker 4: all right, diving right back in. The Jaguars are active.
Speaker 4: The Jaguars have had a busy Monday here. They signed
Speaker 4: wide receiver Gabe Davis form of the Buffalo Bills three years,
Speaker 4: thirty nine million, eleven million. It's signing Davis, who has had,
Speaker 4: you know, a checkered history in terms of being a
Speaker 4: productive player, but has always been enticing as a guy
Speaker 4: that can maybe take the next step. They also get
Speaker 4: Darnell Savage in the building as well on the other
Speaker 4: side of the ball, so the Jags mark are busy. Yeah.
Speaker 6: I was kind of wondering what the Jags, like, what
Speaker 6: their plan was this offseason, and also wondering where game
Speaker 6: Davis would would wind up.
Speaker 5: I don't hate it.
Speaker 6: I mean, I don't know what's gonna happen with Calvin Ridley,
Speaker 6: but they kind of lack a number one wide receiver
Speaker 6: to me, because Gabe Davis, to me, is the quintessential
Speaker 6: sort of hot and cold guy who like he'll go
Speaker 6: a couple of games where you're not sure he was
Speaker 6: even on the field, but then he'll explode for one
Speaker 6: hundred and forty two yards and be a deep threat.
Speaker 4: So I like it.
Speaker 6: For Trevor Lawrence, they've added to their offensive line as well.
Speaker 6: It's like you've got to build around him. He's a piece,
Speaker 6: That's what I'd say about him. He's just a piece.
Speaker 6: It takes away from the Bills. I don't know what
Speaker 6: the Bills are doing because I every it seems like
Speaker 6: every couple of minutes, like the Bill, something is being
Speaker 6: taken away from.
Speaker 5: Buffalo Yabe Davis. I think has a lot of potential,
Speaker 5: but the Jaguars have tried this before. They spend a
Speaker 5: lot of money in free agency at wide receivers to
Speaker 5: pretty middling results. I'm assuming Calvin Ridley is gonna sign
Speaker 5: elsewhere or they would not make this deal because you know,
Speaker 5: Calvin Riley is a different type of player, but there's
Speaker 5: no way they're going to do both. It was not
Speaker 5: that expensive though. I mean, he's signing for like a
Speaker 5: little less than let's say Juju signed for last year,
Speaker 5: you know, or Jacobi Meyers signed for last year. That's
Speaker 5: reasonable to me, but this is a boomer bust type office.
Speaker 5: He also signed Mitch Morse from the Bills and not
Speaker 5: yet another player from the Bills, so there's a Buffalo
Speaker 5: to Jacksonville.
Speaker 4: I don't love the I don't love the signing. It
Speaker 4: sounds like they're trying to save money because Ridley's market
Speaker 4: got more expensive than they they wanted, you know, to
Speaker 4: do that type of business that they were scared off
Speaker 4: by that. And Davis like if Josh Allen couldn't make
Speaker 4: him a thing, M Like, I know, was it a thing?
Speaker 4: I know, that's what I mean, but not a consistent
Speaker 4: force when he wasn't even seeing the number one cornerback
Speaker 4: most weeks with Stephan Diggs already there, Like, I don't know.
Speaker 5: We have you've seen the analytics though he put out
Speaker 5: on Instagram because they were pretty impressive.
Speaker 4: I mean, he put him out on himself.
Speaker 5: It actually, yeah he did. He must have gotten him
Speaker 5: from his agency or something. But they were so overwhelmingly
Speaker 5: good that I actually bumped him up the top one
Speaker 5: of one just for that.
Speaker 4: Oh good. See it works to promote oneself. By the way,
Speaker 4: I meant to hit this when we were talking about
Speaker 4: the running running backs, but like I said, this is
Speaker 4: insider Christmas. It's a high pressure business. We have a
Speaker 4: live program on NFL Network where we have all three
Speaker 4: of our insiders and we all know who they are.
Speaker 4: It's rap Sheet, it's the Pell Raiser and Mike g Okay.
Speaker 4: And when the Josh Jacobs news comes down, it's on
Speaker 4: live television, and Jacobs and and Ian has it first.
Speaker 4: And Ian takes out his phone and he kind of
Speaker 4: pauses and he starts to say, and then he's texting
Speaker 4: in real time while he's on live TV, and he
Speaker 4: says that you know this is this is from me
Speaker 4: and in the middle box, so it's Ceciliano in one
Speaker 4: box Andrew hell Raiser and then Mike j You see
Speaker 4: pell Raiser's face, He's like, give me the credit, loop
Speaker 4: me in on the scoop Ian didn't loop him in,
Speaker 4: So here was pell Raiser. Minutes later, when there was
Speaker 4: another bit of news to announce.
Speaker 3: It's right, the Rams signing Colby Parkinson, the former Seahawks
Speaker 3: tight end to a big deal three years, twenty two
Speaker 3: point five million, including fifteen point five million dollars guaranteed
Speaker 3: according to me and he and c I'll give you
Speaker 3: in credit on TV And though he stiffed me on
Speaker 3: Josh Jacobs right there, Parkinson can avoid that deal.
Speaker 5: What a lonely barren existence?
Speaker 4: Whoa not.
Speaker 5: Just the job? It just sounds like it's are you
Speaker 5: ever satisfied? Are you ever?
Speaker 6: Do you ever go out for dinner and you're not
Speaker 6: on your phone the entire time? Are you sleeping with
Speaker 6: you know, your phone next to your face?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 5: Are you ever a human? Do you ever swim?
Speaker 4: In a lake you mentioned gave Davis. By the way, Gabe,
Speaker 4: Davis did have eight catches for two hundred and one
Speaker 4: yards and four touchdowns in that playoff game against the
Speaker 4: Cheaps couple of years back. I mean, if there was
Speaker 4: a starmaking performance that you could ever bank on, you
Speaker 4: would have thought that would have been in. And yet
Speaker 4: the Bills felt comfortable letting him go, which I think
Speaker 4: tells you a lot. And I'm not breaking news here.
Speaker 4: You hear this all the time. There's a reason why
Speaker 4: a lot of these signings don't work out. And the
Speaker 4: reason is a lot of these teams made internal decisions
Speaker 4: about these players that they weren't somebody they wanted to
Speaker 4: keep around or not at a certain price point. But
Speaker 4: the Jags go and get Davis, and we'll see.
Speaker 5: What happens they have Like on a two and a three,
Speaker 5: Kirk makes more money and he's a two and maybe
Speaker 5: Davis is a three or whatever. And for the insiders,
Speaker 5: you know, I do want to I guess give them credit.
Speaker 5: At some point, I don't know how it worked, but
Speaker 5: at some point rap Sheet and pell Raiser decided, like
Speaker 5: we have to join forces because so many of these
Speaker 5: reports are the two of them. I don't know how
Speaker 5: that how did that conversation go. I'd like to know
Speaker 5: why isn't Mike g involved in that like thing where
Speaker 5: they're sharing, because they do share a lot, but they
Speaker 5: don't share all, Like what is the decision making?
Speaker 4: Probably I have a theory.
Speaker 5: Nobody knows.
Speaker 4: Here's the theory. My theory is that when it comes
Speaker 4: to scoopage, like you got to have that dog in you.
Speaker 4: M and rap Sheet and pell Raiser are both highly
Speaker 4: competitive and there had to be some type of brokerage
Speaker 4: behind the scenes, so neither would, you know, get upset
Speaker 4: with the other and but you still see it bubble
Speaker 4: up in moments like that on live television where it
Speaker 4: can't be managed. Mike, on the other hand, I feel
Speaker 4: like he doesn't have that dog in him as a newsbreaker,
Speaker 4: Like he can do it and if he wanted to,
Speaker 4: he could absolutely be like the other two. But he
Speaker 4: chooses a different path in life and.
Speaker 5: He wants that dinner. He wants to turn off the
Speaker 5: phone with his wife and have a nice dinner.
Speaker 4: That's what I think. That's what.
Speaker 6: Well, So when you're eighty, what when I'm not saying
Speaker 6: good or bad on anybody.
Speaker 4: But that's just how I how I see it.
Speaker 5: This is not a common on any of them.
Speaker 6: But I would say that Mike Garrifolo seems completely secure
Speaker 6: with whatever role he's chosen.
Speaker 4: I also think it should be said in fairness that
Speaker 4: I would imagine that Ian and Tom enjoy having dinner
Speaker 4: with their family too.
Speaker 6: I would do say that's probably true. We're not suggesting
Speaker 6: that's not the case, all right.
Speaker 4: Uh, Moving on, the Panthers sign guard Robert Hunt to
Speaker 4: a five year, one hundred million dollar deal with sixty
Speaker 4: three million guaranteed. That seems like a lot, but that
Speaker 4: you know, that's the guards are getting paid. Giants signed
Speaker 4: Andrew Van Ginkel to twenty million over that's your boy, Mark,
Speaker 4: that's your boy. And and also guard John Runyon gets
Speaker 4: seventeen million guarantee guaranteed. In addition, of course, he has
Speaker 4: to Devin single Tour Devin Singletary joining the Fray at
Speaker 4: running back.
Speaker 5: I love the Hunt signing.
Speaker 6: I mean, the Panthers I thought were lost from a
Speaker 6: front office perspective for years in a row. But he
Speaker 6: had the lowest pressure rate all out of any offensive
Speaker 6: lineman in the league last year. And you know that
Speaker 6: whole offense needs help. I don't love Van Ginkle going
Speaker 6: to the Giants right now. I mean I grew up
Speaker 6: with the Giants, but it's like I want Van Ginkle
Speaker 6: plugged into a Super Bowl ready operation or watching him
Speaker 6: in January next season.
Speaker 4: So let me see a Van gingkle fan. Are you Mark?
Speaker 6: This is the least one of the He's one of
Speaker 6: my favorite players in the league. I've mentioned this, you
Speaker 6: know a couple of.
Speaker 4: What is it about? What is it about Van Ginkle
Speaker 4: that really name your engine? Like Christmas?
Speaker 5: His name is sort of his whole like aura person.
Speaker 5: Some similarities to previous Mark favorites like Toby Gerhart and
Speaker 5: whatnot on the defensive side, But you know that's.
Speaker 6: Not where we're going, by the way, Just like I think,
Speaker 6: I like I said, though, there were how many Dolphins games,
Speaker 6: especially under Brian Floores, were like suddenly Van ginkels having
Speaker 6: like a crazy second half where he's like blowing people
Speaker 6: up and making plays like he just stands out to
Speaker 6: me and it's go.
Speaker 4: Do it for the Giants. Its officially your guy.
Speaker 5: I like the Giants Giants fan should feel. The Singletary
Speaker 5: contract to me was one of the most mystifying of
Speaker 5: the entire day. Like I know it'll be backloaded, but
Speaker 5: like you really didn't have to pay that much money
Speaker 5: for Devin Singletary. I do like the Van Ginkle signing,
Speaker 5: and I do like the John we let.
Speaker 4: The running back seat? Can we let one you know,
Speaker 4: a couple of slight overpay.
Speaker 5: Clearly, like there was like seven guys that were worth
Speaker 5: paying available and he was like the eighth or whatever,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. Like, and they like, if
Speaker 5: you're gonna pay him that much money, just pay an
Speaker 5: extra couple million to keep Saquon Barkley. That part I
Speaker 5: didn't get, but Runyan was at a more fair price.
Speaker 5: And the Hunt deal, it sounds crazy. Everyone was like,
Speaker 5: whoa Robert Hunt? But when they don't put the specifics,
Speaker 5: They didn't put the guaranteed money in the at least
Speaker 5: in terms of how it was structured. They did say
Speaker 5: sixty it's probably you know, the last couple of years
Speaker 5: are fake and he's a big time player, a big
Speaker 5: time guard, and guards are getting paid, I think just
Speaker 5: because so many of them hit the market that are
Speaker 5: actually quality starters, and there just aren't many positions where
Speaker 5: like young in prime players hit the market and there
Speaker 5: happened to be like ten guards who were playing at
Speaker 5: a pretty high level. But like the Dolphins lost so
Speaker 5: many players today, maybe this is the time to just
Speaker 5: mention it. The one of the Dolphins beat writers, I
Speaker 5: think it was Joe Shad pointed out the Dolphins need
Speaker 5: right now after are losing all these players today, two
Speaker 5: starting defensive tackles. Of course, they just lost Wilkins. They
Speaker 5: also lost Banginkle, a starting cornerback. They had cut Zaving Howard,
Speaker 5: a starting safety, Brandon Jones landed in Denver. Two starting guards,
Speaker 5: a starting in sidelinebacker, a starting center, two heavy usage
Speaker 5: edge players, and three backup wide receivers. That's that's what
Speaker 5: they think the Dolphins redaate.
Speaker 4: They think they're in trouble. Now, wait till they give
Speaker 4: two a forty million a year for like three years.
Speaker 5: Might be partly what they're saving up for it, and
Speaker 5: they will make some signings. It's not like they're just
Speaker 5: gonna like sit out free agency.
Speaker 6: But then also Buffalo is Buffalo has had to. I
Speaker 6: know everyone's like the cap doesn't matter, it doesn't even exist.
Speaker 4: It's a ghost. But like that's that's the Buffalo. No
Speaker 4: Greg says that cap does matter. No, No, I say
Speaker 4: it's like it doesn't matter. I don't.
Speaker 5: I think either one of them is a little too simplified.
Speaker 6: But say, Buffalo has had to make some moves cap
Speaker 6: because of the cap, They've had to make some moves
Speaker 6: and lose some players. And it's like a year ago
Speaker 6: it was like will every team in the AFC East
Speaker 6: make the playoffs? It's like Buffalo is not better right
Speaker 6: now on any level, and the Dolphins are missing like
Speaker 6: twelve players.
Speaker 5: Not good.
Speaker 4: Really, you hate to see it. Another move at interior line,
Speaker 4: Rams sign Jonah Jackson for thirty four million guaranteed on
Speaker 4: a fifty one million dollar deal. Was he good last year?
Speaker 4: Was it like? What is that?
Speaker 5: He's been very consistent, I would say throughout his career.
Speaker 5: He definitely missed some time for Detroit last year, but
Speaker 5: he's played a lot and always been thought of as
Speaker 5: a good guard. That price and Kevin Dotson's price for
Speaker 5: the Ram really surprised me. They got very similar money.
Speaker 5: But I think they're gonna let their center Coleman Shelton,
Speaker 5: I'm guessing leave, and they're gonna move their guard last year,
Speaker 5: who was a rookie Steve Avila, who look great, and
Speaker 5: move him to center and suddenly you've got on paper
Speaker 5: one of the best interior offensive lines in the league.
Speaker 5: They must have thought they really hit on something last
Speaker 5: year with an interior offensive line that was playing well,
Speaker 5: that's like their thing. That's what they decided to spend
Speaker 5: all this cap space on, was interior offensive line. It's
Speaker 5: pretty interesting.
Speaker 4: Well how about this mark you mentioned the Bills? What
Speaker 4: are they? You know, are they better? Are they worse?
Speaker 4: You know? The Dolphins? Well, how about keeping Dion Dawkins
Speaker 4: in the building. There's some positive news in Buffalo. Was
Speaker 4: reported first by Schefter that the Bills signed Dawkins to
Speaker 4: a three year, sixty point five million dollar contract extension
Speaker 4: and this has been a durable rock on their team.
Speaker 4: Also a bit of a weird kind of story around
Speaker 4: this one, because yesterday, I think it was.
Speaker 5: Now when was it, good morning? It was five minutes
Speaker 5: before the news or like twenty minutes before the news
Speaker 5: actually came out that he's resigned with the Bills.
Speaker 4: Talk about your all time shaky bits. Five minutes before
Speaker 4: he goes on social media and basically announces his career
Speaker 4: with Buffalo is over which I don't know who. I mean,
Speaker 4: where the laughs are You're essentially antagonizing and bumming out
Speaker 4: your fans in Buffalo, and then it turns out, unless
Speaker 4: there's something more to the story, that was all just
Speaker 4: an elaborate ruse, because then the report comes out that
Speaker 4: he is staying indeed in Buffalo and will continue to
Speaker 4: anchor that line.
Speaker 6: So cool, bit, bro, It's a it's a faulty bit
Speaker 6: because there's enough players out there on Twitter, you know,
Speaker 6: making it clear that they're learning news at the same
Speaker 6: time that civilians are at the same time we are.
Speaker 6: And like, I guarantee, unless he you know, set up
Speaker 6: this like faulty bit with everyone on the roster ahead
Speaker 6: of time, which seems unlikely because the whole thing was
Speaker 6: sort of a mess, Like he's got teammates floating out
Speaker 6: there thinking that he's leaving the team for a while.
Speaker 5: We so what about for like twenty minutes? You're right,
Speaker 5: Daikwon Jones actually did respond to his tweet, being like,
Speaker 5: what the heck man? The tweet that he sent out
Speaker 5: was it was good while it lasted, Buffalo piece excited
Speaker 5: for this next chapter of my football career. I wonder
Speaker 5: if it's okay to eat Ran now. And I think
Speaker 5: he even did a press conference today and he just
Speaker 5: said I just woke up and felt like being a troll.
Speaker 4: You know, he just wow, Just do you ever get
Speaker 4: it happened to me once, but I think a lot
Speaker 4: of people can relate to it. You have a buddy
Speaker 4: who breaks up with his girlfriend and the girlfriend sucks,
Speaker 4: and then you kind of share that with them after
Speaker 4: they break up, and then they get back together, and
Speaker 4: but you've shared the information your true feelings. You know.
Speaker 4: He also risked one of his teammates, like Stefan Diggs,
Speaker 4: for example, being like, whatever, bro, we didn't like you anyway,
Speaker 4: and that would have made a massive situation. I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 4: you risked, you open the door for that scenario. You know.
Speaker 5: Yep, you might not, but no, no, you're right. And
Speaker 5: it reminds me of people that ask you what you
Speaker 5: think of different possible baby names before they actually name
Speaker 5: their baby. Don't give an opinion. There's a chance that
Speaker 5: that ends up being their baby's name, and then they
Speaker 5: will remember that for their child's entire life. And you'll
Speaker 5: even you know, you'll know that looking at that child there,
Speaker 5: so you did that. This happened to you? You were
Speaker 5: the sea name. No no, but I do know it
Speaker 5: was a close a close friend.
Speaker 4: This happened to.
Speaker 5: Lough Sitch, classic gull time, tough stitch. Just that's like
Speaker 5: a no win situation. Oh yeah, I don't like that name.
Speaker 5: It's like, oh, what do you name your baby? Oh yeah,
Speaker 5: that name I mentioned well.
Speaker 4: Also the situation just a little more context. What gets
Speaker 4: tricky is when you're having that conversation with your buddy,
Speaker 4: and of course this can happen with you know, the
Speaker 4: fair Sex as well. In a reverse scenario. You you're
Speaker 4: trying to cheer him up, and you're trying because he's
Speaker 4: down in the dumps about it, and he's like, I
Speaker 4: can't believe it didn't work out, and and you're like,
Speaker 4: and you're just trying to make him feel like he
Speaker 4: didn't lose the greatest thing he ever had. So you're
Speaker 4: also trying to feed him from that side, and then
Speaker 4: it all blows up in your face. So just be
Speaker 4: careful with that baby name thing. Sure that as well.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of minefields out there.
Speaker 5: The bills, by the way, are also bringing back aj Epanessa,
Speaker 5: which is breaking right as we're talking.
Speaker 4: So, uh, that's.
Speaker 5: Another point in my thing that the cap is real,
Speaker 5: but teams keeping play.
Speaker 4: My thing that the cap is real in my favor.
Speaker 5: Is like, Okay, they signed, they got rid of all
Speaker 5: these guys in Buffalo. It's like, oh, this is this
Speaker 5: is sad. The cap is is very hard, That's all true.
Speaker 5: Dion Dawkins who is getting paid a lot of money
Speaker 5: but actually still playing at a very high level that
Speaker 5: they think will continue. They figured out a way to
Speaker 5: change his contract around, give him even more money because
Speaker 5: he's playing at such a high level. So if you
Speaker 5: have players you want to keep, you keep them like
Speaker 5: they kept Upanessa too.
Speaker 4: I'm Switzerland in the is the cap real or not?
Speaker 4: Camp I just don't give a all right, let's let's
Speaker 4: keep let's keep moving, Let's keep it because we must.
Speaker 4: Michael Pittman, this works out for everybody. We didn't need
Speaker 4: to figure out whether Mike Pittman was really good or not.
Speaker 4: Are worth a lot of money, just let the cults
Speaker 4: keep them, and they seem to like him. So Michael
Speaker 4: Pittman gets a three year, forty six million dollar deal, uh,
Speaker 4: or a three year deal forty six million of it guaranteed.
Speaker 4: Where does that stack up, Gregie in terms of the
Speaker 4: wide receiver market, is that tier two as to use
Speaker 4: a Steve smithism, is that tier two money? Tier one low?
Speaker 4: Tier one or tier two money?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like on that borderline. I think it'll wait
Speaker 5: makes making like tier two money. It's perfect for Michael Pittman.
Speaker 5: It's like a little more than the franchise tag. But
Speaker 5: it's not like you're the man.
Speaker 4: Is Michael Pittman the Dalton line for wide receivers like
Speaker 4: have as you're like number one.
Speaker 5: Guy for number one it's a little weird to make
Speaker 5: number one receivers the Dalton line. But yes, for like
Speaker 5: a number one to number two receiver, I think he
Speaker 5: would he would be that line.
Speaker 4: Wait, do we have a new offseason series.
Speaker 5: It's time like spending the Darne universe right to say
Speaker 5: you're a number one, then you're like in the top
Speaker 5: you know, in theory two twenty five in the league
Speaker 5: whatever it's gonna be. So yeah, sounds like a chore.
Speaker 4: But to the point where the Dalton line is that
Speaker 4: at that point you don't have a solution as a
Speaker 4: true playmaker, Mark, it's something for you.
Speaker 5: It's s'er confusing because every team needs two to three
Speaker 5: receivers and he's not the sixteenth best receiver in the league.
Speaker 5: Isn't that where the Jaguars are.
Speaker 6: They don't have an They don't have a number one
Speaker 6: teams out there like the do the Titans have it?
Speaker 6: Did you consider DeAndre Hopkins the number one?
Speaker 5: At this point? Christian Kirk looks more like the Dalton
Speaker 5: line someone.
Speaker 4: I'm just like, this might be something to chew on.
Speaker 4: That's all Mark, something to chew on. You want me
Speaker 4: to say it's a fully formed idea, but something really
Speaker 4: to get in the lab and try to see if
Speaker 4: we could make.
Speaker 5: I will heavily consider it. While we're on the Colts,
Speaker 5: they're sort of like, to me, one of the more
Speaker 5: forgettable teams from the twenty twenty three seasons. Sorry, I
Speaker 5: know you were in the mix, but once once Richardson
Speaker 5: was hurt, it was just to me, they weren't a
Speaker 5: fun watch. They've had those the Colts. I'm saying sorry
Speaker 5: to the Colts.
Speaker 4: To the Cults. Yes, I think Mark was in on
Speaker 4: the Cults as well.
Speaker 5: They've had the most boring Day one of free agency too,
Speaker 5: which is they just resigned all their players. They resigned
Speaker 5: Taekwon Lewis, they resigned Grover Stewart to a surprisingly big deal.
Speaker 5: But I like Grover Stewart, and they resigned Pittman. So
Speaker 5: it's just like Chris baal is just like we like
Speaker 5: our guys. Let's let's stick with.
Speaker 4: Him and hopefully Richardson's healthy and and maybe we take
Speaker 4: the leap. They comported themselves with grace and dignity considering
Speaker 4: the injury mark.
Speaker 5: And that was my comment.
Speaker 6: And I thought that their defense was, you know, nasty
Speaker 6: on a week to week basis, and they made the
Speaker 6: playoffs with a backup quarterback.
Speaker 5: They didn't a lot about that team. They did not
Speaker 5: make the playoffs, but they were felt it felt like
Speaker 5: it was a battle. It was like the play in
Speaker 5: game for the NBA, the battle for the fourteenth seed
Speaker 5: in the NFL.
Speaker 4: Which they barely lost. Tough stitch for them. But Garner,
Speaker 4: there's no such thing as barely lost. Either one or
Speaker 4: you lost.
Speaker 5: In this case barely that it all right.
Speaker 4: We got to take one more break and then we'll
Speaker 4: finish the news. All right, we're back, let's close this out.
Speaker 4: This is more in the in the realm, of speculation,
Speaker 4: but keep an eye on it because we've been talking
Speaker 4: about wide receivers all show and that market is fast
Speaker 4: drying up. But there are still teams out there that
Speaker 4: are desperate to add wide receivers. So t Higgins, who
Speaker 4: got tagged by the Bengals, their number two guy, that's
Speaker 4: a good example. T Higgins is the number two on
Speaker 4: his team, but I think he's almost certainly better than
Speaker 4: Michael Pittman, right like or you know, I thines, yes,
Speaker 4: that type of thing. So Tiggins Higgins is that type
Speaker 4: of guy. So when he he looks around at the landscape,
Speaker 4: he says, all right, you're gonna tag me, but you're
Speaker 4: not willing to give me the long term deal. I request,
Speaker 4: I request the trade, he said, he declared it. So
Speaker 4: we'll see did they grant him that request.
Speaker 5: Well, he's a free he's a franchise tag, so he's
Speaker 5: it's kind of funny because he's allowed to. We don't
Speaker 5: need to get you don't need to give permission. I mean,
Speaker 5: you get it a little early. But any team can
Speaker 5: sign a franchise tag player he's unsigned. They just to
Speaker 5: give up a lot, but they can. They could.
Speaker 4: But he has the tag fixed to him. Correct, Correct,
Speaker 4: they have to give them and grant him. Grant the
Speaker 4: team that has affixed the tag. Doesn't it preclude that
Speaker 4: player from being in the mix and free agency with
Speaker 4: a certain designation.
Speaker 5: Well, in theory, teams could sign him to an offer
Speaker 5: sheet and they would have to give up two first
Speaker 5: round picks, which everyone knows is going to be too
Speaker 5: rich for t Higgins. So yes, I guess the Bengals
Speaker 5: would have to give permission on some level to talk
Speaker 5: about different trade terms. But we know how this works.
Speaker 4: They but liked with Kansas City as another example in
Speaker 4: this realm. They're on board with this. Yes, we don't
Speaker 4: have any indications that the Bengals are entertaining offers, but
Speaker 4: he would like to be on the move.
Speaker 6: But the Chiefs or the Bengals could accept less than
Speaker 6: the you know two number one like remember this happened
Speaker 6: with Jimmy Graham back in the day. Was like they
Speaker 6: could if they really wanted to move Higgins or it
Speaker 6: became a thing like you can accept your different terms.
Speaker 5: Right, you can do what you want. Matt Castle, I think,
Speaker 5: was one of those guys back in the day knowing
Speaker 5: the Bengals they're not gonna him like declaring the trial
Speaker 5: is right is only going to make them be like, sorry, bro,
Speaker 5: we want you for one more year. I don't think
Speaker 5: they're going to do anything. This makes them want.
Speaker 4: Him more, like, oh, you really want to go, You're
Speaker 4: not going anywhere. Eric Armstead, also of the Niners. He
Speaker 4: is expected to be released by San Francisco, so he'll
Speaker 4: he'll enter the fray. The Commander's sign.
Speaker 5: Yes, I think he's in my top thirty of my
Speaker 5: free agency list. I was quite surprised he was still
Speaker 5: playing pretty well last year. They did sign Leonard Floyd
Speaker 5: as we were taping, to a two year, twenty million
Speaker 5: dollar contract, so they basically decided to get a similar
Speaker 5: ish player. I know, Floyd's more of an outside guy,
Speaker 5: but good run stopper, but for much less money than
Speaker 5: Armstead was making. But a weird move.
Speaker 4: Weird move. I'm looking at a name right now that
Speaker 4: I'm really I'm in trouble. I'm gonna say it right now.
Speaker 4: The Commander's signed former Cowboys defensive end Doran This is
Speaker 4: this One's not that he's easy. Durrance Durrance Dorance Armstrong
Speaker 4: Darrence Armstrong thirty three million over three years, but also
Speaker 4: center tyler.
Speaker 5: Biadaci and as Biaci as we were taping. Also our
Speaker 5: number one or my number one out off ball linebacker
Speaker 5: Frankie Luvu to a three year, thirty six million dollar contract,
Speaker 5: so they're active if nothing else, and two of those
Speaker 5: guys were dan Quinn's players in Dallas Armstrong. I thought
Speaker 5: was is a nice value there. I really liked how
Speaker 5: he played.
Speaker 6: Frankie Luvu is sort of for me like a Van
Speaker 6: Gingkle type where it's like, I, I really I think
Speaker 6: Frankie Luvu is an excellent addition, big higher constantly creating problems.
Speaker 5: Why are you making a face? I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just like I like Mark's kind of nebulos guys.
Speaker 6: I got stuck watching the Panthers a lot early in
Speaker 6: the year last year, and I just noted that, like
Speaker 6: whenever he's writing my notes for our show, like Louvu
Speaker 6: kept just doing things over and over, and I think
Speaker 6: it's like a I don't know, I never I never
Speaker 6: trust the Commanders as a landing spot, but I have
Speaker 6: to remove what's happened my like the last twenty years
Speaker 6: up until now.
Speaker 5: We'll see, right, these these actually seem like the sort
Speaker 5: of like mid wattage, the solid NFL players that are
Speaker 5: improving and in the middle of the career that you
Speaker 5: want in free agency, very uncommanders like so I think
Speaker 5: I think it's a nice day for the commanders. I
Speaker 5: really liked Armstrong coming into this whole thing. He was
Speaker 5: one of my guys that I wanted.
Speaker 4: Uh, pinch me. Patriots talk. Kendrick Bourne resigns with the
Speaker 4: Pats nineteen million over over three years. He's coming off
Speaker 4: in ACL, so it is an ACL, right, so hopefully
Speaker 4: he'll be healthy and a contributor. DeVante Parker another a
Speaker 4: big time move that they made a couple of years back,
Speaker 4: did not work out, so he's been released. Greg I
Speaker 4: mean Bill Belichick.
Speaker 5: Signing Devonte Parker to another contract the last offseason is
Speaker 5: you know, one of the more regrettable moves that didn't
Speaker 5: involve the name Juju Smith Schuster for the Patriots. Patriots
Speaker 5: also added Antonio Gibson. Oh yeah, that's kind of fun.
Speaker 4: I do like wide receiver room is pretty rough the
Speaker 4: last few years in general, just the decisions and the
Speaker 4: production and the highlight plays or lack thereof.
Speaker 5: It's pretty rough. I do like them as the last
Speaker 5: second fields option, although I wouldn't want that to stop
Speaker 5: them from from drafting one.
Speaker 4: You know you brought up Belichick. Imagine you know Kirk
Speaker 4: Cousins signed with Bill Belichick's team today. That would have
Speaker 4: been cool if the Falcons made that move. But maybe
Speaker 4: Raheem Morris will be better. All right, Eight o'clock to
Speaker 4: light hit it. The Colts signs Aiar Franklin three years,
Speaker 4: thirty one million. The jag signed former Bill center Mitch
Speaker 4: Morse ten million over two years. Graham Glasgow re signed
Speaker 4: by Detroit twenty million bucks he gets in that deal.
Speaker 4: The Bengals bring back tight Andrew Sample on a three
Speaker 4: year contract. The Patriots signed Antonio Gibson the running back
Speaker 4: Cardinals signed cornerbacks Sean Murphy, Bunting and Bilal Nichols. The
Speaker 4: Colts hang on to defensive lineman Tyquin Lewis and Grover Stewart,
Speaker 4: and the Texans signed one time top three pick of
Speaker 4: the lines Jeffer Kuda to a contract. They also bring
Speaker 4: in former Titan Denico Autry.
Speaker 5: Like that Autry move, I like those, you know, Textan
Speaker 5: seems like you're doing smart things. Very deserting.
Speaker 4: Team, a little weird to me the Grenard thing, but
Speaker 4: they must know something that we don't.
Speaker 5: Also, if you're a fan and your team didn't make
Speaker 5: this show, or or you're Nick Westling and you're texting us,
Speaker 5: I mean, what are the what is the Bengals plans like?
Speaker 4: Same old stuff. Just calm down.
Speaker 5: They want a free agency. There's gonna be a lot
Speaker 5: of more stuff that's gonna happen.
Speaker 4: The Jets signed Greg Zerline, but they bring back Greg
Speaker 4: the leg and I think Will Lutz had a change
Speaker 4: of heart. Should we leave that as a cliffhanger? Yes,
Speaker 4: you need to find that out on your own.
Speaker 5: The report was he was going to go to Jacksonville
Speaker 5: and and Sean Payton would not let his man go,
Speaker 5: and he brought him back to Denver. Dan, you we're
Speaker 5: gonna give us here Derrick Henry fantasy.
Speaker 4: Oh why don't we do it? When I when I
Speaker 4: say I'll go one, two, three, go, and then we'll
Speaker 4: all say where we think is the perfect landing spot
Speaker 4: for Derrick Henry. Okay, well, all right, Greg, sit it
Speaker 4: out because you can't go along with anything, all right?
Speaker 5: Me and you Mark Eddy, I to think of something
Speaker 5: one two three go ings.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it just makes so much sense, does can't you
Speaker 4: You talk about you were talking about Big Ben, you
Speaker 4: were struggling with him in Pittsburgh, Like God, he just
Speaker 4: he would. You could pour him into that Raven's purple
Speaker 4: and it just today. You could see him running in
Speaker 4: January and finally getting him over the hump and closing
Speaker 4: out some ball games, and.
Speaker 6: They's Baltimore is the perfect place to pick up a veteran.
Speaker 6: That's apparently everyone else, including the Smart Titans, have decided
Speaker 6: we're done with this guy. And he rolls into a
Speaker 6: Baltimore operation that probably goes two playoff games deep because
Speaker 6: of him. I love the fit. You could see it
Speaker 6: today and he would destroy people left and right post November.
Speaker 5: And you kind of alluded to this regarding the Giants earlier.
Speaker 5: We have had some mild confirmation from Albert Breer that
Speaker 5: that Brian Burns and the Panthers are in talks with
Speaker 5: the Giants for a possible trade, but nothing finalized. And
Speaker 5: that's been apparently going on for a while, so that
Speaker 5: that would be a spicy meatball.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, cave On Thibodeau, friend of the show,
Speaker 4: is strong, but certainly took a big leap forward in
Speaker 4: year two Thibodeaux and Burns. Okay, there you go, Giants fans,
Speaker 4: that would be something to hang your hat on. Now
Speaker 4: we'll see what the what the Panthers are asking for?
Speaker 4: I mean, would that cost them geez? First round pick?
Speaker 5: I could see it. Maybe next year's first round picks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they can't do it this year, right, It would
Speaker 4: maybe a two this year and a one next year
Speaker 4: and then all of a sudden, this that's all.
Speaker 5: It's like, go ahead of ourselves. It's not going to
Speaker 5: be that much. It's not gonna be that much. I
Speaker 5: know they turned down two first but the markets it's
Speaker 5: different now. It's because you have to pay them right now,
Speaker 5: and it's just different. You might be able to get
Speaker 5: him for a two, and then I would be I
Speaker 5: would be happy with that if.
Speaker 4: I love Panthers management turning down two first round picks
Speaker 4: for Brian Burns.
Speaker 5: And just remember Dan, it's cave on Burns and Van Ginkel.
Speaker 4: Hmmm.
Speaker 5: Now we're now, Now we've got something going on in
Speaker 5: New York. Things are. The tide is turned in this
Speaker 5: very day for Singletary, because hey, you got it, you
Speaker 5: gotta get a Singletary in the building right right off
Speaker 5: the bat. You drafted them in Buffalo and you don't
Speaker 5: want to pay sake.
Speaker 4: On I think unless they they're going to get a quarterback,
Speaker 4: the Giants, I think they got to really think hard
Speaker 4: now and checking in on Justin Fields if they haven't already,
Speaker 4: that could be all right. All right. See, there's a
Speaker 4: lot more to come in and as soon as we
Speaker 4: finish this podcast, more news will break and it will
Speaker 4: be annoying. But also we did threatened vengeance upon any
Speaker 4: newsmakers and you know teams that break our our code
Speaker 4: of not dropping news right after we finished recording. So
Speaker 4: hopefully news breaks overnight at the earliest or early tomorrow,
Speaker 4: and then we'll be back. We're getting on a board.
Speaker 4: We're getting on a bird tomorrow, hopefully with a trophy
Speaker 4: in hand as we go to the iHeartRadio Awards tonight.
Speaker 4: Had a nice time last night. They had a private
Speaker 4: party and it was you know, all the nice, nice
Speaker 4: little crowd, intimate gathering at this really nice hotel, Saint
Speaker 4: Cecilia Hotel here in downtown Austin, and we saw the
Speaker 4: Black Keys, who did a nice forty five minute set
Speaker 4: of you know, good like Heartland Americana rock. Good stomped
Speaker 4: to it, a good kind of dirty Detroit style rock
Speaker 4: from the Cleveland based Black Keys. Mark was enjoying himself.
Speaker 4: Greg seemed to be okay with it. Everybody was. I
Speaker 4: enjoyed it.
Speaker 5: What are you talking about?
Speaker 4: You had a great time? Well you you were to
Speaker 4: You know what I noticed because I moved, I moved it.
Speaker 4: You were on the side of the stage. And then
Speaker 4: when I rotated around to the front of the stage
Speaker 4: for the second half of the show, it was like, Oh,
Speaker 4: these guys actually sound great. From the side of the stage.
Speaker 4: You couldn't hear it as well, and I was like, ah,
Speaker 4: Greg would have really like this.
Speaker 5: Well, you flagged us. We should have texted down. It
Speaker 5: was only like twenty feet away, or just come come over.
Speaker 4: You seem to be because I could see you. I
Speaker 4: had a good sight line. It was a very small gathering,
Speaker 4: and you seem to be engrossed conversation. So I said,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna let Greg be. But then I did. I
Speaker 4: caught the Cess Dog's eye and I waved my arms
Speaker 4: and Cess Dog rolls over and yeah, you know, we
Speaker 4: had a great time.
Speaker 5: I miss quite an interesting crowd I'll leave it right there.
Speaker 5: It's always it's always tricky at a concert. Do you
Speaker 5: want to be on the side and have like a
Speaker 5: direct view, you know, we were only like what twenty
Speaker 5: feet from I remember whatever, fifteen feet from him? Or
Speaker 5: if you're a smaller man like myself, do you want
Speaker 5: to go in the more ass in the front and
Speaker 5: either not be able to see or burrow your way
Speaker 5: up to the front, which is possible when you're you know,
Speaker 5: a troll like figure like myself. You know, there's a
Speaker 5: lot of decisions that go into it. I just felt
Speaker 5: like a chill night. I'm just gonna chill on the
Speaker 5: side with a great sight line. But you're right, probably
Speaker 5: no judgments, bro, no judgments at all. And tonight we're
Speaker 5: gonna meet up with our old buddy Mats Tanton, who's
Speaker 5: worked on our show in the past.
Speaker 4: He's living out here now. We're trying to get some
Speaker 4: good Texas barbecue, and then yeah, head to the award show. Mark,
Speaker 4: you have predicted victory for us, as I understand.
Speaker 6: I feel strongly that we will win. That's what I've
Speaker 6: said that the feeling grows. Initially I thought we had
Speaker 6: no chance. We're going against you know, Travis and Jason Kelsey,
Speaker 6: who seemed to have Like America in their vice grip
Speaker 6: at the moment. So it would be an incredible upset.
Speaker 6: But I believe that we're that type of We're that
Speaker 6: type of show. We've always been that type of show,
Speaker 6: and we're hours away from a colossal American story.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: When I found out Club says is like Us also
Speaker 5: distributed by iHeart, but even more directly, I thought that
Speaker 5: was possibly a bad bit of news for us. Mark
Speaker 5: brought up this theory that we're going to win around
Speaker 5: a couple of iHeart executives, I believe last night, and
Speaker 5: one of the women said, you know, it's just all
Speaker 5: about being dominated. I oh, shoot, she that.
Speaker 4: That's not a week go.
Speaker 5: That's not because I think she knows. I think she knows.
Speaker 4: I believe that we will lose. I believe that we
Speaker 4: will will lose. Uh tight end. Will Disley agrees to
Speaker 4: a three year, fourteen million dollar contract with the Chargers.
Speaker 4: So Greg did not give Disley any respect h in
Speaker 4: his free agency one oh one, but obviously the Chargers
Speaker 4: thought highly of him. And I do believe that Jim
Speaker 4: Harbaugh knows a little bit about ball, So heads up
Speaker 4: on that.
Speaker 5: I mean, I agree, he just didn't make the one
Speaker 5: oh one, I mean.
Speaker 4: Two thirteen he made us. We had a nice blurb,
Speaker 4: I said.
Speaker 5: Colby Parkinson from the Rams, So I mean, let's not
Speaker 5: get too crazy. I do think the Chargers are going
Speaker 5: to be the team of the next couple of days.
Speaker 5: By the way, maybe they'll sign the Neil Hunter. They'll
Speaker 5: sign some like crazy players and make some trades. They're
Speaker 5: going to do lots of crazy stuff.
Speaker 4: Mark your will, your will? Disley, Uh, what was your blurb?
Speaker 4: Blurb was unbelievable. It's unfortunately it's going to be lost
Speaker 4: and the edit, but that's okay. It's part of the process.
Speaker 6: I think you just have to enjoy the process and
Speaker 6: realize that some of your better work is going to
Speaker 6: be you know, invisible, but not to yourself.
Speaker 4: We've lost we've lost roughly twenty one hundred words of
Speaker 4: content so far with guys coming off the board.
Speaker 5: But you guys are like Sophia Coppola's Elvis movie, was it?
Speaker 5: Was it good?
Speaker 6: Was it? Baud?
Speaker 5: Who knows? Because an Elvis movie came out like right
Speaker 5: before it and no one wanted another Elvis movie.
Speaker 4: I'll just go again, Mark, I got this No, just
Speaker 4: a no, Actually I saw the Coppola.
Speaker 5: It is a solid B minus.
Speaker 4: That is Coppola. Coppola. Sorry, yeah, Coppola. All right, that's it.
Speaker 4: That's it for this show. Yes, we'll be back. If
Speaker 4: we have a trophy, that would be amazing. Like with
Speaker 4: the Oscars that just happened on Sunday, they everyone gets
Speaker 4: an Oscar right when you win, like if you win, yes,
Speaker 4: you know, best cinematography, Like everyone on the team gets
Speaker 4: an Oscar, right, Like we're gonna get three trophy right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Like everyone in our building apparently, even people deep
Speaker 6: in the IT department have Emmys, and we are the
Speaker 6: three people without Emmys apparently in the entire building. Right,
Speaker 6: and so yes, they give it to everyone except for us, apparently,
Speaker 6: So this is our vengeance? Yes are you asking? Well
Speaker 6: one of the three, one of us get a trophy
Speaker 6: and who's I.
Speaker 5: Mean supporting actor? You know, just one guy gets it?
Speaker 4: There? Well, we could keep it in the Chris West
Speaker 4: podcast studio, or we could kind of have a rotating
Speaker 4: We could have Eric maybe work up an Excel spreadsheet
Speaker 4: and we could kind of share it throughout their year.
Speaker 5: Have you know, just cut it into three parts and
Speaker 5: we each take apart home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that's an option as well. Big Funk chimes
Speaker 4: in in the chat, like the Stanley Cup. Yeah, you
Speaker 4: take it home, you get drunk with it, you have it,
Speaker 4: you have a good old time with your friends, and
Speaker 4: then you hand it to the next person, hopefully without
Speaker 4: a dent.
Speaker 6: Don't do you get it into the music? Don't they
Speaker 6: have enough at this point? They have enough? Who the
Speaker 6: Kelsey's they've been given, they're not going to get. You
Speaker 6: got forty speeches. I don't like anything you do. One
Speaker 6: interview that goes viral and now we're going to give
Speaker 6: him awards.
Speaker 5: I think it's very popular in general.
Speaker 4: But Eric, you could hit the music literally anytime.
Speaker 5: There is a trade though. We have developing news. The
Speaker 5: Lions are acquiring cornerback Carlton Davis from the Bucks, according
Speaker 5: to the Pell Raiser, and he's not sharing this scoop.
Speaker 5: He's putting this out all by himself. That's a player
Speaker 5: who makes, you know, over fifteen million dollars a year.
Speaker 5: That's what some deep people would consider a number one
Speaker 5: cornerback at the Big Time Trader.
Speaker 4: You're getting played off like it's the OSCARS. Congratulations Hill.
Speaker 4: Tomorrow he the call.