Speaker 1: Welcome to forties and free agents. I am Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: This is Daniel Jeremiah, and this is a limited series
Speaker 1: going through draft season, and we arm wrestled to decide
Speaker 1: who was gonna speak first. And people don't know this
Speaker 1: about DJ, but very short arm length.
Speaker 2: I got to go, Wow, that's an interesting tale there.
Speaker 2: You know, we've seen in the history of this country
Speaker 2: enemies come together and join hands and fine common ground.
Speaker 2: None more challenging than this relationship coming together. But that's
Speaker 2: what happens with the NFL offseason, Greg, when you've got
Speaker 2: free agency in the draft, it's coming together.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm the pro personnel side with no experience whatsoever,
Speaker 1: and you know the college game and so no, we
Speaker 1: thought it'd be fun to come together during this season.
Speaker 1: I call it the regular season, the build up to
Speaker 1: free agency and then your season draft, and we kind
Speaker 1: of compare the two worlds and decide how these teams
Speaker 1: are going to be built. I'm excited about this.
Speaker 2: No, I'm excited about this in a big way. I'm
Speaker 2: also excited about Greg's watch.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: I don't know what they are paying over NFL Bailey,
Speaker 2: but that is impressive.
Speaker 1: This was a gift, Thank you, and yeah you can.
Speaker 1: You can check us out on YouTube on NFL Network
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this. Let's go to my top
Speaker 1: ten free agent's list. And I got to admit the
Speaker 1: list looked a lot better before t Higgins and Trey
Speaker 1: Smith got the franchise that because now Milton Williams is
Speaker 1: number one, and it kind.
Speaker 3: Of feels like that year where Eric Fisher went number
Speaker 3: one in the free agency.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or when Malik Jackson was actually my number one
Speaker 1: free agent about seven eight years ago. We got Ronnie
Speaker 1: Stanley with the Ravens. Zach Bond is now resigned, so
Speaker 1: Sam Darnold moves up the list. Josh Sweat with the Eagles,
Speaker 1: Chris Godwin, Carlton Davis, a lot of good cornerbacks.
Speaker 3: I think at the top of this group.
Speaker 1: Tarvarius war dj Read, DeVante Adams and Amari Cooper both
Speaker 1: coming off like shaky years there. I'm curious when you
Speaker 1: look at that list, like, what do you want to criticize?
Speaker 2: First? I don't want to criticize. I want to point
Speaker 2: something out, which is sometimes when you're stacking free agents
Speaker 2: and you're looking at who the best available players are,
Speaker 2: I think people get caught up in pass production versus
Speaker 2: future value. That's what free agency is all about, and
Speaker 2: I think age is incredibly important. Now Milton Williams, I
Speaker 2: believe it's twenty five years old. Yeah, so when you
Speaker 2: factor that in, plus he can rush the passer from
Speaker 2: the interior, which is extremely hard to find. I think that.
Speaker 2: I think there's probably some shock value to people like
Speaker 2: casual NFL fans to see his name up there at
Speaker 2: the top, but he is going to get a lot
Speaker 2: of money. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The only regrets I have with this list is not
Speaker 1: pushing some more of those young guys up the list,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about during the show. I did kind
Speaker 1: of think this is taking a big picture view of this.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of defensive players.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of line like three down linebackers, defensive tackles.
Speaker 3: What do you think about the theory that.
Speaker 1: Those positions, specifically off ball linebacker, a defensive tackle, like
Speaker 1: that's a great free agent position because it takes so
Speaker 1: long for them to develop. I think Milton Williams is
Speaker 1: a good example of Zach Bond was that, like, these
Speaker 1: are guys that maybe weren't really ready to be difference
Speaker 1: makers early in their career, but those are positions where
Speaker 1: they get a lot better and they're peaking at twenty five.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it takes patience, and I think that's why there's
Speaker 2: that sweet spot of guys who have experience but are
Speaker 2: still young. Not many of them, but guys that do
Speaker 2: have experience. I go back to Patrick Queen was last
Speaker 2: year's free agent. Yeah, so you look at the number
Speaker 2: that he got and the impact that he had with
Speaker 2: the Pittsburgh Steelers because he was still ascending. He was
Speaker 2: still young, but he played a lot of football. I
Speaker 2: see it doing the Charger games. I've seen linebackers come
Speaker 2: through there. Drew Trenkill was a great example of someone
Speaker 2: who got better as he went along. Dayon Henley last
Speaker 2: year year two, you saw the spike take place. So
Speaker 2: I think if you're a team that has a whole
Speaker 2: at off the ball linebacker and you are trying to
Speaker 2: win and be competitive right now, I think there's there's
Speaker 2: reason to go on the bet.
Speaker 1: Right That's that's the position I mentioned because that's where
Speaker 1: there's a lot of younger starters. Nick Bolton, Ernest Jones,
Speaker 1: Drey Greenlaw's.
Speaker 2: And Ernest Jones stay somewhere he's been a good player
Speaker 2: in three different places at a young age, Like it's
Speaker 2: time for him to settle in.
Speaker 1: He's out there negotiating on Twitter with the Seahawks, like
Speaker 1: responding to negative tweets about him that that's always he
Speaker 1: had an injury.
Speaker 3: Which is that's not a great sign.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about who has the most cap space in
Speaker 1: this entire market, and do you believe there is such
Speaker 1: a thing as too much cap space? The Patriots have
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty seven million dollars, which to me
Speaker 1: is a failure, Like that's why they spent enough.
Speaker 2: You don't have enough of your own players that command money,
Speaker 2: which means you're not very good, which is why they're
Speaker 2: picking where they're picking in the draft.
Speaker 1: The Raiders have ninety five, the Chargers of ninety, the
Speaker 1: Cardinals have seventy eight, Commander sixty four.
Speaker 3: And my issue is there's too much cap space.
Speaker 2: Though, but different reasons. So if you go through those teams,
Speaker 2: like let's take the Chargers and the Commanders, the Chargers
Speaker 2: took their medicine last year, so you know, think about
Speaker 2: all the dead money that they had. Keenan is gone,
Speaker 2: Eckler's gone, Mike Williams is gone, so they kind of
Speaker 2: ate that last year. So now they're freed up with
Speaker 2: some money. See some a good bit of free agents
Speaker 2: of their own that Khalil Mack I would imagine they'll
Speaker 2: try and get back in the fold. Poona Ford who
Speaker 2: played well. So some of those internal players I think
Speaker 2: eat up some of that money. And then Washington that
Speaker 2: is the picture of what it looks like when you
Speaker 2: hit on a top quarterback. You can have your cake
Speaker 2: and eat it too. I mean, they have all that space,
Speaker 2: and they have the most important position secured, and they're
Speaker 2: paying mexti amount.
Speaker 1: And yet they signed so many one year veteran free
Speaker 1: agents last year that when you look at their roster,
Speaker 1: they've got about ten starting jobs to fill. So Adam
Speaker 1: Peters is gonna earn his money this offseason. But when
Speaker 1: you look like more than half the league now has
Speaker 1: more than forty million dollars, like the money that's come
Speaker 1: in with this TV money, and there's it's much harder
Speaker 1: to find great players than it is to spend your
Speaker 1: cash space unless you're the Saints.
Speaker 3: Yea, they actually are a.
Speaker 2: Great push it out and just push it out another future.
Speaker 2: The interesting thing is I've talked to a bunch of
Speaker 2: gms over the last you know, through the combine, over
Speaker 2: the last couple of weeks, and all of them when
Speaker 2: I go, are you going to be aggressive or free agency?
Speaker 2: You guys got a lot of money. Yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 2: wait for that second wave. Yeah. And they all say this,
Speaker 2: and then free agency starts and we're all gonna be like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, looking how much money this guy just got.
Speaker 2: But they all have the intention of being patient.
Speaker 3: You.
Speaker 1: We mentioned the Chargers, so let's mention it here. Joey
Speaker 1: Bosa released late Wednesday night.
Speaker 3: Not a shock.
Speaker 1: They open up twenty five million dollars in cap space,
Speaker 1: which you rarely see anymore. Like a cut, like helping
Speaker 1: you that much, But they kind of set this up
Speaker 1: a year ago knowing it might be a possibility.
Speaker 3: Not a shock.
Speaker 1: I put him at number fifty six in my top
Speaker 1: one to one. I really struggled with what to do,
Speaker 1: because sure, he has a higher ceiling than almost any
Speaker 1: pass rusher out there, like if you got peaked Joey Bosa,
Speaker 1: that's better than Josh Swat obviously, but he hasn't been
Speaker 1: healthy for three years. If you add up the snap
Speaker 1: total over the last three years, it adds up to
Speaker 1: about a thousand snaps and most of that's last year,
Speaker 1: which I don't need to tell you. He was out
Speaker 1: there not one hundred percent, almost trying to prove he
Speaker 1: could play hurt, but he wasn't the same Joey Bosa
Speaker 1: for most of the year.
Speaker 3: There were just little flashes like early in the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's an example. And we'll see some
Speaker 2: others in this list. In your list here of you're
Speaker 2: going to see incentive lating contracts. So you're going to
Speaker 2: get asked, because you put a list together, what's this
Speaker 2: player going to get? And the answer should be, well,
Speaker 2: it's going to be dependent on how he plays, because
Speaker 2: there's going to be a base number for someone like
Speaker 2: Joey Bosa, and it's going to be heavily incentivized. If
Speaker 2: he does stay healthy, he can get his what his
Speaker 2: worth is.
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't be surprised if you know he combines
Speaker 1: with his brother up in San Francisco, they're looking for
Speaker 1: some edge.
Speaker 3: That would be fun.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the strength of the draft. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you take it over top your top fifty prospects
Speaker 1: is out as of Thursday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fresh off a little update here from the combine,
Speaker 2: and always some changes here once you get official measurements
Speaker 2: on these guys too. But it's a unique draft in
Speaker 2: that we don't have a quarterback until you get to
Speaker 2: cam Ward. There's my tenth overall player. You have a
Speaker 2: running back and two tight ends and the top six players.
Speaker 2: Don't know that there's ever been a year quite like that.
Speaker 2: But if we were to go beyond what you see
Speaker 2: on the screen right here with these top ten players,
Speaker 2: and you look at the entire top fifty man greg
Speaker 2: it is defensive line heavy. It is loaded with both
Speaker 2: DT's and edge rushers. You want a running back, there's
Speaker 2: premier running backs in this draft. There's depth in this class.
Speaker 2: Tight end you see those, there's top two guys up there.
Speaker 2: There's tons of depth there. It's kind of a weird,
Speaker 2: you know, draft in that regard because we've had receivers.
Speaker 2: There's depth, but not the high end stars that we've
Speaker 2: had in the past few years. Quarterbacks. Last year we
Speaker 2: have those six guys go, it's nothing like that. So
Speaker 2: it's gonna be fascinating to see how this marys up
Speaker 2: with your list and my list, looking at free agency,
Speaker 2: looking at the draft, and seeing how the draft is
Speaker 2: going to inform what happens.
Speaker 3: Well, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Let's like kind of look at I had the top
Speaker 1: fifty list. You have your top fifty.
Speaker 3: I had Top one to one. I mean, I'm working
Speaker 3: more than double as hard as.
Speaker 2: I have a top one fifty that comes out before
Speaker 2: my event. But i mean, hey, that's only forty nine.
Speaker 1: We're going to be doing this show every week, so
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to picking your list apart a little bit,
Speaker 1: like and Mason Mason Graham's the top five guy can.
Speaker 3: Even stay on the field on rundowns, Like, stay tuned
Speaker 3: for more of that. But when we look at the different.
Speaker 2: On rundowns, is that what you saying?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you think you think he's like a.
Speaker 2: He's an unbelievable wrestler's never on the ground, plays with
Speaker 2: leverage and powers. Never are we going to have this
Speaker 2: conversation already? Are we doing this now? No?
Speaker 1: I just that was my first draft, Hot Bake, looking
Speaker 1: at the different positions, you have five running backs.
Speaker 2: In your time watching the Alabama game in the playoffs
Speaker 2: last year.
Speaker 1: I thought there were some games where like good teams
Speaker 1: actually made their plan around attacking Mason Graham a little.
Speaker 2: Bit like Ohio State, the best team in the country,
Speaker 2: that tried to attack them.
Speaker 3: How that go? I mean, I am feeling the heat
Speaker 3: from having like a Michigan grad.
Speaker 2: We did well, Executive, How long did we get along?
Speaker 3: Was that too long?
Speaker 2: Said? Ten minutes. That's probably the over. I would have
Speaker 2: taken the under on that, but that's okay.
Speaker 3: So we talked strengths of this class. You say, obviously
Speaker 3: the defensive line.
Speaker 1: I would agree that that's also a strength of Look
Speaker 1: at those agent class defensive line. You have fourteen in
Speaker 1: your top fifty. I have twelve in my top fifty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's crazy, and what does that do?
Speaker 2: That's where I go back to, like I think Milton
Speaker 2: Williams maybe the exception because of the age, and he's
Speaker 2: healthy and he can you know, he can rush from inside.
Speaker 2: So maybe he's thinking he's gonna get twenty. Maybe that
Speaker 2: number is more like fifteen sixteen, you know, somewhere in
Speaker 2: there he's gonna he's gonna do well. But some of
Speaker 2: these other guys, like I think you're going to see
Speaker 2: teams put the number and say here's the number. If
Speaker 2: you you know you want to do a deal, we'll
Speaker 2: do a deal. But we're not going to negotiate. We're
Speaker 2: not going to move off that number because of the
Speaker 2: sheer number of guys we got.
Speaker 1: There are guys in this class like at a free
Speaker 1: agency Azizo Jalari, I think would be like an interesting pick,
Speaker 1: solid player like Trashaun Wharton. I feel like I ranked
Speaker 1: too low. Do you ever do you question your list?
Speaker 1: They don't let me do a two point zero. I
Speaker 1: would move him up twenty spots or so. I had
Speaker 1: him too low. But guys like that maybe get left behind,
Speaker 1: whereas other positions, offensive line have such a premium. Are
Speaker 1: we at the point that offensive linemen in the draft
Speaker 1: is almost like quarterbacks in the draft, And I do
Speaker 1: it on my free agency list where I artificially have
Speaker 1: to put them higher just because there aren't any, and
Speaker 1: there aren't any in either space. It feels like this
Speaker 1: year at least.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: When I was in Baltimore, we had a legendary scout,
Speaker 2: Ron Marsonac, who scouted for forty fifty years you know,
Speaker 2: since passed away, but we called him coach Ron, and
Speaker 2: coach Ron one of the first things he told me
Speaker 2: in one of my first years in the league was
Speaker 2: when you're grading players, when you're grading offensive linemen in corners,
Speaker 2: whatever you watch the tape and whatever you think he is,
Speaker 2: you need to bump him up a level because if
Speaker 2: you don't, you're never going to get him. If you're
Speaker 2: waiting for the value at tackle or corner to match,
Speaker 2: you know your great and where they are, and you're
Speaker 2: never going to get them. They get pushed up. So
Speaker 2: you have to do the same thing in terms of
Speaker 2: what you're paying these guys. And in this year, in
Speaker 2: particular the tackle group, there's not a lot of starting
Speaker 2: NFL tackles and they all go really early. So a
Speaker 2: team like the Kansas City Chiefs, people are wondering why
Speaker 2: the heck did they move off of Joe Toney. Well, they,
Speaker 2: as you saw in the Super Bowl, have a glaring
Speaker 2: at left tackle and you have the center, right guard,
Speaker 2: right tackle taken care of. We need a left guard
Speaker 2: and a left tackle. Now, maybe Ronnie Stanley, you could argue,
Speaker 2: makes a ton of sense for them. Go get a
Speaker 2: former Raven like they did with Orlando Brown. That worked
Speaker 2: out when they had a tackle. Need you go sign
Speaker 2: Ronnie Stanley now? That's the Joe Toney money that's going
Speaker 2: to Stanley. And now that left guard is a lot
Speaker 2: easier to find a left guard at the bottom of
Speaker 2: the first round or the second round or the third round.
Speaker 2: You're not finding a starting tackle at that point in time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have actually a bunch of interior offensive linemen in
Speaker 1: my top fifty, just because again there's not many people
Speaker 1: out there. Tvin Jenkins has played a lot. Mkay Beckton
Speaker 1: has moved up there after some cuts like Kevin Zelk
Speaker 1: Banks can play a year for you, Aaron Banks. You
Speaker 1: mentioned Will Fries is a Now not a lot of
Speaker 1: sexy names here. I don't have a single tight end
Speaker 1: that This is a fun class of running backs and
Speaker 1: tight ends. You have five running backs in your top fifty,
Speaker 1: you have four tight ends. I have a total of
Speaker 1: two running backs in no tight ends in my top THI.
Speaker 2: Let me give you two guys I didn't see where
Speaker 2: you had them on your list here. Do not have
Speaker 2: it in front of me. Maybe you can pull it up,
Speaker 2: but I'd be curious on like JK. Dobbin so I
Speaker 2: saw last year, Yeah, he's not And like Naji Harris, right,
Speaker 2: those guys are productive players, good players, not on the
Speaker 2: high end, but because of the depth of the running
Speaker 2: backs in the draft, I wonder if one of those guys,
Speaker 2: like a player of that ILK is, you could get
Speaker 2: like a real value on Yes, guys, but.
Speaker 3: Would you rather have.
Speaker 1: Nase Harris for they're throwing out that he might get
Speaker 1: eight ten million dollars a year.
Speaker 3: I'll maybe believe that.
Speaker 2: I would guess I would without you saying, I would
Speaker 2: have said he was going to get six to eight mins.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think Jacob Dobbins would get less. Probably Aaron
Speaker 1: Jones is also out there.
Speaker 2: I always but again, if you want to bake that in,
Speaker 2: like what if you baked in with those two guys
Speaker 2: five five million with the incentives you go rush for
Speaker 2: fourteen hundred and fifeen hundred yards, We'll get you up
Speaker 2: to the eight nine million that you're hunting.
Speaker 1: Would you rather have those guys or I guess second
Speaker 1: round running back. Wouldn't you rather have the second round
Speaker 1: running back?
Speaker 2: Well? Yeah, but it also just frees you up. You know,
Speaker 2: I think the second round running back in terms of
Speaker 2: the youth, the a little bit more explosive option, and
Speaker 2: you can, you know, you can really cook there. But
Speaker 2: the other thing is, man, if we have some of
Speaker 2: these other needs, you know, we want to go get
Speaker 2: a receiver, we have a corner need, Well let's go.
Speaker 2: We can plug and play with this back at a
Speaker 2: reasonable price, and then we can free ourselves up to
Speaker 2: go with another position there in the second round. I mean,
Speaker 2: these are the conversations that are taking place by the
Speaker 2: way inside.
Speaker 1: The room, right because like, if you don't, if you're
Speaker 1: in Kansas City for instance, and where they're drafting, you
Speaker 1: can't expect to have a good left tackle.
Speaker 2: You're not getting one. That's why to me, they have
Speaker 2: to overpay. And that's why I don't know, because we're
Speaker 2: talking about free agency in the draft. We're not talking trades.
Speaker 2: But they've done that, they've gone that route before. I
Speaker 2: just don't know. You're going to find many people willing
Speaker 2: to part with a starting caliber left tackle. So all
Speaker 2: roads lead to Ronnie Stanley is what I'm getting.
Speaker 3: Mmmm yeah. Next on the list that left tackle is
Speaker 3: Cam Robinson or.
Speaker 2: A little bit throughout his whole career has been up
Speaker 2: at that.
Speaker 3: A little up and down. Dan Moore.
Speaker 1: Guys, maybe Tyron Smith comes back, Like no, probably not
Speaker 1: not something you want to go into the season with
Speaker 1: defensive lineman who I'm curious who are some of your
Speaker 1: favorites I'm going to talk about, Like when you look
Speaker 1: at the free agency class, usually guys don't get to
Speaker 1: free agency unless teams are okay losing them, which is
Speaker 1: a little bit of a red flag. Like o Jalari
Speaker 1: I mentioned, more of a situational guy, never was consistent,
Speaker 1: like a three down type of guy. Tshaun Wharton maybe
Speaker 1: just they couldn't pay him. He's next to Chris Jones,
Speaker 1: he was with the Chiefs own Wuzaique for the Lions
Speaker 1: is a good young player, but it took a while
Speaker 1: for him.
Speaker 2: Mcnis paid.
Speaker 3: They have to pay Hutchinson right. Then you have guys
Speaker 3: coming off of injury.
Speaker 1: I would be really into Malcolm Koons who missed all
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four but played really well in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. Javon Hargrave is a guy who is once
Speaker 1: a top my free agent list now coming off of
Speaker 1: an injury. To Marcus Lawrence, Like, how in rooms are
Speaker 1: you managing like taking one of those guys versus the draft,
Speaker 1: like and the strength of it all.
Speaker 2: So defensive tackles I've had this conversation with multiple people
Speaker 2: similar to what I've said earlier, which is we like you,
Speaker 2: you'll help us. Here's the number, and it's like there's
Speaker 2: no negotiation, like we'll take you at this number, but
Speaker 2: there's no reason for us to negotiate with you and
Speaker 2: go beyond where we're comfortable because of I've got I've
Speaker 2: got in my top fifty, number four, twenty five, twenty seven,
Speaker 2: thirty two, forty three, forty nine, six defensive tackles in
Speaker 2: my top fifty, and beyond those guys, I have another
Speaker 2: ten plus that I feel I can come in and
Speaker 2: at least be rotational starters for me.
Speaker 1: But what if I threw the theory out there that
Speaker 1: this is not a great draft class, and you guys
Speaker 1: who are all in the draft industrial complex is staring
Speaker 1: at these guys. You know someone's got to go number thirty,
Speaker 1: number forty, number fifty. You've almost convinced yourself into that
Speaker 1: this is a good defensive line class, whereas the whole
Speaker 1: class is a little blackluster and maybe last year they'd
Speaker 1: all be around later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, defensive tackle wise, I'm looking at
Speaker 2: the guys right now and it is not There's no
Speaker 2: two hundred and eighty pound guys, and I'm dreaming and
Speaker 2: wishing and hoping are going to add twenty pounds. There's
Speaker 2: no three hundred. We're talking about three hundred and forty
Speaker 2: guys at three hundred forty pound guys need to lose weight.
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about guys who came up. I'm talking
Speaker 2: about guys who were all six three six four, three
Speaker 2: h five to three point fifteen that ran sub five
Speaker 2: flat or just over five flat forties like these guys
Speaker 2: are athletic, big a dude. And we saw it at
Speaker 2: the Senior Bowl. It was representative there. We saw it
Speaker 2: with how they worked out. I don't think there's anything
Speaker 2: fluky or made up about this defensive tackle class.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna just keep taking shots at this draft.
Speaker 2: No, but that's what that's what's good. This is a
Speaker 2: healthy discourse. I it does have a nice watch. It's
Speaker 2: hard to get mad at somebody.
Speaker 3: I didn't even know that was showing, but that was
Speaker 3: that is new.
Speaker 2: I couldn't see for a couple seconds.
Speaker 3: It was it was a gift.
Speaker 2: It was a gift. It was a gift out you're running.
Speaker 3: We cannot afford that.
Speaker 2: I don't know what's going on around.
Speaker 3: Let's take a break.
Speaker 1: We're gonna come back and we're gonna talk quarterbacks afterwards,
Speaker 1: try to figure out because look, this is this is
Speaker 1: the last show before free agency really gets going. By
Speaker 1: the time we tape again, a lot of these quarterback
Speaker 1: situations will be taken care of, will be placed.
Speaker 3: We'll try to figure out how that all works after
Speaker 3: the break.
Speaker 1: All right, we are back on forties and free agents,
Speaker 1: and we are gonna talk quarterbacks. This is this is
Speaker 1: my time of year. Like in a week or two,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be past free agency. It'll be draft, and
Speaker 1: DJ's just gonna try to dominate this show the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: this year. It's an interesting free agency class. It's it's deep,
Speaker 1: Sam Darnold. I have at fourth overall, justin Field nineteenth,
Speaker 1: Jamis Winston, Russell Wilson, Jacoby Brissett in the fifties and sixties,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo, Daniel Jones rounding out in terms of the
Speaker 1: top one hundred, and there's like decent backups of available
Speaker 1: after that. I just didn't want to make every backup
Speaker 1: quarterback make it Mike Guy, Mac Jones, I mean, everyone
Speaker 1: forgot about him. He's a free agent. Joe Flacco is
Speaker 1: a free agent, Gardner Minshew is a free agent, and
Speaker 1: it's kind of figuring out at this time of year. DJ,
Speaker 1: how do you compare these guys to the draft prospects
Speaker 1: compared to the potential trade candidates? If there's any out there,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers will eventually be on this list because I
Speaker 1: don't think they're going to be able to trade it
Speaker 1: that I'm going to start there. Actually, where would you
Speaker 1: put Aaron Rodgers among this entire group?
Speaker 2: It is such a short term move. I would in
Speaker 2: terms of Aaron Rodgers on this list, I would put
Speaker 2: him probably a third. I would put him behind Fields.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at your list right now. To me, if
Speaker 2: I look at it from a draft standpoint, who signs
Speaker 2: as a free agent that would preclude you from taking
Speaker 2: a quarterback high in the draft, And I only see two.
Speaker 2: I think whoever signed Sam Darnold, if he were to
Speaker 2: leave Minnesota he goes and sign somewhere, I think that
Speaker 2: team is out on taking a quarterback in the first round.
Speaker 2: I think whoever signs Justin Fields, I think it's likely
Speaker 2: that they wait on a on a you know, let's
Speaker 2: evaluate him for a year and maybe our quarterback it's
Speaker 2: not him, is coming in the future. But outside of
Speaker 2: those top two guys, you know, Winston Russell Wilson, Jacoby Brissett, Garoppolo,
Speaker 2: Daniel Jones, there's those guys are not going to stop you.
Speaker 2: If the quarterback you like is there to take him.
Speaker 3: I'd go further.
Speaker 1: I would say none of these quarterbacks would you're you're
Speaker 1: changing your draft plan for Sam Donald like I am.
Speaker 2: I don't think you're going to spend the money that
Speaker 2: it's going to cost on Sam Donald. If you're if
Speaker 2: you're a team picking up there in the top of
Speaker 2: the draft and you plan on.
Speaker 1: Taking a call, what if he doesn't cost that much money.
Speaker 1: I think as we get closer to free agency, there
Speaker 1: is a greater a greater chance that he ends up
Speaker 1: staying with Minnesota because ultimately the market isn't that into him.
Speaker 1: The Raiders we've heard maybe not that in I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think he's going to the Raiders.
Speaker 1: I actually could see the Titans being interested in him.
Speaker 1: But if you're the Titans, for instance, and you're going
Speaker 1: after Sam Donald, have you already made the decision that
Speaker 1: you're not drafting cam Ward in general, have they made
Speaker 1: the decision? Do you think of what they're going to
Speaker 1: do at quarterback? And I have Sean Payton's voice in
Speaker 1: my head from the scouting combine where I believe him.
Speaker 1: He said, at this point in the process last year,
Speaker 1: they didn't know they were going to take Nixie.
Speaker 2: They also were holding the first overall pick. Your homework
Speaker 2: starts a little earlier when you're holding the first overall
Speaker 2: pick than it does when you're sitting there and seeing
Speaker 2: who's going to fault you and who do you like
Speaker 2: At that point in time, I would say, I don't
Speaker 2: think he goes to Tennessee. I think Sam Donald. If
Speaker 2: I was going to guess, I would say, if it's
Speaker 2: a like a one term deal, a one year deal, yeah,
Speaker 2: I would say, why would you leave Minnesota if you're
Speaker 2: not going to go outside of Minnesota to chase a
Speaker 2: one year deal because you already know what you have
Speaker 2: there in Minnesota. It's basically a prove it situation. If
Speaker 2: he gets beyond one year, I could make a case
Speaker 2: to the place like Pittsburgh. You know, Pittsburgh seems to
Speaker 2: me like it is Sam Donald justin field, justin field,
Speaker 2: Sam Donald one of those guys would be their quarterback.
Speaker 2: That's why a team like that, they're in no man's
Speaker 2: land in the draft to get one of these guys.
Speaker 1: Anyways, Yeah, and that's why I don't think it would change.
Speaker 1: I think Fields ends up with the Jets or with
Speaker 1: the Steelers. I think the Steelers want to keep him,
Speaker 1: so that would make a lot of sense to me.
Speaker 1: I think Donald ends up staying. And you asked before,
Speaker 1: I'll answer it now how much it would cost. I
Speaker 1: think you maybe can get Sam Donald for forty five
Speaker 1: million dollars on.
Speaker 3: Two years on two years on two years.
Speaker 2: Especially in twenty two and a half, but most.
Speaker 1: Of it's guaranteed, like ten of it's guaranteed into the
Speaker 1: second year, where you have an option to cut him.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's fit. I just don't think with everything that
Speaker 1: gms are looking at for this quarterback class, and then
Speaker 1: there's decent backups out there. Those last two games I
Speaker 1: think lost him a lot of money because you saw.
Speaker 3: Him play in the biggest of spots any froze and
Speaker 3: it reminded everyone why he was available two straight off
Speaker 3: seasons for almost no money, and so now you're giving
Speaker 3: him a raise. But you're not giving that big away.
Speaker 2: So here's my pushback on that. And I'm I'm outed
Speaker 2: and known as a Sam Darnold fan. I was when
Speaker 2: he came leader of the d I mean bounced around
Speaker 2: and hasn't worked this. This is why I would push
Speaker 2: back on that. I think the Detroit game, yeah, Sam
Speaker 2: did not play well. I'm not going to run from
Speaker 2: that or hide from that. Like he did not play
Speaker 2: well on the road in that wouldn't let go of
Speaker 2: the BA the playoff game. Their offensive line got destroyed
Speaker 2: in that game, and I would argue that if you're
Speaker 2: going to make that case, then how do you explain
Speaker 2: what happened in the Super Bowl and how do you
Speaker 2: not acknowledge the impact of getting destroyed upfront and what
Speaker 2: that has on the play of the quarterback. And I
Speaker 2: also have fourteen games sample size, that's not a small
Speaker 2: sample of him playing it at a very very high level.
Speaker 2: When he was protected. He didn't get protected. He got
Speaker 2: his butt kicked. I don't run from that one terrible game.
Speaker 2: I don't put the playoff game on Sam. Okay, So
Speaker 2: if we're going to talk numbers.
Speaker 3: I would more than you.
Speaker 2: So my take is, I think if it's a one
Speaker 2: year deal against state in Minnesota. If you can go
Speaker 2: get a two year deal, whether that's Pittsburgh, whether that's
Speaker 2: you know, wherever else is out there at that point time.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he wants to go running back
Speaker 2: to the New York market. I don't know that i'd
Speaker 2: be in a hurry to do that with the Giants
Speaker 2: instead of the Jets. But that would be, you know,
Speaker 2: at least a conversation. My guess is he gets two years,
Speaker 2: I'll say it's like thirty million in the first year, okay,
Speaker 2: And I'll say there's five little something for the second
Speaker 2: year guaranteed. Whether that's five million, maybe maybe as much
Speaker 2: as ten. But I would say just a little something.
Speaker 3: Oh, we're parking our car and then in the same grass.
Speaker 3: That's basically that's the same. You just raised it a
Speaker 3: little bit. What about the guy's not on this list?
Speaker 1: So kirk Cousins, I saw a report that he wants
Speaker 1: to wait until after the draft because he doesn't.
Speaker 2: Want to see what seats get filled. He got look
Speaker 2: what happened in the draft last year, right, but he
Speaker 2: doesn't have the cards, right?
Speaker 3: Can kirk Cousins dictate?
Speaker 1: Maybe there isn't a market for him until day three
Speaker 1: of the draft anyways, which would make more sense to me,
Speaker 1: and I guess they would want to do right by
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins in Cleveland could make some sense. Who gets
Speaker 1: left out between the draft and free agency. There's too
Speaker 1: many spots that are wide open and so but.
Speaker 2: He's a free look.
Speaker 3: Yes, if he gets released, he won't cost much money.
Speaker 2: It's going to be Russell Wilson from last year. Yes,
Speaker 2: you're gonna pay him a million bucks because the Falcons
Speaker 2: are cut in the check, which makes him way more
Speaker 2: desirable for a place like Cleveland, who has, you know,
Speaker 2: not a lot of money to spend because of how
Speaker 2: much they have sunk and Watson, and he has familiarity there.
Speaker 1: I actually could convince myself more into Kirk Cousins than
Speaker 1: some of these other guys because I was I thought
Speaker 1: it was remarkable how productive and how well he played
Speaker 1: in games where he literally couldn't move.
Speaker 3: He like they figured it out for about half the
Speaker 3: season there.
Speaker 1: And now you make the case he's a year more
Speaker 1: removed from Achilles surgery and maybe he's a little bit.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this question. Nobody's talked about this,
Speaker 2: but I think it's a fascinating conversation. If let's say
Speaker 2: Sam Donald leaves, Sam Donald goes to the Steelers, right,
Speaker 2: so he's gone. If you're Minnesota, and here's here's the options, right,
Speaker 2: you have JJ you're hoping and you're hoping he's going
Speaker 2: to be the but you need a veteran there. You
Speaker 2: have Daniel Jones who's been on your team last year.
Speaker 2: You have Kirk Cousins is available to come back, as
Speaker 2: you know, buying you a little more time with Jajon
Speaker 2: mur Would you rather have Daniel Jones with what he's
Speaker 2: going to cost, which I would have to believe is
Speaker 2: a lot more than what Kirk Cousins Because of the
Speaker 2: Falcons and the way that contract was situated, you could
Speaker 2: get Kirk Cousins back in Minnesota for next to nothing.
Speaker 3: Would you rather have? That's so spicy that I can't
Speaker 3: believe no one else says I've never heard anybody bring
Speaker 3: this up.
Speaker 1: Nate actually said very nice things about each other in
Speaker 1: the press. They handled that pretty well.
Speaker 2: Can I challenge our group here?
Speaker 1: This will be postpers We can't stump the tape and
Speaker 1: this is like maybe in post by the podcast, the.
Speaker 2: Time this airs, we could drop this little thing in
Speaker 2: here because when they played after the game was over,
Speaker 2: Justin Jefferson and Kirk Cousins had a moment was caught
Speaker 2: on camera, and there is a lot of love between
Speaker 2: those guys. Okay, So I'm just I don't know if
Speaker 2: I'm looking at Daniel Jones and what that market is.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's the minshewe market, what is
Speaker 2: that fifteen million bucks since you got or it's Kirk
Speaker 2: Cousin saying I'll come back and literally pay me the minimum.
Speaker 2: Is not making all this money from the found I.
Speaker 1: Think Daniel Jones could be the guy who, in theory
Speaker 1: is competing with Anthony Richardson. I think Justin Field's could
Speaker 1: be that guy, but they're not gonna let him. You
Speaker 1: said something very interesting in public which got on my
Speaker 1: radar this week, which is you thought you wouldn't be
Speaker 1: totally surprised if Gino Smith got traded.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just to me, DK's gone, right. We think
Speaker 2: we think, well, yeah, he's requested a trade. It could
Speaker 2: be done by the time you're listening to this. I
Speaker 2: would imagine that's going to happen in short order. Okay,
Speaker 2: So DK's gone. It just feels like it. Gino's what
Speaker 2: thirty four, maybe mid thirties, Like there's there's moments in
Speaker 2: an organization where you have a coach in his second
Speaker 2: year where it just kind of feels like this could
Speaker 2: be a reset for Seattle. You know, this is an
Speaker 2: opportunity to reset. Now the challenges. Who's you know, who's
Speaker 2: your quarter playing at that point.
Speaker 1: Right, they actually would be the team. Then I would
Speaker 1: extend for Sam Donald maybe and would convince.
Speaker 2: That they could get into that. That's why this would
Speaker 2: have to happen pretty quick, but they.
Speaker 3: Could get in on That hurts my feelings.
Speaker 2: But how would you do though, if, as the president
Speaker 2: of the Geno fan club and the president of the
Speaker 2: Sam Donald haters club, if somehow Gino was out and Sam.
Speaker 1: Was in, well, I would just I would just root
Speaker 1: against Sam Darnald next year, root for his demise like
Speaker 1: I've been. It is very annoying that the Sam Donald
Speaker 1: hive contains some of my favorite analysts in the in
Speaker 1: the country, Nate Tice, Mena Chimes. Unfortunately, you're part of
Speaker 1: it too, so I don't get what they're what they're
Speaker 1: seeing that you don't wear because Gino Smith would be
Speaker 1: a top this list for me. To me, he has
Speaker 1: played more consistently, see more consistently.
Speaker 3: At a higher level, higher level playing.
Speaker 1: I think he's more I think he's more of a
Speaker 1: complete quarterback than any of these guys.
Speaker 2: And this to Cousins too. And again, this is why
Speaker 2: I love this conversation, because we need to see where
Speaker 2: it takes us and then go there. But I think
Speaker 2: there is a little bit of a market correction in
Speaker 2: terms of older quarterbacks. Where you had Tom Brady, well,
Speaker 2: you had Aaron Rodgers first of all, playing MVP level,
Speaker 2: you know, going up to the age of forty, like
Speaker 2: getting you know, towards forty. You had Tom Brady winning
Speaker 2: a super Bowl after forty, and there was this kind
Speaker 2: of belief of like, you know, these quarterbacks, they they're
Speaker 2: all going to be great into their late thirties, right,
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, we saw Russell Wilson
Speaker 2: fall off a cliff, Matt Ryan, we saw Matt Ryan
Speaker 2: fall off a cliff. We saw Ben you know when
Speaker 2: his thing happened, you know, he had kind of fallen.
Speaker 2: You go back a little ways. The normal thing is
Speaker 2: most of these guys when you get in the mid thirties,
Speaker 2: it starts to really tail off those guys Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 2: Tom Brady.
Speaker 3: Those were the exceptions, right, and even Aaron Rodgers. People
Speaker 3: are still betting on that. Now. If Aaron Rodgers plays
Speaker 3: for a team this year and plays well, he will
Speaker 3: be the most productive forty one year old quarterback of
Speaker 3: all time behind Tom Brady, which is why I think
Speaker 3: he fits in New York with the Giant.
Speaker 2: I don't know where.
Speaker 3: It's a desperation move.
Speaker 2: I don't know who the Giants are going to have
Speaker 2: a quarterback. And I've had this conversation with a bunch
Speaker 2: of different people and everybody says the same thing. It
Speaker 2: feels like Aaron Rodgers or bust.
Speaker 1: But if they have Aaron Rodgers, do they move up
Speaker 1: or potentially take cam Ward at three?
Speaker 2: Which I think I think if cam Ward were there,
Speaker 2: they would take cam Ward.
Speaker 1: I the longer we go in the process, and this
Speaker 1: is a good time to transition. Let's look at the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in your top fifty.
Speaker 3: Tell me if I'm wrong. The longer this goes on,
Speaker 3: you have cam.
Speaker 1: Ward as your tenth overall prospect, Shade or Sanders at eighteen,
Speaker 1: So actually not that huge of a gap from our
Speaker 1: guy Jeremiah forty for Jackson Dart. The longer it goes on,
Speaker 1: the more I just think cam Ward's going to be
Speaker 1: the number one overall draft pick, not because.
Speaker 2: Whether it's there, whether it's Tennessee right, the Giants, you know, coming.
Speaker 3: Because people are making it out to be.
Speaker 1: Okay, if you put him in last year's draft, where
Speaker 1: is he wouldn't he be right there with Pennix and
Speaker 1: McCarthy at the least, and those guys went in the
Speaker 1: top ten.
Speaker 3: And so if you're telling me he's a top ten
Speaker 3: talented quarterback and everyone needs quarterbacks in this class, that.
Speaker 2: He's gonna go. I mean, there's no question he's going
Speaker 2: to be one of the first three picks in the draft.
Speaker 3: Okay, but we take that to the bank.
Speaker 2: What about one? I think that's I think there's a
Speaker 2: good chance of that, whether or not that's Tennessee deciding
Speaker 2: to do it or whether that's somebody wanting to pay
Speaker 2: the price to go up.
Speaker 3: All it takes is one.
Speaker 1: So if the Giants, yeah, if they don't get Rogers,
Speaker 1: or even if they did get Rogers, do you think
Speaker 1: Rogers and cam like do you would you trust. That's
Speaker 1: why I don't want to sign Rogers at all. It's
Speaker 1: just too much of a headache him and the guy
Speaker 1: that you're You're you're trusting the future, you're franchise.
Speaker 3: Maybe mixes you out.
Speaker 2: Well, maybe we get some spice then maybe you know
Speaker 2: we're as we're recording this, we're a few days away
Speaker 2: from free agency, right, there's enough of a window there.
Speaker 2: If I'm the Giants, I don't want to get caught
Speaker 2: with nothing. That literally is a game of musical chairs.
Speaker 2: And if you think you can make the move to
Speaker 2: go to number one to secure that you get cam Ward,
Speaker 2: then okay, we do that. We don't worry about Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2: Let's let's just roll with who we're going to get
Speaker 2: with the first overall pick.
Speaker 3: Ma if the move in March, you don't have to wait.
Speaker 3: And I mean what I'm saying is if.
Speaker 2: You get the free agency and you're still sitting at
Speaker 2: pick number three, yeah, and you're just saying, you know,
Speaker 2: we'll just wait till the draft, well then you better
Speaker 2: like more than one quarterback.
Speaker 3: If that's the case, So should Sanders might slip in
Speaker 3: this draft? He might not wait. I just said all
Speaker 3: the teams that need quarterbacks. And that's why I think, can.
Speaker 2: I cut you off there by the way, because this
Speaker 2: is a popular it's a popular TV segment, it's a
Speaker 2: popular conversation. How you know how far will he slide?
Speaker 2: And the whole league, you know, doesn't like Shodo or Standers.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, do you realize, right, it only takes
Speaker 2: one team.
Speaker 3: Sure you can go.
Speaker 2: You might have all the sources in the world. I
Speaker 2: don't care who you are. The most connected people in
Speaker 2: this business. Do not have rock solid going to tell
Speaker 2: you the true sources in all thirty two buildings. So
Speaker 2: these people that are saying, well, he's going to do
Speaker 2: this or he's going to do that, I'm like, there's
Speaker 2: no way for anybody to know this. And I think
Speaker 2: this is a fit draft more than any other that
Speaker 2: I can ever remember. I think shud Or Standers is
Speaker 2: a really good fit for a team like the Raiders.
Speaker 2: I think he makes sense as a fit for a
Speaker 2: team like the Saints. So all it takes is one
Speaker 2: of those teams.
Speaker 3: So don't buy in.
Speaker 2: And it's not just a shootour Sanders conversation. It's a
Speaker 2: player in general. When you hear everybody's punting on this
Speaker 2: guy and everybody's out on him, like no, it takes
Speaker 2: one team.
Speaker 1: Well, this class I think is going to have more
Speaker 1: disagreement up and down the board than any because it feels.
Speaker 3: Like there's only two or three players that everyone agrees on.
Speaker 1: But to the quarterback point, yeah, just logically, Tennessee, Cleveland Giants, Raiders, Jets.
Speaker 1: I'll throw the Saints in there. That's just in the
Speaker 1: top nine picks. They all need quarterbacks, and I tend
Speaker 1: to agree with you. I tend to think that the
Speaker 1: Saints would maybe be the floor. I don't know if
Speaker 1: they're crazy enough, although Mickey Loomis has been known to
Speaker 1: make some crazy trades to trade out for Shadeur Sanders,
Speaker 1: but if he fell.
Speaker 2: To nine, Can I give you the sneaky quarterback team though, please,
Speaker 2: because we were just talking about with Seattle. Okay, I
Speaker 2: don't know who their guy would be. I don't know which,
Speaker 2: you know, if that's maybe that's more they wanted take
Speaker 2: a flyer on somebody in the second on the second day.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe that's Jackson Dart, maybe that's you know,
Speaker 2: Tyler Shuck, one of those type of guys that you
Speaker 2: could get maybe maybe you trade back a little bit,
Speaker 2: take one bottom of the first maybe you take one
Speaker 2: in the second round. But I was kind of just
Speaker 2: going through all these teams, and just because the conversation
Speaker 2: we had about Geno getting a little bit older and
Speaker 2: not knowing if they could pivot. Then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: you get another team that's in the in the quarterback
Speaker 2: mix a little bit.
Speaker 3: So Seattle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, picking at eighteen, they would theoretically have more draft
Speaker 1: capital because they've traded away Dk Metcalf.
Speaker 3: You could use that to make a move. I mean
Speaker 3: I didn't. I didn't mention it before. Though.
Speaker 1: There is one screaming logical team for Gino Smith, and
Speaker 1: it's his old buddy Pete Carrol.
Speaker 2: Like those two guys, that solves their problem.
Speaker 1: Two guys are always I like that. I would accept
Speaker 1: that that move for Gino Smith. I think that could
Speaker 1: work out. You know, they spend a lot of money
Speaker 1: in free agency. Like we mentioned, all the money that
Speaker 1: is out there. We're going to see over the next week,
Speaker 1: but it will be interesting to see how teams spend
Speaker 1: at quarterback.
Speaker 3: I think the markets changed a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think the Daniel Jones contract was part of it,
Speaker 1: and then the Baker Mayfield contract, the first one he
Speaker 1: took with Tampa being so effective.
Speaker 3: As part of it is like, you.
Speaker 1: Don't have to pay Daniel Jones level quarterbacks, and I
Speaker 1: would consider Darnold or fields like around that or a
Speaker 1: little lower. You don't have to pay them eighty five
Speaker 1: percent of Joe Burrow. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2: It's really half what it is. I think thirty million
Speaker 2: is kind of that. That's going to be that veteran mark.
Speaker 1: Our salary cap is just costing these top tier quarterbacks
Speaker 1: so much money because you can't tell me that Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes is the same essentially as like the.
Speaker 3: Eighth quarterback in the league who gets that games.
Speaker 2: There's fun games to play though, when you cross different
Speaker 2: positions and value and look at the numbers and then
Speaker 2: try and wrap your mind right it. Last year, my
Speaker 2: favorite was I got a lot of texts they were
Speaker 2: saying that the Eagles just get Saquon Barkley for Gabe
Speaker 2: Davis Prices, right.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, Dorrits Armstrong got more money than
Speaker 1: Saquon Barkley last year, which is why I was good
Speaker 1: they gave him to Speaking of weird dollars, you know,
Speaker 1: to two at Well sign. I just want to throw
Speaker 1: this out because I liked ten million. We're a new
Speaker 1: news show too, to to at Well got ten million.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling there were people around the league
Speaker 1: that were.
Speaker 3: Like, what are you doing to us?
Speaker 2: I had a decision maker that shot me at I
Speaker 2: actually I was ahead of it. I sent him that
Speaker 2: contract and then he was not. He was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that didn't help. I think they had somebody else in
Speaker 2: mind for a price, someone in that neighborhood. And I
Speaker 2: just said, yeah, that's this is where the market is.
Speaker 2: You're not getting dead player for that price.
Speaker 3: He has about a thousand yards through four years. I
Speaker 3: feel like Sean mcvayson justifying that draft pick.
Speaker 1: I like to to hour it was a nice development
Speaker 1: story that he improved to a solid fourth receiver, which
Speaker 1: he can be for them, and I guess they're gonna
Speaker 1: he's more of a third receiver for them if but
Speaker 1: he's getting double the money of DeMarcus Robinson a year ago.
Speaker 1: DeMarcus Robinson was a better player. That tells me Sean
Speaker 1: mcvay's got all the juice in the building.
Speaker 2: I want to this is this is real time here.
Speaker 2: What year was he was too to out? Well twenty two? Yeah,
Speaker 2: four years ago, so twenty two. So I'm just going
Speaker 2: to see where I had him because I was curious
Speaker 2: on this because I like going through to two at well.
Speaker 1: It was a late second round pick in the end,
Speaker 1: but a shocking ye one, very about ten more pounds.
Speaker 2: You sure it was twenty two.
Speaker 3: He's played four years in the league, so it would
Speaker 3: be twenty one. Y, yeah.
Speaker 2: Twenty that's a wrong year. I'm looking in the wrong file.
Speaker 3: Can I give you a theory while you're looking?
Speaker 2: Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1: It reminds me a lot of the Tavon Austin scene
Speaker 1: with Jeff Fisher in Hard Knocks, which I think it
Speaker 1: was the off season Hard Knocks, which probably only I
Speaker 1: watched All or Nothing, where it was a it was
Speaker 1: a great moment Tevon Austin, this guy everyone called the
Speaker 1: bus a developmental story, improved to like a pretty decent player,
Speaker 1: and they just loved him as a person, and so
Speaker 1: they gave him that contract. Everyone felt so good in
Speaker 1: the organization in the moment. It was almost worth it
Speaker 1: just for that moment. Ended up not being a very
Speaker 1: good contract at all. It reminds me of a light
Speaker 1: version of that. Everyone probably loves two to at Well.
Speaker 1: It's a great moment, but it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2: Okay to two at Well was my seventy ninth player.
Speaker 2: So you said he like in the fift the fifties,
Speaker 2: so he was just under five to nine, one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty five pounds, ran a four to three five
Speaker 2: at his pro day, I talked about jet sweeps. He's dynamic,
Speaker 2: he can separate, he's got a second year ball in
Speaker 2: the air, he's got some route polish. She was a
Speaker 2: high school quarterback, throw the ball seventy yards on his knees,
Speaker 2: just through that there for seven years. But I said
Speaker 2: he was a miniature t Y Hilton. That's too like
Speaker 2: if you're hoping that he was going to what he
Speaker 2: was going to be like, that's but he hasn't been.
Speaker 3: He's turned into a pretty good role player.
Speaker 1: Rams fans in the front office will defend him as
Speaker 1: he he stretches the field and that opens it up
Speaker 1: and he's improved. Like so he's basically a good number
Speaker 1: four getting like good number three money.
Speaker 2: I guess, can I give you a fun podcast topic?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 2: What if you just did a tournament like it was
Speaker 2: like it was a fighting tournament between but the lightweight division.
Speaker 2: So you have like Calvin Austin versus two two at
Speaker 2: Well in round one squaring off. Who would you rather have? Well,
Speaker 2: I'm just saying that's just that.
Speaker 1: Would be fun to watch. I thought you were going
Speaker 1: to throw me in the mix, generate. I'm like a
Speaker 1: little that weight class. I got a little more muscle.
Speaker 2: It's not an idea worthy of the watch that you're wearing,
Speaker 2: but it is definitely something I'm a spirer.
Speaker 3: Okay, more to come on forties in free agents. Back
Speaker 3: in a minute. We are back on forties and free agents.
Speaker 1: So we are going to wrap up the show with
Speaker 1: an exercise that I'm excited about. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about building around some of these young quarterbacks in the league.
Speaker 1: And all three of them are in the top ten
Speaker 1: of the draft in terms of their team is picking
Speaker 1: in the top ten of the draft.
Speaker 3: The Patriots are at number four.
Speaker 1: They're there with Drake May Trevor Lawrence, who frankly were
Speaker 1: being a little generous calling him a young quarterback at
Speaker 1: this point, like he's two years into his second contract,
Speaker 1: and this is what I was talking about everyone gets
Speaker 1: like Patrick Mahomes money. Trevor Lawrence is making the same
Speaker 1: money as like Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes. This doesn't
Speaker 1: really help your team building. And Kayleb Williams is the
Speaker 1: pick of the draft in terms of the Bears. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna go through and I'm gonna suggest some team
Speaker 1: building I want to see in free agency.
Speaker 3: I'm the free agency you can grade my free agent.
Speaker 1: General manager jobs, and then when we get to the
Speaker 1: draft portion, we'll see how I did, and you'll choose
Speaker 1: what you want to do building around these guys in
Speaker 1: the draft.
Speaker 3: So Drake May, let's start there, number four overall pick.
Speaker 1: The number one thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
Speaker 1: trade for DK metcalf yep.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna tell you what you're gonna trade. You're
Speaker 2: gonna trade the thirty eighth pick.
Speaker 3: Okay, I think that could get it done.
Speaker 2: I think that would get it.
Speaker 3: Supposedly, he wants he wants to play for a contender,
Speaker 3: and he.
Speaker 2: I don't know if DK is gonna love that, but
Speaker 2: that's you know, if I'm on the Patriots, Yeah, thirty
Speaker 2: eighth pick, make that move.
Speaker 1: They've got Mike Rabel, They've got a lot of targets
Speaker 1: available because they've got three or four guys who probably
Speaker 1: profile well as a number three receiver, but not even
Speaker 1: the number two.
Speaker 3: At this point. You've got a quarterback who loves to
Speaker 3: throw a deep throw it to the outside. It's a
Speaker 3: nice fit. Okay, that's number one. Number two.
Speaker 1: I'm going to sign and maybe overpay Cam Robinson or
Speaker 1: Morgan Moses if Cam Robinson just gets too crazy.
Speaker 3: And these guys aren't going to change my life. But
Speaker 3: it's what they didn't do a year ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had a terrible plan where they had no
Speaker 1: backup plan. They had no even starting plan. And to me,
Speaker 1: this is more of a backup plan you want to develop.
Speaker 1: It would not stop you from draft taking alignment. I'll
Speaker 1: get there, right, you would. It would not stop you
Speaker 1: from drafting a tackle. But at least it's just Okay,
Speaker 1: there's one tackle spot they need. They need two tackle
Speaker 1: spots filled.
Speaker 2: Man. I saw them with the Chargers last year up
Speaker 2: close and personal. That is rough, rough supporting group that
Speaker 2: he's got there, especially at the tackle position. So I
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: Anybody else you want to lob in there, I mean,
Speaker 1: I I Ronnie Stanley, they would they would have liked
Speaker 1: to get, but I feel like that's going to probably
Speaker 1: go too much. And then I'm looking on the defensive
Speaker 1: side of the ball too, So it's not just building
Speaker 1: around Drake may. I think Nick Bolton would make sense
Speaker 1: for them as like a three down linebacker. You want
Speaker 1: to be building with younger players, and they need edge players.
Speaker 1: I'm going Mountain Kunts as well, So it's not build
Speaker 1: up the defense as part of as part of helping
Speaker 1: Drake me out. When you look at the wide receiver
Speaker 1: position in free agency, I don't know. I guess you
Speaker 1: could sign one, but they all just profile as other
Speaker 1: guy like they've gone this route before, taking the lower tier,
Speaker 1: like Josh Palmer type, like they don't need another one
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 2: I don't think. I don't think DeVante Adams, you know,
Speaker 2: is in a hurry to go to New England. The
Speaker 2: one game, the one name that I think would be
Speaker 2: kind of interesting for them from a receiver standpoint. I
Speaker 2: know wasn't great last year in terms of the production,
Speaker 2: but Keenan Allen just is kind of a veteran who
Speaker 2: can still get open on some third downs. I think Okay,
Speaker 2: at a relative you cost, that wouldn't make some sense
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: Barris Fans got on him early in the year. I
Speaker 1: tell you, if you watch the end of that season,
Speaker 1: Caleb trusted Keenan Allen. That's what we kind of played
Speaker 1: himself into either shape or figuring out that offense. And
Speaker 1: by the end of the year it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, he can he can make some sense.
Speaker 1: Let's go to Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 2: Well, hold on, I get to my draft with these guys. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're gonna take We're gonna take the second round pick's gone,
Speaker 2: so we've already acquired the k Metcalf so that's taken
Speaker 2: care of. But now you've got between now and the
Speaker 2: draft to decide if you want armand Membo, if you
Speaker 2: want Will Campbell. So we're we're committed to taking an
Speaker 2: offensive line with that.
Speaker 3: Are they you? Are they a difference maker enough?
Speaker 2: There's such an upgrade and you're not gonna have to
Speaker 2: worry about him. So you know, you've got a starter
Speaker 2: plug in place for eight to ten years. Like they
Speaker 2: can't trot out there what they had last year and
Speaker 2: you have to We just talked about it at the
Speaker 2: top of the show. If you want an offensive tackle,
Speaker 2: you got to pay the premium. It might be a
Speaker 2: little bit earlier than you want to. You're gonna if
Speaker 2: you want one in free agency, you're gonna cost more
Speaker 2: than you want to. But they can't run out there.
Speaker 2: Drake may behind this group. They can't.
Speaker 3: Membo seems a little more exciting to me.
Speaker 1: Seems a little more like he is very talented and
Speaker 1: you can put him at right tackle. You put Cam
Speaker 1: Robinson at left Heck.
Speaker 2: There you go. So we just solved the Okay, Patriots.
Speaker 2: There what else you want there?
Speaker 1: Let's do Trevor Lawrence. They have the fifth overall pick
Speaker 1: in the draft. They actually have a lot of guard
Speaker 1: need on this team, and I think they should take
Speaker 1: a lesson from the team we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: next and take care of some of it before the draft.
Speaker 1: A couple of guards that I think would be out there.
Speaker 1: James Daniels actually played really well for the Steelers before
Speaker 1: he had a major injury, and maybe they can afford
Speaker 1: to kind of wait for him to get healthy.
Speaker 3: So that that's one guard name that stuck out to me.
Speaker 1: Another possible option there would be this like a short
Speaker 1: term fix, like a Kevin Zeitler, just to like come
Speaker 1: in for a year while you draft and develop guys.
Speaker 3: I actually don't love that.
Speaker 1: I've heard Aaron Banks is going for like eighteen million dollars.
Speaker 1: That seems like not a great idea, but at least
Speaker 1: one guard in free agency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Zeitler's interesting to me because I thought the Bears
Speaker 2: would be a Zeitler teams to Ben Johnson connection. Obviously
Speaker 2: they've gone another direction with the two trades that they've made.
Speaker 2: The Chargers have a need inside guard, and Zeitler was
Speaker 2: with Ortiz back in Baltimore, so there's an understanding there.
Speaker 2: I could be making some sense. So he'll have he's
Speaker 2: going to have a market. I was almost even wondering
Speaker 2: with them what happens with Makai Beck than is that
Speaker 2: a flyer you'd be willing to take you but as
Speaker 2: someone who can help you run the ball, because last
Speaker 2: year the Jags, we can talk about Trevor and his issues,
Speaker 2: they couldn't run the ball. They were twenty six in
Speaker 2: rushing yards per.
Speaker 1: Game, and yet running backs like one of the positions
Speaker 1: that they're pretty said, they've got their.
Speaker 2: Guest, so they should be more productive in the run
Speaker 2: game than they are, which means they're not getting any
Speaker 2: push up front.
Speaker 1: I think they could be a team also that looks
Speaker 1: for a center, So centers in this market. Drew Dollman
Speaker 1: is probably costing too much money. But you played Ryan
Speaker 1: Kelly twice a year. Maybe that's a veteran you bring
Speaker 1: in Mitch Morse. This was surprising news that came out
Speaker 1: on Thursday. Decided to retire. Struggled with injuries last year.
Speaker 1: Maybe didn't play as well as his contract that they
Speaker 1: were hoping for coming out of Buffalo. So they basically
Speaker 1: have to fix their whole interior line in one offseason.
Speaker 1: Josh Myers is a guy that's also out there from
Speaker 1: Green Bay. Would not surprise me if they spent there
Speaker 1: as well. And then I think they have their one
Speaker 1: in Brian Thomas. I think they could use a little
Speaker 1: bit of depth. I don't want them to go crazy
Speaker 1: at the top of the market. I actually thought your
Speaker 1: guy Josh Palmer in LA always could have been.
Speaker 3: Like a little better.
Speaker 2: I always wanted just a little bit more.
Speaker 3: He could be a rotation guy for a h team
Speaker 3: that you think.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of similar players there. So
Speaker 1: where do you put that price tag? Yeah too too
Speaker 1: at well money? I would I would would you?
Speaker 2: I don't think I would go there.
Speaker 3: You would not for Josh Palmer.
Speaker 1: And then on the defensive side of the ball, because
Speaker 1: I decided I'm taking this beyond just helping the quarterbacks. Uh,
Speaker 1: they need some interior pass rushers. They actually, I think
Speaker 1: are in a beautiful position with this new regime Liam
Speaker 1: Cohen where I actually don't think this team has a
Speaker 1: ton of screaming needs. They just have like pretty good
Speaker 1: players across the board, and they need to upgrade their
Speaker 1: overall talent. So Levi un Wuzurique, I think could could
Speaker 1: be a fit there. You're Puna Ford. I would throw
Speaker 1: out there like they could use interior rusher like Javon Hargrave.
Speaker 1: They're on obviously going to sign all these guys, but
Speaker 1: maybe one from that bucket and then one from the
Speaker 1: safety bucket. Do you go a little top of the
Speaker 1: market with Travon Morrigg, who's a good young player trying
Speaker 1: to like establish maybe he would be like a plus
Speaker 1: starter in free agency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Merg's gonna get a lot more money
Speaker 2: than people think.
Speaker 3: And I think Jacksonville might be spending a lot in
Speaker 3: free agency.
Speaker 2: I like that. I like that move and where they're picking.
Speaker 2: They got the fifth pick right with Jacksonville, so I've
Speaker 2: we've talked about him. I'm higher on him than Greg
Speaker 2: Is because Greg doesn't go watch the playoff games from
Speaker 2: the previous year. But Mason Graham to me, makes some
Speaker 2: sense for them along the defensive tackle position. I also
Speaker 2: think with where their needs lie, they could be a
Speaker 2: trade back team. Now, the challenge in this draft is
Speaker 2: who's coming up for who? To me, you could hope
Speaker 2: that there's some heat on the two tackles because it's
Speaker 2: a limited tackle pool. Maybe somebody moves up for one
Speaker 2: of those guys. Maybe you could just slide back a
Speaker 2: little bit. Okay, this will be a running also like
Speaker 2: naland Walker because I wouldn't mind seeing him reunited there
Speaker 2: with Trayvon Walker and we have the Walker boys just
Speaker 2: getting after the Georgia Bulldogs out there for.
Speaker 1: It's funny because Travon Walker is in theory up for
Speaker 1: an extension this year. Lthough they have him on the
Speaker 1: on the fifth player, he's turned into a good player.
Speaker 1: I wonder if they'll extend the fact that it's a
Speaker 1: new regime. There sort of a lot of Trent Balcony's
Speaker 1: guys are still there in the personnel department. Maybe doesn't
Speaker 1: help them, but that would be interesting. Let's wrap with
Speaker 1: Kayleb Williams.
Speaker 2: We've already been going to work before we could even
Speaker 2: get the segment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they add two guards, Jonah Jackson and Joe Toney,
Speaker 1: and yet I think they couldn't the draft. That's up
Speaker 1: to you because these guys are maybe short term solutions.
Speaker 1: They're another team I think could look at a center.
Speaker 1: They still look very thin at center. Go with Ryan
Speaker 1: Kelly there. I actually don't think they have huge needs
Speaker 1: in free agency, so I would say save your money
Speaker 1: on offense because they have two receivers that they really like.
Speaker 1: If you're adding a receiver, it's maybe like a Mac
Speaker 1: Collins type.
Speaker 2: I just think good vibes, like, yeah, receiver putting no shoes.
Speaker 2: The thing with the Bears, and I'll put this to
Speaker 2: our resident Bears fan who we work with not to
Speaker 2: be mentioned, but we were talking about the needs of
Speaker 2: having the defensive side of the ball, and my argument was,
Speaker 2: this is year one of Ben Jonson.
Speaker 3: Your team, Caleb Williams.
Speaker 2: If next year, at this time, Caleb Williams is coming
Speaker 2: off of forty five hundred yards and everybody in your organization,
Speaker 2: in your city knows that he's the guy. And you
Speaker 2: guys win six or seven games, that is a successful season.
Speaker 2: Fans aren't gonna want to hear that. But that's just
Speaker 2: playing the facts. So when you look at resources, free agency,
Speaker 2: the draft, I am doing everything in my power. You've
Speaker 2: already hired the coach to help him, You've already made
Speaker 2: two trades to help him. If I have to be
Speaker 2: a little bit lopsided offensively versus defensively with resources, I've
Speaker 2: got to get this guy playing well. So that's where
Speaker 2: in free agency in the draft, I'm still I'm tilting
Speaker 2: to the offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And actually they have needs that safety, which is
Speaker 1: a position where maybe you could get a decent player
Speaker 1: without spending a lot of money. We talked about the
Speaker 1: top of the safety market, but there are guys, you know,
Speaker 1: towards the back, like a Jeremy Chin or as Xavier Woods,
Speaker 1: like guys who can play that I think they could use,
Speaker 1: don't I don't see crazy needs. They have Dennis Allen
Speaker 1: now running their defense so you know, maybe you go
Speaker 1: cheap for his old friend Marcus Davenport as a second
Speaker 1: edg dresser, like.
Speaker 2: One of your slave. Import always has a market this time.
Speaker 2: Everybody's always everybody's because if if you just stay healthy,
Speaker 2: he could You know, he always has a market.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about bargain basement shopping because ultimately, I think
Speaker 1: they're they're showing us their priority is that offensive line.
Speaker 1: He has already made those huge moves and I think
Speaker 1: they've done a nice job quickly.
Speaker 2: Can I give you three names for him in the draft?
Speaker 2: Real plates? So these will be talk about helping your quarterback,
Speaker 2: and the first one would be Gray's Abel out of
Speaker 2: North Dakota State. You trade back a little bit. I
Speaker 2: think he's going to be the best center in the draft.
Speaker 2: He's really good. He was excellent at the Senior.
Speaker 3: Bowl, and not just at ten. Then you I wouldn't.
Speaker 2: I would not have a problem with that. He's inching
Speaker 2: his way up my list.
Speaker 1: How about the center's doing so well in last year's class.
Speaker 1: Do you think that could have some impact?
Speaker 2: It doesn't hurt. Yeah, Tampa got that.
Speaker 1: Supposedly, that's supposed to be a position that takes forever
Speaker 1: to the other thing work out. But Zach Frasier was
Speaker 1: awesome right away and Graham Barton as you mentioning, because.
Speaker 2: This guy's played a crap ton of football, and that's
Speaker 2: one of the things we've seen. It's the impact of
Speaker 2: COVID nil the other stuff going with it that these
Speaker 2: guys have all played a zillion games. Grays Abels played
Speaker 2: a ton of games and they do a lot of
Speaker 2: pro style stuff. He's played. You can play up and
Speaker 2: down the line at every position at North Dakota State,
Speaker 2: So that one, I still I think you get him,
Speaker 2: even if he traded back a little bit. I mentioned
Speaker 2: Ashton Genty there. I know you've got some running backs,
Speaker 2: but he takes you to another level with what you
Speaker 2: have with him coming out of Boise State. And then
Speaker 2: Tyler Warren knowing you have Cole Comet, but let's be
Speaker 2: a twelve personnel team, we've got a creative offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2: You line up and you've got Tyler Warren and Cole
Speaker 2: Comet who can both block as well as as be
Speaker 2: weapons in the passing game. And then you've got DJ
Speaker 2: Moore and Roma Doonza. Like that's kind of fun. All
Speaker 2: of a Sudden.
Speaker 1: I love all those picks. I love that they're going
Speaker 1: to be in a good position to take offense. And yes,
Speaker 1: I agree DeAndre Swift and Cole Comet. I would put
Speaker 1: in the bucket of guys that would not prevent.
Speaker 3: You from elite player.
Speaker 1: Go get them, Go get them, Jeremiah, he's elite at
Speaker 1: what he does. Although I expected you to come at
Speaker 1: me a little harder on that showIn honestly, I like that.
Speaker 3: That's that's kind of what gets me going.
Speaker 2: It's like, I be honest, it's like I was so
Speaker 2: blinded by the watch I couldn't even like formal thoughts.
Speaker 3: That's not even a takedown.
Speaker 1: We're going to be doing forties and free agents every
Speaker 1: single week throughout the draft process. Unless Jeremiah gets sick
Speaker 1: of me, we will talk to you after the free
Speaker 1: agency frenzy.