Speaker 1: Be around with the NFL podcast. Cannot wait for the
Speaker 1: Great Digger and Ricky Hollywood spin off from the Chris
Speaker 1: Westling podcast studio. That is not happening. It's around the
Speaker 1: NFL Free Agency Frenzy edition Little corporate synergy. That's how
Speaker 1: they're spinning it over on the network. So we'll do
Speaker 1: the same. Why not Free Agent Frenzy. The legal tampering
Speaker 1: period has opened, and now we will begin to digest
Speaker 1: all the madness and follow along in real time as
Speaker 1: we record shortly after four pm on the East Coast.
Speaker 1: Dan hands this yere, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, Greggy, this
Speaker 1: is your time of year. This is what I love
Speaker 1: about Greg. Follow Greg's Twitter right now and he's got
Speaker 1: a bunch of nobulesh. I'm reading between the lines of
Speaker 1: these contracts and I'm telling you what's what, and you
Speaker 1: could feel the confidence as a man who's been doing
Speaker 1: this for well over a decade now, Greg, congratulations, this
Speaker 1: is your moment. Why does any compliment from you sound
Speaker 1: like a dig like underneath it? Well, see that's not
Speaker 1: saying it's like it's the tweet version of this guy
Speaker 1: gets Yeah. If you go with a wink and look
Speaker 1: at Dan's replies to some of these financially and tweets
Speaker 1: to me. To me, it says more about you. I
Speaker 1: was just about to say that you. I was gonna
Speaker 1: have to use that on you, one of your tropes
Speaker 1: that says more about you than it does me. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you're good at this reading the tea leaves of contracts,
Speaker 1: and I don't know why you have to come from
Speaker 1: an adversarial angle. I'm just being real with you. That's
Speaker 1: how this guy gets it with the arrow up towards
Speaker 1: your name. Okay, that was a little bit. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a big time of year for me, for you guys,
Speaker 1: for the network when Michael Irvin comes storming through the
Speaker 1: news and yelling at everyone they're talking about that they
Speaker 1: are the backbone of this net work and it's my
Speaker 1: new favorite moment of that newsroom. I'll just do it
Speaker 1: because Greg, you almost got it on your phone, but
Speaker 1: we didn't have enough good footage, so I'll just do
Speaker 1: a dramatization. Was like, let me move the mic up
Speaker 1: a little bit. Oh, you out here on the backbone
Speaker 1: of this news room. You are the people that keep
Speaker 1: things going. But what's the problem here? How come, there's
Speaker 1: no Cowboys jerseys. I need more Cowboys Jersey's in here.
Speaker 1: No one knew how to interact with what was happening,
Speaker 1: but the cowboy jersey was probably fifty of why he
Speaker 1: voiced his opinion. To begin with, he seemed generally agitated.
Speaker 1: And then eisen is in front. You know, eisen Rich
Speaker 1: Eysen and Michael Verman working together for a long time
Speaker 1: now at this networks. He's been through this with Irvin
Speaker 1: a million times, and he has a look on his
Speaker 1: face like, all right, Michael is going to do his
Speaker 1: thing now, and I'm gonna wait it out. And then
Speaker 1: I got a head up on the stage and we're
Speaker 1: gonna do our free agency frenzy conversation. What you disagree?
Speaker 1: I just feel like, and I love this about it.
Speaker 1: Anyone that has worked with Michael Irvin, it feels like
Speaker 1: they love the Michael Irvin show. Can I tell you this.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like Rich was gave an eye roll or anything.
Speaker 1: It was more just like, all right, well, this is
Speaker 1: the portion of the day where Mike goes crazy for
Speaker 1: five minutes and then we start to get ready and
Speaker 1: get miked up and do ourselves know each other that, well,
Speaker 1: I got more fired up he I can imagine if
Speaker 1: you were his teammate before a big game, and this
Speaker 1: is our big game. You know, he fired me and
Speaker 1: that newsroom. And I've said I think on the show
Speaker 1: and we've spoken off Mike about it a lot. The
Speaker 1: thing I we love. This new building is really cool
Speaker 1: and it's really you really feel like you work for
Speaker 1: the NFL working at the new building that opened up
Speaker 1: late last year. But what I miss about the old
Speaker 1: building in Culver City was the spirit of the newsroom.
Speaker 1: That was a little shot in the arm the newsroom.
Speaker 1: Newsroom needed that shot in the arm. It's uh, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know it's been described as, you know, something approaching
Speaker 1: mausoleum status. Our news from a time so like even
Speaker 1: on Sundays, the three of us would be there and
Speaker 1: there'd be you know, whispers, hushed whispers. So it anti um.
Speaker 1: It's unlike our passengers speaking. We needed that. Speaking of Sunday, um,
Speaker 1: nice little Sunday at the house. Did some yard work.
Speaker 1: Then I had the grill going out of Madelo. We're
Speaker 1: doing some fish tacos. That was nice. I was listening
Speaker 1: to some tunes. Tom Brady comes out of retirement quote
Speaker 1: unquote retirement. I told you, guys, told you I was
Speaker 1: gonna happen. Why didn't you believe me? Who didn't the
Speaker 1: second that he started whispering about coming back At that
Speaker 1: point we didn't push back. My big take was he
Speaker 1: is going to retire, and he did, and that the
Speaker 1: that the signs are pointing towards that he is going
Speaker 1: to retire this time you said he didn't, and he did.
Speaker 1: And then once he immediately started backtracking on the Jim
Speaker 1: Gray podcasts like six days later whatever, then you were right.
Speaker 1: It's the Let's Go podcast, sir, Let's go. I think
Speaker 1: why he's going back to football is he didn't induce
Speaker 1: the numbers. Still no one's listening to the Jim Great
Speaker 1: podcast compared to around the NFL. Pody interesting strategy if
Speaker 1: that's watching. You guys took me on the sandwich, but
Speaker 1: I want to go. I even think I took you
Speaker 1: because I take everyone in every singerwich. But there were
Speaker 1: But I have been telling you, you know this was incorrect.
Speaker 1: We were We were right about that. You the way
Speaker 1: you were it is he won't retire and we were ready.
Speaker 1: He didn't retire. You want to live on that hill.
Speaker 1: That's fine with me. He didn't file the papers. There
Speaker 1: you go. But I guess what's always surprised me about it, Greggy,
Speaker 1: to you personally is that you followed his career closer
Speaker 1: than anyone in this room, and it just never made
Speaker 1: sense to me that he would ever go out like that,
Speaker 1: go out as one of the best, if not the
Speaker 1: best quarterback in the league. Still, he's just such a
Speaker 1: maniac and he proved it. And you know, some clown
Speaker 1: college that Dan Shaughnessy been righting for the Boston Globe forever.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to turn this into an anti
Speaker 1: New England fans. This is more Shaughnessy ripping him as
Speaker 1: selfish and petulant and attention grabbing and like, how dare
Speaker 1: he do this? On the day the March Madness teams
Speaker 1: are selected and Kevin Garnett's jersey is raised to the
Speaker 1: rafters for the Boston Celtics. Dude, are you you were
Speaker 1: giving all the Boston fans a bad name with a
Speaker 1: column like that? That is what That's some classic projecting
Speaker 1: in terms of pointing at Tom Brady for look at
Speaker 1: me when he's writing a lot. Yeah, No, one if
Speaker 1: I had some aspect of this beat, I have been
Speaker 1: telling you from the minute he, you know, authored this
Speaker 1: quasi BS retirement that the whole I'm gonna sit at
Speaker 1: home and wax my shoes and take to walk the
Speaker 1: children to school, that he would be ultra bored with
Speaker 1: that within a fortnight. And he and that the minute
Speaker 1: you saw the beach photo of him and Giselle, you
Speaker 1: knew he was coming back. There was three weeks ago.
Speaker 1: But where thing is in terms of everything he's done
Speaker 1: so far in the off season, terms of hanging out
Speaker 1: with his family and all that, nothing's changed. I mean,
Speaker 1: he hasn't even gotten o t as yet. The only
Speaker 1: the thing that changed was he had the mindset that
Speaker 1: he was no longer preparing change. Right, that's a huge change.
Speaker 1: But even like like this is not a time of
Speaker 1: year where you're usually with teammates with the team, and
Speaker 1: he couldn't even make it through that. That's all I'm
Speaker 1: saying is he couldn't even with the adjustment of the
Speaker 1: mindset of the February and March corridor, which is the
Speaker 1: quietest time of year for NFL players, Like he didn't
Speaker 1: even get close. I don't even think he got a
Speaker 1: week into it, he didn't. He didn't like that mindset.
Speaker 1: Part of me loves that he's coming back because I
Speaker 1: get to watch him play football again. But I've been
Speaker 1: consistent on this podcast of the last thing I want
Speaker 1: to do is see him decline. Ever. That would make
Speaker 1: me so bummed out. And I just thinking about even
Speaker 1: how two thousand nineteen played out somewhat was was a
Speaker 1: bummer for me, and I didn't want that to continue.
Speaker 1: So part of me is a little worried as a
Speaker 1: Brady fan that he's probably not going to leave the
Speaker 1: NFL now as the best quarterback in the league, which
Speaker 1: is what I believed he was in one. You could argue,
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's probably not gonna leave that way.
Speaker 1: Most likely it's not gonna end well, because that's the way,
Speaker 1: that's the truth for every quarterback. But maybe he'll prove
Speaker 1: us all once again. And that's OK. That makes sense
Speaker 1: your angle on that. But for Tom Brady, I imagine
Speaker 1: where he's at ultimately, and coming out of retirement tells
Speaker 1: you a lot. I want to see how far I
Speaker 1: can take this and if that when he does retire,
Speaker 1: if he retires next year or three years from now
Speaker 1: or five years from now, when he can't play anymore,
Speaker 1: he personally will have no questions. He'll know I played
Speaker 1: as long as I could until my body said no more.
Speaker 1: That always made more sense with Brady. I guess one
Speaker 1: question I have, Mark is I'm sure I don't remember it.
Speaker 1: It was a few years ago now, a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, but we did a lengthy Brady Patriots postmortem
Speaker 1: when that relationship ended. I know we dedicated thirty minutes
Speaker 1: of a podcast to Brady retiring a month ago or
Speaker 1: forty days ago. When he does retire again, at what
Speaker 1: point do we do we just say and finally in
Speaker 1: the news Tom Brady is retired, or does he get
Speaker 1: a thirty minute top of show every time he retires?
Speaker 1: At this point, we will absolutely do thirty minutes because
Speaker 1: we will not be We will even if we go insane,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do three minutes. We will do thirty three
Speaker 1: minutes because we have a zero control when it comes
Speaker 1: to discussing anything verbally about the sport on any level,
Speaker 1: well especially especially Tom Brady. But you're right, Uh, I'm glad.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I did not write the Tom Brady remembrance.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't, at least we didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: write a lot of people personally because I feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we spent that podcast time, but we can reuse that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and he'll have new, uh a new like
Speaker 1: four seasons and two more Super Bowl appearances to talk
Speaker 1: about by the time he if he finally retired. I
Speaker 1: do wonder if this Bucks team, though, is as well
Speaker 1: positioned as the last two to put get him to
Speaker 1: the super Bowl, not along the offensive line to start. Well,
Speaker 1: you saw immediately Brady's return paid some dividends because Senna
Speaker 1: Ryan Jensen came back on a three year, thirty nine
Speaker 1: million dollar contract. That's one of the many deals that
Speaker 1: went down on Monday. Yes, it will be different. They
Speaker 1: brought back the whole team last year. It's not happening
Speaker 1: this year. I also wondered there's a little conspiracy theory,
Speaker 1: because there were reports about some strain between Brady and
Speaker 1: Arians at the end of year two. Whether this was
Speaker 1: more of a I don't want to call it a ploy,
Speaker 1: but Brady was investigating a possibility of quote unquote retirement
Speaker 1: and then being able to pivot and get traded somewhere
Speaker 1: like San Francisco or wherever to set up whatever would
Speaker 1: be the final chapter in his mind of his career.
Speaker 1: But instead the Bucks were pretty strong and publicly about
Speaker 1: we're not trading him anywhere, and once he saw the
Speaker 1: writing on the wall there, he didn't want to sit out.
Speaker 1: I I fully believe that he went into this retirement
Speaker 1: mode to tell the Buccaneers I'm not yours. Next season,
Speaker 1: I might be someone else's. You can maybe get something
Speaker 1: for me, but I'm not yours. And then it didn't
Speaker 1: work because Arians came out about as strong as possible
Speaker 1: at the combine and said, you know he did he
Speaker 1: shifted into alpha mode where it's like talking enough and
Speaker 1: annoying Tom Brady. That was earlier though that was played
Speaker 1: it well because ultimately what's the result Tom Brady is
Speaker 1: back in the fold is their quarterback. Tom Brady had
Speaker 1: no option, And I don't think it had much to
Speaker 1: do with Arians necessarily. I had to do with this contract.
Speaker 1: Why would they why would they let him go? But
Speaker 1: it was interesting to see that Brady went to the
Speaker 1: UK to talk to the Glazers. Why do you think
Speaker 1: he did? If if if there's no smoke or at
Speaker 1: to any of this. I I just think that ultimately
Speaker 1: he would want to finish his career with that chance
Speaker 1: to play for the Niners. Maybe we don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think could have been part of it. But to me
Speaker 1: to go that far and then it's announced shortly afterwards,
Speaker 1: it was probably crossing the tees, dotting the eyes of like, look,
Speaker 1: he's the most powerful person in the organization other than
Speaker 1: the owner. Let's talk about some things. Maybe Brady had
Speaker 1: certain ideas of how he wants this next season to
Speaker 1: go with arians, how that relationship, well, how that relationship
Speaker 1: is gonna work practicing offseason, Like, who knows what they're
Speaker 1: gonna do to attack. Maybe they're gonna be adjusting his
Speaker 1: contract because there is a lot hanging out there. You
Speaker 1: mentioned Jensen resigned for less money I think than he
Speaker 1: probably could have gotten free agency. So that's the Brady effect.
Speaker 1: But Leonard four Net, Ronald Jones, and Dominance Wu, William
Speaker 1: Gholston JPP. Okay, maybe you can lose most of those
Speaker 1: guys except for Carlton Davis, Jordan Whitehead, two starters in
Speaker 1: the secondary. Not a lot of cap space to to
Speaker 1: basically no cap space available right now, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a challenge. Ali Marpet retires, Alex Cappa left in free
Speaker 1: agency today, So there's a lot. There's a lot to handle,
Speaker 1: and who knows what kind of influence Brady is getting
Speaker 1: now by returning guards. You know, listen, both guards absent
Speaker 1: one thing about Tom Brady. He doesn't like pressure right
Speaker 1: back up the middle. It's a good point keep an
Speaker 1: eye on it. Look what happened when the offensive line
Speaker 1: was shattered towards the end of the season, they looked
Speaker 1: like a dessembling team. I do appreciate that he timed
Speaker 1: it right. Um As Walkers first game, UH for his
Speaker 1: little league season was gonna start, and I've signed up
Speaker 1: as an assistant coach. I was just getting in the
Speaker 1: car and I got the text to write about it,
Speaker 1: and um so, and I was unavailable for two hours.
Speaker 1: I was like, I could maybe do it when I
Speaker 1: get back in two hours, and they moved on. So
Speaker 1: I appreciated the timing. Any other time of day I
Speaker 1: would have I would have gotten stuck with it. This
Speaker 1: happened minutes before I went and played tennis with my
Speaker 1: with my wife and two small children and utterly destroyed
Speaker 1: them on the court. We had a We have a
Speaker 1: mutual friend down in Tybee, Jason old mayor there who
Speaker 1: uh sent me an email. We had been core responding
Speaker 1: and he said, tell Sessler that it was great to
Speaker 1: see that he, you know, beat up on his family
Speaker 1: and tennis. And I thought he confused names Greg and
Speaker 1: Mark because I didn't see your tweet. I said, Mark
Speaker 1: playing tennis. I couldn't imagine such a thing. But there
Speaker 1: you go, lay tennis for years as a youth and
Speaker 1: have not picked up a racket in almost two decades,
Speaker 1: and it was like riding a bike. Um My figure
Speaker 1: on you fourhand was people in your leafy Connecticut suburbs
Speaker 1: play tennis. So that checks out. Well, that's that. I
Speaker 1: almost can't deny that I did play tennis as a child,
Speaker 1: but I would like to if I could see better,
Speaker 1: because I can't see like what's happening on the other
Speaker 1: side of the court. On Yeah, you also not to
Speaker 1: also look appealing on the court while plays. I'm not
Speaker 1: putting glasses on like appealing playing with your family. All right,
Speaker 1: So Brady, obviously, huge huge domino falls on Sunday evening. Um,
Speaker 1: A bunch of other news happened between our last show Thursday,
Speaker 1: and UM, now, so we're gonna kind of spin through
Speaker 1: that and then, like we said, this is all unfolding
Speaker 1: in real time right now, uh, shortly past four o'clock
Speaker 1: on the East coast. So we're gonna go through what
Speaker 1: has happened so far today Monday. But why don't we
Speaker 1: get caught up here before we get to all that? Boys,
Speaker 1: So Deshaun Watson. A Harris County, Texas grand jury declined
Speaker 1: to indict Deshaun Watson on sexual assault charges. This happened
Speaker 1: on Friday, and then immediately once that happens. Not that
Speaker 1: everything is clear with Watson, obviously far from it, but
Speaker 1: the criminal side is clear. That the side that could
Speaker 1: have him in prison is clear. Uh. So that means
Speaker 1: dominoes are gonna fall in this situation most likely and
Speaker 1: perhaps soon. Daniel Jeremiah reported that the expectation around the
Speaker 1: league is that the Seahawks will trade for Watson. Rap
Speaker 1: Sheet reported UH this weekend that the Panthers and Saints
Speaker 1: have made trade offers for Watson. Meetings are set up. Reportedly,
Speaker 1: meetings are set up. ESPN reported that the Browns are
Speaker 1: doing due diligence on veteran quarterbacks, perhaps Deshaun Watson, um
Speaker 1: Greg So this is obviously happening now with Watson and
Speaker 1: whatever team pulls the trigger on the trade is willing
Speaker 1: to live with the still mystery around him, with the
Speaker 1: litigation on the civil side, and of course the potential
Speaker 1: lengthy suspension by the NFL. Yeah, if a team is
Speaker 1: willing to and the fact that they're meeting with them
Speaker 1: is an indication. I don't necessarily put that much stock
Speaker 1: into the words from the insiders that this deal is
Speaker 1: happening soon. I'm not discounting it totally. But the same
Speaker 1: exact insiders who are basically doing the work for Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson's agent told us that the deal is probably happening
Speaker 1: soon last August, and then they told us that it's
Speaker 1: probably happening last October, and so they were wrong in
Speaker 1: both of those cases. Is pushing that that the deal
Speaker 1: is close to happening, uh, in multiple timelines. It seems
Speaker 1: much more likely that it is going to be happening
Speaker 1: in this timeline, in the free agency timeline. But even
Speaker 1: if you go back to Friday, they made it sound
Speaker 1: like it could be a matter of hours. It's like
Speaker 1: this idea that they're trying to push it through as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible before anyone gets pushed back from the public.
Speaker 1: Number One, there's you know, like Panthers beat writer Joe
Speaker 1: Person puts out a pole and most Panthers fans don't
Speaker 1: want Deshaun Watson coming to their team, according to his poll.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of pushback in the Saints Twitter community,
Speaker 1: the Saints Twitter podcast certainly, you know, pushing back that
Speaker 1: they wouldn't want him. And I think at some point
Speaker 1: you have to recognize that the same uncertainty that Watson
Speaker 1: had last March when this all started in in that
Speaker 1: uncertainty is the civil cases, and that uncertainty is the
Speaker 1: NFL suspension, exists in the exact same way. Now the
Speaker 1: criminal case, people kind of forget didn't start until more
Speaker 1: than a month later, was always believed to be a
Speaker 1: bit of a long out that he would uh face
Speaker 1: any criminal charges. It is a huge um positive for
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson and his agent to move this thing along,
Speaker 1: and I think ultimately it will. But the suspension could
Speaker 1: be massive, right, I mean, we we don't know, but
Speaker 1: based on Ezekiel Elliott and based on Ben Roethlisberger, as
Speaker 1: some precedent. I think the suspension could be lengthy, and
Speaker 1: we have no idea how long it would be. I
Speaker 1: hear you, I would just say that I don't think
Speaker 1: that Mickey loomis, based on what we're hearing, or the
Speaker 1: Panthers front office, coaching staff and ownership care at all
Speaker 1: what people think on Twitter or Twitter polls on and
Speaker 1: what we're hearing is from the Panthers have been working
Speaker 1: for nine straight months on this, and the Saints are
Speaker 1: obviously serious about this. The Browns, I think, have no
Speaker 1: chance in this, but or have been serious and looking
Speaker 1: seriously looking into this, and it's cynical. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: I love the environment that it's happening on any level,
Speaker 1: but I think that your average general manager in this
Speaker 1: race is thinking that the average fan won't care six
Speaker 1: months from now if you have a star quarterback winning
Speaker 1: games when he throws yards and four touch in like
Speaker 1: it or not, and this is not taking down that
Speaker 1: to happen at all. Unpopular move might be if it
Speaker 1: happens in March. I think the owners in the front
Speaker 1: offices are probably viewing this as we'll get by on that.
Speaker 1: And and then I also think this is when Watson's
Speaker 1: and this is one thing that has been kind of
Speaker 1: set aside for obvious reasons, but Watson is a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame level talent on the field, and his first
Speaker 1: five years in the league, you could stack it up
Speaker 1: against any first five years that we've seen. Uh, statistically
Speaker 1: for an up and down Texans organization, he's twenty six.
Speaker 1: So let's say the suspension and just throwing darts here,
Speaker 1: Let's say it's eight games, Let's say it's a year.
Speaker 1: I still think a team is willing to eat that.
Speaker 1: And no, all right, we're gonna have this guy, uh
Speaker 1: in his late twenties. The way the game is played now,
Speaker 1: the way the quarterbacks are protected, the way these guys
Speaker 1: take care of themselves, this guy could be a ten
Speaker 1: to twelve year elite starter even after we get past whatever.
Speaker 1: The suspension could be right and we're wrong. If no
Speaker 1: one signs them, ever, well, no, I'm sorry, because like
Speaker 1: that's that. Like some it's gonna take one team, and
Speaker 1: they're already multiple teams interested. Of course it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: My my point is with timeline, and it's also not
Speaker 1: too late for these teams to change their mind based
Speaker 1: on e a public pressure or be new information like
Speaker 1: like fan bases have influenced information influence. My My point
Speaker 1: is all of the information of like we're hearing from
Speaker 1: the front offices and from the from Watson side, is
Speaker 1: coming with self interest to push this along. And that's
Speaker 1: happened to begin with. I mean Adam Chef Chefter embarrassed
Speaker 1: himself on Friday by passing along the tweets from the
Speaker 1: agent that essentially was like they've been waiting for the
Speaker 1: truth to come out, and now it's out. Watson's first
Speaker 1: tweet essentially and since this all started, uh was what
Speaker 1: was it? Quote? When you stand on the truth, the
Speaker 1: Lord will free you. So and with with free and
Speaker 1: truth in caps. So he is not admitting to anything.
Speaker 1: They are pushing back as hard as they possibly can.
Speaker 1: I think that makes the next step of this process
Speaker 1: more difficult for him and for any team that that
Speaker 1: gets him, because everyone that's that and people are in
Speaker 1: my mentions and people get worked up about it. I
Speaker 1: know we'll get to the exciting like free agency, this day,
Speaker 1: news of the day stuff first, but this stuff is
Speaker 1: important too. Haven't read the cases anyone that is saying like, hey,
Speaker 1: there's no criminal charges in this a free country, Like
Speaker 1: you haven't read the cases, Like if anyone wants to
Speaker 1: go through the cases and Jenny Rentis is reporting and
Speaker 1: just read all of them, There's there's no gray area
Speaker 1: in this case. It is what it is like and
Speaker 1: the fact that he wants he is going to want
Speaker 1: to apparently push back indefinitely, which means the civil thing
Speaker 1: could last a long time, and that could all affect
Speaker 1: the NFL suspension to me, changes his next destination and
Speaker 1: changes how palatable that is for the fans. Like everything
Speaker 1: you're saying, I like, I think we we agree with you,
Speaker 1: first of all, Like there's no comment here about his
Speaker 1: place in this morally and and whether he's innocent or
Speaker 1: not at all, Like I mean, well, preferably he never
Speaker 1: plays again. I am just stating that the way that
Speaker 1: you want, I'm not saying that that's what I want.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like the idea that teams are going
Speaker 1: to fall in line and not sign him because of X,
Speaker 1: Y and Z, I just disagree that it's two we
Speaker 1: live into cynical. Of course, I think it's going to
Speaker 1: happen at some point. I'm just saying, this is all
Speaker 1: informing what's coming up next. And if it took longer
Speaker 1: than everyone saying days hours, you know, that wouldn't shock
Speaker 1: me because already people with this self interest have been
Speaker 1: wrong about that in the past. Right. But I will
Speaker 1: say I believe, based on everything we know now, that
Speaker 1: this trade gets done in the next week. I just
Speaker 1: think there's enough momentum now and that hurdle of the
Speaker 1: criminal case being cleared. I tend to agree with you
Speaker 1: because there's more than one team interested by Watson's side
Speaker 1: that I think we'll see, though I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: know what stands in the way at this point because teams,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a clock that these teams are on
Speaker 1: with the draft coming up free agencies right now that
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to figure it out. If they want him,
Speaker 1: this is the time to get him and then figure
Speaker 1: out your franchise plan. For the fact that Watson is
Speaker 1: meeting with the Panthers and Saints is a strong indication
Speaker 1: that the Panthers and the Saints are the favorites to
Speaker 1: get him. Because he he has a no trade clause,
Speaker 1: he has some control in this matter. The fact that
Speaker 1: he's taking those meetings first and we'll see. If he
Speaker 1: even has both meetings necessarily would indicate that those two
Speaker 1: teams are pretty far along in the process in terms
Speaker 1: of what the compensation would be. And I'd love to
Speaker 1: know the order of those meetings because you know, with
Speaker 1: the way free agency works, depending on where you go first,
Speaker 1: that might be key. I I would imagine, like there
Speaker 1: are whispers out there that if Cleveland was ever in
Speaker 1: the mix, that he doesn't want to play in a
Speaker 1: cold city, he doesn't want to play in Cleveland probably
Speaker 1: to begin with, and that would change things. I The
Speaker 1: last thing on this is just that so many people
Speaker 1: have shown their ass I think in terms of how
Speaker 1: it was covered that even someone like me, who I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm not a naive person and I can
Speaker 1: be cynical about the coverage, has kind of been floored
Speaker 1: that the lessons in theory that anyone in all these
Speaker 1: people were covering the league back in the Greg Hardy
Speaker 1: Ray Rice era, the mistakes that people made in covering
Speaker 1: those cases have been made like twofold in this case,
Speaker 1: uh when when Schefter tweeted out that he knew that
Speaker 1: the the truth would come out, uh, and they were
Speaker 1: waiting for this, like I couldn't believe it, and you
Speaker 1: do here in a different way on Twitter, uh, and
Speaker 1: and in conversation certainly too. That I think the the
Speaker 1: attitude towards women is like, yeah, they're gonna say the
Speaker 1: right things publicly, but it's like a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't give a about women, like they hate women like
Speaker 1: and it's sort of comes out in the coverage of
Speaker 1: this of how un seriously people take it or how
Speaker 1: un serious they take uh doing their job in terms
Speaker 1: of reading the like the actual hate appointments like I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying they don't hate their sister, they don't
Speaker 1: hate their their wives, they don't hate the women in
Speaker 1: their lives, but as a larger group, they don't. They
Speaker 1: don't talk about certainly like showing like insiders like anyone
Speaker 1: taking it sort of seriously or even like going back
Speaker 1: and just reading the cases because I because I think
Speaker 1: if they would, if they had any sort of empathy
Speaker 1: or humanity, it's like they would be covering the differently.
Speaker 1: Schefter's gotta oh that was bad. That that has to
Speaker 1: be a teaching moment. That needs to be something that
Speaker 1: if you're you know, learning how to be a reporter,
Speaker 1: you have aspirations to be an insider, how not to
Speaker 1: get played and turn yourself into a laughing stock on
Speaker 1: social media? Um, and followed up with an apology tweet
Speaker 1: and it's just like, whoa buddy, how did we get here?
Speaker 1: And we'll move on. But the same mistakes were happening
Speaker 1: on Monday when multiple insiders are tweeting out the exact
Speaker 1: same tweet that are exactly written by an agent. Now
Speaker 1: it didn't it wasn't uh content that was explosive like
Speaker 1: a Deshaun Watson where you should be checking that. But
Speaker 1: these mistakes like keep happening, Like if you are working
Speaker 1: for the agents, you're ultimately not a trustworthy news What
Speaker 1: did I say Mark at the top of this episode
Speaker 1: that would be a hundred ninety seven minutes long. This
Speaker 1: guy gets it, Greg ros at the let's take a break,
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. All right, We're back, uh, And
Speaker 1: now we got Justin Graver behind the glass. What's up, buddy? Well,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have to if Erica Tampose was with us
Speaker 1: for the biggest newsweek of the off season. But she
Speaker 1: had made her decisions and we will be fine. We
Speaker 1: still got a loaded crew behind the glass. We got
Speaker 1: Grave Digger, we got Zack Sally, we got a big Randy,
Speaker 1: we got stapled in behind the glass. We'll be okay,
Speaker 1: but this will not be forgotten. Remember that she doesn't
Speaker 1: come back with a ring, does she come back at all?
Speaker 1: That's now, let's have a let's have a discussion, maybe
Speaker 1: off Mike about that. Those are flash point Erica tampose.
Speaker 1: Those are the steaks? Justin, justin, how are you, by
Speaker 1: the way, by are you ready for this week? This
Speaker 1: is this really is a step up behind the glass
Speaker 1: in terms of this company. I think I'm ready. I
Speaker 1: don't know. You'll have to tell me how I do
Speaker 1: after one day, and we'll see if we will. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're surprised you're even here after that, Ben Jones resigning,
Speaker 1: I just thought you'd be running through the streets naked.
Speaker 1: I was throwing a party, but I had to cancel
Speaker 1: it quick for this show tonight. Nice deal. You know
Speaker 1: you got him for a lot cheaper than Ryan Jensen said, right,
Speaker 1: nice deal. But thinking of parties, any housewarming party at
Speaker 1: your new uh tell abode, I'm playing this against my will,
Speaker 1: just so plick some solo parties. One guest, Wait hold on,
Speaker 1: so you can't help him so because he's so proud.
Speaker 1: Ye wut you do consistently provide new information on a
Speaker 1: topic that was playing you want down? Yes, well things
Speaker 1: are a little calmer now. Is this like the Pete
Speaker 1: Davidson Kim Kardashian situation of NFL media? Ultimately, that's that's
Speaker 1: what I want everyone to think about. Is that what
Speaker 1: we have going on behind the glass? Graver sending out
Speaker 1: text like I'm in bed with your wife exactly alright,
Speaker 1: So Gravers behind the glass, we feel good about it,
Speaker 1: not feeling good about Ricky and her decision making, but
Speaker 1: we forge forward. Let's get to the rest of the
Speaker 1: news that we um have seen. God damn Mark, you
Speaker 1: got a new number one wide receiver Amari Cooper heads
Speaker 1: to the Cleveland Browns, acquired from the Cowboys in exchange
Speaker 1: for a round pick. Uh. They also swapped six round
Speaker 1: picks Cleveland and Dallas. It it is a largely there
Speaker 1: could be some more stuff behind the scenes, because the
Speaker 1: Cowboys didn't seem to be overly happy with Cooper in general.
Speaker 1: But when you look at where cow the Cowboys were
Speaker 1: heading into the league year, they are having some cap
Speaker 1: issues so you take a guy that's one of the
Speaker 1: highest paid wide receivers in the league and you send
Speaker 1: him elsewhere and market. It does fill an area of need,
Speaker 1: uh for the Browns. Jarvis Landry was subsequently granted his release.
Speaker 1: Odell Beckham obviously left, so there was a glaring need
Speaker 1: for a number one. How do you feel about this trade?
Speaker 1: I think they had the worst wide receiver room in
Speaker 1: the league. Um, you know, if you assumed that La
Speaker 1: Landry was out. I mean there's Donovan People's Jones who
Speaker 1: I like him as a piece next to a number one.
Speaker 1: I like the deal because you know when I when
Speaker 1: it was announced and I was thinking, well, what are
Speaker 1: they gonna What are the Browns give up for this?
Speaker 1: On top of taking on a big salary, they gave
Speaker 1: up a fifth and flipped to sixth round picks. I
Speaker 1: mean it is another example of Andrew Barry in general,
Speaker 1: if you're willing to say we're gonna have to spend
Speaker 1: money for good players, essentially never getting fleeced in these deals.
Speaker 1: And I think from that angle, like they addressed a need.
Speaker 1: There's no question to Mary Cooper is a clear number one. UM.
Speaker 1: I like it. I think there is a question. I
Speaker 1: don't think there is. I don't think I think for Cleveland. Well,
Speaker 1: I think for Cleveland, he it's number one status there,
Speaker 1: so let me so many guys out there. They can
Speaker 1: address it in the draft as well, and you have
Speaker 1: remade your wide receiver room entirely. I think that gives
Speaker 1: them a flexibility to also go uh defensive tackle, which
Speaker 1: is probably their second major void on that roster right now.
Speaker 1: I liked the deal for Cleveland. I not surprised that
Speaker 1: that they would be the team to do it. I
Speaker 1: am surprised that thirty other teams passed. They I'm not
Speaker 1: It's not a big surprise that they didn't have to
Speaker 1: give up much because the expectation was all thirty one
Speaker 1: teams were gonna pass and say we don't want that contract.
Speaker 1: That That was curious to me because the contract to
Speaker 1: me isn't bad. He's do twenty million dollars in each
Speaker 1: of the next three years. But they didn't have to
Speaker 1: give up any upfront money, no guarantees, so they can
Speaker 1: cut him at any time with no pain whatsoever. It's
Speaker 1: basically a one year, twenty million dollar contract. And so
Speaker 1: every team in the NFL was saying we wouldn't give
Speaker 1: Amari Cooper a one year, twenty million dollar contract. Now,
Speaker 1: that says something about Amari Cooper. I don't think the
Speaker 1: lead sees him as a true number one. He's sort
Speaker 1: of in between, and that that's fine. He's by far
Speaker 1: the best Browns receiver, and he's a top twenty five
Speaker 1: receiver at the very least. He's just not like the
Speaker 1: guy who's gonna put up four hundred yards and catch
Speaker 1: nine passes. He's not that guy. He's never done it before.
Speaker 1: There's not a great reason to think he'll do it now.
Speaker 1: I I am flummixed in a league where Christian Kirk's
Speaker 1: gonna get eighteen million dollars a year bass salary, and
Speaker 1: these receivers are happened after I get it. You kind
Speaker 1: of could see it coming that Mike Williams gets twenty
Speaker 1: million dollars year, that no one wanted a Marie Cooper
Speaker 1: and and so I think it made a lot of
Speaker 1: sense for the Browns. Well, someone did the Browns. So
Speaker 1: maybe most teams were thinking, we'll let him go to market.
Speaker 1: We're not. We don't want to write. But they knew
Speaker 1: they saw the contract. They could have given up I'm
Speaker 1: sure they saw it weeks ago. They were putting this
Speaker 1: out there. We're gonna cut him. That was the big
Speaker 1: for sale sign that like, please someone give us an offer.
Speaker 1: No one, no one top that. I think I think
Speaker 1: it makes sense. Yeah, I think it's a good move
Speaker 1: that cap space basically. Yeah, I think it's a good
Speaker 1: move by Cleveland. I would say my only concern would
Speaker 1: be some reports about him having issues. He wants the
Speaker 1: ball more, and how does that work when you go
Speaker 1: to Cleveland. When the last guy, O'Dell talked his way
Speaker 1: out of town behind the scenes with his dad's help,
Speaker 1: and then Jarvis Landry didn't talk the last half of
Speaker 1: the season, there was a lot of unhappiness with quarterback play,
Speaker 1: and right now as things stands, the quarterbacks still there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that the flip side of this is that
Speaker 1: this isn't me dancing around the room with a ton
Speaker 1: of optimism. I think that it's super clear Cleveland is
Speaker 1: unhappy with their quarterback situation right now. They are fishing
Speaker 1: around for answers on that front. And they had to
Speaker 1: clear out that almost that entire wide receiver room because
Speaker 1: the tweets and the overall overt support for Odell Beckham
Speaker 1: after he left, and for from the team to Jarvis
Speaker 1: Landry today in a way is counter to how they
Speaker 1: feel about Baker Mayfield. Everyone's silent on the Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: front and Robinson or Cooper said, I cannot wait to
Speaker 1: play with Baker blah blah blah, We'll see. It just
Speaker 1: seems to me like a situation that could turn ugly
Speaker 1: again next season. The great thing is he's only twenty.
Speaker 1: He's turning twenty eight this year. How is it, Marie
Speaker 1: Cooper years Jarvis Landry only twenty nine. I feel like
Speaker 1: seven years old now that I think about it more,
Speaker 1: I think it says more just about this incoming crop
Speaker 1: of rookies that teams just feel like they can find
Speaker 1: receivers in the draft. And I'm sure the Browns feel
Speaker 1: that way too. They might draft one as well. They
Speaker 1: need more than just one, and and maybe that's I
Speaker 1: think that was a huge thing to do with it.
Speaker 1: I do. I don't like. I hear you. If you're
Speaker 1: not you don't think it's a number one. But in
Speaker 1: this market, if you have no one at wide receiver,
Speaker 1: and the Browns were desperate, Cooper fits number one for
Speaker 1: next season. He's never topped twelve yards, but he's topped
Speaker 1: He's between a thousand and twelve hundred five different times.
Speaker 1: Have we heard from him? By the way, is he
Speaker 1: happy to be traded to Cleveland? I wonder he did
Speaker 1: just say I saw close that he that that sounded
Speaker 1: very supportive. But I mean, what what is he gonna say.
Speaker 1: He's gonna come out and be malcolms right? My producers
Speaker 1: not here, so my other producer justin we're working out
Speaker 1: some kids behind. I totally understand the dynamic. He also had.
Speaker 1: Marie Cooper actually hasn't spoken in eight years of being
Speaker 1: an NFL player. I like, I've never seen his lips move.
Speaker 1: He has no mouth. Actually that's a little fun factor.
Speaker 1: Well that would be useful in Cleveland for once. In
Speaker 1: their news, the Steelers have identified their solution behind center,
Speaker 1: or at least they at least they hope they have.
Speaker 1: And I love it. This one's spicy. This is spicy Greggy,
Speaker 1: not just in the a f C North Um for
Speaker 1: Steelers fans, but also for the Around the NFL podcast.
Speaker 1: Because Mark's old friend Mitch Trabinsky has signed a agreed
Speaker 1: to terms on a all these deals become official Wednesday.
Speaker 1: So nothing signed yet unless you're already a member of
Speaker 1: a team for an extension. But these teams, all these
Speaker 1: become official on Wednesday, two year contract agreed to. Um.
Speaker 1: This is the same Trabiscue who's gotten breathless coverage over
Speaker 1: the last month or so. UM. And you know what,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I'm not saying he's
Speaker 1: deserving a breathless coverage. He does signed to be a
Speaker 1: starting quarterback for an a f C team that's been, um,
Speaker 1: you know, relevant for decades. So mark Mitch Drabinsky, a
Speaker 1: man that you were never high on coming out of
Speaker 1: North Carolina. UM, you renumber two overall pick. Now Drabinski
Speaker 1: has one last chance to stick it to you in
Speaker 1: the North. I don't get it at all. UM. I
Speaker 1: don't know what Pittsburgh's ultimate plan here is that he
Speaker 1: is clearly there start like, I give him the obvious
Speaker 1: a choice to lead over Mason Rudolph going into where
Speaker 1: they are right now. Uh. To me, it's like we
Speaker 1: were told Mason Rudolph was a good option at we
Speaker 1: didn't buy that. They're throwing it out there. That's like
Speaker 1: nothing changed with Rudolph. He's still competing the Star. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think they don't have an answer, but they did
Speaker 1: talk to the Niners about Jimmy G. I think that
Speaker 1: that the game plan with Jimmy G probably has teams
Speaker 1: maybe a little freaked at this point. But Mitch Drabinsky
Speaker 1: seems to be this quarterback that his thriving in this
Speaker 1: Like you mentioned this hoopla around him because everyone blames
Speaker 1: the Bears and how the Bears used and I keep
Speaker 1: hearing that over and over that teams don't really look
Speaker 1: at what Chicago did with miss Robinsky and blame ms Robisky.
Speaker 1: They blame the Bears. Fine, there's a ton of bad
Speaker 1: tape on m R Bisky where he's making terrible decisions
Speaker 1: and doing things an NFL starters should not be doing.
Speaker 1: I don't care if he's on the Bears or he's
Speaker 1: on a high school team. It's not adequate. And so
Speaker 1: Fittsburgh is gonna run into the same issue. I I
Speaker 1: want to see the contracts you're talking about, Sizzler. Come on,
Speaker 1: this is every free agency report. Though I've been here
Speaker 1: all day long listening to multiple stations, we are over
Speaker 1: inflating every one of these players. And then the real
Speaker 1: games started, it's like, oh, it's week three, and the
Speaker 1: Steelers understand finally, Mr Robinsky is not a competent start.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. When he's not being over inflated in
Speaker 1: this room right now, I will say this though, the Steelers,
Speaker 1: like the Colts and these other teams that are kind
Speaker 1: of stuck in QB purgatory right now, there aren't a
Speaker 1: lot of like great answers where you are right, if
Speaker 1: you are looking, if you feel like you can contend
Speaker 1: for a playoff spot but you don't have a quarterback,
Speaker 1: there aren't a lot of great options. And that's how
Speaker 1: you end up over paying for Carson Wentz or Jimmy
Speaker 1: g And so Mitch Trobinsky is of that same ilk.
Speaker 1: To me, maybe a step below based on what he's
Speaker 1: shown us in his career. Um. But if he was
Speaker 1: paid ten dollars, he was overpaid. All right, I get it.
Speaker 1: You don't like we're with you, plug on it. That
Speaker 1: is a still graver. I don't want to tell you
Speaker 1: how to do. Let's have a still a mark in
Speaker 1: like a funny funny face, and it was if it's
Speaker 1: paid ten dollars, that's too much. My point is whether
Speaker 1: you are the commander is whether uh you are this
Speaker 1: team the Steelers. You could just say, all right, we
Speaker 1: were in a tough spot. We kind of put ourselves
Speaker 1: in this box. We knew Ben was retiring, but we
Speaker 1: never really got things set up. So we'll see what
Speaker 1: happens with Trabisk. We wanted a mobile quarterback. We made
Speaker 1: that very clear. Now we have it, and if it
Speaker 1: doesn't work, we'll get rid of him and next year
Speaker 1: is a better quarterback class. It's gonna be a fresh
Speaker 1: crop of guys on the market and we could try
Speaker 1: this again. So I think he's nothing more than a
Speaker 1: stop gaps slash. We have a hunch about him. We'll
Speaker 1: see how it plays out. There's no long term commitment.
Speaker 1: After everything I've said, he'll probably blow up and be
Speaker 1: the comeback player of the year. I mean this is
Speaker 1: that's it's just as equally a narrative. I'm with you
Speaker 1: that I have no belief. I'm with you that I
Speaker 1: have no interest in Trabisky. But to me, I want
Speaker 1: to see the contract before I have too strong of
Speaker 1: an opinion on it. The fact that we haven't seen
Speaker 1: the money usually as a sign that there's not that
Speaker 1: much money, and My suspicion is it's one of those
Speaker 1: contracts that it's not really a starter contract. It's like
Speaker 1: a high level backup contract where he's the favorite over
Speaker 1: Mason Rudolph. And I believe personally that they're a strong
Speaker 1: candidate to draft a quarterback in the first round or
Speaker 1: the second round. Still, and if that's the case, that
Speaker 1: that's fine. I personally would rather have Andy Dalton then
Speaker 1: Mitchell Drabinsky. I think he's a better player right now,
Speaker 1: and and you can say maybe doesn't have the the upside,
Speaker 1: but I'd rather have the other one be options. But
Speaker 1: if the contract isn't that high, if it's like nine
Speaker 1: or ten million dollars per season, that that's my guests,
Speaker 1: and they might draft someone. Okay, that's fine, you're just
Speaker 1: kind of kicking the can. Frame they draft someone of
Speaker 1: note in like the first round, where they're sitting, a
Speaker 1: lot of what I've said goes away. I mean, because Rabinsky,
Speaker 1: you know, none of these guys are ready to start
Speaker 1: Day one most likely, and Trabisky holds. And if they
Speaker 1: don't draft anyone, that makes sense too. So just affirmed
Speaker 1: that they don't like this draft class, so let's find
Speaker 1: somebody else a veteran to handle this year and see
Speaker 1: what happens. How about this, Here's what said. I would
Speaker 1: have taken Teddy, you know, I mean, I know you would, Buddy.
Speaker 1: Here's the best case slash worst case scenario for this show,
Speaker 1: Greg Sunday Night Football Week seven. Trabinsky goes off for
Speaker 1: three touchdowns, passing one, rushing Steelers thirty four Browns twenty
Speaker 1: and then we go right back to the studio to tape.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go that is not a good case. I've
Speaker 1: been dumping on Mitch Robisky too for five years too,
Speaker 1: so I'm a mom on team Mark here. I don't
Speaker 1: have as much at staying and but I also, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't like you, know, Mark, being angry makes me uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: I already I can tell that I'm going to be
Speaker 1: getting crushed on this entire diet. We have developing news.
Speaker 1: I love it. It's a great spicy subplot. Mark. I
Speaker 1: don't wish pain for you, but it would be interesting
Speaker 1: if you had a nice year developing news. Oh, I
Speaker 1: like this one from the aforementioned Adam Schefter. Former Broncos
Speaker 1: quarterback Teddy Bridgewater intends to sign a one year deal
Speaker 1: to be the backup QB I put I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: backup Qban air quotes for the Miami Dolphins Perles, per
Speaker 1: league sources. So there you go, Greggy, so bridge Water
Speaker 1: has now made the transition as I believe should have
Speaker 1: been the case for a couple of years. He's signing
Speaker 1: a true backup deal. But if you're a teddy fan,
Speaker 1: there are worse places to go than this Mike McDaniel
Speaker 1: offense with to who a lot of people aren't sold
Speaker 1: on yet. He could have a chance here. I like it.
Speaker 1: I like him in that system. He hasn't really been
Speaker 1: UH in that style of system. I think he has
Speaker 1: some of the strengths of of toa UH certainly or
Speaker 1: experience and could be a better version of him. And
Speaker 1: I think it makes sense for the Dolphins too to
Speaker 1: have a fail safe here if it doesn't click with
Speaker 1: two and Mike mctel. You have the best backup quarterback
Speaker 1: in the league all of a sudden, in an offensive
Speaker 1: system that I think it's going to be spicy, intriguing,
Speaker 1: and a great place for any quarterback over under on
Speaker 1: how many starts he makes for well to to to
Speaker 1: stay healthy last year, I think no, now he missed.
Speaker 1: How about I'd say not even to us health. Let's
Speaker 1: say to it is healthy, but TOAs performance I'm going
Speaker 1: for for some reason, alright, Uh No, I would say
Speaker 1: starts for two. I'll set it twelve and a half
Speaker 1: to have missed five games last year. Five starts. Uh,
Speaker 1: that would be an over for Teddy. Then okay, four
Speaker 1: and a half, twelve and a half seen basically, what
Speaker 1: is their record October? Yeah, if they are four and
Speaker 1: three to two, will continue to be the starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: If they are two and five, he will no longer
Speaker 1: be this and the previous best backup quarterback in football's
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick, and that was under a different leadership with
Speaker 1: Brian Flores. But Flores could not stomach the sight of
Speaker 1: giving to a big snaps when he could see a
Speaker 1: playoff berth in sight, and Ryan Fitzpatrick kept on going
Speaker 1: into the lineup. Now you have another very capable backup.
Speaker 1: Is he the best backup that? That sounds like a
Speaker 1: great June podcast episode segment. That's an he wasn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was the backup in New Orleans when when he
Speaker 1: ripped off five wins, not playing like that? Well, so
Speaker 1: he did have one year as a as a true
Speaker 1: backup with the Saints. But it makes sense to me
Speaker 1: there aren't really other starting jobs available. I don't think
Speaker 1: Carolina was bringing him back all. We're playing a little
Speaker 1: catch up here. This was annoying. It happened on Friday,
Speaker 1: UM or on Thursday. I think there's the TV show
Speaker 1: after our podcast taping, so you know, come on, what's up.
Speaker 1: Chargers charges acquire outside linebacker Khalil Mack from the Bears
Speaker 1: in exchange for a second round pick in six round pick. Uh.
Speaker 1: Not a huge haul there, mark for Khalil Mack, who
Speaker 1: obviously was at the center of one of the biggest
Speaker 1: trades of the previous decade when he went from the
Speaker 1: Raiders to the Bears. On paper, it looks really good
Speaker 1: for l A, who doesn't have to give up a
Speaker 1: lot takes on the rest of his contract, and now
Speaker 1: Joey Boza has a buddy to go get the quarterback
Speaker 1: if mac And is surgically repaired, foot are legit and healthy.
Speaker 1: I think one of the worst things that happened in
Speaker 1: all of last football season, and it's in It robbed
Speaker 1: us of something that would have been magical in January
Speaker 1: was that thirty five to thirty two loss the Chargers
Speaker 1: suffered to the Raiders that sent the snooze fest Steelers
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. I can only wonder what would have
Speaker 1: happened in that game and you had Khalil Mack. The Chargers,
Speaker 1: despite Brandon Staley's genius, gave up twenty five plus points
Speaker 1: nine times last year. They were twenty six defensive d
Speaker 1: v o A. They needed someone next to Bosa. You're
Speaker 1: in a division that is becoming spicier by the minute
Speaker 1: with intense quarterback play. I like this for the Chargers,
Speaker 1: even if I'm not convinced Khalil Mack is maybe as
Speaker 1: great a player as he was a couple of years ago. Genus,
Speaker 1: Hey look, thank you. Is genius? Respect think that he
Speaker 1: is regarded as a one of the boy geniuses in
Speaker 1: the league. Has he proven that as a head coach,
Speaker 1: We'll see. I think he was. He was strong, but
Speaker 1: their defal it was casually dashed off. Their defense was
Speaker 1: bad under Staley, which was a surprise disappointment their defense
Speaker 1: last year. So having Khalil Mack as a second pass
Speaker 1: rusher that Joey Bosa is getting the attention slid to
Speaker 1: him that's massive. Cleo Mac has never not been a
Speaker 1: an elite run stopper. At the very least, he's over
Speaker 1: there causing havoc, getting pressures. He's coming off an injury
Speaker 1: uh marred season, but before that he was totally durable.
Speaker 1: He wasn't as good in Chicago though the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. His best year there was certainly his first one.
Speaker 1: And so the price that makes sense. But it's worth it,
Speaker 1: and I think the Chargers are going big this offseason.
Speaker 1: This is this is risky. I'm I'm making what could
Speaker 1: be seen as a a a rookie mistake here when
Speaker 1: it comes to podcasting during free agency frenzy here, but
Speaker 1: there is a lot of whispers right now connecting j C.
Speaker 1: Jackson and the Chargers. By the time you listen to this,
Speaker 1: maybe it'll be blown up. But my instinct is that
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen. Uh Derwin James developing news, let's do
Speaker 1: it rapture. The Chargers are expected to sign former Patriots
Speaker 1: cornerback J. C. Jackson. So one of the jewels of
Speaker 1: this free agency crop, a man that was an absolutely
Speaker 1: was nails for the Patriots and that secondary of ball
Speaker 1: hawk a big time player, big money deal, huge money deal.
Speaker 1: I would imagine we don't have the numbers yet. Joins
Speaker 1: Derwin James and that secondary Hello, that's awesome. I think
Speaker 1: that's a great fit for them. I think with the
Speaker 1: type of defense that they want to run, which is
Speaker 1: really forcing teams to go the length of the field,
Speaker 1: having a guy who can match up like that in
Speaker 1: man coverage, that can certainly play zone two, that is
Speaker 1: a ball hawk more than anything, is such a good
Speaker 1: fit because in Staley's defense, you're gonna have your eyes
Speaker 1: on the quarterback a lot more often, uh than J. C.
Speaker 1: Jackson even did in New England when he picked off
Speaker 1: the ball plenty. I mean he he has one of
Speaker 1: the best knows for the ball, ball skills instincts that
Speaker 1: I've ever seen out of a cornerback, and the numbers
Speaker 1: support it. Like he is on a record setting trajectory
Speaker 1: in terms of the interceptions in the past reflections that
Speaker 1: he's had through four or five years in the league.
Speaker 1: And yes, Daley is gonna play more zone defense than
Speaker 1: the Patriots, but they played plenty of zone with the
Speaker 1: Patriots and Jackson excelled in that too. He's gonna be
Speaker 1: able to do a little bit of everything. I love
Speaker 1: this for Staley, who who seems to know how to
Speaker 1: get the most out of stars, and he just added
Speaker 1: two more of him to his defense. You got Justin
Speaker 1: Herbert costing you seven point two million next year. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that's the window to be spending money if you're the Bears, though,
Speaker 1: Like you just signed Matt Eberflus as your head coach
Speaker 1: and then a month later shotgun Khalil Mac out of
Speaker 1: the building. They're in a full rebuild. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: a ton of cap space under Ryan Poles the GM
Speaker 1: next offseason. But this offseason is this year on defense
Speaker 1: at least is not gonna be matt efluss number one product.
Speaker 1: I think the going back to that trade it make
Speaker 1: sense on both sides because the Bears are rebuilding, even
Speaker 1: if they don't want to tell you they are, and
Speaker 1: they get rid of all that money for thirty something
Speaker 1: outside linebacker, and the Chargers are obvious win now mode.
Speaker 1: And now, if you want to like kind of spin
Speaker 1: it back a little bit further, that trade, which was
Speaker 1: one of the biggest trades since we've been doing this show.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a lose lose like who who
Speaker 1: won the Raiders. The only player of note that came
Speaker 1: out of that ultimately was Josh Jacobs, who's a good
Speaker 1: running back. And the Bears, I think they were one
Speaker 1: game over five hundred and Mac was absolute stud one
Speaker 1: or two years, but ultimately that didn't put them over
Speaker 1: the top either. So I'm not gonna say much ado
Speaker 1: about nothing, but that's how all the talk about that
Speaker 1: trade yielded very rich. You're saying that they should not
Speaker 1: have given the Raiders the Sloan Conference award for the
Speaker 1: Trade of the Year. Do you remember that that that
Speaker 1: was the cleon Mac trade. It's almost gonna canceled the
Speaker 1: Salone Conference. I think the process was win win for
Speaker 1: both teams. It's just they made bad picks in with
Speaker 1: the Raiders, and that's you just gotta make good picks.
Speaker 1: But at the process made sense and the defense was
Speaker 1: super Bowl championship level for two years for the Bears.
Speaker 1: Like if they didn't draft Mitch Drabinsky, if they had
Speaker 1: drafted a different quarterback in that spot, they might have
Speaker 1: just won a super Bowl. Just saying like that, the
Speaker 1: defense was ready to go win a super Bowl and
Speaker 1: we're awesome, especially that first year, but really for two years,
Speaker 1: they just messed up the rest of the team. The
Speaker 1: Chargers on the official team of the off season, though
Speaker 1: every year I get excited about the Chargers hype. My god,
Speaker 1: this team is fun. The first reports are forty million
Speaker 1: guaranteed for J C. Jackson five years, eighty two million.
Speaker 1: I thought it could have been worse for him, so
Speaker 1: I actually, I mean yeah, I mean I thought it
Speaker 1: could have cost more to get him. You mentioned Herbert's
Speaker 1: rookie contract just before we move on quickly, it's like
Speaker 1: they have also they also have a left tackle Rashawn Slater,
Speaker 1: and a rookie contract franchise left tackle one of the
Speaker 1: best in the NFL for like three or four more years.
Speaker 1: And Derwin James is still on his rookie contract at
Speaker 1: least for like one more year. Maybe maybe not even
Speaker 1: by the end of this offseason. But they've got like
Speaker 1: three all Pro type players on their rookie contracts. I
Speaker 1: love that, you know, go for it right. There are
Speaker 1: two ways to go for it, all right, and and
Speaker 1: we're seeing it from both l A teams. The l
Speaker 1: A Rams went for it by saying we're gonna sell
Speaker 1: all of our future assets our first round picks. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get as much premium talent as we can via
Speaker 1: the free free agent market for you the trade market,
Speaker 1: and hopefully it all coalesces and you build a champion
Speaker 1: and have a nice run. They did it the Chargers.
Speaker 1: This is the more traditional way you hit on the quarterback.
Speaker 1: You have a young star quarterback who will be one
Speaker 1: of the top five, maybe number one paid player in
Speaker 1: the league in a couple of years. But right now
Speaker 1: you have a chance and a window to bring in
Speaker 1: a bunch of stud talent. Here's the window they have
Speaker 1: to They can't they can't chargeer this this is the
Speaker 1: year where they need to make that leap and become
Speaker 1: a true AVC contender. I don't know how long we've
Speaker 1: been talking about that as a possibility, but it is
Speaker 1: out or never. Want to sit now. I don't know
Speaker 1: about never, because Herbert and those guys aren't going You're
Speaker 1: paying Herbert next. But they're gonna be a contender with
Speaker 1: Herbert as long as they're well run. But that secondary
Speaker 1: assante Samuel Jr. Is a is a thief. J C.
Speaker 1: Jackson is a thief. Derwin James is a thief. Adderly
Speaker 1: played pretty well last year. That is a team that
Speaker 1: should be turning the ball over, even if they're going
Speaker 1: to give up a lot of yards. That kind of
Speaker 1: comes with the program with Staley. They should force a
Speaker 1: lot of turnovers, give Justin Herbert a lot of exit
Speaker 1: with the Chargers. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing at all? Alright, wow, okay,
Speaker 1: so we got a lot. Now we're seeing some movement
Speaker 1: on Greggy's top ten free agents, the top one oh one.
Speaker 1: So that that was a big Where was j C.
Speaker 1: Who's too too? I I made a last minute adjustment.
Speaker 1: They don't usually let me change the list and flipped
Speaker 1: one in two and made him to to Toronto Armstead.
Speaker 1: He was, all right, let's take a break and continue
Speaker 1: to cycle through the events of the day. All Right,
Speaker 1: we're back. Graver is doing pretty well so far. I
Speaker 1: think I think he's holding it together. I don't see,
Speaker 1: you know, beads of sweat coming down the I mean,
Speaker 1: he's got a great home life, so you know, right,
Speaker 1: he's calm, he's cool, he's collected. That's how he went
Speaker 1: full Davidson and the biggest of all spots. I missed
Speaker 1: a couple of things, but the audience will never know
Speaker 1: because we're adding him in posts, so exactly don't tell
Speaker 1: us that though it don't tell anyone that is radio
Speaker 1: people would be like, oh, seeing the seems a little
Speaker 1: bit here, but we don't. We don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about that here. But just wait. By the end of
Speaker 1: the week will be it will be a humming machine.
Speaker 1: And again, let's let's let's discuss the stakes quickly before
Speaker 1: we dive back into the news. Justin I have no
Speaker 1: doubt is going to do a great job all week
Speaker 1: with that great team behind him, Salely, Stableton, Randy. But
Speaker 1: what if he does too good a job and Ricky's
Speaker 1: on an island and she doesn't come back with a
Speaker 1: ring on. We have to make a decision. It's a
Speaker 1: tough decision, but it would have to be a fair
Speaker 1: to decision. But what sort of decision would we be making, said, wow,
Speaker 1: it's a thorny. It would be a thorny. I mean,
Speaker 1: already a tough week here, you know for for Patriots fans,
Speaker 1: you know, like Ricky, these are the two or three
Speaker 1: days a year. Everyone freaks out that that roots for
Speaker 1: the pages. Why why did you let Jay C. Jackson go?
Speaker 1: He's think And then you know, three or four days,
Speaker 1: they'll sign some guys who end up being productive. Come down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I still as someone who's still on the beat of
Speaker 1: like ts tisking Patriots fans for being J. C. Jackson
Speaker 1: would have been great to keep. Let's just let's just say.
Speaker 1: I still wonder. I wonder why Bill was so cool
Speaker 1: with letting the twenty six year old ball hawk corner
Speaker 1: all pro dude go out, because he's like me and
Speaker 1: my four person coaching staff are gonna handle it by
Speaker 1: signing like thirty five year old veterans who can lead
Speaker 1: in the locker room. Like just I know the charges
Speaker 1: will never acknowledge it, but like, what something something, Maybe
Speaker 1: there's something. I think we were pay a little bit
Speaker 1: more for this guy, right the other team didn't want him.
Speaker 1: Now it's fine, right, I mean, he came into the
Speaker 1: league with some pretty grim um off field issues, but
Speaker 1: that has not been the case. Uh, you know, since
Speaker 1: he's coming to maturity. No, Mark, Mark never had anything
Speaker 1: this disturbance. I came in with a pristine record. It's
Speaker 1: just becomes more problematic since that's kind of the cool
Speaker 1: way to do it. Yeah, that's why that's why he
Speaker 1: was undrafted in the first place. Uh it was you know,
Speaker 1: I hate that when people say that. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to make sure I got the words right. He was
Speaker 1: arrested for armed robbery, found not guilty, and there was
Speaker 1: a couple other things, but that was that was the
Speaker 1: main one. But that was why he was undrafted h
Speaker 1: five years ago. Um Alright. In other news, let's get
Speaker 1: caught up with the kirk Cousins. I love this Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousin's career arc. You gotta give it up for the man.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could like him, you could hate him.
Speaker 1: You could be annoyed that he was in a plexiglass box.
Speaker 1: You could be frankly turned on that Greg would get
Speaker 1: greased up and slid right in there. Depending on Yeah,
Speaker 1: depending on what you're into and and all that. Um,
Speaker 1: but don't ever, don't ever discount the man's ability to
Speaker 1: be a businessman. Kirk Cousins signed a one year, thirty
Speaker 1: five million dollar extension with the Vikings that takes him
Speaker 1: through the three season. Okay, so that deal is good
Speaker 1: for the Vikings and bad for the Vikings, depending on
Speaker 1: what you think about Cousins and his ceiling and his
Speaker 1: ability to lead a team. To a championship, considering he
Speaker 1: has one playoff win in his life. But the calm down, Kirk.
Speaker 1: The deal saves the Vikings fourteen million against the cap
Speaker 1: this year, so that helps. It was going to be
Speaker 1: a record forty million dollar capit, so that's good. Um,
Speaker 1: I guess Greg. The question would be whether the Vikings
Speaker 1: will regret having a window here when they were teams
Speaker 1: that perhaps were interested in taking on a player like Cousins,
Speaker 1: and instead they say the best move for us is
Speaker 1: to get in bed for two more years, most likely
Speaker 1: with Kirk Cousins. Where do you come down on this move?
Speaker 1: I mean, at first, I was highly annoyed by it
Speaker 1: that the Vikings were just signing up for another year
Speaker 1: of giving Kirk Cousins guaranteed money. He's guaranteed thirty million
Speaker 1: dollars next year again, so he has been guaranteed his
Speaker 1: salary every year. I think, since does not happen in
Speaker 1: the NFL, it's crazy. Then I heard some smart analysis,
Speaker 1: but people smarter than me that actually noted with the
Speaker 1: way that the money was structured, he's more tradeable next
Speaker 1: year if they did try to move on that they
Speaker 1: would be saving uh some cat money. Next year. Maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know if I buy that, he'll still be
Speaker 1: guaranteed thirty million dollars at age thirty five. And it
Speaker 1: just felt like they knew they were gonna play this
Speaker 1: year with Kirk Cousins, and so they just felt once
Speaker 1: again like let's just give him another extension because you
Speaker 1: need that gap space. My biggest takeaway is I kind
Speaker 1: of get where Lamar Jackson is at being um taking
Speaker 1: the point that just don't sign me. I'm gonna play
Speaker 1: out that fifth year option. I'm gonna let you tag
Speaker 1: me potentially, I'm gonna let you tag me again because
Speaker 1: if even though it's betting on yourself and it's highly risky,
Speaker 1: the reward is being Kirk Cousins and controlling your the team,
Speaker 1: the next team that signs you, and controlling your future
Speaker 1: for the rest of your career. He is one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful players in the NFL because of this
Speaker 1: contract that he's signed with the Vikings five six years.
Speaker 1: They they should just like in journalism classes, they should
Speaker 1: study what Adam Schefter has done with a dealing with
Speaker 1: agents and then using them as a mouthpiece. It should
Speaker 1: be studied other quarterbacks coming into the league. Agents and
Speaker 1: study how he handled this. Now, you have to be
Speaker 1: a certain market, have to be a certain level of quarterback.
Speaker 1: That's part of this too. That's that it's not just
Speaker 1: that he's a savvy businessman. He is just good enough
Speaker 1: to always have the leverage, but not great enough to
Speaker 1: ever really get a team to say I want you forever.
Speaker 1: So he's kind of just a little by being about
Speaker 1: what you want as a quarterback, he's he's kind of
Speaker 1: properly tiered. Next year in the year after looking at
Speaker 1: the money makes when you're gonna have quarterbacks making fifty million,
Speaker 1: I think he is tradeable. I think there's a no
Speaker 1: trade clause inside of this, but I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 1: he could wait to work that into so he has
Speaker 1: more control there too, that he gets to choose his
Speaker 1: But if you're Kevin O'Connell, like look at the Steelers,
Speaker 1: you're looking around at the quarterback market. We thought a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago that that this has been solved,
Speaker 1: that every team had a competent quarterback. Is just not
Speaker 1: the case. And so if you move on from Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 1: like we were floating around the idea of you shop
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins for Baker Mayfield. Well, Minnesota's GM came from Cleveland.
Speaker 1: It's pretty clear what he thought about making that kind
Speaker 1: of a trade. They're sticking with the guy that I think,
Speaker 1: if you're Kevin O'Connell thinks gives you the best chance
Speaker 1: to get off to an okay start for the next
Speaker 1: year or two and then we'll see okay. But you
Speaker 1: know who's and I agree with that that makes sense,
Speaker 1: But you know whose contract. This reminds me the most
Speaker 1: of our Drew Brees and Tom Brady that they keep
Speaker 1: adding these void years and kicking it one or two
Speaker 1: more years and at some point you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: eat the eat the poop. Except those guys are two
Speaker 1: of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL.
Speaker 1: And the other one's Kirk because he's found this little
Speaker 1: knit Breezes Breezes contract like screwed that team towards. But
Speaker 1: it's similar. Now they're adding into they added these two
Speaker 1: fake void years till five and at some point they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to take their medicine with cousins. Except all
Speaker 1: you're getting this cousin in Matt Ryan fashion. Yes, this
Speaker 1: is just to break it down two thousand, sixteen, he
Speaker 1: got tagged by the Washington football teams. That's when the
Speaker 1: guarantees nineteen point nine million. Then they tagged him again,
Speaker 1: so that made him twenty three point nine and then
Speaker 1: he started making more bank The next year's twenty six million,
Speaker 1: eight million, forty million, twenty one million, thirty million, forty
Speaker 1: million next year, over two thirty million in career totals,
Speaker 1: one playoff win. It's why it's it's absurd. So if
Speaker 1: you if you are Bradford, if you are Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 1: you guys said he had to be a certain type
Speaker 1: of quarterback to stumble into this. That's true. But if
Speaker 1: you are a guy like Lamar Jackson, you could look
Speaker 1: at Patrick Mahomes and think like Mahomes is underpaid and Lamar.
Speaker 1: If I was like his friend or his family, I'd
Speaker 1: be worried because you're one injury away. You know, you're
Speaker 1: a couple injuries away from this changing or your career
Speaker 1: goes in a wrong direction and it could change. But
Speaker 1: imagine if you are a top shelf QB and play
Speaker 1: out the Kirk Cousins thing Mama like, then it gets
Speaker 1: you can set boundaries that have never happened, and so
Speaker 1: I think that is what he might go for. And
Speaker 1: security matters of course. Uh, and a long term deal
Speaker 1: that that gives. Even in the NFL, a long term
Speaker 1: deals usually like two or three years. But if you
Speaker 1: and if you can make it through two franchise tag
Speaker 1: gears as a quarterback in the modern NFL, it's like
Speaker 1: sixty million guaranteed dollars, you are set up for Like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, he's just got to get to the tach.
Speaker 1: This is really the most risky year. He'll be on
Speaker 1: a fifth year option Lamar, that is for about twenty
Speaker 1: million dollars. But that's still a nice chunk of change
Speaker 1: in a in a big time r And yet if
Speaker 1: you're a Vikings fan, you're nonplussed. Yeah, I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of angry Vikings fans in my tweets,
Speaker 1: so they're a little you know, saying, how it makes
Speaker 1: Why are they angry at you? Well, because I was
Speaker 1: just pointing out how how surprised I was that they
Speaker 1: didn't just take their medicine, that they kicked it forward
Speaker 1: another year. It makes sense in the context of just
Speaker 1: two I get it, because you had another tweet that
Speaker 1: you you. It was a confident tweet. Uh from a
Speaker 1: man that's reading tea leaves. Some people don't want to
Speaker 1: hear it. Some people don't like a guy that's saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is the actual, this is what's going on here.
Speaker 1: Pay attention. Some people know it's gonna be like what
Speaker 1: it happened to me today. I'm telling you it's a
Speaker 1: great You're having a moment on Twitter. The Jets signed
Speaker 1: a guard, okay, um Thomas and we're going to get
Speaker 1: to the night and everything. And minutes earlier, you had
Speaker 1: made a comment about Cincinnati signing multiple guards, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you can't develop your if you're signing guards the free
Speaker 1: agent deals, it means you can't develop within and coach
Speaker 1: them up. I like that sound. Take Someone parted your
Speaker 1: point in the first reply to me, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh this is a sound was like, oh, this means
Speaker 1: you can't develop talent in your interior line is like wow,
Speaker 1: it's influential. I tweeted that to you. That was that
Speaker 1: was me. All right, let's keep moving here. The Jaguars
Speaker 1: are busy, busy, But how does it feel to be
Speaker 1: influential on the on the Twitter? I wish I could
Speaker 1: believe that. I wish I could. I think you do
Speaker 1: believe it. I don't. That's not the big concerntion. Really,
Speaker 1: this is hey. That says more about you. Jaguars signed
Speaker 1: right guard Brandon sure formerly of the Commanders. Actually he
Speaker 1: was never a commander, well, I guess he was for
Speaker 1: about a month, but he never played for the command
Speaker 1: He played for the football Team, which will go down
Speaker 1: as a fairly hilarious moment in football history that for
Speaker 1: two years there a team called the football team, and
Speaker 1: yet they chose a name that is less preferable. After that,
Speaker 1: the Commanders, Brandon Shurff gets a he gets the bag,
Speaker 1: as they say, uh from the Jags. To fortify their interior,
Speaker 1: their line, they also now it's gonna get tough. They
Speaker 1: sign linebacker Foye Sade a Lunacon formerly of the Falcons,
Speaker 1: three years, forty five million. And they're not done, you
Speaker 1: know I, because they say, we need our boy Trevor
Speaker 1: law Lawrence to have more weapons. So they give Christian Kirk,
Speaker 1: formerly of the Cardinals, a huge contract, four year deal
Speaker 1: worth up to eighty four million. Apparently if you kind
Speaker 1: of dig a little bit on it. And that's where
Speaker 1: Greg could come in perhaps the year old. It's more
Speaker 1: like a seventy two million dollar deal too. For thirty
Speaker 1: seven is kind of as as four for seven. Now
Speaker 1: break it down. I'm not great at math, but that
Speaker 1: means that's eighteen and a half per year. Your boy
Speaker 1: Mary Cooper Mark just got twenty million for one year
Speaker 1: from the from the Cowboys trade. So great, Christian Kirk
Speaker 1: getting a huge amount of money for guys it's never
Speaker 1: even had a thousand yards season. Yeah, I'd rather have
Speaker 1: a Marii Cooper. He I mean, he's a fine secondary
Speaker 1: or tertiary receiver to use a westward that you would
Speaker 1: throw in there sometimes. I mean he's he's you need
Speaker 1: three or four receivers and he can be one of them.
Speaker 1: I I don't. I haven't seen the huge upside. And
Speaker 1: so it's a lot of money. But the Jaguars need
Speaker 1: players all all four of their signings, And did you
Speaker 1: mentioned Photo Kassi, who I liked fully folds from the
Speaker 1: from them. So they had four big signings, including Schurf,
Speaker 1: including Kirk, including a Lukan. Probably two out of those
Speaker 1: four work. But I don't hate it because I'm sort
Speaker 1: of on the corner of waste cap space is a
Speaker 1: terrible thing to waste. You need starting players of the four.
Speaker 1: I feel like Schurf is a big time risk and
Speaker 1: a Lui Khan is to who kind of came on
Speaker 1: really strong last year for the Falcons, hadn't done much before.
Speaker 1: PFF like hated him, had him a sub fifty uh
Speaker 1: grade for what it's worth. Uh So there's some big
Speaker 1: time risk, but I kind of like, I think Kirk
Speaker 1: is a fine weapon to add in photo. Kassi was
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. I mean, you're the Jaguars, so
Speaker 1: you're you know that we've seen this before. They played
Speaker 1: this exact record, you know, multiple times in the off
Speaker 1: season overspend for free agents because they were you know,
Speaker 1: they loved their cap space for years on end. Uh sure,
Speaker 1: if I like him and when he plays, he's missed
Speaker 1: twenty two starts over the past four seasons, and it's
Speaker 1: like suddenly your offensive line breaks down at the guy
Speaker 1: that you're counting on, you know, Washington. He was one
Speaker 1: of the more badass linemen out there. But I gave
Speaker 1: up a single sack last year. The durability is but there,
Speaker 1: you can't. You gotta be there. He's a badass. There
Speaker 1: somewhere worries he's breaking down physically, but like that's a
Speaker 1: huge boom er bust signing and that that could be
Speaker 1: a total boom. But they tried the same with Andrew
Speaker 1: Norwell a few years ago, paying him more money than
Speaker 1: any guard had ever got, and he quietly, you know,
Speaker 1: got to the end of that contract this year and
Speaker 1: is not in the top one o one breaking news
Speaker 1: the Bucks. It's the Brady effect. The Bucks are bringing
Speaker 1: back one of their own car. Cornerback Carlton Davis is
Speaker 1: expected to resign with Tampa as they retain a part
Speaker 1: of their core. That's from rap sheet. Uh, same deal.
Speaker 1: There was an understanding that Davis was gonna be out
Speaker 1: the door, that Ryan Jensen was gonna be out the door.
Speaker 1: And now you understand the timing more of Tom Brady's
Speaker 1: announcement on Sunday, because you had to let the people know,
Speaker 1: let the team know, I'm here. Now let's do business
Speaker 1: and put this team together. I love this for Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay because look at this was not last year. You're
Speaker 1: gonna lose all these guys. Leonard Fournett basically had a
Speaker 1: post at some point saying like I'm out I'm done
Speaker 1: in Tampa and now he deleted that. It's like it
Speaker 1: is the Tom Brady effect. It's like, run it back
Speaker 1: and you're gonna get better player deals. Jason light you know,
Speaker 1: you get Tom Brady. But Jason liked still a lot
Speaker 1: of work to do. This was a huge piece. I
Speaker 1: think it's surprising. I thought he was gonna go somewhere else. Well,
Speaker 1: if there's no coincidence in my mind that this happens
Speaker 1: minutes after J. C. Jackson, So these are the two
Speaker 1: top cornerbacks in the market. The Davis sees what Jackson got.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the charges were in on Davis
Speaker 1: or not. And he ends up settling, you know, with
Speaker 1: settling in quotes for slightly less than than J. C.
Speaker 1: Jackson got, but a similar type of deal, and knowing that,
Speaker 1: like that's where the markets at. I don't need to
Speaker 1: wait around that much longer waiting for a better deal.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Bucks had the best deal for him the
Speaker 1: whole time. Who knows, maybe they stepped up, but I
Speaker 1: really like them. It's interesting to meet cornerbacks are getting
Speaker 1: paid a little less just in this market, then I
Speaker 1: feel like they were five years ago relative to other positions.
Speaker 1: I mean, Harold Landry got fifty two million dollars guaranteed.
Speaker 1: Mike Williams and Christian Kirk are getting eighteen twenty million
Speaker 1: dollars a year at receiver, and yet the two top
Speaker 1: cornerbacks at the market, it uh totally at their peak,
Speaker 1: are getting like fifteen a year. That that seems reasonable
Speaker 1: to me. But maybe it's a little bit of the
Speaker 1: the scheme change that's going around football, and it's not
Speaker 1: always going to be this way. But all the too
Speaker 1: high looks, all the zone coverage, maybe you don't pay
Speaker 1: as much for cornerbacks in those systems. Five tps on
Speaker 1: the field and right a budget allotted for your secondary
Speaker 1: and maybe it makes more sense to have four good
Speaker 1: guys rather than great dude and three budget guys. So
Speaker 1: I love that move for Davis. I love it for
Speaker 1: the Bucks. Davante Adams, he's not happy. Well I don't
Speaker 1: know if he's not happy, but he is letting it
Speaker 1: be known that, yes, Aaron Rodgers got his contract. But
Speaker 1: don't just assume that just because Aaron's back. I do
Speaker 1: bend me, shape me, find a way to fold me
Speaker 1: into your Green Bay plans. I'm the best wide receiver
Speaker 1: in the league. In my Mind and NFL Networks, Ian
Speaker 1: Rappaport reports that Davante Adams refuses to play under the
Speaker 1: franchise tag in the two sides are quote for are
Speaker 1: apart on a long term deal. According to Ian and um,
Speaker 1: I wonder and wouldn't this be mark kind of interesting
Speaker 1: because the whole assumption that many of us have been
Speaker 1: working under is like, hey, if Rogers is back, Adams
Speaker 1: is back, but given green based cap issues, if he's
Speaker 1: not gonna play ball and work under a one year deal.
Speaker 1: And by the way, it's a different situation. This is
Speaker 1: a wide receiver. He's gonna be runn the wrong side
Speaker 1: of thirty next year. It's a volatile physical position. This
Speaker 1: is the time for him to get paid. Would Green
Speaker 1: Bay possibly feel like they were in a position where
Speaker 1: they had to move Adams in a trade and imagine
Speaker 1: him what he would fetch given what he's been able
Speaker 1: to do. The last ten years are disaster? You can't.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've already been through. You already thought that
Speaker 1: you got the hardest part of this thing figured out
Speaker 1: with Aaron Rodgers. And the thing is that Davante Adams
Speaker 1: and the Packers have been far apart on a long
Speaker 1: term deal the entire time. They've never gotten any closer.
Speaker 1: And the Packers are in a tough situation financially. But
Speaker 1: how could you possibly sell to your fan base or
Speaker 1: even your own law locker room that you go into
Speaker 1: this season after all this Aaron Rodgers melodrama without Davonte Adams.
Speaker 1: This is a team that, like even with those guys,
Speaker 1: cannot win playoff. Doesn't make common sense financial sense to
Speaker 1: give Brady a two million or excuse me, Rogers a
Speaker 1: two hundred million dollar deal and then take away his
Speaker 1: best player on offense, especially when the wide receiver group
Speaker 1: behind him isn't good. The Green Bay is gonna figure
Speaker 1: this out. Darius Smith and Stuff for Capris nominate this
Speaker 1: story as the wake us Up in September story the year,
Speaker 1: because a lot will be talked about and there's really
Speaker 1: only one and outcome, which is him being on the Packers.
Speaker 1: But it might take until September, until that like eight
Speaker 1: days before the season period to to settle it. So
Speaker 1: it might be NFL dot com articles and I will
Speaker 1: read none of them. It's almost like, um, it's him
Speaker 1: do it's DeVante doing his buddy Rogers a favor, making
Speaker 1: life a little uncomfortable for Goody has got to figure
Speaker 1: this out with the salary cap, the negotiations and all this,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, they simply is
Speaker 1: not a scenario where they bring back Rogers and then
Speaker 1: leave him with nothing. Absolutely, and so it's like Kyler Murray.
Speaker 1: If there's some drama there, I can get with that
Speaker 1: as a daily update throughout our off season. We need
Speaker 1: something that's right. There's mystery Adams. There's only one way
Speaker 1: for it to end. So let's just let's just skip
Speaker 1: ahead to fast forward. But speaking of the Packers, Yes,
Speaker 1: and Darius Smith, uh, he gets his walking papers, so
Speaker 1: he hits free agency to really good years on their
Speaker 1: front seven, then was injured last year and now simply
Speaker 1: too expensive, especially with Davante Adams asking for a long
Speaker 1: term deal. Also, Preston Smith, shall we say it since
Speaker 1: he brought it up, Grave Digger brought it up, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna hate him a little bit. Here said Hey,
Speaker 1: anything that you hear in your ear, I can just
Speaker 1: take out and post. We've heard them. We called sausage fingers.
Speaker 1: It's a little like guitar solo that we play to
Speaker 1: bring on guests, and I'd like to see how they
Speaker 1: react to it. But the guests, that's the second time
Speaker 1: that's pop in our ears. Now, graver, what's going on
Speaker 1: behind the glass? So I got a little soundboard thing
Speaker 1: and for some reason, when I press command H to
Speaker 1: hide it from my computer, it keeps playing that fers
Speaker 1: but you don't have sausage fingers, but you keep on
Speaker 1: hitting the song sage fingers. Anyway, We're happy to have
Speaker 1: you behind the glass there, buddy. Anyway, So Preston Smith,
Speaker 1: he does get a deal. And I wasn't gonna say anything,
Speaker 1: but then Mark laughed, what well? You you started laughing
Speaker 1: when you heard sausage from Well because it was funny.
Speaker 1: So I laughed and it was the result. So now
Speaker 1: that has to stay in the show. Preston Smith four year,
Speaker 1: fifty two and a half million excepsion through uh so
Speaker 1: this helps the cap situation as well, and he's a
Speaker 1: he's a big player on their defense. Yeah, all these
Speaker 1: moves are kind of can look be looked at as
Speaker 1: one big thing. So Preston Smith, you can revisit that
Speaker 1: deal as soon as next year. It's it's almost funny accounting.
Speaker 1: How the how the Packers are doing. They're kind of
Speaker 1: like the New Saints. They can just move all this
Speaker 1: money around and figure it out in the end, and
Speaker 1: this is one way one way to do that. It's
Speaker 1: not cheating, it's just, you know, work in the margins.
Speaker 1: In that way, they had the room to resign deve
Speaker 1: Andre Campbell. Uh for five years. Fifty million dollars sixteen
Speaker 1: guaranteed for an off ball linebacker is a lot for
Speaker 1: that market. But it's also not a lot because he
Speaker 1: was a first team All Pro last year. So good
Speaker 1: on him for like turning a proven deal into that
Speaker 1: kind of contract. Good on them for keeping him. And yeah,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned cutting Zadarius Smith and Billy Turner, who
Speaker 1: was a starter for them, uh for a while. Uh
Speaker 1: at at tackle. Having to cut those guys, Darius made
Speaker 1: it into my top twenty. He's still not even in
Speaker 1: his thirties. He feels like he'd be worth signing for
Speaker 1: some team out there. The Ravens are reportedly interested in him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Packerson and Smith because they don't like him as
Speaker 1: a player. He missed all and there was there was
Speaker 1: some stuffing he wanted a contract extension after two great seasons.
Speaker 1: They didn't give it to him. He had this back
Speaker 1: injury and there was some is this guy milking the
Speaker 1: injury doesn't matter if you're the next team, all right.
Speaker 1: One of the more productive pass rushers of the past
Speaker 1: couple of years of son Reddick. He has a new
Speaker 1: home once again. He goes from the Cardinals to the
Speaker 1: Panthers and now to the Eagles on a three year,
Speaker 1: forty five million dollar contract. Mike garre Folo said thirty
Speaker 1: million fully guaranteed at signing, So Reddick um has potentially
Speaker 1: a long term home here. And the Eagles just upgraded
Speaker 1: their pass rush. They were second to last and sacks
Speaker 1: last season. So Reddick entering his age season, that's a
Speaker 1: nice move. Yeah, I mean you got Brandon Graham, He's
Speaker 1: thirty four years old. This was an obvious position of need,
Speaker 1: and Reddick did the classic you know, one year bet
Speaker 1: on yourself deal a year ago. It absolutely worked. And
Speaker 1: I do think you know two years in a row
Speaker 1: that you know, he didn't quite the fit with the
Speaker 1: Cardinals and he went on to Carolina. Every time I
Speaker 1: watched the Panthers game, and I watched on those Sundays
Speaker 1: when you picked the game, you want to cover my
Speaker 1: little Matt rule fascination, and um lured me into that
Speaker 1: scenario more often than it should have early on, but
Speaker 1: I felt like every game Reddick was doing one or
Speaker 1: two titanic things to to change the environment. And like,
Speaker 1: I really think he's incredibly disruptive and a good signing
Speaker 1: for the Eagles, and he's from that part of town.
Speaker 1: He's so fast they I mean, they have a type
Speaker 1: they like shorter ends who can get up the field
Speaker 1: and rush the passer and not really known for their
Speaker 1: run defense. He is a lot like Brandon Graham and
Speaker 1: Josh Sweat and that's like a fast, ferocious trio of
Speaker 1: of pass rushers. I'm curious if they'll trade Fletcher Cox,
Speaker 1: which has been I feel like Fletcher Cox has been
Speaker 1: brought up in trade whispers a year or so. Speaking
Speaker 1: of the Cardinals, James Conner in Arizona do deal, three year,
Speaker 1: twenty one million dollar contract, thirteen and a half is guaranteed.
Speaker 1: Connor had a really strong first season with Arizona. I
Speaker 1: feel like he's scored a touchdown every week. In fact,
Speaker 1: he had eighteen touchdowns and there's eighteen week season some time.
Speaker 1: But you want to average it out over not his
Speaker 1: games played, but the season is strong. Eighteen Cardinals games touchdowns,
Speaker 1: that's one per game. The most surprising thing to me was,
Speaker 1: I think we could move on. We've covered this, you
Speaker 1: know how they flipped the switch and like Andrew Siciliano
Speaker 1: was on her air and it's like free agency frenzy.
Speaker 1: The negotiating period starts now and the first deals to
Speaker 1: come down where James Conner and Chase Edmonds back to back,
Speaker 1: James Connard going to the Cardinals going back, and then
Speaker 1: Chase Edmonds going to the Dolphins. It just felt like
Speaker 1: a strange place to start, but why not. I guess
Speaker 1: the Cardinals weren't gonna bring back both. I was surprised
Speaker 1: they gave thirty million dollars to zach Ertz, including seventeen
Speaker 1: million guaranteed. He looked almost at the end of the
Speaker 1: line there in Philadelphia, but then was healthier for Arizona.
Speaker 1: Looked pretty good, and they spend a lot of money
Speaker 1: to bring him back. He gave it a lot. Tight
Speaker 1: ends are costing a lot in this market that will
Speaker 1: distally got twenty four over three. I mean earths was
Speaker 1: viewed as broken down a couple of years ago, he
Speaker 1: was I never yeah, I never bought into that. Always
Speaker 1: seems strange that that's how he's viewed. He did juice
Speaker 1: their offense, but also that corresponded with the collapse of
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, so it was it was kind of veiled
Speaker 1: a little bit. Uh, but he should help if Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray is the quarterback we had, like no DeAndre Hopkins
Speaker 1: in there for exactly maybe all this money is being
Speaker 1: spent because Kyler Murray is going to be shipped elsewhere.
Speaker 1: I like the Edmunds and with the Dolphins moved by
Speaker 1: the way, I'm sticking with that. Like I I've always
Speaker 1: liked Tways Edmunds. You need you need multiple running backs.
Speaker 1: He can do a lot. He can do it for
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty hundred and seventy five touches. I
Speaker 1: like the idea of him and Mike McDaniels system, almost
Speaker 1: like what they thought Jerick McKinnon was gonna be way
Speaker 1: back in the day when they gave him money. Hopefully
Speaker 1: Edmonds is healthier. I think they've had a nice day.
Speaker 1: They brought Emmanuel Ogma back. They signed Teddy Bridgewater to
Speaker 1: his hometown of Miami to be the backup. He's a
Speaker 1: Miami kid. He'd come up again. We couldn't get to
Speaker 1: saying we're doing Dolphins, but I've got got way less money. Um,
Speaker 1: then I bet Chandler Jones gonna get certainly than Harold
Speaker 1: Landry got. And uh, I think it was a nice value.
Speaker 1: All their signings make make sense to me, and they
Speaker 1: haven't broken that for the last two seasons. Has been
Speaker 1: his productive as anyone out there. It's perfect fit for them,
Speaker 1: all right. It's speaking of bad books, cooking the books
Speaker 1: in a negative way. The Falcons kind of backed themselves
Speaker 1: into a corner with Matt Ryan. Uh So they are
Speaker 1: restructuring the veteran quarterbacks contract. He was gonna have a
Speaker 1: forty eight million dollar cap hit in two years left
Speaker 1: on the deal, so they were moved some money around
Speaker 1: to give them some more agency in free agency. So
Speaker 1: that's a thing also, And Matt Ryan comments, I mean
Speaker 1: their cap situation has been a disaster for so long.
Speaker 1: Like I I find this just made me laugh. The
Speaker 1: only notable thing is like he's go I think this
Speaker 1: guarantees he's going to be the Akins quarterback. So I
Speaker 1: just I think that's notable that I think we can
Speaker 1: basically put aside that trade to any trade time unless
Speaker 1: does that restructure make him easier to move in a
Speaker 1: trade in the future, But not. I think Max Crosby
Speaker 1: got paid good for him four year, million dollar contract
Speaker 1: through fifty three million guarantee. This is top of the
Speaker 1: market type stuff for a guy that went from a
Speaker 1: former fourth round pick who battled some off the field
Speaker 1: demons two years of sobriety. He is now one of
Speaker 1: the highest paid defenders in football. Good for Max crosby
Speaker 1: comeback story. It's a great it's a great story. I mean,
Speaker 1: he is the heart beating heart of their defense. I
Speaker 1: am kind of waiting to see does anything else happen
Speaker 1: with Derek Carr in an extension this offseason? I mean,
Speaker 1: are they just go into next year hanging out? I
Speaker 1: think your Browns are you know, could have a say
Speaker 1: in that. It goes to show sign these guys last
Speaker 1: week Like this Max Crosby deal on paper has the
Speaker 1: potential to be the best team friendly value of any
Speaker 1: of these out there. I mean, this dude's one of
Speaker 1: the best defensive players in the league and they have
Speaker 1: him locked up for like the next five years at
Speaker 1: a very reasonable cost. And you know, you don't blame
Speaker 1: him not wanting to to play it out here, but
Speaker 1: I feel like if I was his his agent, he
Speaker 1: would be more expensive today than he was five days ago.
Speaker 1: What if Mark? The game plan for Andrew Berry and
Speaker 1: the Browns this whole time is let's recreate the two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen Oakland Raiders. Let's get Derek Carr, Let's get
Speaker 1: a Mary Cooper. Was Richie incognito on that team? He's
Speaker 1: available again? Yes, I mean he was, He's around. I
Speaker 1: don't like the plan at all. What would what would
Speaker 1: be Whose vision would that be? Let's get Marquette King
Speaker 1: to punt? Oh yeah, please remember like market King kept
Speaker 1: sending out those tweets that like the NFL was didn't
Speaker 1: didn't like his personality or whatever, and they were blackballing
Speaker 1: him where Ever, since that, I that I'll leave on
Speaker 1: Puri long form, it's just been a curse. That's our editor, Ali.
Speaker 1: He does. He did one front facing uh work for
Speaker 1: dot com trying to him. It was great, but it
Speaker 1: was like the opposite of the Flashpoint Focus series. It
Speaker 1: was exactly what never listened to an episode of the show.
Speaker 1: So we're in the clear there. Uh, Michael Gallop. He
Speaker 1: gets paid by the Cowboys. So they yes, the Cowboys
Speaker 1: Santa Marii Cooper to the Browns and they say, our
Speaker 1: guy that we want a team with Ceedee Lamb is
Speaker 1: Michael Gallup. Five years, sixty two and a half million
Speaker 1: dollar deal. Good money for a dude that towards a
Speaker 1: c L in January. Uh so Gallup is the future
Speaker 1: with Lamb and the Cowboys moved forward. Oh they also
Speaker 1: cut Blake Darwin. Uh injury a nation had that hip
Speaker 1: thing that the tight end that was more serious than
Speaker 1: initially thought. So they tagged Dalton, Schultz and Jarwin. So
Speaker 1: this Gallop deal was interesting. Again, this happened so often
Speaker 1: when when you actually got the contract breakdown, and in
Speaker 1: his happened a couple of days ago or at least
Speaker 1: twenty four hours ago that we have it. It never
Speaker 1: was sixty two million apparently, and it looks like really
Speaker 1: team for the team friendly. I think the Cowboys did
Speaker 1: a smart dealer a ten million dollar signing bonus. He
Speaker 1: gets about twenty three million in the first two years
Speaker 1: of the deal, so two for twenty three. I know
Speaker 1: he's coming off an injury and then after that, the
Speaker 1: numbers are like comically low, whereas if he's a really
Speaker 1: good receiver, he's gonna be itching to get a pay
Speaker 1: bump because he's getting paid under ten million dollars a
Speaker 1: year for the next three years. For a guy, I
Speaker 1: definitely would take over Christian Kirk. Not to keep using
Speaker 1: Christian Kirk as the guy, but that I think this
Speaker 1: is this was a nice bit of business and it
Speaker 1: made sense for significantly less than keeping Cooper would have been.
Speaker 1: And that that makes sense, which I think is what
Speaker 1: they wanted to do. They sounded like they had cooled
Speaker 1: on Cooper so and it sounds like DeMarcus Lawrence isn't
Speaker 1: gonna end up staying with the Cowboys, so even though
Speaker 1: they've come in with a lot of problems and I
Speaker 1: want to see how this all shakes out. If I
Speaker 1: was a Cowboys fan, I feel like, so far, so good,
Speaker 1: I haven't and nothing would be bothering me too much
Speaker 1: about their offseason. You could say, because he is coming
Speaker 1: up a lot, but he is his contract is kind
Speaker 1: of you could say, we're dealing with a flashpoint colon
Speaker 1: Christian Kirk scenario. On day one of the legal tamporary period.
Speaker 1: I don't think so, he's just that guy that got
Speaker 1: like jillion too much per year. But what is that
Speaker 1: really affecting my life? Flashpoint is that within a Fortnite
Speaker 1: was under an extreme darress. This player has just been
Speaker 1: locked up Christian Kirk into a contract that we're good.
Speaker 1: You know what remind you of is like last year
Speaker 1: because extreme directs last year, because you know, maybe the
Speaker 1: the idea is like your all these guys are getting
Speaker 1: paid more than their value or whatever. Like compare the
Speaker 1: Christian Kirk contract to Corey Davis, for instance. Corey Davis
Speaker 1: is a real number two. I think he's got his issue,
Speaker 1: Like he's not the perfect player, he's not always the
Speaker 1: most durable player, but like he is a real number two.
Speaker 1: And you look at his contract compared to Kirk's. It's
Speaker 1: a steal so that the price tag, the price tag
Speaker 1: went up a lot this year because of the cap.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take one more break and then we're
Speaker 1: gonna finish out the show. All Right, we're back. It
Speaker 1: is time to hit the rest of the news here
Speaker 1: as we finish up day one of the legal tampering period,
Speaker 1: the Bengals, the reigning a f C champions. Busy, busy, busy. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we'll start defensive line. Uh. They re signed b J.
Speaker 1: Hill to a three year, thirty million dollar contracts, so
Speaker 1: they are fortifying that line and making sure a solid
Speaker 1: player doesn't get away. Now, that offensive line, that's where
Speaker 1: we talked about it with our new friend Duke Tobin
Speaker 1: at the combine said come on, dude, we gotta fix
Speaker 1: this offensive line. And he's like, oh, we like our
Speaker 1: offensive line. No, you don't like your offensive line because
Speaker 1: you just went out and signed Ted Carris and also
Speaker 1: Alex Cappa to a multi year deals. So you kind
Speaker 1: of read made the interior of your offensive line handing
Speaker 1: out a lot of money. Now, Greggy, going back to
Speaker 1: the tweet, it was the one. It was the infamous one.
Speaker 1: Now at this point where I said, this guy gets
Speaker 1: it with the arrow up, but I thought, oh, actually,
Speaker 1: it wasn't even that. It was the point that someone
Speaker 1: else threw to me when I said, I like the
Speaker 1: Jets cards signing like, Greg doesn't like this these signings,
Speaker 1: so you shouldn't like it. Greg's moment. It's your time
Speaker 1: to shine. But tell us why this tells us more
Speaker 1: about Cincinnati than perhaps they'd like you to know because well,
Speaker 1: because Zach Taylor in their offensive coaching staff is the
Speaker 1: main reason their offensive line has been poor the last
Speaker 1: three years. I believe you should be able to develop
Speaker 1: an average offensive line with the resources that they put
Speaker 1: in there between money and draft picks, and they haven't.
Speaker 1: They've kind of been a nightmare, and that's coaching and
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor has shown no ability to fix that. So
Speaker 1: now you're signing these guys and the carrass steel isn't
Speaker 1: that expensive. The Alex Cappa deal is certainly a lot more.
Speaker 1: Um you're signing guys who are the other teams is
Speaker 1: you know, forgotten piece that they don't really need to keep.
Speaker 1: Carriss has been freely available the last couple of years
Speaker 1: from the Patriots and the Dolphins as just like kind
Speaker 1: of a leftover six or seventh offensive lineman and when
Speaker 1: the when the Patriots put him in, he's he's good
Speaker 1: because they're they're good coaching staff. Alex Cappa at one
Speaker 1: point was certainly the weakest member of the Bucks is
Speaker 1: offensive line. But they have a great offensive line. They're
Speaker 1: good at developing. It was like a mid round pick.
Speaker 1: They were never gonna pay this money to them. But
Speaker 1: for the Bengals, it's like you kind of have to
Speaker 1: because you feel like you don't actually know how to
Speaker 1: coach up the team. Well like so so at least
Speaker 1: at least they acknowledge that they're they're not going to
Speaker 1: tell us that. And we I don't think that the
Speaker 1: offensive line coaching steps walking around the building thinking like
Speaker 1: we're frauds. We don't actually know what we're doing. At
Speaker 1: some point someone's going to figure that out. But the
Speaker 1: results suggest that And like Achem, identity was like a
Speaker 1: city villain by the end of last season and guards
Speaker 1: so they might not be done either. Well, they had
Speaker 1: to address it. And Alex Cappa the one thing, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know Alex Cappa personally, but on
Speaker 1: Twitter over and over people were saying, this dude is
Speaker 1: like a white knuckle total badass, and maybe that helps
Speaker 1: Cincinnati because whether these work or not, you have to
Speaker 1: show Joe Burrow um because he's certainly not in the
Speaker 1: category of discontent quarterback. But it is important this offseason
Speaker 1: that they pour more resistant, more resources into the line,
Speaker 1: no matter what happened in the past, because that was
Speaker 1: a huge narrative for them. A year ago. Right, They're
Speaker 1: they're probably gonna sign more players in free agency on
Speaker 1: the offensive line or at least the draft. I like
Speaker 1: the b J. Hill move though, Trust the guy that
Speaker 1: you see on your team that made a huge impact.
Speaker 1: They traded for him and that was a steal from
Speaker 1: the Giants and he was great. Spice Ract was texting
Speaker 1: me they gotta keep b J. Hill this morning, and
Speaker 1: minutes later b J Hill is back. So the Spice
Speaker 1: Rack and Larry Ogunjobi ends up going to the Bears
Speaker 1: for like way more money and b J. Hill was
Speaker 1: certainly better than Larry Oganjobi was for the Bengals. Spice
Speaker 1: Rack he had not asked, but demanded to be involved
Speaker 1: with our Super Bowl program and run up. Did he
Speaker 1: ever circle back with his disappointment? He didn't, but I
Speaker 1: brought it up. Uh what I remembered a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks later, and um he uh he took seems like
Speaker 1: he took it in stride. I think he was disappointed
Speaker 1: in the moment um but understood. And uh, I think
Speaker 1: I think he would love to be on the show
Speaker 1: in the future. What role was he we were live
Speaker 1: on set? Um, I would have loved to have was
Speaker 1: we just forgot Dan? Yeah. Dan immediately texted back basically
Speaker 1: like you, Greg. He said that that you spice Rack
Speaker 1: and I did not. I did not, but I will
Speaker 1: say that in general was spice rack. Greg. You're largely
Speaker 1: bull approve, so I'm assuming he just thinks I did
Speaker 1: it to him. But since it was a text to
Speaker 1: you largely you could have made it happen. What do
Speaker 1: you mean he was to our whole group and you
Speaker 1: immediately responded like nah response and and like you guys,
Speaker 1: I bet it probably wasn't for like we saw the text,
Speaker 1: and then you get into the super Bowl week, and
Speaker 1: if I had remembered, I would have I would circle
Speaker 1: back and and maybe pushed for it. But I just
Speaker 1: forgot about it. We'll have him during draft season, spicy
Speaker 1: draft coverage. I demand that. I think that was where
Speaker 1: this conversation came back up, was like, we gotta have
Speaker 1: you on because he had some college takes. That's good,
Speaker 1: all right, let's move on. I mean, he was a
Speaker 1: lifelong Bengals fan and continues to be one, so I
Speaker 1: understand the motivation. Super Bowl week you could have spoke
Speaker 1: up to you don't even remember seeing the text. So
Speaker 1: it's like everything is a haze. I couldn't tell you
Speaker 1: what happening yesterday at two PMS, though I totally I
Speaker 1: absolved myself of any responsibility. Here it is. Here's the
Speaker 1: text exchange. This is after the a f C Championship victory,
Speaker 1: demanding thirty minutes segment on Bengals slashed West between now
Speaker 1: and Super Bowl fifty six or delete my contact info.
Speaker 1: This was sent to Mark, Greg, myself and Erica. Then
Speaker 1: he follows up with the gauntlet has been thrown to
Speaker 1: quote Norman Dale, I love you guys. And then one
Speaker 1: minute later I replied, we can promise you the Bengals
Speaker 1: will get extensive coverage across the next two weeks. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's a nah, that's a but that's not that's not
Speaker 1: an f you either. I think it is an excellent
Speaker 1: idea spice rack. And then he wrote delete me. Been real.
Speaker 1: He read it. He read it as I would. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's be real, he just asked for a spot on
Speaker 1: the show, and you're like, full Pollyanna, it's spicies world.
Speaker 1: We're just living in it now. That's not talking under
Speaker 1: a bit. And then this, I wrote, the spice rack
Speaker 1: is fully stocked. Mark doesn't. Oh finally, Mark, just quote Spicy.
Speaker 1: You say you just say Spicy. I'm acknowledging his existence.
Speaker 1: He's always Switzerland. If I were to say, I demand
Speaker 1: Spice Rack comes on the show, what had happened? Absolutely
Speaker 1: no one would care at all. So what do you
Speaker 1: want me to tell you? I think he will be
Speaker 1: part of the coverage down the road, have a nice time.
Speaker 1: Would you like him to be on the show in
Speaker 1: the near future? Next episode? Then it will happen. There
Speaker 1: you go. Well see that that? Then he got does
Speaker 1: work out the not doing any work around it? All right,
Speaker 1: there you go. The Jets also do some business on
Speaker 1: their interior line. Lake and Tomlinson, formerly of the Niners,
Speaker 1: gets three years and forty million, seven million guaranteed, so
Speaker 1: that fills a void on their line. The Jets and
Speaker 1: offensive line is very interesting because George Fan. That turned
Speaker 1: out to be a really good move, getting Fan, who
Speaker 1: was solid at left tackle last year. Elijah Verite Tucker
Speaker 1: was their guard they moved up to draft last year.
Speaker 1: They're very happy with him and where his development is at.
Speaker 1: Connor McGovern is fine as center. Now you have Laken Tomlinson,
Speaker 1: who is a scheme match and a guy that thrives
Speaker 1: and run blockings. That's a nice fit for them there,
Speaker 1: and then there's McKay Beckton. That's the that's the whole thing, Like,
Speaker 1: what is Beckton's deal? Is McKay Beckton going to realize
Speaker 1: his potential and be healthy next year or is this
Speaker 1: a guy that's already fading from the team's plans. Will
Speaker 1: know after the first round of the draft in April,
Speaker 1: because if they use a premium draft pick, uh, it's
Speaker 1: because they think Beckton is a washout or is heading
Speaker 1: that way. So keep an eye on that situation. I
Speaker 1: love that the coaching staff they already know Laken Tomlinson.
Speaker 1: He hasn't missed a start in like half a decade.
Speaker 1: I mean he he was a mess for the Lions
Speaker 1: when he got drafted. But it's a good signing for
Speaker 1: the Jets. It's another team that's poured a lot of
Speaker 1: resources in free agency into the old line. It's not
Speaker 1: always worked, but they're getting closer and that need to
Speaker 1: be the case for zech. How do you think their
Speaker 1: line was last year? It was not bad. It was
Speaker 1: it was It wasn't great, It wasn't great, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't they needed to get better? Um, this is a
Speaker 1: big area need um at guard. So you get you
Speaker 1: take care of that, and yeah, you need you really
Speaker 1: need Beckton to step up. And if they don't think
Speaker 1: he can, if they don't think he has what it
Speaker 1: takes to do that, they have to replace him. And
Speaker 1: that's a waste of resources when you have so many
Speaker 1: holes on you. Is there a spicy race between Mike
Speaker 1: Lafleur and Mike McDaniel to prove which one of these
Speaker 1: can actually run Shanahan's offense with more execution and precision. Well,
Speaker 1: there there might be a race for the same players.
Speaker 1: I think this happened with the Belichick disciples and may
Speaker 1: explain why Lake and Thomason got so much money. Like
Speaker 1: we don't we don't know if if the Dolphins were
Speaker 1: in on it, but we know multiple teams were to
Speaker 1: get it that to get it that high. That This
Speaker 1: is where the person who tweeted at you saying, like
Speaker 1: trying to make a point, you know need needs more
Speaker 1: subtlety and it's hard to explain it all in the
Speaker 1: characters are to eighty on Twitter. In a perfect world,
Speaker 1: you want to be the forty Niners who are the
Speaker 1: car wash who takes lacoln Thomlinson for nothing when the
Speaker 1: entire league could have had him for like a late
Speaker 1: round pick swap and turn him into a forty million
Speaker 1: dollar player and get him in his prime. They do
Speaker 1: that on the defensive line too, that would be ideal
Speaker 1: that it's it's hard to do that. Uh, hopefully Lincoln Thomlinson,
Speaker 1: you know, it's as bulletproof as they think he is.
Speaker 1: He seems like, I mean, he's been great as a
Speaker 1: missed the start, is a great run blocker. But you're
Speaker 1: definitely paying for it. Uh, you're definitely paying for that.
Speaker 1: You haven't been able to develop a guard at the
Speaker 1: last couple. Douglas under pressure. He is under pressure. The
Speaker 1: last two years they've they've built rebuilt the offensive line
Speaker 1: using the draft and free agency. They're trying to get
Speaker 1: that thing figured out. We'll see. They also resigned Braxton Barrios,
Speaker 1: which I really liked that move because he broke out
Speaker 1: last year. It was really good slot guy, gadget guy,
Speaker 1: a special team's ace. Um develop you guys, keep him
Speaker 1: in the bill we and see if they can take
Speaker 1: the next step. Let's see Jason Kelsey back with the Eagles. Uh, Dolphins,
Speaker 1: bring back? How about this, let's hit eight o'clock to light.
Speaker 1: We've run out we Uh there was an updated one
Speaker 1: doing a clock to light. Oh, we've got some developing
Speaker 1: news alright, A couple of them. Uh. Deshaun Watson is
Speaker 1: meeting on Monday night with the scenes and Panthers. I
Speaker 1: just thought you good to get that into the show
Speaker 1: that we know the meetings are happening, so that could move. Also,
Speaker 1: Evan Ingram is joining the Jaguars parade on a one year,
Speaker 1: fully guaranteed, nine million dollar contract, a prove it deal,
Speaker 1: but a perfect deal. While wile he gets some nice
Speaker 1: scratch but another weapon for Lawrence that was not control
Speaker 1: contract for the Jaguar. Now, I like, I like these moves.
Speaker 1: Is he the new Is he the new Jared Cook?
Speaker 1: Like a tools the guy that makes big plays every
Speaker 1: once in a while, but just kind of drives you
Speaker 1: crazy for never reaching his full potential. I think that's
Speaker 1: a good compared at this point he would he want
Speaker 1: to be Cook. He hasn't been as reliable as at
Speaker 1: least Cook is, Like, you know, he's six hundred yards
Speaker 1: every single season. Ingram, I feel like is never healthy.
Speaker 1: If he was healthy, I think it'd be great. All right,
Speaker 1: let's hit at eight o'clock to light. No Sterling Shepherd
Speaker 1: returns to the Giants, so he sticks in house. The
Speaker 1: bill signed Roger Sappole, re signed Mitch Morris and Isaiah mackenzie.
Speaker 1: Devin McCartney is back with the Patriots. Any thoughts on those, gentlemen.
Speaker 1: Sterling Shepherd is the longest tenured Giant, how weird is
Speaker 1: very weird like Isaiah mackenzie. I think Cold Beasley is
Speaker 1: out of town. They swapped Darryl Williams for Sapple. By
Speaker 1: the way, they got rid of their starter in Buffalo,
Speaker 1: darry Williams, which is interesting. Signed Sappoles. So it looks
Speaker 1: like a change in the guard for the Ramps because
Speaker 1: Joe no Boom gets a nice contract to stick with
Speaker 1: the Rams. That means retirement seems to be imminent. Forward
Speaker 1: Andrew Witworth Mark Seahawks have a very expensive safety room.
Speaker 1: In addition to Jamal Diggs squadre Diggs gets the bag.
Speaker 1: He gets resigned, also just as resigned Jones who Sydney Jones,
Speaker 1: Sydney Jones and will dis Lee as well. Utods beef
Speaker 1: it is very Pete Carroll to spend like an incredible
Speaker 1: amount of money on two safeties in the year two
Speaker 1: Titans bring back Ben Jones and the Lions resigned Tim
Speaker 1: Boyle and Tracy Walker. That was the day. That was
Speaker 1: at least through five seven p m. Eastern on Monday.
Speaker 1: Any closing thoughts on day one, Mark, I do not
Speaker 1: There's going to be a cloud of smoke and Mark
Speaker 1: in his car in about thirty seven seconds. That's my prediction. No,
Speaker 1: I think we did a good job. I think we'll
Speaker 1: be posting every day this week. The the report from
Speaker 1: I guess my final thought would be one report from
Speaker 1: the New York Post that said that the State of
Speaker 1: New York in in Erie County have agreed to pay
Speaker 1: a billion dollars towards the new Bills stadium. The Bills
Speaker 1: aren't going anywhere. Yeah, that's good. I don't know if
Speaker 1: billionaires and really need um government to be spending a
Speaker 1: billion dollars for next week. Also that that could have
Speaker 1: let our show tomorrow the Joe Buck bombshell. We can
Speaker 1: save that for me. Yeah, but good for the Bills.
Speaker 1: What's up? Reggie Wayne will be the new wide receivers
Speaker 1: coach for the cline. Good for Reggie former colleague here,
Speaker 1: I've never had a conversation with him when he would
Speaker 1: he if he saw us, um just walking down the street,
Speaker 1: would he refer to us as former colleagues? I don't
Speaker 1: think I wouldn't. Yeah, I wouldn't Ugsu would refer to
Speaker 1: Greg that way, like talking about myself. I don't think
Speaker 1: I ever spoke with the man or saw the man
Speaker 1: even maybe so former story last week, So maybe some
Speaker 1: legendary wide receivers of the odds you have a connection
Speaker 1: with him, right and that, and Hey, I'm gonna miss
Speaker 1: work with you, buddy, but this is a great opportunity
Speaker 1: for me. Like absolutely read your royalty up there in Indy.
Speaker 1: So good luck to you. Thanks Greg, How the kids?
Speaker 1: How's the wife? Awesome? Bro? How's yours? Amazing? We're so blessed. Yeah, same, same.
Speaker 1: Remember remember that story you told about you and Ed
Speaker 1: read uh it's in college with a snake and everything?
Speaker 1: That was great? All right, all right? Anything else? Thanks
Speaker 1: everybody behind the glass. You know, because you could be
Speaker 1: on an island paradise vacation right now, and yet you
Speaker 1: choose to be at the office during the week. Of
Speaker 1: the year. It's very honorable, so then we respect you
Speaker 1: for it. All right, we'll be back Tuesday, so make
Speaker 1: sure you are here because there's so much more that
Speaker 1: will happen between literally six huge things will happen in
Speaker 1: ten minutes and we'll be mad, but then we'll talk
Speaker 1: about it on tomorrow show, so be there for that.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, Happy New Year, Heed the call, S
Speaker 1: S S S S S