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