Welcome to NFL Daily, where deodorant is optional.
You just put me on blasts like that. How dare you? I'm coming from practice.
Man, so lucky today to be joined by Jordan rod Rieg who It's not weird that you don't have deodorant coming from practice. That's normal. It's just surprising you told me that. Right before we win.
I had to warn you. I didn't want you to start like wille I was.
I wasn't gonna that's I wasn't gonna smell. And then we're in a big studio. It's not gonna happen. And even if it happens.
I'm always prepared for a scenario. This is you should know this like, and that includes looping people in I communicate.
Well, you weren't prepared enough to, you know, bring extra deodoranto practice.
I said, I was. I was on a mission.
Look, practice, it's still happening out there. Training camps might officially be over for the most part, but the teams are now practicing. They're kind of adjusting. And you're you're a beat reporter. You work for the Athletic and you were there at RAMS practice. You saw Matthew Stafford back on the field doing individual work. So like these two weeks of practice, they're going to be a little different. Some teams play starters in the third week of the preseason.
The forty nine ers actually are apparently going to play most of their starters for the first time. So some teams do, most teams don't. Teams are getting ready for Week one. We're there. Football is back, Yeah, you're you know you're getting there too. I'm excited about today's show, Jordan. We're going to talk a little later about players that could be changing places. So next week it'll be on Tuesday,
the twenty seventh. I think we're going to release our NFL Daily Show earlier that day to have it right after the cutdown. It's cutdown day, we go from ninety to fifty three. But over the weekend, as this is all happening, there will be some interesting names that shake loose, maybe some trades, so we'll come up with a few trades. Yeah.
So right now, every NFL building in the league has a team of pro scouts who have been watching all the preseason tape. They've had some pro scouts who have been traveling to preseason road games to what they call advance so study each other's players essentially, and also try to get a feel for with that opponent coming down the road, kind of what they're doing, if they're being totally vanilla preseason, or if they can glean any sort
of information. A lot of things that you can't see on the broadcast you can see in person, like how they get in and out of the huddle, some of the cards they're holding up on the sideline, those types
of things. And so you know, you go and you have a list of ten to fifteen players who at certain positions who if you decide you're going to part ways with one of your guys, is this other guy maybe an upgrade and can you go and pick him up out of the cut pool, or would you potentially move for him earlier because you have gotten intel that maybe other people might be moving on that player and they might be ahead of you in the waiver system.
And the tricky thing is, if it was truly a surprise trade, we probably wouldn't be able to guess it, because there have been some pretty big trades at this time of year, right before this season starts.
Wasn't that Kevin Dotson baby who.
Yeah, that actually ended up being a big move for the Rams, so they ended up getting him like what a how many million dollar contract? Because he played so well for them.
This is not gonna be good for my I cover every team, not just Rams.
So we're going to talk about players that could be changing. We're also going to hit just a few takeaways from my top fifty free agents of twenty twenty five, because it's related that the players that are free agents next year are more likely to be traded. And yeah, we before we do any of that, we're going to do some news. But I do want to apologize. I guess you said to me. It shows how comfortable you feel with me that you told me about the whole deodorant thing.
But I guess that's I shouldn't have taken that as an invitation to tell all of our listeners.
I just want to make it very clear I am wearing deodorant, Oh you are. I did not bring extra in my bag. I want to make that very clear to the listeners. But I will be tamping my arms to my side for the duration.
Of the show. You can check out that we've lost a lot of progress. In the meantime, let's do some news. His first news item is a quick one, but it's just significant, justin Herbert's in uniform.
Again, love that Daniel Popper my Collie. Yet the Athletic did note that even though he's out of practice, he's not wearing cleats. He's wearing like a turf shoe kind of situation. So probably not fully fully immersed yet, but ramping him back up but out there throwing.
Yeah, maybe we'll see if he does more than Staffords just doing individuals now. But that's a good sign. And the Chargers, I think, need to improve their backup quarterback situation. We'll get to that, oh my god, yes, a little later. Next in the news, Jaden Daniels officially announced as the Washington Commander's starter. If you're not following the league on a day to day basis, you might wonder, wait, didn't
that happen the minute they drafted him? But it did not, even though they've basically been treating him as a starter and he started these two p recent games. Dan Quinn did not officially announce it until Monday. Let's listen to dan Quinn.
I told you about a month ago that naming our starter at QB wasn't a secret, and it was a process, and when that process was time, i'd know he'd know, and I'd let you know. And as much as we knew Jayden would get there, Adam and I were most excited about watching how he would, and the how has been absolutely outstanding.
I don't want to just turn this show into a Jad and Daniels love fest every day because I was a little skeptical of this pick. I thought Drake may should have gone second, and the story is very much yet to be written. But he has checked every box and I think has shown the advantage of being a twenty four year old rookie.
If anything, I was more skeptical of what's around him. I remain skeptical a little bit of what's around him in terms of targets, in terms of the run game, in terms of the offensive line, in terms of the offensive coordinator. You did see Cliff he Cliff Kingsbury. You did see him building some help for the quarterback in that regard, and Jade and Daniels, I agree with you.
Has ticked every box. The only worry specific to him that I have a little bit is still his frame continuing to grow into his frame, particularly with some of the maybe protection issues that might come up around him, but you see Cliff Kingsbury actually helping him out with some of what he's building around him in terms of scheme and available targets. Ted Win my colleague, and then Nate Tice, our friend over a yah who sports noted
four point four yards average depth of target. So there's a lot of bubble screens happening, a lot of passes for the flat, but that's Cliff when he's making the quarter The run game extend into the pass game, so you're still getting the quarterback in a rhythm. But a lot of offensive minded coaches consider those types of plays as a phase of the run game.
I like when they say that, but I mean, I get it, I see it, married but it's not the run game. You need a good quarterback to help run it. And Jade and Daniels, he gets rid of the ball much quicker than Caleb Williams or probably Jake May just comparing him to the other two highly drafted quarterbacks, and I think that's going to serve him well behind an
offensive line that, yeah, on paper, doesn't look good. I mean they if I could find tackles that were available, I would try to send them to the Commanders, but there aren't tackles available right now, and so that's something I'm very interested to see to start the season. But Cliff Kingsbury has a history of starting seasons fast that they his offenses in Arizona were almost always at their best, and it was so consistent. It wasn't just random to me.
They were always at their best in September for whatever reason. And then I started thinking about that when reading the camp reports that Commanders Dolphins joint practices, that the Commanders were doing quite well, even though you know they don't necessarily have the most talent. So that's something to watch. Speaking of the Dolphins, let's talk about Tua tungavai Loa. He was on the Dan Lebottard Show presented by Meadow
Lark Media, speaking with the Laboratarde. Let's listen to Dan ask him a question about the differences in coaching that he's getting.
Can you explain to us the difference in practical terms between having a coach who did believe in you the way that he did and the difference between that and what was happening with Flores.
Yeah, Well, to put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning, and I told you you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right. And then you have somebody else come in and tell you, dude, you are the best fit for this, Like you are accurate, you are the best. Whatever you are, this you are that. Like how would it make you feel listening to one
or the other? You see what I'm saying.
That's a little snippet of an interview. YE recommend people go check out. And yeah, it's the Dan Levatard Show with Stu Gotts. You have to say with Stu.
Gott's top ten football insider.
His lawyers just go crazy on you.
Thought.
I was curious what you thought of this. You recently wrote about left handed quarterbacks and TUA, and I know you're familiar with some of the people in that building. Just what a difference it's been between Flores and Mike McDaniel.
Yeah, I mean, I can't speak to what it was like before. When I did a piece on the spread of that exit motion, that cheap motion across the league, and I spent some time in Miami last season, And this was right before Austin Jackson got paid and Tua was at the podium talking about Austin Jackson and sort of made a bit of a reference to what he's talking about here to the point where it was being chattered and buzzed about a little bit in that media room.
I always like to listen to the beat reporters because they are there every single day, and when I come in and do a bigger project and on someone else's beat, I was just like to listen and hear kind of the chatter and the dialogue, and that definitely got people talking about, you know, just kind of him. This was really one of the first times he's even made a reference to some of the dynamics that he's saying existed before.
I mean, he was pretty he was really blunt here there and knowing just what people have said about Floris and how he coaches. Yeah, he's hardcore. I think he's like that in real life, that he's going to tell you what you think, and he probably it's hard to speculate, but that was probably with an idea of like making to a better but it's a reminder different people are going to develop and improve in different ways, and there are some people that that's not going to work for.
And it's like, I mean to a play for Nick Saban, So let's not let's not say that.
Like right, but Nick Saban maybe has an emotional intelligence to present those sort of ways of motivating and instructing that are productive, and maybe there's another way of doing it which you don't quite understand, like how to relate to other humans. I think Nick Saban has great loyalty from his players because he does it in a way that that engender is loyal well.
And you also hear Brian Flores has a ton of loyalty and really high praise from defensive players that he coaches. And so this is not a conversation about that specifically because we weren't there. And at a certain point, Brian Flores will have a press conference because defensive coordinators do, and they do that weekly, and so let's have him say what he wants to say about that instead of
putting words in anyone's mouth. However, I will say when I went down there and I did a story on Tua and Mike McDaniel and their relationship, and it kind of stemmed from you know, Tua was looking at himself in the mirror every morning and sort of subconsciously, the
self talk was do I suck? And Mike McDaniel heard that, heard that self talk, and it sparked this sort of piece of advice that had nothing to do with sort of the emotional wellbeing of the quarterback, but actually tied hand in hand pun intended with a project that Mike was working on at the time, which was he was trying to figure out how to watch to a throw as a lefty because it was tripping him up because like all of us, it just takes a minute to
get to get used to a left handed thrower. And so he made this series of clips first for himself that was focused on the process of the throw, not the results of the throw, and so walking through like hundreds of clips from practice, decision making, clips from games and all of those things. And CBS Sports reported this a couple I think two years ago and made reference
to it. But it was Mike really digging in on how can I understand how my quarterback throws because I want him to know that I like him for him, And it happened to spark all these ideas and collaboration between the two of them about kind of accentuating the left handedness, building some of their formations and some of their pre snap stuff, some of their quick game stuff, the mid game that they use into like accentuating how to a throws specifically, and in that way building with him.
That was Mike McDaniel telling him and verbally telling him, but also with his actions like I like you for you, I like you for who you are, and Tua says it later in this interview here a great interview with Dan Lebtard with Stu Gotts, and he says it, I mean it took him two years to kind of eliminate some of that self talk, but that was him and Mike McDaniel working together on this like every single day.
That's so forthright and awesome to hear an athlete talk like that, because of course athletes go through those sort of struggles, and there's this idea that like every great athlete needs to be like Michael Jordan, just a killer that shows no vulnerability or no weaknesses, and it shows how comfortable to it is in the place that he's in and everything you're talking about of all the things, Mike McDaniel went through to try to accentuate his left
handedness and the motions that we're seeing. Even in this preseason, they're thrown out some new stuff. It just it just goes to show and football, like so much goes into what makes a player great, and Tua I think specifically, it's harder for someone like me to understand what is making him so effective because the obvious things athleticism and arm strength aren't there in huge abundance. But we're seeing year after year and at some point we got to
believe that he belongs on the island. He is on quarterback island, and he's.
Staying there for now, for now. A piece of a piece of reporting that didn't make it directly into the article because we have you know, word counts and all that stuff is you know, sometimes they would be workshopping a play and it would fail three times in practice and Mike McDaniel on Tua would go, I to Mike and say, I am terrified of messing up. I do not want to mess this up in a game. I don't want to ruin this for everybody. I don't want to let everyone down, and Mike would say, just run it.
Run the play it's my fault. I'm telling you to run it. It will work. This defender is going to do this. It will work in the game. Run it, and more often than not, it has to the point where that's that's a trust fall. I mean, if you were to take that anecdote and turn it into a tangible like example, that's like literally the trust the trust fall. And I think that that is a testament. It's like
piece off. If you are in a place where you are struggling mentally, it takes repetition of that type of interaction to keep you away from that place and.
You need you and it's just as a pure like quarterback e level, like that's what you need you. You know. It's such a cliche of just like you want someone that's confident enough in what's around him to pull the trigger, which is probably a bad phrase to continue to use in twenty twenty four, but justin fields like in Russell Wilson when I was watching them on the All twenty two on their Saturday night game and just like just throw it, just trust it, just do it. I see
you see it too, but you just don't. And it's great how to trust his system more than any quarterback in the league. That's why he gets rid of the ball so quickly and he has the timing. And so that's one story we'll be watching. We're also going to be watching the top fifty free agents. I'm going to be tracking this throughout the course of this season. So
this is out on NFL dot Com. You just google, you know, it's on my Actually, have I tweeted out maybe I forgot to top fifty free agents are out there, And I did think it would just be an interesting exercise before this season started to just have some takeaways from the top fifty free agents. So the names at the top, a couple of them are going to be
taken off the board pretty quick. Dak Prescott's number one, then Ceedee Lamb, Brandon Ayuk, then a couple Chiefs offensive linemen Creed Humphrey, Tray Smith, and it goes on from there. But I thought I would just go with a few takeaways and you can respond however you want.
Oh, I can thank you.
Yes, wide receivers. A lot of wide receivers this year that it's not like an amazing list. I've definitely seen better. Last year was better going into the year, but t Higgins, Okay got him number seven, Stefan Diggs, Amari Cooper, Deontay Johnson, Chris Godwin, DeAndre Hopkins, Keenan Allen's and I'll even throw a guy that didn't make my top fifty, Mike Williams like that. Those are guys that I think all have a realistic chance to actually make free agency. Maybe some
of them get franchised. I certainly think Ayuk and Ceedee Lamb will get signed in the meantime, but this could be a good year and it's a big year for all those players to try to make their money.
Yeah, I have Chris Godwin written down here as if the forty nine ers don't get something done with Brandon Ayuk sneakily, I think Chris Godwin could be a fit there. I also have Minnesota and potentially Carolina And if he does hit free agency, and I think that could be really interesting. There's no reason to think that Tampa Bay won't want to if he has the season, they think he's going to have Gigsten him and all of that, but.
Then they afford him and Evans.
Yeah, and if he does hit free agency and San Francisco still is in this mode, of you know, we're so close. We have to see what happens this year. And then obviously, you know, because nothing has happened with you yet, you have to think nothing will happen unless it's like some sort of an extension at this point.
I I.
Yeah, like that's just dragged on forever. I you know, I would think that what my care folo is like one item left to check on this list, and it's like check it.
Just do it.
Get this our long national nightmare, make it end. Yeah, I think t Higgins is going to be an interesting one to watch.
An actual free agent. There's no They're just not gonna tag him a second time. So yeah, these younger players like him. Deontay Johnson is a pretty likely candidate for the tag. I think just because of his age. I think he's going to have a monster season. But guys like Stefan Diggs and and Amari Cooper, I mean, it's a it's a fascinating year for Diggs because he's playing for a contract.
Cowboys beat writers do think that Ceedee Lamb contract's going to get done around them in Oxen.
That's why I am not even like Lamb and.
I you guys Stefan Diggs will be a fun one to watch.
I make these lists and I know that it's going to get decimated pretty soon. The Chiefs. I mentioned Humphrey and Tray Smith, So Creed Humphrey, some people would say he's the best center in football. Going to be a free agent. Tray Smith one of the best young guards in football. He's going to be a free agent. I have Nick Bolton now as the best off ball linebacker available in free agency. Justin Reid is a free agent on the Chiefs. I have him as the number two
safety available. Charles Amenah, he is also going to be free agent. So just kind of a reminder. It is such a delicate dance for this Chiefs team to keep this team together. But man, they have a lot of guys coming up, and I doubt they can sign Humphrey and Trey Smith together or though have to choose one or the other.
Just just do this, yes, Kansas City Chiefs. As your quarterback gets older and continues to play at such a high level and you want to keep him playing at such a high level, resign your offensive linemen that are good who are good draft skill players, draft running backs, draft draft draft like that's that's it. Pay your offensive lineman, draft the rest.
It's like it's more or less what they've done since they Yeah, exactly are they really change their franchise by drafting Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith. Yes, drafting second.
And draft players that you think you're going to want at those valuable, valuable positions that you think you're going to want to extend on a second contract, and particularly upfront when your quarterback is getting older, and probably one receiver like I love, I love the projection of you know, Xavier Worthy as the as the number one out there, I think yourself and and the fabulous Nick Shook, we're
talking about that. Yes, Monday Morning Show, which I listened to because I have no life but to listen to every single one of your shows.
It's your show too.
That's today, even though even though I'm I'm going to need a compdence boost after the way you open this show today, But yeah, I think that's that's the thing though, is they're they're they're gonna have a quarterback who costs a lot of money invest in the line, which they've done at that point during the draft, but now they're gonna be able to do via contracts and then continue to draft those types of skill players.
So maybe Joe Toney comes off the books actually, and so maybe you can get it done. You probably sign one long term franchise the other and hope to get that next contract done.
Question the fick question for you with Justin Reid, who I think is fascinating, not just because he's a great player, but also the special team stuff, like with this kickoff they're wanting we don't know what, we don't know yet, but in a perfect world where this kickoff does actually change some of the parameters and constructs of football as we know it, do you think that there's a little bit more value added long term if this kickoff goes the way that I think us wow, us football freaks are.
I don't know if Justin Reid's gonna really have that big of a role. We'll see just.
A little bump like couple mill you know, couple of mill bumps.
I think Brett Veach is so disciplined that he would. They don't really pay in the secondary that much, right, and when they do pay, it's guys like Justin Reid and Tyron Matthew. When he came aboard we are more like mid to late twenties, and justin Reid's, you know, case a second or third contract, do you want to give it to him as he's getting closer to thirty. Probably not. I think it's going to be easier to find edge players in this there's always like good not
great edge players available. Weirdly like that's a position you can find. So a Chase Young is available next year and I think could be having a really good season. DeMarcus Lawrence, who's getting up there in years but is still a good player, Josh Sweat, Malcolm Koons, Hassan Reddick's a free agent at this point, Baron Browning, like Khalil Mack. You can find some edge players tackles a little deeper
than normal. Your Rams guy Alric Jackson is one of many guys who walker little Cam Robinson, Ronnie Stanley, Judgic Wills, all these guys who used would say aren't really top eight tackles, but they might actually get to the market so they'll get paid a lot of money. And then cornerback's a little deeper than normal. Tar Various war To Sante, Samuel Junior, Paulson, Adiebo, Carlton Davis, Byron Murphy. But the problem is the ones who are really good this year,
they won't be available. That's the thing. Teams are just better than ever at keeping the guys that they want, and so that's the whole thing. Was like, all you know, Chiefs have to play a lot of court to their quarterback, and I don't know, usually players don't become available unless the teams basically don't really want them.
I'm just saying, pay your offensive line. Yes, there's that.
I mean, if anything, Patrick Mahomes is so underpaid because he's making the same as all these players who aren't nearly as good as him. It's like, why is Justin Herbert essentially the same as Patrick Mahomes. It doesn't really make any sense. So the salary cap helps out the Chiefs. And then yeah, finally, Dak he's gonna if he wants to push this, and I think he does, he's going to be the highest paid player in NFL history by far, by leaps and bounds. I think if he gets to
free agency. I thought Kirk, I thought Lamar could have done this, and then weirdly it didn't really happen for him for whatever reason. By I think Dak it's just going to be outrageous in the teams out there. There'll be many teams out there that want him, so he can push and he can just set a totally new boundary of guaranteed money, and I think get like a fully guaranteed four year type of contract.
I do have a hot take about this. It's not really a hot take. It's more like to me, it seems very logical, like if you're a team that's not quite one hundred percent sure, like you don't like, for example, you don't have a starting caliber or franchise caliber or on that track quarterback on a rookie deal, for example, or you don't have Josh Allen or pat Patrick Mahomes
or just those guys. If you're not quite sure who your quarterback might be in twenty twenty five, you get on the phone yesterday, like you start laying the framework to try to first of all, get if you can before he actually hits the market and the price goes way way up, and then you negotiate in house with him because once there's gonna be a lot of teams who are in this and and let me let me be clear, I'm very pro player make all the money
he can, particularly a player of Dak Prescott's caliber like and leadership, and he's gonna lead whichever franchise he goes to, or if he stays, which doesn't necessarily seem like that's likely at this point. It takes a change, it could happen. I think, yeah, but fifty to fifty. I mean that's like a huge like yeah, you just said it. Teams pay the players they want to keep, you know, and so this is going to be really interesting because if you are sort of elbowing around with a bunch of
other teams in the same free agency market. I mean, it's great for Dak if that happens. I would love that for him if that happens. But if you're from a team perspective, you're going to try to get this done even before that, like by November, and I think that it's good luck.
Though that's tough. He's in the middle of a season and he'll know, and I bet he already does know.
Just knowing, I'm sure he wants to hit free agency, and I would I would think any player in his position would want to hit free agent. I'm just saying from a team perspective, there are going to be multiple teams. If he doesn't get extended by the Cowboys, there are going to be multiple teams who are going after him like pretty hard.
And that would be sooner then later, and we'll see how this season goes. That's going to impact everything. There are teams like Tennessee Tampa, the Raiders will be interested regardless, like who knows, like like if the Rams went crazy like it could be, it could be a lot of different teams that would be interested. So it's just something to watch kind of hanging over the twenty twenty five season. All right, let's talk about something that's going to happen
before the twenty four season even starts. We'll talk about some players we think could be in new places in the matter of the next couple of weeks. We'll do that after the break. Oh yeah, back on NFL Daily with Jordan Rodrigg of the Athletic and before we get to players who could be on new teams in the next couple of weeks, I did want to ask you, Jordan, about something you sent out on Twitter Sunday night. So
let's bring up the tweet. Oh she's here, Randy, And it was a reminder that Jordan is an identical twin.
Oh my god, there she is.
And she explained her twin identical twin sister, which I knew about, but I get it had been a long time ago and we didn't know each other as well. And I have to admit I sort of forgot you're an identical twin and that she is what is she the ocean X head of science operations, So she is running these scientific adventures to find life force across the globe.
Well, okay, I don't understand. I'm going to explain this ly. I attempt to explain this, and then I check with her if I did it right, which when she and every her entire crew listens to the show, they listen to everything that I'm ever on, which is like extreme pressure because it's a wide array.
Where are they right now?
There is right now, although we do I have to bleep that out because I don't be allowed to say, yeah, right now they are looking for and I can't say it, but it's very cool, and you will see the scientific research they found it that they found the thing they're looking for, and it's very very rad and you will see the scientific papers published on this and also some some media content on this I believe in the spring.
So yeah, she is the smartest person I've ever met, and it's pretty cool to know that and to have that working.
In this mass Like a little bit of a humble brag though, like my identical twin sister is the smartest person.
Oh, we don't have the do you know how twins work? We don't have a share a brain.
To my best friends growing up identical twins, so I know, don't share a brain. A little bit of the struggles they go through, which comes from people like me that assume you know.
But I just think, did you want me to talk about my sister or just we're gonna keep talking about you?
No, let's hear it.
Okay, sounds good. So she she's the smart It's cool when you work in our field, we get to meet a lot of really awesome people, really smart people, people who run NFL. She is the smartest person I've ever met. She runs the science programming at ocean X, and for most of the year she is on board the world's
most advanced scientific research vessel. It's basically like a floating moving laboratory with submersibles like real submersibles, not the touristy ones that you see horrible headlines about, but actual and they work with you know, James Cameron and nat Geo and a lot of the BBC to put out educational programming.
Ocean X Explorers is on not Geo and it's on Disney Plus and Hulu and you can and your sisters all over that she is.
She she runs everything behind the scenes and so it's a huge testament the things that they can do and the things that they've found. And the recent one that I am allowed to talk about, it's on YouTube. You can find it. She was the lead on the team that helped discover an ancient rediscover an ancient species of squid that they didn't think was still on the planet. It was living in a shipwreck. So they went down in a sub and like found a squid, an ancient
squid that was living in a shipwreck. It was extremely cool.
That is so cool, and I love that you know your thread about it, and I miss her a lot with a dig of that. She's a Cardinals fan and then maybe that's why she lives on a ship, So maybe she's not that smart. So we'll be rooting for the card maybe she can make chicks or give Cardinals analysis from the submersible.
She did text me she said it's a scientific ship, not a championship Jordan. So that's where she cell phoned a little bit.
I love that, and just I'm sort of fascinated by that. I feel like I have.
She's amazing. Go follow what they're doing. They're doing some amazing important things and also getting people from diverse communities more involved in STEM and giving opportunities to young people who are interested in STEM and helping them grow through that field. And we need more people involved in that field and protecting our planet.
So I love it. You know, I think you're equally as smart, but I don't even know our I'm just guessing, all right, you're gonna I'm gonna test your your brains here because we're gonna have a brain exercise in terms of putting players onto new teams, like player movement. What could happen over the next week, Like I said, August twenty seventh is cutdown day. We'll start to hear some cuts over the weekend as we get through these third preseason games. Some traits one that I think is very logical.
I'm going to throughout. First, let's go Hassan Redick to the Bears. I think the Jets are sick of this. I don't see an end to this. There was reporting from Albert Breer that the Bears and the Falcons both had third round picks on offer for Matthew Judon, So it shows the Bears know that position that we've been talking about for them is quite thin, that they were willing to give up a third round pick. I would rather have a Son Reddick than Matthew Juna if I had to pick.
I like that.
I liked it. So I'm just saying, like that third round pick that they were going to give for Judaan, let's send it to the Jets. That's what the Jets had sent a conditional one out, so Joe Douglas gets to save some face, and maybe the conditions aren't even met now, so he actually upgrades to a hard third round pick, and the Bears just continued to go all in.
The Only question here because that makes it makes too much sense, Greg like it, really it really does. Like the The only question here is whether Joe Douglas thinks that saving face on this means winning a standoff, or whether he thinks it means trading a player and recouping something in return, like, well, whatever his debt.
They need they need edge rushers. Still, yeah, that's the reason why they traded for him. They lost Bryce Huff. They were still playing Will McDonald, their first round pick from a year ago, pretty deep into that preseason game. Work him in as like a third or fourth. So but if he decided that a son Reddick really might not show up, that this thing between us is just not going to happen, and the Bears are like, hey man, we'll pay you and get it done. I think that would be a fun one, all right.
You through that one, I was actually looking at and I covered him early in his career, and so I kind of been tracking following along the down year and then also the move to safety. But James Bradbury, I know he's not necessarily like a big name, but if we're if we're talking about right now, you know I did connect him potentially back to Carolina. Even Carolina tried to get Stefan Gilmore. Stefan Gilmour was like, Noop, not
going there. And I do think that Carolina very first of all, they need a lot of players, But they very much need a corner. He's playing safety right now, which shows that they're trying to in Philly, trying to find a fit for him. They're also going to have like Cooper de Gene come back, They're going to have some health return and some other players that they're going to want to play. And he started his career in
Carolina and they liked him a lot. They just didn't pay him when it was time to get paid, and there was changing regimes and a lot of things that went into that. But I do think that getting him back at corner getting Carolina, you know, just something a player who knows what to do, a player who can play like help. They've got some juice a little bit now with Javian Clowney rushing the passer, so you know, I think they just need a little bit more help on the back side.
Okay, he's thirty one years old, so yeah, if they gave up a conditional seven the Eagles, I don't think he's going to make the Eagles. He just seems like he's at a point in his career. Maybe you get the revival year out of them, but the Eagles don't believe that they could get it. Out of them, so that is worrisome to me. There's a weird amount of cornerbacks,
you know, that are available. So I thought about the Panthers too, because they're high on the list of two things that need corners, but there's a half the league needs corners. Cardinals could certainly use a corner. I think the Broncos could use a second corner. Adri Jackson is not signed anywhere. I thought he was okay lost. I mean, I know he was in a tough situation with Wink Martindale's, but he's had some really good years in his career. He's twenty eight years old. How is he not on
a roster? Akello Witherspoon doesn't have a team as far as I can tell. I think Xavier and Howard might be a little cooked, but I'm surprised that no team's given him a chance. Patrick Peterson is out there, Eli Apple. It gets a little lower on.
The list some of these guys, though. It's like it falls into a category of you wait until every team is finished cuts, and then you sort of assess the.
There are some guys out there for teams that are truly desperate. Witherspoon, Adri Jackson to me, are guys that can play now for you?
Yeah, Akello played well, especially during the first part of last season for the Rams super young group. But I mean it just basically it blew out his legs essentially like he was dealing with hamstring issues. I wouldn't be surprised if he's taking his time. He's savvy enough, really smart player, savvy enough to be like, yeah, I'm in a miss training camp, uh, and then get picked up by someone who needs help. He's just a really smart player. He could he could fit into a system really well.
All right, let's let's try to go with big names here, John Dotson, this.
Is the one I've been excited for you to bring up.
Well, it's not like it's a that original of a thought. He's playing deep into a preseason game and that's a first red flag and then the reporters ask him about it. And I was listening to a podcast hosted by Ben Standig of The Athletic Last Me instead and we can check it out.
Great, And I'm just gonna say last Man's standing. He's got two puns.
That's great. And yeah, he expounded on this notion too, that they they've been asking the coaches about it, and they won't. They won't commit to anything. They're just saying it's a competition. When they ask about the wide receivers, they bring up Alamedas Zakias first and Diami Brown. So it looks like Dammy Brown's maybe on the outside, but Zakias is on the inside, and Dotson's a former first round pick, and that maybe just something hasn't been right
with him. It sounded like maybe, just like not with the new program. It's a new coaching staff who didn't draft him in the first round, and so I tend to think he's he's available right now. If someone wants to give up a pick for him, now, how high of a pick will it take to get him? He was a first round pick there, but they didn't draft him. Would they take a fourth for Johan Dotson right now? From the Ravens. I like that fit. Yes, I know those two teams don't like each other, but or they
didn't used to, especially when Dan Snyder was there. But let's be real, no one liked Washington when Dan Snyder was there.
Teams that I think could use another receiver. Kind of some interesting stuff happening. I mean, I don't know that he's necessarily a fit in Miami, but some interesting stuff happening with their three spot. Yeah, you know the Colts Lions.
Bills Lions are the other team.
I think really really would like to fit. I mean, I again you mentioned on your podcast Monday. On this podcast Monday morning, Dan Campbell was like, really we really need the three receiver.
I know, that's what it makes sense. So Dotson's a guy who's he's not the biggest receiver in One of his best traits is like winning at the catch point, which is a tricky skill. And end of the Bills then sounded like maybe he lost a little bit of confidence towards the end of last year, But I thought he had a good rookie year. There's going to be a lot of people that had good rookie grades on him.
Your friend Ron Rivera drafted him there. You know those Commanders teams, they always like drafting their guys way higher than the consensus sport had him. So they did take him a little earlier. But people certainly had first round grades on Dots and he could be an interesting player. Steelers are obviously desperate for a wide receiver. That's another team would they give up a third. It's just not
something that Steelers would do normally. I think maybe the Ravens are so good at getting those compensatory picks that maybe they could they could send a third over for Johan Dotson and get it done.
Those were also teams, you know, if we go into more of a speed round of maybe not as known names, those were also some teams that I had as potential targets for to too at. Well, it's he's a really really fast player. He plays bigger than he looks. He looks small on tape and also in person, but he plays with a lot of heart and blocking, and he's been in this system so he's had to learn how to block and to kind of make up for some of maybe his size limitations. But he's a super fast player.
So I look at teams like Miami. I look at again the Bills, I look at the Chiefs. I even look at the Steelers because a lot of the stuff that they run in Los Angeles, you know, while it's not necessarily him cutting through traffic in the middle of the field, it's also eventually him exploiting the middle of the field. On some of these these concepts and then I also kind of thought that Brad Holmes might give his old friend and mentor Lesned a call, but after
week one two to out well. The reason I bring him up is because when the Rams are an eleven personnel, their three receivers are Cooper Cup, pukin a Coua, and DeMarcus Robinson. They also have Jordan Whittington emerging, Tyler Johnson emerging. Those two players back up Pokin Akua and or Cooper Cup. Xavier Smith has really emerged as a versatile speed threat, and two two backs up DeMarcus Robinson at the X, which is not the high volume target in this offense.
It's the Cooper Cup slash pookin a Coua. So for that reason situation they use them situationally to great production. But he's going into his fourth season and if you're not going to resign him, it just sort of seems like at this point, try to get something something.
Back someone in that coaching triol though those you know, too many of those teams already a deep at receiver.
Maybe Miami, I see it, I see it for my but I do see it. I see it for the Chiefs too, because it's.
Like you got. They actually weirdly have a lot of receipt. I think they're good.
But if you've got if you've got speed, yeah add more speed.
Okay, I could see.
That, and then I could also see Lions, but only after week one because they play ech other.
My issue with that is, like other teams will look at him is like, man, that was John mcvay's guy. That was his binky to two hour Well. He needed to make to two hour well work. And so like, if he's willing to give him up, then that's a little bit of a red flag. We need to get Ryan Tannehill to the Chargers. We cannot have Eastern Stick
playing meaningful snaps. And I know Herbert was back at practice, but just can't happen, Like I don't it just it's been a tough preseason for Eastern Stick and he might not be a good fit with Jim Harbaugh. And you can't expect Herbert to be healthy for sixteen weeks. So that's what I want to see. Marsha and Lattimore has been out of practice since the very beginning of practice. I have no information on this. If his hip is really that injured, that's a concern. And he won't be
very tradable. But there has been issues between Latimore and that coaching staff. Sometimes you wonder at this time of year, when a veteran has a day one training camp injury and then his out all of training camp, whether there's something a little more going on. There were trade rumors about him, then they came into camp saying we're not going to move Lattimore. He's with there. He would be very attractive to a lot of teams when he's healthy,
he's awesome. I think the Broncos, you know, Sean Payton, would certainly love to get his hands back on him. If you wanted to get really crazy, this would never happen. But I've just picked up like a little bit of Sean Payton, Like Leah, Let's let's see if Patrick Surtan puts out as good a year as you guys say he is. Like they haven't been that interested in extending him,
and he's always just kind of needling Patrick Curtan. I don't think Patrick Kuttan would ever be available, but I don't know Lattimore for certain things.
Sometimes, I mean, did we think that Dak Prescott could potentially be available? I mean this is sometimes things happen, things changed.
Right, that would that would have to be if the season probably goes wrong for them. So that's more fantasy. But the Broncos going after Latimore would make more sense. And to be clear, Broncos fans, I'm not saying they would ever do that, and if they had to do it, if they did it, like you would be getting Saints would have to be giving a lot of picks up with Latimore to get a guy like Sir Tan. But the Saints are a team that don't really care about giving picks up, like.
They're the f them picks team. I will see Ryan Tannehill. Okay, to the Chargers, I will raise you, yes, Sean Clifford to the Charge, we're in backup quarterback placement territory.
Why would they? Why would no one wants John Clifford.
Jim Harbough recruited him. Okay, now, do we really not want to this is for the plot, Greg, do we really want to recrash? Do we really not want to rehash absolutely insane Jim Harbaugh recruiting stories and also get your guy from Too Lane And this is for the plot alone. I mean we've said some names.
I would like it. Sean Clifford doesn't.
See Clifford is a guy.
It's too similar to East and stick to me, you know some other names, and this is more it's a different conversation. But it's in season. Just some players more to keep an eye on in season that we already mentioned New Hopkins. Yeah, the Titans. It's like, your team has to go a little wrong for this to be possible, Chris Godwin, if the Bucks went a little bad, Kirk Cousins, I mean, is that.
Bustbulity spicy, very very spicy. I think that Again, it's a bit of a hotter take here, but I think, like what we're so hung up on, and as we should be, by the way us on the outside, is that the Falcons paid Kirk. Yes, and so you're like, well, they paid Kirk, they wouldn't move on from Kirk. The
money is the factor here. But they've showed that they do not care about the money, because if they cared about the money, they wouldn't have drafted Michael Pennix where they did, and they're not playing Michael Pennix in the priests. I'm not saying that this is a thing. I'm just saying it's something to keep an eye on. And I don't think that we can look at it through the framing of well, the reason that they would stick with
him is because they paid him. I think they already showed you that they do not give a shit about the money because of the decision that they made shortly thereafter.
Right and they and people will say dead cap, Look, they ate the Matt Ryan. Dead cap is not gonna be worse than that. And what's crazy is the teams that had the most dead cap last year, the Bucks all made the playoffs.
The Bucks and the Rams, Raheem Morris and the Packers. And the Packers Raheem Morris was a coach on the Rams team that had like eighty million dollars in dead cap. I'm not saying this is gonna happen. I'm just saying it's something to keep an eye on because if you decide you're ready for the guy, the next guy, the younger player, and let's say, and I think all of us would really love a fun year from Kirk, especially
with that offense. I think all of us would love that. However, if it doesn't happen the way that they envisioned, and he also is not maybe as happy as he thought he would be. I'm just saying it's like, I just don't think the money would be something that would be that would factor under their decision making, because they already showed you they don't care about the money.
I think it's a mid October conversation, but it's one of them. We got to do a show on possible trade candidates during the season, but those are We're just a couple names. And yes see if anyone else, you know, gets gets spun off, I could see, uh, you know, the Cowboys picking up like a running back somewhere. Could they get like Jeff Wilson from the Dolphins.
I like that. We also talked about Miles Sanders. Yeah.
Would would they ever give up something for AJ Dillon? The Packers? I think they're actually I think the Packers want AJ Dillon, Robert Woods or Noah Brown. Maybe one of them shake loose from the Texans. Steelers could be a team that goes for them. I had a weird Quinton Johnston for Tyree Wilson first round picks not going so well, just trade since Telesco drafted Johnston. I don't
I think the Raiders would do that. Tyree Wilson, I think is a name to watch over the next week of just getting dumped for like a conditional seventh, which is just tough.
It's gonna drive Raiders fans absolutely insane watching Tom Telesco make any decision that isn't related to fix seeing their quarterback situation. I mean, again, we talk about if you don't know who are you got to try to improve the rest of the day. If you're well, I'm not saying he's not gonna try. I mean, come on, Greg, Yeah, you're being pedantic here, Like.
Banana's one of those words they never really know exactly what it means. But it's not good.
You don't You don't need to know what it means if you live it. So let's live your truth. That's fine. So the if you don't know what team or what quarterback you're gonna have, or if you have questions about quarterback in twenty twenty five, if you can't look at your guy right now and say you are my quarterback in twenty twenty five, again, the Raiders should be on the phone with freaking everybody at this point. They should be on the phone to see if Kirk is movable.
They should be on the phone to see if DAK is movable. They should be on the phone. I mean, hell, call Jacksonville to see if. Yeah, I mean, I know that's crazy. That's crazy. We're gonna we're gonna pull that back out of the out of either. Now.
That was fun. I like, I like throwing these little names out there because if we just get one nibble, we get one right over the next week, I'll just remind everyone of it. This was fun is the point of the exercise, totally. It's gonna be fun over the next week, and it's gonna be fun this week on NFL Daily, we have Patrick Claybahn and Colleen Wolf coming into the studio for our next show. We're gonna talk about things we're unreasonably high on. Why Colleen came up
with that topic? Don't you connect that until then? For Jordan Rodrigue of The Athletic, Yeah, get some deodor rant, so let's see you next time.