Wow, the NFL daily where we totally forgot President's Day is a real holiday. I'm Greg Rosenthal in the garage talking to my friend from across the country.
I haven't spent a.
Lot of time in real life, but I love his work on The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. It's Danny Hifitz, also a great writer. Danny, what's happened?
I'm good man. How are you doing.
We're just getting ready for when the President's Day is just going to become the day after the super Bowl and then suddenly everyone's going to get the party on the super Bowl like it's like there's no work the next day.
So we're just kind of getting ahad of the curve.
Okay, people have mentioned that, and for that to happen, that means the NFL has to start a week earlier, though too write or they don't add the second bye week. But I keep thinking they're going to add a second bye week.
That's been what it's been talked about a little bit.
If you add an eighteenth game and then do we start like Labor Day weekend weekend before rather, it would cut into my US Open tennis watch and it would be a little tricky.
One of us is you know, a little more plugged into the NFL than me. So, but I do think that I know they love the starting after Labor Day, but I also know they want to make the Super Bowl even bigger in the fact that you could make the Super Bowl like an actual holiday. I wonder if they kill the two week gap between the conference championships and the super Bowl. Yes, make bring it back into a week so that way you can add the eighteenth game. They make more money, add the second buy so the
players don't get that mad. But then you collapse that into two week period into one week, and now the super Bowl is the day before President's Day.
Which honestly is I would always should have been. It's kind of perfect.
I am with you.
I get why it started that way way back when it's like a different media cycle, like gets everyone chance to really crank up the game for seven days and everyone gets in position. We're like in a different time. Football is meant to be played weekly. Everyone does those those tweets of like, oh, it's our first Sunday with football. Chris Long had a funny video about that. It's like, no, we just had one the one Sunday before. Sorry, Pro Bowl as my voice is already losing.
I mean, New Orleans.
How are you doing?
Yeah, I thought you were supposed to be immune to New Orleans by now.
I thought I was in better shape until starting to talk loudly to you right now. But Danny ring your Fantasy Football show, one of the funniest, one of the best, most incisive creative podcasts out there. Craig Horlbeck, Danny Kelly, everyone check it out. Danny on the Ringer had you on today because we're doing NFC East off season previews.
So I'm really excited to kind of dive into this portion of the offseason, the kind of the pre draft, you know where draft is the sole focus after free agency portion, and I wanted to kind of preview like what each team needs now, like in the next month free agency. Not we'll talk a little bit of draft, but the whole thing, like looking at the whole package. Guys are going to get cut soon, that's already happening. The tag we put that out last week. We talked
about trade. So Danny's a Giants fan. We're gonna put ten minutes on the clock to kind of stop us from honking.
We'll do a little bit of.
News halfway through the show as a break talk a little Travis Kelcey.
But let's actually put it on the clock. Eric.
I don't know if we have a buzzer or what we're doing here, but ten minutes it'll stop us, and I want you to get us going with the Giants kind of one big question.
We'll have each team to kick this off.
So first, well, good luck.
I have an abstract concept at the time, so we'll see if I just blow past this time or not. We actually shameless plug Ringer Fantay Football Show. We actually do the mock draft oscars where we actually play Danny Kelly off with music if he goes too long, So you can do that with me here too.
But my question for the Giants is very simply.
Who was playing quarterback for this team in twenty twenty five, because right now it's going to be Drew Locke or Tommy Cutlets. And then it's like, you know, and again because you mentioned, oh, we're gonna talk draft free agency, the draft prep starts with free agency and who teams sign now, because ideally you can't do best player available in the draft unless you kind of like round yourself out in free agency. So I look at the Giants and I'm like, they have the third pick at the
end of the day. You can mock up dual Carter to the Titans all you want. But if the Giants, if they go, if there's a world where they start, should a Sanders first pick and then the brown stick cam Ward? The Giants have to acquire quarterback that they could play this season in case they're not able to get one in the draft. So now you're looking at Sam Darnold. I mean, you look, we could go through
all the free agents. But to me, that's the defining question for the Giants is who, Like it's actually crazy to think how horrible the Giants options a quarterback are.
It is so funny to me that Joe Shane, who single handedly ended the Hard Knocks offseason franchise. I don't it really seems like no team's taking that this year they already would have started, is entering year four.
Year three is supposed to be the big year.
It's kind of the year where Joe Shane when he was the assistant in Buffalo and Brandon Bean like, the plan comes together and you get a good, big push. But now we're year four the year after the big push year, which they obviously didn't push. And they literally don't have a quarterback on the roster. I've never seen that. I don't mean like they don't have a future quarterback. I mean there's literally not one on the Giants roster right now.
Now.
Technically, Tommy DeVito's an exclusive rights free agent. If they want to keep Tommy DeVito, they will and can keep Tommy DeVito. But it's not even like they have like a fifth round option as a backup or some veteran that makes sense as a third quarterback, Like there is no one. And to me, the question for them is just like how big did they go on Stafford? They are the Stafford They're the Stafford team. Why wouldn't they be the Stafford team. They make a lot of sense
for Stafford, Danny. I actually think they're more turnkey than you realize. I actually don't think they need quite as much as these other teams that don't have quarterbacks out there.
You put Stafford on this team, you're competitive.
That's my It's weird because you know, look, obviously the Giants are my team. I'm a Giants fan, and at the same time, every fan wants to see, like, no, no one has it worse than us, and also we're closer than you think.
So I look at the.
Giants and I'm like, this is the worst quarterback situation in the league because they don't have any and we're still talking about Tommy Cutlets two years later. How is that a thing? And then I mean the fact that
his agents kept it going this long. But then the flip side is this is sacrilege to say, but looking at Washington's roster and looking at the Giants roster, and I'm like, they kind of have a lot in common once you get past Jaden Daniels, you know what I mean, Like they actually like And that's the thing is I'm biased, But the Giants, there's good bones to this fixer upper house. You've got a left tackle Andrew Thomas. You've got a top three defensive tackle on Dexter Lawrence. You've got I
think an underrated defensive end in Brian Burns. And then you've also gotten laked neighbors at wide receiver one, Like those are hard.
Things to find.
An elite receiver, an elite left tackle on elite defensive tackle A really like B plus to a minus defensive end. Those are hard things to find. Everything else is a mess and they need a quarterback. But yeah, if you threw in Stafford, I would talk myself into a Super Bowl run.
At twelve to one. There actually was.
Now that's a little that's a little rich for me.
Well, I don't know if I'm allowed to mention certain things of the show. I actually put down and say whatever you want. FanDuel made a mistake and they had the Giants at plus four seventy sorry, four to four. I can't say the number four hundred and cent. I put ten bucks down. I win forty seven one hundred dollars if the Giants win the Super Bowl, which I was like at that point, I'm just betting on a Stafford trade. But no, I mean you're the objective one,
like should the Giants trade for Stafford? Or does that reek of desperation to you for a dable Joe Shane brain trust that just has to compete. And I think that's the tough thing the right now where they have this like playoff mandate, and so does it make sense to the Giants that gets Stafford or should they.
Just get It's both, it's desperate and it makes enough sense for where they're at, Like what would he cost a second and a third something like that you mentioned. They have a good situation otherwise and in like the great players that are there, but the rest of the rosters messing. I would say their offensive line played a little better than people realized last year. You know, even some of the like Keevon Thibodeau wasn't a hit, but he's an okay starter. So your defensive line is an
absolute strength. You had a good rookie class. You found a like a running back you can get going with with Tyrone Tracy in general, the rookie class. You got some DB's in the secondary. I made little categories for myself. I didn't want to give you too much homework, but last minute doing this, I was like, okay, what do they need? The QB is obviously first that they need
like some cornerbacks. They need wide receivers after you know, neighbors absolutely in maybe some like defensive line, defensive tackle depth.
But here here's a win.
I had a little category of like easy win and easy wins for each team in this part of the offseason. The easy win for them is like they don't really have many free agents. I care that much about Darius Slayton could be a good player for another team. At some point, they got to just give up the ghosts like they never they never like them. And then after that it's like a Zizo Zulari and Jason Pinnock. They
are not losing much this year. Of those guys like Slayton is the most likely to be gone, but they have forty three million dollars in cap space. They do have an extra second round pick. No, no, an extra like a fifth round pick from the Leonard Williams trade. Like I think, like, yes, it's desperate to get Matthew Stafford, but you're you're not gonna do any better, so I would just do it.
No, yeah, I would kind of just do it too, because why not.
But I agree And again the Giants again, they have they have pieces in the trenches.
The secondary.
It's kind of a mess because actually Drew Phillips is their best cornerback now. They drafted Deontay Banks in the first round a couple of years ago. Frankly, he's been on borderline unplayable. He's one of those where if he was the third rounder, they wouldn't be playing him. They have to play him because he's a first rounder. But I mean, Terry mclaurin's talking about how easy it is to beat Deontay Banks at the line of scrimmage and for touchdowns like on heart on the when he's micd up.
It's unbelievable.
So Thibodeau's been disappointing, you know, I Evan Neiel was a mess, you know, Deontay Banks, and suddenly you know, Joe Shane's had all these you know, maybe four first round picks and his three drafts.
So far kind of missed on three of them.
Like, it's not great ironically that the Dave Gettleman draft picks are holding up this roster between Dexter Lawrence and Andrew Thomas, which is funny to think about. But overall, I mean, Neighbors is fantastic. I don't know how much credit you get for taking the lak Neighbors, especially when, like you know, Pannex looks like he might be good and Bonux looks like he might be good.
I don't know if those guys would be good on this ross.
But that's the thing. It's like, basically, the Giants have to fortify themselves to what if they can't get a quarterback with that third pick in the draft because again can.
Stress enough, as you said, they don't have one. It's February, they don't have a quarterback.
Well, it's kind of what would you rather have, you know, your pick on the litter at number three overall plus Stafford, that you trade your second and maybe a future third four or Shader Sanders at three.
So I go back and forth on what the Giant should do with this third pick every day. And I know that you know, you don't necessarily want to go all into the draft right now, But the Giants, I think it's hard to separate because I look at I think you have to reverse engineer from the draft backward, and I look at this, I'm I'm between two. Every day, I waffle between two options. Just take a quarterback. You're high up in the draft. It's ten times more important
than any of their position. And like if it's a quote unquote bad let's say a good class, you get a fifty percent hit rate on the quarterback and it's a quoe unquote bad class and you get a one out of three.
Still do it?
No one ever knows, Like justin Herbert and sixth these incredible, Like just take a cam Ward, take a Chadur, and if they're bad, whatever, you have to live with it and next year you get the quarterback again in twenty twenty six. If they're so bad, part of me here's that, and the other part of me is like, man, I don't know if cam Ward or Shadur could succeed in
this giant's environment. And it's like if at least if you take ab Dull Carter or you take Mason Graham and you have an elite defensive line that's like an identity that fans can get.
Around, and like you have something building blocks.
It's like how many teams have built something for one quarterback given it to another work It's like the Lions had something for Stafford, gave it to GoF, The Rams said sing for GoF, gave it to Stafford. The Bucks built sing for James, gave it to Brady. Like you build in the trenches. That's my fear of taking Travis Hunter is it's like you go neighbors Hunter. How many teams are built that way. It's like I want big beefy boys on the trenches, and so I could go either way.
I think you also, look, it's the positive and the negative of keeping the staff.
Look, you got.
Dabel, who I think can call plays. We got We'll run out of the tide here. Okay, I didn't know if that was thirty seconds. We're getting used to this Mike Kafka, who's getting interviews elsewhere. And the good thing about how bad the quarterback situation was last year that anything is going to be an upgrade, like Jacoby Brissett
and one of these rookies would be an upgrade. The bad part of that equation is I think there's a very easy way for Joe Shane and Dable if they do get Stafford, let's say, and make a couple of good picks, It's like you get right back up to eight or nine wins. I don't know if this team is going anywhere, but then you're like resigning Joe Shane and Brian Dable for another couple of years because it's gonna be easy for this team to show improve it.
But I actually do think continuity was probably the easiest way for them to improve this year.
Underrated is that when you fire a coach, the GM can look for the coach. But if you fire a GM, the owner has to look for the GM and they're like, ah, I don't want.
To do that.
Yeah, the Jaguars, even though they have their coaches, they're just like announcing finalists. All right, let's let's go to the Cowboys. I'll throw out the question for the Cowboys.
Can the world in by the world, I mean, the media, Dallas fans just kind of like general consensus pressure Jerry Jones into doing something big, you know, after a year where for whatever reason, he almost wanted to just push against the narrative that they had to do anything except wait until the very last minute to get Dak signed, to get Ceedee Lamb signed. Now, Michael Parsons is up for a contract Bill Barnwell and I mentioned possibly him
being on the trade block. Will the Cowboys actually do something big this offseason, for instance, like trademark Michael Parsons. That to me, even though it would be getting rid of your best player, would be like an aggressive move. Or did they just kind of pick around the edges like they've been doing lately.
I mean, I think it's the right question because I mean, again, Jerry Jones is older than Joe Biden, and I think that Cowboys fans finally realized that this year because I think I think there's something cracked in the facade of Dallas this year. I think that Jerry Jones frankly has been the Wizard of Oz for the entire time he's on the team, and I think Cowboys fans saw behind the curtain this year, something about that Jerry. For someone who says all these weird quotes to media, Jerry, the
all in quote has resonated with Cowboys fans. Unlike any quote I've heard from any owner. I've met all the Cowboys fans I know in my life, all the Cowboys fans, I don't know that I hear from a month.
Everyone just keeps repeating this all in quote, and it's story.
Hall I think gets a lot of pop too, Yeah it does.
He keeps going back to that.
Lot of pops in Glory Hole. Yeah.
So I like his baggage.
Yeah, I mean the owls and chickens. Google that one with sect worker Sham. There's a lot of things going on, But anyway, Jerry again, Jerry has been on a quest for two things. He wants to win a Super Bowl and get credit for it, Like he wants to recreate the nineteen nineties Dallas, where it's like, you know what, Jimmy Johnson got to walk in the locker room and be like, how about that Cowboys? And it's like, Jerry got wanted to do that. You wanted the credit. But
he also doesn't want to spend money. Jerry wants as much attention and eyeballs for as little money as humanly possible. That's why instead of making football decisions, he makes business decisions. He's a marketer, he's a salesman. They get the Dak Prescott extension done on this Sunday morning of week one so he can get it on the pregame shows for free.
He looks at all this as free media. That's what it is.
It's advertising. He doesn't have to pay for it. That's how he looks at the news. So the Michael Parsons thing, he doesn't look at it as a football decision. In my opinion, Jerry looks at it as well, get all summer. They're going to talk about the Dallas Cowboys until Michael Parsons deal gets done. Why would we do the deal early because then let's stop talking about it. That's why
he gets Dak and Seed. He done late in the year, and so that to me is the question is is Jerry going to start treating this like a business that he just is trying.
To get eyeballs?
So he's going to treat it like a football team because he hasn't treated it like a football team in like twelve years.
Okay, some little facts about their offseason. Not much gap space right now. They're actually over the cap by a couple million. You know, you can restructure, you can move money around, you can make cuts. Every team has the option to do that. The Cowboys have done it a little less than others, but certainly they will for a little out. They're missing their fourth round pick because they gave it up for Jonathan Mingo, whoops.
A year after they give up the fourth for Tree Lance. Couple easy wins.
They have two free agents which will make my top one on one in Rico Dowdele and Cavante Turpin. Those are guys that are worth more to the Cowboys to me than they probably would be for another team. Just give Rico Dowdle two for ten. He'll take it like he's a good enough running back and then move on from worrying about that position. And then Turpin is your second, like, most explosive offensive player and one of the best return guys in the league. Just like, take take care of
those early. And then I have a category like likely gone from the team. Brandon Cooks is likely gone, Zach Martin is probably gonna retire and open up some cap space for them, and then osa A. Dicky had a really nice contract year. He's in my top ten free agents, which is crazy. It's such a bad class. But he's a good free agent and they're gonna have to say goodbye to him because I just don't think they're gonna want to have to pay him.
But to your point, though, I think that actually centuates the problems, because I mean, he's one of the cowboys better defensive linemen. He's one of the better defensive tackles. They need defensive tackle. This is a team that can't stop the run. It's one of the worst run stopic teams in the league. They're gonna lose one of their best defensive tackles. They need to add to dtackle as soon as he leaves. I was impressed you pronounce I
always call him Ohsa. I don't know how to pronounce his last name, but as soon as Osa is out of there.
They need that.
And the same with running back, even if you bring back Rico Dwell, I would argue this is probably one of the two or three worst running back rooms in the league.
And that's if you bring Dawdell back.
They have to dip into running back in this draft, and they're gonna have to dip into defensive tackle because you're not going to be able to replace him. So I think they're already kind of flat footed in that they're already doing exactly what you're not supposed to do, which is they need to hit picks in the draft. They need it running back, they honestly should take two. They need a dtackle, and then they also need a
bunch of other stuff. I mean, inside linebacker they're cursed because de marve On overshow look great, but he had that horrific injury. And so now you've got when Sean lead a late and Devander Rush to overshown where that position's cursed for them. But then you know you still need like receivers behind Ceedee Lamb like they need a lot.
Their Their roster looks terrible right now, which is I disagree on the running back thing. I think if you bring Daube back, you're fine. He actually he was good. He was good enough. And everyone says you can find running backs in the draft, like the Cowboys can't. They keep trying, like Malik Davis, Douce Vaughan is there, they don't really have any.
Like that was a baseball pick where it's like the twentieth round, you just take some scout son. They just just took the guy's son from the God. That's not a you can't do that this seventh round.
Like they need to go back to They got to look at like what the Eagles are doing. So to me, there they're biggest issues. I mean they have issues everywhere. Offensive line, defensive line especially as you mentioned, and then the weapons beyond ceedee Liam. But that's like a lot it like who is their second best defensive lineman If you count Michael Parsons as a defensive lineman, which I will, he's basically an edge. Who is their second best defensive
lineman right now? They have DeMarcus Lawrence is going to be a free agent. Chaun Zy Golston, who actually played a lot for them, is a free agent as well. It's probably Marshawn Neeland who's coming off a big injury. But they don't really have anyone, so they need so much depth. And then they tried to They drafted a couple offensive linemen last year. We'll see if Tyler Goton works out at left tackle. He had a rocky rookie year, but that happens at tackle. They like Cooper Bebee, who's
a center, but they only feel like great. I would think about Tyler Smith on the offensive line, so that's like a lot. I think one of the big decisions actually sneaky is do they bring DeMarcus Lawrence back. He's one of those veterans that's out there. Would feel very weird. If I'm DeMarcus Lawrence, I would rather just end my career in a different uniform. But maybe you're like losing endorsement money down the line if you leave.
Jerry loves him.
Jerry loves to Marcus Lawrence at the be back and oh, Terry loves him, and so I think tomorrow also they just need pass rushers too. The offensive line, and I was worried about, but again it's still a question mark. But I think that look, they've proven they can develop offensive line that I know it's a different time, different plays.
But like Geyton, I don't know, he was supposed to be young and he was kind of like Cookie Dough comeing in and it's like, okay, it's not like Tyron Smith was light in the world on fire as a rookie and then he's probably gonna go to the Hall of Fame. So I mean Tyler Guyton at left tackle, I'm not that worried. I really. I mean the development on the defensive side of the ball, Like Mazzie Smith
has been really disappointing at defensive tackle. He's like the ultimate like traits guy that has not really into you know, translated like the absurd athleticism. I think it was number one and Bruce Feldman's Freaks list, like yeah, that has
a translate at all. But the overall point, though, is the roster kind of matches what the overall criticism of Jerry Jones is top heavy veneer of talent and sex appeal, and underneath you pull up the layer and it's just like it's all rotted wood, Like the foundation is totally cracked. It's like you got CD, you got DAK And again we're still talking about hamstring evulsion.
You look into what that means.
It sounds like Barbara, Oh, it's like they pulled off the bone, and it's like it's not really exciting. So you got Dak coming off this weird injury, CD, Micah Parsons who doesn't have a deal yet.
That's three of the other fifty guys. Tyler Smith.
I'll give them four crazy question marks everywhere, and that's assuming that I'm saying where I'm like, the offensive line will continue to develop and still it's just the ceiling on this team is really low.
That's why I actually don't think it'd be that crazy to get the mother load for Micah Parsons if.
You could do it. But that so Unjerry, Like, yeah, it really is.
But otherwise, as Bill Barmo pointed out on a last so you're paying like one hundred and twenty million dollars or whatever it's going to be to three players after you were weren't that good paying them half that or way less a couple of years ago.
Whereas it's very on Jerry.
But maybe they could impress about him because I look at this raster, I think there there is a route here where the offseason doesn't go well where they're like predicted to go coming forth like behind your giants in Matthew Stafford next offseason, you got any more hot Cowboys steak Before we take a break, I.
Just really want to reiterate that I mean what I said, and I'm not being hyperbolic. Jerry cares more about attention and winning in that and if until that changes, this team is it's not They're not worth talking about that much. It was.
It's one of those teams that the more I looked at, I was like, man, this is more funky. Like then I realized, what's the part of the team that you actually feel pretty good about? In terms of weapons, it's Lamb. The second weapon behind him is Jake Ferguson probably, and your second receiver right now is Jalen Tolbert. We mentioned like the lack of depth on the defensive line. You've got some good players in the secondary. Jordan Lewis, though,
is a good player for them. That's also a free agent. They sneaky had a lot of free agents in my top one hundred, Zach Martin, Dowdell, DeMarcus Lawrence, o'diggy's and Jordan Lawrence. We're gonna take a quick break, do some news on the other side, and wrap.
Up the NFC off season ProView zero.
And one of many reasons I wanted Danny Heifitz on this show is like he was gonna bring just a lot of energy, picked me up here on a Monday morning where I gotta I gotta be real.
With the listeners here.
We had to stop down at one point during that Giants preview because I couldn't speak, like I the super Bowl took more out of me than than I expected, Danny, Like I I had to go inside get some water.
Like recollect myself.
It was a lot even if even if you weren't Travis Kelce, like losing that Super Bowl, it seems like it took a lot out of a lot of people.
You know.
I don't know if you've seen Lord of the Rings, but yeah, I think that was like I can't carry the ring, mister Froud, I can't carry the show.
But I can carry you.
But no, I just you know, I just That's how Danny Kelly and I started doing the Fantasy Football show. At the beginning, was like I didn't know what I was talking about, but I had a lot of energy and I kind of they just threw me at Danny Kelly together, and like, I wonder if, on average, you know, they'll have like a normal net energy and that's kind of you know how it goes sometimes.
Well, and you both named Danny, which you guys mean, done a lot early, but.
A little too much.
Dantasy Football podcast turns out to be a terrible name for show because you Google it and Google thinks you're wrong.
It is really funny to think about.
I don't know if that was a bad name, but I do like, I do like the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, although right now it's draft season and they also are the Ringer Draft Show.
Yeah, we changed the name of the show during the season because there's five million podcasts. Literally, there's five million podcasts in the world, and we're the only one who changes her name during the year. So it's probably because everyone else is wrong, right, There's no way we could be wrong about that being a bit bad idea.
So I listened to the New Heights podcast. This is not a flex or trying to be a hipster. It was the first time I'd listened to it, and it was really good. The this would logically be compelling one to listen to Travis Kelce talking about losing, and what struck me first of all is that I'd be shocked if.
He's not retiring.
Just listening to that, here's the words, the weight of the season and what they've accomplished and what they're trying to accomplish. It can either motivate you or drive you crazy. And this season it kind of drove him crazy, and he was as down as he possibly could be about it. There was a report Danny from the Athletic that they needed an answer by Travis from Travis Kelce by March fourteenth,
and that, you know, that's when free agency started. And I looked at the cap hit and all this sort of thing, and I was thinking, it's going to be sad for the Chiefs. It's obviously sad for Travis Kelce. Every great career has to end, but actually could help the Chiefs out. They get seventeen million dollars in cap space. It's not they would keep Travis kelcey. I don't know if they try to renegotiate his contract, they somehow less
than that hit. But you don't I don't think you want Travis Kelce on the books for like nineteen million dollars in salary cap space, and I really think it's gonna end in a retirement and you felt for him, and what what you realize? I think this is true as a fan, but obviously it's true as a player. Brady talked about this too, is like, man, it hurts way worse to lose in the super Bowl, I think than it does in the divisional round in the NFC or the AFC or NFC championship game.
There's a reason losing super Bowls destroys teams. And you know, there's a reason the Super Bowl hangover of like losing the game. It destroys teams. It destroyed the forty nine ers. It hurt that Eagles team like the year before this year. And I think Deebo Samuel, I forget someone on the
forty nine ers team, just keep it said. It's like, yeah, everyone's just depressed the whole year, Like get your your entire life's aspirations are dangled in front of this collective group of two hundred people and it's ripped away from me.
Right is this in your hands?
And so yeah, it just it does things to you, especially when you have those law things of a three pet no one, you'll never get back to the three P and all these things you envision to yourself never gonna happen.
I think with Kelsey specifically, every player says this.
Like, if you make the decision in February, you want to retire, Like if you, like Tom Brady, said this, Like Tom Brady, the reason it came back was he's like, I made the decision in that two week aftermath of the season where it's like the weight of it crushes you.
I think if Kelsey decides and let's the chiefstow in February like he's gone, and if he waits right up to that deadline when it really like gets a little real and you're getting back into like your workout routine, that when you start to miss it, I think you might come back just because you don't want to know if you want to go out that way.
But I think he probably he probably should retire.
He should go out this way, like he has this wonderful It would have been better if he won, but you have this incredible off ram for your career. You don't want to go into the season where everyone is going to be talking about him as the weak link.
He doesn't have it anymore.
And it's like cool to go out and impress the doubters, but you don't want to have a season where you're like, actually the haters and doubters were right, shout out to the haters and doubters.
I just think he wasn't having as much.
Like from the sound of it, I don't know how fun this season was for the Chiefs.
The thing that really hit me was.
Him talking about the weight of like what they were trying to accomplish, because I think the way after you win one is really heavy that next year, and so only a few teams ever even know what that's like of the weight the year after that, and then to end how it ended, and he was really kicking himself being like how he was trying to do too much and he wishes, you know, he had known how to lead better in that scenario because he had been going through it before and that was getting crushed in a
Super Bowl. And I think the way they lost that Super Bowl made it even worse. Just you know, they use the words like humiliating and all that stuff is just it's just brutal.
And he was very eloquent.
I thought about how brutal game that it comes for everyone, you know, like it can just come for you so quickly. I'll transition to a little bit to some offseason news before we get back to the.
Previews. Some cuts.
We're already into the cap cut season, so like the Dolphins are cutting Raheem Moster, Kendall Fuller, some pretty good players free up like thirteen fourteen million dollars in cap space. The Steelers cut Preston Smith. That was fourteen million dollars in cap space. They're up to fifty. We're we're just at that time of year where there's going to be a lot of cuts in so leading. Yeah, there's eight teams right now over fifty million dollars in cap space.
There's way too much cap space. This is one of the things I always bang on about. And then another just item. I want to get your thoughts on the Texans hired offensive coordinator Nick Kayley. It's just something we hadn't hit on the show yet. And I don't know where you were in the great CJ. Stroud Wars of twenty twenty four and maybe what Kaylee means for them.
He was a guy who's been on this RAMS staff that everyone's wanted that he supposedly turned down multimillion dollars deal from the Patriots last offseason to become their offensive coordinator. He's been a really hot name that's been picking and choosing, and the Texans get him to really shepherd C. J.
Stroud in the next phase of his career.
So I'm I'm I'm a big believer that Bobby Slope was the problem for the Houston Texans. I think, frankly, they were really poorly coached, and I thought the play calling was really bad. And I don't mean it. I think Bobby Slowery, he's a really nice guy. I don't mean any like shade to Bobby Slowik. But the reality is they were not well coordinated on the Houston Texans last year.
They were uncoordinated as a team.
The offensive line didn't not to block, they had bad technique, they didn't understand their asignments. That's kind of the whole job. The play calling, the sequencing, frankly was horrific. They couldn't really run the ball the way they wanted to. Side of the Dallas game where they did a lot, I'm money in football, which actually think preserved, I think they'd actually have a worst reputation if not for rocking Dallas,
I'm money in a football sum at football forget. But if you look overall, I believe, and I could be wrong on this, but I believe nobody had more third and longs than the Texans last year except the Cleveland Browns, who were one of the worst offenses ever when the show and Watson was playing those six weeks, like the Browns and the Texans and the most third lungs, it's CJ.
Stroud.
The whole thing in the modern NFL is not to put your quarterback in that and the entire Texans offense to me was CJ. Stroud bailing them out a third and long and then if he could do that for a drive, they'd score, and if not, they couldn't. And so yeah, Bobby Slow could to go. I think that I've seen it with my own eyes.
CG. Stroud's good.
I don't want to hear anything else about It's funny that Bryce shung out performed in last year. But the reality is like when I watched the Texans and it's a warshot test.
I do not think man CJ. Stroud got worse.
I think what is going on all around this offense, you know what I mean, And so I am very bullish and I think that a lot of the Texans hype from twenty twenty four.
I am going to buy the dip on that for twenty twenty five.
Yeah, it kind of reminds me of when the Bills immediately got better with Brandon Bean and Sean McDermott took a little step back in year two, and then year three they actually were truly a better team, a little more stable ground underneath them. Obviously that's when Josh Allen improved, but I think CG. Stroud is got to improve. I think it's a great hire. And the way they talk already,
Demico Ryans is like very excited about him. And there was a report I believe it was from ESPN dot Com that you know, Ryan's went around and asked some of the players before he made this final decisions, like you know, about getting rid of Sloak, and like what did you think?
And there was not a.
Lot of like defending of Bobby Slowik from the players. There was one player who was like, yeah, we didn't know what the f was going on, Like, we honestly didn't know what the f we were doing on a play to play basis. The Jaguars also hired their offensive coordinator, a young man by the name of Grant Udinsky, who had a million interviews this offseason.
Is in his twenties.
Was under Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota, so that's an interesting hire. But Liam Cohen's an offensive coach, so it's interesting that's the job he ended up with. Liam Cohen is supposed to call plays. There just something to watch. Meanwhile, they're on their finalists for their GM, which is they're just doing everything backwards.
Wait, I couldn't believe that. Okay, you have been doing this longer than me. I was looking through headlines this morning and I saw that, and I was like, isn't the combine like next week? They don't have a gym? What's the latest you can remember gym? Because there are teams that fire the gym after the draft, like the Bills have done that a lot of things like oh, we want to get cagnan.
Did that right? Then they fire mccagnan after the draft.
Yeah, they let Mike mccagne give out one hundred million guaranteed, which had never been done before, and then they fired h much for the draft, But like, I get that because at least it makes sense.
Hey, they've done all this work on the draft, what is the and you do it?
You fire him this after the draft and May What is the latest you can remember a general manager being hired, because I don't remember a team going into the Combine without a general manager.
Yeah, I'm sure they'll get one by next week, but it essentially.
Key Bob and then either he's going to get a plane ticket to Indianapolis, is he's gonna go to Indianapolis, He's gonna go to Jacksonville.
First, Tony Basselli is essentially their GM, which is weird, like their radio announcer. I mean, they've changed their mind four times this sasseason. First they're they're they're keeping uh Tred Balkie. Then then they're not keeping Tred Balkie. But essentially Liam Cohen is running the team, which is you.
Know that's a risk. Let's go.
Let's go back to the the NFC East off season preview. I do want to get through all these teams. That's one of the reasons I wanted to do this show. I think it's good to give each team a juicy ten minutes here so put the commis on the clock. You asked me a big question here, Danny about the communiers.
My question for Washington is just can they retool this entire team on the fly again, Because if you look at this Washington team, they retooled the whole thing from the number two pick to the final four and one offseason.
That was cool. They got to do it again.
They they have more.
Than two dozen free agents, including a lot of the contributors. I could go through this list if you want to have the whole thing, But in the short do you, like, do you think that they can just retool the whole thing again and just be a contender just like that.
It's kind of the flip side of doing all these prove it one year deals with veterans who immediately raise the floor. It almost worked too well, and now you're having to make decisions on like do we bring these guys back or not. But I think they sort of had their cake and eat it too, because you had a great rookie class. You have not just jyde Daniels, but you have Sandra Still. You have some guys that you can build around uh for the future, and you
got to, you know, have immediate success. It's just the expectations are now going to be so high. But yes, like, what would you put highest on their needs? Because they do, unlike some of the teams we're talking about, have almost infinite amount of cap space to address these needs. Seventy five million right now, and you can probably create even more if you want.
Who cares about cap space? You just said it earlier. Cap space is it's not the NBA. It's over rated.
Because again I'm going to read some list to you, or I'm going to let you pick what you think is their biggest need. Bobby Wagner, who's going to be thirty five this year, led them in tackles and played almost one hundred percent of snaps. You kind of need Bobby Wagner back, So I think they'll do that in a linebacker's yeah, yeah, so he's a free agent.
I might actually might let Bobby Wagner go. Oh, like, it's not gonna get better. If you watch that NFC Championship game, the game plan was essentially, Bobby.
Wagner, We're gonna take advantage of you.
Well, And that's the point, though, is they have a lot of stuff like that. Dante Fowler led them in sacks and then he's a free agent.
Okay.
Washington has two receivers under contract next year, two Terry McLaurin and Luke McCaffrey.
They have one tight end under contract next year with the rookie Ben Sinnett. Washington. Eight players caught.
A touchdown for Washington last year eight six of the eight are free agents, so you have that is a huge problem. They really only need to stick with. I mean, four of their five offensive line positions could be upgraded. They don't have to, but like you have Sam Cosmy at guard. He towards ACL late in the season, so they're gonna have to do that. Brandon Coleman's Brandon Coleman still at a left eckle for you, Like, is that what you want long term?
With Jayden Daniels.
So again, Alamade's a Chaius was a nice find, but like, is that what you want?
Slot?
You do not have a number two receiver for real. Again, it's just McCaffrey McLaurin under contract. You don't really have a ton of edge rushers under contract. Cornerback is huge concerned. Sandrys still is the man at a Michigan I love him. But like after that, you cannot count on Marshawn Lattimore to play or contribute. They don't have a ton of quarterbacks.
And that's the thing with this Washington team. They made the championship for basically half because of Jayden Daniels and half because of this crazy team of like twenty two twenty four one year deals jelled.
Yes, and some of the rookies.
Coleman was a rookie, So as a third round rookie, I think you can expect that position's okay and that you had got to hope that he improves. You can't upgrade everywhere all at once. Plus you probably need another tackle, a right tackle, So the offensive line, like, I'm okay with Jade and Daniels, I'm okay with the backfield, You're right everywhere else you kind of need issues, all right, easy win category for me. The easiest thing to do is bring back some of the guys that helped you
that shouldn't have a huge market. So zach Ertz, you said, okay, the guys, like, no one's going to be bidding crazy for zach Ertz. What zach Ertz gonna cost. Just just bring zach Ertz back. Kick the camp a little bit there. Mariota was a was the best Mariota I've ever seen. Bring him back as your backup. I mean it was the best version of Mariota I've ever.
Seen, Like Randall Cunningham in that band.
I'm almost a little worried that some other team will give him a nice contract. Then then you're having a problem. Noah Igbinoghany actually at quarterback was like the next best Benogany I'd ever seen. And so there is a concern that some of these guys you mentioned Fowler, there's Diami Brown could get a nice free agent contract, Jeremy Chin who you kind of raise their value that other teams are going to come over the top, and that's gonna make it tricky.
And yet I don't know.
I have a lot of faith because they hit so many winners last year. I do think they are a team that will make a monster like splash type of move. So if that's Miles Garrett, I could see that. If that's Trey Hendrickson, I could see that. Charvarius Ward is a guy that was with Adam Peters in San Francisco. I was trying to think of, like, where are the connections there with nine ers. Maybe Debo as a second or third receiver that's not gonna cost much. Like that's
where cap space can help. Oh yeah, Debo, you want us to overpay you like a little bit. Sure, Like, let's bring in Debo for like a fourth round pick. You're not gonna have to give.
Up much for him.
I think this was the Deebo Samuel team for a couple of reasons. One, obviously, Adam Peters was in San Francisco in the front office. That always helps screase the wheels. And Two it just makes sense, like because my short pitch on Deebo he had pneumonia last year.
I understand he looked out of shape. It's because he was out of shape.
Like you know, if you ever had normmonia and you're a normal person, takes you a month to get your win back. You want to reach one hundred percent of nflfleticism, it takes a month. So I really think if you take out that six weeks after you had pnemonia, I'm still a believer in Debot.
He makes so much sense in this right offense.
But do you think they should get Miles Garrett, Like, do you think way should give up two first and change for Miles Garrett.
I don't think it's a bad yeah. I actually people get too caught up in like that. Are they trying to win now? Like just try to get Miles Garrett on your team. I don't know, two first is a lot, but now now that first is a late like a super late first this year, So you got to see what the market is. Maybe all these ed rushers, possibly Max Crosby Hendrickson being available drives it down. I do
think they're a team that can go big. Now they don't have the pick that they sent away for Marshall Lattimore. I think you got to count on Marshawn Lattimore. I put I disagree with you there. Like they they made that trade thinking that's a two year deal. You got to just hope he stays healthy. He was a little better at the end of the season. They also could trade Jonathan Allen. Bill Barnell mentioned that on our show.
That makes some sense to me because you have a couple of defensive tackles that opens up even more money.
But you're right wide.
Receiver, like tackle, edge pass catchers, these are all like major needs for the Commanders. So they are high on the list of teams I think that are going to be aggressive. We'll get to the Eagles next, but I think these are might be two of the more aggressive teams this offseason. Are actually the Eagles and the Commanders in this division?
What are the cheer answer is that the twenty twenty five Washington Commanders are last year's Texans, where everyone's like, oh my god, see just Stroud Darling, you come in and then there's a lot of questions. Now I don't I think you and Danie Frankly had a better rookie year than Droud.
But I think that you go.
From that last play schedule to the second place schedule and all these auxiliary pieces around him aren't as good, and then suddenly high expectations and again happiness just expectations minus reality. And I do kind of worry that Washington it won't be quite as smooth in twenty twenty five, and you.
Might get the year two Cliff Kingsbury effect. I think it'd be less about Jaden Daniels and more just about the Commanders. I think Commanders fans they got to understand that if they win ten games next year and they lose a tiebreaker and don't make the playoffs or they win nine games next year, they're like, that's fine, it's all like, that's that's part of the progress. All right, Let's let's wrap up with the Eagles. My big question, what is the how he did it again in trade?
Because they're gonna make one. This is sneaky, I'm answering. I'm not going to answer that question, but I'm going to give you context of why I'm asking it.
This is sneaky.
A team that is actually going to push your chips in the table type of offseason because they've signed so many of their best players long term already, aj Brown, Devanta, Jalen Hurts, Landon Dickerson, like so many of their best players are actually on huge contracts, and they're in this very short window before they're going to pay all the rest of their next best players already, which is like Jalen Carter and Cooper Dejene and Quinnyon Mitchell and Nolan Smith.
The one guy could come up with this year that they'd give an Eagles type deal in June, no one notices is Cam Jurgen's. But other than that, they don't really have that many guys to pay, and they have a lot of upcoming free agents, so they're going to feel like they need to replace what is the how he did it again type of move.
I think he's going to do something something big.
I mean, is Miles Garrett?
Right, Yeah, let's I know that sounds insane, but I do think what what the Eagles have been impressive at is knowing when to go bargain basement and something and knowing when to go all the way. And I think they don't. They don't get stuck in no means landed
positions a lot. And I know that sounds insane, but I kind of do wonder if the Eagles just kind of pull Trigg because you know, the idea of like it reminds me going from Miles Standards to Saquon also kind of reminds me of going from Milton Williams and Josh Sweat to just adding Miles Garrett into this team.
Yeah, so you mentioned Milton Williams. It's crazy. I have my preliminary one oh one top free agents ready to go. Josh Sweat Milton Williams are in my top seven. There's just not that many good free agents. Mackai Beckton is a free agent. Zach Bond is in my top my top ten too. Between those guys I talked about a little bit with bo Wolf last week, you also have Dallas Goddter, who they could potentially move on from, or
Darius Slay who they could potentially move on from. Like, they have to figure out who they would want to prioritize. My guess is Bond I'll be back. The guys who I think will get big money elsewhere are probably most likely Josh Sweat, Makai Beckton.
Would it shock me if they.
Like found a deal with Milton Williams where actually he gets paid a ton of money. No, because he's a really good young player and they love playing good young players. But the other thing they could do is just go big at a different position. Like it could even be like a tight end trade that you don't see coming, or like an interesting, I don't know, defensive line trade.
They could they actually could use an interior rusher, as crazy as that sounds, the way they think they would they would look for another interior rusher just add to the mix.
No, I agree, and I think that I know that me and say Miles Garrett probably sounds outlandish. The reality is they're going to look for more Zach Bonds. I think that you nailed it in that conversation you had with Bowl last week where I think they bring Zack Bond back.
I think that that's a guy that you can't replace this sarily.
I think the one hand, yeah, you do want to stack the interior rushers, but in terms of paying them McMillon Williams, I'm like, I kind of think that the same way. McKay Beckton probably the easiest right guard job in the league to get coached by just stat Lennaby. Part of that, I'm like, it's replaceable at right guard for Becton. You know, you got Jalen Carter and Jordan
Davis there. I'm like, that third spot is going to be a turn Like, that's a good place that you're going to be able to cycle guys in and out, you know, And so I think that those are spots that they want to keep investing there.
But I think Tyler Steen can fill in for Becton at right guard. I think that.
I mean, frankly, there's a lot of defensive tackles in this draft. I wouldn't be shocked if what they really do is if the Eagles move up in the draft, Like, don't forget they quitin and Mitchell. They moved up to get Cooper to Jen with Washington, which no one talks about. But there's a Chief's Bills dynamic where how do they you know, the Chiefs facilitated the home straight up with the Bills. I can't believe Washington could have had Cooper
to Jen and probably didn't have him for medicals. But I think that the Eagles moving up for a very popular defensive line prospect in this draft, you know what I mean. I think that's something that I could see happening.
Yeah, they have three fifth round picks, so they could use that to move up a little bit. They're a little tighter to the cap than they normally are, but they can make that work. They can move things around it. Like what they won't do is just like run it back. This is not a run it back type of offseason. We've talked a lot about them, but like they're easy wins. When I was thinking, like, well, what's the easy wins
for them? They can open up so much cap space because of those hurts and Antonio AJ Brown rather and DeVante Smith deal, so all you have to do is restructure. That's where the owners that actually want to spend to win make a difference. That's why your giants are selling ten percent of the team to get a little cash because they don't have as much cash as guys like Jeffrey Lorie. It's why Jeffrey Lorie already did this, and they're spending that cash. They're selling it to these investors.
It's this new NFL rule where you can open it up and then you suddenly get cash, and then you give Hurts and Brown a bunch of guaranteed money and then you spend it. So if you're looking at the two it sounds crazy to say, but probably the two thinnest position this roster is so good is probably it's probably the defensive line, Like it's the edge rusher.
It's just funny to say after watching the Super Bowl.
I know, but Brandon Graham might retire or as a free agent, like does he come back?
I don't know.
And then so their best at rushers right now are Nolan Smith and Jaylex Hunt. So that's a position I think they'll want to address, and it's a position that's pretty wide open. And then defensive tackle Jordan Davis is nice, but I think you're gonna want another maybe difference maker with him. So it's like I can totally see them going big on someone. Maybe they're a Jonathan Allen team, if the Commanders were bold enough to do something like that,
or a Trey Hendrickson team, they're gonna do something. They might do a couple somethings. Watch out how he's feeling himself.
I think that I know, I sound like I'm kidding about Miles Garrett, but I do think that them just adding another force Moold. I think that's the same concept as the saque thing, where like Trey Hendrickson, you could lead the league in sacks for the Bengals, but you don't make the playoffs, but you add him to this defensive line, he actually gets better, and Saquon with the offensive line. It's very similar. Just stacking Miles Garrett would better on the Eagles that he ever was on the Browns.
Probably maybe the counting stats wouldn't be as good, but like his impact would probably be better than it ever was. And so I kind of think Trey Hendrickson. Trey Hendrickson actually makes a lot of sense to me. If the Bengals are interested in moving in, but overall agree the goals. They're not going to run it back. And unfortunately they're better at this than everyone, which is crushing.
They're really set up to do well, and yet they're also it's tough to handle a super Bowl championship. They did an okay job of it last time that that team they ran back had a chance to make some noise in the playoffs when they came back didn't. Didn't happen for him, but they were a decent team. I think they might, I mean think they might struggle. Like Jalen Hurts feeling himself how he feel everyone's going to be feeling themselves.
I think I think it could be tough. I think you hear you.
But I also think this Eagles team is the Legion of Boom reincarnated. I think this defense is exactly like the Legion of Boom, the first one when everyone's about to get famous and everyone knows their names. I think Jalen Hurts is in a lot of ways the new Russell Wilson. Different style, but like very similar where the offense is his offense. He's a human cliche. Everyone looks up to them as kind of a weird dynamic, but as long as they're winning, it's fine. And I think
that they have a lot in common. All they're missing is is the nickname for this defense. And there's no ceiling on this team for the next season.
Oh, I'm excited. We're gonna have Colleen Wolf on our show on Tuesday. We're gonna be back in the studio. We're gonna get her thoughts on the charm life. We've been having a lot of Eagles here, so I'm glad we're getting the NBC East out of the way. If we didn't hit your team today, we're hitting them all eventually. But we do got to hear from Colleen what it was like. She just went to the parade as a fan.
I don't even think she worked for NFL network. I saw her flying there and I was like, Oh, she must be working. I don't even think they put her on air. She was just out there getting drunk like everyone else. The Eagles charm Life. I'm looking forward to it. Danny Hipetz, always a pleasure. We will We'll see you in Indianapolis. Let's let's let's get a beer, Let's do something.
We'll do it.
We're gonna save the sinner talk for Indie will go live and just give Center Center.
What do you?
What do you?
Yes, they they suspended the number one tennis player in the world for doping violations, but it just happened to coexist in like the three months of the calendar that doesn't include a Grand Slam.
It's a little little Does it bother you or do you not care?
It doesn't really bother me.
I mean his excuse that he was getting massaged and it was like on the hands of the massagers. I just hate when the worst people in the world and then the sport are the ones that are the maddest about it, which is like Nick Kurios and Djokevich. So that immediately makes me think, like I don't want I don't want Yanix Center gone for for a year or two, so I'm.
Fine with it. I don't know what, I don't know what to think. What do you what do you think?
Uh? Wellios, I kind of think he's the next Macenroe. His commentary is really good.
O kind of he is good, but he does enough that annoys me that now I'm kind of sick of him. But yes, I won't get to see him when I go to Indian Wells in a couple of weeks, so I'll Missonick Center there all right, play the music, Eric, Let's get out of here. Uh more to say, I can barely speak. Hifitz is the man like I, like I said, check out the Rigger Fantasy Football Show with him, Danny Kelly, Craig.
Robooks great impressions.
I will be back, like I mentioned in the studio with Jordan Rodriguez, the Athletic and Colleen Wolf. And yes, when when we're gassing up the Eagles again, you know it's Greg season.
See you next time.