The biggest NFL stories of 2024: Dak’s contract, Caleb Williams criticism & more! | This is Football

The biggest NFL stories of 2024: Dak’s contract, Caleb Williams criticism & more! | This is Football

Kevin Clark is joined by CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones to preview what will become the biggest NFL stories of 2024. They discuss how Bill Belichick and the Patriots will part ways, why Caleb Williams is about to undergo an unfair amount of criticism and how Dak Prescott could revolutionize NFL contracts.

0:00 Jonathan Jones joins This Is Football!
1:18 Biggest stories of 2024: Bill Belichick’s future
6:20 Biggest stories of 2024: Head coaching philosophies
9:45 Biggest stories of 2024: Market for backup QBs
14:13 Biggest stories of 2024: The inevitable criticism of Caleb Williams
20:04 Biggest stories of 2024: Dak Prescott’s contract
25:36 Why Steve Smith was the biggest bada** Jonathan Jones ever covered

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All right Jonathan Jones lead NFL reporter one of my favorite people on Sunday mornings to watch he’s on are you on from like 10:00 a.m. to to 12:59 JJ at this point on CBS on one of our great Networks uh thank you yeah I’m on CBS Sports

Network from 9 to 11: a.m. eastern and then uh on the NFL today starting at noon Eastern look at that you’re everywhere do you know Adam shine who hosts one of those shows uh is my neighbor are you aware of this I did not know that did you know that his daughter

Babysits my 11-month-old child on Sundays wow that’s incredible love Adam shine what a guy that’s my guy come on I just told you his daughter it’s my guy let’s not have a my guy off because I just told you my connection so I don’t know maybe maybe he’s more of my guy

Than you I don’t know let’s not have that that contest right now um so we’re going to do the biggest stories of 2024 coming up you’re so good at figuring out what’s going to happen what is happening um I’m going to start here I’ll start with mine because I think that that

You’ve written a bunch about this I think bill bich is going to be a bigger force in the coaching Market than maybe people anticipate because it was funny because a couple weeks ago I put out on Twitter I was like how many people would it even offer Bill bich a job knowing what

You know now knowing that he’s taken that roster into a place that I don’t think a lot of people are too thrilled with and going elsewhere um you’re gonna have to give them a lot of money a lot of power and I heard from a bunch of

People in the league saying dude do not underestimate owners desire for a name brand because and I said this on the show before but like Josh Harris he doesn’t want to make some huge mistake off the bat and hire the Matt rule of of Washington um David terer he’s getting heat constantly

Because you know he keeps Hing the wrong guy keeps paying out all this money the way to end that is to hire Bill bich Outsource all your decisions to him and if it doesn’t work you say what do you want from me I hired the greatest coach

Of all time it feels like there’s going to be a market here I don’t think Los Angeles gets in there just because of the the power and the money thing neither of which I don’t think Spanish wants to the Spanish wants to give up you wrote about this a couple weeks ago

You think that develops how in the coaching Market JJ so you I hear that about Los Angeles and about you know that they’re going to pay less than other places and that’s probably true and then I think about Bill bich and it’s like man you know it’s been three

Four years since you had a quarterback and it’s been more than a decade since you had a guy in his prime like Justin Herbert like is it really about seven extra million dollars a year to you especially if you’re getting paid upwards of $2 million per year right now

Like is it I don’t I don’t know and of of course he’s not going to give us any indication about that but that’s just one thing that I’ve sort of bulked at a little bit is that like there’s this idea out there that’s sort of been perpetuated that bill bich is only going

To go where they’re going to pay him bill bellich money and I don’t know that that’s going to be the case when he may be out there trying to really prove something uh at 72 years old needing two or three seasons left to catch Don schula like are you going to haggle over

Money or are you going to try to find the best possible situation for yourself so um that’s just been my one hesitation when we talk about the Chargers and bellich but anywhere else like yeah I mean your your thoughtfulness your logic I understand I follow I mean look if

Chicago comes open yeah um right I mean you have a president in Kevin Warren who really wants a lot of brand Integrity wants to put CH like here you go here’s your guy right so I could see him in a lot of places and I could also see him

Very similar to like even Brady in 2020 where like he should have gone to seven or eight different places and ultimately who wanted him yeah yeah I completely the the Brady analogy is great because I think we all I mean literally he came out and said you’re going with that mfer

Or whatever it was do we believe now to be Ryan tanah Hill although Ryan Fitzpatrick thinks that he I don’t knowed mystery it’s shrouded in mystery um all right your number one story do you have a coaching Carousel thought here um just in on one of your stories

To look at for 2024 yeah no you know it it’s sort of Patriots but it’s also I mean it’s sort of bellich but it’s the new chapter for the Patriots I think I’m fascinated in how the breakup is going to go down right is it going to be a

Resignation a retirement a trade a firing a mutual parting of ways and I think it’s going to be the latter and I think that because I think we’re going to see a staredown between belich and craft where wherever belich goes he’s not going to want to give up a draft

Pick that he could use for his team um and you know sort of a Don Draper that’s what the money’s for hey we gave you this contract extension there’s your freedom you know there that’s your thank you for the six banners so then it’s will the Patriots and will the crafts

Finally hire a general manager right because they never really have they they had uh Bobby Greer that was already there when they took over the team bich brought over peoli so whether there was someone as a GM in name or whether they hired someone they never have actually

Done that and so if they will do that and what the structure is going to be after 30 years of doing it one way uh that is what I am fascinated by you wrote a couple weeks ago about how this might be the transition to defensive

Minded head coaches I want to get to that in a second but do you think the reaction is going to be and I know it’s the greatest coach of all time and J Mayo has been linked there for there’s been rumors that you know he turned down Carolina because maybe there was some

Sort of deal I don’t know but is the you always hire the opposite of the guy you just fired is there going to be a reaction towards like offensive coach fix the quarterback position or do you think that they’re just going to go with with the best guy yeah whether it’s New

England or going outside of that and truly if anybody tells you right now that they know which way New England’s going like beware that person right um but as far as like expanding out and generally speaking I think I think we’re going to see a shift to defensive

Coaches yeah almost out of necessity yep right I mean we’ve just gone through that churn of offensive coordinators over the last couple years where the average offensive coordinator has been there for 1.2 Seasons or something like that heading into this year um and so they’re just if there are seven or eight

Openings and you say Okay Ben Johnson’s getting a job and Bill bich will get a job now we’re at five or six and who what is the material difference right now between or among a a Frank Smith a Bobby slowick um you can continue on down the path of current really good

Offensive coordinators But ultimately unproven offensive coordinators at least when it comes to their head coaching chops and prow so um if if I were hiring right now I also don’t like Risk so I would go for a more sure thing and it would be a Dan Quinn it would be a Steve

Wils perhaps a Raheem Morris before it would be someone as great a human as they may be who’s only called offensive plays for 15 games I think it’s shortterm versus long term if you if you’re problem is you need to fix the quarterback position right now which by

The way I don’t think the Patriots have that problem I think M Jones is not the answer um but if they take if they get a top two pick and they get kale kale Williams and Drake may maybe that changes the equation but a young hot offensive coordinator is going to want

To come there I think you hire the vision not the person sorry not the position uh that they come from if it’s someone like I think the the worst possible process with Brandon Staley but like the idea was was right which is get the kind of the the Visionary analytics

Type of coach for that program get him in there problem was Brandon staylor was bad at that Brandon St was bad at executing that so I completely agree and also as you just said like it becomes diminishing returns what are you gonna hire the tight ends coach from the from

A Shanahan McVey tree because all the quarterback coaches already got hired over the past two years I completely agree it’s going to shift and it should shift um this year all right um I want to talk about quarterbacks here real quick because I think this is GNA be

There’s a couple things I wantan I want to talk about and I’ll throw it to you first thing is the Tua effect which I think you’re going to see a couple of places where 2021 type of draft picks or 2022 where teams say let’s give this guy

Another chance in a new offense with a new coach let’s believe in him let’s try to get weapons around him let’s scheme this up I think that’s possible in some of these places could be owners and GMS coping and trying to talk themselves into it but it could also be just this

Is this is the this is the path where we believe in this guy I think Chicago is a really interesting place to watch there or a team kind of reacting to it like Atlanta saying hey Justin field is available let’s go get him I think you’re going to see a little bit of

Quarterback movement I think Kirk Cousins I saw a PFF uh projection he’ll get two years 60 million somewhere I don’t know where that is the funny thing is is that if you just took the names off Minnesota will be a match made in heaven um so may maybe that just just

Links back up there um but I think that the the biggest thing for me is the top of the draft right now in Chicago is there a desperate team that you’re going to be able to to buil out of three or or four first round

Picks is that going to happen or do you do you just take it and then trade Justin Fields I don’t know I will leave it to you the most fascinating quarterback thing you’re watching in 2024 is what jump oh boy uh that was really good I would say mine is the

Market for backup quarterbacks oh so mine is how okay let’s let’s go back to last March and jacobe Bret right he signs one year $8 million with the opportunity to start but he also knew going in that Sam how was the qb1 with an asterisk right um Gardner mshu goes

To Indianapolis with a strong belief that Anthony Richardson or someone like him is going to be drafted and he’ll have to compete with a rookie so he signed a Oney year what was it three and a half four million do contract I don’t have to tell you about all the

Quarterback injuries that we’ve had I feel like we we had sort of the Brock py effect last year in the draft where we had a bunch of teams probably draft quarterbacks fifth six seventh rounds that maybe they wouldn’t have previously but they were trying to hit on that pery

And now I think after this rash of injuries at the quarterback position the jacobe brassett of the world I mean he will absolutely make 12 13 14 million and he would be very wise to sign a one-year deal and all of those guys would be very wise to sign one-year

Deals so the market is going to go up so much everyone Ryan tanah Hill is not going to be with the Tennessee Titans next year but typically a Ryan tanah Hill would be on a one-year and some sort of Veteran contract right well he’s going to pull 10ish million dollars

Simply because he can play the quarterback position competently I I that is as good a point as it’s been over the past couple of weeks because I think that that’s like Chris long was on the show the other day and he was just talking about how like look at what the

Bengals did the Bengals did not give up on their season Jake Browning by the way is good like I don’t think he’s not he’s not a super like Joe burrow but I was watching the the QB School breakdown and I’m I’m looking for scheme stuff because

I think the best coaching job in history in In My Time cover in League was uh Doug Peterson making Nick FS new Super Bowl winning quarterback on basically two weeks notice right and the way they were able to scheme up the rpos and the dagger routes and they were able to have

This mini mini mini uh mini training camp in The Bu and I’ve always thought about that as like okay that’s what you with the backup quarterback Jake Browning is just making throws and so I’m watching this video trying to look like all right what Brian Callahan and

Zack Taylor cooking up what are the routes whatever and it’s like it’s not the offense isn’t changing that much it’s just that Jake Jake Brown and can make these outside the numbers throws obviously that tiin throw was as impress and the catch obviously was as impressive as anything I’ve seen like

There’s I don’t think they’re going to win a playoff game but I think that they’re they’re a team that would would not be a a gimme um in January and so I think that that’s teams that don’t give up on their season when they have a back of quarterback and there’s three in

Playoff position right now I think that’s the most admirable thing you could possibly Joe Flo is throwing it all over the yard bro it’s incredible and it it really it truly I know that everybody can bang on the Jets but it really puts into Focus how poorly the

How much the Jets screwed it up right I mean that blacko is able to do this and look it also speaks very well of Kevin stefansky who is very deserving and will be getting a contract extension this offseason it speaks very well of the Personnel Department in Cleveland when a

Quarter of their team in terms of salary cap space is on injured reserve and here they are and what we all said was the most competitive division in football in a playoff spot um but Joe flacko being able to thrive the way that he is while

The Jets acted as though there was no one else from week two on that could possibly save them they were in the the market for a Brett rippen when Joe was there right the the whole question really was is Carson Wentz better than Zack Wilson not what you think about

Carson Wentz but is Carson Wentz a better quarterback than Zack Wilson and the answer was obviously yes um and so I know we’re talking about 24 but that look Wentz he’s going to make more money than whatever the Rams are paying him right now because of this exact

Situation tickets to the game merch meals at iconic restaurants stays at Caesar’s Palace all this can be yours when you bet with Caesar Sportsbook win or lose every bet earns reward credits which you can redeem across the Empire now if you have haven’t started yet use

The code Omaha full and then place your first bet up to $1,250 if you win great you keep those winnings but if you lose you get your stake back as a bonus bet what is the next 2024 genre of story you’re watching you know what I’m gonna go specific oh yeah not even

Genre there is about to be and I I have no joy in saying this there is about to be a full-on character assassination of Caleb Williams and oh yeah it is about to take place because he is so obviously and clearly the top pick in the draft and

The draft coverage has grown so much the the time between when the season ends and when the draft begins it seems like it’s gotten longer we have to stretch and so be in the absence of actual discussion over is he the best quarterback will he be number one we’re going to get

Into ridiculous conversations about him crying with his parents or how he paints his nails or when he talks to the media after games and I can’t even imagine Kevin what folks will come up with come March because that’s just what I’m coming up with right now December yep

Yeah I I completely agree and the one thing that I don’t love about draft season there’s a couple of them but one of them is that there are how many Scouts are there so like college Scouts like like eight per team actual Scouts yeah sure yeah let’s let’s call it an

Average of 10 and let’s have a nice round number you know 300ish 300 yeah yeah and they all have widely different opinions and you and I have talked to them and they’ve just said things you’re just like that is not true like that’s not an evaluation thing what you just

Said is literally just not true they’ll just be like well like like you’ll talk to them be like Hey Joe Flaco is playing great for the Seahawks it’s like like wait what what you what’s going on are you on pills AB so and and so what

Happens in draft season is and I do believe I don’t think people make this stuff up but it’s like hey this scout told me that they have a sixth round grade on Caleb blams whatever right and it just becomes a buzzy story and you put it out there I don’t people are

Making it up I think it’s there’s 300 people and some of them have wild opinions just like if you have 300 media members and one of them is like hey man I would trade Patrick Mahomes right now for for rag now because because the center we need to fix the center

Position right like people have wild opinions and so and then one little konel thing becomes Scout say and then the Scout say thing and then people start arguing against the scouts say thing and then we end up with a discussion about a discussion about a discussion that is is based on nothing

The konel is basically one person’s opinion and because we have so much time and so little content even though the tape is there but we don’t want to look at the tape we don’t want to look at the tape because we can’t understand it and it was funny because my criticism of

Williams criticism I was like I need to see him get rid of the ball quicker just because that’s just what happened to the NFL level same with Drake May and so I’m looking I was looking before the season and it was 3.5 seconds took to throw and

I’m like oh here this is my head I’m just like all right here we go I’m gonna I’m gonna bury him Patrick Mahomes last season in college 3.5 seconds to throw so you can’t ju oh the criticism in my brain was going to be oh he hasn’t played NFL football yet literally that’s

What I was boiling it down to so who’s the idiot now it’s me well and and you made it such a great point about like the colonel of of bad take turns into this like we just lived it with Cam Newton and the whole game manager Game

Changer right like yeah of course cam can have an opinion and just because you play doesn’t mean that your opinion is any good like it was I would say objectively as far as opinions can be objective it was a bad opinion and I think that we all understand that and it

Was a flawed argument from the jump but then we spent five days discussing what was always just a a poor a poor infrastructure of a thought and so that’s what we’re going to get with a Caleb Williams especially when you include his quotes his dad’s quotes to

GQ um about wanting a piece of of a franchise and all that stuff it’s going to be really ugly because we not you and I but the media are going to get so bored with how he is so clearly going to be the first player taken in the draft I

I read those franchise quotes and the report differently I don’t know if it was a I know the report was out there I read it as them trying to have a little bit of control over a process in which the first overall pick never has any control but since Eli Manning basically

No one is forced their way out of of an organization now you could always come back if you wanted to Andrew Luck obviously did that that’s why Cam newon went first overall the year he did um Payton Manning did that with the Jets you can come back if you want to but the

Other option is make the M anchor to a situation where you’re just like hey I’m I might have demands that you might not want and what you’re doing there in my opinion is like they know they’re not going to get five in an NFL franchise but what you

Can do is say hey like you don’t automatically get Caleb Williams just because you’re have the first overall pick that’s how I I I I read that and listen like geography is Destiny in football if Caleb Williams goes to the wrong place his career is ruined and

He’s not going to make like the difference between I mean look at obviously Daniel Jones is is is not what what anybody wants to comp him but like Daniel Jones got a good coach and a couple of breaks and he made $160 million from it and the difference

Between $30 million which is what you get as a top 10 pick and $160 million is a whole lot it’s a difference between I don’t have to worry about money for the rest of my life and my great great great great grandkids don’t have to worry

About money for the rest of their lives and so but you don’t there’s no guarantee that kale William is going to get $200 million $300 million if he goes to the wrong place so I think that that that to me was was something that that

That I was I was watching a little bit um and I I’m glad you brought that up speaking of and I want to ask you about this because you just you just uh uh wrote about it recently the Dak contract yeah where does that fall I mean is that

Are we getting in situation it was funny because you felt like this happened in 2014 15 16 where it was just like all right the most recent guy is the highest paid guy now we saw the bur the Herbert deals are we just getting to a spot

Where we’re just we know what the market is and it’s just going to be $5 million in the Herbert contract you know I I don’t know if that’s going to be dax’s deal because that wasn’t dax’s deal when he got paid the last right it was that

It was the four-year deal when everyone was going five now players are going six um and I don’t know and also it was so heavily fully guaranteed right and so now it’s all about what agent wants to get what win right so what is Dak Prescott’s agent what is he going to

Consider a win because that Dak Prescott was a huge huge win even though the graphic that we’re going to show are going to say that Dak is third in aav like what what always got me Kevin was was it last year so deshun Watson secures right this insane fully

Guaranteed contract but then Kyler Murray gets that same number and they add half a million dollars to it and so forever and ever Kyler Murray is above deshun Watson in terms of average annual salary when you and I both would take deshun Watson’s contract seven times over Kyler Murray’s contract and so um

So I don’t know that Dak and dak’s agent are going to want to just say oh we’re at 55.1 over Joe burrow where I don’t know that they’re gonna want to lock into a six or seven-year deal like Jerry Jones may want to actually get them to that number but another fully guaranteed

Contract one that gets Dak back to free agency after three or four years if that could even be done because right now Dak has an incredible amount of Leverage by virtue tag Clause so you can’t go into next season without having extended him or else you risk more than any other

Time ever losing him the Bonanza if he reached true free agency would change football yeah it would change it could maybe change the contracts the way that you know you could go through the NBA in all the years right but you know Larry Bert all these it could ABS you’re absolutely

Right Kevin like that’s that no player like that has ever reached for agency we saw when C cousins reach for agency two things are true number one is no genuine Superstar quarterback he’s ever reached two free agency true free agency um Lamar came the closest but obviously the

Ravens had had the right to match there the second thing is and I still believe this no team has ever gotten rid of a quarterback they wanted to keep I I just I’ve said that and I said that after Russell Wilson and everybody got mad at me and the Broncos fans got

Mad at me I don’t think it’s ever happened and I Garoppolo when when when the Patriots had to trade him well I mean I know it’s not to they had they did have the best quarterback of all time as a starter so it’s they were okay and they still won Super Bowls after

That so they’re fine um but no I I think that the Dak contract I think it’s fascinating to watch because the no tag thing like you know Drew Brees obviously that in his last years and there’s Drew Brees is the richest person in the Southern United States at this point

Because of it um and it that wasn’t necessarily because of his uh his contract it was because he’d been Tagged so often and so many from places that basically he he could he could have gotten there um but I I completely agree uh the Jones family

Acted uh a little flat footed last time in those negotiations and dragged it out longer than it should have do we expect this to get done in a timely manner or is the Jones family being weird you know I I don’t know when I reported what I

Did around Thanksgiving um there was no there was nothing new uh in terms of negotiations and talks um I don’t anticipate because it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense from a leverage perspective that Dak and his representation would engage right now if they were to be engaged but I also don’t

Think the Cowboys have done so either but if Dak in these last few games can get back to that mvp level because I think he’s obviously dropped just a little bit um if he wins the MVP and becomes the first Cowboys quarterback to ever win the MVP which is really crazy

Right it was it’s similar to a couple years ago when Alabama never had a Heisman winning quarterback like if that happens the the face of NFL contracts like you say has changed forever uh before I get to badasses I want to ask you went to North Carolina I went to Miami are you

Excited to see our teams playing the championship game two years from now in the Mountain West Conference it is uh it is incredibly sad I wish that the ACC would have had a little bit more foresight a couple years ago and here we are today well the only

My my thing everyone’s like with the AC is goingon to dissolve the problem is not the problem there’s gonna be a bunch of teams in the AC that have nowhere to go so they’ll just reform and then they’ll just like they’re not all going

To go to the big 12 they not gonna be a 30 team Big 12 it’ll be like so let’s say Syracuse or Syracuse you can say like Clemson Forida State let’s say they have power two whatever Miami I think would be on the cusp of that but it’s

Possible that given where the program is that they get shut out so then it makes all the sense in the world for like Virginia Syracuse Duke and then I don’t know where North Carolina would go if they would leave Duke wake for all that stuff just regroup just regroup anyway

That’s a different podcast that’s a different podcast um and don’t have the that commissioner in charge of it anyway uh we’re gonna do badasses um you’ve covered this league for a decade decade plus yeah sure decade plus decade plus um most badass person you’ve ever been

Around in football I want to do I want to do uh it covered and then I want to do at CBS so let’s start with with covered the most badass person you covered Jonathan Jones well I mean it’s a it’s when when when you know my background that I covered the Carolina

Panthers 2012 to 2016 it’s it’s obviously Steve Smith um who uh he well he and I had a had a good back and forth a very good rapport uh it was healthy it was great for a young beat writer really kind of helped me grow

Some hair on my chest early on so uh Steve Smith without question what’s your favorite Steve Smith story about the the back and forth between you guys uh all right so I think it’s 2013 or 14 one of the two and the Panthers are out in Arizona and it’s early in the season

They get absolutely whipped by the Cardinals like not even close and Steve goes off on the officials after the game and it’s one of those goes off so much that you know he’s gonna get fined so we get back to Charlotte and on Monday I go

Up to Steve hey you heard from the league no I go up to Steve on Wednesday hey heard from the league he’s like jonath come on and then it was I think it was on Thursday and he go goes hey Jonathan come here he waves me over and

There’s this FedEx package you know like an envelope and he shows it to me and it appears that it is from the NFL 345 Park Avenue and he starts to open it up and here I am a younger beat reporter I’m thinking to myself man Steve’s about to

Open his fine letter from the NFL and I’m the only one who can see it I’m gonna tape this and we’re gonna blog it and I say you know what Jonathan be cool man just just have this moment don’t pull out the phone so I don’t and he

Reaches inside the envelope and he pulls out a piece of paper on Panther’s letterhead that says you are a dumbass Steve Smith had mailed him a letter to trick me because I constantly asked about him getting fined did it at least let you keep the

Piece of paper I I wish I still had that piece of paper oh my God yeah so so he did that and U oh my God yeah I love that okay all right we’ll get you out of this on the biggest badass you know Mina picked lur rage a couple weeks ago and

So now that when people are on TV we like to do badass that they they work with now uh biggest badass you work with at CBS okay it’d be easy for me to say Bill Cower right it would be really easy for me to talk about Nate burles who does it

All or James Brown The Hall of Famer but someone behind the scenes uh my producer at that other pregame show on CBS Sports Network Deb Gelman she’s been in television for a very long time uh has always been behind the scenes but like she produces a live 4our inl pregame

Show every single week that um takes a whole lot to do um again live four hours so like um I know that it’s not nearly as good as my Steve Smith answer um but I feel like uh you know Bill Cower is he he’s that dude and that one’s an easy

One but but Deb Gelman I owe so much to her and uh and the folks there certainly who are not in front of the camera do awesome man Jonathan Jones we’ll talk to you soon brother appreciate you Man