talking nfl
Welcome to the acclaimed podcast the Deep dive featuring your esteemed hosts Andy Monitor and Drew denzik powered by bet Spurs Welcome to the deep dive Andy we are not professional football front office men we are not uh we’re not vists we had to do that for a long time happy fourth
Anniversary to that whole weird week I still I haven’t had a chance to do it yet this year but I still once in a while will go back and listen to podcasts from that week where people are just like uh you forget how like in the
In the weeds we were as far as like [ __ ] I mean they’re going to play baseball right they’re not going to cancel baseball baseball’s outside basketball’s inside we’re gonna be fine two weeks later we’re betting on marble racing and freaking Ukrainian pingpong guys so really let’s just uh let’s be we’re
Blessed to be healthyish yeah healthy health wealth and all that jazz but yeah it is it’s been a it’s been a week man yeah was that the kept prisoner of the moment maybe but was that like the wildest day one I feel like it kind of was there was
A lot I mean we didn’t have like big quarterbacks to move around outside of Kirk I felt like there was a lot of big deals a lot of big running back deals sure a lot of Def a lot of good defensive players and obviously we’re still not done some teams have some cap
Issues to sort out yeah no last year felt like everybody was just sort of kind of wait you know kind of fiddle [ __ ] around this year everybody was right to business I will say though that um if I had it there’s a kind of a theme to everything
That’s happened so far and it’s it’s like Sound and Fury signifying nothing is that the official is that the is that the true quote um so far there’s been a lot of a lot of you know Bluster and tweet alerts and notifications and oh this guy’s this year we got the numbers
For this guy we know here I don’t really think anything that’s happened in the last 48 hours moves the needle really for me at all in terms of like Championship Equity like the the news I was following the closest was Chris Jones getting a deal done with the yeah
Chiefs he does so well Chiefs are your favorites again yeah and honestly like if you’re I I don’t I you know like like spoiler alert if you’re a fan of a team and you’re excited about what they did uh during free agency like we’re going to
Piss in your Kool-Aid I’m I’m going ruin I’m gonna ruin your day hey guess what the Falcon the hkin are winning six games unless you cheer unless you cheer for unless you cheer for the Chiefs your chances of winning a Super Bowl are not
As good as you think I was gonna say who else is like even excited about obviously the Falcons fans are the most excited suddenly they’re you know this is all going to work out um I don’t know who else was really excited I think the Eagles obviously
Those fans are excited about every move because it doesn’t matter if it makes sense on paper or not they just be like yep trus in Hoy Howe look how how does it again did it again like buddy it’s an offall linebacker I think actually they they need linebackers it’s funny it’s
The one thing they should go get um no the the funny part about this is there’s a lot of hopium this time year we’re not even to the draft I mean the Bears you’re seeing a lot of belly aching from Bears fans like hey guys you have two
Top 10 picks calm calm down a little like you’re about to maybe get a generational quarterback and probably like you have a good chance like what the second best receiver or a good Defender a really like you could do a lot of things you could trade back get
More picks there’s a lot of I think we’ll have some fun trades in the top 10 there are so many teams so let’s set this up let’s give let’s give this this podcast a little bit of structure okay um let’s go back and forth uh and pick
Out pick pick out a move uh once it’s been picked you can’t pick it okay I I did have I have one thing doesn’t have to be like one signing right oh yeah good yeah good I just it was something because something you said as far as
Just like Hey we’re not GMS hey a lot of these don’t move the needle sure hey some of these don’t make sense and I’ve I’ve been hard on this G in the past because she has been too quick to tweet things out and they were wrong I will give her credit Diana Rini
Has not had a one of those since that weird Saints tweet where she got like two things wrong in the same time she’s been great she’s been very solid through um you know combine through free agency she’s been on top of [ __ ] I like her
Again um and her her Twitter header is a chutery tray oh she know she knows where it’s at but she had a tweet this morning I had to go find it just now yeah um said you’d be shocked to really know how often teams are worried about how often
Teams worry about winning the trade rather than just doing what’s best for their team those are my two takeaways after two days of this chaos it does feel like that it feels an awful lot like that where teams are making trades just because like oh this team is
Offering us too much for this and we think this is a good trade and then the end it’s like was that a net positive for your team long term are you actually looking at the future are you just moving chess boards around or pieces around you know trade machine says this
Was a good deal but well well now what do you have yeah now how does that fit with your Arc how does it fit with your time uh a lot of my commentary is going to fall into that box today um because like is you again like we’re not we’re
Not we don’t work in front offices I don’t aspire to work in a front office I’m not going to do the homework understanda I’m not interested in living uh you know year to year uh with un the uncertainty that’s swirling around that um but I will tell you this many of the
Front offices are full of people who are making terrible terrible decisions this is I don’t I don’t think it is armchair uh you don’t understand like we’re not making any friends in the NFL today on this putt like we’re Burning Bridges buddy like there’s no no no doubt about
That um but like I I just I don’t there’s so many of these moves that just lack Vision that just don’t really they like like and I guess here’s here’s what I will it’s like the Jonah Hill um Brad Pit conversation in the parking garage
Ex it’s not like it’s not like we’re the we’re not Jonah Hill here like I think a good portion of people who follow the NFL are Jonah Hill and and to be fair to these people in the front offices and we’ve been harped we’ve harped on this
For many years when we see moves when we see you know uh firings hirings draft picks free agent acquisitions trades you can tell like sometimes it’s not about winning the game it’s not about winning a game next year it’s not about winning a championship two years from now it’s
Job it’s about keeping your job like there there’s like two you’re playing two board games at once you got risk over here and you got Monopoly over here and you’re playing them both because you have to play the game to try to do the right thing win games uh be a profitable
Franchise all that but then you’re playing this other separate game the whole time where you’re just like I would like to have this job for at least two more years because it pays so well yeah you’re spinning spinning plates and the biggest one you’re spinning is the
Employment plat for next season you are red panda all the time yeah um okay so I will also say this like I yeah it will be fun to look back on some of this in a couple years and see where we were right wrong otherwise because a couple years
Ago I think one of the teams we were the most critical of was the Packers like what are you doing like the Jordan love Draft when you had Aaron roders and the kind of the the rattling his cage and then taking AJ Dylan early and like how
You were going about you know trading you know letting Devonte Adams walk like like or trade did they trade I don’t even remember if they got compensation for him but whatever the case was like the way that they were team building at the time was like what are they [ __ ]
Doing like these guys are really driving this thing off the cliff but now you look at what they’ve done and it’s like whoa you put an entire offense on the same page on the same timeline with like relatively cheap assets and you know you have strong you’re strong in the
Trenches you have assets to continue to build like you know they they they they clearly was Vision there with what what they were doing and I think there’s you know that’s that’s a positive like but I also will say that that’s like one of 32 like the other good successful front
Offices they just got [ __ ] lucky right like third quarterback picked I think the Packers got lucky as well sure but but I’m will I’m willing to agree and who knows this is funny we’re going to give them credit for this and who knows if this was actually ever articulated when they started putting
This you know this long-term plan together but there is something to be said for getting I think you really said it well getting a bunch of the the right players on the same timeline because honestly like if all these wide receivers sucked and love was just never going to get it yeah you’re
Gonna be really bad yeah and you’re gonna Pi then and then you’re picking high like there is something to be to be building a team I’d love to talk to eager about this think he’d be very much in the same page like you should build a team yeah like you’re like you’re
Betting you know a long a long shot where it’s like I’m gonna be down no actually that’s not right because you’re just down there the original moment you want to be down big or you want to be up big you don’t want to build a team yeah
That finds yourself in this Purgatory we always talk about so I’m gonna give some surprising flowers today in that exact light we have yeah we have this like you said all these receivers um I mean even Aaron Jones is that’s with the team anymore he wasn’t that old he’s like 28
29 but you know years older than Jacob’s right three two or three years having I think Jacob’s 26 27 yeah somewhere in there he’s got a lot of tread in the tires so good for them to maybe upgrade honestly um but to have all those guys
On kind of like you said the same timetable if it sucks you’re drafting one of these quarterbacks probably or you’re within spinning distance of making a trade to draft one of these quarterbacks but if it works out like you’ve got a bunch of these young guys in cost controlled contracts you’re
Going to have to extend love because of the you know the timetable that they did with him sitting in beside or behind Rogers but yeah like it’s not gonna kill you and you might have one of the best I don’t know like it definitely has a chance to be the second best NFC
Offense sure yeah well they got high ceing they well like they they gambled correctly in that they were like let’s put a young team together on the same timeline that’s cheap and let’s let our offensive staff we who we believe in develop them and we’ll give them you
Know we we’ll just get We’re Not Gonna We’re Not Gonna not going to muck It Up by making Panic trades and bringing in more more uh Bonafide Talent we’re just going to let this group grow together and then I think I think that’s ultimately going to Bear humongous fruit
But like what I just wanted to say is like think about the teams that you’re like man perennial contenders like really good like man they got they got it figur it out like they’re going to keep winning like do you doubt that San Francisco is going to just just
Completely fall apart no no not at all like they’re definitely in the convers they’re the Super Bowl favorites next year do you doubt that the Chiefs are going to compete next year no not at all but that said like these front offices they’re not necessarily good they just
Got kind of Lucky like the Niners made one of the most horrific trades of of the last 10 years in hindsight it did not pay any consequence for it the Kansas City Chiefs took mahomes’s 10th overall he was the second quarterback in that draft and I mean like look at the
Like the the bang didn’t have quarterback figured out they took John Ross ahead of him the Chargers didn’t have quarterback figured out they took Mike Williams ahead of I guess they had Philip Rivers but he was at the tail end of his career they took Mike Williams
He’s he’s no longer on the team Cory Davis went to the Titans he’s no longer on the team Leonard forette was taken by the Jaguars ahead of him he’s no longer on the team the Niners in that draft did not have quarterback figured out they took Solomon Thomas who I don’t didn’t
Pick at the time did nothing anyway so I’m just saying like there is a massive degree of being lucky when it comes to like succeeding as a g I think in hindsight and that this goes very clearly squarely looking I’m looking right at you Houston Texans like you got
Extremely [ __ ] lucky with the way that you know the CJ strad landed in your lap last year not because somebody should have like because like like if you had even an inkling that you could get 80% of what you’ve gotten out of Pat Mahomes at the NFL level he is going
1.01 over miles Garrett every single time yeah but no one really saw it and it like there was there was obviously Synergy with the the sca staff there was development involved all of that but like there’s there’s there’s so much luck involved here and like I feel like
Just kind of stepping back and looking at everything that’s happened this week and like you know in in trades free agency everything it’s just like man does anyone know what they’re doing like does anyone have Vision outside of like a handful of very very small uh
Exceptions and I I think a lot of it is you know when you start looking at all the Talking Heads who sure and to Sal here because there are some of these guys and we’ll get into some of this later with draft talk there are some of
These guys who are putting together you know clickbait lists like sure they they know what they’re doing the first there needs to be a word for this not that’s not clickbait because it’s it needs to be something that uh encapsulates TV and social media and everything when these people put thetion
Sensationalist kind of yeah Fame [ __ ] just I mean and I I’m not gonna Fe ACC Phil Sims of this because or Chris Sims of this all the Sims the whole Sims Clan because honestly I think he actually takes it seriously he’s just bad at it
And he was on an island that that CJ strad needed to go number one yeah last year he was it was like the the rest of it was bad and then we’ve seen it other years where it’s it’s like a lot of this is bad and that’s what I’m saying with
All these guys who are because I will say that’s what I’m trying to say about Chris is like I think he’s taking it seriously I don’t think he’s you know just putting guys first to you know to get attention or to get clicks or to drive content some of those guys who
Take this stuff very seriously some of these guys who really take draft stuff seriously who are spending hours and hours watching film who really watch college football they get this sort of stuff completely wrong year in and year out they hit everybody’s hit rate is
Like 20% we can’t pick you know we can’t pick who’s going to be the next this or that in the NFL so I know I know the hit rate is probably a little higher for Scouts but you can’t convince me it’s higher than like 30 40% sure like those guys are
They’re doing the best they can but like you said you still have to get lucky um like you like you pointed out with Houston somebody else made that decision for them you know essentially like those decisions were made in internally as well well two yeah two people might have
Made that for them the Panthers doing what they did and then somebody inside the building yeah twice I mean there has to be some luck and and as you pointed out there is a lot of development happens hey let’s just do a tiny little thought experiment what if
The Panthers trade up to one with the uh um with the Bears and uh they take they don’t have any first round picks they can no I’m saying last year like they what if they had traded up with the Bears to the one and taking CJ St do are
The bears picking first this year h [ __ ] no hell no like no chance you know who’s probably picking first it’s probably the Cardinals who could because presumably at that point Bryce young goes to Houston and the Cardinals have Houston’s first round pick this year so like the freaking sliding doors of just
That one decision are just like just Butterfly Effect across the entire NFL because like you can with a straight face make a case that Houston should be a top four team in the AFC as currently rostered with CJ Stout if he takes a micum of a step forward and the Panthers
I think are best served by just sucking badly this year and having the first pick next year like that’s probably that’s probably their best bet uh which is why I think actually one of the moves that I kind of liked was the Panthers just cutting bait with Burns instead of
Signing him and just being a little bit less of an atrocity this year by and paying Burns but anyway um it was a horren horrific deal what they got obviously especially in the context of what they could have gotten but just actually executing that trade I didn’t
Think was that big of you know that bad of a move by the Panthers you know you might as well just tack into the basement anyway the you you you should suck and like is it I mean is it shadur Sanders is that your I don’t know like qu you have any
Idea who the good quarterback is next year I I I have no clue who’s uh I mean it happens every year where somebody plays well for like a power five team um it’s probably uh the Texas Quinn Quin ERS is probably gonna be qu Texas is good sure uh there’s another guy there’s
Another there’s there there’s somebody who who’s escaping me right now who I think is actually a good look at Heisman and probably gonna be qb1 and I I can’t remember we’ll talk about quarterback who shares a name with you in Penn State oh yeah he’s he’s the next Josh Allen I
Keep hearing um so anyway the uh the yeah I mean you’re right Carol Carolina kind of painted themselves in a corner and trying this year would be bad yeah uh we are getting some long-term signal about the uh the commanders that we’ll get to Patrick but uh okay let’s
Go back let’s just do these let’s do it let’s do some grades let’s give some grades Andy okay okay um you can pick any any move that’s happened so far or doesn’t even have to be a specific free Asian signing it could just be the team
Decided to do this so far in the offseason and I give it a this uh and we’ll go back and forth and I’ll you know and just kind of provide some commentary at a high level does that sound fair yeah yeah I guess and I’m
Going to you can go first yeah I’m going to pose this one to you with a little bit of a context and an additional question because this one was bandied around quite a bit was uh the Philadelphia Eagles and their offensive staff and I know they had some turnover
At the coordinator last year but it’s still like they’ve been able to take you know mid-range castoff guys not total Reclamation pro programs but like basically that guy who’s like a decent running back and get a lot out of them which is a great like you know bu high
Or Buy Low sell high for trading or moving on from them but then the fact that they spent a decent amount of money for one of the top free agents this year was kind of puzzling to a lot of people and you know I only saw it a couple times
Was the you know well maybe this was like a long-term plan we’re going to go cheap we’re going to go cheap because the guys aren’t out there that we want and then now we can go get a guy a guy and and put it in this offense because
It has been just such a scheme driven run offense it works for everybody like the only like positive was like you go look at the birth date go look at the birth certificate like it feels like he’s been around forever but it’s because he’s in the discussion every
Every off season like this and we talk about him too much but he’s still pretty young so Eagles running back signing I give it enough I I know I tried to put it out there as like maybe they have a plan I don’t see it I’m I’m with you there no
Sack Barkley to the Eagles is enough and it’s not even this complic that complicated look I and honestly like I don’t even care if this comes in any way shape or form back as well this aged poorly you gave Barkley an F he won he won the rushing title
Like I don’t think that’s very likely and I especially do not like it because of the fit okay you have you and and oh by the way like let’s not pretend like the eagles offensive line is going to be anywhere close to as good as they were
When Jason Kelce was involved thank you let’s let’s let’s not suspend suspend some disbelief there you know or whatever let’s let’s take a deep breath on how good the Eagles offensive Line’s gonna be this year Zack Barkley is an especially bad fit for the Eagles because the Eagles are a four down
Offense and you know what Zack Barkley is he is Boom or bust personified you know what makes it especially hard to even get a first down even when you’re using four downs is if you have a two or three yard loss on a third and four right that is his
Specialty like yes he may create some more explosive plays for your run game in the offense over the balance of the season but the negatives are going to strongly impact the way you do business and honestly if you’re taking Target share away from if you’re taking the offense and you’re taking Target share
Away from AJ Brown and Devonte Smith I don’t care who they’re going to that is bad that is bad like I really really really hated this move and I think that the Eagles offense is a cold cell and honestly if the Cowboys had done a
Goddamn thing so far I think we would be having a very clear discussion about just that the Cowboys East now like the eagles haven’t figured nothing out like I get like we we can talk about some of the other stuff the Eagles have done in duee time I guess once the once the
Defense is fully formed we can have a a whole post postmortem about that process but um like I I I just I really just did not see this being a plus move for them at all and considering other how other teams that are winning are Staffing their you know other teams that are
Winning that have a quarterback that they believe in that they’ve given a long-term deal like none of them are you know are especially uh you know have made a leap by going out and getting the big signing at the running back position so I absolutely hated this one glad you
Brought this one up first somebody somebody had a great tweet and it just I don’t remember exactly what the analogy was but it’s the the same joke who’d been making forever and ah the the AP Pacho like runs like he’s stomping bugs like somebody said hey the team
That won the Super Bowl has a running back who runs like like you know he’s wearing you know yeah some sort of those those shoes you wear to a at your lawn that was yeah yeah the easy one and to your point in 2023 nobody had more runs that ended for
A tackle for a loss than saquan Barkley 38 of them wow that is uh I mean I mean in the time he’s been in the league he has to be number one with a bullet he led the he he was fourth in the league the year before and he wasn’t that far
Back so I it it is it is the Boomer bust where it’s like A6 yards on 14 carries with an 80 yard touchdown that’s it that’s it like it does like it’s just not in keeping whatsoever with their offensive identity I really did not get yeah especially
Since and you know we’ll get to this with a lot of moves especially considering the price tag of some other guys okay uh I’m gonna go I’m I’m gonna go next I’m gonna also go for some low hanging fruit every single thing that the Washington commanders have done gets an
F yeah what in the world and I guess I shouldn’t I shouldn’t maybe I maybe I’ll take a deep step back and say that this is like kind of synthesis of a of a it’s useful to see them doing this and we can take something away from this we now
Have consistent evidence two times in a row that a new regime takes over and does not know how to run a football team I don’t even know which of the moves the commanders made was my least favorite it’s very very tough Eckler I mean I mean Eckler’s cheap Eckler’s cheap but
He’s another one cheap at least but still like we we we fall in love with Eckler because he’s been this you know fantasy football God when he is healthy because he gets so many catches but that guy is like 30 you don’t you don’t give guaranteed I mean it’s it’s only a few
Million guaranteed but not a great not a big fan of like hey here’s all the pieces we’re missing let’s spend a few million on running back you know who you know who graded very poorly for me last year who they now have anchoring their defense Bobby Wagner oh I don’t like I
Don’t like Wagner I don’t like chin I don’t like Armstrong s is gonna be S is gonna be back um in time Clen frell I guess if he get something out of that was cheap yeah I Mary Mariota yeah I I guess maybe like the most favorable
Thing I can say is took Dallas’s Center that no that that was like solid they got a good kicker MC mcmanis is mcmanis is a good kicker you got you know what the least you know what like the like the least important position on the offensive line is at least from a
Cap flexibility s point is the center guys lowest the lowest compensation of all those five guys so I I I didn’t didn’t really think that that was like especially important I don’t know man like the I will give him credit for I will give him credit for louu yeah
That’s a good signing that’s a good signing for that kind of money but at at the same time you have a million holes like congratulations you got a good linebacker that guy dropped off though big time last year and he was not especially available so good luck the
Whole that whole defense did so I’m willing to give him a little benefit of the doubt there bringing along Dante Fowler as like Dan Quinn’s safety blanket is bizarre uh Zack Z is so far over the hill I could barely kind of do the math marus marot you’re giving him
You’re giving Marcus Mariota like hey you’re running the ship this year buddy while we develop our our rookie quarterback which money which I don’t get at all as far as a vision goes the Bobby Wagner move and the Austin Eckler move I also I’m just like I don’t see it
I don’t see it I don’t get it this team looks atrocious on paper and they are spending an enormous amount of money so best Washington just Washington spending money they don’t have classic should spend this into politics um they’re just money printer go Burr and Washington Andy they’re just they’re
Just printing their own money at this point and there’s always positive Spin and God iell I I cannot imagine being a local beat reporter who doesn’t have like the clout or tenure yet to get away with being you know the the realest guy it feels like some of these newer ones
They can’t be too negative because they haven’t gotten the Goodwill with the the audience yet yeah yeah know who looks yeah you see a lot of uh you know positive spin on some of this stuff and I saw something like well s did tear his
ACL but he should be you know it was early enough he should be plenty available at the start of the it’s 33 you don’t go spend money on on on a tight end with a Tor AC SE who’s that far like if I’m if I’m getting a tight
End that’s that old he has to be in pristine condition you know who only drove to church on Sundays you know who’s an apology yeah Ben Johnson he made the right move pulling the plug on that interview when they came to see him in Detroit yeah they made him look in the
Media as well made yeah he got Lampoon he got he got pillared it’s funny how we forget about that so quick yeah he got pillared and now like I think he made the right call um yeah so uh some signal to take away from this though that new regimes stepping into a franchise
Trying to make their Mark don’t exactly have the um the vision that would portend success I think is a fair takeaway Andy you’re up next what what what move do you want toh chew on a little bit here I mean I think we’d be doing I’m
GNA take all the easy ones right off the bat this is I mean this is like um this is like any of those games like the Doug love movies uh blow hanger I mean I said Toy Story you’re not gonna say Toy Story 2 I’m gonna say Toy Story
2 then um if we’re doing Tom hick movies um have to talk about cousins move it’s the it’s the it’s the gem and I don’t I don’t know of failing moves of failur it doesn’t it definitely so my my take is it raises the floor a lot okay
Because so many of their problems outside of the play call in the leadership were just quarterbacks with stupid turnovers quarterbacks without the experience quarterbacks making you know making wins into losses last year and Kirk has come a long way he’s Savvy he takes it seriously he wants to win he
He’s not as mistake riddled as those guys there’s a lot of Kirk hate over the years but he’s a very good quarterback I don’t know if it’s enough to like get a team over the over the hump so the floor is definitely raised and that’s my question besides the grade is the
Ceiling actually raised is everyone just like oh these are all all these guys that got drafted so highly you know remember this a couple years ago it was like a top eight pick that just means as soon as we get a good quarterback he’s gonna be you know suddenly he’s Justin
Jefferson and suddenly this running back is you know this is Christian mcaffry now because we have a quarterback and a new coach like there is a lot of projecting as far as like oh the are really good like they should be favorites for this division because this
Is a garbage division still but uh how high is that ceiling and what grade do you give the Kirk signing because it was a lot of money I’m giving it enough just only giving oh great under this one’s this one’s we got to dig a Little Deeper
Okay you wasted a year of the prime of all of those young talented players that you have on rookie cost control contracts last year they’re doing the opposite of Green Bay yes they are yes they are uh you also had an opportunity last year to allocate your resources in a different
Way in fact let me just pull this up out of curiosity you tell me what you’d rather have okay Kirt cousins is going to make what this year do we know the full do we know the full details of that contract it’s like four but there was like mil guarante let say
50 let’s say 50 let’s say you’re paying Kirk Cousins 50 um would you rather have uh Kirk Cousins at 50 or Lamar Jackson at 52 so it’s actually 62 against the cap I think this year okay no question remains would you rather have would you rather have Kirk
Cousins at 50 or Lamar Jackson at 50 we’ll say cash we we’ll go with this cash number 56 62 or 56 yeah which of those two would you rather have if you were if you were a Falcons fan which would you rather have I’m gonna say Obviously I’d
Rather have Lamar but I’ve seen this litigated on the timeline as well too and I’m still firmly in the camp of he was never leaving Baltimore they should have tried that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have tried they should have made Baltimore pay and match but with
The it was what the non-exclusive c or the non-exclusive nonexclusive teag you can construct you can construct a contract that has the guaranteed money that he wants that Baltimore was not going to take not going to pay and then the MVP of last season is on your team
With all of your young talent in an NFC that was much more winable I don’t know if he wins the MVP well who knows well who knows but I’m just saying like ultimately ultimately two two first if they match yeah yeah ultimately the fact that there was no consequences
Whatsoever for anyone involved in Atlanta for squ except for AR Smith I guess we lost the job but no one else like really faced any consequences for uh March 7th the Ravens have used the non-exclusive franchise tag which locks in the compensation they get if you sign him like there’s no negotiating
Of how many picks like make make this Crystal Clear like all that the Ravens can do is match whatever poison pill you put together for him in a contract as a contract goes and so if you think there is a likelihood that the Ravens are just
Going to say yes to anything then you just talk to Lamar and say hey man like what contract did the Ravens turn down we add five million of guaranteed to that and now you’re ours yeah had $100 whatever whatever whatever the case was there was a game to be played and
They elected not to play it in fact the Falcons were the first team that come out and said we’re not interested and that was that’s the part that bothers me [ __ ] it was all they should have they should have just let it be in the media then they could have lied about it
And they could have lied to everybody and no one would ever know some conversation you know what you know what we didn’t like he didn’t have an agent that was what we didn’t like about it didn’t we didn’t have anyone to negotiate with yeah yeah they could have
Just said oh we try it just didn’t it didn’t work out like to come that you’re right that part was [ __ ] up yeah and so now you go and give cousins the money that you could be paying Lamar Who is younger better and is not coming off of
An Achilles injury that’s the other part f f f to be fair you wouldn’t have Bajan like you can’t say put Lamar with all these young you could have done that deal after the draft last year unless they I’m trying to remember I don’t think you could have I don’t
Think you could have done it that way because it did the Ravens sign did the Ravens come to the agreement before the draft because it was no interest is that how it went down I don’t I don’t know that you could do a 25 26 I think it would had been 24
25 maybe they could have waited that have been interesting yeah I I thought at the time there was basically a way that you could have had an agreement in principle but if it didn’t actually get codified until after the draft was over then you still got to pick your pick at
Eight and then this year presumably the first year giving to the Ravens is you know the 29th pick Instead The Raven no one made a move for Lamar the Ravens got two home games in the playoffs out of it Well Done team well done everyone yeah
And that is the other thing that just isn’t getting mentioned is this this Achilles injur we haven’t seen this this often in a and yeah he’s a pocket passer he’s not Lamar he’s not Justin Fields but he is you know still does need to scramble he still does need to move he
Still needs to push off there’s there’s a chance that just his foot is never right again this happens this is 2024 we’ve come a long way with medicine an ACL used to be the end of your career you know not that long ago so I’m I’m not saying that’s the likely case but
Just because it isn’t the most likely doesn’t mean it it isn’t going to or could not happen so it’ll be interesting to see like how that how that leg is early in the season and obviously there’s a lot of turnover with the the new coaching staff all these young
Players getting used to you know all those guys who are currently on the roster have to get used to a whole new offense now as well so I don’t think it’ll go so as smoothly as we think but man it still might just take nine wins to win that division one thing that’s
Not mentioned at all in the uh uh kind of commentary about cousins to the Falcons that I would just like to State for the record the Falcons had a phenomenally easy schedule last year and squandered it take that into your mental calculus when you think about well they were you
They were pretty much a 500 team they were 500 team yeah they were 500 team and played no one and their defense had all of this investment and took a small step forward against no quarterbacks and they have an older pass rush with no Talent this year they have an older uh
Offensive line that is starting to come apart of the scenes seems and Kirk Cousins by the way played behind the best maybe the best tackle duo in the entire NFL in Minnesota and H actually I I am guilty of this as well and I have to do some correction and
Retractions to some of the media I’ve been doing there was there’s a perception Andy that Kirk Cousins was having one of the best seasons of his career last year when he tore the ace when he tore the Achilles you you’ve heard this you’ve heard this bed about of course right
That’s that’s that’s a that’s that’s been commonly baned it’s been there a lot of bandying yeah uh you know what I will say that is relative to how poor the quarterback play was across the NFL last year at the beginning of the year like he stood out
As man I guess Kirt cousins might be top eight wait is he top six is he top five because so many of the other quarterbacks who were occupying those spots either took a step back or hurt or just didn’t live up to the expectations at the beginning of last season would it
Surprise you to know that Kirk Cousins 2023 campaign was the sixth best of his career in terms of EPA per play through the early portion of the Season where he didn’t have to play outside in cold weather he was better in 2021 he was better in 2020
2019 only 2022 the year where they won all those fluky ass games did he surpass his EPA per play so he took a small step up in the early portion of the season when everyone else took a step back and we’re misremembering that he had some
Sort of step forward last year and I think we got to correct the record yeah cousins is onine V yeah Kirk being a top 10 quarterback says more about the league than Kirk and also as as you already pointed out that turned out to be really really nice roster
Construction by the Vikings on the offensive line at the beginning of the year we talked about the Lions offensive line how good it was it’s all we could mention in the the NFC North previews the Vikings might have had a better offensive line obviously it stayed
Healthier I mean they they did have some turnover a little bit during the season but boy the Lions actually that turned into a bit of weakness for them for a while and then Justin Jefferson obviously being one of the top three receivers in the league Addison stepping
Up having a good tight end like he had a good um he had a good situation Kevin oconnell worked out like Kevin oconnell was probably a good hire it’s very early but like that has turned out in my mind at least like the Kevin oconnell hire
Was a good one and he should be able to you’ll see what he does with Sam darnold this will be a good year to judge that if if that’s who they end up sticking with and not going and getting a rookie all right your your turn pick it pick
One all right I’m gonna go a little uh little hot hot off the press Calin Ridley to the Titans for lot of money lot of guaranteed 50 million guaranteed to Calvin Ridley for the Titans if yes okay so you ready for this might take this sweet short and sweet
You ready yeah welcome back to the Purgatory you get an F you get an F everybody’s getting an f um this was weird because you never want to penalize a team for like spending to help your offense like you should be investing and you know that there’s a quarterback’s important but
Beyond that it’s everything that revolves around the passing game like need a good tackle you need you know an offensive line you need receiving weapons you need a coach who can take advantage all that you need a pass rush you need coverage like everything to move your passing game your offense
Forward everything to stop everyone else’s that should be the thing so like signing Kelvin Ridley signing you know wide receivers adding another one last year drafting trayon Burks like these should all be viewed as good things yeah because you’re sitting in the you’re sitting in this window where you have a rookie
Quarterback rookie quarterback contract but you don’t know there’s two huge problems you don’t know that you’re you don’t know that your rookie quarterback is good so you’re in like Desmond Ritter Atlanta territory all right um and your choices are to put a bunch of skill position players around
To see if he’s good um which which I don’t mind I don’t but you know what I don’t you know you know what who is the answer a year old $50 million wide receiver it’s a lot of um and also like Andy let’s just let me do a quick
Thought experiment with you ready I’m not sure if you saw many Titans games last year but uh but let’s pretend that you just finished breaking down their tape what’s the you know is there is there is there a key weakness that you think could have gotten addressed with
Some free agency dollars on that offense maybe I don’t know like pass pass protection offensive in front of you think he could have gotten two blue chip interior linemen for that uh uh $50 million and instead just gotten a wide receiver in the draft oh I don’t
Know could have got the best guard in the market and probably a center yeah you get the second best tackle or the best wide receiver in the draft if you’re at your seventh pick that you earned for stinking last year and instead now you’ve you like you’re doing
This backwards like I don’t think that there’s really any way for them to solve the offensive line at this point not with how they’re allocating their cap otherwise and I think this team like stealing is seven wins like picking in the middle of the draft again next year
If things go well if Lis takes a step forward like this is this is a a failure of vision which is what going on three years now and it’s a different now it’s a different regime effectively um yeah I I’m I’m I’m not not impressed by the
Titans is it is the Joe burrow meme where we had you know Joe getting sacked because they didn’t draft who who was it the one that went to the line it was pen and then uh you know drafting Chase Chase and and Chase can’t catch the ball because you know the offensive
Lineman let him get sacked except in this situation you don’t have Jamar chase you have you know a guy who drops the ball Bunch trayon Burks and yeah I mean like Hopkins probably has some tread on the tires I shouldn’t [ __ ] on him too much you also don’t have
The offensive lineman nor do you have Joe burrow you don’t have any of the it’s not actually the meme at all it’s it’s you getting sacked and not having the receiver it’s rough uh they have the seventh pick do you think they do you think they’re doing this
With the thought process that they can get M you know McCarthy or like move on I don’t I don’t know they they they’ve drafted so many quarterbacks now I I dude I’m I’m out of the speculating game on what the [ __ ] they’re thinking about
I I will tell you this though um one of my other least favorite things that front offices do when you bring in a big free agent is have too much of a vend diagram overlap with your existing old wide receiver the vend diagram overlap between Ridley and
Hopkins I just I don’t understand don’t I don’t I don’t get it I don’t get it uh the guaranteed portion of his contract that you’re paying him to be there for you good for him though yeah yeah very good for Ridley uh well played uh my friend and honestly like
Ridley uh Nashville is a more fun place to live than uh Fox bro if you wanted to get out of Jacksonville so that’ll be fun Jacksonville didn’t seem to be excited about keeping that’ll be cool Tennessee IL legal Bing State yes um not a good one though I believe it’s run by
The lottery whenever the lottery gets involved it’s a bad betting state if you’re in the western part you should probably just go to a different state if you’re in the east go to North Carolina raise up um yeah it’s one of those where I think everyone assumes they’re going
To go offensive line there’s a bunch of good offensive line but the over under for offensive lineman in the first round is nine and a half I’ve bet into five and a halfs that’s and it’s not a bad number Tennessee could use four of them it’s fair so they only have one pick
Though I wonder if they do trade back take like the fourth best tackle and then try to get somebody else in the second round they should probably go o line o line o line just draft three take another couple flyers on Saturday gu we should cave at this but
They did bring in Lloyd cushenberry the third is he is he part of the whole royal FAL family Scandal oh I haven’t looked into he sounds like one of the names from that whole thing he does yeah thei we need to reach out to lloydd to see if he knows
What’s going on with the uh with the Princess of Wales princess of Yes somewhere yes all right hey um in seriousness though like scony maybe he takes a step forward in year two who knows Dillard your left tackle is a disaster brunskill Your Right Guard is a disaster redin your
Right tackle is a disaster you still have three holes in that line I would have much rather short up two of those holes with your Calvin Ridley money and go draft a wide receiver sign a guard in free agency instead of him draft a tackle draft
Three more any alinan try to fix that and see you know see what we have if you can keep uh keep your Young quarterback ight I’m with you there yeah I I mean maybe they think they solve their offensive line Problems by bringing in Brian Callahan’s dead that that’s not enough Factor like
He very well respected he’s a he’s maybe a guy who can fix it I don’t think it’s fixable per se you know as far as how far down they are but certainly isn’t GNA hurt to have a guy like that um Minnesota Vikings defensive additions they they kind of went in on
This um curious because they’re now in a goofy spot where they have a pretty good team they got a lot out of Flores with a bunch of nobody’s late in the season that defense did a lot of improving despite not having a ton of names they go get
Cashman they go get grenard uh who’s the other one they had van GLE van GLE God I feel like an [ __ ] van GLE who that a really nice contract for the Vikings too pricewise add more defensive players you got to assume they’re going to draft some defensive players um because they
Still do have some h at depth but they don’t have a quarterback and that’s I think that’s a conversation for a different uh day is it I don’t know is it prudent to spend this kind of money on defense and then go out and spend 10 million on Sam darnold like it’s turning
Into a weird and I joked that we should just like you know go go sign flacko do what the Browns did keep keep signing defensive players have a really good defense and then have whoever off a couch at quarterback and see what happens when you hold other teams to 10
Points but not quite sure what on the vision what’s the vision from quesy right now I mean one can only assume it’s take a quarterback in round one and roll the dice with them kind of points that way like we mentioned that with Packers like I’m not uh I’m notar yeah I’m not
Prepared to give the Vikings an F I’m gonna give them an incomplete because we need to see what they do in terms of navigating the draft and getting the quarterback they want uh and to hear you know see what else they do in the draft
I think a little bit but um I uh I was actually pretty um I was cool on their defensive moves Ben GLE you know they didn’t they didn’t spend so much that I’m like boy you really put yourself in a tight spot here between vanle Cashman and granard and
You got three Bonafide starters there and honestly like Flores raises the FL year defense so much that kind of shouldn’t really matter like you’re saying those are Bonafide starter for what they spent yeah yeah at the same time though like I kind of wish like like what Flores is
Shown to be so singularly outstanding in my at in my opinion is the like rapid development of young players so I kind of wish you just not really spend anything on the defense and just let Flores cook with some yeah just draft let Flores cook with some
Uh you know some young Parts yeah yeah EXA yeah exactly yeah exactly and honestly like uh losing denil Hunter might be more than the sum of the parts you you allocated that money for the I know but it was gonna cost so much they’re in a good spot next year cap
Wise too I wonder if this isn’t a bit of a hey and this this is maybe me being a little too polyana with Minnesota and just assuming that questy knows what he’s doing but they are going to be an incredible position next year with money
To spend with the cap so if the you know the prevailing wisdom is they’re going to draft a quarterback whether it’s McCarthy whether they have some Godfather deal to trade up into the top three and get a big name whether it’s trading back and taking you know Nicks
Or panck the second or third round yeah um it feels like at at the end of the day they’re going to end up with someone who’s not Sam darnold they’re gonna figure out if they can ease him in they’re gonna play him and if it works out you’ve then I think partway through
The season if you see like this guy might be it you get your Jefferson deal done him hey we’re doing this right now we’re doing this during the season you you’re making you’re the highest paid non-quarterback now congratulations just and you have still a bunch of cap room
And then you can go out and make like two or three big moves next season and then it’s like all right we’re in our window this is window time and if it doesn’t work out Jefferson probably gone like you because at that point you’re that’s crazy to me yeah I mean at that
Point at that point you got to reset and you can’t if if you don’t have your qub back at that point you can’t extend a wide receiver for the most money in the league like you have to kind of have to kick rocks down the road and reset so
Minnesota’s in a tickless position where like everything everything banks on nailing this quarterback and them identifying that it’s uh the guy pretty early in the season I think so yeah it’s a it’s a funny one and not only that but everybody in their division um look looks at least two at
Least two teams are very very the Bears the Bears High yeah the Bears have a high ceiling because of the first pick and if they nail it with Caleb like that’s a problem for everyone else but yeah obviously lions are great and Green Bay is coming up so they’re in a they’re
In a real goofy spot all right I’m changing my I’m changing my opinion on the on the Vikings defensive moves they get an F uh the uh uh grenard was the Big Splash and people are kind of equating that to one to one for Hunter I don’t see it gard’s had four
Years in the league he’s been the spot starter some of these years he’s his best year was last year pay for the best year of his career where he only was able to play 15 games he managed something like 32 pressures denal Hunter exceeded 32 pressures every
Single year of his entire career uh by margin uh including uh um or except for the year where he only played seven games what you have Tor peek that year I can’t remember but he he still almost he got close he had 21 pressures that year
Converted him to six sacks so I I don’t know that you’re getting one toone production swapping granard for um for Hunter no but it’s I mean it’s quite a bit more like Hunter was lot more money 50 I mean it was 50 million guaranteed or something it was a shitload like
Gard’s like a $20 million a year guy so I mean it’s not cheap but it relative you know you’re paying about 150% for yeah I don’t if they end up if they end up if they end up staying Pat and getting qb4 in this draft then I will revise my my my
Grading but if they trade assets to move up in the draft to take JJ McCarthy then we’re gonna have to have a serious conversation about what’s going on over there yeah it’ll be interesting to see like how the other teams value quarterback because there’s there’s H again Supply the supply and the demand
Do not match like on paper like with darnold taking the keys with this offense it’s got whiff it’s got whiffs of like Falcons on steroids right I know my favorite is just like people people are goingon to talk themselves like oh darnold’s never been he’s never had
Weapons in an offensive line like this and there a good coaching staff and you know maybe maybe maybe it wasn’t Kirk maybe it was the rest of the team like we’re going to definitely talk ourselves into this and yes we had a Gino one time
But man the gos are I don’t even want to say few and far between I think it was just that one time like a guy doesn’t come into the league bounce around as a a backup a spot starter a guy who loses his job guy who’s out indefinitely for
Mononucleosis and then suddenly like just land in the right spot and he’s Cinderella the the genino thing was weird I’m gonna make a I’m gonna make a pledge it’s not happening I’m gonna make a pledge if darnal wins come back Player of the Year this year I’m never betting
Awards ever again they are they are officially dead to me i’ I’ve I’ve given up on comeback player of the year I didn’t any money I’m out of I’m out of the comeback Player of the Year marked anyway but if he wins it this year after last year I bet it thinking somebody
Could steal it from Hamlin because Hamlin’s not going to play you did bet darnold I forgot about that in the preon maybe and maybe B PR’s not gonna be ready to go and darnold could steal that job well all Dar very in the dark though officially I’m I’m officially quitting
To be fair to us we were very in the dark on the situation with perie middle of the summer true very very nobody nobody really had this time last year he was under the knife yeah I mean middle we’re talking July nobody had like good reports on
Whether he was starting the season or not and at the same time we were also not even super sure if he was good not super sure if he did start the season if he’d ever be that good again based on the injury and because it was I mean it
Was an arm injury you need your arm so yeah that was a goofy spot I forgot you bet darnold yeah uh I don’t know you want to talk some you want to talk some draft stuff before we I don’t know I I need to think harder about the Vikings
I’m gonna go back to incomplete um I think they’re they’re in just’re one more they’re in a narrow path is what it I got one more hot one uh oh yeah sorry I got two more you ready yes um the Dolphins letting hunt and Wilkins out of the
Building is a lot of people go Dolphins is enough dolphins are enough and you know why it’s because not retaining those guys and some of their other moves which have been a little like we need to get our books in order so that we can reset the quarterback Market Pang Tua um
This like you kind of you feel it coming and uh I am uh I I’m Pro if you if you say hey man you can like like I don’t think that it makes sense to sell the Panthers as a franchise right now like if you were buying selling stocks
In teams because they’re at their bottom like the commanders same sort of story they’re going down to the bottom uh Patriots same sort of story they’re going down about if you if you were like you can buy or sell a team stockwise right now selling the Dolphins feels
Very very very right like their window might have closed last year like they’re just about to announce a really bad sales year really bad deal we have the orange juice numbers we stole it from a guy on a train yes yes a really really really bad
Deal it feels like it’s on the nigh and um I the cap is up but if they’re gonna pay two a Dak money and if dak’s gonna get Dak money like there’s GNA be a bunch of teams that are yeah kind of hog tied because they paid
A quarterback yeah I think uh dolphins are going to be near the top of that list um and this isn’t even doubting that Tua can continue to remain top 10 quarterback okay fine like the production like like there is a what give 50-50 tell me if I’m wrong here
50-50 chance that last year was the most productive year of uh um Tyreek s ah probably like he’s got two more years in it I mean 5050 yeah yeah like well and here’s the thing like it’s probably more than 5050 yeah just because Fe frequency of
Injuries the age well and not only that but like you just can’t have better years like yeah sure really good year like you’re not just GNA keep you know you don’t you don’t go break the three minute or the four minute mile and say well I’m GNA break the three minute mile
Now like there’s only so many games guys yeah the fragility of Wadd the potential decline of Hill are very real to me and even though and honestly like just the general all their skill positioners injur at Point all of them both running backs both good receivers and Tua has
Had one healthy year now yeah and the drop off in play of Tua over the balance of the season two years in a row is very very strange to me very concerning uh his he got his playoff stinker out of the way last year but it was bad um and
I yeah I kind of it feels like it’s coming I feel like there’s kind of there’s a very very he’s going to need to kind of basically take a team-friendly deal for me to not feel like that’s a huge mistake to do this and honestly like their backs are
Against the wall because like what do you just like let him walk let him walk for no comp like what like I’m not exactly sure that there’s a good decision here um but I just feel like it’s it’s the and and and honestly like I’m I don’t even really particularly
Care for Christian Wilkins or hunt like they’re both but they’re both very serviceable players and they were locker room locker room leaders so yeah I I um I don’t love The Vibes coming out of Miami in any way shape or form and um you know the the franchise itself and
The owner have done a lot of the same sort of you know the same sort of stuff that you’re seeing in Carolina and Washington or even worse like tampering that lost him a first round pick last year the the handling of the Brian Flores uh end of his tenure like there’s
There’s some stuff on the wall in Miami that absolutely sucks um so yeah that that was I think a pretty bad sign this has been a bad cycle for dolphins and makes me want to sell Dolphins um all the teams all their games next year they
Get an enough and it’s funny a lot of these teams were giving a lot of these teams that were giving FS to yeah these aren’t the teams are going to be drafting High next year when we give these teams F they’re going to win between seven and nine games yes exactly
Speak this sentence speak was your last one Speaking of the team that sign oh got sorry I got two more the team that signed Christian WIS this is quick okay the ver Raiders what are we doing I don’t know I don’t know because they don’t really have like a quarterback going on there
So there another one where hey they have a top end receiver they’re they’re their defense was really good towards the end of the year and they’re continuing to add to it that’s not how you build a team up like no they’re they’re doing it backwards too which is fun it’s fun it’s
It’s very fun just to see this play out it’s wild um but like uh I got it the real shrug for the Raiders is like every decision that they’ve made from the final game of the season to to right now yeah is highly sus uh uh I guess retaining Pierce fine
Like I don’t really care I don’t think he’s the answer but players like him whatever you want to keep him around fine you’re paying two coaches already fine you’re paying three coaches or whatever fine um bringing in Tom Tesco have you seen what’s going on with the with the Chargers you seen what’s
Going on with the Chargers roster cap situation at all um didn’t you know bringing him immediately and giving him the keys him spending that yeah him going and flexing that cap and giving Christian Wilkins this type of money as again like I’m not dogging on Christian
Wilkins as a player and you want to see what’ll happen on the left side of that line when you put him next to Max Crosby okay that’ll be a fun experiment but like your secondary still stinks out loud and your your linebacker core overperformed last year and everything
Has revolved around just max Crosby making everybody look a little better than they are um and so you have no answers on the offensive side of the football you’re holding Devonte Adams hostage from us as football fans um and your answer is now at running back next
Year as you were the one team that wisely sat out of the running back Market you got something Bryant Briton Brown whatever like like this this roster looks super duper sus if you’re gonna have a bad offense stick with it like hey there’s no quarterback in the
Market that’s going to raise our ceiling to a a level where we can even be competitive [ __ ] it s mshu our offense might stink get rid of this running back don’t even think about resigning him he’s gonna get good money somewhere else we’re not paying him 12
Million he’s too good let somebody else have him like and it’s funny that they will but they will like you said hold hold the receiver hostage um unbelievable yeah the the the signing yeah the the telesco signing too is like oh man we need a we need a new CFO like
But we have to get somebody with experience this guy worked at Enron like 10 years what could go wrong like get fired for a reason like yeah I I guess you do gather the inside Intel of maybe a division rival but boy I don’t think I
Would have done that so Luke gsy uh he’s available Luke gsy bring him in all right he’s our new OC Taco Bell in his house yeah that’s cool wow wow wow wow um all right your um the Bears I’m incomplete incomplete they have two top 10 picks
Incomplete you like anything that do you like anything that they have done they they haven’t done much they went and they signed a running back they gave they gave a running back who just played behind that is the LOL a bunch of money the LOL is like look at what happened to
The last time somebody did that and honestly the running back room didn’t need to be addressed at all like it really didn’t I I’m I uh I’m uh I think that Ryan poles can do a very serviceable job at evaluating offensive lineman and I think that is where it
Ends I don’t know that the analytic cylinder is pumping out winners bringing in Kevin byard Jonathan Owens DeAndre Swift I am Gerald Everett like these guys do not the should this should not be your priority if you have if you are sitting in a sit in a position to just
Singularly change the direction of your franchise through one draft because you got extremely [ __ ] lucky that the team you traded to made picked the wrong guy like number one you needed a little bit of better plan for what you were going to do with Fields like the fact
That he is still on this roster does that make sense to you does do you think that somebody’s going to come from the clouds now the free agency’s over I’m like well we had our heart set on Kirk Cousins and we didn’t get them Well turns Kirk Cousins market was one team
So like there’s kind of no one who is really right now in the market for a quarterback who’s not just positioning themselves to draft whatever they can get and that means Fields is g to end up you you might get I think at this point right right like people when they went
Into the cycle were saying that they were like expecting some sort of first or early second round compensation for Fields you know what they’re going to get they’re going to get like fifth round next year compensation from someone who’s like we’ll take them off your hands honestly at this point with
The deal he’s on you just keep him well do you want him in the locker room when you are bringing in kale Williams and you’re literally like hey man thank you for your service you’re QB Jimmy no so here’s what you do you Jimmy GM you put
Him on that separate practice field out in Arlington put him on the horse track go throw balls around send the practice squad guy out there to hang out with him you wait for somebody to lose a quarterback I know it sucks locker room wise but it’s temporary he is worth a
Lot more in week six when somebody loses a quarterback sounds like what the ners thought they were going to do with Lance I know but Lance hadn’t even like seen the field he played like two games like this is a guy that we’ve seen have exciting plays somebody can talk them
People talk themselves into Lance somebody’s definitely going to talk themselves into Fields when the need arises the need just isn’t there right now like they’re they’re they’re not going to get you know they’re not going to get much out of him yeah I don’t know
If I’d want to just like oh let’s get rid of him for a 2025 fifth like you said like yeah yeah I’m I’m fine just sitting on him and waiting if I’m the Bears you got two first top 10 draft picks you’re starting to get better the defense
Really took some improvements like it’s it’s it’s a unique situation because he’s still you know young enough in his career where people can talk themselves into it because he’s actually put something on tape like we’ve seen this a couple like oh he’s led the Bears to
Some exciting close losses at the end of the year again it just there’s not a there’s not a team out there right now that’s willing to pay big money for that whereas you know a team that needs a quarterback oh [ __ ] we’re four and two and we don’t have a quarterback now we
Have to trade something then you and then you’re happy like oh we got all this is like a late second rounder we’re so happy or an early third rounder yeah that’s fine yeah I think I think they needed to do a better job of evaluate because like again like maybe there was
Never ever a market for him maybe they got no offers maybe that people just hung up the phone when they were like hey you interested in fields but like I assume that after you get your first wave of off of offers from everyone who you know is in the quarterback market
And you’re a little bit underwhelmed that you take the best offer and you walk away from this if you’ve already decided you’re going to go quarterback in this draft and like like people out there are kicking around some weird idea that maybe they’re just going to stick
With fields and see what they can get for the first overall pick like at this point if that happens like we’re talking fullon riot at how Hall like you’re gonna have to have you’re it’s gonna be January 6 style like breaking down the doors at Hall stealing podiums yeah and
You know I I just I’m I’m we’ve gotten a mixed signal for the duration of the polls regime that there’s a little bit of some there’s something not not quite exactly coming together with the vision and this entire cycle was more evidence to the bad I think and maybe maybe I’m being biased
Because I do not I thought Kevin Bard looked completely over the hill last year I think Jonathan Owens man I think I think too when you start developing defensive players you start to feel like you can develop anybody and you could talk like it’s easier to talk your way into going like
Hey you know we’ve yeah we’ve made the defense better we’re a good coaching staff this guy this guy kind of s well that’s that’s what I’m saying you can talk you can talk your way into like let’s go get this guy even though he might be washed we can fix it yeah as
Soon as you do it once it’s easier to convince the front office you can do it again but yeah I I bears are totally incomplete until we see what they do with the ninth pick because there’s a lot of ways you can move that taking best of neighbors Rome I would assume
Maybe maybe maybe well what else I would trade back okay if they do that and they get more conf they get you know wide receiver five or whatever and picks next year then all more the power to him but that’s what I’m think like it’s a deep
Wide receiver class I know those guys are great but man you’ve seen so many wide receivers come from the late to Mid First round and second third fourth round over the last few years if you think you can if you think you have a diamond in the rough trade back get a
Bunch of assets you’re not winning the Super Bowl man it’s going to be a few years so so I’m uh I’m fine like taking a flyer on four four wide receivers through the second and third round finding some guys hopefully you can pull a Green Bay yeah um okay okay all right
Well is good enough so far um all right man uh draft strategy you got any thoughts you were you were you were itching to talk about this earlier I could tell yeah and I think this is going to be a thing that we’re g to go on
A couple different routes with as we get through the year but I thought more and more about the draft as we went through the cycles last few years and I talked to more people about drafts and the people who do mock drafts really early I seen a 2025 mock draft on the internet
You guys like people are getting way ahead of themselves on this stuff just to to pump out content and I think that’s something that’s gotten lost over the last few years because I know Drew you were let’s say five years ago you know how many mock drafts were you seeing it
Would be like one guy on CBS Sports had one you know one guy for ESPN would put one out um you know pre NFL Network and NFL like pre Jeremiah there wasn’t much coming from that direction you know there would be like five or six real big
Draft guys who would put out mocks now there’s a million and then at the end of the year we all circle jerk each other and Patty other on the back with our sticky little hands saying you got a 48 on this one scoring you know on this scoring syst
Through this scoring rubric right so and I dug into this and I I dug into this through my own vanity um to my admission here because I want to see what kind of score I got I got a pretty good score and uh like three years ago it was it
Was a nice mock like I nailed a few things but I started to notice some things like if you got the guys in the right order you got extra points so if you got hey this is the third cornerback off the board I had him as the fourth uh
You still got a little bit because you were close if you got a guy in the right position to the wrong team or within like three picks you get you know there’s different scoring systems but the the basis of any scoring system like this is try to figure out who did the
Best mock but the unintended consequence is is people gamification yes people stop making mock drafts how they think they should do it and how they’re trying to be helpful and they start making mock drafts to game these scoring systems to get higher scores so then next year they
Get more clicks more ad Revenue more money a better job so it’s funny because I think there’s still probably the same amount of good mocks out there it’s probably four or five and there’s there’s some pretty big names I’m not going to throw people under the bus cuz
I just said I was guilty of this myself there’s some pretty big names and some pretty big places in the industry who have mock drafts who I think are completely useless maybe even yeah maybe even harmful to you as far as trying to take this information
In if you’re using it to make decisions to bet if you’re making Sports bets if you’re I don’t know if they do they do price pick stuff for the draft they do for the combine I I’m sitting there just pissing and moaning as as people aren’t running their 40s because my six teamers
Down to a four but you know for for the most part it is it is draft you know draft props Draft betting and I know a lot of you who listen to this this is something you’re excited about this time of the year just really really really
Think about why this person like not and and honestly I think there’s some other people who aren’t doing that maliciously or just they’re in the wrong head space compared to you there’s nothing wrong with that they enjoy making mocks but this guy is this guy’s not a better he’s strictly
Fantasy and you know maybe some of his takes are just this is my mock for better or worse I don’t have information but I think this would be a fun fit so I’m putting it here so just I just really think about the context and of course early in
The season um and by early in the season I mean the draft season yeah when we’re in February January when we’re seeing some of those first mocks come out I think there’s a pretty big tell too when somebody has something just ridiculous sure and it’s in the title of the
Article like yeah like oh this quarterback is now moved up to number two and it’s like it’s well that isn’t happening um so just grain of salt guys yeah agree Patrick says I took I lost money taking too many shots last year too early I think that’s something too
Because a lot of the information and the mocks early just aren’t good I think if you’re taking shots early in the season and again I mean draft season I’m talking you know February through where we’re sitting right now it has to be measured and they have to be long shots
Who you think yeah this guy is going to massively improve his grade at the combine he’s he’s just not really well known but maybe he goes to a you know maybe he goes to a school with some other guys who are top picks and and it’s going to be a good pro day
Because so many people are going to be there to watch his quarterback and he’s goingon to get a little extra extra coverage for that it’s hard to take these early shots like a lot of the good early shots are going to be just like what position this team is drafting I
Think there’s there’s some good long shots to be taken at this time of this year but it’s very very tough it gets tigh over here as well yeah save I I would sit on your capital just enjoy the Bitcoin ride um and uh be patient for closer to the
Draft couple thoughts my favorite bet to yeah my favorite bet to make is when I know the answer like it’s yeah of course if you don’t take all those shots early you just have all those all those little increments that add another Bund of money my only successful angle last year
Was Anthony Richardson under four and a half uh and that was only successful because there was somebody on the other side of me who kept giving me three to one on that uh so find being like a head-to-head where there’s Market resistance and being right because you
Either have it have it have it or because you think it’s there’s something squarely mispriced Market wide for some reason I think was kind of the only way I’m going to make money on the draft this year from what I can tell because limits are it’s you know the offering
Continues to get scarce and limited and it’s kind of nonsense to really expect anything else but um I guess here’s what I would say some advice for those who are handicapping the draft handicapping mock I think your advice was very very sound um I would La just like last year there’s going to
Be some absolute nonsense this year in the two to three probably yeah because um the and I think that this is actually specific Insider discussions that I’ve had with people who were very very plugged into Washington years past and New England years past those rails
Are now gone rails to kind of get an inside I scoop on what Washington and New England are thinking are gone so if anyone is has like kind of high confidence in those second and third picks I would raise an eyebrow because I just think that there’s like there’s just there’s not
The exist the existing relationships that got that information out into the marketplaces there there there are no right and so somebody’s like you know hey they sit down have their you know their phone call with their beat reporter friend in New England and they’re like what are you thinking what
Are they hearing and like you’re G to that person instead of getting the God’s honest truth that was instructive in years past is getting speculative information and I think you need to take some of that with a grain of salt um and also and I mean that goes it’s like the
I know yours was a bit negative because like ties have been severed with those teams because there’s been massive turnover and those connections just you know we we all know who those guys are that like have connections with certain teams they’re always right about certain teams or they’re at least on the right
Track with certain teams like when there’s massive turnover those guys suddenly don’t have it anymore it might take a couple years um but it goes to the other point too and we all know this as we look through the mock drafts like we know guys who do a good job with certain teams
Have connections like their mock might be trash for 31 teams but you can always take some nuggets like even if this isn’t where they’re going like you might know well I don’t I I I think about uh God who’s the British guy who covers Seattle
I feel bad I can’t think of his name now oh Rob uh Stanton I want to say Stanford Stanton um he was you know he didn’t know who Seattle was drafting but he knew who they weren’t he was adamant that like out on jayen and we kind of were able to you know
Process of elimination I guess you’re able to put together a little better piece so sometimes it’s just all those little pieces can help you make a little better uh decision once you get down to it yep I agree um I would also say that uh um I get this this is speculative
Also full full full uh speculative uh warning warning warning warning um we should we should have a sound bar for that TR something stupid um there was an ERA where information got around pretty fast in certain levels of the betting community in the couple weeks out of the draft right like hey
It’s getting around here’s you know hey like you know it was it was uh it was pretty um and then that would get baked into the prices when limits were kind of me yeah right uh there has been a handful of examples and we can have this conversation on another day where
Information has been successfully gotten to the highest levels of the gambling space directly and then markets have been sat on until limits were as big as they were going to be and then they got squaded and then the word got around and then everybody was like oh cool like
This is great and then I think the highest level people probably got both sides of some amazing prices on some games where let’s just say a quarterback didn’t play and nobody knew about it until the day of right um and so I would am kind of intrigued to see this cycle if
There’s like literal price suppression on stuff until there’s actual liquidity and some of the more weird exotic stuff what do you think that checks out markets evolved guys yeah in so many words markets evolve even the low limit ones they don’t like getting beat like I know some of these are
Viewed as lost leaders but books don’t need lost leaders like that that’s what promo bets are for yeah well the orando magic took care business say Andy that’s huge good job by them the Miami Heat H have squandered a lead to the Denver Nuggets that is good news um the NBA has
Been unkind to me for like the last 10 days so I could I’ll have taken everything I can get right now take it when you can get it yeah um um God I gota look at this swack bracket I think we’re already I think we already
Have [ __ ] in the swack oh yeah hell yeah these really really really small conferences like they the the parody exists like oh this team is like the best team in the swack yeah guess what they’re all going to some random site like 300 miles away
Did you see that by the way the one the one league has a uh an arena it’s in Birmingham Alabama which believe that as it is but it’s like the Von braa Arena and it was named after a Nazi science who to yes to his credit moved here and
Was like a big part of the space program but it’s like d yeah he put He put us on the moon period yeah I know still like it’s still like I wish the Wikipedia didn’t lead with that I wish I wish it led with the Space Program not like hey
This guy was a Nazi scientist yeah no he was massive like obviously I went down a huge rabbit hole on him uh alorn state was the two seed they dropped their first game they are eliminated from the swack tournament so you there’s only one and there’s only one way in you have to
Win the swack tournament so the seven seed Alabama A&M I love it Alabama A&M is alive guys yeah um the best Warner Von Von Bron by the way that is a 10 and 21 team that is now alive to make the tournament Warner Von Bron was the uh
The the father of the V2 rocket which was a devastating weapon in Europe uh for Germany and don’t don’t think I didn’t read a bunch of Wikipedia after this D yeah and he uh uh he was put to the test when he came to America uh to and join
The space program a lot of people were critical of him and uh his quote was once the rocket once the Rockets are up who cares where they come down that’s not my department very practical very German the kid shooting the arrow in the air
Yeah my my job is to get them off the ground once they’re up in the air who cares where they come down it’s not my department shout out to Space Program I didn’t have any AD reads today I don’t know if I was supposed to do one it’s
Been two weeks since we did one of these maybe um check out bet check out BP’s golf that’s fun um you want to talk a little tney next week if you are in North Carolina please please use my promo codes that uh helps me that helps my budget for the
Year what do you want to talk turny yeah let’s do a little tney talk next week see we maybe a find a good guest who’s like got like like like a Bonafide we can get a Bonafide uh we maybe yeah maybe we get Tim if Tim’s free you know’s a card [ __ ] Brinks
Brinks oh [ __ ] that I don’t know if he would do it that would be awesome I don’t I don’t know if he would either but he’s a maniac yeah uh let’s yeah we maybe like Tuesday move it up a day something like that do a Tuesday we’ll
See so it’s not as dead it’s not it’s not Landing like a thud as people are listening on Thursday morning with the games TI oh yeah we can we can do it early for sure yeah let’s we we’ll see if we can get Tim uh if Tim’s not
Available maybe uh somebody else who’s like a true blue college basketball originator it would be fun to to join us we’ll see sure all right you guys will check you if you watch this on the YouTube hit the thumbs up if you listen to the podcast for him share it with a
Friend give us some feedback talk about the draft talk about the free agency markety leave us let us know who deserves failing grades in your eyes did we miss any FS I’m sure we did I people wanted us to talk about Russell Wilson but Seattle the Steelers the Steelers
Are given Russell Wilson $1.2 million so hly I’m I’m I’m in can’t can’t in good I can’t in good conscience give them enough for that I’m I’m in on I’m I’m in on Pittsburgh actually oh he can’t throw across the middle you’re acting like he he could never
Learn to throw across the middle you guys he’s been a quarterback for like 20 years yeah like I I think they’re gonna be better off and Jesus Christ they’re paying him like kicker money there’s a bunch of kickers playing in Long Snapper money yeah he’s making like practice
Squad guy money so yeah all right man good job hour and a half I know you gotta go let’s wrap it up here I’m gonna get the mus and then I’m going to end the stream all that you good for the outro music do you have your outro topic your outro banter Oh I thought I did I don’t I you were kind of you were a lot negative than I was A+ for the Raven signing Derrick Henry I don’t care all old he is like you
