Myles Garrett on Micah Parsons contract: “he should get every penny”, & More! | The Insiders

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Training camps are just about a
month away, and the drama
continues surrounding some top pass rushers. When and how much
should the likes of Micah
Parsons, T.J. Watt, and Trey Hendrickson get paid? We will
tell you the latest. It’s easy
to pick favorites to win divisions, especially as we’re
sitting here in June, not Adam
Rank. He has some sleepers for you tonight that he says just
might raise a banner in 2025.
Could some of those teams be led by young quarterbacks? Well,
Mark Ross is going to be here as
well. He’s got some names that he says are guaranteed. Yes.
Guaranteed to improve in 2025.
Welcome inside with the insiders alongside Ian Rapoport and Judy
Battista. I am Tom Pelissero. We
are 80 days out from kickoff to the 2025 NFL season. All but
four teams around the league
have now wrapped up their offseason programs, which means
for the moment, we’ve still got
a lot of football players on baseball fields. That’s where
Myles Garrett was yesterday for
Father’s Day, celebrating in Arlington back near his
hometown, throwing out the first
pitch alongside his father, Myles Garrett, who chose to wear
a Rangers jersey and some very
large pants. Not sure quite what’s going on there. Not a bad
pitch, dad. Maybe. Could have
been a little better on the grab. Myles the man to reset the
pass rusher market earlier this
offseason, also shared some thoughts on Micah Parsons
cashing in. I think you deserve
whatever he’s earned. I mean, the guy is special. Of course
they got the chance to train
with him. And you know, I’ve seen his work ethic. I seen how
he attacks up the weights
running. You know, he’s, you know, 100% committed to his
craft and getting better every
day. And someone who produces on the field and has that level of
dedication, you know, to the
game, you know, you should you know, you should get every penny
he’s owed. So a lot of items on
the off season checklist here, Ian. But a huge one. It’s in
Dallas. It is Micah Parsons.
Tell me where we stand right now with a Cowboys team that never
is in a huge rush to do these
deals. And one of the top edge players in the game. No. In
fact, Micah Parsons said himself
recently that he believes the Cowboys are costing themselves
money by not doing this deal
early. But it just does not seem like that is going to happen.
And look, you take a landscape
of these deals, you understand where things are. And it does
make sense that Micah Parsons
would be left. Have no doubt that most of the other players,
if they were to do interviews
just like Myles Garrett, would at least acknowledge that it
would make sense if Micah
Parsons ended the offseason began the season as the highest
paid non-quarterback in the NFL.
In fact, at this point, I would be surprised if it did not
happen. So yes, as Myles Garrett
said, Micah Parsons deserve deserves everything he could
possibly get. He is owed a ton
of money by the Dallas Cowboys. It is going to be a lot. In
fact, they had some initial
negotiations now with his agent, David Mulugheta, but with
Parsons himself, where the
numbers they discussed were high, were really high. Deal did
not get done. And they really
haven’t made progress since then. But Myles Garrett is going
to make a lot, a lot of money. A
young player in his prime ready for a second contract. That
makes sense for T.J. Watt,
another top edge rusher who is in the market for a new deal,
who has had negotiations with
his team and his agent for potentially a new deal. This is
a little more complicated. No
one doubts that T.J. Watt has been one of the best players in
football for the better part of
the last decade, but he is going for his third deal, and
obviously at the end last year,
he didn’t quite look like the dominant force that he did
earlier on in his career. Not
saying he’s slowing down, I’m just saying it’s more
complicated to do a third deal.
Maybe he comes in just under these guys. Either way, we are
going to see some edge rushers
make huge, huge paydays before the season. And unlike Micah
Parsons and T.J. Watt, who have
been trying to outshoot that. Myles Garrett $40 million per
year contract, Trey Hendrickson
is not looking to reset the market, but he does want to be
paid fairly. When you compare
that to some of the other deals that got done in the offseason,
whether that was the Max Crosby
extension with the Raiders, whether that was Danielle Hunter
on another basically fully
guaranteed one year extension that carries him through 2026.
We know this because Trey
Anderson has said a lot of this publicly. He wants a new deal.
He’s not going to play on the
old one, which owes him a little over $16 million in 2025. He
also wants a multiyear
extension, not another one year type of deal. He wants some
level of security after last
year, when he initially requested a trade in 2024,
rescinded it, played it out, led
the league in sacks. He wants to get paid fairly for his status.
There has been nothing new.
Let’s be clear about that. In recent days, the sides have
remained engaged for quite some
time. There is a pathway here for them to get something done.
However, we are not there just
yet. As for Aidan Hutchinson, we haven’t talked about as much.
The young star pass rusher from
the Lions, of course, had a really gruesome injury that
ended his 2024 season. We’ve all
seen the videos of him online. He’s running, he’s not quite
cutting and doing things at the
full football level, but full anticipation. He’s going to be
ready to go. And if Aidan
Hutchinson, there’s absolutely no rush here because as you’re
getting healthy, as you’re
showing that you are the same guy again, you’re waiting on TJ
Watt and Micah Parsons to get
paid and then saying, I’m a lot younger than TJ Watt. I’m as
good as Micah Parsons. Let’s let
all of this stuff fall into place. So it does not sound like
there’s been anything ramping up
on the Aidan Hutchinson front just yet. Judy. But once we see
those Micah Parsons and what
deals get done, at some point it might behoove the Lions to just
say, okay, before the price goes
up any more, let’s get something done. Well, there are non pass
rushers in line for contracts to
actually two of them at the New York Jets. Source Gardner. The
cornerback and receiver Garrett
Wilson, both of them in line for contracts. Both top ten picks in
the 2022 draft. And both have
made clear, especially Garrett Wilson in recent days, that they
want to be jets for life. What
makes this situation so intriguing is these were draft
picks of the previous regime.
There has been a total regime change at the New York Jets this
offseason, and Aaron Glenn has
really stressed the idea of culture change and people who
want to be here. Aaron Glenn
wanted to be the Jets head coach. He wants players who want
to be Jets. Source. Gardner has
made it clear he showed up to the offseason program this year
and showed up to minicamp to
make the point that he wants to be here, he wants to be a jet,
and Garrett Wilson said he wants
to be a jet for life. That was always a bit of a question,
especially for Garrett Wilson,
who showed some frustration, especially during the Aaron
Rodgers tenure, but certainly
the presence of his former college teammate Justin Fields
seems to have revived Garrett
Wilson. Going to be interesting to see where their contracts
come in, because the market has
exploded, especially at wide receiver. Very curious to see
what the numbers are for those
two and if they can get them done this offseason. That’s what
happens when you have record
salary cap spikes too, which is just naturally there’s more
money into the marketplace. And
so the numbers are going to go up. We just listed three of
them. Edge rusher got reset in
this offseason. Wide receiver got reset this offseason. Corner
got reset multiple times. So did
tight end. It was Trey McBride who got a $19 million per year
contract. Then George Kittle, on
his third deal with the 49 ers, leapfrogged McBride listening to
Kittle earlier today. He’s happy
and hopes more continue to reset that bar. The only way for the
tight end market to continue to
grow is if everybody’s getting paid. That’s that’s the only way
to do it. You can’t just have
one guy do it and then it just sits for 3 or 4 years because
then you’re stuck and it’s
stagnant. No one’s getting paid. So we want everybody like, I
want everybody to have great
seasons. When you first started, I think the top of the market
was 15 and now we’re almost at
20. So like we’re continually growing it and, and you know,
as, as a tight end and as a
position who does everything. Yeah, I think we should be
making more money, but we’re
working on it. You take a look at the highest paid tight ends
in the NFL right now, that top
of that market 19 million, that is about half of the top of the
wide receiver market with Jamaar
Chase coming over the top of that in the course of this
offseason. George Kittle’s
teammates, some got paid, some moved on. One guy we haven’t
talked about a whole lot because
for once, there’s not any drama surrounding him, is Trent
Williams. He, of course, had the
contract situation last year through the course of training
camp here. He is 36 years old at
this point, but he told reporters last week, I would
love to play until I’m 40.
Definitely not retiring with something left on the table.
Judy, which is good news for all
of us who have been going year to year wondering if Trent
Williams could retire at any
second. Also really good news for Kyle Shanahan to continue to
have one of the best blindside
protectors in the NFL, right? Trent Williams is about to be 37
in just a few weeks, but he is
still playing at an elite elite tackle level. He only played in
11 games last season into week
11. He had the injury that ended his season, but PFF still had
him rated as the sixth best
tackle in the league. He only gave up one sack last year
because of the injury. He didn’t
get voted an all pro, but that snapped a streak of three
straight seasons as an All-Pro,
so he is still playing at a top tackle level. Last season, a lot
of things went wrong for the San
Francisco 49 ers, but in seasons before that you could see the
difference in the offense when
Trent Williams was off the field. He is a critical part of
the way that offense goes. It is
great news that he wants to play until he’s 40. Also, I wonder if
philosophically, if we’re going
to have to continue having this conversation the way guys take
care of their bodies now, the
things we know about rest and recovery, are we going to see
more players, even guys like
Trent Williams, pushing into their 40s, Julius Campbell
getting very close here. Judy.
He turns 39 before week one of the 2025 NFL season. He is back
in Arizona after several other
stops. He said recently, I enjoyed passing knowledge.
There’s no point for me to die
with all of it. Ian. Anytime we’re invoking death before
retirement, you know what, guys?
Getting up there in years. We all love Calais Campbell,
though. One of the great
characters, one of the great human beings in the game and
still one of the biggest dudes
that you don’t want to see, just probably not for 70 snaps a game
anymore. No, and that’s not
really who he is anymore. It’s more of like a 30 or 35 snap
guy. Still can be really, really
productive. Which no doubt he showed that several times last
year. The sacks are still there,
the pressures are still there, the leadership is still there.
And Calais Campbell makes a
great point here. Every year in the offseason, there’s been a
point where you say, is Calais
Campbell going to retire? In fact, Tom, I remember you and I
were sharing a car with Clay cam
on the way to a Super Bowl pregame show when he was on NFL
network one year. It was like 2
or 3 years ago, and I remember wondering, how was I going to
quietly bring up like, hey, are
you retiring? I think he’s played three seasons since then.
He might never retire. But the
best thing that a guy like Calais Campbell can do, forget
about the pressures and the
sack. It’s pass on the knowledge to the young guys. These are the
kinds of things that can stick
with young defensive linemen or even young linebackers. Anyone
getting after a quarterback for
years to come. This is sort of his role now, to be an elder
statesman and still be pretty
good on the field. Lane Johnson starting to sneak up that list
as well, now 35 years old as he
gets ready for another season with the Philadelphia Eagles. He
said recently that I feel like
I’m getting closer to maybe my peak than he was early in his
career, or even at 29 or 30.
He’s done a ton of injuries, obviously, but coming off his
sixth Pro Bowl now, big deal for
Howie Roseman is those lifetime Eagles Fletcher Cox Jason Kelce
Brandon Graham, Lane Johnson. As
long as he is still willing to get himself back out onto the
field, which sometimes is a
battle, expect him to be doing it in Philadelphia. The state of
Missouri certainly hopes that
they have done enough to keep the Chiefs in their side of
Kansas City for life. Missouri
governors Missouri’s governor this week signing legislative
package that includes hundreds
of millions of dollars in financial aid to keep the chiefs
in Kansas City, the Kansas City,
the one that’s actually in the state called Kansas, has been
trying to build a new domed
stadium. Now the ball is officially in the Chiefs court
in terms of what comes next. As
for the potential new stadium in the District of Columbia,
Council members delaying
approval of funds for a new stadium at the RFK Stadium site,
all part of the bureaucracy that
goes on whenever you’re talking about being able to build
multibillion dollar stadium
projects. Certainly there are a lot of people, maybe even one in
the white House, who would like
to have the commanders back in old D.C. Coming up on this show,
a guy who’s definitely not going
back to D.C, Kirk Cousins, he had a run there with the
commanders, then with Minnesota,
and then not even a season as the Falcons starter before he
headed to the bench. What does
the future hold with cousins still in Atlanta? It’s a $27.5
million backup. What are the
expectations for Michael Penix? Cam Wolf will be entered to get
it. Get into it next on the
insiders. When you list on can’t imagine the reward? Visit
Adopt Us kids.org. Michael Penix
is throwing for the Atlanta Falcons. That is a good sign,
especially when he’s doing one
of those nice slow mo ones with the tight spiral right in close
to his face where you just know
it is OTAs and minicamp a staple of this time of year. That said,
when you do regular speed on
Michael Penix, that thing absolutely flies a rocket for an
arm and so on. The Falcons are
expecting huge, huge things from this season. Not exactly why
we’re always talking about the
Falcons quarterbacks. Anyway, let’s check in with Penix and
Kirk Cousins to see how their
spring was going. Michael’s going to do great. He’s going to
have a great career. He’s off to
a great start. He’s got all the all the tangibles and
intangibles. You need to be
successful and I’m just here to support him, you know, as he
needs it and just getting
better. You know, being better than I was last year, being
better than I was yesterday. And
today, you know, each and every day just work on improving, you
know, on the field, off the
field, building connections, relationships with my teammates.
You know, it’s a lot of
different aspects that go into that. You know, in order for,
you know, this team to have the
season that we want to have this year. Ian Rapoport here Judy
Battista now joined by our good
friend Cam Wolf. So cam you saw the beautiful beautiful Michael
Penix highlights. You listen to
the sound. You know a ton about this Atlanta Falcons situation.
It’s a complicated one. We’ve
talked a lot about the Atlanta Falcons quarterback room not
because of Penix but because the
highest paid backup maybe in NFL history is still there as well.
What’s the dynamic going to be
like in this Atlanta Falcons quarterback room? Ian I spoke
with one Falcons coach who said
last week’s minicamp appearance for Kirk Cousins was essentially
what they think is gives them
confidence this will work into the fall. Kirk Cousins was not a
distraction at all. He handled
the media well. He was talking with Michael Penix throughout
practice, but largely he
assimilated into the background. This is Michael Penix team and
as Kirk Cousins said also in
that presser, we’re moving forward. We’re moving forward
without this idea that there’s a
trade still out there waiting for us. As we’ve looked around
the league after Aaron Rodgers
signed with the Steelers. There’s no starting job just
waiting there for Kirk Cousins.
So both sides essentially said we’re going to have to make this
work. Kirk Cousins is not going
to make a huge issue here. And for Michael Penix he’s focused
on making this his team. And
what’s been interesting about his process is they’ve got him
with some of the Falcons
legendary quarterbacks throughout the offseason. I’m
told Raheem Morris got him with
Matt Ryan multiple times in person on the phone. Try to help
him with his prep of being that
franchise quarterback. Michael Vick also stopped by practice
about a week and a half ago to
pour into Michael Penix as well. And so this is his team. And his
big thing is I want to show the
leadership to the entire team, not just my offense. He’s had
lunches, he’s had golf outings,
really trying to show the genuine relationships he thinks
need to needed to take over this
team. And one big beneficiary of that will be Drake London. He
had over 350 yards in the last
three games that Michael Penix played together. He joked this
week. If people think that Drake
London still underappreciated, they won’t after this season. So
his focus is on making sure
Drake London and the Falcons eat. I don’t think anybody
thinks Kirk Cousins is the type
to make a scene, but you could just see in that little clip we
showed you of his meeting with
reporters, you could hear the sort of deflation and
disappointment in his voice, the
resignation. I am still very curious to see if he remains on
the roster, if a trade does not
develop somewhere along the line, if somebody does not get
hurt and need a starting caliber
quarterback like Kirk Cousins. What happens if Michael Penix
struggles at any point this
season? What will the dynamic be then? If there are calls for a
quarterback change in Atlanta?
That’s really going to be a test of the Atlanta coaching staff.
All right cam we could talk
about quarterbacks all day. We like to pretend that they’re the
only thing that matters. They
are not the only thing that matters. What other factors are
important for the Falcons going
into this offseason. Yeah huge factor. The Falcons 25 season is
how early they’re defensive
rookies will be able to contribute. And look they went
all in on this draft getting
Jalen Walker James Pearce off the edge early on. I’m told
there’s real hope that their top
four rookies on the defensive side can get significant roles
if not starting roles this
season. And you got Jalen Walker who’s going to be the hybrid
linebacker edge rusher and James
Pearce off the edge. You also got Xavier Watts at safety and
Billy Bowman who’s going to play
nickel corner for them. And Raheem Morris talked about an
intentionality in getting them
clear roles. Look this was a team that had 31st in sacks last
year. They know they need a
little bit of explosion, a little bit of speed off the
edge. And early signs have been
that Jalen Walker and James Pierce can provide that early.
Raheem went as far as calling
Jalen Walker a future captain already after just two months
with the Falcons. And one key
part of their development is going to be the vets in the
room. And I want to shout out to
Jesse Bates, because now that Grady Jarrett is in Chicago.
Jesse Bates is now that
undisputed face of the defense. And he’s already taken multiple
of these rookies under his wing.
He has multiple iPads every meeting, trying to show how to
study the techniques that are
needed and really answering any questions you need for these
rookies, because he knows
they’re going to need them to be able to make that division, that
playoff run that they can make
this year. They are going to need those rookies to come on
quickly if they are going to
pressure the Tampa Bay Bucs in the NFC South. Cam, we know you
are probably going to be at a
lot of those games. Thank you very much, Tom. Time now for a
front office view with our guy
Mark Ross. Mark you got a new column up NFL.com looking at
players guaranteed to improve in
2025. So get your full George Zimmer on with me here. Tell me
about one of the guys on that
list. Packers linebacker Edgerrin Cooper. Adrian Cooper
who was my favorite player
coming out of the draft last season. Started out training
camp banged up, missed three
games, only played 45% of the defensive snaps last year. Tom.
But when he played, he showed
that he was a menace and racking up. You see the stats right
there and most importantly, it
was just the explosiveness that jumps out of out at you when I
watched him. Same way it was
when he was in college with a full season being on the field
as the starter. This guy has all
pro potential. Tom. And then my next guy would be Brian Burns
from the New York Football
Giants there, who played well last year, had eight and a half
sacks, most pressures, most
tackles he’s had in his career Dexter Lawrence wrecking it.
Wrecking shop there in the
middle with nine sacks. But now here comes Abdul Carter and
Abdul Carter, who I thought was
the best pass rusher coming out since Micah Parsons. Very
similar to that. I think the way
the Giants will use Abdul Carter all around. You got Dexter
Lawrence in the middle, which
will cause a lot of one on one matchups for Brian Burns, who I
think will absolutely feast on
either side, left or right hand or left end. With Abdul Carter
getting so much attention,
moving him around and Dexter Lawrence in the middle, and then
my last guy would be the
quarterback, C.J. Stroud from the Houston Texans. We all know
how he jumped on the scene as
the offensive rookie of the year, rookie of the year, and
then had a little dip last year.
But despite that, they still won ten games. They still won the
division. They still won a
playoff game. And that shows you the power of a franchise
quarterback, of not just piling
up stats, but saying, I can lead this team to wins. I think they
they totally revamped the
offensive line. He was he got sacked. I mean, so much last
year, they brought in a new
group of young receivers in the draft. They’re from Iowa State.
The big tackle out of Minnesota
I think will jump in there and start eventually. And I think
really that Nick Chubb siding
with he and Mixon, if Nick Chubb is anything close to that
running game is going to be
super powerful. Tom. So C.J. Stroud is going to bounce back
look like he did as a rookie.
I’m writing all these down Edgerrin Cooper Brian Burns C.J.
Stroud. You like the way they
look. Mark Ross guarantees it. Mark, thank you very much. More
from you in just a bit. Coming
up after this though, let’s head down to the NFC South. Where
could there finally be a
challenger to the Bucs in that division? Sarah Walsh was at
Bucs minicamp next. She’ll be
with us for her biggest takeaway on the perpetual NFC South
champs. That’s next on the
Insiders. Any questions? How did The wait is over and the
countdown to kickoff has begun.
Single game tickets for the 2020 NFL season are on sale now.
Visit NFL.com. Tickets to
purchase tickets today. Tickets are available through the NFL
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for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were on the field for
minicamp last week, so they are
already on summer vacation. You see a little slo mo action here
and maybe regular speed action
too. Little Baker Mayfield again, the Bucs are already on
vacation, but Sarah Walsh is not
on vacation. She is joining us here tonight to discuss the
Tampa Bay Bucs she knows this
team about as well as anybody. All right. As we said Sarah,
they are already on the beach.
Although they could be on the beach any day really in Tampa.
What are the takeaways from
their minicamp? I think what we learned, Judy, is what we
already thought we were going to
see when you looked at this roster on paper, and that’s the
fact that the receivers group is
completely stacked for this Tampa team, because you already
have the two Pro Bowlers, Mike
Evans and Chris Godwin junior, by the way, that is a name
change. He’s going by Godwin
Junior now as a nod to his father. And then you already had
Jalen McMillan who is an
emerging star now going into his second season. They added first
rounder Emeka Egbuka in this
draft. They also added a speedster in Tez Johnson. And so
Mike Evans, who has been around,
has seen a lot of football. He is entering his 12th season.
Here’s what he had to say about
his receivers room after more than a decade in this league. I
say it every year, but we always
get great players come in, so that’s been very fortunate for
me in my career to be around a
lot of great young players, and they’ve added to their room
tremendously. They’re already
very polished already. Emeka is really strong hands, super
smart. His speed, quickness. You
thought specifically on Emeka, once you get the ball in his
hands, what are you able to do
like making people miss? He looks like a running back but he
catches like Chris Godwin, like
he’s he’s very polished, very well rounded player. Evans would
also say that the fact that
these new guys are not only just really good, but really hungry,
he says it motivates him to be
even hungrier despite how long he has played. Now Evans, we
know, is going to end up in the
Hall of Fame when his career is over. Keep this in context,
though, right? He’s their number
one receiver. When Chris Godwin Jr was lost for the year because
of an ankle injury last season,
it was Godwin Jr that was leading the league in
receptions. And then you go late
in the year and it was Jalen McMillan who was just a rookie
who had seven touchdowns in his
last five games. If Godwin Jr is healthy, healthy, if McMillan
continues to do what they think
and you add these new guys who already are making some people
open their eyelids down here in
Tampa, Mike Evans might be right about this being the best
receiving room that he has ever
been a part of. Judy. Despite that, Sarah, I feel like the
Tampa Bay Bucs still don’t get
as much respect as they deserve. They are like perpetual
underdogs, even though they just
keep winning the division. How do they change that narrative?
In the post Tom Brady era? I
think it’s probably changing this year. Going into the
season, the Bucs have now won
the NFC South four years in a row. No team has ever won that
division five years in a row,
Baker Mayfield said. At this training camp, if you are not
trying to get better, you are
not going to survive. Now. Baker has put up career numbers in his
first year in Tampa, even better
numbers in his second year in Tampa. And now, as we are
talking about this loaded
receivers group, you’ve got a run game that they didn’t have
in Bucky Irving. I don’t think
anyone is discounting the Bucs. I mean this is a potent offense.
They’ve got every starter
returning, including every member that started on that
offensive line. That is huge.
The question marks have been over on defense. And Todd Bowles
pointed out that at safety, that
is probably going to be the most heavily competed for position
during training camp. Antoine
Winfield, Junior Tykee Smith expected to be the starters, but
then there’s guys after that.
They need depth there. Shilo Sanders is a name that is
fighting for a spot there.
Bowles last piece of advice before these guys headed off
into vacation was be ready to
roll and don’t be working out indoors because that is not
going to work when you return
here in this Florida heat for training camp, they might be
still underdogs nationally, but
this offense was so good last season, I don’t think that there
is any more slipping under the
radar in this post. Tom Brady era. Judy. It might also be time
to stop calling it the Tom Brady
era, because this will be the third season. Tom Brady. They
only had Tom Brady for three
seasons, so we might need to call it maybe the Baker Mayfield
era. So I think that’s thank you
very much Tom. The Bucs just keep winning the division, which
means everybody else has to get
used to losing. Well Chuba Hubbard among others this week
saying Panthers are sick and
tired of it. I think we’re the closest we’ve ever been to a
playoff run. For more on that,
let’s bring in our buddy Adam Rank, who’s got some things to
say about sleeper candidates to
win divisions around the NFL. Let’s start out right there in
the NFC South rank. Are the
Panthers the team that you think people might be sleeping on
here? Well I do like that Chuba
Hubbard has goals. Similarly I have a goal of breaking 80. I
don’t know if either one of
those things will happen this season, but I do really like the
Carolina Panthers chances of
winning the NFC South this year. As a matter of fact, I believe
they’re going to break through.
Last season, they made some great strides when they rebuilt
the interior of their offensive
line, and Bryce Young went from being benched in favor of Andy
Dalton playing some really good
football down the stretch. And there were times where it looked
like Bryce Young was that guy
that they thought he was going to be when he was the number one
overall pick in the draft, and
for this season, they brought in Ted McMillan to give him a
viable option to go along with
Xavier Leggett. And defensively, Dan Morgan did a nice job
grabbing a pair of edge rushers
in the second and third round. Who should make an impact. And
there’s Ted McMillan right
there. I know our buddy Steve Smith senior didn’t like him as
much, but I still think he could
be a really good wide receiver. And he’s also somebody you
should look at in fantasy too.
But we can talk about that at another point. Let’s head out to
the AFC West here. Rank who is a
sleeper to win that division. I don’t know if they count as a
sleeper because they won. They
did make the playoffs last year. But it’s the Denver Broncos who
are very good at the end of last
season. And again, they got into the playoffs. I know a lot of
teams were happy. They didn’t
have to face the Bengals, but they were in the playoffs. And
when we sit here and everybody,
you know, while we sit here and we celebrate Bo Nix, who had the
most passing yards of all rookie
quarterbacks last season, it’s really the defense that stands
out to me. The defense was
already pretty good. Then you go out there and you add Dre
Greenlaw. Hufanga you bring in
Baron, some of the other guys to a great to a defense that was
already becoming very good. And
it’s interesting though because when you look at the AFC West,
this is easily the most
difficult division in football. You have four excellent head
coaches who have had success in
this league. And I would say that every team, including the
Raiders, should feel like they
have a real opportunity to go out and win the AFC West. My
pick is the Denver Broncos. All
right, one more here AFC North rank who is a sleeper to win
that division. Again I don’t
know how much of a sleeper this counts but I love the Cincinnati
Bengals. Now obviously they’ve
got some things to clean up especially on the defensive side
of the football. The defense was
a problem a year ago. They fired the defensive coordinator, but
now they’re going through a
thing where they’re trying to figure out what they’re going to
do with Trey Hendrickson. Now,
there are reports that it sounds like talks are getting resumed.
You would know more than me.
They figured they need to figure out what they’re doing with
Shemar Stewart as well. And then
they have to find a replacement for Jermaine Pratt. They have a
lot of things going on that they
need to fix defensively. But you know what? They did the right
thing. Jamaar Chase is there.
Tee Higgins is there. Joe Burrow is there. There is still a huge
opportunity for this team
offensively that I think that if they just tweak a couple of
things defensively, they don’t
need to be the 85 bears. They don’t need to be the 2000
Ravens. Just just make a stop
here or there. That should be enough for the Bengals to win a
lot of games and to get into the
playoffs this season. Frank, thank you a lot more from you
coming up in just a little bit
here. A lot more to come in general here on tonight’s
episode of The Insiders,
including a team that nobody is saying is a sleeper. Well, there
is sleeper in the regard. You
can probably keep sleeping in a lot of people’s minds. The
Browns Joe Flacco is back there.
Is he the starter for that Cleveland team? Judy Battista
will be back with some
storylines after this on The Insiders. I knew that Saint Jude
was a children’s hospital, but I
in no way understood the scope At. Call Me Richie Tarantino. At
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so many things in our life.
Welcome back to the insiders Ian Rapoport here Judy Battista
right over there Judy you have a
great story on NFL.com. Literally right now. See the
thing right under our faces.
That’s where you go. And NFL.com Batista to get all the different
storylines. And you do a great
job of really coaching us in how to think. So let’s start right
there. Give us some NFL
storylines that I absolutely cannot overreact to right. This
is storylines coming out of
Minicamps that we should not be overreacting to. Let’s start
with how the quarterback
competition in Cleveland looked during minicamp. This is
something that is going to play
out during training camp, during the preseason, we’re going to be
counting reps. Then we’re going
to be seeing which of the rookie quarterbacks looks like he’s
moving ahead of the other. Also
keep in mind Joe Flacco has been in Cleveland. He has had success
with Kevin Stefanski. So when
they are divvying up reps, perhaps they don’t need to give
quite as many to Joe Flacco
because they know what he can do, especially early in training
camp. Maybe later on they will
want to get him ready if he’s going to be the starter for the
start of the regular season. But
this is going to be an evolving competition for quarterbacks in
camp. Two rookies in camp. We
will see much later in the summer how this breaks down. All
right. Similarly in Jacksonvill,
Travis Hunter we’re all obsessed with him and how Travis Hunter
is going to play two positions.
Or will he play two positions during the spring, he was
practicing at both positions,
receiver and cornerback on separate days. And so of course,
we all fell into the trap. We
were counting how many days he was spending at wide receiver,
how many at cornerback. The
Jaguars have made it clear they see him as a wide receiver.
First. He wants to play both, of
course, but this is going to be a fluid situation, not just
during training camp, not just
during the preseason, not just during his rookie season,
perhaps throughout his entire
career. How much he plays at each position. So calm down,
breathe deeply. We’re going to
see a lot of Travis Hunter at both wide receiver and
cornerback. And finally, in New
England, everybody take a deep breath about Stefon Diggs and
his adventures on the boat. Was
that video of him partying on a boat great. No, it was not.
Especially since new head coach
Mike Vrabel has spent a whole lot of time talking about making
good decisions. That one didn’t
really strike anybody as a great decision. Having said that,
Stefon Diggs then showed up at
OTAs and minicamp, and Vrabel praised how engaged he was with
the team and his energy. And the
Patriots need him. They need a veteran presence in that wide
receiver room. They have really
been lacking in playmakers at wide receiver the last few
seasons. It has shown they need
him there. For Drake May’s development, far more important
about Stefon Diggs is how he is
progressing from the ACL injury he suffered last season, and
when he will be fully cleared to
practice completely with the Patriots. Yeah, still not all
the way there yet for the
Patriots hopefully at some point during training camp. But you’re
right. We talk all we want about
the boat. This is a guy who has to absolutely be a big time, big
time weapon for them okay. Now
you gave us the storylines we shouldn’t overreact to. How
about the storylines that need a
little more attention than we are currently giving it? Well, I
think we’re going to have to
give a lot of attention to the Anthony Richardson situation in
Indianapolis with the AC joint
soreness, perhaps a re-aggravation of that injury
that he had earlier in his
career. This is a really important thing because one of
the reasons why Anthony
Richardson is involved in a quarterback competition is in
Indianapolis is because he can’t
stay on the field. His durability has been a huge
problem. The guy looks
completely indestructible. Just look at him. He is huge, but
he’s missed a ton of games in
his first two seasons in the NFL, so they don’t know about
his durability. They brought in
Daniel Jones, a player who, to be honest, when you talk to some
people around the league,
thought had a pretty good chance of winning that quarterback
competition anyway, and now
certainly is in a much better position to win that
competition, especially because
coach Shane Steichen would not put a timeline on one. Anthony
Richardson might be available to
resume practice. He did not participate in minicamp. We will
see what it looks like as we get
closer to training camp, but this is certainly a setback for
Anthony Richardson, certainly as
he threw a ton during the spring, probably more than he
has ever thrown, then showed the
effects of that by not participating in mandatory
minicamp. You hope by training
camp he’s okay. But I think it’s fair to say taking nothing at
its face right now. Judy, thank
you very much. Great stuff, as always. Coming up, that’s
Omarion Hampton, one of the
rookie running backs expected to have a huge impact, huge impact
on the field in fantasy. All the
things. Let’s get into it. When we come up next on the insiders,
which fantasy running backs
which young players are going to outperform expectations? Oh it’s
the Capital One bank guy. That’s
me. So what do you do outside of If you’re a fan of an NFL team
that took a running back or
signed one to complement the one already in place, you love the
depth. If you’re a fantasy
player, you’re already pulling out your hair. Of which one of
these guys should I take when my
drafts roll around in July and August? Hopefully you didn’t
already happen because that
would make you a degenerate. Welcome back to the insiders.
Tom Pelissero, Ian Rapoport,
Mark Ross and Adam Rank. We’re going to play a little game
right now called fantasy versus
reality where we’ll let you guys chime in on some of these
situations here from both the
fantasy and reality perspective I’ll start with you here. Rank
of those rookie running backs.
Who’s the one you think will outplay his fantasy draft
position? I’m doing the fantasy
part of this. I wish somebody would have told no. I’m kidding.
I like RJ Harvey and I know a
lot of people will be out there. I’ve already been hit up on
Twitter with this. Or like what
happened? JC I know JK Dobbins is there and there’s a very real
possibility that this turns into
the Kimani Vidal fiasco that happened last season. But I’m
pretty optimistic because Sean
Payton did use a premium draft pick on bringing in RJ Harvey,
and I know that the lazy thing
would be to be like, well, this is his Alvin Kamara. However,
we’ve seen what Sean Payton does
with guys who fit certain molds. I mean it’s one of the reasons
why Bo Nix did so well last
year. And it’s why RJ Harvey is going to do so well this season.
All right. That was good
fantasy. Now let’s get to reality. Mark I will hit you on
this. Give me a young running
back that will outperform his real life draft status. Well
we’ve got to go with Treveyon
Henderson who got taken 38th there in the second round. Some
thought he was a first round
talent and I thought he was too. And I think he’ll play like a
first round talent. Number one
you saw Rhamondre Stevenson is there. But Antonio Gibson was
supposed to be the receiving
portion of that one two punch. Well, he didn’t live up to that.
So I think immediately Henderson
will be make an impact in the pass game. And then I think
eventually he’ll take over as
the number one back from Rhamondre. Just because he is
that talented. Drake Maye will
be a lot better. Will Campbell there on the offensive line.
Treveyon Henderson is going to
crush it like a first round pick. Brant coming back to you
here. A wide receiver who will
outplay his fantasy draft position. Well I’ve been told to
keep this brief. So I will say
Trey Harris for A22 pronged approach. Number one talent.
He’s a downfield playmaker when
he’s healthy. I know he’s battled some injuries, but when
he’s healthy and available on
the field, he is tremendous down the field and there’s also an
opportunity. The LA Chargers are
led by Ladd McConkey as their number one target. Gator I’m not
going to be shocked when Trey
Harris is number two on that list in targets. That really
wasn’t all that quick. All right
Mark, one more for you. Give me a real life receiver who is who
is expected to outperform his
real life draft status. Well, that has got to be Jack Besh
going out there to the Raiders.
We know Brock Bowers is going to get all the attention in the
pass game. They took S and went
up there for a reason. Give him a ton of carries. But Jack Besh
I think is walking in there. He
might be the best receiver on the team already. I’m sorry,
Jakobi Meyers, but this guy has
done nothing but just play big and catch balls and TCU knows
how to get open plays physical.
He’s going to bring that attitude there to the Raiders.
They’re going to be paying
attention to Brock. They’re going to be paying attention to
gentry. And here comes Jack Besh
with a ton of catches, more so than some guys in the first
round. Mark rank, thank you very
much. More from you guys soon. I am sure coming up after this
though, we’re all coming off of
Father’s Day here. There have been some very famous fathers
and sons, including the Slaters,
the McCaffrey’s among others here. What were some of our
favorites that we saw together
this past weekend? We’ll tell you after this on The Insiders.
Almost done.
Oh, oh, I’m sticking with you. changes the game. Happy Father’s
Day from the NFL to you and the
special dads in your life. Ernest Jones, Drew Lock, among
others. Celebrating out there in
Seattle. Dak Prescott just became a father again very
recently. Look at that little
peanut on the left right there for the Cowboys. Quarterback
Quinnen Williams a proud girl
dad showing off right there at last year’s Pro Bowl games. And
Tua Tagovailoa in a photo that
if you start looking at where is there a giant metal slide on top
of a football field indoors will
become somewhat mind bending. But let’s just focus right there
on the fatherly love. Welcome
back to the insiders, Tom Pelissero, Judy Battista and Ian
Rapoport, who always is very
prolific on holidays, but particularly in prolific social
media wise on Father’s Day. Yes,
it was a lovely Father’s Day. So here’s what we did. We went to
the Mets game and if you know
anything about the Mets, they are currently awesome. And there
we are right there on the
jumbotron. Hello Rapoport family. There’s Jude dancing.
There’s dancing. There’s me I’m
dancing. But I’m just sitting and I’m waving to the crowd.
Surely a nice moment. The whole
family was there. There’s Leah with a very cool retro Mets
jersey. Love that. We’re not
going to talk about the score here, right. It wasn’t like
nine. Nothing. It doesn’t
matter. The Mets are so good this year. There’s Max hanging
out. There’s my large soda that
I was drinking with Jude and his amazing hat. We had a ball at
the Mets game. Again, we’re not
going to talk about the score because the Mets have won so
much this year. Just not exactly
anything recently, and certainly not when we were there. Judy,
any special shout outs from your
end here? Shout out to Anthony McCarron, my husband, great dad.
We went to Broadway, we saw The
Great Gatsby yesterday and then we went out to dinner. So we
were following the Mets game on
our phones. We should. Full disclosure they were swept this
weekend. It was a terrible
weekend. Ian did not do what he should have been doing at that
game. Ian, we got 15 seconds
left. Can you show us the dance you were doing in that photo?
Just so we get the full visual?
Yeah. All right, so what I was doing when the photo was going.
No, don’t cut me off here. I’m THERE IT IS.