Fantasy Football Daily - The Fixer: NFC East | Take Talk Podcast

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

In Take Talk 45, Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) and Chris Wecht (@ChrisWechtFF) attempt to "fix" the NFC East with some suggested moves for each of the team in the division. Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. Use our code FANTASYPTS to sign up for a new account at Underdog and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-fantasy-points --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle. From numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. We are back with another episode of the Take Talk podcast. I'm Brett Whitefield, your host sitting next to me digitally is Christopher Wecht. He's filling in for Stephen O'Rourke, who is traveling to Portugal and not Iceland, Chris. Yes. Those are two different places.

Those are two very different places. Don't know why, but I had it in my head. He was traveling to Iceland this week, and he's not. He's traveling to Portugal. So he's enjoying his time off. It's okay. We're going to fill in and get it done without the man. He'll be back for all of the free agency talk.

So today, Chris, what we're going to do is we're going to start a series where we're going division by division and we're going to fix quote unquote fix the teams in the division today we're going to start with the nfc east i figured you're on the pod we might as well let you talk about your eagles and wax poetically about how awesome they are and they have no weaknesses and no problems and they're just the best franchise ever yes done next team done done next team all right now we're going to go in order of the draft um based on their you know performance this season technically the eagles do pick before the Washington commanders, by the way. That is true.

But not because of, not because of record because Howie Roseman just enjoys fleecing people for draft capital. So, yes. So anyways, let's get into the Washington commanders, Chris. They are in an interesting situation because they're

what, middle-ish of the pack and cap space. The reality is there's not a lot of NFL teams with actual cap space at this moment. They're going to have to create space. But they're at it stands, they currently have $16 million in cap space. They've got some key free agents, most notably at a quarterback. They just released Carson Wentz.

Tyler Heineke is a free agent, and they've announced Sam Howell as like, hey, this is the guy we want starting in 2020. So it kind of limits your options, though, when you have limited cap space and Sam Howell starting a quarterback. Yeah. How would I would have rather than started Howell last season than Heineke or when? just because, I mean, we just know what those two guys are at this point. So I don't hate their decision to at this point roll with Hal, but they obviously have to add to that QB room. You can't just go into your season with Sam Hal.

So because they're picking, you know, middle of the draft, they're not going to be in a range to get one of these high, high or top tier QBs. Right. So that leaves them with maybe a second round guy they could add to the room. Maybe they can. And then free agency, but they don't have. have the cap space to get like a Derek Carr level free agent. So they're in that Marriota, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold range probably.

Yeah. Which is going to eat like half of their available cap. Right. Yeah. So it's not great. Terrible spot to be in. Yeah. So,

man, I almost hope they go even to a lower tier and just commit to Howl for this year. See what you have. You have a great team of surrounding him. They have good wide receivers. They've got a fine running back room. They've got a fine tight end room. Their O line isn't terrible.

It's probably middle of the road. They could be decent on offense. I mean, we've seen Heineke be decent in that offense with how. Oh, and we should probably mention they hired Eric Bianamy from the Chiefs to be their new OC. That's probably a pretty relevant hiring there. Yep. That's probably a boost to their offensive output in some. way.

So then that, you know, and then the defense is, is very solid. They've got one of the best defensive lines in the league. They are losing a little bit of secondary depth, most likely, in the, in free agent with Bobby McCain and Rashad Wild Goose being free agents. So they're going to have to add to their secondary somehow, whether it's in the draft or free agency. But yeah, kind of a weird team in a weird spot. And they've kind of just been here for eight year or eight to.

10 years now with QB purgatory really making it tough left. Yeah. I mean, this is a great example, Chris, why you don't F around at the QB position. You know, you should always be in pursuit of good quarterbacks. They've been in pursuit of bad quarterbacks for most of the last eight years. Yeah. And not really. They've really nailed a lot of their like premium draft picks over the past few years.

Terry McLaren Jahan Dotson looks great Chase Young is a beast Montez Sweat Yeah Both are de-tackle Jonathan Allen Duran Payne So like

You're doing a lot of things right You're just If you don't have the QB Now you're in a tough spot Speaking of Duran Payne and Jonathan Allen Probably the best Interior

Duo in the league But they also Will combine to make $40 million this year Just not sure That's a great allocation of funds when you're talking about team building. But nonetheless, that is the strength.

So Chris, fixing this team, making it better, they don't have a lot of options here. This is definitely a regression candidate team. But that's not the job. It's not our job. Our job is to make them better. So what I would do, I think you got to go with like a Mario to back up or compete with Sam Howell as mediocre as Mario is. They just, they don't really have the capital to make a move at quarterback this year.

unless they got crazy. I mean, I guess they could try to trade up to get a quarterback, but then they're not going to be able to address many of their other needs because they're already missing a third round pick. And they'd have to come all the way from 16. Yeah, that's happened. The Eagles came, yeah, the Eagles came from that range back when they drafted Wentz. So they don't, I mean, the Eagles had some other resources to be able to do that.

It would be tough for them to get that high. They would need, I don't know, how far do you think, one of, let's say, one of the big four QBs, Richardson, Levis, Young, and Strout, how far would one have to fall for them to be like, are we, you know, we seriously have to start trying to get, move up. Well, too, the problem, I guess, with that in general is there, as draft guys, we always view the board as, like, this vertical board that's universal for every team. The reality is, is like, there's no way they like all four guys.

They probably like one, maybe two. Yeah. So you have to assume a couple of those guys are off their board. So who's to say that the guy they like is the one that's going to fall? I don't know. It gets to be really tricky. It's almost like you need to be overaggressive. You can't sit there and wait.

You have to have a plan going to the draft of you know what? We really like Bryce Younger. We really like Will Levis or Anthony Richard. We're going to go get that guy. We have an idea of what spot we need to get to. Let's get the number four overall or something. You know, let's get the number three overall to get that guy. I mean, that's really the only way you could.

do it. I just don't see it happening for them, man. They have too many other needs. If they want to keep moving forward, because I imagine, like, Ron Rivera is not like a young guy. He's been around the block. He's a very seasoned veteran coach. I doubt he's going to go rebuild direction, you know.

He probably wants to win. Probably wants to push this thing forward until, you know, his luck with the organization runs out or whatever. So my guess is they bring in a veteran QB. like a Baker you mentioned or Mariotta. And then they need to invest into other spots in that team. So I would continue building on their strength, which is their defense. I would try to build a secondary that matches that D-line.

I'd go corner in the first round. That's what I did for them in the mock draft. There's going to be a lot of corners that will fit what they do. I mean, Christian Gonzalez would be a slam dunk for them. There's a guy who's used to playing a lot of, you know, a lot of zone coverages, a lot of off-type coverages. He's got a great athletic profile. I think he would really, really be a good fit there.

Obviously, that might be late for him. You know, there's a lot of people saying Gonzalez is going to go before that, but I don't know, corners are always messy. Sometimes they go super high. Sometimes they don't. And this is a really deep draft at corner, too. Yeah, I agree with that. How do you like corner there?

You like corner at 16? Yeah, I think that's probably their best path forward. adding O-line depth is never a bad idea if there's a guy they like there as well We should address that in free agency too right because they're probably going to lose One of Trey Turner and or West Schweitzer unless one of those guys gives them a really nice deal Right Trey was a starter for them last year so they they have a hole at right guard they're going to need to fill presumably Probably need to address that in the draft as well or a free agency we could go

what Isaac Samalu? Yeah, it just depends what kind of market he gets. He's probably the best guard on them available right now. Yeah. Well, they don't really have enough money

to spend on a premium position. Like, I can't see them bringing in Jamel Dean. I was going to say, corner is going to be harder than guard, though. Yeah, so guard. I think guard is a good spot to spend for them because presumably

won't cost as much as one of these other needs they have. Yeah. You give this team a serviceable guard from free agency and one of the top corners from the draft class and that corner plays well. They're in pretty good shape as a team outside of the quarterback position. And then yeah, it's how far can Sam Hal or whoever take them? Yep. Agreed. Anything else in free agency you could see them doing. Not really. Maybe if they cut Logan Thomas to free up some capital, they add, you know, another tight end to their room. They've got John Bates and Cole Turner. I mean, I don't see a tight end that I particularly like feel like is a perfect fit for them. A Hayden Hearst might not be bad. Yeah. Somebody like that to just give you, you know, a little more proven tight end as well. Yeah, I mean, John Bates is, he's. probably he's entering what year three this is the year where you kind of expect tight ends to

stick and to be you know kind of come into their own so you know cold turner entering year two they probably like what they have there to be honest yeah and i think that's fine we just we don't know for sure what they think of those guys um true it's actually not a bad tight end uh free agent tight end class now that i'm looking at it but yeah i don't so yeah i don't i don't think there's a lot of moves that I feel like they need to make in free agency. Yeah. It's really just shoring up the O line and building out that secondary, assuming that you're not going to be aggressive at QB, which I think we agree is probably not the move for them this

year. Right. I mean, they have their core. They're all under contract. So that's a good thing. They're not really going to lose any good, valuable pieces. So I think, you know, like you said, they're, uh, could easily be. be a pathway forward for them.

The problem is, is like, they play in such a tough division. It's like, even if they get a little bit better, is it like, is it actually getting better? Are they still going to finish last in the division? Yeah, they could sneak into the wild card, a wild card spot probably. Yeah, potentially. The schedule fell right. They're going to be playing a fourth place schedule, which means, you know, I don't know

who they're going to draw necessarily, but they're going to be playing some bad teams for sure that other teams won't have the luxury of playing. So, all right, let's. Yeah, long term, probably not best for them to continue to get better. But in terms of trying to fix the team for this year, that's probably the best path forward. All right, let's move on. So we got what the Giants are next. This division was stacked, by the way.

Three teams made the playoffs. The Giants and the Eagles seem to be trending forward while Dallas probably going to be a little stagnant. But I don't know. The New York Giants, they, this is an interesting situation because they were, they have loads of cap space. but their last year was kind of a, I don't want to call it a fluke season, but it was an unexpected season where they were kind of playing with house money. So can they get better than their record last year? I don't know.

I don't know if they can, but they can definitely get better as a football team. So yeah, it starts with Daniel Jones, though. So what, that's one of the biggest, probably the biggest questions at QB in all of the NFL. Like, what do they do? He reportedly wants $45 million per year. which if I was then would not pay Daniel Jones, I would hope that, you know, if I have to let him walk, then I don't think he's going to walk, though. I think they work something out, whether it's a franchise tag or a smaller deal.

But if they did have to let him walk, I would just believe in Davell and the rest of the coaching staff that you can get similar production out of some other QB until you can find your actual guy at some point. it kind of just accelerated their clock they you know they expected to be mostly pretty bad last year and now their clock is just sped up and they they have to decide if they're okay

taking a step backwards or they want to just keep pushing forward you just got to be careful because the team we just talked about has been stuck for almost a decade in that QB purgatory range and has nothing to show for it yeah I know this isn't

a popular take, but I think I would franchise Daniel Jones and make him show me he's worth 45 million. If I had to guess though, Chris, I don't think Jones actually thinks he's going to get paid that much. I think he's maybe posturing a little bit to make sure he gets as much as humanly possible. Sure. But regardless of that. The problem is he sees, he's got the argument of like what Kyler Murray got paid and

Kyler hasn't won anything yet and has had more to work with. I would argue that Kyler is a better QB than Daniel Jones, but Daniel Jones and his camp might, you know, go to the Giants and say, look, why should we take less money than this guy? Sure. And it's hard to, you know, it's hard to argue it other than Kyler was the better prospect and has shown some high ceiling flashes at times. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm franchising him. I'm not giving him the contract this year. I know it might end up costing me a little more money in the long run if he does come out next year swinging.

But the thing is, like, well, then at worst, at least I know I got a guy who backed it up. You know what I mean? He took that step forward and earned that money. I don't think he put anything on tape so far that suggests he's worth $45 million or even close to that. So I'm definitely going to go the franchise route, try to keep this thing trucking. you'll know pretty early into next season whether or not, you know, you're going to be looking for a quarterback in the first round of the draft. They're another team that, like, a lot of their core players are under contract.

You know, they have bookend, bookend tackles that are pretty good. They got Mark Gluwinsky under contract. They drafted their left guard last year in the third round. They have a really good defensive line, Aziz Ojalari, Dexter Lawrence, Leonard Williams, Kavon, Tibato, all those guys are under contract. That's attractive. The problem is there are two biggest public names are not under contract in Daniel Jones and Barclay. So you said you want to franchise Jones.

There's been talk of franchising Barclay. You can't do that then if you franchise Jones. Yeah, that is the problem because I'm not giving Barclay a second contract, I don't think. Yeah. Again, I don't know what Barclay is going to ask for or whatever. But based on what we've seen in recent history with Zeke and Christian McCaffrey and some other guys, I don't, I'm not going to give Barclay that contract, especially with the injury history there. There's just too, like the drop off from Barclay to a day two running back in this draft is not much.

So I'm just going to go ahead and get cheaper at the running back position and draft the guy on day two this year. Yeah, they did. The season definitely started the way on him last year. Like all of his explosive numbers, tackle breaking numbers started to dip as the season went on. Actually, they kind of fell off a close. Yeah, it was more than a dip. It was a pretty big drop-off. He dropped a ton.

Yeah. So, yeah, he's got some tread on his tires. It would be hard to, because from Berkeley's point of view, he should try to get as much money as he can because his running back life shelf in the NFL is not long. So it's going to be hard for me to imagine them being able to work out a deal that works for both sides. Yeah. So you're like you said, yeah, you're probably letting. Barkley leave and go attack running back in the draft.

It's a good class for that. Their priority in this offseason, after they decide what they're doing with Daniel Jones, needs to be getting weapons for Daniel Jones or whoever's playing quarterback there next year. Sterling Shepard's a free agent. They did draft Wondell Robinson on the second round. Isaiah Hodgins kind of had a little bit of a breakout, but I don't know that I'm going to rely on him to be anything more than my three. Dary Sladen's a free agent also. Yeah, Slayton's a free agent.

And you know what? He's probably a guy. Like I think a lot of people kind of assume he could be retained on the cheap. But man, there's a scarcity of like true X receivers in the NFL that can line up against press and win and play on the boundary. It feels like the could be the Zay Jones of this class where he gets a much bigger deal than we think from somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, seriously, go look at the free agent list of receivers and tell me how many of them are.

like true X receivers. DJ Shark might be the only one. Yeah. Shark. Yeah, like Shark and Slayton might be the top too. Yeah. So I don't know that he'll be necessarily as cheap as people think. Doesn't mean they won't retain him.

It's just, I'm just not sure that that would be a priority for me. Yeah. Yeah. I would not, yeah, I would not give Slaten a massive deal if that's what it took to keep him. Yeah. What I would do, however, though, is, I'm probably looking at adding a guy in free agency. You know, a reliable target,

someone that maybe brings some explosiveness to my game. Some pair, like either like a Paris Campbell go that direction, which is, you know, there's some overlap there with Wondell Robinson, but whatever. And then like an Alan Lazard or Michael Thomas, I might bet on something like that. And Michael Thomas. They already have Kenny Gowaday on their team.

No, they cut him. Oh, yeah, that's right. They did cut them. So they're going to add Michael Thomas and do this. Well, you think Michael Thomas is going to get paid? No. What about an Odell reunion? Let's scrap Michael Thomas.

What about an Odell reunion? Oh, I would like that. Okay. So, Odell, I would do that. I would go get Odell Beckham, Jr., and then I would still draft one in the first or second round of this draft. Yes, yeah. In my mock draft, I put Zay Flowers to the Giants at 25.

Oh, Richie James is also a free agent. So yeah, they Yeah, I don't care about that though I'm just saying He played a lot of snaps for them Yeah, true Yeah, so the more I Step back and looked at Zay Flowers

And the fit there I just don't love it as much as I did I think there's too much overlap with Wondell While Zay can probably play on the outside A little bit with his speed It just I don't love it having two Very, very small players

At receiver all the time So I'd probably, I think Quinton Johnston would be a better fit for them in the first round. Yeah. He still has plenty of speed. He's actually an athletic freak, but he's a bigger, longer frame. And it kind of just gives them that varying skill set, especially if they brought in like an OBJ. And then you have a receiver core of Johnston, OBJ, Wendell, and Hodgins. That's like a really nice collection of diverse talents that can do a lot of different things.

Similar to how Dable did it in Buffalo as well. If Johnston was gone by then Because like you said he's kind of one of the few top tier X receivers in this draft Do they do you? Would you still be on board with them taking one of these more slotty type receivers Or wait till the second round and take I don't know One of the you know second tier receivers instead Yeah

I mean there's some that I wouldn't mind there like a Jackson Smith and Jigba. Like if he lasted until 25, yeah, that'd be a good fit. He can play everywhere. He's probably mostly a slot guy, but him and Wendell can mix it up. I mean, they're going to use other formations and bunches and things of that nature, reduce splits to kind of create more slot looks for multiple guys. But no, I mean, I'd probably pivot at that point.

I'd go to maybe a second round player, like a Rashi Rice or a Cedric Tillman, someone a little bit more. Yep, that's what I was thinking. Bigger body. They could even, you know, play for A.T. Perry if they wanted, like, some serious size out there. I'm not sure Daniel Jones and A.T. Perry would be a great combo. But, yeah, there's some bigger options in the second round for sure. So, yeah, if they missed on Quentin Johnson, I'd probably go that route. But it also depends how they view, like, the cornerback market.

Like, they need a cornerback. I was going to say we should talk about their. because their secondary was not good last year. It was... No. And Julian Love is a free agent. Yes, he's a free agent. Adori Jackson, you could make an argument.

Do they like him enough to continue to pay him? He's got almost a $19 million cap it this year. I mean, he's a good corner, but he's definitely not a shutdown corner. And he's had injury issues for a couple years now. Yeah. And they also play like five... they play six, sometimes seven dbs at a time in that defense. Yeah, given their cap space,

I don't see the need to remove guys from the situation. If that makes sense, I just want to add to that room. Like Darnay Holmes last year was freaking terrible. Right. He's their... Yeah, I'm not saying they have to cut Jackson, but it's definitely going to be something they're discussing in 20, 24,

and possibly on, you know, as they, that cap number continues to go up. Who was their other outside starter last year? It was a mix of guys. It was a Cordell Flott? He played at times Darnay Holm. No, he played in the slot. Yeah.

It definitely was a mix of guys, I think. I know Flots got some playing time. From what I've seen, he looks okay. I know Aaron Robinson had a decent year. Oh, Fabie Moreau played the most. Oh, okay. Who is also a free agent. Yes, he is.

Tony Jefferson's also a free agent. Long story short, they need secondary help, whether that's safety or corner. They could use an outside corner. They could also use a nickel. You think we see a James Bradbury reunion? It's not a bad idea. I have no idea why they let him go in the first place. I think there's a good chance he might not want to go back there.

Yeah. But yeah, they are, I'd say they're a good idea. good candidate to go after, given their cap space, why? I guess it depends what happens with Daniel Jones and Berkeley first. But in the world where we are in control of the team, we franchise Daniel Jones and let Barclay go, they've still got the money to go after one of these top corners in the free agent market, probably. A guy that I think would be a really good fit for them is Cam Sutton from Pittsburgh. Sutton is a really good solid player and he plays, he can play inside or out. So he gives them the option. Like, hey, say they draft another outside corner or whatever,

like he gives them that flexibility to make sure they're getting their three best corners on the field all the time. So that's an attractive fit for me if they weren't going to go with like a Jamel Dean or a James Bradbury. They also, low key need is there, is on the D-line. I think all of their backup delinment are free agents. I would imagine they, yeah, looks like. Jehad Ward, Justin Ellis, Nick Williams, and O'Shaignix Zeminz are all free agents. So that's something they're going to have to take a look at. You can't roll into the season with literally no backups that are, you know, have experience. So I imagine they resign some of those guys.

Yeah, you look at the success of this team and you're like, you think like, all right, yeah, you had an outside corner. You bring back Daniel Jones. You get some receivers and you should be good to go. But we like this team was by many looked at as one of the, I mean, at least a bottom three roster in the heading into last year. They still have a lot of holes to fill. And they've got resources.

I mean, they've got all their draft picks. I think they have an extra third round pick. They've got $43 million in cap space right now. Obviously, that's not going to stay at that number. Yeah, they could probably use some more D-line depth. They need more secondary help. They probably could use some more O-line depth. They need receivers.

they are going to need a running back if Barclay walks or even if Barkley stays that that's going to cost money. I mean, they need stuff everywhere still. Yeah. I mean, it is true. Like going into last year,

they were considered a favorite for the first overall pick, were they not? It was probably between them, Chicago and Texans. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,

that's a great point. So, yeah, if I was this team, I would, you got it. got to talk, you know, if I'm Joe Shane, the GM, I'm trying to talk the owner and say, look, I know we exceeded expectations. We just got to keep expectations and check this year.

And we're going to keep taking steps forward. We're going to get some receivers. We got to get some guys for our secondary. But we're probably not going to be, you know, we're not going to just continue to go up. This may be a flat line, maybe even a slight dip. But we're, we're, we just got to keep building the foundation and getting. guys in these positions. Yep. Another thing worth thrown out there too, Chris, is they probably do have the draft capital,

or sorry, I should say the assets to make a move for a quarterback if they liked one. Because they have, they have, but they have, here's the big one. They have Leonard Williams, who they're rumored to be wanting to trade. So. It's a big, big cap number for another team to take on. It is, but we've seen crazier things happen.

So I think they could probably find a suiter. Like Chicago Bears. Like who would that even be? Do you think Chicago would want? Well, they're not going to go from one all the way to 25. But, you know, there's, I think there's, well, let's see, who has the most, like Atlanta. Like, say they don't like a quarterback or they don't see one they want. Maybe they love Ritter.

I could see them dropping out picking up, pick 25 and Leonard Williams. How much space like the Cardinals have? 12 million. Yeah, they probably can't do it. Yeah, man, that's the thing. There's just not a lot of team. Seattle could. Seattle could.

The Raiders? They, man, if they don't get a quarterback, that's going to be an issue there. Yeah. It's something to consider. Yeah, it's an interesting take. All right, let's move on to the Dallas Cowboys, who this team, I don't know,

it seems like they always somehow move the needle forward, but don't at the same time. I don't know. I don't really. They're a very interesting team, but, man, they're, I don't even know where to start with them, Chris. They're, I don't know.

I feel like they're in a weird situation too because DAC is probably overpaid for what he's giving you right now. But maybe that arm starts to come back as he gets further removed from that injury. Right. Yeah, they have to operate under the impression that DAC can play at a high level still. Yes. So notable free agents, they have Noah Brown, Dalton Schultz, Tony Pollard on the offensive side of the ball. They do have their backup quarterback Cooper. Rush is also a free agent.

On the defensive side of the ball, there are some free agents there, but no real, I mean, Anthony Brown is probably their. And their linebacker core is gone. I mean, Vaynerash is not very good. Not very good, but he played for them. Anthony Barr played a lot of snaps for them as well. Yeah, and then the worst part about it is there. You know what that means.

Yeah, I do know what that means, and I don't want to talk about it. We're going to get a lot of Mike and Parsons at middle linebacker snaps this year. God dang it What's really tough for them too is they're currently $7 million in the hole They are over the cap So they're going to have to make some decisions here But what they want to do

So Zeke is Zeek's going to get cut or restructured For sure Yep They've been very open about that That's a $16 million cap hit right now So You're going to have to let Dalton Schultz walk

Yes He's going to have to walk Tony Pollard's going to walk. I don't know. I think there's a world where Zeke, they cut Zeke and like franchise Pollard. No way. They can't do it. There's no money.

There's no money to franchise Tony Pollard. So, Zique, like I said, Zique frees up $16 million. Yeah, that gets up the $9 million over the cap, which doesn't even cover their draft class. Right. They'd have to do something else. Maybe it's restructuring Demarcus Lawrence's deal or even, I don't know if they want to do Dax, but. Probably cut DeMarcus Lawrence. I think they've already done Zach Martin's deal a couple times now.

I don't think they can really, I don't know how much more they can move that around. Yeah, that might be too tough to do. Yeah, I don't see a world where that happens, unfortunately, for them. All right. So, yeah, so they lose Pollard. Or what do you, are you okay bringing Zieg back on a cheaper deal or would you just rather move on altogether? I mean, just move on for God's sakes. For what?

Why? Why would you pay him more than any rookie on a rookie deal? He doesn't give you more than that. What's I'm saying? If they could get him down to, I don't know, what, five million a year? He'd be making five times more than a day two running back pick. Yeah. So why would you do that?

that. You got to go find the next guy. I'm just looking at it through their eyes. They're basically emptying their running back room. And I don't know if you've seen Mike McCarthy's quotes recently. He has been a very big proponent of we need to run the ball better because he didn't like that Kellan Moore tried to throw the ball so much and put their defense on the field more because of that.

Debateable if that's true. But that's what McCarthy is thinking. Fake, fake analytics guy, Mike McCarthy. Really? What's the percentage chance? he actually spent time at PFF headquarters that year he was off. I mean, I know for a fact he was at least there, like showed up and said hi. Don't know that they got.

Just played some games on his phone for a few days and hung out. Yes. So I'm looking at the salary cap table here. They could save money. They're only going to save $4 million if they cut Zeke, by the way. Oh, yeah, right. He's got a big dead cap hit. So that's what I'm saying.

They're in trouble. Yeah. They're in big trouble. I think a Zik restructure may be the best path forward for that particular situation. No. You can't keep, he's already cost so much now you're going to kick the can down the road? Well, it's got to be at a much lower number. He's not going to voluntarily renegotiate.

He said he's open to it. No. I think he kind of knows. He's not doing it. the only way to do it is they'd have to add a voided year to it and spread the rest of his guaranteed money out it's the only way possible and that's just not suitable to me they could they could save four million bucks by cutting jordan lewis they could save four million bucks by cutting jaron curse they could save 10 million by cutting tyron smith okay they're not going to want to do any of those three things you just mentioned i know these are their only options i don't even know how they get under the cap well they're going to have to kick money down the road Yeah, a DAC restructure probably. So CD is not on his, is still on his rookie deal. Micah Parsons and Trayvon Diggs are both on their rookie deals.

I mean, they... Bro, DAC already has two voided years on his deal. Yeah, Zach Martins, I think, might be the same. I know they've restructured him. Yeah, he's got two as well. Yeah, they're in a rough situation. Sorry, Cowboys fans. basically I don't even think we can talk about free agency with them at all.

I have no idea how they're going to be able to make any moves. There's been some debate in recent. I don't know what podcast you listen to, Chris, but somebody brought up, I forget what podcast it was, but does the NFL need to implement some type of luxury tax bird rights system that the NBA has? Where you can resign your own player. You can go over the cap to resign your own players at a cost of a luxury tax. I don't. Because we're getting to a point where these teams are so bad at managing CAP, like... I think they should be punished for it.

I mean, I might be a little biased here. Don't you kind of like the NBA, though, how it rewards teams for being able to resign their own players? It's a little different because one player in an NBA team makes a lot more difference than one player in an NFL team, unless it's a quarterback. But you might be just asking the wrong person because I'd be biased towards the Eagles being in the division with the Dallas. Cowboys who make more money than any other team in the league. And I would not, you know. Can afford the luxury tax is what you're saying. Right.

Yeah. I don't. The NBA is also different though because there's, it's a much smaller amount of players on every team and like the true elite players make such a bigger difference than like they do in the NFL. Like a, you know, you re-sign the best corner in the league. Yes, that's awesome, but it's not necessarily doesn't, like, put you in Super Bowl contention. Yeah.

Quarterback is the only position that does that for you in the NFL. And even then, sometimes it doesn't work like Russell Wilson. So I think being able to retain, you know, homegrown elite talent in the NBA makes a lot more sense because it, you know, one guy can really just keep you in contention so much longer. I don't know if I'd want NFL teams to be able to particularly teams like the Cowboys, the New York teams I guess also would be in that conversation. Yeah, so the Eagles are just getting shafted here anyway with all these high market teams in their division. Well, it hasn't been a problem in the NBA though. Like you've seen small market teams pay the luxury tax to keep their guys.

True. of Milwaukee. Look at, I don't know if Miami's considered small market, but they did it for a little bit. Yeah. Even Phoenix, Phoenix is doing it. Yeah, it's not a problem in the NBA, but the NBA has a separate problem of, you know, stars just building super teams. Yes. Yeah.

So I don't, but I don't think that's because of the luxury. I don't think the luxury taxes, the luxury tax is anything, like you said, is probably helping that situation. I actually think it's gone the other direction now because what teams have figured out, we're on a really crazy side tangent right now. But in the NBA, what happens, though, is so the Gold State Warriors, for example, they know, hey, there's basically no salary cap if we trade for a player's bird rights. Yeah. So what happens is they'll go trade for a Kevin Durant.

And they don't care giving up, they can give up 10 first round picks. It's no sweat off their back. They're getting Kevin Durant. And then they have the cap to sign him because they can go over. Right. They did this with another player recently. I mean, I think the luxury tax is actually hurting the NBA now because teams have figured out, well, instead of signing guys a free agency, we'll just trade for them, trade for their bird rights and then use the bird rights to keep them on our team. Right.

Long term and build these super teams. It's going to keep bad teams at the bottom for longer, which I think is bad. Good point. I've talked myself out of this. Yeah. You've talked about it. I'd rather I'd rather the Jaguars and the Texans

eventually be able to make runs and instead of them basically always being at the bottom because their owners aren't going to want to spend over the money that they already have to spend. That's fair. So anyway. For the Cowboys, Free Agency looks grim, guys.

Sorry about it. Ray GQ, I love you, man, but your Cowboys are in some bad shape. I guess in the So in the draft, I think they just need to keep building on the offensive side of the ball. It's an offense-driven league. They're investing a ton of a QB, so make him as good as possible. I mock them a tight end.

I mock them Michael Mayer in my mock draft. I think they'll be a great fit. And he'll actually be cheaper than resigning Dalton Schultz will be. It gives you a legitimate, you know, weapon over the middle of the field. I don't know if weapons is a right word, but a consistent player you can rely on to beat his own coverages, you know, he'd be really good in the run game for you, which apparently Mike McCarthy wants to do more of. I think Mayer would be a really good fit. But if they didn't want to go tight end, I think there's plenty of receivers that would fit that team. They can get an outside

player. We mentioned Johnston, Rishi Rice in the second round, one of those guys. Or they could even go out the slot guy because we've seen CD be okay on the outside as well, even though I think he's best in the slot. You know, like Azay Flowers would be a better fit because Flowers can play a little on the outside. So you don't have to limit CD to the outside. You can still, you kind of play your formations the way you like to and mix those guys up. So flowers would be a great fit there. Yeah, I was going to say in terms of adding, you know, drafting a Michael Mayer at tight end, is that enough of a bump for them to take a step forward over what they were last year?

I think they really do need to get another receiver in that room. Or, I mean, maybe Michael Gallup starts to look more like his. he'll be better this year. He'll definitely be better, but is that, like, what is that? What is better? Well, he gets back to old Michael Gallup. I think that's great for them. Yeah.

He's a number two. He's a, you know, he's a guy who gives you that super great body control on the sideline to, you know, go win at the catch point. Like, they need that guy in the offense. And I think he'll be back to doing those things. Yeah. For me, I do like a true separator and a guy who can bring some explosiveness to the offense. Yeah. If they're not going to go with a tight end.

So they're going to have to. And then they got a draft running back at some point. More than one, probably. Cool. Give me two day three running back. So I'm fine. There is no, there is a better chance of Zeek being on this team next year than that happening. All right.

Give me. All right. So if I got to pick a day two guy for them. Well, if they want to replace Pollard with a guy similar to Pollard, give me Sean Tucker in Dallas, in like the third round. Sean Tucker doesn't have near the make you miss capabilities of Tony Pollard, but he's got the same burst as Tony Pollard. That crazy freaking explosiveness.

Sean Tucker will give you that. Jemir Gibbs would be a nice Pollard replacement as well. If you want to just replace Zeke, Zach Charbonnet would be a nice option. Rochon Johnson in the third round could be a nice option. Yeah. They're going to have holes somewhere. They're not going to be able to fix all of these. Because outside corner is also a problem for them.

When Anthony Brown went down last year, they end Jordan Lewis. They could not field a good starting corner trio. Yeah, you probably got to double tap that, unfortunately. Yeah. So a second round pick and a fourth round pick, something like that. Yeah. But, all right, let's move on. Let's quickly do the losing team of the Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Wow. You need to take shots like that. Sorry, man. Chris, I've been kind of saying this, but like I don't love where the Eagles are at. Like this seems like this This seems like this is their best year to win it all though Oh for sure I mean

They have Notable free agents Like big time players Javan Hargrave James Bradbury Miles Sanders Jason Kelsey Fletcher Cox And they only have a million dollars in cap space Yeah But they do have draft capital

So Yes They're gonna Obviously create more space Of those free agents you list it off. I think Brandon Graham comes back on a team friendly deal.

He says he wants to continue to play. Is he a free agent too? Yes. Wow. Fletcher Cox is probably gone. Javon Hargrave is definitely gone. James Bradbury, I'm pretty sure is gone.

Ideally they retain. Yeah, Seymalu's gone. Ideally they retain, oh, I didn't even know Dillard was also a free agent. He's gone. Of James Bradbury and Chauncey Gardner Johnson, I would hope they find a way

to keep one of those guys. My preference would be Chauncey Gardner Johnson. I don't know if they'll be able to do it, but that would be gone. Miles Sanders is also definitely gone. I bet they try to bring T.J. Edwards back at linebacker,

unfortunately, but they need somebody to play. So almost all of these guys are gone. for me, the realistic best case scenario for the team is Brandon Graham is back, one of Bradbury or Trancy Gardner Johnson, and back. And like I said, I guess, T.J. Edwards is back just because they need bodies at linebacker. Oh, Marcus Epps is also a free agent.

Probably you got to let him walk as well. So that's probably in terms of guys that they are able, losing and able to retain. That's probably realistic best case scenario for the team. and that obviously means they are not going out and adding other free agents very much this year. Howie Roseman's already been pretty open of, I think the quote was he literally said, well, we're going to have comp picks in 2024. Yeah.

Yeah, they are. So let's focus this on the draft then. They really need, I mean, they have draft capital. What to lay out their picks for us? They have number 10, number 30. 10, 31. They have a second round pick, a third round pick, and then they don't pick again until the seventh round.

So that's not going to hold. Howie Roseman is not going to not pick anybody in rounds four, five, and six. So I think a tradeback is pretty likely here. I don't know where it happens exactly. That first pick, pick 10. they could get lucky if a quarterback falls and a team really wants to trade up. The problem is, I mean, you're going to have to get...

Yeah, sure. You're going to have to get through the Texans, Colts, Raiders, Panthers. Is that all the really QB needs? Even Detroit, technically. Even Seattle. Seattle's in play. Yeah. Literally everyone is sleeping on Seattle taking a QB.

Yeah, so a QB making it to 10 is not. it's not even 50-50. I mean, I'd say it's, I don't know, 25% chance or something like that. So a team trading up for a QB doesn't seem super likely. On the flip side, if all the QBs goes, that means there should be a pretty good non-QB player there at 10, whether that is a corner.

Corner feels like the most likely pick at 10 right now. I don't know if you think there's a non-corner. You gave them a corner. to write in your in your mock draft some more yeah i believe i gave them uh gonzalez right yeah yeah so so that seems to be the fate i gave them i gave them i gave them i gave them tyree wilson oh you have tyrie wilson falling to them there that'd be nice well that was a that was a what i would do mock so yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah givon hargrave replacement was the way i was seeing it yeah so that would be nice too i mean we know they love to build through the trenches so that would not shock

anybody. Yeah. So I gave them Immanuel Forbes at 31 is what I did. So Corner with the second first round pick. Right. Yeah. And then.

Yeah. Corner feels like a definite pick at some point in the first or early second round, depending on tradeback scenarios. But I also think one of those first round picks is not happening at the pick that it's currently happening at. So what if they did trade back from, let's say 10, let's say there is a QB or there's some non-QB that falls because all the QBs go and some of their team wants to move up. Let's say they move back to that, you know, the mid-to-late teens.

Do you think corner still makes sense there or are they going to have to go a totally other different way? Because obviously Tyree Wilson wouldn't be there either at that point. Corner makes sense still, but there's a potential for a defensive interior player as well. if you're really focused on replacing Hargrave and that production you're getting as a passage from the inside I mean like a Colizia Cancy makes a lot of sense a Brian Brisei potentially isn't play there I'm way more comfortable with him down there than I am at 10

so I mean yeah those those are both options Amazi Smith from Michigan like I think after the combine he's going to get into the first round discussion because he's a freak of nature he's more of a nose tackle type but I think he can be a legitimate, you know, past rusher. They're probably losing Fletcher Cox, too, right? Or do you think he's coming back?

I'd be surprised if he came back. Yeah. I'm just not really sure how, like, unless he wants to play for no money. Yeah. So then, yeah, corner is definitely a sweet spot there. But we've seen how he not necessarily do what you think he's going to do either. Oh, for sure, yeah. So there's a chance they don't go either of those directions.

maybe they go, I don't know, offensive linemen or something. You know, like you just never, you really never know. Yeah, their O-line. So Kelsey, they do have Kelsey's replacement on the team in Cam Jurgens who didn't really play last year. So they are not in a, I mean, losing Jason Kelsey would suck, but they aren't, it's not like they're now in a terrible spot. Yep. They are going to lose a starting guard. In a perfect world, Kelsey comes back and Jurgens learns how to play some.

guard for them. He's a wee bit small, but yeah. Yeah. So. If the lines cut Halapote, Vaitai, I can see a reunion there, right? Is he still playing a tackle for them, or did he play a lot of guard? He's the right guard. He missed all the last season, though.

Right. That's what I thought, yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Familiar with the team, familiar with Jeff Stalyn. That makes a ton of sense. Really got him the contract. that he got for the lines. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't, so the offensive line, it should be in good shape. They're going to have to draft a running back at some point. Ideally, they upgrade the receiver room somewhere, but obviously you're not going to be able to do all this. So if I was, if I'm fixing the Eagles who are in probably the best shape of any team in the NFC still, despite all these issues, I'm getting a corner some early in the draft. Like I said, what I would do with my resignings earlier. And then you've got to fill stuff out at running back, get some D-line death where you can, and just hope that that's enough to get you

back to the Super Bowl. Yeah. And you know, they'll grow a little bit too because I think Hertz will continue to develop and he'll take a step for himself. So he gets a little bit better. And he's going to get a contract too, which we did not mention at all. That's going to hurt their cap space as well. Yeah, yeah, that will. That's what you, that's what, I mean, we just saw my homes do it. When you get to that second contract, you have to be able to elevate your team despite its deficiencies elsewhere on the roster.

Yeah, that's true. It is true. The main problem with their caps space situation, Chris, is I just look through all their top guys. They all already have voided years on their deals. Yeah. It's like there's not much, there's not more places you can hide money and, you know, kick the can down the road. Howie will find a way to do something that we're not seeing.

But yes, there is not a lot of room for that, for sure. Yeah. All right. That's going to do it for us. But before we go, let me tell you about Underdog Fantasy Football. The 2022 NFL season is over, but the fantasy football is over. but the fantasy football season never stops at Underdog Fantasy, the easiest place to play fantasy football.

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Oh yeah, we're We're still figuring out a little bit But some combination of me Scott Barrett, Grand Barfield We're gonna we're gonna start doing a weekly best ball stream here soon I mean This is a year round sport now And with the combine and free agency

And eventually the draft that you know The ADPs will always be shifting that like this is the best time To be able to build super teams into next year There's going to be guys going later That will never be going later than they are today. So we're going to start, we're just going to, you know,

attack the landscape as it is every week. And hopefully you'll want to watch and listen with us and kind of just see how the offseason unfolds all the way up to the actual NFL season and giving you some best ball takes and how we would attack drafts and just kind of going with the flow. And however ADP shakes out over the next few months.

But yeah, it'll be fun. it'll it'll you know it'll be i'm sure some funny things will happen and it'll be a good time sweet yeah i mean i'm looking forward to it myself chris i'm at the point in my fantasy football career where i'm in way too many like dynasty leagues so pretty much the only things i'm trying to add to my my schedule are bestball drafts because they require zero maintenance in season yes the best part of fantasy football is the draft so if you could draft all the time why wouldn't you Ooh, that's a selling point. We should work that into the live read.

Yep. For underdog, but awesome. And Chris, they can find you at Chris Wecht, FF on Twitter. Chris Wecht FF on Twitter. Very simple. All right, cool. Love it. We're out of here.

We will be back next week. Probably, you know, we'll talk some combine stuff, and we will talk some more free agency previews. And maybe we'll fix some more teams. I'm not really sure yet, but we'll do a lot of stuff. Thank you for listening. We are out. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast.

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