First Things First - Curt Cignetti joins, Baker Mayfield ‘disrespected’ by Bucs, Pressure on Ravens this season?

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

(0:00) Baker Mayfield disrespected by Bucs, How much pressure is on Lamar Jackson? (25:08) Bengals competitive, Are people sleeping on the Broncos? (39:03) Okay to believe in Jaxson Dart? (44:59) NFL Training Camp Stories: 49ers, Seahawks, Rams, Patriots (01:02:21) Will the Eagles take a step forward or back? (01:12:41) Curt Cignetti joins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it's the show that's already in mid-season four. It's first things first. I'm Danny Parkins alongside Coach Manjini and Willie Cologne. Willie, it's that time of year. You a bigger fan of the hold-in or the holdout? Oh, I'm a bigger fan of the holdout. Yeah, yeah. Don't show up.

Remember the days of T.O. And doing the sit-ups in the driveway? That was must-see TV. I don't forget about that. It was great content. Yeah. It really, really like it. You need more of that, honestly.

Yeah, I don't like you. You imagine streaming that? Shocked. Didn't like any one. You imagine streaming that? You know how big that would be for you? Yeah, I mean, a lot of views and a lot of money. Money.

Bosses? Maybe hold on today's show. Lamar says he's not paying attention to player rankings, but we'll discuss the pressure that he's under with this new offense. Also, we got back-to-back coach of the year and the national champ, Kurt Signetti, joining us live from Big Ten Media Day. Very excited to talk to coach. And finally.

Joe Burrough says they got all the pieces to make a run this year. Coach, do you think he's just talking offense or did he remember the defensive side of the ball? I think he's primarily focusing on the offense. Historically? Yeah, I'm guessing. Historically. They spent a lot of money on defense? Yeah, not enough. Not enough.

Top five and free agent spending. All right. Well, we will start in Tampa Bay where the bucks, speaking of not spending enough, have decided not to give Baker Mayfield an extension. before the start of the upcoming season. Instead, their quarterback will play out the final year and then become a free agent. Well, as you can imagine, Baker, not thrilled,

but also not shy. Take a listen. That's really the disappointing part to feel undervalued after, you know, thinking you've earned it. This is not a poor me thing. There's a lot of other people that have it way worse off, but I can sit here and look at other quarterbacks and peers and evaluate myself based on.

that and put myself in certain categories that I deserve to be compensated for that. And I think I'm a franchise quarterback. I've been told I'm a franchise quarterback. It's been said publicly from ownership down here. And so to not have a deal done is very disappointing. It's all ball. And I don't want to talk about it. And if you've waited this long to take care of your franchise quarterback, that's too bad because it's only going to get worse from here.

I'm going to have a really good year. Watch that whole thing. It was spicy. Will, when you hear Baker there, what's your reaction? Well, listen, I can understand why Baker feels he deserves a blank check, right? You win multiple divisions. You kind of stabilize the organization, especially when Brady left. But if you're the bucks right now, I can understand why they're kind of at bay.

They're pausing right now instead of handing out bags of money because you got to understand. Like Baker at this point, you know, Valie, he's won, he's done all the things he's supposed to do. you know, this is a team that's been good and a bad division. So if you're from an organization, you're like, listen, I don't know how real it is. I don't know how real we are. And if you look at the roster, I don't know how good we really are. Now if you're starting to see things turn around, the Panthers are better, the Falcons are better. Things are starting bubbling up.

And right now you finish season eight and nine and you couldn't get over hump, despite how fast you started. So I understand why Jason liked the GM of the box and the glazes are saying, we love you. but we got to rebuild this thing because I don't know if we're a contender right now. And if we hand you this bag of money and we say you're our guy for the next five years, that don't mean we're going to be able to be in contention of winning a Super Bowl. So I think they're doing the right thing. And I hate to be in Baker's pockets, but I'm just putting on my owner's hat for a second. Yeah, I think Baker makes a lot of really valid points.

When you are told you the franchise quarterback, and it's said by ownership, it's said by leadership, then you expect to be compensated as a franchise quarterback. and I'm sure he looks a lot of guys, and he can put himself in that bucket of guys making $50 million a year and say, hey, I belong at least in this threshold. So I totally get that aspect of it. I think where Tampa Bay is coming from is from a salary cap perspective, they don't have a lot of room to work.

So they're 27th in salary cap space. They had to restructure deals just to get under the cap, to get to that point. They've only gotten $8.5 million in salary cap space right now, and they're very top-heavy. So their top five guys plus the dead money that they have is about 50% of their total cap. So the top five guys salary cap value plus dead money is 50% of the cap. There's not a lot of wiggle room to do those things. Now, and I know you shake your head because it's not a zero-sum game in the NFL.

You just can throw as much money at anybody as you want. Well, you can give them a higher bonus and lower a cap number for this year and put it off into the future in terms of the cash payment. There are things you can do, but this is not a team that's working with a lot of flexibility. And from a coaching standpoint, Baker Mayfield with a chip on his shoulder is the exact Baker Mayfield you want. And him saying, I'm going to be really good and it's going to cost a lot more money. Sign me up. Let's pay them a lot of money next year and him be really, really good this year.

Well, they have the franchise tag for next year. But to your point about some of the dead money, Baker in that whole press conference, was thinking that he doesn't think that they'll be able to issue him the franchise tag because of some of the bills that they have coming forward. And he also mentioned that Tristan Worf's needed to do a hold in. And he's a guy who had been all pro at left tackle and right tackle. And Mike Evans is no longer there. Like Tampa Vita Vaya right now, I know he's got the back injury, but he's also requested

a trade. They haven't paid him yet. Tampa is, they tends to be a little slower on the draw with paying their own guys. And Baker was disgruntled. I will just say, I loved what he said. I love what he said. him. He said, I addressed the team. I'm not going to let it be a distraction. It's going to be all ball. The guys who have been here know what I'm about. The guys who haven't been here, I wanted them to know what it's all about. And he could say all the right things and I believe that he can have a big year. But I also, Baker's had a chip on his shoulder for a long time. Whether he's planting that flag in college, whether he's doing the Tommy DeVito thing. Like, Baker Mayfield is going to have a 300-yard three touchdown game and then do a show me the money celebration here. He is going to be motivated by this all year. And I still believe that when Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy, Tua, all of those guys have gotten paid.

And Baker's like, I'm one year removed from 4,500 yards and 40 touchdowns. He feels like he's in that class of play. Like he is not wrong by that. So, and if they wait a year, they're negotiating off of a $50 million floor because that's what the franchise is going to be. He's absolutely not wrong. But he also has led the NFL in turnovers over the period that he's been in Tampa. Bay. And in addition to that, organizationally, those guys that you named,

how many of them have gone on to live up to the new contract that they have? Now, there's been some positives from each of those guys you talked about, but how many of them where they've paid them, and then suddenly they've achieved at that level? Yeah, and also on top of that, there's durability concerns. Baker was banged up last year.

And I think that's part of some of his frustration is I played through injuries. I did everything you asked me to stabilize the offense. Yeah, we didn't get into the playoffs and we didn't win the division, but I fought through some of the things Baker's old enough. He's on the other side of 30 now. So if you're going to hand him this money and say you're going to be our guy,

we're going to build around you, I don't know if that's a smart business decision. And considering that you right now don't have a number one receiver, right? Like, he couldn't make it work with Mike Evans. So now you have to reconstruct this thing and figure out to coach's point. Like, man, we're not as good as we think we are. And if we plan to be where we need to be in the future, he's going to need more help if we sign him.

Interesting. So, I mean, I know Falcons fans were not a huge fan of Zach Robinson, how it went there. but I mean, Zach Robinson is a pretty long track record in the NFL, worked under McVeigh for five years. He comes over from Atlanta. Yeah. You have Tristan Wirthes.

You have Bucky Irving. Well, Bucky Irving is coming off a foot injury. That's another guy dealing with injuries. Chris Godwin, Ameca Abuka. Yeah. Like, I expect Baker to have a pretty big statistical year. Like, I don't know if he's going to have 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns like he had in 2024, but I bet he's somewhere between that and last year.

So if he's over 4,000 yards, if he's over 4,000 yards and around 30 touchdowns, I would imagine that that's enough to get Baker Mayfield paid. What does your numbers mean if you can't win? But like you said, he's won the division a couple of times. In the NFC South, I think if Baker won a division when the division is bad. Division's no longer bad. The division's on his way up.

Like the Panthers are a legit team. The Falcons will be better next year. So, yeah, it's easy to look at what he's done and say, man, he was killing it this far. You know, post-Bradie, he carried the organization. But you look at the Panthers and all these other teams, like I believe the Saints will be better. So you're talking about three teams right now

who rosters are getting better year by year with positive quarterback play. Now you've got to look at your own house and say, man, I don't know if we can keep up or if we're even on par after the way they performed last season. And when you have a salary cap that's structured where five guys equate to 50% of the cap, it's hard to build depth. It's hard to, as young players come up and they're going to get their second contract, it's hard to re-up those guys. You've got to let guys leave.

And these financial decisions, the more money you pump into Vita V-Vay or Baker-Mayfield is the less money that you have available to other people. And Baker has the highest cap number on the team, and V-to-A has the fifth highest cap number on the team. So it's not like they're not making any money or they're dramatically underpaid. But again, that's part of negotiations. It's all a matter of opinion. They feel they are. The organization feels. So this is a weird, more of like a podcast or sports radio type of question.

but like two years from now, Baker Mayfield, the quarterback of the Bucks? No. No. No. So you think they are going in the direction of a reset? I do. Interesting. I think after this year, I disagree.

I think they step back. They evaluate the coaching situation. I think they reevaluate the quarterback situation. I think they look at the roster and say, hey, where are we? Because I honestly believe this team had won 10, maybe 13 games. These guys are signed. They're moving forward. They're going into whatever they have to go.

I don't even think this is an issue. The fact that they did finish eight and nine, they didn't make the playoffs, and they're looking at Vita Vail, who's 31 years old, dealing with the back, Baker were possibly durability issues, Brucky Irvin dealing with some issues. Like some of their core guys, they're trending on the other side because of their injuries, right? Like they're falling in line with what the 49 is dealing with. They have a core, but the core is always banged up. So how good are we if these guys aren't available? And to Willie's point, if you look at that division, you're saying, okay, during these years where the division,

wasn't as competitive as some of the other NFL divisions where it takes everything possible just to get out of your own group of teams you're competing with. How good are we going to be when the division does consistently approve? And to your point, Danny, there's not a lot of great quarterbacks in the NFL. You could argue there's not a lot of really good quarterbacks in the NFL either. Isn't Baker clearly the best quarterback in the NFC South by like a comfortable margin. Like you can like Tyler Shook and you can be a believer in Bryce Young. Big believer. Yeah, no, big believer. I got some digital content coming your way soon. Bryce Young getting some shoutouts from Willie.

But Baker Mayfield is much more accomplished than Bryce Young, Tyler Shook, Michael Pennex. Well, he has the bigger resume. He's been here forever. We've watched Baker's journey. So, yeah, we're a fan of his. But when you talk about right now in the vision, I will have to say I'm a fan of Bryce Young. Here's the one argument I'd make strongly for Baker is Cleveland really wishes they hadn't moved on for Baker. If you want to look at it from an organizational standpoint, you only have to go look at that organization and the problems that they've had since they've had Baker. And now you're... Well, that's part of his chip on the show. Like, he's currently, like, Deshawn Watson's currently making more money to him.

Yeah. So I understand why. But I'm saying if you look at organizational decisions, do you have a guy, do you not have a guy, Cleveland probably would have been, you know, in the middle. every single year with a guy of Baker's quality. They would have been thrilled. During that time period and the defenses they've had. Yes. Where, you know, they went a different route trying to hit home run and ended up striking out.

Yeah. I'll take you up on that bet. We'll pay it off two years from now on opening day. Baker Mayfield's still a quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He'll be a stealer. That's a stealer. This is like an insider movie or you want to like create discontent in Tampa. And then you're going to be like, I'm thrilled that he's a stealer.

I see what I didn't like him. I just understand what the organization is doing. That's 4D chess. All right, let's go to Hollywood. Or day by day, I'm realizing that me and Jim Harbaugh, we just have more and more in common. We both love the bears, a freshly pressed paracakis, and of course, Justin Herbert, you know what I mean?

Take a listen to Coach Harbaugh. I used to give adjectives to it, but I just... It's glazing, like you said. You like the glazing word. Yeah, I just think he's the best ever was. You know, that's really what I learned this past. Every, every time you think there's, boy, he's reached, he's reached the top rung of my esteem.

You know, he finds another rung on the ladder to take. So, yeah, love him. I'd follow him to hell him back. You know, he's the best. That might even be a little much for me. The best there ever was. I don't know. Coach, I know you praise your quarterback.

It's a coach's job to defend your quarterback publicly. Harbaugh takes it to an art form. Too much, too little, just right, in terms of the praise. Well, look, I spent two years with Jim, and when Jim says things, he's not saying things to be theatrical. He believes the things that he says. He believes Justin Herbert's the best there ever was? I think if Jim says it, he believes it.

And with Jim, being a former quarterback, having the success that he's had in college, and in pro football, for him to say those things, that's got to be great for a guy like Justin Herbert. Who doesn't want to hear that your employer feels that strongly about you, has that much belief in you? And the other thing that does from a coaching standpoint is when he does have to criticize him or coaching, but some guys will take that as criticize him, when he does have to push him, Justin knows that this isn't a guy that's doing it, you know, for the sake of doing. He knows that he's trying to make him better. And I believe that, and I believe that

helps a relationship significantly. Yeah, I think the issue with Herbert for me, and I know you're a fan and obviously coaches, it's the gap between his talent and his playoff resume is too large. And that's the bottom line. But I understand why you drew over the man optically, he's a superhero. But when you watch it, the tape last year, I mean, a man played with a fracture hand

and his office line was in shambles and he carried that offense. And obviously, he got beat up in the playoffs by a very hungry Texan team. But Texas, right? Yeah. So it's, I understand that, but I think right now when you move forward, man, this year more than ever, he has to have it. Like, he has to have them win. He has to have those signature games and that playoff where you say, man, like he's obviously top five did a lot. And I don't think he's been able to do that because of all the other things structurally around him just hasn't lived up to it. So, yeah, I can understand why you love him, but he still has

to win when it counts. Yeah, I think everything you said is fair, even as a defender of him. Like, obviously, a playoff win would be nice. Much less a couple, much less an MVP, much less a Super Bowl. He's got all of the accomplishments out in front of him. But football is the ultimate team game. And sometimes the guys make fun of me for talking about the eye test. I try to be the person who knows the numbers but also watches the games. And I just watch that guy.

And I'm like, there aren't five more talented quarterbacks in the world. Like they're just pure talent, which is why I would think, back to your point, he has to be a coach's dream because it's like he can do everything. He can make every throw. He's mobile enough. His teammates universally sing his praises as a leader and he's tough

as all hell. So like I would think that they're like well we're getting our all world's left tackle back, our all world's right tackle back. We signed a couple of free agent interior offensive linemen. We gave him a blocking tight end. We drafted four offensive linemen. Drafted a couple of offensive linemen. We signed a full

back. So we're just putting blockers all over the place. We're bringing in Mike McDaniel. And now we're going to have guys who can protect him to keep him healthy and he'll go out there and perform. And over the course of his career, there's been criticism of the head coaches that he's had and the idea that they were the limiting factor. Well, that's not a criticism anymore. Jim's taking a team to the Super Bowl. He's won a national championship in college football. So you take that out of the equation. So all the pieces are in place, we can agree. But if we're sitting here next year and talking about another, you know, maybe missing the playoffs or even worse,

if they miss the playoffs completely, at what point does it become the talent just is not meeting the expectation? Well, that's why this year shouldn't be the case, because you do have Mike Men Daniel, right? And they've glorified how much they've kind of changed his game. We're getting the ball out fast and working on his footwork, timing and rhythm within the office that's set now. So I think, to be honest, with everything we just said,

we're running out excuses for Justin Herbert. Like seriously, like you got, like you just said, we got blockers. You got a new O.C. You got a defense. Like, though, we love it. You got a head coach. You got a head coach. You got a head coach.

You got a head coach. There's no, we're running out of excuses to pick out for Justin Herbert because nobody gets that type of runway in the league. I agree, but like what you guys are talking about, he's got to do it. I just look, I look at him like I look at Josh Allen in terms of like the talent is there. Yeah. Now, obviously, Josh Allen has more playoff wins and has played better in way more playoff games, so I'm not saying their playoff resume is comparable.

But in terms of talent, it's like, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Justin Herbert is good enough to get it done. So I look at it as more of an inevitability as opposed to like something that I would doubt. And for years and years, I watched Matthew Stafford play and couldn't figure out why that organization didn't get over the top with as good as he was. And then he finally was able to get over the top when he moved and things fit together. And now we talk about him in a totally different light. But he was really, really good for a long, long time. It's great, common. And they just, it's rare, though, because typically elite franchise quarterbacks elevate everybody around them and change organizations.

It's not, hey, he needs this, he needs this, he needs this. That's not how the conversation usually is. Let's go to Baltimore and talk about another elite franchise quarterback. Two-time MVP, Lamar Jackson. Well, he just won six and seven, but it was limited action last year, 13 games, but he was playing through a lot of injuries. The Ravens got rid of Jim's brother, John, this offseason, brought in a new head coach and OC. So that means it's a new offense for Lamar, which it hasn't been for a while.

Here he is on the adjustment. Absolutely, because each and every year you're getting older. Your mind is getting sharper. Everything is slowing down even more. It's like you don't seen everything, you know, anything a defense can bring at you. The only thing different now is just the new offense. So once I get that down pack, I feel like there's no room for error with us. Keep stacking.

All right, Coach. I think everything he said there makes total sense. There's obviously an adjustment with the new system. But how much pressure do you view Lamar specifically being under this year? It's a huge amount of pressure. And it's a huge amount of pressure because organizationally and from an ownership perspective, they said that the limiting factor was hardball. Yep.

That they had to make a coaching change. And that's what was keeping them from realizing their potential of a guy who's won two MVPs and really could have won a third. So there's that component to it. Last year, there were multiple times where you could look at the interaction. You could look at the things that were being said and say, these two guys don't seem like they're on the same page or seeing things in the same way. And even when he was let go, when John was let go, you didn't hear a lot of praise and the things that you did. You might typically hear from two people that have been together for a long time.

So it seems like that relationship wasn't as solid as you'd hoped to be. So you've got that component of it. Now you're in a division where three out of the four teams have changed head coaches. That's a positive. You changed it, but two other teams have changed as well. The only continuity is in Cincinnati, so that's a real edge. So, yeah, they've made a decision. You have won.

what are you going to do with this change? Yeah, it's funny because I go back to week one against Buffalo last year and how we looked at the Ravens team and like, man, they look dangerous, right? And then the end of that game, they kind of fumbled the bag and they unraveled due to the injuries. And I'm saying if it happens again, what now? You know what I mean? Like, there's a legit chance that Lamarca get dinged up.

There's a legit chance that Devin Henry may still go through his fumbling woes. And Mark Henry's not dependable. They won't have Isaiah likely. Zay Flowers will be now be putting a slot? They still don't have a true number one in my eyes on the outside. So there's still holes within this office, but it's like how does this team recover from the what if? It can't solely collapse because all these other pieces fall apart

because I assume the roster's too good for everything kind of bottom out. And you're looking at a division right now that, you know, stills will be better with Mike McCarthy. I'm just going to jump out there. I know I'm a homeowner. I'm going to say it. I think the Bengals are going to be damn good. So like if you're a Ravens, man,

You have to be tougher and more inept to get over the hump and be more durable than what you showed over the last year this past year. I think the pressure on Lamar is also literally to carry the offense because Derek Henry is in his mid-30s. Now, he's one of the most marvelous athletes of his generation, right? It's crazy him and Adrian Peterson's like defying father time. But at some point, he's not going to be 1,500 yards and 300 carries, right?

At some point that's happening. If it happens in the year where you lose Isaiah likely and you lost Tyler Linderbaum, and I agree with you on Zay Flowers, nice player, but not a number one. He catches the ball and runs backwards. He's undersized. He's just, he's not, he's not, he can't do everything that you want from a number one. You're counting a lot on a rookie on the offensive line. Like first time head coach, Lamar needs to be spectacular.

Good thing he is. Like when he's in his prime, he can carry an offense like Josh Allen can carry an offense when everything isn't right around him. So I expect Lamar to be excellent this year. One of my biggest concerns is as they keep talking about the new offense, the new offense, it's great. It's great that there's going to be new ideas brought into it and he's going to be exposed to some new approaches, but he won the MVP twice. He almost won it a third time. You better do a whole lot of what he does well, and you better, whatever your offensive system is, it better start and end with what does Lamar want to do?

What does Lamar do well? And regardless of how much you may like a play or like, you can incorporate all that stuff, but you better maximize him as opposed to saying, I'm going to impose my scheme on you. I also think that there's such a high floor for an offense with Lamar Jackson, assuming he is healthy. And I know I've said this a lot.

I'll probably be a broken record on it as we approach prediction week and week one. I thought what Jesse Mentor did with the Chargers talent and all the injuries they had on defense over the couple years. Like, he just overachieved. And then all of a sudden, it's like, he gets Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton and Madibuque and Wiggins. And all of the talent on Baltimore's defense with a coach who has not had that level of talent, but has overachieved with the talent. I think Baltimore could be a top five defense in the NFL.

So, like, if you give Lamar Jackson a top five defense in the NFL, even if he doesn't have a perfect offense around him, he should be able to win a lot of games. Look what Robert Salad did with the Niners last year. I mean, he had a duct tape defense. He had them boys playing at a high level. So I agree with you. He could get it to happen, but it's about buying, too. And also, Robert Salo, when he was a head coach, the defense wasn't quite the same

because you're torn in so many different directions. Yeah, no, it's a first-time head coach. So another reason of others pressure on Lamar Jackson. I was trying to find the team that people are sleeping on. If I gave you a 14-win team that was in the AFC title game last year. Denver Broncos coming up. First things first. Nice dance, really?

I like it, Willie. Got moves. Back here on first things first, talking a little Denver Broncos. They quietly went 14 and 3 last season, won the AFC West, came up one game short of the Super Bowl. I don't know how quiet it was. Sean Peyton thinks, though, this is just the beginning. Take a listen. Certainly, this is a team that understands or has expectations of playing in the postseason.

and yet there's still that journey that starts again. I think you have to be able to get good quarterback play. I think you have to be good in the offense and defensive line. And I think you have to be well coached. And I think we're all the above. Sean Payton thinks they're well coached. Take a look at the odds to win the AFC West. Gotcha, coach.

Defending champs, their third in their own division behind the Chiefs and the Chargers. This is a fascinating one to me. Willie, do you think people are sleeping on the Broncos? I don't know if they're sleeping. Listen, they're being respected because they're a playoff team. I don't think they're being feared as a team that can win a Super Bowl. And that's the problem.

I think when you win 14 games and you look at what happened last season, I'm going to be honest, they go into that EFC championship game against the Pats. I thought they had the better roster. I don't even think it mattered if Bo Nix was playing or not. I assume Broncos was going to win that game, especially being at home. I thought it mattered. Well, I just thought if Bo Nix played, they would have won. Well, part of my reason is because I felt like they were winning games because of that defense.

It wasn't because of Bo Nix. So I assumed the defense was in par that they were going to show up against the Pats and do work. And that didn't happen. So I was like, okay, Bo Nix has never been that guy for them. So not that he was bad. I don't want to just kind of, you know, talk down on him. But I just felt like the defense was the spearhead like most of the playoff teams out there. With all that said, I think for the turning point for this team is they have to now win because of Bo Nix.

That's going to make me a believer as a, as a. a team that can win a Super Bowl. If it's because of him and his play and what he's able to do at the line of scrimmage and deliver, then I can say, yeah, this is a team that can seriously win a Super Bowl. Right now, I think the charges are in their way, right? I think the Chiefs are going to be hungry. I think the Raiders are going to be way more competitive. So as much as I do believe they can win games, it's about his game and him elevating

his game under Sean Payton. Yeah, and I think those odds that we see are really just purely quarterback odds. So when you look at that Kansas City first, right, so you're looking at it, Patrick Mahomes with the assumption that last year was an aberration, the team's going to be, Andy will be able to get things back in line, and they're going to be what they were for the previous three years, which were either in the Super Bowl winning it or in that mix. So that's the first assumption is Patrick Mahomes.

We talked about Justin Herbert, we talked about the chargers, and the idea that all those injuries last year, all his hand, all the things that they went through as a team, but the idea is Justin Herbert with his talent level. He's the second best quarterback. Bow Nix is third. And then whether it's Kirk Cousin or Mendoza in Las Vegas, they're the fourth. And with Bo Nix, to his credit, he did a lot of really impressive things.

And if we could just bring this graphic up, a few of these things, I didn't even realize. The first one is 24 career wins in his first two years. That's tied for the most of any quarterback ever, which is Russell Wilson, is who he's tied with. And then game winning drives last year. There were seven game winning drives, which was the most in the NFL. You got to give him a lot of credit for that. And to me, that defines quarterbacks as how can they play in those big moments. And then 12 and 3 and 1 score games.

Granted, the defense was a big part of that, but he was a big part of that as well. I'm not saying this is Drew Breeze, but for two years as a young guy with a very demanding offensive head coach, he's done an outstanding job. I think we are clearly sleeping on the Broncos, but I'm not ready to pick them over the Chiefs and the Chargers. Like, it's a great division. Like, you know, like, I think two things can be true here. Like, the Broncos are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. And I think that their roster is better than the Chiefs roster.

And the Chiefs are the favorite. But the Chiefs have Patrick Bahomes. And, like, that is a, you can be better two through 53, but if you're that much better at one, I think it's totally reasonable to believe that one is going to carry you. And so the Broncos, it was a weird season because I remember them playing down to the Giants. I remember them playing down to the Raiders. I'm needing like miracle fourth quarter wins against terrible teams.

It's like, why aren't you playing better in this spot? You could look at that as, hey, they figured out how to win. I would say they had 11-1-score games, 11-1-score wins in the regular season, eight of them against non-playoff teams. It's like that you should be bludgeoning teams like that. But you return basically everything and added Jalen Wado. Like Troy looked this up for me. They return all of their passing yards, all of their rushing yards, all but 21 of their receiving yards, and 58 and a half of 68 sacks from last year.

Now, Franklin Myers is a huge departure on the defensive line. But that's a really talented team with a great offensive line that returns basically everybody. But how many times we looked at good teams who play down to their competition and lose? Well, I think they're banking on it. To the D.P's point, I think they're banking on that continuity, right? I think that chip on the shoulder that we love to highlight is the fact that they've been close enough at some point under Sean Payton and a Bownicks who's clearly older and should be more savvy that we look at this team and start taking them serious along with the Houston Texans and the Buffalo Bills. Like this is a team that can really be hoisted in the Lombardi. And once again, I think he comes down to Bow Nix, Alaventness play like Patrick Mahomes has done and what Justin Herbert has to do if we want to say, you know, they have a shot at it.

Jalen Waddle, underrated edition, this off season. It happened before the draft. You kind of forgotten about it. All of a sudden, Cortland Sutton and Jalen Waddle. It's a pretty good wide receiver duo. Let's go to Cincinnati. They have a better wide receiver duo. Joe Burrow, all systems go after missing half of last year with that turf toe injury.

Now he's got a revamped defense and T. Higgins and Jamar Chase on offense. So he thinks they have what it takes to make a deep run. Take a listen to Joe Burrow. We had a great offseason on paper, but now we have to go and put all these pieces together. and have individual improvement, have cohesive improvement, and find out who we are as a team and gel. We have all the pieces that we need, and we just have to make sure that we're pushing each other

and every day to grow and improve and get better, and we'll get to where we want to get to. All right, Willie, I'll start with you here. Yeah. We know the offense is good when healthy. Obviously. There's a huge proof of concept of that. Do they have enough on defense to actually be a contender?

Joe Burroughs says all the people. pieces they need previously in the offseason. He said this is the most talented roster he's had since he's been there. Yeah. They got enough to contend? No. Okay. They don't.

And that's fair. I mean, is it an improvement from what we've seen? Of course, because the floor was so low. But nevertheless, on front, you know, we forget to impact Tray Henderson had, right? Trey Hendricks, I'm saying that, right? Trey Hendrickson. Thank you. This guy prior to last year, I mean, he was a guy who was a double-digit-sat guy, right?

And right now, what you look at the, if we got the graphic, you know, this is the guy, they They got Jonathan Allen, they got Dexter Lawrence, they got Boyle Mawfay. This is their career sacks. Now, Boyle Maffa had nine sacks last season. He's not a 10-12-sac guy, but they want him to be. The reason I highlight that is when you throw out Trey Hendrix, man, Henderson, he was a closer, like a Chris Jones and like some of these elite paths, like a Michael Parsons. When it's five minutes left in the game in the fourth quarter, you let these guys off the leash and they go hunt. They don't have that right now on the defensive line.

So when you talk about an elite defense that has to compliment an elite offense, you're going to need close. is on the defensive side. I don't see it. So I think when Joe's talking, he's talking about his side of the ball, which is fair. But defensively, they got a very average lineback of corn. The secondary still needs work. Yeah, I'm not to show you a graphic in a second. There's so much made about the trade and what a great trade that was. But you- The Dexter Lawrence trade. Yeah, the Dexter Lawrence trade. So you give up the 10th pick in the draft to get Dexter Lawrence. You let Trey Hendrickson walk for nothing. So now you take a great player and you let him leave. In division, by the way.

In the division, and then you trade for a guy and give up the 10th pick and the draft. Look at the production side by side. So 109 games versus 117, 81 sacks versus 30.5. The tackles for loss, the force fumbles. But to me, it's the business decision of he walks for nothing. You give up the 10th overall pick to go get a guy who's extremely talented. It's going to be very good. and you pay him more money,

I just don't know how that makes good business sense. Probably doesn't make good business sense. I mean, Dexter Lawrence is younger. He obviously plays inside. Hendrickson plays more outside. Dexter Lawrence is one of those double teams, defensive linemen in the NFL consistently over the last five years. So he attracts a lot of attention in that way.

I think Dexter Lawrence is a great, a great player. They did give up a ton to get him, though, to your point. Let me make the case. Let me make the case for how the bad. Bengals can be contenders. And yes, I skew towards offense coach and scoring points. But if you are elite on one side of the ball, you don't have to be elite on both sides of the ball, like historically.

We were looking up, I asked Troy to say, all right, show me the teams that have won the Super Bowl with top three offenses. Because the Bengals can be a top three offense. So this is the last 20 years. Got their offensive rank and their defense rate. Obviously, last year, Seahawks team was spectacular because they were top three in both. You look at that 16 Patriots team, top three in both. But can this Bengals team be the 22 Chiefs, the 09 Saints, or the 06 Colts?

A team that was a top three offense but was 16th in defense, 20th in defense, 23rd in defense. And I hear you I'm losing Trey Hendrickson, but what they did this offseason was they did invest on the defensive side of the ball. You showed the names, like, and I think you can make an argument. that Hendrickson is better than those other guys, but they were fourth in the NFL in free agent spending on defense and traded for Dexter Lawrence. They added multiple bodies.

They lost Ray Hendrickson, but Alan and Boy Maffa and Lawrence, like, three guys instead of one, is an upgrade just in terms of the depth that they needed. So I guess my question is... And they drafted a DN last year in the first round. They drafted D&N this year in the second round. But I guess my question is, can the Bengals be the 20th best defense in football?

I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that the 20th best defense in football. And you're now making the assumption that they're going to be the first ranked offensive football. But they have to be. It's the inverse of what the Steelers were, right? The Steelers were such a huge disappointment last year because they spent the most money on the defensive side of the ball. And they were merely an okay defense. if you spend, like the Bengals have spent on offense, you have to be. There's no path to the Bengals being a contender without them being a top five offense.

So, yeah, absolutely. I am assuming that. Like, the path to the Bengals contending is we are one of the best offenses in football, and we are average to slightly below average on defense. Like, that's their path. Am I wrong? You're saying, didn't we kind of see that last year? I mean, defensively, they were horrible.

They were horrible. They were bad. No, they were horrible. And they were hurt. So they were not always a top three offense, right? Like when Joe Burrow got hurt, it was game over. I look at it very similarly to Dallas. Like Dallas is basically saying,

we're going to be the best offense in football, and maybe we will be the 20th best defense. And if we give up 24, 25 points per game, they'll win 12, 13 football games if you have the best offense in football. And in fairness in Cincinnati, they have, gone out and tried to address it in multiple ways defensively. I just, for me personally, I can't, getting over that hump of the, letting a superstar go, getting another superstar in,

but giving up the 10th pick in the draft who you could have for five years. Like that, that part made me. Well, I think part of the, I think process is totally fine. But like at the, you know, you can get to a destination, but there was turbulence along the way. It wasn't a smooth flight that you got there. Turbulance or it fell off a cliff. Fair enough.

Well, I think part of their mindset is if we can at least stop the run, that's half the battle, right? They couldn't do nothing on defense last season. So I think they addressed the run by getting Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen. The secondary is not going to be good. Lineback horse is going to be average. So you at least have enough to become mediocre. The goal is, like, with the offense, to your point, will the elite offense carry a mediocre defense unless I say, hey, we're a different ball club? It could happen.

Yeah, and to me, that's their path. The Rams have more margin for error. The Seahawks clearly have more margin for error. Like teams like that that are, I mean, the Ravens in theory, have more margin for air. And those numbers that you showed, that was yards. That wasn't scoring defense, right? That was scoring defense. Oh, that was scoring defense?

Yeah. And so there's a million you could do a DVOA, you could do it yards, you could do it points. We did it with points. But like I just, that's the path. You can't be excellent at everything. They're trying to be excellent on offense and be not terrible on defense. They're trying to just not be terrible. Coming up.

The Giants have a lot of questions. marks, but Jackson Dart, you kind of has the look makes of a star. I think I'm going to be a Jackson Dark guy. Are that okay? Stay with Herbert. You're doing fine. I got to have a lot of guys. Stay there.

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Because true strength isn't about being able to take the hits. It's about being able to bounce back. Oikos Pro. Feed your strength. Visit oikos.com.C.A. for more details. Jackson Dart, he's got a cool man. He went four and eight in his rookie campaign, showed some flashes of brilliance. Also, look like a rookie at times through 15 touchdowns. Did it mostly without the aforementioned Malik Neighbors who missed 75% of the season with that knee injury. Here's Jackson Dart on what it means. have neighbors back. Take a listen. Well, he definitely has a presence about him.

There's an aura that he has on the field that is exhilarating. It makes me happy, makes everybody happy just to see him out there. And I think for him, you know, he's had a lot of positives. So we're just going to continue to get him in slowly. And he's doing a great job with how he's attacking his recovery. So, you know, I got all the confidence in the world in him. I thought it was nice of a guy with aura to compliment someone else's. I'm going to take this one first.

I'm a believer in Jackson Dart. The guy's a playmaker. He had some lows, no doubt, but he's going through a coaching change. He lost his number one wide receiver. There were a ton of problems. There seemed to always be with offensive line injuries, which they've made some investments on this offseason. But I do, guilty as charged, I do tend to focus a little bit more on ceiling.

Like, what is your best? Like if your best is good enough, do with Herbert, do it with Caleb, doing with Josh Allen. I have a type. But Jackson Darts best, that guy's a playmaker. He played 12 games last year. Look at the number of games with multiple touchdowns. We put this up and compare it. Multi-touchdown games by a rookie quarterback in your last five years.

He had 10 of them and only 12 starts. He puts the ball on the end zone. Is it conventional? Not always. Is he putting himself in harm's way? Sometimes. But he was, things were falling apart around him. And he was still finding a way to score against good teams.

Like some of these highlights, Eagles defense, Broncos defense. Like, that guy can play, man. I really do think there's a high ceiling there, coach for Jackson Dart. There were a lot of encouraging things that he did. But to your point about two yesterday, where you're worried about his durability and whether or not he'd be able to make it through the season, I think one of the things that helps him be successful is he doesn't. have a lot of bravado and he's talked about I'm not going to change the way I play

but he's got to realize as the starting quarterback this this is a different league than what he's been used to and if you keep putting yourself in harm's put way it's just a matter of time before you're sitting out and you can't you can't do what the team needs you to do and that to me is going to be a big learning curve you love the exciting place but you don't want them at the cost of him not being able to participate if you compare him to the number one overall draft pick last So him versus Cam Ward, similar records. He did a little bit better record-wise. Completion percentage was better, 24 touchdowns, better passer rating.

So as a Giants fan looking at these two top, number one quarterback or number one drafted quarterbacks, it's encouraging. It's got to be encouraging for the whole. Well, I respect the young man because he's a quarterback that obviously loves to improvise, but he takes care of the football. He only had five interceptions last year, right? So which is a plus. I think now moving forward, it's about him being my.

more of a polished quarterback, right? There's some reports that he's doing a lot of more things on the center, which he's going to have to clean up his footwork, be more, clean up his mechanics, which will show, one, that he's not all improvised guy. He's not that guy. He's like, man, well, no, no. Valley, he may have that in his bag,

but it's like, I don't have to lean on that. Can I control an offense from within the pocket? He's going to have to prove that. But I think having Malik neighbors, having Isaiah likely, having a new offensive line, having OBJ out there, some of these pieces, all these kind of bumpers around him is going to help him elevate his game. So I'm, I'm happy with who he is thus far. Now you just got to go win and show

that everything they want to do from an office standpoint can be consistent of how they left last season. I'm just buying stocking him. Like, it might be a little too much too soon. Like, you normally have to play in a system for a couple of years, right? It's like back to the Caleb thing. Like, I think he'll take the leap in year three in the NFL, year two with Ben Johnson. So we might still be a year away. I did it yesterday on the show, Willa, you weren't here. There might be more question marks about the Giants than any team in the NFL. Like, how do they recover from Lawrence coming back? Scadaoo's injury.

Neighbors is Injury. Is Jackson Dart Good? New coach in John Harbaugh, new pieces on the offensive line. Cornerback battles in camp. Tons of question marks. But potential answers. They've got a potential answer. So if a few things break their way with this kid's talent, I think that he has a very, very high.

But the Giants, they feel like they got their head coach and they got their quarterback. Now it's time to build up. And I think most... I don't know that everybody agrees that they have their quarterback, though. I feel like Jackson Dart, like people are, because of the recklessness, because of the injuries. Yeah, but we could agree after the big hit

against New England on the sideline that he's calmed down. I agree. I think that's... I think it's overblown. Yeah, I don't think he was bullish. I'm like, no, this is the way I play. It is what it is. I think he realized, like, the health of me playing the position

and being on the field matters more to me trying to get that one more yard, me, you know, put my head down and costing the injury. And what do you guys think about my theory that his name suggests that he's going to be good. Jackson Darts a cool name. I think Willie's a cool name. You were good. You got a ring on your finger. My answer to you was Tom Brady not as cool a name, but I'd take that all that. I'm not saying it's everything, but I'm saying it's got a Bart Star Drew Brees-like quality to it.

It's a cool quarterback name. Yeah, it's good in lights. Yeah, I will put it up Bill. Yeah, Bill Boy. Right? Sure. For sure. Thank you. That's. Just the guy. No fun. Over there. Coming up on first things first. My role. We're going camping.

We're bringing grandpa campus. I know my role. First things first. Jackson Dart. Live from New York, it's the show that is 100% aligned that has zero entitled. Shout out Jalen Hurd. It is first things first. Coming up.

We got back to back coach of the year and national champion. Kurt Signetti joining us live from Big Ten Media Day. in just a little bit. And Max Crosby is still a raider. He says he's all in to be a raider. But Jerry Jones kept getting asked about him. So should the Cowboys go all in and trade for Max Crosby? But right now, we're going Camden.

Just under six weeks away, tick, tick, tick, tick from opening night of the NFL season. So we're going to go city to city and break down the biggest storylines as we gear up for the new year. First, let's take a trip to the bed. The 49ers coming off a, frankly, surprising 12 and 5 season, given that Brock Purdy only played nine games. Shout out to Matt Jones. Look at their notable off-season additions, obviously headlined by Mike Evans, joining the fold.

Finally worked out that new deal with Trent Williams. But I looked at the roster. Everyone talks about Seattle, the champs, everyone talks about the Rams, obviously. So the Niners are third, but their roster is littered with names. that we know, my storyline is, does the old core have one last ride? Shanahan will have them be competitive.

Purdy is good. Love the Mike Evans edition. But they, more than any team in the NFL, to hit their ceiling, are going to rely on star players who are old staying healthy. And that's just generally speaking a bad recipe or formula. If we put up the names that I'm talking about, it is fairly overwhelming. Like, Trump Williams is maybe the best left tackle of my lifetime watching football. George Kittle is obviously spectacular.

Mike Evans, Christian McCaffrey, who was healthy, but historically hasn't been. And Fred Warner. All on the wrong side of 30, three of those guys, three of those five players missed six or more games last year. Can you back a team coach that has this many of their best players, that injury prone and that old? Yeah, so they're the second oldest roster in the NFL next to Washington. and ability-wise that they could make a run, no question about it. Durability-wise, I don't think it's going to happen. And there's been a problem in San Francisco for quite a while in terms of durability.

And if we pulled this up last year, they had the third-most misses by starters. And look at ahead of Washington, so there's the older team. But more importantly, they've ranked the top three in each of the last four seasons. That to me... I'm sorry, top 10 in three of the last four. So it's not a one-off. It's been pretty consistent. And the older you get, the more and more likely it is to continue along that path.

Yeah, like even with the addition of Mike Evans, Mike Evans is considered an old receiver. I mean, he was on the graphic. Yeah. And he was hurt. And so when you talk about what they need to do from an office standpoint is obviously the ball continues to go through CMC, but they don't have to find out ways how to pepper it around outside of CMC and Mike Evans. Now who's going to step up. Obviously, hopefully George Kittle will be back coming off the Achilles.

But I think one of the biggest additions that they were able to kind of make hay with and bring back was Trent Williams. Trent Williams is a monster. He's so beneficial to that run game and his ability to lead in that locker room. So I think everything that's we just said, like it comes down to the health and that talent. We know they got the talent. But I think they still have more, you know, they still got some time to make a run. It's a star's aligning type of thing, right?

Like there's a version of this season where the 9. are the Super Bowl champions. Like, I do think you have to put, like, in that bucket of teams that can do it. Yeah. But. There's a version where they missed the playoffs. Absolutely. Easily missed the playoffs.

Right. The wrong couple of guys get hurt. And it's not, listen, you can say that about any team in the NFL. That's not revolutionary analysis. But when you are relying on this number of players who are injury prone at that age, it feels more likely with them. But they've been here before. That's why keeping Mac Jones was huge in the off season, too.

Like paying him, keeping them steady. Yeah, they can hold the four. If Rock Purdy misses four weeks, they've proven that. But the question is, like, all of those guys, are you going to, are they going to be productive for an entire season? And even with the volume of injuries they had last year, they overachieved. When you think of the amount of star power that missed games over and over again. Kyle Shanahan, right? Kyle Shanahan teams have a very high floor.

Yeah. Right. If he is your coach, you are going to be in a lot of games and going to be competitive. And if the group stays healthy, even higher ceiling. Right. It gives them the high ceiling. stay in the division and go to Seattle where the defending champs. Cool 14 and 3 last season.

Had a breakout year from Sam Darnold. The notable additions and just moves, really, fortunate to keep Rashid Shahid, obviously gave JSN the money, lost Kenneth Walker, drafted Price out of Notre Dame, lost Kobe Bryant, the safety to the Bears, lost Kubiak, excuse me, to be the head coach of the Raiders. And that's my top storyline for them. How big of a loss is Clint Kubiak?

We won't know. We can assume it matters, but it's a really remarkable amount of continuity for a Super Bowl champion, losing a running back, a safety, and one coordinator. It's not that much to lose. But just one second. No, you're all good. But when I put up what their offense jumped to from last year to the year before, 2024 to 2025, because Kubiak was just there for 2025,

you could look at that and say Kubiak made all the difference, or you could say Sam Darnold made all the difference. Like, I genuinely don't know how much of a backslide I'm expecting the Seattle offense to have until we see. But to me, that is if Kubiak didn't matter that much, like if he matters more to the Raiders as an addition and a loss to Seattle, then they're going to be fine. Or it could be a huge loss.

goes back to what coach said earlier in the week when you're a new OC stepping into a new role you got to adjust to the players in a scheme that's already before you instead of you trying to just dump what you do best or what you know on the group of guys if you're blind for the flurried the new OC for the Seahawks you know there's already a system in place on how these guys operate and what got you to win a Super Bowl don't come in there and try to re-event the wheel hopefully can do that like I remember my time as a stealer and I have Bruce Aaron's BA ran it a certain type of way he knew what I bred it and butters were. And then when we had Todd Haley, Todd Haley said, okay, if that's what y'all do,

this is what we do, right? And he kind of just went along and he obviously added some things and adjusted some things along the way. And yelled at people. He did. But I'm telling you from a, from a system standpoint, it didn't, we weren't challenged where we had to rethink things or kind of question things. Philosophy-wise, we were all brought in because he adjusted on the fly. And Kubiak had been a coordinator before. So he'd been a coordinator in New Orleans, and then they had another stop prior to that. And in between, he was a passing game coordinator, and it was a heavy emphasis.

And when you lose an offensive coordinator or a defensive coordinator, it can be a big deal. And when you bring in a guy that doesn't have any experience calling plays, he's going to have a learning curve, and that's just the way it is. And you have to work through that. Look at Detroit last year. They tried to transition offensive coordinators. It didn't go the way they wanted to.

They had to make the change during the season. How disruptive that. that was to their whole offense. So as much as I believe they're going to stay with the Kubiak system, it's still how the guy calls, plays, getting used to the players that he has, them respecting him. Remember, they won a Super Bowl. And he wasn't part of that mix.

So how big of a loss? They were the third scoring offense. They won the Super Bowl. Do you think their offense is going to take a huge step back? Because they bring back basically everybody except they're running back. Well, what I'm saying here, Danny, is you don't know how big a loss is because you don't know how quickly the new coordinator is going to transition and how comfortable.

What is he going to be as a play call? That's a big unknown. Sure. And then it's also the players responding to him. And what kind of benefit of the doubt will they give them if it's not going well? We've seen it in Philadelphia where they transition offensive coordinators. Doesn't go really well. So it's an unknown.

I like the idea they're keeping the system, but it's unknown. Think about it quickly. I don't know we got a transition, but think about how the Seahawks ate last year off. It was their ability to run the ball between the 20s is how they were effective, right? Like that may change and Flurry feels differently. So we'll see. All right, let's go in the RV here.

Stay again in the NFC West and go down to Hollywood where the Rams had a 12 and 5 season. Of course, whilst in the NFC championship game to the aforementioned Seahawks in that classic in the NFC title game. If you look at the Rams off season, I mean, they were busy. Basically a whole new secondary.

They added Miles Garrett, and then they used their first round pick on a player who they hope will not play. But again, they added Miles Garrett. They still could have Aaron Donald still to come. So my biggest storyline for the Rams is, do they have enough depth behind the stars? They deserve to be the favorite. I get it. It is a spectacular preseason roster. It is also very top-heavy.

Because Devante Adams is in his mid-30s. Matt Stafford's in his late 30s. We'll see who they end up paying among, like, Byron Young and Pooka Nakuwa and which guys they ultimately have to keep versus paying all that. That's a story for the future. But normally, you have depth with draft picks, with young chief talent. Less need, famously, F them picks. I've never seen anything like this.

Coach, you've been around the league for forever. Look at this. Last 10 years, that's their first round picks. Eight of the 10 years, nothing. Jared Verse, they traded him away. Ty Simpson, they hope he doesn't play. So there's not a first round pick that they used on the roster who can be reinforcements for the guys at the top.

It's an incredible roster, but it's also top heavy and older. I don't know if there's enough depth there if they have the wrong injury or two. But what they've done is they've shown that they can make that formula work. No question. And when they haven't had the first round draft picks, they have done a good job in the later rounds, farming guys and finding guys, which a lot of teams don't do very well. So they've taken a radically different approach in most teams

in terms of trading for established talent, giving away young guys and cheap guys, and they found a way to make it work. So to your point, if there's a team that's going to continue to be able to make this work, it's them because they know how to do it. Yeah, it's a legit concern for me because this is why Rams fans were thrown their remote when they drafted Ty Simpson because they realized later in the season, you know who was one of the key factors that was out?

Devonte Adams, who happens to be 36 years old, when they could have drafted Mackay Lemon at that position and say, all right, if Devonte happens to get hurt again, at least we got the young fella in the wings that can fill that void. So, yeah, it's a cost for concern. At the end of the day, how long as you got that man healthy Matthew Stafford, you got a shot, baby. Right, and I don't love the analysis of like, well, if they get hurt, they're in trouble.

And if they're healthy, they're going to be great. Because you can say that with a huge percentage of NFL teams. But for a 38-year-old quarterback in Matt Stafford, it probably is an even bigger piece of it. And I will say, I was very critical of the Ty Simpson pick when it happened, thinking the exact same thing that you did, reinforce it with a player who can help get Stafford another one. Once they were able to go out and get Miles Garrett, I actually thought it made more sense. So we can acquire Miles Garrett. to be like our all in piece for this team.

And so we don't think we're going to be drafting in the top 15 for a while. So we will draft our, now you could debate whether or not Ty Simpson's and elite quarterback talent, but clearly McVeigh liked him, West Need liked him. We're going to get our era parents of Stafford. We don't plan to be drafting this high. So that was the ultimate move for the future. And they're also in a great position because there is no pressure and there will be no pressure from the fan base to play them, which is radically different than any other first round draft pick for a quarterback,

then no one's going to be saying put him in ahead of Stafford. And if Stafford does get hurt later in the season, which is there's a chance that could happen, obviously. At least he's had a bunch of time to learn and grow, like we say other first round draft picks should have. And he's got a great mentor to guide him while he's there. Well, I say this, Ty Simpson better show something in the preseason because if he thinks, it's going to be trouble.

It was one of the more scrutinized first round picks we've seen in a while. Final stop today as first things first goes camping, we go all the way back east here to New England with the Patriots also went 14 and 3. Last season, of course, got blown out in the Super Bowl. Ultimately, we had to blow up the door of destiny. I didn't give Wilde's the door handle, though. I don't know if you cherish that as a present. There moves this off season. You might have heard about it.

They added A.J. Brown signed Romeo Dobbs. Stefan Diggs is gone. Elijah Vera Tucker, given a little bit of reinforcement for their offensive line to protect. Drake May. Still some serious questions on the left side, hoping for Will Campbell to be healthy this year.

My biggest camp storyline for the Patriots was more quarterback centered of how does Drake May follow it up? I know you've talked a lot, Coach, about how he's a young player. He's a part of this historic quarterback class. He's in the Super Bowl in year two. He's the runner up for MVP in year two.

two. I think Drake May is awesome. And I thought the most impressive thing that he did last year was he clearly elevated talent around him. Like Stefan Diggs is good, but he's not a top five receiver in football at the stage. Booty the same thing. He had huge problems on the left side of his offensive line. And so if you go from what they had in weapons last year to weapons this year and there's more continuity and it's his third year in the league, I just looked at what Drake May was able to do last year just to remind people, that's where he was targeting Stefan Diggs. Absolutely spectacular. So if you replace those targets with a guy who's better than Stefan Diggs, why would if we just throw up his numbers from last year to remind people about what

it looked like for the runner-up MVP in year two, why can't those numbers stay the same or get even better if he now has Dobbs and A.J. Brown instead of Stefan Dix? Because he's going to demand more attention. I think Drake May will? Drake May. Yeah. I think the defense right now will not only focus on him, will we evaluate what he can't do well, and they're going to exploit it. I think the competition will be harder. You know, it's going to be a different schedule. I think they're going to play a better team. Schedule is I think right now, his biggest thing is he has to prove his play is the

standard, the new standard, and that's something that just he popped off the tape because of a lesser schedule and, you know, he's come together. I just think right now, Drake may go through a little regression, but it's okay. I think he's just not, he's no longer a secret. I think people respect he's going to be, he's a new age quarterback. This is the Caleb Williams discussion, where now he's in year two of this system, where last year both those guys were just learning the terminology, how the plays work, the huddle, all the things that go into learning a new offense.

And this offseason and this training camp, he has a chance to really build on those things. So you should see significant progress. I think Josh McDaniels does a great job of nuanceing offensive plays. but Josh worked on defense for two years. He was with me in the secondary, so he really understands defense, and he teaches that to the quarterbacks. So that, to me, is a significant edge.

To your point, though, Willie, the level of competition is going to be much greater. The amount of figuring out what beats him, the time spent on that by defense coordinators, is so much more significant. So they're going to force him to do what he does poorly a lot, and we're going to see whether or not he can overcome that. Aren't they clearly a better team on paper, though?

I think what you're saying obviously makes sense. It's a tougher schedule. They're not going to take anybody by surprise. That is objectively true. But they've added talent. There are more additions than subtractions. And the additions are. AJ Brown.

And that's a top 10 receiver. And Romeo Dobbs, who is a quarterback's best friend in the Red Zone. Those are real X's and O's on the field reasons that you should be better as opposed to like teams aren't going to overlook you. But they had really good chemistry or it seemed like they had really good chemistry as a team. They did. And the question is when you bring in new guys and you're bringing talented guys and you bring guys with big expectations, how does that chemistry work? Well, speaking of big expectations, it's been 30 years. You might have heard since the Cowboys won a Super Bowl.

Jerry Jones, I've asked a lot of course. questions about trading for Max Crosby. He didn't comment because it's tampering, but only kind of it's next on first first expression. Saturday night baseball night in America and this week two iconic clubs shine under the lights in prime time. Ben Rice and the Yankees face. I'm going to editorialize for a second.

He should be the MVP of the national league Pete Crow Armstrong and the Cubs. Not biased. Saturday, seven Eastern on Fox. We're calling the real deal around here. Back here with Coach and Willie talking Max Crosby, the all-pro defensive end. He had heard he was traded to the Ravens this offseason. And he wasn't because Baltimore said something. It was very complicated.

But Crosby thinks that everything that happened this off season with all the drama is actually going to motivate him to be even better this year. Take a listen. I love this game. And, you know, I heard all the noise and all those things. But, you know, everyone knows, like, my back's against the wall. that's when I'm at my best. I love the pressure.

That's what I live and thrive on. So it just added points and gives me a little bit more reason to go out there and will be. That is an intimidating individual. Willie, he is currently a raider. Should teams be still trying to get Max Crosby? Like, say, well, I don't know, hypothetically the Dallas Cowboys. I was stuck looking at his tattoos. Didn't it like a bad asset trip?

It was just like so much going on there. There was nobody caught up in that? I mean, I said he was intimidating. Bad acid trip, good acid trip. Yeah. What's the difference? Go ahead. I digress.

No. You're going to be, listen, it's an intimidating man. I think if you're the Cowboys, if you're the Bills, if you're the Bears, if you're the Bengals, you're offering two first-round picks an opportunity to go get Max Cross. That's the bottom line. I mean, this guy with 10 sacks last season, 28 losses, 28 tackles for loss, and supposedly an injury-plagued season can still produce for you. Like, he's the finished product you want if you feel like you're a championship contender.

So go get him. I think the fact that he's willing to go back in that building and make men's how they treated them and so on and so forth, I think shows you the type of caliber that his love for the game is real. So I love the guy. I love, I've loved him for a long time. I think it's up to him. I would go to front office like, man, I want to go win. If this is a real thing, send me somewhere where I can go win a Super Bowl. Yeah, I'd be curious whether they would be open to trading him at this point after they've had a chance to really spend some time with them and experience what is.

personality is like and the way he is with his teammates, his motor. He's got so many intangibles that you like on top of all the good things that he's done statistically. You mean the new coaching staff in Vegas? The new coaching staff, because it's a little bit different when you, you haven't seen a guy, you haven't dealt with a guy, maybe easier to part ways, even if he's a good player, but now they've seen him start working, they've gotten to know him, they're appreciating his intensity. But let's look at his, these are averages over 16 or 17 games. played a long time, 10, almost 11 sacks, 21 tackles for loss, 25 quarterback hits, two forced fumbles, and he's played in 110 out of 117 games.

He started 110 out of 170 games, and two of those five misses or seven misses were because a coaching decision, not because he couldn't play. He wanted to play after that, it was a meniscus at the end of that. He wanted to do that play through it. They held them back, so it's not like he couldn't have played. Yeah, he doesn't tell. He's had a bunch of surgeries. He failed another team's physical.

Who knows whether you could make a trade work or whether he's going to go somewhere else and fail a physical. Whether he fails it or not, usually he's going to show up and play on Sunday regardless of a... So I balked at two firsts. I think if there was an offer for two firsts on the table after what happened in Baltimore, I think he would be gone. Because that's what they were willing to give up.

And then all of a sudden he was available again. and it was weird for a little while. And then they were all like, okay, no, we're all going to be happy. My guess is in that time when it was weird for a while, they were waiting for someone else to call and match what the Ravens willing to do. Like, I know the Bears called. Like, I know the Bears were interested.

I don't think that they were willing to meet Baltimore's price. I think Dallas was pretty clearly interested. I don't think they were willing to meet Baltimore's price. My gut on this tells me, because I said at the time that Crosby wasn't going to play another game for the Raiders, Now I just will say, yeah, I don't think he finishes the season for the Raiders. I wonder if it ends up. I wonder if it, because I would imagine, coach, like you can trade for a defensive end and they can make an adjustment in season more easily than an offensive player timing, certainly a quarterback, something like that.

I would think it's like, let me see if he's healthy. Like go out and play the first four weeks, the first four, the first six weeks. Look good. Raiders are struggling. He's 28 years old. He's not on Mendoza's timeline. And then someone reengages the Raiders and says, hey, we'll give you a first round pick this year. in order for him to come over and help us win this Super Bowl.

Yeah, listen, I think honestly, once again, if you're the bills, if you're one of those teams like, man, we're just one guy, one guy away from closing things out when we really need a big stop, you seriously think about Max Crosby and you make it work, hella high water because of his production, his age, his willingness to play, you know he's a leader in the locker room, and by that press conference alone with his shirt off, man, wants to do nothing but play football.

That sold you? Yeah, I mean, because he's not worried about office. optics, right? He's passionate about what he does and he wants to do it for a long time and you got a guy that's willing to play through you know, hell of high water. Let's talk Eagles and Jalen Hertz is he is back on the practice field, which means he's also, of course, as the quarterback of the team, back in front of the media, dropping quotes that could be sewn into a throat. Take a listen. It starts from Coach Siriani and his message in his first words in yesterday's team meeting was about being together and being aligned. And when I was taking notes of it, I just, you know, thought about 100% alignment and zero entitlement. And so as a team, that's what everybody's pushing.

Coach, more likely the Eagles take a step forward or step back from last year. He wins the press conference all the time. You love that, don't you? Oh, my God. That is a 100% alignment, zero entitlement. That is an absolutely perfect message. And it's also probably. hearkens back to what happened last year,

and he's giving us all, you know, a very clear indication of what was missing last year. And then that's the problem. If it's too hard to win the NFL when everybody's pushing in the same direction, it's almost impossible when guys are pushing against each other. It's just the margin for error is too small. So if you can have 100% alignment and zero entitlement, you've got a chance to push much further than they pushed last year.

Yeah, I'm struggling with this because I think part of it, I feel like they're going to take a step backward. I think part of that is because I just don't know what the Eagles do well from the offensive standpoint. I think last year we constantly questioned their identity, whether it's because the officer line was banged up and they couldn't run the ball or because him and AJ was having issues. I just don't know what that office looks like. So going into this season, I just don't know what to expect, especially when you do have a new officer coordinator. I'm trying to say, all right, who are the Eagles, right? Obviously, they want that old thing back where they was running the ball out of high, and Saquan was doing everything.

I'm struggling offensively to see what should we expect and what should we be excited about. I don't know, man. It's a really talented roster. Yeah. Can you honestly say what do the Eagles do well? Well, listen, I think to your point, if the Eagles offensive line is healthy, like the last time we saw them be healthy, it was one of the best running teams in the history of the league with Saquan Barkley two years ago. Yeah, but Sequin, outside of being able to run between the tackles, he was there to be an impact guy on third down.

He wasn't that last year, right? Well, I mean, last year, I think, to coach's point, it was not quite 100% engagement with a little bit of entitlement. Sure. And your offensive line was really hurt. And Jalen Hertz didn't play well. So, listen, I'm not the biggest Jalen Hertz believer. That's pretty well documented here. But the rest of the team is just loaded with stars.

Mitchell, Dijin, Bon, Carter, all on the defensive side of the ball. Dickerson and Jurgents and Milata and Sequin and Devonthe Smith and Godder all on the offensive side of it. It is a loaded roster, all three levels of the defense, everywhere on offense. If the offensive line plays well and Jalen Hertz has more buy-in to go off of his quote, they'll probably be really good. Yeah, there's not many teams that they're going to play where they're just going to be outmatched from a talent perspective.

Almost none. And then it's a question of how well they do come together. And with Sequin, it was an off year, but he's one of the most talented backs in the NFL, and he could easily pop off again this season. They knew they were moving out from A.J. Brown, so they did a good job of trying to go get candidates to fill that void. And maybe now, if it's not about fighting what the game plan is going to be, or who's going to get the ball, or how much we should pass versus how much we should run, and they're just focused on how can we beat this defense on this play.

Could see a lot of really positive things offensively. I like the talent a lot. I do think it's a little bit of blaming the messenger here on A.J. Brown because I think he spoke a lot of truths of what people thought in that locker room, and I thought he was really good. Like, it sounds like you're a believer in addition by subtraction. Yeah, I've experienced addition by subtraction plenty of times. And look, if a guy's been to multiple teams and you're extremely talented,

and sometimes it's not always the team's fault. Drop mic. Drop mic? I mean, I don't know. I'll take AJ Brown. I'll take, I'll take 1,300 yards, 10 touchdowns, and a guy reading the book on the sideline. Coach is probably right. Coach is probably right.

He's like, I've experienced it before. I'm like, I don't know. I like the guy who catches the rock. He is incredibly talented. He is incredibly talented. All right, coming up, really looking forward to having the national champion head coach, Cigetti join us for Big Ten Media Days coming up on First things first. Back here on First things first talking a little college football.

No one better to do it with than the champ. The Indiana Hoosiers shocked the nation, went a perfect 16 and 0 last season en route to a national championship. So joining us now, back-to-back coach of the year from Big Ten Media Day, Kurt Signetti with us from Chicago. Coach, thank you so much for the time. But I have to admit, I was a little jealous that we're getting you after that press conference, you're going viral all over the place.

These quotes, the quotes are amazing. Can I share the quote that you shared that I related to most? You said, I'm tired of being bossed around by my wife. I'm ready to boss somebody else around and develop a football team. How does your wife boss your round coach, would you like me to start? I guess that's why she texted that I lost my ride home from the airport. She didn't think it was as funny as I did? She's the boss of the house.

Yeah, yeah. Mine too. I think she probably got a lot of humor out of that. That's good. What about this one? Nope, time to go. Okay. We don't have bad apples.

Coach Signetti takes care of the bad apples. How do you take care of them, coach? We only have good apples. No bad apples. Bad apples can spoil the whole bunch. All right, I've heard that one. And then this one I actually. did really like it. We could expand on it a little bit. You said, we don't run a hype machine up

here in the Midwest. When we fall short, we say we fell short, we don't cry river, whine and complain, and that's why we're the best. I honestly don't even understand the argument for SEC over Big Ten when you guys have won three straight national championships. What is the argument at this point? I mean, we're just having a little fun there on Media Day. SEC is a great league with a lot of great coaches and players, a lot of respect for them. There's a health. competition between the two conferences. And I, you know, I think the numbers pretty much state the facts over the last three to four years. It can be all fun in games at Media Day. I understand that. But I do wonder, like, there is some pride, no, in terms of like you go through the

Big Ten and you feel like you are as prepared, if not more prepared than anybody, because of the gauntlet that you have to get through. No, there's no question. There are great programs and coaches and players in the Big Ten Conference. And that's why, you know, the Big Ten Conference has won the last three national championships and eight and two versus the one down south in Bowles. And, you know, 11 playoff appearances to five. I mean, on and on and on. Four and no, head to head, the last four.

But, you know, it's all good-natured rival. I got a lot of respect. It's a great league. We just happen to be the best. Yeah, the one down south. It's just good fun. I like it. You talk about the respect that you have for them down south,

but also your fellow coaches in the Big Ten. I'm curious what it's been like for you as the back-to-back coach of the year out of this conference, the national championship. You have all of this adoration coming your way, which is totally deserved. I mean, I saw PJ Fleck compare you to Babe Ruth in that you called your shot. What has it been like to you, and I would imagine gratifying, to get that type of praise from your fellow coaches? I mean, to get that kind of praise from your colleagues, that means a lot.

And kind of a reward for your sacrifice, dedication, commitment, and hard work. Those are coaches I really respect him and Brett Bilma, both are real guys that do a great job with their programs as well. But, you know, in this business and any venture, success, fame, very temporary thing, you know, can change real fast. The next week they're hanging in Effigy, the fans. So, you know, we're getting ready to start a new season and excited to get going. We've got a lot of work to do in Fall Camp. How do you get that message across? You know, every team is new.

A lot of these guys weren't really big participants in that national championship team. I've heard coaches say there's no momentum from one year to the next. How do you turn the page after a 16-0 national championship season? I mean, you just turned the page. And, you know, I turned it the next day. I think our guys, our returners have done a good job, and I know our coaches have, and that's one of our strengths is the coaching continuity. You know, my coordinator's been with me 12, 13 years each, and I got a lot of other guys

been with me a long time, so we're on the same page. We've got a blueprint, a plan, a process. You know, we think alike. The key of the drill, after we develop players and identify roles and sort of develop the mindset and identity of the team, is then to develop the intangibles, and that's a big part of my job. and handling how do you handle success and setbacks. So the marathon is not a sprint, or the season is not a sprint. It's a marathon.

And we're not going to really talk about the national change. I mean, it's over. The fact of the matter is everybody's zero zero. And we got to develop each and every guy in the program and identify roles and get them to play the way we want to play. And that's why we get paid. Did you really turn the page for the next day? You allowed yourself one day.

Shoot, I'm not sure I had a whole day. I mean, we won the game, got to the hotel, went up to President Whitten's room and celebrated a little bit, went to bed and had a 8 a.m. national interview the next morning and then flew back to Bloomington. And, you know, when you play until January 19th or 29th, whenever it was, you're four or five weeks behind on everything. So there were a lot of work.

Well, I think your fans celebrated more than a day. I will say that. but I guess that's kind of the spoils of being the coach, like you said, and getting paid. You mentioned the fame. I wanted to run something by you. I grew up playing the NCAA college football video game. I'm curious, I understand you said fame is fleeting. Did you ever think that you would be on the cover of this iconic game?

You nailed the pose, by the way. Can you evaluate the pose? Have your players, you know, gotten a kick out of this? What was this experience like for you? You know, I really haven't talked to our players about it. came to me and we did it I thought it'd be good for recruiting I think I'm the first coached ever be on the cover I don't know I've never played the game I hear it's a great game so you know pretty cool and the pace car for the Indy 500 was pretty

cool too glad I did it glad I did the EA sports thing only it's good good for the program has it been good for recruiting help help you so have you seen dividends from it I think there's brand identification and You know, we really finish strong. We're off to a good start and, you know, time will tell. Coach, I wanted to ask you about your sideline demeanor and presence. It's, you know, everyone has an opinion on it. I was reading quotes.

You one time said, you know, yeah, it doesn't look like I'm having a lot of fun down there. What do you find fun? I'd imagine you find fun in it even if you're not outwardly showing it. Yeah, I like going in the locker room after winning, celebrating, having a beer after the game, spending time. family afterwards, you know, there's a method of the madness, trust me. Just like the first year when I made some outrageous comments was out on a limb, there was a method to that madness too.

You know, if you're going to ask your team to play, play one to 160 the same, nothing, nothing game on a line the way you want them to play, then circumstances of the game can't affect that. And so, you know, that's how I coach. I know you don't want to give away trade secrets, But you said a method to the madness. I would imagine that younger coaches are hitting you up asking for your advice. I would imagine the speaking circuit at Fortune 500 companies would say, hey, coach, come teach my sales team how to be a leader, all those sort of things.

If you could condense it and boil it down, you mentioned the method to the madness, what is Coach Signetti back-to-back coach of the year? What is your leadership philosophy? Structured, organized, keep the main thing, the main thing. keep your nose to the grindstone. Work smart. That simple? Pardon me? I said it's that simple?

Yeah. You got to have a little killer instinct too and you've got to be willing to take some chances. I feel like you've maybe done a few of those things and you got that killer instinct. Last one for you. We don't know Fernando Mendoza personally, but we're talking about the NFL every day.

It was just announced that he's going to not be the starter at the beginning of training camp. I'm wondering what you think the value in that is for him. I imagine you're still in touch with him as you're kind of watching his transition to the NFL from afar. Yeah, I've really just heard that from you. So the Raiders know what they're doing. He's in good hands. All right, well, Coach, good luck this year.

We appreciate it. Thank you very much for taking the time. And we'll talk to you again down the line. Thank you, Coach. All right, guys. Have a good one. That's Coach Signetti here on First things first. Thank you.