Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Live NFL Free Agency Reactions

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

Geoff and Matt are here to kick off the NFL's legal tampering window with their thoughts on all the big signings from the first days of free agency. What will Kirk and Russ bring to their new teams? Are any of these RB deals good investments? And also, how is Geoff celebrating gambling becoming legal in North Carolina?Be sure to follow the podcast to be notified whenever a new episode is released, and leave a rating, comment, or tweet @GeoffSchwartz to share what you think!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday march 12th i'm jeff schwartz is jeff schwartz smart you were live on twitter youtube and we're on your favorite podcast platform of choice welcome into our guest free agency recap but even though free agency hasn't really actually begun that there's been a bunch of deals signed in the tampering period which is a period where you can agree to a deal but not actually sign it until free agency officially begins later this week we'll cover it all some big moves and matt you know what i'm gonna go on a limb after the moves have been announced which have been a lot cousins to atlanta we'll talk about that russell wilson of pittsburgh. Brian Burns getting traded to the Giants.

Still something to be made. While we're talking, I saw a tweet about Snead possibly being traded. Drew Locke to sign with the Giants. I feel comfortable in saying, Matt, I'm still picking the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl next season. So, go out on a limb there and say, I'm still doing it, buddy. What do you think you know i was i was talking to somebody in our office the other day hi by the way um that nfl started to feel a bit more like the nba right now like you know in the nba there's just some teams that come

into the season and they feel very like eyes wide open that they suck like that's not usually how it feels in the nfl like because there are teams like the texans every year that can go from worse to you know almost winning two playoff games so but it does feel like there's this sort of specter of the chiefs kind of looming over the league and it feels like the top teams are sort of trying to make their make their moves like whether they're good or not like we'll get to say on barkley but it does kind of feel like everyone's sort of very aware of the gravitational pull of the chiefs right now i don't really know how to explain that but um it does feel like the teams aren't making like the big swings that they sometimes do to convince themselves that they

could actually win the super bowl well i don't know how many swings there are to be made i mean atlanta made the swing right so atlanta signed with cousins which yeah which was the um the rumor out of the combine and ended up happening that's where by the way guys this tampering period we joke about that um where starting monday at noon teams were allowed to talk to players or agents or both um and you know deals got announced immediately because they've been talking for weeks right and the combine is where this starts next year i'm going to combine for sure i've talked to my wife about it it's happening i cannot i'm gonna go yeah um it's the llc paying for that or it should my buddy duke always goes he invites me to go i'm gonna go it'd be fun um and um cousins to the falcon So here's my thoughts on this.

It's a four-year deal. It's actually a two-year deal for about $100 million. That's sort of what it's at. And, you know, maybe $90 million, somewhere around there. But, you know, it's not the top end of the market. It's not the bottom end, sort of in the middle. I think it makes it the highest, seventh highest paid, which actually average per year puts them right where I think Patrick Mahomes is at.

Obviously, coming off an Achilles tear, but not a mobile quarterback, so maybe it doesn't matter as much in his recovery that he can just stay in the pocket. But there's different levels to what organizations want to be in the National Football League, Matt, right? We know this. Some want to win a championship. Some are okay making the playoffs. Some will get to Pittsburgh or just okay at times just being competitive, right? Atlanta has not been to the postseason since 2017. Look at their division. You see Baker Mayfield re-sign with the Bucs. I like that deal for him and for Tampa Bay.

They see Bryce Young and whatever the Panthers are, which might have the worst roster in the NFL, and Derek Carr, who's not good, and it's the Saints, right? They keep having to cut players and restructure deals because they refuse to admit that salary cap is a real thing. The Falcons say, look, we're young at running back. We're young at tight end. We're young at receiver.

We've got some pieces on defense. Let's get ourselves a quarterback that gets us to the playoffs. Cousins, if healthy, and it's a decent if. He's in 36-year-old off of a huge injury. Matt, get him to the playoffs. You're the Falcons hosting a home playoff game the next two seasons, which should be the goal. That means you win your division.

Is it a win, in my opinion? Is it the Super Bowl? No. But the other thing to consider here, Matt, is they're drafting eighth overall this season. And if they get J.J.arthy bonix michael pennex at eight that's way too high in my opinion for that even though mccarthy might go that high is that now you kind of have one or two years to see if those guys are good you're wasting

london and pitts and bijon and algier on these on these cheap contracts right there they're rookie contracts right now you're wasting them by getting a young quarterback and seeing if that guy has it. You know what Cousins can do. You're buying a known commodity right now. So look, are they winning the Super Bowl with him? No, but they're division winners, home playoff games. Maybe things get right and you're hot

and you make a playoff run. So that's why the signing to me makes a lot of sense. I like the location. I like the offense for him. They're going to run that Rams offense, quarterback-friendly offense. And overall, Matt, I think I do like what the Falcons did. Yeah. This is such a tricky thing to – I mean, it's like, did they get better?

Totally. But, you know, I've been on all sides of the kirk cousins experience as a as a washington fan and you know i remember when he was you know gonna go he was gonna walk in free agency and i remember thinking like man what are we gonna do if we lose kirk cousins and then i was like well what do we do if we keep kirk cousins like yeah what are you getting really and i think that think that, you know, I agree. Like, he's a nice player. I think their floor is now much higher.

If Desmond Ritter is as bad as people, you know, think he was, then this could actually genuinely be a really good team, right? Like an underrated defense. Obviously, we know about all the offensive firepower. We'll see if, you know, a new offense, a new coach, the McVay system, like you mentioned, sort of unlocks them. But the whole NFC South, again, is still kind of the same, minus the Panthers. Now there's two number one overall picks. There's $300 million plus quarterbacks.

And none of those teams is even a threat to make it to the NFC Championship. Not even close. It'd be shocking. I think. So I think that like, I feel like I'm happy for cousins. I think they're going to be a fun team to watch, but like you, it's funny.

You mentioned that they could take a quarterback and eight. Like, I don't think that would be smart, but like, I think they have to admit like, this is not a long-term solution. Like cousins, we don't even know if he's going to come back and be as good.

Like, we think so, right? Like, we've seen other athletes come back from Achilles, but, you know, Kevin Durant, about the same age as Cousins. But I don't know, man. Like, he could take a step back. That's the risk. Yeah. But what's the upside?

You know? So, it's like, I get the move. I like it. But, you know, I'm just not sure what they got. To me, again, the upside is your expectations move, I guess, from like with a rookie quarterback. Well, I hope it goes well in year one. Maybe he's ready in year two. If you get Cousins at 85%, 90%, because it's hard to be 100% off Nikita Zinjur in year one

at that age, you get a playoff team. And for some owners and coaches, that's good enough. If you're Raheem Morris, you're like, I'll take a playoff team. I'll take a playoff team each year. Try with me, which again, is a totally okay way to look at this thing. If you're the Falcons, Which, again, is a totally okay way to look at this thing and view the Falcons. We're a playoff team. We're a home playoff game. We're competitive. We're ready to go.

I understand that from the Falcons. Totally get it. What I don't understand is the Pittsburgh Steelers decided to do this with Russell Wilson. Pittsburgh, Matt, should be a team that is always striving for a Super Bowl. I believe, correct me wrong, they have six, right? I believe they have the most? Five or six. It doesn't matter.

They win a lot of Super Bowls. Of course, we know the record, right, under Tomlin. They have yet to have a season under.500. They're always striving to win Super Bowls. They're in the playoffs a lot. Russell Wilson does nothing to get him to Super Bowl. It's a one-year deal. I understand Pittsburgh going, ooh, he's cheap. He's $1.1 million and they're paying the rest, but he's not good. And so you were 10-7 last season. You're probably 10-7 again this year at best. Matt, in August, we preview our divisions, right? We do this every

August. We love doing these shows. We pick, most often, the team with the best quarterback to win the division because that's who wins divisions. At best, Russell Wilson, if everyone's healthy, is third in the division behind Lamar and Joe Burrow. If Deshaun Watson is any good, he's fourth in division, right? With the Steelers team, they just signed Patrick Queen. That's great and all, but they have a bunch of homers,

I think, still on their roster. They're not like up to the level now of where they're even Super Bowl caliber. Wouldn't this be the year, Matt, to step back? You have to decide at some point if you're the Steelers that yes, being competitive

is a hallmark of what we do but we got to find that answer quarterback we're never going to be super competitive without a quarterback and they either have to drop back for a year go 4-13 right like just like sort of rebuild on the fly or just trade up and say this is the year we're doing it we're trading to three for New England's pick and taking a quarterback the Russell Wilson thing we're going to be in the same exact position next season. We're going to be sitting here talking about free agency. What the Steelers do, they need a veteran quarterback because they're drafting 16th again. So they have to decide at some point, like, we got to go for it.

The other thing, too, is when you sign a quarterback like Russell Wilson of his age, you kind of want to sign the leadership part of him too, right, Matt? Do we hear a lot of stories out of Seattle, out of Denver, from offensive linemen, from his running back, from his wide receiver, of like, man, great leader. I'm bummed it didn't work out, but dude's a leader, man. Like, he's got it. No, we don't hear any of that.

So you're signing a guy for a million dollars great deal don't get me wrong great value for the third best quarterbacking division and for a single season and he's not even like a great the greatest leader of all time i don't get what they're doing man just just you got it at some point you have to go for it a quarterback until you do it you're never going to be what you want to be i agree i will say though like what were their options like their options are to suck next season i don't think that's really an option because i think their roster is good enough like and clearly you know it's like the falcons could have said the same thing right like the Falcons could have said the same thing, right? Like the Falcons could have said like, well, let's just suck and run it back with Ritter and like get a better pick next year.

Maybe like they could have done that with Pittsburgh. Like Pittsburgh has a Super Bowl level defense and they've added strength to strength again. Like this is what they do. It's like, oh, we don't have a quarterback, but we'll add another a 10th linebacker. I think I actually I man, I can't believe I'm saying this. I actually kind of like this. And the reason why is I don't think they had a lot of options available to them in terms of taking that big quarterback swing. So if you can't take a huge quarterback swing, like don't give up all your draft capital for Justin Fields.

Like don't move up and take... You mentioned the third pick. To get the third best rookie quarterback in the class, I don't know if that's worth setting your whole team back. If you're going to bottom out, you have to really think about what that means. You're going to move TJ Watt? TJ Watt guarantees you six wins.

You know what I mean? That defense is going to be good enough no matter what. Pickens and that running attack, last year was supposed to be the bad year, and they still went 10-7. I think with Wilson, I agree with everything you said. The one-year deal gives them the out. They have nothing invested here. If this works, great.

They have a solution for another year or two. If it doesn't, they're on to year and they can they can postpone this and probably do the same thing next year but at least it gives them some outs but i will say like this feels like a bit of a like this feels like a a bit of a flex from tomlin like mike tomlin i think he's got to be irritated that you know every year pittsburgh are sort of like, what are we doing with this guy? He gets us to 10-7 and then we get murdered in the playoffs in the first round every year. That's the team. I kind of feel like this is his reclamation project.

Russell Wilson, I think his problem is as much personal as it is ability on the field. And so if you're Tomlin, you're saying, I can fix this guy. on the field and so if you're tomlin you're saying like i can fix this guy like i can turn him into this is the guy who like had antonio brown and levion bell and in the same locker room like maybe this is maybe he's the coach that can kind of get something different out of wilson and that's kind of one of the reasons they decided to do this if so i kind of like it a little more but i'm curious what you think well i think i think coaches that have roster personnel basically decision making right like they're allowed to do the roster they're always going to lean toward sort of win now to save their job which is not only what tellman's doing but the idea is like okay well

russell wilson get us 10 wins. I keep my job. We keep being competitive. I'd rather do that, maybe not win a Super Bowl, then suck and potentially get fired and coach a quarterback. Maybe Tomlin doesn't want to coach a young quarterback anymore. Maybe he just wants veterans. I want a veteran each year. I'm tired of coaching young guys. That's certainly possible as well.

But I just don't think this advances Pittsburgh past the goal. It's going to suck for us, Matt, personally when we bet the Steelers over this season. young guys that's certainly possible as well um but i just don't think this advances pittsburgh pass the goal and it's gonna suck for us matt personally when we bet the steelers over this season we have to root for russell wilson yeah we're gonna have to do that i mean i just like there russell wilson last year like i want to point to this little stretch where they he beat green bay they the broncos beat green bay. He didn't have great passing numbers. They beat the Chiefs in that weird game that sort of turned the Chiefs season around, I think.

Went to Buffalo. Went 24-29 for two touchdowns, no picks. Only 193 yards. Beat Minnesota. They had a five-game win streak where they beat Green Bay, Kansas City, Buffalo, Minnesota, and Cleveland. Pretty good stretch. And he didn't play a five game win streak where they beat green bay kansas city buffalo minnesota and cleveland

like pretty good stretch and he didn't play amazing he's not the russell wilson he used to be but as the season kind of progressed it was clear sean payton didn't want to work with him we'll see how that goes i don't really know what their plan is a quarterback right now but he he had some stretches and he carried the ball a little better. I agree. I think they're still the third or fourth best team in that division, but if I'm Pittsburgh, I don't really know what the other options are. I don't know. You can take this wherever you want,

but I really want to talk about what the Bears can do here now. Let's do it. I think the Justin Fields thing is now, what is going on there I feel like the Bears it's very possible that they brutally mismanaged this because the market for Justin Fields as we look at this now like who are the teams left that could that realistically would make a move of a second or even third round pick for Justin Fields at this point right like Atlanta got their guy they're not trading him to Minnesota so we can take them out of it like it seems like the raiders are going to go with mid shoe which i doubt we'll even talk much about um it doesn't

really seem like there's an obvious fit like maybe it's denver but if denver's bidding against themselves they're not going to do another huge trade for all these assets of quarterbacks. So I'm curious what you think happens with Fields. All right. Well, there's so many things involved here. One is his contract, right? Yeah. So his fifth-year option will be declined, and he has one more year to go. If you trade for him and he plays mildly well, you're probably going to extend him, which is kind of scary.

He's in the Daniel Jones range where you give a guy $40 million to $50 million a year, and it's just not that good. But, Matt, I think the most important thing here, he's not a good quarterback. He's just not good. Like, I don't know what else to say. He had a negative epa last season and that includes his ability to run the football negative epa he was 26 or 24 22 something in qbr and quarterback rating matt i know the quarterback wins we're analytics guys i do think sometimes

it gets a little bit insane but i i like it right we're We're analytics people. We follow it. We use it. But quarterback wins, I understand, not the favorite of analytics people. I get it. It doesn't always show the entire picture. I'm on board with that. However, Fields is 10 and 28 as a starter. At some point, it's like that's who he is. He's not good.

He's just not good. And what shocks me is Bears fans that look at this and think they should keep him over Caleb Williams. They all are freaking crazy. If I tell you that you traded the number one pick last season, okay, and in return, you got Darnell Wright, your right tackle, DJ Moore, Caleb Williams, and Roma Dunzay at nine, basically the top of the draft plus one free agent guy, not one guy you traded for.

You'd be like, hell yes, if I told you this two years ago. You'd be jumping for joy that that's what you received in the last two drafts, essentially, plus the addition of DJ Moore. You'd be overjoyed if that was the result if you're the bears and you're serious about winning you cannot pass up having the number one pick in two straight drafts and leave without a quarterback especially with how good stroud played last year's now you might have drafted bryce young last year so let's not but but then this year you have drake May, Jayden Daniels,

and Caleb Williams at the top of the draft, and look, I don't think all our talents are transforming your franchise right away. Drake May and Jayden Daniels probably take some, Caleb Williams is really freaking good, Matt, and like, to pass on him for a guy, three years,

he's played three years now, 10 and 28, Matt, 10 and 28, Matt. 10 and 28. His best season. Negative EPA. Expect a point added, by the way. So, you know, again, like the good quarterbacks have better EPAs. It doesn't sort terribly well, but like I use Ben Baldwin's website, RBSDM,

and I'm going to pull up right now but um you know like if you combine the the completion percentage above expected and and the epa fields is like 20 uh 21 you combine those with a negative epa oh yeah it's not his his his his completion percentage above expectation is um right where is it at it's not great, Jeff. His completion percentage above expectation is, where is it at? It's 0.8. It's not good. I think, honestly, the Bears, at this point, should probably just keep Fields. I don't think that you should trade him for whatever.

I don't think that they should be so desperate to move him and play kid caleb um i do think you know every year unfortunately come august there is one of those quarterback injuries there's one of those like late breaking like oh wait a second like let's just like put i forget who it was last year i want to say it was minshu like there were there were these just like random like backup guys that come in and like end up mattering um yeah you know Joe Flacco obviously in the middle of the season this year was a great example so I would hold on to him I think also like there's now it feels like there isn't really a scarcity because everybody has their option there will be so I would hold on to him and let people try to you themselves into him over longer. But 100% like this, Caleb, like anybody who's talking themselves out of Caleb Williams is crazy.

But I don't know. I just I think they kind of blew this. Like, I think it seems like they're kind of like waiting to see if I don't think they have. I don't think they have. I don't think they have yet. Because to me, anything you get for him is fine. Like, just what do you expect to get? A second round pick?

A third round pick? I don't think you're getting a pick in this. A second rounder for sure. I mean, I think they thought. I don't think you're getting a pick for him in this draft, to put it like that. Wow. I think they thought they were getting a first.

Like, I really think they thought they were doing that. I think their fans thought first or maybe second. The fans are hoping that first was in play. I think the contract is a big part of it. You're basically getting a year, and then you have to make a decision, which is tough. I don't know, man. I think that they missed their opportunity here. If they had made the trade, it seems like they're kind of just still not sure

if Caleb is their pick. Doesn't it seem like there's still this weird dynamic floating around? I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. He hasn't done a physical yet. He hasn't done a physical yet. He hasn't done a physical yet, Matt.

They cannot trade fields, in my opinion, until they have a physical on Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams is probably perfectly fine. You don't know that yet. What if you do a thorough examination, you find a congenital problem in his body somewhere. You don't know. That's why the physicals are there.

And so they might have suitors, but just hold on to them, hold on to them, wait till someone unfortunately gets hurt or after the draft, you know, maybe the Raiders, they wanted a Michael Pennex or something and they didn't get him so let's get justin fields you know in the trade a second round pick in the future even though they just signed gardener mitchell but the league is telling you they don't want him because they can have him anyone can have

justin fields right now matt the league is telling you no it's pretty fast hey man i think they i mean i i think that they they had an opportunity probably and they missed it it's like as soon as cousins moved then all these other dominoes fell but we'll see i mean i think i just it feels like the bears are gonna blow this somehow and like to your point about the caleb thing it's like hey chicago like even if you're not gonna take caleb like you're taking a quarterback like if if you find something wrong with caleb and you're like cool jayden daniels is it like you're taking jayden daniels like they could have moved off of fields a long time ago like when you know maybe it was atlanta or maybe it was vegas like somebody would have been like thank god we can go into free agency with our quarterback so i really think that was a

missed opportunity but we'll see where that we'll see how that goes um and there's a chance that like i think there's a chance that you know i don't even know the great example like new england drafts jayden daniels and they say like you know we want and they just signed bursette though right yeah you know we want a quarterback that can move like jayden daniels you know i mean like i'm assuming that and then maybe go with fields we just signed percent so maybe not um again like all these teams have backups too you know like could fields go in the backup role of like a trey lance he's better than trey lance but i don't know and the league is telling you how they feel about him and not great i guess i don't know what else to say, man.

Not a great sign. The market is the market. What other free agent moves did you like, Matt? Well, I want to quickly touch on that because the Brissette and your boy, Marcus Mariota, was signed by the Commanders today. I think that every time I'm on this show, I know Gabe and I are going to sort of split off.

I think it's important for us to have a conversation about the number two pick. I just want to check in and just let you know kind of where I am each time we record, because I do a thorough evaluation of film. I don't know if you know this about my process, Jeff, but I go really deep into the film where every couple weeks I watch the top recommended Drake May or Jaden Daniels highlight and come out of that with a fully formed opinion about who Adam Peters, the GM who everyone's been gassing up for years, should take. So right now, Jeff, I've waffled. Today, I think the pick should be Jaden Daniels. That's where I am today.

But I'm curious where you are with the way that the top three are going to shake out. Do you like this? Do you like this feeling of drafting a quarterback? Do I like this? Because the committee hasn't done this since 2012, right? Yeah, and before that, they hadn't done it since Heath Shuler, I think. So it's like it's been – it might be your congressman. I don't know.

He's in Pennsylvania. I can't remember. No, I don't like it. I feel like there's a lot that could go wrong with this pick, and you never want to be at the top of the draft. But I will say I do like the way the commanders have approached free agency. But for today, I'm going to say Daniels, but check in with me in a few weeks.

I think Daniels is who they're going to pick. Interesting. I don't know how much Kingsbury has a say in it, their offensive coordinator, but think about the players he's worked with, Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray. The ability to move. Drake may can move, but not the athlete Jayden Daniels is.

He's just not. I think Jayden Daniels is going to be their pick in the end if I'm picking who I think it's going to be. I think the ability to just escape. I mean, there's Washington off at the line right now. They just cut all their veterans, right? They got some work to do. They did have Super Bowl legend Nick Allegretti,

three-time Super Bowl champion for the Chiefs. And the Cowboys center, Tyler Biods. Biodich. He's good. I like Tyler. He works with my guy Duke. A little biased there, but Tyler's awesome. Works his ass off.

Good to see him get some money. The one thing I like about this time of year is everyone getting paid. It's just awesome. These guys have life-changing money put in their direction. For a lot of players not taking the first round, and I know it sounds odd to say this, but it's a lot of money for a lot of money.

It's not life-changing money. It's not generational money. Guys getting paid the last couple of hours have done generational money for the most part. I'm really happy for all these players. you know markets get set and then teams go about it and sign players and um these guys you know it's a lot of money for a lot of them so i'm happy for all the players that get in the situation um i have a couple things yeah okay let's do the panthers let's let's start Let's do that. Okay.

David Tepper is just a bad order. He's just not good at running a sports team. Yeah. At least not yet. I think he's the worst now. The Panthers have no good football players. They just don't. They traded Brian Burns, which they had to do. I don't mind the trade, Matt.

They have a new general manager, Dan Morgan, former Panthers linebacker, new coach, and Dave Canales. They had to trade Brian Burns. But they could have traded him last year for two first-round picks, and they didn't do it. And then they didn't pay him either. For one year, they just kept them on their roster. I'm sure you saw this tweet.

I don't know if I sent it. Scott Barrett, at Scott Barrett, DFB, by popular request, combining the Brian Burns, Bryce Young, Christian McCaffrey trades. The Panthers traded what would be the number one pick this year on Caleb Williams. They traded Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore. They traded the 2023 and 2024 first-round pick.

He kind of doubled that up there because the first-round pick is Caleb Williams on the top. A 2023 second-round pick, a 2025 first-round pick. In exchange, they got one-year Brian Burns, Bryce Young. He puts his height right here, which I think is funny. Oregon pass rusher DJ Johnson didn't play well as a rookie and two fifth-round picks. Just –

Abysmal. It's – It's brutal. Ineptitude at the highest level. It's crazy. And they should have – I mean, obviously, they should have the first pick in the draft. They should be able to –

That's the point of the NFL is you should be able to turn things around quickly. And instead, they let some of the, you know, Burns and McCaffrey, you can argue, are two of the best at their position. McCaffrey obviously is. And DJ Moore, sixth in the league in receiving last year, like with Justin Fields. It's really sad, I feel, for them. I actually, I think canalis is like he said the right things i thought it was interesting that they've backed so much money into the the middle of the offensive line that's been like an interesting free agency trend that

i'm sure is at your radar like a lot of guards getting that getting the bag this year but they have a long way to go before they even reach mediocre like i have like they're likely going to be picking first again next year i think so the guard thing is probably to counter all the pass rushers inside now we're seeing but robert hunt the panthers gave 63 million dollars guaranteed to the most of any guard in this in this cycle is not known for his pass protection. Like, they didn't even really... He's known for pass- Well, that also was just true as well. So, I don't really... Yeah, the Panthers just...

It's hard to win with inept owners, Matt. It's just, it's hard. You know that. You're a commander's guy. Can confirm. It's just hard. You have just this, like, this sludge around your team, man. Like, this bad juju with a bad owner. it's just hard. It's, you have just this, like just, you know,

this sludge around your team, man, like this bad juju with it, with a bad owner. And so commanders just, uh, commanders are fine now, obviously we'll see,

but the Panthers have bad ownership. They have bad leadership at the very top. They're not going to be good till Tepper decides to remove himself from all football decisions. Yeah. The Brian Burtz thing is tough. Great move for the giants who i think have had a great i like you see i'm kind of curious why don't are there any teams maybe we can just go

back and forth on a few who have had really good free agency starts so far that um who you want to highlight and then maybe we can do something we don't like quite as much um well giants and john's got two offensive linemen and brian birds they did sign drew lock which is kind of funny i don't know where he fits in maybe maybe backup for them. Yeah, they'll let Tyra go for him. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, the Chiefs re-signed Chris Jones.

They're going to trade Snead. They let their punter go for Matt Ariza. I mean, not half bad. Tell you who else caught my head. about houston houston's a team they've they've like completely loaded up um they got they traded for joe mixon today which i thought was interesting yes um they added on the pass rush uh they added to nico autry um they brought dalton schultz back they've brought in a bunch of defensive players. They signed Tommy Townsend from the Chiefs.

I just feel like I'm really happy to see the Texans basically say, yeah, we've got a really good team. Now let's go add to it. It feels like all of the moves that they've made, they brought somebody back on the offensive line too. I just think that they've done a really smart job of keeping the guys who uh who have mattered to them but also adding pretty aggressively um yeah well look they have young

quarterback on sort of a a win now ideal mode because of the young quarterback match cheap right they get them cheap um so it makes sense um who who anyone you don't like um i thought that the philly thing with saquon and we can talk about the running backs maybe as part of this is i thought the saquon thing was a really interesting allocation of money um they just lost you know the literally the center and heart and soul of their team and kelsey and cox but you know this is what the eagles do and it feels like every every couple cycles with howie roseman they get into this like dream team situation where you know last year they they traded two picks for deandre swift and everyone loved that everyone's going crazy for oh deandre swift what a smart another smart move by howie

roseman and he leaves in free agency and now they give all this money to saquon barkley who is better than swift is a really good player um obviously can can potentially like blow up behind that offensive line but you're it's like is that really what you need to do first of all and second of all like you know is that how much better are you like i don't think i think that there's like bigger systemic problems with philly um and that's not exactly the way i would have spent the money but it's hard to knock them for taking a good player just it has that dream team vibe kind of feel remember the year with vince young and yeah and they were just like we have everything we're loaded too deep everywhere and then howie roseman essentially got demoted

for chip kelly after that like i i kind of feel like they're in danger of kind of like going over their skis here well i guess that the question i have for even the running back position in general is there was a huge shuffle well like 12 running backs were on the move why didn't teams just sign their own running backs they ended up paying for running backs anyways just sign different players it's kind of odd right they teams either downgraded and pray or upgrade and pay obviously but they could have just kept their own and like they could have paid less to keep swift instead of barkley right yeah swift ended up getting similar money but yeah it's sort of like they could have done that

in the offseason for way less. And yeah, it doesn't make sense. I don't really... Saquon, to me, doesn't change how I feel about the Eagles. Yeah, but it's like, wouldn't you rather have had them, I don't know, fix their defense with that money? Like, their problem wasn't running the ball. It's like, does a star running back improve you prove you that much i don't i don't think so

swift was dominant for them down the stretch last year they actually were really good running the ball um they signed um huff to the pass rusher from the jets yeah i'm like not that big of a fan of either to be honest interesting so i was listening to the um athletics football show with robert maize and nate tice nate brought something up uh interesting i didn't know this he has not played more than like 480 snaps in a season yeah it's not a lot that's half at most of a season you know he brought like max cross he played like 800 he's never played a full season of reps? Yeah.

Now you still have Redick. You still have Sweat. You're getting rid of one of them probably. Yeah, I don't know what the Eagles are doing. Which again, this time last year, we were like Sweat and Redick and Jalen Carter. It's like they had the whole thing. And they have that kind of fantasy football feel of strength on strength on strength.

And it's like, is this actually improving you? I don't know. I wonder if they'd be in the LeJarrius Sneed discussion because they need cornerbacks. They need to go young. I wonder if there's an Eagles move that's still to be had. Can I make a fake trade for you? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah. LeJarrius Sneed for T. Higgins. Yeah, so T. Higgins. a fake trade for you yeah yeah oh yeah luxurious need for t hagens um yeah so t hagens um obviously um wants to be traded um so here's the one thing i the one thing about t hagens i think i have the most trouble with is are the chief going to pay him after this year? Are there's a one-year rental for, like, you can make the argument, they get a second round pick for Snead.

Just draft a receiver in the second round. I mean, yeah. That makes more sense. And they can't really pay anyone anymore, I think. I mean, they can't structure Mahomes' deal and Tooney's deal. They can do that if they want. The question is how much do they want to keep pushing money,

like how Tooney pushing money in the future. They can totally do that if they want to. They can find ways to create money. I want to talk about Chris Jones resigning fairly quickly because I think this is an important discussion about positional value. The Chiefs are paying Chris Jones a premium because you can't find Chris Jones's very often. You can find LeGarious needs.

You can find other defensive backs, which is they decide between paying Steve and Chris Jones. How many of Chris Jones are there in the NFL? Aaron Donald. End of story, right? Like, who else? Christian Wilkins,

who just signed for a bazillion dollars, is not Chris Jones. Correct. I'm telling you, who else would be in the discussion right now would be close to Chris Jones. Nobody really. Quentin Williams, maybe? Yeah, I'm sure I'm missing someone. Leonard else would be in the discussion right now would be close to Chris Jones. Nobody really. Quinton Williams, maybe?

Yeah, I'm sure I'm missing someone. Leonard Williams, Quinton Williams. I mean, there's nobody. Nobody like him. And you're paying him all this money for the playoffs. It is you. He disappears for half a season. You're like, you look at a box score, you're like,

oh, Chris Jones, 0-0-0-0-0 for the entire game. You're like, oh, where was he at this game? And then you get to the playoffs and you look at the box score, it's like one and a half, you know, eight pressures, two hits and four tackles for loss. You're like, oh, okay. Yep, that works. I'll pay for that guy. It's kind of like Travis Kelsey now. Like he did the same thing.

Like he just didn't really do anything all season, and then in the playoffs, he is unbelievable. The Chiefs are in an interesting position where they are basically like the Patriots were with Tom Brady, where it's like, let's just get to the playoffs healthy. You know? Yep. And the Chiefs are in that spot right now.

We want a home playoff game, maybe two, maybe three, but we got to get there with Chris Jones, Travis Kelsey, and Patrick Mahomes all healthy. And now Rasheed Rice in our tackle. Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes all healthy. And now Rasheed Rice and our tackle. So let's run with the Chiefs. Anything else before we get to – I have some fun gambling stuff.

Dallas not doing anything. Lost a lot of guys. That was kind of interesting. Probably good. I mean, dude, the teams that don't do very much in the in the franchise typically do well during the season i mean they're when you look at what's going on i mean i don't think tony pollard was a big loss but it's interesting that they weren't in the joe mixon or derrick henry market um it's you know you look i don't think dowdle's even on the roster now i think it's just deuce Vaughn who's actually under contract.

That's an issue. They're going to lose Tyron Smith. They lost their center. They lost their defensive coordinator and his number two, essentially both to Washington. They lost somebody up front also to Washington. They're losing some guys, and this is what happened. This is sort of what happens with Dallas.

You realize their window was kind of the year before and then they lose five guys and then they've been lucky. Like they lose Trayvon digs last year and Duran bland becomes like this amazing, you know, turnover machine. I think at some point, like they're going to,

they're going to run out of house money to play with. So that's one that I'm, I'm, I have my eye on. I thought the giant said it at a nice free agency, although they're really strange quarterback situation. I'm not really sure what they're doing there. I thought Washington had a pretty nice day yesterday.

I was really happy to see our friend Austin Eckler, who's a colleague of ours here at Blue Duck Media, land with Washington. That was fun for me personally. I thought they were doing the right thing for the most part. I don't know. Love Houston. What about Derrick Henry of the Ravens? I love that. I think he's the exact kind.

That's the exact kind of situation where you want Derrick Henry. A powerful offense that knows how to run the ball. I think the Keaton Mitchell pairing is super interesting. That's a really interesting range of different kinds of plays they can make. And that guy's just a punishing badass. Talk about the playoffs. Imagine if he was around in that Chiefs game. Could they have run the ball a little bit better?

Could they have gotten a lead and held on to the lead a little bit more and taken the ball out of Lamar's hands? I loved that move for them. Did you? I liked it a lot too. To me, they still, look, I think they still have to win with Lamar being a passer. But this, I think, to your point, takes a little bit of pressure off him in the postseason.

And in the regular season too, like, okay, no, I think Lamar does not get hurt running the football, but I think you just want to make sure to lessen the load on him having to be your offense, right? And this does it by adding Derrick Henry. You have a downhill rushing attack, which is what Henry does well. He's not a big, you know, he's not like a guy who's going to

juke behind the line of scrimmage and make a lot of moves. He's a downhill runner. So I liked it a lot. It was a good signing, and it would pay dividends for them. My last thought on all of this before we get to some fun things. Draft slot will always matter for your longevity of your career all right so when you think when you see guys like mariota signing sam darnold it's because they were high draft picks

just remember that draft slot bias continues it will always be the thing and if your favorite team signs a player you think for too much money, look at their draft slot. It matters. Yeah, it does. Spoken by a seventh-round pick who I know maximized his career. Honestly, you did that. And I think that you've said it before, and I didn't really appreciate it until we became friends, where I was like, oh, yeah, if Jeff was drafted in the second round,

he probably would have snuck an extra deal in or an extra couple points. Oh, absolutely. And instead, I'm just stuck doing podcasts with you so hey man this is the best case outcome uh it is a team i don't know what the what the hell they're doing uh there are a few others that i i'm you know chargers interesting going with gus edwards like i'm very very curious with some of these teams but oh one other team i want to mention the rams i love what they're doing like they're they're spending a lot on protecting stafford up front they basically like their self-scouting i think is like the same scouting the rest of us have on the rams where they're like yeah if stafford's in the game like we can beat anybody like so let's just protect him

and figure it out so i would be i'm curious to see what they do on defense because that's they just obviously have to improve there. But love their offensive line moves. Yeah, they got Jonah Jackson, they got they re-signed Dotson and Steve Avila's going to center who I love. So we did Big Boys Club with Avila two years ago. We went to Fogo de Chau

for a lunch and we filmed it and Avila took like a 15 minute poop and we were all like 50, 40 of us were eating together. And we all gave him a standing ovation when he came back in. So that was fun for him. All right, Matt, you want to get to some fun gambling talk? Please.

So for context, why don't you explain why we're talking about this? So North Carolina has legalized sports wagering. It happened yesterday. I made my first bet yesterday uh fanduel had a 50 max wager on if the hornets score one point or more you get plus 100 and 50 bucks last night these uh these promotions are ridiculous i have like four free 25 wagers what am i to do with those matt i don't know like uh you're gonna get into some mbas maybe save them for march madness that's kind of fun

march madness here's the deal so i gamble and i've gambled lower amounts than people would expect i stop in a lot of money considering what i have and one of the reasons why was because yeah i have i have i'm rich fyi um maybe it's from all these illegal tax deductions you're making what that is true we're trying to deduct a lot from our taxes this year my thing with the taxes is like these billionaires don't pay anything in taxes like Like, where's my, I'm not a billionaire, of course. But like, give me like, where's my tax breaks? What? Are you paying for this podcast?

For this one? No, I don't think I'm getting paid for this specific one. That ended like four weeks ago. So, geez, now I'm all over the place. I'm thinking like Bernie Sanders talking about his tax and all the rich people. Geez, now I'm all over the place. I'm thinking like Bernie Sanders talking about his tax and all the rich people. And so I told my wife, I have not bet a lot because I don't trust the offshore accounts to give me my money back. That's mostly why, right?

I just haven't trusted it. So I finally told my wife, we're on vacation in Cancun this weekend. Like, hon, if you see some withdrawals in the bank account for some gambling apps, like, I'm going in now. Like, we're doing it. And she officially knows I think I gamble now, Matt. The toilet, like, I'm, like, I'm, we're going for, I gotta. Now?

She told me, she's like, she has no idea what I do. Just zero idea of what I do. Which is, I mean, good and bad, I guess. We've been doing gambling content together for like six years. My wife is- You were employed by the Action Network, which is about betting. Checks came from a gambling company to your house. Maybe she thought you were just an expert. I do gambling with bare bets and fox

sports this doesn't matter to get on this show my wife is brilliant when it comes to work stuff outside of work man i'm just like i just i'm like you don't have to do a podcast with game and matt for five years it's like no no idea like she she I do my podcast. I don't think she knows who I do it with. Besides the point, I told her I gamble now. Meredith knows us. We know her. She's met my wife. We went to dinner.

We went to dinner. We met you guys in Venice before. We met in freaking Spain. We had dinner one night in Spain at all places. That's right. That suckling pig is still waiting for us to eat again. So, no, I told her, like, I gamble. It was like AA.

Like, I'm gambling now. So, I put money in. I got a text from someone on one of the apps. Like, I see you donated X amount of money. I'm a VIP customer service person. I would like to make your acquaintance. It's like, well, I'm not answering you back. We're in now.

I'm on my unit size. My unit size has been upped. All right. Do you want to reveal it? Or does the gentleman never tell? It depends on what I'm doing. How much my unit size will be. I will say that jeff actually

taught me to bet less because i started and like when i started betting like and this is you know if you're if you're starting out like you're probably betting too much like i came in and i was like oh like a sunday like i don't know like 50 bucks a game 100 bucks a game and i was like wait if you're gonna do this every week it adds up and if you have like if you're betting on sports and you're not like doing and you're listening to what we think you're not good at it because we're not good at it so like honestly just bet less like it should not be a factor in like your day-to-day finances if you're like if i if losing 50 in a weekend ruins things for you, bet $2 a game. Just do it for fun.

That's all it's there for. So this is a great way to say it. My gambling PSA is you should only bet, wager the amount you're willing to lose. You have to sue all losers. If you're willing to lose $ hundred dollars on a weekend thousand dollars ten grand whatever it is then it seemed like theory when you go to vegas right when i go to vegas i take a thousand dollars with me that's it i'm only gonna lose a thousand dollars to gambling of course you spend more money on other stuff like whatever it is right matt thousand dollars

how long is your trip two hours what are we talking about the problem is I like to play craps like a thousand dollars can get you out pretty fast on certain tables on certain minimums on certain days but nonetheless my point is like I just

bring the thousand dollars and say that's it when I'm out I'm out but yeah I used to gamble a lot I don't as I gamble on a lot of things I don't gamble as much money, I used to gamble a lot. I don't, as I gamble on a lot of things, I don't gamble as much money and I don't gamble. Well, I guess I'll gamble more money now,

but on less things. So. Yeah. Here's what I'm going to give you a life hack. Okay. So you've got till the NFL season. Yeah. So if you're listening to this,

Jeff probably doesn't need to do this. You're listening to this and you were like, I don't whatever March Madness, maybe a playoffs, whatever. Set up a little auto deposit account now where you're putting in $10 a week or whatever from your paycheck and you just put it into account and you just go like, eh, whatever. And then you'll look up in September and there'll be like $600 in it. And you can be like huh do i want to gamble this do i want to save some of this but like it's money you didn't even think about and you can just put you you can bet it and not even feel it and i think that's a good way to approach uh your off-season betting what do you think of that strategy i'd like that i like that strategy my goal is to get my accounts from now until football season up to a level where I can do the full $10,000 that we wager, like, plus have money left over for everything else. Yeah. Damn. All right, buddy.

Well, good luck with that. That's the goal. Famous last words. I think I'll get there because there's a couple people I fade that are really bad and you can make money pretty fast fading them so um the problem is that was almost over and i don't think they post anything after basketball season so we'll see um okay it's one person um all right buddy i think we did it did it yeah uh we did it anything else how's the how's the baby doing baby's good uh three straight nights of sleeping through the night what like life-changing man like so so different um do you wake up in the middle of night like a sweat like why is the baby so quiet

not anymore the first night i did but he's only slipped through the night four times and three of them have been in a row um so how old is he now four and a half months yeah four months when when they do it yep yeah so big changes um yeah man i i feel like if if i had gone back and someone had said like when does this like stop becoming the worst nightmare of all time and then become like a little bit less of a nightmare and a little more fun four months really is it um so i'm i'm excited to see what something beyond this even is but uh yeah it's better every stage to where like you know your daughter is asking you to buy stuff at alta for her because she's out of her skin moisturizer also wow jeff did you ever think no one day one day you're blocking Miles Garrett the next day you're at Alta

yeah I never never would have thought alright everyone we'll be back next week I don't know we'll talk more football next week maybe some March Madness features next week Matt we'll be back next week take a I guess take but have a good rest of the week and we'll talk to you guys next week. Take a, uh, I guess take,

but have a good, have a good rest of the week and we'll talk to us next week. Take care, everybody. See you, buddy. Bye.