NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 10 Most Interesting QBs with Ben Solak

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by ESPN's Ben Solak to discuss the top-ten most interesting quarterbacks in the NFL. First, the guys react to the Buccaneers giving Jason Licht and Todd Bowles contract extensions (01:00). After the news, the guys tell you why Geno Smith (03:30), C.J. Stroud (08:50), Bryce Young (12:30), Trevor Lawrence (17:50), Caleb Williams (24:46), Justin Herbert (28:50), Justin Fields (35:00), Dak Prescott (37:55), Bo Nix (40:40), and Kyler Murray (45:00), and at the most interesting parts of their careers. Finally, the show is wrapped up with a thank you to the listeners and everyone involved with the first year of NFL Daily and the announcement of NFL Daily's Top 25 Players of the Last 25 Years series (49:39). Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we don't need a stinking island to talk about quarterbacks. I'm Greg Rosenthalm here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast. studio and talking to my friend, Ben Solac of ESPN from across the country. Can I call you a friend, Ben? We've just done a couple podcasts together. That might be presumptive. Yeah. And we've, we've regularly been at the same events and then not been able to attend to the same like social

gatherings. Like, oh, I've got to probably got to do this. Oh, you got to go somewhere TV and do that. So yeah, friend. That's a stretch. I think I've shook your hand once. I hope it'll make a second time soon. It's a stretch. I felt self-conscious about it the second I said it. But Ben was the guy I thought of here, and shout out to our listener, Eric Jensen, who gets a co-producer credit here, saying we hadn't been doing enough quarterback stuff lately and thought of Ben, talk a little quarterbacks before we break for this summer. So we're going to talk about the most interesting quarterbacks of 2025. But before we do that, just a little bit of news dropped, surprisingly, on Thursday morning.

We got some contract extensions for general manager Jason Light of the Buccaneers and his head. coach Todd Bowles through 28. We had Jason Light on the show earlier this offseason. We've said it when he's not on the show, that we think he is one of the best GMs was drafted very high in our GM draft us a few weeks ago. So it makes a lot

of sense that he gets it. It's interesting that Bowles gets it at the same time. Where do you look, or where do you see this Bucks team, like where they are in their team build and especially where Bulls and Light are at? Yeah, I've been very big on the Bucks this off season. And I think that

when you go to make the NFC market for who's going to represent the conference in the Super Bowl, I think you have to put the Eagles at the top. And then I think the bucks deserve to be in that next tier. I would like lions, Rams, Buccaneers would be my next grouping. The Buccaneers defense last year was really rough. And they had a ton of injuries in the back seven and they struggle to generate a pass rush. If you go and you look at the history of Todd Bulls defenses, it's probably going to get better. Like that's one of the worst defenses he's ever fueled that he's a pretty reliably good defensive coach, has the system that's been working for a long time.

They invested a ton in that back seven. So I think the defense is going to take a step back to a normalcy. And then that offense returned to all 11 starters. They re-signed Ben Bredison in Free Agency. They re-sign Chris Godwin in Free Agency. Everybody's back in Amica Buccas, the cherry on top. So long as you trust Josh Grizzard to kind of keep the ship online, as I would expect them to in Liam Cohen's departure,

that's going to be a top 10 offense again. So I'm big on the bucks. I know that there's frustration with Todd Bowles' game management and timeout usage. He's not an offensive head coach, but I still think he's a good head coach in the league. He's a great defensive coach. And yeah, Jason Light, proof of the put-ins in the eating. with that team. They're a good group. Yeah, he's a great game plan defensive coach,

and that's why I'm not too worried about last season for him. I would also caution people of assuming too much based on the extension. Like, Jason Light's going to be there for a while. If for whatever reason, they had a really disappointing year that that ownership group has eaten some coaching contracts before. And so it's great for Todd Bowles and his family, great guy, that he gets some long-term security. But it's still the NFL. Like, that did not help out Reheel Morris back in the actually way back in the John Gruden days, he had just signed like an extension.

They have rolled through coaches if they feel like making a change. So they're going to have to keep winning. I'm with you, though. I hate that. It's the consensus pick, but it makes too much sense that the Buccaneers,

to me, are right there at the top of one of the favorites to go to the Super Bowl. All right, let's get to our quarterbacks. Let's talk. Most interesting quarterbacks. And I alluded to it at the top. We do a lot of talk about who are the best 10 to 12 quarterbacks

in the league or, the most fascinating. Who defines a position? That's what we do on quarterback island. But we haven't done that in the offseason. I didn't want to do a rankings. I just wanted to kind of take a step back, maybe, Ben, and kind of look at where these quarterbacks are in the big picture of their careers.

Like where they are at their development, who is the most interesting guys going into 2025. So this isn't a ranking, but we'll just go back and forth. And you can get us going who you find interesting. Yeah, I would be remiss to come on a Greg Rosenthal podcast and I'll start with Gino Smith. Oh, okay. Yeah. I think, I think Gino is as a really, really interesting quarterback for 2025 because

Gino got the starting job in 22, there in Seattle, started for three years. And pretty much everybody, like, okay, everybody agreed, this is a lot better than we thought it was going to be. Who knew Gino Smith had this in him? But there's still a pretty decent divide between those who are like, this is a good starting quarterback in the NFL. This guy's clearly got it. He can be like, you know, the pastor, the, the captain of a top offense. Or no, he just won another big pile of like decent starters. You know, all the Sam Donald move

is not like a downgrade. Maybe you win with him sometimes. He's got some problems, whatever. I feel like there's still a solid disparity between the believers and the doubters,

even in the Gino Smith Ascension. Where are you? I'm a believer. And like I'm firmly there. Last season, if you look at true dropbacks, we're talking not play action, not screens and not garbage time.

Gino was eighth in success rate, 13th DEPA for play, third and on target rate, first and explosive pass rate. Gino Smith is heavy metal. He grips and rips in. He is a very fun pocket passer to watch. We saw him for those three years in Seattle behind a struggling offensive line with a carousel of offensive coordinators without a reliable running game, right?

By success rate, his three run offenses were 25th, 17th, and 31st over the last three years. Distance to go on third down, 30th, 21st, and 25th. He was playing behind the sticks, right, behind an office line that did not pass protect well and he'll have a lot of true dropbacks, a lot of third and longs. Now he's going to Las Vegas where, like, I'm not sure the pass protection is better, but the environment. is totally new, right? It's not, okay, shots at D.K. Metcalfe anymore. Now it's your Jacobey Myers, your Brock Bowers, you're underneath stuff. It's a Chip Kelly offense. The running game might be a lot better. The drafting of Ashton Gentie. Like, the Raiders are just a very unique nucleus, a system in general, a unique solar system in general, and then dropping

Gino in there. I think we're going to learn a ton about the truth of Gino Smith. You and I believing that he's that legitimate guy. Or maybe, you know, we'll continue to see the high interception issues, some of the sack problems, some of the inviting pressure issues. us what the ceiling is on the guy. So I think we're going to learn a ton about Gino 25. I agree. He was high on my list, but I just want to replay like everything you just said contextually about Gino Smith every once in a while on this podcast when anyone comes at me. Yeah, I got you. I'm there. That was absolutely beautiful because the situation for Seattle, we've talked about and you did a good job doing it. This is a different spot, though. And in Chip

Kelly, he's fascinating as well. Gino Smith is going to turn 35 years old this year. And so the way that he's changed his career around, like he is going to be a touchstone for talented quarterbacks who didn't get off to a fast start for whatever reason or maybe didn't even play that much in their 20s forever. And that's great. But can you have a fourth act, essentially?

His first act is the Jets. His second act is floating around and being a backup to all these great quarterbacks. His third act, people can disagree about how great it was, but I think he's been underrated still because of the situation around him And as you say, he's heavy metal. Great way to put it.

That number three and on target rate really stands out to me because that's the thing to me. He can make high level throws and be on target and does the hardest thing so well. Now, that said, like it is another level to go do it at another team, totally different situation. I know he's had a different offensive coordinator in Seattle a couple different times.

So he's had to learn new systems. But it is different to lead a totally different organization. And it's a weird build, as you mentioned, kind of Gentie and Bowers leading the way in Kelly, but I'm excited. I don't know if I'm not going to change my mind no matter how much this goes, how well this goes, you know, in terms of how he did in Seattle, uh, based on how he does in Las Vegas. But yeah, if he's money in a totally different situation, that elevates his career to an even different level. Like, we really haven't seen many careers quite like

him. He's like a, like a poor man's Rich Gannon or something like that. Yeah. I do think in like to step away from the off-field stuff and, and to remind ourselves that Pete Carroll was the guy who had faith in him. Gino has a very strong relationship with Pete. And you go back and you watch, especially this 2024 season, it's pretty clear that, like, Gino and D.K. are frustrated each other for a long time. And, like, no one was able to really reconcile that. Like, they were just bad body language stuff, especially the second half of the season. I think Gino's play can even take a step forward independent of like, oh, who is he throwing to, offense line situation? Just with, like, I'm back with Pete. This is the guy who believed in me. This is the guy who first got me up

out of that pit. And now we can elevate another level. So I've got, I'm very high on the Raiders. If you ask me the team most likely to jump from like, you know, picking top 10 to contending for a playoff spot, Las Vegas is like top of my list. I think they're going to be legit. I feel that. And then I look at the depth chart, especially on defense.

And I do worry that I'm just counting. A lot of snaps. I'm counting so much on just like the magic Pete Carroll like sprinkle all over the roster. But it could work. All right. I'm going to go with CJ Stroud. I'm not putting this in any order. Yeah, great one.

But sometimes I'll see the numbers this offseason. And I've seen a couple of, the quarterback rankings, or you look at just the stats from last year, whether it's success rate or EPA per play. And you see, you see like, C.J. Stroud's like in the mid-20s. And you're like, whoa, because I just didn't feel as different about C.J. Stroud as a player last year, as the numbers indicated. If anything, the first six or seven weeks, I thought he was fantastic in a very difficult situation. And then the roof caved in on him. And he started to play a little more like a young quarterback. But one of the things that I believe in watching quarterbacks over the

years is if you can show a high level of play at some point, especially as early as C.J. Stroud did in terms of the neck up and in terms of the accuracy, that level is there. And I'm not worried about him at all. So he's got to do it. It's a different system. I know on paper, the offensive line looks like a mess. So it's not like everything is perfect. Tankdell is not going to be around. He's going to have to work in a couple of rookies, but he is such a fun player to watch, not totally dissimilar to it, to a Gino Smith in the way that he can move inside the pocket and that he's just inaccurate. And as you would say, again, heavy metal down the field, like just a talented thrower. But you want to see it happen. Year three, C.J. Stroud

in the new offense, I'm excited to see what he looks like. Yeah. When you go and you look at Strauss 23 into 24, it reminds me a lot of the discussion we had about Mahomes, 2020 into 21 when defenses first really started changing how they played against the guy. And there was a growing process, both from a coaching perspective and from a quarterback play style perspective and how do I deal with this? I have my numbers from I wrote about it in week 12. So I don't know what these season exact numbers were. But he went from seeing in his rookie season about 35% cover three down to about 26%.

His cover two rate, he saw doubled from 10% to 20%. He was just seeing too high at a dramatically higher rate. And it's because those 23 Texans, oh, you know, Bobby Slovak, you know, it's condensed personnel run the football 21 12 personnel run run run run and then even with the addition of joe mixon into 24 defenses were like okay we're more scared of cj we're more scared of nico collins we're more scared of the top coming off this defense we're going to make you be more physical with us underneath and that's where that offensive line really really failed them on so stroud spoke a lot about this you heard him talk about it in the off season before the season and then during the season about how

i've had a pretty dramatically change how i play because i'm just not getting the coverage that i was able to enjoy in year one and so the the expectation for nick cayley who i think is probably the most important new offensive. It's either him or Josh Grisor there with Tampa Bay, but the most important new officer coordinator hire, the emphasis is just if you can get the easy buttons back, if you can get the strain back in the box, you can get a little bit more single eye coverage

and let Shroud and Nico do what they do well. This can rebound immediately. The office line might be a limited factor, but you can get back to those coverages you want to see, get back to that heavy zone, base personnel, and then just grip her and rip it against play action. And so I still have a ton of faith in Shroud, the individual player, question marks,

offensive coordinator and offensive line are kind of getting to dictate how much we can get back to that that rookie season level. Yeah, the ability to ultimately handle pressure and move around in the pocket while going through your reads is just such a hard skill to

learn. I don't think you lose it. I didn't get into bad habits when the offensive line is totally falling apart and you're not getting enough answers from your coordinator. And so to me that, he's got that. He's got the tough stuff. And I'm really excited and I'm rooting for him since my son, for whatever reason, lives and dies by C.J. Stroud. All right.

Give me another interesting quarterback, Ben. Let's stay with that 23 class. I think Bryce Young is absolutely fascinating. We've seen a lot of quarterback recoveries over the last few years. We've seen the Baker Mayfield moments and the Gino Smith moments. You know, you've your Sam Donald moment that's happening now. But if we can get this faster recovery from like an historically bad rookie season into then a functional, year two season and then year three he's like cemented as the starter he is a legit quarterback in

the NFL that's a huge huge turnaround a massive feather in dave canales's cap i have my suspicions i think a lot of what you saw brys young be successful with last season was making really high leverage connections down the field on important downs from week five ons is after he was benched he was 31st in on target rate fourth and completion percentage over expectation so that's telling you we're not delivering the number of accurate passes we'd like to see. But boy, when they are accurate, we're able to come down with them, even in contested situations, even further down the field. And of course, the Panthers wide receiver core was not renowned for being like a great unit. But if you go put the film on and see what Jalen Koker's

doing from down the field and Jadavian Sanders is doing after the catch, Adam Thieland's doing through context, they were getting away with, right? You know, pressure throws and one-on-one shots and able to live on that. That's typically not super sustainable and especially doesn't feel sustainable when we have a smaller quarterback back there because the hits that he's taking and the moonshots that he's connecting on are just a lot more frail. You think about the late career Russell Wilson where it's like, I don't know if we can continue to cash these checks the way that we do when we were younger. Russell moved a lot better. He escaped a lot more danger. He survived a lot more contact than Bryce Young's really ever going to do. The Bryce Young is that thinner guy.

And so the production last season was hugely important because it gave young confidence. It gave the Panthers a blueprint. It gave Dave Canal. It something he could rely back. on the draft Teddaroa McMillan, which is a clear sign that they want to continue living on some of these vertical downfield balls. But it is a thin needle to thread. It really, really is. And so I'm cautiously optimistic, but

still have my doubts about Bryce Young and year three. And so again, an interesting quarterback who we're going to learn a lot more about. I feel like you're a skeptic deep down. Yes. I mean, like I wrote after the benching in week two that this is chalked. Like I was a bit of no way. Because you go back and watch week one and week two, dude. I mean, it's not

just bad. It's dreadful. You got to give it some time, but he is different than almost any quarterback development that I can think of. Because my thing going into last year with him was, can he just be Alex Smith? And I've seen enough rookie quarterbacks that look completely abysmal that had good careers. It's not that often, but Alex Smith is one of them. Eli Manning is another one. Jared Goff's another. Those are three of the worst rookie seasons of all time.

They're as bad or worse as Bryce. including how Bryce looked in those first couple games, and they bounced back. The difference is Bryce's size. I know Alex Smith wasn't huge, but he's much bigger than Bryce Young. Are you at all concerned, like looking inside? I've never, you know, I'm not sure how big you are, Ben, but I'm a very dominion of man. That it's almost like a self-hating thing that you can't imagine a guy like Bryce Young being that successful at the NFL level.

It absolutely, it's a big part of it, right? If Bryce Young could succeed at the NFL level, it means I could have succeeded at the NFL. when I quit too early. That's obviously the big difference maker. Bryce does have a few inches and a few pounds on me, unfortunately. But I think that you bring up the Alex Smith, you bring up the UI Manning, you bring up the Jared Goff.

The path back is clear. But I also, the reason why, like, again, stylistically what he did in 24 is important. I'm moving into 25 is like, you know, man cannot live on bread alone. You cannot live on downfield shots alone. He can't do it. If you could, James Winston would be making $45 million.

It's just they're too volatile, right? Yeah. It's you hit on them and you put up 30 points. You miss on two. All of a sudden, you're down by 20. You've thrown a couple of interceptions. Like, we just know that in NFL passing offenses, you have to have a quick game component. And Young last year, they survived without a quick game for like an extended period of time.

It is hugely to Dave Canales, his credit that they were able to get that done. It just, we know that's not sustainable. It's one like the truths of NFL football. What are they able to do in year three with a more confident Bryce Young with a bit of a retooled wide receiver room with another year. season to work on this. And I'm much more confident, Bryce Young, if we're ever going to get that keystone plugged back into this offense, I think it can happen this year because the stars are lining, I got to see it. I got to see it before I believe it. They have Hunter Renfro too. The big Hunter Renfro rejuvenation. I mean, he did have this crazy illness that makes me think

if he's actually over that, that he can contribute. But he's no lock to even make that team. I do love that you point out the profile because I don't think that many people watched a ton of Bryce Young last season and the thing that got me so excited, but I think also is making you cautious is like he was among the league leaders. PFF does big time throws. That tracked with what I saw. I mean, and that's, it's one of the reasons I love Gino Smith too. Like, Bryce Young was hitting a lot of small window throws down the field, like beautiful throws. So you saw the armed talent. You saw a little bit more of the escapeability, but I think he's going need to lean on that more and be confident and being able to throw on the move and

everything. But yeah, can you do that year after year? He did a lot of the hard stuff, which is exciting. All right. I'm going to go with a guy that on one hand, like, isn't interesting in terms of like if I was in a room with him. Like, he'd be low on my rankings of who I would just want to hang out with, I think, for like an hour. But is interesting of where he's at in his career, and that's Trevor Lawrence. I really do. My guess was going. I wasn't sure, I wasn't sure which very polite, but generally unexciting white man we were going with that. Herbert would be another one, just because I've heard, you know, Mina did that profile on him. And I think it helped us learn a lot about Justin Herbert.

But I don't think he's effusive in talking. And yeah, I don't know. Trevor Lawrence, I don't even find him like a fascinating player when he's on the field. But to me, he's a fascinating discussion. And I think just adding Travis Hunter to this team makes him more fascinating. having the combination of Travis Hunter and Brian Thomas Jr. While you're leaning into Hunter as a receiver on the same team. Look, all of Lawrence's career, I've been a little underwhelmed.

And not just because he came into the league with so much hype, but that he's just never been consistent. And that's what I want. Like someone that is a completely consistent thrower of the football in terms of his accuracy, even his best moments of his career. And I think maybe the best moment is that second half come back against the Chargers. Well, the first half of that game, he throws four interceptions. And to me, that's kind of typical of his career.

If you remember last season, like the first couple of weeks were rough. And then he bounces back for a little bit. And it's just not there on a week-to-week basis for me. And we have our friends in the business. I'm not sure exactly where you are on this scale. But our friend Nate Tice, who's coming up on a big episode for us later this month. You know, he's still got Trevor Lawrence in his top 10 of where he thinks he's going to be in 2025 and I can't get there, but smart people can. And so to me, this is a season where he's got

another great chance and he's got some great weapons around him. Yeah. So I think like I continue to have cautious faith and optimism in Trevor. I'm probably above the public consensus on Trevor. I'm not where Nate is, right? If you gave me Trevor or Gino over the last three seasons, like to me that I'm probably taking Gino Smith for the next couple relative to Trevor, which like feels crazy. Lawrence, I'm pretty confident in saying that this offense we're about to see with Liam Cohen, with Travis Hunter, with Brian Thomas Jr., is about the best that he's had available around him, right? I think that we cannot discount just how much of a false start out of the gate.

The Urban Meyer year was from a development perspective, from a leadership perspective, for that your locker room confident I can do this at the NFL level. And then the Doug Peterson years, which like, you know, Doug doesn't have the bad name that Urban did, but from a like, you know, execution on a theater. perspective. There was a lot that was left to be desired there. So there should be hopefully a floor raising, buttoning up experience now with Liam Cohen and with NFL offense a little bit more cutting edge. With Lawrence, it will be learning how to let the offense work for him, though. Like if Brian Thomas Jr. is this guy, which like, I think by this time next year,

we'll be talking about Brian Thomas Jr. as like, okay, where is he in the top five of all NFL receivers right now? Like, I think he's like that caliber of dude. If Travis Hunter is that guy, highest drafted receiver, if he's playing receiver since Calvin Johnson, then let the guy guys work for you, right? It doesn't always need to be a three second drop back. It can be a two second drop back. It doesn't always need to be the deep boast. It can be the drag on third and six and he's going to pick up the yardage for you. Lawrence has, in part because of his upbringing, part of what he's been with in Jacksonville, and then in part because of his play style, has not been willing to let other players be the elevators and kind of be the guys who

lift things up. And that's where you get some of these third down sacks, these third down interceptions, right? These scrambles outside of the pocket end with these big hits and these injuries. So he's going to have to learn how to reduce himself a little bit if it is true that the pieces around them have improved and accordingly it's a much healthier offensive ecosystem. Those are all really good points and I think the issue I might have with Lawrence is that I'm going a little off intangibles in my doubt, which is not necessarily fair. You're like the Sports Illustrated piece when I came out that was like, this guy might like other things. Can we do it? Okay. So it's a tricky thing to talk about because I hate it.

I hate those sort of reports when it doesn't feel fair. But since he's been in the league, I have heard whispers about that from people that have been around that team and would have more of a place to have knowledge about it. Because you do wonder, like, what is stopping this guy? And all the quarterbacks at the top of the game, like it's almost understood that they're absolutely maniacal.

in their preparation and in their intelligence on field. And that sometimes takes a while to get there. I don't think Ben Rathesberger, for instance, I always point him out, was that guy early in his career. And he became that guy. And so maybe Trevor Lawrence is just a little younger and a little further behind the developmental track. But when I think about maybe what's gotten in the way for him just a little bit,

I think, well, maybe his off-field, whether it's preparation or just learning the game enough, and that takes being in the NFL, maybe that's just what's prevented him from getting 10%, 15% better and being the guy. So we'll see. It's a very good point because, again, I go back and I think to that urban year,

and I think about how Lawrence came in as the golden boy, the prince that was promised ordained. He gets a coach in Urban who's not an NFL guy. And so he's not going to, like, walk him in and say, like, actually, this is how we do things in the NFL. This is the standard. Like, Urban's just going to kind of, you know, run it as Urban runs it.

And then that Jaguar's team was never really won for impactful, long-term, tenured offensive stars, right? So they had the left tackle who'd been there for 10 years. It's not like they had the wide receiver who'd been doing it at a high level for five years. And even now, right, we're talking about Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter, who are younger players than Lawrence. So Lawrence hasn't really, like, Christian Kirk is the most, I'm a vet. I do this right at the NFL level, March to the beat of my drum guy that I really feel like he's had. Like, there was like an actually impactful player. I mean, they had Morris last season.

Even his backup quarterbacks, like having Mack Jones with him or fighting against Garder Minshu, who was the quarterback. I hear you. And that... Yeah. You know, your comment is making me think about the fact that, yeah, like, he... I wonder who if you sat Lawrence down and said, who have you been your three biggest mentors in the NFL space right now, he would say?

Yeah. Because I feel like he would struggle to get to three, maybe a little bit. It's like, yeah, Cam Robinson and... Right. Evan Ingram. I don't know if these are the guys that we want to be, you know, following the path that they beat. Right.

Let's take a quick break and we'll come back with a few more interesting quarterbacks. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL cover zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different.

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Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Back on NFL Daily. And yeah, if I'm going to give some pop to our super listener, Eric Jensen, for helping to suggest this episode, I might as well mention he hosts the Endzone podcast. Give him a little free plug. I was on it like a month ago. So shout out to him.

He's a big fan of yours, Ben. And I am as well, and I want to hear who your next most interesting quarterback is. Would you like, so we just did Lawrence. Would you like an ex first overall pick as Lawrence was? Sure. like a member of the 2021 NFL draft class, as Lawrence was, Dueless choice. Let's go number one overall pick.

All right. Low hang and fruit, but Caleb is very interesting this year. Caleb Williams with the Bears. Because Caleb came out, I would say with equivalent, if not superior, number one overall hype to that which Trevor Lawrence himself had

when he was coming out like, this is the guy, whatever. And then Williams had the very unfortunate luck of being in the same class as and selected one pick before a historic, historically good rookie quarterback in Jane and Daniels. And so the urgency feels very high on Caleb, year two, what's it going to look like, right? The addition of Ben Johnson. Oh, this is the offensive mastermind. We were trying to get him out of Detroit for three off seats since he finally

takes a job with the Chicago Bears, Caleb Williams, ratchets up the urgency there. They spend a top 10 pick on Colston Loveland, pass catching tight end. They spend another pick on a wide receiver, Luther Bird and this a year after they spent a top 10 pick on a wide receiver. He's got the tools, right? The urgency levers up. I think people over indexed how bad Williams' rookie season was because Jaden Daniel's rookie season was so good. If you look at quarterbacks last year, like Caleb was unquestionably not great, 33rd in success rate, 30th fee pay per dropback, 30th fee pay per dropback, 38th and sackback, 39th in sack rate, 39th and sack rate was still really high, 43rd out of 46 quarterbacks. but for a rookie he had a predict like acceptably average a little bit below average season with a lot of ups a lot of downs you go and you look at a team that had three different offensive play callers that fired their head coach in the middle of the season and you go okay like this should be recoverable this should be fine the sacrate is the thing that really stands out that's heavily heavily play style he has to be the one to decide to take you or sacks throw the ball away more get rid of it quicker but i feel like caleb's rookie season was not as poor and as worrisome as some people would have you believe and then i do think that the addition of ben johnson and coles in Loveland and Luther Bird and and DJ Morbin there,

Romadunzee there, obviously the whole change on the interior offensive line. I do think there's a very nice high ceiling there. The entire deck around him has been shuffled, and the deck was really bad last time around. So I think a big year two leap is not an unreasonable thing to expect from Caleb Williams. At any time a rookie is bad, we kind of always think there's going to be a year to leap, and that's usually just kind of like a little bit jumping or guessing in the dark, stabbing in the dark.

This time I really do think there's enough anecdotal evidence. I think, yeah, the production is going to get a lot better. a lot quicker. I'm interested to see it. I totally agree that he was better last season than he got credit for. He, it was a fine rookie season. The fact that he had as much hype as he did and was the number one overall pick, I still saw enough to hold on to the situation and the just inability to get rid of the ball, even when, you know, he was protected well, was a problem.

And I think good coaching and he's falling into that this year will really help him out. But I'm with you. Like, to me, he still had more box office. moments that I think people really recognize. Like, it was kind of awesome, like some of the things he did, especially early in the season. So I'm excited to see him this year as well. He was supposed to be five and two with a game-winning drive against Jane and Daniels in Washington. And then Tyree Stevenson started talking to a Camanders fan and the entire bear season

legitimately fell off the tracks. So, yeah, like it was a lot closer to a lot more, okay, that wasn't as good as we thought it was going to be, but that was fine, then people realized. Yeah. And his strengths, like, he was too cautious, but he really did. like very Aaron Rogers, like, just like, it was absolutely loath to like put a ball in harm's way. And that's a positive thing out of, out of a young quarterback when you can mix it with some of the armed talent that he has. Speaking of which, maybe this is the 2021 guy you were going

to say. I guess I'll go Herbo. It's time. It's funny. Herbo's 2020. Okay. Oh, my, a good call. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always a huge Herbo fan. And last year, maybe it was because of the playoff game. I think it was the first year that he almost got not too much credit because I think he had a good year. But I wouldn't say I was underwhelmed, but I don't think it went over par for what I was hoping for for first year out of Harbaugh. And I know the efficiency numbers were really good and they really backed up the attempt. Speaking of Caleb Williams, like, I think that's going to be part of his success this year is you just back up. You're going to lean more on the running game and that's going to be it. But the playoff game was was tough.

And there was a lot of play action. Not that that's like a bad thing. And there were a lot of big time throws, but I do think the second year of Jim Harbaugh that a lot of, I'm not going to say excuse making that Herbo Nation has been doing, myself included over the last five years, but some of the context that we've added.

I do think a lot of that will be out the window this year. I mostly feel good about the offensive line. I wish they did a little more on the interior, but I trust in the coaching staff. And for the most part, I think the roster's in good shape. Like, the weapons aren't amazing, but I think the continuity and what they've added, like, that's enough to feel a little bit better about what's around him. And I just think they need to dial the lever up on County on him even more.

So to me, it's a big year where we, he came into the league, those first two seasons especially, like, you just expected his career arc to be a little different. And we've seen career arcs like this too. Like, I do think it's time for him to ramp it up. kind of be in that conversation as one of the five, one of the three, whatever it is, best quarterbacks. I think he could do it, but I think it's an interesting year for him to go make that happen. Yeah, so they were, I think that they, what they want to be identity-wise on offense,

is a little bit more important to them than it is to the average team. And that's because Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh are pretty, this is the way we're going to go about things. Have your personnel, we're going to be play action. We're going to be very run-heavy. And if you go and you look back at their season last year, they were extremely they run heavier for the first like four or five weeks of the season, right? Super high run rate over expectation. And like they were getting the big J.K. Dobbins runs, but from a snap to snap

perspective, it wasn't working well. And they kind of realized, all right, we need to ratchet up the pass a little bit more. And then they did that. They started dropping back a little bit more. And then JK got hurt in the middle of the year. And it's now it's Gus Edwards. And they've got Hassan Haskins and Kamani Vidal. And it's like not, you know, Gus isn't running as well as he was. Okay, we have to pass it a little bit more. I think they had to get away from their identity in a way that like they knew their interior offensive line and their running back room was not yet ready to kind of be what they want to be as a team. So with Mackay Beckton in the building, with Amaran Hampton in the building, I think you're going to see them go and slide back

to being like one of the run heaviest teams in football. And for Herbert, it's going to be right, a lot of play action, a lot of shot. And if Trey Harris is what they drafted him to be and you saw Vlad McConkey to be your like kind of base down quick game underneath separated your third and five guy, the vision is a lot more clear to me. So I think they'll just be generally a lot more offensive success. However, the two baskets with the most eggs are first round rookie running back on Martin Hampton and second round rookie wide receiver, Trey Harris. So we are putting a lot of hope in that these rookies can fill the roles we're expecting them to fill. And so I'm always hesitant around the offensive innovation, creativity, and problem solving

of a Greg Roman offense. I've seen it enough times with enough really good quarterbacks with Lamar Jackson and Baltimore that I know that they kind of march, they get their formula and then they stick to it even when they start needing to color outside the lines a little bit. And so I'm really hoping that the pieces that they added allow them to be in that formula. I think this office could be really good if they, if they hit, if that formula was successful, if they're not getting what they want out of Hampton, if they're not getting the field stretching out of Tray Harris, I figure to see them just kind of bang their head up against the wall again this year. Yeah, and the interior line, like they bring in Mackay Bechtin, we'll see, like,

especially in past protection, but the combination of Mackay Bechtin, maybe Zion Johnson is playing center as a Salvation. Maybe not. Maybe it's Bradley Bozeman. Maybe it's Andre James. Like those three starting on the interior, I don't feel amazing. Maybe it's Jamari Sawyer is there too. Like, I don't feel amazing about all that. And part of what I wanted to get to it for me most interesting is just the way the Herber made me feel Solek as a rookie. We're here in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio. And like me and West just talking about just the jaw-dropping plays Herbo was dropping as a rookie. He led the league in interception rate last year, just like, you know, didn't make any mistakes,

basically all regular season, and then kind of collapsed in the playoff game. I just want to see a little more that's not Herbo's nature totally, but just a little more playmaking, a little more, let's take some chances, devil may care, count on all that natural gifts that he has, and I hope he's confident enough to do that and just make me feel about Herbo like I used to.

Yeah, that playoff game is so tricky because, man, was it bad? And I do, I do think that the worst draw for the Chargers is the Texans. Because I think that Rishon Slater and Joel can pretty much win you to a neutral or better against 31 of the 32 pass rush duos in the NFL. And I think the 32nd is Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter, who just are so freaking fast, right? And then they have the ability to press up on Lab Makonki to bother him, right? To fluster him with press coverage, which is the thing that a player that size is going to struggle with. And all of a sudden, like, everything the Chargers wanted to do in the passing game just wasn't there.

Herbert's used to having time and being safe off the edges and just wasn't and imploded. And so I don't know. I think that maybe the biggest note for the Chargers in 2025 is avoid Houston at all cost. It's a bad matchup versus how that offense is built versus how Houston's defense is built. Houston goes wins that game. They get Baltimore. DeMigo has to be in Lamar Jackson in like three years, right? That's their bad matchup.

But that's kind of how it goes sometimes with styles making fights. That's fair. All right, give me another quarterback you're looking at. Yeah, my 2021 guy was Justin Fields. I will, I'll never stop being interested in Justin Fields. And I was ready to just be like quietly, personally, privately interested in Justin Fields. And then the Jets gave him like a decently sized contract with no quarterback competition. I was like, all right, I'm back to being publicly interested in Justin Fields.

The Steelers season, which he started while Russell wasn't at the calf issue, was illustrative in the sense that they did like more quick game stuff. He was a little bit better than the dropback than he had been. He was getting the ball out a little bit sooner. But it was also wildly frustrating because they didn't run him. And the whole premise behind Justin Fields is you got to run him. He had six carries a game last season, lowest since his rookie season with the Bears. He only had 9.84 total scramble EPA, lowest of his entire career. 13% of his runs went over 10 yards, lowest of his entire career.

They used him as like a short yardage, third and one fourth down guy. They didn't want him breaking the pocket and creating stuff outside of space. Inherently, not how Justin Fields. works in theory and how we've seen him work on paper, right? That 22 season where he rushed for over 1,000 yards. Like, people forget just how good that season was from a rushing perspective. You have to be willing to just let him create outside of space. And like so much of the success of Jane Daniels is predicated on the idea that we're going to give

this guy design runs and we're going to allow him to scrimper, 25% scramble rate on third down Janie Daniels had last year. It's the highest in NFL history. Just let him go, right? A quarterback scramble is such a valuable play league-wise by EPA perspective. And the Steelers kept the handcuffs on him last season. The Jets go and they gave him all this money, and you're thinking to yourself, all right, Aaron Glenn, they're in Detroit.

You go back and you look at those games, fields played against Glenn's defense in Detroit. And I mean, he was averaging like 85 yards a game. And it's because all that man coverage, because that scrambling ability. So if Glenn knows something and value something in fields, it's going to be the tuck and run. It's going to be the ability to put the ball in his hands and play 11 or 11 football. I think you're going to see that design run rate shoot back up to more of those 22, Bears levels where he was running nine times a game, 10 times a game, 11 times a game. I think that will benefit him offensively.

I think Garrett Wilson's the best receiver he's played with in his NFL career. I think we're going to see a better looking Justin Fields. I don't know if it's good enough to be a long time starter. I don't know if it's going to hold the job. But I think we're going to see a better looking Justin Fields in 2025. I'm excited to see it. I thought we saw one in 2024 until that Raiders game where they won it. But he like matured, but he still wasn't being used the right way.

Hopefully they used in the right way. Yeah, I think I think you're right. And this podcast, I feel like we're too high on the Jets at this point. but I've liked what they've done all offseason. I think the non-bills teams in the AFC East are all much more equal than they are different. And for whatever reason, people see the Jets as way lower. And I think a field desaunts is going to be part of that. It's not his last chance, but it's probably his best chance to at least establish himself as a guy that could be starting in week one pretty often.

I do want to get through a few more. So we'll go quick here. I kind of missed Dak Prescott. It just seems so long ago. that weirdly, I feel like we haven't talked about that much this offseason. It just seems like so long ago, he was second an MVP. Like, he was literally in the 2023 season, he was second in MVP. And that playoff game didn't go well.

And last season, I think people just think of it as this injury season. But man, it was a funky season. He did start half the season. He played eight games and it just never was right. And so seeing him in this offense with George Pickens, added to the mix, without Mike McCarthy in the mix, this sort of hybrid where I think it's going to be mostly Brian Schottenheimer. And I'm not sure how much Clayton Adams. So they brought in from Arizona in theory for the run game is really going to have a voice. We'll find out. But I do miss

him. And he is still young enough that at 33, like it feels like he's on the back nine. It's like Tom Brady, not that he's going to be Tom Brady, but Tom Brady and even Peyton Manning, they were just warming up. Like 33 was like the beginning of some of their very best year. So I'm not ruling that out with Dak Prescott, a guy who wins from the neck up. And I'm just very interested to see because I do think the range of outcomes is huge. I've always been a Dak guy, but this could go horribly or he could be back in the MVP mix. I really don't know what to expect. And that's why I find him so interesting. Yeah. Not to be to, you know, the Cowboys drive content. But the league is better when Dak Prescott is good and when the Cowboys offense is better because

DAC plays such a cool, cerebral, precise, you know, pocket passing, dice you up style of offense that leads to some really good games against some really good defenses against which other teams and other offenses struggle, right? Because he's pretty different stylistically than some of the other quarterbacks or some the other top offenses. And so, yes, I love a good DAC season. I love a, we actually have a wide receiver two question mark in George

Pickens for the first time in a while. I don't think you can set your watch to George Pickens, but the theory is there behind having a good wide receiver too. I'm terrified of the running game, but maybe the offensive line is so good that it doesn't matter who's receiving the football. So yeah, I'm, I'm hoping for,

and I think we all benefit from good DAC coming back. It's a very well-taking point. 2023, it was 18 months ago, where we were like, MVP? No, now, now he's the forgotten man. Right. And I was thinking about, like, he's had such a strange career.

He has timed, and I'm not saying this was like on purpose by him, but he has timed his contract pushes like amazingly well. He placed his best right when he needed that money. And like his rookie season, you could have told me anything was going to happen in his career. He got MVP votes.

A couple at least. He was like buried. But he got MVP votes in that rookie season. All right. Give me another quarterback. Let's say we got one or two left. Interesting to Bonex for 2025 for sure. That was my next one.

Yeah. And I've been cast incorrectly by Broncos fans as a Bonex hater. That is inaccurate. It has not been the case. They cast everyone in that in that bucket. Unless you just, like, bow to them. What is it with you, Broncos fans? Very, very bellicose, very pugnacious group of fans.

Don't know what's in the air there in Colorado. However, I liked Bownix a lot in the draft as like a game manager type. I really wouldn't have liked taking him a 12 overall. They dig him at 12 overall. They play him in the first month of the season. He's making mistakes thrown in the middle of the field. He's overwhelmed in the pocket. He's not good against pressure.

The arm is a problem for him down the field. And what do they do? They reduce his role in the offense, right? from weeks 1 through 8 to then the back half of the season. He went from throwing behind line of scrimmage 25% of the time to 33% of the time. His area yards dropped 7.9 to 6.6.

Time to throw, drop 3.1 to 2.9. They said, hey, a little bit more point and a little bit more shooting. And especially like kind of in the zero to 10 yard or really the negative 5 to 10 yard area of the field, we're going to kind of minimize how much decision making we want you to have and how many opportunities want to you have to push the ball.

That really helped the offense. And you saw as confidence grew, You think about that Bengals game at the end of the season, right? There were returns to the intermediate stuff, return to the downfield stuff that was better than the first time around because he was just a lot more confident because the offense was a little bit more balanced and they had defenses in a bind.

If there's going to be a year two jump, it's not going to be because they're taking more things off his plate. It's going to be because they're putting some stuff back on there. And in year two, you know, full NFL offseason and whatever, it's reasonable to expect that he's more comfortable with that than he was last season. So I'm hoping for Bo Nix being more than the game manager that I thought he would be. I thought last year was a very good proof of concept

that, hey, he can point and shoot for this Sean Payton offense. You're two we're going to learn if he can be anything beyond that. Yeah, and he was ineffective throw down the field, and that's where the Breeze comparisons don't totally make sense, but winning with Sean Payton in a highly disciplined timing offense where the timing and the accuracy kind of overcome any physical limitations, that is a similarity that I think Nick's has with Breeze. The difference in Nick's rookie year was just that he,

he never really got over crumbling under pressure, but he is playing behind one of the better offensive lines in the league and one of the better coached offensive lines in the league. Shout out to Sean Payton, who just, he knows how to find not only the right offensive linemen and the right scheme,

but like the right offensive line coach. I think it's Zach Streif. Like, he just brings them in and they're just, they're just a great unit. And I think it's the Broncos fans. It's a combination of, I feel like they, every offseason,

I think the bears are very similar. They have like the most positive local coverage. And so you just believe it every single season. And it hadn't been going well for a while. But last time it actually did go well and it was happening. And so then they can just stick it in all the haters' faces. But I got to admit, like hearing Sean Payton's confidence and everyone in that building's confidence, I don't know if they're just speaking into existence.

But man, they talk about Bo Nicks like, all right, we've got our top 10 quarterback forever. And just the way Sean Payton's. and this team has just been leading with their chess out all offseason. It does make me worried about being wrong about them. But that's my always thing where it's like watch the film, you know, look through the information. You know, Sean Payne's telling you what he believes

about Bownex on the microphone. And then he's telling you what he believes about Bownex in terms of how he's calling plays. And we walked out of the by week. I want to say it was week 10 or something like that. And we're just throwing every single swing screen to Marvin Mims that we can dream up. And that's telling you something about his quarterback where his offense is at.

Now, R.J. Harvey, Pat Bryant, they've added some pieces. And again, year two, Bonex. I think it's reasonable to expect them to give more on his play. But Sean Payne told you what he thought about Bonex in his rookie year. He might have ideas for him, year two, year three. But he told you what he thought about him. He really did.

Yeah. And the argument for Nix certainly is, yeah, he came into the league with like a lot of experience. But he is a quarterback who, along with his coach, is going to take all the information that they got from last year and really could be a much more consistent quarterback this season focusing on his strengths. and there is absolutely a path to him being like a top 12 type of quarterback this year, which is wild and proving us all wrong. They've already gotten pretty far along that path.

All right, I'm going to pick one more guy. I could. We've talked Pennix a lot on this off season, so I'm not going to. I'm going to say, now the one of us has done JJ or Pennix. I feel like we're the most layups for this conversation. I think part of that is just though that I've talked about them a lot. And I thought this would be a good exercise to like talk about some guys we haven't as much on this show. like Joe Burrow, who to me made a major step-up

is another option of like the top guys that I find very interesting. Jordan Love is so box-off, is so up and down, he's interesting. This is a long way of me, you know, just giving some honorable mentions before talking about Kyler Murray. Because I'm...

Ooh, good one, go on. I'm just endlessly fascinated about his career and the year-two step-up in this system didn't really happen. I always think like he doesn't necessarily And I think about him and Trevor Lawrence, similarly,

he doesn't always necessarily have the natural feel of what levers to pull and what buttons to, like, you know, turn up in a given game in terms of what he's seen and everything. And so that might always hold him back. And even at the end of last year, say, I've got to run more. He's been dialing back. I got to run more. I don't need to run as much like his whole career.

And so that natural feel, I don't know if you can fix that. But it's year three in this offense. It's good weapons around them. I like the coaching staff overall. And I think it's go time. I do think they've had so much faith in him. This is a year for him to really deliver on that faith in a more consistent level. Or I think he's going to be on the trade block next year.

Because he's obviously a good enough NFL quarterback. He is absolutely a talented starting NFL quarterback. But I do think this organization might think after this year if there's no progress that like, let's see what we can get for him. I do think he's kind of entering that season. And if you are John Gannon, this would be year three for you. If you are Monty, Austin, Ford, it would be your three for you. And you finish the end of the season, you're nine and eight, you missed the playoffs.

Then you start saying to yourself, do I make a Kyler-Marie move? So I has to keep my seat for the next couple of years, right? And like, you know, try to, you know, they, Carlin's got to make playoffs this year, right? Like for Kyler, for Ganon, for Monty. If you want to like, you know, keep this nucleus in place, you have the top 10 pick, a wide receiver. Marvin Harrison, you have the top 10 pick, a tackle, Paris Johnson. Like, this is it. It's how it's supposed to be built.

Like, let's, let's get some fruit for our effort here, right? Let's reap what we've sown now. And so I agree. I think Kyler is good enough, but I also do think, right, stylistically, you play Kyler's way or the highway. And that has been a challenge for the Cardinals to coach around, has been the challenge for the Cardinals weapons to work with over the course of the last couple of years. You just go watch you some Marvin Harrison back shoulder balls.

You just get a sense of, of Kyler's unwillingness to kind of throw some of these contested balls and his difficulty seeing these routes open up. And it's like, all right, like, there is. it feels like there's a ceiling on a Kyle and Murray offense. I would love to see that ceiling broken. It feels like they have the weapons and the offensive minds to do so, but I say, yeah, you got to see it before you believe it. Right. He's

someone that, like, if you just dropped him, I guess you could say this about a lot of quarterbacks, but if you could drop him in Philadelphia or something, it's like, I would just love to see that. Or a different offense, but he doesn't have that. And I mentioned that I like the weapons, but that assumes a pretty

big jump from Marvin Harrison to really be that, like, co-numbered number one with Trey McBride, who I kind of see as like the fulcrum of this offense. And then the other guys like Dorch and Michael Wilson kind of fall into place as the supplementary guys. You're a lead guy, Ben Solek. What do you got coming up this off season? I know during the season, you're writing, you're on weekly on the Mina Kimes show,

featuring Lenny. Tough that he gets billing above you, but, you know, he has seniority. I just prefer to think of it as featuring Benny and there was a typo on the, on the, on the, on the graphics. But yeah, I'm not, we're writing during the off season as pretty usual. I have the ultimate NFL draft coming out. I want to say next week, which is the best pick at all

picks. Picks, one through 1602. Yeah, it's a fun one. So we got, we got the good goofy offseason content coming out. The training camp stores will start coming out pretty soon. So, you know, if you're reading NFL content in July, which you should not be. But if you are, you should be. You should be. Yeah, right. Pay my bills. Pay my bills. I love that sort of stuff. And I love

when, when Ben pops up with his his big fishing pictures, because you know. Maybe he's not the biggest quarterback around, but he's a real man just catching big old fish in the Midwest. I have my fishing hat right here. It's very, uh, it's very good. It's a nice solid. That is a decent amount of shade. Yeah. That is a preposterous prop. Everyone, uh, check it out on the YouTube show. Like, subscribe and then comment about that, uh, fishing hat. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Greg. All right. Thank you to Ben. And, uh, thanks to everyone, And basically that has been listening over the last year since we dropped this NFL daily.

I'm going to bring in my producer here, Eric Roberts. You've been working double time, overtime, to deliver the listeners some good content, Eric, in this dead time. We have the top 25 players of the last 25 years. I know you and Gavin and Chris Bobona have been doing like double the amount of episodes over the last few weeks. week. So tell me what you think. Give me the pitch for top 25 players of the last 25 years. It's one, I want you to listen to it. It's going to be six episodes. Yeah. You know, four at a time, five at a time, third of time as we work our way to the final, you know, crescendo of a year of NFL daily. Yes. It was a great project, fun stuff to look back on. Chris, who has took this project

by the horns, a younger guy. It was fun to like go back through the NFL aughts with him. Yeah. And it was cool to look back. I mean, I'm not trying to give away any of the players, you know, you know. It's fine. It's fine. I, you can give away some. So that's going to be starting on Monday. Mina Kimes is our first episode. And Steve Weish is going to be our second.

We have Brian Baldinger. We have Nate Tice, Bill Barnwell. Kevin Harlan did an episode. That was really exciting. So it's like some of my favorite football minds. And I love this stuff. And I thought it would be a fun way to, Look back on this century.

I've been covering the NFL since 2003, so basically this whole time and think about the very best of the best and put them in an order. And oh, by the way, also give us a little bit of a break. Eric, we're putting this up and I'm as excited about these episodes as any

that we've done over the last year. So it's not really a break for the listener, but we started July 9th, I believe, for NFL Daily. and we've been cranking since you've been keeping track. Like how many episodes have we done? 252 episodes of NFL daily in one calendar year, basically. I know those top 255s will kind of extend past the calendar year mark.

But everything has been recorded. 252 episodes, recaps, Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, previews, 252 episodes in one calendar year. Not quite daily. I know it's in the title. I know you love the daily part of our show title. Well, we got the weekends. Yes, but that's a lot of football in one calendar year.

Yeah, we got the weekends. We weren't counting the weekends. And frankly, once the season starts, we're doing about six episodes a week. And we will let you know, we have some really exciting announcements about what we're doing for the 2025 regular season that's coming. All your favorite people, of course, Patrick Claibon and Steve Weiss and Jordan Rodrigue and Colleen Wolf and Nick Shook, everyone is going to be. back and we're cranking up the content and we will be back doing daily episodes responding on the news of the day starting July 21st. But we'll have some of these 25 players and 25 years episodes in the meantime. And Jordan might pop into the feed too while I am over in

Japan. I just wanted to say thanks to you, Eric, for doing everything over this last year and to Chris and Gavin, too, assisting, of course, Randy Chavez, who's no longer working because he moved on to a great job. And more than anything, thanks to the listeners for listening. So it's not goodbye, because I'll be in the feed, but it really has meant, like, everything to me and my family, everything that happened, transitioning from around the NFL to this NFL daily. Like, it was absolutely difficult and exciting and everything. And to get through this one year has been awesome. And I just wanted to thank everyone that's been listening and watching just all the best. So yeah, we will be back on Monday. And that's the Me and a Kimes episode. Well, we got some

controversial picks here. I'm not sure how Chiefs fans, Ravens fans, how everyone's going to feel about it. So unfortunately, football is not back. But NFL Daily is always going to be back in your feed. See in a few weeks. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sundays. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get you. your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Fulrio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news,

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