NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2022 Free Agency Frenzy Day 1: This Guy Gets It

Episode Date: March 14, 2022

A room filled with some heroes – Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all of the latest moves in the NFL. So many moves! Tom Brady ended his retirement, the Cowboys sent Amari Cooper to the Browns, Khalil Mack was traded to the Chargers, Maxx Crosby has a new contract, and Kirk Cousins signed an extension. And that was just the weekend news! The Bucs retained some of their key players, Mitchell Trubisky is expected to sign with the Steelers, JC Jackson and Teddy Bridgewater have new homes, Haason Reddick agreed to terms with the Eagles, James Conner and Chase Edmonds have new contracts, the Jaguars and Bengals were active on Monday, the Jets have a deal with Laken Tomlinson, plus so much more to report. Stick around for some 8 o’clock delight and a recap of an important text thread from Super Bowl week. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, 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 Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, 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, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

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. The Around the NFL podcast. Cannot wait for the Graeme Digger and Ricky Hollywood spin-off pod. From the Chris Wesleying podcast studio, that is not happening. It's around the NFL. Well, free agency frenzy edition.

A little corporate synergy. That's how they're spinning it over on the network. So we'll do the same. Why not? Free agent frenzy. The legal tampering period has opened. And now we will begin to digest all the madness. And follow along in real time as we record shortly after 4 p.m. on the East Coast.

Dan Hans is here. Gregor, Mark Sessler. Gregie, this is your time of year. This is what I love about Greg. Follow Greg's Twitter right now and he's got a bunch of no bullshit. I'm reading between the lines of these contracts

and I'm telling you what's what and you could feel the confidence as a man who's been doing this for well over a decade now. Greg, congratulations. This is your moment. Why does any compliment from you sound like a dig

like underneath it? See, that's not fair. It's like it's the tweet version of this guy gets it. Exactly. It's like a wink. Yeah, if you go with a wink. Go look at Dan's replies to some of these financially-laden tweets from Greg.

To me, to me, it says more about you. I was just about to say that you, I was going to have to use that on you, one of your tropes. That says more about you than it does me. Hey. I'm saying you're good at this reading the tea leaves of contracts. And I don't know why you have to come from an adversarial angle back at me. It's not adversarial. I'm just being real with you. This guy gets it with the arrow up towards your name.

Okay, that was a little bit. I was having some fun. I just having some fun. I enjoyed it. You know it's a big time a year for me, for you guys, for the network, when Michael Irvin comes storming through the newsroom. He was storming and yelling at everyone there talking about that they are the backbone of this network.

And it's my new favorite moment of that newsroom. I'll just do it because Greg, you almost got it on your phone, but we didn't have enough good footage. So I'll just do a dramatization. It was like, let me move the mic up a little. little bit. Oh, you out here the backbone of this newsroom. You're the people that keep things going. But what's the problem here? How come there's no Cowboys jerseys? I need more Cowboys jerseys in here. No one knew how to interact with what was happening, but the Cowboy

jersey was probably 50% of why he voiced his opinion to begin with. He seemed generally agitated with that. And then Eisen is in front, you know, Eisen, Rich Eisen and Michael have been working together for a long time now at this network. Eisen's, he's been through this with Irvin a million times and he has a look on his face like, all right, Michael's going to do his thing now and I'm going to wait it out and then I'm going to head up on the stage and we're going to do our free agency frenzy conversation. What? You disagree?

I just feel like, and I love this about it, anyone that has worked with Michael Irvin, it feels like they love the Michael Irvin show. Can I tell you this? Let me clarify. They love it. It wasn't like Rich gave an eye role. or anything. It was more just like, all right,

well, this is the portion of the day where Mike goes crazy for five minutes and then we start to get ready and get miced up and do our stuff. They know each other that well. I got more fired up. I can imagine if you were his teammate before a big game.

And this is our big game. He fired me. And that newsroom, and I've said it, I think, on the show, we've spoken off mic about it a lot. The thing I, we love, this new building is really cool and you really feel like you work

for the NFL working at the new building. that opened up late last year. But what I miss about the old building in Culver City was the spirit of the newsroom. That was a little shot in the arm. The newsroom needed that shot in the arm. It's, I mean, you know,

it's been described as, you know, something approaching mausoleum status, our newsroom at times. So, like, even on Sundays, the three of us would be there and there'd be, you know, whispers, hushed whispers. So it is anti, it's unlike our past newsroom.

We needed that. Speaking of Sunday, nice little Sunday at the house, did some yard work. Then I had the grill going, had a medello, we're doing some fish tacos. That was nice.

I was listening to some tunes. Tom Brady comes out of retirement, quote unquote, retirement. Told you guys. Told you that was going to happen. Why didn't you believe me? Who didn't believe me? The second that he started whispering about coming back,

at that point, we didn't push back. My big take was he is going to retire. And he did. and the signs were pointing towards that he is going to retire this time. Do we count that? You said he didn't, and he did. And then once he immediately started backtracking on the Jim Gray podcast like six days later,

the Jim Gray podcast. Or whatever. Then you were right. It's the let's go podcast, sir. Let's go. I think why he's going back to football is he didn't juice the numbers. Still no one's listening to the Jim Gray podcast compared to around the NFL podcast. interesting strategy if that's why i don't i was not surprised on any level by this you guys took me

on the sandwich but i i want to go i even think i took you because i take everyone on every sandwich but there were but i had been telling you this was incorrect but they were the nineers and stuff we were right about that you the way you were it is he won't retire and we were right he didn't retire if you want to live on that hill that's fine with me he did not file those papers he did not file those papers he didn't file the papers there you go but i guess what's always surprised me about it, Gregi, to you personally, is that you followed his career closer than anyone in this room. And it just never made sense to me that he would ever go out like that. Go out as one of the best, if not the best quarterback in the league still. He's just such a

maniac. And he proved it. And, you know, some clown college. Dan Shaughnessy's been writing for the Boston Globe forever. And I don't want to turn this into an anti-New England fans. This is more Shaughnessy, ripping him is selfish and petulant and attention grabbing. And like, how dare he do this on the day the March Madness teams are selected? And Kevin Garnett's jersey is raised to the rafters for the Boston Celtics. Dude, you are giving all the Boston fans a bad name with a column like that being published. That is what that's some classic projecting in terms of pointing at Tom Brady for look at me when he's writing a calm like that.

That said, no one. showing to see a lot. Yeah, no one's. If I had some aspect of this beat, I have been telling you from the minute he, you know, authored this quasi-BS retirement that the whole, I'm going to sit at home and wax my shoes and walk the children to school, that he would be ultra bored with that within a fortnight.

And he, and the minute you saw the beach photo of him and Giselle, you knew he was coming back because the look on his face, he was so bored. And that's Giselle. Well, that was three weeks ago. But the weird thing is, in terms of everything he was, he's done so far in the offseason

in terms of hanging out with his family and all that. Nothing's changed. I mean, he hasn't even gotten to OTAs yet. The thing that changed was he had the mindset that he was no longer preparing for next. That's a huge change. Right, that's a huge change. But even like, this is not a time of year

where you're usually with teammates, with the team. And he couldn't even make it through that. That's all I'm saying is he couldn't even deal with the adjustment of the mindset of the February to March corridor, which is the quietest time of year for NFL players. Like, he didn't even get close. I don't even think he got a week into it.

He didn't like that mindset. Part of me loves that he's coming back because I get to watch him play football again, but I've been consistent on this podcast of the last thing I want to do is see him decline ever. That would make me so bummed out. And I just thinking about even how 2019 played out somewhat was a bummer for me,

and I didn't want that to continue. So part of me is a little worried as a Brady fan that he's probably not going to leave the NFL now as the best quarterback in the league, which is what I believed he was in 2021. You could argue, you know, he's top two or three. He's probably not going to leave that way. Most likely it's not going to end well because that's the way, that's the truth for every quarterback, but maybe he'll prove us all wrong once again.

And that's okay. As a fan, that makes sense your angle on that. But for Tom Brady, I imagine where he's at ultimately and coming out of retirement tells you a lot. I want to see how far I can take this. And if that, when he does retire, if he retire, if he retires, next year or three years for now or five years from now when he can't play anymore, he personally will have no questions.

I played as long as I could until my body said no more. That always made more sense with Brady. I guess one question I have, Mark, is I'm sure I don't remember it. It was a few years ago now, a couple years ago, but we did a lengthy Brady Patriots post-mortem when that relationship ended. I know we dedicated 30 minutes of a podcast to Brady retiring a month ago or 40 days ago, when he does retire again,

at what point do we just say, hey, and finally in the news, Tom Brady is retired, or does he get a 30-minute top of show every time he retires at this point? We will absolutely do 30 minutes because we will not be, even if we go in saying,

we're going to do three minutes, we will do 33 minutes, because we have zero control when it comes to discussing anything verbally about the sport on any level. Well, especially Tom Brady. But you're right. I'm glad I did not write the Tom Brady remembrance.

You know, at least we didn't write anything. And a lot of people did. Personally, because I feel like, okay, we spent that podcast time, but we can reuse that. And he'll have a new like four seasons and two more Super Bowl appearances to talk about by the time he finally retired. I do wonder if this Bucks team, though,

is as well positioned as the last two to potentially get him to the Super Bowl. Not along the offensive line to start. Well, you saw immediately Brady's return paid some dividends because Senator Ryan Jensen came back on a three-year, $39 million contract. That's one of the many deals that went down on Monday. Yes, it will be different. They brought back the whole team last year.

It's not happening this year. I also wonder, this is a little conspiracy theory, because there were reports about some strain between Brady and Ariens at the end of year two, whether this was more of a, I don't want to call it a ploy, but Brady was investigating a possibility of quote-unquote retirement and then being able to pivot and get traded somewhere like San Francisco or wherever to set up whatever would be the final chapter in his mind of his career.

But instead, the bucks were pretty strong and publicly about we're not trading him anywhere. And once he saw the writing on the wall there, he didn't want to sit out. I fully believe that I think he went into this retirement. tirement mode to tell the Buccaneers, I'm not yours next season. I might be someone else's. You can maybe get something for me, but I'm not yours. And then it didn't work because Ariens came out about as strong as possible at the combine and said, you know.

Who's played this well? He did he shifted into alpha mode where it's like, talking up playing Gabbert and annoying Tom Brady? That was earlier on, though. That was earlier on. I don't think he had anything to do it. He played it well because ultimately, what's the result? Tom Brady is back in the fold as their quarterback and not someone else's.

It's because Tom Brady had no option and I don't think it had much to do with Aryans necessarily. It had to do with his contract. Why would they let him go? But it was interesting to see that Brady went to the UK to talk to the Glazers. Well, why do you think he did? I don't know. If there's no smoke or any of this, I just think that ultimately he would want to finish his career with that chance to play for the Niners. Maybe we don't, we'll never know that.

I don't know. That could have been part of it. But to me, to go that far and then it's announced shortly afterwards, it was probably crossing the T's dotting the eyes of like, look, he's the most powerful person in the organization other than the owner. Let's talk about some things. Maybe Brady had certain ideas of how he wants this next season to go with Aryans, how that relationship is going to work, practicing off season.

Who knows what they're going to do to attack? Maybe they're going to be adjusting his contract because there is a lot hanging out there. You mentioned Jensen re-signed for less money. I think then he probably could have gotten free agency. So that's the Brady effect. But Leonard Fournett, Ronald Jones, Indomacan Sioux, William Goulston, JPP. Okay, maybe you can lose most of those guys except for Grong. Carlton Davis, Jordan Whitehead, two starters in the secondary.

Not a lot of cap space to basically no cap space available right now. It's going to be a challenging option. Ali Marpet retires. Alex Kappa left in free agency today. So there's a lot to handle. and who knows what kind of influence Brady is getting now by returning. Guards, you know, listen, both guards absent. Hey, one thing about Tom Brady he doesn't like.

Pressure right back up the middle. That's a good point. Keep an eye on it. Look what happened when the offensive line was shattered towards the end of the season. They looked like a December team. I do appreciate, though, he timed it right as Walker's first game for his Little League season was going to start,

and I've signed up as an assistant coach. I was just getting in the car and I got the text to write about it. And so, and I was unavailable for two hours. I was like, I could maybe do it when I get back in two hours and they moved on. So I appreciated the timing. Any other time of day, I would have gotten stuck with it. This happened minutes before I went and played tennis with my wife and two small children and utterly destroyed them on the court.

We had a, we have a mutual friend down in Tai B, Jason, the old mayor there, who sent me an email we had been corresponding and he said tell Sessler that it was great to see that he beat up on his family in tennis and I thought he confused names Greg and Mark because I didn't see your tweet

I said Mark playing tennis I couldn't imagine such a thing but there you go I played tennis for years as a youth and have not picked up a racket in almost two decades and it was like riding a bike I figure all you

my forehand was powerful all you people in your leafy Connecticut suburbs play tennis So that checks out. Well, that's, that, I almost can't deny that. I did play tennis as a child. But I would like to, if I could see better, because I can't see, like, what's happening on the other side of the problem.

You own glasses, get the glasses on. Not, why you look hot? Yeah, you got to also go Agassi 92. Right, you have to also look appealing on the court while playing. It's not putting glasses on. Like appealing while playing with your family. All right. So Brady, obviously, huge, huge domino falls.

on Sunday evening. A bunch of other news happened between our last show Thursday and now. So we're going to kind of spin through that. And then like we said, this is all unfolding in real time right now shortly past 4 o'clock on the East Coast. So we're going to go through what has happened so far today, Monday. But why don't we get caught up here before we get to all that boys? So Deshaun Watson, a Harris County, Texas.

this grand jury declined to indict Deshaun Watson on sexual assault charges. This happened on Friday, and then immediately once that happens, not that everything is clear with Watson, obviously, far from it, but the criminal side is clear. The side that could have him in prison is clear. So that means dominoes are going to fall in this situation, most likely, and perhaps soon. Daniel Jeremiah reported that the expectation around the league is that the Seahawks will trade for Watson. Rap sheet reported this weekend

that the Panthers and Saints have made trade offers for Watson. Meetings are set up reportedly with those two teams. ESPN reported that the Browns are doing due diligence on veteran quarterbacks, perhaps DeShon Watson. Greg, so this is

obviously happening now with Watson and whatever team pulls the trigger on the trade is willing to live with the still mystery around him with the litigation on the civil side and, of course, a potential lengthy suspension by the NFL.

Yeah, if a team is willing to. And the fact that they're meeting with them is an indication. I don't necessarily put that much stock into the words from the insiders that this deal is happening soon. I'm not discounting it totally, but the same exact insiders

who are basically doing the work for Deshaun Watson's agent told us that the deal is probably happening soon last August. And then they told us that it's probably happening last October. And so they were wrong in both of those cases pushing that the deal is close to happening in multiple timelines. It seems much more likely that it is going to be happening in this timeline in the free agency timeline. But even if you go back to Friday, they made it sound like it could be a matter of hours.

It's like this idea that they're trying to push it through as quickly as possible before anyone gets pushed back from the public. Number one, there's, you know, like a Panthers beat writer Joe Person puts out a poll, and most Panthers fans don't want Deshawn Watson coming to their team according to his poll. There's been a lot of pushback in the Saints Twitter community, the Saints Twitter podcast, certainly, you know, pushing back that they wouldn't want him. And I think at some point you have to recognize that the same uncertainty that Watson had last March when this all started. And that uncertainty as the civil cases and that uncertainty as the NFL suspension exists in the exact same way now. criminal case, people kind of forget, didn't start until more than a month later,

was always believed to be a bit of a long shot that he would face any criminal charges. It is a huge positive for Deshaun Watson and his agent to move this thing along. And I think ultimately it will. But the suspension could be massive, right? I mean, we don't know, but based on Ezekiel Elliott and based on Ben Rothesberger as some precedent, I think the suspension could be lengthy, and we have no idea how long it would be. I hear you.

I would just say that I don't think that Mickey Loomis, based on what we're hearing, or the Panthers front office, coaching staff and ownership, care at all what people think on Twitter or Twitter polls on any level. But what we're hearing is from the agent. The Panthers have been working for nine straight months on this, and the Saints are obviously serious about this. The Browns, I think, have no chance.

chance in this but have been seriously looking into this and it's cynical i'm not saying i love the environment that it's happening and on any level but i think that your average general manager in this race is thinking that the average fan won't care six months from now if you have a star quarterback winning games money throws are 380 yards and four touchdowns like it or not and this is not taking down fans don't conflate that with us saying we want that to happen at all As unpopular as the move might be, if it happens in March, I think the owners and the front offices are probably viewing this as we'll get by on that. And then I also think this is when Watson's, and this is one thing that has been kind of set aside for obvious reasons.

But Watson is a Hall of Fame level talent on the field. And his first five years in the league, you could stack it up against any first five years that we've seen statistically for an, up and down Texans organization. He's 26. So let's say the suspension and just throwing darts here. Let's say it's eight games. Let's say it's a year. I still think a team is willing to eat that and know, all right, we're going to have this guy in his late 20s, the way the game is played now, the way the quarterbacks are protected, the way these guys take care of themselves. This guy could be a 10 to 12 year elite starter even after we get past whatever the suspension could be. Right. And we're wrong if no one signs them ever.

Well, no, I'm sorry because, like, that's, that, like, some, it's going to take one team and there are already multiple teams interested. Of course it's going to happen. My point is with timeline, and it's also not too late for these teams to change their mind based on a public pressure or B, new information. Like, like fan bases have influence. All right. New information. We have influence. New information.

My point is all of the information of, like, we're hearing from the front offices and from. from Watson's side is coming with self-interest to push this along. And that's happened to begin with. I mean, Adam Schaefter embarrassed himself on Friday by passing along the tweets from the agent that essentially was like they've been waiting for the truth to come out and now it's out. Watson's first tweet essentially since this all started was, what was it? Quote, when you stand on the truth, the Lord will free you. So with free and truth in caps.

So he is not admitting to anything. They are pushing back as hard as they possibly can. I think that makes the next step of this process more difficult for him and for any team that gets him. Because everyone that's, and people are in my mentions and people get worked up about it. I know we'll get to the exciting like free agency of this day news of the day stuff first. But this stuff is important too. Haven't read the cases.

Anyone that is saying like, hey, there's no criminal charges, isn't this a free country? Like, you haven't read the cases. Like, if anyone wants to go through the cases and Jenny Vrentis's reporting and just read all of them, there's no gray area in this case. It is what it is. And the fact that he is going to want to apparently push back indefinitely, which means the civil thing could last a long time. And that could all affect the NFL suspension.

to me changes his next destination and changes how palatable that is for the fans. Like everything you're saying, I think we agree with you. First of all, like there's no comment here about his place in this morally and whether he's innocent or not at all. Like, I mean, preferably he never plays again.

I am just stating that the way that the NFL work. You would want him to never play again? I'm not saying that that's what I want. I'm just saying like the idea that teams, are going to fall in line and not sign him because of X, Y, and Z. I just disagree. We live in a few cynical of a world right now. Of course I think it's going to happen at some point.

I'm just saying this is all informing what's coming up next. And if it took longer than everyone's saying days, hours, you know, that wouldn't shock me because already people with this self-interest have been wrong about that in the past. Right. But I will say, I believe, based on everything we know, now that this trade gets done in the next week. I just think there's enough momentum now and that hurdle of the criminal case being cleared.

I tend to agree with you because there's more than one team interested. By Watson's side that I think we'll see though. I don't know what stands in the way at this point because teams, there's a clock that these teams are on with the draft coming up, free agencies right now that they're going to want to figure it out. If they want him, this is the time to get him and then figure out your franchise plan for 2020 and beyond. The fact that Watson is meeting with the Panthers and Saints is a strong indication that the Panthers

and the Saints are the favorites to get him because he has a no trade clause. He has some control in this matter. The fact that he's taking those meetings first and we'll see if he even has both meetings necessarily would indicate that those two teams are pretty far along in the process in terms of what the compensation would be. And I'd love to know the order of those meetings because with the way free agency work, depending on where you go first, that might be key. I would imagine, like, there are whispers out there

that if Cleveland was ever in the mix, that he doesn't want to play in a cold city, he doesn't want to play in Cleveland probably to begin with, and that would change things. The last thing on this is just that so many people have shown their ass, I think, in terms of how it was covered, that even someone like me who I feel like I'm not a naive person and I can be cynical about the coverage,

I've kind of been floored, that the lessons in theory that anyone and all these people were covering the league back in the Greg Hardy, Ray Rice era, the mistakes that people made in covering those cases have been made like twofold in this case. When Schefter tweeted out that he knew that the truth would come out and they were waiting for this, like I couldn't believe it. And you do hear in a different way on Twitter and in conversation certainly too that I think the attitude towards women is like, yeah, they're going to say the right things publicly,

but it's like a lot of people don't give a shit about women. Like they hate women. Like, and it sort of comes out in the coverage of this of how, like, unsuriously people take it. Or how unserious they take doing their job in terms of reading the, like, the actual report. I mean, that's, that's like, I don't, I'm not saying they don't hate their sister. They don't hate their wives. they don't hate the women in their lives, but as a larger group, they don't, they don't ultimately.

You're talking about NFL insiders? Certainly, like, showing, like, insiders, like anyone taking it sort of seriously, or even, like, going back and just reading the cases. Because I think if they would, if they had any sort of empathy or humanity, it's like they would be covering it differently. Schefter's got a, oh, that was bad.

That has to be a teaching moment. That should be taught. I thought he would get suspended. I thought he would get suspended. That needs to be something that if you're, you know, learning how to be a reporter, you have aspirations to be an insider, how not to get played and turn yourself into a laughing stock on social media. And he followed up with an apology tweet. It's just like, whoa, buddy, how did we get here?

And we'll move on. But the same mistakes were happening on Monday when multiple insiders are tweeting out the exact same tweet that are exactly written by an agent. Now, it wasn't content that was. explosive like a Deshaun Watson where you should be checking that. But these mistakes keep happening. Like if you are working for the agents, you're ultimately not a trustworthy news. What did I say, Mark, at the top of this episode? That it would be 197 minutes long?

This guy gets it. Oh. Greg Rosenthal. Let's take a break. We'll be right back. All right. We're back. And now we got Justin Graver behind the glass.

What's up, buddy? Three stickers. Just had to play my own drop, you know. Well, you wouldn't have to if Erica Tamposi was with us for the biggest newsweek of the offseason. But she had made her decisions, and we will be fine. We still got a loaded crew behind the glass. We got Gravedigger. We got Sack Sally.

We got Big Randy. We got Stapled in behind the glass. We'll be okay. All-Star crew. But this will not be forgotten. Remember, if she doesn't come back with a wrist, we got. does she come back at all? That's now, let's have a discussion maybe off mic about that.

Flashpoint. Those are, flashpoint, Erica Tamposi. Those are the stakes. Justin. Justin, how are you, by the way, buddy? Are you ready for this week? This really is a step up behind the glass in terms of this company. I think I'm ready.

I don't know. You'll have to tell me how I do after one day. And we'll see if we will. I mean, we're surprised you're even here. after that Ben Jones re-signing. I just thought you'd be running through the streets naked. I was throwing a party, but I had to cancel it quick for this show. It's a nice deal.

You know, you got him for a lot cheaper than Ryan Jensen. Right. Nice deal by the sight. Speaking of parties, any housewarming party at your new... Ah, do tell. Abode? I'm playing this against my will. Just like some solo parties, one guess.

Wait, hold on See, you can't help himself Because he's so proud Yeah, you do You do consistently provide new information On a topic that you claim you on clamped down Yes, well, things are a little calmer now Yeah

Is this like the Pete Davidson, Kim Kardashian Situation of NFL media, ultimately? That's what I want Everyone to think about Is that what we have going on behind the glass? Graver sending out texts like I'm in bed with your wife right now. Exactly.

All right. So Graver's behind the glass. We feel good about it. Not feeling good about Ricky and her decision making, but we forge forward. Let's get to the rest of the news that we have seen gone down. Mark, you got a new number one wide receiver. Amari Cooper heads to the Cleveland Browns,

acquired from the Cowboys in exchange for a 2022 fifth round pick. They also swap six-round picks, Cleveland and Dallas. It is a largely, there could be some more stuff behind the scenes because the Cowboys didn't seem to be overly happy with Cooper in general. But when you look at where the Cowboys were heading into the league year, they are having some cap issues. So you take a guy that's one of the highest paid wide receivers in the league and you send him elsewhere in market.

It does fill an area of need for the Brown Jarvis Landry who subsequently granted his release. O'Dell Beckham obviously left. So there was a glaring need for a number one. How do you feel about this trade? I think they had the worst wide receiver room in the league. You know, if you assume that Landry was out. I mean, there's Donovan People's Jones who I like him as a piece next to a number one.

I like the deal because, you know, when it was announced and I was thinking, well, what are they going to, what do the Browns give up for this on top of taking on a big salary? They gave up a fifth and flipped two six round picks. I mean, it is another example of Andrew Barry. in general, if you're willing to say we're going to have to spend money for good players, essentially never getting fleeced in these deals. And I think from that angle, like, they addressed a need. There's no question that Amari Cooper is a clear number one.

I would question. I think there is a question. I don't think there is available. I think for Cleveland, well, I think for Cleveland, he fits number one status. There's only so many guys out there. They can address it in the draft as well. And you have remade your wide receiver room entirely. I think it gives them a flexibility to also go defensive tax.

which is probably their second major void on that roster right now. I like the deal for Cleveland. I'm not surprised that they would be the team to do it. I am surprised that 30 other teams pass. It's not a big surprise that they didn't have to give up much because the expectation was all 31 teams were going to pass and say we don't want that contract. That was curious to me because the contract to me isn't bad.

He's due $20 million in each of the next three years. but they didn't have to give up any upfront money, no guarantees, so they can cut them at any time with no pain whatsoever. It's basically a one-year $20 million contract. And so every team in the NFL was saying, we wouldn't give Amari Cooper a one-year $20 million contract. Now, that says something about Amari Cooper. I don't think the league sees him as a true number one.

He's sort of in between, and that's fine. He's by far the best Browns receiver, and he's a top 25 receiver at the very least. just not like the guy who's going to put up 1,400 yards and catch 90 passes. He's not that guy. He's never done it before. There's not a great reason to think he'll do it. Now, I am flummoxed in a league where Christian Kirk's going to get $18 million a year-based

salary. And these receivers are... It happened after, obviously, but you kind of could see it coming that Mike Williams gets $20 million a year that no one wanted Amari Cooper. And so I think it made a lot of sense for the Browns. Well, someone did, the Browns. So maybe most teams were thinking, we'll let them go to market. We don't want to...

Right, but they saw the contract. They could have given up. I'm sure they saw it weeks ago. They were putting this out there. We're going to cut him. That was the big for sale sign that, like, please someone give us an offer. No one topped that. I think it makes sense.

Yeah, I think it's a good move. That's why you have that cap space, basically. Yeah, I think it's a good move by Cleveland. I would say my only concern would be some reports about him having issues. He wants the ball more. How does that work when you go to Cleveland when the last guy, O'Dell, talked his way out of town behind the scenes with his dad's help? And then Jarvis Landry didn't talk the last half of the season. There was a lot of unhappiness with quarterback playing.

Right now, it's like stand. The quarterback's still there. Yeah, I think that the flip side of this is that this isn't me dancing around the room with a ton of optimism. I think that it's super clear Cleveland is unhappy with their quarterback situation right now. They are fishing around for answers on that front. and they had to clear out almost that entire wide receiver room because the tweets and the overall overt support for O'Dell Beckham after he left and from the team to Jarvis Landry today, in a way,

is counter to how they feel about Baker Mayfield. Everyone's silent on the Baker Mayfield front. And Cooper said, I cannot wait to play with Baker, blah, blah, blah. We'll see. It just seems to me like a situation that could turn ugly again next season. The great thing is he's only 28. He's turning 28 this year. How is Amari Cooper only turned 20?

Sammy Watkins' All-Star. How is Jarvis Landry only 29? I feel like it's like 37 years old. Now that I think about it more, I think it says more just about this incoming crop of rookies that teams just feel like they can find receivers in the draft. And I'm sure the Browns feel that way too. They might draft one as well.

They need more than just one. And maybe that's why no one wanted to give them that much money. I do. I do. I don't, like, I hear you if you're not, you don't think it's a number one. But in this market, if you have no one at wide receiver and the Browns were desperate, Cooper fits number one for next season.

He's never topped 1,200 yards, but he's between 1,000 and 1,200, 5 different times. Have we heard from him yet, by the way? Is he happy to be traded to Cleveland? I wonder. He did just say. I saw quotes that he, that sounded very supportive, but I mean, what is he going to say?

Is he going to come out and be malcontent right out of the game? My producer's not here, so my other producer, Justin, we're working out some kinks behind the scenes. I totally understand the dynamic. Yes. He also had, Mari Cooper actually hasn't spoken in eight years of being an NFL player. I've never seen his lips move.

He has no mouth, actually. That's a little fun fact. Well, that would be useful in Cleveland for once. In other news, the Steelers have identified their solution behind center. At least they hope they have. And I love it. This one's spicy. This is spicy, Gregi, not just in the AFC North for Steelers fans, but also for the

year on the NFL podcast. Because Mark's old friend, Mitch Trubisky, has signed a, agreed to terms on a all these deals become official Wednesday. So nothing's signed yet unless you were already a member of a team for an extension, but these teams, all these become official on Wednesday. A two-year contract agreed to. This is the same Trubiske who's gotten breathless coverage over the last month or so.

And you know what? At the end of the day, I'm not saying he's deserving of breathless coverage. He does sign to be a starting quarterback for an AFC team that's been, you know, relevant for decades. So, Mark, Mitch Trubisky, a man that you were never high on coming out of North Carolina as the number two overall pick. Now, Trubisky, it's one last chance to stick it to you in the AFC North.

I don't get it at all. I don't know what Pittsburgh's ultimate plan here is. He is clearly their start. I give him an obvious choice to lead over Mason Rudolph going into where they are right now. To me, it's like... But we were told Mason. and Rudolph was a good option. Well, at least we didn't buy that.

Although they're throwing it out there that's like, nothing's changed with Rudolph. He's still competing to start. I mean, I think they don't have an answer, but they did talk to the Niners about Jimmy G. I think that the game plan with Jimmy G probably has teams maybe a little freaked at this point. But Mitch Trubisky seems to be this quarterback

that is thriving in this, like you mentioned, this hoopla around him because everyone blames the bears and how the bears used them. I keep hearing that over and over that teams don't. really look at what Chicago did with Mitch Trubisky and blame Mitch Trubisky. They blame the Bears. Fine. There's a ton of bad tape on Mr. Chubisky where he's making terrible decisions and doing things an NFL starter should not be doing. I don't care if he's on

the Bears or he's on a high school team. It's not adequate. And so Pittsburgh's going to run into the same issue. I want to see the contract. I mean, you're talking about my time a year. It's Sizzler heat season. Come on. Can I just say Mark? This is every free agency report, though. I've been here all day long listening to multiple stations. We are over-inflating every one of these players and then the real game start and it's like, oh, it's week three

and the Steelers understand finally. The Mr. Biskey is not a competent starter. Here's the thing. He's not being over-inflated in this room right now. I will say this though. The Steelers like the Colts and these other teams that are kind of stuck in QB purgatory right now, there aren't a lot of like great

answers where you are right. If you are looking, if you feel like you can contend for a playoff spot, but you don't have a quarterback, there aren't a lot of great options. And that's how you end up overpaying for Carson Wentz or Jimmy G. And so Mitch Trubisky is of that same ilk to me, maybe a step below based on what he's shown us in his career. But if he was paid $10, he was overpaid. All right. I get it. You don't like him. We get it. We're with you. I'll unplug on it. That is the IG, you know, quote. I'm annoyed now. Just let's have

Have a still, Graver. I don't want to tell you how to do your job. Let's have a still. A mark in like a funny, funny face. And it was, if it's paid $10, that's too much on the Trubisky signing. So my point is whether you are the commanders, whether you are this team, the Steelers, you could just say, all right, we're in a tough spot. We kind of put ourselves in the spot. We knew Ben was retiring, but we never really got things set up.

So we'll see what happens with Trubisky. We wanted a mobile quarterback. We made that very clear. Now we have it. And if it doesn't work, we'll get rid of them. And next year is a better quarterback class. It's going to be a fresh crop of guys on the market. And we could try this again.

So I think he's nothing more than a stopgap slash. We have a hunch about him. We'll see how it plays out. There's no long-term commitment to Mr. Trisky. After everything I've said, he'll probably blow up and be the comeback player of the year. I mean, what this is. That's just as, it's just as equally a narrative.

I'm with you that I have no belief. What did you say $10? $10. $10 to be an overpay. I'm with you that I have no interest in Trubisky, but to me I want to see the contract before I have too strong an opinion on it. The fact that we haven't seen the money usually is a sign that there's not that much money. And my suspicion is it's one of those contracts that is not really a starter contract.

It's like a high-level backup contract where he's the favorite over Mason Rudolph. And I believe personally that they're a strong candidate to draft a quarterback in the first round or the second round still. And if that's the case, that's fine. I personally would rather have Andy Dalton than Mitchell Trubisky. I think he's a better player right now. And you can say maybe he doesn't have the upside, but I'd rather have the other 1B options. But if the contract isn't that high,

if it's like $9 or $10 million per season, that's my guess, and they might draft someone. Okay, that's fine. You're just kind of kicking the can for a year. If they draft someone of note in like the first round where they're sitting, a lot of what I've said goes away. That makes sense. Because Trubisky, you know, none of these guys are ready to start day one, most likely.

And Trubisky holds the floor. And if they don't draft anyone, that makes sense too. Because it would just affirm that they don't like this draft class. So let's find somebody else a veteran to handle this year and see what happens. How about this? That said, I would have taken Teddy, you know. I know you would, buddy. Here's the best case slash worst case scenario for this show, Greg.

Sunday night football week seven. Tribisky goes off for three touchdowns passing, one rushing, Steelers, third. 34 Browns 20. And then we go right back to the studio to tape. I'm going to go worst case because that is not a good case. I've been dumping on Mitch Rubisky 2 for five years, too. So I'm on team Mark here. This would be I don't want to see that.

I can already tell. I understand I don't have as much at stake. And but I also, yeah, I don't like, you know, Mark being angry makes me uncomfortable. I already can tell that I'm going to be getting crushed. on this entire diatriate. We have developing news. I love it. It's a great spicy subplot mark.

I don't wish pain for you, but it would be interesting if you had a nice year. Yes, you do. Developing news. Ooh, I like this one. From the aforementioned Adam Schaefter, former Broncos quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater

intends to sign a one-year deal to be the backup QB. I'm going to put backup QB in air quotes for the Miami Dolphins per league sources. So there you go, Gregie. So Bridgewater has now made the transition, as I believe should have been the case for a couple years. He's signing a true backup deal. But if you're a Teddy fan, there are worse places to go than this Mike

McDaniel offense with Tua, who a lot of people aren't sold on yet. He could have a chance here. I like it. I like him in that system. He hasn't really been in that style of system. I think he has some of the strengths of Tua, certainly more experience and could be a better version of him. And I think it makes sense for the Dolphins, too, to have a failsafe here if it doesn't click with Tua and Mike McDane. You have the best backup quarterback in the league all of a sudden in an offensive system that I think is going to be spicy, intriguing, and a great place for any quarterback over under on how many starts he makes four. Well, Tua, did Tua stay healthy last year? I think he did. No. No? No, he missed a month.

How about I'd say not even Tua's health. Let's say Tua is healthy, but Tua's performance. I'm going four for some reason. All right. No, I would say starts for Tua. I'll set it 12 and a half. Tua missed five games last year, five starts. That would be an over for Teddy then.

Okay. Four and a half plus 12 and a half is 17. I'm going to bang that over. Basically, what is their record? It's a weird way to answer that on October 30. Exactly. If they are four and three, Tua will continue to be the starting quarterback. If they are two and five, he will no longer be the step.

And the previous best backup quarterback in football is Ryan Fitzpatrick, and that was under different leadership with Brian Flores. But Flores could not stomach the sight of giving Tua big snaps when he could see a playoff berth in sight, and Ryan Fitzpatrick kept on going into the lineup. Now you have another very capable backup. Is he the best backup? That sounds like a great June podcast episode segment.

And he was, yeah, he was the backup in New Orleans when he ripped off five wins, not playing like that well. So he did have one year as a true backup with the Saints. But it makes sense to me. There aren't really other starting jobs available. I don't think Carolina was bringing them back. All right. We're playing a little catch up here. This was annoying.

It happened on Friday or on Thursday, I think, after our TV show, after our podcast taping. So, you know, come on. What's up, Chargers? Chargers acquire outside line. backer Khalil Mack from the Bears in exchange for a 2022 second round pick and 2023 6th round pick. Not a huge haul there, Mark, for Khalil Mack, who obviously was at the center of one of the biggest trades of the previous decade when he went from the Raiders to the Bears.

On paper, it looks really good for L.A. Who doesn't have to give up him a lot, takes on the rest of his contract. And now Joey Bosa has a buddy to go get the quarterback if Mack and his surgically repaired foot are legit and healthy. I think one of the worst things that happened in all of last football season, and it robbed us of something that would have been magical in January, was that 35 to 32 loss the Chargers suffered to the Raiders that sent the Snooze Fest Steelers into the playoffs.

I can only wonder what would have happened in that game. You had Khalil Mack. The Chargers, despite Brandon Staley's genius, gave up 25 plus points nine times last year. They were 26 defensive DVOA. They needed someone next to BOSA. You're in a division. that is becoming spicier by the minute

with intense quarterback play. I like this for the Chargers, even if I'm not convinced Khalil Mack is maybe as great a player as he was a couple years ago. You say despite Brandon Staley's genius. Oh, hey, look at. Thank you.

It's genius. You're still on Staley Corner. I think that he is regarded as one of the boy geniuses in the league. Has he proven that as a head coach? We'll see. I think he was strong with their defense. It was casually dashed off.

That's all. Their defense was bad under Staley, which was a surprise, a disappointment, their defense last year. So having Kaleo Mack as a second pass rusher that Joey Bosa is getting the attention slid to him, that's massive. Cleo Mack has never not been an elite run stopper. At the very least, he's over there causing havoc, getting pressures. He's coming off an injury marred season, but before that, he was totally durable. He wasn't as good in Chicago, though. the last couple of years.

His best year there was certainly his first one. And so the price tag makes sense, but it's worth it. And I think the Chargers are going big this offseason. This is risky. I'm making what could be seen as a rookie mistake here when it comes to podcasting during free agency frenzy here. But there is a lot of whispers right now connecting J.C. Jackson and the Chargers. By the time you listen to this, maybe it'll be blown up.

But my instinct is that it's going to happen. Derwin James. Developing news. Let's do it. Rapsheet, the Chargers are expected to sign former Patriots. Cornerback, J.C. Jackson. So one of the jewels of this free agency crop, a man that was an absolute, he was nails for the Patriots in that secondary. A ball hawk, a big time player, big money deal, huge money deal, I would imagine.

We don't have the numbers yet. joins Derwin James in that secondary. Hello. That's awesome. I think that's a great fit for them. I think with the type of defense that they want to run, which is really forcing teams to go the length of the field, having a guy who can match up like that in-man coverage

that can certainly play zone too, that is a ball hawk more than anything, is such a good fit because in Staley's defense, you're going to have your eyes on the quarterback a lot more often than J.C. Jackson even did in New England when he picked off the ball plenty. I mean, he has one of the best nose for the ball, ball skills, instincts that I've ever seen out of a cornerback. And the numbers support it. Like, he is on a record-setting trajectory in terms of the interceptions and the past deflections that he's had through four or five years

in the league. And yeah, Staley's going to play more zone defense than the Patriots, but they played plenty of zone with the Patriots. And Jackson excelled in that, too. He's going to be to do a little bit of everything. I love this for Staley, who seems to know how to get the most out of stars, and he just added two more of them to his defense. You got Justin Herbert costing you $7.2 million next year. Obviously, that's the window to be spending money.

If you're the Bears, though, like you just signed Matt Iberfluse as your head coach, and then a month later, shotgun Khalil Mack out of the building. They're in a full rebuild. They're going to have a ton of cap space under Ryan Poles, the GM, next offseason. but this offseason is this year, on defense, at least, is not going to beat Matt Iber Fluse's number one product.

I think going back to that trade, it makes sense on both sides because the bears are rebuilding, even if they don't want to tell you they are, and they get rid of all that money for a 30-something outside linebacker, and the chargers are an obvious win-now mode. And now if you want to kind of spin it back a little bit further, that trade, which is one of the biggest trades since we've been doing this show, So it's kind of like a lose-lose. Like who won, the Raiders, the only player of note that came out of that.

Ultimately, it was Josh Jacobs, who was a good running back. And the Bears, I think they were one game over 500. And Mack was an absolute stud one or two years. But ultimately, that didn't put them over the top either. So I'm not going to say much ado about nothing, but that's how all the talk about that trade yielded very little. You're saying that they should not have given the Raiders, the Sloan conference award for the trade of the year. Do you remember that?

That was the Cleo-Mack trade. It's almost- They should have canceled the Salon Conference after that. I actually think the process was win-win for both teams. It's just they made bad picks with the Raiders, and you just got to make good picks, but the process made sense. And the defense was Super Bowl championship level

for two years for the Bears. Like if they didn't draft Mitch Trebisky, if they had drafted a different quarterback in that spot, they might have just won a Super Bowl. A win-win process. I like that. saying like the defense was ready to go win a Super Bowl and were awesome, especially that first year.

But really for two years, they just messed up the rest of the team. The Chargers are the official team of the offseason, though. Every year I get excited about the Chargers hype. Now there's a reason for it. My God, this team is fun. The first reports are 40 million guaranteed for J.C. Jackson, five years, 82 million. I thought it could have been worse for him. So I actually...

Or better for him? I mean, yeah. I mean, I thought it could have caused. more to get him. You mentioned Herbert's rookie contract. Just before we move on quickly, is like they have also, they also have a left tackle, Rishan Slater and a rookie contract, franchise left tackle, one of the best in the NFL for like three or four more years. And Durwin James is still on his rookie contract, at least for like one more year, maybe not even by the end of this offseason. But they've got like three all pro type players

on their rookie contracts. I love that, you know, go for it right now. There are two ways to go for it, all right? And we're seeing it from both L.A. teams. The L.A. Rams went for it by saying we're going to sell all of our future assets, our first round picks. We're going to get as much premium talent as we can via the free agent market, via the trade market, and hopefully it all coalesces and you build a champion and have a nice run. They did it. The Chargers, this is the more traditional way. You hit on the quarterback.

You have a young star quarterback who will be one of the top five, maybe number one paid player in the league in a couple of years. But right now you have a chance and a window to bring in a bunch of stud. talent here's the window they have to they can't they can't charge of this this is the year where they need to make that leap and become a true a c contender i don't know how long we've been talking about that as a possibility but it is now or never it is now i don't know about never because herbert and those guys aren't going away i want to see it you're paying herbert next off season right but they're going to be a contender with herbert as long as they're well run but that's secondary asante samuel junior is is a is a thief jac c jackson

is a thief. Derwin James is a thief. Adderly played pretty well last year. That is a team that should be turning the ball over. Even if they're going to give up a lot of yards that kind of comes with the program with Staley, they should force a lot of turnovers, give Justin Herbert a lot of extra positions. Hey, with the Chargers, what could possibly go wrong? Nothing at all. All right.

Wow. Okay. So we got a lot. Now we're seeing some movement on Gregi's top 10 free agents, the top 101. So that was a big, where was J.C.? Two? Three. It was two.

I made a last-minute adjustment. They don't usually let me change the list and flipped one and two and made him two to Toronto Armstead. He was still two. All right, let's take a break and continue to cycle through the events of the day.

All right, we're back. Graver's doing pretty well so far, I think. I think he's holding it together. I don't see, you know, beads of sweat coming down. I mean, he's got a great home life, so, you know, he's fine. Right.

Right. He's calm. He's cool. He's collected. That's how he went full, in the biggest of all spots. I missed a couple things, but the audience will never know

because we're adding them in post. Exactly. Now, if this is live radio... Don't tell us that, though. Don't tell anyone that. If this is live radio, people would be like, ooh, ooh, seeing the seams a little bit here, but we don't have to worry about that here.

That's true. But just wait. By the end of the week, this will be a humming machine. And again, let's discuss the stakes quickly before we dive back into the news. Justin, I have no doubt is going to do a great job all week.

with that great team behind him, Saly, Stapleton, Randy. But what if he does too good a job? And Ricky's on an island and she doesn't come back with a ring on. We have to make a decision. It's a tough decision, but it would have to be a fair decision.

What sort of decision would we be making? I mean, there's not to be said. Wow. It's a thorny. It would be a thorny thing for us to deal. It's already a tough week here, you know, for Patriots fans, you know, like Ricky.

These are the two or three days a year everyone freaks out that roots for the page. Why, why did you let Jacey Jackson go? He's stink. And then, you know, in three or four days, they'll sign some guys who end up being productive. Come down. Yeah.

I still, I, as someone who's been. Greg's still on the beat of like Tis-Tisking Patriots fans for being passionate. No, I'm just saying, like, Jay C. Jackson would have been great to keep. Let's just, let's just see how it goes. I just do wonder. I wonder why Bill was so cool with letting the 26-year-old

Ball Hawk Corner all pro dude go out the door. Because he's like me and. my four-person coaching staff are going to handle it by signing like 35-year-old veterans who can lead in the locker room like just I know the charges will never acknowledge it but like what something so maybe there's like I thought we were going to have to pay a little bit more for this guy right the other team didn't want him now it's fine right where the charges got to go wrong I mean he came into the league with some pretty grim um off field issues but That has not been the case, you know, since he's coming to the same thing about Mark.

Maturity. No, Mark never had anything this disturbing. Oh. I came in with a pristine record. It's just becomes more problematic since. That's kind of the cool way to do it, though. Yeah. Yeah.

You want to get to. That's why he was undrafted in the first place. He was arrested. I have to Google this. Yeah. I know. I hate that when people say that. I just wanted to make sure I get the words right.

He was arrested for armed robbery, found not guilty. And there was a couple other. things but that was that was the main one but that was why he went undrafted uh five years ago um all right in other news let's get caught up with the kirk cousin i love this kirk cousin's career arc you got to give it up for the man i mean you can like him you can hate him you could be annoyed that he was in a plexiglass uh box you could be frankly turned on that Greg would get greased up and slid right in there depending on what your interests are yeah depending on what you're into and and all that um but But don't ever, don't ever discount the man's ability to be a businessman.

Kirk Cousin signed a one year, $35 million extension with the Vikings that takes him through the 2023 season. Okay. So that deal is good for the Vikings and bad for the Vikings, depending on what you think about cousins and his ceiling and his ability to lead a team to a championship, considering he has one playoff win in his life. You like that. Don't like that. Calm down, Kirk. The deal saves the Vikings $14 million against the cap this year. So that helps.

It was going to be a record $45 million cap it. So that's good. I guess Greg, the question would be whether the Vikings will regret having a window here when there were teams that perhaps were interested in taking on a player like Cousins. And instead, they say the best move for us is to get in bed for two more years, most likely, with Kirk Cousins. Where do you come down on this move? I mean, at first I was highly annoyed by it

that the Vikings were just signing up for another year of giving Kirk Cousins guaranteed money. He's guaranteed $30 million next year again. So he has been guaranteed his salary every year, I think, since 2015. Does not happen in the NFL. It's crazy. Then I heard some smart analysis by people smarter than me that actually noted with the way that the money was structured.

he's more tradable next year if they did try to move on that they would be saving some cap money next year maybe I don't know if I buy that he'll still be guaranteed $30 million at age 35 and it just felt like they knew they were going to play this year

with Kirk Cousins and so they just felt once again like let's just give him another extension because we need that cap space my biggest takeaway is I kind of get where Lamar Jackson is at being taking the point that just don't sign me. I'm going to play out that fifth year option.

I'm going to let you tag me potentially. I'm going to let you tag me again. Do it. Because even though it's betting on yourself and it's highly risky, the reward is being Kirk Cousins and controlling the next team that signs you and controlling your future for the rest of your career. He is one of the most powerful players in the NFL

because of this contract that he signed with the Vikings five, six years ago. They should, just like in journalism classes, they should study what Adam Schaefter is done with dealing with agents and then using them as a mouthpiece. It should be studied other quarterbacks coming into the league. Agent should study how he handled this. Now, you have to be a certain mark. You have to be a certain level of quarterback. That's part of this too. It's not just that he's a savvy businessman.

He's just good enough to always have the leverage, but not great enough to ever really get a team to say, I want you forever. So he's kind of just, he's a little lucky. He's made this hill of cash by being about 80% of what you want as a quarterback. Right. He's kind of properly tiered next year and the year after looking at the money he makes. When you're going to have quarterbacks making $50 million, I think he is tradable. I think there's a no trade clause inside of this. But, I mean, I'm sure he could wait that.

He worked that in too. So he has more control there too, that he gets to choose his potential next destination. If you're Kevin O'Connell, like, look at the Steelers. You're looking around at the quarterback. quarterback market. We thought a couple years ago that this has been solved, that every team had a competent quarterback. It's just not the case. And so if you move on from Kirk Cousins, like we were floating around the idea of you shop Kirk Cousins for Baker-Mayfield. Well, Minnesota's GM came from Cleveland. It's pretty clear what he thought about making that

kind of a trade. They're sticking with the guy that I think if you're Kevin O'Connell thinks gives you the best chance to get off to an okay start for the next year or two. And then we'll see. Okay, but you know who's, and I agree with that, that makes sense. But you know, whose contract this reminds me the most of are Drew Breeze and Tom Brady. They keep adding these void years and kicking it one or two more years and at some point you're going to have

to eat the poop. Except those guys are two of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL and the other one's Kirk Cousins. He's found this little niche. Breeze's contract screwed that team towards the end too. Now they're adding, they added these two fake void years until 2025

and at some point they're going to have to take their medicine with cousins, except all you're getting his cousin in Matt Ryan fashion, yes. This is just to break it down. In 2016, he got tagged by the Washington football team. That's when the guarantees started. 19.9 million. Then they tagged him again.

So that made him 23.9. And then he started making more bank the next year is 26 million, 28 million, 40 million, 21 million, 30 million, 40 million next year. Over 230 million in career totals, one playoff win. It's why. It's absurd. So if you are Bradford. If you are Lamar Jackson, you guys said he had to be a certain type of quarterback to stumble into this, that's true. But if you are a guy like Lamar Jackson, you could look at Patrick Mahomes and think, like, Mahomes is underpaid.

And Lamar, if I was like his friend or his family remember, I'd be worried because you're one injury away, you know, you're a couple injuries away from this changing or your career goes in a wrong direction and it could change. But imagine if you are a top shelf QB and play out the Kirk Cousins thing, Mama, like then it gets wild. You can set boundaries that have never happened. And so I think that is what he might go for. And security matters, of course, and a long-term deal that gives, even in the NFL, a long-term deal is usually like two or three years. But if you can make it through two franchise tag years as a quarterback in the modern NFL, it's like $60 million guaranteed dollars. You are set up for life at that point. He's just got to get to the tech.

This is really the most risky year. He'll be on the fifth-year option, Lamar, that is, for about $20 million. But that's still a nice chunk of change in a big time range. And yet if you're a Vikings fan, you're nonplussed. Yeah, I don't like it. I got a lot of angry Vikings fans in my tweets, so they're a little, you know, saying how it makes sense. Why are they angry at you?

Well, because I was just pointing out how surprised I was that they didn't just take their medicine, that they kicked it forward another year. It makes sense in the context of just 2022. I get it. Because you had another tweet that you, you, it was a confident tweet from a man that's reading tea leaves. This guy gets it.

And some people don't want to hear it. some people don't like a guy that's saying hey this is the actual this is what's going on here pay attention some people know it's going to be like what it happened to me today i'm telling me it's a great you're having a moment on twitter the the jet signed a guard okay um tomlinson We were going to get to the Jets. Nice scheme fit and everything. And minutes earlier, you had made a comment about Cincinnati signing multiple guards. Like, hey, you can't develop your, if you're signing guards, the free agent deals, it means you can't develop within and coach them up. I like that sound take. Someone parroted your point in the first reply to me when I was like, oh, this is a sound move.

Like, oh, this means you can't develop talent in your interior line. It's like, wow, Greg is influential. I tweeted that to you. That was, that was me. All right. Let's keep moving here. The Jaguars are busy. Busy.

But has it feel to be influential on the Twitter? I wish I could believe that. I wish I could. I think you do believe it. I don't, that's not the big concern. Really? Yes. We're learning a lot.

Hey, that says more about you. Sure, I'm sure it does. Jaguar signed Red Guard, Brandon Scher, formerly of the commanders. Actually, he was never a commander. No. Well, I guess he was for about a month. but he never played for the commanders. It's a special time.

He played for the football team, which will go down as a fairly hilarious moment in football history that for two years, there was a team called the football team. And yet they chose a name that is less preferable after that. The commanders. Brandon Shurf gets a, he gets the bag, as they say,

from the Jags to fortify their interior of their line. They also, ooh, now it's going to get tough. They sign linebacker Foisade Alunikun. formerly of the Falcons, three years, $45 million, and they're not done. You know why? Because they say we need our boy, Trevor Lawrence, to have more weapons. So they give Christian Kirk, formerly of the Cardinals, a huge contract, four-year deal worth up to $84 million.

Apparently, if you kind of dig a little bit on it, and this is where Greg could come in, perhaps the 25-year-old, it's more like a $72 million deal. Two for 37 is kind of a guaranteed, which is a lot, but not as bad as four for 17. Now, break it down. I'm not great at math, but that means that's 18 and a half per year. Your boy, Amari Cooper, Mark, just got $20 million for one year from the Cowboys trade. So Greg Christian Kirk getting a huge amount of money for a guy that's never even had a thousand-yard season.

Yeah, I'd rather have Amari Cooper. I mean, he's a fine, what a secondary or tertiary receiver to use a Westward that he would throw in there. Sometimes. I mean, he's, he's, you need three or four receivers, and he can be one of them. I, I don't, I haven't seen the huge upside. And so it's a lot of money, but the Jaguars need players. All, all four of their signings. And I, did you mention Foto Kasi, who I liked, Foli Fodakasi? I haven't got him from the Jets. So they had four big signings, including Shurf, including Kirk, including Aluicon, probably two out of those four work. but I don't hate it

because I'm sort of on the corner of like cap space is a terrible thing to waste you need starting players of the four I feel like Shurf is a big time risk and Aluacan is too who kind of came on really strong last year for the Falcons

hadn't done much before PFF like hated him had him a sub 50 grade for what it's worth so there's some big time risk but I kind of like I think Kirk is a fine weapon to add and Foto Kasi was one of my favorites

I mean you're the Jaguars So you're, you know, we've seen this before. They've played this exact record, you know, multiple times in the off season. Overspend for free agents because they were, you know, they love their cap space for years on end. Shurf, I like him when he plays. He's missed 22 starts over the past four seasons. And it's like suddenly your offensive line breaks down at the guy that you're counting on, you know. He's real good, though.

If he says healthy. He's good. When he came into Washington, he was one of the more badass linemen out there. I don't think he gave up a single side. back last year. The durability is, but you can't, you got to be there. He's a badass. There's some more worries he's breaking down physically, but like that's a huge boomer bust signing and that could be a total boom. But they tried the same with Andrew Norwell a few years ago, paying him more money than any guard had ever gotten. He quietly, you know, got to the end of that contract

this year and is not in the top 101. Breaking news. The Bucks, it's the Brady effect. The Bucks are bringing back one of their own car. Quarterback Carlton Davis is expected to resign with Tampa as they retain a part of their core. That's from Rapsheet. Same deal. There was an understanding that Davis was going to be out the door, that Ryan Jensen was going to be out the door. And now you understand the timing more of Tom Brady's announcement on Sunday because you had to let the people know, let the team know. I'm here.

Now let's do business and put this team together. I love this for Tampa Bay because, look, this was not last year. you're going to lose all these guys. Leonard Fournett basically had a post at some point saying, like, I'm out, I'm done in Tampa, and now he deleted that. It's like, it is the Tom Brady effect. It's like run it back and you're going to get better player deals. Jason Light, you know, you get Tom Brady, but Jason Light still had a lot of work to do.

This was a huge piece. I think it's surprising. I thought he was going to go somewhere else. Well, there's no coincidence in my mind that this happens minutes after J.C. Jackson. So these are the two top cornerbacks in the market. Davis sees what Jackson got. I don't know if the charges were in on Davis or not. And he ends up settling, you know, with settling in quotes for slightly less than J.C. Jackson got.

But a similar type of deal. And knowing that like that's where the market's at, I don't need to wait around that much longer, waiting for a better deal. Maybe the bucks had the best deal for him the whole time. Who knows maybe they stepped up. But I really like them. It's interesting to me, cornerbacks are getting paid a little less just in this market than I've, feel like they were five years ago relative to other positions. I mean, Harold Landry got $52 million guaranteed.

Mike Williams and Christian Kirk are getting $18, $20 million a year at receiver. And yet the two top cornerbacks at the market, totally at their peak, are getting like 15 a year. That seems reasonable to me. But maybe it's a little bit of the scheme change that's going around football. And it's not always going to be this way. But all the too high looks, all the zone coverage, maybe you don't pay as much for. for cornerbacks in those systems. You have five DPs on the field

and almost all the time now. Right, a budget allotted for your secondary and maybe it makes more sense to have four good guys rather than a great dude and three budget guys. I love that move for Davis. I love it for the bucks. Devante Adams, he's not happy.

Well, I don't know if he's not happy, but he is letting it be known that, yes, Aaron Rogers got his contract, but don't just assume that just because Aaron's back, Do bend me, shape me, find a way to fold me into your Green Bay plans. I'm the best wide receiver in the league in my mind. And NFL networks Ian Rappaport reports that Devante Adams refuses to play under the franchise tag in 2020. The two sides are, quote, far apart on a long-term deal, according to Ian.

And I wonder, and wouldn't this be, Mark, kind of interesting because the whole assumption that many of us have been working under is like, hey, if Rogers is back, Adams is back. But given Green Bay's cap issues, if he's not going to play ball and work under a one-year deal, and by the way, that's a different situation. This is a wide receiver. He's going to be run the wrong side of 30 next year. It's a volatile physical position. This is the time for him to get paid. Would Green Bay possibly feel like they were in a position where they had to move Adams in a trade

and imagine him what he would fetch given what he's been able to do the last 10 years? PR disaster. You can't. I mean, you've already been through. You already thought that you got the hardest part of this thing, figured out with Aaron Rogers. And the thing is that Devante Adams and the Packers have been far apart on a long-term deal the entire time.

They've never gotten any closer. And the Packers are in a tough situation financially. But how could you possibly sell to your fan base or even your own locker room that you go into this season after all this Aaron Rogers melodrama without Devante Adams? This is a team that like even with those guys cannot win playoff games. It doesn't make common sense, financial sense, to give Brady a $200 million, or excuse me,

Rogers, a $200 million deal and then takeaway his best player on offense, especially when the wide receiver group behind him isn't good. The Green Bay is going to figure this out, right? They're cutting like Zedaria Smith and stuff for cap reasons. I nominate this story as the wake us up in September story of the year, because a lot will be talked about, and there's really only one end outcome, which is him being on the Packers,

but it might take until September, until that like eight days before the season, period to settle it. So it might be 28 NFL.com articles, and I will read none of them. It's almost like it's Devante doing his buddy Rogers a favor, making life a little uncomfortable for Goody. Goudicons is going to have to figure this out with the salary cap and the negotiations and all this. But at the end of the day, they simply is not a scenario where they bring back Rogers and then leave him with nothing. Absolutely.

And so it's like, Kyler Murray, if there's some drama there, I can get with that as a a daily update throughout our offseason. We need something to talk about. Well, there's mystery there. Right, there's mystery. Adams, there's only one way for it to end. So let's just, let's just skip ahead. Hit the fast forward button. Speaking of the Packers, yes, Adairius Smith, he gets his walking papers. So he

hits free agency. Two really good years on their front seven, then was injured last year. And now simply too expensive, especially with Devante Adams, asking for a long-term deal. Also, Preston Smith. Should we say it?

Since he brought it up, Grave Digger brought it up, so we're going to haze him a little bit here. He said, hey, anything that you hear in your ear, I can just take out and post. We've heard the, we call it sausage fingers. It's the little, like, guitar solo that we play to bring on guests. And I like to see how they react to it, the guests. That's the second time that's popped in our ears now. Graver, what's going on behind the glass? So I got a little soundboard thing, and for some reason when I press Command H to hide it from my computer,

It keeps playing that one. You're hitting sausage fingers. I know why that one keeps playing. But you don't have sausage fingers, but you keep on hitting the song. Maybe I do. We call sausage fingers. Anyway, we're happy to have you behind the glass there, buddy.

Anyway, so Preston Smith, he does get a deal for you. We have no other choice. And I wasn't going to say anything, but then Mark laughed. What? Well, you started laughing when you heard sausage fingers playing. Oh, because it was funny. So I laughed. It was the result.

So now that has to stay in the show. Preston Smith, four year, 52. and a half million extension through 2026. So this helps the cap situation as well. And he's a big player on their defense. Yeah, all these moves can be looked at as one big thing. So Preston Smith, you can revisit that deal as soon as next year. It's almost funny accounting, how the Packers are doing.

They're kind of like the new saints. They can just move all this money around and figure it out in the end. And this is one way to do it. It's not cheating. It's just, you know, working the money. margins, and that way they had the room to re-sign Devondry Campbell for five years, $50 million, $16 guaranteed for an offball linebacker is a lot for that market, but it's also not a lot because he was a first team all pro last year.

So good on him for like turning a prove-it deal into that kind of contract, good on them for keeping them. And yeah, as you mentioned, cutting Zadaria Smith and Billy Turner, who was a starter for them for a while at tackle having to cut those guys. Zadarius made it into my top 20. He's still not even in his 30s. He feels like he'd be worth signing for some team out there. Well, the Ravens are reportedly interested in him.

Yeah, the Packers didn't dobs Zadari Smith because they don't like him as a player. They just can't afford him. He missed all of 2021. And suppose there was there was some stuff going on last season. He wanted a contract extension after two great seasons. They didn't give it to him. He had this back injury. And there was some like, is this guy?

milking the injury. Doesn't matter if you're the next team. All right. One of the more productive pass rushers of the past couple of years, Sassan Reddick, he has a new home once again. He goes from the Cardinals to the Panthers and now to the Eagles on a three-year $45 million contract. Mike Garifolo said 30 million fully guaranteed at signing.

So Reddick has potentially a long-term home here. And the Eagles just upgraded their pass rush. They were second to last in Sacks last season. And so Reddick entering his age 28th season, that's a nice move. Yeah, I mean, you got Brandon Graham. He's 34 years old. This was an obvious position of need. And Reddick did the classic, you know, one year, bet on yourself deal.

Worked. A year ago, it absolutely worked. And I do think, you know, two years in a row that, you know, he didn't quite the fit with the Cardinals. And he went on to Carolina every time I watched a Panthers game. And I watched on those Sundays when you'd pick the game you want to cover, my little Matt rule fascination, Lord. into that scenario more often

than it should have early on. But I felt like every game Reddick was doing one or two Titanic things to change the environment. And like I really think he's incredibly disruptive and a good signing for the Eagles. And he's from that part of town. He's so fast. I mean, they have a type. They like shorter

ends who can get up the field and rush the passer and not really known for their run defense. He is a lot like Brandon Graham and Josh Sweat. And And that's like a fast, ferocious trio of pass rushers. I'm curious if they'll trade Fletcher Cox, which has been talked about.

I feel like Fletcher Cox has been brought up in trade whispers for a year solid. Speaking of the Cardinals, James Connor in Arizona due deal, three-year, $21 million contract, 13 and a half is guaranteed. Connor had a really strong first season with Arizona. I feel like he scored a touchdown every week. In fact, he had 18 touchdowns, and there was an 18 week season. He missed some time, missed some time. But you want to average it out over, not his games played, but the season.

I think your point is strong. 18 Cardinals games. Your point is strong. 18 touchdowns, that's one per game. The most surprising thing to me was... I think we could move on. We've covered this for analysis. You know how they flipped the switch, and like Andrew Siciliano was on her air,

and it's like, free agency frenzy, the negotiating period starts now. And the first deals to come down were James Connor and Chase Edmonds back to back. James Connor going to the Cardinals going back and then Chase Edmonds going to the Dolphins. It just felt like a strange place to start, but why not? I guess the Cardinals weren't going to bring back both. I was surprised they gave $30 million to Zach Ertz, including $17 million guaranteed. He looked almost at the end of the line there in Philadelphia, but then was healthier for Arizona. It looked pretty good.

And they spend a lot of money to bring him back. He gave it. It's a lot. Tight ends are costing a lot in this market. Will Disley got 24 over 3. I mean, Ertz was viewed as broken down a couple years ago. He was for that year. But I never, yeah, I never bought into that.

It always seems strange that that's how he's viewed. He did juice their offense, but also that corresponded with the collapse of the Cardinals. So it was kind of veiled a little bit. But he should help if Kyler Murray is the quarterback. We had like no DeAndre Hopkins in there for exactly. Maybe all this money is being spent because Kyler Murray is going to be shipped elsewhere. I like the Edmonds and with the dog. offense move, by the way.

I'm sticking with that. Like, I've always liked Twayce Edmonds. You need multiple running backs. He can do a lot. He can do it for 150, 175 touches. I like the idea of him and Mike McDaniel's system, almost like what they thought Jerich McKinnon was going to be way back of the day when they gave money.

Hopefully Edmonds is healthier. I think they've had a nice day. They brought a manual Ogba back. They signed Teddy Bridgewater to his hometown of Miami to be the backup. He's a Miami kid. He'd come up again. We couldn't get through the show about Teddy being resurfaced. But Ogba got way less money than I bet Chandler Jones is going to get,

certainly than Harold Landry got. And I think was a nice value. All their signings make sense to me and they haven't broken the money. Ogba, the last two seasons, has been as productive as anyone out there. It's a perfect fit for them. All right. Speaking of bad books, cooking the books in a negative way, the Falcons kind of backed themselves into a corner with Matt Ryan.

So they are restructuring the veteran quarterback's contract. He was going to have a $48 million cap hit in 2022. Two years left on that deal. So they move some money around to give them some more agency in free agency. So that's a thing. Also, any Matt Ryan comments? I mean, their cap situation has been a disaster for so long. Like, I find this just made me laugh.

No, the openly laugh. The only notable thing is like he's good. I think this guarantees he's going to be the Falcons quarterback. So I just, I think that's notable. I think we can basically put aside that trade to any trade talk. Unless does that restructure make him easier to move in a trade? In the future, but not, I think this locks him in this year. I don't see that happening.

Max Crosby got paid, good for him, four-year, $95 million contract through 2026, $53 million guarantee. This is top of the market type stuff for a guy that went from a former fourth-round pick, who battled some off-the-field demons. Two years of sobriety, he is now one of the highest-paid defenders in football. Good for Max Crosby, comeback story. It's a great story. I mean, he is the beating heart of their defense.

I am kind of waiting to see, does anything else happen with Derek Carr in an extension this off-season? I mean, or they just go into next year with that hanging out there. I think your Browns are, you know, could have a say in that. It goes to show, sign these guys. What, last week. This Max Crosby deal on paper has the potential to be the best team-friendly value of any of these out there. I mean, this dude's one of the best defensive players in the league.

And they have them locked up for like the next five years at a very reasonable cost. And you don't blame him not wanting to play it out here. But I feel like if I was his agent, he'd be more expensive today than he was five days ago. What if, Mark, the game plan for Andrew Barry and the Browns this whole time is, let's recreate the 2017 Oakland Raiders. Let's get Derek Carr. Let's get Amari Cooper. Was Richie Incognito on that team?

Go get Richie. I mean, he was on the bills. I think he's available again, yes. I mean, he was around. I don't like the plan at all. What would be, whose vision would that be? Let's get Marquette King to punt. Oh, yeah.

Oh, please. I remember like Marquette King kept sending out those tweets that like the NFL didn't like his personality or whatever and they were blackballing him ever since that Ali Bon Puri that Ali Bon Puri long form on Marky King

It's just been a curse That's our editor Ali He did one front facing work for dot com And you're trying to bury him It was great But it was like the opposite of the Flashpoint Focus series Or it was exactly what Flashpoint Focus series

Or it was exactly what flashpoint focus is. The good news is that Lee has never listened to an episode of the show. So we're in the clear there. Michael Gallup, he gets paid by the Cowboys. So they, yes, the Cowboys sent Amari Cooper to the Browns. And they say our guy that we want a team with CD Lamb is Michael Gallup. Five years, 62 and a half million dollar deal. Good money for a dude that tore is ACL in January.

So Gallup is the future with Lamb. and the Cowboys move forward. Oh, they also cut Blake Jarwin, injury designation. He had that hip thing at the tight end that was more serious than initially thought. So they tagged Dalton Schultz and Jarwin is sent loose. So this Gallup deal was interesting. Again, this happened so often when you actually got the contract breakdown and it and his happened a couple days ago or at least 24 hours ago that we have it, It never was $62 million, apparently.

And it looks like really team friendly. I think the Cowboys did a smart deal here. A $10 million signing bonus. He gets about $23 million in the first two years of the deal. So two for $23. I know he's coming off an injury. And then after that, the numbers are like comically low, whereas if he's a really good receiver,

he's going to be itching to get a pay bump because he's getting paid under $10 million a year for the next three years for a guy I definitely would take over. Christian Kirk, not to keep using Christian Kirk as the guy, but that, I think this is, this was a nice bit of business, and it made sense for significantly less than keeping Cooper would have been. And that, that makes sense to me. Which I think it's what they wanted to do. They sounded like they had cooled on Cooper, so check you later. And it sounds like DeMarcus Lawrence is going to end up staying with the Cowboys. So even though they've come in with a lot of problems and I want to see how

this all shakes out, if I was a Cowboys fan, I feel like so far so good. I haven't, and nothing would be bothering me too much about their offseason. You could say, because he is coming up a lot, but his contract is kind of, you could say we're dealing with a flashpoint colon, Christian Kirk scenario on day one of the legal

tampering period. I don't think so. He's just that guy that got like $5 million too much per year. But what is that really affecting my life? None of this affects our lives. Or even the NFL's life. The flashpoint is that within a

Fortnite, that player is under an extreme duress. This player has just been locked up Christian Kirk into a contract that we're good. You know what he reminds me of is like last year because... Extreme duress. Last year because, you know, maybe the idea is like your credit, all these guys are getting paid more than their value or whatever. Like compare the Christian Kirk contract to Corey Davis, for instance. Corey Davis is a real number two.

I think he's got his issue. Like, he's not the perfect player. He's not always the most durable player. but, like, he is a real number two. And you look at his contract compared to Kirk's, it's a steal. So the price tag went up a lot this year because of the cap. All right, let's take one more break and then we're going to finish out the show. All right, we're back.

It is time to hit the rest of the news here as we finish up day one of the legal tampering period. The Bengals, the reigning AFC champions, busy, busy, busy. Okay, so we'll start defensive line. They re-signed B.J. Hill to a three-year, $30 million contract. So they are fortifying that line and making sure a solid player doesn't get away. Now, that offensive line. That's where we talked about it with our new friend, Duke Tobin at the Combine, said, come on, dude, we got to fix this offensive line.

And he's like, oh, we like our offensive line. No, you don't like your offensive line. Because you just went out and signed Ted Carris and also Alex Kappa to multi-year deals. So you kind of remade the interior of your offensive line handing out a lot of money. Now, Gregie, going back to the tweet, it is the one. It was the infamous one now at this point where I said this guy gets it with the arrow up. But I thought, oh, actually, it wasn't even that. It was the point that someone else threw to me when I said I like the Jets Guard signing.

They're like, Greg doesn't like these signings. So you shouldn't like it. That's not what I was. It's Greg's moment. It's your time to shine. But tell us why this tells us more about Cincinnati than perhaps they'd like you to know. Well, because Zach Taylor and their offensive coaching staff is the main reason their offensive line has been poor the last three years, I believe. You should be able to develop an average offensive line with the resources that they put in there between money and draft picks, and they haven't.

They've kind of been a nightmare, and that's coaching. And Zach Taylor has shown no ability to fix that. So now you're signing these guys. And the Keras deal isn't that expensive. The Alex Kappa deal is certainly a lot more. You're signing guys who are the other teams' is, you know, forgotten piece that they don't really need to keep. Karris has been freely available the last couple of years from the Patriots and the Dolphins as just like kind of a leftover sixth or seventh offensive lineman. And when the Patriots put him in, he's good because they're good coaching staff.

Alex Kappa at one point was certainly the weakest member of the Bucks's offensive line, but they have a great offensive line. They're good at developing. It was like a mid-round pick. They were never going to pay this money to him. But for the Bengals, it's like you kind of have to because you feel like you don't actually know how to coach up the team. Well, like, so at least, at least they acknowledge that. They're not going to tell us that. And I don't think that the offensive line coaching staff is walking around the building thinking, like, we're frauds.

We don't actually know what we're doing at some point. Someone's going to figure that out. But the results suggest that. And like Hakeem Adenegi was like a city villain by the end of last season at guard. So they might not be done either. Well, they had to address it. Alex Kappa, the one thing, like, you know, I don't know Alex Kappa personally, but on Twitter over and over people were saying this dude is like a white knuckle, total badass.

And maybe that helps Cincinnati because whether these work or not, you have to show Joe Burrow, because he's certainly not in the category of discontent quarterback, but it is important this offseason that they pour more resources into the line no matter what happened in the past, because that was a huge narrative for them a year ago. Right. They're probably going to sign more players in free agency. on the offensive line or at least the draft. I like the B.J. Hill move, though.

Trust the guy that you see on your team that made a huge impact. They traded for him, and that was a steal from the Giants, and he was great. Spice Rack was texting me. They got to keep B.J. Hill this morning. And minutes later, B.J. Hill is back. So the Spicerack got his wish. And Larry Ogunjobie ends up going to the Bears for, like, way more money.

And B.J. Hill was certainly better than Larry Ogon Joby was for the Bengals. So Spice Rack, he had not. Not asked, but demanded to be involved with our Super Bowl programming run-up. Did he ever circle back with his disappointment? He didn't, but I brought it up when I remembered a couple weeks later. And he seems like he took it in stride. I think he was disappointed in the moment, but understood. And I think he would love to be on the show in the future.

What role was he? We were live on set. I would have loved to have him, but what role was he hoping to play? We just forgot about it. We could have made it happen. Dan, yeah, Dan immediately texted back basically like, hey, fuck you, Greg. Except he said that to fuck you, a spice rack? I did not.

I did not. But I will say that in general with spice rack, Greg, you're largely bulletproof. So I'm assuming he just thinks I did it to him. But since it was a text to you largely, you could have made it happen. What do you mean? It was to our whole group and you immediately responded like, nah. Well, I did not say no. And I took no responsibility on any level of it.

And like you guys, I bet it probably wasn't for, like we saw the text and then you get into the Super Bowl week. And if I had remembered, I would have circled back. It shows like three hours long, but I want to see. I would circle back and maybe push for it. But I just forgot about it. We'll have them during draft season. Spicey draft coverage has been a staple of this program. I demand that a long time.

I think that was where this conversation came back up was like, we got to have you on again. as he had some college takes. That's good. All right, let's move on. I mean, he was a lifelong Bengals fan and continues to be one, so I understand the motivation, Super Bowl week. You could have spoke up to.

I don't even remember seeing the text, so it's like everything is a haze. I couldn't tell you what happened yesterday at 2 p.m. So I totally, I absolve myself of any responsibility. Here it is. Here's the text exchange.

This is after the AFC championship victory. Demanding 30-minute segment on Bengals slash West between now and Super Bowl 56 or delete my contact info. This was sent to Mark, Greg, myself, and Erica. Then he follows up with the gauntlet's been thrown to quote Norman Dale, I love you guys. And then one minute later, I replied,

we can promise you the Bengals will get extensive coverage across the next two weeks. Yeah, that's a nah. That's a, I just. Yeah, but that's not an FU either. I think it is. Then there's my text that says, excellent idea, Spicerack.

And then he wrote, delete me, been real. Yeah, see, he read it as I would. I mean, let's be real. He just asked for a spot on the show. And Greg and full Pollyanna, it's Spicey's world. We just live in it now. That's not Polly yet.

What are you even talking about? Well, you're snowing him under a bit. And then I wrote the spice rack is fully stocked. Mark doesn't, oh, finally Mark just quote, spicy, you say. You just say spicy. I'm acknowledging that he's, that his existence in a matter of situation. Mark and he's a driven snow over there. He's always Switzerland.

like these situations. They're just going to stay out of it. If I were to say I demand spice rat comes on the show, would it happen? Absolutely. No one would care at all. So what do you want me to tell you? I think he will be part of the coverage down the road. Have a nice time.

Would you like him to be on the show in the near future? Next episode. Then it will happen. There you go. Well, see, that then he got what he wanted. Get on the horn. Just work out the schematics. No, I'm not doing any work around it. All right. There you go.

The Jets also do some business on their interior line. And Lakin Tomlinson, formerly of the Niners, gets three years and $40 million, $27 million guaranteed. So that fills a void on their line. The Jets offensive line is very interesting because George Fant, that turned out to be a really good move getting Fanned, who was rock solid at left tackle last year. Elijah Vera Tucker was their guard. They moved up to Draft last year. They're very happy with him and where his development is at. Connor McGovern is fine at center.

Now you have Blake and Tomlinson, who is a scheme match and a guy that thrives and run blocking. That's a nice fit for them there. And then there's Mackay Beckton. That's the whole thing. Like, what is Beckton's deal? Is Mackay Beckton going to realize this potential and be healthy next year? Or is this a guy that's already fading from the team's plans? We'll know after the first round of the draft in April because if they use a premium draft pick,

it's because they think Beckton is a washout or is heading that way. keep an eye on that situation. I love that the coaching staff, they already know Lakin Tomlinson. He hasn't missed a start in like half a decade. I mean, he was a mess for the Lions when he got drafted, but it's a good signing for the Jets. It's another team that's poured a lot of resources

in free agency, into the O line. It's not always worked, but they're getting closer, and that needs to be the case for Zach Wilson. How do you think their line was last year? It was not bad. It wasn't great. It wasn't great, but it wasn't. They needed to get better.

This is a big area need at, guard so you get you take care of that and yeah you need you really need uh beckton to step up on if they don't think he can if they don't think he has what it takes to do that they have to replace them and that's a waste of resources when you have so many holes on your roster is there a spicy race between mike lefleur and mike macdanyl to prove which one of these can actually run shanahan's offense with more execution and precision well there there might be a race for the same players. I think this happened with the Belichick disciples and may explain why Lake and Thompson

got so much money. Like, we don't know if the dolphins were in on it, but we know multiple teams were to get at that, to get it that high. This is where the person who tweeted at you saying like, who trying to make a point, you know, needs more subtlety. It's hard to explain it all in 140 characters or 280 on Twitter. Sure. In a perfect world, you want to be the 49ers who are the car wash, who takes

Lakin Tomlinson for nothing when the entire league could have had him for like a late round pick swap and turn them into a $40 million player and get him in his prime. They do that on the defensive line too. That would be ideal. It's hard to do that. Hopefully Lincoln Tomlinson, you know, is as bulletproof as they think he is. He seems like it. I mean, he's been great as he missed a start.

He's a great run blocker, but you're definitely paying for it. You're definitely paying for that you haven't been able to develop a guard the last couple of years. Douglas under pressure. He is under pressure. The last two years, they've built, rebuilt the offensive line using the draft and free agency. They're trying to get that thing figured out. We'll see.

They also re-signed Braxton Berrios, which I really liked that move because he broke out last year. It was a really good slot guy, gadget guy, a special team's ace. Develop your guys, keep him in the building and see if they can take the next step. Let's see, Jason Kelsey back with the Eagles. Dolphins bring back Agba. How about this? Let's hit 8 o'clock to light.

We've run out of time. Well, wait. There was an updated one. Do 8 o'clock to light. Oh, we've got some developing news. All right. A couple of them. Deshawn Watson is meeting on Monday night with the Saints and Panthers.

I just thought it would be good to get that into the show that we know the meetings are happening so that could move along. Also, Evan Ingram is joining the Jaguars parade on a one-year fully guaranteed $9 million contract, a prove-it deal. All right. I like that. One-year. While he gets some nice scratch, but another weapon for Lawrence to throw. That was not an out of control contract for the Jaguars.

No, I like these moves. Is he the new Jared Cook, like a toulsy guy that makes big plays every once in a while, but just kind of drives you crazy for never reaching his full potential in the eyes of many? Lines up. I think that's a good comparison. At this point, he wants to be Cook. He hasn't been as reliable.

At least Cook is like, you know, he's 600 yards every single season. And Ingram, I feel like, is never healthy. If he was healthy, I think it'd be great. All right, let's hit it. 8 o'clock to light. Oh, Sterling Shepard returns to the Giants. So he sticks in-house. The bill signed Roger Saffold, re-signed Mitch Morris, and Isaiah McKenzie.

Devin McCourtney is back with the Patriots. Any thoughts on those, gentlemen? Sterling Shepard is the longest-tenured giant. How weird is. Very weird. I like Isaiah McKenzie. I think Cole Beasley is out of town. They swapped Daryl Williams for Saffled, by the way.

They got rid of their starter in Buffalo, Darrell Williams, which is interesting, signed Saffled. Good run blocker. So it looks like a changing of the guard for the ramps because Joe, no boom, gets a nice contract to stick with the Rams. That means retirement seems to be imminent for Andrew Whitworth. Andrew Whitworth, Mark, good job. Seahawks have a very expensive safety room.

In addition to Jamal Diggs, Quadrae Diggs, gets the bag. He gets re-signed. also just as re-signed Jones. Sidney Jones and Will Disley as well. And Out Woods, a beefy defensive tackle. It is very Pete Carroll to spend

like an incredible amount of money on two safeties in the year 2020. Titans bring back Ben Jones and the Lions re-signed Tim Boyle and Tracy Walker. Oh yeah. That was the day that was at least through 547 p.m. Eastern on Monday.

Any closing thoughts? On day one, Mark? I do not. There's going to be a cloud of smoke and Mark in his car in about 37 seconds. That's my prediction. No, I think we did a good job. I think we covered it. We'll be posting every day this week.

The report from, I guess my final thought would be one report from the New York Post that said that the state of New York in Erie County have agreed to pay a billion dollars towards a new Bill's Stadium. The bills aren't going anywhere. Good. Yeah. That's good. I don't know if billionaires really need government to be spending a billion dollars

for them right now. That could have let our show tomorrow, but that's okay. The Joe Buck, bombshell. We can save that for a media talk. Yeah, but good for the bills. What's up? Reggie Wayne will be the new wide receivers coach for the Colts. Good for Reggie.

Former colleague here. I never had a conversation with him. I know that if he saw us, Just walking down the street. No. Would he refer to us as former colleagues? I can't say, got out of my way. I wouldn't, yeah, I wouldn't assume.

Greg presumes he would refer to Greg that way. No. I mean, talking about myself. I don't think I ever spoke with the man or saw the man even maybe. So while he was a former colleague. So maybe some legendary wide receivers of the aughts, you have a connection with him. Right. And he's like, hey, Greg.

Hey, I'm going to miss working with you, buddy. But this is a great opportunity for me. You're like absolutely red, your royalty up there in Indy, so good luck to you. Thanks, Greg. How are the kids? How's the wife? Awesome, bro. How's yours?

Amazing. We're so blessed. Yeah, same same. Hey, catch you later. Remember that story you told about you and Ed Reed? Rovates in college with a snake and everything? That was great. All right.

All right. Anything else? Thanks to everybody behind the glass, you know? Because you could be on an island paradise vacation right now, and yet you choose to be a the office during the busiest week of the year. It's very admirable. So then we respect you for it. All right, we'll be back Tuesday.

So make sure you are here because there's so much more that will happen between literally six huge things will happen in 10 minutes and we'll be mad. But then we'll talk about it on tomorrow's show. So be there for that. Thanks for listening. Happy New Year. Heat the call. I'm going to be able to be.

Thank you.