NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 40s and Free Agents: Free Agency Fallout - How Moves Will Impact The 2026 NFL Draft

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

On this episode of 40s and Free Agents, Daniel Jeremiah and Gregg Rosenthal break down the biggest moves from a wild free agency and explain what they mean for the 2026 NFL Draft. Which teams filled their biggest needs? Which holes are still wide open heading into draft season? And how could these signings shift the demand for key positions like edge rusher and interior offensive line? If you’re tracking the road to the 2026 NFL Draft, this episode will help you understand how free agency is already reshaping draft boards across the league.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to 40s and Free Agents presented by Toyota. It's my time of the year. It's Free Agency Week, and I'm here with my friend Daniel Jeremiah. We got a sponsor DJ and we got a lot of signings to talk about. Free Agency already almost feels over. Yeah.

This is a wild week, man. Fun. And I think in a year where we thought, okay, and you had talked about it as well, Like it's a solid group, but maybe not quite as much sizzle as we've had in some other years. And then next thing you know, it got a little funky and a little wild later on in the week. I think there could, yeah, with the Max Crosby and Trey Hendrickson. And I also think there could be traits to come. So I say free agency feels over.

And I just mean more of the top of my list. I mean, if we're doing winners and losers for the week, I think the winners is the top 101 list by yours truly on NFL.com. 40 of the top 42 players are off the board. And that was true literally before the technical league year started. The only two out of the top 42 that are even still available, Kyler Murray, who is visiting the Vikings on Thursday. We're taping Thursday morning. And Rashid Walker, the tackle the Packers,

who frankly, I wish I had ranked a little bit lower. Because I think the league maybe agreed with me. I thought he was going to get too much money. And he's still sitting out there. So he's a little bit of a surprise at a position where there weren't many players available. Basically all the top players got taken off the board almost right away. All right. Well, well done. Well done, buddy. I'm glad to see that. Have you had a year? How many years have you been doing this? Since 2015, 14. So whatever. Who is it? Who was it? Like Brandon Cooks?

Who is it? No, no, no, no, no. Don't tell me. Don't tell me. Don't tell me. Don't tell me. Don't tell me. It was Cooper, right? Last year. Yeah. Just sat out there all off season. And they were still putting my top 101 during the pre-year. It was a super. It was a lot. I'm just sat there. I was just one. And they were still putting my top 101 during the season football games that Cooper is the city out there, the number 10 player. That killed me. We avoided that. Let's start thinking about, you know, this is the show about free agency and the draft. So we'll talk about both. But maybe how free agency decisions will impact, like, what teams are looking for in the draft. So I'll just go through a few different trends that happened early in free agency. I'm going to start with the edge rusher just because that's where

the most money went. You know, the Trey Hendrickson saga was fascinating. He ends up getting, you know, close to $30 million from the Ravens, but Jalen Phillips gets $120 million from the Panthers, four years for him. Almost half of that's guaranteed. Adafioa gets $68 million guaranteed on $100 million contract from the commanders. Boy, Mothi gets $20 million a year. Quitty pay gets $16 million a year. They kind of went in order of how good they are.

And you tell me where you think maybe this could impact some of the teams in, in the draft. Well, I think, you know, the goal in free agency, most teams always say the same thing, which is we don't want to have a gun to our head at the draft where we have a absolute 100% need at a premier position that boxes us in where we feel like we've got to reach for guys or we've got to be too aggressive in trade. So you want to take care of that. But I also think that the recent trend, which we've been talking about, which is having waves of guys. And it's like, okay, we have the space. We have the money. Where's the best place we can spend it? We'll get an edge rush. That doesn't necessarily take us out of the edge rusher market in the draft.

You know, we want, there's more. We want to continue to add and fill out those rooms. So, you know, there's a lot of things that happen in free agency that I think inform what goes on in the draft. I don't know that edge rusher is one of them. I don't think that the teams that did that take them out of there. Yeah. How about the commanders at seven? You know, that's an interesting spot for an edge rusher.

Are the top guys off the board there? The fact that they played Oway Chase on, they actually brought back. Dichikwise. They still have Dorence Armstrong. Maybe that doesn't prevent them from getting an edge rusher, but man, they just spent a lot of money at that position. Chason is kind of a short-term guy there, but at least they feel like they don't need to if the right guy doesn't fall to them. Yeah, so they got a Menehu too, right? So it was Oway, Chase-on. He was so bad last year for the chiefs, you know. No offense to Menehu if he's listening. I know he's a big fan of mine. They brought back Tim Settled. So they signed four D-Sachson.

lineman to go along with titric wise too chase on got $12 million I was actually pleasantly surprised that he got a nice one year deal so I thought maybe that changes and then you have the Ravens now have the 14th

overall pick back again I already know how that's going down I already know how that's going down let me just give you Ravens 101 yeah Ravens 101 is miraculously what you need and the player that has no business being there

I've already just write it in. Ruben Bain is going to, everybody's going to kill Ruben Bayne on the arms. And the Ravens, if you think about it, like, and we can get into a longer discussion on the Ravens, if you'd like. But that defense, having seen Jesse Menor's defense up close and personal, they require firm edge setters.

So you had Mack and Tully last year. And then Oway was the fastball you could throw in there when he came over. And that worked beautifully. But you've got to earn the opportunity to rush the pastor. Second one doesn't help anybody. And Hendrickson, is flimsy against the run. He's not a firm edge setter at all. So that is a major need. Think back to all the Great Ravens defenses. You can go way back

and then you can find the McPhese and the Judans and, you know, all the way through. The Bud Dupreys, these guys are all strong, square point of attack players. And who is that guy in this draft? Who would be the one guy who would fill that void that they have desperately? It would be Ruben Bain. But they were willing to give up that 14th pick. I thought in part, well, obviously, because Max Crosby is a unique talent, and then they get the look at the knee and they aren't feeling great about it. But I also thought it was because maybe they looked at this draft and thought after Ruben Bain, we're not really excited about the edges that we could potentially get, and he's

probably going to go before us. But you're just saying the magic Ravens. Pixie dust. It just fall. It just happens. They just falls in their lap and you go, how the heck did this happen? Look, the Eagles are the same. The Eagles have had similar fortune where it's just kind of married up and those guys kind of are there. Now, do you ever think that the Ravens magic pixie dust sprinkled on you? Now, on one hand, you could say, you know, you went to Cleveland after that, not as much pixie dust there. But after that, here you are getting to host a podcast with me.

You're a big time star on NFL network. Maybe that pixie dust just took a little while for them to kick in. I would just say this. I left the Ravens, and then it was a few years after that, a handful of years can remember the exact number. they won the Super Bowl, okay? Okay. Then when I'm in Philly, there for a couple years,

a few years after that, they win the Super Bowl. So what I'm telling you is, in a couple years after I bail on this podcast and think that this thing's going nowhere, you might win whatever a podcast award is. I don't know what they call those things, but you might be in line to win one of those things. We did go to an I-Heart awards

that we were nominated for around the NFL ones. And then when we went to the, the award ceremony, they had a special blocked off parts for different posts. And we just figured since we were nominated, we could go to that. We tried to get into that. And they actually stopped us. They were like, no, that's Shannon Sharps. That's his booth.

He won the award. Whoa. Well, now this is a Golden Globe, right? You can get podcasts for a Golden Globe. So 40s and free agents with Greg Rosenthal and Lance Zerline wins the Golden Globe in 2028. That's what I'm saying. I like the Maffey move for Cincinnati. They need more. All these teams, it's funny because they got something and they probably still feel like

they need more. I was talking to, you know, Baldi about the Jalen Phillips move. He was a little surprised that Phillips got that much money, but that's what happens in Free Agency. If you're right age. That was a result of last year, you remember. I mean, that was Milton Williams, and it was close, and it was Carolina in New England, and Carolina lost a former Philly defensive the lineman that they were in love with and they watched the proof of concept of him go to new england make a massive difference and it was like okay that's the kind of that's the kind of defense we want to be in and play and this kids come out of the same place they love them there we're

bidding against the eagles we're not going to lose we if we have to overpay we'll overpay and they did so on the interior offensive line you could argue the raiders overpaid for tyler linderb argue okay there's no argument i mean that that's been the number one thing i've got It's hilarious to me. And I've been warding off. I've been defending the Raiders on this. But I've got how in the world do you reset the market by $9 million or whatever it was? Like insane jump above everything.

Like why did they pay that much? And then one person brought up the comment and said, that's going to be a nightmare in their locker room to have overpaid that much. And I said, no, that's the luxury not having any good players. Who's going to complain about it? Colton Miller's the only one. Like that's the only one who could be like, hey, I want. want to redo my deal. Like this is, you know, this is not right. This is the center, blah, blah, blah. But like they have all this money. There's rules in place we have to spend, you know,

up to the up to the percentage of the cap. So they needed to spend it. And they were like, who helps us the most? This guy. Okay, well, just whatever we got to do to get them. Let's get them. I get it. I also think centers were just crazily underpaid. It's one of the big picture things I've liked out of this free agency crap. The offball linebackers, safety's running backs and an interior offensive lineman who are kind of the lesser positions because of that they're the ones that actually got to free agency and yeah for once the safeties actually got paid and in this case the center got paid is it really that crazy let's say linderbom is a top five center let's just accept yeah as a as part of this is it really that crazy that he would get the same amount

of money as the top cards in the league and like a and you know maybe the same as like the seventh best tackle. That seems normal. That seems, we say how important centers are. Just because the NFL had successfully like cost controlled the position doesn't mean it's not valuable. Aren't centers valuable? I don't get it. Yeah, I think, and especially so with a young quarterback. And I think that's what was baked into it. I think that's baked into the overpay is that we're going to take a little bit off of the plate of the quarterback in terms of the communication, the identification, all that could be, you know, stored up in your brain. We're going to take some of that load off of, Mendoza and we can put it on Lenderbom. So I mean, I get it. I 100% get it. But trust me,

there were people around the league that were flabbergasted that they went to that number. Yeah. And it sounded like the Ravens were in, but they wanted to go four years. And it was pretty significantly less money. That's the other part of it, Greg. Like he's three years. He's right back. He's going to crush it for three years and be right back in the market. It's a great move because if this Raiders, Dallions doesn't work, he can do what like Raiders coaches do, except he'll be doing it voluntarily, just leave and try to get to a better situation right afterwards. No question. But that's off to, I don't know who his agent is, but that was the, by far, the best player contract of this cycle.

Well, that's because, you know, teams get mad about that because now they're going to have to pay their centers more. Yeah. You know. Of course, yeah. Miami with Aaron Brewer and at some point, Kansas City. It was Neil Cornridge, by the way. And there's, Neil Cornridge has had a lot of Iowa guys over the years. So there's a couple agents that have the, like, certain schools.

they're attached to and he's been an Iowa guy. So congrats to Neil Cornrich. Nice job. Good job by him. And he was one of many Linderbaum that is interior guys who got paid. Elijah Vera Tucker, who it, I'm really glad I put high on my list because I think he's a great player. I knew he'd be a risk. I thought he might have to take a one year prove it deal, but he gets $21 million guaranteed three years, $42 million. Zion Johnson, you called that three years, 49.5 million and by you called that, you just thought he would get good money. Yeah. And I put him, a little higher on my list, partly because of that. And the rest of the NFL was very surprised,

but on 40s and free agents, we were not surprised. Connor McGovern, the center gets $18 million a year to stay with the Buffalo bills. So it was a position. I think teams saw there's only so many real deal starters, maybe plus starters available, and they got paid really good money. Can I, I want to do an exercise. So I think this is proven that if you have the stomach for it,

it's always best to get to the market. So Greg Rosenthal's a football player in another lifetime here. And you're going to have somebody put a good chunk of money in front of your face. You're on the team. You've got a year left on your deal. Is Greg Rosenthal more likely to take that, you know, got it right now, not worried about injury? Are you a bet on yourself? Let's get to the free agent market and cash in.

I don't like the way that you're setting up, but I am not waiting to get to free agency. I know myself. I'm taking it. I might take it too early. I might be like Rob Grunkowski. They gave him the earliest contract pot. And it's just like, this seems like enough. I'm just going to take it and not take any risk because it'll change my life either way.

Time value of money. You're playing that game. We're just going to take the money now and get it invested right now, try and offset the money. To me, it's a very human thing. I think the fact that these guys get to free agencies, it's a lot of times not betting on themselves. It's just the teams weren't betting on them. They get there almost by mistake. fake. If the Colts thought Alec Pierce was going to cost this much money, they would have just signed

them a year ago. But they didn't really, you know, value them. And I don't think the Chargers, for instance, valued Zion Johnson. Speaking of the Chargers, their fans are freaking out. Really? I don't know if you know this about the lack of activity. I think they've signed a lot of guys, which is crazy to me. They signed Tyler Beaudish at Center. Yeah, which is an upgrade. Strange got a lot of money. You asked me before the show. Who were you surprised about in terms of what they got money? Cole Strange getting a lot of money from the charges was a little surprising.

But I think they wanted more activity of these interior offensive linemen that they're not doing enough. But I think they're kind of counting on the scheme to take care of a lot of that. And they got two great tackles. Yeah. They got two great tackles. And I thought it was important that they invest in a swing tackle just as insurance. They bring Trey Pipkins back. Who, again, Trey Pipkins, if you think out.

from a scouting standpoint was a small school player. So he's 29 years old now. He's been in the league for a while. It's all been with the Chargers under some different regimes. But I don't necessarily think that, you know, it's like a 29-year-old who came out Alabama and he kind of always is who he's going to be. You know, I think that there's, you know, if you look at what he was as a younger player, he's continued to get better and is definitely a serviceable functional third tackle,

which is necessary for them to have that kind of depth. And then I was looking at what else did they have here? So with Cole Strange, Beiotish is a starter. You get penning. They bring penning back on an affordable deal. I think in a perfect world, and I know they gave Strange some money, but I think in a perfect world, you probably get one more free agent and draft one. And then you just have a ton of depth and you have some healthy competition there amongst those two guard spots.

So I do think that Strange, you know, it is interesting. He has not lived up to where he was selected. you know from following the pads closely as you do. But he still has first round pedigree, even though it was a shock, especially to the Rams, that he was a first round player. And clearly Mike McDaniel agrees. He had him in Miami last year. And I always thought it was just staying healthy with the Patriots. Like he looked like an NFL player. He just didn't stay up. So if you look at like Penning, I think Penning is 26 years old was a first round pick. Cole Strange, I think is maybe 27 was a first round pick. Like they have some pedigree. And in a perfect world, neither one of them

start and you've got two first round like there's a lot two first round tackles there's a lot of you know guys who came into this league with with pedigree although and they're young it's not like these guys are 33 34 years old and they also gave charlie colar who's a blocking tight end but he can catch two million dollars guaranteed on a three year 24 million dollar contract a guy i was glad to end up boosting and he got into my top 70 in the end he got almost as much money per year as Chigokanquo and KDOT and who I really liked and Isaiah likely who are more kind of do everything type tight ends. Yeah, but it's harder to find what he does.

It's harder to find the blocker. It shows to me that he had a really good market because that number does not get that high unless probably Baltimore and some other teams out there. Maybe it was the Giants we're going for. I wonder, you know, I don't know, I'm just looking at their roster, but the fact that they go out and they sign a really good fullback and you pay a fullback in Alec Ingold. You've got Scott Matlock, who's more obviously 300 pounds. It's more the Ravens way, you know, the Ravens offense, which is not going to look anything like Mike McDaniel's offense.

I wonder if there are people would call on him, you know, if you want to be a heavy team and you want to, you know, run gap runs and, you know, you would value someone like Matt, like who also can't play detackle, like he is a roster saver. Yeah. I now look at other teams like taking. players near the top of the draft. So the Titans went crazy in free agency, signing so many different defensive players, former giants. You know, they traded for Jermaine Johnson and they give Wondell Robinson a bunch of money. They bring in Cordell Flot and Alante Taylor. Alante Taylor got more guaranteed money or more total money than I think any free agent cornerback in history, which is insane. Franklin Myers gets a good contract there. Does that,

inform what you think they are doing at number four overall? I think they have to do something to help their quarterback. I see all the activity. I'm looking at all their guys, just from a new starter standpoint on defense with Jermaine Johnson, John Franklin Myers, Correille Flot, Alante Taylor, that's a lot of pieces they've added there that on offense, Wondale, you mentioned,

Schlotman at center, but right now they don't even have a right guard. And you're looking at the receiver position. Okay, I like Wondale. I don't know what's going to go on with Ridley. you got a couple intriguing guys from last year's class with D.K. and I.O. Manor. But to me, you got to do something for Cam Ward. Couldn't that be Jeremiah Love, though? Couldn't that be Jeremiah Love?

100%. It puts him in that mix. I think that's what I'm saying. You're looking at Jeremiah Love. You're looking at Cornell Tate. You know, somebody like help him out. Like I think they added a lot of good players. I prefer, and we've talked about this, but I prefer when you've got a young quarterback in free agency. Let's just load up the offense. Let's get veteran guys that are going to help our young quarterback out. And then I'd rather, you know, add some pieces to the draft on the defensive side of the ball if you need to. So Kansas City's picking at seven.

They get Kenneth Walker. You would think that that kind of crosses them out for Jeremiah, I love, should he fall to that far. They basically lose their entire secondary, like, you know, Jalen Watson and Brian Cook and they trade away McDuffie. but they're a team that's, you know, always drafted in the middle rounds of the secondary, and it's worked for them. So does that kind of change what you think about where they might be looking at number seven? Yeah, to me, they're a trade-down candidate. I mean, that's where I've been kind of throwing this theory that I have out on that one,

which is if you are, and it might be, it's far to travel for Minnesota, but, man, Jeremiah I love with Minnesota would be a lot of fun, especially with Kyler Murray, you know, as we're recording this, I don't think that's done yet, but it sounds like that's where we're headed. That would be fun. But then also, if you were the Rams and you think about the Rams last year's team and how close they came, drop punt, we all know the story, if you took that Rams team and I told you that same team, all of a sudden you get Trent McDuffie and Jeremiah Love on that

team, you think they win that game in Seattle? I mean, that would be fun. I like Cairo Williams, but that's, get a little respect. Kyra Williams is a good player, but that's, I mean, I think two years, ago, I remember looking at it. It was yards over expected. I think he was zero. It was literally zero. And this is a dynamic player, as much movement as they get with their

offensive line. Like that would be home run city, which are my love. And it would be a call back to Todd Gurley and when they first got going there with McVeigh. The chiefs are part of an AFC trend, which the superpowers with the best quarterbacks, in Ravens, Bill's Chiefs over the last few years, they got a lot of roster holes. They got a lot to fill, I feel like, in free agency. That's why to me, doesn't trade back make sense with them? Yeah, I agree.

The Jets are a team that went crazy on day one of free agency. After 48 hours of getting used to it, I maybe don't hate it as much as before. I know they needed players, but to get older and slower with On Yamada and DeMario Davis, even Anagbari, who's not old, is not a dynamic fast player, Mink of Fitzpatrick. It seems like what are we doing here, really, if you're not. the Jets, but especially at least they filled in their defense. They needed players. They need offense, don't you think, at the top of this draft? They have four picks in the top 44 overall. They got Gino Smith. So quarterback's good for the next five years or so. You get a top 10

quarterback. But after that, I think you need some help around Gina. You want a dated analogy to just make myself look old, sound old. This is free agency is like you could go to Barnes and Noble and buy a book and have it for a lifetime. And the Jets drove right by Barnes and Noble and went and got their library card. And we're like, you know, we'll just check this book out. We'll return it in a couple weeks, but we want to, we'll read it and then we'll just bring it right back. That was free agency for them. It was a library card. Why is that dated? Why is that dated? I don't know if anybody goes to the library anymore, Greg. Come to the Rosenthal family. We got L.A. County Library cards. We got Santa Monica library cards. We got L.A. Public Library cards. This is how you help your,

your children develop a love for reading, which their parents show, be the example for them. And we're hitting up Barnes & Noble plenty, too. Reading's a good time. Yeah. It makes you a better list or too. You know what? They also have this thing called Amazon, and you can actually order the book and it shows up on your doorstep. Sure.

But it's fun if you actually like books to kind of look at all the different books. It's a good experience. I know you weren't listening to me closely because you just let it slide by that. I said at quarterback, they got a top 10 guy for the next five years now. Oh, Gino. I assumed you were talking about the quarterback they were going to take in the draft in 2027. So that's what I was assuming because they're already positioned for that. They really do need a lot of help around them. Although I kind of forgot A.D. Mitchell was there.

I don't hate A.D. Mitchell as a three behind Garrett Wilson and a two to be named later. And then you got Mason Taylor and Brees-Halt. It's not a terrible group. It's not a terrible group. The interesting thing with them is like if you look at it for being a bad team. Yeah. Most times you look at a bad team and you'll see a horrible offensive. line. Yeah. I actually kind of like their offensive line. Yeah. What they have. They were in on Tucker though. And I think that one hurt for them. I have a feeling they expected to get him back. And

it's the reason his price went up so much. I think there were multiple teams from what I heard that kind of looked at Vera Tucker and thought, well, we know it's an injury risk. He's missed three of the last four years basically. But he's possibly the best player. So he quickly got out of that. I have to sign a prove it deal and ended up having three or four teams really bidding him up. I know the Jets were one of them. I know the Giants and the Browns were also in on that. Wow. See, so, and it sounded like he was, he just thought, it's been bad juju with the Jets.

I'm going to get out of here. All right, let's take a break, and we'll talk on the other side about some of the best players still available, and then what teams help themselves the most in free agency. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now got my own show. If you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join. us each week. Film Never Lies available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app.

Back on the 40s and free agents, where half the podcast is literate, you know, supports. The library's great. It's amazing that libraries even exist. All this free stuff they're giving you. Let me just tell you, let me just tell you that'll something that'll put you this whole thing to rest about me in the library. So as a kid, we used to go with my mom, and I remember it was a thing where she would reward us. My mom was very much into incentive clauses in our contract. So it was like if you could read X number of books over the summer, you could maybe go whatever,

get ice cream or whatever you could do as a little kid. I distinctly remember being about, I don't know, 11, 12 years old. And the book that I checked out, I went in the sports section, as I always did, I wanted a sports book. I read a book by Jerry Mark Bright, NFL official, the life of an NFL official. It's like a 12-year-old.

I literally, I don't know if that's, thing it's ever been checked out before or after, but I did check out a Jerry Mark Bright NFL official book. And I read it from cover to cover, Greg. It's like a 12 year old. I will look for it. Walker, my son is very into the football books, has checked out a lot of them. I bet you would dig a little Mark Bright. So maybe we can be the second person. Let's make it time for all in, presented by Toyota, talk about some of the teams that went all in during free agency. We already talked about the Titans, they spent $293 million in total contracts during the first three days. The Raiders are next at 281, and that does not count the Max Crosby money.

I mean, someone had a great line of just like, you know, I know it feels weird for a rebuilding team, but trading two firsts for Max Crosby by the Raiders, I actually like this roster next year. What do you think that this defense is going to look like, like, yeah? I like what the Raiders did. Which moves did you like out of the ones that they did? I liked a lot of the moves that they did. I'll tell you, I like the two linebackers that they brought in, former teammates. How about both of it?

When that came back to back, I was a little confused. I was like, do we really need both those guys? Yeah, but I think they've played next to each other. They know each other well, so you start with that relationship. Nikobe Dean can be the nerve center. He's going to be an awesome blitzer. You know, that's kind of his calling card there. Quay Walker's, I thought, was a little bit more of a developmental player coming into the league.

So I think there's still, you know, I think there's still time for him to continue to grow and improve. But you throw those guys in the mix. They got their college teammate Eric Stokes. So they got three guys from that Georgia defense that are all there together. Quitty Pay will be an interesting one. I have to look this up. But I think he played on the same side as Max Crosby. Max Crosby never comes off the field.

So it'll be obviously, Quitty will have to kick over to the other side. And I know the, you know, I know the metrics in the, you know, they aren't friendly to him in terms of, of win rate, pass rush, you know, win rate as well as pressure rate. But he's again, he's got first round pedigree, and he's explosive. And I think that that defense overall, it's a lot of pieces that they added.

And if you keep Max Crosby there as well, that helps. And then I can see the vision for what they're doing offensively. And I don't, you know, I think they're going to go get a veteran quarterback. That's been out there. So they're not going to have to start Mendoza at the beginning of the year,

at least take some of those hits off of him. But now you look up and you get a whole, a healthy Colton Miller. You've got Linderbaum at center. Even though that trade doesn't go through, they still have some draft capital to address if they need to, another interior lineman. They can add another receiver in a loaded draft.

I think it's got a chance to be a much improved team off of what we saw last year. I mean, shoot, they won three games last year, Greg. I mean, that's going to be much improved. The reporting is that Kirk Cousins could be going to Vegas. I don't really buy that. Kirk Cousins is starting week one over for Nana Mendoza. Did you see the chat, by the way, that Drew put in there? I do.

I was waiting for like the natural kind of segue, but I just taking me back. If any of the listeners just want to get there first, the book, Born to Referee, my Life on the Gridiron, is available at the San Diego Public Library right now by Jerry Mark Bright. Look at what it costs on Amazon. Amazon, you can get it for $2.17. That's $2 you don't need to spend it. It's just drive down. What about the gas?

Look at gas prices. Greg, the gas prices to and from the library. He's going to cost you more than $2.17. That's fair, but it's about the experience. It's about the love of the gear. Is there anybody in there when you go in there? Yes. Outside of Jason Bourne on a computer trying to like solve crime.

It's crowded. People are people are using it. There's all sorts of different fun. I mean, the LA public library, we're going way to it. It is one of the most beautiful buildings, you know, in the entire West Coast. It's an amazing, it's an amazing building. We're down there all the time. They got the big manga room for my, for my daughter.

She likes it. Let's talk about the commanders. I really like what the commanders did, especially on Wednesday. They kind of went for the second level free agents. There was actually like three straight guys that were in my 30s in my top 101. They were like three of the top five players available and they picked them off one by one. I started wondering, are they just reading off the list? It was Caleb-on-Chison, Leo Chanel,

Leo Chanel, kind of the edge rush, I mean the edge, rather linebacker, offball linebacker that can also rush the passer. Who lives in the A gap? Like just mug up the center. And then Nick Cross, who's a great run stopping safety and just kind of flies around. And so some guys who can win one-on-one matchups. And then you add Adafé O'A in there, as you call them, the fastball. Added a lot of young athleticism, Chigoconquo on the offensive side.

And an interesting transition here to Duran. who is kind of a Brian Flores disciple helping to run the defense. I'm just much more intrigued to watch what the commanders are going to look like this year compared to where I was at the end of last year. Yeah, I'm curious to see, you know, they've still got Chris Paul left guard. He's a free agent. So there's a hole there that they need to plug. What do they do at that spot? And, you know, look, Debo's going to, he's out there.

He's probably not back. You're looking at Luke McCaffrey and McLaren. Lauren, Trailing Berks they brought back, right? So maybe just a little more, a little more firepower offensively. They're another team. That's the word. The word is it's Brandon Ayuk will be at least part of that. Yeah, it's Jane Daniels, buddy.

So, yeah, that would be nice. Just hopefully his heads, his heads in a good space and come in there with his friend. And he plays well. But there are another team when you just kind of look at him and we're looking at where are the Jeremiah love spots, you know, where are the fun places that you can see him. go, you know, that's, that's an interesting one. That would make a lot of sense to me. And I could absolutely see them doing that. You know, GM and Adam Peters who saw, saw the value in having Christian McCaffrey back there in San Francisco helped, help to trade for him. And there's a big

hole there. Oh, I like that. The last, the team I'll mention, and you can throw out anyone if, if you have one, that I thought under the radar was good. I like what the Saints did. You know, David Edwards was a good pickup from Buffalo. there's a really solid guard. The Caesar Ruiz spot is still a problem to me, but otherwise, they got a pretty promising looking offensive line with those two young tackles. If you can keep Eric McCoy healthy and David Edwards,

like that's a nice foundation. Then Travis E.TN, I thought the money was solid for him. I have a feeling Alvin Camer is not going to be on this team anymore. And then Caden Ellis, coming back to New Orleans, kind of filling out that linebacker position, just three rock solid. I think guys that are going to be B plus A minuses, safe pickups, I think, in free agency. And they traded for one of the best punters in the league, which is under the radar,

but they're punting stunk. And it's just kind of an easy way to upgrade your special team. So I like what the Saints have done. Yeah. And they're out of a cap jail. How about that for those guys? Right. They're not even putting the weird void years and like doing all the cap gymnastics.

So that has to feel good. All right. Let's go to my best available. You didn't even give me a chance. I mean, you just, you just, you just, I thought that was it. I thought that was it. I thought that was your sign that you weren't saying anything. I'm looking at the different depth charts to see what other moves that I liked.

You know, let's talk about our favorite moves. And let me just tell you my favorite moves. And then let's get to the next segment. That's fun. Well, when you have kind of a non-answer answer, I thought it's just like, hey, we're over 30 minutes. I'm on the clock. I'm DJ. You know, ESPN's coming aboard.

My time is valuable. I got move the sticks right after this. I got move the sticks coming up right after this. I got nowhere to be. The, I'll tell you what, like, I was just looking at individual moves. So I always try and look at the young quarterbacks and what are they doing to help them? We talked about Tennessee,

and I thought I'd like to see a little bit more offensively there to help them. I think Juan Dale does give them some easy completion. So the Giants have a young quarterback. They lose Wondale, go out and get Isaiah likely. I think that provides some easy completions for Dart. So I like that move. And you start looking at them, you know, they're another weapon you could see. Next year.

If you looked at how Dart played last year, and then you say, okay, if we have neighbors back, and he's hopefully back to 100% health, you got Isaiah likely, and then you add another weapon piece, you know, could be with where they're picking high in the first round. It's that Carnell Tate on the outside? Are they a Jeremiah love team? A lot of Jeremiah love teams.

There's, man, that would be exciting to watch what Dart can do, new offense with all those new pieces to play with. I agree, but I also think they've had a weird offseason. And I think they've just missed on a lot of guys. Some of their ex-giants, I think they wanted to keep go to Tennessee because of the dable. And they were just in the mix for a lot of the bigger name, you know, offensive players. And you just heard them as like they were in the mix for a lot of guys and kind of did the Cowboys thing where they were just coming up a little short. So I feel like they have a big move or two to make still.

Yeah. They just seemed like they were ready. still guys out there. There's still some stuff out there. Yes, there are. You have any other favorites? I don't want to move on too fast for you. No, no. That's pretty much it. There's other teams that did some good things. I liked, you know, Carolina getting those two pieces on defense.

You know, that was definitely a need for them. Looking at some of these other teams here, anybody else. You know, look, not an easy task for Cleveland to rebuild an entire offensive line, but I like some of the pieces that they brought in there. And they are one, if you think about, you know, teams that have done things in Freedency that inform what they're going to do in the draft, the Titus Howard trade and the announcement that he's going to be the right tackle, they need a left tackle. And in this draft, the way that it goes in terms of how I stack the

players, you got a couple right tackles and a guard as the top three linemen for me. Now, it's not that there's all these top five, six guys are clumped relatively close together. So they're in the market for a left tackle. So Monroe Freeling, while I might have him as, the fourth or fifth best lineman. He's the true left tackle of the bunch. And he hasn't played a lot, but he's got it all in his body. He's super, super talented. If you think about the Andrew Thomas arc where it was not a good start,

and then he continued to get better, it was some development that needed to take place. I think you could see the exact same thing with this one with Cleveland. Taking Monroe Freeling, you know, on draft day, it's like, whoa, I did not, you know, have him rated as the sixth best best. player in the draft, but he's the left tackle. And they're in a position now where they desperately need one. And I don't think they can wait until their second first round pick. I don't think they'd have one there they'd like. They brought an Elton Jenkins to the former Packers lineman. That was one of my favorite moves in free agency. I know he's coming off some

injuries. But in terms of the level of player, you could argue he was right there with Vera Tucker as one of the best, if not the best offensive lineman available if he's healthy, versatility for the money that they got him. But between him and the injury risk and Zion Johnson, you're taking on a lot of risk. You brought back to Evan Jenkins. But yeah, it's sorry to fill an entire offensive. Yeah, that's a tough tough tough task. But I like Titus Howard. I like Titus Howard. Zion's going to be a solid functional starter. Elton Jenkins, Jenkins gives you the flexibility where you can, you know, see how the draft shakes out in terms of center guard. You can play the other spot. So I think they did a good job. So that kind of leads us to who's still available. As I mentioned, only two of the

top 40 on my list are out there. It's Kyler and it's Rashid Walker of the Packers who had at 19. After that, some interesting names in terms of wide receivers. Joanne Jennings, Stefan Diggs is out there, Debo Samuel, like some big names that sort of second level older receiver market hasn't really shook out. There are some offensive linemen out there. Wyatt Teller is still out there. Some of the guns for hire in the defensive line, like Joey Bosa, Callais Campbell, are still out there. Epinessa is still out there?

Yep. He's like a solid three. He's like a solid third guy. There are a decent amount of like guys who can come and still help your team out there. But just doing the numbers, there's only about 25 of the original 101 are still there. And a lot of them are the players like 85 to 101. So in general, you're just looking for guys to help you.

Is there anyone that kind of surprise you that's still out there? No. I mean, I think you, I mean, just waiting on Kyler. I mean, that's the big one. Goddard for the Eagles had a void in his contract extended through the end of the week, which indicates to me they're probably working on something with him. Maybe he went out, saw his market. He's still a free agent.

It probably wasn't, you know, massive money. and now he might be returning to Philadelphia. So that surprises me because I thought that was going to change. I thought Rashad White was going to get snapped up. It was really interesting. My top five running backs were gone within like three hours of free agency started. Like it was actually the position. And they all didn't get massive money, but everyone's like, I need one.

I'm going to get one. The draft is not good. The draft is not good. The running back group is not great. It's a very limited running back class. So I think teams saw that supply. We've seen that every year there's a position like that. And they go, we better go get that taken care of.

And it's nice to see it happening at running back, which is rare. But I think Rashad White's a really good player. And he's kind of gotten left out in the cold. I don't know if he just wanted too much money, but he could be someone that that someone goes for in the next couple of days. So we'll see. Rashid Walker, I think probably just had unrealistic expectations. He probably saw that Dan Moore contract from a year ago.

And that was the starting point. and ultimately no one saw him as like a $20 million a year player. Here are the teams that have spent the least amount in free agency, by the way. The Vikings have only spent $15 million. We knew that they didn't have much. The Eagles, they brought in Rick Willen, but that's basically it. The lions and the Falcons have been relatively quiet. And then the Bronco Seahawks and Jaguars are teams that have essentially just

resigned a couple of their own players. The Jaguars, Monterec Brown was the player they resigned. the Seahawks brought back Josh Job, which obviously they're happy with Rashid Jihad was a nice keep for them. The Broncos almost haven't done anything. Broncos fans are getting a little mess with. Yes. But I think they could be coming. It wouldn't surprise me if they are the team that spends in a trade for one of these receivers out there,

AJ Brown, Brian Thomas Jr. I was going to ask you that. To me, if you think about his style of receiver, Sean, Peyton talks about all the time he likes bigger he likes more physical guys um and that's who he's always had and always played with and i'm like a j brown nobody's really talked about denver with a j brown at least i haven't i haven't seen that out there but that one would make a lot of sense and i do think there is something to philly needing to get the goddard thing done in order i don't know all the specifics of it but there's some money component there that if if they were going to move a j brown they

have to get the goddard thing done first um so i i know there's some connection there and talking to smarter people than I am on the salary cap front. So maybe that's what leads to something like that happening. We'll be transitioning on 40s and free agents to, you know, more of a focus on the draft. And certainly this was like how it impacts the draft. But I'll tell you, a lot of games will be won by the veteran moves that happen from now on after this first wave.

Because I just mentioned the bills and the chiefs and the Ravens. I'll throw the lions in there. There's a lot of, like falcon, but I'm trying to even mention, like, teams that you expect to be in the mix to try to compete for a Super Bowl with a few more holes at this point in the off season than they usually do.

So I don't like what the bills have done, by the way. We'll probably get into some winners and losers on NFL daily so far, but they're going to have to find starters. And then there's teams like the dolphins out there where I look at their Halt 22, and I'm like, They need six starters still.

They might need nine starters still. That's what surprised me the most, if you just said, the move that surprised you the most, where the price made sense and the familiarity made sense. But I thought it was, I'm not going to use the T word, but I thought they were all eyes on 27 in Miami. And they were going to run out a bunch of young inexperienced players and see what's stuck. And then be positioned for the draft in 27. They still are.

They didn't do that. They did. Well, they went on and got a quarterback, though. I thought they were going to roll. Hey, we'll try Quinn yours, see what that looks like. And then we'll be ready for one in the next year. And I'm glad we brought that up. And we'll wrap with that.

I think they're having their cake and eating it too. They're not spending anywhere else on free agency. It does look like a rebuilding, you know, you don't want to use the T word, like you said. But they still look like one of the worst rosters in league. But for the money that they're paying Malik Willis, like it's, it's less than a dafe always making you know what i mean like way less uh you're paying him 23 million dollars a year that's probably like 20th to 25th that quarterback like even the daniel jones contract only slots him about 15th 16 so you're not really paying him real money and i think you get to evaluate him and it's just

exactly what i say teams should do i think it's great process you're you're buying a lottery ticket and it seems like it's an expensive lottery ticket but there's no long-term damage though if it doesn't work out with Malik Willis, they'll just move on quickly. And if he plays really well, I don't think he's playing so well that they're going to suddenly win 10 games, no matter how well. And if that happens, like, that's a, it's a great problem to have. So I think it's good process. Yeah, I was getting texts. I was getting texts on a pro day numbers. So I didn't listen to anything that you just said, Greg, but I'm sure it was really, really smart. Well, it was, I saw you looking at your phone, so I just kept kept going because that's, I just got, I'm trying to double check this real

quick. So USC ProDay today. It is USC, yes. Bridget Collins out there for an NFL network. I just got text. Mackay Lemon ran from the scout that's there. 457, 453, no jumps. Okay.

That's about, right. That's kind of, four or five three is about, I mean, I think Amin Rao with maybe low four-fives. A lot of good receivers are running that four-five range. So not, not, I'm sure he would low. to have ripped the four mid four four but he's more quicker than fast so i'm still i mean i'm dating free agency i'm still married to the draft gregg you know what i mean like i just i get draft information clearly uh clearly you found the hand times that could have waited one minute longer

way more fascinating than my big malik willis was a good process signing tape yeah i mean i feel like i heard the first 40 seconds of your take and then i thought it wasn't really going to get any better from that point on so i didn't know i needed to tune in for the remaining two minutes of the thought so that's when I ejected and got some pro some pro day times uh that was it 40s and free agents we will be back on our normally scheduled Tuesday show next week and in the meantime I do want everyone to go to their local libraries support them don't be late returning those books though tell you that much they're pretty lenient these days they let you they let you renew especially for old books like born to referee my life on the gridiron by jerry mark bright if any listener

out there shows us that they can get a copy. We'll buy you a free ice cream. We'll take you out. Yes. But especially if you can get it from the library. We'll see you next week. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.