NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 40s and Free Agents: Free Agent WR Rankings and What's Next for Patriots, Seahawks?

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Daniel Jeremiah are back for their annual post Super Bowl autopsy. They break down what went right and wrong for both the Seahawks and the Patriots, from cap space decisions to key play calling. Plus, the guys rank the top wide receivers set to hit free agency and what they could mean for teams around 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 back to 40s and free agents. I'm Greg Rosenthal, joined as always by my friend Daniel Jeremiah, aka Moved the Sticks, aka the man going through all the college tape to get ready for the NFL scouting combine, but not before taping this show where he can brag about drafting the Seahawks before the season in our who will be the Super Bowl champion draft. You are the real champion here.

DJ you won. Well, I'd totally forgotten about that. So you could have just slipped that slide. I would never have remembered. But I can't take, it's like you can't take pride when you took Tom Brady in the sixth round and claimed about how smart you are when it comes to the draft. So, hey, you got them. I think they were your eighth overall pick in the NFC or something like that. But it does go to show what a surprising Super Bowl it was. I had sort of lost sight of that. But when I saw a stat after the fact that in terms of, of Vegas odds. They were the fourth longest shot to win a championship in terms of preseason odds of any sport

in the last 40 years, something absolutely outrageous like that. And they get it done and they get it done in convincing fashion. We're going to do, I don't know if you have any quick thoughts on the Super Bowl. We can, we can have a little bit of that little Patriot Seahawks autopsy looking ahead because we did that for every team. And then we're going to talk wide receivers a little later in the draft, maybe just some overarching thoughts from you. And then I'll give you for the first time.

my free agency, wide receivers ringing. So that's all coming up on 40s and free agents. But I don't know if, I don't know if in your league circles, the important people you talk to had any big takeaways. No, I won't go off people that I talked to. But I was thinking of this analogy, like just as we've talked about this Super Bowl for the last few days and gone back through it. And I was thinking of the before the Super Bowl of all the different paths

that the Seahawks had to win and how narrow the path was. And I was just reminded of like that that felt, like an election night where you have a network that's trying to hold out hope for one side. And they're like, they put up like, here's the 10 states that are remaining. If they just win these nine, like they can win, they can still win, you know? Yeah. And it was like that was, there was so many ways, Seattle was just so much better. And it would have had to been, like I talked about like, Milton Williams would have had

to just have this unbelievable dominant performance against Bradford, who's their weak link on the office line. Guess what? He did. He did great. He did everything he could. And it didn't matter because there were so many other avenues that the Seahawks had to victory. And they were just so much better.

I haven't punished myself by going through the TV tape of it yet or the coaches tape of it yet for that matter. So it was just alive all 22. But you're right. An absolute mismatch. And part of an era, I don't know if it's going to be an era, but at least a time where the defense is after years and years of just like offenses pushing forward, pushing forward, fighting back a little bit, did feel like a little bit more of a defensive year. And I thought Kyle Shanahan said it well on the NBC pregame show where he thought like, look, there were two defenses all season, Houston and Seattle, where I thought those two can just

win the Super Bowl on their own if their offense and special teams just doesn't mess it up. And we haven't had a lot of defenses like that. So I'm curious if there got to be a lot of people around league getting in the lab. And if we'll see that continue in 2026 where defenses catch up a little bit. Yeah, that was my other takeaway. And we can move on to these teams. autopsy part of it, but like, Houston just must have felt so sick to their stomach watching that game. Like, that should have been, we kind of got robbed as fans and viewers of what should have been just a absolute slug fest between the Texans and the Seahawks in terms of defensive football. Like, that would have been, that would have been a nine to six game,

but it would have been a riveting nine to six game. That would have been very, very physical, very violent. I thought it was a much more entertaining game than people give it credit for in the sense that like I like watching good defense and seeing that live. To me, it's a Super Bowl. It's always going to be interesting. There was still jeopardy there. But forget just Texans. I think that Jaguars team was awesome. And I know they did it in a different way, but they could have made it. Like Josh Allen has to be watching that and kicking himself. And then Bronco Seahawks would have been a hell of if they had Bo Nex healthy. We had Garrett Bowles on the set during the Super Bowl week. And he just said it a handful of times. Well, we win that game if Bo Nicks is healthy. We should have won that game without Bo Nicks healthy.

and you know what all these cry babies in the afc that you know the Patriots didn't make it well they did make it you know they won the games in front of them whether whatever they're ahead of schedule let's let's get into the autopsy for the Patriots both these teams are in exceptional shape this is not the case of all the playoff teams we went through after they got eliminated but both teams have a ton of cap space have good picks the Patriots in particular $42 million in cap space that's only the 11th most which is a sign there's too much cap space there's a lot of teams that have plenty of room. They have a lot of day three picks. Otherwise, they just have their picks in general, 31st, 63rd, 95th. When you kind of look at them overarching what their needs are, what stands out to you. Yeah, for me with the Patriots, it's, you know, finding a go-to number one option that can win, you know, on the outside. And I think Diggs at this point in time in his career is he's not that guy. And so to me, I think you need to upgrade. there, finding just a pure weapon that you can win with. That's

where I would start. And then to me, getting, you know, more edge rush continue to load up that defense. I think this offensive line's going to grow. You need, you know, see what happens with Will Campbell going forward as, you know, trying not to be too hard on him with the coming off of the knee injury, but how bad that was all the way through and

the playoffs was rough. So, you know, you get, and Morgan Moses is not getting any younger. So having another tackle in there to give you some options, I think would be would be a good way to go. But man, they're in pretty good shape. You know, to me, I just think,

getting that number one guy, I felt like that, and you tell me from being at the stadium, because sometimes you can feel it, but it felt so constricted. They were just playing kind of half court, you know? Yeah, that was probably the most disappointing thing was that they almost played like they knew they were overmatched.

Like, they were a little too conservative, you know, in the decision making, both May and the play calling. And you're right, though. Like, there just weren't over. open guys. And one thing I thought May did a good job in the postseason where he struggled in general. When he saw the one-on-once, he just let it go. And there weren't a lot of those in this game. There was what the one he missed to Douglas, a back shoulder and another one to booty. But like, they just weren't there for them. So you're right. Get ball winners. You said a couple

things there that I want to break down. Campbell, do you think guard makes, you know, is a realistic conversation? I don't think it's offensive to talk. To talk. about if you could get a all pro style guard that that could be better than having an average left tackle because the one thing i would say about campbell that people missed a little bit during the year was if you look at the the pass rushers he went against when he was playing pretty clean there weren't a lot of good ones like it like it he wasn't beating upper tier competition so that worries me a little bit of course when he played miles garrett miles garrett got to him and And people are like, okay, well, that's Miles Gary.

Yeah, well, Miles Garrett had an even better game against Will Campbell than almost any game he had all year. So it does worry me a little bit that when he played real competition, he wasn't really up to the challenge. Yeah, I just think, look, he's still young and these guys get better along the offensive line. So, you know, I don't think it's a strong conversation, but I think it's something you're monitoring and you're going to have somebody in the on-deck circle and having that option. I think to me, I would rather make the move earlier than later. Exactly. Do it now. Because, I mean, Robert Galleries, kind of the case study there of, like,

he was a pro-ball guard. Like, he ended up being, you know, it's like, gosh, you have top five pick. How can we, well, I'd rather have a all-pro guard than a struggling tackle, you know. How about, how about Zach Martin? How about, not Tyron Smith? Tyler Smith. Didn't Tyler Smith play tackle? Yeah, there's a lot of those guys. I mean, Logan Mankins, we can go on. But I mean, this is not,

those guys weren't picked on the top five, you know, like that's the difference. Zach Martin, that would be. I mean, more than a best case scenario, but that was a pretty high pick. That was a first round pick who moves. They kind of use them where they needed to as a rookie. We'll see. I tend to guess that they're not going to be thinking that way.

The other thing I did want to just point out for people curious, you mentioned digs. I'm not 100% assuming he's back. Because they have such a good cap situation, I think he will be back. But if people forget, he essentially signed a three-year contract about $22 million a year, where it was basically a team option each year with more or less no penalty. They save that money if they get to make that decision each year. I think they will keep them because I think they like what he added to the team. He made a lot of big third down catches and he can be part of a big group and they don't need the money back.

But that is a decision that they'll have to make. Otherwise, though, they almost have no key free agents. They're in a good spot. K. Levan Chase-on's a guy who will be attractive in free agency. Maybe they bring them back. Maybe not. They're starting safety. Jalen Hawkins, who played pretty well for them as a free agent.

And that's about it. Not even many depth pieces are out there. And so, yeah, I think they just need athleticism everywhere, offensive line, basically everywhere. I mean, you could pick other than a venue. I don't know if I feel like the locked and loaded and Campbell somewhere at any of the offensive line positions and then receivers. There's plenty for them to go to, like maybe some of these receivers will talk about

in a bit, free agents. I got to get your take on this one. We haven't talked about this yet. I actually ran into Mina after the game when I was, we did the post game, we were walking up and saw her in the podcast studios, so popped in and said hi. And like one of the questions I posed to her

because I was curious to get her take on it was, why is Trayvion and Henderson not touching the ball? Like that, that blows my mind that they, that they, Romandre Stevenson was out there and getting the ball as much as he was in a game where you know you're not going to be able to put together

a 15 play drive. Like, you need some explosives. Like get the ball in that guy's hands and see what happens. And it's like, and even from a past protection standpoint, gosh, the one time that I think that was the only time they blocked Witherspoon the whole game was when he caught him right under the chin on one of those blitzes. But that was about the only time that he wasn't unabated to the quarterback.

And the times that they did give him the ball, he popped off for a nine or 10 yard gain. I was like, where is that? They go jumbo one play. I think that was Remandre. And they get a big gain on that too. The play calling in general was. curious. I think they just trusted Ramandre, who played really well overall down the stretch. And so you can't take that away from him. In the postseason, Trevion was averaging under three yards

per carry. But those were like bad weather situations. I totally agree. On a team that needed some athleticism, they needed more of him. All right, let's get to the Seahawks. And that's, all right, I'm going to have Mina on NFL daily. And I was wondering, because she texted me. Was I there? I was like, so she, they're already moving in. And let's, let's, Let's go. They're in the podcast studio. It's the Brady Bunch. The families have, the families have kind of merged together.

And I saw, I saw Ryan Clark. I saw Spears. I saw our old friend Aisha who was there. So yeah, I mean, they're, they're picking out bedrooms, Greg. Picking out bedrooms now. Well, I just hope it's, I forget who that player was where the key card just didn't work when he showed up to the facility. I just hope mine works when I show up next. The Seahawks.

$73 million in cap space. They only have one day three picks. So, you know, that's a little strange. Maybe there'll be a team that trades back. They have their picks in the first three rounds. They have a ton of free agents. Let's start there. Kenneth Walker, the third, can go get paid.

Boy, Maffi is a free agent. Rashid Jihad, who added quite a bit to their explosiveness late in the season. And then four players in that dime package that's out there, and they're not the biggest names, but four players who were on the field quite a bit in the Super Bowl. Tarek Willen, Kobe Bryant, and Josh Job. I guess that's three players. I wrote Rik and then Wullen.

Those are, in fact, the same place. Same guy. Turns out the same guy. So three years. Why you were just talking? All I could hear, and all I could have run through my head was, and now it's time for 40s and free agents with Greg and DJ. Hey, everybody.

I'm Greg McElroy here with Daniel Jeremiah as we kick off 40s and free agents. All they got to do is take off one of the, It's one name. You just keep the first name and then lop off a G and then they're still rolling here. Oh, I know where I stand in DJ's heart. He would, I don't even know if he would mention it. He'd be like, oh, we're feeling lighter. One less G here.

And we actually have a guy who played football who knows what he's talking about. That's amazing. All right. I did some Seattle radio this morning. So we talked a little bit about the free agent group that they have. My take on it is I think the hardest to keep of, this group is going to be Shahid for a couple different reasons. Look, he did his best work on the biggest stages, you know, going through this playoff run.

You now have a situation where you played for a coach in New Orleans who then lobbied for you to come to Seattle, who is now the head coach of maybe the most offensively starved roster in football where they'd be willing to pay money. I just have a hard time, unless he just wants to win and he wants to devalues that experience in Seattle. I can't imagine a world where the Raiders wouldn't just outbid everybody to bring him to Vegas. And there'll be other options as well. And there's the, you know, in the back burner where you've got the JSN deal that you can start working on knowing that's going to take up a ton of money in that receiver room. So I know they gave up a, believe, a four and a five for him. But mission accomplished, man.

He helped you win a Super Bowl. Like, that's an unbelievable move. I just, I think they're going to have a hard time signing him would be my guess. I agree because at this point, they're competing with 31 other teams unless they use the team. tag on them, which they won't. And they have a need at wide receiver, though. I actually think it's, they're in good position. I'm not, I'm not saying they're not, especially with all the cap space they have.

So they can spend. But they do have some interesting decisions to make because that's three defensive backs that were starters for you. I know, I know Kobe Bryant, for instance, and Josh Job aren't big names. Well, they played, Josh Job especially was playing awesome in the Super Bowl. Played great this year. So they got a good year, too. Like, those are the ones I think you can try and get done.

Like, you know, you can, you can work those. And I even think with Kenneth Walker, you have, you have leverage there in terms of the tag. Like, there's, there's things you can do that make that more feasible. I just, when I looked at that list, the guys who I think will get the, the most money, I think she eats going to get a ton. And I think boy, Maffa is going to get a lot of money. I know he only had two sacks, but he's young. He's still in his, I think maybe 27 years old. He's explosive.

He's had, you know, eight or nine sack year. To me, like, I told you before, I think that quity pay, will do better on the market. I think Boye Mafia will do better in the market. Those guys were higher picks. Those guys have, they have juice and explosiveness in a pass-rush-starved league. Those guys get paid. I totally agreed.

And John Schneider likes keeping his guy. So I even thought looking at this roster, is there a chance that they cut or trade Nuosu who's coming off a nine-sack season? But he's 30. He's been there for four years. He was coming off two really injury-plagued years. And that's something where you maybe say goodbye to him. just to spend more to keep your guy, you know, Maffei, who they like.

But, you know, their, you know, trait that's better than any other team is they have six, seven of these guys, you know, they have so many players that they're going to try to figure out a way to keep them all. I also wonder if they give Darnel the bump. He has two years left on his deal, but he did just win the Super Bowl. Yeah, you, 100 percent, you use this opportunity to make him turn down a big race. Like, he doesn't put him up in the top tier. But you put that,

let's just kind of the way that you talk as a team is like, let's make him turn down. Like this longer extension will give him some sugar for having just let us to a Super Bowl or been a part of this Super Bowl run. I think there's a way where everybody can kind of win in that whole thing. I totally agree. And he has two years left on his deal. But if you look at it now,

yeah, it was obviously a great bargain. He proved a lot of us wrong. Whoa, you have a mouse in your pocket? Us. well you just mentioned mina i mean i don't want to just throw other people under the bus but there was a lot of the the folks in the in the media sphere that that thought there was a downgrade going from gino to

darnel i wasn't the only one yeah i just didn't i want to be included in that uh you were on a show together and you say us and oh oh i see well you know mina um trying to think of you don't need out anybody else i was just trying to absolve the guy i saw in the hotel lobby the morning after the Super Bowl wearing a Gino-Smith, C-Ox jersey. I was like, that's a choice. Yeah. It's a weird choice to wear to the game.

I assume he did that too. It's even weirder the next morning after Darnold, but I guess it's maybe it's all you got. Those things are expensive. So yeah, good point on Kenneth Walker. I don't know why I just assumed he's gonna go elsewhere. With all that cap space, they might as well just tag him. That's a good deal.

It's $12 million. It's one year. They need an interior offensive line help. I think they need some depth that wide receiver. Like they're going to be looking for edges, defensive backs, but they're in a good position in general.

By the way, if you cover a team, any of the 32 teams, and you write a, you know, what your team needs to accomplish in the off season, and you don't write that

you're going to sign Tyler Linderbaum. The article doesn't even count because every single, I've read a little bit of stuff in the off season, and Tyler Linderbom apparently is playing for 28 teams next year. So congratulations to him.

Well, Well, it always cracks me up these articles because you're right. There's only like six free agents everyone's heard of. And every team thinks they're going to sign two or three of them. And then they sign two or three from the next tier or two. And it's just like there's not enough to go around. Well, since a guy, like, I mean, do you think they're going to let Linderbaum go anyways? Usually that's not a guy that you see get out there.

But there are some not differing opinions, but whether he's like a fit everywhere. And I, what do you think? Do you think they'll let him go? I don't think it would get to this far. you know, that they would have had him locked up. And they declined the fifth year option, right? Because that's the overall offensive line. And they feel like that puts the number too high for an interior player.

So I get that. But I mean, if I'm Linderbombs camp, how do you not get to the market? I mean, whatever they're going to give you now, there's cap space up the wazoo across the whole league. And it's not a, you know, that market of interior offensive line, and you're the bell of the ball. Like, I'd want to get out there to the market and see what it looks like. Yeah, there aren't that many players. that this happens to every year. It's really just a handful.

One of them last year was Milton Williams, like a guy who was successfully developed. I know Linderbombs hadn't even been a more decorated career, but just because of some sort of technicality, because you're right, I think if the fifth year option was just for guards, they would have just given it to him. But because it's left tackle

and the number was so high, he might actually get out there. Let's take a break, and then we're going to come back. DJ asked me to start breaking my rankings on this very show. So yes, for the first time you can all hear my wide receiver free agent rankings, and we'll talk a little draft too after the break.

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You know, the position that Daniel Jeremiah struggled to throw to as a college quarterback. He just like running the ball. He just wanted to keep the ball on his hands. I wanted to throw it. I just wasn't very good at it, Greg. Dual threat quarterback, though, right? Who were you ranked ahead of again? Who was I ranked ahead of?

I mean, some big names. You were up there, you were up there high, though, on the rankings. Yeah. school yeah high school it was good college yeah that's what i you want to know about when i went to college i give you the this is what everybody wants to hear but uh my freshman my red shirt freshman year i think i broke the uh rookie or the freshman passing record i think at northeast louisiana before i transferred ab state and it was i think i was like 1400 yards 1500 yards like think about that like because freshmen didn't play in college football and that that's like 150 yards

per game. How many games did you start? I think it started the last seven games. Okay. And what's the nickname there? The Northeast Louisiana. Well, they used to be the Indians and now they're the Warhawks, maybe. Okay. Don't even know. Yeah. I mean, I'm off for peeking in high school, 1996. Massachusetts state champions, Minichog, regional Falcons in tennis. Let's go. I was class of 96 as well. I was 97, but we got back to the finals in 97. We lost in the finals. I knew there more to that story. We lost in the finals in 97. I won my match, not, you know, but you know, it's a team sport. Let's talk receivers. Before I get into my ring, it's maybe an overview on the wide receivers in this class. I know people are

ready to start hearing DJ just go full barrel with college stuff. We're going to do a full offensive combine preview next week. I was thinking about it as I was starting to broadcast the Super Bowl for talk sport, which was so much fun. I was thinking two weeks from this very moment, my plane will be landing in Indianapolis. That's how quick this off season is. So we're going to be at the combine soon. Who are your wide receivers you're looking at and just kind of the overall class? Yeah, it's a good group. It's a good group. And I think it's going to be that way, you know, in perpetuity going forward. Like it's just, there's wide receivers every single year. And there's there's all different flavors from, you know, outside guys like Carnell Tate from Ohio

State, Jordan Tyson from Arizona State. I, for me, my favorite receiver in the whole class is Mikele Lemon, who's a slot receiver out of USC, who's got a lot of that, you know, USC, think about Amonraa St. Brown coming through there. If you're trying to find the next JSN who has that kind of body type and build, almost like a running back, he kind of fits that build. And you want to go all the way through with Denzel Boston from Washington, who's a big physical guy. You get another one out of Notre Dame and Malachi Fields.

Like if you want those power forward types, you got those. And we've got a bunch of little slots that are real dynamic and explosive. Casey Concepcion is it can absolutely fly from Texas. and them. So there's a really, really good group of wideouts, Greg. And the fun part for me is, like this early part of the process, you kind of go through all the tape. And I always talk about getting these guys in kind of the right neighborhoods. Think about like clumps of players. And then you can get them in the right house as we go through the rest of the process and kind of, you know, really separate those ties. But I can't remember the last time I didn't have so many,

you know, clumps. Like every year there's these clumps of, man, there's like four, these bigger six four type receivers. And then there's also another clump here. These five. five, you know, pure slot receivers. So if you need a wide out and the free agency group that Greg's getting ready to go over doesn't, you know, super excite you, you're going to have an opportunity to get some in the draft. And there's so much depth. Like how many were in your top 50?

I don't know if you know that up the top of your head. I think I had 10 or 11. I think I had 10 or 11 of them. And that feels like a lot. And yet when you look back at the last four drafts, which position had the best value in the second and third round? it's very often receivers. Like they could have gone even higher so many times.

And I'm not saying that doesn't happen at other positions, but I think the hit rate in rounds two and three at receivers, you've gotten some super duper star players, including one of the guys, you know, we're going to talk about maybe on the trade block, A.G. Brown. I mean, like, guys are falling too far. All right, let's get into it. Do it.

Wide receivers. To me, there's two guys tiered above. And I'm not including the cut guys or the trade guys. We can mention those quickly at the end. Yeah. it's George Pickens and Alec Pierce and maybe most people would- There's only one of those guys now. There's only one of them according to the Cowboys.

Well, it's not official. And I wanted to mention Pickens who the reports are, yeah, he's going to get the franchise tag. There are also reports from our, our insiders, and I would never doubt Ian Rappaport and Palisero and Garifolo that he could be traded. And they noted in this post that comes out on Super Bowl, hey, we've seen David Mulligot get a clients get traded by the Cowboys before, you know, it happens. And then you look at their cap situation. They're like $30 million over the cap. They might feel like they're selling high.

So I think he might be a conversation or at least they're going to use that as leverage in terms of giving him the money. He's an interesting guy to be giving a monster contract to because you might be buying high. You know, the Cowboys got him for very little last year. Does he fit with CD Lamb? I think there are real questions of whether he's definitely going to be on the Cowboys this season. Yeah, there's definitely no questions about the talent because that gift that he was.

And we saw that going to the draft process. You and I had talked about that going through the draft process. So why isn't he going higher? And it was not. I saw his real talent. And you, you know, you kind of miss that. Sometimes you need fresh eyes on it. It's so tough to spot, you know, like some of those guys, it's really tough.

But look, to me, he's the classic case of a player that teams like to be engaged. age to, but not married to. Does that make any sense? I'd be curious to see, it feels more like they would try and drag this year to year. And if he's not going to be okay with doing that from the franchise tag this year, and he's going to, you know, kind of cause a ruckus there and not be happy with that, then maybe they explore, you know, trading high, as you would say. Somebody, you know, I'm sure with the, you know, with the teams out there, they can find one

that would be willing to, you know, go across the, grow across the aisle. to actually take his hand in marriage here. So I just, I don't know if the cowboys seem all that excited about doing that. That's, it's tricky. And the cowboys are the rare team that not only do they have the stomach for the offseason drama, they almost seem, they almost seem to welcome it. Like that's not, that's not a negative to them if they had to go through it. They haven't had as much in season to talk about.

So they've kind of majored in more offseason stuff. Right. And they, look, it's not like they got them for free. They did give up a third for him. Would you, would you, you know, be happy with that? if you then trade him for like a second plus, a second and a fourth, and he comes off your books.

Maybe they would be. Maybe they would be. I don't know if you're getting a first. I missed that. I did not see the pregame show, so I missed that whole little nugget there. Yeah, it was a little bit of an article. It was one of those where they didn't even put sources to it.

They're just like, hey, you know, they could be interested in trade him. No, hey, their agent, he's executed some trades related to the Cowboys. So I'm just putting two and together. I think Alex Pierce is a really unique talent. And in a way, because you're not giving up any draft picks for him, and you've got to know what he is, he's almost a safer bet than George Pickens. I mean, he just played two years in the NFL DJ,

where he averaged 21.3 yards per catch and 22.3 yards per catch. Led the league by a lot both years. I mean, he had over 1,000 yards on 47. catches and maybe he's not the most complete receiver, but he's got strong hands. He's a big dude. He makes contested catches. I mean,

he really adds an element to any offense that I think any offense would love. And so to me, he's going to be one of my very highest players on this overall free agency list. And to me, a tier above all the rest of the guys I'll mention quickly. If you're the New England Patriots, why would that not be tippy, tippy top of the list for you?

The only reason would be if you're like letting better be the enemy, you know, perfect be the enemy of, of better or whatever, because good. I think that's, I think you put whatever the phrase is that I. McElroy won't get it right. That's fine. You know, the, you know, I landed last night. It's, it's been a long season. Like if they really, if they really saw A.J. Brown, for instance, as a guy who was like,

okay, we want like a one-one. Because I don't think Alec Pierce is that. I don't think anyone is thinking he's going to be that. But, you know, I went back and watched some of the film from the year. And in what stands out to you is how many times he made Daniel Jones look better, that Daniel Jones had the confidence to give him a chance to go make a play. But these aren't perfect throws. And he made a lot of very difficult catches.

And he's done it back-to-back years. He's burning some guys. And it's not just scrubs. I saw him beat Derek Stingley on a corner route in the red zone where, you know, I think Stingley's a little afraid of his speed going one way and he breaks the other and he gets pretty open against good cornerbacks. He's a hell of a player and he's 25 years old right now, turning 26 this offseason. So you're going to get the best years of his career. Perfect is the enemy a good is an aphorism often attributed to Voltaire originally from a 1603 Italian proverb, meaning the pursuit of flawlessness can prevent the completion of worthwhile work.

I'm not a big Voltaire guy, but I am looking forward to the offseason. I don't know. You guys don't get into Voltaire, but that's part of our culture up there. It is my literature season, though. Like I get to the offseason and I start banging through the novels, you know, really cranking through. When was the last time you read like a book where, you know, there's paragraphs, there's a beginning and an end and maybe fiction especially? No, I read this book called the Bible, Greg. That's the book that I go through. So long, though. It's very long. But you can get through it in a year. But I do that. I do that. You know what I used to?

I used to be when I was younger. This sounds weird, but I used to be a big John Grisham guy. I used to go through all the John Grisham books. That's not weird. Yeah, but I just think I was very young. I think when I went to the bookstore and was buying them,

I was like in my 30s and just, I don't know there was a lot of people in my demo that were in there knocking those things out. But I read a lot of leadership books by my buddies. You know, you got a lot of buddies in that space. John Gordon's a good friend. So a lot of that stuff. Okay.

I mean, I could use some, I can use some. I can use some leadership tips, but, you know, it keeps your mind sharp, it's relaxing. It's doing all of it. Just do the wordal every day, Greg. That's all you got to do. You just do the wordal. I'll try that Bible thing, though.

That sounds good. Yes. Come on. Come on, join us. I went to many midnight masses because, you know, I grew up in a town. It's one of the only Jewish people with about 95% Catholic, Irish Catholic. And so that's where my, that was the pool of potential girlfriends in high school. So I was going to midnight mass with, with their.

families. Let's go second tier. We've covered a lot of ground on this receivers podcast today. Next, next group. You mentioned Rashid Jihad. I've got him. I've got Mike Evans coming off an injury plagued year. I've got Wondell Robinson, Romeo Dobbs, and Jowan Jennings. And so when I look at this group, I think they're all starting players in the NFL. I really like, we'll get to Wondale. I really liked what he gave. He probably was bummed. up a tier from from where he used to be they're not totally complete receivers you might have to pay a little extra in free agency than you ideally would like but i think they're going to be pretty safe adding to your offense obviously it's going to be tough to get evans out of out of Tampa but

between evans shahid robinson dobbs jennings i don't know if anyone stands out there who you want to talk about so free free content idea for you yeah when you're doing this list and uh and maybe it's an associate content piece. But I'd like to follow the coaches like we talked about with Kubiak and Shaheed. You look at the Tennessee Titans, new offensive coordinator is, Brian Dayball.

That's a team that could use some more weapons for Cam Ward. Wondale makes some sense there. And then you can look at even like Jennings, I would, okay, well, that Shanahan tree is littered all over the league and he's kind of beloved in that system with how he plays.

so I could see him, you know, bounce around to one of those other, one of those other disciples. Including Kubiak, who he had his, if I'm remembering right at his best season when Kubiak was in the building. It's tough to keep track of Kubiak. He's in a new place every year. But I think that that's a big part of free agency when you're coming in there and you're getting ready to spend money. Ideally, you spend it on your own guys because you know him extremely well. But if you're going to go out into the market, you'd like to have some previous understanding or relationship with him personally or have seen him in a scheme that's a little bit similar to what you're going to do. You know, they threw the ball deeper to Wondell more this year than really, I thought, made sense.

But he's had 140 targets in back-to-back season. People think sometimes production, like he's almost like a short catch merchant without a lot of people around him. You put up 1,000 yards and 90 catches this season. Like, I'm not dismissing that. And when you watch him, he is a guy who's going to be able to get open for you underneath. So I think every team has a spot for that type of receiver. again, maybe they stretched them a little too much where he had to be their one,

but I think he would fit in nicely. I did put Shaheed and Evans over him. Shaheed's tough for me. I've always been such a huge fan. I'm not holding the Seahawks 10 years against him because he made a difference with a handful of splash plays. But he also barely caught the ball in Seattle. And so it did make me wonder,

is he always just going to be like a very supplementary third kind of weapon in the offense where if he's your second, even that might be a stretch, that he's more of a really great three plus special teams. And that kind of changes the market that he's going to have. Yeah. No, I think that he's just, that profile tends to get overpaid a little bit. And I can still see him getting more than people think. And because, look, the return coming back into the game is big too. Like we've seen the impact of the return game now. So that that value is there. kind of underrated part going back to Seahawks for a second, like punter, kicker, returner, like that kind of got lost in the shuffle a little bit with their team

was how dominant their special teams were. Dixon, especially their punter, well, and the returners, you're right. Just he made such a difference in the NFC championship in this game, in the Super Bowl. You're absolutely right. And yeah, the Saints, I think, kind of lost the forest for the trees when they weren't using Shaheed anymore on returns. And Seattle was like, why weren't you doing that exactly? we should do that.

I think Romeo Dobbs is a good player. I kind of can't imagine Mike Evans playing in a different uniform, but you never know. Jason Light usually ends up keeping his guys. He looked pretty good when he played last year, just the first year where he missed some time with injury. But I think Dobbs is another guy who's like a starting caliber receiver. Do you remember anything?

I'm putting you on the spot about your evaluation of Romeo Dobbs coming into the league. Because to me, I'm giving you time to look it up. Yeah, what year? Well, that would have been. in 22, right? Because he's ending his rookie contract. So 22 draft. A guy who does a little

bit of everything well. And as a physical guy, maybe he's not going to be the most open receiver in the league, but good hands can basically run any route. And you can feel good giving him 50 snaps a game. A lot of deep posts tracks the ball well. He's got some juice. He's a little bit tight.

Gives you some punt return value, good burst. I thought his hands were average. Just under 6-2, a little over 200 pounds. So I actually had him kind of the grade I gave him as like a developmental grade. Oh. No, I thought there was better ahead of him.

Well, you know who disagreed with you? I was going to say Brian Gutikens, but actually it was a fourth round pick. I thought he got taken higher than that. So that's on me. My next group, so those guys I think are all going to start in the NFL next year.

I think they're all going to get good contracts. And the next group is a little tricky. I knocked Evo Samuel down to this tier. To me, he's a very particular flavor. It doesn't mean he shouldn't be, you know, on a team with a role, but you got to have a vision for him,

and I don't think he's quite as complete or explosive as he was later in his career. And then some just, you know, guys, I think are interesting. Jalen Naylor had a decent season for Minnesota. They actually like him. Jahan Dotson's going to be a free agent, former first round pick.

Christian Kirk had that monster playoff game that'll help him get paid a little bit. Marquise Brown, like, I guess it's not going to totally ever happen for him, but he can still help a team. So that's kind of the next. tier of wide receivers. Yeah, that's when I start looking at that going,

those guys are going to have a hard time getting money because of the draft, because of how much depth we have at the draft. So kind of pay up to the top of the market. I get that. And then maybe you get into that second tier and you get guys coming and help your young quarterbacks. I get that. But when we get into this portion of the program, to me, it's like,

there's guys in the third and fourth round. You're going to find they're going to be better. Yeah. That makes sense. Keenan Allen, Kendrick Bourne, Khalif Raymond. And Traylon Burks, actually, I thought, looked kind of interesting at the end. So he'll get some like one year, $2 million contract. I'm just keeping an eye on that.

He looked like he made some progress at the end of his time in Washington, Calvin Austin. There are other names out there. But before we wrap, I did just want to throw out while we're talking some possible trades or cuts because we're getting in some big names here. Because I think there's some interesting players. And we're going to go through with Bill Barnwell later in the week, all the potential trade targets in the entire league. A lot of them are at wide receiver.

But, I mean, could I interest you in a AJ Brown, DJ Moore, Brian Thomas Jr. These are all just like, just thoughts. But I think if I'm thinking about them, I trust me, some front offices, or at least thinking about him. Michael Pittman's entering the last year of his contract. And we had him on NFL daily last week. It was interesting to me. He said, I'm not really sure what they're going to do with me. Like, do they want to give me a new contract?

Did they want to cut me? would they want to trade me? So the fact that he's saying that he's thinking about it, Calvin Ridley, Darnel Mooney, then we kind of get down the list. But some big names, I think, that are going to be thrown around a little bit in front offices. This feels like it could be kind of a shakeup year with Philly.

You know, they've made some coaching changes. Stoutland's now no longer there on the offensive side of the ball. They can kind of, you know, you could reimagine how you're doing this offense or building this offense out. So that wouldn't, you know, totally surprise me. I'm curious to see what happens with them on Dickerson, Elaine Johnson, you know, what happens with them?

And if that's the case where those guys are not playing, then, you know, okay, what do we do, you know, with AJ going forward? Or is he a part of this new look, you know, offense that they want to run there? So there's a lot. I'm just keeping my eye on Philly because it feels like this is a little bit of a season of change there. Yeah, without Jeff Stoutland and they just hired their new offensive line coach. Was it Darryl Souter? A guy who was with Sean Mannion, the new OC.

You're right. could be a lot of change. I just think it makes sense timing-wise. Because I think if you're Howie Roseman, yeah, they want to keep elite players as long as they can. But I think you could look enough at the film last year and think, is the decline starting? By the way, you were not even close on that.

It's Chris Cooper. Daryl Suter. Wasn't he like an old reliever for the Braves or something? Why did I just throw out a random name? You just really just made up. Hold on. I think it was an ice hockey coach. Yeah.

Canadian hockey coach. He was a, Gerald Suter, was he the coach of the Maple Leafs? No, he was most recently the head coach of the Calgary Flames. The former Kings coach. I mean,

that's a bold move for an offensive line coach, but I think he's going to understand toughness. He's going to, you know, he's going to understand these guys, you know, working together. Hey,

it's outside the box. How he's outside the box, hired a Canadian hockey coach. be the offensive line coach. I'm still on tilt because our producer asked in our chat if Amari Cooper is still going to be inside my top 10 overall free agents, a guy who that's where I had him last year and then he retired. I didn't know.

I didn't know the game wasn't in him anymore. And yeah, Greg McElroy, if you're listening, the job is not available yet. This is ridiculous. Did you see the chat? Yes. Someone was asking when Macalroy, when mackerel.

DJ asked when Macroy started. I mean, you can just say that on the show. That's more fun in the chat. I'm just trying to make Drew laugh behind the glass. AJ Brown, by the way, this is the time to trade him because I think whatever they're going to get for a minute trade, this is the, I think the value is, they'd still get a lot from a team like the Patriots, for instance. Whereas this would probably be the last year considering in his age and his contract and

everything. How he would get a lot. Howie is very smart and he knows the rules of better to be a year early than he. a year late on this stuff. So we'll see what they do. And I would if I had to guess, I think AJ Brown will get traded, although that one seems like a toss-up. I even feel more confident that DJ Moore will get traded or cut. But because of the lack of wide receivers, I think they'll be able to find something for him. Brian Thomas Jr. is the other really talented player that didn't quite fit in that offense. He didn't fit in the offense. And they have receivers.

They just gave Jacoby Myers a lot of money. They were an aggressive. team who probably feels like they're right they're already in their super bowl window you could get a lot for brian thomas might not be about a pick and i'm all about bringing these veteran trades into the NFL like the NBA has let's go yeah let's do it i like it hey this is a great job great can i go back to watch my college kids now so i can you can what letter are you on who is it uh i'm on the ms i've you know i've done a bunch more of the guys beyond that but i've got about eight receivers left to watch then i'll be done with all the combine receivers so that's my day well just as you're grinding through the tape, especially kind of the interior offensive line, but really any of the

offensive line positions. Just imagine how would this guy fit in a Darrell Souter, Philadelphia Eagles offense. We will be back next week on 40s and free agents. We're going to do a big combine preview talking about the offense. We will see you there. This is an I-Heart podcast, Guaranteed Human.