NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 40s and Free Agents: The NFC South's 5 Impact Additions and Rookies

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

The NFC South is the topic of discussion on the latest episode of 40s and Free Agents. Gregg Rosenthal and Daniel Jeremiah share their favorite additions to a division that includes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints. Players discussed include Bucs rookie wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, Falcons rookie pass rushers Jalon Walker & James Pierce Jr., and Saints rookie QB Tyler Shough -- who DJ is incredibly high on heading into the 2025 NFL season.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to 40s and Free Agent. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I am with my friend Daniel Jeremiah, and we are talking about maybe my favorite division in all of football. I did a whole episode, DJ, about why we love the NFC South on NFL Daily, which is a great podcast. And I have a feeling people listen to both. Do you love the NFC South?

I have to love the NFC South because Jason Light will give me a hard time if I somehow disrespect the team or aren't including them in some discussions. So they're always front of mind. Yeah, I've known Jason forever. So there was, I don't even, this happened maybe like 10 years ago or something, but I, some list or one of these conversations and he gave me a hard time about it. So then now any time a discussion comes up, I always still kind of think about the bucks. Like, am I forget? Because you just kind of, they're never, that division's never really front of mind. They don't get a lot of buzz or a lot of attention.

And then you kind of look up and a team like Tampa has been very consistently good for quite some time now. It's not a lot of mind for me. On top of that, yeah. I think there are Super Bowl contenders this year. So I'll start there. And if you're just joining us here on 40s in Free Agent,

what we're doing, we're doing two shows a week leading up to the NFL season. We're going through every single division and we're talking about the top five impact players added this off season in terms of veterans and then the top five rookies. and we'll apply what we've heard and seen so far in the offseason to that too. And then we're going to have a couple fun episodes previewing the season right before that as well.

I'm going to start with the bucks then because Hassan Reddick, to me, was the type of signing, Daniel, that, like, that's the type of signing is maybe the cherry on top for a potential Super Bowl contender. I really believe the bucks are that good. I think they have a lot of room for improvement from where they were a year ago on defense. They have the right coach for it. And I think Reddick, who just had a totally lost year with the Eagles, I mean, with the Jets rather last year, it's so forgettable. You almost forget he was there. I think he can give them what they need, which is a little more juice off the edge in terms

of their pass rush. Yeah, I like that fit there too. You know, I steam this team last year live. It was one of the most physical teams that I saw the whole season. And when you have Vita Vaya, who was just a dominant player, and then you got Kansi, who can't see. up the field as an inside rusher. Those are hard to find. And now you're able to compliment them with kind of a fastball with Hassan Reddick on the outside to go along with, you know,

Logan Hall, Elijah Roberts, who they drafted are more physical kind of base players. So, um, and then, uh, Diabies is freaking explosive, another explosive player. So they, they've got guys they can throw at you. Um, but to me, I think that we don't necessarily always talk about them as the, like the physical teams. But when you have an offensive line like they have with works and company, they move people on office. on their front and defensively, they can reset the line of scrimmage. So I'm a fan of how they approach the game there. Here's what I know about a Todd Bulls defense.

You know, he's always going to bring the heat and that if they're coming off a bad year, he almost always rebound. If you look at his history as a coordinator, as a coach, and you look at the rankings in terms of his defenses, it's not perfect every single season. But if he has a bad year, he doesn't stay bad for long. And I think they got younger in the secondary, and then I think some of the additions they made in the draft and then free agency.

And then I do think Reddick is just a great candidate to bounce back because he was one of the most consistent pass rushers in the league for about three years before that lost year with the Jets. All right, give me a rookie. All right. I'll stay with that squad and I'll go to a Mecca, Buka, first round pick, wide receiver out of Ohio State, who was just, to me, like, ready-made.

There's some prospects when you draft them. Here's our development plan, and year one's going to look different than year two and year three. He is ready-made. This is a clear packaging. You know exactly what you're getting with him. When I pull up my notes on him, to me, and everything out of train camp, you tell me what you've read and heard, but everything, the feedback I've gotten is that he's been excellent in camp thus far. But he's a little under 6-1, 200 pounds. He ran 4-48, strong, mature, physical.

Those are the first three words that I wrote down. He can work in traffic. He's tough. He tracks the ball well down the field. He's really good with just, you know, with late hands. You see guys put their hands up early and get themselves in trouble with past breakups. He's really just instinctive and natural feel to it. And my comparison was his former teammate in Jackson Smith and Jigba.

Same school. So I'm really excited about him. I think he's ready to go. Those two receivers have played at such a high level for so long. Can't do it forever, Greg. And I'm excited to see this next wave of guys they have and he's going to be the leader the class. I don't know if there's a single rookie in the entire NFL that has more uniformly positive, praised preseason camp reports than him. And I think it starts with Baker

Mayfield. I mean, he was on, I forget which podcast it was. I think it was Bustin the Boys. And no, it was New Heights. And yeah, they asked him about camp. And like, unprompted, he just said, like Buka is such a dog. I'm so excited to play with him. He's so smart. He's so physical and it was just an open-ended question about anything that stood out to me and he was just like i can't believe we got to add this guy to what is already a really good room which by the way has a nice young player and jalen mcmillan who played really well late last year suddenly touchdowns when godwin gets healthy he's the four like that that's what you want and you have a good tight end k dot and too like they they're they're cooking with gas to me i think they are right there

behind the Eagles as like in the lions are in that group too with as the favorites in the NFC yeah he's just a he's a really good player and I I if you look at receivers are going to make an impact right away it's the guys who are smart like you start first there if you can't learn it you're not going to be able to either be able to swallow all the information to get on the field or when you're on the field you're not going to play fast because you're trying to process and think through all this stuff the smart guys tend to have an immediate impact because they can they can play at full speed so that's that's a buca I don't know why these types of guys tend to fall in the draft it's like oh the receiver that just

you know does everything well but isn't like quite as exciting and there's so much uncertainty in the NFL draft that like and i know even these players sometimes don't work out but he just seemed like worst case scenario he's going to help a lot so i'm excited and the com you know for him other than jackson smith and jigua could be chris godwin and that's going to be my second guy mentioned so we're going really bucks heavy here, but I just thought it was worthwhile to point out that he had options to leave. And so to me, he was a free agency signing because we heard the offers that he was getting. The Patriots were reportedly willing to go much higher on Chris Godwin. And there were there were other teams, I think, that were going to give more. Tampa Bay came up. They're paying him

$22 million a year. It was a great story of a team really earning a player's trust and vice versa, because he's coming off a really serious injury for the second time in his career. He's a little older. And I think with Igbuka, to kind of connect the two, they can be a little more conservative with his recovery now, DJ, because he doesn't have to go into the lineup right away. And it does not sound like he's going to be ready for the start of the season to me. No, he's playoff.

I mean, to me, his value is let's get to the meaningful games at the end of the year. Let's get into the postseason. I don't think they necessarily need him, which is a nice luxury to have. but all the different guys you mentioned, including an underrated tight end and odd. So to me, take your time. Absolutely no rush whatsoever to get him back out there.

Right. And the reason I went bucks heavy was just, all right, prove me wrong, rest of NFC South. When I'm thinking impact players, I'm thinking, all right,

who's going to really matter in some big primetime games late in the season, in the playoffs? I think the bucks are going to be in those games. And so that's why, to me, Reddick and Godwin really stuck out.

But maybe the Falcons, maybe the Saints, maybe the Panthers will prove us wrong and they'll be in that mix too. Like I'll just throw one thing out. You're like which of those three teams do you think has the best chance to make playoffs other than the bucks?

It's too early for Carolina. I would say, you know, Atlanta is, there's a lot of talent there. I would probably, I'm probably going to lead towards Atlanta on that one. I don't know if that's. Yeah, feel the enthusiasm, Falcons fans.

I mean, I, it's fired up. No, I, you know, I don't think, they'll do anything when they get there but i could see them pushing for it and every time i talk about that didn't they sweep the bucks last year uh did Atlanta beat them twice because the falcon they had they yeah that yeah they did they had that curve they hammer me because i'm just not 500 yards i can't i can't i'm just not enthusiastic about them and i can't fake it so they you know they always come out we swept them we're right there okay all right well you did i can't i can't refute that i just don't share quite as much of the optimistic view there so and i and the saints are

not going to be good. So, but again, Falcons are the best of that group. To me, I was just looking this up. I didn't have a chance to pull this final number, but the, I'm putting these two guys together, the two first round edge rushers for the Atlanta Falcons and Walker and Pierce. So I think both these guys are really, really talented.

Last year, the Falcons had 31 sacks. I was curious to see, and I don't think Walker and Pierce get to that 31, but they came close putting a den in that with what they did in college last year. just compared to what they've had. And we've been begging them to take a pass rusher forever. Every year we think they're going to do it. They never do.

And this year they actually did it. And then they came back and got another one. So they paid a steep price to do it. But I'm fascinated to see these guys who had a lot of speed and athleticism to go along with guys and know how to rush. So there'll be guys I'm definitely keeping an eye on this year to see how quickly they get integrated and how they use them. So far, their reports. are, there's been ups, there's been downs. I don't think anything has stuck out.

Like, Jalen Walker sounds like a guy. He's got to show that he can play on the base downs and maybe he'll be ahead there. But he has more to learn in terms of the past rush moves, whereas Pierce has got that juice. And you could see it in the preseason, them kind of setting him up where they got three guys on one side trying to create havoc. Walker's one of them. And then Pierce is all one on one on the other side.

It's almost like they're setting up. Pierce to make that draft pick look good. It's got to look good, DJ. They gave up a first round pick. I know. I know. That's, again, add that into the intrigue here of what that looks like for this team. But I can't, I can't blame them on, uh, I thought they got tremendous value on Walker and everybody's been begging them to do something and they hammered it. They doubled down on it. So this is a, it's an important year for them. That pick is a top five pick and that goes down as an awful trade. So they, they need to have a good year. Woo. Yeah. I mean, even top 10 is questionable.

Now, if Pierce is a great player, then no one's going to complain. But it kind of reminds me of Marcus Davenport in New Orleans, who always got stuck with that. We paid two firsts for Marcus Davenport, and he got hurt a lot. But if he hadn't been hurt as much, big if, like he was actually a totally solid first round player. But people thought of them as two firsts because that's what they gave up for him. It's not really his fault.

And James Pierce is going to be that player for the Falcons. All right. I'm going to pick my enthusiasm up right now. I just feel myself, got to get more excited about this, this NFC South. So it's a challenge to myself. You've got to coach yourself up sometimes. So are you up now? Are you up next? Okay. I thought you were firing yourself up. Maybe just more coffee. Just get a little more coffee here. Okay. Okay. I will not go with a Falcon, by the way. I guess since we're here, I'll just bring this up. You're not on this show for me. You didn't make any moves. What are you going to, you know, it's a little weird actually. It's actually a binder to make a real point about it.

This regime has been there for a minute. They made a lot of moves last year. Like they got, this is kind of a go time year. They're saying they like this roster, at least in terms of adding veterans. Like Leonard Floyd. Or Kirk took all the money.

That's part of it too. So I got no Falcons. I do have a couple Panthers. And I'll give you one here. Trouin Morrig is a Mike Mayak special. You know, we love mentioning Mike Mayak on this show, drafted back with the Raiders.

The number of, one guy, DJ, where I send out a rough draft of my top 100 and one free agents to a few people in the league or smart, smart writers, analysts. I should do it to you, but I just figure like, you're kind of busy. You don't need any more extra work. Morig, who I had pretty low on my initial rough draft, I got back more than any other person like, oh, you got to move him up. He's a good player. He's going to get more than you think. He's maybe the best safety that's available in this class. And I was like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to listen to you all. And they made me look smart because he got a lot of money and he's going to try to

upgrade this Carolina secondary. So if you go back to that draft, they took Alex Leatherwood with the 17th pick and Merrick with the 43rd pick. And I remember on draft night saying, because there was a lot of criticism about the Leatherwood pick. But I said if they would have just flipped those, Merritt to me was a first round player who fell. And Leatherwood was a second round player or a third round player one of the two who got pushed up so to me it's kind of where you were picked but i thought he should have been picked as a first round player and if he just had that background of as a first round picked the way he's played especially as of late we would be talking about him a lot more is one of the better better not just young states one of the better safeties played really well it's a good

point on attention like guys who get taken later not only do they tend to suffer in terms of contract renegotiations of them more got all the way to free agency and then he got paid well He really did get top safety. It kills them in awards. It kills them in Pro Bowls and all pros and all that stuff. Yeah, and partly it's because, yeah, it's hard for the national media out here. I do my best. But to follow all 32 teams, I mean, sometimes you see some of these all pro votes.

I was doing some research on Justin Fields earlier this week. And I learned, I don't know if you're aware of this, TJ, that Justin Fields got a fifth place MVP vote a few years back when the Bears. And I had to go check out. I was like, was that the year he had all the Russian years? Yeah, yeah, okay. They went three and 14 that year. Someone who should have their vote taken away, voted him fifth for MVP.

So not everyone is covering the league really completely, or people are just homers. I just know. We're going to all this, you know, all the stats and analytics and all this form that we've got AI, all this stuff. I think you're going to end up losing your vote, Greg. This thing's going to end up being computerized.

I want it. I've been pushing. I deserve. deserve a vote. You got Tom Brady and Teddy Bruske voting for Joe Tune, offensive player of the year last year because he was his teammates. Take their votes away. Do you not, you do not have a vote then? No. No. For some reason, I thought you did have a I'm not allowed, I believe, as an NFL employee. That's right. You're right. Or maybe that's Hall of Fame. They wouldn't, they wouldn't give it to me. To make one last point on the Panthers

and more. Actually, I'll combine my next one. Tershan Morton is a defensive tackle that they signed. and I can talk about him a little if you want, DJ, but my overall point is this Panthers defense needs to get a lot better. There's a lot of believers in the league. I know you know this, that Agiro Evero is a good coach, but they were not a good defense a year ago. And Panthers fans will say,

look, if we can just improve to average on defense, this team could be pretty frisky in 2025. I remember talking to somebody there in that building before the season, and it was like, we got a great corner and a great defensive tackle. And then he was just like, outside of that like we're we're trying to piece this thing together at this point in time so um yeah a lot of moves were made there and we'll see how that defense comes together they are going to be fun offensively can that get me to my uh next one here no i want to say one nice thing about tershon

warton because i think the average fan is like who is tershian warton he got paid a lot of money first all he was kind of the backup plan to milton williams but he reminds me they thought they were getting milton williams they thought that was done yeah they did and that's that's disappointing for them But Wharton is a guy, and I got to admit, I watch more of the, like, the playoff film because you have more time. There's less games. Warren popped throughout all last year's playoffs, kind of like Milton Williams. Like, he is a big boy who can move people around, and they have some big guys there up front. Derek Brown, who you alluded to, their defensive tackle is outstanding.

And then they brought in Patrick Jones from Minnesota, Bobby Brown from Aishon Robinson. These aren't household names, but just a lot of big defensive linemen that if nothing else can help them stop the run, which was disastrous a year ago. So Warren, just keep an eye on him. If this defense gets good, they could be a very frisky team this year. We'll see how they do. I go to the other side of the ball with them for my next one

because their first round pick in Teteroa does not like Tett. I've been told numerous times. So Tetero McMillan. T-Mack, he's okay with T-Mack, so you can go that route. But you've already seen early in the preseason. Bryce likes throwing in the ball. He gives them some catch radius and room for error down the field.

So you're going to be able to just put some balls up and trust that he can go up there and get him. I still have some concerns just with press, like how he's going to do against physical press coverage. I'm sure he's going to see a lot of that early on to prove he can handle that. I'm not going to wow you with separation down the field, but someone who can win in tight areas.

And with Bryce, he's someone who's comfortable in his accuracy and his touch and saying, I'll give you a chance, man. Go make a play for me. And I think you'll give him those opportunities. what do you think of that wide receiver room in general i know you you weren't low on mcmillan i just wasn't in your 20 yeah yeah he just wasn't all the way up there and that was there was some urgency concerns with me like i just didn't think he always dialed it up and i thought there

was some some loaves and i didn't think he necessarily played to his size like he is a big guy and i don't think he necessarily played quite as physical as that he's just got unbelievable body control and the ability to make contested catches. But to me, at the line of scrimmage was a concern and some of the urgency stuff. Yeah, you had them behind golden, but then again, you had them in the top 20 receivers. I mean, 20 players overall. Yeah. Yeah.

In a draft, that's kind of, that's totally normal to have guys in that range go where he went. It's a weird room. So it's him. It's Liget. It's Adam Thielen who still can play. it's Hunter Renfro who looks pretty good Jalen Coker is a young guy who made some place one thing with McMillan

they drafted Terrace Marshall pretty high I know this wasn't the same regime they drafted Leggett pretty high those guys didn't show up right away in practice and preseason and camp and everything and kind of just stamp themselves at like hey I'm a starter we're counting on you

everything you know it's not perfect but we like what we see like right away and it seems like McMillan has. Like they are counting on him a lot. I think he's got a better football player than those guys. Those guys were, you know, in Legat's case, a little bit tight, but height, weight, speed, a little bit raw. Marshall, just, you know, wasn't a featured player there in the group he was at LSU.

So, you know, this is a more accomplished player. He's just a better, better football player who I think will have an impact. Okay. So that is, that is our Panthers section of the show. A lot of Panthers. It's, uh, well, we'll talk about you. after the break. What's up, everybody?

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Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael F. Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategy. whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast on the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Toyota the official automotive partner of the NFL visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more And it's Daniel Jeremiah's favorite division, the NFC South.

You are up, my friend, for an impact rookie. Well, you got a chance to see this guy live week one, I guess, right? Not the, I did Hall Fame game. So you had a second game for me, but week one of the preseason. Tyler Shuck, quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. Played well in the game. We were at, Greg. Had a pick six and that.

You don't want to see that, but I thought he bounced back well. Screen game. He was comfortable with that. Callum Moore did a good job of kind of giving him. some controllable plays got him on the move a little bit he's big he can move around he's got a live arm there's going to be to me i think it's a it's kind of funny because he's a more athletic version to me of james but there's like there's there's a chance he could be a strong double agent like he could run up both sides of the scoreboard i think he's uh that's the type of player he could

be that's interesting because you know when james was coming out and even young in this career he got a lot of credit for being able to see the field really well, being able to anticipate, being able to read defenses. Now he couldn't help himself being too aggressive, but he got a lot of credit for having the whole picture. Peyton Manning would talk up James Winston and his intellectual skills. Do you see Tyler Shuck like that in terms of being able

to kind of go through his progressions and see the field like that? I think he's highly, highly, intelligent. I think I got to see more at the NFL level in terms of asking him to read the full field and do all that stuff. But I mean, I'm just pull up my notes on him. He's he's four degrees, Greg. He's 25 years old. He's big and sturdy and strong. He can drive the ball. He does get to number three. I've got that in my notes. So I have seen him get to number three in progressions, which is good. Make some big off balance throws. There's times where I think pocket feel and awareness is a little bit. bit of an issue at times so we'll see how he does there but gosh the guy's almost six five two hundred 20 pounds he ran four six three like he's he's a big athletic guy who can make some big time throws it's just um i think there's going to be there's going to be some to really use a current reference there's going to be some big bucks and there's going to be some whammies wow i like to keep my references a good 35 years old like do i like to that is that is a reference

it took me a second to register but press my luck is it? Yes. Very well done. Something like that. Yeah. Well, you don't notice. A little gremlin, the little gremlin on there. I once had a job, which I think you would have appreciated. I worked for a show called Most Outrageous Game Show moments, four and five, I believe. And my job was to just watch old game shows all day long looking for outrageous moments. 10 hours a day, DJ, for weeks at a time. People think that's a great job. It gets old pretty fast, man.

What was your, what was the most likely show to deliver good content in that regard? The best show by far and the most likely show was the old match game. Match game. Match game. They were drunk. It was fun. I'll ride for match game. There was a lot of Scrabble, a lot of Scrabble.

Was Brian Billick? Wasn't Brian Billick on match game? I believe so. We would have some old celebrities. but this is this is what I did right right out of college um yeah you mentioned chuck four degrees do you know what the degrees are in that's insane I don't stop my head yeah he went to college for 11 15 17 years the the progress by the way for him is exactly what you want

out of a rookie quarterback that starts slow like it reportedly was not good early that there actually was quite a bit of separation between him and spencer rattler just in terms of being able to run the offense and every week, every practice. You saw it in the preseason. You hear that. That was Chuck's best practice. That was Chuck's best practice. And it's getting better and better. And he's getting more and more comfortable. So we'll see. He's the guy you would think they want to win that job. I have Justin Reed for the Saints as a good pickup. We know he's got the job. He had the job even before Honey Badger retired. If you remember Honey Badger retired right at the start of training camp and

then they brought in Julian Blackman. This team, it's a weird build. They are definitely a veteran team for the most part on defense. You know, you have Cam Jordan and Granderson and DeMario Davis and Pete Warner. And you talk to people there and Brandon Staley with Justin Reed. I think the entire team is already looking at him as a leader and a guy who in that defense is going to help get that secondary set. And if this team has any path to be competitive this year, it is through that defense. And I've always thought he's an underrated player, won a couple of Super Bowl, has been to another. and has helped every team that he's been on.

And the excitement level for him, I know inside that building among the players and the coaches is very high. They are very happy with who they have in Justin Reed, the safety. Yeah, look, to me, he's a dependable, reliable player. When I look at this defense on a whole, though, I just, you know, age-wise up front and impact-wise, what are you going to get? Brise is a good player. I just when I when I look at their group at this point in time

and where these guys are in their careers you know with Chase Young again solid but I don't see anybody and Cam was that guy forever but I don't see Kool-Aid. Kool-Aid's getting a lot of pop No Kool-Aid's done well in the second year but I'm just talking about the front and I used to have to work on the advanced scouting reports when you're playing a team and we would kind of just highlight the guys like hey you don't want this guy to beat you like this guy that is going to demand extra attention

Who is that guy on that, on that front? I don't know that they have one. Yeah, it'd probably be Brisee if he took a big jump. That would be your best hope. But you're, you're right. It's a solid player. I just don't think you have to game plan around anybody on that, on that front. It's, yeah, but it's Brandon Staley.

Your old guy's revenge, you know, he's feeling free. Well, I think he's going to try and not give up big plays and just, you know, try and try and have a slow bleed there. I do want to point out. You said I got to see Shuck in person. And that was through your largesse. You know, he gives me all this grief here on the show. And then when he hears that I'm going to a Chargers Saints game with my son, he's a good human.

Dan, the first thing he does, he's like, oh, you can have my tickets. You can take my Chargers and employee tickets, sit nice and comfortable and enjoy some preseason action. So I thank you for that, DJ. We got a new favorite player. Yeah, Marlow Wax, baby. Let's go. So there's two options and how you look at that whole situation, Greg.

Number one, I'm an underrated good friend to you and looking out for you and wanted you and your son to have a wonderful evening. Number two, trying to convince anybody in my family that it's worth driving from San Diego to SoFi to watch the Saints quarterback competition unfold wasn't an easy sell. That's why partly we wanted to go.

my son loves ball and they wanted to see some relevant action whereas like the rams and the chargers they're just throwing out backups but the the chargers are more interesting they got they got tray lance i would marlow wax parents out there yes that first of all preseason's underrated because it's just a little more chill it's like good for kids you know the regular season get some get them a pretzel and in uh everyone's drunk if you want to leave early you don't feel bad about it and then you can find underrated gems and i know we're in the the nfc south and we're way off track here. But what was his name, Marlow Wax?

Marl Wax. Yes. He was so good in that game. We left that game saying Marlowe Wax, my son, without me saying a word, is my new favorite player number 58. So watch out for Wax for the Chargers. There's a tip. Wild card time?

Sure. Go for it. I'm going to go to the same team. And I'm going to go, Prince Lee, Oman, me, Ellen. And I probably messed that up. No, that's right. He said very slow and uncomfortable, but you were right. The best is at the Senior Bowl.

They were doing it after practice, like one-on-ones where they would highlight a couple guys. And he goes, coach goes over, we have them miced up. So he goes over to Princely. And he's like, hey, what's your last name? He goes, Oman, me, Ellen. And he goes, what? And he says it again.

He goes, all right, and this one-on-one, Prince. And he is not even, not even going to take a swing of that thing. That's what you guys did as broadcasters, too. He's gotten a little pop in the preseason reports. I think he's wearing 30 is he were in 33. I watched his, I watched his playtime and took a peek at him. I have to go back and double check.

But I think he was the one that I was watching. Yeah, he was 30. Larry Bird, Larry Legend. You think it's for him? I kind of like that. He's long and lean. And that 33 actually kind of look kind of cool on him coming off the edge.

But he has a ton of count. Anymore? Don't we want numbers to have meanings? It's confusing. No, he looks like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar coming off the edge. Dude, I absolutely am a fan of that. that but long athletic he can win high side so he wins at the top of rushes he's got a good feel for

like a risk control you'll see him just latch on to guys get their hands off him he can really close and cover ground I'm telling you if you just watched he's not a real power guy that's kind of the knock on him but if you if I put together 25 play highlights on everybody in the draft and and you just watch like his 25 best plays you'd like that guy might be a top 10 pick like he's got some freaky stuff to him so we'll see how that all comes together but again And I think with him and Scorton, those two young guys to watch there. All right. I think we're a little higher on the Panthers defense maybe with all these additions than I expect it.

I'm kind of talking myself into thinking the Panthers might be decent on defense right now. I think so. And Canal says that Pete Carroll vibe of like getting everyone on the same page and certainly turn them around by the end of last year in the offense. I'm excited. I'm also excited that my guy, Teddy Bridgewater is back in the league. That's my wild card. I just want an excuse. Bridgewater to you.

Hey, he goes, he wins a state championship for his high school, and then he comes back into the NFL. I mean, he was back in it at the end of last year, too, with the Detroit Lions. And I'm saying this with a tongue in cheek, because I think he's, you know, an underrated, always a good, you know, story and good player. But, hey, if Baker Mayfield misses a game or two, this is a team that I've said, I think, can compete for the Super Bowl. So can Teddy Bridgewater keep them competitive for a few games while Baker Mayfield is out?

So, you know, if it's not like a long-term injury, I'm assuming he gets the backup job over Kyle Trask. Give me some Teddy Bridgewater back in my life in 2025. So we always talk about comps, right? And you, you know, they always like us, you know, I don't get any pressure to this, but it's always with scouts, we always challenge ourselves to do the cross-racial line comps. Yeah. So that you don't just compare every white slot receiver to Edelman or, whatever. So I was thinking of who I would want to play Teddy Bridgewater in the Teddy

Bridgewater movie. I'm going to go Dennis Quaid. I'm going to go Dennis Quaid because he was in some baseball movie where he was like a 35 year old who then ended up going and making his way into the major leagues. Like had a whole separate life. Teddy was done with football. Had a whole separate life. Went out won a championship as a coach and now he's coming back. So I'm going to have, we're going to, man, Dennis Quaid might be a little old to play this. But that's my, that's my pick to to play Teddy Bridgewater in the Bridgewater movie. I think that's a little confusing, maybe problematic. I'm not sure, but I like the idea of that.

Isn't that who, that was who played the guy, right? The baseball movie. Actors is maybe Teddy of quarterbacks. Underrated, like a higher success rate than you realize. He shows up. You're happy to see him there. And so that's where I'm like. Does he have a weird, I don't know if Teddy Bridgewater has a brother who went off

the reservation moved to Canada. But, I mean, DJ, you really, you know, I make a joke about the dad jokes, but we're the same age and yet your references are always way old. I'm the youngest of four. I'm the youngest of four. So like I love like, you know, 80s and early 90s music. I was class of 96, but I still like a lot.

Because I was the guy who my brother's seven years older than me. I was riding around his Ford Ranger truck, you know, as a kid. So that was the stuff that I, that I dug. Okay. So that's why you're super into Randy Quaid. and shot the pop. Big little house on the prairie guy. I mean, who doesn't love Perry Mason?

Come on. Me. Yeah, we're one year apart. I'm watching, you know, MTV, a little, yeah, at least that somewhat. By the way, by the way, Tyler Shuck, to rewind, criminal science and polysci from Oregon at Texas Tech Masters and Interdisciplinary Studies at Louisville, we're still efforting to get that information, but he did collect the degree there. interdisciplinary studies, that this is like, not a real. That's a little vague. I feel like, that's like, hey, you just need to go to school and you got to do something.

What did you major in, Greg? I was a political science major. Tulane didn't offer communications. I really did want to go into broadcasting, but they didn't have it, but they gave me a little scholarship. So I went there anyways. And so I took PolySai. I regretted it.

All right. Well, criminal science and polyscience. I mean, Shucks got one of your degrees. So he's already got that one in the back pocket. As we wrap this up, I don't even need to ask what DJ majored in at App State. It was just just football. That's what DJ majored in. We'll be back next week.

Broadcast management and marketing and the communications department. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's why I'm so good at marketing this great show that we're doing, man. He's really putting those tools to use. A little different time and era. We were talking about billboards and things like that. And in those years, not really the marketing tool of choice these days.

but nonetheless. A, word of mouth, let your friends know 40s and free agents. We'll be back next week, wrapping up our division look, AFC East, NFC East. And yeah, go ahead, subscribe, leave us a five-star review. Tell us which, no, don't tell us which host that you like better. We'll see you next day. NFL is rolling. That's right, and you should be listening to NFL Daily as we march along to Super Bowl 60.

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