NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 49ers-Eagles Trade, Three 2025 NFL Season Hype Bunnies & Madden Correspondent Nick Shook

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

On this edition of NFL Daily, Gregg Rosenthal is joined by "Madden correspondent" Nick Shook following the game's — very predictable — cover reveal. The duo also breaks down a mutually beneficial trade between the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles. After running through some news topics across OTAs including Stefon Diggs, T.J. Watt and the ManningCast, Gregg and Nick share a few "hype bunnies" for the 2025 NFL season, including a rookie running back, an explosive wide receiver and another authoritative pass catcher. (0:00) - Start (1:25) - 49ers make a trade with Eagles (5:28) - Stefon Diggs drama (7:50) - Vikings GM signs extension (10:00) - Free Agent Von Miller seeking contract (11:40) - Bill Belichick won’t be on the Manningcast (13:59) - Is TJ Watt a future Hall of Famer? (17:40) - Notes from OTAs (18:17) - Madden Summit Nuggets  (25:10) - 2025 NFL Season Hype Bunnies  NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're living in a post-June 1st world. I'm Greg Rosenthal here with my friend, Nick Schorke. he's back off the road after going to EA Sports in Orlando to check out Madden, big, big weekend for you. Nick, what's going? Oh, yeah. You know, you know, I'm a, gamer of sorts. And it's always fun every year to go down to EA and check out the new titles.

And now that they got two, it's two days of virtual football glory. And it was a fantastic time with lots of information game that you will be hearing about for me in the coming days and weeks. Ooh, I mean, I don't know how Nick got on this list. He's like a gamer influencer, but it's pretty cool. Do they pay for your flight to go down there or no? Well, to keep it, I guess, kosher or whatever, we split it down the middle. So they cover it a little bit. We cover the rest.

Interesting. We'll do some news, just little bits with our next full week of OTAs coming up right now, with the mini camps are coming up next week. And then we'll talk about a couple of players that we think are going to be hype bunnies. this year to wrap up the show after we hear a little bit from Nick about his Madden trip. Well, we'll start with news on the 49ers making a trade. How about Bryce Huff, who we mentioned last week, not showing up to Eagles OTAs? There was a reason for that.

He is going to the San Francisco 49ers who have been looking a little thin in terms of their defensive line. They get an edge rusher from the Eagles. Not sure on the compensation. It's not going to be much, whatever it is. But the money is interesting. to me, the Eagles will pay $9 million of his roughly $17 million guaranteed salary just to make him go away.

And the 49ers get a rotational pass rusher at worst and only pay him $8 million. What do you think about this move, shift? A smart move for the Niners to capitalize on what appeared to be a situation which the Eagles wanted to move on from Huff for one reason or another. Now, this has been a bit of a mass exodus up on the defensive front for the Eagles this off season, but it was one that we anticipate. I didn't quite expect Huff to be involved, but they also made the addition of Ziz O'Jolari in the offseason, and they have other pieces there that they were preparing for this scenario.

So it makes sense for them to get compensation back. And for the Niners, they were pretty desperate at the position. So it's a low risk, potentially higher reward addition for them. So I like it for both sides. It's pretty rare that we get a deal at this time of the year where you're like, oh, make sense for both. Well, I referred to the June 1st thing. Yeah, now it makes sense for them because they would have taken. taken a huge cap hit. I mean, Bryce Huff was a big time free agent signing a year ago, one of

Howie's big swings and misses. And he takes a lot of swings. And so one thing I like about the Eagles is that when they miss, they move off it right away. And they only have $3 million in dead money because they waited until after June 1st. It would have been $12 million before that. So it's not taking up much of the cap. In fact, they actually save $4 million in cap. And when you're a good organization that doesn't mind ownership paying a lot of cash to get rid of problems, they are paying actual cash. Like the Eagles actually have to pay $9 million for him to go away, but you might have even undersold it with, you know, a nice upside for them. I mean, they're paying $8 million. It's so hard to get free agents. Did you know that Bryce off,

the last time he was with Robert Sala, who was the Jets head coach and is now the 49ers defensive coordinator, Bryce off had 68 pressures and literally led the league in pressure rate, according to X-gen stats. And you get him for eight million bucks. It's a system that he'll make more sense. And for whatever reason, he just could not get on the field for the Eagles. It was a total bust when he did get on the field. He didn't look good. I don't know if he had a bad off season or he just didn't fit that scheme. But pass rushing should travel. And it'll help them because they have Nick Bosa, of course, but they also have Mikel Williams, their first round draft pick. They brought in more of a run stopper. They have Yatur Gros Mottos. And suddenly they look a little more

like a good 49ers pass rush that we remember in the past. It's very thin at defensive tackle. But I think this was a move that a smart team makes. I think the 49ers are going to be better this year than people. Yeah, they threw some draft capital of the defensive interior as well. So this is, it was a transitional offseason for them up front. They knew that was going to be the case with Javon Hargrave, that whole thing, you know, them splitting sides.

But I also think it's kind of a funny examination of what you just described, which is how situation matters and scheme matters. But like if we go back a year ago, it was Hassan Reddy, Redick ends up with the Jets. Bryce Huff ends up with the Eagles, a bit of a one-for-one swap, and neither, the most we got out of it was Reddick's protracted contract dispute with them. Otherwise, we didn't really get much of anything out of either of them. Yeah, and Huff is much younger, so you just figure he can bounce back than Reddick, although

I think Reddick could bounce back this year, too. But it does leave the Eagles a little thin. The Eagles are known for having such a deep defensive line in pass rush. Their pass rushers right now are Nolan Smith, an emerging player, but still young and not superstar. Jay Laxan had a nice Super Bowl, but a third round pick from a year ago that didn't play much. And then Josh Uche and Azizzo Jolari, who you mentioned, two reclamation projects. So a little thinner than usual, but I like the move really for both sides because Huff clearly had no future there. All right. We mentioned Stefan Diggs last week. I'm going back to this now. Because

Shook, Diggs did show up to OTAs on Monday. Josh McDaniels did not sound any alarms about Diggs's future kind of downplayed the boat video, which we discussed a little more at length last week. We don't need to go over that again. But I wanted to bring it up because Scott Zolak, who we've mentioned plenty of times on this show, the radio announcer for the Patriots who likes to pop off. And Michael Felger on their radio show, they're talking all week about digs, talking about maybe he's going to get cut. You have not seen any credible reporter say that in New England.

I think there's a reason for that. Greg Bedard, for instance, of Boston Sports Journal, said the Patriots were not going to cut Stefan Diggs because of this. I think it's something where he'll have a stern talking to, Nick Shook, but I did want to put that out there, that all this getting cut caught talk maybe sounds like they got nothing to talk about in New England because there's no sports going on other than the Red Sox thinking and just needing to talk about something. Yeah, well, thank you Celtics for, you know, getting injured and falling out of the playoffs to kind of affect that. But yeah, it's also, I think, a good example of how one beat can get so trained in the ways of an old regime that they just expect things to happen because Mike Frable's now back and the Patriots, no nonsense type of organization, but fail to realize that it's 2025 and that you are the Patriots trying to come back from the cellar and that you could use a player like Diggs as long as he's able to come back healthy at some point this year. Right. And it's not like they haven't been happy with his recovery from his surgery. And, you know, he's known for. his work ethic throughout his career. Now, you know,

when you have mystery substances on video, it's not a good, it's not great. It's just both. Stop being on boats where videos are being taken. Do like comedians do it the shows. Put everybody's phones and bags. Lock them away. Help yourself out.

It's not great. It could literally get you in trouble with the NFL and the drug policy. So I'm sure they spoke to them about it, but it does sound like something where it's like, okay, this time just can we, can we make some better decisions and it's more like a stern warning from a teacher and the next time it happens, it could be troubled. This is a one-year deal, by the way, for Stefan Diggs. I think that's been lost in the shuffle because it was counted as three years, $66 million. If it doesn't

go well, they can get out of it after this year. But I do think they're going to play it out this year. Speaking of contracts, Quesi, Adofo, Mensa, the Minnesota Vikings general manager got an extension over the weekend. Any thoughts on where the Vikings are? at them giving their their GM now of what? I think it's been four years now, an extension right now. Yeah, well, time flies because about four years, it feels like it's been shorter than that. But it's also, I just think it's kind of funny because the Vikings are doing all the right things for a team that, you know, succeeded like they did last year. And they went into an offseason, despite winning all those games last year with a bit

of uncertainty. It started with the same Donald situation. We kind of knew how that was going to play out. And it did play out as we expected. It continued with Kevin O'Connell not having an extension, they get him one, and then it comes down to Quincy, and he gets his done as well. So it's step by step, trusting the process. They get everything done. It makes a lot of sense. But again, this league, as we get older and the longer we work in this business, we realize the patience just continues to thin out. And this is a pressure pack season for them because they're putting all their chips into the center of the table on JJ McCarthy, and especially coming off of how they played last year. Not saying that they're not going to live up to those

expectations, but there is a lot of pressure on them. So I guess it's good to get that extension done now as opposed to letting it linger into the season. Yeah. And you know what? The Wilf's who took over this ownership from what was really a rough group before Red McCombs, if you wanted to go back, have been very patient. I think in general with their coaches, it's been a well-run organization. They got that stadium built. I did find that interesting that the coach and the GM, the extensions came so far apart. Right. It actually is more than three years. This will be going into his fourth season. And there was some buzz of, you know, are those two guys always on the same page? I do think KOC has more juice in that

building for whatever it's worth. Quessie's drafts have not been good. They have not been a good drafting team. They've made some good moves in free agency. Some of the players that were there before, they obviously have made great coaching hires with KOC and Brian Flores. So they really need J.J. McCarthy to hit because that's a Quesci guy. But they're on they're on the same page there. Speaking of, you know, guys looking for contracts, Adofa Menta was, Von Miller is too. He was quoted telling Mike Cleese, who's covered the Broncos for a long time, that he's, quote, definitely playing in 2025. It was a reminder to me that Von Miller is a free agent at all. I wonder, does he have any information that he's got contract offers out there and he's waiting?

That maybe is what that indicates to me because he did not look great last year, Nick. No, I mean, he hasn't looked great over the last few years because he's been hurt or just in the shadows when he was in his final years in Buffalo. I mean, it kind of, I made this comparison with the Aaron Rogers situation on and on over the last few months, but this kind of does reek of a Michael Strayan situation where it's like, I'm going to ride this out and maybe not go to camp or just show up at some point in camp and just see who wants a Jadavian Clownie situation. He's done that before in the off season. He's a free agent right now too. He doesn't quite as have as much leverage, I think, as Clowny did maybe three years ago. but I can still see someone taking a fly on him because you can never have enough edge rushing help.

And if you get him cheap enough, then it's not even a risk. It's just like, all right, let's throw another veteran in here and try and get a little bit better. This is a guy who has made about as much as any defensive player has in the NFL over the last 10 years, a guy who, for a future project, was looking at his resume and looking at him closer. I mean, he's almost obviously a future Hall of Famer and is in the upper tier, really, of past rushers over the last. last 10 plus years. Is he going to want to play for just a few million dollars to go chase a ring? Because I think that's what he's going to have to do and go make a team because at his age coming off an injury. But he says he's, quote, definitely playing. So maybe he has an offer

out there. You know who does not have an offer? It's Bill Belichick on the Manning cast. I take that back. I spoke incorrectly. He probably did have an offer shook, but he will not be on the Manning cast next year. I find this interesting. Peyton Manning was at some golf. event and he he mentioned publicly that bill belichick will not be part of the telecast i mentioned that partly because the last time this came up at all uh his agent for instance said he's gonna still be doing all this media stuff including the manning cast this year but maybe when push came to shove he realized he did not really have time to devote like five hours every monday night to the manning cast so will you miss the belichick era on the manning cast um a little but honestly i'm not a manningcast

guy just be not that i don't like the interviews and everything else, but I prefer to stick to the traditional broadcast and do my job as the guy on Monday night football. But I will say that this is an example of how the Belichick tenure at North Carolina has already gotten weird. Like, it was, you show up with all this pomp and circumstance. There's all the focus on his girlfriend and all the things he's doing outside of the program. It's almost as if he's had to take a look in the mirror or UNC officials have had to meet with him and be like, hey, reel it in. You're our coach. You're the CEO of the program. We're paying you to do that, not be this persona.

So it makes a lot of sense as a coach who still has to handle recruiting and oversee a D1 football program that he's not on a Monday night show multiple times per year. Right. You could look at it as it was good recruiting. I became less of a Manningcast guy last year. I really like it. But when we're doing these recaps on Monday night, I'm with you. Shook, I feel like I get a little less locked in if I'm watching the Manning Cast.

But it was cool. I watched it a decent amount. He will not be there. Inside the NFL has an uncertain future, but I'd be shocked if he was part of that. Maybe he'll still do the... I liked him on that. That was a better example of who Bill Belichick could be on camera

inside the NFL when he could sit down and go through tape with, you know, chat out Jocinco and the rest of the guys and kind of explain what's going on here and get back. It felt like I was in a film room with the guys after a Sunday game and he was getting ready to tear somebody apart for making a mistake. Yeah, and they mentioned it's not. not coming back to the CW. So right now it's a little unclear if and how that show will exist into next year.

T.J. Y, we just talked about Von Miller, future Hall of Famer. Do you think T.J. Watt is a future Hall of Famer if, let's say, he doesn't do a ton in the rest of his career. Yeah. Already. Yeah, he'll be in there. Defensive player of the year kind of puts you in the consideration right away.

I think the production has been consistent enough. I hope that that's not the last. that we've seen of him because he's not the last but like it for some reason it fell off so i was just trying to be yeah no i get your transition i understand i'm picking up what you're putting down i get it but at the same time it's like hey i like i'm worried about the whole he's the peace sign or whatever it was uh on social media and steeler's fans are worried about whether he's going to leave do we trade him somebody sent me one of those graphics off of some social media site the other day where it was like t j watt for a 2025 first round pick without you know realizing that the

2025 draft has already come and gone. Like, this is where we're at in the off season right now. I hope he stays with the Steelers for the rest of his career and finishes strong and ends up, you know, cementing that Hall of Fame resume because I think he'll be there. Yeah, he's not at OTAs right now. Mark Koboli, who's covered them for a while, said on his podcast that the Steelers have made an offer to T.J. Watt. So that's why I'm bringing that up.

He's looking for a new contract. It's not the right time of year to make a trade. It just doesn't make any sense. to me, if teams were more aggressive about this stuff, it wouldn't have been that crazy if you could have gotten a haul for T.J. Watt before the draft and you wanted to really invest in your young players at the position, Nick Herberg and Alex Highsmith are awesome and you're pretty deep there. But at this time of year, you got to just give him that money. And the bar has been set, Miles Garrett, Max Crosby. They're all roughly in the same ballpark age-wise

as T.J. Watt. And I went through his career. And that's why I asked about Hall of Fame. Like, I realized he could retire today and he's in the Hall of Fame. He's been top five and defensive player of the year voting. Yeah. Four times. Top three, three times. He won it once.

He's been first team all pro four times. Like, people have made the Hall of Fame with much less. And so that's an all-time great. And that's why that negotiation is tricky because you got to just pay the premium for TJ. Wow, I don't care if he's 30. But what I hate about it is the fact. that he has to come after Miles Garrett and Max Crosby because the Steelers over the last few years

have invested a ton of money into their defense. It's been like the most expensive defense in the NFL. And I worry that there won't be enough space to pay him well enough or as he deserves. Like you know, you reset the market with a Miles Garrett deal. I don't feel 100% confident that the Steelers would give TJ Watt more money than Miles Garrett. And at that point, it feels unfair to him because he's been just as good,

if not better than Miles Garrett for most of his career. I mean, they're neck and neck and defensive part of the year for most years. from a brown sky i'm sure respect where it's due i mean miles garret's a hell of a player but t j wad is too and i just worry that he's not going to get compensated as fairly if he's going to stay in pittsburgh and he's going in the last year of a deal so it gets a little uncertain and i just don't like the vibe around it right now but then again it's a product of the business set in which they build these clubs if we got really bored in the off season i could do a rankings of like holdouts that i actually think would last the longest and t j watt would be near the top

If he wants to push it because of everything you just said. Well said. He's made so many big plays. They've been in big games. I'm still a Garrett guy. I think it's a decent amount. But his force fumble, like he's been top five in force fumbles five times, DJ what? It's just.

He's inevitable. Except for the end of last season. Like no one's ever done that. Pay the man his money. Just a couple little OTA notes. I just wanted to mention to keep everyone that listens up to date. Johnny Smith. We talked about him possibly getting traded to the Steelers, speaking to Pittsburgh on Friday's show. He has made it clear through his agent. He wants to stay in Miami. So they're going to try to work something out there.

We'll see if that happens. C.J. Stroud was not throwing at practice last week. He might be back this week. They're really downplaying it, but it was a pectoral issue. And then Hunter Renfro, who's been at Panthers camp, has, quote, made huge strides every week coming back from an injury, an illness. and just so something to watch in the spring. I'm just going to keep an eye on that. Let's talk a little Madden, though, Shook. You were down in Orlando. They announced that Sequin Barclay was going to be on the cover of Madden. And they picked the picture that everyone would have expected them to pick.

Adam Schaefter got the news first. I guess he must be a friend of the EA family. And yes, it's Saquan Barkley on the cover, jumping over poor Jerry and Jones. of the Jaguars who now has to be on the cover of Madden getting jumped over for the rest of his life, that's brutal. Well, I mean, that photo itself is staged to make it look good with studio lighting and everything, but they're replicating

what happened in real life, the play that we all saw, the play that we discussed on NFL daily, you know, hours after it happened during that week. And you know what? And you think Schaefter got the news first? Brother, I got the news days ago. Okay, but you couldn't report it. Of course, exactly. Wait, so I didn't look closely. Is that, that's not

Jerry and Jones. That's not an actual game shot. No, those photos are staged to to look good on the cover, but they were essentially recreating what happened in real life, just with better lighting, so it looks more cinematic and everything else. But I'm at the presentation on Friday, and they're like,

is anybody have a guess about who the cover would be? And everyone's like, Sequin. And they're like, oh, surprise it's, yeah, it's Seekwan. Like, there's no better pairing for a video game and an athlete who made an incredible play than Seekoine Barkley in the reverse hurdle to put in Madden, which by the way,

last season, they had that ability to perform that type of hurdle in the game with Saquan within a week of it happening, which is a credit to their development team getting that in the game. But yeah, they're very excited about the game and about having Seaquin on it. And it's just the tip of the iceberg for what they're about to reveal in the coming weeks. Oh, interesting. Little tease. Yeah, a lot of changes.

I was, I guess, not surprised that this was the cover because an account on social last week that was a fake shefter. That was like Adam 1 Schaefter, but there was like a one where the T should be, said this was going to be the Madden cover. It was a slightly different picture. But good guess by them. Faked out me and my son for about 30 seconds.

And then I gave him a lesson in, see, you got to be careful. There's these fake accounts out there. It's not real. Kids coming up. It's got to be very tricky. Let's talk, though, about Madden. You were down there. What can you tell us?

Like, what did you find interesting being down in Orlando for the gamers out there? I am curious. First off, the level of excitement. So I like to compare year by year. I mean, that's how we all go through life with contextual experiences and how we apply going forward. And last year at this time, it was all about the return of the college football game. And they tiered it last year with Madden was first.

College football was second. They saved the biggest and best for last with, you know, new items and everything else to talk about. This year is reversed. This year was college football was Thursday. Madden was Friday. And as soon as I saw that, I thought, maybe I'd have something up their sleeve for Madden. As we wrapped up college football on Thursday, all the people that, you know, are working on both sides with the EA between college and Madden, what they call their American football division as a whole, we're so excited.

They looked at me and they were like, just wait until we show you what we got coming tomorrow. And I was like, oh, okay. And I'm a cynic. You know, I'm skeptical. So I was like, all right, we'll wait and see. We get in that presentation. And they were loaded with new features. I don't know how, now it is part of, they're able to, you know, work on multi-year initiatives with the game now.

They do have a bit of a longer runway to try to improve the game over the long term. And now you're kind of seeing the fruits of that labor start to, you know, become realized. This is something that I've talked with these developers about, you know, sitting there in person, whether it was in Redwood City or in Orlando over the last three years. And they thought, we know it's coming three years from now. We're working on, you know, X, Y, and Z that we can't tell you, but it's going to change the game for the better in the long run. Their biggest goal is to be the most realistic sports simulation on the market, not just football, but sports.

And I think that the approach they took to this game this year without revealing a ton of details is getting them much closer to that. They've attacked it in a number of different areas. Some of the things they've already talked about, includes the way that they are approaching coaching, which in the past you would make your coach and you would just kind of play through seasons. It's different now. There are different ways to customize and game plan and everything else that might blow your mind.

And as soon as they go through all these details with franchise mode and everything else, which got a massive overhaul, the biggest in a decade, then they, I'm thinking, there's no way they also put this type of effort into their other modes. And sure enough, Superstar has a ton of great new stuff coming to it as well. So, you know, I don't mean to sound like a, like a shill of sorts. You do, but I'm very excited for people to see this and to get my hands on it further than I did when I was playing it at EA on Friday because if everything goes right, this will be a big leap forward for them.

And again, if everything goes right, technicality. But you played it. Wait, so you played it. You know if it went right or not, did you? I had a lot of fun playing it, but I wasn't there for, I was only playing it for about an hour and a half for I to go catch a flight. So we need more time on it for me to really figure it out. But if everything goes right and they can avoid some of the pitfalls that come with game

development, people are going to be very pleased with this. And it'll be a sign of them putting significant effort into this game. And it's what fans have wanted for a long time. Okay, good to hear. and I think them being so excited and maybe your excitement and skepticism might be partly because I think people can get in a little sick of the Maddens lately that they needed it. That needed a little juice. Not like obviously it's well known and this is a video game like industry wide thing.

People are still playing and buying Madden but I think there was Madden fatigue, I would say. Well, okay, let me say this. How does Walker play Madden? a lot of in Superstar a lot of Superstar but I mean he plays with his friends he he he plays in franchise money he plays in everything but there's something coming to to Superstar that you're going to watch him play all the time okay with his friends that's one thing people like me who play franchise who play in leagues or single players I I have a long time friend who plays a single player Madden franchise 10 15 20 25 seasons deep the problem was

that it was just formulaic and got kind of old after well. You had to use your imagination. A lot of that has been replaced with new mechanisms in the game that I think will keep people engaged longer, which is most important to the overall strength of the game. Okay. I'm interested. I'm excited. And yes, he does a lot of franchise.

I mean, I guess he does it all. That's his main game. Finally let him start playing Fortnite lately. And so that's now taking up a lot of time. It'll be on to call it as well. But like some absolutely, absolutely ridiculous trades going on. in franchise mode. Hey, this is Matt Jones.

Now, I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL cover zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining.

And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team-building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

Every week we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig into coaching strategies, roster construction, and the trends that shape the league year after year. Whether you're a die-hard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level, we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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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. All right, let's wrap up this show with a couple hype bunnies. This will be quick, but I was listening to the Lions talk about James and Williams. And I just thought, oh, man, this is one of those players this season that is going to be a hype bunny everywhere.

And I thought we would get ahead of it, shook, because there are just certain players in certain seasons that by the time the season gets there, you're like, okay, like, I'm almost sick of hearing how this guy is going to have a breakout player. So we're here early June, almost predicting and talking about just two. players. I'm going to pick Jameson Williams, but I'll let you go first and explain your pick of who's going to be a hype bunny for this season, just a player that everyone is sort of talking about, that the league is talking about going into 2025. I'm going to skew toward rookies because that's dominated a lot of the offseason as it always does. But one guy I'm thinking of is Ashton Genty because I think that the Raiders lacked the presence that they had in the back hill with Josh Jacobs in years prior. And the Raiders have a lot of positive buzz around them right now.

You are a walking, breathing example of it at times because Gino Smith is their quarterback now and Pete Carroll's the coach. Gentie fills out that offense. And I mean, we're talking about him changing his stance in OTAs and that that's getting traction. So I think he's actually going to produce at a relatively high level and people are going to pay attention to him and love watching him run the football in the NFL throughout this season. He's going to be one of the big ones, I think, who's going to come in and have an instant impact on this team. And kind of like Bijon Robinson had a lot of hype following him in Atlanta a couple of years. ago. It's going to be similar to that. It's a league-wide trend now. Running backs are back. And we've got Seaquin on Matt. McCaffrey was on the cover last year. Now you got Seaquin.

They're back. We got Derek Henry getting big time money. And we got stuck in this conversation for so long about how running backs are relatively fungible and that their careers end quicker. And that is all true why they don't necessarily get or deserve big second contracts. unless they're the best of the best, like a Henry or McCaffrey or Saquan. But it has never changed the fact, shook, that running backs are cool, that running backs are fun,

that when you're a kid, what do you want to be? You want to be a running back. When you're a kid, what do you want to watch? When you're an adult, what do you want to watch? When you're a fantasy player, who do you want to draft? Who do you want to watch?

Like, no matter how much you tell us that the position is worth less, it's actually never been any less cool. And we should have superstars. Now, we don't have to go back to the 70s where running backs were literally the kings of the sport. They were almost more important than quarterback. But we need to find some sort of balance where guys like Ashton Genti are the biggest stars in the sport. And if they're only the biggest stars for six or seven years, who cares?

We don't need everyone to be Tom Brady. I'm with you. Like, he makes the Raiders watchable and box office in a way that they just haven't been for years. At least on paper right now. I think he'll do it, though. Yeah, I do too. He'll do it. All right. I will go with Jameson Williams as my pick, and he's entering year four. It's a perfect time, a guy towards the end of his rookie contract to just start being the subject of all the pieces.

He's had this narrative arc shook. Disappointment right off the bat. Immature on and off the field. I mean, last season, we're coming into the season. You know, there's multiple suspensions going on in his career. whether it was, you know, the substance abuse policy, I mean, the PED policy, rather, I should say, and the gambling policy previously, like he has not made great decisions. And yet he shows up last season and he gets over a thousand yards and he finally shows that progress on the field that you wanted to see. And now he's coming into his own and he's just such an obvious candidate to get talked about so much. Let's listen to Dan Campbell talking about James and Williams last week. His ability to stop, put his foot in the ground. Man, when you can run

like he can run and now you're beginning to where, man, you can stop on a dime. I mean, you talk about a hard cover. So the sky's the limit for him. He's exactly where we want him to be right now at this point, man. He's been here. He's grinding. He's getting better. Scott, he's freaking grinding him. It's awesome. But we expect him to have a huge season. who sky's the limit says the headlines where you expect them to have a huge season says the headlines are you buying shook hmm i did say i'm a skeptic i did say i'm a cynic but i know the talent is there it's just been the ability to stay on the field and his his fit in that offense is so good too like if if you could extract near maximum production from jameson williams and

arm and ross st brown at the same time you got one of the best duos in the NFL right off off the top but we haven't seen it at the level that I would envision it to be. Is he talented enough? Yes. Sure. He didn't stick at Ohio State because they were loaded at receiver. And then he goes to Alabama. He's an instant breakout star.

And we haven't seen it consistently in the NFL because he hasn't been on the field. So if he's on the field all year and they're able to pick up where they left off off despite changing offensive coordinators, then yes. Because I think that he has every gift he needs to produce. It's just a matter of establishing consistency both on and off the field. I think they are big up being James and Williams in the off season because they see a change in him. Here's some quotes. This was from the Lions website.

Sky's the limit was the headline. They say coaches have raved about Williams' off season for his play on the field, but his attention to detail in meeting rooms. Every time his name has been brought up, the person talking, whether it's Dan Campbell, Johnny Morton, the offensive coordinator, wide receivers coach, Scotty Montgomery, or Williams' teammates. Big smile crosses their face and say that he has a different attitude in terms of the work that he's putting in and expect a huge season. Just seems like they are all trying to build him up for what's going to be a big season

because if he goes off, he can really get rich in terms of his contract. And I did see development over the last season and a half where he's better at those stop routes. He's not just a one-trick pony in terms of his deep passing. In fact, he was third in the NFL in yak per catch. Now, that's partly because he's got a couple where, you know, he goes like 70 yards on a slant, but that's what he could do for you, second in the NFL in yards per reception. And then I watched a little of his press conference, too, no huge takeaways, but just

does seem like a player who came into the league immature, like a lot of 21-year-olds are and has grown into it in the right organization and seems kind of ready and relaxed and ready for a big season. So I'm buying big time. This is also a club that's not afraid to pay their players. We've seen that over the last few years with their key players. So if he's going to go earn it, now is the time. And I think he would be rewarded handsomely if he does earn it. Now, they'll have to fit it into the cap, but they've done a good job of that so far.

So I like the upside there. I definitely do. The next player I'm going to pick for a hype bunny is I'm going to stay with receiver. Kind of a different narrative here. It's D.K. Metcalf. And it's because, and this is directly tied to Aaron Rogers and whether he eventually decides, decides to sign with Steelers or not, which we've been waiting forever, but we all expect that to happen at some point. Because the Steelers, after meandering through this strange quarterbackless territory where they just cycle guys in and out and try to figure out what they're doing, Kenny Pickett, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, now Mason Rudolph is back, but probably won't start unless Rogers retires. This is a big year for them.

Again, you know, every time I talk to a Steeler fan out in the wild during this off season, I repeatedly get the same question. What do you think about Mike Tomlin? You know, is he really going to be there that long? you know, why can't we win a playoff game? And I tell them the same thing. Guys, you wouldn't even be in the playoffs or in contention if he wasn't your coach because of what the hand he's been dealt at quarterback. He's a found a way to get them there.

But if they have Aaron Rogers and he can play like he did down the stretch of the Jets last year and he can find an established rapport with D.K. Metcalf, the new guy in town, the guy that they like better than they like George Pickens, so much that they traded George Pickens to Dallas, then it's going to attract a ton of buzz. We're going to see Steeler highlights. They got four prime time games. First one's in week seven. And it continues on through the season.

The league expects them to be in contention and to be worth watching in a prime time slot. And a big reason for that is DK Metcalf. So I think we're going to talk about him a lot if he's able to get on the same page with Rogers, if Rogers becomes their quarterback, again, a lot of question marks. But if it all comes together, not saying they're going to win a Super Bowl, but we're going to be talking about Metcalf and the Steelers a lot. Yeah, totally agree with you there. There was always a feeling that there could be more to DK Metcalf.

Well, if not now, then when he's turning 20 this season. Could he have a Terrell Owens' first season with the Cowboys or Eagles type of season? He hasn't had that level of season. We'll see if he can get it done. That is three hype bunnies to keep an eye on heading into the season. That's it for a nice tight Monday show. We will be back on Tuesday with my friend Jordan Roderig of the Athletic. We're trying to get Colleen Wolfe on board.

The negotiations are ongoing. What's going on? We will see. Well, she was off camping. and Big Sur, she's off doing good morning football. We'll see if we can get her, but it would be a big ad if we can. That is it, like I said, for today's shows. A lot of OTAs going on.

Good to have Shook back in the show. I've missed you, Shook. Can you back? Yes, when we're trying to tell everyone to just calm down the boat thing isn't that big of a deal, Stefan Diggs is going to play. Yeah, you know football's better. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks.

On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Fulrio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast.

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