NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Best and Worst Free Agent Signings

Episode Date: March 25, 2021

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus and Gregg Rosenthal are joined by ESPN's Bill Barnwell to bring you all of the latest news in the NFL starting with the Colts bringing back Ty Hilton (9:16), the Giants signing Adoree Jackson (12:15) and Philly's new quarterback (23:00). We hit eight o'clock delight to discuss some more signings before discussing the best and worst free agency signings (35:26).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Thanks, swearing is performative. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL. podcast. It's funny the things that Westwood said. That was wonderful. My name is Dan Hansis. I'm joined in a room filled with just one hero. Right now, it's Greg Rosenthal and our good friend,

Mark Sessler, a little bit under the weather today. So we hope to have him back for the network show on Friday and then back in action next week. And Greg, I mean, I think we need to call in some reinforcements. We can't do just a two-hander. This isn't a Mike and the Mad Dog show. We need more. We could. I mean, that's selling us short, Dan. We've done this for seven years, but the show will be much better with a third quality guest that we have. And quality is the word. Let's welcome him on. He is the football writer over in Bristol. And he is a, we're all longtime fans of his work. This is a second appearance on the show. Give me a little sweet guitar lick.

And now, yeah, you know who he is. Bill Barnwell back in the house on the Around the NFL podcast. What's up, buddy? Hey, how's it going? A pale replacement for Mark Sessler, but I will do my best. Now, you were on the show with him. It was going to be four of us. Barnwell,

who I've known now for, you know, more than a decade, it took us seven years to have him on by mistake but now we're just now we're just taking advantage of you we move the time around all all day you know you're very flexible what what a show this is going to be this is my this is my daily project i am committed to this i would be here all day and all night if you guys would have me okay well that's great here you're going to regret those words but yes bill barnwell is with us to go through all the happenings in the NFL in our league and a little later in the

show, we are going to, Bill wrote two great pieces, as he does every year, breaking down the free agent signings that he thought were smart and the ones that he didn't like very much at all. And we're also going to catch up with the news. But I feel like, and I have two very smart football men with me right now, I'm pinching myself. I have to say, this is the time, Bill, right or wrong, where the real smart teams do their damage now, second and third wave, right?

The players that people aren't thinking as much about, you're going to see some of these guys coming off the board the next week or two that are going to have a big impact in 2021. Day one of Free Agency, as you guys know. It's for the basics. It's for the simps. Is that the right, is that the right word? It's for the Patriots.

It's for the Patriots. The new basics of the NFL. I mean, it seems like year after year. You can sort of take the first day of free agency and take about 90% of the contracts you see and say, Yeah, we shouldn't have done that. That was a bad idea. And it does seem like as time goes on, as you get into the end of the first week,

and now in the second week of Free Agency, we see smarter signings happening. We see teams who we typically regard as smart making moves now. And, of course, we see teams trying to make moves, like The Ravens, for example. Those moves don't always work out, but at least there is a coherent plan and a grasp on what the market is. Whereas in the first day of Free Agency, you may have no idea what the market is, as we saw, with the team you just mentioned, the New England Patriots. It's gone quickly, though. I mean, things got quiet fast this week, relatively.

We have some news, but, you know, we're leading the show with T.Y. Hilton in a second. That's a big step down, you know, as like a top story. And I'm looking at my original top 101, and there's, I think, only four players left out of the top 40. And two of those have major, right, have major injury problems. That's, like, the main reason why they're not even, you know, signed yet, Jedevian, Clowny and Mitchell Schwartz. So I threw out of there just for respect, even though, like, he maybe is retiring. But if he plays again, then I feel like, well, he's worth a shot.

He's worth a shot if he plays at some point. Didn't Kyle Long just come back after like three years out of the league? Yeah. Mitchell will be back. We'll see. He could be. And he would be an asset. You would think if he's healthy.

Yes, let's do it. Before we get into Bill slamming some teams, including Greg's Patriots, which I love. That's why you wanted Bill. That's why you want to. Bill, do you think swearing is performative, by the way? It was one of the hottest takes ever by our friend Chris Wesleying. And it did make me rethink it. Rethink swearing. I don't think that's totally true. I think in the right spot. But maybe it's still performative a little bit. It's a hot take. I think it's certainly performative to an extent. I remember at Grantland, we had the ability to curse in our articles. Like there was like a swear word in the first article ever on Grantland. And people were like, oh, this is crazy. Writing on the internet with curse words you can. I can't do that. And I think I did it once. Then I was like, yeah, I don't need to do this. Like, writing is a lot of words I can use. Writing is definitely, writing swear words is definitely performative. I think so. On a podcast, I think you have to be very selective. I would say maybe if I do one a year, I feel like I am using it appropriately. I mean, isn't writing on some level performative itself? I mean, isn't living performative? I mean, podcast is is completely performative. So that, you know, point, Dan. Here is one take I'll share here because again, I'm in the midst bill

of, well, I've now moved in but there's still a lot of work to be done. I injure myself every day, whether it's catching my hand in a door or the hammer something goes horribly wrong. And I have two young boys in the house and you're trying to set a good example and not use certain swear words.

But when I do invariably bang my thumb, I will, you know, I'll let it rip. I'll say or something like that. Now, Now, here's the thing, and that was performative. No, that was actually just telling the story. But that's a performance, I don't know. Here's the thing.

I have actually read about this, that when you use language like that, it actually is, from the body standpoint, it actually helps. It's a way your brain handles pain. So it actually has a physical use in those type of situations. I think that makes sense, but it also sounds like an excuse someone came up with the justify swearing. It sounds like a team justifying. free agent move like they spent a little too much money and they're like ah like they're okay with it they want to have a good excuse publicly that was that was bill you know segueing us back on track he's like we wouldn't do this on the bill barnwell show me and you know brinson would be

really locking it down right now all right then let's let's do that if that's indeed the case let's hit the news rick now here's what's happened so far the oral roberts university stunning ohio state You know, first of all, kudos, a shot across Bert Breer's bow from Kevin Harland. But more I just wanted to point out that remember that Kevin Harland is not just a gift to NFL fans. I mean, when you talk about the great broadcasters out there, and we've had Kevin on the show, and we're all big fans, you know, you check, you plug in on March Medus, there he is. He's all over the place, and he's one of the greats. When we do our power rankings, Greg, next time for our announcers, we need to keep in mind just the versatility that the man has. Have you guys done a power rankings for announcers?

We did a light one, yeah. We didn't totally say who was last. That was sort of like a group. But we did the top, and Harlan was very close to it. Can we say now that Dick Stockton retired? Can we say that he was last? No. Oh, no.

I mean, the man just retired. Give him a few days. He, look, he did the Carlton Fisk game in the 75 World Series. So it, you know, the last few years were just like Johnny Unitas in a Chargers uniform. It was an all-time legend. It doesn't change what he did. I know. I feel like someone just hit a big prop on Greg making a baseball reference in the first 20 minutes.

All right, let's get into it. Yes, Greg teased at T.Y. Hilton re-signs with the Indianapolis Colts one year, 10 million. Eight of that is guaranteed. The Colts were in the market to add another receiver for Carson Wentz. They kicked the tires on Sammy Watkins, but they end up going with T.Y. Hilton, 31 years old, 10th season. Finish strong, Bill. I think there was an idea that he was maybe going the way of A.J. Green,

although the Cardinal certainly don't think A.J. Green's going the way of A.J. Green. And then he came on really strong and looked pretty vintage in December. Which version do you think Indianapolis gets in 2021? I think they get something between those two. I know that's the boring answer. But I feel like he was a little better over the first half of the year than maybe the numbers indicated. He had a lot of plays where, like, I think he had a bunch of touchdowns called back via penalty maybe. Or some big plays that were narrowly out of balance.

Maybe like he had, it felt like he was on the fringes of being the guy he had been in years past. And then in the second half, maybe was a little more lucky. I think part of this depends on Carson wins, and I think part of it depends on how the other receivers in that group develop. Because if Paris Campbell is healthy, which he has not been for the first two years of his career, if Michael Pittman takes a step forward, you know, I don't think Qa Hilton's going to be more than a, you know, a secondary or even tertiary threat in that offense. So we know Carson Went to someone who, I don't know how well this translates from team to team, but in Philadelphia was a guy who loved throwing to his tight ends. So I don't see this being like a dynamic downfield passing attack. And I think with TY, I mean, you know, he, he's a solid receiver, but I don't know that he is someone who is going to age all that well given his skill set. He got open, though.

I was always a big fan of his, I'm with you. He could have had a lot more yards in the first half of the year. There's like a lot of just either just missed throws or penalties and things like that. He can still get open. I like watching him. I find it interesting. Rap sheet said he turned down more money from the Ravens. The Ravens keep like, I don't know if this is all true, but they keep getting, if it is,

this is like the third deal, supposedly, where they've offered more, slightly more money and the player didn't take it. Rap sheet said it was quote, unquote, significant in terms of more money. And yeah, you do wonder if there's something to that, the juju situation, now this, do wide receivers when they look at the two offers and they go, well, this is the team that threw the ball 404 times last year, less than anyone in the league. If there's a tiebring, I'm going to go to the team that throws the football to me. Especially on a one-year deal. And you don't have to move. He's been there. He's the man. I love to, I Hilton. I thought maybe I was being

biased, but I thought he had a lot left. And was, you know, still the best receiver on a pretty good offense last year. Yeah, I mean, you know, it could be true if the Braverins offered maybe a three-year deal that had maybe just a tiny bit more and guaranteed money, which I wouldn't shock me either. I think if you're a receiver and you're looking at the Ravens, the first thing you're thinking is, oh, I'm going to have to block a lot. Like, most times I'm going to be on the field. I'm going to be blocking. That might not be the most fun thing. Like, you might want to just run routes. That's more fun than blocking to me as someone who's not a receiver doesn't have to block. So I get you paid more in the long run to be catching the football rather

than doing that dirty way. Exactly. So, you know, I feel like it's going to be tough for the Ravens. It might be a position where they have to go out and use a first-round pick on a wide receiver or maybe trade Orlando Brown for a wide receiver of some nature. In other news. All right, Barnwell. I don't know, Bill, if you, where'd you grow up, Bill? I grew up in Queens, New York City.

Oh, that's where my mother was born. So you are, you born in New York, Giants fan. I don't know where you're at in your fandom in current days, but I do want to see where you are in the Giants right now. So Kenny Gallaudet, obviously, we know that news from last week. He gets the big deal to be their first true number one since O'Dell left town. They stay busy. This happened a few days back. They signed Adoree Jackson, the cornerback, formerly of the Titans, three years, 39 million, 26 and a half guaranteed. So that's top money in this market right now. How you feel about the Giants in general and these signings?

I'm a little skeptical. I mean, it's less about the players and more about the logic. that led to the players arriving, right? Kenny Gallaudet, a guy who was one of the top receivers in the market in a market where top receivers have basically all signed for one-year deals. And Kenny Gallaudet extracts a significant multi-year contract from the Giants. I don't think the contract itself is the issue, but I don't know who else they were bidding against to give him that multi-year contract. And then with Dori Jackson, we talked a little bit about this on Twitter, Greg, if I'm not mistaken.

Something happened here. There's some, like, someone made a mistake. This can't have been a logical thing because Tennessee Titans could have kept Dory Jackson guaranteed his 50-year option for a little over $10 million. Right. He leaves. He's a free agent. The Giants give him a three-year $39 million deal with, I believe, according to Ian Rappaport, $16 million in year one. I want to say 26 or 29 over two.

Like, like, you know, clearly more than 10 over one. And even if you trade a seventh round pick to Tennessee to get a Dori Jackson, you still have the leverage to signing him to sign him to a better deal, even if you want to sign him to a multi-year contract. So either Tennessee did not appropriately scout out the market for Adora Jackson and cost themselves the opportunity to get a draft pick, or the Giants did not appropriately figure out if they were going to make a trade for a Dori Jackson and paid over the odds for him once he became a freeation, even though nobody wanted to trade for him on a one-year deal for a little over $10 million. dollars now i don't know what you guys think but could they both be wrong is there one team that's more likely to make a mistake like this given what the giants seem to do with value

when it comes to players i do kind of lean towards them making the mistake i but the titans are weird i i am with you i didn't even think about the draft pick thing they could have gotten a draft pick for a dory jackson i don't totally buy you know with godaday and with jackson like if the price gets that high i there was someone else bidding Almost always. Like, it just doesn't come out of it. It's the same thing with, like, the Jared Davis deal made no sense to me for the Jets. But I think it does indicate there was another team bidding against them.

It's just, that's how it goes. It doesn't get that high out of nowhere. Maybe both those teams are making mistakes. I like Adori Jackson a lot. He's totally streaky. Like, he can be, like, a top 10 cornerback for eight straight games. But then he can get lit up and he could get hurt. And I'm a little surprised.

He got money really at the top of the cornerback market. Like, he got the same as William Jackson and Shaquille Griffin. But I would say he has more upside than the two of them. At least the Giants are going for it. I don't care if the Giants blow it and they stink. They look a little more watchable. That's more important for me, is they've added some players I like to watch, and I think they'll be more competitive.

So they're going to put the Giants in prime time. I'd rather watch them with Kenny Goladay and Adori Jackson. Now, Dan, I saw someone tweet this week that by adding Adore Jackson, the Giants have the best secondary in football. Stop. Are we even sure? Are we even sure they have the best secondary amongst the three New York teams? Wow.

By the way, I like grouping the bills in, all the Bills fans listening. I'm going to really be into that. Well, I mean, that means that we're the only New York team. Yeah, exactly. If that's indeed the case, Dave Gettelman's doing way better than I realized, because I was about to say, to your prior point, that it felt like it made a lot of logical sense that both John Robinson and Gettelman could have messed up. Sure.

That checks out to me. Those two guys, there's some moves that I, or the last couple of years that have been head scratchers. The Titans let Jack Conklin go. He could have been a fifth-year option guy. They decided not to. He ends up being an all-pro. And then Corey Davis could have been a fifth-year option guy.

And I don't understand when the teams, now they're guaranteed, but I think last year they weren't. Like, they decided not to, it seems weird. Three straight guys, basically, that were first-round picks and not bad first-round picks. You know, Conklin and Jackson, I would say, we're good. Davis was okay, and they let them all go, and other teams paid them a lot. It's just weird. Also weird, the Saints without Drew Breeze.

That's a thing now, and now we figure out what happens next at the quarterback position. Rapsheet reported that Winston, quote, does have a leg up on Tassum Hill in the Saints' quarter. quarterback competition. Greg, I know this is really, this is getting you excited. You see James Winston as, you know, one of the great players of all time, essentially, is that that's where you're heading in terms of your description of the man. Do you think this is how it's going to play out? I still can't get past this, like, sneaking suspicion that Sean Payton's got something

up his sleeve. I think he's like a high variance player that at times can, yeah, look like a top 10 quarterback. The difference between him and cousins maybe isn't that much. And I only put this in the news. By the way, Bill, you should know that Greg just said high variance player just to impress you. He doesn't usually say that with me and Mark. The whole, this whole pod is just to impress, Bill. I only put this in the news because I was curious.

I did want to see what Bill thought. And I think it kind of is interesting because I have a theory that Rappaport is a little bit of the James Winston Whisper, though. He kind of was saying for a while, you've brought this up before, Dan, that how close the bucks were to paying James Winston $30 million a year before he tanked in December 2019. And maybe he wasn't really that close. I don't really know. But I like that Rapid Port's always been kind of banging the Winston drum.

And I like this. This makes sense to me. It doesn't totally check out because they played Tastom Hill over him. But I am curious if you're at all excited, Bill, over the Winston thing coming. I'm excited about the idea, but I think you brought up my concern, which is look at the money, look at what they've done when they actually had an opportunity. Last year, they give Casem Hill an inexplicable one year, $16 million extension, which guarantees them a significant amount of money for 2020. Now, of course, it gets that crazy four-year, $140 million fake extension, which is weird. I don't know how you tell your family about that.

I don't know how you talk about that. like the people around you. Like, like, I don't know. I mentioned this with my podcast yesterday, um, with,

uh, Lindsay Jones where it's just like, like do you tell your wife excitedly? Yeah, I got a four year, $140 million extension. It means nothing. It doesn't count for anything.

There's no way we can see it. But like at least on paper, I'm worth this much. Um, you know, they pay Tesson Hill. When Drew Brees goes down, they don't bring in Jemis. They start tasting Hill for four starts.

He was pretty much what you would have expected, right? Like he was. Okay. It was okay. It was not that bad. The Broncos game was rough. The first half of the Eagles game was rough. But like Michael Thomas was hurt. They weren't 100% on offense. And they moved the ball pretty well. I thought he did fine, given what, you know, at least my expectations were for Jason. I think he had a QBR in the 55 range, which you can work with that. So then James comes down he throws one touchdown pass in the playoffs.

They signed him to a one-year deal. He's making less than Taston Hill. Taston Hill has been the starter when they had to put somebody in. And like, I understand that they might be excited about the idea of James, but when push comes to shove, they've been using TASM and they've been paying TASM. So to me, I think until I actually see Jemis starting in week one, I assume Taysom's going to start. That's great. My favorite little nugget was Rapsheet said, though, how good he was in practice.

They were just like blown away by how he was in practice all year. I was like, okay, I'll buy it. This is his chance. I mean, this is. I think. I really think Sean Payton has a, and maybe Belichick had this too, but I really think whether it affects them or not, I don't know. But I think he would love nothing more than to be awesome without Drew Breeze. He's putting his faith into James Winston for that.

Let me ask you, though, 2022, we know what kind of quarterback Dan Campbell wants. We know the attitude Dan Campbell wants. Isn't there a pretty reasonable chance that Tason Hill is the starting quarterback for the Detroit Lions? That would be good. I kind of have this thing where I want them to become the NFL's Oklahoma City Thunder. I saw this stat that the Thunder have 17 first round picks and 17 second round picks in the next six years. I was like, some NFL team should try that and the Lions are that team. And Taysom Hill would be the perfect quarterback in the meantime to do that strategy.

In other news, the Eagles have filled a hole in their roster. It's backup quarterback, hopefully backup quarterback. Joe Flacco, who gets actually a raise from what he was making last year coming off neck surgery and his one and done year with the Jets. It gets, he gets three and a half million in guarantees. It can get up to seven and a half if he hits a bunch of incentives. So he will be hypothetically here, Jalen Hertz's backup. Do you put anything into, Bill, when people are trying to figure out these backup positions,

and they say, well, this doesn't make sense because Joe Flacco can't move. He's almost a literal statue at this stage of the game. And Jalen Hertz, all game is about kinetic movement making plays. Is that make this a bad fit, or is it good just to have a 36-year-old who could sling it a little bit? Kinetic was absolutely too impressed by and well there. It's a radiohead B-side, so I appreciate that. It works on multiple levels for me. I like the idea of having a quarterback who does the same thing as your starter.

I think it makes sense. I think it makes it easier of two sub guys in. I love the Mitch Trubisky signing in Buffalo for that reason. like having a guy who's mobile who can run the same sort of offensive stuff even if he's not as good at least you don't have to make all that many changes on offense i i have really gone back and forth in this joe flacco signing guys like wow most backup quarterback signings i'm like yeah good or oh that kind of bad i i forget about it i feel like i've really gone like i thought it was awful i thought it was great i thought it was awful again i'm going back towards great now because

I think the Eagles fan base, which I would say hates the team right now. Yeah, sounds right. They could love Joe Flacko, local guy, kind of a goof, a tall white guy. You know, like, I feel like he has sort of like less athletic Nick Foles vibes, but he's local on top of that. So I think Eagles fans love their backup quarterback until they actually have to see him play. and I could see Joe Flacco coming in for perhaps an injured Jailen Hertz and winning a couple games and having them be vaguely competitive in a messy NFC East

and I could see Joe Flacko not getting a statue necessarily, not getting the McPhol statue, but at least having a menu item named after him at a Eagle Stadium concession stand. Wow, that would be amazing. The fact that Flacco moves like a statue, Can't you just like stick Joe Flacco in front of the stadium for five hours around game days and just then you don't have to worry about paying anyone to make the statue?

You can get a non-fungible token of Joe Flacco and just put it outside the station. I love that. I'm a little wary, though, of the quotes he had on his press conference. And the Eagles fans got all fired up because there was all these incentives in the deal that could make a high. I mean, he's getting paid. Wait, Joe Flacco had a press conference? He did. I missed it.

Why? I don't know. I was a little wary, though. because he was like, they haven't told me what my role is, and I'm a competitive guy. And I got thinking, and he was like, I got thinking about the Baltimore year when I don't hold it against him. But I don't think he was not like Alex Smith to Lamar Jackson's Patrick Mahomes. Even though they played it okay publicly, he was a little more drew blood so to Tom Brady, where he was clearly a little resentful and maybe not overly helpful and made a little bit of a problem, which isn't like shocking from a guy who won to. Super Bowl. I'm not going to like hold it. But I think it might just be a little bit of a messy

situation. He is not the Ryan Fitzpatrick guy. I think that's just like going to love up the guy underneath them. And I'm almost a little surprised like Flacco's still playing. I thought he was going to maybe just retire once he wasn't making big money. But he said of all things, Dan, that playing with the Jets helped him realize how much he loved playing the game. How much he loved football. That's an older Adam Gaines. I don't know what that was. And he was okay. He was okay with the Jets. He could have been worse. It was a little better than I thought. Two things that I picked up in the last few minutes. First of all, you know Bill's a football guy when he's just like laying in bed thinking about whether the Joe Flacco deal was right for the Eagles. I love that. And two,

Greg, you have yet to get off any passive aggressive shots at me about how Joe Flacco actually played better than Sam Darnold last year. If you want to squeeze that in, go ahead. I mean, you made you made me feel bad that I do bring up Darnold every episode last show. And then I was like, you know what? You might have a point there. I kind of brought it up. I said Flacco, yeah, I said Flacco was a little better than I expected last year. It was low expectations, but I thought he played a little better than people that probably

didn't watch them think. I have a question for you guys. Wow. Do you think? More Flacco. It is going to be Flacco related. I'm not going to lie. Do you think the decision to bring in Joe Flacco precludes the Eagles from drafting a

quarterback in the first round? No, it shouldn't. I don't think it does. I don't think it should. No. Covers your bases. I mean, he's not much money. You do need a second quarterback.

They don't know if they're going to get, if they do want a quarterback, they don't know at this point whether they're going to get them or not. So they got to have both bases covered. I have a thought about Hertz that I thought he showed enough last year that the organization and the fan base would be excited about him now getting this opportunity. But you kind of, from what you hear out there that there's this door opening for them continuing to look for a quarterback, makes you think that maybe I was misreading the situation or I thought he played better than he actually played?

What did you guys think about Jalen Hertz on balance in the work that he did get last year? I agree with you. I agree with exactly what you said, Dan. I think his first game was his best game. And I think that sort of colors, like analysis, like him coming in, beating the Saints with an upset. And what were his numbers in that game where he was benched in week 17? Let me pull it up.

They were terrible. He was bad in that Sunday night game. Right. That feels like a million years ago. It really does. I mean, like, I don't think he played well enough that you should say, okay, we're committed to this guy for the next five years. Or poor enough that we should say he does not deserve a chance to start again. But I think if you have a guy that you absolutely positively love and he's on the board at six, I don't think Jalen Hertz precludes you from drafting that guy.

Because remember, they drafted Jail and Hurt. It's to be a backup, to be a guy who can grow value, to be a guy who was a situational player. I know that that is, you know, I don't think they have Jillen Hurts to replace Carson Wentz. So the Gillenherst has a backup backup does not seem that outlandish to them in a way that may be having Carson Wentz is a backup board of there. He rushed for 354 yards and four starts. Yes. He completed just over half his passes, six touchdowns, four and four. interceptions, QBR of 41, pass the rating, 77.6. I guess, yeah, maybe the numbers aren't

as good as. I have overrated many rookie quarterback, especially athletic ones, that have like two pretty good starts out of their first four in their rookie year, and then you think they're great. This guy, one of their names rhymed with Blue Rock. Yeah, that's one. Definitely got too excited about him. I mean, I guess they didn't have to be that athletic either, because I'm thinking about Trent Edwards, maybe. Mike Glennon a little bit. I thought Mike Glennon could do so.

He had a pretty good 13-game rookie year, but, you know. Speaking of a, this is a trillion years ago, Mike Lennon is a potential face of the buccaneers. But now the bucks are totally different animal. They are the defending Super Bowl champions. And they are, this isn't just some narrative that's cobbled together in the offseason. And, you know, oh, they're running it back. They're bringing guys back.

And then it's like, well, no, there's a lot of churn going on. No, it really seems like they are going down the road of let's see if we can win a title again with mostly the same roster. And Domican Sue, he's back, one-year deal worth $10 million. And also coming back, Donovan Smith, the tackle agrees to a two-year, $31.8 million extension, $30 million guaranteed over the next two seasons. What do you think, Bill? I think the only person who is not back that I can think of is Joe Haig. and I wonder whether the organization punished Joe Haig

for not catching that touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah. I think it's fair if that's how they want to do it. Ouch. Set an example. But I think otherwise, this is a team I thought was very deep heading into last season. So, you know, why not run it back? Like, it's not as if, you know, if Brady stinks, like, you're screwed anyway.

So, like, why don't I run it back with the same veterans? You can get guys for cheaper. I think as the offseason goes on, If they have any cap space left, they're going to be a very appealing destination for people on one-year deals because of Brady, because of the Super Bowl win, because of no-income tax, and good weather in Florida. So I could see maybe waiting and saying, let's wait and see who kind of falls out. Who falls through the cracks and we'll get first shot at those guys. But I do think that they were a legitimately very good team last year, and I have no issues with them running it back with the same guys to have. There's one big piece.

One big piece. Playoff Lennie, still out there. He's out there. Antonio Brown's still out there. I saw Greg Alman of the Athletic wrote 95.5% of their defensive snaps are returning to the team and 90% of their offensive snaps are returning. And if Four Nett or Brown return or both, that offensive number will go up even more. They are loaded.

They are a great test of like whether bringing it back is rolling everything back the same as a good idea or not. Would you guys bring back 4-Net? Nah, I don't care about 4. At the right price. I would not pay him like the playoff version. No, I'm not. I mean...

What did Mark Ingram get? One for 3. Yeah, I mean, that would be fine. That's about it. Yeah, I'm with that. 8 o'clock delight, Ricky. All right, the Cardinal sign, cornerback Malcolm Butler,

formerly of the Titans' one-year contract. This is a quick-fire. Barnwell, what do you got? Better than Patrick Peterson last year, probably, maybe. For sure. For sure. He was good last year, Malcolm Butler.

The New York Jets bring in Kevin Coleman, the former 49ers. So a lot of talk, Greg, about Sala bringing in his guys from San Francisco. This is the first guy to actually come aboard, gangrene. The ultimate test for them, I think, is if they can run the ball with that same offensive line, it'll prove how smart this hire was. Yeah, they still got to get that line in order. James White, they resigned him to a one year two and a half million dollar. I just lowered playoff Lenny's contract,

two and a half million Bill Barnwell, James Whiteback. That feels like a nice pickup. I thought he was going to go to the Bucks. I thought he was going to be the Bucs running back. So I'm shocked he went back to New England. They keep bringing guys back. They're looking good, Danny.

Yeah, you got to run back the 2020 Patriots. Oh, we're getting a lot of guys back from the opt-down. Lawrence Guy is back for your contract with the pets. Yeah. I mean, a lot of these guys did not do well elsewhere. David Andrews is another player. who I think expected to leave and did not their center. Jadavian Clowny is on the radar for the Browns.

And once again, Phil, it's another team. Oh, this makes a lot of sense. You bookend him with Miles Garrett and you got something cooking. But, you know, name versus game, name versus game. Yes or no, that it's a better signing in theory than actuality if the Browns did it. He will play eight and a half games. he will have one game where he looks incredible and he will be anonymous for the rest of the season.

So I will say mostly named. What do you think, Greg? I would do it. I think this is the year where like you're not going to have to pay much. It's a pretty big upside. And finally, Damien Williams, let's hit this properly, formally of the Chiefs, a playoff hero, Super Bowl hero, one year contract with the Bears.

Maybe this will get Bears fans pumped up about the 2021. I think this is just a distraction, boy, from that Andy Dalton QB1 tweet. Poor Andy Dalton at this point. He's taking too much grief. It's not his fault, the Bears stink. Are they going to tweet out RB2 for Damien Williams? That's good.

That's, again, we talk about this all the time. You know, the social media accounts of these teams, they're very powerful. I mean, they, because a lot of people see it, and it helps to kind of become a talking point around the team. And you have some 23-year-old intern, firing off that QB1 with no context of how it's going to be received. And it's just another thing to put on one of the most important players on your team's plate now,

getting mocked in public. You've got to have more experience. You have to have gatekeepers involved with the social media accounts. Maybe they knew it was coming and they just did it kind of in a fun way to get engagement. Let's do some breaking news. I know Bill Barnwell doesn't care about this one as much, but I am so excited. Dan, it has been announced all California adults will be eligible for a COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccine starting April 15th.

Let's get that vaccine here. Put it in my arm. We're getting there. Now, I don't know if Bill's been vaccinated. I'm just saying it. Well, he's not a California resident. Oh, yeah. Are you guys offering me a California residency to get a shot?

I'll be on that next plane over, guys. I mean, April 15 is still a little bit away, but I like some clarity in the situation. It feels good. That's good. It feels good. great news i have found shots for everyone i know in my family but me so when it happens i was going to be very excited um all right that's what's happening in the news all right so

bill cranks it out every year it's a must read every year the best NFL free agency signings and yes the worst which to me it's always a a more enjoyable read i like to read about who who messed up i don't know why i don't know if everyone's like that or if that's just like what I'm like but I always I'm always curious about that because it's like here's the real deal from people that know but let's start with some sunshine okay um and you ranked it one to 10 so I guess it would make sense for me to start with number one here you thought the the best signing in free agency to date um Trent Williams back to San Francisco and obviously it makes everyone knows why it makes sense to oh you get to keep your franchise left tackle but

what makes it like the best signing what made it so smart beyond just the fact that he's a great player at a key position. So I think two things. Number one, players who are as good as Trent Williams do not hit the market. I mean, you get the rare exception once every few years. And this is, of course, another exception. Williams would not have left Washington if he hadn't basically held out for a year. He would not have been able to make it to the Niners and got the no trade tag attached,

or no franchise tag attached to his deal, if that had not happened. And then he's now 32, I think, maybe turning to 33. But he is a superstar player at one of the foremost important positions in football. And those guys just do not become available. Like there has to be some kind of major, major flaw, like, you know, Drew Bree is having a torn laborer or something. That would cause a player of that caliber to be available in free agency. So to get that guy is great. Now, it would be more impressive if, like, the chiefs had got him because they didn't have him previously.

But given that he was a, you know, quote-unquote free agent technically, I give the Niners credit for bringing him in. I mean, this is a team that when I get the other part of this, you know, that has a major, major, major question market quarterback in Jimmy Garapolo, a guy who has not been able to stay healthy and didn't stay healthy last year with Trent Williams at left tackle, but having great tackles is going to give him the best chance of staying healthy. And we saw it two years ago that when Jimmy Garoppolo was healthy, they were a good enough team to make it to the Super Bowl. So I think he makes that team so fundamentally better given the inexplicable choice. they've made to pay Jimmy Gropa on $25 million. Wow. And I think that he is a guy who was a Hall of Famer and who still has four or five years left at a premium position playing as one of the two or three best players at that position. Those guys just do not become available while they're still close to the prime

of their careers. Bill really bearing Jimmy G. was the secret highlight of that analysis. $25 million for a guy who has not been able to stay healthy in pretty much every one of his pro seasons. And you know what? Sometimes football is a game of inches. Maybe that's not the comment we're making if he hits Manny Sanders on the deep shot at the end of the Super Bowl, but he didn't and that's how sports work. I really believe more than any team

they are biding their time for Deshawn Watson. And I think Jimmy G. is the perfect guy to hold in between because they can get rid of him for nothing. They can trade him the second they want Deshawn Watson with no cap hit whatsoever.

So he's at a good part of his contract. I'm with you on Trent Williams because I think his contract got overlooked in terms of how affordable it was. It's really three for 60 or four for 80. So that's 20 a year for Trent Williams. They added on these kind of phony years at the end he'll probably never get to. And so he's making less than some of the top left tackles a little less. And more to my point is that he's making barely more than Joe Tuny. You know, in terms of guaranteed money, this contract's almost identical to Joe.

Go Tooney. So that's why I put Tooney on my worst contracts list, not to skip ahead, but just like positional value. And did that get in the way of them just paying Trent Williams a little more? It seems like it did. So that was a bad job by the Chiefs. I agree. Well, Joe Tooney never, you know, an all pro level like Trent Williams.

And you're paying them to be a superstar, basically, at that position. You have two Raiders, Bill, new Raiders on this list, which I found interesting. You got John Brown, who got a little less than eight. $4 million over one year. That makes a lot of sense to me because of the upside there if he could stay healthy. Yonik-N-Ga-N-Ga-Wa is interesting.

Two years, $26 million. So you don't break the bank for him. But is there some mounting evidence that In-Gaukwe is kind of peaked as a player on some level, or there's some flaws in his game and he's not worth that level of contract? Apparently, you would disagree,

but just throwing that out there. Not fair. I think that was a situation where maybe teams are looking at his last year of work where he got traded to the Vikings, which seemed like it was a mess. They never had Daniel Hunter, or Daniel Hunter, so he was being double-teamed pretty consistently. Goes to the Ravens where he's not a great scheme fit. You know, did an okay job, but he's going to be a pass rusher. He is a, you know, a 4-3-hand-in-the-dirt pass rusher, which is the role I believe he's going to play in

Oakland, in Las Vegas, for a team that desperately needed pass-rushing help, for a team that has been such a mess on defense. And I think even in a down year last year he had eight sacks. Like even in a year where he was disappointing, he did pretty well for himself. And I think that he's still very young. He has a great track record. Maybe the argument that I could see is when he's not playing next to Clay as Campbell, he's not the same guy. But I think that he is going to be, like his floor is like that six, seven sack range where he's not going to kill you.

He's going to be an okay bash rusher. And his ceiling is, this is the guy who looked like he was going to be one of the, highest paid ed rushers in all of football two years ago when he was about to come due for a contract. So I think he has significant upside at a pretty reasonable price for edge rushers. He's not getting $20 million a year. I mean, you know, $13 million for an edge rusher really is not all that much. So the Raiders also get a second year if Ingaqwe does impress. So, you know, there are some guys where you sign a guy to a one-year deal and it's like,

okay, even if he breaks out, well, what do you get? Like, you still have to sign him in free agency next year. But in Gakway, because they have him for two years, they actually get a a second year at what would be a lower cost if they want to use that as leverage to recite him to a longer contract or have a guy for an undermarket deal in 2022. He's a little bit of a cautionary tale

of betting on yourself because, you know, according to the reports that Jacksonville had offered him a few years ago, he probably would have been better off just taking a long-term deal from the Jaguars. When he had it, before we go to worse, though, I do want to get your thoughts on Team Costco, as you called them,

on a Twitter exchange, which was the Houston Texans I love that. And you threw one of their signings in there in your list. I don't know just as a rep of the Texans because you wanted to talk. I think it was Andre Roberts, who's a special teamer, who's a good special teamer. But team Costco, what do you think of a wild approach to free agency where they've signed about 15 guys to almost identical one year, two or three million dollar contracts? I like teams that have a plan.

I mean, Las Vegas Raiders have made a couple really good signings. They have no plan. They are just a mess of throwing stuff at the wall and hoping not they're better this year than they were last year. The bears have no plan. The bears are just desperately please, God, let's get to nine wins so we can all get extensions and we don't have to worry about losing our jobs. The Texans have a very clear plan, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Now, they were a team that was very top heavy last year. They had six or seven stars who needed to play like stars and stay healthy for them to make it to the Super Bowl.

That did not happen. I don't know if you guys saw the Texans were bad last year. And that's fine. They had all kinds of players who were replacement-level talents in meaningful roles on both sides of the football. By the end of the year, I mean, it was Chad Hansen, DFS darling, catching a ton of passes. It was, you know, guys in the secondary who were awful. Just just, they were, they had underqualified guys across the roster. And I think what we've seen Nick Casario do in his first year there is have a plan of, okay, we're going to build the back end of this roster.

We are not going to sign another star. we are going to sign 15 guys who are going to make our special teams better, who are going to give us depth across the roster, who are going to have versatility in terms of filling multiple roles. And we're not going to be stuck with a guy who doesn't know what he's doing in a key situation late in a game. And I think that might not make a difference. This team is probably still going to be bad if Deshaun Watson is not their quarterback.

But I think there is a logic to what they're doing that I appreciate. And I think that even if it doesn't pay off in the long run, The big picture here does make sense for how the Texans are approaching their roster problems and approaching this office. Makes sense. And before we move to the negative, one more because I love it. And Greg, you know, you know this is a burgeoning love affair for the old Zucer. You're part of the Boone Bros. You are all.

Mike Boone and the Denver Broncos. And I love it. So two years, $2.6 million. It's a great value there if the guy can play. He was buried on the Minnesota death charles. and now he's going to have a good chance, you think, to have good work. Because you've got Melvin Gord, I don't like Melvin Gord. I don't know what it is.

Dan spent two minutes on NFL Network on our show talking about Mike Boone. We had to be the first time ever. I'm a Boone Bro, okay? I'm the NFL Network's Boon, bro. So you got Melvin Gord, who's just, I don't know, he's just kind of sloppy to me. And then Philip Lindsay, they just didn't, they felt like Philip Lindsay wasn't a guy for them. And they let him go. And I guess is he one of the Costco buys by the Texas?

One of the best ones. I love him. Anyway, so it does feel like Mike Boone has an opportunity here if that skill set that he flashed in Minnesota, he gets an opportunity in Denver. Now, Dan, I agree with you 100%. Greg, are you not a Boone bro? You're not part of the Boon Brigade? I just thought it was a little out of left field. I didn't heard anything from Dan about Mike Boone. And then suddenly out of nowhere, he's just like starting a whole fan club for him. And we're spending all this time. No, I'm for it. I like it. It seems like it's fun. All the man does. is produced given the opportunity outside of that one week 16 game in fantasy championship week where he broke people's hearts in 2019 outside of that one week he has been phenomenal in the

preseason got to quote adam levittan team preseason excellent excellent player in the preseason a guy who i had on this list before philip lindsay was let go out of it now i think part of My problem is just, it was a branding problem. Initially, when he came into, like, I confused him and C.J. Ham. They just seemed like they were, like, one person. They're these two big burly guys on Minnesota. And, you know, they're very different. Boone is much better.

We were hiding out in the Boond docks. Yes, and the Boond Docks. And now the Boon Bros are out. Boon Brigade's good. Boon Bro. Listeners, hit me up. Maybe I'll set up a poll. Boon Bros.

Boon Brigade. And whatever wins will roll with going forward. I will just point out that, easy way to remember the difference between those two guys. The fullback is the one whose name is a food. That's a good way to remember which one is the fullback. Which one's not the fullback? It's now skew negative.

Greg, unless you had any you wanted to throw in on the positive side. Do you have any of your particular fan out that maybe I miss out? Oh, no. I liked, well, the Jujo and the Will Fuller deal stuck out to me, probably because of some of the wider, maybe the wide receivers will get to. We'll probably talk Aguilar with you. But the wide receivers that signed later, it ended up looking so much better. I just don't get why Juju suddenly went from like, he's a little overrated to like he's not good at all.

No, he's absolutely a quality starter. And Will Fuller, to me, is absolutely a one-year deal that is perfect because he has so much upside. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up there long term. So I think the receivers made a lot of sense. Let me ask you guys about the Juju decision. I know that there was the tweet going around about the very very. contracts, Juju, had been offered. Are you surprised he didn't go to the Chiefs?

And do you think he should have gone to the Chiefs? On a one-year prove-it deal, I probably would say, because it's a little bit, it's a little unsettled in Kansas City right now in terms of the wide receiver pecking order. He could have established himself and with Tyreek there, probably maybe you get back into that Antonio Brown vibe where he could be the true number two. I think that probably would have made him more money in the long run,

but he must have favored staying home. Yeah, I don't know. He'd be number three there. I mean, because Kelsey and Hill are one and two. Yeah. Be on TV a lot. Be on TV a lot. You're going to have some cool celebrations.

You're probably going to score a bunch of touchdowns. It's going to be good for social. You're more likely to win a Super Bowl, that's for sure. More likely to win a Super Bowl. I mean, I don't know. I could see both sides of the argument. But I think that's one where I would have, if I had been as agent, I think I would have encouraged him to go to Kansas City.

Anybody else, Greg? I just think Denver has been. sliding under the radar. I know you didn't like the Ronald Darby signing, but I like Ronald Darby generally. And I just feel like they managed to get Cream Jackson to take a pay cut since we last talked, and they get Kyle Fuller.

There's kind of a known quantity in a system. It's more just like they have a plan. I don't know if it's going to work. They don't really have a quarterback, but their defense should be awesome. Like I'm looking forward to watching that defense, and they brought back the right player, Shelby Harris, too.

It just made a lot of sense what they've done. They just haven't gotten the quarterback. Okay. So if they had a quarterback, leave quarterback aside, where does their roster rank in the NFL from the other 52 spots on the roster? I think it's above average. I think it's well about that.

I think it's top 12. I think it's top 12 or so. Me too. You know, it's annoying because now it's a 17 game season, but I was going to ask you how many wins. And then you could give me 9 or 10 or 11. And I'd be able to like contextualize that immediately. If Ryan Fitzpatrick is that quarterback and you had an assign a,

Nine or ten. A win total. Ten. Let's give them ten. Classic ten and seven season. Right. That's true. They profile to me as an 11 and 16 potentially. Wow. That's weird. I'm not happy about that. It's going to be so annoying. Like at the end of this year, when we're going to see tweets from fans, like, how can you say crappy things about Trey Lance when he just set the, you know, the rookie passing record for my team? And it's like, yeah, he played an extra game, dude. Like, come on.

it is it's going to really mess up records record you know individual numbers are already messy in football but it's totally going to ruin them and then you have guys that in the 70s and six they play a 14 game season it's like now it's like a different sport people are going to discount mike boone's 2,000 yards 17 games season they shouldn't do that they should not absolutely uh all right on the other side of things and you know i love this you start bang bang right off the top The Patriots with a big story last week. You have Nelson Aguilar and Janu Smith one, two in your write-ups of worst NFL free agency signings. Why is that the case bill?

Well, last year, Nelson Aguilar hits the market. He is a meme in Philadelphia. He is not generally wanted by any team, including a team that needed receivers in the New England Patriots. He signs a one-year deal for I think the minimum or close to the minimum and has a good year. But a year that's totally out of line with his prior crew performance. Even in this breakout season, he drops 8.6% of the past is thrown in his direction. So a Patriots team that needed help last year did not offer him like a million and a half or $2 million for one year. Now thinks he is worth $16 million guaranteed, where even if he gets cut after year one, he's going to get $16 million way or another.

I mean, that's like that's fundamentally changing the way of you. player after one good, but not otherworldly season. And I think that's a thing that the Jaguars have done for years and had it go against them. Washington football team did for years and made mistakes with it. The Jets have done and regretted it. Every bad franchise when it comes to free agency over the past 20 years has made that mistake over and over again. And then that's compounded by the fact that as you guys brought up earlier, I mean, Will Fuller signed a one-year deal for $10 million. Juju signs a one-year $8 million deal. These guys are getting one-year deals for half as much in terms of guaranteed money as Nelson Aguilar got from the Patriots and they're all better players

with more upside. So I just don't like the igloor move. I think it's misreading the market. I think it's overvaluing that one year. When it comes to Johnny Smith and Hunter Henry, good football players, right? I mean, good, solid NFL caliber tight ends, but they're now the third highest paid player in terms of average annual salary at tight end and all football behind Travis Kelsey and George Kittle. And they're going to be better at tight end. They're going to have a third end. They're going to have a functional tight end group. But the idea that they're going to have Gronk and Aaron Hernandez because they signed two guys who, you know, John Smith, who hasn't topped 500 receiving yards once in his pro career, or Hunter Henry, a guy who we know has been tantalizing but never had

that breakout season. They did that those two guys are going to be, you know, superstars suddenly because they're getting paid like superstars. It just doesn't happen. They're paying them like the players they want them to be as opposed to the players they've actually been or the players they project to be over the next several seasons. I think they went into the free agency period. like it was the draft that they planned for this. I think somewhat to their credit, I do think they looked at everything that was going on, going into last off-season,

thought this would be an amazing off-season to have a lot of cap space because it's not going to be out in the market. But they went into free agency like it was the draft, that they were going to get Aguilar. I think it was the Raiders who bid them up. And it was like they went back and forth and so that number got crazy.

Someone was clearly in on Johnny Smith to a high degree. It's like they went into it. I don't know if they knew. they would get both tight ends. At that point, I think they thought Henry, the price was good enough. But that's how you make, it is how you make mistakes. The Aguilar signing reminds me a little of, even though Leonard Floyd's returning to the Rams, it's like you bought super low, that was great, but now you're buying high off the good season. But it's like, it's just sort of obvious, you know, what's better, you know, buying low or buying high. The Patriots are buying extremely high

on Aguilar. I like Jono Smith, but they were paying a premium because they just went into free agency being like, we are going to get these five guys, and they just did whatever they could to get them. So, Mission Accomplished banner, once again, we wanted these guys, we got these guys. Don't worry about anything else.

The Aglar signing has real Laurent Robinson vibes to me for going back a decade. I don't care about the money that much, though, because they're either wrong that they're good or bad players or not, like that they're all two-year deals essential. they still have more cap space than they really need.

They might be very wrong, but their roster was so bad that the only thing that I wish was just like, well, why didn't you sign Juju Smith-Schuster? I don't, he's a pretty similar player to Agler. I know he's more, Aglar is a better deep threat and a little more of an outside guy, but I would say they're quite similar, and Juju is much more reliable.

Yeah, it's more the opportunity cost, right? Like, it's not like you're getting a better player with Aglore than, you know, Demir Byrd, but, like, you could have had this incredibly significantly better team. If you go out and you sign Juju Smith-Schuster and Will Fuller and Gerald Everett and Jared Cook and trade for Lee Smith, like you spent less money and you have a really scary group of receivers as opposed to the guys they have who, you know, have pretty low floors. Hunter Henry has him able to stay healthy for most of his career. Nelson Aguilar was a, you know, a veteran minimum guy a year ago.

Like, it's just, they've got him better, but I think they missed out on having the opportunity to add a really significant core of talent at those positions. If they gave Algalar, for instance, one year for eight, maybe they can get Chris Carson in their building and, you know, things like, I guess there's a chain reaction to all this. But I really, I have to say, like, even if somebody in Greg knows an audience gets annoyed at me because they're like, oh, Dan hates the Patriots, which is true.

He was so good for the Raiders last year. I understand the drop rate. It remains an issue, but I feel like every time I watched the Raiders last year, he was making big plays for them. So he could end up being a bargain, ultimately. Sure. That's not out of their own possibility, for sure. It could happen.

All right. Let's see. What's it, Greg, why don't you throw one out there, either from your own or one of Bills? Well, I'm curious that you were so down, Bill, on the Lenny Williams deal. Okay. Because the only, I know it was like a lot of money. I mean, I guess that's it.

But he was just so good. That it's like, okay. Like, I almost feel like it got a little overlooked. how good Leonard Williams was last year. And you're kind of building around that scheme. You know he fits in that scheme. So I don't have a problem with it. Like you mentioned it takes a lot of things

for guys like Trent Williams to hit free agency. Leonard Williams isn't quite there. But Leonard Williams in Patrick Graham's scheme, maybe I'm buying in too much on one year sample. But Leonard Williams and Patrick Graham's scheme is almost there for me. That he is like an elite player and you've seen him in this scheme.

So I'm fine, just paying the money. Okay. So let's say Leonard Williams had five and a half sacks last year. would you feel comfortable with them paying him what they're paying him? I didn't even know how many sacks he got.

He was a game wrecker like game after game and he took over like three games. And I think he was really good pretty much the other game. So to me he was like a top five. He's a unique player because he's kind of a

not exactly an edge or interior. You can do both. But I think he was about as good as it was at that position. So he had six sacks in two games last year against the Seahawks and the Cowboys. So I watched all the sacks,

but I watched the six sacks closely. I put them in the comments. column. Two of those sacks, I'm going to just quote almost directly, were cleanups on pressures credited by their players where the quarterback ran into him. Another was a coverage sack against Russell Wilson, who, I don't know if you know this, happens to have a bunch of coverage sacks, when totally unblocked on a twist to get Wilson for another sack and was just totally unblocked off the edge for a free sack on Andy Dalton. So like, you know, I don't think that sacks are a great measure of defensive line performance. I don't think that they are

signing him because they had those sacks, but I think the perception that he was a game wrecker is in part because he had crazy sack numbers in those two games. And I think those sacks are mostly a product of the people around him. I think he's better than his sack numbers were in years past. But like the level he is at right now, the price take he is at, is Khalil Mack, Aaron Donald, Joey Bosa. Like those guys who are perennial players at that level. If he's the guy he was last year, it doesn't matter. Like the Giants will be happy.

He's not going to be, I think, as good as those guys, but he's going to be very good. But he has one year in his career at that level. in this one scheme. So to me... It is funny. Go ahead, Bill. Sorry. No, I mean, like, I just think, like, the odds are that he's not going to be that guy again in 2022 or, sorry, 2021 or 2021.

And if he's not, then this is a, you know, a very dramatic overpay for a team that could have used that money to sign two or three starters on defense. Because when he was on the Jets, he didn't get home a lot. But he did was a consistent guy causing pressure. Right. Hurries, knockdowns. He's been pretty consistent as a pro, as a pretty good pro. My larger kind of point on that is, and the NFL, just like many of the sports now, there's a analytics revolution that's well underway, like how in baseball, for instance,

RBI's, people that are in the nose, they don't put too much into that because that is a product of a lot of things. Sacks, on some level, feel like they've stayed at the top of the priority list for a lot of people that make decisions, even when you start to break these things. down and take a closer look at the film, it could be very misleading in terms of what the guy actually does. For sure. I think there is a thing where a team, you know, at least on some broad level, whether

it's ownership, whether it's the GM, whether it's okay, we need to get that guy who's going to get us 10 sacks a year. And the comforting thing is seeing a guy who has that double digit number on his resume where you can sit there and say, okay, well, we know he did it in the past, so he's going to do it again for us. And I think that Leonard Williams is the guy who had that potential. and was that kind of guy on a play-by-play basis in terms of generating hits, in terms of generating hurries with the Jets and was underrated.

And now I think because of last year, because of that run right at the end of the year, I think he's a little overrated. So I think he's somewhere in the middle. If this had been like a 12, if this been the Yanik and Gokwe deal, no issue at all. But I think that that extra $8 million a year they're giving him is going to hurt them because that could have really helped their offensive line or helped them add maybe a quarterback who was competent or another guy on the defensive side of the ball.

You hated the Kenyon Drake to the Raiders move. Hated it. Did anybody like it? Was anybody out there? I don't hate it because I like watching Kenyon Drake play football. Like, of course, it's, again, too much money and not, like, a great use of resources. But, like, that's going to be a good backfield. I think Kenyon Drake somehow is, I don't know if he's underrated, but I think in a 175 touch role, he's like, you know, he's like bargain guy, bargain Aaron.

Jones. Like, he can have a nice, he'll have a big season for you. I'm not going to hate it. It fits with what they do, too. I spent every Cardinals game last year hoping Chase Seventh was in the backfield and being upset when Kenyon Drake was in the backfield instead. Wasn't as good last year as the two years prior, but was really good, though, the two years prior. I mean, they have, I think they've hinted that he's going to be in the Joker role, which is the same role they wanted to use Lynn Bowden in, if I'm not mistaken, when they drafted him. And they gave up on Lynn Bowden after a training camp and sent him to the Dolphins. With Drake, they're paying him, I think,

eight and a half guaranteed in the first year. So they can't give up on him. They need him to be that guy. And I think that is one of those things where I think I don't know who they were bidding against for him to be in that role. Like, I think they see him as a player who could justify making that kind of money

in that role if he feels what they need. But like, given the running back market, he's getting more than Chris Carson. He's getting more than, I mean, guys like Mark Ingram. I just, like, wouldn't you rather have Philip Lansing in that role for a lot less money? Yeah. In a world where they say running backs don't get paid,

Keny and Drake's made a lot of money the last two years. Good for him. Good for him. You're right to the point that the Raiders seem like they're always like flailing and changing what their plan is or like covering up past mistakes. But that's what Gruden did in Tampa. Speaking of past mistakes, by the way, I didn't realize we were getting so late. I got to get my son Walker to this passport appointment.

It's a hard out. It's a hard out, Dan. No. Well, let's wrap it up then. Okay. We were pretty much there. We were there. That was good. I was just about to wrap it up anyway. So, yes, check it out on the SBN.com. Bill Barnwell's best and worst, free agent signings. There are more on there. So dig in. And also, of course, the Bill Barnwell's show, his great podcast, where he has a rotating cast of friends involved.

Bill, you've said it all, you've done it all. Thank you, sir. My pleasure. Again, sorry. to be the bargain basement Sessler for a week, but anytime you guys need to fill in for Mark, happy to do it. Awesome, Bill. Thank you so much. And again, listeners, remember the Around the NFL

broadcast is on NFL Network Friday, 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific, and overseas listeners, you know where to find it on the old Game Pass app. Greg, you got to do your dad work. Thank you very much, buddy. And again, we will be back Friday for the network show, Monday for the podcast,

this is Dan Hansa signing off for the great Bill Barnwell. And yes, I'm going to have that poll up there. Boon Bros. Boon Brigade. What's it going to be? We don't know. Dan Hansen signing off for Bill Bartlett. The old boss, Ricky Hollywood, behind the virtual class.

Until Monday, he's a call. Thank you. 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 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 and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. This is an IHeart podcast.