NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Bunkercast XIV: TOP 30 QB VALUES

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

A webcast filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler talk about Gregg's article on the "Top 30 QB Values" causing a major disagreement between the Scientists.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. The Around the NFL podcast. Oh no. Welcome to an honor. Another edition of the Around the NFL podcast presented by Intuit QuickBooks, the official sponsor of the NFL. My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm coming to you from a city filled with heroes in bunkers.

Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. So, Matt Money Smith, who's the man? In fact, I am currently in the process of rewatching the great Nathan for you, comedy. Central series with Nathan Fielder, of course. I think one of the best TV shows period

put out last decade. And when Matt Money Smith shows up in the season one finale, Law of Shame, as the play by playman for the entire segment, yes. If you have Hulu, go check it out because money not only is in it has a pretty

big role, including an interview at one point with Nathan. But anyway, as I'm watching it with my wife. I'm like, oh, I was just texting with money today. We were going through new money drops. Humble Bragg. And it was great. And Money's one of those guys that like, you know, you want to have it on your text. You know, you want to be in connection with money because he's just one of those dudes. Have on your text. Yeah, you just want to have a text connection with money. And he, um, humble brag again. He did some new money drops for us. And when it came

time to record the one you just heard, that was supposed to be a sneeze. And then we both decided it sounds more like somebody came up from behind and hit him over the head with like a bowling pin. Yeah, like either that or like an angry, you know, COVID-infested bird flew into his face with its sharp beak. Something went wrong there. There's a pool of blood, basically. Is it the only thing that you can kind of get out of that? I like Dan's unmasked attraction to a man with nine streams of income. It's like Matt Money Smith never has money coming from less than nine or ten places at the same time. Well, it's his name. Well, I mean, that's true. He's also called himself, he's named himself off a currency. So it would be ridiculous if he were struggling financially.

That would be absurd. I am not too proud to say there are certain figures in this industry that I, I guess you could say, look up to or just have an enormous amount of respect for it to the point where I feel a little uncomfortable around them. Money passes that test. And when I did the power ranking show with them this year, I was legitimately intimidated until we got to know each other. I don't know why. He's just money's one of those guys for me.

I think everybody has them or maybe you don't, but I do. There's certain people. Sheck was the same thing for me. When we first started at the NFL, I kind of knew of Shek. And when I started to get him known better, I was legitimately kind of intimidated because I thought he was so smart and funny

and cool. money is the same way. I'm with you. That's me and D. Orlando Ledbetter, which I mentioned. I can't stop. I can't help but mention him because, you know, you grow up in this industry and I came in late in life and it's just great to see someone still pumping out the copy. And, you know, I think about it daily.

The thing with money and check, like they're clearly talented, but they're so approachable and so friendly that I almost don't even think of them on the professional level. I think of them just like, oh, those are good friends I work with. who are eminently approachable. Wes, you've got to plug in and start texting these people and bragging and Lakeisha about it. That's how you operate.

I'm not sure that would really impress Lakeisha. That was a common man answer by Wes. Like, that's why he's atop the rankings, frankly. Answers like that. I know. That felt a little force. I don't know. Everybody's a friend to me.

In case you're wondering what I'm doing, I'm over here texting Matt Money Smith. What are you doing on the other side of the couch? All right. Let's get into it. She was on the other side of the couch. We are going to do a deep dive. Yesterday, we talked about the 2020 graybeards,

which you could check that out at NFL.com. And a quick correction. Yes, I brought it up Andy Dalton on the roster. There was no pushback within the studio or from the various locations in Los Angeles. And it wasn't made aware. I wasn't made aware of it until hours later that Dalton is, obviously not a free agent he's still a member of the Cincinnati Bengals so bad job by me frankly

bad job by everyone else on the podcast and we'll just move forward this is this is a Trumpian level of not taking responsibility here you know what was that I don't understand why that's Trumpian I'm saying I messed up you don't you don't you can't see it from where you are I messed up this is good or me more than it hurts you I messed up by not bringing it up but the fact that None of you said, hey, Dan, he's still on the Bengals. Sure. I guess there's kind of the part that you're emphasizing right now. You're not emphasizing the, it starts with me.

That's how you hear it. How about this? It starts with me. It starts with me. We don't know all your little, all the rules. You're right. I did not think of the rules. Oh, don't do that.

See, now you're passing the buck because you know the rules. They had to be free agents. I'll just chuck it up to my self, not really, you know, tracking the league day by day. I take total blame for not knowing. But I think also, Dan, maybe in the middle of a segment, stopping down to tell you that you've made a mistake, it's not something that we view as the easiest task. And I also will say I didn't catch it.

I mean, there's some, I don't, this is not a good look for anyone. But I just want to say. And it starts with not a good look for the author of the article. I don't know. I don't know. Not a lot of accountability. But it starts with me. Apparently it ends with me too.

But yes, we're aware. Well, it was your article. Andy Dalton. That's where it goes. And he is not. So Joe Flacco is the third string quarterback. Check it out. NFL.com slash hands us.

Greg, you have a piece coming up this week where you're going to essentially assign ultimate value to various quarterbacks. And just so everyone knows for this segment, if Greg makes any mistake, do not let him know because ultimately it is only on Greg. I will take full responsibility afterwards, yes. This is an ill policy. I think in general we should aim to snuff out mistakes from here on out. There could be a lot. I don't know if it's even how I can make a mistake here other than bad opinions because there's not too much rules.

It's a little nebulous. That's why I'm asking you guys for help. Basically, the article is going to be, which QB would you want moving forward, everything considered? So that includes his age, his talent, and his skill level. obviously that's the most important status, but also his contract. So you're taking the contract that he has into account. It would sort of be like trade value, but no one's trading these guys. That's not the point.

Basically, do you want a guy like, let's say Aaron Rogers, you know, at the contract he's at, or do you want a Deshawn Watson type? And so I've got like a rough draft. And it won't be too deep a dive, Dan, because we're doing this show in under 30 minutes, whether it kills me or not. So we're at seven right now. We got 22 left. it's not that the are you guys ready for that all right well leave the way

do it all right um i'll start the list like i said if there's any questions on kind of the definitions but basically their current status we can go through kind of the top of them and you let me know what you think and i tried not to overrate the future too much yes you have these guys indefinitely but in theory you're a gm who could get fired any any year now so you can't be going through any terrible seasons why do i read off my top 10 and I'll throw out a question and we'll go from there. Number one was easy for me. It was Patrick Mahomes. I have Russell Wilson number two, gave him a little edge over Lamar Jackson, who's number three just because Russ has done it year after year after year and you just feel a little more

comfortable with that. Deshawn Watson at four and then this is where it started getting really hard for me. I have Carson Wentz at five, Matt Ryan at six, Aaron Rogers at seven, Kyler Murray taking a swing here at eight Dak Prescott is number nine he's got that franchise tag and number 10 is Baker Mayfield how about we start with you Dan Aaron Rogers at seven was sort of the reason

why I thought of this whole exercise like is Aaron Rogers still a top five quarterback I don't think he's played like a top five quarterback very often is even a top five quarterback of guys you would want moving forward he's 36 years old. He's under contract for a couple more years, right around where everyone is, $32, $33 million. He actually ended up a little higher at number seven than I thought he might be in the end. But that was as high as I could put him. Is that disrespectful to Arad?

It is not disrespectful. In fact, you could probably push him down lower. Greg, you, once you told us that we were doing this, SEG, I did a little bit of a research. And, And we all know that the way the things are set up with the collective bargaining agreement now that teams are at a huge advantage when they hit on a quarterback and he's on that rookie deal. That's, I imagine, a major reason why you're doing this because it really does illuminate that. But it's even crazier than you first realize when you really dig into the numbers, the fact that no quarterback on a deal worth more than 20 million a year has ever won the Super Bowl. It's never happened. And the fact that every time a team signs a superstar quarterback, and you put Russell Wilson, I'd rather start there kind of Greg, because you have Russell Wilson a two, and I get it.

I certainly understand that Wilson is as durable as any quarterback in the league. He's a superstar. He's a Super Bowl winner. He's been to two Super Bowls. But since Russell Wilson signed his first post rookie deal contract in 2015, and then he got another extension in 2019, they've never went further than the divisional playoffs. And to me, all that says is not that Russell Wilson is not a great quarterback or that Aaron Rogers isn't a potential goat-level quarterback.

But when you put together an exercise like the value of a quarterback, the way the league is set up, I don't know how you don't put all rookie guys in the top 10. Because history tells us that you can't win a Super Bowl the way things are set up right now financially, which I think not for nothing is a major problem for the league. I think that's a garbage stat. I don't know.

It's reality, though, Wes. If the Falcons defense doesn't crumble, then that stat doesn't exist because Matt Ryan's got a Super Bowl. You can play with stats all you want. I don't put much stock in that. To me, give me the better quarterback. I don't care about their salaries. Yeah, I mean, I feel like we've been trained on this show to disregard salary. I mean, I get that if you've got like a Nick Foles issue where he's being outplayed

and he's got this ballooning paycheck that is just an outrage on paper. But I struggle a little bit with the exercise in terms of like saying no to a premier talent because of their price tag. I'm not. No, I know you're not, but I'm just like, I don't know why I would, can I just say for me, the list got a little weird for me from 6 through 10 because I, just the way I am, I would take Aaron Rogers over Matt Ryan any day of the week. Yeah, me too. I like that you're taking a shot on, like, Kyler Murray,

and I wouldn't trust Kyler Murray at 8, just because, like, I feel like I got burned on first year ago, and so that's self-biased. But then, you know, in an off-season where I'm not going to be taking any daddy trips or traveling probably anywhere at all, you've made my off-season by putting Baker-Mayfield a 10. I don't know if I trust it, but you won me over with the concept of it. The list from there gets really weird.

Yeah, we'll move into that in a sec. But the Baker thing, Baker was one of the toughest ones to put there. Because Dan's, you know, everyone's right here. I think a rookie contract's a huge advantage. But I think you can win without it. Not only Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson would have won one. I mean, all this would have won one stuff. Wait, what about Tom Brady?

Tom Brady won. Yeah, but that's put way too much stock in the final score of one game. These quarterbacks are signing second deals like in year three and stuff. They're not all going through their whole rookie country. Tom Brady signed a series as we talked about in this podcast of team-friendly deals that allowed them to have more than $25 million. To me, these prices are not prohibitive of being a contending team. And I'm like Wes. I mean, ultimately the contracts weren't like the most massive part of this for me.

Russell Wilson, to me, is just such a safe feeling to have him as your quarterback. And I'm thinking even long term is five or six years because you could get fired. you want to win the Super Bowl this year. And so I gave him just a little edge over Lamar and Watson just because of all the times they've been together. To me, it got tougher. Yeah, getting down to Rogers. I would actually take Matt Ryan in 2020

just for one year over Rogers. I think I like Ryan that much. It's just by a little, but he's also two years younger. And Rogers has some guaranteed money in the rest of his contract where, you know, who knows? I would take Ryan. But Baker and then, dad, and Kyler, they're 8, 9, 10.

That's where it gets really hard. Can you clarify something? Yeah, please. You said for 2020 only. Is that what this list is for? No, no. I'm saying to even make my point, like, Ryan is younger and his contracts like a little better than Rogers,

but I actually even like Ryan in the immediate present a little better than Rogers. What about Wentz at 5? That one shocked me the most when you sent this list. That one really kind of caught me off guard. I still, I don't know. I still believe he's threading that needle where I've seen enough that I believe in him for the next seven or eight years, even if he's not quite at that very top level, and he's got the advantage of, you know, his age that he's still so young. And even though he's making a lot of money, like, there aren't that many guys like that in that middle tier of quarterbacks, like who are still young.

Kind of like Wentz at that position. In this exercise, are you saying essentially you are, the football czar? You're coming out of this. You've got to explain to a fan base. I had, you know, based on money and skill and everything else, my pick of the litter, and I've come out with Matt Ryan as my choice. I just think that you would have some feedback on that decision. If you came out with him as a court of it.

Matt Ryan's great. I like Matt Ryan, but out of this whole list, there's just literally no way that I would lean on him. at this point in his career over some of the people around them. But that's me. And, like, you know, my team might go 5 and 11. I don't know. I guess I'm a Matt Ryan fan. I mean, I look at it kind of like which team's fan base should be most happy with their quarterback

situation. And part of the reason, and let's hit Baker and then we'll get into the next 10. But part of the reason is some of these older guys, like, yeah, you're excited to get Tom Brady, but is that an even better than average, you know, quarterback situation? The reason I had Baker 10, though, is because of the age and because he showed enough in his rookie year that I feel like that's enough for me to hold on to, that the fact that he's in his rookie contract now for three more years and he's young and he's shown you something that I would take him just barely, although I'm still kind of like debating this list before I put it out, just barely over the next group of players, which is Matthew Stafford, who could have been higher. cousins, Jimmy Garapolo, are the next three on the list, 11, 12, 13. And those are guys who are still basically in the middle of their prime. To me, Baker's upside.

And then I actually showed you something on the field as rookie year as as up and down as his second year was that I can hold on to that and feel like like much brighter days are ahead. Yeah. I'm based off the rookie year. I'm based off the rookie year. I feel that for sure. I would say it was a little up and down as generous for Baker's second year.

That's fair. But I don't disagree that he flashed enough as a rookie. And Freddie Kitchens was obviously a disaster. Yeah, I think the coaching staff was on like a deep-based psilocybin trip. So you kind of give him a little bit of a mulligan here and then see what's happening year three. So there's a projection there that I get. Like, would you rather have him or Stafford or who? I'd rather have him than Dak.

I mean, DAC's going to get paid big time. And who do you think a better quarterback talent, DAC or Baker-Mafield? I think it's Baker. DAC is more reliable and consistent to me. But for upside, the ability to make all the throws and make them well, give me Baker. I mean, I think a little bit, like there's the Baker personality side, which might not fit with some teams. But let's say that that got cleaned up and you put Baker on the Patriots this year.

And in an organization that can just totally foster and grow him, I mean, I'd take him over a bunch of people based on age and all the other stuff. Dak, I'd feel the same way, though. I've seen enough. I don't think he's had, like, the best coaching in the world. You're right, Wes, as I'm thinking about this. I mean, yeah, you've gone on the franchise tag next year. You're going to have to give him a huge contract.

But most of these guys are on similar-ish contracts. Stafford's deal is actually so team-friendly. I gave him a little bit of an edge, and that's worth thinking about. Let me run through the next list. It's Stafford at 11, Cousins 12, Jimmy Garoppolo at 13, and then it gets really hard. Drew Brees is 14. He's on that one, essentially a one-year guaranteed,

but it's a two-year deal. Sam Darnold is at 15 in the middle of all these old guys. Ben Rathlisberger, 16, Tom Brady, 17, and then Jared Gough, Derek Carr, and Ryan Tannahill wrap up the top 20. And the old guys was tough to figure out what to do with you. Like, would you rather have Breeze and Brady, like, right now or Sam Darnold? I know it seems like an obvious answer that Sam Darnold's the answer. But I know that Bree, I think that Breeze is going to give you a chance to win a title, like, right now.

And I think that Brady is going to give you an advantage. And I don't know if Donald's going to do that or not. I'm, I'm sort of confused why Darnold's so much higher than other young quarterbacks who have not proven to be even average. What do you mean? He should be, he should be in the top. You have him three spots higher than Jared Gough, who took his team to the Super Bowl. You have him nine spots higher than Josh Allen. 11 spots, 12 spots higher than Dwayne Haskins.

I get that. To me, why is Sam Darnold so separate from all the other young, unproven quarterbacks. Because I'm afraid of Dan's reaction, honestly. No, he was a guy I thought like I could get grief for being too high the other way. Here's your answer, though, like because he's younger, first of all, he's like a lot younger. And the skill set when you just, when you see him the good things that he does, you can see why people are in love with him. Whereas those other young guys, Gough, I've seen enough that like that middle tier Gough,

car and tan ale that's not really where i would want to be as a gm because i think then you're you're in the middle whereas darnell's a little more boom or bust right now you don't know if he's but i think there's a better chance for him to climb high than than got i see this is a fundamental flaw with with the list that you have greg is that if you're going to put baker at 10 and bank on his first year and then you're going to bury josh allen wherever you have him uh because he's been inconsistent, which Baker has as well, only Allen's had some team success. It seems like those guys are just too spread apart. And either Allen's got to come up or Baker to me has to go down or what I would do personally is kind of put them move Alan up, Baker down and keep Donald right

in the middle and have them all kind of a little closer together. It seems a little odd that Alan is so far down and Baker so far up. Alan is just my evaluation. That I don't want any part of him. I wouldn't want to. Which I think like anyone who's listened to the show last season gets that he's not your favorite of the young guys. I don't have to give him credit that he had an up year. To me, it's not like who's had the best career so far? It's like who would you want to be your quarterback?

And my feeling, until I see much more, is that Josh Allen is like a best case scenario headed straight for the middle. And I don't want that. It's a fundamentally, yeah, human exercise. So that makes sense. but you could argue that you're overlooking how, you know, terrible Mayfield was for stretches last year, while not overlooking Allen for the same foibles that he had at times. I get it, but I think Baker played better than Josh Allen last year.

Stop. I really do. No way. I really, like Josh Allen, you worked around, like they worked around him. Yeah, they really worked around him in that Cowboys game. sure he had some he had some good games and everything right but you're acting like they don't exist i'm acting like you're are you going to get 16 of them from a guy that that can't shoot straight you don't get 16 of them out of any quarterback like like that's fair but like are you ever going to get

him to be a top eight to 10 quarterback that's why like darnold was tough for me because if you just looked at the numbers you know if you looked at the quarterback rating and the pff rating and some of the advanced stats. He's one of the worst quarterbacks, you know, in the NFL. And there's not a long history. In fact, there's almost no history, you know, football perspective did something on that someone with his numbers in terms of yards per attempt and some of these other numbers, having the two first years that he have has almost never become a top shelf quarterback. I think, that's why I think that I will not argue that he should be higher. I could see the other side that he should be. lower. But I think, and you guys talk about this all the time, that you shouldn't base things

just off stats and you should, you should trust your eye, as Wes says. And that's why I have him 15. No, I know. That's what I think it's a good spot for him. I think with Darnold that if you are watching these Jets games and you're watching the organization that he's essentially trapped with, he has been hurt a lot by the surroundings, by the skill level, which is bad, the coaching, which has been shaky, bad luck with the mono. And I think if you watch the games, There are moments where he is flashed, where you wonder if he was drafted into a better situation, let's say he went to Kansas City, whether he is a guy that's seen as like a young star.

I mean, and I'm saying that, you could say, oh, Dan, you're being a homer. What I'm saying is, is that I don't know if Donald's ever going to be any good with the Jets, but I do believe that if he was in a better situation, that he could be a real pro bowl level guy. But because of the way the first two years have gone, he's very murky. it makes total sense to me that he would kind of be in this type of realm for you on this list. I think people are a little too down on Baker's season. Like, for instance, pro football focus had him 18th.

He had him right behind Carson Wentz right ahead of Philip Rivers last year. That doesn't seem that crazy to me on a game-to-game basis. I think, like, people got so wrapped up in the expectations and the off-field. season and the attention that he was so he was like not great but i i think he was it doesn't surprise me that they had him 10 15 spots ahead of josh allen that they had him 10 spots ahead of i don't think he was better than josh allen last year i think he was worse than josh allen and pf can take a hike well i mean but from another angle in terms of building a team why would you not take josh allen garner baker any of the younger guys over um i mean i don't know how long you're projecting

this team to exist. But although I could sell tickets with Tom Brady and Drew Brees, you know, it's a Philip Rivers cult situation. It's a Band-Aid to get you to the next draft or maybe the draft after that. I would go younger guy with potential, which would be Darnold. I mean, I think Dan has a good point, that you're stuck watching these young guys on these disorganized, you know, troubled franchises that, yes, they should separate and show the skill set no matter what the surrounding is. But, I mean, like, if we're going to going to kill Baker for last year and look at completely different from his rookie season, then we're not looking at the entire picture. And the same goes for Donald. I mean,

young quarterbacks are not mavericks to do it all on their own. And Baker, that should prove that last year. And if you're in a total chaotic soup for 16 games, it's going to show. Hey, Greg, you got about four minutes, buddy. I know. I checked. That's fine. We've gotten through the big stuff. The rest of the list, just for the list, there's Daniel Jones at 21, Philip Rivers, who I do think I should move down. I agree with you guys at 22. Garder Minshu at 23. Josh Allen, 24.

Teddy's at 25. Andy Dalton, who is under contract, 26. Haskins, Foles, Fitzpatrick, Brissette, Tyrod. Then it gets ugly. And I don't know. Why is Drew Locke at 32? I don't understand that. Why is Drew Locke at 32?

And you've got demonstrated backups ahead of him. He has yet to fail. Here's part of the reason why. Like when you ask how far am I going into the future, like if I'm in this team, if I'm putting Drew Locke out there and he stinks and you're 4 and 12, it's like with this team,

I think like you could be fired in that situation. Like I don't know if he's ever going to be as good as football as Fitzpatrick. So why take a demonstrated mediocrity over an unknown? Like to me, I'm philosophically opposed that in every way. Like lockover Tyrod Taylor in a second. for me just based on why not you know sure if the if but if the if the if the unknown is something you've kind of invent you haven't seen anything from and you have no reason to think

yeah because at least there's a percentage chance he's going to lead me to the playoffs whereas i mean i'm not taking ryan fitzpatrick and tyrod taylor above that's fair maybe lock should be like a little bit higher uh than those guys but again this exercise is like who you would pick. If any, if you're a GM and you take anyone after.

Like Locke. Like sweating. What is this list? He's got one eye on the clock. I know. I'm loving this. This is why I wanted to do

the show with you guys so you would go crazy on it. I'm not trying to like provoke react. It really is what I would do. Like Tyrod Taylor is making $5 million this year. I guess I look at it in the case of, but this way.

If Drew Locke, if Drew Locke has Tyrod Taylor's career, that will be beating the odds. The odds are that he's going to have for worse career. Yeah, who cares about that? Like, all I want is, does he have any chance of being the answer?

And Tyrod Taylor has none. I guess for now, my thought of Drew Locke is he has no better chance than an average second round pick, maybe a worse than average chance. And to me, it's a pretty low chance. He's more physically talented than a typical second round pick. Like, you can see the traits are there. He has the talent. He didn't embarrass himself in his first few games as a starter.

Like, I just don't get that. If you have any chance whatsoever of being the answer, because all that matters is being the answer. Well, it's not all that matters. I mean, yes, it is. You want to keep a job. That's the only thing that matters that quarterback. Are you the answer?

Nick Falls is 28th on that list. He was the answer to win the Super Bowl in like the greatest game of his life. So I'm saying there are other values you can have a quarterback. He had the month of his life. That's gone. You guys should combine on a list and then crib off the list. that Dan and I have concocted currently during the show together. Greg, circling back to the beginning of the conversation.

I know we're up against the time level time-wise. But just looking, according to SpotRack, Tom Brady, never was more than $20 million on the books for the Patriots. In fact, until this year, I should say, he was $23 million in total cash. He was always under $20. And to find it, since the collective bargaining agreement went into effect in the 2012 season. That's in cash, though. That's not cap space. At one point, he had the highest cap figure in the league 2010, but that was a long time ago. Since 2012 and the CBA went into effect, only one quarterback is won it on a second contract, Eli Manning against your pets.

Now, Wes, you could say that doesn't matter. At what point does that become a number that does matter to you? Because if it's happened, it hasn't happened since the CBA and it's been eight years, how long? before that becomes a trend. And to that point, if this continues to be a situation where teams pay quarterbacks, a massive amount of money when they become stars, and they never win, could it become a situation in the way like the Steelers handle wide receivers where they just they hold on to a quarterback? And then they let him go because they see that the model doesn't work to give that guy a huge percentage of the cap. I know it sounds crazy, but we need to see some evidence that this works under the current salary cap in this league. You're asking me the question.

My answer is it's never going to matter to me because the stat is flawed. It's just terribly flawed. So Jimmy Garoppolo is leading for three quarters last year. He can have a bad game. And if his defense holds against Patrick Mahomes, the stat is all of a sudden out the window. It doesn't make any sense to me. I don't like the stat. It doesn't matter to me at all.

And it never will matter to me. I look more at like, which team. Yeah, but then like to that point, just one thing was to that point, What people say, and I think a lot of people have been like, oh, well, Joe Montana never lost the Super Bowl, and that's why he's the best quarterback. And it's like, oh, yeah, but if this player didn't drop an interception, that's what sports is. That stuff happens all the time in sports. Right, but you don't want general managers making decisions off of what fans are talking about. It's not what fans are talking about.

It's just the reality that it's not happening, and it has to happen. I would base it more on the rec, like, which teams are making the playoffs, which teams are getting buys, which teams are getting to. 12 wins, and I would have to go do a deep dive. But to me, tons and tons of the core, a high percentage of those teams are led by quarterbacks on their second, third contracts. And the fact that they haven't, like, gotten over the finish line is to me just kind of like a fluke. I mean, but Dan, Dan, let's throw it to the Jets. Let's say Darnold has a great 30-year. Well, just no, but like, are you like, are you going to cling to this? We went so far over. Are you going to cling to this nugget because you don't want Sam

Donald suddenly paid a second contract because, like, history tells us in theory that those quarterbacks aren't winning Super Bowl? So far, history tells us. No, of course I want Donald on my team. History tells us that it's really difficult to win a Super Bowl when you have to give that much amount of your cap to a star quarterback. That's all I'm saying. Why is it so much harder to, I don't know.

To me, if you've made it to the Super Bowl, that's, like, 98% as impressive as winning a Super Bowl. Like, you've made it with an expensive quarterback. that means you're good. Well, okay, but, but listen, the only reason I bring it up is because for this purposes of this exercise and defining a value to a quarterback, I believe that the quarterback on the rookie contract is insanely valuable in this league based on what we've seen since the CBA came in. And that's it. And I'm not saying I would not want to sit, don't hold on my team or anything else. It's a short-term luxury that you kind of walk into beyond your control if that rookie hits.

but then you're going to have to deal with the same pressures that everyone else with a successful quarterback deals with. And then the teams with a younger quarterback have the advantage in the league, which maybe there's some type of fix in the future, if this does become a long-term thing, where you get a little capital leave for keeping your in-house guy. I don't know, but it's been something that I've seen as a potential issue in the league because you always want the quarterback to stay with the team, almost always.

But if it's leading to a competitive disadvantage ultimately, then there's something wrong with that. I think it's overrated also because your next two guys usually take up more space on the cap than your quarterback anyways. So it's like your top defensive end, let's say, and your top offensive linemen, like those guys add up to more than a quarterback. So it's about like how you build a team.

Like the quarterback doesn't seem like it's outsized on the cap. I think it's fluky. We've gone way over. But it is the reason why Baker and Kyler are up there in the top 10 because they're on those rookie deals. and they've already shown that they can play. The other guys on the rookie deals, I don't know if they're champion,

you know, what their championship. I put Kyler higher, by the way, but, you know. We're out of time. I am going to move some of these around because of you guys, Locke does deserve to be higher. I didn't put a lot of emphasis on the analyst. Josh Allen may be a little up.

Greg, put Locke number one and watch this article go off into the skies. That's how you do it. All right. When is it going up, Greg? I think it got pushed back. It was supposed to be, it's now Friday. So, you know, we really teased this out. It's a good pod seg.

Come the end of the week, check it out, NFL.com slash Rosenthal and see if any of this conversation has led to changes in how he sees the landscape of professional football. Thank you for listening to the around the NFL podcast presented by Intuit QuickBooks. Thank you, Intuit QuickBooks for your support. We'll never forget it. The official sponsor of the NFL. Dan Hansis, signing off for the Quiet. So I'm the Mailman, the Boston, Ricky behind the glass. Bill Wednesday.

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