NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Crowning The 2026 Offseason Champions

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue nominate and crown the 2026 Offseason Champions! The two hand out some almost awards to the Chargers, Bears, Browns, Commanders and Chiefs before they nominate the six possibilities for the honor of Offseason Champions. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. From the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio in Englewood, California. Today, our panel of the top football minds in the world will crown the 2026 off-season champion. Let's meet the panel. He's still not ready to issue and apology to Mickey Loomis. It's Greg Rosenthal.

Maybe it's her. Maybe it's her twin. Would we really know? it's Jordan Rodriguez. Now, welcome our host. Also, Greg Rosenthal. Oh, yes. Not only a host, but I'm a contestant and a client,

and I will be contributing to determining the off-season champion of 2026. This is a very serious, special, important award, Jordan, which I got to say, the committee nailed a year ago. Do you remember what we did on this show a year ago? Chicago Bears? Chicago Bears were in the mix. The Los Angeles Rams. Oh, right.

We had a heavy swing, like we had a heavy weight from our producers behind the glass. Yes. One of whom is a Rams fan, Chris Bobona. So we will be voting one to ten of all our nominees who could be the possible champion. But we had the Rams win by 0.000 over the Patriots because I didn't want the Patriots to have that pressure. But how about that? We got the AFC champion. Going from like a last place team.

We got one of the two best teams in the NFL. I don't think it's an exaggeration to stay with the Rams. It had a good offseason. And you mentioned the Bears. They were also one of our high up nominees. We won't mention the other ones that didn't do as well. Never happened. You talk about the good ones.

Here's what we're going to do. We're going to nominate six different teams to potentially be the offseason champions. But before we do that, just because we have so many takes boiling up inside of us, we're just going to throw out a few superlatives of some of the teams so that people can hear a little more about their teams that didn't quite get a nomination. I love that. I like warming up with this. My first superlative is offseason winner based solely on vibes. And that goes to the Los Angeles Chargers. Pairing Mike McDaniel with Jim Harbaugh has already produced some of the best offseason content. They had a great draft. Loved seeing all the behind the scenes clips from that as well. And Mike McDaniel, Justin Herbert, and, we hope healthier offensive line,

it all is looking like good vibes in El Sagundo. They stayed to the script. Like big guys, good vibes. We are counting coaches. Big guys. Anything that happened since January are included. I'm going to give an award for two teams together. And this is the Congrats for Being Normal Awards.

I have forgiven Mickey Loomis. The Saints and Bengals. I thought about both of them as true nominations. and then when I really dug into it, I was thinking, well, I'm giving them like a little too much credit for just being normal. But normal is a big step in the right direction.

The Saints got, you know, Etienne, David Edwards, the guard. I think they had a really solid draft. They got guys to come in and play. They didn't throw any void years out there. That was nice. And then the Bengals, you got to like replacing Trey Hendrickson

with Boe Mae Mae Faye is tricky. You know, you did lose Hendrickson. but the Dexter Lawrence trade in a draft that I liked overall. Unfortunately, I had to knock them a little for keeping Zach Taylor. I feel bad. But it's the congrats for being normal awards for those two teams. I like that one. I'm going to go here with biggest narrative swing.

And this award goes to the Bears local media contingent. Oh, wow. Who had to remind Bears fans this offseason on multiple occasions, including after the draft that, hey, you actually have competent people running your franchise. You have a competent head coach who's working well with the GM to be a Bears media member and swing from, hey, not really sure what this year is going to look like to, hey, guys, remember, there is a plan here. The biggest narrative swing goes to the Bears local media. It is interesting. Seeing them be positive, seeing the Giants reporters. Maybe we'll get to them on

the show. Maybe not. But that's a good call. And I think the fans need to calm down about the Bears draft. It was fine. It was fine. I'm going to give an award called if it wasn't for your quarterback award. And I'm going to give that to the Browns. It just was hard for me to get to the point of nominating one of the three nominations. And yet, they, through their own fault, had to replace an entire offensive line this offseason. And I think they did about as well as they could have. Titus Howard, Elton Jenkins, Zion Johnson, Spencer Fanow. They brought back to Evan Jenkins. Like, about as good as that was going to go for you. It's not going to work perfectly. But I like the draft. And they,

They were in that slot for me. And then I thought about losing Jim Schwartz over some Brownsie. He wasn't happy about not getting into that. I do like Monken, but that was like just enough to knock it in addition to the quarterback. But I would just want to give them a little love. They're up there for best off-season. Yeah, same reason.

Otherwise, they would have been a strong contender for off-season champion after another what seems like to be a pretty strong draft. It just, I just couldn't quite get there with the Browns. In a similar vein, I'm going with the play. away award, so teams that feel like there may be a player or position group away from actually excelling. The commanders, wide receiver, they've got a cluster of slot receivers and Terry McLaren. Let's see what happens next. And I think that, you know, they're not going to be done here. You know, you hear a lot of connectivity rumblings between them and Brandon Ayuk, for example.

Adam Peters is connected with him. But, you know, there's just no clarity yet on that situation. So instead of giving them an offseason award nomination, which I was 10. to do. I give them a player away award superlative. Also, the Pittsburgh Steelers at quarterback. Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll find out. We'll see. The reports are they're getting a little sick of waiting for Aaron Rogers. But we'll see. The commanders, by the way, third in the NFL in total spending this offseason, fourth in guarantees and second in first year cash, three different metrics there. So they did what they did a couple years ago. They spent a lot of money. I'm a little more skeptical. but I think they make sense. Colleen, by the way, tried to give them a nomination last year,

and I buried it with a score of two or three. Yes, I recall. That war, you know, that aged well. That aged well. That aged well. You know what else is going to age well? One last little superlative from me. This is the toughest one to leave off. It was the made the most with the least award. I'm going to give it to the Chiefs because they were in a tough spot, but if you kind of go through what happened, you get rid of naggy, you bring in BN. me like that. And it was a little gutsy that they kind of chose to do that like that. Justin Fields is the guy if Mahomes isn't ready for what they got, you know, paid for him.

Great. You have to tray away McDuffie. And that's why I didn't quite get there all the way that if you lost the three best guys in your secondary and one off season, even though it all makes sense with the cap, it was hard for me to get there as a nomination. But you replaced them with Mansour Delane. Yes. You bring in Kenneth Walker, who could be one of the best free agents. You did the sort of signings I liked in terms of Lohe Gilman and Cater Kohoo and Kyris Tonga. The more I talk about it, maybe I should have nominated them.

I am high on the Chiefs' Offs season. I thought about them as one of my nominees as well. It's just really easy to trust the plan what it looks like here on face value. And I like what you mentioned about the coaches too. Let's not forget. Eric Bienomi was rehired for the same position that McNaggy currently had before Andy Reid talked him up in a press conference. and it's just sort of eased out of the building. Yeah, it was very artfully done.

The contract ended, so it's not the same as being fired. But if Matt and Aggie didn't get a job this year, the chiefs weren't going to hire him. Yeah. So my last superlative is the, hey, guys, can you just keep quiet for just a second? Because we want to keep liking you award. And that goes to the Jacksonville Jaguarian front office. Just let it sit. Those are your friends, too.

And, uh, really want to keep liking, liking the process. I, I, I believe in it. I believe in them. I just like, let's just, I like that they're different. I like that they're different. Uh, where they came from, the Rams, they did things a little differently. Yeah. It's worked out. Uh, love those. Man, set, you know, we just hit like seven or eight teams that quickly. Can we keep up that sort of pace? I, I want to see it. I, I hope so. So I talked about the chiefs not getting a full nomination. In the end, they were bumped off for the 49ers. I'm ready to make my first nomination.

And the reason I'm going to go with the 49ers, I surprised myself. The more I thought about this was they just had the cleanest argument. I admit this is a bit of a soft sell. I have three nominations, and this one's a little softer of a sell. But here's the cell. I think you can argue.

The best trade of the entire off-season might be Ossa Odi-Zua for a third round. pick, considering what the 49ers needed more than anything, which was some interior pass rest use. And you gave up a mid-round pick for a cost-controlled defensive tackle who is great at that, exactly what they need. I think you can make the argument that the best free agent signing, especially for value, was Mike Evans to the 49ers. So, you're telling me one team possibly had the best trade and the best free agent signing. When I went through all the offseason list from a year ago seeing who did well, who didn't. I mean, if you could just get like two big

difference makers, that's about as good as an offseason goes. Yeah, it's great to get, you know, a bunch of different contributors. Not many teams actually do that. So if these moves hit, like I think, it's so high level that I'm going to give them a nomination. They also kept Trent Williams at a fair enough salary. You know, they added to the wide receiver depth with with scribbling in the draft. I know people didn't love their draft exactly. Christian Kirk's. Also, So a board, overall, it's mostly about a diggyzua and Evan does an nominee. I think people forgot about those moves that they made earlier in the offseason, Greg, because the criticism was so loud over the draft where they were clearly drafting for role players

and depth guys and also just the picks against consensus and that whole debate that, again, I'm sure everybody's changed each other's minds about and with their internet comments. I feel like this is just, it's a, in the eye of the beholder. And they also have a coach and a coaching staff overall who we know will maximize the roster, whatever it is, whatever it looks like. They just keep going. They're old as hell. They're getting healthy, even though they're old as hell.

They brought Drey Greenlaw back. I didn't know what I would should be mentioning that as a positive. I actually did not care much. I understand it got too top heavy at the position with Drey Greenlaw coming back. I thought D. Winters showed some real potential. He struggled at times, but he had so much to carry with Fred Warner out last season. I thought he popped. But they got a return on the pick and all of that.

Yeah, it's hard in a totality to argue with what the 49ers look like right now. They did lose their tight ends, Coach Brian Fleury, to the Seahawks. So again, I didn't have like a perfect third nomination for a minute. I'll admit I was going to let you have one more nomination. that didn't seem right. So the difference this year between last year is we're going to score our own nomination, which adds a little bit of intrigue to it because you could really put your finger on the scale. Jordan, let's get your score.

If you're watching on YouTube, we are writing these scores down and you are holding up a 7.5. 7.5. The draft for me does bring them down a little bit. I am skeptical of some of that. I like the Juan Schwartz's stribling pick. I think he's a fit for them. but the off season, the Brandon Ayuk situation is still a bit murky. We're just going to have to see.

And so I like their free agency and the rest of their roster in general. Definitely have questions about the draft. So 7.5. Yeah, I'm going to give my own one, a 6.5, you know, just so that you were going to be higher. It doesn't seem like I'm so biased. But I think I just, Odigizua Evans, wanted that for the record. Eric, you are representing the back room. You and Chris Bibona are voting your vote.

really is what put the Rams over the top last year. And wow, you're giving it 8.5. I'm a big Mike Evans guy. I like Mike Evans. That's what I mean. It's a division. They're there with the Rams. They're at the Seahawks.

It's just about maintaining. I don't think they got worse, you know. Did you notice how we're giving Eric nice even like round decimal? Yes. I appreciate it. For now because we know he has to do the math in the back. And this is also Chris, Rams guy back here. Rams fan.

He was like 8, 8, 85 range. Right on the bat. Good. Wow. You know, sometimes we try. try to get too cute with all this analysis. Like, okay, you added Mike Freaking Evans. Yeah.

And he took less money than the bucks were offering just because he wanted to go play for your championship contender. Let's go, Jordan. Your first nomination. My first nomination is the New York Giants. I think that the John Harbaugh hire and subsequent staff turnover, the organization is now funneling totally through him. And if they're going for competence, they look competent.

I like their draft. I'm pretty skeptical still about. Matt Nagy, just in general. I kind of always have been. A little knock wasn't their first pick. But I, right. But I do like Denard Wilson a lot. I think that he gave some real respectability to the Titans defense in a pretty bad year overall last season. And while it's not a really good look to part with a disgruntled player, the way that they had to part ways with Dexter Lawrence, who seemed to have his mind made up already that he wanted to leave.

John Harbaugh specifically seemed to be immediately absolved of any blame there. And then was able to get a good return on the pick and then brought in Francis Maui Noah, who to me feels like a John Harbaugh building block type of player. They have a clear identity on offense now, where I felt they've lacked that for quite some time. John Harbaugh clearly wants to play more 12 personnel. Theo Johnson and Isaiah likely make for a really intriguing pairing there. And I think that personnel is friendly to the quarterback in Jackson Dart and maximizes what they think the quarterback can do. And like I mentioned, I like their draft. They're continuing to build around players. they like getting more help on defense, building a little bit more of a shape-shifting identity on defense,

which I actually do trust in Ard Wilson a little bit more than maybe some other coordinators they've had in the past to try to get the most out of that. I like their offseason. I really, I thought about it for a while and I very much talked myself into, you know, I do think the Giants had not just a competent offseason, but one that really, I think, would give fans something to be happy about. That's a good case for him. I like it. I thought hard about the Giants, they are high up on the list of teams that spent a lot of money. I was waiting for that. A pause, a little delayed there.

Might indicate how they're feeling about the Giants case. There we go. It's, I think they were sixth in terms of, or fifth in terms of first year cash given out. So very active in free agency. There are seventh or eighth in some other metrics, total guarantees. I like the process. I like throwing a lot of money at it. I like Harbaugh.

they maybe just could be knocked a tiny bit for like they wanted Munkin and they got naggy. It's not their own fault, but, you know, I'll knock them a little bit. I think they maybe wanted a little higher level of receiver and they get Darnel Mooney and Calvin Austin and Malachi Fields in the third round. You know, all building up the depth. I think the Lawrence trade was a total win for them actually. Yeah. And I'll give them credit for their draft in general.

They've helped to like rebuild the floor. Good offseason. All right, your first. John Harbaugh is the number one argument. Yeah, well, and I think that not just John Harbaugh, but like the reorganization that they try to keep super, super quiet from public, like public scrutiny, but it's very obvious that this has happened where now he is at the top of the food chain.

We're going to start the scoring this time to mix it up in the back room. I hope they are ready. Bobona and Eric. Scrably. What is the score that you're going to give the New York football giants? This is a Bobona score. He does not like Darvel Reese pick. He's arguing for listeners.

Why receiver earlier in the draft? Chris is a Bobona pick. Who are you going to take there? Jordan Tyson, I don't accept this. For our listeners, we got a finger wag at Eric Roberts from Chris Bobona in the background. So 6.5 was my score. This is why Greg doesn't let this side of the window do things. Yeah, that's not true.

It's good to contribute, but I will try to overcorrect. by giving them like a slightly higher score maybe than I would have. I think Jordan made a good case. I think Harbaugh was cool. I think it's definitely a better offseason than the 49ers. And so I'm going to give it a nice round eight. Eight for the off season. I'm giving them a 7.2.

I think I put them slightly less high than the 49ers because of they didn't have as many impact, like immediate clear impact players come in as the 49ers had acquired earlier in the off season. So I love the competence here being shown by the New York Giants. And we'll see how it works out for him, 7.2. I think Isaiah likely didn't mention his name. Or in Patrick Ricardo. We'll add some little fun elements to that.

I did mention Isaiah likely. Okay, my bad. But yeah, some ones like Greg Newsom, even Tremaine Edmonds was a little funky. All right. I'm going to make one more nomination before we take our first break. And I'm going to nominate the Las Vegas Raiders. Let's go to where their off-season truly got started. I mean, I don't want to pat ourselves on the back, but I think the Raiders off-season started the moment that Clint Kubiak talked to

Jordan and myself on the field after the Super Bowl. Clint, I know you're going to celebrate tonight, all of that. You know, I have to ask, though. The rest of your life, the rest of your head coaching career comes after this. How are you feeling about it right now? Yeah, I'm a, I'm a Seahawk all night tonight. I'm going to celebrate with these guys because, you know, we deserve that. We worked our tail off. And, you know, whatever happens next will happen. But I want to celebrate with our guys tonight.

And look, he was very calm for a guy that had just won the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. That's sort of his, like, natural state. It's always very calm. They kind of did the thing. I think you want them to do rebuilding an organization. I think it was smart to keep John SpyTech. I believe the moves that they've made. It's borne out that let's not restart the whole thing.

Let's let John SpyTech take over with his vision. Let's kick Pete Carroll a little bit unfairly on the way out with some unsourced reports and some source reports. Didn't love that. But let's spend some money. Second in the entire NFL in total spending. First, by a good amount in total guarantees. and in the top five in terms of first year spending.

So you get Kubiak, who I think is a perfect coach for Fernando Mendoza. It just, it seems like a perfect fit. You give Tyler Linderbaum a lot of money. I don't care that he's resetting the market. To me, centers were underpaid. Like, he's a high-level starting offensive lineman that is going to change a lot. And if you just think about the floor that they set, especially in free agency, I think Kirk Cousins is a perfect guy to pair with Mendez.

On defense especially, it's a totally different group. Quitty Pay, just a solid edge rusher. Kobe Dean, very excited about that. Taran Johnson's at nickel, and then you draft Trade and Stooks there to play some safety. I think they actually could play well together. Jalen Naylor helps that wide receiver. We'd like a little more there, Quay Walker. It reminds me a little bit of the Patriots a year ago in terms of they're not all going to work, but I think the thinking was sound. now when you look at this defense, it looks like a football team. And the reason I like it, maybe even more than the Patriots offseason a year ago, is that the draft, you get Fernando Mendoza.

And yes, like you didn't do anything to get the number one pick, but you feel differently about it. And then I like the values that they got deeper in the draft. Like Kieran Crawford, they have so many edges right now. Germant McCoy was a worthy selection in terms of taking a little bit of a risk. So overall, you just look at the roster. and it's so much improved. And I do think, unlike the conventional wisdom

from about 10, 15 years ago, actually you can spend a lot of money in free agency and really help the baseline of your team and that many of these guys will be hits. I like that they basically pooled a fund of money together and resources, including that first overall pick, as their quarterback development fund, right? Like, not just the resource of the first pick

on Fernando Mendoza, but also, Tyler Linderbaum paying overpaying or resetting the center market to bring him in. That is the most crucial player. A great center is the most crucial player that a quarterback could have when he's first starting out in his career or into his career as a veteran even. And I remember talking with you guys a little bit about this last season or last off season where it just was weird to me. The draft did not feel their draft last season did not feel like I thought it was going to feel. and I kind of finally put my finger on it this offseason,

sort of assessing where they were picking and the types of players that they were picking in sort of the background. This felt more like a Tampa Bay, like vintage Tampa Bay draft and develop core players draft. And that's John SpyTech. That's his background. That's his sort of pedigree where he comes from.

This felt a lot more like John Spytech than perhaps the other one did. Again, I'm not going to do the thing that they seem to do, which was kind of kick Pete Carroll while he was down. But I do think that there's a lot more. more clarity and identity in their process this off season probably kind of helps when you have a first year head coach coming in fresh off of a Super Bowl. So has missed most of the entryway to the offseason program. So you're kind of just setting things up around him as well. I just,

I really like their clarity of process this off season. I thought it was good stuff. Yeah. I think Kubiak's higher is a big reason why I had them this high. And people, including myself, who are noting like, that is not a good wide receiver group. Like they could used that second round pick Jack Bess from a year ago to play better this year. But you did not only get Linderbaum, they're probably starting Spencer Buford, who's from San Francisco at Guard. And you drafted Tray Zune in the third round, another guard. They drafted a couple last year that they're going to try to develop as well.

And you draft a pretty good tandem back, Mike Washington with Gentie. So it was at all steps of the process, coach free agency and draft. Overall, I like what they did. We'll see about some of the free agents. They're all not going to work, but let's go. I think I made a great argument, and I am going to give myself a 9.5. Oh, yourself, not the Raiders.

Yes, not the Raiders. A 9.5, also with the Spanish double exclamation points before and after. Nice. That's worth a little extra. I am going 9.4. Oh, wow. It's really hard to argue much with what the Raiders have done this. off season, every piece of the off season from free agency to the draft, just made a lot of sense.

By the way, they got a Premier Edge Rusher back. Oh, my God. Okay. Actually, we're changing the score. Unfortunately, that was such an important part of the argument that they ended up keeping Max Crosby in the end and that I didn't say it. I'm actually going to give a lower score now. To yourself.

To myself. It's now 9.3. They got knocked down a couple. But that's a good point. I would rather have Max Crosby ultimately than those first round picks. But it's close, but this team is better with Max Cron. You know, I'm pretty shocked you forgot.

He also is the classic double consonant to end his first name, Greg. Like, I thought you had a kind of... I had it written down. That is a big miss. Sometimes you just get lucky. And we'll see if that luck carries them. Do a good score from the back room.

Yep, 945. Okay, wow. You can't be filled down when Fernando Medoza is talking at a podium. It's impossible. And then you got Kirk Cousins in the mix. They poached kind of two Ravens. Like, you know, like, I know the Max Crosby kind of fell through. It wasn't them necessarily taking him.

But he fell back into like a refurbished relationship that looks way better than when he left. And it is going to be a great storyline too. Like the Max got traded. And now to me it's just a very WWE storyline, which helps. Oh, wow. They are real contenders here to be offseason champions. Let's take a quick break. And we will come back with our final.

nominees who will be the offseason champion. It's Harry Styles live in London, England at Wembley Stadium. This is Harry Styles. IHart Radio wants to send you an mate across the pond, with flights from Virgin Atlantic, hotel from TripCentral.ca, tickets, and $1,000 cash. Here we got to! Download the free IHart Radio app. Listen to IHart new music for 10 minutes.

Enter to win. Every day is another chance to see Harry Styles. Excite to see you with the show. Kiss all the time. Disco occasionally available now. We're back here determining the 2026 offseason champion. Hey, Rams like didn't work out against the Seahawks those fourth quarters, huh? But you were our offseason champion last year. That's got to make you feel better.

Because I'm a sicko and it really bothers me when NFL news happened that we don't talk about, And we have a daily show. I'm going to fly through a little bit of news quickly here. Not major signings. Tyrod Taylor is the new Packers backup quarterback. Shout out to Tyrod. Still collecting checks. I hope Jordan Love doesn't get hurt at any point,

but it would be kind of fun to see Tyrod in a meaningful moment for the Packers. They cut Desmond Ritter. Dante Fowler is added to the mix of the Seahawks pass rushers. I could see that working out well as a backup. He's been with Addin Dirty, the defensive coordinator when they were in Dallas. I wonder what you think about this, Jordan. Alvin Camara was on Toronto Armstead's podcast,

and a lot of people thought he was going to retire. I thought he was going to retire. He made it very clear that he was excited about the Travis Etienne signing and really sounded like he wants to play. So even if they set up his contract in a way that he could retire or they could cut him really painlessly, sounds like he at least wants to stay. Do you think the saints want to keep him?

I mean, he means so much to the fan base and to the city. I would imagine they would at least put their best foot forward to try to work something out. But if they thought he was retiring and maybe he's changed his mind, one of the things, though, that I like when teams long play or slow play, a veteran who's sort of on the fence a little bit, is the concept of giving that player enough time to miss football. And that could, as simple as that, be what's happening here and everything's resolved by training camp. If I'm Alvin Camara, though, and I know my impact and I know my meaning to the franchise overall,

I would definitely try to get a little bit more money out of it. I think the only two options are he's either taking a pay cut to stay on the team and they threaten to cut him or they keep him at his current salary. Yeah. And we'll see. We'll see what they want to do. Anthony Richardson, we talked about him with Seth Payne on Monday. I know you missed that show as a real deal.

Seth called it out. Seth is like, where are your co-host? I'm a real deal, Seth head, man. He missed you. We talked about Anthony Richardson. He is reporting to the Colts facility now. and starting to work out with the team. Looks like he's staying at least for now.

Skyler Thompson is a member of the Baltimore Ravens. Legerius Sneed has been cleared of his serious assault charges that prevented him, I think, from signing with the team. We'll see if any team is interested. He did not play last year very well for the Titans. And then Big Dom got an extension for the Eagles. You know, our guy, Alec Hallaby says so long. And here's some more money for Big Dom.

Just absorbed the money. Just absorbed the salary. All right, let's get back. Thank you. Thank you. Eric, appreciative that that was fast. Let's go to the Houston Texans. I spoiled it for you.

I read your nomination out loud. I love the face you made when you realized it halfway through. I'm run. Burgundy? Go ahead. Yeah, I'm going to nominate the Houston Texans for offseason champions. It starts with the Will Anderson Jr. And Izee's Al-Shire extension.

So locking up to corporal. players, two of the best players at their respective positions in football, who are also huge parts of the team identity, resigning another quality starter at Sheldon Rankins, uh, extending Daniel Hunter for, you know, he's playing at such a high clip, just not sure how long that will keep going, but continuing to, um, come to friendly terms with him on year to year deals. Um, they just pay their guys that they like who fit what they want to do. I like that they kept both coaches. We will see. We still will see what year two of Nick Cayley is off defensive coordinator looks like, but I really like that they kept Matt Burke, their defensive

coordinator, had a little head coaching buzz, a tiny amount of head coaching buzz. This off season, D'Amico Ryan's really, I think, manages those guys very, very well now in his, a shifted role, a little bit of someone who's not necessarily calling plays, but a part of every piece of the building. They had their fans worried at the start of the season. I think I sent you and Patrick some funny social media posts that I saw of some of the panic that was happening from Texans fans because they were very sort of slow and meticulous with the way that they changed parts of their offensive line. But bringing in Keelan Rutledge and I'm going to try Fabecchi Wii Wu via the draft could actually be contributors for them right away. I love that they added

David Montgomery to the Woody Mark's sort of run game package. I like that they added read blankenship as well in free agency to the Kalin Bullock, you know, and Jalen Petrie combination. They had some injury and, and other issues, personnel issues at that number two safety spot last year. And this just is a simple solution for them who also clears up Jalen Petrie to do more of that really great work along the line of scrimmage in that sort of like star slash hybrid linebacker role.

It's really, really hard to argue with any of the decisions that the Texans made this off season. And I think it was really quietly, because not many people, I don't think people are talking about them enough, really, really quietly, one of the best off seasons out of a team. And their draft didn't get a ton of pop, but it was serviceable to what they actually needed to do, filling in depth and also bringing in more reinforcements along their offensive line. It was very casario coded. Yeah. I love that. I had, I was surprised to see the Texas on this list. You're right. Underrated. This is my favorite off season. Oh. You, you did make the case in two guys they got, Kaelin Rutledge, Kaden McDonald's.

You know, a guard who's just looked at it as solid. And Kaden McDonald, who's kind of the final piece of just a run, stuffing, nose tackle. They quietly were in the top eight to ten in all the categories I've been talking about. Guarantees and first year spending. They actually did spend more money, and that's not even counting the Will Anderson move. Another thing I like is the way they've handled the C.J. Stroud struggles. at the end of last year and how they've supported him publicly, but also clearly made it known that they're not going to talk about his contract this off season,

but they believe in him. I just think a clarity of thought in general for the whole off season. And they got there in the end. I actually like what they did with their offensive line, Braden Smith, Wyatt Teller, being added late for cheaper, maybe even a little more than what the Browns did. So you convinced me. I was a little skeptical, but I agree. Just icing on the cake here,

I think they're also starting to face like a, like a wealth at the receiver slash skill pass catcher position because they did extend Dalton Schultz, but then they kept adding at the position. But they also had those young receivers who developed last year. And then they're also, you know, it's Nico Collins. And then they also have people coming back for injury. Like I just, I, I, I think they're really sitting in a very, very good spot to maximize what's left of C.J. Straud's rookie contract. I love the argument. Let's hear a grade. Um, I am going to give. in 8.9.

Pretty high. I know my son is going to be listening to this with bated breath, wanting to get the highest score here. I love it. For his Texans. Tank Dell returning. That's not really something you get that much credit for.

But just overall, their receiver's room went from being, like, a couple of years ago, two really good players and a bit of a question mark to now they've got like more guys than they know what to do with at this point. Also, I saw that like the quotes from the opposing GMs about, you know, the Will Anderson contract.

The Texans didn't just, you know, reset the market. They, like, blew it out of the water. I'm like, are other GMs this dumb? When you extend a guy who's on a fifth year contract, it's a five-year contract, them taking advantage in doing it early, like, his average for those five years is $33, $34 million. It's actually, I think, very team-friendly. And just, they get caught up in the Schefter report of $150 over three. Like, it's good for both sides.

it's a big advantage that fifth year option signing it early just stupid I love when you go on these it didn't reset the market I honestly am starting to be sick of the here's what executives around the league think about things article

don't need them they're usually not that smart just makes me think less of them it's always like the most average takes so if you're going to be that average put your name on it. Come on the show. Yeah, come on the show.

I said that the text since we're my favorite off season, I'm going to prove it here. I'm giving a 9.6. This will be the highest grade, unless Greg can convince me otherwise, for a team that I give this off season. It's just, I like their process. I love that they didn't lose anybody that would make them worse.

I like that they added players that can take them from an A to an A plus in a lot of places. And I like the quarterback. I think it was a blip last year. Okay. Eric, they got a chance to go into first place here. Oh, no, they don't. Sorry, 7-5 guys.

It's a stay-of-season. I don't think, like Jordan said, they ain't get worse. They're very much going to beat the crap out of you on defense. They push the C.J. Stroud. Wow. Down the road. David Montgomery hater. It was going to work my like.

I literally just told Chris, I like David Montgomery. But, again, is David Montgomery really moving the needle for you guys? He's a good locker room guy. I have another score. I'm actually going to give Eric only a 5.5 for speaking before he pulled the microphone. Yeah, that's rough. That's rough.

Hey, guys, I'm dealing with a cold thing over here. I'm trying not to breathe all up on the mics. That's very thoughtful. Hey, Eric, what is this right here? I think, do you see this here? Oh, I'm going to mute you out. That, uh, that was great, Eric.

I like you guys standing on the table. I have one last team to nominate. I think it's a really strong nomination. It's the Tennessee Titan. And now here's the thing. I don't agree with every single move that they made this off season. But I like the process. of it sounds like it's easy to do, just throwing money at your problems.

But it was the right thing for them to do this offseason. And when you look at the balance of players, these are players that are mostly young. Jermaine Johnson thought that trade was a major win. They know Tavondres Sweat. He's been in the building. They don't want Tavondres sweat, who's even younger. Jermaine Johnson's going to help you out. Cordale Flot.

He's an NFL cornerback. Alante Taylor. He's an NFL slot receiver cornerback. Those guys are overpaid. No question. But they're coming into their second contract. I like it. Same thing with Wondale.

I think Wondale Robinson and all these guys, they're not totally breaking the bank, but they're upgrading where you need them. Jonathan Franklin Myers was a little bit of an overpay and an older guy, but again, a familiarity with Sala. And that's where they put me over the top

for nominated them. I do like that they got rid of Chad Brinker. I, you know, I made front of the Titans a little bit for changing their plan every year. But ultimately, I think Borgonzi's vision with Sala and getting Brian Dable, who's been in a league a long time and can run an offense, and it's also an assistant general manager here, apparently, considering all the options that they had, I think it was like a B-B-plus for the management coach everything. It could have gone a lot. lot worse, Arizona.

And that's why, like, I trust Salah a little bit with some guys that I weren't as high on in the draft in terms of Kedrick Falk. And then who's the linebacker Hill in the second round, Anthony Hill. I think he's a perfect son. Right. I think here's the thing. Now that he's with Salah, those two guys, I actually think he has visions for these guys. It all fits.

They kept Calvin Ridley. Overall, they are just a better team by a decent amount. And I'm kind of buying this vision of the team. Well, it's similar to a couple of years ago. Thank you, thank you. I see good. It's similar to a couple of years ago when the Panthers at least attempted to overpay on a couple of positions in free agency to try to like re-level set.

And then also you have to do that to be competitive initially in a new coaching regime. Often you do, you do not inherit like a crap load of draft picks. you often do inherit some salary cap room or at least you shed a lot of people to make room for new players who are veterans who can level set the rest of your roster. They did that.

I mean, you can absolutely argue overpays for a lot of these players, but they did exactly what they set out and intended to do, which was lift the floor of their roster as all of these rebuilding teams do and try to put better players around Cam Ward. And I don't think the overpays

were even that dramatic. It's just the new NFL. Wondale Robinson making $18 million a year sounds crazy. He's a productive starter. In two years' time, that's going to be the minimum for any third receiver. It already is pretty close to it. They did spend the most amount of money.

And so, yeah, when I think of off-season champions, second and guarantees in first-year-catch. When I think of off-season champion, it's not always a compliment. And so I do think it's teams like the Titans who just went a little wild with it and kept us talking. I think it's what they needed to do. Jordan, let's start with you.

Oh, only seven. Seven point zero. I don't know. It's not personal to you, Greg. It is personal to me. No, I like it. And again, you know, some of our listeners, I'm sure, like, why are they all getting, you know, relatively higher scores?

This is the best of. Oh, yeah. We're nominating the best off seasons of the year. I think it was really solid. And I can't continue to use this word, overuse it on this show. especially, it was competent. It looked competent. It was creditable.

It was creditable, as we've loved to say about the Titans in one way or another, at least on defense. I like also the sort of experiment that's happening here where they're going to bring into former head coaches in sort of retread roles, although Dable, obviously, being the offensive coordinator, two really big personalities. So far, though, it's worked out in a way where you can see why it makes sense, where They've each kind of gone after their own players and say, hey, we can fit them on a roster together. Here's what we know about Robert Sala. He's not going to solve your offense.

8.4 is my score. Self-love is important. I think I really made a convincing argument. No, they would have been number two on my list, I believe. I mean, that's why I nominated them. I guess the Raiders by score is my number one. Eric, what do you got? Yeah, we're going seven as well. Yeah, I was very much in the same boat as Jordan was just saying. I like Robert Sala. I like Brian Dayball. Maybe it's my Josh Allen roots with him. But yeah, you get two guys, both know what they're doing.

Go fix whatever the hell has been going on there for the last, you know, decade. Hey, they, you know, they had a successful coach, Mike Rable there for a while. They might be enjoying Patriots off season, too, from afar. Let's talk about your final nomination, Jordan. Don't say it. I don't even know who it is. I am nominating the New York Jets as one of our offseat. That's one of our.

Oh, no, they were, come on, you had to have the Jets in there. I thought, I thought hard about that. I like when Eric hits a drop that just is like, it cracks me up. A lot of this is because I really like their draft. They had a lot of picks to use. They have a lot of rebuilding to do. And I can see the vision that they're trying to build with. They brought in a couple of great weapons in the draft in Kenyon-Sadik and Omar Cooper, Jr.

for your guy, Gino Smith. Gino Smith really excels with players who are zone beaters, specifically you can create after the catch. I like the idea of Ken Yon Sadiq in line with Mason Taylor together with this offensive line. I also like the thought of either of those players detached from the stack as skill players as well in compliment to the guys they already had on the guy they already had on the roster. This, as I've said ad nauseum about our offseason winners here, this was

all about a combination of a team that needs to raise the floor and raise the competence level and the identity of its team with veteran players, which they went and did in some ways in free agency, but then also by stockpiling these draft picks and trading out guys who weren't necessarily going to be with them for the long term. And then also drafting to complement. So they might have contributions this season. You know, Jetsby reporters are thinking from all eight picks could have an actual

spot here with a dozen or so new starters in total. And then you replace the veterans, especially, with guys who you are going to draft over the next couple of years. You could see this plan start to be in place. I do like that they kept relative continuity. Aaron Glenn, it was a really rocky year for him last season, but they went about committing to players who you could see were fits for him. And I also am sort of pandering to you a little bit because your favorite player was drafted. Gino helped. Gino helped.

I thought about it very strongly. The Angela Pons is also a new jet now. I'm pandering to Greg a little bit. Big swings, big misses in my mind, but it made me think hard. I think you deserve an applause here. For some reason, Chris Bobona is on the mic now. We ready here? So I think that.

I don't get applause. Yeah, she never got any applause. I need more validation than Greg does. Let's be honest. We switch producer chairs and now Eric's doing a ton of stuff. Thank you. Just a little more. Just keep it going.

Just a little bit longer. Let's keep going. Yeah, this is all I have, you guys. It's all I have. Well, I'm ready for your score, Chris. Let's hear it. We can talk a little more. I'm going nine.

Wow. I think it was a very, very strong offseason. And I think two of my favorite parts were, number one, I think David Bailey over Arvel Reese is going to go down in history. Really, really, really. I think that is like one of the best picks of the draft. And then also, just that they didn't need. even entertain the QB class of this year and are going in with Gino and then waiting for

next year. I think that's a very good strategic point for them. I think that is a great point about that they built an offense ready for that next quarterback and that they're set up. And that is kind of part of their offseason. They started the trade. I also think you going so hard, Bailey over Reese feels personal, like an attack on me when I've been the total opposite the whole time and I'm going to knock you for that. I am going to give the Jets a... You made a very persuasive case, but I'm going to give them a 7.7.

Ultimately, I have to go with some of my first gut reactions to the free agency period, which was On Yamada, that Tavandre's sweat trade, I kind of liked for the other side, DeMario Davis, Minka Fitzpatrick, the combination, of all those moves?

We said at the time, it's guys they are certainly going to be replacing in the next year or two. My concern is they might be replacing him in week four. They just are busts, essentially.

And that could be wrong. And ultimately, it's a little bit of lack of faith in their vision because I'm looking at it here. Their entire defense, other than Jamie and Sherwood, was literally not on the roster

when Aaron Glenn got there. And that's just a lot of turnover. and he hasn't shown me that he can kind of make it happen. So a little bit of a knock, but all of your second stage arguments in the draft and overall picture, I think, makes sense. Yeah, I think too, you bring in a quarterback like Gino again to lift the floor of everything,

but you certainly are not thinking that he is going to be your long term. So people get lost in the sauce a little bit, seeing him and thinking, oh, maybe they're going to be really competitive. No, this is a rebuild. And the reason that they've got floor raising veteran players there is because they are going to be drafting and volume over the next two seasons, including this one, and replacing players with their draft picks, but they have to field a rational team.

I tell you what. I'm giving them an 8.3. In 8.3. I'm not going to go 8.3 wins, but I am going to go over 5.5 wins, I think, already. I know that. Yeah. That offense. They will be competitive.

They will be competitive. That offense, if Gino plays well, is a competitive offense. I actually have more questions about the defense. You can rebuild and earn a little respect in the process. That's what I think they're doing here. I'm glad you gave them some love. Yeah. I liked Chris's point about getting this entire ecosystem ready for a quarterback as well.

And I like him going so hard at Bailey. And I'm going back at you, Chris. That's just my love language. I like that you went so hard at it because I really haven't heard that take a ton either for a number two overall pick. People should be getting more excited. Get excited. We definitely have to clip it because our takes on this show live forever in posterity.

Okay. Especially the ones we're right about. The final Jets score will be somewhere in the 24s, which is good, but it's only going to be good enough or third place. The second best offseason was another Jordan nomination. It's the Houston Texans. But the offseason champions are the Las Vegas Raiders. They did it.

They did it. Wow. We are out on a limb here. I mean, last year it was the Rams, an already successful team. But we had the Patriots. And look what happened to them as number two. So this year we got Raiders, Texans. I'm doing the math in my head for the Jets.

I believe the Jets finished third. Third. And then it was very close between the final three teams, but the 49ers, Titans, and Giants in that order. I think this is a good list. It's an honor to just to be nominated. This exercise was really. really instructive for me because I did not see a ton of room between the top couple teams.

And I did like those New York teams. And then I think there was a lot of teams that had the good off seasons except for one little thing bothered me. Oh. For you, Greg. Jordan is holding up Greg with the number 10 next to it on her placard. What do we call these? I don't know. I mean, that's the nicest thing anyone said to me all week.

and it was my anniversary. Hey, I'll be here all week. We really will be. We've named the offseason champions. Let's hit the music. Congratulations to the Las Vegas Raiders. You finally did it. You won something.

Let's go. You did make the playoffs a few years ago. Almost won that game. But not quite. Congratulations to the Raiders and their fans. And to Stephen and to John SpyTech, if he's out there listening. We believe. And it definitely means that this is the most important thing of all to

predict what you're going to do for the regular. Yeah, this wasn't necessarily supposed to be predictive, but last year, since we nailed the first two and three out of the top four, I'm kind of viewing it that way. Now we're rooting extra hard for the Raiders. Like I said, I will be here all week. Wednesday show is going to be really fun. It's myself.

All the claymates and the Claibon vons out there will be excited because we're doing a mailbag. So check out my prompt on Instagram and Twitter and Blue Sky. Send us your questions and we will be answering them on Wednesday. today show. We'll see you then. Congratulations. The Las Vegas Vegas. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed

human.