NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Daddy is Instructive: FA Winners & Losers (with Bill Barnwell)

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap the latest free agency moves from over the weekend, starting with the Cowboys trading for Brandin Cooks (9:48). Laremy Tunsil agreed to an extension with the Texans (13:20), and Adam Thielen is heading to Carolina (16:30). The heroes hit some Odds and Ends (18:45) before welcoming in Bill Barnwell (21:39) to discuss free agency's biggest winners and losers thus far (26:58), including teams like the Lions (27:37), Giants (32:31), Broncos (48:09), Cardinals (57:34) and more, plus an honorable mention section (1:04:00). Note: timecodes approximate.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. What, what, what, what? From the Chris Wesleying podcast studio, it's Around the NFL. I'm Dan Hansus Heroes here. Greg Rosenthal. What, Mark Sessler. What?

That was everybody's weekend. You know what I've got? watched if you're not going to say anything well i was waiting for gregg to go there that i enjoyed just seeing mark like stare at me and mark's like i don't want to tell anyone about my weekend i'm happily telling undercover that is not the case um i watch well everyone the watch listen to the show knows i'm like the baseball fan of the podcast i'm watching this world baseball classic which i never have in the past and i've been struck by how like kind of the level of juice it has both in the sell out crowds and how much the players care.

Salvador Perez is the catcher for the royals and is kind of like a grand pooha for a lot of the Latino players. He's from Venezuela, I believe, actually. And he said the game he played against the U.S. that the U.S. went on to win meant more to him than game seven of the World Series, which he played in a few years back. And then it did get me thinking, boys,

I was walking the dog. There you go. Did not pay anyone? That's your time to think. Did it go into a hole and poop in the dark? Just walk in the captain thinking about it because we've had so many issues with the Pro Bowl and the NFL and how to kind of get the players invested

and find something that the fans can enjoy. Is there something to? And baseball is a global brand in terms of players come from all over the world here. You know, Latin America, the Far East, Greg. Japan, massive. football is getting there internationally in terms of popularity, but the players, it's like, what, 98% 99% American players.

Yeah. Getting somewhere. Moritz-Boranger would carry a lot of weight on the international team. Exactly. But is there something to regionalism, and our country doesn't need more tribalism, I understand that, but is there something to some type of competition

amongst football players that reflects where they come from in the country? So what if there was some type of event where it was like, oh, the Texas football players? whether they're from Texas or they went to college in Texas, they can choose, just like Americans in WBC can choose to play for America

or where their heritage is from. Florida, California, maybe there's a Midwest team, and is there something there something there from that? Or is this a terrible idea? I would say you probably have a soft version of that with college football because a lot of recruiting is more localized than if you're on the East Coast,

you're getting everyone from the West. It's probably a soft version of that. On my one issue, because I've heard some grumbling, the only grumbling, I heard about the baseball part. There was a major injury that occurred. Yes, injuries. There's been a couple, actually. I just think you add any time you're attached to an NFL team as a fan or coach or whatever, and you're watching your players even play pickup basketball. You're sitting there with you like your fingers crossed.

Sure. That's the thing. It's too physical and you're adding, when the schedule be, you got these players like, oh, Maryland versus like Oregon. Well, that's cool except if you lose, like, player X for the next 12 nuts to an ACL. And the ball obviously is different than basketball. and baseball. That's true. And that injuries are

a much higher risk. But in terms of getting the players juice, the way these guys are. Football is completely different than basketball. Just throwing it out there. Is there anything?

Even if it's a skills competition? I don't know. I see why you're inspired. People are very passionate about where they're from. I don't know if it would be as much in terms of the states, but it would because people,

you know, players really cape for like the states that they're from. But it's such a physical sport. It's like, I don't think anyone, even football players who love football, never want to play and expose their body and hit that hard unless, like, it really matters. Be a tough stitch for Rhode Island, by the way. I mean, like, you'd have to.

The Northeast in general would be, we want to do, well, the natives of the Northeast. I don't think in that. It would just basically be California, Louisiana, Texas, and Georgia. Let's just have a semifinals and start there. And then everyone else, how about that? And now everyone's going to be bad. Ohio, on Twitter is like, Ohio, Pennsylvania have provided more. people.

Midwest. I guess for me as a fan, I don't, I, I'll start to disengage when it's like a bunch of people from Texas shouting at a bunch of people from Ohio. Right. So like politics, basically. Where do I play into that? Unfortunately, this might be something that other sports have on, have on the old American football. But you know, Henry is working on it.

We're building players. We're building communities. We got players coming from Africa. We got Europe, you know, Asia. It's coming. but we might have to wait about who got a job 70 years so we'll we'll be quite old at that that point our buddy uh f a obada got a gig he's back deserves one should we update the uh keeping up a bow ringer to keeping up with obada keeping up with f a i mean the only thing is that we'd

have to find a song that is i already really regret bringing up mobo because i didn't mean it in any derogatory well like if henry's listening here it doesn't like that it just he doesn't like i just was really in your head here isn't he he's really in your head here isn't he You're like, you're PR in his campaign. You're scared to offend him. He lives rent-free in your head, Greg. I hate that. I hate the people say that.

All right. This is around the NFL. Good show today. We're going to talk to Bill Barnwell. One of the great football writers covering professional football. He's with ESPN, of course, and with a free agency basically one weekend. Where do we stand? Who's looking good?

Who's looking bad? I do hesitate a little bit, boys, in terms of. of the timing on this. It's so early in the process. But at the same time, hey, listen, we book Barnwell. Let's talk. What else are we going to do?

Let's shop it up. Well, it just was kind of like things have slowed down enough to the point where, all right, let's take stock where we are after a week. I think maybe a disclaimer, like, to the teams that we're going to talk about with Bill that we're not as high on, don't like crush us.

All right, do it if you want. But understand that we're doing this segment. We're not going to rule out these teams from being successful. in the short or long term. It's just kind of where things stand a weekend. Who had a bad week? Not a bad week. We all have bad weeks.

We had good weeks. We had bad weeks. I think if you don't like what we do, you can tell us all you want and see how we respond to that. Yes. Who is the great defensive tackle that jumped from Philly to San Francisco? Javon Harger. Did you guys know before we get to the news

that he shares a nickname with a certain person behind the glass? that's right I did learn that over the last week how do you feel about that person behind the glass about what sorry there was a great moment that just happened and I was making a note

setting you up that was the great moment that was the all-time setup for the drop oh right oh I know what you're talking about now yeah I don't know why are we even going to finish the show at this point there's no coming back from that one

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know who was first here because, Dan, you came up with this nickname for me. Yes. And I was on, for the record, I was unaware that this player was connected to the nickname, but he's a prominent star in the NFL. I'm sure he's had the nickname for some time. Right. I was unaware.

There's also another player in the league, I think, that calls himself this nickname. What nickname? What nickname? What nickname? Never gets old. Did I nail it that time? Mm-hmm. I mean, if we don't know that, if none of us really knew that was Javon's nickname, is he doing, you know, considering we have someone in our show here that has seven or eight nicknames and they're all well branded and known, like Javon Hargrave is not doing a great job with the Gravedigger nickname.

Yeah, I think maybe he doesn't need to do the branding as hard because his play on the field is just remarkable. Yeah, it's not, he doesn't, it doesn't hinge on that for him. All right. DJ Reader also is sometimes been called the Grave Digger. Get the hell out of here. I mean, he doesn't even, I mean, Hargrave has Grave in the name. hell out of here with that it's disgusting what you're trying to tell us that's a disgrace reader i'm not going to talk again this episode no that was good you gave us good info let's do some news

chains on hugh blow shout up hublo Gucci um yeah no man me and Gucci partnered up uh this past year so we we do a lot of things and anytime i got something special going on they want to make sure they got me fitted and stuff so as soon as the trade happened um they hit me and my team up and was like got to wear Gucci. I was like, I'm going to wear Gucci anyway. So I got y'all. Jalen Ramsey, you know, early in his introductory press conference with the Dolphins. I was thinking that we don't have a outfitter for our show.

Not yet. There might be a time where we have some type of media engagement together, and maybe that's something we need to get ahead of. I don't know if Gucci is going to approach us. Maybe there's a Sears brand. I mean, we did get a suit from the NFL where they put our names inside the jacket and they misspelled your name

and then you had it fixed. The Taylor was killed. The Taylor was murdered. He is his body is not and recovered. But I did get it. He was like, how was I supposed to know how to spell the new old blue eyes? All right, let's get to the news.

Starting with Brandon Cooks. He is on the move. He is the first player. I don't know if this is an achievement or what you guys can decide since Eric Dickerson to be traded four times in his career Eric Dickerson retired like 30 years ago so yeah and he's in the Hall of Fame I think

anyway absolutely Brandon Cooks has been traded to the Dallas Cowboys the teams will swap some late round picks and Cooks slides in to that spot that they've been looking to upgrade and we had CD Lamb in our podcast Super Bowl week And he talked about how they need more weapons.

Brandon Cook's, Mark, is that guy. We'll see if they add more to it. I think there's some reporting out there that this likely takes them out of the market for O'Dell Beckham. But who knows what O'Dell Beckham's market is right now, we shall see. But Cooks is an upgrade over the version of Michael Gallup

they got last year. There you go. Yeah, and I like it better than O'Dell Beckham. And they got the Texans to pay $6 million of the salaries so the Cowboys are on the hook for $12. It was a year ago that Dallas had to essentially trade Amari Cooper away or chose to for next to nothing because of their own cap issues. So a year later, they get Brandon Cooks. And I think if you're traded this many times, someone's ready to move on from you.

And I think that with Brandon Cooks, there are obviously contract issues with the Texans, wanted to be traded last off season. Seems everywhere he's been. It's kind of gotten to a point where there's been a little bit of a back and forth that's not turned into a major blowup. But Brandon Cooks has kind of wanted to move on, have a different role, X, Y, and Z. so he's movable, but there's always someone that wants him. And I think this is the Cowboys saying, look, we get it. Like, we need to do more around Dak Prescott.

There is a lot of this is on Dak Prescott, too, but Brandon Cooks can still play, and it's not like you've gotten this guy beyond the pale. I think you've still got a year or two with Brandon Cooks, who's actually only like 29 years old or something. Right. He joins Jalen Ramsey. Might come up a little later as, like, sneaky young.

I would not have guessed Brandon Cook's, who's been racking up 1,000-yard seasons. I know that's not the perfect metric for why I'd receivers. This doesn't tell you everything, but he's been racking up a thousand-yard season since he got in the league. I'm hesitant to give the Cowboys too much credit because they are the Cowboys, and this was a problem of their own making. They sat last year without Amari Cooper and $20 million in cap space for no particular reason. But this was a great use of their cap space. The fact that they got the Texans to pay $6 million of his salary, this was a contract Nick Casario gave to

Cook's just last year. So this was kind of a problem of the Texans turnover. They're that different coaches and everything he was not happy there and they felt like they just had to get rid of them for 50 cents on the dollar they got a fifth and a sixth round draft pick back so I guess they're sort of paying for that draft pick that that was probably where the negotiation was bought I like it a lot Gallup should be better there is something to the idea that a year more removed from surgery he'll be better and then suddenly Cooks and Gallup that's a reasonable two and three yeah I think it's okay they're winners that between that and Gilmore and then bringing Donovan Wilson back.

I thought it was a nice deal for them. They've had a nice little offseason. Not too flashy, but it's nice. It's all right. I would have liked them to keep Dalton Schultz around, and he's still unsigned us right now. They still have a lot of cap space. Bring back Schultz and I'm feeling a lot better about things.

But Cook, you know, I don't know, he wasn't great last year, but he also was very unhappy. He was on a Texan's team that had, you know, was a mess. In other news, the Texans have done business with Laramie Tunsell again. Three-year, $75 million contract extension. per rap sheet. It includes 50 million guaranteed, 60 million in total guarantees. See, I just say that stuff?

And just like, what am I even saying? It's 50 million fully guaranteed and 60 million in total guarantees. What's a guarantee? I think it gets a little muddled. It's very problematic that guarantees are not guaranteed. That should be whatever 50 million fully something, it should be something different than guaranteed. And then you could, don't use guaranteed twice because then it completely eliminates

any meaning for the word. There is no meaning because what it is is an injury guarantee that he gets $10 million next year if he's injured and they want to cut him.

It's a language issue that we need to adjust. If for some reason his play fell off a cliff they could cut him and it's not guaranteed. Anyway, it's a good... I would say nothing has any meaning.

It's a good deal for Tunsell who in 2020 signed a three-year extension that made him the highest paid tackle in the league and now he is once again. And now Greg will point out this. He represented himself.

Well, kind of. Kind of. I don't know. What about the St. Omni individual? There's, there's, uh, he represents. It's kind of fascinating the, the backstory on that, that there's a St. Omni guy who the league sent a memo out last year. He is not a certified agent.

You cannot be represented. Do not talk to this man. But there, apparently, Florio wrote about this. There's this, there's this underground fight club culture of, uh, of agent representation where they you quote unquote represent yourself and I'm not saying this will happen with tons so I'm just saying this is something that Florio put out there but you could have a guy that's not technically your agent but he basically um portrays you in written email type conversations that go through negotiations without the team like so when so he was backing

roquan smith he's like a ghost writer a ghost agent basically and he takes over an email account we need it we need a story on this and so and this is what florio pointed out, but that the bears started to, their radar went up during that whole kerfuffle with Roquan Smith where he wanted to be traded, that Roquant Smith was out on the practice field when they received an email from Roquan Smith. And so that caused some, like, there's certainly a third party here. And so Laramie Tunsell is not his own, he is his own agent, but it was St. Omni who announced this deal to Ian Rappaport. So we could ask Ian about it, but there's someone else involved. It's not just Laramie Tunsel doing it all on his own.

Offseason Ian combo. Sure. This is how they sell siege. It's very strange. It's made. Then again, I think the insiders and the agents are all on the same team and they have... Now we're talking how the sausage gets made. You don't like the St. Omni situation.

That's what I mean. They have motivation to make Mr. St. Omni look bad. Good job by Tunsell and St. Omni, apparently. Reset in that market again, and he's only going to be 31 when he gets back on the free agent market. I like that name St. Omni. I was going to say it's a great fake name. Yeah, that's a great fake name. Just go by it.

Don't need a first name. I'm St. Omni. Adam Thielen has a new home. The Panthers signed the longtime Vikings wide receiver. Three years, 25 million, 14 million in guarantees. He's going to answer his age 33 season. So, you know, the Panthers got to start somewhere and rebuilding their wide receiver room.

They didn't have a lot of depth to start with them. And they traded their clear number one, DJ Moore, to the Bears to get that number one pick as part of that deal. So Thielen, I think he makes sense as long as he's in the right spot within that team, he can't be their lead guy. He is a guy that if you look at, if you pop the hood on his play the last couple of years, he's been in regression. And the stats back that up. I mean, you have Terrace Marshall Jr. I think you got something there. She's Smith.

And like, you're having a rookie quarterback. So Adam Thielen, Hayden Hurst, like, keep your running backs. Like, they're still interested in DJ Chark, according to Scott Fitterer. So it's like, I would do anything you can between now and drafting quarterback X to just put players around him and see what sticks. Thielen, not sneaky young. He is turning 33 before the season. More of a Redsend guy. Got a lot of money in the first year of that deal, 10 or $11 million.

A little surprising, but he's the classic, like, article that's going to be. released in August of how he's teaching the rest of the room how to be a pro and that what he's worth to the team is worth a little more than just production like having another coach on the field I kind of think there's there is something to that I don't think that's total BS but he's getting a premium for that Greg it's like having another coach on the field because that's what you want Josh McDaniels running around there catching the slot I don't want to be a snitch but like kind of cheating too yeah you're no that's two positions.

So maybe we shouldn't be solid. Also, I've watched approximately 17 minutes of C.J. Stroud tape, and I'm like, my God, this guy's amazing. Let's go Stroud. Okay. Let's go Stroud. I don't know if he's the quarterback. If he could see over the offensive line, he's going to be.

No, Stroud. Oh, that's right. Because there's, weirdly in Vegas now Stroud is the favorite because they're sort of reporting, but no one actually knows. We're just guessing, but I'm kind of surprised how he's been a little undersold. Let's do some odds it ends. Odds and ends, odds and ends. Everybody, tell your friends, it's odds and heads.

It's getting into a dark place. I think we might have unwittingly tapped into a dark third dimension. Like we're opening up this portal and all the demons of hell and beyond are going to pour into our Yeah. And it will be our fault. Because of a tiny box, diddy. Right. I don't know, like, how this even happened, but it had a very Trent Resner social network

soundtrack vibe to it where, like, this is the beginning of the end for our society. Kind of, kind of. All right. Let's hit it. All right. This is an easy one. Nick Scott, the defensive back, signed a three-year, $12 million contract with the Bengals, Greg. Like that one.

Bengals needed to get a safety, and it's cheap. They're good at these little mid-tier signings. Yes, they've proven it. The Steelers add to their offensive line signing Isaac Siamalo. They need help on offensive line. They have now the 10th ranked guard from a year ago, played every game for the Eagles. Was injured in the seasons before that,

but alongside Mason Coley, start to have something on the inside. They do need it. All right. How about Greg Gaines, the defensive lineman Buck sign him, formerly of the Rams one-year deal, Gregie? Rams have no players left on the deal. defense. There are no. They might come up in a little bit. And finally, in haircut news,

Kevin Byard, another dude. That's been a player with the Titans and an important player. Well, if he refuses a pay cut, that's another guy out the door. Stare down time. The reporting is the Titans asked him to take a pay cut and he refused. There is no word yet whether the Titans will actually release him, which would be pretty surprising if they'd. did, but they would save about $6 million in cap space. Be a big dead cap hit, but more savings. And then he says no, and then they just

don't do anything. They're like, oh, okay. Well, Engraver, why don't you tell us about the other Titans news that you put into our messaging client? The Titans also signed Sean Murphy Bunting, who won a Super Bowl with the Bucks a couple years ago. Okay. Pretty good little piece on the defense.

I want to be snarky and give you a hard time about how bad the Titans might be this year, but I've been there, so I'm not going to do it. You know what's coming. I know what's coming. I think, I mean, they've made a few signings that make me think they think they'll be more competitive than they will be. But I still don't think they'll be all that competitive.

All right. Well, it's hope season. Let's take a break. And then we will welcome in Bill Barnwell. welcome back everybody joining us now as one of our favorites the only reason I have an ESPN plus subscription a northeastern

alum fellow and one of the great greatest damn football writers in this country Bill Barnwell welcome back to around the NFL what a great intro first I get some sultry music.

It feels like I'm in a mid-90s R&B song. I'm about to come in with here. Then I get, I'm interested, one of the best damn sports writers. I forget exactly how it was phrased, but all of that, I'm in. I actually said you were a former member

of the best damn sports show. Former panelists. Yes. I thought it was me and Tom Arnold. Hoping on BDSS with that show that was on every single Fox Sports show. that affiliate for about 15 years. So unfortunately, it was never invited.

Happy to go back on the remake, though. Mark Grace was tremendous on that program. Yeah, that musical selection that we selected for you, is that sort of the vibe that you would think that you carry around town when you're out on the streets? Yeah, you know, I feel like late night, but not like a sketchy late night, like a cool late night, like a noir.

Sure. Late night, like maybe you're at a jazz club, and it's in between sets, and you're like, oh, let me read 5,000 words about these offensive lines. That's what I want out there for me and my fans. I do like to imagine Bill as a member of the mid-90s R&B group H-Town singing knocking a booze. That would be good.

I could see that. And little-known fact, I once applied for a job at the Best Damn Sports Show, period, as a researcher. Really? I did not get that job. Denied. Was there, I have to admit, it's been a long time. I know this is not really relevant or domain to what we do. That's what we're talking about, a show that was on neither of the network I work for.

With the network, you guys work for? This is our show in general. Yeah. But I have to ask, was there a lot of research going on on the baseball? I never got to find out. I was working weekends one day a week on Fox baseball and football, like in the highlights department, was trying to get more of a full-time gig. I heard about this research job, interviewed, didn't get it.

All I know is Chris Rose, who works for this network now, was a host of that show. And he speaks very fondly of the program and what they achieve together. So that's my insight on it. Dude, anyone who can host a show that's on the air that long did something right. So, like, you know, like no, no bones about that. I just, you know, it's kind of like a, you know, a back and forth. I felt like kind of like a, you know, a takey sort of show. I didn't recall an extensive research segments happening.

Right. Maybe it was a little ahead of its time. It's just like research is the guy who. who lets Arnold know like who's on what team right before the segment starts I would suspect. And speaking of like late nights

and we're going to get to some way premature winners and losers of free agency with Bill. I do want to mention Super Bowl week in Arizona we were hanging out. We got dinner with Kevin Clark.

Yeah. And Clark's plugged in with the ringer cognizante. Sure. So he invites us to the Kimes gathering, which you know is top of the food chain within this whole world.

And we did go there, Gregi, and Grave Digger was with us as well. And I was remarkably or surprisingly, I was intimidated to the point where it's like, there's too many ringer people here. They're all best friends. Here's Barnwell in the corner just like lording over a group of bros. I didn't even go say hi to Bill because he was, he was the bell of this ball. I had a drink and I excused myself. But it was basically walking into like the cool kids wing of a high school.

It's like, just be careful here, this little treacherous. You Irish goodbyeed out of that. A little bit, a little bit. That confab. Would it would have loved to say hello? I don't know which bros I was lording over. I'm not an especially tall person. I don't see myself as like a Nate Tice, I would say, is a lord.

He was lording. He was lording, yeah. You were comfortable, though, Bill. You were in your element. I could see that. And I said, I don't want to roll over there and do some awkward helloes. I'm going to let him enjoy this time with his colleagues. Well, very nice if he would not, not necessary at all, please.

The next time you see me on the street, stop me, grab me. Oh, street, no problem, street. But the Kimes gathering at the Super Bowl. Okay. I liked that you reframed it now that you actually did Bill a favor so that he could stay in his element. You could have just hung around and eventually it would have happened. Bill and I had some great conversations that night. But yeah, you had to wait it out.

You'd be like, all right, Nate, we remember you were the Russell Wilson's backup. Okay, let us, let us speak. That's not nice. That's not sure. Nate, Nate, I've never had a conversation with Nate about football in a public gathering. It's 100% soccer and pro wrestling and zero percent football. There you go. Versus how?

All right. Let's talk. Let's talk football. Okay. Let's do it. So the, they don't want us to say it, but we're bad boys. The legal tampering period started a week ago today. And there's been a lot of activity.

Gregie, how many? top 101 free agents from your top 20 are still remaining now. Oh, I've got even more than that. Three for my top 25. Three also from my top 20. 11 of the top 50 and 28, I believe, are 26 of the top 101. And not that many left. Okay.

There's still deals to be made and teams can still get much better if they make smart moves. But I'll start with you on this one, Bill. When you survey the landscape so far, what's a team that's jumped out to you? because we'll do the good and the bad here. What's a team that's jumped out to you that's made itself better in the past seven days? Yeah, you know, I'll start with the team I know is near and dear to your guys' hearts, although I have, I do have a question that does concern me about them, but I think overall, mostly a winner, the Detroit Lions.

I think a team where they had a very obvious concern on their defense dead last in ESPN's total QBR metric last year, secondary, that was a bit in shambles. a lot of work to be done, and you saw it. They went out and upgraded at multiple spots. Camp Sutton comes in, Manuel Mosley comes in, and most recently, Chauncey Gardner Johnson signs on a one-year deal. That's a rebuilt secondary. We don't know what Jeffrey Akuta's going to do.

He might be a trade candidate. Could figure in there as well. But I just think, given their needs, given that the offense did look so good at the second half of last year, given that they do have, you know, plenty of picks to work with in this year's draft. I love them focusing on the secondary, getting that taken care of, squared away. Now they can focus on rebuilding and continuing to rebuild that front seven here in the draft. I feel like they're in great shape heading into, heading into season, except for

one thing. But we'll get to that later. I thought the Chauncey Gardner Johnson signing was a nice turnaround after losing Jamal Williams. I thought it brought so much fire and personality to that team. That was my one thing. Yeah, because I think like we all, we met Jamal at the Super Bowl and loved him and thought that he was just as a reason and a beating heart behind the lions. But Gardner Johnson, Aaron Glenn's known him since high school. Dan Campbell worked with him back with the Saints, so did Aaron Glenn. So it's like they went and got a player they know exactly how to use. And he turned around and said to the Eagles, I'm going to Detroit.

The deal that we had in place, forget about it. We're not doing that. I think he had to have been disappointed by the market. I don't know if he read the 101, but he could have said, I'm a freaking top five free agent a week ago at this time, and he didn't get the contract he wanted. I believe that he was probably offered, you know, in the reporting is that he was offered a much better deal from the Eagles,

but the money went away. They ended up spending it on Slay and Bradbury. Jesse Bates got paid, but very few of the other safeties really got paid. Jordan Poyer didn't get paid. Julian Love didn't get paid. There were a couple mid-market deals with like Von Bell and Donovan Wilson, but understandably, Gardner Johnson saw himself better than that. It's kind of like James Bradbury a year ago.

He bet on himself. I think his agent probably cost him a lot of money, but if he plays well for the Lions, and I think it's a great sign that people that know him so well want to bring him in, then he can cash in hopefully next year. And I like the Lions making Aaron Glenn look good and possibly pivot from their strategy, which has really been about resources in the front end,

and they were really weak in the back end. And I love the Sutton signing especially. Mosley is just like another guy to have around in case like they are really setting up Aaron Glenn for success to potentially be a future head coach Is it possible Greg because I need to be unfortunately the official pushback guy of your agent assassination tour this spring Is it possible that the agent was suggesting he took the deal

He take the deal that the Eagles were offering and he said he thought he could do better Is that possible Rosenthal? It's possible but I think anyone signing now a one-year deal like that had un-ended up like misreading the market and that's the agent's job that eagle's deal was very heavily backloaded too

maybe he was looking for something structured differently but I am with you Dan blaming the agent not that you're doing this Greg just like this time of year they're just getting like destroyed left and right

and it's like sometimes the player are people around the player saying no no you can do better than that and then it didn't happen for him but how can you do better than being unaligned I mean the lines oh I can't historically you could well that that that's my concern here is that you guys alluded to this it has there been a vibe shift

with jamal williams leaving for the new garter johnson makes up for it he he replaces the vibes it's a totally different vibe that's a fun vibe i don't agree with that johnsey garner johnson's vibe is i may fight you at any time or even worse get get you to fight me with no warning at any time yeah that's not jama williams jama williams vibe was like hey let's watch anime or play video games for 20 straight hours and eat really good takeout. Ask Michael Thomas about Gardner Johnson. Yes, exactly. All right.

Who was the Bears player who punched him twice in the helmet? I can't remember, but that's a great move. Yeah, there was, he is a spicy character. He's a spicy meatball. It's like the Bears' wide receiver four. It's going to bother me the rest of the show now. I'm sorry, guys. Justin Graver, the Grave is going to be on that.

I want to talk about someone, a near or something near and dear to your heart, Barnwell. Yes. The G-Men. I see them as a winner, and this extends more than just the last week. I liked the way they got the business done with Daniel Jones. Maybe you could say an overpay, but he's in the building. They believe in him, and I think that's good enough when you have Brian Dable there.

Sequin Barclay's back. Love the Darren Waller move for obvious reasons. I think that's a very high upside move, and we talked about it last week. It ended up being a kind of a Cadarius Tony for Darren Waller swap. I could live with that. Paris Campbell joins the wide receiver room. He gives them a chance to upgrade their receiving game. You know, O'Dell Beckham's out there tweeting at Sagan that he has work to do, I believe, something along the most line, something insane.

In general, I feel like Isaiah Hodgson is also coming back. I feel like, Bill, this team's going in the right direction. And obviously, I think they overachieve to a certain extent or played well considering their schedule. now I think adding pieces around Jones is necessary, and they're doing that. I'm not especially thrilled with how the Giants approach this offseason. And I guess part of it is the big decision about Daniel Jones is one part of it, and then kind of everything else fits into the other side of it. I know you guys already talked about Daniel Jones, so I'm not going to get too far into this,

but let me ask you this one question. if Daniel Jones plays exactly the same as he played last year do you think that turns out to be a good deal like does he have to improve to justify this contract or can he just be the guy he was last year and that's good enough for the giant the whole deal in my mind when it went down was this was built under the idea of the premise

that he's just starting to reach his potential which made it an unusual contract in that sense but also internally the Giants believe so much in Dable and Jones that's how I see. So, yes, he has to get better. If he, if he plateaus, it's a bad contract. Does he have the pieces around him to get better? Well, that's what they're working on.

I think, like, you know, I think, yes, I love the Darren Waller move. I think it's a pretty, not risk-free because you're giving up a third-round pick, and that is valuable, and you're using $10 million of your cap space. But I think a very logical risk for the Giants to take, I don't love the wide receivers. was like, yes, bringing in Paris Campbell, a guy who's been hurt most of his career and who averaged, like, 10 yards of catch last year. Like, I have no doubt Daniel Jones can find a link with a guy who's going to catch the ball and fall down. But right now, the only deep threat on this roster is Darius Sladen. And that's a guy who this organization, much like Jones,

didn't want last year, who kind of got the opportunity because everyone else in front of him either got hurt or they didn't want to play. So I like Darius Sladen personally. I think he's a good player. I don't have a real issue with the contract, but I was sort of hoping for more something more significant when it came to the receiving court. They still have time, to be fair, but the Bobby O'Carike signing, I wasn't especially thrilled by. I was surprised that that's the guy they spent the most on this offseason. As much of attention as Waller got, they spent the most at a position where, look, they were maybe the worst and the slowest in the NFL, so they needed an upgrade, but they spent a lot to fix it. It seems like a team that could use Cadarious Tony. That

That was something that didn't work out a year ago. But I do think with Brian Debel and the draft ahead that I liked in general what's happened with the Giants over the last 500 days. They finally seem to have a plan. I have no problem. If you don't re-sign Daniel Jones, who fills that void? And then you're starting over with a different quarterback. So I don't mind it as a two-year, see what you got.

And there's more pieces to come, I'd hope, around them. Two quick things. And then someone else go. One, Dary Slayton, to Bill's point, was a healthy scratch in week one this year. So that's kind of where his journey is gone and he gets a new two-year deal. Two, I've never heard anyone use the 500-day marker before. Well, I mean, because that's kind of historic. You have to go like from January to here and next summer, you know.

It's good. It's just, it's unusual and I like it. Because if I said 365, I have no idea what was happening literally one year ago today or who I was or who the Giants were. So that's a weird. He's a top 10 football inside. summer one of the movies where I enjoyed it the most in the theater to I probably understand it's a bad movie now ratio like it's really high in that ratio it's in the garden state club right I can't I can't say I didn't enjoy it I enjoyed the hell out of it but now it was cute yeah anything

de chanelle is gonna maybe age not so hot I'm gonna jump off and do a winner because it's it's related a little bit to your giants uh-huh which is that because I think they're gonna draft Did you just look at me and say your Giants' choice? Bill is a weird, like, negging Giants fan. Like, he's never happy with him. He never wants to totally own it. What? They were like 23rd in BVOA this year.

I'm not going to like, like, they're bringing the band back and adding Bobby O'Caricay. I'm not thrilled by that. I'm sorry. Okay. I'm with you. They're logically going to fall back in, but Wing Martindale and Brian Daibble and Joe Shane, for that matter, actually give me enough confidence that like they'll help push the tide of what is probably going to be unrealistic expectations.

Maybe this would be bad for the Giants because I think they're almost locked in to taking a receiver in the first round or there should be good value there. But I'm going to say some of the winners of this last month are the receivers in this draft because there were so little spending on these sort of second tier receivers that were available. Maybe I misread the market in terms of artificially like putting these guys higher on my list, just thinking they were going to get money and that they were like decent players, guys like Jacobi Myers and Juju and Lazard ended up getting a lot of money, but a lot of players didn't. And there wasn't much of a premium placed on these players. They ended up getting paid

less than what I would have expected. And to me, I think it's because, first of all, this draft class isn't amazing at the top, but there's still a good group of players that I think could be taken in the first round, and maybe now they're going to get pushed up a little higher. And the other thing is, I think the receivers now looked at as a premium position that these free agents just didn't qualify, that you need to get those receivers in a trade or you need to draft them. And the hit rate on these draft receivers is just so incredibly high right now that it almost feels like GM proof. That's like, okay, don't take Jacoby Myers and pay him $15 million.

Draft your receivers. Don't take juju. Don't overpay for any of these guys. Maybe give up a second for DeAndre Hopkins, but like not even more than that. Let's just draft these guys because the contracts are so low for the draft picks. And the hit rate is so high that to me it's almost getting treated a little bit like defensive end and quarterback like other premium positions. And it didn't happen for them in free agency,

but I think they're going to look at this draft class and people say there's not like a true one in it. That's fine. But I think it's going to push these draft receivers up the board that not many teams really solve many of their receiver problems in free agency. Well, you know, I look at the D'Andre Hopkins situation. I'm writing about this for ESPN this week. It's not easy to find a landing spot for D'Andre Hopkins right now.

There's a lot of teams that either don't have the cap space or a set at receiver or have an offensive coordinator who appeared to be in a blood feud with DeAndre Hopkins before trading him in a very ill-fated trade that cost of his job. But there's not like an obvious spot where you're like, okay, that is where DeAndre Hopkins is going to go. So, you know, I sort of wonder if the league is a whole, like you said, Greg, is sort of looking at the receiver success rate and say, okay, as long as I'm not weirdly of all people, Howie Rose has been drafting Jalen Rager, like it's going to work out pretty well for me all things considered. So I agree, you know, and I think something that is very, like we all know it, but we don't talk about it that often is just how valuable it is to take players of premium positions in

the draft. The wide receiver right now is in a tier with left tackle and edge rusher where that is a position where you get a significant surplus value over the first three years of a guy's rookie deal if you draft and then even an average receiver, let alone someone like a Justin Jefferson or a Jamar Chase. I'm going to throw one out. I think last year was obviously the year of Gino Smith, but like my Gino Smith 1B or Gino Smith Light

for at least the first half of the season was Jacoby Brissette. And so I'm going to go a little more player-focused win because I kind of think of all the places where Brissette could have gone where it's like, had he gone to Indianapolis, like Gardner-Minshu, it's like, well, they're clearly going to draft someone and the idea is that you don't play Gardner-Minchu, ideally, if the rookie's up to snub. Jacobi Brisset, I think, has a chance to continue.

what he did last year in Cleveland and be another example of a late-blooming quarterback that last year I mean could have a little bit of Kevin Stefansky but the offense completely changed when Deshaun Watson get in there it devolved in all the wrong ways

and I think that's a credit to some degree about Preset he's also talked about I know that Ron Rivera would rather just have a veteran run the show until the end of time but Preset is a lauded teammate Kevin Stefansky said it was one of in terms of coaching teammates one of the best he'd ever been around his career.

I think that's a great thing for a Washington team that always seems to have its vibe off a little bit. They're just obviously ownership on down. There's a lot of evil smells coming out of that organization. Jacoby Brissette can change things. There's weapons around him. I think he can have a good season and continue to kind of advocate for himself

as a spot starter and someone that might get a better chance in this if he can fend off Sam Howell, who was spicy in Week 18. I did hear a fun conspiracy theory in NFL UK Hank throughout this. Henry Hudson. High source. Going around here. What if the new Washington owner comes in?

And that's the one who goes over the top for Lamar. That would be beautiful because there's this talk that Dan Snyder that it might be imminent. You come in with that Amazon money. You know, you pick up NFL media, you know, take care of the around the NFL podcast here, and then sign in Lamar. You're a hero to the whole world. Do you think to the Ravens? The Ravens want us send like Lamar Jackson to Baltimore?

They're not going to have a choice. They're just got to spend an insane amount of money and not give them a choice. I'm totally wish-casteat. I don't really think, and I think Jacoby has a nice spot with Bienemy and all those weapons. I agree with you.

Oh, slides me off a piece of that, Jake Briskey. I think that would be great. Washington fans would be head over. If they had new ownership and Lamar Jackson, everything's different all of a sudden and the whole world's on fire, but the Ravens are not going to want them anywhere near. What do they call that area?

What's an area? It has a name. The Baltimore, Maryland. You live there, Bill. What is it? Like a zone? The DMV? But he's already in the DMV.

So I'm confused as to like the distinction being made between. You don't want to stay in it. You don't want to get him out of the DMV at all costs. It's not going to be on your team. You know, you know about you live in the middle of one of the toughest rivalries in sports, Washington versus Baltimore. Speak up. I have never honestly, I wrote about it. I was like, oh, this would be very.

juicy and then I was like I don't know a single person I've never seen like a raven's friend friend of mine argue with a commander's friend of mine it it doesn't feel like giants just put it that way and in fact the nastiest thing that ever happened in the DMV in terms of like the sports teams is when the ravens won the Super Bowl and then angelo so the Orioles said no we have a we have a baseball game and you can't even host this week one game in your building and they had to go on the road After they won the damn Super Bowl. That was some DMV dirt. That game was the game where I remember watching with West,

and we always talk about that Owen Daniels had the like slowest, like move to try to like make someone miss that we'd ever seen. I don't know why. It always stuck with us. Flackle threw the ball like 51 times or something in that game. To your Jake Briscuit point. So let's say he was very good in his starts for the Browns before Watson came and didn't play well. brisket outplayed him let's say that's his close to his ceiling this year does that make

Washington a power player or make them much better than they were I don't I just think he's a guy and that's why I see this team just right now kind of stuck in the mud even with reset there as much as I like him well I don't think he's a difference maker I would say it's a win for I said it about Jacoby percent I think it's a win for him to go see what he does with it if I'm Washington if I'm a fan of the commanders I like preset I can't can't be the final plan here. And it can't be for the eighth year on Ron Rivera, like a veteran who might be average or better than average. How about Bill? Oh, go ahead. I just want to point out, the commanders last year with Taylor Heineke, Carson Wentz, and Sam Howell at quarterback were

eight, eight and one. They were realistically, what, a game away from making it to the postseason? They wouldn't have got far, probably. But, you know, the saints are selling out to try and win nine games and be in the playoffs the commanders were an okay quarterback away you know they were six in the NFL in points per possession allowed on defense with without chase young or the version of chase young we hope is going to be back this upcoming season and jacobi per cent like he's not a superstar but he doesn't turn the ball over since he got into the league i think the only quarterback with uh with a better interception rate than jacobi percette the only quarterbacks are Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers.

So I think there's sort of a, there's sort of a Jets thing happening here where it's like, okay, we have this great defense. It's young enough that they're probably going to be good again next year. If we can just get a competent quarterback in here, we're a playoff team. And for Washington, given how depressing this franchise has been for two and a half decades, that kind of feels like a victory. Yeah. In fact, when the Rogers thing was very hazy with the Jets, as if it's not hazy now,

Brissette felt like a fallback plan for the Jets. So, yes, for the commanders, a sensible one. So for the commanders, it would keep them in the mix for sure. I just hope, I mean, well, now you got my head thinking with the Lamar thing, even though it's not going to happen. They really need something like a whole new breath of fresh air for that organization. Ownership would be enough. I think they would be excited.

Bill, we don't like to be overly critical given, you know, it's so hard to tell what's good and what's bad at this point. In fact, sometimes it's the opposite. It's a team that spends big that ends up not doing well. the last two years, I saw this on network on the lower third before I stepped in the studio today, the last two years, the team that spent

the most in Free Agency made the playoffs, okay? So maybe it is great. Maybe if you can win Free Agency and then. Who was that last year? The Jaguars last year. Who would have been the year before? I don't know. It might have been the Patriots who made it with Mac Jones.

All right. Let's pause right here. We've got more to do with Bill Barnwell but first a break. all right we're back who's a loser so far to you bill loser was tougher you know a bunch of winners i felt good about loser maybe the broncos i mean just in terms of teams that spent a lot of money and i look at those moves and i'm kind of confused like mike blinchie i understand wanting to improve the protection around russ mike glinchie is a solid player he has the second largest contract of any right tackle in football. And he has never played at that level in San

Francisco. So tough for me to believe he's going to suddenly be a top five right tackle for the Broncos. I mean, I like the Zach Allen move, but even Zach Allen, one year of playing at the level he played at in Arizona. Guys like Alex Singleton, Jared Stidham, these are replacement level players. These are guys who, even if they played well when you saw them last year, guys that you could have got for very cheap last season, who you can probably find another version of from very cheap this season, the Broncos are paying a premium to either retain or bring in to their organization. So I don't hate the overall plan, but I think the pricing, especially in a market where teams

have been very reasonable with what they spent, I don't love how they spent their money in Denver. Right. And they spent it on Ben Powers, too, was another, like, premium guy that a year ago would have had like a one-year, $1 million deal. It just was like paying for guys that the rest of the market didn't really look like that. Like backup quarterbacks didn't get paid. We could throw them out as a loser.

In general, backup court, like Jacoby Brissette did the best, getting $8 million. The backup quarterback market weirdly is like worse than it was six years ago. I don't really, like when Chase Daniel was cash in $7 million checks for never playing. And now you get like decent players for four and a half. That doesn't make sense. And you're right. Yeah, Denver spent on a guy like Ben Powers is a good example.

Like I don't think Baltimore was remotely interested in spending that sort of money on a guard. I feel like Sean Payton at least. is trying to make a case where you're, I like the theory of that you're stripping excuses away from Russell Wilson. And if you want to go deeper and say, McGlinchian powers aren't going to save your offensive line, but like we tried to,

we add stuff around him. And like if he flames out, like I think, I think Russell Wilson has like, 2023 Broncos stripping excuses away from Russell. He's got like 10 games to become the other Russell Wilson or they'll bench him for Jarrett, Stiddem, or whoever else. I'll throw out one.

And this loser is way too strong. but it's more like, hmm, okay, the Super Bowl teams. The Chiefs, obviously, they didn't want to pay Orlando Brown Jr., so I can't like say like, oh, they're losers because they didn't decide that he was a marquee left tackle, but they're a little vulnerable there. They signed right tackle Joanne Taylor. He might play the left side. Bill, I think you wrote about this, so I'll credit you on this.

He hasn't taken snaps at left tackle since high school. He's been a couple, a couple in college, but he wasn't like to be even like a regular starter. Right. So, I mean, now your job is to protect Patrick Mahomes' blindside, arguably the greatest quarterback of his generation. I don't know if that's their plan, but that's potentially their plan.

They also lost a key guy in Juan Thornhill to Cleveland. The Eagles, the Eagles, listen, the Eagles, it's a trickier situation for them because of the economics and how loaded their roster was. And they've done a good job with keeping certain guys in the building, Jason Kelsey, Darius Slay, Bradbury they got Fletcher Coxback who stayed they did lose though now that you take a look after Chauncey Gardner Johnson leaves for the Lions I saw that they've lost five of nine players on

defense who played at least 700 snaps in 2022 I mean it's a big chunk of their look you talk 500 I got 700 here Mark that's impressive data points absolutely so it's not going to be the same defense it's not going to be the same team and that's the economics of the business but both champions i feel like a little lesser right now but isn't it pov because i could i had howie roseman as a winning figure in the sense like he was he was facing a really tough potential outcome and you find a way to keep bradbury slay brandon gam brannan graham fletcher cox i love the rashad penny signing it's like they didn't just go null and void and everyone hit the exit sign like howie rose always seems to find a way and i trust that he'll continue to

and make more trades around the draft like he did last year. It's like he's always working. Oh, he's definitely working. I mean, the Rashad, I don't like the Rashad Penny move as much as everybody else, and I like Miles Sanders better, and he's out the door as well. What do you think on that one, Barnwell? I mean, I see why you would say it, but for the Eagles, it kind of felt like they had to make some cutbacks.

Like it wasn't really a scenario where they could go and say, okay, we're bringing the band back, and we're also somehow paying Jalen Hurts. 50 million dollars a year like it's just not going to work they had to make cutbacks with the chiefs the decisions they made were more of their own volition right like you know it's not like orlando brown signed this enormous other worldly contract i i don't remember the exact specifics but it's not like the joan taylor deal was for much more might even be in a little bit more altogether depending on you look at a taylor's deal might be better yeah right so you know like like that is to me

a more conscious decision of, okay, we're going to cut Frank Clark, we're going to move on from Carlos Dunlap, we're going to move on from one Thornhill, we're going to let Andrew Wiley leave, we're going to let Orlando Brown leave. We're going to replace him with the right tackle, like you alluded to us, really not played left tackle since high school. Like that is a more tangible decisions we're made in Kansas City than were made in Philadelphia, or Philadelphia was more about just, you know, people, Chavon Hargraves leaving. We have no choice. We're losing the linebackers. We have to make some cutback somewhere. But I think it's more difficult because they had to do something. The chiefs didn't really have to make these changes and did. And they

might be better for it. Who knows? But I think it's more questionable there. They're putting a lot on spags. Like their entire defensive spending is Chris Jones, Eric Reed. I guess they brought in a Mena who was like a free agent one-year deal. But other than that, it's like all. All rookie contracts are like low-cost veterans. It's like that's sort of the other side of spending on offense. And maybe he can handle it. It's like a better version of what the Rams are doing. Hell, I'm throwing out a loser.

Rahim Morris. I mean, they're setting up, they're setting up Rahim Morris to fail. They're basically saying, and Jordan Rodriguez reported on this, look, Sean McVeigh is an offensive coach. I don't think they're done. They've been disappointing. If you're a Rams fan, it's been a terrible offseason. Because I thought they would be a little more aggressive

and doing something. I think maybe there are some moves coming, but it really feels like it's coming on offense, and they're just going to be like, look, we got Aaron Donald still, and we've got a good coordinator and Rahim Morris, like, let's just throw stuff against the wall. There's more variance in defense

and hope we come in 20th. Because, like, their second best defensive linemen now, because they've lost Greg Gaines, Leonard Floyd, Taylor Rap, looks like he's out the door, Nick Scott, Bobby Wagner, Jalen Ramsey, This is just on the defense.

Aeshawn Robinson. Their second best defensive lineman now is probably Bobby Brown. Their best linebackers, Ernest Jones, I'm not sure who their second one would be. Their cornerback one is Darius, or Kobe Duran. Gobi Duran, I could guess, a fourth round pick from a year ago. It is as talent poor, like a side of the ball, as almost you can find in the NFL. And that's crazy because Aaron Donald's on that side of the ball. I don't know.

Just like. I mean, I had them as well. And mine was more like some of this kind of comes off their plan right now. And they know what they're doing. They got a ring. But it feels like a half measure right now. And I don't know. They haven't committed totally to a tear down.

But they're also put themselves in a much weaker position heading into the new season. And you have a 37-year-old quarterback who just locked into a guarantee of money that's going to make sure he's on the roster. I just don't know kind of where the Rams are right now. Matthew Stafford feels like an odd fit there. I just start right. That's a very strange landing spot for him. Yeah. I mean, what would you guys do if you were the Rams?

Do you lean further into this and do you trade Cooper Cup? Do you try to trade Aaron Donald? Are you trying to just get as many picks as possible, which ironic given the t-shirt? But get as many picks as possible and just lean all the way into it? Or do you think this is more of like a transition year where they get rid of a lot of salary? They have a bad year. they get a high draft pick and then next year they're back in signing players going back into you know full on we're going to win in the er and donald era mode i think that's a plan i think they

kind of box themselves into a corner last year when they gave those contracts the stafford cup and um who else donald like all those got 20 all those got 22 contracts i mean they got and their guaranteed money is is still guaranteed this year so they sort of have no choice that's right it's been very quiet on the allan robinson front very frosty market not a not a not a stunt I think they were hoping someone would pay like half his salary and that like that was the best that they could hope for a little bit like the Brandon Cook's deal, but maybe, you know, more. We're talking about putting out bad tape, though. I mean, that's, yeah. It never got better really for him.

No. Anybody else? You got, you got a, Bill, you said you had more winners. Do you want to do kind of like a, oh, did you have a loser, Mark? I mean, this is, I'm not trying to gang up on a team that I continually hammer. But I think a loser is Jonathan Gannon who goes to Arizona and is watching. a team just be torn down before his eyes because you lose Marcus Golden, Byron Murphy, Zach Allen, JJ Watt

retires, DeAndre Hopkins is out the door. You've got Kyler Murray who to me stands out as the one quarterback that you've got to be concerned about his mood, his mental landscape. And if he's the kind of guy where things are starting to burn down around and he's watching players leave, he loses DeAndre Hopkins at some point here, it's just an ugly setup for a first year coach. Even if he was told behind the scenes. We get it. It's going to be tough this year. That's not how fans

react. It's like this was a playoff team two years ago. I mean, a bit of a false god on that front. But at this point, the idea that they are this bad, this quickly, it's really depressing. Kyler Murray is in this big contract and they're rebuilding around them. I don't like it at

I can attest to that because I was at that Cardinals Rams playoff game with Zumwalt and it was one of the grisliest affairs I've ever watched in person in terms of like just disparate between two teams. That's the organization's a mess. That was the false God game.

I think it's been placing now for perpetuity. I mean, I think they're sort of in the same boat as the Rams where they know they're not having Kyler Murray for a good chunk of this year. Except they lost 47-17 to the Rams in their high point as an organization. That's a tough spot. Yes. It's a tough spot. Yes.

To be fair. Also true. But I think they know Kyler is not going to be healthy for a good chunk of this year. Wouldn't be shocked if they just say, hey, Kyler, just take the euro. You're good. We don't need you this year. Their roster is a mess. Their cap situation is a mess. They need to do this. Like, yes, they are losers in terms of they are not going to be a competitive team this year. It's not going to be fun to watch them. Their fans are going to be mad. But I think they have to have this happen to reset. They have to have the thing the Saints aren't doing. Or the Rams, you know, the Rams are kind of doing in last lot of those, but like that reset of, okay, our cap's going to be fresh. Same thing the Falcons did. Same things the Bears did. But we have a quarterback. We know in 2024, we bring We bring Kyler back. We have cap space. We have some young players to work with around him. We'll feel pretty okay. I think that had to be what happened when he came in. And I think sort of similar to what's happening in Tennessee right now as well with the choices they've made with their roster. Now he's making me think the Cardinals might kind of be long range winners. And I'm starting to feel differently about the whole thing. Well, I don't know about that. That's what Barwell does. Like they haven't they haven't treated like a first year head coach this poorly since they stuck Steve Wilkes with Josh Rosen and Steve Kime as his GM. That was. a tough situation. Can we throw out one more winner? Sure. I at least want to get my biggest winner.

I mean, I really am drinking. Well, you didn't lead with your biggest winner? I don't know. I don't know why. That's a mistake. I'm drinking the Dolphins Kool-Aid. I love it. Okay. I just feel like everything they did was smart. I think they had to give the fifth year option. We hadn't officially talked about that on this show.

I think they had to for two. It's a low enough number. I just think they made the smart moves around the margins. Like the Jalen Ramsey move, non-quarterback division is to me like the most impactful move any team would make this offseason. Vic Fangio with Jalen Ramsey, to me, is just beautiful. Vic Fangio from Josh Boyer is such an upgrade. I know that's not free agency, but just look at the group that he's going to be coaching up.

And then you look at the David Long signing, I really liked. And I like kind of just the moves along the margin, just little ones. Mike White, like that as a backup. Like Malik Reid, Deshaun Elliott, Berrios, like the guys who are just take swings on guys who at one point had like a medium starter level of ability and they're coming off a bad year

but they've shown they can play at like an NFL level and it's just relatively cheap. Bring Moster and Wilson back. Don't spend too much at running back. Like that's at a low level. They just, they knew they didn't have a first round pick because their owner, you know, invited Tom Brady onto a boat

and tried to hire him in Sean Payton. I feel like that's weirdly underrated. Yeah, think of the scene in Wolf of Wall Street. Leo, welcoming him the FBI agent on the boat. and tossing the money out at the end. Same situation. They do not have a first round pick because of that. But based on that, I feel like they set up this roster right now

to be a championship contender right now. I love him. Do you think Stephen Ross looks back and thinks that was worth a first round pick to have Tom Brady and Sean Payton on a lot? Kind of. I could see the attraction to that. Well, in retrospect, though,

it didn't quite bear much fruit for the organization. Anti-frew. I'd like to think that Stephen Ross is sitting around and feeling a lot of remorse over that. I just think he doesn't roll that way, maybe. You know what I'm looking forward to, Josh Allen and Aaron Rogers torching a over-the-hill Jalen Ramsey and him shaking his head as he walks off the field. How dare he's clearly in decline?

How old is Jaylon Ramsey that we're like this is like the Todd Gurley Award for like Todd Gurley is 26 and I'm shocked he can walk down the street based on how he's being talked about. They barely beat Skyler Thompson and the Dolphins. Forget about the defense, too. It'll just be that offense. I think Mike White is a great pickup as a backup because, you know, we don't want to need it, but you're probably going to need a backup in Miami

that could keep the offense functional. But yeah, I think Xavier and Jalen Ramsey on paper is like, oh, that could be the best cornerback duo in the league. Javon Holland, Brandon Jones. They had some injuries at safety. I'm just saying. Secondary is nice. Don't be surprised if you're seeing a lot of head shaking from Jalen Ramsey

and complaining to referees this fall. That feels on brand. That was a little cold water on it, Greggy. Sorry. That's fine. I know that's the one team other than the Patriots that you just can't say nice things about. Hey, I got him in the top 10 in the power rankings. From Graver, it was Javon Wims.

Devon. Tangled with Chauncee Gardner Johnson way back when. So that can't anchorist individuals. He goes. Through a punch, threw a punch. Thought about it for a second. Hit him in the helmet. And then I believe through a second one, which this, yeah, not a good idea.

Second one's got to be, once you have your hand stinging and I know there's adrenaline pumping. Second one's got to be a body blow. You got to go to the solar flexes. Yeah. Bill, did you have anything else you wanted to add any other like winners, little speed round Barnwell or did we exhaust your list? I like the little Falcons. I think I like what the Falcons are doing to rebuild there. I thought the Raiders have done an okay job.

Raiders offseason is usually pretty bad. So by their standards, this was a step in the right direction. Okay. And I'm a little concerned about the Panthers. Like I want to see what the other moves that fill in that roster are around that quarterback. But I'm not excited about Adanthieland wide receiver one for my rookie quarterback. We'll see how it goes over the rest of the offseason.

Yeah, you got, they're the team. Like, I wouldn't say they're the perfect connection to the Jaguars because Lawrence is entering a second year. but they're the team this year that has added a ton of guys. So you might reflexively back, oh, yeah, best off season, best of pre-agency. They've added, but we'll see if it works out. They added Miles Sanders are running back, feeling, as we said, Hayden Hurst. They signed Von Bell at safety.

They got Dalton as their backup to whoever they take at number one, a quarterback, shy tunnel, a detackle. So they've done a lot. Will it make them a lot better? I have one question for Bill. Do you think that the cults are, that these theories are floating out there with some of the cuts? Do you think that they're gearing up for a bona fide, legitimate swing at Lamar Jackson? Is that the team that might be the final home for him? I would say that Jim Irsaic contains multitudes.

And I think it's more likely that whatever cuts or roster moves they're making or space they're clearing out, it's more likely that Jim Ers her just wakes up one day and was like, oh, a Lamar Jackson, I'd like one of those. and just calls and just calls them our signs and phone off or she without anybody else in the organization being consulted or making a decision. So I think applying logic to what is going to happen with the Colts is maybe naive given the history of how they've handled things in the recent past. So I could see the logic and if it was another team, I'd say sure, but with the Colts, I just don't know if it applies. It's an exciting thought that Bill puts out there because, imagine if what happened in 2022 with the cults as unpredictable as they were

and the way of Jeff Saturday situation went down with the quarterbacks and everything around the cults. What if that was just the beginning of ownership's ride into a whole other realm? Yeah, the precursor to this more enticing madness. What if that's not the outlier season? What if it's just starting and we get another like five years of total madness around 80? The son like kind of living out his father's. legacy like he tried to run from it tried to stay out of the mix forever and uh signed me up daddy is

uh daddy is instructive daddy's in the mayflower truck um all right bill do you guys do you guys have names for your podcast episodes uh no we're always open to suggestions there are titles could we could we call this one daddy is instructive please well you are our guess so we usually have quite boring nicknames it probably would have been free agency winners and losers. How about this? But I feel like Daddy's instructive is more fun and let's see. I think we could do we can achieve everything we want.

Daddy's is instructive colon, free agency winners and losers. I thought you were going to say Daddy is instructive colon, e gong. That's also in play. Bill, you've said it all. Thank you so much. Check out all Bill's content over on ESPN, including a new column. What is the hook of the latest column that will be? be up maybe when people even hear this depends on whether Aaron Rogers gets traded there may be

something that's been in the can for a couple of weeks but if not uh annoying finding some finding some fits for the remaining free agents and trade candidates who are available only at ESPR and you know that's going to be a banger bill thank you very much thanks guys thanks bill thank you all right there he goes bill barnwell I think you should have approached him that night in the eatery slash wherever you were, bar room. I mean, it seems like he's one of the more approachable individuals around.

There's a little more like kind of a context to it. We had gone out to dinner. We went to a Mexican restaurant. I think Daddy had a couple of tequila sodas. We thought we were going to get to that part of the night earlier. There was a delay. The party had moved and it was a little later. That said, you left within about 90 seconds.

And I stayed, I stayed for a while and got to talk to all the people I wanted to. Like Bill. You've neatly pumped yourself up as a real night owl, Greg, as we all know you are. I did stay for one drink. I talked with Harmon a lot. I talked a little bit with Mina because she came over, which was nice. Maybe there were a couple other people.

But then Bill was, he had a little corner. I'm telling you. He had a nice side. No, I remember. You're not lying. Well, I would have joined you, but I was a little bit later. getting to Arizona and hadn't eaten. But I had flown in

sitting next to Meena Kimes and had a great conversation. So I feel like I had my own like a gathering. What a night. What an evening. She's like we had a fantastic conversation. I'm saying like we I guess we covered all the bases. We hit it all.

I didn't see Bill Barnwell though, but I would have gone up and given him a big hug I think. Big bear hug. Yeah. Missed opportunity. Yeah. All right. We'll be back on Wednesday.

Connie Fox will join us and we will talk more about what's happening. in this league coming up a little later this week, by the way. I'm excited about this. The New York Post, Andrew Marchon, and we take a look at what is happening in the booths, what's happening in the media world of the NFL. We like that. It's like a meaty media segment with Andrew Marchand.

It's that time of year? Yeah. All right. Thanks, everybody. That was a good showing by Rosenthal. Having that, you had the drink. I close that shit down. The bad boy of NFL media.

Deep the call. This is an Ihaired podcast.