NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Dexter Lawrence Trade Stunner, 11 Things We Want to See on Draft Day and AJ Brown on Deck?

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue do a deep dive on the trade that sent Dexter Lawrence from the Giants to the Bengals where they discuss what went into the trade and the ripple effect it will have on both teams and the NFL as a whole. Gregg and Jourdan also react to Trent Williams getting a contract extension from the 49ers, Will Anderson getting a contract extension from the Texans, and the uncertainty around Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals QB position. Plus, Gregg and Jourdan give you 11 things they want to see on Draft weekend, including trades, Fernando Mendoza's moment, the future of perennial powers, A.J. Brown's future and more!  NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I am Greg Rosenthal. I know that, Greg. We're teaming up on 40s and free agents, the podcast that owns the NFL offseason. This is where teams are built.

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Really wins. Open your free IHeart radio app. Search 40s and free agents and listen now. Welcome to NFL Daily where we are relieved, thrilled, buoyant that it's finally draft week. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio. Not only excited that we're just three days away from the NFL draft, but that we got a lot to talk about today, Jordan Roder. Are you ready? I'm so ready, Greg. I'm so freaking fired up. The week, a long anticipated week is finally here. We're going live night one. You should plug that.

That's a good. Good plug. Well, we'll have a like a juicier plug later in the show, but I like getting in nice and early live. Yes, after round one ends, Jordan and I will be on NFL's YouTube and our YouTube as well. So look forward to that. Let's get right into it because there's a lot of news. And in this show, we're going to talk about the Dexter Lawrence trade. We're going to talk about the A.J. Brown, whatever the heck's going on as,

part of our segment, which is 10 things we're looking forward to that we want to see on draft weekend. But yeah, the NFL news world was shook up. There's a lot of things going on with the draft getting closer, but nothing as big as the Dexter Lawrence deal to the Bengals. I love how these things happen. And I want to break this down a few different ways. Let's stay organized. So we're going to talk. Kind of the trade mechanics of it all first. Then we'll get into like probably what's the most important thing, which is the draft angle for both the best. Bengals and the Giants. And then we'll kind of talk like league wide of it all.

But it's interesting how it went down, Jordan. You get a report that the Browns are the team offering the best pick potentially to the Giants. And then about 18 hours later, it's their division rival, the Bengals who go way over the top, give up the 10th overall pick way better than I was expecting. I was dead wrong on this podcast guessing what he would be able to get. because I thought he would require a massive new contract along with this deal. And he's coming off a poor play. We can get into that.

The only part of that is true. He did not require much of a contract adjustment at all to me. And so let's start there. What do you think of how this actually went down between the Giants and the Bengals making a really stunning, one of the more stunning trades I've seen in a long time? Well, especially for the Bengals, Greg. Because it's so not in their character or recent history to do something like this. I think there was a note the last time they made a trade like this of this caliber with this level of pick.

It was like 1989 or something like that. Before I was born, Greg. Well, Bill Barnwell has a great piece about looking at this trade from all sides. And we'll kind of get into the larger league implications of like what's happening here. There's only been two trades in the history of the NFL for. non-quarterbacks for a top 10 picks. So it's pretty unprecedented in general. He's a 28-year-old going to be turning 29 this season. There was a lot of reporting out there about how, like his age, did you see the reporting that the New York Post had about how the agent,

like what was your takeaway from all that and the money part of it, which is that the contract only added about $5 million for this year, which is not nothing. It is $5 million, about $8 million over the next two. But, the Bengals also were allowed to add one year to the contract, which actually I think is helpful to them for $28 million. And so the reporting that he wanted so much more money seems to fall a little flat in terms of what happened. This to me is what it has looked like to me the entire time, which a player wanting out of a situation that no longer serves him in the way that he would like to participate in the Giants program.

And for me, the reporting by the New York Post was really telling to me because it involved Joel C. his agent, who's a really experienced, like, long time. One of the sort of super agent guys we always hear as, you know, he's league source, right? If you see league source. He's also been one of the super agents for, what, three decades? A long time. Yeah, a long time. And so the fact that this reporting stated that he did not want to work with Joe Shane,

the GM of the Giants, right now. And also that Dexter Lawrence, according to this report, was not allowed, to speak to or was was not going to speak to Joe Shane either or the team or John Harbaugh specifically or John Harbaugh. Harbaugh wanted to get on the phone with him. Throughout this process, to me, that tells me that the agent is doing A, his job, which is to sort of take some of the burden off the player to deal directly with people. And B, that Dexter Lawrence just wanted to get out of there.

He just wanted out. This was a poorly run organization and maybe it's going to change. and with John Harbaugh coming aboard, maybe he just wasn't happy about Joe Shane, but it just sounded like a guy who wanted out. He said at his press conference on Monday, when this opportunity came, I jumped at it. I felt ease when I said I was going to be a Cincinnati Bengal.

I mean, who says that? It felt good to me. A little addendum to the New York Post reporting, which, yes, reported that the agent would only talk to Donna Ponte, who's a new John Harba hire, who John Harbaugh has report directly to him. And Chris Mara, who's gotten more in the mix in ownership and in the front office, very interesting that none of those people are the general manager of the team.

But yes, I agree. It points out that it's not about the money, but the interesting addendum is that item in the New York Post is no longer there. Really? It's been taken out this morning. Plot twist. I love when you do this. You drop just a little plot.

I would have loved to add that. I'm glad I happened to follow Bobby Skinner on Twitter, who I think is maybe the best kind of local podcaster and one of the best reporters covering the Giants. He does the Giants Nation pod. And he noted that it had been removed. So you can almost, and I'm going to just speculate here, you can just almost imagine the higher-ups.

Maybe John Harbaugh himself saying, this is ridiculous. Joe Shane, whatever. Get that thing out of there. And they took it out of there. Greg, I have to tell you, It's probably too because the league is really chattering about this. That's how I saw it is a high-ranking league source send it to me,

the screenshot of it. Because it was one of those things that didn't lead the article, but PFT aggregated. Just to say, not to sound like a total douchebag saying that, just to say that the league is talking about this. They're watching this job. I like to stick, you know, aggregation gets a bad business, a bad reputation.

The only reason the league is, even talking about this and then PFT wrote an article, which makes the, is because my guy that I just said, Bobby Skinner, cut and pasted something, which is a, it's a, you have to be subscribed. You can't just read the near quote. Put that up on Twitter. And then that gets past the log. And so sometimes the reporting actually happens, but it takes an aggregator to be like, huh, that's interesting, that that's in paragraph eight.

Brick by brick, Greg. Yes. Let's get into the idea that the price was so much. You know, the 10th overall pick, I mentioned, the other two people. non, or no, I think they were quarterbacks, actually. It was a Randy Moss trade who went to the Raiders for a top 10 pick. The other one was actually Russell Wilson, now that I think of it. So it wasn't non-quarterbacks.

And a guy who's entering his third contract, I kind of wondered about, like, is this guy declining? The worst two teams in the NFL last year against the run were the Bengals and the Giants. So the Bengals were the worst. You think Dexter Lawrence is going to improve things, but Dexter Lawrence was there on the second worst. I went back and watched some of his film, and he definitely disappeared for games at a time. I think the pass rush juice is still there,

but if you just look at the numbers, his pressure percentage, the last four years, 14%, 12.6%, 9.6%, 6%. With most players, if you say those stats, like, that's a declining player.

His pressures declined rapidly last year overall. I thought when I looked, though, Like he gets a lot of double teams. He was second in the league in double teams. I thought the effort, especially on the pass rush, was not a problem. Like, you could see that he still has that juice. He plays three technique to a lot.

He's not always at the nose tackle. If he's, you know, on a guard, like, he can win those. But he needs to be way better. Like, his run defense grade in PFF, like, totally went through the, you know, floor, which I don't put that much into it. But then watching it, like, he's not getting off his blocks. He was not playing as well. He was playing with a bit of an elbow brace.

for a while, but he's also on an elbow injury for a year and a half now. So like, to me, there are red flags about paying a guy on his third contract. And that was the stat, by the way, by Barnwell. It was, I think guys at that point in their career, like on a third contract, getting traded. Yes, all of that is fair and logical. I think I'd be remiss to not add the context behind some of these stats, too, which is that he was playing for a team he did not want to be a part of anymore. Yeah.

And well before this actual trade request happened, there was whispers about this as early as two years ago. This was not necessarily a contract thing for him. We see it clearly with the amount, the real amount that they've agreed to in Cincinnati with him. This was about a player who did not want to be a part of the organization anymore. And so, you know, with all of that statistical evidence and your eyeball tests and watching the tape,

I think that contextually we sometimes can also blame some of the infrastructure for the way a player is or is not performing. Absolutely. Do you get the honeymoon? Did Dexter Lawrence just want a fresh start? He's still young enough. This is a position that ages well in general to play much better moving forward. You sometimes get that. It's just, you know, the number 10 overall pick. What does it say about maybe the draft? and like that they weren't going to get the right guy and they really wanted a defensive tackle maybe specifically. They certainly weren't going to get that in this draft. That's a great point because I always think you have to look at these moves not only in a vacuum but in the context of the entire draft itself when it correlates directly to this upcoming draft.

And this one, when I look at the Bengals, they are in a must-win type of team build right now where to me they were sort of teetering on the fence of are they going to do enough this off-sense? season, will they be aggressive enough this off season? They started their free agency period with a flurry of moves and then very much fell off a cliff in terms of their activity. They have a quarterback. They absolutely need to maximize. They have a coach who's what entering the last year of his contract. They have a front office that is repeatedly borne criticism.

And a lot of times, rightfully so for the way that it's handled, the way that it's tried to rebuild this defense. This is basically them saying, okay, we understand that this is is a bit of a no man's land at pick 10. We must maximize. We must win football games now. We must maximize what we have on offense. Time to go be aggressive and trade that pick that we don't think will be as valuable to us in the short term for a proven player of Dexter Lawrence's perceived caliber. Yeah, they could have gotten Caleb Downs at safety, perhaps. They could have had their pick of probably the top cornerbacks in this draft, but they maybe weren't going to get a defensive line.

It's them telling you what they think about the draft. It's them telling you whether they think about Dexter Lawrence. We all have our own thoughts and everything, but this is the Bengals telling you where they think they are and what they think of this draft and the player they just acquired. And so they might be wrong. They might be right. But I always think it's very interesting

when a team makes multiple statements with one move. And I think the statement is also what you were getting at at the beginning. They have to win now. You always have to be a little worried when regimes make choices based on not wanting to get fired. They have not made the playoffs three straight years. I feel like that, like, it's just crazy to me if you had told me when they lost that, what,

divisional round game the year after they made the Super Bowl, rather the conference championship, that they weren't going to be back in the playoffs for three years. And you can say, oh, Joe Burroughs hurt a lot. They're 19 and 16 in Joe Burrow starts. They're a mediocre team in Joe Burrow starts. So to me, it's a huge risk. I think Dexter Lawrence for the price that they paid

in terms of the draft capital. And then also, you know, financially, he's going to be one of the most expensive players on the team. He needs to be better than he's been the last, you know, year, a year and a half. He had three years at the start of his career was a good player. Then he had three years where he was one of the 10 best players in the entire NFL. I know he only made second team all pros,

but he was in the mix for a defensive player of the year period in 2024 before he suffered this injury. He needs to be like super duper and not just really good. in terms of being a star to make it worth it. Whereas from the Giants, let's get to their drafting. Actually, let's hear from Dexter Lawrence, who did talk, I said, at a podium.

But there also was, like, a fun image of him arriving in Cincinnati after he passed that physical. Walking out, a hallow field. Getting the chills. That's not just because of the win. Oh, yeah. That was him, you know, entering Paycor Stadium. He's a good podcaster already. He knows to hedge.

I love what he's like, I got a chills. And actually later in comments to Jeff Hobson of the team's website, he said he got the chills. But I liked it in the moment. He was like, well, I got the chills, but it wasn't because of all the great memories I know that have happened at Paycor Stadium. It's because it's cold. It's cold in Cincinnati.

But he said he picked up a little bit of the turf on the field. He says, I enjoy pressure. I enjoy being under that type of light. I write down notes and my notes are let my light shine and keep joy. Don't let anything steal your. joy. And I think that gets to your point. That feels like a very direct statement of like, I let the Giants in the situation steal my joy. Carl Banks, their great radio guy and Giants legend, got a ton of criticism locally for basically saying how unhappy Dexter Lawrence was last

year that they need more out of him and everyone killed him. Even though in the organization, I think everyone probably agreed with him. I think he was right. And that's why you can hope to get better Dexter Lawrence. Yeah, I love that point. You know, it is something, it's interesting. I think about this a lot and I think about athletes at the peak of their powers, basically, and athletes at the peak of whatever gifts they have that make them who they are. And then what happens when they don't feel that those gifts are being maximized? You see it manifest in different ways. There are psychological studies about this. And I think that more reflection, I think by any organization should be done.

More studies should be done on this type of thing. But it also includes needing some self-awareness from the team. And we just haven't really seen that from the Giants. The Giants, it's a home run of a trade. I like the Bengals is great. I thought when Dexter Lawrence wanted to get traded in general, I thought some of the reaction was like, oh, it's the Giants blowing it again.

I thought like this is an opportunity because I think where they're at with their team build, I know they're going to try to win this year with John Harbaugh, getting a draft pick and getting off this contract is great. And now you have the five and the 10 pick. What are you laughing about? It's just like, what more could John Harbaugh specifically want here, you know,

other than to keep one of his best players? I know, but I actually think. He's making the picks, apparently. That's what the chatter is. Yes. So, you know, you know. Your colleague, Dane Bruegler said that. And that seems.

Yeah, a little Brugler bomb. That seems clear that he's in charge. And he's in charge of, of everything. And so now you have five and ten. And the early and a buzz, it's not that early anymore, is defense. And we're going to get into some of the things I'm looking for, but they're one of the new franchises. I always look at like statement of intents

for new regimes. And this is a new regime. And there's a lot of buzz of like one of the Ohio State defenders, if not to, make sense for the type of tone that they want to set. Now that could be sunny styles at line. that could be Arvel Reese if he falls to five, which feels unlikely. I think if there's anyone trading up in this draft, it might be a small trade up for Reese if he did fall past two, or maybe even David Bailey passed two. And then there's Caleb Downs at safety. Now with five and 10, in theory you could end up with both. And then there's a lot of people, Pete Schrager, at ESPN.

Others are hitting around at this. Our Mike Garifolo reported that Joe Shane personally visited the Jordan Tyson workout and had dinner with him just last week, the wide receiver, and that a lot of people think he could go as early as number 10. What are you laughing about again? Just a lot. It's just I never think that we've sort of learned and said about like Joe Shane's role. It's like, what if this is a smokescreen? That's what I think it is.

I think that is his role. I think it is a smoke screen because when all. All the insiders, but they're not, it seems a little too much that like suddenly everyone's like Jordan Tyson probably to the Giants. And I'm even like parsing like which insiders things are coming from because different ones get different things. And I tend to agree. To me it seems more likely. And we'll get into my mock draft later in the week that Benga Yuanay would be the surprise number 10 overall. I'll pick because that seems to me like a statement of intent that John Harbao would do.

You get the Ohio State defender, whoever it is, at five, and then you want the top guard in the draft at 10 and you feel pretty good that he's going to be there. Or you just get two Ohio State defenders. I don't, Jordan Tyson doesn't make sense. What do you think? I can't wait to see your market. Okay. Okay.

We've spent a long time on this, but I did want to just say as a league trend, big picture, non-quarterbacks are going higher, and Barnwell helped point this out. Quinn and Williams Max Crosby which was you know they reneged on it but they were sending

We can still count it in terms of intent yeah sauce Gardner now Dexter Lawrence guys on their third contract are just

this is a fairly new development before that there just weren't a lot of high picks like I said getting traded for them or first round picks

in general getting traded for non-quarterback back, especially entering their third contract. There's been some. Stafford was one. Devante Adams was one. Tyree Kill was one.

Like, you'd go through these and there's probably more misses than hits. There were nine total trades for a first round pick sent for a veteran defensive player in a 15-year span leading up to this last year. In this draft alone, there's four. McDuffy's the other one. Yeah. Sosgarder, Micah, Dexter. And, yeah, it's just, people are kind of looking.

at the F them picks model. I think the Rams and then a little less so, the Eagles and the Patriots from the last decade, I think have influenced people to give up those picks a little more for veterans. Yeah, but I also think that it goes hand in hand with a real cautiousness around these draft classes that are coming out, especially at positions where you might be changing defensive schemes. You don't know well into the future or what your developmental track can potentially be

for that prospect. You know, you mentioned the Rams and them sort of trend setting on a lot of this. I joke all the time. It's not really a joke in my mind that they just figured out they can't draft corners. So they go and trade for them. So it's like a situation where it's also like understanding where some of your weak spots are or where your blind spots are. And I think some of these draft classes post-COVID season, NIL era, all of this movement, all of these things that are people are trying, these organizations are trying to get their feet back under them.

and understand where these cycles are actually going to be from college football on into the NFL. I do think that's a part of it, too, is trading for proven players at premium, specifically premium positions, versus betting on picks that they are less certain of than they normally are, which already is about a 30 to 40 percent hit rate. Right. If it wasn't for the contract of it all, then the Dexter Lawrence, like, I keep seeing, like, of course, I'd rather have Dexter Lawrence and 10th overall pick. Well, yeah, of course. I mean, because, but he's making as much money in this one year as the entire contract.

Yeah, and they have been poor drafting defensive linemen, and they've been poor building out their defensive line room. And everyone is really excited about the new room. And it's like, we'll see. Boy A. Maffei, I like that as a signing, but he's now their number one edge. They only have Miles Murphy across from him and Shamar Stewart, who did nothing as a rookie. Miles Murphy's been a disappointment.

B.J. Hale's a good player to put next to Dexter. Lawrence and they signed Jonathan Allen so their defensive tackle position like looks much better on paper. But add that all up and it's like I would say the hope should be to be average. I don't I don't think that's a group that's going to be like a difference making group. Maybe a little better. I guess the hope is to be better than average. If they can literally just crawl to average, that's better. Joe Burrow and that offense lifts that, lifts that floor for that team and lifts that ceiling for that team enormously.

I mean, some of those losses, he's scoring 35, almost 40 points a game, and they're still losing because the defense is giving it more. If you can just crawl to the mean on defense, then if you have a top five, top 10 offense, a lot of coaches, a lot of organizations believe they can win that way, for better or for worse. That is their path, and I'm glad you brought up Burrow before we take a break, which is just that.

I think if they don't make the playoffs for the fourth straight year, the whole, like, could Joe Burrow pull a Yonis? you know, and try to force his way out or make it a little clear that he's not happy following in the footsteps of Carson Palmer back in the day. There has to be some concern about that. And so this is a big year for this entire regime. Let's win now. Let's take a break.

And we'll come back with the rest of the news and then 10 things we want to see in the 2026 draft. Good to be back in the studio. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retirement from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now I've got my own show. So if you're tired or lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week.

Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I'm Greg Rosenthal. And this is 40s and free agents. The games may be over, but the NFL never stopped. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Free agency, the Combine, the NFL Draft, Pro Days, trades.

This is where teams reshape their future. This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money. On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits to my top 101 free agents and how real rosters are built, cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move? We got teams rebuilding. It's hope season.

Yeah, absolutely. It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis. real conversations every week. I'm not about the smart, but definitely analysis. Listen to 40s and free agents on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back on NFL Daily on this big Patriots Day.

Oh, God. I was whistling the theme. I knew this was coming in. Not a lot of awareness in the studio or behind the glass about the official Massachusetts holiday Patriots Day, not celebrating the football team, but a civil. holiday observed to, you know, celebrate the opening battles of the Revolutionary War. You got the

marathon, you got the Red Sox game starting at 11 a.m. It's already over by the time we started taping this, and then everyone gets it off, and you feel like a special little flower that the rest of the country is going to school while you have it off. Big day. You know what else is a big day? Thursday. The NFL draft. We are going live on YouTube after the draft. It'll be Jordan, Roderig, and my

And yeah, really looking forward to that. And so, yeah, do the little thing where you save it. And you get enough options during the draft. Who needs that? The second, it's over. You don't have to wait for the podcast. But you could. Do both.

Listen to both. So you're saying the entire state of Massachusetts also has a day off on April 20th? 420, bro. Oh, that's what Dave Damashek would say every time it turned 4.20. 20 in our NFL network newsroom, which was like funny the first 7,500 times. But once he got into like the 400th, the 500th time it happened, like it was even funnier. But yes. Art is subjective.

I just learned Maine has it off too. I didn't know that. Let's actually wrap up the Giants because literally as we were taking a break, O'Dell Beckham we learned is in the building taking a physical. So we don't know if that means he's going to get signed with it. That's interesting. doing a little bit of a workout. It seems like this thing might actually happen.

I also saw this little report that like, hey, Dexter Lawrence, he doesn't like to work that, you know, this report kind of dogging him. Dexter Lawrence doesn't like to work that hard Monday to Saturday. And he wasn't necessarily looking forward to the John Harba era, Harbaugh, known as a taskmaster. And that made me think of this appearance that Zay Flowers had on the 4th and South podcast, hosted by Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette. You know, look, I think Jarvis is from New Orleans.

Anyone from New Orleans is immediately just got a little extra something to them and Leonard Fournett from the area too. I bet it's entertaining. Zay Flowers got a little notice last week. I thought, said, quote, however many practices and pads you can get, we're doing every single one talking about Harbaugh. One-on-ones in week 17.

Everybody out there, we're tired. We're still going later. He's like, that's why I think we had a lot of injuries because of how we practice, how we went. The load was. heavy. And people were like, you know, how could, we didn't hear this from players when they were in Baltimore. It was like, yeah, we did. Ed Reed talked about it openly that he never agreed with John Harbaugh. Didn't really like how Harbaugh did business. Ed Reed was at the end of his career

when Harbaugh came aboard and they won a Super Bowl together. But it was interesting. Just thinking about that with Harbaugh landing in New York. It's all a piece of the puzzle. Old school, man. It's old school and you're going to like it or you're not going to be on the team anymore kind of mentality. They have had a lot of injuries. I don't know though. I don't know enough to say that practicing in full pads, which is out of step, you know, that late in the season is a bad idea. I mean, the chiefs have been famously running a harder training camp than everyone else over the last five, 10 years. And that's worked well for them. So who knows? Let's go to some news. Because like I said, We're going to get to the AJ Brown stuff later.

We've got to fly through this. We've got to get through our segment. But a lot has happened. A lot of contracts. Let's start with Trent Williams. It gets done, two years, $50 million. He gets $37 million guaranteed on this contract. Adds a lot of money guaranteed in 2027.

So it seems to basically lock him in through his age 39 season, unless things just went horribly wrong this year. And even in that case, he's earned some money into next year. Good to see that he got his deal done. Yeah, which is what we all expected. It's just one of those things where John Lynch and company just kind of keeps avoiding the problem until it becomes a much bigger problem than it actually is. If he can still go, then he will.

I don't think that this precludes them from attacking the position in the draft, trying to find what the next development plan of the next player will be. But yeah, this is kind of like the rest of the roster is so top-heavy. You might as well roll till the wheels fall off. on this one. Matt Barrow's report or just made a tweet like joking, half joking that he just thinks John Lynch didn't want to do another press conference where he said that a Trent William's contract was imminent and he has a press conference on Monday and that was like his

soft deadline. And I'll give them some credit because they've dragged these things out over and over into training camp and they've been trying to avoid that. They even said that was a goal for them. So this is early for them. Now it's just happening up in Washington, you know? Right. And Trent Williams, it is interesting to think when he got traded to the 49

I even remember saying back on a round of the NFL, I was like, it sounds crazy, but like, he's not that far away from like a guy that has a Hall of Fame candidacy. At the time, like, he has to just add on a few more years and like he's going to have a candidacy. Now it's just, you know, he might be first ballot. Like, it's just assumed he's one of the best tackles of all time. So what a trade that turned out to be for the 49ers. Speaking of a team getting contracts done earlier and earlier, let's give the Cowboys some

love, Brandon Aubrey, $28 million over $4. years, $20 million is guaranteed, $10 million in his first year. So the $7 million per year, not nearly like what he was reportedly looking for, but the fact he's getting paid $10 million this year is breaking major barriers for a kicker. And even the average is pretty good. And he'll probably go looking for more money by the end of this contract. So the Cowboys didn't drag it out. Good job. I don't know if there's much to say about that. How about Will Anderson getting $150 million in a three-year extension? $134 million guaranteed for Will Anderson.

He is now locked up. And I think the word extension is really important here. He had two years left on his rookie contract. So that changes the whole average money. He had the fifth year option. It's great for him. All this guaranteed money is right at the top of defensive players in the history of the NFL.

So he's earned that. But also they control his rights through 2030, which is a really long time. I know you're a big fan of Will Anderson and just kind of like the maybe the biggest weight bearing wall right now in that organization. Yeah, he is the present and the future for that team. And you can pair him with, you know, Danielle Hunter has been great paired opposite him, obviously. But you're going to be able to pair him with any type of rusher because he can do everything. He is absolutely a incredible sort of queen on a chess board type player where you can.

can do so many different things mathematically because of who he is as a franchise, like you said, weight-bearing wall. I also like that they did it early. This is smart business. This is extend your best players. Extend your players who you know are going to be around for the long term. And do it before, you know, he even reaches his prime. He's not even there yet.

And do it before he potentially costs way, way more. Right. And I just love it. Well for the Texans. And he'll, if he plays as well as he's played so far, will want more money once you get into year three of that. But that's the great thing of these longer extensions. So the average is not that crazy, even though per year just on the three-year extension.

It's quite a bit. It does show the difference between him and C.J. Stroud. Not that we needed a contract to explain that to us, but I don't think they're working on a big contract extension for C.J. Stroud. Two years ago at this time, like you would have thought they're getting it together. I have a comp for Will Anderson, by the way. Ooh. Of what he means to the Texans and the type of career that he's having.

because I kind of remembered him as a draft prospect. When they gave up the number 12 pick in that draft, the 33 pick in that draft, and then a first and a third the following year. So two first, but you know, you get Will Anderson and, you know, a high second, the first pick of the second draft and a third. Well, you've got to be great.

And people are wondering, does he have the ceiling? Like, is he ever going to be Miles Gary? He's not quite that bendy and twitchy. Is he ever going to be the best edge in the game? and it's funny to think about that now. And maybe he's not quite. And this is where my comp comes in of what he means to them and where he is in the stratosphere.

Is he like their Larry Fitzgerald as a player? Because Larry Fitzgerald, people kind of think of now. He's like, he's one of the great receivers all the time. But he was never like the guy. He was always like the third or fourth best receiver in the league, but just consistently throughout his whole career. Obviously he had that great playoff run. Like he had moments.

I'm not trying to downplay him. But that's kind of Will Anderson to me. It's like, yeah, there might be one or two guys that are just like a little higher than you at the NFL level, but what you mean to the franchise and the consistency of being a top five guy at your position over and over and over and maybe a future Hall of Famer. Maybe, but I think that one of the elements of the Larry Fitzgerald conversation was relative to his peers. They were all kind of in the same area of their career. I'd say, Will Anderson, like I said, has not even entered his prime years yet. Some of these other guys that we talk about as the best are, you know, age 29.

age 30 are about to exit. So there is a very real scenario in which this is the most dominant pass rusher in the NFL for the next, you know, eight years. Keep an eye on them at edge in the draft. I think that's a sneaky need for them. If they had a guy that they liked late in the first round, wouldn't shock me because DeNeil Hunter, they add a one-year extension there, but they're thin behind those two guys relatively. And I wouldn't be surprised if they are always looking edge because Hunter won't be there forever. It's time for the offseason ride-along presented by Toyota. Speaking to the Cardinals, Jacobi Brissette, not at

the Cardinals facility right now while they are lifting weights. You I think texted me. I hope this is okay to say that you just wish you could walk through the con, you know, through your life with the type of confidence that Jacoby Brissette has not show up to the facility.

I just love this energy. Man, I know he's getting heat for it from their local media. I don't care. Like, I love this energy to say, the context of this too is that last year, even as early as training camp, Jacoby Brissette called his shot and was adamant that he was going to be the starter for that football team. And then went on to start and they lost a ton of games and he threw the ball a ton of times, a record breaking

amount of times. And they lost so many games. And now he's like, all right, you don't have a plan for your starting quarterback yet. I would like to get paid like a starter if I'm going to be starting games. So just the confidence and the energy of, you know, I don't care. I just love it. I think it's awesome. I love it too. And there was reporting from Ian Rappaport that it sounds like the Cardinals would be willing to play ball.

Then again, they had a press conference on Thursday before this news was out that maybe told a different story. Listen, we got Jacoby, Gardner, they both played a lot of ball. You know, I think, you know, as we sit here today, like, we're not, we don't, we're trying to install a system. You guys are rolling. I'll defer to you on that, but like, you know, we're not not really naming anybody. And we'll see how that room looks by the time we get in August. They weren't naming Jacoby like a month and a half ago saying he was the starter. And now he's not because he's staying away.

Well, yeah, they don't want to pay him. Of course they're doing it like this. So he's due a little under $5 million this year. Get him to 10. Get him to 10. His average for the two years, I don't like it when people just take away the signing bonus money. It was 6.25. So that that is mid-tier backup money.

it's not great. I heard that and I thought, does he survive the draft? I think there is a world where he's on the Jets or some other team. I don't think it's that crazy because if they end up with Ty Simpson,

you don't need Ty Simpson, Gardner Minchu and Jacoby Perci. They might just be like, see you, man. Even if it doesn't turn out, advice to the young people listening. If you don't ask for what you want, you're never going to get it. Even if you have to find out.

If you're never going to get it in the first place, fine, find out. But if you do not ask for what you want in this life, like Jacoby Brissette is doing, then you will never get it. You won't even have the chance of getting it. Also, he is the best quarterback on that roster. He is better than Gardner Minchu. That was the offseason ride-along presented by Toyota,

because when people are the destination, your ride is important. Learn more at Toyota.com and find the vehicle that fits your people. Let's fly through a couple other quick ones. A challenge trade of second round defensive tackles. That's a first. just from two years ago, the Jaguars swapped Mason Smith with the double A in the middle

who really hasn't been doing much at all. Kind of a bust. Like a big foul exchange. Yes, to the Falcons for Ruk Aurora Rho. I love saying that name. Really surprising because Aurora has been promising as a pro. 32 pressures last year from the interior,

not known as like a great run defender, but compared to Mason Smith, who like had six pressures, I think, according to next gen, all of last year and was a healthy scratch behind some pretty poor people. It is a confounding trade for the Falcons to trade some pass-wrest juice.

But I guess it's just like, hey, we have a new system. This guy doesn't fit our new system. But I like it for the Jaguars. They got some pass-rush juice. This is a nice addition for Jacksonville, I would say, because now they get to see

what is upside. could be. This is probably a player that they had a strong evaluation on coming out of the draft or at least in their previous regime. And I just think that this is, I don't know, this is like a high upside situation. Eleven quick pressures, which is actually more than Arick Armstead, their high paid defensive tackle. It was more than their entire like defensive tackle group. And I tell you what, they're not looking at sacks up down there in Jacksonville. They're looking at pressures. They're looking at proximity quarterback. They're looking at hurries. They're looking

at those types of things. Mason Smith, in theory, they would probably want to play nose tackle in Atlanta and help with the run defense, but Jacksonville didn't really have any room for them. So just kind of an interesting challenge trade. A reminder, all second round picks. Yeah, they don't work a lot of times.

Some first round picks that have been working, Pete Skoranski, got his fifth year option picked up by the Titans. Really improved, I believe, at Guard last year. and Darnell Wright, who's had a nice trajectory at tackle for the Bears, his fifth year option picked up. Chris Ballard, the Colts GM, mentioned that Alec Pierce is overcoming a ankle surgery,

which nobody knew about, at least in the media, didn't know about going into his free agency period. Interesting timing. They clearly didn't want to have that surgery at the beginning of the offseason, and so that's a little disappointing for them, but supposedly he's going to be back. Puka Nakua is at the offseason program. was reported earlier. He was at a rehabilitation center, so he is now working out with the Rams,

and Ian Rappaport said Jimmy G could be retiring something that you've been hinting at this show as a possibility, just saying like Jimmy G might not play football this year. Let's wrap up the news just quickly with just a item. Zachariah Branch, the Georgia-wide receiver, was arrested over the weekend and faces charges of obstructing public sidewalks prowling and obstructing a law enforcement officer. Obstructing a public sidewalk, I was like, is that something you can be arrested for? It can, but you only need $39 to pay your bond to get out. I've never seen a bond that low. And I'll just read a little bit of the police report here, as revealed by Tom Pelliserro at NFL Network.

A male later identified as Zachariah Branch continued to stand in the sidewalk without making an attempt to move. I continued to give Zachariah Branch verbal commands to move from blocking the sidewalk and advise that if he did not, he would receive a citation for blocking the sidewalk. Zachariah Branch smirked, then step backwards into the right and remain standing on the public sidewalk so as to obstruct hinder or impede free passage upon the sidewalk. Due to these actions, he was arrested. Wow. This seems like a really, really good use of my tax money.

This, on one hand, like, people got off their jokes of like, oh, smaller guy who showed off his blocking skills. You are San Francisco 49. Yeah. On another hand, our friend Adam pointed out, this is just standing well black, you know, and is not expected according to Mike Garofolo to impact his draft at all. Probably a day two pick, maybe a high day three pick. Fun player to watch, but more of a guy that I think teams will be worried about.

Is he just the gadget guy? Kind of one of those guys. So that's Zachariah Branch. I just wanted to hit that before the draft. Let's get to the 10 things we want to see in the draft. We took a while to get here. Can I just say. Can I just say.

No. Yes. I will. One of my small joys in doing this show is when you get a really solid news day. Oh, yeah. Let's go. You just light up from within, Greg. It's just great.

The three-day weekend helped. It's a great UCLA men's volleyball game. Good Sport Live with Walker, who's very into volleyball these days after mainlining high-key. All right. You start out with. one of the things you want to see, Jordan. I want to see it,

and I don't know that it will necessarily be picks for players. I doubt that all of these will be, but I do think we're going to see a lot of movement in the first and second round in the draft. And so I would like to see at least four more trades. Okay. I'm not asking for much. Four more.

At least four more trades. It would have been nice if they waited for Dexter Lawrence to the draft. I know. I could have counted that one. Involving first round picks. So that also means. movement back. So I think there's like a couple of big no man's land pockets. There always is in these drafts usually right around those pick points 10 or 12 all the way into the end of the

first. It could also be teams moving up to get players out of the second round. So this is really sort of a general. I would like to see more trades happen. I think this will be a trade heavy draft. That's what all of the chatter is right now coming from the insiders, coming from league people that I've spoken to. This is going to be a trade-heavy draft in particular, it could be on night one. And so I would like to see at least four. I think it could be little ones, too,

especially the tackles. I think once you get in there's going to, there's going to be a run in the tens and twenties. I'd like to see some big ones. Adam Schaefter, among other people, hey now. Among other people, Adam Schaefter has alluded to the Cardinals wanting to trade down,

but that if they don't trade down, there's increasing belief in league circles that they could take Jeremiah Love. The combination of those... They probably listened to our show and heard me hyping study styles to them. And so now, no, I'm just kidding. The combination of that, it's like, yeah, we want Jeremiah Love,

but we want to trade down. Makes me think like, do you really want Jeremiah Love or do you want to take a tackle and you're throwing that out there? But there has been a lot of connecting the dots. They're baiting the giants to come up. The other teams that it was reported that the chiefs and Cardinals have talked a little bit about

who would the chiefs going up for. Maybe it's Rvel Reese or David Bailey just for a pass rush all the way to three that would make some sense. There is a lot of talk Andy Reid wants an offensive lineman. I think the Cowboys are a candidate to go up, but not really what they do. They do have the extra first round pick. And people thought, for what it's worth, like Daniel Jeremiah put this out there.

Like the Bengals at 10 were kind of in a tough spot because, you know, depending on if one or no tackles go ahead of them. I think there's like a, it's, it's an eight or nine player draft where people are really excited about those eight or nine, especially for their needs. And they didn't need tackles. So that's what I mean by no man's land. Right. You're going to hit those desert pockets where you just feel like, okay, the best thing I could possibly do is trade back. Yeah, I have trades in general as one.

I'll start off with the Steelers just getting specific, because there's a few Steelers items. But Steelers Depot and some other places have been saying that there, there could be a possible. trade of one of their edges. And so Alex Highsmith, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports had this, is the more likely of the two. Nick Herbig would be the other potential target. It sounds like teams would love Nick Herbig, but Alex Highsmith might be a little more available. He's going to be a third contract guy getting closer to 30, but still really productive, whereas Nick Herbig is younger. I want to see this because they just don't get Herbig on the field enough. It has annoyed me that one of the pure pass rushers in the league.

They just sit them down. I think the T.J. Watt contract was not a smart one, the way that they structured that and who they decided to pay there. So just because I want to see these edges go elsewhere. And Alex Highsmith is a fun piece. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I just would like to see that happen. If you're not going to use Herbig, then trade him. I came up with some teams for them. You want to hear them? Yeah. Okay. Philadelphia.

Yes. That's pretty strong. We'll get to them a second. Carolina. I think it would be a good room. Yes, please. That's where he came out of, right? Alex Ismith?

Where did Alex Ismith go to school? I forget. The Patriots, but their pick might be taken by someone else. The Titans, I think, actually, could be in the mix. The Bucks, there's a lot of teams. UNC Charlotte. Good job by you. Continue.

The Bucks would be great. I think the Bucks would be great. You know, sneaky kind of the bills maybe would be a good one, too. I know they made the move for Bradley Chub, but they do still need help there. He would be a fun player. A lot of teams need edge. Like Baltimore, hey, if you were going to trade for Max Grosby and you said you were going to pair him. New Orleans.

Miami actually, I don't think is a crazy one for Herbig specifically. Yeah. If they were going to invest on someone long term, those are some edges. I want to see that. There's a lot of talk, too. They might take an offensive lineman, the Steelers in the first round because Broderick Jones, who's had a star cross career as a first round pick, had a setback with his neck injury. Might not be ready for the season, according to Adam Schaefter.

Also, our guys say, Aaron Rogers, remember when the owner said, well, we're not going to wait around to the draft this time. We expect it to be within a month. We're at the draft. And the reporting now is that they're not going to hear anything before the draft with Aaron Rogers. We're all looking for the guy who did this. They also have five picks in the top 100 for now. If they trade one of these guys, they will have more. They could even get more.

I want to see it. All right, give me another one. Another one for me is I am anticipating and very excited to see specifically through this draft, what power dynamics start to truly cement themselves in these organizations. We've heard whispers of and chatter like we mentioned earlier about John Harbaugh being the one who is going to be making these picks. It's obviously a collaborative process, but with Harbaugh having a dominant say in kind of how he wants to build this team's identity moving forward in New York. and I'm eager to see like Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota, for example, with Brzezinski as the interim GM right now and those two have a great relationship,

but this has a dynamic or a feel to me of a coach wanting to have just a little bit more say in the draft operation. The pictures they've already shared out on their team media department is of those two, specifically sitting next to each other. Purposeful. They're having a great time. I do think that, you know, seeing how much power a new coach in some of these new organizations, declarations of intent, as you like to call them.

Yes. What those actually look like and a place, even a place like, you know, in Baltimore with an established front office, how much say will Jesse Minter actually have in bringing in, quote, unquote, his guys or identifying, especially understanding that coaches do not come into the draft process until extremely late in the scouting process. So you're not necessarily, you would probably opt to lean on an established general manager and infrastructure in that case, but the coach still has to get his guys that match a scheme.

It's not unheard of that the coach has one idea going into it. And then as OTAs begin, a different plan sort of starts to take shape or a better plan or a better strategy for that season starts to take shape. And then they just have to kind of wait until the next full season. And with them, it's going to be hard to tell the difference because frankly, they were drafting Jesse Minter players before. I mean, he was there.

The systems weren't too different relatively. The types of players, obviously he'll have a say. I think that's going to be a nice cooperation. Yeah, I did say, I do like statements of intent with the first. So we talked about the Giants. That was going to be one of mine, but I'll skip past that because it's very similar. Miami, Las Vegas. I'd like to say Atlanta.

Yeah, I'd like to say Atlanta because, but they don't have any picks early Tennessee. Like is Borganzi? Now it's his show for the first time. So these are some statements of intent, but especially Miami and the Giants with early picks. I'll do a quick one then, which is just, I like the post-draft depth charts.

You know what I mean? To me, it's just very satisfying that we reach this point of the off season, and it's like, okay, let's just look at those babies on our lads. They're working all weekend. They're pumping those players into the depth charts. We're doing a show on Sunday with Ali,

and I'll just look at it. And it's like, this is what we're working for. Enough speculation. and I know there's other moves to be made in the offseason, but for the most part, these are our teams. And I just find that a very satisfying exercise, the post-draft depth charts over the years. It's just something I'm looking forward to.

Yeah, something I'm looking forward to is more prospect celebration videos with families, especially I love to see the moms celebrating with their sons. It absolutely warms my heart every single year. Good mom and son content of just, the biggest moment possible in this prospect's life and his family being around him. I know we put together a super cut of this. You can see some players, if you're watching on YouTube, some players really excited with

their families. And it's always the most heartwarming. You know, when the dad breaks down and tears and just the culmination of a lot of dreams and hopes and wishes and a lifelong memory, it's just like one of the most endearing things that can come out of the draft. And that just inject it all into my veins. just want all the joy. I love that. I'd love seeing them at their house. I love seeing the dynamics. Andrew Hawkins had a, you know, sometimes a great one between the girlfriend and the moms are very

interesting. Who's sitting where? C.D. Lamb had a famous one where he had the two phones and the girlfriend takes the phone away. There was the the Titans draft pick. I'm forgetting who it was that tackle that didn't work out. That was a classic of the of the genre. In general, though, like, I love those dynamics. We'll see what Fernando Mendoza is doing. He'll be at home not going to the draft. All right, let's get to the Eagles and the chiefs. I decided

one of the things I want to see on draft weekend. The plans of the Super Bowl 59 teams, and this is where we can get into the AJ Brown of it all. Man, like these two teams, which on balance have been the best two organizations this decade, the

2020s, would be the Chiefs in the Eagles. But kind of coming off, difficult positions. Now, the Chiefs are in the top 10. Who could they be moving up for? They have three of the top 40 picks because of the McDuffie trade. So 9, 29, 40. I think offensive line could be something there.

Cornerback certainly. Curious, like, how they get aggressive. Would they go Jeremiah Love? Would they go Jordan Tyson? We'll see. They're fascinating. The Eagles, I don't think they're depth charts in as bad shape as the Chiefs, but I would say they have more questions right now than they normally do.

Two offensive linemen threatened to retire this offseason. Lane Johnson is right towards the end. Land Dickerson, we'll see. They have three of the top 68 picks because they have a high third from the Hassan Reddick trade from a couple years ago. They have five of the top 115. There's a compensatory pick in there too. So they have a lot of picks.

There's rumors they might want to go to Jonathan, go get Jonathan Grenard from the Vikings. That's still out there. Could they be trading for a wide receipt? to replenish AJ Brown. Could they be trading to move up for a wide receiver or just drafting a wide receiver to replenish for AJ Brown? Their offensive line and I would say their defensive line is thinner.

It's very good overall, but they're not, they don't have stars at the edge and it's thinner than before. Like there's just a lot here. And that leaves us to AJ Brown. What do you make of where we're at in the AJ Brown news cycle? Yeah. Well, so, okay. So there's been some reporting.

first over the last couple of days. Nate Tice on Football 301, our friend of the show as well, made some allusions to just hearing some chatter that there was, I'm paraphrasing here, obviously, that there's sort of an understanding that this trade is already going to happen.

Adam Schaefter and Jeremy Fowler put out their annual what I'm hearing before the draft or what insiders are saying before the draft report. To be clear, I haven't read it in full, but I do know there's some big AJ Brown implication. I read it. And the

wording is very funny because they're not positioning it as news, like on their news stack. And yet, a lot of aggregators are taking the actual words that Adam Schaefter said, including he tweeted it out.

I mean, and he literally writes, AJ Brown is likely to become a patriot. And for that to come from Adam Schaefter, to me, is news. It's still on track to happen after June 1st per league source. Still on track is interesting phrasing to me

because that would have been previously established as being on track. He puts all these caveats in here almost transparently trying to avoid the league being upset that this has worked out because that's not like how post-June 1st stuff is exactly how it's supposed to work.

Or the teams being upset because they're just trying to stay quiet about. And then the actual wording as he goes on is not as strong. It's like remain highly interested. It's possible another team could get in the mix. But to be clear, the Patriots are very interested in restarting those negotiations after June 1st. It sure sounds like a deal is going to happen and that there's more of an understanding than is being reported. I've never seen a story quite like this where everyone is expecting something very specific to happen. That's massive news. And yet no one's exactly

reporting it. So I'm just assuming it's going to happen. I will say you do see this with coaching hires and the hiring cycles too, where people are positioned as the favorite. But, oh, they have to go through a couple of other steps in the process. It's almost like a Rooney rule thing, but in A.J. Brown trade. Which is like, it's a similar vibe that I get from all of this, frankly, of like the, okay, yeah, we already know what we're going to do, but just, you know, just wait because there's some steps. As a podcaster, how should we handle it? I feel like we should almost just talk about

AJ Brown's on the Patriots and what that means now, but I guess we can't. I just think perhaps your own excitement about this might be taking more a little bit. You don't think I'd be excited to talk about AJ Brown going to any team? I'm actually a little wary of this straight from a Patriots. As a Patriots fan, I just think you're just excited

to just, you know, get this conversation going. I'm just a news guy. I'm a little wary of it. I think they'll probably... I'm just a news guy. I mean, it's... The humble newsman. It's an annoying thing to have to talk around for a month and a half,

but the most telling of all these were Jeff Darlington got on ESPN. He said, the Eagles are operating in this draft as if AJ Brown's not on the team. Because they have to, because there's a possibility that he's not on the team. But then it was like, if Jeff Darlington specifically is reporting this, and he does a great job,

but he's not trying to break news. It's like, it's happening. I just feel comfortable. it's happening. They've been operating before the draft. I mean, they went out and got receivers. Like, they, you know, they're building the aggregate, right? Like, that's, you know, they've been operating like this. I think the AJ Brown is very similar to Dexter Lawrence in the way that I don't think it's a great overall team building approach. I don't think they're going to have to give a pick that's that high. Maybe it's a pick next year. But I also think they'll get like a probably a really great honeymoon year that they're happy with.

And then long term, like it might not be something you look back on. as like the best move, but, but you get a short-term bump and a long-term hit. I don't know. AJ Brown wasn't like amazing last year, but he is still A.J. Brown. All right, let's fly through the rest of them. Yes. For number eight, I would like to see Fernando Mendoza hit us with a swear word. You know, he's going to be joining the Las Vegas Raiders.

I'd really just, let's effing go, you know, I'm effing fired up. You know, it doesn't have to be that one. It could be a number of colorful choices. He could potentially pick. I would just like to see him, I would just like to see a little, him come out of a show a little bit, a lot of Kirk Cousins,

who also happens to be on that roster. Speaking of Nate Tice, I really like that. He interviewed Mendoza, Nate Tice did, and Nate shared that after the interview, Mendoza asked Nate for what he thinks he should get better at,

what Nate thinks Mendoza needs to work on. And then it was like, oh. And it was like, it was clear then Nate realized like he had done his homework. Nate, Nate, you know, a quarterback kind of guy.

That makes me happy. But also that like, you know, he's studying for these different interviews of like, who is this guy interviewing me? And that he wants to hear, he wants to get better in any way possible. So he's asking.

I like that knowing can pick, I can picture what Nate's reaction to that would be, which would be like totally disarmed, caught off guard, never expecting it, even though anybody should be asking Nate for feedback on how to, he is one of the best in the game. It's just, I can picture him being like,

who me? You know, it's just a very endearing way about him. I bet he had a good answer too. Things to work on. Maybe a little bit under, you know, under center. This is my note as, you know, obviously, you know, my note is typical, is just as advanced analysis. Swear more.

It's just with a swear word. Swear more. Between him and Kirk Cousins, they're, you know, two piece in a pod. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now I've got my own show.

So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeart Radio app. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I'm Greg Rosenthal. And this is 40s and free agents.

The games may be over, but the NFL never stopped. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Free agency. the combine. The NFL draft pro days, trades. This is where teams reshape their future. This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money. On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits to my top 101

free agents and how real rosters are built, cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move. We got teams rebuilding. It's hope season. Yeah, absolutely. It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real. What you? What's real? what's noise and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis. Listen to 40s and free agents on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Here's one thing I want to see on draft weekend. Everyone would be wrong, just in general. I like it. Everyone takes the mock so seriously. We have so much information, this, that, and the other. And then for the most part, they don't hit any of it. And there's like no particular accountability. It's just like when it goes really well, the rare years that someone was really on top of a lot of things,

then you're just like, hey, I nailed it. But there is something to me because I'm keeping track of like just seeing everyone who is so confident about like, they were doing this, they were doing this, and then none of it happens. Maybe this makes me a small person figuratively in addition to literally. or a contrarian or a hater, they might say. But I enjoy that when it comes to draft weekend. Do you have any specific receipts here? I do.

I would say like McShay, Todd McShay, I'm specifically rooting against him in general, I would say, this year. Because he came after our guy, Ali Connolly. First of all, I noticed that last week, McShay on like Thursday says that he'd be shocked if David Bailey doesn't go to the Jets. And then by Saturday, he's saying, I think Arvel Reese is going to the Jets. Like this is the type of like information gathering that changes so much and doesn't have like a ton of value.

But he went after Ali, calling Ali like a ridiculous word for just reporting the news on Ruben Bain. We're literally reporting police reports that are out there for publicly saying police reports as if it was some sort of hit piece. And I think Ali explained it really well in her show. I don't need to defend Ali of like, of course, why it's newsworthy. Even if a lot of teams knew about it, like the general public didn't know about it. And a lot of people didn't know certain things. And teams do have questions if he's been transparent throughout the process. And if there's anything else behind Doorn and M2, that's all sort of behind the point.

I think it really reflects on your own character. If you're not like looking into the person that's doing this and you're getting upset about someone just reporting the news because you think what? may hurt their draft stock? Like, who are we defending here? If all the teams knows, you can't be on both sides. If all the teams know, and it's not affecting their draft stock, what exactly would you be mad at in the first place?

You're saying it's a nothing burger, right? The whole reaction to Ali's reporting bothered me a lot. And I honestly wasn't aware about it until on Friday or Thursday night when we're done taping this. I was told about these comments. Give me a break. Also, just me. my general advice to like any adults, especially like a grown man, just like, you know, go reach

out to the person you're planning on top, you know, like, pick up the phone. Well, it's clear, like, he didn't really look into the situation and like that shows the type of lack of character that you're accusing the other person of going after someone's character. Uh, that's it. That's 10 things. Nope, that's 9. You got 9. A man was not a doozy. I have an extra. We might have to do 11. Greg, 9, 9 kind of came out of you. Maybe, you know, you know, Alternate ego there. Okay, mine, I can't wait to see the middle round surfers kind of take over on day two and day three. These are teams that have frequently picked pretty well in the middle rounds, regardless of the number of picks.

They also often turn a lot of middle, a few middle round picks into more middle round picks. These are the 49ers, the Rams, the Ravens, the Jaguars, the Dolphins, even the Jets. I'm excited to see what Darren Mugge does with some of this like middle round surfing and a lot of picks at their disposal and moving up and moving back. And I love the point where like the trackers, the draft trackers get so ahead of the broadcast. And all you hear is the little trade ding going off. And you just know that some chaos is happening. And all of a sudden it pops up onto your screen that this team that was supposed to be picking a few picks later is actually picking now. And maybe they're leapfrogging to get a guy that they like or maybe.

they're moving back. I just love all of the permutations of the middle round surfing that happens. I think the Falcons are going to be really active because they're going to be trying to pick up extra picks. The dolphins, just because they have so many picks and are probably willing to kick some into next year, are going to be super active. The Eagles we talked about are going to be super active. The 49ers, their picks all stop in the fourth round. So they're going to have to try to pick up some more. I do love that stuff too. That is 10. And yet I didn't get to. Go 11. Do 11. We have a whole graphic that says 10 things we want to see. You know, we're going to have to change that.

Well, this is just a free one. DeAngelo Pons. After Daniel Jeremiah talked about him on a show that you're going to hear on Tuesday, our final 40s of free agents before the draft, he puts DeAngelo Pons, the cornerback from Indiana, into his top 50. He compared him in a way to Jalen Hertz, a guy that throughout the whole process, he didn't have in his top 50. And then at the very end, he's just like, this player is so good.

There's something so much about him. I got to at least put him in my top 50. And so I remember that with DJ where at the last second he put Jalen Hertz, even though it didn't make a lot of sense into his top 50. And this guy is fascinating. Yes, am I going to root for an undersized player

a little extra than other people? Of course. 5-8-174 at cornerback. And I think what he is going to test is just like, how much can the size really matter? Because a lot of teams really believe they have hard rules. cornerback specifically.

And it took DJ talking about him and then Ollie and John Ledger talking about him a lot too on the read optional that made me want to watch him. And I watched the tape against Denzel Boston specifically. Like Denzel Boston's one of the best vertical contested catch guys in the league. And there's the Angelopons out there doing a job

against him. His tape is crazy if you're into the draft and you haven't watched them yet. It took me until this weekend to watch him. I mean, he's no question one of the top three cornerbacks in the draft. And his tape is as electric, I would say, as the top two. But he's 5-8 and 174.

But he went up against Jeremiah Smith, against all these great players. And so I'm just curious. I'm now tracking his career. And I'm curious what the NFL thinks of him, too. Because, like, I think his film would tell you he's a first-round pick. Like, if you just ignore the height. I get that he's probably not going to go in the first round because of that.

But like, is he going to get totally killed because of it? To me, he's just a fun player. I'm going to be rooting for. Yeah. I love that about the draft is when these guys, that you just really, there's something, just that little extra edge to them, or there's something about their profile or their character or the way that they play, or just that pops to you and you're sort of just attached to them.

You're now on their team. You're not rooting for them. In this case, it's just that he's small. And other than that, he's electric. And he's not old. He's super athletic. You know, some of these guys didn't work out over the years. And he's not old.

Mike San Rissil got drafted pretty high. You know, he's not coming off a good year. But I think Pons is even better. I'm just saying he's not like a guy that would be dinged for being like 24 or 25. Like he's a young player. By you. Very athletic. Great vertical leap too, making up for it.

I think he had like sixth among all players or something like that. That's it. We did it. As we go, I'm just going to like put this weird Detroit Lions tweet up. I'm surprising you with this one that they sent out on Monday morning. For some reason, the Detroit Lions are tweeting like a wide receiver. Live your life with no regret. because tomorrow is not promised.

The Detroit Lions sent out. I think Dexter Lawrence put that on a post-it. What? Do you think that was an admin signed into the wrong account, but now they just got to live with it as the Lions? No. They're going to make some big trades. They're just trying to get people...

1.5 million views. This has all the makings of a copycat attempt on the P.F. Chang's tweet. I mean, I don't know. Just like blind tweeting. Yeah, first of all, Detroit Lions admin Are you okay? Like call me if you're not.

We'll get through this. I do see grown men sometimes older than me or around my age tweeting like this often too. Just like little shots out into the ether that you don't even know what nobody knows what they're about. Yeah, I've seen a couple of them recently. Let's grow up. Let's talk about our next show. Forties and Free Agents. Final one before the draft.

This is where I put Daniel Jeremiah on the clock and give them the hardest sitting questions. Rapid fire. And we go through a number of late situations. Our last show before the draft is going to be my mock draft with Patrick Playbond. That'll be coming up on Wednesday. Until then, Jordan, you'll see her next Thursday night live on YouTube. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I am Greg Rosenthal.

I know that, Greg. We're teaming up on 40s and free agents, the podcast that owns the NFL offseason. This is where teams are built. Free agency, combine, pro days, trades. Every move matters. From my draft boards and mock drafts to my vaunted top 101 free agents and how rosters come together.

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