NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Jeffery Simmons Gets Paid and Unsolved NFL Mysteries

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

Patrick Claybon and Nick Shook react to the Titans giving Jeffery Simmons a contract extension and then try and solve some of the NFL's unsolved mysteries around the 49ers, Aaron Donald, Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson, Bryce Young, Malik Willis and more! NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to NFL Daily. Patrick Claibon here in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio, all alone because our fearless leader, fresh off of Father's Day, the show dad, Greg Rosenthal, is taking a much-deserved vacation.

So it is myself and Nick Shook in his streaming venue, in his home, in his casa, right here. Shook, what's up, man? I love that you called Greg the Show-Dad. That's fantastic. I've never thought about it like that. but you're right. Happy Father's Day.

Yeah. Happy belated Father's Day to our show dad, Greg Rosenthal, who if you're listening to this, Greg, on your vacation, don't. Like, stop, step away from the football where the football tinder is cutting off Greg Rosenthal because he frankly needs to be. And this time of year can be one where there's slight news, but we did get a little bit of news today that we can share with the people. Congratulations to Jeffrey Simmons over the.

the weekend, signing a deal that his agent would like everybody to know, Shook, is the biggest deal in NFL history for a defensive tackle three years up to $105 million, $100 million of that guaranteed. Yeah. And it's tacking onto a deal that already, you know, still existing. I had a couple more years left to it. So it's well deserved, well earned on the part of Jeffrey Simmons, a player who I think is routinely overlooked, not overrated, but overlooked, pretty underrated, unless you spend a lot of

time paying attention to the Tennessee Titans, which if you haven't over the last few years, I understand why. But if you want to try to understand exactly why he got this money, and you go look at his stats and you say, well, you know, he didn't make his first all pro team until this year. That was overdue. All you do is cut on the tape, play by play. Few players make more of an impact on a defense than Jeffrey Simmons does. He's just a relentless, game-wrecking type of player who makes everybody around him better. And I know sounds kind of crazy coming from a defensive tackle, but I'm telling you right now, you watch him. He's one of my favorite players to watch on a weekly basis. You can find him on the tape wherever because he's

usually wearing that red sleeve or something. And if you don't see the red sleeve, you're just going to see the hulking mass that is Jeffrey Simmons causing problems for opposing offenses. So definitely a deserved contract. And congratulations to him. Also those moments in Jeffrey Simmons career where he's caused problems for opposing defenses as well, just a pure playmaker where again, we're in this situation. The Tennessee Titans have the number one overall pick. They had the number one overall pick. We did not discuss Cam Ward. As I say, we collectively as a football media apparatus.

He has an entire rookie season. A lot of it's great. He has multiple throw of the year candidates. And the Nashville of it all kind of gets lost. But shout out to the Tennessee Titans. Shout out to Jeffrey Simmons. A fun team where we get to

see what the day ball and Giants influence is going to be, what the influence of Bob Salas' belief of seed oils is ultimately going to be. It's a fun off season with sprinkled in with some pseudoscience or excited, uh, shook for just what the Titans are going to do here in 2026. Look, as somebody who has transitioned to using avocado oil when I cook,

I can get on board with this. I also like the fact that that Jeffrey Simmons fits the solid mold when it comes to building his defense. He's always got a game wrecking defensive tackle. It was either Quinn and Williams. It was back in the day, it was de Forrest Bruckner with the 49ers. After that it was Eric Armstead.

Now it's Jeffrey Simmons. So it makes a ton of sense. Look, you're right. There's a lot of. intrigue with this Titans team because of the new staff, because of the change in the defensive identity and also because of Cam Ward. Oh, and by the way, they just decided, you know, to listen to the claims from Houston about them wanting the oilers colors back and they're like, no, those are ours. And in fact, we're going to go all in and just change our uniforms to straight oilers colors

and just kind of thumb our nose at you. So Titans on the revenge path with some big money to the defensive tackle. Yeah. And also there's there's fossil fuels there in the, in the Tennessee mountains. There's there's access. Why not? Just go ahead and do the whole thing. We all enjoy alliteration. But, but at a certain point, if you're going to keep thumb on your nose, the people, the people in Texas, just, just go ahead and put that Derek on the helmets and bring the whole thing back. You know, because the Derek in the helmet, you decided to let go. And he's playing it all the more than they enjoy him. Oh, now that, that is why you were a top tier host right there. Stop. Stop it. Speaking of top tier, um, I,

like music. I set out with a task almost every show. Any idea involves me having Eric make something. He went shook above and beyond with our idea here for NFL unsolved

offseason mysteries. Because those of us born in the 80s and in the 90s, remember Robert Flack in a trench coat standing for some reason in the rain talking about unsolved mystery. And there's a lot of questions that we have here in the off season that are frankly unsolved mysteries. And so we have

collectively assembled these unsolved mysteries. And I will go first with my unsolved mystery, you know, because we have questions that need answer. On a quiet June Monday morning near an office park in Santa Clara, an aging roster takes many camp off as there's no reason to do it. Also, while avoiding to pay Brandon Ayyuk. A cap expert walks through the copy room and prints a piece of paper. He navigates the walls of the EM shielded complex to the wall in his office and ties a thread to a new piece of paper, attaching it to the wall. All adding up to a question.

$71 million in cap space. The camera pulls out to reveal what the thread spells. Why? Nick Shook. Why does a team in Win Now mode, in a very close, competitive division in June, have $71 million in cap space. With all due respect to the great Pepe Sylvia conspiracy from Molly Sunny in Philadelphia, this one is absolutely mystifying. Why do they have all of this cap space? Why are they still

sitting on all of this money when they could make their team better? And the first thing I could think of, and this is going to sound crazy, is just the fact that you can roll that cap space over next year. So why not have enough, you know, cap space available right? Right. Now, it also makes me wonder, why have they not moved on from the whole Brandon IE situation? Are they going to sit on this situation and wait for somebody to make a call that they're never going to call to try to acquire him? What is going on? Is the electromagnetic impact on the practice field a real thing or not? Yeah, this is actually, honestly, outside of the, you know, the idea of leaving room for roller cap and just kind of building on your riches going forward,

kind of doesn't make a lot of sense other than the fact that like the way that they've constructed their roster over the last few years, they've, they've hit on some of their draft picks, and they've been a team that's, you know, not afraid to pay certain guys, let other guys go. I mean, I think about like the Ricky Pierce, all of it all. It's like, well, you know, receiver-wise, we didn't got Mike Evans this year, but we also had Pierceall there. And he was going to be our, probably going to be our number one, you know, going into this year. If they hadn't signed Mike Evans, they let Joanne Jennings go. It's just a team that I think consistently kind of turns over its cap and roster and tries to stay as, you know, competitive

as possible. I'm just worried about injuries more than anything. But this is still cap space-wise, a mystery to me. So what do you have? What answer do you have as you wear your trench coat in the rain? Well, I honestly think about the overall questions for the strategy because when you can roll over things, and they have rolled over a lot of cap space in the past and they use it to do things like fix that Trent Williams contract. But eventually, the foundation of your team, which is aging superstars like Trent, like CMC, like Kyle Eusecheck, you've already paid Brock Purdy. Eventually, it's like the delay in dynasty drafting and fantasy football. Eventually you would like to have a team that particular season that is making the quest

and not to diminish the efforts that they've done to build this particular football team. And Mike Evans, I think, is a great addition. But there's a lot of things that they could still do. And I think it would be a big time miss. Now, you spoke about Brandon Ayuk. And I think that's a wonderful question that I would also like to ask because you go back to 2025. Because you want folks to play along. and have great relationships.

Taking $27 million from someone, albeit may not be the best way to maintain lines of communication. And I would like to know when they initially decided that taking that guaranteed money, which why did we call it guaranteed? I have no idea.

But taking that guaranteed money from Brandon Ayyuk, at what point was that communicated to him in that process and decision-making? And when did the 49ers decide that they would have liked out of that contract and could maybe submarineing that relationship

be a method towards doing that. But it saved a ton of money. I just, I hope that the 49ers have a plan to use it because there's a lot of people that like the 49ers and they would like to see them be successful.

Yeah, of course. And, you know, maybe some of that space is reserved for dealing with the fallout that comes from this eventually. I'm not sure. But that, like,

the IEIC situation itself is such a great mystery. You know, like if you look at, you know, their current situation, like a post June 1st cut, which we're now at June,

22nd, is only going to cost them $7.3 million this year because it's the post-June 1st, you can split it over multiple years, right? So it's not like they're putting away a ton of money for that, but the greater mystery is just like, what happened? And I think this is something that even they can't understand as of this point. And I can solve one thing, which is that at what point did they decide that they, you know, wanted to submarine that relationship? Probably when, as they said, he stopped showing up, you know, for rehab and everything else.

And that's their account on this whole thing. We'll probably never know for quite some time. But until then, it's just one of those lingering things that it's like, why can't we solve this already? But then again, that's why this is unsolved mysteries. Yeah, the biggest issue was the devastating knee injury that Brandon Ayukh underwent. And much like a lot of discussion around AJ Brown in Philadelphia was about his relationships and all these other things. There was really the opportunity for the Eagles to get exactly what they spent in value to acquire AJ Brown in return for AJ Brown going to the Patriots. So like there's a lot of other stuff that comes in.

But the team being able to kind of get out of a deal that they didn't necessarily want to be in in the first place, I think leans heavily into that. So we'll leave that up to the mystery solvers in Santa Clara. They broke down EM radiation. So they'll be able to get to the bottom of this. I mean, look, one way or another, it's a win for science, right? Run that music. You're up, Shoehl. All right, here we go.

So I want to tell you first, I actually pulled up an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries because I wanted to get fully. to character. So here's my best Robert's deck. A legendary defender disappeared from the game nearly three years ago, but rumors of his return have picked up in recent weeks. A new hero, Sackmaster

Miles Garrett, has arrived in Los Angeles, potentially lighting the beacons for Aaron Donald to ride back into town. Will this icon find the spark to light his fire and form the most fearsome duo in football? Tonight on Unsolved Misses.

Mysteries. Perfect. I see Stack. I see the crane shots back when, you know, cable, I mean, free ODA, over the air television used to spend money on serialized TV shows, even, like, reenactment shows like this. It's perfect. It sets the mood. It sets the moment. Which, by the way, the production efforts that they went to to reenact these things are insane. Like, just watching it, I was like, my God, they filmed them going to the cemetery and exhuming this body three times. times. What's going on there? And there were multiple takes.

It's not like now where it's just like, I'll leave it in. You know, we'll fix it in post. Like you can tell there was care and energy because we used to be, you know, a proper place. We used to. Shook, this one, this one's tough for me because I think Aaron loves to have fun. I don't think he wants to squash this. And I think it will remain unsolved until there's this inflection point, the late end. the season where it's like guys even with miles garrett and brayden fisk like even with the way this

defense is murdering people right now they they can't rush the passer and they put that signal up in the sky like i i i think it's going to take that i it it's just tough for me to see erin donald saying before the football season like driving around and his is limbo over there on the west side that like yeah i want to i want to put my body through that like his his body's looking great and feeling great right now It's just not for me to imagine. Well, it's funny because you, you know, you mentioned that he likes to have fun. I think he likes to have fun with all of us by just like kind of flirting with the idea of coming back, by posting Instagram captions that just say like always ready or something along those lines.

By having Jared versus come work out with him and then putting him through hell just to like send the message that, yeah, I'm still the man. Even though I'm retired, I'm still the man. But I also think that he would find a lot of fun in being with the Rams. It's just a matter of when. And I think your inflection point example really works well. but I also see a situation in which the momentum builds for this team. Like I'm getting a, I hate to say it, but if Sports Illustrated covers really carried the same weight that they used to,

the Rams are on it with Super Bowl, you know, dreams and aspirations. And he sees that. That's like around the start of training camp. That's their season preview edition or whatever, right? And then they go through training camp. And then we get the Michael Strayhan approach, which is that like, I'm just going to wait until the end of camp, and then I'm going to come back.

And I think this is a guy who could totally do it. It's just a matter of he hasn't played football since 20. 23. Does he want to do it? We all probably felt like he retired a little bit early. I mean, there was a period where he almost could have retired right after winning the Super Bowl. But what better time for you to come back and give it one more shot or at least test the will? Like you said, got to find the fire to play again than with this team right now when they are clearly all in. And they are dealing with a one to two year window of trying to go after a Super Bowl because of, you know, where Matthew Stafford is right now? I just think that the addition of Miles Garrett made a lot of sense for, you know, people thinking like,

oh, is he going to unretire? And I think it's a fun thing for us to talk about. But I also believe that there is some legit smoke to this fire. And we're not going to see it really solved or resolved until late August at the earliest. Yeah, you mentioned his Instagram. And I'm looking at it right now. He's on this shopping trip with his daughter. It's sponsored, you know, by, by a brand that produces clothing. You know, I got to be extra safe with branding.

We don't even know how they're going. And so the comments, every single one of the comments is like, yeah, you know, your daughters, everything's going to go great. Is she going to get a Rams jersey? Like, uh, y'all are, hey, love this. Whisper to your dad. I want another Super Bowl. Um, it's, there's a lot of, of energy and attention that gets devoted, uh, to this.

And you mentioned, you know, back in the day, also maybe when Unolved Mysteries was on the air when that sports illustrated cover meant something. Um, I think we, yeah, again, we, we built to that point where we get like a 10 and team and there's questions floating about like could the Rams do this and go unbeaten like it takes that drum beat and you know we saw the drum beat in New York that the Knicks got to a championship if the Rams are pushing towards history then I think you've got a more viable case for Aaron Donald to go back in that building over there and win another super bowl. Yeah and you know I like that idea because I feel like this was something that I don't know maybe this is just like nostalgia kicking in

here, but I feel like when Peyton Manning and the Colts were like at their peak, there was, there were multiple seasons in which they went like 12 or 13 and no. And the talk was like, could the Colts go undefeated? Obviously, the Patriots went undefeated until they lost in the Super Bowl. But it felt like that was an almost annual conversation where it was like, could this team really go undefeated? And I don't think we've had that for the last four or five years. The Colts kind of flirted with it until, you know, things kind of fell apart for them this year. But it, it doesn't really like, it makes a lot of sense that this would be the team to reopen that. and then for that to be the right time for Aaron Donald to consider coming back.

I just think it would be fun. It's just one of those things that we just haven't been able to track in the last few years. That would be very fun. And the parallels, right, having two all-time greats on that Patriots offense and Tom Brady and Randy Moss and to think about two of the all-time greats being on this hypothetical Rams defense, it will be fun. It would be a fun story. Defense would be back.

We did it. We've restored defense in the NFL. All right. Let's do it. I can't do it as well as you. A 41-year-old Ian Cunningham bolts out of bed. He'd just gotten this job after navigating a sea of consultants, but the consultants have abandoned him in his time of need.

This young man with a bachelor's degree in psychology knew what to say and when to say it. Now he needs to know what to pay and when to pay it. As he frets, Brad Holmes waits 700 miles away. He's older with more success. He knows there's a top dollar running back to be paid in Atlanta and in Detroit. He knows he has the power and a nation of people waiting for the position to be brought back to the financial position. It was in long ago.

And he wonders as we do. Who pays first? Who gets their money, Shook, Bajan or Jamir? I love this because I love the idea of a standoff between two GMs across the country. That's the first adversarial situation that I'm really into right now. The answer really lies in the details. The details would be in the salary cap situation. If you look at the Lions, for next year,

they're projected to have roughly $47.6, $48 million in available cap space according to over the cap. You go over to the Falcons. Look, we know what they did at a quarterback, right? We know that they are in a bit of a flux situation at that position. But that's also allowed them to have over $110 million in available cap space next year, according to over the cap. So I think that the first player that gets paid is probably Bijon Robinson.

Now, if you look at their career, you know, where they are on their career path, it, if you think about, all right, so who came to relevance first? Who rose into the spotlight first? Well, you're going to go with probably Jimi or Gibbs because of the Lions, you know, longer, you know, history of success in recent years. You could also say the same thing about Brad Holmes. Like you mentioned, he's older, he's wiser. But I feel like if there's one team that needs a score, a big win,

and this team could have that situation on their hands this year. It's not going to be the Detroit Lions when it comes to off the field stuff. it's going to be the Atlanta Falcons because I think the Lions will bounce back and be fine. And the Falcons could be competitive and everything, but it just makes more sense to pay one of the best players in football, in my opinion, in Bejan Robinson. So I'm going to pay him first because I got more money to work with next year. I can front load this deal. I can, you know, I don't have to stretch the money out into future years like the Lions might have to with Gibbs. Let's pay Bejan first.

Not because he's my favorite running back between the two, but because the finances just make the most sense. And to be perfectly honest, you save money by paying him first because of this situation. Exactly. And like considering the financial constraints that Brad Holmes is in on a team that's been historically more successful, which is wild to say because we're talking lions and Falcons here. But recently like the historical success generally favors the Detroit Lions. And as you said, this is not a commentary on which one of these football players is best. Because breaking news, they're both spectacular. Both of these offenses would wilt and fall apart without them. I would make the case that the Falcons rely more on Bejan than anybody else. And that's not. just like saying that Bejohn is a better football player it's about everything that's around him and he's had that success despite all that so i i just wonder again as this army of consultants brought all these people to Atlanta and flowery branch was this a part of those conversations and why why wait why wait when potentially brad holmes could could wake up do some chicanery

with the numbers he has the full faith in support of the ford family and the people of detroit get a deal done that's only going to cost the Falcons more. It's only going to cost Atlanta more. Yeah, absolutely. And while they might have the luxury of being able to wait because of the effective cap space that's going to be available to them in future years, good, you know, smart businesses do it sooner rather than later. I think that we're going to get closer to Jemir being relied upon about as much as

Bijon this year because he is now clearly the bell cow in Detroit, which he'd been, you know, part of a two-headed backfield over the last couple of years. It became more of a Jamir gives backfield last year, which is why. the lines moved on from David Montgomery. But that also gives you incentive to pay him before that happens. So it's, it is kind of a race against time. But like we know Bijan is like the lynch pin of the Falcons offense. You cannot go. It all falls apart without him. But now Bajon or now Jemir is kind of going to move into that role too. So you're right. It sets of a really good race against time. And like you said, the market's only going to increase once one guy gets paid. Yesterday's price.

Not today's price. The official position of this program, I will say without Greg here, even though he would echo my sentiments. They both, they both deserve to be compensated handsomely. But yeah, Shook and I both agree. Go ahead. You know, Ian, slotted across the table, man.

Well, let's go ahead. How good, how good is president of football? What were his math courses like at Boston College? That's what I want to know. Well, it's the psychology thing because it worked on the consultants, right? So let's use that.

We'll hit up the agent. Bejan has already done one season of, you know, great television for you guys may not be familiar, you know, with the Pogue life as we, as we look over to just one of the greatest shows in television history, which my, for some reason, I'm blanking on, Outer Banks, which I've seen every single episode of it's a great. That doesn't surprise me at all. Yeah, he played a pirate, you know, and they play the Buccaneers twice a year. So good luck to

Bajon Robinson and Jemir Gibbs. An IHeart Radio experience. You end up with weekend gold tickets to Lassau Montreal. Thomas Rhett. Mumford and Sons. Well, here's my pride and here's my shame. John Party, Old Dominion, Carly Pierce, and more. And the prize gets even sweeter.

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A top pick has seen it all in his NFL career. A coaching change. A benching. A fortunate return to action. A career best performance followed by a dreadful showing on the national stage. And a division title won despite losing the regular season finale. None of it has produced a clear conclusion on his future.

Is Bryce Young the answer in Carolina or not? And can he finally answer this question in 2026? Yes. My first answer, because there's so many parallels, and I hate to do it. I hate to because, you know, this is not about height supremacy.

Shook and I both are at and shook well above six feet tall. Yeah. The standards for how tall a quarterback should be, do not favor folks like Bryce Young. But I will point to another quarterback that played in the NFC South. And again, it's a player comp, and it's unfortunate because he wears the same number

as Bryce Young. But there was a moment where the Los Angeles Chargers made a choice. And this was after a devastating shoulder injury for Drew Breeze. I completely understand the idea of not making a collective investment that also Nick Sabin didn't invest in, which led to him

becoming the head coach of the University of Alabama, Dante Culpeper going to Miami. and yes, Drew Breeze, going to New Orleans. The Panthers could be in a situation, shook, where if they do, and it's always regrettable, if you do give up on Bryce Young, he finds a place where he's able to be successful in a different offense in a place

that doesn't have to necessarily look back at the investment that they made in him. And not to say that sunk cost is some sort of thing that we should always be worried about. But if we examine those games where the Panthers were successful, where they did make plays. There were high leverage moments

where it could have gone either way and it was Bryce Young having to make a play. He has at least made those plays. There are some quarterbacks who get in these discussions, that have successful offenses and successful teams, but it's tough to think about a lot of situations where those plays are made. I lean towards believing long term

in the guys that make the plays on the field. That's my belief, though, it's biased. Yeah. Yeah, and I think there's a cautionary tale that's also another parallel that exists in the NFC South right now, which is that the guy who wears Bryce Young's number flipped upside down in Baker Mayfield. Because the Browns basically made the decision in a similar situation because they thought the grass was greener with Deshaun Watson. We know how that all played out. And, you know, Baker has created quite a career for himself with the Buccaneers,

which you fear if you're a Panthers fan that that would happen to Bryce somewhere else if they were to move on from him. the only difference, I think, is that Baker Mayfield's issues were usually injury related, him playing through injury, which happened again this past season. This guy needs to learn how to just take a breather and heal up for a couple of weeks, I think. But, and it wasn't so much about questions of whether he could deliver in the clutch or not. He did a pretty good job of that with the Browns when he was there, yet they still moved on from him because of the way his final season there ended. I wouldn't want the Panthers to make the same mistake if something like that happened,

but I would very much understand that if he had a tomorrow, season, that if he did struggle, if they didn't, you know, meet the same expectations that were set by last season winning the division title in what was the worst division in football, that they would be, you know, inspired to move on thinking that they could find something better in this upcoming class. Now, if you're looking at a terrible season and everything's falling apart and you got a top five pick, then maybe that makes a little bit more sense because of this class that's coming up with quarterbacks, but otherwise, it's a tough situation to be in. And a lot of it speaks to continuity. How long have you played with Dave?

of Canales now. I mentioned the coaching change. Frank Reich was his coach's first year. That ended, you know, in ugly fashion rather quickly. You thought like last year maybe would be the first step.

And I think that there were moments of, of, you know, optimism and reason to believe in him. But like I said, there was, you know, the 440-yard game

against Atlanta where they win in overtime. The next week he delivers an absolute clunker in San Francisco in prime time. I can't have both sides. I don't think the Panthers can either if they're going to

invest long term in a guy like this. They do have the fifth year option already, so they're fine. Like I wouldn't worry about, you know, security-wise, they still have that deal. It does jump to $25.9 million next year, but that's not a huge issue for them.

That's still below market rate for a starting quarterback in the NFL at this point. So it's fine. It's just that, like, the pressure is on. He's going to have to start proving one way or the other. And I think Dave Canales is going to have to do, too. Yes, they won the division last year, but it wasn't the most, like, impressive victory in the division, especially in the greater landscape of the NFL.

So this has got to be the year that he takes the next step. I want to believe that he can, but I'm going to be one of those skeptics that needs to have it proven to me before I believe. Yeah, being in the wild card game against the team that almost beat the team that won the Super Bowl is not going to, that banner is not going up in Charlotte. No. But we were that, that other team that everybody forgets. Yeah. There's, I, bringing up like the Canales of it all, if, if there is a bad enough season to move on from Bryce, then is that bad enough that it's long term bad for Dave Canales.

And that's the decision. Like this offensive, you know, the guru tag just gets thrown around everybody, everybody, everybody, every new coordinator. has been called a genius at some point this offseason, you know, so it kind of becomes superfluous. But canals brought in to repair an offense and give a young quarterback hope of growing and developing into something in the future. And we've seen the hope. Now it's time for the sustained success. Stained success is not there.

Like, is it up for both of them? There was the improvement, right? Because Bryce's pressure to sack ratio was horrible. It was 22 and a half percent coming into last year. dropped down to 13.4%. The checkdown options being there more and Bryce being more willing to take them was a sign of

growth. Coker just gets the deal that they believe in their group at receiver. Let's see what they could do. I think 27 points a game is, that's it. It's Bryce and Canal because it's an offensive situation. Maybe there's change with Azure Evereaux on the other side.

You know, they just invested all that on defense. But right around, like, if it gets close to 30, I think they're both back. Yeah, I actually really like the 27 point indicator because I think that's the mark that you set for any team that believes heavily in their defense. And if you could put 27 on the board, you're going to win most games. And it points exactly to what you said in the investments in the defense. Like they attacked their defense as off season.

Obviously with the addition of Jalen Phillips, they got Lee Hunter in the second round to kind of help their run stopping. And he can continue to go down the list. So it's like, yeah, maybe if that side comes, you know, closer to where they want it to be, then maybe there's a little bit of pressure off of Bryce Young. And it could mask the idea. that like maybe he's not really proven himself as a franchise quarterback, but it's more than good enough. And that's good enough for them to invest him. I just don't want them to be in the situation. I remember I was on a vacation. I was going to meet up with a bunch of college friends a couple

summers ago. And I saw on the ticker on NFL network to a tongue of my low a signs extension. And I was just like, you're going to regret that. And they did. And I don't want that to be the situation in Carolina. Yeah. And you mentioned Baker. I hope hopefully Baker gets his deal. But yeah, if something happens to Bryce and his shoulder. is wrecked, and for some reason they continue to put him in the games like the Browns did, then it's just a foul on everybody. Just protect players.

Of the Cleveland Browns. Protect players from themselves. Speaking of teams perennially, taking quarterbacks, I'll do my final unsolving. A young man throws a ball in Austin, Texas. It's a hot day. He's the target of a state's attention,

the dreams of a nation, a torrent of potential energy for the upcoming college football season, but also a specter. hanging over the NFL season for who starts the season with problems. But there are teams that might be thinking about losing

before any losing even happening. Who already knows that they're going to march for arch? Who is planning for Manning? Who hopes to lose a ton for Cooper's son? You think anybody's thinking about it? Like we know the players and coaches aren't thinking about it, right? They got a job.

But what front offices are like, hey, man, we, let's not try. I don't think at this point that anybody is saying, let's not try, but I think there are some teams that are constructed as if they are not going to try or are they expect to lose a lot of games?

One of those teams just signed a quarterback in Miami, but that's a massive rebuild that they are willingly undertaking. Another team had a couple of strong drag classes, one that we've actually gotten results from, another one that we haven't seen them play it because they're going to be rookies this year. It's Cleveland Browns.

And we know that their biggest, you know, need still is quarterback. And I think that they're going to trudge through this season and be in prime position to potentially spend a pick on Arch Banting. Those are probably the first two teams that come to mind. Another one is Arizona. But Arizona did spend that, you know, third round pick on Carson Beck. And it's something that maybe we'll get to later in this show that I think you should keep an eye on.

So those are the first three teams that really come to mind. And you think about like the Raiders, you know, their situation that they were in last year. Well, they have Fernando Mendoza now. So they're off the board. board. And from there, you just have to kind of continue to go down the list. Who needs answers? The Jets need an answer after Gino. Are they just going to ride this weird like honeymoon? Like this is like, oh, the first marriage didn't work out, but we've, we've worked everything out and we actually want to get married again. That does work sometimes. Oh, and Frank Reich is our therapist in this

marriage, by the way. Oh, God. But I think that, yeah, I would put, I would put the Browns in prime position for that. Just bait, I think that they'll actually probably be competitive enough to maybe not end up with a top two pick. And that's not me being. hopeful or aspirational. I just think that their personnel-wise is probably going to say that they'll be competitive enough to not be one of the absolute worst teams in the link, even though it would behoove them to end up with one of those picks.

But my biggest question, this is a mister that I need solved for me this season in college football. I don't know if I'm that much of a believer in Archmanning stock. I know this is a kid that we have followed since he was a freshman in high school because of his family name and because of how tightly guarded the family kept his

whole recruitment and everything else. They have really managed this like a professional agency would understandably so given their you know decades of experience with being an NFL quarterback going all the way back to archie but i just need to see him prove it over the entire course of the season because i saw him way back in week one of last season which is a long time ago at this point struggle mightily with accuracy with decision making he did improve later in the season but it all felt like too little too late for that texas team can he build on the the strides that he made in the back half of last season and put together one of those performances that rockets him

up the draft board at least justifies his reputation as it stands right now or are we going see one of those situations in which he never really quite fulfills that and maybe somebody overdrafts him. I'm not a 100% bought in guy on Arch Manning as at this point right now. Well, I think it's completely justifiable to feel that way regarding the expectations versus the reality of what we've seen on the field. But being who he is, that spark those moments, that 250-yard three-iron that hits within four inches of the pin and stops dead that keeps you coming and keeps you buying clubs, that's the thing that we have to chart with these organizations. Because if they see that, like the performance from the bowl game, if there's three of those

late in the season, they're selling the farm. And like you mentioned like Gardner Minchu or Carson Beck or Jacoby Rosset, like these teams, they're going to need these guys to play standing on their heads, throwing touchdowns with both arms at the same time before they get this vision of this kid with Manning on the back of the jersey running out there for their teams, which, you know, gives me a chance to shoehorn my case for draft abolition in there because we shouldn't be nine weeks in the season in teams that like aren't necessarily out of it with fan bases that are like, yeah, guys, let's lose.

You know, like, I think that's, I think that's bad for the game. But it's just, it's an addiction at this point. And understandably, so that these guys have been successful. Like, statistically, Archmanning is probably going to play football. probably going to play football somewhere. And you can make the case that he could be successful with that, especially considering we just saw, and a lot of that was media generated,

but so much energy and attention going to Brendan Sorsby, who has not even accomplished what Arch is done shook. Like people are so hard up for quarterbacks that they're willing to do anyone, anything. And this one has Manning on the back of his jersey. I liken it to the idea of driving past a luxury car lot. And it's definitely way out of your price range, but you're like,

oh, wouldn't it be nice to have that Bugatti? Wouldn't it be nice to drive that Lamborghini? Wouldn't it? Let's just go for a test. I could justify, you know, considering even just this Cadillac, right? Like, yeah, you know what? I owe it to myself. Let me treat myself.

That folks just get that obsessed with quarterbacks. And I thought Sorfee was a great comparison because that's immediately what came to mind for me. Because I think back to his first game last season when she was dreadful when they played at Arrowhead. And then he, you know, put together a solid year and everything else goes to Texas Tech. We all know what happened from there, right? But I do believe that you're right, that teams have made more devil. desperate decisions in the draft than drafting Arch Manning. We can go all the way back to selecting Mitch Trubisky second overall if we want to.

Like teams constantly reach for quarterbacks. The Rams, you know, convince themselves that Ty Simpson was the future and spent a first round pick on him this year. And I was like, there's no way he's going that high. And then he did. So crazier things have happened and it wouldn't be crazy at all. But I just need, as somebody who really, I guess I'm risk-averse sometimes, I need to see it proven to me to really buy in just because the hype has been so loud and so

strong with Arch for so long. Just again, everybody draft responsibly and good luck to Arch and yeah, good luck to Brennan Sorsby. Stay, you know, don't scratch the itch. But we'll see. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, definitely that. We'll see you when you get. We got some, we got some powerpoints that you can watch that are going to prevent all that. Do you have one more? Yeah, got one more. Hit that music. Let's do it. The story of a team in transition, a quarterback with new opportunity and an undetermined path forward.

Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries, Malik Willis knows who his best running mate is in Devon A-Chann, but football is a game one as a team. Two cannot do it alone. So who might emerge as the next best partner in crime in Miami? I've got an answer for you, Shook. Let's do it. It's for the folks who, again, not you, Brendan, leave it alone. The folks who play fantasy football.

Malik Washington, this shook. This is the Malik Washington season, which makes me, it makes me feel a little bit rough for Malikuls that we're having this conversation. It's honestly a little bit unfair considering the overall circumstances. And it's like, yeah, we got to save a franchise. You're going to have to do it alone, man, because we're getting everybody out here. So you and this five, nine, 150 pound running back. It's, it's all you guys go out there. He goes, he's got to be the power back, shook.

I know. It's such a problem. I'm so concerned about this entire situation because, look, it made sense for them to be like, hey, we're going to be the team to pull the trigger on Malik Willis. We like what, you know, he became under Matt LaFleur and Green Bay. And then we're also going to go trade away Jalen Waddle. And yeah, we have a bit of an investment in our offensive line. That's probably our strength on the offensive side.

But title number one is Greg Dahlson. who had a nice little bounce back, you know, first 4A with the dolphins. But, I mean, this core is Malik Washington and Jalen Tolbert and Tutu Atwell and Chris Bell coming off in ACL, you know, as a rookie. Like, I'm going all the way down to Theo Weiss Jr. And I remember last season when Theo Weiss Jr. scored a touchdown and Fox flew up his name, you know, on the graphic underneath them. And I went, who?

Like, that's going to be the story of the dolphin sees it offensively. Who? This guy? But somebody's got to emerge. So, honestly, I like it. that pick. I would love to believe in the two-two conspiracy, right? The two-two push, the agenda, but I just don't think it happens in a team that actually might need to rely on him. Jalen Tolbert was a guy that, you know, in Dallas, never lived up to his expectation. It was often an unfair

target of fans ire in his first couple of years there. I like the idea of him getting a fresh start with the Dolphins, but again, this is going to just be a challenge for this entire unit. And I pray Devon A-Chank can play the majority of the season because they're going to need him desperately. Yeah, it's a question of who makes the place, right? And that's why I bring up Malik Washington because I've seen them make plays. And I know Tutu and Jalen Tolbert have played football.

They played a lot of football. They played with really good quarterbacks and really good offenses where they weren't even the top one or two options and we still didn't see those plays. That's the concerning part to me where they're like pieces in something that's really good.

It's going to be tough for this assembly to be really good. and Malik Washington? Like, let's go. I'm worried. But in terms of like, it could all be Malik. I just hope we can get 16, 17 games

of Malik Willis being healthy, considering all that he's going to need to do for this offense to move the ball. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's my greatest concern is that, look, like when he came out of college, when he came out of Liberty as a Tennessee, he just looked lost. Like he was not ready for the pro game.

And fortunately, he was able to land in a good spot where he could actually grow and learn the plays. And even he said that. He's like year two with the backers. He was like, I know the plays now. Like, that's half the battle.

And he was able to use his natural talents to the best of his ability and kind of, you know, raise enough eyebrows to attract, you know, the contract that he's earned in a small sample size. But now is where the real test begins. And it's with leading this team. And it's funny because,

you know, they asked him about Jalen Waddle getting traded away. And he was very blunt about it. And he was just like, yeah, like he, this isn't exactly what he said. essentially said, it sucked.

Oh, wait. Wait, I got to be the quarterback. Now I can't say this. We'll be fine. I hope that they'll be fine. No, it's the right answer, Malik. If something sucks, say it sucks. We just, you know,

we just finished a conversation about teams, maybe not trying so hard. And maybe that team has history of maybe not trying so hard. So we just want, we want everything to be in the up and up. Let's do a quick run before we do have a solved mystery that I can give you and the folks. Quick run through here.

Who's going to sound Debo or Stefan Diggs? If you had to pick a spot for those guys where they're going. I lean Diggs because all due respect to Debo, he, I think he's one of those players that the style of playing, you know, being the rugged, shorter,

more explosive receiver. When you get older, I think that time, that tends to fall off. And we kind of saw that in Washington, just being his availability, not being the best. And I think that he's somebody that ends up lashing on with the team that,

that develops a needed receiver in training camp, right? Whereas Diggs, I think, The role that he played with the Patriots, in the lead up to the Super Bowl, I was embedded with the Patriots all week. And all those guys just talked about, like, him being the older guy in the room that was really showing them how to do things. They basically presented Stefan Diggs in a positive light that we've never seen

Stefan Diggs presented in the course of his career. And yes, he didn't really do anything in the Super Bowl. But the idea that he was able to kind of bring that room together and serve as a veteran leader on their march to the Super Bowl carried a lot of weight with me. And I think we'll land him with the right team. It's just a matter of who. So you think about some potential pairings. And a quick one is he's a Maryland kid.

Why not go back to the commanders where it's Terry McLaurin and some guys? That would make a lot of sense. The guys that they've spent draft picks on in recent years haven't worked out. They could use a running mate in that receiving court. You look at the Raiders. We know that their whole group has not been, you know, anything to really write home about. Whether it started with the idea of drafting Jack Bess and he failed to really make a difference, they did add Jalen Naylor.

But Trey Tucker is the other guy out there. And they have Dante Thornton as, you know, somebody who could potentially make a difference down the field. But that group is not very deep. There's way too much of a reliance on Brock Bowers. And we saw what happens when Brock is not at 100% health and your offensive line isn't very good. You fall apart offensively, which is what they did last year. Obviously, you know, the offensive line has gotten a little bit better with the addition of Tyler Linderbaum. And hopefully it's just a better group overall with Kirk Cousins or Fernando Mendoza leading that offense.

So I think that's another good fit there where he could make an impact on a team that could use some leadership and some experience. But then I think about contenders. And that's not to say that like, you know, commanders fans and readers fans shouldn't be excited for the season because they should. Everybody should. It's June. It's optimism season. But let's talk about real contenders. And let's think about the Rams.

And to think about the fact that they considered getting rid of Devante Adams in favor of A.J. Brown. And then they didn't. They backed off. They went out of the A.J. Brown sweepstakes. Their top three right now are Pook and Akua, Devante Adams and Jordan Whittington. And all due respect to Jordan Whittington, a player who I think is nice and makes good plays and spots. They could use more depth too.

This is a team that wants to go win a Super Bowl. Go add a guy like that who has experience. who was just in the Super Bowl, as long as you can keep it all together in the locker room, which I think that they'll be able to do. So that makes a lot of sense for me, and they could also make it work cap-wise. And the last team that really couldn't make it work cap-wise,

but just stays on our radar and it's going to be on our radar for years and years to come because they never quite fill out this position group as a Kansas City Chiefs. Yes, you have Rashid coming back from injury and everything else. You have Xavier Worthy coming back as well. And you have Tyquan Thornton, a fun little downfield guy, right? But this is a group that has never really had the fully-fledged receiving corps since the days of Tyreek Hill.

And why not? You know, try to find a way. The problem is you'd have to make the money work. They only have like $4 million in cap space right now. That would be a big hurdle for them. But everybody wants to be on a contender. Why not go join the chiefs? Yeah.

It's been a long time since there's been that technician in KC where like, you got to go back to Sammy Watkins. Was that the last actual? There was late stage nuke for some time. But yeah. And let's do one more here. Well, we'll go. quickly in these quarterback battles,

Tua or Michael Pinnock's Jr. Okay. This is probably the one that I'm most conflicted on because I think it really could go either way. It also depends on Pennix's health coming back from injury. I feel like this is a neck and neck one that could go either way to start the season.

And it's going to be one of those campaigns in which maybe Tua starts and Pennix ends up healthy enough and Tua finds some struggles at some point in the season they go back to Pennix. And I just hope it's not one of those yo-yo things or they go back and forth between quarterbacks because that's just going to ruin

Pennix's long term. development. But it is a different regime that, you know, this isn't their guy. So that's always very possible there. But I think we start with Tua as QB1 to begin the season. Are we going to be subjected as a football family to Deshaun Watson playing football? Yes. And I don't know how it's going to go. If the last four years or any proof, it's not going to go well. But that's pretty much the Browns. That's the position they've, you know, put themselves in with him and Shador. I saw social media posts today about people hearing rumors about trade calls for Shador because the Shador agenda never stops among fans. It just what is going on here. It's going to be ugly. I'm going to get tired

of it by week three, but I think that they are laying the groundwork to put DeShan in the starting role in seeing where it goes. How many weeks of Kirk Cousins as the starting quarterback of the Las Vegas Raiders do we get? Okay. I'm going to set you a range. We're at least four. And this is not a Russell Wilson for where I always felt like that was his job, but he was going to lose. This is a four to eight game range because I think that's what Clint Kubiak wants to get his offense settled and everybody understanding exactly what they want to do, their roles, how they want to execute from a week-to-week basis with a veteran, a mature guy like he said, he wanted to lead this offense into their first year together. But eventually fans are going to want to see for Nana Mendoza. And if they

struggle, it's going to be sooner rather than later, which is why my range is four to eight weeks. In terms of fans wanting something sooner rather than later, the Dallas Cowboys fan base would like to have sustained success in the postseason. The overall mystery, are the Dallas Cowboys going to win the Super Bowl? Brian Schottinheimer has an answer for us. Looking ahead into the season, if I ask you your confidence level, I know you're just going to say confident, but you look at the schedule,

you also look at a lot of the moves y'all made on the defense side of ball looks to be some good moves. Where's your confidence level right? I mean, very confident. I love our roster. You know, I love the changes that we've made on defense. I love Dax's grasp of what we're doing offensively. I love watching Tyler Booker, you know, going a year two.

And Donovan has a rock who I love the addition of Kobe Durant, Rishon, Gary. We're seeing the best versions of Kenny Clark and Quinn and Williams. You know, I feel very, very confident and believe that we're going to find a way to be in that game and win it. That game being the Super Bowl, Nick Shook, are you sold? He mentioned nine players there. The Cowboys are going to win the Super Bowl. Be in that game and win it. The best version of Kenny Clark when he's approaching his 31st birthday?

Okay. All right, Brian. in order to get to that game, they need to win the game that they haven't won in 30 years, which is the divisional game. So let's start with that. How about that? Of course, everybody wants to be in the Super Bowl. And if you ask any team at this point in the season,

they're all going to say that they love their roster, whether they believe it or not. I actually am a believer in the Cowboys because they had one of the best offenses last year and the defense just couldn't stop a nosebleed. Do you have numbers for me to explain exactly how bad their defense was and how much they'll come back? In terms of success rate, if we go back in the next gen stats era, the Dallas Cowboys opponents from 2025 would have been the best offense in the entire NGS era

by five percentage points, shook, five percentage points. They were in terms of explosive play rate and success rate, they played a mismatch of the 2025 Rams and 2025 49ers at the same time. Every time they stepped on the field, they just got to be marginally better. That's why all those players that Shottie mentioned,

most of them played defense. It was a casual mention to Dak and Tyler Booker. but everybody else, including the best version of Kenny Clark. So congratulations to the Dallas Cowboys fans. They did it. Yeah. I mean, they got the best version of George Pickens last year and hopefully he's an even better version of himself last this year.

I mean, they had 2,000 yard receivers last year. How do we not believe in this team? If they can figure it out defensively with all the additions they've made, this should be a playoff team that has legitimate Super Bowl aspirations. I call me crazy. Don't say it's because they wear the star on their helmet. I'm just saying the math is mathin. As long as that math that you just gave me ain't mathin again this year.

Yeah. And we, the math that we enjoy. is having Nick Shook on this podcast. He mentioned several sports car brands with which Eric pointed out that Shook could only fit in one of those. And that was a Cadillac. So thanks to Nick Shook. Thanks to Eric Roberts. Thanks to Robert Flack and everybody who worked on unsolved mysteries back in the day to give us a theme for our offseason edition of NFL Daily.

For Nick Shook, Eric Roberts, I'm Patrick Claybon. We'll be back on Thursday with more podcasts. for all of you. Stay safe. Happy belated Father's Day. We'll see you guys later this week. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.