NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Best under-the-radar signings, free agency headlines

Episode Date: March 17, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling -- continues its methodical survey of free agency, picking out the most intriguing under-the-radar signings from around the league and evaluating the lesser-known players whom they expect to pay big dividends in 2014. Elsewhere, the gang keeps you up to date on the latest headlines, analyzing the most recent offseason moves from across the NFL. What do the heroes make of Brandon Weeden's move to the Cowboys? Do they buy that Darrelle Revis is suddenly "all about winning" now? Which recently signed player isn’t too pleased with the Sizzler? There’s only one way to find out -- by tuning into the latest episode of the "Around The League Podcast." Don’t forget to join the conversation on Twitter: @NFL_ATL or #NFLATL.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the League podcast is an iTunes juggernaut. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys. Hey, Dan. Dan, you're looking, Dan got a haircut. You're looking sharp.

Not as sharp as you, buddy. And I'll tell you what, first of all, thank you to both Wes and Mark helping me move this weekend as I, Greg was against this. Greg thought that I should have just paid for people. You're an adult. You can just get, you're getting movers anyway, so why not just have them do it all in one trip? It was about money and saving and just being with my friends. And you guys, thank you very much for that. It's a nice place, too.

I was jealous. Wes is one-off day of the week. He's trying to find an apartment that he's. moving by i mean there will be a day you no longer have your friends move for what so why not just fast forward and make that day now i'm not ready for that yet dan he's got a baby on the way you've got to look at the financial angle of this that's true west and i also made way through and it was an easy move we did it what a couple cards it was very easy yeah west and i struck up the plan to maybe if this whole thing goes south uh-huh open up a ad hoc moving company because we

enjoyed the experience it was fun west and says Movers. Well, I like that. I don't like that I've been cut out of the operation. You're part of it. That's what's in Cess. I'm not going to be involved if I'm not in the title. You're the end.

Craig, what do you think? You've got to be looking for jobs at this rate. You buried the lead. What? I woke up to an earthquake this morning. Oh, yeah. Are you okay? First California earthquake.

A 4.4 on the Richter scale. Chris Wessling, take us through your third. thoughts. It's going to sound odd. It's oddly calming. Why? There's a fatalism to it.

There's nothing you can do. You wake up, you get shaken in your bed, and for seven seconds, your first five seconds you were asleep, so it doesn't even register what's going on. And then the last couple of seconds, you just say, eh, there's nothing I can do about it. Nature's going to have its way with me now. I think, honestly, though,

I think Damashek put it best this morning with a tweet that he had. And I don't think This is a shot at you, Wes. This is your first earthquake you deserve to be able to share it. I had an earthquake on Tybee, actually, that was very similar, about a four-something magnitude. Wow. Damacek tweeted, and now a day's worth of quake anecdotes, positioning each narrator as a mix of Indiana Jones and a war correspondent.

I'm calling in sick. Dangerously close there was. That's great. That's brilliant. By the way, before we get into the show, properly, do you have anything to say, West, to me? Maybe an apology for what happened on Friday. Oh, yes. Branding me unethical and a liar.

That was not my intention, but apparently someone went back and watched the film, and you were proven right, and I was wrong. In the sandwich bets, Wes thought that I took the Arthur Jones bet. I did not. And we'll go over it maybe a little later in the show where we're at the final tally with the sandwiches. Should I apologize like an athlete? Yeah, do it. I'm sorry if you were offended. All right, big show.

We're going to get into, we're going to go some of our favorite under-the-radar signings of the free agency period. We're going to talk about that. But before we do that, we have a lot of news, as we know. The weekend, things obviously are going a little bit slower now than the first couple days of free agency. But there's still a lot of stuff going on. The gold standard behind the glass, what is your take on this? It's really fast and furious, this news, huh? It's been crazy, a deluge of NFL.

headlines. My head's spinning. All right. Well, then let's get into it just because we don't want you to be so disoriented. Let's do it. We start in Green Bay where the Packers have signed former Chicago Bears' defensive end, Julius Peppers, to a big deal. It's worth a maximum of $30 million, $8.5 million in the first year, according to Ian Rappaport. Gentlemen, is this the type of move? I know we heard that the Packers were looking to do better at getting at the quarterback, is Julius Pepper's at this stage of his career, the guy to do that?

That's a good question. On this one, I'm not feeling so confident that I would doubt the Packer Scouts. Julius Pepper is getting a little bit older. I think he's only had less than seven sacks in a season once. He didn't have much help on the Bears' defensive line last year. Maybe he does better with the Packers with Raji taking bodies off him. I could see this working out. Kind of in a Charles Woodson part two.

You don't sound like a topic though. They signed Woodson when Woodson was 26, 27 years old. Well, that's a major difference. This is really a move we never see the Packers make. A swing for the fences. It's a one-year gamble. They can get rid of them after one year and eight and a half million with no problem. And just can this guy give us some juice?

It's basically the move all Packers fans have been asking for, make some big splash. And it does validate what Ian Rappaport suggested that they were looking for different types of linemen, more athletic guys. I mean, but Peppers, I'm kind of with you, Wes. I like the signing, especially taking it from another NFC North foe. If he suddenly has a season where he perks up again, it's a great move, but it would have been nicer five years ago.

I thought it was going to be in Dom Capers' image. I feel like Peppers and Capers not going to be two guys that you put next to each other on a head looks like that guy. From it 20 feet away, a guy without glasses doesn't perceive them to be the same person. Pepper's fits perfectly with, I think, what they want to do, which is be more multiple on defense, be more flexible. He's a guy you can line up as a 3-4 defensive end. He's a guy you can line up as a 4-3 defensive end, and you can stand a bump and make him a linebacker. You can put him inside even in defensive tackle.

That's where he got a lot of his pressure last year. So you can move him all over the place. maybe he'll get a little rejuvenated. There were open questions about whether he was particularly motivated last year. He's always been the prototypical 4-3 defensive end, but he's also always said he prefers a 3-4 defense. So that's always been odd. Now he'll get his chance to do that.

And I thought, Greg, you made a good point that... Yes. Yes, I think it was in one of your what we learned, we're doing of what we learned after every day of free agency, that Aaron Rogers, while he's not in the situation of Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, you only get so many years where he's at his absolute apex. This is a good win now move. You get Peppers in there.

Maybe he's somebody to get you over the hump and get you back into the deep area of the NFC playoffs. It makes sense to me. It's kind of like the Revis move. You build all this extra cap room for a reason. Take some chances when you have a chance to get a really good player. I mean, they're selling those phony Packers shares for 150 a pop or whatever nonsense that was. I mean, they made half a million on that stuff.

Do you remember that? Spend it on Julius Peppers Very true No one has any idea what I'm talking about What the Packers shares? Yeah There's like thousands of people in Green Bay Suddenly staring at their little share sheet

Saying according to Greg this is totally funny In 1929 you could get a real Packer share for five bucks Times have changed Now you could buy a fake share for 300 or something There you go Times change don't they mark They do and our cohorts downstairs Jim Reineken is one of the people

that has been fleeced by this deal because he owns one of these shares. Well, I don't think he buys this. This is phony too. All right, moving on, we mentioned Peyton Manning and the Broncos. He has a new toy to play with. It is Emmanuel Sanders.

That seems a little demeaning to call a human being a toy. So we're going to rephrase that. Figured to him. He has a new teammate. His name is Emmanuel Sanders. He signed with the Broncos for a deal worth 15 million,

according to Rappaport. Of course, kind of almost the most more salacious angle of this is how this happened apparently there was a deal in place uh Sanders's agent had a deal in place with the Kansas City Chiefs then kept on shopping his client around and ended up in Denver dirty pool huh you can't blame the Broncos because by all accounts they didn't know but it's just they reached a verbal agreement by all accounts by Ian's reporting and then they went to Tampa didn't tell Tampa they already had this deal

They're like, hey, they're offering this much, shopped at the Denver. He decided he'd rather play with Peyton Manning instead of Alex Smith, and that's what I call a good business decision. Alex Smith, disrespected time and time and time and time again. Even by Emanuel Sanders. It is a good move by him, though, right? I also like... He doesn't know this necessarily.

It's really the agent. Right. It's not like they're sitting on the phone with Emmanuel Sanders, and he's activating all these moves. We all assume that the Broncos had no idea. What if... Maybe I'm the only... one in the room that watches House of Cards, but

maybe John Elway is a little Frank Underwood scheming behind the scenes. He was a part of this, but everyone thinks he's innocent. Goldsend, you know what I'm talking about, right? I'm all over it. Yes. Sitting there with his fax machine. We do have fax that go against you on that one, which was that the

Bucks didn't know. He was signed either. A source told. The Denver Post has reported the Broncos didn't know. Right. And speaking of the Broncos' wide receiver set up, West Welker's guaranteed portion of his contract kicked in, I believe, this weekend, was it? Yeah, they basically decided to pick up his bonus, which was expected. So where do you see Sanders and Welker and Thomas and Julius Thomas, where do these guys all fit in together?

Is this a nice combo? It seems like it. Well, I think, yeah, it's a great spot for Sanders to land. I've always thought he was more of a slot guy, better suited to the slot because his main strength is he's really, really good after the catch. Eric Decker is better in every other part of being a receiver than Emmanuel Sanders. Well, isn't that weird then? Because you have Wes Welker who has to play the slot.

He can't play outside. You have Julius Thomas who is essentially playing the slot. He's not playing outside much. And now you add Sanders, who's probably better in the slot too. He is fast, so I imagine he'll get some go routes. But I was telling Dan yesterday, I think they probably see him as Welker's contracts up after this year his eventual replacement in the slot. And then for this year, it wouldn't surprise me

if Bubba called well and Emmanuel Sanders kind of split some time. They should draft someone, too. They probably will. Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos' number one rival in the AFC, the New England Patriots, of course, we knew that Dorel Rivas was landed this past week.

They made that deal official on Monday. But everyone was asking, what about Tom Brady and getting him weapons? Well, Julian Edelman is now back with the team. He shopped himself on the market. I guess he didn't like what he saw. came back to the Patriots. They also added Brandon LaFelle,

formerly of the Carolina Panthers. Greg, I ask you, as our resident Patriots fan, are you feeling good about this offense? I'm glad they set a price on Edelman. They let him test the market. He has more value to them than anyone else. We still don't have the final contract numbers. So in theory, the sandwich that I bet versus Wesseling,

in terms of Golden Tate, who got more guaranteed money, Tate or Edelman. I still got an outside chance of this, but I'm probably going to lose it. Slim. It's good for Edelman, too. I think a wise move for him to return

because he already knows he's productive in that scheme. Had he gone somewhere else, we don't know really how we'd plug in. But Lafell, I mean, Lafell is not someone, maybe in New England they can make something out of him, but what is he? He's the ex-receiver there potentially?

Oh, he's just battling, I think, to make the team. The Patriots have a method that they do this every year. They bring in eight or nine wide receivers, including three or four free agent flyers, and don't give any of them much guaranteed money, and LaFeld didn't get much, and just see who makes the team. Because if you got him, they brought in Kenny Britt for a visit on Monday. You have Edelman back. You have Aaron Dobson. You have Kenbrell Tompkins.

You have Josh Boyce. I think most of those guys... Danny Amandola. Most of those guys are going to make the team. Is Danny Amandola going to make the team? That's six right there. without Britt. Right.

And you would think all six of them are players that will make some team. Right. I think Lafelle might have some work to do, and I think Amandola might have a job to get later this offseason. It might be trending that. Wow. Don't you think? I think that would be a huge mistake.

Why would you cut Danny Amandola just because he played through a groin injury? He's the player you thought he was last year, not the player who played a groin injury. Didn't he kind of prove once again last year that he's always going to be playing through something or hurt with something, and maybe that's why that was a misfire to think he could replace Welker? I don't think he proved

that he's always going to be hurt. I think that's in the past. Always going to be hurt is something that happens in the future. I respect that. I respect that answer. Very good, Wes. I will shut up now.

And one last thing about before we move away from the Patriots, Derell Revis said in his conference call with reporters today that he is, quote, no, not about the money. Quote, I'm all about winning. Oh, stop. Right, buddy.

You like the cheddar, and that's all you'll ever like. Sometimes I like to get a little Machiavellian as the editor of the Around League site. And I just threw it at Dan to write up the Dorel Revis. Buried me. So that he could write that quote. What was it the organization you want to join the most? Yeah. What other organization would you rather join the New England Patriots if you want to win something ridiculous?

They've already cut out a massive chunk of Dorel Revis's backs. section and put in a computer where he just spits out Patriots quotes now and that's fully functional. Greg, do you believe Darrell Revis on this one? No. Of course not. Not really. That's a phony. On this one. We didn't even mention Browner. Brandon Browner

since we last taped is official now as well. So you got Browner and Revis. Get excited. I like it. What a blessed franchise. Moving forward, speaking of blessed franchise is not quite. Mark Sessler, Ben Tate is now your new

starting running back, I presume. He signed a two-year deal worth $7 million. That seems like a pretty good deal for a guy that could be an ascended talent. Well, you know, after Cleveland was rightly flamed for overspending for some older veterans

on defense, I was like nervously I-eaming with Greg, right? As you can tell that Tate was about to hit the next hour to, like Greg, what do you think the terms will be like, are they going to massively overspend for this guy? And he was trying to be nice and give me some diplomatic terms. I think they came in

under that. I wasn't trying to be nice. I said it would stun me if you were like, what is the level where they will have overpaid this soon to be bummed because he's joining my franchise? And I said I don't think there's any chance that they're going to pay him too much. I bet it's going to be very

affordable. Well, at least, you knew when they were in talks to them for three days that they were trying to get something that they felt was very fair. And I thought they came out. Two years, seven million, if seven million, if that is not bad for a guy that could, potentially be your workhorse on offense. They still have $35 million under the cap.

I don't even think it matters if they overpay. Right. They're going to have tons of money when they're done with free agents. It's just a bad thing after. If they overpaid two guys in a row to overpay a third, I'd like to see some reticence. I think they showed that. Give it to Joe Hayden.

Give that money. Give it to Brandon. Oh, wait. We'll get to that. Oh, why don't we get to it now? What the hell? This is our podcast. We can do anything we want.

You could go that. Brandon Whedon met with the Dallas Cowboys on Monday, and he signed with the Dallas Cowboys on Monday, a two-year deal for the minimum. He is now in the mix in Dallas. We don't really know what's going on with Kyle Orton if he's going to return, where Whedon fits in if he's merely an insurance policy, or they have something bigger in mind.

But we do know the Cowboys were, they liked Whedon coming out of Oklahoma State, and then your Browns reached and grabbed them in the first round and removed him from the equation. now he gets a fresh start what do we think about that I don't know who they is in terms of they liked him is that Jerry Jones but it's a guy

The Cowboys Right they may not even make the roster The whole Jones family Comes back right Maybe some of their scouting staff So I don't know It's a camp body I mean they got them for the league minimum

Wait a second But they signed him They must like him They didn't let him sit there They made sure to grab him He spoke with two other teams The Ravens and I believe the Bengals

The Bengals But they got him for the minimum I don't think they're pitching any major hopes in the guy And he's got a strong arm The problem is that where he throws it Is not often to his own teammates He visited today and signed today

You know that saying could sell Ice Day in Eskimo Brandon Wing can sell himself To an NFL team Well there's Kyle Orton might retire That's part of it And even if Kyle Orton doesn't retire

You can keep weed in there As your third quarterback I would think they would be shocked to see Dallas draft a quarterback higher than we think. I have, how about this? I got a Cessler. My Cessler is that the Kyle Orton is not in the picture. Be a retirement or they trade him.

And then Tony Romo, this is really Cessler, doesn't make it through the season. And Brandon Whedon is playing real snaps for the Dallas Cowboys in the 2014 season. I thought you were going a totally different direction with this. I thought you were going to say that Cowboys trade. up and draft Johnny football. Oh, no, no, no. Not going to get that crazy. That's much more likely than Brandon Whedon playing meaningful snaps.

Oh, you'll see. I think that Wes is on to something. They showed a tremendous amount of interest in Johnny football, but if it's not him, I think they are going to grab a quarterback, third round or higher, and Whedon won't even be on the team come October. True or false, Mark. There is now no chance you're going to name your third son after Brandon Whedon. Or is there still a little bit?

The proposition that I'm having a third child is iffy, but he will not be named after a quarterback. For those that don't know, which is probably most of America and the world, Mark named his second child after Colt McCoy. Did you name your first one after Luke McCown? No. I named him Colton on the day. It was hours before the Browns drafted Brandon Whedon. So the timing was strange.

So if you had another son born last year, it could have been Campbell, maybe? Brian. This is just, this is depressing. Continue on. Moving forward, this is something that happened after our podcast on Friday, but we should talk about. Hakeem Nick signed a one-year deal with the Indianapolis cults worth $3.5 million, your prototypical, or I should say, your ultimate type of prove-it contract. And this, this to me, is like one of the best signings of the off-season,

potentially. This guy gets his mojo back. They desperately needed a guy to fill in there. And now you have a potential good set there. Good setup. I think this is how judging free agency is kind of like being Sisyphus. You can't. There we go. We've called Hakeem Nix one of our favorite signings. And I totally believe that. But we have no idea what the Colts are getting. We don't know who Hakeem Nix is anymore.

Hasn't scored a touchdown in what, too? years, and by all reports, didn't really play hard last year, although we couldn't judge that, but if he works out and his game comes back, the cults are a perfect fit for any one of these receivers. We love the idea of someone adding to that mix, but again, right, he looks great in March. What does it mean in September? Free agency is about calculated risks, so we can evaluate that. We don't know what NICS you're getting, but if there is a one-fourth of a chance that

you're getting Hakeem Nix from three years ago. it's worth that contract. Yeah, I agree with that. He got $1 million more only compared to what Darius Hayward Bay got last year. I mean, he's signing for barely more than Brandon Lafell's getting. He's signing for less than Emmanuel Sanders. So that's a great signing. You're kicking the tires on Knicks for a year.

Right, what's the worst case scenario is that he's a third or fourth receiver for them that doesn't really help, which is fine for that money. Right, and then you're still back to where you were. you throw Derek Rogers or Levin Brazil in there and you still have a little bit of upside there. The one thing I don't want to see for that team based on what happened late in the year is Rogers to be phased out or not really have the chance to grow

because I thought he was a very interesting guy down the stretch last season. The T-leaves say he's being phased out. T-leaves. Well, also, though, how much time does Reggie Wayne have left? He can't be around too much longer. There's still room for other receivers to work their way into this.

this game plan. I would think beyond 2014, yes. That also presupposes that Hakeem Nick stays healthy, which would be an aberration from his recent days. Jared Allen, who, this is kind of a weird story for me, because Jared Allen, you know, he's had a great career and he wants to continue playing professional football, but he won't do it, damn it.

If he doesn't get enough money, he'll walk away. He doesn't care. Talk about all about the money. All about the money. He was in Seattle on Sunday, left without a contract. He has another visit scheduled, according to Ian Rappaport, with the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday, which actually could end up being a decent fit,

though I don't know if they'll have the money, again, to pay Jared Allen and make him love football enough to keep playing. What do we think about this? He's one of the most unlucky guys in free agency, because if DeMarcus Ware doesn't get cut and doesn't sign with the Broncos, Allen somehow gets that same contract from Denver. Three years, $30 million. I don't know if he's going to get much more than half than that.

There's always a veteran or two like this every year that doesn't like the offers that they're seeing and ends up hanging out on the free agent market forever. Last year was Richard Seymour. He never wound up playing. So Dallas needs to dump DeMarcus Ware because he's too expensive of a pass rusher. And now you're hosting Jared Allen,

who tells you up front, I want a mountain of money or I'm not touching the field for you. So that's what's, I'm sorry. You make a really good point. I'm curious if these teams are buying this bluff, this retirement bluff, because you can imagine Seattle did the same thing. Well, last year they had these pass rushers, Cliff Averill and Michael Bennett that they got kind of on the discount. I wouldn't be surprised if they offered a similar type deal to Jared Allen.

Now maybe the Cowboys will do the same thing. We're like, hey, we can't give you a lot of money, but do you want to play football next year? we like you. I mean, one thing in his defense, he's only 31. He's turning 32 soon. He had 11 and a half sacks last year. He's averaged 13 sacks per season over 10 years. He seems, I know people have said he's in a little bit of decline, but this guy can still play,

and he can help like a contender. Somebody would give him money, you would think, especially with all this money flying around. Maybe I'll get back on his agent's good side. If Peppers is worth $8.5 million this year, you could say Allen is worth 10 this year. You're on the bad side of Jared Allen's inches? Really?

He does not like me. Yeah, we've gotten some angry responses to our top 100 list, including Jared Allen's agent, did not like our original ranking of Allen, which I believe was in the 30s. It was about 30. Something like that. Over time, I believe we've been proven to be in alignment

with many of the NFL teams out there. Only five players out of our top 50s. we're still available as of Saturday night. Jared Allen is one of those players. If you're Alan, I don't know. I'm thinking about someone else, not myself, but wouldn't you rather, if you're at the end of your career and you've made a ton of money already,

you're going to still get paid well. You say he's always talked about wanting to be on a winner, so you're going to potentially, why even take the flight to Dallas? A defense that is a rebuilding project with an aging quarterback and a team that simply can't get out of an 8-and-8 hole, or you could go to Seattle and be another one of these plug-and-play defensive lineman. You've got to play the game, right? Drive up the price. I like the drive-up the price thing, but is Dallas a team that's driving up the price?

And you know athletes are competitive. He probably sees himself as the answer to Dallas's defensive problems. He's bad that other guys are getting this money and he's not. He doesn't understand it. Do you think Denver really was about to pay him that same? Yeah, that's been reported. Yeah. Well, I saw that, but I didn't know if they were saying that as a, by the way, here's a nice thing we're going to do for Jared Allen as we don't sign him. Maybe. That could be true. That's possible.

Maybe they owe Allen's agent a favor too. Although this apparently is the Broncos mode here is they just decide what contract they're going to give out and then figure out the player later. Because supposedly, Dominique Rodgers-Cromarty passed up the contract that Akeep to leave eventually took, which means that Rodgers-Cromarty's agent should be fired because he just cost his client millions of dollars. There's a new agent man at one of us in this room. I'm not even sure who his agent is.

All right. And finally, some troubling news at Indianapolis, where Colts owner Jim Ursay was arrested on suspicion of intoxicated driving late last night, late Sunday night. Police said they found multiple prescription drugs in the owner's car. Obviously, this is a difficult situation

for the Colts Arsay is a major part of their think tank when it comes to importing things. free agents and building the roster and obviously he's a huge figure in the community and now we don't know what what's next i mean the guy you know what happens now that's too early to say and it's too early to really speculate if the the league could get involved um which they did i think it was a few years back with the lion's president tom luan when he had an off-the-field incident so kind of like all these things it's going to take some time to play out or say did thank his family, his friends,

colleagues for a message of support, thoughts, and prayers. Impossible to tell you how much this means he wrote. So it's a story I think it's going to stay in the news, but it's an important one for the Colts. All right, moving on. All right, so gentlemen, free agency, this is now the seventh day of free agency. Were you aware of that?

Yes. Yes, because we do what we learned on day six of free agency. That's how I knew it was day six, because I wrote it yesterday. Like, oh, six days now. Aren't we supposed to rest on the seventh day? Not at the around the league. Oh.

Factory. Right, Greg? Well, we all had some rest over the weekend. I didn't let Wes rest. So, Wes, move some boxes. Yeah, you made a move. Poor guy. I plied him with hops.

Fair? Yeah. All right. All right. So, anyway, so, yes, we are obviously on top of all the signing. So I want to throw it to you, gentlemen, under the radar signings. Under the radar signings. We know the big ones everyone gets all amped up about your gyrus, gyrus bird.

Jairus Byrd. Jaird. You know, Derell Revis, people of that nature. This bird guy has to give us some royalty. Well, everybody has to get around. It's catching on, though. It was like in a high-level executive meeting. people started doing this

Bayard, you know, type of joke. High Octane. It's got some traction. I've been getting texts and tweets from people that I don't even talk to on a regular basis telling me that the pronunciation of Jarrah's bird is now their favorite part of the podcast. I don't know if that's a good thing.

Stamming. Something we had nothing to do with producing. Completely damning. So anyway, so I figured why don't we go around the room and each of us give a kind of under the radar free agent signing that will pay big, dividends to the team that acquired them.

And I will start with the mad scientist, the mailman, Chris Wesley. I'm going to start with a guy whom Greg described as a one-man solution to your run defense problems. The Atlanta Falcons signed Paul Sulio, nose tackle. Mike Nolan expect to be moving to more of a three-four defense this year. I've always thought the Falcons don't have a backbone on defense. That's their problem. You can run right down their throats whenever you want.

they can't stiffen up and stop you in key situations as we saw with Kaepernick and Frank Gore two years ago in the NFC championship game you bring in Paul Soleilai there's your anchor in the middle now you've got a backbone you Tyson Jackson another good run defender things are turning around there maybe maybe they still need pass rushers they needed it so much I actually was rewatching a dolphins game from early in the year and there's a play where Soli nimbly steps through like two linemen who he almost uses like invisible power they're

We almost don't even see him on one foot and, like, leaps entirely to his left and just wraps a runner and takes him to the ground. I mean, a thing. What an athlete. Well, you don't see. It was like, wait, this guy completely looks different than the other big men around him like this. And the Falcons had nothing, no one like that on their defensive line last year. There's something to be said for getting guys that there aren't many of around the league. There aren't really those guys anymore.

Right. And sometimes they last a while. Ted Washington. Grady Jackson. It lasted forever. Every year you thought, that's the end of Ted Washington. He is now 38 and seems to be angrier than any human ever.

But there he was, just still blocking people like crazy. Mark Sessler. I'm going to go. I think wherever he signed, I would have picked Walter Thurman, and I think it's a really good signing by the Giants who seemed to be pretty committed to revamp being a secondary that's really struggled last season. And everyone says, oh, any one of these Seattle Seahawks,

you could pull them out and they'd start anywhere in the league. Well, we're going to find out. And I think that he is a guy that, you know, we talked to him with the Super Bowl. He said over and over, I want a bigger role. But more than that, Wes and I were in the outskirts of Jersey in Jersey City. And it was a dark blustery night. It's like a Springsteen song. Well, we were concerned for our own lives, weren't we?

We got in a cab that we later determined to be a sham cab where we got charged. It was a... What was the other word you used for it? We got in a gypsy cab. No, there's another, a livery? A livery driver pulled up and we got in. Well, I think a livery is legitimate to some degree, right? This guy had not, he had no identification.

I have not worked in the industry. The weird part was that the hotel flagged him down for it. Well, it was obviously the whole thing was cooked up. He knew you guys are tourists or out of towners, so they were like, let's take advantage of them. He knew we wanted to flee Jersey City immediately. Which makes me doubt the story he told us now that I think about it, but he's like, Oh, yeah, yeah, you guys are here to report on the Super Bowl. He's like, the guy that just got...

Where are we going with this? He was a Seattle Seahawk when we're like throwing out names left and right. Couldn't remember it. Finally, we hit on Walter Thurman potentially. He's like, oh, yeah, and it was Walter Thurman had taken by himself into New York just to see the sights and learn about the history of the city. So not only a ascending cornerback, but a historian gets added to the Giants. And now, listen, he's becoming a giant.

he fell in love with that city. It's like a poor man's altar on Werner. He's a culture vulture. So your source really was weeks ahead on this Thurman deal. Months. You should have used this information in some way that Thurman really dug the whole Midtown team.

Well, I talked to him and I said so, I just want to let you know. And then this went the wrong way. We got in the cab right after you and he looked at me like that's really creepy that you'd know I was in a cab. And the interview quickly fell to pieces after that. I think that it's a good sign, though.

It means he's intellectually curious. I care. He's going to like the place he's moving. I can no longer remember if you actually provided any analysis before that story. I know. I said he's, listen, everyone says any Seahawk could start anywhere, and I think that it's a good feeling for the Giants, blah, blah, blah, Greg Stern.

Are we now calling Dominique Rodgers Cromartie Roecro? Did I see that somewhere this weekend? I don't know. You know what? You bring him up, and I'm really depressed because we just got an easy. email over our system that DRC or Rokro is finalizing a deal with the Giants. The Jets were hot after him. It fits in perfect with Thurman.

Well, yeah, my analysis was going to be now Thurman is sticking at Nickelback where he belongs. Because you have Prince Amma, how do you pronounce it is? Amukamara. Mookamara, yeah. You have him on the other side, who's quality cornerback and now Rokro. Not a bad secondary. They were a good run defense last year, so maybe we should have put the Giants in an instant debate today for secondary. Hello. How about the podcast God's hooking us up?

We're right in the middle of talking about the Giants cornerbacks, and they send us Dominique Rogers Carmardi to New York. And another big loss for the Jets. No, come on back, Antonio Cromarty. We'll take it back. The magnetic. It's a hip. The guy they didn't want.

The Cromartie they didn't want. Every day we see a different report that Rex Ryan really wants this guy who's not Antonio Cromart. That's right. Rex, really? Again. He said, yeah, according to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, a jet store said, we better get him in regard to DRC. They looks like they did not get him. You know that Ryan's in a dark room with like a little tiny window,

a little bit of light pointing, he's just got a big glass of milk. Or like a big plate of chili cheese fries. He's going off his diet because he's just angry. Not good times. Hey, he's still got Ellis Langster. Underrated signing. Greg. But my underrated signing is Brandon Spikes.

No, this is not under, this is under the radar. It's under the radar. It's underrated. It's underreported. Underappreciated. It's under. Under. I think Spikes, if there was a Pro Bowl position for run stopping early down inside linebacker,

I'd vote for Spikes as one of the top two or three guys. It's like the Bizarro Ryan Matthews? Yeah, pretty much. He's pretty much the defensive version, and maybe he's just a specialist. He doesn't play every down. Kiko Alonzo moves out to weak side. He's in the middle, early downs. But I think he's going to be a big difference maker,

and he's with Patriots coach Pepper Johnson, who coached them for a few years. So a familiar face there. You love Brandon Spikes. I do. He was my favorite Patriots draft pick on defense in about eight years when he signed. They kicked him out of town. They didn't even let him play in the playoffs. But it is telling, though,

that his former position coach obviously lobbied to bring him back. So he must have not been that big of an issue. Seems like a little bit of a wild card in terms of not really getting with the whole program. But when you just watch them play, a lot of fun. I like that. Mine is, I'm going to go with my second Cessler of the podcast. Wow. It's a career high for you.

Cessler. Cortland Finnegan had a bad run of it in St. Louis. He signed a contract that was quite large. He did not perform up to snuff in 2012. He got hurt in 2013, but I'll tell you what, people do not write this man off. He's going to go to Miami now. He's going to be playing opposite Brent Grimes. You put Grimes on the number one receiver.

He put Finnegan on the number two guy. He's going to make some plays. He's going to get his career back on track, deal with it. He's going to be playing with a chip on his shoulder, that's for sure. Chip on his shoulder. Thanks to Mark Sessler. Yeah, Mark. You're not as big a fan of this move?

Well, I wrote the post when he signed with the Dolphins, and I suggested in it that he really struggled last year and mentioned that he was hurt. That's certainly a contributing factor. All of this is true. I don't even think it's a matter of opinion that he struggled last year. I didn't come out of the blue with this or especially strong, I did hear from him on Twitter about...

Personally. Personally, about 25 minutes later. Well, no. Initially, it was over public and it said, have a wonderful weekend. Ha. Hope to talk with you soon. I thought he said he's looking forward to meeting you.

Looking forward to meeting with you. Hope to talk to you soon. That is not friendly, even though it might seem to be. Right. I DMed him and I said, look, like, and I'm not a guy that's going to go at him personally

and say, I'm right. And so I just said, I wish you lucky. and, you know, we are occasionally write stuff that I can understand a player wouldn't like, et cetera. And I said, if you'd ever like to respond or give me a quote or anything like that, he wrote back. He was very nice. He said, ha, ha, ha, you're just doing your job. He said, I can tell you where you can put that quote. Right up.

Wow. Same place you put Peyton Manning's narrative? It ended. I wouldn't say amicably, but it ended. It ended. He was saying to put it up your butt. That's what he was saying. Oh, yes.

Wait, is that, how is that even possible? I'm just saying. Figurative direction? Wait, does anybody, yeah, Wes, you disagree with me that Cortland Finnegan has anything left, correct? I think this goes back to our Hakeem Nick's thing. He didn't have a good year. He had an orbital fracture that ended his season.

I think he was also playing through a thigh injury. It's tough to tell how much that thigh injury affected his play, but every game I saw him play, he was the slowest player on the field. he looked like he was washed up. Now, how much of that is injury? You were killing this move downstairs. Suddenly, it sounds like you're afraid of him tweeting at you. Well, I think the whole thing,

it's a worthwhile reminder that these people are human beings. Exactly. I feel the same way. And honestly, we were not out to heat seek him. I wasn't in the post I wrote. It was, listen, you know, when you read back on some of the injuries that Peyton Manning had that we never found out about,

a lot of these players play through stuff that will never know, could have been the case with Finnegan. So if he's healthy and he has a full offseason, Grimes at the same age came back off a big injury and played outstanding last season. There's nothing to say that Finnegan isn't ready for a bounce back, but what we saw last year doesn't suggest it, that's all.

Let me just throw this out there. Tell me which professional athlete dislikes the reporter, journalist, employee more than NFL media. Cortland Finnegan, Mark Sessler, Dante Hittner, Greg Rosenthal, Jared Allen slash his agent, Chris Wessling, and the gold standard, Paley,

the soccer legend. You've drawn no one's ire? Let's go Mark Sanchez's agent, Dan Hanses. Yeah, he got on me a little bit, but it wasn't Sanchez himself. But then again, Alan wasn't, you haven't personally heard from Jared Allen, have you, Wes? No, but his agent is awfully miffed.

He's all bent out of shape. What Dan's trying to say is that he's a bootlicker. I'm a bootlicker. I'm a booed liquor. I like the Finnegan pick, Dan. I'm on your side with this one. But I interact with Finnegan and we mended fences. Are you sure?

I attempted to. I didn't fan the flames. Yeah, I think it ended on semi. I think Alan's agent in West, that's not going well. He still doesn't, he's not gotten paid yet. So when he's sitting up in the. middle of the night. He's blaming you. You're contributing to that financial mystery that's not a good mystery for the agent or the player right now. You know what I am? An agent provocateur.

Or I think it's pronounced augeant provocateur. Do it. All right. Before we go, a couple things. Mark, you officially lost in our great game, iconic game, go get my lunch. You lost... That last part supposed to be implied. Right. Sorry. You lost the Mark Sanchez, Oakland Raiders, bet officially. You said he would be on the Raiders by March 14th. That date is come and gone. He is still a member of the New York Jones. I did not say March 14th, 2014.

But yes, I lost. Also, Greg Rosenthal, Julian Edelman did not get more guaranteed money. Well, we don't know that yet. Officially. Oh, come on. You're still holding out hope on this one? I'd like to see the numbers before. Is it a three for 14?

We believe that it's in that area, so a lot of that would have to be guaranteed. Cold Tate got what? 14 guaranteed. Well, when you really looked at it, Golden Tate only had a nine and a half guarantee. So I want to see the numbers. But assuming that Wes wins that bet, we do know the final tally here. Good luck. I ended up even, although I do have to hand out a sandwich to Wes and Dan gets one.

Mark is the big loser. You lost two sandwiches One to Dan, one to Wes And then Dan and West both Ended up one sandwich A piece in the end Wow

Not including separate lunch Games that Greg and I had On the side Yeah Well that was before the game of room Yeah What can you say? Yeah Mark

What do you have to say First game First game out of the gate We're going to bring this back Obviously But to go down Multiple sandwiches It's got to be a tough way

It's just another in a... Yeah, that's fair. It's a long laundry list of embarrassments that I can mull over at around 2.14 a.m. some night. All right, before we go, the money tags. We put out a call for our listeners, our loyal listeners, to do our work for us, and you guys did not disappoint at hashtag, what is it, money tags? Hashtag money tags.

Nailed it. We got a lot of great ones. You are, obviously, you were putting charge of this as the boss to decide which ones actually get the call. What are your thoughts so far going through what has been submitted? Well, peek behind the curtain. You were of great help this morning going through them as well. So we both helped to choose a number of them. It was fantastic.

I can't believe what great response we had. So I guess keep it going. But for now, I think we've got enough from this batch. We're going to use upwards of 10 to 15 of them. We might edit them slightly But there were a lot of hilarious ones So thank you And we'll probably have another call out

Because we're still going to be lazy Right And if you do not get picked this time around You should take it personally Because it wasn't funny enough Oh is that That's not how you say Don't take it personally

There were a lot of great ones And you just weren't in this mix Maybe next time Much better day If you didn't get picked You weren't alone I mean I would say We must have got

Over 50 responses We chose about 10 of them A lot of Patras didn't get picked Kevin Patrick tried But maybe next time For our ATL Chicago correspondent Special shout out to Tristan Who sent about a half dozen of them

Tristan our number one fan out in Australia That guy's on top of his game at all times All right We will be back on Wednesday Where we will continue to talk about Free Agency Mark It just never stops And any other news that's happening

Around the NFL Until then this is Dan Hansa signing up For the mailman The Sizzler The Boss and a gold standard behind the glass. Until that.