NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Breaking down Kaepernick’s contract, best free agents

Episode Date: June 4, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- breaks down Colin Kaepernick’s six-year contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers.  Elsewhere, as always, the gang takes a look at all of the latest headlines around the league and continues its offseason analysis of free agency.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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How about that for a different order? Hey, Greg. That was. You kind of threw the whole room into a minor frenzy. I would say this room is anything but a frenzy right now, but it's a little edgy. It's been edgy around the office today, which is surprising for an early June day. We should be kicking it up, but we've got a lot of planning. It seems like there's arguing going on.

There has been. I'm lacking sleep. I've slept in three days. I haven't been sleeping much either. Let's clarify something. It is the two of you that seem to be at each other all morning. Well, we've been arguing. We've got our big Making the Leap series coming up next week,

and we feel passionately about some of these players. And there was some arguing elsewhere in the newsroom. It just wasn't the two of us. There were some tense things going on. What do you think it is? Twitter has started to aggravate me with the Colin Kaepernick talk. So, yeah, I'm a little upset. Well, let's get into it then.

You mentioned Kaepernick. Gold Standard is here behind the glass. It's cooking. What's happening? Not too much. I'm heated about this Cap talk, too. I know. It's rare that you bring up a story before the show even starts to get our opinions on it.

I'm just a football kind of guy. We were spinning gold, and I was saying, let's save it for the podcast. Let's do some news. Let's do it. All right, so Colin Kaepernick signed his six-year, $126 million extension on Wednesday, according to NFL Media Insider Ian Rappaport. $61 million is guaranteed. We believe it's up to $126 million, so we're still waiting to see all the details and what the base salary is. But $61 million guaranteed would be the highest for $126 million.

any quarterback in NFL history. Are we a little surprised that Kaepernick got this much guap, Mark Sessler? Well, I think with these, A, the contract happening at all is not a surprise to any of us. Perhaps the guaranteed money to some degree, except when you have one of these franchise quarterbacks, there's really, every time we get one of these top, potential top 10 passers, the number's going to keep climbing, as well it should for a guy like Kaepern. Wow, City and Dan's chair is so deep.

different. Mark is just looking me in the eyes like we're on a first date or something. This is intense. I always want to sit over here. I'm trying to build some semblance of community after spending the last four or five hours where the two of you arguing to a degree where I just had to put on my headphones and engage in different channels of content. It was unsettling. Genuine frostiness, unlike some of the Bunsen burner blow torching that goes on up here. But we can all agree on Kaepernick, right, Chris? Yeah, and I want to see, I don't believe it's really $61 million guaranteed.

I think NFL Media Insider, Ian Rappaport, reported that after every year there are guarantees that there are different plateaus he'll have to hit in order to get those guarantees. Watch out, there is actually a diminutive shadowy league figure walking through the door right now when you're questioning Mr. Rappaport. Oh, it is Ian Rappaport walking through it. No. I mean, he's going to be upset. You're questioning his reporting here.

I'm actually referencing what he reported. Okay. That every single year the guarantees will come up again, which to me doesn't make them guaranteed. They're not guaranteed then. Yeah. I think we'll find out that there's not really $61 million guaranteed. Either way, it's a move that the 49ers had to make, right?

When we were talking just last show about the quarterbacks that are up for contract, or maybe it was last week. We all thought Kaepernick was the one that had to happen. The question always comes up, and this came up in your Twitter feed. I know, Chris, is Callan Kaepernick worth it? You were a little fired up about that. Well, I don't understand how anybody would think that he's not. Where does anybody get the idea?

He's still developing, so he started 23 games in his career, has a 94 passer rating, 8 yards per attempt, and isn't even a good passer. Those are probably the best passing stats for the first 23 games of anybody in history, and he's not even a good passer. I think San Francisco is making a comment about their belief, A, in the commitment of Kaepernick, who, by all accounts, is one of the hardest working guys out there, and also his ceiling. Where in Cincinnati, they're obviously in a real issue in terms of what to do with their

quarterback's contract, because that's a guy who, I think we've seen. seeing Andy Dalton's ceiling, and I think they think they've seen Andy Dalton sealing, and the chiefs with Alex Smith, the same way. We've heard that the Bengals owner wanted to take Kaepernick. Had they done that, we'd be writing a story today about Cincinnati reupping with their young quarterback who is only going to get better. Instead, they're in a hill of trouble because they took the wrong guy. I'm imagining this Bengals house with Andy Dalton's ceiling atop it, and everyone's like ducking together. It's like Marvin Lewis is bent over. And AJ Green's like, what the heck, man?

The ceiling. Metaphorically, that's what's going on. And it makes it such an interesting deal for Kaepernick, because I agree with you, West, that he's worth it. I think all good starting quarterbacks are worth it. I think Jay Cutler is worth it. Anyone that's an above-average starting quarterbacks worth it, because what's the alternative?

You have to spend that salary-cap money on someone. And quarterbacks, if they make it to the free market, you know, Colin Kaepernick would get paid $30 million a year. Who know? I mean, you need it. If you don't want to pay $20 million for Colin Kaepernick, fine, here's your quarterback, Josh Freeman. There you go. There's your quarterback. Or look at what the bills did with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Wasn't a franchise quarterback. So they paid him $10 million a year for six years, cut him after a few years. General manager and coach lose their job. They're forced to trade up for E.J. Manuel, who. who may or may not work out. That's where your franchise is without a franchise quarterback. You make a perfect point

because when you find that guy and then it's a no-brainer to commit to them, the scouts around the country for the 49ers, all the henchmen in the front office, all the assistant coaches can go home to their wives and say, we're in San Francisco for the long haul. We're not about to blow this operation up and move again for the eighth time.

When you don't have a quarterback, everyone's in real hot water of potentially being fired season to season. Not to talk about Harbaugh necessarily, but I think this sort of says this whole organization in our vision is in place. Well, I don't know if the Harbaugh family should feel as comforted. He'll be gainfully employed.

There's no doubt about that. We don't know. He'll be comfortable. Yes. And his situation added some instability to this franchise over the off season. This contract, like Mark you mentioned, adds some stability.

I agree he's worth it, but it is still interesting that We're talking about a guy that still needs to develop as a passer getting this kind of contract. I think he's worth it even if he doesn't become a top five quarterback, but I don't think he's there now. Steve Young on ESPN this week had some comments that he should tie his legs together in training camp and not leave the pocket because he's not good at getting past his first read and he leaves the pocket too early after the first read. So they're giving all this money and betting this big on a guy that is still a lot. little raw. Like we don't know what his ceiling is. Isn't this a team last year that didn't have a

second read for half the season? They didn't have anyone on the field. Thank you. Thank you. For most of the season, your number one wide receiver is a guy who hasn't gotten open in five years. And Quinn Bolden. He doesn't get open. He makes plays at the point of the catch. So that's your read. And you're seeing a guy who has a cornerback draped all over him. Your second option is a tight end who stays in the block most of the time, Vernon Davis. And you don't have a third option for most of the year. Once Crabtree got healthy, Kaepernick led the NFL and touchdown to interception ratio down the stretch.

RG3 is going to be fascinating to watch this year. Andrew Luck is obviously going to be fun. But for one guy for the next five years, to me, Kaepernick is the most fascinating of these young quarterback, because I don't know where he

goes. I think we could look at this in three or four years, and it might be viewed as a slight disappointment this contract. and Kaepernick's career. Or he could turn into the bionic future of the NFL and we could all be servants to Colin Kaepernick and he could own everything.

I mean, he is the type of quarterback that gets Ron Jaworsky to say he has a chance to be the best quarterback ever. And that's because he has things that other quarterbacks don't have in terms of his arm strength and his foot speed and everything. We haven't even touched on his playoff success. And ultimately in the NFL,

whether we like it or not quarterbacks are judged, based on third down conversion, how they play late in games, and how they play in the postseason. Colin Kaepernick's postseason averages 20 yards per game more passing and 50 yards more per game rushing. That's amazing. He averages almost 90 yards per game rushing in the playoffs. And I'll never forget in that NFC championship game against the Falcons. And I was sitting in the office with Greg. And that dome was as loud as I've ever seen it. It was utter chaos in there. And the 49ers were frazzled out of the gate. They struggled, and Kaepernick was so cool under pressure, and that's just not something you can say of a lot of quarterbacks. And when we saw him on the field before the Super Bowl,

it was almost as if he didn't even realize, not that he didn't realize, but he was completely uncowed by the stage he was on. It was like, he's just going to go do what he does. I think they love his approach and his hard work. He was frightening. They should cut a million of this contract, slice it off and give it to the poor guy that's catching Kaepernick's warm-up throws. They have this insane routine where Kaepernick stands 10 feet away from some guy and throws the ball as hard as he possibly can at him. I've never seen anything quite like it, and that guy now has no hands. When we invite Pro Football Focus onto the show next week or next month,

remind me to bring up their tweet from this afternoon, when they said, if you remove all of Cowan Kaepernick's runs, he's a below-average quarterback. Okay. You know what? When you remove all of Peyton Manning's touchdowns, he doesn't have any touchdowns. I mean, how are you going to remove one of the things the guy does best?

If he took away Manning's throws, I feel like he wouldn't be the same player. One last thing with the 49ers, it is a credit to Harbaugh and Greg Roman and that coaching staff that we forget how bold of a move it was to sit Alex Smith. It doesn't look that way now because we know the ceiling of these two quarterbacks. But some teams would sit on that veteran starter for far too long, and Kaepernick wouldn't be in this situation right now. And I think if you talk to football players,

how they feel about their coaching staffs is based on how smart their coaching staffs are. And players love coaches who can outsmart the rest of the league's coaches. And that Kaepernick thing was, Greg likes to say, Fortune favors the bold. A bold move where they felt totally confident they were doing the right thing for their franchise. And Harbaugh expressed so much confidence in Kaepernick,

offseason campaigned for him, and this contract says more than he could ever do. I mean, remember the hotel incident, Kaepernick, was accused that no one inside of that organization was ever too worried about it. It turned out it looks like nothing is going to come of it, and they speak loudest with their contract that he's going to be the guy for the next six years. Greg, question for the boss. When it comes to Dan Hansis, who is, where is he on vacation? He is in Texas right now.

I can't believe it's taken this long for him to come up. When he is at some point given a figure of guaranteed money, will we be impressed with that number? It'll come out in the press. Like, it's a really big number. And that way, you know, Dan can walk around the office with his head held high. But you'll have to really look at the fine print to see that it's not all it's cracked up to be. I can't wait to break down the stats on this because Dan definitely writes more post per hour than I do.

Oh, interesting. If that was the criteria for big time contracts, you know who would be the highest paid ATL writer? Kevin Patrick coming atcha with the morning shift. Most post per minute. Watch what you ask for, Chris Wesleyan. Watch what you ask for. I don't want that to be criteria.

Jermichael Finley back in the news this week. At the end of last week, we found out that the mystery team that he visited was the New England Patriots, which is interesting. And we also heard on Wednesday from Ian Rappaport that he met with the Steelers team doctor, that the Raiders had some interest, and that Jermichael Finley is still waiting for clearance and waiting to sign, but he still is atop our best available free agents list. What do you make of the latest Jermichael Finley news, Wessling? The Raiders news surprised me.

I didn't know they were in on him or were interested. Mike Freeman of the Bleacher's report had reported that at least six teams were in quiet pursuit of Finley which Ian translated as kind of hanging on the fringes and waiting to see what happens with their doctors clearing him it doesn't really matter who's interested

until their doctors clear him. You know how I translate it it's all quiet because it's June. He's been free agent since March so if anyone really wanted to take a chance they could have. They're waiting for the medical report. Well, would we put the Steelers in the potential driver's seat

considering that their team doctor is his personal physician and has cleared him? The Steelers, I believe, are 32nd out of 32nd out of 32 teams in salary cap space. Maybe they can get him for a USFL $1 deal this season. It's backloaded. They aren't the type of teams that usually make this movie either, but I would love it. It is a strange move for the Steelers. I think the Lamar Woodley release was post-dated June 1st. so they get salary cap relief this week.

Update. Update. Finley was the top of our post that we did this week, best available free agents, just because he's the only guy you could see really making a difference as an above-average starter of guys that are out there. I'll list some other names on the list, see if anyone strikes your fancy.

Kevin Williams, Santonio Holmes, Asante Samuel, Dustin Keller, Trevelle Wharton, whatever happened with him, I guess he's going to retire. James Harrison. Paris Lennon. Remember the Super Bowl when he was starting? He had big guns. It was a great story.

Hey, this guy, he was in the XFL. He's in the World League. He played with, he hate me, and he was in the Super Bowl. Right, he played in some rec league with your daughter. He's still available. Whatever happened to him. Josh Freeman is back out there. Ed Reed wants to play football again.

Not a sexy list. No. Kevin Williams made a little bit of news. He basically dared the Patriots to call him today. Tell him I'm available. Call me. I'm in. I think it's Dustin Keller's name on that list that is interesting

because what team doesn't wind up with Finley, potentially a team like New England might. They've talked about Keller for a while. I think Keller's the most interesting guy because what a productive player he was for the Jets and we never saw him with the Dolphins. Well, he's like Finley. I have to wait to see if his medicals check out.

James Harrison was kind of interesting to see if the Steelers maybe broach that subject in August. They are reportedly thinking about resigning Brett Kiesel once training camp starts. Maybe they can bring them both in. Kevin Williams sounds... Team of ACL, you're calling boring. Not in my team.

Cessler, I'm pretty safe to say you're going to block the Steelers. They have to be unanimous. We've been talking about, if you haven't been listening on the podcast, we're looking for the team of around the league for 2014. Mr. Wessling believes the Steelers' strong candidate. No, I believe in compromise. And what I tweeted last night is how I feel. If the three of you and the four of you, including Patrawana,

pick Pittsburgh as your team, Have a nice time. Send me a postcard. There's no way that because I still have, you know, blood coursing through my body, I still have a soul. This will not happen. I mean, you have to replace me. I like the Steelers. So where is this postcard going to?

Send it to my house. I'll give you my address. I feel like it would be at sea somewhere. Because if you weren't with us, you'd be. You can't honestly expect a Cleveland, a lifelong Browns fan to sit around on week one with my black and gold pomp. palms cheering for the Steelers. You understand why that makes zero sense beyond a cold analytical study. Well, I feel like there is duality in you. You can have a cold analytical side and a warm friendly loyal side to the Browns. The duality side is saying, gentlemen, have a nice time. Let me know

how it goes. I ain't changing on this one. Marcel Darius is back in the news. He got arrested once again, this time for drag racing, essentially. What year is this? 195? And it was a couple of misdemeanors, and he crashed his car into a tree right in front of a Mongolian buffet. And it especially stands out because it comes just days after he met with the media in Buffalo and told the media,

the bills know I'm not the type of guy that's going to get into trouble off the field. They know this isn't me, and this, of course, is after his previous arrest. So this is a guy now that a couple times has gotten into trouble, and then right after he got into trouble again, and now he could be getting suspended. What do we make of Marcel Darius? I feel like you've passed up the headline here. What can one eat at a Mongolian buffet? Yeah, I was going to say that the main takeaway for me was, for the first time ever covering the sport, I was able to nestle the words Mongolian buffet into a position. And I was like, day over.

I feel like you just walk in, grab a thigh bone off the buffet and start munching on it like Genghis Khan. I think Mongolian buffet. It's essentially just a Chinese restaurant called Mongolian buffet. That's disappointing. Yeah, I think they've gone marketing-wise towards, you know, Mongolian, the Mongolian aspect. I'm not sure that means. We are really showing our ignorance here of other cultures. I'm shocked the two of you have not eaten at Mongolian buffet.

Our one listener from Inner Mongolia will be perturbed. We do have one listener from Inter-Mongolia. On Wednesday, we learned that Darius was racing against one of his teammates. And Mark, you wrote this post. Jerry Hughes says, was I there? Yes, I was driving my car. I was on the street while Darius was on the street driving his vehicle as well. Because of legal matters, they're not going to say too much about it.

Darius was arrested for reckless endangerment, reckless driving. And like we said, this is a couple times. that this happened. Do you remember last year he was suspended by the team for being late to meetings? Immediately after he was suspended late for meetings, he was late for meetings the next day.

So this is, it just seems a little crazy. He's like the spikuli of the NFL. It is funny because well, funny is not the word, but we are gathering quite a squad of suspended or likely to be suspended guys. Let's potentially

dare us on that list, right? Alden Smith, Robert Mathis, Daryl Washington, right? This is a defense to be reckoned with here. You've got Brandon Browner and Will Hill in your secondary. There's some building blocks. Let's go to offense. It's possible Ray Rice gets a suspension. Barring the earth crumbling in upon itself,

Josh Gordon will be suspended for what will be most of the season. And you've got Justin Blackman. Is this not a team that you, if we can get one, you know, ill-behaved, quarterback to do something between now and September, you've got a playoff squad. You know what? We didn't have to worry about shadowy league figures. We could just like throw them Michael Vick and then have like a longest yard remake. Shadowy league figures have entered the room. They are circling us. If this is the last

you hear from us, we love you all. You're right. A lot of talented players. And there are another 15 guys that have received minor suspensions who are, that's your depth. It's sort of some of your No-nameers. Now, what we should do is we could make this into a written piece, the all suspended team, perhaps get it sponsored. This is how you become a boss, Mark.

We're not allowed to write about that. I was under the impression that was hands-off content. That's fair to say. We really can't do that at all. Let's move on. About that boss thinking. That is how I become the boss when they ship Greg right out the door. Super Bowl 50 coming up in 2006.

It is not Super Bowl L. No Roman numerals anymore. Not that anyone would have called it Super Bowl L, but they are officially calling it Super Bowl 5-0 on all the logos. They released the logo today, and Zach Goldman seems very excited about this news. I don't know if you're upset or not.

I was upset. Yeah. How could you not take the opportunity to just make the Super Bowl really small and the L at the end huge? That would have been an incredible mark. marketing decision. This is why, if anyone's listening overseas, we need Zach the Gold Standard to get involved

with the promotion of the NFL across the border. I think he is the man to take this game to the next continent. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Very kind to you. This was news that a lot of people were interested in today. You guys did not seem as interested. Neither did I.

I thought it was highly interesting when the initial reason. report, which turned out to be false, was that all Super Bowls from then on would be regular numerals, not Roman numerals. No, I don't know if anyone reported that. Maybe somebody did. That was floating out there, and I thought it was they don't want this big L that's associated with loser. Yeah, it makes sense to me.

It just looks bad, the big Super Bowl L, but they are going back to the Roman numerals after 50. So once it's 51, it'll be Roman numerals. L.I. People tweeting. Super Bowl Long Island. Sure, that's the connection. Super Bowl Lee Nah. I don't know.

I mean, it's still going to look wacky with the L.I. Don't you think it's a little bit pretentious to be using Roman numerals? Well, and someone tweeted that they were concerned for children, the children of the earth, because when you strip Roman numerals out of society, it's the children that suffer because that's their only real inroads to learning that kind of numbering system. Well, let's be honest. The Super Bowl is all Roman numerals have going for it at this point. What? So Roman numerals are like the Tasmanian devil or something, or the dodo bird. Children will be deprived of seeing this.

Of the average, you know, your average person who's dipped into the culture, there aren't a lot of other ways that Roman numerals are playing a big part of it, our society. They need to go the way of the passenger pigeon. Get out of your Roman numerals. So you're worried kids are going to be growing up. And I saw adults on Twitter raising this as a genuine concern in some cases that it's the future, the younger generation that really takes the hit here. After three five years of Twitter, I haven't seen one adult.

You could start there. I haven't seen what it don't work the word children or child into a tweet and have it be meaningful. You know what I learned with this whole Super Bowl thing was Super Bowl 1 through 4? did not use Roman numerals. So what about the fact that we're always going back and we're calling it Super Bowl 3 with Joe Namath I-I-I shouldn't do that. It's all marketing.

Well, that's like retroactive class because Super Bowl I-I-I just looks good. I don't think so. I think go to the numbers permanently. Yeah. That's my stance. We're Americans. So you're essentially just siding

with the corporation that pays your housing bill in your monthly installments of bills. I need to make up for the last segment. Yes. What's up, Zach? Do you think we now need to go back to the old like every Super Bowl has a new logo or are we sticking with some kind of standardization

on the logo? Well, they do make a new logo every Super Bowl, don't they? They have the city outline. But like, do you think we need to get crazy and do like the, I don't know, so many of the Super Bowls have had these weird posters. Yeah, he's right. You go back to the 70s and there were,

every year it was a wild new day glow painted Yeah, brilliant. Sounds awesome. We got to find... Good idea, Goldstein. We got to find some way to spice up the Minnesota Super Bowl. That's the way I feel, too.

Let's do it with that. They should just do Minnesota Super Bowl really, really, really nice people. We're going to... What's up? Do not forget about the eight miles of skyways. By the way, this is going to be the longest news segment ever. We miss you, San Hansis.

Let's wrap it up with the Buccaneers. Backfield. Mark Sessley, you wrote a post earlier this week. about Jeff Tedford, their offensive coordinator, doesn't plan to give all the work to Doug Martin. He plans to alternate running backs this season. Well, I don't really believe a whole lot that's said at this time in terms of that kind of stuff.

Year after year, June, everyone looks perfect in June. Everyone's going to be a big part of the offense. I think Wesleyan downstairs calculated a Bengals offense that has roughly seven players that will see three or 400 snaps this season. Career highs across the board. It's outrageous. They're going to have 9,000. total yards, all making the elite candidates on the Bengals offense.

It is, it's fiction. And, you know, down in Tampa the way, and I don't often dispense fantasy football advice for good reason. Yeah. I'm not someone you'd point to for that kind of direction. But Doug Martin, 368 touches two years ago, at that point had that coaching staff stayed in place. You'd look at him as a guy that you could, if you want to start your draft with a running

back, he's a lock-solid guy to get a mountain full of carries. every year. I don't know. There is a lot of talent in that backfield. If they do things differently, now that could be like the new version

of Shanahan's clown car where you don't know who's going to get the start each week and you're driving everyone nuts. I like mountain full of carries. I just pictured Doug Martin going besides a Matterhorn

picking it up like a suitcase and tightening it down the field. I imagine the clown car going up the mountain full of carries. With the yodeling music Am I wrong with those Red background? I'm wrong with those Redskins teams

back before pre, you know, in the pre-Alpha Ronko's teams too, yeah, right? Well, I think I'm with you. My takeaway here was more of a fantasy football thing. From the NFL perspective, we know he wasn't going to be used as heavily as Shiana

who believed in a one-back back field. But I think what they're telling this is we use the third-round draft pick on a pass-catching running back. The big takeaway is Doug Martin won't catch as many passes this year. And they have Mike James and Bobby Rainey who aren't great, but they're fine as three and four running backs. They have depth. He mentioned that he wants to play two.

two to three guys, you have to alternate. Again, it's probably just you back up that Doug Martin projection from 320 carries to 230. And it's a team that said, hey, let's go get Mike Evans. Let's get a gigantic tight end. We have Vincent Jackson still. They're going to throw the ball. Tedford is one of the X factors, I feel like, of the entire 2014 season.

We think of the Bucks as a potential sneaky playoff team. And Tedford either could come into the league like the next Mark Tressman. or the next Bobby Petrino. I don't really know. He's got some talent here, but we have no idea what he's going to be like at the NFL level. That's a massive spectrum. I feel like you just opened up a, not a can of warmth,

but you opened up a good possibility here. A virtual cornucopia of football knowledge we can dispense on the site in a feature or on the podcast, X factors for the 2014 season. Jeff Tedford, Right number one on the lift. Because Lord knows we need some more series to roll out there. We've got Making the Leap, making its debut next week.

After that, we're going to have a big training camp preview. We've got some other fun stuff plan. But we've been talking about this Making the Leap series now for the last week in the offices. We're picking our top 25 players we think will make the leap and break out and come to national prominence and spice some Sundays up. And the list is more or less finalized. It's very close. And we wanted to talk about some guys in today's show that we couldn't quite agree on,

that we tried to get some sort of consensus in the room. And these are guys we wanted to put on the list, but for the most part, they just didn't make it. One of us didn't like them or they just didn't quite make the cut for one reason or another. And let's start at the quarterback position with Jake Locker. Now, we got to admit, we think like a business. You got to have some quarterbacks on the list, right? And it was hard to find any. It was hard to find good making the leap candidates at quarterback.

So we seriously considered Locker. I was pushing him a little bit. Wes was very anti-Locker. That's not true. If we had space for 40 candidates this year, I'd be fine with Locker on. Yes. When we were talking about cutting one person at 25 to add a Kyrie Robinson or something, Locker's out.

Hard to argue with that. And it's important to note that we can't. It's not that hard. He's like a fourth running back, Kyrie Robinson, potentially. You know what? The narrative is there with Jake Locker. I think there's some exhaustion among some of our readers with Jake Locker, too. Understandable.

I'm not writing Jake Locker off by any means, but of all the people we were putting on a list, he was the one that I was most skeptical who would really make the leap this year. Well, he could be a guy that's on the X-factor list, too, because I don't know what to expect out of Jake Locker. And we were going to pair Jake Locker potentially with Justin Hunter. Sometimes we put two guys in the same team together. And those are two really intriguing guys.

And Locker, when you look at the landscape of relatively young quarterbacks that aren't rookies that could break out, he has done something that is one of the criteria for me to pick one of these guys. And he's shown in the NFL that he can be a difference maker. Now, maybe it's only for a game or two, but if you go back and you watch the Chargers game from last year when Jake Locker played, and you didn't know anything else about Jake Locker,

you would think this guy's the next Ben Rathesberger. I mean, you would think he was going to be a future top 10 quarterback. It was accurate. He made smart decisions. He's wildly athletic, very good arm. There's a lot to like about Jake Locker. I guess for me, Ken Wisenhunt, who worked with Ben Rathesberger, has never really said anything that convinces me

he thinks that about Jake Locker. They went out, and Zach Mettenberger's not going to change the world in Tennessee, but they are in play going into next year's draft for a game-changing quarterback. I think Locker is under as much pressure as anyone to prove that he's got to win this coaching staff over. I don't want to pass up the opportunity to let the listeners know that Greg and I have another lunch proposition. Yes. This is getting, you know, there's a lot wagered at all moments.

We are making a lot of side ones off the show. Go get my sandwich. Well, we have people tracking this, so they have to know about it. If Justin Hunter plays more snaps this year than Nate Washington, Greg Rosenthal gets a high-octane elaborate sandwich. How easy is that one? I kind of like that. For me, right?

I do, actually. I'm the favorite in this one. I'll admit there's somewhere I'm the underdog. I'm the heavy favorite. Nate Washington might not even be on that team. That's where I'm coming from. You've been saying that comment for three years now. Well, eventually it'll be right.

He will be right at some point. Meanwhile, Nate Washington keeps doing well. Justin Hunter is still raw, very raw. If they have equal snaps, you will each buy me half a sandwich. I'll agree to that. Well, it's fair to say our best success on the list last year was at wide receiver. And who are some of the wide receivers that we did well with? Michael Floyd.

Al-Shon Jeffrey. Alshan Jeffrey. Josh Gordon. Those are Julian Edelman. Other than Edelman, those three have similar profiles in that they were young guys who can make big plays down the field and hadn't shown a ton of consistency yet. When it comes to Jeffrey and Floyd, they had barely shown anything. Do you know who that sounds exactly like DeAndre Hopkins? No, Justin Hunter.

No, DeAndre Hopkins. But aren't they the same sort of profile? Floyd barely did anything as a rookie. Jeffrey barely did anything as a rookie. Hunter made a number of game-winning plays. He made some touchdowns. He did not catch the ball consistently, but he made plays enough to think,

oh, that's why everyone likes this guy. And that's the type of guy that can go from 20 to 30 catches to 75 in a Pro Bowl. Well, your best bet is Washington somehow being cut. I think Hunter's another year away. How do we... It's a tough one to evaluate when you look at Hunter making those plays down the field. And I went back and I watched Locker and Hunter. And I have to admit, I came around to Wes's side on Locker in that I just couldn't pound the table

or stand on the table for him, as Mike Mayak would say, because they're just, he's just not accurate. What does he do with the table? He stands on it. He stands on it. We should get Mike Mayock's table. Should have been in the NFL garage sale. No, I'm just saying... The table upon which Mike Mayak stands.

What's it doing the whole offseason? We could use it. Very barren, very empty. It's a magical table. It's hard to stand on the table for locker when, man, he just goes through... He's just not that accurate. He'll have games where you love him, but it's hard to get over a quarterback that misses guys by five feet sometimes. And you're making a leap-wide receiver to be capturing passes from that guy?

Well, I think Hunter, and I think Hunter's going to have a good season. And I think someone's got to catch the ball there and it's going to be him and Kendall, right? And that's it. Let's move on to one of your Cleveland Browns, Mark Sessler. Ben Tate came up for discussion, did not make the list. This is one where before the draft, I think Tate would have just been like a Toby Gearhart,

just a no-brainer, right? Because even though we saw flashes in Houston, Cleveland had set him up. And even a year ago, they talked about Ben Tate as someone that they wanted and coveted to come in and be their lead back. But then they go out and they draft Terrence West, who is a zone running back, who fits Shanahan's scheme perfectly, and people in-house at NFL talked about him as a guy, Charlie Castorley, who could maybe lead Cleveland and carries.

So that suddenly dimmed the prospects for me of Tate being that bell cow. I think that's not how they're going to operate. But then on top of that, after the draft, they went out and got Isaiah Crowell. the character issue laden guy out of Alabama State who some are saying is the most talented draftable running back this season if anything a guy that is going to steal more carries away from Tate if he doesn't wind up on a police blotter

I spent many a Saturday afternoon in the fall at Huckapoo's with fellow Georgia Bulldogs fans watching Isaiah Crowell as the crowd just went crazy for this guy he's a talented talented running back You could tell that despite how blurry the television was at the time, or? It wasn't blurry. It wasn't blurry. It was Saturday afternoon.

Oh, okay. Is that a self-imposed blur? Is that what you're hinting up there? That's what I'm getting that. Or that they haven't, you know, invented HD yet in Georgia. I don't know. What about the fact that the Browns fan base always chooses these undrafted guys and random guys at the bottom of their roster that they think are suddenly going to become heroes,

like Charles Johnson? Seems to always happen. The difference is they now have running backs in front of this guy in case it doesn't work out. I think that they are going to have a completely overhauled and much more interesting running game, and it's hard not to when you had Willis McGaise your starter last year. But the contract they signed Tate to

was the first indication that this isn't our guy for the next four or five years. I was mixed on Tate. I wouldn't have stood in the way of him because of two reasons. Kyle Shanahan and that offensive line. So, I mean, you're right. The running game should be exciting. Someone's got to get it. You like Mr. West.

I think West is, you can't, you just, we're talking about making the leap. I think if you're going running back, it's got to be someone that clearly is not a committee, a part of committee. He's the lead horse. I'm confused as to what Cleveland's going to do with Tate. Emmanuel Sanders was a guy on our list last year, and we actually put him on the list again this year. We're trying not to do much of that. But we thought since he changed teams and it was intriguing, we were going to stick.

with him, we've now changed their minds. After going back and looking at Emmanuel Sanders, we're not convinced he's that special of a talent. And Dan doesn't, Dan was assigned to this player. He was going to do Emmanuel Sanders. So sorry, Dan. Yank. You've got one less thing to do. You're getting, who is he going to get? Zane Beatles? Zane Beatles, yes. We're looking for a lot of... Another Jaguar. What we're looking for, too, is a lot of schematic drawings from you, Dan, on this one. We want you to show how Zane Beatles gets leverage and then do that thing where you have the whole play and you circle him and then you draw little arrows.

I argued in our meeting against Emmanuel Sanders for this idea going around. Maybe it started in fantasy football circles. You can just plug Sanders into Eric Decker's position and he'll do exactly what Eric Decker did, which is so insulting to Eric Decker. You get insulted by a lot when it comes to Eric Decker. He's a good football player and people think he's just a product of Peyton Man. We'll find out. We'll see what Emmanuel Sanders and what he does this year. I don't think he'll do nearly as well. I went and watched Sanders and I came away with that he had the opportunity to be Antonio Brown last year.

They came out of the gate trying to get Sanders very involved. They couldn't connect with him deep. There's a lot of miscommunications with Ben Rathesberger, specifically with Sanders. That didn't happen with Brown. He seemed like he's very comfortable inside the numbers. That's where he's at his best. I don't think he's a special talent by any means. And then when you look at the Broncos, you have Welker inside, you have Thomas inside, you're going to have Sanders outside, and that might not be his strength. I could see him putting up 800 yards, but I don't think he's going to blow up. Does it burn Bill Belichick's britches to see in Denver, West Welker,

and Emmanuel Sanders, who they went after him last offseason? I don't think so because they didn't go after Sanders this year. Some low-level employee has already paid for that snafu. That's true. So the guy who signed Danny Mendoza should be paying for that too. He'll be all right. He'll be all right. I don't get this.

We write a guy off after one year. I'm not writing him off. But actually, that answers why they didn't go after Emmanuel Sanders. Which would you rather have? Emmanuel Sanders for, what's he making? Three or four million dollars a year? Or Danny Mendola for what he's making? That's a good question.

I'd take Sanders. That's a push. Robert Woods was another guy I really wanted on a list and didn't quite make it. This is a pattern here. None of my guys are making it. I thought I was the bottom of our... I thought I was the best. boss. Hold on. Another lunch proposition.

Greg Rosenthal gets Robert Woods to lead the Buffalo Bills in receiving yards. I get the rest of the roster. Well, but let's make this clear. I go West this time. Well, I'm definitely the underdog. I recognize that. And there are stipulations, though. If Robert Woods does not lead the team

in receiving yards, West gets a sandwich. But if he does lead the team in receiving yards, I get a sandwich and a side of potato salad. That was bartered down from two. A side of potato salad. That's a game changer. That was bartered down from two sandwiches to a sandwich and a potato salad. And if NFL.com readers are ever wondering why our posts are sluggish to hit Twitter.

It's because this is going on from 6 in the morning until roughly 7 or 8 at night Western time zone every day. Zach, you have to admit it's going to be hard for you to leave NFL meat. just at the point where the potato salad thing changed the game. I did. I'm all about the potato salad. Yeah. Game changer? Oh, yeah.

If you had said coleslaw, I'd be staying. Well, what it does is it just is. That's the quote for the tweet today. It changes the game, too. It just adds a whole level of possibilities. If Robert Woods gets between 60 and 70 catches, you know, I'll get you a cup of diet Dr. Pepper or something. You two have a problem, and at some point when you have some free time address it. I believe what you're getting at is spin-off propositions.

No, I mean, well, that's sort of what we did a little bit. We shouldn't be doing this. We shouldn't be doing any of this. We're all going to be fired. Why weren't you buying Robert Woods? More than Locker, more than Hunter, I really believe in this one in that he's going to be a quality NFL player. He's going to play out of the slot this year like Stevie Johnson And I think this is one that at the end of the season

We'll say oh, it would have been smart to put him on Many reasons I have at least six or seven reasons why I'm not buying Robert Woods Watching the games I went back and watched Rewind Not great after the catch Not an especially good deep threat He's basically a possession receiver with the worst possible quarterback scenario To have a possession receiver He's speedy

No he's not But he's speedy in the world way like Wes Welker or better than that or Emmanuel Sanders for that matter he's quick quick feet I think we'll have to disagree on that one is it hard to pick a bills wide receiver with that quarterback that's what I'm saying they're in a run heavy offense they draft they traded you know an arm and a leg to get Sammy Watkins they're going to get that guy the ball Mike Williams has had at least two seasons now that are maybe it will be better than anything Robert Woods ever does in his career oh stop he had over

10 touchdowns in almost 1,000 yards twice. In making the case against Woods, you really pegged him as a number two receiver. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. One of our friends down in the newsroom, Patrick Crawley brought up Reggie Wayne's name, and obviously that would be a great thing if he turns into Reggie Wayne. But I like the comparison. I think he can be a really good number two type of guy that winds up getting a lot of catches, 1,100 yards, and becomes one of those glue guys that you love,

having on your team. We disagree on it. And Reggie Wayne had Peyton Manning. Robert Woods has E.J. Manuel. Until next year when he's got Marcus, Mariotta, or whatever. I don't know any other quarterback's going around. Hunley? Let's get some Hunley. Who else do we want to talk about? We're running out of time here. Byron Maxwell.

I know Wesleyan is not, I'm not saying you're not sold on him, but I believe you voice. It's really painting Wesleyan as the negative guy that, killed everyone here. Well, but it's good, though, because we want to get these right, and we have 25 chances to, and the argument could be made that Maxwell doesn't quite fit the category of him making the leap guy. Last year, I mean, Richard Sherman allowed the lowest quarterback rating against him, 47.3. It's one stat, but the second cornerback in all of football was Maxwell 47.8. I mean, in a way, he already fits very well into that secondary and does what they ask him to do. his role is going to be expanded.

Is that making the leap territory, or is that just what we're expecting him to do? I think the most comfortable position in the NFL is cornerback opposite Richard Sherman with Earl Thomas covering your backside. That's a really fair point. I think that's the easiest. He's not going to be exposed in the same way. Right. I think that's why his stats look so good. He made plays.

People forget he made big game-changing plays. big game changing interceptions at the end of the regular season, against the Saints in the playoffs. He was really good in coverage. You could argue that he already made the leap. I guess that, but people don't know about him. And I think that's more what this list is about. I could see him having a Pro Bowl type of season. I don't disagree with anything you just said at all.

I just would rather write about Marcus Truffant and Xavier Rhodes, who I think are more talented guys and don't have a chance to play with. Desmond Truffant. Desmond Truffant. And these guys don't have a chance to play with Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas. Like, we're not going to really see. Troffat makes the list. Ooh, I like that.

Watch it. You got a little nugget. But I guess what you're saying is we're not going to see Maxwell if he were put onto another team and he's the number one cornerback. We'll find out who we really is. It's hard to find that out in Seattle. Right. He's not going to be guarding your Holyo Jones as in A.J. Greens. All right.

Before we go, I give you the floor, Wesleyan, for Micah Hyde, your boy. We shot him down. This is a real person. Micah Hyde, I love this guy. He was making plays last year The secondary got burnt all year The Packer's secondary was atrocious And you would look up in Micah Hyde's

The only one stripping the ball Making interceptions Long punt returns Long kickoff returns He just looks like a natural playmaker And then as soon as the season was over At the scouting combine McCarthy told us

Where this guy's going to get a chance to play all three downs He could be They drafted him as a cornerback A lot of people think he's best suited to safety They drafted Clinton Dick Ha-ha, and Hyde was first team in OTAs. I think if anybody loses their job, it might be Morgan Burnett. Well, he fits into that new type of NFL position now, which is nickel corner slash safety,

where you're on the field every down. You're not really a... That's the Honey Badger position. True cornerback, but you're also essentially covering people man-to-man. So you kind of are a cornerback. There's a few, and this is basically... The 49ers drafted one of those guys in the first round this year. Right, Ward.

And we won't give it away But he didn't make the list But some Green Bay Packers defenders did make the list Yes Nice teaser Professional Here's another tease for you We got another big show coming up

That's going to be dropped On Friday morning We hope to have a special guest on the show We'll see if that all works out And we also have Win West's Toaster Coming back on Monday after the weekend It's going to be awesome

We're getting everything ready. We've got some good candidates in the running. A few people have survived, which you need. And, yeah, I'm confident. So are we set or we want more people to tweet you? I think we're set. I think we're working our way through a list right now. We might not get to the bottom of that list.

We can find some super all-stars at the top. So I think we've got to hold off the dogs for now. But thank you all for applying. And, yeah, good luck to those who have yet to been called. Next week, of course, sadly, will be the last week for the goal. Standard producing the show. Dan will be back in the mix. Dan, I know you're listening to us somewhere in Texas

just to avoid talking to your in-laws for another minute, so we miss you, buddy. Quick map update. I finally got around to all of the tweets that I've favored it from our listeners. I have written down your city. I have a spreadsheet. Feel free if you haven't seen it yet, or you haven't tweeted me to let me know which city,

which international city you are from. I put it on the spreadsheet, and we will put these pins. in the map. He's been doing some work on this. This is why he's not sleeping. Yeah, let's not call him a slacker. In the middle of the night last night,

I woke up, like, jolted out of a bizarre dream. And I just, you know how in today's day and age, you look over and you turn your phone on, I clicked into Twitter. And, like, five minutes ago in the middle of the dark, Wesleyan is, like, rapid tweeting about this map. So the guy is working. If you call putting pins on a map working.

I haven't even reached that point. That's that guaranteed money. Yeah, that's true. You're next up. When you've got a talent like, West, you have no option. You got to lock them up. For exact, the gold standard, Dan Hansis. We miss you, buddy.

Mark Sessler and Chris Wesleyan. I'm Greg Rosenthal. We will see you on Friday. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Okay, cool. Can I hear the quick, a bridge version of? In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you.

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Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team-building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

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