NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Offseason Musts for EVERY AFC Team

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Jourdan Rodrigue and Patrick Claybon to get you caught up on all you need to know about the AFC headed into free agency, the crew starts with the AFC East (03:20) followed by the AFC North (16:30), the AFC South (33:10), and the AFC West (48:25).  Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Free agency, combine, pro days, trades. Every move matters. From my draft boards and mock drafts. To my vaunted top 101 free agents and how rosters come together. Quarterback movement. Surprise signings. We'll tell you what it means. And who really.

really wins. Open your free IHeart radio app. Search 40s and free agents and listen now. Welcome to NFL Daily, where finally the claymates can be satiated. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio for the first time in a couple weeks. Good to be back. I'm with Jordan Rod Rieg. We spoke with her on Monday, so it's great to be in person with you. But for the first time in a couple weeks, yes, not just the Clay Bayes out there, but the Clay Bon Vivant's. The Clay Bonnie Bears. Ooh, that was one I forgot about. What's up, Patrick Claibon? Just glad

to be back in proximity with you guys. I was glad that the world got access to you, but I'm and we're back to talk ball, which is what we're put on this earth to do. I mean, I'd like to think I'm a good family man too. If I had to choose,

you know, I was put on this earth, hopefully for them just as much as ball, but I do love ball. No, yeah. Well, Greg put on earth rankings, obviously family tennis I don't know why I took issue with that well he loves to rank things so

yeah I really do and then talking ball is in the top 10 ranking I do love I do love to rank I love to eat I love to rank things that I ate we're going to be ranking things later on this show during the week the top 101 is coming out

on this show you scare me for a second I was like I'm unprepared exclusively on NFL daily for the first time on Friday my my written editor doesn't know. People are getting access to the list early on this show. That's, that's absolutely right. And my written editor doesn't know, but he probably doesn't listen to the show. So we'll see if that

flies. I maybe blew that by talking about it early. How far along have you gotten in your blurbs? Because about 16 hours ago when I last few, you were. Oh, I haven't started the blur. The blurbs are the easy part. Sorting and figuring out and doing the research is the hard part. But this day, I wouldn't say it's hard, but it's important because we got a lot to get to. It's around the AFC. Frazing, it's a big day. We're going to hit all 16 teams in the

AFC, and we're going to talk about what they got to do this off-season, big questions, potential cuts, trades, whatever we want to talk about. We're going to hit your AFC team, and then we're going to hit the entire NFC team, the entire NFC on

Thursday show. Because we have the Capacity. Yes, we do. That will include the Cardinals, who their head coach, Michael Fleur, said Wednesday morning. He's looking for two things in coaches. Okay. Character. Good. And capacity. Hey-o. Like load capacity? I guess you can... Capacity for what? To be able to do a lot of different things? I don't know. I mean... So shouldn't that be versatility? I don't know. Were they put on this earth to talk ball?

They, no, they were put on this earth to coach ball in an almost impossible situation. And I wish them well. But we're not talking Cardinals today. It's around the AFC. We're going to have three minutes. I don't think we should have any timeouts. We got to stick to this three minutes. We did the extra 30 seconds.

We're doing a full three minutes because there's a lot to get to with all these teams. And then we're moving on. So if you haven't said your piece by the end of the three minutes, you got to save it for another show. And we're going to start with the Buffalo Bills. and I'm going to start the proceedings. So let's get it going. Look, the bills are $11 million over the cap. They have a ton of free agents.

They have a lot to do in general. Connor McGovern, David Edwards, their interior offensive line, both free agents. Joey Bosa, Matt Milano, AJ Epinessa, and then a whole slew of kind of the old guys, Jordan Poirer, Tradavius White,

Darius Slay. They could all be gone. They might be looking to, cut or trade, Doss and Knox, Curtis Samuel could be gone, Taylor Rap could be gone. So there's a lot to do here and not a ton of cap space. It's a new head coach, but in theory, like the same regime. I'll start with you, Patrick. What do you think is the biggest priority or out of everything I just said,

is there something that concerns you a little bit? Yes, the thing that concerned me coming in to the Buffalo Bill season, which started famously in our regular season and a very upset, agitated Brandon Bean talking about the audacity to think that this team needs help at wide receiver. The team needs help at wide receiver. The team needs talent on defense

because the guy that would be best suited to facilitate the defense that as it's currently existed is the guy that just got fired. So, yeah, talent on both sides of the ball, but particularly in the place where they've needed talent for years. Don't you think this is one of those polls on a team that it's just obvious, like they're going to do everything possible.

Like if they do nothing else this off season, they're just going to get receivers. They're going to listen and open that complaint box and they're going to satisfy that. And that always worries me about an off season when there's like one big thing. It's like the Bengals this year, it's like, we're just going to get pass rushers.

And like you got to worry about the whole team. It's a time to reset under Joe Brady. Well, they, I would imagine a lot of those guys will end up departing that you mentioned on the defensive side because even though Joe Brady has been there, with the Sean McDermick coach teams. It's not his defense. He even mentioned in his press conference,

I'm looking forward to getting to know some of you guys on the other side of the ball better. So this is going to be guys that they probably are letting walk at a lot of different positions and drafting to get younger on that side of the ball. And also, because he's an offensive-minded head coach and they could not have beaten us over the head with it any clearer, this regime is all about maximizing Josh Allen.

It wouldn't be surprising to me if they go super cheap and young. young on defense through the draft in parts and cheap free agents and then max everything out on the offensive side. I think that's a great point. I think the defense is going to have a reimagining. And I think Joe Brady's done a quietly nice job with his coaching staff. I did want to hit this.

Jim Leonard, an exciting young defensive coordinator who a lot of people around the league are high on. Pete Carmichael, Sean Payton's old caddy at offensive coordinator in Denver. He's going to be kind of the caddy for Joe Brady in the mix. John Fox is in the building. They got Pat Meyer, the Steelers Offensive line, who I think did pretty good. Bo Hardegree was a guy who's done pretty well as a QB coach.

I think it's been an interesting coaching staff. And I look at the roster. I just see a lot of needs everywhere. And the interior offensive line worries me the most. The problem with caddies at positions is guys who would normally be elevated to the actual position aren't getting there. And so in this cyclical retread coaching society that we have, we're missing out on some guys.

Especially a guy like Pete Carmichael, who literally did not want to get elevated anymore when he was in New Orleans. Accidentally became important at my job. First day of my life. Miami Dolphins, Patrick. You're up. Yes.

So I understand that the new GM was a longtime Packer. I understand that the head coach was a Packer for a brief amount of time. And there's this general perception what seems like, well, it's going to be Green Bay South. I think the most notable thing about the Packers is they are the Green Bay Packers. they will remain in Green Bay.

500,000 plus owners are not Stephen Ross. And so there are going to be some things that are very similar with regards to the structure of this team. And so I understand free agency has been, hey, let's go get this, this flashy thing. We're signing this. And there's still going to be, I believe, players. But in terms of acquiring talent, I think Caleb Downs, I'm going to mission Caleb Downs a lot for teams here. in this podcast and a lot until we get to the draft because they're right there in a spot

where they could perhaps take the best player available. I don't know if that circumstance where there's just been this general fiction of, oh, well, you know, the safety position, you don't necessarily get the positional value out of that. I think we may be running out of time on that as we've had big time contributors available in the teens in like early parts of that.

late parts of the top 10 if I could think about numbers there. So I think that's where you go in terms of cornerback because they have a severe need there. Jalen Watson should be available right around 15 to $20 million range, which is not a lot of money. Stephen Ross is a lot of money to me.

And I don't want it for Malik Willis. I think this team is going to lose a lot of games. And if we're talking about things we want, I don't want Malik Willis to go down to Miami and lose games. PFT, Mike Florio, my old boss, throughout the idea that could Miami take the entire $99 million dead cap hit for Tuatunga Vailoa this year

and just kind of eat it. And it's going to be a reset year anyways. I don't think they're going to have the money for Malik Willis necessarily. I think they're going to have to take a little bit of their medicine. They made all these cuts. They have a bit of cap space, but they're low on the list.

The two players to me, I guess three, because I wouldn't want them to part with Jalen Waddle either. But like the two players, players to me that absolutely are must keeps here are Andrew Brewer, the center, and Devin A. Chan, who I can never say his last name correctly the first time. And everything else is a rebuild. And when you float out and when Mike Floreo floats out that 99 mil, I think that is so possible. I think that is so possible to just eat the pain in this one year. I just wonder, like,

literally how they could do it cap-wise. When I'm looking at the cap hit, it just seems very difficult. You're not going to have a quarterback anyway. way, right? I mean, and at best you're going to bring in a bridge quarterback. And then you have either guys that you're two years away from moving on from or a bunch of guys that are young that you need to just keep intact, you know,

one more year until you actually can build a solid roster around them and they're on their cheap their cheap first year contracts or their second year contracts in this case. So I think that's super possible. It sounds insane, but I think it's possible. All right, you're up with the Patriots. Yes, your New England

Patriots, Greg. The Patriots dramatically outperformed expectations this season by getting to the Super Bowl. And one silver lining from that loss, in my opinion, is that it showcased exactly what they need to prioritize in their roster this offseason, and that's the offensive line. And Mike Rable actually was pretty adamant that he doesn't want to kick left tackle. Will Campbell really struggled all season and especially in the Super Bowl to the inside. But to me, that actually sounded like a coach more having the back of his player in the moment and maybe something that he softens his stance on as the further they get into training

camp and especially once he gets a look at some of the players available in this draft class. Their top free agent is Caleb-Von-Cheson, but they could stand to beef up the edges regardless. They were blitzing a ton through the latter third of the season and into the playoffs. And Mike Vrable's going to want to rush a little bit better with fewer players. There's some big names available at Edge, both in the trade market and in free agency. and I think you're on to something there that that might be somewhere they look. They don't have the crazy amount of cap space

that they had a year ago, but they got 40 million. They can create more. They have more than enough, and their drafts haven't been great. I do wonder if they get the Christian Gonzalez contract done this offseason or not. I worry that that could be a lingering issue. And it's a question to me

whether they bring Stefan Diggs back. You would think that they would, and I do think they will ultimately. But he's sort of on a year by year. it's a fresh new $22 million contract every year. And if they wanted even more cap space, they don't really need. They could cut digs if they wanted to go for a guy like a Mike,

if they wanted to swap him out for a Mike Evans or go for like a younger player. Like make a trade. Brian Thomas Jr. would be my dream. Or instead of going year by year there, you could do an extension now for a couple of years, get some of that money back and then invest that in other parts. Yeah.

I think that Gonzalez contract extension, that might be where, to me, that's where I would put a lot of this cap space that they have in this year toward an extension. And then also be really realistic about the rest of their roster because what they went and did was spend really high in free agency knowing that their quarterback in Drake May could get them to a certain contention level if they built up enough and went out and bought enough talent around him.

But they absolutely are thin. They need to supplement a lot of talent through the draft and eventually start replacing some of those. those higher paid guys with draft picks that they develop. And it's a special team's team. Mike Vrabel wants to use his special teams as an offensive weapon because he is a defensive-oriented head coach. And that means you need depth everywhere else on the roster.

And they just don't have very good depth. No, they don't. They have almost their whole offense returning if they want, which that's good. So that kind of gives you a little depth, a chance to build. But the drafts just haven't been great despite, you know, Drake May being a part of it in the last couple of years. And if you look at their linebackers, their cornerback,

even their offensive line outside of Campbell, who's going to be part of their future? Like, who's there in two years? They need a lot of, like, core pieces. I got the Jets. This is more of a bigger question. Every team can sell hope. Is there any hope with the Jets?

We will find a way. They will find a way. The fans always find a way. But as we sit here in mid-February, this feels close to as hopeless as a second year head coach situation has been in a long while. The moment where I really lost like all semblance of hope was when he fired half his coaching staff three weeks into the off season. And then he wanted a defensive play caller. And then something changed, whether it was ownership or Aaron Glenn just changed his mind.

Then he fired everyone. Then he has Frank Reich. And it's just rough. The hope, I guess, would be that they have $66 million in cap space and a mostly clean slate. You know, like their free agents are Breece Hall, Quincy Williams. They're going to cut Justin Fields. They need everything, including a quarterback,

but they do have money to spend. But I do worry that Muzi and Glenn know they don't have much time, and it's just spending bad money to try to make this season work. And that's just continuing a vicious cycle. It is a tough situation right now. Yeah, they're one year and two years and three years removed from a tough situation. I think, like, our general idea about the state of the Jets necessarily over these regimes hasn't necessarily... But at least Robert Sala had a defense, like had something you could hold on to.

I think the offensive line is maybe something you could hold on to. Maybe there's the hope. Yeah. So we find that hope in the offensive line. We realize where the team has been long term and we set our expectations there versus the expectations being to the moon. And they get their, you know, multi-time. MVP back off of a torn Torne Achilles and they go five and 12.

Right. They have so many picks. You got to think. That's the hope. Good point. They have so many draft picks because of the Soss Gardner trade and the Quinn and Williams trade. And it's There's the issue with that. But what will they do with them? So it's like

all of us are watching like Trinidad Chambleus in court fighting for his, you know, his future to stay in college just one more year. Please don't send me to the New York Jets kind of situation. But I would expect them to try to make a splash for a quarterback with some of those picks.

Now, the Raiders are not going to move out of this pick. We'll get to that in a minute. But somewhere across the league, I expect the Jets knowing they do have an offensive line here, and it's a pretty solid one, actually, to try to push some of those chips in for a quarterback. I think they'll wait on a QB. I mean, I'm not counting Kyler Murray even as he would be a splash and he would be interesting.

to me, that's almost like the highest splash possibility that they could get. I would almost feel better if they sign a lot of guys that are kind of patches and they really focus on the draft. They even get more picks. They have two and 16. Like, just get all the picks. Get all the young players. Go on a long timeline.

You're operating under the assumption that anyone has had a long timeline on that team. Good point. You made the point. They don't have the, you know, the flexibility to think long term, right? That sucks. We're into the AFC North, a division that disappointed, frankly, in 2025. I'll say. Let's start with your team, the Ravens.

Okay, so the Baltimore Ravens, obviously, Jesse Miner comes in. Declan Doyle, probably. What a name. Most people want to think about. And with Sean Payton, who had a more traditional fullback, Ben Johnson, if you want to, because those are the links that people have for the youngest offensive coordinator in the league now, who's actually going to be coordinating the offense, which is great. He's not in a caddy spot, which.

Why would you have people do that? But Pat Ricard is a free agent. It's important to note that he has never fullback Pat Ricard has always out snapped defensive lineman Pat Ricard. He has a fullback. He can and has been successful at fullback, I think uniquely gifted at the position where he comes back. I think likely could walk.

Isaiah likely, yes. You let him walk. You utilize the franchise's all-time leading score at tight end where they've been able to have success with the quarterback. Tyler Huntley is back this idea that there's another backup quarterback where you come in and it's like, oh, you know, this guy won some games for the Cowboys. That was

a lie and a myth and we get rid of that. Snoop is a free agent, though. You got to re-sign him. I thought about putting him in the 101. Some good tape from Snoop this year. You should bring him back. I am he. Gilman, I think, needs to be back. Linderbaum needs to come back. DJ has mocked Jordan Tyson

for the team and I understand that there's this is going back years. you get a running mate for Zay Flowers. You get more help for Lamar at wide receiver. But he's also got Peter Woods, the Clemson defensive lineman, falling to 30. It would seem like, you know, hope, a little hopium if you're trying to trade back and get a guy you want. But they need to be able to cause some problems on the interior of the defensive line. Because I think the issues at Edge kind of overshadowed that, but they have leads all the way up there to kind of cause problems there.

And one thing you could also do is since Callais is still playing. football. You could sign Kaleas. If we're going to chase rings, let's do it in Baltimore. And I think that. Oh, that would be. I like that fit in a Jesse Minter defense, just taking up space in those light boxes. Man, that'd be, that's a good one. I love that. And my question with them is, is bigger picture. Like, look, they just changed their head coach for the first time in almost two decades. How big of a reimagining is this going to be? Because he's from the staff. But this is a transitional offseason. They have 20. $2 million in cap space, but I'm not sure they're going to keep Tyler Linderbaum,

which seems crazy for a guy who's made some all-pro teams. But then you go through guys who just contributed last year. Charlie Kohler was a big player for them. Kyle Van Noi, Aloi Gilman, is Namdi Madabweke retiring or not? We kind of have this feeling that he's going to. Are they going to cut Marlon Humphrey? I'm not sure if he's going to be around next year. Is Roquan Smith absolutely locked in?

Like, how kind of reimagining do we get? because this would traditionally, first year new head coach, be the year that you're like, oh, wow. Like, it wouldn't shock me if De Costa kind of went a little bigger in changing things than usual. Similar conversation to the bills, though. I think maximizing Lamar in this offense, I know we're over time.

I think about the tight end position. They're going to want two tight ends, but they would potentially have a lot of money tied up in these two tight ends if they keep Isaiah likely as well. You can bring Kohler back who's good. Ollie wants him on the top 101. All right, you're up with the Browns. Hot damn.

I know, that was the other one, other than the Jets. I was just like, hmm. The Cleveland Browns once again proved. They are a beacon of football process and team cohesion. Throughout a coaching search in which multiple candidates dropped out, they lost one of the best D.Cs in the NFL because he actually wanted the job, but they passed on him. And reports leaked about asking other candidates

to complete personality assessments and written assignments for the head coaching job. So while there is fun potential with Todd Munkin, the guy who they eventually hired several elements of this offense as well, including Quinchon Judkins and Harold Fannin Jr. And they need to go draft receiver with a high pick. None of it will matter if they don't answer the quarterback question. And guys, there's a big quarterback question because Shudor Sanders is penciled in right now as the starter, especially after finishing out last season. He'll enter his second season. and meanwhile, the Deshawn Watson Media Machine

is starting to quietly put some stuff out there about his preparation to return and possibly play in 2026. Sounds like it was discussed with candidates for that job as well. Curious about you guys' thoughts on that one. Just cook. Go for it, Greg. I would say I'd believe it when I see it, but it is the Browns, and they have been stubborn with Deshawn Watson,

and if they can try to find any way to extract a little bit of value out of this disaster, maybe it would know nothing would surprise me anymore. It's just great. It just doesn't see. I think the reason is basically it's so painful financially to get rid of them anyways. You're just like, why bother? But it's another year where you're just kicking things down the road. I would make the argument as of mid-February, this is one of the worst.

offseason offenses in the last 20 years. Because they literally don't have an offensive line. Right. And they have... This has been pointed out and I'm glad you're bringing this up. We've said it on this show all season long that they don't have an offensive line. $78 million in dead money that hasn't even hit yet because they haven't made the cuts. Their number one receiver is Jerry Judy, who was kind of a disaster.

Quinchot Junkins was great, but he's coming off a very serious injury. And so it's not going to be ready for a long time. And Shadur is the quarterback like... And David Injoku, for what it's worth, is a free agent. That's a tough one. But they do have the Mike Rutenberg Bible to study every night. I actually understood that reference. The interesting part about this is that the defensive side of the ball obviously is very good.

And they drafted well there as well. Carson Swettinger was a great acquisition by them. But again, you're overhauling your entire system again because you let Jim Schwartz walk out of the building. So this is, it's new everywhere. And if it's going to be this new in every phase, you definitely don't want to have questions at quarterback. And you don't want to have your entire offensive line contractually expiring

at the start of the new league year. Like, what? I think you could take tiny bites at the problem, like extending Delpit. I know it's a couple of years away from a Denzel award, or maybe one year away from an award extension. You could do award extension. I know like your, you know, Peter and Paul's relationship is going to be altered a little bit there,

but you got to choose one. Yeah, I, it's eight, but hey, Andrew Barry's got this. If anyone can pull this off. The fact that they have all these void years in these players that aren't going to be there, I think is kind of a fiasco. Let's see. Joel Betonio might retire. Well, when you've already acquired the most dead money

in league history, you might as well acquire more dead money via void years, right? If you can, why not? It's not real. Some cost is a logical fallacy. Yeah, credit to Jimmy Haslam. He does spend the actual cash that many other teams don't, and it hasn't been well spent.

The Bengals are kind of on the other side of that. Every year, every offseason has a theme for the Bengals. Remember last year it was like, we're going to start fast. That's all they cared about. That's all they talked about. We're going to start fast. Then they had injuries.

It didn't really happen. I think that the theme this year, is just going to be defense again, but especially pass rushers, been some buzz of like they're going to be going after some of the young pass rushers on the market. I mean, they would have had less of a pass rush issue if they had given Trey Hendrickson a long-term contract.

Then again, Trey Hendrickson didn't play much football for them last year. They have $53 million in cap space. And yeah, all their needs are really on defense and the interior of their offensive line. Not a lot of logical cuts. And so that's good. They are a good combination of cap space, a ton of it,

and not a ton of meaningful free agents after Trey Hendrickson, Joseph Asai might get some money out there. Cam Taylor Britt will, someone will give a shot to, but he wasn't playing much. And so, like Duke Tobin and they,

they decided to believe in this group. Zach Taylor, Duke Tobin for another offseason. Do you think maybe they'll get a little more, like, win nowish than they've been in recent years? I don't know if the win now aspect has been the issue. Yeah, that's fair. I think they honestly believe they had an opportunity to win now with what was available and that Al Golden was going to bring what it needed to lead a young defense to be just enough

that was clearly not just enough. It was a negative in that capacity. And yeah, there's players available that they can sign in free agency. Are they going to do it? They have and they've gotten a lot of grief for not spending, but they've spent fairly normal and they just resigned their own guys. They tend to go for the guys who go

for like two for 20 in free agency. Like whatever Joseph Assai is going to get somewhere else, those are the types of guys that they might go after. So maybe not the top of the market, but maybe an AJ Epinessa or an Arnold Abacetti at Edge Rush. That can give them in the playoffs though. Yeah, stuff like that. The problem that they had was they overestimated how low the floor

or underestimated how low the floor could be for this defense. because a great offense, especially in the NFC, where everybody's trying to just load up in an offensive arms race essentially right now, especially with the chiefs down, you just need a stable floor for your defense, and you have to know what that floor is. And they clearly had no actual clue

what that floor, the depths of despair to which it could sink the rest of this team. Question for you guys. Do you think we'll get some Joe Burrow trade speculation in the next two weeks? I will be driving most of the next two weeks. of it. Really?

I know. I'd love to see it. I mean, this is the regular season. Why wouldn't you love to see it? I always want a semblance of reality to it. And could other teams put it out there that they could give like all the picks for Joe Burrow? Maybe.

It seems unrealistic to me at this point. The reason why I think that, and it might be unrealistic, but the reason the noise, you asked about noise specifically, the reason the noise will continue is because it's already started. There's been reports surfacing about like Miami. Tammy trying to trade for him. It's like, oh, we're going to turn down four first round picks. Like, sorry.

There's already been, there's already been stuff. I think the Bengals are the rare team that you would be like, I'll give you five first round picks and four second round picks. They'd be like, nah, we're not going to bother. If the Bengals were the ones that leaked that report, they're telling you exactly what their price is. It's all that plus something else. I think it would be next year if it ever happened.

It'd have to be like another. I do think there are multiple teams that need quarterback. I would like to have Joe Burrow play for their football. I agree with that. And I think the Pittsburgh Steelers would be one of them. You're up, Patrick. Yes, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the first thing they can do this offseason. Go ahead and announce that Aaron Rogers is going to play one more season.

Most of us do not care. But a lot of people, I think, would solve some organizational issues. If you go ahead and get that out of the way, him at Mike McCarthy, one last dance, which means MVS, who is a free agent, will be coming back and we can have, you know, Green Bay less south. I don't want him to come back, but I guess I would feel like it would disingenuous. to say I do not care because we'll cover it here on the show. Yeah, no, I care as much about Kyle Van Nuys location. Okay.

Right? Where is he going to care? Yeah. I have a little, a little, I don't want to stop you here, but I did have this lesson for Walker, and I'm sure it was extremely annoying. I've now come to the realization. The number one way that you can show that you care is to say, I do not care. You always care if you say I do not care.

If you didn't care, you just wouldn't say anything. If anything, it's sort of showing a little bit of a weakness. In terms of the impact that I believe it will have on the 2026. Yes. I don't mean you in this case. I do not think that Aaron Rogers will have a significant impact on the outcome. So the 2026 NFL regular season. He did it.

He brought it back around. Sorry for killing the Steelers segment. I just love that every time it cuts to a one. A one shot of Patrick. All we just see is the word Larry. Yes, Patrick is wearing a T-shirt called Larry the Brain Frog. Maybe we'll give the Steelers a little more time. Go ahead, Patrick.

sorry for ruining what was going to be an electric. No, we can make it more about Greg. We can extend a couple of players who were very close to Greg's heart, Kyle Darger, the former Patriot, and team MVP, which Greg likes to say derisively, Kenneth Gainwell because of like a two-season long beef with regards to my... I love Kenneth Gainwell. It's derisive to the Steelers.

I love this. I need more of it. This is my love language. Yeah. So I think Gibral-Jepper, if I could say that, needs to come back as well. The rest of the free agents, you know,

not to, you know, diminish the impacts of Andrews Pete or Isaac Samalo. So, Seamalo's that guy where I sent this list out and everyone's like, oh yeah, he's going to get a ton of money.

I was like, okay, I didn't know that. It's interesting. James Pierre played kind of well for them. They might, maybe, I think they're got to cut Jalen Ramsey. I think he'll be in addition to my top 101.

You're just looking for possible transactions. But also a shout out to Mike at Ford Team Gear, who was watching a fantasy live and made a t-shirt celebrating Larry the Brain Frog and sent it to us. We appreciate you, Mike. And that was because you had a, you tried to say the word brain fog.

Yes. Coming off COVID or just a sickness? No. Anesthesia. Yeah, it was some anesthesia the day before. And I tried to say brain fog. And I said, brain frog. And it's like the tweet about the grink.

Grink. Yeah. You know, the question, was the grink there? That was it. It became a thing. a character on our show. Greg, I already forgot the story.

I remember, you know, we're live on the show. I would also like to see Pittsburgh get a two, like a really solid two receiver. Yes. I think that would just take their offense from very mediocre to having the layers that it needs to have.

My medium warm take is this team is not that far away. And actually, I kind of get the vision of not like rebuilding. If nothing else. I don't know if Mike McCarthy was a good choice. But I think that they can win this year. You know what I mean? Like they have a good office.

offensive line and a good defensive line. That's a great place to start. Also, I did want to point out, we're taking a little extra time here with the Steelers. One thing I really loved in San Francisco, Santa Clara, and then on social media throughout the end of the season as we kind of were celebrating, okay, it's over,

is a lot of people telling me what they really loved about this season were the co-hosts popping up. I mean, and elevating. And you have your Jordan, fans. A lot of people told me that. She's my favorite. Why didn't you tell me that? I'm going to use this. Because you got to save it for the show, you know, where it can be maximized. I'm just kidding. It just, it came up now. I haven't seen you since the Super Bowl. I saw you yesterday.

Okay, other than that. That was brief. That's brief. And a lot of people, I heard a lot of like, oh, Patrick's my favorite. And I passed one along from a notable media member. But I got a few of these too. It was like, it was a big year for Patrick. Yes. Elevating too. And a lot of big time shook fans. And so it was like different people have different favorites, but I think everyone really liked like the consistency and how you guys are on the show so much.

And it's our show together. And that feels amazing. So nothing made me feel better at the end of the season than here and from the claymates. And we got to think of the rod, you know. Rod squad. The Rod Regents? Yeah. The rim rods.

I don't know what's going on. No, no. Let's take a break. We'll be back with the AFC South. Apologies to the Steelers fans. Not big, but it's important. This month, IHeart Radio is celebrating the stars of the 2026 Winter Games. Born and raised in Torrance, California,

Chloe Kim returns to the half pipe to make history. After dominating the last two Olympics, she drops into the Milano Cortina pipe, aiming for an unprecedented third consecutive gold medal. With her signature massive air and technical, double corks, she remains the undisputed queen of the sport. Kim is ready to prove once again that the road to the podium goes through her. For more Winter Games gold, search Olympics on the IHeart Radio app.

I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith. We're putting loneliness in the penalty box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship. This is bromance. Bromance is brought to you by Charmed Diamond Centers, proudly Canadian-owned and operator. Charm has been part of your love stories and bromances for over 50 years. And you can find bromance on the Iheart Radio Network or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Daniel Jeremiah.

And I'm Greg Rosenthal. And this is 40s and free agents. The games may be over, but the NFL never stopped. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Free agency, the combine. The NFL draft Pro Days, trades. This is where teams reshape their future.

This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money. On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually mess. matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits to my top 101 free agents and how real rosters are built, cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move. We got teams rebuilding. It's hope season. Yeah, absolutely. It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis. Listen to 40s and free agents on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Back on NFL Daily, and we are ready to throw it to the leader of the Rod squad. Jordan, Roderig. Oh, my God. And a team that became near and dear to her heart. Yes. Houston, Texans. My beloved Houston Texans. To open this portion of the show, I would like to read aloud to you a post on social

media this week by the legendary and now retired Houston Chronicle columnist John McLean. If C.J. Stroud is traded, I'll walk naked down Kirby Drive at Rush Hour. Is anyone else willing to do it if he's not traded? Didn't think so. Basically, John McLean telling all of us that any discussion about C.J. Stroud potentially being on the trade block this offseason is ridiculous. And by the way, this man actually ate a newspaper after he had previously said, I forget what the scenario was, but he was wrong about said he would eat a newsboy.

Not a good track record. He basically, he's true to his word. So personally, you know, this is not happening, obviously. But it also... Todd McShay specifically is the one he's responding to. So I think that's important. Yeah, I was not clear on where that even came from. Todd McShay said...

Wow, we got a McBeef? No. But Todd McShay said on his podcast that Stroud could be a trade candidate. And so that if, you know, when the local news is looking for some stuff, then it's that particular... Bad job by me because I did not even know where that conversation even came from. In all seriousness, though, Houston does have straightforward answers to like this offseason test that they're going to be now facing. They need to keep improving the offensive line, obviously, developing the offensive scheme part and parcel with each other.

And the young skill guys are on Nico Collins. And they absolutely love Woody Marks, the running back who really blossom through the second half of this season. But they need to keep adding at running back. And Joe Mixon could actually be a cap cut for this team. The plan for Houston is really obvious and simple to me. they can keep the plan simple because they mostly have really, really, really good players, especially on defense and to maximize this defense while it is still intact. They got a couple of pending free agents on the interior defensive line,

who I think they will make a priority to resign. But the floor of the offense just has to be higher. They were a 12 and 5 team last season in the regular season that lost four of its five losses by just one touchdown or less. And in those four games, held their opponents under 20 points. Not much cap room. You get Tank Dell back potentially from that devastating injury. So that's like adding a player.

But free agents, Ed Ingram actually, I think, is going to get a lot of money, which sounds crazy in free agency, probably not from the Texans. You mentioned Sheldon Rankins was the guy. They probably want to bring back settle too. Christian Kirk's another guy who made himself some money. It's tricky. I don't think C.J. Stroud is going to get traded.

I, you know, the theater of John McClain walking down the street naked would be something. Just people's reaction or you want to actually? No, I don't want to see it, but just the fact that if it happened, I'm sure they would blur it out like on the, I don't know, news when they put it on the news.

Because that would make the news. It would make the news? I think so. I mean, he's like the most famous journalist in Houston potentially. for sports walking down the street naked because CJ Stroud got traded. The stakes are high.

I think there's a loophole where you could create a structure where he's still walking down the street naked but he's not necessarily visible. I just think it's such a like the vision for what this team is is so clear and it's so straightforward like what needs to happen for them to take the next step. And inclusive to the quarterback has to play better football

because he absolutely lost. it. Yeah. It was one disastrous game. That said, when I heard the trade thing, I was like, it wouldn't be the most shocking transaction I've ever seen if you did hear some whispers about that. I don't know.

Or if that they thought about that. I just, there's something there's something there. It'd be really dumb, though. And I don't think this would be the year that that would happen. But I don't know. That's my guess. I think there are some teams that need a quarterback that would like. Like, he would have a great market.

Would they think about it? If it is going to happen, it would not happen. what, two years before they have to pay him? Right. It would happen the year before they have to pay him. They can pick up his fifth year option this year. We got the Colts up next with me. It's a really tricky line for the Colts.

It's just a big question to me. How do they balance a very win now roster, a very win now year for Chris Ballard and Shane Stike and getting another chance when their owner says very explicitly like, Okay, we'll give them one more chance. The bar is extremely high. They have $35 million in Cap Space.

With the fact that their quarterback who's been very up and down throughout his career is unsigned, would take $47 million in Cap Space to franchise tag, and most importantly, is coming off a Tor and Achilles and might not play for much of the season or be good when he does play.

I don't think you can assume on top of just all the key players that have uncertain futures. Alec Pierce, Nick Cross at safety is great for them. Quitty Pay, I think, going to get money, not from the Colts. Braden Smith was their right tackle for years. He's considering retirement. He's also a free agent.

Germain Pratt, who played a lot for them as a free agent. Could they trade Michael Pittman? Is DeForest Buckner going to play again? Is Charvarius Ward ever going to play again? Is Grover Stewart going to be on this team? Like, there's just, there's a lot going on. And it actually, I think, makes the case to have kept Ballard. Because of the familiarity and, like, knowing this roster.

but it's a very tricky line, I think, to walk here about, like, they got a win, but they are high on the list of, I don't know what the hell is going to happen with this team this off season. And they're going to be extremely active, not by choice because of all these questions. Which is why I think they should be a player in the Malikwilus circumstance. Right. Right. That's what I mean. Like, that sort of outcome wouldn't totally shock me because it kind of makes some sense.

Riley Leonard also wasn't bad, guys. I was assigned to the Riley Leonard games this year, too. Like, he really wasn't bad. Like, as a bridge for the first part of the season. I think he's a lot worse. Was he good enough that you'd be okay him starting your whole season? Because I think you'd have to accept that.

But that's not the parameter here. Right. But I think you have to accept that as a possibility. But you only have to accept that as a possibility if you're going to owe him money and you're not. He's on his rookie deal. Like that really, I don't think you can frame it in that parameter because that parameter is not.

I guess it depends who else other than Daniel Jones if you bring back Daniel Jones, would you have with him? I think a team has already been in this circumstance. stance where dimes is coming off an injury and they have a choice between an explosive player or bringing back dimes and it was saquan the last time it's alec Pierce uh this time just go ahead and extend pierce yeah that's what i said and i know i'm biased because it's one of my favorite players but like instead of doing all the the capture canary and the idea that he may walk and then tagging him and just go ahead and extend him now pay someone known you pay a known entity and the known entity is he's

going to make your offense more productive when he's on the field the unknown entities are the injury recovery. Yeah. And we talked about Michael Pittman as a potential, you know, trade candidate. If you wanted to pick up some picks that that you've lost. But the defensive stuff really worries me a lot more than I think people are talking about. Those are some good players. Buckner, Cross, Charverius Ward, Quitty Pay. Like on top of all this Daniel Jones stuff, it's a lot going on. A lot going on with the Jags this year. They were fun. And they're in an interesting spot. I'm curious where you're going. Yes. And they have a need at cornerback. benefit is they trade it up number three for a generational player who they can play at cornerback. And I think you start there, you go ahead and commit and you say that he's going to be a

cornerback. Yeah, we'll play him at wide receiver when they need to. But they have they don't have a need at wide receiver. They have a need at cornerback. So I think Travis Hunter plays corner. I went into this exercise hoping to defend Eric Armstead because he played 60% of the snaps and they were a spectacular run

defense. They were a full yard and a half better when Eric Armstead was not on the field. So if you can find a trade partner there, you go ahead and do that. Maybe a cut candidate type situation. And make Devin Lloyd an offer at the very least. Don't just go into this. I hope James Gladstone doesn't just go into this with the idea.

Well, it's going to be too expensive. So let's not just make Devin Lloyd an offer to try to bring him back. I know the idea that E.T.N. and him coming back is maybe, you know, a lot of opium in that. But he earned money last year. the team was great with him last year. And I think this is a roster as constructed in 2025 that can win the Super Bowl if they're able to get, you know, a few more pieces in certain spots. So, yeah, just try, try to bring Devin Lloyd back.

Bill Barnwell brought up Walker Little as a potential trade candidate. They can save some money with a few other cuts. But they are $13 million over the cap. So they're not a team that has a ton of wiggle room. And they can make it. They need to help their offensive line. They need to help the secondary, especially. has free agents and needs.

So Travis Hunter fills one spot, but Buster Brown was maybe their best cornerback last year, and he's a free agent. Greg Newsom, who they gave up Tyson Campbell for, who struggled, is probably leaving the ship. So they're going to be active.

I think they need help stopping the run, like at defensive tackle and everything. So there's a lot going on here. BTJ could be traded. Yeah, and that's where you could recoup some of your draft capital, and that's where you could also, you know, not factor him in in your roster financial math moving forward. I do think that that's a possibility.

One of the things that was interesting all season was watching them move things around in little shifts across that entire offense. And the combination of just knowing the background that James Gladstone comes from, and yes, I agree they should make an offer to Devin Lloyd. I would hope that James Gladstone learns more from the Ernest Jones situation.

than he did from the rest of the Rams maneuverings at inside linebacker over the years, especially in this day and age of the league. But at a certain point, you're just not going to pay a huge amount of money to a guy who you came into the fifth year, or came into his final year, not even sure he was going to be on your roster the following year. Same with running back. Now, just operationally, I can't speak for the team, but operationally and historically speaking, this is a GM whose background is we can go. find more running backs.

And they love facial tutin. They're fine there. I totally agree. And I like John Shipley, who covers the Jaguars on SI, had a couple connections that made sense to me, just talking about the coaches. Maybe a little Tyler Higby has the backup tight end there. I like, and then Malcolm

Coons, the defensive line coach in Jacksonville. I think he'd be a good buy low candidate was also the defensive line coach for Coons in his good season. Those are just some very under the radar, maybe day three type of free agent pickups. They could facilitate the goodwill between the folks in Nashville and them. I know there's going to be great communication and late night text.

There's reunite Armstead with Bob Sala as a show of, hey, you know, we're- I can see that. We're friends here in division trade. As a gesture of goodwill. You might get away with just, if you're the Titans, just, all right, you can cut Armstead and then we'll sign him. But either way, let's go to that team, the Titans. Okay.

So I'm going to be honest with you guys. I have no idea how this is going to. go for the Tennessee. Nobody does. This year. On the one hand, though, it is amazing content so far. I mean, look at this glorious bald head energy coming out of the Tennessee Titans building right now.

Robert Sala is collecting the follically challenged Infinity Stones over here in Tennessee. And I love to see it. You know. A minimum of nine bald coaches on the staff. Yes. Yeah. Including all the coordinators,

Dable Bradley and then the head coach. Yes. And every single one of them just really, I worry about them in the sun, I would say. Here's the problem. I don't know the assistant who's in the bottom middle, but he hasn't really gone home yet. He hasn't decided to give up the ghost. He's got some hair back there. So I think he's going to be insulted that the team retweeted this bald guy.

This picture is probably how he found out. He's like, okay, it's time to go home. I do find it interesting that this is the first Mike Borgonzi is actually running the show offseason. This changes every Tennessee off season. And they have $103 million in cap space to spend. So they're going to be active. And what's interesting is, and I think that Robert Sala will especially have a say with that front office in shaping,

specifically the defense. I think that he's hired people, and I'll get to this a minute, but he's hired people who he feels he can be a little bit more hands off on in other coordinator spots. but with the defense especially because he's calling it, I think he'll want to use a lot of that money in building a sort of an identity and keep this defense creditable

as it was all season despite their win-loss record. Plus have to get Cam Ward some help. Elegio Manor was great. Showed some pop at various points through the year, but they need every other receiver spot. All right, here's just some candidates. Sala guys. Jonathan Franklin Myers

It was good He's a free agent Quincy Williams Free agent was a solid guy How about some dable guys? Wondale I could see that I saw our old friend

Justin Graver suggests that one Would they ever trade for Nick Bosa Would they ever Dewan Jennings? Joanne Jennings is one Like there are the guys

guys out there And the thing that I have dynamically speaking The curiosity I have About this staff Especially I will be fascinated To dig more into this throughout the season is there's it's such a miss miss mish mash okay i said it right of huge

personalities under robert salla like he hired guys who either were head coaches or at one point had their hat in the ring to be head coaches at every single coordinator position brian dable gus bradley who is also one of robert salla's mentors from from way way back and john fossil who is about as high octane as special teams coach as it actually gets so for more me, all of these guys, basically joining forces in one building is going to be so fascinating to me because if it goes well, everybody has their own island in a good way. If it goes poorly, everybody has their own island in a bad way in a building where there's been a lot of backstabbing in recent years. Tons of change coming. Calvin Ridley, Legerius Sneed, Will Levis, Tony Pollard,

all could be guys that aren't back. Free agents. Kevin Zitler, I think, is going to get some money. Chig O'Conqua is kind of interesting. A couple of the defensive players. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith. We're putting loneliness in the penalty box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship. This is bromance. Bromance is brought to you by Charm Diamond Centers, proudly Canadian-owned and operator. Charm has been part of your love stories and bromances for over 50 years.

And you can find Bromance on the IHeart Radio Network or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I'm Greg Rosenthal. And this is 40s and free agents. The games may be over, but the NFL. NFL never stopped. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg, free agency, the combine, the NFL draft, pro days, trades. This is where teams reshape their future.

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

It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis. Listen to 40s and free agents on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I am up with Denver.

Okay. Denver, I'll give the Broncos fans the love that they seem to crave from me specifically. They're always saying, why you hate on the Broncos? You've been hating on the Broncos. I don't know if there's a team that's in a better position

entering this off-season than the Broncos because they got plenty of cap space. They don't have any bad contracts that they need to cut and they don't have monster needs. That's where you want to be and the NFL has a way of humbling you

and you obviously get needs that you didn't realize you have. But to me, it's all of an additive off-season. We're in year four of this Peyton and Payton combo. And they're just adding to positions that are already okay. Obviously, you'd want a little more dynamism, I think, in the skill positions. That's probably like the one biggest need.

You want Bo to get healthy. But Jonathan Franklin Myers, Alex Singleton, Justin Stranoder, free agents. Like those are useful players. But overall, man, this is like a go time type of off season and find some, if there's a team that should feel okay overpaying a little for. guys that will be with the team for a couple years because they're available. I think they're in a good position to do that. To go after, like, find the guys you really want and go, just go get them.

Like, whoever you want the most this off season, go get them, Broncos. And I think that's, go in a Super Bowl. That could potentially be at running back because, I mean, Greg, we sat down with Garrett Bowles and man, he really wanted to run the ball more. I mean, other than the comments about Bo Nix and it would have been a different story, had Bo Nix been there. Could they be an E.T.N. team? Yeah, that's, I mean, exactly.

I think so. They could be, if Kenneth Walker doesn't get extended, they could be a Kenneth Walker team. They could be Rico Dowdle, Javonte. I mean, there's a lot of backs who could potentially be fits because Sean Payton will build around what those players do well. And they've got the offensive line truly to be able to plug somebody who's maybe not even at the top of the market back there,

but just somebody more experienced because you know that that's kind of what he's looking for as the head coach in his running back at this point, especially if they are so close to getting past this, like, I just felt like they thought they were a running back away. Or like a run game away. I don't want to blame the backs here. It's a great receiver room, but they just need a little more of a difference maker. Well, I think ETN helps in the run game and the receiving game as well,

a team that indexes so heavily on the screen where, you know, again. And Patrick have geeked out over that all year. love obviously would love Travis to stay in Jacksonville but you know go go get a bag for a team that can that is contending uh if not for you know 22 yards can i was going to say do you know now that i'm looking at it you know who i really want to see over there is kenneth gainwell why not you would be good for k the guy draft a receiver in the first round just it's a good receiver draft something something like that but um it'll be year two pat bryant who i think it'll be a bigger part yeah he had an impact as well i think that bowl's interview

will be instructive for us. I think this is a team. That loss hurt more, I think, than any loss for any of the teams this year because you lose your quarterback the game before. It's all right in front of you. It's pretty unique historically what happened and devastating. They got a chance to make it right this year. All right.

Let's go with the Chiefs, Patrick. All right. Obviously, Kelsey back. If Travis wants to play, Travis is going to play. You're going to sign them and pay them. Hollywood, I think, is gone. I think they need Coke back. because, you know, you're going to have a corner leaving, another corner leaving as this is now a...

Brian Cook, the safety, yeah, very high in my list. Spag tradition. And go ahead and part ways, considering money now an issue for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Gardner-Menschu thing has got to eventually be over. Just go ahead and say, if your backup option, which I think, honestly, the Kansas City Chiefs should be a player in the Kyler circumstance. Where Mahomes, who is the entire team, we've... this for multiple years. They'd be asking him to come back early. And I know he's, you know, working hard. He's going to try extra hard and everything.

The universe and the human body can only allow so much to the extent that he has needed to play. He needs to not play at the start of the season so that they can have some hope. So yeah, that's my overall Kansas City Chief thing is have Kyler Murray start the first six games,

go six and O. Man, chaos. If Kyler was smart and, well, it's so easy for me to say, but you'd have to just take less money and to rehab your value. Like, that'd be so good. I was trying to think, because whoever the Daniel Jones is of 2026, like, that'd be a great pickup for the chiefs. It shouldn't be minchew. And for a second, I was like,

I could almost see Andy Reid signing Aaron Rogers to do the first five weeks. Oh, my God. Here's what I think. It's too much. That would make me care because then it would matter. So Isaiah Pacheco is a free agent, right? He gone. Between that and also the most important.

move, I think the Kansas City Chiefs made this entire calendar year was bringing Eric Bienami back to as offensive coordinator. Sort of like not so subtly replacing Matt Nagy before he had actually left the building, which was one of the more. I mean, we didn't talk about it that much, but it was very much like, oh, it's happening right in front of you, right? Like, it's happening as you are, the seat is not cold yet. In fact, the seat has someone still sitting in it, but I respect it because Andy Reed kind

soften the blow a little bit there. That's huge because they have to reconstruct their run game. Their run game cannot largely run through Patrick Mahomes the way that it did, especially at the beginning of this season and will contribute to his susceptibility to injury in the future. He restructured his contract.

He being Patrick Mahomes on Wednesday morning. It opens up $45 million in cap space. It is the bank that the chiefs just go back to every year. Like a full quarterback franchise tag. Tom Brady got so much credit for being underprivile. paid and quote unquote helping the Patriots.

And I always thought it was overstated. But there was some, everything was there was some truth to it. The Patrick Mahomes thing, I don't think can be overstated. He is so underpaid. And the way his contract is structured that he never changes it helps them out a lot.

There's still $11 million over the cap. They can do it again with Chris Jones. But Rishie Rice is facing domestic violence allegations. I'm not sure Trent McDuffie is a lock to be back on this team. Leo Chanel's a good player. He's a free agent. Jalen Watson, you mentioned earlier. like Brett Veach, Andy Reid,

they're going to be making their money. There's just a lot going on. I'm fascinated by the Chiefs because they, you know, you ever see those graphics where it was like, if this team lost all their one score wins or you flip the one score results, what would their record be?

You know who like the best team in the NFL was last year? If you flipped the one score games? It was the Kansas City Chiefs. They were not that far away from actually being pretty competitive, if not good. They would have been like 14 and 3 or something outrageous if you flip their one score games.

They just were awful. I'm not. that far away from being a billionaire, you just have to flip the bank account. That's fair. It's always a funny exercise, but it's interesting. Jordan, Chargers, your guy, Mike McDaniel.

Yeah, I'm so... Big feature came out. Yes, thank you for citing that, Greg. I am so freaking fired up for this. I can't wait to see what this looks like. And the entire season, actually, in my opinion, depends on the offensive line getting healthy. Maybe in bringing an upgrade in depth,

they had some big questions when Mechai Bechtin was healthy. He was on and off the field. It just was an experiment outside of Stoughtland University that didn't quite work out the way that they had hoped or envisioned. And in a worst case scenario, how will Mike McDaniel scheme around if the inevitable curse does strike yet again? How will he sort of scheme around this, which is one of the reasons they brought him in is because he could be creative, should such a scenario, come upon them. Importantly on defense, mine is Jesse Minter. I'm very curious to see what this is going to look like. You have a Jesse Minter disciple and Chris O'Leary, who is the new defensive coordinator. And Odafe O'A and Khalil Mack are both free agents. We talked about this earlier this

week, Greg, you could tag one, but a good team would extend and then possibly figure it out with Kaleel Mack on like a year to year with incentives. If there's one thing Killele Mac's going to do, it's going to be hit those incentives. So I do think trying to bring the band back together in terms of that front will be really important. They love Max so much. That's the most likely outcome. But he is talking retirement. And they are a sneaky team, I

think, for like a Trey Hendrickson type. Because they have $82 million in cap space. They're the best team that has the most cap space. But they do need to find defensive line, offensive line. You mentioned Bexton. I think he's getting cut. Zion Johnson

is going to get a big contract. I tend to think it'll come from the chargers. But he had his best year by far this last year. So if he leaves that, he opens up another big hole. So it's very unharbaugh-like that I think they're good everywhere except the lines right now. So they need to spend some of that cap space. So that's when I look at like big-name guys that are available. But it's probably their own guys like Zion Johnson and Oway.

Yeah. One minute. And also opportunity for Mac through, you know, finish his career. Yeah. there. I know the idea because if they had needed to move on, but we mentioned the space and the opportunity,

he could stay there, which will probably disappoint some folks in Chicago, the idea of a Khalil Mack return there. This year, when he talked about it, it felt a little more like, oh, he actually might retire. That's just my gut feeling. I probably comes back, but he might actually retire.

One of the reasons I think that Zion Johnson is very likely to get an extension by them is, A, they are smart, a smartly run team at this point. And they know they have to keep investing in their offensive line. And he really became one of their better players on that unit, despite all the chaos around him, especially through the back half of the season.

And it's very, very sneaky, went really under the radar. But Mike McDaniel went after Butch Berry, his previous offensive line coach in Miami and who he's been close with for years on these different coaching staffs, including in San Francisco. That's a key assistant hire in order to, to me, that forecast, hey, reinvesting and continue to invest in the offensive line.

Yeah, they could be in the mix. There's a sneaky amount of starting offensive linemen available. The idea is that they're never available in free agency, but guys like Wyatt Teller who can just still play, guys like David Edwards and Conner Govind from their, like, bills, they may not wow you, but they're available. And so maybe the charges are the team that's going to spend. the Raiders.

We had John SpyTech on the show at the Combine. Would love to again. I don't know if he is a listener, but this is a big offseason for him. It's kind of the big John SpyTech off season. That's what I'm saying. Like, what you got, SpyTech, you know? Because after the season,

like Pete Carroll gets blamed for everything. There was this ESPN article that came out we talked about that almost felt a little unsavory, like kicking dirt on Pete Carroll on the way out. You already won. He got fired. Now it's like, okay, what is the vision now? Because we're blaming the draft on him last year.

You got $91 million in cap space. Just outrageous. Like a Crosby deal doesn't, it makes sense to get draft picks for where they're at as a team. They don't need the money. The last thing they need is more cap space. They have, wait, I'm not kidding. The teams that have too much, like,

it actually, I believe, is a little bit of a problem because they don't have anyone to spend it on. They're also going to save money by getting rid of Gino, whether that's a cut, which likely is or like a late round pick swap if anyone wanted it. And the needs are obvious. It's everything. Like there is nothing that they don't need on the roster. They're going to get a quarterback, but they still need another quarterback too. So even that is a need.

So I looked and there's not many great free agents, Eric Stokes, Malcolm Coons, most of the secondary. Pretty much have to replace your entire secondary. but it's kind of like, all right, show us what you got. SpyTech, putting him on the hot seat. Yeah, I think if going by the way Tampa Bay had built out their teams in the past, a member of him being a member of that staff for so long, it was always like, especially up front draft and develop guys and then sign your own guys to big money extensions.

I think the biggest domino in how big, badly all of this ended up going was the ripple effect of not either trading back for more picks out of that top pick last year or, um, or, you know, and I love Ashton Janty, but drafting a running back that high instead of looking at one minute, you're trading back in and trying to pick up multiple linemen, whether offensive or defensive. But they did and they didn't never play them until the end of the year. That was weird. And so I think that's where you get in the, it's complicated, right? That's when you get into, maybe there's a vision in one part of the building and then there's not a vision, that same vision and the other part of that building.

And his, by the way, his son is coaching the offensive line. So has a pretty significant saying who's actually getting on the field and he's not on the field. So that's what I'm saying. Like, I would just like to see a more cohesive plan from, from what they're saying and sort of having fun with the, you know, the mind games before the draft last year. I'd like to actually see an identity match what they are saying they want to be. And that is, again, draft and develop and build slowly.

and then retain your good players. That's what they say they want to do. And it's Mendoza season, too. Yeah, but there was a significant contrast with one of the oldest coaches in the NFL and who would like to win now, who's bringing in veterans to try to get something done now. He's not trying to develop.

Right. And so they've eliminated that aspect of the vision. And so now if there is a shared vision, as you pointed out, Greg, you want to sign your guys, but there's no guys to sign. Yeah. So just got to take the hell And like in the guys that they signed last year

Which you know for the most part didn't really work out They're all free agents now too So you gotta start over You're just starting from scratch The offensive line has basically been the same for a couple years Which is good or bad I'm not really sure Usually it's good but it hasn't really Everything was so chaotic like can we even evaluate

The young guys on that roster like properly? It was all so bad No I mean maybe your hero could share some notes with you about his thoughts on how... Yeah, I'll give Chip a call. Oh, I thought you meant Larry the Brain Frog.

No. Was your hero? Because we actually have dug up footage of a segment featuring Larry the Brainfrog on NFL Network. Look, we were honking for a while hitting every single AFC team. This is incredible work like that included

Eric Roberts and Chris Bobona found a video. Let's watch. Because he's got the brain frog. Brain frog? The frog's name is Larry. Yeah, Larry lives in Steve's head and he tells him eat your vegetables, but he doesn't listen to him. Is this the brain frog right here?

I think that's the brain frog. It's a brain frog. It's a frog that lives in Steve's brain. Here's the thing that that one guy, it's not just a term. The brain frog is an actual frog that lives inside of the head of Steve from accounting. And we thought since Steve is so good at hacking the server, and taking fantasy players, why don't we invite Larry to come on our show? So making his fantasy live debut, it's Larry the brain frog.

Hello. Hey, Larry. It's so great to have you on the show. Yeah, we can hear you. Can you hear us in the swap in there and Steve's? Wow. So that was a lot of-production out. Larry the brain-tron.

So off the charts right there. And then you got a shirt out of it too. Because he's got the brain frog. Brain frog? We need that as a drop. Now Larry of the brain frog, can he be part of NFL daily occasionally? Yeah, we'll see if this is the puppet.

If we have access to the puppet, maybe. I can't do as good of a voice as rank. Shout out to Adam Rank and Michael F. Florio, always getting it done on NFL fantasy. We got it done. We talked about the entire AFC. I think we provided context and information. And we did it in a fun way.

And we're going to do the same with the NFC. And that show is coming up. on Thursday. What a big week. This is like a slow build. Maybe not big, but important. What important. The rim rods?

Not doing that. AFC today. That felt good. We will be back on Thursday with the NFL. See you then. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I am Greg Rosenthal. I know that, Greg.

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