NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Sorsby Ruling, The Baker Dilemma and Russ' HOF Candidacy

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Nick Shook get you caught up on everything you need to know from around the NFL including, Brendan Sorsby not heading to the NFL, Baker Mayfield's future with the Buccaneers, contract extensions for Christian Watson and Darnell Washington, some clarity in the QB 1 battle between J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray for the Vikings, and a discussion about Russell Wilson's chances at the Hall of Fame. Plus, Shook takes you behind the scenes of the Madden launch event and the guys give a congratulations to Steve Wyche for his induction into the Black College Football Hall of Fame. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we will not allow our cell phone to ring during this show. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm joined by Nick Shook across the country. He better not, or else Ben Johnson will be really mad. My favorite day of the week. Monday, why not?

Because we're going over all the news from around the league. We're not going to hit Ben Johnson and his anger at the podium for a little while. But we do have a sneaky amount of stuff, including some take. from you going to the big Madden 27 reveal, Shucky. Oh, yeah. I'm ready. And my phone is on silent, so we're good. Good, please. The big news on Monday morning, let's start with the freshest stuff. We're going to talk a little Russ Hall of Fame chatter. Get an early start. We have five years to do so. But with him officially retiring, we'll talk about that. Some new contracts being signed.

Baker is making news. But let's start with the college game. Brandon Sorsby from Texas Tech. thought I was going to need to start really grinding some Texas tech tape, or rather he's east transferring there. But watching his tape from his college play because there was some talk after he was found to be gambling at the college level, admitted to it, entered rehab. The expectation was he was going to single-handedly revive the supplemental draft. I had Jets fans in my life saying, should we burn one of our first round picks on him? looks like they won't need to.

I don't think they would have anyways. But Sorsby has been ruled eligible to play based on an injunction from a judge in Lubbock, not so coincidentally, that prevents the NCAA from punishing him for gambling. He has agreed to be suspended for the first two games of the season. So this looks done and dusted,

and it's rare to hear anything this consequential, Nick, that has such a uniform reaction, but everyone I know, love, and trust in the college game, including our friend Daniel Jeremiah, thinks this is a fiasco that the NCAA is allowing him to play after admitting to gambling on his own games last year. Well, it's not a fiasco in the fact that the NCAA is willing, like willingly allowing him to play,

it's that they're being told they must allow him to play. If it were up to them, he would never take the field in college football again because it threatens the integrity of the sport. But here's the issue. The whole stance for the NCAA on integrity and amateur athletics disappeared when NIL became a thing. And they're just slowly losing the remaining control they have to enforce their own rules. So it's a fiasco because it's another, you know, strike against the NCAA's existence. So we'll see how this kind of plays into that. But as a concern, Sorsby, it's best for him to continue playing college football. You know, he had his best season of his

career at Cincinnati last year. And some people are interested in his size, you know, six foot three. He's mobile. He's like the dual threat type that you want in your modern college quarterback coming to the NFL. But I don't think that he has the tape necessarily to back up a strong draft projection at this point. He needs the last season. You know, you look at his stats from last year, not to dive too deep into it, but he finished at the 27 to five touchdown interception ratio and had very strong numbers. But I always go back to the first game of the year, which is the loss they had against Nebraska, a very run-heavy game in which he finished with 69 passing yards on 13 to 25.

If that was your only game tape you saw of him, you'd think, why are we making such a big deal out of this? Obviously, he had a very successful season from there. But the big test comes playing for Texas Tech, a team that has dumped money into NIL, a team that made the college football playoff last year. This is where we're going to find out whether he's got what it takes to become a quality NFL prospect.

In order to do that, he's got to be on the field. So I guess it's good for him. He's going to miss the first two games the season as part of the agreement of that deal. But we're going to see him on the field for the important games, and we'll get everything we need to know about him prior to him going to the NFL. Right. You can lose games and make the college football playoffs. You can lose multiple games.

One of those two games is against Abilene Christian, so that barely counts. They can certainly beat Oregon State or compete with Oregon State with a backup quarterback anyways. But I had asked around because this was coming. The supplemental draft has literally been dead for four or five years, and there hasn't been many significant players going that route. there was talk of like, you know, in terms of pure raw skill set, he could be someone teams really get excited about. I did not get the sense that any team would probably give up anything above a third round pick.

I think that's where the draft would have started. But maybe a team like the Jets are some team that wanted to get a year, you know, head start and had an extra third. I think there would have been a conversation whether he got taken in the third, fourth round, who knows. Back in the day, you used to kind of say supplemental draft, like knock him down a round off of where he normally would go.

But who knows what the rules are anymore? Either way, who knows if rules even matter? I mean, if you can gamble on your own team, though, and just still keep playing. Yeah, it's a problem. I understand the NCAA's argument in this. It's not a slippery slope. That's just the cliff.

Like, the Rubicon has been passed, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to this story and that if this, precedent changes down the road because look we've heard stories and you can't be gambling on NFL media shook we heard some pretty reliable stories some someone's name got got caught in the you know in in in the ether by one of these gambling houses and uh bye bye NFL media so we're off and it's crazy that Brandon Sorsby is still playing but it's good for his career Baker Mayfield is looking to make more money

franchise quarterback money. He's been on one of the best deals in terms of team value for the last few years. He got three-year, $100 million contract. So he's right at the bottom of kind of the veteran quarterback market, making about $33 million a year. He wants a raise entering his contract year, and he didn't sound happy about how the negotiations are going. Yeah, contract stuff is, it's happening, starting the talks and whatnot, but not anywhere close to what, you know, we were thinking. So we'd love to be here long term. And as of right now, that's not exactly the case. But I'm under contract for 2026. And the guys in that locker room, the staff know that I'm still going to be me. I'm still going to do everything I can to help this team win a Super Bowl. And to me, that's the priority, everything else to take care of itself. Obviously, yes, I would

love to have a long-term deal done. But they know my deadline is as soon as training camp starts, we're not doing any contract stuff. It's all ball. So it's not up to me. when that gets done by. But so hopefully before that, if not, we're still going to have a good year. Good clip to listen to versus just read the headline where it says not anywhere close sets a deadline. I think Baker Mayfield kind of straddled the line perfectly.

Just saying where they're at, the bucks, according to multiple reports, had one initial offer that clearly Baker's camp is not happy with. They have not sent a counteroffer. We'll see if this thing happens in the summer, but he's also setting a deadline for the start of camp, which is pretty early in the process, or this is kind of a story with Baker and his contract year

that we're going to be talking about all season long. Yeah, I respect the approach because it eliminates the distraction, which, you know, if you can just set a hard deadline of we're stopping negotiating here, then it gets rid of the questions that are going to follow, but they're still going to follow because it's a contract year. And I also understand why they would take that approach, given his earning power,

because he's coming off of a season in which he was, you know, significantly affected by injury. This whole offense was affected significantly by injury. We know what happened with the Buccaneers over the last month and a half of the season. It's not the best time for him to sign an extension if that's the most recent subset of data that you have when you're trying to evaluate what he's worth to this team. So it's best for him to try to go out there and earn maximum value by having a bounce back year. Not that he had a terrible year.

He had a great start to the year. He just didn't finish it strongly. So he is a streaky player. But for him financially it makes the most sense. And also mentally it makes the most sense to stop here. I also can't envision a world in which the Buccaneers would really consider not signing him. It's just a matter of negotiation. As you know, the Buccaneers throw out that first offer and Baker's group doesn't counter.

You've got to build that leverage, baby. We're a long way away in the negotiating process. Right. If it happens, it'll happen in kind of that dead zone during July. But I do think he's a particularly fascinating quarterback contract case because, you know, someone I respect a lot, who we now work with at NFL media, Brett Coleman kind of pointed out on a Twitter, no matter what you think of Baker, right now he's the 16th highest paid quarterback. You'd probably have him ranked higher than 16, which is like an easy way to think about him.

But I was this part of a podcast with Nate Tyson Bill Barnwell where we went through and ranked the guys and drafted him for just this season. We're going to be doing something similar on our show. And we took 18 quarterback. He didn't get taken. And I think reasonable minds could disagree. Put him 15, 16, put him 18, 19. but that's how good and deep quarterbacks are right now. I think it is the deepest collection of quality starting quarterbacks

since I've started covering the league 20 years ago right now. Like we're 20, 25 deep of like guys that you feel pretty good about. And so Baker is clearly in that middle range. How much do you pay for that? If I'm Jason Light, part of me wants to have my cake and eat it too, make it look like we're negotiating well with Baker. Don't make them too mad. but he's 31 years old, he's undersized.

Let's see if he's better this year. Because if he's not better this year, I'm willing to play that out with a franchise tag, see what happens, possibly trade, you know, trade him and see what's behind door number two in about 12 months. Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. It's funny that you mentioned those 18 guys that you took and he wasn't in that group.

He landed 17th on my end of 2025 QB index. He's 16th an average salary per year. So he's kind of making proper, accurate money unless he has that significantly improved year. I think your argument's great, and it explains a lot of why they stand where they are right now. We'll see if it changes, but right now I think it fits.

One quarterback trying unsuccessfully to get more money is Jacoby Brissette. Our long national nightmare is over here, Shuck. He is showing up for mandatory minicamp work this week. Doesn't mean he has a new contract. He's still only getting paid like $5 million this year. He's supposedly going to be the starter, but he is there. The Cardinals are one of seven. teams shook to have mandatory mini-camp this week.

The 49ers have canceled theirs, by the way. They're done already for the off-season. Bye-bye, 49ers until training camp. And most of these teams that have the mandatory minicamp are also done for the off-season after this week. The Dolphins and Steelers had their mandatory minicamp last week. Just wanted to kind of update where we're at in the off-season program, but Jacoby Bresset is back.

So I don't know what that means personally for your life and how it changes. It makes me happy because that means that I may have one or two less what's going on with you go overset in the Cardinals posts in the tank now. No, because he's going to be talking, but the contract isn't done. And so you still got to figure that out after this week, apparently. It's better than him not being there at all, because at least you have some fresh information to work off of. Last week it was funny.

They were like, well, how about, you know, they asked Marvin Harrison about, about, well, Are you, you know, figuring things out in this new scheme with Jacoby Resett? And he was kind of an unfair question. He was like, well, no, he'd have to be here for that. But it does make you wonder. They're talking about Carson Beck, their third round pick as a potential start of this year. You have Gardner Minshu and Jacoby Brissette might lose out on starts if he doesn't show up. Let's do some contracts that happened since we last taped.

Christian Watson signed a new contract that I was surprised made a lot of the Twitter sphere angry. Why are you paying Christian Watson all this money? He's more of an idea of a player than an actual player. But the total contract terms were totally misleading. It wasn't $110 million. It was $97.5, which is a pretty big difference. And then if you stretch it out into five years, because it is an extension, it's like, you know, it's a little over $20 million a year for five years, which actually to me seems like a great value. he signed a $31 million signing bonus.

He showed a lot last year when he came back from his injury. And I think that's what helped get him this deal. Right. And you know, in terms of APY, where he would land right now, among all receivers between Jacobi Myers and Chris Godwin, and at 27 years old, he is firmly in the prime of his career, so it makes all the sense of the world. I think it also is an example of what Matt LaFleur has tried to initiate this entire offseason,

which was the strip it down to the studs approach with the offense, simplifying things by maybe getting rid of some players who weren't happy with their roles, and then clearly defining the roles of those who are there. So how do you get Watson in a better place? You give him an extension. You handle that part of the equation. And then you just pray and hope that he's on the field healthy all year and that you can maximize what his talents are.

Because I feel like for most of his career, the big defining theme and the big drawback for him has just been that he can stay healthy and stay on the field consistently. So you pray for that. You hope that your investment pays off. And then you look like a genius three years from now. He was a different player when he returned last year. He was more of a complete player, but he's always had the juice. He is literally the fastest player in the NFL with the ball in his hands cumulatively

over the last four years, according to next gen stats, at any position. Now, of course, a receiver is going to have an advantage there, and especially Christian Watson, because a lot of times he's spritten when he catches that ball, and then he keeps sprinting. But it does say something that he's literally the fastest guy in the NFL with the ball in his hands. And they're betting on their own evaluation. Self-scouting is so important. They let Romeo Dobbs go.

And now it's Jaden Reed, it's Christian Watson, it's Matthew Golden. They're all signed for the next three-plus years. And that's going to be their core. So you talked about really kind of determining who their guys are. The Steelers did the same. And one of their guys is Darnell Washington. Another contract that I was amazed how the reactions to it were so different. He signs a four-year $42 million.

extension. So only, and I say only, 10 and a half million dollars a year, but then you tack that onto his current year. It's actually five years, $45 million. I immediately thought this is one of the best bargains in the entire NFL. And yet I saw a bunch of reactions that's like, what, $10 million a year for a guy who's, you know, never topped 400 yards receiving. That dude is a weapon in a world where Charlie Kohler and all these blocking tight ends are getting good contracts. Darno Washington is the best of all those players, and I think he is worth even more than that. And like the Watson contract,

as long as he's healthy, that is going to age extremely well for the Steelers. He's an extremely difficult matchup because of his size, his athleticism at his size, is essentially built like a tackle who also blocks and runs routes and catches footballs. You don't find those players just growing on trees anywhere, but I think as a football world,

and especially you can't let the internet direct too much of your thinking here because the internet it's always a place of extremes. But as a football world, we need to understand that when we look at dollar values at face value, we cannot simply overreact because player who you think hasn't done that much is getting $10 million a year. It's all relative to the market. And as the market dictates right now, he lands between

Evan Ingram and Juan Johnson and just ahead of T.J. Hawkinson who was making good money when he signed his deal with the Vikings. That was a while ago. The market's increased. The cap continues to increase. He's not getting overpaid. and when you look at the Steelers identity and their ability to rely on so many different tight ends and the ability to go heavy sets and power run, even though it doesn't necessarily always fit

what Mike McCarthy has done over the course of his career as a coach, it gives them options. So you pay that guy at this time, you invest now with the idea that it's going to pay off. I'd rather have them than all those guys, you just mentioned. Yeah. I just think it turns a total value.

I do really like Juwan Johnson. I'm not going to lie, I really like Juana Johnson. Oh, man. To me, it's not even close because you just have a complete, I'm not saying that comparatively, no. But yeah. I mean, you can disagree. But, man, there was something about watching them there in Dublin and just see what a problem he was for the opposition.

I'm just so impressed by him. And the NFL told you how much they value tight ends because they keep forcing these second round picks on him. The best case scenario, one of those guys turns into a Darnell, Washington, and they have him locked up. I really like what they did with the Herbig and the Darnell Washington signings over the last few weeks. Let's talk about the Vikings quarterback battle, which we never really believed was going to be a battle. And we have more reason to believe that. I know it's a quiet time of year, but podcasts I listen to Purple Daily made a big deal of this. And then like with a headline, is the Vikings quarterback battle already over?

And it was partly off of a conversation Tom Pelliserra from the NFL network had on KFAN. But Tom, you know, has lived in the area, has covered that team forever. when he talks Vikings, it matters a little more to him. And to summarize what he said, he said, look, they've started out with the snaps 50-50. He would not be surprised if that changed starting now, starting soon, if it will no longer be 50-50. They will want to have a winner and get that winner more snaps. And he was not saying who won necessarily or who is winning.

But if it was Kyler Murray, would there be a situation? situation with Carson Wentz in the building. And every time that Kevin O'Connell can give Carson Wentz some love in front of a podium, he does it. He just loves Carson Wentz as his like veteran backup. With Carson Wentz also in the building, would it make sense for them to see if they could possibly trade J.J. McCarthy in the meantime, that would indicate who is winning this battle. Could it be over before it started? And do you think J.J. McCarthy is on the Vikings roster in week one? Okay, so a few things have to be true for this, for him to not be on the Vikings roster with one. There has to be a significant injury elsewhere or there has to be such increased intrigue in JJ McCarthy's future from one team that doesn't have an answer right now.

I'm looking at the Browns for somebody to pick up the phone and make that phone call. But there also has to be clear separation in camp and preference toward Kyler Murray, which I think loses some of the Vikings leverage. but that kind of signals that, hey, maybe JJ's available. I think that that's the direction we're headed in in that it's going to be Kyler's job. We talked about this already, that we believe it's already Kyler's job. And when you listen to Tom talk about the Vikings, like you said, it means more, it matters more because he's extremely well connected in that building. It's not just throwing out there, you know, prognostications.

He knows. Like, he knows what's going on there. And I think we all kind of know that this is another's job to lose as long as the Vikings can determine that he can play within the structure of Kevin O'Connell's offense. And I think he's going to prove that over the next few months. But when is he going to get a chance? He's like, Kyler's 28 years old. If that's your long-term answer, then you don't need JJ anymore.

Why not capitalize on the value associated with him while you still can? It's just funny, the competition. Like, when is he going to prove it? He doesn't really. They got to see him on the grass and get to know him in the meetings. And maybe that confirmed what they hoped and expected. But Tom indicated, look, they don't want to take this thing deep into training camp. Maybe not into training camp at all.

He said this could be determined in the spring. And then if that was determined and was determined in favor of Kyler, then J.J. McCarthy could be elsewhere. I get the feeling, and this is also listing to those Purple Daily guys and just the coverage in general. Feels a little personal. It feels like this relationship, this marriage between Kevin O'Connell and a high draft pick who was going to be the franchise,

has gone pretty poorly. And it's crazy to think, but they could be trading. a top 10 pick, you know, before he even gets to the third year for pennies on the dollar, because what are you going to get for G.U. McCarthy in the trade now? But it could be worse. You know, who would like to trade their former top five pick for pennies on the dollar if they could? The Indianapolis Colts. Okay, sure. I was like the 49ers back in the Trey Lance days, but no, they just held on. That just ended. These things happen. Speaking of, the 49ers and wanting to get some trade value that they can't.

Brandon Ayyuk is still on the 49ers roster. He had some Instagram content over the weekend. Did you watch this, Shook? I wouldn't blame you if you did. I got a glimpse, but what I saw more than anything was his shirtless selfie on his story. He also had a commander's hat at one point on while shirtless too. It's a difficult situation to talk about, but basically he, He was talking for a minute, a couple of minutes,

almost threatening, obscurely, the 49ers. He kept using the freight, stop running from the belt. Like, you know what's going to come. You know what type of player I am. He didn't sound well, and that's why I think it's a tricky situation. I think it's a tricky situation for the commanders to dive into if they're going to. I have always believed that the 49ers are not going to get anything for Brandon Ayyuk. And I don't think these Instagram stories are going to help,

but it's just a reminder as he, like, publicly, you know, sort of challenges the 49ers as he's dealing with these traffic, you know, citations and all this other stuff, that it's still a situation that is happening. And I don't know why the 49ers are continuing to hold on to him. Let's go to Denver where Jonathan Cooper, the edge rusher, was arrested for domestic violence in criminal mischief charges over the weekend.

It was related to an incident with his girlfriend. Obviously, any domestic violence charges are going to be treated very seriously by the team and the league. He, unlike a lot of players who are in similar situations, almost immediately apologized on social media to his family, community, and friends. That was on an Instagram story post. And so we will be tracking that. The league and the Broncos confirmed they are aware and they are monitoring the situation. All right, that's kind of our hard news portion of the show. Chuck, we're going to take a quick break,

and we're going to come back with a lot of sound with Ben Johnson, who we talked about before, with Dan Campbell, Trent Williams, some fallout from the big trades last week. And yes, as I mentioned, little takeaways from Madden. Let's take a break. We'll be back in a minute.

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on TSN Radio. Is Canada to the Lift Off! Available on IHeart Radio. Back on NFL Daily, while Shook was hobnobbing with all the gamers and influencers covering the release of the new Madden.

I was out here grinding tape on social media and nothing was getting more reaction shook than Ben Johnson getting very upset. This actually happened like the second we last taped our taped our last show. And it cracked me up so much that we had to play it on our news recap. Let's listen to Ben Johnson getting interrupted at the podium. I'm really pleased with the teaching progression. I've been able to sit in some meetings and I love how the coaches are going about their business. I like how the players are responding to it right now. We're all in the same. page we're speaking the same language and that's always a good starting point oh my

good now that you've got a year under your belt how does it feel how do you feel about your position what you're doing somebody want to take their phone so i'm not interrupt it again okay i i can i defend him please when well first off it's funny because when we were talking earlier in the show my i got a phone called too but my phone didn't ring. When I am in public and I'm in a setting in which somebody is speaking and something like this is happening, wedding reception, anything, and I hear a phone start ringing, I get extremely anxious because I'm like, oh my God, how did you leave that on? Oh my God, that's interrupting everything. However, never have I thought, I'm going to get so angry that I'm just going to direct, I mean,

I felt like you were getting yelled at in high school class by your teacher. It's why it helps to watch the video. We thank everyone that's checking out NFL Daily on YouTube, like, subscribe. We're putting these shows up after the audio and sometimes just with the audio. And his face, he was furious. It almost gave me a little bit of a takeaway, which was, why has Ben Johnson this tight and amped up and nervous? nervous in the middle of May or at the end of May it started June we're at OTAs it's it's a huge faux pod

the reporter apologized publicly terrible job by the reporter I'm not I'm not saying it's not but just for him to just completely lose his temper in that moment was just like he didn't completely lose his temper he was very controlled but the the sign was when he put his head down that's fair that's fair because that was him seething like I cannot believe somebody left the ring around right now and you know what I understand I get it. I get it. I'm just saying it's June. I'm worried about his stress level. Because

good point, he didn't lose his temper. But I'm worried about the stress level of him holding in what was clearly... You would think he would make a joke. Intense rage. He wanted to kill someone. But maybe that's why he gets the great performances out of his bears that he does. They're all afraid of him. Dan Campbell, I think he has a softer touch. Let's listen to him talk about one of his favorite players, Jameer Gibbs. Well, Gibbs is, I mean, he is, he's going to be our bell cow now. You know, he really became more of that last year. But we're going to hang our hat on him quite a bit. You know, we're going to do a lot of things we feel like he does well. Now, I've mentioned this before.

He can run everything that we've got. He can run every scheme that anybody's ever run. You know, he's not just an outside runner. He's not just a space runner. He can create his own space in the middle. And some of his biggest runs have been gap scheme right down the pipe, you know, where he's had patience. and found it and guys blocked it up well.

So we're going to ask a lot of him. So this is the portion of the show, if you didn't notice it, that we're playing a lot of sound. We'll call it the Sound Garden portion of the show. Oh, nice. My son Walker said it's his favorite part of the show when we play some sound.

And I know our producer Eric Roberts agrees with that. Do you think this clip was worth it? And what did you learn from this clip? Yes, it was worth it because today is June 8th. and it's that time of year. What did I think of that? I felt like he was just confirming what we already saw last year

with the way that their backfield kind of evolved and why they moved on from David Montgomery when they did. Honestly, this is very, like, low-hanging fruit here. I just want to know what Soundgarden song would fit that clip because I'm thinking like Spoon Man, Black Hole Sun, which one are we going with here?

I mean, I only know a handful, I have to admit, but Black Hole Sun, sneaky high on the played the most on MTV during my youth rankings. I mean, I can't remember a song that was played more than Black Olson. To the point where I started to hate Soundgarden, just because I was just sick of that video and song, but a great band. Great band.

And a good quote. And I bet Dan Campbell is a fan of it. I mean, he still makes that podium look small. I'm still more afraid of Dan Campbell than I am of Ben Johnson. And yes, Jemir Gibbs, RB1 or RB2 in your fantasy drafts this season. I think it's pretty obvious. Let's talk about Trent Williams, who spoke with the media last week. He is back with the 49ers.

He was not excited about the Miles Garrett trade. Said that sucked. I wasn't looking forward to playing him. It was joking around, but saying, yeah, that's going to make his life a little harder. He signed a new contract that gets him extended through the next two years now and kind of spoke about where he is at this point of his career. You get informed of this question a lot, but having just said what you said about playing the next two years, did it cross your mind that this would be the last contract you signed?

Yeah. Yeah. So do you envision this being in? Probably. Yeah. What's that thought like then when you... It's scary. It's scary.

You know, I'm toying between the idea going until I can't no more and just, you know, leaving while. I still got some good product left, you know, and not getting ran out the league. It's funny to think of even a Trent Williams saying that. It is also funny to think about his reputation, which was totally unfair when he was in Washington. And now he's turned into, to me, a first ballot Hall of Famer that we get to see up against Miles Garrett for a couple more years. And what we've seen with these guys like a Jason Peters type, where if he's still playing well, and after the next two years, like, hey, why not have him keep playing? You're making eyes. He's 37 years old that year.

Yeah, because Trent is also thinking about the way Jason Peter's career ended, which wasn't great. he took a noticeable step back, three steps back by the time he was finishing his career. He was a great tackle for the majority of his career and his story was great. But you're right. It's also, I think, an examination or just a good example of how being with a bad team

can ruin your reputation and then being with a stable franchise that has a good place for you can elevate your reputation that mirrors your play and then gets you the recognition you deserve. But I agree. And it's funny because I think he, when he talks about getting ran out of the league,

I think he's just thinking about, oh, man. Like, he turns 38 next month. Oh, God, I'm 40 years old, and I'm facing like 32-year-old Miles Garrett and just getting toasted. That's not going to be a good look for me. I understand that, definitely. And he is coming off, what I would say was his worst season in San Francisco, where he had some ups and downs, which usually you don't see with him. I still think in the end he was probably a top five, six, eight tackle, whatever the number is.

But it started off poor. The playoff game was just like not great. He wasn't at that totally elite. level as before. And you mentioned, yeah, playing for a bad franchise in Washington before in the Dan Snyder era. I mean, that was the worst franchise. You know, it's like everyone's just bickering and there's contract to speak.

They didn't want to play him what he was worth. Speaking of that, Miles Garrett trade, Denzo Ward said on your Browns at his softball event that he definitely wants to stay with the Browns and the indications from the Browns are that they want to keep Denzel Ward. No trade sign on Denzo Ward. That said, if we get into the middle of the season and the Browns are losing a lot of games and teams start calling. It wouldn't shock me personally if Denzel Ward got traded.

So more context on the trades that went down last week. I thought it was interesting. Albert Breer said that the Rams got pretty far along with A.J. Brown, but they had concerns about his knee. He has a degenerative, quote unquote, knee condition. That is part of the reason why the Titans traded him in the first place, according to Breer, but he's played well through it, clearly. Also thought it was interesting that Brown listed four teams.

and the AFC that he would have liked to go to. Those four teams, the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Los Angeles Chargers, and the Patriots. All of them have great quarterbacks. And apparently only the bills showed even the scant amount of interest. But then they did the DJ Moore trade anyways. And that just left the Patriots bidding against the Rams. And one of the interesting parts of Breer's story was

the Patriots told the Rams, look, if you can get a first and a second, Godspeed, you can trade him somewhere else. We're just going to hang tight. And so when the Rams deal fell apart, which sounded like it was more that they couldn't find a taker for Devante Adams, then Brown was just sitting out there. I just threw a lot at you, but I thought it was just interesting context in a lot of ways,

including the fact that if you have a great franchise quarterback, a guy like AJ Brown would be happy to go to your team. Gee, what a concept. A great receiver wants to play with great quarterback. Amazing, revelatory. When I hear a degenerative knees, I always think about the NBA's Brandon Roy. One of my favorite players of that generation, he played with the Trailblazers, and his career ended too soon because of those knee issues.

And I always fear a similar demise for other players and other sports. But so far, we haven't really seen any signs of it. It's been more about the dysfunction that he dealt with with the Eagles. You know, some of it brought about by himself with leaking information and everything else. I'm fine with it. I think that, you know, you ride this out and see how far you can take it for the remainder of his career because at this point he's you know already 28 turns 29 in June it's not like he's got a ton of prime years left ahead of him so it it works out it's just something to monitor i think as

he makes the transition to become a patriot it's funny that the chiefs were listed not because you know it's a surprise but just because we sat back and we're like could the chiefs be involved and apparently sounds like they weren't yeah they didn't according to the reporting make any interest uh known Albert Breer, I mean, I love these, like, later, like, reporting on these contracts, and it'll be interesting. You know, Brown did show a little bit of slowness last year, missed sometimes because of the knee injury, so that's the big risk. On the other hand, he sounds like Randy Moss sounded when he got to the Patriots at an older age, you know, back in 2007. I don't think he's going to produce like that, but I think he could have a great honeymoon year. Last item in Soundgarden is from New York, the Giants.

And Odell Beckham, he is back with New York. And I've seen a lot of the reporters being like, why would they sign him when he's not, you know, and then you also sign Juju and Braxton Barriers, all these guys. Like they're on minimum contracts. And O'Dell knows where he stands right now in the football pecking order. I like it this way.

I feel like it's going to bring, it's going to elevate me. It's going to bring me up to have to earn it. You know, coach and I talked about that. I think that was one of his fears. He was like, I love you so much and I got so much respect for it. Like, I don't want to bring you here and then have to cut you or whatever. And I'm like, listen, I'm going out on my sword.

Either way it goes. So if that's what you got to do and you see that I'm not best or fit, then, you know, by all means, I'm good with it. I can live with it. I can't live with sitting at home, like, not doing. not doing it, you know? I just couldn't do it. Good that he's realistic. Do you think that he makes the Giants roster? Hmm. They have a lot of options. By making these additions, they have a ton of options.

Like, their top three of neighbors, Slayton, and Mooney. But then you continue to go down the list. You got Malachi Fields. Calvin Austin comes over. I think he'll be an ideal fit in this offense as well. Then you get down to where Jalen Hyatt is, who is a youngster that they're not going to move on from. And then you get to Odell and Juju and Braxton Berrios. Like, there's just not enough seats at the table for all of these guys. And I don't know what type of situation he's in physically at this point because he's dealt with so much over the last few years health-wise. But if he can come anything close to even where he was, I don't know if I would say, like maybe end of Rams, like I wouldn't go further back than that, that I think he's got a shot.

More than anything, it really warms my heart of somebody who got to know him when he was in Cleveland to see the mature Odell who like, you know, he's not worried about the fame and how this might be perceived this way or that way, the other. Like, he's just speaking honestly. And he's like, look, man, this is probably my last shot and I still want to play football. So however it goes, however it goes. I love that. I love that for a guy who has spent so much

of his career in a spotlight than he didn't necessarily ever really want for him to go out at least. I think that's kind of on his own terms at this point. Good for him. You figure neighbors might not be ready for the start of the season,

whether he starts on PUP or PUP list, you know, or IR. Maybe that opens up a spot. Slaten, you would think is, close to a lock, but you never know. They might look to trade it him. Mooney is a lock. Fields is a lock. After that, it's pretty wide open.

If everyone's healthy, it's Odell and Calvin Austin and Isaiah Hodgins and Juju. I don't think Jalen Hyatt's necessarily making this team. So they're all battling for one or two spots. We're talking about a guy who will be, it would be a great story, but it's probably, you know, a third or fourth receiver at best if everything goes well. And he seems to understand that. Let's do just a couple nuggets I wanted to mention. A.J. Barner, the great Seahawks tight in.

I'm calling him great. I'm putting him in the top 10. He's coming out two surgeries from last offseason, but he is expected to be ready for training camp. So we didn't know that he had multiple surgeries. It's a little concerning. Duran Bland, who had a foot surgery, and Donovan Azaraku of the Cowboys,

who had a hip problem. Both say they're going to be ready for the start of camp, full go. Russell Wilson has retired. We think he released a video that said goodbye to football. I feel like there's a 10% chance. Some team will come calling in the middle of the season and he could be back as a backup. It didn't exactly say retire,

but he said, I love you football. But I did want to kind of go over his Hall of Fame case. I feel like this is as good a time as any. You have like a gut reaction of where Russ, I mean, just an incredible career, an incredible player. I don't want him falling off a cliff from Denver onward to be what we remember, because he had 10 seasons in Seattle. That's his career right there.

And 10 seasons to me is enough to make a Hall of Fame case. Plenty. And I think he has one. But I guess I'm curious of where you see him in kind of the big picture career arc pecking order. Ten time pro bowler. obviously a one-time Super Bowl champion got there in back-to-back years with the Seahawks. And, well, if they would have handed the ball to Marshaun, he could be a two-time Super Bowl champion. But, well, we won't spend time rehashing that.

There were multiple seasons when he was at his peak where he was a legitimate MVP candidate for at least a portion of that campaign. And when I think about, if we could strip out the Denver experience, the last four years from his career, if he ended after the 2021 season in Seattle, he's going to the Hall of But that's all that should met. Like, I don't think you should ever... That's what I'm saying. Like, where are you at your peak?

And when he was at his peak, he was a bona fide superstar, one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL for five, six years. So, yeah, he gets in eventually. He's not first ballot, but I think he gets in eventually. So if I was a voter,

I would not hold the end of the year, the latter years against him. Now, for other people, like I'm at Ryan or Matthew Stafford, the fact that they had cumulative, great years in years 11, 12, 13, 14, whatever it is, works in their favor if you're comparing them apples to apples versus Russell Wilson. So it does

hurt him in that way when you're comparing him to other quarterbacks. And that is how this goes sometimes. But I think 10 years is long enough to potentially have a Hall of Fame career. Now, was it? He had an incredible rookie season. I went back and looked at what I wrote at the time because I watched every single play for QB Index basically of his entire prime, including his rookie season. That was the year we started. He would have won rookie of the year almost every season. I wrote at the time. He would have won it every year since the Adrian Peterson 2007 year. He just happened to be in a year with RG3

and Andrew Luck. But like you put RG3 Russell Wilson finished that season awesome and then into the playoffs. So incredible rookie year. Here is his end of the season QB Index ranks. Okay, Shook. This is the end of the regular season. So you're not giving him extra points for postseason,

which you would obviously with Hall of Fame. Maybe the most consistent quarterback other than like breeze of in terms of where he was ranked in Brady maybe in the in the decade sixth eighth fourth ninth fifth sixth third sixth and then his final season in Seattle we had him 12th he gets the boot and then it totally falls off a cliff that is awesome it is really hard to be a top six-ish quarterback you know anywhere from three to eight or so.

And the consistency is awesome. But to me, that's like borderline at best. But the postseason stuff, the rookie stuff, what he meant for the game, you know, gives him a little extra juice. If I am comparing guys, I put them behind Rivers for sure. But I think I would put him ahead of Matt Ryan

and Eli Manning. In fact, I know I would. Because I think that sustained peak was better by a good margin than their sustained peak. Yeah, I agree with that. And sometimes, even like the most simplistic approach.

I think about like, how did I regard them when they were at their best and then how long was their best? And he was held in higher regard than Eli and Matt Ryan were. Like Matt Ryan had that MVP season with the Falcons

and we were to Super Bowl and everything, right? No question. Annually. People are funny about Matt Ryan now. I thought Matt Ryan was great at the time. And when I thought he was great and that he was underrated, I was always thinking he was like

the seventh best quarterback in the league. Like he wasn't quite Russell Wilson at his peak. Exactly. So yeah, I'm with you on that. I like that. that placement there. And I think that those QB index final placements really kind of speak to what we often miss,

which is that like third and offensive rookie of the year, fourth an offensive player of the year, third an offensive player there, fourth an offensive player of the year. That's like in a seven year span, right? Like we always point to that and it's like, well, how many all pros did he make? How many times was he a finalist for offensive player of the year?

How about where was he every year at the end of the QB index? It's a good, good metric. I think so because quarterbacks, you get extra like a top, if that was your position ranking at tight end, Yeah, you're not making the Hall of Fame. But it's a little different when you're the most important position. If we're saying he's a top five quarterback for the 2010s,

you have Rogers in there and Breeze in Manning and, you know, it gets complicated. Like, I think that it's on the border. I actually don't have like a final say. I'd have to see who he's up against. He gets in eventually. Eventually he'll be in. He is sort of the definition to me of borderline where he probably does get in after seven to ten years depending on like who he's,

against, but I definitely have them ahead of Rivers, I mean, ahead of Ryan and Eli, and definitely behind Rivers. But that's my own personal, you know, evaluation. I know some people have disagree. Let's wrap up with your Madden takeaways before we get out of here. What is it that you do? You go and you guys just all play Madden together in a room. Okay. So in the past, it would be, it's the preview event and we would, you know, sit through a presentation three, four hours long where they would, you know, they broke it up into two days in the past where it would be day one would be Madden and they would tell us about all the new features and everything coming to the game and then we get our hands on it for like three or four hours.

I'd sit down with the developers, talk to them about the game, do an interview, write a story about it. And we'd do the same thing for college football. Well, this year they decided to put it all into one big primetime nighttime event that's live streamed across the world because they're very excited about what they're producing on the virtual football field across both games. But Madden was especially important it felt this year because of where it was, which is Chicago, home of cover athlete, Caleb Williams.

It was just dialed up a lot. There were more people there. There were more cameras there. The production value, which was much higher. And let me tell you, it was a blast. What they've done in creating this game, and it's really a multi-year initiative where they try to fix one element of football,

and the other one, tackling was one year, blocking was another year. And they iterate on it year by year. They have tried to bring the virtual football video games closer to real-life football at a level that allows it to become a teaching tool and also an experimentation tool. And it's taken multiple years to get to that point.

but in speaking with the people who are so dedicated to doing this, I think about the gameplay lead, Scott O Gallagher. Like, he's an X is an O's guy, and we'll stand there and we'll just be chatting about the intricacies of the game and how he's bringing that to the football field in both college and the NFL. It's to the point now where we're getting plaster logic and defensive coverage. And you know what plaster is. You'll hear Charles Davis talk about it on a random NFL broadcast on a Sunday on CBS.

That quarterback breaks the pocket. What's the first thing defensive backs are doing? They're plastering to the nearest guy. Find a guy. stick to them, that's now in the game. There are other coverage improvements like this thing they call Look for Work, where you're playing in a zone coverage and there's nobody there, but you're looking for the nearest defender trying to eliminate the soft spots.

They're making football more realistic. And that's what excites me about the game is that if Madden and college football can become a teaching tool, it can onboard the next generation of football fans and expand, you know, the audience for football beyond what it already is. I mean, I think about, like, I don't know anything about soccer, but I play FIFA, EASC, and now I know a little bit about soccer. If you can do the same thing with football, the fan base only grows and it becomes a better experience for everybody, especially somebody like me. Because you know, I run those college football

and Madden Leagues, and I hate having to separate my brain between real football logic and video game football logic. So they're trying to close that gap, and I think they're getting a lot closer. And it was fun to talk with those people. You get my hands on the game and test it out as well. Yeah, it's a great way to learn X as a nose for kids, but for adults, too. It really is next level. I know they added some features. You know, now when you're in like superstar mode, like you can do tight ends or a safety. Was there anything, was there anything flashy, though, that caught your eye for the Madden people out there? I mean, flashy, well, defense is back.

Like, it's no longer going to be complete shootouts. And those who like to, you know, get into real X's and O's and be able to counter defensively, it's definitely back in a number of different ways. The superstar experience is fun as a tight end because, as, you know, former blocker myself, I love the idea of controlling a tight end, pancaking somebody, for example, playing with the Jets, clearing a lane for Brees Hall for a touchdown. And then also running a corner round in the red zone

and catching a game winning touchdown. That's a lot of fun too. And that's something that used to be in Madden back in like 07. That's back now, who I love laying somebody out for a church. I'm going to make my own Darnell Washington, you know. Yes, please do. The son of Darnell Washington. The third, yeah, junior, junior.

as we say goodbye. I just wanted to send a congratulations to an NFL daily regular and co-host, and we're going to get him on to talk about this. But just a shout out to Steve Weish and congratulations for his induction over the weekend to the Black College Football Hall of Fame, part of the class of 2026 for his contributions in elevating the game as a broadcaster, as a host of the induction ceremony for previous years. and now he's the one getting inducted,

and he works so hard to elevate these HBCUs, and it's really cool that he got the black jacket. It's not a gold jacket. I don't know if you saw the pictures, but it was him. It's Tyrone Poole, Nick Collins, Eddie Robinson, Jr., Jimmy Smith, the Great Jaguar, and Rudy Hubbard were the nominees,

and they're looking great in their black jackets after they got nominated. What a great group to be a part of, and completely, totally deserving, Steve is. Look, nobody, And it's not often you're going to meet people in the world who are just as good of a person as Steve Weish is. Not only is he fantastic at his job, one of the best on camera. He's an even better person off of it. And I say that as somebody who came into this organization as a producer, entry-level producer, got to know him.

He's always been one of the most welcoming, honest, genuine, authentic people who's also fantastic at his job. So congratulations you, Steve. Super proud of you, happy for you. Yeah, I always call him the unofficial team captain of NFL Media, Enville Network now. The best. Yeah, we're lucky to have them. Let's get out of here. We're still going four shows a week, Shucky. We're cranking.

Who cares if kids are going to Cancun or whatever soon? They're going on vacation. We're not. Yeah, you might not hear from Shuki in a minute because he's going to get out of here. But we'll be right here. Next show is going to be myself and Jordan Rodriguez talking about why are all these trades happening right now. We'll see you then. This is an I-Heart podcast.

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