NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - What We Learned: Stafford's Deal, Giants Drama and a Safer Caleb?

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Will Gavin get your caught up on everything you need to know from OTAs around the NFL including Matthew Stafford's new contract with the Rams, the Giants giving Joe Schoen a contract extension while also dealing with online drama between Jaxson Dart and Abdul Carter, Caleb Williams playing a safer game for the Bears, a new look to the Eagles defense and more! NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to NFL Daily, where we definitely knew it was not AI, man. I'm Greg Rosenthal here. In my garage, after a long Memorial Day weekend, talking to the only man that makes sense after honoring those who lost their lives in service. Yes, it's one of our allies. Talk Sport, UK's own, Will Gavin. Thanks.

Thanks for joining us. Will? No worries. Thank you for having me on from the officially hottest day may as ever seen in London in a country where we don't have air conditioning. So if at some point I just slump over to the side and pass out, keep going on without me. I'll be fine eventually. Yes. You are a man who can play her. The twins are in the background. You might hear Will's beautiful young daughters. and you might hear us just updating you on what happened over a busy four-day weekend for me personally. I had my in-laws here. I went to Vegas.

I went to a Dodgers game. We barbecued. Like, hey, I need a vacation from my vacation. But let's go through all the news. We got some, we just want to get you caught up. I got about 15 items, things that we learned over the long weekend. And it really started, like right after we taped our last show, Matthew Stafford signed a contract extension. We were expecting this to happen, Will, but I thought the details of it were the part that I was looking for and most interested in.

The short version is it's a one-year $55 million extension. The details indicate it's really just a five-year raise for this season, for Matthew Stafford. What do you think about the way they're kind of approaching this era of Stafford contractually? and, of course, with Ty Simpson now waiting in the wings. Yeah, from their perspective, what he's going to boost, he's going to make at least $45 million, probably will make the full amount you imagine, barring injury or anything else.

And they've set him up so that there is that into next year, guaranteed money available, if they wish to continue this, if they don't suddenly decide that Ty Simpson is the future. Obviously, there's something going on there where they need to keep the man happy. after making the decision to draft a quarterback at 13 overall. It's not a decision I loved.

I have to be honest. I've probably not been on here giving my views on this. But when guys have gone into situations before and been the backup for a top tier star and it's worked with the Aaron Rogers and Jordan Loves, etc. of this world, it's been somebody with a special level of talent and it's totally made sense to me.

Ty Simpson isn't necessarily that guy and 13 felt incredibly rich to me. now they feel set. Now they feel like they're ready to go. I just, I kind of wish they'd given Matthew Stafford not just an extra $5 million, but maybe somebody else to throw the ball to. Yeah, I thought the contract was very team friendly.

The last contract Stafford signed was very team friendly. It was reported he could have gotten more money to leave for the Raiders and the giant. Smart move like they could have won the Super Bowl last year. But $5 million extra for this year and essentially no, guaranteed money for next year. All it does is force the Rams to make a decision, and more like Matthew Stafford make a decision whether he's still playing or not fairly early. I think his contracts guaranteed early into the next league year. It's right at the beginning. But even then, if he decides to return, one year, $50 million for next year is a bargain. One year, $45 million, which is what he's

getting this year is a bargain. This guy just won the MVP. If he was angry at the Rams, and I can't imagine he was thrilled. My takeaway was, well, he didn't take him out on them on this contract. If anything, I thought he could have put them over a barrel. So if you're looking to give a Matthew Stafford pat on the back as a Rams fan, here you go. And listen, on top of all of that, I think that the fact that the real winners in this are us, the football reporting public, the public enjoying it as well.

Because what we don't get is at the start of next season, the will-y-woney. This year, delete the award ceremony. Well done, Matthew. Really appreciate it. But while we watch what's happening in Pittsburgh or happened in Pittsburgh, we're not going to have to have any of that next offseason. We'll know very early, whether he's staying or going, whether they're going to give him that guaranteed money.

I suspect that they want him to be there for at least two years. I don't think they see Ty Simpson's the starter in 2027, but it gives them that leeway. It gives staff of that leeway. So, yeah, it gives us an answer nice and earlier. It puts a little more pressure on everything about this season. I think that's what Ty Simpson did. That's the most negative thing that they did with Ty Simpson,

other than the opportunity cost of not getting a good player, was that if Stafford, for whatever reason, is hurt slash struggling through eight games, then we're just automatically thinking, is this going to be the end for Stafford in L.A.? Because this contract, on top of other things, makes it really easy for them to move on. Like he's going to have to be a top 10 quarterback.

No reason to think he wouldn't be as long as he's healthy. It's a great situation. So that's the Stafford of it. all. The next section actually has our two through five points. We got we got about 15 things we learned. Will, I'm all about learning in the off season. I love it. I'm calling this section in the land of giants. We have four giants, little nuggets, starting with Joe Shane signing one of the most surprising contract extensions of the off season. If Joe Shane is getting multi-year extensions will, hey, I think we should all feel better in the world of football

that we could be getting security long term. It's not such a crazy business. It's so obvious that the dynamic has shifted there, right? And under Joe Shane, and there's some Giants fans who are still backing based on the drafting he's done, etc. But 22, 45 and 1 in the time he's been there, John Harbour directing, like reporting directly to ownership,

directly to the Maris, directly to whoever else. Effectively, what is he now? Is he just scouting? Is it just player acquisition? Is it just what is his role? And so maybe, like, you know, they've worked together on this draft. They were pleased with bringing in Arville Reese and everything else they did. And so maybe they've turned around and gone, do you know what?

We like it. We're redefining it. We'll give you a multi-year contract. But you're in this new job role. But none of that seems to have come out yet. It just, it baffles me. It baffles me that I would have thought that John Harbour would have gone and got his own guy. had somebody that he would work with, but maybe Harbaugh's fallen in love with him and it's

going to be a wonderful marriage. You ask what his role is. I mean, I think for a lot of teams, it would be the role of, like, assistant GM that that feels like the role. Because he's reporting to someone, Donne Ponday, who's been reporting to John Harbaugh, or he's like the director, you know, the director of scouting essentially, like managing a couple things. And that's fine.

He probably has a great relationship with ownership. They like continuity. And these are the types. types of contracts, even though Joe Shane is making a great living for the average person that if the Giants wanted to move on. And Joe Shane is the fall guy after this year, he absolutely still could be. So I don't take too much stock into it, but they just kind of wanted to quiet the narrative. And he was entering the final year of his contract. Much more important to the 2026 Giants will is Malik Neighbors.

John Harbaugh spoke about neighbors. last week, the Giants, as we mentioned, a lot of the new coach teams had started OTAs last week. We've got 11 more teams on the field, Will, on Tuesday, teams are practicing. We got the majority of the league. It's football back, Greg.

Football is back. I think football's back. And one of the reasons we know is John Harbaugh is speaking to the media. Yeah, he's in the middle of it. He's in the middle of it. It's a hard thing. It's an ACL and whatever else he had in that knee.

not a simple knee, you know, so he's in the slog of it, you know, the grind of it, I would say. So he's fighting through it, you know, and he's here every day, working hard at it. Just impossible to predict. I mean, the goal is to start the season and get out there sometime in training camp. That'd be the goal, and we'll see what happens. If he's out there, great. He's not out there, great. We'll be ready to go either way.

But I know he's fighting like crazy to do his best to be able to be out. out there and he's with the guys every day. That's John Harbaugh and Malik, neighbors. The lack of specificity there and how John Harbaugh normally handles injuries, which is not to give away much of anything, actually did feel like giving away something there, well. Yeah, and it was the, if he's not out there,

if he's out there, great, if he's not out there, great. I'm not sure that that's quite right. I think they're desperate for him to be out there for the start of the season. They bring in Isaiah likely, right? That's the big past catching option they brought in And then a bunch of kind of wide receiver three, four guys, Calvin Austin, Dano Mooney, the guy they get in the third round, Malachi Fields.

But the fact is his Malik Neighbors is where the past catching element of this offense wants to run through. Jackson Dart, and we're going to get onto a bit more about him in a moment, I imagine. He's got a big year ahead of him. And they'd much, much rather, with a big year ahead of him, he had his number one guy on the field. So hopefully we do hear more in the offseason. And hopefully it's positive because he's a player. you just love to see play.

But yeah, as long as he's playing by the time they play internationally later in the year, then we'll be. Stop. You are a selfish bastard, Will. I now put the odds at him just based on that quote and the follow-up surgery, everything we've heard. I think it's unlikely he's starting the season out there. And when he says, great, that he's not on the field, I do hope and think he's alluding to

we're thinking about Malik neighbors long term. and this could be something where he is not truly 100% this season even and that he's going to miss some real time, which is disappointing, but it happens. Another big injury for the Giants, they lost Roy Robertson Harris to a torn Achilles. Hate when these injuries happened during the off-season program, OTAs working out.

Not a familiar name to a lot of people out there, but he was slated to start. He essentially had a starting type role last year. They did sign a number of kind of, kind of, a stop gap veterans at defensive tackle. Shelby Harris, DJ Reader is a good player as a nose tackle. Leaky Foto has played a lot in the NFL. But those guys in aggregate were supposed to help replace Dexter Lawrence.

Roy Robertson Harris was the guy that they inherited from last year was probably the best player of that entire group. So now you trade away Dexter Lawrence. You lose a core veteran for the season. Suddenly that run defense, which already on paper didn't look great, looks even worse. Abdel Carter, not known for his run defense, but now he's known for mixing it up in terms of social media. You alluded to Jackson Dart. The biggest news on a pretty quiet NFL weekend, let's be real, was Jackson Dart introducing our president over here. You might be familiar,

will Donald Trump at a rally for some congressman yet. And, you know, it's just typical. He introduces Donald Trump, and a lot of people get excited about it or annoyed about it. And then Abdul Carter jumps in and he has the tweet, I thought this was AI, man. What are we doing here? Later on, he responded to a lot of people getting upset about it saying, me and JD6, referring to Jackson Dart, didn't know he was called JD6, are good. We spoke earlier as men. Y'all can keep y'all narratives. And that was in response to a reporter, Ben Boland of the Boston Globe specifically,

who was like, oh, there could be dissension. There's dissension in the Giants locker room. Thoughts will, you know, from a sober international perspective on us, what's happening over here. Look, the moment Jackson's Art turns up at that rally, it makes international news, regardless of whether you're a Giants fan,

an NFL fan or anything else. because it's a major sports star turning up at a political rally for a guy who, you know, causes some controversies, it's fair to say. So when I saw the Abdul Carter tweet, I did, my immediate jump was, you know, raised eyes, sending eye emotions to people firing it around and being like, do you think this is an actual issue? It feels like off-season fodder. It feels like the kind of thing that will get past. It feels like the kind of thing that John Harbour will squash out.

But the fact that Abdul-Carter was so open and immediate. in his response to it. He might say we're all good and we're all cool and we've spoken about it but I don't know. It doesn't feel like, it feels like it's going to have to be

a let's keep politics out of the locker room thing rather than they're actually suddenly best friends because it's quite a big move to make. I guess. I mean, look, anyone who listened to this show

knows I'm not a fan of Jackson Darts politics or Donald Trump. But John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, have literally been at the White House with Trump. Like they are vocal supporters of Trump. All these players, it's pretty obvious who they support, who they don't,

if they want to be out there. I know it's a different step to introduce them, but this is an NFL locker room. Of course, a lot of the locker room supports the president, and plenty of the locker room does it, and plenty is aware of that. To me, it is kind of juvenile for the reporters who are like,

John Harbaugh is going to have to address this. This is going to be a big problem. It's like, they're grown men. This is not a new phenomenon. Believe me, everyone in the locker room probably has an idea of where Jackson Dart lies politically. And if they're like getting along personally, it's just, I don't know. It might be off-season storming a teacup.

It might absolutely be that. But I just think for Abdul Carter to speak out for a guy who is very much a forefront of this team as well. It's, that just, that was what felt like a big deal to me. Not the, fair.

You know, the fact that they're going to have to all get on with each other. There's, yeah, there's 75 guys in that locker room. There's however many coaches as well. Like, yeah,

of course there's going to be dissent amongst them. But I don't think it's going to be some issue that carries over into the season. The funny thing is I do feel strongly in a way about this. And that's about the people that are like aggressively, huh, this doesn't bother me. I'm eight.

political. Like, I don't care about anything. Doesn't bother me what people say. Grow up. The grown-up perspective is like, yeah, like some people really support it. It's fine. It's totally fine for Jackson Dart, no matter, you know, I disagree, obviously, to do what he wants to do there.

And it's fine for someone to disagree. It's like, yeah, that's living in this country, living in this world right now. It's just like, it's fine. Adults can disagree about things. We are covering a lot of American culture within the World Cup conversation, right? Like, obviously football, soccer is the number one sport here. I've been doing like a soccer-based show over the last few weeks. I was going to pump it up.

Let me cut you off so you don't have to. I was going at the end of the show. Will is just launched a great podcast, YouTube show. It's on TalkSport, the S-word with Master Tepfatzian. who a great friend of Jordan Rodrigues on the show, great, great journalists over here. And so people should be checking that out in addition to all the great work you do on the NFL, Will.

I appreciate that, brother. Sorry to take that. Obviously, no, no, I appreciate it. But obviously you can't help but get into the politics of the football, the Donald Trump of it all, the, you know, everything else that goes along with it. And so I think we are set for a summer where the conversation of politics and sport

is going to really dominate the landscape internationally. And so I think this, will disappear very quickly. Yes. And it's a little more tight when it comes to the World Cup and everything that Trump and FIFA. And yeah, good luck with all that. Our next item, it was going to be our last item, by the way. It was going to be our 15th item of the day was Robert Sala telling the Titans media that

one of the first things that he did as Titans head coach was get rid of seed oils in the locker room. But I do feel like there is a connection here. JFK Jr. I'm very excited to hear this. Right. Okay. JFK Jr. very against seed oils. Eric, our producer, notes that we're talking about political rallies and seed oils in the rundown, which is an indication that football might not be back, actually. Football might not be back. You attack those inflammatory markers, Bob Sala. It's a game of inches. Is anything that's going to get you over the line or your micro-optimization nonsense? All I'm saying is when all the, when the doctors and the medical, the health professionals

are like, no, seed oils are totally fine. Like, Salah, I'm just putting them into the bucket. It's like the bucket of guys who got really into NFTs back in the day. Let's get back to the football. Big contract. Jack Campbell signed with the Lions. four years, $81 million extension, $51.5 million guaranteed for the linebacker. Just going into his fourth season, you think back to that draft, Will, and the picks that the Lions said everyone reached on at the time, Jemir Gibbs and Jack Campbell.

And back then, the idea was like, well, if you just flip the picks and you put Brian Branch in the first round, who was their other great second round pick that I'm spacing? at the moment. Then if you just flip the picks, everyone would have said, it's totally fine. Well, in the end, they took Jack Campbell and Jemir Gibbs in the exact right spot.

They are two of the best players at their position, and he is signed through 2030. Give the lion some love. Yeah, it's funny you said that because I was about to sit here and say, it's funny that people will still knock that.

Sam LaPorte was the other guy they took in the second round. Yes, of course. And it was always one of those things to me where if Jack Campbell had been a second round pick and performed as he'd done and had the career he had, everyone would have heralded it as a sensational draft picker.

He's such a great fit for the scheme. He's such a great fit for the locker room and for Dan Campbell. They absolutely love him in that building. He's very no-nonsense football. I've had an opportunity to chat to Jack Campbell a couple of times. Actually, like, he's a guy the Lions have put up for us a couple of times before. And if you talk to him about football, he's a great interview because he just loves talking exes and O's.

And, you know, I've got a huge amount of time for him. It's when you start to look at the numbers and you say like, he's only in guaranteed money behind the likes of Fred Warner and Rokwon Smith. He's only in overall money behind Rokon Smith because Fred Warner's deal was only three years. Like those sound like huge numbers, but we're talking about guys that are 29, 30 years old. Jack Campbell's still in his mid-20s. This is only that second contract. But a lot of time there, he's really great at what he does.

I think this is, as much as it sounds like a lot of money. I think, and it's a real win for the line. Yeah. I mean, I'd rather have Jack Campbell. than Rokan Smith, no question. I mean, he was a better player last year. It kind of slipped on me that he was first team all pro last year, but his rate of improvement is really why you've got to be careful

with off-ball linebackers specifically as rookies. Because sometimes he looked a little lost in coverage. That is a tough position to get. But he is so athletic. He is really the prototype of the three-down linebacker that can do everything. And he's gotten so much better. He was a playmaker.

in his third season and also has just kind of taken control of that room. I remember Dan Campbell this offseason when they talked about letting Alex Anzolone go. He said it was in part not that Jack Campbell's changing positions, but it's just like, that's Jack Campbell's room. We want him to be the dude. And so what they did was they didn't give him the fifth year option. They did give him the huge money. And I assume it's essentially almost like a two year, three year deal with a lot of the money guaranteed.

So good on the lines and Jack Campbell. They just got to start hitting in the draft. Are you high or low on the Lions heading into 2026? Do they win the division, putting you on the spot right now? I really like the Bears to win the NAC North again, actually. But I'm higher on them than last year. They've corrected a lot of the issues that they've had. I still want to see what that line looks like.

I still want to see what the protection looks like. I still want to see it on the field. But overall, I think like they are in a position to at least be a playoff team this year. not to just bring out cliches on a hot summer's day, but it's getting the dance, all of that stuff. So yeah, I think they've got a great chance of a great season,

but it's such competitive division. Like, if you said to me that you like the Packers for it, I couldn't knock it. Yeah, I'm still trying to decide who I'm going to end up picking that division. I'll definitely have them in the playoffs. And yeah,

with the extension, you always get a tack on the first year in the extension. So then it's really five for 83. I think actually that's a contract that'll age very well. You're the king of the extension for me, by the way. Like you are the guy who knocks, like at this end, whenever I do our show, I am like, it's like, it's an extension. It's not a four-year ex-contract. It's a six-year ex-contract. And therefore, he's actually only the seventh most well-paid corner in the market or whatever it

might be. Got to think about it. Thanks for spreading the esoteric gospel across the globe. Oh, yeah. Jacoby Brissette is looking for more money, do about $6 million. I don't know if we need to talk much about this. We've hit that he is holding out, but he is not showing up for OTAs. And ESPN, their local reporter there, reported that he's significantly far apart in contract talks. So people keep making fun of this holdout. It is having no signs of letting up. Let's go to what I'm calling Vic Fangio Corner. A couple little items from Vic Fangio, who spoke to the media. I think he's, what, 67 years young now, had just like a good football nugget, which is that going to move Cooper de Gene back to safety in base formations.

That's what he was more commonly as a rookie. And then he's, he's in the slot. Like he's, when they're a nickel, which is basically their main formation, you know, he is going to be in the slot. So I don't think much changes, but they do not want him to be playing outside cornerback. They have, they have Rik Wullen there now, potentially in that spot. So just a little nugget.

Let's actually listen to Vic Fangio, too, asked about the reports that he was potentially retiring this offseason? No, I wasn't close. You know, I've had those thoughts, you know, the last few years, every year at the end of the year, I just think about it, you know, and I never really got serious to where I would have done it. And, you know, it's no different than I did after 24 season,

after 23 season. I mean, I told the players the other day that, you know, we had our annual physical, We get physicals as coaches, and the docs told me I was reverse aging with my lab work and everything that came up. So I told them, you guys are stuck with me for a while, a long while. I believe it. I don't know if it's the hat. Jordan calls it hat fishing sometimes with without a lot of hat, you know, hair.

Like, Vic looking young there in the baseball cap, which is great news for the Eagles. It's not a lot of issues with the hair around these parts, Greg, of course, to fine. heads of hair on this podcast right now. Yeah, I mean, if Vic Vanjiostics around there, then the Eagles have got a chance of being a top defense again this season. And yeah, I think we're all expecting, well, or hoping that Don Manion will offer something a bit different on offense and we'll see a big jump. Like, you know, last year I was there in Philly for that playoff game against the 49ers. It turned ugly very quickly there. And I don't think it's going to take a huge amount for them to take a step back forward and be a real contender again.

Not ugly for you. You're a Niners fan trying to pretend that you were impartial. How did that work? Well, I mean, not brilliantly, but I got away with it, I think. There is the video of the final moments where I absolutely lose my mind. I'm just doing the normal thing, but you do see that there are some Niners team representatives behind me who are actually properly high-fiving and, you know, celebrating a win where I'm trying to at least act a little bit professional. the Cooper Degene thing's funny because I just think all they're basically saying is Cooper Degene's going to be on the field no matter what set we're playing. That's basically it's like

we're going to play him as a safety because he's not coming off the field. Like just I think they play they'll play nickel. How wouldn't be surprised me it? 75, 80% of the time. But if we go into base, Cooper, Cooper plays.

That's as simple as that. I think his second season was underrated because that's a position we talk about is so volatile and yet he built on what he did as a rookie. It's early days yet, but I mean,

there's a chance he could get better. And then we're starting to get into when you look at the first three years of his career, really special territory. So one of the things I'm really excited about the Eagles.

Another assistant coach talking last week was, or over the weekend, was Bears QB coach J.T. Barrett, who said he wanted, quote, fewer, quote, crazy plays from Caleb Williams. And I decided to use this as a quick talker, and I know we got to get you out of that that hot room there. Although, it's working. Yeah, like, it's like 33 degrees Celsius over there.

Like, it's mid-90s. It's crazy. You are the second straight ginger beard on the show, though, by the way, after Chuck Closterman. And I don't know how you feel, like, do you feel threatened? I feel in no way threatened. I, because we're doing this new studio. So I'm also still wearing studio makeup and have my hair done by professionals. So I'm feeling maybe the best I've ever felt, Greg. Yeah, you do look good. I've dropped some pounds. I'm feeling good. So no, no threat whatsoever, sir. You do look great. It's so great. I got to sidetracked here from the quotes about Caleb Williams. I wanted to bring them up because I really like Mina Kime show featuring Lenny. She had Ben Solac on last week. They did QB. Rangins. I told everyone, go check out Nate Tice's

show Football 301 on Yahoo. I contributed with him and Bill Barno. We did the QB rankings. And I think Caleb Williams is one of the most interesting conversations to have. And his assistant coach kind of talked about why he's a difficult guy to talk about. Here's some quotes from me. He said, he's told Caleb Williams, my guy, I know you just made this crazy play. That was really cool. But we had a guy come open, wide open underneath that you just pop it. You pop it to him.

He does the running instead of Caleb. And now you're not as tired. Later, Barrett said, we can be efficient and take what the defense is giving. you don't necessarily have to put the cape on and make those crazy plays because you are already killing them in the first three quarters if you do that. And his stats really reflect that. I'm curious of your thoughts of where Caleb kind of fits in the landscape and this idea from the coaching staff of they want him to be a little more of a consistent, safer, Caleb. Yeah, that's the dream, right? It's if you don't need to lead six, four, fourth, four,

comebacks in a season if you're already winning games handily. Like, I think that's a fair comment. I don't know. The problem is, is fans just love those moments, you know, whether it's in the playoffs, whether it's those big comebacks we had late in games through the season. And so, you know, I don't want to lose that part of Caleb Williams. It's what makes him a real joy. And actually, I think, kind of versus a few other guys in the league who are capable of

those throws, who are capable of making those crazy plays, as they say. I think he hits them at a higher rate than a lot of guys. You know, love watching Jordan love play, but he didn't have a huge number of fourth quarter comebacks last year because actually they missed a lot of those moments. So yes, of course, you want to have him being out there, being sensible, throwing the underneath throw, letting guys do their jobs.

But I don't know, the less purest, more football fan, wanting those huge moments. It's not my quarterback. So, yeah, let him go out there and sling it. Well, yeah, I just think it's the balance. And I think you hopefully keep getting those moments. I think they're almost assuming those moments aren't going to go away completely. But it really hit me because they had that first Packers Bears game on NFL Network last week as I was prepping for that QB show.

And you kind of forget, oh, yeah, Caleb was having a miserable game through 51 minutes and then goes Supernova. at the end of regulation and overtime. And you love that, but you kind of are like, oh, there's all these open receivers early, and he's having a terrible game, and then he saves it, and that was the magic of it. And it really is reflected in his numbers. He's so bad in terms of completion percentage over-expected,

one of the worst in the entire NFL, pretty bad in success rate. And yet, he absolutely deserved to be on QB Island at the end of the season, because QB. Island, we're talking about who defined the position. He defined the position, because he made it happen when it mattered. And I had a Packers fan getting at me at the mentions.

It's like, well, you didn't have Caleb Williams on QB. You know, you took, like we took Jordan Love on both those drafts. Like I had Jordan Love ranked higher than Caleb Williams, but I didn't have him on QB Island. But that was about how he played last year. He's just a little more trustworthy of what I'm going to get this year because I haven't seen it from Caleb year after year play after play. Yeah, and that's exactly what I'd agree with.

That's exactly how I would say. have Jordan Love ranked higher when we've done ours as well. I think we are due to do ours in the coming weeks because we don't want to do it too close to Nate's or Miners or anyone else's because people will notice that we know less of what we're talking about. It's easier to steal from those people if you give it a few weeks afterwards and repeat the great stuff that they said. But you mentioned it, 58.1% completion percentage it dropped down to minus 6.9 DPOE,

which you mentioned as well. like that's that's bad like but he was winning games of football and took them to the playoffs think a lot of bears fans don't mind that necessarily i think in ben johnson's scheme and it's another thing a lot of coach rankings been going on this year and it's been amazing to see just how high like he's being talked about as a top three top four guy in the league already after one year if ben johnson is the genius that everyone thinks he is and i'm on that same page as well then i'd expect the easy button to get pushed more often for halib williams i'd expect those throws to come more often And I think those stats will grow and we'll see maybe a little bit more sense.

I had him, I think 12th on my personal rankings. And I'm surprised that I was the analyst that wind up taking him in my draft with Nate and Bill. And he fell the way to 14th, which is interesting. Ben Solac and Mina do it over the next three years. And, you know, Ben ends up taking him eighth. That's a little bit different of an exercise. We were just looking at next season specifically. But it's interesting, you know, to see where he goes from here.

I think he's going to start hitting some of those easy things. The bears do not hit the easy thing when it comes to the stadium. Just want to mention our 10th point here is that the bears have, you know, reiterated publicly. They've, quote, exhausted every available avenue of staying in Chicago. And the stadium is either going to be in Indiana or Arlington Heights, which is in Illinois. So that's a thing that is apparently actually going to happen. You have the desire to help to make a real difference?

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National of Formation in Santee by Santee Canada. The Seahawks and Devin Witherspoon are working on a new contract, according to ESPN, but reportedly far apart on numbers. Nothing to worry about too much.

He is someone who they picked the fifth year option up, be a little trickier. But, you know, Jackson Smith & Jigga gets the top of the market. Maybe the CX aren't quite willing to get to the very tippy top of the market yet with Devin Witherspoon. What have you thought about his kind of development as a pro so far? Oh, he's a joy to watch. and we saw just how Dominanty was through that playoff run. But this is, you know, when the Seahawks base their whole off season,

when they had money and they didn't have a lot of draft picks, but they elected not to keep their own guys around in a lot of cases. Obviously, the most obvious example of that being Kenneth Walker, but a lot of their guys on the back end and the pass rush as well, they made big choices to let the guys who had got them to where they got going. And a lot of it was based off these two extensions off JSNN. and off Devin Witherspoon. So I think Witherspoon probably knows, or his agent knows more than that,

that he is in a pretty strong negotiating position here. And I expect, when that contract comes out, I would be surprised if he's not the top paid corner in the NFL, at least until the next guy gets paid. But, you know, I think at the moment you're a top 10 guy at any position, essentially when your contract comes up, you almost expect to be the number one when it comes to the contract because that's just how it works with this increasing salary cap, right?

If he gets top three money, top five money, he's definitely in that conversation. So I'd say deserves it. Yeah. And he's more of a slot guy and it's like, can a slot guy make as much as a Patrick Sertan? I bet that's what his agent is looking for. A couple of other items here. Another off-season injury.

The Texans lost their linebacker E.J. Speed to a partially torn quadricep. they gave him $7.5 million guaranteed this offseason on a two-year deal. He's more of like their kind of super sub on at linebacker, maybe a third linebacker and special teamer, but a guy they valued enough to give that much money. He could return this season, but that's a very serious injury. PFT, my old boss, Mike Florio, reported that, according to a source, a 18-game season is quote, extremely unlikely for 2027. Yeah, I should hope so.

That's next year. But interesting that that's even out there because the NFL hasn't put a date on next season's Super Bowl. But as much as the NFL would maybe like to extend the season, good news, I think, for me and you that it's not happening this early. Because if they do add an 18th week, they're also going to add probably another buy week. And that Super Bowl is roughly like February 27th, something like that. It's a combination, right? It's yes, an extra buy week, yes, an extra game week and a game as well.

But do they bring the season forward? Like, I think they would love for it to land. Yeah, this year, you've got it landing on a holiday weekend, right? Which holiday is it in mid-February? Excuse my Britishness for forgetting. President's Day. How dare you? Or was it Valentine's Day?

That also sometimes... The Valentine's Day is what it literally lands on, but more I meant the third Monday in February being present. Yes. Right? So yes. Also my birthday sometimes. Every once in a while, it is, you know, myself and Chris Wesleyan and Roger Goodell's birthday. So that would be fun for us. What I think they'd really love to have happen is that the opening weekend is on Labor Day weekend. The Super Bowl is on President's Day weekend. They can take over holidays like they have done Christmas and Thanksgiving and add games to Wednesdays and everything else.

But I think the big loss could end up being with all of this. Do you remove the Super Bowl? do you go from championship game to Super Bowl the following weekend in order to make the season work? Don't hate it. In fact, I like it. Don't think we need that week anymore. That week was sort of built to drum up interest back in the day and do all the media stuff that for the rest of the time America was not paying as close attention to American football.

They're paying attention now. Let's just use that momentum. That week that's just dead and is the senior bowl week actually doesn't make much sense to me anymore. It's not great for the players' bodies, but they get an extra bye week somewhere in the season. It'd be good for our bodies. You move opening night to Tuesday.

You send all of us, you know, we all get a plane from wherever the NFC and AFC championship game is together to the Super Bowl City. It would be like a big migration across. And, yeah, I think for me, if they want to make it work, they might have to lose that. Because two by weeks does mean another thing, though. I've got to represent, and 18 games means another thing as well.

Florey's been bagging this for a while because of that whole Super Bowl date, not been set yet. It's all more international games. It's going to turn into a 16 game international season. I'm convinced that's where it is going. No doubt. But I think I've seen the most backlash against an international slate we've maybe ever seen. And I don't know if you've talked about it. Not in terms of the quality of the slate.

I mean, push back from the number of games. the amount that teams are going out there. And it is interesting that, I don't know if you covered this bit of news on your show, but there one bit of international announcement that came out of the owners meetings is that teams can no longer protect home games when they are playing international games. It used to be that you were able to pick two home games and say you can't send those games abroad, no more. From next season, you will not be able to protect those games.

And so suddenly, you know, marquee matchups going abroad, 16 games a year. I'm basically going to be working full time as a commentator, so I'm ready for it. Good. I mean, people need to calm down. There's 17 regular season games. You can lose one. And if it happens to be a good one, guess what? You can still watch it on TV. It's better to watch on TV than it is to go in person. It's not like baseball where I enjoyed, you know, a beautiful sunset on Monday night celebrating my memorial day as my father-in-law. is chanting, Freddy, Freddie, that's right. I've completely turned into a Dodgers fan. The final item on the news before we say goodbye is just a quote from Clint Kubiak

that I quite enjoyed talking about Brock Bowdo. He's kind of a football robot in a good way. He's a football robot from heaven. He's a Cadillac out there. We've got to get the most out of Brock. You know, whatever he goes, he's been successful. in college and high school, whoever's coached him. So, you know, just can't say enough great things about him.

Love his work ethic. He's a standard bear. Not effusive at the podium, Clint Kubiak. But football robot from heaven, that's nice. That's some nice wordplay, just odd too. And that could stick. I might just call Brock Bowers from now on the football robot from heaven. I'm on board.

I'm ready for it. The new age of tight ends is upon us. and Brock Bauer could be the shining beacon at the top of the mountain. I'm ready. Now, he did make a mistake. You know, that was clearly straight off the dome. You know, as a writer, he immediately followed, you know, Brock being a football robot from heaven with that he's a Cadillac. Well, that's confusing. Like, just pick one now. Mix those metaphors.

Right. You can't be a football robot from heaven that is also a Cadillac. You could be driving a Cadillac maybe as a football. It's a transformer. There you go. It's perfect. I also like he's a standard bearer. That's what Will has become for this show and for football internationally. So yeah, everyone check them out on talk sport covering American football, but also this summer and beyond soccer, better known as football,

everywhere else, the S word with his buddy master Tesfazian. Appreciate you, Will. We'll see you. Appreciate you having me on. This proves to all those people out there who thought I wasn't going to still be doing the NFL, but I'm still here. I'm still going to do it. There you go.

Still my bread and butter. Still my one true love. You better be because I want to call that game wherever they said me this year. It might be Munich. We're looking at Munich. So possibly on to Munich. Me, Will, the Lions, the Patriots. Jack Campbell.

Yeah. Maybe I can connolly we can convince them to. We will be back in the studio. Patrick Claibon will be there. Big show, maybe another fun, surprise guest. We're back to Daily. It's in the name. See you next thing.

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