NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 23. Free Agency Moves That Changed The 2022 NFL Draft Outlook

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers come to you after a crazy day one of the legal tampering period for free agency. The two discuss some of the biggest moves of the day, how they affect draft strategies for certain teams, and the ripple effect beyond them.

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I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. NFL free agency is flying right now. And today, we're going to go through all of the wave one moves, not just our favorite signings,

the biggest signings, but which signings have a mega impact on the NFL draft, whether it's the top 10 picks or beyond that. Teams like the Chargers and the Bengals getting active as well in a crazy, crazy opening day of NFL free agency. I'm Connor Rogers, joined as always by my co-host Trevor Sikama. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange. I'm Connor Rogers. Joining me as always is my co-host Trevor Sikama. man we got a fun show today because NFL free agency is firing on all cylinders we are going to go through the biggest moves of wave one and we're going to take a look at how a lot of them impact the NFL draft and not just the first round but rounds one two maybe even three so we're excited to get into this Trevor you're coming fresh off the Tom Brady

return news which kind of kicked free agency into high gear with a lot of guys going back to the Bucs. But it's been a wild day, man. How are we feeling? Dude, it was exciting last night and even this morning getting to see everyone look at our reaction because obviously we were recording the podcast last night when it dropped. And so getting to share that clip was absolutely hilarious. I gained like over 100 Twitter followers, I guess, because people just love to watch me freak out about things. I think you told me that you gained a bunch of Bucks followers, too. So like now you're now you're an honorary member of Bucks Nation, baby. I am fire the cannons or feeling the fire of the cannons love right now.

I had to ask Trevor before the show what the saying is, but I am all fire the cannons right now no the brady news is great uh i'm sure as hell glad that brady didn't do this on a monday because free agency is already difficult enough and that that brady news would have buried so many signings that we really needed to to see at the forefront to see like schefter and Ari and Rapp and all those dudes break these news and everything. And so there were a ton of guys who signed in new teams, a lot of guys coming back as well, which, like you said, with this being an NFL draft podcast,

we are going to spin all of these signings into a draft focus. How does free agency change what we are about to see in the nfl draft and so connor i'll let you open it up just like you opened up the show so beautifully where do you want to start when we have day one of the tampering period almost in the books almost in the books i mean i think we got to start with the jacksonville spending spree right and i'm sure some people listening to the show are like you're starting with thes, but how can you not on a day in this lovely rundown that you put together, Trevor, that they, before this, they franchised Ted Cam Robinson, still almost $17 million commitment right there.

Right. They signed Brandon Scherf to a big time deal, obviously viewed as the most talented veteran guard on the market. They signed Foley Fadukasi, former Jets' sixth-round pick that is a great run defender, quietly one of the best interior run defenders in the NFL. Three-year, $30 million. Christian Kirk, three-year, $72 million.

Evan Ingram, one-year, $9 million. Olicon got three years, $45 million from them. That's a massive deal for Olicon. And then Zay Jones at the buzzer here, three years, 45 from them. That's a massive deal for Olicon. And then Zay Jones at the buzzer here, three years, 24 million. I mean, Trevor, you look at all these signings, whatever how you feel about them, right? I'm sure a lot of them are overpaid. That's free agency.

But the way they've spent kind of makes it seem like Aiden Hutchinson is going number one overall right now. I agree. I had him go number one overall in the mock that I did the morning of free agency. Cause I felt like that's where we were going. And it seems as though these free agency dollars kind of echo that now there wasn't nearly as much of an edge presence as there were offensive line

presence. And so that goes into it. But now you look at the Jags offensive line. Yeah. It's got a little bit of moving and shaking and you you probably still need upgrades and you got to see how these guys play in the field but now you've got cam robinson walker little juwan taylor brandon sheriff right and they might not be done they might not be done with their offensive line so all of a sudden there was already the debate of, is Jacksonville going to take an offensive lineman at number one, knowing they have Walker Little, who played all right last year,

Juwan Taylor, who's kind of their solidified right tackle, and then bringing back Cam Robinson on the franchise tag. Were you about to draft Evan Neal and put him at right guard, left guard? Were you about to draft that kind of a player at number one overall and put him there there were already debates of whether or not that would be the move but now especially with them paying sheriff i think you're right i think they ever all signs point to hutchinson at this point with the number one overall pick i listen i think they absolutely can take a a kneeler and icky and play him on the right side but the fact is we've heard a lot of hutchinson buzz really when we got

out of indie and we know how much teams love hutchinson because he has the ceiling of a number one overall pick but also has the floor that you feel good about from a safety valve perspective and the fact that they have allocated so much so many dollars remember what i said on from your mock draft show the one that came out monday of this week i said my biggest question with jacksonville is a team that is so conscientious of the pr hits that they've taken since urban meyer and failing trevor lawrence or do they have a fear of not using the number one pick on an asset geared towards Trevor Lawrence's development? Now you've spent all of this money on offense that I think internally and externally,

it's a little bit easier of a sell for them now to go Aiden Hutchinson instead of offensive line. No, I think so too. I think that's totally right. And you know, it's funny that you bring up, is Jacksonville going to mess around with the public perception? Because then they go out and they sign Christian Kirk to a four year, $84 million deal. And top five receiver money, right?

That was what the original reports was that that was the deal for Kirk. And that is technically the deal for Kirk, but I think less than half of that, 80, what was it? 81 or 80, I think it was 84. It maxed out at 82. And yeah, the guarantee is around 20. So it's essentially a two-year deal anyways.

It was just kind of Rappaport and Schefter basically taking what the agent said and tweeting it out and people freaking out about it. So I honestly, I thought about that today when the Jags were spending all this money everywhere. And I'm like, I guess they don't really care what the public thinks. They're going to do what they want to do.

And I don't think all the moves were bad. But I do wonder what happens with LaVisca Chenault now, right? When you look at that roster. And it's just, I mean, where does he fit? it just seems like he doesn't at this point i agree and the fact that you have travis etn coming back healthy we're assuming you've spent money on two wide receivers we know etn is going to be used or the plan when he was drafted and i know that was an urban thing the pass catching role but that's still that still part of who he is. That's part of who he's going to be.

Man, you're right. I mean, you're right. When it comes down to it, Kirk and obviously Zay Jones are true wide receivers, but there's also manufactured touches of your offense, the screens, the dump-offs, the pitch passes, the reverses. I think those go to Etienne before Chenault. And now you're right, Trevor.

He feels like a guy that draft day, maybe you call up and you offer a fifth or a sixth rounder. Right. Maybe. Right. Maybe. I don't even know if he's worth that right now. And then he's moved off the roster.

Maybe. I can't remember what the phrase was that they used at the combine. I think it was that the ship has not sailed on Levisca Chenault. But, you know they say about denzel mims that's not a good thing to say about right and like and like head coaching gms for as much as we like to try to like take nuggets from them at the combine they also lie a lot i mean pete carroll basically just said we have no intentions of trading russell wilson and then a week later they trade russell wilson yeah so we know that the head coaches and gms fabricate things

and just don't really want to answer questions truthfully especially when they're hard questions i agree with you i'd be shocked if lavisca chanel's on the jaguars roster to start the year next year and i don't love that move like i think lavisca chanel can still be really good especially when he's healthy but i wonder if that goes into the equation you're right especially with the wide receivers that they brought in and then evan ingram to them signing him to be a big slot kind of a player we're running out of manufactured touches if you will and so i think i think it is more likely than not as an outsider people who are on the inside of things who follow the jags a little bit more closely you guys might know a lot

of a little bit more information than I do. But as I look at the depth chart now after day one of the tampering period, I would think it's more likely LaVisca Chenault on a different roster than he is in Jacksonville to start next season. Yeah, there's just a lot of fallouts from signings like today. And that's one that you look at and go, eh, maybe. So with Jacksonville, you know, a lot of these signings feel like because they've had such poor drafting for a while and they needed bridge guys to come in

and help Trevor Lawrence, not calling Kirk a bridge guy, but the Zay Jones contract is the perfect example. You see the three years, 24 million. Zay Jones might only be there for a year or two while you're trying to draft and develop receivers to play behind him. You're just gaining yourself flexibility is what Jacksonville is doing. And that's not at the number one pick. It is the number one pick, but people need to also realize that's at the 33rd pick.

That is a vital pick for Jacksonville to get it right, whether it is a wide receiver, whether it is a pass rusher, whatever it may be. They are just trying to open up flexibility and i think that was the theme of the day for a handful of teams in free agency so let's talk about another team i want to talk about the pittsburgh steelers because or where there was a lot of other teams that signed a lot more guys spent a lot more money what the steelers did might have one of the biggest ripple effects for the 2022 NFL draft.

And that is that they signed Mitchell Trubisky, baby. They won the Mitch Trubisky sweepstakes that you and I talked about a bunch a week ago when we were at the combine. And there was a lot of buzz around Trubisky's name. A lot of people were talking about Trubisky, where he was going to play. It wasn't going to be in Buffalo again. He was probably going to get the opportunity to start. And you know what?

He has that now in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh looking for a quarterback now with Ben Roethlisberger gone. The deal, as we are just recording this podcast, we just found out the details. It's a two-year deal with little over $14 million as a base, but can go up to $27 million with all the incentives. And you would think that's basically if he's a backup quarterback, he is going to get paid like a backup. If he is the starter, he is going to get paid.

Well, not quite like the starter, but a little bit more money getting into close to the $15 million per year range. The big question is, does this affect what Pittsburgh does to go get a quarterback in this upcoming draft and connor i think the answer is no i still think they love malik willis i still think they're in on malik willis what this move does it is it allows pittsburgh to at least on the outside look

less desperate when potentially trying to negotiate to get up from number 20 to go get Malik Willis. Because you said on yesterday's episode of the podcast, I had Malik Willis going number 20 and you said, he's going to have, they're going to have to move up. There's no way they're going to be able to sit back at 20 and get Malik Willis. And I agreed with you, but I wasn't sure where that spot was going to be. This move to me is a great insurance move and a leverage manipulator more than anything else to hopefully go get the guy that they really want to be starting in pittsburgh a couple years from now that's right and how long have we heard the mitch market heating up like this it was done by probably the steelers and the giants the giants thinking of you know the familiarity with the

buffalo front office and coaching staff coming down and then you could have them compete with Daniel Jones but they didn't the Giants had really no money to play with they did well with what they what they had getting a guard in Glowinski and getting a center in Feliciano but they had really no money to spend and then when you look at the Steelers this deal is actually it's your you know that with the reporting initially now that it came out while we're recording late into the night, Monday evening, $14 million deal really just loaded up with incentives. It's not a you're our guy for two years. It's barely you're our guy for one year.

But like you said, Trevor, when you call on draft night and you call whoever it may be. The Atlanta Falcons at eight. You want to jump Seattle. The New York Jets at 10. You want to jump the teams in the teens. You don't get taken for a ride. Nobody's sitting there going, you don't have anything on your quarterback roster. We'll take two ones to come up 10 spots.

You don't want to be put in that position and get taken for a ride because everybody knows you're desperate. Now, whatever you think about Mitch Trubisky, right? Because everybody's been either dunking on this and then there's the media that's like, oh, he can turn around his career there. I'm somewhere in the middle that he's a true bridge guy for them. Now you have a, there's two things. One, you don't get taken for a ride completely if you got to go up and get a quarterback. Number two, let's call it what it is.

Malik Willis is not ready to play right away. So Mitch Trubisky needs to be the guy that holds the four. That wouldn't be fair to Malik Willis to draft him and throw him into the fire. I feel that way about Malik. I feel that way about Sam Howell. I feel, he started four years. I still feel that way about Desmond Ritter. Kenny Pickett, I think, can play right away.

He's a floor guy, not a ceiling guy like Mac Jones was last year. But for the Steelers, this is a double-sided sort of a move where you're protecting your leverage and you're also protecting the development of whoever you take a quarterback. But I think the theme has to be here, Trevor. They are still in on the quarterback class for 2022.

All of a sudden, my mind now really goes to number 11 with the Washington Commanders, where Pittsburgh could target to go up. Because I don't think any of these teams in the top 10 are super in on spending a premium pick that high on this quarterback class. So I feel like it is realistic to believe that even if you believe Malik Willis is going to be QB1 in this draft, it might be right outside the top 10. Now, if Pittsburgh goes up to 11,

they're jumping teams like the Minnesota Vikings at 12, like the New Orleans Saints at 18, right? These teams that might be looking at quarterback, who might be looking to move up even. And Pittsburgh can go to Washington now, a team that is looking for extra draft capital now that they have made the trade for Carson Wentz and they could potentially get a deal done there. So I look at 11 and I see that

as a hotspot for a Pittsburgh Steelers trade up if they want to go up and get Malik Willis and make sure that they secure that. What's another what's another talking point that you have during this tampering period? I mean, we got to look at the teams that just said we have a quarterback on a rookie contract that we feel really good about let's go spend all the i mean you got to realize right when you have a franchise quarterback however you view it or not it could be kirk cousins because of money that could be aaron rogers that you're in that 30 to 50 million dollar range when you're on the rookie deal say the numbers around eight because you were taken as a top five pick that's a that's multiple starters you can

play with so we'll start with the chargers right here who went out and said because justin herbert's on a rookie deal but he is a star we are going to utilize the cap space that we're saving before we have to pay him they brought back mike williams on a three-year 60 million dollar deal okay they signed jc jackson the number one corner on this market and an interception machine which you know another double sword move yeah you got jc jackson you got a number one corner you took him from new england who can be a thorn in you trying to get one of those late playoff spots, because you're looking uphill at the Chiefs, that's how it is, and maybe the

Chargers are better than the Chiefs this year, I don't know that, but that's just reality right now. They're getting closer, they're closing that gap, man. The Bills are better than New England, so New England is a problem for you. They are one of those late seed playoff teams that's going to be a little bit of a thorn. Now you sniped them, you got J.C. Jackson,

who New England, for whatever reason, it sounds like, didn't make contact with to bring back. Sebastian Joseph Day for the interior of your defensive line. Oh yeah,

and they traded for a guy named Khalil Mack. Okay? Heard of him. So, I mean, good Lord, Trevor. The defense,

this is, my theme of this is they did so well solving needs with premium talent. 17, take whoever the best player is, right? You're not pigeonholed into Jordan Davis.

You're not pigeonholed into Trent McDuffie. You don't have to take Jamison Williams because you got, you know, it'd be fun if they did. I still think that should be a great pick. I don't think we'll be there. This gets fun if you're a Chargers fan at 17 right now. Yeah, and kind of to continue your point, like even after, like beyond just the Chargers, I love that you brought this up that teams are really going after their talented

quarterbacks in their rookie deals because there is nothing more advantageous man i mean you nailed it being able to succeed compete for playoff spots maybe even championships with quarterbacks who are on rookie deals it's huge i mean you look at what the Bengals are doing. You look at, like you said, what the chargers have been able to do and compete. And they're trying to put themselves over the, over the hump to get to where the Bengals got to this past year. You look at other teams, like obviously Baker Mayfield's rookie window is

closing, but what the Cleveland Browns are trying to do there with probably prioritizing wide receiver in the first round of the draft, adding Amari Cooper, making sure that's not an excuse there. We look at what the Jaguars did with Trevor Lawrence. I mean, they're beefing up the offensive line. They're hopefully getting Travis Etienne back in the backfield. They're getting all sorts of passing weapons and they're probably not done this off season. So they are going hard at Trevor Lawrence's rookie contract window. I also look at

the Chicago bears and things are a little bit different in Chicago, but to bring up a point that we've talked about before on this podcast, Chicago's kind of offloading talent, but I don't mind that they're doing it because some people look at what they've been doing with the defensive line, the guys that have been out of there, what might happen with Alan Robinson. And it's just like, wow, what are the Chicago bears doing? Are they going to ruin Justin Fields and I kind of see it the other way I kind of see it as this team Ryan Poles and Matt Iberflues being very honest with where they are thinking okay we've got another four years of Justin Fields in his rookie window we are not ready to compete right now let's get rid of all

the fat on our roster cut the guys that are making a lot of money that aren't going to pan out for us two three years from now when we're really ready and let's jump start this thing let's let's accelerate us getting better getting younger and slingshotting our talent to where we need to go so i even think the chicago bears have the correct mindset when it comes to maximizing those rookie contracts with talented quarterbacks and And you're obviously seeing the Jets do that as well. We're going to dive deep into what the Jets have been doing. But I think this is a fantastic point that you brought up. And we're seeing a lot of teams, thankfully, thankfully, do right by their rookie quarterbacks, their talented rookie quarterbacks,

to try to maximize that contract window. I mean, that's the name of the game in the NFL, honestly. If you are sitting in the GM chair, when you evaluate not only the job that you take, but before that job interviews, you look at, OK, what is the quarterback situation? That's question number one. And if you're walking into a situation where you are going to be drafting one, you go, how do I maximize the window before I have to pay the guy? And having to pay the guy is often a blessing because that means you hit on the quarterback, right? So when you look at it, and honestly, part of knowing if you hit on the quarterback is putting good expensive pieces around him. So

I mean, the Chargers know they hit on Justin Herbert, but I guess this is a good time to transition to the Jets who are in that, you know, a phase a little earlier, right? They don't know what Zach Wilson is. They drafted him number two overall, so they believe in him a lot. His rookie season started out very poorly and finished quite strongly. So it was a roller coaster at best. So they go out and say, okay, well, we didn't really put a ton of talent around this guy. We're going to go and get Laken Tomlinson,

a guy that we coached in San Francisco as a pro bowler on a three-year, $40 million deal. You got to love that move. And he'll move over to right guard. ABT will stay at left guard. You don't want to mess with the young pup there and keep things a little simple for him.

Laken played right guard in college. You get Braxton Berrios back, who's going to be really your fourth wide receiver and your all-pro returner. And then you look at it and you go and, you know, bring back Tevin Coleman, whatever. But the last big one that we've seen from them is finally getting a tight end. returner. And then you look at it and you go and, you know, bring back Tevin Coleman, whatever you, um, but the big, the last big one that we've seen from them is finally getting a tight end.

The Jets had probably the worst tight end room in the NFL last year in an offense that, I mean, look at the offenses around the league that are similar to the Jets, right? You could start with the Niners. They have George Kittle. Okay. And the Jets went to an offense somewhat similar to theirs in Cincinnati and got Uzama. So they've made some moves. They're going to make more moves, but now you're starting to see a run first offense develop for Zach Wilson, which should open up the play action passing game for him, which was the whole plan when you drafted him. But now it's time to be aggressive. Why he's very, very cheap player actually put pieces around him. How much does this change, if at all, what the Jets are going to do with kind of their premium picks?

So, like, you got number four, you got number 10, you've got some picks in the second round. Like, is what they did today, which I know isn't too big of a surprise to you because I'm going to give you some kudos here. I'm going to shout you out. Anybody who listened to this podcast knows that Connor said on these very airwaves, hey, look for the Jets to spend a little bit of money at interior offensive line.

So you said that. You called it, and obviously that was a big priority of theirs as we saw on day one of the tampering period. Does this change the Jets draft strategy at all? What do you think here? I mean, it's fluid as we record here because Chandler Jones is still out there but I am convinced that they are thinking pass rusher at 410 because they have they paid Carl Lawson last year and we know how good this pass rush class is when you have a pick in the top 10 they have two I don't think the

the most fascinating part to me Trevor is you and I just had this conversation on Monday. If Ike Ikuonu is there at four, we think that they run in that card. Your starting offensive line is George Fant at left tackle, AVT at left guard, Connor McGovern at center, Lakin Tomlinson at right guard, Mekhi Becton at right tackle. We think they're going to move him over

because Fant took over the left side last year and did a great job and the staff loves him. That's their choice. So if they're going to run in that card for Ikea Kwano at four are they thinking about trading Mekhi Becton I was going to say where is he playing what are they doing with him it's it's a situation to me that I find fascinating and look if he can't get his weight under control when they believe that he's always going to be hurt then okay i guess you explore a trade but like if you're trading mckay beckton right now it doesn't feel you're gonna get what you want in return that's right that's where i'm hung up on it

that this was joe douglas's first first round pick since taking the job you cannot just dump off that guy you need something significant in return a top 50 selection and I don't know if they get that so that's where the Jets are right now very interesting because they control so much of how the draft goes at four and ten I've I felt a quantum at four if he's there and then we talked about Thibodeau and Jermaine Johnson if he's not uh 10 I think is going to be wide receiver you know they'd know okay so you do you think it's gonna be wide receiver still okay I do I think Sauce Gardner's a wild card for them but I think uh you know they're trying to sign a corner as well as we do this show but yeah I think wide receiver has to be an option for them that's why I called Berrios the four I think the wide receiver group

will be Corey Davis Elijah Moore uh the 10th overall pick, or if they move back a little bit, and then Berrios. So the Jets are finally being aggressive. Joe Douglas has not been overly aggressive since taking that job, and they are trying to make the strides that the Chargers, the Bengals, and the Bills have. Long way to go to get to those three. Long way to go. But that's the name of the game if you want to be in that chair for a long time.

All right, there we go. All right, so I did want to go back a little bit to the chargers conversation because we talked about the herbert angle you mentioned the moves that they've made brought back mike williams when it got jc jackson uh traded for khalil mac and then they signed sebastian joseph day which you and i talked a little bit about this before we hit record on the podcast because it was just kind of breaking that that was happening. Sebastian Joseph Day, I think a lot of people are going to be asking the question, does this change their mindset from maybe targeting Jordan Davis at 17? Because we have long believed that that is a target for the Los Angeles Chargers, and it makes a lot of sense.

But Sebastian Joseph Day, he didn't sign for chump change. You know, three years, $24 million, 15 guaranteed. So it's, I mean, that's rotational slash starter interior defensive line money. Of course, it's not like elite and pass rusher interior defensive line money, but it's good money that you're saying there. I think you are right though.

I think this is truly just freeing the chargers up to pick whoever the hell they want at 17 and you know what it also does i think it allows them to maybe not even pick at 17 and when i say that i don't totally even trading up i maybe even say trading back like trade. And I mean like trading back far, like acquiring capital for next year's draft, which might be a little bit stronger than this year's draft. And so it's just, it's almost like they really are taking the motto of you fill all the needs you can in free agency to give you maximum flexibility when draft weekend comes around. And however you maximize that, whether whether it's trading up whether it's trading down or whether it's drafting a really good player that you think is going to help you out the most it feels like brandon staley and the

chargers are doing just that i think so and i think number one i love that you brought that up because that's a tradable spot because who's picking behind them the saints and everybody thinks that the saints are either finally all in on the wide receiver class and if not they're a wild card to take a quarterback that matters a lot yes because you don't want to be the team picking in the 20s that didn't get your receiver when they're all gone like i said that run starts it with atlanta at eight the wide receiver run it gets hot with the jets and the commanders it gets hot you. It gets hot with the Jets and the Commanders. It gets hot, you know, it gets hot again in the middle there. I think that's a very movable pick, and that's a way to get your second rounder back

and continue to distribute more talent when you don't have a need at 17. Trevor, how many times have we talked about it? This class starts to fall off a cliff where everybody's even for about 40 picks. I've loved what the Chargers have done. I am genuinely excited about them right now. Yeah, killing it they're absolutely killing it on the other hand which man that's that's that was a little too mean i probably shouldn't have tough transition

but i don't really know what the cowboys are doing right now we talked on yesterday's podcast when you brought up the cowboy selection in my mock draft and I said that it was kind of about them keeping status quo I had them taking Bernard Raymond the offensive tackle for Central Michigan which I still think could be a good pick for them but now you look at kind of what they're doing okay they're losing Amari Cooper they lost Xavier Woods they lost Lyle Collins they brought they brought back to Marcus Lawrence for an incredible deal by the way like 10 million you were just nuts I don't know how I don't know how they got him to Marcus Lawrence for an incredible deal, by the way, like 10 million a year, which is nuts. I don't know how, I don't know how they got him to sign for that guarantee to all of it. That's the only way I guess, but still man, like,

you can weigh more than that. And I love Harold Landry, but come on, what are we doing? Dalton Schultz, they franchise tagged and they did reach a long-term deal with Michael Gallup. So I still think the plan for the Cowboys is to try to maintain status quo as a contender but I'm I'm not as sure I know exactly what that pick is going to be at 24 with that thought in mind do you have any clarity more clarity here on the on the Cowboys one way or another where they might be leaning with that first round pick? Well, I still think they have quietly significant problems on the offensive line. Totally.

They're moving on from Lyle Collins. If you just followed the Dallas media, they were talking about him being potentially traded. Then they were talking about him being potentially cut if not traded. And now it's like, eh, it sounds like he's going to be released no matter what, which is big time for the Broncos need a right tackle. I still think Jacksonville needs a right tackle. Lyle Collins is a great name on the market for those two teams. The Raiders, I think that'd be a home run for

those three teams. Yes. But man, now the Cowboys have two holes on the offensive line. They obviously could think about wide receiver. Cedric Wilson went to Miami, and that was kind of the quiet signing of the day. Yeah. I mean, you lost Amari Cooper. You lost Cedric Wilson, who's a nice little player for them as their number four. You need CD to take that step. You like Gallup, especially that contract. It's a good contract for Gallup.

I have no problem with that. You have Schultz back. But, man, I think you've got to draft a wide receiver. I think you have to take an offensive lineman early. I think Kenyon Green is still that layup for them. I look at Kenyon Green and go, man, he's played four spots on the offensive line. He's a very, very good guard prospect

that might be able to get you by a couple games at tackle if somebody goes down. So for the Cowboys, my problem isn't really what they do at 24 because so many things started to make sense but when you say that that's kind of scary that there's that many needs now on a dallas team that i've been ready for them to make the super bowl jump the last year or two yeah it's not a there are so many options at 24 because they don't have a lot of holes in their roster it's like it's not the chargers it's the opposite yes it's there's so many options at 24 because they don't have a lot of holes in their roster. It's like, it's not the chargers. It's the opposite. Yes.

It's there's so many options with the Cowboys that we would really like for them to fill multiple options with one pick. If they could, I still think I agree with you. I think it can be greens very high on their list. I think he's going to be a big time target there. I think Bernard Raymond's the same way. Obviously if a guy like Trevor Penning gets down there, they're going to think about him as well.

But they could be tempted by wide receiver at this point, right? CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup, I know they like those guys, but they've had those guys plus Amari Cooper, and I think that they like the fireworks they were able to have with that group. I think, personally, that wide receiver is firmly behind their offensive line preference in addressing that in the first round. But I do think it's a little sneaky. If offensive line goes a lot quicker than we believe it's going to, if they don't love the options that are left,

especially the right tackle options, maybe they could get into wide receiver. So that is a possibility there. We got a couple more teams, some big signings that we want to get to the implications that they have on the NFL draft. But I want to tell you guys that if you do not have a pff subscription right now you can get 25 off any pff subscription which is an edge subscription and elite college or whatever if you use the promo code nflse that is a yearly subscription that gets you all sorts of locked premium content where we use all of our premium stats and all the tools that we have there. The green line betting tool for in the season.

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Who do you want to talk about? We got a handful of other signings that I think are really going to impact the 2022 NFL draft. So who else do you want to bring up? We're going to get heavy into the Bengals in here in a second, but I didn't want to forget because this was a talking point of mine on Monday's show that got dated instantly. Kirk Cousins getting a little extension.

What happened on Sunday night? What happened on Sunday night? Something happened on Sunday night? Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, we got a little sidetracked by the old Tom Brady news. And then Kirk Cousins kind of flew under the radar. They add one more year onto his deal for about $35 million, which my talking point on Monday's show was,

I don't know what this team wants to be. Do they want to go full throttle with Cousins and try to win? Do they want to just let him play out his deal in 2022 and then move on to a early rookie pick? I still am a little confused, Trevor, to be honest with you, because they didn't give Cousins this commitment of, we're going to build around you for the next three to four years, but they also are paying him top dollar for the next two.

So I still think the Vikings are somewhere in the middle. I do look at this deal and say, okay, well, they're obviously trying to win. They think they're ahead of the Lions, which is understandable. They think they're ahead of the Bears, which is understandable. They are not ahead of the Packers, obviously, although the Packers, who we're going to talk about a lot today as well, have some interesting good things and some interesting issues ahead of them. So the Vikings extending Cousins. What do you what do you make of this?

It's such a hard deal to react to. I just can't figure them out. You know, when I look at this Cousins deal, I look at it differently than, say, what the Steelers did with Mitchell Trubisky. Cause I talked about, okay, you're getting a guy on the roster. You're getting some security to allow yourself to have a defense against really losing leverage, maybe going up or back or however you want to navigate this quarterback class. Honestly, them signing Kirk cousins again to a fully guaranteed extra year,

which Mike McCarney is an elite agent, man. He's been able to do this with kirk cousins is incredible my hat is so far off to mike for everything that he's been able to do dude since 2016 no quarterback in the nfl has made more money that's insanity no quarterback in the nfl in 2016 i think he barely i think it's it's like since 2016 he's made like $159 million, and that's right above what Aaron Rodgers has made, which is just... How many times has he beaten Aaron Rodgers?

I'm not even being like a jerk. I don't know, not a lot. And I don't have to judge by $160 million. I know it's on the quarterback wins thing, but still. Vikings have had a good roster, by the way. So, I mean, when you look at it, I think this tells me the vikings are not in on this quarterback class at all and we've sort of toyed with the idea of hey minnesota would be a great spot for malik willis draft them

still behind kirk cousins for a year you move on kirk cousins then you're starting malik willis same thing could be said with maybe some of these other guys right Sam Howell or Carson Strong maybe a Kenny Pickett a Matt Corral whatever now you cut Kirk Cousins this year which they obviously wouldn't because they just signed the deal but it's it's 80 mil in dead cap next year it's 48 mil in dead cap right and so you're there in the Matt Ryan situation where we said to ourselves wow look at where the falcons are drafting in the 2021 nfl draft maybe they're going to go after a justin fields and put him behind matt ryan a mac jones and put him behind matt ryan what like whatever it was that didn't come to fruition because the money that they allocated to matt

ryan simply did not allow for that to make sense. And to me, the Kirk Cousins deal simply tells me they're not interested in this quarterback class at all whatsoever. Next year, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, Tyler Van Dyke, Spencer Rattler, like whoever's going to pop up outside of that, those are the guys that they're going to get to potentially sit behind Kirk Cousins for a year because, look, a fully guaranteed deal, man, you're not moving him, you're not trading him,

and you're not cutting him. So that tells me Minnesota is completely out on this quarterback class this year. But he's expensive when he's not there in 2024. I mean, a $12.5 million charge on a void year. So it's split. It's 6.25 in 24 and 24 and 25 so you're paying kirk cousins to not play for you over six million dollars for 2024 and 2025 easy man this was an

expensive like quietly a very expensive decision i know the vikings fans are sitting there and going it was not quiet we are well aware um i just you know i look at situations like this and will they ever be bad enough with kirk cousins to be in range to pick a cj stroud no i don't think so no i just i this is tough this is a day like free agency day one is supposed to be a fun day uh it's an you know an overload of optimism for teams that might not get a lot of it in recent history but i just the vikings i have to say this they are entering the very or maybe they've been very very fearful state of treading water and i would rather be awful or or good yeah i mean you can't in the middle is is a death sentence in the like like

you can't trade to no hunter now right i mean it would be very strange you you can't start offloading players and if they do then yeah like you said like it's extremely strange i know two years out isn't a super long window but i don't i don't i don't really know i don't really know why they did this deal man i really that's what i'm i just don't get it i don't really know why they did this deal, man. I really don't. That's what I'm saying. I just don't get it. And I agree with your point of they are trying to give themselves security and they're out on this quarterback class.

That all makes a lot of sense. But I just, then what? Right, what's Kirk going to win you? The problem is he might win you too much I just thought they were in a unique position and this is definitely a controversial take where they could have even if they didn't draft a guy this year they could have played Kirk or you know God if they they weren't going to move on from Kirk but if they did you play Kellen Mond you tank and then you're in on quarterback class next year and you try to get over the hump. I know that's a risky long road in a lot of teams.

Tanking is obviously not a very popular hot topic right now in the NFL with everything that's gone down in Miami, the accusations. But anyways, I'll keep this moving. The Vikings, very, very interesting team we have our eyes on during this period of offseason and the NFL draft. The Bengals. This is a team that was able to bottom out. They stunk.

And they got two franchise saviors in Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. And now they're awesome. And now they're making awesome moves. And it's not just bringing back Jesse Bates. They signed Alex Kappa to play guard. They signed Ted Karras. They got B.J. Hill back in the fold, which we had a lot of interest on the open market.

Trevor, I love that they went veteran offensive line approach. They didn't go, yeah, we'll fix it in the draft, even though we have 30 teams picking in front of us and we have no idea who the hell is going to be there. They were proactive. They were the anti-Bengals. They spent money and they spent it in

the right way to help Joe Burrow to help this offense I think Cincinnati is kind of in the same boat that the New York Jets were in going into this free agency and they said look there's a lot of viable options on the interior offensive line and we're gonna go and we're gonna spend money and we're gonna make some splashes in that realm and getting Karras and and K I think is huge. I think it's awesome for them because again, it makes them a lot less desperate at number 30 where they're picking at the back end of the first round. I had kind of been told and I've got some whispers that, you know, during the combine, it was that, Hey, if the draft were this weekend,

they would probably be leaning defense or actually that's a bad, that's a bad way to put it. Projecting out what they were going to do in free agency. Yes. They were going to go defense. Now that is not like definitive, but I feel like it's leaning defense depending on how the board falls, right?

If a great offensive lineman falls to you, like if a Zion Johnson or a Trevor Panning or a Bernard Raymond or something like that, if one of these guys, a Tyler Smith maybe even, falls to you at 30, yeah, they still might capitalize on the offensive line and might make another splash there. But if a lot of those guys are off the board, if they don't love who's left,

I really do think there's a possibility where they could be looking at defense. Corner could be a big need for them. Linebacker could be a need for them. If Devin Lloyd falls that far, which I don't know if Devin Lloyd's going to to fall to 30 but i think that's in range for nicobe dean right you have corners you know kair elam might be there at 30 all of a sudden these two moves by the bangles i think were fantastic they did exactly what they needed to do to go get decent like bottom line decent offensive line play could be even better than that and they're spending their money the way that they should freeing themselves up a little bit more at number 30

because dude you mentioned it well it's it's not 30 it's 31 right yeah yeah that's how that works when you make the super bowl and it loses your ball um so what you were saying there are 30 more teams in front of them they're not allowing their draft position to stronghold them more than it needs to for what they're going to pick so i think that that's where we are with the bangles and i thought they did a great job yeah and they've done such a good job with their vast reach of signings to make this team better that now the door might be open that you can use your second round pick, pick 63, to move up from 31 if you want, if there's a player you really like. Because you addressed a lot of holes,

and maybe you really like a Trevor Penning at right tackle, over Riley Reif, or whoever it may be. And you can complete the offensive line with a balance of young guys, with veterans. So I think they positioned themselves wisely is what the Bengals did. And you really love to see it because you don't want to see Joe Burrow's career health-wise be impacted by them not having the right guys in front of him. And the Bengals were a fun story last year. I mean, there's no way around it.

They were a Cinderella team. Everybody loves to root for the Cinderella until they become, you know, the dominant force. Like the Chiefs have become. The Bills have kind of started to trend that way. The Bengals are a really fun team, man. And it's just good to see them actually invest in what they have there, the opportunity they have there. Packers time. We said we were going to talk a lot about the Packers. And this has been a no-surprise busy team.

Once they got Aaron Rodgers back in the fold for mega money, they got Preston Smith back in the fold on an extension who's been a really nice player in that defense. They did release Adarius Smith, who's going to be a fascinating player to watch on the market when healthy. We know what he can do. Billy Turner was released. They got Devondre Campbell back on a five-year, $50 dollar deal who was quietly one of the best defenders in the nfl last year so

here's the question trevor or you know what it all comes down to we saw a report this morning from nfl network that devontae adams will not and i get it will not play on the franchise tag devontae adams is the best wide receiver in football. But the problem is DeAndre Hopkins is drastically paid as the top wide receiver in football. Can the Packers make this work? I mean, there's always a way. The Saints have taught us there's always a way. But I think this has become more complicated than a lot of people have been led on to believe.

I agree with you that it is a little bit more complicated. It's not as much a, hey, Devontae Adams. I think the franchise tag was simply to buy more time. Sure. You know, if Rodgers signed a one-year deal, I think this would have gotten a lot more dicey. But he signed a four-year deal, which doesn't mean that Rodgers is going to play all four years, but it does mean there is some leverage in how you could manipulate

a long-term contract with Devontae Adams. Because if Rodgers wasn't going to be committed to playing to you for very much longer, like, let's say, like, like I said, like, let's say he signed a one year $50 million deal. Well then all of a sudden it's like, okay, are we going to be rebuilding heavily after Rogers leaves? Like, like how are we going to be able to make it make sense that Devante is still on our team that we're not okay now hitting our winning window right when Devante we're getting done paying him all this

money and he's not helping us as he was before so I think it would have gotten a little bit more complicated if Rodgers only signed a one-year deal but he's back for four years I think ultimately they're able to work it out they're able to get Devae uh three four I mean maybe five-year deal if the money's right but you can manipulate the money in there the longer the contract is and I think that's what plays to their advantage I think the Devontae Campbell contract is the biggest draft change if you will with Packers not necessarily the Devontae Adams news where he said that he's not going to play because I had Devin Lloyd going to the Packers at number 28 overall in my most recent mock. I thought N'Kobe Dean could have been an option

there too. I know the Packers have some thresholds with length, so maybe N'Kobe Dean wouldn't fit that bill, but he's a good football player. So all that to say, I thought linebacker could have been a consideration for them at the back end of the first round. Now it's not. Now I think you're looking elsewhere. Now I think you're looking at defensive line, right? A Logan Hall, a Travis Jones, maybe going wide receiver if you want to combine that. But I don't think that has to do with the loss of Devontae, if you will. So I think that the Devontae Campbell is what changes things a lot for Green Bay. I don't necessarily think that Preston Smith leaving. No, not Preston, but Preston Smith stage.

Preston Smith was signed with them. Zedaria Smith left. I don't think Zedaria Smith leaving means like, okay, now they're drafting another edge player because I think the defensive line with Preston Smith, which was Sean Gary, we can't Clark, like all that is good there. They might want an interior player more than an edge player. So I don't think the linebackers on the table for them anymore i think they're now going to look

towards defensive line maybe wide receiver but i don't think it's as much because of adams yeah i think they find a way with adams it's just it's just interesting how you know he's not like oh rogers is back i'm here to take whatever you give me it It's like, no, you got to take care of him, too. He's got to be the number one guy and they're going to have to. You've already seen it. They moved on from Z. It's cool that they got a deal done with Campbell and they're going to have to just move some money around and find a way to get Devante done. But I agree the draft aspect of it is, do they look for that long, elusive, you know, true number two?

Now that we're assuming Valdez Scantling is going to leave in free agency. Do they opt to draft that? I agree with you that they can definitely look up front on the defensive line. Let's not forget now that they released Z and kept Preston, you know, it's going to be Preston and Rashawn Gary, but you need guys that can play in between them.

And they, and they released Billy Turner. So that means that Jenkins probably probably right tackle for them so they might also be looking towards the interior if a good interior offensive lineman falls like if kenny green falls to them or something at 28 johnson yeah if zion johnson certainly falls to them they could take the bait there as well so i just wanted to throw that part out no they actually seem like an easy or team to figure out now because of this it's who's going to play next to kenny clark on the defensive line or who's going to be the interior offensive lineman that we draft yeah that's what the packers look like and that's a good problem to have i think they are they've done

a lot of really good things to keep that core together and the draft can significantly help them uh because of the way this board is going to fall. You might have a chance at a Devontae Wyatt there, and that's kind of a no-brainer that late in the first round. Shoot, damn it. Devontae Wyatt's still on the board at 28. They better sprint. They better get Usain Bolt to sprint in the card for him, man, just so nobody does anything for it.

All right, let's go one more each before we get out of here. We'll go quick i'll stay a little bit homer here i'll talk about the buccaneers because we have just the brady signing that happened on sunday but they have chris godwin locked up they brought carlton davis back they bought brought ryan jensen back marpet is not coming back he's not coming out of retirement uh alex kappa now gone there for them i still think interior offensive line is their biggest need i had them going tyler linderbaum in my mock draft from from monday i think that if linderbaum is still there regardless of if jensen is there

they would draft a damn good offensive lineman like linderbaum if he is still on the board i think they're going to bring gronkowski back they might bring leonard fournette back this is really as close to again a run it back as they had before the only question to me is can jordan whitehead the safety get a lot of money elsewhere and maybe he'll be gone but they still they have mike edwards they have antoine winfield jr they're bringing back carlton davis obviously that was the secondary dude i blew my mind that possible. I was so convinced that this team was 100% losing Carlton Davis and Ryan Jensen. And somehow they brought both of them back. And it was funny, like as soon as Brady was back, our old friend Mike McCarthy was able to get the Jensen deal wrapped up.

Immediately, man. Immediately. The Jensen deal was wrapped up. He sent out a tweet about needing more baby powder that's the tom effect the tom effect gets guys back um i'm sure carlton did carlton davis got a really nice deal from the bucks but i bet a team there's a team or two out there that could have beat it by a mil per year or something like that but you go back to the bucks and play you like playing for bowls you like trying to win super bowls with brady Maybe you like being in Tampa. Obviously, you're comfortable in the organization that drafted you.

So the Bucs, just massive winners in all of this. They went from, I mean, my goodness, three days ago, the Bucs were, is it going to be Blaine Gabbert or Kyle Trask, tank mode? Are they going to trade for Deshaun Watson? Nobody's coming back to. Brady's back. We're running it back. We got a lot of key pieces back.

Right. So I'll turn this to you, Trevor, with the draft now and all of these dominoes falling in a really good way for the Bucs. Is there a chance at the end of round one they are looking to draft Antonio Brown's replacement? Are they looking for that wide receiver three in that spot? You know, you have Dotson, maybe Chris Alave makes it there. I know, obviously, they're going to work on a deal with godwin mike evans is an absolute legend one

of the most underrated players of the last decade but that number three is very very important for that offense yeah no i think that that's that's firmly right there i think that it's either going to be offensive line or it's going to be wide receiver it's going to be one of those two they're going to play the board as it comes to them i don't think they're going to get too aggressive for trade-ups although jason light loves to play the draft game. So that's always in the cards. If it makes sense for them, those are the two positions. It depends on who falls to you. If Crystal lobby still on the board, they will absolutely.

I think they would absolutely draft them. If Traylon Burke somehow gets there, you know, maybe even Christian Watson's in their consideration at the back end of the first round. Like all of that, I think is, is in the realm of possibility and they'll look at every opportunity within those two positions and i think make the best the best choice there who is your uh who's your parting team that you want to talk about before we leave the eagles man i think you know they made it yes it was kind of quiet today but

it was a big signing for big money they bring in hassan reddick on a deal worth up to almost 50 million dollars 30 million dollars of it is guaranteed uh the eagles they love some of those undersized pass rushers and he's a good player i mean this was i like this move for the eagles but i want to talk about it because of the domino effect this has been a hot spot for david ajabo with the 15th pick trevor they paid joshat they've now paid Redick right they have a lot of money invested into their edge pass rush are they really at 15 gonna draft a third rusher that is plays undersized to throw him out there I just I think this changed things for the Eagles where you said it to me before we

started the show maybe they do take that linebacker this year they are a landing spot for linderbaum they are a landing spot for a wide receiver like a burks or a london or a jameson uh i think that the big effect here is we have been very i know i have been and i've seen you do this edge happy with one of the eagles three first round picks Maybe this wipes that off the board. It's hard to think you have three first round picks and one of them is not a pass rusher, right? Because the position is so important. You're right. I think the odds are lower than they were. Certainly when the tampering period started, I wouldn't totally put it out of the question but maybe they do look to a different type of edge player maybe like maybe they're they're gonna go for like carloftis instead of a david ojabo right like if if both of those guys are on the board so i still think corner's

a big need for him the linebacker man i think if devin if devin lloyd is sitting there for you like let's say they go stingley at 15 they go go car loft is at 16 and they roll the dice a little bit and they get to 19 and they go, Hey, like if Devin Lloyd happens to be there at 19, we'll, we'll take him a 19. Maybe this is the year because they're not bringing Alex Singleton back.

The linebacker rooms already bad. And I get that the Eagles don't often do this, but the linebacker room has been bad. So, and you're're and you're losing one of the guys that was already on your team so maybe this is it maybe they use that 19th overall pick finally on a linebacker that they might really need yeah man it's their problems are right in front of them they're not good in the middle of the field because they don't treat the middle of the field like a necessity at all and when when you overlook it year after year, after year,

after year, after year, and you are, listen, I get it from the perspective of you don't value off ball linebacker with premium assets. That's fine. If you want to take that approach,

but that means you need to hit in other ways. Day two of the draft, mid tier signing, stop gaps, trades, and they haven't. So maybe it is time to change the approach we'll see um but yeah definitely the eagles are such a fascinating domino in this

draft man and this was a fun one and it has me pretty jacked up for thursday because by thursday's show you and i will be in the wave two and three of free agency and that really paints the full picture and as we sit here today there are some massive names still on the board that have yet to be signed that can change uh even the top 10 of this draft dude it's awesome this is one of my favorite weeks of the year when it comes to draft evaluation because draft needs you can see exactly how teams are attacking their holes on their roster and also give you a little bit of hint into what the league or what certain teams might think of this draft class so it all makes for a lot of fun

connor and i are going to be back on thursday with like he said two more days of the tampering period and then the official start of free agency under our belt to talk about it all what it means for the 2022 nfl draft this is the NFL Stock Exchange. We'll see you guys then. Bye.