The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Big questions we want answered after the 2022 NFL Draft

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

Robert Mays and Lindsay Jones ask some big lingering questions that are still present following the NFL Draft, from who catches passes in Chicago, to the development of Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson, the Seahawks and Broncos strategies for this year and beyond and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. Welcome. The Athletic Football Show. Today's Thursday, May 5th. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today, it's my good friend Lindsay Jones. Let's see, how you doing? I am great.

We survived the draft. We did. We're psyched. Yeah, we made it. We're here. It's early May. It's always a fun time in the NFL calendar. It's a mix of picking up some loose pieces from the draft.

We've done a couple of those shows this week. Hopefully you guys listen to Dana and Lance do their draft. wrap wrap up on Wednesday's show. One thing I always like to do after the draft is over. You and I did this last year. I think it's a really useful exercise and really good way to kind of bridge draft aftermath with the real start of the quiet part of the off season. And that's the questions we have left after the draft.

And we were sitting there in the Airbnb in Vegas and Dane sent me his needs. His team needs for every single team. And after round one, we're kind of crossing them off and seeing which needs are left and what teams need to do. It's always a living, breathing thing. as the draft is going on. But when the draft is over, now we know which team needs are left. What do teams still need? What are those lingering big or small questions that exist after seven rounds and 250

players end up going off the board? So that's what I want to do today. We're going to ask the questions we still have now the draft is over. Some of these are big. Some of these are about specific players. Some of these are about things league-wide. Some of them are who's going to play X position for X team. So we're going all over the place here, but these are the things that we're still on our minds after the draft wrapped up this weekend.

Yeah, absolutely, because the off season, if it's like a puzzle, right, you can't finish it until you have all of the segments in place. And, you know, the draft was a big one. And look, a lot of these rookies, we don't know anything about them yet. We don't know how good they're going to be. But we have a much better idea of what these teams are going to look like now than we did a week ago. So let's go. Let's get into it. Let's start with someone that was not drafted and not moved this weekend.

And my first question that I had coming out of this draft now is what happens with Baker Mayfield. The trade did not happen with Carolina. The news that was reported was that the Browns were not willing to take enough of the salary for Carolina to jump at it. The Panthers ended up drafting back corral in the third round. We'll talk about that in a second. But now what happens? What happens with Baker Mayfield? What happens with Jimmy Garoppolo?

Because there weren't that many seats to begin with for teams that needed quarterbacks heading into this draft. now there's one fewer seat with Carolina drafting a quarterback that will presumably battle to be the starter there in 2022. So I want to know, like where does Baker end up? And the Browns, by all accounts, seem willing to ride this thing out. And they've called it a fluid situation. At this point, they're almost better served being patient and seeing what might shake loose over the next few months here before training camp starts. Does somebody get hurt? Does somebody get disgruntled?

who knows, because there isn't much of a market right now. They don't have a ton of leverage. So what does this process ultimately end up looking like for Cleveland, for Baker, and for a team that might be interested in him down the road? Yeah, for sure. I mean, there was urgency to get a trade accomplished during the draft at some point. You know, look, I think it went into Thursday and maybe even into Friday a little bit. You know, there's urgency there because you want to get some sort of immediate return on that trade.

you would like to add some sort of 2022 draft capital that you can use right away. And if you can trade him to a team that hasn't drafted a quarterback yet. Yeah, exactly. So there's motivation on both sides. Now all of that is gone. So yeah, there's no real deadline now to move on from Baker Mayfield until really until like late July when training camp starts. And then you have to make that decision of like, is he going to show up? Is he going to be fine? What is the actual like depth chart look like at training camp?

Because look, he can skip the offseason program and it's no big deal. He's not part of their overall offensive plan right now. They're moving full steam ahead with Deshaun Watson as their quarterback. Him hanging out at OTAs is probably just going to be a real awkward situation. You get to July. And even if he's not in their plans to be their starting quarterback or really even their backup quarterback, the way that the CBA is structured is that he's going to have to be there or else he's going to accumulate a lot of fines.

They can't waive those sorts of fines anymore. That's why Deshaun Watson was at training camp last year for the Texans. So, you know, we kind of have a little bit of time now, but there's just no real logical landing spot left. You know, the Seahawks are really the team left that has like, you know, a fairly clear path to becoming a starting quarterback. We're going to talk a little bit more about the Seahawks here in a minute. But yeah, there's just not been the market.

I think that probably Baker anticipated. there being for him. And, you know, for the Browns to, for the deal with the Panthers to kind of die over how much money the Browns were willing to take on is just, it's just really unfortunate because like, what's your other option is keeping a guy who doesn't want to be there who you don't want to play? I don't know. It's just a bad situation. So he lost, I think the Browns lost. I listed them as one of my losers midway through the draft when that deal fell apart. I'm wondering if we get. to July and they can't find any takers. Nobody gets hurt. No spot opens up. The Seahawks ultimately

don't end up being interested. That being the last logical landing spot. If they're willing to eat half of it. So right now, the Browns have $28 million in cap space according to over the cap. They don't have a rookie class to sign for the most part. Usually that number is false because of in-season moves you have to account for aid. You have to sign a rookie class. Let's say $7 million. You have to earmark for in-season moves. That still leaves $20 million. and there isn't much of a rookie class to speak of. So they have the wiggle room to potentially eat it all if they need to. They easily could eat half of it.

Which teams at $8 million or $9 million would be willing to take a dice roll on Baker-Mayfield as a short-term option is a long-term option? If you're the bucks, we'll send you a sixth-round pick and you eat half of it, is that a worthwhile move for a team like that? That's what I'm wondering. Well, how does the market end up shaking out if that number gets cut in half and as teams get a little bit closer, they'd like a little bit more insurance at that backup quarterback spot? Yeah, I mean, I think we have to kind of see what's going to shake out with some of these other situations. I mean, if the situation with Kyler Murray and the Cardinals goes south over the next couple of months, you know, maybe that's a place. You know, if Kyler's not going to show up or their contract situations, it's just really hard to find like a place that makes sense where. you know, would it be worth paying him $8 million to be your backup quarterback? Is he going to want to go there?

It's really hard. So we'll see. I mean, you never want to predict injuries or talk about injuries. But the reality is that could happen at some place and that there might be a little bit more of a market. The Jimmy Garoppolo market is also really interesting because that's another guy here who has not been moved. There is no huge market available really, really out there for him. But it is not the same sort of like really awkward contentious situation. It would be weird if he's still there because, you know, would they just hand the job to Tray Lance even though Jimmy is still there? Would they make it a competition? Because if it's an open competition, I wouldn't be surprised if Jimmy Garoppolo were to win that.

It's going to put the Niners in a really weird situation. But it's not this, like, you know, really messy situation. like the Browns have going right now. Theoretically, the Niners could just cut him. Yeah. I don't know if that's the best route, if that's the most efficient route when you're thinking about value, all of those different things. But they can cut him.

The Browns, there's no value in doing that because contract's guaranteed you're eating every single dime of it. So two things we will absolutely be monitoring moving forward, somewhat related to the Baker-Mayfield situation. Our next question here, who ends up playing quarterback for the Carolina Panthers? Because they drafted Matt Crowell in the third round. Does he end up beating out Sam Donald? If he doesn't end up beating out Sam Donald, what does that say about the Panthers?

If he does as a third round pick end up being your best quarterback, what does that say about the 2022 Panthers? So it was obviously an object of fascination heading into the draft, what was going to happen with the Panthers in their quarterback position. And I'm still really interested to see how it ultimately plays out because this is a team, their coaches are at the end of their rope here. Something needs to happen. And is really, is Matt Corral as a third round pick,

the best way to get the production you need out of that position and what's become a pretty important pivotal year for that staff. Yeah. I mean, it's a really interesting, or it's going to be a really interesting exercise in, you know, coach who's trying to save his job. And does playing the rookie, does that buy you more time or does it accelerate? I mean, it's going to be a really interesting dynamic of how Matt Ruhle plays all of this out. I mean, I think if we line them all up, line the guys that they have under contract up at OTA's mini camp later, I guess when mandatory minicamp is next month, Sam Darnold should be winning that job. I mean, he's by far the most experienced quarterback. He was, you know, the tools and all of that stuff are better than Matt Corrales, right?

I mean, he was a better prospect coming out of the, you know, when he came out of college, he's got several years of experience. But we kind of also know who Sam Darnold is and what he's going to bring you. And it's hard to get very excited about that. for any of us. And I certainly understand if you're a Panthers fan, not really being excited about watching Sam Darnold again as your starting quarterback. None of the options are good. I think we don't, we don't know the answer to this question yet, but I don't think we're going to like the answer no matter what it is. The rest of their offense, the personnel is not terrible. They got their left tackle with the sixth overall pick, which if they weren't going to go quarterback was absolutely

the thing they made the most sense. All three tackles that people thought would go in the top 10, We're still on the board when the Panthers were picking. It broke well for them. They went out and got Bradley Bozeman and Austin Corbett and free agency. So they've turned over 60% of what was one of the worst offensive lines in the league. And at times, one of the worst offensive lines I've ever seen during last season. You still have DJ Moore. You draft a Terrace Marshall in the second round.

We'll see what happens with Robbie Anderson, whether they end up moving him. Something to consider for a couple of the other teams we're going to talk about here. But if they have those three receivers, Christian McCaffrey, a remade offensive line, see what happens with Ben McAdo and the offensive staff and what that ends up looking like. But it's not the worst situation for a quarterback to get dropped into. And we'll see if McRow ends up being that guy, how good can he be? And is that enough to save the jobs that are very much in peril there? I just have a really hard time getting excited about any of these rookie quarterbacks.

Yeah, they were all drafted in the third round. They're all terrible. McRale, my understanding, both situations. in the NFC South, the Panthers and the Falcons, neither of those teams has any disincentive to give those guys every opportunity to win the job. If Desmond Ritter is close to Marcus Marietta, why wouldn't the Falcons give him that and see what he could do with it? It doesn't matter how many games the Falcons win this year.

The idea or possibility of you hitting on a guy in the third round like Desmond Ritter and what that could do for you, it's rare. It very rarely happens. Seahawks drafted Russell Wilson in the third round. They had brought Matt Flynn in on a free agent contract. More than they, if I'd have to look at it, but I would assume a higher percentage of the cap than the one that Markos-Marietta had. That's clearly a bridge deal.

Matt Flynn was brought in to presumably be the starter. But Russell Wilson just won that job. And there's no downside to seeing if Desmond Ritter and Matt Corral can win both of those jobs in both of those places. All right. Speaking of rookie quarterbacks here, my next one. How fast does Kenny Pickett play? Is he the week one starter?

Does he play six games into the year? And what does that mean for the 2022 Steelers? They're in such a strange place compared to Steelers teams of the past, just because they've had this same formula over the last several years where they have an expensive agent quarterback, trying to book everything you can out of that offense while presuming that you're going to have one of the best defenses in the week. This is a period of transition.

Their GM is moving on after this draft. They have a new defensive coordinator. They have a new offensive coordinator. There's a lot of turnover in Pittsburgh. And what that ultimately looks like and how can he picket fits into that plan and their plan for 2023. It's just something to keep an eye on. Yeah. I mean, I think if there's any of the rookies, you know, he has the most direct path to starting.

Mitchell Trubesky hardly has, you know, that job locked up from financially, whatever his contract looks like, experience all of those sorts of things. Mitchell Trubisky was a big loser in this draft, I think, because not only did the Steelers draft a quarterback in the first round, which accelerates any quarterback's timeline to starting as when he goes in the first round. They drafted like the hometown kid who is going to have a lot of interest in him. I will say, I don't think Mike Tomlin is the type of guy or the type of coach who's going to be swayed by that type of thing, that he's going to feel any sort of pressure that we have to play this guy earlier because our. fans like him and our fans want to be there. Look, Steelers fans are showing up no matter what. Steelers fans. There's probably a big crossover between Steelers fans and University of Pittsburgh fans. But Mike Tomlin is secure enough in himself and he has the type of job security that he's not going to have to do that. But it is going to be a thing that Mitchell Tribeschi is going to have

to deal with. And I have no idea how capable he is of handling, you know, having a fan favorite guy sitting there behind him where every time he throws an interception, or messes up in any other way that there's going to be a lot of really loud calls for Kenny Pickett. I still think Trubisky will end up being the week one starter. But if there's one guy who has a chance to start week one out of this rookie group, I'm hoping it's none of them. I think they all need a little bit more time. But if there is one of them, it's probably Kenny Pickett.

I'm wondering how the Steelers are looking at this. Or do you think that you have enough of a supporting cast? And they went out inside Mason, Mason, Cole, and James Daniels in free agency. But that's really all they did along the offensive line. other than that, they're bringing back the guys we saw last year. Chukes of Koropor, Dan Moore's their left tackle. They didn't go out and add any tackles on the open market or in the draft. So that line is still a question, in my opinion.

They have weapons. They obviously drafted George Pickens in the second round. You have Deonté Johnson. You have Chase Claypool. That's a good group. Pat Frymouth had a really nice rookie season. We know about Najee Harris. Do you feel like that environment is good enough that Kenny Pickett's experience is going to be a good thing for him?

If the answer to that is yes, try them out there right away. And you're not worried necessarily about how many games you're going to win in 2022. It's more about his long-term development and what the outlook is for 2023 because that would be the year I'd be circling if I were a Steelers fan because this is, we talk about it. It's a year of transition. They have $25 million in dead money that they're still eating this year, a bunch of different deals, the Juju deal, the Ben Ropthis Burger deal. They've tacked dead years or void years onto Juju's contract last season because they were

trying to get as much as they. they could out of 2021, which I think was probably misguided. They could have $75 million in cap space next year with a lot of the pieces that we know about on defense coming back. Mink is a free agent. Jaffe Johnson's also hitting free agency next year. So those are questions, but they're still going to have a lot more flexibility next spring than they had this spring.

So whether they want a year of Kenny Pickett to kind of understand what he is before they make those decisions, if they say this is kind of a lost year anyway or a middle ground year, there's no reason to throw him out there before he's ready. I think those are all the considerations they're going to have to keep in mind. And I'll be curious to see how they navigate that space. Yeah, I just have a hard time kind of knowing what we know about Mike Tomlin, like him accepting any sort of transition year. I totally agree.

But what does that look like? Do they think that Trubisky gives them the best chance to win? This is a culture franchise. I think they believe in that kind of stuff. And do you want to have that guy out there because the rest of the team knows he's the quarterback of the future? And that's more of a rallying cry than having some. everybody everyone knows is a stopgap out there.

All of those things, I feel like are going to be taken into consideration for how they're going to handle this season, but I have no idea what the answers to any of those questions are. I have a lot more confidence that if we get to training camp and it is clearly obvious that the rookie, first-round draft pick, is performing better and all of the players know that the rookie is performing better, that the Steelers will do the right thing as opposed to what maybe the Bears did. Yeah, I totally agree. I 100% agree.

All right, my next question, have the Jaguar's done enough after a very defense-heavy draft to help Trevor Lawrence? The only real thing they did in the draft to help their second year quarterback, they drafted Luke Fortner in the third round. And presumably he will be in the mix to be the starting center there. So we're looking right now at a skill position group of Marvin Jones, Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Evan Ingram, Leviska-Chinault, Travis Etonn, and James Robinson, obviously. But pass catchers is what I was thinking about more. They spent a lot of money on that group, but are you excited about that group? Do we feel good about what the Jaguars have done? Do we feel like they have done enough to put their quarterback in a position to succeed?

Okay. Well, the most important thing that the Jags did to make Trevor Lawrence successful in his second year is get rid of Urban Meyer. And hire Doug Peterson. I agree with that. So I think that has to be like the caveat when we're looking all of this is now this is like a functional coaching staff with a grown-up in charge. Did you see Shod Khan's comments? Also, by the way, he talked to Jared Bell from USA Today earlier this week. And Shad Khan was like, yeah, we just lost trust in him.

And how did you know? How could you've expected this? It's like, no shit, dude. Like, we could have told you. You could have Googled it. We would have to let you know what was going to happen. But yeah, but I mean, I think, you know. I'm not sure I have a lot of faith in the people around Shod Khan.

Telling him the right, yeah, giving him the right advice and stuff that's going on. But yeah, I mean, look, Trevor Lawrence is in a significantly better situation than he was a year ago, the Jags draft plan overall. I had a lot of questions about it. Like, I didn't love it. I get what Trent Balke is doing. Like, we know who Trent Balke is, right? And like the type of players he wants to draft and what he decided to do with the number one pick. But, but yeah, when you kind of rattle through like who the position, who the skill position guys are, like, look, it's significantly better than it was last year. Last year, who was their tight end group? A whole bunch of random dudes in Tim Tebow. Now it's Evan Ingram, who like is a,

competent NFL player. You know, they overpaid Christian Kirk. Everett Ingram is fine. He's fine. He's not Tim Tebow trying to learn how to block. You know, Christian Kirk, the real issue with Christian Kirk is the contract, not necessarily the player. I really like Christian Kirk, the player as like a role player who's a good dude in the

locker. He's going to be dependable and stuff. It's just the amount of money that they paid for him. But like in terms of, is he going to be a good, reliable option for Trevor Lawrence on third downs? Yes, he will be. What? You're making a face of me. I'm still concerned.

I mean, you just talked about how Christian Kirk, he's a nice role player. He's making $18 million a year. Right. Yeah. Who is the best receiver on the Jigs? When it's third and seven, who is the guy like, oh, yeah, I feel very confident that this is the connection that's going to be right there when they need it in a high leverage moment. I don't feel good about any of that.

And the fact that it's year two and they walked into this offseason with all of these resources and I'm still wondering who he's going to throw the ball to and why. It's fine. Their receiver group is in a much better position than a team like the Chicago Bears at this point. But they had tons of draft capital and free agent money to throw around. And I'm still sitting there after all the dust is settled and looking at it like, okay, like this is it. So I think the caveat or the second part of the question, though, is like,

what constitutes success then for the Jags and Trevor Lawrence? in year two where this is like obviously a complete rebuild. You're starting over again with a completely new coaching staff. I mean, I almost want to like give Trevor Lawrence just a complete redshirt year. Like nothing that happened last year really counts. Like this is another like just a redo of his rookie year. So what constitutes success? Are we saying six wins?

Do we say this should be a team that's competing for the AFC South? Where do you think that bar should be for the Jags right now? I've decidedly above average offense. that that's what I would need to see. I want them to come away from the season. If I were a Jaguar fan, success in my mind would be the season ends. Week 17 is over. I don't care about the playoffs.

I don't care about win totals necessarily. I want the offense to be pretty good. And I want there to be not a question in my mind. No single kernel of doubt that Trevor Lawrence is the guy. Do you want Trevor Lawrence to be comeback players for a year having come back from playing for Urban Meyer? I mean, this team finished 30th in passing DVOA last season. 30th. I want that to be the...

How were there two teams worse? Oh, do not underestimate what the Carolina Panthers and Jason Garrett's New York Giants could do last year. Oh, not even the Jets. Oh, my God. Oh, God. The Jets had that Mike White game. How could they be 32nd or 31st? The Jets were 27th.

So the Giants were 31st and the Panthers were 32nd. If the Jags can finish as a middle-of-the-road offense, by the end of the season, it's just understood that Trevor Lawrence is one of the guys. You don't have to squint. You don't have to talk yourself into it. No rationalization necessary. All right. This team has a ways to go.

There's still not enough talent in important areas. But we know for a fact that this is guy worth building around and somebody that we can construct a real franchise around. That, to me, constitutes success. And I'm wondering, have they done enough to make sure that we can answer that question? I guess we'll find out. Oh, so a corollary of this, okay? Okay. If we're sticking with 2021 first round picks at quarterback, top 10 picks at quarterback,

a lingering question I now have after the offseason that they just had, free agency, all the guys they got in the draft, this is to me one of the biggest questions of all around the NFL. How good is Zach Wilson? Is Zach Wilson good? Because that's it. We've talked about this on virtually every show we've done over the last couple weeks, but this is a show about big questions.

I think it's worth asking again. After all they've done, all the pieces they've added, multiple receiving options, they now have an offensive line that has five capable starters with the Mekai back, the thing works out. They trade it up for a running back in the second round. You look at the depth chart of the New York Jets. There are very few big questions about who is going to play

any single position, especially on offense. Now the question that remains is, is your quarterback any good? Is this a guy that you can commit to? Is this a guy that is going to be a capable starter moving forward? and that's really the big question left for them after answering as many as they did over the last couple months. It's a huge question. And there were there were like little moments last season, you know, a couple games here and there, maybe not even entire games, halves of games. Or you'd say, all right, Zach Wilson has it. Four throws in the Titans game. Yeah. You're like, okay, this guy has it, right? You know, okay, we see, we remember why we were excited about Zach Wilson this time last year. But I don't, I don't know the answer to that question. And I think if we were being really honest, I'm not sure if the Jets 100% know the answer to that question yet either. This is going to be a huge, huge, huge, huge offseason for him and huge training camp preseason, all of that stuff. Because look, I think we all loved the Jets draft, right? I mean, I think Dane had the Jets as his favorite overall draft when he power ranked them. I had them as my like top winner from

night one of the draft. I had them up there and my winners and losers at the end of the draft. But it's kind of like we talk about with these other teams that are kind of always in that quarterback purgatory. None of the other stuff matters if you don't have the quarterback right. And we just, we just don't know. I hope for their sake. I hope it's right. And I hope they got that one right. And he's going to be good. But we're going to learn a lot more about that, I think, by the end of August. By the end of May, we will do a deep dive on last year's rookie quarterbacks. Now that we're entering into offseason mode, one of the shows that Nate and I will do in the next few weeks, we're going to take a deep dive look at Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson,

Justin Fields, that group from last season, just do a review of where they were, where they can get better, how the offseason moves their teams made might help them get there. So that will be a very long and considered conversation we have on this show in the next couple weeks. One more offshoot of this set of questioning. We're talking about quarterbacks that are good enough. After the Saints' moves that they have made over the last couple weeks, over the last couple months, are an indication that they think they're close. That's one of the lessons that Nate and I took away from the draft when we talked on Sunday night.

So, if you think you have, for the most part, a complete roster, one that now includes Tyrone Matthew, you got your starter at left tackle, presumably, you got another receiver, is your quarterback good enough? because making these moves with the impression that we can compete in the NFC, one big, big part of that is whether James Winston is a good enough quarterback for you to compete with those teams in the NFC. And I think for New Orleans, that remains the biggest lingering question. Hey, look, he's the second best quarterback in the division. So there's that.

He certainly is. But yeah, I mean, look, yeah, they've, since the draft dropped, they went ahead and signed Tyron Matthew, which was a move that, you know, had kind of been lingering out there for a few weeks. We know that he visited, but there was nothing imminent when he took the, it was just like a hometown visit almost. But yeah, I mean, that is that is saying, hey, we think we're close right now. And the James Winston plan last year before he got hurt, you know, they did a lot to minimize him, right? And like, let's just try to minimize the risk that we have with him. They weren't letting him be like no risket, no biscuit, no biscuit, Tampa Bay Bucks version of James Winston very often.

But he was clearly their best option last year. And I think they surveyed the market this off season. And he was going to be their best option now. And I guess I'd rather have James Winston than any of these rookies or Baker Mayfield or Jimmy Garoppolo coming off of shoulder surgery, I suppose. But yeah, I mean, we're not we're not really used to having like a big down here from the saint. So yeah, I want to see if they can kind of keep this on track enough to at least stay competitive in that division and maybe sneak somehow into the wildcard race. race. James Winston, in the plays he was on the field last year, finished second in EPA per play among quarterbacks. Their passing offense was efficient in the few opportunities

that James Winston got. But last year, last March or whatever he signed, James Winston was available for one year and five and a half million dollars. It's not as if James Winston is this no-brainer starting high-level starter quarterback in the NFL. So the idea that we're just penciling in, that is a given for the Saints. They gave him a bridge quarterback contract to be the answer there. So it's a bigger question to me than some people are making it out to be, this idea that, well, you know, the Saints, if they got the left tackle and the receiver, then they're right there. They're ready to compete for a Super Bowl right now.

I don't know if James Winston is the quarterback that puts you in that conversation. He might be, but that's why it's one of these questions. Well, the good news is if you're the Saints is you have a ton of draft capital next year if you need to, oh, wait. sorry that's not uh i i love it so much that eric d'costa i was listening to thomas dimmitch off's podcast that he's been doing with a bunch of different gms and eric de costa at the end of that conversation said that ideally the ravens would like to leave every draft with i think it was 10 or 11 draft picks so you obviously you get one per round so they you'd have to accrue them in different ways they get a bunch of comps

whatever so they would like to leave every draft with 11 draft picks the Saints, I was talking to somebody who worked in their front office and is familiar with their thinking, like, if we leave the draft with four picks, with four guys, but we like those four guys, we're totally comfortable with that.

The Ravens and the Saints have both been pretty successful franchises for the last decade or so. It's just amazing to me that you have teams they're so far apart in how they see optimization look in the NFL draft. In the long term, I'm going to bet on the Ravens process,

but I do love the fact that we have the Saints on the other end of this, just to keep things spicy. Yeah, because for a long time of that, look, the Saints hit on a couple drafts here and there. One, they hit one. Yeah, what, 2017? 2017 class is going to go down as like an all-time, you know, single-team draft class.

For a lot of that time, they'd a Hall of Fame quarterback and a Hall of Fame head coach, one of the best coach play caller duos, which enables you to get away with a lot of this other stuff. And that's not to diminish, you know, John Harbaugh, who is an extremely qualified, probably Hall of Fame track type of coach himself. But yeah, I don't think anybody should be like, let's replicate exactly what the Saints are doing unless you have Drew Brees and Sean Payton and nobody else does anymore until Sean Peyton goes to coach the Dolphins of Tom Brady next year. But that's fine. That's another podcast. We'll do our conspiracy theory podcast later.

I was looking at the Dolphins step chart. It's like, oh man, the dolphins, dolphins are pretty good. You know, the Dolphins receivers is like, all right, I can get on board with this. We're going to talk about one position. I think it's still a big question mark for them a little bit later, but you look at the defense, like, all right, defense is probably going to be pretty good. I wish they had a better quarterback, and next offseason, they might get a better quarterback. Speaking of the Ravens, my next one here, who's catching passes from Lamar Jackson? What does this ultimately look like? After the draft was over, you looked at the moves the Ravens made, moving on from Marquis

Brown and then not drafting a receiver, drafting a couple tight ends, drafting a center in the first round. And Nate now we're talking about how, all right, are they going to pivot a little bit from the offensive plan they've had and the team building the plan they've had over the last couple seasons. It's going to be more run heavy, more tight-end heavy. And then Eric DeKoste, it hadn't seen this after the draft said, it wasn't for lack of trying that we did not draft the receiver. I think if it had broke a certain way, maybe they do end up drafting a receiver, but they're not going to stretch themselves too thin, reach for a guy they don't feel was worthy being

drafted at that spot. We'll take Kyle Hamilton to figure it out later. I think that's why the Ravens are a good organization. But now, do they feel like they need another receiver in the building in order to have that group come together and what does that ultimately look like? Because when I look at the Ravens roster right now, how hurt they were last year, I think if it breaks a certain way, the Ravens are a contender in the AFC. The way if it's going to the Super Bowl this year, if they get lucky in a couple different areas, and I think that group coming together is going to be one of those areas that's important. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I would say my other Ravens-related question is also related to the wider-seater thing because the only thing that you can

like knock the Ravens for last weekend when they basically aced the draft. I mean, it was just like round after round. It was like, how do the Ravens keep getting away with this? I mean, this is just like textbook the way that you should run a draft. The only thing you could really knock them. Just pick good players, right? And let them fall to you. Like, I don't understand. I know that works. Was it that Lamar Jackson is unhappy, right? And even if Marquis Brown wanted the trade and said that he had talked to Lamar Jackson about it before. It's a really tenuous situation right now. They're going on with Lamar Jackson and what is his contract look like? The Ravens want to get a contract deal done. They want an extension. Lamar's does not seem at all

interested in negotiating on a long-term contract right now. So that's kind of my other just question about the Ravens is like what's going on with Lamar Jackson and is he happy? What is his contract extension going to look like? Are they going to get anything done this year? Or is it's going to be this thing that's just kind of like hovering over them for the rest of this season. So that's that's kind of my other Ravens related question. But other than that, like, yeah, looks good. If Lamar is happy and Lamar is healthy, there's no reason that they shouldn't win the AFC North, even though the Bengals just went to the Super Bowl.

I mean, it's just quiet things. It's now after drafting Tyler Linderbom, Patrick McCari, who played right tackle for them for most of last season after they dealt with some injuries. And And Andre, Al-Haldry, Ville, way of had to move to the left side after Ronner Stanley got hurt. He was Pentelden to be their starting center before this happened because he'd played at the interior of the offensive line at times. He played 400 snaps at center in 2020. Now, just what this does to the rest of the line, you move title windabom into that starting center role. Now McCarrey can go back and be your swing tackle.

They signed Morgan Moses in free agency. They're getting Ronnie Stanley back. So now you get better in all these places. They draft Daniel Falale in the fourth round. He can come along at a certain pace. You want to move on from Morgan Moses next year. You have this 400-pound guy that is an interesting ball of clay. Maybe you could shape him into something.

It just, it all makes sense with them. It all makes sense with them all the time. They're never scrambling. And that's why I'm wondering how they're going to figure out this receiver situation because this is not a team that's going to make a panic move, but it does feel like there should be some urgency to at least add one more guy into the building. Is that a Will Fuller team? Stuff like that.

Yeah. Do they have a creative solution to that problem? If we're talking about one like position group that has a bunch of decent free agents that are still available, it's receivers. I mean, Jarvis Landry, Julio Jones. Yeah. I mean, there's a group. You're taking me right to my next question. You're taking me right to my next question here. Because the next question is, what does the bear's draft plan mean for Justin Fields? Like, who is going to catch passes from Justin Fields? And that list, I just keep looking at that list when I'm trying to not cry myself to sleep over the last seven. 72 hours, is there somebody from that group that can come in and be just a rotational

player? An adult in the room other than Gilles Jones, who is an adult? He's 25 years old. He's an adult, I know. I've come around on the Vils Jones pick. I'm into it now. I did some more research. I was looking at it. Really good after the catch, really good athlete. I've talked myself into the idea that he just was in a terrible situation for five years of college or the seven years of college that he spent there and he's actually going to be fine. You know what? Most people go to college for seven years are called. Doctors?

Doctors. Not gadget wide receivers for the Chicago Bears. Hey, but that's fine. It's fine. We're just going to spit the ball out to him and he's going to make something happen. I'm mostly kidding. But I do think that his athletic profile is interesting. So what does this mean?

I was on Chicago radio this morning and I've been tweeting about it a little bit. As I've had some more space to think about it, they're in such a tough position. Because if you look at all the markers and all the tea leaves associated with the bears right now, they're right in the same category as the Falcons, the Giants, the Texans even. Bears have $52 million in dead money that they're eating. Cleo Mac is a good chunk of that, but it's not the only chunk. They're paying a combined $12.5 million to Nick Foles on the cap to Nick Foles and Andy Dalton this year, which just makes me want to cry. But that's what's happening. Jimmy Graham still has a chunk of change that he's owed from the Bears this year.

$52 million in dead money is a lot. When you take one on the chin like that, typically it's when you're turning over the roster. The Falcons are doing the same. Falcons have $62 million in dead money after moving on for Matt Ryan. The Falcons are going to be bad. The Falcons are a rebuilding team. They could go in any direction in the draft, and it was going to be fine because they have no talent on the roster. The Bears theoretically should be in the same position when you look at some of the other spots

about where they are in their team building process. The only thing that separates the Bears from a team like the Giants, from a team that could pick anyone in this draft because they're going to be starting over in the next year or so in a fairly clean way is that they picked quarterback in the first round last year. And when you let a lame duck regime do that and it doesn't align with the timeline in the way that you're building the rest of the team and now you have a year or two of that rookie quarterback contract when you're tearing down the rest of the roster and

starting over, that's difficult to navigate. That's tough to work your way through, and it really has left Ryan Poles and Justin Fields in kind of a no-win situation. If you're Ryan Poles, do you stretch yourself too thin with your resources and scramble over draft guys to surround your quarterback with talent when your responsibility is to build the roster in the most responsible way possible? Or do you sit there and say, we know we don't have enough talent around the quarterback, but the resources aren't enough to go around to make that happen while making the responsible decisions about building. the roster in the right way. It's a shitty spot, but we always knew they were going to be in a shitty spot. Yeah, I mean, they went into this draft without a lot of like premium draft capital.

Yes, they came out of this draft with a lot of picks, but they were very, very, very, very backloaded, you know, sixth seventh round picks, what, three seventh rounders, I think? I mean, it was very backward. They had six picks. They finished with 11. I mean, he continued to trade down and just take dice rolls. And look, I think he wanted to get more,

he wanted to trade Nick Foles during the draft and see he could get even somebody else. And nobody, people were like Nick Foles is still in the Bears. I had no idea. Oh, I do. Give up draft picks for it. But like in terms of premium capital, and we talked about this a lot before the draft that, look, if you're not picking in the first round, you're probably not getting a good answer at tackle. Those are positions that are hard to come by. And I don't want our criticism and my criticism of the Bears and what happened at the draft to be like a knock

on those defensive backs that they took early because I think they probably did get really good value with those places. And those guys could end up week one starters for the Bears, you know, are significant contributors. But if going into this draft and if you look at the 2022 season for the Bears who are still in somewhat of this rebuilding mode is, what are we doing for Justin Fields? I think it's hard to look at this entire offseason now that we have it in its totality and say that they've not just done enough, but have come anywhere close to approaching doing enough, doing the most to protect your most important asset, which is Justin Fields. And that's offensive line, that's receiver talent. And could they sign Jarvis Landry?

who, you know, is really, really reliable, good locker room guy would probably be really helpful, reliable third down option, those type of thing. Like, would that be nice to have for Justin Fields? Sure. But I'm not sure if that would even be enough to like make me feel better, you know, or willful or, you know, a speed guy. Emmanuel Sanders is out there. Guys like that. I think if they, they start the season. Emmanuel Sanders only goes to Super Bowl contenders. I'm sorry. I know. I know. I wouldn't surprise that it's, again, that's, it's hard to sell a guy. If you're trying to sell a Jarvis Landry and Manuel Sanders, come here and play with our second year quarterback.

I know we're not very good. That's not an easy sell. But if they could come away with a capable veteran receiver and Darnal Mooney and Byronham Pryngle and they piece the offensive line together with some of these more modest investments that they've made, that's fine. Their year is next year. They have a ton of draft or a ton of free agent capital to throw around next year. They're going to have all their draft picks. But now you're halfway through the cheap years of your quarterback's rookie contract. And are you worried that you are not going to be able to acquire a ton of information about that quarterback when he's not surrounded by a lot of talent this year?

It was always going to be a messy situation, and it's no fault of Ryan Poles is that it is a messy situation. This is what happens when you let a group on the way out trade a future first round pick for a quarterback. And now the next regime is left with no money, no picks, and a quarterback that they didn't draft. It's hard to do. You're trying to fix a house that. is halfway built and no one left you with any of the plans. There's no way to understand why it looks the way that it does, and you have no money to buy materials.

This is a stretched and kind of labored metaphor, but that's where they're at right now. Okay. Sticking in the NFC North, my next question is, do the Packers have enough at wide receiver? Now that Devante Adams is gone, when you look at that trade, you say, oh, a first and second round pick. And when those are just assets, it's not that bad. It's like, okay, first and second round pick. Devante Adams getting older. They had to give them that monster contract. What can we do with that? Now the assets are players. The first and second round pick are Quay Walker, and they trade it up to go get Christian Watson. So that's what you have now. So you have those two guys instead of

Devante Adams. Where does that leave the Packers? You know, you have Christian Watson. They drafted a receiver in the fourth round from Nevada. You brought in Sammy Watkins. You still have Amari Rogers, Randall Cobb. Is that enough? Is that enough for you to still truly compete and be one of the best teams in the NFC when you have two to three years maybe left of your MVP quarterback? Yeah, it's hard. It's hard because this is a team that we go from talking about the bears who have like almost no expectations to the Packers where is it enough,

is it enough for the Packers to win the NFC North? Absolutely. Is it enough for the Packers to go on the road to beat the Buck? in the NFC championship game. You know, I don't know. I mean, I think there is a lot of institutional history there of developing their second round picks, but there is no room for error here with Christian Watkins. Whoever was coming in to play whoever their highest drafted receiver was going to be,

whether that was a guy in the first round, second round, third round, he's going to have to play right away. Aaron Rogers is going to have to trust him right away. There's no, like, easing this guy in behind Devonte Adams. I mean, this guy is going to have to be a weak one starter. So I don't know if it's enough. What's the over on Robert Tonian catches? I also think we could be looking at a Packers team that is just a very different flavor of a Packers team than the one we've seen over the last couple years.

They drafted Quay Walker and Devante Wyatt in the first two rounds or the first round, excuse me. Their defense is disgusting. I mean, they have so much talent on the defensive side of the ball. Are they going to win games like 12 to 9 or something now? I just think it's a different version of a Packers team than the one we've seen over the last couple seasons. Last year, the defense was much better, but this was still the most efficient offense in football throwing the ball. Are they going to be that this year? Probably not without Devante Adams.

But if they're still a top seven offense, they're very good running the ball, and they have one of the best three or four defenses in the league, that still probably makes them a title contender. That's one of the other questions here is, what are the 2022 Packers and what do they want to be in the little pivots that they've had to make without Devonte? So that's one of those things that I'm looking for with them. The last thing I want to say about the Packers, just some real Packers bullshit with their draft. Going to get a guy like Zach Tom, the offensive lineman in the fourth round, he just has really good movement skills, checks all the boxes on some of the shuttle runs and the Three Cone, the Packers always love with their offensive linemen and doing that with a comp pick.

These are just the types of things the Packers do. The Packers got better at a lot of different spots during this draft. I just don't know what the end product ultimately looks like or what they want it to look like. All right. Next one here, talking about potential conditions. I want to know how the Brown's secondary shakes out. Because one of the things that happened a little bit under the radar during this draft is that they traded Troy Hill back to the ramps. So now that they traded Troy Hill, they have won fewer corners, they go and they draft the corner in the third round.

They traded down into the third round. Do we see more three safety sets from the Rams? Do they think the, from the Browns? Do they think the rookie corner can start? Just how that position group ends up shaking out for a team that I think is really ready. You know, they want to make a push right now based on the players that they have. How does that position group end up looking? That's one of the questions I had, even though it's a little bit more minuscule and a little bit more like zoned in than some of the other ones that we're asking.

Yeah, I thought the Troy Hill trade was interesting, what they kind of sent him back to the Rams. I think, you know, the Rams are going to use him and use him really well. But it was kind of a sign to me that the Browns were having to just kind of recalculate the way that they were allocating their defensive resources. You know, they just gave Denzel Ward this huge contract. So they had to get cheaper somewhere else. You know, they signed John Johnson safety last year. So now when you look, they have one of the highest paid, if not is Denzel Ward now the highest paid corner? He's right there with Jaylon Ramsey.

Right there with Jalen Ramsey. But then you have a couple other guys now on their rookie deals. Greg Newsom, the rookie that they drafted Martin Emerson and Grant Delpit, the other safety. You know, they've got a lot of guys now who are really cheap on that back end because they're now spending a, some premium money on Miles Garrett and Denzel Ward. So they just had to kind of just change the calculus a little bit of how they're allocating their money on defense now. I'm wondering, do we see more three safety sets from them?

They will do that, where you have Ronnie Harrison, Grant Delpit, and John Johnson on the field at the same time. And that's a question, Nate and I talked about this, extends to a ton of teams based on the drafts that they just had. Do the chargers use more three safety sets? I know they signed Bryce Callahan yesterday, so that's one more corner into the mix. But do they have Derwin James in the slot a little bit more? and how do teams figure out the makeup of their secondary in some of those situations?

That's going to be one of the trend-based topics that I think we talk a lot about heading into this season. All right. Next one here. What does the DeAndre Hopkins suspension mean for the Cardinals? It's a big. It's a big question because there's short-term questions with that. And then there's also some kind of really big, long-term questions with the Cardinals.

Short-term, you're taking away your number one. receiver, the guy who dictates all of the coverage. And we've seen what they look like without him. Yeah. And it's bad. It's bad. I mean, go back and look up like all of Kyler Murray's like EPA numbers when he's playing with DeAndre Hopkins when he's when he's not. And it's really, really, really ugly. And Cliff Kingsbury has been pretty transparent this entire offseason about how bad they were when they lost Hopkins and how he didn't do enough to adjust, but they also didn't have enough depth there. So adding to the receiver room was a huge priority and figuring out ways that if you were to lose one of those guys specifically Hopkins,

that you wouldn't be just completely killing your chances like they did, like what happened last year. I think they've been preparing for this DeAndre Hopkins suspension for a while. The positive test was in November. This has been on their radar. I don't think it completely explains the Hollywood Brown trade, which didn't make a ton of sense to me all along. Like, I get that they needed speed.

DeAndre Hopkins is not a speed guy. They need to establish more of them. They're very different receivers. Yeah. So it's like, okay, you're getting another. look, it's a guy that Kyler Murray likes. It's a guy that Kyler Murray trusts a lot. He's going to be a legit vertical option.

But he's a guy who would compliment DeAndre Hopkins to certainly not replace DeAndre Hopkins. And also how much they gave up for him in the number 23 pick. And now they're going to ultimately going to have to pay him fairly soon. So there's a lot of short term. Like what does this offense look like? They have apparently now a shit ton of tight ends. They drafted Trey McBride in the second round. So they're going to have Zachert's Trey McBride.

Max Williams is coming back. off after missing almost all of last season with an injury. So they could have a lot of tight ends there. But I'm still, you know, I don't know. You know, now you have one or your starting receiver is going to be Hollywood Brown and Rondell Moore. And like they've been trying to trade Andy Isabella. They just have a lot of like small really fast guys and a bunch of tight ends.

I don't know. So short term. But then long term, we have to really kind of talk about like what does this mean for DeAndre Hopkins in Arizona? I mean, he's about to, he's going to be 30 this season. and he's going to miss two-thirds of the season based with the suspension. There's not a lot of guaranteed money left on his deal after this season.

Would the Cardinals want to move on from him? They're going to have to pay Kyler Murray. So a lot of really big questions now, I think, of who the Cardinals are and where they're going. And losing DeAndre Hopkins for six games is, it's a major hit. It's more than a third of the season. It's more than a third of the season that you lose your best receiver, somebody who has dictated your success offensively. You didn't do anything

to upgrade your offensive line in any of this process. So you need that receiving talent to carry you. You don't have a one-for-one replacement in what Marquis Brown is. In all honesty, the role he plays in that offense is probably more of a replacement for Christian Kirk than anything else. So if you fall flat

during those six games, it's a two and four stretch. You're looking at a 500 season. I'm not saying this is what's going to happen, but hypothetically, where does that leave the franchise? Where does that leave where your willingness to extend Calamary, what you want to be moving forward? It's just such a huge season for them, I think, in what the direction ultimately looks like, that losing one of your best offensive players for a third of the year is just such a huge blow.

All right. It's putting so much on Kyler when everything else that they've done as a franchise over the last couple of years has been to try to help Kyler and take more off of Kyler's plate and give him more weapons and stuff. And now it's just putting even more pressure on him where, you know, look, Kyler came out of that wildcard game. It was his worst game as a pro. I think he absorbed a ton of the blame for what happened in that game. I mean, look, he did not play well by any objective measure. But, you know, now it's just, it's, oh, it's messy. I do not want to be in that situation if I'm the part, if I'm the Cardinals right now, especially Kyler Murray.

Speaking of messy, my next question here, we like we like it. Will Depot Samuel be a 49er when the season begins? I mean, I want to say that I think he will be, but kind of where we go back to when we're talking about Baker and Jimmy Garapolo, like there's urgency to get a trade done by the draft. There's going to be less urgency now on the side of the Niners and other teams that might be trying to acquire him right now because, you know, you want to get it done by these kind of artificial deadlines that are set now. So we'll see what the next deadline, I guess, will be really the start of training camp because he can skip. everything in the spring. He can even get fined if he skips the mandatory minicamp in June. But it's messy.

He clearly doesn't seem happy. And I'm just going to wait and keep refreshing Odell Beckham's Twitter account to let us know when Debo's finally been traded. Anything's on the table for me now. I just never expected Aja Brown to be on the Eagles

this time last week. It's just never something that I would have thought based on his age and his production and obviously the Niners want to keep Debo Samuel. There's a reason he's still on the Niners, but the craziness with the receiver market and just how it's all unfolded, nothing would surprise me anymore. Do you think the Eagles could have gotten Debo for that deal, that trade? Like, do you think they tried? Would you have rather had Debo or AJ Brown? A. J. Brown, 100 times out of 100. I would much rather have AJ Brown. I just think that

he's a less specific kind of player in my mind. I think Debo Samuel's awesome in the ways that he's used. but I think AJ Brown is a superstar independent of context. He is closer to the player we've seen in more situations than Debo Samuel is. And I don't mean that as a knock on Debo Samuel, who I think is awesome. But I think AJ Brown at the receiver level, I was on Barnwell show this week. I said he's a top 10 non-quarterback asset in the league to me. I think that on a receiver basis, there aren't five guys I'd rather have more than A.J. Brown right now.

Okay. I think the thing with Debo that we just need to pay attention to and we're going to, we'll find out even more about this over the next couple of months. How much of this really is usage and value and how he feels playing there and how much of it is money? Because if it's just money or if the majority of his money, they'll be able to solve that. If it's the other stuff, that's, I don't know if you can get past that. Do you think that's antiquated way of looking at it? Because I would typically say the same thing. Devante Adams, right? Devante Adams, it was always a question, well, if they're going to pay him enough, of course he'll want to be there. And that's

not ultimately what, he's like, you know what? No, I don't, I don't want to be here anymore. And it just feels like players are much more open to saying, I'll figure it out. I'll go somewhere else. I'm willing to leave money on the table just because I want to be somewhere else. And it's very tempting for me to kind of revert back to that old way of thinking about it where money solves all problems. If you throw enough money at a guy, he'll probably want to stay there just because it's hard to turn that much down. But I think we've seen a couple of recent examples where that just isn't the case. And I've almost had to rewire my brain when it comes to the dynamics of these interactions.

Yeah. And I just said the Devo situation is just so unique because he is so unique as a player. Yeah. Where you can say like, okay, the best, the best place to maximize his, his skill set is with the 49ers. But are the 49ers lowering his overall positional value or the amount of money that he can make, you know, if he were truly just a wide receiver? there's just so many things where it's hard to like, you can't just separate it out into like, this is the one thing that's happening.

I'm sure the Niners wish they could just solve it by like uping the guarantees, you know, making him, giving him a little bit more financial security. But it is way more complicated than that. All right. A couple smaller ones here. We don't have to spend a lot of time on these. I'm wondering who plays left tackle for the Colts. They drafted Bernard Raymond in the third round, but that's just one of those positions for

a team that I think probably has playoff aspirations. That's a very clear need for me right now. how their wide receiver group shakes out is also a question in my mind. They obviously drafted Alex Pierce. They drafted Jolani Woods. They have more past catchers. But the skill sets and complementary pieces with the past catchers, I do think Pittman and Pierce are different enough that they could both play together.

But how the tackle spot and the receiving spots shake out for the Colts is just something that I'll be looking at here over the next six months. And same with the offensive line with the Chargers, right? I mean, I think that's another big question that we have coming out of this draft. They still don't have like their. their long-term right tackle. Or a short-term right tackle. I mean, they don't, if I were the Chargers, that's what I would try to do at that spot.

I would just try to piece it together. Can you go out and get a Riley Reef or a Darrow Williams? And I think there are a lot of teams, even in that division, where that's the question that I have. The Broncos have Billy Turner, but do they feel good about rolling into the season with really just Billy Turner or is the right tackle? I wanted to ask you this, looking at the Broncos roster. And I think that that's enough at right tackle. I liked some of the ways they went in the draft. Do you think the Broncos believe right now that they have a Super Bowl caliber team?

Ooh. Super Bowl is like that's a big, that's a big. I can understand either answer. I'm genuinely asking. I don't think that they would say Super Bowl. I think they believe they're in a place where they believe they can win the AFC West. and I think winning the AFC West will put you into that elite group.

If you win the AFC West, I think you're a Super Bowl contender. So many things still have to break right for them, I think, though. They feel really good. And there was something just like, I was out there on Friday. And Russell Wilson, I told this on the Sunday podcast too,

but Russell Wilson just kind of like strolled into the field house. It was like half an hour before the draft. And he was like, no entourage, nothing. He was with like a friend or something. It looked like he had just worked out. And it was just like, oh, yeah, Russell Wilson's here now. And it was just like a totally different vibe of like, oh, yeah, they're laid back.

Like, they really feel like they can just go and take kind of best player available along this route. But I mean, like they're really happy with the receiver group. I think they feel like they got better on defense. God, I don't know. Like to truly believe you're a Super Bowl contender. I don't know. All I say, I'll just say that they're much happier than they've been in a very, very, very long time.

It's not as if there is some huge windfall of resources coming over the next couple years for this team. They have $209 million in contracts tied up in players next season. And they're going to have to pay Russell Wilson very soon. And he has a $27 million cap at next year. So even if they do extend him, that that number likely will go down or stay somewhere in that general vicinity. But these are contracts on guys that they've committed.

I guess they have more wiggle them than it looks like. Graham Glasgow, they can move on from him after this season. Ronald Darby, they can move on from him after this season. So they have some flexibility when it comes to how they want to shape the rest of the roster. But it's not like a team like the Chargers last year where it's almost, you're playing with house money. You're going to have the season that you're going to have with Justin Herbert. And then you got $80 million in cap space to kind of remake this team. I think the Broncos are going to look like a version of the 2022 team next year as well.

with a couple changes. And if that's the case, when are you going to be a contender if it's not this year or next year? I think how they are looking at this is that adding Russell Wilson is going to make them competitive, if not able to win

most of the games that they're going to be in. It's going to significantly raise their floor and it's going to give them a lot more flexibility to fill those other holes moving forward. Like you can get away with maybe not having your right tackle this year. You could get away with Billy Turner if you're happy with the rest of your offensive. line and they're pretty happy with the rest of their offensive line.

Understandably so. And it's going to give them a lot more. I think they also think it's going to help them recruit. Also, the other guy, they're really happy with George Payton. I mean, really, really, really happy. Like, just up and down that organization of like this, we got the right GM in here who is smart about drafting and using resources and they're going to have a new owner here really soon.

But I think they've got a lot of stability now, at least at that GM. spot. And we'll see how Hackett does as a head coach. Yeah. I mean, it's hard not to be happy with what he's done so far. So yeah, if they wanted to move on from Darby in Glasgow next year and kind of remake this thing, they get some they get some cap space in a hurry. So I was overstating that a little bit, but it does feel like this core is what they're going to be ratting with. I want to talk about a couple more teams just with offensive line questions. And I want to see how that ultimately ends up shaken out. The Raiders. What are those spots to look like and who ends up being their starting five on the offensive line. They drafted an offensive lineman, you know, does Alcogogletree,

or Alcogatry, does Alex Leatherwood, does he play tackle? How do those five starters look? I would not like Alex Lelderwood to play tackle. Sure. So if he plays guard, then who's going to, then who's going to be your right tackle? I mean, that's one of the questions I have about them. I think that team wants to win right now based on some of the lives that they made. Another team, Miami. So they did not really add to their offensive line in the draft after signing, Toronto Armstead in free agency. What is their, right tackle spot looks like. Does Liam Mikenberg play that spot? How does that ultimately end up looking? Because this is a team that they made some win now moves. And I don't think that they're a contender

right now with two as their quarterback. But that to me is the last remaining piece on offense that I'm really curious about. All right. A couple more here. This is one you wanted to talk about. Are the Seahawks really okay with Drew Locke and Gino Smith as their quarterback? I mean, so back to, you know, since mid-March, since the Russell Wilson Drew Locke trade happened. Like the Seahawks, they keep telling us how much they like Drew Locke and how they don't think he got a fair shake in Denver and his tape is really good from 2019. And there's just all these signs that he's going to be good. And now here we are.

We're after the draft. The Seahawks had many, many, many opportunities to draft a quarterback if they had wanted one. They could have had Malik Willis multiple times. We won't trigger Meena Kimes by saying that any more times. about how many times they passed up our quarterback, but they seem like they're ready to just make this Drew Locke slash Gino Smith quarterback battle happen and go ahead into the season, um, ready to do that. And I, like, I've watched a lot of drew lock. You've watched a lot of

Drew luck as a Missou alum. Good luck. That's all. I, I don't know. I'm just, I, they, they're just so committed to making this happen. I'm just kind of stunned by it that we're here in May and those are the quarterbacks that they have on their roster. I'm fine with it. If you just want to roll this team out here and you think, all right, you're going to run the ball a lot. We'll run the ball. We'll win five, six games. This is a 2023 team.

Even the moves they made in the draft. If Abraham Lucas says- Carol like okay with that, I don't. I think you have to be. I think you have to be. When you trade your starting quarterback for all of that draft capital and you are hitting the reset button in some way and you're not a ready-made team. The dice rolls, they took it corner, things like that.

I just feel like the ways that they invested in this draft and what their timeline looks like as a team, I don't think they have. The only thing, the only consideration I would have if I were the Seahawks is it's a culture thing, where are you losing a year of being competitive and having the right program and all of that if you look at the rest of your roster and be like, this is it. This is the quarterback battle we're presenting to you. That is one area where I do trust Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll has like a million mantras, right?

All of his like slogans and his sayings and like always compete is number one, right? Always compete, always compete, always compete, always compete. And you're going to always compete with Drew Locke and Gino Smith. That is my question. Do you feel like you can square those two things? And if you feel like you can, I'm fine with it. Drew, like when you walk into a locker room or meeting with Drew, like he carries himself like a franchise quarterback.

Like he's got that like thing, you know? he's like been the star athlete his whole life. And like I, you know, I get that. But like it just has not translated to actual football and the decision making on the field. And I'm just going to go on the record that if this is an open competition, I'm guessing. I think that Gino Smith is going to win that job. All right.

Next one here. Are the chief still the team to beat in the AFC West is one of the ones? This is like my big, big, big overall question heading into this season is like, what is the hierarchy of the AFC West going to look like? And heading into the draft, I think you could say that every other team in the AFC West had made significant moves to get better and the Chiefs had not gotten better. I did like the Chiefs draft a lot. We'll see how those two defensive players, they took early Trump McDuffie and George Carlyft just looks like they're kind of in the process now of bringing Melvin Engram back. there's, I think it was like it was a tender situation that they offered to him this week.

So they'll have an offer to match if he gets an offer somewhere else. Seems like too easy of a decision. Like Melvin Ingram should just be back with the Chiefs. It worked out really well for both sides when he came in their late last season. But now I think they've gotten better. Like the Skymoor pick was really, really interesting. And I'm really curious to see kind of the next evolution of the Chief's offense, what they're going to look like in the post-Tyreek Hill era.

So I still think that they're the team to beat. but I think the gap has closed considerably from top to bottom. I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm enthusiastic about Justin Herbert and the Chargers. I have heard that from time to time, yes. The Chiefs are still the team to be in the AFC West. They're the team to be in the AFCS until they're not. Patrick Mahomes is still a human being who is playing in the NFL.

And they handled this draft in the way I hope they would, where we have all this capital, can we replenish areas of the roster that have went untended? And I think the defense was that. They had to skimp on defense in the ways that they had built this. And with all those extra picks, they could pick a Gaelic Skymore in the second round while reloading their defense. They added so many pieces. And they have some depth in the secondary now with all the guys that they brought in. They have some depth up front that they didn't have before, especially if they bring Melvin Ingram back.

I still think this is going to be a really good team. Even if their offense takes a slight step back with swapping out Tyree Kill for Sky Moore. it's hard not to trust what Andy Reid has done. It's hard not to trust what Steve's back. No-O- can do with the right help. I mean, this is a program that I have pretty unceasing belief in. And I still think that even with a small step back they might take on offense, there's still the team to beat in that division.

And maybe even in that conference, I have no problem saying that. I am really excited about, like, how this offense is going to evolve. And I want to see what Andy Reid is working on. I want to see what Patrick Mahomes is going to be like without Tyree. kill because the greatest quarterbacks ever. And if we want to put Patrick Mahomes eventually into that conversation, they don't just do the same thing year after year after year. They have to, you know, kind of evolve as the personnel around them changes. And Patrick Mahomes is absolutely good enough to do that. And I just, I'm excited to see what that next version is. But I also, we're about a week

away from the NFL schedule coming out. And I am just like jacked up beyond all belief for every single AFC West game starting with that week two Thursday night game Chargers at Chiefs. Like sign me up. Like I'm already looking up playing tickets to Kansas City for that one. All right. A couple more here. One of yours, how secure is Ryan Sanahill's job?

It's a good one. It's one I wouldn't have asked. It's one worth asking. Well, so I mean, I think for this year, I think it's fairly secure, right? I mean,

I don't think Malik Willis is going to come in there. They're not going to open up a quarterback competition. But, you know, I don't. know what this means long term for Ryan Tannahill because, you know, they traded away his, his best wide receiver in A.J. Brown, you'd use that first round pick to bring in another rookie, to bring in a rookie replacement. But to expect that you're going to get the production out

of Barks that you were getting out of year four, AJ Brown, who, as you have said, is, you know, arguably one of the best receivers in the NFL, you know, that's a lot. And now Tana Hill is feeling the pressure of I'm the guy who hasn't been able to. to get the Titans to the Super Bowl now. You know, they've been to an AFC championship game. They've been the number one seed, have not come through either of those times. And now you do have a guy who's a talented developmental prospect behind you. And, you know, unlike in Pittsburgh, you know, I don't think there's going to be like the huge cries from Titans fans immediately to replace Ryan Tannihil.

But those murmurs could be there if you start seeing some, you know, exciting stuff out of Malik Willis in training camp and preseason games. or if you start hearing any of the murmurs, like we used to hear about, you know, I never want to compare anybody to Patcher More Homes because he is a unicorn and it's not fair to compare anybody to him. But, you know, that year we kept hearing stuff about how awesome he was on practice squad and or not practice squad, but on a scout team. And, you know, if you start, you know, if guys like Blake Wilson, they're seeing some athletic potential and stuff out of him, it was an interesting move to me.

And, you know, I'd love to see Tanna Hill kind of like take ownership of this now and like, you have a guy who's in there to push him really for the first time to kind of force him to take another jump. What their two-year plan ends up looking like and how they try to navigate this stage of the franchise, if they do feel like, which we've talked about a lot over the last couple weeks, they've kind of hit a wall and how you start over. Their defense is young. They still have a lot of good players on that side of the ball.

But what the next phase of their offense looks like, it's fascinating to me. This is a team that I think deserves the benefit of the doubt with the way that John Robinson and Mike Vrable have handled the last few years. And now how did they kind of maneuver their way through this stage of it? I'm really looking forward to seeing how that happens. Yeah, I mean, they were just devastated the way that last season ended, where, you know, they fought their way back to get the number one scene in the AFC. Derek Henry comes back for the playoffs.

Then they have that just really, really disappointing loss in the divisional round. And remember how upset and just really emotional John Robinson was after that. We heard this week how upset, you know, how hard it hit Ryan Tannahill. And like, how do they come back from this? I have a lot of confidence in Mike Vrable to be able to kind of keep them moving in the right direction. But a lot of really big questions for that franchise, I think. 100%. All right.

Is that all we got? That's it. I mean, I got a lot more questions, but I think, you know, we've been running through a lot of them here. But we'll cover a bunch of them as the rest of the offseason goes along. It's a long off season. We got a lot of time to chat. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll be back tomorrow.

I'm going to ask Mitch about some of the stuff that's happened this off season. We haven't talked to him in a while. and I think there's a ton of different things that I would love to get a player's perspective on. So Mitch is going to be back on the show tomorrow. That's going to be it for the week. As always, really appreciate you guys listening. Please, if you could,

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