The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Football GM: moves, additions and OTA's

Episode Date: May 25, 2024

Mike and Randy go division by division and discuss the recent moves and additions each team has made. And then we wrap things up with the GM Notebook. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show's Football GM podcast. Welcome everybody to the Football GM podcast. Mike Sando here along with the GM, Randy Mueller. Randy, how we doing? Doing great. Nice holiday weekend. Hope everybody enjoys the holiday and might even get to listen to a little football talk between the two of us as they enjoy the weekend.

No doubt. So good news here. So on the Memorial Day weekend front, first off, wife loaded me up with a bunch of steelhead earlier this week. And so I've got, I'm grilling that like every day. Really good. The Norwegian steelhead. I'm telling you better than Copper River salmon.

We live in the Northwest. People talk about Copper River salmon. I never buy it. Did you know it's like 90 bucks a pound or something? Ridiculous. You're going to lose your Seattle card if you keep talking about Norwegian salmon, okay? I'm that way with the Atlantic salmon. I like that better as well.

So, well, you know, I am, I think I am like, I did one of those 23-meas. I might be like 90% Norwegian or something. super high Scandinavian. It's crazy. But love that steelhead's great. So that's good news. Then I get this text from my wife today. Let me find it here. I was going to read the text from you. She goes, be careful. She's picking up hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, and baked beans to get through the three-day weekend. I mean, that's the type of text I like to see. That's a type of text I like to see. So I got some salmon. We got some burgers, baked beans. You know, we got all that stuff going. Got a nut.

Don't forget about your friends. I'm telling you. Don't forget about your friends now. Holy mackerel, that's pretty good weekend. It's a great weekend. I haven't even put anything in the snoker. Don't even have to. We're set.

So I was going to say this, though, too, Randy. We got some good items to hit before we get into a ton of stuff on the podcast. But I know that your free agency and your draft evils are solid. I'm setting you up right here. Everyone knows that. But I have recently uncovered additional evidence. that you, Randy Mueller, have most likely actually been in the film room for the last few months. Let's just say the state of Mueller's golf game is not what it was.

And Sandow's golf game is just what it's always been. I was never a six handicapped like you back in the day. I'd never even close. I mean, I'd be happy to get into the 80s most of the time. But I can confirm Mueller's golf game is not in top form. It was great getting out with you, by the way. buddy but we have not been playing golf we got to play some more you know it's probably be to the athletics benefit that our golf game stays like this because at least we know we're working but

I always used to say that if I had a bunch of good golfers on our staff in the NFL that made me nervous because that meant we could I'm just hoping to get 11 out there on every play and if we've got all these great golfers getting 11 out there play by play is in question so I'm trying to get 11 on the par fives uh was that your first time out for the year is that that That's your first round of the year. First time out for the year. First time out in probably 10 months, yes. Yeah, yeah.

I've been out, twice this year. And I love it. But this was confirmation. Got to probably hit a couple buckets because it was, it was a few too many, just bad shots for me off the tee. You, though, you, Mr. WNBA season ticket holder for a number of years,

got to go to the big Caitlin Clark visit here in Seattle. What did you? all it was cracked up to be? It actually was. It was really cool. 18,000, an all-time record for the storm in Seattle. It was kind of a cool event, really. And again, I guess Caitlin Clark is the reason, but I just think the WNBA and the fact that it's growing like it is, drawing eyeballs on TV and at the box office, I think it's awesome. So it was a cool event. It was a great environment as well as good basketball, but there was a lot more to it than a normal, say, WNBA game was. and that's Caitlin Clark factor, right?

She's bringing this everywhere she comes. And for whatever reason, you know, if you like basketball, it's worth going to see in the show for sure. And I've just stayed out of that whole thing of, is she getting too much credit to this and that? You know, I think it's, I understand it. Like, I do understand where it comes from. I'm not diminishing people who feel that way.

But I just enjoy it for whatever reason. You know, I'm glad people are watching more of it. I do enjoy it. I think it's, you know, another good sport, another good league that we can have some fun with. So, you know. I don't keep score of the credit either. In fact, I think there's a lot of really good WNBA players that I enjoy watching. So the fact that she's brought more people to the box office, I get it.

That's fine. But I'm with you. I'm not keeping score. I'm not disregarding the past and saying it's always, you know, this is something new. I get it. But at the same time, can't we just enjoy the basketball football? what it is, we don't have to necessarily give credit or diminish any prior players or the league for sure. So if you're putting together a three-on-three WNBA team right now, who are your three?

Who do you got? Oh, gosh. I don't know. I'm probably just taking three people off the Las Vegas Aces because I think they, and I enjoy this from my GM days, right? I enjoy what they've done in Las Vegas with the Aces team because I feel like they are playing chess and the rest of the of the league, including Seattle, is playing checkers. And they are drafting at a different level. They drafted a girl this year, Mike, from Virginia Tech. Kitley is her name, who has a torn up knee. But the kids, I think, is going to be a really good player.

And I think they drafted her in the second or third round. Yeah. They have so much talent that they can put a really good player on ice for a year and not have to worry about the production that they would give up for that. So I just think their team building is a different level. I know this is an NFL podcast, so I apologize. But I think they're awesome in the way they build their team. And guess what?

They're two-time defending champs in the WMBA. Well, I think in a draft like that where, you know, at least certainly in the NBA, you don't get much out of second round picks or something, right? So it's a little different in the NFL. If you're starting to take a bunch of hurt guys in the second and third round, you can really lose on that. But when you have such a smaller roster in basketball, you know, that, to me, the upside of some of those makes a lot more sense, you know,

to get somebody because it's just hard to find a contributor when you only got five spots on you know to play um all right let's let's get into some NFL stuff we're going to go through my column this week of of my i think i did all 32 teams something i liked from their off season we're going to get randy's thoughts on some of that but a couple things off the top randy let's start you mentioned las Vegas aces let's go to las Vegas raiders in march big splash free agency they signed christian $27.5 million a year. Did you know that was higher than the APY that belonged to Max Crosby, Randy? Because I just thinking maybe Max noticed that.

You think? Two months later, the Raiders just kick another $6 million his way. Don't add any years to his deal. They move around another, I think, a million, $1 million to accelerate it up earlier into his deal. Just a coincidence here, right, Mr. Jim? I read the news story. I read one of the news stories on this. It didn't mention the Wilkins deal.

That's the first thing I thought of. Doesn't it have to be a response? Well, there's no doubt that there has to be some reason and some depth behind it. I totally agree. I don't think it's a coincidence. I just think the dynamics at that place for me still give me pause to really think through almost every move they make. Don't forget, Max Crosby was the guy who was beating the drum, really, to replace the last coach

and GM a little bit and to hire the new coach. and has had supposedly a direct line to the owner's suite 24-7. And so does that all factor in? Maybe. I understand that maybe he was slightly underpaid, but you just don't see business deals made like this around the league. I think it's precedent setting in that, yeah, Wilkins got a little more money than him.

That's a fact of life, right? He was a free agent. He pushed the risk to get to that point. So obviously, this was. is going to come. You're going to have to do maybe something for Crosby. Maybe. But I just think it is a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction to make sure that he's happy. And we'll see. It definitely put some doubt in the back of my mind as to who is running the ship. I was thinking, if I'm the GM, how do I come to this conclusion? And I'm not sure that this one didn't come from above him in

that Mark Davis said, hey, we got to take care of Max some way, somehow. You don't make these kind of deals from a business standpoint, the warm and fuzziness of these deals isn't always the thing that's right in the long run. I don't know if that makes any sense, Mike. Yeah, no, it does. You just, you don't really just see, you don't really just wake up as a GM and say, hey, let's just kick another $6 million to a guy this year, you know, and not change his deal, not really get anything in return other than maybe his silence or happiness, right? Right. And hey, it's a big boy business. I understand it. But yeah, I just think, I think that, And again, I don't know.

I mean, who knows? I think it's a reaction to your stated point of Christian Wilkins and what they had to pay to get him. And to keep Max Crosby at bay and happy and everything else. So not something you see every day in the NFL, that's for sure. Yeah, caught my attention. One that caught your attention here was Lamar Jackson dropping some weight. Pointed that out. I think he's gone from 2.30 to 2.30 to 2.

maybe 15 and now down to 205. Think of that. Well, I just hearkened back to when I viewed him coming out of college. I remember going to Louisville a couple times that year. I was with the Chargers at the time. And the first thing I came away with saying is, gosh, this kid's slight. He's not very big. I wonder if he can take the punishment. And he slowly added weight over the last few years to get that up there. I think for that reason to improve the thickness, his frame, to be more during. and now we're seeing him go the other way. So the first thing I saw when he's losing weight is, wow, is this going to affect his durability? Is he he's already a little bit injury prone?

Does this going to keep him in the pocket more? Is it going to keep him on the run less? He's definitely got to take care of his body better when he does run. I felt like I saw a little different Lamar last year in that he looked to run fewer times. And when he did move inside the pocket, it was with the idea of continuing to find to target downfield, not to just be a first reaction and take off, which he did a lot early in his career. So I'm not sure what the method of losing this weight is if it was at his request. He wanted to do it or the team's request. I don't know.

I'm very interested in quarterback strategies to prolong their careers as we see these guys, you know, lasting longer and longer in a lot of cases. We've seen, you know, we've seen TB12. I don't know if we're going to see LJ8 products here. But I think I've noticed over the years guys like Brady and Stafford and Matt Ryan, when you look at their age 35 or 40 media guide photo, you see a skinnier face, right, than you saw earlier in their career. We could find pictures of Matt Stafford when he kind of had a pudgy face or Tom Brady early in his career and Matt Ryan maybe to a little bit of a lesser extent.

But those guys looked super lean later in their career compared to earlier. I think it's totally on purpose. For Stafford, he still takes shots. I think durability is the number one concern for him. But some of those other guys, Brady, Matt Ryan, were really able to prolong as pocket passers. Lamar's been so interesting because I think he's obviously very different with his ability to run and it's been so special. I thought last year there were plays that he got caught or tackled when he wouldn't have early in his career. I just noticed his reaction a couple times really ticked off when he was like,

I can't believe that happened. That's not supposed to happen to me. And I wonder if this is a reaction to that. You lose a step just as you get older or you lose a little bit of that electricity. I mean, he wasn't just a runner, spectacular ability to be the best athlete on the field, really at all times. And I just wonder as he gets older. and is just a good runner, right?

But it isn't just absolutely, you know, Barry Sanders almost at the quarterback position where he could do whatever he wanted. He can make anybody look stupid. And so that's kind of an interesting balance to me as he shifts a little bit more towards being a passer. Last year, his designed run rate was way down. If you look at that. And his scramble rate was up.

Actually, on past plays, he actually ran a little bit more. But this is all this calibration to me is kind of related. The weight. What type of running do you do? How eager are you to get out of bounds and stay up? I know, you know, there's been a debate throughout his career about, you know, is it really that much of a risk to run on designed runs? Most of these guys get hurt in the pocket as a pastor.

I get all that. But I think the durability part, I feel like a cam, Newton wore down, not on any one hit from just taking a lot of them. And I felt like for a lot of Lamar's career, he could have avoided contact or run out of bounds and didn't. And he didn't really get hurt from it. But I think this all has to become part of a strategy later in his career to kind of manage it, right? There's a lot of variables here. Could very well be.

I think your points are right on. I guess the difference I would see with Lamar and the guys who you mentioned, those guys are big guys. I mean, Tom Brady 6, 4, Matt Ryan 6, 4, Cam Newton, 6, 5. These are big guys that all weigh 220 plus pretty naturally. So, you know, maybe he's going to be a little more elusive. Maybe he's setting himself up to be healthier for the long haul. I don't know. I do know this.

The Ravens would be crazy not to use him as a weapon with his legs for sure. I mean, you mentioned people that run around. I kind of equated him at his height, and not that he's old by any means now, but Michael Vic. Michael Vic was, I think, the best runner of the football from the quarterback position I've ever seen. Lamar was there a few years ago. So maybe he's trying to get back to that. I think it's interesting that the stats say one thing, my interpretation watching him was his intent was not to run, but they are what they are when you say he scrambled more.

So it'll be interesting to see what the genesis of this weight loss does. And I would like to know where it came from and who is the motivator behind this. Yeah. I think the best thing for him, I want that dynamic rushing ability to just be used at the right time. I think it's a situational thing. Of course, he's still going to be great at being able to scramble. And you want to have some of the designed runs in there just to keep people honest. And he's great at it.

But I would love to, like I think they learned in the playoffs, you know, Use it when it's really meaningful and you're going to have teams in a bind, right? And I think that that would be the way to do it going forward and not just have to do it all the time and make it the primary part of his game. I think we saw last year they backed off of that. So I think they're going to, I think it's just be interesting to watch and how intentional they are about it and how coordinated they are with, you know, is he doing this on his own? Do they want him to do it, right?

Do they all have a plan for this? Right? It's all kind of interesting. I agree. All right, let's hit these moves, Randy. I divided them up by. Now, look, trying to, it's funny, I did this piece on a move I like for every team. I had a coach call me just busting my chops yesterday.

Going soft, Sanda. What do you find? How do you even find some of these for some of these teams, right? And I said, hey, if you can't be optimistic this time of year, we got a problem, right? we got a problem if you can't find something positive right now. Now, in doing this, I didn't lean into like a lot of the draft picks. So you may, however, you're going to supplement this. Maybe there's certain draft picks you liked or whatever.

But I didn't want to do that just because I think it's hard to know what you're going to get from a draft pick, especially the first year. I don't think most, I don't think the betting lines changed after the draft for a reason. So we'll start with the NFC West. Randy for Arizona. I said, Jonah Williams. 15 million a year, tackle completer's side. That's a pretty good value. We're going to go through these kind of rapid fire too, right? Yeah, let's go quick. You can just leave it, take it or leave it or if you got something, whatever. Well, I think Jonah Williams, like you said, is a value. I'm not

sure that he's either a left or right, though. As an evaluator, he left me glass empty, more than glass full. That's probably why his market was as low as it was. Not a kid that's played really good, especially the last couple years, kind of got eliminated in Bengals world. And we'll see if the Arizona Cardinals can resurrect him a little bit. But 15 million, that's what Dallas paid Terrence Steele last year to be their right tackle. If you ask me, I'd probably rather have Jonah Williams. So they're in the same boat as far as pay. San Francisco, one I'm more excited about, Leonard Floyd, to me, was a nice addition, just a good player.

I think they could have a better pass rush. I know Chase Young left. I'd take Leonard Floyd every day. What do you think? I agree. I think the intangibles for me alone would sell me on that, taking that Leonard Floyd over Chase Young. I don't know if you saw some of the things that Leonard Floyd said when he signed, but he said one of the reasons he came to San Francisco was he wanted to play big boy football. He understood that they understand what they are. Players like that. Players want to be in those physical tough battles like that for the most part, especially front seven players. So I just think the intangibles they'll get from him, which comes really all the way down to effort from character. We saw some of the, Chase plays that Chase Young didn't make a year ago. Yeah. You know, we'll see.

But yeah, Leonard Floyd, I would take that one all day long. Now the finances behind it might make me change my mind, but I don't think anybody would turn down Leonard Floyd. At this stage in his career, he wants to win and we'll do anything for. Yeah, I just kind of like him. The other two to round out this division for the Rams and the Seahawks, Rams, you know, a little bit about their commitment to the guards inside and a physical style that probably helps their run game helps Matthew Stafford.

For Seattle, I hit on the acquisition of Sam Howell at a good price until, you know, we find it a little more about McDonald. Was there anything about either one of those that stood out to you, maybe going a different direction? No, I think both those are good points. I'm with you on McVeigh wanting to make the Rams more physical, being a little tougher. They got pushed around a little bit the last couple years. And I think the signing of Jonah Jackson, the guard on offense and some of the replacement

parts they've been bringing in on defense. I think they're trying to change really the way they're perceived at the line of scrimmage at the point of attack. And I think they've went a little ways toward that. On Seattle, when we talked about this, you know, when I was writing this, one of the things you said was, I thought was interesting, hey, what about, you know, in this, with this new coach and in Byron Murphy, are they on a better track for getting defensive front pieces that, fit. Could you elaborate on that a little bit? I just think Mike McDonald has what he knows and wants, and he's willing to let John find John Snyder, the GM find exactly the right fit. I felt like Seattle last few years have struggled to fit new parts coming in, especially in the front seven,

to Pete kind of had, and this is just my opinion, Pete kind of had the attitude of, just bring me some good players and we'll make it work. Well, I think they need to be more detailed. And I think Byron Murphy coming does become more detailed in that this is exactly what he is. He fits with exactly what I want to do. There's not Puna Ford at six foot tall playing five technique, you know, no more of that. And so I think that bodes well for team building with the Seahawks going forward. So I like that pick for sure. I think that's interesting. And one of the things I noted at the end of the year was their defense really got worse in the rankings every year for 10 years straight. So I think that's going to improve. I think that McDonald's really going to improve that defense.

and we'll see. Okay, NFC East, Philadelphia. I kind of liked, you know, we've talked about this before, it just seems like it seems like almost everything the Eagles do seems kind of like a gotcha, aha, we were smarter than you. It just feels that way to me. And them signing Bryce Huff away from the Jets and then trading Reddick to the Jets who had a hole and needed a replacement.

I kind of liked it. I don't know, maybe it's not as good as I thought, but you with me? No. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm applauding. I think you get, you know, more bang for your buck with Huff. You get him for a longer period of time. And let's face it, Reddick wasn't happy. He was going to, he bristled already and it brought up some issues that he was having with the whole thing. So I think, again, it's a team. And I agree with you with the Eagles. They do have a lot of gotcha type moves. But this may have been the best. And they take a player and then supplement. Oh, by the way, you can have this guy back for a small price. So. I love that. I thought it's a good move. Yeah, I liked it too. For Giants, I thought, you know, not having to give up very much draft capital for Brian Burns.

They did have to pay him a lot. But, you know, we always kind of cringe when you give up a ton of draft picks and have to pay the guy. Hey, they had to pay the guy, but they didn't have to give us up as much as people thought. So I kind of applaud him for that. I like it. I like to move on a lot of fronts. You pair him with Tibido, the other Russian that's very similar to Burns. I think the Giants are really going to be better personnel-wise on defense.

hopefully they can fit in and find a low pressure package to use both those guys. But I like it. It's a good move. I'm with you. For Dallas and Washington, for me, it was kind of veteran coaches. I think for Dallas losing Dan Quinn, getting Mike Zimmer, who's a veteran defensive coach. And then for Washington, I think Dan Quinn is a good second chance head coach gamble in that he had some success before, had some failures, and then had enough time between jobs to probably reflect. He didn't just get a job a week later, like, or, you know, in the same cycle. He had three years to really kind of think about this thing. That seems like a good candidate to me for a second chance.

Any different direction for you on either Dallas or Washington? No, I think that's probably the only move Dallas made of consequence, right? Because they haven't made many on the field with their roster. So, yeah, I've known Mike Zimmer for 30 years. I think they know what they're getting as well. And it's probably a pretty good thing for Mike McCarthy to have a guy, like Zimmer running the other side of the building. So I think that's good. And I agree with you on Dan Quinn. Dan Quinn is a really person, very good communicative type person. He'll be a great partner.

I always, you know, harken back to, I'd say he'd make a good wife just because he's a good partner in everything he does, you know, and that's just Dan's personality. So I agree with you. I think what him and Adam Peters are trying to reestablish in DC is probably better done by these two personalities than he could have gone any other route. Yeah. For Dallas, though, when I ran the Zimmer thing past you, you said, oh, you know, I kind of like the fact that they haven't just paid through the nose for DAC, Prescott, too. What are your thoughts there? Is that a move? I put that in, I kind of put it in there. I sort of, just like I steal from the GM notebook, I stole from you a little bit in the setup for this item where I said, well, maybe that counts as a move, not doing a deal with him

or should they have done one? I think they're going to have to make a deal with him, But it might be for the wrong reasons. In my opinion, they don't have any other options. So they've lost all their negotiating leverage. They don't have another option to go to. I don't know how they could get a quarterback at his level. So they're going to have to take a step back unless you have a plan like the Vikings did to kind of short term and long term. And I don't see that plan with Dallas right now.

They're going to probably have to pay DAC. But here's the crazy thing is they can afford. to, I mean, they can offer him everything, and at the end of the day, Dak can still walk away. So as long as Dak's not, if he's not happy with anything, forget the money. He's going to get paid by somebody. If there's any little thing that's bothering Dak in Dallas, he can move on because they'll be a good market for him.

And he'll top the $50 million category for sure. So I think Dallas is stuck. I just think they're stuck on this one. That's kind of a fun thing for me. If I were Jack Prescott and already made all this money, it'd be kind of be tempting to just say, hey, let's just see what happens. Now, at a certain point, the cowboys may just decide, okay, well, you know, we'll go in their direction. I think it's funny that Mike McCarthy's now talking up Trey Lance. And you see that? Oh, wow, he's really worked

on his mechanics. And Mike, you know, we roll our eyes, but I mean, Mike's pretty good with quarterbacks. So, I mean, I don't know. He's the best. I think that's an unknown that people don't give him enough credit for. I agree. Those of us have listened to the podcast over the years with you and I, Mike was our offensive coordinator when I was the GM of the Saints. is going back 10, 12, 15 years ago, whatever it was. He was the best guy in the offseason of running quarterback schools and developing quarterbacks that I'd ever been around. And so I think he's proven that over the years. So maybe he can make something out of Tray Lance. We, you know, we kid around, but maybe there's something there. See, I, I'm, yeah, I'm not going to go in on

Tray Land. No, I hear you. I think I told you before, though, I was on the Seahawks beat when the Packers hired Mike McCarthy. And I remember asking Matt Hasselbeck about him because Matt was a quarterback of the Seahawks. And he just gushed because Matt had been with McCarthy too. I mean, he really talked him up in a way that stood with me all these years later about what he can do with quarterbacks.

So pretty good authority there. I think that will be interesting. If that price is high enough, hey, do you trust Mike McCarthy if he likes a guy? whether it's Stray Lance or somebody else. Could be an interesting thing. NFC North, I'll go through these as a group, and then we can pull out from there. Detroit, I talked about DJ Reeder,

fortifying that run defense to face the 49ers for Minnesota. Hey, they finally picked the lane a quarterback. Chicago might have liked a little bit more of an emphasis on the offensive line, but once they decided to get weaponry, I like the high odds guys they got, Keenan Allen, Roma, Dunsey. And then Green Bay,

not always a team that spends big and free agency, But Xavier McKinney was your number one safety in free agency. You really liked him. They get him. It sounds like their new defensive coordinator. The former head coach at Boston College has a plan for safety. So those are my four in that division. You can pick what you want.

Anything in there you change or amplify on or expand on? Well, the execution that the Vikings have had, in my opinion, this offseason has been tops in the league. So I concur 100%. And this was a team that I didn't really know about their direction when we all gathered in Indy in February. I didn't know that what are the Vikings going to do here? I hadn't really seen enough out of the new GM.

I think the coach has always been thought of as being a good coach. But the clarity that they've shown that they had a plan at the quarterback position by letting Cousins walk, by signing Sam Darnold to a one-year $10 million deal, and then able to acquire J.J. McCarthy for me, I think that's as good as I've seen at a position where teams just don't walk away from quarterbacks without some safety net. They had this, they executed it, and I think that's the move of the year,

or the moves of the year, in the NFC North, in my opinion. Wow, awesome. I didn't know you were that excited about the whole thing. So that's great, great for Vikings fans. It is always risky when you move on from a known thing at quarterback, right? I mean, it can be a hard thing to do.

Yeah, they don't do it. Yeah, that's why we just talked about deck. They just don't do it. People do not do it. You've got to have a plan. Look what happened in the, ever since they let Matt Ryan go, they've struggled and swung and missed three times, and it cost a coach a job.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a hard thing to really do. And the Vikings have pulled it off, at least to this point, but I sure like the direction they're headed. Yep. Okay. NFC South, my four for them were Atlanta.

Hey, we didn't endorse how they improved a quarterback, but they certainly did improve at quarterback. Carolina, I thought getting Deonté Johnson from Pittsburgh on the chair. cheap was kind of a nice under the radar move. New Orleans, not trading away, a bunch of draft capital like they've done in the past, still got a really good tackle prospect in the draft. And then Tampa Bay, bringing back Mike Evans on a really sensible deal. Randy, how many times have we seen the great player, the franchise icon, you know, get sideways at the end, wants a different deal. We've seen a lot of these receiver contracts come in. Mike Evans has more skins on

the wall than almost all these guys that are getting deals. He could be upset. He could insist on a hire APY, all of that. I thought it was just a really cool thing that they were able to sign them. It's a short-term deal for good money, but it doesn't just reset a market or anything. It just seemed like, hey, he gets to stay being a buck. They don't have to do a stupid deal. I really like that for Tampa Bay. Yeah, I think in that division, the moves that you talk about Mike Evans, the moves that Tampa made in general to keep their group together, whether it was the quarterback or the safety windfield or Mike Evans. there's others as well. They've kept everybody together there,

and I think that's probably the biggest plus for the NFC South. Yeah. I think the other teams are somewhat limited by what they can do. We've talked about Atlanta at nauseam. I don't know where they're going. Carolina, for me, is still a year away from being a year away. New Orleans, they're just limited because of where they're up cap-wise. They don't have a lot of options.

They can't go acquire players right now. And Tampa just, I think they won the division last year, They're just going to run it back. And there is merit to that. I think in Mike Evans' case, knowing how these guys work and knowing how agents work, I think he shopped for a great deal. I think he would have left for a good deal. But I just think he's at a point now where there wasn't going to be a giant market

for a player at his age with his skill set. And I agree with you. I just feel good about the deal that they made both sides, that Mike made and his agent and what Tampa made. I just, I agree with you. I think it's a feel-good deal that made sense. It wasn't crazy money. And it was the right thing to do. And you're right.

I guess we should laud that cooler heads prevailed and it actually made sense. Yeah. And so I think your point, though, is great that I'm sure he explored the market and just wasn't there for him. But sometimes when that happens, you're willing to take less somewhere else, right? A lot of guys just kind of pout and go, you know what? If I'm going to, I'll take, if I'm going to take less than the top five deal, in the market, I'll take it from Team B, right? And so I'd rather see this type of thing continue.

I think there's a key in the negotiations themselves that I always worked from is that I didn't want to be the messenger of the bad news. I wanted to be there to hug that player back to welcome him back. And so when you, my guess is Tampa didn't put out an offer. They just said, Mike, get what you can get. If you do want us to reconsider or bring something back to us, we'll gladly talk about it. And that's probably how it happened because you're correct, Mike, in saying that a player more often than not would say, hey, if I'm going to play for less, I'm going to play somewhere else for less. But I don't think Tampa ever said, we're going to make you play for less. They let the market deliver the message and then they come back as the good guys. The dynamics of these negotiations are really sticky so that who said what matters and when they say it.

In other words, to keep egos, keep people from hurting their feelings. It's all part of the negotiations. It's not strictly just about money. It's timing and what gets said as the messenger. Yep, love it. Okay, AFC West for Denver, I don't know if Bo Nix is going to work out. I just like the fact that after a year of Sean Payton complaining about Russell Wilson, which is really easy to do, he actually made a bet on a quarterback.

So I love that aspect of it. whether it works out or not, I love that he is now. The Denver Broncos now have a quarterback who Sean Payton is invested in. I'm happy about that if I'm Denver, if I'm a Bronco fan. That's a good move for me. And we can debate what we think of Bo Nix. The other one would be for the Chargers, I think it's easy with Jim Harbaugh being their head coach.

The Chiefs, I liked bringing back Chris Jones, even losing Lageria Sneed, who's younger, just because I think Jones is more important to them winning it all this year. They've shown a good ability to develop and replace corners. For Vegas, I didn't have, you know, just a super easy one, but I think Christian Wilkins, we can default to him. He's played for their defensive coordinator before, really good player. You don't get players like that in free agency very often, so I guess I will applaud that

one. What stands out to you, AFC Westwise? Anything you want to differ on or amplify or clarify? Well, two quick things. One, to expand on what you said about Denver. I would take it one step further in that, yes, Peyton. Sean Payton has found a quarterback that he's invested in. I think he's got three now that he's invested in

because he was the driving impetus behind last year's edition. Stidem. The kid from Auburn, Stenham. He also made the trade before the draft for Wilson from the Jets. Zach. And now he acquires Bo Nix. So I think he has upgraded his room immensely. I think he's invested in all three.

And I don't really think he cares who wins the job. He's going to look good no matter what. That's my point is I think he's got three to choose from and just roll it out there and see who jumps at first. He's going to play the best guy. I'm telling you. He will play the best guy. He's invested in all three. So there's no ego involved in making this decision.

Let them decide. If Bo Nix is ready, play him. If he's not, you know eventually he's going to be the guy. But you got two other guys in Wilson and Stidham who are going to fight for the job. So I like that. And I love the Harbaugh audition in Chargerland for all the reasons. just because they needed a personality like him. Hey, I spent 10 years there.

I think I understand the dynamics and how they work. Harbaugh is the perfect guy for them and their franchise, managing up to ownership and down to players. What I love, so I love that we just talked about Denver and Chargers because what, you know, Harbaugh can convince you that the upcoming pre-practice stretch is the greatest moment of your life, right? I mean, it almost sounds corny, but he believes this. I mean, this guy, you can't not love football.

You have to actively dislike football to not get on board with how much Jim Harbaugh loves coming to work, right? This guy loves every aspect of being a ball coach. And I feel like Sean Payton didn't have that last year. I feel like Sean Payton was cranky and didn't like coming to work. And it was all he could do. to hide it. And I feel like now that he's got the quarterback thing and he doesn't have the Russell Wilson stuff

or whatever was going on, he's got guys he wants. I feel like the Broncos have a coach who wants to come to work today. And you need that. I could agree more. You need that everywhere. But you need that when you're going against Harbaugh

who can't wait to be there and just positive energy. He's going to build up everybody there. And obviously, you know, Andy reads the best. and we'll see what the Raiders have. But they have a much better chance in Denver to get value out of Sean Payton now. And I think they weren't getting the value they should have before. So that's a change that is even beyond the players that he got. I just think they're going to, they've got a new coach this year.

It's Sean Payton. It's happy, Sean. I agree with you. Sean's personality, just to go one note further, is that he doesn't really want to share the room with Russell Wilson per se. He wants to run the room, and maybe it's as simple as that. He can run the whole place now and have no other shadow lurking like Russell Wilson. So I agree with you 100%. I think it's an awesome setup, and I do agree that Sean Payton will want to go to work now more than ever before.

Yep. Okay, AFC East, all right. I just had to stretch a little on New England. I didn't find a bunch of moves or things. I'm kind of, you know, toe in the water on them a little bit, see how it goes. But I kind of said, okay, they draft to Drake May. Do they have a better than advertised plan for him? And this could be a little bit of a stretch.

I felt a little bit of a pull in my hamstring as I wrote this. But you get Jacoby Perciet who's played. So you know, you get a little bit of a runway. And then I wonder what you think about this. When I look around at these teams, we mentioned Mike McCarthy. What a great developer of quarterbacks. Well, they got Alex Van Pelt. They got Ben McAdo there.

and on the staff with the Patriots. Is that a better than, these guys have been with Mike McCarthy, who has a plan, is that a better maybe situation for Drake May long term than advertised? Well, I'm not going to state the other AFC East ones because I want to hit this one first.

Are you buying this one or are you just saying, God, Sanda, you really did stretch on that? No, I guarantee it's better than Joe Jones. Judge and Matt Patricia, okay? So I like the sounds of that a lot better in developing a young quarterback for sure. I don't think Drake May is anywhere near ready to play this year, so I don't think we're going to have to decide on him until a year from now.

And I do like the idea that they have Jacoby in a guy that's played, been there, done that. I just don't think these guys have enough talent around them to really matter. Now I say that. I think they'll win five, six games. I can't see him winning more than that. but it is what it is. I'm kind of with you. I'm lukewarm really on everything going on in New England still to this as we sit here midsummer.

I think bigger picture, we're just sort of waiting to see how they're going to be run and all of that. And it's just a different dynamic with Bill Belichick not there. The rest of the division of my utter moves were Miami, OBJ, O'Dell Beckham Jr. Nice edition for, I think, three million a year for the dolphins. Buffalo, moving on from Stefan Diggs, I think feels great. We'll see if, and you don't even necessarily think. I think I believe from our conversation that that's a huge drop-off for them on the field. And then the Jets, I thought, hey, you know, a nice, kind of a couple nice moves to help with the current

and future of the offensive line. Tyron Smith certainly can help them this year. And then they drafted a tackle when people thought they were going to take a tight end. Maybe that was a way to sort of have the now and the future of the offensive line. Anything stand out to you there? I'm out on the Jets. I refuse to talk about the Jets. They need to do something instead of talk.

All they do is talk. Okay. We won't even talk about the jets. I'll be honest with you. Every time I hear something out of the jets, and it's even filtered into the people reporting it, I just tune it out. I don't want to hear any more about the jets. I'm tired of them. Sorry to our esteemed jet reporter. I mean. Whatever. I'm just saying, I'm tired of them. So yeah, that's fine. I do concur. I like the moves that Buffalo has made. I felt like, and we've said this, that Buffalo wasn't good enough at the end of last year. Now, a couple of these moves they made just because they had to.

I don't know if their plan was always to get rid of digs, but they did it. And I do like the rest of the room that they've kind of put together behind him. I think they'll be fine there. And I think the quarterback will always make them viable. They've remade their secondary. So I do like what Buffalo is done. And I think it takes a little bit of pressure off them. Because I just in the reconstruction of their roster, I think people are talking less,

and I think less of the fact that is the window closing for Buffalo? Now I think they've kind of reworked it enough to where I think they've opened the window a little more, just the way I feel about Buffalo. Interesting. I think they're fine. I think they're fine. Who did I leave out? We've already talked about Miami and OBJ, which I know when you were doing the film work

going into Free Agency, one of the things he said to me was, Kyle, do we have a stat for most DPI's, do you pass interference drawn? And I went into our true media thing and found that we did. And I think he had four plays. It was one of the higher numbers in the league that he drew it. So you definitely think OBJ can still play. and he helps Miami. I think Miami doubled down with him with the addition of the running back from Tennessee

in the fourth round, whenever they got him. Yeah, yeah. This is a fun team to watch. Whether their defense can play good enough now, I don't know. But yeah, they doubled down with more speed, more explosiveness, more track team mentality than I've ever seen. And we'll see if they can become the 2,000 Rams, you know. Well, I mean, I know a GM who drafted Joey Galloway.

So, you know, some guys like... Ted Ginn? Yeah, he liked to have some fast guys. Is Ted Ginn faster than, would Ted Ginn beat Tyreek Hill in 100 meters? No, I'll make, I've never seen anybody run like Tyreek Hill. I just, his suddenness, and he's zero to 20 is better than, than Ted's. Ted might beat him in 100. That's why I said 100 meters. If we did 100 meters, oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Would Ted win in a hundred? He might beat him in 100 meters. Yeah, he might beat him in 100, but he definitely wouldn't beat him in the 20 or the 30. That's for sure. I can say, well, find him. that if Ted's a listener here or if one of his friends are, well, you'll get a text from him.

I love Ted Gin. People kill Ted Gin for his career. He had an awesome career. He only played about 12 years, okay? So Ted Kid would. Yeah, he's really did well for himself. And I know you're not questioning that, but I'm just saying these fast guys can really serve a purpose. And I think Miami's taking it to the next level because they have more an accumulation of these guys more than any team in the league. Yep. Okay. AFC North. for Baltimore. I kind of pointed to Derek Henry. There were enough guys leaving there. There wasn't a whole lot of things to pick from, but despite him being 30, I think, and making some money. I think that was a nice sort of message to their locker room. Cleveland, the Zadaria

Smith re-sign was at the top list. There weren't a lot of other things. You know, they're really kind of, you didn't have the first round pick, that sort of a thing. So Pittsburgh, I just feel like, hey, they've got a competent offensive coordinator for the first time in a while. Arthur Smith's edition stood out to me, give them some direction, identity. you know, that sort of a thing. Cincinnati, I didn't find a ton, but I thought Vaughn Bell resigning to help their secondary. He was super cheap. I think they're not even paying most of his salary.

So that could be a little bit of an under the radar move that helps them on the back end. They're familiar with him. Anything jump out in the AFC North for you? Well, I would say the one move for me is the acquisition of Justin Fields, only because I think I agree with all the rest of the points that you made and they're all valid. I just think to get Fields for nothing in Arthur Smith's offense. And as you mentioned, it's a different setup. It's a different scheme. It's a different.

What they're going to ask of the quarterback is different. I think that's going to be more of a thing with him and Russell Wilson. I know they're going way out of their way to say there's no competition here that Russell's the guy. But I'm not sure that Justin Fields won't have a little package or two in there that they end up expanding on. because I think he is as good a fit with a particular coach in Arthur Smith as as there is going right now. So we'll see how that one works out. Hey, I got, I'm starting to smile here because I think that is just rich for theater this

year because there's no way Russell Wilson's going to like to be coming off the field for a guy who's more exciting in a package, in a package, even if Russell's a better down-to-down quarterback. I always think that's an interesting thing, you know, when you have that type of, when you have a player that you sub in at quarterback. What's your experience with that or thoughts on that, Randy, when you have, like if you got Peyton Manning, I don't want him ever coming off the field, but we saw the Saints had Drew Breeze and they put in, you know, they put in, you know, running quarterback to go in. Taysome Hill, thank you, running quarterback,

which, you know, seems ridiculous to take Drew Breeze off the field. But Sean Payton had a package for him and Drew had to live with that. Don't you think that's an interesting thing? Because Russell's kind of playing for his career here? What if they get in the red zone and now we're taking away a couple touchdown throw possibilities for Russell, right? His stats suffer a little bit and Justin Fields runs it in or makes a play, you know, that sort of a thing. I think it could be kind of fun to watch. Normally I am not for any such wildcat because I'm with you. It really started back in Miami when Parcells was there and they ended up replacing Chad Pennington at times with Ronnie Brown and a couple

guys who just were running single wing stuff. That's where the wowcat came from. It was David Lee, who was a coach at Arkansas, who came and brought that. And that's where the whole wild, wild cat system can it grew from. But you're right. In most cases, I am not for taking the best player on the field and setting him on the bench beside me and running some crazy package. But I think the teams were talking about who are doing that, they don't view their quarterback as being the best player anymore. Even in Drew's the end of his career, they're were looking for a little something different, a total different look for the defense. I think in Pittsburgh's case, and you bring it, it's going to be great theater, I think, because Fields is

so dynamic athletically and can do so many things outside the pocket in a scheme that does predetermined targets so that there's not a lot of processing and a lot of things that he has to do other than do this, than this, that, then this. Those are great setups, I think, for his, Justin Fields' skill set. So that's going to be fun to watch. Oh, definitely. And then does Russell Wilson stay with that script and play the offense or sort of do his own thing and frustrate the coach, right? That would be just an interesting thing. Because what if Fields just does, you know, if it is that type of a system and you just stick with it, you can look good. That could actually look better than Russell Wilson looks if Russell doesn't stick with it himself if he's just

starts kind of just playing ball out there. So I think that's a really fascinating, fun, dynamic for us to watch. And, you know, Mike Tomlin's just the perfect coach to oversee it all too and have, be able to, you know, put his message out there after the game and frame it up. I can't wait. I think Pittsburgh's a fun team this year. Last division, AFC South for Houston. I pointed to the Danico Atry signing. Certainly we could point to Daniel Hunter as a, you know, a better player addition. But I don't know, when you pay 24 and a half million, sometimes I look for something else, I think DeNico Autry is still a good player even though he's old. Indianapolis, kind of been stuck the last few years.

So I kind of like the little bit risky, but home run, high ceiling swing in the first round, getting a lot to there for the top pass rusher even though he's got an injury history. Jacksonville came up with Ryan Nielsen as a new defense coordinator. Did you know they were 10th in defense last year

in Atlanta? I think that was EPA per play on defense, highest since at least 2000 for them. So we'll see if he can take Jackson Phil, I think was 11th last year, not terrible. Kenny pushed them into the top five. And then Tennessee, to me, getting Bill Callahan out of his Browns contract, maybe that was just a foregoing conclusion that would happen.

But I don't know. I think that's pretty much a big deal to get that coach to go with your young offensive play calling head coach who happens to be the son of Bill Callahan. But that's a huge hire for Tennessee. Well, I definitely think Bill Callahan coming on board kind of has to be the star of the all their offseason. acquisitions and they made some moves. So I give them credit for some of the things that you mentioned, but you get an offensive line coach that is a proven head coach, not only that, but a really

proven developer of offensive line play to go with his son who's actually in charge of the whole team. I think it's a great fit. I'm glad they were able to do it. I thought from the minute Brian signed on, that should be his number one priority. I'm glad it worked out for him. But I think that division as a whole is so quarterback-based that it'll be fascinating to see if Trevor Lawrence can take the next step because you'd have to say C.J. Stroud is the class of the whole division right now. We'll see how Richardson pans out in Indy. But yeah, I'm not a Will Levis guy, so that one is a struggle for me. So I would probably agree with you in that I think Houston's additions make them the favorite for sure. Ryan Nielsen going to Jacksonville, who has really good

players on defense already, see if that can make a difference. But I think it's a division that might not be the best division in football, but it's a very competitive division that'll be fun to kind of sort out as. What I really want to see is whatever anybody thinks about Anthony Richardson and Indy, I just think with Shane Steichen, you've got a chance to be interesting. I think he's a good schemer with what he's got on offense. So if they have him for the, if they can keep the quarterback, you know, help. which was a big problem last year. I just think Indy's an interesting team. They're just, they could be a little boom or busty, you know, here depending on how it goes with them. I think

that they'll be fun to watch. What you got in the GM notebook this week, Randy? Just a couple quick notes. I noticed that in reading our co-worker Diana Rusini's newsletter, mentioned something about Brandon Ayuk, not attending the 49ers offseason program. Obviously, he's in the middle of a contract discussion at some point. I just, first thing that comes to my mind with IUC is who has another year on his contract, but the fact that Amman St. Brown signed that $30 million a year deal with Detroit, you can't tell me that that didn't have some chilling effect on the IUC negotiations. There's no way if I'm Ayuk. I'm considered anything south of 30 million now. I just think that's a different level of player with Iyuk. For me, Iyuk, when I look at the tape, he brings me back to

the closest skill set to Justin Jefferson, as I see out there. And he's going to be a free agent a year from now as well. So I just think the IUC negotiations are loggerheaded now, not because of anything he's done or the 49ers have done, but because what the Lions have done. So that was my first note in the GM notebook. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that. Well, I do.

First off, good mention of the Diana Rusini newsletter, because people can find that it's called Scoop City. it's a daily briefing of top NFL stories curated by. How about curated? That's the first time the word curate. It's been used on the Football GM podcast. I guarantee you that, but I'm reading off of our promotional page here. Get the daily briefing of top NFL stories curated by Jacob Robinson with Diana

Rossini snapped directly to your inbox. That's Scoop City. So that's great. Be sure you check that out. Good reference there. And I agree with you. I think the 49ers really help themselves. with the first round pick just to get themselves some flexibility.

And isn't that, that speaks to really, to me, you know, you always hear people, well, take the best player available in the draft, you know, kind of bowl. Yes, you do, but you got to target these things based on where you're at as a team and just decide, okay, you know, what, this receiver makes sense for us to have some options. And, you know, and we've got a coach then who can use them. What else you got in there in the notebook? The other note that I had in here is just kind of referring to, if I was a GM right now, some of the things that I may be doing.

In particular, one thing, I'd be surely staying abreast of all these contract negotiations around the league. You see these free agents to be. Their teams are negotiating with them a year out of them becoming a free agent. And part of the GM's job is obviously to manage your own group and your own team, but it's also to monitor and gather information, especially at this time of year. I would spend a lot of time gathering information, talking to agents, talking to even media members, talking to as many people as I could about negotiations like this.

And the one example that comes to mind is what I'm trying to illustrate is, let's just say Denver, I know for a fact, has two offensive linemen that'll be free at the end of next year. Garrett Bowles, the left tackle and Quinn Marin's The Guard. If I was a GM, I might be calling George Payton. I might be calling Sean Payton. I might be talking to these people about, is there any way they'd give up one of these guys a year early that maybe they don't figure in their plans and they're going to become a free agent a year from now

and either that negotiation hasn't gone the way the team wanted it to or that they've made a decision already that they might move on from these people. That's just a particular example of a GM. I don't think you could ever talk to them out and giving one of these guys up, but I sure would make the call.

And so I would make a ton of these calls trying to gather as much or get us in the loop on any of these deals. And maybe it's a deal Mike, that doesn't happen until trade deadline, week seven or eight. It's not even a thing until we get that far. But if I've already put a bug in Sean Payton's ear or GM George Payton's here about these players, I might be getting that call come week seven or eight of the regular season. Hey, you showed interest in this guy. We actually might move him. That call talk we had last May,

I figured I'd call you first. That kind of spirited gathering of information. Absolutely, because you have no idea what could happen. They could have a guy in camp who suddenly looks great and that's their next tackle, right? And so it becomes available for a reason that we couldn't even anticipate, but you've done your work ahead of time and then get the first call. So I think that's good sort of, you talked about playing chess earlier versus checkers. And that's a little bit of morphed chess. That's it. What are you doing this weekend, Randy? We're wrapping up this podcast, but what do you got playing? Memorial Day weekend. For me, I'm going to tell you what. I don't know if we've ever talked about this. I'm kind of a car racing.

guy, right? I got three car races that I am looking forward to seeing the Grand Prix of Monaco. Have you ever watched one of these F1 races? No. Let me just say this. Have you ever been to Monaco? No, I haven't, but I love these things I learn. Like, you know, a Mueller's a season ticket holder in the WNBA. Yeah, Mueller's loves hockey. Yeah, Mueller's a San Francisco Giants fan. And now we got car racing, too. I love it. I love car racing. Always have been, always have been enjoyed of whatever it is. But I did I did go to Monaco one time about 10 years ago,

and I made the taxi driver take us on the Monaco Grand Prix route, and I held my phone up and videoed the whole route, just because I wanted to go back and see how cool it is. It's a unique car race. Monaco is a unique place. These guys racing on these streets, uphill, downhill, around these giant buildings, right next to the ocean.

It's an awesome setting. So I have this on video of the whole track that the Monaco Grand Prix run on with my arm out of the window of the taxi driver on the way to the airport. So it's just crazy. So we have that. We have the Indy 500 on Sunday.

And then we have the Coke 600, which is the NASCAR race on Sunday night, per se, in our world. So three really cool car races. I'll watch them all. I got news for you. I'm just impressed that you didn't drop the phone out the window when you were filming. Yeah, I am too. There were others that thought that as well. Because you know that Silverwood theme park over there in Idaho?

Oh, yeah. So do you know, Sandus shut down the panic plunge ride one time? I mean, I'd rather tell the story than my wife tell the story because it was super embarrassing. But I decided, just like you and Monaco, you're going to Monaco, I'm going to a freaking amusement park. But we were over there. I can't remember. We might have been over there because we went to the, the kids were playing in the Hoop Fest basketball tournament in Spokane. Great 3-and-3 tournament.

Probably the best in the country. It's really awesome. people come in from all over the place. But we say we'll go over to the Silverwoods. So, you know, those rides where they take you up real high and drop you, and they have a sign that explicitly says, don't put your stupid camera out, you know? So I get to the top. I said, you know what?

I'm going to film this thing. The thing plunges, man. My phone just comes right out of my hand instantly, just like they warn the kids. The signs for the kids. I'm the dad, right? My phone plunges. My phone plunges down on the. deck and not only that it falls down

underneath the ride. So now they got to put up a sign because this idiot, they got to stop the ride. The guy's got to go underneath there. We're trying to call my phone because I, so to find it. We found it. We found it. So you can identify it? Shattered. Oh, we identified it. It was all shattered, but

found it. We finally found that I was at the AT&T. I got a new phone out of it. I was at the AT&T store, but the look on my wise face while we were at the AT&T store in the line, you know, it's just not a look you want to see. I earned it. You're a lot better out. If you went to Monaco, you got the video. I want to see that video. So you got to send that video to me. I want to see it.

So anyway, that's all I got. All right, man. Well, another one in the books. Okay, everybody. We'll see you next week in the Football GM podcast. This was the Athletic Football Show's Football GM podcast.