The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Free agency day three recap: So...you're freakin' out

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Free agency hasn't been fun for everyone. Just ask Cowboys fans, who have watched their team mostly sit out free agency again. Or Bengals fans, who have watched their team make a couple small moves on defense while seemingly antagonizing even further the trio of players on offense that makes them special in the first place. It's safe to say those fanbases are freakin' out, and they aren't the only ones. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen discuss the teams might have their fans a bit on edge on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.RundownRams release Cooper KuppSo...you're freakin'outBengalsSteelersSeahawksLionsRavensChargersCowboysBrownsFalconsThe latest in free agencyHost: Robert MaysCo-Host: Derrik KlassenExecutive Producer: Michael BellerProducer: Michael BellerSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Fun one for you guys today. A little slow on the news with the free agency over the last day or so. So instead of running through all the signings that have happened over the last day, Derek and I decided that we were going to take a step back and talk about the teams who haven't done much over the first couple days of free agency. There are a lot of fan bases who I think are freaking out a little bit, a little bit concerned about their team's approach over the first 48 hours of the free agency period of the tampering

period. So we decided to talk to those fans and discuss whether or not they should be freaking out, how worried they should be. So we've got nine teams that we are going to hit today that for one reason or another, there has been some consternation among their fan base. And Derek and I decided to discuss whether they should be worried or not. So we're going to do that today with those nine teams. Let's get to that discussion with Derek Classen right now. Joining me today, it's my car. Derek, how you feeling there? Doing all right. This is the week of slowing down a little bit.

Monday was as crazy as it could be. It was an absolute whirlwind. Tuesday, we still got some stuff popping. And Wednesday is giving us the freedom to do a little bit of what we want here. So I think it's going to be a fun one. Every year is a little bit different when it comes to this. You know, there are some years where there's really a steady stream of stuff every single day.

You know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we've got a bunch of stuff to react to as we do these afternoon recordings to scoop everything up. this year has not really been like that. There were so many things that happened on Saturday and Sunday that it felt like most of the news was front-loaded. So there are some signings that have happened over the last day or so. A couple of the bills made that I think are notable. Joey Bosa, Michael Hoyt went to Buffalo.

We're going to talk about those moves on tomorrow's show when we're going to discuss the AFC teams that have done some spending. Just try to gauge how much better those teams in the AFC are. And then we're going to do the NFC a little bit later in the week and into next week. What I wanted to reserve today's show is. before were the fan bases that maybe feeling a little bit scared right now, maybe feeling a little bit uneasy about their teams and the way that they've approached free agency. There's no clean way to do this. Like there's no, oh, you have to have spent this amount and to qualify for this

conversation. There are some teams that have made trades. So even though they haven't spent a lot in free agency, you know, they've done enough where we're not really going to talk about them. Washington's a good example of that, right? Washington hasn't spent a ton when you look at just free agent money handed out. They're actually in the bottom. third of the league, but they've made tons of trades. Some of these teams, like the Seattle that we're going to talk about here, they're at the top in terms of spending, but that's because they signed a quarterback in free agency. So this is more about just taking the temperature of some of the fan bases online over the last

few days, a lot of them who haven't spent very much, and just gauging whether they should be freaking out at this stage now that most of the big names are off the board, and it still feels like there are a lot of holes left for them to fill. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to run through these eight or nine teams and try to figure out, should you be freaking out? And if so, why or why not? And I'm excited for it because there's still some decent players out there, obviously, for free agency. But most of the heavy hitters are pretty much off of the board now.

And so there's not a whole lot left for these teams to do to really change what their fortunes might be. So the dust hasn't fully settled, but we're close enough to it that we can start to have these conversations. I think that's right. And listen, there's going to be a little bit of, you know, there's still a couple guys. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here with some of these. And that's why it may be unsatisfactory the answer that we're going to give you if you're a fan of one of these teams. But I still thought this was a fun way to dig into it because of all of all the voices over the last couple of days, I think the fans that are afraid of what their team has done or not done have been some of the loudest voices. So that's why I wanted to have this conversation today. It's because all of the teams, that have spent, even if they're bad deals like maybe in our mind, fans can always convince themselves that whoever they signed is going to work out. But if you don't sign anybody, then you end up in panic mode where it's like, oh my God, we're not going to be any better than we were last year. Exactly. And so those are the sort of conversations we're going to be having over the next hour or so. One bit of news we wanted to hit before we get into the teams, Cooper Cup released by the Los Angeles

Rams. They're trying to try to try to find a trade partner for him. Obviously, that would have helped them out financially. That's why they were dangling. him out there. It doesn't end up happening. He gets released. What an unbelievable career with LA. Obviously, the Triple Crown season in 2021 when they win the, when they win the Super Bowl, he has an incredible Super Bowl. I mean, that play and that no look passed from Matthew Stafford is a moment that I'll remember for the rest of my life as a football fan being in the building when that happened and just watching what sort of player he was that season, but also what sort of player he was for the Sean McVeigh-Rams, period. You know, he always felt like an extraordinary.

of who that team was and who they wanted to be. They were so unique on offense and how that thing was structured and how they were able to play. And a good portion of that was because of Cooper Cup and how unique of a player he was. And the fact that he really shaped that team and who McVeigh was able to be on that side of the ball for essentially the entirety of his career, it's something one of those guys and one of those 10 years that I'll really remember as I look back on my decade or so covering the league just because of how special and kind of strange it was in a good way. All of these offenses, you know, supreme offensive minds have a player or two where they

define the way that you think about it. And of course, in a lot of cases, it's the quarterback. But in other cases, there's always a skill player too. And I think for Sean McVeigh, it's pretty obviously Cooper Cup. And like even beyond what he added for them schematically in terms of being able to mostly play from the slot, but he can play a little bit outside, really good with the ball in his hands, like just a lot of the stuff that they really wanted out of that position. He also, in the sense of like what they did with the draft embodied what they did for the next, like,

they still do this where they want senior bowl guys. They want guys who have played a lot, who are like theoretically hard workers and have done this for a long time. And so even he embodied all of that, which is a draft process, they've still continued to use and for the most part have used it well. So like in almost every way he kind of touched and embodied the way that the Rams have run their organization pretty much from the day that Sean McVeigh got there eight years ago. It's always funny with this team that they always managed to find these off ramps after, not that after they've made a mistake, but when they're trying to find their pivot points, you know, with golf, it was like, oh, we're done with this. And then they managed to

trade for Matthew Stafford. With Cooper Cup, it's like, ah, we're done with this. And they managed to get Devante Adams. So they have made themselves an attractive destination in a place that people want to be. And that gives you more wiggle room in some of these pivot point moments. But they've consistently done it and they did it again this offseason. Well, and even with Aaron Donald, it was like, how are you going to replace Aaron Donald? And you can't really, but then you draft. That was more of a luck thing, right? It is kind of pick the right players.

It is, but it's still a credit to them that they consistently find a way to replace whatever their superstar, whatever their like pillar is. They just have like an amazing ability to do it. All right, let's get to these teams. We got nine teams that we're going to run through here. Again, they don't fit into any one bucket, but we're just kind of keeping our ear to the ground about how these fans seem to be feeling this week. Let's start with the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm going to ask you this question for all of the teams that we're going to talk about. If you're a Cincinnati Bengals fan, should you be freaking out right now?

I kind of would be because my biggest issues with this team coming into the offseason where we have to fix the interior of their trenches on both sides of the ball. And on defense, okay, they re-signed BJ Hill, that's fine. You take the swing on T.J. Slayton as like this lower tier. He's a young player. Maybe he can ascend for us. I get it. those are fine. But that's also not enough to make me feel great about them moving into 2025.

Like it's a nice bet, but they probably still need to add a little bit more. And then the offensive line isn't any better today than it was, you know, during the season. And so that is concerning to me. There are still a couple of guards left. If they want to be the Tevin Jenkins team or whatever, they still have some options. But I'm not sure either side of the interior is going to be even average next year. And that to me is it's been the biggest problem for this team. it's going to continue to be the biggest problem for this team. Yeah, I would be freaking out a little bit. And it's for this reason.

I thought that the amount of money they had in free agency and the amount of financial wig room they had, we could see an offseason where they kind of patched the defense together again, like they did a few years ago. That calculus changes a little bit with T. Higgins coming back. So I'm not necessarily surprised to not see them be super aggressive or proactive here, but that doesn't change the fact that they still have a bunch of holes on defense. Somewhere along the way, if you're going to bring T. Higgins back, you were going to have to borrow from the defense, and that seems to be what's happening. The interior of the offensive line, I'm not worried about it quite yet for this reason.

I think for this team specifically, some of the guys who are still hanging around are the exact types of players they should be seeking out because they're close. You know, there are other teams here like, I don't think the chargers need Kevin Zaitler based on where they are right now. They probably could get Kevin Zitler. But the Bengals, if they want to be competitive this year, there are still some one-year stopgap guards available where they could piece together the interior, maybe draft one, and still have a reasonable plan moving forward over the next couple years. On defense, that's harder to talk yourself into. What they've done so far is they've brought back BJ Hill and then signed T.J. Slayton. That's mostly what we've gotten at this point. And Orrin Burks, who.

And yeah. I think that's a depth piece, right? That's a depth piece. they brought back Cody Ford. He's your swing offensive lineman based on the contract that they gave him. They brought back Mike Gisicki, who's their de facto number three receiver on a relatively cheap deal. So all of that stuff kind of makes sense. But on defense, they went out and got Slate.

And if you listen to what Duke Tobin said at the combine, he seems to believe that if they stop the run better, they'll be able to get after the quarterback a little bit better. Okay. This is still a pretty big bet if you're not adding any needle moving pieces on guys like Miles Murphy and Joseph Asai and guys that I'm not sure deserve the benefit of the doubt at this point. So I still think there's a lot to be desired about the talents that has come through the door in the front seven. And I don't know where that's going to be coming from at this point. I get what he's saying directionally. But for them it would have to be like you go from the 29th

best run defense to the 10th best run defense. And now you're actually getting into more real down in distances where you can rush the passer. If they become the 23rd best run defense, defense off of these moves? Okay, that's improvement. That's not enough to get what you just thought that you were getting in terms of improving the pass rush via defending the run. So I don't know, this is, they still have a lot more work to do. They have draft picks to do this. Again, if they go out and they sign some mid-tier players in the front seven, those guys are still available. Here's why I would be freaking out a little bit. I thought there'd be a path where with the right signings, they could improve the defense enough to be competitive in 2025, right?

The offense was still going to be good enough, bringing T back, bringing Jammar back, doing something on the interior. This could still be a top five unit. If you could do enough in this single offseason on defense with veteran pieces who can contribute right away, could you be a contender again or compete for the AFC again as early as this fall? The way that this has gone, it's just harder to see that. Even if they draft more defensive linemen in the first or second round,

it still feels like the timeline on when that unit is going to be fully baked is now probably 2026. And so if you're a Bengals fan and you're looking at the way last year went and you had the experience of watching Joe Burrow and Jamar play like that and the rest of the team not holding up its end of the bargain, what I'd be worried about is going through a similar experience this fall and it kind of seems like we might be headed that direction. And that would be maddening again. And like there's a chance it's even worse than last year somehow because I still think Luana Rumo is a good defensive play caller. It's just that they didn't have any players. So it didn't really matter.

But now you're entering a new system and you still don't have very many players. Like there's just there's a lot still up in the air for this team. And I know they played well as a team down the back half of last season. But if they do the thing again where they go one in three in September or whatever it is, we're going to it's going to be a deja vu of what we just got in 2024. I learned a lesson. I think it was in like the 2017 or 2018 season. I remember where I recorded this podcast. I was doing it with Kevin Clark and I was sitting at a table in my old, old apartment in

near north in Chicago. And we were going through the teams we thought can win the Super Bowl. And we were talking about the Saints in that 2017, 2018 Saints run. And I was like, ah, the Saints can't win the Super Bowl. Their defense is too bad. And then in one single off season, their defense completely turned it around. And that's something that has stuck with me in that when it comes to defenses, I'm always going to be more open-minded.

I'm always going to be open-minded about how much better it can get. And I think Lou Anirmo is good, but maybe a different voice gets better production out of this defense. Maybe the back half with all these young pieces, the bets they're making on maybe moving DJ turned a slot for Mike Hilton. Maybe Josh Newton turns into a player. Maybe Dax Hill comes back from injury and plays well. I'm open to being wrong about defenses based solely on the talent on paper because I've

been before, but I still think you're having to tell yourself a little bit of a story to get there with this group. You definitely are. And again, maybe if they draft the right players in the draft, you could sell me on it, because that was why the 2017 Saints were able to turn it around is you draft the Marshawn Latimore and you really start to change your fortunes there. But I think until we get there, until we start to see what it looks like in July, I'm going to have some questions.

Tying a bow on this, I do think the offensive line could get to a good place, or at least a solid place by the time the season starts because of the stopgap options available. On defense, I'm a little bit more worried about what that process is ultimately going to yield. So we'll see, but I still think the defense is going to lag too far behind for the Bengals to truly believe this is a championship-worthy season. And to come to that conclusion when you have Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, and the heights that they're capable of is a pretty frustrating place to be. Yeah, not how you want to live. Let's stick in the AFC North here and get to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers have signed like one free agent. I believe it's Donald Parham. It's like the only thing

they've done on the market up to this point. Obviously, not true. really the case. They signed Kenny Gainwell and Malik Harrison, excuse me. Those have not hit the over-the-cap page, though. So a few modest signings from the Steelers, they obviously made a huge swing with the DK-Mecalf trade. But the reason the Steelers are here has nothing to do with free agent spending or the talent that's come in or out the door, it's the fact that on March 12th, when you're picking 21st in a bad quarterback draft and you're down to a couple last ride veterans as your options at the position, I would be worried no matter what else was happening if I were a Steelers fan. That's the thing. Like, okay, you made one of the biggest swing splashes in the free agency

period with D.K. Metcalf, obviously, it's not a free agent you had to trade for him. But like, okay, that's, that's all cool. But until you don't have any, like, you have no idea who is throwing him the ball. It's obviously, Justin Fields has already gone. It's almost certainly Russ is not going to get brought back. Now you're left with like Aaron Rogers. Is James Winston going to sneak up and take another starting job? Like, that's kind of what we're left with. And I don't really like any of these options because like you said with it like their only other option in the draft is like does do the new york jets feel settled enough at quarterback that they're willing to trade seven to the steelers for like shedars sanders but even that seems like they would have to give up a lot to go do that when you

just traded your picks to go get dk medcalf like they're just in a horrible spot i don't maybe this shouldn't influence their decision making but if i remember of that steelers organization i know mark conn's been there for a long time obviously before he was the GM panic drafting a quarterback because you need one in a bad quarterback draft has gone bad enough for this franchise over the last five years that I'm not doing it just to do it if I don't love the guy. Well, there's also, I think Sanders is a better prospect than can you pick it? But there's a lot in terms of like how they play that is very similar where it's like little undersized. Tools are more good than not great. Like you know, you're selling yourself that they are high IQ players, all of this other stuff. So it would be a lot of

double-diffing you for the same mistake, which would be kind of funny. Can I play devil's advocate a little bit here? Of course. Let's say they get Rogers for like a reasonable price and we get the Aaron Rogers we got in the back half of last season. Like he's the 17th best quarterback in the league for the Steelers this year. I actually kind of like some of the other pieces on the Steelers offense. Like I can talk about I can get a little bit excited about the offensive line if things go

well. Like Broderick Jones is still potentially a concern. You know, he's been so up and down. you're going to move him to left tackle now most likely. What does that do to his development? But the line from left guard to right tackle, I'm okay with it. All right. So I'm always a good player.

Zach Frazier in year two. Mason McCormick was solid. You get Fon new back from injury. You have D.K. Metcalf now. Is this a Cooper Cup team maybe? And if it is a Cooper Cup team, I think that mesh is well with D.K. Metcalf, I actually like that. So now that plus whatever running back you draft in the fourth round, that is a support system.

It's like, all right. Okay. And then on defense, you've got all the pieces that we already know about. This is a team that is very much one of those candidates to sign a veteran deep into the offseason if they need just a starter opposite Joey Porter Jr. Or do they draft a corner in the first round? And if you get Rogers playing at like 17th court best quarterback in the league levels, I do think that you have a chance to be the best version of this kind of Steelers team that you've been over the last four or five years. Is that crazy? I think it's a little bit crazy. And here's why. If they signed Cooper Cup, I probably would be a little bit more open to this.

Because I think he would add a degree of stability that Rogers needs and that D.K. Medcalf for all of the stuff that he does well is not going to provide. He's just not that style of player. So I do think that you could sell me on it a little bit if they are the Cooper Cup team. My problem is so much of why Arthur Smith looked like he wanted to blow a gasket on the sideline last year was neither of his quarterbacks wanted to throw the middle. of the field on time or aggressively. Aaron Rogers still doesn't want to do any of that. And so I just have this like, it feels like there would be a clash of the way that the offense wants to be run from the offensive coordinator and how it's going to be run

with Rogers. And I don't think it would be full-blown Aaron Rogers' offense like we saw with the Jets, but I still think he would have more pull in the building than Arthur Smith would. So there's just, like I said earlier, like a month or two ago, there's no team where I can really sell myself on the Aaron Rogers experience, I don't think. It's funny because I think in some ways where the Steelers are right now is just where the Jets were a couple off seasons ago. Everyone's just a couple years older. You missed on your first round quarterback and now you're scrambling for answers.

But everyone involved, including the star defensive players, including the potential quarterback solution, are all three years older than they were when the Jets went through this exact thing. But the conclusion is, if you miss on the first round quarterback, the options aren't good. Like, your solutions here aren't good no matter what you end up looking at. And it just feels a little bit more dire for the Steelers because, again, the quarterback options are a little bit deeper into their careers and even less exciting. Well, especially when like the Steelers and like those 2020, I guess it would have been 22 Jets, despite how bad the first strong quarterback is, the rest of the team is still good enough that you win seven, eight, nine, ten games that you don't get to go draft one of the top quarterbacks. Yes. You just, you end up in the spot where at the end of the dance, Aaron Rogers is the only person left, and you've got to go out there.

If you're a Steelers fan, would you be freaking out right now? Yes. And it's not for not for not having spent money or whatever it is. It just don't know who the quarterback is going to be. And none of the options are good. So yes, I would be freaking out. Let's go from D.K. McCaff's new team to D.K. McHaff's old team. If you were a Seattle Seahawks fan right now, would you be freaking out?

Yes, my freak out meter is on like a million right now. And I've already, I've already expressed a lot of this, specifically with the whole Sam Darnold for Gino Smith, all of that jazz. But at least if the quarterback swap happened and you fix the interior, you could sell me on why this would be a little bit better. They haven't signed any of the interior guys. And I know that some of them are still left. Josh Myers is still out there.

Seven Jenkins is still out there. They've got options. But they probably needed at least. least one of the top tier guys. And the fact that they just let all of that go to the wayside and now they're going to be picking from the, we hope this works out, Ben. I just, I don't think that we hope this works out. Ben has worked for Seattle for a very long time.

All right. Let me push back on this a little bit. Okay. Who are the top tier guys at Garland? Your guy, Will Fries. So you think Will Fries makes or breaks the Seahawks off season? Specifically for, for, no, I think. what makes or breaks the Seahawks off season is that they traded a good quarterback for one who's not

nearly as good. But if they were going to have this not nearly as good quarterback, you did need to put a better offensive line around him. And the fact that I don't know if we're going to get that now is concerning to me. I think that the quarterback they have now is worse than the quarterback they had. I'm not sure the downgrade is big enough for that to be the reason that I'm super freaking out. And the Will Fries thing, some varying reports about what happened there, they were in on Will Fries. Bob Condota, who's covered the Seahawks for Forever, said that apparently the disconnect was that they wanted Will Fries to come in for a physical, which couldn't happen until today. He did not want to do that. He wanted to sign before Wednesday, totally understandable.

And so that pushed him to Minnesota. According to his report, it was not a money or years thing. I'm just not in a place where I think Will Fries is like the thing that can swing your offseason one way or the other. I still think there are enough options. This is the Tevin Jenkins team to me. This is the team now that the dust is settled with all these other teams. They should be the one that tries to get this done. But we talked about this a lot earlier in the week when we were discussing the Seahawks' choice to trade Gino Smith.

I would have bet on the infrastructure change, at least helping the interior of the offensive line and the offensive line overall a little bit. Abe Lucas did not play in the first half of last season. You got him back in the second half of last season. Hopefully he's going to be a functional right tackle for you. you did so much tweaking along the interior. Olu comes in in the back half of the year after Connor Williams retires. He plays well enough to probably justify you rolling it back with him again. You had two guys that you drafted last year with Christian Haynes and Lamea from the six round,

who's the first name I can't pronounce. I think they probably need one splashing move at guard. I think Tevin Jenkins is still potentially on the board for them. And now they have an extra two, an extra three. You can try to find interior offensive line depth and another option somewhere along the way there. But independent of the personnel, the system being an offense that is going to help your offensive line more than that group did, I still believe that. I don't think this needs to be like some huge, ridiculous overhaul. If you get one upgrade talent-wise on the interior and then you trust what this offense is going to be able to do to lift your offensive line and help your quarterback, that's probably the bet I would have made from the beginning.

And Gino Smith would have been part of that. So that version of it is still on the board here. Like that version of it can still play out. I mean, it could. I think, and this is not even a criticism of Clint Kubiak. I think he did a decent job last year. I think I'm just a little bit more want to wait and see with all of that stuff, specifically as it pertains to the Seahawks offensive line.

When was the last time this offensive line was any good, even with some systematic help? Like, I just, that is why I have some struggles with it. And so I do think that they will probably be a little bit better because the system will help them out a little bit. And I don't think fries necessarily makes or breaks the offseason. For me, it's just the off season is broken already. And fries could have been something that mends it a little bit. And now they don't even have that. And so that's where the concerns lie with me. I guess I'm just more open to the vision here. Listen, if anyone's listened to the show over the last however many years, they know how I feel about Gino Smith. But I at least understand the thinking in Seattle, even if I think they do have. have a lesser quarterback for 2025 than the one that they had in the building.

But I think if they can sign an offensive lineman still, one more guy and you get an offense where you're not dropping back 45 times a game and the run game is completely divorced from the past game and you're using zero play action, I think the individual pieces you already had on the roster will play better. The receiving part of this is a slightly different conversation because there haven't been many solutions here post-DK. MECAF. I will say the MVS signing is so perfect. Like of all the guys that you could bring in,

that would be like, it's that meet. It's the Peter Parker Toby McGuire meme with the glasses, like MVS and D.K. McCaff, like that's exactly what it is. Like from afar, maybe he looks like D.K.

McHaff, he's big and he runs fast in a straight line. And he played for Clint Kubiak last year. So that being our, oh, we'll see how this goes. Like, we'll save 30 million bucks and see how this goes, is the least surprise.

pivot to me when it comes to trying to replace D.K. McCaff in the aggregate. And honestly, as far as their options for that could have gone, I kind of like it. Again, he's familiar with the system now. There were points last year where, again, MBS isn't a good player necessarily, but there were moments last year where it was like, oh, you can feel that he's given the Saints a little bit of pop. And so it's, it's something. If you were going to have to replace DK. Metcalf for basically nothing, he was probably their best option to do it. So I think it's probably fun. Yeah. Again, if you're doing it, it for basically nothing, I think this makes sense.

Here's where I said with the Seahawks, though. It was always going to look bad, even if they got Will Fries. And again, they might get to Kevin Jenkins by the end of this week, and we might be having a slightly different conversation. The set of bets that they made over the last week, you were always going to need to see how the draft picks ended up shaking out before you make a judgment on what this has looked like. You have an extra two, you have an extra three. This is a multi-year thing when it comes to all of those decisions.

The problem is, and Mina alluded to this on Monday, do we have any reason to give John Schneider the benefit of the doubt at this point when it comes to wielding those draft picks in a positive way? No. Like two and a half, or like three years ago, I guess when they drafted Charles Cross and Abe Lucas, like that was cool and probably the best thing they've ever done at the offensive line. But Lucas hasn't been able to stay healthy. And then Cross was like really good for a rookie left tackle and has a little bit tapered off. not tapered off, but like he's kind of plateaued. And some of that again with him is injury. And so like even the best things that he've done have not worked out in full.

So like I just, I don't have a whole lot of faith about what he's going to do with the offensive line. Here's where I'll wrap this up with the Seahawks. If T Evan Jenkins walks through the door, and I know Tavent Jenkins isn't a perfect player, there's a reason the Bears moved on from him when they need it into your offensive line help. He's hurt a lot. But he is the best multi-year option at guard left on the board for you. If you could do that and maybe even try to sign a veteran somewhere along the way, and you can find an explosive receiver in the first couple rounds that is a bet at that position.

That's okay. That's an okay outcome for me heading into the season, just as far as archetypes go. Like where you're using these resources? One upgrade on the interior of the offensive line, some explosiveness of receiver, and then we're betting on seven years and cheaper at quarterback and a scheme change to help the offensive line and the quarterback play. I think for me it's just every single thing about this. is a maybe and you're having to sell yourself a story. Outside of JSM being very good player,

he's a really good player and the left tackle I think is solidified. Outside of that, it's a lot of selling yourself on stuff. And I think that's what they were doing. I think that there was certainty before, but the certainty was getting old and expensive. And they weren't liking where the certainty was taking them. It was taking them to 10 and 7 and kind of a, not fake 10 and 7, but maybe a slightly misleading 10 and 7. And then, they didn't want to be living there anymore. Whether or not this plan can improve on that, who the hell knows? Like, I have absolutely no idea. I don't necessarily feel great about it happening, but I do get the set of bets they're making and why they ended up making them.

Maybe by the end of the drafts, I'll feel differently, but we'll see. This is how I win, is that I can just say, well, there's no way for us to know until two years from now whether or not this works. If you're watching on the YouTube version of this show right now, we're going to keep on rolling. If you are listening to this on a podcast, we're going to take a quick break. Let's keep going through these here. The Lions are our next team. A little bit of Lions news while we were recording this. They are bringing back Levi-Onsureke, which I really like. You know, when I was looking at the interior of this defensive line and just this defensive line depth chart, period, before we're doing this exercise, my thought was, all right,

Do they have one more pass rusher, you know, somewhere along the way here? They have Roy Jones that they signed this year in this free agent period. Obviously, they have DJ Reader. They have Aleem McNeil. Do they have one more guy with some pop? And I think Onzericke showed enough last year as an interior pass rusher that I was excited about other teams potentially grabbing him. So the fact that Detroit bought him back, I'm into that.

And then we'll get to some of these other signings. But before we do that, just basic level here, if you're a alliance fan, are you freaking out right now based on how the last week is gone? Not really. Like, for as much as I love Carlton Davis and would have absolutely paid him whatever to come back, I think them signing DJ Reed was like a pretty good consolation prize. And then otherwise, like, they have mostly kept the band back together outside of a couple of like, you know, lower level starters for them that I think that they will either be able to replace

later in free agency with some other guys or just be able to refill in the draft. And this was already one of the top five best. rosters in the NFL. And so the biggest questions I think we're going to have with the Lions next season is how are the new coordinators going to look? And that is not anything that they could have solved with any amount of money this offseason. So I'm fine with the way that they've gone about things. I wouldn't be freaking out at all. Yeah. I understand that they haven't thrown a bunch of money around. DJ Reed is more than I thought they would do. Honestly, I just, I thought that they would kind of roll cheap at corner and the succession plans that we've seen through the draft would take shape.

that probably is going to happen at right guard with Christian Mahogany stepping in for Kevin Zyler. And I thought it might happen at Corner with Ennis Rakeshstra stepping in for Carlton Davis. Instead, they go get DJ Reed. And I think the argument for that is he's missed a couple games here and there, but he does have a better injury history than Carlton Davis. And so you're hoping that you're going to get him on the field more than you had Davis last year and that maybe your secondary won't have to endure as many injuries. But other than that, like, they brought Derek Barnes back on a reasonable deal. And Derek Barnes gives you position flexibility. He can play on the edge every once in a while. They brought Marcus Davenport back on a really, really,

really low risk deal. Let's see what you can get there. And then if you spend your first round pick, let's say, on an edge player to throw one more guy into the rotation, you got Aiden Hutchinson back. You have your secondary pretty much back intact, especially after getting DJ Reed. And then on the offense, really the only spot that they need somebody right now, if Mahon, Hock and he steps in for Zytler is that third receiver position that they've had for the last couple years. Well, all those guys are available, literally. Josh Reynolds is available.

Tim Patrick is available. So I expect them to be able to fill that spot. So for the most part, like, I wouldn't be freaking out at all. I think that this offseason has looked a lot like I expected it to and maybe has even been a little bit more aggressive than I might have thought. Yeah. And that third receiver spot doesn't even have to be anybody that good. It just has to be a sacrificial X.

Like, they already have Jameson Williams who's going to be explosive. You know what St. Brown is. And you're going to get explosive play out of the backfield with Gibbs. Like, this other third receiver just has to be a big body we can put on the outside. Every now and then in the red zone, we'll throw you a go ball. And you'll get 450 yards for us and that'll be enough. That's all it has to be. That will be easy to find for them, whether it's one of these cheaper free agents left or like in the third round,

they just draft somebody to fill that, that slot. I want to answer this question in the chat because I think it's a good one. one, and I think it calls into question some of the things that we've talked about over the last few days. It's from evolutionary embodiment says, how did the Saints Offensive Line last year perform relative to expectations? And I think that answer changes, depending on what portion of the season you're talking about. When they had a relatively healthy offensive line earlier in the year and they were dropping back, true dropback, like eight times a game, the offensive line was playing much better than the sum of its parts because of how they were playing on offense. I can't remember who brought this up when we were talking about it this week or last week,

but somebody mentioned the game they played against the Cowboys with Micah Parsons. And the fact that they slowed down Michael Parsons in that game, despite having Talese Fuaga and, you know, Trevor Penning and all these tackles we didn't know about. And it's because of what they were doing schematically. Like the way that the offense is built, if you're just going to drop back, truly drop back, eight to ten times a game, ideally, that is a way to present. protect your offensive line. And that's the opposite of what the Seahawks were doing last year.

So that's the argument and the vision. Whether or not it actually is seen through and whether or not you believe it, that's fine. But I do think the argument is there. But that's the thing, though, is when they were doing it those first two weeks, it was something like 65% of Derek Carr's dropbacks were under center and play action. But even 40%. when it wasn't that, it wasn't as good. Like Trevor Penny was still one of the worst tackles in the league as far as past

protection goes. And they did do a decent job of protecting him when they could. But I think to me, you have to be, one, some of the under center play action stuff can help them. But you also have to be a really good rushing team. And there were points in the season in games where the Saints actually were that. Like Alvin Camara, I think had a really underrated season. It was just one of those like, who cares about the Saints.

So we kind of forgot about it. And I think we'd all kind of in our minds pushed Camer to the side like over the hill, but I thought he was fantastic last year. So in those games where they did look like a team that could rush for 125 yards, stay ahead of the sticks, get into their stuff, it did look solid. I just, again, going back to the Seahawks, have a little bit less faith that they can get there. Last thing about the Lions, just a reminder about where the Lions sit financially right now. They have $23 million currently in 2026 cap space. That's before you include Aiden Hutchinson's fifth year option. That's before you include Jayden Hutchinson's fifth year option. That's before you include

Jameson Williams' fifth year option, and that's before you include the first year of a Kobe-Josef extension that I assume is coming. So this is not a team that's in a position to hand out a lot of big multi-year contracts because of how many deals they've already handed out and because of how many more deals are coming down the pike. So again, the fact that they did the D.J. Reed deal is probably more aggressive than I thought that they would be. I think with this team and with the next team that we're going to talk about here, staying the course is okay, and it does feel like that's what the Lions have been doing over the last week or so. Let's get to this next team here, and that is the Baltimore Ravens.

If you were a Baltimore Ravens fan right now, a team that has done, I mean, really nothing outside of signing DeAndre Hopkins to a one-year $5 million deal, which we can talk about, would you be freaking out right now based on how the last few days have gone? Absolutely not. They had no, they were, okay, they were already a top five team in the NFL. The only thing they really needed to make sure they did this offseason was keep Ronnie Stanley. which they did. And then once they did that, they didn't have any money.

And so for them to even sign D'Andre Hopkins to be like your number, you know, two or three pass catching option, it was probably the best as they were going to do. I think it's lower than that. For the money, it's just, he's the Nelson Agloor replacement. Like that's exactly what he is. Yeah. Yeah, actually, behind likely he'll probably be four because I'm in my mind, I'm assuming that Andrews is going to be gone.

So yeah, behind Flowers, Bateman. And then, yeah, you'll probably be number four. I mean, $5 million tells me, we're not expecting a ton out of you. And I think that's totally fair, given what he did in Kansas City. But this really does just feel like Nelson Aguilar is a free agent. This is going to be the guy who steps in and plays the Nelson Agua role within the offense. By the way, no team is addicted to receivers two years over the hill like the Baltimore Ravens.

Or guys who are about to hit it, like they got the end of Steve Smith. And he was actually still pretty good for them. But they did this with like Michael Crabtree. They did it with Bolden. Bolden. Yes. Bolden was still good though. Bolton was also.

Sometimes they get the guys right before they hit the cliff. Like Steve Smith, it was like that. Like, they got him right before he actually hit it. But in these other cases, they get guys who are over it. Like Sammy Watkins, remember, he was pretty far over it for them. Like, they're willing to try these 30-plus-year-old receivers in a way that nobody else really seems to be. I'm glad that you're taking this tone with Anquan Bolden because I'm not going to let you weird Jen's ears like shit on Anquan Bolden. No, Bolton was not going to be a thing that happens.

Okay. That was when I was. Recipes way too many places. I'm not going to let this happen with Anquam Bolden in your generation. That was when I was a fan of the Ravens, so I am very fond of Anquan Bolden and what he was for those teams. I totally agree with you here. Like getting Ronnie Stanley back at that price, given what Dan Moore signed for and free agency, everything else is a win. Like, this is totally fine.

And the guys you lost, you lose Patrick McCarrie, who is your swing offensive lineman for however many years. You still have Borges to come back and play left guard if that's what you want to do. and what you're going to do again is you're just going to play the middle round pick game with all of your depth the same way you've done forever. How many picks do you think the Ravens have?

There's seven rounds in the NFL drafters. Assuming they get three or four compensatory picks the way that they do every year, I'm going to say they have 12 picks. They have 11. They have 11 draft picks again. And so if you look at the depth chart right now, there is a little bit less homegrown depth in the second.

They've got like guys like T.J. Tampa and people they drafted last year. But on the offensive line specifically, and then even on like the interior of the defensive line, there's probably less depth than there's been over the last couple years. They have 11 picks to work on that again. And then I assume somewhere along the way, probably high in the draft, they probably need an other edge rusher somewhere. Kyle Van Nuoy has been really good over the last couple years, but we're putting a lot on 30-something Kyle Van Nuoy here.

but they have the pieces and the assets to acquire those sorts of players. So getting Stanley back, that was it. Everything else roster-wise is in good enough shape where I don't think they have to be overly aggressive. And what about their history in the last decade would lead us to believe that they would be overly aggressive, especially when they didn't have any money to spend? Exactly. Like, they were not going to be a team that's going to panic and be like, oh, my God,

we have to do this and this. I think they're a team that understands, okay, it didn't work out last year, but they know that they're still a top five roster. They still have one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Like, they are going to be able to make a lot of this stuff work. And again, with the drafting, like, for as the Ravens have this like kiss, curse thing going on, which is like a term where it's just a condition where you have one part of the thing that is very good, one part is very bad.

For the Ravens, it's that they're addicted to these old receivers. That's the curse. The kiss part, which is good, is that they draft third to fifth round defensive linemen better than anyone ever. And so if they have all these picks, like, if they throw two of them out there, one's going to work and, like, put up really good play for them. Like, it's going to be fine. It's a volume game for the Baltimore Ravens and always has been. And for the most part, it has worked for them.

One spot on the roster where they probably do need some help is corner. You know, so they lose Brandon Stevens. And the way they want to play on the back end, I think they probably need one more outside corner if they want to use Marlon Humphrey inside a little bit and just have the optionality with him and Kyle Hamilton. There is no team in the end. NFL that is more comfortable getting to like June 18th looking at the pool of 35 year old corners and saying, I'll take that one than the Baltimore Ravens. So this list that we're looking at here, Darius Slay, Jonathan Jones, Kendall Fuller, Stefan Gilmore, Rasul Douglas, Shaq Griffin, Ronald Darby.

That's what we're probably talking about here with the Ravens when we get deeper into the summer after the compensatory pick deadline on May 1st. I'm not a betting man, but I would put money on Rasul Douglas. It will be Russell Douglas. The only thing with Rasul Douglas is that he might be more in demand by a team willing to sign him earlier than he might be off the board before May 1st. That's the only problem with Russell Douglas. He might be too good.

At his age and the way he runs, I wouldn't be surprised if teams are afraid that the cliff is coming. I still wouldn't be. I still think he's a good player, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a world where teams think that. Let's get to our next team here. and there's a reason they're coming after the Ravens. There's a reason we've slotted it this way. Talking about the Los Angeles Chargers. If you were a fan of the Los Angeles Chargers,

would you be freaking out right now after the last couple days? A little bit. This is the hardest one. They're like, if I had to, if the Bengals were more closer to like an 85%, yes, I'm freaking out. The Chargers are more like at a 60. So like they're over the line towards yes,

but I'm not like fully panicking. to me it was just I was hoping they would have done a little bit tried something at receiver. Like the fact that they haven't really done a whole lot there is concerning to me. But what would they have done? That's my question. Darius Slayton, get him off of the Giants. That's my only, because I agree with you in a vacuum. But they also let Palmer walk, which is part of the issue too. Yes. The number one, so Darius Slaten is 28 and on a third contract.

those sorts of players, especially at receiver, those are dicey deals to sign. So you're paying for his age 29 and 30 seasons. And there's a lot of risk involved in that. I think that he was a worthwhile piece for a lot of teams that needed vertical speed. But I can also understand looking at Darius Slayton and saying, I'm not sure I want to go down that road. If it wasn't Darius Slayton, the highest paid corner or the highest paid receiver in free agency, other than Dvante Adams, was Josh Palmer. It was the guy

they let walk out the door. There were no free agent receivers to sign. And so the fact that they haven't done it, I understand it based on the pool of players available. I would have loved to have seen Devante Adams there. But if it wasn't Devante Adams, there was no one else here where I was like,

oh, they have to make this happen or they're just in the wilderness now. That's a good point. I probably didn't consider how fast the receiver thing dried up because a lot of them did just go back to their former teams. They dried up before. we even started. Right, before we even got going. And I would not have wanted them to be the DK. Metcalfe team. Of course, he would have given them something they didn't have before, but that

kind of investment for that player. I don't think you really need it when your quarterback is that good. Like, you could go digging a tier or two below that. So I guess that's a good point. Maybe there just weren't as many options as I was hoping there would have been for them. But I think I'm also just scared of it a little bit because the receiver class is not great. And I know they got lad in the second round last year, but it's just having to do that again and again and again seems a little bit. It's going to be tough. I think what happened last year and the way that they approached receiver was a signal by how they think about the position and that you can find them a little bit deeper in the draft. And history tells you that's true. It's hard to find them in free agency,

but you can find receivers in the second round and the third round. Like, they are there. And so I wouldn't be surprised to see them go that direction. And I'm also, that's why I'm not surprised they weren't one of the D.K. McCaff teams. The area that I think is even more concerning than receiver is what's going on on the interior of the offensive line right now. And I do think, again, there are some options available. The player I really wanted them to sign in this process is still on the board. Like, Mackay Beckton going to the Chargers and then moving Zion Johnson to center,

they re-signed Bradley Bozeman. They re-signed Bradley Bozeman to a backup deal. I mean, it's $3 million a year. So that's a depth piece. So if you're going to move Zion to center and you draft, you sign a guy, like Mackay Bechton or a Kevin Zitler. You get one starting caliber guard. You try to find another one in the draft.

I think that's a reasonable approach. And you look at the other deals they've signed, Dante Jackson and Elijah Mulden, that's as cheap as you can get for veteran free agent contracts at DB. The Dante Jackson contract is the lowest one, essentially, if you looked at them all stacked up as a percentage of the cap before you get to the rookie deals. And Molden's in that exact same range.

I almost kind of appreciate this approach from them. Because after you make the playoffs in year one of a new regime, almost everyone is like, all right, wheels up, baby, we're going to win it now. We're so close. And to see a team not approach it that way and actually be a little bit more realistic about what the timeline is, I actually appreciate it. And obviously, they're in a different spot because Justin Herbert's getting paid a shitload of money compared to CJ Stroud or J.

Danos over the last couple years. But this patience and this Baltimore-esque approach, which should surprise no one that they're taking it this way, I don't mind it and I don't think we should be freaking out about it. All right. I have two things. First is a question to you. I do think this is a very smart front office and they probably would have approached it this way regardless. How much of them doing that is by how much they got the shit kicked out of them in that playoff game? Like if that was a closer game, do you think they would have felt that they were a little bit closer? I don't think so. I don't think they're viewing it that way. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but

I don't think the people in charge there would be swayed that hard by one single game. I just don't. I think that they're more committed to the path than that. And to see them do it this way instead of, I mean, the Giants was really just signing Daniel Jones to that deal. But the Giants were one of those teams that they made the playoffs and thought they were closer than they were and operated as such. And so to see a team not do it that way, it is a little bit comforting because I actually

think that being a little bit more methodical, if you're a team, in the position that the charges are where you're not that close roster-wise is totally reasonable at this stage given who's on the team. Yeah, I think 95% chance they would have still been fine, but that was such a bad loss that there, I'm sure there was like a visceral reaction to how that went down. The other thing I'll say is, I know I was very scared about how the Seahawks offensive line is going to get put together and the Bengals. I don't feel as scared about the Chargers, you know, where they're at a little bit still in the wilderness with their interior, because the tackles are one of the best duos in the league.

Whereas like with the Bengals, they're not nearly up to that level. I know we like Charles Cross, and maybe Abe Lucas can be healthy, but the Seahawks tackles are not close to that level. So at least with the Chargers, I can sell myself on, even if they don't fix the interior in a perfect way, the tackles are still so good, they got something. That's just not the case with the other two teams we talked about. When it comes to a team like the Chargers,

and it's kind of what I said with Josh Palmer, it's like, what did you want them to do? You know, losing Puna Ford, that's tough. Puna 4 was a good player for them last year, but Puna 4 got paid a lot of money by the Rams. Got paid like five times what he was making with the chargers. And that's, and we, this is how you should look at it. Rather than paying Puna Ford for what he was last year, how do you find the next Puna Ford? Rather than paying for Christian Fulton, paying what the chiefs did, how do you find the next Christian Fulton?

And then paying Jonsea Jackson what they did compared to what Christian Fulton is making, that's the exact bet. Paying Tire Tart one year and five and a half million instead of paying Puna forward. That's the exact way that they're thinking. I think in a vacuum, you want to be operating this way in free agency, but teams have competing motivations. They try to get ahead of themselves, and they try to supercharge it probably faster than they should. So to see the chargers be this methodical about it, this is the way that you avoid mistakes in free agency. Maybe it's not going to create one or two more wins in the immediate short term, but in terms of thinking about it from a multi-year team-building exercise, it's okay to go about free agency this way

and just say, we're going to do this in the draft, we're going to see what happens, and then we're going to revisit this in 2026 when we have a better understanding of who our team is. It keeps the window open in a healthier way, which when you have that caliber of quarterback, is probably the right way to go about it. Let's keep rolling here. Let's get to the Dallas Cowboys. If you were a Dallas Cowboys, this is a loaded question. If you were a Dallas Cowboys fan, would you be freaking out right now?

If I was looking at X roster painted onto just like X franchise and saw what they were doing, yes, but because it's the Cowboys and we know that this is the way they operate, no? Like, what did you think was going to happen? Like, you thought they were going to go be the team that like trades for DK Metcalf or whatever? Like, this is just not a team that was probably going to spend that much money. And so good on them for keeping Odigizua in the house. But again, even that is the Cowboys make a very big point of when they get what they believe to be star payers. They'll pay those guys a premium to stay. It's a matter of getting anybody else from outside the building to come and play for the Dallas Cowboys that tends to be a sticking point for them.

My response to this is, if you're a Dallas Cowboys fan and you still have enough energy to be freaking out, you're a stronger, heartier man than I am. Because I just wouldn't have that left in the tank. My will to live would have been seeped out like three years ago. to see them approach it this way. I mean, the sightings are hilarious. We went over a couple of of them yesterday, joking about them bringing back Kvante Turpin, but Marquis Bell, three years, nine million, they signed Jack Sanborn. That's what's happening. Great deal. Solomon Thomas, a low-cost dice roll on Peyton Turner. Like, that's just kind of what the Cowboys do at this point. So I think it's just because of the expectations I had coming into the offseason, I don't have the

capacity to be worried or disappointed because it's exactly what I would have expected from them. Yeah, exactly. This is just what they do. And like, the Sanborn thing is a nice signing. But if I'm looking at all of the moves that they made and go, the best thing you did this offseason was signed Jack Samborn, who I love, but has been a backup for his entire career. And you're going to, I presume, give him a chance at a starting spot, especially with overshone, probably not going to be able to play next year. It's like, that's it. Especially when you lost Jordan Lewis. who like obviously different position, but you lost a pretty good starter for you. And you haven't really added anyone that to me is like a plus starter for you.

Like I just, I get that they draft well. But at a certain point, you have to get other players somewhere else. Yeah. I mean, I agree with that. I've always agreed with that. So they by the end of, again, playing devil's advocates slightly here. By the end of this off season, they're going to have a $60 million dollar quarterback, a $30 million receiver and a $40 million edge rusher.

So them being a little bit less aggressive. the market. I think you can justify it, but they're going to need to keep crushing the draft the same way they always have. And I think that that's the problem here. I don't think the Cowboys are close enough where I'm worried about them filling the other receiver spot or one nickel corner and being like, all right, this is enough. If this works out, like this team is just going to be rolling. I think they're far enough away that that's just not my mindset about them. My frustration with the Cowboys is that they've squandered these windows when they have been close. But now they're not close enough for me to get worked up over a lack of action or being proactive in March.

Like that's just kind of where I am with this team. That's, I, I'll be interested to revisit this in July. I think I'm probably higher on what the Cowboys can be than that. Okay. Then where, okay, that's, that's, that's fair. They can be a playoff team again. I don't, I don't see why not. All right.

So where are, where are the moves that you want that? Like, what are the two or three pieces that you think need to, need to happen or two or three moves that need to be made? for them to be really competitive this year. I mean, at this point, just whatever money they can throw around the defense. Like, I don't even know who it would be. I mean, if they're going to let DeMarcus Lawrence walk, like, my guy Azizio. Ojilari is still on the board for them to go get a different type of pass rush and reload a little bit there. I mean, they lost two edge rushers.

Lawrence is out and Goldston is out. And so I think them reloading there and getting a little bit of help from Michael Parsons could be useful. I think Macy Smith has not been what they wanted at the interior. year. So if they could assign one of these guys to play interior for them, that would have been useful. That is getting a little bit dried up, which is a little bit of a concern for me. But I don't know. It's more for me like getting a fully healthy year out of DAC, maybe the offense, if they can go draft another receiver, like I just think when you have three superstar players like Dak, C.D and Micah Parsons, you're probably not as far away as it seems.

That's probably fair. And I do think the defense played significantly better after Mike got back last year. And so that's worth pointing out. I think you can make an argument that the defensive line with Sam Williams coming back from injury this year, you still have Marsha Neeland. That group can be pretty good. I assume they'll draft somebody, whether it's on the edge or on the interior early in the draft. And I guess I could potentially talk myself into this. Maybe they should be being a little bit more aggressive because they are closer than I'm giving them credit for. But it's just hard for me to get worked up over this team right now. I've already gotten worked up enough over the last like two months to start yelling about the Cowboys lack of aggressiveness this off season. We can save that for July after we've taken our breaks and we haven't thought about football for a couple months.

Speaking of the Cowboys, another signing just rolled in. This one is how many edge rushers do the Seahawks need? It's kind of where I sit. DeMarcus Lawrence to the Seahawks, three years, $42,000, $18 million guaranteed. So I like this spot I thought the Seahawks would be adding to right now. That's guard money, if you ask me. Anyway, the reason I like this is Jadavia and Clowny was really good in Mike McDonald's defense for the Ravens a few years ago. I think Lawrence can be like some analogous thing to that.

Obviously, he's coming off of, you know, a couple of years where he's been hurt and stuff like that. And Clowny, I think, has been a little bit healthier. But you can sell me on the idea of that. The Seahawks, by the way, are hoarding every two and three pass rush in the entire NFL. That's kind of what I mean. At this point, wouldn't you be calling to try to trade for Derek Hall if you were a team that just needed a body on the edge? Because now you have Maffa, Hall, Nuwosu, and DeMarcus Lawrence. But when those Ravens' defenses were good, they didn't have an ace.

They just had like four or five guys who were pretty good. And so I almost wonder if that's just like how Mike McDonald perceives of the way that he can run his defense is he can keep these guys relatively fresh and have slightly different body types who can do all these other sorts of stuff. All right. If you're watching this on YouTube, we're going to keep on going. If you were listening to this on the podcast, we are going to take one more quick break. Next one here, the Cleveland Browns, who have done next to nothing in free agency. They did a couple things today.

They signed Malik Collins, two years, $20 million, $13 million guaranteed. But other than that, we got Cornelius Lucas on a swing tackle deal, Joe Trian Shanka on a one year. was a first round pick deal, which is always a classic. If you were the Cleveland Browns, and if you were a Cleveland Browns fan, would you be freaking out right now? So given that a month ago, the best defensive player in the league was trying to leave and now he's not, in a sense, you could say no. But if you look at the team and what they've done through any other lens, yes, you should be freaking out. Like your quarterback situation is still bad. The only move you've

made is trading for Kenny Pickett, who is not good. He was in. your division and you know that he's not good. And none of the other moves to me that they've made are really needle moving. Like, I kind of like the idea of betting low on Joe Tryon Shrainka, but like if that's the move that I'm getting the most excited about, there's not a whole lot here for this offseason. I just still don't know what this team is. And I don't know what this team is over like the next two years. If you look at their cap moving forward, first of all, Watson counts 80 million against the cap next year, even if he's a post-June first cut. It's going to be $80 million when they move on from him.

And then they lose $30 million in 2027 cap space. It's just a hilarious set of transactions when you're playing around with it on like over the cap. You have you moved beyond that. Joel Betonia, Wyatt Teller, and Ethan Pochich all have their contracts voiding after this season. Do those guys get brought back? Is it worth bringing them back? Especially a guy like Petonia who's getting so up there. Teller's going to be 31, 32.

So what happens along the offensive line? Do you feel good enough about your in-house replacements that you've drafted? I would say no. So even that is now a huge question mark. Well, and with Will's now out of the building this off season, if all of those guys are potentially like maybe going to be, like you just start to end up where two years ago, the strength of your team was your offensive line.

And then you blew it all up to go get this quarterback. And now we're potentially looking at a spot where fast forward a year from now, none of that even exists. Like I just, yeah. Like, again, it's not just that a lot of what they're doing isn't inspiring. It's a lot of like, it just feels aimless and like they don't have a personality as a team anymore. So let's say they move on from Betonio next year and they manage to do a deal that brings back

teller and poaches, just just like for argument's sake. Jack Conklin is also somebody they can move on from after this year. He's like the only player on the roster at this point whose contract they haven't touched because I'm sure they don't want to because they want the flexibility there. So the offensive line being such a huge question mark, the guys you're looking at that are like, we know they're going to be building block players for us in 2026 into 2027 are miles Garrett Denzel Ward Greg Newsom if you resign him Jerry Judy J.O.K. Maybe like he's coming off of an injury and then the guys you've drafted. It's like Mike Hall Jr. That's it. And so even

if they're not saying that this is a rebuild, this is probably a rebuild. And so I just don't know where you go from here, especially a quarterback. Let's say Atlanta sees this through with Cousins. And it really does feel like we're trending in that direction. And we'll talk about the Falcons in a second. And Cousins isn't an option for you. Russ is visiting them this week. So maybe Russ might be an option, which I don't think is inspiring anyone. If they don't go the Russ route, it almost feels like their best bet this year would be to do like the 2017 Deshawn Kaiser thing or the Davis Mills thing where you draft a guy in the second or third round trot them out there and say, yeah, if we win five games, we win five games. It doesn't matter.

But can this regime do that given how last year went? I don't think so. And so I just don't know how any of it's supposed to work. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing, but I just don't know. On the other hand with like the regime, like at this point, I don't think there's any quarterback that they can sign that is going to save them. So like maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe you do just draft Riley Leonard in the third round and say, all right, figure it out, man. Let's see if you got anything here. In a vacuum, that's the right way to do it, right? It probably is.

When the Texans were doing that, but the Fancy's not going to want to do that. I don't think so. I think they're going to have a veteran quarterback somewhere along the way. But at a certain point, if you're going to be bad anyway, wouldn't it just be worth playing the guy you drafted in the third round just to see if he actually is an answer? Again, if you're doing this in a vacuum or as a theoretical exercise, It's exactly what you would do. But the Texans, when they were doing this,

they had the benefit of no one caring. Like, they were operating under the shroud of, like, complete irrelevance. And so they could do that, and it just didn't matter. I don't think that the Browns are in that position. Even like the 2017 Browns could do that with the Sean Kaiser. Like, that was an option for them. And Cody Kessler the year before that, this is a different sort of urgency with where this regime is,

considering how last year went. So I just don't know what path that opens up for you or what path that points you toward. I don't like any of the men. And that's probably not going to change by the time we have these conversations three months from now. The Cowboys are trading for Kenneth Murray. This is a late round pick swap.

That was of all the moves that the Titans made last off season, I still think the Ligerius Nied one was the most indefensible. But you know, there are some coaches who are just hired to be fired. there are some players who are just signed to be cut or just signed to be thrown back. Kenneth Murray was signed to be moved on from last year when the Titans signed him to that deal. This, okay, this by the way, even aside from that, this is the Cowboys saying, hey, Demerian Overshone was really fast. Who's another available really fast linebacker that we can go get?

And they just picked whoever they could get. That's it. That's as far as I think the thought process went here. the amount of top 10 picks that they've added or first round picks they've added in the last five days. They traded for Kenny Murray. They traded for Kyelam. They signed Solomon Thomas.

They signed Peyton Turner. That's happened in the last week. Pedigree, baby. We're the Dallas Cowbell is. Those draft grades were real good back in the day, and that's enough. So for the Browns, I think our answer is, you should be freaking out, but it's not really tied to what's happened over the last week. You should just be freaking out because of the existential dread.

you should carry rooting for this franchise at its current state. Yes. Last one here. The Atlanta Falcons haven't done much. Retained Mike Hughes on essentially a backup, a depth deal of corner. Signed Leonard Floyd, one year $10 million fully guaranteed. They needed another pass rusher. Divine Diablo, two years, 14 million.

Probably going to be in the mix at linebacker, Troy Anderson, has struggled to stay healthy for them. If you were Atlanta Falcons fan right now, would you be freaking out? Yes, I would absolutely be freaking out. They don't have that much money to spend, and they haven't spent that much money during what is going to be a rookie contract. Would you be freaking out because of this free agency period, or would you just be freaking out because of the state of the Atlanta Falcons?

It's both, right? Like, they've kind of pinned them to itself into this spot where, like, listen, Michael Pennix might be good. And ultimately, at the end of the day, when you draft a quarterback, the goal is for them to be good and everything else is cherry on top. But the cherry on top is that you can spend a little bit more money while this guy is cheap. Well, because Kirk Cousins is still there, and, like, and they have, they just don't actually have that much flexibility to do all that stuff. And so, and I think it's

especially, too, because we already have evidence the offense can be good. Like, it was good when Kirk was rolling for a certain period before he got hurt again. And then Michael Penix flashed the moments that it could be good. So, like, you can already sell yourself that this can be a top 10 offense again. But the idea was that maybe they could spend a little bit on defense and get at least to average there. Now we can really compete for the division. vision. They're not doing that. They've lost more players overall than they have gained in terms of quality players. And I don't think guys like Leonard Floyd or Divine Diablo move the needle for me whatsoever. My stance on this is there was always going to be a moment of messiness in the

cousins penix thing when it came to you maximizing your resources. And this feels like the moment of messiness where you're going to carry Kirk at 40 million whether you cut them or not. So that's going to affect what you can do elsewhere. And you've already kind of spent, right? Jesse Bates, Chris Lindstrom's on a huge extension. They extended A.J. Terrell. They extended Caleb McGarry. They got Darnell Mooney last year.

So there really wasn't a lot of financial wigger room no matter what because of the money that Cousins is taking up and because of how's aggressive they've been over the last couple off seasons. For me, I think this always pointed to, and I don't think I thought about in these terms, but this is where I would sit. Next year is always going to be the year where they get the flexibility back and they can be a little bit more aggressive. So this season, for the most part, if I'm Atlanta, is just about what do we get out of the offense?

What does that core look like and how excited can we be heading into 2026 when maybe we can really compete? And at least we can be frisky in the division if the offense is good this year. I think that's an okay place to land, right? Year one of the regime was fine. If you hover somewhere around 500 and at least you're competing for the division, I assume you'll get another year if you're Fontneau and Rahim Morris. So I don't know if there's so much urgency. here where making sure the defense was good in the spring of 2025 was going to make or break anything.

I think I actually, I think I actually agree with that. Like I was kind of framing the question of like, should you be freaking out for what might happen this year in the sense of like, are they going to be a better team than they were last year at all and maybe steal the division from the bucks? In that sense, I would be freaking out because I don't think they're any better. But I do agree that this probably is a little bit of a eat your vegetables. Let's see what we have from Michael Pennix and have in our young quarterback type of season. and so they more than probably any other team on this list that we've talked about

can take a little bit more of a long view on these things. Maybe them and like the Chargers, right? I think the Chargers are, yes. The Chargers of the other team I would throw in with this. Yeah. So you've actually sold me. Like in terms of the Longview, which is ultimately what's important with the younger quarterback,

I actually probably wouldn't be panicking that much. But for this year specifically, if they were a 9-win team last year, 10-win, whatever it was, they're not going to be better than that next year. I don't think. I mean, I think the offensive Pennix hits is a chance to be really good. And it might be, but, but like, Kirk over the first half of the season was like producing like a top 10 quarterback. And so maybe Pennix. And they were a top 10 offense. Right. And maybe Pennix can do that. But I do think that that is asking a lot for a guy in his first season as a

starter. Yeah. Even for as good as I think it's the infrastructure is. I think the timeline changed the moment that you drafted Michael Pennix. Right. I think that's just the reality of the situation. And so now I think they're leaning into that altered timeline. What happens with cousins? I mean, this is fascinating, right? Like, I just assumed, because if you look at the financials of it, right, they save no money by moving on from him and cutting him. So really the only thing you're worried about is like optics and dynamics and Arthur Blank having to cut a $27.5 million check to a backup quarterback. If you're willing to live with all that stuff, there's really really no downside to keeping him on the roster because if you trade him post June 1st,

you save $27.5 million against the cap. So if there's a team that has a quarterback injury and get super desperate as we get deeper into camp or whatever, you can't actually save money by trading him. The only other downside here is that his roster bonus for 2026 becomes guaranteed, but there's a reasonable chance that he's on a different team by the time that roster bonus it's paid out anyway. And so I really don't think there's a ton of downside risk to keeping him. I'm just not sure they'd be willing to see that through and literally write him the check for that amount of money if he was going to be the backup quarterback. So that's the thing is like, do they want to spend to make themselves look better and not have him in the building,

which like, I know Kirk has been upset about all this, but I don't think he's going to make Michael Penix's job harder. Like, he's not going to be that type of guy. So honestly, I would be fine with keeping him around, even if it's going to be expensive. And then you just hope that middle of July, someone inevitably will miss out on the musical chairs of quarterbacks, right? Maybe someone says, oh, shit, by the end of the offseason and says, all right, we'll be the problem is, the problem with that is, is somebody who we want to take on $27.5 million in July when their finances are already set is that there's probably a situation where you're

hoping the Falcons take on some of that. But maybe the Falcons would be because of the amount of the money they would save if they ended up trading him. So I'm not surprised necessarily to see them doing it this way and to see them call everyone's bluff, or see teams not call their bluff. But the fact that it has played out this way, I just don't think a lot of people expected it to go this way. So the last scenario I would throw out, this is, I'm just like spitballing here. Let's say the Titans actually trade out of their top pick and they get picks that way. And then they just wait until a little bit later and then they go and use those picks to trade for Kirk Cousins then.

Like that to me like makes some amount of sense. And I understand why maybe they wouldn't want to do that now. I don't know what the thinking. Which team? Which team? The Titans. Just depending on like what kind of package they get. Oh, no, no, no, no.

Zero percent chance. The Titans are drafted Cam Ward with the first overall pick. I mean, they should. I want to be very clear. They should draft Cam Ward. But you never know. This is, I've only feel stronger, strongly about this, more strongly about this because of the news that just came in.

Kevin Zitler to the Titans one year, $9 million. Okay. Then, yeah, okay. This is, we need to protect the young quarterback for the first year. Okay, never mind. Well, so now, let's go left to right for the Titans' offensive line. You've got Dan Moore, who's a functional left tackle at the very least,

Peter Skoronsky, Lloyd Cushenberry, Kevin Zitler, J.C. Latham. And now you can reasonably drop a young quarterback in there and think, you know what? We're not going to get this guy killed. We've got enough here to make this work. Okay, more than anything, that is a big offensive line. Yes, it is. Like, they are, like, Lloyd Cushingberry is a 315 pound center. Like, Skoronsky's not a small guy.

Latham is built like a fire truck. Like, this is, they're going to want to run the ball and protect this guy, which is, that's probably what they need to do for a guy like him. I like it. I will say, I said, like, six teams on this show should sign Kevin Zylard or make me feel better about their interior offensive line situation. With him now off the board, that's been altered a little bit. Yeah, the scraps like half the show.

we just, the Bengals are off the board, Seattle. Like, a couple of quick signings to hit here. The Broncos get their tight end. Two years, 25 million, 16 and a half million guaranteed for Evan Ingram. It was going to come somewhere along the way. Come hell or high water. It was going to come somewhere along the way.

We don't have to dig into this now because we are going to talk about the teams that have spent and how good we should feel about them on tomorrow's show. So we're going to save an extended Evan Ingram conversation and a discussion about all the AFC teams for that podcast and that live stream tomorrow. So please come check us out 4 p.m. Eastern again in this place, same time. We will talk about all the AFC teams that have thrown some money around and how we should be feeling after that. For now, that is all we've got.

Thank you to everyone who tuned in. We'll talk to you soon.