The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Free agency day two: Perhaps you can go home again

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Day two of free agency got off to a bit of a slow start, and then the spigot opened up with a firehose attached. Geno Smith is a Jet again. The Patriots landed a receiver in Romeo Doubs. The Texans beefed up along the offensive line with Braden Smith. Add that to what happened on Monday evening—Devin Lloyd to the Panthers, Travis Kelce's return to the Chiefs, Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean to the Raiders, Rashid Shaheed sticking with the Seahawks—and we've got a stew going. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman break it all down on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Connect with The Athletic Football ShowYT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShowPodcasts: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-football-show/viewX: https://x.com/TA_FootballShowIG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshowDiscord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowBuy our merch! http://theathletic.lnk.to/tafsmerchCall us: 847-448-0701Email us: [e-mail]: Robert MaysCo-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave HelmanExecutive Producer: Michael BellerVideo Producer: Katy DuffyAudio Producer: Michael BellerSocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow 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. Day two of the NFL free agency period. That's what we're digging into today. Not quite as fast and furious as day one. Not as many signings to comb through. But we had a couple big news items right before we started recording. Gino Smith traded to the Jets.

We have Romeo Dobbs headed to the Patriots. There were some big ones that happened overnight that we did not get a chance to hit yesterday. Elijah Vera Tucker heading to New England. We have Devin Lloyd going to the Panthers. So we dug into all of those moves, plus some of the smaller ones that have happened over the last 24 hours with me, Derek, and Dave Hellman. So let's get to that conversation right now. We are back breaking down the second day of the NFL free agency period. I actually don't know what to call it, the tampering period.

It's second day of the tampering period. But like, no, the bullets are flying. We know what's actually going on right now. Obviously not the same sort of back and forth affair that we saw yesterday, not as many high profile name. coming off the board. Most of the work, the big work, was done yesterday, but still plenty to dig into today. We had a couple things that happened overnight that were big time signings that we did not get to on yesterday's show. We wrapped at about 5.30 p.m. Eastern. And then Dave, right before we started recording, had a couple of things come across the board to make things a little bit more exciting for us as we got going today. What if we have the ear of the league? Like, what if decision makers are like, all right, let's get on the phone.

I'm sure that's true. Let's get on the phone so the Tafts guys have something to talk about. It felt like that. So I left the house at 1 p.m. Central to get here. And as I was like getting my keys and getting ready to go out the door, I was like, we talking about Kaimi Fairbairn today? Like what has happened that is worthy of airtime? And then on my commute, all hell broke loose. And we got Gino and we got Dobbs and Braden Smith. And by the time I got here, I was like, okay, we got it. We got a good show to have. Let's talk about the couple moves that happened right before we started recording like Dave just alluded to. We'll talk about Gino in a second. But in terms of,

of money handed out. The biggest deal of the day so far I want to say is the one that Romeo Dobbs got from the Patriots. Some conflicting reports, I think just the numbers have been all over the place when it comes to the exact details on this deal. But the number I've seen most consistently seems to be four years, $70 million, which makes sense. It's about exactly what Wando Robinson got. That contract thing had been reported at 78, but I think it's up to 78. I'm pretty sure that both of those guys are right in the same range, like $17 million a year. And so $17 million a year for Romeo Dobbs kind of about what we might have expected

coming into this period for a guy like that when you look at the market overall. I think it's pretty reasonable. And I think like some of the conflicting numbers have been up to almost $20 million a year, which even that is not that crazy to me. And I think especially for a team like the Patriots where what Stefan Diggs ended up giving them last year

was Diggs earlier in his career was a lot more explosive, all that. But really as a Patriot, he was more kind of the underneath zone beater, lot guy, kind of just moving the chains for the Patriots. And they had other explosive elements like Kashon Booty. They're probably hoping that Kyle Williams can give them that next year. Getting a guy like Romeo Dobbs who can he just win for Drake May on third down consistently.

I think that that's kind of all that they needed. And so I'm sure they were in on the Alec Pierce, you know, a swing that everybody was trying to make. But I think this was probably about as good a consolation prizes they were going to get. You look at that tier of receiver contracts over the last couple years. It's a lot of the guys who have been hitting free agency. So you have Wando Robinson, Romeo Dobbs. This is a slight uptick on the deal that Cooper Cup got last year from the Seahawks. Just by AAV, I think the cup guarantees were a little below.

He only had $17.5 million guaranteed. So it was more like a one-year deal. But in terms of AAV, it's right in that range. It's just below what Jerry Judy got a couple years ago. Obviously, based on inflation, that's probably closer to $20 million. But that's the kind of grouping that we're talking about here. And then the other receiver contract, Dave, that comes in right around there last night,

Rashid Shaheed also getting $17 million a year from the Seahawks. So Wando Robinson, Rashid, Shaheed, and Romeo Dobbs, all getting between 17 million and 17 and a half million in the last day or so. We feel pretty clearly that Dobbs is the best option of those three. No. I mean, I don't think so.

Shaheed brings a very rare in which three Dobbs, Shaheed, and Wando. And Wando. I'm going to ask you guys. I do. I do. You think Dobbs is the best guy? Sheig brings like an element that you just,

it's hard to find. I get that. The speed is very real and it is a valuable, valuable thing. But overall game and maybe the back half of his first year in Seattle, maybe I'm weighing that too heavily. I think that's, that was going to be the... I don't think you're crazy if you're willing to take a bet that Rashid Shaheed has more than he showed in the second half of the season.

I don't think that's crazy. But I think Dobbs is the best overall player of those three, even if I think Shaheed has the rarest skill set. Here's how tight the grouping is and here's how blurry. I think the answer to that question is, I had this actual question in the rundown because I think it's worth asking. I was curious what you guys would think about

if you had to pick between those three guys and do we think there's Shaheed is the best value of all three of them. So it's close enough to ask. Shaheed has the highest upside, but I feel the most confident about what I'm getting with Romeo Dobbs. How's that?

I think that's the best way to frame it. I like that. So here's where I land with it. I think what Dobbs provides you is the clearest, right? among all of the guys, like his ability to win in those situations on third down and what he showed you last year. I think he has the clearest utility to the offense in like one specific role. I think he's overall contributions to the offense are the broadest. I think he can give you the most things. Like he is a speed guy first and foremost, but you can move him around a little bit.

You can use him in a bunch of ways. I think Wondell, to me, is clearly like a half step down from both of them if I were trying to tear them out. And she heat does give you like incredible special team's value. He literally swung that Rams game that they had because he gives you that. And so I think my concern with kind of the back half of last year is him working with Kubiak, again, who he had worked with in New Orleans. It was just a little bit weird to me that they could not figure out the best way to use him consistently over the back half the year. Obviously, Sam Donald just wasn't playing as well the second half of the year. But that gives me a little bit of pause. I also, for a deal like this where it's a healthy amount of money, but not insane.

We're not paying top of the market. I kind of want to pay for certainty is probably the wrong word. but a guy where I think his utility is the most clear. So that's kind of the way that I fall with these contracts. I'd be curious how Seattle talking to somebody that have not done this yet, but just talking to people there about why they were willing to give him that deal after he wasn't super productive in the back half of the year. We're like, yeah, we had kind of, we knew what our offense was. We were kind of trying to get him involved midstream.

Now as we have an entire offseason with him, maybe he can be a little bit more productive. He can be a bigger part of what we're doing. I have no idea what the answer is. But the fact that they wanted to bring him back after he really wasn't that big a part of the offense in the second half of the season? I find that interesting. They clearly didn't think, oh, this was a mistake. Like, we shouldn't have made this deal if they're going to double down on it like this.

I don't want to classify it as money burning a hole in their pocket because that has a negative and like irresponsible connotation. But we talked about it heading into free agency. I do think the Seahawks are in a pretty enviable position for a team that just won the Super Bowl where like off the top of my head, Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence are are probably not guys you're even interested in extending when they get to that point, right? Like two big pieces of that. You know you're going to earmark money for Witherspoon and JSN, but that doesn't need to happen today.

Byron Murphy's not even eligible for an extension. You knew as soon as the Seahawks started talking to agents weeks ago, I'm sure they knew Boy A Mafé was not a realistic possibility. And so you look at that and you're like, all right, we have way more money than a team in our position typically does. and we can't even spend some of it yet. So, like, who cares if we do Rashid Shaheed for only three years, for that matter? So I don't want to classify it as reckless, but it's just kind of like, well, we can afford to do this.

Why not? And we're in a position where even if his value is mainly on special teams and, like, even if it's just the speed element, like, if it doesn't show up in stats, I think that's fine for this team for the time being. And I was thinking about that last night where I was like, well, they're probably in a position where this is a luxury they can afford to have, and it's probably not going to bite them if he doesn't completely live up to the salary. On New England side of this for Dobbs, I completely understand it. It's the skill set that they need it within the offense. They were obviously in the Alec Pierce conversation before he went back to the Colts.

There were only so many players that gave you this. There's a reason why all the same teams were in on all of these guys. Like Washington, New England, all were in on Alec Pierce. They're the teams that reportedly were in on Dobbs. New England ends up getting him. And so his skill set within that offense, I think makes perfect sense. You look at the other big deal, the Patriot signed. Was it yesterday or today, the Elijah Verit Tucker thing?

I think that was late last night. Late last night. So Elijah Vera Tucker also going to New England, three years, $42 million. And so you're looking at that deal for Elijah Vera Tucker, three years, $42 million with, I think it was $24 million, $21 million guaranteed. This is one of those deals that to me has like one of the wider range of outcomes of any of the contract signed over the last. couple days because to get him for $14 million in a world where Zion Johnson got 16 and a half and got $32 million guaranteed. If Vera Tucker can stay healthy, this is one of those free agent contracts, Derek, that I think could look pretty good in retrospect if you're New England.

I think we said this at some point before in one of our earlier shows. This to me is like the Jonah Jackson type of bet where obviously that was a trade, but you are betting that this guy who has shown very high level play before, who was a high draft pick, can actually continue that. I think this is an offensive line that got away with a lot last year because I think the quarterback just kind of made up for a lot. And I think the scheme was obviously better than it had been the year before. So they went from 30th to 24th the way that we've talked about. But I think when you have a young quarterback who has shown the ability that he's had, you don't want to just stay trying to fight to be the 24th best offensive line.

You need to take some of these swings. So if they do this, if Jared Wilson really handles center next year really well, which I liked him a good amount in college. And so I think that was always going to be the case. It was one of those things We're like, that was their best five last year. They could get Bradbury for the right price. And he's done it before you have a rookie quarterback.

But now that young quarterback has shown really high level ability. Now we can take this younger center and probably be okay in that spot. So now we're talking about a Patriots offense that has Romeo Dobbs, Kishan Booty now, which those roles I think are fine together. And then we have to Maryo Davis still in the fold here. The tight ends that they have, Trevion Henderson, Ramadre Stevenson, and now the offensive line left to right, Will Campbell, which that's an ongoing conversation,

but before he got hurt last year, I think he played better before he got hurt last year than he played at the end of the season, which I think is important to remember. Elijah Vera Tucker, Jerry Wilson and center, you still have Mike on Wino, you still have Morgan Moses. Like, it's looking like, if you look at it, like across all 11 guys, like, they've filled most of those roles.

Like, you have to feel like pretty good overall about the collection of players that have there. you can chase essentially whatever you want in the draft you want some upgrades. Do you buy the idea kicking around at all? And I don't think you would do this right away. And I think it's very fair to point out that Will Campbell did get hurt. But I saw people suggesting that

Elijah Vera Tucker could play tackle if you decide Will Campbell is a guard. I know. Wow, that would be crazy. To do that when he's not been healthy, I think would be a little bit scary. That feels like Galaxy brain stuff. It feels like with the Rams did two years ago. Overfinking it and John Jackson. Oh my God. Yeah, I totally.

We don't need to be doing this. I just let the guys play where they play. I think I'm not scared enough by the playoffs yet to be trying to do anything that outside the box with Will Campbell. If you're Washington now, what do you do at receiver? You've been in on all these guys. You missed out on all of them. They're not going to trade you AJ Brown within the division.

That seems like with the Patriots getting Dobbs, it feels like now AJ Brown is off the table, right? Yeah. And so that was, they seemed like one of the teams that probably were in the mix for AJ Brown. but the AJ Brown thing is, I heard, you know, I can't remember who was reporting it, and I apologize, but the idea that how he was trying to, like, do part of the deal now and part of the deal after June 1st so they didn't have to eat all the money.

But, like, that's the problem with this, is that it really is not that tenable for the Eagles to trade him before June 1 with the money. And so if you want to sit there waiting around for AJ Brown, you're going to miss out on all these guys. And for Washington, you're probably not on AJ Brown team anyway. And so now they're sitting there with most of, the receivers they were chasing off the board,

and they're still missing that. And so we'll see what happens, but it feels like if Brandon I, Yook is going to play, that might be the solution for them. How much of a solution? Is that really like, that would really scare me if that's where I would want to trust in?

If that's where they end up. I think it's one of those things, if it's the right price and you don't get burned if it doesn't work out, is it something that's worth chasing? Because it's going to be a free agent. It's not you're trading for that contract. Right.

So if you can get him for a one-year flyer deal and he has to kind of rebuild his value a little bit, could that actually be the best thing for you in the end? If the price is right, I could get that. I would still, they have to add, I would say even two more bodies if they're doing that. Because you just don't know what he's going to be. All right.

So let's, let me lay this out for you. If you're Washington, you can have Romeo Dobbs for four years, 70 million. I can't remember exactly what the guarantees were. Let's call it $35 million guaranteed. Or you can have Brandon I, Yucke, for one year, 17 million. 17? I think Romeo Dobbs. I just, honestly, I'd rather take the,

I'd rather roll the dice on Ryuk. See, but you love those types of receivers and I love the Romeo. No, you were $30 million two years ago. We didn't plug an eye. He has actively wanted to play football. There's a lot of stuff that's happened since then that you can't just overlook. I'd rather I think I'd just roll the dice in my only impression of Brandon Ayuk since like that playoff run is him driving 100 miles an hour past the 49ers stadium on Instagram.

That's the only thing he's here's in the news for. Them giving him $17 million feels like the most Washington thing that they could do. There's only so much risk that comes along with that though It's one-year deal Lower that price if you want me to be in on it Like $17 million. Here's my argument You've been hurt and you don't seem actively interested in playing football

Him signing the deal to me is an indication That he might be interested in playing football Okay Because that's never bitten anybody in the ass before All right let's get to the other big bit of news That came out right before we started recording Gino Smith on his way back to the New York Jets The sixth, seventh round pick swap.

The Jets moved back about 20 spots in the draft. Really it feels like to ensure that they get him. Jordan Schultz was reporting that the Vikings may have been circling. I think if they're trying to figure out why the Jets would do this, rather than just waiting for him to be released, again, you're only moving back 20 spots. Schefter reported that the Raiders are taking on the majority of the deal, so they're probably just going to pay just over the minimum,

which is what they would have paid if he were to be released. So what you're doing by trading away the pick and moving back 20 spots is you're making sure you're getting if another team was in the mix. So with Gino going to the Jets, there's a couple different ways that you can look at this, I think. The optimistic view is, okay, the offensive line is going to be better than it was with the Raiders last year. And so can we see a better version of Gino with the Jets than we saw last year with the Raiders? The pessimistic view is I've watched what the Frank Reich offenses and what those offensive infrastructures have looked like in his last year with the Colts

and his only year with the Panthers. And even if the offensive line talent is better with the Jets than it was with the Raiders last year, I think there is still a real possibility that everything about this ends up being a disaster. And Gino is waiting through another river of shit the same way he did last season. I'm a little bit worried about that.

Because yeah, if you just look at the talent on paper, obviously nobody on this team is as good as Brock Bowers or even Ash and Gentie, I would say. But the offensive line is tenfold better than what? what the Raiders have. And Garrett Wilson is a very good player. And he's a very good player. Yeah, exactly. It's not like he's, it's not like they have nothing your receiver if he's healthy. But yeah, the Frank Reich of it all kind of scares me a little bit. What I would say,

I want to be clear, I'm not buying into the Frank Reich offense again. I'm not going to fall for that, you know, kick the football there. However, his offenses had typically worked when he had quarterbacks that he could put a lot on them mentally. I do think Gino Smith is more of that than like Bryce Young was or before that like Carson Wentz was. And so I don't think it's going to work. But if you're trying to spin it optimistically, that's where it would land. I want to be clear. I don't believe that. The Jets, the Jets feel like such a damned if you do, damned if you don't team.

Because like, so after we got done yesterday, the Cardinals sign Gardner Monshu, and it comes out overnight that like, oh, it's Jacoby Berset and Gardner Menshue. And so you're just like, this is a tank team. Like, this team is gunning for the best prospect. There is no better tank commander quarterback than Jacoby Berset. Totally. And that is why when I was talking about. trying to play quarterback matchmaker this off

season. I thought Jacoby Percette going to the Jets was the best possible solution. Played for Frank Rack in Indianapolis, notoriously good dude to have in the locker room for a young team that's actively tanking, and he makes your offense watchable. Like if there are fates worse

than being the 2025 Arizona Cardinals offense, there are way, their fates way worse than that. And so you get, you can you can evaluate your young players. Like he's good enough for you to evaluate your young players. He clears so many bars if you're a tanking team. I honestly feel like if you're the Jets, Gino might be too good for what you actually want to accomplish this year.

So that's what I was going to say is by all right circumstances, not last year Gino. He's bad enough to get you where you want to go. Just to be clear. The Jets appear to be, like they're attempting to be an honorably bad team. Like a bad team that you can, you can sort of squint and see the vision and you're like, oh, these guys could be feisty. Like, this is all of a sudden we got a ton of veterans on this defense that are going to know what they're doing. And Gino, like you just said, can get the results you want in the right environment. But then you think at it and you're like, to what end?

Like, are the New York Jets realistically going to finish better than third in their division and like make any legitimate noise? Probably not. And so it's hard to get excited about them. But at the same time, like, I do think there's more honor in what they're trying to do than just saying in March that Gardner Menshoe and Jacoby Brissette are your options at quarterback. I think that's a perfectly reasonable approach to being an honorably bad team. If you're the 2026 Jets, I think is completely fine.

And for the most part, the deals the Jets have signed, you know, Demerio Davis is a two-year deal, but it's 15 guaranteed. You can move off from Demerio Davis after this year if you want to. Kingsanac Barre deal is one year. Joseph Osai is a youngish player. And so if you see him, he's 25. Joseph Osai is right now. He hasn't turned 26 until April.

So you're going to have him for his age, just 26, 27, 28 seasons. So even if you're not competitive for three years, he's under contract for three years. Like that's the type of free agent deal, I think is totally reasonable for a team in the stage that the Jets are in. And so all their moves in conjunction with one another,

I do think that's the goal. It's like, let's be not embarrassing in the short term, but also not take away from any of the real resources we need two years from now when we can be competitive. Just don't play your way out of the quarterback range, and we don't know what that is right now. But I would prefer teams to be honorably bad. I think that's more interesting, and it gives, you know, Jets fans over the last two days.

I don't know. I think if you're a Jets fan, you can sit there and be like, this should be, like, hopefully a watchable team and not just like an embarrassment of a football team. But that sounds great until there are, it's a two-quarterback draft and you're picking sixth. Or it's a three-quarterback draft and you're picking eighth. I mean, there's no good answer to that. Here's the argument from my end. You're not just picking sixth or eighth. You're picking eighth, 17th, and 25th.

The stockpile might come in handy, which is a nice ace to have up your sleeve. Them being decent might not really hurt them that bad because of what you're saying. That's always good in theory, though. You would still have to give up stuff, but you have the ammo to do it. To me, it's not about giving up stuff.

To me, it's that we do this all the time, where you think like, oh, well, you have two first round picks, you know, maybe, like, this is the perfect example of this is Minnesota two years ago, where they have those two first round picks, and all those teams in range to pick those quarterbacks are like, why would I give up the chance to pick,

I have what you want? Like, why are the picks more valuable to me than the chance to pick the quarterbacks? Every once in a while, this does happen, right? Like this happened with Bryce Young and the Panthers when the Bears decided to move back out of the first overall pick. But if the quarterback prospects are worth having and worth being excited about, Are you going to find a trade partner to dance with you if you need to move up for one?

That becomes the question. I say this all the time on Building the Beast. I'm just, I don't want to live in the world of looking to the next draft anyway. I mean, obviously, you know, the 2024 draft is looking like it could deliver on the hype, but I'm tired of doing that. Oh, next year, it could be great. And we're already doing it right now. And maybe it will be.

But I don't know, I'd rather be honorable. I'd rather want to watch my team on Sunday at the end of the day. And the odds that it's going to completely screw you over, I think, are not as good as people act like they are. We've talked about this a bunch, just the idea of tanking in a vacuum versus tanking in reality and how hard it is and how kind of erosive it is to your culture and building to be that bad and that purposefully bad and have no like real people at the front of this thing. And so the fact that the jet, I just said the Raiders, the fact that the jets have tried to gesture at the idea that they're trying to be at least a little bit competitive. I think there is potentially value in that. All right, before we move on, let's take our first quick break. The big deal that happened last night that I found really interesting,

I think there's a lot to dig into here. Devin Lloyd headed to the Panthers, three years, $45 million, $25 million guaranteed. Really the same general area of the Quay Walker deal, which we'll talk about it in a second. I mean, I think when we were talking about the Devin Lloyd deal and the potential range of the Devin Lloyd deal last week when we were discussing free agency.

And there was a thought that could he get $20 million a year based on the way that he played. And so for him to come in at this number, Derek, which is kind of bunched up with a lot of the other linebacker contracts we've seen over the last couple years, I felt like it was a little bit surprising. I thought because of the age, because of some of his athletic potential,

him obviously just coming off of his best football, that he would get more than what Nick Bolton got, which was about $15 million a year. And he's not getting any more than that. And so that part of it has been a little bit curious to me. Obviously, he's a touch older than Nick. Bolton is, but like he's still, this is prime of your career football. It should be like 27, 28, 29, 30, I think for a linebacker is very much like prime of your career football,

especially when the whole thing with Devin Lloyd coming out, and this has still been true, is he is an exceptional athlete. Like, the way that he can move backwards, the way that he can go sideline to sideline. And so I have expressed my concerns that I still think that one year of good play from the kind of player he is. And I think some of the interceptions being really lucky, I think I'm a little bit dubious of this contract are. or what the contract that he might have signed if it was 20 million. But honestly, at 15 million, him bunching in with some of the other guys, I don't think it's that bad, honestly.

So I don't think it's that bad either. I think that you kind of have to be happy about this if you're in the Panthers, given where he might have signed. And so I was talking to somebody in the league last night because I was like, man, it seems like a little bit less than you would have thought. And so the few factors, I think, that played into this. One, his age is surprising for a player that is heading on to his second contract. So I comp this a little bit to the Tremaine Edmonds deal,

when because Tremaine Edmins I think our career arc was similar their first round picks they didn't hit until the final year of their contract is kind of elite players and then they get paid big money in free agency Tremaine Edmins was drafted in 2018 okay

Devin Lloyd was drafted in 22 they're drafted four years apart Tremaine Edmins is five months older than Devin Lloyd I was going to say Edmonds was probably what 23 when he's done that of deal so they're both 27 now. And so that to me, I didn't realize that when I was thinking about them kind of following that similar arc because they're at the same point in their careers. So Tremaine Edmonds, again, is only five

months older than Devin Lloyd right now. So the age is part of this. The one year production is part of this. And I think the other element of this, it was a flooded market with offball linebackers. I mean, there's so many guys you could have signed maybe one step down from that. I think it does the opposite of something like the John Frankl-Mier's market that we saw yesterday or the Tyler Linderbaum market after Biotr and Governor gone, where because there's only one guy left, that's how the number gets totally pumped up. And for a guy like Devin Lloyd, when there's so many players available that teams were chasing yesterday, I think that's why you see that number fall back a little bit compared to what we

might have expected it to be. You ever wake up in the middle of the night and somebody's watching you? And just as you're about to have a panic attack, you turn on the light and it's like a pile of clothes sitting on your chair? Yes. Devin Lloyd and Quay Walker both for me. where I was like, this isn't scary at all. What was I worried about?

I would have been happy to have either of these guys at these prices. And I expected it to be a lot higher, I think. And maybe teams are learning their lesson. Like, maybe you can, obviously, you're going to have to spend a lot of money to get guys at the top of the market. But some of these prices don't seem as silly as what we've gotten used to. I mean, the Tremaine Edmund's deal is burned into my brain because I remember listening to this show when it happened.

and you in the moment trying to process it and being like this just doesn't feel like it's going to age well. And Devin Lloyd might not ever be as good as he was this year, but at this price, I don't think that matters to the Carolina Panthers. It's just not a steep price to pay. They were also, their linebackers were so bad last year. I kind of get them looking at just whoever they can pay that amount of money to. And so even if Devin Lloyd, if they only get C-minus value on this deal,

he is still going to be a significantly better player than any of that. guys they were playing there last year, even if he's 80% of the player that he was this year. A couple different things I want to talk about when it relates to the Panthers. If I had told you two days ago that the Panthers would walk away from the first day of free agency and they would have J-1 Phillips and Devin Lloyd for $75 million, or excuse me, for, let me do the math in my head, for $45 million a year combined, that probably would be okay, right? Just thought the split would be. Yeah, but if I told you it would be.

for $45 million a year combined. You'd be like, all right, that kind of makes sense. Phillips for 25, Lloyd closer to 20. Yes. That was thinking about that last set. It's just like, well, this kind of eases the pain of paying Phillips $30 million a year. But I spent a lot of time over the last day or so thinking about the Jalen Phillips contract. And I had a couple different things came to mind.

The first thing was if you were, because I thought that Baltimore would be potentially a Jaylon Phillips team. That was a fit in my mind. And if you're Baltimore, Jail and Phillips got four years, $120 million. what Max Crosby has left on his deal is four years 113 million. So now the trade for Max Crosby looks even better when you think about the money that you're paying Max Crosby compared to what a guy's making in the open market.

And a lot of that is not guaranteed for Crosby's deal. Like after this year, it kind of starts to go away. They will touch it. Right, right. They will do something to it, whether to move some money around or give him some more guarantees, whatever. But the fact that's what's left,

that looks pretty good right now. The other thing was, and I was just thinking about free agency in general and where free agency mistakes happen. And over the last couple years, I feel like the ones that age poorest are when teams are paying average players like impact players.

I don't think the real mistakes are when you're paying impact players like elite players. Right? And the one that I would compare this to, when I looked at the J-Len Phillips contract and I think about what he was worth in a trade and what the contract was because he had some leverage in free agency,

it kind of reminds me of the Montes Sweat contract from the Bears. So Montes Sweat, I think two years ago, got $24 million a year on that extension after being traded. And so he has leverage because of that trade in the same way Jaylon Phillips has leverage because he's a hitting free agency and multiple teams are bidding on him. The Sweat deal, he's not a 10-sack guy, right?

He's not a superstar player, but you don't look at that contract and think, man, what an albatross? Because you still feel the impact he's making on the guy. And I think Jalen Phillips kind of falls into a similar category for me. You look at the contract and you're like, God damn, that's a lot of money. But at the same time, he's a guy that's going to be impacting games for you. And even if you're having to pay a slight premium to get those guys,

I still feel like those are the contracts worth handing out compared to giving guys that aren't making an impact, impact level money. I think about, again, you talk about Bears players, like DiO Dangbo is that contract, right? Like those to me are the real mistakes. this type of contract for Jalen Phillips doesn't feel like that much of a mistake. And the other deal that I would comp it to, and again, I think this has to be playing into the thinking for Carolina,

Milton Williams is exactly that type of player, where they paid Milton Williams elite money for an impact player, and I think Carolina probably looked at what happened last year with Millet Williams and thought, we're not going to let that happen again. Not again. We're not going to let three or four million dollars be the difference between us finding an impact guy up front that we desperately need. And even similarly to the Williams deal,

Because he's a little bit younger and like because there have just been some weird stuff with Phillips's career just in terms of some of the injuries and him not having that many healthy seasons, there's a chance that he's, you pay to get an impact player and then he ends up closer to elite. The same way the Milton Williams did like, Milton Williams ended up better than the deal that they gave him. I think there's less of a chance of that with Phillips. Probably. But again, I think the thought process I'm okay with. 100%. I do think it comes way. I mean, it comes with a very real risk of being an albatross because of the injury history. The injury history is a different conversation. I think that's absolutely correct.

I said this on our Discord chat last night. It might blow up in my face, but I'm not projecting anything with Jalen Phillips. At least I don't think I am. Like I've watched enough of him to be like, this guy is a badass. He's going to do this. He can impact the game in this way. I am 100% confident if he's on the field, he can be worth this paycheck. The injury is the big, or the injury history is the big question mark.

But I'll take my chances that he's put that behind. him and if he's available, I'm not projecting the type of player he can be. I know exactly what type of player he can be. And that, even with the injury history, that makes me a little more comfortable taking the risk. In terms of how he plays, I don't think there's a lot of guesswork there. It's just keeping him on the field. All right.

Let's bring up the top 150 and see where we're at right now with what that collection of players looks like. Daniel Jones is it for, we have some initial reports that from Jordan Schultz that the Colts and Daniel Jones are entering toward an extension even if they haven't reach one yet. The Trey Hendrickson situation is fascinating how that is kind of unfolded over the last couple hours and I saw Adam Schaeffter talking about it today and it seems like there is a significant gap between what Trey Hendrickson thinks he's worth and what teams are willing to pay Trey Hendrickson. Are we surprised by that? In what way? Are we surprised that teams are not

willing to give him that amount of money? Am I surprised that teams don't want to pay a 31-year-old player who missed most of last year? With a core injury, which seems given the way that he plays the position probably pretty impactful. Am I surprised that they don't want to pay him north of $30 million a year? No, I'm not surprised. So I think the reports were that there was a $10 million gap between what Trey Hendrickson was asking for and what teams were willing to pay him. What do you think that $10 million gap looks like? What do you think are the two numbers that equate to that $10 million? You think he's asking for 35 and teams are willing to pay $25? That's what it feels like to me. That is probably the right range.

That's funny you say that because like when I saw this report, when I saw a after talking about it on Tuesday morning, I was like, surely we can just do like 24 million fully guaranteed and call it a day. So yeah, that sounds about right to me. The problem is there are a couple numbers out there that I'm sure Trey Hendrickson camp, Tray Hendrickson's camper pointing at and saying, well, what is different about his career than guys like this? Like the DeNeil Hunter contract, the fact that Daniel Hunter is making $40 million on that extension, I'm sure the Trey Hendrickson people are going to teams and being like, well, why isn't he worth this? Two years ago, he was an all-pro player, like, what's the real gap between him and Denial Hunter?

My answer to that is Denial Hunter is sent from outer space. Yeah, he sent. They don't make a lot of athletes like that. Normal aging curves don't apply. Have you seen pictures of DeNeil Hunter? Daniel Hunter also looked like one of the very best edge rushers in football all of last season. I mean, sorry, it's a cliche, but what have you done for me lately? That's the NFL.

Speaking of the Houston Texans, the Houston Texans with another offensive line signing today, A Braden Smith, formerly of the Colts going to the Texans, two years, $20 million. I think it was Ian Rappaport tweeted that is a starting tackle that can play guard, is what he said. And I thought that was interesting framing and not surprising. I talked to a couple people at the Combine that thought Braden Smith might profile best as a guard moving forward. And so if you're looking at this, if you're Houston. And they re-signed Trent Brown. So they re-signed Trent Brown.

And so you have Trent Brown on a one-year $7 million dealer at Wright Tackle. You have Brayden Smith in the building now at two years, $20 million. You brought back at Ingram at, I think, $12-ish million a year. And obviously, you still have Arranta Erasery from last year. And then Jake Andrews was there. This feels to me like we didn't want to overpay for any of the guards available on the market. We didn't feel like that was worth it. I think if you have Brayden Smith at one guard spot,

Ingram at the other guard spot, and you have Trent Brown as a placeholder at right tackle, and then you just say with all of these picks that we have, which they have a ton of picks, by the way. I mean, the Texans have way more draft capital in this draft than you think that they do. They're picking 28th. I guess it's less than I expected. But because they don't have their own third round pick or their own fourth round pick.

But they have an extra two and they have the 69th pick in the draft of the Giants. So right now, the Texans have four picks in the top 70 and they have five picks in the top 106. So they only have seven overall, but they have more kind of squeezed into the top 100 than you might expect. So the Texans sit in there and saying, okay, we've got, we've solved this enough where if we had to play a game tomorrow, we could. And we can use our draft capital and those second and third round picks, whatever way we want, maybe add competition to the room. I think it's a reasonable approach. I enjoy the way the Texans are approaching their offensive line like a baseball outfield, just like platooning guys. They're like, as long as we got the bodies to handle the spots, we'll figure out where they all go later.

I can understand teams looking at the sticker prices of a lot of these guys signing in free agency on the offensive line and saying, we have no interest in that. If you're the Texans, would you rather just say, we'll get Braden Smith for $10 million rather than paying Zion Johnson $16 million when really the difference in that is some nebulous idea of potential

because he's a little bit younger? I think history tells you that second contract guys are worth chasing in free agency. interior offensive linemen, I think the conversation changes a little bit because of what matters most there and I think certainty is really important at those positions.

In most cases, teams will pay good, young offensive linemen. Once guys start to get up to 28, 29, 30, it starts to become a little bit of a conversation, but teams want to keep their young offensive linens. They're good young offensive linemen. So I'm kind of with you. Again, we can quibble with like, how good is Britten Smith really going to be?

Can he stay healthy? All that other stuff. I would have rather done this than sign like a Zion Johnson for the amount of money that he was going to command. I liked it a lot just thinking of him as a guy that plays right tackle. If you're telling me there's some flexibility there and he can do more for you than that, I like it even more. This is one of my,

it's definitely one of my favorite signings of Tuesday, if not all of free agencies so far. When he's been healthy, I mean, he's worth $10 million a year as like a swing piece on your offensive line. And so you can see kind of the strategy for Houston's offense coming together. I mean, they're set at really a lot of premium positions, right?

I mean, maybe you can start to think about what a succession plan for Danielle Hunter looks like, but we know they have Will Anderson. And then I think defensive tackle is where they need to get younger, right? Like that's where they don't, Sheldon Rankins is going to be 32, I think, this year. Defensive tackle is probably a position where they need to get younger, but corner is a spot that's very well set up for them. I would hope that none of this would stop them from drafting an offensive lineman with a big pick.

That's, I think that's what kind of what I mean, though. Yeah, okay. That's where they can be spending some of this draft capital because they have a lot of flexibility and a lot of youth in a bunch of these other places, especially on offense, that receiver room, we're good, right? Like, we're all set there. You got Nico, the two guys from Iowa State last year, and it sounds like Tank Dell is going to be, like,

in the mix for them this year. So the past catching spots, I mean, I think those are pretty well positioned right now. You still need a running back, but being able to just kind of throw a couple picks of the offensive line. Well, they have Montgomery now. In Montgomery, that's right. That's right. And so being able to throw a couple picks to the offensive line

and just being, like, trying to foster some competition in that room. Like, I think it just gives them some flexibility to go whatever direction they want to in the draft. And I think that's a good thing. That's the goal for me. Travis Kelsey, back to the Kansas City Chiefs, one year, $12 million.

This is always what I expected to happen. Like, if he was going to play, I didn't expect him to play anywhere else. I can't really get worked up about this. And that felt like such a, it felt like a sci-op. Like, there were like three days of, like, oh, he might go somewhere else.

I was like, why? Why would he do that? What's the point? The only team, like the only situation where it's like, all right, would he be interested in doing this is like going to the Rams, something like that? Like you're going to L.A. But like that, they don't need a player like that right now when you look at their roster. So I don't know what the landing spot would have been that would have made sense. And for what?

Just so you can be the latest guy to add to the slideshow of like Emmett Smith in a Cardinals uniform, like just one random year of Travis Kelsey in like a Brown's uniform? Right. Because that's where he's from? And usually guys like this stage in, at least that would make some sort of sense if the Browns weren't like one of the worst teams in the league. Like with a guy like Travis Kelsey, usually maybe you could see, yeah, they hop one year and go try to win a ring somewhere. I know last year went the way it went for Kansas City, but it's still Patrick.

He's like, I'm going to go try to get one more ring by leaving the team that's played in the AMC title games, seven of the last eight years. The other tight end news that we did not hit yesterday was actually a deal. I think that was signed during the live stream. We just didn't get to it for whatever reason. Kate Otten, back to the bucks, three years, $30 million. It's interesting that when we were discussing the tight end market last week and trying to figure out and predict what might happen,

one of the conversations we had is, would you rather have Kate Otten at like the Jake Ferguson price, or would you rather have Charlie Kohler for like $6 million a year? And in reality, Charlie Kohler signs for $8.5 million a year, and Kate Otton's right in that general range of $10 million. So it's not, the gap between them wasn't very big. I had a feeling Charlie Kohler was going to get a hefty pay bump. But also, like, the KDotin salary is not as bad as I, like, 10 years for 30 million is,

it's a nice chunk of change, but it's not prohibitive for me. Like, I wouldn't be, like, same thing I said with the linebackers. Like, I'm not afraid of KDOTN at that price. He's making as much money as Jawan Johnson. It's kind of, that that's the contract that I think is most similar. Yeah. And when you think about it and through that lens where it's kind of like, that kind of makes sense. Yeah.

And Kodon, Juan Johnson making the same money, I think is pretty. probably where it should land. Yeah, exactly. He's making as much as like Evan Ingram got with the, with the Broncos, which obviously he was a little older, but like he's in that thing, like he's got as much as what Dawson Knox just got on his extension, basically like that range of tight end where it's like he's not perfect,

but he gives us something, can play in line a little bit, does a little bit of everything. That's a totally acceptable contract. I did think this would creep higher like 12, 13. I thought he would maybe get into like the Cole Comet range and he just didn't. Two linebackers signing with the Las Vegas Raiders, similar price ranges, very different.

I mean, the buddy comedy we're going to have with six four, Quay Walker and 511, Nikin playing in the same linebacker room is very fun. Again, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, right? And so what do you think about this, Derek? Quay Walker and Jacoby D and them throwing money at their linebacker problem in Las Vegas. I'm surprised the numbers ended up as close as they did.

And I think that is a little bit more to me. I thought Quay Walker would maybe command a touch more money, just because, again, guys built like that at that position are a little bit hard. to find. Nicopi Dean, I think you can argue right now as a better player, but just because a little bit smaller, I think, kind of limited in what he gives you, even if he's incredible at the handful of things that he does. And also just more injury concerns with him, I think, has been an issue.

But I really like them going out and solving the problem this way. Like, obviously last year, they were piecing it together with a bunch of mercenaries, basically. It was like moving 30-something-year-old Jamal Adams to linebacker, Devin White, Alandon Roberts. Like, them going out and getting guys who, even if imperfect, maybe Quay Walker isn't as good as you want for the contract and all that. These are guys who are quality starting NFL linebackers. And I do think Dean, this was a front to me that felt very, other than Isaiah Polamow in their secondary, this was a front and secondary that just felt kind of slow as tacklers. It was well constructed,

but they just didn't feel like they had a lot of pop. Quay Walker and Nikobe Dean give you a lot more pop and range than I think they had. So I'm going to need to see how they fix the defensive interior in front of them because I think we saw with Quay Walker specifically. He really struggled last year with the Packers when they were down to like DT, five and six and all that stuff, and I think he struggled a little bit. But so long as that room is possible, I think these guys are going to play pretty well.

What a weird team the Raiders are. I don't even mean that in a weird last year. I don't even mean that in a pejorative way. Because it's like, you know, you're signing these two guys, they had a desperate need of a linebacker. Like you completely understand with all the money that the, all the money the Raiders had,

you know, trying to fix this problem this way. Linebackers are typically a decent thing to spend money on in free agency because we know the development curve at that position can be a winding road. And so watching guys that have at least shown something and paying a premium to find some certainty and stability at that position,

I think there are worse ways to approach that spot. But now, like you just said, the front needs to be completely remade. They signed quiddy pay yesterday, but that really is all they've done. Every other spot you can probably use an upgrade. And then you look at the offense, obviously they spent the money on Tyler Linderbaum, but they still probably have a need-it,

they still have a need-a-guard theoretically. even with Charles Grant and Caleb Rogers being third round picks from last year, we'll see what happens at right tackle with DJ Glaze. We know what they're spending the first overall pick on, but Dave, I just wonder where they use the rest of this draft capital because even on offense where you're trying to make sure that you have as much soft-stall as possible

because you're dropping the number one pick into that, there's still like some pretty massive glaring holes on this team. And like we just show with the top 50, like most of the starting level players in free agency are coming off the board, especially up front. Well, and I think the Raiders, considering that they're picking number one in the draft

and they were the worst team in the NFL, I think I'd be, I'm cool with them stopping here. Like in terms of like major acquisitions. Like I think they did good work here, honestly. And I joked about it yesterday. With the exception of Linderbaum being one of the most eye-popping contracts we've ever seen, I thought they did a good job being like financially restrained

with a lot of these other guys. Like that sounds silly when you spent $280 million in a day, but we've been talking about it for a minute. Like none of these linebacker contracts came in at a rate that like just kills you. Quitty pay was the same way where it was like, oh, we thought he might get a little bit more than that. Like this isn't a prohibitive contract. I feel the same way about Jalen Naylor.

Late round pick swap for Teran Johnson, who wasn't great for Buffalo last year. But the great thing about being bad is everyone's an upgrade for you if you're the Raiders. So I really like what they did. And then you look at it and what, what? Let me refresh my memory. I know they have Baltimore's pick. So Fernando Mendoza is going to be on this team.

Pick 14, pick 36, pick 67. I mean, you can go in a variety different ways there. I think you probably want to address the front, even still with Quitty Pay on the team. You could do that with 14. I love the idea of adding an offensive lineman to this group. That's kind of my thought. If you can add like a rookie right tackle with a 14th overall pick,

I know there's some guys who might be available in that range. I said it when the Ravens had the pick and I'll just move it to the Raiders now that they own it. Pick 14 just feels like a great landing spot for Vega you want to out of Penn State who is just a big badass mauler. And you put those two guys in front of Fernando Mendoza. I'd be pretty pumped about what that might look like. But yeah, I mean, there will be edge rushers available if I had to guess.

You could take a developmental offensive tackle if that's what you wanted to do. I think at least. one of the top three corners in the draft would probably be there at 14 if that was something you wanted to do. So I think you could take it any way you wanted to, honestly. It's funny looking at the offensive linemen still available in free agency and just thinking

because with offensive linemen specifically, especially on the interior, my thought is like, can we just get like starting caliber players in there when we're dropping the number one pick in? Like I just, that's where my mind goes. And I honestly think the best potential option

for them at guard right now among all the players still available in free agency is probably Dylan Parham. Just retain him and, yeah. Still around? All right.

I'm getting excited about the Raiders, which I hate because I was excited about the Raiders last year. All right, before we move on, let's take one more quick break. Look at the other,

a couple other, speaking of just, you know, let's get this problem solved, veteran offensive line additions. Germain Illumina back to the Giants, three years,

$39 million. Shockingly low. I thought anyway. Am I crazy? It was a little bit. It was shocking. It was lower than I thought it was going to be there. Like, Germain Illuminaur got a smaller contract than Elijah Vera Tucker.

I think that. Elijah Verra Tucker is 26 years old. I know, but offensive tackles play well into their 30s all the time. Like, if you're 31 playing your best ball, that doesn't scare me. And that's Germain Illuminaur. I mean, great for the Giants to get that discount and get to keep their guy. But when I saw that number come in, I was pretty surprised it was that low. I'm looking at the comparable contracts right now.

And here's what I'll say. There really aren't any, right? And so for the most part, a lot of the other guys making between $12 and $18 million a year as right tackles that have gotten, you know, second or third contracts. Most of them are second contract guys that were extended. Zach Tom at 22 and he's moved down on Wenu, Brian O'Neill, Spencer Brown, Mike McGlinchie, Terrence Steele, Abe Lucas, Caleb McGarry, Colton McKivitz, Jack Conklin is probably the best comparison.

He got a new deal at 30, and that was for $15 million a year, and then Illuminaur comes in right behind that. And so maybe it's a little bit less. Maybe you do get up to that, like, McGarry McKivitt's Conklin number. But at the same time, he's 31 years old. I think this is his age 32 season. So that's probably the explanation.

I think you're right. I just, I think of offensive tackles like hockey players. Like, it's not weird to see an offensive tackle playing well and being like, holy crap, that guy's 37 years old. So why don't we do this? Here's my rationale for it. Morgan Moses got $8 million last year. You're just getting $1 million per year more.

More million dollars per year more. Yeah. Per year younger. So you get one year younger, you get $1 million more. Because I do think that like Aluminor is in the, we're all, how all quarterbacks are his versions of Kirk Cousins. Alumor is definitely like three years ago Morgan Moses. Like that's kind of like what he is as a player.

And so I think the fact that Morgan Moses got eight last year from the Patriots on that deal in Illumonors of 13. I can understand on the spectrum how you arrive at that landing point. Isaac Selamalo, again, are you talking about sort of veteran offensive linemen, the price that you have to pay for veteran offensive linemen, three years, $31 million to go to the Cardinals.

Here's the only reason this is frustrating for me. This is one of those to what end moves. Right? Like, Selamalo, because with the offensive line, I think if Jacoby Peret's going to be back there, I don't think the idea of signing like a 31-year-old guard is all that important. Like, this is the type of move I wanted the Cardinals to make last year, not the type of move I wanted the Cardinals to make this year.

And that's why it's just slightly frustrating to me. He's a good player. He's worth the money. I just am curious, like, how it fits into the multi-year plan for the Cardinals. I'm more curious on the To What End from his perspective. Like, I would assume that he could have gotten similar amount of money for more competitive teams than the Cardinals are going to be. So, I mean, this, here's exactly where I land with this.

Why wouldn't the Raiders give Isaac Salomon with this deal, knowing that you're dropping Fernando Mendoza in there? So just the Cardinals, not because of need, they absolutely need a player like this, but just in terms of where the Cardinals are, it's just a kind of a strange fit to me from that perspective. Yeah, last year this would have been awesome, but not as exciting now. It's the exact type of player I've been wanting them to sign for like three years.

I'm always so curious by what my, motivates different guys. I don't know. Like I would imagine a better team gave Salamalu a comparable deal, but maybe this was the best guarantee structure. Maybe this was the best incentive structure. Maybe he loves the coaching staff there. Maybe he wanted to be back on the West Coast because he's an old Pack 12 guy.

I don't know the answer, but I always wonder about stuff when I see a guy sign a deal that kind of makes your eyebrows go up like this. Roy Lopez, back to the Cardinals, two years, 11 million. I love the run stuffers just getting upticks on their previous deals. Roy Lopez is now $5.5 million. It was half that for the Lions last year. Same deal for Carus Tonga,

where he's making more parade. His A.AV is higher than his entire career earnings for the deal he just got in Kansas City. So I say that jokingly, it does feel like we're at a place where teams are valuing it more. But that one specific skill, and yet that being your role within the defense, I think there is a higher valuation on that,

trait now than there has been in the last couple years and I think there should be. And there should be. And I think that like in a lot of years there are a couple more guys that would like flood the market in that like type of role. And there really were not that many of them who could be like a true noseguard for you. And this was really those two guys. Yeah, it was just those two guys. Let's get to the Chargers offensive line plan.

This is the idea that the Chargers would sign Tyler Linderbaum for $20 million a year. I never bought. This is exactly what I expected the Chargers to do in free agency. They signed their big splash was Tyler Beattish for $10 million. And then now it's can we sign guys at a discount and just try to figure it out? Signing Cole Strange to a two-year deal for $13 million and then bringing back Trevor Penning and just being like, ah, these guys were supposed to be good. Maybe they'll be good for us.

I absolutely love it. Cole Strange, I can at least get behind where like he's following Mike McDaniel from Miami. Mike McDaniel's like, he can do this stuff I like. I promise you, he fits. I'm like if the OC's vouching for him, I can get there. Trevor Pitting was here last year. It's four million bucks. But it's like, but you should know that that's probably not good enough.

I don't know. Like rerunning it with something that you saw. Maybe, you know, Rishan Slater and Joe Alt coming back, maybe a rising tide lifts all boats. Everybody will probably look better with all pro caliber players anchoring the line and Tyler Viotish there. But I don't know. It's not a bet that I would want to make if you have the money.

to upgrade it. Like if you have, didn't they have the most cap space in the league coming into this? Or it was like top three. It was up there. It was top three. I think the Raiders are still number one.

But the Titans and the Raiders were in the same conversation. If you have top three cap space, then why does it matter if you give Isaac Sail Malo a little more money? And so that's kind of where I'm at. There's a world where, yes, Slater and Alt coming back and obviously Beaudish getting in there and being a much better center than they had before rising tide lifts all boats. I'm just,

I'm a little bit tired of them operating that way. and I know that it's probably fiscally responsible to do all that and stuff. I just, this was a team that I complained about last year, did not make like a big move to do something to give your team pop. And this year, to this point, they have not done that yet. And we're kind of running out of options for who that would be. Like, unless they're the Trey Hendrickson team, there's really not a lot of those caliber of guys even left.

So right now, as a current one stands, they have the third most cap space in the league. And if you look at effective cap space per over the cap, they have the second most. The only team that's ahead of them is the comming. commanders and the commanders have struck out on every outside of O way, every receiver that commanders tried to pay, decided not to play for the commanders. So right now, the Chargers still have a ton of money to throw around and they not surprisingly are not doing that. Slater got his deal. Yeah.

Alt, it's way too early to be talking about Alt anyway. Like, what are you saving your ammunition for, I guess is my point. And I'm not asking the Chargers to spend $300 million. I don't think it, I truly do think it's like an organizational fault. philosophy. But is that, does that make it right? If you're saving, like, again, like, if, if you've got all these guys coming up for extensions and you're being diligent and judicious about how you space everything out, I understand that, but like the quarterback's under contract, Slater's under contract.

Like, that, for the most part, is taking care of. Like, Mac, at this point in his career is not a guy that you're trying to go long term with. You potentially say the same thing for Derwin James. Like, I just, I think Darwin will be back on some. sort of extension. And he is a free agent after this year. And so you need a new Derwin contract. You can afford it when you have as much cap space as the Chargers do. They have $145 million in 2027 cap space. And their free agents next year. Well, so Tully 2a-2 is going to be up as well. So he's going to need a new contract. Dea-Henley's going to need a new contract. So there are some guys

that are not saying anything that is changing my mind about how they need to be using their money. That's fair. And like, like I said, I would, I would question it if the chargers had dropped $200 million in contracts. I don't think you need to do that. But if Tyler Beaudish were on this team with Isaac Salamalu or David Andrews, I don't think that would be irresponsible. And I think I'd be pretty hyped about the Chargers if that were the case. Not to say that they can't still be good.

I mean, David Edwards, you mentioned. David Edwards. I'm sorry. Yeah. I mean, if Beaudish is there and the tackles are healthy, I do think this could be better than people are giving me credit for. but why not just like one more punch to be sure, you know? Just one more expenditure just to be really confident

that your quarterback's not going to get crushed. Here's where I land with this. Joe Hortiz was in Baltimore for 25 years. The Ravens operated a certain way where the Ravens did not hand out a lot of contracts in free agency because there aren't typically values to be had in free agency. The Ravens were able, I keep doing this. I've done this like a hundred times.

last two days. I don't understand why this is happening. It's the trade. It's just in your mind. For some reason, just the lines have blurred. The Ravens were almost never in a place where they had to do this, right? The Ravens were always, the overall quality of the Ravens roster was always in such a place or usually in such a place where they never really had to patch holes and show a lot of urgency

to throw money around in a free agency. And so the idea that you're trying to take that similar mindset and apply it to the way that the Chargers operate, I completely understand that. But you don't have the underlying level of talent and like homegrown talent to operate that way. Like you have holes to fill in a way that the Ravens never really did have holes to fill. And that's why they didn't operate that way in free agency. And so that to me is where the disconnect happens. And I believe it was either today or yesterday.

I saw the Chargers celebrating Justin Herbert's birthday. I was like, ooh, he's 28. He's 28 already. So, Justin Herbert's washed? Is that your... He's not washed. Given how much he gets hit, he might be like 32 at this point. He's not washed, but that existential dread should always be in the back of your mind if you're trying to maximize a quarterback's timeline.

Few more we wanted to run through here. De Alford to the bills, three years, $16 million. I thought De Alford played well last year, but it's still a lot of money for De Alford and free agency. I think this just kind of speaks to like how different they want the secondary to look. Obviously shipping off to Ron Johnson, who was... a good nickel, but a guy who the reason you wanted him in the building was that he could tackle for you. And then clearly last year, he just kind of lost some of that juice and ability to do that. And so them kind of shifting some of the bodies they're going for in the secondary, I find

interesting. We talked about this. I mean, I thought I loved De Alford last year and I loved the job that Jeff Albrecht did in Atlanta, period. But I just thought about this as you brought this up. De Alford had an amazing game against the bills. Remember that was that Monday night game? Oh my God. That's right. That's right. And I'm sure. sure the bills did more due diligence than that, but they're like, oh, shit, that's the guy who just gave us fits on Monday night football. Let's get him. Reed Blankenship and Alohy Gilman signed the same contract, which I absolutely love. Three years, $24.8 million, $16.5 million guaranteed was Blankenship's number. I'm pretty sure

Gilman was in like half a million for both of those numbers. Not surprising to me to see them. Like, those are, can we start him at safety? Yes. Is D. Alford, or excuse me, is Reed Blankenship and Alohi Gilman. So I think that to me feels like the market, just above $8 million a year for, can we start him at safety? And I think what's interesting is that I think both of these deals, like even though it's the same number, they're very different to me in the sense that I'm not saying that the chiefs are going to draft the Caleb Downs, but I don't think this stops you from doing it.

Like you're not paying him an obscene amount of money. They play with multiple safeties on the field anyway as it is. And so I don't think it stops you from doing it. If you can't get him or you decide somebody else's the better pick there, that's fine. we can keep a Lopi Gilman at safety. With the Texans, I think it's a little more interesting. I said this going into last year with the Eagles, where in 2024, when Reed Blankenship was your worst defensive back,

that's a really good spot to be in as a secondary. When he became their third best guy and they had some other questions up front, it was like, okay, he's a quality player. What does this do for you? In Houston, he's their worst DB, and that is not anything to say of his quality to play. The other guys are just insane. And I think that he can be really good as like a guy,

who he gives you a little bit as a center fielder if you need to, but really a guy who does well coming down into the box, playing that robber role a little bit, could maybe let Bullock really settle in more as like a deep safety if they wanted to be like, this safety signing I think is really, really good for Houston. A few other smaller signings to hit. The lion signing Isaiah Pacheco makes perfect sense.

I mean, we talk about biting kneecaps, him biting people. I mean, it's perfect alignment with like the type of players that they want. I think similar conversation when it comes to like kind of downhill thumpers, Rico Dowdle going to the Steelers, not surprising based on what their running back room looks like right now. His history with Mike McCarthy. Yep.

So, and then the Steelers conversation we had yesterday, I wanted to just revisit it really quickly because Sando did a good job of this, like, just kind of shitting on us in real time. How could anybody do this? He was like, you know, you really can't judge any of these signings as they're happening.

And I'm like, yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. The whole five-hour show we're doing. He's right, by the way. And I think that I again, sitting there last night and kind of mulling over some of this stuff, the idea of what the Steelers are doing, and I think that we can kind of take it in a couple different steps here. When you think about the deal is that the Steelers signed yesterday, the Pittman one's kind of like whatever. Michael Pittman, I think he's 29 years old.

You'll probably get multiple years out of Michael Pittman. The Jamel Dean one, to me, it's like, okay, let's just play out what the next couple years of Steelers football would look like. if you're going to bring back 43-year-old Aaron Rogers this year, okay, and he's going to be your quarterback, you're going to be whatever you are this year. The goal is to be as competitive as possible. That's always the dealer's goal.

At some point, you're going to need to get younger at quarterback. So this is not the year you're probably going to win the Super Bowl. Next year, hopefully you can find a quarterback in the 2027 draft and get that clock started, but you're still probably not going to be a competitive team trying to win a Super Bowl in 2027. And so the idea of signing a 29-year-old injury-prone cornerback as part of a plan where, again, the ultimate goal here should be to win a Super Bowl, that's where I have my questions that start to arise. The comparison that we made about the Jamel Dean contract was the Carlton Davis deal.

So Carlton Davis signs with the Patriots last year. And I even had these thoughts about Carlton Davis last year. But at least in that scenario, you have Drake May. Correct. So the idea, you've already started that process. By the time you signed Drake Carlton Davis in 2025, you already have Drake May in year two. And even if that potential Super Bowl run feels far off, at least you can tell yourself a story about the quarterback taking a huge second year step.

There are unknowns in a good way. There is potential to be filled with where you can be as a team. If you're resigning 43-year-old area Rogers, it's a very different conversation. And so at that position specifically, I thought Matt Harmon did a great job of laying this out yesterday, where instead of capping opportunities for young players at positions of need, why not just say, you know what, we're going to take a guy in the third round, we're going to see what we have at corner, because in reality, it doesn't matter if we win seven or ten games this year. We should just be building for what this team is in 27 and 28,

and I'm just not sure if Jamel Dean is that sort of acquisition. And there's a difference here. I think there is a difference between having a long view of how you're building your roster and tanking. Those are not the same thing. Those are different things. And so that's where I think some of the subtleties with the Steelers conversation get lost. I think that's what I was trying to say yesterday and didn't necessarily express in the best way in the moment. It just doesn't feel like the Steelers view it that way. The Steelers, until further notice, seem to believe that if you make the tournament,

anything can happen. And that's false. There's a lot of evidence. There's no better evidence of that than the Titsburg Steelers. You don't have to convince me. So any thoughts about that? I mean, I just wanted to kind of get that out there

after thinking about it all day yesterday. When Will Howard makes his second all pro team, this will be a great artifact that we can have on, it'll live forever on the internet. If there's some Steelers content creator out there that wants to clip this when Will Howard is a, when Will Howard finished his second to Matthew Stafford and the MVP vote, this year. Everybody can throw this out there if they want to. Outside of that happening,

I agree with you. I mean, and I think I like Jamel Dean. If he's healthy, I like the deal's fine. I like the player. And I think the thought was, well, they signed a good player at a position of need. Why wouldn't you do that? It's like, well, there should be more considerations than that. Like, those aren't the only considerations. It's not about taking good player and putting a position where you need good player. Like, there has to be more thought to it than that. It has to be a cohesive plan. or should be. It's not a good plan, but if they are going to bring Aaron Rogers back,

it does make sense that they want to try to maximize it. It's fine. It's not disastrous. I just, I don't know. What I will say is that probably not the best signing if they're trying to maximize 2026, 2027, all that stuff.

Selfishly watching Joey Porter Jr. and Jamel Dean is going to be incredible. Yeah. Yeah. It's, again, it's not a bad signing on a football level. The Steelers are probably a better team for signing Jamel Dean. It's always, it always comes back to me where it's like,

what is the goal here? The goal is not to be a little bit better incrementally every single year. I just don't think that should be the goal. Do you think the Steelers would be willing

to do the Kinney Pickett thing all over again? I think it's a good bet that the second quarterback in this class will be on the board when they pick. I don't think they want to do that. I don't think they do either.

I'm trying to think of a way you could put a young quarterback who, gives you some roadmap for the future on this team and I don't think they want to draft one at 21 I don't think it really makes sense to draft one at 2021

but they don't seem interested in any of the other avenues to get a different quarterback on this team and that is perplexing. We just said it. Will Howard is going to be a great player I'm sure we already know what the answer is get after it. The other smaller ones here, Arden Key,

two for 20 to go to the Colts rotational pass rusher I think that one, I can understand that. J.K. Dobbins and Alex Singleton back to the Broncos. I can under, for the Broncos, especially the Singleton thing. It's just like, you know what you have, right? So you still have Stranad back there. They cut Drey Greenlaw. So Stranad and Singleton are going to be back probably as your starters.

And you probably give yourself an opportunity if you want to draft somebody. The Strona contract is a third linebacker contract. They were in on the Montgomery thing. And so for them to land back on J.K. Dobbins, I can understand that. Quincy Williams goes to the Browns on a very similar deal to the the one Alex Anzolone signed. Quincy Williams playing behind that Browns front as a way to kind of re-invigorate his career.

I think that's a pretty good landing spot to potentially do that. I'm pretty into that one. Like obviously you have the big bodied edges who are going to help, but like Mason Graham was okay as a rookie. Malik Collins, when he was healthy, was legitimately one of the best penetrating defensive tackles in the league. And so putting a player like Quincy Williams with his range with his pop next to him. And then you have standing next to him, Carson Swessinger was like about as good as a young

livebacker can be like this that was signing quincy williams i said going into this that like he feels like he could be a good bargain for somebody that specific team in that fit i really liked it last one i wanted to hit we don't spend a ton of time on this direction jones going back to the bearers it's a one-year deal five-year base out of five-year base up to 10 million i think this is just a we're going to have him we're going to have theo bened it we're going to kind of hold onto our hats for as long as we need to a left tackle and honestly like i'm fine with that he did not win the job He won the job out of camp last year, but never really looked right coming off of an injury.

But he's going to be healthy now heading into next season. You've already seen him in the building. There's a little bit more certainty there. So if that is their intermediate plan at left tackle just to have him and Benedict kind of fight it out and whatever the best solution is there you can live with for a little while, I think that's totally fine. It doesn't bother me at all.

As we've been talking, it sounds like the Cowboys agreed to terms with PJ Locke. If that does anything for you. Is that doing anything for you? That doesn't really do that much for me, to be honest. That's your guy, dude? Yeah, when I was like, well, the Broncos signed Tala Noah Hufanga, so they don't have to play PJ Locke.

So that's kind of, those are my thoughts on the PJ Lock sign. Christian Parker was in Denver. Yeah, PJ. Oh, that's a draft. He knows him, I think. And so there is some familiarity there. But anything, no disrespect to PJ Locke. Anything that moves to need a little bit more than PJ Locke that I missed?

Nashan Wright. Nishon Wright is going to the New York. on a one year five and a half million dollar deal. This is so funny. They couldn't get an interception or a turnover. So go get the guy who got a million somehow. We're going to tap into whatever wizardry he was using. Go get that good.

I love that. That price doesn't bother me. Oh, whatever. Yeah, five million bucks. If he was going to get 10. No. Right. If he was going to get yes.

That's a different thing. And honestly, I applaud the NFL for under. And, you know, I don't want to take money out of an issue. Sean Wright's pocket, it is a sign of growth around the league that we can look at the season that Sean Wright had and understand what was real and what was not about that season. So the Jets just saying we're going to pay $5 million for an interception this year, I think is a completely reasonable approach to the Sean Wright's market. But the fact that we just had PJ Locke and Ashon Wright is the two things that we missed over the course of that 70 minutes speaks to what today

has felt like. Well, to be fair, like all, all hell broke loose is an exaggeration. But like from One to 145, it felt like there was a fair amount of shit going on. But yeah, it's definitely, it's been slower today. Like this morning I was like I was putting my phone in and out of airplane mode. Like, am I missing stuff? Like, where's all the news? Hopefully we've got some stuff to talk about tomorrow. If not, we'll probably do what we did last year.

When things started to slow down, we kind of shifted to more big picture discussions, just looking at some of the overall halls that teams had, we'll likely start doing that over the next couple days. But we're going to have live shows coming your guys way on Wednesday and Thursday. Same time. 3 p.m. Eastern each of those days, 2 p.m. Central. We will be here either recapping the signings or just zooming out and taking a look at what free agency has felt like up to this point.

For now, that's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.