The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Free agency day two recap: Vikings spend big, Colts sign Daniel Jones, Giants ink Jevon Holland, and more

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

The Vikings capped off day one of free agency with a couple of big moves, bringing back Byron Murphy Jr. and bringing in Jonathan Allen. They picked right back up on the morning of day two, signing Will Fries and reportedly agreeing to a deal with Javon Hargrave. They were the big spenders on day two of free agency, but they certainly weren't the only spenders. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen dive into day two on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys discuss Dre Greenlaw to the Broncos, Daniel Jones to the Colts, Chase Young and Juwan Johnson sticking with the Saints, Najee Harris going to the Chargers, the seeming change that's afoot in San Francisco, and more.RundownThe Vikings spend bigJevon Holland to the GiantsTershawn Wharton to the PanthersDre Greenlaw to the BroncosDaniel Jones to the ColtsKristian Fulton to the ChiefsNajee Harris to the ChargersTexans/Eagles tradeLeonard Floyd to the FalconsChanging of the times in San FranciscoSmall moves from day twoHost: 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. Day 2 of Free Agency is in the books. Me and Derek Classen are here to recap everything that has happened in the last 24 hours since we signed off from our marathon live stream on day one. Kind of a quiet day, all things considered, especially when you compare it to yesterday, but still plenty of stuff to hit. The Vikings had several big signings from the time we finished yesterday until even this morning. Will Fry's Jonathan Allen, Javon Hartgrave apparently headed there, Byron Murphy, back to Minnesota.

A couple other smaller signings that we saw. The Saints got a couple guys. An interesting Texans Eagles trade today. So still plenty of stuff to hit. Derek and I also had kind of an extended conversation about the Niners and their last 24 hours or so. Obviously lost a lot of big name guys. Cut Kyle. Use Check today.

Drey Greenlaw, Tallano Hufanga hitting free agency. Trade Adibo Samuel last week. I think it's a curious offseason for San Francisco and kind of the pivots we might see from them. So we talked about that at length along with all of the other signings that we had to react to. So let's get to that conversation right now. Joining me today, it is my co-host, Derek Klesson. Derek, how you feeling, man? Refreshed.

By this time yesterday, we were four and a half hours into a full live stream. So the fact that now we are hitting the ground running at 1 p.m. My time feels a little bit different. Feels good. It was funny yesterday when we came out of that hole. I was very tired. but in the moment it didn't seem that long just because there was constant things to respond to and we had all these people running through. But when I came out of it, it was almost like Will Ferrell in old school when he just blacks out for like the entire speech he's giving there during the debate portion.

That's kind of how I felt, but it was five and a half hours long. I for me, you know how like when you spend eight hours air traveling like you're in airports, you're in airplanes and you kind of lose sense of like time and where you're at? By the end of the show, that's a little bit how I felt. I think that's exactly right. That's precisely how I felt. It was a nice kind of calm 24 hours since that live stream wrapped up. We've got plenty of stuff to hit today, but the fire hose has been a little bit tamer over the last day or so, is what I would say. We got some of these signings that rolled in last night, and that's where we're going to start is with the hall that the Minnesota Vikings have had in the last 24 hours or so.

We talked a lot about this and about the potential plan the Vikings would have in free agency this year after getting out to a rookie quarterback contract and having really no picks in the middle rounds. Like that free agency flexibility was really important for them to build up the wanting areas of their roster. And that's exactly what's happened over the last day or so. Byron Murphy back three years, 54 million. We were, they tried to sell it as 66 million last night. I appreciate Beller coming through with the real contract. numbers here now that we've gotten the actual figures three years 54 million up to 66 with 35 guaranteed jonathan allen also going to the viking three years 51 million 31 guaranteed seems like jervan

hargrave is going to be coming going there at some point no real sense of what that deal looks like yet we haven't seen any details he's going to be officially released on wednesday by the nineers then the last one will fries five years 88 million 44 million guaranteed to presumably play right guard for the Vikings. The last time we talked about Minnesota last night, it was post Ryan Kelly signing. We were wondering if there was something else coming along the interior, the offensive line, because those guard spots still needed a little bit of tending to. And we got it. Will Fries headed to Minnesota to solidify that spot. So a lot of beef in the trenches for this team, and then they get Byron Murphy back, which is something you wanted to see at the

beginning of this process. I did. I'll start with the defense. I like a lot of what they did. First of obviously they signed Isaiah Rogers yesterday, which was not a huge signing, but it was like, okay, this is a nice cornerback to. What are they going to do with their number one spot? For them to bring back Byron Murphy, who they know is good in their system, they have proof that he's been able to play really well there. He's a good zone corner. He's really feisty. Like, it just makes sense. And Isaiah Rogers on the other side replacing Gilmore, given where Gilmore was at in his career and where Isaiah Rogers might be as an ascending player, like that makes perfect sense to me. And then to me, what is fascinating is for as good as Minnesota's running,

defense was last year and parts of their pass rush were. It just whenever I watched them, it just didn't feel like their interior was any good. Like Harrison Phillips was, yeah, like they were getting away with. Jerry Tillerie and Jonathan Bullard and guys who were back end of the roster players at this point in their careers. They were getting away with throwing these weird games and throwing extra linebackers at the problem and like blitzing all these other guys. And so like they had to solve the problems that way.

It's kind of interesting to me that whether it was the GM or Brian Flores was like, hey man, it would be nice to not have to solve every problem that way, which kind of seems like the steps that they've taken every year where two years ago they did everything crazy under the sun. Last year, they were able to add a few new pieces, not be as crazy. Now you add guys like Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave who hopefully don't require you to do as much of that stuff. So I like a lot of what they've done on defense here. Yeah, the Jonathan Allen deal reminds me a little bit of the money that Craig Jare caught yesterday.

Aging, interior player has been banged up a little bit. I still think Jonathan Allen probably has a little bit more in the tank than Grady Jared does. I think I would prefer Jonathan Allen if I were the Bears. So I like this and I think the price is fine for Minnesota. I was always wondering what they were going to do with this pool of money that they had. You know, is this something where they were going to use it to really intentionally rebuild the secondary or bring in new pieces and get some more high octane corners to do stuff they couldn't do last year? Were they going to try to spend some money to replace Cambina maybe at a somewhat cheaper price but, you know, let him walk in the way that they ended up doing? They ended up spending most of this on the interior of both lines, and they're kind of patching

it together with the secondary. Alec Lewis, who covers the Vikings for us, mentioned in the piece he wrote kind of predicting free agency that them resigning Theo Jackson was maybe a signal that Cam Adams would walk and that they'd be willing to maybe roll into the season with some combination of Harrison Smith, Theo Jackson, and Josh Mattelis back there. So it seems like that might be the direction that they're heading. And then at Corner, they haven't spent big money. You mentioned Isaiah Rogers, Mackay Blackman's going to be coming back from the 20s

L last year. They still have Byron Murphy. Maybe you add a draft pick in that area. The fact that they've spent so big on the interior of both lines and haven't necessarily gone as hard in the secondary, maybe a little bit surprising given their needs coming into the season, but I think a very clear signal of where the Vikings wanted to prioritize here with some money to throw around. And I love the interior signings that they made on offense because this to me, I think when

we had our, you know, Vikings wrap up, I think, after their playoff game, it was like, okay, what is next for them? And obviously a lot of that was darnel talk, but also a lot of it for me was, is Kevin O'Connell going to have his come to Jesus moment about the run game and about what they want to do with the offensive line? And to me, signing Ryan Kelly and Will Fries, who have proven when they're playing at their best and when they're healthy that they can really kick ass, and they can be guys who are pullers, and they can run all these down blocks and really move people. I think that to me speaks to what they want to do schematically. Like, I don't know if they're going to fully lean into stuff the way that McVeigh has

where he's like majoring in duo now. I don't know if they're going to do that. But the fact that they clearly wanted to upgrade there and be able to be a little bit more flexible is, it's very encouraging to me. I think when you're looking at the secondary versus the offensive line, my guess is their rationalization. And this may be a little bit unfair to Brian Flores, but it seems like this is what's happening where we think you can get by with less.

Yeah. We think you can get by with a little less. We think you can manufacture whatever you need to back there. We're going to spend in the area where our schematics and us trying to tweak things and us cycling through options hasn't necessarily worked. You made a top three defense with Stefan Gilmore and Shaq Griffin and all of these misfit toys that we've given you over the last few years. We assume that you can keep doing that.

We're going to make sure that we're putting investments into areas where your fun in games doesn't have quite as much of an impact on both sides of the ball. He's a product of his own success. It's like, oh, you can just do this every year, right? And maybe he can. He's a very good coach. But at some point, you would imagine, it starts to hurt a little bit, especially now with them not resigning bind him and stuff like that.

But I have enough faith in Brian Flores that even with a few misfits out there, it'll be fun. I think it makes a lot of sense this entire process and where they've landed. And you watch that playoff game, and it just felt like they needed so much more, from that offensive line and they've gotten it. Hopefully you get Darrasaw back at a reasonable time during the season. You still have Brian O'Neill and now you have two new interior starters. This is going to look and feel like a very different group. And hopefully they'll be able to run the ball at a better clip than they've been able to.

One notable thing the Vikings have not done to this point in free agency is that they have not brought in a quarterback of any consequence. And it really does seem like we have an inside track for J.J. McCarthy to walk into the season with a shot to just be the week one starter, which is not surprising to me. You know, this entire plan over the last year, and I tweeted this out the moment that I saw the Fries contract, this was always the plan. It was always the plan to look at their roster and say,

all right, we need help on the interior of the defensive line. We need help on the interior of the offensive line. And we need help at safety and corner. Those are going to be our needs in the spring of 2025. Free agency can bring you those guys. On the interior of the defensive line, you can't get stars, but you can get capable players. On the interior of the offensive line,

you can get starting caliber players. So this is the culmination of a multi-year plan. This is why you move off of Kirk and this is why you can't pay Sam Darnold if you want to see the plan through. So it was always building to this. We'll see how it goes. But the component parts of it and how they've gone about it totally tracked to me based on everything that they've been pointing to here over the last year or so since Quasio do

Fomensea kind of got to see this vision start to unfold. Yeah. And I still have some of my questions about how it's going to go. but the fact that they spent so much on the interior offensive line to make sure that, one, a young quarterback is going to be protected, but two, the one who is coming off of injury and hasn't played very much before. I think all of that is really good. And also at this stage in the proceedings, who would they even sign at quarterback? Like, it would just be Rogers, which is not happening. That's insane. And like, I just don't even know who else

is left for them. Like, James? Like, at this point, they just, there's nobody left. The little nuggets about Rogers concern me. Like, I understand that Kevin O'Connell wants a veteran in presence and I think he wants a little bit more certainty in that room, even if they're excited about JJ McCarthy, that that makes total sense to me. At the same time, I'm just not sure that's something I would invite into my building. The vibes are so good. They've been so good for the last two years. Everything about what you've done, there's so many good feelings about how they've overachieved and what that building feels like. And they've done such a great job of kind of changing the culture and just the overall feel there. I just am not sure. I'm not

that the cost benefit is in your favor doing something like the Rogers move. I just feel like I would roll with insert replaceable veteran quarterback X here is your backup and just give Jay J.J. McCarthy the reps from day one. At this stage, they should just do that. Like for as much as I lobbied for try to sign Sam Donald for 25, 30 million or whatever, at this stage, none of that matters. And there's nobody else left for them to sign. I really do want to see the Rogers thing, though, not because it would be good for them at all. It would be very bad. But him following in the exact same footsteps as Brett Farr of is just like cosmically funny to me. A team that Rogers might land with is the New York Giants. Those conversations are still ongoing.

I'm sure Aaron is doing some sort of deep-seated soul searching and some cold plunge and meditation and working his way through all of this stuff. The Giants are throwing some money around though. Paul Sinadipo yesterday. They signed Javon Holland today. Three years, 45 million, 30 million guaranteed. Purely on a football level, I support this. I think it makes sense if you look at the state of the roster. why did you let Xavier McKinney walk out of the building last year? Yes, it was the guy you were familiar with, like was already, was able to play at a really high level, was going to be around the same amount of money, is still a young player. Like, for them to, they obviously should have paid him, but now it's funny that they went a year without it and went, oh, God.

We realized how important it is to have a really good safety and immediately went, all right, top, whoever is the top guy in the market, we got to go sign him. And again, like, Holland does fit for them on a football level. But it's very funny that this is quite obviously and oh shit we messed up, we have to correct it signing. I look at this defense now. And I do think that if you just looked at the first wave, first layer of the depth chart, you could talk yourself into it. Right. You have Brian Burns.

You have Dexter Lawrence. You have Caban Tibodeau, which matters less to me than it might to other people, but whatever. You know, he's had some decent statistical seasons. And now you're secondary. You put Javon, Javon and Paulson-A-Dibo in there. Drew Phillips played well in the nickel for you as a rookie. Tyler Nubin, solid enough for you to feel like, okay, stepping into year two, can he take a step forward?

And then Deonté Banks is, you know, the Deonti Banks roller coaster and whatever that's been. The problem is I just still feel like the second layer of this leaves so much to be desired. We're still in the same spot where who's playing defensive tackle next to Dexter Lawrence, who's your third edge rusher now that you don't have Azizzo Jolari. So this is my concern with the Giants is. You look at the big names and you look at the big names and you look, look at what they're going to put on the posters. And it's like, all right, this defense might be pretty good.

I still worry the term we use all the time, the connective tissue of the defense. Like those, the depth and the pieces that tie it all together is that there beyond some of the questions I still have about Tibido, Deontay Banks, and some of those higher drafted players that have been fine in spurts, but I still think have left a little bit to be desired. Yeah, if you can guarantee me that this defense will be fully healthy, you could sell me on like, they'll brush up against top 10. but it's just if any domino falls at literally any position, they're going to have a huge problem.

Like if Cordell Flott has to step up and play corner, that's probably not going to be good for them. If either of these safeties go down and Dane Belton has to be out there again, that's probably not going to be good. And then again, they're losing their depth at pass rusher, which to me it's already a little bit of an overrated pass rushing unit to begin with because again, Kvon Tivido, I don't know if he's taking the steps that he's needed to.

And now you lose Azizzo Jolari, who was a good three, which isn't like a super exciting, super sexy. thing. But when you're losing him and have nobody clearly to replace him, it's a little bit of an issue. So, yeah, they're going to have a lot of questions to answer in the next coming months still. Well, how about this? Guess what? When you sign Aaron Rogers and you can pass on a quarterback at three, they're going to be plenty of defensive line options available for you're sitting there. Did they just do that? No, no, no, no. Oh, my God. I was like, who I'm saying, I bet way. I was like, man, that would be a hell of a...

Why is that so crazy to you? That's absolutely on the table. It's on the table, but there's just something about, I think, regardless of where Aaron Rogers signs, I'm going to be a little bit revolted, even for the places that it makes sense. Looking at this right now, I'll be curious to see what they end up doing it for.

Is that a situation where you draft one of the tackles, you can move Jermaine Illumonor back inside to guard, so then you're just sitting there with a rookie right tackle, the interior offensive line gets a little bit better. Andrew Thomas comes back healthy. You have Darius Slate and Neighbors and Wondale Robinson. I guarantee you that's the rationalization and that's what the process of them talking themselves into this.

That's probably what it sounds like in the Giants building right now. And I assume that's why they're still trying to make the Rogers thing happen. Which is exactly what the Jets were doing two years ago and last year. It's just it's the same rationale of like, oh, we'll get them in the building. We'll fix one or two things and it'll be fine. And guess what, man? it's probably not going to be fine. So I just, I was also, I was talking to Beller a little bit before we got on here.

The Giants would be really funny because set aside that this is a bad situation for Rogers or for any quarterback, frankly, him having to do it again in the same building and in the same stadium where he just had like the worst two years of his career is again, like there's almost no situation where Rogers could sign somewhere and it's not funny for one reason or another. Let's keep rolling through these. The Panthers continue throwing money around on defense. to Sean Wharton comes to Carolina three years, $54,000, $30 million guaranteed. Wharton was one of those guys that you were a little bit skeptical about heading into free agency.

You thought he might get a decent chunk of change, weren't sure if that was going to be well spent. Where do you sit with Wharton heading to Carolina? I think for this team specifically, I'm actually a little bit more okay with it. For one reason being, he fits what they needed at 3 Tech. He's a very explosive player. He's not that big. He's not small, but he's just not, you know, he's not a nose tackle or whatever. he's fairly explosive. They needed a little bit more of that. And this is, again, I think I said this on the live stream yesterday. The Panthers, if they throw any money at the front, I'm probably fine with it because they needed bodies so bad. Where I was worried with Wharton was it was going to be a team that thought they were close and thought that they were spending on a guy who could maybe be a secret pro bowler for them. And I don't think that Wharton is that player. But if he can give the Panthers an upgrade from what they had from 3 Tech, especially as a pass rusher, a little bit as a disruptor in the

run game. For them specifically, I think it actually does make a little bit more sense. There's been a lot of money to remake this defense over the last couple days. Trevin Merrick, obviously, they signed Bobby Brown and Free Agency on day one. Now to Sean Wharton. And they really did need to remake a lot of this. They still needed edge rusher at the end of this process somehow. That's something you can seek out in round one if you want to. But, I mean, it was so barren, talent-wise, on that side of the ball. Anything they did was going to make things feel a little bit better. So I'm not surprised that they've been pretty aggressive. And I think it makes sense the types of moves that they've tried to make.

And now, like, you have a full, the Bobby Brown signing looks even better now that you have somebody who you're actually throwing into the starting role ahead of him, which like all of this is starting to flow a little bit better. Trying to find some of the numbers here. So Wharton five. So the Wharton contract, this is a great question. Okay. Wharton gets the exact same deal in terms of percentage of the cap, years, and guarantees as

Javon Kinlaw. which of those contracts would you rather have? I would much rather have Wharton. And like, I didn't put Kinlaw in my landmines thing because I just didn't think anyone would sign him for nearly that much money. Like, I thought Kinlaw would be an $8, $9 million a year type of guy instead of where we're at closer to like 15 plus. So like I would much rather have Wharton where are you projecting a little bit because

he's mostly been a role player? He did step up a little bit more this year, sure. But yeah, I would rather have Wharton. This is a really good indication. Barnwell's done a good job of this and just reminding people about how much the rising cap is affecting our understanding of slots of salaries. We're $15 million a year for a rotational defensive linemen. It's like, holy shit, man, that's a lot of money.

But you look at it when you stack it up on any of the sites where you can look at some of the contracts and see the percentages of the cap. In 2023, David An Yamada signed a three-year $35 million deal. So it's 11.7 a year. that's 5.2% of the cap. The Wharton and Kinlaw deals are 5.4% of the cap at $15 million a year. So this is the going rate for rotational starting level pieces along your defensive line. That's kind of what we're talking about here,

and especially with a guy like Wharton, who second contract guy, a little bit younger, has some past rush juice. This isn't necessarily a surprise to see him check in at this sort of number when you look at what the market has felt like over the last few years. Malik Collins is another really good example. when he Collins got 11 and a half and 2023 from the Niners. That's kind of what this feels like. It's a very similar sort of deal and a very similar sort of player that you're seeking out.

That's actually a great analogous, especially in terms of the player where it's like, okay, he's not the biggest guy, but he's going to be very explosive. He's a little bit on the younger side. Maybe we can tap into another half level with him if he signs with our team. Let's keep rolling here. One of my favorite ones of yesterday. And this is, it almost feels cruel. that we wanted the Bengals to go out and sign DJ Jones and Dre Greenlaw and free agency

because they needed that sort of feel to their defense. And instead, a defense that was already good retained DJ Jones, signed Tolano Ophanga in free agency, and then added Dre Greenlaw last night. So for the Broncos to do what they did, given the players that they were bringing back and given what they needed on defense, it's hard not to feel good about this. I really, really am excited about what this group could look like if those guys can stay healthy, which I understand is a relatively big if. Yeah, it is a big if, but this is just the style of player I would want to bet on even with that stuff, you know, being in mind. Because this is what we've talked about before. It's a little bit of like a DNA changer.

A guy like Drake Greenlaw, the way that he plays, how just aggressive he is, how willing he is to hit. You need those type of guys. And for as good as the Denver defense was, they didn't have a lot of that at the second level or it's safety. And so you can almost copy and paste a lot of what I said about whofongo where it's like, this is just the guy who is a stick of dynamite who's going to run around the middle and he's going to cause problems. And now you add Dre Greenlaw, who is a bigger version of that even closer to the middle of the defense. So I just absolutely love this.

And it's kind of funny now that if you look at the Niners depth chart from three years ago when it was a really good defense, you now have you just like transplanted the spine outside of Fred Warner where it's all right, you have DJ Jones. You have Dre Greenlaw and now you have Talano Hufanga, which that was a great defense. So that is a cupboard I would like to be picking from. It's funny because you go back a couple years and I just wasn't sure what to really make of the Broncos. I wasn't. I just didn't know what to make of who they were, where they're trying to go, who they were trying to be.

And if you track the last three off seasons, they're very distinct fields to all three of them. Right. So you go back two years ago and that's when they were pretty aggressive in the market. They signed those offensive linemen in a way that, again, it didn't really feel like it aligned with their timeline, but they really invested in the trenches. They got McGlinchy, they got Ben Powers, they got Zach Allen, all guys on second contracts that you can build with moving forward. And in retrospect, I think it made a lot of sense to approach free agency that way in the moment. Last year, they're carrying the rust dead money.

They took it a year early and they had to take their medicine. So it's much more measured swings in free agency. The big thing they did was go get Brandon Jones for $6.7 million a year. You got your Josh Reynolds's, Adam Troutman, like that's the type of stuff they did in the market it last year when it was a little quieter. And then this year, I think the idea of, okay, we've built a lot of the foundation of this. Our offensive line is set.

We like what our defensive front is. Now, how can we bring in these ass-kicking DNA changers on the defense to really supercharge this thing and take it to the next level while potentially addressing running back in tight end the explosiveness they need on the offense in the draft? And it really does feel like that's what we're doing. And so if you look at this three-year arc of what Denver has done, done and making sure they got the quarterback last year to kind of make it all make sense financially. I really do like it.

I really can get behind it. It's been a narrative shifting couple of years for old George Peyton, who has bounced back pretty well from the Russell Wilson, Nathaniel Hackett, double whammy that one offseason. And I understand Sean Payton has a lot of say here. But the decision makers in Denver, I think, have done a very good job of guiding the vision for what they want this team to be. I think if you look at it in a retrospect, all of these years make sense, and I understand exactly how it's all supposed to fit together.

I was going to say, it seems like Sean Payton helps the GM look maybe a little bit better than they might be otherwise. He's a very good coach if people would remember. I really like where this team is headed, honestly. Like, I still have some questions about what is Bo Nix's ceiling really, but when I just think about what type of team. Fair question. Right, of course.

But like, when I just think about what kind of team this can be, it's like, okay, on offense, I still think that there's another level that they can unlock as a rushing offense, especially if they get a better, more explosive back. They're already a team that can kind of grind you down with that and some of the RPO stuff that they were doing. And now if the defense can find another level and really exhaust teams on the other side of the ball with how violent they play, this just feels like a team that can very consistently choke you out of games. So if they can find just a little bit more pop on offense, whether it's in the draft, whether they go and trade for Mark Andrews, like we said. At this point, they probably don't have the

money for it, but like if they do something to get more pop on offense, I really like where this is going. Oh, I think it's coming. I think come hell or high water, Sean Payton will come away with his tight end by the end of this off season. If they have to pay a premium to do it in the draft, it's probably on its way. Well, and Joanne Johnson's off the table. Because remember, I said that it was a fork in the road. You're going to go get your guy in Joanne Johnson or are you going to have to go to the extreme. And Johnson's off the port, man. Go get somebody big. When we'll really be able to understand that the Broncos are a Sean Payton team is when they start making really aggressive trades up here over the next couple of years because they feel like they're moderately close. So how aggressive they are in

finding the tight end in the first round of this year's draft, that's how we're going to know, like how much decision making power resides in the coaching office in the front office. Yeah, when they trade to 11 for Tyler Warren, we'll be locked in. You joke. I wouldn't be the least bit surprising to me. You mentioned Joanne Johnson. Let's talk about the Saints moves from the last day or so. Your boy Chase Young is back. three years 51 million dollars joan johnson back three years 30 million dollars what i like about both of these is if you i don't understand all the machinations of the saint salary cap i've just given up and trying to understand all of them like i would have to go to business school and show out

you know hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a secondary education in order to totally track this but i think that it's been reported with both guys that with their contracts voiding they would have cost more money against the cap if they had let them go than if they had kept them on these sorts of extensions. So on both fronts, keeping good players and saving money against the cap by paying people, the Saints have done okay here with Chase Young and Joanne Johnson. I don't know a lot about the cap, but there should be no scenario where that is even possible. We're keeping a guy somehow cheaper than cutting it. Like, that is completely ridiculous to me. But I do like it in a vacuum. Like, Juan Johnson is a useful player. He's more of

of kind of just a red zone third down specialist than anything, but he is a useful player to have. And then Chase Young, again, I've said how much I value what he is as a run defender. He's a pocket crusher. He's like 85% of what you get out of Jadavion Clowny, which isn't sexy, but I think it's a nice player to have, especially when he's still young and hopefully has still a little bit of room to grow here. I'm looking at it right now. And so what the Saints did, I mean, the lever we weren't sure whether they were going to pull it was restructuring Derek Car's And that's what they ended up doing. So now Carr has a $69 million cap hit next year.

If they cut him next year, though, I mean, they can still save $59 million if they cut him next year. So that number looks crazy now, but they would save money if they did that. And even with just that move, they would have about $47 million in cap spaces as it currently stands. That's without the Chase Young deals and the Joanne Johnson deals on the books yet. But then if you look at it next year, there are some guys they'll be able to move off of, I mean, this thing is such a mess.

Here are the guys who have voided contracts next season for the New Orleans Saints. Cam Jordan, Tassum Hill, Ryan Ramcheck, Tyron Matthew. That's probably going to change now that he signed an extension. Nathan Shepard, Demario Davis, Foster Moreau, Rashid, Shihit, J.T. Gray, Cedric Wilson, Jr., Kaelin Saunders. There's like three more guys. It's just. It's ridiculous.

Trying to come, I mean, listen, trying to comb through all this, like, well, I'm sure will at some point have somebody on to actually. talk about the details of this because there are people who have a way better understanding of it than I do. The move that they made that was saved them a bunch of money was the car restructure. I wasn't sure if they were going to do that because I wasn't sure how much they wanted to borrow from future years. But it seems like that was the route that they wanted to go down. So he was seeing them keep Chase young, not necessarily surprising considering how young he is. And again, the fact that they could save money against the cap with both of these guys. I don't think this should shock us.

And with Cam Jordan getting a little bit older, it probably makes sense to keep whatever defensive end you have on the other side yeah absolutely i mean just young players in general this team just doesn't have a lot of young building blocks and so the fact that chase young still is a guy who is potentially ascending and can get a little bit better i do think that that makes sense of somebody that you'd want to try to retain let's keep rolling through these here daniel jones one year 14 million 13 million dollars guaranteed from the indianapolis colts to enter into pretty sad quarterback battle between he and anthony richardson the fact that this is what the quarterback battle is going to look like i'm not loving it but it is what it is and to me with the

14 million says is this is going to be a real competition like 14 million dollars is a lot to pay to a guy that you think is automatically going to lose that battle i still think at the end of the day they want anthony richardson to be the starting quarterback in indianapolis because if he's not how do you justify your presence in the building like if anthony richardson doesn't work out i think we run out of reasons why this regime and indy should be the people overseeing this whole thing so i still think it's in everyone's best interest for anthony richson to win that job but giving daniel jones 13 million that that's the darnold money right like that's just a markup on the darnald contract from last year and darnald walked into that situation as the starter like they wanted sam darnell to be

the starter last year even after drafting J.J. McCarthy. So the Sam Donald contract in 2025, if you're giving that to somebody, that's not backup money. Like Jimmy G. got one year four million when you actually dig under the, dig behind the hood or look under the hood of that contract. $14 million is not backup quarterback money. That is you're going to have a real shot at this thing. And if he ends up winning the job, it's a really hard conversation about the people that are in charge in Indianapolis. To me, it's not even just the money. It's all of the reporting that people have said. Like all of the wording and phrasing about the signing very much seems like this is a legitimate

competition and people expect Daniel Jones to have an actual shot to win the starting job, which I understand the idea of wanting to light a little bit of a fire under Anthony Richardson because the last two years have not gone according to plan. Part of that is warranted. Part of that is also just injuries. And maybe he just always has injury issues, but like I don't think the injury issues play in part of like him not taking the job seriously. but I don't know.

This just speaks to me like, I, it's tough, man. It ultimately, whether or not they signed a guy like Daniel Jones or dug it a little bit down the ladder and had a cheaper competition, whatever, ultimately if Anthony Richardson isn't good next year, none of it matters. Because like if Daniel Jones has the same darnal year, then what? It doesn't matter.

Like, it doesn't do anything for them. So, like, they kind of need Anthony Richardson to be good. How well Daniel Jones would have to play to justify the path that you're on right now. I just don't know if that's there. Like we've seen Daniel Jones. We haven't really seen Sam Darnold in several years, right? Like Daniel Jones got 40 million to be the Giants quarterback.

Sam Donald was kind of toiling away on these weird teams over the last few years before he got the chance in Minnesota. Those were objectively bad situations. I'm not sure that Brian Dable was an objectively bad situation for Daniel Jones. I think he's been given enough opportunities to succeed for us to kind of know what he is at this point, at least more than we did about Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold got two four-game stretches with the Panthers. And in those four-game stretches, he actually looks pretty good for some moments of that.

So I still feel like the chance that Daniel Jones has the Sam Darnold year is pretty remote and more remote than it was for Sam Darnold to have the Sam Darnold year. And also like Sam Darnold is just a way more talented thrower. So like there was always that you could sell yourself the Siren song. It's also a great point. If we just get him the right system, if we just protect him, get him the right receivers, he'll make it happen. Daniel Jones isn't like the least talented quarterback in the league or anything, but he is like two tiers as a thrower below whatever Sam Darnold is. So even the ceiling of that is probably not what you got last year.

It's a great point. Sam Darnold's issue is that he had to be reined in a little bit, right? Like the talent was always there. He just didn't know how to harness it. Daniel Jones is not nearly as explosive or aggressive of a player as Sam Darnold was. So the fact, this isn't about channeling untapped potential like it was with Sam Darnold. We've seen, I think, the pool of potential with Daniel Jones. And I think at the end of the day, it is underwhelming.

I'm not sure the same path is there. And for the Colts sake, I hope it's not there because they need Anthony Richardson to win this job and play well, I think, for everyone there to keep their jobs. If you guys are watching on YouTube, we're going to keep rolling here. If you're listening to the podcast version, though, we're going to take a chance now to take a quick break. The Chiefs, two years, $20 million for Christian Fulton. Two years, $20 million, $15 million guaranteed. Chiefs needed help at Outside Corner. After last year, we knew that.

Christian Fulton is somebody that low-cost signing for the Chargers last year, after being hurt a lot during his time in Tennessee. What do you think about Christian Fulton for $15 million guaranteed to the Chiefs? I feel fairly similarly to this about the way I did with Isaiah Rogers in Minnesota, where it's like, okay, this is a good stepping stone, right? And this will solve a little bit of a problem. They, like you said, badly needed help on the outside last year. I think Fulton, when he was actually healthy last year with the charges played relatively well, his ball skills are really good. He's a pretty smart corner. It's just a matter of sometimes doesn't turn the hips as well as you'd like. But that's

kind of the type of corner the chiefs have always lived with anyway, so I don't think that that's a huge deal. But I like it as a stepping stone. And also, I would still like to add to see them do a little bit of something on the outside, whether it's one of their first two draft picks is another outside corner, whatever it is. Because to me, ultimately, even though McDuffie was good on the outside last year and it was a great solution to a problem they had, we know the best version of him and the best version of this defense is if McDuffie is in the slot. So whatever they can do to add more resources to make sure that is possible, that's the world I want to get to. Whether or not we will, we'll see. We have a couple months here for them to figure that out, but that's where I hope this is headed.

It's also, it's a conversation worth having about the Chiefs is that part of their success, and one of the driving factors behind their success was their ability to keep refreshing the defensive backroom through the draft consistently year after year after year. They've done it at safety, right? They've done a better job of doing that at safety. But at corner, they haven't necessarily been able to keep doing it at the same clip. And I think that we've started to see some of the impact of that. Yeah.

And so that's why I kind of think, especially too, like they went and already signed their left tackle. So that doesn't necessarily preclude them from taking one in this draft. again, but I think it does open them up a little bit more to maybe spend the end of their first arm pick on a corner if there's one left that they like. So that's the direction I hope that they had. See what happens with Justin Reed. He's still sitting out there, which, you know, obviously a lot of the safeties have come off the board and a lot of the safeties have been well compensated. So he's somebody that's still lingering and we'll be keeping an eye on where he ultimately lands here in the next couple days.

Christian Fulton leaves the chargers. Naji Harris lands with the chargers. One, year $5 million guaranteed up to $9 million. Unmoved. That's kind of how I felt the moment that it was signed. You like Najee, I think more than a lot of people do. What do you think about Najee in the Charger's offense with Greg Roman with that offensive line? So I think this signing doesn't actually mean anything.

This is like not very much money at all. Like less than 10. It's less than Tutu Atwell is making by a lot of money. Like this to me signals. It's half of what Tutu Atwell is making. guarantees. Like this to me signals, okay, we needed another body. Greg Roman likes his bigger guys who can, you know, take a little bit of beating. Whatever we want to say about Najee Harris, that is at least something that he can do. He can eat a lot of carries for them. I don't think this stops them

from taking like if Ashton Gentie falls or if they really like Omerian Hampton or whatever. Like, I don't think this stops them from taking a really, really good back in the draft. This is just, we want to make sure we have somebody in the room in case our guy isn't there in the draft. So if it ends up being Harris for a year, whatever. Like they have other fish to fry rather than just they're running back. We know a Greg Roman system can be okay if you just have a guy who eats carries for four yards of pop. Yeah.

The problem, one of the problems with the guys that they had last year is those guys were consistently hurt. And JK Dobbins has been hurt his whole career. He had some nice moments when healthy last year, but he got hurt in the back half of the season. Gus Edwards has been out of the lineup. Naji Harris has played 17 games in each of his four seasons in the NFL. It's actually pretty wild. He's played at least 17 games.

He's played 17 games. He's had at least 255 carries in every single season that he's been a pro. You just don't really see that very often in running back. You're going to miss a game at some point along the way. And he hasn't missed a single one so far. He's an Ironman. Like, he's not a great player, but there is some value in knowing that every week when we get to Sunday, I know who's going to get 20 carries for us.

Like there is some value in that, especially for a team that is, I think, does want to run the ball a lot. This is probably my favorite move of the day just because it's so weird. The Texans Eagles trade from this morning is just it's so perfect. Like it is the most Howie Roseman nonsense of all time. The Texans sending Kenyon Green and a 2026 fifth round pick to the Eagles for CJ Gardner Johnson and a 2026 sixth round pick. From the Texans perspective, I think this makes perfect sense. Like they needed somebody else at safety. You know, Jimmy Ward is older now. He's been somebody that's been banged up a lot. I'm sure they could potentially save some money if they move on from Jimmy Ward. I'll look that up right now.

But now you drop CJ Gardner Johnson, whose skill set I think fits perfectly with what they want those savings to be. And mindset. And that's the other thing. Just from a playstyle perspective, now in the same defensive backfield, you have CJ Gardner Johnson. Oh, my gosh. Jaylen Petit. No, no, no. Who's the rookie from last year? Oh, Lasseter or Bullock? The Bullock. The other safety. Yeah, the other rookie.

So, yeah, all of them. So, like, you have Jalen Petrie, C.J. Gardner Johnson, Kaelin Bullock, Kamari Lasseter, Derek Stingley. Those are your five starters in the secondary now, if you're removing Jimmy War from the equation. Everything about that screams Houston Texans in the way that they want to play defense. So that's not surprising at all. From the Eagle side of things, it does seem a little bit surprising that they're moving on from somebody who was a solid starter. for them after kind of wandering around in the safety wilderness for a little bit over the last

couple years. But the idea that as part of this deal, how he needed to get back a former top 15 pick and see what they can do with him in the Jeff Stoutland School of Career Rehabilitation is just way too perfect. Stoughtland is just like collecting achievements at this point. Here's the thing. If Kenyon Green landed on or was traded to any other team, would there be even an ounce of optimism. No. It's specifically because he lands with Jeff Stoutland that like, we know he's not

been a good player. He wasn't a good player last year. But top 15 player who can every now and then when he looks good like that week two Colts game or whatever last year where he can move people a little bit, you can sell yourself that maybe Stoutland will get 20% more of that than anybody ever got. And honestly, the thing with the Eagles like the other four players on their offensive line are so good that even if Green isn't that much better than he was in Houston, it's probably fine because everybody else is so good. I also don't even know if this precludes them from taking another player in the draft or wherever it is.

But this is, yeah, this is peak Eagles for better or for worse. 1.4 million against the cap this year for Kenyon Green. And I assume he will get a shot to start in that Mackay-Bectin spot. And they'll see what they can do with him. Rough for Kenyon Green last year, like almost an unplayable. He was unplayable by the end of last season. I mean, he was replaced on what has, what had been the worst offensive line in the NFL. past protection-wise for a good majority of the year.

He was one of the worst guards in the league except for when he played the Colts. Like for whatever reason, both Colts games, he was fine. And in the first one, he actually looked incredible. Every other game was not his best. If the Eagles saved $4.7 million by moving on from CJ Gardner Johnson, I think it's like $8 million in cash. This is a team that historically has not really paid for safeties. Like, they haven't done much of it.

And so my assumption is that they were looking at the $8 million in cash, and they were looking at the options that were maybe a little bit cheaper on the back end and thought, we can make this work. Like, we think this is a worthy tradeoff. I think that there's some risk in that. And we've seen the downside when they haven't been able to find players at that position. But again, in a lot of different ways, this feels like a Howie Roseman move in the buying low of a guy like Kenyon Green and seeing what you can get out of him after having to move on from Beckton. It does.

There is still a little bit, though. If they walk into next year with Reed Blankenship and just a guy. at the other safety spot for as good as the other players on the defense are, that is going to immediately be one of the worst safety rooms in the league, which is a little bit scary. People have responded to this trade and been like, oh, man, they're trading away all of CJ Stroud's offensive linemen. I'm telling you, Kenyon Green was so bad last year. They were all bad.

They had to mention. This is what I'm not necessarily concerned about. The tonsil thing is a different story. And we've gotten some context on the Laramie Tunsel trade in the last 24 hours or so. again, he was going to want to get paid at the top of the market again. It seemed like the Texans were a little bit hesitant about that with him getting a little bit older. And it's funny, the idea of like the culture elements surrounding this, Albert Breer wrote about it this morning.

And he said that Tunsel was somebody that was well liked in the building, but wasn't necessarily a tone setter, you know, not somebody that was really called out as a player that, you know, was a leader in a lot of ways. And that line, that offensive line room might have lacked a little bit of leadership. I guess I understand that. That feels like I have like a hang nail and so I'm going to cut my foot off. Like I just I think it's not it's not a proportional response. I think I would have bet on a change in the culture of the offensive room in general

and kept the really good left tackle more than shipping out the really good left tackle because of some hard to define culture issues. Like it feels like a one step too far in trying to solve this. if you're Houston. I would have wanted to try it at least for one more year under like a different offensive system, different offensive line coach. Like if it like if if they had changed it this year and gone through 2025 with Tunsell and still had some of the same concerns and maybe Tunsell was not, you know,

they thought maybe he was tapering off in his career. Fine. Like then I would kind of understand the trade for them to do it now where Tunsell is still young enough that he could absolutely turn it around and still be a very good left tackle and like stop all the false starting that he was doing, which seemed like a one. your thing like I I understand the trade a little bit but it does seem it was a little bit extreme given that they now have like no offensive lineman it was extreme it was extremely extreme and now you're in a spot where you know I think that their selling point is if you look at the

price tag when we got back for him it's a first round pick like as you do all the math with the picks ultimately the value is a first round pick all right well if you use that first round pick on an offensive tackle what are the chances that he's going to be as good as laramie tuntzel even when you consider the contract as part of this, like offensive line development plans, it's a mixed bag, man, a very mixed bag. And so I think that there's a lot of downside here to moving on from a player as good at Jeremy Tunsell,

even if you have, again, some concerns about paying him again and some concerns about what sort of presence he is in the room. Yeah, that's exactly where I'm at. Like, it's just, especially with all the other change they're going to have to go through. Like, if they weren't shuffling around other spots and this was Tunsell was the only guy they had to replace,

I could probably live with it a little bit more. But now that they're going to have so much other change, it would have been nice to have a little bit of stability at the most important spot on the line. We talked about this yesterday. Not sure where Titus Howard is going to end up playing, which of those two spots are settled based on who currently sits on the roster.

But they have a good amount of work to do and they have a lot more to do because of the move with Laramie Tunsell. A little bit of breaking news real time. Leonard Floyd released by the San Francisco 49ers, signed by the Atlanta Falcons, one year, $10 million. It's so fitting that Ryan Pace is a member of the Atlanta Falcons front office to decide to take another run at Leonard Floyd here.

I love the personnel guy who moves around to a different team and signs the guy that he was on his previous team with and was like, no, we weren't wrong about that player. Trust me. Just situationally, it wasn't. You know, we can get more out of him. But I don't know. I can't fault the Falcons for taking literally any swing at a pass rusher.

so good on them, I suppose. We talk about it every single time the Falcons do something like this, but the fact that they haven't had a competent pass pressure since John Abraham is just the best. It's amazing that one team could have such a huge glaring hole

at one single position for like a decade and a half. Speaking of Leonard Floyd, I want to talk about the offseason in the last 48 hours or so for the San Francisco 49ers because they've lost a lot of guys. And for the most part,

I'm in a spot where, this isn't overly concerning to me. You know, I think the people are going to look at the names and they're going to be like, oh my God, you know, I can't believe they'll letting all these guys walk out of the building. But Drey Greenlaw didn't really play last year.

Their various war didn't really play last year. Jalen Moore was a backup for you. Hufonga didn't play last year. Javon Hargrave didn't really play last year. And the moves that I think are very telling are moving on from Debo and Kyle Eusecheck. Like those feel like a little bit of the change

of the guard but those almost feel like more are changing of the guard in terms of schematics and in terms of what the identity of the offense is going to be rather than we're consciously taking a significant step back in our ambitions for 2025 because we're moving on from these players that's not really what these moves say to me i think for the most part these are all guys who weren't really contributors last year and had become really expensive so i'm not freaking out i don't think in the same way that other people are as we've watched all of this talent walk out of the building for the Nyers. Yeah, some of these I am. Some of these I'm not. Drey Greenlaw, I really would have liked for them to have retained just because I don't think they figured out the other linebacker spot

next to Fred Warren last year. But again, they are most familiar with his injury history. So it's entirely possible. They just weren't comfortable with that. But kind of like you said, a lot of the other ones that they're missing kind of makes sense to me. Like Jaylen Moore, okay, not resigning him. Whatever Aaron Banks, again, their offensive line was not that good last year. I totally understand them wanting to move on from that. And even Toledo Hufongo, I think he's a really good player. But again, one he didn't play last year. Also, his replacement, Malik Mustafa was just good.

Like, there was no reason to re-sign Hufango when you got a guy who was maybe not quite as good at his peak, but like played in the same way and I think played really well as a rookie. Like you said with the offensive stuff, I know Dibo Samuel's a name and we all know Kyle Euse Check because he's one of like three fullbacks anybody cares about. But this to me does speak to the idea that they want the offense to be. different with Purdy moving forward than it ever was during the Jimmy years. Because these guys like Debo and Kyle Eusecheck, they are leftovers from what the offense was when they had Jimmy Gropolo, when they were under center, they were running the ball more, all that stuff. These guys are holdovers.

And so when they are moving into a world that is a little bit more dropback, a little bit more gun, a little bit more spread out, guys like Debo Samuel and Kyle Eusecheck, especially with Debo, just all the hits that he's taken, obviously, it kind of makes a little bit more sense for them to move into a different direction. even saw this last year them signaling this when they drafted Ricky Pearsall. He's just a very different receiver than Debo Samuel was going to be. Think about that trio. Think about Ricky Pearsall, Brandon Ayuk, and Joanne Jennings compared to the two receiver

sets with Debo and Iuke and Debo whoever over the last few years. It's a very different feel. And so I think we were always kind of moving this direction. And losing Debo and Use Check feels very jarring. Like when you see it in the moment or you see it on a graphic. But I think if you were looking at the breadcrumbs, we were kind of headed in this direction over the last year or so anyway. It's just a little shocking when you see it in real time. You know what I do kind of find a fast, find a little bit fascinating now.

The Niners are making their shift with, you know, getting Diablo out of the building, Cal U's check out of the building, so they're making a change, obviously. Sean McVeigh and the Rams, letting Cooper Cup go and bring in Devante Adams. They want to be something else. Kevin O'Connell beefing up his offensive line and becoming, you know, something a little bit different. And it's kind of fascinating to me that all of those guys who are kind of in that same bucket and are probably communicating a lot during the off season have all made the change of like, all right, we got to be something different than we have in the past two years.

I think that's right. Because I think that for the most part, the Niners, it's not that they've been solved. But I think that teams have really closed the gap. Like if you look at where they were last year and just how unequipped they felt at times early in the season to deal with all that man coverage that they were seeing, it was really the first time in a really long time. starting in that Super Bowl and then into last year, even before everyone got hurt, where I was just like, oh, they're not a step ahead anymore. Like, they just don't feel like they have the upper hand anymore. And so watching them try to sort through this is kind of fascinating. And I think that's what

this says to me more than anything else. Yes, absolutely. And so I am fascinated about like, how this is all going to go when they start to pay party and all that stuff. But in terms of directionally, I think it makes a lot of sense for Kyle Shanahan and the Niners to just be something different than they were four years ago when it was Jimmy G and you were a more under center rushing offense. That's probably what I would, that's probably my takeaway from this, is that what this signals to me is, we're taking a turn in who we want to be. We're not necessarily taking a turn in how good we're going to be or the amount of talent that

we have on the roster. I think there's a chance by the end of this, even with losing some big name guys, Let's say you go out and get Joey Bosa, right, as your Leonard Floyd replacement. You find the defensive lineman in the first round of the draft. Ricky Pearsall takes a step forward. Chris McCaffrey comes back healthy. I think there's absolutely a world where the Niners are a really good team again and better than they were last year. But I think what's going to feel different is the structure and the approach on offense compared to what it's been each of the last few years.

Exactly. And I think some people will point to last year compared to actually 2020. they did get back to a little bit more of the under-center play action stuff. But to me, that was just, yeah, Christian McCaffrey wasn't healthy. So they went away from the stuff that Christian McCaffrey allowed them to do. Yeah, I think that's right. And you could feel it start last year. I mean, we talked about this a lot of the early part of the season.

Like, the offense in the passing game was significantly different earlier in the season and what they were trying to do. Brock turned into like Dak Prescott in the way that he was playing. And it's because teams were pushing them that direction. And I just am not sure they were ready to respond. I think that's true from a passing game structure perspective. And I think the past protection is something that's worth talking about. I want to have a more considered discussion about this at some point in the offseason.

It's one of the ideas I have earmarked. If you look at what happened to the Texans and if you look at what has happened to the Niners over the last couple of years, the unblocked pressures, the way that teams have kind of been able to manipulate their past protection rules, I feel like there's something there. I feel like there's a little bit of signal there about how teams have started to attack coaches from that tree in pass protection specifically. And so I think that's just one of the other areas where it's like, all right, like you guys got some work to do because as this system has become more and more prevalent

around the league, I think that defenses have started to get a better beat on how they want to go after it. Right. For as good as something is, if everybody sees it for a decade, at some point, someone's going to figure out the Rubik scoop. We're going to take one more quick break here on the podcast version. If you guys are watching right now, we're just going to keep on rolling. We've got mostly small signings here to keep hitting.

The Falcons brought back Mike Hughes on a $6 million a year deal, 9 million guaranteed. It's a depth cornerback move. The one I like, though, Kavante Turpin, back with the Cowboys. Three years, 18 million. The most explosive player on the Cowboys' offense still, Kavante Turpin. Saying your guy is probably a little bit strong,

but it is funny that you pitched the, idea of like we need more Cavante Turpin and they haven't done anything like you just joke. They haven't done anything to make the offense more explosive outside of just keeping him. Obviously they still have C-D-Bat-Mav-A-Williams now. Who will give you one explosive play and then also run into a guard the next play? Yeah, yeah. The Cavante Turbent thing is just funny. I mean, and the idea that, you know, again, I wanted more Cavante-Turpin last year, the Cowboys have listened and we're going to get more Cavante-Turpin.

I know this is a special team signing. I'm just fucking around. Well, but that's the thing. though if for six million dollars a year to have one of the better special teamers in the league and like a explosive wide receiver four depth piece I mean it's like pretty good allocation of money I think it's actually fun I also like that the messaging clearly being sent by the agents and all of this and every single person that tweeted about the contract said this it's the most a special teamer has

ever been paid in NFL history so if you were curious you can see a thousand tweets about how it's the most a special teamers ever been paying NFL history same kind of move just like funny and great Mac Holland's going to the Patriots two years, $8.4 million. Really love that one. Sure, man. I mean, if they wanted to do the tone setting thing and set the culture, Mac Collins, if nothing else, will change your culture a little bit.

So it helps in that respect. I want to talk very briefly about the guy who isn't really replacing Matt Collins, but this is the transition that I'm using. I went back and watched all of Josh Palmer's targets this morning because I just wanted to rethink about the discussion we had about him yesterday and the fact that we were a little bit surprised by them going out and getting Josh Palmer. I actually do think it makes sense when you look at Josh Palmer's skill set compared to the players that were already on the bill's offense.

He's a very different sort of player than Keon Coleman, even if he's not a burner. He is a much better separator. If you watch him at the top of routes, it's actually really impressive. Like he's a nuanced player in a way that Kean Coleman is not. And he's obviously a much bigger body and does have a little bit of vertical push and can play outside in a way that Cleo Shakir can't. So I do think he fills a void within the offense. And I actually think in some ways he gives them what they wanted to get out of Amari Cooper

when they traded for him last year. But it's just that there still isn't a lot of when you're looking at the collective group. Like there just isn't any speed even with Josh Palmer in the mix. So I do think his skill set specifically gives the bill something they didn't have. And it's a worthwhile bet that actually kind of reminds me of the, John Brown Cole Beasley type signings that the bills used to make it receiver, but I still think that this team needs a little bit of vertical speed and don't really have it even with Josh Palmer.

That's still my problem. I think Palmer's a useful player in the same way that like, not necessarily one for one in the same way, but like in the way that Joanne Jennings can be for the Niners. Like that type of deal, it's just, again, they don't have enough explosive stuff down the field and that is my concern. Like, this is the best body shots offense in the league. like they can hit you in the ribs as hard as anybody. I don't know how much they're ever going to be able to go for your jaw and go for the

knockout punch. Like obviously Josh Allen can summon some of those by himself. But in terms of the other players on the roster, especially a pass catcher, still don't know if they have it. I will say the Chargers left some big shots to Josh Palmer on the field this year. There were a couple double moves he hit down the field that Justin Herbert either was pressured in the pocket or overthrew. Like he's not a burner, but because he's got.

got some route running nuance to him on some of those vertical routes. Like both of them were like burner posts where he does a great job of selling it to the pile on and then taking it back inside. And he's wide open. So I think the way that he can do some of this stuff full speed actually gives him more, makes him a little bit more dangerous as a vertical player than his testing numbers might lead you to believe. But I still think somewhere along the way, I would like to find a guy who can just stride it out

and drop him into the overall equation of what this bill's offense is. The last thing I'll ask, what is the percent chance that you think he can be explosive enough that it ticks the box for them? Oh, I think he can be. I think he can be. I do. I think that there, we've seen offenses be explosive throwing the ball without a pure speed element. I think it's harder to do. The best example to me is what the Rams were in like 2021 and 2022, right?

There were no burners on those teams, but they could still really sling it around. And I think that there's a chance you can find it. And I do think he has enough to give you that. And I think his ability to separate as an outside player is so much better than anybody else that they have that it does make sense. But I still feel like somewhere here along the way, I want to see them add slightly more juice. So I like it more than I did yesterday. And it makes more sense now that I've thought about it since yesterday. But I still feel like there's one little ingredient missing from the formula here overall.

That's fair. Last one that I wanted to hit today, one of my favorite pairings when we were talking about defensive players in free agency this year. The Jets do sign Andre Sisko. One year, $10 million. This was one of my favorite ones. I mean, there's somewhere we talked about this. You look at the pool of players and you look at the needs and which teams have some money and which teams have changed coaches and how that's going to shift what sort of players they're seeking out. and for whatever reason, I just,

Andre Sisko to Aaron Glenn, based on what he got out of Kirby Joseph over the last few years, it just made sense to me. Like, that one just kind of spoke to me. And that's what happened. They signed him to a one year, $10 million deal.

They had two glaring holes at safety. So needless to say, I like this one. Like, I think this one does make a lot of sense for what Aaron Glenn is looking for in his safeties. It really does. I think of all the pairings that you had

when we were doing our show, this was my favorite one that you sold me on. Like, they're going to walk into the offseason. They're not even going to give him a playbook. They're just going to say, find the, like, it's just going to be a, it's just going to be mostly blank pages. And in the middle, it just says find the ball. Like, that's going to be his job.

It's just they're going to play a ton of man coverage. They're going to throw five bodies at quarterbacks. And they're going to say, hey, man, when the quarterback tries to do something, go find the ball. And Cisco, a couple years ago when he was a little bit healthier, did show that he could be really, really good at that. And we have proof of what a player like that in Glenn's defense can do. So I'm pretty excited.

And even if you want to go back a little bit. further. Like Marcus Williams was kind of this for them in New Orleans. Obviously Glenn was the DB's coach instead of the defensive coordinator, but like, we've seen this style of free ranging safety who gambles a little bit be really, really high value for teams like this. Yeah, I agree. So I like this one.

But from where the Jets are and just for what type of player he is, I like this one. A couple other really small ones. I don't think we really have to dig into those. I am also going to save consternation conversations and teams not signing players for later in the week for right it's over yes for when it's over like we're still early enough in the process listen if you're a cowboys fan nothing's probably going to happen it's probably time to just admit that you're going to walk away from this process feeling a little bit defeated if you're a bengals fan and you're looking for the help along the offensive line etc there are still enough

players on the board here where it's not there's no use in having this conversation just because you haven't gotten in in the first wave doesn't mean you're not going to get in somewhere along the way here, right? Justin Reed is still a free agent. Adairius Smith is available now. DeMarcus Lawrence, Tevin Jenkins, Joey Bosa, Roussel Douglas. Levi-Ons-Rieke is somebody. I'm curious what his landing spot looks like. You mentioned Asante Samuel when we did the show last week. There are plenty of guys here that are still worthwhile players that can be functional starters for you if you still have holes at these spots. So as we get deeper into the week, I'll probably hang out. We'll probably re-address some of the stuff

when there actually is some stuff to be panicked about. At this point, I just don't think there is. Yeah, except for the Cowboys, like you said, nothing is probably happening there. But the Bengals are kind of fortunate that a lot of good defensive, I wouldn't say good, but like low-level starter, two-spot starter guys are still on the board, which is exactly the bin they were going to be shopping in.

So they're probably just waiting for these guys' markets to crash a little bit, which is probably smart on their part, to be honest. Considering what the receivers are going to have to make here over the single offseason, and I think they're going to have to skimp a little bit. All right. That is all we've got for today. Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. If you're listening to the podcast version and if you are hanging out with us,

we will be back doing this again tomorrow 4 p.m. Eastern. Hopefully we got some quarterback news tomorrow. Hopefully we know where the Steelers are going. We know where the giants are going. Those are really the big dominoes yet to fall. And again, still some guys that I believe are probably going to get multi-year deals, what Justin Reed gets, what Kevin Jenkins gets. you know there's still some contracts that we're keeping an eye on so we will be back tomorrow

hopefully hitting a good chunk of that stuff for now that's all we got sincerely appreciate you listening we'll talk to you soon