The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Free Agency Recap, Day 3: Baker Mayfield speaks out, Chandler Jones to Raiders, Ravens sign Za'Darius Smith, Titans to release Julio Jones & more

Episode Date: March 16, 2022

Free agency continues as the NFL’s new league year is officially underway. Robert Mays and Sheil Kapadia discuss Baker Mayfield’s message to the city of Cleveland as his future with the Browns remains uncertain. They also talk about the Raiders deal for Chandler Jones and their trade for Rock Ya-Sin, sending Yannick Ngakoue to the Colts. Plus, Za'Darius Smith signs with the Ravens and the Titans are set to release Julio Jones. They recap all of that, their favorite moves and much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Today is Wednesday, March 16th. Joining me today is my good friend, Shokapati. How you doing, buddy? I'm ready to go. I've got you.

I've got an iPad here where I'm trying to look at the news. I know Marissa's going to send us updates. I have a feeling something's going to happen during the show, something good, something big. So I'm ready to have our wildest. reactions go viral. So for those of you not watching live as we do this on video, I am at an Airbnb in Louisville, Kentucky celebrating my brother's bachelor party for the rest of the week. And I was in the car prepping for this, and I was slacking Sheel.

I was like, oh man, nothing's really happened yet. And then he's like, it was essentially like an L.O.O. You jinxed it. And then the Chandler Jones signing happened. And then the news started to cascade. It's inevitable. It's always going to come in at random times. there's no way to account for this. I don't know how your brain is doing over the last three days. You have graded every single free agency signing for the athletic over the last 72 hours.

How are you feeling? Are you just mostly putting up top right now? I've realized I'm kind of like the NBA where it's like layups and three-pointers. I feel like that is where I thrive with my analysis. Either I just need to fire off a take as soon as something happens or I need like a week to do, you know, all kinds of research and reporting. and figure it out. So this is more the, you know, just let it rip. You know, I did the free agency stuff beforehand. I had thoughts on every player. I have thoughts on every team. So something

gets analysis. It's just like the first thing you think of, go ahead, type out a few paragraphs. I can change my mind later. No one will notice. So it's all good. So we're going to break down some of the signings that have happened over the past 24 hours. Obviously news trickling and alluded to the Chandler Jones signing. There's been some other big names that have been on the move in the last couple hours. We will talk about, you know, some of the broader big picture elements of this, some of the signings that you've liked as you've kind of thought about this in every single way from every single angle. Before we do any of that, though, I want to talk about the quarterback situation that has kind of crept up here over the last 12 to 24 hours. The Baker-Mayfield

response to the news leaking out that the Browns were interested in Deshawn Watson, that the Browns are meeting with Deshawn Watson. Obviously, this was going to be a sticky situation no matter what happened. And then he comes out and publicly responds to it in so many words with that statement that he put on social media yesterday. What do you make of what's happened here over the last day or so with the Browns, Baker Mayfield, Deshawn Watson, just everything about their situation at quarterback? Yeah, I mean, I think, see, I felt like after that season ended that it was going to, you know, it was pretty much going to be the end of the Baker Mayfield era in Cleveland. Now, I didn't know how it was happening.

I thought maybe they'd buy time another year while they figured out their quarterback situation, because as we've discussed here, you know, it's great to say, you got to have one of the guys, but it's not easy to just, you know, you can't just go outside my window here and just get Patrick Mahomes, say, come in and play quarterback for us. So, and I think Andrew Barry and the decision makers in Cleveland knew that. So it was always going to be a delicate situation. I mean, they weren't going to extend. him that would have made no sense. He was going to be entering the final year of his deal,

but now it's obviously escalated to the point where it feels like, I don't know if you're asking me today, is he going to play another snap for the Cleveland Browns? I would say no. And so it certainly escalated a little bit. And now some of these other teams who might say, you know what, we could take a year of Baker Mayfield while we figure things out. They have another option. It looks like. And then, of course, the Browns, I mean, we'll see what happens with the Sean Watson. But if that doesn't work out. Now all of a sudden, they've got to figure out what they're going to do. So it's kind of like another quarterback domino to fall or it feels like, I mean, it feels like half the league this offseason is in this spot where like what is going to go, what is happening

with their quarterback situation? And now the Browns rather than, you know, maybe potentially being in that spot, it's like, all right, yep, they're there with the Colts and the Seahawks and whoever else you want to throw in there. So here's my read on the situation, Base both on conversations I've had and just trying to read between the lines a little bit. Baker may feel that $18 million when you consider the broader financial landscape of the position is totally doable, right? You can justify keeping Baker Mayfield on your roster for $18 million. They've made no overtures to sign him. They've made no overtures to make sure that he's locked up on a long-term deal.

I think that's telling. But for the short term, that's totally fine. If you look at the alternatives this offseason, how many true upgrades were there? available. Guys that are clearly better than Baker-Mayfield when you take into account salary, giving up an asset to go get that person. There aren't that many. You know, Kirk Cousins is somewhat of a lateral move and he's making $35 million in base salary. Jimmy Garoppolo would require an asset and he's making more than $20 million. There aren't that many guys who are like, that guy is obviously better than Baker and it's not, it's going to be worth the mess, right?

That's something you have to take into account. Is this going to be worth the mess? That list was short. Aaron Rogers, Russell Wilson, that's pretty much it. When the Deshawn Watson situation, the criminal case and the grand jury decision came down on Friday, that adds another name to the list for some of these teams. When they traded for Amari Cooper on Saturday, that put off some alarm bells in my head. It's like this is, I think this is a sign that they could be involved in this Deshaun Watson thing. And now we know that they are. And you have to make a decision if you are the Browns in that.

moment. A lot of different decisions. Aside from all the different conversations you have to have about bringing Deshawn Watson into your franchise at this stage, which those conversations are important and they're real, you have to make a decision that we know this is probably going to get leaked out. We know that people are going to know that we're making a run at this. And our quarterback is going to find out, everybody's going to find out, are we comfortable with whatever the fallout of that is going to be? And if the fallout is, we have to move on from Baker Mayfield, is that something that we're okay with? And it seems like they made that calculation. And now we're here.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, there was no, there's no kind of smooth way to handle it. I mean, you can say, oh, they should have called Baker and told them they're just doing due diligence. I mean, if you're the quarterback, you're going to feel a certain type of way about it. At the same time, if you're the Browns, it's like, shoot, like, you know, look in the mirror, Baker. You did not light it up for us last year. We both know that this hasn't been working out great, that we haven't signed you to an extension. Like it's not a situation where they've been all in on the quarterback and they've invested in him.

And like, how could you even look in another direction? And so I think Mayfield has to sort of look at it honestly too and say, I'm sure he's thinking I was playing injured or whatever last year. But he has to look at it and say, all right, I can sort of see. And it's easy for me to say. I mean, if I had the confidence of an NFL quarterback, I think it would be a lot more difficult. But, you know, the people around him or whatever have to say, this isn't shocking. Like, let's be a professional. Let's see what happens here.

We don't need to speak out on this or anything like that. I mean, if they don't get Watson, maybe you're still back. If not, you're going somewhere else. Like, you have to figure out your future. So I can see it. I mean, he's a human being. I can see how you would think, you know what? Shoot, they drafted me high.

Efforts never been an issue. I've played through injuries. And now they're going and trying to land this other quarterback when I'm still under contract. So I can see how you would be upset. But I do think you kind of have to take a step back, take a breath. and be like this is kind of part of the whole deal. Yeah, I mean, like you said, there are only so many special quarterbacks out there as far as talent is concerned. And I know differentiating between the stuff as we talk about to Sean Watson over the next couple weeks and over the next couple months forever is going to be something that we have to keep a new account.

But yes, when you think about, like you said with Baker, there are only so many of the guys at that small group. Whatever your number is, six, eight, ten, I don't know. The guys at that table, there's only a certain number of them. And if you don't have a pathway to one of the guys, Baker Mayfield is a totally acceptable, like, solution. It's a totally acceptable way to approach your quarterback position. But if you do have a pathway to one of those guys, it's worth moving on from Baker Mayfield. And it seems like as a franchise, that's the calculus that the Brown's made. And now he may be on the way out no matter what.

If that relationship is broken, which it seems, I totally understand why it would be. If you're a Baker Mayfield, I'd be like, you know what? Fuck you. I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. So with that in mind, if the Browns have gotten to a place where it seems like they're going to have to move on for Baker Mayfield no matter what, now what does the fallout look like to Sean Watson inside? For teams that could be interested in quarterback, for teams that might be looking at Baker Mayfield, what does your list look like? I mean, I've seen the Seahawks floated in that one.

I could see that one for sure. I mean, they don't have a great answer. It's a one, I don't know what the compensation would necessarily look like. you're just committed to him for one year. I mean, you don't have to trade for him and then sign him to $35 million a year. You can trade for him. It's kind of like take a few bites at the apple. You know, maybe it's Mayfield.

If there's someone who falls in the draft, you can explore that route also. And then if he plays well, you can think about what to do after next season. So that was the name that really stood out to me. I mean, a team like the Colts, I don't know. I would not. I would be very hesitant to give up draft. capital and be aggressive to add him if I were a team like like Indianapolis. I would rather kind of be a little bit more patient.

Who are the teams I'm missing here? I know there's probably a feel. I mean, those are the two teams that come to mind immediately for me. I mean, if you're looking at the other options, I mean, the teams that are in the Deshawn Watson conversation, if they miss out, would they be interested? Is Carolina a landing place if they don't get to Sean Watson? I mean, those are the other ones that I would throw out there. But I think the Colts and the Seahawks make the most sense in this moment.

Because some of the other dominoes have already fallen. You know, Pittsburgh has Mitchell Trubisky. Washington traded for Carson Wentz. There aren't that many teams that are quarterback hungry right now. And that kind of explains the Jimmy Garapolo market and the teams that might be in the running for him. So I can understand the Seahawks doing it and wanting to stay competitive. What if you were Seattle or Indianapolis, what do you think is a reasonable bit of draft capital to give up for one year at Baker Mayfield at $18 million? dollars.

Geez, you know, the quarterback market, like when I'm projecting these trades, I'm always like, all right, you wrote this down. Now bump it up like two rounds or another pick or something, because that's just how it works. As evidenced by the Wendst trade. Wendst trade, darnel trade. I mean, we can, yeah, we can list basically every quarterback trade over the last two years. And you would almost always say, wow, this was more than I anticipated beforehand. I mean, honestly, if I'm the Colts, I don't want to do that.

I mean, assuming it's like a, you know, a third round pick or high. If you're saying fourth or below, I can have the conversation. Let's have the meeting and see if we want to do it. But if on the Colts, I would just say, let's not rush into this and give up more draft capital for a guy like Baker Mayfield who's not going to get us where we want to go anyway. Let's be patient. You'd rather have Mario da 10 for no pick. I'd rather have that kind of solution. Yeah, I think I can understand that.

I think that's fair. Yeah. I think if you don't have a guy, you accuse. accumulate assets and be ready to pounce. I mean, especially in recent years, there's more of these opportunities. Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford. We thought there was going to be one with Aaron Rogers.

But maybe we're sitting here next year and we're saying who's going to trade for Kyler Murray. I don't know. Maybe there's a mystery quarterback out there. And so you want to be ready. I think the Browns, this is going to be their philosophy too. You want to be ready to pounce when the opportunity presents itself. And then you want to look in the draft.

I mean, don't be shy. If you miss on a guy, that's okay. if you feel like he has the upside. So if I'm the Colts, like, that's what I'm doing. I'm not rushing in to Baker Mayfield. Again, if you're saying, shoot, there's no market for him and it's like a fourth round pick, then fine. That to me is kind of inconsequential.

The Seahawks, I would probably be in the same boat, but that's what I'm saying. The Seahawks, I could see them being the team that's more aggressive, saying, shoot, we're not here to rebuild. I mean, Pete Carroll's mentality, rebuild is like not even going to be in his vocabulary. They're going to say, you know what, Russ wasn't playing that. great anyway. We've got all these draft picks to work with. We just made some moves in free agency. Let's go compete next year. We like Baker Mayfield coming out of the draft. I could see them being a

team, say, you know, giving up a second round pick and something else for Baker Mayfield and saying, let's go, let's go play next year and try to make a run. Well, if you're Seattle, look at the amount of draft Caterpola you've just accumulated in the past week. And I know just because you have the extra picks doesn't mean you should be throwing away a second round pick on Baker Mayfield. But the Colts spent draft capital on a quarterback no longer on their roster. The Seahawks have accrued draft capital for a quarterback that's no longer on their roster. I think it's easier to justify, and I completely agree with you, the moves they made in free agency, and Trent Brown is apparently talking to them right now, I mean, those moves

say to me, we're going to turn this down. We want to compete right now. And I think that's a worthwhile mindset to have as a franchise. even if it puts you in a no man's land that's a little bit unattractive, I can understand if you're Pete Carroll and saying, this is the way we approach this year. This is the standard. And to achieve a version of that standard for a third round pick

and only $18 million of starting quarterback for a guy that was pick number one overall, and even if he struggled last year, has had his moments. He's a functional NFL quarterback. He is much, much better than Drew Locke. I think that can solve a lot of problems and check a lot of boxes if you are Seattle specifically. And I can just see them having the conversations about we're going to get a, he's going to have a chip on his shoulder, you know, they were down on him in Cleveland.

They love, you know, that is part of their like scouting philosophy is finding those guys who are going to be a little bit, you know, out there with an edge with something to prove. They can say, hey, we're going to have D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, you know, he's going to have good wide receivers. Now, to me, I mean, I look at that Seahawks roster. I know they're making some moves here in free agency. see if you just remove quarterback from every roster in the NFL, like, that's a bad roster. I know they're making some moves here.

I mean, they've got Trent Brown. I mean, you said Trent Brown, they've got no answer like premium positions, offensive tackle, quarterback, edge rusher. I mean, Eugenna Nuwosu is a nice player. You know, he's not striking fear into the heart of offensive coordinators on Tuesday as they game plan for your defense. So, you know, I wonder if they'll overrate their roster a little bit and say we can still compete right now. Like to me, Baker Mayfield. field going there, the offensive line's not going to be as good. The wide receivers will be

a little bit better. They're going to be very run heavy. We know that. They're going to ask him. I mean, their whole offensive philosophy, and it's funny when you, like, zoom out, Pete Carroll's offensive philosophy is, give me all of the explosive plays without any of the risk. Like, Russell Wilson did that for 10 years. It gets taken for granted, but it would be funny when you, when you hear Carol spell it out, you're like, oh, yeah, that is a good offensive philosophy. Wait a minute. That's really freaking hard to do, like to not have, interceptions, but to still be hitting on these 50-yard bombs, you know, three times a game. And so there could be a little bit of a rude awakening when you plug someone else in there

and ask them to do that. But, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't crush them if it was, if it was like a third round pick and you're saying, let's take a flyer on him and let's, because I am with you, you know, it's easy for me to say, like, if they start Drew Locke, it's going to be tanking without them knowing that they're tanking in my opinion. I mean, they're going to be bad. They're not going to be trying to lose games, but I think we're going to be around week nine next year saying, man, this is one of the worst teams in the NFL. Are they going to draft a

quarterback in the spring? And so that takes you out of that if that's what you want to do. I mean, if you're a Seahawks fan, you might say, I don't want to do that. Like, if we're bad next year and we get Bryce Young the following year and we go through this long stretch of Russell Wilson and Bryce Young with one bad year in between there, we'd rather have that than be stuck in that middle ground. But again, that's from a maybe fan perspective. I don't think that's from a Pete Carroll, John Schneider perspective. I totally agree. I think that exact line of thinking makes sense. So if you're Cleveland and you trade Baker Mayfield, $18 million solely in base salary,

that's all off your books. It leaves a chunk of change for you to figure out what your quarterback position. It looks like in a non-Dashon Watson world. This becomes the moment where, all right, we'll toss a third, the Niners way. We'll bring in Jimmy for a year and then we'll figure this thing out again next year. I think that's a totally acceptable alternative if they strike out on Watson and if they decide this relationship is a relevant. We have to move on from Baker.

We have no choice. I think that's right. Yeah, it would be you would think it would probably be what a loss in terms of compensation. You would hope. I mean, I'm sure they would be able to. That's exactly what I was thinking. Right. It's like $7 million different in salary and the draft capital would likely be around the same thing.

That's how I'm seeing it. Yeah, you've got the offensive line. You know, you've got a scheme. You feel good about that Garapolo should be comfortable in it. It's not a long-term solution. Again, it's getting as many bites at the apple as you can. I mean, if the draft rolls around and you scouted one of these guys and you're keeping quiet about it and you say, man, we really like Desmond Ritter, who at Malik Willis, whoever it is in the first round. Like, this isn't an either or scenario.

This is Garapolo and something else. Don't force it. And by the way, let's keep our eyes out next offseason and see who we can get. I mean, I wonder if the Browns were on Russell Wilson's list or if, you know, how much they explored that situation. because just when you're looking at the roster, I can see them being like, man, we have a lot of night. We've got, you know, the best, maybe the best defensive player in the NFL in his prime.

We've got a very good offensive line. We just traded for Amari Cooper. Like, you can be patient, but you probably don't want to be too patient if you're the Browns because you do have so many nice pieces there. You've got a coach. You've got a GM where you feel like, man, if we can just find that guy at some point in the next 12 months, we can really kind of make a big leap to where we want to go.

I think they've been paying attention to the, quarterbacks in this draft. Okay. And if you bring in a guy like Garapolo, okay, and you like Malik Willis at 13, this is hypothetical, whatever quarterback it is, you now have time. You don't have to bring that guy along right away. You can have Jimmy as your one-year answer.

You can slow play that guy. It's the sort of solution we've talked about with some other teams where if you have a stopgap guy and you like one of the quarterbacks in the first round, go that direction. They have the 13th pick in the draft. I mean, this is, they are absolutely in a position. When I said that, I wasn't thinking it was that high. But yeah. A couple teams ahead of them don't do it.

Yeah. Yeah. And also. Just a very different place that we expected them to be a week ago. But here we are. Yeah. Yeah. And if they are, by the way, if they are interested in drafting a quarterback,

I think sometimes it gets overplayed, but you could see it not being a great situation with a rookie quarterback in Baker-Minfeld, whereas Garaplo might be like, shoot, does this just happen everywhere I go? But at the same time, by all accounts, you know, he really, was great to Trey Lance and is a great leader, all those intangibles that you would be looking for, it wouldn't be a huge issue.

Yeah, you also understand it. I mean, like, this is the situation. I understand the situation. I'm in a weird spot, but like this is where I am in my career. This is where this franchise is. So again, it makes sense if you just think Jimmy first round rookie played along,

rest of roster, but I just didn't imagine the Browns to be in that sort of place as we sit here on March 16th, But that's where we are. All right. We're going to get to some of the signings and some of the news that has come up so far today. But before we do that, we're going to take a quick break. All right.

Let's get to some of the news that's rolled in today, as I mentioned. I said nothing had happened. And then, of course, one of the biggest names on the board comes off in free agency. Chandler Jones to the Raiders, around $17 million a year, as Marissa throws it up here on the chat. Three years, $51 million is the reported number. feels totally reasonable for a player of Chandler Jones's caliber, even at his age, especially when you look at what's happened at the rest of the edge market, right? $14 million a year for Randy Gregory, $15 million a year for Emmanuel Augba.

The thing is, it didn't seem like the Raiders needed an edge rusher. And then in conjunction with this move, they trade Yankee Ngankakei to the Colts. So let's start with the contract. You had Chandler Jones very high on your list of free agents when you did your top 150. What do you think about this move for the Raiders? What do you think about the price? Lay it out for me. Yeah, I think we have to see what the exact terms are on that. You know, sometimes you can kind of tell when terms are reported. You're like, are we sure that's going to be a full $17 million a year? And, you know, Taylor Jones didn't, yeah, didn't you get that sense? And he didn't get signed on,

like, the first day of free agency. So I want to, you know, be a little bit careful there. But I thought that was, like, on the higher end of what he would get. You know, I think I compared that to like the Shaq Barrett deal from last. last off season. I think you could say there are similar type players. I think Barrett was 29. Chandler Jones is 32. He's older,

but man, he's been a productive player. I could see the appeal in wanting to add him, target him. You like him in your scheme. Still very good last year. I think 10.5 sacks had like 26, 28 quarterback hits, has been very durable throughout his career.

So I have no issue with that contract. Again, I think maybe it'll even come down a little bit less than $17 million dollars per year. So I think, I think that was a fine move to make for the Raiders once they knew or if they knew they would then move on from Yanukkah. So the other teams is reported by Josina Anderson that apparently were interested in Chandler Jones.

I found this was fascinating. The Jets, the Niners, the Bills, and the Colts, okay? So let's go through those. Jets makes total sense. Absolutely need edge rushing help. They have money to throw around. Connor Hughes has been talking about the fact that they need defensive line help. If you pay attention to the coverage he's done this week, which has been great.

the bills i was wondering if they would be in the market for like one splash right yeah like they've done their bills bullshit all week where it's i just that's a compliment by the way bills fans i love it i love it i love it i love it i mean if the jd mckissick thing obviously falls apart in a in a fun way but all the other moves they've made they're quiet moves it's like all right we're going to add this backup defensive tackle from washington who doesn't get enough snaps makes sense but i thought maybe a corner edge rusher is there one big swing on the table for them. And Chandler Jones or a version of Chandler Jones's contract

might have been there. Colts, obviously they needed a edge rusher. They just traded for Yankee and Gakwe. You can see the need, you can see the fit. They have tons of money to throw around. The Niners is wild. Do you imagine him on that team where that allows you to bump Eric Armstead back inside?

They still have ECUBomb. I mean, that group, because they, Arden Key is a free agent, right? and DJ Jones. So they lose some of that depth that really makes that Niners group go. So now it's just you change the hierarchy. You bring Chandler Jones in

and now Armstead can play inside. You still have Kinlaw coming back. I mean, that investment at that position for that team, who boy, I kind of would have liked to have seen it. But the Raiders move and the Raiders conclusion of this does make sense to me. Yeah, the Niners was. Yeah, I hadn't seen that tweet. And, you know, they spent 13 and a half mill on Charverius Ward.

I mean, it's a, I know they need cornerback help, but we're also kind of able to piece it together at cornerback last year. And so let's say that Chandler Jones is at 16 or 17. I mean, it's not a major leap. If you feel like, shoot, let's go win the Super Bowl next year, Jones and Bosa on either end. And that would have really been, you know, the conversation in recent years about you build back to front or front to back on defense.

I mean, that would have made it pretty clear what the 49ers wanted to do. So that, yeah, I think that would have been the most. interesting alternative for him. With the Ward move and with this reported interest in Chandler Jones, the fact that they have been hunting for some bigger guys, it's a reminder that even though they have guys on some big second contracts, if you look at their cap right now, they only have one guy, they have two guys with more than a $10.8 million cap at Jimmy Ward and Trent Williams. That's it.

Not only does the Tray Lance commitment and the Tray Lance Avenue hopefully raise their ceiling as an offense. It resets them financially. It puts them back on a rookie quarterback contract, which frees up some resources, allows them to go a couple different ways. So it's not necessarily surprising to see them being a little bit aggressive with some of these guys just because they do have more cash that it might seem at first glance when you consider where they are as a franchise, their timeline, the amount of talent they have, all of those different considerations. So let's go to the Colt's side of this. They trade for Yanukkah, they trade Rockway, they trade Rocky Sin to make that happen.

And Gakwe is a $13 million cap hit this year. The love affair between Gus Bradley and Yonik and Gakwe. I want someone in my life ever to look at me and pine over me the way that Gus Bradley just has googly eyes for Yiannekin Gakwe. Yeah, I know. The third stop, I mean, I don't know. Somebody has to have the list somewhere. I would be too lazy to look this up.

But yeah, that almost seems unprecedented for the coach slash defensive coordinator to coach the guy on three different teams. By the way, he's 27 years old. I mean, who knows what the next decade brings? They could have like three more stops like this together. But I like the move for the Colts. Obviously, they needed edge rush help. And so two avenues to get, I mean, three avenues to get that draft, free agency, or trade.

13 million for one year of Yonik and Gakwe is nice because of some of the other edge rush deals you see that got handed out. Harold Landry is over 17. Emmanuel Akbas is over 16. Hassan Reddick was 15. Randy Gregory's 14. And now you're bringing in Gokwe, who one year, $13 million deal, your hope is that he looks good.

He has a good season. Hey, go ahead and extend him. He's 27 years old. That makes sense. You have him and quitty pay for the foreseeable future in that 4-3 defense. And the guy that drafted in the second round last year, whose name I cannot remember because I'm terrible in my job. Right.

Right. He's good. I mean, I was thinking at the NBA, you know, uh, writer's heavy, what is it, 12, 15 players and 30 teams. We can't be expected to remember 53 freaking players on 32 teams. That's impossible. But even if it doesn't work out, I mean, you can franchise tag him if he plays well, but you can't come to a long-term agreement.

And if he leaves and you don't want to resign him, you're in the compensatory pick game and the Colts aren't exactly out spending, you know, $12 million per year on players in free agency. So I thought it really made sense from a Colts perspective. I actually thought it made sense from both teams, to be honest. I mean, if the Raiders were just like, shoot, we want change. Chandler Jones over Yanukkah, then you can move on from Ngakwe. You bring in Rokicin, who I think has been inconsistent through three years, but he costs

$2.5 million this season. And so look at all the cornerback deals that have been out there in Chaviris. I mean, you can talk yourself into it, right? New surroundings can we get more out of him? Yeah. Yeah. And so you're getting him at $2.5 million, whereas, you know, Charverius Ward's getting over 13 million.

And DJ Reed's getting 11 mil. So like to fill that hole, it's a much less expensive route. And if it doesn't work out, it's not the end of the world. I mean, if Yacin comes in and doesn't play well, isn't who you thought he was going to be, you wanted to move in a different direction anyway at edge rusher. Anne and Gakwe was in the final year of his deal. So I like it probably a little bit more from the Colts just because they're getting a proven player who at the very least is going to be good for them this year.

But I think it's a fine move to make for both those teams. When you're looking at the market like you alluded to and the amount of money these guys are getting and not just that, but the market drying up. I mean, how many sub-30 pass rushers would you be willing to pay this sort of money that you thought could be impact players? I mean, Gacue is not a star, but he's a really useful player. And at $13 million for one year when that tier of guy was pretty much had disappeared, I can totally understand them doing this. It's fascinating to me to watch how teams rebuild these spots to their own preferences, right? So you have Gus Bradley going to Indy.

Now you have a guy that he played for, or that played for him. he's familiar with. So you see that. And then you look at what's happening with the Raiders. Patrick Graham was Chandler Jones's position coach in New England for multiple seasons early in his career. He was the defensive line coach for the Patriots in 2012 and 2013, which were the first two years of Chandler Jones's career. So you just have all of these moving pieces where guys are like, oh, I know that guy, I know that guy,

and just tailoring your personnel to what you want based on your preferences, your history. I mean, that's exactly what's happening here. They're really swapping one guy for the other based on what they think specifically is familiar to them and that they need. Yes, NFL front office people, coaches love familiarity. And I don't necessarily blame them. You know, you take away some of the risk because you're like, I've coached this guy before. He's been in locker rooms. And so I understand that.

But they do go, I mean, yeah, it's everywhere. You know, Lake and Tomlinson goes to Mike LaFleur with the Jets. Sebastian Joseph Day. Even his offensive line coaching. Yeah. Oh, okay, yeah. Joseph Day goes to Brandon Staley with the Rams. I mean, we could probably, like, list off 15 of these. Even when I'm looking at where could guys go before free agency,

I am looking at that all over the place. Like, all right, who knows somebody? Because, you know, you talk to people in that familiarity. Sometimes I feel like they go overboard. It's like, you know, you could take a little bit of a risk and go for more upside. But, you know, I can understand them doing that. Another quieter move for the Raiders that I think speaks to the transition they're trying to make defensively,

but all nickels on a two-year deal, I mean, he's just a block eater up front. If they're going to transition to some more of those different front structures, you look at what Patrick Graham asked his guys to do with the Giants, right? Under Rod Marinelli, under the Gus Bradley, 4-3, 1 gap, and we're getting up field. Even if the distinguishing characteristics

between 3-4-4-3 in a nickel world fall down a little bit, they're still asking guys to do different things. there are different techniques that you're playing off front. The Giants and people in that defense, you want to eat blocks. I mean, that's exactly what you're trying to do. And that's what Ballal Nichols does. So that, again, it's just a quiet little bit of transition from one style of defense to the other. And they've made two signings that I think echo that sort of thinking.

So look, go ahead. Yeah, no, just on Nichols, I thought that was one of the better value signings so far. Actually, I mean, you look at that market for the kind of nose tackles or the big run stuffers at defense. tackle. I mean, those guys were flying off the board for $10 million a year on the first day. And, you know, I'm not saying he's as good as all these guys, but, you know, DJ Jones, Fadou Kasi with the Jaguars got $10 million a year. BJ Hill got $10 million a year. Joseph Day got $8 million a year. But, you know, little things, certainly do matter. And I know, you know, stopping the run is certainly his specialty. But, I mean, he's had more pass-fresh production than a lot of those guys. and he's only 26 years old. So yeah, I think you're good to outline that one.

That was kind of one of my favorite under the radar signing so far. So let's stick with some pass rushers here. Zedarius Smith, four years, $35 million, I think up to $50 million is what was reported by Adam Schaefter to go back to the Ravens. I said this yesterday, I will maintain it. The most Ravens bullshit you can possibly imagine is to draft a guy in the fourth round, or fifth round, I think was Zadarius Smith. play him really slow play his development. Part time player, part time player, part time player, eventually becomes a rotational guy

is so good on a person at basis that a team goes out of its way to offer him an $18 million a year contract or whatever he got from the Packers. You get a cop pick for him, like a very high cop pick. Two years later, he's too expensive for that team. He gets released.

You sign him to a new deal that is half per year what he got with the old team. And because he was released, he doesn't affect your compic formula. It's amazing. It's brilliant. I'll never love anything as much as, I don't know if I mean, I should even say Eric DeCosta because it was before him as much as the Ravens love compics. I don't know that I'll ever love anything in my life.

But I love it. I mean, listen, back injuries are tricky. So I don't know. You got to be worried about that. The health is. Yeah, I know. I know. I know.

I hope he's healthy because, I mean, those two years with the. Packers, I mean, he was among, I think one of the best defensive players in the NFL, put his pass rush production against anybody else. I love the skill set. I love that he can line up on the edge. You can kind of make him in that Joker role. He plays with like a tenacity and energy that I really love. So they've needed edge rush help. I mean, they just let edge rushers walk out the door. It's felt like year in and year out, Judon and Gokway, he's Adairius Smith. The list goes on and they're just like, yeah, don't worry. We'll find another guy. I think they did with the Odafei Owe might make like a monster leap next year.

And now if Zadaria Smith, even if, I mean, for that price you mentioned, would you say four years, 35 million dollars? Up to 50, I assume with incentives. So I mean, yeah. And if he's great, whatever, that's 12 million a year. Yeah, that's how it's outstanding. So he doesn't need to be the guy he was with the Packers. If he's like a starting caliber, you know, edge player for you, that's going to end up

being good value. And like you mentioned, it doesn't count against the compact formula. So yeah, that to me. without knowing the details of the back injury is one that I like on the surface. So you look at the moves the Ravens have made. Marcus Williams is a splash move, but I think both of us like him as a player. I didn't mind that contract. I don't know how you felt about it.

It's expensive, but I don't think it was crazy when you consider what the safety market looks like. Yeah, I thought it was under what I was expecting. Yeah. You know, the top of the market is $16, $17 million a year. Williams is in his mid-20s, who was franchise tagged last year. Harrison Smith, before last season, got overstate. 16 million. He's 32 years old. I thought, man, open market teams bidding. Marcus Williams or one of these safeties is going to get that. So to get him for 14, yeah, I actually thought, I mean,

it is still a lot. But yeah, I thought that was excellent value. So you look at that. They signed Morgan Moses to a $5 million a year deal. If I were a team that desperately needed a right tackle, I absolutely would have paid that to Morgan Moses. And for the Ravens to lock that down, now you potentially have Ronnie Stanley coming back. You have Kevin Zitler who played into their compic nonsense last year after he was released by the Giants. They still have a hole at center. But you start to get a sense of why this team is relevant all the time, right? You look at the moves in totality and you think about, oh, that makes sense and that makes

sense. And you start to piece it all together. And we get to August 15th. And it's like, oh, shit, the Ravens have a pretty good roster. And it just, this happens all the time. And it's hard not to appreciate the way that they approach this stuff. As you mentioned before, I'm doing all the greats. for the athletic.

I was not expecting going into this that on the first three days of free agency, I would have given out one A and it would be the more Raven signing Morgan Moses. It's the best value deal. There's been,

I mean, a right tackle who's 31, who doesn't miss games and never gets hurt. Never gets hurt. I just, all you need at that spot is somebody even.

I need to know the backstory. How did they get in for three years, $15 million? If you're the Chargers, if you're one of these other teams, you're going, shoot, we, you know, we should have been in on that. So, yeah, I thought that was good.

Patrick McCarrey, who had played right tackle for them, he can play center. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So there's more flexibility. I mean, if they, Bradley Bozeman, I'm surprised he's still out there. Their center on the open market obviously hasn't gotten a deal that he wanted. But now it's like you said, you're giving yourself options, whether it's McCarrey, whether Bozeman comes back, whether there's somebody in the second round who's like, you know,

this year's Creed Humphrey, who you say, man, we really like this guy. But you don't have to reach for him. You don't have to reach. So it's, yeah, their offseason has made a lot of sense. I mean, we can't forget how injured they were last year. I mean, that was just like the huge story of their season. They absolutely need to get some things figured out offensively. But defensively, I mean, they were the most injured team in the NFL.

And so getting guys healthy and then these little moves that they're making around the edges, yeah, they're going to be a very good team again next year. Even at tackle, though, they were hurt last year. And they were trying to figure out those spots. And they were bouncing, villain, a wave of, from one side to the other and they had to plug in right tackles that they didn't want to play there. I mean, this team is going to be in better shape, much better shape when the season starts

compared to where they were at the end of last season. It's a different roster. We have to throw out what the second half of last season looked like for Baltimore as we talk about expectations, even if you take into account some of that unevenness when it comes to their offensive performance. All right. Speaking of some big names here, Julio Jones released by the Titans. Big yikes

I can It's one of those moves And I don't know how you feel about this I completely understand Feeling compelled to do it in the moment You're looking at your window You're looking at your needs You're like oh a second round pick for Julio Jones

Like that aligns with our timeline I understand When you do that But for him to miss all the time he did For him to look like he was lacking some explosiveness It's just one of it's a big swing and a miss But it's a swing and a miss I can understand from Tennessee

I'm with you. And yeah, I think that's important to do. Like we have to remember how we felt about the moves in the moment. I mean, anyone can look at it now and be like, shoot, that was terrible and crush the GM. And I think there are things certainly to criticize about Tennessee over the years. But that was one where I said, I mean, the health aspect of it is always the great unknown. You don't know how healthy a guy's going to be. He's missed some games, but is he going to miss a lot of games for us? How predictive is it?

And so I thought it was an okay swing to take. I mean, when they did the Tanna Hill deal and the Derek Henry deal, it was, we are going to try to win a Super Bowl or compete for a Super Bowl in the next two to three years. So it's like not that different from what the Rams have done, honestly. I mean, theirs. It worked out and everyone's saying, great job. But that Julio move was very in a similar vein. You know, they maybe fooled themselves a little bit into thinking how good they were.

But I mean, they were still the number. I know the advanced metrics weren't good, but they were the number one seed in the AFC last year. So they were like in the mix. So yeah, I wouldn't, that's not one where I'll crush them and say, what were they thinking at the time? you're going to take swings, you're going to miss on some of them. I thought that was a reasonable gamble to take at the time. I'm saying this to remind myself as much as anything else. You've got to remember the health stuff when it comes to moves like this.

And the Morgan Moses move is an example of that. I think tackle is specifically. It's what I was saying about Charles Leno last year. Even if you think Charles Leno is an imperfect player, he's always available. And having competent play at that spot where you can just say, I know I can plug him in for six. 16 games. I know that I have a starting caliber tackle in my lineup for 16 games. That is important.

And with Julio, you can talk yourself into the best version of it because he's Julio Jones. But the health is absolutely a consideration with moves like this. And it's an important thing to remember. All right. The Jacksonville Jaguars, it's a daily thing at this point. So I want to talk about this. So they signed Darius Williams to a three-year, $39 million deal. Okay. Three years 39 or is it three years 30? No, I think, yeah, I think that was one of those inflated ones. It's 330 with a max of 39.

So yeah, it's different than initially. Yeah. 3.30 is fine. Okay. Yeah. Now the league years officially started. So teams don't have to pretend like this stuff isn't happening. In his press conference, Trent Balke, he was talking about how Darius Williams can play inside and out.

And he said, just watch him cover Christian Kirk. Do you think this is the problem? Do you think they're just watching like a certain set of games or all these guys are playing against each other? Oh my gosh. That's amazing. So the corner we signed for 10 million was locking down the wide receiver who we signed for 18 million a year.

Yeah, no, I actually did not see that. That is, I mean, they have been the story of free agency. So actually, I think the point you were just making, I was actually thinking that in reference to the Jaguars with the Brennan Shurf deal, which on the surface you say, you know what? You got to overspent for offensive line help. You need to protect Trevor Lawrence. But I was looking at that shirt deal.

I mean, $16.5 million per year for a guy who's 30 and has had durability issues. I mean, generally, your years of best health don't come between 30 and 34, both personally for me and for NFL players. So like I was looking at that, comparing it to something like what the Bengals did. I mean, would you rather have Scher for $16.5 million? Or would you rather take a flyer on a couple guys who have been more. durable like Alex Kappa and I mean they signed Ted Karras but you can name another offensive lineman and you're going to have two different guys with some versatility maybe a guy who can

play center also and you're coming in at like 14 million I kind of like the Bengals approach more I mean if I were a Bengals fan I would be happier with what they did uh rather than handing Scherp making him the top paid guard in the NFL you're getting a player who's going to be in the decline stage who's probably you know if history is predictive you're going to miss some games here in the next few years. I think especially at that position. When you look at positions that are based on a unit and based on collective production, offensive line secondary, I think that type of thinking applies. And I think that's totally justified thinking about that way. The Shurf deal is so interesting. And I mentioned this a couple times, I think, this week. But he resets the market

after it was set last year by Joe Tooney. Those are, there's such different cases, right? Joe Tunney has never missed the game. So you're paying 16.5. million dollars to Joe Tunney and that's a lot and they managed to kind of overcome it because Creed Humphrey's on a rookie deal. Trey Smith is on a rookie deal. They traded for Orlando Brown when he was on a rookie deal. So if you look at just the amount of money spent toward the offensive wine in 2021, you can live with it. But Tuni, if you're going to spend $16 million, it's really nice to have a lot of confidence that that guy's not going to miss time with a nagging thing here, a nagging thing there. You can never predict catastrophic injury. But having a guy who's reliably been

healthy. I think it's a lot easier to take that pen to paper than it is for a guy like Shirf, when of course you can talk yourself into the heights. He was a top five pick. He's unbelievably talented. When he's on the field, he's one of the best right guards in the entire league. But if he's paying 10, 11, 12 games a year for you over the next three years, it doesn't really do much good to have one of the best right guards in the league. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you said it well. I mean, you would almost rather have like a, you know, six or seven out of ten. who's had a remarkable record of durability rather than maybe like an eight and a half who has injury concerns. I'm with you because, yeah, I mean, you have to factor that in when you look at these deals.

And again, it's not perfect. Hopefully he stays healthy. We want all these guys to stay healthy. But if you're looking at it from a team perspective and you're saying who's had kind of these nagging injuries and these durability issues, especially at offensive line like you mentioned, it has to be a huge factor for them. And also, you have to look at the alternatives. I mean, after seeing that Shaq Mason deal, I was kind of like, man, I wonder, you know, Jags could have, what, given up a fifth rounder for Shaq Mason or paid 16 and a half for Brandon Scherf. I know, I know it's hard at the time. You don't know all your options. It is kind of the job, though, is to know.

It is the job. It's to make all those calls and be like, well, this is on the table. Do we want to go with door A or door B? Whereas with the Jaguars, it felt like agents were calling them going, our, you know, our client wants this number. And they were going, cool. Yep, sounds good. We'll see you tomorrow in Jacksonville. will give you flight information.

So this is just reported right now. I don't want to talk about it because I love this stuff. What happened? Alec Ingold signs a two-year $7.5 million deal with the dolphins. So now he can be the used Chequie enroll in the Mike McDaniel offense for Miami. I just, I love moves like this. Like, that just probably in the grand scheme of things don't really matter. But I could just see him in the uniform.

I can see him lining up out wide. in certain formations. Al Kingold is like a pretty good playmaker at that position. That is an intriguing move to me, even if most of the football watching world does not care about it, justifiably so. Yeah, I was looking, Patrick Ricard, when I was doing my list of free agents,

and I had Patrick Ricard in there, the Ravens fullback, and I like to look at comps, and it's like, all right, there aren't a lot of comps for fullbacks. It's like, Kyle Eustech's making over $5 million, and then there are like, you know, four other guys in the NFL getting paid. So what did you say was two years? Two years seven, I think is what Top House era reported.

Okay, all right. Record on his last contract got $3.7 million. So it's like there's the use check range and then there's the non-use check range. And so if you think he's going to be a fullback who's going to play snaps, I guess that's kind of where it comes in there. But yeah, some of these guys trying to recreate where they were like you mentioned. You can just, I'm sure that'll come up in the press conference when they're explaining what Ingold's role is going to be and, you know, what they saw in him.

And oh, yeah, you know, we were showing him. check film already and he's going to do X, Y, and Z for us. It's, it is funny when these coaches switch teams. So the last signing I wanted to ask you about, what did you think of the Marcus May signing by the Saints? I thought that was aggressive. I mean, it's another one where we don't have the full injury picture, right? So if they're like, hey, he's going to be healthy and, you know, we feel good about it. I like Marcus May as a player. I think he can be a very good free safety for you. they've got Malcolm Jenkins at safety. Their skill sets complement each other where you don't want Jenkins really playing a lot on the

back end. And Marcus May can play if you're in single high or too high, whatever. He can play on the back end. But man, 29 years old coming off an Achilles injury and you're not getting, you're getting like a little bit of a discount, but $9.5 million per year, that seemed a little bit aggressive to me. I was thinking Marcus May was going to be a guy who got kind of screwed by the franchise tag, where if he hit the market last year and he got this deal, I would have said

absolutely. then to be a year older coming off the Achilles, I almost thought he was going to have to sign like a one year deal for like $6 million and then reenter the market next offseason. So that to me was, I didn't love that one from the Saints perspective unless they just have some type of great information on his recovery and feel great about him, you know, being his pre-injury self in like week one next year. Well, what's the hope here is that if you look at what Marcus Williams got and say, all right, if we get lucky, if he becomes a version of that player and we sign him because he was hurt on a three-year deal, does that look like a discount by the end? I mean, that has to be what they're hoping for.

That's wishful thinking possibly. It's a very serious injury. But that's the best case scenario for New Orleans. I'm assuming that was part of their thought process. All right. We're going to talk about some of your favorite moves, some of the moves that you still don't understand here a couple days after they've been made. Before we do that, though, we're going to take one more quick break. All right. I want to run through a couple little superlatives here so far.

Your brain has been locked into this in a way that very few humans have had to be over the last couple days. It's not healthy, yeah. It's not healthy at all, but I do want to tap into it. So we're going to rapid fire here. Your favorite signings so far. I mean, it sounds so ridiculous, but Morgan Moses, give me a starting right tackle, who doesn't miss games, who is competent for $5 million a year. That's the only grade I've given an A to, which is probably stupid. Again, I'm doing these rapid fire, but I thought that was that, you know,

I can't go against the grading system, Morgan Moses, to the Ravens. I absolutely love it. Okay. The most confounding signing or move that you've seen so far. Oh my gosh. Well, we were just ripping the Jaguar, so let me go in a different direction.

How about the Seahawks giving Will Disley $24 million over three years? Guys, you just traded for Noah fan. I don't care if you're running the all 12th. personnel offense on 90% of your snaps. Take a breather. Will Disley, his career high in yards is like 250 freaking yards. You have no offensive tackles.

You have no quarterbacks. You have no quarterback. You need pass rush. Why are you rushing to give Will Disley $8 million a year? That was nuts to me. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. I love that so much. We have not talked about that signing on the show so far, so I'm so glad you brought

it on that. Oh, that's absolutely fantastic. I really, really love that a lot. You did, one signing that I wanted to mention, you did like, the Lucas Patrick move to Chicago is something that is a move that you liked. I wanted to bring that up because I meant to bring it up earlier and did not. Loved it. Yeah, that's a smart. That's a smart signing.

Lucas Patrick, I mean, listen, if Brandon Thorne is tweeting out clips of you doing good things, I'm just going to assume you are competent or good offensive lineman because he is my O-line guru. whether he knows it or not. And so you've got these other guys. I mean, we just mentioned spending $16 million a year on Brandon Shirt. Brandon Shurf is a much better player than Lucas Patrick. I'm not putting them in the same neighborhood. But Patrick has experienced playing every single interior position.

Guard Center started 28 games over the last two years, was solid, you know, average to above average. And you're getting him for two years, $8 million with $4 million guaranteed. That is a winning move for the Bears. You don't have to swing for home runs on all these moves. You need guys. You can plug in there. We're not going to kill you.

If you're rebuilding the offensive line, like you want guys who aren't going to kill you. And I thought that was a fantastic value for the Bears. Yeah, I totally understand how that happens. If he wants to play center for you, if you feel like you need a stabilizing set of players in there for Justin Fields. So it's not the sexiest move in the world.

It's not going to light the town on fire. But I feel like it's a smart move. The most confounding move for me, getting back to that, I don't really understand the Shaq Mason trade. I mean, they saved $6 million. against the cap, New England did?

I mean, there's clearly something at play that I probably don't understand, but that just seemed like a weird decision. And good for the bucks. I mean, to get him at that price, I mean, when you consider where they're at, I just, it happened yesterday while we were on the show. So I didn't really understand some of the specifics around, you know, the cap implications of it. It still doesn't really make a ton of sense to me right now.

I don't get it at all unless they've, unless there's an injury situation. that the Patriots are aware of unless they view him as a declining player, although I don't, you know, there's no, it feels like there's no objective, you know, reasoning that he is a declining player for a fifth round pick. I mean, it's one thing if someone's saying, yeah, we're going to give you a second round pick because we love Shaq Mason, you want to clear some cap space and maybe you have a younger guy on the roster who you feel like can step in there. But yeah, I don't understand it at all from a Patriots perspective.

Maybe we'll be talking in week nine and it will be clear what Bill, Bill, Belichick was thinking, but I'm not going to be in the group that just gives Belichick the benefit of the doubt on all these. I was giving him D's on some of these free agents, the John Hussmith's signing last year and some of the other moves he made. So I think it's reasonable to question that move from a patient's perspective. And like you said, the bucks lose, you know, a pair of guards there with Ali Marpet and Alex Kappa. And now they get an outstanding fill-in, who obviously Tom Brady knows for just a fifth-round pick. It's a great move for them. If they want to throw Aaron Stinney in there at left guard,

you have a Shaq Mason and right guard, you bring back Ryan Jensen, your offensive line is now workable. You're ready to roll. It might be, if we're thinking about the motivation behind this for New England, when you're paying $18.6 million combined, or excuse me, $28.6 million combined to two tight ends,

your budget gets stretched a little bit thin at other positions. That's right. All right. Who is the guy that you thought would just get more? Not necessarily a great signing, but if you look at it, just like, Oh, man, I just expected him to really garner more interest and more value here on the market. All right. I'm not going to bring up Morgan Moses for the 10th time. Let's go in a different direction here.

We hit on Balal Nichols. I thought that that was a good one. You know, J.C. Jackson, I mean, if you look at that deal, it's sort of similar to what we mentioned with Marcus Williams. I mean, I thought Williams was going to get 16 or 17 a year. He got 14. And J.C. Jackson, I thought, on the open market, 26 years old, like he's going to be paid among the top three corners in the NFL, which would have. put him at like 19 million a year. He got 16 and a half million. So it's still, you know, it's a lot of money. It's a big deal. But like, you know, that's that savings of three million. Like that's a, you know, that could pretend that's almost a Lucas Patrick. You know, if you think about it in that way. So it does matter. Like it doesn't seem like a big difference from 19 to 16 and a half. But when they say Riley Reef for one year, four million dollars, that ultimately is going to

matter, you know. Exactly. Those things absolutely matter. So that was definitely one of them. You know, even someone like Teddy Bridgewater, listen, it's not exciting to talk about Teddy Bridgewater, but think about a team like Washington and what they did at quarterback, giving up two picks and you're paying Carson Wentz over $28 million a year. Would you rather do that or would you rather have Teddy Bridgewater for $6.5 million for one year? I mean, to me, you know, I tweeted this out and people were saying, oh, they're not even in the same category.

No, I think, you know, your impression of Carson Wentz is different than what he is. they are pretty much in the same category right now. And so to me, like, I was even surprised that there wasn't a place where he could find where he could even compete for playing time a little bit more. Again, he's not exciting. I'm not saying he's going to lead you to the playoffs or anything like that. But if you're in that situation where you're saying, as we discussed earlier, let's accumulate some assets, let's be patient, let's be ready to pounce or draft somebody

when we can and find the guy at quarterback. Great placeholder. And so for $6.5 million, I thought that was a nice deal for the dolphins. What's your favorite team-wide plan so far? This is a good one. You know, we talked about the Ravens. I like what the Ravens have done so far. The Chargers have done a nice job.

I mean, it's not, it's really just let's be aggressive and go for our quarterback's awesome. Let's fill in some gaps. So I don't know that they're playing like, you know, next level chess or anything. It's kind of like, you play the game that's in front of you. That's all you can do. You can only play the game that's been presented to you. And that's what they're doing. Yeah, absolutely. So I like what they've done. I like what the Bengals have done. I mean, I thought

BJ Hill was a good player for them. You lose Ogen Joby. And now maybe he can play a larger role for you. That's a reasonable price, $10 million a year. And like they could have just signed five offensive linemen and not done anything else. And I would have said great offseason. And they haven't totally gone all in there, but they did sign two. Now you get me a tackle. Maybe get someone in the draft. Now all of a sudden, you have depth, you have flexibility. So that's one that I like. And, you know, it's hard to look at the Jets and be like they had a great offseason because, man, if Zach Wilson, if they missed on Zach Wilson, let's be honest, it's not going to matter. Nothing else matters.

But I do like the moves that they've made. I mean, Lake and Tomlinson is in that category of I'll overpay a little bit because this guy hasn't missed a game in four years and he knows the scheme. He doesn't have to be an all pro, but I've plugged that hole and I'll overpay a little bit. DJ Reed is sort of a similar one. I mean, you could say $11 million, and that was higher than what I thought he would get at cornerback. But again, he's like a feisty competitive player. He's 26 years old. You can talk yourself into some upside.

CJ Usama, I thought that was a good deal. He can be a solid all-around tight end for you, good locker room guy. And then Jordan Whitehead, I thought that could prove to be a nice value signing. I mean, he came in under some of these other safeties. You got him at around, you know, $7.25 million a year compared to someone like, Justin Reed got over $10 million a year. And so, again, I don't know. I'm not telling you it's all going to work.

And the Jets are going to make the playoffs next year because they've had so many holes to fill and doesn't matter unless Wilson makes a leap. But I thought those were all reasonable moves for them. You look at those moves that the Jets made, the Tomlinson movie. That's a big contract. That's a pretty big one. But the other ones, when I was talking with Bar Maw last week, it was that kind of three and a half to five percent of the cap. That was a range where you typically find pretty decent value. The DJ Reed contract is right on the high end of that.

Jordan Whitehead contract is right on the low end of that. And the Uzama contract is right in the middle of that. Like that range they're hunting in, you got money to spend. It's not the JAG spent an $18 million on Christian Kirk. I mean, it's different than that because you get DJ Reed and Jordan Whitehead for the price that it costs them to go get Christian Kirk. So you know if you're a talent efficient and if you have a ton of space and you have all these needs, you're going to have to overpay a little bit. but you don't have to overpay a lot.

There's still a way to have to live in free agency and not go crazy with that. I think the Jets have been a good example of that. All right. Yeah, absolutely. That's all we got. Really appreciate the time, bud. I know you've had a really long week.

It's a blast to do this with you every single time. Thank you, everybody, for listening. We will be back tomorrow with me and Nate. In the meantime, please rate and review the podcast on your podcast platform of choice. I very much appreciate that. Please subscribe to the athletics. Theathletic.com slash football show. You can go check out every single grade on every single free agent signing because that is what Shield has been spending his week doing.

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