The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Message in a roster: What NFL teams told us about themselves this offseason

Episode Date: May 2, 2023

Teams will tell you exactly what they think of themselves by the moves they make in the offseason, culminating in the picks they make in the draft. Robert Mays and Nate Tice decipher what teams have told us about themselves this offseason on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/mays and get on your way to being your best self.6:40 Buffalo Bills15:04 New England Patriots19:14 Denver Broncos23:40 Tennessee Titans32:55 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Football Team38:01 Cleveland Browns43:47 Detroit Lions51:19 Chicago Bears55:42 Houston Texans61:16 Atlanta Falcons67:30 Dallas Cowboys Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome. It's the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Join me today. That's my good friend Nate Tyson. How are you doing, buddy? Doing very well.

I feel very far away from you now. Potting in person, you do get or doing four and a half hour live shows in person. You do really appreciate that, the in-person dynamics of really all aspects of life, especially podcasting and feeling when to end a point or start. a new point and just reading body language is you get really spoiled with it but other than that doing well catching up on some sleep uh having some don't know what to do with my hands right now that the draft is over but i am really enjoying it but overall doing very well we spent a lot of time together over the last week or so a lot of time together it was wonderful uh on saturday into sunday i got

about three and a half hours of sleep because we went out and celebrated a little bit after the draft. It was great, but I had an 8 a.m. flight. So I got home. I slept immediately upon getting home. And then after it was staying up for a couple hours and eating some garbage, I took another nap. My fiance was like, are you going to sleep all day?

I was like, in total, it's like eight hours. Yeah. Like I got back to my normal sleep schedule. So I think all of us kind of powered down a little bit on Sunday. Draft is over, but we are going to do a couple more draft shows this week. And also, just kind of a bigger picture. round up for folks. We're now kind of in our off-season cadence.

So this show being an exception, because we recorded a bunch this weekend, we are not going to have shows on Tuesdays moving forward in the off-season. We are going to have shows every other day. We'll still have four shows a week coming your way in the off-season, including when I am on my honeymoon, including when Nate is on paternity leave, all of those different things that are coming over the next couple months. You are still getting four podcasts a week from us. Tuesday is the only off day.

We are going to start doing weekly mailbags starting this week into next week. So just consistently be sending us questions. Keep coming. We're in a place now where every single time we do when it's fun, every single time we do when it's worthwhile, and we're just going to keep doing them. We love them. You guys ask such great questions. And I think it's a great way to kind of populate the feed in the offseason.

So athletic football show at gmail.com, I do not remember the phone number. off the top of my head. I will consistently be tweeting that out if you guys want to call us. But just start sending in questions because we're going to chip away at those things literally every single week. So four day a week cadence in the off season, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The Thursday show will be football GM all the way through the off season. This Wednesday, tomorrow, if you guys listening to this on Tuesday, is the final episode

of Prospects to Prosos for this season. And then obviously those guys hopefully will be back with us in August and when the drafts. season starts to kick up again. Our hand signals when we're talking about the mailbag, like not, you know, some people will see us on YouTube, but it's like, yeah, no, sentiment, send a man, send a man, but it's, uh, it reminds me of always sunny and Mac. It's a self-sustaining economy, you know, it just, it's self-sustaining. That's exactly what is. You guys, we say stuff, you send us mailbag with questions on it. We answer that stuff and then you have more questions. Self-sustaining, self-sustaining economy. But also the, the nap thing,

I'm not a big napper. I was in college, but now post-colle, I just don't. Uh, I, I put it this way of how tired it was Sunday compared to going in and how excited it was for the draft. Had a 6 a.m. flight Wednesday going into Kansas City. So woke up, you know, 3.30 and woke up. I was barely even sleep anyways. Didn't even nap on that plane. Just one powered right through. We did everything. The flight home, three hour flight, two hour, 40 minutes, whatever it was, slept every minute of it. Just no headphones on either. Just kept my sunglasses on, lean against the wall, leaning against the wall. Also, I was probably the one that knew they had the latest flight. Saturday night based on our alcohol consumption for those who dranked in our group. So anyone that was amongst our group, you could tell who had what time but what flight. And I definitely had the latest flight based on how I acted on Saturday.

We had a great time. We had a wonderful time. We had a wonderful evening. This being one of the last two kind of draft-centric shows that we're going to be doing. This is a show or a written piece in some version that I've done really lasts like four or five, six years. I always think it's a fun way to recap the draft. We talked about some quality of classes in our minds.

the best fits that we saw, some guys that, why did this person drop? You know, really analysis about the draft picks themselves on the show that ran Saturday into Sunday into Monday. On this show, I want to talk about the messages the team sent us based on what they've done this off season. It was smokescreen season heading into the draft. It was lying season heading into the draft. There's no more lying to be had.

The teams have made the picks. They have shown us what they think of the players they selected and of what they are. So on today's show, we're just going to run through the messages team sent us with their offseason plans. Some of these we've touched on in some way, shape, or form. That's what happens when you do 12 hours of live draft content during the draft. But hopefully we're going to tread a little bit of new ground as we've taken a couple steps away from this, removed from it for a couple days and can kind of look at it with a bird's eye view. Yeah, there's a couple that I hinted at. or we've had maybe first base discussions on a few of these teams and maybe what they're doing.

But it's nice to sleep on it, whether on a plane or in my bed and kind of really just put it all together. Put it all together. What exactly all these moves were made. And, you know, not everything's complete. We haven't hit training camp yet, but it is nice to see where arrows were pointing personnel-wise and team makeup wise and potentially philosophy. One thing that I wanted to address. Like, the Chargers didn't draft the DB. I don't want to use this show as a way to talk about the Chargers telling us they're fine with their DB room

because there are a lot of veterans available still on the free agent market. Now that we're into May, you can sign guys and it doesn't affect the comp pick formula. I assume the Ravens are going to fill five different holes over the next two weeks or so. So that idea of, well, they seem to be fine at this position because they didn't draft anybody. I want to wait a little bit on that. I think we're going to touch on some of that stuff a little bit more when we do the biggest questions that are still left after the draft, and we're going to do that show on Thursday for Friday. So just keep that in mind.

Why don't they talk about the Raiders not drafting a single offensive Wyman? Doesn't that send a message? Maybe, but maybe not. So we're going to wait a little bit on team, on position-specific stuff a couple weeks, a little bit deeper into the offseason before we make any grand proclamations about that. But let's get to some grand proclamations. We're going to start, Nate, with a team that we talked a lot about this weekend, but again, I think it's still worth revisiting.

What sort of message do you think the Buffalo Bills sent us with the draft that had and the off season that they had at large. They identified that they needed ways to pivot on offense when they hit a rut with their traditional way or their untraditional way of traditionally doing things. And they went out and we're like, we need to fix this and we're going to fix it. Or we're going to give ourselves potential to answer these fixes or these questions that we have been remaining at the end of our season in 2022. So I think how they did that was originally just in free agency.

This is why it was one of the lower key free agency. signings that I was excited about was the bills, just the, what they put together, Damien Harris at running back, just a different style of running back they've had the last few years. Conner McGovern, signing him as an offense alignment, interior offense alignment, especially, and kind of a different type as well. I think he's more well-rounded. He's a better run blocker than what they've had. And also now in the draft with Don't Kincaid and Osir's Torrance as their first two picks, I think all these signal a philosophical change, I would say full-blown philosophical change. I actually don't want to see that.

I think ability to pivot is exactly right. And I think that's what you're hinting at. And I think that's exactly what it is. It's that's, this is like the chiefs too, what they've done the last few years. And is that it's not so much like, okay, they only run 11 personnel. You know, the Rams were able to do that a few years ago when they were clicking. But most teams, it's just that when the defense has an answer for you or on defense, the offense has an answer for you or is making your life hard.

Do you have the ability to change what you do and do it well? or at least efficiently and effectively. I think that is what the bills are realizing. They said the spread it out way, speed, speed, speed, speed is kind of hitting a rut. We don't have answers just through pure Josh Allenism or receivers are out there. So let's get just better players overall. It doesn't matter the position and the ability to kind of change how we go about offense when we need to. Sometimes you can just throw 102 miles an hour.

It doesn't matter. The batter can't hit it. But sometimes you just got their off speed pitches over and over. And I think that's what the bills are trying to do here is ability to go smash mouth football when they want to. And I think that I love that. I really do love that. It's identifying that this wasn't working completely. We're hitting a rut.

We're hitting a hard point every season. This is a way to change it up and to do it. I think they are doing it in the right way. They've tried to do it just by personnel and formations and going back two seasons. I remember at the end of the 2021 season we were talking about this when they were leaning into the his jumbo looks a little bit more often. But it almost seemed like three kids in a trench coat pretending to be an adult. That's exactly it.

It was, they were doing the right answer, but it was just like, we don't really have the guys for this, even though we have to do it this way. I can't remember the guy's named for Project Force. It's like Vincent Adolten. Princess Caroline is dating three kids in a trench coat. That's what the bill's offense felt like at times. And now it seems like they're actually embracing the adult version of this. That was just their three receivers.

That was Cole Beasley, Isaiah McKenzie, and Devin Singletary, they sit on top of each other. They used a decent amount of 21 personnel last year. 21. Like Reggie Glellan is such like this weird kind of piece where how do you define it? But if you look at pure 12 personnel. The bills used 12 personnel last year on 3.7% of their offensive snaps. It's dead last.

It was dead last in the NFL. It was about a fifth as often as the league average. 18.1% was the league average. They were at 3.7%. set. Now, I think you can make an argument based on how Dalton Kincaid develops that 12 personnel has a chance to be their best group of players this season. So that's going to take a huge uptake. Dawson Knox is somebody. They spent $31 million on guaranteed. I mean, this is somebody they're invested in. He's going to be able to play in line for them and be that guy. And I think

Kincaid is going to be their slot receiver first and foremost. And then they're going to live in 12 personnel, even if it's a little bit of an untraditional way to do it, way more. often than they did in years past. And you combine that with Osiris Torrance being a 330 pound interior offensive lineman. Ryan Bates is their starting right guard right now. They signed him to that free agent deal last year where they matched the bear's offer to him. Ryan Bates weighs about 300 pounds. Yes.

You know, this, and I have to assume they'll battle it out in camp for this spot when you spend a second round pick on a guard. In your mind, that guy probably wants to start for you. So it seems like you move Bates into that swing interior offensive lineman role. you have a 330-pound guy and Osiris Torrance come in and play right guard. You combine that with the 12 personnel. We're going a different direction.

Where we're going, we don't need passing. That kind of feels like the new look bills. And I appreciate that as kind of an embrace of pivot points within your offense. How can you solve different problems? And I think that they tried to build it this year where we have more answers to different problems, being able to run the ball consistently more often,

but also just having a quick answer in the passing game, Having a true slot receiver, not having to shuffle between, you know, Khalil Shakir as a rookie, Cole Beasley, Isaiah McKenzie kind of miscast. So I really do think they're trying to find answers they didn't have in the past. And I'm excited to see how it plays out. Yeah. And that I love what you're talking about what like, even when they wanted to have a slot guy in there, even putting Stefan Diggs there and this is statistically, Diggs is still a good player. It's just that he was a little less of a player from the slot. And so now you're kind of making him, you're neutering him a bit. You're making him 80% of as a effective. And then you're also putting someone else on the field that is not as effective, just period on the outside. So you're kind of making both things worse. And I love that you're

mentioning that Kincaid is basically their slot receiver. And this is, I really look to the chiefs and kind of having more of these two, you know, Knox isn't a traditional why. He's more of a shield blocker and everything. But guys, it's, it's flexibility to change what they want to do on offense as far as like, hey, we're going to run the ball here or we're going to be heavy. But also just those guys are both flexible receivers. And you can move them and change things up. You can be in the same quote unquote formation, but have guys in different spots.

And so I think everyone just, a lot of coaches come into their opening press conference. And I'm not saying they did, but coaches and they go, we want to be multiple on offense. The bills are actually doing that. They're going, we can be multiple. We can actually do this stuff very well.

Or the hardest thing to do to a defense is staying the same personnel. Hopefully you can stay out of the same formation, but stay in the same personnel grouping and you don't know what we're about to call. And so I think the bills are going, we can just stay in the same 12 personnel. We can go up-tempo. We can throttle it back or we can even put more tight ends on the field. I know how sexy that is for everybody, but it is for me. This really gets me going, guys.

But it makes their 12 personnel more dynamic. But they can realistically go 13 personnel or 22 with whatever, however you consider Gilliam. But also their other tight end that they had, Quint Morris, played for 30% of their snaps last year. And he's more of that traditional why. So if they want to go 13 personnel, and this is exactly what the chiefs did to the Eagles, the Super Bowl. 13 personnel. You're matching with nickel because you were worried about Kelsey.

In this case, they'd be worried about Kincaid. Well, let's just pound the frickin' rock. That's why we have these bruiser guards. So now we're not just running spread zone, spread zone. We're under center,

just pounding away on you. Last year, the bills didn't run 13 and 22 too much. I'm including jumbo in here. They were the second highest team, second highest rate of jumbo of any team in the NFL last year, because they just, they want another blocker and just,

they want to go big. And that was their way to go big. So they only passed, ball 15 times of what I'll call big personnel last year, 22 and 13, 10 of those 15 passes were successful. They were 40% running the ball, success rate running the ball of those personnel groupings. And now they got better and they got better players to do it. So I think they're just going to lean into that identity where they're able to attack that

way. And I just like it. I really do. I think they're upgrading to slot position. Last year, they're second best, most successful offense and the NFL just beyond the chiefs. But if they just targeted the slot, they were the seventh best, which is still pretty good, but it is a drop. So it's just they're making everything better by just kind of almost simplifying everything. And I really, really like the identity shift that they might be taking.

Let's stick in the AFC East here. My next one is, based on what they've done this offseason, the Patriots think that Bill O'Brien is the biggest offensive edition that they will make from last year to this year. And they think that having an adult in that room is going to be the biggest change that they can undergo. because their first three picks in this draft, Christian Gald is a corner, Kean White is an edge rusher, Marty Mapu as safety, linebacker, whatever you want to say,

versatile piece on the back end, the likes of which they absolutely love. And so they're loading up on defense, and we're wondering, no pass catcher really, or early in the draft. They seem to be happy with, you know, Juju Smith-Schuster,

Tyquan Thornton. They brought in Mike Isicki, him with Hunter Henry, they still have Kendrick Bourne, but no real splashy move at the past catcher spots. We still don't know who's going to play right tackle for this team. They didn't draft a tackle high in this draft.

So is Riley Reef that guy? I mean, they really did not get aggressive at a couple different positions on offense that I think you can construe as positions of need. So I think their plan seems to be we are going to try to have the deepest, best, most flexible defense in professional football this year. And if we can bring in Bill O'Brien and get our offense from unwatchable, I think is the adjective that I would probably throw out there. No fly.

They made the no fly list last year. They really did. If we could take our offense from unwatchable to merely forgettable, we think that we could be a playoff team even in a loaded AFC. Can we be the 15th or 16th best offense in football and be the best defense in the league and have that be our path toward relevance? That feels to me like the message that the Patriots sent over the last couple months. And as far as how their defense is, I totally get it because I've,

freaking love the Patriots defense right now. And it's going to be, it's going to be a fun one to watch. But yeah, as far as offensively, I think this is a little bit of a bet on Tyquant Thornton. And I think what he brings to the table being a vertical guy and actually a lot more physical than you would think for a guy that's built like a pole. Like he's built like my pinky. But it was not good last year. I mean, he struggled last year, but the whole offense struggled last year.

So I almost hesitate to judge what he was. I mean, he's hurt, obviously. So being hurt early in the year. and then being slow to come along. You combine that with entering the worst circumstances possible with the infrastructure and the oversight. This year, hopefully, they're going to take several steps forward at all of those spots,

and he's going to be a more productive, useful player. Yeah, their whole offense was just like it felt like it was stuck on day two install, where it was just there's no new ideas, no new wrinkles. It might have been, actually. And I think actually there's been some stories that have come out basically saying that. And that's what it felt like when you watch him, it was like, okay, what else he got? And they put a lot on Mac Jones's plate.

like too much where he has to get so many guys in order. It was the first time I've ever seen a Patriots offensive line look disjointed where they're going to the wrong guy. You know, usually, again, it's that mental loss or physical loss. It was too many mental losses for that unit for guys that played a significant amount of games. Even last year, something simple like this, and I'm not just saying this is the end-all be-all.

But you can just look at how many RPO pass attempts Mac Jones had last year and compared to the year before under Josh McDaniels. And Josh McDaniels is not like a heavy RPO guy. an RPO merchants. No, but he was, he was 14th in RPO throws, past attempts in 2021, according to a pro football reference. So just kind of beginning you have a nice painting that picture. 31st last year.

And I know it was fewer games, but it was 19 compared to 31. So it wasn't even the same ballpark. And there was a couple fewer games. So just even something simple like that, just that's what McJones is really freaking good at. That's what people forget with that Alabama offense. It was RPO heavy offense. They also just the ability to diversify their run game.

I'm not the, I'm not ever going to, I won't lie and say I'm like a huge, huge fan of O'Brien's schematic ability, but he is a competent play caller and play designer, which is a huge upgrade of what they had before. Talk about this before. Going from bad to average is not a bad thing, even when you're talking about play calling. So just diversifying the run game and tying play action with your runs. I think it's going to be just an easy improvement, but they're betting that that's the big improvement. Next one here. I want to talk about the Broncos a little bit. With Sean Payton coming in, I think there are reasonable questions about what does this team expect out of itself this year?

Do they think they're going to be good? They made the Russell Wilson trade. How happy are they with Russ's upside this year, like his viability this year? Do they think that it's time to take a step back, slow things down, reevaluate where the rest of the roster is? There hasn't been an ounce of that. Too, two. Two, two. Pull steam ahead.

Look at what they did in a free agency. They take a huge swing on Mike McGlinchie and $50 million guaranteed, $17.5 million A. Ben Powers at guard, four for 51 with $28.5 million guaranteed. Zach Allen, three for $47.8 with $32 million guaranteed along the defensive line. So some big swings in free agency. They get into the draft. They don't have a first or second round pick because of the Russell Wilson trade. You think maybe they'll accumulate some more draft capital and slow play things a little bit?

They traded up for pretty much every pick that they made. It's unbelievable. So they trade up for Marvin Mins at the end of the second round when they didn't have a second round pick. They trade a future third round pick to move up for Riley Moss, the corner from Iowa in the third round, who presumably has a chance to start opposite Patrick Sertan this year. So pretty much every single move that the Broncos made of any impact or meeting

over the last few months, they had their foot on the gas pressed all the way to the floor. So even like a breath I thought they would take over. Maybe train Judy and getting some more picks or, nope, let's give Judy the fifth year option. I exercise his fifth year option today. So the Broncos,

there's going to be no slow playing what the Denver Broncos are this year. And maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Based on the way the Saints operated every single year under Sean Payton, a year in and year out, just refusing to acknowledge. I'm not saying this was wrong, by the way. I'm saying it's a little bit surprising, but just refusing to acknowledge any contemporary understandings of sequencing or value

or how you understand draft capital, all of those things being like, you know, we could probably be pretty good right now if we want to be. So that seems to be the mindset that the Broncos have adopted. Circumstances be damned. Yeah, I thought they're going to,

even if it was not like a hard reset, but just like a little bit like, okay, we made a splash. Just take a breath. Yeah, take a breath. Yeah.

And no, no, no, no, no. Sean Payton was like, no, no, hey, sacrifice the future. We're waiting this year right now. We'll deal with it later. We'll always deal with it later. We'll pay off the credit card later. But yeah, I'm with the where I'm not saying it's wrong. And I understand, and for a penny and for a pound, I guess.

You know, okay, Russell Wilson didn't work out his first year and we kind of gave him the keys to the kingdom. All right. How do we kind of like mitigate that? Oh, it's hire a head coach that has more rank on him and give him the keys to the kingdom. The keys to the universe, actually. So I think that's just how they're, this is their team right now. This is their franchise.

This is what they're, they're full steam ahead. Really just, you can just sum it up by their free agency. They're like, okay, they're just so paying guys. And then just how they went about the receivers going from. No, we're not moving on from these guys. We're actually adding to them with Marvin business. They might still trade a guy. You don't know.

Yeah, I wonder, we kept talking about Judy being the guy. I wonder now we get to a place where is Tim Patrick the guy that might be available for the red price. if a team makes a call. Because now you have three guys that you've committed to. Judy with the fifth year option, Patrick and Sutton on the extensions, and you use a second round pick on a guy that you traded up for.

Something has to give. It feels like something does. And Patrick might be a guy that, I was going to say the previous regime. It's still the same front office, but the previous iteration of the Broncos Brass liked a little bit more than this iteration of the Broncos Brass does. Yeah, which is funny because I thought,

Peyton would love Patrick. Maybe he does. This is all speculative. It sounds like a movie. But Peyton loves Patrick. But I did. I actually did think that. Yeah, again,

we're speculating here. But that's why I'm curious. That's why I wanted to see who moved. Like it was like, oh, oh, he didn't like him or, or ooh,

they really didn't think he, they thought he was, you know, easy to get rid of or, or we didn't need him. It was too much, too much of a good thing. So I'm just,

yeah, it's just funny. They just kept adding, injected more talent into that room. And it's like, okay, let's go for it. Next one here.

It seems like the Titans wanted their new era on offense to start as soon as possible. It's like when Harry met Sally, it's like when you want to spend the rest of your life with someone. You know, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. When you want a new era on offense, you want that error to start as soon as possible. They went all offense in this draft, including a trade up for Will Levis. This is something we talked about a little bit on the draft show, this idea of, okay, all of these murmurs about the Titans wanting to trade it for a quarterback and specifically wanted to trade up for CJ Stroud, that they liked C.J. Stroud. When they missed out on C.J. Stroud or the opportunity to draft it, did that mean that they were out on

quarterback? Or was drafting a quarterback, the idea of drafting a quarterback, almost as important as finding the right guy or the number one guy in your list? And it seems like they wanted a quarterback in this draft. And my main, I understand that. I understand wanting to kind of set off, you know, the next stage of this and saying, all right, we got a really good offensive linemen. Now we have a quarterback. We have the next couple years to build it. The cupboard was totally bare on that side of the ball, and we might as well start going in on it. My question here is the sequencing of it. It's like, okay, you were probably going to have a high pick next year potentially. We never know about this. But now you have Will Levis in the building with Ryan Tannahill already there. So you don't have to start him right away. So is the benefit of allowing Levis to get some snaps, be in the NFL, be in your program for a year more important than. and essentially burning one year of a rookie contract and looking for your quarterback next year when he would have been able to start right away for you.

So essentially just sequencing when you wanted the quarterback to play and when you wanted to find him. That was always going to be my question with this team and we got the answer on it. Yeah, I kind of figured if they didn't take one of the first, they weren't taking one at all. That was my thought too. Yeah.

Well, and of course we didn't assume Levis would follow the first round. I thought somebody would stop the bleeding there at some point, maybe in the early 20s. But even when we're talking about the Titans earlier this off season, talking about kind of what the crossroads they are as a franchise and everything. And we kept going like, man, that offense, who, that's rough. Hey, the defense has got some players, though. Hey, they got, you know, they got Simmons.

They assigned Shier, like, they're a couple of interesting DVs. And so it's, it's like made sense that they injected some life into their offense. They desperately needed to help. Of course, I thought Skronski is a great, fantastic addition for him, the way to start their old line. rebuild. And I think because of that, I'm fine, I'm saying, I'm totally fine, but fine, or that they went Levis in the second round. Because it was like, I was terrified of dropping any young guy into that situation if he had to play what I thought that offensive line of weapons would be. It's like,

okay, that makes me feel a little 5% better. I just think Levis was the opportunity they had to take. They're kind of saying, well, rather one in the hand, two in the Bush, like, yeah, we might suck this year, but Vrable might ruin it for us. And we win six, seven games. And now we have to sacrifice more. We might not get one of those top quarterbacks for next year's draft. And I think a reasonable concern with how many pieces they have on defense. That's what it is. I think the defense, and they still have Tanna Hill. They still have a defense.

They still have, I mean, I know Derek Henry is, you know, now adding the carries and everything, but they still have him. Like, they still have like a workable roster. I don't know, I should say workable, but kind of workable. Not totally into doldger. When your quarterback is the 15th best quarterback in the week, even if the rest of the supporting cast is horrendous, which the rest of their supporting cast is horrendous, there's still a show. that he is going to bring you to a level of competence that puts you in the danger zone of missing out on. What is going to need to be like the first or second or third pick in the draft in order to get one of those guys.

When you have the 15th best quarterback, it shouldn't be a surprise if you end up as the 16th best team. You know, or the 18th, you know, like you're right there in the teens again, but you're not in the lottery, the true top 10. Let's say you have the sixth best defensive football next year. And Ryan Tannahill is enough, even with no receivers in a shitty offensive line, to bring you to the 24th best offense. That's right. Right. That still can land you somewhere in the dangerous middle. Yes. And I think that's where that's why I understand going from Levis and everything. And honestly, the comparisons that I've made to him to Tannihill actually is I think more aesthetically. It like makes sense of my brain that he ended up there. It's like, oh, you're just the animorphs of each other. You know, it's just like going from one person to the next. So I totally understand. And you know, the Taj Spears kind of pick in the third round was more like, okay, a really fun running back. But he does have an injury concern. style, but at least he's fun. I guess it's talent.

Henry doesn't under contract after this season. Exactly. And so, and even, you know, he's been banged up too. It's like, so now you have a guy that it's not a huge drop off and we're starting someone that we just signed off the streets at running back. So how they went about it. It makes sense as you kind of talk through it and understand where they're at as a team, especially on defense.

That's what you have to focus on. They still have Tannenhill. They still have Rabel, they still have a defense. And even their offensive coordinator, who I am blanking on his name right now. Tim Kelly. We'd like, Tim Kelly did really nice things in his last year with the Texans. I was actually surprised they moved on from him. So it's, you know, they actually have a guy that's done some decent things as a play caller. So overall, I get this more than maybe I did maybe two days ago.

So here's my argument for why I think this makes sense if you're looking at the timeline. Yeah. So next year, Levis will be in year two. I don't think he should play a ton this year just because I don't know how beneficial those reps are going to be. Let's say you get to the end of the year. He plays. I think it's the Ritter plan. Yeah, four, five, six games.

Maybe, right? Last four games, last five games, get him on the field, get him some experience. So you have, again, an entire year in the system, an entire year in the NFL to the point that hopefully that jump starts what he can be in a year two. You have $106 million in cap space next year. And for the most part, your defense, you've handed out the contracts you're going to hand out. Jeffrey Simmons was the big one that they were waiting on.

So you've got four, five, six, seven pieces that you feel good about on that side of the ball. You have $106 million in cap space. you'll still likely have, you know, with top half of the first round pick, maybe even a top five to seven pick. If you can use that on a difference maker on offense and then use some of that $106 million to piece together a starter here on the offensive line, maybe one more receiver, you're trying to make sure that your offense is workable while your defense is still intact.

And threading that needle was going to be difficult if you were going to try to do it two years from now. If you were kind of punting on this season and then in 20, 2025, that was going to be when your quarterback was in year two, you had the pieces around him. So now I think the goal is hopefully now by 2024, we have the resources where our defense is still young enough, good enough. Our offense has gotten to a place where it's workable where we can be relevant again in the AFC. That's what this timeline feels like to me. It's exactly it. It's putting yourself in a position where nothing feels like a reach.

You know what I mean? Like it kind of going, okay, we need another offense line. We need a receiver. And what if you're at pick seven? And it's like, okay, well, oh, shoot, a bunch of quarterbacks are going early. Other teams are going to edge. Hello, Marvin Harrison, Jr. Like, you know, like they might fall into that.

Yes. You're putting in a position where it's when you, if you address the, what will be glaring holes on their offense, it's going to be next year. Now you don't need the quarterback. You can still address the other spots. So again, it just as you talk it out, it makes more sense what, how they're going about just because I think how the situation presented itself. You have options.

You have paths you can go on as a team build, as you're building a team, I should say. And they just picked this one. And I get it. You know what it reminds me of where the bears were a year ago? Where we're freaking out that they hadn't added anything in the offense. When they didn't get a receiver, their offensive line still had all of these missing pieces. And over the course of a year, when you have all of these resources and potentially, if you're Tennessee, let's say you're picking near the top of the draft and a team needs a quarterback.

And you want to move back and you can pick up an extra piece here, an extra piece there, a DJ Moore and a veteran for pick trade. there are still avenues when you have all these resources to turn around the offense in two years in a way that other teams have done in the past. So that's kind of what it reminds me of. And I think that the timeline and the sequence they go and the way that they're thinking about it is fine. I think it does make sense to me. Yeah.

And I just like that they give a third, but they didn't sacrifice all their future. Giving up a third is not is okay. Giving up a third is okay to get a quarterback. If they moved up to get Stroud, you know, they're giving up everything. And then Stroud is, oh my God, now they don't have Skronsky. Now they just have a young quarterback that they just dropped in a situation with no means to, you know, some money. And very likely don't have a first round pick next year. Exactly.

If they move up to get that. So I don't know. I think they fell into a better plan than maybe they even were anticipating going into the weekend. I mean, I'm sure they had this in their mind a little bit. But I think it just kind of fell into the lapse. So like, okay, this is how we're going to go about this. Two teams that went the opposite direction and had an opportunity to draft a Will Levis and decided that they, were okay quarterback are the Bucks and Washington.

So I think the message both of them sent is we're content to kind of wait and see at that position. We're going to roll with this hodgepodge that we have in the room in the short term and then we'll figure out what we're going to do in 2024. On Washington's end makes sense. Ownership change. Things are in flux. Making a big splash.

I mean, it doesn't make a lot of sense to make a big splash of quarterback right now because so many things are up in the air. That's fine. the bucks, that seems like a commentary on what they thought of will have us more than anything else. Because with the timeline, again, going back to that, for them, dropping a rookie quarterback into this, kind of allows everything else to come together. You have all these other pieces on the roster. You're kind of ready to win right now.

So now you're pushing it off even another year into 2024 when some of those pieces are you're older. They're a year more expensive. And then you may be trying to find your quarterback in the future. So their timeline and how they're trying to align all of this stuff, I think is a little bit more in question now because you have a team that has some win now pieces, some win now elements and has Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield, the quarterback. Right. It's my two bold points are I don't think either of these teams had ownership of their ear about you have to take a QB. Like you have to take a guy if he's there. So that kind of one is because they're kind of in flux with ownership and the other is the box.

But the other is, but yeah, I think that's exactly what we're. what it is as far as talking just the bucks is that they might just not like Lovis. And they just didn't want to take one for the sake of taking one. And when you don't have other pressure putting it on you, hey, you got to take a guy. That's where it's kind of nice to not be forced into a mistake. You got to be sold on a guy, especially at quarterback. You know, if there's disagreements about what receiver you took, okay, whatever, it's fine, a second round receiver.

But if you're taking a first round quarterback, you hope there's some consensus in the room. At least, you know, it might be a group think, but you at least hopefully you're marching to the same direction together. But that's, yeah, both of these rosters are decent. You know, they both have good players. And I just think they might have to move up or get creative to find that guy of the future if they want to take that next step. But I think they're just kicking the can and the quote unquote wide open NFC.

I think they're just going, let's see what happens this year with what we got. We got a good roster. Let's platoon our quarterbacks, basically. That's basically what they're doing. They're just like, we're going to platoon some guys and see what works out. And then we'll figure out that's what. Once we like a guy, we figure out how to get them. in the future. Both of these teams have kind of similar drafts where they're drafted in depth at

certain defensive positions and then interior offensive linemen, which it's fine. It's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, that's actually, I think, a pretty smart way to build your team. It's like, all right, no, we're going to make sure that we have answers at these interior offensive line spots after having to roll with Trey Turner and Andrew Nore while last year. You know, we signed Nick Gates and free agency. I think there's absolutely a world where they have three different interior starters on the offensive line this year. That's before we even think about Sam Cosby moving to guard. They're remaking that entire group.

And then maybe, okay, we like our past catchers, obviously. We have an offensive line that we feel really good about. Maybe next year is the year where we can just drop a different quarterback. We either make a splashy veteran trade or we try to move up the draft, whatever. We're going to try to build the infrastructure as much as we possibly can. And, you know, the Bucks are drafted interior defensive line depth and, you know, going to get Cody Mock. And it's another guard.

And so I think that the patience and the lack of urgency that they're approaching this draft with that they approach this offseason with, again, fine. Yeah. Not a judgment on it, but a fairly steady heartbeat for teams that I think some people might have ascribed a different level of urgency to. Yeah. I thought it might be some fireworks factory. And they're kind of like, no, we're still driving down that path.

Well, we'll get there when we get there when we make the move for the quarterback fireworks. But yeah, it kind of patience. This is like, so many of these teams, man, are just like actually doing some nice things or things I understand why they're doing it. It's not, it's easy to argue for, I guess is a good way. Like, it's easy to go, oh, okay, I understand what that line of thinking, which is just, yeah, it's kind of refreshing it away. I saw Washington as a team that could have talked themselves into saying, you know what, we're a Derek car away. Oh, yeah. If we go get a Derek car, that's our best way to compete.

And they didn't go that direction. I don't think it's crazy that they didn't go that direction. I think it's totally reasonable that they had a little bit more self-awareness than that where they said, eh, let's still play this a little bit. There's a chance that they just couldn't make any big splashing moves because of everything going out for the organization. But still, I decide Daraan Payne for a boatload of money. That's true.

But also, if Jacoby Brissette gets the same production as Derek Carr this year, I wouldn't be totally shocked or at least in the same tier at way less money. Or, you know, like, it's, so it's not like the most, it's not the craziest, like, way to go about it as far as, like, filling up that position. Smaller one here. I think the Browns sent us a message that they may be pivoting away from the run heavy team that we've gotten used to over the last few years. They did not draft another bigger running back in this draft. So it's Nick Chubb and Jerome Ford. Jerome Ford season, baby.

Holding down that backfield. And then most of the moves that they did make of any kind this offseason have been at the receiving spots. They went out and they traded for Elijah Moore, went from down for the second to the third round to do that, drafted Sederateauvin from Tennessee in the third round. It's kind of be that big body guy on the outside. And obviously, Sean Watson is there.

I think they hoped to be a different version of the offense that they had to be under Baker-Mayfield. And I think that the moves that they've made elsewhere, going to get Marquis Goodwin. I think that Anthony Schwartz season's probably over. He did not come along in the way that they had hoped, but Goodwin kind of coming in and giving him that speed element. And the way that they're receiving room looks right now with Goodwin being the burner,

Tillman being that kind of prototypical outside Big Body X with Donovan People's Jones now just being your nice fourth piece at receiver rather than being somebody I need to rely on. Your shot guy. Yeah. Elijah Moore being somebody that you can inside outside versatility, he can be your slot receiver from day one. He can move outside if you want to move Murray Cooper into that.

I think that's a complimentary skill set. And they sent Jordan Aitkenz in Free Agency, who I think is kind of an intriguing player. Sneaky, sneaky good sign. right there that actually I had to get reminded of when we were probably when I was prepping for this. That was I'm glad you brought them up because they've 15 receivers on their roster right now, which is even none of them are undrafted like undrafted free agents either. It's like they had 15 after they took Tillman. That's a lot of receivers. And like all these guys make sense. Like even David

Bell, who they took in the third round last year is a kind of a dirty work guy. You know, that is that, you know, the power slot, I believe is a term I like to you. The David Bell pick now. Yeah. This is going to be mean. No, it's here. It kind of feels like the Niners drafting a kicker in this year's draft. We didn't pick until the third round. We don't have that many picks after this. We need one of these guys.

We just need a receiver. And now a year later, they're looking at the roster and looking at David Bell, being like, yeah, we still need receivers. We still need some guys. When they see Cedric Tillman going next to David Bell, they're like, oh, that's what the kind of big ball winner is. David Bell was like, you had some first round hype for a little bit. And I remember watching him be like, oh, this guy is like a three or four.

Like, I bet. Guys, he's a, he's like an ugly dirty work guy. I don't know what you guys are seeing. He's not the audience receiver. Now being their potential slot option when David Bell was last year. Yeah. It's a little bit of a different level of juice associated with that spot now. It's exactly.

But what you're saying, though, like the kind of the grand point of this is they all kind of slot in nicely to each other. No pun intended. But just the, all these guys, the Zs, the Xs, the shot play guy down with People's Jones. We just were joking about Bell, but he is, him being like your number five blocker is not the worst thing in the world. And then you got a good one as the deep threat guy or at least battle it out. They got a good offensive line.

David and Joku just keeps ascending. Like he really is turned into a nice three down, wide tight end, which is kind of fun, watching his development over the years. And yeah, I think they're just, they're making themselves multiple or at least they're adding true, true speed to their team with different answers of how they want to use their receivers. I like what they did and even defensively. Oh my God, I have his name written down so I don't butcher this. Siaki Ika from Baylor.

Yeah. But he's another plugger. Like I like that built through the spine. They need this. They need guys to shore it up. You have the juice on the outside. Now what's shore up the inside. It's kind of funny body types that they're going with.

It makes me a little less, little more bearish about the Thomason overpay when they could get another nose plugger. a run game plugger in the third round on a cheap contract. But I kind of like it. They got two guys that they can plug in there really, really stop the run if they want to go that route. I like how they've gone about this offseason.

The best version of this team is really good. Yeah. There's a window where things hit. And it looks awesome on offense, especially. Obviously, it depends on what you get out of the Sean Watson this year compared to what you got out of him last year. That's the biggest question remaining. But even the guys they went after on defense.

You mentioned Ica and just being a big body guy, they can put next to Dalvin Thompson on rundowns. But Isaiah McGuire, the pass rusher that they drafted in the fourth route out of Mizzou, people like him. And that is the one spot where even after going to get Okorakwo and free agency, they needed another outside pass. They needed another edge guy. And if he can come in and be that third guy in the rotation for them,

and Ica can really give them some beef up front with Tomlinson to stop the run in a way they couldn't last year, the back seven of this defense is a lot of good. guys on it. I mean, that position group is really solidified. So the defense with a defensive coordinator shift, a little bit of a philosophical shift in the interior of the defensive line, you build the rest of the depth out on that group. And then you look at what they are on offense. Again, the 10% outcomes of this team at the top end of it, pretty good. Even in an AFC, it's pretty good. It is. It's easy to talk yourself into it. Again, I'm right there with you.

Even like J. O.K., who came along very well last year and how they're using them, keeping him clean now. That's why this is the booster effect that having guys that keep these linebackers clean or keep the speed guys clean, even a Miles Garrett, you keep these guys clean and let them wreck the stuff. That's why it's nice when you kind of have these other pluggers, I'll just

use the term, but other kind of dirty work guys, because they let the pretty guys look pretty. And that just, it's good for everybody. So yeah, they have had a good off season. The Juan Thorin Hill signing, I mean, there's just a lot to like with what they did on offense and defense. Speaking of teams that might be

good. The lions, the message they sent to us is, they think they're going to be good. They definitely do. This draft, and we talked about this so much this weekend, and I don't want to believe it to the point, but I think that this is definitely something worth bringing up one more time. When you spend your first rounders on a player with Jamir Gibbs's profile and then an off ball linebacker, when you probably could have used another body in the front seven. You probably could have used another pass rusher. We thought corner was going to be a position that they addressed fairly early on. Even the defensive back that they eventually drafted, Brian Branch is like a very specific kind of guy where he plays a very specific kind of role.

And Sam Laporte at tight end is the same idea where it's like, oh, if we get one more pass catcher at tight end, and if we get one more running back who can be a dynamic player for us and more reliable than DeAndre Swift was, and we get one more offball linebacker to drop into this thing. Based on what we were last year, like these are the little things that could be little tweaks on what we were last year, not we need to kind of keep building and pivot a little bit more than they did. This feels like they're just adding on to the current trajectory that they were on, rather than saying like we're decently far away. We need to make it more substantial moves.

I think there's a lot of danger in thinking that way. And I think that a lot of the time you look at NFL teams, and I think the bills are a perfect example, where we looked at them coming into last offseason, and we thought, hey, they can get a pass catching running back and these one or two more very specific sort of things, that could really put them over the top. And then you get to the end of the season and think, they need a lot of stuff, man. Yeah. And so there is danger in this. But again, I wanted to bring that up one more time that I think this Lions draft tells us that they're in a position where they think that they have a chance to compete right now.

They were adding a lot of what I feel. Yes. They're adding what I felt where I think all of us feel is luxury picks when they're still in building block mode or at least maybe the middle blocks of your pyramid of your team building. It's actually even funny as I've sat here and thought about it is that. I said it on Barnwell shows. I actually almost understand the Jack Campbell pick at 18 more than the Gibbs pick in the weirdest way. Just because of how the linebacker draft was, it was a bad one. It was a huge need even if they signed.

But that's another thing. It's a resource to spend on Anzolone and all that. And David Montgomery. And David Montgomery. I know. And so the draft after the first dozen picks, it's, especially in this draft is I understand what teams are going for. It's like I want this type of guy. Who cares?

There's a huge bell curve on this draft that right here in the. middle. There's a lot of bodies in the middle of this draft as far as talent level. But it just, I don't know, just even some of the arguments I made for the Gibbs pick was, oh, well, the Jets and Patriots liked them. It's like, okay. And like you might not be there at 18, but it's like you're arguing with yourself, it feels like. And I do like branch. And I do like Leporta. And I do like Leporta. And I actually do like Campbell. It's just that where they got them, their philosophy behind them, how rich even Leporta being tied in two in this class, I like Leporder a lot. But I don't know. There's guys that I

thought could maybe do more for them long term especially. But it just felt like a team that, like I said, the luxury picks, these felt like moves that like the chiefs would make, you know, a couple of years ago where they're like, oh, we're winning. 12 games every. Who cares? Remember when the chiefs drafted running back in the first round to kind of be that past catching element that would give them a little tweak on what they were already doing?

And then a year later, we're like, oh, man, the chiefs need another pass rusher and another corner and they need another receiver. This happens so fast. So let's play this timeline out, okay? Okay. after free agency, the current outside starting corners for the Detroit Lions are Emmanuel Mosley and Cam Suck, most likely, traded away Jeff Okuda. Emmanuel Mosley's on a one-year deal.

He's had trouble staying healthy. Isn't it so easy to imagine a world where Emmanuel Mosley gets hurt this year? Jerry Jacobs is thrushed into full-time starting duty. We get to the end of the season and we think, man, corner is a real need for the Lions heading into next year, huh? And they could have just taken Christian Gonzalez. It's not even that far off to imagine something like that. Or let's do it this way. The receiver run happened right after the Lions pick Jack Campbell with the 18th pick.

Right now, Marvin Jones and Josh Reynolds, they're slotted to be the outside receivers with James and Amon Ross St. Brown holding down those two spots. I can understand the Lions with Ben Johnson and with the current regime thinking, we were top five offense last year. We were top three offense last year. We were fucking rolling. We don't need to overspend on receiver because if we just kind of bought what we were doing last year and drop in little seasoning and complimentary pieces to it will be even better than we were a year ago. It is not a far off thing for me to imagine.

At the end of this season, we're looking at a lion's offense that kind of plateaued at times and hit some roadblocks that we didn't see them hit last year and think, God, they really could use another outside guy, huh? They could really use just like one more receiving threat. wouldn't this team look really nice with Zay Flowers, just kind of being able to move him around a little bit? Wouldn't this team look really nice with Quentin Johnston, whoever are those guys hits in that run that went off? That's not far off for me to imagine. And that's my concern here is that when you're making those little luxury, complimentary cherry on top picks, you forget that there wasn't as much ice cream down there as you thought there was. A lot of whipped cream here.

That sort of feels like. The corner argument is exactly it. Like even if you, I mean, Emmanuel Forbes or Christian Gonzalez, like either one of those guys, even later 18, it wouldn't have been in a reach at the time. Joey Porter Jr.,

one of those guys. And again, I'm not getting into the whole like premium position thing. It's more just, they need it still. Like you said, Amanda Lowe's only on a one year deal. Like,

and even just, yeah, it just didn't, it just felt like that made a lot of sense of where to take a guy as far as where those corners were slaughter to take at their talent level. You know,

first round or late first round types, much more than like, like, oh, yeah, let's get a luxury pick, a luxury rotational running back. They'll probably be on the field for 15 snaps. I don't know. How many games do you think Emmanuel Mosley has played over the last two seasons? Two seasons? Okay.

So 34 games. 18? 16. Oof. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's it. And that's fine.

If you think Jerry Jacobs or, you know, yeah, Will Harris or whoever you're going to spot in there and because those guys played for you last year, whatever. But it's just, again, your needs are. constantly changing in the NFL. Always. So when you're in a position where you're taking the best player available, taking the,

like the Eagles, for example, taking the best player available at a premium position where you're always going to need more of them than you think you do is probably the better way to steal yourself from worst case scenario outcomes than it is building it the way that they tried to build it. And Lucas Van Ness is who went a pick after, a pick 13, like, yes, he is a project type that is more of a long-term bet,

but you're in a spot to take that. That that's a better bet to make, I think. It's like, whoa, he's not ready to play this year. It's like, you guys think you're like contenders this year? Okay. Like, you know, they do think that. I think they do think that. And I think I'm looking at them more as like a, you know, 10 win team.

You know, like make the playoffs, maybe win a game. But I don't know, it's true contenders. They just have too many holes. I think at this point in time. So it's just that that's what they really just sort of betting. No, we're betting this year as opposed to maybe looking at the two three or window of their team. All right. Next one here.

It's sticking the NFC North, but don't have to do a ton on this because, again, another team that we've talked about a lot. The Bears, I think, have really made a conscious effort to balance the present and the future. And that is the message that they keep sending us over and over again. The trade itself from one to nine and the haul they got for it is a perfect example of that. Rather than getting the most picks you can out of that deal, I want to make sure that I'm getting DJ Moore back as part of this because I need an answer on the quarterback. I need the requisite receivers to extract the information I want out of this 2023 season. Darnell right in the first round combined with all of these high upside guys in round two and three on defense, that is that combination of it for me.

We need a right tackle. We need a right tackle. We did not want to overpay for Mike McGlinchian free agency or any of those other guys that were available. We need a starter there. We found one that wasn't an overt reach at that spot. But now as we get into the beat of the draft, when we have some more picks after these trades we've made, let's take some swings on defensive guys because our defense is two years away, even if you're spinning it optimistically, it's two years away. The offense, we need more answers now.

So this is a team that hopefully is pretty much set at most of their spots on offense. Roshan Johnson is a complimentary running back. I think he's going to get a lot of run there. Tyler Scott is maybe eventual Darno Mooney replacement. but hopefully your wide receiver four heading into the season. And then you combine that with having the 2024 first. They have another first round pick next year. They have a 2025 second.

So just trying to balance this, making the offense as good as possible in the short term, but understanding that we want to put ourselves in really good positions in each of the next couple drafts, in each of the next couple free agency periods to make sure that we're still building other elements of the roster at the right pace. And I think that they've done a good job at that. They had, you know, they had a lot of money in their wallet, but they didn't burn a hole in their pocket, which I really liked. Honestly, I'm not, you know, preaching to choir here, pandering to my, to my co-host here is I liked what they did this entire offseason this draft. Like I, at the very least, would look at this like as an A minus off season. I think they did.

The process is where you want it to be. And that's all that I asked for. After what the last regime was like, all I want is to feel like you're making these decisions in the right. way for the right reasons at the right speed. Yeah. Just giving in like the DJ Moore, I still, I'll say this again, it was, I think that was the flourish of that trade where I was like, that, like that, the fact that you're thinking that way that that was a part of this trade rather than just going, no, we'll get a pick.

No, no, we'll draft a guy. At a certain point, you need the players, but you don't want to stretch yourself to do that. Nope. Right? You don't want to put yourself in vulnerable positions to say you need the players. And so I think, again, it's about the balance. And I think they've done a good job of balancing it. And they got Nate Davis and was like, wow, they didn't go after one of the tackles.

But I liked it. Like all these tackles, we talked about so much this off season. It's like, wow, they all hit the free agency for a reason. They all have blemishes. Like if they overspent on Caleb McGarry because Chris Morgan coached him before, I'd be like, ah, I don't know if he's worth that much money. You know, now you're handicapping yourself and it's the opportunity costs of not being able to address it down the road because you spent a whole bunch of money on it.

So yeah, I don't know. They straddled it really, really well where I think. their, this team's going to be feisty this year. And now we, and we also get to see, you know, there's no, I'll say, there's going to be arguments on fields, but like last year, it's like, well, he did this as a runner. Well, he still doesn't do this as a passer. It's like, now we can get some answers of him as a passer. Second year in the offense with Luke Getsy, who has shown they can, he can be creative and adapt for his personnel. So really like, I like what they're piecing together. They're going to be feisty this year, potentially. And they didn't leverage themselves to do it.

Yes. They didn't stretch themselves too far to be feisty. And I think that is what I'm optimistic about, right? Too far from, yeah, leverage themselves too far from being feisty. I love that. That's exactly right. Because you still have all the draft capital next year. You still have a lot of cap space heading into next season. So in trying to be relevant and trying to get answers, but also understanding your timeline and having the self-awareness to do it, I think there's a lot to be set for that.

Understanding where you find your building blocks. And usually that's the draft. So now we take our, hopefully our right tackle for the next decade. you know, now we get the defensive tackles that we hopefully one of them will turn out, hopefully both of them will turn out to be okay. But you're getting guys that will be on this team and have chance of upside as opposed to just placeholders just because you can spend the money or just because you can use those resources to get them.

And on top of it, guys like Rochon Johnson Tower Scott, like those are good, like I think they're going to have good roles on this team that I really like to the Johnson pick. And I think he's a great, great, great number two for even if they want to upgrade from. He might end up being your number one. But even if they want to upgrade him from the future, his role makes a lot of sense no matter what. Useful. And I like that. They had a very useful offseason with getting building box like Darnell right.

Sticking with the top of the draft teams at the top of the draft, another one we don't spend a lot of time on because a lot of oxygen ink spilled on them over the weekend, rightfully so. The Texans sent us a message that they are done toiling and irrelevance. We can hem and hall about how much they spent to go get up and go up and get Will Anderson. But this is a team that walked into this draft and said, we're going to get a quarterback. that changes the face of our team on offense, and we are going to get a guy that we think can be an all-pro player every single year, year in year-on. We're going to get building block players on both sides of the ball

that have people talking about us, even if you can argue with the value and the way that we're going about it. And I understand it. Yeah, I do too. For where they've been, especially the last couple of years, I understand one of them. After shooting for 75s on Madden every single time they had a chance to, trying to get yourself a couple of guys in the 90s,

even if you had to spend a little bit to get it, I understand it, even if I think that there are reasonable concerns and reasonable questions to be asked about the way that they went about it. It was rich, but it's, again, it's where they're at.

Like you said, they're no longer, they don't want to just keep sitting and spinning in circles in the middle. And I like it, getting actual guys that could be needle movers on both sides of the ball. And I'm glad they went with a QB early on

because originally it was going to be, oh, they're taking a defensive guy at two, and they might not go with a QB this year. They're just going to trot out Davis Mills. I actually think even though maybe not all the pieces are long-term pieces, I do think it's a decent situation as far as offensively to drop a rookie QB in. They've checked a lot of boxes.

A lot of stuff that you are like, you're not scared. We're going like, oh, he's going to get his ass kicked. You know, oh, my God. This is terrifying. Like what really, the center is going to get beat every play. So even the one hole that they had on the offensive line, they drafted Drew Scruggs. It was a little bit of a reach, but it's still a strong. starting caliber center, I think.

And I understand that. If that's going to be the reason you're making a reach is think like how we need to center with the quarterback. Like this is a guy that is a big hole. The rest of the offensive. Develop together. Like if you're going to reach at certain spots for certain reasons, I understand that being the reason.

Yep. Absolutely. I like that. I always argue that. Like I like when a young center drops in with a young quarterback and they build that chemistry together. Like a catcher in a pitcher. But I like that.

You know, the other guys they have in the line, the vet receivers, even if they aren't all needle moves. It's nice to have vet receivers that know what the hell they're doing. He like CJ Straub is not going to have to worry about those guys run the wrong routes. Robert Woods and Noah Brown and stuff. He's not going to have to worry about these guys.

And Dalton Schultz. They're going to be right the right spot. It's it's not a bad thing to be reliable. And when you're a quarterback that is learning the speed of the NFL, it doesn't matter how good you are, having reliable, reliable options on the outside and reliable offensive line makes your job easier. It's less to think about. It's less, oh, God, is this guy going to get his depth? I don't know.

Now it's a pick six. Everyone's yelling at you and laughing at you. I think that's, it's nice. By almost being average around him, it makes me more optimistic about all of it because they also can move on from those guys when they need to upgrade. But it's not bad placeholders, I guess is a good way to put it, for if they want to upgrade the rest of the offense or team.

I think that's totally reasonable. You don't want C.J. Stroud's reps this season to be negative reps. You don't want them to be a negative experience because he's in such a bad situation. by going out and trading for Shaq Mason, by going out and signing a Robert Woods, by getting Dalton Schultz that one-year deal. They've done a lot of work to make sure that C.J. Straves' experience is here isn't going to be negative experience. That's scar tissue we talk about every so often. I think they've done a really conscious effort, made a really conscious effort of ensuring that that's not going to be the case.

Talk about bad habits. I'm sorry, real quick. Talk about bad habits. Remember that Justin Fields Washington Commanders game? It was like even though he was trying to do the right thing, he can't. So it's just working out or doing anything. If anyone has worked out or played a sport before, if you do a drill wrong, that's not a good, that's not a good rep. It's the same thing with being a quarterback and playing in the NFL. You go too far down the road in a negative way. And I think that they've done a good job of that. Here's my concern, though.

Okay. And again, let's fast forward this clock a year. Yeah. We get to the end of this season. And C.J. Stroud really shows us some stuff. You know, see, man, like, he's really did some good stuff. They put him in a decent spot. And it's promising, but we need to get to another gear.

We really need to get to another gear, especially, with our past catching options. And we were a 6 and 11 team. We're going to have the seventh overall pick in this year's draft. And maybe a Marvin Harrison Jr. Falls to us where we can really find a difference maker of their past catching spot. Oh, shit, we traded that pick to the Cardinals. Right.

That's my concern. That is, again, if you fast forward a year, some of the stuff that we can run into, that's what I'd be worried about. And the Cardinals, I'm sure, are happy. Like, although we're painting, I'm painting right now an optimistic picture of how this year can go. you still are starting a rookie quarterback. They have the second highest

to have the number one picking the draft picture. You just look even like a tankathon, one too, it was Cardinals Cardinals because of the Texas gave up. So good for the Cardinals, by the way, who had a great weekend,

a great week just overall as a team. Very quickly, Cardinals, we know we got a long way to go. That is the message that the Cardinals sets. And that is the message they should have sent to us. So I think they did exactly what you want to see. Couple more here.

They know what they think they know. that's another another quick one if we just want to run through a couple quick ones the packers we are who you thought we were yeah no matter who the quarterback is drafted a traits based defensive lineman in the first round and then taking some swings on like mid-tier complimentary offensive pieces a little bit later in the draft so there's both of those teams i think you know you know what you think we are that that's what we think we are i think both of those apply all right a couple more here the falcons are all in on this weird, interchangeable kind of specific offensive identity that they've started developing

for themselves. And I think you like it. I love it. Do I support, I've talked about several of these shows over this past week. Don't know which one was which, so I'll just say this past week. We're standing around which bar in Kansas City as we also had more of these conversations. Absolutely. When you're, do I condone taking a runnerback in the top 10? No, I don't. I'm not going to lie and say, I'm like a tough football guy and no better. But do I condone, like, building an offense that with a coach in Arthur Smith that I think could get the most of all of his pieces and truly do positionless football? Oh, hell yeah.

I think this can be a lot of fun because of what they have shown in the past with lesser talented players or even with their talented players, the Kyle Pitts is the world, even Cordero Patterson, Arthur Smith got the most out of and using him as a running back and a Swiss Army knife. now you're getting Bejohn Robinson, who is a way better running back and doing the running back things, but also just as good as a receiver. He has better hands at Cordero Patterson. Cordero Parison's played like a decade as a receiver and a better route runner. Not as explosive, but that's a whole different story. But also just these guys, all of them make sense. And when I've seen there's some complaints that, oh, they should have gone JSN at 8 if they're going to use Bejon as a receiver. Different type of player. That's not the player that they use on this type's offense for better for worse. They want these kind of big blocking types. that are kind of the intermediate guys, the Drake London, even the Mac Collins of the world, these bigger body guys.

Drake London is going to be a slot receiver for this team a decent amount. Yeah, and Pitts. That's how they see these guys. They're all interchangeable. Like, there's some of the best run plays last year was Pits lined up in a nasty split so like a close split to the tight end and blocking a D-end and kicking them down or it was a pin pole. Like they, everybody's going to ask to be to do everything.

They can go pony personnel with Tyler Arjir and Bijon Robinson and make, like, pick your poison and go empty. They can go with Jono Smith and Kyle Pitts, and John who's lined up one spot, Kyle Pitts is the other, Bejohn Robinson is the other. It's positionless football. And I mean that,

like sincerely, it's not just an idea that you say in the press conference because I actually do think Arthur Smith can do this. So I think Bejohn is just the final little exclamation point of this. And most guys that say they want to do this type of stuff, I'm like, oh, yeah, whatever. We'll see in week four when your training camp ideas run out.

I think Arthur Smith is going to like, this is going to be awesome. I really do. I'm very bullish on what they can do, especially on offense. It's the Desmond Ritter show. They may no other moves, free agency drafts, and Desmond Ritter is going to get a chance to be the guy for them this year. I think they have built an offense, or even if he's not the guy,

even if that third round tag where they can play it at their own pace and it doesn't work out, you get into the next off season. They're still going to have $63 million in cap space. do you go make a splashy move for the right veteran quarterback if he's available? Like, if we have to go get a guy, the rest of the offense is in place and ready to go, that was always the plan. Yep. And they've done it to an extreme where they've been very methodical about the way that they've built every other piece. Using three top 10 picks on skill position players.

Weapons. I mean, on weapons for this guy. And then you have the offensive line pretty much set to go now. You know, you go draft Matthew Burge on in the second round. He's going to slot in as a starting guard for you. And if it all comes together, you're really cooking. And you need the right quarterback. So if Desmond Ritter doesn't end up being that guy, are they in a position next off season

where they can add any quarterback who becomes available based on some of the financial flexibility they have? The answer is probably yes. Exactly. It's flexibility and a possible path if this works out. Holy shit, we just hit the holy grail, a mid-round quarterback. Yeah, then you've got $63 million in cap space and you can use it however you want. They have paths.

It's so much fun. Like even last year when starting, I'm a fan of Marcus Mariotta, so I don't want to get too mean. He was not good last year. He was a lot of spray throws. Yeah, he was bad, outright bad.

And beyond sprays, decision making. Yeah, I think that they, oh my God. He cost them like three games. They were thrilled with what Desmond Ritter was giving them at the end of the season.

Yeah. And that tells you a lot because it's not as if they were thriving in the passing game with Desmond. Yeah, yeah, they went from below average to average. No, they went from the entire season.

So Marietta and Ritter starts. They were 12th in DVOA, 12th in EPA per play. They were fifth in success rate on offense. They were one of the most explosive run games. And that's with Cordero Patterson and Tauer Algeria being your running backs. That's with, you know, not offensive. Kaywin McGarion have the best season of his life and it was, you know, above average. Other guys, like they would have fullbacks not even going to the right guy in the run game.

And it still worked. They had Marietta's spring, the ball, you know, London was banged up a little bit. at two, Drake London, you know, Zakias, our guy Zakias looked like an all pro at times. Like, you know, he had the most like, when you look at his stats, it's hilarious, he had like 28 catches and it's like, I could remember every single one of those catches because they were just nothing about big play. And he was one of the most efficient receivers in the league on like a per target basis last season.

An entire league. Any position, I think he was like top 12 into every metric. You know who else was, which is really funny? Matt Collins. It's based on where they slot it in within their offense. But the fact that both of them are is actually very funny. That is really funny, actually. But I just they didn't I, two years ago was the island misfit toys.

Last year was kind of like half misfit toys and a couple toys that we picked, you know, from the premium shelves. And now they're more of those really nice Lego sets. It's not the offshoot Lego set, whatever that that's called. So and so blocks. It's like, no, they got the big stuff, the $500 Harry Potter Hogwarts one. And so I really, I like it. I think that they have, you see the proof of what they've done with lesser players.

And now I'm really excited to see when they have these premium. what I think are all plus plus players because Drake London was my receiver one last year and it's so I just in that in that class and I think he did some really nice things as a rookie so just really excited to see this whole thing got to put together. Last one. What message did the Cowboys send us with their draft

and with their offseason, in your opinion? They had, they know what works for them. They had holes and they were not going to change anything about it. We're going to address the holes that we have and we're going to just run with it. So what I mean by that, we need a tight end. They lost Dalton Schultz. So let's get another 6-5-250-pound tight end that's kind of balanced as a blocker and a receiver.

Okay, we got Luke Skinmaker. That's great. I like that. And then on defense, they went with Macy Smith in the first round from Michigan, a nose tackle. And this was all based off of, and I have belabor this point, but I'm going to keep belaboring it, baby, is that it's that they signed last year. They traded for Jonathan Hankins from the Raiders. And then they had latent Vandersh as well. They have so much speed on that defense that they were kind of.

they need a different body type. They need a different style of player to kind of be their guy to shore up the defense while everyone else runs around with their hair on fire. First and second down last year, so Cowboys success rate without Jonathan Hankins on the field. So before they traded for him or when he was hurt, they were 66% against the run. So 10th in the NFL, not bad. Their Cowboys success rate with Jonathan Hankins was at 74.1%. That would have led the entire NFL. The Titans led the NFL at 73%.

The NFL average is 63%. So they go from about league average, slightly above league average, to the best run defense in the entire NFL when they had Jonathan Hankins. And I'm saying Jonathan Hankins more time, his name more times on this last two sentences than most people say in the entire season when they watch the Cowboys. But that's how important he was to what that defense did in the second half of the year. So they're like, why not get a really good player and have him do the same role to help everybody else out? I liked it. I really, really like that pick, even if it's not the sexiest thing in the world. I think there's more upside to him, Maisie Smith, but also just his role in what he'll fill short term and long term.

I think it was just a really smart decision for a defense that I think it will be top five in the league easily, especially with Maisie in there. Essentially what Will McLeigh said in the draft room, the video came out today of them debating whether or not to take Matthew Bergeron or Macy Smith with that pick. Matthew Bergeron would have been depth, you know, somebody that would have been two years a row. I nailed that pick where I said, what's the surprise pick of the first round? It would have been Tyler Smith last year and Matthew Bergeron this year. So me and the Cowboys see the same thing with our offensive lineman, which is the worst thing, I guess. They've done a decent job of fighting those guys. And Will McCleigh said, Macy's going to give us something right now.

We haven't thought of a defensive lineman this way in a long time to be drafted in this range of the draft. He would give us that right in this moment. And I do think that he was like the last piece they needed on defense for everything to really come together. They brought back Donald Smith. They bring back LVE. They have some depth at their corner spots. You know, the way that they didn't last year, they trade for Stefan Gilmore. They trade for Brandon Cook.

This is a similar situation to what we talked about. talked about with the Browns. It all clicks together here. Yeah. I'm pretty excited about it. Baby, we got Stu going. I mean, the personnel, I'm excited about the personnel in Dallas. We will see about the offensive play calling, the offensive leadership, all of that stuff

with Mike McCarthy now taking the reins there. But the personnel itself on both sides of the ball, hard not to look at that and feel pretty good if you're Dallas. The glaring needs for another receiver in a corner, and they address that in ways that I thought we're pretty creative ways to do it without sacrificing too much and Brandon Cooks and Stefan Gilmore. So I like that. And it's kind of funny that the cherry on top for the Cowboys is kind of one of the least

sexiest positions in all football, the nose tackle, the interior defense alignment. And that was their cherry on top. And I thought that I thought that was awesome. I really like that way of thinking of. We're going to take this unsexy position, but that's going to make us so much better as a whole defense. A couple one liners here. Ravens, lessen his wheels up, baby.

That's the message they're sending. They go get Wobie J, they go get Obie J, they go get Todd Munkin. We're in a new era where we are changing the, we are turning the page and it is going to be lift off over here, my friends. You like Lamar the runner. You're going to love Lamar the Thrower. I think that's exactly what they're doing. I am very excited about that one. Rams?

Sorry. I got, sorry. We got. Have they signed a specialist yet? Hold on. Similar to the car. Well, they drafted a punter. They drafted a punter in the seventh round.

Okay, they did. Similar to the Cardinals, Rams understand, we got a long way to go. How many picks do you think the Rams made in this draft? Oh, my God. Wasn't it like? It was 13. I was going to say 12. Dang it.

Okay. The four guys in the fifth round, two guys in the third round. Obviously, one of those picks was the Jalen Ramsey trade. So the youth movement is underway. And they signed an absurd amount of undrafted free agents as well. I mean, they are, they're in such a weird position, man. because you look at the teams that signed a bunch of undrafted free agents last year and guys that are churning the back end of the roster we're talking about the giants we're talking about the bears you know teams that are kind of deep in rebuilding mode i think that's exactly where the rams are but they are not going to admit it nope nope nope nope hey ducks on a pond everything's fine everything's calm but called it's a little busy they signed two kickers and undrafted kickers in free agency along with drafted the punter signed a long snap for as well if you look at the roster it's hilarious it's just the whole every second and third string guy it's like six six round pickers and three guys like six round payers and a lot of three times seventh round pick or undrafted free agent, like every single one.

I do like how they did draft a couple of the guys, like the offense alignment from TCU, Avila. I liked it. It was like, hey, hey, they're not, they're not going for a luxury. They did. I just think that they're not going, they're not, nothing sexy about what the Rams are doing right now. No, no. We got to refill the cupboards.

And I think that's the message they were sent at. Last one here. Rebuild the cupboards. Dolphins all gas, no breaks. Oh, yeah. Drop in Devon A chain into what they have. I mean, they only have like four picks and they had two in the top 100. So not a lot to talk about with the Dolphins, but going to get him as like the last piece, like the big offensive move that they made this offseason and in free agency.

It's hard not to like that. They have so much gas. Oh, my God. It's going to be so high octane. It's, again, that was one I. And Dane was like, oh, I mocked that the whole time. And when it happened, I was like, yeah, that that was, that's some fan fiction I can get behind because this is, there's going to be so much speed on that team that's going to be fun no matter how it shakes out for the rest of the year. I think that's really the last one.

had. I like the Steelers draft. We talked about that this weekend. They're the draft that kind of make you to go ooh a little bit. Same with the Seahawks. Kind of stock, again, again, defensive succession plan, I think would be the best way to play it. I think that's probably it, but I don't think any like overt messages sent there. Like the Giants, again, the team that went out and got a corner, they went out and got Jaylon Hyatt stuff that makes sense. You know, the Eagles, again, are who we thought they were. The moves that they made are pretty much exactly what you would expect. So I think we hit most of the teams around the league here. I feel pretty good about it. So don't, so don't yell at us if you're like,

of the four teams we didn't talk about. We're going to talk about everybody at some point and in depth. Plenty of analysis to come. Don't you guys worry. That is all we have for today. A reminder, Prospects to Pros will be back tomorrow with Dane kind of having his little, you know, punctuation mark at the end of this entire process. So please check out the last episode of Prospects to Pros for the 2023 draft season. Sincere appreciation for all the work that those guys put in, you know, from the time the show started in the feed until we finished the draft process. those guys will be back. Set it to Dane's face on Saturday,

have said it in private on social media, a million other places. Just an unbelievably impressed all the time by the amount of work that dude puts in, the type of work that he puts in, somebody that thrilled to have a part of what we're doing. So again, please go listen to Prospects to Pros,

and give those guys some love for one final show as part of this cycle. Football GM. We'll be back on Thursday with Mike Sando and Randy Muir. They will be with us throughout the entire offseason on Thursdays, so be sure to keep an eye out for them. One more reminder, if you guys want to watch the draft streams and you want to watch pick-by-pick analysis of every pick for the first three rounds, they're available on

YouTube. You can go back and watch them whenever we had a great time doing them. So, you know, please go check those out if you're interested in that. I had an iPad. It was a good thing. We were drawing over some film. So go check those out if you want to. Brick killed a guy.

If you want to leave a review of the feed, a review of the show on Apple Podcasts, if you listen there, we would really appreciate it. Again, I kind of think that the draft is the end of like the 2022 league season in a way. July 20th through May 1st is how I think of the NFL and the NFL coverage, probably because that's when I don't take a break is about July 20th through May 1st. So if you liked that stretch of the athletic football show, let us know. I would really appreciate that. We were going to do it today, but show went a little long. We'll do it on Friday. Kansas City Food Review.

We'll come your way Thursday into Friday. We ate a lot of meals together. A lot of those meals were very good. I actually tweeted that it would be Friday show because I forgot we were doing this. So it works out well. I didn't lie to the people on social media. KC. Food Review Thursday into Friday. So if you want to hear about what we ate in Kansas City and build a little guide for

yourself, if you're ever traveling there, we got you covered. It was stupendous. I can't wait for that segment. Real good. All right, guys. That is all we have for today. As always, thank you very much for listening. We will talk to you soon.

This was the Athletic Football Show.