The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Teams with the most at stake in the 2023 draft

Episode Date: April 4, 2023

Every draft is important to all 32 teams in the league, but some drafts are more pivotal for certain teams. Robert Mays and Nate Tice profile the teams with the most at stake in the 2023 NFL Draft—including the Panthers, Texans, Seahawks and Chargers—on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube4:20 Carolina Panthers11:58 Houston Texans22:04 Indianapolis Colts25:29 Seattle Seahawks36:08 Detroit Lions44:34 Las Vegas Raiders51:25 Chicago Bears57:21 Cincinnati Bengals61:21 Los Angeles Chargers64:56 Jacksonville Jaguars Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. It's the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today. It's my good friend, Nate. How you doing, buddy? Doing well. April showers, spring, May flowers.

Here we are. We're in April, another month. It's been rain. It's a very, I think this is the wettest winter or spring in Las Vegas, like, recorded history, or at least the second most in the last few years. So it rained for like 10 minutes? Yeah, it rained for like 10 minutes. Yeah, in Seattle, that would just been like,

every day. And then here it's just like, oh, my God, a monsoon. And no one here can drive in the rain, which is, I think everybody says about their city drivers anyways. But here, especially so. They cannot handle any somewhat to weather because they're expecting just wind and desert weather for every single day of the year. But overall, doing great. How are you today, Robert? I'm doing very well. It is April. And along with May flowers, April showers bring Zayflowers. They bring draft talk. They bring draft happenings. Bravo.

That's what we're doing a little bit more of today. Very good. We've talked about the draft a lot over the last week or so. We have fully pivoted to draft coverage. If you did not listen to yesterday's episode, me and Connor or chatted about some of the lessons we can learn from the 2018 draft, which I thought was a really fun show. Last week we talked about kind of the necessary infrastructure around some of these quarterback prospects. We've dug into the top four quarterback prospects.

So I encourage you guys to go listen to that. If you haven't, the draft content is nice in that it has a much longer tail than some of the stuff that we do during the season or even free agency recaps. This is stuff that's going to hold for the next month or so. So if you miss a show, I encourage you to go back and listen to some of them. We haven't really talked about the draft that much from the team perspective, though. What these teams need, what these teams are looking at. And you did the needs with Mina, all 32 teams last week. A lot of people are doing that, which I think is a great way to handle this.

we're going to kind of bite it off in chunks. Rather than looking at team needs for all 32 teams in one show or even a couple shows, I wanted to bucket this with a few different ways to look at these teams. And I wanted to start with the teams that in our opinion have the most at stake in this draft, the most to gain, the most to lose. I think by definition, it's going to be a lot of teams picking near the top of the draft. Right. Right.

Have high picks, a lot of picks. But that's what we're going to dig into today. We're going to look at, I don't know, eight, ten teams that we feel like have the most. at stake as we are three, four weeks away from the draft now. Yeah. It's not like, no, the draft isn't something that's, even though some teams like the ramps have maybe kind of kick the can on it for a few years, but it's actually important for every single team.

So it's not to say that not everyone has a little bit of stake in this draft process. Maybe the dolphins kind of get to hang out a little bit. But, you know, maybe that's one of the teams. But no, this is, it is interesting because it's some of these ideas that we do for the shows. It's funny because, like, we'll initially say it. I'll have my first thoughts and then I like think on it. I let it marinate and I'm like, oh, okay, sometimes it is the most obvious what you would expect,

but it's still fun to talk about because you understand the ramifications that one nailed pick or one mispick or one over allocated resources can have it on an entire franchise and not just that year, but the short term, midterm and long term. And it's really cool to look at these sliding doors that could possibly happen. Let's start with pretty much the most obvious one, but it's where we have to start. And that's with the team that has the number one pick in the draft, the Carolina Panthers. They made their move. They took their swing.

And now this becomes a potential franchise. It's going to be a franchise altering draft. No matter how it goes, we're just going to figure out whether that's in a good or bad way. The Panthers are going to draft a quarterback and they are going to set in motion what the next at least five years of their franchise probably look like. Yep. The clock started. We kind of knew that they would maybe be angling. It feels like another lifetime ago when we're looking at who could possibly trade up for number one.

And Panthers were always mentioned even at they were at number nine to move up to number one, which still should not be under emphasized that moving up from nine to one is such a big move. And like even if it stays in the top 10, it's a huge move. But it always felt like they were the logical team. And it's if you have not read the story that Adam Johns, Kevin Fishpane and Joe Person, who cover the bears and Panthers respectively for us that the athletic wrote earlier today, really encouraging. you to do that. I mean, real insight into the process that went into the Panthers trading with the Bears to get the number of overall pick. Polls is on the record. Scott Finderer is on the record. I mean, they did a fantastic job laying out the entire timeline associated with this. And one of the notes in that piece was kind of something we had talked about through this entire process,

that the Panthers didn't want to do this again because Frank Reich has just done this. Yeah. Along with the Panthers being on this quarterback Mary go around every single year, Frank Wright had just done this in Indianapolis. So if you're just thinking about the motivations in the building for making sure that this assaulted away and you just get off of this nightmarish ride from hell that you've been on for the last three or four years, I think there was enough of that that had piled up in Carolina where they were a very logical team for something like this to happen. And now we get to see what the actual results look like. Yeah. And even if some of the personnel from the Panthers, personnel execs members have not changed,

it still felt like they never tabbed their guy. Like, you know, they had Baker and Darnold and PJ Walker and, you know, Matt Correll in the third round last year. That's not, that doesn't count. That's bonus. That's not a your guy selection. So, like, I love that you're bringing up with Frank Reich because that's exactly it. As soon as he goes there, I'm sure they had that first meeting where they're like, they're one of the first meetings. They're like, hey, we're thinking about moving up.

And he was probably like, hell yeah, let's do it. Let's get one of my guys like that I actually scouted and have input on. And not to say that some of those vets that the Colts signed. or traded for the last few years under his regime that he didn't have say in it, but it's totally different when you're tabbing a guy in the draft and you're starting them whatever mold of clay that you're looking at. But it's just one thing is that we knew this was going to be a huge draft for the Panthers in some way she performed because I believe we both really like the roster and that they

could do a lot of interesting things. Now just moving up to one is just, yeah, it's even, it's under bigger magnifying glass. It has more ramifications. But I actually like this kind of self-imposed. pressure that they put on themselves. I kind of like that. It's like, hey, no, let's set the clock and let's make sure we get our guys. We're leaving no doubt, leaving no excuses that, oh, you know, the other three guys that we love, they were already gone. Sorry. Now we have to find some vet to fill the void. Oh, Andy Dalton's our starter this year. It really just seems like they're like,

nope, we're making sure that we're leaving no doubt, no excuses that could possibly make. I'm sure the owner doesn't hate that as well. You look at what their roster looks like just top to bottom. On offense, what they did in free agency, I think this is the right strategy. Make sure that we don't even in glaring holes outside of quarterback so we don't have to reach for anything else in the draft. So that's fairly set if you look at the 11 starters after signing out and Theo and after going to get DJ Chark and then you drop the quarterback in there. We like a lot of the pieces that they have on defense. You know, you could probably go get another edge rusher somewhere along the way. You could probably go get, you know, a little bit of depth here and there.

but I think top to bottom it is a team that is ready to be at least solid pretty quickly with the right quarterback. They have difference makers at every position. Not so everybody's a star, but they have actual like above average to good play. It's not replacement level play. So like what you're saying, some depth drop in. They still have a couple fourth rounders. They have their second round. They have their third rounder.

They can still find guys that are going to play snaps for them and not just like, oh, we have to play this guy. But actual guys that can make an impact on this team. So yeah, they set themselves up where even how aggressive. if they were. I understand why they did it. There's really not that most interesting stuff to talk about because we know they're going to draft a quarterback. Some of these other teams that are more sliding doors moments, I think the thing worth considering, they mentioned this in the piece, and I think that it's important. They did not trade the number 39 pick. They still have that other top 40 pick.

And Scott Fitter said it was important to keep that thing. We didn't want to be drafting number one and then waiting all the way into the 60s, which is the pick that they got from the Niners in the Christian McCaffrey trade. So they still. still have another one in the top 40 to potentially go get another pass catcher if they feel like they need that. To go get another interior defensive line potentially or another edge rush or whatever they need. So this is a team along with the quarterback third ground draft number one has another pick in the top 40 to go get another starter to drop into the equation for this season. You know, that isn't a dice roll that you're like, ah, maybe we'll get somebody and we'll hit somebody in the third round with the 100th pick in the draft. At 39, you want someone, hopefully, that is going to be able to contribute right away to what you are in 2020.

And that's probably what they're looking at. And even just looking at the draft and looking through the lens of what, you know, it's an educated guessing game about where everybody's going to go. We talk about value and everything, which is kind of just such an arbitrary thing. But still, it matters. But looking at this receiver class and even the defensive line class, there's a lot of guys slotted in that area between picks 25 and 40 or 50 where it makes a lot more sense. And like you said, you're not reaching for a guy. It's an actual guy that can do something for you. It feels like the Panthers are set, and especially with that very expensive coaching staff as well, which can not also another thing that cannot be under emphasized enough.

It really feels like they're building for a two-year window here. And then after that 20-24 season, I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, they're going to take a deep breath as a franchise. And hopefully you can reconfigure the whole team off a rookie QB deal. That's what it really feels like to me just as an outsider and seeing what they're piecing together. And I like it. And for a team that traded up from 9 to 1 in this draft, they still have a lot of picks because of the McCaffrey trade. Yes. They still have the Niners pick in the third round.

They traded theirs to New England, which we've discussed enough at this point. They still have the Niners pick in the fourth round plus their own pick in the fourth round. So overall, they have one, two, three, four, five picks in the top four rounds while also owning the number one pick in the draft. They're given away their first next year. in their second or 2025. We know that, but they still have a decent amount of picks simply because of the McCaffrey trade. So they're in an interesting spot and a pivotal spot for their franchise overall. Yeah. And the draft and everything. The Panthers hold all the cards. There's a lot that's going to trickle down from what the Panthers are, even in their division. I mean, what there was so much

ramifications. What happens in the NFC South based on what the Panthers do. It's one of the most intriguing teams this entire season, even before they moved up to number one. I'm excited to see with a path that they lay out. Another team that has plenty of cards in this year's draft, the Houston Texans are picking at two and 12, 33, and then they also have their pick in the third round, which is 65, and the Browns pick in the third round, which is 73.

So they have two picks in the top 12, three picks in the top 33, and five picks in the top 73 in this year's draft for Houston, which is a lot of ammunition. I want to start this conversation with something that Peter King wrote today in his piece. And we've kind of hinted at this a little bit when we've been talking about the Texans that we don't really know what the Texans are going to do.

There's such a black box that we assume they're going to draft a quarterback, but that hasn't been solidified anywhere. We aren't sure about that. So Peter King floated the idea today of the Texans potentially passing on a quarterback at two, taking a quote-unquote safe prospect like Will Anderson, which I always laugh at that, the idea that they're safe prospects. but a safer prospect in somebody like Will Anderson, and then potentially using that second pick they have in the first round

and some of the ammunition they have a little bit later to maneuver their way to also find a quarterback in the top 10. That feels like a bold strategy to me when you own the second overall pick in the draft, but it came out today. So I felt like it was worth talking about a little bit, just as a hypothetical in a way to frame some of the decisions and some of the different directions that the Texans could go here. Yeah, and as a team, even that is interesting because it's kind of like, I don't know, it's like, do more things to end up with the same answer.

Yes, that's exactly. It seems like a lot of shuffling to end up with pretty much the same place. Yeah, while also like giving up stuff. It's like just doing moves to make moves. I don't know. But really, I liked what they did in free agency. And I know always always make the joke about how their whole roster is built the 78 Madden guys. And they feel a little better than that.

And I liked it. It looked like a team that's set up, and you brought this up when we were talking about Bryce Young, we're not just saying that they're going to draft Bryce Young. Especially on offense, they have a lot of soundness up there up front and with their past catching options, you know, the Robert Woods and Noah Browns of the world where it's like not a bad place to drop in a young guy, a young quarterback. What we think is going to be a Shanahan offense, which probably have some training wheels on it. I mean that in a good way. I really do.

I like those free agency moves. They're competency up front, competency at the receiver position. And defense, you know, they still have plenty of holes. And that's where their second first rounder could come in or any of their day two picks can come in. So it feels like they're at least planning north to be a real team, planning of their foot and getting north like a running back. Okay, we're actually hitting the hole here where they're actually like coming to daylight if they just been bouncing back and forth in the backfield for like three seasons. So it's nice to see this franchise kind of like, okay, we're going to start stacking some of these moves. Even if we just joked about it, like moving up from 12 to maybe find another.

At least they're acting like a team that's trying to do something as opposed to just hanging out, which it felt like they did the last couple seasons. So it's refreshing. I think this team's going to be better quicker than people maybe give them credit for it, even if the AFC is loaded. But I really do think that they have some pieces that are okay. I'm not willing to go that far. They're over under six games. I'm saying they win seven games. Like not saying they were going to win 10 or anything like that.

So here's why I'd push back on that a little bit. And it's because they have no building blocks. outside of the draft that they just had. Okay? So I, because I was trying to figure out, okay, what are the positions of need for the Texas? Let's say they draft a quarterback at two, which I still think they will. And we'll talk about that in a second. After that, what are the positions of need?

The answer is still everything. Front seven. It's still everything. Because if you look at the guys on the roster, every single one of the pieces that they have at so many of these positions are guys on one-year deals or guys that are deep into their 30s. Desmond King is a 2024 free agent. Steven Nelson Perryman, Corey Littleton is our 2024 free agents. Sheldon Rankin's on a one-year deal.

Titus Howard is going to be a free agent after this year. Shaq Mason is going to be a free agent after this year. Scott Queeson-Berry is going to be a free agent after this year. They have no players. They have the guys that they drafted, and that's pretty much it. Everything else, there are so few guys on this team that are. an impediment to drafting a player at that position, I guess is what I would say. Because of the timeline that you're out.

Oh, yeah. But I'm saying, but they're not going to be like a shit show this year. Absolutely not. Yeah, yeah, I'm not saying they're winning 12 games. There's nothing that's going to cut off pathways to draft the players at certain positions. Just because Titus Howard is on the roster doesn't mean if you love a guy with a 12 pick, you can't draft a tackle if you want to. By the way, I want to have some.

I know you're, I know you're deeply aware of this. Oh, my God. Well, Deaute, we did a mock draft together, Deonté Lee, and I agreed with them. He had the Titans or the Texans taking, well, we had five tackles going in a row, which was hilarious. But he had them taking a right tackle or a tackle. I want to say one with Broderick Jones from Georgia. And I was like, yeah, that makes sense. You know, get another guy on the other side, you know, but he's got a lot of room for growth.

Put him on the right side. That's great. Texans fans really like Howard. I don't know if anyone knew this, really liked Howard and really don't like Anthony. Richardson at number two. They were not big fans. I got my LinkedIn page looked up from a angry Texans, or Texans fans. Sorry, guys. I just keep calling the Titans. Texas fans right there. So yeah, I see what you mean. Like Stingley is a building block to me. And of course, they paid a bunch of money for tonsil. And of course, they drafted Kenyon Green last year in the first. But like, I'm saying,

I'm kind of agreeing with you in a little bit because even receiver wise, like Nico Collins is a guy they drafted, I believe, in the third a couple years ago. He's okay, but he hasn't shown that it's like, no, this guy, we're really, this can be the ace of our receiver room. They could still upgrade. They can still find a better, better at than that guy that they have as their placeholder right now. So I get what you're saying. I'm just saying that this level of competency that they've upgraded, even if going from 78 to

81 on Madden, is an upgrade from what they've done the last couple seasons. I'm with you. But I think a lot of the moves that they've made are short-term moves. And I think that points to them drafting a quarterback. with the second overall. To make sure the ship's floating. We are. We are at the show we did last week with Derek.

We're putting this guy in a reasonable position. Yes. Jack Mason being here. Dalton Schultz being here. Even if just for one year, if we drop Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud into these circumstances, he's probably going to be okay. But there are so many different ways that they could go with all of these picks because there are so few guys that are long-term commitments for this team.

But we knew that. Yeah. We knew that when they, even. Even two years ago when they first had that first draft where they drafted Davis Mills in 2021, they didn't have picks in the first two rounds. This was a total tear down job. And it's tempting because we're going to drop a quarterback in here and they're going to be a little bit more relevant than they happen over the last couple of years, I think to accelerate

that timeline a little bit. But what I'm trying to say is let's all make sure that we're slowing down and realizing that they have like three or four guys that are part of the long term plan on this team. This is still a long runway, but this draft is a huge entry in making sure that you're turning this ship around. Say even if of these first five picks they have in the first two days, they hit on two of them. That is a win. You know what I mean? Where they actually get two guys.

If they hit on a quarterback, that's a huge win. But I'm just saying there's two guys that are competent starters. That's another, like just another room for growth for this team. No, I totally get what you mean, though. It's a lot of rentals. It's a lot of rentals to make sure everything's okay, okay, just for this year in 2020. Yeah, I mean, if they drafted a corner, like, it's like, okay, Stephen Nelson's going to be afraid after this year.

If they drafted an edge rusher, it's like, okay, Jerry Hughes is deep into his 30s, and he's not going to be around for very well. I mean, it's any direction that they go, but I think that that's, it's important to point out the fact that it's still an crucial draft because of how many picks they have and because they need to start building that foundation. Let's keep rolling through the top 10 here and talk. about the Indianapolis Colts. This draft is important and they have a lot at stake simply because they need to find the quarterback somehow. I don't know how they're going to find it, but they need to find one somehow. Whether it's this draft in drafting a guy with a third pick, the fourth pick if they have

to trade up or somehow getting Lamar Jackson, like the quarterback needs to arrive in some way, shape, or form. And that's why I think you have to include the Colts on this list. Yeah. When you said, let's talk about the Colts, I was like, yeah, no, duh, makes a lot of sense. It seems so fitting for this cold steam that with Chris Bauer as GM that kind of have like tried to hodgepodge their way and finding that quarterback to like one or two year deals. You know, the Philip Rivers experiment, Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz, all these guys that all of a sudden they're picked four in a kind of a four quarterback draft. It's kind of like they just can't get their like their candy, their cake and eat it too.

Like they just can't get into that situation where it's really idealistic to get their guy. I'm just saying they always have an excuse. But this roster can get reached. I don't know if they have an excuse here. They have to come away from this offseason with the quarterback somehow, whether or not it's a quarterback in this draft or Lamar Jackson. And I think that a quarterback in this draft is the far more likely outcome than them going to get Lamar Jackson for a bunch of different reasons. Do you have a Lamar percentage at all? Like do it would you, if you were a betting man?

I know you aren't. But what would you kind of like, would you say it's like no or like a five to one shot? you know, like fairly. I've said the whole time that I just think the most realistic outcome is for him to be the quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens in 20203. And I still believe that. I did too. I did too. That's where I'm at.

As much as fun as that is, because that is such a fun idea to think of about both franchises, what can happen from there. But I kind of feel the same way about that as well. I think the most interesting question about the Colts in the top five, the most pressing question is do they stay at four or do they go to three to make sure if we love Richardson? we make sure that we get him. And I wouldn't be surprised if they did love Anthony Richardson. Chris Bauer loves his traits. He really, really does.

This is a guy who drafted Jacob Eason. It's the only like big time pick he spent on a quarterback during his time with the Colts so far. Jacob Eason, if you picture a quarterback from 1994, that's what Jacob Eason looks like. When you're idealistic, all American from like just think of a school in the early 90s. Like Florida State.

It's not Charlie Ward, but just a Miami quarterback that took over for any test severity. Like that's what a, that's what Jacob Beeson looked like as far as quarterback shape. Do they go to three to make sure we control our own destiny here? If we do think that Anthony Richardson is the guy that we'd be willing to leave this draft with and we'll have us might not be. Do we just leave no doubt and move up and spend whatever it takes to move up? I think that becomes the biggest question. And if he's there at three, I would not be surprised if they decided to take him.

And then you work on whatever timeline you want to be on. Yeah. If you want to have Minchew play for a good chunk of this season, if you want to play for 2024, if you're okay, with being bad because it's year one of a new coach, I think that that timeline is acceptable for the Colts, but the quarterback has to come somehow. And moving up the one spot to the Cardinals, I'm sure the Cardinals are going to be making sure they go,

hey, so-and-so is interested in three, too, because they need a lot to rebuild that roster. But say the Colts do move up, it's not going to be a true, true high-end pick. It will be a pick, you know, it will be probably a third rounder or something like that, to move up to that one spot. But I'm just saying it's not enough to, like you said, being bad this next year.

Say they do draft Anthony Richardson. They just punt on the year and have like just a up and down year. It's not like they gave up that first round. They're like, fuck, man, we just gave up another top 10 pick. That's terrible. It's not, it's easier to swallow because of what you're giving up as well. Yeah. We need to mention them, but I don't think it's any more complicated than where's the

quarterback coming from. Yeah. We skip the Cardinals because I don't think the Cardinals have much at stake in this draft. They're in a multi-year rebuilding process. They are one of the most talent deficient teams in the league, whatever they do with three, whether it's draft someone or trade down, it's, I don't think that there's a lot hanging in the balance for the Cardinals this season. I agree with that. I think they just need best player available, every position, maybe other than quarterback. That's basically it for them.

The Seahawks, I think, are in a good spot, but are worth discussing here because if you have multiple first round picks and then beyond that, just a ton of picks within the top 40, I think you have to be included here. They obviously have five, but I had totally forgotten this. They also have 37. The Broncos also traded their second round pick to the Seahawks. The Seahawks are picking at five. They also have their pick at 20. They have the Broncos pick at 37 and then they have their own pick at 52. So they have two first round picks and four picks in the top 52 after making the playoffs last year. Pretty good. Not bad. That's how you win a trade right then. Not after this year, like no bonus picks after this year. No. I would certainly hope not. But that's what I'm saying is that this

is like, yeah, it's a real, it's a big draft. It's a big draft for them. Even on the heels of last year, where they did a fantastic job, I still think they have a lot at stake in this draft simply because of how many

picks they have. Yeah, it's, it's going to be, it's really cool watching them in the draft too is that you can see how teams feel about themselves. You know, they could say whatever they want to the media,

but you actually, once you make those, those picks, those cards are in, it's like, okay, this is how you actually feel. This is how you really feel.

And this Seahawks team that I'm pretty bullish on. I think they're going to have a good offense, like a top eight offense this year, maybe even better, is that they can use this, they can pick their adventure, they could choose their adventure. Do we, do we really push this year in a wide open NFC and really reconfigure our defense and get some building blocks in the front seven? Or do we decide to start the clock and take our QB of the future at pick five? Or do we, I don't know, it's really, really interesting.

And there's going to be another team we talked about as well. But I just think that's what's so cool about this team is they can have front seven help. Look at the tight end, the second first round pick. if they want to shore up that position. Look for a slot guy, a slot receiver, really add weapons, but they're in the position to do so. Like, whatever they decide to do, I understand why they did it. But it's, it's interesting.

I'm really curious what they decide. I don't think they have a ton of needs. If you look at the starting 22 guys, right? I think a lot of the ones that you said are correct. Slot receiver, one other pass catcher is part of that overall equation. Interior offensive line, Austin Blithe retired. They moved on from Gabe Jackson. So center guard, whatever you want to.

throw in there. I think another guy in the edge, just like a front seven piece. Front seven difference maker. Maybe an outside corner opposite to Rique Wallen. Okay. Other than that, it's a pretty good situation. And so I think we just last, we listed all four different positions. They have four picks in the top 52.

Yep. So there's a world where you can just hit out of all of those and pretty much have your team built in a down NFC. And I think feel pretty good about your chances. Yeah. So that's why they just become really intriguing because of that potential timeline with this, with them in this draft.

Yeah, like if Richardson falls, Anthony Richardson falls in them at five. Like, yeah, me privately as just a fan of football would love for them to take them because I feel like they're in such a good situation. But I understand if they don't.

If they're like, no, we got Gino on a cheap deal. We're fine. You know, a cheapest deal. We're fine. We'll go through this next to your window and ride all these young,

like this young talent that we have. Totally understand that argument. But it's, man. it's they're i mean seachsh fans should be pretty happy with where they're sitting right now this is this is this is their team is like really in good position and again it helps i know we're going to talk more about this this this month is that they nail this what happens when you nail a draft and of course getting gino out of nowhere helps too but when you nail a draft that's what happens your options start opening themselves up and it's like wow we can actually do this and it's not a dumb decision or it's not a

ill-conceived idea that we went down that path that's why i think this team is just going to be one another one that's really fascinating this year. When people are talking about the Gino contract, you love the Gino contract, but you hate the Daniel Jones deal. Gino has a $10 million cap hit this year, and then it's 30 next year. So it's $40 million combined over the next two years when pretty much all of his guarantees are in the first two years. Daniel Jones is $66 million over the next two years.

So that's a big gap in it of itself. Gino got $27 million guaranteed at signing. His base salary next year's injury guaranteed, but the same. that's it. So there's really $17 million in dead money left on his deal after this season. So if they wanted to draft a quarterback, there's nothing preventing them from drafting a quarterback. His deal is really interesting. There are tons of escalators for performance. So if he hits all of the benchmarks that he had statistically this year, he gets like $2 million a piece for all of them. So it's a very team friendly contract. They rewarded him. He got $25 million to sign. It's a life-changing

amount of money. It's good for Gino Smith. Yeah. But it gives the Seahawks a lot of flexibility depending on whatever path they want to follow at that position. So if they want to go quarterback, fine. But I just, because of the, Michael Sean did a great job laying this out when we were talking with him at the combine. Because of how Central Pete Carroll is the decision making process there, that thought process of, God, if we hit on these guys, like how competitive we could be right now, that's how a coach would think about this. Yes.

And he and a coach has final say on the 53 man roster for the Seattle Seahawks. So I have to assume that they're going to go with that pathway, not the one where it's like, oh, we've hit the quarterback. We'll just build for the next five years. Also, a guy in his 70s. So I just think that there's a lot of incentives for the Seahawks to try to fill as many of these holes as they can and compete in the NFC right now. Yeah, it's not like it's Sean McVeigh's picking this right now where it's like,

yeah, he's not even 40. Oh, Pete Carroll, Pete Carroll, my coach longer than. Sean McVeigh. Seriously, that's actually, that's a really, that's actually a funny bet we can make. Like, just put it on. Who coaches is longer in the NFL? Pete Carroll and Sean McVe. Yeah.

I'd be tempted to pick Pete Carroll. That is such a good point, though, especially with coaches, because coaches are always, well, one, when there's a lot of bad scouts in the coaching world. I'm sorry, I'll just say that right out right up because they always picture that if a guy has a deficiency somewhere, oh, don't worry, we'll coach him up. We'll coach them up. We'll get them right. Sometimes they can, but most of the time they can. because that's why the player, do you think the last coach didn't think that as well? But that's such a good point, especially with Pete having so much saying there that I could easily

see him going like, oh, Jalen Carter's there at five. We're taking him. Oh, and then now we take Michael Mayer with our second first round pick and boom, those are two ready made guys that can contribute right away. And we're not even just going to try to be a playoff team in 2020. We're trying to be a Final Four team in 2023. Like I could easily see them making that argument and I understand it. I'm not saying that's like a bad idea.

I think that's a decent idea and a good path to go down. Let's say that there are three guys that we think based on traits, production, everything else are like true difference making defensive players that you could find like in the top seven. It's Will Anderson, Jalen Carter, and let's throw Tyree Wilson in there too. Okay, those three guys. With the way that the quarterbacks are going to go, if you're at five, multiple of those guys are probably going to be available.

So you can get one of those guys, find another piece at 20, and then try to add two more guys in the second round and just really get rolling with this thing with Gino and quarterback. I think that if we're doing this in a vacuum and we're talking about having Gino Smith at let's say $30 million a year on average as your quarterback moving forward.

That I think is a little bit narrow of a window to try to slide through to be a competitive team. But based on where the NFC currently is, I just think it's a lot easier to talk yourself into that. That's what it does. it's if the NFC was the AFC this year, which it's not. But if it were, then I'd be like, well, you know, well, those young quarterbacks aren't going away, you know, this. But it's that NFC.

It's so wide open. We cannot emphasize this enough. That's why it's going to be, I understand why these teams are being a little more aggressive or a little more short-sighted. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I just understand the argument for that. And like you said, if they nail five, if they nail five and of their three other, their 20, 37, 52 picks, the nail on one other of those just for this year. It's like, man, that this team could be rolling this year and really, again, a wide open NFC.

Thing is, though, I just think that the Seahawks are closer than a team like the Giants is. Right. Like the Giants talking themselves into it. I just feel like the Seahawks have fewer holes. They have more pieces to rely on. And again, they have more draft capital this year to try to plug some of those holes. So of all the teams that are telling themselves that story about what they could do in a watered down NFC, this year. I think the Seahawks are probably rooted in reality more than any of those other teams.

Compared to like the Seahawks and the Saints. Like that's like that's another one too, right? That's I like where the Seahawks are sitting. Man, I mean, man, I think of like Jalen Carter though, like Jalen Carter and Draymond Jones. And I know I'm, I'm doing fantasy writing right now or fan fiction right now, but like Draymond Jones and Jalen Carter would be like the Bash brothers. Oh my God, it would be so much fun like with that. But that's again, that's a needle mover that you can actually take and it's a building block. That's why you're taking these guys in top five. They're building box not for this year, but for the future as well. I think a lot of the things that we just said about the Seahawks apply to the Lions. Who also I think should be mentioned in this exact same vein.

They have two first round picks, including the sixth overall pick and then their own. They have four picks in the top 55 because of the deal they made with the Vikings for T.J. Hawkinson. So the Lions own the 55th pick, which was originally the Vikings pick. So they're sitting at 6, 18, 48, and 55. Same sort of considerations. If the quarterback is there that you love, they can more easily move on from Jared Goff, and I think that it would make more sense for them to move on from Jared Gough just based on what he was for them.

Seahawks committed to Genoa financially this offseason, all that different kind of stuff. but if they choose to go a different direction, there's so many different things on the table for them because of what they did in free agency. So they signed multiple corners in free agency, but Emmanuel Mosley's on a one-year deal. C. Jack Carter-Johnson's on a one-year deal.

So if you love Gonzalez from Oregon or some other guy at that position at that spot, could you go with corner? Defensive tackle feels like it's a possibility. If Jalen Carter is there, do they want Jalen Carter? Charles Harris and Romeo O'Quarr are both free agents after this year. could they go with an edge rusher if there's one there at that position?

It feels like everything is on the table for them, but they don't have any super pressing needs that they have to fill with that pick, which is exactly where you want to be as you're heading into the draft with two picks in the first round. It's like when you build a Madden franchise and you're just like, wow, I got three first round picks this year. Whoa, wow, I don't really need this. Best player available. It's great. But yeah, the lines, yeah, I kind of have the same notes.

Can add another front seven piece. I'd understand that. Linebacker draft, it's a weak line. backer draft. Obviously, you're not going to add that probably in the first round anyways, but I like your discussion on the corners. Yeah, that's that's one where I think it's really interesting, especially with their second first rounder. That's where a lot of these kind of corners are probably slotted to go. And they're kind of, once, you know, the lottery starts kind of wavering out and the late teens. So here's my question for you. Yeah. The corner feels like a protect ourselves pick.

That's a long term building pick. We don't have a pressing need for in an ideal world. What do you think moves the needle the most for them in 2023. Which position if it hits makes the biggest difference for the current iteration of the Lions, in your opinion? Front four. Get a pass rusher of some sort. That's such a fucking Nate Tice answer. Well, if you think they're offense,

offense align is pretty damn good. You know, maybe again, another interior guy is kind of like... So I think that's for depth. Because they have five starters that Vaitai's on that. He took a pay cut. They signed Glasgow. as interior offensive line depth, but Vite has a free agent after this year. So if they were to pick an interior offensive lineman

one of those second round picks as like a long-term building thing, I think that makes sense. I get what you're saying with the front seven. I just feel like they could just use one more pass catcher somewhere. Yeah, but it's Marvin Jones and Josh. Six isn't that six. Yeah, okay. And not of six.

I just mean overall with like one of those two first round picks, I just feel like the thing that would get my antenna up and be like, okay, like let's really get rolling with this right now is if they get a tight end or another pass catcher somewhere in the first two rounds. That's, and that I also said tight end with their second first round pick. So yeah, that's what I was kind of circling. Even the Lions fans would probably strangle us both because they're tired of taking tight ends in the first round.

Well, that's a big question for me. Okay. With this regime, with this current regime, how do they view tight ends? Right. Because all we've seen them do is trade one away. Yeah. So I don't know if they think a tight end would be worth taking in the first round based on their overall team building model. The head coach used to be a tight end.

He might just go, we'll coach him up. We'll find a guy. I think they're more positioned. If they don't go quarterback at pick six, I think they're in a really good spot to rejuvenate the defense with their two first round picks and then have a lot of fun on day two with adding a receiver. A lot of those more outside receivers because remember, Amman St. Brown is a power slot. And that's where he does his best work. Jameson Williams is your speed guy. Now you get kind of another size receiver type, short and intermediate guy that would kind of really blend.

And that's where a lot of those guys are slotted to go is day two. And they have all those picks on day two. And that could really find one of those guys. You know, Cedric Tillman from Tennessee, A.T. Perry from Wake Forest. Those types of players, what's his name, Mingo from Old Miss. I know is getting some love as well. But that's where those, that's a little more tolerable to take on day two. Because in round one like JSN from Ohio State.

It's a hat on hat. It's hat on a hat. I love the player, but he's a hat on high. He's a slot-only guy. And that's the thing is, don't need that, don't really need that, especially if you want to use tight ends a little bit more like they like to. They like to use jumbo-jum-offense alignment as well. It doesn't really just make sense for where they're slotted. But they could really inject some real juice into this defense on day one.

And really, I understand why they would want to do it. There's a chance with those two first-round picks. They go with a front seven player with that with six at six, either Jalen Carter, Wilson or whoever, like a real difference maker potentially. And then at 18 they go in another corner. And they have even more depth at corner. I mean, there's so many different ways that they go. That's what's fun about these two teams, the lions and the Cocks.

It's whatever they decide to do, I, I totally, I understand. Like, I really do. I'm like, yeah, okay, I understand that argument. If they went corner, if they went Gonzalez at six, even though it's a little rich, and then it went tied in with their second first round, I'd be like, yeah, I get it. I get it. I get it. shore up those positions.

But it's good. They're really interesting. They're a fascinating team. All right. It's amazing how well, both of these teams have done to put themselves in the spot. Like, they are operating from such a position of strength, both of them. It's pretty damn impressive. And they're in the right conference to do so now.

It's like, I mean, you got to feel, if you're a Lions fan and a Seahawks fan, you've got to feel really good right now. You really do about what your team's fortunes are for this year and for the next two, three years. All right, let's keep moving down the top 10 here. You wanted to talk about the Las Vegas Raiders as part of this exercise, but I think is totally fair. Why do you think the Raiders are one of the teams of the most at stake in this year's draft?

It's more, do they want to put themselves at stake? Yeah, yeah, okay. Do they want to put all the shifts on the table? I think that's a good question. How big is their bet? Do they want to take the plunge and do the quarterback in the future? Do they move up for that? Do they just stand pat, say whatever, BPA, best player available?

This roster is, I am, it's such a hodgepodgepodge roster to me. The defense, they're, they still need stuff off the middle, at the spine of their defense. They're just trying to find tolerable starters. I actually like, by the way, the Austin Hooper signing. I actually really like that for them. I totally forgot they had done that. It was really under the radar, but I actually liked that one for them. They still need some help in the offensive line, their defense, but do they take a guy?

Does Josh McDaniels go? I want my guy to start my clock that I'm going to build and kind of craft and mold. They might be in a bad spot at seven. Those guys all might be gone. So you don't know, they might just have that card taken away from them. So I think more it's how much, it's, it's, how much, it's, bidding that they're in Vegas, how much they want to bet on this draft for deciding their future, or if they just kind of want to get the best player, hey, we'll move on.

If we want to get our quarterback to replace Jimmy G down the road instead of having a stopgap guy, that might be next season or if there's somebody in free agency because it seems like that's a new thing every year now. How many quarterbacks are available via trade or free agency? When I was looking at the roster, my first takeaway was they need a lot of guys. Yeah. Like they need a lot of guys. Even the moves that they made in free agency, okay?

They bring back Alex bars. They bring back Illuminawer. They go get Duke Shelley and David Long. These are all one year stopgap options at these positions. They need upgrades at a lot of premium spots. Upgrades are a key word there. They need them. They need upgrades at a lot of premium spots.

So if, let's say Will Levis is sitting there at 7, and he took a top 30 visit to the Raiders this week, Vic Taffer reported it. I think Ian Rappaport also did. is does another team feel comfortable moving up to get him? Are they willing to move back because of how many pieces I think they still need? Right. The secondary, in the front seven, along the offensive line.

Again, these are all stopgap options at a lot of these positions that they signed or resigned at free agency this year, but there aren't a lot of long-term building blocks at those spots. And I think that's an important consideration here. It is. It is. It's a team. You got to remember where their background is, GM and head coach. to come from New England.

Even, you know, not everyone says have to come from where they, where they came from. You don't have to act in the same way. Thomas Dimitrov acted completely different to Bill Belichick as when he was the general manager, you know. But, you know, it just feels to me, so like what I'm saying there is that patience is probably a part of their DNA and understanding like, yeah, it's not just one guy. It's just, they're such a weird team to me. I really just can never, I can't grasp what they're trying to do.

And again, the draft is a great way to show their indicators, especially a team that keeps so much to the best like the Raiders do. I feel the same way. I thought with Renfro, excuse me, with Waller and with quarterback being a more realistic possibility, like in my mind when they were picking at seven, I was like, oh, they might be, they might be in range for a quarterback. You drop a rookie quarterback onto that team. You got some past catchers.

That guy's going to be in a decent spot for a guy picked in the top 10. But now it doesn't seem like quarterback is going to be that realistic of a possibility, unless they want Levison, Levis ends up. becoming the guy at seven, feels like quarterback's going to go with the top three picks. They wouldn't need to make a move up the draft to ensure that they got their guy. So now it feels like they're kind of in this middle ground where we have Jimmy Garapolo and we've got a couple other pieces like this team where we made a real push last year with Devante. But now Derek Carr is gone and we don't really have that many guys on defense. I just don't know exactly what direction this is going to go.

They have a lot of new faces on defense. They signed Robert Spillane. They went out and got Marcus Epps. and free agency. Brandon Faison is back to play corner for them. But it just, there aren't that many guys who move the needle. And that's why my first thought is just trade back.

Just trade back and try to accumulate some more picks because if you actually look at the foundation of the roster and kind of the underlying talent on it, they're further away than the star power that they have might indicate. Yeah, you see Max Crosby and Chandler Jones. And you're like, oh, that defense is rock and a row. Even Devante. Like, Devante, I mean, like, the guys on both sides of the ball, it's like, oh, they've got, they've got some pieces. And then you look at it, like, that's it. That's it. They've got some pieces. That's it. Those three or four pieces that you know, those are the pieces that they have. Exactly. I know that's, yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I think you're playing, though, the trade back, especially how the dominoes are falling, it seems like. That makes a lot of sense for, even if it's just moving back five spots or something like that, seven. It might be with the Texans who want to trade up for seven, you know, maybe go with the levice. You know, you know,

You never know with this. I was going to shake out, but they do need more help than you initially think. Even the offensive lines like, eh, you know, like it just doesn't feel like a true, like, upgraded offensive line or a better one. They're fine. Like I'd say they're fine. But it's just like, yeah, the strength of this team is their receiver, you know, and Max Crosby, like that's the strength of their team.

But they just see much, there's so much holes on that team more than you would think. I'm pretty sure at least three of their starting offensive linemen are set to hit free agency after this year. I think so too. So looking at it right now, Illumor, Alex Bars, and I believe Andre James is also sent to a free agency after this season. I think he's on the last year of his contract. The Tom Cable favorite, the anointed guy, they gave a huge, they gave like a decent size extension. He played like two games before.

Some crazy thing. It might be misconstruing it, but that's how I remember. That's right. He did not play very often before he got that extension. And they moved on from Roddy Hudson, just gave him the starting job. So again, another team that either. even if those guys are slotted in there right now, not a lot of long-term building blocks at those positions,

which I think puts more spots on the table than you might think. It kind of changes the timeline for how often, how quickly they want to compete. The surprisingly interesting Raiders, that's all we're going to go with. Falcons are at eight. Don't think we have to talk about the Falcons. They're going to roll with Desmond Raider.

I think that they're operating at their own pace here, which I actually, I kind of applaud them for. I did too. The fact that they're just like, you know what? We're good. We're just going to keep moving along like this. we feel just fine. They were pretty aggressive in free agency,

but I still feel like because they were aggressive in free agency, there aren't that many holes that they need to plug. We'll talk about a couple of teams here. They're like Matthew McConaughey and Daisy Confuse. I'm here, man. I'm here. They're good. They're doing just fine.

A team that I still think has plenty at stake, even after trading out of the number one overall pick is the Bears. Because they still have three picks in the top 61, okay? They still have six picks in the first four rounds based on some of the other the trades that they've made. They have an extra fifth round. pick from the Patriots, and then they have the extra fourth round pick from the Eagles that they got in the rubber quint trade. So there are a lot of just like random $5 bills laying on the ground for this team, which I think was the point.

Yeah. That's the mode that you need to be in if you're at this stage of the team building process and your Ryan Poles. So I still think that there's a lot at stake for them. And possibly, one of the things I think worth mentioning is that they need to find a right tackle mostly, most likely somewhere along the way here. I mean, they, if you look at the moves that they made along the offensive line, they signed Nate Davis, but they don't really have an answer at right tackle right now. It seems like their most likely situation here is that they're going to let Cody Whitehair, Tevin Jenkins, Nate Davis, and Lucas Patrick battle it out for the three interior offensive line spots. My assumption would probably be that left to right week one of this season, it's probably going to be Braxton Jones, Tevin Jenkins, Cody White. White Hair, Nate Davis, from left to right.

That's my bet. Cody Whitehair is still probably a better player than Lucas Patrick at this stage of things. And Ryan Poles is on the record this spring saying that he's probably going to get a look at center. He has experience there, all that stuff. So that still leaves a whole at right tackle if you don't think that Kevin Jenkins can do it, which I think is probably a reasonable assumption. So at nine, do you go get a Peter Skoroski?

Do you feel like you can trade back? A lot of the things that Poles has said, which he has, said a lot of stuff this spring. It's like hard to. I know, man. He's always on the record. It's hard to collect all the on the record comments that he's made. So something that he said to Albert Breer earlier this spring when talking about the decision to trade down, he said the booster, the trade booster was the player that would come with the trade, which is DJ Moore. A known talent that I knew I was going to get. If it pushed me outside of the value bucket, If 9 pushed me two spots out of where I would 100% thought I could get a blue chip player,

the player that was going to be thrown in was going to have to enhance our roster enough to make me feel comfortable with going to that next level in the value system. So does that mean he feels like going to 9 pushed him out of that blue chip range? If the answer to that question is yes, does he feel comfortable trading down from 9 and getting a right tackle somewhere along in the mid tier of the first round? So I think that becomes the question. But I think having that big of a need at right tackle coming into the draft based on where the rest of your offense is, that means you have a lot of stake. Because that's kind of the final piece to put together a good enough offense, an offense that clears the bar to get an answer on your quarterback.

And that's before we even get to the two second round picks and the other picks that they've accumulated along the way here as they try to rebuild the defense and everything else. And especially the offense line in really every position outside running back is that it's, It's really what flavor do you like? And that's what's interesting to me. So saying that I like the blue chip comment because every team when they break it down, there's people that have said this. There's really usually a dozen to 15 guys that truly have first round grades. This draft might seem even a little lower on that.

It might be a lot of those guys are typically in the 20 to 40 range or kind of creeping up now into the early teens because that's just how the town. It's interesting that you said that because that's why Federer said that he didn't want to trade away the 37th pick because he felt like the range where he wanted to have a pick was 20 to 40. I believe it's the exact number that he said. I wholeheartedly agree with that because that is this class seems to me, I think there's a lot of you, just like the free agency class a little bit. I think there are a lot of useful players in this draft,

maybe just not those star talents, but a lot of guys are like, this is a good player. It's just that it's how you squint and how you see all of them, especially every position really, it feels like that. But at tackle, you know, you know, some people have Paris Johnson Jr. as their tackle one, which personally I do as well. But I'm a big fan of Darnel Wright.

But some people don't have Darnel Wright from Tennessee until the second round. They have a second round great on him. But teams might feel the same way. So all of a sudden you move back to 16 or 14 and you get another day two pick this year or next year. And then you still get the guy that's in the same tier of player. So I understand that line of thinking. And also just, you know, the draft is a crapshoot. And we want to say that, you know, every picks a coin flip.

But really, some bets are better than others at the crafts table. Are you betting the hard ways? Are you betting the pass line? Are you betting the horn? You know, like everything, all these bets, you're kind of changing. But if I see these two players as the same kind of level of bet, well, why not get a little more incentive? Why not get a little more where I can make another bet as well?

So what I'm saying is I understand that process of maybe even want to kick back even further, especially if they're looking at offensive line. Because I think they're in a great position to have a legit starter because I had these guys kind of tiered similarly. This is just me personally, but others I've seen Dane, others I've seen online. And on top of that, getting more draft capital. So I understand that plan totally. And I think they're sitting in an okay spot to do so, which is kind of nice for a team that kind of felt like a lot of things went badly for them for a few years, that now some things are coming up bears for them as a franchise. Listen, it's not nearly as much at stake as if you were drafting number

one, but I think still having three picks in the top 601 when you have such a talent deficit, especially on your defense. Like, this is still a pivotal draft, even if you have a first round pick next year and another second round pick in 2025. This is still a huge, huge draft for this team. Part of that is that you already got DJ Moore. Like that, that is part of the draft hall and that's why it's been pivotal. But I think there's still a decent amount at stake for the bears.

All right. Absolutely. Let's talk about a couple teams that are outside of the top 10 that we feel like have a decent amount at stake in this year's draft. One of the teams that you wanted to mention was the Cincinnati Bengals, which I, we didn't, we didn't talk about why, but I thought it was an interesting choice. Why do you think the Bengals are on this list? It feels like this, the biggest window that the Bengals will have for a while is this year.

And I'm very curious to see how much they have a great chance to both make a push this season, but also set themselves up for pivot points down the road because they're about to have a lot of pivot points. Like this franchise as a whole because they nailed so many draft picks, but also where they set themselves up. But if you look at their contracts just in 2024, so after the season, first they have to figure out the borough situation where they pay them, you know, the GDP of a small country. They have, you know, the T. Higgins contract coming up. Tower Boyd's deal is expiring, which usually you'd be like, oh, it's a slot receiver. But the Bengals are in 11 personnel, 90% or more of the times.

And Tower Boyd's really freaking good. Jamar Chase is going to come up down the road. The only running back on their on the books. on 2024 is Chris Evans, Captain America. You know, and then at tight end, they have zero contracts on the books. O line, they're generally okay, but they have to figure out Jonah Williams. Defense line, DJ Radio is coming up. Linebacker, they sign Pratt, they'll assign OSI, and then cornered, they have to figure out their

future. So I'm very curious how they go about with their draft capital. This is a Bengals team that kind of likes to kind of stay in their own world and operate at their own rhythm and decide their, and make their decisions at their own pace as well. But man, they got a lot of decisions to make coming up. And so I'm curious of how this draft, what they go, are they going for another lineman? I don't think they will.

But are they going for what position are they leaning towards? They go tight end, even though they kind of de-emphasize that position. They signed Irv Smith. Do they shore up the defense, a draft a corner? Another position that looks at that spot. So I'm just really curious at what way, what path they're going to start, where are they going to put bricks down as far as what they're deciding really after this season? because I think they have a great window this year, even though the AFC is really, really tough. But after this season, it's really, they're going to have to reconfigure this team and reshuffle a lot of things,

even with some guys under contract in 2024. But I'm curious how they set themselves up for those decisions. I was so fascinated about what the Bengals were going to do this offseason period coming into it because they had a lot of financial flexibility and they had a lot of wiggle room to play with. I was like, are they going to try to try to retain their guys? They're going to try to go out and get outside guys. And it's been a combination of the two, right? So they could not keep Von Bell because he got guarantees into that second year that they just weren't going to give. So they went out and signed Nick Scott to replace Von Bell.

And they kept Germain Pratt. That was a move that they ended up making. But they did go out and make a big time outside splash by going out to get Orlando Brown. So it's been a combination of retaining their guys like Pratt and then going to get somebody like Orlando Brown. But now it's like, okay, we didn't do that much to juice up the roster on either side of the ball. Our big splash year was Orlando Brown. They signed Irv Smith Jr. To be their kind of flavor of the year at tight end, which they've done over the last

couple of years. Which they can do because of how the receivers are. They can do that, which I totally understand why they do. It's just really funny that they're able to do that. But that's it. So those are the enforcements about this team that we think has real chance to compete for a championship right now. So that means the rest of the enforcements are coming through the draft.

So can they get a guy whatever position, you know, in the, in the first. first round. Is it another pass catcher? Do they go get a tight end because Irf Smith isn't like the answer there? Do they get another tackle because Jonah Williams is going to be a free agent after this year? Do they go shore up the front seven and get another piece there, which they really haven't done? You know, you mentioned them trying to make a splashy move there. I mean, they've added no pieces along the defensive line this offseason. Is that the answer? So I'm also fascinated by them. The team that I was going to mention, I think it's kind of, it's in a similar vein and a similar

conversation. Yeah. Was the Chargers. Yeah. They've done even less in free agency because of all the spending that they did last offseason. But similar kind of conversation, they're going to have to pay their quarterback soon. This is one of their last years to kind of take advantage of that rookie quarterback contract and the flexibility that they have. And the only outside free agent that they have signed of any note is Eric Kendricks. Right. That's it.

They've done nothing else in free agency. Nope. So they need this draft to have an. injection of talent to hopefully change things for them from where it was last year. And they're in a better position just by virtue of being healthier, right? So their offensive line is set. They are going to move. We talked about this before they announced it.

Zion Johnson is moving to left guard. Jamari Sawyer is going to play right guard for them and they re-signed Trey Pipkin. So the offensive line is set. But they still need something else in terms of difference makers and playmakers on offense. They need something. I don't know where it's going to come from. where in the draft it's going to come from, whether that's a 21 or they're going to trade down, they need some extra pop on that side of the ball.

And it doesn't feel like it's coming in the veteran market. So it probably has to come from the draft somewhere along the way. It's unbelievable. The Chargers still need juice at receiver. They do. It's funny. It's just like it's been hanging over their heads for years now. These two teams, I really liked what Deonti and I had mocked for as part of their first round picks.

we had Bijon Robinson going to the Bengals, which I thought would have been hilarious. Just juice up that offense all the way. Let's go. I mean, I don't think that'll happen. No, but it could because I think they're more than willing to move on from Joe Mixon if that was that happened. And honestly, we talked ourselves into it too because how much Burrow was targeting the running backs last year when he was becoming more patient. It was like, actually, don't hate this, actually. This is going to actually be pretty sweet, especially with their win now right now.

But also the Chargers who we had slotted in was Darnell Washington from the Georgia, an actual tight end that can block. Like I think Chargers would be really like that. I have that position actually be a plus in the run game column. That was another one that I like. But they do. They just need juice at there, especially where they're at just as a team building strategy. And where they're the ages of some of their players, it's they're a team that they can go any position and it would make sense to me.

Like, yeah, yeah, I get it. I get why you went that position. Even if they did go receiver, which I don't think they will in the first round, but maybe in day two, I'd be like, yeah, okay. Well, I would be surprised if they stay put and they pick in the first round, I wouldn't be surprised they dropped the receiver in the first round. It would be, I know. It makes sense for as far as what we talk about, we only usually talk about quarterback.

It's like bridging between the past and the future. You can do that at other positions too. It doesn't, you know, the Bengals did it at safety with Dax Hill and what they're going to move out with the safeties they moved on from. But at receiver, I totally make sense. And also adding a different flavor than what they have in size and add some juice. Like it just makes sense for them. So no, it totally makes sense and the sense that these two teams have a window this year.

But then after that, it's like, wow, they have a lot of, you know, a lot of bills to pay after this year. And a lot of receipts to sort out and figure out how they're going to divvy up. Beyond the bills to pay, I think the chargers have real urgency to win. Oh, yeah. The chargers need to win this year. And if they're going to need to win this year and they're going to need to be better than they were last year, they need the draft to make things better than they were because they haven't spent any money elsewhere. This is where those reinforcements are going to come from.

And I think the last team to mention, again, kind of in a similar way, the Jags have done nothing in free agency. The Jags have added no players. So if they're going to have an injection of talent this year and they're going to be a team that really competes in the AFC, that's going to need to come from the draft. The only outside move that Jaggs have made in free agency this year is signing Deerunis Johnson. Which I like.

That's the move of the Jaggs. Obviously, Calvin Ridley is the Jags, big offseason addition. But again, it still feels like if the Jags are going to have an injection and have somebody, have the cavalry come, be like, okay, this is why we'll be a better team in 2023 than we were in 2022. That is mostly going to have to come from the draft. And I think that's what changes the stakes. Yeah. And for a team that feels like they're on the upswing, I think a lot of us are optimistic with them. I mean, they still need a starting corner.

They need more pass rushing juice. They need it blocking tight end as much as stand out year, Evan Ingram had. This team is, their big losses, and actually is more than you would think, are Arden Key and Chris Mannhurtz. And I totally understand, like, those guys are actually very important for what they did last year. And they have to figure, they haven't answered who's going to fill those spots for them. So it's, yeah, I mean, they lost a lineman, you know, and yeah, they have answers and everything like that. But I agree. They are a team that these and nails some of these guys, and they have to contribute early.

You can't have a Devin Lloyd luxury pick like they had last year. You know, where they, it's like he can go up and down. We don't really need them now. But it's like these guys need to play, especially of this team that feels like they're pushing for playoff spots. All right. That's all we got. We hit about 10 teams. We're going to do a couple more of these, again, kind of bucketing the teams in different ways.

We're going to get to most of the teams and kind of their outlook heading into the draft over the next month or so here, along with more position-specific shows. and some of the other bigger picture stuff that we've been doing. So just trying to mix it up a little bit. Yeah. I'm doing a little bit of everything here in the month or so of draft coverage that we're going to have on the athletic football show. Speaking of, talked about it on Twitter today. Might as well start talking about it now.

We are doing a live draft show in Kansas City this year from a studio and everything. Remember our 2021 draft show? I can't describe to you guys. But it was like being in, we're in the courtyard, I'm Dearborn in Chicago. It was in a normal sized hotel room. Yep. Where did we sit?

Was it at a table? It was a table. Yeah. I don't even know how we got the table in there. Yeah, I don't either. Somehow, we managed to get like two or three iPhones in a normal sized hotel room in a just a normal hotel in Chicago for the three of us to do a live draft show. And you did, it was when the Justin Fields trade happened and you're using your phone

as one of the cameras. And your phone's like buzzing as it's recording us. And your phone's going nuts as it's recording us. It's one of the first big things we got to do as the athletic football show. And it is fun two years later as the scale of this has changed to kind of look back at how much we've grown. And I think that this will be a real opportunity to see a lot of that. It's going to be me, you, Dane, from a studio in Kansas City. We're going to hopefully have tons of bells and whistles and different stuff for you.

But the core of it, we're going to have seven hours of live draft coverage again, the same way that we have over the last couple of years. We're going to do a live show on Thursday night, kicking off shortly before the draft begins, going all the way through the first round, have reactions to hopefully every single pick. On Friday, we're going to have another live show for rounds two and three, kicking off shortly before that draft begins.

Again, me, you, Dane, hopefully some special guests joining us. It's all going to be live, all going to be available on our YouTube page, So be on the lookout for details, for different links, all of that kind of stuff in the lead up to it. But put it on your radar right now, the athletic football show, live draft shows from KC, rounds one through three on Thursday and Friday night. We're going to have plenty of stuff coming your way. Woo. You want me to say something? That's all.

That's all. That's it. That's it. Woo. We're good. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be great. It's going to be great.

We had so much fun last year doing it with Dane. And I cannot wait to do it again on a slightly different scale this year. But in the meantime, that's a long way off. We appreciate you guys listening. Please rate and review the podcast on your podcast platform of choice. Please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show is where you can do that. And that's all we got.

We will be back a little bit later this week. I'm going to be talking about some receivers on Friday. Very excited about digging into this year's receiver class. In the meantime, please listen to process. Respects to pros with our man, Dan Bruegler and Andy Staples and Lance Surlyne coming your way on Wednesday. Football GM with Mike Sando and Randy Mueller will be coming to you on Thursday and we will be back on Friday. Until then, appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon.

This was the Athletic Football Show.