The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - The biggest question facing each NFC team this offseason

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

The 2021 NFL season has already been crazy and we aren't even officially at free agency. What are the biggest questions for each team in the NFL as they make franchise-altering choices this offseason? Robert Mays previews every team and what their mindset should be, beginning with the NFC and co-host Nate Tice. Tune in tomorrow as Lindsay Jones joins Robert to take a look at the AFC.Get your exclusive discount to The Athletic at theathletic.com/footballshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Really fun show for you guys today. It's great to be back. We're going to be digging into the biggest off-season questions for every NFC team. We're going to do the AFC tomorrow with Lindsay, but I wanted to start with the NFC, and I wanted to start with my good buddy Nate Tyson.

Nate, how are you doing, man? I'm doing good. In wrestling and I think boxing, they call it ring rust, like when you haven't been in for a while and you have to get back. I got like microphone rust. Like I actually even just setting this up right now as we were talking before the show. I was kind of just going like, I'm doing this right. And it's only been two weeks.

But it's like that's how easily it just escapes the brain. It really does. It really does. I'm going to screw up a bunch while we're doing this. I took a vacation. My vacation consisted of me watching 16 movies and 12 days on my couch. So that's what I, that was my vacation. What was the podium of those 16?

I thought Nomad Land was amazing. But I went back and I. I thought it was amazing. I thought it was like just a beautiful kind of meditation on grief and loss and purpose and all of that stuff that interests me that is very sad. But it was a pleasure to think about in that context. And then I'm actually going back through Roger Ebert's The Great Movies book and there are a hundred of them in there. So I'm going back through that and like taking detours when I feel like it's appropriate. So every once in a while, like I watch the Mike Nichols documentary at HBO and that sent me back through like five Mike Nichols movies, stuff like that. So I'm allowing, I'm allowing myself to explore these little offshoots while kind of having a path forward. And you know how Steven Soderberg does his media diet every year? Like every day he charts what he watched and everything else.

I'm not doing that, but I am listing every movie I watch, even if it's a rewatch, just to kind to keep myself a little bit more disciplined with my time and be intentional. I like that. As a guy that has a Google Keep app that I keep my. favorite top 10 favorite movies list updated probably every six months I look at it and I also keep a list going of movies I want to watch before I die or like next movies to watch list when I get my choice you know it's always a it's a compromise deciding which movies and I I can go for some from some weirder weirder stuff but you know but like some of those movies I actually

was just talking to some of our mutual friends about this but I was like you know a movie like Chinatown I've never seen Chinatown but it's like a movie that's on my list that's that's what I need to see this year. Like, that's a movie I've been wanted to watch. I've never actually. You've never seen it ever? Never seen Chinatown. Never seen ranging ball.

Oh, God. I've seen my two. As a guy I consider myself a movie nerd, like I'm very disappointed in myself having not seen those movies. Those are on my rewatch list, but I have seen them. I had never seen who's, who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? That was like my first watch that I'd never seen before. So stuff like that.

But that's one of those things I learned about the Simpsons joke about it before I learned what they're actually making fun of because I want. because I watched the Simpsons when I was way too young. And then now, like, later on, when I watch it again, I'm like, oh, that joke did not hit when I was 12. But yeah, that's a lot funnier now. So we're going to go through all of the NFC teams today and kind of ask what we see as the biggest question facing them this offseason.

I just thought it would be a useful table setter as we get into the pre-free agency pre-draft period here. And almost homework that I would do anyway that we could just kind of repack. package as a podcast conversation. So we're just going to go through all of these. It's going to be a lot of big picture questions. It's not going to be what is Team X going to do at Left Guard. I think that that, to me, that's a little silly.

This is more of a, what's the direction, what's the plan, kind of figuring out the mindset of these teams as we get started into this very strange offseason. So we're going to go division by division. And let's start with the NFC South and the defending champs. My big question facing the box, and I think this is kind of the only one for them. I'll be curious, but you would have to say, how much of this championship roster can they keep intact? I mean, that's really it. I mean, you have all of these guys hitting free agency.

Chris Godwin, Levanté David, Shaq Barrett. So what can they do to retain what was and proved to be arguably the most complete roster in the entire NFL last year? Yeah, not to be redundant. My question, how I wrote out was how much are the bucks prepping for 2021 and how much are the bucks setting themselves up for a post-Bready world? Like, and that's just a longer, way to say exactly what you said. And yeah, and that's what it's fun. I mean, that's a fun situation to be in as a franchise. Yeah, Super Bowl champs, no kidding. But it's also just they're in that, they're in that kind of point in time where it's like they could do two options. I mean, they can continue to go all in and say, hey, we might sacrifice some things in the future, but,

you know, but we're setting up for 2021. But I'm so curious to see how they navigate the free agency with all their guys. Like, because they can come down to a real philosophical argument of who they decide between. You know, it's like you're seeing who they're appeasing or seeing what their philosophy is as a team with some of the guys they got going. Like it might come down to Chris Godwin or Shaq Barrett. Like, it honestly might come down for them like where they have to pick one of those guys. And it's really just interesting. It's fun seeing what teams prioritize themselves.

Years and years we'd see Belichick trade guys, trade away guys. like no problem. We'll see other guys like, you know, whoever they draft, they're going to resign because we got to protect the draft picks. So I'm curious with how, you know, Shaq Barrett's a guy. They brought in a one-year rental franchise them. Chris Godwin is a guy they have developed along and, you know, we love them on this podcast. It's curious.

I'm just really curious how to see how they navigate all these contracts because that is going to be very telling how 2021 and beyond is going to go in a post-Bready world. It feels like they, with the right moves, can bring them all back in a way that's not crazy. Some of the gymnastics that'll have to happen for these teams require some real risks and some real accounting that pushes money into future years. But if you're looking at the bucks cap right now, and I hate doing like the online cap manager guy because some of this stuff is a little bit more nebulous than we think it is. But right now they have like $13 million in cap space according to over the cap.

If they trade OJ Howard and release a guy like William Golston, that frees up another $12 million $15 right there. So you're at 25, that. Let's say they franchise Godwin for 16. They signed Levante, David, and Shaq Barrett to extensions with a lot of signing bonus, low base salaries to pump those numbers down in 2021. And so Mike Evans has a $12.3 million hit. Let's say they borrow from that a little bit because that's something they feel comfortable doing because he's going to be around for a while.

That is not like a crazy sequence of moves. And that brings back everybody that they want to bring back. So it's not as if they're this championship caliber roster that's $20 million over and they've got to worry about how they're going to prune this. They're not that up against it. Their cap is actually much, much cleaner than some of these other teams that are not nearly as well positioned as they are. Yeah, and being in that position, what they have done just inadvertently, just the talent they have, they don't need anybody. Do you know what I mean? There is not one guy like Shaq Barrett.

They're like, we have to break the bank for them, guys. Like we had what was you need 25 like you know like they they're not they're not having that conversation it's more like hey we're picking the best of the bunch and which ones are going to work for us that and that's kind of like going back to my first point just kind of saying I'm curious I'm really curious which one they prioritize but like you said there's ways they can navigate this not many teams have this quote unquote problem of having too many good tight ends to pay like they have three legitimate number one tight ends on I mean I'm considering camera break camera break camera should be a starting why for somebody in this league and that's why I

think he's a trade candidate. I think you could get something decent for him. I think he has a $6.4 million based salary. That's it. Oh, my God. Teams should be sniffing. Like, I mean, you, you're not going to get anything better in this draft. I mean, other pits and everything. Or like, no tight ends hit the market ever. Like Austin Hooper did. But, you know, he still has some blemishes. He's a good player. But it's like, you know, camera braids, damn good player. It's like, this could be a likely, you know, somebody should be sniffing around and seeing what, hey, which one, which one are you guys preferring. Are you, you going, you're getting rid of O.J. Howard just as he was starting to really, some white bulbs are starting to go off? Or are you going to get rid of camera brate? Yeah, I feel like

Gronks a lot to stay there on a discount. Like it just, if that makes sense to me. It just feels that way. This is a team that's interesting because I was talking to somebody today and he was discussing how they don't typically give out a lot of signing bonus money. They're at pay as you go sort of team. And if you look at how clean their cap is right now, you see that. You see that it's a lot of base salaries. They don't push that money into further years a lot. But now, with the cap being depressed and them wanting to bring this core back, do we see them go to some places that they typically wouldn't go? And that's going to be a familiar conversation here as we get into this offseason with

the cap going down as much as it had. So when I look at David and Barrett, it's a really interesting kind of thing. David's 31. He's made $54 million in the NFL. He's a guy where it's like, it's not too bad. I mean, trust me, we can't talk about how much I love to Vla-Dade, David, enough. But he's a guy where it's like, would you cover? back for like 80 cents on the dollar and maybe he does. Barrett is 28. He's made less than half

of that in his career. About 60% of it last season, he's the guy that's going to want to cash in. So it's just different considerations for different guys. How do they navigate that? I think that's the biggest question. But like you said, they're in a very good spot. Like I have a need section under all of these. For them, I put question mark. It's just they don't have any. They're in a really good position, even for a team that just won the Super Bowl. Yeah, and they're the second team in this division recently to just crush a draft. And you can see how friends. Now, I get, trust me, getting number 12 back there is obviously franchise altering.

But hitting two, three, not just getting starters, but hitting two or three good starters, much less all pro as a rookie like a right tackle, Tristan Verfs. But and Antonio Winfield and other guys they got. But like it shows just nailing some picks like and turning the, and those guys like that we've just seen the saints do it and just totally reconfirms. figure really the whole week because the Saints were looked like it was like Drew Breeze is entering his last stage of his career but that last stage became a whole different animal when they nailed those drafts and you just see it that the bucks did the same thing they just changed their window a little bit if they didn't know that that draft first off they probably

didn't win the Super Bowl but second off that window is like non-existent now now they have a lot of stuff that they can play with so let's get to that team that you dispentioned the New Orleans Saints the cap is hilarious I was looking at it today and so right now there's $70 million over the cap. And that's with the Drew Breeze restructure, taking his number down to $12.5 million. There's so much to consider here. But my overarching question is essentially,

what does the rebuild slash retool look like? So, and what I mean by that is, how much of this do they tear down? How many guys have to be left on the cutting room floor because they just can't get by when it comes to the cap? And I don't know the answer to that. I think that a lot of guys are going to be right on the bubble. It's going to be guys like Emmanuel Sanders, Janoris Jenkins, Malcolm Brown, guys that you don't want to lose necessarily, but you don't have the luxury of keeping anymore.

Yeah, you can't have it all. Like, maxing yourself out like they do or beyond maxing. I don't even know what's beyond max. What they do with the contract. It's you put yourself in some of these situations like when you have a guy that breaks out like Tray Hendrickson. and like that's like that's a contract. I'm curious like how they how they're going to work with him. And I just laugh always with the saints because I lose him, right?

Like that's those are the sort of luxuries you can't have anymore as third pass rushers. That's about about to say is that every year we do this with the saints. And I mean, I think this now the bill is due. But we have done this for like the last five years where we laugh about the cap stuff and the wizardry they do and all that. And then we laugh and like how the saints are going to figure out this one. And it's like watching like a James Bond movie. Like, you know, like every.

situation he gets in, you know he's going to survive. Tied to a chair, like that's attached to six cinder blocks floating to the bottom of the sea. Yeah. We know. Yeah. First, I remember watching the first, uh, golden eye when I was a kid and my friend goes, it was the opening plane scene with the dam and it comes up. And my buddy, dead serious.

We're like seven years old. Dead serious looks at me. He goes, he's, he's all right, right? I was like, it's James Bond. We're in the first time hit. That's, of course he's okay. But that's the Saints Capp situation. It's James Bond.

Like they've somehow, some way, they figure out a way to get out of it. I don't know if they can. this year. Who knows? I'm also curious to see what they do with their pick, though, because Saints have shown over the last few years, they've kind of stood Pat a little bit, but if they like a guy, they're going to go up and get them. Like they figure out a way, they move picks. If Sean Peyton identifies a guy and Mickey Loomis or anything in their office, they like a guy, they'll move up and get them. Do they do that with quarterback? That is just something, I'm just keeping in the back of my mind. Like they might just go with Jamis. I think that really is what they're

going to do. It feels like James is the answer, right? I mean, it feels like that's, That's what they end up doing. It's such a, I'm going to keep talking about this a few times when I talk about a few different teams. It's just like, yeah, the QB, uh, uh, carousel is going to be really interesting, more so than even it already has been just with these, how this draft's going to shake out what everyone's going to do with it. Because I don't know. I just, I, I, at that James just doesn't, I don't know. They had Taysam Hill start those games and I get it. They're going to probably go with James, but it just didn't feel right.

I don't know why. Like it just doesn't feel like, I feel like they're just talking out both sides that are mouth. and they probably will end up going with James, but I don't know, just something feels fishy in New Orleans a little bit. I don't know if this is going to be a blowup year. They're going to be like a surprisingly competent team. I don't know. It's curious what they're going to do, but the credit card's maxed out. That plays into my question.

What does the retool look like? And not only who's back, but how good does it look when we end up seeing it in practice? So I think that James is probably the answer and then we'll see what else they do. I think the question with the trading up for draft picks is, is that just their modic operandi or is that going to change now the breeze isn't there? Are they going to be in this all in mode in the same way they were at the back half of his career or do they kind of take a step back and temper some of that aggressiveness now that they're in this new stage of the franchise? I don't know the answer to that. So I was looking at it. So this is what, listen to this.

They are in terms of percentage of the cap in 2021. This is before any cuts. They're sixth and offensive line spending. Second and wide. receiver spending, fifth in defensive line spending, seventh in linebacker spending, and eighth in secondary spending with Marcus Williams not on the roster. So yeah, just, just, it's fake money, monopoly money. Let's do it. Top eight spending at every, and their eighth in running back spending. So top, top eight at every single position group on the field, eventually something's got a gift. I don't know what it is, but something has to give. They're too big to. They're too big to fail. They're Enron. I don't know. It's it's unbelievable how much the shenanigans they just do with

the cap. They just every year we're all just like, well, they did this. And I guess they can. And then everyone just goes, yeah, the saints are just going to do that. It really feels like about eight-ish years ago, seven to eight years ago when they, when Jonathan Vilma moved on, they had a few other starters move on like 2012, 2013-ish. And then they kind of hit up like a few years of mediocrity where they went six and ten seven or nine a few times and that kind of has the same kind of feeling for the saints but i do think they are more talented than that team was obviously but they had drew breeze drew breeze then now they don't have drew breeze so that's the trade off but it feels like i don't know it feels like deja vu all over again uh with kind of how they're navigating this cap

just this time they're not going to go with number nine i'm just so curious if they grasp onto the aging parts of the core and try to hold on as long how long they'll hold on essentially. The guys like Taran Armstead or Cameron Jordan, very good players. But are, do you grasp and kind of

white knuckle that idea of this team or are you willing to kind of let that go a little bit as you figure out how to do this? Again, I don't know the right answer or the direction they're going to take.

But I think those are the sort of questions we have to ask about this team that we never really did. Two cost-cutting things to mention before we move on. Ramcheck and Latimore can both be extended. So if you,

I think both of their cap hits are right around like 10-ish million, which is the fourth year, fourth year of your first-round-pick deal. So do they get negotiated down as part of extensions? That would be one way they can cut salary. But there aren't that many other clear ways. It's going to be really interesting to see how they do this.

All right. Let's get to just a team that they're liable to do anything at this point, in my opinion. That's the Carolina Panthers. My question was, how far will they go to get their quarterback? What was yours? Yeah, I said what was the long-term plan of QB? And it's just it's they keep getting rumored for everything. And when there's smoke, there's fire.

Like every quarterback, the Stafford Trade, the, the, the, just Deshaun Watson, Wentz, talking about the draft picks. Now they're getting rumored as Mac Jones being no way Mac Jones gets past the Panthers. And it just seems like, okay, there's, when there's smoke, there's fire. They're obviously players in the market. So they're trying. They're trying in this draft. I, or this offseason.

And it's just funny because. when Rule got that contract of seven years, I was kind of like, all right, well, he's going to take his time for probably two years and then year three kind of gear up. But then you mean like when they gave Teddy Bridgewater 20 like all of that money? That's what I was going to say. They get rid of Cam. They kick him out. And then they signed Teddy. And then they, you know, they signed some other guys like Robbie Anderson, who's turned out to be a good signing.

He is a good player. So that made sense. They got him on the cheap. But that's because of other reasons. But, but then they draft Derek Brown with a top 10 pick. tackle, which seems more like a cherry on top kind of pick than a franchise builder at a premium position. He did play better than even I gave him credit for. He's like a better pass rusher now. He had 12 QB hits last year at the nose. That was pretty impressive. But I don't

know. They seem like a team that should have been rebuilding and yet they kind of floated it. And instead, and that's now they have a number eight pick, I believe. And instead of having a top three pick, which I think should have been the plan for them, especially getting rid of your franchise player in Cam, now they're kind of stuck in no man's land. And it just seems that way. I think they're going to get a quarterback somehow. Like obviously, I don't know who is it going to be or what's going to be or what or how they're going to package something.

But their name just keeps getting floated around. They're just too, I think they're too active in that market. It's just weird. It just seems like a year early or a year late kind of and trying to do this. I totally agree. Yeah. It seems like they just have weird timing for these things. The Bridgewater thing is a mistake.

I mean, it's based on what you wanted to get out of like. last season, giving him the money they did if they weren't going to stick with him this year, looks like a mistake. I have learned, if you're going to do the bridge quarterback thing, always sign Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yeah, like every single time. And obviously, you can't, it can't be him, but sign the Ryan Fitzpatrick. Go the Case Keenum Fitzpatrick route at $8 million over the Teddy Bridgewater at $23 million. Teddy's too competent and Teddy doesn't turn the ball over.

So you're always going to be in every game. you're always getting like if you don't want the guy long term i don't understand why you would give him $23 million in the second year of that deal i just think that's kind of where some other teams are now where how much do you really want to pay your bridge quarterback and i just think that right now if you look at it their plan for what they wanted to be last off season into this season just doesn't really make a ton of sense to me and i think that you're right now they're in the market for a quarterback and how do they find it and the watson thing is obviously the pie in the sky and idea. And it does feel like it'd be worth chasing him if that's your plan. If you give up

Brian Burns, two first round picks and let's say McCaffrey to give the Texans some star power so they feel better about trading Watson, whatever, something like that, then if you're willing to do that and you think you need to make a move, then maybe that's something that they're interested in. I think the more realistic thing is they're sitting there at eight. They're the trade partner that makes sense with Miami at three. If they really want to be aggressive and they say we're coming out of this with a quarterback upgrade over Teddy Bridgewater, that to me feels more realistic than going out and getting Deshaun Watson.

You trade a future first, a couple other little sweeteners to go get Justin Fields at three. That changes your trajectory, your expectations, what you think of yourself as a franchise, but it also is within the realm of possibility. Yeah, that makes all the sense in the world. and maybe even the next team we talk about too. But the, yeah, I don't know. In my first note, I said he has an ironclad contract and there isn't a need to win now. And then I go, unless it's being dictated by ownership, which seems odd because you think you give the guy the seven-year deal.

But it does feel like that is what's, that is who's pushing this, is that Tepper wants a guy. And I can understand that. But then why did they do what they did last year? So correct. It seems a lot of a month-to-month thinking as opposed to year-to-year thinking. and I don't know, or a long-term plan for it. I know, and they're actually a victim of competence. They hired Joe Brady as their offense coordinator,

and they expect their offense be shit. And it's like, no, you hired a good coach. So what did you expect to happen? Like, you hired a competent quarterback and a competent play caller. And it's like, and they have decent receivers. It's like they made it work. I don't know. We didn't even talk about the old line trade they made last year.

It wasn't like they sold for parts. You know, they, they, uh, tray Turner to get, uh, they get the tackle from the chargers. And it's just, I don't know. And it's like. And now he's a free agent, by the way. And now he's a free agent. So they got a one-year rental. That's my other question is what do they do with the support system on offense?

Because Moton's a free agent and Okung is a free agent and Curtis Samuel is a free agent. So what do you do there? It seems like Moton is a tag candidate so they could bring him back. But then what's your support system for the quarterback you're bringing in? If you trade away a bunch of picks to get one, how are you helping that quarterback? I think they have a lot of things that they have to answer on top of desperately needing an injection of talent on defense because while their defense looked better than I expected at some points, it is not a good group.

They need some work over there at linebacker defensive line, pretty much everything. So what they do at quarterback and how much they're willing to give up to do it, I think is the biggest question about them. Isn't that the irony too? Say they do put together the Godfather package for Watson and then he gets traded and then it's just the Panthers are the doldrum and have nothing for. Then you just have to show us. Yes.

And that's the thing. then that's what every team has to consider. Unless you're a team like Miami, where you're confident you're going to be a top seven defense, you have all this cap space, whatever, then I think that it's a different consideration. The question I have for the Falcons is, how much time does this core have left?

And how do you bridge the old and the new? Which direction did you go? I said exactly the same thing. I said, what do we do with pick number four? You know, this QB class is legit. I'm a very tough grader, and I've started to watch these guys, but it's like any way you want to shake these guys out, Lawrence Fields, Wilson,

over the, uh, Tray Lance or the next couple of weeks, we'll talk about them more, but they're all legit guys. They're legit first round quarterback. So now, hey, we're just taking them to take them.

Not many times the Falcons last year, even though they went four and 12, they had a point differential of an eight and eight team. So they, they have some stuff there. I mean, that offense had stuff. Like in their defense has Grady Jared and,

and Terrell, the corner looked really good last year. This is the only time you're going to get that top five pick. This is the only time. Exactly right. I think you're going to have a chance to replace Matt Ryan, truly replace them rather than doing what the Panthers just did or other teams try to do. And it's not just a squint in this guy's a first rounder.

Oh, because we have a first round pick. Yeah, we're going to take this guy, the quarterback in the top 10. It's like these are serious franchise changing guys. This is your chance to do it. I don't know. I think this is a great, great time for him. They have the chance to transition. Like you said, how much are you bridging the old and new?

Transition from one year to another to the new regime. Arthur Smith, the new GM. Everybody's going to get kind of their guy. to start this new era for them. The other option is, hey, if they're loyal, Matt Ryan, or, you know, they don't want to navigate that field is you can trade back, get influx of talent on defense. They can do that path too. But I don't know.

I think it's going to be a hard path for them to go down, but I think it's worth it for the Falcons if they want to truly, you know, contend in Arthur Smith era. Like, otherwise you're going to just kind of be patching holes and trying to keep yourself competent. I think this is a team that maybe needs a new influx and a new wave. And I think it's just tolerable. if you get this guy to learn from Matt Ryan for a year and then get rid of him after or I should say get rid of Matt Ryan. I'm sorry Matt. But look at ways to, you know, trade him away or do whatever you need to do. I think I think that's the path that I would go down. That's precisely what I think. You're not going to end up in the top five again. You have too much talent. And it's not like you can tear this team down. You can't move on for Matt Ryan or Julio Jones right now. And you have a lot of young talent on your offensive line. Calvin Ridley is somebody that you are in love with. The office. offense can come back intact. And I think the offense under Arthur Smith with the talent they have

can be very good. What's the downside to being very good when you don't have a quarterback of the future? You can't find one. Guess what? If they pick one at four, that problem is alleviated. There's no reason for them not to try to go 11 and 5, change the tide of the franchise, get used to winning again, figure out what they want to be offensively, and let the guy you pick it for, sit there and learn from Matt Ryan for a year. You sit down with Matt Ryan after your 10 and 6th season. You say, all right, what do you want to do? Are you ready?

Do you want a fresh start? It's probably time for us to do this. You know, you watch Trey in practice. You saw how good he was. What do we do here? Similar to what the chiefs did with Alex Smith. There's nothing wrong with that. I actually think it's a really stable way to create that transition

and allow it to happen smoothly and do right by all parties involved. it just feels like that plan would make sense for them. It makes sense to me. I just think it's the way to do it. Otherwise, I feel like you truly are robbing Peter to pay Paul. Like you just, it's like,

yeah, we're going to be, we're going for it this year. It's like, what's your goal? Do you, are you truly, you're won,

Super Bowl contenders and everything? And it's like, I think the Falcons do have a solid to pretty good roster makeup, even though they went four and 12. I really do think they have that kind of makeup that can win some games. Like, I think just best case. Like I can just already see it.

It's like they draft this kid, whoever they draft it for, they go nine and seven, sneak in a wild card, maybe sneak a game. But like they're trying to attack for the wild card and just have a winning culture. And then you could just easily transition. I just think that's the path to go on. And I mean, it's not unheard of either. Like you just said with Alex Smith stuff, I mean, Carson Palmer was drafted number one overall. They had him sit behind John Kittner. You know, it's like, this isn't unprecedented that these guys used to sit.

That used to be the normal thing was guys would sit for a year. Dante Colpeper did it. Guys, that used to be the normal thing. Now we just throw these guys into the fire. It's just more of traditional football thinking, and I think it's a good place to do it. And they also, it gives them a little more, like I know where I'm getting into the draft stuff already, but like Trey Lance, this kid from North Dakota State. If the Falcons liked him, this is the best case scenario for a guy for it to work. Give him a year to get polished in the NFL under freaking Matt Ryan and Arthur Smith.

That is best case scenario. If you do want to take a home run swing on Trey Lance from North Dakota State, that's the situation they can put themselves in. I actually think they're sitting in a fun spot. I really do. I think they could do a lot of fun things. It might not be easy to navigate, but I think they could really set themselves up for some good things in the next, like three, four, or five years.

The question is what they're going to do with their cap. I mean, they're in such a weird position. They're $20 million over the cap now. That's after releasing Ricardo Allen and Alan Bailey. Matt Ryan is taking up 22.4% of the salary cap. It's at $40 million. And that's one of those situations. were in a typical, in a normal spot, you would just renegotiate that down.

But if they want to move on from him next year, they can't do that. So they're kind of stuck with this. They are the only team in the NFL with four players making at least $20 million against the cap in 2021. So they got Julio, Matt, Jake Matthews, and Grady. Correct. Are those the four? The chiefs are right there.

Matthews at like 19.3. But one of those players is Patrick Mahomes, who's making about half of what Matt Ryan will this year. And you would just pay him to Supermax, whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Cool.

This is a top heavy team who pushed all the chips in and navigating that is difficult. And that's why there's no good clear path for them. But I think they absolutely should consider the succession plan with someone and met right. Yeah. They're not dead in the water. That's what's fun. That is a good place to be in as a franchise. We're going to talk about a team that is one.

But this is, yeah. That's why I think if you pick the quarterback at four, it just frees up how you feel about the season because you're not looking over your shoulder every time you win a game. Because you're like, what is the end game here? Like with Washington, for example, that's part of it. They won the division. They got to the playoffs. They're very happy about that.

They do it every time. But now you're sitting at 19 wondering who your quarterback is going to be. And if you pick a guy at four, you don't have to do that. And I just think it would be such an easy way to kind of, again, step from one era into the next. All right. Let's get to the NFC North. Let's start with my Chicago Bears, because that's always how I list teams in the NFC. North. I think this is a pretty easy question. To me, it's what is the plan at quarterback?

Yeah. I just said, now what? Yeah. I mean, that's where we are. And so I say what is the plan at quarterback? Because that is a different question to me than who is the quarterback going to be. Yes. Because that's where it starts, obviously. Among the Ryan Fitzpatrick, Marcus Marietta, Sam Darnold, group of guys, which I think is the pool that they'll be pulling from. After you make that choice, then what do you need that quarterback to be in 2021? And how much are you willing to, like you said, Rob Peter to pay Paul when it comes to surrounding that quarterback? So let's say for hypothetical, you sign Ryan Fitzpatrick to a deal that his cap hit is $8 million in 2020.

You give him a decent signing bonus. You spread it out over a couple of years, voidable, whatever. then do you go in franchise tag Alan Robinson? Do you go try to pick a tackle in the first round to replace Bobby Massey who you might release? How do you set up that quarterback for success? Because that has been, to me, it's the underrated question about this team. Because they have questions and concerns on their offensive line and at their

past catching positions and with the guys who are tasked with building a scheme to prop up the quarterback. So beyond picking the guy that you need for this year and, figuring out who that has to be, how do you surround that person with the right X's and O's approach and the right talent up front and at the past catching positions? Yeah. And you nailed it. I mean, and also, obviously, you can go more detail in the Bears regime than me.

But like that, that's kind of how I summed it up. It's just the entire offense needs an influx of talent. And I mean, obviously starting a quarterback, but just everywhere. I mean, you're hoping the franchise, Alan Robinson, which they can, you know, they have the right for it. But it's, but we've said that about the bears, what, 29 of the last 30 seasons? They need an influx of talent on offense. I know I was there for three of them. But it's, uh, but it's, uh, it's just, they're in no man's land.

They're, they're, you know, most teams are starting to learn to pivot and just swallow the pill and just eat it. Just either just go, hey, we're all in or we're blowing it up. And then we'll figure out from there. And they're, they're kind of a classic team that's, and we all know this. Like we've talked about, we've joked about a million times. they're right now they're they don't know what the window is and they need a lot of help to open a window even though they went eight and eight made the playoffs i just i don't know it's now what i just think

it's a weird dead season for them unless they magically come up with some scheme that really unlocks trabisky but you know that was supposed to be last year where they did it and then they benched him after four weeks so i don't know i i just i think we i'm not going to waste anyone's time talking about the bears as much as much as you just as like you can i just don't think they're in a good spot. They're not. They're not in a good spot. And this is, we're now living in a world and playing in a sandbox. I don't want to be in this. Let's see if we can tinker with this version of the roster. I just never would have gone down this road. But we have. So now what are the considerations that go with this road? They have no paths. No. That's just the thing. You always want to be

like I would say, be able to pivot, be able to pivot. That's just giving yourself different paths to success. Either be a player at quarterback or coaching in a regime and organization. They have like paths that makes sense. It just, that's, that's not fun. Let me build the best case scenario very quickly before we move on. Okay. You, you sign Fitzpatrick trade for Donald, whoever it happens to be. You get moderate quarterback play from whoever it is. It's not a given, but that's, we're building the best case. You draft a tackle at 20. You put him out on the right side. Daniels comes back. So you from left to right, you have Lennel, white hair, Daniels, ex right guard you have to figure out. and your first round pick at right tackle.

You franchise Alan Robinson. You have Darno Mooney. You have Cole Comet. You have Montgomery. You have your quarterback. On defense, you play around with Kyle Fuller's contract. It's a $20 million hit right now. That is not tenable when you consider some of the other limitations.

And if you're going to franchise Robinson. So you figure the money out on that side. And you get the same sort of boost from Sean to side that the Rams got from Brandon Staley last year, where you have a young defensive coordinator bringing some new ideas, getting the most. out of a group that has talent that's consolidated in some places, and that's enough to lift you. You have a couple guys and pieces to work with,

and you maximize them. You become a top five defense again. Your offense can be the 18th best offense in the league. I don't know where that takes you, but that still feels like the best case scenario for this team and this version of it. That's a lot of work for eight and eight. Listen, I told you I didn't want to be playing in this sandbox, but that is the sandbox that we're in.

You're the sad kid with the broken down toys. You know, everyone's got the new stuff. There you are. I have my, my, my, my, my, my, my, uh, my sisters, like, hand me down corduroys on that have, like, patches on them and stuff. All right. Let's go. Uh, Green Bay Packers. They're in a slightly different position.

Yeah. My question is, are they willing to push all their chips in the middle of the table? Yeah. That's kind of how I'm framing it. I'm saying how much future they sacrificed for 2021. It's, yeah. It's kind of similar question of the box. maybe a little different flavoring, but...

Oh, it's definitely different flavoring because they're over. I mean, they don't... What are they over? So they're $11 million over the cap right now. And that's with the David Bakhtiari conversion of his roster bonus into a signing bonus. And see, the Bakhtiari thing is interesting to me. Because we have seen for the last two years a version of this franchise that we had never seen before. So it starts with the spending spree on the Smiths and Adrian Amos.

and now it extends beyond last season into this one where they're converting bonuses into they're converting stuff into signing bonuses. They're paying a top of the market deal for David Bactiari. They never do that stuff. So now, if we've entered this brave new world, how far are we willing to tread into the brave new world? Do we see a Devante Adams extension

where he gets a million dollar base salary in 2021? Do they play with Rogers' deal and extend him in a world? to create some relief on top of stuff like releasing Preston Smith, releasing Dean Lowry in ways to create space. Are they just getting by or are they going to convert some of this stuff, push money into future years and bring back Corey Lindsley and go add a defensive piece? Because they can do it if they want to.

Any team with cash can do it if they want to. The question is how far out of character are they willing to go? Yeah. And the NBA you hear all the time, it's like, oh, we want to. We want to have auxiliary pieces that are on our star's timeline, you know, our stars timetable or so, you know, like everybody has to be in the same kind of age group that we're aiming for. And, you know, the other Rogers is in his upper 30s. I mean, MVP, reigning MVP, Aaron Rogers, I might add. And but the rest of those stud players like you were just mentioning are in their primes right now.

Like they are in the smack dab middle of their prime. And they have a couple fun young guys like Tonian and, and Alexander and all that. And so it's kind of this weird situation. It's really just the one guy is kind of outside the prime of the window of everybody else. But then he has all. He just won the MVP though. Yeah. He has all the sway.

He's MVP guy. MVP winner two time now. And then also just their offense was, I mean, unbelievable last year. So that's what's so funny. It's just, it's weird. Usually like if he was 31, it's like, oh, yeah, all the FN. Let's do it. But yeah, I'm just, it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, I,

I think they just go all in again and just, hey, let's figure this out next year. They got a good team. I really do. I do think they got a good team. I think the defense is going to be improved markedly just because they won't have, you know, the same flaws that can happen in big games that's happened before. I don't know. I think they should go all in for this year because I just think it makes sense for how

their roster is and just where these guys are at in their careers. We'll see where they think they need to add talent. You know, JJ Watt has been mentioned there. Do they bring him in as another. piece if they end up releasing Preston Smith. But Rashon Gary came on last year. He was pretty good. It feels like their front has enough talent.

They probably need another corner now. Corner would be a position where if they're going to spend, that's where they can do it. And what do they do schematically on defense? This is a question for August. But do they play a little bit more man and use Jair Alexander as a queen on the chessboard in a way they didn't in the past that limited his effectiveness? Stuff like that. But I think on offense, I'll be curious if they think they need another receiver and what

type of guy they need. Like, I've always said this. To me, like Curtis Samuel just makes too much sense for them. Like, just that jet guy is just like, Randall Cobb. You're thinking Randall Cobb and you're like, I want that again. And he's just like a juiced up version of it that does the jet stuff they think. And also, and I don't think that they'll be able to afford this. And I don't know if it's exactly what they need, but I thought about it for the first time today.

Corey Davis opposite Devante Adams in that offense is like. And just going to like just posting up everybody. buddy is just monster he would he would be a great z man actually now that i'm thinking about it it's the first time i thought about it today he doesn't have to eat 10 targets a game he could just get his four or five he's a hell of a blocker i mean he's physical so oh yeah that's a great fit i haven't thought about it before but i the samuel thing is flashy and that's why i like it it's the same way when they were chasing wool forward last year at the deadline stuff like that. But in a more practical terms, it's like, oh, the Corey Davis thing actually like a lot.

Like comes from a similar system, would be able to kind of hit the ground running. Somebody's going to get Corey Davis for cheaper than he should go, I think. I mean, he's not, I don't think he's ever going to be that true number one guy. I mean, we kind of know that by now. But I mean, he could be a really good number two for a lot of teams. And there's a lot of star power in the, the free agent class for receivers and this draft. I think someone's going to find himself a nice, nice old player there. I just don't know if he's twitchy enough for what they were missing in the playoffs. That's my concern.

Is he too some... I think he is a little bit more change of direction than guys like Lazard and MVS do. But I just don't know if he's as twitchy as like as good in space as the guy they would... Like creating afterwards. Exactly. Exactly. All right. Let's move on because I could talk about that all day.

But let's move on to a team that I think you and I think about this team a lot for a lot of different reasons. the Minnesota Vikings. My question is, and this is something we've chatted about over the last year, my question for them is, how will this year be different? That to me is the most important question. What's yours? That's a great question.

Mine was just where are they going to do up front with their defense? I think DeNeil Hunter coming back, obviously, going to be huge. They tried to get another one last year with Yonik, and, you know, that didn't work out. And we got to get more props to it. I know it's kind of obvious, but for them to recoup some of the losses they did in that trade with the rate and then going back to the ravens and getting a couple of picks back like that was that's well done. They took a rental and it was the shortest rental ever and they flopped that and got some more

picks back. Okay. But right now the upfront, up front they, you know, other than DeNeil, they have all these middle and late round picks and I'm sure it's great for depth. But it just, it seems like they're just, they need a premium influx of talent there. And given their cap situation, it'll probably be through the draft. It's not the deepest pass rushing draft, but they might get a, you know, a twofer with trading back and accumulating some second and top of hundred picks.

You know, which we know Spilman loves to do. He has zero qualms of doing that. I just think that is something they really need to do. And that kind of ties into what your question is, is how much of this is going to be similar to last year? I just don't know where the jolt comes from. They need a jolt. And I can absolutely understand in their building how you're sitting there

and you're looking at what happened last year and you're saying, all right, we finished eighth and offensive DVOA. Okay? We're very efficient. Now we have Justin Jefferson as a starter from, day one. We have Ezra Cleveland as a starter from day one. Our offensive line is going to be a better group from the jump. We have two receivers that we love. We'll see if we can try to add a little bit of juice at tight end with Kyle Rudolph likely moving on. You could live with similar offensive

production from that team that you got last year. And there's really no reason outside of Clint Kubiak stepping into the play call role and whether he can get as much as his dad is. But in terms of personnel out with the players, there's no reason to think the offense can't be as good as it was last season. Okay? Yeah. On defense, it was a disaster, especially down the stretch. I mean, we all watched the Viking Saints game. But you're getting Anthony Bar back most likely.

Kendricks was out for the last four games. DeNeil Hunter didn't play a snap last season. Michael Pierce opted out last year. You're getting him back in the middle of that defense. Can you, with some production and some growth from your young corners and the guys you're getting back in the front seven? Can you be the 12th best defense in the league next season? You could absolutely talk yourself into that.

But that's the problem with this team is it feels like we have the same conversation every single year and they're no better position to actually make the leap. You know, how many times I've heard, oh, Vikings are pretty short up on offense, but they need help on defense. You know, that's my childhood. That is my childhood right there. That is 1996 to 2004 when I was a Viking fan. That is what I heard every single single.

season and 2005, I should say, actually, but yeah, sorry, Dad. But it's, but, you know, for there, it's just, that's what they need. It's an awesome, they just always just seem like in Zimmerry does not seem like a guy that rebuild is in his lexicon. So it's like, and they have Kirk Cousins like, yeah, I know what's going to be different than last year. Exactly. That's the best question you could put it.

Like, it's just, offenses can be fine. They are. They're going to generate plenty of points. Like, Kukubiak's not going to change much. Like he's worked for his dad, and the only time he hasn't was when he worked for Kansas for one year, an 012 Kansas team. He's going to run a Kubiak offense. His last name is Kubiak.

So at least the baseline's going to be there. So I think there are some elements that he'll want to throw in there that his dad didn't. You know, he was there when Stefanski was there. Yep. He has some Texas A&M to him. So there's going to be some passing game elements. I'm sure that it's going to be a little different. But we know what the gist of it's going to be.

But yeah, we know Zimmer's going to be good on third. or down. He's always going to be good on that, but it's first and second down defense. That is what this team needs to improve on. And I honestly just think the simplest answer is an influx of talent. However they do it, they just have to figure that out. They, I think, more than any other teams on the list on this list, when I was looking at what they needed and how they're going to get it, they need a big draft.

Like, they're the team that if they could find a tight end in the second round and they could get another safety if Anthony Harris moves on. Like every team could use that, but they just don't have the financial resources to really go out and get guys. They also don't have needs at some of the spots where there's a glut of talent in free agency. I just think, but they had a great draft last year. They found Cam Dantzler and Justin Jefferson. It's just, I don't know, man. This would be a frustrating team to be a fan of.

That's all I have to say. It was. Let me tell you. I say that as someone who likes them. I like a lot of the things they do. I know. Also, I'm going to talk ourselves into them again. on the cousins front, my understanding and read on that situation based on the conversations

I've had, they would be blindsided if you were traded. Cousins and his people would they fully expect to be there. And everything else that you hear about that is probably a lot of sound and fury without that much to it. It's my understanding. So we'll see. But all right. Let's move on.

Detroit Lions. This is this could go a lot of different directions. Yeah. The way that I frame this is, what is? what is the goal in 2021? How many games do you want to win? What type of team do you want to be? Because in my mind, they had a chance to tear it down.

You trade Stafford, you cut everybody, you start over. Bringing Gough back in that deal, it feels like their ambitions, even in the short term, might be a little different than what I would have ascribed to them a month ago. How do you feel about it? Yeah, they did what the Panthers did last year, kind of. It's so true. But it's, it really is.

And they didn't go with Case Keenham and that's how you screw up. They, but I, I, you know, like when they like some drill sergeant in movies, just like, you know, I want you to, you know, unfuck yourself. You know, I think for the lions, they have to unpateate way themselves. Like that. Yeah. They really do. They, I think that's the one fun thing they get to do is they can, they got a long term contract. They have time to do this.

It seems like they have resources. They can kind of build whatever their identity they want to from the ashes. I have no idea how that's going to work out. Yeah, but, you know, Goff's going to at least be competent. So they have no receivers other than my man, Quintess Cephas. So, but it's, you know, that's something they need to add. And I don't know, the guy that's going to be deciding this, it's, I, it's weird. It's like, I feel I really want to say like they're going to handle this right.

I feel like they're trying to take a chance to, to handle this right, at least for once with the Lions. But it's just like, man, as soon as you get golf, I can see them themselves, talking themselves into like, hey, if we sneak into the playoffs, like, we can get there and we get that bonus you know i could see themselves doing that and and by the way i was just dying this last week i watched a show on youtube it's called the osw review they watch old wrestling paper views and they just kind of review them and you are a profoundly weird person i know and it's so much fun it's three irish guys they're amazing hey these have like 500 000 views of so i'm not the only one but but audit they reviewed russomani 11 recently and do you know what the

main event of that one was you're going to say no but fuck no it was lauren't it was lauren Tyler wrestled a guy named Bam Bam Bigelow. Very 90s. Of course. I remember Bam Bam Bigelow. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. You had the tattoos on his head. But L.T. was in the main event of WrestleMania. And in it, so I knew kind of of this, but it was first time I ever really watched it.

And in it, they have a fireman match. So they have all these NFL stars to help out LT, you know, and the stuff. And so they have Reggie White come out. Then they have Steve McMichael, who I know you know. Oh, yeah. Mago. He comes out. Kenny Norton, defense coordinator of Seahawks is out there. And also, you know who I see running out there? Chris Spielman, baby, you know, decision maker for the Detroit Lions, fireman, you know, he was part of that, you know, he's part of that match, you know, WrestleMania 11.

I was just dying. Also, I just see, they just had the title card, Chris Spielman. They're like, oh, yeah, they had NFL stars. Like, Ken Norton come out. It's three Irish guys. They know nothing about the NFL. And then they go, Chris Spielman, who's some guy. And I was just like, yeah, I know who Chris Spielman is.

Chris Spielman. But yeah. The head coach and general manager of the Detroit line. I think that what they've done, you saying the unpatient way of themselves, I think is totally right. I love this coaching staff they've brought in. And if you read some of the stuff that's come out of there,

like, Dad Campbell is a different conversation. The guy's under Dan Campbell, whether it's Aaron Glenn or DeStaley or some of the guys. When you're reading like Chris Burke, the athletics Chris Burke, who covers that team, talk about what it even feels like

to be talking to the guys there and just the overall tone and everything else. It feels much different. that I fully support. But how far are you going to try to take that in 2021, right? So, like, let's look on defense. You have guys that make sense to cut. Justin Coleman, Desmond Trifant.

I think on offense, you lose guys like maybe Jesse James, Chase Daniel. You kind of cut salary. And I thought that might be what they did overall. But then you bring golf in, and that gives me some pause about that plan. So do they franchise Kenny Gallaudet? Because it's like, oh, we have our quarterback. Let's surround him with some weapons. And do they go halfway?

And that's my big question. I don't know the answer to that. but how much are they committed to 2021 and how much are they committed to the future? And do they have one foot in each? I just, those are the things I'm curious about. And we won't know until we see the way they spend their resources here over the next couple of months. All right. Let's get to the NFC West.

Let's start with the Rams. My question here, how do they supplement the rest of their roster? I mean, when you have those, the big pieces that they have, the guys they really went out and got, that went out and paid, they're currently $33 million over the rest of their roster. the cap. We know who the big pieces are. Stafford, Donald, Ramsey, both their offensive tackles, cup woods. It's about it. You have guys like Darius Williams, Troy Hill, John Johnson, Austin Blythe, all hitting free agency without a lot of resources financially at the moment. So let's say at the moment, how do you supplement the rest of your roster and build around those

pillars that they have in place? Yeah. And my question is kind of somewhere. It was just can they generate, this is really more for next year, but how are they going to generate the explosive plays that they were missing on offense last year? So very similar to kind of what you're saying in a sense is how are they going to supplement everybody with just middle picks and ways to, you know, other ways to figure this out. They have to get creative. It helps when you nail a couple middle around picks like they have the last couple years. They just have to keep doing that. But this is one of the few teams. I mean, of course, I think they do need some help on the O line. Like every team always should be looking at O line help. But,

they're one of the few teams I'll ever say this is that they could truly use a burner only type receiver. They need speed. The guys that I harp on that to devalue and just wait and wait and wait on, they're the one team I think should be looking to try and get it in a middle round or, you know, a cheapie and free agency, something. But it's, that is something they need. And they have a guy now that's willing to throw the ball maybe past 45 yards and actually

willing to take the top off and throw the alert post on all these overpost concepts. I think that's what, you know, that is one thing that I'm really interested to see if they, they do go down that path because I feel like you've brought this point up before. It feels like a lot of those receivers are very samey, kind of cut from the same cloth. And I think this is where they need it to build a little bit of different lineup, especially with staff, especially how aggressive he can be as a quarterback. The nice part about that is, though, if that's the element you're looking for, it's okay to be looking for that as a team that doesn't have a lot of resources. because you can go get John Ross on a one year $3 million deal. You can sign Marvin Hall to the minimum if you need to. Those guys are available, but I totally agree.

They just are missing that ingredient in their offense and have since Brandon Cook's left. So how do you kind of sprinkle that in? But that's the nice part is the seasoning doesn't cost much. You can absolutely go find that with what they have. So that to me, that's just one of those things. How do they supplement what they have with specific skill sets like speed? And that would be the question. And I think how would they end up doing this financially is something else to keep an eye on.

Ramsey and Donald both have base salaries in the $18 to $20 million range. They would feel comfortable borrowing from those, I would assume. So let's say you can create $20 million in space by converting all of that to bonus money. Stan Cronky is not hurting for cash. like if they need to free some of this money up, they've shown they're willing to do that. So I think how they get some of this wiggle room and what they do with that wiggle room

around these pillars they've established is the big question. Another kind of smaller one, just to mention before we move on, Jordan Rodriguez was talking about this on Twitter earlier today. What happens to them schematically on defense? Again, this is an August question, but how much do things change under Rahim Morris? How much do things change because they lose some of those corners and safeties that they had last year?

year. So just something to keep an eye on. Not the biggest question, but just something that I have in the back of my mind. This is one of the few teams I had like two main questions on. And we touched on the first point. But my second question was, how did the coaching of staff changes affect the roster or affect the team? Obviously staley. But also, you know, you know, Cromer's gone. Offensive Lyon coach, a run game coordinator. He's gone. And they changed that with Carberry. I still think it's McVeigh and have a big fingerprint on all, all aspects of the offense. But, you know, that is something else that I'm very curious to see if there are any tweaks or changes. Speaking of offensive staffs, let's get to the Seattle Seahawks.

My question for them, how do they maximize Russell Wilson and this offense? And I think that starts with bringing in Shane Waldron, who used to be with the Rams, and putting in that type of offensive system, play action heavy, get Russ on the move. It was funny. You were mentioning this at the end of last season, talking about how you think he needs to be in a play action heavy system. that gets him moving side to side, doesn't put him in the pocket, allows him to see things a little bit. And it seems like that's exactly the direction they went in with some of their hires on that side. Yeah. The question with Russell was never really like how much we let Russ

cook or let Russ cook. It was really, I think more now it's what recipe are we going to give Russ to cook? Like what recipe is he going to make? You know, it's great. Like we said about the PA stuff, play action stuff. When Russell transferred to Wisconsin, he came in July like a month before training camp when he transferred there. And I could see Coach Chris kind of his wheels turning and Paul Chris and I could see him kind of starting to change some of the stuff we ran a spring ball to make it more Russified. And it was nothing crazy changed. If you watch that offense, it wasn't that much different than most Wisconsin teams you see. Just, you know, a little more explosive with Russell back there. But really what he emphasized, and I just kind of had my memories jog the

last couple of months as more discussions happened with Russell and the Seahawks offense. But we did pull up naked plays all the time, a lot of them to Jared Aberderas, if you remember him. But take advantage of Russ's ability to move, his ability to throw in a run, especially deep. We were in the gun a lot more, which is obvious, Russell shorter. But a lot of our dropback game, it was half-field reads. And not only just like single high, too high, which is how generally half-field reads are, but a lot of mirrored concepts. And a mirrored concept is exactly what it sounds. If you put a mirror in the middle of the field, both concepts on both sides are exactly the same.

If you run out of a two-by-two formation, Russell prefers those. And how I know that is because Coach Chris hates those. But we ran them because Russell liked them. And we got good at them. And we ran there's certain ones that we run. There's one called 39, which was out and goes. Like, you know, he ran this stuff that were mirrored concepts because that's what Russ prefers.

Russ really prefers going one to run to do Russ things. He, that, and what a mirrored concept does, he doesn't have to do any crossfield reads. He doesn't have to progress one to two to three. He just picks aside, goes with it. And then he does Russ stuff. That's what I think I'm hoping this offense emphasizes. And I think, you know, Waldron might. Guess what his background's in?

Naked PAs, simpler dropback stuff with Hatfield reads. Okay. So, all right, we're navigating towards the right proper stuff here. How many times you'd see golf going to empty formation? And that empty usually becomes a, because you have to get the ball out quick, becomes a pick-aside read. Based on the coverage, you're really exposing the defense because they have to be spread out.

And Russ is good in those situations. Guess what? That's what the Rams did a little bit with golf to make it easy on him. Now they have a guy that actually can take advantage of his legs with Russ. but it's just something. I do think this was a, I don't want to use the word inspired hired, but it makes sense to me the more you think about it. I'm 100% on the same page with you.

I think that I can even just see it in my mind. It's just so easy to picture him in those concepts and how much it fits him and you get him on the move. He can take off if he wants to. I think it fits them really well. Beyond him, I'm curious how the entire offensive picture comes together and how they try to do it. They have needs at guard.

do they spend a mid-round pick on an offensive lineman? What do they do at running back? Can you go get a guy that can be a little bit more of a past-catching option in the fourth round or something like that if Carson leaves in free agency? So how do they build it? And are you confident in the scheme's ability to hide the offensive line a little bit more than it is now? Because if you play that type of offense, you can get by with lesser offensive line because you're not just dropping straight back all the time.

I want to say they used play action on like 26% of their dropbacks last year, which is decently high, but it's not 40% high like the Rams were. So if you tread more in that direction, I just think it makes sense for what they want to do with Wilson. Some of the other stuff with this team, Shaq Griffin, KJ Wright, Putin Ford, all hitting free agency, will see what they end up doing on defense. They have resources to kind of figure that out. But in my opinion, it's getting the offense right and figuring out the exact right way

to deploy Russell and it feels like they're heading down that path. All right. Let's get to the Niners. What is yours? Because I didn't know how to articulate mine. All right. How I literally wrote it is, is Jimmy G. the answer and how are you going to navigate the contracts?

That's kind of how I went about it. Are you going to be happy? Are you being the 49ers, are they going to be happy with a guy who looks like he's kept as an above average at best, QB, who can't really create? and we're seeing creation is really a key thing. I know Kyle Shannon has one of, if not the best, that scheming guys open in the passing game.

But I think you can look at all angles for this answer. They've been rumored as a Stafford destination. I don't know how much smoke of that was real. They've been rumored as a darn old destination. That might just be fan and media created, but you never know. Their salary cap has to be navigated a bit. They have picked number 12.

They don't have their third rounder. They just have to be creative bit. They don't have a QB Avenue. What does standing pet look looking like with Jimmy G. If they stand pat, I think they already know what it looks like. So I'm curious if they're comfortable with that or if they're just going to go, no, we've got to upgrade this.

We're training Jimmy G number 12. We're figuring us out. We'll figure out the cap situation. But, you know, it's, it's, they're in a kind of a weird spot. They had a rough season last year because of injuries and everything, but they're, they're a competent team. They're, they're pretty good, pretty good roster. They just have, they have to navigate Trump Williams, that contract.

Jason Verrett, his contract. Richard Sherman's probably not coming back. There's rumors. I even saw this. Juice check's deal might be up in the air this year. You know, as far as how they want to navigate then, restructure it. They might do something with D4. They can kind of do, they can kind of go a few different paths, and it's really curious how

they're going to do it. But I think the easy and obvious answer as to what I think their priority should be is, is Jimmy G enough? Is Jimmy G enough for what we're about to have? Because our rest of our team might not be as good as it was the last two years, and we might need more quarterback play than we ever did. So that's about where I am. I have in my notes, it says,

we're creeping closer and closer to a world where Jimmy G is back. And if he is, then what? And it almost feels like this is now phase three of the Shanahan era in San Francisco. Phase one was the feeling out. We don't know what we are. We're a pretty bad team. They trade for Garapolo. They become a Super Bowl contender in the one year where he's healthy.

Now, what comes after that? We have maxed out that version of the window because you have guys like Sherman hitting free agency, juice checks a free agent. You know, Varet wasn't there for the Super Bowl run, but they need another corner if he leaves. Tart is a free agent, Trent Williams. So they have some space to work with now. And I think it's about now figuring out what they want to be in this phase three of the franchise. And if that includes Garapola, then what else does it have to include?

I think that it's kind of a mystery. Like I don't really know what this team is right now that's different than what we've seen over the last couple years, but a slightly diminished version of it. And they're actually, because you can kind of tell how many rumors get pushed out as, as you know, as you're in media. I guess I am too now. So are you now, buddy. Exactly. Yeah, I know. I know.

But you kind of get a feel for rumors coming out and more rumors come from more teams because those guys like to talk, the powers that be like to talk. the fortinators do a really good job of not really putting out much shit like you you you can get some towels like you can but it's like it's it's kind of hard to see what they're thinking I think that's a better way before before the golf trade happened we were out here on this podcast going Sean McVeigh is a very smart man there's a reason he said Rams quarterback right now is Jared golf and it's like okay McVe gives out those hints other coaches give out hints personnel guys can't wait to talk to the media you know just how it is they do a good job of just not letting, like, you kind of don't really know how to read the tea leaves with them.

So that's why I think more than anyone, I'm just like, I want to see what they do. I, I, they could do a lot of things. And I think they're going to be competitive, no matter what they do because they just shown that far. But losing Robert Salas is going to be huge too. We've talked about it here on the podcast, how his not so much his Super Bowl run, but the last year's performance was like, holy crap, this guy's a good coach. And I, I, I'm a big time believer in NFL, not for long. When guys flash in a pan could just bottom out a year later.

He proved it and doubled down. That's going to be a big loss too. I don't know. It's very, I'm very, very curious. I just think it's such an unknown about which direction they go, who's back.

You know, D Ford's injury guarantees kind of make that a somewhat murky situation. They can free up some space if they release him, but he's able to pass a physical. All of that stuff, it just hangs over them.

I think the biggest question is, where do they go? Which direction do they go? And that's not that interesting because it's so open-ended, but that's kind of what I'm thinking about them is what does phase three look like.

All right. Let's get to the Cardinals, a team that had a rough second half of the season. Let's just say that. I think we're left with a lot of questions about this team. So you mentioned yesterday to me what your question about them is. Just throw it out there. I say, can Cliff finally adjust all the way to the NFL or he's just going to keep doing the same stuff?

And I know that's more formationally. And like we said, when we're talking concept stuff, it's like, oh, that's more of an August question. But, I mean, it matters for them. because overall their whole roster, easy answer is they need an influx of talent everywhere, offense, defense, everywhere. It's not a great roster. 44.5% of their snaps from last season are hitting free agency this year.

It's the highest number in the league, according to our buddy Jason Fitzgerald from over the county. Holy crap, did not know that. Okay. And that, I mean, that speaks to with this. One good thing that the Cardinals have, Kyler is not a question mark. He is an answer. How high of an, you know, is he an elite guy? of course, that's always the questions we're going to have quarterbacks.

But he can make his teammates better and he can win you a game just by him. And that's what you want as a quarterback. Okay, we're good. He's a number one pick. He's good. We're fine. DeAndiardier Hopkins in him. Like, we loved that beginning.

It was just, you know, they isolated him, but then they never changed anything. Their protections now have been now, they got a little better this past year. But for the last two years, they can really get gamed up against a really creative defense or a defense that just kind of knows protection schemes because they, sometimes the Cardinals, with their protections will go for the simplest answer because they're a no huddle or they just want to they have some cool shot play that designed that week too many times. Cliff is a guy that kind of throws shit against the wall, sees what sticks. Some of it's really good.

And sometimes you have weeks where they just, they look awful and they can't even move the ball. But, you know, they like to go no huddle more than anyone, which is a limitation in the sense that you can't really communicate sometimes. Sometimes when things aren't going your way and going no huddle, take that huddled a moment where everyone can take a breath and the offensive line and can bitch at each other. Like, hey, you had that twist. You know, you were supposed to pick it up. I went wrong there or the receiver like goes to the day and say, hey, this guy's biting

on something. Like there's little communications that happen in between plays. When you go in no huddle, sometimes you can limit yourself and sometimes you can't adjust as quickly because you're just going play, play, play, play, play, play. Also, you can't communication as far as the plays from the coaches from sideline to the players. There's only so much verbiage you can get out. So I'm just curious.

It's okay to be a little more traditional cliff. I am curious if he's okay with that. If he just goes, okay, I've learned my lesson. I can't go full full, big 12. I can have a little bit of chunk of it, but let's wean it in like more of a hybrid that I thought we all expected to see. And there are some aspects of that, but I just think they just still need more polish.

When teams make moves in the off season, I do this after the draft every year, but I think free agency as well. I don't give grades out initially. Like when teams make moves, some of them you can shit on, right? Like when the Panthers sign Matt Kalee, It was easy to be like, that's not a good idea.

But a lot of these moves, I think you have to wait and see. I think moves, in my opinion, give you a window into how teams view themselves. That's why I always, that's what I like to glean from them. This team, as much as any other, I'm so curious what moves they're going to make because I don't know how they view themselves. I have no idea if they think we need more past catching talent. if they think we need talent on defense. Do they think Christian Kirk and DeAndre Hopkins is enough?

And they just need some schematic tweaks. Do they're losing Hassan Reddick, Drake, Drake, Kirk, Patrick, Marcus, Gould, and a lot of defensive talent. Do they spend big on defense? I don't know because that's the weirdest part about this team is they almost made the playoffs last year, right? And if I had told you last August,

the Cardinals went 9 and 7 or 10 and 6 and almost made the playoffs, you would have said, oh, you know, some progress from Kyla Murray, Cliff figured it out. No, they finished 23rd and waited offensive DVOA. They finished seventh on defense. So it's this weird funhouse mirror version of this franchise that I just don't really understand.

And I am so curious what sort of messaging they're going to put out about how they view themselves because I don't know exactly how to view them at this point. Yeah, I mean, it was very telling last year in the draft. They went with Isaiah Simmons, who I think we'll end up being a fine player, but he was going to be a project, even though he was, you know, three-year-starter Clemson. He's a move-around guy, but you didn't know what position to put him in. But if you want to put him in the box, that's going to be a project. And it just felt like the Cardinals were more like, hey, we have holes everywhere. Let's take the best player available, especially offensive line.

Guess what? It was a really good offensive line draft. I mean, it was pretty obvious that they should take an offense alignment. I'll just keep saying that from last year's draft, but the fact that they took it not only just a defensive player, which is fine. They needed a defense to help, but then took a project.

And it was kind of like, hmm, that's just like, that's a pick that a team that kind of has it all together takes, not a team that just needs talent now. Yeah, Isaiah Simmons could end up being a great player, but it's like,

this is a weird window to take a tight, I don't know, it just didn't make sense, but that's the Cardinals. Like you said, you get a glimpse into how they view themselves. I always thought the Panthers taking Derek Brown in the top 10 last year, a nose tackle.

I was kind of like, that's curious. You know, it just, it was like, okay, that's not really where I would go to watch. He played well, and it's still curious to me. It wouldn't matter how well he played. It's still curious to me. Yeah, but it's just one of those things where it's like, yeah, that's not what I would have done.

So are you, do you guys think you're contending next year? Like, is that what you guys are doing? And yeah, that's, like you said, it's a great window into their insight. I think the only thing you can almost guarantee they need a corner. I mean, they're losing Patrick Peterson. They're losing Drake, Patrick, Patrick. They need a corner no matter what else they do. outside of that, it feels like it's kind of a blank slate

and they could go a bunch of different directions, and that direction will be informative. All right, let's get to the NFC East. Let's start with Washington, team that won the division. I've spent a lot of time talking and thinking about this team in the last couple of days. I was on Ben Standig's podcast yesterday, who covers the Washington football team for us at the Athletic.

My question about them, how do they view their timeline? Because I think that answer will inform their decision-making-it quarterback and elsewhere. Yeah, because they're like pretty much made men on defense. And then that's the thing is you got a defense head coach too. So he might just go, hey, we're ready to contend.

Like, you know, they got Haynicki back. I, my question, my literal question for this was, how can we make our offensive personnel not look like a week four preseason game? That's because that's what it looked. I mean, I thought I thought Scott Turner did fine. Like he did the best he could. Like, I mean, I don't care who your play caller or play designer was. they had no talent on that side of the ball, not just quarterback, but just all around them.

Antonio Gibson is going to be a fine player. And Scary Terry is going to be, I think, a very good two, maybe a low end one, when it's all said and done. But they're a team that I can actually look in free agency to, you know, to be signing one of these receivers. They're actually a team I could see doing that, like an upper middle class one, you know, another Corey Davis signing kind of guy. Yeah, I think it's, I think they'd rather go to free agency for like a receiver to get an influx of talent, but they have so many other needs.

They have to get Scherf back. And if you're going to go, I wouldn't waste their draft pick on a receiver. So I'm saying all that receiver, receiver, receiver. I wouldn't waste your draft pick on there. I think they just go BPA and just keep adding offensive BPA. So hopefully it's a lineman. But other than that, you know, it might be a receiver because it's a stacked receiver draft. It's one of those teams.

It's like you're like you just said. It's curious what, how they view themselves. Because they need a lot on offense, I think, before they're anywhere near a contender. I think their defense kept them in a lot of games, but it just hid how bad that offensive was. And it was just from a personnel standpoint, as opposed to a scheme or a scheme standpoint. So the reason I mentioned the timeline is because they were in on Stafford, right? So you could, and I think they were. So if you looked at that and you say, all right, they're in on Stafford, what does that mean about how they view themselves? Do they think we need

to make a play at quarterback? And I don't think the answer to that is yes. I think they saw Stafford as an isolated incident where he was a very talented player who had become available. And as they should have. I think a lot of teams should have been sniffing around on Stafford. So now that they didn't get him, how do things change? And when you're looking at the possible pool, do you feel like we need to go make a move, or do you kind of let it unfold as it's going to happen?

I think if you told Scott Turner tomorrow, your week one quarterback is Taylor Hineke, he would say, okay. Yeah. And I think that's what they should say. I don't think they should be pushed off their spot when it comes to quarterback because they shouldn't think they're a quarterback away because they're not. They shouldn't read into, oh, we're close because we made the playoffs last year. I think that sort of thinking can be dangerous.

So if that's their timeline, if it's not, we need the answers now, then what happens? And if I'm looking at their offseason, their needs, their resources, this to me makes the most sense. I'll be curious what you say about this. Let quarterback happen. If Fitzpatrick is there for the right price and you want a veteran and you want a stabilizing presence there, go do that. I don't think they'll meet it on Marioita. I think the darnal price would have to be pretty low for them to pay it. I don't think they're, again, they're not going to be desperate for the quarterback.

Let the quarterback market unfold how it's going to. I think at that 20, if there's a tackle you like there, pick the tackle. You need a left tackle. That is your number one spot on the offensive line. I think Scherf will be back. whether it's on the tag or something else, I believe he will be a member of the Washington football team in 2021. Then with your other resources,

how do you address receiver? This is the time to have money and need a receiver because of how many guys are available. If you miss out on the Alan Robinson, Kenny Gallaudet tier, are you happy coming away with a Corey Davis and one speed guy or one other thing? The answer should probably be yes.

And if that's what they end up doing, if they pick a tackle, they pay pass catchers, and you come into next year with that offensive line that's already pretty good, Gibson, McLaren, another 1A or 1B, and a tackle that you find in the draft and then you let Heineke play quarterback or you have whoever there, that's tolerable. Yes. And it's not out of the question and it doesn't put them in a bad spot. Now you go into this season with that group. Your defense is likely going to be, if not a top three unit like it was last year. Maybe a top eight unit, a top 10 unit with the talent you have up front. And then next year, now what do we want to do? We have another year.

We know what we are. Our quarterback play has allowed us to evaluate the rest of the players on the offense. That's the only bar I think you really need to clear. And if you do that, are we ready to make a trade up? What does the quarterback pool look like? I just think doing it at their own pace and not getting ahead of themselves is going to be the biggest question they have to answer this offseason. And luckily enough, they're in a division. They can do whatever the hell they want.

That's exactly right. I mean, like you said, I think they're in a good place. Not in the sense that, yes, they need a quarterback. So that's never a good place. But yes, in a sense that more in a sense that they can matriculate, they can wander around how they want to do this. They can kind of go, yeah, we can maybe take a flyer on this guy, take a flyer on this guy. take a flyer in this guy. I do think they just have options, which isn't a bad place to be in. I just, yeah, the, the pick being, is 18 or 2018?

19. The pick being 19. Yeah. Oh, my God. The 17 thing is going to screw me up for the rest of my life. But the, but being I pick 19, you're not going to get one of those guys. And they're not in a position that like, I like the guy, Mac Jones. I know we're talking a little draft right here. But that's not a position for them to take that guy. I just think they're in a spot where it's just like, have a rental, get competent. play and Heineke shows that he is competent play. He's going to know Scott Turner's offense. It's like the only offense he's been in.

Think about how much better they looked on offense with him during that quarter in week 16 and the playoff game. If they get that level of quarterback play or something close to it, that's more than enough. Don't step outside of yourself. You are not close. Do not think that you're close. I think them playing this on the Chris Bauer Colts pacing and timeline is the way to do this. And I think that there's no problem in that.

So that to me is the biggest question. Do they think the same about their timeline? All right. Let's get to our next team here. The Philadelphia Eagles, I don't even know where to start with this. We can spend an hour on this. I don't want to because I don't have the time. My question, how hard does Philly hit the reset button?

And that to me is the number one question with that is, do they pick a quarterback at six if one is there? And if they like a guy, they should. Because I don't think Jalen Hertz did anything to preclude you from picking a quarterback with the six over. overall pick if you like one of the guys who's there. Yeah, I think if you like the guy, a guy falls there, take them, move on, figure it out. I don't even know if they have enough money to pay their number six overall pick.

It's rough. They might trade out of necessity just so they can afford it. Like, I'm kind of kidding, but kind of serious when I say that. Yeah, I think it's just going to continue to fire sale. I think hurts, really. I love the kid. I think he's going to really, though, he's a high end backup fringe starter that, you know, you get get you out of some games and you have a special package of plays for them.

I, you know, the old line's getting old. Defense has question marks all over. It's a new regime. Just, I don't know. If they have a quarterback's not there. If the quarterback's not there, trade it. I just think there's no other answer for them.

It feels like it's fire sale time, but they don't have the avenues to a fire sale because of the way these contracts are structured. I was looking at it. I was like, oh, what happens if they trade Graham and trade Cox? How much cap relief can they get? Do you know what the answer to that is?

Zero. There's nothing. Their bonuses left on their deals are essentially the exact same price as their 2021 capits. It's 23 for Cox and 17 for Graham. There is no relief anywhere. And typically, when you look at some of the base salaries and that's how you can create space like the Rams with Donald and Ramsey, you don't want to do that with 30-year-old Fletcher Cox when you don't know what your future is.

And all of these other deals, Slay, Brandon Brooks, Javon Hargrave, they just, handed those out. It's a mess. I mean, it is. They were designed to go all in and then they're blowing it off. And it's like the Falcons were the same way, right? The Falcons were in the same spot, but at least the Falcons still have Matt Ryan. Like, at least the Falcons, you could imagine them being a top seven offense this year with your eyes closed. The Eagles just aren't in that spot. I just, I have no idea what they want to be or how they're going to get there. In 2022, they have flexibility. You know, they can, they can, wiggle out of this if necessary. But 2021 is going to be ugly no matter how you cut it. So how much do they feel like they need to move on from some of these guys? How much of the court do they retain? I think that's the biggest question. I have no idea what the answer is.

All right. Let's get to the Dallas Cowboys. I think this is easy. What happens with Dak? And what does his return show us about the Cowboys? Because that to me is the secondary part of this. I think Mike McCarthy got a pass last year because his quarterback got hurt. Oh, you think?

They were, I was looking up the numbers again today. DAC was 15th in EPA per play among quarterbacks last year. Those 500-yard games were not chock full of efficiency, my friend. No. I, it was, no. Now, when you get that offense back intact for the most part, if Collins comes back, Smith, you have the receivers, you have DAC, all right, now your guys are here.

What do you actually look like? So that to me is the biggest question. If you bring DAC back, what does it tell you? about the franchise and the coaching staff and everyone else you have there because last year, that answer was robbed from you. Yeah. I said if the Cowboys were a Choose Your Adventure book, 280 pages of it would be deck contract negotiations and 20 pages would be the results from those.

That would be, did he sign it? Yes. Did he sign it? No. Okay. What happens from there? But that's all their offseason should be. They put themselves in this position.

So I don't feel bad for them whatsoever. But it's one of those things. where it's yeah like you said they got a pass last year we I tuned out of the Cowboys as soon as he got hurt it was like burr ears off do not care don't care about the star don't care about I watched a shockingly little amount of the Cowboys last season and I'm not afraid to admit that no me too I think I watched one game in the middle season I was like oh their defense came along a little bit and it was like that was it like I watched them a little bit on tape and that was it but yeah everything everything I'm sure revolve around Dak it's dack's off season it's the spring of

DAC, however you want to put it. But it's, that's what it is. That's the only question that should matters for them. Yeah, they got the other stuff. How's Dan Quinn's scheme translate, how Tyron Smith situation? That's all secondary stuff. All secondary. Does not matter.

Right now they have 19 million in cap space. That's before they may have to give $37 million to their quarterback because they fuck this up so badly. So we'll see what happens. I mean, they are not in a great financial position, considering how little talent they have on defense. By the way, their running back is slated to make $13.7 million. dollars against the cap this year.

The guy they took over Jaylin Ramsey. That guy. That guy. 13.7 million dollars against the cat. So sorry. Sorry, Kent, who is producing this podcast. All right. Last one, the New York Giants.

I will leave this to you. What was your question about the Giants? What does a true Joe judge team look like? Because I was trying to find something. I know we have the easy answer. I joked about the Lions and Patricia. You know, the, oh, the Patriot Way, tough football.

guy and all that, but, you know, he was a special teams guy. You know, he can put so much fingerprint on special teams as a head coach other than that they're competent, you know, but he's not Manjin. He's not Patricia, Patricia going someplace and trying to control C, control V, you know, Belichick's ways of defense and we're going to run one double. We're going to bring this third down pressure and, you know, and they're trying to mix and you know what? I think that's a testament to Patrick Graham and how much he was willing to adjust last season on defense.

I don't think we talked about how good of a job he did last year with not a a lot of talent on that side of the ball. Oh my God. I know that's the defense was surprisingly one of the better units to watch of all the NFL last year. You know, so 64 units that we're talking offense and defense. One of the more surprisingly fun wants to watch, just aggressive and just well coached, you can tell. But yeah, but but judge isn't a defensive guy. Even he has a receiver background if we're going to offense. So it was interesting to see because we don't see a lot of Patriots guys they're offensive guys. It's Josh McDaniels and Charlie Weiss, right? And Bill O'Brien, you know, I guess counts as one. But it's like, you know, we sell so those guys, but kind of different ways of going about it. So I just want to see what is Joe Judge? What is his ID other to being a tough football guy? But I do think he gets it. Are they going to try and ID certain guys are of his mindset or culture? Are they going to get Patriot knockoffs like Patricia try to do? Or are they going to be just like he identifies guys that would fit the Patriot way that don't necessarily have to be former Patriot. Are they going best player available?

Is that Gettleman's decision? Like, I'm just curious. I'm curious how much of a fingerprint Joe Judge is going to have on this team. That's really what I'm, I really want to see with them. They're in such a strange spot. And I just don't really understand. And that's kind of my big question is I just don't know what they're going to do or what

they want to be. How much cap space do you think the New York Giants have at this exact moment? 16 million. It's significantly less than that. It's $900,000. They are up against the cap. And there are some moves they can make to alleviate that. I mean, they can move on from some of their expensive offensive line.

And they can move on from Golden Tate. There are avenues for them to get some money. But this team is just so strangely built. I just don't understand the vision or what it's supposed to be. And I think that Daniel Jones and his development is a big part of that. But that's kind of the thing is I just don't get it. All right, guys, that's all we got today. Thank you so much for listening.

We'll be back tomorrow to do the same thing with the AFC, with Lindsay Jones. Until then, please rate and review the podcast on your favorite podcast platform of choice. I would really appreciate that. Also, please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show.

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We'll be back tomorrow. Thank you so much for listening. Talk to you later. This was the Athletic Football Show.