The Fumblerooski Podcast - Bread -Ep 436 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

On today's episode, JSN is now the new highest-paid WR in NFL history. Did he earn it? Along with this, some grades for Free Agency before the draft. Chris Costich, CJ Medeiros, and Justin Tucker talk all this and more!

On today's episode of the Fumble Ruski podcast, we have a new highest paid wide receiver in NFL history. All that and more, this is the Fomleruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome to the Fulmlerusky podcast by Power 88 Nean Radio in Secret West.

up in consulting. We got CJ, we got Chuck, we got myself. Chris, happy Monday. Hope everyone had a good weekend. How has you guys this weekend? Pretty solid? Yeah, solid. Can't complain. Watch some balls. I was getting a little bit. I was paying attention a little bit to the scores.

Nice. Nice. Did you guys, did you guys make a woman's bracket? I didn't make any brackets at all. Yeah, I know. I was just being funny. I made it woman's bracket. Is it already broken or is it still broken? And it's broken, but like

the woman's, no disrespect to the women's. I enjoy watching women's ball, but no disrespect to them, but it's very predictable outside of maybe like one or two games compared to like the men's tournament. So you can really just like

pick the favorites. And when you get out of the first round, you're already at 99.8%. which is what I'm at. Because Syracuse decided to beat Iowa State, which that's a 9-8 game, a toss-up, a literal coin flip. And then some 10-seat beat a 7-seat. I forget who it was. Yeah, sure.

Have you guys ever seen that dude perfect video of March Madness Stereotypes, March Madness Bracket Stereotypes? Yeah. That's basically how I've done what I've done with. my woman's bracket every single year. And it's Yukon. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, I get that. Evidently, I ended up having

Yukon as both men's and women's, but. You know, that's just how it is, you know? Oh, yeah. You got to believe in Yukon, man. Men's and women's team, they've been nails, so. Oh, yeah, especially the women's. They're undefeated right now. Playing Syracuse tonight, well,

according this Monday at 226 p.m. You're going to be listening to this on Tuesday, so chances are you're going to be listening to this in Yukon probably beat the shit out of Syracuse. But, um, all right. I wish they, I wish college football would do a smaller version of March Madness, but that's a discussion for another day.

Yeah. Yeah. Extend that shit to 16 at the very least. I think, I think we've had this to, you want to have this discussion now? Why not? Uh, sure.

It's a slow news day, but yeah. I think we've had this discussion before. And we've kind of, I, and me have the right idea or the same idea but differing opinions on it like we want it to be extended but i want it to be more like the other NCAA tournaments where the conference every single conference champion gets the auto bid like every other sport um and then you fill out the rest yeah no okay well here's my stance i think you should be if you win your conference i think you

should get an auto bid. Like that I can agree with. But that doesn't guarantee you like a top whatever. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. Winning the Mac does not hold as much weight as winning the big 10. Yeah.

And that's, it's like it's very, like I said, very similar to the other tournaments where like take, take the men's tournament, for example. Lehigh won the Patriot League tournament for men's basketball, but they're not going to be given, say, a top five seat. They're not going to give in the top five seat because it's the Patriot League. They're going to be given the 16th seed. Holy Cross woman in the women's tournament, and they had to go to Michigan as the 16th seed, or the 15th seed, whatever it was.

And they got their doors blown off. So, yeah, it's like that. Now I get that, but how many teams should be? and see, I'm not going to lie to you. As someone who loves college football and has fallen more in love with it every day, honest to God, like, honestly, like that many teams, that's just not sustainable. I would say 32. I know you said 16, but 32.

32 may be pushing it. But, like, so let's think about it this way, right? So you have nine conference champs because you got the power four and the group of five. So our well group of six now group of six yeah because pack 12 but even the pack 12 is a little bit of a weird spot because there's only two teams in the pack 12 not for now for now for now for now um shipper all we know that the pack 12 could just magically re reform um but I think that 24 would probably be uh more adjustable to yeah with the problem is 24 doesn't I don't want buy weeks as all you know yeah and you know and you know we we can disagree and that's cool but like I've not I've never been huge on bi weeks especially the way the college football playoffs are we have four look one or two teams I can deal with four I cannot yeah like

like so my problem is 24 doesn't go into itself completely evenly which is why I said 32 it would be 32 or 16 32 seems like a bit much but 16 doesn't seem like enough yeah no I agree with that because Like I said, nine conference champs, and then you're basically trying to fill out the rest of like, I feel like if you're going to have the nine conference champs, you'd need to at least have 18 teams kind of double it up, if that makes sense. I think there's definitely a way.

And in that way, you make the conference games matter more, or just conferences matter more in general, and just more games in general end up mattering more. Yeah, but I'm just telling Like, it should. Yeah, so then you get farther away from like all these, the top 16 teams in the nation in terms of the AP poll are like these are the only games that matter on this Saturday. And those random Mac games on Tuesday nights get more attention.

Chuck, you want to got anything to add to this? Just to make sure we're talking about college football here. Yeah, yeah, college football, not college basketball. Again, the problem with expanding the format is that we're going to have problems when it comes into like the playoffs and who's going to be in. We had a problem with Tulane being in the college football playoffs because of what happened to them. We had the same problem with James Madison. Even though they won their conference, we didn't think they deserved to be in the playoffs over another team. What?

BYU, Notre Dame, the ones that were on the edge of getting in that didn't get in because of James Madison were. champions. So now that that's the issue, you want to expand it more to get more teams in? And it's like maybe... Oh, yeah, because that way the teams like Tulane and James Madison, etc., that way they don't stick out like a sore thumb. Maybe they can actually, you know, win a game, go on a run and such, hence the madness part. I just don't see the madness part. I see teams just getting abused. Needless. Well, it's almost like that happens in real March Madness.

Like, you know. Yeah, but then we see teams that actually had a shot of winning. Like, Florida actually lost to what a nine seed? Yeah, they lost Iowa. Yeah, and so I could see that. The end almost beat Duke. Yes. So I could actually see that happening in basketball because there's more individualness than basketball.

Football, if you don't have a decent O line or a decent front seven, you can't compete with some of the bigger schools. That's just the way it is. So if you feel like the game is over in the first quarter Like it was against James Madison in Oregon The game is over the rest of the way Because it's not going to get any closer And I actually like some of these games

But it's like come on now I actually thought James Madison should have gotten in I actually thought Tulane should have gotten in But once they get in You see some of the scores they're getting against some of these better teams So it's like as much as I would like to expand it I'm not sure we're going to get the results That we actually want

So I'll go a step further there, Tuck. I mean, I think the main issue there is that you're having James Madison go to Oregon. And, you know, like the difference with like, say, March Madness itself compared to the college football playoff is that those first round games, you're traveling to a home site. Whereas the reason why the madness is so mad in March Madness is because all these games are played at neutral site. Like, granted, you have the few instances where you have. of Nebraska basically taking over Oklahoma City and setting a new noise record in OKC's own arena. Like the man, like say Sienna and was going to play a Cameron indoor against Duke, that's a blowout. Duke blows them out of the water 20 times out of 20.

Whereas it, with that being a neutral site, that's a single-digit. point game at the end. And what's the point of being champions at that point then? Oh, yeah, no, I. Well, the point of being champions at that point is to get the auto bid and to get yourself a better seed at that rate. Like Sienna won the Mac or the MAAC, which gave them the auto bid. Grand, they were the 16 seed.

But. But again, you're not just winning for home field advantage at that point. You could actually, I could see teams like taking games. off depending on who it is. Yeah. I could see that now if they don't get home field. Yeah. Makes sense.

Like for an example, like a Georgia or Alabama or maybe Indiana, I could see them taking the game off if they're like, listen, we don't need this game if we can't, if we're not going to get home field advantage in the next round. It's not worth it if we know we can still make it to the college football playoffs. So why bother? Well, then why does that happen in basketball then? basketball is a different sport than it is football

okay well that okay different doesn't answer my question what do you mean as far as like different okay so then why don't these other basketball teams take the game off then you know like what why like what's the difference like you say they're different different how so why would this phenomenon only happen in football i believe in my opinion when it comes to basketball and football individualness in basketball can outweigh a team thing in football.

That's why you have more of an impact from an individual player in football. Are you saying this from a general standpoint or just a college standpoint? Because college ball, I could tell you this much. There's not guys taking load management days in college ball. I want to say I believe you. Well, Darren Peterson is different. I want to say I believe you. But now that the advent of NIL, I could see teams telling guys not to practice days off

because there's actual money on the line now with them. Well, yeah, if you want to have a guy not practice, that's one thing. But I can still tell you for sure, like guys aren't taking games off for that matter. Here's my issue. When it comes to like NIL, players can now dictate how much they can play versus how much. They can now dictate how much they can play. So that's my issue. So if you have a player, that's better than them, but someone has an NIL deal that mandates that they're on

the field most of the time, that can hamper your team. Yes, that's an actual thing. That is an actual contract that exists in NIL. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. So when you have contracts like that, I can see things like that happening. So I'm not going to, I'm not going to poo it for now, but it sounds, it sounds good, but I'm not sure how good it will be in execution, especially with the way NILs are working and the way college football is going. So if they have to be on the field X amount of snaps, then how would that lead to them taking games off? Depending on how they feel. They can tell the coach straight up, I'm not playing.

All right. Well, then if they're not on the field for that amount of snaps, then they don't get their money. Like, you know? No, they get their money regardless. Well, if they get their money regardless, why? Why did you bring up they have to, they have a set amount of time they have to play? Like, what? Because they can dictate who's on the field and when they're on the field.

It's not coaches that get to dictate it anymore if they have that type of contract. Okay. I don't want to explain it. It's too long to explain. Not to say you don't understand. It's just I can't properly explain it the way I want to. I can't do it. okay

fair enough now I do hate the fact that I had to bring up the fact that maybe you eliminate those first round home games to make them neutral site I do hate that fact because you know playoff atmospheres in college sports is fucking awesome someone that has seen it plenty of times and at least the college hockey sphere

it's freaking awesome and you should have more collegiate home games or collegiate home playoff games, but all right. Let's actually talk football now. We have a new highest paid wide receiver in NFL history. It's Travis Kelsey official today, signed with the Kansas City Chiefs. It's official.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. That is a new story, though. Travis Kelsey officially signed his one-year contract with the Chiefs. But it's Jackson Smith and Jigba signing a record for a year 168.6 million dollar extension. which is going to make him the highest paid wide receiver in NFL history. He's making on average 40 per year with 120 million guaranteed, also highest in NFL history. I think when looking through ESPN and seeing what some of the talking heads have to say,

it seems that really the main topic of conversation really was this deserved, which is a resounding yes. This is extremely well-deserved. Now you can have these conversations of whether or not JASN is a top wide receiver in the league. But for the numbers that he put up this past season, it's hard not to say that this is not a well-deserved contract. I agree. Congrats to him.

This is a very well-deserved contract considering the season he just got off of monster season for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. congrats to him. I think right now he is at least a top three receiver in the game right now. You could either say Chase, you could say Jefferson or you could say Justin Smith and Jigpa, or maybe Pooka Nikola, but one of those four, he's definitely in the conversation. So I think he's deserving of this type of money. That was my first reaction. And then my second reaction is, dare God, we're going to lose Zayflowers.

We can't afford that because he might ask for that type of money and we'll flat out tell him we're not giving you that and we might actually have to make him walk or give him the franchise tag which we already know how that goes i was like damn that damn why why couldn't we just sign zay sooner oh well but congrats to jackson smith and jakela he deserves it he's a all-world receiver and good luck to him in the seattle seahawks see jay every time i I remember, you know what, I'm just going to say it. My feeling watching JSN get this deal, and then, you know, before that, watching Jamar Chase get his deal, et cetera, you know, and DK Metcalf, every time I watch these

wide receiver deals keep ballooning, I think to myself, Christian Kirk has done irreparable damage to the wide receiver market. he really has because now number two's expect to get paid like number ones number ones see this and expect to be paid like quarterbacks and quarterbacks see this and expect to take up half your salary cap and oh my god it's just like don't get me wrong he's worth every penny he totally deserves that deal but now if you're seattle i'm starting to understand why you let literally everyone walk in Frasian. Like almost anyone good who could walk

ended up doing that, you know, like Boy A Mape was one. Kobe Bryant, Rieck Wolling, Kenneth Walker, Sewerville, MVP. So, oh, like, it's huge, but this seems like one of those deals that I think is just going to bite them in the ass two, three years from now, you know, where maybe you've got another really good young player that needs a deal, someone who's crucial and you just can't pay him, so you end up having to trade him when you have no leverage or let him walk or something like that.

And you better hope in the future he plays nice with you and agrees to restructure his deal because this seems like one of those. But you get what I mean now, right? And I say this seems like one of those deals where, yes, he's worth it, but this could very well backfire for the team. But for the other receivers, I mean, yeah, that makes sense. And I'll like talk for what you said about Zay Flowers. And I've said this many times. If you don't dictate the market, the market's going to dictate you.

And you don't want that. For example, as a Pat's fan, when I saw McDuffie get that deal, my first thought was, well, bye-bye, Gonzalez. New England doesn't pay their corners. You know, they don't like to. So, you know, so we're kind of in the same boat. You know, different positions, but still, just all, it's all about you have to strike all the irons hot. And of course, the flip side of that is you don't want to overpay, right?

You see, especially around the league, when you have multiple players who are really good and need an extension, it becomes essentially a big game of chicken. you know like each one is just each team just daring the other to make the first move and if you make the first move then you better make a smart move because then it's just mutually assured destruction all around because you can hurt yourself as well you know because you because a lot of these times like me is happy to Seattle where they they just kind of end up bidding against themselves and tuck I'm going to be frank I don't think Zay Flowers is going to want that I highly doubt it. He is not in the same stratosphere as JSN. And, you know, until he gets his fumbling problem under wraps, you got to tell him, no.

No. If Zay Flowers is asking for that, he needs a fucking reality check. Yeah. But what if he has to... I'm going to be real. If Zay Flowers goes up to your GM, it's Eric DeCosta, right? If he goes up to Eric DeCost and says, I want JSN

money, I know it's going to hurt, but you just have to look at him and say, okay, well, then there's the door. Find someone that will do that. Two things about this. One, if he, because JSM was drafted in 22, and then Zafar was drafted in 23. J.S.N. was in 23.

They were both. Okay. Oh, he better not ask for it then. I could see him asking for 30 and 30 to 35. I could see us matching that. 35 to 40? No. You might be.

pushing it a bit. Number two, we might actually see it this year when it comes to Seattle in need of players because next year, Devon Wetherspoon is coming up because... No, Wetherspoon's coming up now. J.S.N. and Wetherspoon were the same class. Yep. Yep. So they're coming up now. So that's going to be... I'm not sure if it's a problem now because there's still faith in the cap space. So I think he has enough money to make it work for this, for the contract. So hopefully that's not a big deal because they already paid cross. They've already paid Sam Donald.

They've already paid JSN. I think he's the other cornerstone of this team to make this go. So if they get him under wraps, I don't see a problem. Yeah. Because they paid everyone. They should. Oh, yeah, you're absolutely right. But there's one other thing that I want to point out.

I mentioned Christian Gonzalez of New England earlier. If we're talking about contracts and markets in general, he also is to get his deal from. New England and Seattle, you better hope that Christian, that you pay Witherspoon before New England pays Gonzalez. Because if New England pays Gonzalez first, I don't want to sound alarmist, but there becomes a chance, not a likely chance, but a real chance, Witherspoon ends up getting priced out, especially, Antucky, you got to bear with me here. I know I can hear you grumbling, but, but, but, but, do you know why there's still 8th in cap space?

Because this is a contract for next year. JSN still has one year left on his rookie deal. And you don't want to have to navigate a year where his what we'll call the big boy contract when that kicks in and you have to work around that. You know, it's better to get everything tied up now and deal with it later than get one thing tied up now and then have to navigate around it. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing, too, with all this, that Pooka Nakua is up for an extension. So this is going to evidently affect what the Rams are probably going to pay.

Because, you know, there's also a very clear debate of who's the better wide receiver, Puka or JSN. And you can have this all debate all day long. But at the end of the day, the Rams could very well match this and then some for Puka Nakuwa. do they they don't even have the cap space right now who are they going to who are they going to fix that for they were rumors they might trade devante adams i would imagine they would have to do that oh yeah they were they were a part of the original a j brown sweepstakes uh according to diana russini um he the rams were in on uh on j brown along with the patriots those were the two main teams

and you would have to assume that Devante Adams was going to be in that trade. But looking at Spot Track right now, the Rams do have 28.3 in cap space remaining right now. Let's look ahead. Oh, shit. Let's look ahead to say, let's say 2027, which, why not? Right now they have 132 mill in cap space. for 2027 right now yeah but I wouldn't give up defante Adams just yet even though he's not what he

once was because I don't think he can stay healthy he's still a touchdown machine he had 14 touchdowns last year yeah I don't know who's just me I agree I'm just saying though like for the Rams um you know Pugunakua is obviously a top five receiver in the league I think whether you think He's brand. The JSN is one thing, but he is top five. So he's going to get a deal similar to that. It's literally a matter of when, not if. And if you're the Rams, you obviously want to maximize your shot because I'm not going to say next year is do or die.

But at this point, with your quarterback Matthew Stafford, I think we can all agree, you're playing it by year at this point. You're going just one year to the next. You know, there's no like long-term planning here. It's win now. That's kind of what they're doing. Yeah. And as a result, you have to make everyone happy. So if you got Pukukua, who's upset, I'm not saying he is, but you don't want to risk it either.

Because if he gets upset about his contract situation, then then there goes like your one shot. You don't want any locker room problem. So it's best to just rip the band-aid off now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's really just a matter of if or when not if at this rate.

And for all we know, Puka's contract, I mean, he could get an extension literally as soon as we get done recording for all we know. So. All right. Anything else we want to touch on in terms of J.S.N. and the Seahawks or anyone else that is up for an extension? George Piggins is still up for an extension. yet. Oh, yeah, this is going to screw Dallas. Yeah. That's definitely not going to get JSN money, but where Dallas is right now in terms of their cap space, which, uh, looking at it, they do have 16 mil to play with right now, but.

That's a bit short. Yeah. Yeah. It really just depends on how much you value George Pickens at that point. You've got tagged. We were, you know, we talked about, uh, you know, a month ago when, or a while ago when a franchise tag was still pretty much a thing, or still going on. And that was the main topic. It was very much a viable option of a tag and sign in terms of George Pickens.

There is very much a mutual agreement of let's keep Georgie in Dallas. but it's just a matter of what Dallas wants to do with their money at this rate or how they want to do this with their money. Only in Dallas will they have these types of problems consistently. Yeah. Moving on, little screwy stuff. Flag football was this weekend. I didn't watch a fucking lick of it. The only highlight that I saw was Joe Bro risking tearing his ACL and Tom Brady turning back the clock.

That was. Oh, and OBJ, that was. that one-handed snag. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I guess the main story was Team USA. The flag, Team USA flag football beat NFL players or these NFL teams,

which it doesn't really come as a surprise, nor do I necessarily care either. But like flag football, compared to actual football, it is very much two different things. Like I, when I was in high school, I was part of a, went off-season indoor flag league and me and my buddies were that we all played football with. We ended up having to go against a bunch of fucking soccer players.

And, you know, soccer players are shifty as hell themselves. So, and the way we were trying, and we didn't really care about winning or losing, granted we wanted to win, obviously. But like, we were running our normal stuff that we would run in high school, which is for actual tackle football. for both offense and defense and not like black football plays and whatnot. So I kind of doesn't surprise me, but like I said, we, we got belts and we get it. It shouldn't we actually thought the NFL players would just run the actual flag football team off the field.

Because I remember making flag football a part of the Olympics at one point in time. And we said our team would be consisted of nothing but NFL. players, not even considering how good flag football players are right now. And I got to say, we got the belt and we deserved every second of the belting we got. Joe Burrow, don't know why the hell you're out there. Come on. Don't get injured. We wouldn't want that to happen now, would you?

That's nasty of me, I'll admit, but still. Tom Brady, he misses football a lot. too much if you ask me. Yeah. He misses it a lot. OBJ can still make the plays when you absolutely needing to. DeAndre Hopkins was out there as well. Speed, for some reason, is actually competing with NFL caliber players and putting up a fight.

Like, this is ridiculous. I show speed is an actual, like, an elite athlete. He's an athlete. He's an elite athlete, and people tend to forget that. It's like how, but if he got an NFL tryout off of this, I wouldn't be mad. I would not be mad because of how much of an athlete he is. But other than that, after a while it became evident that the NFL players just couldn't hang with the flight of football team. So, yeah, Team USA just beat the brakes off of us and entertaining at some points.

But all and all, yeah, this was. inevitable. This is what we get for talking shit like this. I still think that you could have NFL players round out the flag football team, to be honest. But like, let's actually think about the logistics of it, first of all, in the fact that when the Olympics, uh, ends up happening, teams are already going to be in preseason and training camp. Yeah. So like, it would just be stupid as fuck for the NFL players to even be doing it. I don't know. I don't, listen, all I'm going to say is this.

Lamar went to an Olympic gold medal. I don't want to hear anything more about he can't win championships. Shut the hell up. I'm just saying, if Drake May wins an Olympic gold medal, you're not going to be like, you know what? You know what I mean? We wouldn't care. We just being like, I bet you Brady doesn't have an Olympic gold medal.

Who is we? Who is you? because I know good and damn well you ain't talking about me in such a manner. Well, no, no, no. Look, look, you know what? The whole gold medal thing with Lamar Jackson, I bet you anything that's the same thing. Carmelo Anthony fans say when you bring up he doesn't have a ring. Yes. In a basketball sense.

So let me tell you something. If you had any ball knowledge at all, not you talk, I'm just saying like it's the Royal You, you would have seen this coming. You would have seen it coming. I don't understand why people are so shocked. Flag football and real professional football are very, very, dare I, out of third very, I will, very different. Flag football is about the sizzle, not the state. It's about the flash, not the substance.

It values the splash plays. It values huge gains. It values speed. quickness, explosiveness over strategy, over physicality, over mismatches. And, and of course, when you have, and you know, they're usually faster as well. So, of course, would you have, like, actual football players, a lot of them are either washed up or retired, then, yeah, this, this makes sense, you know? For the same reason that if you put the flag football players in pads and had them play

11 on 11, half that team's probably injured by half time. These are literally just two different sports. You know, you understand where I'm coming from here. That's literally it. Like obviously, if they were a lot of like the football players, you know, were like allowed to tackle and stuff that yeah, obviously like that would be something else. But at the end of the day, pulling a flag and, you know, timing that up and making the perfect

grab at the perfect angle. I'm not going to say it's harder than tackling because, you know, tackling that's like a whole thing in and of itself. I'm not going to say it's harder. I'm not going to say it's easier. It's just different. You know? It's not about the difficulty. It's just about

the sheer difference. Yeah. That's, it's kind of the equivalent once again. I'm going to use another basketball analogy here. That's like putting NBA All-Stars against like the Harlem Globetrotters and playing by their rules, you know, where it's just nonstop trick shots, nonstop, half courts, nonstop like that nonsense,

because that's what they do. It's what they've trained for. Conversely, you make them play a game by NFL by NBA rules. Oh, yeah, it's going to be a blood back. You know, like, once again, it's just different. These are two different sports, and I was not shocked by the outcome at all. Although watching Tom Brady, Jake, Tom Brady juke out Paul there, that was cool. That, that's my go.

I'll I Not to bash on it CJ I think you're making the correct point but not the right situation I'll go I'll go a different route for you though

sticking with basketball I'll go let's go to the early to mid 2000s pre 2008 of USA basketball when they were actually struggling a little bit

like they were actually like they were not winning gold medals during this time they were actually losing to these European countries or just other non-American countries. And, well, the reason being is that the NBA rules and FBA rules are pretty different. You can actually sit in the paint in FIBA. You can actually touch the ball after it hits the rim if it's still over the rim. Like, goaltending doesn't really exist in FIBA.

the defense of three second does not exist in Fiba. Like there are some, even the ball is different. Like there's a lot of different stuff. And they play by Fiba rules in the Olympics in these international games, not NBA rules. So the NBA players are not used to these rules. And during the early to mid 2000s, we're getting dominated up until the 2008 Redeemed team when they just fucking shout to everybody. Because they were, they actually figured out that, hey, we actually had to play by the rules.

And once they figured out the rules and perfected them, that's when they just had their way with everybody. Yeah. So I think that there is a case to be made that if you were to stick football like NFL players into flag football and have them get used to the flag football, like rule said and just the gameplay in general, I think there's a case to be made that, you know, you can still have a full flag football team of NFL players dominate the world.

I guess. I can see it. Yeah. If you want more about that, go watch the Netflix documentary about the Redeemed team because that's a very good documentary. Yes, it is. All right. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to review some free agency grades since, you know, we're in dead time.

So why not? This is the Flammerdowski podcast. It may not have always showed it. in the staff sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie.

Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fulmler-Risky podcast. Let's get into some free agency grades. We're not going to give grades. We're just going to review grades that were already handed out by ESPN. They came out with an article over. the weekend and it was talking about the free agent signings and trades that have already happened throughout the offseason um and they gave some grades and it's really just looking at grades that

they gave uh an a or an a minus to just an a grade so we're going to go through some of these um they gave an a grade to kailer murray for the vikings it's because i how desperately the Vikings need quarterback play. Not because Kyle Murray isn't a gory. Also, it's because they, you know, they didn't, they're not paying him like a true franchise guy, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I think the majority of it is just the deal itself because it's only a one year, $1.3 million deal because the Cardinals are still paying him $36.8 million fully guaranteed.

Oh, my God. So they can. So the Vikings can get away. with paying him like little to nothing or like just barely not the veterans minimum next one Malik Willis with the Dolphins three years

67.5 million, 45 million guaranteed C plus no they they gave this an A you know what I didn't say it at the time but I'm going to say it now am I the only one who doesn't understand the Malik Willis hype.

People are saying, oh, he's the next big thing. He's the gem. He deserves us money. But when I look at Malik Willis, I see a career backup, a very scheme-dependent, you know, career backup. And I'm just going to say it. He looked good in Green Bay because, A, the backup bump is very real. There's not a lot of tape on him.

And, B, he's a scheme merchant. I don't even think he has 10 career. I'm not maybe he has like 10 career starts but wins he doesn't I don't even think he has that I'm not entirely certain but I just I don't understand this and when you're the dolphins you're going to have a 160 million in dead cap over the next two years and you decide oh here's a fun idea I'm just going to give malique willis a three year deal okay and what happens when the you know you trade jalen waddle too and a lot of your signings were one your prove-it deals outside of Willis.

So what happens when the team sucks? You've essentially set them up for failure and you're going to have them for two more years, right? You're going to have for two more years and then maybe you draft a quarterback next year because it should be a QB heavy class if a lot of these prospects pan out. So I just, it just seems like they're setting them up for failure. And then if they draft a rookie, then congratulations, you've got the world's most expensive backup. except for maybe Kirk Cousins. I'm just looking through his game log right now.

And the games that he has played in, well, they've won more than he's lost in games that he's played in in terms of the Packers, not even looking at the Titans. Because, well, there weren't win a lot of games. This past year against the Giants, two for two, six yards. which they won 2720 against the Vikings. Well, I have to actually look at these games because obviously Jordan Love missed a couple of games again,

but like there's two games, like missed two games at the end of the season that Malik Willis was in for part of them. I know the game that they lost OT to the Bears, the walkoff winner for DJ Moore. that was a game Malik Willis went in for last part of the game. Same thing with Baltimore. Well, not the same thing as Baltimore, but he started in that game. I will give you the fact that he definitely does not have 10 career wins.

He doesn't have 10 career starts. I'm looking at it right now. He has six starts in his career. He has not thrown for, like, he literally hasn't even cracked 2,000 career yards. or double-digit passing touchdowns. Like, I'm sorry. I don't care. You cannot justify this contract.

Unless you're blatantly telling people we're trying to be asked this year. Well, I mean, you can just look at the Jill and Waddle trade itself and you know what the Dolphins' intentions are. Yeah. But why give him that contract if you're just going to make him the most expensive backup ever? Oh, yeah. No, the contract itself is. fucking stupid. I mean, and not to say that you can't win games with Malik Willis, he has gotten the Packers a couple wins when, uh, when George Love went down. But yeah, like,

you're not expecting him to be this all-world starter. He's just going to be a guy that can get you a couple wins and, and be serviceable. He's going to get you what you're looking for. Uh, Tareke Willen was also given an A for his one year, uh, $15 million deal with the Eagles. B. A. This is all A grades. All eight grades. How.

I mean, I don't understand why he didn't get a longer term deal. I just, I don't get it. They want to see him in the Philadelphia Eagles system because they didn't trust him based upon the film he put on during Seattle. I mean, I guess, you know, I remember Sharks his market was that cool. after the NFC championship game. Yeah, but still, you know, like if they're going to hold that against him, then a lot of players should have, should be getting one-year deals, but I digress.

We'll look at one more in terms of signings. Mike Evans to the 49ers was given an A-minus three years, 60.4 mil with 16.3 million guaranteed. On paper, it's fine, but he's going to be. hurt by week 10. Yep. I'm talking like seasoning IR by week 10. Until they either move the substation

or move away from the substation, this will continue to happen. Yeah. All right. Looking at some of the trades that they gave A's or A minuses to. Excuse me.

Bears trading DJ more to the bills for a second round pick. They're being too generous with some of these trades. Yeah, especially with like DJ more to the bills. Like that that's clearly a panic move by the bills because they haven't had like they're two years without Stefan Diggs and it's like Keon Coleman's not panning out.

Yeah. Shafir is not being the wide receiver. That's a problem if he's the white receiver one. And so they need DJ more in that offense. Yeah. Just feel like an over correction. Chiefs trading McDuffie to the Rams for their first round pick, fifth round pick, and sixth round pick, and next year's third round pick.

I could see that being an A. That's the one, like, okay, that's an A for both teams. Because the first round pick, McDuffie gets paid, the Rams need a corner. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, and you could even say, like, you could even just look at Legerius Sneed, for example, right? Like, for all we know, Trem McDuffie is just going to be another Legerius Sneed. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised. I really don't think Trem McDuffie is worthy of being the highest paid corner in the league.

And look at Ligerius Sneed now. He gets cut by the tie-ins and now he's back in Kansas City. So, anything to add? No. No, not really. Did he go back to the Chiefs, actually, Sneed? I'm pretty sure. I thought I saw that he went back.

he's not the same now yeah we'll do this last one as well uh lions trading montgomery to the texans for uh juice scrugs and a fourth round pick next year's second round or seventh i mean

this does nothing for houston he'll just be stuck there training handles with woody marks with a terrible offensive one. This does nothing. Well, Woody Marks or potentially Joe Mixin, Lord knows what his

freaking status. I thought he was released. I thought so. I thought I'm more of. If he was released, then I would 100% know because he's sitting in my IR spot of my dynasty

leader. No, no, he's still there. I thought he was going to. Never mind. I mean, for all we know, he could be a potential June 1st. he's requested his release. Oh, no, Texans released Joe Mixon. This was too, yeah, I was going to say, like, I could have sworn, yeah.

ESPN, Texans released Joe Mixon. So, yeah. Either way for the Texans, like, their offensive line just got so much worse. Yeah. So you might as well get rid of him and get him off your I-R. He's not there.

Yeah, I mean, losing Titus Howard and trading or trading Titus Howard and Juice Scruggs was a, move. I'll give them that. It was a move. But you're also missing over. You're missing over C.J. Stroh, which

you cannot have right now. Yeah, you know, like the Texans, your main issue is offensive line, and their response is, let's trade an offensive lineman for a running back. Yeah, and the quarterback play has been suspect. Know what we're going to do? We're going to put the quarterback

under even more pressure to succeed without a O line. This is just, This is something. Yeah. This is more so giving an A-minus to the Lions, though. Yeah. And in the description, it's basically saying that his role was steadily decreased in recent years because of Gibbs.

In 14 games in 2023, David Montgomery was featured on 48% of snaps and carried the ball 219 times. by 2025, it dropped to 37% and 115 carries. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. All right. That's enough of that. It's time for Immaculate Grid. Oh, it's about that time.

Finally. Immaculate Grid. All right. The options today, a weird one on the right column but lion giant lion bronco lion bill raider giant raider bronco rater bill and a giant bronco and a bill that have made a field goal made a field goal okay there's a few ways you could go there that's one of those we got to dig down into our ticker knowledge here this is oh um well Doug Flutie for the Bills, but is a drop kick considered?

No, never mind. The drop kick was on an extra point. Never mind. That would have been a sick, sneaky one, though. Yes, it would have. Stephen Houska? For. Bills?

Houska. Yeah. Not what you spell it. It's with the pH. No P's Oh Oh

Oh Oh Oh Steven with Okay 8% By the way For Lions

Giants Uh Khalif Raymond Yep I just realized He played for the Giants For I was thinking about

Snacks Harrison 2% Nice Uh Lions how few goals. Well, we'll keep thinking about kickers.

Well, Matt. Sorry. James Graham Gano? Yeah, that was something I was thinking. Yeah, he was there for a bit.

Yeah. But the Giants are a shit ton of kickers lately, so. I don't know. Young Hokku? Yeah, but is he too recent. Yeah,

he's too recent. Fair enough. Especially because everyone knows he was on the Giants after that Monday night idiocacy. Yeah. Jay freely?

Oh, that's... I should... Jay Feely, no one's going to know that kicker. Damn. I should... Jay Feely would have worked here. That one was rough. You know, I just thought of one for the Lions and the Broncos.

Okay. Do you remember that Texans linebacker used to be a stud, then he left and he sucked? Cunningham, Zach Cunningham? Yeah, and briefly remember him. 0.1%. I always think about Zach Cunningham because in that draft class, I really, really wanted New England to draft him and they did not. Raiders, Giants, Dwayne Harris.

Am I wrong there? Would Justin Tuck be too obvious? Yes. Yeah. To me, yes. But, uh, Harris is a return specialist, right? Yes, but he played for both teams, I think.

I'm sending it. 0.7% Nice. The only Bronco that I can think of that's made a field goal is Matt Prater. Yeah. Or McManus. Yeah, McManus too. But he's way too friggin obvious.

Same Prater. Ah. Brater, Bronco. That one's tough to think of right now. I would say Raider Bill would be, or no, or yeah, Marry Cooper for Raider Bill. Yeah, but that's a little-ish on the obvious side, no offense. Yeah, especially with Mari Cooper having been traded there,

traded to Buffalo very recently. Matt Castle played for the Lions and the Bills, I believe. Did Castle play for the Bills? Yeah, he was there. Whether or not he took a snap, that's something. That's the issue. Yeah, that's the issue there. I'm sure you might have been a holder.

I don't know if that counts. Other people that I can think of. I know Reggie Bush did, that's a little too obvious. Michael Badgley, the kicker, played for the bills and the lines. They actually... I mean, shit. No one's going to think of a kicker for the actual...

For this. Yeah, exactly. 1%. Broncos, Raiders. Raters. Famous line... famous linebacker that played for both Super Bowl chain. Roman point,

Roman, Fiper? No, not Fyfer. I was going to say, like he said Roman, I was sorry, just,

why do I not know, why am I drawing a blink now? Well, there's Roman, but Roman Harper? No, it was on the same. I think.

I think it's Romanowski. Oh, Bill Romanowski. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Bill Romanowski.

Yeah, yeah. Is he? I have a funny one for Raiders, Bill's bills. I have a really obvious one for Raiders bills Nathan Peterman He's obvious but he's a meme

You know such as why Did he play for Or I mean did he actually have a snap for the Raiders I believe he did yes Or you could go with that other quarterback I mean he was big back in the day Oh no mind I was going to suggest Darrell Lamanica But that's another one

Six percent for Peterman Yeah Uh Yeah, I mean, we could just do a coin flip on Prater, McManus here. I think McManus is a better choice because Prater had the 63-yard thing. Yeah, you're right. 26%. Yeah, well, who else would it have been for Denver?

Like, I know their current character, I think, is Will Lutz. There was that dude, Jason Elam they had for a bit. How everyone knew Bill Romanowski. Yeah. and Graham Gano. I should, I should hold off on the, held off on the trigger there.

Yeah, I tried to say Jay Feely or something like that because I knew he was a Giants kicker because I remember the time Devin has to return to touchdown on a field goal he tried to kick. Yeah. Now, I'm, all right.

I'm going into the bills because I'm very curious to see if Doug Flutie would have been on here. which I really don't think but this is just for my own. I thought you said it was a PAT. PAT drop kick, yeah. But I'm just, I'm just curious. Yeah, no, he's not on here.

Yeah, that's true. Fair enough. Only 22 players have made a field goal for the Broncos. Maybe Denver just sneaky knows what they have in kickers. Special teams, man. Plus that mild eye thing makes the kick. go farther. Well, never mind that.

I'm just saying, you know, that doesn't have anything to do with spotting good kickers. Fair. Just we're saying they had a lot of good ones, you know? Yeah. True. All right. That's all the

scheduled content that we have for you today. Anything else that's on the mind? I know Cam Scataboo's on CJ's mind. Yeah, for those of you who don't know, Giants running back Cam Scataboo, said that he doesn't think CTE is real and that it's like just an excuse. Then he apologized because the media told him,

all right, buddy, slow your roll. Let's calm that down there, Buckaroo. I'm not going to say like anything like super attacking, but that's just that's just a ridiculous take. Like I don't understand why he said that, but no. Yeah. Yeah. True.

All right. That's all the scheduled content that we have for you today. Thank you for tuning into another Tuesday episode of the Fumble Ruski podcast. New episode coming out on Friday at 8 a.m. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. And we also have all our episodes available on Spotify, speaker, and anything imaginable that you can stream podcasts on. Also be sure to follow our Instagram,

FumbleRuski underscore podcast, keep up with the pod and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, we'll see you on Friday. Over now.