The Fumblerooski Podcast - Feeding Frenzy -Ep 253 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

Star running backs find new homes on contenders....which of them will help their team most? Texans, Commanders, and Jaguars early free agency winners? Patriots and Cowboys being too conservative? Adam Wright, Chris Costich, and CJ Medeiros debate these topics and more!

running backs find new homes kirk cousins robs yet another team and the new england patriots remain stagnant for another season yes it is free agency this is the fumble ruski 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 Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power 88 and Seek a Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with Chris Kostic and CJ Medeiros. We have yet another free agency,

which is, I would say, the most wonderful time of the offseason. Plenty of action going on. I would argue it's a top five, one of the most enjoyable points in the league year. Like, even some parts of the regular season i get it we love watching football for an entire day straight but this goes on for an entire week straight and you get to see all these new players signed with new teams um and it also has some has some uh entanglements, I'll say, for lack of a better term, with the NFL draft.

So that is always something to consider. But without further ado, we're going to get going. Running backs have, all of these star running backs who have hit free agency have found new homes. So most recently, the Baltimore Ravens signed Derrick Henry. The Washington Commanders signed Austin Eckler. The Green Bay Packers signed Josh Jacobs. And I'm sure there is one missing that I'm just...

Saquon Barkley goes to the Philadelphia Eagles. Oh, did you mention Tony Pollard? Tony Pollard becomes a Tennessee Titan. And I'll mention Joe Mixon. Joe Mixon is now a Houston Texan. That's an interesting name. And Antonio Gibson's on the Pats. Yes, the most important name of them all

gibson in there oh wait austin eckler did you mention him or yeah he did we did i'm sorry there is no more reason for that i asked sorry yeah so what i would say is um three of these teams are legitimate contenders and have gotten significantly better because they signed these players. The Eagles with Saquon Barkley and the Ravens. The Ravens with Derrick Henry, most notably. But, guys, what are your thoughts? CJ, I'll let you go first on this, Mr. Free Agency. Oh, thank you.

You're very generous. So this whole free agency just shows how devalued the running back position is these days. I mean, oh, my God. I mean, if I said to you probably like around 2019, 2020, that all these guys, these big name guys, you know, I said, we're just going to be reshuffled. And in some cases cast off for literally peanuts and getting contracts that are just, I mean, Derek Henry, like two years, 20 million. Saquon Barkley, three years, 33 million. Like, you probably would have said, I would like whatever you're smoking. However, I mean, this is just like this.

This is just the sign of the times, I suppose. But beside that, what Adam mentioned was how a lot of these guys are going to contenders. Like the Baltimore Ravens. I mean, we already know Lamar jackson loves the rpl offense but imagine that with derrick henry you know like the one running back that seems to be aging gracefully and is bucking though you know once you turn 30 you're basically dead as far as skill positions go and uh joe mixon who's always been like an underrated back you know my fancy attest, though, that he's pretty good. And I got to say, this man going to the C.J. Stroud Texans,

a good young team with a bright future, I'm not going to lie, that's a little concerning. And the Eagles, a team that needs to run the ball more, gets Saquon Barkley. I mean, this is why we love free agency. It's crazy, but some of these running backs did get underpaid. It's kind of like a bittersweet thing because on one hand, some of these guys, some of the best backs in the league,

you're just like, wow, you're not even going to get a $50 million contract. But on the other hand, the fact that they're changing these teams, that's that's insane yeah no i'd have to second that the running back position has been devalued and you don't see many franchise guys anymore or guys that are going to be on one team for their the entirety of their careers like i mean Pats fans, we're pretty fortunate with like James White and whatnot that he's stuck around his entire career here. But yeah, there's teams aren't really looking to keep running back

around for a whole lot of time anymore. And there was a couple that were pretty surprising. I'm surprised that they didn't bring back Josh or the Raiders didn't bring back Josh Jacobs. I'm surprised that the Bengals even got rid of Joe Mixon. But that's just such a huge pickup for the Texans at that rate. And it kind of just goes back to the running backs of the past that ended up fizzling out so quick and it's guys like levy on bell guys like todd girley um there's a couple other names that i can't think what zekiel elliott zekiel elliott they fizzled out so quickly and i mean even you can even look at demarco murray i mean what he had two really

good years with dallas gets sent over to philly and he just isn't the same anymore after that so the running back lifespan is a lot shorter now and that's reflected with the pay with these paychecks that they're getting and it's it's it's guys like Le'Veon and Todd Gurley that like not nothing against Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley still since 2017 leads so many stack categories in the running game, even to this day, but he just had a bunch of injury issues.

He hasn't even reached 30 yet and he's not even in the league anymore. And then you also have a guy like Le'Veon Bell that wanted to get paid, and then he got paid and couldn't live up to his paycheck after that. So, yeah. All in all, the running back market is very much diminished in more ways than one. Yeah, and one thing I will add is that out of all of these contracts, for every running back we just mentioned,

and we forgot Aaron Jones becoming a Viking, one year, seven mil, only one of these deals has gone for four years. Josh Jacobs went to the Packers for four years, $48 million. And the average annual value for both of these deals, for all of these deals, only two of them went for double digit in the millions. So yes, they're getting signed, finally. This was an issue for the past couple of years. Running backs were becoming very much devalued, uh, for obvious reasons. I mean, they don't last very long. So they said these teams cracked and they said, okay,

we'll give you deals, but they're going to be short term and it's not going to be for that much money. So they're, they're still giving these multi-year deals. So most of them have been about three years, some of them two. So that's kind of the way they're going. They're kind of low incentive, still not short-term deals, but not long either. They're about two to three years. And they're on smaller money.

So it looks like the running back market is going is leveling out to a point where it should be. Whereas before Todd Gurley and Ezekiel Elliott were absolutely dominating the financial world of the NFL. Yeah. No, I completely agree with that. To be be honest i don't really have many more thoughts on this um oh let me let me go out with one with one question which of these teams

do you think has the that with this with these new running backs so j Josh Jacobs with the Packers, Derek Henry with the, with the Ravens, Saquon Barkley with the, with the Eagles, which team do you think has gotten the, gotten the best? Like how, which team do you believe is going to be the most threatening in the,

around the league? It's a good question there, Adam. I mean, I think my top two would probably be the eagles and the texans i'm gonna lean more towards the texans with mixin because that was already such a really good unit over there and they had guys like uh like damian pierce and devin singletary kind of step up in the running game as well but they didn't really have the greatest running game in the world.

And they were kind of riding on the back of CJ Stroud. Now you actually give them a running game. Now I actually have, have them at, give them a running game, let them go run the AFC South now. And I mean, the only reason why I wouldn't say Philly is because,

you know, you have all that talent, but kind of comes down to if sirianni uh can get his shit together and whatnot yeah so for me i am leaning actually more towards the baltimore ravens and derrick henry so the thing is i mean i already mentioned why this has been good for them, but, but I mean, they've never really had like a true bell cow with Lamar and they've always had a running back by committee. A lot of it wasn't by choice. It was because they kept getting hurt. Like, you know, JK Dobbins was great for like the three games a year.

He's healthy. You know, you didn't, it was clear that they did not think Gus Edwards was a number one back. I mean, just by how they used him, especially in the AFC championship game. But Derrick Henry, a guy who even past the age of 30 can put a team on his back and still get you a buck 50 and two touchdowns, with Lamar bringing that electricity and actually some semblance of a passing game with guys like Zay Flowers and Mark Andrews. Let me tell you something.

I think Josh Jacobs to the Packers was, it was a signing that came completely out of left field because I did not see the Packers making this kind of a splash. But he's younger than Aaron Jones. And on top of that, he is also a three-down back. I feel like this makes the Packers so much more formidable. You have a good young quarterback. You have a decent young wide-receiving core. Let's see if one of them becomes a wide-receiver one.

I'm not quite sure about it. I like Jaden Reed. We'll see how he becomes. But I think that's the, that's the team that's the closest. I think that's the team. I don't know if I wouldn't say that they're better than the Eagles just yet. I wouldn't, I definitely wouldn't say that they're better than the Ravens, but I think they improve the most out of that group. I definitely think they're the team that, that can jump from, you know, they barely, they, they barely squeaked in the playoffs at nine and eight. I'm willing to say they go 11 and six, 10 and seven, maybe 12 wins. I think 10 and seven at the least. I don't think I'd be shocked if they would go nine and eight next year.. Now, there's a lot of things that still need to happen. They need another tackle to replace

David Bakhtiari. But things are looking up in Wisconsin right now. I think that's a team that everyone's overlooking right now and I believe should get a lot better all right we're going to get to kirk cousins contract so unless you're unless you're living under a rock if you're an nfl fan um you know about this contract kirk cousins signs with signs a mega deal with the atlanta falcons we're going to talk about all the ins and outs of that contract.

Next, this is the Fumble Rooski 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 back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I am Adam Wright with Chris Kostic and CJ Medeiros. So this is Kirk Cousins' second big deal that he has signed. Um, and I guess you could kind of include the extension. He signed a couple of years back for the Minnesota Vikings, but so the deal, the current contract for, uh, Kirk Cousins is four years, 180 million with the

Atlanta Falcons. Um, so just aside from the fit here i just want to talk about the deals that he has scored over the years because it's actually been insane so a couple of years ago he signed a three-year 84 million dollar contract with the minnesota. And now here we are, and this guy has now signed another big contract, four years, $180 million. So I'm not going to say that Kirk Cousins sucks. He's a very good quarterback. Probably I would say the upper echelon of all quarterbacks

around the league. He's not top 10. But is this the type of guy who deserves this kind of money? I want to be friends with this guy's agent so he can score me big deals like this. I mean, Kirk Cousins is a good quarterback, but is he four years, $180 million good? He scored a pretty good deal.

What do you guys think? I would say Kirk Cousins is top 10, but he's 10. He's 10. So, like, back out. Top 10, but he's 10. So, here's my reasoning. And, yeah, he's 36. Maybe he doesn't need to be on a four year deal like he is right now,

but that's kind of a result of the quarterback position that we're seeing today where we're seeing more guys that are getting themselves into their late thirties. Brady and fire. We're kind of the first, to get that going. Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers right now, and now Kirk Cousins. He's, what, 35, 36. So they're kind of relying on Kirk Cousins to play at a high level

going into his 40s. And let's not forget that prior to the injury that he suffered last year prior to that he was the entire vikings offense they didn't have a running game and like so much so that they didn't have a rushing touchdown until after kirk cousins got hurt so we can we can make this debate about if he really deserves it or not but at the end of the day he is a guy that will win you games and get the job done he can get you to the playoffs will you win a playoff game that's a story for another day but or a story for now but whatever but regardless kirk kirk cousins is a guy that will get a job done for you no matter what.

And he's a guy that you can rely on to get a lot of offense going. And now he's going to be in an offense that has all the weapons that he needs. Obviously, in Minnesota, he had Jeddahs, Jordan Addison, and now he goes to Atlanta it's more of a well or all-around weapon type of thing you got Drake London now you got Kyle Pitts now you got Bijan so in a sense it's a pretty good look for Atlanta and definitely be a huge hassle for the NFC South. Yeah, look, he is, I don't know. Like, he's going to win you regular season games.

But, I mean, has he even ever won a playoff game before? I'm just trying to think. I think he's won one playoff game before i'm just trying to i think he's won one playoff game he he beat the saints uh right before that uh 2019 year beat the saints in ot and then the next week uh they got mucked around by the niners okay so they've made who would later who would later go on to go to the Super Bowl. So he's not the type of guy to like, he's, I'm not going to say that he's a bad quarterback. He's still pretty good. He'll win you some games,

but I wouldn't say that he's like, he's, he's a regular, he's kind of like Aaron Rogers in the sense that he's a regular season quarterback. He'll win you some games. He'll put up the statistics. He's a competent passer.

But, CJ, what are your thoughts? I feel like both are true because on one hand, he was probably your safest bet out there. I mean, let's not say he's bad all right i mean i think we can all admit he's good i mean chris you're not alone tuck i believe also thinks kirk cousins is top 10 me personally i feel like fringe at highest maybe number 10 maybe number nine that's why that's why i say top 10 he's 12 for me look i don't have my list on me or even have a list so i'm not going to get involved so the thing with kurt cousins is that it's like adam mentioned he's got like one playoff

window his name and we all know about uh his record in primetime was he ever only won maybe two games in primetime ever. I think you're more thinking of Daniel Jones, but I know what you mean. I think that Kirk Cousins has a bad record on a certain primetime night. Nah, it'll be it. But I get what your point is, though. Yeah, he's just, I don't know. It's like he's above average. He's not going to win you a Super Bowl, but then again,

the Falcons aren't built to win a Super Bowl. But overall, I actually hate the money, but I don't hate the fact that he's going there because now you have a head coach that is not offensively challenged. I have the exact numbers. It's Monday night football. It's that specific one. And he's two and 10 in his career.

And he beat the Niners last year on Monday night football. So that was like his second one ever. And I think the other one was the Patriots at some point. No, that was a, that was Thanksgiving day. I'm pretty sure that he beat the Patriots. So that was another primetime game that.

Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously that that that was a touchdown and we all know but that doesn't matter so my but the thing is with cousins is that he's going to a team that does have weapons like you mentioned you know drake london kyle pitts bija robinson and you just signed darnell mooney not to mention the defense has some good young pieces. You've got Raheem Morris, who I really think can be a really good head coach, especially like defensive-minded guy who can like bring that defense up. Because let's face it, in Minnesota, he wasn't exactly aided by an elite defense. I mean, they had some good pieces like Daniil Hunter and Zedarius Smith at some points, but overall that defense was awful but

now you're going to the falcons they have a little bit of a better defense you have defensive minded a younger head coach that can really click with these young guys honestly the contract probably not deserved but the falcons let's be honest i mean i know tampa just won the division but with but now that you have kurt cousins and not desmond just chuck the ball anywhere ritter you you would have to think that they're nfc south favorites right 100 yeah exactly that's the thing i mean just the fact that you can almost guarantee you the nfc south as awful as it is, might be worth the money. Might. Well, like, here's another thing with Kirk Cousins

as to why I'm hesitant to have him as a top 10 quarterback or even hesitant to say he's deserving of this money. For most of his career, he's been surrounded by pretty good weapons and has still looked kind of iffy considering the the situation around him year in year out on offense like you had justin jefferson the past four years you've had adam phelan you've had a very good running back in dalvin cook now you're about to have digs or no i feel like he did he had stefan digs for a couple years too um so he's always had some really good weapons to work around like actually i would borderline i would say great weapons justin

jefferson and adam feeling as your one and two that's actually amazing and then don't forget kj osborne who's a decent player decent third option as in himself tj hawkinson who's developed into a into a fringe top five tight end top two top five to wherever you want to put him uh Oh, and Adam? He's, what's up? I was going to say, respectfully, I also think you're forgetting that when he was starting out in the Washington, well, back then they were called the Redskins. You know who he had, right? Pierre Garcon, Deshaun Jackson, and Jordan Reed.

So that just lends further credence to your point that, well, you know, he's had a lot of weapons, like since he set foot on the field. And those aren't as good as what he had in Minnesota. Like what he's had in Minnesota is so much better, but those are still really good players. And this isn't Deshaun Jackson, like towards the end of his career. This is Deshaun Jackson while he was still putting up pretty good numbers.

Like he just freshly, like Deshaun Jackson while he was still putting up pretty good numbers. Like, he just freshly – I mean, prime Deshaun Jackson and Pierre Garcon, man. Like, Deshaun Jackson, he just freshly left the Eagles, and he was still putting up numbers with the Redskins. And then you also had, like you said, Pierre Garcon. Who are the tight ends? Jordan Reed. He was very good until he got a concussion.

Extremely injury prone. I've never seen a tight end so good yet so injury prone. He makes Rob Gronkowski look healthy, look like a workhorse. Jordan Reed. And Vernon Davis as well, I believe. Yeah. So here's what I'll give you stats-wise from the playoffs to kind of throw in here for the argument's sake. If we look at the three Minnesota playoff games

that Kirk Cousins has played in, we're talking the Saints game where they won an OT. OT when 19 for 31, 242 yards and one touchdown. First of all, first of all, before I go any further, uh, touchdown to interception ratio through four starts of his career, uh, five to one. It's only thrown one interception. And that was against the 49ers where they got manhandled and his completion percentage in that game was actually pretty good. Seventy two point four percent. Last year's NFC wildcard game is against the Giants. His defense gave up 31 points to Danny freaking dimes.

And Kirk Cousins also went almost 80 percent completion percentage. Two hundred seventy three yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions. But his defense gave up 31 points. The 49ers game, 72%, 21 for 29, touchdown, interception, and he got sacked six times. If you even go back to 2016, the wild card game against Green Bay, sacked six times, one touchdown, no interceptions, but he threw the ball 46 times for 329 yards, 63% there. I mean, it's not that he doesn't even have bad numbers in the playoffs.

I think it's just at this point, I feel like it's more he gets a tough luck of the draw. And more times than not, his defense gives up 30 points. But yeah, his offense only puts up like, what, 10 points at that rate as well. But you look at the defense that he had to go up against in 2020, he had to go up against the 49ers defense. So I'm not like, yeah, I don't blame you for only putting up 10 points, but it's a playoff game. You do have to show up in that aspect and put points on the board, but it's hard to really do anything when you get sacked six times.

Sure. But that's just going to be the quality of teams that you're going to run into. Yeah. Right? So that's something that you're going to end up dealing with. And I'm just looking at the defensive rankings right now. rankings are i would argue that the like the vikings defense more or less was the reason for their uh lack of success in playoffs or at least even getting to the playoffs um so in 2020 they they ranked towards the bottom his third year in in uh his third year there.

As for the 2019 season, they were kind of middle of the pack. And I believe it was 2018 where they were still an elite defense. So they eventually figured out the defense a couple years later. Just last season in 2022, they went 13-4, and they were a solid defense. But yeah, so 2018 was the last year where they were top five. They were fourth in total points per game allowed, which is fantastic. Yeah, so a solid point can be made for the defense but a truly elite quarterback would need to overcome would need to overcome that i know it sounds like an unfair an unfair assessment i feel like that just goes to having to compare everybody to patrick mahomes at that point that that i guess that's

where i draw my problem around all this at this rate is that we're expecting everybody to be patrick mahomes because he's the standard that's this point and he can deal with a bunch of horse crap and be able to work with it and win three out of five we're at but like that's just not what we're gonna get at this point you're not you can't expect kirk cousins to just do the same things that patrick mahomes does you can't expect um what what's another quarterback you can't you can't expect mac jones to do the same things patrick mahomes does i know that's just like a shot in the dark but like i guess that's the point that you can't expect dak prescott to do the same things that Patrick Mahomes does.

Well, let me give you some other teams. Or Dylan Hurts. Let me give you some other players. Joe Burrow is a player who routinely does more with less with the Bengals. Year in, year out, one of the worst offensive lines in football. Gets his teeth kicked in every other play. Still, when he is healthy, able to make the playoffs, Josh Allen, not the best coaching, not the best offensive line work.

And the defense has been dwindling in recent years. And yet all sin with all of these imperfections in mind, and also a terrible running game, they're still able to make the playoffs and be division winners year in, year out. Jalen Hurts, really bad coaching this past year. Pretty bad. They still made the playoffs. Because they already had 11, 12 wins by the last quarter of the season. They were already in the playoffs at that point.

So that's kind of the point. Down years for them. They may be down years, but those are career years for many other quarterbacks. I saw this. Yeah, I knew where it was going. It's like every time Madden says it, we take a shot. But you're not wrong.

You're not wrong. These elite quarterbacks are going to have down years. Patrick Mahomes is two of a kind. Only Tom Brady is similar to this guy. But they're still able to make the playoffs on down years. They may be one and done, but they still make the playoffs. Kirk Cousins on one of those years he's 13 and four and he's bounced in the first round and that's considered one of his best years

so that's kind of where i look at it like on his best years he's still done in the first or second round and yeah he put up some statistics but that's the end all be all for everyone who defends kurt cousins is well the statistics were good he He won some, he won some games. They made the playoffs. They won 13 games. Well, that's all fine and good, but actually cash in when you do that. If you win championships in the years where you win all these games, or even when you squeak into the playoffs or at least are in contention, make a deep run, then okay, we're talking here. But he's only won one playoff game in the 10 years that he's been in the league. So that's a problem that I have.

Yeah. No, it is. And like I said, I'll still stand with it and that Patrick Mahomes has ruined how we look at quarterbacks. Especially with our argument being that Patrick Mahomes is the standard and he is inevitable and nobody's going to touch him. Right. And yeah. And all the quarterbacks who I've mentioned who we can also compare to Kirk Cousins's not him they're also having trouble with patrick mahomes so it's i mean it's just a patrick mahomes problem exactly the same way that back in the day it was a tom brady problem

peyton manning didn't suck he just kept on running into tom brady uh same thing with ben rothlisberger he didn't, but he's just not Tom Brady. And that's kind of the problem is because the guy to beat is so great that that's the standard that we see. I'm just saying that Kirk Cousins isn't even on the level of Josh Allen. He's not even on the level of Joe Burrow or Jalen Hurts or name the elite quarterback up there. Lamar Jackson. I feel like Jalen Hurts is a bad one to throw in there.

Do you think? Yeah, I don't, I don't like a small sample size with Jalen Hurts. Every full season he has started in the league. He has been in the playoffs and I expect him to be back this year. It doesn't matter if he's back. If he puts i expect him to be back this year it doesn't matter if he's back if he put puts up another season like he did this year that i'm calling his super bowl

like the the nfl's version of a linsanity run do you think he's like on the level of a kirk cousins if that happens maybe like i don't know maybe slightly better than kirk cousins I don't know, maybe slightly better than Kirk Cousins. I don't know. I just don't think a Lynn Sanity run can be a Super Bowl run. Like those are – Okay, and what has he done since then? Random players can have good long strings of regular season wins, but just not any Lynn Sanity run. You can just burst through the playoffs, dance with Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, barely

lose the game by one score, and then be done after that. I mean, you went 11-1 to start the next season. Now, I understand what happened after that, but I just don't think this is a small sample size for Jalen Hurts. I think he is what he is. He sample size for Jalen hurts. I think what he is, he is what he is. He's not good as good as Patrick Mahomes. He's probably not as good as Joe Burrow,

probably not as good as Josh Allen either, but he's still a really good quarterback. I don't see Jalen hurts being top 10. That's my problem. So, so you have, so you have Kirk cousins higher than jalen hurts yeah but not by much not by much so so jay is 11 for you 11 12 13 he's in that top 15 my problem is the way that

he performed in that last six week stretch whatever it it was. And I mean, there's a lot of factors that can go into the whole Jalen hurts thing too, because, um, the coaching for Philly wasn't great that, that last stretch. And you could tell something, you could tell it was all about a blow up in their face. And Mike from squawking Eagles will say it best. They never adjusted to anything, never fixed anything up, and teams figured them out. Right. I'm sorry. No, you can finish.

That was basically all I had. Okay. So on that part, I do blame the coaching. I know when in the wake of that playoff loss, I did blame Jalen Hurts, but the reason I blame Jalen Hurts is because he doesn't have the ability to throw the football in a, in a game where you're playing from behind. I do agree that they need to throw cousins does thank you for proving my points. I do agree that they needed to, you need to use Jalen Hurts in the way that he needs to be used. I do agree that they should have run the ball more because that's the way the offense is run.

That's the way Jalen Hurts plays. If you use a dual threat quarterback like a pocket passer, then it's not going to work out well. But that being said, he's still probably the best dual threat player there is as far as winning games in the playoffs. So I think he is that type of player where you just need to use him correctly. Is he a Super Bowl winner? I don't know. But we know he's a playoff winner. We know he can win some playoff games. We know he can year in, year out, make the playoffs.

So down years for him, he goes nine and eight his first year starting in the league. He barely makes the playoffs. Gets bounced in, I believe it was by barely two scores to the Bucs, and one and done after a really bad second half of the year. Those are bad years for Jalen Hurts. Bad years for Kirk Cousins. He's missing the playoffs. So that's something I'm a little worried about. I mean, Jalen Hurts is also on a stacked-ass Philly team, too. Yeah, cross just a point.

Yeah, but the Vikings are stacked. The Vikings did not. On offense they are. On defense, no. But this year the Eagles I saw that. CJ has breaking news.

Yeah, Daniel Hunter is signing with the Texans. Two year deal $49 million. I'm going to post this now. Speaking of the Vikings. Well, well, well. Yeah. That is pretty comical, isn't it? Yeah.

Their defense has been very good. Didn't Jonathan Grenard go to the Vikings? This is basically a trade. What was that? Didn't Houston's edge rusher, the breakout guy, Jonathan Grenard, actually go to the Vikings though. Pretty sure. So,

so yeah, it's basically a trade. Yeah. Yeah. And Houston's defense was already looking pretty good to begin with. And now they just got even better. They brought in Jeff Akuda to pair up with Derek Stingley jr. I mean,

that defense is looking, that defense is looking much better. They're bringing the old crew back in their pass-catching core. Noah Brown is back. They still obviously have Tank Dell and Nico Collins. Dalton Schultz is back, and they brought in Joe Mixon to go with uh damian pierce that's a pretty good team it looks pretty good which is which is going to segue into our next segment which is we have a couple early free agency winners i wouldn't say winners yet because

it's it's early on front runners teams who are kicking ass right now. We're going to go over that next. This is the Fumble Rooski 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 back to the fumble ruski podcast by power 88 and secret weapon consulting adam right with chris kostich and cj medeiros so the texans commanders and jaguars have all made some a pretty good amount of moves uh the texans most notably they've made some good moves on defense as we mentioned before teasing the next segment uh daniel hunter to the texans

they also got jeff okuda and they also got in a trade joe mixon so they have they got some pretty good players in this deal. The Commanders made some moves on their interior offensive line, adding a couple of guards, and they also added to their defense. The Jaguars, they just added Gabe Davis, and they are also supposed to get Calvin Ridley back. According to reports, he wants to return. However, they're waiting until tomorrow when the Falcons can only get the Jaguars' third pick than their second-round pick.

What does that tell you? It tells you that Calvin Ridley's already made his mind and he's just trying to help his team, the Jaguars, with getting better draft compensation. So, yeah, what are you guys' thoughts? I don't know. I like the moves that the Jags are doing. My only concern is the Gabe Davis pickup,

just because he is probably the most inconsistent receiver in the league in terms of being a wide receiver two, fringe wide receiver, potential wide receiver one. Like, you could put a missing poster for Gabe Davis for almost every single week besides two or three weeks out of a season. Yeah, guys, we got more news. I'm sorry. Breaking news! Yep, jordan poyer is signing a one-year deal with the miami dolphins he's staying in the division oh how about that

and the uh chiefs just got linebacker uh excuse me uh the saints just got linebacker willie gay both one-year deals one-year deals. One-year deals have kind of ruled this for agency, but continue, Chris. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. But I would, if we were to choose any of the three, I mean, the Texans have been my favorite in this

whole free agency process with the moves they're making. I mean, this is already a good team and they are just getting better at this rate. And there's no reason to really believe that coaching is going to get in the way, so it's really just a matter of if the players can even get it done. And with the talent level that they brought in, granted, it's still a young team,

and this is a team that is ahead of schedule already, but seeing the way they play last year, seeing what they're doing already in the first two days of free agency or the first two days of the accepted tampering period or the legal tampering period or whatever. But regardless, the first two days of this period that we're in, they've already made great moves in making this young team better. And that's the thing. They're young, and they're only going to get better. Adam, you've got a ghost.

Of course. I think the Texans, I wanted to think that they would get a wide receiver one. I thought they would be in on Mike Evans. It turns out they did not have interest. And all the other wide receivers got tagged or extended or just signed back to their old teams. I do. It appears that they believe Tank dell is their wide receiver one so whether or not he is is one thing but what they believe they think he is so we'll see uh only time will tell with that but if he is that's tank dell as your number one nico collins as your two uh you also have now you

brought noah brown to also go out wide and you also you brought back dalton schultz and joe mixon i mean cj stroud he couldn't have inherited a better situation. And this kid is continuing to grow before our very eyes. It's very risky to start a quarterback his rookie year, but I don't think he could have played better. He missed a bunch of games, and he still threw for over 20 touchdown passes. And he took very good care of the football. I believe, what, did he only throw like three?

Yeah, it was only like three interceptions. Yeah, three or four, not many. Even that playoff game, he didn't have any turnovers, I'm pretty sure, right? Not to my knowledge. Yes, he did. He threw two pick sixes, I believe. Oh, that's right. But, I mean, it's his first playoff game.

Yeah. Patrick Mahomes didn't even start his second playoff game. That was the Ravens game. Yeah. That's right. But I mean, it's, it's his first playoff game. Yeah. Patrick Mahomes didn't even start his second playoff game. That was the Ravens game. Yeah. But regardless, right, right, right. Even Patrick Mahomes didn't,

even the Browns didn't start his rookie year. Yeah. Even, even the Browns playoff game that they played in, he was spectacular going up against one of the better, excuse me, one of the best, one of the best pass defenses in the league,

and he just tore him to shreds. Yeah. I mean, yeah. So he threw for 23 touchdowns to five interceptions. So he took care of the football. He threw a good amount of touchdown passes, and he did it while missing while starting while missing two games. So those stats could have been better.

It took him what, like 10 weeks to even throw an interception to begin with. Yeah. He had a really good year. Yeah. So this is, I mean, this team,

this is a team that's on the up and up and you've got to have them as, I mean, the Jaguars are still right there. They're still young and they brought back most of their, most of their core. You got to have this team as, as the favorites for the AFC South right now. Right.

Oh yeah. A hundred percent. Oh, absolutely. The Jaguars on the other hand are still right there and the jaguars are still there but so is that a lot of yeah the coaching is still weary to me and there's still questions around trevor lawrence i mean let's face it trevor lawrence and mac jones's stats are almost are almost simultaneous.

When you look at their career stats. I mean, the only thing that's different is the career win loss record. And that's because Mac ended up having a better rookie year than Trevor Lawrence did, but there's still a lot of questions around Trevor Lawrence. So, you know,

the Jags, the Jags are up there, but I don't think that they're really as up there with the Texans as we may think. Yeah. I mean, I hear you, but I just, I feel like what y'all mentioned with the offensive coordinator, Press Taylor, I think he's probably goingall mentioned with the offensive coordinator, press Taylor. I think he's probably going to have an Arthur Smith effect, whereas he's more of a hindrance than a help.

He's basically like a ball and chain to this offense press Taylor. I don't think he's any business being OC and every Jaguars fan wants them tarred and feathered. So I feel like if they add a better OC, I might be more inclined to be nicer to the jags but that's just not happening i fear all right um also i guess just the commander is quick um a team that doesn't look like they're i mean they could depending on what they do at quarterback, but doesn't look like they're going to be a playoff team right now, but they are definitely building the foundation for a potential quarterback to come in and win some in further his development. Help him move along and potentially one day they'll be in the same conversation as the Texans

and Jaguars. Obviously they're in a completely different conference, but same level of play. Um, that might be Jaden Daniels. We'll see what they do at number two, but I, they did cut their left tackle and they haven't replaced him yet, which is something to think about. Yeah, I think there's still a lot of questions regarding the commanders. I mean, great, you signed Zach Ertz, you signed Keiondre Jones. I don't know. I feel like that there's still a lot left to be said for the commanders,

especially for them being top five in cap space right now i feel like that you should be seeing their name a little bit more right now but they're not no i mean i get you chris i mean you have a point however as someone that's been doing a lot of pregnancy posts i can tell you we i've seen them quite a bit and look, and it's not just that, but these are, they're trying to lay a foundation. I think there's nothing wrong with that.

You know, you got Dante Fowler jr. From the Cowboys. You got Marcus Mariota is like a good journeyman kind of fellow there. You know what I mean? He's a good veteran quarterback. Who is an upgrade over Antonio Pierce. Panthers, very underrated linebacker, Frankie Lou.

I mean, you can't argue with that. That's a pretty good signing. Armstrong from Dallas. Like, I'm just saying. Even the Austin Eckler signing is, there's still a lot of questions around him. Like you all saw the way, how he was running at the end of the year or just in general for all last year. He's he just doesn't run the ball as well anymore. There's a lot of there's a lot of questions surrounding Austin Eckler, which I feel like that the commanders could have been possibly better off just keeping Antonio Gibson. See, the interior of their line looks good

and they did bring in austin eckler they just need a what i think they believe i what i believe they need is a tackle right now i think they need a tackle and cj and i kind of nailed it right on the head when we were talking about what in our office, full off season preview, what the commanders need to do. Cause we both, one of us said, one of us said offensive line. The other said defense. What have they been nailing the past 48 hours?

Defense and interior offensive line, which they still need a little help at tackle. Let's see what they, what they get there. There's a couple of tackles still left, but I mean, they're, they're hitting on their every need that they that they have right now their defensive backfield still needs i guess a little bit of work but right now they they know what they need and they're they're addressing right um we're going to move on to we'll stay right here for this

patriots and cowboys are being way too conservative the only move the cowboys have made is for is to keep their long snapper and as for the patriots they've done a little bit more i'll grant them but that is keep the group that they've had the group that went uh four and 13 so i wouldn't say that that is uh that is an accomplishment sure they brought in some good players uh mike on whenu is a player that they needed to retain they brought in okorafor who is who's been a starter for most of his career but at this point i think he's more of a swing tackle more of a backup um a depth piece they still need another tackle i believe just my personal opinion as for the running back sure they got anton Antonio Gibson, a nice compliment to Andre Stevenson. He's been overworked over the past couple of years.

However, out of all of their needs, they still don't have that left tackle that they need. We're not bringing Trent Brown back. Good. And, well, I would hope so. Screw him. I have no say in that front office. And on top of that, they still need a lot.

CJ said this best. Wide receiver one has been their biggest need for a long time. Yeah. Pretty much half a decade it has been a need and they have refused to address it so i got through some posts can i uh just talk real quick after i'm sorry i don't want to cut you off but like i'm kind of sat in the back like doing a post so yeah so i just want to mention like the Cowboys real quick. You know, everybody, you know, we who make jokes about, well, the Cowboys aren't going to do anything because Cowboys. This is why. This is why you actually had a good team, right? I mean, granted, you lost first round like you always do, but it was something to build on, right? Nope, just kidding. You actually didn't sign anyone aside from re-signing your long snapper, and you've lost pieces on your defense. Trent, you've lost your starting running back, your left tackle there, Tyron Smith.

He's good as gone. Stephon Gilmore, also good as gone. I don't think you're going to get your corner Jordan Lewis back. You already lost Dorrance Armstrong. You already lost Dante Fowler. I said this already, but you lost Tony Pollard. Like, I just, you are hemorrhaging pieces. And when you look

at, in the division, Philly, who's beefing up, right? They're getting some names that cannot bode well for you. And then there's New England. Despite the fact that at one point they had over $100 million in cap space, we are veering towards another quiet free agency for them.

Why? But here's the thing, everyone. I've said before, it's uh belichickian you know like very low-key not bringing a lot of outside guys not throwing around money it's like you have over 100 million dollars why aren't you and remember when gerard mayo said his introductory press conference we're gonna burn some cash yeah yeah you got all the fans hopes up and then and then of course a week before free agency I don't know if you saw, he backpedaled and said, well, obviously you don't have to spend it all.

You know what? We, as Pats fans, probably should have taken that as more dire. I thought it was like, okay, that's fair. You got to say that. But nope, nope. And, I mean, look, I'm happy that they signed on Wenu. They got Kendrick Bourne. They got all the guys back.

But you're spending money, right? You got all the guys back but you're spending money right you got all the guys back that you needed right these are like good guys and everyone's like oh see bill belichick would let them walk and i'm like okay counterpoint we're staying the same you have spent money and they still have over 60 million to play with don't get it twisted so they can still go out there and make moves, but they won't. The only people from outside the team that they have bought in are Jacoby Bursette, Antonio Gibson, and Sione Takitaki and Chukwuma Okorafor. Why? Look, Bursette, look, I'll give them credit with per se you know you're gonna draft

rookie quarterbacks you need a guy from to learn under i like bursette that's a good guy but really these other guys and and then it's like oh but the patriot way and you know and you and i hate you go on instagram and everybody's trying to cope here you know that's what they're doing they're coping and you, oh, you don't have to go out and get all the big name guys. It's never how it's been and we've won. It's like, yeah, well, we had Tom Brady back then, so shut up.

And then what aggravates me the most are these old fans, like 70-some-odd-year-olds, and unironically, Instagram comment sections that are like, oh wait you guys should be grateful we even got out you know that we even got our guys back it's like good god if i had to listen to one more old patriots fan so your new generation is spoiled it's like come on your time's passed hurry up and die already like jesus christ oh my god like i have actually limited this elliot wolf you know what forget wolf and sheep's clothing

this is a bella check in wolf's clothing like why are we not doing this at this point you know what i'm just gonna throw all common sense to the wind this has got to be intentional like we just got canceled there to prove a point but this has to be like intentional because like i don't know why you're losing a bidding war in calvin ridley but even still like go trade for t higgins or brandon iuk like there is no reason you're not you should have been in the mix for like guys like kenny moore you haven't gotten a good left tackle yet like adam said it's just how have you and especially with wide receiver how have you let it get this bad this we're approaching half a decade of it being a truly pressing need and you're still just letting it fester and and on top of that it's just the fans usually the older ones that are just

coping over this like well um actually it's like please shut up so per chad graff of the athletic um he said if the patriots miss out on calvin ridley i expect them to turn to the trade market checking in on players like t higgins keenan allen and brendan iuk so it does look like they're losing the bidding war for calvin ridley and while i would love him to be a Patriot, he's not my first choice who I would want. Calvin Ridley. I don't want to hear.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to hear this. Well, beggars can't be choosers. If you have all this money, you're not a beggar. And also T Higgins,

he should not take any more than a day to pick to pry from Cincinnati right now. He's on the franchise tag and Brian Burns, who's worth more than T Higgins, just went for a second. And I believe a fifth. Yeah. Some sort of late round pick. That was a throw in. There was no first round pick anyways. So yeah, there was no first-round pick involved in it.

If you can get T. Higgins for a day-two pick, you do that yesterday. He's a wide receiver one, and on top of that, he's 25. So you pay him four years. What is it? Name the price. $80 million? Somewhere around there. Yeah, let's throw.

Four years, $80 million. Let's throw $100, Let's throw a hundred Adam. Even if you go a hundred, we'll be correct. Yeah, sure. You overpaid, but we'll be crying over the thousand plus yard season.

He's putting in year in year out during his prime years where Drake may is throwing to him, give him that. And you can do the same thing with Brandon. Iuke Keenan Allen's 31. I don't want anything to do with him. I don't want anything to do with him. I don't want anything to do with him. Again, beggars can't be choosers, but we're not beggars.

We're not beggars. We have our pieces. We have our assets. We have the money. You should not have to be, well, let's just settle on Calvin Ridley. We don't need to settle for him. He's not my first choice. I don't believe he's a real wide receiver one. I think we're all blinded by that one season in 2020 where he lit

it up. It was a great season, but it looks like it was just a fluke. It was very, it was transcendent of Juju Smith Schuster posting400-yard season back in 2018. Nice season, good story, didn't happen again. He didn't come close to it. Same thing with Calvin Ridley here. Good receiver, he's a two, high-end two, but that's all. And I don't think the Patriots should splurge on this guy. I really don't think so.

I think it might actually be a blessing in disguise that the Patriots are actually losing the bidding war against jacksonville for this um and it's good for jacksonville because i think he is a good two to uh christian kirk now but adam it's not even that you're losing a bidding war for calvin ridley it's just that they're not they're just not going there's a lot of good guys that are in free agency and they're just not trying. And I know new England is not a sexy destination, but you can't lose any bidding wars with these guys. Like you have good elite players are signing one year deals and you never

stopped and thought, huh, it's not like we can offer a little bit more, which is why I'm going to reiterate that this has got to be intentional. And I don't think the cheapness is just still there. I mean, once again, and I don't want and look, well, it's nice. We're getting some of our decent guys back. Like we're resigning them. Everyone's like, we should just be happy with that. To which I say, no, I'm not going to be happy with literally going with being the same

team we went into this this off season with over 100 million for agency you know just for cap space and we could very well come out worse cj you're arguing with imaginary instagram comments or instagram trolls with their lives i've seen them okay you've seen that they have nothing better to do than to comment on instagram just stay out of the comment section well i don't comment i don't i'm just saying it's like but i'm just seeing all these patrons fans like um actually it's like once again you have these ones that are like well you should just be thankful it's like no no no no please hurry up go go go collect your arp checks as tuck said on now. I also don't think it's a money thing with Calvin Ridley.

If he wants to be in Jacksonville, it sounds like it's just because that's a place that he wants to be. Because the Patriots are – it's not the Patriots who are being conservative in this bidding war. The Patriots are being aggressive. They're trying to pressure, uh, Calvin Ridley into making a decision right now before Wednesday, when they get a second, when they have only have to give up a third to the Falcons instead of a second, that's what they're looking to do. And they're just not budging because Calvin Ridley is waiting to sign with the Jaguars Wednesday morning, late afternoon. That's what they're trying to do. So this situation in particular is not in the control of the Patriots. I mean, Calvin Ridley just wants to be a Jaguar. He wants to stay there, which is respectable. Fine. He

likes it there. He likes Trevor Lawrencerence he's the best quarterback so far that he's that is thrown to him i would say if you're the patriots go to the trade market and try and pry t higgins away from the bengals go and get t higgins yeah that was gonna be my point was that i mean the the bigger picture, and you could say this about Dallas too, is that neither of these spots are good locations anymore. I mean, you go to Dallas, you're going to have Jerry Jones breathing down your neck the entire time. It's all toxic and whatnot over in Dallas. In New England, you're going to have to deal with the high state tax. You're going to have to deal with uh you're gonna have to deal with a

f-graded owner and robert craft and also on top of the f-graded owner you're also gonna have to deal with one of the worst graded teams in the league as well in terms of the report card that came out last month so i don't know if i would want to go to a team that is the 27th worst team to go work for. That doesn't sound very nice to me or my family or people that I care about. I will take my business and go elsewhere if I were these free agents. And that's why I'm going to agree with Adam that your best bet at this rate will probably be in the trade market. Yeah, but can we trust them to swing a good trade? Because we've seen in the past.

We got the third overall pick, CJ. We can do whatever the fuck we want. Pardon my language, but we got the third overall pick. I'll forgive you. I'll forgive you. I mean, that's great but it's like after the belichick era i i mean receiver or not we know that he was he loved one-year rentals and i swear to god if we trade for t higgins and he's a one-year rental i don't know what i'm going to do but it will not be pleasant i don't think that they'll do that. You know, I would think so.

I mean, I thought we were also going to spend too, but once again, this is literally just, this is literally Belichick and Wolfe's clothing because this has been horrible to watch. I agree. It's not, we're not, it hasn't looked good yet so far. They've retained the players that they needed to retain. We can at least have that as a positive.

I'm not trying to say be grateful. I'm not being that old instagram commenter i'm saying that's that's still a positive that's still something that we can look at so far we're the same we're forward looking forward in free agency they still tyron smith is still on the board. Jonah Williams is still out there. Donovan Smith is still out there. All free agents who they could sign who would make their offensive line better. In fact, probably complete it because everywhere else they're pretty much set. If they bring in one of those three players, they're good. If they trade for T. Higgins, they're good.

If they do those two things, which there's still time and there's still players left. If they do those things, then I'd say this offseason is a success. Yeah. You know what? I'll grant you that. Thank you for not being an angry old commenter. I can't wait to clip all of this later. This is going to be so funny.

And if it doesn't happen, then I'm not sure if you should clip the part where cj just told people to go die oh i probably you're like oh you young people it's like man i'm not if you have one flower in the grave i'm not gonna listen to you i'm sorry i don't make the rules i just think them up and write them down yeah all right well that's all the scheduled content we have for today um and if things come out uh be sure to look look at our instagram cj has been on top of it things come out within a couple of seconds so be sure to keep up with our instagram page for all of the free agency news stuff is breaking i mean we just had three three mckenzie just signed with the giants exactly we we've had three or four things just break during this hour-long episode so uh things are

happening left and right you guys know how free agency is be sure to be caught up follow the fumble ruski podcast on instagram uh on tiktok subscribe on our instagram. Chris, what's up? I also want to throw in one last piece before we end, just to think about the Patriots and Chargers have been in talks about Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Khalil Mack, and Joey Bosa. I like Keenan Allen, but he's ancient. We don't have to discuss it right now. Just something to think about for next time. They can all go pound sand.

I don't care. I don't care for Keenan Allen now. Just something to think about for next. They can all go pound sand. I don't, I don't care. I don't care for a Keenan Allen. I want nothing to do with them. He'll, you'll get a couple of good years out of them, but it's basically a Deon Deandre Hopkins situation. You're not getting them to win a championship. You're getting them to further develop the development of the quarterback

that you're, you have, or are going to get now because the, the last guy who you were going to do this for, you just booted them out of town. So, um, yeah, give me T Higgins. now because the the last guy who you were going to do this for you just booted him out of town so um yeah give me t higgins you can actually win a super bowl with t higgins all right wrap it up all right well you that'll do it for that'll do it for us tonight thank you for listening to us

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