The Fumblerooski Podcast - Talking About the Tag -Ep 338 The Fumblerooski Pdcast

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

The Franchise Tag Window opens today, and reports have already come out that Tee Higgins will be placed on the tag again for the Bengals. What is the next move for the Bengals? Trade? Long term deal? Who knows! Chris Costich, Adam Wright, and CJ Medeiros give their takes on who else around the league will get hit with the tag.

The offseason is in full swing. The franchise tag window begins today at 4 o'clock. See who the candidates are along with T. Higgins already being set to be placed on the franchise tag for the second straight season. More on that here on the FumbleRushki 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.

This is the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 Dean Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Chris Kostich with CJ Medeiros and Adam Wright. The offseason in full swing as today marks the day one of the franchise tag window being opened up. We're recording this at 3.11 p.m. So in 49 minutes, the franchise tag window will open. But we already got news of one franchise taggy, and that's going to be T. Higgins being put on the tag

for the second straight season. No big surprise, but you would like to see T. Higgins get thrown a multi-year contract. And when you're the Bengals and seeing the comments that Joe Burrow has been making about wanting to keep the core pieces together, like obviously himself, Jamar Chase, T Higgins, Trey Hendrickson, and even offering to restructure his contract to keep some of these guys as well.

This is in a way, a good move. And really when you think about it, you kind of hope that this is step one of the process of keeping T Higgins. And step two is then offering him that multi-year deal, whether it be four years for 30 million or whatever the hell it is, hopefully that gets that step two for the Bengals. And that's kind of the word on the street right now, according to sources,

that this is just the Bengals doing what they can to get T. Higgins on a long-term deal. But to you fellas, what are we thinking here? Are the Bengals actually going to keep them or are we going to see a trade? I honestly could see either. I can, I can see either thing happening.

So on one hand, I, I, I think it's very, very difficult for the Bengals to keep all of them between Jamar Chase, Tee Higgins, and Trey Hendrickson. On another hand, they might be able to do it, and that may end up being the death of them, because I don't think it's a good idea for them to keep them all, because it's going

to be too expensive. They may be able to do it. It's going to be extremely difficult, but they may be able to do it. But this group together this season went nine and eight, nine and eight. That's not a good season for them with the star talent they have on offense. They have a lot of work to do on the defensive side of the ball and the money that you have for Tee Higgins, Joe Burrow is very, very, he's been very open about restructuring his deal to give the Bengals more money and him this offseason to re-sign Tee Higgins. Would he do that to help the defense?

That's my question. Because I think that's a better idea, is to work on that defense in order to be a more well-rounded team. You can lose T Higgins and still be a high powered offense. It can happen. In fact, I would go as far as to say it will happen, but if you keep T Higgins along with Jamar chase, yes, you'll be a very explosive offense. You'll also go nine and eight, eight and nine every single year and be one of the mediocre teams in the AFC. And you're going to be, everyone in the league is going to be thinking to themselves,

boy, they are really, really wasting Joe Burrow's career. They don't need two wide receiver ones. It's a luxury. They don't need it. I think it's stupid what they're doing. Ugh. need it i think it's stupid what they're doing oh i actually didn't think they were going to tag t higgins i said to myself there's no way that the bangles are just dumb enough to tag him and they did and here's the thing an argument that i hear all the time from bangles fans is that well joe burrow is going to restructure his deal and the bangles have a decent amount of cap space but see here's the thing i i don't care first of all trusting mike brown who is one of if not the cheapest owner in the league to spend that that's a rookie mistake like don't do that congratulations

you've given him financial flexibility and he'll just pocket the rest and we know this he's done it before but but even still let's look beyond that i am incapable of stressing enough how stupid How stupid of an idea that signing T. Higgins to a long-term deal is. So if you want to look at a cap space, just top 51, right? No, not top 51, all in total. The Bengals have $44.4 million and $49.4 for top 50. As you know, the franchise tag, one year, all guaranteed, it's going to be around $26 million. Because it's like 120% of what you're earning now, which T. Higgins previously got $21 million. So I think it's about $26.

So already, like I said, so if you look at what they have overall in cap space that's 44.4 million six you're already under 20 that's not good and like i said you know my general rule of thumb is you know you set aside 10 mil for your free agent i mean for your incoming rookies and and you're just already not in a good spot. And we need to talk about, it's not just him. It's about who else is a free agent. Cause not just T Higgins defensive tackle. You're starting defensive tackle BJ Hills, a free agent slot corner, Mike Hilton starting right.

Tackle Trent Brown corner, Marco Wilson starting tight end. Mike Gasicki swing tackle and overall depth piece cody ford uh edge rush specialist joseph osai starting strong safety von bell those are like the biggest ones these are like actual starters that they're probably gonna lose also then there's this whole thing with trey hendrickson who is up for an extension and he wants out. He's not a free agent right now, but he still wants out. And you just can't afford to pay them all

because there's one thing people are forgetting with this whole Higgins thing. Jamar Chase needs an extension. It got really ugly last season about how he just didn't practice, and then he showed up at like the 11th hour to play after threatening to hold out. But here's the thing, if you give Higgins what he wants, and for the record, before all the hopeful Bengals fans start bombarding me with coping mechanisms, I'd like to point out, I mean, it could happen, but T. Higgins has shown no inkling of taking a team-friendly deal. He has shown no will to take a pay cut. Chase, we know, won't. Hendrickson won't. And even if Burrow restructures his deal, then you're just going to have to choose between Higgins and Hendrickson. I can definitely

see Hendrickson being on his way out the door. And even still, you're going to have like a lot of starters that are going to leave after this. So just i just think it's really foolish because sure you can get higgins and chase but then your defense which by the way cost you a playoff spot one of the worst defenses in the league the stereotypical you know just awful swiss cheese defense that can't do anything, where if the Bengals scored 35 points, the defense let up 40. So I just, the defense is going to get worse if you do this. It's just, it's an awful move. And as a whole, I think they're actually going to get a long-term contract done with Higgins. And they just shouldn't though. That's the thing. Do I think they're actually going to get a long-term contract done with Higgins. And they just shouldn't, though. That's the thing.

Do I think they will? Yeah. And I have heard another thing, too, about how even if they do move on from him, they just don't want to lose him for nothing. He's on the franchise tag. Like, what do you think you're going to get for him at best? And I mean at best. You have no leverage. You're getting a third and maybe if you get on

your knees and beg you're probably going to get a second like that that's your best case scenario we're gonna get to that fair enough fair enough this is the second part of the segment yeah then let's keep going then then yeah so yeah. So for about you, well, yeah, I would, since, since we're already there, uh, I would look towards last off season with the luxurious need situation.

So obviously the chiefs were in a really tough position. They had a couple of different free agents and luxurious need was the odd man out. He's a luxury guy. He was the CB one B. Um, obviously he's not this year for the Titans because he sucked this year, but that's what he was with the, with Kansas city. Um, so he was kind of, he was kind of the, the white, the cornerback version of T Higgins,

Trent McDuffie was the, the Jamar chase, right. He was the corner last year who was in 2023 the best corner in football. And LeJarius Sneed was really good too, but they couldn't afford to pay both. So they franchise tagged one of them and they traded them away. The best thing they could get was a third round pick. So to play into CJ's point, that's probably the best you'll do. And that's actually not a bad deal. Because you weren't expected to get anything. For a player who's going to be on a one-year deal, usually you don't get much out of these guys.

Getting a third, a day two pick, would actually not be the worst thing in the world. Also, again, you don't have to pay him. He's a luxury player who you are paying big money to that you should be using on the defense. So if they were to decide to do that, that actually wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. Problem is, if they traded him years ago, they could have gotten a first, and they'd be in a much better situation than they are in now., they could have gotten a first and they'd be in a much better situation than they are in now. But they backed themselves into a corner with this.

They pushed their homework to the last minute. All of the studying they were supposed to do for the test tomorrow in science class, they decided, you know what? We're going to push it all. Trey Hendrickson, Jamar Chase, Tee Higgins, they're going to push it all to the end. So now here's what you have to do. It's a shitty situation. You could have gotten a first, but you're not going to get that now. So good job, Bengals. Good job. Yeah, I guess my take on this is

if they do end up throwing the bag at Higgins and, and Jamar, then Hendrickson is all, is going to be the odd man out. Kind of like what CJ was just saying. Can't like, that's the problem. You can't have all three.

And that's, and that's the other problem is that you look at where the Bengals were on defense, their defense, what sold them pretty much in all eight of their losses and probably could have been more as well. So it's I feel like if you're the Bengals, you kind of have to keep Hendrickson to keep some sort of continuity on defense. And maybe Higgins is going to be the odd man out at that rate. Either way, one of those two is going to be the ones to leave and Jamar and Burrow are going to be the two constants at the very least. And I just want to point out one thing. There's two

factors. I like to add two more factors onto this weird financial puzzle of the Cincinnati Bengals. Factor one, Higgins, Adam described him as a luxury, but I feel like you're more right than you realize. It's not that he's even wide receiver 1B. You already have Andre Josivas at wide receiver 3, and when Higgins missed some games this year, did you see how well Yoshivas was playing?

I mean, if you look at the stats, this guy just came out of nowhere and started playing really, really well. And keep in mind, he's wide receiver three and getting like three targets a game. He's still got 36 yards, yards 479 yards and six touchdowns i definitely think he could be a wide receiver too especially with joe burrow and the final factor to think about is the offensive line long have we said that the offensive line of the Bengals was just a clown show, right? A train wreck in every sense of the word. And it's starting to turn back into that. They tried to fix it and everything they're

throwing at the wall just isn't working. Alex Kappa has regressed and Trent Brown is a free agent and the guy who you can slap in for a play or two, you know, your swing lineman, Cody Ford's a free agent too. And if you are this short-sighted to extend Higgins and Chase, then not only do you not have a defense, you will not have an offensive line either just want to go over andre josevas um so the thing is i believe that josevas is taking advantage of games where t higgins and jamar chase are playing where both of them are playing because there were five games where t higgins was not there but yosivas was uh september 8th 2024 three receptions 26 yards sept October 27th.

No receptions on three targets. November 3rd. One reception. Ten yards. A touchdown. That was a touchdown. Then November 7th. Two receptions, 29 yards.

Higgins missed more time than that, though. Well, he played 12 games. Oh, yeah. Five games without T. Higgins. So it makes sense. It adds up. All I'm saying is regardless of what Yosef does, Jamar Chase is enough. And if you bring back the, the tight end, Mike Gusecki, who had a, had another, had

a really good year after a down year in new England. Um, and you just find somebody else to just plug in the hole in a kind of a cheap deal. They'll be fine because you have your number one. All you need is a number two. You don't need a 1B. A 1B is a nice thing to have, but it's not a need. And you have a lot of needs on that defense. You have a lot of needs on the offensive line.

They just don't need him yeah i just and that's the thing though you know that the bangles are heading towards keeping him and it's just i feel like we're all joe burrow fans on this podcast and it's just it's so short-sighted it's just it's like going after the shiny dangling objects and like walking right off a cliff. And it's looking more likely that when it's all said and done, we're going to be looking at Joe Burrow as the next Dan Marino. You know, always on a good team, but could never get it done

because either the defense was selling out or the line wasn't that great. But hey, he had some good weapons to throw to. I just – you kind of wish Cincy would see the bigger picture, but – It doesn't seem like Burrow does either. Huh? It doesn't seem like Burrow does either. And you can see – I was telling you guys during – while these games were happening at the latter half of the year when they were going off, I was telling you guys during like while these games were happening at the latter half of the year, when they were, they were going off, I was saying,

well, it really does look like Burr, like Burrow and Higgins love playing with each other. I, and I mentioned that I said, when he caught that game winning touchdown against Denver, I said, there is no way that Burrow and Higgins aren't thinking in the back of their heads as that play is happening. Boy, would I love to be doing this with each other the rest of our careers. Yeah.

I mean, yeah. I mean, once again, you know, you do have a solid point about, you know, Burrow. I mean, it sucks, but if you're a big man, then you got to make big man decisions. You know what I mean? Like, if you want to be the guy, you have to make the decision. Like, don't prioritize flash over substance. Yeah, I know defense and O-line's not sexy,

but, like, if you want to have another season where you're sacked 50 times and another season where your defense sacked 50 times and another season where your defense is giving up 40 points a game, then like, then be my guest, but don't worry. When you go into Canton with no rings and no other accolades, we'll say, well, at least you were fun to watch, but that's just me. Yeah.

Joe Burrow is that guy. But we'll step aside for a quick break since I think we've covered everything that we need to cover on the T. Higgins thing. Should be an interesting couple months to see if the Bengals do anything in the next couple months with this. But we'll see what happens. But for now, on the other side of the break, we're going to get into the rest of the whole franchise tag bullshit.

Cause it's just stupid and shouldn't be happening anyways, but we're going to give our picks of who should be a shoe in or who we think is going to end up getting the tag. This is the Bumble 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 Rooster Podcast. Chris Kostich, Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros. Franchise tag window is

opening in well at this point half an hour by the time you got that everyone tunes in uh it'll be open by then uh so obviously we're not going to be able to cover any other uh franchise taggies until friday but franchise tag window is opening today. Officially at four, currently three 30 at the moment. And we're going to give our picks just one guy who we think is going to be a shoe in, or just in general, which team is going to end up throwing the tag at them. I'll let you guys go first on this. Adam, who's your pick?

Yeah. So I think Adam Schefter said it best. It's expected to be a quiet tag cycle with minimal tag options, which says a lot about the tag cycle because it's already quiet as is. Almost every single year, there isn't a single tag that's placed until the end of the, the, until the end of the, the window. And every once in a while, there's one or two that get placed right before it starts happening, which it already has basically Bengals T Higgins writings on the wall. That being said, I'm going to give you Vikings quarterback, Sam Darnold. This is an interesting one because I think that there's, there's a couple of things they could do here. Number one, for starters, I don't even, it's obvious that they're going to move on from Sam Darnold. they're just trying to get something for him and i think there is

something that they could do with it and if they place if they place the if they place sort of a transition tag or the the non-exclusive tag where they allow for the team to sort of, they allow other teams to sort of match any sort of offer, then you get some compensation for it. What they could also do is trade their tag away so that another team has the rights and they can extend Sam Darnold. And because he's a quarterback, a quarterback who threw for 35 touchdowns this past year, you could get a pretty decent return, potentially a first round pick. I know that is a very rare scenario, but it could happen because he's a quarterback and the quarterback is the most important position on the field. And there is no shortage of teams that are not within reach of a quarterback in this year's draft, but still need the quarterback.

I don't think the Raiders are going to hit on Cam Ward or Shador Sanders unless they trade up. The Jets may be out unless they trade up. The Saints. Another team is the Steelers that I really like. All teams where if they traded for Sam Darnold, they could easily become a very competitive team. But what I am looking at is definitely the Steelers. I think the Steelers, they really want to stay relevant.

They have a good system out there that keeps their team competitive. And Sam Darnold is a good player for them to plug in. And I know that they've gone 9-8, 10-7 the past few years. I'll get a little bold here. I believe if they get Sam Darnold with the coaching in place, with the team around him, if they get Sam Darnold,

they'd be an 11-6, 12-5 team. I think they're a good enough environment for Sam Darnold that it just fits the entire mold for what Darnold needs to succeed. CJ, your pick. I want to go a little off the beaten path here. So I'm going to go with Dolphins safety, Javon Holland. Holland, you know, he's a good young safety, end of his rookie deal.

He's going to need a new contract. And I just think it's perfect to keep the secondary relatively strong because look the miami defense isn't great they have a bunch of elite edge rushers who can't stay healthy their linebacker core is a mess and arguably their best overall offensive back jaylensey, is aging right before our very eyes. I mean, he got just turned around and just burned a lot this year. And as a whole, I think you have to go with Javon Holland, right? The only stumbling block that I see is the cap space Miami they're not swimming in cap they have over negative seven million left and to be fair credit where it's due they did take steps to

uh you know I'll be how do I put this they took steps to fix you know, I'll be, how do I put this? They took steps to fix that, right? They released Raheem Mostert, they released Kendall Fuller and Durham Smythe, but that's not enough. So the reason I think it's going to be Holland is because every move that they've made leads me to believe that they are trying to get holland back you know like they wouldn't i mean look you got to be under the cap to make signings regardless but the fact they're willing to part ways with guys like fuller and most are leaves that just leads me to believe that they want holland back more so than anything and holland is a pretty solid safety i mean you don't hear about him as much anymore at least because well you know they're they're not great over in miami really

anymore he did he didn't he had he is coming off a down year you know 62 tackles a sack he did have a forced fumble and he broke up four passes, but teams aren't really throwing his way anymore, so that is just the price you pay. Yeah. I think both are good choices. Sam Darnold, I mean, even

if Sam Darnold doesn't get sent anywhere, it'd be good to keep him just for the JJ McCarthy sake, just to just as like some sort of mentor at the very least. And Javon Holland, I mean, when you look at the Dolphins defense, you kind of need to keep some sort of continuity. And Javon Holland has been pretty solid for the Dolphins in his tenure over there.

So both are, I think, would be good tags. My pick is going to be DJ Reed, cornerback for the Jets. Now, DJ Reed didn't have any interceptions this year, but was pretty solid in coverage. Ended up with 11 pass breakups, which ended up being second most of his career this season. So even though he didn't have any interceptions, he still made up for it by being pretty solid swatting balls and whatnot. But PFF grade, I feel like should be a little

better. But I think with the season that Reed had, it would be enough for him to get some solid looks and free agency. And with the new coaching regime coming in, especially with Aaron Glenn being a defensive guy. And, you know, with the regime, new regime coming in and pretty much the it's all signs are leading towards cleaning house in terms of the Jets roster. And you're already seeing it right now with like Rodgers right now. Devontae Adams definitely isn't going to stay. They're going to start moving some pieces around. DJ Reed would be a good piece to keep,

especially when you have a defensive guy like Aaron Glenn coming in. You'd like to keep one of your few bright spots that was on defense from last season to keep your new head coach somewhat happy. Yeah, and the backbone of the Jets, at least the best Jets teams that we've had in recent years, have all been teams that have been built on defense. You have Sauce Gardner. You have some nice players up front. But it would be nice to have another guy on the other side of the field in DJ Reed.

I like him. He's a nice corner. Nice CB2. Yeah, and I think that sorry CJ I'm going to throw this last point I think like his PFF grade as well is a little bit lower than you would probably think because he doesn't have

he doesn't wow you with all these he only has six career interceptions on his line but that's not he's not a ball hawking guy. He's just going to be a coverage guy for you that you know he's going to be able – he can lock up whoever's number two is on the other side or just be a good corner to have to stop the pass. Yeah, DJ Reed, he's good, but I personally would hesitate, you know,

calling him franchise tag worthy, if that makes sense. Yeah, that's no hate to him. It's just a corner two. And it's not like LeJarrius Sneed in KC, right, last season, where it was 1A and 1B. No, no, no, no. I just, I don't know. Especially last year, he was another one who just got burned.

Like, a lot, a lot. And I don't know. And every Jets fan that I talk to, or I actually do know a few of them, have said, or if you go to comment sections, they talk about DJ Reed. You know what they're saying? They're saying good riddance. And they also mentioned that he apparently was a bit of a penalty magnet.

I don't know if that's true because I'm trying to look at it right now. I can't find it. But I don't know. If that is true, then that's a little concerning. A little bit. But, I mean, it could change once you have a defensive-minded guy there. I mean, granted, you had a defensive-minded guy there, but you ran him out of town for no reason.

But who knows? Possibly. guy there, but you ran him out of town for no reason. Who knows? Possibly. Did we want to do another round since we're only at 30 minutes? We could just work our way up to 40? You guys can name a couple more. I know this is going to be probably a very light franchise

tag window, but there's also tags that could be placed that we're not even talking about well i mean i don't know like who else would like if we're looking around like i kind of just threw up a couple articles and a lot of like the problem is that there's guys that could be candidates but from everything that you read about the candidates that like, if they get the franchise tag, it's going to hurt the team more than it would help them. Which is every single franchise tag that's placed.

It doesn't help. Yeah. Sorry. I just want to mention one thing. I want to circle back to DJ Reed real quick. He got 11 penalties last season. To be fair, to be fair, two didn't stick. One was declined, and one was just offsetting.

But still, the Jets fans might have a point. Maybe. So what, at that point, it's seven penalties then? No, he had 11. No, I mean like if we offset the other one. No, no, no. If you offset them, then that's nine. I was talking about

the decline penalties and the offset. Yes. If you subtract because one was offset, one was declined. He had 11, so you take away two. That's nine. Oh, okay. I thought you said that there were more declined slash offset. No, no. That was it. Sorry. No, I meant there were two that were more uh decline offset no no that was it sorry no i meant there were two

that were either declined or offset so it's there was a one and one so he's getting a penalty almost every other game that's what you're pretty much yeah that's not great not but yeah yeah so uh when we talk about other people what about trey smith of the chiefs that's an interesting one and what i'll tell you is they are in a very very precarious position as far as cap space mostly because of two different players um patrick mahomes i don't i'm not sure if you've seen his contract but it ain't good um as you guys know he signed a massive deal years ago. And looking at what it is, and I'm just pulling it up real quick. It was like 10 years, $500 million, right?

Or something like that. Yeah, it's some dick. One of the biggest deals in professional sports. I feel like anyone could have told you that the minute that he signed that deal that at this point of the Chiefs' run, they were going to really start having some problems anyways. And he can only be structured so much. $66 million cap hit this year in 2026, $68 million.

In 2027, $64 million. And they've been having trouble with paying off their players in the last few years. It's about to get literally twice as hard this year. Patrick Mahomes' cap hit literally doubled from last year. $37 million in 2024, $66 million this year. Well, nearly doubled. But that's a massive.

Now, there is a possibility for a restructure in 28 through 20 already did 2030 yes but there could it could be more 32 million 34 million 45 million 48 million some of that can be diluted and it could be it could be – so from 25 through 27 can be moved to the point where it's all a little more evened out, and it could give them more money in the short term just to keep the guys that they have. But a lot of work needs to be done. What I will say about cap space in general, it's real.

It affects teams. It's easily manipulated. And they can do it. My question here is, because the whole reason we're bringing this up is because of Trey Smith. Are we doing all of this for just a guard? Because guards grow on trees. Can they not get that in this year's draft? Can they not restructure for something else?

Because they do need another wide receiver. They need something to be another number one target. At least a tight end or something. Because Travis Kelsey's getting older. Their running game is, I mean, fine. It's okay. They could use a tackle. There's a lot of things they need

and i get the interior is important but it's easy to replace them just saying you know you have a point you could also go with nick bolton as well who's also a free agent you have to remember when if you choose one to tag, you lose the other. Because I tell you, if Trey Smith hits the market, I have no qualms saying that he's going to, like that, he's getting snapped up. Same thing with Bolton, too. They're probably going to be day one signings, more likely than not. And neither of them have said they're going to take a team-friendly deal.

And the thing with restructuring, right? And you guys both know this. Adam, I know you know this. You said it. But when you talk to NFL fans, they say, oh, they'll just restructure. What the hell do you think restructuring is? You treat it like it's just a magic term where it goes away. No, no, no, no, no. You have to take money and push it back. The Saints do it.

And look what happened to them. They're 60 mil in the hole. The bill comes due but mahomes only has so many years that you can just keep pushing the money back and you're just going to be screwing yourself over and pushing the knife deeper into your back in the future and even still it's not just trey smith or nick bolton they are another team where they are getting just jay just really have like a lot of free agents that they're gonna have to deal with and you know i mentioned it before how their entire receiving core outside of worthy is going to be free agent you know

hollywood brown deandre hoson huh rishi Rice is still there. Oh, I forgot about him. And Juju. Yeah, but he's coming off an ACL tear. Juju's a free agent. Yeah, I just said. I thought you were saying that he's still going to be there. Yeah, so you got Juju, DeHop, and Hollywood. That's a massive problem.

And even still, even if you do restructure Mahomes, apparently it's not just him. You have right tackle Jawan Taylor locked into probably one of the worst value contracts in the league. Travis Kelsey and Chris Jones for like the past two seasons have said outright that they are not going to restructure. And it's probably not going to change now, especially since Chris Jones got injured in the Super Bowl and he doesn't want to lose any more money. Joe Tooney, too. Oh, Joe Tooney, too.

Yeah, he's not good. He already said he's not going to do that, last season at least. Safety Justin Reed is probably gone. He's your starter. Charles Amenahu is probably gone. Tershawn Wharton, gone. Tackle DJ Hum Reed is probably gone. He's your starter. Charles Amena, who's probably gone. Tershawn Wharton gone. Tackle DJ Humphrey's gone. Like they're going to lose a lot of their depth.

Same thing with guys like return specialists, uh, Meikle Hardman, powered back Kareem Hunt. They're losing just so many people. And, and like you said, guards grow on trees. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but not really. Interior O-line is fairly easy to replace and linebackers. They're a little trickier, but still,

I just feel like you gotta, I mean, if you do restructure, it's just not going to be enough to cover one franchise tag. So I don't know what to tell you how about how about how about we take the tom brady route and just take team friend and if you're a quarterback you're gonna get a shit ton of sponsorship deals if you're a guy like mahomes or burrow tell me tell me how many ads per football game do you see Mahomes in? A lot. Like half of them at this point, yeah.

How many ads did you see Brady in during his playing days? Actually, not many. Not many. Not many. They were mostly in the New England region. But you know. He's been in them lately, though. But you know he was racking up that money

Still with sponsorship deals During his playing days And still taking team friendly deals And now you're looking at a guy like Mahomes That's in Every other commercial Right now And he's got this 300, 500

Million dollar contract Why not just take The team-friendly deal, say, you know what? I'm already making millions from Gatorade or Dick's Sporting Goods or Nike, whatever the fuck he's being sponsored by, whatever shoe deal he's signing, and say, I'm making enough money here. Let's build a nice, solid team so we can make a super bowl run for years to come instead players are different i mean even if i'm sorry i cut you no and instead my home didn't happen yeah and now we got my homes taking 300 million deals and his offense

getting a finally getting exposed in the super bowl yeah um yeah what are we are we good with this topic do we want because this was technically i know we wanted to get down we we love getting down this rock this rabbit hole about the the chiefs and their financial situation i did want to just remind us all that this was about trey smith Nick Bolton. Well, we got there and we said, no. They probably will get one of them if I had to guess, probably Smith. But it's not worth it. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I don't know. With the giant deal that Mahomes just signed, it seems like the damage is done. I think that's where I'll draw the line at. That's basically the whole point. The damage is done. Honestly, the decision was probably made last year already because if you're the Chiefs and you're like, all right, well, we got these guys that we need to sign a deal we got

franchise that we got a handout but wait we got a stupid cap hit going with this mahomes thing so we probably don't really have much of a choice right now going into the offseason they probably already had this in mind going into this past season already. And we're like, well, our bed was made five years ago when we decided to make this extension or whenever he made the extension, which is hard to explain to any chiefs fan or any general football fan ever,

because they're going to say, well, since then he's won three Superbowls and he's been to, he's been to four. Been to five, actually, during that span. Yeah. No. No.

Been to four. Been to four during that span. Oh, yeah, because after his rookie. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yes. And that was when they were actually able to bring in players who worked for them like that it actually they were actually able to build a team around them back then now they're just they're i mean they're doing what they're doing

but uh i wanted to bring up one last one real quick um quick chris godwin i know we were talking about him off camera that it would be unlikely but do you not think that maybe they'll look at the flashy players, the flashiness that the Bengals have fallen victim to? They're going to look at the Bengals, how they're trying to do it. Maybe the Buccaneers do the exact same thing. The guy who's under contract, he's old, Mike Evans. You're taking it year by year at this point. Chris Godwin's the young guy would they not want to at least try to keep him and maybe use the tag doing so uh i don't

know i feel like it'd be i just jason licht is like an actual good gm so i feel like he wouldn't break the bank for Chris Godwin who's 20 who's about to be 29 and coming off an injury I mean he could and especially because Godwin can be a wide receiver one like literally anywhere else yeah yeah but like at the same time you kind of want to be able to have whenever Mike Evans does retire could be next year for all we know you kind of want to be able to have, whenever Mike Evans does retire, could be next year for all we know, you kind of do want to be able to have that guy that's going to be next up to take over that number one spot. Or, I mean, you look at the Buccaneers right now, if they didn't deal with so many injuries, then they potentially could have made a deeper run in the playoffs. Granted, they, like this year, there's nothing you can do about running into a really hot Washington team that was riding on so much momentum.

That was kind of just the story of the Bucs season. Like they had the opportunities, but outside factors kind of fucked them over. I mean, possibly. opportunities but outside factors kind of fucked them over i mean possibly and also there's one more piece of the puzzle yeah we mentioned how every time we said with higgins every time you franchise tag a player you can do it three times now it used to two, but now it's three. Every time you do that, it gets more and more expensive. This would be the third time doing it. And it would cost them, I think, like over $30 million. All guaranteed for one year. That's just an awful decision. It makes no financial sense. I just, you know, sometimes, sometimes like i said you've got to actually

make grown-up decisions if you want to you know have a good team yeah yeah so i i mean i think we've covered all of them this is that's pretty much everything it's it the cupboard is pretty bare as far as the the franchise tag goes usually you can get a quite a few but those are just some names that i thought would be pretty good ones yeah uh any other uh news in the nfl sphere that we wanted to touch on before we end the show tonight not nfl but i do want to mention one thing so for all our fans we so so if you've been a listener for a while, you know that we're not fans of the franchise tag. You've already heard me rant about it year in and year out,

and because Adam will chew my head off, I'm not going to rant about it again. Lord knows I'd like to, though, I'm just saying. You know, it screws over the players, you know, the thing about, oh, it hurts small market teams if you get rid of it is an argument made in bad faith. And we've debunked it time and time again. But we decided to ask you, the listeners, about, hey, you know, should we get rid of

it? Apparently, a lot of people like it, but and of which I think those people are wrong. But the people have made their verdict. And well, the people have chosen to keep the or to get rid of the franchise tag we put on our story should the nfl get rid of the franchise tag just yes or no uh we got some decent engagement 105 people voted to get rid of it 89 voted not to do the number do the math that is roughly 54 said yes 46 said no looks like you know if the people had their way the franchise tag would be gone so yeah it's just i don't know and i will say one last thing my biggest issue with it is that

the players don't like it and they have no ability to refuse it and if a team says hey we're going to tag you they only have to procure the document no pen to paper just say we're going to tag you then you as the player are screwed like you're stuck if they just even hint at tagging you and uh like i said it's just it's so grossly overpowered too and now you can tag them three years in a row and it used to be i believe that was just on guys who are coming off their rookie deal now it applies to everyone who's undrafted free or who's just a free agent and unrestricted i meant an unrestricted free agent it's just it's it's gotten to it's it's just the power is expanded and you can do it three years in a row it and by the way

we are already seeing free agency classes getting weaker and weaker and yeah yeah adam you're not running the show so don't do this chris is the host and if you wanted me to hurry up he'd say it but i'm just sorry we love you though buddy daddy. Let's try to keep it under 50. All right. Fair enough. But I do just want to end with how no league makes a bigger spectacle of free agency than the NFL and more players moving teams is more storylines and more storylines, more money. And it would make financial sense at the NFL to get rid of it. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. God bless you all.

I would argue that the NBA is probably the... No, it used to be, not anymore, because it's gotten too oversaturated. I wouldn't say oversaturated, but I think that with the new CBA that the NBA made, it makes it easier for you to keep players without going over the luxury tax, which is what the Celtics just achieved for you to keep players without going over the luxury tax. Which is

what the Celtics just achieved right now. It's more trade-based than free agency-based. Now it is, like I said, because of the new CBA that they formed. Which makes it easier to keep

homegrown talent and shit like that. Maybe that's kind of which makes it easier to keep homegrown talent and shit like that. So maybe, maybe that's kind of the basis of where the NFL is now, right? Like that's kind of what the NFL has kind of gone to and trying to help, help teams keep some of their homegrown talent. But NFL is also a lot different from other leagues in many ways. Anything else we want to touch on before we end the show?

No, I'm good. I'm good. That'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening in. New episode coming out on Friday at 730. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Also have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, Google Podcast, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram, fulmeruski underscore podcast

to keep up with the pod and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, we will see you on Friday. Over and out.