The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 & Out - Best of the week: Rodgers out in NY, Draft talk, NFL salary cap

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

John's weekend best-of is back! This week John talked about the Jets decision to move on from Aaron Rodgers and where he thinks would be a good landing spot for Rodgers. He discussed the top prospects in the upcoming NFL draft, and finally, he dove into the NFL telling teams that the salary cap will be going up this season. Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest.  #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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in a little weekend edition. So that will be the plan today. And what I need you to do is subscribe to the podcast if you listen on Collins feed. We have our own three and out feed. Make sure you hammer that subscribe button. Spotify, Apple, wherever you may listen. Actually, a lot of people listen on Spotify. Business is booming there.

And YouTube, because all of our content is up on there as well. So from mail bags to obviously podcasts. You name it. So we put all our content up on the YouTube page. So make sure you go subscribe to that page to get the latest and greatest. And other than that, let's dive into the week that was. Let's start with Aaron Rogers, who was officially cut, I guess unofficially because the waiver wire's dead for, I think, another week or so. But the Jets put out a statement.

and basically I love it. You know, in sports, I guess I follow it so closely. Maybe it happens in other industries, but it's just a go-to football thing when a player or a coach is fired. Like we wish him the best in his future endeavors and whatever he pursues in the future. Like I love that being the final statement.

It's like, no, you can't get this guy out of your building quick enough. And this isn't just on Aaron Rogers. This is not any time a coach is fired. Jerry said it with Mike McCarthy It happens with every person It's like I wish you the best No you want this guy gone And you hope whoever you bring in to replace him

Is way better than this guy So you're actually not wishing him the best But the Aaron Rogers Situation was It's funny, you know They went all in I don't blame them for doing it And it didn't just backfire in their face

It was a disaster It was like an epic all-time disaster it was one of those situations that's going to be talked about the rest of my life. I mean, there were some historic ones when I was young that I didn't witness. Like, hey, remember Willie Mays on the Mets? It's like, no, I don't. But clearly that didn't go well. And that feels like it's going to be one of those situations, especially if Rogers doesn't play anymore.

And I never blame a player for trying to play till his like essentially athletic dying days. because the real world sucks compared to getting to play football, basketball, baseball, baseball, hockey, you name it for a living. It doesn't get any better than that. And mainly it doesn't pay any better than that. And when you play quarterback, even at like a mediocre level, I mean, Gardner Mintz you got $15 million last year from the Raiders. There aren't many W-2 jobs on the open market that pay $15 million. So Aaron Rogers, who his days of getting $40, $50 million, are over, But when you look at Gardner Minchu getting $15 million,

it's very conceivable that someone can pay him one year 20, $25 million. So I would not blame him for trying to continue his career. The problem is his options, and we've talked about this before, are not going to be very good. It's going to be the Jets. It's going to be the Raiders. It's going to be teams like the Giants. It's going to be teams that are all drafting really, really high for a reason.

They suck. So if I was giving advice to Aaron Rogers And if I was giving advice to Amazon Doesn't this make a lot of sense Like listen, Herb Street and Al Got that thing off the Off the mat got it going Got it going in the right direction

Made it a valuable property Right? A lot of us watch Thursday night football 10 to 15 million people But Al feels like he's I'm pro L Michaels But a couple steps away from retirement And the Herb Street thing was kind of filler because they got denied on guys like John Lynch and Sean McVeigh.

Well, Aaron Rogers is sitting right there for you. And doesn't it kind of scratch Aaron's itch? Like part of staying as an NFL quarterback if he were to sign with a bad team wouldn't just be because of money. It would be because of what the NFL brings. Keeps you relevant, keeps you in the public eye, helps you, you know, be in the mix to your off-the-field businesses. Well, isn't that what this modern-day television? show does? Because look at Tom Brady. They gave him $350, $375 million. He'd never call the game. I would say Aaron Rogers has proven to be much more of an outgoing personality of willing to say whatever. And that's the space he's in. Like ultimately the space of calling a football game

is entertainment. Right. It's not like you got to just color within the lines. No, like, be yourself. Do whatever you want to do. And I do think Aaron Rogers to Amazon like, listen, makes a lot of sense. And if I was Amazon, I would be all over them. And the money that they were willing to pay a couple years ago to guys like McVeigh and John Lynch were eye-opening. Why wouldn't they be willing to do that with Aaron Rogers? Why wouldn't they be willing to like, okay, it's like Fox made a big splash.

Obviously a couple years ago, ESPN made a big splash hiring Joe Buck and Troy Aikman away from Fox. Maybe this Amazon's time. And listen, I'm not saying he would take it. Maybe he wants no part of this. Aaron Rogers doesn't seem like he's destined to be like a coach or a GM. But this feels like kind of a cushy gig. You could make $15, $20 million a year, do it for a couple years, ease into retirement,

still get paid a premium, get to be around football, and let's face it, kind of keep yourself relevant. I actually think like this is the perfect gig for him. If he asked me for advice, not saying he would and he won't, it's like should I go to the Titans or should I go to the Raiders? or should I be interested in Amazon? And Amazon, like, I'm sorry, like, it's time to get a new booth. It's time to blow that thing up. And I think Rogers is the perfect individual for that spot.

I think when you look at the Jets and I think the Falcons fall under this too, sometimes in life you have to be desperate. Like part of the reason I'm a podcaster is because probably about a decade ago, there were some desperate times. And it kind of led me into this profession and it's worked out pretty well. There are times in your life professionally and probably personally

where you have to do desperate things. Because the old adage is never make a business decision out of desperation. I think that's a little bullshit. I would, the way I would phrase it would be never make a big business decision out of desperation. And I think anytime that you trade or pay a quarterback a lot of money when you're in a situation like the Falcons were,

when you're in a situation like the Jets were, it's not an ideal operation. Because you go, well, why are the Packers trading me this guy? Why doesn't Kevin O'Connell and the Minnesota Vikings want this player back? And currently the name that's floating around is Matt Stafford. And it's, you know, the Rams, I don't know, I'm having Matt Stafford. and we've heard it now for a couple years.

It's like something's just a little off. And I think usually this stuff comes back to money and I don't blame the Rams. Like, yeah, we're not really into giving you $100 million guaranteed right now at 37, 38 years old. We're not into getting into a position

where if this does go off the rails, we feel like we're the Atlanta Falcons or the New York Jets. We're going to take a huge, huge cap hit for a guy that, you know, we feel is on the wrong, wrong side, probably on whole 17, 18, who we're proven we can still win with and we like playing with, but this is a business. And we're a little uncomfortable with where we're at

in this cycle. Now, we don't have many better options. We actually don't have any other options, but we don't plan on giving you a big contract extension. So if you want that contract extension, you're going to have to get it from someone else. And when I see that teams like, Oh, the Giants could be really interested in Matt Stafford. Like, that's got disaster written all over it. It really does. It's like, okay, the New York Giants, who have been one of the worst operations for a decade plus,

would be interested in trading for Matt Stafford. And obviously, if you're going to trade for him, you're going to give him a lot more money on his contract because Sean McVeigh and the L.A. Rams, who have established themselves as clearly one of the best operations in the league are over it, I would not be doing that. I would not be getting into business

with situations that well-run franchises want out of. Especially even with, we saw it last year with Kirk Cousins, who was going to be released in the next couple weeks. He was available for a reason. He was old.

He was injured, and he was going to be really, really expensive. And the Falcons were like, yeah, we'll give you a $90 million guaranteed. And it was clear by halfway through the season. and like this is an epic disaster. And part of the reason it was a disaster is like, your coaching staff, do they know what they're doing?

Like Matt Stafford used to be way better. Why? He was younger. He was in the prime of his career. And he was around people that were over their head and they did not win. Like part of being a good player in the NFL is you also need good coaches and a good operation in the NFL. Like it's pretty clear looking back when Tom Brady chose the bucks. Like, yeah, they had Bruce Ariens, Jason Light, who's one of the best GMs, and a lot of good players around them. They were actually pretty well built to handle that situation. If you would have put Tom Brady on a team that was not, it would have blown up in his face.

So when I see desperation when it comes to older quarterbacks, I see a massive, massive red flag. And I see something as an owner. Like, I understand why a general manager, why. a coach, people on the hot seat and people that are desperate to keep their jobs would want to do a, make a decision like that. But, and I'm not pro meddling, and you hear this a lot. Like, you know, the owner can't just stay out of the way. Well, sometimes you have to get involved because you're like, this is a moronic idea.

I don't need to know our entire playbook and the entire draft board to know. I don't like the way this looks, the way this smells, or where this has a potential to go. There's way more negative outcomes than it comes to positive outcomes when it comes to this transaction. So I would just, the Stafford business, if LA wants out, I'm sorry, I don't want in. Okay, let's go to a little draft conversation. Because there was a big story at the end of last week that Travis Hunter, it gave the list of guys going to the combine. And Travis Hunter was listed as a corner. and I say this all the time during the draft and I will continue to beat this drum.

Where you are drafted and how you are discussed as a draft prospect has nothing to do with how you're going to be as an NFL player. So your draft value, this is an economic exercise, right? So if I view you as a second round pick, that has nothing to do with what you're going to be once you get to the NFL. but based on whether it be size and measurables, speed, production, just overall talent, I don't view you as I need to take you in the top 20 picks to acquire your services. There are a lot of homes that go for $700,000 that would be a great place to lay your head down every night. But there's a reason that house costs $700,000. If you put it into a different market, that house might be $2.2 million.

and sometimes guys and players coming out of college based on a bunch of different circumstances, some of them out of their own control, their draft value is different from what it would be if I took this guy from Texas Tech and I put them at Ohio State. That's part of the business warrant. No different with positions.

We say this all the time, right? It's obvious quarterback is the number one position in the NFL. And if you need a quarterback and you're drafting a quarterback and the guy is viewed as an NFL starter, you draft him number one. You don't even hesitate. And then offensive and defensive linemen,

when it comes to tackles and pass rushers, are both view right behind them. You could make the argument that the third most valuable position, so if you go quarterback, offensive and defensive lineman, tackles and ends, I would say corner would have to be pretty high up there.

And if you could tell me, hey, you think both these guys are going to be an all pro, would you take a wide receiver or would you take a cornerback? I would 1,000% take a corner. Because it is typically easier to find good wide receivers later in the draft than it is corners, especially if I view the guy as a lockdown player. And I think Travis Hunter, whether he made the decision, whether Deion helped him make the decision,

whether whoever in his life helped him make this decision, it was the correct decision. Because when you look at the wide receiver class, It's easy to get lost in the shuffle. It's all size, you know, different size requirements. Some teams need this, some teams need that. And they're just not viewed as highly in the sense of, I can find guys later in the draft.

That is just not true for corners. And at the end of the day, Travis Hunter, as a wide receiver prospect, he's really good. Like, he is a first round wide receiver prospect. But I don't view him like Jamar Chase or, you know, last year, I thought Malik Neighbors was a better prospect than Marvin Harrison, like just some can't miss, no doubt about it, guy you would take in the top five. But at Corner, looking back last year, how many teams regret passing on guys like Jared

Verse and Quinion Mitchell for the Eagles? Obviously looking back, the defensive linemen should have gone higher. But if you could do it over, there's no way on God's Green Earth that Mitchell ends up to the Eagles in the early 20s. He probably ends up. up going in the top 10. Because getting a lockdown corner makes your defense that much easier to run when a guy takes away half the field, especially a player

who can chase around number one wide receivers. And then the discussion of, can he play both ways? That's a bigger picture discussion that will have to play out over time. I don't think it's physically possible to play corner and wide receiver as full-time starters

in the NFL. There are 17 games. Playing corner, just think about the wide receivers you have to go against in the NFL on a weekly basis, especially if you are immediately the number one, you know, like the number one guy as a corner. Like if you're the top guy, you're chasing around their best guy. It's just extremely taxing. But like, this is the easiest way to not even make a team hesitate to take you in the top two or three picks. Because if it's like, I want to play wide receiver, I also plan on doubling up as a corner,

but I'm a wide receiver first. I don't think he goes aside. But when he says, I'm going to play corner, that's what I want to play. I want to play offense as well, but I'm a corner. That's how you go in the top two or three. So smart move by him. Ashton Genty, I saw a headline today, a dude that writes for the athletic, wrote that the cowboy should take him at number 12 overall.

Taking Ashton Genty at 12 overall would be insane. And this gets back to that conversation. I love Ashton Genty as a running back. I think he is going to be a high-end starter in the NFL. But you can find running backs, especially in this draft, that are going to start between pick 40 and 80. There are going to be a ton of future NFL starters that are drafted on the second day.

And if I'm the Dallas Cowboys, and I have a lot of needs on my team, I am not taking a running back at number 12. That is insane. And listen, like, actually, Genesee is 5-8. if he was six feet, you might be able to convince me, hey, it could be Adrian Peterson.

He's 5 foot 8. But I couldn't take him at number 12 overall, especially when I go, well, why can't I just get my starter in the second or third round? Who do you take high overall? Take a offensive or defensive lineman. How do the Cowboys get good there for a while? They drafted a bunch of offensive linemen.

What happened in the last couple years? Like, where's their defensive, like, where's their depth up front? You got Michael Parsons, who you've kind of contemplated trading, but this is a deep draft at defensive linemen. Well, you're going to have the opportunity to pick one of the better ones at 12. So how many teams last year go, God, I could have used Jared Verst. Don't overthink this. Take a defense.

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21 and over, age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big news.

What's the news, name? Huge news. we created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself about. love or relationships can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find

clarity, peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually need people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Jordan Dono. you might know me as that loud guy who yells out,

help on the internet. Help! Somebody! Please! But there's so much more to me than that. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope I'm a Hippocrat, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions.

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This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrite as part of the Mike Coultera podcast network available on the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've thought about this for a while, and listen, it could be factually incorrect, but I can't imagine a business has made more millionaires than the NFL over the last 30, 40 years. Now, maybe there are companies that are invested in, you know, like Apple, you know, some of the major companies in America that a bunch of pensions are involved with. but just in terms of people actually working for that company, W-2s, the 32 NFL teams, and I'd probably include the league office. The NFL business is pretty insane right now.

Obviously, the players have never been richer and they've never made more money. Same thing goes for coaches. You know, Jerry Jones, when he stole the show at the Brian Schottnheimer press conference, he said that the reason he didn't get into coaching, because remember, you know, a lot of such a younger listeners and viewers don't realize. Jerry Jones once upon a time was on the Arkansas team that won the national championship in college. Like, Jerry Jones has a national championship ring as a player in college. So he wasn't just some Joe Schmo businessman.

Like, this guy played college football at a really, really high level. Granted, times were a little different. Offensive linemen might have weighed 240 pounds. But still, at the time, it's all relative. he was on an Arkansas team that won the Natty. And Jerry said that like a lot of my friends went into coaching, but I always aspired to live in bigger houses and drive nicer cars. And essentially if I would have known what these guys are making now,

I might have gotten into coaching because I see what we're paying them. And it's not just head coaches making $8, $10, $15, $20 million. I would imagine it changes per team, but two to four coaches of staff, non-head coach, are making seven fix. obviously general managers make a lot of money and the amount of people making millions of dollars associated with the NFL, it's pretty nuts.

Listen, indirectly, I didn't make very much when I worked in the NFL, but I've made a lot of money, a lot more money, being in this business, just talking about football. And, you know, the biggest sports podcast, I mean, the biggest sports podcast right now, pardon my take, is an NFL football show. Pat McAfee, it's a football-driven show.

Like, football is the cash cow, And nothing speaks more of that than the news that came out yesterday that the NFL's salary cap will be somewhere between $275 and $282 million. And that number, one, just sounds massive, but when you put it into context, 10 years ago, 2015, so not that long ago, NFL was doing well then, the salary cap was $140 million. Hell, three years ago, the salary cap was barely over $200 million. It has risen over $70 million in the last three years. And honestly, if you look at the last five years, it would have gone a lot higher if it

wouldn't have been for 2020 and 2021, where the salary cap actually went the wrong way for a year in 2021 because of the diminished revenues because of the Rona. So football right now, like, you know, these players, it is not just the super high-end guys, the Justin Jeffersons, the Micah Parsons, the Miles Garrett's. Obviously, relatively speaking, Reggie White, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Brett Farr, Pete Banning, whoever at the time, was always making a lot of money, right?

But it's the mid-tier guy. I remember last year when guards, when good starting guards, we're getting $18 million. It's like, holy shit. you know the NBA the average salary is 12 million dollars and clearly there are a lot of guys making 30 40 50 million dollars there's only 12 guys on a team right there are only 7 8 guys that actually play so given the size of the roster 53 guys I mean the veteran minimum when you're like a seventh round pick even brock purdy who was the last pick in the draft by his like third year he was making a million dollars and everyone's like laughing he makes

nothing in relative to his position he does not but relative to being the last pick in the draft, even if you hadn't become a starting quarterback, if you had just made the team, you'd be making a million dollars. So it's, it is a great time to be involved in football. And the good thing, and this is why the other story I saw is that Jed York, and he's not alone, but we'll just use Hibb as an example. The NFL passed the rule recently that you could sell pieces of your team to private investors, right? Private equity, venture capitalism, right?

you could get, hey, you don't actually get anything. You don't get to decide when I hire a fire a coach. You have no say in free agency or the NFL draft, but you get to say, like, you're a part owner. Brady's somewhat unique is that Mark Davis actively wants him to be involved, but most of these guys that are just money dudes, cutting checks, have no juice. I mean, none.

When I was at the Super Bowl, it was with some buddies from the Eagles. I remember we had minority owners and they're still involved and the same guys are still around and it has been very lucrative for them to be involved with the Philadelphia Eagles for the last 20, 25 years as minority owners for Jeffrey Lurie.

But they have absolutely no say. They get a little seat in the draft room. They show up to some games. But in terms of like Nick Siriani status, no one cares what they think. And that goes for all these teams. And Jed York, think about this, Eddie De Bartolo, who got the money from his father,

my dad's a mob tives in Youngstown, Ohio, bought the 49ers in 1977 for $13 million, which I wasn't alive in 1977. I would imagine $13 million was a lot of money. And obviously the power of TV, the revenue, like, it wasn't, it's so easy to look back and go, no-brainer at the time. I can't imagine the NFL was some full-proof business

that was like recession-proof and like a great, viewed as a great investment. But $13 million, $13 million, and that's what he paid for it. And on the current valuation, it has a potential to be almost $9 billion. So Jed York, who is thinking about selling 10% of the team is in play to get between, you know, we'll see where the valuation falls, but between $8 and $900 million of a cash infusion to his business. And he can obviously do whatever he wants with that money. I think Jeffrey Lurie's going to do the same.

John Marr's going to do the same. The advantage of being able to do that is, and we had Jake Rosenberg on the podcast, who was Howie Roseman's right-hand man and salary cap negotiator for a long, long time, is you can get around salary cap situations when you're willing to sign enormous signing bonuses. And what do you need to sign, you know, a signing bonus? Cash. So some teams and Jerry Jones and even Ron, Robert Kraft have taken a lot of shit of like, they actually don't spend as much cash as the

wealth of their franchise. Where Jeffrey Lurie's running circles around them, he puts a lot of cash into his contracts, and that's how they're able to sign all these good players, because you can manipulate it. And I would imagine Jed York is going to do the same. Now, it doesn't mean you can't buy a hundred million dollar yacht or whatever, but where you can really take advantage of the value of your franchise is reinvested into the business and sign players to contracts because of signing bonuses that gets them on your team even though you might not have quote unquote the salary cap space. But think about where we're at in the business of the NFL, that you can sell a percentage, 5, 10%, and get an infusion of 500, 600, 800 million dollars and give up

absolutely nothing. I've never been the biggest. Shark Tank Watcher, but it's just on so often. I just found myself over the years watching some episodes. And as I got older, I appreciated partnerships and business and who owns the revenue a lot more from 35 to 40 than I did when I was 28. So, you know, I could relate a little bit more, at least to the conversations. And usually when it's like, hey, my business is worth a million dollars. If you want 20%, it's going to cost you 200 grand.

and then they would negotiate back. And usually it's like, yeah, I'll give you $250,000, but I want, you know, say, I want board seats and I want a lot of juice. You get none of that with this NFL investment. You basically just get to say, I own a piece of Team X. It's why the league made such a big deal of the Raiders and Tom Brady when they felt like Mark Davis was giving Tom Brady a deal just because he wanted him as part of his operation. It's like, Mark, you can't sell him a lower percentage of the actual valuation and give him a higher percentage of the buy. And the league pushed back on it and they had to like redo the deal. And I think part of it is Tom Brady, listen, I don't know how much actual tangible cash he gave through,

but he clearly came in with other investors that have a lot more money than him. Because the price of admission to get five or 10 percent, you're talking, half a billion dollars minimum a lot of these franchise. Even the shitty ones. The 49ers are obviously one of the more valuable franchises in the NFL given the market size, given the fan base, given just the financial backing

that they have in the region with Silicon Valley literally right in their... I mean, that's where they are. I don't love the location of the stadium, but that's because I'm born and raised way farther up north. There's a big difference even if it's only

45, 50 miles from where I live for a decade. I fucking hated driving down there. But that is where most of the money is. And Jed York was no dummy when he moved it down. And I think it's led to a franchise being worth $8,9 billion. But a lot of these franchises are giants, probably similar. 7-8. You know, the Cowboys, obviously we're worth 9-10.

Hell, the Raiders who haven't won a playoff game in multiple decades, given Vegas, given the stadium, given the no-state income tax. If Mark Davis put the Vegas Raiders up for sale, I think at minimum he would get $8 billion. So, then listen, can this maintain forever? I've often thought, like, I've lived long enough to know the NFL probably the next 40 years of my life. Knock on Woods I go that for. Like when I'm 80 years old, are they still the dominant property? You'd be crazy just to feel confident saying that.

But right now, they feel pretty untouchable. And listen, we can go back and forth and we will during free agency. This guy's getting screwed. This guy's getting screwed. Like T. Higgins, he's really getting screwed. Well, even if they franchise him again, which, listen, I think franchising a guy back-to-back years is moronic business. Like, you're bad at the business of the NFL if you franchise a guy back-to-back years,

mainly because you clearly want them on your team. And if you franchise T. Higgins back-to-back years, you're basically paying him $48 million and both the lump sums of $21 and now $26 million hits all of your cap. Meanwhile, you got like the AJ Browns and these other guys making big money and their cap hit is way lower. T. Higgins total, like if you would have signed them last year, you probably could have got him for $75 million guaranteed. Instead, you're paying him on a yearly basis that's impacting your, like, it's just

stupid. To me, it's just low-level business. But, like, listen, like T. Higgins won't, love getting franchise and I'm sure like go back and forth in you know publicly like oh this bullshit we're getting screwed he will have just made almost 50 million dollars in guaranteed cold hard cash in his bank account well after taxes uh whatever that comes out to but still like he will have made a boatload of money I bet there are great wide receivers in the 2000s and definitely in the 90s that never sniffed making 50 million dollars like let's just let's just look up Jerry

Rice career earnings. My guess would be I'll go $48 million. I was high. It was $43.5 million. And Jerry Rice

obviously was drafted in 84, but he played at a Pro Bowl level up till the early 2000s. Now, $45 million back in the 90s was a lot of money, but relative to what these guys are making, it's a completely different world. And like I said, franchise tagging a guy back-to-back years to me is just poor management.

It's poor ownership, poor GMing. Like I don't put that on T. Higgins. And I don't know even if they had an offer, you never know quite know what to believe. But if you're willing to franchise them a second time, and I would say this for any player, wide receiver, tackle, quarterback, you name it, you might as well have just signed them to the long-term deal. Because you pay a little bit more total in the guarantee, but you're able to manipulate. the cap and have a better football team and look back in the day with Dan Snyder and the in the Redskins with Kirk Cousins like that was stupid to franchise them twice you should have just extended them

and clearly that would have been the right move at the time the volume hey guys it's us the Jonas brothers I'm Joe I'm Kevin and I'm Nick and guess what we created our own podcast called hey Jonas we invented a podcast well we didn't invent it we just contributed to it first people to do podcasts We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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