The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Pay the Franchise QB or Walk Away?

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Pay the Franchise QB or Walk Away?

All right, back on the phones in a minute at 1237. I'm going to check in in Seattle coming up in about 25 minutes from now. See what's going on with the Seahawks. Seattle? Okay, the Seahawks have been to the Super Bowl. Mariners never been to the World Series. They lost an NBA team, and the Cracken are a not a Stanley Cup team, but they've gone to the playoffs the last couple of years, right?

I don't know. I don't fall the NHL, so... That's a tough town, too, Rossi. It just is. Then Washington lost a national championship game, and then Caleb DeVortland to Coach Alabama right after that. Yeah. Not a great run.

Decent. Seahawks got one. Yeah, that's true. All right. Ryan Fitzpatrick. Frothy Beard, right? Okay. Texans legend?

No, Texans X, but not a legend. Does the Amazon Prime stuff, I don't watch their pregame show at all. I've never watched five minutes of it. I'm watching the game, and I turn off as soon as they're. I watch the halftime. It's good with, Is it Whitworth and Sherman?

It's, it's decent enough. All right. So Ryan Fitzpatrick chimed in on C.J. Stroud, and it's a different perspective that has not been overly talked about it quite a bit, but it has been by some. And Fitz adds to that with these comments. If you're C.J. Stroud's agent, you're going in there and saying, look, all the other big-time quarterbacks, they got paid after their third year,

and we want $60 million a year. I just think that the people in that building that are around him every day, C.J. Stroud, they're the ones that are going to have to make a decision on this guy. Is this guy we want leading our building? Who knows what C.J. Stroud does. I mean, if they don't give him the contract, is he going to sit and wait and say, guys, I'm not showing up until you pay me because that's probably the advice that his agent is going to give him. And so you look at their year overall, Davis Mills steps in, does a great job,

placeholder for C.J. when he was out with a concussion for those weeks. Did it feel like it was a huge drop off when Davis Mills was in? No. I just think that this is one to keep an eye on because I think it could get ugly this offseason. But if you have hesitations about CJ being the face of your franchise, this is me, not knowing anything. I think there's a chance. Maybe you trade him this off season. I think that's backup, bro.

Lovin on other backup, bro. What are you saying makes some logical sense. But I just don't think it's a practical application to what's going to happen here with CJ Stroud. With those two playoff games where he was a complete disaster With CJ's faith walk in their room and say give me $55 million. Yeah, how do you say, yeah, it's pay me. Look at all I did. I threw 19 touchdowns and eight picks.

I had to beat Kansas City in Kansas City. And then I turned the ball over seven times in two playoff games. I just, I would be utterly shocked. That is, to me, that was Ryan being too overreactionary. Well, I think he's also, it's like, it was. Was this recorded before the playoffs? If he had said that before the playoffs, it would have a little more credence.

But after those two performances, I don't think there's a person on the planet that thinks it's a good... Maybe David Muligetta, but there can't be many other people on the planet who would think it would be even a good idea to cross your mind to hold out. As I said before, and I'm going to continue to say it over and over again,

don't underestimate David Mulligetta. He's going to cause problems. Well, he's not going to be saying much now. Say that again? He gets his guys paid. He gets his guys paid. He needs to just take a backseat on this one for a while. It's too raw.

Casario, to his credit, never shows emotion, at least publicly. It would be a bad, bad. And again, these deals cannot be negotiated with the court of public opinion. But the optics would look horrible for two things. One, giving them a big mega deal. And number two, Mulligetta going on and saying, my guy needs to get paid. I think everybody needs to take a step back, refocus, clean slate for 26. Great defense.

Better offensive line, hopefully. Better RB1, wide receiver 2. And just hope for the best. getting into contract talks, even though it's a pivotal year to do that, I think it'll be a mistake on both parts. Because I don't think the court of public opinion is going to ever side with CJ. And if the Texans give him that big money, then Texans fans are going to say, what the hell are you doing?

And Ross, I don't know the inner work is the NFL. Can you really table this for a year? My guess is no, you can't. My guess is going to have to be an uncomfortable or a comfortable conversation between the two sides at some point during the off season. I don't know how much they talk. I don't know how much they would talk.

How much is Dave? There's no way they're not going to visit about this. There's no way we will. Now, will we ever find out about it? Probably not. But there will be a conversation between the two sides at some point during the off season because that's what happens with quarterbacks

after year three. This is the time where you start talking about these types of things.