The Ringer NFL Show - The Adam Schefter Free Agency Drinking Game

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

LIVE SHOW in Detroit on April 24: click below for tickets! The guys revisit the annual Adam Schefter drinking game that is centered on the ESPN insider’s tweets during NFL free agency. They scroll back through Schefter’s timeline, break down the most significant free agency deals via his posts, and drink along the way (5:18). Tickets: bit.ly/ringerdraft24 Check out our 2024 Ringer NFL Draft Guide here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Craig Horlbeck, and Ben Solak Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we get to the show today, we have a special announcement. We are going to be doing a live show, a live ringer NFL draft show in Detroit, the week of the NFL draft. That is a live show with all of us. That is Danny Kelly, Ben Sulla, Craig, Kai, even me. All of us are flying out and everything. It is going to be at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit on Wednesday, April 24th, 7.30 p.m. That is the week of the draft.

So here's the key. we are not promoting this on social media. No. Yet. We're going to eventually twist. What a twist. Hyvins is such a salesman.

I do. Anything he's telling I would buy, including these tickets. We want the real ones to get the chance first. So 24-ish hours, something like that. After we post this episode, we're going to give you a little runway for the people listening right now

to get the chance to go to the link and buy tickets before we put it online. So loyal listeners, got a 24-ish hour ahead. start. Everyone listening right now if you're in the Detroit area or select what's in driving distance to Detroit. Toledo. Grand Rapids. That's where I live. What's up? Toledo. Toledo. Please, excuse me. Indianapolis. Yeah, Indianapolis. All of Northern Indiana for all of our knee high since the 4th of July corn farmers who are listening to the show. Southern Indiana while

we're at it. Yes. Northern Ohio. Cleveland, Cincinnati. The Midwest, baby. My town. My people. Boom. Anyone in driving distance to Detroit. Get your tickets now. It's bit. LY slash ringer draft 24. That's all over case. Crazy easy to remember. I know. Bit. He's really doing that.

I'm not going to lie. Yeah, we're just going to put the link in the episode description. But we're not tweeting it out. So you have to go to the episode description. But yeah, I'll give you that one, Craig.

That one's not a looker. But come join us in Detroit. It'll be great. Tickets should be cheap for easy payments of 99. 99.99. And you can see us live. They pay at Benjamin Solac on Venmo, right? That's where that's where the money goes.

Yeah. Venmo Ben. He's got his Venmo in his bio. Lincoln bio. So again, that's St. Andrews Hall on Wednesday, April 24th, 7.30 p.m. And again, you know, pit dot L.Y. You know, everyone remembers that one. But again, you have 24 showers from when we post this.

And before we put it out, last time we did this, it sold out pretty quickly after we put it on social media. So we want people to get the chance. So go to that link now. It's in the episode description. And Craig's probably right about URLs. All right. Let's get to the show.

Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft show. my name is Danny Kelly, Benzwell, and Craig Horleck, and it is time for the fourth annual Adam Schaefter, free agency drinking game. Chuck. This is the fourth? Chuck, I love it. The fourth annual. This time we actually waited until it was 5 o'clock somewhere to start drinking. It is 5 o'clock East Coast, so that's good.

This is truly, I think this actually is if I ranked everything after Take Burge. This is my favorite episode we do. I know this that I've done a lot of things, but this is maybe my favorite thing we've ever done. Genesis was so simple. Four years ago, we were trying to figure out what's the best way to recap free agency. And we realized it's just scrolling back through Adam Schaefter's Twitter timeline. You can basically just do the entire free agency that way. And that's what we're going to do.

We're basically just going to scroll through Adam Schaefter's Twitter and we're going to just drink. We're going to read Adam Schaefter's Twitter for the whole show. That's it. Yeah, I mean, this idea, I'm sure, just started with the three of us just like in a group chat, sending each other ridiculous Adam Schefter errors from his tweets and being like, this guy's insane. We should make a drinking game out of this. Do you guys, when Danny and Danny, when you guys like see Schefter, like, you walk around

on the combine, he's just like walking in the hallways. Do you ever think to yourselves? Because I do all the time. I'm just like, I want to go explain to him how commas work. I just want to let him know. I think he wants that from me. I have to say, I have newfound respect for it because I never realized how many of these tweets he's sending while literally live on television.

He's just tweeting things. Yeah. I get now. But he just, there's just a, again, Am Schefter, he's just,

he's the goat. Like he's the, you know, he's just runs, frankly like a lot of our lives in the NFL news cycle revolves around this guy. So with love, man,

sometimes a loose grip on the English language. Well, we're getting the first drafts, you know, he's typing that thing out, giving it one click scan and smashing tweet, you know,

so sometimes there's going to be some errors in there. I will say, I think this year, Schfdy has been a little better. I think the theme of, I think the last couple years, He's on to us.

He's trying to ruin our game. He's trying to ruin our good time. I think the theme of this week or of Schefter's timeline has been Photoshop's. I would say that is kind of like new. The theme of the week, Royal Family? So with that said, let's just go through the rules here. So the rules for the Adam Schuster drinking game,

we encourage you to play along unless you know, you're like, I don't know, at work or heavy machinery. Driving. Where most people listen to podcasts. Yeah. Wait till you're done. Pretty much everywhere you are. It's unlikely.

Don't do this. Don't do it in public. The gym, work, your car, in the shower. I guess the shower you could do. Making dinner is a good one. Shower beer? I love a shower beer. It's good beer.

Right. Rule number one, drink every time Adam Schaefter mentions an agent. Drink twice if that agent is Drew Rosenhouse. This was literally the first rule we ever came up with. Number two, drink if Adam Schaefter's writing sounds AI generated, or what D.K would call, torturously convoluted. Basically, if you have to read it twice. If you have to read it twice.

Squinting. Try it to like make sense of it. If I read the tweet, you have to read it three times. If one of us reads the tweet and then there's like a weird pause because no one really gets it. That's a, that's a drink. Number three, drink every time one of Adam Schuster's Photoshop's is worse than the royal family Photoshop from this week. You guys, are you guys caught up on the Kate Middleton fiasco?

I can't really. Rest how middle of an idea I have. What's going on? I was worried about making a joke at one point, but it sounds like she's okay. It's officially. We don't know. permeated like my algorithm. Like Liz, my wife, it's like the only thing she sees it.

It's made its way under my side where I'm like, what's going on here? If there's something substantial happening with the royal family, my mother will update me the next time we FaceTime. So I'll touch basically all then. Maybe we'll do that at the end to show you FaceTime. Next up, we have take two drinks of Chefter gets scooped. And so if anyone beats him to the news or if he has to at them because he got beat, that's two drinks. Oh, like he just credit someone?

Yeah, if he has to credit someone or he just missed it. You know, if, you know, the NFL networking Rapaport gets it. If any of us have not heard of the player, Schaefter tweeted about everybody drinks. So if Craig has never heard of someone. Yeah, that's usually me making you guys drink. Yeah, I'm not worried about Solek.

Drink every time of running back switches to. If Solex never heard of a player, I think we have to go like, shotgun back to back to back beers. I'm actually adding that as a rule right now. Finish your drink if Solek is not heard of time. Waterfall. Drink,

number six is drink every time of running back, switches teams. That's going to be a good one this year. Yes. And then seven is drink every time a team overpays a guard. Interesting. I have an addition that I would like to submit. Okay.

You guys are into it. Drink every time he gives you a heart attack. I don't know if it's going to happen so much in free agency, but Adam Schaefter is like the literal doctor from arrested development. It's where he'll start a tweet like, Derek Henry tore his ACL. In 2017. And now.

and now he's signing with the Ravens. Like, Jesus Christ, Adam. Scared the shit out of me. That is a good one. That's very great. All right. All right. Drink of shift or gives you a heart attack.

All right. Incredible. What are we all drinking here? I can start. As I said, it's five o'clock for some people, but for others it's not. It's around two o'clock in my neck of the woods. And I would like to exercise later. So I'm not going to drink alcohol.

on this one. I'm going to pivot. So soft. Oh, whatever. I'm drinking. Drinking a prebiotic. A prebiotic soda, Poppy. I love free ads. I'm a huge proponent of them. Poppy, cherry lime made, my favorite flavor. Feed the gut.

Poppy. Free ads. Sponsors, Poppy. Send us, Poppy. You know what, skip the money. Just send us Poppy. I'm going to, I'm solidarity with Hyfitz, who it's 5 o'clock in his neighborhood. I'm going to drink a Colchin Lager. It is a brewery from my town, even though I'm probably going to regret it.

By the way, what is, what do you think beer does to your gut biome relative to a prebiotic? Well, I know it does, it has positive effects on your brain biome, you know? I'm not sure about the gut, but it's good for the brain. Your mood biome. I might switch to a Miller High Life. I got a couple of those in the fridge. Dude, High Life. Yeah, I love a high life.

It's good, let that poppy and the High Life fight it out in there. So like, what do you got going on? I have a little raspberry royale bigelow tea in my bird mug. In the bird mug, baby. I would love to make a little tea total. Like four cups of that on this show. And then I also have my jug my jug of water, my usual three and a half liter. Shit, that thing is huge.

Dude, you should fill that with tea. Yeah, I don't think caffeine-wise. And as we discussed on this show, man, I want to be able to make it through this show and not need to get a pee break if I drink that much tea. all right we're already in danger should we have to take everyone can pull the chord like everyone gets one time out for the rest like to be like i have to go there's a rewatchables category called the anchorman flute best time for a pee break award maybe we should find a we should find a player who's so boring that it's like we'll just go pee instead oh it's the it's the lamar jackson versus the browns award right

you had to scoot on out of there for who knows why how long paul pierce eventually admitted he went off the court because he pooped himself what year we got it we should put bets and put him in a of what year Lamar Jackson admits he poop. No, he's never going to admit it. Paul Pierce admitted. It didn't pull a Paul Pierce specifically. Did Paul Pierce defecate in his own pants?

Or did he just have to go to bathroom? No, no, no. He pooped himself, left the wheelchair. And that's why he left in the wheelchair. And he later said, yeah, I poop myself. So he soiled himself and then had to leave. Yes. I need all the listeners to know that in the pre-show,

we were like, okay, this is a long episode. We have to keep it tight. Lock it in. And within eight minutes, within eight minutes. Within eight minutes. of the show up and Craig's like,

so did Paul Pierce like defecate in his shorts? That's a good call. Immediately we're off the rails. Lock it up. Lock it up. Let's crack these drinks. I'm drinking a Port City

Optimal Witt. It's a good brewery out here in D.C. in Alexandria of Virginia. So all right, let's do it. Let's crack them. Cheers.

An optimal. Cheers. It's a WIT beer. It's an optimal way. WIT. I think it's a pun. Like wheat, but in German wit,

I think. Right. I'm not the pronunciation guy. But let's do it. All right, without further ado, the fourth, annual Adam Schefter drinking game.

The long meandering preamble. All right, let's do this. Number one, Schefter, Rams are resigning guard Kevin Donson to sign a three-year $48 million deal that includes $32 million guaranteed as Schultz report also reported. So he got scooped. It took the second one for me to be like,

why it says in here? Like this doesn't, this has no weirdness to it and realize I just didn't notice resigning Kevin Dotson to sign a three or $48 million deal. Yeah, so that's two drinks. are we counting this as overpaying a guard? Is this a three

drinker? Oh, it's three. God. I don't know, Ben, you be the judge. 16 million for Kevin Dobson? I think all the guards are overpaid, man. Again, it's giving you a long day. So every signing on a guard is going to be overpaid. All right. Yeah, Rams, beefy boys now. All right, next up, we have 49ers gave O.T.

Colton McIvitz a one year $7 million extension per his agency at Sports AMDJ. So it's one drink for the agency, adding them. But let's be real, guys. It's two drinks. I don't know who the hell this guy is.

Starting where I tackle for the San Francisco 49ers. Colton McKivitz? That's a fake name. I know of him because this is the guy that 49ers fans all complain about

on Twitter all the time. Why did they resign this guy? I couldn't agree more. Everyone blamed McKivs for losing the Super Bowl because he led up that pressure on I forget to play in overtime. And then the right guard

came out and was like, actually it was the guy who replaced me when it got hurt. It was his fault. Not McKivots's his fault. And that's all. I'll think of the case.

That was fine. Can I read the next one here? Yeah, go for it, Craig. Okay, thanks. Per Adam Schaefter. Another deal, Colin. Hey, they're all deals, Chefty. The whole day is four deals.

Another deal. Oh, okay. There's only 100 today. Another deal, colon, Ravens are signing franchise defensive tackle Justin Matabike. Is that you say it? Matabuke, yeah. To a four-year,

$98 dollar deal that includes $75.5 million total in guarantees and $53.5 million at signing per sources. Another clean one, besides the kind of another deal, slip out the gate. Not bad for Schaefter. He's onto us. I swear, he knows what's up. He's taking an extra beat. Maybe this is why he's getting scooped this time is because he's taking that extra beat to check his tweets. You think Schifter's aware that we do this? I've, I actually constantly want. I wonder, do you think he would appreciate it or be annoyed or he just would laugh? I think he'd laugh. I think he's self-aware. He's become sentient. I think he just thinks, you know, it's kind of. It's kind of

content. It's like AI. Not a BK is good. The Ravens had to keep someone. They lost everybody. They keep literally someone. All right. So like, take this next one. Go birds. Eagles are resigning, which by the way, he did catch the resigning, resigning thing from last year. Last year, a lot of

players were just resigning themselves to the new deals. Yes, resigning Brandon Graham to a one year extension, ensuring that the 35 year old defensive end returns to Philadelphia for a 15th season. I feel like that's fine. It's kind of a little bit redundant. Yeah. Like, you know, ensuring that he comes back.

But that's good. What are the rules for very visible junk in the graphic? Yeah. It is. It's not great. Quite noticeable junk in the graphic. It's what Richard Lewis would have called a semicolon. Oh, my God.

Maybe. That's such a good rule next year. Wait, we haven't talked about on the show the baseball jerseys, the MLB jersey's phenomenon. Have you, D.K. and Salk, have you guys heard of this or crap? Have you guys seen the deal? The C-through jersey. The fanatic pants. The baseball jerseys, they change the pants.

And, like, all the players, one, they can't customize their pants. And the pitchers have huge asses. So they can't fit in their own pants. And then also their see-through. I mean, that's like the two things pants have to be is they have to fit your body. And then you don't want to see your entire concept of pants is really like, not sharing your genitals. Yeah.

The pitchers are like sneaky stacked waist down. You ever seen like Justin Verlander's thighs? Dude. Yeah. These guys are loaded. These guys are loaded. Craig, take this one. Trade, per Adam Schefter.

Trade. Broncos and Browns agreed to a deal today that will send wide receiver Jerry Judy to Cleveland in exchange for two draft picks, sources to ESPN. Cleveland made a run at Judy at last season's trade deadline. Now the Browns finally will get him

once trade is processed this week. I actually think that's normal. Borderline. He has also, he has a blue check, which means he can go for as many characters as he wants. So Cunning Articles is not helping anybody here. Do you also, do you get an edit when you have a blue check?

Can you edit? Yes, you can, but you can see. We'll get to that. Don't worry, Craig. For Judy, Judy sucks. I thought Judy would be great. I was super wrong on him. Does he suck?

Are we officially out of this? It's like a classic change of scenery. I mean, not that Deshawn Watson is like fantastic, really. But do we don't like this at all? So like, what's your take on Judy? I didn't love Judy coming out. And I think in Denver, he's largely been what I expect him to be. he's a TikTok wide receiver.

Great separation. Oh, look at the release off the line. Put a little mix on that. I put a little video. But like snap to snap, like the lack of physicality, the inconsistency of the hands. Like there's issues there. But I like that Cleveland keeps doing this.

Cleveland last year traded for Elijah Moore, who was an early drafted receiver from the Jets who like, they had bad quarterbacks. Like, let's get them in here. Let's see if we can figure him out. Now we're doing it this year with Judy. And he costs like a fifth and a six. It's very low risk.

I think that going and just gambling on receivers that other teams couldn't keep happy is probably plus expected value over time. Even if I wasn't a huge Elijah Moore fan, nor was I a huge Jerry Judy fan. Eventually, you're going to kind of hit gold on one of these moves. By the way, Ben,

Ben disliked all the receivers that turned out bad, and he only liked the receivers that turned out good. Here's the thing. I'm not good at liking good players. My hit rate is very spotty. If I think a guy's not good, it's pretty solid. Judy was the one for me where I was like,

what are we doing? And so I'm, which just sucks. I'd rather be good at picking the good guys, but I haven't said, I'm just good at picking the bust. I like that. I think I agree with Solak that just the process of just, yes, been a fifth or six,

Judy's still like 24 years old. There are 24 years old's in the draft this year. But I agree that that's good process, just whatever, take a swing. But do you think Jerry Judy's like a good football player now? Like, should he actually play over Elijah Moore? I'm not sure at this value he's going to play over Elijah Moore. I think it's pretty clearly why it's super three.

Yeah, I think it's a little bit irrelevant because it's going to be Mari Cooper is the number one. David Njokuu is going to be the defaq, de facto number two. And then you have like Jerry Judy and Elijah Moore and Cedric Tillman and other guys kind of mixing in and doing their thing. I do think it is a low risk potential for upside type of move. But I think he's probably going to end up being more of a role player than like a star

and fantasy or anything like that, especially with the question marks about Sean Watson, like if this offense is even going to be any good at passing the ball. So ultimately it's kind of like it's a high name value trade, but probably end up going to be. like just a role player type type thing in in Cleveland for him.

All right. next one we got here. We have trade colon. Patriots are finalizing a deal to send QB Mac Jones to the Jacksonville Jaguar sources tell he's been the trade cannot be processed

until the new league year begins Wednesday and he passes a physical. The two sides were discussing a six round pick for sources. Jones was born in Jacksonville semi-colon. Now he has the chance to go home. I love the like he's going home.

Just to give Mac Jones literally anything. They're just giving him some semblance of like positivity. It's like, well, this is his hometown. That's why he decided to go to Jacksonville, not because it was the only team that would take it. Also, the photo he got, give this guy a comb. My God. I think it was pretty good.

Well, that's right after he took the helmet off. That's right. Is there any lesson here from like the 2021 draft where we had Trevor Lawrence going first to the Jags? And then we'd Sam, sorry, we'd Zach Wilson to the Jets. And then we had Traylans to the Niners, Justin Fields to the Bears, Mac Jones, the Patriots. And then we have Mac Jones is now backing up Trevor Lawrence. We have Zach Wilson, literally the Jets, no one will take them from them. The Bears can't get anything for Justin Fields.

And then Trey Lance is like the third string quarterback on the Cowboys. How confident are you that this year's class is actually better than that year's class? Where Caleb Williams is Trevor Lawrence and all the other guys might suck. D.K., I'm curious. Not confident. I feel like it's really hard. The moral of the story here, it's extremely hard to play quarterback in the NFL. And therefore, all these guys probably suck.

Let's be honest. we'll be lucky if one of them is any good. Anyway, nihilism is awesome. You don't have to worry about stuff. You just let the world take care of it. But no, I don't know. Honestly, like, looking back at that class, I remember thinking,

oh, yeah, one or two of these guys are probably going to end up being busts. All of them maybe are butt. I mean, obviously Trevor Lawrence, I still think is good, but some people already starting to talk about him being a bust. And then all the other guys pretty clearly busts.

So not great. Couldn't agree more. Go birds. D.K., why don't you take this next one here? God, I was hoping you wouldn't ask me that. All right. Quotes, Adam Schaefter. Baker Mayfield confirmed a three-year deal.

This is Schaefter quote tweeting Jeremy Fowler. Excuse me. There's, you missed the typo. I did? Yeah, his name. He misspelled Baker's name. He spelled Baker Mayfine. Oh, no.

You're right. I did. Wow, there's multiple. Okay. Yeah. Twice. Was he like copy-pasting? What was going on?

This implies that he types a lot on his phone, Mayfide, and it's such that his phone thinks Mayfield should be Mayfied. Who does he know that's Mayfine? Anyway, sorry, Adam Schifford quote tweeting, Jeremy Fowler, who had a scoop that Baker Mayfield had a three-year deal with the Buccaneers. Baker-Myfield, Mayfide, confirmed the three-year deal. I wanted a chance to come back, Mayfide said.

I love Coach Bowles. By the way, this reads as like he totally made this quote up. I love Coach Bowles. and the staff. I'm happy to be here and I want to win more in the postseason. Who talks like that? Only Magic Johnson talks like that. I want to win more in the postseason, fans. I am excited to start more football games for the bucks.

Dear fans, we will win many matches going forward. I love Coach Bowles and the staff. I'm happy to be here as he's linking in more. Is somebody holding a gun to bake him Mayfield's head right now? I'm happy to be here and I want to win more in the postseason. Baker is one of like seven NFL players. I would trust to stand in front of a mic

and actually communicate emotion well and humanly. And they're like, no, absolutely not. Make him sound like the worst robot. They ever exist. Shefter writes great dialogue. He's working on his novel. To be clear, I don't actually think Schifter wrote it, but I do think Baker's agent wrote that.

And it's funny that we're at the point where people writing words for people is like actually so bizarre. I want to be here. All right, next up here, we have Dolphins are bringing back offensive lineman Robert Jones on a one-year deal comma per source. Jones was scheduled to be restricted free agent.

Craig, did you know who Robert Jones was? Hell no. That's fair. That one's fair. I don't know he is. Here, Saul, take this next one here. I feel like you're just giving me the ones that are hard to read. No, those who give it a DK. After the 49ers and D-Line, Eric Armstead

attempted but failed to work out a restructured contract, San Francisco now plans to release him per source. Armstead now is expected to become a free agent. The two sides came close to a deal, but Armstead, as Schultz report reported, wanted to see what his market is. There's a lot of punctuation. It was the best of times.

It was the worst of times. And the 49ers and Eric Armstead attempted, but it's like, geez, I'm reading a novel here. Yeah, you could have sliced this tweet in half and we would have gotten a disc. Yeah, honestly, after the, like, attempted to fail to work out of restructured contract, San Francisco now plans to release him.

Those kind of all I did. All right. So, one drink, three drinks? Isn't that also? That's how like all of these work, right? It's like, yeah. The team and the player did not come to an agreement. So he's a free agent now. Like, this is how it works. Well, they cut Armstead.

They had him on for another year. It seemed like Aaron Jones. He was under contract. They were like, hey, take a big guy. And he was like, no. And he was like, they're like, fine. We're going to cut you. We probably should throw stones at our glass house where we're doing like a really long

podcast. We're reading Shifter's tweets. Yeah. things are like, Armstead is the most surprising guy to me right now that hasn't signed yet.

Like, his armstead, elite? No, this is like, this is a pretty good defensive tackle. He's a pass rush

he can play outside. He's got length. He's defend the run. Like, there's a lot to like than Eric Armstead. He's also the captain of that defense, right?

With Fred Warner, I believe it could be wrong. But Armsteadstead he's been on that D-line for both Super Bowl runs. Like, it's very good player, man, very handy player to have. It's, I agree.

I mean, honestly, he's one of those guys that just ends up on the Ravens and you're like, who let this happen? Every time, every year. Oh, man. Oh, we did it. Hey, everyone.

Hey, guys. We're here. Look at us. Nine time pro bowl, hyphenated both times. Nine time pro bowl quarterback and former super hyphen bowl champ, Russell Wilson.

I can't complain here. I can't complain here. I overuse hyphens too, but this is a very much. Per league sources, Wilson will sign a team friendly one-year deal in which the Broncos will wind up paying $38 million. of his salary while Wilson wears the black and gold.

And he has a Photoshop here of Russell Wilson that is different. He then quote tweet. He has another tweet follows the episode. Russell Wilson now heads to Pittsburgh with the Steelers' 22 first round pick, Kenny Picket, being the only quarterback currently under contract to Pittsburgh.

Contract to Pittsburgh is weird. Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph is entering free agency after starting three games for Pittsburgh last season. He then has a different Photoshop and it's with the 33rd team, which is like a super different company than what Schifter works for? And I'm kind of just, what's the process? It's literally, this is like a Kate Middleton situation where I'm like, why do they use this Vogue photo?

Different jersey. He's got a helmet on. It looks terrible. It doesn't even really look like a Steelers helmet in the second Photoshop. The first Photoshop, way better. Russ looks good. Got the lineup. The first Photoshop, the jersey is way too big.

It looks like Big Ben. Proportions are all wrong. We're hoping he turns into Big Ben. I think this is certainly a drink for the Royal Family Photoshop rules. Sheffered another one. Russell visited him with Steelers, visited with Steelers officials in Pittsburgh for over six hours Friday, which reminds me of the Russell Wilson 19 hour rehab thing.

Russ met with amongst others. He wrote amongst in writing. When it's last thing he saw amongst in writing? Steelers said coach my gentleman. New offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, the two sides had a mutual interest that led to their one-year deal. Craig, where are you out emotionally on Russell Wilson, Steelers quarterback? There is only one way to feel and it's to be all in.

You have to. Well, I, okay. I'll listen. It's the only way. Look, you know what I've been seeing which is annoying me? Is they're like, Russ's personality. Can't wait to see what, you know, what the Pittsburgh fans think of Russ. Like, couldn't be a worse fit.

I'm like, can you name a city where Russell Wilson's personality is a good fit? He doesn't fit anywhere. He's the weird guy. He's the weird guy in your team. He's like, Kauai Leder. It's like, just let him be weird and eat apples and not talk to anybody because you think he'd be good in Minnesota. Minnesota, that's the right fit. I know nothing about Minnesota.

I was going to say, I watched Fargo once. Watched Fargo once. They talk about Minnesota nice. You know, people seem nice there. Russell Wilson super pretends to be really nice. I don't know. Kevin Clark, our former colleague,

who's now at ESPN, used to always say that the Seahawks never played normal football games. Pittsburgh is kind of like Seattle East, at least lately. They haven't had a normal season in half a decade. And Pickett has become like Tebow-esque

and the whole team has where they're terrible for three quarters. And then they somehow snobo, a win and it's they've win an incredibly high amount of improbable games in the ugliest way. And now we have Arthur Smith here. None of it makes sense, which is why you have to lean in, because these are all the people we hated the most in the last two years. And now they're all on one team.

And it's a content juggernaut. And look, Arthur Smith is a guy who wants to run the ball. It's going to be a very run-heavy scheme. They want to take pressure off Russ. To me, I'm like, look, I know the hole he isn't throw over the middle of the field thing. Kenny Pickett didn't either. So there's going to be some compromise. He didn't throw anywhere.

Yeah, he didn't throw anywhere. There's going to be some compromise between Arthur Smith and this Russell Wilson offense. But look, can he throw deep ball? Yeah. Can we cook up some Russell Wilson versus Kenny Pickett stats? Look, his job is going to be limit turnovers, throw deep to George Pickens. Do I think he can do that? Yeah.

He's kind of honestly Tomlin-esque in terms of his like no BS, no excuses mentality. In terms of general midness, yes. His aspiration to go nine and eight. Shots fired. What stage of grief do you think Craig is in? Denial. This is the first one. I'm not just a river.

Look, look, the Steelers defense, we signed Patrick Queen, amazing signing. The Steelers defense is very good. And the conversation has always been. They're kind of like a quarterback away. And I'm not saying Russ is a top 10 quarterback in the league. But like, he can be serviceable. And look, I don't, I don't. Oh, great.

What are the better options, honestly? Are we going to give Kirk Cousins? Daniel Jones money. I don't want to do that coming off of torn Achilles. We're going to sign Justin Fields? We're going to trade up to draft a guy. We're going to start Mason Rudolph. What were we going to do?

I'm paying him $1 million. Right. So that's the thing is like everybody justifies it. I mean, like, well, it's no risk. Like, it's $1 million for Russ. And that's true. Like, there's no risk. There's also no reward, right?

This is functionally nothing occurred. Oh, I don't agree with that. You really think that the deal of feeling is just as high with Kenny Pickett as it is with Russell Wilson? I think like I saw like sports line modeled them for eight wins with Kenny Pickett as a starter and modeled them for eight and a half wins with Russell Wilson as a starter like but what do you think about that you're telling me that you don't think yes I think Kenny Pickett and Russell Wilson is just a battle between two quarterbacks who are attempting to be top 20 quarterbacks

Russell Wilson had more touchdowns last year than Kenny Pickett's had in his career yes Kenny but here's the thing like Danny had as many touchdowns last year as Kenny Pickett did right That's my point. That's terrible. More about, more about Kenny. Exactly. Yes,

that's my point as well. So I have, I have, the play sheet this week is about like Russ and Pittsburgh in the fit and whatever. I just like film wise, I just like, I think people wave away a lot of the Russ stuff of last year as being like, Nate Hackett was bad and Sean Peyton hated him.

And like that's true. But like, Rush just does not manage a pocket at all. Like he just regularly creates bad plays out of what were objectively good plays. And he doesn't throw in the middle of the field where like in the last five years, Arthur Smith's quarterback has been top. 10 in the league in terms of the amount of times they've thrown to the middle of the field. Like his offense is built to throw there and Rush just never does.

And so like I there's again, there's no risk. And so yeah, like maybe they end up like, oh, you know, 10 and 7, like 11 and 6. But like Russ is not going to elevate this team. He hurts the offenses that he's on. He limits them and he impacts their ability to play good ball. Like that's just, it's tough for me to get excited about it. DK, what else do you think the Steelers should have done if not this? I mean, I think they probably should have tried to trade for Justin Fields.

I think I would probably prefer that over Russell Wilson, but all things, everything else considered, like, I'm not quite as low on Russell Wilson as Ben is. I think, um, I don't know.

Like, I still think he could do some good things in this offense. I think he's significantly better than Kenny Pickett. Like, Kenny Pickett, the reason we laugh about Kenny Pickett facts, the reason we, you know,

I've been like goading you every time we talk about Kenny Pickett because of these Kenny Pickett facts is, Kenny Pickett has been like, like historically bad at making, touchdowns. We need touchdowns to win in the NFL. And Kenny Pickett can't do that. So this guy is better at making touchdowns than Kenny Pickett is. I actually, I side with D.K. And that I think, look, happiness is reality minus expectations. The core reason that Russ is so in the place he is right now is that Russell Wilson went out and started talking about winning like

five Super Bowls, for in Denver. And basically being like, I'm if Drew Brees could run. Now that he's making a million dollars. Like Russell Wilson's career started in Seattle. The entire rookie quarterback contract model where teams built around quarterbacks who are precocious and can perform well started with Russell Wilson and D.K.'s Legion of Boom Seahawks when Russell Wilson was making less than the long snapper

on the Seahawks. And that paid for them to max out the rest of the roster. Now Russell Wilson, there are six, are they seven different long snappers that are going to be paid more money than Russell Wilson this season. So like while I hear you so lack that. Yeah.

Yeah, just the Steelers. No, but I don't think the still has a long step. So I think basically the point is Russell Wilson is not the 29th. At any point, there are always three or four quarterbacks worse than Russell Wilson in a given thing. Yes, the ceiling's thing. The ceiling for Russ is poor. But the fact that the Steelers were able to just get a quarterback who's a top 30 quarterback for less than a long snapper is an unreal development for a team that basically has to bail on their first run pick from like two years ago. It's a pretty incredible stop gap.

I hear you DK that Justin Fields is younger and probably worth it because if he's, good that probably would have been better for them but it's a win and also to be really funny to see Craig contort himself into different shapes throughout the season. Plus Arthur Smith. I mean it's an all-time content team. So one more quick thing. The whole like Russ doesn't throw over the middle of the

field and that's what Arthur Smith offenses love to do. It's like I imagine that that crossed their mind in the meeting, you know? It's like they sat and had a six hour meeting. Do you think Arthur Smith was just like you were going to throw over the middle of the field, right? And Russ is like, I I promise. And they're like, okay, great.

sign them. I have to imagine that these guys are figuring this out. Craig, I can't stress this enough. Like, yes, that's what happened. Right? Like, it was... It's a million bucks. Last year, Jalen Hertz, like, there was

reporting that was like, Jalen Hertz is mad that there aren't more routes for the middle of the field and he wants to be more routes with the middle of the field. While there's just film of open receivers in the middle of the field, he's just not throwing to. Quarterbacks' ability to delude themselves is unparalleled. It is matched by none. And so, Russ absolutely was like, listen, I've never

ever been with a coach who like opened the middle of the field like you did, Arthur Smith. And when you opened it up, I'll throw it for sure. Like absolutely. And he believes that 100% and it will not come to fruition. See, the reason why I'm okay with all this is because a month ago, the consensus was like, we're going to let, we're going to resign Mason Rudolph and have him battle with Kenny Pickett, which is literally worst case scenario. I would way rather have this.

Bengals franchise wide receiver T. Higgins has requested a trade per sources. Higgins loves Cincinnati and hope to be with the team long term. But is disappointed that the team has not had any talks about a long-term contract this extension since March 2023. He's ready to move on to a new home. And he's got the Photoshop with the breaking news from Adam Schafter at Tehagen's looking up very valiantly. I, D.K., do you think Teagans actually gets traded?

Oh, man. It's so hard to guess what the Bengals are going to do. Like, I think it makes a lot of sense for them to resign him. And he's very valuable to what they want to do with like Joe Burrow. Like the chemistry is there propping up their quarterback and just making it as easy as possible for Burrow, who has ability. to light it up. I just don't know if the Bengals are going to do

something like that because historically they've been, you know, not that team that really like shells out big top of market contracts and they've already got to worry about Jamar Chase coming up too. So I think he probably ends up getting traded right now as of right now or I don't know, what do you think so like?

I think that the window for him to be traded kind of in this free agency, I'd be surprised if it happens over the next like 2448. There's still a chance but I don't think so. I think he's a lot more likely he gets traded on draft night, kind of the way AJ Brown did when he had a year up on his deal, Mark East Brown, when he had a year up on his deal. Like the Tyree Kill trade, though, I want to say was also like late March, right?

And so it's not outside of the realm of possibility. I just don't think it's coming down the mountain. I think the Bengals are going to wait until someone is in a spot where they feel like they're willing to send their first. I think that's the appropriate price for T. The larger picture thing I'd say to T Higgins is that the same way of running backs, obviously it's different, but running backs aren't getting paid as much money. They're replaceable via the draft.

And also the quarterbacks, it's like, oh, rookie quarterbacks. I think a rookie contract for a receiver, teams don't look at number one receivers that way, but I do think they're looking, like the Bengals paying Burrow and Jemar Chase, do we want to pay a second receiver and put 40% of her cap into three people, or do we want to get a rookie to do that second role? And I think that's what's going to happen to Higgins. Also, it hasn't been healthy a lot his whole career, T. Higgins. Yeah, that's an issue too. And when he wasn't healthy last year, his play fell off a lot, which I think is a concern for some teams because, you know, you're constantly nicked up throughout a season. And being able to play through that is a variable

that you have to pay attention to. All right. Next up, Craig, since you said all the tweets were I'm going to make you read this one. Per Shephty. The Pro Football Hall of Fame requested Xavier Worthy's cleats and jersey from his record setting 4-21-second 40 time at the NFL Combine and Worthy obliged. Worthy's Combine moment

will now be memorialized in Canton, Ohio. Okay. Who cares, Adam? Yes, move on. Maybe save that tweet for Friday. clogging the timeline with that. Fair. Next up. So here's my question.

Why are the Bears? Heard of them. On one hand, pretty good. Like Ryan Poles, the GM's pretty good at stuff. The trade up, the trade down from number one pick last year was pretty good. I thought the Montef Sweat trade that they did was bad, but it was a really good deal. But why are the Bears running to just do weird free agent deals immediately? Like the Bears gave D'Andre Swift, who has never played a full season, more guaranteed money than like Josh Jacobs.

Like, why are they just handing out all this money to get the Andre Swift? I just, it's odd to me. Am I, is that a good deal? Or because I thought this was kind of weird. The Bears very much give me, we march to the beat of our own drum vibes, right? Like, they're just like, we were going to take Vilas Jones. They took Tyreek Stevenson way earlier than people thought they would go. Like, Zach Pickens was earlier than people thought they would go.

Like, they go for their dudes in the draft and then in free agency as well, right? Like, Tremade Edmonds into the T. Edwards deal, right? They just signed Jonathan Owens. Like, no one was tripping. themselves to sign Jonathan Owens. They kind of just, they go get their dudes.

Like, it, this was the first tweet of the open period. It was like, right, 12-01 pre-Ageus open. And she said, like,

the bears are getting D'Anterrey Swift. He even, like, he even tweeted like before 12 o'clock. He was like, yo, the bears have their, their sights set on DeAndre Swift.

They are ready. So, Paul's kind of like, you know, he runs it the way he wants to run it. He believes in his guys in their evaluation and, you know,

we'll see, we'll see how these bears get built moving forward. All right. Next up here, we have a former Texas pass rusher Jonathan Grenard you're saying that right yeah you got it

Jonathan Granard is signing a four year 76 million dollar deal that includes a 42 million dollar guaranteed with the Vikings per his agent Drew Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey that's three drinks two for Drew Rosenhaus three for the third Robert Bailey Drew Rodenhouse

you're working with guys man yeah he's out of the place I feel like Grenard is probably the actual title holder of the most underrated NFL player I think that if you actually just the Q score of like how many people know this person exists versus how good he is.

He has the highest ratio. And on the other end of the spectrum, can we just say it now? This happened while we were on the show, the Texans signed DeNeal Hunter. So we'll switcherouski there. If they need logs, and if they needed logs. See weird things, driving. I've never understood log trucks.

Sometimes you'll be out on a highway. You'll see two big giant trucks, each loaded up with logs, and they pass each other on the highway. I don't understand that. I mean, if they need logs over there, need them over there. You'd think a phone call to save a whole lot of trouble.

That is the funniest damn joke. Man, that really gets me. I just found out about this, and I saw this on Twitter, and all the replies were either, how did you not know about this or I've never heard of this? Did you know two Yankees on the 1973 Yankees

swaps? What is this? Lives? They swap. Why? For real? Wives, children, pets.

No, but they kept their own houses, but they swapped wives, children and pets. Like as a bit? Or like, they swapped children? Everything.

Like long term? Everything. Forever. Yeah. One of the couples stayed together, right? The other broke up. I think the implication

is they might have been swinging. I don't know. But this is like in like the newspapers in New York at the time. And the quotes from the players are like, like, it's like Yogi Bear. I'm being like, yeah, doesn't surprise me at all.

It's like, Actually, like, just it's insane. So here's the question. How do you breach that? You know, how do you suggest it? Like, how would you guys think, if you had to bring that up to your partner, someone else and their partner, how what's the pitch? You guys ever thought how much happier we'd be if everything was different?

Do you think the wives negotiated in the children with the swap? Do you think they were like, all right, if I'm leaving, I'm taking the kids. It's Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich. I feel like Fritz and Mike would not have initially been like, and the kids too. Right. You're never like, take my kids as well. Off of my vibe of Fritz and Mike, that's not how they would go about things. They held separate press conferences during the 1973 spring training season announcing they had traded wives.

This was there. I'm sure their children are alive. I would love to talk with them about what that day was like. That's a podcast idea. You should get them on the show. Email us or your fancy football at gmail.com if you know anything about this. If you were swapped. If you were those children, email us.

If you have any connection to these children. it's like my dad traded me oh my god anyway Titans signed Tony Pollard oh all right wait chefter compensation update

colon Titans are giving former cowboys running back a three year 24 million dollar deal per source I'm realizing that he did not put in Tony Pollard's name in this tweet yeah there's no Tony Pollard in there

he's quote tweeting Aaron Wilson who said Tony Pollard and so that's scoop that's a drink yeah two drinks drinks, scooped and no name. I feel like Tony Pollard is either going to immediately return as this like electric, frisky, sneaky good fantasy option or literally disappear off the face of the earth and we'll never

really hear about him again. Yeah. Excited to find out. It's a great call, Craig. I think we're all going to be out on him because of our shame, our collective shame, and then he's going to be awesome again. He's a classic actually just by because all the things we're worried about will be priced in and just honestly draft him.

Because he's just actually going to score touchdowns. Do you guys remember? I had completely forgotten about this, and I heard it on my fantasy life podcast the other day. When he, he like either caught the pass or got like a swing, like a outside line. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was like on the one yard line. And there was like no, there was one guy within like 30 feet of him. And he didn't get into the end zone.

Like a one in a million play. I can't even believe that happened. It just like, oh, God, it went right to my heart. It was like a knife to the chest remembering that play. Craig, do the next one. So Adam Schaefter quote retweets Jeremy Fowler's tweet, which reads the hashtag Broncos plan to sign safety Brandon Jones to a three-year deal per source. And Adam Schaefter just quote retweets it and says, Denver is on the board. Go Broncos.

Sure. Jeremy Fowler still committed to hashtag team name. Oh, old Twitter head, right? Back in the days, this is how you found the news. I like that from Jeremy. Oh, I do appreciate that. That's good fundamentals right there. Next up we have Bill's cornerback camp.

chefster again. Bill's cornerback, Cam Lewis, is not resigning, a two-year, four million dollars deal with Buffalo per his agent, Sean Stalado, at Sean Stalado. That is Tommy Cutlitz's agent. That is the Tommy Cutlitz agent. Italian-American Hall of Famer. This is a, this is a finisher drink. I did not know a dang thing about a Cam Lewis. Oh, I couldn't tell you what school he's from. I couldn't tell you when he came out. I got nothing on Cam. That's a huge indictment on Sean Stalado. I bet he's from, oh my God, so like you're going to roll. over in your grave, but you're alive.

He's from Wikipedia. He's from Detroit. I can't believe he's not from Jersey. You're going to roll over in your grave. When you die. It's going to be a weird out of the show and I'm finishing this drink. Wow, Sean's a lot. I didn't know he had two clients.

Good for him. Italian-American supports All-of-Fame. Is two beers really enough to kind of rattle you? I feel like I didn't have lunch or breakfast. Which in retrospect was a huge thing. Lunch or breakfast? So you have not eaten anything today? I had, uh, did I have breakfast?

That's a weird way to prepare for the drinking game show. I didn't think about it that far. Oh my God. I was thinking about the players. I wasn't really thinking. We have so many players left too. I know. It's probably,

oh goodness gracious. Probably because I'm drunk. All right. D.K. someone else read. Quoth, Schepter. Quoth or close?

What? All right. Ben, Ben, you're with me. What does he say? I'm with you, but I am confused.

What is quoth? Quoth. It's like he quoted. The Raven, like as the Raven said. It's Quoth, right? Whatever. Anyway, quote. Do I smell toast?

What is? No one watches Archer? You don't know how to pronounce something. Okay. It's close. Thank you, Craig. All right, Quoth, Adam Schaefter. Former Dolphins D.T.

Christian Wilkins is signing a four-year $11010 million. Base value deal that includes 84.75 million guaranteed with the Raiders per his agent, David Moologeta. Drink for adding the agent. Every tweet should be like that. exactly what the contract should be called, is base value and then base value. He got paid. What was your action to this?

Raiders fans are mad at me, but I don't get it. Like, I always go back to when Dan Campbell and Bradholmes joined the Lions, they had their introductory press conferences. And they both were like, listen, good teams are not built through free agency. They are built through the draft. And you're going to want us to sign a bunch of free agents to get better and like to not go. Like, they didn't say this, but they went, you know, like two wins in the first year. right. They were like, you're going to want to sign free agents and figure that out.

We are going to draft. We're going to develop. We're going to be young. We're going to be bad. We're going to build a core and then we'll attack free agency after that. And that rings in my head whenever a team like the Raiders goes and sign Christian Wilkins. And I'm just like, okay, you are, you still don't have enough talent. And you don't have anyone at quarterback to like actually register as a contender for me in the AFC. And so like congrats. You spent big money on Christian Wilkins. He's a good player. You got him in the building. Like that will benefit your defense. It will benefit Max Crosby. No two ways about it. But on the larger scale of things, like you're not going to be good enough quick.

enough probably for Chris Wilkins to actually be like a cornerstone of your contending team. By the time you get there, he's going to be 30 and be super expensive, and you're going to be hoping that he's still holding onto his prime and can still contribute. So just like the timing of it is off. All right. Next one. Quoth, Shifty. Thank you, Craig. Comp update. Jaguars are giving former Billswide receiver Gabriel Davis a three-year, $39 million deal that includes $11 million at signing. Can I shout out Nate Tice at the athletic who was on our show a couple months ago? who called the fact that the Jaguars are,

these are my words, not Nate's incredibly lazy because when Christian Kirk had his only good game or his only 100 yard receiving game in 2021, Christian Kirk had was against the Jaguars. Then the Jaguars gave him like a deal so big in free agency at reset the entire market. Everyone was mad.

Gabe Davis had three 100 yard games for the bills last season. One of them was against the Jaguars. Like, does Jaguars just throw money at receivers that did well against them? General managers, they're just like us. Nobody, nobody rushes to the third tier of free agency quite like Trent Balke. He's like, get me past the elite players,

get me past the very good ones, where are the role players? I need them in the building. And I appreciate that. Oh, man. How are you guys feeling about Gabe Dave at this juncture in his career? Does this give you renewed hope

or are you just basically like, this is terrible? What are the Jags doing? Better and best ball? He's got a great quarterback. He's going to get some explosives. Like, I don't mind to Gabe Dave, Gabe Dave's a known commodity is what he is.

What he is is mercurial, but he is what he is. What are the Jags up to? God only knows. We'll find out later. Take this next one for us. Adam Schaeffer. Kirk Cousins to Atlanta per Mike McCartney, seven. Right, because his agent, Mike tweeted out, like,

Congress for being a Falcon. And Adam, without quote tweeting, said, Kirk to Atlanta per Mike McCartney. Just so salty, he didn't get to tweet it. Just so mad. Love that. Compensation update. Falcons are giving QBee Kirk Cousins,

is a four-year $180 million deal, including $100 million guaranteed per source. It's $45 million per average per year. Yep. I read that correctly for those at home. Per average per year. All right, well, that's a drink. By the way, I like that Mike McCartney always gets confused for Mike McCarthy.

And like all these fans are like, why the fuck is Mike McCarthy tweeting out like contract stuff? So Kirk's essentially getting the Daniel Jones deal a little bit. it, right? Two years, you know, 90 million-ish. This guy's 36 years old coming off an Achilles tear. And with all of that, I have to say, everybody is thrilled talking themselves back into people like Kyle Pitts and Drake London. The memes are so funny right now of like Kurt Cousins arriving to Atlanta. All that's great. Great meme content. Yeah. Are you back in on Kyle Pitts? This is the big question everyone wants to know, Craig. Yeah, I think I am. Yeah, I am.

Yep. Also, you wrote a piece on this for the ringer. You wrote a piece of this for the ringer with Kirk. I guess this is for everybody, but it's funny where, like, I think five, six years ago, if you were just ignoring, or like,

if you were just pretending, rather, that a quarterback 36 coming off an Achilles injury would be fine. That'd be kind of weird. I feel like now, mentioning what if Kirk Cousins isn't the same off the Achilles injury,

you're like Debbie Downer. It's kind of wild that, functionally speaking, Heretic. This feels like the, this, but remember, like it's not it's the percentage of the cap the percentage of the cap that kirk cousins got in this deal is

basically identical to his previous deal with the vikings they just guaranteed one instead of three seasons they guaranteed two it's kind of wild that this deal functionally speaking you know kirk cousins the last deal he got was a big deal because it was guaranteed this is like every other quarterback contract that's ever been handed out which is two super guaranteed years uh it's it's kind of like the killies didn't happen which i think just speaks to how the falcons and arthur blank the owner is 81 and just wants to win it doesn't really care yeah you You kind of like, the only way you could pay Kirk acknowledging that like the Achilles is there and that that's a big limiting factor is if everybody in the league agreed. All 32 owners get together.

We're not going to pay this guy as if he's healthy. We all have to pay him a little bit less because he's coming off the Achilles. Someone's always going to just be like, nope, like we're willing to pay you everything that you got and assume that you're all the way back. Like you're just going to have to do it. And so like Diana Rossini when she reported this, I thought a very like precient line in one of her tweets where she said, Atlanta was willing to do whatever it took to get this done. We don't, we forget it because like the end of the Matt Ryan era

at Kyle Shannon and the Super Bowl, the Falcons haven't been to the playoffs since 2017. It's the third longest playoff drought right now in the league. It's only behind the Jets and another team that I remember. And so like this is a, this is like Atlanta desperately needs a return to competency. They desperately need to return like

a high floor like we are a regular team that can just beat this bad division and win 10 games and go play a playoff game at home. And Kirk gives them that. And I think that they acknowledged that, like, there was some urgency to just grow up a little bit. And that's why they kind of did the, the Kirk deal at all costs. Craig, you always talk about Achilles and players and being a Warriors fan and seeing guys come back. Yeah. You're saying, you're asking me if I think Kirk's going to be able to bounce back,

like Clay Thompson? You've been out of here saying the Achilles is the new ACL. Yeah, it is. I mean, Kirk tore it, what, halfway through the season last year? It was around week eight, right? It's pretty remarkable. I mean, this guy's, like, he's going to be 36 years old in August. I mean, we see NBA guys do this 10 years before and never come back and look the same. I don't know. I guess Kirk's not the most mobile guy in the world anyway, but pretty wild that you can just tear your Achilles now,

and it pretty much affects nothing. I mean, he would have probably gotten the same money had he not torn it, right? Maybe a little more? I think he just would have had third year guaranteed if he was full. He led the league. Kirk Cousins led the league in passing yards per game when he got injured.

I think part of that's because the Vikings' defense was not fully baked. Who like, like, greases your wheels the most? Bejohn Robinson, Drake London, or Kyle Pitts now with Kirk. Drake London. I am so excited about Drake London. I think the hallmark of like Kirk Cousins' offenses is he just feeds his number one receiver.

That's like what we saw with Justin Jefferson, you know. And I don't know. I think the combination of Drake London being very good, now having Kirk Cousins, hopefully they can get on the same page and hit the ground running really quickly. But and my still self-doubt about Kyle Pitts and not wanting to overly commit to that whole thing. Yeah. just heads with Drake London.

I'm just like, I'm not doing that, but you know what I will do? Drake London, to the moon, baby. Wide receiver one, here we go. No, I'm excited about Drake London just because I think the talent mixed with like the situation now is really good. I think this offense, you know, in general, you know, being of the Rams family tends to feed their top guys, hopefully. And so a lot of like stars aligning for Drake London, I think, this year. Hi, Fitz, why don't you read this next one? Just kind of at random.

Thanks, Craig. I love my dear friend, Greg Rolbeck. What a great guy. Can't wait to see what this one is. I'm the bleak midwinter. Former Giants running back, Sequin Barclay, reached agreement with the Philadelphia Eagles

on a three-year, 37.75 million dollar contract that could be worth up to 46.75 million dollars. You know the video of Squirtle with the... Just cutting him right off playing the saxophone. That's me right now. I am the squirrel saxophone, man.

If it's a shirt to come to death, does someone else want to finish this? $26 million fully guaranteed signing for sources. Barkley now beats the franchise tag number as a maximum of average per year salary $15.8 million dollars went to the third decimal point, sure, which would be the second highest for running back in all of history.

I have to mention that the Photoshop, you know what my first thought was? Horrible. It's a terrible Photoshop. My actual, imagine how upset I am by all this. And my actual first thought, once I threw my phone, I picked it back up, I looked, was he put less effort, whoever does his Photoshop's form, put less effort into the Saquan Photoshop than all of the other ones. It was not only, like, it was like the worst jersey swap. At least do him the honor of doing a good Photoshop.

Especially because Seekwon put up a gorgeous Photoshop, a jersey swap on Instagram in the video. All right. It was cleaning the Kelly Green. Shepter then follows this up and just quote tweets himself says, Giants lose Sequin Barclay, period. Cowboys lose Tony Pollard, period. Eagles add Sequin Barclay, period, as if that's a sequential order of logic.

Is this a finish your drink if the Eagles poach the Giants' coolest player? I think you should. I will say, I have so many emotions. I feel like a lot of people have probably listened very long at this show to get to this moment. I am heartbroken, and I would describe this whole thing, and I wrote about this actually for the ringer. I would say this. the Giants not committing long-term money

to a running back is probably the right move. I would really like to emphasize that doing the right thing sucks. And my rational brain understands that like, Saquan Barclay is a poor long-term investment. But like my rational brain doesn't love football. My emotional lizard tribal brain loves football.

My emotional brain is like in love with Saquan Berkeley. My emotional brain hates Philadelphia. And the fact that the Giants have pushed Sequin Barclay to Philadelphia and put that grin on Solex face is like more or less. I'm watching Seekoine Barclay highlights on YouTube. It's like the worst thing that's happened. Someone had to make a video.

Big man run fast. We need to make it. I'm just, ah. Is it, Hyvitz, are you more sad that he's not on the Giants or that he's on the Eagles? Equal. I will say this. I'll say this. Okay.

The Cowboys would have been worse. The Cowboys would have been worse. Giants fans are split in this, but I actually, the Cowboys are like a legendist. At least to Philly, it's like, he went to Penn State. He's from, like, Jets fan, ironically, but he's from the border of Jersey and Philly.

And like, at least the Philly, it's like, like, he wanted to be a hometown kid for New York. He's like kind of a home town. It's like that at least, like, I get it. But I can't properly explain how much I don't like when Philadelphia people are happy. And it's, this is the worst thing.

I'm watching, I'm watching Sequin Barkley Top Plays of the 2022 season as released by NFL's YouTube. and the top comment is from a guy named Stony Holiday and it says we cannot lose Seekwon under any circumstances. He is the heart of the Giants. He has more values less than any other franchise.

Hyvitz, is there any way you draft Seekwon in fantasy football this year? Oh my God, I haven't even thought about that. There's no way, right? No, I, it's kind of like Yeah, but it's like hedging, it's like hedging your emotions because you can still get joy from him. Yeah, but this is like if your girlfriend

leaves you for your best friend and then you you go on a date with the two of them as a third wheel. You're just not doing that. Yeah, in 1973, Yanke's situation. I think it's kind of, this is a proxy for when you have money on your team, do you bet on your team when they're going to win an important game, like a championship game or a Super Bowl? Do you bet on your team or do you bet on your team or do you bet on your team?

Exclusively emotionally hedge, you have to bet the other team. I just watched that two-point conversion he had to start the season against the Titans, the first Brian Daibble win. You remember the little shovel fast? I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.

I hate you. Congratulations. winning the off season for the second year in a row. Go birds, baby, Howie season. But the thing is, like, a hive, and I've been mean-spirited. I say this hopefully without being mean-spirited. There's a difference in terms of the attachment you have to a player when your team is quite bad relative to quite good, right?

Like, it's like, obviously, like, that Seahawks era, like, they were just winning a ton of games, right? They were appearing in Super Bowls. Like, you loved the team and you love for the success of it. It does, in like, a kind of like bad anti-labor way, make the players feel more fungible, right? Because you're invested in the team over. overall, the Seahawks as an entity. Whereas with the Giants, when the Giants are not being successful,

it's like, okay, like, we're bad, but at least Sequan's good. And like, you put a lot more chips, a lot more investment on the Sequan guy. So I think that that is a difference. So like I literally filed a column on this and I'm going to have to go back and edit that point in because you're right. This guy's all I had. There are like three players on the team that are good. And one of them is Xavier McKinney, who left for the Packers and it's like Dexter Lawrence. And it's like, Sequan is, dude, Darius Slateens led the Giants to receiving for the last five years. Just get Andrew Thomas jersey. Look at that block.

I will say, I don't want to talk about running back market value, but I do think that the Eagles being the team that went in is kind of interesting because I think the Eagles were like watching running back value crater. I mean, think about it this way. Sequin got the Nick Chub deal from three years ago, but like the cap is up a third since then. Gabe Davis got more money than Sequin Barkley. And I think the Eagles were like, yep, that's the dynamic shifted. This is a value.

Yes, 100%. So, dude, I. I'll, we can just keep rolling. I'll get over this, I don't know, eventually. I don't like the Giants. I don't care of the joke. All right. I decided the Giants are my least favorite NFL team.

I don't care for Joe. They're at the bottom now. They've moved to the bottom. They're going to stink. Like in terms of just teams that you want to watch, you're interested, you're invested in, teams that are exciting in any certain way at all. Giants are at the very bottom now. That's are my least favorite NFL team.

They have Brian Burns. Russell Wilson, if a team could be Russell Wilson's personality, that's kind of with the giant. Washington. So three seconds after this happens, Schafter tweets, former Packers Guard, John Runyon, reached agreement on a three-year deal with the New York Giants for $30 million, including $17 million guaranteed at signing. The deal was confirmed by agents Drew Rosenhaus and Kyle Lincoln.

Drink. I have a very important note. This is very important. I don't think people know this except Solac and I, or Giants and Eagles fans. I can't tell you what it's. punch this is. John Runyon is John Runyon Jr. His father was the dirtiest freaking player in Eagles history. John Runyon Sr. was an Eagles offensive lineman who was the dirtiest player I ever saw and the fact that we gave Sequan's money to John Runyon's son could not have made

this worse. I didn't think it could get worse. We paid John Runyon's son to work for the Giants. I cannot even imagine. Craig, who's your favorite steal? You should like your your favorite stealer ever because it's kind of like if the Ravens took him and then you just like, I don't know, gave Ray Lewis's son money to be your left guard. That's what the Giants did. Probably Heinz Ward. Probably. Yeah, imagine Heinz Ward goes to the Ravens

and then you take the Heinzward money and give it to like Ray Lewis's son. That's what the Giants did. Yeah, I don't really feel bad for you though. We really just chose violence here. We're just piling on. I'm just like, I'm mostly just like mad at the Giants for ruining the first four seasons of Sequin's career.

I know. I'm kind of like, you know what, Sequin? Enjoy it. Have fun in Philly. Yeah, this is where you can finally start to have fun out there, you know? There's going to be a great game in week five where it's like, this is Sequin Barkley's first 25 carry, 150 yard, five reception three touchdown game in his career. It's just going to be like, yep.

That's going to be the new Kenny Pickett stat. It's going to be just every game that Seekwon had with the Eagles would have been like his best game ever with the Giants in the last like five years. DK., do you think he's like immediately top 10, top five pick in fantasy? Top 10? maybe. I was having this discussion with some friends last night. Does he score more points with the Eagles than with the Giants?

Because number one, the Eagles don't generally pass the ball as much to their running backs. It's been a huge, huge part of Seekwans scoring. But the Giants literally don't score touchdowns. Right, but the Eagles won't hand the ball to Seekwan's short yardage. You know who scores a lot of touchdowns for the Eagles

is their quarterback. I know. But losing Kelsey might make them lose the sneak. At least, like, it might not be as effective. And then it's more Seekone carries. But also the run blocking might just be worse because there's a lot to figure out for Philadelphia. We don't have to go into this right now, but like whether they can, whether the Eagles can push without Jason Kelsey is like the most unanswerable question. I know. That's a great one. schematically in NFL history. I can ever remember like my lifetime. I came, I came out of

the conversation thinking he will score more points, Craig. I agree with you. But like, I don't think it's like as cut and dry as thing is a scene. At least they're going to be in the red zone, you know? All right. Enough of that. After reaching agreement today with free agent running back Josh Jacobs, the Packers informed running back Aaron Jones that he's being reliance. least per source, Jones will now be a free agent. I think that's clean on Shifter's part. This is kind of wild. The Packers just basically released Aaron Jones and added Josh Jacobs.

I guess it's not crazy in the sense that this was unexpected because Aaron Jones is getting, you know, he's getting a Leo DiCaprioed. But then the Packers signed Josh Jacobs for functionally like a one-year deal for $14 million. The Packers have one player over 28 years old. I would be the, I would be the sixth oldest player on the Packers right now. So wise. So wise. The Packers have to have the cheapest.

skill position group in the league, right? If you include quarterback, like they've got to have the cheapest wide receiver tight end. Well, Love is actually like kind of expensive because like he's already on his restructured deal and whatever. But in general, yeah, they are unbelievably cheap. Elton Jenkins is on his second deal and Jordan Love is technically on a second deal.

And then that's it for them on offense. The Packers are going to be one of the most skewed, like offense, rookie contract, defense, veteran contracts teams like ever. And yeah, the fact they already made the playoffs and should have been the NSC championship game is crazy. I mean, speaking, it was just do both these things now. I mean, the pack is speaking with the Packers, more Packers moves, colon. Free agent safety, safety, McKinney for the Giants is signing a four-year $68 million deal,

space hyphen a 17 million per year average with the Green Bay Packers. Agent David Mulligata confirmed the deal. He's trying to get a little M-Dash in there now. Trying to throw into, yeah, that's real way in right there. The Packers don't dip in a free agency. That was perfect signing. Giant, dude, Xavier McKinney was like Giant Safety's team captain and like he's a perfect Packer and it

sucks. But the Packers are sick. I think this is all pretty good. They're going to be everybody's darling pick this year. I feel like Green Bay. So like you want to do this next one here? Sure. Panthers are giving former Dolphins Guard, Robert Hunt,

a five-year, $100 million deal that includes $63 million guaranteed per source. Sheesh. Is this overpaying a guard and then Craig, did you know Robert Hunt existed? Can't say I did.

All right, that's two drinks. Actually, I'm done with two now. Oh, I got a live one. I got a live one, folks. Oh, right. Three because I have. Oh, no. Craig, this one affects you. Uh-oh. Trade from Adam Schaefter.

The Steelers are sending wide receiver Deontay Johnson to the Carolina Panthers per sources. A new weapon for Bryce Young. Johnson has $3 million roster bonus due Friday that the Panthers will now pay. Deontay Johnson, Carolina Panther. Listen, what are the Steelers off to? But what? Is Calvin Austin season? This is a peculiar team.

Deontay Johnson and Carolina reminds me of Jordan. pool on the Wizards. I can't think of a more empty stat receiver season that will ever happen than Deonti Johnson just catch you. If he had trouble scoring touchdowns in Pittsburgh, good luck in Carolina, Deontay. Yikes.

They needed somebody who would get open. I kind of like that for them. Two wins and 145. I think Deonti Johnson will break the catch record and they'll win three games. Dude, there's nobody catching passes in Pittsburgh. George Pickens. Yes.

Maybe it's Russell Wilson. You know, Deonti just, you know, it wasn't the vibe fit with Russell Wilson, you know? Yeah, I'm curious to see if the Steelers make more moves here because I don't think they're going to draft a wide receiver in the first round. That's not very Steelers-y. The Steelers, the Steelers offense last year was very bad, right? Like, it wasn't good.

Like, it was very pitiful. They have gotten rid of their starting center, their starting right tackle, and one of their starting receivers. And they've added Russell Wilson. Can I give you also a half serious take that I'm just throwing out there right now? I feel like Deonti Johnson's a get open immediately kind of receiver, but Loki also probably goes up.

And Russ is a guy who like takes a time and needs five seconds to make the throw. Yeah, it's like they're like literally in a way it's it just completes all the other reasons. The Auntie Johnson should have left the team and not gotten paid by the Steelers. Like this for Pat Fryer moves. Yeah. Listen, as someone who lost a lot of money, a lot of money betting on Pat Fryer meets just get any targets while running 30 rounds last season. I refuse to indulge Pat Fryer view type. Dude, Jalen Warren is going to catch like 75 passes.

The Steelers still have money. I mean, they can go do something. but man. You can't trade. You can't trade for tea. Markey's Brown. It's so bad, dude. It's horrible.

They better get the, they gotta get the Niners off of Bradenai. You. That's the only hope, man. This is tough. Go sign Calvin before he becomes a jaguar. I don't know, man. Hey, I got another one for you.

This one affects Ben. Another live one. Adam Schafter. Eagles are signing safety slash nickel corner Chauncy Gardner Johnson to a three-year deal worth up to 33 million max. He's back. The Cornelius Fudge Giff.

He returns. That was still the most annoying trade ever when the Eagles just plucked him from the Free of Saints. This is very funny because the Eagles secondary of Johnson Gardner Johnson, James Bradbury and Darius Lay, like played great, went to the Super Bowl, whatever. And they were all, but they all like, we get frustrated with each other all the time. And now they're just back two years later, all remarkably more washed than they were previously. Vives are great.

It's yeah, let's cost of problems. All right, next up here. Patriots informed wide receiver Devante Parker that they are releasing on Wednesday and he has now been given permission to talk to other teams per his agent Jimmy Gold. Drink for the agent mentioned

and got to tell you when you are given permission to talk to other teams, that means good luck, buddy. Who did he sign with? The Philadelphia Eagles, go birds. One year, 4.6 million.

All our favorite talent here. We finally have a big third receiver. It's been so tough with only AJ Brown, Devante Smith, and Dallas Goddard. They just needed a little bit more. God. I hate you.

I hope you're never happy, man. That's fair. All right. Next up here. God damn it. Oh, my God. Yeah, I forgot about this.

Jeremy Fowler tweets, source, colon, Devin Singletary to the Giants. So that's a drink one for Jeremy Fowler, scooping Schifter. Drink two, because God is not real. Shefter tweets, compensation update, colon,

Giants are giving former Texans running back Devin Singletary three years. $16 million deal worth up to $20 million per source. I mean, that fixes that, right? I think there's nothing else to discuss. I think that fixes the Sequin hole. Right? From my excitement point of view, I can't imagine a bigger data.

Night and day, dude. Night and day. Like, nothing against Devin Singletary because I think he is a competent running back. But in terms of like style. Devin Singletary's nickname is Motor, because he is characterized by, trying hard, which is just the opposite of Seguan, who is characterized by being the biggest,

fastest, coolest dude ever. Singleteers is like, well, he's none of that. Look up Devin Sincletari's mock draftable web. It's just like, how is this guy in the league? But he works his tail off,

and I respect it. It's just very different. Yeah. By the way, this trade for Deonté is, Deonté Johnson, and a seventh round pick for cornerback Dante Jackson

and a sixth round pick. Oh. Interesting. Oh, a corner is nice to have. That's handy. Are you okay? Someone just make the meme of the flex tape guy, putting Devin Singletary on the Sequin Barbar.

Yeah. Just like, oh my God. Here, DK, do this next one. Former Ravens running back. Guess Edwards, Richard Freeman on a two-year deal with the Chargers per source. Edwards now will be reuniting with former Ravens and current Chargers assistant Greg Roman.

What's you guys has thought on putting the possessive apostrophe on Ravens? It's interesting, right? because you're supposed to, but then, like, in the next tweet, it's Ravens Free Agent Safety, Geno Stone to the Bengals for source, and there's no apostrophe. So it's a little bit like, okay. Pick and choose, man.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I love this. I love Gus Edwards to Chargers. I think this is dope for fantasy. I'm excited. I think he's going to score a lot of short yardage touchdowns. Feels like he's just going to be paired with somebody else,

and it's going to be the same old Gus. Which is the elite Gus. We love that. Which is great. He's going to average seven yards of carry, Craig. Craig hates, Craig hates Gus Edwards because his nickname Gus the bus and that Jerome Bettis's nickname was the bus and Craig has

hated Gus Edwards ever since the first time someone called him Gus the bus I get it What did I say we should call him? I forget there was a nickname It was like Gus the truck And it was just like something that didn't rhyme That always is what catches on The stuff that doesn't rhyme Yeah so you mentioned Gino Stone in Cincinnati

Ravens Fridge and Safety Gino Stone To the Bengals per source Craig Did you know Gino Stone existed? Absolutely not That sounds like a fake name. Did he have like seven interceptions or something? Yeah, and I feel like he had one against the Steelers.

He probably blocked it out of his mind. That tracks. It doesn't really narrow it down. All right. You'll have to be more specific. DK, next one here. All right, we got first free agent change. Don't know where this is going.

Kicker Will Lutz, who agreed to terms earlier in the day with Jacksonville, changed his mind. The phrase first free agent change means nothing. Those four words make mean. Is this the literal doctor drink? What does that mean? Is this always happen? Is this a regular occurrence that we are

remarking? Oh, the holiday. It's the first flowers of spring. It's the first picker lied about which team he's going to. The phrase free agent changed. That means nothing. If I was like, Dad,

did you hear that the first free agent change happened? He'd be like, I don't know what that means. It doesn't usually, a lot of free agents change teams. That's part of free agency. That's one of the defining features of free agency. Except the cults, yeah. Anyways,

changed his mind and his remaining indefinitely. Denver will let's is. Broncos get back their kicker. Jaguars now need one. So dramatic. Yeah. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more. It's like one a year.

I'm surprised. It seems that players don't get cold feet back out. Yeah. This is only the first one. Inumerable more could follow. It's a good call. You're all waiting for it. Who was the linebacker, the pass rush for the Vikings who signed with the Jets and

then got to New York and was like, what am I doing? I'm going to play for the Jets? And then like left. So like take this next one. Former Chargers running back Austin Echler plans to sign a two-year deal with the Washington commanders per source. Another back off the market. Echler rejoins his former Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn in Washington.

I think that's clean. No agent. Good punctuation. The commander's entire free agency policy is fascinating to me. They're just signing dues that the coaching staff knows. Do they are? Wonder if a team gets built after all this. We'll see.

But it's just guys I'm familiar with. There's Echler to this, but to your point, Solek. I mean, we could go through the whole list. But like, it is incredible. The Washington signed like, what, five, six players already? All of them are just connected to various position coaches to the point where I am so curious what Washington does with the second pick in the draft of whether they take Caleb Williams because Cliff Kingsbury worked or sorry, I know that Caleb Williams, but I'm curious because

what they do with Drake, Mayor, Jaden Daniels, because they don't know those guys. And I feel like they hired Cliff because he knew Caleb. And I wonder what they're going to do when they don't know the quarterback. like I just wonder how they're going to pick and I kind of thought they would be able to... I think they thought they'd be able to trade up with Chicago for the first pick. Oh, wait. That's not why they hired Cliff. Dude, I kind of think it's...

They hired Cliff assuming they could do something that would be really, really difficult. It trade up to number one. I think they thought... I think that's a bridge too far for me. I think it sounds crazy than it is. We literally just saw Denver hire Nate Hackett because they thought he could get Aaron Rogers to be traded to them.

Free agency or whatever. I don't even remember what that was trade or free agency, but this is totally different. I don't know. I don't buy it. Echler to Washington. What's crazy is that I know Echler had a high ankle sprain last year, I believe in like just his explosives.

Explosiveness was Sapt and he's 29, or it will be 29 in July. Echler got four or sorry, $4 million a year, $8 million for two years. Tommy Townsend, who left the chiefs as a punter, got like two years for $6 million.

Austin Echler's being paid like a punter. Brutal. He leads the NFL in touchdowns the last three years. What a brutal world. It feels like Echler is going to age like milk. I don't know why. I don't know if I just can't get the taste out of my mouth of last year, even though he's coming off an ankle.

But it does feel like his play style and his like frenetic energy and quickness. All that's going to go fast. I agree with Craig. Yeah, I'm worried about it. Sad. All right. Well, this is a good chaser. Actually, you know, I'm so lucky.

You do this one. Three, three sirens. Trade. The Panthers are trading star Brian Burns. Oh, so this is Rappaport. Shefter got scoop. Yeah, Mapapur. M-Dash.

At last! Exclamation point. M-Dash. To the Giants, per me and Mike Garapolo. Burns lands a five-year deal worth 150 million max with 87.5 million guaranteed done by Todd France drink

of athletes first. Carolina sends Burns to New York Giants for a second and fifth rounders. That's not how that should go. And Burns is the second highest pay DE. Congrats, High Fitz. Great player. Honestly, it's all saved. It's fine now.

So you would have traded emotionally, Sequin for Brian Burns, no doubt. Honestly, yeah, it's probably the right move. Yeah, I mean, it is the right move, but the Giants are going to be good for two years. Sayk it'll be good. Like you won't, like, you won't, like, the second one won't be good three years from now, probably. But Brian Burns, basically the Giants traded to Seattle, Leonard Williams for second and fifth round pick.

And then they just took those two picks and gave them to Carolina for Brian Burns, who's five years younger than Leonard Williams. So the Giants basically just traded a second of, they basically traded Leonard Williams for the right to make Brian Burns like the highest paid. Wasn't it their higher second rounder though that's like number 39 overall? Yeah. But like this is such a good deal. Like the Giants, I think this is an old school defensive line. They have Brian Burns who's 25 and I would say like a second tier pass rush. It's not like Max Crosby for the Raiders.

But Brian Burns is really good. But you have Dexter Lawrence at defensive tackle and you have Kavon Tibido. Kavon Tibido being your third best defensive lineman is really good. And the Giants have half their defense locked. I think this is a great deal. And even if it's a terrible trade, it right now lets me cope with what's going on with the team. So I have something, I have hoped. Why would it be a terrible trade?

This is an awesome trade. No, it is. And also obviously, although, first of all, shout it to Will Brinson who pointed out that Carolina gave up more

for Sam Darnold, trading him, acquiring Sam Darnel for the Jets, than the Panthers got for Brian Burns. Panthers have been having an all-time bad run over the last couple years. It's been really tough to watch.

By the way, it's also funny, and this isn't like really mean anything, but remember when the Panthers released Baker Mayfield? Yeah. I mean, it doesn't?

It doesn't because like, a healthy organization. organization can go get a guy like Baker and make him functional. Like the Buccy, like, all right, we have a couple wide receivers. We have, we draft good offensive linemen. We have good coaches. We have a clean system.

But when you're the Panthers and you're just jumping from player to player and spending resources and new coaches and everything's always a moving part and you're grabbing old veterans. Like it's just you're not, you're not equipped to make a middling quarterback work. It's a sign of a healthy versus an unfelt healthy franchise. So David Tepper, who owns the Panthers is worth $20 billion. He's like the second or third rich's owner in the NFL.

David Tepper. is a hedge fund manager. David Tepper made $20 billion doing one thing, trades. And since he has bought the Panthers, the Panthers have traded away Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore, and Brian Burns and gotten basically nothing. It makes me feel better about some of the management

of my dynasty teams, honestly. Like, we're all, you know, we're all human here. We all make mistakes. Sometimes these trades don't work out and you can't dwell on it. you just got to keep moving forward. What, the Pan, Ben, you were talking about this. The Panthers, what's going on with this roster?

It's, it's, it's, there isn't a single player on the Panthers who you have to game plan for. There's no, like, you don't say, like, what are we going to do about, like, Derek Brown? Like, oh, okay, do you have to avoid J.C. Horn? How are we going to cover Deonti Johnson? There's just, no, there's, there's, the best starters on this team are Taylor Moten and Derek Brown. They're third tier players at their respective positions. This is the, this is one of the least. scary rosters I've ever seen.

Like, even the Cardinals, like, you can argue the Cardinals. Oh, the Cardinals don't have plus starters. Yeah, but like they have a quarterback. Like, Kyle, like, you have to deal with that dude. The Panthers have nobody has to deal with. It is a, they are a toothless franchise. Not a single thing that can cut you. It's unbelievable.

It's honestly impressive that they told us up. I can't believe. A hundred million dollars to Robert Hunt, and there's just nothing that moves me about the team. Tough. Oh, my God. Yeah. The Deonté Johnson trade is somewhat saving it,

but I'm looking at their starting. receivers right now besides Johnson. Jonathan Mingo, Terrace Marshall, and Adam Thielen. Oh, brutal. And then their tight end is Tommy Trembal. The running back is Chuba Hubbard. This is the most classic general manager is going to get, this is just, they're just spending money to make Bryce Young look good.

Like the new regime spending money to make the old quarterback look solid. Craig, you want to do this next one? Yeah. So Jeremy Fowler scooped Schaefti here and tweeted, Sauris, a union in New England. And then Schefter quote retweeted and just said, new QB and New England period. Not too creative from Schefter.

He needed something quick to get it out there. That's all he could come up with, I think. It's clearly mad that he got scoop. That's easily the shortest tweet we've ever seen in the 40s. Jacoby is now just like the rookie quarterback whisper, right? He just gets sent to whatever team is drafting like a shaky first round quarterback and he's just going to like mentor them and be a steady backup. The Patriots are going to fall right into Drake May, aren't they, Ben?

I think it was a good shot. And I think that it'll be excellent vibes. The Patriots are also like the Jacoby deal is. good. Like the Kendrick Born dear, like if Born comes back healthy, like that's good value for Boren. They signed Josh Uche for like 4 million. Like the Patriots are doing the thing correctly right now. I'm

liking what I'm seeing. Next up here we have and the Bengals have released running back Joe Mixon per source from Schaefter. Quotee him at his own self, former Colts running back Zach Moss signing a two year semicolon space, eight million deal with the Bengals that includes a 4.525 million payout in year one

per source. I hate to say it. Two years, seven cold space, space. There it is, baby. That's two drinks for the double space, two drinks for the three digits on the $4 million. I hate to say it. I think there's another drink for, this was wrong.

The Bengals then just traded him to the Texas. It ended up being wrong. The running back carousel this year is crazy. It's like what they do with kickers every year. Every running back is just on a different team now. Joe Mixing on Houston seems kind of fun. Joe Mixing, shockingly, he's only 27 years old. Phil has been in the league for 10 years.

Yeah, I agree. like Joe Mixon and Houston. It's also a one-year deal. So Houston can still, like, go middle-round back if they want, which I also really like for them. I think it's... Houston's also impressed me. I think they're doing a good job. I like Zach Moss on the Bengals, too, by the way. I was going to say, Zach Moss is like Joe Mixon and barely cheaper. I think the Bengals were just like Zach Moss is better straight up. It's going to be Zach Moss and Chase Brown rotation. This is going to be an interesting... Chase Brown frisky. Yeah, he's fast. He's exciting. Love me, Chase Brown. This is something that I saw Scott Barrett pointed this out. Zach Moss is really good running out of shotgun looks. And obviously that's what the Bengals left to major in with Joe Burrow.

He just loves being in the shotgun. So schematically, it's an interesting fit. And then if he gets a lot of volume, I'm kind of excited about what this could be for fantasy. Of course, it's going to be hard to figure out, you know, who's going to be the quote unquote starter between him and Chase Brown. But this offseason is going to be fun with ranking running backs, guys. Soak, you want to take this next one?

Former Packers running back, Aaron Jones, intends to sign with the Vikings, as at DM Rossini reported, it is a one year $7 million deal that is Asians, Drew Rosenhouse, and Ryan Mather. That's the third guy

we've seen pair of Drew Rosenhouse? That's, yeah. First of all, this is four drinks because he got scooped by Dan and Rossini, and then we have two for Rosenhaus and third. Also, he just doesn't tag Rosenhaus

unlike every other tweet. Also, this is, this is, Aaron Jones is photoshopped into a Viking jersey here. And the coloration is shocking. this is yeah it's a fifth drink

shepter's not the one doing these photoshops are they ripping them through really quick and they're just like kind of like just gripping and rip it like don't worry about it it's just some of them are tough man the hair over the jersey looks real bad yeah and why was prince william given the photo crids

I know I know I think Aaron Jones is still awesome in the package that had to cut them because the contract got a little out of control and they're just doing a reset but I think Aaron Jones still has the juice it's just crazy the amount of inner division swapping that's been going on

in this free agency. They need logs. Yeah. No, Craig, that's a really good point because Sequin went from the Giants to the Eagles. And then you have the weird swap of Deontre Swift was on the Lions and now was on the Bears. David Montgomery was on the Bears and is now on the Lions.

And then Aaron Jones went from the Packers to the Vikings. Like, it is very incestual with all the divisions. Natasha and Patrick Queen going from Baltimore to Pittsburgh, which isn't on this dock for some reason. But that did happen. I cut it because it was an hour. We're in like an hour and 45 minutes into the episode. If you could get

Dalvin Cook on The one good thing the Steelers did? Okay. I did actually. Yeah, bring it back, fine. If you could get Dalvin Cook on the Packers.

Ben's powering through it. You have musical chair to the entire NFC North running backs from two years ago. Right. That's pretty cool. Ben, you have sibling.

You must have siblings. Oh, 100%. Oh my God. So like, don't you have a younger brother's taller and like you were said was cooler than you? Should we bring him on the show?

remarkably more and more handsome and more athletic and just generally better in every way. And he's listening to this right now being like, yeah, you know, crazy. And my mom's like, he's like bench pressing 320 pounds listening to this. Like, yeah, just right, just throwing up plates. Just no problem. Yeah, no, Nico's the man. My mom's listening to this. She's talking over us right now to someone else.

So, I learned that from her. Yeah, no. Solex, mom and solex brother, email us or ringer fantasy football at Gmail. Don't, do, no, mom, please. We're going to, if you want, we'll bring you on the. show. Kai, don't edit out the cross talk. That's the one time I'm asking you not to edit out the cross talk. Kai's asleep.

Kai's watching a feature film. Guy's like, I did not know this is going to be two hours. What are we doing? I just finished Dune 2 for the fourth time. Yeah, this is like a Lord of the Rings. This is like a, this one's as long as Lord of the Rings the two buildings directors cut. It's half because I'm drunk and half because nine running back switch teams.

Speaking of Ian Rappapaport, it's Rappaport. Right? Or is it Rappaport? I think that my New York accent, I just don't pronounce that anyway. So, tea or no tea? I'm pretty sure there's a T there. You're supposed to say the T, but I don't know if I'm capable of... Ian Rappaport.

Rappaport. I've always said Rappaport. Anyway, he scoops Chephty here. He says, the king is on the move. Sources say the hashtag Ravens are expected to land. Hashtag Titan star running back Derek Henry. After attempting to trade for him a few times, Baltimore signs him now. A little clunky. Henry, crowd emoji, Henry gets a two years, $16 million deal worth up to $20 million with $9 million guaranteed.

I think this is two drinks for Schefter got scooped and also in Rap Report stealing the Schefter template with the Photoshop. This is like the rare case where the signing that everybody wanted is like what happened. Like Derek Henry on the Ravens has been what we've wanted for years now. This is like a real battle between like old, like aging running back with traits that certainly don't age, going to the absolute like best situation. and I don't know what we're going to do with him this year. He's 30 years old. So it's going to be like a real like which side are you on here in like the age versus fit debate.

The football aesthetics are out of control here. Like with Ravens. No, like if you thought Gus Edwards looked cool in a Ravens uniform, wait until you see Derek Henry, dude. It's like when Julio Jones signed with the Eagles, there was like Julio and AJ Brown with the visors, but like what's Leo actually might have been good. That's kind of this. I just can't wait to see Lamar, Derek Henry and Keaton and Mitchell all lined up in the same. same backfield. That's so much weird, like, athleticism

in very weird ways. Like, very, very disparate polar ways. Meena had a tweet where she was like Derek Henry and Keaton Mitchell is the thunderous and lightningest backfield, a thunder and lightning backfield has literally ever been. Like, this is going to be sick. It's like Thor and Zeus. Okay, wait, can you give us Derek Henry's scouting report as sounds? What are the sounds?

Yeah. Just do like a, I'm like a, thinking like a Peterbilt, like a semi- truck. What? I don't know what that word was. You said, Peterbilt? What was that?

Peterbilt? Type of truck. Oh, it is. Typically, we're talking like logging trucks. So maybe that's not the best, but. Man, if he needs logs. I have been making the log joke a lot. Over 1.5 log jokes, cashes on the Adam Chester drinking show.

An hour close. It was plus 900. That's a huge wish for the logs. Oh, man. All right. We also, next tier, we got, per corrects request, filed from At Marcus Spears, Ravens free agent linebacker, Patrick Queen, told Marcus Spears that he plans to sign a $3 million contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I like reports that are just saying, someone told me this.

That alone is two drinks. I also think that the Photoshop is the third drink. And I got to tell you, shout out to PFT commenter, who then replied and said, Best Future Queen Photoshop. God damn it. Nicely done, man. He's good. Yeah.

There is nothing better than the clip of Patrick Queen telling the story where Mike Tomlin told him, you aren't a raven like years ago. And now Patrick Queen is employed by Mike Tomlin with the Steelers. Is it foresight? Is it manifest destiny? I don't know what it is. It's amazing. I'm not going to lie.

I didn't know that that clip existed. Mike Tomlin told him he's not a raven. Yeah. And then he was like, I took that personally. Like when Patrick Queen was like a rookie, like a second year player, he ended up on the Steelers sideline.

And like Queen wasn't great at the time. And Tomlin started kind of like chatting at him. Like, you know, talking a little bit of Mac. God, that's just like, you're not a raven. Like you're not built for this. Like you're not, you're not mentally carry the Ray Lewis man.

Like I'm putting words in his mouth. That's the sort of thing that he was trying to communicate. That's the meanest thing I've ever heard in my life. And Queen, like Queen remembers this. It fires Queen up. Jeez. I will say Craig,

dude, ruining for Patrick Queen is fun. Because Patrick Queen will just bat out of hell ram his head into anything he's told to, man. He plays a fun old school style of football. Yeah, he's jacked up after every tackle,

it seems. And he hasn't missed a game in his career, I don't believe. I'm hyped. The Steelers have needed a middle linebacker for a long time. Now there were literally two hours in this episode and I'm kind of drunk. I guess I should remind people I actually do do reporting every now and then. And I was at the Ravens' AFC championship game that they lost versus the Chiefs with Stephen Reese. I was in the

locker room after the game and it was like a very much like a funeral vibe. All the play, I can't express enough how much people were devastated to be there. Everyone leaves. Everybody leaves at every point. The only two players left in the locker room. So Del Beckham was doing this press conference with like a hundred people around him. There were two other players there. It was Lamar Jackson and Patrick Queen, and they were having the most animated conversation about what had gone wrong. And it was like,

I don't want to be cliche, but it was like, you could just tell like how much they freaking cared. And like how, like they were so upset. They were doing that like yell whisper. And they knew that they weren't going to be playing together again. But like,

it was, it was so interested in me that in that moment where the Ravens lost a game, they should have won that Lamar Jackson was like Patrick Queen was the guy that was like listening to Lamar and his it is a in his uh complaints well now he's going to be listening to Russell Wilson so we'll see how he's just good his eyes are going to be glazing over Russ is going to be doing high knees on the plane home and Patrick's going to have to have Patrick's going to be like looking at his watch like oh god it's like me when I'm trying Craig about dead money so they spent the money and Craig do the next one here

Shifter got skipped again I think Shifter got tired man Shifter might have listened to this show Yeah so again from our boy Ian Rappaport A new quarterback in Minnesota The Vikings are expected to sign Niners quarterback Sam Darnold per me and Tom Pelliserro I wish he just said per me That would have been real badass

Donald gets a one year deal worth $10 million dollars to say in joint's former teammate Josh McCown who is Minnesota's new quarterback coach. Kirk Cousins out, Darnold in. Thanks for that. A little sprinkle there at the end. The dramatic flourish.

The dramatic flourish at the end of these tweets are always too much. Just making sure people knew that Sam Donald is ostensibly the starting quarterback right now. Which, listen, Sam Donald's only two years older than Bowenicks. Why not? Let him develop. His seventh chance to be a starter. This is when it happens. So obviously the Vikings might trade up and get a quarterback.

Let's put that to the side right now. Everyone right now has to tell me in or out, Sam Darnold. I'm in on Sam Darnels. Everyone has to decar you in or out. No. Out. Oh, so upsetting. It was hurting.

Come on. What do we do? I'm out. Yeah. Really? Just me? I'm emphatically in on the bit of like Sam Donald will be 38 and they'll be like one year, two million dollar deal.

He might win the starting job. That's good. I'm out on everything. else. Sam Darnel's two coaches were Adam Gase and like Matt Rule. Yeah, and then Kyle Shannon. You're going to beat out Brock Purdy. Come on. Right. I'm just saying. Just erasure of the last year. Somebody shared like, I don't actually know the context because they don't follow baseball enough, but there was a video of a reliever coming in from the outfield and it pans to the catcher

who sees the reliever coming in. It's like, God damn it. He's like hates the reliever. And then it was like Justin Jefferson when he sees Sam Darnold in the in the huddle. It's like, oh, God. This is going to be the worst. I explained a meme again. We're at, yeah, we're at hour two. We're at hour two, all right? Give me a fucking break.

This is red uncharted waters. All right, wait. So, Craig, do you want to explain to Solock and anyone who's, I can't believe people made it this far? The Royal Photoshop thing, because it's, this is, you know. Craig. Are you familiar with Kate Middleton, who's the, the princess of whales? What is her title?

She's the queen regent in waiting or something? I don't know what it is. The queen of England died. So now there's a king of England. His son who will be the next king of England. His wife is the queen of whale. I hate the whale's title because that doesn't make any sense. It's the next person who will be married to the king of England.

She had abdomen surgery about two months ago. She has not been heard from since. And that's very rare. The British media like because I said to my wife, I was like, okay, well, she's probably just recovering like big deal. And she's like, no, no, no. Like they photographed literally everything. Like they would have seen her coming out of the hospital.

They would have seen her arriving at her house. Like there has been nothing except now this photo comes out of her with her three children. That's not good? Well, you would think, Ben. It's her smiling with her three children. She looks healthy and normal and everything looks great. But, you know, all of the internet psychos have come out to realize that this photo is incredibly photoshopped. And it is definitely not real.

And there are small pieces of the photo that if you zoom in, you can see where Photoshopped or, or tampered with, and now everyone is nervous, like, what is Kate Middleton up to actually, and where is she? And please release her and is she okay? There's been rumors that her and her husband are, like, not doing well, that there's cheating allegations going on. So everyone doesn't know what's going on with Kate Middleton.

So has the royal family acknowledged that they Photoshop the photo of Kate Middleton? Well, yeah, so Kate Middleton herself tweeted, hey, guys, sorry, I personally was messing around with Photoshop. and put this photo up and I screwed up. So that's on me, my bad. Which is like the wildest possible response. She was like, we had a lovely Mother's Day with our children. And my bad, I'm a Photoshop fan.

I just wanted to see if I could fool the public into believing that I'm still alive. Yeah. Oh, this is harrowing stuff. I hope she's okay. So we don't know what's going on. That's like something Russell Wilson would say. Hey, guys, I was messing around with Photoshop. I'm a Photoshop novice and just kind of tooling around.

That's really concerning. It is weird. It looks like an AI generated photo. Her feet and legs look weird. It's like the uncanny valley thing where you're like, I guess this is technically a real photo, but the more you stare at it, you're like, something's off here.

If you look at like the buttons on the kid's sweater, like look all distorted and weird. The kid's finger is like all weird. He's like got his fingers like all crossed when he's holding onto the table too. It's just kind of bizarre. These people can't go more than three days without being photographed. And then they go three months

being photographed and they're like nothing to see here. We just love playing with Photoshop. You ever heard of the Streisand effect? It's so weird. It was the Streisand effect because the AP killed the story. That was kind of what went around. The AP circulated. Please don't show this photo.

Okay, now I want to see the photo. Yeah, it was like the AP issued a kill order, which is a term I didn't. I've never even heard of that. I don't know what that is. On that note. Like truly from the bottom of my heart, if you have made it this far in the episode,

thank you. so much. Thank you to DK. Thank you to Craig. Thank you to Sulek. Thank you to Tucker. Thank you to Kai, who I slept through the middle

a part of this. I bet Kai still doesn't know who Robert. Kai, wake up. Wake up, Kai. We got to end the show. You got to play the music. Thank you to Jack for help behind the scenes.

Thank you to Tucker for help in scenes. Once again, just thank you to everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Sequin, genuinely. I'm sorry that we failed you. Thank you, Lorne. Lord. Lord.

Thank you, MGMT. Nice. Oh, they're doing an electric field. Dude, MGMT is really good. That album really bangs. I don't really know what happened to them. MGMT's got some bangers. Yeah, I'm sure somebody will email me and be like,

they're still making great music, but I feel like they haven't really pierced the public consciousness. Yeah, I feel like the early aughts was their, what is it, Apex Mountain? Yeah, and well, in that movie, I don't know if anybody saw saltburn, but there was a big MGMT needle drop in that that I think kind of like, brought them back in.

Rejuvenated it? There are a couple of needle drops and salt burn and we know what I'm saying. Hey, oh. I haven't seen it yet. Don't see it. It's not good.

Don't tell me what to do. Okay, sorry. Live show in Detroit. Live show. Imagine if we would have put the announcement at the end of the show. If you made it this far, you've already purchased the tickets.

You're in the show. You're on stage. We're in Detroit now. All right. Goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandall is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC.

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