The Ringer NFL Show - The Free Agency Hangover Part II

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

LIVE SHOW in Detroit on April 24: Click below for tickets! The 2024 NFL free agency craze continues! The guys recap the turbulent past week of deals across the league by power ranking the remaining free agency moves that they were most impressed by, including the Steelers trading for Justin Fields and the Chiefs signing Marquise Brown (2:33). “You guys want to do some emails?” (48:46) Tickets: http://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 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

Hey, over 25 years ago on September 29, 1998, we watched a brainy girl with curly hair drop everything to follow a guy she only kind of knew to college. My name is Amanda Foreman, though maybe you know me better as Megan Rotundi, the roommate with the mysterious box. I'm teaming up with my Felicity husband, Greg Grunberg, and the ringer's Juliet Litman, to revisit our favorite moments from the show and talk to the people who helped shape it. The rewatch begins on March 13th. Listen now to Dear Felicity on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Ringer NFL Draft Show. My name is Craig Horleck and I am joined by Danny Kelly and Ben Solac. No Danny Hyvich today.

I think he's off like crowdfunding to get Sequin back on the giant. Somewhere in the world, he heard like an echo of your intro and just like a loud, just like, welcome, just like jump out of him with no warning. I know. I didn't really like throttle my throat like to know. Welcome! I got to do that next time. So today's show. So usually typically we just do the Adam Schefter free agency drinking game and then we do the free agency hangover and then we move on. But this year there was so much free agency news. There was so much stuff that happened this weekend that we needed to add a third episode to round out the trilogy. So I don't know what we call this. If this is like the free agency relapse. Hair of the dog. The hair of the dog. Yeah, we're back in. Bender, the Bender, the free agency Bender, the long weekend. Yeah, the long weekend. So we're back hitting more free agency news because, again, like I said, busy weekend.

So I basically, we kind of power ranked, like the six or seven biggest stories, I pulled D.K. and Ben and kind of built a composite ranking based on what they found to be the most interesting and what they liked the most. With that said, is there anything else I'm trying to think? Hyattvitz always promo stuff. Mock draft? We had a new mock draft up, right? Where can you find that, Craig? Where exactly on the internet could you find it?

NFL draft. The ringer.com. There it is. What an Earl. Or you could just go to the link in the description of the podcast. Or you could Google.

You could use the Googles. Also, give us those stars. We love stars. Whatever format you're streaming us on. Give us stars. We love stars. We're not too ashamed to ask for them. We'll do that at the end.

We're not going to show for stuff. We have to start here. The Chicago Bears. Heard of them. Traded Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers. For a conditional six-round pick. So the Bears get a, a six-round pick from Pittsburgh that becomes a fourth if Justin Fields plays

51% of the snaps next year, which he might, who knows, the Steelers are going to pay him $3.2 million this year. They're probably likely going to decline his fifth year option. Dan Comer, who does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff for us, he kind of put together a list of all the other like quarterback trade market deals from the last like four or five years. See what kind of other quarterbacks went for around a six-round pick? Man, it's wild.

It's, yeah, brutal. Brett Hunley, Went to the Steelers for a six-round pick. In 2021, the Bengals traded Ryan Finley to the Texans for a six-round pick. Ryan Finley. Is it Finley or Findley? Maybe it doesn't matter because he was like maybe the worst starter of all time. Last year, Josh Jobs went to the Vikings for a six-round pick.

And then just a little sprinkle here. Josh Rosen went for a second, 2019. Brutal. So I want to start here with Ben. Ben, you wrote about this for the rigor.com. Why did Fields go for so much less than many people thought? Yeah, so I think it's one of these situations where like six different things are true. And because six different things are true, if you bring up one of the things that are true,

everybody's like, what about these other five things? I was like, well, yeah, it's hard to kind of get through everything. So here's what I believe. One, I think that at the beginning of the cycle, you saw the reporting in January and February, the field's probably going to go for like a two, maybe a three, like some sort of day two pick. I think that the bears started to solicit offers from the various people that might need quarterback, Steelers, and Falcons, and Vikings and Raiders and Broncos. because whoever you like.

And they got some offers that were like, maybe a three, maybe a four. They thought they could do better. And so they passed one of those. Their belief was, you know, we can get through free agency, get past the Kirk Cousins deal and the Baker-Mayfield deal. And somebody will be really desperate for fields and we can get a better offer. I think that was the belief. This was a pretty unprecedented free agency in terms of quarterback movement.

The amount of guys who went for like one-year deals or trades that happened. Like this, a ton of dudes moved. Dan Graziano wrote in ESPN, I thought very presciently at the beginning of the process, that teams were telling the bears like, hey, like, we would rather just like try one year on Sam Donald, try one year on Drew Locke, which brings us to the second thing, their evaluation of fields, at least just eval field, is a lot lower than we anticipated. It's not like,

all right, people think of this guy as a spot starter. Most teams are calling about him as a backup, right? And so he said, okay, more, more teams are saying, hey, we're just going to take Sam Donald, we're just going to take Drew Locke. And then Gregiano continued, this is a really unique situation in which there might be more quarterback availability supply than there is quarterback demand, which is just not

usually how that market works at all. But that was the case for them for agency with the amount of guys who moved. And so I think bears out overplay their hand a little bit in the trade market. I think that the league was lower on fields than we expected. I also think that there is truth to the Bears claim that like, hey, like, we could have sent him to like the Broncos for a fifth or the Eagles for a fifth and a future fifth. But we send him to the Steelers because, you know, like,

even though the deal wasn't the best of the ones who got on the table, like he can actually go and start there. So I think there's a lot of things that are true. And that really occludes, like, it makes it a hard thing to just talk about straight. There's so much going on. But this is where we've landed now. Justin Fields is available for a sixth. And you can't convince me that's not a good bargain.

It's a great bargain. I have a question. Is there a part of this that is, and this maybe just sounds like cope as someone who liked Justin Fields in the past. But is there also an element where teams just don't want to get married to this guy because if you trade for him, then the fan base is going to be like, oh, this is the savior of our franchise. This is the guy who's going to be our new starter. There's going to be like really high expectations in a lot of cases, I think. And obviously teams didn't view him as that. type of caliber of player.

So basically they just didn't want like the expectations that came with drafting or with trading for Justin Fields. Does that make any sense? Like they didn't want to get married to this guy when they knew or they believed that he wasn't like the answer or the starter. Especially if you have to deal with like if you're a team like Minnesota who might or Minnesota or Denver who like might draft a quarterback. If you also trade for Justin Fields, then you're going to have to deal with this back and

forth of like should Justin Fields be starting over the rookie? If the rookie sucks, do you put it in? Fields. If Fields sucks, what you put in the rookie. The Steelers, you're not really dealing with that because they're kind of in this weird one-year window with both Russ and Justin Fields. Yeah, this rookie concern is part of the reason why the Bears moved off of Justin

Fields, right? I think there was a decent contingent of Bears faithful. They were like, just keep the guy, don't take a quarterback, or keep him and draft the quarterback. And then especially when he only returned a sixth with conditional fourth, you know, like it better, they were like, why don't we just keep him? And it's because, hey, the locker room really likes him. And you don't want to put a rookie in a spot where the rookie

is going to be handed the job because he was the first overall pick, Caleb Williams, namely, but also like everybody that he's playing with is playing with QB2 and really likes QB2

because if the rookie takes his lumps in the first month of the season, DJ Moore is going to start, you know, I'm going to get Justin back out there a little bit. You know,

like that, that interpersonal aspect of things is absolutely a real dick. So I think, yeah, that's another truth to the Justin Fields' reality. Because I'm just trying to picture a smart person

saying, you know what, I'd rather have Sam Darnold than Justin Fields. For $10 million. Marcus Morgan's Mario, it's $6.5 million up to, I think it's like 8 or 10 with incentives. Jacoby Brissette is $6 million. Gardner Minshew is 25 over 2. Like, there is no, there's nobody on the planet who should prefer those players at that price tag to Johnsonville's at 3.2 million.

What is happening? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. It's like he's like a crazy ex-girlfriend or something. They're like, I just don't want to deal with that. Like there's too much baggage there. Like, he'll cause too much chaos in the building. So like we can't. He's like too alluring in some ways.

Also, do you? think this is kind of the first, like, maybe not the first, but Ryan Poles is really going for like, I'm a cool GM. Like, I'm going to do right by my guys. Like, I'll take less to send Justin to a good landing spot. You don't really see that a lot in the NFL. You see that maybe a little bit more in the NBA. Like, I'm only going to send him where he wants to go. But it sounds like other teams, like you said, Ben, like reached out about Fields. And then Fields's representation was like, we don't want to go there. And Ryan Poles was like, okay, we'll send you where you want. So obviously, the Bears are doing a really big job right now, getting out there. Like, a lot of

reporting like, hey, we had better deals. We sent Justin to Pittsburgh because it's a good landing spot for him. They're really pushing that now. It's worth noting at the combine. Ryan, Pauls did say this, right? He was like, hey, like, you know, we want to do right by Justin. You know, he said, like, you know, we want to help him, we want to get this done before free agency to kind of help him, you know, in your life and your career, you kind of know where you're going to land. You don't want to go in April, May, and June, and not know. And so there was some veracity to it. What I think happened was, is Paul said that, and he meant that. We want him to try to help Justin. And then they solicited all these offers.

for a third round pick and a fourth round pick. And they were like, ah, maybe we can do better, you know, work the system, you know, the trade lines, rumor mill, we'll get it better. That totally failed, completely blew up in their face. All of a sudden, they're getting fifths and six rounders for Justin Fields. And then when they sent up to Pittsburgh, they were like, oh, let's go back to that whole.

We're really nice guys. Yeah. And let's use that to explain why we didn't get a third and a fourth. And it's like, no, no, no, no. It wasn't a huge mistake. Yeah. You also screwed up the market, right? Again, like, it's a both things are a true thing.

Because they're getting out there. Like, we were a really nice guys. And I was reporting about that, they were, you know, going to get a second, going to get a third. Both things are true. I think they took a worse offer for feels. They could have gotten like a four, like two day three picks. Something more analogous to like, I don't know, the Kenny Pickett return, the Sam Howard, which just happened. But instead, you know, they, they mishandled the market.

I love that. So Tomlin apparently informed Russell Wilson that that Russ is the planned starter. Emphasis on planned. Planned. Sure. Of course. Yeah. That's like telling my college girlfriend that she's my plan.

girlfriend after college. We'll see. Sure, right now. Yeah. Technically sure. And then Rod, did you see Russ's tweet? He tagged Justin Fields in a tweet. Let's get it at Justin Fields.

QB Room Bout to be fire. Yep. Three emoji. That's the most cringy shit I've ever seen. He's such a dad, dude. There's been some really good memeage happening with Russell Wilson going to Pittsburgh. My favorite one is the Zoolander. Like, when Zoolander goes and starts working in the Myeye,

with his brothers and his dad. He's like, this is Russell Wilson just coming into work. What week of the NFL season do the Pittsburgh fans start chanting for Fields? That's tough. So if you remember, I think it took like one week for Denver fans to turn on him. And this was like after they had traded a massive amount of stuff for him. I feel like there's, if he has one bad game, people are going to be clamoring for Justin Fields. I feel like that's already going to happen.

People are going to be clamoring for Justin Fields in the preseason. I was going to say, the chance are going to start when he walks into the preseason game, man. Like, I mean, I think there will be a decent part of the CS fan base, rightfully so, that believes that he should just be, you know, kind of the starter right away. I'm the thing I'm most interested to see is just how they divide up training camp reps. Because this reads to me, like a classic Tomlin, like, Russ is going to take every single first team rep. without question, four weeks.

They're going to get to the season. They're going to be two and three, week five. It's going to be getting Justin Fields questions. And he's going to be like, well, we don't really know, like, we're not really prepared for what feels and that. We don't really know what Fields is going to look like with the ones. And everyone's going to be like, because you didn't let him take your reps. I think this feels like one of those issues where Thomas is just going to make this

way more convoluted and frustrating than it has to be. It should just be open training camp battle, period, done easy. But that'll never be the case in Pittsburgh. Which is like, why do the Steelers even need to, it's like, we need to do right by Russ. It's not like we're paying him $30 million a year. We're paying him less than we're paying Justin Fields. Like, let them compete.

See who wins. He's on the team for a week. And people notoriously do not like him. All right. Next up here, number two move from the weekend. Chargers trading Keenan Allen to the Bears for a fourth round pick. So basically the way this shaped out, the charges were over the cap. They needed to make some moves.

Bosa and Khalil Mack took pay cuts. Keenan Allen was like, I'm not taking a pay cut. Keenan Allen was quoted. He was like, it really was no emotion. It was, I'm not doing it. I just came off my best season, so it's not happening. Honestly, fair. Yeah.

King, respect it. The teams would treat you the same way. So you treat the teams the same way. My sad, heck no. Dude, Keenan Allen had 108 catches. And he missed four games. That was the Chargers single season receptions record. He missed four games.

That is wild. 1,200 yards, seven touchdowns. Great year. Have I told you my favorite Keenan Allen stat. What's that? No. So this comes from Adam Harsad, who does a ton of family work and just like a great follow

on Twitter. He was tweeting this. I think they were playing the Rams, the Ravens, the Ravens. It was something like really good team. But tonight is Keenan's Allen 12th game with 12 plus catches, which sets a new NFL record. The previous record was held by Keenan Allen with 11 such games. Prior to that, the record horror was Keenan Allen with 10 such games.

Later in that game, he caught his 13th catch. And that was his eighth game with 13 catches, which breaks the NFL record of seven, previously held by Keenan Allen. Prior to that, the NFL record was six games with 13 catch. catches held by Keenan Allen. Nobody has more games where he's catching more, like just unbelievable volume than Keenan Allen does. I think it's such a cool thing to be leading the league in. He's been like the only beacon of hope for Chargers fans for the last decade.

He's been like the only consistent thing year in, year out, dependable great wide receiver. So I guess let's start with the Bears. One, first of all, is a fourth round pick enough for Keenan Allen? T.K., what do you think? I mean, it's tough because he is third. 31 years old or 30 years old. He's definitely getting up there in age. There's a typically there's a massive like a worry that the age cliff is approaching at any time.

You know, we saw it with, for instance. He'll be 32 in a month. Yeah. Last year, like Adam Thielen started out really strong and then completely disappeared in the second half of the year. I think there's a lot of, there's always worries that that's going to be the case. But Kenan Allen, like with him, it's like explosiveness and speed has never been his game. It feels like among, you know, all receivers in the NFL. like he his type of game is going to age gracefully because he's never been about i'm just going to be

more explosive than the guy in front of me it's like i'm a really good route runner i have great hands all that stuff um and so yeah i think it does feel very low i feel like this is the whole theme of this free agency period especially when when it came to the trades it was like that's what it costs like why did my team not do that um but then you add in like his contract is you know a barrier to entry for a lot of teams that are just not willing to to spend what what you know, what he's going to be owed this year. So I guess fourth round makes sense. I honestly, like, sometimes I just don't know how these things work.

I just really like that these teams are building around these, like, rookie quarterbacks. Like, I just, I love the Titans with Levis. And this is awesome what the Bears are doing for Caleb Williams. They're going to put him in in a situation where he can immediately thrive. His receivers right now are going to be DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, running back. They signed DeAndre Swift, tight ends. They have Cole Komet and Gerald Everett. And they also have the ninth pick in the draft.

So, Ben, if, if, if, if, One of Malik neighbors or Adunze is there at nine. Do you think they consider that? Or if a wide receiver is gone, will they trade out? Do they do a line? What do you think they do now that they have Keenan Allen? I think you still consider it, right? Because contract-wise, you only have one year left of Keen.

And he is old. He has missed time. Like, I think this is a good buy low. You have to acknowledge that there's some risk to it. You probably also aren't like super planning to have Keenan Allen on the roster in 2025 and 2026. Like, if you do, great. Like, if he's playing well enough and, like, you get a deal done fine.

but I don't think you make that like a pillar of your team moving forward. So like to me like I think you you can still do it. It's a lot less likely. I think if it's like between them and like Dallas Turner or the top edge rusher, they need someone to pair with Montez sweat. Like to me like that feels like it could be a good pick.

Wide receiver also, you know, this is the sort of spot where you can spend middle round picks and find starters like training back is fine. Of course you have to, we always say that in the in the collective, in the general. You have to get down to the specifics. The last couple mid-round picks for the bears

have been Vilus Jones. and then the trade for Chase Claypool. I feel like they had another, like, third or fourth rounder. And there's a guy got, another Scott this year. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. So so far, like, their whole middle round,

let's throw some darts thing. Like, their best win was darned on Mooney and he just got out of the building, right? Like, if this sort of a team is like, listen, we are getting a top receiver, we're kind of done screwing around with the whole like middle round dart sort of thing. I would, I would understand that.

And so, I mean, listen, if you're talking landing spots for a rookie quarterback and you get to bring a young man into a building, and he's got DJ Moore Keenan Allen and Roma Dunese. I was cut. I would be so pissed if I'm Justin Fields right now. That's such a good point. I'm curious.

I'm like, God, damn it, guys. I've been here for so, how many years? Like, and now you're doing all this stuff? Oh, God. In 2022, Justin Fields' leading target getter was Cole Komet. Kamek got more targets than any wide receiver on the team. The top three wide receiver target getters were Darnel Mooney, Equanimia of St. Brown, and I will give anybody a trillion dollars

that they can say who the third guy is off memory. at wide receiver. Oh, man. Dante Pettus. Frick you, Craig. You got it. Yeah, Craig. Yes.

Yeah, it was 69 targets to Cole Commet, 61 to Darno Mooney, 41 to Dante Pettus, and then 38 to Equanimia St. Brown. That's who he was throwing through two years ago. If Caleb gets to throw to Rome, Keenan, and DJ, that's hilarious.

I wanted to ask, I wanted to talk about the Chargers. So the Chargers got rid of Keenan Allen, they got rid of Austin Eckler, Mike Williams is a free agent. So I wanted to, they traded for Gus Edwards. I wanted to read to you guys the Chargers offensive still players as they currently stand. So the running back room features Gus Edwards and Isaiah Spiller.

Their wide receivers are Josh Palmer, Quinn Johnston, Darius Davis, two TCU players, and Simi Fahoko. Is that how you pronounce? Simi Fahoko, yeah, yeah. Those are the only four receivers on the team. They only have four, and it's those four. and then their tight ends are Will Dissley, Donald Parham, Jr. and Hayden Hurst. Shepder said that the Chargers would like to resign Mike Williams. D.K.

There is, first of all, what the fuck's going on on the Chargers? First of all. What is going on offensively for the Chargers right now, Justin Herbert? And how confident are you now they're taking a receiver at 5? I'm not confident they're taking a receiver at 5 just because I think this is a philosophical change in the way that they're going to play football. I mean, Greg Roman comes from an offense where, I don't know what it was, like 75% of the time, he's using a 300 pound fullback out there. Like, they don't need receivers.

They've got a 300 pound fullback who's running routes for him. And so, you know what I mean? Like, this is going to be a two tight end set heavy offense, I think. They're not going to be passing a ton. I think this is going to be a super balanced offense, even though they have Justin Herbert. It's not going to be the identity of their team to, like, ask him to do everything. And so I don't know if they see. receiver as like a premium position in their offense.

You know what I mean? That being said, like the Ravens did invest first round picks in receivers, a couple different receivers, Marquis Brown, and Rashad Bateman, who will be good this year. It's coming. Just pray to God, none of your receivers end up on this team if you're in fantasy or dynasty, because this is, I think, going to be a run-heavy team. Even though Justin Herbert is incredible passer, I think this is going to be like a slow run-heavy team, control the football.

This is why we're having so many discussions about J.G. McCarthy right now. in terms of like, is he a game manager? Is he capable of being more than that? Because Michigan didn't ask him to do a ton in their offense. And they won a national title. Like this is what Harbaugh is basing like his philosophy on. It's like we play good defense. But you know what?

J.J. McCarthy's not Justin Herbert. Like has there ever been an offense to design the game plan around running when you have one of the best five quarterbacks in the league? Right. And there's like some validity to like, hey, like, the league is throwing more than ever, and those more elite quarterbacks more than ever. And so teams are defensively taking it away,

and they're playing more deep safeties. They're taking away the past. You have to be able to run the ball because we've seen that for teams, like the chiefs who invested a lot in the running game in the last couple of years. We've seen that per Buffalo that's invested in the running game in the last couple of years. Even Cincinnati, right? Joe Mixon's gone. Zach Moss is in.

The shotgun running stuff, they're trying to like reimagine how they run the football because you run to these teams that just like play super light boxes on you and take away all the deep passes. But the thing is like first you have to build the elite passing game. And then to get over the. hump in the playoffs to become a complete team, then you need to be able to run it when they take away the pass. But the past is still king in the NFL, right? For a long time, it was like, we need to be able to run the football and running the football is the core, it's the foundation

of this offense. And then we put the pass in on top of that. Now it is flipped. You have to spend and invest and dedicate yourself to a good, dynamic NFL caliber passing game and then fill the running game into the cracks, in the crevices, right? A round it all out with the running game. And so this is, even if they end up getting to a point where like Herbert powers a good passing game, because Herbert's so good. And then they run the ball really well. They still got to it backwards. They still got to

it like kind of the wrong way around in terms like prevailing modern NFL philosophy. And that's why it's hard to kind of have like a ton of faith in the Greg Roman brain trust right now of the Chargers offense. That being said, they could draft a receiver here. It could just be purely we wanted to

they should purge all the big contracts that we're not going to need long term. and start sort of from scratch, you know, and they could draft a guy he's going to be very cheap relative to most of the highly paid receivers in the NFL, and that could be where they go with it. And this is a new front office, new coaching staff, so the Quentin Johnson pick probably means nothing to them at this point.

It's not like they're worried about taking a receiver second year in a row in the first round. Like that is, I think, a little bit irrelevant at this point. I will be shocked if this is the wide receiver group on this team heading into 2024. Yeah, Josh Palmer, Craig and I love that. We haven't sold our stock. Big years for Josh Palmer and Rashad Bateman coming. Speaking of receivers, D.K. loves.

Number three here. The chief signed Marquis, Hollywood Brown, to a one-year deal worth up to $11 million. Is he still, is Hollywood still, did he earn Hollywood? I think Hollywood has to be banished and maybe he can earn it back. Well, first of all. Markese Brown.

It's Hollywood, Florida. It is Hollywood, Florida. For the people that remember, he's from Florida. Marquis, Hollywood, Florida Brown. It just doesn't flow. He knows what he's doing, you know, by working in Hollywood there. D.K., here's my question for you about Marquis Brown. He was only 26 years old, by the way.

I would have said 28. It just feels that long, yeah. Is Markees Brown the leading pass catcher not named Travis Kelsey on the Chiefs next year? Ooh, that's a really good question. It's either going to be him or Rishi Rice. I would lean Markees Brown. I mean, I will beat you over the head of the stick. Okay.

Why do you think that, Ben? because if you look at the way that Rishi Rice was utilized, it was like his A dot was four yards. Yeah, but he's good. He's good. In case you missed it, I think Marquis Brown is good. Like, it's been my longest running bit on this show, like, literally.

It was like the first bit of this show. Like, it was like 2019. I was sticking with it. No, I think there's, I think there is an impression that Marquise Brown is only like a deep threat type receiver. He's just going to, like, run wind sprints on the outside, kind of like Justin Watson or MBS did last year.

If you look at the way he's been utilized last three years with both the Cardinals and the Ravens, it's a lot of slants, short and intermediate area, catch and run type stuff. This is pretty much exactly the way that they used Rishie Rice. So I think it's a toss-up. It's going to be tough. Rishie Rice has the advantage of being bigger and stronger

and not being hurt every year. So, you know, the even odds would probably be on Rice. But all that being said, I still think Marquise Brown has a lot of talent. he's finally going to be in an offense with some stability in theory. Hopefully Mahomes can stay healthy. But I mean, if you look at what he's done, when Kyler Murray was healthy, he was amazing in Arizona. And then before that, he was in a Greg Roman offense, which you have to like throw out the window because it was just so, you know, different from every other offense in the NFL.

So I don't know. I'm still a believer. He is very injury prone. So that's, I think, the biggest worry that you have. Yeah. My thing is just like, I agree with you on the Marquis Brown. He's not just a wind sprint guy. I think people don't, you know, people,

corned him off there. But for the Chiefs, right? Like, the Chiefs move on from MVS. Rishie Rice is already their underneath guy. He's already their scheme touch guy. Maybe Marquis Brown bites into some of that. I think you will. I think you'll dust off some of those old Tyreek Hill plays

and just let him scoot off to the sideline, whatever. But Rice still, like, already is like your short intermediate guy. He's your shallow route guy or cross-route guy. You're odds to catch dude. I think for the Chiefs, the first role for Brown to earn is going to be, like, the downfield role. And I don't love him in that role. I love the speed, like the ball tracking, the size, like, you know,

shield on X Pointeagan always brings up, like, oh, he gets a lot of DPI flags. Boring, lame, catch football. To me, like, it's just I don't think he's willing to be well suited for that role, so I think he's going to bump into Rishi Rice and the role that he's probably better student for the underneath stuff. Yeah. And they should not prioritize getting Markis Brown targets over Rishi Rice. Rishi breaks more tackles, creates more after the catch.

He might not be as fast, but he's plenty fast enough. He's actually big and survives contact. So for me, like, just Rishis is the far better player. Yeah, no, you're right. You're right. I think if we had to make our rankings right now, Rashid Rice would be ranked significantly higher than Hollywood Brown in fantasy. And I was actually looking at this up because I was doing an article on Devo Samuel during

the Super Bowl time. And Rashy Rice, it was like basically the two guys in the NFL that have an incredible amount of yards after the catch this year, the two biggest yak players in the NFL this year, Devo Samuel and Rishie Rice. Like those two guys were pretty similar in a lot of ways in the way that they were utilizing the offenses that they are. in. So I don't really think about Rishi Rice as a Debo Samuel player, but that was basically what he was doing. I love, I love Ben saying that, or offensive PIs are just like lame and not cool.

He's like so small and fragile. The only thing he could do is just draw PIs. Yeah. It's like, oh, he drops past. Why? Because he overruns the ball and then stops and puts his hands out. He's like, oh, they're hitting me. Stop. You are a bad ref merchant. I don't respect it. That's a tactic, you know? It's like a short guy in baseball and his like strikes under so small. He like gets a lot of walks. It's just like it's hard to throw us straight. Your batting stance is like really crunch. Dishonorable.

Dishonorable. Next one here. The Jets signed Tyron Smith to a one-year contract that could be worth up to $20 million with incentive. So the Jets have now added three starters to the O-Line, Tyrant Smith, John Simpson, and Morgan Moses, who's going to be a tackle. Moses and Tyrant Smith are both 33 years old. Ben, you had this ranked pretty highly in deals that you liked for the Jets.

So if Aaron Rogers isn't forced to abandon his position, to be the vice president of our country of America. Our country of America? What are your thoughts on this deal? Yeah, so the reason why I had the strength very highly is because from the Jets perspective, this is an extremely good situation to be in, right? Tyron Smith played excellent ball last year.

Like, do not get it twisted. Like, this was, Tyron Smith was playing well at left tackle for the Cowboys. Now, he's not maybe in his prime, nor is he, like, you know, I think he's a little bit more liable for, for injury and getting banged up and nicked up over the course of the season. But in general,

next-gen stats, Tyrant Smith, one-on-one situations on 85% of his snaps last season, third highest among tackles, allowed a pressure rate of 7% lowest among tackles. This is, again, when he's one-on-one, right? He's getting no chip help. This is still, like, elite caliber left tackle play. If you are to be successful with Aaron Rogers, which I have great suspicion that even in a perfect environment,

the Jets will be successful with Aaron Rogers. But if you are to be successful with Aaron Rogers, man, the past protection is going to be the key thing. Let's get the receivers, Roger Likes. No, forget it. Oh, the running game. Play action, the scheme. No, like the number one thing is going to be, he's coming off the Achilles.

He's not nearly the athlete that he used to be. Like, you have to be able to protect this guy. And Tyrant Smith, I think, allows you to fall asleep like a baby thinking about the left tackle position. First time for a long time for the Jets. Now, this is, like, is it long term? No. Like, it is probably a one-year deal and it's probably going to just be a one-year deal. But again, like, right now, if you're Joe Douglas and you're Robert,

Saul, you're doing the job for the job, right? You are kind of up against it here. The seat's getting hot. And so to get a guy like Tyrant Smith and to feel like, okay, like our one of the most challenging positions to fill an NFL team is field, that's a huge, a huge benefit, a huge relief.

And so Tyrant Smith's to the Jets, I love it. Smith's, um, deal is extremely like incentive-laden. It's up to $20 million, but it's not a lot guaranteed. Like a lot of it's like tied to playing time and stuff,

which is amazing for the Jets. Honestly, I'm surprised Tyran only got a deal like this slash took a deal like this. So hopefully he stays healthy and gets his money and hopefully it's good for the Jets as well. So the Jets are sitting here at 10 in the draft. Do you think their O-line is solid enough to where they can start to look for getting Aaron Rogers

some weapons? Because right now the wide receiver room in New York is abysmal. D.K., can you name the non-Garrett-Wilson receivers on the Jets? So Alan Lazzard is still there. I don't know for sure if he's going to be there, though, when the season starts. I think they're trying to shock him. I believe they announced that they've opened the trade talks for Alan Lazzar.

So there's a big line. And then there was a rookie last year that played, a couple of rookies that played last year whose names are escaping me. Brownlee? Jason Brownlee? Jason. Jason. Jason. Jason.

And then Xavier Gibson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're speaking to a proud, like over one and a half catches for Brownlee better. Okay? These guys run a lot of rounds. Let's do it. And then, you know, Trevor Simian couldn't get in the ball. It's pretty tough look.

Point being, uh, it's not great. There's a lot of terrible wide receiver rooms right now across the NFL. This is what I've been trying to say like all offseason. It's bizarre that there's more good receivers coming out of the college game than ever. And yet there's several teams that have like all-time bad receiver groups. I think there's like hoarding going on with the Eagles, namely Ben. No thank you.

Hello. But anyways, yeah, to me this is, if you look at their offensive line, their two tackles are both 33 years old. and their quarterback is like 41 or whatever he is. This is the bed and I have to be like, it'll be fine. Who I can't stress this enough is coming off a torn Achilles and literally might run to be vice president. I thought I thought I saw that that Kennedy named a VP.

Yeah, I think he's out. I think he's out. Oh. Sorry to spoil it for you, Craig. Reportedly pursuing Nicole Shanahan. We all know Nicole Shanahan as running mate. He went with a Shanahan over Rogers. So, Craig.

To answer your question, though, I don't think this takes them out of the running for offensive tackle at number 10. In theory, it might be more useful to get a receiver here, a big-time receiver to help Aaron Rogers out. But this is the classic thing I think a lot of teams do where they either trade for or sign, you know, bridge type free agents at these positions where they don't, they're not forced to do anything at one of their highly, their high draft spots. But basically, they can they can take the best player available in theory without. having to like, oh, God, we got to get a tackle. Oh, no, the four tackles ever taken. So now we got to take the fifth tackle and we don't really like this guy, kind of deal, you know what I mean?

So this is just giving them flexibility on draft day. I still think they might want to take a tackle or a guard tackle, a guy that can play two different positions because then you can fill out the offensive line with your five best guys. And, you know, you don't have to rely on two 33-year-old tackles to stay healthy all year. Also, Schifter reported that the Mike Williams is visiting the Jets, Panthers, Steelers. Oh, there we go.

Right now. And I'm like, oh, great. A soon to be 30 year old coming off a tour dacel feels jetsy. Yep. It's going to be fine, Craig. It's going to be fine. He's 100% of a jet. He's unequivocally a jet unless the Panthers are going to give him like $75 million

over three years to make him not a jet. It's just, it's all so laughable. Oh, I can't wait. Okay. So next up here, the Vikings trade up or the Vikings trade to add another first round pick to their arsenal. They now have the 11th and the 23rd. They traded up.

They trade with the Texans. They gave the Texans pick 42 and 188 in this year's draft. And then a second round pick next year. And they got the number 23rd overall pick. And then a later round. This is kind of the wind horse meme, the fingers. Like, what now? Why would they do that?

Everyone seems to think that they're acquiring ammo for a trade-up. Do you guys believe that, Ben? Do you believe that's what they're doing? Yeah, I do. I will say that they, I believe, that because they're kind of telling us that they're being very, very explicit about it. Questi got asked about this move a couple days ago

and he was like, yeah, no, felt like the good move to make, you know, good value. We're always on the trade market, whatever. And he got asked like, you know, what are you guys trying to do with 23, right? Like, you're not on the clock. Like, there's no player. Like, what are you trying to do?

And he goes, well, yeah, we have a, you know, we have like an ideal scenario in mind. Well, you know, we're willing to do a bunch of things. It's like, yeah, what's that, Questi? Like, they, the Vikings are, are like at first I appreciated kind of how cavalier they were being with the whole like you know we'll get Kirk or we'll go get a young guy like they weren't saying it explicitly but they've been

talking a lot about quarterback development and like the the time frame for their team and Oquessi's like yeah for 23 overall like we kind of have a plan we have an ideal scenario with what to do with it whatever um so at first I was digging that now I'm kind of like dude if I'm the Broncos I'm just trained up to four tomorrow just despite the like I'm walking around your chest out a little a little bit too much I'm moving up I'm creating a problem um and that's the thing is like it is better to have a first round pick this year relative to a first round pick next year in the trade market

because most teams value first round picks this year more than they value first round picks next year, which is kind of dumb, but also has some morality to it, whatever, it's the reality. And so if you have 23 this year, you inherently are stronger than offering your first this year

and a first next year. There's no question about that in the scope of how NFL teams think about these things. With that said, like, you know, it's not set in stone that the Vikings have the best capital, like they have the best offer.

if the Raiders want to mortgage the future, right? If the Broncos want a mortgage the future, if some unknown team wants the mortgage the future, they can, right? The Niners traded three firsts, like, you know, first and then two future firsts to go get Trey Lance. Like, oh, Ben, like that didn't work. Yeah, it didn't work.

The Niners also played in the Super Bowl last year. Like, teams aren't afraid of doing this. They will delude themselves into thinking that they can recover pretty quickly. And so, yeah, I think that it's March 18th right now. We oftentimes see big moves into the top of the draft at like the end of March, beginning of April,

we can see some of those those picks get officially traded. I wouldn't be surprised next seven, 10, 14 days if we get another trade in the first round, probably with the Vikings

that kind of settles the top five, top 10, and a little bit more clarity. Yeah. The Chargers are a team that a lot of people are talking about,

the target. If you look at like the old Jimmy Johnson trade table or whatever, the 11 and 23 approximately gets you up into that number five spot. However, if it's a quarterback,

generally speaking, those prices are elevated so they might have to give up a little bit more than that, maybe a player or whatever. But yeah, I think people are circling the Chargers at number five so they can jump over the Giants who the Giants are sort of a wildcard. Not everyone believes that they're out on quarterback this year. So yeah, it's going to be very, very interesting what happens here. But this is very clearly the Vikings positioning themselves to make a jump and everybody thinks

it's going to be for J.J. McCarthy. I will say you've heard more. I've heard the five thing a lot for the Chargers. you have heard and seen more recently. Like this is not me sourcing it, but seeing what other people are talking about. You've seen a lot of like, what if the Cardinals move back

from four conversation, which that has kind of seemed like, you know, a blasphemy for much of the cycle because everybody's like, yep, Marvin Harrison Jr., press the button, draft the guy and go. But then the Cardinals saw Chris Sins

new rankings of wide receivers and they were like, Marvin Harrison's third? We're out. We can't do this. But we can get him way later. In more serious, Lance Durland of NFL.

NFL.com, who's a good proxy for our NFL teams are thinking about things, has had Malik neighbors over Marvin Harrison Jr. this entire cycle. Daniel Jeremiah tweeted today that the neighbor's thing has legit juice, that some teams are going to have neighbors of Harrison. It is preference. Dane Brugler of the athlete's been saying this for a month, said it again today in response

to Daniel Jeremiah's reporting. The league is split neighbors Harrison. And so the Cardinals staying at four to take Marvin Harrison is a lot less of a no-brainer than we think, which means the chance that they're the team that trades out is I think more likely than we've realized. at this point. The Cardinals trading back to me is, it reminds me of like how you build a franchise on like dynasty mode or whatever. It's just like, yeah, I'll just trade back and keep getting

more and more picks and then in a few years. It's the Oklahoma City Thunder strategy. The Thunder have like 12 first round picks in the next three years and their team's good right now. The Cardinals currently have more draft capital in terms of like value on the charts. They have 11 picks than any team in the league. They have three picks in the, they have six picks in the first three rounds. They could, they could trade back again out of a top five pick, which they did last year. remember. They gave the Texans the Will Anderson pick. Yeah. And accrue more picks in the first three rounds. And then they could just

shotgun in this thing, right? I mean, just like, wide receiver round two, wide receiver round three, wide receiver round four, wide receiver round six. Someone's winning a job. Cornerback in round one, another quarterback in round one, quarterback round three. Someone's winning the job. And honestly, like, I would like it. Like, this roster's got a ton of holes. I don't mind them making tons of rookie picks. You have Tyler Murray in hand. I said this on the NFL feed the other week, like, or excuse me the other day. I would not be surprised if the card will take a big jump this year. Because they have so many draft picks that if they run this draft right and they get like

three rookie starters, they're going to move quick. I tell you, they got Kyler and Hanling. They're ready to go a little bit. Yeah, I like what they're doing. It's fun. Yeah, I mean, there are another wide receiver room that is just baffling to look at it right now. Michael Wilson, Chris Moore and Greg Dorch are the three wide receivers. Dorch.

Dorch. Dorch is all you need, really. Yeah. Greg Dorch, Greg Dorch, Greg Dorch. Next up here, the Steelers trade Kenny Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles. the the the Steelers received a third round pick

in this year's draft two seventh and the Eagles got Kenny Pickett in a fourth Ben the floor is yours well this is really annoying it's very irritating wait no Ben Ben

wait you know how we do that thing we do the coin flip episode where we flip a coin and we make DK and Ben argue for it against picks against their will yeah I had to argue for pick it a couple years ago

I want to do that right now I want you to defend Howie Roseman's decision for why this was a great deal for the Eagles. Oh, easy, easy. This guy was taking the first round of quarterback a couple of years ago, and I just got him for a third or fourth round pick swap. Quarterback value, quarterback factory, QB2, baby. Gian Hertz was our QB2. We develop at the position.

We're going to trade him for a top 75 pick in a year and a half. Which is all true, but the vibes suck, dude. The vibes are bad. Pickett was an Eagles fan and the vibes were still bad. That's how bad the vibes are. They got like a Jersey kid Woo go birds And I'm still like

I don't like his hair Okay I don't like his hair I don't like I don't like the way He comports himself Right He got asked

He got asked about the The whole like Benches of QB3 thing And he was like Oh yeah I know the reporting on that was wrong Like everything that happened

We all said We all agreed was gonna happen It was totally cool No it didn't We all know that dude Just like You just forced your way Out of Pittsburgh

Like we all are seeing this man so I don't like the way he plays, which probably should have been first above the hairpin. Yeah, I just, I don't like, it's not, listeners of the show, no, I was not a picket fan when he came out. I've not been a picket fan while he's a bit of pro.

It's just not the sort of play that I view as having a high caliber of success in the league. I think he might be a backup. Maybe he has a career backup. I could certainly see that for his career. So Eagles swapped to pick and got a backup who they think maybe they can develop into something more. That's how he does business.

That's how he'll always do business. The picket thing and the fact that Pickett has been so atrociously terrible in the NFL. It makes me a little bit worried about like, because over the last few years, we've had more and more guys that are like 50 or seniors, 60 year seniors sometimes, graduate students,

guys that have been in college football for a long time and they come into the NFL after having like a really good year. So like Bo Nix is a good example of this or Michael Pennix. Michael Pennix is at two good seasons. So it's not really the same. But Kenny Pickett's last season at Pitt was like really good. He had like, it was like 40 touchdowns and three interceptions or something ridiculous.

He was awesome. He came into the NFL and you can't completely. a pass. Craig, I don't have to tell you. Like, his statistics are all time terrible. Like,

you can't find, it's very hard to find silver linings in what he's done in the NFL so far. And this is on a team, a pretty stable organization with like a good defense, some good skill players. You know what I mean?

Like, there's not a lot of reason to be optimistic about what Kenny Pickett can do going forward. Yeah. So it makes me a little bit nervous about some of these guys that are coming in after like having like a really good fifth season. And a key name for that is,

Jane and Daniels. Yeah, Jane Davis is the other one. Jay and Danos, three years of Arizona State, then two years at LSU. Here's Jayneal's yards per attempt by season. I mean, he was a freshman starter, Arizona State, all right? 8.7 yards per attempt, then 8.3, then 7.9, then 7.5. You guys noticing something? Number's going down.

Usually you want it to go the other way. Yep. Fifth year, 11.7. Yeah. Just hugely about nowhere. Yeah, I was reflecting on the fact that we started our relationship. out of the NFL draft by, the four of us, with the 22 quarterback class.

We went through it, man. It was the first year of the pod trying to get people to listen. And we had to do like, Kenny Pickett or Malique Lewis. Desmond Ritter, Sam Howell. All these guys are on new teams, QB, Bucan.

Matt Corral is out of the league, man. Like, that was a tough, tough quarterback class. Yeah. But I really do think, like, Pickett and Daniels are obviously extremely different quarterbacks. But there's stuff to learn from these late seniors who produce, like Dick D.

Like D.K. said, and it worries me about Daniels, it really does. You know what I respect that the Steelers did is I like that they were like, all right, you know what? We experimented for two years. We're just done. That's very unstealersy, I feel like. It is.

Yeah. I mean, in general, what Omar Khan is doing, he's been splashier than the Steelers have been in a long time. But I think that's what you got to do in the NFL these days. It's like, look, the quarterback didn't work. Dump them, try again. You just have to keep trying over and over, keep drafting. Keep trading. So I'm happy with, I mean, obviously, shit, we got a third round pick.

Well, from the Steelers point of view, Craig, like what you're saying is they've, they've executed this off season. And obviously, you can talk about Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Like, they might not have very much success next year. And that's definite possibility, maybe the probability. But they've re-engineered their quarterback room overnight and basically spent nothing to do it. You know what I mean? They get Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, who has some potential down the line if Russell Wilson struggles. And they didn't have to do pay hardly anything for it.

They're paying Russell Wilson like a million dollars. Yeah. I mean, the Steelers essentially got Justin Fields and Joey Porter Jr. For Chase Claypool into sixth. Yeah, that's how you want to do it. Even though, like, obviously, Russell Wilson may not work out there. Justin Fields may never be a starter in the NFL again. This is what, this is the type of moves you want to make if you're trying to, like,

quickly remake your quarterback room. All right. The last thing I wanted to bring up here, this is not big news at all, but I just want to talk about the Patriots. So the Patriots traded for KJ Osborne from Minnesota. The Patriots ride receiver room currently looks like, Like last year's week five waiver wire. I'm telling you, the wide receiver rooms in the NFL, they can't all be fixed. I don't understand it.

There's so many receivers. The Patriots current wide receiver room is Juju Smith-Schuster, DiMario Douglas, KJ Osborne, Kendrick-Born, and Jalen Rager. And Tycho and Thornton. Sure. Tyco on Thornton. They tried to get Calvin Ridley. They failed.

D.K., are you still on board with the patch should take a quarterback at three? Yes, because I don't. it's just hard to get up to that position in the draft, that high in the draft and be in a spot where you can take a quarterback without like mortgaging your future. I do think like, so first of all, there's a lot of gas and a lot of juice that Jane Daniels will be the number two pick to Washington.

If that's the case, you're fucking running to the podium, excuse my language, and drafting Drake May. I'll 100% am in love with that pick. I think that's a great, like a great, choice for them. It gives them like a foundation to build around.

Obviously, it would suck for Drake May because you'd love to see him landing in a situation like Caleb Williams is landing in Chicago where they actually have some offensive firepower. But I think if that happens, I feel very strongly they should take Drake May. I think the Jane Daniels thing is a little diceier. And I don't feel quite as, you know, like passionately strong about like them doing that. But at the end of the day, I think they should take a quarterback because it's just hard to get that high in the draft and take a quarterback.

Otherwise, you have to trade future first so it could really set you back a long time. If they missed this one pick, it's not the end of the world. It's definitely not good, but it's not the end of the world. They can move on.

Do you think it's possible? I feel like if Belichick was here, they would trade out of three. Let's say Minnesota gives them 1123 and a first next year. Yeah. They draft Bo Nix and get a wide receiver and see how that goes.

I could see that happening, for sure. I can still see that. I believe Drake May goes at number two, and they're sitting there staring at Jane Daniels and Jay Jim McCarthy, they're not particularly in love with either of them. What do we think Elliot Wolf is going to do here? So it's tricky, because with Elliot Wolf,

you're kind of trying to map, like, okay, what did the Packers, what are like General Packers beliefs, right? What are the Ted Thompson run wolf beliefs of running a team? So you go like, all right, like elite measurables. Like obviously they were willing over, over many years that I'd take a quarterback earlier than they needed to. And so you can, you know, like there's a priority on like edge rushers, you know, offensive linemen who have versatility.

Like, you can kind of like map it all out. How much does it map? Like, we'll find out. Like, we'll look at his first class, kind of compare that to the, the old Packers classes and see what that looks like. It kind of leads me a little bit to believe May is a guy they would prefer just because the prototypical size, the movement skills, right? Like, he was, Wolf was in Green Bay from 2004, this, Elliot Wolf, this Wolf, from 2004 to 2017. So he watched the entirety of Aaron Rogers' career. Was Farvin there, too?

I can't remember when Farv at a time. Yeah, and a far, but like he was there for like the whole like Rogers developmental cycle into becoming a great starter, into the McCarthy and like, you know, whatever. Which leads me to believe, you know, a prototypical size quarterback who also has like plus movement skills and, and a good release, which Drake May has, like that kind of that maps to me. But that's, that's all inference. It's all reading between the lines. Patriots are very hard to riddle out right now. Also, he's not even technically their GM. I don't even.

His title is something weird. It's like president of football operations. assistant to the general manager. I was at the podium when he spoke, and it was just great because you're bouncing to all these podiums, like Eric Acosta, the Ravens gym goes up. And like, hi, Roseman. It's like, hey, this six-round pick, like, hey, this, whatever.

The L.A. Wolf goes up. And the first question he got was like, hey, what's your title? What's your title? Like, the Patriots beat is a good beat, all right? Like, this is not like, well, they're just like, hey, no one will tell us who you are. Are you in charge? What's your job? What do you say you do here?

Yep. And he said, director of scouting. And they were like, aye, that's good enough. If Drake Me is there at three in the past, don't take him. That would be wild. Yeah. Bill Simmons is going to walk into traffic. We're increasingly approaching an episode in which, like, we have to acknowledge that

Drake Me might be the fourth quarterback off the board, and I will go bananas on that episode. I will lose my mind, dude. I mean, the NFL, the NFL does this, though, like, it feels like every year. The NFL just doesn't have the same opinion as like, us draft people. If it goes Caleb, Jaden, J.J. Drake, Belique, neighbors over Marvin Harrison for the first five picks. I will be running around like a goose, dude. I will be out of my mind. That would be the greatest day of Hyvitz's life

because then they would get Marvin Harrison Jr. at 6. Oh, my God. Yeah, big for him. Big for him. Now I kind of want that. Just Hyvitz needs it, man. He's a giant's not out of tough off season so far. We haven't beat up, me specifically been beat up on the guy a little bit. I want him to get Marvin.

All right. You want to get into some emails? Emails. So we got a lot of emails about swingers. and old people doing crazy, drunk sex stuff. Yeah. Thank God. That's what I wanted to hear about.

We got an email from Redacted. They didn't want to be named. Redacted. So Redacted says here, again, this is on the topic of swinging. They say, I've recently come face to face with data that supports your assessment that swinging was more common in the 70s. I am in my 40s and a professor at a top-tier research university, Flex. After becoming chair of the department, I have to help organize retirement.

parties for old professors. There's a chair of a department that listens to this show? Yeah, baby. We got lawyers. We have way more influence than we should. We got surgeons listening to our show. He's in a beautiful corner office in a leather chair. People walk in think he's doing work and it's just ringer NFL draft shows on the computer.

I love it. He's just crushing the tape purge. So again, so he helps, now he has to organize retirement parties for old professors and speakers and senior unions. He says at least five times over the past year, I've had to change invitation procedures or call invite lists because one of our old faculties had had relations with a student or speaker. Also, two of our faculty who were once married are now both married to former students of theirs. And he goes, then there's the rumors about people at conferences. Those are too weird to get into.

These guys keep popping up, though. He goes, my wife is not an academia and I've never done this whole shit where you eat things. So I think these people who are some of the world's foremost scientists are completely insane. These academia folks weren't just swinging with each other, but with their own students. He said, I didn't connect the dots until I listened to your podcast. I can't unthink some thoughts now, thank you. Oh, yeah. I feel ethically spurious.

I didn't know there was a conference thing. The rumors of people at conferences just going wild. Well, I think, I don't know for sure. But this is, I think it's like you get a bunch of people in the same place. They're drinking and they're all staying at that hotel. stuff's going to happen. You know what I mean? It's like the Olympic Village.

Yeah, that's actually a great. Is that the Olympic Village? The Olympic Village is like a bunch of young, like world-class athletes. Like incredibly good-looking people. The Olympic Village is like famously horny. They provide condoms of the entire group of athletes. That's amazing. Well, dude, like it's like not speaking from experience, but like back in the day, if you used to go traveling, I think it's different now with social media.

Like, you're never going to see this person again in your life. You don't have to worry about, you know, like getting people getting feelings or like whatever, feeling like you're catching feelings. Catching feelings. Or there's basically like there's no strings attached essentially is what I'm trying to get at. Anyways, back in the day, the old before the internet traveling, this is just like an orgy of people just, you know, hook it up and whatever. I'll be honest. When I'm hanging out with you guys at the NFL Combine, I'm never like, this could be an orgy if I want to. Looking for upside down pine.

That's because everyone at the combine is way too online. You're not getting away of shit. But back in the day, you could. But yeah, the conference thing, that's not surprising. I got a couple of texts after we did our show the other day that from people by age, for the record, I'm 41. And basically, my buddy was just telling me, like, there's several people he knows that if, like, they used to do, like, a little wife swapping action. And then there ended up being, like, literal, like, they each couple got divorced and, like, one of them ended up together or whatever.

Like if you're at that point where you're doing like wife swapping, it's, it's dangerous territory. There's, there's going to be a breakfast. This professor says a married couple where they were both swinging with students and then both married those students. That's bananas to me. That that's just like, yep. Isn't that illegal? I feel like that's right. I don't think it's technically illegal.

I think it's frowned. Can you get fired? You can get fired for that, though. I don't know how any of that was. Depends on the school, I guess, maybe. I don't know. I married a coworker, so who knows. Craig does shit worries so

So yeah the Olympic village thing is crazy though Because I mean it's like literally just like the most beautifully Built human beings in the world just like all trapped in a hotel for three weeks Well that's sorry that's why I brought up the traveling thing is because it's like people from other cultures other countries all gather together They're all good looking after after your event I totally get it I'm just like if I trained for four years to be really good at at swimming. Just pulling all night.

And then like, yeah. Right, exactly like two days before I have to go be the best swimmer ever. You want me to do, you want me to exert

in an unrelated physical activity that requires at times contortions and exertions? No chance, brother. I'll go to some task. Dial-in me after my metal saluted.

Is there a thing where like, I don't know if it's boxers or UFC fighters or something where they like won't, they won't like ejaculate for months leading up to an event to like increase their testosterone? I think that's like an old wife's,

it's an old wife's deal. I don't know. I don't feel that's better. So definitely science, for sure. 100%. Feels like for sure science. You could go the other way and be like, you actually, you know, you should. Release the endorphins.

Does he get stale? Do you want? I don't know. The fresh stuff. Look good, feel good, play good, man. You know? That's right. Mental clarity.

Yeah. You got the, the post-net clarity is going to help you win this race, you know? Right. Who knows? Okay, we got, we got a couple more here about just old people. being kind of crazy sex addict. Crazy sex addicts. This is from Terry.

Terry. Terry says, I am the sales director at a retirement home. All of the residents are issued an emergency button that they are to keep on them at all times. One of our nurses was alerted to help one of our male and married residents in a different residence apartment whose button had been pressed repeatedly.

The nurse entered the apartment to see two residents enjoying each child. other and pressing the button in rhythm. The male resident was 101 years old. Oh my God. Damn. Dude, these people. We got to interview this guy.

What's their secret, pal? 101 years old? What was the, what was the rhythm? What pace were we working on there? 101 years old. Do you think was pressing it in rhythm part of their kink? Or was it a happy accident? I don't know.

Oh, my God. Yeah. 101 years old. It's like I wonder who the oldest person I feel like at that point you're kind of like you don't care where the button is. If we're pressing the button, not pressing the button, someone comes in the door,

I don't come in the door. We're 100 to 1, all right? Overall, this is a net huge problem. We got to get Guinness book of world records on this to see what the old, like Craig, what you said, what's the oldest person to have sex ever.

But like it would be the oldest person to report that they had sex because how would they possibly know that? Well, that's like, I mean, that's like that's all, that's every Guinness I guess that. Who's the most person Do this slash proving that they've done this?

Right. Okay, wait. If you Google, oldest person to have sex, Google says somebody's name I can't pronounce of India is recognized as the world's oldest father at 94. Jeez. So that would presume an age of at least 93 for sex. Well, Terry here, we got 101-year-old.

We're about to just change the, whatever one's thinking about the oldest person out of sex. to blow this whole thing up. We got a potential world champ on our hands. That's impressive, honestly. And then one last thing. So speaking of old people having sex, we got an email from Tyler.

Tyler? Tyler just emailed. He said, are any of you familiar with the story of the death of Matthew McConaughey's father? Check it out. Yeah. You know about that? Not at all.

I don't remember the details. So, McConaughey spoke about this. I think it was memoir. I also on a podcast. I think it was on the Markman pod. So his father died during sex with his mother. He had a heart attack.

But during, so he was, as he was talking with Mark Marion, he said that, he said that McConaughey's mother refused to cover up her husband's penis after he died while they were allegedly having sex. Because she told the paramedics, she ripped, she ripped, sorry, she kept ripping the sheet off and saying, uh-uh, I want the world to see why his nickname was Big Jim. Don't you cover him. Honor him. Yeah. Yeah. That's that that's that's that's partnership through life and death man that that that's that's real togetherness right that's kind of the greatest way you can go. I think yeah your biggest fan number one so wow anyway good good for good for Matt aren't there rumors by the way that Matt Matthew McConaughey and and what's his face are brothers the guy the other guy who's name I'm blanking on Woody Harrelson aren't there I feel like there's rumors about that but I could be completely making that up hold on I'm gonna know Woody Harrelson brothers also Woody Harrelson's dad dad was a hitman.

And apparently, his dad was like the genesis for the character in No Country for Old Men, the Woody Harrelson character in No Country for Old Men. Oh, interesting. That's cool. I love Woody. There's that giff of Woody going around right now. I don't know what show is from, but it's just him in a car going, I just want you to stop saying odd.

Yeah, that's from true detective. Is that true detective? Yeah, yeah. People keep using that in the Justin Fields, Russell Wilson's studio room. Just feel so I just want you to stop saying odd shit. McConaughey is like, this place is like the memory, someone's memory of a town. He's like, I just, we're just saying weird shit. It's a good gift.

That's a handy gift. Okay. So McConaughey said in an interview that they were all sitting around in Greece. And his mom, McConaughey's mom out of nowhere said to Woody, oh, I knew your dad, Woody, just saying we might have frequented the same similar place out in West Texas one time when he was on furlough. In furring, they copulated, which also means they maybe. I don't know, I don't understand how that would work, but. What are you talking about?

How what would work? Now, so Woody Harrelson's dad may be McConaughey's dad. Might be half brothers. No, no. Their mom would be the same. If McConaughey's mom had sex with Woody's dad, that would make them, they would have the same mom. They would be half siblings. But she would know that for sure.

Woody Harrelson's mom is a different mom. The dad is the key piece here. So does Woody Harrelson not know his dad? I thought you said McConaughey's mother slept with Woody Harrelson's father. They would share the same mom then. What? No.

Matthew McConaughey's mother would have had to have given birth to Woody Harrelson. Oh, the dad, Woody Harrelson's dad. Ben, am I going nuts? No, I'm with you, Craig. Okay. Wait, why can't they have Matt?

I'm confused. Okay. I'm confused. They have different mothers and the same father. I'm confused. So Matt McConaughey's dad, which is Big Jim,

he passed away with a heart attack, right? Big Jim. Matt McConaughey's mom said, let Big Jim be uncovered. Let the world see, right? Yeah. So that's,

we have the boy watch. We have those two characters. Now, you just told us that Matt McConaughey's mom once said to Woody Harrell said, oh, I knew your pops. I saw your pop. your pop son and I frequented the same place when he was on furlough, right?

So what that implies to Craig and I is that Matt McConaughey's mom is telling to Woody Harrelson, oh, I also knew your dad, which would mean that the shared parent would be the mom. Does Woody Harrelson not know his own father? I'm actually like legitimately confused. How would they not know who their mother was? That's what we're asking. Exactly. Yes. That's why we're saying it. They don't have to say mother.

They would know that their brothers if they had the same. mother. But what was Matthew McConaughey's mother's point of saying I knew Woody's dad back in the day? Wasn't she saying that maybe we slept together? Yeah. And the dad... And if they slept together. So how would they be related to that? Woody Harrelson's dad is also

McConaughey's dad. So does Woody Harrelson right now, like the current real Woody Harrelson is he so fucking confused right now. Does current... I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Does Woody Hayes? Maybe McConaughey's dad is not actually his dad is what I'm saying. It's Woody Harrelson's dad. Oh, okay.

Oh. What are you guys talking about? Well, it was... No, D.K., you're going to listen back to this, and you're going to get why we feel the way we feel. You're implying that McConaughey's mother was kind of being coy and saying like, oh, I might have known Woody's... Woody, your father back in the day in Texas,

implying that it's the same father as Matthew McConaughey's. Implying, yeah, Matthew might be the progeny of that relationship. All right, now I'm there. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to listen back. could not be confused about this. I don't know what the fuck you guys are talking about. The beginning of this story, the whole beginning of this was, did you guys hear

how Matthew McConae's dad? Then we told the story about Big Jim. So I thought we had a fixed point, which was Matt McConae's dad. I see where that's confusing. It turns out that's not a fit. Maybe Big Jim is not the actual dad is my point. Yes. We should definitely not leave this in the podcast.

No, we're leaving it. Oh, we're leaving it. Jesus Christ. Secondly, what are you guys? Did you guys get to where I am yet? Like where the dad, like Woody Harrelson's dad might have actually been McConaughey's dad. Yes. Am I crazy? I understand why you guys are confused.

But I'm making sure I'm not an idiot. Yes, that she slept with Woody Harrelson's father. And then she gave birth to Matthew McConaughey. What an homage to Hyfitts at the end of the episode without him being here. Just some of the most confusing explanation. No one understands what's being said. It's all for Danny. But on face value, like it really did seem like the simplest, like the Occam's razor answer there was like,

Matthew McCona, his mom, gave birth to Woody Harrelson. Yes. That was how it was initially presented. Okay. And it was confused. I suppose that there are like scenarios where she gave up Woody for adoption or something.

Email us at Briggerfantasy, football at gmail.com. If you were confused by D.K.'s explanation. By the way, they're talking about maybe getting DNA tested to find out. This was like a long time ago, though, I think so. I'm guessing they didn't do it. Or it's just for fun. Well, um,

if you, you know Woody or Matthew, please email us at ring of fantasy football at gmail.com. I think that's all we got today. Thank you to D.K. Thank you to Ben. Thank you to Hyfitz wherever he is. Thank you to Tucker, to Kai,

who produced Jack Sanders for help. Dan Comer for help as always. Thank you to Lauren. Lauren? Thank you, Marvin Kay. Let's get it on. Maybe making music right there. I heard it through the grapevine all-time, all-time song.

Yeah, that's a good one. The start of the movie The Big Chill, which is a movie I watched last year for the rewatchables, just came out in, I believe, 1980. It begins with this amazing montage with, I heard it to The Grapevine. One of the best starts to any movie ever. Check that out.

I love that Craig is like discovering old movies through his producing of the rewatchables. That's awesome. What are your favorite, like, 80s, 90s movies that you've discovered through rewatchable? Definitely big chill. I loved, I had not seen Roadhouse. I had not seen risky business, which I think is amazing. You haven't seen Roadhouse. Roadhouse is the most ridiculous movie of all time.

It's so good. It's great. It's the most male movie ever made. Pain don't hurt. Be nice until it's time to not be nice. Dude, I want to go watch that. Anyway, check all those out. That'll do it.

We'll be back, I believe, with High Fitz on Wednesday. Goodbye, everybody. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandle's offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit fandul.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Call 1-800 next step, protects next step to 533342 in Arizona, 1-888-8-8-8-9-7-9-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-0.

Or visit, Connecticut, 1-800-800-Galinkly-RGET in Indiana, or 800-8-Gamlinghelp. dot org in Maryland. Visit 1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia or call 1-800-5-2-2-4-700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, ma.org or call 800-327-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 18778 Hope N.Y or text Hope N.Y in New York.