The Ringer NFL Show - Best Player-Team Fits Heading Into NFL Free Agency | Extra Point Taken

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

Sheil and Ben start the pod by sharing some breaking news happening around the league. They then shine a light on some of their favorite players currently on the NFL free agency market and debate the best landing spots for each one. Be sure to check out Sheil’s NFL free agent coverage here. 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: Sheil Kapadia and Ben Solak Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Musical Elements: Devon Renaldo Social: Kiera Givens and Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Brian Curtis from The Ringer, and I want to tell you about the Press Box podcast. The Press Box is a podcast for anybody who likes news, whether it's about sports or politics or pop culture, and wants to understand how that news really gets made. We have news shows every Monday and Thursday. We have long interviews with everyone from John Crackauer to Joe Buck. Your social media feeds are bursting with information every day. Let us help you sort it out. Join us.

on the press box. Come to extra point taking. Shield Kapati here, joined by Ben Solac. As we record this, three days away from the start of the negotiating period for free agents,

we could see trades this weekend. Things are about to heat up in the next few days and certainly in the next week. So what we're doing is simple here. We have identified five player team fits each of us, five from each of us. Could be free agents.

Could be trades. We could do whatever. We'll have some fun with this. We haven't told each other. what our fits, what our trades are going to be. We'll go back and forth and share some of those to get ready for the weekend to get ready for free agency. So lack, how we feel? Feeling good.

You know, fully recovered from the combine. Three days until free agency starts happens faster every single year. NFL calendar, man. I will not do pro-NFL, you know, hype or whatever. The way that they've managed to just fill the calendar with events is quite something, though. There's always something coming up NFL just a couple days down the road. Now, we do have some news, not breaking news, but since we last spoke, just curious if you have any quick takes. Jalen Johnson stays in Chicago on a new deal, $19 million per year, I believe, was the number.

Kevin Dotson stays in Los Angeles with the Rams, $16 million per year getting paid like a top five right guard in the NFL. And then Russell Wilson is visiting. So lack, I don't know if you saw this, because I know sometimes you'll roll out of bed and just hop on the mic. Russell Wilson is traveling to Pittsburgh to meet with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Before we get to our player team fits, any quick takes on any of those news items. I love the Johnson deal was good for the Bears. I agree. Yeah.

I think that you can argue like, oh, you know, Johnson, like one peak year, like he could have taken the discount. Yeah, but coming off the season he had, like, he could have, I think, hit the market and gotten significantly more than that. And so obviously, could hit the market because of the franchise tag. But in general, thought that was a good deal for the Bears. Dotson, healthy for the Rams. That's a lot of dip on their chip,

but that tends to be the way they run it over there. And so I'm unsurprised that they kind of, you know, pushed all in on Dotson. Russell Wilson at the Newark Airport, hanging out with fans waiting to go to Pittsburgh. Firstly, where are you flying from that you go from Newark to Pittsburgh? How are you connecting in Newark? He might just be, he might have been in New York and just in New York and then drove down to Newark.

Yeah, it's not far. It's right across. Yeah. boarding zone four, we're thinking, main cabin one for Russ, get some time to hang out with a proletariat. Southwest, maybe he's going like, you got to get in the A1, you know?

B-15, right? Yeah, upgrade to getting to the A's. I just, I understand geographically where the Newark airport is. I've never heard of an athlete flying out of Newark. I know they've recently redone Newark, and I haven't been in Newark Airport since they've redone it. A little sports writer airport talk here. Newark is dreadful in my memory.

I would not be voluntarily flying out of Newark. We're JFK an option. But I do know that they've redone Newark and I need update my opinion. Newark Airport, very popular with the Capadia family because you can go Newark to Mumbai, straight shot. So you go Philadelphia to Newark, you know, your nice sun drops you off at the airport, drives the hour and a half and then you fly straight to Mumbai. You don't have to stop anywhere.

So there you go. That's huge. That's huge. I just can't stand discrete security pods. Like Gates B-45 through B-56, go to these security pods. B-57 to B-78. this is the worst way to build security in the history of the world. It's terrible. Oh my gosh. All right. Solax Airport takes coming to you on all the ringer social media channels.

Never a good thing when an airport has a tram. You know what? That's actually a good take. I don't like getting on that tram. All right. My quick takes on those and you can find I'm doing analysis on every free agency move that gets made with the top 50 guys on the ringer.com on our free agency tracker. So check that out. That's going to be constantly updated in the days ahead. I'm with. you on Jalen Johnson. You know, I thought jail and John, if he wanted to maximize his earning potential and he felt like, I want to bet on myself, he could have played on the tag next season. If he enters, if he

has the same type of season in 2024, he's probably making $22 million per year next offseason. But I understand. You want the financial security, quarterback can be a volatile position, injuries, all those things. So I, the Bears, my big takeaway, the Bears did not have to

overpay, in my opinion, to keep Jalen Johnson based on his film from last year. It's actually a nice. I don't want to say team friendly because it's, you know, it's still top six, top eight corner money, but they didn't have to kind of break the bank to keep him. And he's the type of player you want to keep, 25 years old, premium position, awesome player. So I like that for both sides. Kevin Dotson was the one that really surprised me. I mean, you're paying him like a top five right guard. This is a guy who at this time last year, there's no chance anyway. Like you would have been laughed out of the building for even

talking about this kind of money for Kevin Dons. He played left guard for the Steelers, was not good there. They do a day three pick swap with the Rams. Great job by the Rams to identify a player like that. They plug him in right guard and he plays really well on the right side. But it just makes me nervous when you're going off kind of one year like that and paying such a premium, especially for a team like the Rams where when they go like star hunting, they're going at, you know, premium positions, other guys. So that one, I think carries a little bit of risk for the Rams. Nice job by Dotson. And Russ going to Pittsburgh. I mean, you know, is he. an upgrade over Kenny Pickett. Yeah, I guess. But gosh, I just feel like Solek, I've been

pro-stealers way more than you on this pod since we started. I feel like this is a team I might just be crushing once we get to August when I see how the rest of these off-season moves played out. So we'll keep our eye on that. But, man, I do not love that as kind of my option 1A if on Pittsburgh. I got a lot of house stuff done the other day. And so I was speed running just some other NFL pods or actually catching up on free agency looks from other people. Man, a lot of people are like, you know, Russ on a vet minimum, like maybe it can be good, like average starter, Calvite. We are the only pod speaking the truth to people. We're speaking the truth to power. I do not want Russell Wilson thrown football for my team in 2024. That is the official

extra point taken stance on Russell Wilson. Here's the key point. It is a low risk move by any team who signs him. You're signing him for the veteran minimum for people who don't know how this works. The Broncos owe him $39 million. Whatever the new team pays him, there's offset language. So the Broncos basically have to pay less. So there's no reward for Russell Wilson to tell the new team, I want to make more money. He's pocketing the same amount of money. It's just whether it's from the Broncos or from the new team.

So it is low risk. If you sign Russell Wilson, it's not going to torpedo your franchise. It's fine to take. And I think it's fine. If you say, hey, maybe he can be the 20th best quarterback. That's fine. Here's my thing. Like, he's, what, 36 years old.

And the type of player he is that's not going to age well. We've seen it for two years. This isn't like the, you know, the 36-year-old who's just going to in the pocket and make the right decision over and over again. His sack numbers are going to go higher and higher. He's not going to be, in my opinion, good being a backup. He still has an inflated view of himself, I'm sure. And so I defended Russell Wilson for a lot of years.

I think how good he was in Seattle is probably going to be forgotten with the way his career is kind of winding down here. I just think at this stage in his career to expect that decline to not continue. I just don't think that's going to happen. And I think he's going to be worse than he was the past two seasons. So yeah, that's my official stance on it. There you go. All right, let's get to it.

You lead us off. Benny Souls, what is your first, whether it's a free agent signing or trade, whatever you got, what's your first fit in this exercise? Yeah. So one of the most interesting players to me for this free agency, I think now as we're seeing who's actually going to make it, kind of who's going to get tagged, is Christian Wilkins. Who's the defensive tackle out of Miami. It is rare to get a player in his.

his prime, right? I'm Chris Wilkins is 28 years old. He is squarely within it. We've seen it now for the last couple of years to hit free agency. There's also like pretty unique skill, not unique is a little bit too strong, but word, pretty rare skill set in terms of what Wilkins brings to the defensive tackle. He is a great run defending defensive tackle who is not primarily a two gapper. Usually when we say run defender, we're talking about two gaps. This is a penetration player, a one gap player, but he's extremely effective against the run, is able to play multiple gaps, create tackles out near the line of scrimmage, create a mess in traffic for other players to think it tackles out of the line of scrimmage. And because he's a one-gap player,

his pass rush has been a presence over the last couple years, improved over the last couple years, and he ends the season last year, nine and nine sacks and 23 quarterback hits, both career highs. Accordingly, I really like Christian Wilkins to go to the Cleveland Browns. I think this is a really, really good fit for Cleveland where that was a top defense last year. You think yourself, you wanted yourself, okay, like, how does this team improve? Well, at defensive tackle, they kind of had a rotation, right? They had to kind of scrape it together over the course of the season. They gave at least 300 snaps to all of Dalvin Tomlinson,

who they went and acquired last year, Jordan Elliott, who was kind of like a homegrown middle-round pick, Shelby Harris, who's kind of like a veteran stopgap. And then Mo Hurst, who was kind of like a bounce-around talented guy, but not anyone that's kind of like ever dropped the route somewhere.

Right now, of those four, Shelby Harris, Mo Hurst, and Jordan Elliott are all free agents upcoming, right? All of those guys are not on the roster for 2024. Now, I imagine they'll want to bring at least one of them back, right? And ideally, probably bring two and get Moe on a small deal and maybe Shelby takes a small deal. But in general, there is not a defensive tackle ready to run next to Dalvin Tomlinson. It's Saka Ika and Chris Williams on the roster. That's it.

And so they do need help at defensive tackle. And then critically, the games where the Browns struggled on defense, and especially I'd be looking at those Ravens games and being like, I have to figure out how I beat these guys. I've been to see them twice a year. This is my path of the division. I've got to be able to stop that offense more reliably. The games that they lost were the games where they got beat up in the running game, right? They were this four down front, Jim Schwartz, predictable front.

They just got moved off the ball, especially on the interior. They play all these light linebackers. And if you're losing the interior to size, like those linebackers are going to continue to lose over and over and over again. You need to protect them. Christian Wilkins is a sore player who can do that while also providing you pass-fors value, being good on third down, generating pressure. Jim Schwartz has historically been excellent for penetration defense to tackle. What he did with Fletcher Cox over his time in Philadelphia, his time with Jeffrey Simmons, over his time in Tennessee.

He can take a guy who has the physical tools and similar build for Christian Wilkins. The physical tools would be a dominant pass rusher and yank him up a couple levels. And then also be getting good run defense value at Wilkins. It's just a perfect match in my opinion. And so the Browns don't have a ton of money. They got quarterback problems to figure out, maybe wide receiver two. But I think right now as it stands, one of the biggest gaps on this roster is DT. And Christian Wilkins is the best one on the market.

I think they should make him a big offer. All right. I wasn't going to go Wilkins with my first one, but I had him on my list. So we don't have to, you know, go back. I'll just go with my Wilkins pick right now. So you have it. Cleveland, I see it from a fit perspective, from a resource allocation perspective. And this is the big question with everything Cleveland does is, is that where they want to spend their money? Because I think Christian Wilkins, you're probably talking $23, $24 million per year. I mean, like you say, he's one of the best players on the free agency market. Those guys. guys will get paid. So the Browns, they're in O, like, they have some money to spend. I'm not saying they can't do it. They absolutely have money to spend. If this is what they want to do, they're able to do it. They have two picks in the top 100 of the draft. So it's like, where do they want to kind of spend the limited resources that they have? That's my big question with Cleveland. So I could see that when I was watching Wilkins for the free agency rankings, his lateral quickness

is what really stood out to me. Like there were just guards and interior alignment who could not keep up with him where he would just go in right past them. And the bend, man. What's what it's quick and then it's the ability to get around the corner. A lot of guys are quick. Not a lot of guys finish. That's Wilkins, man. Yeah, last year.

And with defensive tackles, when they start, when the pass first starts coming a little later in their late 20s, it's usually, it can be a sign of things to come. It's not a fluke. Like, it just takes time for those guys. Think of Dexter Lawrence, a very different type of player. But that's what happens with defensive tackle. So he had nine sacks, 23 QB hits last year. Like you mentioned, very well-rounded player in 2022.

You described it well. He's like, you know, sometimes we talk about defensive tackles against the run. And it's like, all right, it doesn't show up in the stat sheet. But man, with him, no, it does show up in this. Like, he had 77 tackles against the run in 2022. That was the most of any defensive linemen. So I like him quite a bit. I've got Christian Wilkins Solat going to the Chicago Bears in, in Freezing.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The other team I thought about was the Houston Texans. reason I picked the bears in the end, the bears just still have a lot of cap space. We saw them be aggressive last off season, Tremaine Edmins, T.J. Edwards, the guard, Nate Davis, they went out. They signed a bunch of guys up front. They traded for Montez-Swatt. So I'm wondering, do they want to just keep adding talented young pieces to Matt Eber Fluss's defense, a defense that showed some signs of big time improvement, specifically in the second half of last season? And so I've got Christian Wilkins going to Chicago as one of my matches.

think? I like it. They drafted two defensive tackles last year in the middle rounds. There's Dravon Dexter out of Florida and Zach Pickens out of South, South Carolina. And Dexter started to come along a little bit last year. And so I think they've got at least one young piece that they like. And so I like a world where you have, they got the billing still for a year, I think. And so I think that right, you would add Wilkins to that. You start Wilkins next to Dexter. That pairing works. You rotate billions. You can see how Pickens comes along young. Yeah. That is, that is a good room. That is a well-constructed room. It's probably the last room. Any kind of mess around

with safety a little bit. That's probably one of the last rooms that they kind of need to actually square away until they feel like the defense can be like, right, top 10, top 8 unit perennially. And you know, opinions about Matt Eberfuss and all of what his defense needs to be successful aside, like the Colts went out and got Defoe, right?

They went out and got Buckner for that defense when he was there in Indianapolis. Like, if you're going to be as four down as often as they are, like, yeah, you're going to need a player like a good defensive tackle like Wilkins to make it work. So it fits. It makes sense. You know, when you said, when you said top eight, top 10, that could be a really good defense next year.

I'm with you. I don't think that's an example. I mean, their ceiling is very high with the moves that they've made. Paid like it. Yeah, I mean, that's right. You know, they spend a lot of resources there so they should be, but they are positioned to be very good on that side of the ball, obviously with a rookie quarterback on offense.

All right. So that's one, one for both of us. What do you got? What's your next one? I think the surprising free agent on the market is Bronco Safety Justin Simmons, It was cut like kind of surprisingly. After the Russ News came out, is an 18 million per year cap hit.

The Broncos are kind of trying to reset and restructure themselves. I saw, I think it was Robert Mays, the Athletic who shared that the Broncos right now have like 36 total players on our contract for 2025, right? And like all the guys who have actual money is just like the free agents they signed last year, i.e. the Sean Payton guys. Like this roster is getting ripped down to the studs and remodeled in the image of the new owner. And that's not the Walmart folks.

That's Sean Payton, right? He's building the way he'd like for it to be built. Accordingly, Simmons now hates the market. He's 30 years old. Did you place Simmons in the free agency ranking shield? Do you have a spot for it? I did. I added him.

I put him at number 25. Yeah, so you got him at 25. I checked like Rosenthal's. Rosell's got him like the top. Like, I want to say, he's like the third best, fourth best safety on the group. I think we're forgetting Justin Simmons a little bit. Now, I understand he's 30.

Justin Simmons was second team all pro last year. And the year before that, he was second team. All-Pro. And the year before that, he was second-team all-pro. And then the year before there was a Pro Bowl. And then the year before that, he was second-team all-pro. This guy's been on the All-Pro list for the last five years. Simmons, certainly, like, he's 30. Like, he's starting to get up there. He probably only has a couple years left of, like, high-caliber play. But do not get it twisted. This is high-caliber play. Like, I like Justin Simmons to the Eagles. I think that makes a lot of sense for Philadelphia.

For Vic Fangio, where Justinus has played underneath him before. Christian Parker, who was the defensive backs coach in Denver for the last three seasons, is now the defensive backs coach in Philadelphia with Fig Fangio. So Simmons would go explicitly with the positional coach that he's been with previously, with the defensive coach who helped him reach all pro status, who helped him first get to this level. Like the pairing is perfect, the need is perfect. The Eagles just moved on from Kevin Byard.

And I think that there's like an instinct to be like, oh, well, the Eagles traded for Kevin Byron. Like, everybody thought that was going to be great. And he was a 30-year-old safety. And like it didn't work out. Like, he wasn't good for them. He'd made one all-pro team in the last like four or five years. And it was just like a high interception season.

Like he peaked. Simmons has reliably been one of the best six safeties, I would say, over the last like four seasons. You can argue that you're anticipating a drop-off. You can argue that Denver's cutting of him indicates that they think that's coming. I think it's a little bit more cap-related than that.

But I watched the Simmons film, man. I watched it like two years ago with Ebro. I watched it this past year with the man whose name I'm certainly recalling. Vince Joseph. Thank you, Van Zerisv. Yeah. This is still a very good safety in the league.

This is still one of the top safeties in the league. And the all pro recognitions are not empty named. Like, he was on my all pro ballot. This is, it is deservedly so. And so I like Justice Simmons to the Eagles. I think he's still a high-impact player. And like on talent alone, I would take him before I would take Xavier McKinney. Like that, I rank him like that.

Now, he might ask for money and length on his deal. That makes me just prefer to take the younger guy. So the way this contract looks makes things interesting. But in general, to me, like one of the most talented safety in the market right now is Simmons. Yeah. No, when I do these rankings, Kings and add the new players. I take everything into account. And so when you're 30 years old, usually, you're just not going to get paid, but a guy who's 25 years old is going to get paid.

And so I bump you down a little bit. But I agree with you. I mean, a lot of times you have to ask yourself, well, why is this guy available? And it's pretty easily explainable for the Broncos. It's the cap situation that they're in. It's the Russell Wilson dead money. It's the, hey, we're not winning a Super Bowl next year. We're kind of rebuilding here a little bit. And so I think that's obviously why they got rid of Justin Simmons. But since, 2019 tied for the most interceptions in the NFL since 2019. Most passes defended of any safety in the NFL. Like you said, the all pros have been stacking up from a character leadership, a tangible standpoint, supposed to be the elite of the elite among people in the NFL. Like,

I think he got nominated Walter Man, Walter Payton Man of the Year, like three times in a row or something. It was crazy. It was just like everybody loves this guy. So that's not one of my matches, I think that totally makes sense for an Eagles team that needs safety help, need somebody who knows that Fangio scheme is going to be a good culture fit for you. I think Simmons there makes a lot of sense. I am curious to see what the money looks like on a player like Justin Simmons. He's tricky because like I said, once you get to around that age, you know, Tyrone Matthew is a totally different player.

I think Simmons is definitely a better player than Tyron Matthew. Age-wise, they're similar. Matthew is still a starter for New Orleans. they just restructured his deal. It's about 6.75 million per year. I think Justin Simmons probably in like the 9 million per year, Ray, maybe two years, 18 million, something like that. Now, maybe there will be a team that falls in love and they get way more aggressive than that.

But that would be my best guess for a player like Justin Simmons. And yeah, I could absolutely see the Eagles pouncing on him and signing him. Now I guess they don't have to wait for free agency because he just got released. All right, let's take a break. We're going to come back. I got a little tag and trade for you, Solac, for my next one. We'll get to that in a second. All right, we are back on extra point taken.

I have told you Solac that I do not think Brian Burns is a Carolina Panther in 2024. Where's it going, Sheila? I am sending Brian Burns to the San Francisco 49ers. for a first this year, 31 overall, and a third in 2025 that turns into a second if Brian Burns has double-digit sacks. So let me repeat that. Brian Brace of the Niners for a first this year, 31 overall, and a third next year that turns into a second if Burns has double-digit sacks.

All right, why the San Francisco 49ers? First of all, Adam Schefter reported during last season, he had a. I think five teams that had expressed interest in Brian Burns training for him at the deadline. The San Francisco 49ers were one of those teams. So there you go. We already know that they liked the player. They ended up going for Chase Young. They could not get Brian Burns, but we know that they like him.

There are hurdles for the 49ers, obviously. They are paying Nick Bosa $34 million per year. You're going to have to pay Brian Burns. You're talking about paying two edge rushers, a total of around six. $63, $65 million per year. That is a lot to invest in two edge rushers. At the same time, I'm looking at that 49ers team where they've invested in the past, and it's remained pretty consistent.

You know, last off season, they come out of nowhere and they sign J. Von Hargrave. No one, I think, saw that coming, that they're going to come out and pay Javon Hargrave, that kind of money. They are going to invest in the pass rush over and over and over again. You can talk yourself into a situation where, man, if we're going to take down these, young, these great quarterbacks to have Brian Burns, Nick Bosa, J. Von Hargrave, and we'll see what they do with Eric Armstead. I mean, that is a tough, tough group day. You cannot game plan for all those guys. Someone's going to have to block somebody one-on-one

when you're facing that pass-vers. So they're a win-now team. So it makes sense for now at the same time. Like Brian Burns is 26 years old. You can, this could be five years down the road. He still could be one of the best players in the NFL. So they've got Purdy on the rookie deal. They've got cap space. They've got four picks in the top 100, so it's not like you can't do anything in the draft if you trade away the 31st pick. You look at their offense. I don't know the people, like, their offense is coming back intact.

I mean, they have very little work to do with that offense, which was one of the best offenses we've seen from an efficiency standpoint in like the last 10 years. And everybody's basically coming back on that offense. So I think they're going to make a big, now maybe they just sign an edge rusher. Maybe it's a Neil Hunter, someone like that. but I would not be surprised if they are a surprise team, come out of nowhere and trade for Brian Burns. The other team I had earmarked here

was potentially the Los Angeles Rams. I could see almost doing the exact deal. They signed Dotson, so I'm like, man, they're giving Dotson $16 million per year. All right, I'm just going to make it the 49ers. All right, Solek, what do you think? Does it make sense for the Niners? Could you see the Niners doing it?

How do you feel as an Eagles fan? What do you think? It's really just a revolting notion. It's terrible. It's disgusting. Bosa with Burns is just stupid. That would feel like actual, like, back in the Bosa, Ohio State era,

where they would have like Bosa and Chase Young, just every game would be like, well, I guess we'll call some plays on defense, but it doesn't really matter, right? Because they're just going to win because of these two guys. That's a very, very, and it's an excellent pairing of Brian Burns with Chris Kosherk, who's a defensive line coach there

and kind of philosophically the way that they go about stuff. Like, that makes a ton of sense. the Niners burning first round picks because they have no interest in developing a young guy because they just want to win a frigate Super Bowl. Like that makes a ton of sense. Yeah, I mean like, no, that's objectively a great idea in a good trade and I hate it a lot.

I was noodling on Brian Burns' trade locations and really like when you go to the top of the draft, end of the first round, bottom of the draft, whatever, like the late teams, there's really not a team that shouldn't do it. Right? Like San Francisco with the 31st pick, Baltimore with the 30th pick,

Baltimore still got an edge rusher problem, right? Detroit with the 29th pick. Detroit's got a spot up in an edge two. Buffalo, the 28th pick, Buffalo's got an edge rusher problem. Kansas City at 32. Sure, you don't really need to. I think you just kind of stay. You need some youth there, whatever.

But like, Kansas City traded 32 for Brian Burns, right? Charles Omenu coming off of the injury, George Carlottis. He doesn't really fit their style. But even then, I wouldn't be like, no, I'd be like, yeah, they just had an elite pass pressure. Like, after like 20, pick 25, 26, like everybody should just be calling just to see if they can throw that first at Brian Burns. Because the Panthers are going to play ball.

That's excellent. Now, Justina Anderson had the report the other day. I don't know if you saw this, that like teams feel like the Panthers chocked this Brian Burns thing. And the Panthers know that they did. And some of the Panthers are asking for an unreasonable price because they're trying to, you know, get out of it and make it look less embarrassing by getting like a huge horror, like a treasure chest of the hall.

And the entire time you're reading that report, you're like, yeah, that makes sense. I understand that. It seems like the Panthers are doing that. And then the report continues, teams feel like they should be trading a third round pick for Brian Burns. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no. It is very reasonable for the Panthers

to be asking for a first round pick. And so I think there's some open-air negotiation going on, right, where teams are really trying to put the heat on Carolina and make Carolina feel sweaty about this and see if they can get that price tag to come down. But that just indicates to me that a lot of teams are working to get Brian Burns out of Carolina and trying to find, like, you know,

the sneaky way to get the price low enough for they can just pull the trigger and beat everybody to it. And so I'm increasingly agreeing with you. I was suspicious of Burns in Carolina. I certainly thought there was a good chance of attacking trade, but I'm increasingly getting to the point where I'm like, oh, I'd be surprised if this didn't happen. Yeah, I'm sure, listen, she's a good reporter.

Josina's a good reporter. I'm sure people have told her that. I feel that there's going to be a massive market for Brian Burns. I mean, based on the history we've seen with what the Rams offered a couple years ago, with teams wanting to be in on him at the deadline with what you just mentioned. if you're a contending team. Now, the thing about, the only thing about if you're willing to do it is, then are you willing, like, do you have the salary, like, are you willing to pay him around $30 million per year?

I think every team that you mentioned would absolutely be like, yes, first round pick, late first round pick for Brian Burns, absolutely. Let's do that. It's a matter of then. All right, are you willing to give that kind of money to him? But, man, he's just talented, productive, premium position, young, could just now be entering his prime defensive player of the year type ceiling for Brian Burns. And so, yeah, I think a lot of those teams would certainly be interested.

All right. What do you got? What's your next one? I've been trying to find the good Calvin Ridley team. It's hard. I always try to do this this morning. It is very difficult. We're sickos.

We're a little bit. I shouldn't be able to say a sentence. I've been trying to find the good Calvin Ridley team. And then for you to be like, oh, I empathize with that. I've also been up to this. That's like not healthy. That's unwell. So for those who don't, right, Calvin Ridley, he was.

The Jaguar's traded for him. He got him from the Falcons. He was on an expiring deal. And the conditions of the pick that goes from Atlanta to Jacksonville is conditional on how Jacksonville resigns, if and how Jacksonville resigns Calvin Ridley. And one of the highest pick that Jacksonville can send to Atlanta, the most challenging, the richest pick, would be if they signed him without him hitting free agency. They would, I think, send a second round pick to Atlanta in that event. And accordingly, the Jaggs look like they're going to let Calvin Ridley hit free agency. because then if they sign them back,

and maybe they have a little handshake deal in place, and they're just going to let the clock get to 1201 and then sign him. They're going to let Ridley hit free agency, because if they sign them back, they don't have to send a third to Atlanta. It's like, okay, good business. But there's a chance that Ridley, and his agent,

actually, like, you know, talk to some other places and get some other deals. Now, there's a lot of teams that need receiver, right? The chiefs need receiver, and the bills need receiver, and the lines need a receiver, the freaking Jaguars need a receiver. Like everybody needs a receiver. But a lot of these teams don't super make sense for Calvin Ridley.

A lot of these teams need, I think, a little bit more like size at receiver. And that's not necessarily what Calvin brings. So they need more like, you know, a downfield like field-streshing guy. And Calvin can do that, but he can also do more than that. So you don't really want to like shoehorn him into that role. It's also a bit of a question how reliable he is and how consistent he is because he came back from the suspension. And there were flashes. There were moments in Jacksonville, a game and a half of a drive.

whatever, where he looked like, oh, this is the old Calvin. And then they really couldn't get him activated. I put a lot of that blame personally on the offensive coaching staff there in Jacksonville. I've spoken about them a lot in season. They didn't make any changes this off season. I was surprised by that. I'm not sure they're equipped to maximize a receiver like Calvin. So I do think if he goes somewhere else, he could blossom.

He could benefit. The team that I'm going to land on is the Buffalo Bills. I think that's an interesting team for Calvin Redley. Now, the problem is Buffalo just did everything they possibly could to just barely get through the cap, right? Right now, a spot rack has them listed is still below the cap. I think they've functionally gotten above the cap. It's kind of hard, you know, like a lot of these cap, the 23 to 44 numbers are all

estimations. And so it's hard to know exactly how much room teams have when all these transactions are going on. In general, Buffalo is becoming cap compliant and only barely, only just, right? So they don't have like a ton of money in the couch cushions. However, this team is likely moving on from Gabe Davis, who is a downfield explosive play experiment for them that never fully sussed itself out. they have Stefan Diggs in hand,

who's a similar sort of player to Calvin Ridley, but feels like he's kind of on the downturn of his career, getting a little bit old, not as efficient down the back half of last season, certainly when Joe Brady took the role. And then they have only, like, Khalil Shakir behind, right? And they have all these young, big receivers that they've cycled through and they're trying to hit on a guy.

They clearly understand they need more talent of the position. They've been rolling a lot of dice and just kind of been unsuccessful. Ridley, I think, is a good dice roll. I don't think it'll be the cheapest dice roll, But Ridley is a player who can actually be a three-level threat. He can moonlight as a wide receiver one. And so if you put him next to Diggs and you call Diggs the quasi-wide receiver one, but on any given day of the week,

Ridley can be that for you instead. He has that capacity. We've seen it from his time in Atlanta. He and Diggs both have inside-out versatility, right? They can both line up outside. They can both line them in the slots. You can play a lot of high-to-seek with those two guys, which I think is good. Yeah, you're losing for size.

I understand it. Like Diggs, Ridley, and Shakir is not a big wide-receiver trio. I don't think you need a big wide-receiver trio with the way that Josh Allen plays, right? He's just going to hammer the ball into tight windows, no matter what. You just want guys who are good through contact. And really is really good, like, adjusting to the ball in the air, winning through contact, even though he's not the biggest guy.

And so I think he fits well in Buffalo. I think he makes sense for the room. I think he makes sense with Allen. I think Alan and Joe Brady can get more out of him than Jacksonville did. I don't know if I have the money for it, but that's a pairing I'd like to see. Yeah, you laid it out well, why he's such a tough person to kind of place here? Because is he your number one wide receiver? If you sign him, no.

Is he a useful player? yes, what does, like, what kind of money are you willing to pay for, I would say, like a high level, probably number two receiver who, you know, in a best case scenario, could be a number one receiver. Like, his numbers at the end of the season. Like, I watched the Jaguars a lot last year and I thought, oh, that was kind of a disappointing Calvin Ridley experience. And then end of the year, he's got over a thousand yards. He drew more pass interference penalties than any other player in the NFL. And so, like, he was, he had 17 catches. of 20 plus yards. That was 15th among wide receivers to your point about how, yes, he can stretch the field. He can make some plays downfield for you. So he can do all those things at the same time. He's 29 years old, which isn't old. But, you know, as I mentioned with the Mike Evans conversation, once you start getting over 30 at those positions, wide receiver, cornerback, the decline is probably coming.

So very tricky player. Like I think based on what we've seen in recent years, a guy like this would typically get paid. You know, I have him around like a seven. $17 million per year player. And it's like, if you do that, are you feeling great about, again, you mentioned the bills, they did all that to get, you know, in reasonable cap space, but they still have holes. They need to fill on that roster. Is that how you really want to, want to use it?

So I could see it. It's really hard. Like, does a team like the Patriots just say, we got a lot of cap space? We got nothing at the position. We'll sign him. I don't think anybody would really be that excited about that. if you're just a team content type person. All right, Calvin really to the Patriots,

that's going to be forgettable. But a team like that could just come in. So I'm with you. I would rather see him be on a contending team, chiefs, bills. I mean, we can name five or six. I sort of have a feeling he's going to go to a team that's not going to be really relevant next year.

And good for him. If it's the highest paid thing, like that's what he can do. That's his prerogative. Yeah, I think he's going to, I agree. He's going to be back in Jacksonville. Hey. Oh, my.

Do you think he's going to, yeah, it's such a weird situation. Yeah, that those trips. I mean, the thing is, the Jaguars actually do need him. Like, that wouldn't be a bad move. Yeah, they need him. The Jaguars, I don't want to get too into the Jaguars. I think I'm going to be opening Monday show with the Jaguars,

kind of conditional what happens the next few days. I don't freaking understand this offseason, dude. I got no idea what they are trying to achieve what they thought the problem was last year. This feels like a mess. God willing, this Calvin Ridley deal is what it looks like, which is they're letting him hit free agency. They give a worst pick to the Falcons. and then at 1201, they sign them to a handshake deal they've always had.

That's how it should go. The problem is with the T tag and with the Mike Evans contract, Calvin Ridley, when a free agency starts, will be, quote, quote, the best receiver on the market. Yeah. And if his agent comes with a fat offer that they solicited from the Tennessee Titans who have like $90 billion, you might be able to pick without a paddle, brother. And so I don't know either.

I don't know about this Jags off season. The team that has a lot of space that I thought would be good for Calvin. Cardinals? No, no, no, no. More fun. Interesting, cool. As the Chicago Bears. I think the Bears are also a good Calvin Ridley team.

I think that DJ Moore had a really, really nice season last season. I think DJ Moore proved he can be a wide receiver one. I don't, I still don't rank DJ Moore as a top 10 receiver. I think that that's fair. I underrated him last year. I absolutely did. So I'm still trying to calibrate to where exactly I feel about him. But I do think it'd be nice to have like a really nice established second receiver option right there,

which is not something that they have at all, right? And you add Calvin Ridley into that mix with an extension on Cole Commet with a deal for DJ Moore. You have your three pass catchers in place for Caleb. And you feel like, right, like, what do you want to have when you bring the young quarterback in? You want to have good pass catchers and good bookends. And their tackle situation is, I think, still a little bit tenuous, but you feel pretty good about it. And then you feel good about your receiver room. So I could see Calvin making a lot of sense for the bears as well if that's where they want to throw their money.

And then the tricky factor, which we haven't discussed is that this wide receiver class in the draft is just loaded. right? So then teams have to decide, all right, well, now you can't like count on it that, yes, we're going to get a wide receiver and yes, that person's going to be good right away. But three years ago, it almost never happened. And now it's happening more and more that guys are able to come in and play right away. And obviously, that's going to be a lot less expensive than signing Calvin Ridley. So that's another thing that teams have to keep in mind. All right, my next one. I think you're going to like this one. I was going to say, I know you're going to like this one, but maybe you wouldn't.

Now, this is one where I'm not sure if I were in the room with the GM and he said, Shield, do you think we should do this? I'm not sure. I would say, yes, do this. But as somebody who writes and podcasts about football, I really want this to happen. Let's get Derek Henry to the Ravens one year. Yeah. I've got $7 million with incentives.

I don't know. What is the market for a 30-year-old running back? When that 30-year-old running back shows no signs of really slowing down and is like, a once-in-a-generation type guy who can carry the load. All right, so here's my reasoning for Derek Henry to the Ravens. Number one, they need a, they have to add a running back, basically. They've got nobody on the roster here. You know, last year, they were first in rushing DVOA,

so like, and that was with Gus Edwards as their leadback. I've always liked to Gus Edwards. He's been productive for them, but let's be honest, Gus Edwards is not driving the bus. Gus bus slander. You can't say Gus isn't driving the bus, and the guy's nickname is Gus Bus. You know, I was like, Boss, Train, what is the, what is the, what is the, why am I

associated right now? Looking for here. Yeah, I was very confused. That did not go as smoothly as I anticipated. They've got Justice Hill, Keaton Mitchell, and Owen Wright as their running backs under contract. Jeff's reback of the athletic reported Ravens were in, quote, advanced talks with the Titans during the 2023 trade deadline. So obviously this was a player they have looked into in the past.

Derek Henry last year, led the NFL in rushing attempts. Of course he did. Eighth in yards after contact per rush last season. Ran for over 1,100 yards, 12 touchdowns. I mean, I'm picturing a scenario so like where we have one of these like, you know, Lamar Jackson runs around for like nine seconds, one of those where they put the clock on the replay and the right. So we can see how any like guns went downfield to Zay Flowers for 43 yards.

And then they go hurry up. And I said, all right, you're tired now? Here's Derek Henry. Go ahead, tackle him. We're at the eight-yard line. He's going to run in for a touchdown. So I think that would be certainly a lot of fun. Now, from a scheme fit, I'm curious what you think about this.

You know, Derek Henry has long been an under center zone-type runner. Ravens did a little more of that last year, but still primarily that that's not certainly what they major in. I look at it and say, well, if they were looking to trade for him in the middle of last season, they obviously feel like they can carve out a roll. they can figure it out. And Henry doesn't have to carry the ball 280 times. Like, what does he look like at this stage of his career? If he's more of a complimentary to a guy who's getting a breather, and I know he's talked about before, other backs, they like to get in a rhythm. But at this stage in his

career, if you can keep him fresh, you get him in the stretch run, you get him in the playoffs, that's one I would like to see. The number seven million, I really don't know. I mean, it's unprecedented really for a 30-year-old running back to make that kind of money in this market at the same time. Don't worry about it. It's Derek Henry. So I don't know. All right. What do you think? Derek Henry on the Reefitz. No, it's good. It makes sense. And you said like Henry's been primarily a zone runner.

It's, it translates because what you want to do for Henry is you want to put him on one track and let him go. You want to ask him to be bouncing gaps less and less and just kind of letting him build up ahead of steam and run. And that's, that's ideally power. Like that's ideally like behind a polar. And then you can also run like your inside zone stuff and just have him go off a double team like make one cut and go. They'll run duo with him as well. the rain turned a little bit of a duo. I don't think it's a huge part of their game.

I think that they can cut that out. Not cut that out, but that doesn't need to be the feature. He can follow Apollo to the C gap, but he's still got the wheels for that. The thing that Lamar does, when Lamar's present in the back field, when he puts the ball in the belly of the back

and freezes you there with that mesh point, is that he makes your linebackers sit on their heels, right? It makes, unless you are calling play specifically, like get an extra body in the box and to muddy the picture, your backers kind of just have to like, just like land land there and read it out.

And so if Lamar freezes backers and makes them inert, and Derek Henry is a full head of steam, you know, a steam engine train coming at you. Like, it's, that's, that's a very perfect pairing. That's a very ideal world for Henry to be in. We're like, oh, linebackers don't get to generate any momentum when they come into contact with me. They're kind of stuck at the second level.

Like, that's just mean Joe Green. That's nasty stuff. The main thing is, right, you have to maintain his touches, and you have to be cognizant of the fact that, while it's true that Lamar benefits, you in terms of freezing those backers and helping Henry like win between the tackles. Lamar also benefits your speedbacks, right, because he can create softer edges. He makes it easier to get to the boundary.

And so like you want to give some touches to touches to Keaton and Mistral slash whoever else you bring in. It becomes your speed guy. So you have to try to figure out what the new balance is going to be. But they did that with Gus Edwards and Justice Hill this past year. And so I think they know how to kind of manage that chemistry as best they can. And so yeah, Derek Henry of the Ravens is just like pure fun and everybody should be rooting for it unless you are.

in the Ravens Division, which case, yeah, I get it. Yeah, I want him on a fun team as he, you know, the last stages of his career here. I want him playing in relevant games. All right. You want a little breaking news? You want a little breaking news? Okay. What do we got?

There's not that much excitement in your voice, so it doesn't seem like it's bad thing. Yeah, Hunter Henry is back to the Patriots on a three-year deal. Oh, yon. Please. Best, best hiding on the market, probably, right? The Patriots, their offensive personnel, I don't think we realized how, terrible this is. Pop Douglas, wide receiver one, baby, 125 targets. Orderback, offensive tackle, wide receiver, they have nothing. I mean, this, I'm sure we'll talk about them on a future show.

All right, Hunter Henry, back to the Patriots. Congratulations. All right, what's your next one? All right. We are starting to move from Ben does good names and good teams for content to Ben indulges himself with the little fits that he likes because they're exciting. Hibster? Okay. I got, my last one is a hipster one. I would like to see Panther Safety Jeremy chin, join Mike McDonald in Seattle. This is cool. Okay, so obviously, the Seahawks move on from both safeties earlier this week. Jamal Adams, who was a huge trade for them and a huge contract and never really

delivered on the investment. And then Quondre Dix, who is similar to Simmons, a good safety who got paid, got his money, was playing well, is still playing well, but had one big year left on his deal and they moved on from him. Like, there was criticism of Quondre this year. He missed some tackles. He's a smaller safety. He's far from a perfect player.

But the idea that like, oh, the Seahawks cut Jamal and Quandre because they're bad, that is inaccurate. They cut Jamal because he wasn't delivering on the contract. He never hit for them. Quadri was a hit for them. He absolutely was. Now, though, their safety room is Julian Love, right? Who they side last year in free agency for a small deal. Like, they have an open starting spot.

And I'm sure they want love to be a permanent safety starter. Like that room desperately needs some help. And obviously, Mike McDonald, who played three safeties for a lot of the time last season, who rotates his safety, you know, sends some pressures. Like, that's a very, very important position in his defense. McDonald used Kyle Hamilton, the safety at a Notre Dame at first round pick him two years ago.

Like the weapon that he is, Hamilton is one of the best defensive players in football, is one of the best safeties in football last season, playing up near the box, being sent in on blitzes, being sent to the second level, reading out things, instincts,

hitting, using the tackle radius, like just a terra dactal out there playing in the second level, with speeding with length, with size, and with velocity, with intensity, with toughness. Like, so much to like about Kyle Hamilton.

one of the body types for Kyle Hamilton, that 6'4, 210-pound safety that he was, coming out of the draft was Jeremy Chin, who's a safety with the Carolina Panthers, who as a rookie on their initial defenses, really started to shy and have some nice moments, and then has fallen with injury over the last couple seasons, fell out of favor with Devens Quintyato-Evro and his defense over the past year,

but it remains a 6-foot-3, 220-pound safety with length. Like, there are some teams in the league who know what to do, do with that guy? Like, they know what they want to do with him. Like, if he was in a Dan Quinn defense, they can just put him at linebacker, right? This is what we do with this body type. There's Evereaux who, like, wanted him to be a safety, but it never really worked. They would play him at linebacker, but that also doesn't work for the defense. Like, they can never figure that out.

But then you have McDonald in Seattle who just deployed a guy with this physical toolkit really, really, really successfully. Now, does Chin have the mental toolkit that Hamilton does? I don't, I don't think so. Even when he was playing at his best, I don't really think that that's where Chin's bread was buttered. And so I don't want to put lofty expectations. Like, oh, Chin goes and signs a two-year, $8 million deal with the Seawks.

He's going to become their Kyle Hamilton. Rather, I think that there's a space in this defense. There's a spot. There's a position on the X's nose on the chalkboard where the 6-3-215-pound guy works. We call him a safety. He plays a safety role. He covers a tight end for us. He plays in press for us.

He covers the flat for us. He buzzes on blitzes for us. Like, there's just, there is a job for Jeremy Chin in Seattle that maximizes his skill set far better than a lot of other places where he might sign. So it makes a lot of sense for Jeremy Chin. and it makes a lot of sense for the Seahawks who need safety help, who want to see if they can find a body

that works for that Kyle Hamilton mold, right? Like, you don't find Kyle Hamilton's under a rock, right? They went to got the guy in the first round for a reason. And so if you can take a flyer on a similar body type, and then by 2025, be like, oh, like, we got Jeremy Chin to a point where, like, he's 80% of Kyle for us. That's an enormous win.

Because there's no 6-3, 220-pound safety coming out of the draft. James Williams is coming out, actually. There is a tall, big safety coming out this year, but he's like a sixth-round pick. You don't get this body type a lot on. So to me, like Jeremy Chin, Seattle is a great low, low risk investment, high reward investment for both sides, where Chin might be able to return to that play he initially had as a rookie and as a sophomore, 20, 2020, 2021. McDonald might be able to get his Kyle Hamilton actor replacement kind of, you know, quasi-Walmart version,

Kyle Hamilton, off-brand version, and that's a huge benefit to his defense and huge benefit to Chin. So I like to see Chin land in Seattle. Normally I like to make fun of you for the, this is a good hipster one. I like this, Jeremy Chin to Seattle. I could see it. I like Chen. You're right. I mean, the size, speed, athleticism was there as a rookie. He was fantastic. Had some injuries like you mentioned and has not looked the same, has not found that role since. But I do. He is a good under the radar. Interesting. Where is he going to land? Is he going to land with the right coordinator, someone who knows him type free agent? And like you said, the Seahawks need someone like that. He's not going to cost a lot. I don't think. Maybe it's a one year sort of, hey, one year. and reenter the market type deal. If you're Jeremy Chin, maybe it's more than that. Hey, I want to go play for a fun organization and a fun defensive coach in Mike McDonald's who knows how to use my skill set.

So I like that one. Good hipster pick. Thank you, sir. I'm not going to make fun of him for that one. I'm going mainstream with one more here. Now, this one, I need your help with the compensations. I'm going to give you my initial compensation. And if you think it's too lobsided in one direction or the other, because this is another

tag and trade, then I need you to let me know because I've got alternate compensation packages ready here on my Google Talk. So this one we talked about on a previous show, but I'm just going on the record, Lions Trade number 29 overall to the Kansas City Chiefs for cornerback, Legerius Sneat. Okay. So we know the Lions need a cornerback. We know they need a number one cornerback. We know Legerius Sneed just would fit that Lions defense. At least it seems like very very, very very, very well, aggressive, lots of fight, man coverage, blitz, slot, outside. How do you want to use him this week, Aaron, Glenn? You decide fits all those things.

Brad Holmes talked at the combine, how he's very picky with what he looks for in cornerbacks. It seems like all the intangible stuff he would want is there with a guy like Ligerius Sneed. The chiefs have been pretty open about this, that they tagged him, but it looks like a strong possibility that they are going to trade Ligerius Sneed. offensively, lions are in great shape. They've got a window to make the Super Bowl

next season. They kept Ben Johnson. They need some more players on defense. You're giving up 29 if you are the Detroit Lions, but you know, you still have other picks there.

I forget they still have four picks. They have four picks overall in the top 100. So you still got your three other picks there in the top 100. It's not like the cupboard is bare. Do you think, first, I know you like the fit.

The 29th overall pick, is that too much? think like, no, a team's not going to give up a first-round pick for legurious knee. Cornerback play can be volatile. You're putting a lot of stake in what he did last year. It was good before, but what he did last year was kind of another level. How do you feel about 29? Do you want to hear my other compensation packages and decide whether they're more fair? I'd send 29 for Ligerious need and sleep like a baby. Eight hours. Four run cycles. Ain't a problem. How many REM cycles do you get? Do you ever? For you? I don't know. Like, you said that so

I'm like, what does that even mean? I literally have no idea what that means. I got the Apple Watch sleep data. I got big sleep problems. So I like to check my sleep performance. All right, not going to lie. How's it going? I like the sleep app.

Not too great this past week being sick and all that. Combine, man, I was getting deep sleep. All right? I was like, because Combin, AC in the hotel room. All right, got a little travel humidifier going. Put that on like a 66 or something? That AC. Drop that sucker.

Lower? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Okay. How low? Now I have to have. Like, 62, probably, if I can get it down there. Sometimes they don't let me go super low.

Let's get those blanket, all those blankets. Here's the thing. I run real hot. I need it to be as cold as dark as possible. My wife, who I love very dearly, does not run hot. And so when the thermostat does not get set where I'd like for it to be set in the evenings. And so when I have the opportunity to control that, we treat yourself. We'll indulge myself a little bit.

Absolutely. Jeremy Chinonis, Seahawks, indulge myself a little bit. Anyway, yeah, I'd send 29 to the... The Chiefs for the Jerry's need. All right. There you go. Here are the other ones. If you're a Lions fan listening,

because I know how this works. When I throw out the fake trade, then you have the fan of the team who's giving up the first. We don't have to give up that. We'll give up this. So the other ones I had here were the Lions give up 61, their second round pick,

and then they do a third round pick swap. So you move from 73 to 95. So the Chiefs get 61, and then they moved from 95 to 73. But I thought, I don't know. Is that enough? I mean, the fact that it's 29 overall. So, yes, it's a first round pick, but it's not like 13 overall.

So I kind of feel like that is a fair compensation to give there. So there you go, legurious need to the Kansas City Chiefs. Legerious need to the Lions. Huge. I mean, to the Lions. There you go. To the Lions. You got one more, right, Solac?

I think we each have one more. I do have one more. I do want to ask real quick on the Lions. If I tell you the lions are trading for a tagged player straight up, and they're setting 29 overall, and you can choose if that player's Legerius Sneed or T. Higgins. Who do you choose? And are we, we're signing this player to an extension.

That's the other thing I didn't mention with Sneed. You're giving him $19, $20 million per year. Right. We're making them the sixth to seventh plate highest player at their position, right? So with T, that's probably like 24, 23 maybe. And then with Sneed, that's more like 1920. I am almost always on the side of build up the offense, offense, offense, offense. But I think about the Lions and like, I don't know.

I got Amman Ra. I got Sam LaPorte. Like, I didn't watch that team last year and think they need another. Like, could they benefit from one? Yes. The side. Toss the time. Tost a break.

And then come back to the break. Okay. Let me think about it. All right. We'll think a break. Then I'm going to come back and answer that question. All right, we are back on extra point taken. I thought about it, and I think I am going to go with the analytical part of my brain that says T. Higgins, because one of the, you know, Amman Ra goes down with an injury, La Porta. I don't want to be stuck in a spot where my offense is not top five. I want to protect the top five offense at all costs. And so I'm going to go with T. Higgins. I think it covers me for the long term. Now I've got a great set.

of weapons on offense, but I was very tempted in this specific case to instead go with Legerius Sneed. What is your answer to the question you posed to me? The correct answer is Legerius Sneed. All right? That's how you manage your team. That's how you run the team. That's how you keep the team healthy and that you need the corner more desperately and you have targets for everybody else and that's great. If I were running the team with no consequences, T. Higgins. We get Dee Higgins, give it a Ben Johnson. We're running some digs. We're living, baby. All right? That's, that T is perfect. what they need in terms of the skill set

that they have to add DeBanRaw, Sam Lipporta, Jamesville, Jamesville to that nucleus. T is perfect. So it's very tempting. Sneed is the right thing to do. It is a responsible invest in your 401K,

30 years, compound interest, like that's the adult thing to do. I, if I had the money burning the hole in my pocket and Michael give me a T. Higgins for fun. I don't know. I sort of think, like,

if they talk, I wonder if they pose that question to their analytic staff, what they would say. I feel like there is a reasonable, smart argument that, no, no, no, it's T. Higgins. Cornerback play is volatile. T. Higgins' best case scenario?

I mean, you got him for a while. Legerious need, I mean, two or three years from now, that play is going to start declining a little bit, if not sooner than that. And so, I don't know. I think there is a smart person case to stick with T. Higgins. It's not just like a gut instinct case. I agree.

I do think that the issue you run into is, once you trade for tea, Amon Ra's Asian hit you up. I'm like, all right, so we're getting our massive contract right now, right? And you have to be like,

yes, but also I'm paying Pentee Suu and also I'm paying Jared golf. Like the money on offense starts to become a little bit tricky. I think for Detroit, it becomes trickier, faster than you'd like for it too.

Like the whole point for the next couple of years is to be like, hey, we paid golf, but like St. Brown is cheap and Penae is cheap. And like, you have to pay tea,

you're kind of burning your money clock a little bit early. I suppose to sneeze. Like, you need to spend money on defense. That's where they are right now as a team. And so I think Sneed is the more responsible choice. What if I threw Brian Burns in there?

Brian? And it's still the same terms? I would just have to, based on my trade value column, say Brian Burns. Go get Brian Burns. That one feels a little easier to me. Yeah? I don't know. I'm just curious.

I thought that would be your answer. I just wanted to throw the third name in there because they have needs a corner, edge of wide receiver. Those are three needs. And right now there are three elite to near elite players that are on tags, one edge, one wider receiver, one corner. Go get your one. Yeah, we'll see what they do.

I think they're going to be a player for one of these guys. All right, what is your last one? What do you got? All right. Another bad indulgence. I would like to see Patrick Queen become a Houston Texan. All right. Now, I talked about the responsible versus irresponsible approach to things.

I think the responsible thing for the Houston Texans should do, the thing about D'emico Ryan's, the defense that he came from, the way that they benefited, fitted from Fred Warner there in San Francisco, it's probably a little bit more responsible to go get, like, Jordan Brooks, who's objectively a better player in coverage, right? Jordan Brooks can be our mic,

give him a two-year deal. We'll see if, like, we can get him to kind of like settle out. He's such a volatile player in Seattle. They were changing defensive systems. He was moving positions. Like, maybe just D'Amico, you're going to run our defense. You're the green dot. You're in charge. We're going to keep you stable. Maybe you can hit that kind of like good starter level that we've seen from him before,

but it's just kind of been mercurial in Seattle. He gives you the coverage value. You can run the pole, you know, you can pick up across, he can do some of the Fred Warner stuff. And that's what you saw in this defense. It was very successful and it was great and it was delightful, whatever. I would love that signing, be a good signing. Patrick Queen, man.

When Patrick Queen was bad and when Patrick Green was good. And every moment in between, Patrick Queen has played like his life depends on the snap. Man, like he plays with his hair on fire. This is a fast, this is a cannibal out of a cannon, man. It's a bullet out of a gun. He is explosive and he is violent. He is looking for contact. He's a blow somebody up.

There's a, no, Nate Tice. Tice has this big, um, running thread of clips in the season. Patrick Queen having like a blitz responsibility and just like selling out for it. Like his job is to pick the center, right? He's not to get home. It's just like collision the center. And Queen will do it like a horse with blinders on, like a bullseeing red. Like he just, he loves him some contact, Pedy, all right?

Patrick Queen is fun to watch play football. He loves what he's doing. You get that with D'Amico and with the way that that San Francisco defense. Then again, that Houston. in defense. The way D'Amico is on the sideline with the energy that team has, the way they prioritize tackling and in physicality, the way they play with high speed, hair on fire.

Like the culture fit, the disposition fit, the demeanor fit is perfect. It would be so fun to watch Patrick Queen and a Texan's uniform wearing the same Denzel Peritman number moving twice as fast as Denzel Perryman did this past season and just

lighting dudes up like a Christmas tree sideline to sideline. It would be a very, very good culture fit. I'm not sure. that over the next three years, Queen will be better than Jordan Brooks, and I think Jordan Brooks will be cheaper. And so I think the Texans are very clearly going to go for a linebacker. They're pretty open about that in season that they know they need to improve

linebacker play. This defense relies on linebackers. Domeco is very invested in linebackers. They have Christian Harris under contract. He was starting with Henry Toaoto. They gave these guys reps. They got a lot of blood out of the stone, but I don't really think those are like clear starting players.

You want them playing 60, 65 percent of the snaps. They had like Cashman and Denzel Perryman, again, doing similar stuff. Like they would ask them to start. They would call on the plays. Like Cashman had some juice. Perryman obviously has been a vet for a long time. But again, these are not impact players. I think they know they need to add an awful linebacker.

I think that they will. I would like Jordan Brooks. I think that would be a good signing. Levante David for a year. I think that would make sense, kind of hold you over. The one that would really excite me that would get me going is Patrick Queen to the Texas. I think it would be a lot of fun. All right.

I'm glad you brought up the Texans because the Texans are a team that absolutely can spend and their timeline totally changed from what it was last year. So now what it is this year, now you've got the quarterback. It's like go try to build this roster up and win a title or compete for a title here in the next few years. All right. So let me give you some because they can really go in a number of different directions with the money they have. So let me throw out some, I'm going to throw out some options for you and you tell me which one you would tell them to prioritize. All right.

So you said Patrick Queen. I think Patrick Queen is going to get paid big money. like 15 to 17. We'll go on the lower. We'll say Patrick Queen for $15 million per year. Okay, that's one. Jordan Brooks for $10 million per year. Christian Wilkins for $23 million per year.

Saquan Barkley or Josh Jacobs, whichever back you want for $10 million per year. Or Calvin Ridley for $17 million per year. Like I think all these avenues, they could explore all these different things. Every single one of those deals. All the above. Okay, but Nick Casario tells you, he says, what's the first one I do? What's the one you really want?

I'm a big fan. All the fan, I'm a big fan. All the same. Nick, you take these two. I'll take these other. No, you got to answer. Which one do you like the most? If you are the Texas, which of those?

So, Barclay, Jacobs, Ridley, Jordan Brooks, Patrick Queen, Christian Wilkins. I call Wilkins first. I call Wilkins first, right? I think his market's going to be the hottest. I think that's the highest impact player. That's the only tier one player in the group in terms of like on-field impact at high-value position. I call Wilkins first. After that, I'm calling the backers.

This defense desperately needs better backer play. I know that there's like a lot of like hipster love for Christian Harris and for Blake Cashman. I'm personally not there. Look at you calling out hipster. What is this? Hipster on hipster crime. What is happening? An hour into the podcast.

He's turned on you people. Unbelievable. What a twist. Because what you call hipsters is just film opinions, which means that there's differentizations. Not true. Yes. No, not true.

I think this team really badly needs linebacker play. So I'm calling Mokens first. What was your hipster rate? You were saying hipsters like Christian Harrison, Blake Cashman, but you do not? Is that the hipster on hipster crime? I think that D'Amico made his linebackers look a lot better than they were. Like they were just pointed guns, kind of. And like, you can get much a higher caliber player like Jordan Brooks.

Like, if I'm responsibly managing the team, I'm giving Christian Wilkins 22. I'm giving Jordan Brooks 10. I'm given, and then I'm probably calling Josh Jacobs. Like, that's probably the order in which I'm going for things. Cal really is very tempting,

and you have the money because, like, Nico is cheap right now and Tank is cheaper right now. I do think they need to add a second pass catcher. Not for nothing. Don't Schultz, man.

Did we really have to? That kind of bothered me a little bit. I agree. I was writing that one up, and I thought, like, all right, so tight-end market, the way the tight-end market is,

that is a perfectly reasonable salary. It's actually not, you know, I looked at it first and it goes, it was 36 over 3. So it's 12 million per. Is that right? Yeah. And so if you look at it, it actually only puts him 12th among tight end contracts are wild. It puts him 12th among tight ends in annual salary, $12 million per year.

At the same time, can't I get 75% of what Dalton Schultz is giving me for like, you know? I don't know. I watched Dalton Schultz drop passes. in the Browns playoff game. I agree. They should have been like highly damaging plays until like the defense had multiple big sexes.

I just, if I'm John Granard's agent, I feel a certain sort of way about the Dalton Schultz still getting done. I'm on it. I mean, I'm embarrassed. I feel a certain sort of way

about the Donald Schultz still getting done. I just like, I really want to like Nick Casario and every time I'm close, he's just like the nerdiest thing in the world. Just like the lamest most square thing. Oh, and they sign Dalton Schultz. No, dude.

Be cool. Go get Jonathan. Raynard. Come on. It's not even nerdy is the right word. I think the nerd, yeah, well, you're not, you're saying nerdy. Yeah, nerd and terms of like basic. In terms of like basic.

Boring, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not like analytics here. Yeah, it's hard because it's hard to analyze these in real time because I don't know what else is coming.

It's still to come. So yes, if they lose Jonathan Grenard for like 15 million per year, then I will kill them for the Dalton, that's signing Dalton Schultz for 12. But the more, okay, so like, the more I think about the Schultz deal. It's kind of like, okay, if you put Schultz up against, like, the Bears extending Komets, so that way they have, like, a tight end in place for, like, their young quarterback, or, like, the Vikings, like, Hawkinson kind of actually isn't one-to-one, because they had Kirk for a while, but, like, they're going to have Hawk there in place.

Like, they did get a good receiving tight end at a lower price for the young guy. Like, it is, it is good business. It's just like, dude, sign John Grenard, man. And I also, the other problem is that I still think Brevin Jordan's good. That's the other issue for me is I like Brevin Jordan a lot. He's stuck there at tight end too. Yeah, Schultz was, I mean, Schultz was 12th among tight ends

and receiving yards last year, and he got paid as the 12th highest tight end, and he's 28 years old, and he can play every down. He's fine. Yeah, it's not exciting. Yeah, you're not, it's like... In my head, I was like, what would Nick Casario say

if you were on this podcast? You'd be like, this is a good business. I'm like, yeah, you're right, freaking whatever. It's true, but I don't know. Anyway, go sign Calvertly. Let's see what receivers get. Let's see what Gernard get, yeah, if this prevents you from doing something else that would have been better,

then he would say, if Nick Casario was here, he would say, I don't have that benefit. You guys can do extra point, take it on Monday and rip me for it. I had to make, well, he did kind of have that. I'll be here's the other thing. All right, sorry, why are we talking so much about Dalton Schultz? I can feel Conorne Evans screaming in his car like, stop talking about Donald Schultz. I have to say one more thing. And this would be its bad business.

Dalton Schultz was a free agent last offseason, and he got a one year, $6.25 million deal in free agency. Now you're telling me a year later he deserves a deal almost like twice as much as that almost. I would say settle down. Maybe just let him test the market. If he signed somewhere else, it's not going to kill your team. You're going to be okay. All right, that's enough to alter. Stay next week. We'll be doing a special bonus Dalton Schultz episode. Subscribe. It will be only on Patreon and YouTube. I'm kidding. I agree. That's a bit for us to investigate. It's just doing quick 20-minute episodes. I'm like, listen, here's the thing about the Mike and Weddew contract. All right. My last one is a little hipstery. I don't know. Maybe the hipsters will come to my side now.

I just Solac ripped you for your Christian Harris. Thanks. Relax. Relax. And this is not based on a film. This is not one that would be backed by film watching. And this is I'm crediting Paul Diener Jr. Bengals beat writer because this fit made sense to me. Mackay Beckton going to the Cincinnati Bengals. Very history. There you go. Mackay Beckton did not play well last year, but the Cincinnati Bengals are losing probably right,

tackle Jonah Williams in free agency. They could certainly use the draft to address that need. I'm all for the Bengals over-investing in their offensive line. So why Mackay Beckton? As Deiner pointed out, the Bengals offensive line coach Frank Pollock was with the Jets when they drafted Mackay Beckton and he played as a rookie and people were We're very excited about Mackay Beckton at that time.

He's still only entering his age 25 season. Maybe it never happens for him. It's entirely possible. That might be the most likely scenario. However, if I'm the Bengals and I say, one year, $5 million, come play for your old offensive line coach, come play for Joe in front of Joe Burrow. We're going to go try to win a Super Bowl. You're going to play a little right tackle, but we have you, you know, if we draft

someone, maybe you're a swing tackle. I don't know. come try to rebuild your career here in Cincinnati. That was one that I read in the Athletic, and I thought, all right, I could see that. That makes sense. There you go. Were you a Bechton guy coming out of the draft or no?

I had my Bechton doubts. He was extremely fun to watch, and the frame and the potential is exciting. He was out in that class with Wurfs, Andrew Thomas, at Judge Rick Wills, all of whom I loved. And so it was tough for me to be like, you know, okay, go get the high potential. guy when there's three other guys who are also high potential guys, but like we're, in my opinion, a lot more established.

Don't ask me about Judge Gould's now, but like AT and works kind of landing where they wanted to. Now, it's a little unfair of me, the Amarius Mims guy, who I know you haven't watched the players yet, but you should watch some Amarius Mims out of Georgia to have that opinion about Beckton. Because you also are worried about the injury thing with Mims. Like, when a guy's that big and he starts committing injuries, the human body, the bones are not built to a stay in 360 pounds. Like, that's not how we fashioned them. And so with Beckton, like, it's a worthy flyer. I'd like for the Bengals to go get like Mike and Wenham. You know what I'm saying?

Go get like an actual dude. I'm so sick and tired of these teams not taking care of right tackle, man. Like the Chargers at right tackle, the Bengals at right tackle. Like, you're franchise quarterback's been getting hurt, dude. Like, let's go. Invest in a second bookend. It's crazy me that we're in 2024 and there's still an edge for teams who are like, right tackle is a real position.

We need multiple, multiple protectors on the bookends. Like, I think the Bengals should be aggressive at right tackle. I think Beckins is like a fun flyer, but I think they should be more serious than that. It is weird. You're right. I mean, it's still reflected in the salaries, too. Left tackles are still getting paid a lot.

And average left tackles making so much more than an average right tackle. I'm mocking the Chargers tackles at five. And everybody's like, well, it's right tackle. Like, why would they do that? Buddy, because right now they can't run the football because the right tackle situation. Right now, Justin Herbert's getting hit on every third in 10 because the right tackle situation. What we're talking about? This is a premium position now.

Let's go. Let's play a little ball. All right. There you go. those are our free agency, trade fits. That was a lot of fun. All right.

So what comes next? Monday at noon, the negotiating period begins and deal start getting announced by insiders, not officially by teams. They're not allowed to do that, but it is, hey,

this guy agreed in principle with this team for this much money. And so there's going to be a lot to talk about. So So Slack and I are going to wait. We're going to let the day play out a little bit. We're going to hop on in the evening at night, Monday night, to break down the biggest.

news. I think you'll see trades. I think you'll see those deals get agreed on. So that will be a lot of fun. So stay tuned for that. All right. Thank you to Solek. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Eduardo Ocampo for the video production. Additional production supervision by Connor and Evans

and Arjuna Ramgapal. I'll talk to you on Monday. Everyone, have a great weekend. We'll talk to you soon. Must be 21 plus and present in Slack States. Fandwell is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem. Call 100 Gambler or visit fandal.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Call

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