The Ringer NFL Show - Breaking Down the Six Tiers of NFL Free Agency | Extra Point Taken

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Sheil is joined by Ben Solak from the Indianapolis combine to analyze the NFL Free Agency Rankings on theringer.com, pick their favorite players from each of its tiers, and debate the individuals that every team should approach with caution before adding them to their rosters. You can check out Sheil Kapadia's free agency 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 Crackhour 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. Welcome to Extra Point Take It, Shilkapadia, here joined by Ben Solac, who I swear has been in Indianapolis for like two months by now. I mean, I don't know how many podcasts

we've recorded with this background. He is still at the Combine. We don't know if he's ever going to go home, even when the Combines over. Benny Soles, how we do it? Well, can I say it's a beautiful city. Gorgeous, love being here

very much in the great city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Yeah, now once your voice starts to sound like this, that's how you know you've been in Indiana a little bit too long. Yesterday we did a Philly special at around 1.30 Eastern time. And I didn't tell you this at the time. You definitely set the record for most yawns by a co-host I've ever had. So how are you?

Did we get some sleep last night or no? Are we still struggling? No, I went to bed last night. Like three was supposed to wake up at seven, slept through my alarm this morning. I'm talking to for real, slept through my alarm. Not I woke up, turned it off all back of sleep. Like, I'm sharing a room with somebody. And he was like, yeah, your phone went off at seven. You did not move. And I was like, yeah, my body was in, was in an open revolt at that time. All right, well, you got a big coffee there, it looks like. So that's good. It will get you through the next hour.

We are talking free agency today. There you, it was tall, Vente, Grande. What do we got there? That looks like a tall. It's a Christmas mug. A Christmas, Christmas cup. I don't know. I feel like maybe we're, we, the collective NFL appearance in Indianapolis has weighed

upon this one Starbucks and the JW Marriott so much that they've reverted to holiday cups. They scored in the back. They're just going to start. Any cups they can find, they're going to be given out to you. But yeah, so I got a holiday cup in February. It's very nice. There you go.

Christmas in March. We are talking free agency today because we are just over one week away from the start of the negotiating period, that two-day period where teams can talk to free agents, where they will agree in principle to deals, and then they can officially sign them on the Wednesday, the start of the league year. So here's the exercise today. It's simple. My top 50 free agents are up on the ringer.

com, definitely check that out. They are split into six tier. So what Solek and I are doing today? We're going to go through each tier and we're each going to identify one guy who maybe we like, maybe we find interesting, whatever, somebody we want to talk about. And then we're going to also identify at least one buyer beware candidate because we know a lot of these free agency signings are not going to turn out well. A lot of them are going to a year from now. We're going to be going, oh my gosh, that was a complete disaster. But we talk ourselves into it in March, April, May as we look ahead to this season. So we're going to identify some of those guys who might come with a little more risk. All right. Can I ask a procedural question show? Yeah. When you go to put together

your top 50 for agents, how do you do it? What's the process of building this list out? We're looking at previous contracts. We're going back to the film and chatting with local beats, with team sources. How do you go about building your list? Yeah, it's probably a little bit. of everything you mentioned. I just start by looking at who are the free agents that mostly look at snapcouns. Who are guys who played last year

who are now entering free agency? Then I look at previous salaries. Are the guys that were injured who are now entering free agency? And then just try to put it together. I think most of the top 50 guys I have watched film of some of them. Listen, life's too short for me

to be watching offensive line film and pretend I know what I'm looking at them. Bad take. I piece it together. there who rely on the Brandon Thorns of the world there. Most of the other positions, though, I think I watch and then I cobble it together based on, hey, how much did guys get paid last year? The year before, this age profile, this position, what I think of the player, who are my favorites, who am I higher on than maybe the NFL will be? Who am I lower on than maybe the NFL will be?

And I put it together like that. So there you go. The best film to watch is offensive line film, because they actually do something on every play. You watch safety film? Seven out of eight plays are useless. That's terrible. Listen, you are a football guy. I've never claimed to be a football guy. Again, life is too short. All right, here we go. First tier, okay, this is titled,

congrats, you just won free agency. These are the guys who are probably either going to be franchise tagged or either sign deals with their current teams or if they hit the market, new teams at or near the top of the market. So not all these guys are going to be available in free agency, but a lot of them are probably going to be in the news here in the next week or so.

March 5th is the deadline for franchise tag. So here's who I've got. Chris Jones, Kurt Cousins, Brian Burns, Josh Allen from the Jaguars, Christian Wilkins from the Dolphins,

Justin Matabouquet, defensive tackle from the Ravens, T. Higgins, Jalen Johnson, corner from the Bears, Antoine Winfield, safety from the Bucks, and Legerius Sneed,

corner from the Chiefs. Who is, do you have a guy in here, So, Lack, who you like quite a bit, who you find interesting as we look ahead to these teams,

decisions in the week ahead. I'm tempted to say Justin Matibuki. However, the title for your Matabukey section is, don't forget Nate Tice liked him first, which is very true. Now, Stephen, if Stephen were here on this podcast, Stephen would Bristol and say, I liked him first. Stephen was high on Matabuque coming out of A&M, just as Nate Tice was. We might need to do a little Twitter off, see who's got the first tweet. He's got the earliest Matibukey reference. Okay, all right. We can do a little research on that. I want to give proper attribution. Matibukey, I think, is a name that maybe not a lot of people know and has been an ascending player with Baltimore for the last couple of years, right? There were stretches 2021 for a couple weeks where you could see it started coming along in 2022 for a couple of months.

And he's had these nice runs of play. And then in 2023, contract year really coalesced, right? And so Maddibu's name, I think maybe not a lot of people know, but this is like a high impact pass rusher from the interior. This is a three-down player, defensive tackle. He's an impressive guy to watch. The dude that I will stand my flag on is the Lerius Sneed. And I think Sneed's a bigger name. many he's known more, obviously, outside cornerback for the Kansas City Chiefs.

He is playing in the Super Bowl. You're seeing pieces on him, videos on him, breakdowns on him. Sneed is just an unbelievably, like, he's a very unique player. This is a college safety who transitioned to NFL slot corner, who ended up being now, like NFL outside Pressman corner, there are the amount, you can count on one hand, the number of secondary players you can do more stuff with in the Lageria Sneed. He just solves a ludicrous number of problems for you. you. I'm here at the combine.

Deven's the backplay is all about like, okay, what role do you feel? Press man coverage, his own corners, and deep safety, strong safety. All these guys are siloed, and Sneed just breaks the system. It is really hard for me to envision a world where Sneed goes to a new team. I think he's going to get tagged and the chief said, we don't want to move off him, whenever. Whenever Sneed goes to a new team, like, it's so hard for me to imagine him being bad. Like, he might not be as good as he wants in Kansas City,

and the coach staff's got to figure him out, and they're on the smartest bag. are, but he's just so freaking useful. So Kansas City, very right. Not let a 27-year-old, like Lageria Sneed out of the building. The peers are going to tag him and maybe listen to trade offers, but I'd be surprised. So if it's this year and next year, whenever Sneed has the open market, man, that's one of my dudes. Yeah, such an interesting career arc, because like you said, slot corner where you're like, oh, man, Spagzel blitz this guy from anywhere and look at him.

And that's how he was using. And then this last year, he's playing outside corner and he just fantastic. I mean, only Stefan Gilmore played more snaps of man coverage than Sneed last year. 258 snaps. He allowed 16 completions for 220 yards on those 250 snaps. And just like the physicality, he is looking for a fight on pretty much every single snap. So yeah, that's going to be interesting to see what the chiefs do there. It sounds like from the combine, they're saying, hey, we want to sign Chris Jones to a long-term extension.

And then we might tag Legerious Need and potentially trade Legerius Need or keep legurious need. So I think that contract's probably going to come in around $20 million per year. Top corner contract right now is $21 million per year. You know, you hit free agency. You have an open market. You get paid a player of his caliber. It's probably going to get paid around that number. So those are good ones for sure. What do you think someone asked me last night what Chris Jones is going to get? What do you think Chris Jones is going to get? I think he may because I think he was going to beat Aaron Donald. Aaron Donald is at 31.7 million per year, and I think Chris Jones has a chance to get to like 32 or 33. I wasn't quite there before, but with the cap spike and with how he finished that season, I just feel like, you know, he's dug in and he wants that money. So Nick Bosa is at 34 million per year, highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL right now. Maybe Chris Jones gets close to that, but I would probably say 32 million per year for Chris Jones.

Man, I think I'm willing to make a funny money contract where the Adam Chef's a tweet gets $32 million per year, highest paid, above Aaron Donald, highest paid defense to tackle. Nuts and bolts wise, I'm not sure I want to be doing that for Chris Jones. Chris Jones is 30. Chris Jones likes to play December and January football, right? But I don't think like, you know, you have to continue to incentivize Chris Jones with the contract structure. I'll put it that way, right? I think you want to continue keeping his fire lit with the amount of money that he can earn by playing welfare of the season. I don't know. I think, I mean, he has just been such a cornerstone for them. And I want the guy who's showing up in December and January and impacting the game like he did on that Super Bowl run. Defensive tackles, past rushers, I generally am not so much in ageist. We'll get to some positions during this exercise where I'm like, I don't want a guy who's 30, 31 years old. For Chris Jones, you're probably, you know, the guarantees are probably going to be two years, maybe into that 30 years. So you're talking about their age 30, 31 and 32 seasons. You're trying to win Super Bowls right now.

they don't, it's like kind of underrated. Chiefs don't have a lot up front other than Chris Jones. You know, you lose him and that is a big domino to fall where now you've got to fill that need. So I don't know. I think I would probably be willing to go there with him, but we'll see if the chiefs feel the same. My like is the same as our show earlier this week, so we can move on pretty quickly.

That's Jalen Johnson. I had not just zeroed in on this guy's film like looking at snap after snap after snap until doing this exercise. And I was just like, I love this guy. His film from last year is incredible. You talked about the versatility of Sneed. Johnson, man, zone, physical. Good Paul production can do all those things, smart players.

So it sounds like the bears from the combine are like this guy's not leaving. So either they sign him to a extension, which again, I think that's probably $20, $21 million per year for Jalen Johnson. He's only 25 years old, a corner in his prime with all pro potential. So he's a guy I like quite a bit, someone to keep an eye on. All right, buyer beware from this group. I'm curious to hear who you have because this is, you know, this is a very good group. This is the top 10 guys in free agency. So who is your buyer beware from this group?

I think the obvious buyer is Kurt Cousins because of the Achilles, right? Like you just have to say you're obviously going to do it because it's Kirk Cousins, starting quarterback in the free agent market. But when you do it, you have to beware because he popped his Achilles. He's 36. You don't know if he's going to come back from that. He's 36 or 36. 36.

36. You don't know how nicely he's going to come back from that. So that's obviously there. I'm a little buyer-aware on Josh Allen, the edge out of Jacksonville. Josh Allen's a great player. Don't get me wrong. I would love to have a Josh Allen in my building. If you look at Josh Allen's sack totals over the last four seasons, right?

2020, he has two and a half. A rookie season, he has 10.5. Then it's two and a half, seven and a half, seven. And then in the contract year, 17.5, right? Real big, splashy performance there in the contract season. If you look at pressure rate, you have a similar sensation. 14%, 10%, 12%, and then 15% in 2022, 18% in 2020. Is he peaking and hitting contract year numbers and he's going to come back down to earth a little bit?

Or is he like legitimately improving and you can expect this season over season? There's an argument for both. I just think you have to be aware of the fact that like, I don't think Alan is a 15 plus sack a season. I would be worried about having that expectation for him. He's a very useful, very solid player. You brought up the Montes-Swet contract in your analysis of him. I think that's the appropriate, like, understanding of him, level for him. That's the caliber of edge that he has.

It's a great, great player. I want it in my building. But there's a shot that somebody who has a ton of money in this market just comes in and nukes it with like, you know, 95% of the Bosa deal. And that would be too rich for my blood for Josh Allen. Yeah, he's, Montes-Swit was 24.5 million per year. That felt like a good comp to me for Josh Allen. Like you said, he's been a good player. but man, the numbers last year blew up 17 and a half sacks, 33 quarterback hit.

So I think Jacksonville, he's probably going to get tagged there in Jacksonville. I would think I had Brian Burns ahead of Josh Allen. Would you agree with that or disagree with that? Yes. No. Burns ahead of Josh Allen, excellent. Chris Wilkins ahead of Justin Madameau-Buee. Absolutely not.

Okay. I'll fight you. You can fight me. All right. I had cousins as my buyer beware, so we don't need to get too much into that. It's just 36 years old coming off in Achilles and you're going to have to pay him 40 million per year. I understand why you do it. I'm curious to see if he stays in Minnesota or goes elsewhere, but I think we're probably underrating the potential for that.

Guys at 36 coming off in Achilles generally don't play the best football of their career. All right. Tier number two, break the bank. All right. These are guys, I would say, at least getting $10 million per year. Some of them are going to be pushing $20 million per year. So that's the type of player we're talking about here. I've got Jonathan Grenard, Eddrusher, Texans,

DeNeil Hunter, Eddrushar Vikings, Mike Evans, Michael Pittman Jr., Xavier McKinney, safety of the Giants who I'm probably higher on than anybody else, Patrick Queen, linebacker Ravens, Calvin Ridley, wide receiver, Jaguars, and Leonard Williams' defensive tackle got traded from the Giants to the Seahawks last season and is somehow still only 30 years old. I swear Leonard Williams has been in my life

for at least two decades. So I don't know if he entered the league at 10 or what, but he's still only 30 years old. All right, who do you like from this group, so like? I don't want to take McKinney from you because I know how much you love McKinney. I don't want to take John Grenard from you. I know how much you love John Bernard.

Those are my two, yes, from this group. I'll start. You look at the list. There you go. No, no, I know what I want to take. I know, yeah. I'm going to take John Grenard. I'm going to first you on John Bernard.

Yeah. Yeah, no, Granard has been a bad cat of mine for a little bit. liked money came out, liked money to landed in Houston. It's the Dave Coley year and the Lovy Smith year, and Davis Mills has taken snaps. And it's just, it's very challenging to figure out, okay, like, Houston's a terrible team. They're big in top five.

Like, there's nothing here to build. And I would watch that film, and I would love John Grenard and Nico Collins. I was like, they got two guys right here. Like, they have some building blocks. You've got to get to where you can see it. And for Grenard, the thing that has always impressed me and the thing I think would be really important for his free agency run is that While he is not an elite sack getter, he is a complete player and a high effort player.

So you like him on base downs. He defends the run. He defends the boot. He is a headache to deal with because of the energy because of the tenacity is a very good tackle in space, in my opinion. And then, like I said, well, not a high sack player. And even like the pressure numbers don't indicate that he's like a super highly productive player. He's long and he's strong, so he pushes the pocket a lot. He maintains rushing integrity.

He collapses stuff. He's very handy on stunts and games. like this is just the sort of dude who solves and creates solves problems for you defensively creates problems for the offense this is a very very very very useful player and so when you start thinking about okay he's making you know 10 million plus you don't need to give grenard your our edge rusher one money but you can give john grernard come be a really good edge too for us drop seven and a half sacks drop eight sacks you know you got to hit a number for us but i'm the lines with aton hutchinson right i'm the I'm the Bears with Montez Sweat and I want a guy who's going to ensure that I protect my other guy.

I'm going to my main sack at her. If they give all the attention, all the trick plays, all the misdirection, all the double teams are going that way. John Grenard will do the work for me to ensure that we punish that sort of behavior. Like that's, that's a great, that's such a useful freaking player to have. They're like, ask Miles Garrett what it was like to be the only pass rusher in Cleveland for a couple of years. It sucks, right? And so to me, I, I, Granard, I think is a, again, he's a,

a excellent player and he's a name that's not known because the sack and the pressure number's not going to be high. The highlight's not going to be crazy. This is the guy that NFL teams are scrambling to get into their room. I think we're going to do some free agency fits next week, but my ears perked up a little bit there, Jonathan Granard in Detroit. Hmm, kind of like that. It makes sense. The tenacity, the physicality. Their type of player. Oh, yeah. He plays with huge effort. A bigger guy, right? So you can do a little bit of kick inside stuff. Let Hutchinson stay weak side. Listen, listen. Detroit, I'm begging you. I'm begging you. I did the Lions podcast this week, and I got legit, like, emotional.

Please spend some money. Let's be aggressive, baby. Let's do it. You drafted unbelievably, and it's such an easy trap to fall into. Like, oh, we'll just keep drafting like the best team ever. No, go spend money. Compete. Let's win a championship.

I want to say that clip, you getting emotional about the Detroit Lions in free agency. I feel like Dan Campbell. Doesn't even surprise me. There you go. Yeah, Grenard had 12 and a half sacks, 22 quarterback hits for Houston last year. If I'm Houston and I'm looking to continue to build this core, I mean, I'm really, we talked about this on Monday, I think. I'm trying to keep him around. Durability has been a bit of an issue, but man, he can win in so many ways.

I think he's got big upside. Like, if you told me he's going to have double-digit sacks for the next three years in a row, I wouldn't be like you're crazy. I think he's absolutely got big time upside. So I like Grenard quite a bit. And then the other guy, we mentioned it, Xavier McKinney. I like quite a bit as a safety option. If Antoine Winfield gets tagged or if you don't want to pay him, Monson. their money. I think McKinney is a guy at 25 years old. I like his skill set. He's got range. He can play single high. He can match up with tight ends and man coverage. He's got good ball production. I just feel like he does a lot of different things well. I think safety is a nice position to kind of target in free agency because the market generally isn't wild and you obviously need good

players there. So Xavier McKinney is a guy. I've got my eye on. All right, buyer beware. I've got like three guys in this category. So I'm curious to hear who. who you are choosing. The second tier of free agents, you want to be getting the guy in the first tier, or you want to be getting guys in the third or the fourth. The second tier is,

like you called this the break the bank tier. Very easy could have been called the, you probably overpaid tier, right? Yeah, don't fall in love tier. Ah, see, I needed you before this.

All right, next year, don't fall in love tier. So for me and like, I invite this ire every year. I get yelled at this once a month. I understand, Coles fans are going to continue to be upset with me.

That's fine. I'm Byrubour. I'm Michael Pittman. Michael Pittman is a high caliber possession receiver. He is a high volume receiver. He is a quarterback friendly guy. He is tough as nails. He catches a lot of stuff short to intermediate.

This is like I have called John Bernard a handy player and a useful player. I've called the Jerry Sneed a handy player and a useful player. Michael Pittman is unquestionably a handy player and a useful player. However, in the league, victory is predicated on explosive players. We create explosives right here. You got to be able to rip the football down the field. You got to be able to create down the field. Pittman is not a field stretcher.

He is not a high caliber. a yak threat. This is an eddy steady receiver. And I love an eddy steady receiver. The Kansas City Chiefs would have done anything this year for an eddy steady receiver. The Buffalo Bills moved heaven and earth to find an eddy steady receiver. Like there's a way where you chase explosive and it goes too far. So absolutely, Pittman is a good player. But this is not the sort of guy I want to go give $20 million to free agency to. That is a misallocation of resources, in my opinion. That is too much money for a player who plays his way. In order to justify the you have to give him wide receiver one volume.

You have to be constantly funneling him targets. I don't want a guy who needs targets to be useful. I want a guy who makes his targets useful. It gets two one week, 11 one week, make them high value. So Pittman's in a tier with Mike Evans and Calvin Ridley. I certainly prefer Mike Evans to him. The Ridley conversation, like Ridley was coming back off the suspension. I like to think he's going to be better next year than he was this year.

I think Pittman played better than him this year. And so that one's a little bit tricky for me. Markese Brown is a tier below. I would pay Pittman before I would pay Brown. Do not get me wrong. I think Pittman is appropriately ranked. This is not the sort of money I want to chase in free agency. I want to go find a player who has a higher percent chance to dramatically change my team

with his physical toolkit. To me, that's not Michael Pittman. As much as I like to argue with you on things like this, I basically completely agree. I want to get 19 Coltsman to be like, I have a crazy thing. I've ever heard Michael Pittman. And you're just different. Like, I also agree. And you'll get nothing.

No, me. If a Colts fan yells at me and I do not see shield tagged, I will be furious. Listen, this is why, you know, you want the pop, you want the smoke, you got to take the good with the bad. I look to just be a little more under the radar, you know? I would love to be under the radar. I don't know what's going on. Michael, who? I watched his dad. What are we talking about? You know, so I can just play that role. But yeah, I'm with like 20 million per year. So here's a stat I had in here. 132 wide receivers have been targeted at least a hundred times in the last four seasons. Michael Pittman among that group ranks

108 in yards per reception. I mean, 10.9? That is a low number. Now, listen, if you're a Colts fan, you're saying, hey, Kabani hasn't had great quarterback play. They don't have anyone else there. All right, that's fine.

I don't specifically see it, him being an explosive weapon who I want to pay $20 million per year to. Now, I haven't said that, 26 years old, 17th among wide receivers in receiving yards, the last three seasons. So I think we need to emphasize that as we take the heat for our Michael Pittman takes absolutely has been productive, has been reliable, is young. Those guys generally get paid.

I would be hesitant to kind of pay him wide receiver one money for the next three years. And the other thing I would say to Pittman's favor is that Pittman is big boy, right? Pitman is listed like what, six, four, two, 25 or something like that. Like, Pittman is a healthy, young man. there are teams who currently have like a mid-tier wide receiver one. I think like the Chicago Bears with DJ Moore, it's like a good wide receiver one,

who I think could use a, we have a lightning, let's get a thunder, let's get a bigger guy, and then have a quasi-wide receiver 1A, 1B, like target distribution. We're like DJ and Michael

would end the season with like relatively similar target share. That like to be like that can work. But again, like you're spending the money to go get that. And you invite the problem of having two dogs with a bone, right? You can keep everybody happy. That's excellent.

Sometimes you can't. And then it becomes a big challenge internally and externally. You end a game with 11 DJ more targets or two Michael Pittman targets. You lose. Everybody's pissed off. So the next game, you have 11 Michael Pittman targets. Two DJ more targets. You lose every.

So it's nice to think about like the, oh, we have two wide receiver ones thing. But that hierarchy can actually create problems for you if you don't like really thread the eye of the needle of that harmony. And so even then, like, there's challenges that come with that. And the Colts certainly could tag him. I wouldn't be, you know, totally against them tagging him. If you want to say, hey, he's young. He's a core piece for us. Let's see what he looks like with Anthony Richardson and Shane Steichen.

Maybe he plays great next year. It has a ceiling. And you and I are on here saying, all right, we were wrong. We mis-evaluated it. And then you can pay him after next season. If he doesn't, then you can explore, you know, other avenues. If Pittman gets out of there, they got rookie contract, Alex Pierce, and rookie contract Josh Downs.

I like me of Josh Downs. I liked me and Alec Pierce. I'm kind of worried about Alec Pierce. I don't want to be walking into Anthony Bridges' and sophomore season come off an injury with two rookie contractors. The tag makes a lot of sense here. Yeah, they should not just let Michael Pittman walk for nothing. All right, now you mention Mike Evans.

He's another guy I have on my buyer beware, and I think I'm probably in the minority here. Mike Evans, awesome player, awesome career, awesome last year. One of the best seasons of his career. This is where I hit you with a little Aegis chill coming at you for the wide receivers. He's going to be 31 years old. So free agency is about paying for future performance,

future projection, not past performance. Last five seasons, there have been four wide receivers age 31 or older who have had a thousand yard season. Keenan Allen, Julian Edelman, DeAndre Hopkins, and Adam Thielen. That's it. Watching Mike Evans from last year, it's hard for me to even throw this out there because I'm like, I want that guy on my team.

Yes, put him on a fun offense. He's going to be fantastic. But I always like to look at the data type stuff there to say, well, how likely is it that that is going to be a season that is replicable here in 2024 and 2025? And again, Mike Evans is a guy you're talking about probably paying over $20 million per year. So how confident are you that you're getting, let's say, at least two more high-level seasons out of Mike Evans? Not very, unless I'm Tampa Bay, in which case extremely. Mike, like, Evans is, Evans is a classic guy where like,

if I were Tampa Bay, there's no chance I'm letting him leave. And if I'm another team, I'm probably not like tripping over myself to go get Mike Evans. The only teams for whom Mike Evans makes sense. And like, I was big on the Mike Evans should be traded midseason thing. If you remember, like, last year in the summer, I was like, box is going to be terrible. And big L for Ben.

And I was like, Evans should, you know, be a good trade candidate. And I was like, Kansas City, Detroit, which are two of the final four teams. Like, Evans makes sense for you if you're like, all right, we have a quarterback who knows how to do, who's excellent, we already know. Like, we don't need to figure anything out. We're going to have you stand over there

and just physically dominate the way that you usually do. You don't need to have the same volume that you had in Tampa Bay so you can stay healthier throughout the course of the season, and you're going to help get us over the edge, right? Get us over the line. Like, at the time when we didn't know what Kansas City's offense was going to be if they were going to win, like, he could have been a huge help. Detroit, like they need a second target.

Like, he made sense there. If I'm the Jets, and the Jets need a second target, obviously Garrett Wilson, Mike Evans just doesn't make sense. if you get it right, by the time it matters that you got it right, Mike's 32, and you're probably done with the deal that you signed him to, right? Just the time he doesn't make sense. He should, like, he loves Tampa.

He should stay in Tampa, Tampa. Tampa should keep him. If he does hit the market, he makes sense as a, like, you know, push you over the line sort of a guy. He doesn't make sense. Like, Mike Evans is too old to be considered, like, a foundational piece for a young, up-and-coming team. Like, that timeline just doesn't work. Yeah, I agree with that.

All right, the other guy I had here in my buyer beware, And I'm curious to hear what you think about this, because you were the first person I heard to say, Patrick Queen, the day Roquant Smith stepped onto the field with him, became a different player. And I think you were right about that. And everything we see. I'll never, I will never forget watching the Roquant Smith. The Patrick Queen felt like four weeks after the Roquant train. Be like, what is, what there is no possible way. This is the same guy. It was unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, he's got. And listen, the Ravens told us a little bit about what they thought about, not a little bit a lot. Last year at this time, they did. declined his fifth year option. That would have been one year at $12.7 million. That's a nice deal for a guy who made second team all pro last year in Patrick Queen. So Queen's got a lot going for him. Okay, he's 25 years old. He's been incredibly durable, which I didn't realize. I mean, he has started 67 straight games since entering the league. Like that is a nice sort of Iron Man streak for Patrick Queen. We saw in the right scheme with the right people around him, he can be a highly effective player.

However, we're talking about free agency. We're talking about other teams looking at him saying, hey, we're going to put him in our scheme, and is he going to be the same guy? Some salaries to throw out at you, Ben, Tremaine Edmins last year, four years, $72 million, $18 million per year before. Foye Aluacan, three years,

45 million dollars, $15 million per year. Are you, where are you on Patrick Pweed? What's the number where you say, yes, that's a player I would target, or are you more like what he's going to end up getting paid? I would rather explore other options. Where are you with him? Well, the thing is, like, other options. I don't think, I think he's the best linebacker that's available, right? And so, like, there aren't a lot of great options. There's a lot of sort of mediocre options, yeah. A thing that happened last season that I thought was really interesting. And like, you know, like certain things that coach is saying do just rattles in your head for a while. The Giants gave Bobby O'Caricay, $40 million over four. And O'Kareke was like a nice,

second backer for the Colts to Darius Leonard the same way that Queen had been for Wilkwan, right? And obviously there was a little bit of a difference because Leonard was getting hurt and O'Karekut was stepping into the top role and he was he was kind of showing you what he could do there. So you had a little bit more certainty with O'Kerke-Rokey relative to what you got with Queen right now. And they brought O'Kareke in and I was like, okay, like 10 million for a linebacker. The China said all these needs. Like I don't get this. And then at some point training camp, Wink Mortondale, he was at D.C. there said, you have a fast mic, your defense can play fast. If your mic came fast, you can't play fast. He was like, like, he was just like, he was

He didn't say, like, I've been coaching for 30 years. But fundamentally, he said, I was being coached for 30 years. And in order for me to, like, get a fast defense, I need a fast Mike linebacker. That's Bobby O'Carike. And then you watch them on field and you were like, dude, like, I can see this happening. Like, I see exactly what you're talking in terms of how he gets players set up, in terms of how he performs, the energy that he brings, the way that he moves. Like, I, that light bulb for me.

So it's not just, so it's not just speed you're saying. It's like doing everything quickly. Yeah, it's, it's his speed. And it's, and it's what it allows him to do. so Carecade can fly, but it's also the mental capacity, and it's the getting people lined up, and it's the changing stuff on the fly. No, that's a good clarifier, right? It's kind of, it's been both ways.

And so that lives in my head with Patrick Queen. We're like, when I watch Queen, the thing about Queen is, it's fast, right? I mean, this is one of some of the best range of linebacker that we've got in the game. Does he have the mental acuity before Rochwan, I would have told you no. But he, I think, got sharper by being next to Roquan. And Rochuan in the room, and Rochuan teach him kind of how to see things a little bit. And so I wouldn't want to give Queen the Tremaine Edmonds deal.

I don't want to give Tremaine Edmonds and Freeman Edmonds deal. I don't really want to give anybody who's not Fred Warner, Rokwon, Smith, the Tremaine Edmonds deal. And so, again, like, this is the sort of market where, like, I want to be involved. But if somebody comes and drops in 72 over 4, I probably'm going to pass on that, just because the uncertainty around Queen. If we're more in that, like, a Lleukon is 15 per, O'Carike is 10 per. I don't know how you get Queen below a Luicon.

If you can, I think I'm more interested in that, in that range for Queen. Because I do think that there's a little bit of a force multiplying effect that a really good Mike backer. And Queen might be that. Now, he might have come around that corner can have on your defense. Offball linebacker is a very interesting supply demand type situation right now in the NFL. You just mentioned it. I mean, we can't name 10 guys who were like, oh, yeah, love this. You know, love this guy running my idea.

So I think that's why we've seen. We talked about this a little bit on the Eagles pod that we did the other day. If you get a really good edge and you drop them into your defense, your defense benefits. Like his presence, you get a really good edge, bang. If you get a really good linebacker and put him on the field

with a second bad linebacker that he's not that great and your savings aren't that good, he cannot alone have the coverage impact that you want him to have. I know I just said, like fast mic fixes the defense.

Like there's some truth to that, but in general, like if you want to have good middle of field coverage, you'd have a great middle linebacker and then also a savings can play and also a second guy and so on and so forth. And so it's like,

I don't want to give 15 to Patrick Queen. If I felt like I was a Patrick Queen away and like that dropping him in could coalesce that that Ravens vision, that Fred Warner Niners vision of like we can really cover the middle of the field and zone, I would pay an arm

and a leg for it. But you have to have the the ancillary pieces. And that's one of the challenges of like oh, modern two high defenses. You need to have a good mic to get it done. You also need to have versatile safeties. It requires multiple pieces. And until you have all of them,

it's a fragmented picture. And you can't really see it. coming into being. And this is what the Ravens did with Roquan. They said, we are a Roquan away. And they dropped Roequin into that defense. Mike McDonald, they go first year, college defense coordinator. Like, this was not a unit that was thrilling to anybody. Roquan and you saw the force multiplying effect.

So like for some teams, I think you could get big for Queen. For other teams, not so much. Yeah, he's going to be, I think, a guy who gets signed very early and we'll see what the number's going to be. All right. I'm late for a break. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll get to these other tiers. All right, we are back on extra point taken. I want you to know that that entire Bobby O'Caricay, Ben's trying to remember, wink Marno quotes.

Nate Tice was standing on the opposite side of my computer dancing like a moron to try to get me to break. And I did not because I'm a professional podcaster. Next time, tell him to just come up behind you there. I mean, we already gave him the shout out once, you know. Get him on air a little bit. I'll tell him why he's wrong. No, I couldn't tell him why he's wrong with Justin Metabook. I can come up with something.

Mattabuki like top six. He's right. Just Madagouki. All right. The wild cards. These are guys who I'm like, I'm not exactly sure where to put these guys and you could tell me they get paid monster deals. You could tell me they have no markets. I wouldn't be surprised. So here's what we've got. Baker Mayfield, quarterback of the bucks. Marquise Brown, you mentioned him, wide receiver cardinals. Saquan Barclay, running back for the Giants. So like, thanks to the running back market's going to bounce back. Will it for Seekwan Barclay. Chase Young, edge rusher for the 49ers, and Bryce Huff, edge rusher for the jet. So this is a small tier. Let's see. I got 19 to 23 here.

So we're only talking about five players. So you don't have a lot to choose from. Who do you like from this group? I like Sequin the best out of these guys, just in terms like who he is as a player. I've never really been a Marquis brown guy. I think Baker's solid for what he is. Chase Young, I think some of the issues have been made clear. now Washington into San Francisco kind of,

he's still a ceiling conversation. That's just not where you want to be when you're on your second contract hitting for agency. Then Bryce Huff is a really, really good rotational piece. And sometimes those guys pop up to the starting level and are excellent. Sometimes they're not.

And there's some buyerboard to talk about. And so for Sequin, certainly you have injury concerns and he's been banged up and ankle problems. We only get 12 at 16 games for him. But I've seen Seekwan, multiple seat games in the past couple of seasons, decide that the giant's offense is going to be good that Sunday.

And then by virtue of his physical talent, by virtue of his skill and his acuity and his toughness and the volume that he gets, he powers the Giants to mean good, good on the giant scale of things. But altogether, like, this is a player with gravity. This is a player who can change the nature of your offense,

who can change the nature of your game, more than like a Bryce Huff is or Marcus Brown or Baker Mayfield. So, Sequin's my guy. As I've said, you know, you have Sequin here at the top of, the running back room. I think that Josh Jacobs, I would be willing to pay him a little bit more. I think, you know, somebody asked me, oh, the, you know, Jacobs has also missed games.

Like, why do you call Sequin injury prone and Jacobs not? Some of that is the nature of the injuries. I think that Sequin just has been dealing with lingering injuries and being at 80 to 85% a lot longer than Jacobs, who just like, will have a major injury, missed some time and then came back from it. So accordingly, like, I like Jacobs a little bit more. But Sequin still has, right, that kind of, like, great. gravity to him. That kind of, you know, one game takeover. I catch the ball six times. I run the ball

21 times. I break 13 tackles. Like, this is my football game to him. So I like him in this tier. And I think that contending teams and teams that feel like they might be a back away from being an elite offense, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Houston, should be in on the Sequin Barclay Market. This is, this is Sequin. He was a top five picket running back for a reason. This is a unique player, unique skill set. Go get the guy. Curious to see what he will get. I think maybe around like 11 million per year per Sequot. As we've seen, the running back market is very difficult to project here. Will it be a one-year deal with a contending team? Will it be something different than that? That will be interesting to look at with Sequin Barclay. Doesn't look like he's going back to the

Giants, but I guess things could change here in the days ahead. All right, Markies Brown, I know you don't like Markies Brown. I had him down here as an interesting guy to discuss. So he's 31st in yards among wide receivers the past three seasons. We know he can. can run from his college days, even if his yards per reception, is not high. You mentioned you like Michael Pittman more than Marquise Brown. We mentioned Michael Pittman is probably might have to be a $20 million per year player if the Colts are going to sign him to an extension. I think that Marquis Brown is going to be way under that. I don't know what the number. I was looking at Michael Gallop's deal from a couple years ago, which was 11.5 million per year. I feel like Marquis Brown is going to be

above that, but like, is he going to be over 15? I don't think so. So Michael, Pittman for 20 million or Marquise Brown for like 13 million and why are you not the biggest Markese Brown guy? Is it just that he's small? I think Pitman Markies Brown I do not like small receivers. I do not like receivers who are afraid of contact. I do not like receivers with inconsistent hands. I do not like receivers with inconsistent routes. Markis Brown's 4-4. I cannot set my

watch to Markies Brown being where he should be on the field when I want him to be there and behaving the way on the field I need him to behave when I throw him the football. When he was in Baltimore, they took him with a first round pick. He was their wide receiver one. He gets traded to Arizona. They sent a first round pick for him. He was their, their dominant volume guy. I think that's why, like, you know, okay, like top 30 in total receiving yards. He obviously rips off explosive players and the ball in his hands great. The Houston Texans just showed me that they can make a pick in the second round that can do Marky's Brown stuff at a fraction of the cost and probably has more juice, right?

I don't, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, a, I, I, a hundred eight, pounder down, it's, I, I, I, I, I, a, eight, a hundred eight-pound, track star anymore, to be, like, an explosive passing offense. I can find bigger guys you can do it, who can win the ball in the air and do some more consistently. Markis Brown is an extremely mercurial player. And I just, I, I, I, I, I, I don't pursue that at, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'll pursue that in the bargain bin and see if I can hit hot, but like, I'm not, I'm not trying to pay value for that. Brown is not, is not my sort of receiver. And like, for all the Colts fans who are very upset with me about my Pittman takes, the Marquis Brown fans would be furious with me over years, but Brown, they didn't like him. The Baltimore fan base did not like him, and the Arizona Cardo fan base didn't like him, right? So, like, this is not a complete player to me.

The case for Brown 27 years old obviously can run, like I said, 31st among wide receivers in yards over the last three seasons also has drawn the most past interference penalty or the second most pass interference penalties. Soft. See, that's not a positive. That's a negative. Catch the football, man. He's just bumping into contact and falling over to get a pity flag from a ref. I do not respect it.

Listen, the yards still count. Now, he's only average 11.6 yards per reception in the pro. So he has not, he's billed as an explosive threat. That has not happened. So if you're a team, you have to say, well, why hasn't that happened? Is that going to happen for us? It has not happened for him. Because he doesn't create yards after the cat. right. And so he gets these underneath targets

because they're like, oh, he's a speed threat. And then he can't break a tackle and he can't break an angle. And so it pulls him down. Like he's actually like decently talented on like 20 plus air yards. But it's a stuff underneath where he's supposed to have quickness and tackle breaking, ankle breaking juice that he just does not have. All right. Buyer Beware. A couple good candidates in this tier. Who did you pick? Marquis Brown feelings aside. I do want to just acknowledge a buyer beware for Bryce

Huff, who's the edge rusher with the Jets. Yes. I like a Bryce Huff. I'm excited about Bryce Huff. If I were running a team, I would want to be courting Bryce Huff. I want to see what his figure is. That this is a good pass rusher. We don't ignore those, right?

I am absolutely unequivocally interested in a Bryce Huff. However, Bryce got to be on the sideline for a first and 10. When Germaine Johnson was worried about a run play, when Carl Lawson was worried about a run play, right? When they got my big Michael Clemens and Sally Thomas out there to stop the run, and then that Jets' defense, line got the opposing team to a second and 11 to a third and 11. And then Bryce off real fresh, all right, just had a little swig of Gatorade playing about 30,

35 snaps. That other offensive tackle has been out there for 60 snaps this game. Bryce Huff gets to jog out onto the field and know that the opposing team is passing the football, right? And so, uh, Hoff is a very prolific sack player, but he has benefited from the situations he's been put out there on the field. And, and it is not to say his skill set, like is like, oh, can't work on early downs. Like, he's big enough in the modern.

an NFL, like, he's bigger on Hassan Brett. He can play on first and 10. And he can defend the run. He's capable of it. But when you check the snap count up, the efficiency tends to go down. Like, that's just the reality of it. And so I would be interested in looking at a price of a deal. But like, if I'm paying a big money, I want him playing 65, 70% of the snaps. And he's been at 40% when he's with the Jets. And you have to understand that when you do that, it's going to wear on the guy's body over the course of a game and certainly

over the course of a season. I also have it is my buyer beware. Now, like you said, great. story. Undrafted guy, 10 sacks, 21 quarterback hits last season. But his first three seasons in the NFL, he had seven and a half sacks before last year. So that's one where I'm saying, all right, how much is last year what he's going to be? Did he develop? Or is this a matter of that's an outlier season? So you have to answer that question. And then to your point, if he bust, he's probably going to bust in a bad way, like where he's not a full-time player. You just mentioned he played 42% of the snaps last year, has never been over 51% of the

snap. So that's one where I would be a little cautious if I were a team. And then Baker Mayfield. I mean, what is Baker Mayfield going to get here? There's stuff all over the place. I feel like I see a report every day about something with Baker Mayfield. I mean, is someone, are the bucks really going to pay him? Yeah. Monster money. I'm talking like, you know, 37 and a half, 40 million per year. Is it going to be like Gino Smith's contract where it's essentially one year, $25, $27 million, but you can get out of it after one year. after one year. I would just say like, chill out a little bit. I mean, you got to zoom out beyond just last year for Baker Mayfield. Last three seasons, he's 28th out of 38 quarterbacks and dropback

success rate. This was a guy that nobody wanted last off season. He signs a one year, $4 million deal. Do you really feel all that different about him? He had a very good season, no doubt about it. But I would say, don't overpay for competent guys with low ceilings. And try to, instead of just, oh, Baker Mayfield did it last year. Let's pay him all. Maybe look for a guy in the bold of Baker and Mayfield last year. Who's that guy this year, who you can get for under $10 million, who might be able to give you a level of competence.

So I'm very curious to see what happens there. He is not someone I would really want to make a commitment to for more than just one season. Yeah. My thing with that is I think all buyers are aware, including Baker. And so it's like... So you don't think he's going to get a big deal. I think he's going to get a deal that looks big,

but a deal that is like eminently getting. out of a bowl, a bowl, however you, like, right? It's like the Gino thing, we're like, they signed Gino to that extension, and then every three months, we do it like, could the C-Ox get out of this Gino deal? And then they're like, no. And then three months later, like, what if the C-Ox moved on from Gino? Like, if you, if you structure a big fat contract with, like, unguaranteed money and incentives, there's always an easy way to, like, escape the deal. Oh, it would take 20 million dead cap. Yeah, the Broncos is about to take 85 million dead cap on Russ, right? This is small potatoes. By the way, we should do a 60-minute pod just on the Broncos

about to take 85 million dead cap to cut Russ. It's amazing how quickly we've accepted this. Do you remember when they signed Russ? Like, this was at the combine. It was two years ago. And it was, here's the deal. And it was like, oh, my gosh, they are committed to Russ long term. They could never even think about getting out of this deal until after the 2025 season. Like, I remember the pieces that were at the earliest 2025, it would be crazy. And then we watched him take like a hundred snaps and we were like here's how they get out of after 2024 just immediately we were like yep 85 million here we go it I just I I I keep on saying it freely and then a little voice my head goes like you you remember Ben that that that's more than the two current biggest dead cap hits

in league in the history combined it's unbelievable that we're all just like yep they're gonna do it anyway so yeah baker's can get like a small deal yeah that happened started happening like five years ago where teams are just like all right sometimes you just got to take your medicine and move on. Like, we're not sticking with the, but this is wild. Yeah, that was different. Right.

But like when the Eagles took the Wendst deal, it was like the previous record was $21 million and now it's 30. Whoa. The record right now is 42. 85. They're going to take 85. And what that means for people that, that you are paying money,

that money is against your cap for a player who is not playing for your football team. $85 million. Now, what's cool is, and like I didn't know this until this week, because dead capits haven't been as meaningful. of a thing. There was some discourse about the stirring the Wendt's thing. But the Broncos will get money back on that pending the deal that Russ signs with another team. Right. And so there's discussions.

There's like theories. There's no sources here at all of like, what if Russ intentionally took the veteran minimum to ensure that the Broncos have to pay as much of his dead cap pit as possible? Because any money he takes against that, his team will pay and the Broncos will get back as credit. And so there's a chance of Russ is playing on like $1.2 million next year. Just to that way. Yeah, maybe he's the Baker Mayfield of this offseason. Who knows? It's a good time.

There you go. All right. Where are we? We are at the fourth year. Quality starters here. These are a bunch of guys. I don't really need to explain what quality starters mean, okay? We got Guard Robert Hunt from the Dolphins.

We have safety. Kyle Dugger from the Patriots. Jonah Jackson, Guard from the Lions. Pride of Media Elementary. Shout out Media Elementary. Kevin Dotson, guard from the Rams. Mike Onwenu guard from the Patriots. Frankie Louvo, linebacker from the Panthers.

Solex boy, Josh Jacobs, running back from the Raiders. Jonah Williams, offensive tackle from the Bengals. Jordan Brooks, linebacker from the Seahawks, and Dalton Schultz, tight end from the Texans. Who is your guy from the quality starter group, Solac? I've already talked about Josh Jacobs. And so acknowledging that he is my guy, I do want to bring up some love for Jordan Brooks,

who's a linebacker of the Seahawks. I think Jordan Brooks is the, you mentioned in your blur of the potential Bobby O'Kareke of this class. I agree with that. I think Brooks is a starting middle linebacker in the league. I think that he has a wide range of influence. I think he has speed and he has the ability to break down blocks. I think he's an impactful coverage player.

And that's the thing about him that really gets me excited. I think that this is a guy who can actually take away routes in the middle of the field. You pair him with somebody else who's capable of doing that, get a little Matt Milano, Tremaine Edmonds thing going on. they had in Buffalo and like you can really actually be a difficult team to throw on between the hatches because you have Jordan Brooks there. He was a first round pick for them and he came along a little bumpy, you know, up and down, and then they move on for Bobby Wagner and they bring Bobby Wagner back and he's had to play

strong side and then play weak side and they kind of just shuffled them around and then they had all this defensive identity change in Seattle like during his rookie contract where Pete Carroll goes away from the Legion of Boom stuff and then they're going to try to go back to the Legion of Boom stuff. and, like, defense has just generally been a mess in terms of philosophy and belief. And their defensive line play, their defense tackle play hasn't been that good. And so it's been tough for the linebackers to survive. When I look at Brooks in a vacuum, I see a good starter, right?

Like, again, like, you brought up the FOIA-Luacom contract, and I laughed because the FOIA-A-C contract, like, everybody, it's incorrect to say everybody is better than Follier-Lu-Lu-Con. But, like, if Foyer Lulaccon can get 15, Jordan Brooks can convince somebody in this market to give him a big deal as a starting linebacker. I think he can deliver on that. And so Brooks is a guy I'm interested in for my Eagles. He's got, I'm just curious to see where he lands. Because I think he can land in a spot where he walks in as the signal caller with the solid contract. He has Michael Carrake.

And he has a rising tide lifts all boats, effect on the defense he joins. Yeah, I think he's an interesting player, 26 years old. Tackles aren't everything, but 2021 and 2022. Second in the NFL in tackles during those two seasons combined. Then he tears his ACL, the end of 2022, comes back. Last year used a little bit more as a blitzer had four and a half sacks. Shout out, see Mike's spin move on Twitter. Just all kinds of threads on Jordan Brooks's coverage ability.

I feel like see Mike spin move should get a little cut of the four year, $40 million. If that's what Jordan Brooks ends up getting there. Griff, man. Griff's a pure poster. Yeah, no. There are some great clips on there to take a look at. So yeah, that's the neighborhood I think he's coming in at around $10 million per year. And I wouldn't, yeah, I think that's a reasonable.

number to pay somebody like Jordan Brooks who has some upside as an offball linebacker. So I think that is a good one. I've got Mike on when you. Own when you? I don't know. On when you two. On when you two. Okay, there you go.

Two things. Durability, versatility. Keep it simple. Okay. Has missed just three games in the last four seasons. If I were a GM or a team, offensive linemen and free agency, I'm all about durability. I don't like ceiling. That's fine.

I need a guy out there who's not going to be, he was going to be, he was going to be there every week and not going to be the weak link. And he absolutely fits that bill. He's played left guard, right guard, right tackle, has played all three of those positions. I think he could get the biggest deal of any offensive lineman in this year's free agency class. So I think that is a guy to keep an eye on from the Patriots. Maybe the Patriots keep him. Are you an own own venue fan? Why am I struggle? I'm on a wino fan. Yeah. I like d'enu coming out of Michigan. The versatility is a big thing. The size is really what is. interesting, valuable, but also a limiting factor.

There are some teams that are going to look at a 345 pound guard and say, nope, we don't do that over here, right? And so there has to be a specific fit for Enwendo. You have to know how to use a player like him. If I tell you, you know, there's three years, $35 million out there, and you can give it to Jonah Jackson or you can give it to Mike Nguyenu. Which would you prefer to give? Well, I can't go against the pride of Media Elementary.

You know that, but the versatility and the durability, I might, I would be able to be talked into on Wenu properly. I think Jonah's a better player. And I would prefer to give that to Jonah. However, Jonah can't kick the tackle, like you said. And I think, again, for some teams, the ability to weaponize Unwenu

and his size of the way that he blocks in the running game, I'll understand the value of that. And so this guard class man, Jonah Jackson is a really, really good player. Michael Wendu is a very good player. Kevin Dotson came along so nicely for the Rams last year. If you can buy that peak and say, like, no, he can do this year over a year and get him at a discount relative to those dudes. There's a chance you get better play over the next three years, add a cheaper price tag.

Kevin Dotson is very worthy of a roll of the dice in that regard. Robert Hunt with Miami, who Robert Hunt is, if Robert Hunt is healthy, Robert Hunt is probably the best of the bunch. Robert Hunt's been, I think, playing a lot of ball at less than 100% over the last couple of years. Robert Hunt is a high-impact player. say excellent guard market. One of these guys could be great. You got to figure out which one it is for you and you got to figure out how to make them healthy.

So that's the tough thing about a great top of the market like this is that there's a way to get it wrong because you don't find the real stud. Yeah, I think Jackson and I think Jackson I've got around like $13 million per year. Maybe Dotson. Dotson is a tough one because the Steelers made that trade last year. And it's like how much are you going off the one year? But I put him around $10 million. Kevin Zitler, if you just need a quick,

one year or two years, he's 34 years old. That's probably around $8 million. And like you said, Robert Hunt, I think, would probably be more than those guys. And I think On Wenu is probably a little bit more, a little bit higher than those guys as well. By the way, in this tier, I got to say, I saw Jonah Williams off its tag for the Bengals 31 and I was like, this is, how did she'll possibly rank him here? And then I read your blurb and I found it very convincing. You thought I was too low or too high initially? far too high. Jonah Williams? Oh, I thought you liked Jonah Williams. I was about to rip Jonah Williams and rip you for liking Jonah Williams, no? No, well, I'm fine with Jonah Williams. I don't think Jonah Williams is the 31st best free agent in this class. I was like, I agree, Jonah Williams over Zedaria Smith and over, uh, that's why the blurbs are there. You got to count on people reading the blurbs. But right, I'm bringing this up to say, you got to read Shield's blurbs. She'll be very compelling blurb on Jonah Williams. A lot of, a lot of the blurbs, one paragraph, Jonah Williams, you knew you were doing, two full paragraph. graph. Let me break down why this young man is where you see him.

On an offensive lineman. But you were absolutely right. And by the end of it, I was like, he is going to get the Andre Diller money. He is going to get the Joanopum money. And that's what the teams have showed us. It was very well done. Bravo and the Jonah Williams. Thank you. Well, he is my buyer beware, Jonah Williams' offensive tackle of the Bengals from this group. And so I don't think Jonah Williams has been a good player the last two years early in his career. He showed some promise, had some injuries, got bumped from left tackle to right tackle has not performed great. However, 26 years old, last offseason, Mike McGlinchie got $17.5 million per year to go from the 49ers to the Broncos. Okay. And guys who have played

left tack, again, Andre Dillard had basically not played football and the Titans gave him $9.7 million per year. Joe Noteboom had barely played and he got $13.3 million per year from the Rams. So I just feel like age, the position he plays, someone's going to play Jonah Williams. I will probably be critical of that signing if it's in that neighborhood. So that is my buyer beware is Jonah Williams. Yeah, my buyer beware for this group is going to be Frankie Louvo, a player who I love. Like, could not be a bigger Frankie Louvo fan, a intensity player, a tackling player, a splash play player, sort of guy that you want to have in your building has come along wonderfully for the Panthers over their time. There's an undrafted player. He's gone better year over a year. He's done work to

improve and find a unique role for himself. However, Frankie Louv is, the sort of player where you need to have the sort of defense that works for Frankie, right? And the same way, like Mike and Wen is only going to work for certain teams. If you are a team that does not want to send linebackers regularly on the blitz. If you are not a high blitz rate team, top eight, top 10 percent, you're going to struggle, top eight, top 10 ranking wise, you're going to struggle to find value on Frankie Louvo relative to, like, what the Panthers would have given him, right? If you, if the Panthers come with a competitive market for Louvo and you outprice them,

you better be willing to sit in this guy on, on, on, and 225, 150 pass-fress snaps. Because that's what he got last season, despite being a off-ball linebacker. Okay, so, if the Minnesota Vikings, go get them a Frankie Louvo.

You can't say, chiefs don't need a Frankie Louvo. The Detroit Lions, go get them a Frankie Louvo. These will make sense, right? This would be good. Aggressive, I like it. If the freaking Arizona Cardinals sign Frankie Louvo,

like, it's not going to work. You're just not going to get juice for your squeeze. And so Frankie, make sense for some teams. It's not going to make sense for everybody. I think that's well said. I think he needs the right coordinator, right scheme. He is a go-forward type player,

29 tackles for loss past two seasons, tops among off-ball linebackers. Deploy a Frankie Louvo from depth, baby. Just just set, just point him at something and let him run, bolsey and red. Yeah, 12 and a half sacks, 20 quarterback hits the last two seasons, but you need to use him that way.

So it'll be interesting to see what he gets. All right, one more break. We come back and we'll go through the final two. tiers. All right, we are back on extra point taken. All right. Tier five, short-term solutions. These are guys probably going to be in their 30s, who you're going to sign probably to one-year deal. So I'm curious to hear who you like from this group. Tyrant Smith, offensive tackle from the Cowboys. Jason Kelsey, Center for the Eagles, might retire. Sedaria Smith, edge rusher for the Browns, Derek Henry running back from the Titans, Fletcher Cox, defensive tackle from the Eagles. Sheldon

Rankin's, defensive tackle for the Texans, Kendall Fuller, cornerback for the commanders, Zavian Howard, cornerback for the Dolphins, and Kevin Zitler, Guard from the Ravens. Oh, I have more. Jedevian Clowney, Edrosher from the Ravens. It's a big tier, buddy. DJ Reader. Oh, I'm still going.

Defensive tackle for the Bengals. I don't remember writing any of this. Two more, two more. Slot Corner for the Indianapolis Colts and Trent Brown, offensive tackle for the Patriots. Who's your guy in this group? DJ Reader has been the secret sauce of the Bengals defense for last couple of years. This is just there is no space gobbling, run defending, kick your butt between the guards, defensive tackle, and the league quite like a DJ reader, right?

Like, it's like Dexter Lawrence, Vita Vail, like there are some names that are sexier and like Lawrence is more of a pass rush. Like there are better players, don't get me wrong. But if we just do those second and eight snaps or you're trying to force a third and seven, man, a DJ reader will get the job done for you against double teams, against big guards, against fast guards, little centers. he is such a freaking headache in that phone booth in that box. And that allows you to do a lot structurally, right? Like if you want to be a team and rotate guys around, play lighter linebackers, you need a dude who eats space on the interior. Reader is so so good at that.

Was playing wonderful ball last season. Torres Qua de lait was a devastating injury for the Bengals overall. I would love to get a one-year deal on DJ Reader in free agency, right? I get a little one-year, $6 million, can get to $8 million. with playing time, you know, whatever, the number of snaps.

And I sign that and saying, all right, we need you to do this for us for a year. And if you're healthy, we're going to come around and we're going to give you

a great following contract. We're going to give you a big deal, a couple more million, a couple more years, excellent. You got to do one year if you tore us quad. It's a big injury,

right? That's substantial. But if Reader's back to what he was, 92%, 95%, this is a great sort of player to be able to get on the market. Yeah,

Reader is the guy that opposing offensive coordinators, coaches, offensive linemen have talked about for years as like, no, no, no, this is one of the most underrated players in the NFL, DJ Reader. You wake up on a Monday, you play center and DJ Readers on a Sunday. You're having a bad week. Every film room is just a nightmare. That sounds just so painful. I mean, that was a good description of you. It's like, oh my gosh, I would not enjoy that. I would not enjoy waking up on a Monday and feeling in pain.

It's just a looming storm cloud six days out on the horizon. DJ Reader's coming to plant you in the ground four times in this game. It's a headache. Listen, it's kind of like I did like a little 30-minute Pilates yesterday, and I'm feeling it today. So it's very similar to, let's say, your Jason Kelsey going up against the DJ Reader, and that's how I feel today. So there you go. I can relate to these guys. Where was I? All right. DJ Reader, 30 years old, not going to give you a lot of pass rush, and like you said, coming off a season-ending injury. So I do think there might be that middle ground there. D.K., who is that? Danny Hyatt. What's Danny Hyphids holding? What did he buy some sneakers or

something? What's in his hands? No, so it's boxed lunches here and they go really fast. And so we've just been walking up to the media workroom right when they're released to like 1115, 1130, grabbing them and bringing it back down. Now, is there a vegetarian option among the box lunches? There has been, every single day. Really? What's it been? P.B. and Jay? Caprice? No, there's a veggie kinawa wrap. There was a Caesar salad without chicken. I've been not getting the vegetarian option, so I've just been seeing them from afar. I don't know what this, what I've been given, but hopefully it's good. Because the Minnesota Vikings, famously Super Bowl, Eagles, Patriots put a sandwich on my, you know, workstation.

That was not the, they had a caprice. I didn't get the caprice. They gave me some turn. I wanted the caprice. You know? Capresi? Yeah. Caprici sandwich.

Caprici? Capricet. I think I'm saying it right. Maybe is that technically correct? And then people have kind of like messed around and made it capriese? I'm doing a sopranos rewatch and I'm pronouncing caprice. I'm about to say, you're more reliable here, but I never heard a Caprice. All right.

DJ Reader going back. There you go. Yeah, Capriese. I would say Capriese. All right. I would say Caprizy. I was just asking. I was just asking.

The player that I like here, and you know, I'm turning into my nerd card here. I want to see, let's get Derek Henry on a fun team. All right? Let's see if he's got one more year left in him. Derek Henry led the NFL and carries last season. Unbelievable. Eighth in average yards after contact. still a load to bring down, still breaking tackles.

Is he the guy he wasn't his prime? Of course not. But if you're a contending team and you're bringing in a little Derek Henry on a one year, let's say, $8 million, is that too rich? I don't know. Something in that rage. Maybe you have some incentives baked in there. He's 30 years old.

Those running backs generally do not get paid. Maybe it's $6 million. I don't know. But I'm most interested to see where Derek Henry goes. And then buyer beware, So lack. I mean, we could really name almost the, there's a reason why these guys are in the, this tier. Who are the guys you have outlined, though, to buyer beware for the short-term solutions?

Yeah. Kevin Zeiler's in this tier. Kevin Zieg is probably. Really? That's interesting to be. I wouldn't have put him as a buyer beware. Why? Just because he's old? The Kevin Zyler filmed down the stretch of last season got real rough. I think he started playing the season well and just by the time season got long and obviously Raymond was made a deep postseason run. He was a problem for them. He was an issue for me. He was getting targeted by opposing defensive lines, kind of attacked by by top inside rushers. He was struggling to find a solution. Could be that he's getting along in the tooth.

You're going to get 12 good games from him next year, and then he's going to start to tail off. Could be the sign of something more. I'd be worried about Zitler, just given what I saw off of games against the league opponents late in the postseason. I just don't know if he had to sea legs under him. And so his play fell off,

Zavian Howard's play, starting to fall off a little bit. He's also in this tier, 31-year-old corner out of Miami. And, you know, they moved off from him willingly. I think that's, you know, I kind of tell you what you need to know. So those are the two that stood out to me. Trent Brown as well for the Patriots left tackle. Those are the three who stood out to me as like, off of film, I watched these guys

the last half of the season. I was just like, I don't know if the legs are still there for these players. I think if I were a GM, my no exception rule would be we are not signing corners 30 years or older. It's just the history is bad. Last year, so Xavier and Howard is 31. Last year, full-time outside starters age 31 or older, there were three in the entire. league, Stefan Gilmore, Patrick Peterson, and Darius Slay. It's just when the cliff comes,

it comes very quickly and those guys fall off and they become a problem for your defense. So I think Xavier and Howard's definitely one of them. And then I had Tyron Smith down. This is a tough one. Tyrant Smith was awesome last year. I mean, it was like vintage peak Tyrant Smith, but the guy has only played 30 regular season games over the past four seasons. So if you need a short-term fix at left tackle, he gives you the up. But the reliability at 33 years old, that would scare me a little bit. So maybe he just goes back to Dallas. I don't know if that's going to be the case, if they're going to play Tyler Smith over there.

But he's one. I would want to make sure I have sort of some safe stuff baked into whatever deal I sign him to. All right. Last one. The upside gang leads to younger guy. This is kind of like a while. I didn't know what to do with some of these guys. So I'm curious to hear what you think here.

So I've got, it's only four, what, four players? Gabe Davis, wide receiver of the best. Mills. Lloyd Cushenberry, Center for the Denver Broncos, Gino Stone, safety of the Ravens, and Tony Pollard running back of the Cowboys. Who do you like in this group, Benjamin Solac? How can you not be excited about a Gino Stone? Love a Gino. We're both Gino Stuck. The official mid-tier free agent safety of extra point taken.

We got cheeseheads for the Packers team. We're going to get rocks for Gino Stone. And they are, baby. Love a Gino Stone. This is Gino right here. right. Gino Stone just went when he was out there in three safety locks and stepping in for a half or for a couple of games for Marcus Williams. You know, okay, garnering

some experience. You're like, all right, like this young make a play. He knows where to line up. And he understands the coverage calls. He understands the route distributions. Like, this is a smart cookie. It's a little bit limited. Sure, probably. But still, like this is the sort of player you like to have in your building because you know you can drop them in there, can back up a different safety spots before you can rotate. You can do a little bit of everything.

Handy player. And then this year's got to start 10, 11 games, and at least leading interceptions. It's making high impact plays and coverage. And, again, range-wise, a little bit limited, which can be a red flag for me for safety. I'm a little bit buyer-beware on Gino Stone as well, just because if there's one thing I don't want you to be, it's to be limited range of influence. How dare you? We just named him the mid-tier free agent safety of extra point taken, and I know your buyer-beware.

But the film is excellent. The film is a player who knows exactly what he's doing. And also understands limitations, knows his range, knows how to cheat, right? Okay, you know, turn my shoulders to take this route away, but start sneaking over here to take that route away. He just understands football. Young man gets it. Very, very, very, very fun player to watch.

Very impressive player, highly prepared player. They speak wonderfully about him in the room. He's a raven, you know? So I'm very excited to see where he goes. I would, I got a free $6 million floating around. I'm trying to, I'm trying to land to Gino Stone to sneak him in my room, find a way to make him work. So I like, you know, I like Lloyd Cushabry a lot, too, in this tier.

The upside tier is fun for me. Yeah, Gino Stone, he's not going to win with his physical attributes, his athleticism, his size. It's all about the football IQ, the smarts. But, man, his film, those interceptions were very impressive last year. What was the deal that Julian Love got last year? It's like 5.5? I don't know. Is that what it was?

You're looking at it. I have around $6 million earmarked. Yeah, Julian Love was six per year for two years. Yeah. So I think that's the range we're talking about for Gino Stone. So if you don't get one of the top, top tier guys and you don't want to pay that, I think he is a really nice player to take a shot on 25 years old. Again, so there should be untapped potential there.

If it doesn't work out, it's not going to kill you. So I like Geno Stone too. He is my guy in this tier. And then buyer beware. Let's finish it here. This was a tough one because I don't think any of these guys are really going to get monster money. So who is the guy? You're like, I just wouldn't even want to take a flyer on this guy.

Do you have anybody in this tier? Gabe Davis is my. guy. I thought so. Gabe Davis was, he was given volume. So many routes, right? They line him up constantly.

He was always out there. And for the model that he is, right, this big body receiver, big player receiver down the field can be a speed threat for you, can also win a contested catch. If he were going to fully blossom into the player that that sort of mold can be, he would have done so in Josh Allen with Buffalo. He was in the perfect place for it.

And he never really turned that corner. He's 25. You can certainly argue. that a light bulb would go on for him in terms of landing in a more stable role and even if it's not like that high ceiling role, it's a more reliable role as he grows up.

He's probably block a little bit more. He's a little bit more possession style. There's a chance that he settles into a nice spot. But in terms of what was promised 6-3, 2-15, 4-4-speed, downfield guy, if we were going to see it, we would have seen it. So you can't trick yourself into paying for that. That gave Davis theory.

Now, as you wrote in your blurb, there's the sort of guy that teams tricked themselves in paying for the theory. And I very well could see that coming to pass. You know, you have extra money. You're trying to be in the wider super. You're the Carolina Panthers, trying to be in the wider supermarket.

Go get Michael Pittman, go get Mike Evans, go to T. Higgins. They all go somewhere else. So you just slap big money on Gabe Davis. Like, I will not be the least bit surprised. But for me, it'd be a buyer-aware. Yeah, if I were his agent, and I was making the sell on this podcast,

I would say 25 years old, size, speed, has been productive, has ranked 34. fourth among wide receivers in receiving yards the past two seasons. So he's been like wide receiver two production over the last two seasons, has averaged 16.7 yards per reception. We just talked about you want explosive plays. He can make explosive plays.

So that's the case for him. But I'm with you. Is Gabe Davis going to go from Josh Allen and the bill's past heavy offense to somewhere else and be more productive? I mean, he's young enough or maybe, but I think it's probably unlikely that he does that. Now, if you tell me, you know, $9 million per year for a wide receiver needy team, I would say, okay, you want to take a flyer, you like his film, you like his upside, that's fine.

I would just say, be careful and do not fall in love there with Gabe Davis. All right, there you go. We went through all the tiers, six tears. Who said we couldn't do a 70-minute podcast on a Friday, just about free agency tears? There you go. We did it. You can check all those out again at the ringer.com. You can read the extended blurbs.

You can look at where I have all those guys. And we're going to keep that updated. As guys sign, as guys get tagged, I'm going to jump in there and give you some instant analysis. So that's going to be in there as well. Solek and I will be back on Monday for our usual Monday format for extra point taken. So be on the lookout for that. We'll see what happens over the weekend. Will there be some trade, trade rumors, combine rumors, franchise tags, extensions?

There could be all sorts of stuff happening here in the next 72 hours before things officially heat. All right. Thanks to Ben Soak. We'll see if he's an indie for another three weeks or if he ever decides to go home. Maybe he'll go home once the baby arrives. I feel like he probably has to go home. Before that, I'm not sure. I like, I stood in a bar last night at like 11.30 p.m. close my eyes and legitimately fantasized about my own bed. I was like, oh my gosh. It's going to feel so good. I can't. I'm so excited. I am. I have never been more ready to go home than I am right now. And I will be here for another 36 hours. And since your wife doesn't listen, I can say this. At this time next year, you're going to be talking to me about how beautiful the hotel sleep is on a work trip when the baby's under one. I didn't say that. You didn't hear that. All right, cut that out.

I understand that. And that's the thing. It's like, this moment of like, I can't wait to go back home and see my wife is so precious to me because I was like, I will never ever have this again. I'll never feel this way for the rest of my life. This time next year, we want to go, go home and see the little one. Oh, man. I don't want Solek to get him. Only two things get him emotional.

What was it? Lions in Free Agency and the thought of his child. Those are the two things that get him emotional. Shail, I would say about three trillion things get him emotional. I'll cry at anything. I'm not attended a wedding that I have not cried at in my entire life. 100% cry rate of weddings. You make up for my lack of emotional availability.

That's why the extra point taken works. All right. Thank you to Ben Solek. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Eduardo Ocampo. for the video production, additional production supervision by Connor and Evans and Arjuna Ram Gapal. We will be back on Monday. Talk to you then. Everyone. Have a great weekend. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandwell is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem. Call 100 gambler or visit

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