The Ringer NFL Show - DK Metcalf Requests a Trade, Free Agency Matchmaking, and More

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Sheil, Steven, and Diante start the pod by discussing DK Metcalf’s request to be traded from the Seattle Seahawks and debating the most optimal landing spot for the star wide receiver. They then dissect some of the latest player moves around the NFL, including big news on Maxx Crosby, Joe Thuney, and Zack Baun (30:37). Finally, the crew take a hard look around the league and speculate on trades that probably will happen, opine on signings that should happen, and share their most fantastical player-team pairings that—most likely—will never happen (42:14). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Kiera Givens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Make sure to follow us on Spotify, where you can watch. watch every new episode right now. Just head to the rewatchables on Spotify, now on video. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capadia here with Stephen Ruiz and Deonté Lee. You know, the negotiating period is supposed to start what Monday of next week? The actual start of free agency is supposed to start Wednesday of next week. But it feels like we're in the thick of it.

Every time I look up, there's a new trade request, a new rumor, a new resigning, and extension. Deante, we are in the middle of the offseason already, it feels like. 1,000%. This is rumor mills swirling all the time. I think that we're in an interesting place just in terms of this era of the NFL because teams are so much smarter with team building. Like, we don't get the flashy names hitting the market as often unless there's some kind of significant baggage, which I think kind of makes it more interesting in some ways when you start talking about the trade market, which I'm sure we'll get to. But yeah, yeah, there's, every I'm open up social media. I see something else

from Rusini or Schaefter or, you know, Rappaport or Schultz talking about some guy that's available or some rumored deal that might be out there for a player. He went Rappaport and Schultz, Ruiz. He's making sure he's equal, not taking aside here. Yeah, you got to keep that

beef alive too. Every time you talk about those guys, you've got to talk about one or the other. No, it does feel like that. It feels like the league has gotten more creative with building rosters and like as you see other, our execs from other sports kind of infiltrate front offices, I feel like that makes sense. But now it falls to us to have like a take on like, oh, 2-2-at-will signs an extension for $10

million and now we have to have a take about it. And it's like that probably doesn't really matter that much. Yeah, we don't have to. I don't think we have to. We got other fish to fry, as they say, and we get trade requests. I think there's a lot of this going on too where it's, I want to be paid this much. We don't want you to be paid that much. Okay, then trade me.

Okay, go, go let your agent, go talk to other teams. That seems to be a pretty big theme so far early in the offseason, which brings us to our first big news items. So we're going to get to some big news items, and then we're going to do a little free agency matchmaking in the second half of the show, which is always fun to see where some of these guys could end up. But D.K. Metcalf requesting a trade seems to be probably the biggest story in the NFL right now as we record this.

He is entering the final year. deal with the Seahawks. He will be 28 years old for next season, had 66 catches for 992 yards. Last season certainly was not his best season there in Seattle. And so now the Seahawks have to decide again, this is what I just talked about. I think that's probably what this comes down to, is D.K. Metcalf in his camp saying, extension time, entering the final year of my deal, here's what I want. And the Seahawks saying, we're pretty far apart. And maybe that leads to a trade request here, Deante. So what's your read on kind of this D.K. Metcalf situation, the likelihood of a trade,

what this is all about. And even if, you know, we can certainly get to some potential landing spots here if you want to as well. I mean, I think that Seattle is best served to try to keep D.K., I think the thing that is tying this up, like you said, is probably the figure, right? I think that they're probably okay with extending him for some years and keeping him around. I think the issue is that D.K. probably looks at A.J. Brown. Looks at Justin Jefferson. and looks at what Jamar Chase is probably slated to get on his next deal and says, hey, I want to be 32 million plus as a receiver.

That's the going rate. If Amon Ra St. Brown is making this much money, I want to make more than Amon Rae St. Brown. I feel like I'm more impactful as a receiver than he is, which I don't agree with, but I can understand the thought process behind it. And if you're Seattle, you just can't. I don't think that you can extend yourself in that way for a receiver

that doesn't change the math for your offense. I think that we may see, we may see this kind of be a protract. thing for them because I don't think Seattle is necessarily motivated because you're not going to get, I don't think, the biggest trade return for them in a way that would justify making a move right now. So I would not be surprised if this is similar to the IUC situation last off season where we hear about it ahead of the draft and this thing just stretches out into OTAs and towards training camp before they ultimately land on an extension that maybe gives Metcalf what he wants in the first

two years, but as team-friendly in year three and year four of the deal. He's such a tough player to kind of evaluate just because of the physical profile screams, I'm a wide receiver one and I should be paid like one. And then he makes plays that kind of look like a wide receiver one because he can make plays downfield. But he's not one of those receivers where you can just like, to use like a basketball term, like go get you a bucket on third and seven. You're not expecting him to be that guy to make the catch over the middle.

You're expecting him to produce explosive plays, maybe take a slug. where he's facing a smaller corner, you can keep him on his back and then do something after the catch or make a play downfield. But I wouldn't trust him in traffic on 30 and eight with the season on the line, that type of deal. But if you're D.K. Metcalf, of course, you look at your production,

you look at that physical profile and what people usually think about that type of player. And I would be looking for $30 million too. But I think he's kind of a tough player to trade. I don't know. Maybe a bad team will talk itself into trading for D.K. Metcalf and him elevating the offense, but I feel like he has to go to a team that's established as like a winner with a good

offense and he kind of fits into it rather than an offense that's kind of ascending or maybe like even bad or mediocre right now and expect him to elevate it. I just don't think that's going to happen. Yeah, there's so many layers to this. I don't think I realized until this trade request came out just kind of how polarizing he is among like people who I trust and value their opinions. There is a wide range of opinion on D.K. Metcalfe, what he's worth, what kind of wide receiver he is. So let's break this into chunks a little bit. Let's stick on what Deonti mentioned with Seattle first before we get to the other teams. What is their plan here if they are going?

Is it just a leverage thing? And they say, go, all right, we'll see what other teams will pay you and come back to us. Because if you're trading D.K. Metcalfe, you just release Tyler Lockett. You probably have to make a decision on Gino Smith, who's going to be 35 years old. Like, I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what their plan is. Are they just trying to, like, create some time and we don't want to do that deal and let's get younger? They're certainly not, it feels like saying, hey, we can contend in the next two years with Gino Smith. It doesn't seem like that they're at that point.

But then are you paying Gino Smith as well? So I'm trying to figure out their motivation because they've got Jackson Smith and Jigba, who had a very nice year last season. And I think Jake Bobo would be there. There's a lot of receivers. Which I love the last name. I'm a big Bobo fan. But I don't know that I would like feel.

great about contending in the NFC. And I know there's still the draft and there's other moves you can make. But I don't understand why the Seahawks would be that motivated to do this. I would be more inclined to extend D.K. Metcalfe and be like, all right, if we give him $30 to $32 million per year, that's, to me, doesn't seem like it's going to be an albatross of a contract. You know, I think he's a pretty high floor wide receiver. He's entering his age 28 season.

He's missed three games his entire career. So he's been very durable. he's 12th in receiving yards in the NFL over the last three seasons. So just to me, it seems like if you're looking at it, like you're not, I don't know that there's a high percentage that you're really regretting this two years from now, unless he just totally doesn't want to be there. So Ruiz, what am I missing from Seattle's perspective here with D.K. Metcalf? I think it's just the timeline they're on.

I feel like we've been hearing whispers of them moving on from D.K. Metcalf or Tyler Lockett like trading one of them over like the past three years. And I think Locker got to the point where it was like a point of no return where like, yeah, we got to end this relationship right now. With DK, I think he's probably accelerated it with this trade request. But also like they're changing the offense. I think they're going to try to build a defensive first build with Mike McDonald as the head coach. So maybe you don't want to pour extra resources into the wide receiver position.

And then I don't know how good of a fit he is in this offense. Like it's Clint Kubiak, the style of offense or the coaching tree he comes from very particular. particular about how the wide receiver plays, very picky about how the wide receiver plays. And I don't know if D.K. really fits into that style of offense. I think that's another complicating layer to this is that I think Seattle would love to have him back. I think he's a valuable wide receiver to have on your roster, but he's not a great fit for the offense slash he wants a lot of money and wants to be paid like a game changing wide receiver where I think he is, he does change the game in ways. Like I don't totally agree with Deontay where he doesn't

change the math, but I get where he's coming from there. I don't think he changes the math reliably in every single matchup. I would be very nervous about trying to find players, give up on good players to fit Clint Kubiak's scheme. I think that's fair. I'm just saying. Yeah, that's a fair point. Yeah, it's like, you find me an offensive coach who wants less talent at, now I know,

I know you're not saying it's just that. I hear what you're saying. It's also the money aspect of it. But Deonti, that would make. make me a little nervous. Is there anything else from Seattle's perspective? Or is it like, you made a good point. Maybe this is just a let's do the dance. And then, you know what? We might meet back up here in August and you might be a Seahawk for the next four years. Yeah. I mean, to me, that was kind of like what the I.U. thing was, right? It was like,

all right, if you think you're really worth this much money, then go source the contract elsewhere and bring it back to us. And then we'll talk about the terms that work for us from there. To your point, Sheal, to me, if you let go of D.K. McCaptain, you were officially saying that like, Gino is a lame duck as quarterback and that this era is about to be totally pivoted. Do you trade Gino? Do you trade Gino if you're trading D.K.? That was a question I had. So, and the way that they've been trimming their roster of the veterans that they had brought in over the years over this last week, kind of suggests the fact that they acknowledge that they're going to need some kind of big pivot in the next off season or two.

So if you move DK, then to me, the conversation we're coming back to is, is it time then to just blow the whole thing up, right? Do you trade Gino? Do you eat dead cap by getting rid of other veterans? And now you just bottom out and hope that you can get a quick pivot by taking all your medicine in terms of dead cap money in this offseason, right? I don't know if that's how Seattle wants to operate. We just don't know. We don't know John Schneider to ever look at team building from that type of perspective.

They're always trying to find different ways along the margins to build on offense and defense. I think that he obviously has prioritized receivers for as long as he's been GM there, whether it's win with Pete Carroll and now obviously with Mike McDonald. DK for them is still a developmental success story. Even though he's not necessarily a receiver that I'm in love with, I can recognize the fact that he came in with a pretty raw skill set and they found a way to make it work in spite of the fact that he's not the most refined route runner that you can kind of affect his, at least this past season.

You were really able to kind of take him away by leaving coverage over the top of them. We didn't see the same level of explosive production from him that we got used to over the first five seasons of his career. And maybe that does bounce back with Clint Kubiak, right? I think about the first few weeks in New Orleans last season. They were magical. When they had their speed with Olavay and Shaheed, right, they were really able to push a ball downfield.

And I think we saw in the first month of the season with Seattle and Ryan Grubb that Gino Smith is totally fine with operating that way. When they were connecting deep down the field, you saw a really confident, a really aggressive Gino Smith. I can understand that working for this offense, at least for a year. and then maybe you can start talking about pivoting the rest of that depth chart next offseason. I just don't see the sense in doing that right now because you can still compete in the NFC West.

I mean, I think part of it is like shifting resources where you're allocating those resources. Like they've been a wide receiver heavy build for the past couple of years and it just didn't work because the offensive line didn't work. I could see them kind of shifting and being like we're going to build the core, the wide receiver core around JSN. We're going to build up the offensive line. And the best way to do that is to kind of get assets for DK Metcalf. That would make total sense for me. And I don't think it precludes them from competing next year in the NFC West. Especially if Mike McDonald's defense takes another step,

which you did in Baltimore going from year one to year two. It's kind of the same situation where we saw struggle early on in year one, improve over the second half of year two, and then he really installed things in year two. Sorry, it improved over the second half of year one. Then it improves, it makes the leap in year two. And if they could just get a run game going and then get a play action game going off of that, I think that's enough to be a better team than they were last year, even though the roster on paper looks a little better in 2024 than it would in 2025.

I guess that makes sense. I guess for me the thing is, right, and this is probably what Schneider and McDonneller are looking at, is that in 2026, they've got a pretty open cap sheet. So they're going to have a lot of opportunity to remake this roster anyways. I just don't know if you need to accelerate that timeline right now by trading DK. Again, unless we are going total four-year window on this rebuild, we are going to slow walk. Rebuilding this offense will be a little bit more better and heavy in terms of our allocation of resources on the defensive side of the ball and hope that we find a quarterback in the next offseason or two. To me, again, I just don't see Seattle operating that way. I just don't know of this team to work that way in terms of team building.

I think that this is trying to figure out exactly what the next figure is going to be in terms of guaranteed money for the next deal. wouldn't be surprised at all if we got to OTAs and DK is still a C-Aog, and we know that they've got a four-year deal on the way. I think even if they do commit to a rebuild by trading D-K. I just don't know how moving on from Gino really helps this team over the next couple of years. Because he's a bargain at his price right now. So trading him, I think you're getting rid of a bargain. One of your advantages that you have in your roster building.

And then two, I know he's a one season, right? He's probably got to get it. He probably have to give him an extent. I mean, they don't have to, but I think in all likely... I think they will extend them this year. I don't think you let a good quarterback like that just walk out of the door. So he probably won't be a bargain, you know, unless he's taken less or something like that. You're probably giving him, what, $40-ish million a year?

If I'm Gino, you're getting more than Baker, given the cap spike, you know, cap increase, I would think. So even if you use that as a minimum, you're saying now 30, and that's still less than... That's a bargain in a league where you have like two of making over 50s. 50 million and you have Jared Goff making 50 million. I think he's a better quarterback than both of those guys in a vacuum. It will be interested in you see. I don't think, but I don't think a DK. Metcab trade necessarily means, oh, we're tearing it down and we're rebuilding from scratch. Yeah. All right. So that's the Seattle end of it. The compensation end of this. This is also very tricky, you know? I saw Diana Rossini tweeted out that they're asking for a first and a third.

And at least, you know, the reaction I was saying was that that's crazy. online. I just look at recent wide receiver deals and it's usually a little richer than you think it's going to be. Now, I know he's not Tyree Kill or A.J. Brown. So Tyree Kill got a first, a second, and three day three picks. So, all right, that's the max we've seen here in recent years. A.J. Brown got a first and a third. He was 25 years old. The one I go to is Stefan Diggs last year got a second from the Texans. And he was 31 years old. and he said you have to rip up the next year of my contract. Yeah, I still can't believe that the Texas gave up a second round pick.

Yeah. So there was that. DJ Moore in that Bears Panthers trade was essentially treated, if you look at past trades like that, was it treated like a first round pick, basically, in that trade. So I think DJ Moore is probably the best comp, for me at least, if I'm looking at those receivers, what class a wide receiver is DJ Moore in? So I'm not saying, like, first and third, I think is too much. a pick in the 20s to me,

if I'm the Seahawks, at least I would start asking there. I'm not saying they're definitely going to get it. I don't think that's crazy. I think certainly a top 50 pick, given what we've seen with wide receiver traits. Again, he's 28 years old. Like, he's not over 30.

He doesn't have an injury history, that kind of thing. Now, I know you have to pay him after you trade for him, but that's usually the case. Like, I think Tyree Kill and A.J. Brown, I believe that was the case for both of those guys that when you trade for them, well, now you have to give them,

them an extension. So that's not unusual. You look at the other options on the table and how hard it is to, you know, acquire somebody who even if you don't think he's like high end number one receiver, he's definitely better than a number two receiver. So if you want to say one and a half or whatever, it's just hard to acquire those guys. So I actually don't think it's crazy if you told me he goes somewhere, but, you know, you get a pick somewhere between 25 and 45, something like that. That seems reasonable to me. Deonti, where are you on kind of what the competition? sensation might end up being. I was tweeting about it earlier this morning. I think if you're talking about a one plus, it's a non-starter for DK. Like to me, it's just rich period for wide receiver. When you start

talking about one plus. So now you've got to be, to me, you have to be discussing offensive player of the year level players. And we know what the wide receiver position, that list is about three, maybe four names deep, right? A.J. Brown, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson. D.K. Metcass is not that guy. If you're just talking about a late one, like you laid out, to me, if I'm the team trading, that, I'm still maybe wincing a little bit as I put that on the table because you're giving away a first round pick for a guy that you know is asking for $30 million. That's a lot in terms of draft capital plus money that you're going to be allocating in this one transaction. I think once you start talking about two day two picks, that to me is a little bit more palatable

if I'm the team looking to acquire DK Metcalf, right? If I'm the charges, if I'm the Patriots, If I'm one of these teams that we know is going to be looking in the market for a number one receiver, I'll give away a two in 2025 and a conditional third and 26 that can convert into a second if he's an all pro or if we make the playoffs or some, you know, some kind of conditions in that in that respect. That to me, I think, is a lot more palatable. But if we're talking about the Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown level of compensation to acquire the guy, I would much rather just take my chances in the draft. It does only take one team.

You only need one team to give you a first round pick, so I'm not like saying that's not on the table. I think it ends up being a second. If I was in charge, I wouldn't go higher than like a late second, but I definitely think that a team's going to get desperate enough, especially with his skill set because he does offer that explosive element to your offense, which is what every offense in the league is looking for right now, is an explosive downfield playmaker.

So I wouldn't be surprised if he does fetch a late first. I don't think the team that gives it up will live to, not regret it, but I don't know, we'll see what happens. The NFL's like, they get crazy about some of these positions and wide receivers definitely on that list. All right, let's take a break and then I'm going to, I want to do finish the

D.K. Metcalf conversation with where could he land and what team should consider it. I have a team I want to hear if you think they will live to regret it because I've got one name on my mind. So we'll get to that. We'll get to some other news items and then of course we will do some free agency matchmaking

in the show. All right, we're back on ringer NFL show. I want to hear your guys teams first and then I want to hit you with the team I have in mind for D.K. Metcalf. So if you're just considering a team that should consider him, a team that, hey, if I were this team, I would be looking into it, a team that you could say, I probably wouldn't do it, but I could see them doing it, whatever direction you want to take it. Ruiz, is there a team or two that sticks out to you that could be a D.K. Metcalf landing spot? I do not think this is going to happen at all, but I would like to see it, and that's the Lions. I think you stop banking on Jameson Williams being available and being reliable, and you go get

yourself a proven downfield threat to match with Amun Rae St. Brown and to match with that running game. And I think you stretch the field a lot. And stretching the field with that offensive personnel is, I think it would be a force multiplier for them. I think that's the best case scenario. And like I said, it's adding to an offense that's already good and you're just elevating it rather than an offense that needs to be.

to get to a certain level before you can compete. Question. Do you put James and Williams in a deal to try to preserve some draft capital if you're Detroit then? I mean, yeah, I think if you have those two skill sets and you want to have tight ends on the field at times anyway, like multiple tight ends, you don't necessarily want to live in three receiver sets and then why not? Yeah, I would say James and Williams may be a third.

Jameson Williams and a conditional third. That might be something that's worth listening to if you're Seattle. That's an interesting one. I had not thought of that. I had not, I didn't, I wrote down a bunch of names. I had not thought of the Detroit Lions. Fits that kind of bully mentality that they want to play with, with Dan Campbell. Yeah, all of a sudden, I always talk about just like, if you're a defensive coordinator

or the armpits sweating when you're thinking about game planning for this team and you throw D.K. Metcalfe in there with Amon Rae St. Brown with Jemir Gibbs, with that offensive line. All of a sudden, yeah, you're definitely turning into one of those teams. So that is an interesting one that I did not have. Deontay, do you have a team for us? I mean, I kind of hinted at them. Mine is the Chargers, right? Like, I can see the Chargers making a deal like that.

It gets them away from having maybe overbid on some of the veteran ride receivers that are available in a free agency because there's really not a lot of attractive names. Or, you know, it's a lot of guys you might be paying on a one-year deal or you're banking on Chris Godwin, being healthy, you know, by the start of the year and being as effective as he was to start last season before he did break his leg. So to me, I could see them parting with some. day two draft capital. They're already kind of hitting the reset button around Herbert as it is. You know, you get the news that Joey Boso is going to be released. You know, that they've already

let Khalil Mack walk. Like they're pretty much opened up their window now to be able to go in a bunch of different directions. And I could see, I could see Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh looking at a guy like D.K. And be like, like, that's our Sammy Watkins. The way the Roman had him in Buffalo that where, you know, Tyra Taylor looked really good. I think that that's, that may be outside of Lamar, the best version of the Greg Roman. offense was in Buffalo when they had a nice balance kind of skill set around Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins, you kind of have Ladd McConkey to fit that Woods role. You can go get your vertical stretch guy. I think that that would be a really friendly option for Justin Herbert.

I can see a lot of sense being made of that. And I don't think that that precludes them from still being spenders in free agency the way they need to be to fill out the rest of this roster. That's a situation that is just meant to torture me. I just can see the third down target where the deep drop. The deep drop on the post. And it just happens to fall into the hands of the free safety that's out there. That one makes a lot of sense to me. It does.

If you're talking about filling your premium positions on offense and you're going into next year with Herbert, Rayshan Slater, Joe Alt, D.K. Metcalfe and Ladd McConkey, like you can really do a lot of best player available in the draft and, hey, let's pick our spots and free agency for values we like. I know the defense is another story, but I would want to, like, that is, that is, a bear, that is a nice solution if you're the Los Angeles Chargers. And I love, I love the fit. Matt Metcalf and McConkey, obviously not going to be like redundant in their skill sets there. It gives you an outside guy who can win in some different ways. So I think that's a good one.

My team. Go get you, go get you, Dawnman to play center. So you don't have to, you don't have to, you don't have to rely on Bradley Bozeman. You might be cooking a little bit on offense. You might be in a good spot. Yeah, going into next year. Why are the Kansas City Chiefs not on the phone doing this yesterday and outbidding everybody for D.K. Metcalf. Does this not solve a lot of the problems we've talked about with the Chiefs?

They are ready to win right now. They have no avenue that I know of other than a move like this to add a player of this caliber. He is not redundant with the other players you have. Maybe you can say the explosive thing. We can get to that. But in terms of D.K. Metcalfe,

now you have Rishie Rice in the slot. Now you have Xavier Worthy at the other spot. Now you have a nice, well-built receiving core who they're all 28 years old or under. I know you got to build the offensive line. I understand that. You still have to do that. But I feel like there's not going to be a lot of opportunities for them like this. Would you give the 31st pick in this year's draft to the Seattle Seahawks for D.K. Metcalfe and sign him to an extension for $30 million or $30 to $32 million per year? I'm telling you right now, I would do that and I would figure the rest of it out because I think this is going to be so hard for them to find a player like this and with Patrick Mahomes in his prime.

I love that move. I love that move. That would make a lot of sense. That would make a lot of sense to me. And I'm thinking about the roles now of worthy being your third best option, using Rashid Rice as your yak guy, which is his best usage. And now you do have your outside, you know, kind of vertical stretch player in the dropback game. I don't know if it solves all their issues because, as you mentioned, I think that they're going to have to get into the draft and nail some offensive line picks

if they're going to pivot this thing offensively to whether they want to. But in terms of just getting us a true number one receiver, or maybe at worst, one-one situation between Metcalf and Rice, I could see that working out really well for Patrick Mahomes. I think it doesn't satisfy Andy Reid's fetish for field stretchers that are under six feet. He's like, a field stretcher over six feet? Never, never. Way too big.

Terrell-Owins, say, listen, the one time he did it, you know? The fit does make sense. Like, I think that prevents you or deters the defense with playing like man coverage. If you're playing man coverage and D.K. Mekak can just run a deep cross away from the coverage. Like, I think you are cooking there. I wonder what the financial ramifications are and how that kind of precludes them from building elsewhere on the roster.

And then I do wonder if the front office and the coaching staff is, thinking like the lack of explosive play isn't really a personnel problem at receiver, and it's more of Patrick Mahomes is way too much in his head issue. Like when you hear Patrick Mahomes talk about it, it seems like a guy that's way overthinking this. And I wouldn't be surprised if they just kind of stand pat at receiver, hope Rice's return kind of fixes everything that they missed last year after he went down with injury and that the deep ball kind of rediscovers itself.

I think I could convince Patrick Mahomes pretty quickly if I'm Andy Reid. Hey, hey, Patrick. Let's go to lunch. We're thinking about trading for D.K. Metcath. Will you throw the ball to him downfield 40 yards all the time? Oh, of course. He'd be like, yeah, yeah. I'm going to do it in August.

But then it's November, and he doesn't want to throw that interception, and then he doesn't do it. Like, I remember we saw, we were in the press box at the Super Bowl together, and there was a shot to Worthy that he could have took, and then he kind of pumped faked on it and didn't take it. And when you go back through his film throughout last season, a lot of instances of that happening throughout. I think part of it is mental at this point with Patrick Mahomes.

Yeah, I mean, part of it could be trust in those guys. I mean, we were making fun of him. Yeah, that's good point. Yeah, that's good point. For when he did give him opportunities, just keeping his feet in bounds. So even that play, like, you know, he was covered up pretty well on that play. So, like, if you have D.K. Metcalf, now if it's a 50-50, you know, I know that's not what he necessarily specializes in, but I'm just saying that level of trust could be there with the guy like

D.K. So that was the one when I was coming up with all these teams. Chargers were a good one. Patriots, I read in the athletic that D.K. said at some point, he does not find New England to be a desirable place to live. I don't know where he said that or when he said that, but that's obviously one there in the market for a wide receiver. The Raiders, you have the Pete Carroll connection. I just don't know where the Raiders are going or what they're doing, but D.K. Metcalf and Brock Bowers is not a bad place to start with a pass catching group. The bills, I don't think they're going to be that aggressive.

their financials are just a mess right now. Yeah. From a fit perspective, yeah, like their offense was so good last year already. You know, that wasn't the reason why they lost because they didn't have D.K. Metcalf.

The Cowboys in another world where you're not paying CD-Lam, maybe this kind of money, that would be interesting to me because they certainly need another wide receiver to add there. But yeah, those were some of the teams.

I know the Packers and the Steelers I've seen thrown around as well. I do like the Cowboys fit, and they did just open up like 60, million in cap space by restructuring CD and DAC. Like what they lost with... Would they pay $60 million plus to two wide receivers? I mean, Jerry's back. We established this last episode.

He's back. He's back to his ways. It's like signing Diod in the mid-90s again. Yeah. I do think that replaces like something they lost over the last two years with like Brandon Cook's kind of losing it where you have that deep threat that that can just throw like a 50-yard bomb down the sideline to. They don't, they didn't really have that last year when DAC was held.

So that would raise their ceiling, I think quite a bit. Like all the talk we've had about the Cowboys this offseason, if you're like, no, now, Dak Prescott's coming back healthy with, with D.K. Matcalf and C.D. Lamb, that would make it, that would make them a much more interesting team. So even if Jerry doesn't think it's going to lead them to anything, just if he wants to win some headlines and be in the news, that could be a move for that as well. If they do it, Jerry's back official. It's official. I agree with that. Yeah, if they trade for, if they trade for D.K. McK. F. All right, we will see what happens, this will be a storyline. We will continue to follow in the weeks ahead. What happens

with D.K. Metcalfe. Let's get to some other news before we do the free agency matchmaking. Max Crosby, we just talked about the Raiders here briefly. Three years, $106.5 million extension, $35.5 million per year with $91.5 million guaranteed. So it feels like every offseason there's this, you know, are they going to hold on to Max Crosby? Should they trade Max Crosby? Crosby, the guy never gets to play in relevant games, but he's an awesome player. Well, now he's the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL, about to turn 28 years old. And I guess he will be kind of the, you know, the face of the rebuild with Pete Carroll and Tom Brady. DeAte, what was your reaction when you saw that Max Crosby news?

I mean, it was either pay him or trade him, and they had never at any point given any inclination that they were going to be trading. Max Crosby, we talked about it last offseason, that it just didn't make much sense. for the Raiders to be looking to shop them. And if you're going to keep them around, then you have paying them like the highest, you know, making them the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL made sense. The durability has been there.

The production has been there. Independent of scheme, independent of his supporting cast, he's been one of the most impactful players in the league regardless. And it makes a lot of sense to go ahead and cash him in. I'm always, I'm always reminding myself the fact that he's as young as he is, right?

Because he plays so much. It makes you feel like almost over. exposed to him, but he's only 27. So this deal makes a lot of sense. It's not even an over extension in terms of allocation of resources. And they've got more money than they can spend over the next couple off seasons anyways. So it makes a lot of sense to go ahead and cash in now. Yeah, it didn't matter what the value of the contract was. It was a smart deal because, I mean, outside of Miles Garrett, and then maybe even Michael Parsons, but I would honestly opt for Max Crosby over Michael Parsons at this point. Really? Yeah, there isn't a defensive

player that I would want over him. And maybe I'll look dumb for that because Micah was out obviously last year and I probably am underrating them because of that. But just the impact he has on every single down, regardless of situation, that's the type of player you kind of need in today's NFL, like a defensive end that could just blow up a run game by himself. Like that's valuable. He's basically like three players in one. Yeah, never comes off the field, no doubt about it.

I would take Parsons. I would have Garrett and Parsons kind of in the top, top tier and then probably Crosby and Nick Bosa and then if T.J. Watt bounces back, certainly like the 20-23 version of T.J. Wraud. Crosby isn't that first tier, man. Crosby isn't that first tier. All right, okay. I think so as well. You think so as well. All right.

I think this does have a ripple effect of the other players who want to get paid here. I mean, the Bengals already, you know, they said, I think Duke Tobin said at the combine, Jamar Chase is going to be the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL. He might not have been anticipating that Max Crosby was going to become that. So now to do that, you got to beat Max Crosby's deal, which I think they will, but it adds to that. Michael Parsons, we just mentioned. This is the floor of a Michael Parsons contract now if you're negotiating on his end. And then Miles Garrett, which is the other sort of potential trade chip out there in the air, whether it's a new team or whether it's the Brown saying, here is a lot of money.

We want you to keep playing for us. We don't want to trade you, whatever it is. This is kind of where it starts now $35.5 million, beating that. I would say for all three of those guys on their deals that could potentially come this offseason. All right. Chicago Bears having an interesting start, I would say, to the Ben Johnson era. And I actually need your guys help on this. I'm not sure if I like it, don't like it.

I'm on the fence. Think they're being smart. Think they're being foolish. I don't know. But they are making trades for guards. And the guard they traded for most recently, Joe Tooney, a fourth round pick to the chiefs. It's a one-year rental. as of now, they could extend him, I guess, this offseason,

but he's only signed for 2025 entering his age 33 season. This, to me, was basically a salary dump by the Kansas City Chiefs. They'd move on from his $16 million. The Bears say, we don't care about that. We need offensive line help. And we've got cap space. Ruiz, what did you think of this move by the Bears to trade for Joe Tuning? I think it makes sense with how Detroit kind of built up their offensive line,

where obviously you have the premium positions, the tackle positions, which is where they poured their resources into. And then they had a good center in Ragnow, which I think the bears are going to be in the market for Dalman. I think they're going to be in the market for any of the centers in the draft. I know it's a weaker draft position, but you can get one on day two. And then with the guards, kind of in Detroit,

they kind of just filtered out or like, cycled out veteran guys who just knew what they were doing. Like Kevin Ziegler goes there. He's a guy who knows what he's doing. And that's enough when you have talent around those guys on the offensive line. It seems like they're taking a similar approach. I know I raised the red flag about Ben Johnson not having new ideas with the Jonah Jackson trade, which I think there's some of that to this.

But Joe Toonie's a good player. And I think he's a good player, especially if you're playing him at guard and not asking him to block edges in the Super Bowl. Yeah, there's no. There's no Ben Johnson, Joe Tooney. There's no, like, link there, right, from previous. No, no. But I think he's like a proven commodity. Yeah, well, at least it's somebody, you know, he hasn't had lunch with.

So that's a nice step in the right direction. Deonti, what do you think of this move? They trade for Jonah Jackson. They trade for Joe Tuny. They're taking on a lot of salary, giving up day three picks. Is this smart to go into next season and say, let's just make, you know, protecting Caleb Williams, our top priority. I think it's smart in the sense of like the offensive line needed an immediate south. And I think they're taking a chance on Jackson being healthy, the familiarity with the scheme makes sense. I will say any one of these moves independently between Tuny and Jackson, like, if that was all they did in terms of addressing offensive line, I would be maybe a little bit more concerned. Taking two chances here, it doesn't preclude them from going out and getting Dolman. Like Steven said, it doesn't preclude them from going out and drafting young offensive linemen to try to create a plan of development after Tuny, you know, leaves next offseason, assuming that he doesn't get paid from Chicago. I like the idea.

I like the idea of making these moves trying to help the interior of the offensive line. We saw in Carolina down the stretch the last two months of the season with Bryce Young, that playing behind a much better offensive line on the interior helped him feel more confident and helped keep immediate pressure away. I think that Caleb Williams is not the exact same player that Bryce Young is in terms of style, but I think that for him as well to try to ease out some of those rough edges in his game in terms of extending when he doesn't have to in terms of panicking when the power. It gets dirty, especially nearest feet.

I think that improving the interior will go a long way in that respect. They can run the ball a little bit better, I think, by having those two guys on the interior. And like Stephen said, and I think he hit the nail on the head with this, they can go out in the draft and go find tackles, which I think is going to be the smartest move for them in terms of really building this offensive way that Ben Johnson would like to have it. So I have no complaints with what they've done this offseason so far with acquiring these guards. We're setting record numbers for usage of the word preclude.

So, Sheila, you just got to fit it in once. We can do the Queens. I said it like five times. Diote just said it three times. I think I'll be able to. You need to pick up slack. The old, I think SAT, they studying for the SATs might have been the last time I used that word, but I can get it back in the repertoire.

It's been long, but not that long. I just, if I were making a list of like team building strategies, it wouldn't be acquire 32, 33-year-old guards who are making a lot of money and give up draft capital. However, having said that, I look at it and I'm like, I get it. I understand it. In this specific situation, you want Caleb Williams. Like, that is the priority. You want him playing good football in his second season, developing good habits, not feeling like he can't trust his protection, all those things.

And then generally speaking, like day three picks, I'm like, these GMs with their day three picks. Like, settle down. It's not that big of a deal. If you can get a good player for a year, it's okay to give up a day three pick. So I don't get carried away with that either. So yeah, I think it's fine. I think it's interesting.

It's not, again, it's not like textbook. Hey, this is how you build a franchise, but I understand what they're doing and I get where they're coming from. All right. Last bit of news. Zach Bond, three years, $51 million. Eagle signed the linebacker, defensive player, the year candidate from last season,

makes him the fourth highest paid off ball linebacker in the NFL. He does not test free agency. Deonté, how you feeling about Zach Bonn, turning to the Eagles at this number. I think it was pretty telegraphed that that was priority number one for Philadelphia, so I'm not surprised that the deal got done. I think I was on your side of things. It was like, if you're talking 14, 15 million, I think that Howie makes that,

gets that deal on the table immediately. Once you start climbing up to 17, 17 and a half, 18, maybe it gets a little bit more uncomfortable. I think it speaks to the fact that Philadelphia understands that he is a force multiplier, that he does add layers to this defense for a big fan. NGO and that you still can get another one to two good years out of them that they went and gave them this guaranteed money basically two years, 35 million or so, and guaranteed by those first two years, I think that that makes a lot of sense. It's not crazy. It's not some four-year extension where

you're really testing the age cliff or you're really testing some regression back to the mean. You reward him next year for what he did in 2024, and you hope that in 2026 that he's still the level of player or close enough, even if he's not a defensive player of the year type of linebacker that he's still in that conversation of the top five to eight at the position. I think that that makes this deal worth it, especially with some of the things they're going to have to do with the rest of the roster to try to make sure that their financials make sense. Yeah. Ruiz, what did you think? On board with this signing?

Yeah, good deal for both sides, I think. I think Bonn is happy. I think the Eagles are happy. I think he's a good player. I think he fits in the scheme. And like DeAndi said, he adds layers to that defense, which that defense likes to have layers in its scheme. So it makes a lot of sense for me. I think if he would have hit the market, I want to see, I would have liked to see what he would have been paid because I think he would have been a hot commodity on the market. Yeah, it would have been interesting. He was such a rare case, didn't barely play before last year. I think six career starts.

And then he gets an opportunity with Fangio. You know, Fangio's full like logic for wanting to bring him in was different than the front offices. They bring him, Zach Bonn, are like, hey, this guy could be an edge guy, a special team's guy. And he's like, no, he's an offball linebacker. And it's like, all right, is that really going to work? And all of a sudden, he turns in probably the best, you know, best season for a linebacker for the Eagles in like the last 25 years. So, yeah, I think your point is good, Ruiz, because when you're a team that wants to keep a guy off the market this close to free agency, you're not going to get like a team friendly. You have to have some motivation for sign this now before we get to Monday.

And I think that's why it gets to 17 million per year, which maybe is a little bit higher than the Eagles would have liked. But I just feel like when you have a player play that well on a Super Bowl team under 30, the defensive coordinator knows exactly how to use him. It's a problem area on the roster. You don't overthink it and you go ahead and you bring him back. All right. That's the news. We will take one more break.

We come back. We're going to tell you free agency matches that are going to happen, ones that we think should happen. And ones that might be a little unrealistic, but that we would like to see happen when we come back. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. Free agency match that is going to happen. That is our first category.

So one that you just feel like, hey, Monday, Tuesday, and next week, the tweet's going to come across your timeline that so-and-so and this team have agreed to terms. Ruiz, let's start with you. What is a match you think is going to happen next week? Or it could be later this offseason, whenever. I'm going to go with Milton Williams. to the Patriots. I feel like this is like maybe the most telegraphed move of free agency this year. They have all the cap space in the world. That position has become a position of weakness for them

over the last two years where it was seen as a position of strength, maybe like two years ago, maybe a year and a half ago. And Mike Rables is there. And I think he's going to want to build a stout defensive front. That's what the model was in Tennessee. I think no new ideas. Like we said, when coaches go to another place, they go with what worked in their previous stop And I think adding talent to that interior defensive line is the first place to go. And it's a glaring weakness for the team. Yeah, they've got so much. I'm going to have them on one of my categories here.

They've got so much cap space. They've got to figure it. Now, this is on my radar a little bit with the Patriots is that they got a lot of cooks in the kitchen there, it feels like? Is this just Mike Vrable is just putting his like whatever he wants he's going to get? Because remember, they kept Elliott Wolf from the previous regime. but then Vrable brought in like the number two guy. I think Ryan Cowden, I want to say, is his name who's like the number two to Elliot Wolf. You've got Robert Kraft.

You've got Jonathan Kraft. And then it feels to me like this is a very coach-centric organization where maybe you don't need any of those guys. And it's just like Vrable is going to decide what they're going to do. So Deonti, with all this cap space that I think the Milton Williams one is a good fit. It feels like he's going to be a top five paid free agent. And it would be a good fit there. But the whole Patriots sort of decision-making process as I was preparing for this pod

and preparing for the free agency period, that's on my radar a little bit. Hey, what's the saying? The nature abhors a vacuum. The second of Bill Belichick leaves, you leave this opening of personnel decision-making and everybody starts grabbing at some of that power. And it's going to be really fascinating to me to see exactly how much of a foot that Mike Vrable can put down in terms of roster building, right? Like, we just don't know the Patriots working in this context.

As you mentioned, they've got a bunch of money. They've got to spend it. This team has multiple holes on both sides of the ball that can really use veteran help. We mentioned receiver with D.K. Metcalf, I think that when we get to, you know, for me, I'm looking at offensive line for them as well. They've got to address their front seven. Their front seven has definitely taken some significant steps back over the last couple of years. So there are so many different ways they can go. And like Stephen said, Milton Williams, as a priority for them, it's been telegraphed.

It makes a lot of sense within that defensive scheme. they're Tennessee's old defensive line coach Terrell Williams is a defensive coordinator. That means he was there with Jeffrey Simmons. So I'm sure that when he's sitting with Mike Ravel, he's saying, if I can't have Jeffrey Simmons, give me another pass rusher. So play on the interior because that's the best version of this defense. I would not be surprised at all if when we get to the tampering period and get to day one of free agency and Milton Williams has gotten, you know,

$23, 24, 25 million dollars as an interior defensive linemen to go play in New England. Yeah, no doubt. That's a good one. As we were talking about this, I was thinking about like the, do we need to give out some rules to like the audience for how to consume free agency? And I was just thinking of all the different ways stuff is tweeted out. Like, for instance, a deal up to means that they didn't get what they wanted. The player didn't get what they wanted and the agent saying up to and there's some, you know, wonky incentives in there. That's one multi-year deal with no money analysis. Like, who that agent, watch out. He's. didn't do his job here and that player is not happy if it's just multi-year deal. What do you have, I'm springing this to you off the top of my head. Are there any that come to my, I've got some others that I'm thinking about here as well. You always got to read the last sentence that the insider packs onto the tweet. And then you can tell if it's coming from the agent or the team. And that's how you know what perspectives are kind of writing the tweet from.

So I think that's a good one. That's a really good one. Okay. So if it's like monster money for so and so, that means it's, from the agent. If it's like TeamX brings back a key piece, that's from the tip. That's a good one. I hadn't thought about that before. I would also add that like any type of framing that like both sides are satisfied with

this deal also probably signifies that it is coming from the team. Because what was the agent give a damn if the franchise is happy with the terms of this contract? A fresh start for a player rising in his career, like something like that. Yeah. agent the agent's name and agency included in the tweet is like this guy's you know I need this got to be my source and not the other insider source he the agent wrote the tweet if that's the case correct oh yeah when you see words like stand out a budding star emerging any of that weird stat or something you know led the led all three techniques and quick pressures from week

nine on last year or something like wait a minute that seems very specific releases on tweets like that up. Another rule is that fan base should never celebrate being the team that has all the cap space. That has like literally never worked out. When has the one team, there's a team every year

that has like $100 million in cap space. They spend a bunch of it in free agency and it just never works out. And also if you have $100 million in cap space, guess what? Your roster stinks and you made a lot of them in the layers. I'm glad you brought that up here. That's another one because I'll do the free agency grades on the ringer.com.

which everyone can check out now or next week. But I will rip a signing. And then I'll always hear back, you know, they had to hit the salary cap floor or they had all this cap space. They had to spend it somewhere. I'm like, no, no, that does. I'm sorry. That's not a good, like, justification for giving this player this much money.

I'm still going to grade it as if it is a garbonzo beans signing. So that's another good one as well. It's like when you're like ordering something, it's like you have to hit a certain threshold to get like 25% off. And you're like, oh, I'll get an extra appetizer. That doesn't mean it was a good purchase. Right. I guess I'll throw in this $30 belt that I'll never wear, but I got to get the free shipping.

You know, I got to get the 20% off to hit the 100 or whatever it is. Yeah, I like that. That's a good one as well. All right. If we think of any others, you know, when we're breaking down these signings next week, I'm sure there will be some new ones that will surprise us. Or maybe we can just call out some examples of the ones we just mentioned. All right.

We end up fighting someone in a Starbucks in Indianapolis if we do that. We should not call out. There you go. All right, Deiante, give us a match that is going to happen. What do you got? I'm actually going to borrow another New England signing that I think is going to happen. And I'm going to say Ronnie Stanley be in the starting left tackle for New England by the end of the first day, a free agency as well. I know that Baltimore would like to have them back.

I just think that the market is going to outpace whatever it is, the Baltimore can put on the table for Stanley. I think he's going to have several suitors. The bears could be in on them if they want. want to upgrade from Braxton Jones. You think about the commanders. They could improve their tackle situation as well. New England's got a ton of cap space. I can easily see him commanding north of $24 million a year.

And I think that if you're Baltimore, you've got to let that guy walk. And if it is a bidding war, knowing that New England has the needs that they do, I can't imagine that they lose out on a guy like Stanley because they didn't put enough money on the table. That's not going to be the concern. I have Stanley from one of my other categories. I wonder if I should just bring it up now. I have the should happen is him going to the chiefs.

And I think it makes sense for both sides. I do think there is some skepticism about what we saw at a Bronny Stanley last year just because of the injury concerns going back to previous years. And I wonder if he could like go to a contender, take a one year, prove a deal. And then after that, just sign like a monster deal that puts them at the top of the market for left tackles. And obviously we saw the Super Bowl. Everybody knows left tackle was a sore spot for that team all year long.

They had to put a tunie at left tackle for the. the playoff run for the stretch run. I think that would make a lot of sense. I don't think it's going to happen because of the financials and what Kansas City has to do to maintain the rest of its roster. But I think it's something that should happen and for both sides. Stanley's one of the trickiest free agents out there. I feel like Ruiz, you said, I think on our last show,

let someone else find out for some guys. I feel that way, but at the same time, if I'm a team without a left tackle, it's like, you're so good, man. What else you want me to do? Yeah, I mean, he's a free agency. A left tackle as good as Ronnie Stanley never hits free agency. Sometimes you just got to deal with some baggage. I know.

We can get the repeat of the Orlando Brown Jr. cycle where he goes from the Ravens to the Chiefs and then he's a Bengals left tackle in two years. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because he, you know, I think now is his time to get as much money as he can when you just look at the injury history. You know, he had the previous four seasons, he played in just 31 games. And this is always, I don't know if red flag is the right word, but like he took a page. cut, a significant pay cut to stay with the Ravens last off season. So that's like the sign of a

player who is like, even if I hit the open market, even if I force them to release me right now, I'm probably not going to be making a lot more money. So I feel like he probably views that as, hey, that was my prove it deal last year. And I proved it. I stayed healthy with the Ravens. He's going to be 30 years old next season. So I would feel like if I were advising Ronnie Stanley, you know, we're going to the highest bidder in free agency. This, this. offseason because we're probably not going to get this opportunity again. So it's one of those things where I would have real concerns about are we paying him $20 million per year or more for a guy who's had real, not just durability, but even when he was playing, like it's sort of been a weird

career. There was a time where he looked like where the best left tackles in the NFL, then it's durability, then it's performance. Now he bounced back, bounces back, but you're paying for the next two, three years. You're not paying for last year. So he is a real tricky one. But you're right, Deontay, just the options with left tackles. Someone's going to be like, well, you know, we need someone, take a swing on the upside. And I think that's fair. You know, there is certainly upside there with Ronnie Stanley. All right.

My match that is going to happen, Aaron Rogers doesn't have to move, my friends. Aaron Rogers is the New York Giants quarterback for 2025. We have one of my favorite things in sports for team content, which is a GM making move. knowing that he's got one year. His job is on the line. Don't worry about, you know, what's going to happen three years from now. What's happening right now? So we know that the Giants went after Matthew Stafford aggressively.

That didn't work out. What are there other options? You know, I think maybe two weeks ago, I thought Cam Ward, number three, that seems like a smart move for the New York Giants. Now it sort of feels like, I don't know, you guys tell me if I'm wrong, that there's better than a, I would say, 50% chance. that he's not there at number three, that either someone takes him one or two

or someone trades up to one or two. And I don't trust the Giants. Now, maybe I'm wrong. After having watched Hard Knocks last offseason to be savvy enough to like maneuver out to number one and get Cam Ward. Maybe they will. Maybe they will do that.

But if they don't do that, where does that leave them? If they don't feel like they can draft a quarterback, at least them with C.M. Darnold, Kurt Cousins, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rogers. I think it's going to be Rogers. I think it's going to be a disaster.

I think it's going to be one year where no one's happy and everyone's gone at the end of it. But I still think as I was trying to place Aaron Rogers somewhere that it feels like the Giants could be the match. Ruiz.

I mean, why not? Why not? Like, they have no other options, like you said. And him and Shane can like commiserate about how bad of the product, hard knocks is and how anyone who goes on in is screwed. How they were misquoted.

It was poorly edited. Made them look. bad, yeah. All that, but like, close your eyes and visualize Brian Dayball and Aaron Rogers the shouting match that's inevitable if you put those two together. I can already picture it. I don't even need to see it. I don't need AI degenerate it. I can see it in my mind. I think it's a move that makes sense. I think they kind of need each other at this point. I think it's really their only options for both sides, especially if New York can't get into position to take Cam Ward. And I don't know how they feel about Shador. Why not?

I think he's a top 15 quarterback, but like I said, I don't think so. I don't think he's top. I don't think he. Now, even if we disagree and you think he was top 15 last year and I don't, now a year later in, is it a better situation, the Giants than the Jets last year? I mean, I don't know that it is. It seems like it's in the same category to me. Now he's 42 years old in the Super Bowl era.

Two quarterbacks have started 10 or more games at 42 years old. Tom Brady and Warren Moon. This is just like to me so close to a zero percent chance bet that's, you know, it's just not, that I feel like is not going to work out and has no chance of working out. Now, hear what you're saying. If you're Joe Shane and you're like, what are my other options? I understand that. If you're looking at it from like an ownership level, it's like, well, all right, let's see if we,

let's see what happens with Kim Ward. And if it doesn't work out, let's go cheap and add more players and figure it out next year. But that's not going to be what the GM is thinking. Yeah, I thought he was a top. 15 quarterback like in a vacuum, but the thing is you can't look at it in a vacuum. You have to run a specific style of offense for him. And I don't think the juice is worth to squeeze at that point. Right. It's his style. Yeah. I mean, maybe you can argue like Nathaniel Hackett won't be there. He won't have as much control over the situation as he did with the Jets. And Brian Dayball is obviously,

I think, head strong coach. He's not going to just let him hijack the offense. And then I think there is a decent fit in Brian Dayball's offense with how Aaron Rogers play. So I I don't know how much you need to change. I mean, I could see it. I wouldn't talk myself into it working out, but I could see it not being a total disaster as long as they get together on a personal level, which I don't think it's going to happen. Deiate, what do you think? Aaron Rogers in a giant's uniform.

Look, all I have. Moving sucks. Can we agree? Oh, 1,000% agree. I mean, all I had, the note I had underneath Aaron Rogers's name for me getting ready for this doc, we're just three question marks. So for that, we're like, I didn't know if I cared. I didn't know if it mattered wherever he landed.

And listening to Stephen kind of lay out the pitch, like the thought I had in my head as you guys were talking was it's like, I guess sometimes you just have to look down the long, dark tunnel of your own mortality in football. And I can't imagine a situation that forces you to do that more than Joe Shane, Brian Dable, and Aaron Rogers having to hang out for six months together. That sounds just like the darkest, worst timeline possible. and very fitting for where the Giants are at. Yeah. So, God, imagine Malik neighbors after his, after a four-target game. Oh, my gosh.

Because Aaron Rogers is mad about something that happened two practices ago. That locker room is going to be an absolute train wreck. The thing I will say, though, I know, like, all of us realize, like, what Eric Rogers is at this point in his career. I don't think the players necessarily share that same take. Like, I saw Max Crosby the other day being like, yeah, I would love to have Aaron Rogers. You saw Quinn and Williams be like, oh, man, we're getting rid of Aaron Rogers. that sucks. Like, I think if you bring them into that locker room,

it still has a similar effect to that locker room. I think Malik neighbors would be like, all right, now I have a quarterback. I can actually do something with it. And then September will roll around. Garrett Wilson texting him. No, I'm just saying September will roll around.

And then he'll be like, I think it's telling who is saying what about Aaron Rogers. Yeah, if I'm an edge rusher, go ahead, quarterback. You can go berate every receiver tied in and guard that you want to because that has nothing to do with me. As long as you're completing passes, I can care less. Quinn and Williams, of course you don't have a problem with Aaron Rogers.

He's not talking to me throughout the week. It's everybody else that has the concerns. Mabors doesn't know yet, though. He hasn't figured that out. In September, he's going to be like, all right, I see what Gary Wilson was talking about. Somebody, like, trade me to another team. Yeah, I kind of felt that way last off season. Like, I thought Garrett Wilson was going to have a monster year.

And then the way that turned out with Garrett Wilson, who I still believe is a very good player and how miserable he was by the end, I'm not willing to go that far again this season. But we'll see what happens there with Aaron Rogers. All right. Next category is should happen. So Ruiz already gave us the should happen with the Chiefs and Ronnie Stanley. Deontay, what is your match that you think should happen?

Chris Godwin playing for the Rams. Ooh, I got a Chris Godwin one too. It's different, but go ahead, make the pitch. Give me Chris Godwin on a short term deal. You can come in, be that, you know, move, around type of piece. You can play Pooka and Akua at the X or be more of an outside receiver for a little bit longer and let Chris Godwin do the dirty work. That's an option for Matthew Stafford to get the ball out quickly. We talked about it in our last podcast. We're just previewing just

kind of the slate of free agency. If you're the Rams, if you're not letting go of Matt Stafford, then you know that you've got to maximize 2025. They can't afford to just let Cooper Cup walk out the door or trade and release them whatever ultimately comes to the situation and not have replacement in hand. I don't think that you want to bring in a rookie and say, hey, here's the Cooper Cup role in this offense, or here's the old Odell Beckham Jr. role in this offense. We need you to be that for this offense to get to the levels that we're trying to get it to. I would like to see Chris Godwin there. I think that that's a really good skiing player match. And I like that for Matthew Stafford. You could very easily see them winning the NFC West again,

in my opinion, if they were able to pull that, make that move happen. All right. I have that as my seat. same match, but it's for the not going to happen. Okay. So this is unrealistic, but you'd like to see happen. Yeah, I would really love to see it happen. And I think there's like sort of like a you don't have like the

the Panthers kind of like ran Cam Newton into the ground and then that regime kind of moved on to Buffalo and they got Josh Allen a similar style of quarterback. And they're like, all right, we're not going to do that again. I feel like the Rams should take that approach with Pooka Naku and be like, look what we did a poor Cooper Cup in his body

by asking him to do all this stuff. By asking to get into a million car crashes every Sunday. I think you look at that and you go, let's get someone else to do that for Pukua so we can kind of extend him. And Chris God would be the perfect guy. I just don't know if the financials would work out, especially after they gave $2,000 to $10 million today. And then obviously I think they're going to make a commitment to Pukkahua soon.

I don't know if it's going to happen, but I would love to see it. And I think it also adds an easy button to the Rams offense that they've kind of lacked with the run game being inconsistent over the last couple of years. Yeah, Godwin's an interesting one because I sort of looked at this like he's probably going to resign with the bucks. But as we record this on a Thursday afternoon, it hasn't happened yet. And so now as you kind of near the near Monday, it's like could he actually hit the open market? So we'll see if there's anything that gets done there in the next few days because he becomes a very interesting player that can help a lot of teams if he's out there on the open market and can make a lot of money. this was my should happen as well.

And I got Chris Godwin and the New England Patriots as my match. They were on my list too. You got to get Drake by somebody, man. You know, you got to get him somebody. You have all this cap space. You got to set the quarterback up for success. Godwin can handle volume. You know, he had over 125 targets in three straight seasons.

I know that was as the wide receiver too next to Mike Evans, but he was on pace for that again. last year, tough, quarterback friendly, feels like he would fit the variable culture pretty well. Seems like a great teammate, hard worker, all those things. So like that's the type of player, if I'm the Patriots, I'm saying, we can overspend a little bit. You know, we can kind of blow these other offers out of the water because this is a need. This is going to help our quarterback will get him in his age. What would it be 29, 30 and 31 seasons?

And then we can focus on building up the offensive line, finding a field stretcher, all those things. you have one guy who you feel like your quarterback can rely on. So that, although as you guys said, the Rams, that would definitely be more fun would be the Rams than the Patriots. Yeah, I was going to say to add to your point,

it's not that they just need somebody. The Patriots need somebody who is going to run the route as it is designed and catch the ball the way they're supposed to catch the football. I don't know how many people spent time watching the Patriots throughout the season last year, but there was some of the most just depressing wide receiver play that you going to see from Keisha Boutte, even Kendrick Bourne, who I think is better than maybe what we saw on film last year. It was just, it was rough at a lot of different points in the season. I would like to see Drake May have a chance with at least a tackle that he can trust and one wide receiver

who was actually going to be dependable run routes to way he's supposed to and catch the football consistently. Yeah, you kind of have to go out of your way to bolster what you have around Drake May. You can't go in a year two with the same situation you had in year one where early in the year people were talking about like, oh, can we even play this guy? That's how bad the offensive rosters we might ruin him. Well, imagine going into year two in doing that. Like, I think that would be a tough look for them. I'll throw out another should happen just because I've, two of my answers have been answered already, should happen. Devante Adams to Baltimore. And it's kind of like a move that they've made over the last couple years. Like I remember

even going back to like Des Bryant signing with them late in his career, Odell Beckham, obviously signed with them late in his career. Alcorn Bolden. Anquant Bolton's another one. But I just, just want to see Lamar with a ball winner on the outside. We've seen him with like that, that style of receiver or pass catcher at tight end, but we've never seen him with like a bigger bodied receiver who can win downfield where he doesn't have to hit the perfect pass in stride to get a downfield target like you have to do with these undersized guys. Devante Adams is like a back shoulder guy. We've never seen him be able to throw a back shoulder on the outside. We seen him be able to throw it to like

likely in Mark Andrews, but not a wide receiver. I would love to see that. They have sort of an the radar interesting off season, I feel like. They're probably, you know, they could lose two offensive linemen. We mentioned Ronnie Stanley, Patrick McCarie, is the other guy who was in my top 50, just can kind of play anywhere on the offensive line. So they've got to figure that out. Do you add another wide receiver running back? Derek, Derek Henry's contract becomes interesting now when he sees what Sequin Barclay got.

Is he like, hey, I'm entering the final year of my deal too. Let's get something done there. I saw Joel Corey on Twitter who does a great job with like cap and contract stuff, mentioned that, which I was thinking, oh, yeah, that could be sort of an unexpected twist or wrinkle to the Ravens offseason. It's just like keep knocking at the door and knock down the, you know, knock it down one of these years. But they're stable from a coaching staff perspective this offseason, but they've offensively have to figure out how we had the best offense in the NFL last year.

How do we make sure we kind of maintain that going into 2025? I know one way they can open up some cap space. by cutting the damn kicker already. Yeah. Good point. Yep. No kidding. That would be a move that probably should have.

Definitely should have already happened. Yeah. Should have happened. All right, Deontay. We'll finish with this match that's unrealistic, but we'd like to see happen. Ruiz gave us his. What do you have for this category? I definitely don't think this would happen.

But in my harder parts, I would like to see Justin Fields in Indianapolis to compete. to compete for the starting quarterback job. I thought about it was going to happen. And the only reason why I don't think it's going to happen is because it's within the realm of possibility that they leave the preseason feeling like Justin Fields is a more dependable quarterback between the two.

And I think that if that were the case, I will put everybody there in a pretty tough spot. I don't think that's going to happen. I think if those two compete, I think Anthony Richardson would outclass Justin Fields. I don't know if you could say he would win the competition. I think that maybe the decision is just that you're going to roll with Richardson instead. Yeah, it's like the problem with that for me,

like I would like to see it too because I think it does make a lot of sense, especially with how Shane Steichen runs his offense, even if it's not to compete, just having him as a backup for when Anthony Richardson inevitably goes down with a knock or something or takes himself off the field, they would set the record for lowest completion percentage in the modern NFL though. Oh, my God. I had Justin Field as my backup.

for think is going to happen with the Jets. It seems like there's some buzz with like the Jets sort of look like they're going to just, I don't know. I thought Kurt Cousins might be. I sort of felt like you were mentioning with Godwin, Deontay, that the Patriots need a wide receiver who's just going to be in the right place. I sort of feel like the Jets to get like the, they sort of need a quarterback who's just going to throw the ball where the goals are supposed to go.

Palisclin. Yeah, yeah. And now that would not be Justin Fields. that would be more of a Kirk Cousins, but Kirk Cousins isn't available yet, but it seems like just reading the coverage from Jets reporters that they might just, they take a one-year flyer, Justin Fields, like get the Aaron Glenn culture in place, get some good vibes into the building, and then, you know, pounce on a quarterback in the next year or so whenever someone becomes available.

Is the Falcons doing the like, oh, our plan is to keep Kirk as a backup, the worst bluff in the history of NFL? We're going to keep this guy's a $40 million backup. Yeah, distrust us. and he's got like a bonus coming up or something too, right? It's not like you just do this. It's like, no, the owner would have to pay. I think it's $10 million or something.

If he's on the roster on this date, I don't think the owner is going to be signing up for that. They're holding out for a trade, but they have no trade leverage whatsoever because of the no trade clause, which essentially makes it a free agency type deal for Kirk Cousins, because he has to accept whatever team offers the deal. And then why not just wait for him to get cut? And then you don't have to give up draft.

It makes, like, there's no need to do this, Atlanta. Yeah. For a second, you got my hopes up that we could get the funniest pick swap in NFL history, like two-sevenths that are like three picks away, just so the Falcons can be like, we got something. But you're right. Kirk Cousins would then have to be like, sure, I'll go to that team where why would he do that? He has no incentive to do that.

So he's basically going to be this year's version of the Russell Wilson last year, where you can sign him if you're another team to that minimum level. So you're paying nothing to Kurt Cousins. then I think it has more appealed in some of these other options, even if you think he's got no shot at, you know, being, but there were, there were spurts there, the first half of last year where there was at least like a league average quarterback in there with Kurt Cousin. So that would be more attractive than some of these other quarterback options you have on the open market.

All right, my match. Now, I picked this for unrealistic, but I'd like to see happen. But then I thought, maybe this could happen. So I don't know. Maybe I didn't do the category, right? How about Khalil Mack going to Detroit and trying to chase a ring with the Lions? So I just haven't seen that anywhere, but lions are in win now mode. They just watch the Eagles dominate the Super Bowl with a four-man pass rush, not having to blitz.

You got Aidan Hutchinson coming back from injury. You've got a Lee McNeil. Could you add Khalil Mack to the other side on a one-year deal? He's 34 years old, but six sacks, 54 pressures last season. I think he's probably still going to get a deal in like the $13 to $15 million range. Yeah, for one year. So I thought the Ravens would also be interesting maybe for a guy like Khalil Mack. It's just every time there's a veteran who I'm like, this guy can still play a little bit.

I feel like I always go to the Ravens. So I try to get out of that box and go to Detroit here, Deontay. What do you think, Khalil Mack in Detroit? I thought about both chargers, edge rushers landing with contenders. So you brought up the Ravens. I actually thought about the Ravens a lot with. Joey Bosa has a potential landing spot, especially if things are slow for him throughout free agency. I can see Mac for 10 to 12 million. That would make a lot of sense for Detroit.

Obviously, I think that the fact that he's been so productive as he's advanced in age might bump up that price tag to closer to about $15 or so million. But still, I think in order to in order kind of backstop, just making sure that Aiden Hutchinson hits the field as healthy as possible and that your pass rush is as effective as possible. I think that there's a lot of sense in that. I don't know how many other moves there honestly are for Detroit to make. Coming out of the season when we were kind of doing

their obituary, the thing that we kept coming back to in those conversations where, hey, you can still go make a move for another impact player, you know, to be able to keep you here for another year. And then I think things get a little tricky for them contract-wise from 2026 on when you have to start thinking about the young

guys that are going to be phasing into extensions. But yeah, for one more year to take a chance, on a veteran player, give him a shot. If it doesn't work out, or if Aidan Hutchinson is that productive, you might be able to move Khalil Mack mid-season to a contender that's willing to give up a draft pick, you know, to have him go play for you as well. I think that there's a lot of sense in bringing him in. If not him, then maybe Joey Bosa.

The only difficulty there is I think you would have to have an appetite for bringing in a guy that has had injury issues after coming off the season that you just dealt with. I would like to see, if Mac is willing to take a discount to go chase a ring. I don't think he's ever won a playoff game in his career. I might be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't. I think with the bears, they lost to the Eagles and the chart lost. He obviously had a double-doy. I wouldn't

mind seeing him in Buffalo. He obviously played there in college. He played for Buffalo. I like that. If you're willing to take a discount, why not go to Buffalo? Yeah. The Von Miller thing didn't work out, but this would be just a one year, like you said, this guy, I forgot. Yeah, he played in Buffalo. That would be

fun. They need some pass rush in Buffalo. They need to figure out something defensively for Patrick Mahomes, basically, in Buffalo before they move on to anything else. I think those were all our categories. Does, is there a D.K. Metcalfe trade between now and when we would potentially be doing a free agency pod early next week, Ruiz, what do you think? I vote no on that.

I'm voting no, too. I think it's a complicated thing for all the reasons we laid off. I wouldn't, I mean, I wouldn't surprise it, be surprised if it eventually happens. Can I also throw out another destination? Please. Anything empty out the notebook? I don't know if I've heard this before. Maybe it's out there and I just missed it.

But like, why not Kirk Cousins to Las Vegas? I've had that in mind. I made a note of that actually in prepper for this podcast. That would make a lot of sense. Yeah. And when we were talking about like the type of quarterback that Tom Brady goes for, like when you heard him talk, he's always like, oh, you can't. There's not replacing, like getting the ball out on time and to the right place and on target.

And who's better to do that than Kirk Cousins? It's literally all he can do at this point. I won before the snap because I knew that safety was rotated. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I think that that's a good one. I think they would certainly be a team that I, all right. So can they, so then do you acquire D.K.

Mett, you trade for D.K. Beckett. Yeah, you do. If you're a Raiders fan, how would you feel about Kurt Cousins, D.K. Metcalfe, Brock Bowers, Pete Carroll, Tom Brady going into next year. Shit, I'm not even a Raiders saying. I beg them to make the wild card just here. I was going to say a lot better than anything else they could be doing at a free agency, I would say by just doing money around like crazy.

It's better than Gordon, you in Jacoby Myers. Yeah. It's a good reminder that not everybody's trying to like win the Super Bowl with the moves they make. Like if the Raiders can get two seasons where they're competitive, maybe make the wild card in one of them, Raiders fans 10 years, you know,

might be like, man, that was the best season we've had in two decades. So yes, not everybody is just trying to chase the Super Bowl. So that's good for me to remind myself, when I'm giving all these moves D's and Fs on the ringer.com next week. All right. We will cover it all. Stephen Ruiz, Deonté Lee. We will be back when there's news or we'll be back early next week to break down

all the moves that are agreed to Monday and Tuesday. Check out the ringer.com for all our written content. And analysis. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing additional production supervision by Conner and Arjuna Ramgapal. I'm Sheila Kapadia. We'll talk to you next time. on The Ringer NFL show.