The Ringer NFL Show - Instant Reaction to the Deshaun Watson Trade

Episode Date: March 19, 2022

Kevin, Nora, Ben, and Steven react to the news of Deshaun Watson being traded to the Browns, what this means for Baker Mayfield and the AFC, and how NFL teams have handled Watson over the past week. Host: Kevin Clark, Nora Princiotti, Ben Solak and Steven Ruiz Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Research: Daniel Comer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For as long as I've known the NBA, it's been a Stars League. But even among the Stars, there's an exclusive club. Russell and Dr. Jay, Jordan, Kobe. They're all part of a select group that paved the way for the NBA superstar of today. And some even shared secrets with each other along the way. From Spotify and the Ringer podcast network, I'm Jackie McMullen. And this is the Icons Club. It is the ringer NFL show, part of the ringer podcast network.

I'm Kevin Clark, another emergency pod. It's Nora Pryncii, Nora. Hello. Hi, Kevin. Stephen Ruiz. How's it going? And the birthday boy, Ben Solac, back on the East Coast. What'd even do it? In my, mostly hanging out today, I was watching the tournament.

We were about to go, like, actually do a birthday thing. And then there was news. The decision has been made, Deshawn Watson has decided to waive as no trade clause and become a Cleveland Brown. Going back to Houston will be three first round picks plus two additional picks. As part of this, Watson gets a fully guaranteed $230 million deal. That is $80 million more than anybody's ever been guaranteed in history of football. His base salary is going to be $1 million. That would be guarding against a suspension, which seems inevitable at this point, just given the history of, of discipline.

in the league. Jason the show from over the cap said basically the Browns paid $94 million to add one year onto Watson's contract to get the trade done. This is a stunning reversal. It looked like and was reported to be down to Atlanta and New Orleans.

Basically, Cleveland decided to throw a bunch of money at Watson. And that was, by the way, one of the reasons Carolina was that was because Carolina didn't want to throw this money at Watson. Cleveland goes the extra mile. He turns decision around the Cleveland Browns get back in it.

He's a Cleveland Brown. Ben, you thought what? Yeah, the the Cleveland Brown side of this, like the Deshawn Watson side of this is a lot and it has to be sussed out and disgust and it is a heavy, heavy thing. The Cleveland Brown side of this really

freaking sucks, man. The Browns finished their season, had Baker Mayfield fourth year quarterback, came off of the shoulder injury, wasn't playing too great. And they said, you know, we feel confident him being a starter next year. He'll bounce back. That's what they said out loud. But then they said to Mayfield's agent, as has been reported over the past week,

we're going to look at the top few options. You know, Aaron Rogers can become available. Russell will become available. We're going to poke around and we're going to let you know that. They also said if Deshawn becomes available, we're going to do that too. And then Deshawn became available and the Browns threw their hat into the ring, right? Flew Deshawn out, met with Deshawn, whatever. We saw what that did to Baker, right?

Baker posted his goodbye message, you know, a little couple days early. whatever. And after he posted that message, there was this discussion about Mayfield and the Browns in the media, which was like, you know, they would need an adult in the room. So Chris Morton said, right? There was a discussion about how Mayfield handles himself on social media. And there was a discussion about Mayfield not having the maturity necessary to hold down this job. We don't like Baker Mayfield's posts. By the way, we're getting to Sean Warnc's. Yeah. We don't, yeah. Yeah. Did too many commercials. And this was, right.

We don't like the way Baker Mayfield behaves, right? And Baker said, all right, I'm demanding a trade. I'm out. And you got to remember, at this time, Deshaun Watson had crossed the Browns off list. Baker said, I'm out. I'm not doing this. And the Browns said, okay, we need a escape hatch. We need a back door out of this quarterback issue that we painted ourselves into.

And their back door was giving Deshawn Watson 230 million. million dollars guaranteed. 80 million more guaranteed money than the next closest contract in NFL history. Their backdoor was trading three first round picks the only second time in NFL history that three total first round picks have been traded for a player

for Deshawn Watson. The 2022 salary for Deshawn Watson is $1 million which means if he gets suspended that money is coming out of a $1 million based salary. They went back to Deshawn's camp and said we will do anything you tell

us to, to come to this building and get us out of the quarterback problem that we created for ourselves when we said our incumbent and current quarterback wasn't behaving the way we wanted him to behave. They said that to the man with 22 civil cases currently against him. So the Browns 100% wanted a better football player at quarterback than Baker Mayfield and backdored and lied and traded their soul away to go get it into Sean Watson. and everything Deshawn has done over the last year sucks. What the Browns just did over the last 48 hours sucks.

And that's why this entire situation is backwards and terrible. We're going to crap on the Browns as we should, but we should not let those other teams that also tried to trade for them. They all would have done similar things to get Deshaun Watson. Like we can't let the Saints off the hook. We can't let the Falcons, the Panthers, any other team that tried. to do this. They're just as bad as the Browns.

I don't think the Browns are any worse than any of those teams. I actually agree with that. The entire pursuit in the last couple of weeks was disheartening. Also, how quickly it went from there's not going to be criminal charges to like three days later was like, oh, Deshaun's torn. He doesn't know what to do. This isn't recruit. This isn't college recruiting. They can't put hats on the table.

Like, let's have a little bit of nuance in the decision making process. We can't just say, oh, we can't flip a switch and say, oh, it's back normal. This is a football story again. This is not a football story. There's still 22 outstanding civil cases. There's still a suspension on the table that it's going to be lengthy. Hitching your wagon to Deshaun Watson, I understand from a football standpoint, if you're the Browns, you just want to get out of quarterback purgatory or whatever.

But from a, when you look at the entire picture, it's reckless. That's reckless. Nora? Well, so first of all, let's just say the thing, right? he is facing 22 civil suits for sexual misconduct to sexual assault. There's no trial date. No one knows what's going to happen. He's not going to face criminal charges, though.

The NFL is the other entity that we haven't mentioned, right? And there is a way to make all of the perverse incentive structures that all of the teams that we just mentioned have to act in this way that creates a gross situation. where he gets to pick and choose and be rewarded with an obscene amount of money. The commissioners exempt list has been available this entire time. It remains available. Yeah. This situation where those incentives were put into conflict did not have to exist. And do I feel a little worse about the Cleveland Browns today than I did yesterday?

Absolutely. But Roger Goodell and every owner of every team, because he works for them, had an opportunity to make this a non-situation and didn't. And I do think that that is actually more important to me than Cleveland, Atlanta, New Orleans, Carolina, acting in a way that was gross but predictable because he's a really, really, really good quarterback. And I think it's easy to make this a Brown story, right? And it should be, I don't feel any sympathy for them getting criticized for this. But I do want to make sure that we don't let the people who actually have the power here off the hook. Because it would be so, so, so, so easy, literally with a snap of his fingers. Roger Goodell could put him on the list

and have made it so that he was not eligible to be traded so that none of these things. Because the gross thing, right, is we are weighing an unfinished civil situation that involves sexual assault versus football ability. Right? And that's gross. And that's what's making, giving all of us the he bit of a Jeebies. But there was a way out of that

and they didn't take it. By the way, the Colts asked to talk to Watson as well. well and they were just immediately denied permission because they're in the same division. So add them to the list. Short list to people who look great right now. Yeah, like, there wasn't a team that wasn't trying to find a way to trade for Dachan Watson. And for the teams that had quarterbacks better than Dishon Watson or as good as as Dishon Watson, if they didn't have quarterbacks better or as good as Sean Watson,

you know what they would have been trying to do? Try to trade for Dachian Watson. So, yeah, there's the kind of thing where when you look at it from a league-wide perspective, of anything the teams say about due diligence. By the way, no one talked to Tony Busby, the attorney representing the women filing suit here. The idea, I kept hearing, oh, this team's doing work on Deshawn Watson finding out, well, what work is that?

They called his agent. They called like a couple people who, like, work for Deshaun Watson. That was the work. Called his lawyer. Called his lawyer. Okay. So I just think it's upside down.

that, you know, three days after it comes out that he's not going to get criminal charges, he has the most leverage in the history of football. Like that, that's the environment NFL created. He had a no trade clause, and he had the most leverage any player has ever had in the history of a trade in football. And then he got more guaranteed money than anybody in history of football. I mean, that, that to me was kind of amazing. All right. So let's talk about this from a football standpoint.

Are you guys comfortable with that? Ruiz, what does this do to the AFC now? I mean, it gives the AFC, I think, another division of death, for lack of a better term. Like, it's not just the AFC West now. Like, the AFC North, I think is on bar with it. You have the Bengals who just lost the Super Bowl. The Ravens, who I think are going to bounce back if they're healthy. The Steelers, I think, are going to be better with Mitch Fiske as crazy as that sounds.

Like, anything is an upgrade over Ben Rathesberger. and now the Browns have a top five, maybe top three quarterback. On a roster that was already built to win and the only thing holding it back was the quarterback position and now they have an elite one. Nora? Yeah, can we backtrack just for one second? I don't know if this is too inside baseball,

but just for people who are listening to this, we do for what it's worth, have sort of like company best practices for how to talk about this stuff. Right? And it's not perfect because it's complicated. and it's icky. But just for full disclosure, because I think it can be jarring for us to go, okay, here's

the situation, here's all that's wrong with it. What does it mean for their offense? The thing that I think we have come up with that is the best answer I can think of, though certainly not a perfect one, is to provide as much information as possible, be as clear as possible about it. I think one of the things that bothers me the most is when people talk about his situation or his off-field issues. and we're going to really try not to do that.

The worst brand is, oh, it's a distraction. This is something that he needs to deal with. When he gets this settled, you saw so many tweets in the last couple months, oh, once you get the situation settled, what the hell does that mean? Right. There's the conversation about what's it going to be like in the locker room. Right. Screw the locker.

I don't care. He's not in locker room right now. Right. But then beyond that, it doesn't even, you know, abiding by best, practices does not make this a purely easy or seamless or non-weird conversation, but that is the best that we have come up with and certainly open to feedback from listeners or anyone. But just want to make that clear before we keep having this conversation. Right. And I don't want to make this like about us, but like I think all of us agree.

It's going to be weird to talk about forever. In a football context for the rest of his career. Nora, do you have any thoughts on this just from the NFL, what this does to lead kind of football standpoint? Yeah, well, the AFC somehow has managed to be even more stacked than it was a day ago, right? Because even though he's going from one AFC team to another, who's going from one AFC team that was non-competitive. And it also shows you, by the way, how much the money played into it.

Because, like, from a football standpoint, going to the NFC would probably be a little easier. Yeah, totally. And presumably because he was the one making this choice, Houston had accepted trade packages before he was, before he had meetings with these teams and had originally informed Cleveland that they were out of the running before backtracking. Presumably the financials being so astronomically high is part of how they were able to make that U-turn happen. but it's just a stacked division, particularly with a team that has a really, really good roster. And if anything,

has been held back by the quarterback position, now having someone who is objectively an elite quarterback. Ben, you mentioned the Browns solving the quarterback mess. Well, I mean, did they really solve it? I mean,

they traded one mess for another. They traded 20 years of a certain type of mess to another mess. And it's not like that this is, there's there's a hundred percent uncertainty in this situation from i'm just talking about from a football standpoint i mean the suspension yeah that that is a thing like yeah we have the suspensions the suspensions the last time we saw watson like really really really really play well was 2019 it's worth noting that that that was like a while ago like 2020 wasn't great in terms of like like watson's scale and then obviously 20s 21 we didn't like see him play and so it has been a bit

since we've seen like elite play. I shouldn't say like, elitably play. But Watson, like, that 2019 season was really where it felt like he was going to grow into that foil to Mahomes in terms of his on-field ability. And so, like, you have that uncertainty. You also

have the uncertainty of, like, players inevitably go through ups and downs no matter what caliber play they have, the level of talent they have. And I don't know what how Watson's going to respond to anything for the remainder of his career.

Just in terms of like arguments with other players who know what he's been accused of and probably have estimations of him as an individual in terms of coaching staff and how he responds to that. I think that when right, you kind of frame things in terms of the mishandling that Cleveland had with with Baker over the last week. And now Deshaun kind of swooping in. I do think that the money was a big part of why Deshaun went to Cleveland. but I also think that Cleveland's history of quarterbacks

is a big part of why Deshawn went to Cleveland because if you want to as Deshaun's you know team and agent and himself and kind of his unit clearly does just sweep this under the rug pretend that this was was a black mark that was blown out of proportion pretend that this was this was you know

a smearer campaign or whatever you go to Cleveland where there have not been championships there have not been elite quarterbacks and you win some ball games you win some So, you know, you generate like a decent relationship with the media that really hated the last guy. People start forgetting stuff. They shouldn't. And it's bad if they do.

But people start forgetting stuff because you're winning football games. And that's the uncomfortable truth that Cleveland is banking on here and bringing Deshaun Watson. 1,000%. And that's why they do the move is because talent Trump's always seen that a hundred times over the past 10 years in the NFL. That's just sort of how how this works. said it's the uncomfortable truth um all right any of the thoughts in this before we get to kind of the ripple effects the baker the matt ryan stuff all right so the report now is that baker mayfield prefers the colts um jeff how i think had that first obviously he's going to be traded

ruiz for baker how do you want this to play out i think that's the best case scenario i think he needs to go to a place that has a solid offense in place, an offense that we've already seen make up for a quarterback's deficiencies, especially the deficiencies that he has. I think they're not too dissimilar from Carson Wences. It makes sense for him. It's a good offense blind. He doesn't, he's not going to have to carry the team.

He just don't make mistakes, run RPO's. I think that's the perfect situation. I understand why he wants to Colts. And really, I can't think of another situation he could go to where it's going to be better than what he had. I think the Colts are the one realistic option. Nora, is there another team out there

that should be trying to get Baker midfield? So is anybody else a little bit surprised that the trade didn't involve Baker? Yes, yes. I was pretty surprised. I don't know. They do. I honestly, I've seen this report. I think they, I'm going to be the,

this is going to be a sentence. You did not see coming. I actually do think they like Davis Mills. Yeah. Like if you're going to go that route, and they're probably tanking anyway. What's gotten into you? No, they do like David. It's not me.

It's them. He didn't say they were right. He didn't say it was just pretty good. No, I'm in the Davis Mills house. I know. I'm just saying if you're going to go, if you're going to go that route,

it's not like you need like somebody to take snaps. Like that was always a thing. What was the thing a couple years ago where, oh, God, I can't remember the team, but the team signed like a pretty crappy for agent for, for like $10 million.

And the coach's rationale was like, well, someone's got to take snaps and OTAs. And it's like, it was not that. Feels like it was Mike Lennon. Don't remember the team. It feels like Mike Lennon.

It feels like it was like. It feels like Mike Lennon. It may not have been. Apologies to Mike Lennon. If I made that anecdote, but yeah, I don't think that that's, that's what the Texicans were looking for.

They could have gotten them and maybe flipped them. I actually don't understand the sour cap ramifications of their option. I don't know. It would have been fitting if they did get Baker because the Texans also offloaded Osweiler onto the Browns. It would have been like five years later a solid. They did for him. The thing that's interesting about that, though, is that so if Baker does end up in Indianapolis,

then presumably Matt Ryan stays in Atlanta. James re-sides in New Orleans. And then what's Garoppolo going to do? go to Houston? That's brutal. This can't happen to Jimmy. Rapsheet just tweeted. It can.

It can't. It can't happen. Can and will happen to Jimmy. He's too good looking. Hey. Things that bad shouldn't happen to people that. What's the 30 rock thing? I'm not a big 30 rock guy,

but I don't know what the bubble thing. John Hamm. It's like the handsome bubble. You can't get traded to Houston and the handsome bubble. We don't need to play for a good team because of he's in a handsome. bubble. He was the highest paid player in NFL history after six starts. We don't need to feel bad about Jimmy.

Ben, how much is... I don't know. He's in the handsome bubble. Going back to Jim, going back to Baker Mayfield, the person at hand and not the handsome Jimmy Garoppel. We'll get to some of the other guys here. Ben,

what does Baker, like, bring to a football team that's good? Does he still elevate them? Right. So it is tricky to say because Baker has always been fueled by him. Right, going back to walking on in Texas Tech. Incredible grudge. Right.

And then leaving Texas Tech to walk out of Oklahoma, and nobody believes in the Big 12. And then, like, Baker was the number one overall pick, and he was like, nobody believes in me. And it's like, buddy, the number one overall pick, right? There's always been his thing. In Cleveland, that didn't play anymore because he got the starting job,

and he had the starting job, and it was built around him, yeah, he got to whatever. Him being traded away and kind of cast aside, you know, Woody, I don't want to play with you anymore, is interesting because I would not be surprised if hateful, hate-fueled off of an injury Baker is like better than then we remember Baker being simply because that seemed to always have been his way.

If he lands on the Colts, I think he can give you Wence Plus in terms of like overall play, not like play style, but I think you can get like a little bit better than they got from Carson. I think a run first offense, a play action offense, a shot oriented offense makes sense for Baker. It's what he was good at in 2020 when he was successful in to fancy his offense. That is the Colts. It's also the Seahawks, which I

could not tell you what Seattle's up to. All right, listen, the Pacific Northwest is shrouded from my eye. I've got no clue. Do you know what Baker Mayfield's going to bring to Indy? The fact that he's not Carson Wentz. That's enough. That's enough. That actually seems to be like very high on their list of desired qualities.

Like the Browns wanted a adult. The Colts want not Carson Wentz. anybody else but him. But the thing about the thing about the Colts is that all of that conversation that Ballard had in Indianapolis at the Combine, the rhetoric was a guy who can handle the spotlight, a guy who can handle the criticism.

And I wouldn't be surprised if Ballard and the Colts Press looks at Baker, especially with the bill of goods, the Browns have been selling over the last couple weeks last month, and say he can't handle the spotlight, he can't handle the criticism. And if that's the case, I don't think they'll bring them in. Because I think they are like you said,

so person-oriented right now, so character, so personality-oriented. So don't, in my opinion, don't sleep on Seattle as a spot where Baker could end up, which would be hilarious because he's, he's, so much of his play style is Kmart Russ. It's not even funny. It would be very peculiar to see. But to me, that's one makes sense. So then, wait, let's, let's play that out.

Baker to Seattle. Then are we saying Jimmy to Indy? That's what I. Tell me where Jimmy's going. What about Matt Ryan, who now? according to rap sheet, Atlanta is turning their attention to making sure Matt Ryan feels wanted. What does that mean? Yeah, here's the thing about Matt Ryan feeling wanted.

He does not, y'all pushed back a $7.5 million bonus. Just give us a... They literally said to Matt Ryan, we have the money. I'll just give it to you next week, bro. We have the money, but you know that $7.5 million we owe you in a couple days? Could we have a couple more days so we can see if we can get somebody better? Yeah. Give me one minute on this.

As listeners of the ringer NFL show will know. Stephen and I are close personal friends with Matt Ryan because we chat it with him for like a 15 minutes, about two high safeties. Yeah. The Falcons trying to like Anna Delvey Matt Ryan. Yeah. Did nobody get that reference?

Yeah, a little bit. Nobody else is watching Scarlett. I had to, no, I finished in Ventiganna. It was delightful. Oh. But, yeah, really good show. Matt Ryan very clearly, like, over the course of his career has been a big, like,

loves being on one team, love being a part of the Falcons culture, loves him part of Atlanta culture, is a professional dude, and that's sick. He cannot let the Falcons stir come around like this. He's too good of a quarterback. That's too bad of a roster,

and there are teams that would make him right. And the Colts certainly would be one of them. My question is, Philly. Oh, God. who I'd love to see you. Who is that good for besides Ben? Like, don't do that to that, Ryan.

My question is, if you're the Colts, would you rather have Baker or Jimmy? Because I think I'd rather have Jim. I'd rather have Baker. I also would rather have Jimmy, although I suppose that's been clear from the last 15 minutes this podcast. You'd rather have Baker?

Why? I think Baker has a higher ceiling. I've seen a better version of Baker than I've seen of Jimmy. Oh, man. But I also, you know what's collapsed in my mind? The ceiling we thought was the Baker-Mayfield ceiling in the point. I'm a little bit out on Frank Reich as a as quarterback guru now.

I'd all, I've been, okay, let me tell you something. Doesn't know ball. This is Ben specific. He doesn't know ball. This is Ben specific. The wheel of who won the Super Bowl for the Eagles has spun so many different times. Remember the two-year period where if you said anything nice about Doug Peterson, if people would just say, yeah, that was Frank Reich's title, buddy.

And like, by the way, at the beginning, of that, it was supposed to be like John D. Filippo was involved there at the beginning and it's like Doug Peterson, Nick Folls, it was a Howie Super Bowl. I heard it was a Joe Douglas Super Bowl at one point. It's just spun so many times. And now the Reich propaganda

has gotten out of control. He's in my content doghouse for at least a couple months. All good Eagles things come from Jeff Stoutland and Jeff Stoutland alone. Offensive line coaches make the world go round. Former Keynes. Former Keynes-o-L coach.

coached him up. Now you go, baby. All right. So I guess no one wants to bite on Matt Ryan to the Eagles. Were we going to say, Stephen before, so I can I start talking about the Eagles? I don't even remember. Wow.

Doesn't matter, does it? You were going to say that Baker Mayfield is not a better idea than Jimmy Garoppel. Oh, oh, yeah. I think they're very similar as pocket quarterbacks. The thing that separates them is Baker's ability to make a play. But the thing that makes Baker worse is the fact that he thinks he can make plays. So I'd rather have the guy that knows. his role. The guy that's going to stay

in his play. Do you think Jimmy Garapolo thinks he can't make plays? Not with his legs. Jimmy Garbole does not think that he has Russell Wilson. No, Jimmy Garabolo does not want to leave the pocket ever. I think a healthy, I think a healthy, but when he leaves the pocket, I think a healthy Baker Mayfield is better than you guys think. I'm not saying he's good. I think he's better than you guys think.

I think he's worse than most people think. I just I want to keep Seattle out of this situation I don't think Seattle should get any of these guys No they should be stuck with Drew Locke The rest of us would like to keep the Philadelphia Eagles out of this conversation And here's another thing

He's from Philly guy Here's another thing we're not considering With the musical chairs with the quarterbacks The draft still hasn't happened And like three guys might go in the first round That's right So those guys are going to take some spots That's right

Which means handsome Jimmy is not starting next year. Oh my God. I don't think he's going to be saying. Okay, I have a question. Why don't they just, why doesn't, why doesn't Sam's going to just keep them? I think they should. I wouldn't hate it if they did. I'd also love if the 49ers had like 20 million more in cap space than they do right now.

That would be great, I think, for the general Niners vibe, assuming you feel good about Tray Lance. By the way, Matt Ryan to the Niners. run the 2016 MVP season back. Baby. All right. Let's push it. Super Bowl time. A little redemption art. Keep Jimmy bringing a third starting quarterback. But let me ask you this, guys.

Does Jimmy's potential availability or Baker's potential availability if he doesn't go to the Colts or even if Matt Ryan says, I want to get out of here, give me my money and let me leave? Is there any team that was going to draft a quarterback that can now say, hey, we can draft for need and maybe take a flyer on a quarterback we didn't anticipate. Even maybe, maybe like a Pittsburgh, Ben? I think Pittsburgh was already in a position once they brought in Trubisky to say if the guy falls to us and the guy falls to us when we go.

I don't think much of this changes that. People look to Detroit as a team at two and say, all right, maybe they're like a Malik Willis Wildcard in the event that they really love the guy. I don't think any of this stuff changes them because I think they're always looking for youth no matter what. The team is Seattle at nine. and I know we said we didn't want to put Seattle in the conversation but in general I just have no idea what Seattle is thinking doing, intending, divining, feeling

they're very like the P and John are just kind of driving ship right now and I don't know I can't read if they think they got to go young Malik Willis I can't read if they think that a veteran would be fine and they can just kind of reload this thing they might literally honestly actually believe the things they're saying about Drew Locke. they're kind of all over the map for me. So they're the one that I think is the... Now I'm rooting for the lines to take a quarterback.

Because do you know what this quarterback carousel needs? Little Jared Gough thrown into the mix. I was going to say that. Like, where does Jared Gough fit into all of this? That's the question you didn't see coming at the beginning of this. It's a question that hasn't been asked in like a year and a half. I actually forgot Jared Gough is in the mix here. Exactly.

I was thinking like, well, maybe Jimmy, you know, whatever. All right, so I'm going through the mock drafts here. the first quarterback off the board, so lack is who? Malik Willis? I would say he's like minus 200 right now. Okay. And what's the most likely destination for him?

Right now I would say Seattle at 9. Okay. Not Carolina? I mean, Carolina. Right now I would say Carolina at 6. And then after that, I would say Seattle at 9. Carolina is one where I think they're continued missing out on big name quarterbacks is going to put them in a situation where

the owner steps into the room on draft night and says Malik Willis. And even if the scouting staff and the front office has agreed on like Kenny Pickett, he's going to want the flashy name. Now, the wild card is that Dave Pepper pays for pit football to exist. So maybe it will actually still be Kenny Pickett, as Stephen very well knows. But quarterback is six. They're going to draft.

They're not going to draft Malikilus. They're not going to do anything that makes me happy. So you can just cross it off the door. They're going to take that Northern Iowa tackle is going to be bad. It's best. The grimmest thing with the Panthers today was, first of all, they spent a year trying to get to Sean Watson. They didn't get him.

They were immediately eliminated. He wanted to go to two division rivals. Then he chose the Browns. And then as soon as decision comes in, like a minute later, Adam Schaeffer reports that Johnny Hecker is signing with the Panthers. That was like within 90 seconds. Can we get a, can we get a Panthers disaster check from Stephen Ruiz right now? It's still a disaster.

Nothing has changed. Johnny Hecker might be the. best quarterback on the roster now. Statistically, he definitely is, but he's probably the best thrower on the roster. They saw that was their answer to the missing out on Deshaun. Any other disasters we need to check in on the last 24 hours? That whole Packers Raiders trade was a disaster.

I know I missed pod, but for every team involved. Yeah, but for every team, everybody lost? Everybody lost, no winners. There's a lot of that, I think. There's a lot of lose-lose trades. Everybody lost, no winners. Stephen Ruiz, 2022. I'm not making a Super Bowl pick next year.

Nobody wins the Super Bowl. That's actually not a bad idea. Or just short every team. For what it's worth, just because Stephen said it earlier, I think Pittsburgh is very much in on quarterbacks early on. Trubisky is like in Trubisky is like, if you can't spot the Mike Lennon in the quarterbacks room, it's you.

You're the Mike Lennon. I think he's... That's why I brought up. Pittsburgh, Trubisky should not change your thought process on anything. I don't think he does. I think originally it seems like what the heck are they doing because there had been all of those rumors about, well, I don't know, believe it or not, Mitch Trubisky is going to get really big money. He got like a medium high range backup deal. Like, I do not think.

Trubisky is a. Which is what he could, that's what he can be. That's a good idea. I actually, I'm in on it. I'm in on the business. He got paid like a decently popular Tyra Taylor. Listen.

Bridge Trevisky, okay? He just, listen, all brain of being talked about is how good he was in the room. All good. He's such great guy in locker room, all smiles. Bring in Malik. Bring in Desmond Britter. Bring in whoever you like. Mitch Trubesco, teach him out a smile.

This is how we prepare. This is how we do work Monday to Saturday. And then whenever the rookie's ready, rookie takes the job. All right. Arjuna asked. if we want to talk about Juju going to the Chiefs. Good. Yeah.

Could have just done this last year. It could have been like this season. Yeah. I should have done that last year and I didn't. Yeah. I have an opportunity. And he signed like one year 11 mil about, right?

I think it's like 10.7.5. Yeah. That was on the table last year, brother. Like I wasn't reported, but there's no way that wasn't on the table in terms of like the prove it deal. And he probably wanted something bigger. Went back to the Steelers for a year. Put up the same numbers.

Going to go get the same prove it deal. Very handy. though for the Chiefs. Chiefs had to become a shallow passing game team there down the stretch. They're figuring out how to get the deep ball to work against all the new defenses. Man, get the ball to juju four yards past the line of scrimmage. Go be tough.

Go break a tackle. Get me a third and five. Makes a lot of sense what they need. All right, guys. We'll be back. Probably early next week. I don't know. We'll see what happens in the NFL news. Worst case scenario is midweek, but I have a feeling we'll be back. Not this weekend, but early next week.

Thank you to Stefan Anderson's for construction. I don't. the digital productions provision by Arjuna, Ramcapul, and research from Daniel Komen. This has been the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network.