The Ringer NFL Show - Kyler Murray's Future, Maxx Crosby Trade Buzz, and Stories That Have Our Attention!

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

Sheil is joined by The Ringer’s own Billy Gil to take a look at some of the biggest offseason headlines currently circling the NFL media sphere to determine which ones will have the biggest impact on the league going forward.(00:00) NFL stories that have our attention!(4:32) Kyler Murray vs. the Cardinals(13:19) Raiders want to trade Maxx Crosby(24:17) Does A.J. Brown want to be a Patriot?(26:08) Replay errors in early games worry coaches(37:03) Falcons tell Kirk Cousins he’ll be released(39:45) The Vikings and J.J. McCarthy(45:20) Bears looking to trade Tyson Bagent(50:31) Sean Payton turns over play calling to Davis WebbThe Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available.Host: Sheil KapadiaGuest: Billy GilProducer: Chris SuttonVideo Editor: Stefano SanchezProduction Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm your host, Sheel Capade. We are looking at stories that have our attention this week, busy week at the NFL Combine, a lot of NFL news out there.

What's actually important? Kyler Murray, Max Crosby, Sean Payton, those are some of the stories we're going to talk about with our friend from the ringer, Billy Gill. So let's take a break.

We come back. We talk about stories that have our attention. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show with Billy Gill, talking about stories that have our attention this week, Billy, because this is the Combine week. And so all these coaches and GMs, they go to Indianapolis, they have these press conferences,

and we have to decide what's noteworthy and what we actually don't care about. And you're, I mean, you're starting to show off. People can watch this on Netflix wearing one of the most, I was going to call it ridiculous. That felt mean. And I didn't want, but just one of the most colorful, one of the most. I don't know what the word is, Arizona Cardinals hats I've ever seen. Is there a story behind this? You like this hat? It seems like you don't like this hat. I like it. I like all hats that are a little. Listen, for a bald man, it's an important accessory. And as long as the fit is good on the head, I'll wear just about any design. And that looks like it fits your head pretty well. Can I ask you a question? How do you, how do you like decide on like, what would you describe your

hat style? It's like dad hat. It's not like the classic fitted hat. What would you say your type of hat? is. Yeah, I want to be like Kyle Hamilton, where you don't know where I'm going to line up. I, you know, maybe I'm playing free safety with the dad hat. Okay. Maybe I'm coming in with the old school fitted MLB hat playing up in the box. So I like a nice variety. I don't like the hats that are too high on the head. Yeah.

I feel like that's the main one where I'm just like this kind of looks ridiculous. You never throw in like a Samuel L. Jackson like Cangle or something like that? I have, you know, I had a Cangle baseball hat back. Not the Cangle Cangle hat. But yeah, you know, we all go through various fashion phases. So I had that back in the day. What is a Cangle baseball hat? Like an old paper boy type hat?

It's kind of like the hats where, you know, just a regular hat we're wearing now, but it was Cangle brand. So I was going halfway. I couldn't jump all the way in there. So there's a good head talk. So this hat is just a colorful hat. I was telling Chris our producer beforehand. Last year, you know, in my old job, I had a situation where we had a sponsor and the sponsor would send us from city to city a couple times during the NFL season to do live shows at various locations. So we went to

sometimes I'll wear a fitted Bears hat because we went to Chicago to do something at a bar there, talk to Matt Forte, which is kind of exciting. He had a children's book that came out, but they asked us not to promote his children's book. So I'll promote it now. He has a children's book out if you want. But they ask us not to promote it because the sponsor was an alcohol sponsor. They're like, please don't talk about his children's book, even though that's all he wanted to talk about. Then they sent us to Arizona, which is why I have this hat that I'm wearing now, this colorful Cardinals hat, which is, how do you feel about this style that has, like, the rope across the front? You can't even really see it because it's so colorful, but it has a

rope across. I like the rope. Yeah, I'm in the rope's very popular now, the golfer style hats. Yeah. So if I'm going to be honest, the reason I have this particular Cardinals hat is because when we were headed into it, I just went on Fanatics and I just went to, like, their sail rack, and this was in the sale rack. And I said, you know what? I, could wear that for a day. And then I kind of liked it and I'd keep wearing it. And then last year when they did the whole big schedule release thing, the teams now like build up and make a whole event, they mailed me a bunch of Cardinals like shirts and magnets and all this stuff. They're like, thank you so much for supporting the Cardinals. And I was like, I didn't realize I was, but, but thank you

so much. Now they sent me a double XL, which is a little bit too big for me. Okay. It's a good sleep shirt. So I'll wear it to sleep sometime. So Cardinal fans, if you're out there, Cardinals, if you're out there, I'm still huge support of yours. Bird gang? Bird gang, okay. Do you own bird gang, by the way? I feel like Eagles also claim to be bird gang. No, I don't know.

No, I don't think. I mean, there might be a bird gang here and there, but I think we're okay there. Now, I liked everything about that story except for the free ads, Billy. Let's be careful with that. You know, we have great sponsors here on the Ringer NFL show. All right, but we are starting with the Cardinals

because of the headlines that caught our attention this week, Kyler versus the Cardinals, Billy. This one's got some juice where a headline for me, ESPN. Source, Kyler hasn't talked to cards refuting GM. So here's what happened here. Again, this is via ESPN. Cardinals GM, Monty Ossonfort had a press conference at the combine. And he's asked, hey, you know, have you had a chance to sit down with Kyler Murray to talk about last season and the future? And he says, yeah, I've always had a good dialogue with Kyler. You know, that's my quarterback. And, you know, last season wasn't up to par. It wasn't what any of us wanted. But we always have a good dialogue. Well, enterprising reporter, Josh Weinfuss of ESPN, contact somebody, presumably in Kyler Murray's camp who tells him no such conversation, no such meeting took place, Billy. So I feel like this is the equivalent of, you know, maybe you're a naughty teen and you tell your parents, oh, I've go, you know, going bowling. Yeah. And then all of a sudden someone's parents aren't home,

they're having a little party, you go, and then you get caught. They call or something. You get caught there. That's what I feel like this is like. And I don't think it bodes well for this Kyler Murray Cardinals' relationship. And I think we both feel like he's probably going to play elsewhere in 2026. Well, okay. As you know, this is hitting home for me because I am a lifelong Cardinals fan after last year. Berggang. Yeah, Bergang, you get it.

So I think what may be going on here is Monty tried to pull a fast one and get in a game of semantics because you mentioned it. He said, I've always had good dialogue with Kyler. He didn't say specifically that's recent, just our history is we've had great dialogue. However, it seems as though they haven't spoken since the season ended. So that good dialogue may not be presently ongoing, just historically I've always had it with him. Not I presently have it and we've spoken. It does seem like they're trying to move on from him, but don't want to tell him that they're moving

on from him, which is weird. You can kind of, I guess, hide it in. well, they just hired a new coach. There's lots of moving parts. A lot of stuff is going on with the organization. But it definitely doesn't seem to bode well for his future with the Cardinals. The first word of the quote was, yeah. I think that got him in trouble.

I think if you didn't do yeah an answer in the affirmative, then he could have just said, I've always had good dialogue with Kyler. It is weird, though. You know, you have these exit interviews. And generally, you would think the quarterback was being paid like $50 million per year. It'd hold a little exit interview and say,

hey, you know, I know this hasn't been working out great. We got a lot to figure out, but we'll be in touch. I know the uncertainty. That's, I feel like, what good organizations would do, but that's not necessarily what the Cardinals did. And here's the deal, Billy, is that if he's on the active roster on March 15th, he's do a guaranteed roster bonus of nearly $20 million. So of all these stories we're talking about and we're saying, well, this could happen

post-June 1st or this could. This is one that it feels like in the next few weeks here, at some point, we're probably going to get a Kyler Murray trade where there's going to be a team that weighs their quarterback options, looks at, hey, what's it going to cost to get Kyler Murray in terms of a draft pick? And also, are we willing to pay him? And I think they're going to settle on, you know what? Yeah, let's go ahead and make a move. I was thinking how much changes in the NFL. Like, imagine before last season, if I was like, the Cardinals are going to trade Kyler Murray and maybe target Malik Willis and free agency. It's been a wild year. It feels like

the Jets, right? I know we've talked about this before. It feels like this ends up being with him on the Jets. Now, I have a question for you in terms of, I guess you disagree with that. Let me save my question. Hold on. I don't want to put out the fire. I don't agree with that. Really? I think the Jets are tanking mostly and maybe they'll get a low-cost quarterback somewhere, but I don't think they're making a big move for a quarterback this season. I would ask you the question. Who would you rather have for the next three years? Kyler Murray or Daniel Jones? Colts Faye, they don't like it. I keep bringing it up. I keep needling them. But I'm sorry, it's how I feel.

I would rather have Kyler Murray than Daniel Jones and take my shot for the next three years. Here's the Kyler Murray thing, right? He got injured early on, and then it seemed as like he wanted to come back and be like, nah, you're just going to miss the rest of the season. And they didn't play him. So they weren't on the same page, even going back to last year, which could have been a situation where, you know, head coach knows he's on his way out probably. Let me not hitch my wagon to Kyler Murray.

It didn't end up mattering. They ended up firing him regardless. But I think you can have Kyler Murray be your quarterback and still be tanking potentially, right? Like maybe. You probably wouldn't want to pay him all the money you'd have to pay him to also be tanking. But the Daniel Jones thing is tricky because he looked good when he was playing last year. But then he's out. And at his age, like, how's he going to come back from that injury?

I don't know why the Colts are all in on him and have decided this is our future. And we talked about this last week, why they're so vocal about this is their plan and kind of cutting their legs out from under themselves. Yeah, I'm with you there. And I think Murray, if you just look at it statistically, like he's not going to kill you. He's not going to be like one of the five worst quarterbacks in the league. He's not going to be one of the five best quarterbacks in the league. He kind of guarantees you just sort of competent, you know, mediocre quarterback play

that could swing in one direction or the other, based on your offensive line and your receivers and your coaching staff, that kind of thing. So I think it's a question about like what type of team would be looking for that. I think the Vikings, you always have to just mention them in every quarterback conversation where you say, I was thinking if I was a Vikings fan, I could probably talk myself into Kevin O'Connell, Justin Jefferson, good defense, we're playing indoors, Kyler Murray, you know, second chance, like Sam Darnold's second chance. I feel like I'd probably talk myself into that pretty quickly.

it means only giving up, I don't know what the compensation's going to be, let's say, a third round pick for it. I'd be like, yeah, I kind of like that better than my other options. Are we maybe looking at this the wrong way? Because I don't think I ever really look at it this way, but maybe this is the way we should look at it. Because the way that you're saying it is exactly right. He's good enough. He's not going to be the worst quarterback. Like, he's like a great average quarterback. He hasn't kind of lived up to the expectations that people had for him. He's not in the top 10 quarterbacks in the league. He's like middle of the road quarterback, right? So maybe the way that we look at it is not like the team that could use him the most.

It's what GM is on the hot seat that Kyler can be good enough to not get that GM fired next year, which unfortunately is how some of these decisions seem to be made. I like that one. And I'm trying to think of that. I don't know that that change. I don't think that changes my opinion. I think the teams I mentioned, the Colts, Chris Ballard is like the owner has basically said that Chris Ballard's on the hot seat. And then the Vikings, while they're GM, they don't have a GM.

That's a thing. So they have kind of like a de facto like in place former GM through the draft. So then they hire a GM. Do you want to kind of saddle that new GM with the Kyler Murray decision being made? It's a good question. It feels like they feel urgency. And we're going to get to the Vikings a little bit more later. It feels like they feel a little bit urgency.

But I don't know what their big moves is going to be. So it's very interesting to see what the Minnesota Vikings do. So this feels like a fractured relationship, Billy. I think it all goes back to when you make a quarterback sign a homework clause like they did. Remember? I mean, one of the great stories, I would say, the last 10 years is putting a clause in for a quarterback. You're paying like $50 million per year that stipulates how much film he has to watch. And then that being leaked and then you looking like, all right, this is kind of, are we sure it's a good idea if we have to put this in that we pay him this much?

So I think he just needs a new start. He's going to be in our life. And let's see if he can follow the Sam Darnold, the Daniel Jones path, get to a different place. And all of a sudden, it's a lot better. So we'll see what happens there with Kyler Murray. All right. Are you ready for the next headline that has my attention?

I have a hot take destination for Kyler Murray. Maybe we'll get to it later if you want. No, do it now. What do you think about Atlanta? I think that's a, I like that one. I was surveying. I can kind of see it. Do you ever do this when you're like a player's going to be traded

or sign. I just picture them in like the helmet. You close your eyes. Yeah. Uniform. And I'm like, yeah, I could see myself sitting on the couch on the Sunday. And he's just like chucking the ball downfield to Drake London. I like that one. They're kind of a mystery team. We're going to get to Kirk Cousins in a minute here. But yeah, I do like that one. Tyler Murray, Falcons. Let's throw them in the mix as well. All right. Next one, headline that has our attention. This is be a pro football talk. Raiders want two first round picks and a player for Max Crosby. So this is per Mike Florio. I think Jay Glazer reported something similarly, maybe a couple weeks ago, but they kind of want it out there. Remember that package? The Cowboys got for Michael Parsons,

where they got two firsts and Kenny Clark. That's what we want for Max Crosby. Oh, but yeah, we might not trade him. Yeah, we're not definitely going to trade him. But if we were to trade him, hypothetically, this is the type of compensation we would be looking for. What do you think? Does that feel unreasonable for you. Does it change your mind on whether he's going to be traded or not? Do you have destinations where you feel like he should land? Where are you with this Max Crosby story? Because this could end up being, I would say, the biggest trade of the off season just when you look at a player and what they got in return. So the thing that's kind of sad, I guess, that's probably not the right word, but the thing about this story that isn't ideal or is disappointing is how much time he spent with

the Raiders and how the Raiders seem to be set up to be, if they hit on Fernando Mendoza, if they drop Fernando Mendoza, and they hit on Fernando Mendoza with our friend, friend of the show, Ashton Genti there, with Brock Bowers, or some of the weapons that they have there. It seems as though they're not that far away. And the Max Crosby trade may be, how do we trade Max to get the final pieces to get us over the next hump? So it's almost like he was there. He did his time.

Now when they are in the process of turning it around, they get a new coach. They have, you know, franchises is turning the corner. Now let's get rid of the guy that suffered through all of that bad time with us to get those final pieces and his final contribution to us will be like, here's two first rounders that we flipped and those guys got us to the next level. And then you can go off to whatever team is desperate enough. And hopefully you can get a ring with that team. Yeah, it does kind of suck for him.

You're right. He put in all this time. He's played great. He never comes off the field. He's been their only bright spot. And now he's probably going to be out of there. But from the Raiders perspective, I get it. Because when you say final pieces, like, there are a lot of, there's still a lot of pieces. You know, their defense kind of things. They're getting close, though. They've got closer. They're interesting. I'm with you. Like, offensively, they could be interesting if they get some pieces on the offensive line. Defensively, especially without Max Crosby, they've got almost nothing. I would say it's the worst, maybe the worst. step chart in the NFL. So from their perspective, if you're like, oh, I get a defensive player who's maybe a solid starter, not Max Crosby, and now I get two first round picks, now I can actually have some cornerstones on this defense. So I get it from their perspective. And I understand the asking price because, remember, it was just months ago, Sauce Gardner got two first round picks. And I think if we were like, you know, if we were having a conversation in October and we were like, who would get more in a trade? Sauce Gardner or Max Crosby, I think we probably would have said Max Crosby.

So I understand why they're asking for that. Now, Quinn and Williams got a first and a second. So I don't know that a team's definitely going to give up two first for him, but I feel like something like a first and a third. Maybe it's a first this year and a third next year, but it turns into a second if he has 12 sacks or is an all-pro. One of those types of deals, I think, is on the table. And I wrote down so many teams here.

Oh, okay. That could be interesting. Wait, hold on. Did you do this the same way as you do where you close your eyes and you see where he goes? Because I just did that now with Max. And the problem is when you close your eyes, he's a raider. You know? Like it's the perfect team for him.

If I close my eyes, I start looking around. I'm doing like, you know, almost like, you know, like in the video game where you're like switching uniforms, whatever. I'm trying to do like a quick thing where I'm seeing all of the team's uniforms flashed before my eyes for him. I see buccaneers maybe. Like that's a team that like that seems like that uniform might fit on him. Right. I just don't know if there's a better fit uniform-wise for him than the Raiders. By the way, is there anything funnier than when there's a trade and an insider tweets out

the bad Photoshop version of the player in the new uniform? I would read a story on like the process of that. Is that an intern? Are they calling? So I know they're not doing the Photoshop. No, for sure. I've always wondered that with Schefter too. So like now if you've noticed when Adam Schefter breaks like a big.

story. It'll say like breaking and he has like a graph that goes along with the thing. What the process is. And if he's there like on his phone and he's like, I have the news, but I need to remember there was a mandate. I need to get this graphic in. Where is it on my, you know, where is it on my photo roll? I need to find he's like scrolling through and then he gets beat by someone because they don't throw in the graphic. The world's changing, Sheel. The world of this game is changing. Because you're right. Yeah. Is he actually? It slows it down. Is he clicking forward? Is he clicking forward?

you know, add photo on the social media and add the photo to the tweet because that could get a little dangerous. Really? I mean, we all have lots of photos, you know, on our phone. Who knows? Maybe you have some type of medical thing like that happens to me sometimes. I'll send it to my sister. Hey, you know, like, I don't know. Are you okay?

Yeah, yeah, I'm fine now. Nothing, not as of this moment, but that has happened before. And then I'm like, man, I just like sent them something of my foot. Like, if I were to tweet that out, that would be pretty weird for me. Or he was like a picture of my dog or something. Right. or a child. Yeah, that's another example.

Maybe a better example there. Okay. All right. So I did, here's what I did. I wrote down a bunch of names. Okay. And then I did close my eyes. Oh.

And there was one uniform here that I just pictured him in. So here I'm going to give you the list of names. And maybe as I do this, maybe you close your eyes. I'll close my eyes. Yeah. And you picture and you tell me if there's one of these that you feel like, oh, yeah, I could see that. So New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills,

Baltimore Ravens. By the way, play along at home. Not if you're driving, but if you're somewhere else, play along and close your eyes and do this. Should I grunt, like, because I realize now closing my eyes while you're just doing this

isn't really helping you in any way because there's like silence. I could go like, hmm, mm-hmm. If there's a natural grunt that you would like to incorporate, by all means, but I don't want you to force it.

We have to be authentic. Okay, got it. On this show. Eyes closed. Cincinnati Bengals, Los Angeles, Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington commanders, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks, sorry.

I mean, I gave you, what's that, a third of the league, something like that. I gave you a lot, but when I closed my eyes and pictured Max Crosby in another uniform, there was one team there that I said, oh, yeah, I mean, come on. I could absolutely see that tomorrow. If you had to choose one, Billy, what was the one in your head that you felt like you could see? I don't think that we're going to be on the same page here. That's okay.

We can disagree. Based solely on uniforms. Yeah. I think I could see him in a Bears uniform. Okay. I was thinking earlier maybe commanders, but I think like an alternate commander's uniform, you know? I don't know.

Which was the team that you settled on? I settled on the Detroit Lions, Billy. And I saw your face during it, and I felt like you were feeling it. But did you reject it for some reason? Did you feel like you were being? It was like, well, I'm just saying that because they've got a white guy at defensive end in Aden Hutchinson. And now I, is that, no, that's not why. It was, I feel like he fits the mold of a Dan Campbell player, but the blue threw me off for some reason.

I don't know what it was about Lions Blue that I was looking at it. Yeah, and I was like, I don't know if this is the right fit just based on the uniform. In terms of personnel seems perfect. Uniform, I'm not sure. Yeah, I landed on the Lions and I've changed my mind on this, you know, over the past few weeks. I've been thinking about it because some teams I feel like will be like, well, I'm just going to go sign Trey Hendrickson or I'm going to go sign Jalen Phillips. I don't need to give up draft. They're not as good as Max Crosby, but I don't have to give up draft picks.

And I've got a lot of needs on my roster where I don't. want to be giving up a couple of draft picks. But I thought about the Lions, and you've brought this up multiple times, and it's a great reminder, is that the whole Dan Campbell, they lose in the NFC championship game. He says that could have been our best chance.

Last year they don't even make the playoffs. Now they've got a new, their, what, third offensive coordinator in three years? They're trying to expand that window, and I feel like offensively, they're in really good shape. And defensively, they've drafted a lot of defensive backs.

where it's like they're corners, they're not making a lot of money. I'm not saying they're set there, but I feel like if they were to add a pass rusher on the other side of Aidan Hutchinson, I would be pretty excited about that lion's defense and that lion's team

maybe expanding that window and giving them another chance at a Super Bowl. Okay, so they have the 17th pick in the draft this year. Let's say you do two first. You do a first this year and a first next year is Max Crosby worth the 17th pick in the NFL draft? Could you get someone in the 17th pick of the NFL draft

that would be more valuable than Max Crosby? Because then if he works out the way that you want him to work out, you're looking at the 32nd pick in the draft next year. So is he worth a 17 and a 32? Well, the draft is a crapshoot. As you know, the hit rates, what, 40% or something? in the first round. 17th is a pretty high pick,

you know, and there might be other teams trying to trade for them who are in the late 20s. I would try to do 17 and then let's do a conditional 2027 pick that maybe is like

third that turns into a second or maybe even a second that turns into a first if Max Crosby has like 15 sacks or if the Lions at least get to the NFC championship game, that type of thing where you're protecting yourself a little bit

from the downside where all of a sudden you have a nightmare season and now you just gave up wild compensation for Max Crosby. So there you go. The Lions. Going through to see who the Shamar Stewart was the 17th pick of this year's draft. Okay. So that you would absolutely do. You'd be like, yeah, please, yes, take that and take my next year's pick. So we'll see what happens. It feels like he's going to get traded. I mean, you don't get to this point where you're talking. Here's exactly what we want when you're not going to trade the player. So I understand they're trying to exercise some leverage here, just like the Eagles are trying to do with AJ Brown,

but I do believe still that Max Crosby's going to be traded. That's a crazy story, by the way, the AJ Brown one, right? Where they're talking about what a Patriots fan he is. I mean, you're there and you are kind of like, was that like, did I get tricked into that? I was reading that where they were saying he's such a huge Patriots fan, and then there's rumors like, well, maybe he'll just go to the Patriots. That seemed like a crazy thing to read.

He said that for a year. He didn't just say that. So this has been known that he, when he was like younger, was a big Patriots fan, Tom Brady fan. And then he obviously has the Mike Rable connection. So Mike Rable is being asked about him at the combine. And he's like, I'm proud of the man he's become. And so I don't know if there's already a deal in place.

And they're like, we don't really need to worry about, you know, anything else. And now a radio host is morning is asking me, Hey, Shield, do you know the rules on tampering? This seems kind of crazy. Exactly. But I'm like, don't be a tattletale. Everybody's settled down. He's asked about AJ Brown, and he's allowed to talk about AJ Brown.

But you want to be a tattletail, it sounds like. No, I don't want to be a tattletail. I'm like, if we're pretending that there's tampering rules, this seems like a very clear violation of those rules. Also, like, to your point with Max, it's kind of hard to walk back and repair things with him when you're saying this is exactly what it's going to cost to get it from us. You know, like, how do you then like, you know, we were just,

eh, we were just playing around Max. Yeah, we were BSing, you know, having a beer with the G. John Schneider. and he asked a question. Hypothetical, you know. Hypothetic. It was like, yeah, it was one of those. We were there, Jordan Shulls was punching people.

It was crazy. You know how these things go. We haven't had any drama like that yet this year. Everyone's been on their best behavior. Okay. Because I feel like those stories are made for you. So if anyone there is listening, even if you have to, you have to make it happen, we would like to talk about, you know, that type of insider on inside,

a little fight or something going on. That would be fun. Take a swing if you have to. Yeah, that's okay. All right. Let's take a break. We come back. We got some other stories that have our attention.

All right, we're back here on the Ringer NFL show. So here's one that got my attention, Billy. This is from ESPN's Kalyn Kaler, great reporter. She has a headline. Replay errors in early games worry NFL coaches. So this is one that kind of came out of nowhere where Troy Vincent works for the league. He says, you know what? There are 171 replay review or replay.

play assist decisions last year, and we reviewed them all. There's only five that we would actually want back, but then he sneaks in this little nugget. Four of those happened in 1 p.m. games because of the volume of games at 1 p.m. He says, Billy, so now the coaches are being asked about this, Sean Payton, Mike Rable, they're like, we should never have a staffing shortage. It shouldn't be about that. Do we not have enough people working? What's going on here?

I didn't even know how this worked. Let me tell you how this works, Billy. And I need your take on it. This is also from the article. Each game in the 1 p.m. hour has a replay assistant dedicated to monitoring the action from the league replay center in New York. The replay assistants have an individual station and use an Xbox controller to view the different camera angles from the game. but the replay assistant is not the final decision maker on a review. There are replay supervisors, vice presidents, and the officiating department.

They can make the final decision on reviews. And with the expansion of replay assist, those who work in game management for teams have wondered who that final decision maker is and how many people within the officiating department have the power to make replay decisions because this has been vague from the NFL. There's a lot of juice there. It's a lot going on with this story. Honestly, at first I was like, hey, Troy, zip it up. Like, what are we doing giving away all this information?

Now, they have a collective bargaining agreement situation with the officials that's upcoming, which could be just like, this is posturing, this is kind of saying like, look, there's problems here. We've got to resolve these problems. And maybe they're trying to get some leverage here. I don't think that they can talk to the officials association, the NFL officials association, whatever it's called until like May, right? Which is a very confusing acronym that kind of combines various, you know, but anyway, NFLRA. There's a lot going on there.

I think that they can't really have talks until May after the season ends. I read somewhere. Here's a thing. There's a lot in this story. Number one, five doovers in the grand scheme of things doesn't sound that crazy. Okay, but who's judging that? That was my question. That wasn't like, was that an independent person who reviewed them all?

or is that the NFL's officiating? They're like, yeah, that one looked right. I mean, we have no insight on who's actually saying five out of 171. It's like the two-minute report in the NBA where the next day they come out and like, you know what? We actually messed this up. So, like, our bad, it's like, why are you coming out and saying that? Like, I don't understand what they have to gain by saying that.

And then the specifics of, oh, you know, one o'clock games, four of the five were in the one o'clock. So you got to look at that. And then just the nugget that's thrown in there, they use Xbox controllers to be doing this in the game. Were you a video gamer, like, growing up in your youthful years? I would say I was a casual, you know? Really?

I had the N64. I mean, this is before your time. Yeah, so, but beyond, I was, you know, playing NFL Blitz and NBA Jam back in the day and then Madden and those types of that. But, yeah, once it got more serious, I that, no, I didn't play a lot of video games. So I, I, too, had an N64. You mentioned NFL Blitz. Did you ever play?

They made a hockey one very briefly called NHL Hits, which was like NFL Blitz. It was a short, I think it was three on three hockey. You could hit them hard enough where they'd go through the glass. That game, incredible game. If you can somehow track that down. But I lived in the generation where you were either an Xbox person or a PlayStation person. I was always an Xbox person. My cousin was a PlayStation.

person. So it worked out great because between the two of us, we had kind of like both consoles. We had almost all the games covered. So we didn't really miss out on all that much. But looking back in retrospect, I feel like I was on the losing end of that one. I feel like PlayStation over the years has surpassed Xbox. And people think more highly of the PlayStation, the PS5s, than they do the Xbox ones or the Xbox 360, whatever the Xboxes are now. So I'm wondering how they settled on an Xbox controller versus a PlayStation controller. I mean, that's one of many things that's very confusing about this. Because you're right, that caught my attention, the Xbox thing.

The other thing that caught my attention is that would this be the worst way to experience an NFL game? Like, you know, we work in, you know, in content now. And so even sometimes, like, well, you know, we're not having, you know, for at least, I can't speak for you. It's not like, oh, you know, invite the friends over, get a nice spread. and oh yeah, it's like a whole day party event. No, it's like, and I enjoy it.

I'm not complaining. I like watching this way where I'm just sitting there. But, you know, sometimes I think, huh, you know, when I'm not working in NFL content anymore and there's an NFL Sunday, I wonder how I will experience it. But I will not be experiencing it like this, where you hate, it sounds like they have like a little cubby in this New York office, and they're watching one game, and there's a lot of pressure.

And by the way, it's like the principals looking over their shoulder who can make the final decision on all this. And you know what? I'm calling nonsense on the volume thing, Billy, because this doesn't make any sense to me. Like, I was thinking about this. They're basically making the case that there's not enough people working. You mentioned why would Troy Vincent mention this? There's obviously some message he wanted to get out there. What are the odds? This doesn't pass the sniff test. What are the odds that even if you have, let's say, eight one o'clock games, what are the odds that like two plays need to be reviewed at the exact same? time. It might happen once in a while. It seems highly unlikely that the exact same time something happened in this Bears Lions game and something happened in this Bucks Falcons game. And uh-oh, now the

vice president was walking around, didn't see it. And that's the reason for a mistake. So I don't know what's going on here. I don't know if this is part of the negotiating thing like you said with the labor agreement. But something about this seems, it doesn't pass the smell test for me. They also, in these stories, we're sneaking in a lot of information and quotes by different coaches and broadcast and all this stuff. They're like, well, you know,

it's because the one o'clock games have less cameras than the four o'clock games. Yeah, John Lynch was given that information now. Yeah, less cameras than the Sunday night games. It's like, why do we not have the same number of cameras at every game? This seems like a very odd, like, well, you know, this is, you know,

this is the game with Spiro Ditas. We're going to only give Spiro like three cameras. to work with here as opposed to like a Joe Buck game or have 87 cameras. Like these are things that I feel like we should be uniform and John kind of pointed that out and he's 100% right. But lots of excuses. Lots of excuses going on there.

There's that upcoming CBA. There's also thrown in there in the CBA that like, you know what? Maybe we want to come up with these performance-based reviews of officials at the end of the season where we can give them bonuses based on their performance or maybe if they're bad officials. they shouldn't be getting some of these primetime games

just because of seniority. And it's like, well, they probably shouldn't have been doing that anyways. Like, you should probably have like the best officials calling these games, not based on, well, this officials have been here longer. So like, ah, let's give it to Ed, you know? Yeah, it didn't seem that like, you know, you read it what they're negotiating about.

And I'm with you. It's like they think the officials who have terrible performances should have to get more training. I'm like, yeah, that doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. But yeah, they had the, the bonus pool at the end of a certain season. This was in the athletic that, you know, the best officials should get more of that. I'm like, all right, so they're kind of working on commission now.

I don't know. Is that weird or is that not weird? What's going on with the officials? So listen, their agreement is over, I believe, May 31st. And so now there's kind of this spin from the NFL that like we might have to just, you know, everything be centralized in New York if we have to do replacement officials next year. So they're trying to win the public opinion here. Yeah.

So this is a story that will continue in the months ahead. You know what I think the funny part about this story too is, like when you take it to the count, like when they want them to go to additional training, I was viewing it like traffic school essentially, right? Like, oh, well, you didn't follow that rule. So you got to go to traffic school for four hours and kind of learn the lesson. A lot of these officials, not a lot of them, all of them essentially, this is just kind of like a side job for them. Like they have their full-time jobs. A lot of them are like lawyers. They have like actual respectable jobs.

And then on weekends, they just decide, you know what? I'm going to fly to Cincinnati and I'm going to be the referee or I'm going to be the line judge in the Bengals game. And I'm going to put on my zebra costume. And then I'm going to have to go back to the office on Monday, Tuesday, whatever it is. And like, I'm going to be sitting in a courtroom and someone's going to be taking me very seriously. But, you know, on Sunday, whatever the day is, AJ Brown is going to be screaming at me and showing me absolutely no respect. whatsoever. And now the NFL is going to tell me that I have to be signed into Zoom to be going over webinars because they don't like the way that I was calling something my second job.

Like at a certain point, they're going to be like, enough's enough. Like you're not paying us for this to be our full-time job. We're not going to continue to jump through hoops. Like, you want to go and you want to play with your Xbox controllers in New York? And what was the name? Because they have a very official name for the control centers, like the Ed Ashcroft Control Center or something like that. Somebody, I kind of skip that. I'll do respect if that's an important person that I should know, but I kind of just skipped it. I didn't know who was either.

I was like, I hope I'm not out on the loop. I hope for paying this person the proper respect. But also, I feel like this is like, we don't need to know who this person is. How did they get this honor bestowed upon them? It really was. That was all over the stories. I was thinking the same thing. I'm like, well, I didn't, this thing has a name.

It was very official. Again, all due respect. If that's an important historical figure, Billy and I are, very respectful to that person and honor what they've done in their life or had done in their life. More or less. We just don't remember who that is and we're not going to go through the trouble right now of trying to figure it out. All right. Next headline.

Billy, this is the next one. I've got Falcons tell QB Kirk Cousins, he will be released, GM says. So this is via the athletic. This happened at the combine. And I was just looking at this going, is Kurt, like, Kurt Cousins is back in our lives, it feels like. Like he's going to be a starter in the NFL next season because I was thinking about it.

And if you're a team that needs a quarterback, here's what you have to decide. And you tell me how you feel about these options once I finish up. Do you want Kurt Cousins for cheap? Or do you want to trade a pick and pay Kyler Murray? Or do you want to trade a pick and get Mac Jones? Do you want to just pay Malik Willis based on three starts? Do you want to sign Gino Smith if he's released?

Do you want to sign Aaron Rogers as a free agent? Do you want to sign Daniel Jones if that's an option? Like, I was looking at all those and I'm like, I guess maybe Kirk Cousins wouldn't be the worst possible option there? What do you think? Am I jumping the gun? Is this much ado about nothing? And no, he's actually not going to be a starter in week one. Or is a team going to talk themselves into, hey, let's try to get maybe one year, like a Rich Gannon type year out of Kirk Cousins next year. So I was closing my eyes to kind of try to follow. follow on the story and see if I could see Kirk Cousins starting. And we just saw Philip Rivers play like three or four games after not being in the NFL for five seasons or whatever was and being on the Hall of Fame ballot.

So is the idea of Kirk Cousins being traded for the craziest thing in the world? Like, no, he played last year. You don't even have to trade for him. You just have to sign him. I mean, there's other court of, Derek Carr is talking about coming back. Like, what are we doing here? Where you would have to trade for Derek Carr because the Saints still own the rights to Derek Carr, so you'd actually have to give something up for him.

Are we crazy? And I know that this is like a popular thing out there. Minnesota can't be where Kirk ends up, right? Like that can't be. Of course it can. What are you talking about? That can't be the fix that they come up with, which is let's give Kirk Cousins to go. Okay, so the benefit of that would be he's just not going to cost any.

He's going to be very cheap. And they've got a lot of good players at other positions. So they can say, we just can't afford to pay Kyler Murray what it's going to cost. And we're not saying Kirk Cousins is the long-term answer. But Kevin O'Connell's feeling himself right now. He won the power struggle. He's coached. You know, they went, what, nine and eight last year with like nobody at quarterback.

So he's probably looking at this going, absolutely. We can go win and win big with Chris. Kurt Cousins next year, and that's actually the next headline I had. Because I think these two are connected. This is from the athletic. J.J. McCarthy, the Vikings quarterback pursuit and what we've learned at the NFL Combine. So this is obviously a big story. We've talked about it on this show.

Kevin O'Connell, let me know if you can make sense of this quote, because I'm not sure I understand anything about what he's saying, but maybe you don't. Kevin O'Connell said about J.J. McCarthy, the timeline is in a different place for all of us than it was at that point, presumably when they drafted them. I have a responsibility, and we have a responsibility collectively as we put together this team to make sure we use the data we have at this time to make the best decisions. Do you know what he's talking about?

No, that's like classic college essay. We had a word count, and we're just going to throw in a bunch of extra words there. Yeah. It seems like a lot of nothing. We just kind of said we're figuring it out, with JJ, right? Like, that's what that was. You know what I wonder about the Vikings,

and you kind of talked about it earlier about who might be available as quarterbacking? So the report was, if they don't go with Kirk Cousins, which, like, maybe they will, maybe they won't, right? But the report was kind of like, Aaron was waiting around last year to maybe sign with the Vikings, and he then comes, that doesn't work out.

There's a power struggle of who it is that's going to be the quarterback of Vikings, they're a power struggle. Aaron Rogers then goes to the Steelers, Gets the Steelers to the playoffs, they probably were not a playoff team, but gets the Steelers to the playoffs, I wonder if Kevin O'Connell in his head thinks,

I could have been right about that one. Like I could have made that work with Aaron because Aaron now is a year older. So even if that might have worked out last season, that doesn't mean it'll work out next season. But I do wonder if they're looking to just kind of, they feel like they're in a window here with Justin Jefferson, which I don't know why they would feel like they have to rush this,

but they feel like we got to do this next year. The defense is really good, yeah. Yeah, like I don't think that they would feel that pressure, but I wonder if they re-engage, at least in the process of maybe we do bring Aaron Rogers here. Would you rather have Rogers than cousins? I don't think I would. I would rather have cousins. It's not a slam dunk either way.

Either way, it's a roll of the dice, I think, right? And also, I don't even think that those would be the best two options. If you're kind of deciding between Aaron Rogers and Kirk Cousins, you might be in trouble. For that, why not just continue with J.J. McCarthy? Because neither one of them are the long-term plan either, right? I have to say, after reading the quotes and the coverage, it would be borderline shocking to me if J.J. McCarthy were the Vikings starting quarterback in week one. It just doesn't feel like it's trending in that direction with O'Connell. And you're right about, you know, a couple off seasons ago he probably wanted to keep Kurt Cousins.

and they let Kirk Cousins walk. Last offseason, he probably wanted to keep Sam Darnold. They let Sam Donald walk. Maybe he wanted to bring in Aaron Rogers. By all the reporting, it sounds like Rogers, he was waiting on the Vikings. He was like, I want to go play for the Vikings, and that didn't work out.

So I just feel like he's going to do something here. I was looking at the Vikings Reddit a little bit here, Billy. Oh, okay. Here's one post. What would the Saints want in return for Derek Carr? So they're on the same page as you. Derek Korse's arm almost fell off. Like he retired from the NFL because his arm stopped working seemingly, right?

Like, how is this a solution? Well, I will tell you, that did not get any up votes. So I think most people are on the same page as you. And then the second one I saw, why not Wentz again? Oh, gosh. Next year. But again, no up votes for that one. I don't feel good about the Vikings fans right now.

Yeah. Like if this is where we're at, like we're not even, I guess in the Reddit, we're not even talking ourselves into Mac Jones as a solution if we can get him. I didn't see that. Really? Yeah, but I think if I'm a Vikings fan, I can talk myself into cousins because it's low risk. If it doesn't work out, it's okay. We figure it out next year.

It's not costing us draft picks. I can talk myself into Mac Jones because it's like, you know what? He seems like he'd be a good fit in our scheme and he's not going to cost a lot of money. And who knows what we have to give up and draft. draft capital, but it's not like a first round pick. So let's go ahead, roll the dice. I could talk myself into Kyler Murray because I could say, hey, chaos, we believe in KOC. Look at what he did with Sam Darnold.

Kyler Murray is the next Sam Darnold. Like, we're going to put a great cast of, you know, supporting cast around him, and he's going to play really well. So I think those are the ones that if I'm a Vikings fan, I look at it and say, all right, none of them might be a perfect solution. But, you know, if they make one of these moves, I could talk myself into it pretty quickly. So not Vikings specific, but it feels like with this quarterback market, teams and fans are talking themselves into absolutely anyone out there who has played quarterback ever with some of the names that have been thrown around as potential quarterbacks for teams. Yeah. Malik Willis. It's like the prizes of free agency, Daniel Jones. I mean, it is. It is a little wild, but this is what happens in the all season.

Tyson Bejian is being discussed as a potential piece for a team. Great T's. I'm going to take a break. We're going to come back. There's a couple of trade reports out there that I'm just like, this is crazy. What is actually happening? One of them might be Tyson Bayesian. So let's take a break.

We'll come back. We'll come back to that. All right, we're back. Billy, you alluded to this. This is from the athletic. Would the Chicago Bears trade QB Tyson Baygent back up quarterback getting some attention? Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson, they were asked multiple questions this week

about the possibility of trading Tyson Baygent, who has started four games in his career all in 2023. He's thrown three touchdowns and six interceptions. He's averaged 6.2 yards per attempt for his career. But then you read the quotes and what is happening? He seems like the most likable guy in the NFL. Where Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles, they're like, oh man, that would just hurt our heart if we had to part with Tyson Bayesian.

What is going on here, Billy, with Tyson Bayesian? It seems like, I mean, we blame Sam Darnold for this, right? Like, Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones to an extent, it's kind of like people just seem like, well, they're in the NFL. They have the talent. We just need to put them in the right place, right? So how do we find that diamond in the rough? Like, how do we find our guy?

Let's start. Look, no, I can't be someone last season. That's too recent. No, two, two, three seasons ago. who was starting in 2020? Oh, Tyson, Bejan, hold on. Now, maybe that's like, maybe that's like a good look. Maybe that's a path we should explore.

And then I do wonder, is Ben Johnson actually going to be, like, devastated about this? Or is he saying, like, if I could find someone to give me anything for Tyson, Bejit, like, let's do that. So he's just kind of talking about because it seems like the entire argument for why they would be devastated. It's kind of like what you're saying is like, he's just kind of like a good hang. Like, I like him being around. Like, yeah, backup second string, third string quarterback. Who cares who it actually is? Let me pick someone that I actually like and it's fun to talk to and whatever.

And that's the whole argument for why they wouldn't want to give up Tyson Bayesian. I think you're right. Maybe you're right. Maybe Ben Johnson's playing chess. They asked him about the possibility of trading Bejant and he did one of those things where he coughed and said no. At the same time, you know, like in the movie sitcoms, they do that kind of thing. And he's like, I love Tyson. And he said, that's one that kind of pulls out your heartstrings a little bit because

he's someone that you care about so deeply. And then, you know, he goes on to talk about him. And then Ryan Poles their GM is like, the tough thing is what Ben thinks about Tyson, what I think about Tyson, what our locker room thinks about Tyson. I don't know what's going on. I didn't expect that at any point this off season on the Ringer NFL show, we were going to be having this conversation. So you've got Tyson Bejan.

Then you've got Adam Schaefter. He's tweeting out another available quarterback. Carolina has been getting calls about Andy Dalton for a picture. potential trade per sources. And here's my question to you, Billy, because I don't know. Listen, it's not that interesting to talk about the individual, these quarterbacks being trained. It's not going to have an impact on teams or on the NFL.

I'm more interested in, like, how you feel about off-season coverage in the NFL. Because I generally really like the off-season. I like free agency. I like trades. But you know what? There's so much, like, transactional nonsense where it's like, Player X got released, and then I scroll through my timeline. It's like 17 people have strong opinions on this guy.

It's like this guy played four games last year for a team that lost 12 games, and they're telling me strong opinion. I'm just like, if I weren't in the NFL content game, I would just be yelling who cares about probably 75, maybe that's low, 80% of the NFL offseason report. So you as a more, you know, you're doing baseball stuff with Simmons, man of media, you're doing ringer tailgate, you're about Zach Lowe,

like you got your hand in a lot of these different areas. How do you feel about kind of a lot of this NFL coverage? I mean, I'm happy, I guess, because like, look, Tyson Bayesian, we just talked about Tyson Beijing for five minutes and whether or not, you know, that seemed to make sense. Andy Dalton, as I guess people were thinking about maybe Andy Dalton. We could just then call him the red rifle and then move on from that situation because I don't know what else we have to add about Andy Dalton.

you got to fill time, I guess, but the problem is the difference between this is a fun thing that we should talk about to fill time. And this is something teams are actually going through their head thinking about while the combine is going on where they're seemingly looking towards future plans. It's like, what if we what if we looked at what was good in 2019 and maybe that'll be good in 2026? like, no, I don't think that that's how we should be doing this right now. Yeah. It's very, I need, I need someone to filter it for me. Now, I feel like we do that on this podcast. We did a nice child.

There's a lot of stuff out there that we could have talked about. But we chose the things that we found to be most interesting or entertaining. But yeah, if you just scroll throughout the course of a February day, the NFL coverage right now, it's kind of like, do I, should I, do I actually need to care about this, I think is a big theme. All right, last one, I'm given to you. one I actually think is interesting and that could have an impact on next season, Billy. And that's the last one.

Sean Payton turns over play calling to new Broncos O.C. Davis Webb. And the way this story was broken was fantastic. Where Bill's GM, Brandon Bean, he does his press conference with reporters. He's asked about Davis Webb, who

had been a backup with the bills. And he reveals that Web is going to, he's like, I think he's going to get a chance to call plays. And then I was like, wait, really Sean Payton hasn't said that so then Peyton has his press conference and he confirms it that yes Davis Webb

31 years old has been a quarterback's coach for three years is going to call plays for the Broncos over Sean Peyton who has never given up play calling for an entire season who in my opinion even though he loves himself he's one of the best

play callers of probably the last 25 years one of the best offensive coaches of the last years. This is a Broncos team that made the AFC championship. I feel like not enough is being made about this. Billy, this is kind of wild to me, this story that he's giving up play

calling duties. I think that I feel bad for Davis Webb, because I feel had he held on a little bit longer, we would have been talking about him with the last question. You know, could Davis Webb be the solution for some of these quarterbacking needs that teams have out

there? It's kind of wild, 31, right, that he was in the NFL. I'd I didn't realize that he had stopped playing. I figured he was just bouncing around somewhere. No, like, he's been the quarterbacks coach for the Broncos for the past three seasons. The bills wanted him at some point in time, which seemingly, it seems like David Webb and Bean might still be communicating, which I'm pretty sure is not what's supposed to be going on there. You think, another tampering. I don't know about tampering.

Maybe we just keep an eye on that situation. I guess maybe they're an indie, hey, friend, what are you doing? Let's go out for a drink. And then Davis says, you know, I don't be calling the plays this year. He's like, Brandon means like, wait, what now? And then he's a chatty cat. He goes and he tells the media. Now this becomes a story.

You think Sean Payton, he says to himself, I've done it all. I've been in the league. I won the Super Bowl. I'm now with a new team. This has worked out. Number one seed, you know, injury situation. Or we would have been in the Super Bowl. Then you could kind of start talking yourself into like, we would have won that.

If we made it, we would have won that. Super Bowl would have looked vastly different. had we been there instead of the Patriots, right? So he says, you know what? I can't accomplish any more than I have. Let's just, I want these last couple years that I have. I want them to be good years, not stressful years. Let's let the kid get a shot.

I'm just going to kick my feet up. I'll stroll in now and I'll get to a little bit later, arrive a little bit later, head home a little bit earlier, and just kind of enjoy life and coast out a little bit, you know? I think that's interesting. You opened up now. I wasn't thinking down these lines, But now that you mentioned it, maybe he's like, you know what?

Podcasters like Shield Capadia call me the most arrogant coach in the NFL over the last couple decades. Well, you know what? I'm doing, I'm unselfish. I'm going to prove to people. I'm going to have a coaching tree. Maybe that's the one thing. He's like, I don't have a great coaching tree.

I want to have a coaching tree. I'm going to give Davis Webb play calling duties. And here's the thing. If you're Sean Payton and you go through eight weeks and the offense is struggling a little bit, Billy, you can come in with the cape and say, all right, we love Davis Webb, but you know what? I got to do what's best for the football team. I'm taking over play calling duties. Now all of a sudden you go on a run and now people like me are like, man, he is a great offensive coach.

Look, it's the same talent and look how much better of a job he's doing than Davis Webb. So yeah, there could be kind of a behind the scenes, make it look like I'm being unselfish. But actually, this is for my own legacy type thing going on. think is possible. Coaching trees are interesting because I'm looking up the Sean Payton coaching tree. And you always kind of wonder how this person was assigned to this coach and like how this branch belongs to this person. So the coaching tree that I see for Sean Payton, we have Dan Campbell because he was a tight ends

coach in New Orleans and he was there. We have Aaron Glenn, head coach of the New York Jets. Joe Brady, Bill's coach, is attributed to Sean Payton because their time together in New Orleans. It was one season, so I don't know if we can attribute them to that branch. Dennis Allen and Doug Marone. Those are just the head coaches that are listed here under the coaching tree of Sean Payton. So Brady and Campbell are two good ones. Yeah, I don't know how you get, like if you coached under two different people, how does that work? How do you get assigned? Like the Hall of Fame, you know, in baseball where you get to choose what logos on your hat? Like, do we leave it up to Dan Campbell?

Because he was like a coordinator for a couple of different coaches. Do we get him to choose or You know, everybody gets assigned to the Nick Saban coaching tree in college. And Nick Saban does a great job of finding the fired head coach who is probably going to be a head coach somewhere else who needs like a one year rehab. And then he brings in like a Steve Sarkeesian who then goes and takes over at the University of Texas or, you know, like a Lane Kiffin. Yeah, exactly. Like he goes in and he'll scrope, he had, I mean, some of the championship years that he won, he had these. all-star coaching staff is, it's like, wow, look at that roster that he had. They all went on to be head coached.

Like, no, they were all head coaches before. And then he came on and he's like, hey, come here for a year instead of taking the year off, we'll pay you whatever it is. The next year after we win the national championship, you'll be on your way again. And like, that's kind of just the arrangement that we have here, right? But a lot of those coaches, in retrospect, then get, like, credit to the Nick Sabin Coaching tree when really they were developed under other coaches. He does a nice job with the buy low candidate,

and then he can take credit for them on the rise up. Yeah, that's a nice move by Nick Saban. Maybe Sean, no, that's not, you know, Davis Webb. It sounds like Davis Webb had a lot of options this offseason. And so maybe, and so Sean Payton could have been like, well, if I want to keep him, then I got to make it worthwhile for him. But still, knowing what we know about Sean Payton, I feel like he'll be like, go ahead, take one of those other jobs.

We're going to be fine here without you. But maybe I don't know. Maybe he's different than I know of him. Or what if Sean Payton saw last year as like a peak? And he's like, we kind of maxed out what we could do. We got bailed out a little bit by the injury there because, you know, if I'm looking, honestly here, Super Bowl wouldn't have gone that different if we were in there versus the Patriots. So we have that situation with the quarterback where that, okay, now that'll be the blame.

But I don't know if Boehnix is our guy. I don't know if he's going to take us to next level. You know what we can do here. let's give Davis the reins. And the next season, when things kind of fall back down to earth and we have like a subpar record, especially like underperforming for what the expectations are for us, what's the difference?

Sean Payton's on charge anymore. We've got to bring Sean Payton back. And poor old Davis is like, thanks for the three years as a quarterbacks coach. Now hit the roadjack. Go see if Brandon Bean still wants to hire you. You guys were such good friends gossiping at the combine last year. you know?

The ulterior motive seems more likely to me than the generosity, unselfishness angle with Sean Payne. So I'm with you. He was actually asked about that this week. They're like, you went nine and two in one score games last year. You know, like, do you have to kind of take a step back? And he was kind of like, yeah, you know? Like we do have to take a step back.

Look at where we are with the roster. They've got a lot of cap space now. They don't have the Russell Wilson contract. And so I think they're going to be an aggressive team. But I am very curious about why Sean. Peyton made this decision and what it's going to look like. So something to keep an eye on. Broncos are an interesting off-season team for sure as they try to figure out how they can make the leap, get over the hump, whatever you want to say next year. All right, those are the stories,

the headlines that caught our attention this week around the NFL. His name is Billy Gill. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video editing and additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgo. I'm Shio. I'm Shio. Capadia. We will talk to you next time on the Ringer NFL show. 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler or visit RG-Halt.com. Call 1-88-7-9-77. Or visit ccpd-d-cd-cd-chat-org. Or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline,

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