The Ringer NFL Show - The Best Fits for Remaining Free Agents

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

Nora, Steven, and Rodger discuss and pick their best fits for the remaining free agents and conclude the show by giving their spiciest takes heading into the season. Host: Nora Princiotti, Steven Ruiz, and Rodger Sherman Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Chris Martin, and me and my buddy Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O Everything, hosting an NBA podcast called The Mismatch. They call it The Mismatch because I'm awesome and Kevin is a gigantic nerd. No, no, that's not why at all, Chris. They call it the Mismatch because I have a brain and you're a loudmouth bozo. Good grief. Anyway, listen to our amazing NBA podcast, The Mismatch. Or don't.

We really don't care. We're probably going to win a million awards either way. Good, Chris. We do care. So don't say that. Please subscribe and listen to the mismatch only on Spotify. Did you really call me a bozo? Hello and welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I'm Nora Pinciotti. I am here today with Stephen Ruiz. Hi, Stephen. How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you doing? I'm doing just fantastically. Thank you for asking. That's so kind. I don't know that... You're welcome.

I don't know that the host generally gets asked back how they're doing. Well, we kind of had a conversation off before the recording. So I felt obligated to ask because I feel like I didn't ask during the conversation. I was telling Stephen and Roger before we did this recording that I was a little bit under the weather over the weekend. So Stephen is being very kind on air. Roger Sherman is also here. Roger, how are you? No, how are you?

I'm sorry. I will not allow him to stephen to one up me on compassion for you. Okay, well, you're both very, very kind. I'm doing just fantastically well this morning because we are here to talk about the best remaining fits, free agent fits for teams that are still out there looking on the market as we get into May, into the summer months,

the slow months of the NFL calendar, but there's still some moves that can be made to improve teams with needs. the way that we're going to attack this is each one of us is going to come with three players and a fit for them. I went with three agents, but if there's guys you guys feel like are on the trading block that you want to match with a potential new team, please be my guest. We're all being very compassionate and open today. So let's get right to it. Uh, Stephen, why don't you give me your first good fit remaining to be fitted this off season?

I'm going to go with someone that just got cut. I'm going to go with James Bradbury to the Chiefs. And I know, yes, yes. And I know the Chiefs just drafted a cornerback in the first round, but they drafted a tiny cornerback in the first round. 510, 72 inch wing span. That's ninth percentile, according to mock tractable. 29 inch arms, that's fifth percentile. Just a tiny guy.

Trent McDuffie, I'm talking about. And their big problem last year was dealing with overly physical receivers. The top five receivers in terms of generated EPA versus KC last year. Jamar Chase, Gabrielle Davis, T. Higgins, A.J. Brown, Mike Williams. Five physical dudes. I don't think this tiny cornerback out of Washington new draft is going to help. They need a bigger cornerback. James Bradbury fits the bill.

I think if they sign him, they have a decent defense next year, and that's what they need. Roger. Is James Bradbury on your list? He was not. He was not on your list. So he was on my list. Bad list. I would normally never be so rude as to deny a show guest an opportunity to speak and offer their fit before teasing the mic myself.

But I had James Bradbury fit to the Colts. And I'm interested, Stephen, to see what you think about this because I was operating more from the place of severe need. Right. So like the Colts had been interested in trading for him before he was released, also before they signed Stefan Gilmore. But they did not draft a corner until the seventh round this year. It's a pretty severe need. I think he would compete with Isaiah Rogers and Brandon Fassison. Does any of you guys know how to say that? I never know. I'm confident. We're going to go with that. But so it feels pretty safe to say that he would end up as their other outside starting corner opposite Steph Gilmore with Kenny Moore in the slot. That said, my one issue with this was sort of scheme fit. Just because he is a bigger guy. He's a little bit more of a man coverage guy.

He was pretty good in zone in 2021. PFF said he allowed a 76.5 passer rating against in zone, which would be a good enough fit, I think, for Gus Bradley. that said, Stephen, I look at your fit as kind of a little bit of a lesser need because they did draft McDuffie, but potentially a slightly better

scheme fit. What do you think about the Colts or do you think the Chiefs is just a much better destination? No, I think the Colts does make sense, especially from a need standpoint. For the Chiefs, it's definitely a luxury pickup. I just feel like in the AFC now,

at the top of the AFC, those acquisitions that we may have called luxury acquisitions earlier in past years isn't really the case this year because everyone's loading up at the top of the conference. But the Colts makes sense to me because Gus Bradley's defense, I know they play a lot of cover three. Those corners are left on an island on the outside and it basically turns into band coverage. So I do think you need two big physical, capable cornerbacks to really live in that type of defense. And having Gilmore and Bradbury gives that Colts defense. something they haven't had in, I don't know, before Peyton Manning even. Were you surprised that he got released?

I mean, it seemed like purely kind of a financially motivated thing, but it's always a little bit gives me some pause when a team just has to get rid of not like an unbelievable player, but he's a starting caliber corner. Yeah, I think it's just like a Giants being the Giants type thing. Like they literally ran out of money to pay their rookies, so they had to cut him. And he's a good player. He's like, he's not an elite cornerback, but he's an 8.5 out of 10. And those are, those are valuable.

That's pretty good. Pretty good. That's, it's a good player to have. Dave Gettleman didn't like numbers. He did a, he did a press conference what he drafted, Saquan, Barclay, where he made fun of the concept of like numbers, like numerals, like Arabic numerals, the ones that are on keyboards and calculators. and his tenure with the Giants ended with them not having enough money for all of their players.

So that it's a nice through line to his time. And I think that's more telling than anything about James Bradbury as a player. They just they just had to get rid of an actual football player for nothing, which is not something you want to do in the NFL. It's the candles tweet, the drill tweet. Like my family is dying. I'm spending, like, he's spending, Dave, Dave Gettelman was spending all the money on running backs and had no money for the good players.

Running backs are the candles of the NFL. Running backs at the candles. All right, Roger. You are up. I think that a team that needs wide receivers is the Green Bay Packers. I think Odell Beckham Jr. is a professional wide receiver. He's injured.

He tore his ACL last year. He was looking at the Packers last year when he moved on from the Browns. I think the Packers need to go try and get him, even though for all intensive purposes, it seems likely that he'll just keep rehabbing and stay with the Rams. But the Packers need someone to catch passes from having lost Devante Adams. They don't have Marquez Valde Scandley. They did draft Christian Walsh.

But I think that would be a fun and interesting move for this offseason. Stephen, what do you think? I'm, I picked a different receiver. But I agree that they need a receiver. I don't think Christian Watson, who averaged just over two receptions at North Dakota State, is going to fill the Devante void, especially in year one. So I'm a little skeptical there that their ride receiver core is like in shape to the point where they can compete in the NFC.

And I think that's the goal for them. When you have Aaron Rogers, that's the goal. So I went with Julio Jones. And I realized that Julio has had trouble staying healthy the last two years. He's played 19 games the last two years combined. But I think Green Bay is good enough to get to the playoffs with him in more of a reduced role where they're just trying to keep him healthy and get him to January. And then he could have like an Odell-like impact on their Super Bowl run,

kind of like Odell did with the Rams. It wasn't a huge factor during the regular season after he was traded for it, but in the playoffs, he really came into his own. And I do think Julio allows them to replace certain aspects of what Adams did for that offense. He did everything in the offense. He caught the bubble screens. He caught the quick slants. He ran the fade routes on the outside.

He caught the tough passes over the middle on third down. I think Julio can do two of those things. I think he can threaten defenses on the outside and can catch those tough catches over the middle on third down. I don't know if he can do the other two things like the bubble screens and the quick slants, but he gives you the best chance of at least replicating what Devante did at a much cheaper price. It's kind of a frightening thing that's happening there where they have the back-to-back MVP at quarterback. And really so much of that offense, you know, was through Devante. they they that's really tough to he had a thousand more receiving yards than their number two

receiver last year he had 1553 Alan Lazard was second with 513 um it's how do you how do you go forward from that they need to add something more than a day two draft pick right it feels completely different to me from the chiefs leaving are losing using Tyreek, for instance. Like, I feel like the Chief's offense can just continue chugging along without Tyreeks. I don't think we could say the same about the Packers' offense because Devante was everything. He was everything.

He ran every route in that offense. He was the focal point of every passing concept. I don't know how it works without him unless Christian Watson is just a star from day one. He's maybe not Jamar Chase, but maybe Justin Jefferson. And he wasn't really even. He wasn't really even that at the actual. CS level. Right.

So I don't know. Yeah, I think they need a receiver. If they go into the season with this receiving group, I'm fading the Packers. I'm not getting on board the hype train this year. Maybe they need both. Maybe they should get Julio and O'Dell. Julio can play as much of the season as he can. And then by the time that he gets hurt, maybe O'Dell will have recovered from his ACL.

See, that's a type of creative thinking NFL front offices need. And they don't have it. That's a Mickey Loomis thinking right there. Yeah. Yeah. Lumas would come up with that plan for sure. I was wrong, Steven was wrong,

nor was right. They probably need to replace Devante Adams with multiple people, and here we have two perfect halves that will not play an entire season. I feel like I'm getting punked on this podcast and I don't quite know why. Like, why are you two being so nice?

It's coming at the end. We're just going to just rip the shit out of you at the end. It's going to absolutely drag me through the mud. By the way, we're going to end this show with a little hot take segment. So, first of all, begin like girding yourselves for whatever Stephen is going to say in that space. But maybe I'm just going to get dragged as part of that. The ringer should fire Nora. That's my hot take at the end.

Tough scene. Kevin goes on vacation. I get a little free rain here and then all of a sudden it's all over. All right. Stephen, you want to hit me with your next one? I kind of just went over it, but I'll go with my third one. This one I cheated a little. I went with the trade instead of a free agent.

I want Debo Samuel on the Ravens. And I won't rest until it happens. I know the Ravens don't give away draft picks. In fact, they just traded a draft pick or traded away a receiver for a draft pick. But you just made 11 picks. You don't need more young talent. You could afford to partway with some picks. So send those picks to San Francisco, paid Debo.

And I think you add a layer to the offense that they've kind of lacked since 2019. And I don't even know if they had it in 2019. I just think defenses weren't really ready for what type of offense they were going to run. And they kind of caught up. And now I think you need a plan B. And Debo, I think, gives you that plan B because you have a guy who's just a stud receiver when he lines up outside. But he could also do this other cool thing where he lines up as a running back. and is very good.

And now you get a backfield with Lamar Jackson, J.K. Dobbins, Debo Samuel, in the backfield, how do defenses deal with that? And you could also, you could run no huddle, hurry up, go straight to the line, defense can't substitute.

Now Debo Samuel, instead of being a running back, he's split out wide. It's just so hard to match up with that. And then you add in Lamar Jackson and all the constraints he puts on a defense. And I don't see how, if healthy, this offense doesn't get back to close to that 29.

team level. And that's where they need to be if they're going to win the Super Bowl this year. That would be the ultimate, pretty good for a running back offense in the NFL. It would be amazing. It would be amazing. Even J.K. Dobbins has some of that because he got ripped for being a second round pick as a running back. He's like, he's pretty good. I like it. For the tweets alone, I like it. Roger, Debo on the Ravens. Yeah. When you look at a player like Debo who has a unique skill set. There are so few teams where you feel like they can take advantage of that

and make that person thrive. Like, I'm a Jets fan, and when Debo came into, when Debo requested the trade, my first thought was, man, the Jets got to go get Debo. And then my second thought was, like, we'd be depriving the NFL of, like, of Debo Samuel because we would probably just use him in constrained ways and and just not take full advantage of the spectacular combination of skills and talents that he brings to the table.

Come on. They would just run the Wildcat. They would just run the Wildcat with like Brad Smith era Wildcat. Jet legend. But I feel fully confident that the Ravens would like, the way they use players, he would fit in perfectly there. He would fit into what they do in the running game, in the passing game. I think that would be like, I want it to happen for the Ravens.

And as a football fan, it just works on all perspectives. We, the football-consuming public, have just, like, so much trust in the Ravens. It's like, you know how they say, like, the president always ends up being a tall dude because people just are like, ah, yes, you confer authority. That's like, that's, the Baltimore Ravens are the tall president of the NFL. It's the same, it's the John Elway drafting strategy. He's been our elector for the last, the last several hundred years. And yet somehow it is very different.

The, the Ravens don't have a tall quarterback, though. It's, it's the anti of that. So I also had a Ravens fit on my list, which was Jarvis Landry. And I had some back and forth on this because, okay, obviously they need to address receiver after the Hollywood Brown trade one way or another. And I went back and forth on whether or not I would pick them to try to go for speed with someone like Will Fuller. ultimately I went with Landry because despite having a pretty good offense over the course of last season,

even though they got hit by so many injuries, they were really, really bad third down offense. They converted 36% of their third downs, which was 25th in the league. Jarvis Landry's just been a really, really, really, really good third down converter over the course of his entire career. He's been in the top 30 and receiving first downs

in every season that he's played. He had 29 with big, Mayfield is his quarterback in 12 games last year. Sammy Watkins had 17 and 13 games last year. Jarvis Landry is not a perfect receiver, but I do think that he would make what's been a problem area for that offense a little bit easier going forward. Stephen, what do you think about that one?

Or is Debo just the way to solve this problem? I mean, Debo is like the cooler option. But... True. Landry's probably the more responsible option. And I think it does make sense for a team that wants to run the ball so much. Like you're going to find yourself in a lot of third and fours, third and threes, if you play that type of offense.

And having a player like Landry who might not be a dynamic playmaker anymore, but he is a reliable possession receiver who's going to get those tough yards. And I'm thinking back to the Dolphins game when they just blitz the hell out of Lamar. I think it was a Thursday night game. And the Ravens had no answers. for it. And one of the things they tried was throwing bubble screens out to Hollywood Brown, but he's so tiny that he just got tackled easily. It just did not work. But you get Landry out there on those bubble screens. And I think you have a good option out there because he is such a tough runner, even though he is a smaller guy. He runs like a type of offense they play. He runs like a running back? Another one.

All running back offense? Let's do it. Come on. Hollywood always felt like kind of a strange fit there. you know, speed over the top. Jarvis is slow and under the bottom, I guess. Right. He is the opposite of those two things. He is a wide receiver who has somehow incredibly managed to be very successful, make Pro Bowls despite not being fast.

And most of his cat, a lot of his catches are very close to the line of scrimmage. The average depth of target is like 170th, if you like. look it up. I think he could fit really well on the Ravens, too. And that's something that's been talked about is a thing that may actually be happening. Yeah. So according to NFL network, the Ravens have poked around. Thank you for having an actual source as opposed to be saying people have said that's a thing that's happening. Some people are saying, I love as some people are saying, don't you worry. I'm sure we'll get at least three before this podcast is over. The other thing that I like about it is just that, I mean, I know he was hurt for some of last season,

but in general, a very reliable player from a health standpoint before then he'd missed one game in seven seasons. I don't need to tell you guys that the Ravens were obscenely injured last year, so I'm sure that would provide at least some comfort. He's also a good run blocker, which I think matters more in Baltimore. I don't think, I don't care about it as much, but I'm pretty sure like John Harbaugh. It's a pretty lame scale. I could possibly care less, but. It's like someone who does their taxes early.

Like, okay, good for you. I would actually love to make a list of, like, helpful football traits that Stephen just does not care about and would ruthlessly nag at any opportunity. Like, being able to throw a check down, like, good for you. That's nerd stuff to me. Whatever. Throw it downfield loser. So we're simultaneously, like, saying. the Ravens rule,

like they do everything right and everywhere. But also they could really use this guy who we both kind of, we've been just kind of roasting him. Yeah, it's kind of lame. Yeah, they need a lame guy. Lamar is so cool, he makes up for everyone else on the team.

Maybe that's what hasn't worked. Maybe like the Ravens secretly, like they needed Joe Flacco. I don't think anyone's ever needed Joe Flacco. But maybe that's why they trained. They needed to embody the sports. spirit of someone lame. Maybe that's why they traded Hollywood because he was like

such good friends with Lamar and they were posting Instagram live videos every week and they were having too much fun and they were like enough of this. We need another nerd. We need like a run blocker. Let's get Jarvis Landry. We need to lower our vibes. Yeah. Our vibes are too good. We couldn't handle it.

That's why we got hurt. That's why we need Jarvis Landry. I don't think he has. To bring the vibes down on that. We need him to bring whatever vibes he picked up off of Baker Mayfield to come lower our vibes. All right, before we drift too far into

medicine and science, Roger, what's your next one? I'm picking up at exactly the terrible vibes place where we just left off. I'm not allowing you to get us back on track. I would like to talk about the brigger of bad vibes we just mentioned Baker Mayfield's

himself. Oh, boy. And I just ran down every team in the NFL and was like, ooh, that would not work. And by process of elimination, he must go to the Seattle C-Hawks. It is the only, he is the thing about him is he's much blind. He has been very inconsistent. But by every stretch of the imagination, he's a better option than Drew Locke or Gino-Smith. He's not that bad.

I mean, I think if they're serious about competing this year, you know, they should pick up this terrible sack of vibes who is better at quarterback than their current options if they want to keep being a contending football team. Is that what they want to do? Three of the most dangerous words in the English language? Stephen? Baker Mayfield? I'm going to refrain from slandering Baker-Mayfield. I feel like he's been through enough this offseason.

Like, even I feel bad for him at this point. But it makes sense. Like, he would be the best quarterback in that room. My question is, are they trying to compete this year? I honestly don't know. I'm writing about it this week. So I would like you guys to feed me answers so I can just write them down in my article instead of coming up with my own ideas.

I have no idea what they're doing. So if they are trying to, to make the playoffs, which I think is probably naive on their part, then yes, by all it's take Baker Mayfield. But if they're trying to tank for next year and you draft a better receiver, I think rolling with Drew Locke makes a lot of sense. It feels like most of the other teams in the league either have someone who is good at quarterback or someone who's young and they're, you know, hoping can turn into something.

This isn't your year right now. The Seahawks are in that in-between place where are we still calling Drew Locke, like, a young developing quarterback. I'm not quite sure if that's where we're putting him. They're in that strange in between place. And there is a functional starting quarterback who is, who doesn't have a home right now and is being sassy on podcasts. And as someone who's currently being sassy on a podcast,

it just seems like this is the right fit. So Pete Carroll said last week, week, both that Drew Locke would have been the first quarterback drafted in 22, which, okay. He also said that right now he's second string to Gino Smith. Are we ignoring that Gino Smith is going to be the starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, Roger? As a long time, Gino, I don't want to say supporter, but like. Observer. I approve of him.

I'm a Gino supporter. You're a Gino supporter. I'm like. I'm one of the founding. members of Gino Nation. Me and Greg Rosenthal are big, big time Gino supporters. He's never gotten a chance.

Look at his last six starts. And it matches up with any of like the top young quarterbacks, even though stats lie a lot. And I think they hit they did a lot in this case. But he put up like decent numbers when he's gotten a chance to start in the last couple of years. So I'm still holding out hope for old Gino in year. What is it?

Like year nine now. I really, I really liked holding out hope for. him and then was like a little bit bummed out that he actually played last year. Like I always got to hold like, oh, you know, Gino Smith probably could be a starter in this league. And, and and there wasn't really any, any way to prove me wrong because he just wasn't playing football. And then Russell Wilson had to for the first time in his career get injured and it really threw my whole thing into chaos. But, but he played and now he's going to.

going to be a starter. So you were right. Unless. Unless he gets beat out by Drew Locke, which honestly, I don't think he's going to happen. Or disillusioned Brown's quarterback Baker-Mayfield. Well, okay. So, Stephen, if the Seahawks, say the Seahawks traded for Baker-Mayfield, but they actually essentially were buying a draft pick. So they agree to take the salary, but the Browns end up giving them some draft capital a lot, basically to take Baker and take the money off their hands. I'm not sure if that would happen, just

because Cleveland obviously gave up so much draft capital to trade for Watson that they might not want to get rid of more of it. But say that is the way that they can get Baker out of their organization without him being completely a sunk cost. And I frame it that way to understand it in the framework of like, okay, yes, the Seahawks are trading for Baker Mayfield, but he's only costing money in the short term. And ultimately, they're getting a draft pick that will help them. rebuild. Baker Mayfield versus Gino in training camp. Who wins that battle? I think Baker wins the battle because I do think he's a more accurate thrower. And in that type of offense, I think that matters the most because the play designs and the coaching staff like does the thinking

for the quarterback, so to speak. So I would give the edge to the best thrower and it's Baker Mayfield. And I think that wouldn't actually make sense because then you serve two purposes. You're upgrading your quarterback room by adding Baker. And then you're adding a pick in this trade, which helps you trade up next year for a quarterback if that's the route you want to go. So you could stand being a little better in giving up those draft slots because you got that extra pick that you get thrown into any deal as a sweetener. The problem is the Browns are like pretty not desperate to do anything. Right. When you're going, when you're doing this podcast and we're talking about places where free,

can go. The Browns have the second most cap space in the league. Like, they can sign any of these people that we've talked about on this podcast. They've got the room. They're probably not desperate to move on from that sense, maybe just from the aforementioned vibes sense. Getting rid of him. Yeah. They could probably just cut him. I think it's untenable. They have to. I mean, so yes, your point is well taken in that they might, rather than give up future draft capital, they might rather just swallow the cost and cut him. That said, they can't just sit on him

because he could just keep going on podcasts. The podcast will get sassier. The podcast will get sassier until morale improves. He might be on this podcast by the like October. Welcome to the radio. And now our next guest. No, he's going to be hosting. Oh, sorry.

It's going to be Baker and that dog. We're all out of jobs. We're all getting fired by the end of this pod. Okay. I have completely lost the thread of how many of our fits we have given. I'm going to give you guys my third, which is Melvin Ingram returning to the Chiefs. So, just to contextualize this, last week, the Chiefs placed the UFA tender on Ingram, which is an unusual move that's kind of interesting. what it means is that if he signs with another team, he's still free to negotiate with whoever he wants and poke around, see what's out there. If he signs with another team before the start of training camp or July 22nd,

and the rules actually don't have a clause that say like whichever comes first, but whatever, that's a matter of a couple days. Kansas City gets a comp pick. If he does not, they have his exclusive rights at a 10% raise from his 2021 salary, which would work out to around

4.5 million. So that's not going to have a huge impact on his market because it's a compact. It's not the other team having to give Kansas City something. So if there's another team that wants to add Ingram and wants to pay him more, then I can see him winding up somewhere else. That said, I really think the chief should bring him back. They did draft George Carlaptus

with the 30th pick. I like that selection. That said, I don't think that George Karloftus and Frank Clark should make the majority of your depth chart at pass rusher. We saw how big of a difference he made on their defense last year after being traded and how much it allowed Chris Jones to play on the inside, which was just a massive improvement.

I think it's kind of a no-brainer, given that they are sort of entering this second phase of the Patrick Mahomes era chiefs where they're a little bit more resource strapped. I can see them having used the UFA tender to sort of try to make it the best of both worlds. And if he does end up somewhere else, then at least they'll get another pick out of it. That said, I think he's really valuable to that defense, which I mean, Stephen brought it up. earlier in the pod needs to be solid

and I don't think that they should let him walk out the door Roger, any Melvin Ingram thoughts? I wanted to know Steven, where does the UFO tender

fall on nerd stuff? Yeah, that is nerd stuff. That's like pre-planning. I was kind of like Nora was explaining what was going on and I was at a loss. It was above my head.

So it's nerd stuff. I don't, understand it, but I don't want to understand it either. I'm going to be honest, when I started putting, when I made this selection, I thought he was just like a regular free agent. And then I was looking something up. And I was like, oh, that's funny. I don't know that happened. I had no idea. I wrote about him last week and I didn't, and I didn't know. It shows you the level of research I put into it. So it doesn't cost other teams to sign him. No. Yeah. So usually with a tender, there's different levels of tenders.

but often if a player has been tendered, the team, if another team wants to sign them, they're going to owe the tendering team a certain amount of draft capital. That is not the case here. They just would get a comp pick. I think it's because he's an older player. If it was under three years in the league, I think,

then the other team would get the pick. I like the fit too because I'm looking at their depth chart right now. And they don't have a lot behind Frank Clark and Carlophe. and I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't bank on rookies, even first round rookies, to be contributors right away. We don't know what Carlottis is going to look like in year one. And what if he's not ready to play? Then we're starting Mike Dana at edge.

I don't know if that works. I also do not know if that works. I don't know who Mike Dana is, to be honest with you. We don't know who Mike Dana is or what the UFA tender is. But we're figuring it out. That's what this podcast is all about. All right. guys to help me here. Are there any remaining

fits on your list that we have not gotten to? I'm all tapped I'm all tapped out. I'm all tapped out. Stephen's tapped out, but Roger, you've got one. I don't have a fit so much as like a hot, sorry, you guys do like football analysis and I just like say stuff about people that

people are talking about. I think it's time for Rob Gruncowski to go be his own man. Oh, I like it. I like it. I actually, like he's not Gronk anymore. He played a really interesting role with. He was like a, he was a great blocker this past year, graded short yardage. He wasn't the typical world's beater. He has been, he has no interest in doing this and absolutely never will. He only wants to play with Tom Brady.

He literally retired at one point. It's, it doesn't intrigue him that much. But I could, I could, I think, Rob Grancowski, play for the Rams. Do it. See, play for. any team besides the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I'm just, I'm begging you. Be your own man. You're saying he should do his own Brady, Brady going to Tampa.

Exactly. Tom Brady already did it. Now it's your turn. I'm with it. What's the best team? You think the Rams would be the best, the best team based on vibes? Based on vibes,

you know, at this point, he has literally nothing else to prove. He pretty much only cares about having a good time with his friends, what of whom, unfortunately is Tom Brady. But so I'm just speaking in pure hypotheticals about things that it will never happen,

which is why, like I said, this is not so much actual projection as a hot take. How about Gronk to Baltimore? I feel like Gronk and Lamar would be a great, like, buddy cop TV show. And getting those two together, I don't know. I think that could work out. And it works with what his skill set is right now. Right, exactly. Great film.

So, yeah, I love the vibes. I'm worried that both of these teams are going to make him run block too much. That's what he's good at right now. That's what he's doing right now. Yeah, but he's losing apart. I don't think he wants to do it, though. He might be good at it, but he doesn't want to do it. Yeah, he doesn't want to do any of this stuff.

So it's really pointless. But, yeah, the other problem is, like he mentioned, the Ravens actually need bad vibes. that's that's a good point so maybe he's not a good fit he needs an offense where he could just like run like crossing routes and then like do shots on the sideline

that's like his ideal offense he's still functional in many ways it's unclear whether he'll play at all there aren't that many free agents left we're at that part of the calendar we're getting to the part of the year where the NFL is hyping up

the schedule release really hard Right. Schedule release pod coming later this week. Get excited for it. But I do think, I think Gronk's thing now is that he's just like a big guy. Like on a football field, that that's the function he serves. Like he's a run blocker. The routes he was running in Tampa at the end of last year really just like boxing out

the unfortunate safety that had to cover him and just like devouring the ball. He's kind of like Clifford the big red dog at this point. Like I'm not sure what the storyline is. I've never read a Clifford. book, but I think it's just like, it's a big dog. And like, that's what Gronk is. He's a big guy. Look at this tight end. He's really big. That's what he does. It's very different from like the monster that he was like position defining league changing monster of his early. Yes. It's a very limited role, but also for a contender like say the Buck of Ears or other.

teams in that category. It's incredibly because he is he is still like you said. He's he's still Clifford. Roger, do you know the plot of Clifford the Big Red Dog? I feel like that's something that you might be aware of. So I like imagine in my head that a dog the size of Clifford, he's like a building size dog would like destroy a lot, would like kill a lot. He's huge. Dogs are very clumsy, but I don't think that happens. I actually have breaking news. This is Ian Rappaport. Gronk instead of playing the NFL will be playing the lead

in the upcoming live action Clifford, the Big Red Dog movie. Wow! Going out on his own, becoming his own man. We called it. By becoming his own dog. What are the odds on a Tom Brady cameo? The Clomk, the

Clifford Gronk vehicle. He's one of the people that gets crushed. Is the Clifford Grom vehicle going to be cross-programmed against 80 for Brady, the road trip movie with Tom Brady, Jane Fonda, and Sally Field that I still cannot believe is a real thing. Oh, that's still on? I thought like his retirement put a delay on that. I didn't know they were still going through with it. No, they're still doing it. Both movies are part of the

Brady's cinematic, cinematic universe, yeah. The VCU. Okay, I'm sorry that I only just had a speculation about, and please don't believe that he's not actually in the movie. You heard it here first, folks. All right. So I sent James Bradbury to the cold, Stravis Landry to the Ravens,

and Melvin Ingram to the Chiefs. Stephen, run us through your three fits? I went James Bradbury to Kansas City, Julio Jones to Green Bay, and Debo to Baltimore. And Roger? And I sent OBJ

I sent OBJ to the Packers, Baker Mayfield to the Seahawks, and Rob Grunkowski into a film career, apparently, or the Rams. Love it. Love it. He could do both. He could do both for... Yeah, that's why you move to Hollywood. Like LeBron... We stand a multitasking king. All right. Well, it is... We're sort of getting into the slow part of the off-season, which I believe should give us license to say ridiculous things on podcasts without consequence. So we're going to do a little hot take segment to close this show out.

And each one of us is going to give a take. And then the rest of us are going to grate it on its spiciness from cool, medium to hot. I think I would be too afraid to allow Stephen Scouts don't know ball Ruiz to go first. So Roger, I'm going to ask you to take the mic first on this one. I'll step up. Our beloved defending AFC champion

Cincinnati Bengals, our sweethearts, Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, we love them. We see bright things for their future, but they're not

making the playoffs this year. We and Roger were talking about this. We said I was, we didn't want to give away our hot takes and he kind of hinted at his and I was like,

I think we have the same hot take and we do have the same hot take. We, oh my God, no, we have the same one. we should have written them down beforehand to avoid this, but I like it better. When you both realize that we have the same one.

Anti-Bengal squad has showed up. I don't know why. I love the Bengals, but now we're... I'll throw a little pepper into the stew. I'm going to say they'll finish last in the division. I'll make it a little hotter. They're going to finish last in the AOC North. So are we tagged?

Are we going back and forth with our explanations here? Make the case. Make the case. pile on. pong this one. You want to go first or should I go first? Last year, I was, I was for, like Nora said me first. So like, I'm just jumping. Last year, they had the fourth place schedule. They played the Jags of the Jets. They actually lost to the Jets, which is funny. This year, of course, they won the division last year. They'll get the first place schedule. They'll be playing all the

best teams in the AFC as well as a division winner from the NFC, the Cowboys. And I think it's It's fair to say that every other team in the AFC North is going to be better this year than they were last year. The Ravens will not have one billion injuries and just fall apart in every possible way. They lost like a ton of games by exactly two points last year. The Browns have improved it quarterback. The Steelers have also improved a quarterback by not having Ben Rathlisberger, whether it's Trubisky or Pickett, I think most functioning humans will be a step up

from what they got last year out of Big Ben. So they'll have six tougher games, three tougher opponents just in their division, and plus their schedule is getting harder as a result of their success last year. So I'm sorry to our hero of last year, but it's not happening. Steven, hop in.

I'll continue. Before I do, I just want to say, I would put Ben Rothesburg in that Clifford the Big Red Dog genre of player, and they've replaced them, which is a good thing. We need this in Danny Kelly's draft guide for 2023. Right. I think the hype surrounding the Bengals is based solely off of the playoff run. Like we forget that this was a 10 and 17 in the regular season.

By DVOA, they were the 17th best team in the league going into the playoffs. EPA had them at the same point. the offense I thought was super high variance. They relied a lot on explosive plays. They were 11th in EPA per play, but they were 17th in success rate. And if you throw in playoff results, they dropped down to 19th. You know who was ahead of 19th? Jacksonville Jaguars.

They were more consistent offense down to down. They also were lucky with injuries. Seventh in adjusted games lost, which is a good thing. And then when you look at the teams they played, they played the most injured opponents, which makes sense playing in that division against the Ravens. They played them twice. But they were first and opponent adjusted games lost.

The Rams were second and the gap between them and the Rams was basically the same as the gap between the Rams and I think the 10th place team. So they played a lot of injured teams and they weren't injured themselves. They also got a lot of luck on field goals. Like their opponents missed a bunch of field goals. They lost 9.9 points according to football outsiders. So there's all these things just pointing to the Bengals being a worst team based on luck. So even if they do marginally improve because the offense blind has gotten better,

I think there's a chance that the results will be worse. They could be a way better team and still go 10 and 7. So hold on though, because Stephen, I heard you say that part of this take for you is that you think they will finish last in their division. Talk to me about the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals finishing behind the Kenny Pickett and or Mitch Trubisky Steelers. What's the path? Well, I feel like they only finished, what,

one or two games ahead of them last year with Ben Rathesburg. Let me jump in. They finished a half game ahead of them. A half game. So I don't think there's a lot of ground to make up there. And like we said, the schedule is much harder.

Teams aren't going to be as injured. I don't think they're going to sweep the Steelers and Ravens again like they did last year. I think there's a chance that this team really disappoints. And I don't think it's fair. to call it a disappointment because they still are very young and I think they played over their heads last year and maybe they arrived a year sooner than they should have

but I don't know. I think there's a good chance they disappoint this year and then bounce back in the future because they do have a young good team. All right. I have to grade this take. If it were Bengals are primed for regression, I would call that a relatively cool take. Yes.

That said, Super Bowl participants in the Bengals missed the playoffs all together. I think that's pretty spicy. I still think that they addressed their biggest need, which was the offensive line in the offseason. So while there are areas in which they could take a step back, there are also areas in which they could take step forward. I love Joe Burrow. I think we'll see them in the playoffs. Let's separate them out. Spicy take.

Mine was that they'll miss the playoffs. Stevens was that they're finishing last. That are you, is where I'm. on the ghost pepper spectrum is that. And let me just say Bengals fans, that was more peer pressure because me and Roger had the same take, so I felt like I had to up the ante. So I don't know if I believe it,

but I'm sticking with it. I'm not, and actually forget what I just said. I don't want to walk it back. That's, I don't want to do it. I'm going to stick with how old thing. You know, when you're looking at like a Thai food menu

and it has little peppers next to menu items, and three peppers, you're like, okay, that's pretty spicy, but then some of them have four peppers. And you're like, this is just madness at this point. I think Stephen gets four peppers.

Roger gets three peppers. They finished 10 and 7 last year. The team that finished in last place of the division, the Browns of the Ravens were 8 and 9. It's two games. I think it's entirely feasible. I also think this. Do you want to be downgraded to two peppers?

Would that make you feel good? Oh, I'm fine with you giving me as many peppers as you want. I'm just saying I'm right. Two peppers and there's some coconut milk in the curry or whatever it is. So there's something soothing and cooling. Is the goal here more peppers or fewer peppers? I wanted more. I think the goal is to take us on a journey.

All right. I will close this out. I think you went on a journey. We did go on a journey. I'm going to take you guys on another one. My take is that, so it was announced today that Tom Brady, ever heard of him, will, enter the Fox broadcast booth once he retires from playing football in 2075 or whenever that is. That's all fine and good. I think Brady will probably be a pretty

good broadcaster. That said, I'm old enough to remember when Brady's post-playing career was to be a lifestyle brand sion with his now available for purchase Brady brand. My take is that Tom Brady's going into broadcasting because his lifestyle brand is absolutely flopping. On his website, you can buy a plain t-shirt that has a faint imprint of his last name for $75. I have never seen a human being in person wearing one. Please, listeners, if you are Brady brand devotees, let us know. but I am convinced that not a single person has bought

Tom Brady's products and that is why he is turning to different potential vocations once he's done playing football. Have either of you guys ever seen a TB12 product out in the wild

outside of New England? I'm assuming that a lot of people there buy his stuff. Yeah, so I saw TV12 products in New England. I don't think outside of New England. So I agree with you. your take. I don't know how spicy it is. I think TV12 is. It's probably not doing well.

And I feel like we could have called this from the beginning just because who was it ever aimed at besides people like Tom Brady? And there's only one Tom Brady in the world. Are we thinking that there's going to be 80s for Brady too after the success of the initial road trip comedy starring Jane Fonda and Tom Brady? That actually would be a pretty good bit. Like they just never retire the franchise. Just keeps coming back. Like for some reason, all of these are just extremely popular and you've never met anyone who's actually watched one. Except instead of the most successful quarterback in NFL history, it's just like this weird sort of.

It's just a vanity project. Ladies, buddy comedy. You think Tom Brady probably came up with the idea for the film. He probably wrote the screenplay. And you know what else happens that? he had that ESPN Plus documentary. Yes. And I'm sure it was good.

I didn't see one episode. Did anyone see an episode? I didn't hear anybody talking about it. I never saw any clips on Twitter from it. I saw some of it and I heard like Patriots fans and sports media people talking about it. But I do think free story idea for someone, if someone can like dig into all of Brady's outside of football struggling. businesses. I would be curious.

I would be curious to know the ROI that's going on here. He's like me. Like I said earlier in the podcast, I'm not intelligent, but I know about football. And maybe that's him. He's successful at football,

but nothing else. I actually think it would probably make people like him more if Tom Brady were like Tom Brady at football and then just had like a ton of really unsuccessful side hustles that he can't make work.

Unfortunately, all the side hustles are like built around the idea that he's like the greatest human ever. Yes. The TB12 is like, well, I've been able to craft the most spectacular career in the history of sports through not only my own personal brilliance, but also this extremely strange strategy that scientists don't really endorse. And it's sort of a tough thing to buy into. It is a very tough thing to buy into. When he came out with his TB12 lifestyle book, the way he pitched, this is how he pitched. He said whether you're a high school, college,

or pro athlete, a coach, a farmer, an executive, a teacher, a doctor, a student, a parent, or a graphic designer, anyone in all caps, like this book is for you. A farmer, you don't eat strawberries. I like graphic designer. You don't eat strawberries, guy. Like, farmers can't live on this. I guess I have different desires for these two people. I want Rob Gruncowski to free himself from Tom Brady. And what I want for Tom Brady, who is launching a million brands, starring in movies, signing up to be the future face of football announcing,

there was talk of him like entering ownership. Here's what I want for Tom Brady. I want this bin to spend some time at home. home with his wonderful family, with his billionaire supermodel life, and just do that. That's what I'm asking you. Spend some time at home with your billionaire supermodel wife and your lovely family. It doesn't sound bad. His response is not.

I'd rather not. I'd rather hang out with Charles Davis on Sundays. Well, on that note, this has been the Ringer NFL show. Thank you so much to Stephen and Roger for joining me today. Stephen and I will be back with Ben Sulek on Thursday with a Spotify live for Thursday's NFL schedule release. That is also going to go up as a podcast on this feed. Engineering credits for today go to Stefan Anderson on this episode with production supervision from Arjuna Rample Paul. This has been The Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network.