The Ringer NFL Show - The Most Interesting Teams in the Offseason

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

Kevin is joined by The Athletic’s Sheil Kapadia to discuss which teams are the most interesting this offseason (2:34). Host: Kevin Clark Guest: Sheil Kapadia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They don't have guests. They have contestants. Ten Questions with Kyle Brandt is the perfect game show and talk show hybrid that you need. Check out 10 questions exclusively on Spotify. It is the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Kevin Clark. joined today by Sheila Kapady of the athletic. Nora is out.

Shield, what's going on, buddy? What's up, my friend? Good to be here. How is the off season? How do you view the off season? Are you relaxed right now? Because for me, I go straight from the Super Bowl to like a little bit of a vacation, which I had last week. And then today, I'm just on Duke Johnson's over the cap page,

just looking at it. Like, it just, it never ends you. It's great. I think I'm in on the eye. I think I've made the switch from enjoying the off season more than the end season now. I like the team building, the roster decisions, the free agency, the trades. Uh, you know, I like the season. I like watching games, but I feel like I'm always in catch up during the season, you know, and you don't have like a big sample. So now I've got big samples. I can look at it. ahead. I can make fun of GMs. I can act like I'm smarter than them. And I really like these few months. I love doing all of those things. It's one of my favorite things to do to act like I'm smarter than the people who get paid millions of dollars to be smarter than me. And they all are

smarter than me. But I will say I still like the action more than the transaction. Like I'm still I still like the NFL Sundays. I will say I would rather have like the first JFA than like a random Thursday night game. That's probably it for me. But I still like the game. is more than the off-season. That's where I'm at. Although I do like kind of just cosplaying as a GM and saying I'm smarter than Howie Roseman or whatever. But we'll get to that. All right. So very simple exercise today. It is the teams that will rule the off-season, most interesting teams, whatever you want to call it. I'm obsessed with this off-season shield, much more so than normal because of the way the cap is going to operate because of, you know,

I think Randy Mueller, the former Dolphins GM said this other day that the level of talent is just going to be on the street because of cap casualties is going to be unprecedented, and there's just going to be so many offshoots of that that make it so much interesting. We'll get to all that. Let's start with your number one team. Who is the most intriguing team for you this offseason shield? It has to be the Houston Texans. I had like an easy one, and then I had a bunch of teams grouped in the second tier. But I mean, the Deshaun Watson situation is going to define the offseason one way or another. And the way I see it, you know, they have to make a decision, I think, in a couple weeks here because if you are convinced that Deshaun Watson is willing to actually sit

out games and that he's dug in here and that you really have no other alternative, well, you've got to gauge the trade market before free agency, before the draft, and we could see the biggest trade in NFL history. And so to me, you know, whether it's just for the Texans, whether it's teams looking for a quarterback, that hangs over everything else we're seeing this offseason. Okay, so let's get to this because Peter King reported this week that at least two teams have sent the Texans an offer and the Texans have not gotten anything in response, not even a callback. I think that there are a couple of things that are intriguing about the situation, number one being that the public stance of the Texans, whether it's through this report or whether it's a press conferences, is that they're not trading him. but on the other hand, some of the beat writers seem to have very specific ideas on what the Texans will command, which to me says that maybe they've thought about it.

Maybe they're not incomplete. We're not trading him mode. If you were to put a number on it, percentage wise that Deshaun Watson will be on another team week one. What do you get it? I've had the same thought as you, you know, very smart, whether it's beat writers or national writers are putting together. So like, I don't know, you know, but publicly they're saying they're not trading him. So I'm going to say, I'm going to say it happens, you know, I'm all for a team not giving up an asset or a player like Deshaun Watson, but that shit might have sailed. You know, I think the actions they've taken so far.

So I'll say 53% that he is starting for another team in week one next year. Great. So I'm in agreement with you. And here's, here's my thing about the Texas. Okay. They are obviously not concerned with winning games, obviously not concerned with winning games. But I don't know whether or not that favors a trade or not because you get into a situation where maybe they're going to say, you know, we just want to win this battle and we're going to make Deshaun sit out games and all that stuff. And all of a sudden it goes to September because they've dug their heels in.

But I think that right now there are very, very few teams who obviously, are not prioritizing winning and have other things going on. I don't know. This is not a rational franchise, right? And so I think that you look a little bit more. It hasn't gotten to this level yet, but Russell Wilson and Seattle, apparently a little bit unhappy,

just maybe testing the waters. He's made some comments that maybe have raised a few eyebrows, but the Seahawks are a rational team. And if this all, if that's all came to a head, it'd be a little easier to be like, okay, well, this could happen, this could happen, this could happen. I don't know what to expect out of the Texans

because their priority is not winning games. Their priority is not being a well-run franchise. It's something else. And by the way, it's a hard thing to nail down exactly what that is. I just know what's not winning, okay? Like there's a, it's a whole different paragraph. It's a whole different podcast to figure out what exactly their priorities are, but it's not winning.

So I'm having a hard time because they don't understand the motives of the Texans understanding what's going to happen. Now, let's play matchmaker on two fronts. Number one. So you've written a lot about potential destination for agents and all that stuff. But let's play matchmaker with Deshaun to a franchise. Which one has the assets and makes the most sense out of the teams that have kind of been rumored you? Well, what's the second?

Is there going to be a second question to this or no? Or is this the one? Well, no, the second question was going to be which trade partner do you think makes the most sense for the Texas. Oh, okay. Well, okay. Well, I'll answer the first one. I'll go off the board a little bit, I guess, but I would say the San Francisco 49ers. And I know they don't have a top five pick, a top 10 pick.

But if I am, and this is why I would probably be a bad GM, but if I were the GM of the San Francisco 49ers, and I say, I can pair to Sean Watson with Kyle Shanahan for a minimum the next five years at $29 million a year, which is way below market value. like I would have trouble coming up with a compensation package where I say, no, I'm not going to do that. I mean, really, I would get, I would totally be suckered into whatever a compensation package they wanted. If it included four first round picks and Nick Bosa, sign me up. You know what? I can figure out how to build a mediocre defense when I have Deshawn Watson and Kyle Shanahan. I still have George Kittle and Debo Samuel and Brandon Ayuk. And most importantly, I have that Shanahan Watson combination.

I mean, right now, it's a race to match, uh, reading Mahomes. I know they didn't win the Super Bowl last year, but like that, that's the team that is best position for the next decade. And so how can you do that? You can be the version of that in the NFC. So to me, that's the team where I would say I would be willing to give up, you know, I wouldn't tell the Texans this, of course, because that would be bad GMing, but I would be willing to give up, uh, nearly anything you could potentially think of to get to Sean Watson. Yeah. So our buddy. Nick Wright came up with an elite fake trade

a couple of weeks ago and people were kind of mad about it. But the thing that stood out to me just from a public perception standpoint shield was that Nick Bosa was in it. And the Niners got to Sean Watson. It was a four-team trade. It was

a ludicrous trade. Just from the sheer scale of it. It was amazing. But the thing I want about it here is that people were like well, the Niners aren't going to part with Nick Bosa. That's a young star on cost control. It's like, have you guys lost your mind? Yeah, I agree. Have you guys lost, do you know what Kyle Shanahan would do to get Deshaun Watson in the building? Yeah. I mean, it would be like,

you know those old cartoons where you just, the guy moves so quickly that there's just a dust cloud? Like, that would be Kyle Shanahan, like running to the phone to trade Nick Bosa if it was a, it was a realistic package to get to Sean Watson. I'm in total agreement with you. From the Texan standpoint, and I know this is a dangerous game to play because none of us understand the Texans. But from the Texan standpoint, if you're giving up assets right now to try to get Deshaun Watson, what are you prioritizing? And what does the, I hesitate to even use this word, what does the path to a rebuild look like for a team that I just, again, have no idea what they're doing. Yeah, I think it would all be all about draft capital. I don't think you

want to take on like a mediocre veteran, whether it's a Garoppolo or Bridgewater, you know, I don't see how that really makes sense for you. So I think Miami would probably, probably be the team if I'm the Texans that could give you the greatest package. Now, David Tepper, I mean, all the stories about how he landed Matt Rule and wouldn't take no for an answer. And they just seem hell bent on doing something to upgrade. So maybe they would be the team that would just give you the Godfather offer. But Miami can offer you a quarterback on a rookie contract in Tua. They can offer you a top three pick in this year's draft where you can get a stud. They can offer you future draft capital. And so I think when you look at it, that would probably

be the team where if I'm Houston, I could say, all right, this could maybe give me my best path, even if you're not in love with Tua. You know, it's kind of like taking a bunch of swings at quarterback until you connect another time and you're probably not going to find, you know, you're almost certainly not going to find a guy as good as Deshaun Watson. But I do think that would at least give you some options in terms of a rebuilt. What if, hear me out, what if the Texans instead decided not to give all the power to a character coach who used to be a team chaplain who's the organization and got the team president to quit and everything else. I'm just throwing ideas out.

I'm just throwing ideas out there. What if they didn't go all in on the character coach and alienate their franchise quarterbacks, one of five best quarterbacks football? All right. So let's get to mind because I think that my number one team is a symptom of something larger because I think that, as we alluded to this a little bit earlier, but I think that we're about to see one of the weirdest free agent trade years we've ever seen. the cap is going to be, I guess, at least $180 million.

There were reports that the, obviously, the TV contracts kicked in at some point, and that will play a role, where that's, this year down the line with contracts. But I think because of the amount of talent that's going to be sort of in the middle class of football, it's going to be available, you know, I was just looking at some of the articles for potential cap casualties. And obviously, Steve Kheim said that the Chandler Jones is, is not going to be a free agent, but it's that level of player who's being talked about. You know, someone, someone as middle of the road, you know,

Justin Coleman, Preston Smith, Malik Jackson, guys like that where it's going to be, there's going to be guys available for cheap. So I guess I'm going to start with the Tempe bucks because they've got Shack Barrett, Chris Godwin, and Lavante Davis. Okay, those are their free agents. They need to figure out how to spend their money. And then, Jenner, Lynn from ESPN said the second tier, obviously,

would be Sue Gronk and Antonio Brown. and I guess there's there's ideas that they want to run it back and all that stuff. So although Bruce Ariens said you're not allowed to say run it back. He said that was the chief's thing. I don't know if you saw that. Oh, no. He's out on the phrase run it back. I like it.

He's out on the phrase run it back. Okay. So what this is a symptom of is the bucks are going to have a huge advantage that almost, it is almost exclusive to this year. And that's it there are going to be a ton of middle class players. So $8, $9, $10 million guys. who are free and do not have an obvious home who are going to sign cheap one-year deals and want to go to a place like the Tampa Buccaneers.

So I was talking to someone in the league over the weekend, and they were talking about how this phenomenon is probably going to play out. Because what's going to happen, Sheel, is if you're in the $6, $7 million tier, whatever it is, and you get cut free, there's just not going to be a lot of room for you. This is going to be a stars and scrubs here. It's going to be a ton of rookie contracts. and then obviously the superstars are going to stay. Although the superstar, I mean, like Von Miller's been talked about as a cap casualty.

I mean, we can get to that. But I think that what's going to happen is a team like the Bucks is going to have a huge advantage because people are going to say, you know what, it's a one-year deal for me no matter what. It's either going to be $3, $4, $5 million. I don't care that much. I leave a million dollars in the table. I'm going to go on that nice looking boat with Tom Brady. I'm going to go and play on that fast defense.

I'm going to go be depth and catch a touchdown on the super. Super Bowl because all three touchdowns this year were caught by guys who are for Asians. And so I think that a team like the Bucks is positioned to get more talent than we're anticipating. Now, they don't have that much caps. They think it's around $13 million. And obviously, once they signed their guys, that's their priority. Okay. And I want to make that clear.

Their number one priority is retaining their top talent. But I think their secondary priority should be finding these guys who want to play with Tom Brady. And I just think, and this would go for the chief. chiefs as well. The chiefs have actually bigger question marks because they've better replace basically there are three offensive linemen at this point. But and they have a worse cap situation. But I just think that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or teams like that. Now I put the Los Angeles Rams in this conversation too because I think a lot of guys want to go and play in Los Angeles with Matthew Stafford, with Sean McVeigh, with that defense, Aaron, Donald Jalen

Ramsey, all those guys. And I think there's a contender advantage this year because the money's not going to be there. It's not going to be money versus contention like it is every year. It's not going to be like Malik Jackson having to leave a Super Bowl contender to go play for Gus Brownlee's Jaguars. Okay. That's not going to happen this year. There are no, there aren't going to be $40 million deals on the table. There's going to be $4 million deals, five million dollars deals. And I think in those situations, that's where we say, screw it. I don't want to go play for the Bengals. I want to go play for the Bucks. I want to go play for the Rams. I want to go play for the Packers. Yeah, no, I think you're right. That's my understanding too. Is that the top guys will get paid,

you know, like Alan Robinson, if he hits the market, is not going to have trouble finding a $20 million a year deal. Yeah. Alan Robinson's not going to take a one-year deal to go put with Matthew Stafford. He's going to be fine. Right. So, you know, you can talk about, I don't know what the number is. Maybe the top 20 guys, the top 25 guys, they will find deals.

But then the tier below that, which will be saturated, not only from guys who are naturally hitting free agency, but from what you're talking about. Also, guys who are being cut for salary cap purposes, they're going to have decisions to make. And it's not, you know, I know in the past teams have liked to sign guys to one year deals, even if they're paying a little bit more because they said, all right, it's just a one year deal. And if they leave, we get a comp pick, whatever. That's not what this is. This is going to be a one year below market deal. And so that is really team friendly. And so I think what you're saying makes a lot of sense. It's sort of an unprecedented offseason in that respect where teams are

absolutely going to have opportunities and teams who have cap space are going to be able to find creative ways to add talented players for one year. And, you know, the bucks, they really don't have a ton to upgrade. I mean, I know Bruce Ariens doesn't like run it back, but they could like run it back with who they have under contract right now. And I still think they would be a Super Bowl contender, you know, and they have the franchise tag. They have the franchise tag in their pocket. Now, that's going to take up a lot of cap space. But if you really wanted to bring back Godwin or Shaq Barrett, you could use the franchise tag on one of those two guys. I mean, you have depth with guys like Scotty Miller, Antonio Brown, I don't think is going to get a huge deal

out there. So, like, they have options to upgrade. I think Todd Bowles is the guy that makes their defense work, not that they don't have talent. But I do think they're in great position to come back and be, you know, serious contenders again next year. Second wave of cap casualties. You're looking at, I've seen Gino Atkins' name. You know, I mean, that, that's a guy where as long as he fits what you're trying to do, he should be getting 20 calls. Someone like Julian Nettleman where I don't know how much there is left in the tank, but he's been rumored us over one of these middle class cap casualties. I mean, there are going to be guys who are available? Let me ask you questions. Since you're doing the free agency thing with, with the athletic

and you're doing a great job with it, are there guys who are in that tier, in the sort of middle class tier where you don't expect the money to be that are really sticking out to you. I saw a couple of names, but the under the, you know, Shaq Griffin is kind of a buzzy free agent who might get, I think, I think it was Jason Lock and Forer, excuse me, it was ESPN who said that the, that Jack Griffin's type of guy who's going to command more attention than maybe you'd think they put Carl Lawson in that category, Gerald Everett. Are they kind of middle class guys where you're saying, hey, if this guy's available for cheap, I'm making that call.

It's a good question. I'm looking at the list right now. You know, I tend to think some of the veteran pass rushers is a market. That's a market I generally like, you know, a guy like Justin. Very saturated. Yeah, a guy like Justin Houston. You know, he's 32 years old at eight sacks and 12 quarterback hits last year. he's on the wrong side of 30.

He graded it out well with a lot of the advanced metrics. Like, is that someone who could just sign a one-year deal for a contending team? You know, I think probably what about someone like Richard Sherman? You know, I know he was injured last year, but when he played in 2019, he was a pro bowler. At 33 years old, is he going to find a great deal out there? Could he be a corner for a contending team who kind of gives them that competitive edge, that veteran savvy, all those cliches you want to talk about? So I think if you're shopping for some of those guys on the wrong side of 30,

who might not have a last big deal in them, who kind of want to make the most out of the last stage of their career, those are some of the guys that come to mind. Yeah, no, I think that there's just going to be a lot of talent out there. And that's why I've heard people talk about this. And that's why this is the pro scouts time to shine. Because so much of this is how much do these guys having the tank. And I'm just saying, there were three names I threw out earlier.

Justin Coleman, Smith, Belich Jackson, all talked about as Cap Coucho. across the board, right? You got to do a lot of digging. I'm not, this isn't, these are not the last piece of a, of a Super Bowl team, okay? Because there's a reason they're going to be cap casualties, but I'm saying that there's going to be a lot of work to do with pro scouts where you say, you know what, this guy can still give us, can still be our third cornerback. This guy can still be a nine sack guy. This guy can still rec plays in the interior. He was just a little bit injured last year. It is the definition of taking a flyer on guys, but I'm saying that we're, probably going to have more of those flyer type guys than we've ever had ever.

All right. Who's your second team? Well, they fit in the same. I don't know if they fit in the same category, but I do think they're a team that could take advantage of that market also. And I usually have fatigue with this team, but I'm going to go with them anyway. And that's the New England Patriots. You know, I know, I'm sure many are sick of hearing anything about the Patriots at this point.

I'm looking, but they're actually. I intentionally did not put them on my list. because I don't want to be accused to bring up the Patriots at all times. I'm glad you did it because I want to talk about them. Yeah. I'm going to let you own that one, okay? You can, listeners can direct their eye at me.

But I think the reason they're interesting this year specifically is that if you wanted a natural experiment in the year 2021 of how Bill Belichick would build a franchise from the bottom to the top, you're pretty much going to get that this year because they have more cap space than they've had. had. You know, Belichick said during last season, all right, we went all in to win those Super Bowls. We weren't in great cap space. That's why we're having the 2020 season that we did.

But in 2021, they have cap space. They've got the 15th pick. They've got two picks in the top 50. They could trade Stefan Gilmore potentially and get another pick. They have no quarterback situation. So what direction are they going to go in? Are they going to be a team that makes a surprise trade for a quarterback? Are they going to go against what they've done every year and say, I know we always trade back in the first round, but we don't have a quarterback this year and we like quarterback X and we can get up there with the 15th pick. We're going to do that.

Are they going to say we're going to build the defense from the back to the front or have they changed anything they believe there? What about offensively? You know, when you're building an offense without Tom Brady, is it all about the offensive line and putting him in position to succeed? Do they have a solution for building up their skill position group which was maybe the worst in the NFL last season. So there are all these questions that you're looking at

and they have flexibility that they have not had previously. They also have a bad roster and a lot of holes. And so I don't think Bill Belichick is going to look at this and say, all right, this is like a three-year project. I think he's going to say, we're making the playoffs next year. What do we need to do that? And we'll also build for the long term. But I think they're going to be a sneaky active team this offseason.

Agree. And I think Gilmore is another great name when we talk about guys who are just going to kind of randomly be available this offseason. I think he's only on $7 million this year against the cap. Okay, so I'm going to agree with you. The Patriots, in a lot of ways, control this market, this middle-tier market. Because because they have, I think, the third most cap space, you're looking at a team that could give an extra $2 or $3 million to one of these guys.

I think that the Jeff Howe report this week was really interesting to me that basically the Patriots have talked to every team about every trade candidate, essentially, from the quarterback position. and they're going to look to upgrade. This was a bad football team last year. And a lot of that, maybe that was the opt-outs. Maybe that was the COVID season. There's a lot of built-in excuses.

And certainly I've made those excuses because I think Bill Belichick is a better coach than what this team showed last year. But last year they were bad. And there's certainly no excusing that. So I'm intrigued to see it. How close do you think this team is? Knowing what we know about the bills in the division and how stacked that roster is, like, is there a path to 11, 12 wins?

or is this just going to be Belichick kind of flailing again for other year? I don't see that unless they take some huge swing at quarterback and land somebody who's unbelievable. I mean, I would be stunned. You know, the quarterback there right now is not in position to succeed when you look at the supporting the supporting cast. Whoever it is. Whoever it is.

Yeah, unless it's an elite guy who can just lift everybody up. And so I think they have a lot of work to do. I think they've got a lot of work to do on the defensive side of the ball. but as bad as they were last year, they won seven games. And so you look at, you know, if you upgrade the quarterback situation, if you land some free agents, if you make use of that draft, could they get to 9, 10 wins and a playoff team next year? Yeah, absolutely.

I don't think they're going to be in contention to win a Super Bowl. I think they're at least two years away from doing that. But certainly they could be a sneaky competitive playoff team next year. It's been so long. It was interesting to me because when I was thinking about this with the Texans, where Nick Casario is obviously building up that, that roster in Houston. And you kind of think of what the Patriot way is.

And you almost think you want to keep Deshaun Watson because one of the hallmarks of the Patriot Way is just being able to extend a quarterback's window for 20 years and making moves around them and building the roster around them. And when the Patriot Way doesn't have a quarterback, it's a completely different equation. And when you think about Belichick, before Brady, there was blood cell. And so they've never really had a quarterback problem ever there. And it's going to be entering to me to see how that that all develops. I would say that the skill position guys are just awful.

And I think whoever, let's say Bill Belichick's making the decisions on skill position guys, he should step away from that rule. Okay. He should just go and figure out, he should just go hire three Steelers scouts and just say, hey, man, you guys, you guys take the wide receivers. They're going to be fine because the numbers were awful. And one of the things the advanced stats guys are really good at illustrating this year is that Brady obviously had a how to, how to,

what amounts to a career year, if you just look at the second half of his career. He's played basically three different careers at this point. But a lot of that was because the skill guys in New England just weren't capable of helping him. And then he goes from that, he goes from Nikiel Harry and James White being their top graded receiver and Julian Adam.

And all of a sudden he's got Chris Godwin and Mike Evans and Rob Wimkowski again and Antonio Brown. And so I just think that it's, I think that we learned so much in January about how truly awful. And everybody knew the skill guys were bad. We know now how awful that the Patriots skill guys were to the point was literally holding Tom Brady back from being the quarterback he could have been in 2019. I'm in total agreement with you.

Patriots are as intriguing a team as there is. And just to see Belichick in this sort of building mode is interesting to me. Before we move on to my next team, are there any guys in the Patriots per view that you think would fit well there? Well, obviously, I want to see what they do at quarterback. You know, I have no idea what their plan is going to be. Defensively, I mean, really, it's a lot of those front seven pass rushers who aren't going to cost a lot. They never spend big in that area, but they can get guys for cheap, versatile guys who can do a bunch of different things. Maybe a guy like Melvin Ingram from the Chargers, I don't know that he would enjoy the Patriot way.

And Bill Belichick from a skill set standpoint, someone like that certainly could make sense. And what you said about wide receiver, I was, you know, maybe they acknowledge their flaw. and say, all right, we've tried the draft. We've sucked at that. Let's just spend big for a guy that we know is a great wide receiver who's going to come in and be good right away and make a splash there. I mean, that wouldn't be totally shocking or even a tight end. Somebody like Hunter Henry, I know they drafted some tight ends, but they could use help there. I will say this.

It's a good litmus test, I guess you could say, for whether or not the old narrative of people not wanting to play New England is true. Yeah. And what I mean by that is that the, the trade. You hear from people inside the league, outside of the league, whatever. The tradeoff was always, it's not fun to play a new angle, but you get a ring, okay? And then you lose the ring part of it because Brady leaves. The roster is bad. There's a bunch of opt-outs.

Cam Newton is not the quarterback. He looked like he was early in the season. Cam Newton was, quite frankly, bad for most of the second half the season. And now you get, do people want to go help the Patriots rebuild when it's not a sure thing, and it's not fun? And I think that's a really intriguing thing to me. Are we going to see, as you said, a Melvin-Engram type, say, yeah, now I'm going to go play for the Urban Meyer or whatever.

I'm going to go play for the Falcons. I'm going to go play for the Panthers, whatever it is. I'm intrigued to see that because the Patriots for so long were the beneficiary of what we're talking about here, where it's, okay, this guy is going to go. Chris Long is going to go and take a short-term contract because he wants to play with New England. You know, all guys like that were coming through New England all the time. There's a reason that Belich was amazing of balancing their. roster and figuring out the cap and all that stuff. But the other half of that was that players wanted to play there and would take four or

five million dollars when they could get seven, eight million dollars in the open market. Now that every team is capable of those sort of deals, I'm intrigued to see if they lose. It's recruiting. That's what it is. This is recruiting. Because if you don't have a bunch of money to spend and the Patriots have a little more than most people, but this comes down to there are four teams who have four

million dollars to spend on a guy and you're just recruiting at this point. And I think that's what's interesting about this offseason. It's not about money. It's about, for lack of a better term, vibes. All right, let's get to my second team. I always look at the second year quarterbacks because, as we've seen, although Josh Allen completely disprove this last year, as we've seen most of the jumps in a player's career, the biggest jump comes from year one to year two.

So I'm looking at the Chargers right now. They've got a head coach in Brandon Staley, who's obviously defensive coach, but he's energetic. and young and she'll be interesting. They're, they basically got holes all across their offensive line. And I enjoyed the fact that Justin Herbert played well against the Blitz and under pressure last year, but let's, let's, uh,

let's make that something that doesn't need to happen very often. Okay. I was looking at Daniel Popper's from the athletics, free agent wish list or target list, wherever you want to call it. Um, and the names there are pretty obvious. Alejandroville and away from the Steelers

who at this point seems like he's out of Pittsburgh. Cam Robinson from the Jaguars, Trent Williams, who obviously would be a big ticket item. And then you keep going down the list. Leonard Floyd and Hassan Reddick and outside linebacker, cornerback, Troy Hill, Ronald Darby, Jason Barrett. I think it's

it is a team here that could really take a leap. And it matters what they do this offseason. It matters what the roster looks like. But when you have Justin Herbert, you've solved the biggest problem. And so now it comes down to spending wisely, getting the offensive line is going to be so huge.

And we saw this with the Super Bowl. I mean, like, this is, it's funny because you covered the Eagles for a long time. And you still write as good articles about the Eagles as anybody. But I thought it was really funny because they prioritized the lines and all that stuff. I thought it was really funny Super Bowl week when we just all blew past the chief's offensive line woes.

And I remember a couple people saying, like, you know, this is a real like, this is a real Joe Banner litmus test here. Because the, There are people inside the league who say all that matters the lines, all that matters the lines, all that stuff. And I remember thinking like, man, if the chiefs win this game with just a patchwork offensive

line, I thought they were going to, then we were in a new era of football. Spoiler alert, we were not in a new era of football. So I like the Chargers to retool the line, get that all solved. What do we think about the Chargers in 2021? Yeah, I did a article kind of ranking the teams based on their ability to contend for Super Bowl next year. And I had the Chargers nine. I think they're absolutely a team.

Ooh. That can make the leap. I mean, I don't like to, I always try to caution myself, don't go overboard on rookie quarterbacks because, you know, sometimes guys have good rookie years and they're not as good that second year. But my gosh, just from the eye test and everything I saw from Justin Herbert, basically from his first snap, I was like, well, I shouldn't say his first snap. His first game, I was like, oh, my gosh, this guy has everything.

He hits all my buttons for what I like in a quarterback. And so I look at it. they were the worst team in the NFL in terms of managing games last year. They did not put Herbert in positions to succeed. They ran the ball on early downs and then on third and long said, hey, hey, uh, rookie quarterback.

Go, go save us. And he did a bunch of times, but there are so many more ways to maximize the talent there at quarterback. And so I agree with you. I would just go all in on the offense on the offensive line. I would say, we'll figure out the defense.

They actually, you know, they've got talented pieces on the defense. It's not like they're working, uh, from scratch there. They've got Joey Bosa and Kenneth Murray and Durwin James comes back healthy.

And so they've got pieces to work with. But even a trade for somebody like an Orlando Brown from the Ravens, that would make a lot of sense to me. Go get a 25 year old left tackle, pay him at the top of the market. Be done with that for the next five, six, seven years. You have space to do it. You have a draft pick to use there and then address the rest of your offensive line. So I like the Chargers a lot.

I'm really excited to see what they do next year because I do think there's so many areas where they can upgrade from what they were last year. And like you said, if we're looking at a quarterback who can make the leap from his rookie year to his second year, I mean, Herbert is absolutely that guy. I also think that people want to live in Los Angeles. I also think that, and I don't mean to sound cynical or I'm not joking when I say this, is that I bring up the Chargers lack of fans a lot because I lived in Los Angeles and I saw it up close and it's a real thing. I don't think that that matters much anymore because there's not going to be 100% full stadiums. And it's not, you know, I mean, there was the report a couple of years ago that they had only sold something like 29,000 season tickets for the new stadium.

Well, that doesn't matter anymore. And you're not going to get the Eagles or the Browns or whomever invading your stadium as a home fan. So I think that the Chargers actually in an era where there might be 50% capacity or whatever this year, I think that people are just going to be this is living in Los Angeles. listen, okay, it's not the Rams, but this is not the end of the world. So I think that the charges could end up being as long as they spend the money and have the facilities and all that stuff, they could end up being a sneaky good destination for, for those middle tier for agents. I think that's, I like the chargers.

Unfortunately, you know, with the chiefs in the division, you know, the path gets a little narrower, but I just think that it's not hard for this team to figure out how to be a playoff team in 2021. All right. Who's your next team? The last team I have here. Let's see. I was debating between a couple here. I'm going to go with the Miami Dolphins.

Just do it. Just do them both. Just do both. All right. Let's go. Let's go. Well, they're both AFC East team. So I've got the Jets and the Dolphins.

Group them together. Group them together. There you go. I had it planned all along. The Jets, here's the case for them being one of the most intriguing teams of the off season. We don't know what they're going to do with Sam Darnel. They've got that that chip there.

I think it seems more likely than not that they're going to trade him. They already have three of the top three of the top 34 picks in the draft. They hit on Mackay Beckton, it looks like. They've got Quinn and Williams. It's not a good overall roster, but they've got a couple of blue chip players that they're going to be able to add to.

They've got the second most cap space in the NFL. So if you're a Jets fan, you're saying, all right, we upgraded from the worst, maybe the worst coach in the NFL and Adam Gase to Robert Sala, who will say, you know, he looks like a coach who has potential. You can protect.

Let me stop me right there. I don't know what he is. He's an upgrade. Yeah. Okay? I can't tell you if he's a good coach. I can't tell if he's an average coach. I can tell you he's an upgrade.

Absolutely. Guys are not going to be miserable going into the building. And, you know, that's a joke, but that's not a joke. Like they're going to, that. It's not a joke. Yeah, even if he's terrible with X's and O's. Could you imagine? Yeah.

Adam Gase was terrible with X's and O's. Yeah. There was, Adam Gase had no redeeming qualities. I would agree with it. Like, he's not like, we just talked with the Belichick thing. It's like, okay, Belichick is not, you know, he's not, vibes guy, but he is going to put you in position to win. Adam Gase was lacked everything, including the ability to put you position to win.

Sala has a has a high vibe ceiling, I would say. Sala. Yes. High vibes ceiling. Huge vibes ceiling. I would say that. So let's say, you know, let's paint a scenario. They take whichever quarterback they want at number two.

They go out and they sign, let's say, Alan Robinson or Chris Godwin. They get a number one wide receiver. They've still got Denzel Mims, second year player. they've got Mackay Beckton. Maybe they sign a couple offensive linemen who are at least mediocre. They could be interesting next year. I'm not saying they're going to the playoffs, but, but they could be certainly be interesting next year. And it's like the first time it feels like in so long, whereas a Jets fan, you can really look at the 2021 season with some hope, with a fresh start with like a positive head coach, not feeling miserable about your entire team. So I think they're

a very interesting team that could just make a bunch of moves, whether it's in the draft, free agency trades, whatever. I'm dying at the past success being signing some offensive linemen that are at least mediocre. Listen, that's an upgrade. That's a vision. That is a vision. Like Elon Musk, you see the future. Let's get some offensive linemen in here over mediocre.

All right, dolphins? Dolphins, the case is, you know, we talk so much about, all right, could they trade the number, the top three pick for Deshawn Watson, right? They have the third overall pick. Could they pair to her with that? But what if they don't do that? And what if they hold on to Tua and Watson's not available? That doesn't mean they're staying put at number three.

Here's what I was thinking. Is there a quarterback needy team like the Carolina Panthers, like the San Francisco 49ers, like the Washington football team, maybe even the Chicago Bears, who says, you know what? We love Zach Wilson. We love Justin Fields. We want to get up to number three. Hey, Miami, not only will we give you first round picks, but you want some young talent on that team? because you probably want to maximize your window with Tua on a rookie contract.

What if Carolina calls and says, are you interested in a Brian Burns, a DJ Moore, a Jeremy Chin? These are blue chip young players who are on rookie contracts. What if we package one of the one or two of those players with the number eight overall pick to get up there to number three? And now all of a sudden the dolphins are adding talent there. They're drafting somebody at eight.

They have another first round pick. They have cap space. They could upgrade their roster in a big way. this off season. So, you know, the Tua thing, the Watson thing, that hangs over everything. I think that's probably priority number one for them. But I think even if that doesn't happen, they have avenues to really add a lot of talent given the resources at their disposal. If you were given the option taking both GM jobs right now and saying you have to contend with one of these teams first, would you rather have the dolphins or the chargers?

Contend for one of these. I would take the chargers because I'm a Justin, like I would just be like, Give me Justin Herbert. I'll figure out the rest. Don't worry about it. Me too. Yeah, that's me too. And I didn't believe that until kind of recently. And just thinking Herbert's better than Tua.

And I know that it's early, but I'm just saying as it stands right now, the Gulf is particularly wide. And I would say, you know, did you see the report yesterday from Albert Breer that DeVontz Smith was asked about in one of his meetings with teams whether or not he would pick Hertz or Tua and he answered Mack Jones, which I thought. found to be really fascinating. Yeah. And he apparently said Mac Jones without before the question was out.

Okay. So Devonnes Smith is a Mac Jones stand. Anyway, I think that there's, I think with the dolphins, it's still intriguing. I still don't they're headed in the right direction. I just think that you upgrade the skill guys.

There's a couple of moves there, but then it comes down to Tua's development. And I was, there were some worrying signs of Tua last year, and then there were some positive signs. So I don't, I think it's way too early. And I,

as we said, the jump comes from year one to year two. I think offensive coordinator is going to be huge. And, you know, one of the things, Joshy Ashil, like the Jared Goff thing in 2016 humbled me a lot about quarterbacks. And to the point that I wasn't surprised by the Josh Allen thinks I'm open to it. But I think that maybe we're in an era now because offensive coaches are better, because they're better to unlocking things where quarterbacks can take leaps that we weren't accustomed to a decade ago. You kind of came in and by week five,

we're like, okay, I got it. We got you here, rookie quarterback. And now I kind of think that there's ways to maximize it to where it's a little bit different. So I'm not writing off to a, and I will say, and I've joked about this, but the Josh Allen experience has made it so that every bad quarterback can just be justified for the rest of the well, Josh Allen, he made his big leap. And it's like, okay, not every course of me, Josh Allen, but I do think there needs to be

an openness about a quarterback getting better from year one to year two to year three. So that's why the Dolphids Tamir so fascinating. Yeah, I think it's really. changing how some teams look at this because you always want to get the Patrick Bohol to that's always the goal is to get the guy who can just lift everyone around him. You're pretty, you know, I know it didn't happen with Watson last year, but you're going to be in the playoff mix every year. That's the guy you want. But now I think when you get to that like next year, whether it's from five to like 21. I mean, it is a wide tier. So much is depending on

coaching and supporting cast and offensive line. Garapolo got to a Super Bowl. Golf got to a Super Bowl. I mean, these things are happening. And so you don't have to just throw your hands up and say, all right, we give up. We don't have Patrick Mahomes. Why are we even playing? You can kind of come up with this other path. And I really feel like 10 years ago, that was not the case. It was just, all right, how are you getting the Mahomes like guy?

That's your only chance. So the dolphins could be in a situation where they say, all right, to what might not be that guy we thought he was going to be. But that doesn't mean we have to give up and we can't win with them. You can manufacture a quarterback now with skill guys around and with offensive systems, with play calls, with smart offense coordinator, all that stuff. So I just think it's a different era and mediocre quarterbacks can become a good ones.

I mean, after I saw Jared Goff's rookie year into a second year, I now believe anything is possible. And the Josh Allen thing is separate from that, but his leap has been amazing. And I just think that there's with young quarterbacks now, I just have a different, a different feeling than I did a few years ago, as I said. All right. So here's my third team because I think that there's a group of teams, all of whom are on the edge of being real Super Bowl contenders who have questions of quarterback. I would say that the Saints are in this mix because obviously what they do, I mean,

James Winston has, I've read a couple times. I mean, he might have other options than the Saints. Taysam Hill is there. Sean Payton was on this podcast on Sun Newsday a couple weeks ago, basically saying that if they try to trade Tastom Hill, they have 31 trade partners and really made a case for Taysam Hill and what he does. but I still think that's a huge question mark in the post-breeze world because you're going from the most efficient passer in football

when he had a healthy arm to, I don't know, a combination of a guy who before he was starting this year had more tackles in his career than incomplete passes and James Winston, who is James Winston. So I think that's, that to me is intriguing. The second group here would be the Steelers who obviously have a roster last year that could have contended for a Super Bowl

and then Ralthusberger starts to decline. I think that when you look at Villanova leaving, I saw Mark Habbily said that the Juju Smith-Suster had a 0% chance of returning to the roster next year. There's going to be a little bit of a makeover there. And then the quarterback position is obviously, it looks like Rodthusberger is going to come back, but that's still a question mark from just a talent standpoint,

like what the hell does that look like? And then the Niners, and they're my third team. because they control the offseason in a way, and you talked about this with Watson, but if they get hellbent on upgrading a quarterback, that could cause a huge chain reaction. So Jimmy Garoppolo had three starts last year. They would save $23.6 million if they cut him against $2.8 million in dead caps

over $20 million in pure savings. And I just think knowing what I know about Kyle Shanahan, which is, you know, it's actually a little bit contradictory in the sense that I think I've heard Kyle Shanahan thinks he can do it with a lot of quarterbacks. But I've also, I also know that he would love to upgrade. I mean, if you can get it to Sean Watson or even I would, I think that they consider Kirk Cousins an upgrade from everything I've read, someone like Kirk Cousins. I think that they would try to do that. And so I think that if they get aggressive about this, there's some real possibilities that there's some real possibilities that there. could be, you know, I think that the thing that changed football the most in 2015 and 2016 was Teddy Bridgewater going now with an injury, right? And then Sam Bradford gets traded. Carson Wentz becomes a starter. We've seen that you and Zach Berman and all those guys

have talked about the butterfly effect of that, about how they basically rewrote the entire NFC. Nick Foles wins a Super Bowl, all that stuff. Without that injury, football is completely different. And I kind of feel like if the Niners say, okay, we're going to trade for this guy or we're going to get overaggressive with this guy, and then Groplow becomes available. I kind of feel like there's something similar there where it starts the chain reaction. So if they get aggressive with the Sean, I don't, I obviously don't think that they're going to try to trade for Russell Wilson in the division. I don't think Russell Wilson is necessarily available. But what I'm saying is that if you put a good quarterback with Kyle Shanahan, that's the kind of thing that changes

the entire tenor of the NFC. Yeah. And it's interesting. I don't, there haven't been a lot like if you read our beat writers for the 49ers. It doesn't seem like they're totally motivated. to get really aggressive and make that move. Now, the options are a little bit more limited now than they were three weeks ago. But of course, if they get someone like Watson, that's an absolute game changer. I think option B for them would be to stick with Garoppolo, but make like a big, big upgrade at the backup spot. Because when Garoppolo's played, they've won a lot of games.

Now, I know the defense isn't going to be as good. You lose Robert Salah. They've got to rebuild kind of their entire secondary. So the offense is going to have to do more next year. to sort of keep them competitive, I think. But, you know, there are some interesting backups on the market. You know, is Cam Newton going to definitely find a starting job? You're going to laugh at this one.

But could a guy like Mitchell, Mitchell Tribiskey... Oh, it's not where I thought you were going to go. That's not where I thought you were going to go. Okay, you say it. You say it and I'll say my. Okay, could a guy like Mitchell Trubisky have to settle for like a one-year, you know, $2 million deal as a backup, and you get him in Shanahan system running play action all the time,

and Garapolo goes down for four games. and all of a sudden he doesn't look as terrible. And so I think they're going to do one of those two things. Now, the wild card would be if they see someone in the draft who they really like. And they say, all right, we can get this guy on a cost-controlled contract. He can come in and compete with Garapolo right away. And then we'll have options if this guy can play. So they can go to a number of different ways.

The only thing they can't do is go into next year with Garapolo and no backup plan. So I do think they're an interesting team that could contend. Who would you have? So, okay. Well, I just want to take a step back here. say, as you said, with the Niners beatwriters, they've all said they're comfortable running it back, for lack of better term, with Jimmy G. Is that the worst ever running a back is bringing back Jimmy Gropolo? We're running it back with Jimmy Groplo. They're okay with that.

And they'll only upgrade according to the beatwriters if there's something obvious there. And if someone becomes available that we're not thinking about. So both, I've seen two beatwriters so far say that agree with you that it's going to be Garoppolo as the starter and then the name I've heard is Andy Dalton and I think that that could make some sense too so I think you're getting into it's funny to me because there are a lot of hilarious backup options for the Niners and maybe it's Cam Newton maybe it's Mitchell Chubesky as you said maybe it's Andy Dalton but I also kind of feel like Jimmy Garoppolo needs that sort of competition. because we've seen the success Kyle Shanahan has had with the backups.

And now we have a little bit of elevated talent available to compete with Jimmy Garoppolo. Maybe Jimmy Garoppolo needs his version of Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yeah. What I mean by that is that we always joke on this podcast. We always joke. And maybe that is Ryan Fitzpatrick, by the way. But we always joke on this podcast about how Ryan Fitzpatrick serves this great purpose where if you can't beat him out, there's problems.

It doesn't mean you're the worst quarterback in the world because Ryan Fitzpatrick is a serviceable quarterback, but if he's pushing you, that says something. And I kind of feel like Jimmy Garoppolo needs that where I want to, you know what I want to hear? I want to hear on August 23rd that the Niners have signed a guy who looks better than Jimmy Garoppel. And I don't even care if it's true. I just want to read that report because we've always seen that. Remember a couple years ago? So Marcus, the Cruden loves Marcus Mariotta. Oh, Gruden just loves it.

And it wasn't even true, but it was just like, you need that push. Yeah. Right? I mean, like, remember a couple years ago? Gruden was like, I just love Nathan Peterman. Like, you need that guy. I'm not saying Nathan Peterman, but I'm just saying you need a veteran quarterback who's going to fit the system, run it well with Shanahan.

If Jimmy Groplo gets hurt again, he'll be effective. But then the big picture thing is I want the Niners to sign a guy who can take Jimmy Gropold's job. Fitzpatrick is like my idea. backup quarterback. Like, I don't like the backup quarterback who comes in and plays conservative and manages the game. I want the guy who comes in and is like, oh, finally, my chance to put this team on my back. Let's sling it. And his numbers, I mean, I know he's going to throw interceptions, but the guy can absolutely make place. They would put him in position to succeed. So yeah, whether it's

Fitzpatrick, Trebisky, you know, I'm not a big, I think Dalton like it, you know, I think his reputation now is kind of better than what he actually is, but, you know, Jacoby Brissette even. Like, I don't know. Could they win game? Could they make the playoffs with Jacoby Brissette next year? Now, I think a little bit more of Garapolo, I think, than you do. I think if he's healthy, like they absolutely could contend for a Super Bowl next year, but the guys missed what, 25 games, 23 games in the last three years. And so to me, it's more about his health. I'm not saying he's great, but I think he's shown kind of in that scheme, knowing his strengths and weaknesses when he's healthy. And I think there's supporting cast may be his best that he's had there next year.

When you look at Debo, Samuel and Brandon Ayuk in his second year and George Kittle, like they've got some players there if the offensive line is okay. But absolutely, they definitely need to do something. A couple things. I just briefly want to get your thoughts on the Steelers and the Saints, because I mentioned them. I didn't throw it to you. Anything there are either of those teams in position with the question marks they have

to compete for, let's say, a final four spot this year? Or is just the quarterback position, just too much of an unknown with both? I see big declines from both teams. I think the Steelers are in terrible shape. Me too. I think they're losing key free agents. I don't think they want Rafflesberger back. But if he wants to be back, then they're, they've made that very clear.

I mean, they've made that very clear. So I just think they're. Yeah. Yeah. I guess he's our quarterback. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Right now, like they're going out of their way to use the words that everyone knows means we hate this. Yeah. Like, oh, yeah. Right now he's, yeah, definitely. Definitely. It's like, Sean McVeigh used to like Jared golf as our starter. It's really what it is. They used the golf thing on Roblesburger. That's unheard of. Right. But, but they can't trade him. Yeah. Can't trade them. So, I mean, you're looking at losing three offensive linemen, losing Smith Schuster's okay. They've got depth there. Uh, you know, defense varies from year to year.

You're probably going to lose Bud Dupree. You might lose other players. So I don't think they're in good shape to be very, you know, a very good team next year. They, they could be competitive because with Mike Tomlin, apparently your floor is like eight and eight. But I don't think. they're going to be a great team. And the Saints, I feel similarly about, you know, now I am confused by the like James Winston could have a huge market conversation. I could be wrong, but didn't, he was a free agent last year. He settled for a, what, one point five million dollar deal. He threw seven passes last year. And now all of a sudden teams are going to be knocking down the door for James Winston. So I actually think they have a great shot to retain him

on like a cheap one year deal. And I don't want to underestimate Sean Payton because he's going to maximize whatever talent. They do have on their. I just don't see a situation where they're going to make that big change at quarterback and be a great team next year. We've seen that with Peyton in the past where they're kind of in the eight and eight zone. So it wouldn't be the most shocking thing in the world. It's just that right now because how well developed their roster was and how much talent there was, I expected more of them. But I just think that it's a, you know, sorry, it's a unique situation to lose one of the best quarterbacks of all time. No, no big deal.

All right. Let's quickly hit on a few things. number one is you wrote about the Eagles. Obviously, you're, you've explained the Carson Wens to climb better than anybody. And I wanted to wait to the end of the podcast because people are going to roll their eyes and more Carson Wents talk. But with Wence in particular, how do you see this going in Indy?

And how do you see this going maybe a much bigger and broader question? How do you see this going in Philadelphia? Yeah, I think he will be solid. I don't think he's going to be a top five quarterback. I don't think he's going to be the 2017 version. Maybe he gets there one year, but there were a lot of outliers in that season that would just be really hard to replicate. I don't think he's as bad as he was in 2020.

I mean, I think the key point is that in 2020, he was arguably the worst starting quarterback in the NFL. However, even in 2018 and 2019, you know, no one was throwing a parade for Carson wins, but by every statistical measure, he was like a top 12, top 15 quarterback. And so mediocre to above average, I think. think is a fair baseline for what you can expect with him with a fresh start with a different coaching staff with a different supporting cast maybe with a new motivation maybe some humility. I mean, all those sort of cliches or intangibles you want to talk about that could or could

not be real. I think Frank Reich will find a way to work with him, maximize his talents, make him feel comfortable. So like I think they could be a playoff team certainly the next couple of years. If he stays healthy, I think he could have really good moments. I don't think he's a great player. I think the big issue, defense, is that his flaws,

he has not shown an ability to correct them, like his major flaws. And two of them are ball security, more fumbles than any other player in the NFL since he entered the league. And then inaccuracy. I mean, his mechanics sometimes can be all over the place

where you're looking at really simple gimmee throws that the offense produces within five yards of the line of scrimmage, and he just misses them. And so I don't think that those things are going to be absolutely corrected, but I think he can find some there and Wright can find a way to work with them. I guess the second part of that was the Eagles,

right? Yeah, and on Philadelphia's end. Yeah, that's the more complicated. I'm like, I'm okay, being like, okay, Carson Wentz, he'll be fine and indie. Like, yeah, whatever, he's got his pause. Philadelphia, I don't even know where to start, buddy. Yeah, I mean, they're a mess. They have, they have limited young talent on the roster. They're in bad, uh, cap shape. I don't know what this coaching staff is going to bring them. Jalen Hertz did some good things. I don't think you saw anything there that would convince you. He's the guy. History tells me with this organization that when they don't have an answer that they feel great about a quarterback, and they're picking in the top six that they're absolutely going to consider drafting a quarterback. And so they have different

directions they can go in. If they fall in love with one of those top four quarterbacks, I think they could either draft them at six or even make a move up. If they don't, I think they could look at next year as sort of a band-aid year where they take their medicine with the cap. They start jail at hurts. If he's great, that's a great outcome. If he's not great, well, you have added draft capital for 2022 where either you can trade for a veteran or you can trade up in the first round and get your quarterback there. So they're not in, there's no way to spin it that they're in great position. Their best players are all 30 years or older. And so they kind of face a pretty substantial rebuild.

A lot will depend on whether they're how quickly they're able to find a solution at quarterback. I'm going to ask you sort of a loaded question. You can take any direction you want to go in. I think, and a lot of people thought, whether that's inside the league or in media, but certainly I thought it. I'll own this. I thought the 2017 team building job and coaching job that they did was one of the best I've ever seen. When you look at the roster and the cap and how it was managed and how everybody, you know,

you talk about the one-year deals, how many guys were on cheaper one-year deals and they were basically renting these players, how much talent there was. And again, part of that has to do with Wenz being cheap at that point. part of that has to do, I'm sure, with Frank Reich and that staff being assembled under Doug Peterson. Maybe part of it was luck. The front office is still a Joe Douglas and a couple of those other guys. Was that just lightning in a bottle? Like, explain to me how we as a punditry, I guess, could fall in love with a team-building job the Eagles did.

And then four years later, three years later, however you want to measure it, they look like they're not a well-run organization anymore. I guess the question is, what the hell happened? I think we do underestimate luck all the time, and it's not really fun to talk about because, I mean, in our bit, like we have, we have opinions, we have takes, we try to explain stuff. And sometimes there is luck. Now, don't get me wrong. I think the coaching job that year was absolutely one of the, you know, one of the best I've seen when you're taking Nick Foles and winning the Super Bowl with him. And we've seen Nick Foles in every other year. And it's been nothing close to that.

I think it was a great blend of coaches between Peterson and Reich and John D. Philippo, and they just had a good blend of guys from different backgrounds who worked very well together. And then the free agent market that we talked about earlier, there's a lot of luck there. I mean, you look at Super Bowl winning teams. You could even look at it with the Bucks last year. Like sometimes, you know what, like with the Eagles that year, you hit on a Chris Long, who's a great rotational pass rush for you. And you hit on a Patrick Robinson on a one-year deal who's arguably the best slot cornerback

in the NFL. And a guy like Stefan Wisniewski, a journeyman, comes in and really nails down. the left guard position. And I'm probably missing like, you know, three, three or four other guys. But some off seasons, you take those swings and you hit on all of them. But I don't think that's a good,

like you shouldn't look at that and say, we can do this every year because you can't do that every year. You're not going to do that every year. You're usually going to miss more than you missed that season. So I think that certainly was part of it. And then, like, I always think back to the Eagles that year, played the Falcons in the divisional round.

And there was a play at the end of the first half where they're trailing. and Nick Full throws a ball up for grabs, and I believe it was Keanu Neal got his hands on it. The ball pops up in the air. Tori Smith comes down with it, and they get like a 20-yard gain. They score on that possession, and they go on to win that game.

And it's really like a play where you look at it. If Keanu Neal just catches that ball, it's a totally, they might probably lose that game. It's a totally different narrative. And so football is wild like that. That's why we would like it, but sometimes it does come down to luck in that respect. So I don't think there are great lessons

from that team building exercise about how teams should, you know, build their rosters going forward. Well, it's also just kind of a once in a lifetime thing where you have a quarterback who is really cheap. And then the quarterback behind Tim is able to come. I mean, like, you know, they had the buy. So they had the capability basically have another training camp. You remember that. They essentially had a two-week training camp to get up to speed. I mean, there were so many little breaks that they got, whether that's Keanu Neal or whether that's just the schedule.

Remember, they were so ahead by the time Carson went. got hurt that they were able to basically just like experiment and let nick foals was awful in december awful of that year and and and just didn't matter right they were able to get him up to speed and all that stuff and they were able to change the playbook and Doug peterson uh wrote about it in his book i don't i don't think Doug pearson's book is worth reading anymore that's my literary take on Doug pearson's book that i read um all right sheoka patia you're doing the free agency rankings uh who's your number one free agent available well he's not going to be available but it has to be Dak Prescott, right?

Yeah. Oh, so the number one guy who I think is going to be available? Give me both. I saw the Dak Prescott was number one. You can say Dak Prescott. We all agree. I think the Dak Prescott thing is exceedingly weird. Do you think they're going to sign him?

I mean, I keep seeing like, well, they're either going to tag him. I've seen no insight on the Dak Prescott thing. It's like, well, they're either going to tag him or they're going to sign him long term. They're so screwed. This time next year, we will be talking about where is Dak Prescott going to sign. I mean, because Dak Prescott has no motivation to sign any long-term deal that is under $40 million at this point. I mean, he is in a great spot. It's the Kirk Cousins formula. Okay, go ahead. Tag me for $37 million. You're not going to tag me for $54 million next year. I'll collect the

$37 million. I'll hit the free. I'll hit the open market next year. I'll sign where I want. I'll get a big deal. Nice doing business with you. The Cowboys, I mean, it's like the 30 are running where we've looked and they've botched this. So they obviously don't want to go where he wants to go. he has no reason to sign an undermarket deal. And so I think they're going to tag him and they're going to screw themselves is basically my answer for how that's going to end up. Listen, they got Zeke Elliott locked in. That's all you need.

That's all you need is Zeke Elliott signed through 2027 or whatever it is. Who's your number one guy you think will change teams? I think Alan Robinson. I know there's talk about maybe they could tag him or tag and trade him, but they're not in great cap space. And so if they make a move at quarterback or want to do other stuff, they really can't live with him on the on the franchise tag so i think he will be a big prize free agent maybe a team like the jets goes out and signs him but you know he's he's third in receiving yards over the last

two years with those quarterbacks he's behind only dionre hopkins and stephan dig so if you're a team and even if you think your team sucks and your quarterback sucks guess what all robson can still be productive and on the off chance that you actually have a good quarterback who knows i mean this guy could could put up unbelievable numbers and he's only 20 eight years old and he's going to be so happy, isn't he? Isn't he going to be so happy in a new home, maybe with a good quarterback? It's hard to guess because he's never played with a good quarterback.

What if we find out he's just amazing with crappy quarterbacks and just can't, like, what if he ends up playing with like, you know, Deshaun Watson or something? And he's just like, what the hell is this? What the hell is this well, well thrown ball? Oh my God. He just ends up playing with Aaron Rogers. And it's like, oh, what, excuse me?

And he just can't do it. He just can't adjust. He's like, he's just a specialist for crappy quarterbacks. Yeah, they're like, what's up with the chemistry? Like he has like eight drops and balls are being thrown over his head. He's just like, listen, this is a big adjustment for me. You got to believe who I, you got to understand who I've been playing with. Maybe Alan Robinson is just the football like Vladimir Guerrero.

Remember how Vladimir will he just hit these like low, low curve ball? He would just like, he would just smack the ball. If it was a crappy pitch, he shouldn't hit, he would just swing it and hit it out of the park. Yeah. And then, you know, if it was a first ball, basketball, he wouldn't touch it. Maybe, uh, maybe Alan Robinson just adjusts well to crappy thrown balls. That's a, that's a great childhood memory you just brought up. I remember like Philly's announcers would go, they would be apoplectic at the home runs he would hit on low

and outside curves. They couldn't believe it. Like a vein was bursting through their head. They were so much in shock. So yeah, the, I saw it one time. I saw it live one time in Chicago, I think it was. There angels were playing the white socks. And there was just a ball. It was just a ball. It was headed straight to the dirt. And Vladimir, basically had to happy Gilmore it, because you couldn't, obviously couldn't adjust in any way.

He would just pick it out and then hit it like 450 feet. It was actually amazing. Baseball would still have high ratings if we just found a way to extend Vlad Guerrero's career. Although, isn't his son playing right now? Does his son do the same stuff?

I don't know. I've kind of given, I can't keep up with baseball at this age. I mean, it's too hard, but I do like wearing baseball hats, as you say. He plays for the, he plays for the Blue Jays.

And I have not yet gotten to report on whether or not he does the same stuff. But I'm definitely going to look into it after this podcast. Shook, buddy, wearing a brewer's hat, even though you're not a baseball fan. Thanks for joining us. Take care. See ya.