The Ringer NFL Show - Who Are the Three Most Interesting Teams in the Draft? | Extra Point Taken

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

The 2023 NFL draft is quickly approaching, and Sheil and Ben have dissected where teams are picking, and what they’re going to do with their picks. Who are three most interesting teams heading into the draft? Could it be the Ravens, who might have to replace Lamar Jackson this offseason? The Texans, who currently hold the no. 2 pick, or the Lions, who had an amazing end to the season and hold a plethora of picks? Hosts: Sheil Kapadia and Ben Solak Producer: Cliff Augustin Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, long-time writer with the Atlantic Magazine on tech, culture, and politics. There is a lot of noise out there, and my goal is to cut through the headlines, loud tweets, and hot takes in my new podcast, Plain English. I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know to give you clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. Plain English starts November 16th. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Extra Point Taking on the Ringer NFL fee, Shield Capati. here joined by Ben Solak. It's April. The draft 24 days away as we record this so much to get to yeah, in the weeks ahead. But here's the simple exercise today. Ben, you're doing a lot of draft talk

on the wonderful draft show, which you can get on its separate feed. Here's what we're going to do today. Who are the three most interesting teams in the 2023 NFL draft? Benny Souls and I have secretly made our picks. Maybe we'll have the same teams. Then we'll just have an extended conversation about that team. Maybe we won't. And you'll get out of this episode with these six most interesting teams in the NFL draft. Ben, I feel like this is my most. Normally when I come up with formats, they're very confusing. We don't really understand what we're supposed to do. This one, it's pretty straightforward, I think. Yes. Looking at my teams, I'm positive, we will share at least one. I think we'll share two. And I think my third will be,

will be different. I don't think you'll have my third. That's my guess. Okay. I started with a list of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. I started with a list of nine. Oh, wow. And then I, but then I was like, no, but these three, I felt the three I picked,

I was like, I feel pretty confident. Like there was a wide gap. It was like tier one and then everything else. So we'll see. I had two I was positive about. The third one I didn't decide on until this morning. I was struggling for a third one. So yeah.

I love it. We'll start us off, my friend. You're up first. All right. To me, the most interesting team in the 2023 NFL draft is the Seattle Seahawks. Oh, we share the number one. I was, let's get to it. I was positive, okay?

Here, let's, because this is the NFL draft, it's easy to use the framework of picks. The Panthers pick first, Texas fix second. Oh, and the Seahawks, they pick five and 20. They have two first round picks. One of them super early. That's great. Like, you're going to make a lot of picks and it's going to impact the draft, whatever. So, like, you can talk about it that way.

I want to rewind the clock. Let's talk about it from the perspective of the season. This was the play. The Seelks made the playoffs. Not like, oh, they won the bad NFC. No, no, no. The Seleks made the playoffs. They were a wildcard team.

They ended up 9 and 8. Wasn't like, you know, a pretty finish. But they were above 500 for the entirety of the season, and they were a playoff team. They got beat by a 49ers team that, in my opinion, would have represented the NFC if they didn't have quarterback injuries in a game where they played them for the third time. team that they've been struggling to beat all season.

There's a tough draw in the playoffs. So this was the playoff team. Now, that playoff team lost in free agency, all right? You stop me when I reach a real important player here. They lost Travis Homer, running back, special teamer. Cody Barton, he was a starting linebacker, okay? One year, $3.5 million contract with the Washington Commanders, not like he was, you know, high value free agent, even though I kind of like a Cody

Barton. Rashad Penny, Guard Kyle Fuller, wide receiver. from Marquis Goodwin, he was the writer's, he were three. L.J. Collier, he was a bust, one year, one million dollar contract. And they still have as pending free agents, starting defensive tackle Puna Ford, who they're trying to sign back, and it's a money thing. And then like

Bruce Irvin, who kind of was just on the roster. The entire core of the Seattle Seahawks is back next season. Uchenna Nuuosu, Tari-Diggs, Jamal Adams coming back from injury,

that's defensively, offensively, line is returning. Charles Cross, Abe Lucas, rookie tackles both the year of starting under their belt. D.K. Medcalf, Tyler Lockett, they're both back. The tight end rotation, no offense, Kobe Parkinson, Will Disley. They're all back. Gino Smith is back, signed on a three-year deal. Kenneth Walker's back. The team that made the playoffs last year is the team that they will be putting on the field again

this upcoming season. And they will do it with Draymond Jones. Free Agent Defeats of Tackle signed from the Denver Broncos, three years, $51 million. They will do it with safety, Julian Love, and lovely little utility players signed from the Giants two years, 12 million. They will do it with Bobby Wagner back in the building, right?

One year contract worth up to $7 million, which, like, Bobby's, Bobby was on his last legs last year. You can't even charitably say Bobby's on his last legs now. But still, Bobby Wagner's back in the building. That's nice. This team is improved over free agency from winning the playoffs last year, or not winning, but making the playoffs last year,

improved over free agency, and they have the fifth overall pick. But what really makes it interesting is the selfies with Anthony Richardson and the selfies with C.J. Stroud and the selfies with Bryce Young because they really are out of fork in the road. They signed this Gino extension

such that he could reasonably hold onto the job for the next two to three years and be good value on his deal. He could be like a Kirk Cousins guy where he's like certainly like, you know, paid a lot of money, but he's a quality quarterback. He's putting up good numbers. It's enough of a passing game

that you should be making the play. playoffs. And they signed this Geno Smith deal such that if they want to get out of it after one year, they could get it done. And so they sit there at five now trying to read the room of the four teams in front of them, three of whom right now can take a quarterback and if the Cardinals trade out four of which could take a quarterback, they read the room trying to understand, okay, we really like Richardson, maybe he makes it to four, maybe he's gone at one, nobody really knows just yet. They have a huge pivot at five in terms of quarterback. And if they don't take it, then they have to take the first non-quarterback.

They have to choose between Will Anderson and Jalen Carter. They have to get that pick right, elite edge rusher, elite defense to tackle, both spots where they could add a starter. And then they're there at 20, and they're going to have the whole conversation again. Do we want to have the Hendon Hooker talk? Who apparently is getting round one buzzed. Do we want to trade back, as John Schneider always does, get picks for the future? Maybe we have to solve quarterback next year.

Seattle is a fascinating team. But it's easy to say that fascinating teams are fascinating. Because, like, oh, they're bad. They could get new quarterback. They could get better. Like, that's a lot of these teams. Seattle is really interesting because they are a playoff team with two top 20 picks, one pick in the top five, and a quarterback situation that is less than cemented.

That is very rare, and it's really, really cool to think about what they're going to do in this draft. Yeah, I think the Gino contract, and again, I had them as my first team as well, the Gino contract was the best quarterback contract by any team this offseason. I mean, it was such a home run for the Seahawks with the way they structured it with, like you mentioned, This is a one-year commitment, a one-year commitment, and you don't have to overpay for the one-year. I mean, one-year, $27.3 million, that's great. The Seahawks had the eighth best passing offense in the NFL last year in terms of DVOA. So you get that, you get the one-year with Gino, and then you get to figure it out.

You have flexibility. Do you want to move on after a year? Guess what? You can do that really easily. Do you want to keep, if Gino balls out in 2023 and you want to keep him? Guess what? You already have him under a very reasonable contract. So I thought the way they navigated that was outstanding, and they deserve kudos for that.

And then, like you mentioned, I mean, you could tell they're loving this, can't you? Every quarterback's out, they're taking the selfies. I mean, Pete Carroll was raving at the owner. Oh, my God, this was so much fun to, you know, just travel around to all these college towns and look at quarterbacks throw footballs on a field with no defenders. This is an amazing use of my time. And I have no idea what they're going to do. That's what makes them really fun.

I mean, you could tell me all those options you laid out. I mean, there's a spot where they, do they move up to three and say, man, we really like Anthony Richardson and he's there at three. We're not going to be picking nearly this high again in the near future. Let's go up and get him. Do they sit at five? And if Richardson's there, do they take him? Are they the Jalen Carter team?

I mean, they're not going to shy away from somebody who, you know, other teams might say, he's off or board because, you know, X, Y, and Z, whether it's off field, whether it's character, whatever the case may be, as teams do more homework on Jalen Carter, they're going to say, if the talent's there, guess what, we bring him into our building with our structure. They've done this in the past. Sometimes it's worked. Sometimes it hasn't worked, but they will not shy away from doing that. Or are they a trade back team where they say, you know what, we don't love Richardson, he's

there at five, let's move back, let's accumulate more draft capital. still have Gino Smith. So all those things are in play for this team. You know, they really could go in any one of a number of directions here. And yeah, they're the team and we'll get to a couple other teams obviously in the first round. But they to me are the most interested in team because I have no idea what they're going to do. So let me pose this question to you. We'll have a little extended conversation. John Schneider calls you up. He says, Benny Solves, I've been huge fan of year. I mean, you grind that draft tape like nobody else. You know what's going on in the NFL. Yes, John. He's saying, I want to have my contingencies worked out here. I don't want to be panicking

on the fly. If I'm there at five, and Anthony Richardson's on the table and Jalen Carter's on the table, let's say Will Anderson has already been taken there in the top four. So it's Richardson, and it's Jalen Carter. Do I take it? the quarterback, do I take the defensive tackle? I've gotten some calls on trades. None of them are that great. I really wanted a big package to move down from five. Maybe I'll move out of 20.

But what do you think? What should I do? What are you telling him? If I say take Jalen Carter, then the nerds are going to get mad at me. And I think rightfully so. I think you got to take Richardson, right? Like, we are at the peak of Gino Smith excitement right now. in terms of

I mean, I think, yeah, like even relative like him coming out of West Virginia, we might be at the peak of Gino-Smith excitement in the NFL. Oh, yeah. And it's very cool.

And Gino's extremely likable guy, and I also really like the way he plays. I think it's a way that works for the Seattle offense and is a good exemplar for how many quarterbacks can still benefit

from this wide zone play action approach that we've seen in league last few years. With that said, there's a ceiling on that offense. We know that to be true. And Gino's 32. Right.

If, like, this is not fair to say, because this is not the case. But if Gino had been the starter for the last three years and had the season that he had, we'd be saying, Gino's still doing great, but you've got to think about the future. And we'd be using, like, Ryan Tannahill is an example. Just like, Tannahill had, like, 2019, 2020. He's like leading the league and expect the points out of per play, per dropback, excuse me, passing play. like, you know, career resurgence out of Miami.

It's great. And then here we are, and he's 35, and the Titans had him on a big contract, and they're kind of sitting there. Spoiler, we're going to talk about Tennessee in a little bit. They're sitting there discussing their options at quarterback. So you have to know that they're like, you're trying to hit a window here with Gino. That's a pretty small window.

And I think if a player of Richardson's athletic caliber comes through, when you think about Justin Fields going at 11, Trey Lance going at 3, you understand that this is the price. You're not going to get an athlete like this at quarterback, a player with this high of a ceiling, outside of the top 10. And given how Gino's playing,

you're not going to be in the top 10 anytime soon, brother. So to me, I think you make the Richardson pick, you make the forward-facing pick. The other thing that I think is important about the Seahawks taking a young quarterback that has to be stated, because this is what always gets under-discussed and under-appreciated, even when it is discussed.

it is a difficult thing to manage two quarterbacks in a room. Why do we all love Chase Daniel? Why do we all love a Tyrod Taylor? Why do we all love a Ryan Fitzpatrick? Because they've shown that they've been really good at being quarterback too. It is a hard role to fill, especially for a young player, right? If there's a guy in the league who I feel confident saying, I draft a quarterback in the top five, he's still going to feel like,

all right, if I compete, I can win this job, it's going to be Gino. because Gino rode that bench for eight years saying if I get a starting job, I'll be able to hold on to it. If I get a starting job, I'll get it. I'm a starting caliber quarterback. I can compete. I can do this. And when he got his chance,

he got it. And so, like, I think it'll fire Gino up, but not in a bad way, right? This is, when you do the two QB thing, when you do the, we have a guy we're paying a lot of money,

and we're a guy we drafted early thing, you have created a human resources issue that has to be managed and surveilled. and a spoiler, the NFL generally is not very good at human resources, managing their players, managing some of these frustration, some of this drama. But I think that Pete Carroll is really well suited for it, and I think Gino Smith's really well suited for it. So I think it gives the Seahawks a better opportunity to do it than another team if they were in a similar circumstance. I would argue that no team in the NFL would be better positioned to handle that than Pete Carroll and the Seahawks. this is a coach who at USC once they had

once they signed their recruiting class would bring in the existing players show them clips of the freshmen and say these guys are coming to take your jobs I mean he the competition thing is not a ruse this is at the foundation of Pete Carroll's culture I mean we saw that Ben for some reason it's a sticky note on my

it's a sticky note where is that why do you have a sticky note that says compete. Is this to hype you up for your battles with me? No, not for you. It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, like, it's, like, reminders, right? Like, like, reminders about, like, like, writing well and stuff like that, but always the Pete Carroll. Yeah. But, uh, in grit, right, Angela Duckworth, when she does her Pete Carroll section and they talk about how the Sealks are obsessed with competition, how Pete just walks around, it's like, be excellent, compete. I think that's extremely funny. So I have it down as well.

I never try to see it makes me laugh. Compete. Compete. You're like, the other reason, it hurts. You got these motivation. The other reason I like. I got nothing here. I'm looking at literally an empty desk. There's not one piece of inspiration as I look forward here.

I'll tell you, I'll tell you the other reason I have compete down, because it's compete with an exclamation point. Mike Gundy, who's the head coach of Oklahoma State football, right? Generally, not a great guy. Pete's great guy. Mike Gundy, we don't support it as thoroughly. With that said, February 5th, 2019,

USA Today tweeted, a trail runner, attacked by a mountain lion on Monday, while running in a Colorado park, killed the predator by suffocating it, state wild life officials said. And Mike Gundy quote tweeted that tweet and said, compete with an exclamation point. It's one of my favorite tweets of all time.

By a mountain lion and survived, and Mike Gundy said, compete. You know Mike Gundy called a team meeting and pointed out this story and was like, this is the attitude we need to have on the field, kids. kill the Mountain Lion. I love it. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. I had never heard that before. That is fantastic. But now, I think I think Carol, and we saw this with Russell Wilson previously, like they've done it in the NFL where, you know, they draft the quarterback. That was the third round. But hey, the quarterback's playing well enough to play right away. The quarterback's going to play. And so even Gino Smith, he's already been asked about this. And he's been like, I'll take the quarterback under my wing and be a mentor. I do think his experiences in the NFL, really help him here. It helps that he got paid. He has a contract. And, you know, I think with

Richardson, you would probably say it would be a great scenario if he sits for a year and then plays the following year. But if he plays himself into the starting quarterback role, then that is also a great outcome. So I don't know what they're going to do. It's going to be fun from everything we talked about. They could go up. They could go back. They could sit tight and draft a quarterback. They could sit tight and draft a non-quarterback. The quarterback could come in and play right away. The quarterback could come in and sit right away. There could be all kinds of fireworks. We don't know what it's going to be, but I think that's a great reason why the Seahawks,

we both have as the extra point taken consensus, most interesting team in the 20-23 NFL. Can I ask you a secondary question on the Seahawks real quick? Now John Schneider is calling you saying she'll remember you from the Seahawks days, big fan, whatever, table setting. Who cares about five? Pick 20. not a great class don't have a lot of needs

killed last year's draft I don't know if you caught that I'm thinking that the smartest move is going to be unless somebody crazy falls to me try to trade back take the advantage of somebody

who has way more needs than I do accumulate picks for the future because the more picks I get in 2024 and beyond the more flexibility I'll have off of how Gino Smith performs this year and maybe if I take a quarterback as well. You thinking that's going to be the best approach? 100%. I mean, I think they will explore every option to trade out of the 20th pick. That's just

what they do. And I think that's the smart thing to do. Like you mentioned, by the way, it's crazy how we're talking about the Seahawks right now, Ben. This time last year, I was probably on a podcast going, this team is devoid of any talent. Specifically, I remember looking at the premium positions, left tackle, quarterback, quarterback going, what team's in worse position than the six? Seahawks and they just come out with, let's see, you know, we don't want to crown them for the draft yet. It looks like an all-time draft last year that puts them in this position where, I mean, if you would have told me last year, the Seahawks are going to go into the 2023 draft and not have to worry about cornerback.

They're going to have options at quarterback. They could draft a corner, but they don't have to draft a corner. I would have been like, what are you talking about? What did they do? Do they just go and literally kidnap players from other teams and put them in Seahawks uniforms and put like mustaches and glasses on their face and just call them different names because there's no other avenue for them to fill all these holes in one off season. And they did that. So yeah, if you just look at them overall, they have five picks in the top 100, which I believe is tied

for the most of any team in the NFL. They have 10 picks overall. They have like among the most draft capital of any team in this draft. So again, that adds the flexibility. And your plan is a good one. If they say, you know what, we're not in love with Richardson. He's okay. We like but we're not sure. Yes, get a pick for the 2024 draft, root for that team to suck next year. And then you have additional draft capital next year. You have another option if things don't work out with Gino. So yes, that is absolutely what I would tell John Schneider to do. He wouldn't need me to tell him what to do. He's like, I do this all the time. Why am I calling you? How did I get your number? How did you get my number? Okay. All right. Let's take a... That's the main thing is I just want, yeah, I want Seahawks fans to mentally prepare themselves to the fact that the team's not going to make all these picks. And it's okay, it's good news.

But John Snyder, after killing it for one year, is going to get precisely back on his BS and just betraying him back like crazy. All right, let's take a quick break, and we'll come back and see if we have the same team for our number two most interesting team for the 2023 NFL draft. All right, we're back on extra point taking on it.

We both had the Seahawks. Who do you have as your number two team, Benjamin? I think you're going to have. So Seahawks, I was positive we'd share. I think we'll share this one. Tennessee Titans Oh no they didn't make the cut for me I thought about them but they didn't make the cut so I like it

Why the Titans? Okay so the Titans paired nicely with the Seahawks Talking about how the Seahawks were a playoff team last year And then they had this insane Exodus Well the Titans did not make the playoffs last year It got ousted by the Jaguars Fire the general manager midseason And then this off season

Fire Sale baby We are redoing this roster Talking about how the Seahawks have lost nobody Right now the Tennessee Titans have lost already by free agency or by cuts, starting guard, Nate Davis, starting linebacker, David Long, starting wide receiver, Robert Woods, starting Edge, Bud Dupree, defensive lineman Demarcus Walker, starting tight end, Austin Hooper. They've also got guys who have been cut from the team who have yet to sign anywhere else,

but are still not currently Tennessee Titans in long-time franchise left tackle, Taylor Luan, who obviously was hurt this year, Ben Jones, starting center, Zach Cunningham, starting linebacker, Mario Edwards was a defense alignment for them, and another tight end in Jeff Swain. combined those players I just named 11 of them. 5,563 snaps last season. No more Tennessee Titans. This team will look dramatically different in just year one of Ron Carthens' time as a general manager than it did last season. This rebuild, it's funny, kind of began as like a soft rebuild with the trading of A.J. Brown,

where they didn't want to spend that money and they got a first round pickback for it, and they just drafted a younger, cheaper version of the AJ Brown. That wasn't part of a rebuild. That was just a bad decision. I mean, AJ Brown was young. Like, he can be part of your rebuild. I disagree. And we've talked about this a lot on this show. But I very, like, when you go back to 2021 and you look at how these contracts are being structured,

and so when John Robinson was in charge, he had a trapdoor in the Derek Henry contract in 2023. It was trapped door in the Ryan-Tanilh contract in 2023. Trapped door in the Taylor-Lawin contract in 2023. David Long wasn't extended. Jeffrey Simmons wasn't extended. They were sitting and refusing to commit to this long-term vision of the Titans, of the core of that team that had won multiple AFC Salas that had won multiple playoff games to make sure that it was the core they wanted to commit to

or see if they wanted to do a little soft reload. Not like a hard rebuild, but like a soft reload. And I think that ownership and head coach were on board with that until General Manager John Robinson took it too far and traded AJ Brown for the agent's overall pick, which is not a good move. agree. But that was to me a sign of the Titans' unwillingness to commit to the core that had led to those playoff wins over 2020 and into 2021. Once ownership and Vrable realized what it was going to

look like, they said, we hate this. There was a power struggle. They got rid of John Robinson. Ron Carthin came in and they realized, all right, we have to strip this thing down to the studs now. We're kind of already on the ski slope. Separate conversation we've had many, many times. why are they interesting for the NFL draft? Well, a team that loses 5,000, 5663 snaps has a lot of needs. The Titans, when you go and you look at this depth chart, they could take just about any position at 11, and I would not be surprised.

They are in desper need of help along the offensive line, where, like I said, they basically, like three long-term starters in Ben Jones, Nate Davis, and Taylor LeWan have all departed. They've added guys like Daniel Brunskill and Andre Dillard, but you can't set your watch to that. Wide receiver, they added Traylon Burks, for A.J. Brown, but the wider receiver room was not good last season. They didn't add anybody to it. They lost

Robert Woods. Defensive line, they lost a ton of their depth. Linebacker, they lost multiple starters. They brought a Z. El Shaiy. They're probably okay there. Harold Landry coming back from injury. Corner, they're great. Grishapult and Roger McCreery. Sean Murphy bunting in Free Agency. Love it. Corner's awesome. Safety, like, is good,

but they might... They ask Kevin Byer to take a pay cut, and he was like, no. So that's weird. They might trade Derek Henry, so, like, running back might even be weird. Any pick at 11. However, if that's not interesting enough for you, total wild card at 11, new general manager, 10,000 positions of need. Daniel Jeremiah has been reported over the last week or so that the one team that everybody in the league

knows, worst kept secret, they're trying to trade up, they're having conversations about it, they're testing the waters, they're seeing what the price is, is the Tennessee Titans, at 11, and particularly interested in moving up to three with the Arizona Cardinals. Now, Brian Windhorst fingers, why would they do that? What does this mean? What it means is they're thinking about changing a quarterback because Ryan Tannenhill, like I said, has one year left on his deal.

Ryan Tannhill is a free agent in 2024. He's 35 right now, $36.6 million cap hit in 2023, 18.8 million dead cap. There was conversation about trading him. Carthin pretty much nixed those at the combine, and I definitely think they'll keep Tannhill, but they're in a really nice spot

to draft the young guy, and then Tannhill starts the season. Maybe the young guy, you know, earns the job by week 12. Maybe Tanehill gets banged up. Tainil's been getting hurt a lot recently, right? He's been hurt a lot over the course of his career. You get some opportunity for him. And anybody who's saying, oh, but what about Malik Willis?

I think the guy who liked Malik Willis is no longer employed by the Titans. And I think the guys who remain with Tennessee are not as big of a fan of Malik Willis. That's my read on the room. It's certainly my reading how they coached Malik Willis. Yeah, and also real quick, just, I mean, I feel like we fall into this trap every year. or like a third round pick quarterback gets taken and there's this assumption that this is the guy. If you look at the history of the NFL,

third round picks on quarterbacks are like lottery tickets. We're occasionally on at that point in the draft, you hit on a Russell Wilson or a Jack Prescott who was a little bit later or whoever, and that's great when you do. But teams generally that take quarterbacks in the third round aren't like, this is our guy that we're going to build around. It's like, all right, we kind of like them.

They're flawed. let's take a look here. So I would agree with you, just not even based on just what you're saying about whether it was Robinson who liked him or how they coached him last year, just that generally speaking in the NFL when you take a quarterback in the third round, it's not like, all right, let's roll forward with this guy, unless I guess if you're the Falcons, then you decide you're going to do that with Desmond Ritter, baby. If only they listened, they would have drafted the first. They would have known. Anyway, yeah, so, like, you know, anybody call him Lake Willis, I think is, right, is off base.

I don't think that's a consideration right now. So the Titans could trade up the three and go get the quarterback of the future for Ryan Tannahill, a guy to build around. This is the new era of Titans football, which in the end of itself is fascinating. Or it could say at 11 and take, again,

literally anybody. You look at like, oh, Titans mock draft roundup. It's just like all 15 different names at 11. There's so many opportunities for this team. Titans are going to be bad this year. That's not going to be fun. But this is, you know, talk about that.

Seahawks team. Last year we were saying, right, the Seahawks are going to be bad this year, right? They're kind of a mess. One good draft kick-started this thing, right? And so this is, this is, when you're rebuilding a team, inevitably, you need to have a year where you kill it in the draft. And so this is the first opportunity for Carthene and the Titans, there's going to be more. They're going to have to try to hit them as best they can, but very, very interesting team there at the top. They are, and they are a team to watch, to trade up at number three. You know, as you mentioned, they don't have, it's not like they have a great planet quarterback going forward. Malik Willis, who knows, Ryan Tannahill, you have him for now. You could probably move

Ryan Tannahill after the draft if you wanted to play your rookie quarterback right away, if that was a direction, you wanted to go in. A couple other interesting things with the Titans. One is, if you look at what they did this off season, all those names you mentioned that they got rid of, they cleared up. Them and the Rams, those are the two teams that really, you could see, all right, they're setting up for the 2024 offseason. Those are kind of the take your medicine, take your lumps type teams there. And so I think Jason Fitzgerald of over the cap, wrote that the Titans have the third most projected cap space next offseason.

So I think they're going to go into 2023. They're never going to punt on the season. I don't think that's going to be in their DNA with Rabel and they play in a bad division. So like I wouldn't, you know, rule them out to finish around 500 just because they're Jags. Yeah, jags. But they're generally able to do more, more with less with the Titans. like the Jags, too. Don't steal

Jacks corner from me. I'm standing next to you there. Muttering Jags into the mic and she'll just brushing me aside. Shut up. I'm talking right now. I'm talking about the Titans. I didn't hate the moves the Titans made in terms of players they added this offseason you know, Arden Kee, Aziz Al-Shayir.

They added like guys in their mid-20s who maybe could be, I think I'm the only one who's like Andre Dillard, you know what? He might still be a good left. It's a weird fit with it's a weird fit with mate, him and Brable, but if you hit on a left tackle for that price, you're getting a lot of surplus value. So I don't have an issue with what they did this offseason. I think it's actually been fine. And I do think they are certainly an interesting team here. Now, the only thing with

the Titans, they have six picks overall, not a ton. They're in the bottom half of the league in terms of draft capital. So if you like one of those quarterbacks, I want to take a swing, you can do it, but it's not like you're one of these teams with 10, 11, 12 picks where, you know, you have extra picks already that you can throw in to a deal like that. So it will be interesting to see how aggressive they decide to get at that spot. All right, Titans. Good one. My number two team. I don't think this is going to be a surprise to you because I've mentioned this team before and stuff has happened since I mentioned them, which was only like two weeks ago. And that's the Indianapolis Colts. I don't know if they are on your list or not. Are they on your list? Were they one of your three?

No. Were they your third? No. Okay. I don't find them interesting. I know. Again, I said this last time. When I, when the words come out of my mouth, like Indianapolis Colts interesting, I'm like, Sheel, what are you doing? Smack yourself in the face and move on to another team. But when I was prepping for the pod, analytically thinking about it, I was like, no, they are interesting. So why? The Colts have the fourth overall pick. They have three picks in the top 100. They have nine overall picks. They made headlines at the owners meetings. Jim Mersey, just going on the record, talking about Lamar Jackson. Yeah, we'll look into. to it, but that guaranteed money, that's not happening with me. Zach Kiefer of the Athletic called it increasingly unlikely that the Colts pursue Lamar Jackson.

So then, what is their plan at quarterback? Are they just sitting at four and saying, all right, one of these guys will fall to us? Are they saying, you know what, we don't love any of these guys? We're not going to take any of them. Do they trade up to the number three spot to ensure that they get one of their three favorite quarterbacks move up a spot with the Cardinals? and maybe, who knows, get Richardson or if Young or Stroud are still on the table, take one of those.

They could certainly go in that direction. Could they sit tight, Ben? And we just look ahead to week one of the 2023 NFL season, and it's Gardner Minshu behind center for the Indianapolis Colts. And they say, well, and they say, you know what? Caleb Williams, who, that is the, we've had generational guys here before. We only draft a quarterback when it's like. like this absolute can't miss prospect like Peyton Manning or Andrew Locke.

We are not willing to take on any risk by drafting any quarterback who might even have the tiniest of flaws because that is too much risk than we are willing to take that. It's kind of how they operate. So maybe they would just say, you know what, we'll reset the culture a little bit. We'll take it on the chin for a year and then we'll be in position to draft a quarterback next year. I don't get the sense that Jim Ursay is going to be that patient. And so really zooming out, yes, it's the, it's the, it's the,

quarterback decision. It's the Richardson decision. It's the fact that if they don't get a quarterback, then do they revisit the Lamar stuff after the draft and say, all right, well, let's at least bring him in for a meeting, see exactly what he's asking for, and see if that makes sense. But more importantly, this has just turned into a very volatile franchise. I mean, it was, what, five months ago that Jim Mersey is chastising everyone for even voicing any doubt in the idea that Jeff Saturday is going to be a great head coach for him in the NFL. They've had three. They're on the third head.

Yeah, they're on the third head coach in six months. I mean, Reich, Saturday, Stuyken. They still have no answer at quarterback. And so they could go in a number of different directions. You said no on the idea of Minchu starting week one. So then what do you think the Colts will do in this draft and at QuarDac? The Colts are going to stay at four and take the quarterback that falls to them. I feel very confident.

that. Here's why I feel confident in that, because there's been smoke for the last two, two and a half months that's like, hey, the NFL does really love well-level level of this pre-draft process. And if I was a little bit concerned about him on the chalkboard, you know, he added a muscle in the NFL to really feel like that was like the need. You know what I'm saying? He didn't really have to go that route. Like, you know, he's kind of just like a weight, wait room bro. You know, the stuff to be working on. You know, film in 2022 wasn't as great. You know, really like Richardson, really like Stroud, the NFL's kind of low on Levis. And then a few days ago, Jeremy Fowler reporting from ESPN,

Colts might like Will Levis, man. Colts don't mind themselves with Will Levis. You know who doesn't mind Will Levis? The Colts. And you start doing the math and you go, okay, well, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson go one, two, and three. Who's stuck left for the Colts? Oh, that's right, Will Levis at four.

And you start getting these reports, it's like, Colts, really? They like themselves of Will Levis. To me, it just seems like they understand that they are either picking a quarterback at four or they're picking a quarterback at three. and who that is is who's left that's highest on their board.

I don't think, like the suggestion of waiting a year for Caleb Williams, while it sounds good at first pass, I do not think Jim Merci. I don't think Jim Mersey has the requisite patience,

and I feel confident in saying that because if you had the requisite patients, who would have hired Jeff Saturday to be his offensive line coach like five years ago and like, you know, slow cooked this thing, but instead he tried to jump the line. I like, you know,

it would be, so surprising if they did not take a rookie quarterback at the top of this draft that like almost it's almost so it'd be so shocking I can see it happen because of who jim ursay is and because of how the team is behaves like can kind of talk myself into it that way but i just feel like this is the the product of that long NFL draft cycle where we always end up talking ourselves into and out of a variety of different things when what it's been chalk is always chalk the colds are taking rookie quarterback why because they have taken veteran quarterbacks last four years and it sucked so this is just this is how the team is going to react. So then you think that quarterbacks are going one, two, three, four off the board most likely, because I think somebody's trading up to three and drafting a quarterback. So if you think the Colts are just going to sit at four and we'll be willing to take Levis, then you think it's going QB, QB, QB, QB, QB, QB. Yes.

Oh, I like it. It's starting to lean that way for me. Now, it always looks like the QBs are going to go super early in all of them because everybody's talking about tradebacks at the time, right? With all this Colts-Levis smoke, let's say, you know, Bryce Young's seat just started out of the first two picks in whatever order, and the Raiders won Anthony Richardson,

and the Titans won Anthony Richardson, but everybody knows the Colts are cool with Levis. All of a sudden, it becomes harder to trade three, right? You start telling the Cardinals, says, I'm going to call my boy John Snyder at 5. He knows how to trade back. We're doing the thing over there. You know what I'm saying?

Like, so right now, the draft always two to three weeks out, looks like it's going to be quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, right? Right now, what are we doing? Hendon Hooker, round one hype. This is early April is, is quarterback era. Okay, this is how it always goes. And then what do we get? We get Kenny Pickett at 20 and Desert Ritter Malikul is in the third round. It always cools off by the time we get

the end of the month. Well, there was what? I think it was an indie star column saying that, you know, don't be surprised if Ballard just trades back and then takes Hendon Hooker as his quarterback. This is a fun draft with the, you know what? And every conversation, who's the name that we mentioned, Anthony Richardson just makes this draft really fun because we have no idea when he's going to go. again, I said it on a previous show we had, I think. Like, don't go too strong with any takes on any of these quarterbacks because it is a tough class. We don't know how teams are going to view them or where they're going to go.

All right. Colts were my second one. Titans were your second one. Do we have the same third team, Benjamin Solac? Who do you got? I doubt it. Green Bay Packers? No, I like it.

Yeah. So here's why the Packers are interesting to me. Like I said, my Seahawks. of my Titans, I felt really strongly about Packers was a bigger question. So the first interesting Domino is obviously the 13th overall pick from the New York Jets. It sounds like the Packers really wanted it. It sounds like the Jets were saying, no, it sounds like the Packers are moving off of it, right? So at this time, I would say that the Aaron Rogers trade doesn't become official until after the 2023 NFL draft. And accordingly, the 13th overall pick is not involved, right? The Packers don't

get that first rounder from the Jets. Whatever. I disagree that it's going to happen after the draft, by the way. I think if you're the Packers, you're not going to wait for the draft. You want the capital here. I think they'll come to some form of agreement at the deadline. I don't think it will include a first round pick. I think it will include. At what deadline? Like the draft is a deadline. I mean, if you make the trade after the, you're saying the trade's not going to happen until after the NFL draft? Yeah. Yeah. No, I think if you're the Packers, you're like, no, I want a pick. I want some draft capital in this year's draft so that I can start, you know, replenishing

the roster. And so I think the deadline to me is just the start of the draft. Like I think, I don't know when it will be. I'm not going to make any bold predictions, but I think sometime between now and let's say the second round, the day two of the draft, there will be an official Rogers Jets trade. And I think the big thing and it makes sense is that if you're the Jets, you want to be protected in the event that Rogers plays one year and that's it. And so if you're the Packers, like, I'm not going to get, but I think there will be some way to have conditions there where you both

can agree. All right, if Rogers keeps playing, the pick gets higher that the Packers get in the future. If he doesn't, then, you know, it might not be as high. But I do think it'll include at least a second rounder this year. That's just a guess. Yes, the Jets of 42 and 43 because they got 42, another second I pick from the Elijah Moore trade when they sent him to Cleveland. So Joe Douglas calls you up, Brian GutiCunson says 42 and next year's third that becomes a second

if Rogers plays for us well that didn't even work because you only get one year of data. Yeah, it would have to be something about how he performs, I guess, or if he's still on the roster by date X, you know, of the 2024 draft, something like that. Right, because if Joe Douglas calls me up and says, lesson, we want to make sure he plays multiple years.

And so we got to attach conditions to picks. I respond, okay, so the earliest I'm getting picked from you, like real picks is 2025, you're a chunk. No chance. I'm not like, we know the NFL discounts and devalues future picks. Multiple years in the future? Come on now. I'm not, I'm not trading Aaron Rogers in 2023 for a conditional first in 2025.

Nah, no, no, I need to get rid of a guy that badly. How about a second this year and then a third. third that turns into a second if Aaron Rogers is still on the roster on the third day of the league year next year. That seems like a fair deal. What's not fair about that? So what I'm saying is, okay, second, it turns into a second if he's still on the league, if he saw the roster, third year of the league 2024, turns into a first if he makes a pro

bowl this year. Right? I'm tying performance incentives into this first year for sure. You got to if you're Green Bay Because you're trading a guy who won the MVP In two of the last three seasons And you know You know your guy

You know you've been with this man for decades You know your guy You are tying as many incentives as you can To his performance this year When he is still interested in playing football And pissed off at you That is the objective I don't want incentives

Oh is he hanging around Like who does Aaron Rogers On the roster in the league year in 2004 Aaron Rogers could be on like Mount Kilimanjaro in 2024 You gotta just You've got to get as much tied into performance in the 2020-season as you can. Yeah, I don't know about Pro Bowl.

You know, who made the Pro Bowl this year? Tyler Huntley, so that's always a tough one. But yeah, but maybe something to team performance. Yeah, you make the playoffs. Yeah. You're playing in the division. Team performance. But it doesn't seem like it should be that hard.

Like, we're literally having this discussion. I feel like if we did this for another 10 minutes, we'd be able to come to an agreement that, but if I was good a cuntz and you were Joe Douglas, we'd be able to figure it out. So I think they'll be able to figure it out. But that's because we're trying to get it done for the sake of the pod, right? Joe Douglas, rightfully, feels like he can wait out Brian Guttenkunds

because Goet's got to get rid of Rogers and his massive cap figure off the roster. Gutankans rightly feels like he can wait out Joe Douglas because Joe Douglas' quarterback room right now sucks, and there's nobody else around besides Lamar who Joe Douglas was like, yeah, I'm not signing Lamar, which what was that? But regardless, so both of these guys can say what they want and say, okay, we generally know where the middle ground is that we're probably going to end up.

But I'm going to, you know, keep my gun trained on you for three months and you keep your guns trained on me for three months. We've got to see if somebody gets sweaty. I don't mind that they're waiting. That's why I think it's after the draft. So the Packers are interesting. I think we can agree on that now just because of that conversation. However, here's the other thing that's really interesting with the Packers.

They're picking of 15. They're not going to be in a position to take a quarter. quarterback, unless you're doing the Hennon hooker thing, which I don't think they will. And I think they really like Jordan Love. When you go and you look at depth chart and needs, well, this team has spent a ton of first round capital in the defense, right? It's what they were doing during the end of the Rogers era, much to his chagrin, right? Because he wanted, you know, receivers and pass catchers and whatever.

But they've got like eight ex-first rounders starting on the defense right now. The defense is pretty talented. You know, you can make a picket safety if there was a guy that was good enough, but there isn't even a guy in this class. So, you know, we're fine. Offensive line? Okay, well, you know, you've been kind of preparing for the end of David Bacchari's career for a little bit, and you've tendered Josh Nyman, you have Elton Jenkins, you've Josh Meyer, you've got good young guys, you're probably all right. When you look at team needs, the Packers need the same thing they've always needed,

Sheal. They need a wide receiver, they need tight-in, they need pass catchers. And when you were in the Rodgers era, and we can even rewind this all the way to, like, 2016 before everybody was getting mad at each other. And Rogers was making middle-round receivers work and late-round receivers work, and he was developing young guys. You were, you know, you were super successful and just churning through without taking first-round receivers. It was, all right, we don't have to do this.

And then gets to late Rogers era, and he starts asking for a first-round receiver, but you're looking at a guy who's winning the MVP award and saying, we don't need to do this. We don't, why would we spend first-round picks on receiver and tight-end? when we can just take trench players, we can take defensive players and help out that side of the ball, and Roger's going to make the passing game work no matter what. It was sound team building.

It became personal at some point, but it was sound team building. It did make sense. It's like the chief trading way, Tyreek Hill. Your passing game has a very high floor when you have this good of a quarterback, so you don't need to go crazy adding wide receiver talent. Well.

I don't know that I agree with that, by the way. I don't know if we want to get into that discussion or not. I think, like, I'm not fully there either. I think it's an argument and it's a legitimate argument. I think the Packers saying, we had an elite quarterback, so we didn't need to be spending

first round capital on wide receivers, is fundamentally sound. There becomes an interpersonal aspect of it, and there becomes a, you have to look to the future aspect, right? It'd be nice if Jordan Love had a really great young receiver in the building right now to lean on, but he doesn't.

So there's nuance to it, but I think that core of that argument is sound. All that to say, well, if you're anticipating starting Jordan Love this season, and your biggest needs are wide receiver and tight end, it sure would be nice to have improved pass catchers, have a young guy to grow with your rookie quarterback.

The Packers might make the first round wide receiver pick they've made basically two decades. That's going to be so funny. They're definitely doing it. The year they're getting rid of Rogers. And to me, that's hilarious and also very interesting, right? I'll be very curious to see if they're tuned on how they fill the pass catch and cupboards changes

when they have a different quarterback in the building. I'll be curious to see if they have been passing on early receivers because Rogers have been so good at working with with middle round guys. And now that they don't have them, they're going to adjust the way that they draft. I'm fascinated to see it. So when I look at like Quentin Johnston landing spots, Michael Mayer landing spots, I'm always tempted to give them to the Packers. And I'm very curious to see if that's what ends up coming down the mountain later this month.

Yeah, and they're right around there, right? The 15th pick is when you could say, all right, maybe one of those guys around there will go off. I mean, I feel so confident that that's happening just because it will be so funny for everybody. Exactly. Like the draft of Pascatcho. Yeah, I'm with you there. I think that'll be, I mean, the Packers are interesting. They have the 15th pick.

They have three picks in the top 100. They have 10 picks overall. I'm definitely going to be talking myself into Jordan Love by the time we do our August preview shows. That like, hey, the Packers, it'll be like a weight off their back, you know, a little more stress-free environment. Rogers is gone. Jordan Love, go watch the tape against the Eagles last year. The guy was outstanding. I feel like, didn't you try to talk me to Jordan Love at some point in this podcast, like the past year or so?

It was probably after when the Eagles played the Packers last year and love came in, I was like, when I was watching that film, I was like, oh my gosh, this guy can play. Yeah, he was making some. Grimperin. Ripet, baby. Fantastic. Yeah, I might be able to get there. So go ahead and get him a Ted Ender, a wide receiver. But they are an interesting team because, yeah, they're not, it's not like they don't have any talent. They're strong on the offensive line. You mentioned it. We don't love the defensive coaching, but the defensive personnel. They certainly have. have and we'll see what they do, how they turn the page. And how good of a coach is Matt LaFleur. I mean, you could really make an argument that he's been an underrated coach with the way he's been able to kind of navigate that situation with Rogers. They've won a lot of games. Their offense has still been good every year. So now what does he do kind of in chapter two with a new quarterback in Jordan Love? So I think that's a good one. I think the Rogers trade happens between now and the draft. Do you think it happens after the draft? But they already have 10 picks. So you're saying if we say it happens before the draft,

now you're getting at least an 11th pick in this year's draft. You certainly have flexibility to be able to move around. All right. Let's take one more break. I will come back with my third most interesting team, and then Ben will finish the show with his extra point taken. All right, we're back with a team that I feel like, you know, their fans can't complain.

I feel like for a long time, probably my entire career, I barely said anything about this team. there were no strong takes. They were irrelevant. And now suddenly they're one of the most interesting teams in the NFL. And I swear we talk about them every week on this show. And that's the Detroit Lions. Sixth pick.

Yeah, they were very close for me, very close. Tied for an NFL most five picks in the top 100 among the top five teams in terms of draft capital in this draft five picks in the top 81. Actually, what are they going to do? with the number six pick, Ben. I mean, let's say the Seahawks say it was all, you know, we were just kind of smoke screening. We're taking Jalen Carter at 5. Oh, Anthony Richardson is falling a little bit lower

than anyone anticipated. Again, I don't think that's going to happen, but that is within the realm of possibilities. Do they say, let's take Richardson at 6? We have golf this year. If golf plays well, he keeps the job for as long as he plays well. If he doesn't, you know what? We have an option at quarterback,

This feels very weird to say, I don't anticipate the Detroit Lions picking this high again in the foreseeable future. This is a very good football team. I know. This is a different era. They are the favorites in the NFC North plus 130, according to Fanduil, to win the NFC North. That gives them a 43% chance to win the division. They were probably, honestly, the fourth best NFC team at the end of last year. And now they're fourth in Super Bowl odds in the NFC behind only the Eagles 49.

miners and Cowboys. They keep offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. They upgrade the secondary. The offensive line is very good. And so I just wonder what their quarterback plan is for the long term. I mean, again, I've said it like a million times on here. Lions fans are probably sick of it. I know Jared Golf played well last year. We know Jared Golf when the circumstances are right. Can quarterback a highly efficient offense at the same time? If you're saying, do you want Jared golf to be your quarterback for the next three to five years, I would say you would probably want to upgrade or have an alternative there. So the question is, how do they go about acquiring that alternative? So I think there are a few things in play for them here. I mean, certainly they could just

sit at six and draft the best player available. If Richardson is there and they like Richardson, they could take him. And I think an option number three that's pretty interesting for them is to kind of go with the Howie Roseman strategy from last year. And let's trade out. Let's focus on optionality in the 2024 off season. Let's trade out of there. Let's get a pick for next year's draft. That way, depending on what Jared Gough does this year, we have options to acquire a quarterback. By the way, whether that's a veteran or somebody in the draft next year. So I think that's something to really keep an eye on with the Lions. Again, they still have the 18th overall pick. It's not like they won't be able to get a player that can help them right away.

they have eight picks overall. They're going to, they have the draft capital to add to the roster right away. But I think quarterback just has to, like that has to be the front of their mind with every conversation they have, whether they take a shot this year or whether they position themselves for a shot next year. And so because of that, it's again, these teams that were already pretty good and have draft capital, I mean, they really are the most interesting teams. You mentioned it right away with the Seahawks and the Lions really are in a similar

spot there. Are those the reasons why you had them potentially as one of your most interesting teams or was there something else that I missed there? Yeah, I was thinking about doing the Lions at three for my third most interesting team, but then it was going to be like Seahawks because maybe quarterback, Titans because maybe quarterback, Lions because maybe quarterback. And I was like, blah, quarterbacks are boring. All we ever talk about is quarterbacks.

Lions are very interesting. The other reason why I didn't want to do Lions is because when I think about how proud I am of the Lions, how happy I am for them. Like, I've, I have 100% semi-adopted this team since living in Michigan. Like, and they're just, they're fun to root for, period. But then also, I think in a league in which so many teams go about rebuilding the wrong way,

the lines have done it so well. Like, to this point, like, the two-year rebuild since Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell have taken control in terms of, like, establishing a culture, generating resources, you know, fostering an environment of competition, rewarding, you know, late round guys giving them opportunities. Like, I think they've done the rebuild exactly the right way, building through premium positions, generating an identity, like constructing a team from the ground up, right?

Like, it has been, in my opinion, a masterclass. This is the draft where if they don't get the quarterback of the future to replace golf, I start to not like it as much. This is the drafts where to me, if they continue to, if they tread water for another year with Jared Goff and they spend, like you said, the sixth overall pick that they're not going to have a high pick like this in the future. If they pass on quarterback here,

they're going to ruin the perfect picture to me. Like this has been nearly flawless, and this would be such a bad misstep that it's going to break my little heart. It's going to make me so sad just because the Reveil has been so good. And I think getting blinded by, you know, Brad Holmes having drafted your golf and golf being such a good guy and golf being a good competitor,

being blinded by that into missing on the opportunity to take this top quarterback to me is egregious, especially so because I would not be the least bit surprised. I said this on Twitter a few days ago, if the Hendon Hooker team ends up being the Lions. Old, big, injured. Brad Holmes loves it, baby. Brad Holmes said, bring it to me.

He's hurt and he's large, my favorite sort of player. Here we go. That, I'm not, I'm out on Hooker. I'm out on Hooker, like in general. I'm certainly out on Hooker in terms of, like, taking him in the back of the first round in the second round where he's getting talked about. I think that's way too rich for a player of his profile. If they, again, I don't want to say if they ruin this, because that's an unfair thing to say.

But I've been so on board with this rebuild. And if they walk out of April with, okay, at six, we took Devon Witherspoon. And then at, you know, 26 of the tradeback, we got Henan Hooker, I will be, I'll be out. I've been on the ship for this Lions rebuild for two years and you just lost me. And that'll suck. And so I don't want to bring them up because it makes me sad to think. about. Well, the Lions, I think the reason why they're fun to root for is they have a beaten down fan base who is just so excited whenever there's even a little bit of success, and rightfully so.

And so I think they're going to make the playoffs next year, you know, as we sit here on April 3rd at the same time, you can fast forward to this time next year. And we could be saying, all right, the Lions made the playoffs, but now they have Jared Golf on what, the final year of his contract. oh, Ben Johnson left to take a head coaching job and they're picking in the 20s? How? How do they get to that next step? So, yeah, I think they need to really have this vision of kind of looking ahead and not getting too excited about going nine and eight last year and saying, what do we really

need to do here long term? And so that's why either you take a shot this year or you do something that positions yourself to take a shot next year. If it's just take a pick at six, you're not moving back, you didn't get any additional draft capital. They look to me like a team that at this time next year we could be saying they're kind of stuck here. You could trade for a veteran who might not be that much better than golf. You could ride with golf again, but you probably don't have a move to make in the draft. Although, you know, teams have done it from far back before, so anything is possible.

But I think there's going to be QB needy teams in next year's draft, obviously near the top. And, you know, aside from Caleb Williams, there are other good guys. It just becomes a lot harder, basically, when you don't have the sixth pick and the 18th pick and are positioned to make a move right now. So we will see what happens with the Detroit Lions. All right. What do you have for your extra point taken, Ben? You were, you know, we were texting.

I said, well, you know, we could do this. And you said, I've got an extra point taken, which I was very excited. He had something to get off your chest. What do you got? So we did the pod on three most interesting teams to not, to in the NFL draft. I am here at my extra point for a few zingers at the end for you, Sheel, of the most interesting things

that could happen in the 2023 NFL draft. The reason why I bring this up is because... You sure we don't want to save this for next week's episode? We have more time to fill, Ben. No, because this is just like... I'm just kidding. This is crazy nonsense, right? This is just bananas. Because the reason why this is important to bring up

is because, A, these things get talked about, right? Everybody's calling everybody to check in on everybody, number one. Number two is, that in April, what is it, third, eighth, whatever day today is. And this time last year, nobody was talking about, okay, so like Marquis Brown to the Cardinals, AJ Brown to the Eagles? They can I do like these, these things like they, somebody puts them somewhere on a message

board, but that's as far as they get. I want to put them on the ringer NFL show, highly reputable NFL, NFL podcasting program. So a few crazies for you, and you can stop me if you want, if you want to kick any one of these around. The first one, which I firmly believe happens, is after the Tennessee Titans fail to trade up for the quarterback that they want in the 2023 NFL draft, they will trade with the San Francisco 49ers for quarterback Tray Lance. Tray Lance will be a Tennessee Titan by the end of the 2023 NFL draft. Niners feeling great about the Brock Purdy situation for some reason. Ron Carthin, obviously part of the group that drafted, Trey Lance liked it a lot.

I like that. I would be in favor of that for the time. I mean, obviously depending on the price. but that would make sense to me for the Titans. All right, good one. What else? Another, a couple Titans trades for you is these a little bit quicker, but again, Titans are in fire sale mode.

You go, you look at when AJ Brown and Markey's Brown got moved, they got moved on contract years, right? We typically see guys are, okay, we might not pay this guy after this season. Let's see if we can move him now in the NFL draft. At the end of the 2023 NFL draft, running back Derek Henry will be a Cincinnati Bengal. Defense attack. Yep.

Now, and now, next one, if the Titans successfully get to three, move up with the Arizona Cardinals, they will do so by trading defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons. In that, as a part of that trade, you're saying? As a part of that trade. So Jeffrey Simmons to the Cardinals.

Yeah, John Gannon, leaving Fletcher Cox and J. Von Hargrave, you look at that defensive tackle room, and there's just nobody in the room right now. They're making calls, they're figuring it out. I guarantee you the name has been dropped. I can guarantee you. I got to say,

You're doing way too good of a job for this to just be the extra point taking. I love all of these. Wait, what was the first thing you just said? Derek Henry on the Bengals, I love. By the way, I don't know what you do with the salary there. Jeffrey Simmons, yeah, because then you could see the trend piece, right? Ooh, more teams, including players in these blockbuster trades. First, DJ Moore, now Jeffrey Simmons.

I mean, everybody leads a Peter King column. Yeah, it'll be great. Which, let's real quick revisit our favorite man, Ryan Poles, in the way he treats the media. He polls today gave a quote where he was like, I hit up the Blackhawks general manager to like kind of ask him how you trade picks and players. Dude, what, why are you saying this out loud? Don't say these things to people. Why?

Who cares? Why does that bother you? Because it's not bad. And like, I don't mind if he did that and then just did it and that's fine. This was in an athletic piece, by the way. Yes. It's when DJ Moore struggles for the first six weeks and all of your fan base had beatwriters being like maybe you should have talked to the hockey guys the black hawks have been

bad recently you're just setting yourself up for this sort of stuff stop being honest stop being open this from a media I disagree okay uh another bangles one for you real quick uh I said Derek Henry to the Bengals I also think uh again you know just throwing it out there since Danny Bengals large trade up from 29 overall and go get themselves Texas running back be John Robinson final final the final infinite Don't do that. In the gauntlet, in the gauntlet of the Cincinnati offense. A couple more for you.

Don't do that, Bengals. You have Joe Burrow, you have Jamar Chase. I don't want to be analytics guy, but do not trade up. Add depth, add to the lines of scrimmage. All right, go ahead. Sorry. During the 2023 NFL draft, the sale of the Washington commanders is announced. Which obviously won't be finalized, but commanders' ownership functionally changes.

Pick 87. To me, that's really funny. No, like the morning of the draft. Like, we had the Aaron Rogers thing. That was like the morning of the first day of the draft. Yes, after kept it. Kept it, right. Kept it in the holster there. Also fun, if you do get a commander's sale before the draft,

is the Lamar Jackson conversation. Because you want to free up a Lamar team, get a new owner in the building. New owners are willing to do just about anything. They're living. I like it. I like it. Okay, last but not least, here's the big kicker.

Here's the grand finale. He's the last fireworks. The Houston, Texans trade out of the second overall pick and do not draft the quarterback. Whoa. Now that was floated in Peter King's column today and I was like, no. Why would they do that? Why?

Because firstly, the roster is terrible. Secondly, you expect you're able to get to the top of the draft next year. We're talking about the Seahawks and the Lions. They're not going to be able to do that. The Texans probably will, let's be honest, even with a rookie. Third, and this is the important part, we do. we don't know who they like. Everybody wants to make them the Bryce Young team.

Everybody just goes, get Bryce Young team. Which I have not, and I keep saying this on every pod, hoping that some Texans fans going to angrily tweet at me and be like, here's the reporting. What are you talking about?

And then I'll be like, oh, I couldn't find it. I have yet to find the reporting that was like in December of, like, sources say that the Texans front officer likes Bryce Young. We've all just decided they like Bryce Young. I absolutely 100% think there's a world

where the Texans have a guy that they wanted. two and the Panthers take him at one. And then the Texans say, all right, Colts, come get your guy. Raiders can get your guy. And then, like, maybe they talk about quarterback at four, maybe they talk about quarterback at seven. But I do not think the Texans,

who talked to the Bears by moving up to one and have talked to the Panthers. Remember after the Panthers made the movie, they're like, yeah, we're going to call the Texans. We're going to have conversations. I do not think the chance that they pick it to is 100%. I think that it's less than that. And I think that's something that has to be acknowledged

over the next few weeks. Don't think it happens. But this is the end of the most interesting draft podcast. And so you've got to bring up the most way what we're looking for. Zany, wacky things you can possibly think of. Do not do. Do not listen to him, Texans.

Do not do that. If you're a Texans fan, Bryce Young and Domeico Ryan's, when's the last time you could get excited about a combination like that? Or I guess, C.J. Strat or even, I don't care. Any of those quarterbacks, whoever you like, take them, D'Miko Ryans. You have a nice path towards the future. don't overthink it. Do not do that. That was exhilarating.

Next week, next week, we're just going through all those and discussing that in depth. That's the format for next week's podcast. After a year of podcasting with you, Shil, I'm sorry to figure out what you like. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I like that. Any fake trades I'm in on. Yeah. Anything where you say, Shill, you know, it would be crazy. Yeah. If the Vikings trade, Kirk Cousins, even though he's a $45 million dead cap hit, only a $20 million cap if they keep him, and she was like, yeah, they can figure it out. They'll figure out the account and don't worry about it.

This is why you're a Saints fan. This is why you like the Saints cap management. I'm not a Saints fan. That was just me zagging while you zigged or whatever the Ringer language is. Sorry, I'm still, you know, six months I'm still new here. All right, that was a lot of fun. We have a few more shows before the draft. We'll figure out different ways to talk about it.

There will be NFL news. Stay tuned for that. Nora and Stephen will be back on this feed this week. So be sure to check that out. you to Cliff Augustine for producing additional production supervision by Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgapal. Thank you to Benny Souls. We will be back next week on Extra Pointe.