The Ringer NFL Show - Winners and Losers of Free Agency | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: March 22, 2019

Among the winners after free agency are the Browns (now the AFC North favorite), Earl Thomas and his impact in Baltimore, Antonio Brown and player empowerment, Nick Foles and his huge contract in Jacksonville, and the Packers’ offseason spending (1:50). Some of the losers are the Giants as a franchise, the running back position in general, the Rams’ Super Bowl hangover, Le’Veon Bell, and more (25:00). Hosts: Robert Mays and Kevin Clark Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. March Madness is here, and to help you with your bracket, make sure you listen to one shiny podcast with Mark Titus and Tate Frasier. Also, be sure to check out the Ringer's YouTube channel to watch Tate and Titus build their bracket and break down every matchup on their selection show, as well as Roger Sherman, who offers his three Cinderella picks for the NCAA tournament. You can find those at YouTube.com slash The Ringer. To The Ringer NFL show. I'm Robert Mays. joined as always by Kevin Clark. Kevin, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing okay.

NFL competition committee recommending a proposal for a one-year trial to expand reviewable plays to every year. Pass interference, roughing the past

or unnecessary contact on the defensive play. You can review that. That is what the competition committee is proposed. We're going to do winners and losers of free agency today,

but let's talk about that because I want to, do you think that's a good thing? I'm a little bit worried. I generally support that idea, but I also just think that replay might get a little bit out of hand and games are going to take four and a half hours. Maybe. I mean, if you still limit the amount of replays, it's going to be fine. I think if you just keep the system in, it's, it's fine. The one thing I saw out there was that

maybe you only do flags, you only review flags and not no, no calls, which would be, I think that would make sense. I wouldn't have helped the New Orleans Saints last year. But wasn't, what was the idea, what was that person going to be called that's just up in the booth? And if there's a blatantly wrong call, they can just reverse it in the moment. I believe, I believe it's sky judge. I believe it's sky judge,

but I also believe we could just take a page from our boss, Bill Simmons, just call them the VP of Common Sense. Yep, that's fair. Just, just, some person just says, hey, guys, that was passenger parents.

All right. So let's dig into this. Obviously, free agency is still technically going, the cold sign just in Houston today, which I feel like was a pairing that we had. even before free. I kind of like it.

I kind of like it. Oh, what now the Colts only have like $70 million in Cap Space. They're really up against it. I wrote about this this week, just about how CapSpace is just this thing that everyone clamors for, but in reality, the teams that usually have a ton of it spend it in horrible ways. And in reality, they don't spend it. Yeah, exactly. But for the most part, CapSpace is about flexibility.

And the Colts have maintained theirs. It's a really good signing. And they re-signed a couple of their guys. you know, Payer de Sierra played well for them last year. I think that that makes a lot of sense. So I don't, I'm fine with what they've done. But I think Justin's a good one. I was wondering if he was going to come in a little bit lower than that.

I was hoping the Bears would take a look at him as kind of to round out their defensive line rotation and also round out their spending. But $12 million is a lot of money. I think he's worth it. But that's a good chunk of change. It's pretty much the Brandon Graham contract you can use as a template. I wasn't sure he'd get that much just because his injury history has been a little more checkered. Sure. But again, they had $75 million in cap space and now they have slightly

lost. They're going to be fine. Yeah, I think they'll be just fine. All right, let's start with the winners. And I think that the team that sticks out to me here that's just done a great job of adding talent really over the last 12 calendar months is the Cleveland Browns. Because even though they only had one kind of splash signing with Sheldon Richardson, you take into account the trade that got them, Olivia Vernon, obviously the O'Dell Beckham trade. I mean, this is a team. team, you're running out of holes on their roster. There aren't that many spots where you're like, man, they could really get a lot better here or this is going to be something that could torpedo them.

I mean, obviously there's some projection with Baker in year two. Can Corbett come in and play guard? Wouldn't they lose lost Sightler? Who the other safety is going to be? But these are nitpicky things. For the most part, this team looks pretty damn good everywhere. Are they your favorites in the AFC North? Yes, I absolutely think so.

Me too. I mean, you look at, I think one of the teams that we could. I don't have my list, but I was considering it. Pittsburgh just didn't do much. I mean, they signed Stephen Nelson. They signed Mark Barron. But, I mean, those aren't any moves that are going to kind of make you stand up and take notice. Sure.

They need to get better because they have holes. Well, they also lost an elite receiver, whereas the Browns gained one. That's true. Yeah, they lost Antonio Brown. So Pittsburgh has a lot of issues to me. They traded their right tackle. No, Antonio Brown. I still think there are problems for them on defense.

Baltimore, I'm just concerned about what's going to happen with Lamar Jackson. Their offense is weird and fun, but I think they have a pretty defined ceiling. They also lost a lot of defensive talent. And Gannon-Harl Thomas is great, but they lost pass rushing depth, a lot of other things. And the Bengals are just the most boring team in the NFL. Now that the Dolphins are just blowing it up and starting over and doing something that I find kind of cool, the Bengals are just the team that's like, all right, yep, we can just forget about the Bengals. They never do anything worth talking about.

Yeah, first of all, I'm a little bit worried. worry that Fitzpatrick is going to screw up the tank. You think he's too good. That's what you're going with here. I think he's a little too good. I think there was a point out there from a number of people that I keep thinking about, which is like, if you actually wanted a tank, you'd sign Bortles or Peter Manor or are truly awful quarterback, Fitzpatrick might just randomly beat the Patriots.

That's always in there for him. But I feel like the Fitzpatrick we saw last year and just this last gasp of him being decent was in an offense with Mike Evans, Deshawn Jackson, Chris Godwin, O. O.J. Howard that was coordinated by Todd Monkin. He's not going to be playing with that sort of talent in Miami. Imagine thinking that Fitzpatrick being Fitzpatrick is a system thing and not just a supernatural, just a supernatural entity. Yeah, he's not, it's not, he's not a moral. The things he does are not explainable by tangible stuff like supporting cast and everything else. And coaching. I think he's going to be decently bad. I think they'll be fine.

I also think that if you sign Blake Bortals, it's up in blinking lights. So we are trying to suck. And that's not the easiest thing to do. Fitzpatrick is a real winning move. Hey, it's, I still feel like even if you're going full tank, you kind of have to sell the fan base a little bit at times. For ownership to be like, yeah, I just want to be as bad as we can possibly be. Who is?

Okay. Full tank is tough. Okay. All right. Let's back up. Who is the best tanking quarterback you could possibly get? If you had your pick, everybody's a free. agent, you are tanking.

You can't let your fan. You fans still have to buy tickets and all that stuff, but you are trying to go one in 15. You are taking blank quarterback. I honestly think Ryan Fitzpatrick is a good answer because he's going to be at least entertaining at times. But I think that for every 400-yard game he's going to have, maybe like the two or three of them next season,

they're going to be as many four interception games. That's why I think he's the perfect quarterback because your level of badness when you take it in the aggregate is still pretty bad. But there are moments where you're actually enjoying yourself. It's an interesting question. I think turnover prone quarterback is a big part of this. I would say there's a handful. I would say you could lose some games with Derek Anderson.

Who is still in the league somehow? Yeah. Where is he? Where is he now? He's on the bills last year. He's on the bills. Oh my God. That's right.

He started a game, didn't he? He started that Monday night game? Yeah. You could lose some games with Trevor Simeon. who's now in the New York Jets? He's a Jets backup. Could probably lose some probably lose some games with Matt Schaub.

But you're going as you're, you want to be terrible. Well, I don't think you're maybe halfway here. These people are all better than Nathan Peterman. That's true. So Nathan Peterman is the ultimate we want to be bad quarterback

because you're still trying to split the difference a little tiny bit. All of these players made contributions at one point to the NFL level. for Matt Schaub it's been like a decade though the fact that Matt Schaub still getting paid by people

is amazing remember that like two week period when the Raiders drafted Derek Carr and people were pretending like Matt Shaw was going to be the starter that season I was there

six pick sixes in a week I was there of the day they named Derek Carr starter and obviously because it's a new story there was a kind of a freak out in the media room when it happened

and I was like yeah I could have told you this it could have been sources Derek Carr will start and the source would have been me looking at the depth chart. All right, let's move on to some of the other winners here.

The safety position, I feel like is a huge winner, especially after you consider what happened last year. I mean, there's an explanation for why the safety market unfolded why it did last year, but for it to bounce back to this degree, I'm not sure anyone could have really seen that coming. How about our guy Lan and Collins? Just getting paid, man. Just getting paid by a team that really doesn't seem to have any idea what it's doing.

And then Gibral Pepper is being way overvalued by the Giants. that's true. It's another win for the position. It's a moment. Drewbrile Peppers was like the crown jewel of their hall for Odo Beckham. Honey Badger gets paid. The one sort of outlier is Eric Berry is still on the market. He's taking visits, but he is still available. I also think Eric Berry, that's a complicated one just because,

or a complicated one just because of concerns about his health. I mean, the guy has played how many games over the last couple of years. I can understand why teams would be a little bit reticent to throw big money. Did you see that? Tyron Matthew saw two. straight healthy seasons. Did you see that sort of heat chart

of Earl Thomas, the passing chart? Do you know I'm talking about? I have not. So Next Gen Stats now does sort of heat maps almost like almost like what

NBA teams can do as far as just showing where teams shoot from when so-and-so is in the game or they're playing this defensive look or whatever. And so they showed Earl Thomas on the field and off the field

what people do against the Seahawks. And what teams do is they never go deep against Earl Thomas ever. And it's really fascinating to look at. Teams actively avoided. It's not unlike kind of like what Dwight Howard used to be

where teams would just go nowhere near him because they were scared of what would happen if they drove in the lane. So Earl Thomas being healthy, I think changes the face of that defense, Baltimore more than we really think. I also think they have the best secondary in the league now. I mean, even with Eric Weddell

was probably in the conversation, but you swap Earl Thomas with Eric Weddle, and now we're talking about something really serious. I mean, their pass rush to lose a little bit of its teeth when the guys they lost, but I mean, you have the secondary that's that good,

you're probably going to make up for it. Matt Castle, by the way, is a free agent and available to tank. Ooh, that's a good name. That is a good name. His last great moment was,

well, he's played a little bit recently, but he was also one of those guys that was a stopgap starter for a team that drafted a quarterback the same year, actually. And he was just throwing pick sixes left and right in Minnesota.

Matt Castle, Austin, Blaine Gabbard. Mike Gennon. Available? Shane Gabbard's probably a good name. Blaine Gabbard, I think you could probably sell first round pick all that. So, Sean Mannion was basically replaced by Blake Bordell.

Do you think Sean Mannion is upset about it? I mean, I bet Sean Manny thinks he's much better than Blake Bortles. Probably. Probably. But also, it's got like a one-year, one-million dollar contract. It's a McVeigh-Heet check. That's a McVeigh-Hech. Exactly right.

When Bortles is going to throw him for 400 yards a game, six games into the year when Jared golf got when Jared golf gets hurt the joke is going to be on all of us all of our Blake portals jokes we're going to regret them instantly Judith Smith also available there you go all right let's move on another winner for me is uh Cam Newton's bones I really like what the Panthers did in free agency they re-signed Eric Reed they go out and get Matt Paradise on a contract that is less than what Mitch Morse got I think that Matt Paradise is a better player and I think signing Dary Williams in a one year six million dollar deal to be your right tackle is an absolute steal. When he was healthy, he played well a couple of years ago. And obviously, there was limited interest just because he was hurt for most of last season. He hurt his knee in training camp. And then again, in week one. So I can understand why teams are a little reticent.

But he's a solid player when he's around. And for him to get $6 million bucks on one year and for Juan James to get twice that, that's a win if you're the Panthers. Where are we on Juan James? Because we spent so much time talking about Trump Brown that we forgot that John James was also being massively overpaid. So this is what happens with offensive tackles

in free agency. Juan James is fine. He's fine. But there are so few competent offensive linemen in the NFL that when one hits the market that can stand up and get in somebody's way every once in a while,

he sets the market at the position. It's absolutely ridiculous. It was the same thing when Nate Solter last year. I think teams are willing to overpay at that position in a way they're not at almost any other position just because it's so hard

to draft and develop offensive linemen. The teams that do, their goal, teams like New England, but most teams struggle to do it. And because of that, they have to throw money at the problem. Bruce Irvin,

very strange Carolina signing. I think that's pretty good, though, because they got him for a really cheap deal, right? It's only $4 million. They've got Dantariapo and Bruce Irvin,

which in 2013, if someone had come from the future and say the Panthers have Bruce servant and Dantari Pol in the same line and be like, that's nasty. And now it is like, yeah. Those are tarnished high picks.

That's what they've cornered the market out on defense. Eric Reed's the same deal. Eric Reed was the first round pick too. But yeah, I think that they got good value with some guys. And I also just like how they built that offensive line. I think that was a major question coming in for them to kind of get those two guys on the fly.

I think that's huge for them. Agree. I agree. What is the seal? on this Carolina team? I think that's a Cam Newton question. And if he's healthy, then why can't they make the playoffs? I'm worried.

Some of the reports around his injury are kind of weird. That's always a question, though. I mean, especially with shoulders and everything else, that stuff can linger. But I think they can be pretty good just because I like what they have on offense. I think the cam getting hurt last year, they absolutely fell off a cliff. But what Norv Turner has built there with those skill position players,

it's a really fun group. And we talked about that a lot last season. I think that can be the same again. I also think you're going to see those guys in even more elevated roles now that Devin Funches is gone. And so if Cam's healthy, I think they can be pretty darn good.

Dude, remember that month where we had to overcorrect and just go over the top on our praise of Norff Turner because we made fun of the hire? Yeah. I mean, what was that?

Eat crow, man. I mean, it has to happen. No, but then it turned out he wasn't even that good. No, that Cam got hurt. not putting that on the coaching staff. When your quarterback can't throw the ball down field, I think that's a little bit more problematic

than suddenly your coach is bad after being good for the first part of the year. I think they're going to be just fine. If he's healthy, I think they're going to be fine. Their defense is interesting. I mean, their secondary is a little hot and cold always, but we'll see what happens there.

But I think they can be all right. Can I throw out a winner? Yes. Antonio Brown. Antonio Brown and the idea of player power coming to the NFL. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't necessarily know if it's any great C-Change or anything like that because

I think there's just very, very few people like Antonio Brown who are going to be able to execute that sort of plan. But he added a lot of new money to his deal without adding years, which is like basically spectacular in the context of NFL value. And by the way, he tanked his trade stock. And this is not necessarily admirable, but it is, if you're going just through the of value. He tanked his stock so much that the team that got him

only gave up a third and a fifth round pick, which means that team will be better. If his stock was so high that they'd go up one of their first, the team would be worse. So there's really no downside except the public backlash to Antonio Brown. Is Antonio Brown a genius? I mean, is that something that we've learned?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. The man dyed his mustache blonde in order for his team to think that he was capable of anything. That's amazing. Like, I just, everything about that is incredible to me. I don't know if dying your mustache blonde is evidence of genius. I've got to be honest with you.

I think in this case, it might be. I got to be honest with you. I've looked at the mustache. It didn't look good. I don't, are you saying you like went deep. the character. That's what it's, it seemed like that's what happened, right?

Like, uh, like Joaquin Phoenix. Yeah, this was a, this past like two months was Antonio Brown's I'm not here moment. Yeah.

Oh, God. I mean, everything about it was great. Have you ever grown a mustache? No, I've had, I've had sort of,

you know, two weak beards or whatever. I look pretty good, I think. F. I don't think I've ever seen you with a beard. Hmm.

I've had a mustache in the past. Sometimes when I grow my beard really long, I would just cut most of it off and keep the mustache just for fun. It's enjoyable. Never blonde, though. If I want to get traded from the ringer, that's when I'll start dye my mustache blonde. They'll get the third round pick for me.

All right. Another winner for me is Nick Foles, who here's the thing. Jesus Christ. When you're the only quarterback on the market, you get $22 million a year with $50 million guaranteed. I never imagined that he would have that kind of market, even with being the only guy.

I just never thought that contract was coming. I thought it'd be closer to the case Keenum deal from last year. But man, $50 million guaranteed for Nick Foles. The Jaguars really wanted a quarterback. So the justification is that they needed the locker room needed to respect him, so they gave him more money. It's great. I'm going to do that.

I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that with Bill Simmons. I'm just going to be like, no, I need more respect around here. Please give me $50 million guaranteed. again, would $18 million not have sufficed? It needed to crack 20. That's the only way it was going to happen. If you're paying a quarterback $18 million and there's no other quarterback on the roster,

I'm pretty sure it's clear he's the starting quarterback. Maybe I'm wrong about that. This is a great example of a team just overthinking it to the point of eating themselves. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because who else was paying for Nick Foles? I mean, I assume there was another team probably. the mix, and that's why they had to go that high, but who would it have been? And why would

they have been wanting to pay Nick Foll's $20 million? I just can't imagine that there was enough interest to drive that price to where it got. I mean, you're bidding against yourself, and that's how you get to this point. I have a theory that I've been developing over the past six years I've covered this league. You want to hear it? Yeah, I'm listening. Absolutely nobody knows what they're doing. Yeah, that's what it seems like, especially teams that don't have a quarterback. They're the teams that know the least what they're doing. And it's not even as if there's some quick out that they have. I mean, this is, you know, it's one of those deals where it's, oh, it's a four-year deal,

but in reality, it's mostly a two-year deal, everything else. There's $12.5 million in dead cap on the Jaguars cap if he gets cut before the 20-21 season. You're getting Nick Foll's age 30, 31, and 32 seasons. We know the Jags aren't adverse to paying or spending about a dead money on quarterbacks as evidenced by what Blake Bortles is going to account for on the this year. But that still is just, it's a lot of money to give a 30-year-old quarterback who hasn't done much outside of a couple stretches in the playoffs. Could they have conceivably kept Malik Jackson? Probably. I think they opened up more than like $30 million in space, right? In one day,

they got $30 million. So let's look at their cap right now. If I were them, I'd probably like to have Malik Jackson. Yeah, I mean, they paid him so much. I mean, that's the problem when you spend You build your entire team through free agency, essentially. At a certain point, all those bills are going to come do, even in this era. And that's what happened. I mean, you can't pay a quarterback $22 million and also be paying the sticker price for like seven different defensive players. Those two things are not compatible.

Yeah. I mean, that's it. I mean, I think that you still, even though they hit on guys like Jalen Ramsey, some of the defensive guys, Telvin Smith being one. But Talvin Smith got paid. Right. I'm saying that there are there. That was really the only in-house guys.

was Ramsey by the time last season was over. Pretty much everyone else on the defense that was getting significant snaps and in Gokwe. But almost every other guy was making at or near the top of the market at their position. And that was okay when you were not really

paying your quarterback very much, but when you have to pay them $20 million, that becomes a problem. Maybe they should have hit on like the six straight top five picks they had. Or not spent it on a running back who's making $7.5 million dollars this year? That also might have helped. Yeah, they still have like $17 million in cap space.

I think the Jaguars needed a VP of common sense. It's not Tom Coughlin. Is that what you're saying? It is not Tom Coughlin. All right. One more winner here. Packers fans. Yes.

Complaint about how the team spent money. I had just, I just had just the Packers. Because I like Smith. I like Zadarius and Preston. Because I think that they like the Smiths. I love the Smiths. Yes.

Morrissey. Johnny Marr. Yes. I'm not as bullish on the contracts themselves as you are, but I do think... I just think it's in a world... In a world where C.J. Mosley and Quentin Alexander can get what they get, I'm fine with this. Yeah, I think spending on past wrestlers is usually a good strategy, but I also think that... I kind of like their defensive backs.

So I'm their young guys that they took last year. So I'm saying that... Yeah, you assume those guys... Zaire Alexander's going to be really good. Investing in past rush is good. Yeah, I think that Amos, it was a good signing. It was one of my favorites of free agency. I think that's really good value when you consider the position.

But $16.5 million for Zadaria Smith is a lot of money. I mean, if it's a four-year, $66 million deal, $20 million of it's guaranteed. So essentially, I guess it's really just a year and a half of guarantees. So you can get out of it pretty quickly, which is nice. But, oh, no, $10 million in dead cap. and if he's cut after the third season. So yeah, I mean, that's a pretty hefty contract for a guy who's never been a full-time player. You could argue that now that he's getting a chance to be, he's going to be even better.

But the way they used to in Baltimore last year was very unique. He did a lot of his rushing inside. So it's just a lot of projection for him to hit that number. And I'm just not sure he'll ever get there. That's what I'm saying. But both of those guys, your defense is undeniably better. If you're making an effort, I think Mike Petten is a really good defensive coordinator, by the way. I think so too.

If you're making an effort to play the free agency game, they got out as cleanly as you can get. You already, I mean, you already have the Rogers deal. You're going to have to hit in your draft X anyway, because the Rogers deal is such a force within the cap. You know, he got the most guaranteed money in history until, again, until Dave got him in his lot to pay is running back. And you're going, you know you're going to have to do that.

So you're going to have to get these sort of contracts that are, you know, upper middle tier money. That's how you're going to spend your money for agency. But you just, again, it's going to come down to whether or not they can hit their first, second, third round picks.

Yeah. That's what happened. You look at the New Orleans Saints, okay? Not that the New Orleans Saints should be a model for anybody as far as spending goes, but the reason they're able

to give Drew Breeze as much money as he gets is because they've had some really good drafts. They're not paying Alvin Kamara. They're not paying Marcus Latimore. They're smart enough to go out and trade for guy like Eli Apple and just run his rookie contract down.

So those are the sort of cheap moves you have to make, and I'm okay with paying a few middle-class guys as well. Yeah, I can get aboard that. I definitely can't. I just think that that's a big contract for his Adairus Smith. I like him. I think he can be really good. And there's a chance now that he's playing 90% of the snaps or whatever,

that he's even better. There's definitely in the realm of possibility. If that happens, then they're not even going to worry about it. But that's a lot of money to spend. And it could work out. but I also think we've seen this not work out a hundred different times. But, yeah, I mean, the Jaya Alexander pick is a good example, by the way, of them hitting on a guy and then him making their defense better instantly for a really cheap deal.

Yeah. All right. Let's get to the losers and let us start with the only place I can think to start, and that is with the New York Giants, who are just, they're really amazing right now. I mean, everything that's happening over there is entertaining to me because there's just no semblance of a plan. You can go and you can trade old Elbeckham for picks and say, you know, we're trying to stockpile assets and everything else. You can't do that and then go sign 30-year-old Golden Tates to a contract that is going to be, it has money,

dead money in the third year and screw up a comp pick of yours in the process. Either be bad or don't be bad. And that's why I really appreciate what the dolphins are doing because they're just saying, we're leaning into this. And that's what I think you should do. And rebuilding on the fly like the Giants are trying to do, I just, I don't think it's going to work. And they're just undying commitment to Eli Manning. It's so confined to me. It's admirable. Eli Manning is Dave Gedelman's ride or die.

Peyton Manning got cut by the Colts. It's not, he got cut by the Colts. I mean, this is a real thing that happened. He's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. And the moment the Colts understood that they had a succession plan in place, one that was going to work, they said, thank you very much for your services, Peyton Manning. They are no longer needed. And then a few years later, they built a statue and everyone got the fuck over it. It's just, and everyone says, well, you know, Andrew Luck was sitting there at number one for the Colts.

The Giants had the number two pick in the draft last season and five quarterbacks went in the top 10. I mean, Sam Donald isn't Andrew Luck, but he was a pretty damn good quarterback prospect. I just, none of it makes sense to me. Hey, I know what happened in Peyton Manning's last game. I know that he won a Super Bowl by the skin of his teeth. I know he was a corpse. Having said that, if you put Peyton Manning on the 2019 Giants, do they win more games?

Yes. Because I think he kind of knows what to do. You know, like he's so smart. He would just kind of dump off the ball to sake. We made the right to see. He couldn't, what do we think in an NFL game, we think he can throw like a 15-yard pass? sure. You can throw a 15 yard pass, yes.

I mean, he's had four neck surgeries. Right now could throw a 15 yard pass. He said four neck surgeries and he's, you know, he's had problems in the past. Having said that, uh, Eli Manning has does not like throw to the ball, you know, past 20 years. Eli Manning has had plenty of problems in the present. So, right. Uh, yeah. I mean, is there anything else you want to say about that or we just kind of resigned to the fact that they're going to be an absolute mess for a while? I'm actually just thinking about what Peyton Manning would look like playing in 2019.

What year was that? What was his last season? 2017? When of the Brock was in the Super Bowl? 2015 season, 2016 Super Bowl. God, I can't believe it was that long ago. That's crazy. It seems more recent than that, that I was sitting in the Levi Stadium stands with the sun just beating down watching that game.

I was in the main press box. I wouldn't know. Look at you. You're just crushing it. All right. We already talk about this a little bit, but one of my other losers is just anyone looking for value at offensive tackle. Trent Brown setting the market and having been the highest paid tackle. in history. Trump Brown was, he did a good job for the Patriots last year. I also think there

are 10 different factors that led to Trump Brown. Did you see, very good for the Patriots last year? Did you see, uh, the quote that his agent gave to Trump Brown? No. It was, it was something to the effect of 10 minutes in a free agency that his agent called Trump Brown and said, we have an offer. We cannot refuse. Which is not a good sign if you're the team offering it. No. I mean, the Raiders, spent money like Nicholas Cage last week. It was unbelievable. The way they spent money is just the equivalent of buying like a dinosaur skull. Just because you have the money doesn't mean you need to throw it around like this. But that's where bad teams are at. That's where the Raiders are at. That's where the Jets are at. I mean, there's really no rhyme or reason to throwing it around like this,

but teams do it anyway. Nicholas Cage has as big spenders slightly dated, right? That's probably true. He's the first guy I think about. Johnny Depp. Johnny Depp. I mean, is he spent it in as ridiculous of ways, though? Yeah, absolutely.

I guess I haven't been up on actors spending habits in a while. He spent like millions of dollars on Hunter S. Thompson's funeral. Which, I mean, I guess you could justify that. I'm not sure you can. I'm honestly not sure.

It depends on your view plan, June, I guess. Nicholas Cage is like buying haunted houses in New Orleans. He bought a lot. lot of crazy shit. I was looking at a list of it like two weeks ago. I don't remember why. We live very different lives. I can't remember how I got there. It was like a weird internet hole I'd stumbled down and I'd somehow landed on Nicholas Cage's spending habits.

This happens sometimes. You do a lot of, there are a lot of weird places you get to on the internet. I was just telling Craig, I'm reading a book about London in the 1880s, a cholera epidemic. It's an incredible book. It's called ghost map. It's good. One of my favorite Kevin Clark media consumption stories was at the Super Bowl

when we had to get there like six hours early and you were just, who was it? It was a podcast on a president, right? Was it Teddy Roosevelt? I was reading about Benjamin Franklin.

Oh, Benjamin Franklin. It was not a president. So a historical figure. You were just listening to a Benjamin Franklin audio book for like four hours before the Super Bowl just getting totally locked in. Just like it was like five hours for the game.

Just getting locked in on BF. He did a lot of different things. He would have been an incredible football coach. I mean, Benjamin Franklin... You want to talk about adaptable. Yeah? Who's the, like, a lot of historical figures, who would be the best NFL coach? Dwight Eisenhower?

Just, just from a tactical standpoint? You know, Abraham Lincoln taught himself war tactics in like two weeks. I think Abraham Lincoln would be pretty good. Over Christmas break. I mean, a lot of generals, a lot of leaders. I would say George Washington. George Washington was a, he wasn't even, like, you didn't even see battle for like five years

because it was all down south. And so, like, you know, the Carolinas and stuff. And so he was more just about keeping the army together. So he was just like a good vibes guy. Yeah, good like, yeah. He was a player general. The army wasn't even being paid. So he was just like keeping the army together.

And so he was just a players coach. He was the original players coach. That's great. I mean, yeah, generals are probably the right answer. I was thinking maybe this will be a little bit off the map. No, I mean, it's George Washington. You look on the other sideline before a game, and it's George Washington. What do you do?

And he's pumping everybody up. He's pumping everybody up. Like, oh my God, dude. More intimidating, Bill Belichick or George Washington. GW. Without even a question. All right. Without even a question.

What an upset over? the British. Dude, look into it for like five minutes. It was an unbelievable upset. But so was the first Super Bowl where the Patriots beat the Rams. That's what I'm saying. Look into Yorktown.

That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. More losers here. And I think this is pretty clear. Just the running back position in general. I mean, you look at the deals that not only what Levyon Bell had to settle for compared to what he wanted, but some of the other guys just not getting paid that much at all

and on short-term deals. I mean, I think people thought Kevin Coleman was going to get a decent contract before free agency started. Two years, eight and a half million. It's really just a one-year deal. By the way, the Kwan Alexander contract looks terrible if you just consider the years and the total money. But the 49ers do an excellent job of structuring these things.

I mean, they have one of the best cap guys in the league and it's clear. I mean, they use their cap space really creatively. I mean, Jimmy Garapolo had that monster contract he signed last season, but $37 million of it was in year one. his cap hits over the next three or four years compared to what other quarterbacks are making are really palatable. It's like $25, $26 million

because of how they structured it. So I know that some of those deals, they look like huge money for the Niners, but they give themselves a lot of flexibility with a lot of those contracts. Where are the Niners this year? Because I just got off of Versillo's pod and we were talking about the Niners a little bit.

I think the Seahawks should be good. Bill Simmons is insistent that the Rams are going to regress. I kind of believe it. Yeah, that's one of those losses that is kind of can hang over you for a little while. Maybe, but they all, I mean, like the girly thing is, is not going to get much better. I heard a story at the combine where after the game in the, in the locker room, it was kind of like a, look like Spartacus. Yeah.

Like, McVeigh was getting up there and just taking every single bit of blame. And like guy after guy, one after the other was like blaming the game on themselves. it seems like they have a very strong culture. But I also think that games like that can have a lasting effect. I almost wrote that story about just how literally like they have a culture of responsibility that is just almost to a fault.

Like Todd Gurley was blaming himself in December over something, I forget what it was. And essentially, they apologize to each other a lot. It's because everyone feels like they have ownership. Yeah. There's such a culture of collaboration and of openness about how they build everything that I think that a lot of those guys feel like they have a say in what goes on and it makes them accountable.

Are you saying that they don't feel that way in New England? I don't think that's how that goes. I mean, it seems like Belichick does a pretty good job with, I mean, I guess not. Do your job is a pretty strict thing. But it seems like with Brady, they talk about what goes on. weekly meetings. I guess that's a Tom Brady privilege, though. Yeah, it's a Tom. Tom gets in the meetings. Nobody else has any idea what's going on. That's probably true. Just like be here, be here and do this. That's a theory on why, you know, some of his deputies don't do well when they move on is because they're just so, they're in a silo to the point that they don't actually

understand the other stuff. So going back to the 49ers, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think they can be pretty good. I mean, we saw what Calshanahan did with Nick Mullins this year. I mean, I think that with Garoppolo back, he can be solid. I think that his first few handful of games last season, there was not as much kind of progression in that offense as you would have hoped after an entire offseason. But I do think that offensively, they're going to be just fine. They have talent. It will see if they go get a receiver in the draft.

But that line is solid. Kittle's a star, everything else. I also think with Kevin Coleman and Jerich McKinnock back, even if they're kind of overpaying for both of those guys, that they have a lot more pop in their running game. I mean, sure, Matt Bredo was fine. and they got production out of that spot, but they got a lot better just with McKinnon coming back and Coleman coming in.

The question's on defense. I mean, that is 100% where they need to get a lot better. And I don't know how that's necessarily going to happen. Outside of, I mean, D. Ford and Kwan Alexander came in, but they didn't go get a safety. I mean, everyone just assumed they would overpay for Earl Thomas, and it didn't happen.

So you're rolling with those guys again. They brought back Jimmy Ward. Jason Vrett is a good low-risk signing, but I still feel like the back end of that defense. is wanting. So if they don't get production and they don't draft well and there's positions of need

on that side of the ball, then I think that their ceiling is limited. Hmm. They are the biggest question mark for me. Maybe in the NFL because I know what the Brown, I saw the Browns last year after week nine.

We saw what they looked like and we know they should be good. Garapolo goes out in September with that injury. We don't actually know what the Niners with Garoppolo look like with that team around them. saw it at the end of the season in 2016

or 2017, but it was just kind of a strange setup. They were already, you know, pretty much gone at that point. I'm, I'm as intrigued to see them as anybody in the league this year. Yeah, from a we don't know what they are at the same point. The Browns is the most interesting team to me, but you're right. They have the second

overall pick. I know. If they go get Nick Bosa with the second overall pick, or William's and they have a defensive line of D. Ford, DeForest Buckner and Nick Bosa, I don't it might not matter who's playing safety. I mean, that is a really good group.

And it just seems like he might be too good to pass up, even if you've already put a lot of draft capital into those spots. And you just traded a second round pick for D Ford. Yeah, they can be really good. I think they can be. I'm trying to think if there's another team that's kind of as much of a question mark that has as high as ceiling. And I don't know the answer.

I think that, you know, like could Sam Darnel be a lot better in year two, the way he came on? was encouraging, but that team still with all the signings. Yeah, their roster just I think Levy on Bell is going to help a lot. I think he'll help as well, but I still don't think that they have enough

overall roster talent to be really scary. Buffalo, no, just because I know what Josh Allen is, I think, and even if he ends up being a little bit better, I'm just not sure he'll ever be that good of a quarterback. But yeah, those are probably the only ones. A lot of the other teams,

they're kind of just known quantities. Yeah, I'm strangely, I'm strangely intrigued by the Jaguars. Like, I just want to see what they look like. I don't necessarily care what the Broncos look like with Joe Flacco. No, I definitely don't care. I have no, yeah, the Broncos, I'm not interested in whatsoever. I think the Jet, the Foll's conversation is an interesting one just because

we underrate sometimes just how important competence at quarterback is. going from bottom of the barrel quarterbacking, I said this last year with the Browns, going from bottom of the barrel quarterbacking to just average is the most important kind of improvement you can make to your entire roster.

And there's a chance we were just underrating how bad Blake Bortles was compared to a competent starter like Nick Foles. But I also don't know how good Nick Foles really is. So I think that's definitely, that's a complicating factor that I would like to see.

But for the most part, a lot of these teams, we understand what they are. I'm kind of intrigued by the agreement of Packers this year. I think they can be really good. I think they can really, really good. Is this a weird bear's defense mechanism thing? No, I just think that, again, even if they overpaid for a lot of it,

their defensive talent, they added pieces this year. I think that their offense is still pretty good. I mean, their line is, they overpaid for Billy Turner. They probably didn't need to, but they only had one starting guard. If they stay healthy up front, I think that their offense can be solid. They have young receivers and there's a chance of those guys take a step forward. I think the biggest question for them is what that offense is going to look like. How much is it going to be that kind of Shanahan-inspired play action system and what does Rogers look like in that scheme?

Because I've wanted to see it for years and now we get to. So if he can kind of pick that up and it's smooth, then I think they can be really dangerous. All right. What's next? anything? Did you have any other losers that you wanted to get to? Yeah, I've won very quickly.

Levy on Bell, you know, just take the $14.5 million last year. You would have gotten the same deal anyway. Sorry, dude. Yeah, and the Leveon Bell thing didn't necessarily work out, but I think we understood that in the moment.

Well, you never know. You never... I was always of the impression that... I don't know. I thought there was a 10% chance he had some grand plan to just make it huge. Instead, he just pretty much got the same deal he would have regardless.

Yeah, and as a year older, you can argue that he doesn't have the year of mileage, but he's a year older. So, yeah, we'll see what happens. That Jets team is weird, but I think that they might be pretty decent if Donald gets a lot better. Are there any teams before we get out of here

that whose haul you just want to talk about because you thought it was just well done, or you thought that it was a little different than what you had expected, or you thought that they're much, much better than they were a week ago, and you're excited about them? Anybody in particular?

I think it's really dangerous to draw any conclusions after free agency because we haven't seen the drafts yet. And if you have a complete team now, I think that changes in a month. And so you think you have a complete team, I think that changes in a month. So I'm holding off.

Obviously, the Browns are awesome. I'm really excited to see them. My curiosity now with after free agency and after the trades is, what does this Raiders team look like? Yeah, I mean, they signed a lot of players, but outside of Antonio Brown, I don't know how good any of those players really are. Tyro Williams is fine, but he's a number two receiver. Trent Brown is fine, but he's not the best tackle in the NFL, and now he's getting paid like it. So they threw a lot of money around, but I'm not sure how well spent most of that money was. I mean, four years, 42 million with about $20 million, $21 million guaranteed from Lamarcus Joyner. So I brought up the Raiders to bring up Lamarcus Joyner.

what why why la marcus joiner i mean like i i think that's a good example of somebody you can find fairly cheaply in a marcus joiner is a fine player like i mean he's a fine player just fine but his situation is very similar in my mind to what happened with tremaine johnson last year he gets franchised by the rams the rams let him go and a team with a lot of money spends way too much of it on lamarcus joiner i mean it's your team isn't worse because the marcus joiner was there but that is a huge contract for a guy who is a good safety but not a great one. Totally agree. I just feel like that's, that right there is not understanding the modern NFL, which.

There are a couple of teams that we could probably say are winners, but they're not surprising. You know, I think that Philly did a good job as Philly always does. You know, the Malik Jackson contract super palatable. They go get, they keep Ronald Darby on a one year, six and a half million dollar deal. I mean, those are the types of signings that keep them good. And I think that the same is true for New England. I mean, going to get Michael Bennett obviously is a great move. They haven't overspent on many of these guys.

So interesting that they were so hot in the slot receiver market and that they really wanted a guy like Adam Humphreys just because it seems like that's kind of a redundant skill set with Julian Edelman, but I don't know, that they know what they're doing more than I do. There's a, I'm oddly obsessed with Formula One because I just think that it's an incredible company. I know you are.

It's one of my favorite things about you. Incredible competition. That's kind of bleak. It's one of my favorite things. It's just like a very strange interest. I really appreciate it. I'm obsessed with the idea of competition and that is very, very pure competition. If you ever look into it, it's just incredible.

And one of the things that teams do is before the first race is they literally keep their top performance a secret, close to guarded secret. It's called sandbagging. They overfuel or they do. don't use all their gears or whatever and they don't go to their top speed because they think that when you show your top speed and show how good you are essentially teams will game plan and figure out how to how to match you so you so showing how good you are is a huge mistake and they're kind of reminded me of the patriots um where like every team is just sitting around and saying like oh we're making these moves making these moves and the patriots are just sitting around and just

pretending to not do anything except get michael bennett and they don't match for adam humphrease or maybe they did. Who knows? Their report is that they maybe even offered more money, but we don't know the structure of it. And so every single year, we do this thing where everybody makes these moves and we say, oh, the Patriots didn't do anything. They're falling behind. Every year, we get to November. And it turns out the Patriots top speed is a lot faster than everybody else. Yeah, that's probably going to be the same thing this year as it often is. I mean, it's, I'm tired of, I'm so tired of having to react to how the Patriots are playing in like the middle of October.

And just knowing that it's worth us. They're sandbagging. They're like Mercedes. It's worthless. They're like Mercedes. It's every year it's become a tradition and every year we all look like idiots. One team, just that I want to throw out there before we get out of here that I thought

I had some, did some interesting stuff. I just think he's a smart GM period. I think he does a good job. John Robinson has built a really good roster in Tennessee. And I think their biggest problem at this point is I don't know how good their quarterback is. and if he doesn't get much better, then a lot of this is for not.

But if you look at just the amount of talent they have on both sides of the ball, they're really good. I mean, they have plenty of good players on that team. And to lose a guard, but then go get Roger Saffel, to bring it Adam Humphreys,

which is just a skill set they don't have on that roster, I just think they're really good at identifying where they need to get better and finding ways to do it. And if Mario is not good, then none of it matters. But also think that the Ryan Tannahill trade is smart.

I mean, it gives you a really high-level backup quarterback. It gives you another option at the position. You didn't have to pay that much to get him. And the Dolphins paid a huge chunk of this contract. Well, aren't they paying $5 million? Is that what I read? The Titans are paying him $5 million. That's not a lot of money.

No, no, no, no. Of course. Well, I mean, yeah, it's for a veteran guy who's pretty good. That's not that much money. Let me ask you a question. You run the 2019 Titans with Ryan Tannahill, run the 2019 Titans with Marks Marrida, each for 16 games. Tell me the difference in wins that Marriota gives you versus Tana Hill with the exact same

supporting cast. I'm not sure it's an appreciable difference. I agree. One year, two million dollars from the Titans. It's a really smart move. I would do that every time. So how much is Miami paying? I thought they were paying. I think they're paying a lot. The dolphins are, the dolphins are paying $5 million. That's what happened. Yeah. I mean, he's not, getting paid very much at all. The dolphins, the dolphins are giving him a paid his $5 million bonus. That's where the $5 million came from. $1.88 million cap hit for Ryan Tannen and it was really strong. I mean, if that's just a move to, that makes your team better because Marioada is super injury prone. We know this. And to be able to not have the drop off from Marcus Marioita to

Blaine Gabbard and essentially not have a drop off when your backup comes in, that can save your season. And again, with a roster that's pretty good and I feel like can compete, I think it's a really good kind of fail safe move. I agree. I like Ryan Tannahill. I think he's solid. I think Ryan Tannahill, I honestly, I know this is strange to say because the money doesn't match up. I would have, I would love to see Ryan Tannahill be like Jared Goss's backup. Because I just think with the right coach, something cool can happen.

But, you know, the theory was that Belichick liked him quite a bit. Yeah. I mean, it's, again, it gives you another option. And when you have had to play so many games with your backup quarterback, and you also don't know if you want to commit to your backup court or to your starting quarterback long term because Mario is such a question mark. I just think it's a smart move by a smart GM. I mean, their team has been very well built since John Robinson came into the picture. And that continues to be true. Agree. The dolphins are, I'm going to watch every Dolphins game with like baited breath this year. They're interesting to me for the first time in so long.

I just think that going this route is the right move. I think it's the only move they had to make. And they've spent no money in free agency. None. They signed Dwayne. Allen to like a tiny contract and they're paying us their starting quarterback five million dollars that is what you have to do if you want to actually rebuild this thing they're going to have 120 million dollars in cap space next year yeah i don't lie for the longest time they were the team that frustrated me the most in a lot of the moves they would make and this is the opposite of that yeah good coaching staff i i i think i mean i just like some of the moves they've made yeah no no i i'm talking about the assistants and all that stuff i don't i don't i have no idea how good of head

for us would be. But it's just... I also have no idea how good about offensive coordinator Chad O'Shea is going to be. It's the first time he's ever done this. I think he'll be fine. I think he'll be fine.

I like Patrick Graham. I just, I think they took a lot of really talented ex-patriots guys and put them in a position to succeed. All right. There we go. Ending our 2019 for a agency podcast.

By the way, by the way, didn't spend it for agency. We are not going to learn how good of a offensive coordinator of Chad O'Shea is this year. No, we probably are not. And if we do, that's a problem. Just because what do you mean?

I mean, if we realize he's good? If he's great and they fucking win seven games, we got a problem. That's a problem. That's the issue, right? Hey, Chad, Chad, dial it back a little bit, buddy. Put in whoever their backup quarterback is, who I can't even name at this point. Who is their backup quarterback?

It's, one is Luke Falk and the other is, oh, Jake Rota. Oh, Jay, that's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. I was kind of hoping they would just roll with. one of those guys this year. They're probably going to get rid of Robert Quinn, too.

And if you're really, they're starting defensive linemen if they do that. As they're listed right here, I know Charles Harris is a first round pick, but he'll probably start now. But you have Jonathan Woodard, who was a street for Asian in 2017. Devon Gajow, who's a fifth round pick in 17, and Akeem Spence. Those are their starting alignment along with Charles Harris. I'm just happy Acme Spence is there, so I've heard of somebody.

Let's, let's do this, Dolphins. Let's take this all the way. All right, that's all we got, guys. We'll be back next week starting our draft previews. We'll be talking to Danny Kelly every week, just kind of digging into all things draft over the next month here. I love it. It's going to be here before we know it.

How's your big board? I'm still building it. Very early stages of the draft prepped. You're not going to believe this. My big board is the exact same as Danny Kelly's. What they say exact comments? Hey, draft Google, Danny Kelly. I'd be following in too.

same exact comments and literally everything is the same. All right. That's all we got, guys. As always, thank you so much for listening to the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer Podcast Network. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks, guys.