The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NFL Free Agency Roundup With Warren Sharp, Tom E. Curran, and Dianna Russini

Episode Date: March 17, 2021

Russillo shares some thoughts on Jazz-Celtics and Pelicans–Trail Blazers (2:00) before talking with Warren Sharp about the Bears signing Andy Dalton, the Patriots re-signing Cam Newton, the Bills signing Emmanuel Sanders, and more (13:00). Then Ryen is joined by Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston to discuss the Patriots' spending spree (34:00) before talking with ESPN’s Dianna Russini about the Saints' QB battle between Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston, Ryan Fitzpatrick to Washington, unsigned WRs, questions surrounding Deshaun Watson and Russell Wilson, and more (54:00). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:11:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, 12 personnel has been the most efficient grouping to pass out of for years now. I mean, if you look at the expected points added, the yards per attempt, the success rates, 12 personnel does that. Why? Because it forces the defense to put their personnel on to match you. And so you know, well, if they're going to keep their nickel on, they're going to put their personnel on to match you. And so, you know, well, if they're going to keep, they're going to keep their nickel on, they're going to put their dime on, like, how are they going to defend your 12 personnel? And so you can see that ahead of time. Now, what Brady did really good when he got these different, uh, defenses to go up against him in 12 personnel is you can read those things pre-snap. You can motion a guy pre-snap. You can identify where their weak points are pre-snap. So Cam is going to have to

it's good that this is year two with Josh McDaniels. He's going to have to identify some of this stuff pre-snap to be able to decide where he's going to go with the ball sometimes before the ball is even snapped. We have a huge NFL free agency podcast for you today. Three reporters all over the news

and what these signings mean, things we like, things we don't like. A huge announcement at the end before life advice. And we'll do a little hoops at the top. Hey, we're going to get Warren Sharp, Tom Curran, and Diana Rossini all joining the podcast today. So we have you covered on free agency. So I just want to do a huge free agency pod, like I said at the very beginning. A couple of minutes, though, on the NBA.

We're not going to call this NBA 10 minutes or less because it's just going to be way under. Kyle, we had some people check in. They actually love the creative struggle that we have on the titling. People offer up some stuff. I would say a lot of you guys struggle as much as we do with it. But that's kind of the point now.

I think just keep changing it all the time and maybe something will stick. Some things work and some things don't. You've got to be malleable. So I don't know where you're at with it. What's the feedback been on some of the focus groups that the ringer has launched on this well i think it's great because that just means the chances of piss break coming up for one episode is just it just gets greater so it's still in the mix that's right the chances improve every

month or so that we do this a couple couple things from last night and there's there's a couple stronger thoughts and there's some weaker thoughts. Let me start with the weaker ones. Jazz ended up beating the Celtics. Celtics had an early lead, whatever. Whenever anybody does the, well, they had an 11-point lead in the second quarter. It doesn't matter. Everybody makes a run.

Everyone makes a run. So the Jazz are the better basketball team. They're the deeper basketball team. The Celtics are struggling to probably say, who are your six guys that are really good? Smart is back. He's not ready yet, or at least ready to be the best version that we've seen from Smart. And really, it was another one of those games where it's Tatum and Brown doing their own thing and putting up big, big numbers, but there's no connectivity to it. When the Celtics got back into it, it was close going into the fourth quarter. Right away, Celtics are down like 11.

Gobert comes out at the seven-minute mark, comes back in the five-minute mark. In that time, I think the Celtics made up about eight points because then they started attacking. A bunch of the Celtics didn't get the memo on the attacking of Gobert as you've got to get him as far away from the hoop as possible and then figure out what you want to do after that. There were too many times Celtics players were challenging Gobert right at the rim, and it's not just bad, it's embarrassing. Mitchell was tracking that again. He hit two huge shots, but he, I think, had six possessions where he was making the final decision on it in a row during those crunch time moments. So even though it felt like it was a

possession game, I think on one or two of the smart threes that he missed. There's a bigger thing here with Boston. I'm not even sure that this is right, okay? But I've long said that you need somebody that's a little loose on the team, meaning, like, he actually may punch somebody. Now, nobody does it to anybody, and I'm not saying that I want fights, but I think it's always important to have somebody that's a bit of a loose cannon on your team that really is a tough guy or that's going to get mad or maybe even irrationally mad. Now, I don't love constant complaining in the NBA, but I'm telling you, just somebody with a

bit of an edge. It's not Rick Mahorn, but maybe. It's not Matt Barnes will kill you t-shirt that I have, but maybe. Ron Artest of the Lakers was probably good because I think sometimes too, Ron Artest understands, hey, I can only be a guy that can do so many things here where if I go somewhere else, I can do whatever I want. Rodman with the Bulls was the same deal. Not saying every team has it. You know, LeBron is a different factor altogether because when you're with LeBron, you're basically just moving yourself towards what LeBron's center is. And by the way, it's all worked out for the most part. So you can't really criticize it, even if other stars are like, I don't want to be in his shadow the entire time.

But the LeBron approach works. But the Celtics, I don't know if this is fair or not, but I feel like there's a toughness thing there that just isn't there with them. It'd be nice if they played together all the time, but they don't. We know they've had 17 starting lineups at a point this season. That's fourth most. But the more I watch them, I'll see them go through some bad stretches against teams that, you know, they're 20 and 19. They should probably be a better game, a few games better than that considering the roster. But I don't even know if this is true. I just think

that they're soft. I think they're kind of a soft team. And there's an example I'm going to use when they lost to the Nets. Harden drove at Tice. Tice doesn't get a call to save his life and he gets blamed for every foul. He's usually in pretty good position. And by being in good position, it initiates contact by the offensive player and he ends up getting a foul all the time. You wouldn't understand it unless you watch the Celtics all the time, but I'm not a big complainer guy about fouls and all that kind of stuff. But Tice gets called for stuff that's incredibly frustrating. Harden drove at him and stuck his elbow like right in his stuff. All right,

gut, lower area, got him really good and good for Harden. Harden initiates the contact, gets the separation. No one ever fucking calls it. So Tice ends up in a heap on the baseline while the Celtics are trying to inbound the ball after a make. And Tice is hurting. And the ref looks at him with disdain. And Tice is looking back at him like, hey, can we get a second here? I'm hurting. And the ref doesn't even want to stop the game. I couldn't believe it. And the guy's waiting to inbound, looking at the ref. Tice is looking up, being like, can I get a moment here?

Like, I'm down. And then Tice is like wheezing over. And then Tice realized the ref isn't even going to do anything because I guess that was the day the refs were worried the game was going to be too long. And Tice gets up, but he's kind of like dealing as he's belaboring back down the court, trying to get himself right. And I'm not even blaming Harden. I'm, you know, look, Harden do whatever he wants. It works. But it was, it just stuck out to me

that if I were Tice to be like, how could you not be mad the rest of the game? This guy hit you, knocked you down. He scored. You ended up on the ground. You looked at the ref. The ref looked back at you like, get up. And that was it. And then you guys lost to another good team. Celts are 0-4 against the Sixers and Nets combined. They're not better than the Jazz. The Jazz are a much better basketball team than them. So them losing at home and being competitive. But there feels like, and I don't know if Celtics fans agree or not, there feels like a softness to this team that's getting a little old. Topic number two, that Pelicans loss was brutal. For those of you that may have gone to bed, Dame does it again. Dame is putting together a clutch resume this season that is incredible. All sorts of big threes.

And Portland, when it's bad, their defense is so bad that you're just going, all right, what the hell is this? The Zion part of this, I think right now Zion's the guy I like watching the most. I think Zion's the most fun to watch in the NBA right now. I'm not saying he's the best. But you can see that if you want to clamp down on him defensively, there's a different level of what you're going to face in the regular season, what you're going to face in the playoffs. I do think there's some Giannis similarities in that

if you want to figure out how to build this wall against Zion, you can do it where he becomes a little predictable and one-dimensional offensively. At least in the regular season, I don't care because nobody's going to do it enough. No one's going to be locked in enough throughout an entire regular season game right now with this kind of season to make sure they're constantly following their wall rules against somebody like Zion, because Zion just gets right by everybody. But I think part of that was Portland locking in a little bit, but there's also something else that's been going on with the Pelicans for a long time. Pelicans fans get this. There's an obsession with Brandon Ingram kind of being the guy and getting plays run for him.

I don't know if anyone's ever charted out of timeouts what percentage of late out of timeouts plays are run for certain players. Let's say it's five minutes or less in close games. Ingram's off the charts. They run it for Ingram or at least Ingram starts the ball, then it's up for him to make the decision. When Zion, who no one can guard right now, just gets to the basket at will. So Stan Van Gundy has two options. Hey, I can keep Brandon Ingram happy and run a play that doesn't have as good of a chance of scoring as this other guy, Zion, who's been literally unstoppable now because we've let him initiate more of the offense with the ball in his hands.

So the Pelicans have to stop doing it. They have to just go, hey, look, we're going to give to Zion and more of these moments to go ahead and create. And by the way, if they double, he's a really good passer. He sees it. He's learning the doubles. He's learning stuff. You can see it all the time, but it feels like they're obsessed with making sure Ingram

still understands that it's his team and they're worried about the standing part of it. I believe that was their 11th loss this season with a double digit lead. Last thought, Lakers, T-Wolves. This Anthony Edwards stuff is really fun, but damn, does he have the ball a lot. It's pretty funny. I'm going to go ahead and check it real quick as we bounce out of this. Oh, breaking news, Beal was traded.

No, he wasn't. Just kidding. That was actually mean. I think that's the meanest thing I've ever done in the podcast. I apologize. Anthony Edwards, how many shots is he taking? He's at 22 shots a game now for his last seven games. Look, I would tell you, tune in.

Check out some Anthony Edwards. He had 29 last night. Look, the shooting numbers are fine the sister a little low for a guy that has the ball in his hands that much but when it's good it's it's really good it's just uh it's just a lot going on and hey how about this we share the same birthday so no wonder i like that guy that was totally 10 minutes was it 10 minutes on the nose yeah it was like 9 30 that's funny i just love hoops man i just you can hear it my voice i just get so excited there was other stuff i don't even know that i got to

i mean i watched the sixers game um with the knicks does anybody want to hear about that story probably not all right so let's move on let's talk some football we're gonna do a a big NFL free agency roundup. We're going to go all over the country with this one, and we start with Warren Sharp. We'll do some stuff with us here, but of course, the majority of the stuff you can check out at sharpfootballanalysis.com and then follow him at

sharpfootball. Okay, the first thing, I don't know. I feel like I wanted to tweet out, I like the Dalton signing just to mess with Bears fans because they're so upset that Dalton's their quarterback, which I kind of get. There's also a layup joke there where you could say, well, don't worry about it. You don't have that many primetime games. You're not going to be in the playoffs anyway, so you don't have to worry about the Dalton

factor there. But this is all based on them thinking for a couple of days they were getting Russell Wilson. That's all this is. So give me your Dalton side of this and then where we're at with the Russell Wilson pursuit. I love Dalton as a backup quarterback, and I think he can fill in as a starter on an as-needed basis. I think he's probably the best backup quarterback that exists in the NFL. Thinking that you're going to go to the playoffs or build a winner around Andy Dalton at this stage in his

career is a little bit inappropriate, in my opinion. So it all depends. What are the Bears trying to do? It feels like they're just trying to fill a stopgap at the quarterback position. They were hoping they could hit something with Nick Foles after thinking that maybe Mitchell Trubisky would be their guy. And they failed in both of those categories. And it seemed like they were trying to do as much as they could to bring over

Russell Wilson. But those three first rounders, plus a couple of players in the third rounder wasn't good enough. It wasn't giving the quarterback back to the Seahawks like Pete Carroll and those guys wanted. And so they're kind of stuck with having to live with Andy Dalton. And I just don't think they're going to be that much better. I don't think he's a great starting option to excel this season, but I mean, he's not going to be significantly worse than what they've been dealing with. So I don't think the bears can get upset thinking that he's a massive downgrade. He's just not going to get them where they want to go. Do you think Russ gets traded?

going to get them where they want to go. Do you think Russ gets traded? I think it'd be stupid to trade him. I think that there's some strong issues inside that building. They really were getting close to turning the corner at the beginning of the 2020 season. If you go back and look at what happened prior to the 2019 Super Bowl, which Patrick Mahomes won against the San Francisco 49ers. Russ went down to Miami and was talking a lot about having more control over the offense, about getting out to leads quicker in games. And I can tell you without diving deep into the specifics that that team sort of turned a corner from a philosophical perspective. Like, let's give this a try. There's been several years where their prior OC and Russ were trying to do this and they weren't having enough success.

And finally, they said, okay, you guys can try it your way. And so they tried it their way and it didn't work out. And well, it worked out great to start. It worked on offense. It didn't work on defense. It worked perfectly on offense for a long part of that season. And I was very happy. A lot of those guys in the building were very happy. But then, of course, you had zero run support. They went up to Buffalo. I think they were playing with DJ Dallas as they're starting

running back and Russ threw a couple of interceptions. And all of a sudden, Pete was like, we're scaling this thing way back. This is unacceptable. We're going to start running the ball again. So yeah, I think Russ should not be traded because if you look at what Pete Carroll's done with and without Russ, I mean, he's been nine seasons with Russ, six without.

Eight double-digit win seasons with Russ, one without. Zero third place or worse finishes with Russ, four without. Not to mention the playoff wins, the comfort behind victories, all these things Russ can do. They would be so stupid to get rid of Russ, but you never know. This season, this offseason has been crazy so far. Okay. What are the Pats doing? Because as somebody that lived in the area, used root for the team um and knows the belichick approach this is the antithesis of belichick it's it's well there's a bunch of different reasons we can talk about motivating but let's just kind of look at some of the numbers

because when you look at the tight end average salaries and you're like all right kelsey kittle they make a lot and you're like all right the pats guys now make the next two how much did agalor get born got how mean, Bourne's deal isn't that big of a deal. But they are on an absolute spending spree, and they're spending at positions that Belichick has continued to struggle at drafting. He has. He's been terrible drafting the tight end position. It doesn't shock me that they went after tight ends. But what shocks me more than the amount that they spent is when they did the spending. Usually it's okay to spend a little bit on day one, but that's when you're overpaying.

That's when you're outbidding other teams to get the blue chip guys that are available in free agency. Now, I don't think Nelson Aguilar, we'll talk about the wide receivers in a second, was a blue chip guy, right? But clearly Johnny Smith was the blue chip tight end prospect. And I think that they overspent to get him. Now they went into this free agency period, in my opinion, with a very straightforward mindset. Like this is our plan. These are the guys that we want to get. It's okay. We'll get them. We'll figure it out later. Like they went

out and overspent for some of these guys, but they clearly targeted these specific players. Like there's no way that Nelson Aguilar should have been one of the first wide receivers off the board, but they wanted to go after him with the tight ends. What they're looking to do is throw back to, you know, what they were doing, obviously with Gronk and Hernandez. And the saying that I always have is do something different and do it. Well, they played with the least amount of two tight end sets of any team in the NFL last year. And they're going back to probably using a ton of two tight end personnel.

That is going to cause defenses that don't face two tight ends to make big adjustments when they have to play the Patriots. The Patriots did it for a while when they had a fullback and they used 21 personnel with two running backs, a blocking fullback and a tailback. And they played a fullback and they used 21 personnel with two running backs, a blocking fullback and a tailback, and they played a ton of 21 personnel and teams had to adjust for that. So I think they're going to be very multiple with these tight ends.

These guys are not your Gronk level blockers. They're going to do just enough in the blocking perspective. They're primarily receiving options, but there's a lot that their offense coordinator, Josh McDaniels has to work with there. I just feel like I like the fit of John who Smith there, but I think that they overpaid for him. The Nelson Aguilar thing was just in my mind, one of the worst free agent signings that we've seen so far this year. It's totally the opposite of what a bill Belichick team does in free agency. You are buying high on a guy who's just off of his best season as a pro,

potentially a fluke season. You're giving him $16 million guaranteed. That's the second highest guarantee for any wide receiver in this free agency class. And then you turn the page and you see that Emmanuel Sanders signed for only one year at 6 million and John Brown signed for only one year at 3.75 million. And you're like, we gave Nelson Aguilar $6 million, and John Brown signed for only one year at $3.75 million. And you're like, we gave Nelson Aguilar $22 million with 16 guaranteed for two years. It just seemed like a desperation overpay at that position. Yeah. When you break it down and Stefan Diggs was wanting to move on and he gets $14 million as an average annual salary. It's like in the mid-14s and Stefan Diggs Diggs is going to average $11 million,

and you could say, okay, it's shorter. But what are we talking about? As soon as I say Diggs and Aguilar, the conversation should be over anyway. And I'm with you. I've always liked Sanders. You seem to have an appreciation for a handful of offensive minds. I would guess that you have a lot of praise in who Shanahan is and what he's been able to do in San Francisco.

What was it about Shanahan talking about Sanders that makes you like the Sanders signing so much? I mean, it's everything that Sanders brings to the table. He does everything at a very high level, like his floor in any one area that a guy like Shanahan or now a guy like Brian Dayball is going to be very high. Like anything he's going to ask him to do, there's a certain level that he can do it. Now he's not going to be your fastest guy, he's going to ask him to do, there's a certain level that he can do it. Now, he's not going to be your fastest guy, your best guy down the middle. He's not the best in any one area,

but he does everything really well. He's a consummate professional. He's good at blocking down the field, which is something Buffalo needed to improve upon a little bit, which is something that John Brown really wasn't able to do. And I just think that this is a very underappreciated player. Guy like Kyle Shanahan, he knows offense better than like 99.9% of the people on the planet. And he was desperately wanting to land Emmanuel Sanders for several

years. He gets them. They go on a nice run to the Super Bowl. They're up in the fourth quarter, almost win the Super Bowl. A large part of what they were able to do was because of what Emmanuel Sanders brought to the table. Now, unfortunately, with cap issues, they weren't able to sign him the next season. He goes to the Saints. But if you look through the quarterbacks that have been throwing him the passes, Emmanuel Sanders, the last five years has caught 168 passes from Trevor Simeon and 100 passes from Case Keenum. No other quarterback has thrown him the ball more than 79 times. So you're looking at a guy who really has been dealing with a lot of subpar quarterbacks on some subpar offenses. The year that he gets Drew Brees, Drew Brees is about

to retire. His arm's about to fall off. So now he gets Josh Allen in his prime thus far. Like last year was a huge jump up for Josh Allen. Who knows where his career goes from here, but he has never seen a season like last year. If it's anything like that this season, he's got a young quarterback in his prime with a very smart, intelligent coordinator calling plays in Brian Dayball

with some pieces around him that's going to allow him to settle down into a singular role. I just think that this is a great signing at a great price. And these are the types of moves that I like in free agency, Ryan. Usually I talk about don't spend a ton. You can't spend nothing though. You got to participate. There are some bargains to be found. This is the type of guy, one year, $6 million. I think Brandon Beaton hit a home run with this short-term signing. These are the types of deals that can elevate teams to make Super Bowl runs. You mentioned the personnel part of this,

and I know that there'll be a little pushback from Pats fans being like, well, wait a minute, Belichick drafted Gronk, he drafted Aaron Hernandez, he turned into a serial killer, which is definitely not what you want at the position. But what I do think is you know he's he's just falling off he's falling off now with the tight end he took two tight ends in the third round last year so you know there's people that are so anti belichick and i've been anti his draft record because you wouldn't even make it to year three as a gm or year four if that's what you would have over a

three or four year stretch the six super bowls helps obviously but it was. But it was like, oh, well, you know, look, this is admitting he did something wrong. Well, yeah, he is admitting. Like, he didn't get it right on those guys, so at least he's doing something here. But the 12 personnel thing, knowing how much Belichick's adapted his offense and the fact they brought Cam back,

which surprised me that they got Cam to that number that early in the process, unless there was some understanding that that was always going to happen. Again, I don't know that part of it. It was like, well, why couldn't you have waited on Cam because of the season he just had? You waited on him last year and there wasn't a ton of competition for signing him. But it seems like you are big on the 12 personnel, the two tight ends with the one running back as just a mindset here, as a philosophy, much like you were early

on the passing on first down, the success rate and all these things. So tell me a little bit more about the trends, maybe specific to that alignment or other things that you're looking at and you think teams are picking up on. Well, 12 personnel has been the most efficient grouping to pass out of for years now.

I mean, if you look at the expected points added, the yards per attempt, the success rates, 12 personnel does that. Why? Because it forces the defense to get in to put their personnel on to match you. And so, you know, well, if they're going to keep their nickel on, they're going to put their dime on. Like, how are they going to defend your 12 personnel? And so you can see that ahead of time. Now, what Brady did really good when he got these different defenses to go up against him in 12 personnel is you can read those things pre-snap. You can motion a guy pre-snap. You can identify where their weak points are pre-snap.

So Cam is going to have to, it's good that this is year two with Josh McDaniels. He's going to have to identify some of this stuff pre-snap to be able to decide where he's going to go with the ball sometimes before the ball is even snapped. But the other thing that it allows you to do, you know, a lot of defenses have now figured out, well, we're going to play a little bit more too high. We're going to sit back. We're going to dare you to run the football. We're going to play some more too high. Well, now the Patriots can come up with this bully ball tactics where they're going to

be strong up front in the middle. Now, of course, they just lost David Andrews, their center. So they're going to have to replace him. But they're going to be able to run the football. Cam's going to be able to do some running. I personally think they need to run Cam more often early in the games. I've noticed historically there's a tendency for Cam to get more, quote unquote, into a game, more jacked up in a game and mindset amped up

when he gets a few runs and he gets smacked a little bit at the beginning of a game and he just feels good about himself. That kind of gets his mindset set for the game. So I hope that they run him a little bit early on in some of these games, but it's going to make that offense so much more difficult to prepare for, for a particular defense and defensive coordinators and GMs are building out defenses to play certain styles of offense. And they're building in their mind. This is what we want our defense to look because it'll deal with most offenses that we face. And now you get a team like the Patriots that goes heavy 12 that can run the football that

has a running quarterback. And it's just a totally different type of offense that these defensive coordinators are going to have to prepare for in a particular week. Did you dislike anything as much as you like what the Raiders or disliked as much what the Raiders did with their offensive line? I was so just, my mind was blown with what the Raiders did with their offensive line. For those that can't see this the way I can, Warren is in disbelief, shaking his head here, trying to process this answer. It doesn't make any sense to me. I know their offensive line underperformed a little bit last year. Their offensive line also was dealing with a game, if you remember, where most of their guys

had COVID. One of the guys had COVID. Their whole line had to sit out. They were dealing with backups. This was not a cohesive season last year. I don't necessarily know that that building is the most stable environment to be dealing with a season like with with COVID. So I think that there was a lot of different setbacks that that team probably dealt with that some other teams maybe didn't have to deal with quite as much. And yes, their offensive line underperformed a bit last year.

But this team, I don't know what they are doing. John Gruden is a very good schematic coach. He's great at drawing up plays. He's great at calling plays in great situations. He knows what he's doing from that perspective, really solid. The longer he is with a particular team and getting his fingers and tentacles deeper and deeper into personnel decisions and the salary cap and all these things, the more it tends

to fall apart in every place that he's been historically. And he's got more power here than he ever has had in the past and dismantling one of the most cohesive, productive, longest tenured offensive line groups. I mean, these guys have been there for a while, and this is what Derek Carr needs. He needs an offensive line to give him protection and security and safety to feel good pre-snap. We've seen Derek Carr just pitch the ball out way early than most quarterbacks do when pressure comes to him. So I just felt like losing Rodney Hudson, who is a tremendously good center for really no reason. I mean, really no reason whatsoever made no sense to me. I don't know what

those guys are doing over there, but that was one of the strengths of this team. Their defense is not good. They don't know what they're doing at the wide receiver position. I just think that Darren Waller is like their best player right now, and it's not even close, and he's a tight end. So that should tell you a little bit about this team and where they are. I felt like they could build on what they did last year. They went eight and eight, second place in the AFC West. But I think this team is destined to fall back big time with a much worse offensive line in 2021. Okay. Last thought, you go any direction you want, Warren, the thing that you're kind of the most passionate about that you've seen to this point or something that hasn't

happened yet. Okay. So a couple of things that I'm not going to dive into. I loved Corey Linsley going to the Chargers. I think having a guy like that to help work with a young quarterback, Linsley's going to be there for several years. It's going to be great for Justin Herbert. I really think this is team in the AFC West. We just talked about the Raiders going to make some nice strides this upcoming season. That was a great move. Emmanuel Sanders to Buffalo, great move. But let's talk for a minute about the Washington football team. I thought what they did to go after William Jackson was great. It was also similarly mind-boggling about what the Bengals did in letting William Jackson go because it just didn't make any sense to me. They literally gave

the same exact contract last season to a cornerback that they brought in that Washington gave this season to William Jackson. William Jackson is a first round pick for the Bengals who has played really well in his career. Why would you let a guy like that leave town? It does not make any sense to me. So I don't know what the Bengals are doing, but kudos for Washington for going after him aggressively and landing him. I think he is great. If you look at what Washington's defense did last season in terms of their strengths defensively, because they were obviously one of the best defenses in the NFL.

Their defense was one of the, one of the tops, I think number two overall, they, sorry, number two against the past number three overall, but they struggled defending number one wide receivers. They rank sixth worst in the NFL. So number 27 versus number one wide receivers. Boom. Here comes William Jackson. He can cover ones.

Now, I don't think they're going to have him shadow, but he's capable of doing that. Even if he's not shadowing, he's going to provide a ton of versatility for their defense, for their scheme. I think he makes that whole unit immensely better just by his addition out on the football field. It was something that they desperately needed and they got. And then if you look what they did at the quarterback position, no, Ryan Fitzpatrick is not the guy who's going to lead this team to a Super Bowl in two years from now, three years from now. Right. But he deserved based on his performance last year to have a starting job in the NFL, considering some of the players that are starting at the quarterback position around the league. I'm glad that Washington gave

him that chance. Granted, he's going to have to compete. I think he clearly should be able to win that job. He's not going to be the most consistent guy. He's not going to deliver a ton of successful performances. But one of the things that we haven't seen Ryan Fitzpatrick have a lot in his career is a true number one defense. And he's got that with Washington. So how can Scott Turner work with him? I really like that pairing. Scott Turner is going to dial up some nice things for Fitzpatrick. I really love his addition there as well. So I think Washington made is spending not nearly the average money in free agency. So they're just below average, which is what we want. We don't want teams going out and spending the biggest dollar amount to land the highest money in free agency. We want them spending a

little bit to land key players that are going to be solid contributors. And I think Washington did that very well. Warren Sharpe. Sharpefootballanalysis.com and again, at Sharpe Football. Thanks for all the work, man. Thank you. Thanks, Ryan.

He's Tom E. Curran, NBC Sports Boston Pats Insider. Few know the Pats as well as he does, but I don't know if I know these Pats. They're spending more than ever before. What is going on in Foxborough, Tom? You know these Pats, though. When you really think about it, Ryan,

the Pats are amorphous. Offensively, defensively, they'll switch from being a bully ball team to being a spread offense. They'll go with 4-3, 3-4, walk around fronts. So they're all about value for a long time. If the situation changes, you have to be malleable and change with it. And I think that's what Bill Belichick has done. Instead of having the centerpiece, and I know Brady never got paid an insane amount, but instead of having the centerpiece as your quarterback who's making the lion's share, now it's those people around him who he's so resistant to paying and has been so resistant to supplying the team with where he's like, well, we're not going to get better at quarterback. Let's get the other dudes. Okay. All of that is correct, but it's still surprising on the spending part of it. Because I can remember, I think Rosie Colvin was the first big ticket item. And you'll correct me if I'm

wrong. Adelius Thomas was the other one where it was like, oh, wow. And that actually didn't even work out. Stephon Gilmore was a big ticket item for them. Revis was a shorter contract. But I mean, the point of this exercise is it's like 20 years. And I feel like it's a handful of guys that actually said, you know what, let's actually go and do that. So when you raise the second tier of tight ends to that average annual salary, when you play that much for Aguilar, I know the Bourne contract details came back around. I actually like that sign. I like him.

I really like him. If you watch them, we're kind of locked in what they were doing. So it's a collection of signings that still, like, I get that they'll zag when everybody else is going another direction on the field it's still kind of surprising though i gotta zag back for your zig here all right let's go zag back to the zig is they did such a great job drafting that the money that they were spending was on logan mankins richard seymour vince will fork ty law at the end so they actually had a good core of players that they had held on to.

They don't have that core right now because Tooney and Flowers, third and fourth round pick, are now someplace else. They don't have to pay them. Brady's gone. They haven't done anything at tight end where they have to pay somebody. They haven't done anything at wide receiver. Cronk being another guy. So they don't have homegrown talent to whom they're paying those big dollars.

They were still paying the big dollars, but now that they have rammed themselves into the bridge abutment repeatedly in free agency in the draft the past few years, now they're going to buy those guys on the open market. Those other signings, the Hightower or Chung or McCourty kind of flowed under the radar, flew, because they were in-house resigns, but they were still expensive. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of the point, but it's always been, you know, look, I almost feel like you were, it's probably changed now, but I just remember-

All this happened because he was a disaster in personnel for the last five years. Disaster. Disaster. Disaster. How did that happen? How was he this bad for this long? I don't know. I mean, it's just mismanagement, I think. Look, we've heard from so many personnel folks outwardly and inwardly.

He doesn't listen to us. He makes the decisions that he's going to make whether it was Jamie Collins or Kyle Duggar last year whether it's wide receivers there is no confab where everybody's sitting down at the table and having a great exchange of ideas and then Bill says what he's going to do I mean he listens but he's still going to act the way Bill wants to act and that is a fixation on defense. And then when you have Hightower and Chung opt out, and Bo Allen never plays, and you really don't have anybody developing at defensive end,

you're going to get run through over and around. And then on offense, when you don't expect Tom Brady to leave, and you, for whatever reason, ignore the tight end position. I mean, outright ignore it. How can you not have George Kittle playing for this team? When he went to Iowa, he was a fifth round pick. You're best friends with Kirk Ferentz. We get idiots at my place, like Phil Perry.

I say that with great respect, saying, ideal patriot, George Kittle. I'm writing a few years ago, ideal patriot, Tyler Lockett. I mean, I'm not saying I'm smarter than him. I'm just saying, what was the aversion to those positions? And this is why you get where you got this week. Right. And he whiffed on the, on the recent tight ends that he's been drafting.

Cause we know he loves tight ends. I mean, he loves tight ends. He brought Daniel Graham in and couldn't wait to bring in Ben Watson. I mean, this is somebody who you've known. But check this out. Ben Watson. I mean, this is somebody who you've known. But check this out.

He drafted A.J. Derby, Lee Smith, and Ryan Izzo between 2011 and 2017. Nothing in 18, nothing in 19, and then the two guys last year. So that's five for the frigging decade. Yeah, Gronk and, you know, however many years he had at Aaron Hernandez probably thought, like, okay, I don't need to draft anymore here. But, I mean, the Graham Watson part of it was like, wait a minute. And then you started to learn, like, no, this is what Bill likes. You know, I'm going to ask you this because you've been more critical. This is what always surprises me.

And again, it's a New England thing where, you know, the guy walking around with the Bill is God hoodie, I don't really blame him. You know, I mean, it's tough. It'd be like me sitting there saying, hey, I'm great with money and then all i do is spend spend it on scratch tickets and i'm you know i'm i'm investing in in website domains and then you see me with a beach house at 55 you're like how the fuck did that work out you're like yeah you know and and that's what it feels like with belichick's draft record and the fact that it's like yeah but i'm still winning all the time you've been more critical of it. You've ramped it up.

I think you even suggested at some point he should let somebody else handle the skill stuff. You, I think, arguably were as close to Bill as anyone in the media. What's that relationship like now? I would say it's cooled a little bit. I think it's cool. That's being nice. You know, really what precipitated it was kind of 2017.

And by the end of that season, you know, I was getting so many indications from folks in the building, in the organization, that, look, this is not the same as it was. Guys are going to start leaving, and they did. Patricia, McDaniels almost. Casario tried to leave. Monty Austin tried to leave. Belichick blocked them both. A number of players went elsewhere. There was the benching of Butler in the Super Bowl.

And it just started to go sideways. And then the 2018 offseason was so you know Brady wanted out literally wanted to leave approach Kraft about him doing so um then Belichick tries to trade Gronkowski to Detroit and Gronkowski says no I'm like what what's going on here we're so far from what it is and people would say well Brady was a prima donna or Gronk was a lot to handle. Well, that doesn't explain all the people in the organization who were disenfranchised and disappointed, not that happy about going to work. So I think that's where I started to turn the dial the other way. And of course, predictably, Bill was apprised of which way the dial was going. So he becomes a little bit fatigued by people who are going to question him. I mean, you look at that. Where does the

information on the Patriots go now? It goes to Adam Scheffer, it goes to Field Yates, it goes to Ian Rappaport. Sometimes it goes to the Globes' Jim McBride. Never has heard a discouraging word from any of those folks. Nor analysis, really. I mean, I'm in a position where I've got to say

who's good, who's bad, what's good, what's not. Am I right or wrong? No, but I do have to offer an opinion. So if the opinion isn't a lockstep, at some point he's going to say, I'm not helping him or I'm not going to bend over backwards for him. And in the end, Ryan, it's not like I was getting massive nuggets of world changing information. No, but I remember it. I don't know if this is i think it's important for the audience to understand this um and i don't know maybe you know if you don't want me sharing this but when we first got to know each other i was like man you really you really seem to have like great insight on the bill thing i'm like i imagine again we would kind of make jokes i think people made jokes a little bit

beginning in your career like oh look at bill and how he looks at tom like you liked each other and then i was like how close are you with him? And I remember we were in an office up at Comcast. You put up your hand and you went four. And I was like, what is that? And you're like, I get to talk to him four times a year. And there's four times he'll get on the phone. And I have different relationships with different people. And sometimes it's as simple as I'm not trying to break a story. It's I just set me straight here. Point me in the right know, I'm going to be out here all the time. I'd be talking about your team. Give me an idea of why this or this happened.

And those relationships can be, but I just knowing Bill and knowing of Bill, and I don't pretend to know him, know him, but I've, look, I've been around it long enough that there's no way he, when I saw him write the article about Bill should let somebody else take receivers, I'm like, oh, they must be pretty much done now.

write the article about bill should let somebody else take receivers i'm like oh they must be pretty much done now the sad thing is is i can make i can make a case oh well i mean what what would his argument be against it i mean he's really bad at that part of it and um yeah yeah i think you're i think you're revealing a lot of stuff here that maybe people don't realize nationally and that if people in the building who don't even play are miserable, what, you know, then it starts turning back into man was Brady really the guy that kept this thing going in the right direction,

which I feel like is incredibly dismissive to bill. And I don't even like saying. It is dismissive to bill in that. Look, I felt when we had that bill Brady conversation, I said the first, I look at this as two different dynasties anyway. 1.0 was 2000 to 2009. 2.0 was 2010 to 2019. Bill had the first half and then he taught Brady all he knew and Brady had the second half and

propped them up in a lot of ways when they had mistakes in the latter half of the decade, when things weren't going well, when they had injuries. So, but, you know, suggesting one, Brady wouldn't be who he is or what he is. And he'd be the first to acknowledge that without having the foundation completely poured and molded by Bill. But, you know, I do think that the institutional knowledge of the staff, whether it's Brady or McDaniels or guys, Dante Skarniecki, always allowed Bill to have a very, very high floor. And the floor, I think, was probably 10 or 11 wins. And Bill himself, we can be an ass team. Last year, they shouldn't have won three games with that roster. games with that roster.

They win seven and we're in the hunt for a couple others because Bill, so he turned Gunnar Olszewski from a guy who might not play for the Middleborough Shamrocks. They're deep. To being an all pro punt return. I mean, look, the Kansas city game is a feather in Bill's cap big time because, you know,

you rolled in, you had a plan and, you know, it was funny too, because watching the Superbowl, it made me think of Skarnakia. because you rolled in, you had a plan. And it's funny, too, because watching the Super Bowl, it made me think of Skarnackia. It made me think of Bill.

When Bill really had it rolling in the beginning when you realized this was special and that being a Pats fan was incredible because you just knew at halftime they were going to come out smarter than the other team. I can't explain it. You'd have to see it to live it every single week. Whatever thing was working in the first half wasn't going to work in the second half

because Bill and those guys are going to figure out a way to do it differently but I could just I don't see any version of a Bill and especially Skarniecki a combo where they have the problems of tackling the Super Bowl where they come back out and play the same way in the second half the Patriots would have never ever done anything like that and for all the love for the Chiefs which I have in my homes I can't believe they still try to play the same game in the second half all right I'm going to get derailed on this. There's still important stuff. Why would you pay Cam Newton? And it's not an astronomical number.

It's a short-term number. But if the market was so depressed for him last year, he just plays what I think, and I've said, for anybody that's supposed to be a guy, one of the worst seasons I've seen at the position, we can talk injuries, we can talk COVID, we can talk shortened offseason. He's never recognized pressure. He doesn't really do much at the line of scrimmage um and i would say almost none um and he was completely inaccurate it got worse and worse why then was there a rush to get a deal done for him

i think one of the biggest parts of it ryan was being able to say to nelson agal or hunter henry or jonah smith it's not an empty chair. It's not Jarrett Stidham completely unproven. We have Cam Newton. And believe us, what Cam Newton did last year was with all those caveats you attached to it. And candidly, the reason we're even talking to you is we understand that Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene and Jacoby Myers and Damir Bird are just not good enough to compete for most teams as starting wide receivers. You come in here, Cam will be better. And I think the other thing about Cam that we need to really weigh in

is he ate that poop sandwich all year long for a million bucks. He didn't complain. He was great. Legitimately great leader. Changed my impression. Everybody loves him. Everybody loved him in this past year. So Bill's going to say, you know what?

I paid him a million last year. If I pay him $7 million this year, it's a starting quarterback for $8 million over two years. Who cares? I don't think they're done there, but I do think that they can envision themselves, Ryan, as actually starting the season with him under center. Okay, then what else do you think happens at the position?

I think it's just keep, it's like in the morning when you pull the curtain back and see what kind of a day it is. I think that's what they'll all be doing. Is anybody out there? No, not yet. Did they try? Were they aggressive on any of the other people? No, I don't think you would call any of it aggressive, you know, the Wentz stuff or anything like that. They were just turned their nose up to the entire free agent class, whether it was Fitzpatrick or anybody else. But, you know, say Watson goes to Carolina.

You're out of your mind if you don't think Teddy Bridgewater is in the top half of the league as a quarterback. You probably like Teddy Bridgewater like me. I don't know. I'm not saying he's good. Top half is, I would say he's firmly in that half swing range. He's in 10 to 16. I think he's probably 16 to 20.

You're going to put him 21, aren't you? No, I'm not saying that because he has some incredible numbers for him and like wins, expected win, where all these times you would have thought he was going to lose and then they'd win. And again, it was the schedule. We've done this on the pod where they lost like eight in a

row and they were good football teams. So if you end up with Bridgewater and you say, oh, he fell off, they actually had a brutal part of the schedule. Panthers fans realize this. I'm not saying no to Teddy Bridgewater at all. I just think that him inching towards 10 is a bit of a reach for me. Okay, that's fair.

But I just think a few years ago when his leg almost fell off and he was with the Jets, I was like, why don't you just deal for him? Deal for him as your Brady backup after the Garoppolo deal had been made. He's just sitting there. I mean, that to me is too, when we talk about it, Ryan, the maddening aspect of Bill where I understand what I'm covering. I understand the success that you and I can see. I like that you can talk frankly about things. I wouldn't have had the opportunity to send my kids to the colleges that they went to,

nor live in the house that I do, nor still be doing a TV show, had I not been covering the Patriots. If I was covering the Cardinals, the Browns, or somebody else, nobody would have said, hey, you got to read this guy's stuff. He's pretty plugged in. Because no one would have seen it. So I understand all that. And I appreciate what I've had the opportunity to cover.

Incredibly fortunate. to cover. Incredibly fortunate. However, when you go from 2017 Halloween, where you just move off Jimmy Garoppolo, getting much less than you could have gotten for him months previous, because you had no plan, and you had your hands tied a little bit, and then all you do is draft Danny Utling, and draft Jarrett Stidham, and sign Cam Newton two times, and think Brian Hoyer's going to be a suitable stand-in, you have to say, Bill, hey, you got to do something more. What was the plan? So those are the things that agitate. I don't know how I got to that. All right. Last one then, speaking of agitation. Is this about Brady winning?

I mean, how mad do you think Bill was, though? I don't think he's mad about Brady. I think he's probably looking at it this way. I mean, what do you want? Into a team with every single player there. Let him do whatever he wants to. I mean, he's not going to do it like that. But I think it's more about, look, I'm almost 69 years old, and I have these dipshits on conference calls asking me

whether or not I know how to draft anymore, and more on Tom Curran's out there saying I should be stripped of offensive privileges. I mean, imagine what his face is if somebody taps him on the shoulder and says, is he what Tom Curran said? Yeah, man. I mean, look, his answer

when he was asked about it was like, you've done pretty good on some picks though. And you're like, okay, so this bothers you. Like this bothers you, Bill. But, you know, Bill ultimately,

like I tried to, it was a bad analogy earlier about anything, but it's hard to look him in the eye and be like, you know, you've been pretty bad at this. You know, when you're talking about the big things that we care about, the things we actually

keep track of, you know, the hall of fame speech, isn't going to be, oh, he whiffed on receivers for eight years. Yeah. You know, it's not going to be that. So it's hard to, to tell him he's wrong about any of these things, but he's just, you know, I don't know. It's, it's a very complicated conversation. It is because almost in asking the questions of him,

you end up with those 78 word questions, you know, John Dennis length questions that are, that are just weaving through. I understand you won six Superbowls and that you drafted Gronk and Hernandez and Smith and, and Smith and all these guys. But I just did want to ask you, why can't you do it anymore? You have to have all the caveats in front of it before you say it. And it's just – but, again, I mean, I'm literally enthused.

I mean, we do this for work. We want to be objective. We want to be judicious and solid in our judgments. But you like to watch the games too. And this is the local entrant and I'm excited about what they've done. You're the best buddy. Thank you very much, Tom.

All right, bud. Thanks for having me. Diana Rossini joins us now as we run through the rest of free agency from ESPN and you can follow her at Diana ESPN. Okay. Let's start with, um, the saints. You've always like there's teams that I know you're the go-to on. And I think you've always had really good stuff on the saints. So I look post breeze. I think everybody knew that wasn't a huge secret. He was going to retire and he was going to have this TV deal. I think some people

maybe wanted about a year earlier. Um, But what are they doing now at the position, knowing they're bringing back Winston, but they still had Hill under this contract, Diana? Yeah, so the way it was explained to me is it's got to be a true quarterback competition. So let's say that's the company line for now, right? Because they have to do that. They have to allow these two who are signed to a contract

to compete for the starting job. So let's take one side of it. Taysom Hill. We know Sean Payton's admiration for the guy. We know how much he, he likes him. We know how much he paid him. He truly believes in him, but Jameis really emerged this last season, almost surprisingly, not just a great locker room guy, but, but just what he's been able to do on the field at practice. Now, I didn't get to go to practices this past season because of COVID, unfortunately.

But everything that I heard from players and the coaching staff about Jameis was just like Peyton's enamored. So now he's got these two crushes on these quarterbacks. So now he's got these two crushes on these quarterbacks. And if you were to ask me just like, hey, if camp started now, who do I think based on just the information I know, not because anyone told me, but I think if camp were to start now, Jameis Winston would be the starter. Just based on what I've been told about his development and that idea of the challenge for Peyton, on what I've been told about his development.

And that idea of the challenge for Peyton, I think it's something that motivates him. It's what makes him so great. He likes taking things. I always joke that he'd be, he's like, he should work at Ikea and just, he likes to fix things and build things and work off them. Because to him, he looks at Jameis as Tampa messed up with him.

They did not coach him up. They did not give him the right tools to be great, which is why he was so indecisive. And that offense didn't work for him. He believes the Saints offense can make Jameis back to the kind of quarterback he was expected to be. Yeah, because I can't figure out the taste and part of it. Even some of the games where people will be like, hey, look at the numbers. And I go, eh, I don't know.

I watched that game. It wasn't what I wanted to be. Sometimes it was the opposition thing. So I'd love to see just a slightly less dangerous version of Jameis. And I mean that as a guy that if you could just reign it in a little bit. I don't know that it's ever going to happen. I don't know that the TD interception split's ever going to be what you want it to be, which would be an anomaly based on his career. But it's just, I guess I just have a hard time believing that

Hill would be a starter for an NFL team for 16 weeks. I've struggled with that as well, because I've always followed up my questioning with kind of, why do you love this guy so much? Like, what is it um and coach says all what does he say to you like does he ever say is there any i don't know i'm not trying to have you tell his secrets here but is there something he said to you that's convincing about it because i know he went on with kevin clark and i got the point but i just still wasn't buying i don't know yeah and he was on dan patrick yesterday too talking about it um i'd say the word that stands out to me when he speaks about him is his intellect which makes sense because if anyone has watched a Sean Payton interview or had an

as ever had an opportunity to just even have a conversation with him um he retains better and more than any human being I've ever been around. Like he can tell you what you were wearing the first time he met you. Like he just has one of those brains that can recall. So I think he's drawn to those types that can pick up real quickly. And he'll be the first to admit that's a really complicated offense that they run. I mean, you've seen their play sheet before on TV. It's insane.

It is insane what they do. We were going to get to Washington, another team that you covered, because you had some really good stuff on this. They end up with Fitzpatrick, but was there a play there for Darnold? So there was an early flirtation, I would call it. The two sides spoke. I don't know the reason why it didn't work. What I can tell you is, and this is absurd to me that we're in mid March.

And I feel very comfortable saying that the New York jets haven't made a decision with what they want to do. Okay. So we're, this is still a possibility for jets fans listening now. Yes, it is. No, no, not with Washington, washington but that they have not made a decision on what they want to do with sam donald that was the that was the that was the sentence in my head that it that

didn't come out of my mouth they're still deciding what they want to do with donald do they want to trade him and then go to the draft or do they want to ride this with him and give him one more shot? And it's unbelievable, unbelievable how split this is within the organization and what I hear from different decision makers and people that I would think would have a say. And then let's just throw it in there because it's interesting to me, everyone else around the league and what they think. And I tweeted about this. I'm always blown away. And maybe it's because I live in New Jersey and my brothers and stuff are all Jets fans. So I hear it a certain way. They all think Donald's trash in my family. I don't. My family does. But when I hear it from other coaches and people that I really trust and think are good football brains, evaluators, they all say Sam Darnold has something you want in a start.

I had one coach go, I'll never forget. I went to his pro day. It was out in California, obviously. And I guess someone else, I think Josh Rosen was working out that day too. They had like a split thing, some workout. And he's like, I wasn't there to see Sam Darnold, but I stood and just watched him because I was just in awe because this coach wasn't in the business for finding a quarterback or looking for one at the time. And he's like, I just remember thinking this guy is so good. So here we are years later. And it's like,

well, what's changed? You know, how much did Adam Gase really affect him? How much can a great coach make him better? And, you know, Ryan Tannehill is such a great example of what I think teams fear, Ryan. It's like, I don't want to give away my young guy and see him go off and have success. Because, I mean, Ryan Tannehill is the definition of that at this point. He hasn't won anything yet, but he certainly looks better than he did in Miami. So I think there's a little bit of that within the organization. And you know this better than anyone. I mean, for Joe Douglas,

this is going to be the biggest decision he makes as a GM. The other thing you had, too, we know that the Pats got in the Aguilar thing, the Bourne deal, Corey Davis to the Jets, as you just mentioned. But there's some other big-ticket receivers here. I know you're in on this story, too. What's the frustration right now from the players of that position? Yeah. So I would call that, I would categorize the receivers that are

in the free agent market right now, 1.5 slash two type receivers. There's no true number one here. There really isn't. And teams are aware of that. And the type of money these receivers are looking for right now that they think they can get is in that double digit number and all the teams i'm talking to just keep saying that that it's just not happening they're not moving on it um so until the first domino falls which i think it's going to be, it's going to be Kenny, you know, yeah, maybe Curtis Samuel will go first, but here, here's, what's really interesting, right? Most of the, most of the receivers, not all of them, most receivers I talked to that are, that are on the street right now, they all want one year deals. So they're asking for double

digits on one years, which on one year, which is, to me, that just seems, that's tough. But I understand what they're doing. It's just, I'm interested to see how this comes to fruition and when these deals get done. And I usually, I'm not obsessed with contracts, but I want to see these contracts because it's been, you know, we're into this now three and a half days, almost three days. And, you know, we haven't really seen much action with the exception of the receivers you named. Yeah. I've seen a bunch of different theories out there on it where it's like, well, the cap is down. So these guys want to work off a shorter deal so that when the cap bounces up past COVID, because basically we were looking at like 10, $11 million increases every single year on the cap. And then I can tell when somebody will, they're like, oh, well, the TV money coming, these guys want shorter deals.

You're like, dude, the TV money's like, it's still, the deals may be done right now, but that money isn't impacting the cap spike that we're going to have like the NBA. That's not happening for a few years anyway. And the way the NFL contracts work out, there's no such thing as a six-year deal. They're all three years. How much money in the first three years, three years of the deal. So even if somebody were doing a multiple year deal, they'd be up before the TV money came in anyway. And the way the NFL contracts work out, there's no such thing as a six-year deal. They're all three years. How much money in the first three years? Three years of the deal. So even if somebody were doing a multiple-year deal, they'd be up before the TV money came in anyway. I just want your perspective then from all the shuffling here with the quarterbacks,

whether it's Dalton ending up in Chicago, which bummed out Bears fans, where it kind of started this whole thing. And then, you know, the Deshaun Watson part of this too. So go in any direction you want. Yeah. So the narrative coming out of Houston from, from the decision makers there, it's been very clear, which is they don't want to trade Deshaun and it's starting to change a bit, which is, it's surprising me. It's really surprising me because I've talked to a lot of people around the league, uh, teams that have been interested in trading for Deshaun. I've talked to people in the Houston building, and they were really stuck in the mud, I guess, so to speak. They were not going to trade away Deshaun Watson. This is why Nick Casario took

that job. It's why he wanted to be there. It's why head coach David Culley took that job to coach a guy with the caliber of a Deshaun Watson think about if you're him you wait your whole life to be or both these guys GMs and head coaches and you're going to trade away a really a once in a lifetime type quarterback he's he's that good uh not a lot of great guys like him out there but the fact that it's starting to pick up a little steam in terms of swinging the other way where maybe they're a little bit more open to it. I haven't been able to talk to anyone specifically that have changed their tune on it. But I know people I trust at ESPN have been definitely letting it out a little bit that I think they're going to let it happen.

I'm going to stick with what I've been saying up until this point, which is I don't believe they're going to trade him. I don't believe Houston's going to trade Deshaun Watson, but at some point they're going to have to make a decision, perhaps around the draft, because if they're going to deal him, if they're going to be forced to deal him, they're going to want to do it between now and the draft. Yeah, it would make more sense, especially if there are guys that they like here,

but then you're going to find a trading partner that has a pick that even gets you into that position. And that's why the Miami part of it is so brutal now on top of everything else, because that's your pick or was your pick. The Russell Wilson stuff is, I think, it's funny because this whole free agency, it's always about the players who are looking for homes. And the fact that we've had two gigantic, extremely talented quarterbacks not happy, it's kind of been a shadow over all of this. And let's just face it, the most important stories, it really is. Because Russell Wilson is not happy. It's very clear. Wilson is not happy. It's very clear. I've talked to people close to him and they were watching that Bears situation closely. They were waiting and waiting and waiting. And Adam Schefter is even

reporting that he doesn't believe that it's fully over there in terms of the drama between Russell and Seattle, meaning that maybe there's still a slight window that they could move him again. But just the fact that Seattle's been open to it. And I spoke to a team that was interested in trading for him a few weeks ago. And I said, why couldn't you get the deal done? You know, because this team had the picks. They could get it done if they really wanted to. And this person said to me, it wasn't

us. It was them. We didn't have an answer for them at quarterback. They, they, they, they want a legit, they don't want just a placeholder. They want a legit guy. And I couldn't give them that. So what you're saying is Seattle wanted somebody coming back and the bears didn't have that. Not the bears. Aren't this example that I'm talking about? Right. But a different team that was kicking on. There was another,

there was a couple other teams actually. Right. Right. Okay. The bears won. The bears won, picked up the most Dean the last week, but three weeks ago there,

there were a lot more teams involved, which is really, I think it'll come out soon. But that's, that's the big issue with Seattle dealing Russell, which is really, I think it'll come out soon. But that's the big issue with Seattle dealing Russell, which think about that. The fact that they're willing to trade him away blows my mind. But if they feel like they can get enough in return and Pete Carroll perhaps wants to rebuild, if that's what he wants to do, then I guess it could work. But for now, they have to work on that relationship because it's not good.

No. God, that was great. That was great insight there at the end. All right. Diana Rossini, that was awesome. Thank you. Thanks, guys. This is a big deal.

I'm very happy about this. I hope everybody else is happy about it as well. But I'm also afraid there could be some tension. I don't know if we can get the screens up here, but very happy to announce the ringer has hired Steve Cerruti. Cerruti, now part of the program out here on the West Coast. What's up, man? Kellen, dude. Yeah, super excited. I was trying to think the last time, one of the last times I was on the pod with you, I think was the time that i claimed that i would take luca over anyone right and then you i think your direct quote was that take is so crazy and dumb that bill just might hire you and

i guess here we are right look at that that feels like that feels like that was pent up a little bit um i've been sitting on that one for a while yeah yeah no it ended up being it ended up being a better take but it's still luca the first guy you would take to start your franchise um bill would probably agree with you i don't i don't think that i'm ever going to get there i don't think i'll ever get there but maybe i should maybe i should but then i start doing top 10 players and i'm thinking i was trying to do it the other night it's so hard the guys you leave out of the top 10 that are always mentioned as top 10 players like i've said the top is very deep but and just like old times i keep talking so um what's going on with you man i'm really really happy about this we know that there was um you had your own

little adventure there for a while so i can't believe this actually happened because we talked about it for a while i didn't know if it would yeah we had a weird 2020 like i imagine a lot of people did uh bounce around did some things some me times time to reflect but uh no i'm super i'm super pumped i really am and uh you know obviously i've been a huge fan of the ringer for a while and it's great to work with you again and we've got some other stuff that uh i'm really excited to work on in the ringer podcast network as well so can't wait to get going on that and you know i was i was thinking too i don't know like i don't know if there's an appetite anymore for the Magic Minute either. So maybe we just do like a Magic Trade Minute since half the roster is on the block apparently.

But I think after that, I don't think anybody wants to hear about the Magic anymore. Maybe Kevin. That's about it. Kevin Clark will have you on. All right, Kyle. Do you feel tension already about this? Where are you at emotionally with uh now my current producer being joined by my former producer hey man um i what bill says i do i push the button so i'm out

here pushing buttons still so don't worry about me i'm good well here's the thing is kyle's way funnier than i am so i think i mean there's no tension here whatsoever like let him get like the life advice stuff like you're you're great at that i'd have you know i'm honestly just gonna sit this one out i mean actually you know what's important here are you in los angeles no i'm in i'm in good old connecticut my second question is gonna be do you drink beer but it doesn't matter so never mind it's fine we'll just keep we'll keep it wrong you guys could tell stories be like is he difficult to work with i wouldn't say difficult but he just likes what he likes he likes he likes things to be like, is he difficult to work with? I wouldn't say difficult, but. He just likes what he likes.

He likes things to be the way he needs them to be. Okay. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required all right life advice rr at gmail let's do a couple here um there was a few that were just edited so poorly kyle that i just i couldn't handle it let's do a little story here um Um, cause we had a lot of people checking in on the car advice thing. Cause Bill and I talked about it, but Bill and I, I will admit again, we made a mistake. We should have said we were talking about leases. All right. Because there are different people at different levels, especially with the credit scores.

And so if you have to put money down, cause you're buying a car and you're going to keep it longer, your credit score isn't that great. I'm not going to beat up on you about a bad credit score. Maybe you are an idiot, or maybe you just had a few mistakes, or maybe American Express never sent you a bill your entire freshman year when you were 18 and got the credit card for the free tickets to travel anywhere, and then you didn't travel anywhere because you didn't have any money to go anywhere. Sound familiar? All right.

Here we go. 37 years old, 195, 22 rep max for non-kipping pull-ups. Okay. Those are 22 straight pull-ups. Kyle, how many pull-ups are you doing right now? Oh, I'm not doing pull-ups right now, Rishad. Yeah. Okay.

No, I knew it would be single digits. Okay. Here we go. Not a question, but wanted to share some advice passed on to me by my father which could be added to the principles discussed during ryan and bill's recent conversations about buying leasing a car at age 12 i went car shopping with my father and my mother had given him carte blanche to come home with a four-door suv we went to a few dealerships before becoming enamored with a circa 1995 black ford explorer eddie bauer, all leather interior, sunroof, five disc CD player, thin brown stripe of status wrapping around.

That is such a great sentence. That's why I'm reading this email. A thin brown stripe of status wrapping around. For younger people, Google the Eddie Bauer edition, 95 Ford Explorer. That was big pimping back then, guys. Explorer. That was big pimping back then, guys. Everything you ever wanted when being dropped off at school or giving teammates a ride to and from games when you were in middle school, but definitely out of our price range. After walking back from the test drive salivating, we sat down in a small cubicle and started the negotiation process. During one of the back and

forth breaks when the salesman was away getting his best price from the manager, my dad suddenly stood up and told me we were leaving. Stunned, I got up and dragged my feet to follow him out. In an effort to get him to come back in, the salesman chased after my father and grabbed his arm from behind. Built differently than me, 5'11", 220, think Fred Flintstone stocky, my father whipped around and gave him a death stare that caused the reasonably fit guy in his mid-20s to literally jump backwards. The entire 15-minute car ride home was in complete silence without even the radio on. I dared not say a word after the look he had given. My father was a man of few words and not known for offering pearls of wisdom, but just after he

parked the car in the garage, he looked at me and bestowed upon me life advice that still guides me to this day. He said, don't ever make an important decision in life with a hard-on. Then, without another word, he got out of the car, walked inside the house. That's like chicken soup. One of the chicken soup books or something. That's great. Yeah. I mean, it's so good.

Is it stolen from something else? I don't know. I don't know. We get a lot of guys checking in. This guy's worried about the logo hey I'm coming to you as a huge fan not a hater so don't take this as a uh I imagine he means dig to the show a lot I know you have a lot more going on but I'm OCD and notice this stupid shit the album artwork on your podcast your animated face is off center it's closer to the left tell the bringer

to get their money back look we're well aware i never cared mr brand manager over here is probably the worst uh personal branding of himself of all time um i just never really cared and now it's kind of our thing so that's kind of what we're what we're doing with it now so is everybody okay with that i'll put in another note i I'll drop another line, but we'll see. All right. 62230. Do you think I'm more of a box safety or coverage linebacker? I don't know.

230 safety? That's almost big now. Less importantly, my relationship of four years is on the rocks. I'm 26, making great money. More importantly, I love what I do. On the other hand, my girlfriend is also 26. While she makes good money, she hates her job and has let it totally consume her for the entirety of quarantine. It's gotten to the point where she's cussing out her computer while I'm on calls with clients who look stunned since they can hear. That's not great. I've asked her to tone it down,

but I don't want to be demeaning since she's already on edge as is because of work. A couple years ago, my uncle asked, what's stopping you from proposing? And I told him that I wanted to see how we got along after we both finished up grad school. Turns out I'm Nostradamus because she's become a tyrant here in quarantine has sucked the life out of our house. No need for details to give my situation away. But the other day she said, we should find our own apartments in the city to live, but stay together. I wish I could get married to somebody that would be like hey i think we just get our own places like fucking awesome i designed a house i think in junior high that was two houses with a hallway connecting it my dad was like what's that because i used to have this weird architecture phase i was like i just think it'd be cool to have like two houses

in one he laughed um this is me talking not the emailer all right so is it any shot this works given we've lived together for two and a half years and this seems like a massive regression in our relationship? Or is that her easing into a breakup? Thanks, guys. Love the show. While you shouldn't have read this next part on air, he just, okay, he doesn't like a quarterback that I don't like. And he strongly, strongly agrees. I'm not going to name the quarterback.

You probably figured it out. But let's just say i was very early on this and i was right um yeah you're definitely breaking up right i mean there's there's no who is dating lives together two and a half years and then says hey let's stay together i mean i don't know guys are different people are different about breaking up you know it's it's nice that people care about other people's feelings when they break up. And we'll get millions of emails. And it's a very similar pattern. Hey, I'm dating this person. I'm not super into it, but I'm worried when I break up with her, you know, she's going to feel terrible.

Or if I dump him, he's going to be super depressed and all these different things. You're like, yeah, look, there's usually always somebody in the relationships that's kind of calling the shots. You can call it some sort of compromise, but there's always, you know, there's a Brandon Ingram from every Zion. And this is different because I'd like Zion to be the number one option.

But every one of us that are in these relationships, there's always somebody that's kind of calling the shot more so than the other person is. So you sound like you don't like her. And if she wants to stay together i think this i think she's doing you a huge favor right maybe she's trying to jedi mind trick you into doing the dirty work of breaking up by suggesting something so ludicrous that you

would break up and this could actually be like the great compromise. Yeah. Kyle with the wisdom again, because there's, there's other times too, when you're so wrapped up in your own deal. And I think you're going to be a little bit more, I mean, there's like peak narcissism and then there's just straight egomaniac, which I think is a little bit below that. And then there's, there's heavy ego where you keep thinking about every decision and how it just directly relates to you how everything is about you and and i mean this guy's not even doing this by the way but in the breakups you're like well if i do this then she she you know and all this stuff like how do you know that she doesn't want

to end it as well have you ever thought about that i mean sometimes it could be a real mind-blowing exercise to go wait what if i'm reading all of this wrong and the other person isn't into me what if what if there are things that I'm doing that aren't great? And it's kind of hard for any of us to do that. Some of us are just completely oblivious and blind to ever going through that kind of exercise. And then others think about it way too much. And I'm not sure where the meter needs to be for that to work out perfectly. But you've already said she's kind of freaking out. And the fact she's complaining about her job all the time sucks. I was a she's complaining about her job all the time

sucks. I was a guy that complained about his job all the time in a relationship. And I look back and I regret it. I had a stretch early to ESPN. I was really unhappy. I thought I was being treated unfairly. There are certain things that were completely unfair. And I complained to my girlfriend about it all the time. And looking back, you're like, what a waste of time. It didn't solve anything. It was completely wasted energy, wasted effort. And she ended up getting sick of you a little bit, dude. So in this case, you haven't proposed. You want to see how they get along after grad school. It does seem like you're going to reverse, but I think you almost want to go in reverse. But who knows? Maybe it also could be something real simple.

You need a break. You still care about each other. You stay together. We're coming out of this quarantine here. What did we hear the other day? Barbecue, small gatherings, July 4th. That seems reasonable. Um, I think, I think, I think people are going to be outside and bigger gatherings before then sooner. But, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't think this is a huge deal. I don't think that's a, that's a big deal. Who knows? There could be a positive on this whole deal. One more here. I've contemplated writing this for a while.

Long-time listener, 33. He says we have a lot in common. He's 33, 63, 235, athletic. I don't know, dude. A little bigger than I am. I'm up to 231 the other day. So I don't know if that's good or bad. I grew up in Queens. Single mother. didn't have much financially, bounced around a bunch

of jobs, not a lot to fall back on, but always believed in the value of hard work. I got into the gym in my early 20s after losing my mom. Sorry to hear that. As I learned how to cook healthy food for myself, I turned into a meal prep business. Okay. That grew. Now, a few years later, healthy meals were a catalyst to open my own restaurant. I'm currently building my second brick and mortar location. Just added a food truck. Long story short, after a ton of bullshit

and hard work, it's starting to pay off. Problem is I'm 33 and single. I've been single mostly by choice. I feel like I'm in a mix between hopeless romantic and pays for premium Tinder. Kyle, there's a premium Tinder? Yes, there is. What's that all about? It's kind of like, you ever play Candy Crush? Or like, I'm an old school guy who plays Jewel Quest.

And it's like, hey, you can get the keys that gives you the special gems that gives you extra lives if you just pay $5.99. So it's like, it's all the app things where it's just like, just hook up your credit card here and pay $5.99. So it's like it's all the app things where it's just like just get, you know, hook up your credit card and pay for some a nicer experience. Hmm.

That's weird. You were losing me in the beginning of the Candy Crush and then it started to make sense. So there's just they put different access to different girls behind a paywall or just a number. I think is there a number that you can swipe or something and then it expires? Is that how Tinder works? That's correct. Yeah, you only get so many in a certain amount of time.

So I think, I don't know if you get unlimited or you just, it doubles your number and then there's a whole other thing called super likes, which I think puts you to the front of the line if you like somebody that you know you got no shot with. So I think it's just... You could probably win the Tinder game if you are paying...

I don't even know. It probably would be more than $5.99. It's probably a real price to pay. Win the Tinder game and meet somebody who's really bummed out very shortly after. All right. So our guy says he's full of shit when it comes to girls. But there's been this one somewhat constant. I dated a girl on and off for three years.

She's beautiful, funny, calls me out on my shit. Problem is, this is a big one. She has a drug problem. Started with cocaine, has now turned into Xanax dependency. She mixes pills with alcohol while claiming her anxiety is bad. I've never been a drug guy, never even experimented with it. Anytime I attempt to leave for good, she'll tell me I need to stick by her side. All this is to ask is, what do I do? I'm having trouble walking away for good from this girl for whatever reason. Also starting to think as I enter my mid-30s that I may never get married due to an obsession with my career and the fact that when I'm single away from the one girl, I could still be a pig sometimes. Okay. Not sure if the one girl is in the back of my head and the reason I mess up any other attempts at a relationship or if it's something different.

I know how successful you've become. Oh, this is a compliment to me. Becoming focused on your work, was wondering if you share anything relevant to my situation. Should I try to make this one girl work and pray she gets her shit together, seek out new women over time in a healthier way, or just come to the grips of the fact that I may never get married and just enjoy everything life has given me? Sorry for the rant. I appreciate you. Okay. No, you said some really nice things in there and this is a little bit more complicated than I'm probably comfortable with on the drug use part of it. We've had some people reach out and maybe I'll hit up on it. Like, hey, we have a friend who's an alcoholic. Like, what do we do? What do we do? Has this

ever happened to you? Look, we had one friend that was a mess and we were guys and we were younger. We didn't really know how to handle it. And looking back, we've handled it differently. We could have, we definitely could have handled it differently. We could have said, hey, we're not going to go out with you anymore. Because then whenever anything happened, he would be like, well, you stayed out late or you got shit-faced the other night. You know what I mean? And it was kind of like, yeah. And then, you know, and then we went back to work and got our shit together.

Like, we didn't wake up in a hotel and went nooski on a Tuesday. All right, man? So, hotel jokes aside, the thing is, is I don't know the relationship all that well from the outside and from the surface. I mean, anybody, a lot of times you could do this. You can explain your situation is if you're someone that's explaining to you for the first time, you'd be like, Hey, do you want to be with somebody that's dependent on something? Okay. And yeah, I've been around some people that like, Hey, I'm going to take the edge off. And then taking the edge off is every single day.

And you're kind of like, all right, well, this is kind of your deal. And even though it's a little functional, it's your deal. And it's your deal all the time. Like every day, you just kind of need a little something to wind you down at the end of the night. But that's, you know, once you start doing it all the time, then you're going to start looking for it all the time. So let's focus on the bigger stuff here. The easiest thing I can say is you're 33. Relax. All right. Totally relaxed on the whole thing of like, Hey, I'm going to be by myself all the time. I know I'm by myself all the time. I've come to the realization that I

probably like it better. I'm not saying it's for everyone. It isn't, I'm not even telling you it's great all the time, but I know why I am the way that I am. All right. My whole philosophy on being full of shit in your twenties, thinking, you know, you are in your thirties and in your forties, you're like, ah, this is who I am. I'm accepting it. And it's actually kind of a relief because you stop worrying about it all the time. I don't know what's going to happen with me. I'm not determined to be by myself the rest of my life, but I'm kind of accepting of it if that's what happens. And I don't really think that should be for most people. I don't know that it's super healthy. And I think there's a sadness to it too. If you end up by yourself, like really all by yourself and you know, you get a little bit older and,

you know, sometimes I'll see an old guy, like, I think I've done this before, so I don't want to be super repetitive, but you'll see an old guy like sitting at a bar eating food by himself. You're like, shit, is that going to be me in like 75? You know, maybe his wife died or maybe he's got an awesome family. The guy just wanted to watch a Cardinals game by himself at a bar and have a piece of chicken parm. And I shouldn't feel sad for him. You know what I'm saying? So you start projecting all these different things at different people. You're 33.

You're 33. It sounds like you're in great shape. It sounds like you work hard. It sounds like you've been successful. You're likely going to meet someone that you vibe with. All right. But if you're determined to never meet anybody, then you never will. So ask yourself this question. I was all about the job because I didn't feel like I could ever

let anything else get in the decision of me either walking away at any point or changing my mind or doing what I did a couple of years ago. I was like, hey, look, I'm out of here. If I were married, family, the whole deal, I wouldn't have left ESPN. I always want the flexibility to be able to do that. But that also means that I've cut out other things in my life that it's probably not that smart to have done, but I just did it. I don't know. I just did it. And like I said, one of my friends who pulled me aside was like, look, don't you think you'd love to share this journey with somebody else? I was like, man, that's a really good point. No. So don't be determined to be alone. And that's kind of what you're almost hinting at here a little bit. You're

33. You're screwing around a little bit. You're 33. You're screwing around a little bit. You're not the only guy in the country doing it, man. Maybe you need to get out of your system and maybe this will go on for a bunch of more years. I don't really know. But stressing yourself out about what the future is going to be when you're this young is a waste of time. Getting on your case or feeling guilty about seeing multiple people, I really wouldn't do it because it's also an egotistical thing that men are the only ones doing this stuff. Women are doing it too. And as far as signing up for somebody that has a dependency that you've been on and off again for three years, I mean, you could approach her about

it, but you don't know how people are going to handle that. I mean, it could be, hey, yeah, you're right. Thanks for saying it. And then you have this connection that you never thought you would have. That's one scenario. Number two is, hey, you're right. That's great. And then she super resents you and doesn't admit it to you and then doesn't change your behavior whatsoever. And then there's option one, or I guess three would be this case.

She goes nuts on you, calls you out for stuff, and is in a massive denial and says that you're overreacting about the whole thing. Again, I don't know which way that's going to go. But if you're focused on work and it sounds like you do want to find somebody even though you're by yourself all the time,

signing up for that and you're not married to her feels a bit like a burden to take on that maybe you don't need right now. Okay. Sorry, Kyle. Did you want to get in on that? No, no.

I just said word. That's it. Just said word. So, Rudy, anything to add? You know what, Rudy? First day back, let's just take it easy on you. I'm going to sit this one out.

Yep. Especially that heavy one at the end. Yeah, that was a little heavier. All right. So, Friday, Bruce Feldman, incredible mock draft. He's got Intel on all the players from coaches in college and the NFL and stuff that he's hearing. And then Shep Rose from Southern Charm, Bravo alert. I'm not a huge Southern Charm guy. I'm not a huge Bravo guy other than I love Andy Cohen and I love below deck.

I'm off the housewife stuff, but I met Shep and I know you guys are probably shocked that we hit it off. Um, but he's got a book out, so we're going to talk to him on Friday. So please subscribe, let everybody know how you feel about Saruti and the fact that yes. Hey, did you know Kyle that Greeny had a nickname for Saruti?

He has nicknames for everybody. Do you want to guess what his was? What are we doing? I think I'll be able to guess. Probably not. Roots. Nice. It was terrible.

We kept it on the DL because that's about as bad as it comes. Love Greeny. Good dude, but just not a great nickname guy, to be honest with you. No, bad. Bad at it. Bad at it. Good at teases, but bad at nicknames. Great at teases.

Coming up next, my five worst nicknames and what it means for the Jets. All right, we'll be back on Friday. Please subscribe. Thanks. Thank you.