March 9, 2026 • 39 mins
Jason Fitz & Buck Reising fill in for the guys and talk about the Raiders trade of Maxx Crosby to the Ravens, the false narrative that the Rams approach the offseason with an "eff them picks" mind-set, the Dolphins releasing Tua Tagovailoa, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of two pros and a couple
Joe with Lamar Arings and Rady Winn and Jonas Knox
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's a two pros and a cup of Joe, but
it really bucking fits. It's a takeover. We'd back then.
Let us come back after Friday and a particularly off
the rail Saturday show. That's our usual time you can
hang out with us. We are back right here, getting
you ready and wake this morning book. And you know what,
every day we get a little bit further away from
the trade, and I get a little out of my feels.
Every single day I feel a little better about it.
(00:35):
You know the blockbuster we got Friday night, I'm sitting
on my couch just trying to enjoy my edibles and
have an evening, and all of a sudden, I'm greeted
with repeated tweets letting me know that Max Cosby has
been traded for my beloved Raiders for two first round
picks to the Baltimore Ravens. But the crazy part about
this is plenty of people are talking about whether or
not you should trade Max for two first The real
(00:55):
question is, if you are Baltimore, is this the Super
Bowl moment, because anytime you are giving up two first
round draft picks for a team that's in win now mode,
to me, part of what you have to do is
walk out of that a hell of a lot closer
to the Super Bowl. Does this move make the Baltimore
Ravens the premier team in the AFC? Tou ooh.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I would say that it does if for no other
reason than the AFC did not have a premier team
last season. Right the New England Patriots were the representative
of the AFC and the Super Bowl, and we understand
all the context around how the Pats got there and
what the degree of difficulty was relative to Super Bowl
(01:39):
paths of previous years. If you're gonna talk about the Broncos,
you have to tell me what the status of bo
Nix is. If you're going to talk about the Bills,
I think they have a lot more questions than answers
heading into twenty twenty six, given the coaching change and
some of the personnel stuff they obviously need to address
as we hit the acquisition cycle for the NFL. I
(02:02):
am nowhere close on the Cincinnati Bengals, who have been
just in hell for the past couple of years, and
it's wearing on Joe Burrow nobody in the AFC South.
Although I maintain that the Jacksonville Jaguars were two plays
away from being the AFC's representative in last year's Super Bowl.
(02:23):
They lost in the first round of the Bills. You
know if what's the line, if ifs and butts were
candy and nuts, you know what, all these different kind
of things, like the Jags didn't get it done. So
I can't in good conscience say that. But you know,
down the stretch in the last month of the regular
season and heading into that postseason game, I thought the
Jags were the best team in the AFC. So if
(02:45):
you want to sell me on the Jaguars, I might
give it to you. But in the absence of that, sure,
why not Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, I mean the hard part about it is if
you're Baltimore. To me, if you're a Ravens fan today,
you have a ton of hope because there's a lot
of change. Change to me, isn't always something that we
could just bank on. Like I think what's happening with
Baltimore right now is we're taking the brand of the
Ravens and we're taking the fact that we just assume
the Ravens are always going to be good because that's
what they usually are, which means we'll assume that last
(03:14):
year was an outlier. That's what we're all fair things
to do here. But now, all of a sudden, we
got to assume that Jesse Mintter is a great head
coach right out of the gates with no learning curve
at all. That's a big assumption for me. We got
to assume that a new offense is going to be
just absolutely absorbed and immediately flawlessly brought bought into by
the entire Ravens offense. That's a big you know, that's
(03:37):
tough for me to just assume all of these things.
We got to assume that Lamar plays healthy and at
the MVP level. That's easier. And then we got to
presume that all of this comes together on a new
defense for this team. Because Jesse Minter coming over to
bring his style almost immediately. I just think that's a
lot of variables. I think two things can be true here. Yes,
(03:57):
Max Crosby, in the acquisition of Max Crosby makes that
defense much better. I saw, of all people, Nick Lache
and I look at there's no way nix up this early.
But I saw Nick Lache lamenting on Twitter about the
fact that, oh my god, you know, we're in a
situation where the Raiders get two first round picks for
Max Crosby and the Bengals continue to they didn't get
anything for Trey Hendrickson, and this is just yet again
(04:19):
gross mismanagement. The fact that he said Max Crosby's name
in the same sentence as Trey Hendrickson to me made
me laugh, Like his football analysis is as bad as
good as his ninety eight Degrees cover shows at this point. Like, look,
at the end of the day, Max Crosby a much
different player than somebody like Trey Hendrickson. I think he
makes their defense substantially better, right, Like it's like adding
a member of InSync into ninety eight degrees. It actually
(04:41):
would help the entire thing. Like I think at some
point Max is a big boost for this defense. I
just don't and I appreciate being aggressive, Buck, but I
just don't know that I could just sit here in
annoint with all the other change the Ravens as this
Super Bowl Guru team headed there, given the fact that
there are still a lot of variables that have to
break the right way.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Were you one of the people that did it with
them last year? Because I picked them to win the
Super Bowl?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I did not pick them to win the Super Bowl.
I think I picked the Bills going into the season
last year. But I was high on the Ravens for sure.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Last year.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, I was high on the Ravens. And I think
the hiring of Harball was interesting to me at the
very least, interesting, Like I get this is where my
damage fans sit.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
We the firing or the hiring, the.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Firing of Harbor. Sorry, the firing of Harrball was interesting,
Like I hear you when it's like, oh, the result
is not good enough. I just I'm a fan of
a team that's had what feels like four hundred and
seventy two you know, coaches in the last three years.
So the revolving door, to me scares me a lot
more than it does a lot of people. Even though
the Ravens are a competent organization, They've changed the coach
and I never know if that's going to work.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, it's it's really tough, especially because there are going
to be immediate expectations on Baltimore. And the most difficult,
the most unknowable variable in the middle of all this is,
in fact the coaching staff, right, because you're talking about
not just Jesse Minter in his role for the first time,
(06:08):
understanding that he's been a defensive play caller, but it's
a very different job to be a play caller and
also be the head coach. And then you're dealing with
the twenty nine year old offensive coordinator who comes to
them by way of the Bears, who is thought of
very highly in the NFL, but not so highly that
Ben Johnson wasn't willing to You brought this up yesterday
(06:29):
or Saturday when we did our show, not so not
so well thought of that Ben Johnson didn't think that
he could live without him, because, as you pointed out,
that's a lateral move in the NFL's eye. So the
Bears could have theoretically blocked that hiring if they wanted to,
and they said, no, you know, that's okay, we'll figure
it out, and maybe they're just doing right by their
guides and go get your opportunity. You're not going to
(06:51):
be the play caller here as long as Ben Johnson
is the head coach understandably. So, so in that situation,
let's send a twenty nine year old to go work
with the twenty nine year old quarterback who most recently
in Lamar Jackson. Then we don't know the full scope
of the relationship between he and Todd Mounkin, but or
he and John Harbaugh. Right, there's going to be some
(07:12):
stuff that remains behind closed doors. Some of it has
been reported, but you understand you don't have the full context.
But Lamar was not in love with the things that
his coaching staff was doing. What's that going to be
like when he's dealing with an inexperienced head coach and
an inexperienced first time offensive play caller as his coordinator?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
There?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
How is that going to work when they start to
hit adversity? Are they prepared for these situations? These are
questions that are impossible to answer, but are going to
be a huge talking point around Baltimore all year long
because the roster is ready, the question is the coaching
staff prepared to handle it?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah? I mean, don't we have countless recent examples, whether
it's Philadelphia, whether it's the Lions. You lose coordinators, you
change coaches, Things are different, and you're right, I do
that at some point a lateral move in the offensive
coordinator position is significant to me when the person letting
you go is one of the best offensive minds in
the league. So maybe you're right if you want to
(08:10):
apply this what every team does, every fan base does
at this time of the year, and it's the most
dangerous part of fandom. The thing that we all do
is we look at our favorite team through the prism
of these are all brilliant moves, and all of our
division opponents as these are dumb moves, right, like, instead
of applying universal benefit of the doubt or universal skepticism,
(08:31):
which I think is a much more accurate thing to do.
Like if you presume the worst of every single transaction
for every team in your division, that's one way to
look at it, or presume the actual best. If I'm
just looking at it from non Ravens fandom point, I've
got a head coach. To your point in Jesse Mentter,
it's a wildly different job. I don't care what a
great coordinator you are. We have no idea. Josh McDaniels
(08:53):
is the living, eating, breathing, perfect example of somebody that
is a blessed by God coordinator and a terrible head coach. Right,
so I have no idea and nobody has any idea.
If today Jesse Mintter is closer to Josh McDaniels or
closer to you know, Mike McDonald, we don't know. We
have no idea. So that's step number one. And then
(09:13):
to your point, anytime you have a new offensive coordinator
coming in with Lamar, I don't know, and that's a
coordinator that Ben Johnson turned around and said, no, we're good,
we don't need you on the staff, Like, go ahead,
go wherever else you want. Like that to me, at
least raises an eyebrow. So I think there's enough eyebrow raisers.
But I also think if you're the Ravens, this is
(09:34):
where like it's weird with owners too, because there's certainly
a new perceived power structure of everything in Baltimore, not
just that Harball's gone, it also feels like Baltimore's coming
out a little bit and saying, hey, we're not gonna
do business the same way. We're gonna be aggressive. We're
gonna go out and get a sack master. We're gonna
go out and get one of the biggest names in
(09:55):
the league, Like, we're gonna go be big players in
free agency and big spenders to bring in absolute superstars
to capitalize on a window right now. That doesn't necessarily
feel like a harpai In type move, but it feels
like that's also a statement by the organization of like,
this is why we made the change. We're gonna do
something aggressive right here right now.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Well, I mean, but he never had roster control, right
I mean, he's he's got a situation in New York
that is very different from what he was doing in Baltimore,
and how much say he had in what Eric Acosta,
who's the general manager there and his staff did, understanding
that there was still, you know, a level of the
(10:36):
buzzword that Titans fans and where I am and Nashville
are tired of hearing is collaboration, the infamous collaboration. There
is some level of collaboration at every level in these organizations.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
But it's still.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Worth pointing out that, Yeah, I mean, they're doing things
differently than we've seen them do, but that's.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Not necessarily because of the coaching change.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I like the idea that there's a front office in
the NFL that's not so married to their one way
of doing things for one hundred years that they're willing
to take different kind of chances. You can talk about
the value, because essentially you're talking about, all right, do
you want Max Crosby or do you want the mystery
grab bag behind door number two?
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Because that's what these first round picks are. And I
think if you're Baltimore and understanding that he's coming off
an injury and you know his assessment of how injured
he actually was and route to being shut down and
falling out of favor with the Raiders organization, I'm sure
he has brought up and I'm sure if Fitzi you
watched every minute of that twelve minute goodbye that he
(11:40):
that he posted on his own podcast, did Max Crosby?
But yeah, I think that they are an organization that
does get benefit of the doubt, regardless of who their
coaching staff is. There are more variables than we're accustomed
to talking about when you deal with the ballti, more
ravens because Harbaugh has been that constant for so long.
(12:05):
But if there is any sense that they are getting
ready to evolve as an organization here, I'm willing to ride.
The Ravens are one of these teams where I'm almost
going to give them implicit trust. Now, I'm not going
to give anybody in the NFL implicit fully implicit trust,
but I am willing to give them more benefit of
(12:27):
the doubt than not because they have had a proven
track record of championship success over multiple decades, spanning multiple
literations of coaching staffs and front offices, and there is
a lot of There is a lot of track record
for them to say, Okay, we're going to try this
(12:48):
differently than we're accustomed to doing it. Just trust us, bro,
We're going to get there. It just may not be
as immediate as Ravens fans want it to be, because
as soon as you trade two first round picks for
Max Crosby, you're talking Super Bowl, and I just don't
know how realistic that is.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
In year one, be sure to catch live editions of
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn,
LeVar Errington, and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern
three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
Steve Gotts here, I have a podcast, Empire. It continues
to grow and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
My wife wanted to kick me out of the house.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
It's called Stegots and Company Live, which is available in
podcast form right when the show finishes every single day.
Some of the biggest names in sports, a lot of phone.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Calls, I love you on the show.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
A lot of interaction, guys not taking themselves too seriously.
Those are just some of the things that you could
expect from Stu Gottson Company and Stegotson Company Live. So
listen to stew Gotson Company Live and our original Please subscribe,
rate and review Steve Gotson Company, and God Bless Football.
(14:06):
Taylor's livelihood depends on it. You do it today and
you can check all of those out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
When you are a bad team, you have to approach
the draft one way. When you are a good team,
you can have the nuanced to approach the draft a
different way. And we have assigned f them picks to
the Rams in part because that's what their GM said
when talking about trading away first rounders, but as you
pointed out, good sir, that's not really the case. When
you look at the Rams. They may say f them
(14:40):
first rounders, but that doesn't mean that they are out
on the draft as a core tenant and how they
build their team.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
No, they have made as many picks as any other
team in the NFL in the last ten years, which
is crazy to think about, given you know what that
stated mantra is. And why wouldn't you think that way
unless you're actually going to take the time And I'm
not going to say that I'm the person who took
the time to do the research there I got. I'm
stealing a fact from Robert Walsh, who is our executive
(15:08):
producer on the local show where we were having this
conversation on the air live when McDuffie got traded, and
Robert was very quick to point out, no, they they
actually make more picks than anybody else. They're just doing
it because they're nailing their starting caliber players on day
two and day three, which the degree of difficulty of
that by percentage, I mean, yeah, that's where the bulk
(15:30):
of your roster is going to be filled out and
That's why I think it's so much less fun to
talk about that than the Christmas Day effect of legal
tampering or free agency, which technically does not begin until Wednesday.
Teams can start to technically negotiate as of noon. Is
(15:51):
it noon eastern today? I believe yes, Okay, noon eastern
today is when legal tampering officially begins. Even though I
mean to your point fits about the swiftness with which
we see these reported deals. This stuff's been negotiated since
the combine in Indianapolis for the most part, right, So
it's you know, it's one of those things where you
have to understand the like work that gets done.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
On the front end.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
But the rams have been excellent, excellent in their process
and how they find and identify talent.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
To make sure that they can And it's not even
f them picks. It's just a different usage of the picks.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
They are using their first round picks differently than the
vast majority of teams.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
They are not hoarding them.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
They are not you know, they are not out here
trying to gather as many picks as humanly possible for
the purposes of just you know, hey, we've got all
this draft capital and eventually at some point, I swear, guys,
we're going to use it all. No, they're being judicious
in how they target players who are going to make
a difference on their team. And yeah, I mean, could
anybody in the world have targeted Matt Stafford and said, yeah,
(16:56):
that'd probably make a difference between us going to a
super Bowl in p out against the Patriots versus winning
a Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals. The way that
that last first round pick trade that they did netted
them Matt Stafford and ultimately a championship, And now they're
trying to prolong that window along around Stafford and the
(17:17):
McDuffie deal. While I think it ends up being four
picks for the player over the course of the next
couple of years, that's still a situation where they've identified
a core weakness on their team that they are going
to be able to immediately correct and then give themselves.
You know, they don't get a lot of wiggle room
in that situation and identifying the rest of the ways
(17:38):
that they're going to fix it. But at least they
know that they've gotten a proven player to come in
here and fix a problem that they quantifiably had that
popped up and kept them out of the Super Bowl
this year against the Los Angeles excuse me, against the
Seattle Seahawks and the NFC Championship game. So you look
at this and say, well, why doesn't every team take
(17:58):
that approach? Well, not every team has the same process
that the RAMS do. Not every team is in the
same window that the Rams are, which makes it a
lot easier once you've got that quarterback piece. Even if
he is I mean, was he going to be thirty
seven at this point, he's he's right around there, Matt Stafford.
It makes the math a lot easier if you get
that first one right, because that is the foundation of
(18:19):
your team, and then it allows you to continue to
address those things because the quarterback has has lessened your
learning curve for how many other things, how many different
swings you can take at this thing and understanding that, yeah,
they just value first round pick picks differently than your
average NFL team does.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, when you can find Puka Nakua in the fifth round,
you know, when you can bring in constantly guys that
Kiram Williams was a fifth round pick. When you can
bring in guys all the time in the fourth, fifth,
and sixth round, you're playing a different ballgame, right like,
And I think that's part of what we have to
acknowledge here is that look, gms are oftentimes their entire
(18:57):
career is folks and really judged on what they do
with their first round picks because that's what we see, like,
we pay the most attention. I've covered the draft every
year of my career immedia. It's my favorite event. It's
my favorite thing to get to cover. I covered it
for ESPN for years now, I cover it for Yahoo.
We do shows. I've been able to cover the draft
live every year. And the funny thing is about the
(19:20):
Draft is by the time we get to it, the
first round is pretty easy for all of us to cover.
Like the first round, you know most of the names
that are getting out here. Once you get into the third, fourth,
fifth round, it gets really hard to cover. Like I
used to mock ESPN when I was sitting at home,
I used to yell at my TV every year during
the draft coverage because I'd sit there and say, like,
I don't need you to tell me about the first
(19:41):
round pick again in Day three, I need you to
tell me who the hell this guy is because I've
never heard of this guy. I used to yell at
at my TV and then I was lucky enough to
be part of those broadcasts where you sit there and
you're like, yep, let's just go back to what they
did in the first round, because we have nothing to
say about this random running back from William and Mary, right, Like,
I think at some point we all become obsessed with
first second round picks because that's the most digestible portion
(20:04):
of this Great teams are not built based on what
they do in just the first and second round. So
to your point, if you're the RAMS and you're playing
with the cheat code, knowing that, hey, we find talent
constantly in the second, third, fourth, fifth, we find cost
controlled talent in other rounds all the time. Well, now
we can be FM picks with the value that we
can get in return for first round picks. Of course,
(20:26):
if you're a bad team, well again, the draft doesn't
get easier as you go on. It gets tougher. So
if you're a bad team, and man, you can't get
it right in the first round, but you also can't
get it right in the second rounds can't get it
right in the third round. Like I will remind everybody
that one of the biggest fails in modern NFL draft history,
one of the biggest busts was Trey Lance, who the
forty nine ers traded up for to draft a quarterback.
(20:49):
They traded up, they drafted a quarterback, and they missed
drastically for somebody that I'm not even sure really belongs
in the league anymore. That's how bad they got it.
It cares because in the same draft they got Brock Party. Now, yes,
a little bit of that is luck. You got brock Party.
At the end of the draft, you got lucky. But
also that is just an organization that has drafted so
(21:11):
well so often that they have the wiggle room to
make a miss, to have a miss. If you're getting
most of your picks right and you miss on the
first rounder, it's not as catastrophic. The problem is it's
just tougher to look at that you mentioned, like the
candy store on the Christmas Day, feel like today for
so many fans is going to feel like the day
that you fix your team, and it just isn't. I know,
(21:32):
it was last year for the Patriots, and the Patriots
went on a run spending a lot of money. For
the most part, with an elevated salary cap, teams have
more of their own money than ever to spend buck like,
at the end of the day, most of the talent
that is worth keeping will be kept. There are one
or two players that are going to come out of
this year's free agency that are really worth breaking the bank.
(21:53):
For the rest. You are going to overpay for talent
and you're just gonna have to because your team sucks
and you have no choice but to overbake it. You
got to have somebody on your team. But it doesn't
fix things. The real fix is in April, and it's
not day one of the draft. It's stay two and
day three.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Well, and we've dubbed that the we suck luxury tax
here in Tennessee when you're a paying middling to you know,
slightly above average talent to come and join your team
because you have to overpay in those situations. Even if
you are in a state like Tennessee where there's no
state income tax and that is a bigger draw, you
(22:29):
are still going to have to overpay in a lot
of these situations. It is so much less fun to
talk about the usage of cap space being for the
players that you organically draft. But again, I'm gonna work
this through a local prism just because it's an easy
thing for me to do.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Here.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
With the Titans, they have the second most cap space
in the NFL, behind the Raiders, at least heading into
twenty this offseason. So heading into twenty twenty six, they've
got room to work with with just a little under
one hundred million dollars an available cap. They have two
players on their roster who may were not who were
(23:08):
not drafted by the current general manager, but who are
absolutely essential to retain. It's right guard Peter Skironsky and
All Pro defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons. That's the priority with
the Titans cap space. It's not going out and spending
I mean, even though they might and it sounds like
they will spend twenty million dollars plus a year on
Wandale Robinson and maybe they get into the market for
(23:31):
Tyler Linderbaum at the top of the center market this year.
Their priority, every team's priority. That cap space is for
your players, not for your big budget line items to
go out and buy on free agency every year. If
you're doing this correctly. The cap space is supposed to
be for the guys that you nail in the draft,
except so few one. You're dealing with a couple of
(23:52):
different factors here, but first and foremost, you're dealing with
the fact that owners are impatient and a lot of
time you don't have the runway necessary to get two
second contracts on some of those players you're dealing you're
operating at best in three year windows. In the average
rookie contract or the standard rookie contract in the NFL,
is four So you're talking about circumstances.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Yeah, guys can be.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Extension eligible after they complete their third NFL season, but still,
I mean, you get into a situation where guys start
to feel pressed in their jobs. All of a sudden,
they're buying players in ways.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
That you do.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Buying players sounds wrong, but they're paying for players in
ways that they might not otherwise have done because all
of a sudden, the discipline and sticking to your process
and your plan that you've said over and over and
over again that all sounds well and good and easier
said than done, because you've got an owner breathing down
your neck about why is our record still you know,
five and twelve or whatever it is, and you're just saying,
(24:51):
you know, just give be be a little patient here,
give me the necessary runway to actually build this into
a sustainable thing. You don't get time to build this
thing sustainably unless you almost have some immediate evidence of
turnaround right away. And for places like Las Vegas and
Tennessee and other teams that have been bottom dwellers for
(25:11):
the last couple of years. In the case of the Raiders,
it's felt like quite some time, partly because of the
division that they play in. But still you understand you're
dealing with circumstances and a lot of situations that are
just beyond your control, and owners don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
And in a move that surprises no one, the Dolphins
are releasing quarterback two at Tounguevalowe with the post June
first designation. So, according to Schefty, by cutting to Miami
takes on an NFL record ninety nine million dollars in
dead money split over two years, ninety nine million bucks
over two years. So it took all of what three
(25:57):
seasons for the massive cap pit of RUSS to just
be squashed ninety nine million dollars in dead cap money.
But this is what had to happen. In my mind, Buck,
this was very simple. The Miami Dolphins knew that Tua
wasn't going to be part of their future. Everybody in
the league knew it, which meant it was going to
be difficult to try and pull off any trade. Given
you trade for the player, you trade for the contract.
(26:18):
They tried to find some creative ways to do it,
but at the end of the day, the writing was
on the wall. New organization at this point, new GM,
new head coach, knew everything. This starts an absolute rip
up rebuild. I believe that the Dolphins are telling us
right now that they understand that this is step one
of a massive reset for the entire organization and they'd
rather go into this season and just suck and figure
(26:41):
it out than go into this season with Tua as
their quarterback.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
This is the statement that the team put out on
behalf of John Eric Sullivan, the new GM I recently
informed Tua and his representation that we are going to
move in a new direction at the quarterback position and
will be releasing him after the start of the new
league year. As I shared with Tua, I have great
respect for the person and player he is on behalf
(27:05):
of the Miami Dolphins. I expressed our gratitude for his
many contributions both on the field and in the community
during his six seasons in Miami.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
As we move.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Forward, we will be focused on infusing competition across the
roster and establishing a strong foundation for this team as
we work towards building a sustained winner. So it sounds
like they tried a million different ways to move him
because they didn't want to have to eat the cap hit.
They're on the hook for fifty four million dollars in
twenty twenty six, minus whatever another team ends up paying him,
(27:39):
which he can play for the league minimum, So it's
not like that. It's not like anybody's going to be
doing the Dolphins any favor by giving to a significant deal.
So he will likely play for the minimum somewhere this year,
and Miami takes the rest on and of course, you know,
we'll still be on the hook for a chunk of.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
That money twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
How are we going to remember the Tua tenure with
the Dolphins, is my question, because that that for a
moment where he spans two different coaching staffs. Right when
he gets drafted in the first round a couple of
years ago. Brian Flores is the coach there, Brian Flora.
The Brian Flora situation never felt like a match. Flores
(28:24):
didn't seem interested in drafting Tua. They kept trying to
start Ryan Fitzpatrick that first season at every turn. Then
they had a decent string of success. They weren't a
disaster under Brian Flores, if I remember correctly. They had
like a seven or eight game win streak a couple
of years ago with Tua and Flores that ended actually
(28:47):
here in Tennessee. They ended up losing a game by
a substantial margin to the Titans. That ended that win streak.
And that was about the height of the Miami Tua
experience with Flores. Then Mike McDaniel comes in as two,
is my guy. I know exactly how to make this
guy work. They put together one of the best offenses
we've seen in the NFL in recent memory, and they
(29:08):
trade for Tyreek Hill, who I mean was an MVP
candidate or should have been thought of as an MVP candidate.
How many votes he actually got those two years where
he was operating an incredibly high level. You could say,
there's not a better offensive there was not a better
offensive weapon in the league then Tyreek in that Mike
McDaniel system and two of putting up MVP type of numbers.
(29:30):
But he's just he's such a he's such a complicated one.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
And this is the thing that Dolphins fans have to
be sick of. How many times.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Are they going to go through this with a quarterback
who you know, you can't ever really figure out, like
Tua was probably shot at the end at the end
of this situation in Miami way more so than another
you know reference for me here locally, Ryan Tannehill, who
was good enough in Spurts got them to the postseason,
(30:00):
injured before that playoff game. Matt Moore ends up starting
a playoff game against the Steelers. So Ryan Tannehill actually
never makes or plays in the postseason for Miami gets
shipped off to Tennessee in twenty nineteen for pieces and parts.
They have to end up paying some of his salary
for him to come here and be the backup to
Marcus Mariota at the time, and then when Mariota fails,
(30:21):
they put Tannehill in the Titans maker run to the
AFC Championship Game. Tannehill resurges and ends up signing a
fat contract in twenty twenty to become the Titans franchise quarterback.
There for a period of time. I don't think that
two has got that same trajectory.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Now.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Maybe I don't remember the dialogue around Tannehill back in
nineteen but maybe people were also calling it a career
on Ryan Tannehill at the time and he ended up
having a really nice resurgence. How are we going to
remember to his time in Miami because I have to
imagine Dolphins fans thought they really really had something and
then of those first couple of opportunities for them to
(30:57):
go to the postseason where they spun out badly as
they did, and we all know the record in Cold
Weather for two a tongue of aloa, I don't know
that they view it much different than the Tannehill experience,
even though there was a little bit more postseason opportunity
than there was with Tannehill.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
There's a trajectory with every young quarterback. Right when you
watch your young quarterback play really well, everybody falls in love.
This is just like immediately, no, we got our guy.
We got a guy for the next fifteen years, and
then all of a sudden a few years in, unless
your guy really elevates and becomes that clearly that same
(31:35):
tier as Joe Burrow, as Josh Allen, as Patrick Mahomes,
for everybody else that's on that next tier, even all
of a sudden, that same level of praise that you
were being given, that hyped you up is now being
thrown on your shoulders as weight. So to your point,
early on into his career, there was this moment where
(31:57):
when he comes off of the twenty twenty two season
where he throws for thirty five one hundred yards twenty
five and eight, right like the year after that forty
six hundred yards twenty nine and fourteen on the touchdown
interception ratio. Like you're talking about an offense that was
becoming explosive, and just this moment where you saw it,
Dolphins fans everywhere believed they had their guy. I think
we're going to remember a lot of the Tua era,
(32:19):
right or wrong for the concussions, because if you look
at the games played, twenty twenty three is the only
season in his career where he played more than fourteen games.
Every other season in his entire career, he's missed at
least three games, right, So you just start to factor
all this together. I think what we think about is
sort of the size of Tua, and we think about
(32:41):
the hits the Tua has taken. And I've long said
repeatedly he talked to his own doctors, team doctors. Everybody
around Tua believes and believed that it was safe for
him to get back on the field. But collectively, I
think most of us hold our breath every time he
takes a hard sack. Every single time he hits the
ground hard, everybody takes pause. And So if you're the
(33:02):
Dolphins in a new organization coming in, you're coming in
with a guy that at the quarterback position has made
it clear he's an I love you man. He needs
to be supported, he needs to have coaches around him
that make him feel value. That's the environment he thrives in.
You got to figure out if that guy is your guy,
he costs you a ton of money, He's got injury issues,
He's missed a lot of time in his career, and
he may or may not have recurring concussion issues. If
(33:26):
I was the head coach of the Dolphins today, I
look at it and say, you know what, I'd rather
just cut ties and go through this period to suck. Unfortunately,
I think if we're grading this chapter of Tua, the
fair grade is really kind of an incomplete. We never
really saw the best of what I think he could be.
I don't think that we ever saw the worst in
a way that made it easy to just say this
(33:46):
guy sucks. And if certainly, if he goes somewhere else
buck and he's healthy, if he goes somewhere else, and
that portion of it takes care of itself, you never know,
right system, right place, maybe two has got something left
in the tank. I just certain would not be banking
my franchise on Tuaitungovolo as my future starting quarterback.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
No, and now a franchise doesn't have to, right because
he can play for the league minimum. It will give
you a low end flyer opportunity for them to try
and Wressell Wilson. Pittsburgh Steelers their way through a season,
he's probably, I don't know, a starter somewhere in the caliber.
(34:26):
If you were if you were saying one to thirty two,
where which you slot to, you'd probably say low twenties
to early thirties As far as where he falls amongst
starting caliber quarterbacks, high end backup situation for sure. Right,
he's got a lot of experience. He's played a lot
of football, despite how much time he's missed, he has
(34:48):
at least a level of understanding of NFL defenses that
will give him an advantage to an extent. But that's
who is going to be in the market to make
to of their starter like that? That reeks of a
desperation type situation. How many teams really understanding that there
are eight open for business and one of them was Miami? Right,
(35:09):
so let's just theoretically say seven, Who is gonna who
is gonna do that with two of those?
Speaker 4 (35:16):
Like Russ? I got right, Russ, and Russ was.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Right, I'd rather have two of them.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Russ.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
No, Russ was washed? Well, yeah, now no, I said that.
I was clear on that at the time. Russ was
clearly washed when he went like that, there was no
when if you're Sean Payton and you look around and say,
I'd rather pay eighty million bucks to not have this
guy around. That to me, it was a clear indication
that he was absolutely washed. Like, I hear you. But
(35:41):
I'm also looking at right now, according to multiple sites,
but if you look at the best top ten free
agent quarterbacks available, I'll just pull this one ranking up.
These are the names that are available. You mentioned there's
eight openings. Number one, Kyler Murray, number two, Malik Willis,
number three, Kirk Cousins, number four, Era Rogers, number five,
(36:01):
Joe Flacco. Like that's what so so to your question,
I mean, we get to Flacco and Mariota before we've
even had the chance to blink, right, Like, so, I
think that there's gonna be a market for Tua simply
because there aren't enough quarterbacks out here. The look, you
got to have somebody, You have somebody as your starting quarterback. No,
(36:24):
but what are the Jets actually gonna do at quarterback
this year?
Speaker 3 (36:28):
You don't see the reporting from Connor Hughes at s
n Y that Carson Wentz is Frank Reich's preferred option.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
My god, and the Cardinals saw the reporting the Cardinals
are all in on Jimmy G. The Cardinals want to
acquire Jimmy G. Like, we're gonna Carson Wentz and Jimmy
G are going to be viable starting quarterbacks this year?
What are we doing?
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Okay, well, let's they can be starting quarterbacks without.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Being viable, right, OK, that is a fair put.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
And and I don't you know, I don't mean to
make of Carson Wentz or Garoppolo or Flacco or any
of these guys. We're just out here trying to make
a career.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
I felt bad for Carson Wentz last year man in
that Minnesota game where he's just clearly not right and
they leave him out there and he's battling through injuries.
All of a sudden, you know, two days later he's
done for the season. And like, I can't remember what
the shoulder injury was exactly, but it sounded awful what
he was playing through.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
And Carson Wentz is credit he battled.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
I I think that the Tua thing, well, because it's
not just the caliber of the player, right, how much
do we factor in the personality stuff with Tua? Because
he's had some weird I know, just weird press conference moments.
These last couple of years, he's had weird dynamics, it seems,
(37:49):
with his coaching staff and his teammates as far as
how much do these guys actually respect him and view
him as a leader. Some of the some of the erraticisms. Again,
you don't know what to attribute to some of the
some of the head injuries that he's had versus you know,
maybe he's just a bit of an eccentric guy and
(38:10):
handles things differently and says too much at press conferences
like whatever. I don't want to read too much into that,
but I don't know, he feels like a bit of
a sideshow situation. I don't know that he's more viable
than Garoppolo or like.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
I mean, Winz. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Winz was just in the league last year and he
wasn't that much worse than Tua.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I just kind of I kind of view them the
same way.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
At this point. They can start because a lot of
quarterbacks end up starting in the NFL. I think in
the last couple of years we've had anywhere between sixty
and sixty five players start a game at the quarterback position.
So yeah, Tua and Wentz and Jimmy g they can
all start games. Flacco is still starting games. Hell, we
just saw Philip Rivers start games at forty four years old,
(38:58):
how many years removed from being in the NFL. So
it's not a question of can he do it, it's
a question of is it worth it to you to
give him that opportunity to be the front facing member
of your organization, because I just don't think he handled
it well in Miami, and maybe he can learn and
grow from that. Right, this is a humbling experience for anybody,
(39:20):
especially if a team is willing to eat, you know,
in principal ninety nine million dollars.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
To make you go away at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Maybe that makes you reevaluate, all right, this is what
I did right, this is what I did wrong, This
is what I'll do differently the next time around.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
And I hope he gets that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
But I don't ever remember having as much conversation about
should a player actually continue to play this sport as
I do too a given the concussion stuff,
This is the best of two pros and a couple
Joe with Lamar Arings and Rady Winn and Jonas Knox
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's a two pros and a cup of Joe, but
it really bucking fits. It's a takeover. We'd back then.
Let us come back after Friday and a particularly off
the rail Saturday show. That's our usual time you can
hang out with us. We are back right here, getting
you ready and wake this morning book. And you know what,
every day we get a little bit further away from
the trade, and I get a little out of my feels.
Every single day I feel a little better about it.
(00:35):
You know the blockbuster we got Friday night, I'm sitting
on my couch just trying to enjoy my edibles and
have an evening, and all of a sudden, I'm greeted
with repeated tweets letting me know that Max Cosby has
been traded for my beloved Raiders for two first round
picks to the Baltimore Ravens. But the crazy part about
this is plenty of people are talking about whether or
not you should trade Max for two first The real
(00:55):
question is, if you are Baltimore, is this the Super
Bowl moment, because anytime you are giving up two first
round draft picks for a team that's in win now mode,
to me, part of what you have to do is
walk out of that a hell of a lot closer
to the Super Bowl. Does this move make the Baltimore
Ravens the premier team in the AFC? Tou ooh.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I would say that it does if for no other
reason than the AFC did not have a premier team
last season. Right the New England Patriots were the representative
of the AFC and the Super Bowl, and we understand
all the context around how the Pats got there and
what the degree of difficulty was relative to Super Bowl
(01:39):
paths of previous years. If you're gonna talk about the Broncos,
you have to tell me what the status of bo
Nix is. If you're going to talk about the Bills,
I think they have a lot more questions than answers
heading into twenty twenty six, given the coaching change and
some of the personnel stuff they obviously need to address
as we hit the acquisition cycle for the NFL. I
(02:02):
am nowhere close on the Cincinnati Bengals, who have been
just in hell for the past couple of years, and
it's wearing on Joe Burrow nobody in the AFC South.
Although I maintain that the Jacksonville Jaguars were two plays
away from being the AFC's representative in last year's Super Bowl.
(02:23):
They lost in the first round of the Bills. You
know if what's the line, if ifs and butts were
candy and nuts, you know what, all these different kind
of things, like the Jags didn't get it done. So
I can't in good conscience say that. But you know,
down the stretch in the last month of the regular
season and heading into that postseason game, I thought the
Jags were the best team in the AFC. So if
(02:45):
you want to sell me on the Jaguars, I might
give it to you. But in the absence of that, sure,
why not Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, I mean the hard part about it is if
you're Baltimore. To me, if you're a Ravens fan today,
you have a ton of hope because there's a lot
of change. Change to me, isn't always something that we
could just bank on. Like I think what's happening with
Baltimore right now is we're taking the brand of the
Ravens and we're taking the fact that we just assume
the Ravens are always going to be good because that's
what they usually are, which means we'll assume that last
(03:14):
year was an outlier. That's what we're all fair things
to do here. But now, all of a sudden, we
got to assume that Jesse Mintter is a great head
coach right out of the gates with no learning curve
at all. That's a big assumption for me. We got
to assume that a new offense is going to be
just absolutely absorbed and immediately flawlessly brought bought into by
the entire Ravens offense. That's a big you know, that's
(03:37):
tough for me to just assume all of these things.
We got to assume that Lamar plays healthy and at
the MVP level. That's easier. And then we got to
presume that all of this comes together on a new
defense for this team. Because Jesse Minter coming over to
bring his style almost immediately. I just think that's a
lot of variables. I think two things can be true here. Yes,
(03:57):
Max Crosby, in the acquisition of Max Crosby makes that
defense much better. I saw, of all people, Nick Lache
and I look at there's no way nix up this early.
But I saw Nick Lache lamenting on Twitter about the
fact that, oh my god, you know, we're in a
situation where the Raiders get two first round picks for
Max Crosby and the Bengals continue to they didn't get
anything for Trey Hendrickson, and this is just yet again
(04:19):
gross mismanagement. The fact that he said Max Crosby's name
in the same sentence as Trey Hendrickson to me made
me laugh, Like his football analysis is as bad as
good as his ninety eight Degrees cover shows at this point. Like, look,
at the end of the day, Max Crosby a much
different player than somebody like Trey Hendrickson. I think he
makes their defense substantially better, right, Like it's like adding
a member of InSync into ninety eight degrees. It actually
(04:41):
would help the entire thing. Like I think at some
point Max is a big boost for this defense. I
just don't and I appreciate being aggressive, Buck, but I
just don't know that I could just sit here in
annoint with all the other change the Ravens as this
Super Bowl Guru team headed there, given the fact that
there are still a lot of variables that have to
break the right way.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Were you one of the people that did it with
them last year? Because I picked them to win the
Super Bowl?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I did not pick them to win the Super Bowl.
I think I picked the Bills going into the season
last year. But I was high on the Ravens for sure.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Last year.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, I was high on the Ravens. And I think
the hiring of Harball was interesting to me at the
very least, interesting, Like I get this is where my
damage fans sit.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
We the firing or the hiring, the.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Firing of Harbor. Sorry, the firing of Harrball was interesting,
Like I hear you when it's like, oh, the result
is not good enough. I just I'm a fan of
a team that's had what feels like four hundred and
seventy two you know, coaches in the last three years.
So the revolving door, to me scares me a lot
more than it does a lot of people. Even though
the Ravens are a competent organization, They've changed the coach
and I never know if that's going to work.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, it's it's really tough, especially because there are going
to be immediate expectations on Baltimore. And the most difficult,
the most unknowable variable in the middle of all this is,
in fact the coaching staff, right, because you're talking about
not just Jesse Minter in his role for the first time,
(06:08):
understanding that he's been a defensive play caller, but it's
a very different job to be a play caller and
also be the head coach. And then you're dealing with
the twenty nine year old offensive coordinator who comes to
them by way of the Bears, who is thought of
very highly in the NFL, but not so highly that
Ben Johnson wasn't willing to You brought this up yesterday
(06:29):
or Saturday when we did our show, not so not
so well thought of that Ben Johnson didn't think that
he could live without him, because, as you pointed out,
that's a lateral move in the NFL's eye. So the
Bears could have theoretically blocked that hiring if they wanted to,
and they said, no, you know, that's okay, we'll figure
it out, and maybe they're just doing right by their
guides and go get your opportunity. You're not going to
(06:51):
be the play caller here as long as Ben Johnson
is the head coach understandably. So, so in that situation,
let's send a twenty nine year old to go work
with the twenty nine year old quarterback who most recently
in Lamar Jackson. Then we don't know the full scope
of the relationship between he and Todd Mounkin, but or
he and John Harbaugh. Right, there's going to be some
(07:12):
stuff that remains behind closed doors. Some of it has
been reported, but you understand you don't have the full context.
But Lamar was not in love with the things that
his coaching staff was doing. What's that going to be
like when he's dealing with an inexperienced head coach and
an inexperienced first time offensive play caller as his coordinator?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
There?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
How is that going to work when they start to
hit adversity? Are they prepared for these situations? These are
questions that are impossible to answer, but are going to
be a huge talking point around Baltimore all year long
because the roster is ready, the question is the coaching
staff prepared to handle it?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah? I mean, don't we have countless recent examples, whether
it's Philadelphia, whether it's the Lions. You lose coordinators, you
change coaches, Things are different, and you're right, I do
that at some point a lateral move in the offensive
coordinator position is significant to me when the person letting
you go is one of the best offensive minds in
the league. So maybe you're right if you want to
(08:10):
apply this what every team does, every fan base does
at this time of the year, and it's the most
dangerous part of fandom. The thing that we all do
is we look at our favorite team through the prism
of these are all brilliant moves, and all of our
division opponents as these are dumb moves, right, like, instead
of applying universal benefit of the doubt or universal skepticism,
(08:31):
which I think is a much more accurate thing to do.
Like if you presume the worst of every single transaction
for every team in your division, that's one way to
look at it, or presume the actual best. If I'm
just looking at it from non Ravens fandom point, I've
got a head coach. To your point in Jesse Mentter,
it's a wildly different job. I don't care what a
great coordinator you are. We have no idea. Josh McDaniels
(08:53):
is the living, eating, breathing, perfect example of somebody that
is a blessed by God coordinator and a terrible head coach. Right,
so I have no idea and nobody has any idea.
If today Jesse Mintter is closer to Josh McDaniels or
closer to you know, Mike McDonald, we don't know. We
have no idea. So that's step number one. And then
(09:13):
to your point, anytime you have a new offensive coordinator
coming in with Lamar, I don't know, and that's a
coordinator that Ben Johnson turned around and said, no, we're good,
we don't need you on the staff, Like, go ahead,
go wherever else you want. Like that to me, at
least raises an eyebrow. So I think there's enough eyebrow raisers.
But I also think if you're the Ravens, this is
(09:34):
where like it's weird with owners too, because there's certainly
a new perceived power structure of everything in Baltimore, not
just that Harball's gone, it also feels like Baltimore's coming
out a little bit and saying, hey, we're not gonna
do business the same way. We're gonna be aggressive. We're
gonna go out and get a sack master. We're gonna
go out and get one of the biggest names in
(09:55):
the league, Like, we're gonna go be big players in
free agency and big spenders to bring in absolute superstars
to capitalize on a window right now. That doesn't necessarily
feel like a harpai In type move, but it feels
like that's also a statement by the organization of like,
this is why we made the change. We're gonna do
something aggressive right here right now.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Well, I mean, but he never had roster control, right
I mean, he's he's got a situation in New York
that is very different from what he was doing in Baltimore,
and how much say he had in what Eric Acosta,
who's the general manager there and his staff did, understanding
that there was still, you know, a level of the
(10:36):
buzzword that Titans fans and where I am and Nashville
are tired of hearing is collaboration, the infamous collaboration. There
is some level of collaboration at every level in these organizations.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
But it's still.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Worth pointing out that, Yeah, I mean, they're doing things
differently than we've seen them do, but that's.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Not necessarily because of the coaching change.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I like the idea that there's a front office in
the NFL that's not so married to their one way
of doing things for one hundred years that they're willing
to take different kind of chances. You can talk about
the value, because essentially you're talking about, all right, do
you want Max Crosby or do you want the mystery
grab bag behind door number two?
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Because that's what these first round picks are. And I
think if you're Baltimore and understanding that he's coming off
an injury and you know his assessment of how injured
he actually was and route to being shut down and
falling out of favor with the Raiders organization, I'm sure
he has brought up and I'm sure if Fitzi you
watched every minute of that twelve minute goodbye that he
(11:40):
that he posted on his own podcast, did Max Crosby?
But yeah, I think that they are an organization that
does get benefit of the doubt, regardless of who their
coaching staff is. There are more variables than we're accustomed
to talking about when you deal with the ballti, more
ravens because Harbaugh has been that constant for so long.
(12:05):
But if there is any sense that they are getting
ready to evolve as an organization here, I'm willing to ride.
The Ravens are one of these teams where I'm almost
going to give them implicit trust. Now, I'm not going
to give anybody in the NFL implicit fully implicit trust,
but I am willing to give them more benefit of
(12:27):
the doubt than not because they have had a proven
track record of championship success over multiple decades, spanning multiple
literations of coaching staffs and front offices, and there is
a lot of There is a lot of track record
for them to say, Okay, we're going to try this
(12:48):
differently than we're accustomed to doing it. Just trust us, bro,
We're going to get there. It just may not be
as immediate as Ravens fans want it to be, because
as soon as you trade two first round picks for
Max Crosby, you're talking Super Bowl, and I just don't
know how realistic that is.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
In year one, be sure to catch live editions of
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn,
LeVar Errington, and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern
three am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
Steve Gotts here, I have a podcast, Empire. It continues
to grow and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
My wife wanted to kick me out of the house.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
It's called Stegots and Company Live, which is available in
podcast form right when the show finishes every single day.
Some of the biggest names in sports, a lot of phone.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Calls, I love you on the show.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
A lot of interaction, guys not taking themselves too seriously.
Those are just some of the things that you could
expect from Stu Gottson Company and Stegotson Company Live. So
listen to stew Gotson Company Live and our original Please subscribe,
rate and review Steve Gotson Company, and God Bless Football.
(14:06):
Taylor's livelihood depends on it. You do it today and
you can check all of those out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
When you are a bad team, you have to approach
the draft one way. When you are a good team,
you can have the nuanced to approach the draft a
different way. And we have assigned f them picks to
the Rams in part because that's what their GM said
when talking about trading away first rounders, but as you
pointed out, good sir, that's not really the case. When
you look at the Rams. They may say f them
(14:40):
first rounders, but that doesn't mean that they are out
on the draft as a core tenant and how they
build their team.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
No, they have made as many picks as any other
team in the NFL in the last ten years, which
is crazy to think about, given you know what that
stated mantra is. And why wouldn't you think that way
unless you're actually going to take the time And I'm
not going to say that I'm the person who took
the time to do the research there I got. I'm
stealing a fact from Robert Walsh, who is our executive
(15:08):
producer on the local show where we were having this
conversation on the air live when McDuffie got traded, and
Robert was very quick to point out, no, they they
actually make more picks than anybody else. They're just doing
it because they're nailing their starting caliber players on day
two and day three, which the degree of difficulty of
that by percentage, I mean, yeah, that's where the bulk
(15:30):
of your roster is going to be filled out and
That's why I think it's so much less fun to
talk about that than the Christmas Day effect of legal
tampering or free agency, which technically does not begin until Wednesday.
Teams can start to technically negotiate as of noon. Is
(15:51):
it noon eastern today? I believe yes, Okay, noon eastern
today is when legal tampering officially begins. Even though I
mean to your point fits about the swiftness with which
we see these reported deals. This stuff's been negotiated since
the combine in Indianapolis for the most part, right, So
it's you know, it's one of those things where you
have to understand the like work that gets done.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
On the front end.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
But the rams have been excellent, excellent in their process
and how they find and identify talent.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
To make sure that they can And it's not even
f them picks. It's just a different usage of the picks.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
They are using their first round picks differently than the
vast majority of teams.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
They are not hoarding them.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
They are not you know, they are not out here
trying to gather as many picks as humanly possible for
the purposes of just you know, hey, we've got all
this draft capital and eventually at some point, I swear, guys,
we're going to use it all. No, they're being judicious
in how they target players who are going to make
a difference on their team. And yeah, I mean, could
anybody in the world have targeted Matt Stafford and said, yeah,
(16:56):
that'd probably make a difference between us going to a
super Bowl in p out against the Patriots versus winning
a Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals. The way that
that last first round pick trade that they did netted
them Matt Stafford and ultimately a championship, And now they're
trying to prolong that window along around Stafford and the
(17:17):
McDuffie deal. While I think it ends up being four
picks for the player over the course of the next
couple of years, that's still a situation where they've identified
a core weakness on their team that they are going
to be able to immediately correct and then give themselves.
You know, they don't get a lot of wiggle room
in that situation and identifying the rest of the ways
(17:38):
that they're going to fix it. But at least they
know that they've gotten a proven player to come in
here and fix a problem that they quantifiably had that
popped up and kept them out of the Super Bowl
this year against the Los Angeles excuse me, against the
Seattle Seahawks and the NFC Championship game. So you look
at this and say, well, why doesn't every team take
(17:58):
that approach? Well, not every team has the same process
that the RAMS do. Not every team is in the
same window that the Rams are, which makes it a
lot easier once you've got that quarterback piece. Even if
he is I mean, was he going to be thirty
seven at this point, he's he's right around there, Matt Stafford.
It makes the math a lot easier if you get
that first one right, because that is the foundation of
(18:19):
your team, and then it allows you to continue to
address those things because the quarterback has has lessened your
learning curve for how many other things, how many different
swings you can take at this thing and understanding that, yeah,
they just value first round pick picks differently than your
average NFL team does.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Well, when you can find Puka Nakua in the fifth round,
you know, when you can bring in constantly guys that
Kiram Williams was a fifth round pick. When you can
bring in guys all the time in the fourth, fifth,
and sixth round, you're playing a different ballgame, right like,
And I think that's part of what we have to
acknowledge here is that look, gms are oftentimes their entire
(18:57):
career is folks and really judged on what they do
with their first round picks because that's what we see, like,
we pay the most attention. I've covered the draft every
year of my career immedia. It's my favorite event. It's
my favorite thing to get to cover. I covered it
for ESPN for years now, I cover it for Yahoo.
We do shows. I've been able to cover the draft
live every year. And the funny thing is about the
(19:20):
Draft is by the time we get to it, the
first round is pretty easy for all of us to cover.
Like the first round, you know most of the names
that are getting out here. Once you get into the third, fourth,
fifth round, it gets really hard to cover. Like I
used to mock ESPN when I was sitting at home,
I used to yell at my TV every year during
the draft coverage because I'd sit there and say, like,
I don't need you to tell me about the first
(19:41):
round pick again in Day three, I need you to
tell me who the hell this guy is because I've
never heard of this guy. I used to yell at
at my TV and then I was lucky enough to
be part of those broadcasts where you sit there and
you're like, yep, let's just go back to what they
did in the first round, because we have nothing to
say about this random running back from William and Mary, right, Like,
I think at some point we all become obsessed with
first second round picks because that's the most digestible portion
(20:04):
of this Great teams are not built based on what
they do in just the first and second round. So
to your point, if you're the RAMS and you're playing
with the cheat code, knowing that, hey, we find talent
constantly in the second, third, fourth, fifth, we find cost
controlled talent in other rounds all the time. Well, now
we can be FM picks with the value that we
can get in return for first round picks. Of course,
(20:26):
if you're a bad team, well again, the draft doesn't
get easier as you go on. It gets tougher. So
if you're a bad team, and man, you can't get
it right in the first round, but you also can't
get it right in the second rounds can't get it
right in the third round. Like I will remind everybody
that one of the biggest fails in modern NFL draft history,
one of the biggest busts was Trey Lance, who the
forty nine ers traded up for to draft a quarterback.
(20:49):
They traded up, they drafted a quarterback, and they missed
drastically for somebody that I'm not even sure really belongs
in the league anymore. That's how bad they got it.
It cares because in the same draft they got Brock Party. Now, yes,
a little bit of that is luck. You got brock Party.
At the end of the draft, you got lucky. But
also that is just an organization that has drafted so
(21:11):
well so often that they have the wiggle room to
make a miss, to have a miss. If you're getting
most of your picks right and you miss on the
first rounder, it's not as catastrophic. The problem is it's
just tougher to look at that you mentioned, like the
candy store on the Christmas Day, feel like today for
so many fans is going to feel like the day
that you fix your team, and it just isn't. I know,
(21:32):
it was last year for the Patriots, and the Patriots
went on a run spending a lot of money. For
the most part, with an elevated salary cap, teams have
more of their own money than ever to spend buck like,
at the end of the day, most of the talent
that is worth keeping will be kept. There are one
or two players that are going to come out of
this year's free agency that are really worth breaking the bank.
(21:53):
For the rest. You are going to overpay for talent
and you're just gonna have to because your team sucks
and you have no choice but to overbake it. You
got to have somebody on your team. But it doesn't
fix things. The real fix is in April, and it's
not day one of the draft. It's stay two and
day three.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Well, and we've dubbed that the we suck luxury tax
here in Tennessee when you're a paying middling to you know,
slightly above average talent to come and join your team
because you have to overpay in those situations. Even if
you are in a state like Tennessee where there's no
state income tax and that is a bigger draw, you
(22:29):
are still going to have to overpay in a lot
of these situations. It is so much less fun to
talk about the usage of cap space being for the
players that you organically draft. But again, I'm gonna work
this through a local prism just because it's an easy
thing for me to do.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Here.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
With the Titans, they have the second most cap space
in the NFL, behind the Raiders, at least heading into
twenty this offseason. So heading into twenty twenty six, they've
got room to work with with just a little under
one hundred million dollars an available cap. They have two
players on their roster who may were not who were
(23:08):
not drafted by the current general manager, but who are
absolutely essential to retain. It's right guard Peter Skironsky and
All Pro defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons. That's the priority with
the Titans cap space. It's not going out and spending
I mean, even though they might and it sounds like
they will spend twenty million dollars plus a year on
Wandale Robinson and maybe they get into the market for
(23:31):
Tyler Linderbaum at the top of the center market this year.
Their priority, every team's priority. That cap space is for
your players, not for your big budget line items to
go out and buy on free agency every year. If
you're doing this correctly. The cap space is supposed to
be for the guys that you nail in the draft,
except so few one. You're dealing with a couple of
(23:52):
different factors here, but first and foremost, you're dealing with
the fact that owners are impatient and a lot of
time you don't have the runway necessary to get two
second contracts on some of those players you're dealing you're
operating at best in three year windows. In the average
rookie contract or the standard rookie contract in the NFL,
is four So you're talking about circumstances.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Yeah, guys can be.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Extension eligible after they complete their third NFL season, but still,
I mean, you get into a situation where guys start
to feel pressed in their jobs. All of a sudden,
they're buying players in ways.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
That you do.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Buying players sounds wrong, but they're paying for players in
ways that they might not otherwise have done because all
of a sudden, the discipline and sticking to your process
and your plan that you've said over and over and
over again that all sounds well and good and easier
said than done, because you've got an owner breathing down
your neck about why is our record still you know,
five and twelve or whatever it is, and you're just saying,
(24:51):
you know, just give be be a little patient here,
give me the necessary runway to actually build this into
a sustainable thing. You don't get time to build this
thing sustainably unless you almost have some immediate evidence of
turnaround right away. And for places like Las Vegas and
Tennessee and other teams that have been bottom dwellers for
(25:11):
the last couple of years. In the case of the Raiders,
it's felt like quite some time, partly because of the
division that they play in. But still you understand you're
dealing with circumstances and a lot of situations that are
just beyond your control, and owners don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
And in a move that surprises no one, the Dolphins
are releasing quarterback two at Tounguevalowe with the post June
first designation. So, according to Schefty, by cutting to Miami
takes on an NFL record ninety nine million dollars in
dead money split over two years, ninety nine million bucks
over two years. So it took all of what three
(25:57):
seasons for the massive cap pit of RUSS to just
be squashed ninety nine million dollars in dead cap money.
But this is what had to happen. In my mind, Buck,
this was very simple. The Miami Dolphins knew that Tua
wasn't going to be part of their future. Everybody in
the league knew it, which meant it was going to
be difficult to try and pull off any trade. Given
you trade for the player, you trade for the contract.
(26:18):
They tried to find some creative ways to do it,
but at the end of the day, the writing was
on the wall. New organization at this point, new GM,
new head coach, knew everything. This starts an absolute rip
up rebuild. I believe that the Dolphins are telling us
right now that they understand that this is step one
of a massive reset for the entire organization and they'd
rather go into this season and just suck and figure
(26:41):
it out than go into this season with Tua as
their quarterback.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
This is the statement that the team put out on
behalf of John Eric Sullivan, the new GM I recently
informed Tua and his representation that we are going to
move in a new direction at the quarterback position and
will be releasing him after the start of the new
league year. As I shared with Tua, I have great
respect for the person and player he is on behalf
(27:05):
of the Miami Dolphins. I expressed our gratitude for his
many contributions both on the field and in the community
during his six seasons in Miami.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
As we move.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Forward, we will be focused on infusing competition across the
roster and establishing a strong foundation for this team as
we work towards building a sustained winner. So it sounds
like they tried a million different ways to move him
because they didn't want to have to eat the cap hit.
They're on the hook for fifty four million dollars in
twenty twenty six, minus whatever another team ends up paying him,
(27:39):
which he can play for the league minimum, So it's
not like that. It's not like anybody's going to be
doing the Dolphins any favor by giving to a significant deal.
So he will likely play for the minimum somewhere this year,
and Miami takes the rest on and of course, you know,
we'll still be on the hook for a chunk of.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
That money twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
How are we going to remember the Tua tenure with
the Dolphins, is my question, because that that for a
moment where he spans two different coaching staffs. Right when
he gets drafted in the first round a couple of
years ago. Brian Flores is the coach there, Brian Flora.
The Brian Flora situation never felt like a match. Flores
(28:24):
didn't seem interested in drafting Tua. They kept trying to
start Ryan Fitzpatrick that first season at every turn. Then
they had a decent string of success. They weren't a
disaster under Brian Flores, if I remember correctly. They had
like a seven or eight game win streak a couple
of years ago with Tua and Flores that ended actually
(28:47):
here in Tennessee. They ended up losing a game by
a substantial margin to the Titans. That ended that win streak.
And that was about the height of the Miami Tua
experience with Flores. Then Mike McDaniel comes in as two,
is my guy. I know exactly how to make this
guy work. They put together one of the best offenses
we've seen in the NFL in recent memory, and they
(29:08):
trade for Tyreek Hill, who I mean was an MVP
candidate or should have been thought of as an MVP candidate.
How many votes he actually got those two years where
he was operating an incredibly high level. You could say,
there's not a better offensive there was not a better
offensive weapon in the league then Tyreek in that Mike
McDaniel system and two of putting up MVP type of numbers.
(29:30):
But he's just he's such a he's such a complicated one.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
And this is the thing that Dolphins fans have to
be sick of. How many times.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Are they going to go through this with a quarterback
who you know, you can't ever really figure out, like
Tua was probably shot at the end at the end
of this situation in Miami way more so than another
you know reference for me here locally, Ryan Tannehill, who
was good enough in Spurts got them to the postseason,
(30:00):
injured before that playoff game. Matt Moore ends up starting
a playoff game against the Steelers. So Ryan Tannehill actually
never makes or plays in the postseason for Miami gets
shipped off to Tennessee in twenty nineteen for pieces and parts.
They have to end up paying some of his salary
for him to come here and be the backup to
Marcus Mariota at the time, and then when Mariota fails,
(30:21):
they put Tannehill in the Titans maker run to the
AFC Championship Game. Tannehill resurges and ends up signing a
fat contract in twenty twenty to become the Titans franchise quarterback.
There for a period of time. I don't think that
two has got that same trajectory.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Now.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Maybe I don't remember the dialogue around Tannehill back in
nineteen but maybe people were also calling it a career
on Ryan Tannehill at the time and he ended up
having a really nice resurgence. How are we going to
remember to his time in Miami because I have to
imagine Dolphins fans thought they really really had something and
then of those first couple of opportunities for them to
(30:57):
go to the postseason where they spun out badly as
they did, and we all know the record in Cold
Weather for two a tongue of aloa, I don't know
that they view it much different than the Tannehill experience,
even though there was a little bit more postseason opportunity
than there was with Tannehill.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
There's a trajectory with every young quarterback. Right when you
watch your young quarterback play really well, everybody falls in love.
This is just like immediately, no, we got our guy.
We got a guy for the next fifteen years, and
then all of a sudden a few years in, unless
your guy really elevates and becomes that clearly that same
(31:35):
tier as Joe Burrow, as Josh Allen, as Patrick Mahomes,
for everybody else that's on that next tier, even all
of a sudden, that same level of praise that you
were being given, that hyped you up is now being
thrown on your shoulders as weight. So to your point,
early on into his career, there was this moment where
(31:57):
when he comes off of the twenty twenty two season
where he throws for thirty five one hundred yards twenty
five and eight, right like the year after that forty
six hundred yards twenty nine and fourteen on the touchdown
interception ratio. Like you're talking about an offense that was
becoming explosive, and just this moment where you saw it,
Dolphins fans everywhere believed they had their guy. I think
we're going to remember a lot of the Tua era,
(32:19):
right or wrong for the concussions, because if you look
at the games played, twenty twenty three is the only
season in his career where he played more than fourteen games.
Every other season in his entire career, he's missed at
least three games, right, So you just start to factor
all this together. I think what we think about is
sort of the size of Tua, and we think about
(32:41):
the hits the Tua has taken. And I've long said
repeatedly he talked to his own doctors, team doctors. Everybody
around Tua believes and believed that it was safe for
him to get back on the field. But collectively, I
think most of us hold our breath every time he
takes a hard sack. Every single time he hits the
ground hard, everybody takes pause. And So if you're the
(33:02):
Dolphins in a new organization coming in, you're coming in
with a guy that at the quarterback position has made
it clear he's an I love you man. He needs
to be supported, he needs to have coaches around him
that make him feel value. That's the environment he thrives in.
You got to figure out if that guy is your guy,
he costs you a ton of money, He's got injury issues,
He's missed a lot of time in his career, and
he may or may not have recurring concussion issues. If
(33:26):
I was the head coach of the Dolphins today, I
look at it and say, you know what, I'd rather
just cut ties and go through this period to suck. Unfortunately,
I think if we're grading this chapter of Tua, the
fair grade is really kind of an incomplete. We never
really saw the best of what I think he could be.
I don't think that we ever saw the worst in
a way that made it easy to just say this
(33:46):
guy sucks. And if certainly, if he goes somewhere else
buck and he's healthy, if he goes somewhere else, and
that portion of it takes care of itself, you never know,
right system, right place, maybe two has got something left
in the tank. I just certain would not be banking
my franchise on Tuaitungovolo as my future starting quarterback.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
No, and now a franchise doesn't have to, right because
he can play for the league minimum. It will give
you a low end flyer opportunity for them to try
and Wressell Wilson. Pittsburgh Steelers their way through a season,
he's probably, I don't know, a starter somewhere in the caliber.
(34:26):
If you were if you were saying one to thirty two,
where which you slot to, you'd probably say low twenties
to early thirties As far as where he falls amongst
starting caliber quarterbacks, high end backup situation for sure. Right,
he's got a lot of experience. He's played a lot
of football, despite how much time he's missed, he has
(34:48):
at least a level of understanding of NFL defenses that
will give him an advantage to an extent. But that's
who is going to be in the market to make
to of their starter like that? That reeks of a
desperation type situation. How many teams really understanding that there
are eight open for business and one of them was Miami? Right,
(35:09):
so let's just theoretically say seven, Who is gonna who
is gonna do that with two of those?
Speaker 4 (35:16):
Like Russ? I got right, Russ, and Russ was.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Right, I'd rather have two of them.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Russ.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
No, Russ was washed? Well, yeah, now no, I said that.
I was clear on that at the time. Russ was
clearly washed when he went like that, there was no
when if you're Sean Payton and you look around and say,
I'd rather pay eighty million bucks to not have this
guy around. That to me, it was a clear indication
that he was absolutely washed. Like, I hear you. But
(35:41):
I'm also looking at right now, according to multiple sites,
but if you look at the best top ten free
agent quarterbacks available, I'll just pull this one ranking up.
These are the names that are available. You mentioned there's
eight openings. Number one, Kyler Murray, number two, Malik Willis,
number three, Kirk Cousins, number four, Era Rogers, number five,
(36:01):
Joe Flacco. Like that's what so so to your question,
I mean, we get to Flacco and Mariota before we've
even had the chance to blink, right, Like, so, I
think that there's gonna be a market for Tua simply
because there aren't enough quarterbacks out here. The look, you
got to have somebody, You have somebody as your starting quarterback. No,
(36:24):
but what are the Jets actually gonna do at quarterback
this year?
Speaker 3 (36:28):
You don't see the reporting from Connor Hughes at s
n Y that Carson Wentz is Frank Reich's preferred option.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
My god, and the Cardinals saw the reporting the Cardinals
are all in on Jimmy G. The Cardinals want to
acquire Jimmy G. Like, we're gonna Carson Wentz and Jimmy
G are going to be viable starting quarterbacks this year?
What are we doing?
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Okay, well, let's they can be starting quarterbacks without.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Being viable, right, OK, that is a fair put.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
And and I don't you know, I don't mean to
make of Carson Wentz or Garoppolo or Flacco or any
of these guys. We're just out here trying to make
a career.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
I felt bad for Carson Wentz last year man in
that Minnesota game where he's just clearly not right and
they leave him out there and he's battling through injuries.
All of a sudden, you know, two days later he's
done for the season. And like, I can't remember what
the shoulder injury was exactly, but it sounded awful what
he was playing through.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
And Carson Wentz is credit he battled.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
I I think that the Tua thing, well, because it's
not just the caliber of the player, right, how much
do we factor in the personality stuff with Tua? Because
he's had some weird I know, just weird press conference moments.
These last couple of years, he's had weird dynamics, it seems,
(37:49):
with his coaching staff and his teammates as far as
how much do these guys actually respect him and view
him as a leader. Some of the some of the erraticisms. Again,
you don't know what to attribute to some of the
some of the head injuries that he's had versus you know,
maybe he's just a bit of an eccentric guy and
(38:10):
handles things differently and says too much at press conferences
like whatever. I don't want to read too much into that,
but I don't know, he feels like a bit of
a sideshow situation. I don't know that he's more viable
than Garoppolo or like.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
I mean, Winz. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Winz was just in the league last year and he
wasn't that much worse than Tua.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I just kind of I kind of view them the
same way.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
At this point. They can start because a lot of
quarterbacks end up starting in the NFL. I think in
the last couple of years we've had anywhere between sixty
and sixty five players start a game at the quarterback position.
So yeah, Tua and Wentz and Jimmy g they can
all start games. Flacco is still starting games. Hell, we
just saw Philip Rivers start games at forty four years old,
(38:58):
how many years removed from being in the NFL. So
it's not a question of can he do it, it's
a question of is it worth it to you to
give him that opportunity to be the front facing member
of your organization, because I just don't think he handled
it well in Miami, and maybe he can learn and
grow from that. Right, this is a humbling experience for anybody,
(39:20):
especially if a team is willing to eat, you know,
in principal ninety nine million dollars.
Speaker 4 (39:24):
To make you go away at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Maybe that makes you reevaluate, all right, this is what
I did right, this is what I did wrong, This
is what I'll do differently the next time around.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
And I hope he gets that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
But I don't ever remember having as much conversation about
should a player actually continue to play this sport as
I do too a given the concussion stuff,
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Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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