March 9, 2026 • 40 mins
Jason Fitz & Buck Reising talk about how everyone labels the Rams attitude as "F them picks" but how that actually isn't the case, Trent McDuffie signing a massive extension, what comes next for QBs Daniel Jones & Kyler Murray, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
FM picks has become a mantra for the Los Angeles Rams,
and we assign it to at least part of their success.
But what if I told you that while the statement
feels correct, it actually isn't. That isn't their approach, even
though that's what we all love to say. It's bucking
fits On Fox Sports Radio, Buck Rising Jason Fitz. This
(00:23):
comes off on the heels of the Rams executing in
another trade. For the ninth time in the last ten years.
They've traded away their first round draft pick, Trent McDuffie
and gets traded.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
To the Rams.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
They also give him a massive contract, So the Rams
turn around, spend money, and they secure the back end
of their defense. They've been aggressive in doing so. But Buck,
you have opened my eyes because I look at f them.
But this is part of the process of looking in
the mirror and being honest about where your team is.
I think when you are a bad team, you have
to approach the draft one way. When you are a
(00:53):
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 first rounders, but that doesn't mean that they
are out on the draft as a core tenant and
(01:15):
how they build their team.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
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 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 producer on the
(01:39):
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,
(02:00):
that's where the bulk 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 it noon eastern today? I
(02:23):
believe eastern? Yes, Okay, noon eastern today is when legal
tampering officially begins. Even though I mean to your point,
fitsy 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 it's done on the front end. But the
(02:43):
rams have been excellent, excellent in their process and how
they find and identify talent to make sure that they
can And it's not even f them picks. It's just
a different usage of the picks. They are using their
first round picks differently than the vast majority of teams.
They are not hoarding them. They are not you know,
(03:05):
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 gonna 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,
(03:26):
that'd probably make a difference between us going to a
Super Bowl and petering 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
(03:48):
McDuffie deal.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
While I think it ends up being.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
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
that they're going to fix it. But at least they
know that they've gotten a proven player to come in
(04:13):
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
that approach? Well, not every team has the same process
that the RAMS do. Not every team is in the
(04:33):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Right around there, Matt Stafford.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
It makes the math a lot easier if you get
that first one right, because that is the foundation of
your team, and then it allows you to continue to
address those things because the quarterback has lessened your learning
curve for how many other things, how many different you
can take it this thing and understanding that, yeah, they
just value first round pick picks differently than your average
(05:06):
NFL team does.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, when you can find Puka Nakua in the fifth round,
you know, when you can bring in constantly guys that
Kyra 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
(05:28):
career is focused 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
(05:51):
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,
or fifth round, it gets really hard to cover.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Like I used to.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
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 round pick
again in Day three, I need you to tell me
who the hell.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
This guy is because I've never heard of this guy.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I used to yell 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 of this Great teams
(06:37):
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,
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,
if you are a bad team, well again, the draft
(06:59):
doesn't it easier as you go on, it gets tougher.
So if you're a bat 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.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Right in the third round.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
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. 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.
(07:28):
That's how bad they got it. And nobody 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
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
(07:50):
first round er, 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.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
The day that you fix your team, and it just isn't.
I know, it was last year.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
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.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Worth keeping will be kept.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
There are one or two players that are going to
come out of this year's free agency that are really.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Worth breaking the bank. For the rest.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
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 overpay because.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
You got to have somebody on your team. But it
doesn't fix things.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
The real fix is in April, and it's not day
one of the draft, it's day two and day three.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Well, and we've dubbed that the we suck luxury tax
here in Tennessee when you're all fash 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 drag, you
(09:00):
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 here. With the Titans, they
have the second most cap space in the NFL, behind
(09:23):
the Raiders, at least heading into 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
maybe were not who were not drafted by the current
general manager, but who are absolutely essential to retain. It's
(09:44):
right guard Peter Skoronski 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 Robbinson and maybe they get
into the market for Tyler Linderbaum at the top of
the center market this year. Their priority, every team's priority.
(10:07):
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 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
(10:29):
runway necessarily 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 3 (10:44):
Yeah, guys can be.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
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 that you do. Buying players
is wrong, but they're paying for players in ways that
they might not otherwise have done because all of a sudden,
(11:07):
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?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
You know? Five and twelve or whatever it.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Is, and you're just saying, you know, just give me
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 the last couple of years.
(11:44):
In the case of the Raiders, it's it's felt like
quite some time, partly because of the division that they
play in. But still you understand like you're you're dealing
with circumstances and a lot of situations that are just
beyond your control.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And owners don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Now it is it is also wild again, Like salary
cap space is huge for a lot of these teams.
There are teams like the Raiders that this year have
to spend a ton of money to hit the salary
cap floor. So remember that, and they don't have players.
Every three years you have to average spending ninety percent
of the salary cap. That's part of the CBA. So
(12:17):
the Raiders have to go out and spend. According to
some reports, close to one hundred million dollars this offseason,
no matter what, just to hit the rolling average on
the three year salary cap floor. So now you go
into it like you mentioned Tyler Linderbaum the center. Like
when we start talking about how much some teams are
gonna pay these guys, what we don't know is a man.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I gotta spend a bunch of money, got to spend it.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Now, might as well front load the hell out of
this contract, because my god, I'm gonna go get him.
So from centers to players you actually care about, We're
gonna walk around some of the league and we're gonna
figure out who these quarterbacks are gonna go to that
are actually gonna be saviors. Where's the next Sam Darnold?
And why is it not gonna end up in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
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Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's a bucking Fits takeover a two Pros and a
Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio. And free agency
in the NFL essentially opens today. Legal tampering opens, which
means you'll hear a lot of reports of teams agreeing
with players starting anytime after new NEAs turn These agreements
can be made again if you don't know this, They've
changed the rule this year so every team can zoom
(14:35):
with five free agents total a maximum of one hour, presume,
So that could push things back a few hours, depending
on who wants to zoom with whom. But one of
the big things we'll have our eyes on a quarterback
and which quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Are going to move where? What's it going to mean
for the league?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I want to remind everybody too, Kyler Murray will be
cut by the Cardinals. We all know that that doesn't
actually happen until Wednesday, so that is a curiosity in
the timing. They don't cut him until the beginning of
the league year, which means I would expect while we'll
hear more reports.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Today, they can't really be talking to Kyler Murray yet. Now.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
One report that is blowing my mind with quarterbacks here
is per Albert Breer, the Colts offer Daniel Jones a
Sam Darnold like contract, so in the range of three years,
one hundred and five or one hundred million, three years,
one hundred million camps Jones camp countered with the deal
that would get him in.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
It fifty five zero fifty million bucks a year.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I'm a little surprised by this one, buck, because certainly
I just sort of checked off Daniel Jones to the
Colts as done in my mind like this, only she
only moved. That makes sense if you're Shane Steiken. You've
had success with quarterbacks that have a good understanding mobility
to get rid of the ball quickly, You like to
use tight ends, all these different things that worked in
Philly that I thought we're gonna work with Daniel Jones.
That did work for much of last season with Daniel Jones.
(15:52):
Then he gets catastrophically hurt with the leg and the achilles,
and now all of a sudden he's gonna miss most
of this year.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Right, So if you're.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Paying him a fifty million dollars per year, I guess
I thought three years, one hundred million dollars, that feels
kind of right, knowing that he's not going to play much,
if at all, in his first year, so you're really
kind of paying him for the first year for nothing,
and then you gotta locked him for a couple of
years after that. That makes sense if he's coming in
at fifty million per year and he's not even likely
going to play much in that first season, that's an
(16:22):
astronomical amount of money for Daniel Jones.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, but it's still below average. I mean, that's that's
the thing that really jumps off the page, is that
the average top five, or rather the average of the
top five contracts in the NFL at the quarterback position
or fifty six. You know, that's just the money that
they're making. And I'm not saying that Daniel Jones has
I don't want to say a leg to stand on,
(16:45):
because that feels a bit cruel. Andrew sit, No, that's
not what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I mean, I don't mind it like he's got a leg.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I mean he does have the legs, yes, they just the.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Having no quarterback would be the Achilles heel of the
Colts this year.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Oh come on, I could go all day, thank you
you're welcome.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
No?
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Yeah, did you both just thank yourself and then say
you're welcome to yourself?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Correct? Correct?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I did?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yes, Yes, I did. It's kind of like bless you,
thank you all at once. I'm full Quinn and Williams
and media.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
At this point, I thanked myself and now you're welcomed myself,
and you know what, me enjoyed it so all across
the board, the audience of me and the performer of me,
and both sides of me fully enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So I'm all in. I'm all in, thank you, and
you're welcome.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Fully self involved as we work our way through.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
This morning, limp into the off season. Oh keep going
all day.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
So no, I mean no, you're not. Don't apologize to
me for things you're not actually sorry for. You know
what you did. My point is that his position is
that the market value he was playing like a top
five player prior to the injury. Now, obviously the injury
is the context of why the hell three years, one
(18:09):
hundred million dollars would make sense for a guy like
Daniel Jones, because that averages out to thirty three point three.
We are talking about a situation, though, where they were
the best team in the sport with him playing at
a reasonably high level.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Right, he was more of a.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Point guard in that system than anything else, more of
a cog than a driving force in that machine. But
still he made a world of difference for them. For
once in the last I don't know, ten to eleven years,
it looked like the Colts finally made a good decision
at quarterback in the post Andrew luck Era, and that
fortunately for Daniel Jones, it was going to give him
(18:46):
the opportunity to actually have the kind of success that
he never got to have or really never got that
close to in New York. Injuries happened. It's the state
of the league or the nature of the league. And
of course it's the worst case scenario for both the Colts,
who traded multiple first round picks to go get Sauce
Gardner prior to the injury and now are in a
(19:07):
situation where not only do they not have their long
term quarterback solution, but their viability into the future with
a roster that's built to win very much right now
is in question. I don't blame Daniel Jones for sticking
to his guns on this. You have to know your
worth and be steadfast in it, because there's only so
(19:30):
many opportunities that you're gonna have to make that kind
of money. And you might say, well, what's the difference
to a millionaire? Again, these are Champagne problems for the audience,
who is not making anywhere between thirty three million dollars
a year and fifty million dollars a year. The way
that we're talking about. But that's a big golf, right
And if no matter what you do for a living,
to take less than you know yourself to be worth
(19:52):
at a premium position in whatever your job or industry is,
that's all Daniel Jones and his representation are trying to
do here. Now, is it the right decision given that
he has no real security on that transition tag. I
guess we'll just find out. But he's he's gambling on
himself yet again after doing it last year, and unfortunately,
(20:13):
you know, halfway through the season comes up snake eyes.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
It's very Kirk Cousins like he understands his value and
he understands his leverage. I think the most important point
that you just made is that the Colts did give
up two first rounders for Sauce Gardner, which at the
time was widely regarded as a positive move by many.
I'll give my co host Anya who Sports Daily Caroline
Fenton a lot of credit at the time.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
She looked at it and said, boy.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
You better be sure you're in a super Bowl window
if you're giving up two first rounders, because you don't
have a clear pot to a quarterback now. So if
you're the Colts. I guess the question is going to become,
do you want to pay Daniel Jones fifty million dollars
a year? Or do you want to say no, thank
you Daniel Jones and then go back to the well.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And if you go back to the well, who are
you bringing in?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
This is where it gets really hairy for the Colts,
because I do believe that Daniel Jones is a better
option than anybody else they're going to bring in on
a one year rental, like what are they gonna rent
Kirk Cousins for a year? But even if they do
that next year, they don't have a first round draft pick.
They don't have a first round draft pick this year,
They don't have a clear path to getting a quarterback
anytime in the next couple of years.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
So they don't need a one or two year rental.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
They need a guy that's gonna come in for the
next three years and sort of stewart the ship.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So is that Kyler Murray like, would you rather have
Daniel Jones?
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
At least the people that I've talked to and the
people that I.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Think I respect around the league to cover the league
have made it clear Kyler Murray does not believe he
is a one year transitional quarterback. He is going to
go somewhere where he believes he can be a starter
for the foreseeable future. So if you're the Colts, are
you going to get into a bidding war for Kyler Murray?
I can't believe there's gonna be one, but yeah, I
mean it feels like you're gonna get into a bidding
war with Malik Willis, thinking that you can actually go
(21:51):
out and replicate like your coaching staff is so good
that it wasn't Daniel Jones, it was Malik Willis. So
I don't know, because I've said that repeatedly and I
think it's worth echoing here, Buck that this year is
a terrible, terrible.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Offseason to make your team better.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
It's just if you need a quarterback right now, there
is one option in the draft that's widely regarded as
a future starter. Everything else we'll see ty Simpson maybe
over time. If you're the Colts, you don't have a
reasonable shot at ty Simpson. You don't have a draft
pick to even get you anywhere near one of the
quarterbacks next year, And this year's quarterback class is going
(22:29):
to give you what, Kirk cousins to a tongue of
a low Kyler Murray, I don't love any of those options.
I feel like Daniel Jones camp is walking in saying
I want half Eddie because they know they have all
the leverage here, like they know the Colts don't have
a better option.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You're gonna have to Overbay to keep what you know.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, and that's I mean.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Fans won't like that because it's one of those situations
where you're telling them no, your player is not going
to do what's in the best interest of the team,
necessarily just for the sake of doing what's in the best.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Interest of the team.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
That's where the divide tends to happen, right where in
a lot of situations, you would look at fans or
anybody who takes issue with a player trying to maximize
their business leverage and say, yeah, but wohen you do
the same thing if you were in a similar situation,
because the vast majority of us all work for somebody, right,
(23:30):
most of us are employees, as opposed to business owners
who look at our particular situation and say, no, you
pay me what I'm worth or I will find another
opportunity that gets me closer to what I'm worth. But
in you know, that works against the very nature of
what it is to be a fan, where you're not
rooting for individuals over the organization. You're not rooting for
(23:52):
your players over the laundry that they wear. Right in
that the famous line about laundry. I think that in
the situation for the Colts, I mean, who feels like that,
like twenty twenty six is a bigger waste of time
for than Indianapolis. I just don't know what you grab onto,
(24:14):
what you latch onto if you're a Colts fan to say, no,
this is the reason that I'm going to watch my
team in twenty twenty six, which sucks to say, because.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
They have fun players, right.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
They have Tyler Warren, they have Jonathan Taylor, who still
remarkably is under thirty years of age and one of
the best running backs in football. They've got an offensive
line unit, They've got some fun players on defense these
last couple of years that they've added. They just they
they don't have a quarterback and have put themselves in
this position because of one bad luck and two of
(24:44):
their circumstances around the situation before the bad luck befell them.
There's really nothing you can say to a Colts fan
that is going to be a reasonable argument about, yeah,
you should be able to compete in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
You can you can talk about the.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
What's the word the repeat offenders as far as basement
of the league type of situations. We talked about the Raiders,
Titans fans and Raiders fans, I think have some hope
for the first time in a while. Whether it's cam Ward,
whether it's the idea for Nando Mendoza. How soon that
comes to fruition in Vegas remains to be seen. It
sounds like their intention fits is not to play him
(25:25):
right away, but you know, best laid plans go sideways
as soon as you start to feel a little pressure
in those situations. But Cleveland and New York are similar
right where there's just not a lot of hope to
be had around the jets of the Browns at this
particular point in time. But even then, I still think,
(25:45):
I still think it would feel worse maybe to be
a Dolphins fan, a Dolphins fan or a Colts fan
right now, because you're looking at your roster and just
being like, what even do they do here. Not even
the best armchair general manager with the wildest fantasy abilities
to put together a Madden type of roster could come
up with a solution that that's gonna make those teams
(26:07):
meaningfully important this coming season. And that sucks if you're
a fan.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
But I guess my clap back to that would be,
I mean, this is a Colts team that, my god,
they finished last year eight and nine. We're talking about
them like they were just hot garbage.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
They weren't. They finished last year eight and nine. They
were right on the cusp of being able.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
To be able to make that. Sorry, yeah, they finished
eight nine. I want to make sure I had that right.
They finished eight nine.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
They started eight and two.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, that's fair. I mean, that is a epic losing streak.
They also lost their quarterback, right, So, how many teams
right now? If it were the Titans and the Titans
started eight and two and cam Ward got hurt in
that process, God forbid, knock on Wood, and they went
on this just rabbit hole of losing games at the
end of the year, you know that your local show
(26:55):
would be all fans saying, hey man, once we get healthy,
we're gonna be just fine.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I don't know that it's that simple like that.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Look, the salary cap situation is already difficult for the Colts.
It's part of the reason that they haven't been able
to resite Alec Pierce. Who's gonna go out and test
the market. Alec Pierce looks like he's going to get
a massive amount of money from somebody. They've got to
figure out the Daniel Jones situation. You're right, They've got
some contracts that they're gonna have to work out. They're
gonna have to figure some things out monetarily. I don't
(27:24):
necessarily like the culture were so good early in the
season and then it fell apart. How much of that
was Daniel Jones had a little cold streak and then
was very hurt. How much of that was Daniel Jones
maybe got exposed. I don't know the answer to that,
but I think that if you're a Colts fan, the
one thing you don't want to do is just give
up on everything that last year felt like because your
(27:44):
quarterback got hurt, Like, you don't want to have to
go all the way back to suddenly having Philip Rivers
as an actual quarterback option, like then you're really screwed.
If I'm a coltsman, I want Daniel Jones back and
I don't care about the.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Money, no, for sure.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
But it's not that simple, right because last year doesn't matter.
Last year is completely irrelevant to this year's success or
twenty twenty seven or whatever that looks like. And Fitzy,
I have covered a situation like this in twenty twenty two.
The Titans started, Mike Frabele was the coach, Ryan Tannehill
was still the quarterback, Derrick Henry was still here. They
(28:19):
started seven and three, seven and four, went to Philadelphia.
That was the year that they traded AJ Brown to
the Eagles. AJ and the Eagles just absolutely put it
on them and they went and they finished the season
on a seven game losing streak. Now Tannehill got hurt
in the middle of that. That was Malik Willis's rookie year.
It's a lot different world. But we're talking about Malik
(28:41):
Willis getting ready to getting ready to hit free agency
and likely cash in as one of the best, if
not the best, available options at the quarterback position in
free agency this year. But they they it felt it
felt as hopeless a situation as any that I can remember,
(29:02):
mostly because I've never seen. They just didn't have answers.
They could not figure out any way to stop the bleeding.
They tried changing quarterbacks. They brought in Josh Dobbs, they
started him in the final couple of games of the season.
They were a strip, sack, fumble recovery touchdown away from
still winning the division in Week eighteen against the Jags,
and it just completely turned on its head, right. There
was nothing that they could do to stave off both
(29:23):
the bad luck and the circumstances that their roster was in.
And you went into twenty twenty three not thinking that,
for example, Mike Vrabel was going to get fired, and
that was the last run for those Titans teams that
were good under Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill and everything.
You know, the band broke up after that at that point.
I think they finished six to eleven, if I'm not mistaken,
(29:45):
in twenty twenty three. But they kept trying to hang
on as an organization, as a coaching staff. Frankly, they
kept trying to hang on to no, there's enough here
that we can continue to get this right. And they
just couldn't get passed. So many the mistakes that had
put them in that situation. Also, their drafting had been horrendous,
so they were not going to be able to dig themselves.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Out of that hole.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
You can't assign much value of we did this last year.
We're not that far away because you immediately reset the
board to zero as soon as you start a new season.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I just I'm trying to find the right angle for
hope because certainly, if I'm coming off of an eight
to nine season and I'm in a prove it now,
I think you and I agree that the Indianapolis Colts
are sort of out of runway, and even the Orsay
daughters made it clear that the expectations weren't met. Right,
So I think that there is some element of to me,
(30:40):
Chris Ballard, who is the longest ten ured GM in
the NFL to not have a playoff appearance, wildly Chris
Ballard and Shane Steiken or bull sort of up against it.
I don't love the idea of going into a season
up against it, coming off eight to nine, knowing that
everybody expects at this point some sort of a step forward,
some sort of proof that the organization is headed in
(31:00):
the right direction moving forward and doing that with Malik
Willis is my quarterback, Like I keep going back to
Maleak because there's just no proof of concept for Malik Willis.
Like I have a hard time if I'm sitting here
today and I run the Colts and I have to
decide between Daniel Jones, Malik Willis, and Kyler Murray. I
would rather have Daniel Jones in that situation. I just
I'm not a huge Kyler Murray believer, and I don't
(31:23):
think that there's enough proof of concept in Malik Willis
in any way, shape or form to make me comfortable
betting my ability to pay my mortgage on that man
to be my starting quarterback moving forward. He has like
a hundred passes. What are we talking about here? So
to me, Buck, I look squarely at it and say, man,
if I'm up against it, and you know, I got
to go home and look at little Timmy and little
(31:44):
Jennifer and figure out how we're gonna have dinner tonight,
Like how are we supporting our family? I'll overpay for
Daniel Jones if that's what I have to do to
make sure I keep food on my table, because I'd
rather have Daniel Jones than the unknown of Malik Willis
or the known and I think not worth it of
Kyler Murray. So it's a weird situation because I hear you,
this is not ideal for the Colts to have to
(32:06):
turn around and overpay Daniel Jones. But even less ideal
is walking into this thing with no I mean, they've
given Anthony richards In the opportunity to shop for a
trade too, so like they have no first round pick,
I just don't know what they're going to do to
get into range of a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Kyler Murray raises some questions, go ahead, go.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
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(32:47):
subject to location.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
See store for details.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, I mean we're you know, who's going to get
a good night's sleep at some point, Kyler Murray because
he's going to get a bag. The question is where
and what's it mean for one Super Bowl contender. We'll
tell you next these book on Fitz Bucking Fits on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
It's two pros and a cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio, but it's a bucking Fits takeover, Buck Rising
Jason Fitz hanging out with you, trying to figure out
what to make of the soon to be revolving toward
the quarterback position and the ultimate one man's trash is
another man's treasure, because it certainly seems like this year
there are more quarterback needy teams that just are going
(33:37):
to be left with the.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Four a m end of the night of the bar.
I guess that's where we'll go for the evening. Like
gets it.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
There aren't a lot of great options, Buck, There just
aren't a lot of like this is this.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Great amathy at the at the end of the night.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
That's that's that's not just after the bar, that's after the.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
H what do they call them after after party? After
the after party.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yeah, you went to the after party afterwards because you
were sure that there'd be some you know, maybe you'd
find your soulmate at the after party, because since you
didn't find them at the bar, and then you look
around after a while and you're like, well, toua, it
is like, I mean, I don't want to like, I mean,
just that's where we are, right. You just look around,
you like this one of those things where you're sitting
across from the bar and you do the nod to
(34:22):
Tua and Tua looks around. It's like, I guess like that,
I just would You're gonna have both sides being like, fine,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
I'll be the Jets quarterback. And I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
The easy answer is for how many teams this year
need a quarterback and for how expensive this market is
gonna get quickly.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah, No, that's that's about where we're at.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
It's who's left who is left for for these quarterback
needy teams where there's about eight of them, including the
Cardinals who just released or will release Kyler Murray officially
on Wednesday, And that's kind of the the I'm gonna
know that will have to wait until Wednesday. There will
be things, you know, discussed well in advance of that,
(35:06):
as we work our way through the legal tampering period
and things of this nature of the course the next
two days ahead of free agency in the new league year,
officially beginning Wednesday afternoon. But Malik willis here and Kyler
Murray at the top of the quarterback soon to be
free agent market. You have said many times that you
(35:31):
have heard Kyler Murray will seek a longer term deal,
not just a one year, proven type of situation. And
my understanding just on the on the the nature of
the release is that Arizona's basically going to allow him,
based on the money that they're having to eat, to
play for vet minimum somewhere else. You remember Russ's deal
(35:52):
with the Steelers after the Broncos had to basically buy
him out. Now, obviously that's you know, one of the
biggest buyouts in NFL history, Russell Will and so Kyler
is not quite there, but he's still going to have
some financial freedom to do a one term, a one
year deal, still make his money from Arizona and not
charge his next team an outrageous amount of money, Which
(36:13):
is why I think it might end up being a
shorter term situation for a better opportunity, don't you. I mean,
if you're Kyler, let's just talk about the people representing Kyler. Okay,
I think Eric Berkhart's agent if you are his representation.
Are you saying, Kyler, yeah, you got to paid a
(36:34):
from Arizona on the way out the door. You can
probably cash in here in a meaningful way if you
want to, but you're probably going to have to go
to one of these bottom feeder teams. But I've got
Minnesota here that'll go for it on a one year
deal if they don't have to pay a whole lot
of money. If you can work for somewhere around vet
minimum based on the money that you're already making in Arizona,
(36:58):
we think that might be the better opportunity for you.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Here.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Are you advising, Kyler Murray you're a hypothetical client to
take the top of the free agent market money this
year where he will be the best available quarterback as
soon as he becomes available. Or are you saying, we
think as long as you believe in yourself and we
believe in you, that you can have better opportunities to
(37:22):
both win real football games and then cash in on
the other side of that after you've done your one
year Onimum in Minnesota or I guess Pittsburgh is theoretically
an option here as well, though that seems not as
much discussed or maybe not even a fit for what
Mike McCarthy wants to do.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I can't imagine that marriage.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Look for me, if I wrap to Kyler Murray, my
answer is simple, Kyler, We're going to play for VET
minimum this year on a deal in LA to go
to the.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Rams to be the backup quarterback.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Because what I get is I get a year out
of the spotlight where I'm working with Sean mcvagh, which
is automatically going to make people just presume that I
got better because I had a cup of coffee near
Sean McVay. But also, Matt Stafford is eight hundred and
seventy three years old for a starting quarterback. It gives
me a shot to go into that organization, learn that offense,
get real comfortable with it, have them get comfortable with me,
(38:16):
and be the successor to Matt Stafford. I have a
real shot at winning. That is my long term situation.
By getting in the building, like if if money is
no object, and for Kyler Murray at this point, it
certainly doesn't appear like it would have to be an object.
If money is no object, then what I want to
do is I want to put myself in the best
situation to win the games that I want to win,
(38:37):
and be on the best team that I can be,
and then make the next stage of my career as
profitable as possible.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
To me, That all.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Screams Rams right, like you could go to Minnesota. Maybe
Minnesota makes more sense that the Vikings certainly.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Are front runner on it.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
I struggle if I'm the Vikings, I just I struggle
to see this, Like you're giving up on JJ after
ten it's a lot of difficulty the Rams, they have
a starting quarterback, So like, hey, you're just coming in
there and you're gonna just work your way in from Minnesota.
You're gonna be fighting for the job. Do you want
to go somewhere where you're fighting for the job? Man,
(39:13):
I just don't know how that's gonna work for him.
And if if Minnesota signs him to a multi year there,
then Minnesota's given up on Jjjj's gonna go somewhere else.
He's gonna be Anthony Richards in part two. They're gonna
let him shop. I would think let him shop a
trade after ten games. If they sign Kyler to a
three year deal, they don't need JJ McCarthy anymore. But
I so I struggle to make it make business sense
for the Vikings. I think it makes business and football
(39:35):
sense for Kyler, Murray and the Rams all at once
because it could fill a future need.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
So are you actually giving up on JJ McCarthy though,
if you do the one year deal, or are you
just saying JJ, we just want you to get right.
We want you to have the opportunity to actually learn
and grow here. We're going to give you the opportunity
to continue to develop in a way that most quarterbacks
heading it. It's kind of crazy that he's already heading
into year three. But we don't want we don't want
(40:02):
to bail on you yet. But we understand that you're
not that you're not quite ready in our estimation. Now
he may say, well to hell with you, I'm I
think I'm ready. I don't want to cause myself an
opportunity to cash in uh in on my on my payday.
I don't think that that's uh I don't think that
that's viable. And and JJ McCarthy may not agree with
that particular tactic, and we're talking in hypotheticals here. There's
(40:25):
nothing to say that Minnesota would actually go down that way.
I just don't think that's giving up on him.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Well, if they do a one year deal with Kyler,
that's not If they do a multi year with Kyler,
that's where it gets really complicated, because a multi year deal,
to me, is where you're saying I've given up on JJ.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
What's that mean for the rest of the quarterbacks. We'll
tell you next on Fox Sports Radio.
FM picks has become a mantra for the Los Angeles Rams,
and we assign it to at least part of their success.
But what if I told you that while the statement
feels correct, it actually isn't. That isn't their approach, even
though that's what we all love to say. It's bucking
fits On Fox Sports Radio, Buck Rising Jason Fitz. This
(00:23):
comes off on the heels of the Rams executing in
another trade. For the ninth time in the last ten years.
They've traded away their first round draft pick, Trent McDuffie
and gets traded.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
To the Rams.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
They also give him a massive contract, So the Rams
turn around, spend money, and they secure the back end
of their defense. They've been aggressive in doing so. But Buck,
you have opened my eyes because I look at f them.
But this is part of the process of looking in
the mirror and being honest about where your team is.
I think when you are a bad team, you have
to approach the draft one way. When you are a
(00:53):
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 first rounders, but that doesn't mean that they
are out on the draft as a core tenant and
(01:15):
how they build their team.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
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 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 producer on the
(01:39):
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,
(02:00):
that's where the bulk 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 it noon eastern today? I
(02:23):
believe eastern? Yes, Okay, noon eastern today is when legal
tampering officially begins. Even though I mean to your point,
fitsy 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 it's done on the front end. But the
(02:43):
rams have been excellent, excellent in their process and how
they find and identify talent to make sure that they
can And it's not even f them picks. It's just
a different usage of the picks. They are using their
first round picks differently than the vast majority of teams.
They are not hoarding them. They are not you know,
(03:05):
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 gonna 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,
(03:26):
that'd probably make a difference between us going to a
Super Bowl and petering 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
(03:48):
McDuffie deal.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
While I think it ends up being.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
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
that they're going to fix it. But at least they
know that they've gotten a proven player to come in
(04:13):
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
that approach? Well, not every team has the same process
that the RAMS do. Not every team is in the
(04:33):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Right around there, Matt Stafford.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
It makes the math a lot easier if you get
that first one right, because that is the foundation of
your team, and then it allows you to continue to
address those things because the quarterback has lessened your learning
curve for how many other things, how many different you
can take it this thing and understanding that, yeah, they
just value first round pick picks differently than your average
(05:06):
NFL team does.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, when you can find Puka Nakua in the fifth round,
you know, when you can bring in constantly guys that
Kyra 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
(05:28):
career is focused 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
(05:51):
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,
or fifth round, it gets really hard to cover.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Like I used to.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
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 round pick
again in Day three, I need you to tell me
who the hell.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
This guy is because I've never heard of this guy.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I used to yell 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 of this Great teams
(06:37):
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,
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,
if you are a bad team, well again, the draft
(06:59):
doesn't it easier as you go on, it gets tougher.
So if you're a bat 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.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Right in the third round.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
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. 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.
(07:28):
That's how bad they got it. And nobody 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
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
(07:50):
first round er, 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.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
The day that you fix your team, and it just isn't.
I know, it was last year.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
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.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Worth keeping will be kept.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
There are one or two players that are going to
come out of this year's free agency that are really.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Worth breaking the bank. For the rest.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
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 overpay because.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
You got to have somebody on your team. But it
doesn't fix things.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
The real fix is in April, and it's not day
one of the draft, it's day two and day three.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Well, and we've dubbed that the we suck luxury tax
here in Tennessee when you're all fash 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 drag, you
(09:00):
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 here. With the Titans, they
have the second most cap space in the NFL, behind
(09:23):
the Raiders, at least heading into 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
maybe were not who were not drafted by the current
general manager, but who are absolutely essential to retain. It's
(09:44):
right guard Peter Skoronski 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 Robbinson and maybe they get
into the market for Tyler Linderbaum at the top of
the center market this year. Their priority, every team's priority.
(10:07):
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 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
(10:29):
runway necessarily 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 3 (10:44):
Yeah, guys can be.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
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 that you do. Buying players
is wrong, but they're paying for players in ways that
they might not otherwise have done because all of a sudden,
(11:07):
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?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
You know? Five and twelve or whatever it.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Is, and you're just saying, you know, just give me
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 the last couple of years.
(11:44):
In the case of the Raiders, it's it's felt like
quite some time, partly because of the division that they
play in. But still you understand like you're you're dealing
with circumstances and a lot of situations that are just
beyond your control.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And owners don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Now it is it is also wild again, Like salary
cap space is huge for a lot of these teams.
There are teams like the Raiders that this year have
to spend a ton of money to hit the salary
cap floor. So remember that, and they don't have players.
Every three years you have to average spending ninety percent
of the salary cap. That's part of the CBA. So
(12:17):
the Raiders have to go out and spend. According to
some reports, close to one hundred million dollars this offseason,
no matter what, just to hit the rolling average on
the three year salary cap floor. So now you go
into it like you mentioned Tyler Linderbaum the center. Like
when we start talking about how much some teams are
gonna pay these guys, what we don't know is a man.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I gotta spend a bunch of money, got to spend it.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Now, might as well front load the hell out of
this contract, because my god, I'm gonna go get him.
So from centers to players you actually care about, We're
gonna walk around some of the league and we're gonna
figure out who these quarterbacks are gonna go to that
are actually gonna be saviors. Where's the next Sam Darnold?
And why is it not gonna end up in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Be sure to catch live editions of two Pro Was
In a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington,
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Speaker 6 (13:13):
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I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
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Speaker 7 (13:24):
My wife wanted to kick me out of the house.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
It's called Stegotson Company Live, which is available in podcast
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Speaker 7 (13:34):
Some of the biggest names in sports, a lot of
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A lot of interact shit, guys not taking themselves too seriously.
Those are just some of the things that you can
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So listen to ste Gotson Company Live and our original podcast.
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Speaker 6 (13:56):
And review Stu Gotson Company and God Bless Football.
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Speaker 6 (14:03):
All of those out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast
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Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's a bucking Fits takeover a two Pros and a
Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio. And free agency
in the NFL essentially opens today. Legal tampering opens, which
means you'll hear a lot of reports of teams agreeing
with players starting anytime after new NEAs turn These agreements
can be made again if you don't know this, They've
changed the rule this year so every team can zoom
(14:35):
with five free agents total a maximum of one hour, presume,
So that could push things back a few hours, depending
on who wants to zoom with whom. But one of
the big things we'll have our eyes on a quarterback
and which quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Are going to move where? What's it going to mean
for the league?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I want to remind everybody too, Kyler Murray will be
cut by the Cardinals. We all know that that doesn't
actually happen until Wednesday, so that is a curiosity in
the timing. They don't cut him until the beginning of
the league year, which means I would expect while we'll
hear more reports.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Today, they can't really be talking to Kyler Murray yet. Now.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
One report that is blowing my mind with quarterbacks here
is per Albert Breer, the Colts offer Daniel Jones a
Sam Darnold like contract, so in the range of three years,
one hundred and five or one hundred million, three years,
one hundred million camps Jones camp countered with the deal
that would get him in.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
It fifty five zero fifty million bucks a year.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
I'm a little surprised by this one, buck, because certainly
I just sort of checked off Daniel Jones to the
Colts as done in my mind like this, only she
only moved. That makes sense if you're Shane Steiken. You've
had success with quarterbacks that have a good understanding mobility
to get rid of the ball quickly, You like to
use tight ends, all these different things that worked in
Philly that I thought we're gonna work with Daniel Jones.
That did work for much of last season with Daniel Jones.
(15:52):
Then he gets catastrophically hurt with the leg and the achilles,
and now all of a sudden he's gonna miss most
of this year.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Right, So if you're.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Paying him a fifty million dollars per year, I guess
I thought three years, one hundred million dollars, that feels
kind of right, knowing that he's not going to play much,
if at all, in his first year, so you're really
kind of paying him for the first year for nothing,
and then you gotta locked him for a couple of
years after that. That makes sense if he's coming in
at fifty million per year and he's not even likely
going to play much in that first season, that's an
(16:22):
astronomical amount of money for Daniel Jones.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, but it's still below average. I mean, that's that's
the thing that really jumps off the page, is that
the average top five, or rather the average of the
top five contracts in the NFL at the quarterback position
or fifty six. You know, that's just the money that
they're making. And I'm not saying that Daniel Jones has
I don't want to say a leg to stand on,
(16:45):
because that feels a bit cruel. Andrew sit, No, that's
not what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I mean, I don't mind it like he's got a leg.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I mean he does have the legs, yes, they just the.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Having no quarterback would be the Achilles heel of the
Colts this year.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Oh come on, I could go all day, thank you
you're welcome.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
No?
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Yeah, did you both just thank yourself and then say
you're welcome to yourself?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Correct? Correct?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I did?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yes, Yes, I did. It's kind of like bless you,
thank you all at once. I'm full Quinn and Williams
and media.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
At this point, I thanked myself and now you're welcomed myself,
and you know what, me enjoyed it so all across
the board, the audience of me and the performer of me,
and both sides of me fully enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So I'm all in. I'm all in, thank you, and
you're welcome.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Fully self involved as we work our way through.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
This morning, limp into the off season. Oh keep going
all day.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
So no, I mean no, you're not. Don't apologize to
me for things you're not actually sorry for. You know
what you did. My point is that his position is
that the market value he was playing like a top
five player prior to the injury. Now, obviously the injury
is the context of why the hell three years, one
(18:09):
hundred million dollars would make sense for a guy like
Daniel Jones, because that averages out to thirty three point three.
We are talking about a situation, though, where they were
the best team in the sport with him playing at
a reasonably high level.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Right, he was more of a.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Point guard in that system than anything else, more of
a cog than a driving force in that machine. But
still he made a world of difference for them. For
once in the last I don't know, ten to eleven years,
it looked like the Colts finally made a good decision
at quarterback in the post Andrew luck Era, and that
fortunately for Daniel Jones, it was going to give him
(18:46):
the opportunity to actually have the kind of success that
he never got to have or really never got that
close to in New York. Injuries happened. It's the state
of the league or the nature of the league. And
of course it's the worst case scenario for both the Colts,
who traded multiple first round picks to go get Sauce
Gardner prior to the injury and now are in a
(19:07):
situation where not only do they not have their long
term quarterback solution, but their viability into the future with
a roster that's built to win very much right now
is in question. I don't blame Daniel Jones for sticking
to his guns on this. You have to know your
worth and be steadfast in it, because there's only so
(19:30):
many opportunities that you're gonna have to make that kind
of money. And you might say, well, what's the difference
to a millionaire? Again, these are Champagne problems for the audience,
who is not making anywhere between thirty three million dollars
a year and fifty million dollars a year. The way
that we're talking about. But that's a big golf, right
And if no matter what you do for a living,
to take less than you know yourself to be worth
(19:52):
at a premium position in whatever your job or industry is,
that's all Daniel Jones and his representation are trying to
do here. Now, is it the right decision given that
he has no real security on that transition tag. I
guess we'll just find out. But he's he's gambling on
himself yet again after doing it last year, and unfortunately,
(20:13):
you know, halfway through the season comes up snake eyes.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
It's very Kirk Cousins like he understands his value and
he understands his leverage. I think the most important point
that you just made is that the Colts did give
up two first rounders for Sauce Gardner, which at the
time was widely regarded as a positive move by many.
I'll give my co host Anya who Sports Daily Caroline
Fenton a lot of credit at the time.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
She looked at it and said, boy.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
You better be sure you're in a super Bowl window
if you're giving up two first rounders, because you don't
have a clear pot to a quarterback now. So if
you're the Colts. I guess the question is going to become,
do you want to pay Daniel Jones fifty million dollars
a year? Or do you want to say no, thank
you Daniel Jones and then go back to the well.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And if you go back to the well, who are
you bringing in?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
This is where it gets really hairy for the Colts,
because I do believe that Daniel Jones is a better
option than anybody else they're going to bring in on
a one year rental, like what are they gonna rent
Kirk Cousins for a year? But even if they do
that next year, they don't have a first round draft pick.
They don't have a first round draft pick this year,
They don't have a clear path to getting a quarterback
anytime in the next couple of years.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
So they don't need a one or two year rental.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
They need a guy that's gonna come in for the
next three years and sort of stewart the ship.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
So is that Kyler Murray like, would you rather have
Daniel Jones?
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
At least the people that I've talked to and the
people that I.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Think I respect around the league to cover the league
have made it clear Kyler Murray does not believe he
is a one year transitional quarterback. He is going to
go somewhere where he believes he can be a starter
for the foreseeable future. So if you're the Colts, are
you going to get into a bidding war for Kyler Murray?
I can't believe there's gonna be one, but yeah, I
mean it feels like you're gonna get into a bidding
war with Malik Willis, thinking that you can actually go
(21:51):
out and replicate like your coaching staff is so good
that it wasn't Daniel Jones, it was Malik Willis. So
I don't know, because I've said that repeatedly and I
think it's worth echoing here, Buck that this year is
a terrible, terrible.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Offseason to make your team better.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
It's just if you need a quarterback right now, there
is one option in the draft that's widely regarded as
a future starter. Everything else we'll see ty Simpson maybe
over time. If you're the Colts, you don't have a
reasonable shot at ty Simpson. You don't have a draft
pick to even get you anywhere near one of the
quarterbacks next year, And this year's quarterback class is going
(22:29):
to give you what, Kirk cousins to a tongue of
a low Kyler Murray, I don't love any of those options.
I feel like Daniel Jones camp is walking in saying
I want half Eddie because they know they have all
the leverage here, like they know the Colts don't have
a better option.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
You're gonna have to Overbay to keep what you know.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yeah, and that's I mean.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Fans won't like that because it's one of those situations
where you're telling them no, your player is not going
to do what's in the best interest of the team,
necessarily just for the sake of doing what's in the best.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Interest of the team.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
That's where the divide tends to happen, right where in
a lot of situations, you would look at fans or
anybody who takes issue with a player trying to maximize
their business leverage and say, yeah, but wohen you do
the same thing if you were in a similar situation,
because the vast majority of us all work for somebody, right,
(23:30):
most of us are employees, as opposed to business owners
who look at our particular situation and say, no, you
pay me what I'm worth or I will find another
opportunity that gets me closer to what I'm worth. But
in you know, that works against the very nature of
what it is to be a fan, where you're not
rooting for individuals over the organization. You're not rooting for
(23:52):
your players over the laundry that they wear. Right in
that the famous line about laundry. I think that in
the situation for the Colts, I mean, who feels like that,
like twenty twenty six is a bigger waste of time
for than Indianapolis. I just don't know what you grab onto,
(24:14):
what you latch onto if you're a Colts fan to say, no,
this is the reason that I'm going to watch my
team in twenty twenty six, which sucks to say, because.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
They have fun players, right.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
They have Tyler Warren, they have Jonathan Taylor, who still
remarkably is under thirty years of age and one of
the best running backs in football. They've got an offensive
line unit, They've got some fun players on defense these
last couple of years that they've added. They just they
they don't have a quarterback and have put themselves in
this position because of one bad luck and two of
(24:44):
their circumstances around the situation before the bad luck befell them.
There's really nothing you can say to a Colts fan
that is going to be a reasonable argument about, yeah,
you should be able to compete in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
You can you can talk about the.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
What's the word the repeat offenders as far as basement
of the league type of situations. We talked about the Raiders,
Titans fans and Raiders fans, I think have some hope
for the first time in a while. Whether it's cam Ward,
whether it's the idea for Nando Mendoza. How soon that
comes to fruition in Vegas remains to be seen. It
sounds like their intention fits is not to play him
(25:25):
right away, but you know, best laid plans go sideways
as soon as you start to feel a little pressure
in those situations. But Cleveland and New York are similar
right where there's just not a lot of hope to
be had around the jets of the Browns at this
particular point in time. But even then, I still think,
(25:45):
I still think it would feel worse maybe to be
a Dolphins fan, a Dolphins fan or a Colts fan
right now, because you're looking at your roster and just
being like, what even do they do here. Not even
the best armchair general manager with the wildest fantasy abilities
to put together a Madden type of roster could come
up with a solution that that's gonna make those teams
(26:07):
meaningfully important this coming season. And that sucks if you're
a fan.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
But I guess my clap back to that would be,
I mean, this is a Colts team that, my god,
they finished last year eight and nine. We're talking about
them like they were just hot garbage.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
They weren't. They finished last year eight and nine. They
were right on the cusp of being able.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
To be able to make that. Sorry, yeah, they finished
eight nine. I want to make sure I had that right.
They finished eight nine.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
They started eight and two.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, that's fair. I mean, that is a epic losing streak.
They also lost their quarterback, right, So, how many teams
right now? If it were the Titans and the Titans
started eight and two and cam Ward got hurt in
that process, God forbid, knock on Wood, and they went
on this just rabbit hole of losing games at the
end of the year, you know that your local show
(26:55):
would be all fans saying, hey man, once we get healthy,
we're gonna be just fine.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I don't know that it's that simple like that.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Look, the salary cap situation is already difficult for the Colts.
It's part of the reason that they haven't been able
to resite Alec Pierce. Who's gonna go out and test
the market. Alec Pierce looks like he's going to get
a massive amount of money from somebody. They've got to
figure out the Daniel Jones situation. You're right, They've got
some contracts that they're gonna have to work out. They're
gonna have to figure some things out monetarily. I don't
(27:24):
necessarily like the culture were so good early in the
season and then it fell apart. How much of that
was Daniel Jones had a little cold streak and then
was very hurt. How much of that was Daniel Jones
maybe got exposed. I don't know the answer to that,
but I think that if you're a Colts fan, the
one thing you don't want to do is just give
up on everything that last year felt like because your
(27:44):
quarterback got hurt, Like, you don't want to have to
go all the way back to suddenly having Philip Rivers
as an actual quarterback option, like then you're really screwed.
If I'm a coltsman, I want Daniel Jones back and
I don't care about the.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Money, no, for sure.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
But it's not that simple, right because last year doesn't matter.
Last year is completely irrelevant to this year's success or
twenty twenty seven or whatever that looks like. And Fitzy,
I have covered a situation like this in twenty twenty two.
The Titans started, Mike Frabele was the coach, Ryan Tannehill
was still the quarterback, Derrick Henry was still here. They
(28:19):
started seven and three, seven and four, went to Philadelphia.
That was the year that they traded AJ Brown to
the Eagles. AJ and the Eagles just absolutely put it
on them and they went and they finished the season
on a seven game losing streak. Now Tannehill got hurt
in the middle of that. That was Malik Willis's rookie year.
It's a lot different world. But we're talking about Malik
(28:41):
Willis getting ready to getting ready to hit free agency
and likely cash in as one of the best, if
not the best, available options at the quarterback position in
free agency this year. But they they it felt it
felt as hopeless a situation as any that I can remember,
(29:02):
mostly because I've never seen. They just didn't have answers.
They could not figure out any way to stop the bleeding.
They tried changing quarterbacks. They brought in Josh Dobbs, they
started him in the final couple of games of the season.
They were a strip, sack, fumble recovery touchdown away from
still winning the division in Week eighteen against the Jags,
and it just completely turned on its head, right. There
was nothing that they could do to stave off both
(29:23):
the bad luck and the circumstances that their roster was in.
And you went into twenty twenty three not thinking that,
for example, Mike Vrabel was going to get fired, and
that was the last run for those Titans teams that
were good under Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill and everything.
You know, the band broke up after that at that point.
I think they finished six to eleven, if I'm not mistaken,
(29:45):
in twenty twenty three. But they kept trying to hang
on as an organization, as a coaching staff. Frankly, they
kept trying to hang on to no, there's enough here
that we can continue to get this right. And they
just couldn't get passed. So many the mistakes that had
put them in that situation. Also, their drafting had been horrendous,
so they were not going to be able to dig themselves.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Out of that hole.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
You can't assign much value of we did this last year.
We're not that far away because you immediately reset the
board to zero as soon as you start a new season.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I just I'm trying to find the right angle for
hope because certainly, if I'm coming off of an eight
to nine season and I'm in a prove it now,
I think you and I agree that the Indianapolis Colts
are sort of out of runway, and even the Orsay
daughters made it clear that the expectations weren't met. Right,
So I think that there is some element of to me,
(30:40):
Chris Ballard, who is the longest ten ured GM in
the NFL to not have a playoff appearance, wildly Chris
Ballard and Shane Steiken or bull sort of up against it.
I don't love the idea of going into a season
up against it, coming off eight to nine, knowing that
everybody expects at this point some sort of a step forward,
some sort of proof that the organization is headed in
(31:00):
the right direction moving forward and doing that with Malik
Willis is my quarterback, Like I keep going back to
Maleak because there's just no proof of concept for Malik Willis.
Like I have a hard time if I'm sitting here
today and I run the Colts and I have to
decide between Daniel Jones, Malik Willis, and Kyler Murray. I
would rather have Daniel Jones in that situation. I just
I'm not a huge Kyler Murray believer, and I don't
(31:23):
think that there's enough proof of concept in Malik Willis
in any way, shape or form to make me comfortable
betting my ability to pay my mortgage on that man
to be my starting quarterback moving forward. He has like
a hundred passes. What are we talking about here? So
to me, Buck, I look squarely at it and say, man,
if I'm up against it, and you know, I got
to go home and look at little Timmy and little
(31:44):
Jennifer and figure out how we're gonna have dinner tonight,
Like how are we supporting our family? I'll overpay for
Daniel Jones if that's what I have to do to
make sure I keep food on my table, because I'd
rather have Daniel Jones than the unknown of Malik Willis
or the known and I think not worth it of
Kyler Murray. So it's a weird situation because I hear you,
this is not ideal for the Colts to have to
(32:06):
turn around and overpay Daniel Jones. But even less ideal
is walking into this thing with no I mean, they've
given Anthony richards In the opportunity to shop for a
trade too, so like they have no first round pick,
I just don't know what they're going to do to
get into range of a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Kyler Murray raises some questions, go ahead, go.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
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(32:47):
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Speaker 3 (32:48):
See store for details.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, I mean we're you know, who's going to get
a good night's sleep at some point, Kyler Murray because
he's going to get a bag. The question is where
and what's it mean for one Super Bowl contender. We'll
tell you next these book on Fitz Bucking Fits on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
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Speaker 1 (33:14):
It's two pros and a cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio, but it's a bucking Fits takeover, Buck Rising
Jason Fitz hanging out with you, trying to figure out
what to make of the soon to be revolving toward
the quarterback position and the ultimate one man's trash is
another man's treasure, because it certainly seems like this year
there are more quarterback needy teams that just are going
(33:37):
to be left with the.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Four a m end of the night of the bar.
I guess that's where we'll go for the evening. Like
gets it.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
There aren't a lot of great options, Buck, There just
aren't a lot of like this is this.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Great amathy at the at the end of the night.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
That's that's that's not just after the bar, that's after the.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
H what do they call them after after party? After
the after party.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Yeah, you went to the after party afterwards because you
were sure that there'd be some you know, maybe you'd
find your soulmate at the after party, because since you
didn't find them at the bar, and then you look
around after a while and you're like, well, toua, it
is like, I mean, I don't want to like, I mean,
just that's where we are, right. You just look around,
you like this one of those things where you're sitting
across from the bar and you do the nod to
(34:22):
Tua and Tua looks around. It's like, I guess like that,
I just would You're gonna have both sides being like, fine,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
I'll be the Jets quarterback. And I don't know what.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
The easy answer is for how many teams this year
need a quarterback and for how expensive this market is
gonna get quickly.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah, No, that's that's about where we're at.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
It's who's left who is left for for these quarterback
needy teams where there's about eight of them, including the
Cardinals who just released or will release Kyler Murray officially
on Wednesday, And that's kind of the the I'm gonna
know that will have to wait until Wednesday. There will
be things, you know, discussed well in advance of that,
(35:06):
as we work our way through the legal tampering period
and things of this nature of the course the next
two days ahead of free agency in the new league year,
officially beginning Wednesday afternoon. But Malik willis here and Kyler
Murray at the top of the quarterback soon to be
free agent market. You have said many times that you
(35:31):
have heard Kyler Murray will seek a longer term deal,
not just a one year, proven type of situation. And
my understanding just on the on the the nature of
the release is that Arizona's basically going to allow him,
based on the money that they're having to eat, to
play for vet minimum somewhere else. You remember Russ's deal
(35:52):
with the Steelers after the Broncos had to basically buy
him out. Now, obviously that's you know, one of the
biggest buyouts in NFL history, Russell Will and so Kyler
is not quite there, but he's still going to have
some financial freedom to do a one term, a one
year deal, still make his money from Arizona and not
charge his next team an outrageous amount of money, Which
(36:13):
is why I think it might end up being a
shorter term situation for a better opportunity, don't you. I mean,
if you're Kyler, let's just talk about the people representing Kyler. Okay,
I think Eric Berkhart's agent if you are his representation.
Are you saying, Kyler, yeah, you got to paid a
(36:34):
from Arizona on the way out the door. You can
probably cash in here in a meaningful way if you
want to, but you're probably going to have to go
to one of these bottom feeder teams. But I've got
Minnesota here that'll go for it on a one year
deal if they don't have to pay a whole lot
of money. If you can work for somewhere around vet
minimum based on the money that you're already making in Arizona,
(36:58):
we think that might be the better opportunity for you.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Here.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Are you advising, Kyler Murray you're a hypothetical client to
take the top of the free agent market money this
year where he will be the best available quarterback as
soon as he becomes available. Or are you saying, we
think as long as you believe in yourself and we
believe in you, that you can have better opportunities to
(37:22):
both win real football games and then cash in on
the other side of that after you've done your one
year Onimum in Minnesota or I guess Pittsburgh is theoretically
an option here as well, though that seems not as
much discussed or maybe not even a fit for what
Mike McCarthy wants to do.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I can't imagine that marriage.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Look for me, if I wrap to Kyler Murray, my
answer is simple, Kyler, We're going to play for VET
minimum this year on a deal in LA to go
to the.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Rams to be the backup quarterback.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Because what I get is I get a year out
of the spotlight where I'm working with Sean mcvagh, which
is automatically going to make people just presume that I
got better because I had a cup of coffee near
Sean McVay. But also, Matt Stafford is eight hundred and
seventy three years old for a starting quarterback. It gives
me a shot to go into that organization, learn that offense,
get real comfortable with it, have them get comfortable with me,
(38:16):
and be the successor to Matt Stafford. I have a
real shot at winning. That is my long term situation.
By getting in the building, like if if money is
no object, and for Kyler Murray at this point, it
certainly doesn't appear like it would have to be an object.
If money is no object, then what I want to
do is I want to put myself in the best
situation to win the games that I want to win,
(38:37):
and be on the best team that I can be,
and then make the next stage of my career as
profitable as possible.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
To me, That all.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Screams Rams right, like you could go to Minnesota. Maybe
Minnesota makes more sense that the Vikings certainly.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Are front runner on it.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
I struggle if I'm the Vikings, I just I struggle
to see this, Like you're giving up on JJ after
ten it's a lot of difficulty the Rams, they have
a starting quarterback, So like, hey, you're just coming in
there and you're gonna just work your way in from Minnesota.
You're gonna be fighting for the job. Do you want
to go somewhere where you're fighting for the job? Man,
(39:13):
I just don't know how that's gonna work for him.
And if if Minnesota signs him to a multi year there,
then Minnesota's given up on Jjjj's gonna go somewhere else.
He's gonna be Anthony Richards in part two. They're gonna
let him shop. I would think let him shop a
trade after ten games. If they sign Kyler to a
three year deal, they don't need JJ McCarthy anymore. But
I so I struggle to make it make business sense
for the Vikings. I think it makes business and football
(39:35):
sense for Kyler, Murray and the Rams all at once
because it could fill a future need.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
So are you actually giving up on JJ McCarthy though,
if you do the one year deal, or are you
just saying JJ, we just want you to get right.
We want you to have the opportunity to actually learn
and grow here. We're going to give you the opportunity
to continue to develop in a way that most quarterbacks
heading it. It's kind of crazy that he's already heading
into year three. But we don't want we don't want
(40:02):
to bail on you yet. But we understand that you're
not that you're not quite ready in our estimation. Now
he may say, well to hell with you, I'm I
think I'm ready. I don't want to cause myself an
opportunity to cash in uh in on my on my payday.
I don't think that that's uh I don't think that
that's viable. And and JJ McCarthy may not agree with
that particular tactic, and we're talking in hypotheticals here. There's
(40:25):
nothing to say that Minnesota would actually go down that way.
I just don't think that's giving up on him.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Well, if they do a one year deal with Kyler,
that's not If they do a multi year with Kyler,
that's where it gets really complicated, because a multi year deal,
to me, is where you're saying I've given up on JJ.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
What's that mean for the rest of the quarterbacks. We'll
tell you next on Fox Sports Radio.
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