Colin Cowherd and '3 & Out' host John Middlekauff react to NFL Free Agency moves. They start with the Dolphins signing Malik Willis and give their takes on if they like the move for Miami. Next they discuss Mike Evans leaving the Bucs for the San Francisco 49ers, Tyler Linderbaum leaving Ravens for Las Vegas Raiders and Cowboys trading for Rashan Gary. The Chiefs add Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III, how does that impact Patrick Mahomes & Travis Kelce. Colts keep Alec Pierce but trade Michael Pittman to Steelers. They talk big picture NFL Free Agency. They talk about some other moves the Raiders made and why they will be relevant for the first time in a while. They give their takes on the under the radar moves the Bears made and lastly revisit Malik Willis signing with the Miami Dolphins.
TIMELINE
03:30 Malik Willis-Dolphins
07:15 Mike Evans-49ers
09:00 Tyler Linderbaum-Raiders
12:15 Rashan Gary-Cowboys
15:00 Kenneth Walker III-Chiefs
24:30 Colts, Steelers & Aaron Rodgers
31:15 Free Agency
36:00 Raiders
39:30 Bears & Dolphins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor,
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deliver for America dot Org. Well, the day didn't start well.
I backed out. I had Monday off because the World
Baseball Classic. I backed out of the garage. The door
(01:08):
wasn't all the way open, and I rammed it with
Anne's car, So that was just not good for me.
That was not and we're going on vacation Saturday. So
I got to make amends really quickly.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Did the garage door follow you or did the car
get the worst of it? Or what happened there?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, well the garage door stopped working and the car
got dinged up, So it's terrible.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
So I said, all right, I'll go walk the dogs and.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Watch them. NFL free agency, so I've made peace with
it and had to go with her sister downtown Chicago,
so she had a cool off. All right, let's start
with this, okay. I know he only has six starts
NFL free agency. Malik willis twenty two million a year,
(01:59):
three year deal with the Dolphins. He is not to
a stop saying that he's a real athlete with a
better arm. He's got a much better arm than to it,
and he's really athletic.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I know he's young. I like him.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I you know, John, I've said this for years. I
don't know anything about music other than I like it.
I can watch these musical shows. I can tell him
thirty seconds if somebody has like lounge ACKed, or you
could sign him to a record deal. And I don't
know anything about music. I know a little about football.
When I watched that kid's escapability arm, he's got I
(02:34):
mean he's got again.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
It's the it's Green Bay.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So he was well coached, but there were Packer fans
saying they thought he was as good or better than
Jordan Love. I think the Dolphins went and found a
very interesting player at quarterback.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, the other thing is the people that just signed
him know him. And it's not the offensive coach to
the defensive coordinator that went against him forever, because you
know in the NFL, when you're the backup quarterback, you
run the you know, you run the scout team, you
service the defense. So Jeff Hafley had a front row
seat for two years. And the general manager who was
the right hand guy for Gudikins same thing. Right from
(03:10):
an evaluation standpoint, do you remember a guy improving this
much this fast? Because remember what tennessee, he was pretty bad,
like he was unplayable, and then last year when he
had to play, he was basically just a running quarterback.
When la Floor remember because he got hurt in Week
one in Brazil, loved it and then he had to
play and they started winning. It's like, okay, there's at
least something there. I gave Lafleur a lot of credit
(03:32):
this year to me with his arm was fantastic because
he proved two things. One he could come out of
the bullpen. So he played in a game when Love
got hurt against the Bears that he was not planning
on playing. And then let's face it, Love was kind
of hit or missed this year. In that game, he
was fantastic. And the cold weather, which is a big
knock on Tua and a big knock on the Miami
Dolphins can't play in cold weather? Well, why is that
(03:55):
the case? Usually when you have a p shooter arm,
what doesn't pierce the cold in the win? Weak arm strength?
Look at the great quarterbacks you know historically in that region,
Big Ben, Tom Brady, Peyton, Manning and Breeze played in
a dome. Rivers played in southern California, Eli Manning, huge arm.
Where do you play in New York? You know? Donovan McNabb,
Michael Vick, Patrick Mahomes cold weather quarterbacks. Burrows somewhat of
(04:18):
an outlier, not a great arm but he's just he's
like Montana, just a great player. So it kind of translates.
But I'm with you. I not only like it, I
think it's an incredible story of just improvement. Clearly, he
was always a high character, interesting human, but the play
was really raw when Tennessee drafted him. But the lafleur
deserves a lot of credit because that offensive staff improving
(04:41):
the player deserves a lot of credit. Incredible story. I'm
with you. I think no brainer for him. Miami to
me is more interesting than going to than Arizona. So
I like picking the spot, and you know, the guys
know you and believe in you, so he wouldn't shock
me at off. He I don't think he becomes like
a top seven eight quarterback, but has just a solid
career like what we saw last year. There is no
(05:03):
disputing he was a really good player in limited action.
Really good.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, And it should be noted that Sam Darnold and
Baker Mayfield, you know we've seen this before. There's more
good offensive coaches, there's more sophisticated schemes. If you're a
hard working kid. You're not gobbling up, you know, too
much cap space. Although they have to pay two off
(05:27):
for two years, so I think we both like it
all right. Here's another one. Mike Evans to the forty
nine ers, so he is a big red zone target.
They have been hit and miss on receivers. I thought
they over played their hand on Deebo. He was good,
briefly got hurt, moved him. Iux a disaster. Ricky Piersoll's solid,
not great, but you know, late first round pick. Mike Evans,
(05:50):
red zone guy, Kittle, McCaffrey, Trent Williams. It's again older
player picks up the playbook with Kyle Shanahan quickly a playmaker.
It feels like Kyle Shanahan didn't have a ton of
patience with young players.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
He likes guys.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, I mean it feels like to me he likes
veteran players. So Mike Evans to the Niners again. This
gives brock Purty another weapon. Feels like it works to me.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, it fits their kind of mold, high character, high
level guy, very productive, you know, Fred Warner, Christian McCaffrey
like that type, human slash player. Ricky Piersall is a
good player, just can't stay on the field, and Juwan
Jennings is going to get a lot of money. So
the IU thing blew up in their face. Yeah. I mean,
(06:36):
they have a major question mark at the wide receiver position.
And the other thing is the Rams are loading up
on their defensive backfield. So I think the forty nine
Ers had to do something offensively because you saw in
those last couple games against Seattle. Obviously Kittle went down
in the second game, but they just had no firepower.
And the one thing you have to do the Rams
prove this if you have some firepower, that this is
(06:59):
not nineteen eighty seven, the rules are on your side
as an offensive coach. But they were rolling out practice
squad level guys. So you get Mike Evans, a future
Hall of Famer love That move doesn't shock me at all.
I mean that the forty nine Ers at this point
in time haven't been that active the last couple of
years in free agency, but that's a Kyle Shanahan tap.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Guy for sure.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I mean, just listen, the entire team gets nicked up.
I mean there's been stories about some right next to
their practice to substation there's a substation which weakens tissues.
I don't know if it's true, but to me, he
feels so forty nine ers. All right, let me throw
another one at you. We talked about this yesterday. Tyler Lindebaum.
(07:41):
I'm not sure why Baltimore didn't sign him, Probably because
they have a Lamar contract renegotiation coming up, renegotiation coming up.
Max Crosby's expensive, Kyle Hamilton outside of Creed Humphrey of
the Chiefs, there's an argument Tyer Linderbaum is the best
center in football. I thought they were going to resign him.
He was a first round pick out of Iowa. Tough, smart, durable,
(08:03):
doesn't miss a lot of starts.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I love.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
This is an A plus move to me by the
Raiders because this is what Ben Johnson did with the Bears.
You know, they went drafted jpj out of Oregon last year.
He's more of a guard. He was a center in college.
He's more of a guard. Then they bring in a
Pro Bowl center for Fernando Mendoza. Now their offense, basically,
(08:27):
they'll probably they have so many picks, they'll probably get
a receiver in the second or third round. They'll also
probably draft a right tackle, fourth fifth round. I love
this to me, this is my favorite signing so far
in free agency.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Well, look at all the good teams, right, The Ravens
for the last four years have had one of the
best centers, The Chiefs have one of the best centers.
The Bills just paid their center. Like, I mean, center
kind of matters, especially when you have a young quarterback.
And I think if you're a Raider fan, you look
at it go. We essentially traded Max Crosby for two
first round picks, one being fourteen and a center who's
one of the better centers in the league. I just looked.
(09:02):
He hasn't missed a snap really in the last two years.
So this is a very durable classic like Midwest center. Right.
The other thing is, I would say this for the
raven standpoint, he was banged up last year, but the
previous two years, when you factor in the center, obviously
was an excellent player and likely who accounted for eleven
touchdowns in twenty three to twenty four, was very productive
(09:25):
in their two playoff or their two playoff runs those
two years. Like he's not Kelsey or Kittle or anything,
but he was a unique player for them and made
huge plays, even the play that led to the missfield
goal against Pittsburgh on that Sunday night game. Who made
the crazy catch Isaiah Likely? How many teams have a
six to six guy. I mean, he kind of plays
(09:46):
like a little Darren Waller basketball player, elite athlete. You
just you don't need to be that accurate. Just throw
him a fifty to fifty ball, because it's not a
fifty to fifty ball. So there are some injury concerns.
He's not the most durable player. He is a unique player, though,
So you tell me the Ravens on offense with this
twenty nine year old aging quarterback, new offensive coordinator lose
(10:08):
their you know, kind of just stalwart guy at center
and this unique chess piece with Likely. You know, Henry
still got something in the tank, but he's a little older.
Zay Flowers isn't exactly Jerry Rice. Good player, but I
mean their offense has some question marks, assuming their defense
will improve, which it will, but I don't know. That's
(10:29):
that's to me something to keep an eye on with
the Ravens, who are clearly trying. You know, we talked
about this last night, right Super Bowl or bust. I
mean making it to the super Bowl. They're in this
little couple of year window now of them and the Bills.
There's no well we made the playoffs. That's not really
their standard in their organization now.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Rashawn Gary to Dallas Rusher off the edge. I mean
listen Quinn Williams, Kenny Clark and the trade for Micah
Parsons Rashawn Gary. It allows them to go get a
corner and maybe a Kayla Downs in the draft in
the first round. I mean, that's what it feels like
to me, is that they're they're gonna buy you know,
they're gonna spend money defensively up front. They don't want
(11:08):
to wait for developing players. Jerry Jones is getting older,
Dak's getting older, so they're gonna go buy veteran players
up front, which they have, and then they're gonna draft
on the back end. I still think they're gonna draft
defensive players with their picks in the first round.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, I think clearly there's gonna be a good defensive
back there with their first pick, which is what is
it thirteen? Like they're gonna get Caleb Downs. Definitely, there's
a chance he's there. When you factor or.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
One of the two best corners.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, so they're gonna get and I think at pick
twenty gives them a little leeway of just they could
take a great player, right who doesn't have to be
a position in need. Say this about the Cowboys. They've
they've drafted pretty well, especially in the first round from
Zach Martin. You know, Zeke was really good. Obviously, Ceedee Lamb.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Like Timers Smith has become a good player.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Tylers, all their offensive linemen have become, you know, starters
for their team. So I one thing you'd say about
Jerry in the front eye office operation, Jerry's not the
guy breaking down seven games on every player right now.
He's the guy front and center when the press conference comes.
But they have a really good scouting staff. So I
think the Cowboys. I was just texting somebody, I think
the Giants this NFC East. You know the Eagles, they
(12:17):
lose Jalen Phillips. Their pass rush when they won the
Super Bowl a couple of years ago was like historically great.
I think they had four guys get double digit sacks. Well,
since then, Brandon Graham retired, came back, probably retire again.
Fletcher Cox is gone. Obviously, Sweat is now on the Cardinals.
They have this Jalen Carter situation, who is an elite talent,
but they are very uncomfortable paying him forty forty five
(12:39):
million dollars. So it's like, now you look at the Giants,
who have some stability. The Cowboys offensively have been fantastic.
Shottenheim approved, Like, he's a pretty good offensive play call.
If their defense is just solid, they're gonna be a
pretty interesting team. So you gotta have the Giants and
the Cowboys. Like that division is going to be, to me,
dramatically more competitive than I would say it's been over
the last ten year years when it's basically just been
(13:01):
the Eagles, or those couple of years with McCarthy when
the Cowboys were pretty loaded. But now the Commanders, I
think Commanders still have a lot of question marks. I
think they clearly wanted Linderbaum, But what did the Raiders have.
No state income tax could offer a huge amount of money.
You just have a fresh slate. Here come you get
to be the team captain. So the Commanders had cut
their center. He's now on the Chargers. I'm sure they
(13:23):
wanted Linderbaumb, they don't have that. Their roster's kind of
old to begin with, so and the Eagles just got
a lot of moving parts. Now, they still got a
lot of talent and talent in the NFL matters, but man,
there's just that division to me, has gotten a lot
more interesting in the last couple months.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I would say Kenneth Walker from Seattle to Kansas City again,
he's great after contact gets dinged up, but they have
no juice. They're losing backs to free agency. They have
no juice in the backfield. I also thought this made
sense because they don't have a ton of draft picks,
but it allows them. Now their first pickul be the
right tackle Fino from Utah.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
They need a.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Corner for McDuffie. They need an edge rusher. They have
three big needs now with Kenneth Walker, they'll probably draft
another running back later in the draft.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
It's not a good running back draft.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So I mean to me, Kenneth Walker is more valuable
that This sounds weird to say as a Super Bowl MVP,
but I think because of Charbonnay with the Seahawks as
a backup, they have another couple backs in Seattle that
are you know, spot players. They don't play a ton,
but I think Kenneth Walker or the Chiefs feels incredibly valuable.
(14:31):
And with Seattle, not that he was disposable, but they
have such a stacked roster. It feels like if they
drafted another running back in the fourth round, one of
the Penn State running back in the third round, You're like,
they're fine.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
I think Kansas City had to do this.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, I don't think they had a choice either. I
think it's pretty clear to them too. Now. I don't
think they would have taken Jeremiah of but at this
point in time, you're weighing all your options. I think
they understand that that wasn't even going to be an
option at pick nine, so you go, unquote overpay me.
They gave him a substantial amount of money three years,
forty five million dollars, almost guarantee him thirty Remember a
(15:05):
couple of years ago, that was essentially what Howie Roseman
gave Sakquaud Barkley. So these running backs, they've been on
zoom calls, always bitching the mona. They don't get any
money like this has been a lot better the last
couple of years. You know, the money has gravitated toward them. Listen,
the Chiefs, they weren't gonna let Baltimore and Buffalo have
all the fun like Andy Reid. They don't plan on
(15:26):
I know a lot of people talk about this, I'll
just have an off year and they ain't mailing anything
in their game plan is mahomes start in week one.
They plan on winning. They get a plug and play
running back. Now, one thing that he's gonna have to
prove he can do Andy like's throwing the ball to
the back, right, Shady McCoy, Brian Westbrook, Jamal Charles when
he first got to Kansas City does. So It's like, now,
(15:49):
could they maybe want to adapt a little bit to
take some pressure who they bring back? Eric b Enemy
What's he a running back guy? Right? So maybe they
want to take a little pressure off coming up off
an injury, right, coming off at ACL They're not gonna
want him to throw forty fifty times a game like
he did earlier in his career. So could they maybe
try to lean on Kenneth Walker a little bit more?
(16:10):
Now that would be very opposite of Andy's history. But listen,
what do talented people in eddie industry do? They adapt?
They change Andy's changed how many times his offense? His
offense now ask anyone is dramatically different than it was
ten years ago, twenty years ago. So what if you
tell everyone, I don't think many people in the league
would believe you they're a rushing team this year. Right,
(16:30):
they got a good guard, they got a good center,
they got a young stud left tackle. Like you said,
what if they draft a right tackle and they go,
you know what, why don't we do some Kyle Shanahan
and just run the ball, take a little pressure off
our quarterback, build up our young defense with our stud coordinator.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
So what if the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Are their game plan this year is to be one
of the better rushing teams. Look at you know, the
Bills with Cook. Now Cook's a better player than Walker.
But what if the Chiefs are about to throw a
little curveball here and become a running offense.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Do you think Travis Kelcey signs with them or somebody else?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Well, I thought he was gonna go to the Giants,
and then they signed likely and that's not happening. I mean,
by all accounts, maybe they're just as a tie that
I undervalue a little bit. This is a unique player
with a unique connection to Andy and the Chiefs and
for the right price. I mean, at this point in time,
he's so wealthy on and off the field that maybe
he's just cool with Like, hey man, I understand, I'm
(17:25):
not a fifteen million dollar a year player anymore. Could
we go like five and incentivize that up if I
give you ten touchdowns? But this is where I want
to be. These are my people which I value. I
think I do understand from a player standpoint of seeing
some you know, Kobe Bryant types, like this is the
only franchise I ever played with, even though historically that's
not really how the NFL works. So I am a
(17:47):
little surprised if it does work out. But I think
the reason that we haven't seen it yet is the
Chiefs aren't just gonna well, Travis, here's the check. You
fill it in, like those days are kind of over
because he wasn't great last year. I mean the drops,
he definitely looked his aim. So I think he got
to be very careful, and Andy has been over the
(18:08):
course of his career of kind of you know, separating
the emotional connection to the human in the past, right,
But this might just be a really tough one given
that I mean, Andy says, well, I might owe some
Super Bowls to this guy, right, I mean he's so
I do. Listen, We're all human beings. So this is
probably really tough internally for Veach and Andy. This is
(18:30):
most players they'd say, hey, see, godspeed, good luck at
what you can because this is this is a little
abnormal to what good teams do in the NFL. Right,
But maybe there is just a connection that unless you
really in that building with these guys every day, that
I even undervalue from the outside.
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Gambling problem called one eight hundred Gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois,
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. So Alex Pearce one of
the moves I think Alex Pearce is. Alex Pearce is
very good out of Cincinnati. Twenty nine million a year
is a lot for him. Jeez, that's a little steep
(20:16):
and the Sauce Gardener. Two first round picks for Sauce Gardner.
People thought that was too much. So suddenly Chris Ballard
is hyper aggressive. The Steelers get Michael Pittman, which they
needed a number two receiver. You know what that feels
like to me, the Michael Pittman of the Steelers from
the Colts. First of all, it frees up room for Pierce,
who's a better downfield receiver. I think he's a faster guy.
Pittman's a big, strong Pittman almost felt like a great two.
(20:38):
Pierce feels like a middle one. I mean, that's my
interpretation that they really like Pierce and he can really move.
Pittman's a very tough, durable you know, his dad was
a running back for Tampa. Pittman was a great player
at USC, tough, motivated, self starter. Always liked him. But
that feels like a Mike McCarthy bang the table. So
(21:00):
the Steeters are paying Dk metcalf and Michael Pittman. Suddenly
Pittsburgh now is got an offensive staff that you've heard
of them before. Now they've got two expensive wide receivers.
I don't know, it feels like that's a Mike McCarthy
bang the table move that Pittsburgh has been the highest
spending defense for I think four years in a row,
and I've argued for years, just move your money to offense.
(21:24):
That's what teams like the Rams are doing. So Pittman
to the Steeters. To me, it's sort of a changing
of the not only the guard, but changing of the
tide where they're moving offensive money.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I'm with you on Pittman, like you have folden since
usc feels like a mature version of Juju, just that
physical nature. I had a scout in kind of a
personnel executive last year that thought he regressed a little bit.
Look at it. In twenty two and twenty three he
was ninety nine catches and one hundred and nine catches.
I mean he had become a big time player. And
(21:58):
then last year he was banged up. But also so
you saw the emergence of Tyler Warren. They draft him.
Alt Pierce shot like a rocket ship. Obviously, Jonathan Taylor's
an excellent guy, and he I don't want to say
phased out because he was still productive in the games
he played, but it was like, we don't need We're
gonna go with Pierce's speed and Tyler Warren. Now again
(22:20):
for the Steelers, you don't have a quarterback, so I
get building up your team. But who's throwing these two
guys the ball?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Does this tell us that Aaron Rodgers is coming back?
Because Aaron doesn't like dealing. Brady didn't either. Aaron doesn't
like young receivers. That's not Aaron's jam. So is this
telling you that behind the scenes, Aaron said all come back,
so they get him. DK Metcalf, Michael Pittman Friarmouth feels
like a veteran now and all of a sudden you're like, okay,
that's an offense that Aaron can navigate.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
And the big tight end that broke his leg last
late in the season from Washington, like, they have some
real pieces. Now they're running back positions a major question mark.
I think Gainwell went to the Bucks saw the kid
they drafted from Iowa in the third round was a disaster, right,
So to me, that position is gonna be key for them.
Maybe they could draft the backup from Notre Dame or
(23:11):
something and get, you know, a real running back. But
if you don't have a quarterback, I don't care if
you got Jerry Rice and Randy Moss out there because
Pittman and DK are that you got a real one
to two wide receiver now where it ranks in the league,
But those are real NFL veteran wide receiver.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Physical wide receiver win.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Some big games within the cold. But to me, it's
it just comes down to the quarterback position. So does
Aaron come back with McCarthy? Is that what you feel like?
If you were a betting man, would he say, Aaron
Rodgers back this this thing?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I would because I think he he said twice he's
been quoted saying I had a great time and I
will defend Aaron Rodgers. You know, I think he's been
prickly and moody, and I've got I had three different
packers at one point. Say you never knew what kind
of moody was shown up with. I think that's pretty clear.
I thought he was excellent last year. He got dinged
by PFF because he didn't throw the ball down the field. Well,
(24:03):
they didn't have downfield receivers, And I mean, to me,
they're a they're a tight end. I mean Pittman, DK, Washington, Friarmouth,
Jalen Warren, I mean kind of a power team.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
So and Aaron.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
By the way, they were atrocious in the red zone
before Aaron, they were pretty good in the red zone.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Last year.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
They cut down on interceptions, they cut down on penalties.
So I mean, I thought Aaron played the hand he
was dealt. It was not a very good receiving core.
Late in the year, DK metcalf missus two games because
of the incident with a Lions fan. I mean, they
have nobody to throw to. So I think I think
Pittman tells me a veteran receiver tells me that there's
(24:42):
a better than fifty percent chance that Aaron has told them. Listen,
I'm gonna come back. So there and they're and Aaron's
watching all this. And if you're Aaron watching this and
you're pretty sure you're coming back, does this motivate you
to come back?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
That's a pretty good signing.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, definitely, I listen if he does. I have he
not that I didn't respect. To me, he's one of
the greatest players I've ever watched, But to play through
a broken hand like he did last year was on
a team that was pretty average, right, And if you
look at the course of the last couple of years,
the torn achilles, the broken hand like age is kind
of catching up to him. So if he does come
(25:17):
back after dealing with some of these injuries on a
team that, I mean ultimately was the Steeler ceiling next year,
it's kind of the same thing. Maybe compete to be
a nine to ten win team. You just got to
say the guy just loves playing football because he's not
doing it for the money at this point in time.
And it's not like he's got well he's playing on
the KD Warriors, right or the Steinbrener Yankees like this
(25:37):
isn't he doesn't have the best team even in his
own division. So if Joe Burrow just stays on the
field like it is going to be difficult for them
to be second in the division. So yeah, I mean,
I think McCarthy is better than he gets credit for.
The branding on him is just atrocious, right, I Mean,
we've talked about this. His resume next to John Harbaugh
is essentially the same thing.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
We guy might he Mike Tomlin are very similar. The
difference is the league's an offensive league and he has
an offensive touch and Tomlin's a defensive guy. They're both
they're both motivators. They're both well liked by players. One's
an offensive guy. And if if i'm I'm trying to
split it up on who I like more. I thought
Tomlin's time, I.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Thought that he was.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I mean their offense was a wreck for seven years.
Aaron actually healed a lot of the wounds. So I
think I don't think McCarthy's he's more than capable. And
go look at Cooper Rush and Dak both highly productive. Okay,
so you know one of the things that jumps out
to me between Mike Evan to the Niners, uh Rashawn
(26:39):
Gary to Dallas de Mario Davis, who's like his older
player goes back to the Jets, very very good player,
two year deal, twenty two million bucks. I think he's
a tremendous player, but he's an older player. Michael Pittman
an older player. Is he regressing it? You know what
Kenneth Walker had injuries, Kansas City rule the dice. Maybe
(27:02):
it's because the gambling money and the TV money, people
just have more led us to play with. But some
of these signings are older players regressing players, injured players.
I mean Lindabaum to me to the Raiders that is
an A plus signing Malik Willis could be, but we
don't know.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Alec Pierce.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I think they spent too much money, but again he's
in house. Chris loves him. With Daniel Jones, Warren, Jonathan Taylor,
I mean, not many teams in the league can say
back tight end number one receiver are better than the Colts.
I guess my kind of takeaway in this free agent
period is a lot of GMS if you liked the guy,
(27:46):
even if he was older, out of his prime, a
little dinged up, a lot of GMS just went for it.
It's aggressive GMing.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Well, the money has dramatically changed a short period of time.
I would just say in the last five years with
the cap space. So the old even you said Alex
Pierce twenty nine million, that's like the old sixteen million
Linderbob the center, he the highest paid center before him,
he got twenty seventy year was like seventeen eighteen million dollars.
(28:15):
So when you factor in the flush of new cap space,
the flush of money to these owners part of the
reason the NFL free agency, even in its early kind
of iterations back in the nineties and early two thousands,
half the owners didn't have cash on hand right alone,
so even the cap space. So like Jerry and Eddie
(28:36):
de Bartelow, you know the Packers when they signed Reggie White,
like there would be the occasional here and there, but
up until the last ten years, if the Bengals want,
they could break someone off. So I look at the Raiders.
His part of the reason JaMarcus Russell didn't play for
like the first four games his rookie season is because
Al didn't have the money to give him a signing bonus.
(28:56):
That is not nineteen eighty seven, that's like two thousand
and seven, Collin. So in a twenty year spent you
got the Raiders, Hey Center, sixty million guaranteed. I'm sure
with bonus is like thirty or forty million dollars. No
problem here you go. They just got rid of Geno Smith,
so they're taking a hit. They just gave him a
ton of money. So you have teams that didn't have
money now that have money, and then you have teams
(29:17):
like I also think it is difficult for some of
these gms, like John Schneider. They say he has a
bunch of money. He's probably looking around going like I
have a hard time paying premiums for non premium players
because ultimately, in free agency, you are paying a premium
on top of the rate. So if a guy is
a normally for you, if you if you were giving
(29:39):
him extension after a couple of years on your team,
he costs let's say fifteen million dollars, That guy on
the open market becomes twenty four million dollars. So now
if you get it right, look a look at last
year with the Patriots. They signed Milton Williams and people like, god,
they gave him twenty five million dollars. We're fantastic, He's
never even played fifty percent of the snaps and then
a year later you feel good about it. But there
(30:01):
are a lot of Milton Williams types. I would imagine
linder Bomb will be the same thing. Did the Raiders overpay,
Of course they did. They've made the playoffs twice in
twenty three years. You think people just want to come
to play for them. Yeah, this guy's coming from the Ravens,
So yeah, sometimes you have to overpay. You just better
overpay you don't even Milton Williams doesn't need to be
Reggie White or Aaron Donald. But if he is a
borderline pro bowler, full time starter for four years. You're going, yeah,
(30:25):
I overpaid a little who cares? So I think that's
what you got to be. That's why the Alex Pierce
Steele I thought Daniel Jones was going to derail them
and lose Alex Pearce, which would have been a problem.
So Chris Bower goes, yeah, I have to give him
a little bit more than I'm comfortable with. I know
this guy. I think he's a sending player, and we
feel comfortable already with him in the building, right. I
think they're way less comfortable with the Daniel Jones situation,
(30:48):
and like, is this gonna work? He's coming off the
Achilles how much? Eventually we're going to have to give
him than they are giving Alex Pierce. Probably more money
than you would want. But the receivers I would have
a hard time. Colin Justin Jefferson, Jamar ch Ceedee Lamb
a guy that's a no doubt about it, hall of
fame talent, but that next tier of guy. I saw
it with the Niners, with with Brandon Ayuk. It's like
(31:09):
you have to give these guys just a large sum
of money and they are just not near the number
one tier. So as long as you feel Alex Pearce
can keep maintaining and being explosive player, you can live
with him. But if you get it wrong, given the
amount of money you're paying a wide receiver, it could
blow up in your face pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Let me throw another Raider move. This is very under
the radar between Tyler Linnerbaum getting moving off Max Crosby,
number one pick Fernando Mendoza. This signing will not get
a lot of play. But the Raiders signed former Viking
receiver Jalen Naylor, who I actually think. I think he's
a really interesting, like number two or three receiver. Now
(31:52):
they have Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison in Minnesota, so
they're going to move off him. I thought Jalen Naylor
was a nice player. I don't have Do you have
the numbers in front of you of what he's done. Yeah's,
Patriots and Broncos were all interested in him.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
He hasn't been the most productive player because, like you said,
he's played there, so he's got twenty eight and twenty
nine balls in the last two years. But so basically
in sixty one oh way, that's what JJ McCarthy this year,
So fifty seven catches, Colin. He has ten touchdowns the
last two years, so's he's I felt like that when
you watched the Vikings explosive plays. Here's the other thing,
(32:29):
average yards per catch. His rookie year, he only had
caught nine catches, but he averaged twenty yards to catch
last couple of years. Basically fifteen yards a catch. Explosive
speed guy. Right, So maybe he's not. He'll get more
targets right with the Raiders. But even if he gives
you forty five to fifty catches with Fernando, you give
him a deep threat. I'm with Brock Bauers genty.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
How about this.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Sean Payton wanted him, Josh McDaniels in New England wanted him,
and Clint Kobiak for the Raiders got him. Those are
pretty smart offensive guys. They all liked him.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Ran a four or five at the combine. Feels like
he plays a lot faster than that. Yeah, yeah, no,
I would have guessed like a high four to three guy,
low four to four guy.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
So no, I can he that could be you know,
there's gonna be free agent signings that we that don't
get any play to me. I gotta tell you, John
Spytech with the Raiders, this is the first time in
twenty years I've been excited about the Raiders.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
And they have a boat load of picks.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
If they if they nail that fourteenth pick and just
get you know, a future core, you know, their version
of Patrick Kelsey, they could really change the franchise.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
They could literally get Fernando Mendoza. And the fourteenth pick
is interesting. They could move off that and get Omar Cooper,
Fernando Mendoza's favorite receiver who's viewed as a late first
round receiver. They could move down and still get me.
How great would that be? You can tell? You can
tell right now the Raiders are trying to make and
(34:01):
this is what the Bears did and Ben Johnson. They're
trying to make Fernana Mendoza super comfortable, right. They want
that interior line to be good. They're going to draft
another receiver.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Boy.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
I really like what the Raiders are doing.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Jesson. I think you could get I think you could
get Cooper. I talked to a lot of different coaches
and personnel people at the Talbot about him. He's an
interesting guy. You know, you could ask one guy like
I think he ends up in the late twenties. You
could ask another guy to think he's like the fiftieth pick.
If you were comfortable with doing that, I think you
could take him in the beginning of the second round
because you draft really high. To me, fourteenth pick. I
(34:38):
do think it's going to be harder this year to
trade with some of these picks because the draft is
viewed as not a lot of impact guys. Yeah, so
I I would try to get Cooper if that's who
I was going to take in the in the second
go round, then I would in the first round.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
So, John, if you're a Bears fan, as they clean
up their defense, here some more good news. They played
the NFC South, which is a bit of a mess,
and the AFC East, So they're gonna get the Jets,
They're gonna get you know, Falcons, Saints, Carolina, Tampa. So
(35:17):
if you look at the Bear schedule, you look at
the Bears elevation free agency of defense, I'll stick with it.
It feels like a top five or six team going
into next year.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Yeah, I mean, I Seattle and the Rams are gonna
be really good. But I would say, the rest of
the rest of the NFCT A lot of question marks
with the Eagles that they were one of the top seeds,
a lot of question marks internally in that division. So
you know, the NFC South, I might like the Saints
they signed etn They got this young quarterback who they like,
(35:51):
Tampa's gonna go through kind of you know, Mike Evans
was kind of important for Baker Mayfield, So I mean
you removed by habits that kind of matters now that
part of the NFL. Who they draft last year, the
Ohio state wide receiver, Like, you gotta let guys go.
Usually guys don't stay forever. Forty nine ers. They signed
Mike Evans, but they're gonna have older players coming off injuries.
I think they're they're gonna be solid. But you saw
(36:12):
them and the Bears this year playing a game that
was like seventy five to seventy one of the games
of the year. So yeah, I'm very Their coach is
a star. It just comes down to, you know, if
Caleb can just make an incremental improvement, Like at this
point in time, they don't need him to take some
huge jump, right, they just need maybe a five percent
(36:33):
seven percent improvement on basic things. Hit a wheel route
instead of overthrowing it, because that's the difference of punting
and keeping a drive alive that maybe leads to a
field goal and instead of having to come back, we
have a six point lead in the fourth quarter instead
of down three. So yeah, I'm really really high on
the Bears. I'm with you, polls. He's being a GM's hard,
(36:54):
you know, and being a GM for a dysfunctional franchise
is really difficult. Being a GM when your coach isn't
good is very diff Being a GM when your owners
a little cheap can be difficult. Over the last course
of what eighteen ish months, especially once Ben's got there,
they have been. They feel very on the same page
and rowan in the right direction, which is kind of
(37:17):
the NFL, where whatever the Jets are, the Bears feel
somewhat on the opposite end of the spectrum, and that's
the Raiders used to kind of be by the Jets.
They feel like they're heading towards the other smart teams.
So things change. It's hiring the right people, giving them
the resources to do the right things. I watched the
press conference when Halflee and the GM was hired one thing.
(37:40):
Halfley said over and over. Steven Ross, he said, he
just kept looking at me in the eye, said, you
will not lose for lack of resources here. You will
not lose because of the jetBook. We might make the
wrong moves, you coach poorly or signed the wrong guy,
but you will not ever lose because ah, my owner
wouldn't give the signing bonus. And now more and more
of those owners. If you get the Howie Roseman or
Less Sneed or John Schneider in that role, you're basically
(38:03):
guaranteed to be a double digit win team every year, right,
if you got the right GM with an owner cut
in the checks.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
My takeaway today is Malik Willis for the Dolphins. He
is a totally different player. He may be smaller than
ideal height, but he's an electric athlete with a really
good arm and wildly dynamic offscript. And as you said,
you can inject him into games. He's not even scheduled
to play. I think Malik. Some people are saying, oh,
(38:32):
it feels you know a little undersize got That's not
Malik Willis. He is not to a if he had
a comp I'd argue I don't even know what his
comp a bigger Kyler Murray where it was a beautiful ball.
Kyler's got a good arm, Kyler moves, but Moleik is
really engaged.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
They loved him in Green Band.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Your point on Hathley who watched him, coached against him
for two years and the assistant.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
GM now in Miami. I think that's the best.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Point today made in the last thirty five minutes. Is
guys that knew him went all in on Malik Willis
from Green Bay to Miami.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I'll give you a comp to me, he's like at
twenty sixteen seventeen, big arm Dak Prescott because remember Dak
could move back then and Dak Dak could really move
remember and coming out of Mississippi State, So that to me,
it's some of the Malik Willis highlights on keepers watching,
I was like, damn, this guy you forget because we
get so removed from the football season. To me, his accuracy, honestly,
(39:31):
there are some parallels to Dak Prescott. Never in a
million years I watch Dak Prescott in Missipi State because
remember Dan Mullen was there. They were really good. I
never thought he'd be a good NFL quarterback. Some guys improved.
That's the thing about the NFL, not everyone's just ready
to go. This is you know, in the NBA, you
kind of know, like the three guys are gonna get
drafted really high, they're gonna be stars or high level guy.
In the NFL, how many times is like this fourth rounder,
(39:54):
the sixth rounder, All of a sudden, ten years later
it's Richard Truman or Jason Kelsey or George Kittle. It happened.
It happens with quarterbacks too, and now we're on this
quarterback renaissance of we have some high picks that resurrected
their career. But we have seen over the course of
the last more in my lifetime of these mid round picks,
from dak to Russell Wilson to Kirk Cousins go on
to make hundreds of millions of dollars in lead playoff
(40:17):
teams year after year. So to me, Malik Willis kind
of fits that high character. Smart. Now he's an accurate passer.
We know he can move. He's good. The other thing
is like, well, what kind offense he ran? I don't know,
he ran the Shanahan offense, you know, in hybrid version
for himself, in Green Bay, So it's not like he's
running some rinky Dean high school offense like this year
(40:38):
when he was thrown into that game against the Bears,
he just ran the Jordan Love offense and did excellence.
I remember watching thinking, is this really happening? He looks fantastic.
He looked so good in that game coming out of
the bullpen.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Oh we have Tacker.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Fans were all like, we're paying the wrong quarterback.
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Playwise
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor,
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strong old economies and companies that walk the walk, check
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deliver for America dot Org. Well, the day didn't start well.
I backed out. I had Monday off because the World
Baseball Classic. I backed out of the garage. The door
(01:08):
wasn't all the way open, and I rammed it with
Anne's car, So that was just not good for me.
That was not and we're going on vacation Saturday. So
I got to make amends really quickly.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Did the garage door follow you or did the car
get the worst of it? Or what happened there?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, well the garage door stopped working and the car
got dinged up, So it's terrible.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
So I said, all right, I'll go walk the dogs and.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Watch them. NFL free agency, so I've made peace with
it and had to go with her sister downtown Chicago,
so she had a cool off. All right, let's start
with this, okay. I know he only has six starts
NFL free agency. Malik willis twenty two million a year,
(01:59):
three year deal with the Dolphins. He is not to
a stop saying that he's a real athlete with a
better arm. He's got a much better arm than to it,
and he's really athletic.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I know he's young. I like him.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I you know, John, I've said this for years. I
don't know anything about music other than I like it.
I can watch these musical shows. I can tell him
thirty seconds if somebody has like lounge ACKed, or you
could sign him to a record deal. And I don't
know anything about music. I know a little about football.
When I watched that kid's escapability arm, he's got I
(02:34):
mean he's got again.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
It's the it's Green Bay.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So he was well coached, but there were Packer fans
saying they thought he was as good or better than
Jordan Love. I think the Dolphins went and found a
very interesting player at quarterback.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well, the other thing is the people that just signed
him know him. And it's not the offensive coach to
the defensive coordinator that went against him forever, because you
know in the NFL, when you're the backup quarterback, you
run the you know, you run the scout team, you
service the defense. So Jeff Hafley had a front row
seat for two years. And the general manager who was
the right hand guy for Gudikins same thing. Right from
(03:10):
an evaluation standpoint, do you remember a guy improving this
much this fast? Because remember what tennessee, he was pretty bad,
like he was unplayable, and then last year when he
had to play, he was basically just a running quarterback.
When la Floor remember because he got hurt in Week
one in Brazil, loved it and then he had to
play and they started winning. It's like, okay, there's at
least something there. I gave Lafleur a lot of credit
(03:32):
this year to me with his arm was fantastic because
he proved two things. One he could come out of
the bullpen. So he played in a game when Love
got hurt against the Bears that he was not planning
on playing. And then let's face it, Love was kind
of hit or missed this year. In that game, he
was fantastic. And the cold weather, which is a big
knock on Tua and a big knock on the Miami
Dolphins can't play in cold weather? Well, why is that
(03:55):
the case? Usually when you have a p shooter arm,
what doesn't pierce the cold in the win? Weak arm strength?
Look at the great quarterbacks you know historically in that region,
Big Ben, Tom Brady, Peyton, Manning and Breeze played in
a dome. Rivers played in southern California, Eli Manning, huge arm.
Where do you play in New York? You know? Donovan McNabb,
Michael Vick, Patrick Mahomes cold weather quarterbacks. Burrows somewhat of
(04:18):
an outlier, not a great arm but he's just he's
like Montana, just a great player. So it kind of translates.
But I'm with you. I not only like it, I
think it's an incredible story of just improvement. Clearly, he
was always a high character, interesting human, but the play
was really raw when Tennessee drafted him. But the lafleur
deserves a lot of credit because that offensive staff improving
(04:41):
the player deserves a lot of credit. Incredible story. I'm
with you. I think no brainer for him. Miami to
me is more interesting than going to than Arizona. So
I like picking the spot, and you know, the guys
know you and believe in you, so he wouldn't shock
me at off. He I don't think he becomes like
a top seven eight quarterback, but has just a solid
career like what we saw last year. There is no
(05:03):
disputing he was a really good player in limited action.
Really good.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, And it should be noted that Sam Darnold and
Baker Mayfield, you know we've seen this before. There's more
good offensive coaches, there's more sophisticated schemes. If you're a
hard working kid. You're not gobbling up, you know, too
much cap space. Although they have to pay two off
(05:27):
for two years, so I think we both like it
all right. Here's another one. Mike Evans to the forty
nine ers, so he is a big red zone target.
They have been hit and miss on receivers. I thought
they over played their hand on Deebo. He was good,
briefly got hurt, moved him. Iux a disaster. Ricky Piersoll's solid,
not great, but you know, late first round pick. Mike Evans,
(05:50):
red zone guy, Kittle, McCaffrey, Trent Williams. It's again older
player picks up the playbook with Kyle Shanahan quickly a playmaker.
It feels like Kyle Shanahan didn't have a ton of
patience with young players.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
He likes guys.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, I mean it feels like to me he likes
veteran players. So Mike Evans to the Niners again. This
gives brock Purty another weapon. Feels like it works to me.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, it fits their kind of mold, high character, high
level guy, very productive, you know, Fred Warner, Christian McCaffrey
like that type, human slash player. Ricky Piersall is a
good player, just can't stay on the field, and Juwan
Jennings is going to get a lot of money. So
the IU thing blew up in their face. Yeah. I mean,
(06:36):
they have a major question mark at the wide receiver position.
And the other thing is the Rams are loading up
on their defensive backfield. So I think the forty nine
Ers had to do something offensively because you saw in
those last couple games against Seattle. Obviously Kittle went down
in the second game, but they just had no firepower.
And the one thing you have to do the Rams
prove this if you have some firepower, that this is
(06:59):
not nineteen eighty seven, the rules are on your side
as an offensive coach. But they were rolling out practice
squad level guys. So you get Mike Evans, a future
Hall of Famer love That move doesn't shock me at all.
I mean that the forty nine Ers at this point
in time haven't been that active the last couple of
years in free agency, but that's a Kyle Shanahan tap.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Guy for sure.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I mean, just listen, the entire team gets nicked up.
I mean there's been stories about some right next to
their practice to substation there's a substation which weakens tissues.
I don't know if it's true, but to me, he
feels so forty nine ers. All right, let me throw
another one at you. We talked about this yesterday. Tyler Lindebaum.
(07:41):
I'm not sure why Baltimore didn't sign him, Probably because
they have a Lamar contract renegotiation coming up, renegotiation coming up.
Max Crosby's expensive, Kyle Hamilton outside of Creed Humphrey of
the Chiefs, there's an argument Tyer Linderbaum is the best
center in football. I thought they were going to resign him.
He was a first round pick out of Iowa. Tough, smart, durable,
(08:03):
doesn't miss a lot of starts.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I love.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
This is an A plus move to me by the
Raiders because this is what Ben Johnson did with the Bears.
You know, they went drafted jpj out of Oregon last year.
He's more of a guard. He was a center in college.
He's more of a guard. Then they bring in a
Pro Bowl center for Fernando Mendoza. Now their offense, basically,
(08:27):
they'll probably they have so many picks, they'll probably get
a receiver in the second or third round. They'll also
probably draft a right tackle, fourth fifth round. I love
this to me, this is my favorite signing so far
in free agency.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Well, look at all the good teams, right, The Ravens
for the last four years have had one of the
best centers, The Chiefs have one of the best centers.
The Bills just paid their center. Like, I mean, center
kind of matters, especially when you have a young quarterback.
And I think if you're a Raider fan, you look
at it go. We essentially traded Max Crosby for two
first round picks, one being fourteen and a center who's
one of the better centers in the league. I just looked.
(09:02):
He hasn't missed a snap really in the last two years.
So this is a very durable classic like Midwest center. Right.
The other thing is, I would say this for the
raven standpoint, he was banged up last year, but the
previous two years, when you factor in the center, obviously
was an excellent player and likely who accounted for eleven
touchdowns in twenty three to twenty four, was very productive
(09:25):
in their two playoff or their two playoff runs those
two years. Like he's not Kelsey or Kittle or anything,
but he was a unique player for them and made
huge plays, even the play that led to the missfield
goal against Pittsburgh on that Sunday night game. Who made
the crazy catch Isaiah Likely? How many teams have a
six to six guy. I mean, he kind of plays
(09:46):
like a little Darren Waller basketball player, elite athlete. You
just you don't need to be that accurate. Just throw
him a fifty to fifty ball, because it's not a
fifty to fifty ball. So there are some injury concerns.
He's not the most durable player. He is a unique player, though,
So you tell me the Ravens on offense with this
twenty nine year old aging quarterback, new offensive coordinator lose
(10:08):
their you know, kind of just stalwart guy at center
and this unique chess piece with Likely. You know, Henry
still got something in the tank, but he's a little older.
Zay Flowers isn't exactly Jerry Rice. Good player, but I
mean their offense has some question marks, assuming their defense
will improve, which it will, but I don't know. That's
(10:29):
that's to me something to keep an eye on with
the Ravens, who are clearly trying. You know, we talked
about this last night, right Super Bowl or bust. I
mean making it to the super Bowl. They're in this
little couple of year window now of them and the Bills.
There's no well we made the playoffs. That's not really
their standard in their organization now.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Rashawn Gary to Dallas Rusher off the edge. I mean
listen Quinn Williams, Kenny Clark and the trade for Micah
Parsons Rashawn Gary. It allows them to go get a
corner and maybe a Kayla Downs in the draft in
the first round. I mean, that's what it feels like
to me, is that they're they're gonna buy you know,
they're gonna spend money defensively up front. They don't want
(11:08):
to wait for developing players. Jerry Jones is getting older,
Dak's getting older, so they're gonna go buy veteran players
up front, which they have, and then they're gonna draft
on the back end. I still think they're gonna draft
defensive players with their picks in the first round.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, I think clearly there's gonna be a good defensive
back there with their first pick, which is what is
it thirteen? Like they're gonna get Caleb Downs. Definitely, there's
a chance he's there. When you factor or.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
One of the two best corners.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, so they're gonna get and I think at pick
twenty gives them a little leeway of just they could
take a great player, right who doesn't have to be
a position in need. Say this about the Cowboys. They've
they've drafted pretty well, especially in the first round from
Zach Martin. You know, Zeke was really good. Obviously, Ceedee Lamb.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Like Timers Smith has become a good player.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Tylers, all their offensive linemen have become, you know, starters
for their team. So I one thing you'd say about
Jerry in the front eye office operation, Jerry's not the
guy breaking down seven games on every player right now.
He's the guy front and center when the press conference comes.
But they have a really good scouting staff. So I
think the Cowboys. I was just texting somebody, I think
the Giants this NFC East. You know the Eagles, they
(12:17):
lose Jalen Phillips. Their pass rush when they won the
Super Bowl a couple of years ago was like historically great.
I think they had four guys get double digit sacks. Well,
since then, Brandon Graham retired, came back, probably retire again.
Fletcher Cox is gone. Obviously, Sweat is now on the Cardinals.
They have this Jalen Carter situation, who is an elite talent,
but they are very uncomfortable paying him forty forty five
(12:39):
million dollars. So it's like, now you look at the Giants,
who have some stability. The Cowboys offensively have been fantastic.
Shottenheim approved, Like, he's a pretty good offensive play call.
If their defense is just solid, they're gonna be a
pretty interesting team. So you gotta have the Giants and
the Cowboys. Like that division is going to be, to me,
dramatically more competitive than I would say it's been over
the last ten year years when it's basically just been
(13:01):
the Eagles, or those couple of years with McCarthy when
the Cowboys were pretty loaded. But now the Commanders, I
think Commanders still have a lot of question marks. I
think they clearly wanted Linderbaum, But what did the Raiders have.
No state income tax could offer a huge amount of money.
You just have a fresh slate. Here come you get
to be the team captain. So the Commanders had cut
their center. He's now on the Chargers. I'm sure they
(13:23):
wanted Linderbaumb, they don't have that. Their roster's kind of
old to begin with, so and the Eagles just got
a lot of moving parts. Now, they still got a
lot of talent and talent in the NFL matters, but man,
there's just that division to me, has gotten a lot
more interesting in the last couple months.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I would say Kenneth Walker from Seattle to Kansas City again,
he's great after contact gets dinged up, but they have
no juice. They're losing backs to free agency. They have
no juice in the backfield. I also thought this made
sense because they don't have a ton of draft picks,
but it allows them. Now their first pickul be the
right tackle Fino from Utah.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
They need a.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Corner for McDuffie. They need an edge rusher. They have
three big needs now with Kenneth Walker, they'll probably draft
another running back later in the draft.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
It's not a good running back draft.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So I mean to me, Kenneth Walker is more valuable
that This sounds weird to say as a Super Bowl MVP,
but I think because of Charbonnay with the Seahawks as
a backup, they have another couple backs in Seattle that
are you know, spot players. They don't play a ton,
but I think Kenneth Walker or the Chiefs feels incredibly valuable.
(14:31):
And with Seattle, not that he was disposable, but they
have such a stacked roster. It feels like if they
drafted another running back in the fourth round, one of
the Penn State running back in the third round, You're like,
they're fine.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
I think Kansas City had to do this.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, I don't think they had a choice either. I
think it's pretty clear to them too. Now. I don't
think they would have taken Jeremiah of but at this
point in time, you're weighing all your options. I think
they understand that that wasn't even going to be an
option at pick nine, so you go, unquote overpay me.
They gave him a substantial amount of money three years,
forty five million dollars, almost guarantee him thirty Remember a
(15:05):
couple of years ago, that was essentially what Howie Roseman
gave Sakquaud Barkley. So these running backs, they've been on
zoom calls, always bitching the mona. They don't get any
money like this has been a lot better the last
couple of years. You know, the money has gravitated toward them. Listen,
the Chiefs, they weren't gonna let Baltimore and Buffalo have
all the fun like Andy Reid. They don't plan on
(15:26):
I know a lot of people talk about this, I'll
just have an off year and they ain't mailing anything
in their game plan is mahomes start in week one.
They plan on winning. They get a plug and play
running back. Now, one thing that he's gonna have to
prove he can do Andy like's throwing the ball to
the back, right, Shady McCoy, Brian Westbrook, Jamal Charles when
he first got to Kansas City does. So It's like, now,
(15:49):
could they maybe want to adapt a little bit to
take some pressure who they bring back? Eric b Enemy
What's he a running back guy? Right? So maybe they
want to take a little pressure off coming up off
an injury, right, coming off at ACL They're not gonna
want him to throw forty fifty times a game like
he did earlier in his career. So could they maybe
try to lean on Kenneth Walker a little bit more?
(16:10):
Now that would be very opposite of Andy's history. But listen,
what do talented people in eddie industry do? They adapt?
They change Andy's changed how many times his offense? His
offense now ask anyone is dramatically different than it was
ten years ago, twenty years ago. So what if you
tell everyone, I don't think many people in the league
would believe you they're a rushing team this year. Right,
(16:30):
they got a good guard, they got a good center,
they got a young stud left tackle. Like you said,
what if they draft a right tackle and they go,
you know what, why don't we do some Kyle Shanahan
and just run the ball, take a little pressure off
our quarterback, build up our young defense with our stud coordinator.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
So what if the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Are their game plan this year is to be one
of the better rushing teams. Look at you know, the
Bills with Cook. Now Cook's a better player than Walker.
But what if the Chiefs are about to throw a
little curveball here and become a running offense.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Do you think Travis Kelcey signs with them or somebody else?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Well, I thought he was gonna go to the Giants,
and then they signed likely and that's not happening. I mean,
by all accounts, maybe they're just as a tie that
I undervalue a little bit. This is a unique player
with a unique connection to Andy and the Chiefs and
for the right price. I mean, at this point in time,
he's so wealthy on and off the field that maybe
he's just cool with Like, hey man, I understand, I'm
(17:25):
not a fifteen million dollar a year player anymore. Could
we go like five and incentivize that up if I
give you ten touchdowns? But this is where I want
to be. These are my people which I value. I
think I do understand from a player standpoint of seeing
some you know, Kobe Bryant types, like this is the
only franchise I ever played with, even though historically that's
not really how the NFL works. So I am a
(17:47):
little surprised if it does work out. But I think
the reason that we haven't seen it yet is the
Chiefs aren't just gonna well, Travis, here's the check. You
fill it in, like those days are kind of over
because he wasn't great last year. I mean the drops,
he definitely looked his aim. So I think he got
to be very careful, and Andy has been over the
(18:08):
course of his career of kind of you know, separating
the emotional connection to the human in the past, right,
But this might just be a really tough one given
that I mean, Andy says, well, I might owe some
Super Bowls to this guy, right, I mean he's so
I do. Listen, We're all human beings. So this is
probably really tough internally for Veach and Andy. This is
(18:30):
most players they'd say, hey, see, godspeed, good luck at
what you can because this is this is a little
abnormal to what good teams do in the NFL. Right,
But maybe there is just a connection that unless you
really in that building with these guys every day, that
I even undervalue from the outside.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
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(19:54):
Gambling problem called one eight hundred Gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois,
New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. So Alex Pearce one of
the moves I think Alex Pearce is. Alex Pearce is
very good out of Cincinnati. Twenty nine million a year
is a lot for him. Jeez, that's a little steep
(20:16):
and the Sauce Gardener. Two first round picks for Sauce Gardner.
People thought that was too much. So suddenly Chris Ballard
is hyper aggressive. The Steelers get Michael Pittman, which they
needed a number two receiver. You know what that feels
like to me, the Michael Pittman of the Steelers from
the Colts. First of all, it frees up room for Pierce,
who's a better downfield receiver. I think he's a faster guy.
Pittman's a big, strong Pittman almost felt like a great two.
(20:38):
Pierce feels like a middle one. I mean, that's my
interpretation that they really like Pierce and he can really move.
Pittman's a very tough, durable you know, his dad was
a running back for Tampa. Pittman was a great player
at USC, tough, motivated, self starter. Always liked him. But
that feels like a Mike McCarthy bang the table. So
(21:00):
the Steeters are paying Dk metcalf and Michael Pittman. Suddenly
Pittsburgh now is got an offensive staff that you've heard
of them before. Now they've got two expensive wide receivers.
I don't know, it feels like that's a Mike McCarthy
bang the table move that Pittsburgh has been the highest
spending defense for I think four years in a row,
and I've argued for years, just move your money to offense.
(21:24):
That's what teams like the Rams are doing. So Pittman
to the Steeters. To me, it's sort of a changing
of the not only the guard, but changing of the
tide where they're moving offensive money.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I'm with you on Pittman, like you have folden since
usc feels like a mature version of Juju, just that
physical nature. I had a scout in kind of a
personnel executive last year that thought he regressed a little bit.
Look at it. In twenty two and twenty three he
was ninety nine catches and one hundred and nine catches.
I mean he had become a big time player. And
(21:58):
then last year he was banged up. But also so
you saw the emergence of Tyler Warren. They draft him.
Alt Pierce shot like a rocket ship. Obviously, Jonathan Taylor's
an excellent guy, and he I don't want to say
phased out because he was still productive in the games
he played, but it was like, we don't need We're
gonna go with Pierce's speed and Tyler Warren. Now again
(22:20):
for the Steelers, you don't have a quarterback, so I
get building up your team. But who's throwing these two
guys the ball?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Does this tell us that Aaron Rodgers is coming back?
Because Aaron doesn't like dealing. Brady didn't either. Aaron doesn't
like young receivers. That's not Aaron's jam. So is this
telling you that behind the scenes, Aaron said all come back,
so they get him. DK Metcalf, Michael Pittman Friarmouth feels
like a veteran now and all of a sudden you're like, okay,
that's an offense that Aaron can navigate.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
And the big tight end that broke his leg last
late in the season from Washington, like, they have some
real pieces. Now they're running back positions a major question mark.
I think Gainwell went to the Bucks saw the kid
they drafted from Iowa in the third round was a disaster, right,
So to me, that position is gonna be key for them.
Maybe they could draft the backup from Notre Dame or
(23:11):
something and get, you know, a real running back. But
if you don't have a quarterback, I don't care if
you got Jerry Rice and Randy Moss out there because
Pittman and DK are that you got a real one
to two wide receiver now where it ranks in the league,
But those are real NFL veteran wide receiver.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Physical wide receiver win.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Some big games within the cold. But to me, it's
it just comes down to the quarterback position. So does
Aaron come back with McCarthy? Is that what you feel like?
If you were a betting man, would he say, Aaron
Rodgers back this this thing?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I would because I think he he said twice he's
been quoted saying I had a great time and I
will defend Aaron Rodgers. You know, I think he's been
prickly and moody, and I've got I had three different
packers at one point. Say you never knew what kind
of moody was shown up with. I think that's pretty clear.
I thought he was excellent last year. He got dinged
by PFF because he didn't throw the ball down the field. Well,
(24:03):
they didn't have downfield receivers, And I mean, to me,
they're a they're a tight end. I mean Pittman, DK, Washington, Friarmouth,
Jalen Warren, I mean kind of a power team.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
So and Aaron.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
By the way, they were atrocious in the red zone
before Aaron, they were pretty good in the red zone.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Last year.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
They cut down on interceptions, they cut down on penalties.
So I mean, I thought Aaron played the hand he
was dealt. It was not a very good receiving core.
Late in the year, DK metcalf missus two games because
of the incident with a Lions fan. I mean, they
have nobody to throw to. So I think I think
Pittman tells me a veteran receiver tells me that there's
(24:42):
a better than fifty percent chance that Aaron has told them. Listen,
I'm gonna come back. So there and they're and Aaron's
watching all this. And if you're Aaron watching this and
you're pretty sure you're coming back, does this motivate you
to come back?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
That's a pretty good signing.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, definitely, I listen if he does. I have he
not that I didn't respect. To me, he's one of
the greatest players I've ever watched, But to play through
a broken hand like he did last year was on
a team that was pretty average, right, And if you
look at the course of the last couple of years,
the torn achilles, the broken hand like age is kind
of catching up to him. So if he does come
(25:17):
back after dealing with some of these injuries on a
team that, I mean ultimately was the Steeler ceiling next year,
it's kind of the same thing. Maybe compete to be
a nine to ten win team. You just got to
say the guy just loves playing football because he's not
doing it for the money at this point in time.
And it's not like he's got well he's playing on
the KD Warriors, right or the Steinbrener Yankees like this
(25:37):
isn't he doesn't have the best team even in his
own division. So if Joe Burrow just stays on the
field like it is going to be difficult for them
to be second in the division. So yeah, I mean,
I think McCarthy is better than he gets credit for.
The branding on him is just atrocious, right, I Mean,
we've talked about this. His resume next to John Harbaugh
is essentially the same thing.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
We guy might he Mike Tomlin are very similar. The
difference is the league's an offensive league and he has
an offensive touch and Tomlin's a defensive guy. They're both
they're both motivators. They're both well liked by players. One's
an offensive guy. And if if i'm I'm trying to
split it up on who I like more. I thought
Tomlin's time, I.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Thought that he was.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I mean their offense was a wreck for seven years.
Aaron actually healed a lot of the wounds. So I
think I don't think McCarthy's he's more than capable. And
go look at Cooper Rush and Dak both highly productive. Okay,
so you know one of the things that jumps out
to me between Mike Evan to the Niners, uh Rashawn
(26:39):
Gary to Dallas de Mario Davis, who's like his older
player goes back to the Jets, very very good player,
two year deal, twenty two million bucks. I think he's
a tremendous player, but he's an older player. Michael Pittman
an older player. Is he regressing it? You know what
Kenneth Walker had injuries, Kansas City rule the dice. Maybe
(27:02):
it's because the gambling money and the TV money, people
just have more led us to play with. But some
of these signings are older players regressing players, injured players.
I mean Lindabaum to me to the Raiders that is
an A plus signing Malik Willis could be, but we
don't know.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Alec Pierce.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I think they spent too much money, but again he's
in house. Chris loves him. With Daniel Jones, Warren, Jonathan Taylor,
I mean, not many teams in the league can say
back tight end number one receiver are better than the Colts.
I guess my kind of takeaway in this free agent
period is a lot of GMS if you liked the guy,
(27:46):
even if he was older, out of his prime, a
little dinged up, a lot of GMS just went for it.
It's aggressive GMing.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Well, the money has dramatically changed a short period of time.
I would just say in the last five years with
the cap space. So the old even you said Alex
Pierce twenty nine million, that's like the old sixteen million
Linderbob the center, he the highest paid center before him,
he got twenty seventy year was like seventeen eighteen million dollars.
(28:15):
So when you factor in the flush of new cap space,
the flush of money to these owners part of the
reason the NFL free agency, even in its early kind
of iterations back in the nineties and early two thousands,
half the owners didn't have cash on hand right alone,
so even the cap space. So like Jerry and Eddie
(28:36):
de Bartelow, you know the Packers when they signed Reggie White,
like there would be the occasional here and there, but
up until the last ten years, if the Bengals want,
they could break someone off. So I look at the Raiders.
His part of the reason JaMarcus Russell didn't play for
like the first four games his rookie season is because
Al didn't have the money to give him a signing bonus.
(28:56):
That is not nineteen eighty seven, that's like two thousand
and seven, Collin. So in a twenty year spent you
got the Raiders, Hey Center, sixty million guaranteed. I'm sure
with bonus is like thirty or forty million dollars. No
problem here you go. They just got rid of Geno Smith,
so they're taking a hit. They just gave him a
ton of money. So you have teams that didn't have
money now that have money, and then you have teams
(29:17):
like I also think it is difficult for some of
these gms, like John Schneider. They say he has a
bunch of money. He's probably looking around going like I
have a hard time paying premiums for non premium players
because ultimately, in free agency, you are paying a premium
on top of the rate. So if a guy is
a normally for you, if you if you were giving
(29:39):
him extension after a couple of years on your team,
he costs let's say fifteen million dollars, That guy on
the open market becomes twenty four million dollars. So now
if you get it right, look a look at last
year with the Patriots. They signed Milton Williams and people like, god,
they gave him twenty five million dollars. We're fantastic, He's
never even played fifty percent of the snaps and then
a year later you feel good about it. But there
(30:01):
are a lot of Milton Williams types. I would imagine
linder Bomb will be the same thing. Did the Raiders overpay,
Of course they did. They've made the playoffs twice in
twenty three years. You think people just want to come
to play for them. Yeah, this guy's coming from the Ravens,
So yeah, sometimes you have to overpay. You just better
overpay you don't even Milton Williams doesn't need to be
Reggie White or Aaron Donald. But if he is a
borderline pro bowler, full time starter for four years. You're going, yeah,
(30:25):
I overpaid a little who cares? So I think that's
what you got to be. That's why the Alex Pierce
Steele I thought Daniel Jones was going to derail them
and lose Alex Pearce, which would have been a problem.
So Chris Bower goes, yeah, I have to give him
a little bit more than I'm comfortable with. I know
this guy. I think he's a sending player, and we
feel comfortable already with him in the building, right. I
think they're way less comfortable with the Daniel Jones situation,
(30:48):
and like, is this gonna work? He's coming off the
Achilles how much? Eventually we're going to have to give
him than they are giving Alex Pierce. Probably more money
than you would want. But the receivers I would have
a hard time. Colin Justin Jefferson, Jamar ch Ceedee Lamb
a guy that's a no doubt about it, hall of
fame talent, but that next tier of guy. I saw
it with the Niners, with with Brandon Ayuk. It's like
(31:09):
you have to give these guys just a large sum
of money and they are just not near the number
one tier. So as long as you feel Alex Pearce
can keep maintaining and being explosive player, you can live
with him. But if you get it wrong, given the
amount of money you're paying a wide receiver, it could
blow up in your face pretty quick.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Let me throw another Raider move. This is very under
the radar between Tyler Linnerbaum getting moving off Max Crosby,
number one pick Fernando Mendoza. This signing will not get
a lot of play. But the Raiders signed former Viking
receiver Jalen Naylor, who I actually think. I think he's
a really interesting, like number two or three receiver. Now
(31:52):
they have Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison in Minnesota, so
they're going to move off him. I thought Jalen Naylor
was a nice player. I don't have Do you have
the numbers in front of you of what he's done. Yeah's,
Patriots and Broncos were all interested in him.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
He hasn't been the most productive player because, like you said,
he's played there, so he's got twenty eight and twenty
nine balls in the last two years. But so basically
in sixty one oh way, that's what JJ McCarthy this year,
So fifty seven catches, Colin. He has ten touchdowns the
last two years, so's he's I felt like that when
you watched the Vikings explosive plays. Here's the other thing,
(32:29):
average yards per catch. His rookie year, he only had
caught nine catches, but he averaged twenty yards to catch
last couple of years. Basically fifteen yards a catch. Explosive
speed guy. Right, So maybe he's not. He'll get more
targets right with the Raiders. But even if he gives
you forty five to fifty catches with Fernando, you give
him a deep threat. I'm with Brock Bauers genty.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
How about this.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Sean Payton wanted him, Josh McDaniels in New England wanted him,
and Clint Kobiak for the Raiders got him. Those are
pretty smart offensive guys. They all liked him.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Ran a four or five at the combine. Feels like
he plays a lot faster than that. Yeah, yeah, no,
I would have guessed like a high four to three guy,
low four to four guy.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
So no, I can he that could be you know,
there's gonna be free agent signings that we that don't
get any play to me. I gotta tell you, John
Spytech with the Raiders, this is the first time in
twenty years I've been excited about the Raiders.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
And they have a boat load of picks.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
If they if they nail that fourteenth pick and just
get you know, a future core, you know, their version
of Patrick Kelsey, they could really change the franchise.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
They could literally get Fernando Mendoza. And the fourteenth pick
is interesting. They could move off that and get Omar Cooper,
Fernando Mendoza's favorite receiver who's viewed as a late first
round receiver. They could move down and still get me.
How great would that be? You can tell? You can
tell right now the Raiders are trying to make and
(34:01):
this is what the Bears did and Ben Johnson. They're
trying to make Fernana Mendoza super comfortable, right. They want
that interior line to be good. They're going to draft
another receiver.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Boy.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
I really like what the Raiders are doing.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Jesson. I think you could get I think you could
get Cooper. I talked to a lot of different coaches
and personnel people at the Talbot about him. He's an
interesting guy. You know, you could ask one guy like
I think he ends up in the late twenties. You
could ask another guy to think he's like the fiftieth pick.
If you were comfortable with doing that, I think you
could take him in the beginning of the second round
because you draft really high. To me, fourteenth pick. I
(34:38):
do think it's going to be harder this year to
trade with some of these picks because the draft is
viewed as not a lot of impact guys. Yeah, so
I I would try to get Cooper if that's who
I was going to take in the in the second
go round, then I would in the first round.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
So, John, if you're a Bears fan, as they clean
up their defense, here some more good news. They played
the NFC South, which is a bit of a mess,
and the AFC East, So they're gonna get the Jets,
They're gonna get you know, Falcons, Saints, Carolina, Tampa. So
(35:17):
if you look at the Bear schedule, you look at
the Bears elevation free agency of defense, I'll stick with it.
It feels like a top five or six team going
into next year.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Yeah, I mean, I Seattle and the Rams are gonna
be really good. But I would say, the rest of
the rest of the NFCT A lot of question marks
with the Eagles that they were one of the top seeds,
a lot of question marks internally in that division. So
you know, the NFC South, I might like the Saints
they signed etn They got this young quarterback who they like,
(35:51):
Tampa's gonna go through kind of you know, Mike Evans
was kind of important for Baker Mayfield, So I mean
you removed by habits that kind of matters now that
part of the NFL. Who they draft last year, the
Ohio state wide receiver, Like, you gotta let guys go.
Usually guys don't stay forever. Forty nine ers. They signed
Mike Evans, but they're gonna have older players coming off injuries.
I think they're they're gonna be solid. But you saw
(36:12):
them and the Bears this year playing a game that
was like seventy five to seventy one of the games
of the year. So yeah, I'm very Their coach is
a star. It just comes down to, you know, if
Caleb can just make an incremental improvement, Like at this
point in time, they don't need him to take some
huge jump, right, they just need maybe a five percent
(36:33):
seven percent improvement on basic things. Hit a wheel route
instead of overthrowing it, because that's the difference of punting
and keeping a drive alive that maybe leads to a
field goal and instead of having to come back, we
have a six point lead in the fourth quarter instead
of down three. So yeah, I'm really really high on
the Bears. I'm with you, polls. He's being a GM's hard,
(36:54):
you know, and being a GM for a dysfunctional franchise
is really difficult. Being a GM when your coach isn't
good is very diff Being a GM when your owners
a little cheap can be difficult. Over the last course
of what eighteen ish months, especially once Ben's got there,
they have been. They feel very on the same page
and rowan in the right direction, which is kind of
(37:17):
the NFL, where whatever the Jets are, the Bears feel
somewhat on the opposite end of the spectrum, and that's
the Raiders used to kind of be by the Jets.
They feel like they're heading towards the other smart teams.
So things change. It's hiring the right people, giving them
the resources to do the right things. I watched the
press conference when Halflee and the GM was hired one thing.
(37:40):
Halfley said over and over. Steven Ross, he said, he
just kept looking at me in the eye, said, you
will not lose for lack of resources here. You will
not lose because of the jetBook. We might make the
wrong moves, you coach poorly or signed the wrong guy,
but you will not ever lose because ah, my owner
wouldn't give the signing bonus. And now more and more
of those owners. If you get the Howie Roseman or
Less Sneed or John Schneider in that role, you're basically
(38:03):
guaranteed to be a double digit win team every year, right,
if you got the right GM with an owner cut
in the checks.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
My takeaway today is Malik Willis for the Dolphins. He
is a totally different player. He may be smaller than
ideal height, but he's an electric athlete with a really
good arm and wildly dynamic offscript. And as you said,
you can inject him into games. He's not even scheduled
to play. I think Malik. Some people are saying, oh,
(38:32):
it feels you know a little undersize got That's not
Malik Willis. He is not to a if he had
a comp I'd argue I don't even know what his
comp a bigger Kyler Murray where it was a beautiful ball.
Kyler's got a good arm, Kyler moves, but Moleik is
really engaged.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
They loved him in Green Band.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Your point on Hathley who watched him, coached against him
for two years and the assistant.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
GM now in Miami. I think that's the best.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Point today made in the last thirty five minutes. Is
guys that knew him went all in on Malik Willis
from Green Bay to Miami.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I'll give you a comp to me, he's like at
twenty sixteen seventeen, big arm Dak Prescott because remember Dak
could move back then and Dak Dak could really move
remember and coming out of Mississippi State, So that to me,
it's some of the Malik Willis highlights on keepers watching,
I was like, damn, this guy you forget because we
get so removed from the football season. To me, his accuracy, honestly,
(39:31):
there are some parallels to Dak Prescott. Never in a
million years I watch Dak Prescott in Missipi State because
remember Dan Mullen was there. They were really good. I
never thought he'd be a good NFL quarterback. Some guys improved.
That's the thing about the NFL, not everyone's just ready
to go. This is you know, in the NBA, you
kind of know, like the three guys are gonna get
drafted really high, they're gonna be stars or high level guy.
In the NFL, how many times is like this fourth rounder,
(39:54):
the sixth rounder, All of a sudden, ten years later
it's Richard Truman or Jason Kelsey or George Kittle. It happened.
It happens with quarterbacks too, and now we're on this
quarterback renaissance of we have some high picks that resurrected
their career. But we have seen over the course of
the last more in my lifetime of these mid round picks,
from dak to Russell Wilson to Kirk Cousins go on
to make hundreds of millions of dollars in lead playoff
(40:17):
teams year after year. So to me, Malik Willis kind
of fits that high character. Smart. Now he's an accurate passer.
We know he can move. He's good. The other thing
is like, well, what kind offense he ran? I don't know,
he ran the Shanahan offense, you know, in hybrid version
for himself, in Green Bay, So it's not like he's
running some rinky Dean high school offense like this year
(40:38):
when he was thrown into that game against the Bears,
he just ran the Jordan Love offense and did excellence.
I remember watching thinking, is this really happening? He looks fantastic.
He looked so good in that game coming out of
the bullpen.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Oh we have Tacker.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Fans were all like, we're paying the wrong quarterback.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Shoot your shot. Get paid double only on hard Rock Bet.
Hard Rock Bet is Florida's only legal way to bet
the NBA teams, players.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Points and more issues.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
He's gone and when you sign up for hard Rock Bet,
your bets paid double winnings. Don't just count the basket,
count it twice.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
He's on fire now.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
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Try hard Rock Bet today. Max bet of fifty dollars
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