Daddy is Instructive: FA Winners & Losers (with Bill Barnwell)

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal recap the latest free agency moves from over the weekend, starting with the Cowboys trading for Brandin Cooks (9:48). Laremy Tunsil agreed to an extension with the Texans (13:20), and Adam Thielen is heading to Carolina (16:30). The heroes hit some Odds and Ends (18:45) before welcoming in Bill Barnwell (21:39) to discuss free agency's biggest winners and losers thus far (26:58), including teams like the Lions (27:37), Giants (32:31), Broncos (48:09), Cardinals (57:34) and more, plus an honorable mention section (1:04:00).

Note: timecodes approximate.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Around the NFL podcast, What What What What? From
the Chris Wesling podcast studio. It's around the NFL. I'm
Dan Hansa's heroes here, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, What how

(00:20):
is everybody's weekend? You know what I watched? If you're
not gonna say anything, I was waiting for. Greg said
that I enjoyed it just seeing Mark like stare at
me and Marks like, I don't want to tell anyone
about my weekend. Tell you I'm staying undercover. That is
not the case. Um, I watched. Well, everyone listens to

(00:42):
the show knows. I'm like the baseball fan of the podcast.
I'm watching this World Baseball Classic, which I never have
in the past, and I've been struck by how like
kind of the level of juice it has, both in
the sellout crowds and how much the players care. Salvador
Perez is the catcher for the Royal and is kind
of like a grand poobah for a lot of the
Latino players. Um, it's from Venezuela, I believe actually, and

(01:06):
he um he said this. The game he played against
the US that the US went on to win meant
more to him than Game seven. Of the World Series,
which he played in a few years back. And then
it did get me thinking, boys, I was walking the dog,
not paying anyone. That's your time to think, go into
a hole and poop in the dark, right, just walking

(01:29):
the captain thinking about it because we've had so many
issues with the Pro Bowl and the NFL and and
how to kind of get the players invested and and
find something that the fans can enjoy. Is there something too?
And baseball is a global brand in terms of players
or come from all over the world here that you know,

(01:50):
Latin America, the Far East, greg Japan. Massive football is
getting there internationally in terms of popularity. But the players,
it's like what ninety eight percent ninety nine percent American players, Yeah,
getting somewhere would carry a lot of weight on the
international team exactly. Um, but is there something to regionalism?
And our country doesn't need more tribalism? I understand that,

(02:13):
But is there something to some type of competition amongst
football players that reflects where they come from in the country.
So what if there was some type of event where
it's like all the Texas football players, whether they're from
Texas or they went to college in Texas. They can choose,
just like Americans in the WBC can choose to play
for America or where their heritage is from Florida, California.

(02:35):
Maybe there's a Midwest team and there's something Is there
something there for from that or is this a terrible idea?
I would say you probably have a soft version of
that with college football because a lot of recruiting is
more localized than you're if you're on the East Coast,
you're getting everyone from the West. It's like, it's probably
a soft version of that. On my one issue because
I've heard some grub only grumbling. I heard about the

(02:56):
baseball part. There was a major injury. That gets injuries,
there's been as you add any any time you're attached
to an NFL team as a fan or coach or whatever,
and you're watching your players even play pick up basketball,
you're sitting there with you like your fingers crossed. So sure,
that's that's the thing. It's too physical, and you're adding,
what when the schedule be you got these players like
oh Maryland, Verse, like Oregon. Well that's cool, except if

(03:18):
you lose like player X for the next twelve is
different than basketball and baseball and that injuries are a
much higher risk. But in terms of getting the players juice,
the way these guys all is completely different than basketball
just throwing it out there. Is there anything even if
it's a skills competition, I don't know. I see why
you're being people. People are very passionate about where they're from.

(03:41):
I don't know if it would be as much in
terms of the states, but it would because people, you know,
players really cape for like the states that they're from.
But it's such a physical sport. It's like, I don't
think anyone, even football players who love football, never want
to play and expose their body and hit that hard
unless like it really matters, and switch for a Rhode

(04:03):
Island by the way, I mean, like you'd have to
Northeast in general would be we want to do well
the natives of the Northeast. I don't think in that,
but it would just basically California, Louisiana, Texas, and Georgia.
Let's just have a semifinals and start and then everyone else.
How about everyone's Ohio Twitter, It's like Ohio and you
have provided more people West. I guess for me as

(04:25):
a fan, I don't I'll start to disengage when it's
like a bunch of people from Texas shouting at a
bunch of people from Ohio. Where do I play in?
This might be something that other sports have on have
on the old American football, But you know, okay, Henry
is working on it. We're building players, we're building communities.

(04:47):
We got players coming from Africa, we got Europe, you
know Asia, it's coming. But we might have to wait.
We got a job seventy years, so we'll be quite
old at the point. Our buddy fa Obada got a gig.
He's back because they're one. Should we update the keeping
Up with bow Ringer to keeping Up with Obada? I mean,

(05:07):
the only thing is that we'd have to find a
song that is already Really regret bringing up Mobo because
I didn't mean it in any derogatory. Well, Henry's listening here.
It just doesn't like it. It's really in your head here,
isn't he You're like, you're pring his campaign, You're scared
to offend him, and it's gone. He lives rent free
in your head, Greg, I hate that. Hate what people

(05:30):
say that. Um, all right, this is around the NFL
good show today. We're gonna talk to Bill Barnwell, one
of the uh great football writers covering professional football. He's
with ESPN, of course, and with a free agency. Basically
one weekend, where do we stand? Who's looking good, who's
looking bad? I do hesitate a little bit, boys in

(05:51):
terms of the timing on this um. It's it's so
early in the process. But at the same time, hey, listen,
we booked Barnwell, let's talk. That's what are we gonna do?
Just those kind of like things have slowed down enough
to the point where, all right, let's let's take a
stock where we are. I think maybe a disclaimer, like
to the teams that we're going to talk about with
Bill that we're not as high on. Don't like crush

(06:14):
us or do it if you want, but understand that
we're gonna we're doing this segment. We're not going to
rule out these teams from being successful in the shorter
long term. It's just kind of where things stand. A week.
Who had a bad week, not a bad week. I
had bad weeks. We've had good weeks for a bad weeks.
I think if you don't like what we do, you
can tell us all you want and see how we
respond to that. Um. Yes, who is the great defensive

(06:38):
tackle that jumped from Philly to San Francisco. Did you
guys know before we get to the news that he
shares a nickname with a certain person behind the glass?
That's right, I did learn that over the last week.
How do you feel about that person behind the glass?

(06:58):
About what? Sorry, there was a great moment that just happened,
setting you up. That was the great moment. That was
the all time set up for the drop. Oh right, oh,
I know what you're talking about now. Yeah, I don't
know I'm even going to finish the show at this
point that there's no coming back from that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

(07:23):
I don't know who was first here, because Dan, you
came up with this nickname for me? Yes, and I
was For the record, I was unaware that this player
was connected to the nickname. But he's a prominent star
in the NFL. Um, I'm sure he's had the nickname
for some time. I was unaware there's another player in
the league. I think that that calls himself this nickname.

(07:44):
Another thing to tackle somewhere. I nail it that time. Nice.
I mean, if we don't know, that's if none of
us really knew that was Javon's nickname. Is he doing
you know, considering we have someone in our in our
show here that has seven or eight nicknames and they're
all well branded known, like Javon Hargrave is not doing
a great job with the grave Digger nickname. Yeah. I

(08:04):
think maybe he doesn't need to do the branding his
hard because his play on the field and maybe just yeah,
it's not he doesn't. It doesn't hinge on that for him. Um,
all right, DJ Reader also has sometimes been called the
grave digger. Get the hell out of here. I mean
it doesn't even I mean Hargrave has grave and then
hell out of here with that. It's disgusting what you're
trying to tell us. That's a disgrace. Reader. I'm not

(08:25):
gonna talk again this episode. No, that was good. You
give us good differ. Let's do some news chains on
Hugh blow shout out, Hublow, Gucci, Um, yeah, no man,
Me and Gucci partnered up this past year, so we
do a lot of things, and anytime I got something
special going on, they want to make sure that they
got me fitting and stuff. So as soon as the
trade happened, um, they hit me and my team up

(08:48):
and was like, I gotta wear Gucci. I was like,
I'm gonna wear a Gucci anyway. So I got y'all
Jalen Ramsey and you know, early in history press conference
with the Dolphins, I was thinking that we, uh, we
don't have a outfitter for our show, not yet. There
might be a time where we have some type of

(09:10):
media engagement together, and maybe that's something we need to
get ahead of. I don't know if Gucci is going
to approach us, maybe the maybe there's a Sears brand
that I meant. We did get a suit from the
NFL where they put our names inside the jacket and
they misspelled your name and then you had had it fixed.
The tailor was killed. The tailor was murdered. Yeah, he is,

(09:34):
but I did get it. He was like, how was
I supposed to know how to spell the new old
blue eyes? Um? All right, let's get to the news,
starting with Brandon Cooks. He is on the move. He
is the first player. I don't know if this is
an achievement or what you guys can decide. Since Eric
Dickerson to be traded four times in his career, Eric

(09:55):
Dickerson retired like thirty years ago, So yeah, and he's
in the Hall of Fame. Take anyway, Absolutely, Cooks has
been traded to the Dallas Cowboys. The teams will swap
some late round picks and Cooks slides in to that
spot that they've been looking to upgrade. And we had

(10:15):
Cede Lamb on our podcast super Bowl Weekend. He talked
about how they need more weapons. Brandon Cooks Mark is
that guy. We'll see if they add more to it. Um.
I think there's some reporting out there that this likely
takes them out of the market for Odell Beckham, but
who knows what Beckham's market is right now? We shall see.
But Cooks is an upgrade over the version of Michael

(10:36):
Gallup they got last year. There you go, yeah, and
I like it better than Noell Beckham. And they got
the Texans to pay six million of the salaries, so
that Cowboys are on the hook for twelve. It was
a year ago that Dallas had to essentially trade Amari
Cooper away or chose to for next to nothing because
of their own cap issues. So a year later they

(10:57):
get Brandon Cooks, and I think if you're traded this
many times, someone's ready to move on from you. And
I think that with Brandon Cooks, the obviously contract issues
with the Texans, wanted to be traded last offseason. Seems
everywhere he's been it's kind of gotten to a point
where there's been a little bit of a back and forth.
It's not turned into a major blow up, but Brandon
Cookes has kind of wanted to move on, have a
different role X, Y and Z. So he's movable, but

(11:18):
there's always someone that wants him. And I think this
is the Cowboys saying, look, we get it, like we
need to do more around Dak Prescott. There is a
lot of this is on Dak Prescott too, but Brandon
Cooks can still play, and it's not like you've gotten
this guy beyond the pale. I think you've still got
a year or two with Brandon Cooks, who's actually only
like twenty nine years old or something. Right, He joins
Jalen Ramsey might come up a little later as like

(11:40):
sneaky young. I would not have guessed Brandon Cooks, who's
been racking up thousand yards seasons. I know that's not
the perfect metric for wide receivers. It's not doesn't tell
you everything, but he's been racking up thousand yard seasons
since he got in the league. I'm hesitant to give
the Cowboys too much credit because they are the Cowboys
and this was a problem with their own making. They
sat last year without Mary Cooper and twenty million dollars

(12:01):
in cap space for no particular reason. But this was
a great use of their cap space, the fact that
they got the Texans to pay six million dollars of
his salary. This was a contract Nick Kasserio gave to
Cooks just last year. So this was kind of a
problem of the the Texans turnover their own making that
different coaches and everything. He was not happy there and

(12:21):
they felt like they just had to get rid of
him for fifty cents on the dollar. They got a
fifth and a sixth round draft pick back, so I
guess they're sort of pain for that draft pick. That
was probably where the negotiation was bought. I like it
a lot. Gallup should be better. There is something to
the idea that a year more removed from surgery he'll
be better, and then suddenly Cooks and Gallop that's a
reasonable two and three. Yeah, I think it's okay. They're

(12:44):
winners between that and Gilmore and then bringing Donovan Wilson back.
It was a nice season, got a nice little off season.
Not too flashy, but it's nice. Sor right. I would
have liked them to keep Dalton Sheltz around and he's
still never know. They still maybe have a lot of
cap space. And I'm feeling a lot better about things. Uh,
but Cooks, you know, I don't. He wasn't great last year,
but he also was very unhappy. Not a Texans team

(13:06):
that had a mess in. The Texans have done business
with Laramie Tunsel again. Three year, seventy five million dollar
contract extension per rap sheet and includes fifty million guaranteed
sixty million in total guarantees. See I say that stuff,
and just like, what what am I even saying? It's
fifty million fully guaranteed and sixty million in total guarantees.

(13:29):
What's a guarantee? I think it gets a little muddled.
It's very problematic that guarantees are not guaranteed. That should
be that whatever million worth something. It should be something
different than guaranteed. And then you could don't use guaranteed
twice because then it completely eliminates any meaning for the word.
There is no meaning, because what it is is an

(13:50):
injury guarantee. Uh that like he gets ten million dollars
next year if he's injured and they want to cut him.
So it's like it's a language that we need to
for some reason, his play fell off a cliff, they
could cut him, and it's not guaranteed anyway, it's a
good I would say, nothing has any meaning. It's a
good deal for tunsl who in twenty twenty uh signed

(14:11):
a three year extension that made him the highest paid
tackle in the league. And now he is once again
and now Greg will point out this he represented himself.
We don't know what about the same individual. There's there's
it's kind of fascinating the backstory on that that there's
a Saint Omni guy who the league sent a memo

(14:32):
out last year. He is not a certified agent. You
cannot be represented. Do not talk to this man. But
there apparently Florio wrote about this. There's this there's this
underground fight club culture of of agent representation where they
you quote unquote represent yourself. And I'm not saying this
will happen with Tonsol. I'm just saying this is something
that Florio put out there. But you could have a

(14:55):
guy that's not technically your agent, but he basically um
portrayed is you in written email type conversations that go
through negotiation without the team, Like so when so he
was backing Roquan Smith, he's like a ghostwriter, a ghost
agent basis, and he takes over an email account. Yeah,
we need a story on this and so, and this
is what Florio pointed out, but that the Bears started

(15:16):
to their radar went up during that whole k fluffel
with Roquan Smith where he wanted to be traded. That
Roquan Smith was out on the practice field when they
received an email from Roquan Smith, and so that caused
some like there's certainly a third party here, and so
Laramy Tunsel is not his own he is his own agent,
But it was Saint Omni who announced this deal to

(15:37):
Ian Rappaport, right, so we could asking about it. But
there's someone else involved. It's not just lay his own
offseason Ian Combo. Sure little, this is how the SA siege.
It's very strange. Gets then again, I think the insiders
and the agents are on the same team and they
don't like the same situation. I mean they have motivation

(15:59):
to make mister Saint Omni look bad. Good job by
a tunsil uh and saying Omnie apparently h reset in
that market again and he's only gonna be thirty one
when he gets back on the friege and market like
that name, Saint Omni. Yeah, it's a great fake name.
Just go buy it. Um, don't need a first name.
I'm saying Omni. Adam Feeland has a new home. The

(16:23):
Panthers signed the long time Vikings wide receiver h three years,
twenty five million, fourteen million and guarantees he's gonna answer
his page thirty three his age thirty three season. So
you know, the Panthers got to start somewhere and rebuilding
their wide receiver room. They didn't have a lot of
depth to start with him, and they traded their clear

(16:44):
number one DJ Moore to the Bears to get that
number one pick as part of that deal. So Feeling,
I think he makes sense as long as he's in
the right spot within that team. He can't be their
lead guy. Hes a guy that if you looked at
if you pop the hood on his UH play. The
last couple of years, he's been in regression and the
stats back that up. I mean you have Terris Marshall Junior.

(17:05):
I think you got something there. She's Smith and like
you're having a rookie quarterback. So Adam Deal and Hayden
Hurst like keep your running backs like they're still interested
in DJ Chark according to Scott Fitterer. So it's like,
I would do anything you can between now and drafting
quarterback X to just put players around him and see
what sticks. Deal and not sneaky young Uh he is

(17:26):
turning thirty three before the season. More of a red
Zune guy. Got a lot of money in the first
year of that deal, ten or eleven million dollars. A
little surprising, but he's he's the classic like article that's
going to be released in August of how he's teaching
the rest of the room how to be a pro
and that what he's worth to the team is worth
a little more than just producing. I got another coach

(17:47):
on the fat. I kind of think there's there is
something to that. I don't think that's total BS, but
he's getting a premium for that. Greg. It's like having
another coach on the field because that's what you want.
Josh Daniel's running her out there catching a kind of slott. No,
I don't want to be a snitch, but like kind
of cheating too. Yeah, you're that's that's two positions. Maybe

(18:10):
we shouldn't be sold. So I've watched approximately seventeen minutes
of CJ. Stroud tape, and I'm like, my god, this
guy's amazing. Let's go Stroud. Okay, let's go Strout. I
can see the offensive line. That's because there's a weirdly
in Vegas. Now. Stroud is the favorite because there's there's
sort of reporting, but no one actually knows. We're just guessing.

(18:32):
But I'm kind of surprised how he's been a little undersold.
Let's do some odds and ends, ends, odds and ends.
Everybody tell your friends Je It's it's getting into a
dark place. I think we might have unwittingly tapped into

(18:56):
a dark third dimension. Like we're opening up this portal
and all the demons of Hell and beyond they're going
to pour into our universe. Yeah, and it will be
our fault because of a tiny box stitty right. I
don't know like how this even happened, but it had

(19:16):
a very Trent Rezner Social Network soundtrack vibe to it,
where like this is the beginning of the end for
our society, kind of kind of all right, let's hit it,
all right, this is an easy one. Nick Scott, the
defensive back, signed a three year, twelve million dollar contract
with the Bengals. Greg like that one. Bengals needed to

(19:39):
get a safety's cheap. They're good at these little myth
tier signs. Yes, they've proven it. The Steelers add to
their offensive line signing Isaac Sayamalo. They need help on
offensive line. They have the now. The tenth rank guard
from a year ago played every game for the Eagles,
was injured in the seasons before that, but alongside Mason Cole,
start to have something on the inside. I do need it,

(20:00):
no right, how about Greg Gaines, a defensive lineman, Buck
sign him formerly of the Rams one year deal? Greg,
Rams have no players left on defense? There enough they
might come up in a little bit. And finally, in
haircut news, Kevin Bayard another dude that's been a a
player with the Titans and an important player. Well, if

(20:23):
he refuses a paycut, that's another guy out the door.
It's they're downtime. The reporting is the Titans asked him
to take a pay cut, and he refused. There is
no word yet whether the Titans will actually release him,
which would be pretty surprising if they did, but they
would save about six million in cap space. Be a
big dead cap hit. You can't And then he says no,

(20:45):
and then they just said don't do anything. They're like, Okay, well, graver,
why don't you tell us about the other Titans news
that you ought put into our messaging client. The Titans
also signed Sean Murphy Bunting, who won a Super Bowl
with the Bucks a couple of years ago. Okay, pretty
good little piece on the offense. I want to I
want to be snarky and give you a hard time
about how bad the Titans might be this year, but

(21:06):
I've been there, so I'm not going to do it.
You know it's coming. I know what's coming. I think.
I mean, they've made a few signings that make me
think they think they'll be more competitive than they will be,
but I still don't think they'll be all that competitive.
All right, Well, let's hope season. Let's take a break,
and then we will welcome in Bill Barnwell, welcome back.

(21:42):
Everybody joining us now is one of our favorites. The
only reason I have an ESPN Plus subscription. A Northeastern
alum fellow and one of the great greatest damn football
writer in this country, Bill Barnwell, Welcome back to Around

(22:03):
the NFL. What great intro. First, I get some sultry music.
It feels like I'm in a mid nineties R and
B song about to come in with here. Then I
get I'm interest one of the best damned sports writers
and think I forget exactly how it was phrased, but
all of that I'm in. I'll take I actually said

(22:25):
you were a former member of the Best damn Sports
Show former panelist. Yes, Yeah, that was me and Tom Mardol.
Happened on and I bdss that that show that was
on every single Fox SPORTNT affiliate four about fifteen years,
so unfortunately it was never invited. Happy to go back on.
Mark Grace was tremendous on that program. Yeah, that musical

(22:47):
selection that we selected for you. Is that sort of
the vibe that you would think that you carry around
town when you're out on the streets. Yeah, you know,
I feel like late night, but not like a sketchy
late night, like a late night, like a noir a
late night Like maybe you're at a jazz club and
it's in between sets and you're like, oh, let me
read five thousand words about these offensive lines transactions. That's

(23:09):
what I want out there for me and my fans.
I I do like to imagine Bill as a member
of the mid nineties R and B group H Town
saying that would be good and little know. In fact,
I once applied for a job at the best damn
sports show period as a researcher. Really I did not
get I did not get that job, denied what was there.

(23:30):
I have to admit, it's been a long time. I
don't know. This is not really relevant for sure too.
That's what we're talking about, a show that was on
neither of the network. I work for the networks. This
is our show in general. Yeah, well, I have to
ask was there a lot of research going on on
the I never got to find out. I was working
weekends one day a week on Fox Baseball and football

(23:52):
and like in the highlights department, and was trying to
get more of a full time gig. I heard about
this research job, interviewed, didn't get it all. I know
Chris Rose, who works on this for this network now
was a host of that show, and he speaks very
fondly of the program and what they achieved together. So
that's that's my insight on it. Dude, any anyone who

(24:13):
can host a show that's on the air of that
long did something right. So like you know, like like
no no bones about that. I just you know, it's
kind of like a you know, a back and forth.
I felt like kind of like a you know, a
taky sort of show. I didn't recall like extensive research
segments happening right, and maybe it was a little ahead
of its time, and like research is the guy who

(24:35):
lets tarm Arnold know like who's on what team right
before the segments and speaking of like late nights and
we're gonna get to some way premature winners and losers
of free agency with Bill Um. I do want to
mention super Bowl Week in Arizona. Um, we were hanging out.
We got dinner with Kevin Clark. Yeah, and Clark's plugged

(24:57):
in with the ringer. Gagna sent they sure, So he
invites us to the Cimes Gathering, which you know is
top of the food chain within this whole world, and uh,
we did go there. Greggy and Gravedigger was with us
as well, and um, I was remarkably or surprisingly, I
was intimidated to the point where it's like, there's too

(25:18):
many Ringer people here. They're all best friends. Here's Barnwell
in the corner, just like lording over a group of bros.
I didn't even go say hi to Bill because he
was said he was he was the bell of this ball.
I had a drink and I excused myself, but it
was it was basically walking into like the cool kid's
wing of a high school. It was like, just be
careful here, this little treacher you irish goodbye out of
that a little bit, a little bit that contact would

(25:41):
have loved to stay hello. I don't know which bros
I was lording over. I'm not an especially tall person.
I don't see myself as like a like a Nate Tice.
I would say it was lording out. You were comfortable, though, Bill,
you were in your element. I could I could see that,
and I said, I don't want to roll over there
and do some awkward hellos. I'm gonna let him enjoy

(26:02):
this time with his colleagues. Well, very nice of you,
not not necessary at all. Please the next time you
see me on the street, stop me, grabbed me? Oh,
st no problem street. But the time's gathering at the
super Bowl. Okay, I liked that themed it now that
you actually did Bill a favor so that he stay
in element and I had some great conversations that night.

(26:27):
But yeah, you had to you had to wait it out. Yeah,
you'd be like, all right, Nate, we remember you were
that Russell Wilson's backup. Okay, let us let us speak.
That's not nice, that's not true, mate, mate, mate, I've
never had a conversation with Nate about football. Um, gathering
soccer and pro wrestling and zero percent football. Um, all right,

(26:48):
let's talk. Let's talk football. Okay, let's do it. So
the they don't want us to say it, but we're
bad boys. The legal tampering period started a week ago today,
and there's been a lot of activity. Greggy, how many
top one on one free agents from your top twenty
are still remaining? Now? Oh, I've got even more than that.

(27:09):
Three from my top twenty five. Three also from my
top twenty eleven, of the top fifty and twenty eight
I believe are twenty six of the top one on
one and not that many left. Okay, there's still deals
to be made, and teams can still get much better
if they make smart moves. But I'll start with you
on this one, Bill, when you survey the landscape so far,

(27:29):
what's a team that's jumped out to you, Because we'll
do the good and the bad here, what's a team
that's jumped out to you that's made itself better in
the past seven days? Yeah, you know, I'll start with
the team I know is near and dear to your
guy's hearts. Although I have I do have a question
that does concern me about them, But I think overall
mostly a winner the Detroit Lions. I think a team

(27:50):
where they had a very obvious concern on their on
their defense dead last in ESPN's total QBR metric last year.
Secondary that was a bit in shambles, a lot of
work to be done, and you saw it. They went
out and upgraded at multiple spots. Camp sudden comes in,
Manuel mostly comes in, and most recently, Chauncey Gardner Johnson

(28:11):
signs on a one year deal. That's a rebuilt secondary.
We don't know what Jeffrey cood is going to do.
He might be a trade candidate could figure in there
as well. But I just think given their needs, given
that the offense did look so good at the second
half of last year, given that they do have, you know,
plenty of picks to work with this year's draft, I
love them focusing on the secondary, getting that taken care
of squared away. Now they can focus on rebuilding and

(28:34):
continuing to rebuild that front seven. Here in the draft.
I feel like they're in great shape heading into heading
into season, except for one thing, but we'll get to
that later. I thought the Chauncey Gardner Johnson signing was
a nice turnaround after losing Jamal Williams. I thought brought
so much fire and personality to that team. It's my

(28:54):
one thing, yeah, because I think, like we all, we
all we met Jamal at the Super Bowl and like
loved him and thought that he was just as a
reason in a beating heart behind the Lions. But Gardner Johnson,
Aaron Glenn's known him since high school. Dan Campbell worked
with him back with the Saints, so did Aaron Glenn.
So it's like they went and got a player they
knew exactly how to use. And he turned around and
said to the Eagles. I'm just going to Detroit the

(29:17):
deal that we had in place, forget about it. We're
not doing that. I think he had to be disappointed
by the market. I don't know if he read the
one on one, but he could have said I'm a
I'm a freaking top five free agent a week ago
at this time, and he didn't get the contract he wanted.
I believe that he was probably offered, you know in
the reporting is that he was offered a much better

(29:38):
deal from the Eagles, but the money went away. They
ended up spending it on Sleigh and Bradbury. Jesse Bates
got paid, but very few of the other safeties really
got paid. Jordan Poyer didn't get paid, Julian Love didn't
get played. There were a couple of mid market deals
with like Von Bell and Donovan Wilson. But understandably, Gardner
Johnson saw himself better than that. It's kind of like
James Bradbury year ago. He bet on himself. I think

(30:00):
his agent probably cost him a lot of money. But
if he plays well for the Lions, and I think
it's a great sign that people that know him so
well want to bring him in, then he can cash
and hopefully next year. And I like the Lions making
Aaron glenn um look good and possibly pivot from their
strategy which has really been about resources in the front

(30:20):
end and they were really weak in the back end.
And I love the Sutton signing, especially Mosley is just
like another guy to have around in case, like they
are really setting up Aaron glenn for success to potentially
be a future head coach. Is it possible, Greg, because
I need to be, unfortunately the official pushback guy of
your agent assassination tour this spring. Is it possible that

(30:42):
the agent was suggesting he took the deal, he'd take
the deal of the Eagles were offering, and he said
he thought he could do better. I think that it's possible,
but I think anyone signing now um a one year
deal like that had ended up like misreading the markets,
and that's the agent's job. That Michael Steel was very

(31:02):
heavily backloaded too. Maybe he was looking for something structured differently.
But I am with you, Dan, that blame me the agent,
not that you're doing this. Greg, Just like this time
of year that you're just getting like destroyed left and right,
and it's like sometimes the player are people around the
players saying no, no, you can do better than that,
and then it didn't happen for him, and then but
how can you do better than being unaligned? I mean
the lines of historically you could well that. That's my

(31:26):
concern here is that you guys alluded to this. It
has there been a vibe shift with Jamal Williams leaving
for Johnson makes up he replaces a totally different vibe
that jose Gardner. Johnson's vibe is I may fight you
at any time you get getting you to fight me

(31:48):
with no warning at any time. Yeah, that's not Jamal Williams.
Jamal Williams, I was like, Hey, let's watch anime or
play video games for twenty straight hours and eat really
good takeout. Ask Michael Thomas about Gardner Johnson, Yes, exactly. Um,
all right, who is that? Who is the Bears player
who punched him twice in the helmet? I can't remember? Yeah,

(32:09):
there he is a spicy character. He's a spicy meaning
the Bears wide receiver four. It's gonna bother me the
rest of the show. Now, I'm sorry. Justin Graver the
Grave Digger is going to be on that. I want
to talk about someone a near or something near and
dear to your heart. Barnwell, Yes, hulagiman Um. I see
them as a winner, and this extends more than just

(32:29):
the last week. I liked the way they got the
business done with Daniel Jones. Maybe you could say an overpay,
but he's He's in the building. They believe in him,
and I think that's good enough when you have Brian
Dabile there, se Quon Barclay's back. Love the Darren Waller
move for obvious reasons. I think that's a very high
upside move, and we talked about it last week. It

(32:49):
ended up being a kind of a Cadarius Tony for
Darren Waller swap. I could live with that. Paris Campbell
joins the wide receiver room. He gives them a chance
to upgrade their receiving game. You know, Odell Beckham's out
there tweeting at Saquon that he has work to do.
I believe something along those lines, something insane. In general,

(33:10):
I feel like Isaiah Hodgens also coming back. I feel
like Bill, this team's going in the right direction, and
obviously they I think they overachieved to a certain extent
or played well considering their schedule now, I think adding
pieces around Jones is necessary, and they're they're doing that.
I'm not especially thrilled. Okay, how the Giants approached this offseason,

(33:33):
and I guess part of it is the big decision
about Daniel Jones is one part of it, and then
kind of everything else fits into the other side of it.
I know you guys already talked about Daniel Jones, so
I'm not gonna get too far into this, but let
me ask you this one question. If Daniel Jones plays
exactly the same as he played last year, do you
think that turns out to be a good deal? Like,

(33:55):
does he have to improve to justify this contract or
can he just be the guy he was last year
and that's good enough for the Giant. The whole deal,
in my mind when it went down, was this was
built under the idea of the premise that he's just
starting to reach his potential, which made it an unusual
contract in that sense, but also internally, the Giants believe
so much in Dable and Jones. That's how I saw it.

(34:17):
So yes that he has to get better if he
If he plateaus, it's a bad contract. Does he have
the pieces around him to get better. Well, I think
that's my question, Like, like you know, I think, yes,
I love the Darred Waller move. I think it's a
pretty not risk free because you're giving up a third
round pick and that is valuable, and you're you're using
ten million dollars if you're cap space. But I think

(34:39):
a very logical risk for the Giants to take. I
don't love the wide receivers like guests bringing in Paris Campbell,
a guy who's been hurt most of his career and
who averaged like ten yards to catch last year, Like
I have no doubt Daniel Jones can find a link
with a guy who's going to catch the ball and
fall down. But right now, the only deep beard on
this roster is Darius Slayton, and that's a guy who

(35:00):
this organization, much like Jones, didn't want last year, who
kind of got the opportunity because everyone else in front
of him either got hurt or they didn't want to play.
So I like Darius Layden personally. I think he's a
good player. I don't have a real issue with the contract,
but I was sort of hoping for more, something more
significant when it came to the receiving court. They still
have time to be fair. But the Bobbio Karaka signing

(35:24):
I wasn't especially thrilled by. That's the guy they spent
the most on this offseason. As much as attention as
Waller got, they spent the most. Right, I add a
position where look, they were maybe the worst and the
slowest in the NFL, so they needed an upgrade, but
they spent a lot to fix it. It seems like
a team that could use Darius Tony that was that
was something that didn't work out a year ago. But
I do think with Brian Dable and the draft ahead

(35:45):
that I liked in general, what's happened with the Giants
over the last five hundred days. They finally seem to
have a plan. I have no problem if you if
you don't resigned Daniel Jones, who fills that void, and
then you're starting over with a different quarterbacks. So I
don't mind it as a two year see what you
got and there's more pieces to come. I'd hope around
two quick things and then someone else go one. Darius Slayton,

(36:07):
to Bill's point, was a healthy scratch in Week one
this year, so that's kind of where his journey has
gone and he gets a new two year deal too.
I've never heard anyone use the five hundred day marker
before Historic you had to go like from January to
here and next summer. You know, it's good, It's just
it's unusual, and I like it because if I said

(36:28):
three hundred and sixty five, I have no idea what
was happening literally one year ago today, or who I was,
or who the giants were. So that's a weird days
in summer. One of the movies where um, I enjoyed
it the most in the theater too, I probably understand
it's a bad movie now ratio like it's really high
in that race. It's in the Garden State Club, right,

(36:50):
I can't I can't say I didn't enjoy it. I
enjoyed the hell out of it. But now it was cute. Yeah,
anything di Chanelle is gonna maybe an age not so hot.
I'm gonna jump buff and do a winner because it's
it's related a little bit to your giants, which is
that because I think they're gonna draft just look at
me and say your giants, Uh, well, your giants choice
bill is a weird, like negging giants fan like, he's

(37:13):
never happy with him, he never wants to totally own it. So, yeah,
what if they were this year. I'm not gonna like
like they're bringing the band back and adding Bobby. I'm
not thrilled by that. Okay, Okay, I'm with you. They're
logically gonna fall back, and but wing Martindale and Brian
Dable and Joe Shane for that matter, actually give me

(37:34):
enough confidence that, like they'll help push the tide of
what is probably gonna be unrealistic expectations. Um, maybe this
would be bad for the Giants because I think they're
almost locked into taking a receiver in the first round,
or that there should be good value there. But I'm
gonna say some of the winners of this last month

(37:56):
are the receivers in this draft, because there there was
so little spending on these sort of second tier receivers
that were available. I maybe I misread the market in
terms of artificially like putting these guys higher on my
list just thinking they were gonna get money and that
they were like decent players. Guys like Jacobi Meyers in
Juju and Lazard ended up getting a lot of money,

(38:18):
but a lot of players didn't and there wasn't much
of a premium placed on these players. They ended up
getting paid less than what I would have expected. And
to me, I think it's because, first of all, this
draft class isn't amazing at the top, but there's still
a good group of players that I think could be
taken in the first round, and maybe now they're gonna

(38:40):
get pushed up a little higher. And the other thing is,
I think the receivers now looked at as a premium
position that these free agents just didn't qualify that you
need to get those receivers in a trade or you
need to draft them. And the hit rate on these
draft receivers is just so incredibly high right now that

(39:01):
it almost feels like gmproof. That's like, Okay, don't take
to Kobe Myers and pay them fifteen million dollars, draft
your receivers, don't take Jujo, don't don't overpay for any
of these guys. Maybe give up a second for DeAndre Hopkins,
but like, not even more than that, Let's just draft
these guys. Because the contracts are so low for the
draft picks in the hit rate is so high that

(39:24):
to me, it's it's almost getting treated a little bit
like defensive end and quarterback like other premium positions, and
they didn't. It didn't happen for them in free agency.
But I think they're gonna look at this draft class
and people say there's not like a true one in it.
That's fine, but I think it's going to push these
draft receivers up the board that not many teams really
solve many of their receiver problems in free agency. Well,

(39:46):
you know, I look at the DeAndre Hopkins situation. I'm
writing about this for ESPN this week. It's not easy
to find a landing spot for DeAndre Hopkins right now.
There's a lot of teams that either don't have the
cap space or a set at receiver or half an
offensive coordinator who appeared to be in a blood feud
with DeAndre Hopkins before treating him in a very ill

(40:08):
fated trade that costed his job. But there's not like
an obvious spot where you're like, okay, that is where
DeAndre Hopkins is gonna go. So you know, I sort
of wonder if the league as a whole, like you said,
Greg is sort of looking at the receiver success rate
and say, okay, as long as I'm not weirdly of
all people, how he Roseman drafting Jail and Rager like
it's gonna work out pretty well for me all things considered.

(40:29):
So I agree, you know, and I think something that
is very like we all know it but we don't
talk about it that often, is just how valuable it
is take players of premium positions in the draft, and
wide receiver right now is in a tier with left
tackle and edge rusher, where that is a position where
you get a significant surplus value over the first three

(40:52):
years of a guy's rookie deal. If you draft land
even an average receiver, let alone someone like a Justin
Jefferson or a Jamar Chase, I'm gonna throw it out.
I think last year was obviously the year of Geno Smith,
but like my Geno Smith won b or Gino Smith
light for at least the first half of the season
was Jacoby Brissette, And so I'm gonna go a little

(41:12):
more player focus win because I kind of think of
all the places where Brissette could have gone, where it's like,
had he gone Indianapolis like Gardner Minshew, It's like, well,
they're clearly going to draft someone in the ideas that
you don't play Gardner Minshew. Ideally, if the rookie's up
to stop, Jacoby Brissette, I think has a chance to
continue what he did last year in Cleveland and be
another example of a late blooming quarterback that last year.

(41:35):
I mean it could a little bit of Kevin Stefanski,
but the offense completely changed when de Shaun Watson get
in there. It devolved in all the wrong ways, and
I think that's a credit to some degree about Brissette.
He's also talked about. I know that Ron Rivera would
rather just have a veteran run the show fit until
the end of time, but Brissette is a lauded teammate.
Kevin Stefanski said it was one of the in terms

(41:57):
of coaching teammates, one of the best he'd ever been
around his career. I think that's a great thing for
a Washington team that always seems to have its vibe
off a little bit. They're just to obviously ownership on down.
There's a lot of um evil smells coming out of
that organization. Jacoby Brissette can change things. There's weapons around him.
I think he can have a good season and continue
to kind of advocate for himself as a spot starter

(42:18):
and someone that might get a better chance in this
if he can fend off Sam Howell, who was spicy
in week eighteen. I did hear a fun conspiracy theory? Yeah,
nfluk Hank throughout this. Sure, Henry Hudson fast going around here.
Uh what if the new Washington owner comes in and
that's the one who goes over the top for Lamar.

(42:38):
That would be beautiful because there's there's this talk that
Dan Snyder that it might be it might be imminent.
You come in with that Amazon money, you know, you
pick up NFL media, you know, take care of the
around the NFL podcast here, and then signing Lamar. You're
a hero to the whole. The Ravens want to send
Lamar Jackson. There's just gotta spending insane amount of money

(43:01):
and not give him a choice. It would be that.
I'm totally Whitney seed. I don't really think and I
think Jacoby has a nice spot with the enemy and
all those weapons. I agree with slices me off a
piece of that, Jake Bristey, I think that would be great.
Washington fans would be head over if they had new
ownership and Lamar Jackson. Everything's different, Sava said it, and
the whole world's on fire. But the Ravens are not

(43:22):
gonna want him anywhere near what do they call that area?
What's an area? It has a name, the Baltimore, Maryland.
You live there, Bill, what is it? The DMV. But
he's already in the DMV. So I'm confused as to
like the distinction being made between you don't want to
stay and you don't want to you want to get
him out of the V's not gonna be on your team. Yeah,

(43:43):
you know, you know, you know about You live in
the middle of one of the toughest rivalries in sports,
Washington versus Baltimore speak out. I have never honestly like, oh,
this is very juicy. And then I was like, I
don't know a single person I've ever seen like a
Ravens friend friend of mine argue with a Commanders fend

(44:04):
friend of mine. Yeah, it doesn't feel like giants jest
put it that way. And in fact, the nastiest thing
that ever happened in the DMV in terms of like
the sports teams is when the Ravens won the Super
Bowl and then Angelo. So the Orioles said no, we
have a we have a baseball game, and you can't
even host this week one game in your building and
they had to go on the road after they won

(44:26):
the damn Super Bowl. That that was some DMV dirt um.
That game was the game where I remember watching with
West and we always talk about that. Owen Daniels had
the like slowest um like move to try to like
make someone miss that we'd ever seen. I don't know
why Thames or something in that game. Jake Brisket point,

(44:49):
So let's say he was very good in his starts
for the Browns before Watson came and didn't play well.
Brisket I'll played him. Let's say that's his close to
his ceiling this year. Does that make Washington a power
player or make them much better than they were? I don't.
I just think he's a guy, and that's why I
see this team just right now kind of stuck in

(45:09):
the mud. Even with Brissette there. As much as I
like him, well, I don't think he's a difference maker.
I would say it's a win for I said it
about Jacoby Brissette. I think it's a win for him
to go see what he does with it. If I'm Washington.
If I'm a fan of the Commanders, I like Brissette.
I can't can't be the final plan here, and it
can't be for the eighth year in a run year
on a run RIVERA like a veteran who might be

(45:29):
average or better than average. How about a bill I'll
go ahead. I just want to point out the Commanders
last year with Taylor Heineke, Carson Wentz and Sam Howell
at quarterback, we're eight eight and one. They were realistically
what a game away from making it till the postseason.
They wouldn't the gotfar probably, but you know the Saints

(45:50):
are selling out to try and win nine games and
be in the playoffs. The Commanders weren't an okay quarterback away.
You know, they were six in the NFL in points
purpose session allowed on defense without Chase Young or the
version of Chase Young. We hope it is going to
be back this upcoming season. And Jacoby Brissette, like he's
not a superstar, but he doesn't turn the ball over

(46:12):
since he got into the league. I think the only
quarterback with with a better interception rate than Jacoby Brissette.
The only quarterbacks are Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. So
I think there's sort of a there's sort of a
Jets thing happening here where it's like, Okay, we have
this great defense. It's young enough that they're probably gonna
be good again next year. If we can just get
a competent quarterback in here, we're a playoff team. And

(46:34):
for Washington, given how depressing this franchise has been for
two and a half decades, that kind of feels like
a victory. Yeah. In fact, when the Rodgers thing was
very hazy with the Jets, as if it's not hazy now,
Brissette felt like a fallback plan for the Jets. So yes,
for the commanders, a sensible one for the commanders. It
would keep them in the mix for sure. I just hope,

(46:55):
I mean the woman now you got my head thing
with the Lamar thing, even though it's not going to happen,
they really needs something like a whole new breath of
fresh air for that order ownership would be enough. I
think they would be excited. Bill. We don't like to
be overly critical, given you know, it's so hard to
tell what's good and what's bad at this point. In fact,
sometimes it's the opposite is the team that spends big

(47:16):
that ends up not doing well. Although the last two
years I saw this on network on the lower third
before I stepped in the studio today, the last two years,
the team that spent the most in free agency made
the playoffs. Okay, so maybe it is great. Maybe if
you can win free agency that last year. Who would
have been the year before? I don't know, it might

(47:38):
have been another It might have been the Patriots who
made it. All right, let's pause right here. We got
more to do with Bill Barnewell, but first to break
all Right, we're back. Who's a loser? So far? To you? Bill,
the loser was tougher, you know, ID a bunch of winners.
I felt good about a loser. Maybe the Broncos. I

(48:01):
mean just in terms of teams that spent a lot
of money and I look at those moves and I'm
kind of confused. Like Michael Clinchy, I understand wanting to
improve the protection around Russ. Mike Clinchey is a solid player.
He has the second largest contract of any right tackle
in football, and he has never played at that level
in San Francisco, So tough for me to believe he's

(48:22):
gonna suddenly be a top five right tackle for the Broncos.
I mean, I like the Zach Allen move, but even
Zach Allen one year of playing at the level he
played at in Arizona, Guys like Alex Singleton, Jared Stidham,
these are replacement level players. These are guys who, even
if they played well when you saw them last year,
Guys so you could have got for very cheap last
season who you can probably find another version of very

(48:45):
cheap this season. The Broncos are paying a premium to
either retain or bring in to their organization. So I
don't hate the overall plan, but I think the pricing,
especially in the market where teams have been very reasonable
with what they've spent. I don't love how they spent
their money in Denver, right, and they spent it on
Ben Powers too, was another like premium guy that a

(49:07):
year ago would have had like a one year, one
million dollar deal. It just was like paying for guys
that the rest of the market didn't really look like that,
Like backup quarterbacks didn't get paid, we could throw them
out as a loser. In general, backup quart like Jacoby
Brissette did the best getting eight million. The backup quarterback
market weirdly is like worse than it was six years ago.
I don't really like when Chase Daniel was cashing seven

(49:28):
million dollar checks for never playing and now you get
like decent players for four and a half. That doesn't
make sense. And you're right, yeah, Denver spent on a
guy like ben Ben Power is a good example. Like
I don't think Baltimore was remotely interested in spending that
sort of money on a guard. I feel like Sean
Payton at least is trying to make a case where
you're I like the theory that you're stripping excuses away

(49:50):
from Russell Wilson and if if you want to go
deeper and say McGlinchey and Powers aren't going to save
your offensive line. But like we tried to, we just
add stuff around him and like if if he flames out,
like I think, I think Russell Wilson has like twenty
twenty three Bronc a stripping excuse ten games to become
the other Russell Wilson, or do they'll bench him for
Jared'stnamer whoever else? Um, I'll throw out one and this

(50:13):
loser is way too strong, But it's more like hmm okay,
the Super Bowl teams. Uh, the Chiefs obviously they they
didn't want to pay Orlando Brown juniors. So I can't
like say, like, oh, they're losers because they didn't decide
that he was a marquee left tackle. But they're a
little vulnerable there. They they signed right tackle Juwan Taylor.

(50:33):
He might play the left side. Uh, Bill, I think
you wrote about this, um so I'll credit you on this.
He hasn't taken snaps at left tackle since high school.
Um So, it bat a couple a couple in college,
but he wasn't like a start right So I mean
now and now your job is to protect Patrick Mahomes's blindside,
arguably the greatest quarterback of his generation. I don't know
if that's their plan, but that's potentially their plan. They

(50:55):
also lost a key guy in want Thornhill to Cleveland.
The Eagles. The Eagles and the Eels. It's a trickier
situation for them because of the economics and how loaded
their roster was. And they've done a good job with
keeping certain guys in the building Jason Kelsey, Darius Slay, Bradberry.
They they got Fletcher Cox back who stayed. They did

(51:16):
lose though, Now that you'd take a look after Chauncey
Gardner Johnson leaves for the Lions, I saw that they've
lost five of nine players on defense who played at
least seven hundred snaps in twenty twenty two. I mean,
it's a big chunk of their You talk five hundred,
I got seven hundred here, Mark, that's data points. So
it's not going to be the same defense. It's not

(51:38):
gonna be the same team, and that's the economics of
the business. But both champions. I feel like a little
lesser right now, isn't it? POV Because I could find
Howie roseman as a winning figure in the sense that,
like he was, he was facing a really tough potential outcome,
and you find a way to keep Bradberry, Slay, Brandon Gamp,

(51:58):
Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox. I love the Rashot Penny signing.
It's like they didn't just go null and void and
everyone hit the exit sign Like Howie rose always seems
to find a way, and I trust that he'll continue
to and make more trades around the draft like he
did last year. It's like he's always working. Oh, he's
definitely working. I mean the Rashot I don't like the
Rashot Penny move as much as any everybody else. And

(52:20):
I like Miles Sanders better, and he's out the door
as well. What do you think on that one, Barnwell,
I mean, I see why you would say it. But
for the Eagles, it kind of felt like they had
to meet some cutbacks. Like it wasn't really a scenario
where they could go and say, Okay, we're bringing the
band back and we're also somehow paying Jyllen Hurts fifty
million dollars a year, like it's just not gonna work.

(52:41):
They had to make cutbacks. With the Chiefs. The decisions
they made were more of their own volition, right, Like,
you know, it's not like Orlando Brown signed this enormous,
other worldly contract. I don't remember the exact specifics, but
it's not like the Juan Taylor deal was for much more.
Might even being a little bit more together, but you
look at a Taylor's deal might be better. Yeah, Ryan,

(53:04):
So you know, like like that is to me a
more conscious session. Okay, we're gonna cut Frank Clark, We're
gonna move on from Carlos Dunlap, We're going to move
on from one Thornhill. We're going to let Andrew Wiley leave.
We're gonna let Orlando brownlee, We're gonna replace him with
the right tackle who, like like you alluded to, it's
really not played left tackle since high school. Like that
is a more tangible decisions we're made in Kansas City

(53:27):
than were made in Philadelphia, or Philadelphia was more about
just we have, you know, people at travrod Harger's leading.
We have no choice. We're losing the linebackers. We have
to we have to make some cutback somewhere. But I
think it's more difficult because they had to do something.
The Chiefs didn't really have to make these changes and did,
and they might be better for it, who knows, But
I think it's more questionable there. They're putting a lot

(53:49):
on on spags, like their entire defensive spending is Chris Jones,
Eric read. I guess they brought in a Mena who
was like a free agent one year deal, but other
than that, it's like all rookie contracts are like low
cost veterans. It's like that's that's sort of the other
side of spending on offense. And and maybe he can

(54:11):
handle it. It's like a better version of what the
Rams are doing. Hell, I'm thrown out a loser. Raheem Morris.
I mean they're setting up. They're setting up rad he
Morris to fail. They're basically saying And Jordan Rodriguez reported
on this look Sean mcvayson, offensive coach. I think I
don't think they're done. They've been disappointing and Jet, if
you're a Rams fan, it's been a terrible offseason because

(54:32):
I thought they would be a little more aggressive and
doing something that I think maybe there are some moves coming,
but it really feels like it's coming on offense and
they're just gonna be like, look, we got Aaron Donald
still and we've got a good coordinator and Raheem Morris like,
let's just throw stuff against the wall. There's more variants
in defense and hope we come in twentieth because like
their second best defensive linemen now because they've lost Greg Gaines,

(54:57):
Leonard Floyd Taylor, rap looks like he's out the door.
Scott Um, Bobby Wagner, Jalen Ramsey. This is just on
the defense. Ashan Robinson, their second best offense defensive lineman,
now is probably Bobby Brown. Um, they're best linebackers, Ernest Jones.
I'm not sure who their second one would be. Their
their cornerback one is dari Dcobe Durant Gooby Durant, good guess,

(55:22):
a fourth round pick from a year ago. It is
as talent poor, like a side of the ball, as
almost you can find in the NFL. And that's crazy
because Aaron Donaldson out side of the ball. It's just like,
I mean, I had them. I had them as well,
and mine was more like some of this kind of
comes off their plan right now. And they know what
they're doing. They got a ring, but it feels like

(55:45):
a half measure right now. And and I don't know,
they haven't committed totally to a tear down, but they're
also put themselves in a much weaker position heading into
the new season. And you have a thirty seven year
old quarterback who just guarant locked into a guarantee of
money that's gonna make sure he's on the roster. I
just don't know kind of where the Rams are right
now more. Matthew Stafford feels like an odd fit there.

(56:06):
I just start right, that's a very strange landing spot.
For him. Yeah, I mean, what would you guys do
if you were the Rams. Do you lean further into
this and you do trade Cooper Cup? Do you try
to trade Aaron Donald? Are you trying to just get
as many picks as possible, which ironic given the T shirt,
but um, get any picks as possible and just lean
all the way into it. Or do you think this

(56:27):
is more of like a transition or were they They
get rid of a lot of salary, they have a
bad year, they get a high draft pick, and the
next year they're back in signing players, going back into
you know, full on we're gonna win in the year
and Donald Darren Mode. I think that's a plan. I
think they kind of box themselves into a corner last
year when they gave those contracts, the Stafford Cup and

(56:48):
and who else Donald, Like all those got twenty two contracts.
I mean they got and their guaranteed money is still
guaranteed this year, so they sort of have no choice,
That's right. It's been very quiet on the Alan Robinson front,
very frosty market, not a not a stunner. I think
they were hoping someone would pay like half his salary
and that like that was the best that they could
hope for a little bit like the Brandon Cooks deal,

(57:11):
but maybe bad tape though. I mean that's yeah, it
never got better really for him. No, anybody out you
got a bill, you said you had more winners? Do
you want to do kind of like a oh, did
you have a loser? Mark? I mean, this is I'm
not trying to gang up on a team that I
continually um hammer. But I think a loser is Jonathan
Cannon who goes to Arizona and is watching a team

(57:34):
just be torn down before his eyes. Because you lose
Marcus Golden, Byron Murphy, Zach Allen, JJ Watt retires, DeAndre
Hopkins solved the door. You've got Kyler Murray, who to
me stands out as the one quarterback that you've got
to be concerned about his mood, his mental landscape, and
if he if he's the kind of guy where things

(57:54):
are starting to burn down around and he's watching players leave,
he loses DeAndre Hopkins at some point here. It's just
an ugly set up for a first year coach, even
if he was told behind the scenes, we get it,
it's gonna be tough this year. That's not how fans react.
It's like this is this was a playoff team two
years ago. I mean a bit of a bit of
a false god on that front. But at this point,

(58:15):
the idea that they are this bad this quickly, Uh,
it's really depressing. Kyler Murray is in this big contract
and they're rebuilding around him. I don't like it. I
can attest to that because I was at that Cardinals
Rams playoff game with Zamalt and it was one of
the grizzliest affairs I've ever watched in person in terms
of like just disparity between two teams. That's their organization's

(58:36):
a mess. That that was the false God game. I
think now for perpetuity, I mean, I think they're sort
of in the same boat as the Rams where they
know they're not having Kyler Murray for a good So
they lost forty seven seventeen to the Rams in there
like high point. As an organization, that's a tough spot.
It's a tough spot, yes, to be fair, also true,

(58:57):
but I think they know Kyler is not going to
be healthy or a good chunk of this year. Wouldn't
be shocked if they just say, hey, Kyler just take
the year off. You're good. We don't need you this year.
Their roster is a mess, their cap situations and mess.
They need to do this, like like, yes, they are
losers in terms, so if they are not going to
be a competitive team this year, it's not going to
be fun to watch them. Their fans are going to
be mad. But I think they have to have this

(59:19):
happened to reset. They have to do the thing the
Saints aren't doing or the Rams. You know, the Rams
are kind of doing in last a lot of times,
but like that reset of Okay, our CAP's gonna be fresh.
Same think the Falcons did, same things the Bears did.
But we have a quarterback we know in twenty twenty four,
we bring Kyler back, we have cap space, we have
some young players to work with around him, we'll feel
pretty okay. I think that had to be what happened

(59:40):
when he came in. And I think sort of similar
to what's happening in Tennessee right now as well, with
the choices they've made with their roster. Now, he's making
me think the Cardinals might kind of be long range winners.
And I'm starting differently about the whole thing. Well, I
don't know about that, Like they haven't. They haven't treated
like a first year head coach this poorly. Since they
stuck Steve Wilkes with Josh Rosen and Steve Kimeez is

(01:00:01):
GM that was a tough situation. Can we throw out
one more winner? I at least want to get my
biggest winner. I mean, I really am drinking. I don't know,
I don't know why I'm drinking that Dolphins kool aid.
I love it, Okay. I just feel like everything they
did was smart. I think they had to give the
fifth year option. We hadn't you know, officially talked about
that on this show. I think they had to for

(01:00:23):
two it's a low enough number. I just think they
made the smart moves around the margins, Like the Jalen
Ramsey move non quarterback division is to me, like the
most impactful move any team would make this offseason. Vic
Fangio with Jalen Ramsey, to me, is just beautiful. Vic
Fangio from Josh Boyer is such an upgrade. I know
that's not free agency, but just look at the group

(01:00:44):
that he's gonna be coaching up and then you look
at the David Long signing. I really liked, and I
like kind of just the moves along the margins, just
like just little ones. Mike White like that as a backup,
like Malik Reid, Deshaun Elliott, Barrios, like the guys who
are just just take swings on, guys who at one
point had like a medium starter level of ability. And

(01:01:05):
they're coming off a bad year, but they've shown they
can play at like an NFL level, and it's just
relatively cheap bringing Moster and Wilson back. Don't spend too
much at running back, like that's at a low level.
They just they knew they didn't have a first round
pick because their owner, uh you know, invited Tom Brady
onto a boat and tried to hire him and Sean Payt,
And I feel like that's weirdly underrated. I think of

(01:01:26):
the scene in Street Leo Welcome him, the FBI agent
on the boat tossing money out at the end, same
s they do not have a first round pick because
of that. But but based on that, I feel like
they set up this roster right now to like be
a championship contender right now. I love him. Do you
think Stephen Ross looks back and thinks that was worth
a first round pick to have Tom Brady and kind

(01:01:48):
of I could see the the the attraction to that
well in retrospect, though it didn't quite bear much fruit
for the organization. Anti fruit. I'd like to think that
Steven Ross time feeling a lot of remorse over that.
I just think he doesn't roll that way. Maybe you
know what I'm looking forward to, um Josh Allen and
Aaron Rodgers torching a over the hill. Jalen Ramsey and

(01:02:12):
his head as he walks off the field clearly in decline.
How old is Jalen Ramsey that this is like quick
Todd Gurley Award for like Todd Gurley's twenty six and
I'm shocked he can walk down the streets talked about
they barely barely beat Skyler Thompson and the Dolphins. Forget

(01:02:33):
about the defense too, It'll just be that offense. I
think Mike White is a great pickup as a backup,
because you know, we don't want to need it, but
you're probably gonna need a backup in Miami that could
keep the offense functional. But yeah, I think Xavien Howard
and Jalen Ramsey on papers like oh, that could be
the best cornerback duo in the league, Javon holland Brandon Jones.
They had some injuries at safety, like the secondary secondary.

(01:02:55):
Don't be surprised if you're seeing a lot of head
shaking from Jalen Ramsey and complaining to ref freeze this fall.
That feels on brand. That was a little cold water
on it, Greggy. Sorry, that's fine. I know that's the
one team other than the Patriots that you just can't
do for Bill. I got him in the top ten
in the power rankings from Graver it was Javon Wims,

(01:03:20):
Johnson way back wins, So that got him. Throws individuals,
you go through a punch, through a punch, thought about
it for a second, hit hit him in the helmet,
and then I believe through a second one, which this, yeah,
not a good IDEA. Second one's got to be once
you your hands stinging and I know there's adrenaline pump,
and second one's got to be a body blow. You
gotta go to the solar fla somewhere else. Yeah, um, Bill,

(01:03:44):
did you have anything else you wanted to add? Any
other like winners, little speed round Barnwell or did we
exhaust your list? I like the little Falcons. I think.
I like Falcons are doing to rebuild there. I thought
the Raiders have done an okay job. Raiders off season's
usually pretty bad, so either standards, this was a step
in the right direction. Okay. And I'm a little concerned

(01:04:04):
about the Panthers, Like I want to see what the
other moves that fill in that roster are around that quarterback.
But I'm not excited about Adam Feeling wide receiver one
for my rookie quarterback. We'll see how it goes over
the rest of the off season. Yeah, you got They're
the team, Like I wouldn't say they're the perfect connections
to the Jaguars because Lawrence is entering a second year,

(01:04:27):
but they're the team this year that has added a
ton of guys, so you might reflexibly back. Oh yeah,
best off season, best free agency they've added, but we'll
see if it works out. They added Miles Sanders are
running back Feeling as we said, hayden Hurst. They signed
Von Bell at safety. They got Dalton as their backup
to whoever they take at number one, a quarterback, Shy
Tuttle a d tackle, So they've done a lot. Will

(01:04:48):
it make them a lot better. I have one question
for Bill. Do you think that the cults are that
these theories are floating out there with some of the cuts?
Do you think that they're gearing up for a bona
fide jim it swing at Lamar Jackson. Is that the
team that might be the final home for him? Uh?

(01:05:09):
I would say that Jim earsay contains multitudes, and I
think it's more likely that whatever cuts or roster moves
they're making, or space they're clearing out, it's more likely
that Jimmerson just wakes up one day and was like, oh,
Lamar Jackson, I'd like one of those and just falls
and just just calls them signs into an officer sreet
without anybody else in the organization being consulted or making

(01:05:32):
a decision. So, I think applying logic to what is
going to happen with the Colts, it is maybe not
the degree of how how they've handled things in the
recent past. So I could see the logic, and if
it was another team, I'd say sure, But with the Colts,
I just don't know if it is. It's an exciting

(01:05:52):
thought that that Bill puts out there, because imagine if
what happened in twenty twenty two, with the cults as
unpredictable as they were way jeff Saturday situation station went
down in the quarterbacks and everything around the cults. What
if that was just the beginning of of ownerships ride
into a whole other realm, like a precursor to this

(01:06:14):
more enticing madness. What if that's not the outlier season.
What if it's just starting and we get another like
five years of total madness the sun like kind of
living out his father's legacy, like he tried to run
from it, tried to stay out of the mix forever.
And uh, sign up, daddy is Uh, Daddy is instructive.

(01:06:35):
Daddy's in the Mayflower truck. Um? All right, Bill? Do
you guys? Do you guys have names for your podcast episodes? No,
we're always hoping. I mean there are titles. Could we
call this one Daddy is instructive? Please? Well, you are
our guests. If we usually have quite boring nicknames, it
probably would have been free agency winners and losing how

(01:06:56):
about this? But I feel like Daddy is instructive. That
would be more fun. And see, I think we could do.
I think we could do. We could achieve everything we
want Daddy's is instructive colon free agency winners and losers.
I thought you, I thought you were gonna say Daddy
is instructive. That's also in play Bill. You've said it all.

(01:07:17):
Thank you so much. Check out all Bill's content over
at ESPN, including a new calm. What is the hook
of the latest colm that will be up maybe when
people even hear this depends on whether Aaron Rodgers gets traded.
There may be something that's been in the can for
a couple of weeks, but if not, any finding some
fits for the remaining free agents and trade candidates who

(01:07:41):
are available only at esp and you know that's going
to be a banger Bill. Thank you very much. Thanks guys.
All right, there he goes Bill barn Well. I think
you should have approached him that night in the eatery
slash wherever you wear a bar room. I mean, it
seems like he's one of the most approachable individuals. There

(01:08:02):
was a little more like kind of a context to it.
We had gone out to dinner. We went to a
Mexican restaurant. I think Daddy had a couple of tequila sodas.
We thought we were gonna get a little later part
of the night, Daddy earlier there was a delay. The
party had moved and it was a little later that
said you left within about ninety seconds, M and I stayed. Uh.

(01:08:24):
I stayed for a while and got to got to
talk to all the people I wanted to. You've neatly
pumped yourself up as a real night owl, Greg as
as we all know you are. I did stay for
one drink. I talked. I talked with Harmon a lot.
I talked a little bit with because she she came over,
which was nice. Uh. Maybe maybe there were a couple
other people. But then Bill was he had a little corner.

(01:08:46):
I'm telling you he had a nice time. I remember, well,
I would have joined you, but I was a little
bit late getting to Arizona and hadn't. But I had
flown in sitting next to Mena Kimes and had a
great conversation like I had my own, like, m, what
a night, what an evening. But She's like, we had
a fantastic convers I'm saying, like we I guess we

(01:09:09):
heard all the bases. We hit it all. I didn't
see Bill Barnwroe, though, but I would have gone up
and given him a big hug. I think big bear hug. Yeah,
missed opportunity. Yeah, all right. We'll be back on Wednesday.
Connie Fox will join us and we will talk more
about what's happening in this league coming up a little
later this week. By the way, I'm excited about this.
The New York Posts Andrew Marshawn when we take a

(01:09:30):
look at what is happening in the booths, what's happening
in the media world of the NFL. We like that.
It's like a media media segment with Andrew Marshan that
time of year. Yeah all right, thanks everybody. That was
a good showing by Rosenthal, having that you had the

(01:09:50):
drink and close down the bad boys. He the call