March 11, 2025 • 49 mins
John dives into the start of free agency talking about some of the biggest moves starting with the Seattle Seahawks trading Geno and signing Sam Darnold and why he thinks that is the right decision. Next, John talks about the difference of how the Bears have approached free agency this year compared to last and how they are doing everything to set Caleb up to succeed. Later, John discusses the big name trades that have taken place and which moves he likes and which moves have made him scratch his head. Lastly, John talks about the state of the 49ers.
6:03 - Seattle signs Darnold
17:05 - Bears approach in FA
24:49 - Big name trades
28:06 - Tunsil goes to DC
32:08 - Bucs re-sign Godwin
38:25 - Patriots are signing real players
42:29 - Giants are in trouble
48:29 - State of the 49ers
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing?
(00:21):
It is Monday night and about seven point thirty I
got off a little bird headed back from Nashville. About
three hours ago. I recorded a little free agency reaction,
then ate some dinner and I saw used check for
the Niners got cut and I did a little separate
(00:45):
just rant that I put at the back of the
podcast because the forty nine ers felt like lost their
retire team today and are going through this crazy transition
because of some poor decisions they have made. So we
will talk everything from Sam Darnold to Geno Smith to
Justin Field's DK, metcalf Laramie Tunzel. We had a lot
(01:08):
of moves. The NFL free agency is fun. So well,
that's what we'll do today. I said, you know what,
I'm not taking a day off. I started getting fomo.
Actually last night I'm like, I gotta do something. Almost
did it last night, but I was like, you know,
I can't. Just just got to take a deep breath.
Thought today was supposed to be the One thing we've
learned is the legal tampering period is just free agency.
(01:32):
Like everything happens. So by the time we get to Wednesday,
I don't know why. I It's part of the reason
I put the wedding is, you know, I thought I
had myself like a couple of day buffer, but now
that was somewhat of a wedding was not a mistake,
but my timing was probably a day off. But luckily
I'm a podcaster and we bang something out, and the
(01:53):
game plan will We'll just keep reacting all week to
whatever's going on, because as I'm recording this, it's hard
because it is such a fluid situation. Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson.
It's gonna be fascinating what happens over the next couple
of days. Obviously, there are just a lot of random
players that get paid. Some become good and some don't.
(02:13):
I mean, some of these contracts are gonna be disasters
and some of them are gonna be steals. And we've
known this for a long time. You just never quite know.
But it's exciting to watch play out, and these yesterday
and today and the next couple of days are just
are fun. It's fun to talk about this stuff. It's
why fantasy football is so big. So that that will
(02:35):
be the game plan. We'll just keep podcasts the rest
of the week, and I need a good night's sleep
because I basically just we got there Tuesday. Everyone showed up. Wednesday,
we were raging Wednesday, raging, Thursday, tried to lay low.
Friday did relatively well, and then Saturday night was a
(02:55):
rager and I pumped the brakes yesterday. But some other
people We're still there. I mean, Nashville is a drinker's town.
It was fun. But now I'm a married man and
podcasts go on, so we'll talk about the wedding maybe
as the week goes on, but so much going on
in football. Very very excited to talk some football. I've
(03:18):
missed talking football through a mic. I mean, you constantly
talk football everywhere I go. But other than that, you
guys know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to
the YouTube page, and let's rock and roll. I do
want to start with the Seattle situation. And I've seen
a lot of takes flying of why would you take
(03:41):
Sam Donald over Geno Smith? And I think based on
the last several years, Gino has a much longer track
record of playing at a pretty high level. He didn't
just resurrect his career, he became a pretty good player
and Sam Donald had fifteen games of looking awesome. And
I think what gets lost in the conversation sometimes this
(04:05):
is a business and money really matters. And Gino Smith
is going to be thirty five this fall. I haven't
seen the numbers, and I don't think it's official yet.
He's got you know, hasn't been reported about his contract extension.
By all accounts, he's going to get extended at like
forty five million dollars a year. I would be stunned
(04:27):
if the guaranteed money Gino gets isn't well over one
hundred million. It's not gonna be the crazy money, but
it's gonna be like the Daniel Jones version of two
years later. It's gonna be a lot of money. Now,
there is no disputing that the last two games of
Sam Darnold's Minnesota Viking career cost him a lot of money.
(04:48):
He is lucky. He's not lucky because he did it,
but in one of his best games of the season,
in an enormous game for Seattle which ultimately cost them
the playoffs, he made made some of the best plays
of his career and throw a game winning touchdown against
Two years ago, the man known as Boy genius the
(05:08):
defensive coordinator now the Seattle head coach, so he had
a front row seat of seeing that guy. Listen, sometimes
that can jade you. I remember Bill Simmons you just
talking about with Doc Rivers. He would always sign these
guys that lit him up because he was the GM
and the coach. And I'm not saying obviously they have
a GM there too. And for John Schneider fifty five
(05:28):
million dollars total, it's like a year and a half
contract in the NFL quarterback So it doesn't even limit
their ability to make changes over the next couple of
years if it doesn't go well. But they were not
going to give Geno Smith another huge extension at his age,
And I don't blame them, and I think you also
have to fact and I like Geno Smith, I do,
(05:49):
and I could understand, like if you just pulled ten
guys offensive coordinators and coaches, they just had one season
with the guy. Next year it could be seven to
three Geno to Sam, and coaches usually like to know,
like I know what I can get. And I remember
watching the game when Gino got banged up, Sam Howel
(06:10):
came in. Was that a It's been a Long Week
might have been a national televised game. I'd have been
a Thursday nine game. I don't remember, but it was
on full display. Like Geno's athleticism underrated. But like you
have to factor in contracts, like there were other trades
today with enormous names. The money plays a part. This
is a giant fucking business with enormous cash flows. I
(06:33):
mean this is like, how many businesses do you know
that are paying humans forty fifty one hundred miles. Garrett's
got one hundred and twenty three million dollars. So when
you make these decisions, it's easy to sign in a
week a guy for one year three million dollars. It
wasn't that difficult. Though It worked out for Howie last
year to give Beckton one year four million. Those are
(06:53):
the contracts that like are very low risk. When you're
talking one hundred million, eighty million, these huge signing bonuses
to quarterbacks, to tackles, to wide receivers, you have to
factor it all in the age matters and how fast
you can pivot out of it. So like I get
why they did that, and I can say, like I
under if I had to choose one of those doors like,
(07:15):
I get why Seattle chose the door they did. I
also understand why the Raiders chose the door they did,
and they traded a third round pick for a guy
thirty five. There's gonna be thirty five years old and
you're gonna have to give him a lot of money,
and you don't really have that many weapons beside a
rookie tight end who's pretty awesome. Jacoby Myer's not bad either.
But I get why spy TeX's doing that, and I
(07:36):
get why the money guys are surely gonna cut Geno
a big check because it's just because what they did
last year is the worst thing humanly possible to go
into a season with just no quarterbacks in the history
of the NFL. You're always gonna lose. If that's the case. Now,
you could argue every once in a while, it's like
a guy pops out of nowhere, Kurt Warner, But they
(07:57):
didn't go into the season with Kurt Warner, in the
season with Trent Green and then he got injured. So like,
the Raiders went into a season with no quarterbacks and
that is by far the shittiest experience you could ever have,
and they just experienced it. And they said, you know what,
fuck this not a division with Patrick Mahomes, with Herbert
and now with bow Knicks and John Payton. We need
(08:18):
to get a guy who can play quarterback and just
give us a chance. Because here's the reality. Pete Carroll
and Tom Brady like they want to they want to
try to win like eight nine games next year. I
think it's a little crazy. I would have gone the
other way. Like, listen, I love Max Crosby and I
totally understand why Pete Carroll and John Spytech gave him
a lot of money, well deserved. He's a certified badass.
(08:40):
But like to me, the right move would have been
to trade him and blow the bitch up. But that's
not what they're gonna do. I would have said the
same thing about Miles Garrett, like I would have acquiesced,
I would have traded him right. I would have gave
in because of what I could go back and where
I'm at. But I also understand, like the whole point
of these draft picks is to find the guy, and
we got the cab. Here's one hundred and thirty million Miles,
(09:02):
and it's like Miles, like I want to trade and
then they give him a hundred and thirty million. He's like,
I'm in Brown for live, you know. Max Crosby's like,
are we sure we're winning? They're like, here's three years,
one hundred million dollars guaranteed. He's like, read it for life.
So it's like money talk, shit walks. The next gets
back to the Gino Sam Darnold. They think that this
is a business and the worst busin decision you can
(09:22):
make in the NFL is just have no quarterbacks. Now granted,
they attempted with Gardner Minshew fifteen million dollars, like that's
an awful investment, and it blew up in their face
and he was terrible and they just cut him. And
now you get Gino Smith, a guy that you can
at least function with. Is he going to outplay those
other quarterbacks you're in division, especially Herbert and Patrick Maummes.
Probably not, but like where he gives you a chance.
(09:44):
It's like when you're playing the Titans, when you're playing
the Bears, when you're playing the Cardinals, like you can
just win some of those games, and all of a
sudden it's like, oh, we're kind of in the wild
card mix. Maybe in late November early December. Even if
you end up, you know with eight eight nine, there's
going to be a point late in the season. We're like, okay,
we are credible, functional football team. And that's why the
(10:07):
Raiders trade a third round pick, which is essentially Davante
Adams for Gino Smith trade up straight up because they
got that third round pick for Devonte Adams. Now, obviously
you know Seattle could use Davonta Adams. I don't have
any wide receivers, but uh yeah, I mean I think
I was texting with a buddy a couple of days
ago before this all started, and when Gino first got traded,
(10:31):
he said, yeah, they you know, rumors were forty five
plus million dollars a year, like that's what that was
the decision. And I think all this stuff, like sometimes
the money's pretty jarring. Russell Wilson was benched last year,
which I thought was pretty nuts. Then it kind of
worked until it didn't because then it got cold and
Russell Wilson turned into a pumpkin. And I think this
(10:53):
is a great lesson. And I think Sam Darnold falls
under this too, though Sam just actually had a good season,
be a good guy, handle your shit like a pro.
Do things the right way. Because what Justin Fields has
done these last two years earned him a lot of money. Obviously,
he's a great athlete and he can bomb the ball.
A lot of question marks about him as a pocket quarterback,
(11:14):
and I don't know if anything's changed. I mean it
didn't really in Pittsburgh. But like, you know what the
word is because all football is, especially at the highest level,
it's like high school drama. Everyone talks to each other
good and bad. Well, you know what the word is
on Justin Fields. Good guy. People really really like him
because when Ryan Poles traded him, remember how well and
(11:37):
highly he talked about Fields when he was getting rid
of him. I was like, God, I mean that's pretty impressive.
This is a guy, this is a business. Like get
rid of him number one pick, and he was like
the opposite. He was like hell bent on making sure
everyone knew how much respect he had for that guy.
And then last year the way he handled getting benched
when they were winning, and what happens at the end
(11:59):
of the season when the Steelers fall apart, crumble stories
start coming out pretty clear, mister drama, Russell Wilson leaking shit,
left and right fields. Didn't say a peep, just showed
up every day, ran his couple of plays when Tomlin
allowed him to go into the game and they were
getting their ass kicked down the stretch like they do
typically these last couple of years. And now he's rewarded
(12:21):
because you see two years forty million, You're like, that's
kind of crazy. And I'm thinking today on the plane,
I'm like, obviously Aaron Glenn knows him right his defensive
coordinator with the Lions, so he played him and you
understand he's seen him up close and personal countless times.
But if you're gonna overpay a guy, you want to
feel good about the person. And like that's Geno. Smith's
(12:45):
a good example of that. Like super high character guys
last longer in this league. The drama field again, maybe
he gets some enormous contract. I wouldn't touch Russell Wilson
too much drama. You could argue Aaron Rodgers too, but
Rogers way better than Russell Wilson. But you could argue,
don't touch it either one of them. Why even mess
around with it? Like Justin Field's just kind of low maintenance,
(13:06):
gets along with people, high character guy and I don't
know if this's gonna work. I would probably bet against it,
but I also think for the Jets, it just gives
them a guy to play with for a year. Overpay
a little bit. You kind of have to because Pittsburgh
was a much better football situation, right, So if the money,
if the money would have been half this, hey we'll
give you two years twenty million and guaranteed ten Pittsburgh.
(13:27):
Just give them that, I'm sure. So it's like you
have to entice him to come to New York. Obviously,
the taxes play a part. It's expensive, and he gets
thirty million dollars guaranteed. So good for him, even though
I don't I'm not betting on this situation like the
Jets to be good, but I do think it's cool
watching guys just handle their shit the right way. And
(13:49):
where you get paid sometimes is by the bad teams, right.
Gardner Minshew last year resurrected his career boom, gets fifteen
million dollars from the Raiders. It's like that's your time
to cash out. And the other thing the Bears. I mean,
it is crazy how different last year is from this year.
Last year's is Caleb Kleb Kleb Kleb, Caleb and then
and it was like offense passing game keenan All and
(14:11):
Roma Doonzay. Then they realized, like, if you can't protect
the quarterback, none of it matters. I don't remember a
team trading for like three trading slash signing three high
level starters within I I guess they traded for one
of them last week. But Jonah Jackson, Joe Thuni and
(14:34):
the Falcons center today. So they within the last five
or six days they have a new guard center guard combination,
and all the guys could kind of, you know, Jonah
Jackson bounce back and forth toon. He's proven he could
play left tackle. I mean, these guys got a lot
of versatility. But I think we talked about it last
week when they made the trades for the guard. Is
(14:54):
like you have to shore up the inside with smaller quarterbacks.
That was a huge thing with sean On Peyton and
Drew Brees. If you're because those guys, it's harder for
them to see. They got to step up in the
pocket to see. And if you can't protect them up
the middle, they're gonna get lit up like a Christmas Tree.
But you know my overall take right now in the Bears,
all the predators on Kayleb Williams offensive line fixed overnight,
(15:18):
not like random. I think it's gonna know, like these
guys are high level starters fixed overnight. They got the
number one coach on the market on offense. Vrabel would
probably be the top coach in the market, but they
got the number one offensive scheme boy genius. They got
this year's version of Kyle McVeigh, O'Connell lafleur. They got
(15:40):
that guy. So it's like, you got that guy, you
got the offensive line fixed. It's like I'm not doing
because a lot of times what happens in Chicago is
the organization. Well it's like they're not skipping the ball
out there. It's the coaching unlessen. Sometimes the coaching shitty,
but like justin Field's a lot of excuses Williams last year,
(16:00):
a lot of excuses like those are done. It's just
like all the pressure's on you, number one pick. Just
get it done. You know why Josh Allen just got
a two hundred and fifty million dollars contract extension guaranteed.
He got like three hundred and thirty total after like
I think it was two years signing his original extension,
because it's like Josh carry the fucking franchise and Josh goes, hey,
(16:22):
everyone in Buffalo hop on my back and I will
carry us to the playoffs every single year and give
our team, by far the best chance to always be
the Chiefs can't do it, but in fairness, no one
can unless the super Bowl. Like that's what and that's
why he is a total max guy. Like there is
not enough money you can give to Josh. There's just
(16:43):
not enough, right, It's why they just keep funneling him
the money. He's the equivalent of like a Lebron and
his prime or Steph Curry and his prime just carry
my organization and every single year so it's like boom
boom boom. Just a lock to be unreal. That's what
we were told about Caleb Williams. And I didn't see
many flashes last year, but that year gets a wash,
(17:07):
just like Jared Goff his first year with Jeff Fisher,
complete wash, and then it all changed. McVeigh came, Whitworth came,
and they were just off to the races. So to me,
if I'm a Bears fan, I'm pretty fired up, cause,
like I'm excited to watch Caleb right, but it's there's
gonna be a lot now. Luckily for him, he's been
under the bright lights for a long time. But like
(17:29):
the pressure's down on the coach, right. I mean, he's proven.
He took Jared Goff, who sucked when they got him,
was completely falling apart, and turned him into I don't
know how the top six to seven quarterback back in
the league again. So I props with the Bears. I mean,
Ryan Poles and that team. They came out gunning this
year in free agency, and I think sometimes free agency
(17:50):
can be overrated. I mean, this is what most of
these things we're talking about, our guards and Justin Field's
getting forty million dollars. So it's not like Mahomes, Justin
Jefferson aren't changing teams here, but exciting anything else. I
saw Zach Wilson just got some money from the Miami Dolphins,
so prop to him.
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Speaker 1 (19:49):
Okay, some big name traits. I gotta be honest, This
one made me scratch my head. The Pittsburgh Steelers traded
a second round pick for DK Metcalf and then reportedly
plan on giving him a ton of money. I like
DK Metcalf, and I defended, like, hey, Seattle, you better
be very careful you trade this guy. I get it
(20:11):
can be a little different, and he's fallen off a
little these last couple of years. Some injuries, get some
penalties used to drive Pete nuts, but his talent's elite.
To me, He's like a little lesser version of like
Terrell Owens in his prime, complete freak show, and just
him being on the field like Tyreek, changes your offense.
It makes everyone on the other side a little scared.
(20:34):
But when I think the Pittsburgh Steelers, it's like, you
guys have no quarterback, so yeah, you need some more
offensive weaponry. But like the last thing I would have
done until I can just like you did not have
a court adjustment Fields was not signed. Even if you
signed Aaron Rodgers, he's forty one years old. To trade
for DK Metcalf, I like crap sheet, But he's like
(20:55):
the Pittsburgh Steelers finally land their star wide receiver. It's like, yeah,
that's usually cool, Like when the Eagles landed AJ Brown
after they had other shit figured out. Like I watched
your defense last year. It sucked down the stretch. And
again I'm pro DK Metcalf, but trading a second round
pick for him pretty high one. You can just where
(21:17):
was DK drafted in the second round? Like what does
Pittsburgh Steelers do better than most develop sweet wide receivers.
I just don't quite understand that one. If you would
have told me the Bills did this, the Chiefs did this,
The Ravens don't takenally need him. But like a team
like that, the Chargers, who I saw people tweeting like
(21:37):
and maybe I talked about this last week, people like
Jim Harbaugh gonna trade for DK Metcalf. You think if
you've watched Jim Harbaugh's coaching career for the last fifteen
plus years. Stanford Niners, Michigan and now the Chargers. You
think he would trade a second round pick, which is
extremely valuable in the NFL, especially in this draft where
(22:00):
people are saying there's not much difference from the fifteenth
overall player to the fiftieth overall player, so the talent
discrepancy is not wide, and give that guy a lot
of money, even though that wouldn't even be that crazy
a move. I think he'd be sweet of the Chargers,
But philosophically, Jim Harbad just doesn't believe into that. If
Jim Harbaugh done it, I'd have been like, damn, Jim
(22:22):
kind of got out of his comfort zone. Maybe they
think he's a player away. What did Jim do? Gave
eighteen million dollars to khlil Mack and I just I
don't know, man, I just my first reaction was, I
don't like it. I just don't think it makes that
much sense. I really don't. And you're just like adding
more just weirdness to that room. Even though DK's proven
(22:45):
to be like a winning player. You can't say the
other thing for Pickens. I don't know. I just I
didn't see that one coming. We saw DK getting traded coming,
but just not to the Steelers. Okay, Laramie Tunzel traded today.
There's another example of the Sam Darnold thing. It's like,
what the huge just trade laram Me Tunzel. He's in
the last year of his contract, and right before we
(23:08):
took off, I just saw the plane or the trade
happened on my phone right before we leave it. I'm like,
what's his contract status? Well, he can be caught next
year for no dead money, so I would imagine his
current contract has no guaranteed money. So what do you
think laram Me Tunzel wants right now? An enormous contract?
He's gonna want what do top Tackles get? One hundred
(23:29):
and twenty guaranteed on a two hundred million dollar contract.
So the Texans clearly we're not comfortable giving him that contract.
So if you're not comfortable giving him that contract, what
do you do? You shot the guy because he's got value.
And this is what the Washington commanders did when they
attacked Free Agency. It was like, well, you can just
pay a bunch of guys. It's like Free Agencies kind
(23:51):
of hit or miss. I like, Adam Peters don't quite
understand the Kinlock contract. I don't I get you need
a defensive tackle, and I get you've been around him
that that one was We're gonna we're gonna disagree on
that one. But the Laramie Tunzel one, like the Deeba one,
makes a lot of sense. You get too former. I mean,
tounsl is a better player than Deebo these last couple
(24:11):
of years. But you get high level, winning players that
are in contract situations and you trade draft picks to
acquire their salary instead of paying twenty fifteen. It's actually
incredible for the owner. And it's also why when we
talk about cap space, it's like, well, who're you gonna
go buy? Well, you can also use picks to acquire
(24:32):
players and fit in that cap space. So they get
Laramie Tunzell and Deebo and maybe within the next couple
of days, maybe by the time you listen to this,
Laramie Tunswell sign an extension, or maybe they just go listen,
if you ball out this year, if I'm adam like,
I've been around Trent Williams and we broke him off
when he was older than you, Laramie, So if you
dominate this year, we had no problem giving you a
(24:54):
big contract, and they acquired him, Like guys like Laramie
Tunzell don't hit free agency. Who is supposed to be
the best tackle in free agency this year, Ronnie Stanley
doesn't hit free agency, So you kind of got to understand,
like the only way to acquire that player is to retreat.
And I think Adam Peters the Debo move and the
Laramie tunze Will move are just good moves with your
(25:15):
cap space if you're not comfortable paying the whoever their
equivalent is in free agency where you have to give
way you know, crazier contracts to and you're stuck for
several years. So to me, that was the I don't
have all the details I wrote down. They're giving their
third round pick this year and their second round pick
next year, so there is they are incentivized for Laramie
(25:38):
Tunzel to play well and if he does, they extend
him and they'll go, well, we make the playoffs again,
we give you a late third round pick this year.
Next year if we're in the second round, that's the
twenty fourth pick of the second round. So I think
if you're Adam Peters, like I like that move a lot. Now,
if you're the Texans, I think whatever's going on there,
(25:58):
you just weren't comfortable with the player, give me him
big money. And I was read online a lot of
false starts last year. Definitely just talented player, blue Chipper.
I mentioned this earlier, but Tampa, it's just pretty rare
to have two stud wide receivers and have them both
be just so low maintenance. And one story I saw
(26:18):
today is like Chris Godwin, the Patriots were offering twenty
million dollars more. Well, yeah, on the total contract. But
if I was a player, especially a guy like Godwin
who's made millions of dollars, I would look everything from
a net income perspective, because we're talking so much bleeping
(26:38):
money that when you just throw it twenty million dollars,
this isn't like. That's why I've always hated the word, oh,
get your bag. Bags are what mafia members handed politicians
or what boosters used to hand kids. And they had
ten twenty thousand dollars cash. These guys get millions of
dollars through bank accounts that are have taxes because they're
(27:01):
w two employees, So twenty million dollars to go to,
as Bill Belichick once called it, taxa chooses compared to
Tampa Bay is not even remotely close to twenty million dollars.
It honestly one. You'd have to cut that twenty wherever
you're playing borderline in half, so you're talking ten and
it might be the difference of three or four million
dollars at the end of the day. So when you
(27:24):
say about taking staying in Tampa, you go, well, I'm
comfortable with the quarterback here, I'm comfortable with my wide
receiver mate. I like playing here. From a living standpoint,
I would much rather live in Tampa. It's safe to say,
if you're Chris Godwin, than the Boston, Massachusetts and this
is where I want to play. So I think sometimes
took to a lot less money, well kinda you know,
(27:48):
four or five million dollars to a guy that's gonna
be worth at the end of the day one hundred
and fifty million dollars. Making a decision to stay in
a state he likes much more than another state. Isn't
that crazy? On It probably happens a lot relative to
how much money normal people make. It probably happens on
a daily, weekly basis. I was at a wedding talking
(28:08):
with friends that are in all sorts of industries. They
make these decisions all the time. It might be over
fifty grand or one hundred grand. Say no, not interested,
it's not worth my time. I don't want to pick
up and move my shit. I don't want to move
my kids. Five million dollars ain't changing my life. It
would me. But if you're Chris God, just like fifty
(28:30):
thousand dollars might not change your life. Money's all relative.
I hate when that's said, and it's so often said
during this stuff. It's it's a different conversation in like
the Luka contract when he got traded, he lost one
hundred and twenty million dollars. Sometimes you see these baseball contracts,
you're talking like six seven hundred million dollars. This is
a different stratosphere than like he would have extra twenty million,
(28:53):
do well twenty million total? Like we got we gotta
be adults here, we're grown ups. This is every teams.
What's the NFL worth one hundred billion dollars? More than
that two hundred billion dollars. This is this real money
is exchanging handswer DeVante Adams signs with the Rams. I
(29:15):
hate to say it, but I love it. I just
feel like, this thing's gonna work. You get Davante with Pooka,
with Matt Stafford. It's just an upgrade over Cooper Cup.
And listen, I know you know what's funny is like
sometimes and listen, I've been fired twice, fired by the Eagles,
and I was fired in radio and at the time
(29:36):
I was so mad. At the time it was happening.
Now like Cooper Cup, I was in my late twenties,
early thirties. I was angry, And now looking back, I laugh,
Why would you want to be with people who don't
value you anymore? And it's like you also make like
you have to understand you make a lot of money
(29:58):
and you don't produce at that level anymore. But like
Sean McVay, like they're kind of over you. If anything
that should be It happens all the time in the NFL,
and guys go to other places and have a lot
of success. I will guarantee now you're gonna take a
pay cut. All the good teams in the NFL are
gonna be interested in Cooper Cup now at a price point.
(30:21):
They're not gonna give you DeVante Adams money, but he
get two years, forty six million I think twenty five
guaranteed or something. Cooper Cup might get one year, five
million dollars. That might happen. I remember when I was
around the Raiders and they signed Michael Crabtree to like
a one year, three million dollar deal that he had
an incredible Everyone thought he was like shot, no one
(30:42):
wanted to touch him, had a huge season, and then
he got like a three year contract. Happens all the time,
like this notion that your just career's over because Sean
McVay doesn't want you. It's like, I feel like, sometimes, listen,
I want to like Cooper Cup. I have nothing against
the guy that the pity party around like him getting
cut or traded over the last like six months has
(31:05):
been fucking laughable. I mean, we have seen dramatically better
players in the history of the NFL get treated way
worse than just like Sean mcvay's like, yeah, we might
trade you. It's like, bro, you make twenty million dollars,
you're hurt all the time in these last couple of years.
What do you think this is fantasy football? Mike Vrabel
(31:26):
just signed real players, and I think sometimes when you
are really really crappy, and that's what the Patriots were.
They were really bad. Now obviously poorly coached too, but
they just look pretty bad talent wise. You got a
bunch of money, Just sign some guys that can just
plug and play. The number one thing you can do
(31:46):
as a coach, I think you always want to do
when you first get a job is sign someone that
knows you right. Just some players who are probably gonna
be starters, that know the way you do things, know
the way you lead meetings, know the way that like
you structure stuff. And the Landry signing the pass rusher
(32:06):
from Titans, no brainer, easy decision. That happens every time
one of these guys gets a new job. But like
sign Milton Williams. That's just the real defensive tackle. Like
that guy's good. In a perfect world, the Eagles would
love to keep him. Obviously financially they just can't. Like mccollins,
like that's just a real NFL player. He's not a
(32:27):
number one, he's not even a number two. But like,
that's a guy if you're playing the Bills, if your
team's not bad, you can just compete with him on
the field. Shit, he was just starting for the Bills,
making plays the guy's a good player. And Carlton Davis.
I haven't seen all the details from the money, and
sometimes it's hard to decipher it all. But the bottom
(32:48):
line is, like Carlton Davis is an NFL corner, Morgan
Moses is an NFL tackle. He's got some NFL players,
And now you can go into the draft and take
some big swings, try to hit some home runs, try
to get some super our talent. But like, I don't
think it's inconceivable that if three of these guys can
be like big impact guys, you hit on some draft
picks and almost said Mac Jones and Drake may is
(33:13):
good that like the Patriots could win nine ten games,
Like Mike Frable's a real coach. Listen when I said
the pressure's on Caleb Williams. I don't know if Ben
Johnson's a good head coach or not. I know he's
a great offensive schemer. Being a head coach is completely different.
We got no clue. I know Mike Rabel's a good
coach like that, that's an objective truth here, it's just factual.
(33:38):
We have seen him win enormous playoff games as huge
underdogs on the road, typically in a playoff game. If
you're a big underdog, you're gonna be a road team.
But you know what I mean, so prohaps with Patriots
finally getting Craft two, Craft doesn't like giving that money out,
you know, Robert likes to keep it that thing for himself.
(34:01):
A couple more Denver Broncos. I thought they had one
of the better like just I'm not talking statistically, just
when you watch them teams speed wise, one of the
faster and just harder hitting defenses in the NFL. And
to add Hufunga and Drake Greenlaw, like I would say
(34:21):
two of the forty nine ers, more physical players, honestly
two of the better players of the team two years
ago that lost to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl
in Vegas. Now both these guys have been injured. Gus
had acl hurt his thumb. Greenlaw hurt his achilles and
then tried to come back, and that he did, he
killed everyone for a half and then his other hamstring
(34:43):
went and he couldn't stay on the field. But if
either one of these guys are healthy, let alone both
of them, you have two absolute hammers. These guys will
put anyone into the ground in the NFL. So you
have two of the harder hitters in the NFL. So
now you're looking at a good defense with an offense
(35:06):
that now can just draft players. So it's like, who's
Denver gonna draft in the first couple rounds? A tight end,
a running back. You could invest there around bow Knicks,
guys for him to grow up with. And they're throwing
money at the defense and their defense is already good.
So I really like, you know, those two signings for Denver. Honestly,
they just hit on one of the two of them.
If Drake Greenlock could stay healthy next year, he'll be
(35:27):
a pro Bowler. The Giants, I just think that they
are in major trouble, you know, because at the end
of the day, the Titans have a choice. If they
stay at number one, they're gonna draft one of two players.
It's gonna be the quarterback, it's gonna be the pass rusher.
And if they take the quarterback, you know the team
(35:49):
is not good enough. And we saw a couple of
years ago with Shador was on a not a talented
enough team against better competition and they got their ass kicked.
So the Giants could not go in with the roster
withhead or Sanders and have any chance of winning. Now,
big picture, it might not be a crazy move to
get a quarterback on the roster, but like Brian Dable
and Joe Shane need to attempt to win this year,
(36:11):
they're gonna get fired, right, So it's are they gonna
send Russell Wilson Aaron Rodgers And by the time you're
listening to this, maybe they've signed one of these guys.
But man, I think I think they're on. I think
they're in trouble. The Chiefs have signed Jalen Moore. He
(36:32):
was Trent Williams and really he can play bow spots.
I'm pretty sure he played right tackle a couple of
years ago as well, but he can play left tackle.
Was just a talented young player. He didn't get to
play a lot because Trent Williams on the team, so
Chiefs gave him a little money. I'm pretty sure this
guy's versatility to play both spots. He's clearly a high
level guy and like that signing a lot Colts, Tarvarius
(36:57):
Ward and cam Binham the same fafety from Minnesota and
the Niners corner bind him is the guy that does
all the cool dances and like those signings. But you know,
the one thing is when free agency, besides some of
the trades like with Tons Old, DK Gino, some of
these names, it's like free agency can be really really
(37:18):
overhyped because in basketball, you know Kevin Durant or Lebron
James or Jokic, like it's gonna be a free agent
this year, right, same thing in baseball you knew Juan
Soto or you named Aaron Judge last year, gonna be
a free agent. And then you know in the NFL
that's just not the case. Guys resigned, guys get franchised,
(37:40):
and you get big names. You know, the older players
typically that are cut and guys like Tallanohu Funga and
Dre Greenlaw who have just been battling major, major injuries.
So uh, we're gonna keep the content flowing and just
just wanted to get get something, give my give my
juices flowing. But Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, who knows, maybe
(38:02):
we'll get some more trades in the next couple of days.
Exciting times and Miles Garrett Max Crosby went from like
they on the block to about two hundred and fifty
combined million dollars guaranteed, So money talks, baby, Okay. I
(38:30):
did want to do something really quick on the state
of the forty nine ers because it's pretty crazy what
has happened to them over the last I don't know
ever since the debo trade they have lost. Now we
knew a lot of these guys were going to be gone,
but it's to me there was a tipping point last
(38:53):
year when a good team and a good GM and
a good head coach, part of sustaining high levels of
play is being cutthroat. Andy Reid's done it. Belichick made
a career out of doing it. Bill Walsh became a
legend because of it. Sometimes even guys you like and
(39:14):
have won with you gotta say cyonara. And I don't
ever remember a team regretting a contract faster all while
changing their business plan overnight, like the Brandon I you
contract Now, I'm not here to toot my own horn.
(39:34):
I thought it was nuts last year that they were
going to give him seventy five eighty million dollars guaranteed
when their offense isn't built like that. And he listen,
he wasn't really obviously got injured, but paying a guy
that much money, He's never going to catch more than
ady balls. To me is insanity. And they had just
(39:55):
learned their lesson a couple of years previously with Deebo
Samuel and today the forty nine ers just informed Kyle
uscheck he's being cut like in a vacuum. None of
these moves are that crazy. Kyle us Chick's been on
the team for nine years. That is an incredible run
in the National Football League, and that was his first
team right he played. He had a four year career
(40:17):
with the Ravens. Kyle Uschek has had an incredible career
and his run with the Niners was awesome. Was a
part of every big game they ever had. That isn't
that weird? No, I hate to say it, but not
many teams the full back changing the way teams play,
even though I think Kyle will always use some sort
of hybrid tight end Hufungo who might not even have
(40:40):
been a starter anymore, but a couple of years ago,
wasn't all pro Dray green Law it's not for injury
is a lock starter. Tarvarius Ward four year starter for him,
Aaron Banks several year starter. Reguard got a ton of
money from the Packers. The number I saw again you
never quite know, seemed a little nuts. Their backup tax
(41:00):
Jalen Moore, which is kind of a big deal given
one of their best players, Trent Williams, also gets injured
a lot. I just think that, you know, and luckily
if you're the Niners, like all your players are signing
with good teams. I mean, are you know Commanders NFC Championship.
The Chiefs will take Jalen Moore, The Broncos playoff team
(41:20):
will take Hu Funga and Dre Greenlaw. The Packers playoff
team will take Aaron Banks. It's not like they're going
to shitty teams. So it's shows you, like, this team
was one of the best teams in the NFL for
a long time because of these guys. And I'm not
even saying like they should sign all these guys, but
it's just like, you don't have to be this abrupt.
(41:41):
This is how you sustain. Look at what the Chiefs
did several years ago Tyreek Hill Audios, and you could
combine Debo and Brandon Ayuk and they weren't as good
as him in his prime. Anyway's cut throat. You gotta
make those moves, and it does feel like the stories
come out about the forty nine ers, Mike Silver writing
about wanting him to like not get so emotional. Like, listen,
(42:04):
I respect this about Sean McVay. A couple of years ago,
he just like turned on guys and he's even apologized
he did it to publicly. But that's part of the business.
This is in like you need to be able to
pivot to a new player, and like they got very
emotional in their high priced guys and now it's like
we will trade Deebo Samuel, we will trade Brandon Ayuk.
(42:25):
It's like, shouldn't you probably have done that before you
signed one of the two guys and had a lot
more money to spread it around to sustain, especially after
you fucked up on the Trey Lance decision, which listen,
it was a tough year to draft, the COVID year,
but there's no way around it's one of the worst
draft decisions in the history of the league to go
(42:48):
from twelve to three, trade all those first round picks
and completely with on a guy who's just horrendous. I
mean that set the team, that move and all the
moves when it came to paying like I understood why
they paid Deebo. He carried him in the NFC Championship and
he wasn't really good for a couple of years. The
(43:10):
Ayuk thing like you should have learned from that situation,
trade him for a second and a third. But it's like, no,
we need to get a first, like come on, man,
second and a third sea Audiel's piece godspeed, And they
couldn't do it, And now they're in this position of
it's not the end of the world. Luckily they got
high draft picks because they sucked this year. But you're
(43:31):
paying a quarterback a ton of money, which who knows
what that number is gonna be that we all acknowledge
is not nearly as good as these other guys, the
top guys making huge cash and winning MVPs. So he
is very dependent on guys being around him that can play.
Look at your main competition in the NFC in terms
(43:53):
of the best teams. Obviously, when the Lions are healthy,
what do they have elite talent around Jared Goff? What
do the Eagles have around Jalen elite talent? And then
those guys you know, Jared didn't, but Jalen came through
just like if Brock has the elite talent around him,
he can come through, but he ain't like taking me
and you overachieving the ten wins. That's not what it's
(44:15):
gonna be. We saw this year. You're trying to win
games against shitty teams at the end of the year
and it's kind of unraveled. You need a really good team.
And now that I think it's pretty clear they're trying
to do that RAMS thing where you like pun off
a bunch of guys and you like nail a bunch
of draft picks for a couple of years. It's like, well,
i''m be sure you could do that. That's pretty difficult
(44:37):
to do. It's a tough little move to make. So
I just think this is a It's a very very
fascinating interesting offseason for the forty nine ers because this
was one of the best rosters in the entire league.
He had established himself as one of the best coaches
in the league. They were one of the more well
run teams in the league. And now it just feels
(44:57):
pretty chaotic and like the coach got really emotional. Now
the owners get like and one thing I don't want
to hear with Jed and this story's kind of out
there with silver and some guys like about the money
and the cutting costs. Give me a fucking break. This
place has been an absolute cash cow, you know, like
Navidia for the last five or six years, printing unlimited money.
(45:20):
Who's been a lot too, well, you made even more.
That's why Jeffrey spends a lot, because he's making way more.
So I just like cutting costs. It's like, give me
a fucking break. Whenever I hear about good teams talking
about cutting costs, I want to throw up in my mouth.
Doesn't mean you just pay whoever, right, but like the
(45:42):
money should it shouldn't even hesitate of where we're gonna
We have no problem allocating huge cash for good players,
and it feels like, yeah, we're gonna pick our spots.
Now it's like, oh my god, I just think this
thing is teetering now. It's football, not freaking out over
an offseason. I love Hufunga, especially Greenlaw. Guys are injured.
(46:06):
Tarvarius had already established it. I'm not coming back. He
had tragic situation. It was not even gonna be an option.
Niners wen't gonna pay him anyway. But like it was
over the US check thing. I love Kyle, like him personally,
talk to him a lot over the years. But like
also I do understand nine years at that position. I
(46:28):
mean they almost cut him last year, they got him
take a pay cut. Again, Like I said, I'm not
overreacting to one individual move. I do think this is
all symbolic, and I think it just goes back pretty
clearly the last season in the offseason, when the Niners
aren't used to getting played and for a long time,
you know, they took advantage of everybody from Willis to Bowman.
(46:50):
They could always get these guys to sign early and
get these cheap team friendly deals. And the one big
quarterback contract they had right before it really blew up Kaepernick,
they completely played his agent. It was a year by
year contract. The Jimmy thing seemed crazy and it actually
was nothing, And Jimmy ended up playing on the team
for like six years so or four or five years,
(47:10):
so it didn't even matter. But I think they know,
like these players don't lose as much anymore, Like even
if you take a team friendly deal, you're still getting
astronomical amounts of money now, So I'm not saying this
is the NBA, but good players have a lot of juice,
and last year they were used to just typically you know,
in Parrague is one of the best in the league,
(47:32):
but like Ayuke one and took them to the cleaners
in that negotiation, and that really rattled them. And it
feels now they're pivoting, like because they're so shook from
that moment to now doing whatever is going on. And
it's gonna be fascinating to watch how this all plays out.
They just their team is not as deep because of
(47:53):
the Trey Lance disaster and they went from being this like,
I mean, absolute powerhouse to like, I don't know, I
don't feel as confident. I'm not. I wouldn't. Their schedule
is a joke. But if you said right now, especially
with these the stock market right now, middle clock five
thousand dollars, yes or no playoffs, I just couldn't put
(48:13):
it confidently on Yes, I'd like to. I would. I'd
probably lean that way just because their schedule is so bad,
But I don't know. They got a lot of unknown
guys that are gonna be in positions and I'm watching
these good teams just kind of like the Broncos ad chiefs.
They ain't going away with ad right, don't really like
(48:33):
Najie Harris runs hard, ten million dollars a little rich
for my but the charge ain't going away. They're gonna
keep adding and drafting, so the Niners man just and
they're gonna have who knows what this number is gonna
look like with Purty, but does feel just at the
point in time, if they were a boat, they'd be
(48:54):
rocking and be like, I don't know, they're gonna capsize.
But doesn't feel like that's a very stable place to
be right now. The volume
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Mm hmm
The volume. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing?
(00:21):
It is Monday night and about seven point thirty I
got off a little bird headed back from Nashville. About
three hours ago. I recorded a little free agency reaction,
then ate some dinner and I saw used check for
the Niners got cut and I did a little separate
(00:45):
just rant that I put at the back of the
podcast because the forty nine ers felt like lost their
retire team today and are going through this crazy transition
because of some poor decisions they have made. So we
will talk everything from Sam Darnold to Geno Smith to
Justin Field's DK, metcalf Laramie Tunzel. We had a lot
(01:08):
of moves. The NFL free agency is fun. So well,
that's what we'll do today. I said, you know what,
I'm not taking a day off. I started getting fomo.
Actually last night I'm like, I gotta do something. Almost
did it last night, but I was like, you know,
I can't. Just just got to take a deep breath.
Thought today was supposed to be the One thing we've
learned is the legal tampering period is just free agency.
(01:32):
Like everything happens. So by the time we get to Wednesday,
I don't know why. I It's part of the reason
I put the wedding is, you know, I thought I
had myself like a couple of day buffer, but now
that was somewhat of a wedding was not a mistake,
but my timing was probably a day off. But luckily
I'm a podcaster and we bang something out, and the
(01:53):
game plan will We'll just keep reacting all week to
whatever's going on, because as I'm recording this, it's hard
because it is such a fluid situation. Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson.
It's gonna be fascinating what happens over the next couple
of days. Obviously, there are just a lot of random
players that get paid. Some become good and some don't.
(02:13):
I mean, some of these contracts are gonna be disasters
and some of them are gonna be steals. And we've
known this for a long time. You just never quite know.
But it's exciting to watch play out, and these yesterday
and today and the next couple of days are just
are fun. It's fun to talk about this stuff. It's
why fantasy football is so big. So that that will
(02:35):
be the game plan. We'll just keep podcasts the rest
of the week, and I need a good night's sleep
because I basically just we got there Tuesday. Everyone showed up. Wednesday,
we were raging Wednesday, raging, Thursday, tried to lay low.
Friday did relatively well, and then Saturday night was a
(02:55):
rager and I pumped the brakes yesterday. But some other
people We're still there. I mean, Nashville is a drinker's town.
It was fun. But now I'm a married man and
podcasts go on, so we'll talk about the wedding maybe
as the week goes on, but so much going on
in football. Very very excited to talk some football. I've
(03:18):
missed talking football through a mic. I mean, you constantly
talk football everywhere I go. But other than that, you
guys know the drill. Subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to
the YouTube page, and let's rock and roll. I do
want to start with the Seattle situation. And I've seen
a lot of takes flying of why would you take
(03:41):
Sam Donald over Geno Smith? And I think based on
the last several years, Gino has a much longer track
record of playing at a pretty high level. He didn't
just resurrect his career, he became a pretty good player
and Sam Donald had fifteen games of looking awesome. And
I think what gets lost in the conversation sometimes this
(04:05):
is a business and money really matters. And Gino Smith
is going to be thirty five this fall. I haven't
seen the numbers, and I don't think it's official yet.
He's got you know, hasn't been reported about his contract extension.
By all accounts, he's going to get extended at like
forty five million dollars a year. I would be stunned
(04:27):
if the guaranteed money Gino gets isn't well over one
hundred million. It's not gonna be the crazy money, but
it's gonna be like the Daniel Jones version of two
years later. It's gonna be a lot of money. Now,
there is no disputing that the last two games of
Sam Darnold's Minnesota Viking career cost him a lot of money.
(04:48):
He is lucky. He's not lucky because he did it,
but in one of his best games of the season,
in an enormous game for Seattle which ultimately cost them
the playoffs, he made made some of the best plays
of his career and throw a game winning touchdown against
Two years ago, the man known as Boy genius the
(05:08):
defensive coordinator now the Seattle head coach, so he had
a front row seat of seeing that guy. Listen, sometimes
that can jade you. I remember Bill Simmons you just
talking about with Doc Rivers. He would always sign these
guys that lit him up because he was the GM
and the coach. And I'm not saying obviously they have
a GM there too. And for John Schneider fifty five
(05:28):
million dollars total, it's like a year and a half
contract in the NFL quarterback So it doesn't even limit
their ability to make changes over the next couple of
years if it doesn't go well. But they were not
going to give Geno Smith another huge extension at his age,
And I don't blame them, and I think you also
have to fact and I like Geno Smith, I do,
(05:49):
and I could understand, like if you just pulled ten
guys offensive coordinators and coaches, they just had one season
with the guy. Next year it could be seven to
three Geno to Sam, and coaches usually like to know,
like I know what I can get. And I remember
watching the game when Gino got banged up, Sam Howel
(06:10):
came in. Was that a It's been a Long Week
might have been a national televised game. I'd have been
a Thursday nine game. I don't remember, but it was
on full display. Like Geno's athleticism underrated. But like you
have to factor in contracts, like there were other trades
today with enormous names. The money plays a part. This
is a giant fucking business with enormous cash flows. I
(06:33):
mean this is like, how many businesses do you know
that are paying humans forty fifty one hundred miles. Garrett's
got one hundred and twenty three million dollars. So when
you make these decisions, it's easy to sign in a
week a guy for one year three million dollars. It
wasn't that difficult. Though It worked out for Howie last
year to give Beckton one year four million. Those are
(06:53):
the contracts that like are very low risk. When you're
talking one hundred million, eighty million, these huge signing bonuses
to quarterbacks, to tackles, to wide receivers, you have to
factor it all in the age matters and how fast
you can pivot out of it. So like I get
why they did that, and I can say, like I
under if I had to choose one of those doors like,
(07:15):
I get why Seattle chose the door they did. I
also understand why the Raiders chose the door they did,
and they traded a third round pick for a guy
thirty five. There's gonna be thirty five years old and
you're gonna have to give him a lot of money,
and you don't really have that many weapons beside a
rookie tight end who's pretty awesome. Jacoby Myer's not bad either.
But I get why spy TeX's doing that, and I
(07:36):
get why the money guys are surely gonna cut Geno
a big check because it's just because what they did
last year is the worst thing humanly possible to go
into a season with just no quarterbacks in the history
of the NFL. You're always gonna lose. If that's the case. Now,
you could argue every once in a while, it's like
a guy pops out of nowhere, Kurt Warner, But they
(07:57):
didn't go into the season with Kurt Warner, in the
season with Trent Green and then he got injured. So like,
the Raiders went into a season with no quarterbacks and
that is by far the shittiest experience you could ever have,
and they just experienced it. And they said, you know what,
fuck this not a division with Patrick Mahomes, with Herbert
and now with bow Knicks and John Payton. We need
(08:18):
to get a guy who can play quarterback and just
give us a chance. Because here's the reality. Pete Carroll
and Tom Brady like they want to they want to
try to win like eight nine games next year. I
think it's a little crazy. I would have gone the
other way. Like, listen, I love Max Crosby and I
totally understand why Pete Carroll and John Spytech gave him
a lot of money, well deserved. He's a certified badass.
(08:40):
But like to me, the right move would have been
to trade him and blow the bitch up. But that's
not what they're gonna do. I would have said the
same thing about Miles Garrett, like I would have acquiesced,
I would have traded him right. I would have gave
in because of what I could go back and where
I'm at. But I also understand, like the whole point
of these draft picks is to find the guy, and
we got the cab. Here's one hundred and thirty million Miles,
(09:02):
and it's like Miles, like I want to trade and
then they give him a hundred and thirty million. He's like,
I'm in Brown for live, you know. Max Crosby's like,
are we sure we're winning? They're like, here's three years,
one hundred million dollars guaranteed. He's like, read it for life.
So it's like money talk, shit walks. The next gets
back to the Gino Sam Darnold. They think that this
is a business and the worst busin decision you can
(09:22):
make in the NFL is just have no quarterbacks. Now granted,
they attempted with Gardner Minshew fifteen million dollars, like that's
an awful investment, and it blew up in their face
and he was terrible and they just cut him. And
now you get Gino Smith, a guy that you can
at least function with. Is he going to outplay those
other quarterbacks you're in division, especially Herbert and Patrick Maummes.
Probably not, but like where he gives you a chance.
(09:44):
It's like when you're playing the Titans, when you're playing
the Bears, when you're playing the Cardinals, like you can
just win some of those games, and all of a
sudden it's like, oh, we're kind of in the wild
card mix. Maybe in late November early December. Even if
you end up, you know with eight eight nine, there's
going to be a point late in the season. We're like, okay,
we are credible, functional football team. And that's why the
(10:07):
Raiders trade a third round pick, which is essentially Davante
Adams for Gino Smith trade up straight up because they
got that third round pick for Devonte Adams. Now, obviously
you know Seattle could use Davonta Adams. I don't have
any wide receivers, but uh yeah, I mean I think
I was texting with a buddy a couple of days
ago before this all started, and when Gino first got traded,
(10:31):
he said, yeah, they you know, rumors were forty five
plus million dollars a year, like that's what that was
the decision. And I think all this stuff, like sometimes
the money's pretty jarring. Russell Wilson was benched last year,
which I thought was pretty nuts. Then it kind of
worked until it didn't because then it got cold and
Russell Wilson turned into a pumpkin. And I think this
(10:53):
is a great lesson. And I think Sam Darnold falls
under this too, though Sam just actually had a good season,
be a good guy, handle your shit like a pro.
Do things the right way. Because what Justin Fields has
done these last two years earned him a lot of money. Obviously,
he's a great athlete and he can bomb the ball.
A lot of question marks about him as a pocket quarterback,
(11:14):
and I don't know if anything's changed. I mean it
didn't really in Pittsburgh. But like, you know what the
word is because all football is, especially at the highest level,
it's like high school drama. Everyone talks to each other
good and bad. Well, you know what the word is
on Justin Fields. Good guy. People really really like him
because when Ryan Poles traded him, remember how well and
(11:37):
highly he talked about Fields when he was getting rid
of him. I was like, God, I mean that's pretty impressive.
This is a guy, this is a business. Like get
rid of him number one pick, and he was like
the opposite. He was like hell bent on making sure
everyone knew how much respect he had for that guy.
And then last year the way he handled getting benched
when they were winning, and what happens at the end
(11:59):
of the season when the Steelers fall apart, crumble stories
start coming out pretty clear, mister drama, Russell Wilson leaking shit,
left and right fields. Didn't say a peep, just showed
up every day, ran his couple of plays when Tomlin
allowed him to go into the game and they were
getting their ass kicked down the stretch like they do
typically these last couple of years. And now he's rewarded
(12:21):
because you see two years forty million, You're like, that's
kind of crazy. And I'm thinking today on the plane,
I'm like, obviously Aaron Glenn knows him right his defensive
coordinator with the Lions, so he played him and you
understand he's seen him up close and personal countless times.
But if you're gonna overpay a guy, you want to
feel good about the person. And like that's Geno. Smith's
(12:45):
a good example of that. Like super high character guys
last longer in this league. The drama field again, maybe
he gets some enormous contract. I wouldn't touch Russell Wilson
too much drama. You could argue Aaron Rodgers too, but
Rogers way better than Russell Wilson. But you could argue,
don't touch it either one of them. Why even mess
around with it? Like Justin Field's just kind of low maintenance,
(13:06):
gets along with people, high character guy and I don't
know if this's gonna work. I would probably bet against it,
but I also think for the Jets, it just gives
them a guy to play with for a year. Overpay
a little bit. You kind of have to because Pittsburgh
was a much better football situation, right, So if the money,
if the money would have been half this, hey we'll
give you two years twenty million and guaranteed ten Pittsburgh.
(13:27):
Just give them that, I'm sure. So it's like you
have to entice him to come to New York. Obviously,
the taxes play a part. It's expensive, and he gets
thirty million dollars guaranteed. So good for him, even though
I don't I'm not betting on this situation like the
Jets to be good, but I do think it's cool
watching guys just handle their shit the right way. And
(13:49):
where you get paid sometimes is by the bad teams, right.
Gardner Minshew last year resurrected his career boom, gets fifteen
million dollars from the Raiders. It's like that's your time
to cash out. And the other thing the Bears. I mean,
it is crazy how different last year is from this year.
Last year's is Caleb Kleb Kleb Kleb, Caleb and then
and it was like offense passing game keenan All and
(14:11):
Roma Doonzay. Then they realized, like, if you can't protect
the quarterback, none of it matters. I don't remember a
team trading for like three trading slash signing three high
level starters within I I guess they traded for one
of them last week. But Jonah Jackson, Joe Thuni and
(14:34):
the Falcons center today. So they within the last five
or six days they have a new guard center guard combination,
and all the guys could kind of, you know, Jonah
Jackson bounce back and forth toon. He's proven he could
play left tackle. I mean, these guys got a lot
of versatility. But I think we talked about it last
week when they made the trades for the guard. Is
(14:54):
like you have to shore up the inside with smaller quarterbacks.
That was a huge thing with sean On Peyton and
Drew Brees. If you're because those guys, it's harder for
them to see. They got to step up in the
pocket to see. And if you can't protect them up
the middle, they're gonna get lit up like a Christmas Tree.
But you know my overall take right now in the Bears,
all the predators on Kayleb Williams offensive line fixed overnight,
(15:18):
not like random. I think it's gonna know, like these
guys are high level starters fixed overnight. They got the
number one coach on the market on offense. Vrabel would
probably be the top coach in the market, but they
got the number one offensive scheme boy genius. They got
this year's version of Kyle McVeigh, O'Connell lafleur. They got
(15:40):
that guy. So it's like, you got that guy, you
got the offensive line fixed. It's like I'm not doing
because a lot of times what happens in Chicago is
the organization. Well it's like they're not skipping the ball
out there. It's the coaching unlessen. Sometimes the coaching shitty,
but like justin Field's a lot of excuses Williams last year,
(16:00):
a lot of excuses like those are done. It's just
like all the pressure's on you, number one pick. Just
get it done. You know why Josh Allen just got
a two hundred and fifty million dollars contract extension guaranteed.
He got like three hundred and thirty total after like
I think it was two years signing his original extension,
because it's like Josh carry the fucking franchise and Josh goes, hey,
(16:22):
everyone in Buffalo hop on my back and I will
carry us to the playoffs every single year and give
our team, by far the best chance to always be
the Chiefs can't do it, but in fairness, no one
can unless the super Bowl. Like that's what and that's
why he is a total max guy. Like there is
not enough money you can give to Josh. There's just
(16:43):
not enough, right, It's why they just keep funneling him
the money. He's the equivalent of like a Lebron and
his prime or Steph Curry and his prime just carry
my organization and every single year so it's like boom
boom boom. Just a lock to be unreal. That's what
we were told about Caleb Williams. And I didn't see
many flashes last year, but that year gets a wash,
(17:07):
just like Jared Goff his first year with Jeff Fisher,
complete wash, and then it all changed. McVeigh came, Whitworth came,
and they were just off to the races. So to me,
if I'm a Bears fan, I'm pretty fired up, cause,
like I'm excited to watch Caleb right, but it's there's
gonna be a lot now. Luckily for him, he's been
under the bright lights for a long time. But like
(17:29):
the pressure's down on the coach, right. I mean, he's proven.
He took Jared Goff, who sucked when they got him,
was completely falling apart, and turned him into I don't
know how the top six to seven quarterback back in
the league again. So I props with the Bears. I mean,
Ryan Poles and that team. They came out gunning this
year in free agency, and I think sometimes free agency
(17:50):
can be overrated. I mean, this is what most of
these things we're talking about, our guards and Justin Field's
getting forty million dollars. So it's not like Mahomes, Justin
Jefferson aren't changing teams here, but exciting anything else. I
saw Zach Wilson just got some money from the Miami Dolphins,
so prop to him.
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Speaker 1 (19:49):
Okay, some big name traits. I gotta be honest, This
one made me scratch my head. The Pittsburgh Steelers traded
a second round pick for DK Metcalf and then reportedly
plan on giving him a ton of money. I like
DK Metcalf, and I defended, like, hey, Seattle, you better
be very careful you trade this guy. I get it
(20:11):
can be a little different, and he's fallen off a
little these last couple of years. Some injuries, get some
penalties used to drive Pete nuts, but his talent's elite.
To me, He's like a little lesser version of like
Terrell Owens in his prime, complete freak show, and just
him being on the field like Tyreek, changes your offense.
It makes everyone on the other side a little scared.
(20:34):
But when I think the Pittsburgh Steelers, it's like, you
guys have no quarterback, so yeah, you need some more
offensive weaponry. But like the last thing I would have
done until I can just like you did not have
a court adjustment Fields was not signed. Even if you
signed Aaron Rodgers, he's forty one years old. To trade
for DK Metcalf, I like crap sheet, But he's like
(20:55):
the Pittsburgh Steelers finally land their star wide receiver. It's like, yeah,
that's usually cool, Like when the Eagles landed AJ Brown
after they had other shit figured out. Like I watched
your defense last year. It sucked down the stretch. And
again I'm pro DK Metcalf, but trading a second round
pick for him pretty high one. You can just where
(21:17):
was DK drafted in the second round? Like what does
Pittsburgh Steelers do better than most develop sweet wide receivers.
I just don't quite understand that one. If you would
have told me the Bills did this, the Chiefs did this,
The Ravens don't takenally need him. But like a team
like that, the Chargers, who I saw people tweeting like
(21:37):
and maybe I talked about this last week, people like
Jim Harbaugh gonna trade for DK Metcalf. You think if
you've watched Jim Harbaugh's coaching career for the last fifteen
plus years. Stanford Niners, Michigan and now the Chargers. You
think he would trade a second round pick, which is
extremely valuable in the NFL, especially in this draft where
(22:00):
people are saying there's not much difference from the fifteenth
overall player to the fiftieth overall player, so the talent
discrepancy is not wide, and give that guy a lot
of money, even though that wouldn't even be that crazy
a move. I think he'd be sweet of the Chargers,
But philosophically, Jim Harbad just doesn't believe into that. If
Jim Harbaugh done it, I'd have been like, damn, Jim
(22:22):
kind of got out of his comfort zone. Maybe they
think he's a player away. What did Jim do? Gave
eighteen million dollars to khlil Mack and I just I
don't know, man, I just my first reaction was, I
don't like it. I just don't think it makes that
much sense. I really don't. And you're just like adding
more just weirdness to that room. Even though DK's proven
(22:45):
to be like a winning player. You can't say the
other thing for Pickens. I don't know. I just I
didn't see that one coming. We saw DK getting traded coming,
but just not to the Steelers. Okay, Laramie Tunzel traded today.
There's another example of the Sam Darnold thing. It's like,
what the huge just trade laram Me Tunzel. He's in
the last year of his contract, and right before we
(23:08):
took off, I just saw the plane or the trade
happened on my phone right before we leave it. I'm like,
what's his contract status? Well, he can be caught next
year for no dead money, so I would imagine his
current contract has no guaranteed money. So what do you
think laram Me Tunzel wants right now? An enormous contract?
He's gonna want what do top Tackles get? One hundred
(23:29):
and twenty guaranteed on a two hundred million dollar contract.
So the Texans clearly we're not comfortable giving him that contract.
So if you're not comfortable giving him that contract, what
do you do? You shot the guy because he's got value.
And this is what the Washington commanders did when they
attacked Free Agency. It was like, well, you can just
pay a bunch of guys. It's like Free Agencies kind
(23:51):
of hit or miss. I like, Adam Peters don't quite
understand the Kinlock contract. I don't I get you need
a defensive tackle, and I get you've been around him
that that one was We're gonna we're gonna disagree on
that one. But the Laramie Tunzel one, like the Deeba one,
makes a lot of sense. You get too former. I mean,
tounsl is a better player than Deebo these last couple
(24:11):
of years. But you get high level, winning players that
are in contract situations and you trade draft picks to
acquire their salary instead of paying twenty fifteen. It's actually
incredible for the owner. And it's also why when we
talk about cap space, it's like, well, who're you gonna
go buy? Well, you can also use picks to acquire
(24:32):
players and fit in that cap space. So they get
Laramie Tunzell and Deebo and maybe within the next couple
of days, maybe by the time you listen to this,
Laramie Tunswell sign an extension, or maybe they just go listen,
if you ball out this year, if I'm adam like,
I've been around Trent Williams and we broke him off
when he was older than you, Laramie, So if you
dominate this year, we had no problem giving you a
(24:54):
big contract, and they acquired him, Like guys like Laramie
Tunzell don't hit free agency. Who is supposed to be
the best tackle in free agency this year, Ronnie Stanley
doesn't hit free agency, So you kind of got to understand,
like the only way to acquire that player is to retreat.
And I think Adam Peters the Debo move and the
Laramie tunze Will move are just good moves with your
(25:15):
cap space if you're not comfortable paying the whoever their
equivalent is in free agency where you have to give
way you know, crazier contracts to and you're stuck for
several years. So to me, that was the I don't
have all the details I wrote down. They're giving their
third round pick this year and their second round pick
next year, so there is they are incentivized for Laramie
(25:38):
Tunzel to play well and if he does, they extend
him and they'll go, well, we make the playoffs again,
we give you a late third round pick this year.
Next year if we're in the second round, that's the
twenty fourth pick of the second round. So I think
if you're Adam Peters, like I like that move a lot. Now,
if you're the Texans, I think whatever's going on there,
(25:58):
you just weren't comfortable with the player, give me him
big money. And I was read online a lot of
false starts last year. Definitely just talented player, blue Chipper.
I mentioned this earlier, but Tampa, it's just pretty rare
to have two stud wide receivers and have them both
be just so low maintenance. And one story I saw
(26:18):
today is like Chris Godwin, the Patriots were offering twenty
million dollars more. Well, yeah, on the total contract. But
if I was a player, especially a guy like Godwin
who's made millions of dollars, I would look everything from
a net income perspective, because we're talking so much bleeping
(26:38):
money that when you just throw it twenty million dollars,
this isn't like. That's why I've always hated the word, oh,
get your bag. Bags are what mafia members handed politicians
or what boosters used to hand kids. And they had
ten twenty thousand dollars cash. These guys get millions of
dollars through bank accounts that are have taxes because they're
(27:01):
w two employees, So twenty million dollars to go to,
as Bill Belichick once called it, taxa chooses compared to
Tampa Bay is not even remotely close to twenty million dollars.
It honestly one. You'd have to cut that twenty wherever
you're playing borderline in half, so you're talking ten and
it might be the difference of three or four million
dollars at the end of the day. So when you
(27:24):
say about taking staying in Tampa, you go, well, I'm
comfortable with the quarterback here, I'm comfortable with my wide
receiver mate. I like playing here. From a living standpoint,
I would much rather live in Tampa. It's safe to say,
if you're Chris Godwin, than the Boston, Massachusetts and this
is where I want to play. So I think sometimes
took to a lot less money, well kinda you know,
(27:48):
four or five million dollars to a guy that's gonna
be worth at the end of the day one hundred
and fifty million dollars. Making a decision to stay in
a state he likes much more than another state. Isn't
that crazy? On It probably happens a lot relative to
how much money normal people make. It probably happens on
a daily, weekly basis. I was at a wedding talking
(28:08):
with friends that are in all sorts of industries. They
make these decisions all the time. It might be over
fifty grand or one hundred grand. Say no, not interested,
it's not worth my time. I don't want to pick
up and move my shit. I don't want to move
my kids. Five million dollars ain't changing my life. It
would me. But if you're Chris God, just like fifty
(28:30):
thousand dollars might not change your life. Money's all relative.
I hate when that's said, and it's so often said
during this stuff. It's it's a different conversation in like
the Luka contract when he got traded, he lost one
hundred and twenty million dollars. Sometimes you see these baseball contracts,
you're talking like six seven hundred million dollars. This is
a different stratosphere than like he would have extra twenty million,
(28:53):
do well twenty million total? Like we got we gotta
be adults here, we're grown ups. This is every teams.
What's the NFL worth one hundred billion dollars? More than
that two hundred billion dollars. This is this real money
is exchanging handswer DeVante Adams signs with the Rams. I
(29:15):
hate to say it, but I love it. I just
feel like, this thing's gonna work. You get Davante with Pooka,
with Matt Stafford. It's just an upgrade over Cooper Cup.
And listen, I know you know what's funny is like
sometimes and listen, I've been fired twice, fired by the Eagles,
and I was fired in radio and at the time
(29:36):
I was so mad. At the time it was happening.
Now like Cooper Cup, I was in my late twenties,
early thirties. I was angry, And now looking back, I laugh,
Why would you want to be with people who don't
value you anymore? And it's like you also make like
you have to understand you make a lot of money
(29:58):
and you don't produce at that level anymore. But like
Sean McVay, like they're kind of over you. If anything
that should be It happens all the time in the NFL,
and guys go to other places and have a lot
of success. I will guarantee now you're gonna take a
pay cut. All the good teams in the NFL are
gonna be interested in Cooper Cup now at a price point.
(30:21):
They're not gonna give you DeVante Adams money, but he
get two years, forty six million I think twenty five
guaranteed or something. Cooper Cup might get one year, five
million dollars. That might happen. I remember when I was
around the Raiders and they signed Michael Crabtree to like
a one year, three million dollar deal that he had
an incredible Everyone thought he was like shot, no one
(30:42):
wanted to touch him, had a huge season, and then
he got like a three year contract. Happens all the time,
like this notion that your just career's over because Sean
McVay doesn't want you. It's like, I feel like, sometimes, listen,
I want to like Cooper Cup. I have nothing against
the guy that the pity party around like him getting
cut or traded over the last like six months has
(31:05):
been fucking laughable. I mean, we have seen dramatically better
players in the history of the NFL get treated way
worse than just like Sean mcvay's like, yeah, we might
trade you. It's like, bro, you make twenty million dollars,
you're hurt all the time in these last couple of years.
What do you think this is fantasy football? Mike Vrabel
(31:26):
just signed real players, and I think sometimes when you
are really really crappy, and that's what the Patriots were.
They were really bad. Now obviously poorly coached too, but
they just look pretty bad talent wise. You got a
bunch of money, Just sign some guys that can just
plug and play. The number one thing you can do
(31:46):
as a coach, I think you always want to do
when you first get a job is sign someone that
knows you right. Just some players who are probably gonna
be starters, that know the way you do things, know
the way you lead meetings, know the way that like
you structure stuff. And the Landry signing the pass rusher
(32:06):
from Titans, no brainer, easy decision. That happens every time
one of these guys gets a new job. But like
sign Milton Williams. That's just the real defensive tackle. Like
that guy's good. In a perfect world, the Eagles would
love to keep him. Obviously financially they just can't. Like mccollins,
like that's just a real NFL player. He's not a
(32:27):
number one, he's not even a number two. But like,
that's a guy if you're playing the Bills, if your
team's not bad, you can just compete with him on
the field. Shit, he was just starting for the Bills,
making plays the guy's a good player. And Carlton Davis.
I haven't seen all the details from the money, and
sometimes it's hard to decipher it all. But the bottom
(32:48):
line is, like Carlton Davis is an NFL corner, Morgan
Moses is an NFL tackle. He's got some NFL players,
And now you can go into the draft and take
some big swings, try to hit some home runs, try
to get some super our talent. But like, I don't
think it's inconceivable that if three of these guys can
be like big impact guys, you hit on some draft
picks and almost said Mac Jones and Drake may is
(33:13):
good that like the Patriots could win nine ten games,
Like Mike Frable's a real coach. Listen when I said
the pressure's on Caleb Williams. I don't know if Ben
Johnson's a good head coach or not. I know he's
a great offensive schemer. Being a head coach is completely different.
We got no clue. I know Mike Rabel's a good
coach like that, that's an objective truth here, it's just factual.
(33:38):
We have seen him win enormous playoff games as huge
underdogs on the road, typically in a playoff game. If
you're a big underdog, you're gonna be a road team.
But you know what I mean, so prohaps with Patriots
finally getting Craft two, Craft doesn't like giving that money out,
you know, Robert likes to keep it that thing for himself.
(34:01):
A couple more Denver Broncos. I thought they had one
of the better like just I'm not talking statistically, just
when you watch them teams speed wise, one of the
faster and just harder hitting defenses in the NFL. And
to add Hufunga and Drake Greenlaw, like I would say
(34:21):
two of the forty nine ers, more physical players, honestly
two of the better players of the team two years
ago that lost to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl
in Vegas. Now both these guys have been injured. Gus
had acl hurt his thumb. Greenlaw hurt his achilles and
then tried to come back, and that he did, he
killed everyone for a half and then his other hamstring
(34:43):
went and he couldn't stay on the field. But if
either one of these guys are healthy, let alone both
of them, you have two absolute hammers. These guys will
put anyone into the ground in the NFL. So you
have two of the harder hitters in the NFL. So
now you're looking at a good defense with an offense
(35:06):
that now can just draft players. So it's like, who's
Denver gonna draft in the first couple rounds? A tight end,
a running back. You could invest there around bow Knicks,
guys for him to grow up with. And they're throwing
money at the defense and their defense is already good.
So I really like, you know, those two signings for Denver. Honestly,
they just hit on one of the two of them.
If Drake Greenlock could stay healthy next year, he'll be
(35:27):
a pro Bowler. The Giants, I just think that they
are in major trouble, you know, because at the end
of the day, the Titans have a choice. If they
stay at number one, they're gonna draft one of two players.
It's gonna be the quarterback, it's gonna be the pass rusher.
And if they take the quarterback, you know the team
(35:49):
is not good enough. And we saw a couple of
years ago with Shador was on a not a talented
enough team against better competition and they got their ass kicked.
So the Giants could not go in with the roster
withhead or Sanders and have any chance of winning. Now,
big picture, it might not be a crazy move to
get a quarterback on the roster, but like Brian Dable
and Joe Shane need to attempt to win this year,
(36:11):
they're gonna get fired, right, So it's are they gonna
send Russell Wilson Aaron Rodgers And by the time you're
listening to this, maybe they've signed one of these guys.
But man, I think I think they're on. I think
they're in trouble. The Chiefs have signed Jalen Moore. He
(36:32):
was Trent Williams and really he can play bow spots.
I'm pretty sure he played right tackle a couple of
years ago as well, but he can play left tackle.
Was just a talented young player. He didn't get to
play a lot because Trent Williams on the team, so
Chiefs gave him a little money. I'm pretty sure this
guy's versatility to play both spots. He's clearly a high
level guy and like that signing a lot Colts, Tarvarius
(36:57):
Ward and cam Binham the same fafety from Minnesota and
the Niners corner bind him is the guy that does
all the cool dances and like those signings. But you know,
the one thing is when free agency, besides some of
the trades like with Tons Old, DK Gino, some of
these names, it's like free agency can be really really
(37:18):
overhyped because in basketball, you know Kevin Durant or Lebron
James or Jokic, like it's gonna be a free agent
this year, right, same thing in baseball you knew Juan
Soto or you named Aaron Judge last year, gonna be
a free agent. And then you know in the NFL
that's just not the case. Guys resigned, guys get franchised,
(37:40):
and you get big names. You know, the older players
typically that are cut and guys like Tallanohu Funga and
Dre Greenlaw who have just been battling major, major injuries.
So uh, we're gonna keep the content flowing and just
just wanted to get get something, give my give my
juices flowing. But Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, who knows, maybe
(38:02):
we'll get some more trades in the next couple of days.
Exciting times and Miles Garrett Max Crosby went from like
they on the block to about two hundred and fifty
combined million dollars guaranteed, So money talks, baby, Okay. I
(38:30):
did want to do something really quick on the state
of the forty nine ers because it's pretty crazy what
has happened to them over the last I don't know
ever since the debo trade they have lost. Now we
knew a lot of these guys were going to be gone,
but it's to me there was a tipping point last
(38:53):
year when a good team and a good GM and
a good head coach, part of sustaining high levels of
play is being cutthroat. Andy Reid's done it. Belichick made
a career out of doing it. Bill Walsh became a
legend because of it. Sometimes even guys you like and
(39:14):
have won with you gotta say cyonara. And I don't
ever remember a team regretting a contract faster all while
changing their business plan overnight, like the Brandon I you
contract Now, I'm not here to toot my own horn.
(39:34):
I thought it was nuts last year that they were
going to give him seventy five eighty million dollars guaranteed
when their offense isn't built like that. And he listen,
he wasn't really obviously got injured, but paying a guy
that much money, He's never going to catch more than
ady balls. To me is insanity. And they had just
(39:55):
learned their lesson a couple of years previously with Deebo
Samuel and today the forty nine ers just informed Kyle
uscheck he's being cut like in a vacuum. None of
these moves are that crazy. Kyle us Chick's been on
the team for nine years. That is an incredible run
in the National Football League, and that was his first
team right he played. He had a four year career
(40:17):
with the Ravens. Kyle Uschek has had an incredible career
and his run with the Niners was awesome. Was a
part of every big game they ever had. That isn't
that weird? No, I hate to say it, but not
many teams the full back changing the way teams play,
even though I think Kyle will always use some sort
of hybrid tight end Hufungo who might not even have
(40:40):
been a starter anymore, but a couple of years ago,
wasn't all pro Dray green Law it's not for injury
is a lock starter. Tarvarius Ward four year starter for him,
Aaron Banks several year starter. Reguard got a ton of
money from the Packers. The number I saw again you
never quite know, seemed a little nuts. Their backup tax
(41:00):
Jalen Moore, which is kind of a big deal given
one of their best players, Trent Williams, also gets injured
a lot. I just think that, you know, and luckily
if you're the Niners, like all your players are signing
with good teams. I mean, are you know Commanders NFC Championship.
The Chiefs will take Jalen Moore, The Broncos playoff team
(41:20):
will take Hu Funga and Dre Greenlaw. The Packers playoff
team will take Aaron Banks. It's not like they're going
to shitty teams. So it's shows you, like, this team
was one of the best teams in the NFL for
a long time because of these guys. And I'm not
even saying like they should sign all these guys, but
it's just like, you don't have to be this abrupt.
(41:41):
This is how you sustain. Look at what the Chiefs
did several years ago Tyreek Hill Audios, and you could
combine Debo and Brandon Ayuk and they weren't as good
as him in his prime. Anyway's cut throat. You gotta
make those moves, and it does feel like the stories
come out about the forty nine ers, Mike Silver writing
about wanting him to like not get so emotional. Like, listen,
(42:04):
I respect this about Sean McVay. A couple of years ago,
he just like turned on guys and he's even apologized
he did it to publicly. But that's part of the business.
This is in like you need to be able to
pivot to a new player, and like they got very
emotional in their high priced guys and now it's like
we will trade Deebo Samuel, we will trade Brandon Ayuk.
(42:25):
It's like, shouldn't you probably have done that before you
signed one of the two guys and had a lot
more money to spread it around to sustain, especially after
you fucked up on the Trey Lance decision, which listen,
it was a tough year to draft, the COVID year,
but there's no way around it's one of the worst
draft decisions in the history of the league to go
(42:48):
from twelve to three, trade all those first round picks
and completely with on a guy who's just horrendous. I
mean that set the team, that move and all the
moves when it came to paying like I understood why
they paid Deebo. He carried him in the NFC Championship and
he wasn't really good for a couple of years. The
(43:10):
Ayuk thing like you should have learned from that situation,
trade him for a second and a third. But it's like, no,
we need to get a first, like come on, man,
second and a third sea Audiel's piece godspeed, And they
couldn't do it, And now they're in this position of
it's not the end of the world. Luckily they got
high draft picks because they sucked this year. But you're
(43:31):
paying a quarterback a ton of money, which who knows
what that number is gonna be that we all acknowledge
is not nearly as good as these other guys, the
top guys making huge cash and winning MVPs. So he
is very dependent on guys being around him that can play.
Look at your main competition in the NFC in terms
(43:53):
of the best teams. Obviously, when the Lions are healthy,
what do they have elite talent around Jared Goff? What
do the Eagles have around Jalen elite talent? And then
those guys you know, Jared didn't, but Jalen came through
just like if Brock has the elite talent around him,
he can come through, but he ain't like taking me
and you overachieving the ten wins. That's not what it's
(44:15):
gonna be. We saw this year. You're trying to win
games against shitty teams at the end of the year
and it's kind of unraveled. You need a really good team.
And now that I think it's pretty clear they're trying
to do that RAMS thing where you like pun off
a bunch of guys and you like nail a bunch
of draft picks for a couple of years. It's like, well,
i''m be sure you could do that. That's pretty difficult
(44:37):
to do. It's a tough little move to make. So
I just think this is a It's a very very
fascinating interesting offseason for the forty nine ers because this
was one of the best rosters in the entire league.
He had established himself as one of the best coaches
in the league. They were one of the more well
run teams in the league. And now it just feels
(44:57):
pretty chaotic and like the coach got really emotional. Now
the owners get like and one thing I don't want
to hear with Jed and this story's kind of out
there with silver and some guys like about the money
and the cutting costs. Give me a fucking break. This
place has been an absolute cash cow, you know, like
Navidia for the last five or six years, printing unlimited money.
(45:20):
Who's been a lot too, well, you made even more.
That's why Jeffrey spends a lot, because he's making way more.
So I just like cutting costs. It's like, give me
a fucking break. Whenever I hear about good teams talking
about cutting costs, I want to throw up in my mouth.
Doesn't mean you just pay whoever, right, but like the
(45:42):
money should it shouldn't even hesitate of where we're gonna
We have no problem allocating huge cash for good players,
and it feels like, yeah, we're gonna pick our spots.
Now it's like, oh my god, I just think this
thing is teetering now. It's football, not freaking out over
an offseason. I love Hufunga, especially Greenlaw. Guys are injured.
(46:06):
Tarvarius had already established it. I'm not coming back. He
had tragic situation. It was not even gonna be an option.
Niners wen't gonna pay him anyway. But like it was
over the US check thing. I love Kyle, like him personally,
talk to him a lot over the years. But like
also I do understand nine years at that position. I
(46:28):
mean they almost cut him last year, they got him
take a pay cut. Again, Like I said, I'm not
overreacting to one individual move. I do think this is
all symbolic, and I think it just goes back pretty
clearly the last season in the offseason, when the Niners
aren't used to getting played and for a long time,
you know, they took advantage of everybody from Willis to Bowman.
(46:50):
They could always get these guys to sign early and
get these cheap team friendly deals. And the one big
quarterback contract they had right before it really blew up Kaepernick,
they completely played his agent. It was a year by
year contract. The Jimmy thing seemed crazy and it actually
was nothing, And Jimmy ended up playing on the team
for like six years so or four or five years,
(47:10):
so it didn't even matter. But I think they know,
like these players don't lose as much anymore, Like even
if you take a team friendly deal, you're still getting
astronomical amounts of money now, So I'm not saying this
is the NBA, but good players have a lot of juice,
and last year they were used to just typically you know,
in Parrague is one of the best in the league,
(47:32):
but like Ayuke one and took them to the cleaners
in that negotiation, and that really rattled them. And it
feels now they're pivoting, like because they're so shook from
that moment to now doing whatever is going on. And
it's gonna be fascinating to watch how this all plays out.
They just their team is not as deep because of
(47:53):
the Trey Lance disaster and they went from being this like,
I mean, absolute powerhouse to like, I don't know, I
don't feel as confident. I'm not. I wouldn't. Their schedule
is a joke. But if you said right now, especially
with these the stock market right now, middle clock five
thousand dollars, yes or no playoffs, I just couldn't put
(48:13):
it confidently on Yes, I'd like to. I would. I'd
probably lean that way just because their schedule is so bad,
But I don't know. They got a lot of unknown
guys that are gonna be in positions and I'm watching
these good teams just kind of like the Broncos ad chiefs.
They ain't going away with ad right, don't really like
(48:33):
Najie Harris runs hard, ten million dollars a little rich
for my but the charge ain't going away. They're gonna
keep adding and drafting, so the Niners man just and
they're gonna have who knows what this number is gonna
look like with Purty, but does feel just at the
point in time, if they were a boat, they'd be
(48:54):
rocking and be like, I don't know, they're gonna capsize.
But doesn't feel like that's a very stable place to
be right now. The volume
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Mm hmm
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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