January 13, 2026 • 41 mins
Gregg Rosenthal and Daniel Jeremiah return with a full NFC autopsy, breaking down the teams whose seasons ended short of the playoffs and examining how things unraveled. From flawed roster construction to injuries, quarterback questions and missed opportunities, the guys diagnose what went wrong across the conference. Looking ahead to the 2026 offseason, Gregg and DJ map out potential paths forward for each team—highlighting looming free-agent decisions, draft priorities, salary-cap challenges and the foundational pieces worth building around. Which NFC franchises are closer to a turnaround than they appear and which face a longer rebuild? It’s a clear-eyed look at where the NFC stands and how these teams can get back into contention.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Gregg (00:07):
Welcome to forties and free agents. I'm Greg Rosenthal with
Daniel Jeremiah. When you hear that song, you know it's
time to start looking ahead to off season and player
acquisition season. And Daniel Jeremiah, you are back off the
road from covering the Chargers and now it's time to
(00:28):
start looking at teams and what they're going to do
this offseason in terms of free agency, in terms of
the draft. Just like kind of a big autopsy and
we're starting in the NFC this.
DJ (00:38):
Can I give you one one thought here before we
get going, please, you know you get through the year.
I don't know if you have this a lot of times.
It happens for me after the draft every year, and
this time sometimes happened at the end of the regular
season or whenever the Charger season is done. I've been
traveling around with them. You get a little bit sick,
so playing a little bit injured today. But I like
the ricola is a good cough drop. It is effective,
(01:01):
but it's too big. It looks like you've got to
it looks like you've got a Charleston chew in your
mouth or something like. It's just we've got a streamline
like we need a flatter cough drop than what I
mean has given me.
Gregg (01:13):
That's a hot take. It's been working since I don't
know since for like hundreds of years. That thing is great.
You can't just put it on your tongue. No one's
going to see it. If it's just on your tongue.
You don't have to do it like a dip.
DJ (01:24):
No, it's like it's like a big cube. It's like
that car, like that cube car that like you see it.
This is like cuban cough drop for me. You can't
you can't do it when you're working in this medium.
So just a frustration of mine. I just wanted to
voice that as we get into the off season.
Gregg (01:38):
It also would be disrespectful to have it, you know,
to our forties and free agents listeners in your mouth
while you're doing this show. It also doubles though, as
like a candy for kids. Just you know, like you're
going to say, it's a doorstop, let's go through the
NFC teams and we're gonna get ambitious here. Yeah, we're
actually going to go through every NFC team that is
(02:00):
no longer in the playoffs, So that's twelve teams kind
of an overview on some of the big questions, and
we'll start and I'll get going with the teams that
just got knocked out of the playoffs. So I will
start with the Eagles, a team that you know really well,
and to me, some of the bigger picture questions and
(02:20):
just thoughts of like, Okay, where did this team need
to go? The offensive line wasn't good enough this year,
which is different for them. We got to find out
one hundred percent is Lane Johnson definitely returning. You would
think he doesn't want to go out this way, but
that's a big question. I just personally have you know
as we're taping this, they have not gotten rid of
Kevin Patullo next, but the expectation is they're going to
(02:43):
get some sort of big name. I'm assuming Nick Sirianni
is not going to be gone. And then I also
think again, and I'm just talking big pictures, not even
getting into the free agents yet. You know, will Tanner
McKee and or AJ Brown get traded this offseason? Two
of the greats in the NFL right now, the backup
quarterback Tanner McKee and AJ Brown.
DJ (03:03):
There's a lot of fun thoughts there with this team
it's a big off season, formed big opportunity. I am
with you to me the you know, the offensive coordinator criticism.
Look that when you're not productive and they have as
many good to great players as they have on that offense,
there's going to be there's going to be fallout there.
So I would imagine we probably see a change. And
then Delane Johnson thing, you've got to now address that
(03:26):
in terms of either you're gonna just kind of okay,
we're going to go in a new direction here because
of not knowing whether you're in or out. You can't
have that hold you hostage anymore. You have to at
least go get a tackle, a highly sought after tackle
in the draft, so that you have insurance there so
that you don't get caught in this situation. I would
also say, then tier that offensive line, they didn't get
(03:47):
any push like when you watch them in years past
the run game they were able to dent the defense
and able to really get some push and knockoff. That
wasn't the case at all. It was like a stalemate
at best for far too much of the season. So
and Howie Roseman's always believed in the philosophy along the
line of scrimmage. I would imagine there'll be heavy reinforcements there,
and maybe they reimagine some things. But you know, from
(04:08):
the coordinator standpoint, the offensive line standpoint, I think that's
where you start. And I'll give you my my, my
AJ Brown team. If we ended up seeing a move,
a team that would be in the lookout for a
number two receiver, A team that's in a window right
now depending on if this certain quarterback were to come back,
A team that might have his college teammate as the
(04:30):
number one wide receiver on their team. He wouldn't have
to leave the state. Greg.
Gregg (04:36):
That is intriguing and it would go along with the
way that the Steelers have started to do business suddenly
the last year. Essentially, I was hoping you would send
him somewhere else in the Northeast, which a team that
has a Patriots one hundred million dollars in cap space.
That would be an interesting combo a J. Brown. Look,
they get they're going to be able to get something
when you look at when I looked at the money, though,
(04:58):
like if they trade him before June, it's actually a
pretty big cap hit that you're taking. Now he could
negotiate a new contract and you can maybe finesse some
of that. But it's not quite as easy as people
think because he just signed that extension. It wasn't one
that like he's on year four. I think this is
only going to be year two. So it's not simple.
(05:18):
And you know Howie Roseman, he likes to make moves.
He also doesn't like to take bad deals. And if
he can't replace aj Brown in a way that he's
confident like, they could smooth things over and it could happen.
But you're absolutely right. The offensive line. Maybe it's interesting
to think back a little bit, just going back to
last year's draft, because they took joh Hot Campbell, who
(05:39):
you know it's going to be an important player for them.
Na Kobe Dean is a free agent and to probably
let him walk. But they could have taken Josh Simmons there,
which would have been a very Philadelphia move, but instead,
you know, they let the Chiefs do it there. They
also have Jalen Phillips. It's going to be a free agent,
so that's a guy they might tag. Dallas Goddter is
a free agent. They might have to say goodbye to
(06:01):
him after a long time. But overall going through all
these teams, I mean, their roster is still in quite
good shape, especially on.
DJ (06:08):
The look at the young defensive players that are on
their first contracts. It's it's in they have. They're gonna
be fine. They got to just make some tweaks and corrections,
which you know, one thing about how he is, he's
never going to be scared about, you know, taking them
some bold action and figuring it out. I know there's
one you know name that keeps popping up in conversations,
which I'm fascinated to see if how it would work,
(06:28):
because you see Mike McDaniel's name a lot as uh,
you know, that would be a place he could go
as the office coordinator if he doesn't get a head
coaching gig. And I don't know how that gels with
with Jeff Stoutlin and what he kind of believes in
and how he teaches it, and he's been obviously a
fixture there is the offensive line coach. So I don't
know how exactly that marriage would work. But that's the
(06:49):
name you kind of hear floated around a lot.
Gregg (06:51):
All right, that's one team that got knocked out this week.
And how about the team with the most heartbreaking lost
I think of the week.
DJ (06:58):
Oh screen bit actors, buddy. They they had a great
opportunity there to get out of Chicago with a win,
and they just hit the brakes. We won't go into
the full analysis of the game because I don't think
that's what we're trying to accomplish here, but when we
look at him from a team standpoint, that ties into
that game. This is a team with no first round pick,
you know, with the Micah Parsons trade, they do pick
(07:19):
fifty two and eighty fours, they've got a two and
a three. It's all defense and you know having you know,
hopefully Michael Parsons comes back at some point in time,
he's back to one hundred percent because he was a major,
major difference maker there. But you saw the corner situation
in that comeback not good enough. They've got to upgrade
their defensive tackles that can help stop the run and
(07:40):
play strong and firm in there. Adding to that group
I think is going to be important. It just feels
like there's I'm not you know, the receiver position. I
think Romeo Dobbs a free agent, but I felt and
I think I saw you tweet this I was I
was on the road, but I do believe I saw
Greg Rosenthal tweet I don't think that I was wrong,
(08:01):
and I don't think that you were wrong, And thinking
I wasn't wrong about Matthew Golden. Give him some opportunities.
That was the most hit me. It's fourth first of
everyboy's going to talk about the incredible touchdown and the
spin and the hurdle and just how explosive an athletic
he looked. How about the fourth and eight or ten
or whatever it was when he hits the out route,
gets all kinds of separation and kind of saves the
(08:22):
game for them at that point in time. To me,
i'd let Dobbs go. You got to find targets, you
got to find opportunities. I think Matthew Golden's going to
be a really good player. And I think all the
hate that we might have taken, or at least I've taken,
I don't know if you've taken it, but it's a
little unwarranted. I think he just needed some opportunities. Man.
Gregg (08:40):
Yeah, he was a rookie and you saw the talent.
I heard some of his teammates Boat Mountain specifically saying
like that was the thing that gave him the biggest
smile was seeing him the next day that he finally
got a touchdown. And they all are big fans of
Matthew Golden. You're right. I think Romeo Dobbs, who had
a nice season, kind of priced himself out of there,
so did Malik Willis. They have some pretty high up
(09:01):
players on my free agency list. In the end, Kway
Walker is an interesting free agent Rashid Walker who really
struggled in that game as their left tackle. But any
left tackle that's played as much as.
DJ (09:11):
He did see see more slash Dan.
Gregg (09:15):
Yes, we'll get a contract somewhere. So they have a
lot of guys, and then look, they need offensive line helped.
Zach Tom has been their best player and he's apparently
going to get a surgery this offseason for a partially
torn potella tendon. And yeah, I think the offensive line
did not really perform. It's interesting last offseason they got
a little more aggressive in free agency, certainly a lot
(09:37):
more if you include the trade of Parsons, and it
didn't really work. Aaron Banks and Nate Hobbs were kind
of free agent bus Banks could be a guy actually
when I looked at the contract, they could cut right
away and save a lot of money. They have about
ten negative ten million dollars in cap space, so they're
going to need to open up some.
DJ (09:52):
Elton Jenkins is a part of that formula too. They
got to figure out with him.
Gregg (09:56):
That's intriguing.
DJ (09:57):
I read an Arcord said he's got a BIG's.
Gregg (10:00):
He does have a big numbers. Yea, the renegotiated Tron
Diggs is suddenly somehow on this team too. So yeah,
it's a it's gonna be a big transition year, even
if they don't change their coach. I'll do the Panthers
because they're they're easier to me, like they need everything.
It was a really good step forward. I think it's
(10:20):
a no brainer that they give Bryce Young the fifth
year option. That to me, that's not even really already.
DJ (10:26):
Come out and said that's going to happen, right, I mean,
I think that's out there.
Gregg (10:29):
So do you negotiate an extension this offseason for him?
That could be trickier. I think they'll be happy to
maybe just kick the can down the road for that.
There aren't a lot of spots on the team where
you feel like, oh, you don't need anything there, so
it's pretty wide open. But Ikya Khan, who suffered a
ruptured pateell attendant unfortunately in that game, and I actually
(10:51):
was thinking they already might not be thrilled with how
that offensive line really run blocked. I don't know if
that was the scheme or the players, but they really
fell off a cliff late last season.
DJ (11:00):
Yeah, I think earlier in the year when they were humming,
and I actually think individually, when you break down their
offensive line there, they are all, for the vast majority
of them, much better in the run game than they
are in the past game. So they were kind of
built to run, and then the run game just kind
of got to get stagnant late in the year. But
to me, it's adding more weaponry, and it's a compliment
to Tedoro McMillan that he came in there and immediately
(11:21):
became just kind of the lion on that and that
pass target group. But it's also somewhat of an indictment
that he could come in there and gobble up that
much of the attention because there was nothing there. That
they've got to add more firepower, more weaponry in the
past game. I was encouraged by Bryce Young. There's times
where you're still just is what it is? He's going
to look small in some instances where you're kind of wondering,
(11:43):
I don't know, is this going to work? But there's
still some magic. I thought that was a result from
the first round of the playoffs that's going to get lost.
It is the drive that he had, the throw that
he made, that was Bama. That was the Bama version
of Bryce Young on that drive where there was a
little to them, a little twitch, you know, being able
to place the ball extremely well, that was in you
(12:06):
know that To me, it was a really really encouraging
sign that Okay, let's get them some more. Let's just
get them some more guys and see if they can
take it up a level.
Gregg (12:14):
Totally agree because Jalen Coker they found something there.
DJ (12:17):
Right.
Gregg (12:18):
That's that's two guys, and that's including tight end, and
that's including I'd even throw running back in there. In
terms of like a receiving option. You know, you need
two three more guys to really build out an entire group.
They're one of the teams that has two the fewest
amount of like meaningful free agents. Rico Daddle one of
their interior alignment. Austin Corbetts a free agent, but pretty
(12:38):
much they're in a good spot where they can keep
pushing forward here in what will be what year three
of Canalis. So that's kind of your your go year
for the Panthers.
DJ (12:47):
Yeah, that's it for our playoff teams. Right, that's it
all right, let me let me jump into another one
here and we can. We'll step on the gas a
little bit going through some of these. Some of these
are not complicated. Some of them we can go, oh,
maybe this, maybe that, a little little of that. With
the Dallas Cowboys, that defense, yep, that's defense. They got
two first round picks, they're picking twelve and twenty. There's
(13:08):
no second, no third. So I wouldn't be surprised if
we'll get way ahead of ourselves and say one of
those picks, maybe you trade down a little bit, trying
to accumulate some more assets. But edge rush, probably need
a little edge rush, and then if they could find
some edge rush and maybe just a little edge rush,
If they could get some edge rush, is what I help.
That would help corner, linebacker, safety. What are the positions
(13:31):
we had good at defensive tackle? They are they are
locked and loaded at DT, but they're everywhere else, probably
a little bit of help. And then you got the
George Pickens thing, where, you know, I think, look, he
had an unbelievable year. The talent was never in question.
I go back to a very young or a younger
Greg Rosenthal will be like, I don't know why you
guys aren't high on George Pickens coming out of the draft. Well, Greg,
(13:51):
everybody knows about everybody knows about the ability. This is
not a can you do it in these sections? The
question is do you have the maturity and the accountability
to be where you're supposed to be on time, you know,
be a professional to the point that they feel comfortable
in laying out what will be a massive contract for
him going forwards.
Gregg (14:11):
I think it's because I see him, you know, almost
as the NFL version of me, just just incredibly talented.
Maybe underappreciated, yeah, underappreciated, unreliable, but just physical gifts and
very similar. They're thirty nine million dollars over the cap.
You said they're all set at defensive tackle. You're probably
right with Kenny Clark and Quinn Williams, but I don't
(14:33):
see a lot of obvious options here to save money
this offseason. They would save a clean twenty one million
dollars if they cut Kenny Clark. That that would take
a little egg on their face if they had to
do that. They can probably renegotiate stuff. There's some other
contracts like Logan Wilson and Terrence Steele. That's creating another problem.
DJ (14:51):
I think, Look, the quarterback deal, you can always yeah,
you can always push that down the road. You can
always keep redoing that thing.
Gregg (14:58):
They went, they went quietly on a bunch of re
signing spree right after they traded Michael almost like, hey,
look at all these things we can do without Micah.
And already they're aging a little weird. Deron Bland's contract
does not look great already. Ferguson at tight end that
that's fine. They also gave Taylor Smith a lot of money.
Who's Who's a good player. But yeah, they have a
(15:19):
lot of free agents too, Javon j Way, Sam Williams
like and fine.
DJ (15:24):
And that also goes along with hiring the right defensive coordinator.
What you know who I kind of like for that.
I saw a bunch of the names that they had
rolling through there and who knows when you're listening to this,
if they've already settled on one of these guys. Jonathan
Gannon didn't forget how to coach. I think he's a
good coach, and I think that was a didn't it
didn't end well, they're in Arizona, but it's a different role.
I think he's a very good defensive coordinator.
Gregg (15:46):
Okay, Well, I mean they're they're going to be listening
to it and you know, less than a day here. Okay,
so I don't think too much is gonna happ Okay,
I'll go with I'll go with the Vikings where the
defensive coordinator situation is huge because you know, they obviously
want to bring back Brian Flores, but he's a coaching
free agent. Also, they're really talented. They're a great defense,
(16:07):
but this group really fits what he does. I'm not
saying they're not talented enough to work with someone else,
but I think that's a really interesting situation. They're in
DJ and you've been in front offices of just you know, wondering,
like thinking, can we mold a defense and talent to
whoever is the next guy. Because they're an expensive team,
(16:29):
they're forty three million dollars over the cap. They have
some tricky decisions to make. It's going to be a
big challenge for REQUESTSI dopamenta this offseason.
DJ (16:37):
I mean, their biggest challenge is going to be what
is their belief system in their quarterback? I mean and
JJ McCarthy, and it's it's hard. Looks, it's hard enough
to gamble on someone's talent and readiness to play. It's
another thing when you're gambling on does he have the
durability to be able to last? Like that's another conversation
that you get your forced to face here. So it's
(16:59):
a big off season for Minnesota as they try and
figure this thing out. There's still, like I said, there's
a lot of money and there's still a lot of
talent there. So I mean, that's it's gonna be fascinating
to see. I would think they at least got to
bring in some some competition or some insurance, whatever you
want to call it here at the court.
Gregg (17:14):
Maybe they could be at the Tanner McKee level of quarterbacks,
sort of something in the middle of the road, not
like a Kyler Murray. Maybe not even Malik Willis who's
too expensive. But but someone like that. They also might
cut some of the guys they spent a lot about
plass off season. Hard Grave, Jonathan Allen. They could be gone, what.
DJ (17:31):
About a trade for one Max Jones.
Gregg (17:35):
Yeah like that. That's the sort of pond I think
that they should be, you know, fishing it in an
area like that. But yeah, there's gonna be a lot
of turnover Hargrave, Jonathan Allen, Brian O'Neill, Aaron Jones, Ryan
Kelly might be retiring at center, Harrison Smith is probably retiring.
So's it's it's gonna be a lot of turnover.
DJ (17:55):
There interesting stuff. I'm going to go to one of
the pleasant surprises of the and that is a I
think if you have an off season, Greg and tell
me where you stand on this, I don't know how
you can deem it anything other than a massive success
if you find your head coach and your quarterback in
the same offseason, which the New Orleans Saints did. I
thought Kella Moore did a really nice job, and I
(18:16):
thought Tyler Schuck came in there and more than held
his own and got better as the year went along
and finished up really strong. So to go into an
off season where I looked it up. I'm like, surely
they are they done with all this cap stuff, Like No,
that's still they're still dealing with that.
Gregg (18:30):
They're in better shape though they do have for them.
You won million dollars in dead money for to Mario Davis,
Taysom Hill, and Cam Jordan assuming they're not on the team,
although Davis and Cam might very well be on the team.
But they're in better shape. Like usually it's crazy. Now
there's there's teams with like way more money over the
captain them, so that feels different for them.
DJ (18:50):
Yeah, but it's never just clean and easy, man. But
so they gotta ge. They'll get that stuff sorted out.
Finding another wide receiver to compliment a lave after the
Rahis Shihed trade, I think is going to be important.
Getting some more weaponry there for Tyler Shutt corner as
an area they can look at. I think on the
positive side, I mean, I mentioned you get the head
coach and the quarterback right. Also, like from a foundational standpoint,
(19:13):
when you've got two tackles, they've got too young talented tackles,
I think that's a that's a great place to build from.
And I think that it also it shows you where
you know Kellen Moore came from Philadelphia and what was
ingrained in him and how you build it properly. And
they're in a they're in a very good spot in
terms of trying to build up that foundation. They got
(19:33):
a good center too, so they're they're in a good
spot there on the offensive line.
Gregg (19:37):
I think they love Calvin Banks Junior in that book
and how that is working out. Yeah, I looked at that,
you know, mentioned a good center, Eric McCoy. He's been
hurt a lot, but it's really not their style to
move on from a guy who's kind of one of
their guys. They could look to sign a love a
long term this offseason because he's going to be entering
(19:57):
a contract year, but not a ton of freedoms. And
I and I watch their postseason press conference, and you
got the real sense that Mickey Loomis is like, oh,
you thought we were done, Now we're gonna like they
see an opportunity here, I think to go win the
division next year, and.
DJ (20:11):
Everybody that division that way.
Gregg (20:15):
But you're absolutely right about Shuck and Kellen Moore, And
I think I didn't I didn't know what to think
about Kellen Moore for half the season, but the fact
that he is a quarterback guy, and both Spencer Rattler
and Tyler Schuck I think played at a level that
it was higher than you would have expected considering the
lack of talent around them, that you got to just
(20:35):
feel like it's a home run. Shuck was was way
better than I ever thought he could be. I'm taking
the l on that one. If I'm gonna take the
W on George Pickens.
DJ (20:43):
Well, look, I mean we got Tyler Shuck's got to
run out there for seventeen games. Sure, we got to
still have to see that the ability.
Gregg (20:49):
Wait, he looked like your guy Herbert out there. I
mean he played well. I'm talking about regular season Herbert, not.
DJ (20:55):
Playoff for oh man, it was tough finish.
Gregg (21:00):
We're halfway through. We're gonna come back. I was gonna
do it. Uh, And we'll all hit six more NFC
teams when we come back back on forties and free agents.
(21:20):
And and I heard DJ's coaching from earlier in the show,
and he wants to speed this thing up. But I
just this is this is my time.
DJ (21:29):
Have I told you have? I told you have I
told you my news by the way.
Gregg (21:33):
No, that you're going back to the Masters this year?
DJ (21:36):
You like that? Though this I didn't even go. This
was this was sent to me to the to the
tournament itself. The how old your youngest? Greg?
Gregg (21:44):
He just turned eleven.
DJ (21:47):
I'm gonna have my first grandchild in August.
Gregg (21:50):
Wow, congratulations, which you?
DJ (21:54):
And since I see us side by side here and
I don't think I look that much older than you,
which is kinda no.
Gregg (22:00):
I might have more gray, you're not. You can't be
that far away from Philip Rivers. So you guys could
just like hang out in the super young Athletic grandfather
club just down there.
DJ (22:16):
I don't know. I don't know if anybody. I love Philip.
He's one of my favorite people of all time, but
I don't think that that was necessarily the athletic vibe
that he was putting out there in those well.
Gregg (22:25):
I mean he's literally in the NFL at his well
pretty good. That's pretty good. Speaking of quarterbacks who get
by in this era without necessarily a lot of movements skills,
Jared Goff still in Detroit and the Lions, they're another
team that want to talk to Mike McDaniel, will see
he's going to have his pick of the litter. But
(22:46):
you know, who they choose as play caller is going
to be really important, and they're gonna have to reshape
kind of who we think of as the Lions because
Taylor Decker is openly considering retirement. Rag now is not
coming back, even though he tried to come back, like
he's not gonna come back for twenty six one story
we haven't hit on NFL Daily, which I thought was interesting.
(23:06):
Brad Holmes all but said David Montgomery is going to
get traded or not on the roster if they can't,
Like he said, yeah, we're gonna consider trading. Was like, okay,
I guess he's gone, and so they're gonna have to
kind of reimagine who they are, get better up front
really on both sides, on the edge across from Hutchinson,
and then I think even if Decker does return, you know,
(23:27):
finding a tackle and getting better on the interior.
DJ (23:30):
By the way, I love that I've got you saying
reimagine now it's been it's been a buzzword that I've
just latched onto, and I've given you this section. I've
passed it along to you. My other favorite one is
from my time with Brandon Staley, who is just that.
He's a great dude. But he used to always use
the phrase onboarding, like Hey, we're gonna on board some guys. Yeah,
And then he would say that, and then I would
find myself like randomly saying that, like to the kids, like,
(23:51):
are we gonna on board some friends this week? This week?
What are we? What are we doing?
Gregg (23:56):
It's very uh, it's very carpo speak.
DJ (23:58):
Is that what it is? Yeah? That sounds like it.
Gregg (24:01):
Like we would get that at an all all hands
meeting at NFL media. You're too big to attend those now, but.
DJ (24:07):
I get feedback and just let what I miss. That's
my that's my goal on those.
Gregg (24:12):
They're a team that can restructure, by the way, pretty easily.
They're over the cap right now, but not a lot
of concerns in terms of their free agents. It's like
DJ Reader alex Anzeloni. So I actually think they're in
a good spot to kind of.
DJ (24:23):
I think they're coordination. Their biggest that's their biggest move
that they have to make. It's not going to be
a roster edition. It's going to be can they get
the right voice in there? Because there's still so much
explosive talent that they have there. I'll go to my
next one here, which is Washington. Washington they have I'm
looking at this. They are picking in the first round
(24:44):
here and then they picked seventy one? Is that right?
Do they not have a second round pick? Let me
check that's is that fund? Yeah? You're I think you're right.
I was looking that up. Yeah, they picked seven and
seventy one. So, uh, they're a team that needs picks.
They are in al I just literally I wrote in
all caps, get younger. They've got a lot of guys
(25:08):
falling off the books here they've been, and I think
it's not Adam Peters's fault. I think with what he
inherited there, they had to turnover the vast majority of
the roster, and the only they do that was on
these you know, one year vet flyers and they hit
gold with it the first time. And you're one of
that with Jade Daniels coming in surrounded by all these
older guys who were able to kind of squeeze the
(25:30):
last few drops out of that. Uh, and then it
all kind of blew up this past year. But new
offensive coordinator, new defensive coordinator coming your way in the
Nation's Capital. Figuring out what do we need to do
to keep Jade Daniels out there healthy and for an
entire season is the key part of it. They do
have some cap space with all those kind of veteran
(25:50):
guys falling off. I think they have like sixty million
bucks or so, but I mean edge rush, secondary on defense,
more weaponry, wide receiver on offense. Like there's there's a
lot of needs, but I think the number one overall
thing is to me, like trading down, even trading some
existing players for picks, like they need to get younger faster,
(26:12):
just that they need a whole new vibe here they
got real old.
Gregg (26:15):
Yeah, it'll be fascinating to watch them in free agency
because they have almost the most amount of space as
anyone in the league and one of the worst rosters.
There's almost you can't find a position that they don't
have a need. You mentioned them, but they need it,
and they have so many of those older players like
von Miller and Wagner and Debo and Jonathan Jones, all
these guys coming off the books. Zach Ertz It goes
(26:37):
on and on. Mariota Ecklert like it just goes on
and on, and so it's just it's going to be
calibrat and get the right people in there and being competitive,
you know, because they're not gonna want they're probably cutting
marsh On Latimore by the way, that'll open up another
twenty million dollars. Like there's there's just a lot to.
DJ (26:55):
Work on there. Yeah. And then to me, it's going
after a different demographic in the free age market, trying
to find some of the you know, the younger guys early,
you know, mid twenties first come right off that first contract,
try and get that wave and looking at a group
that can grow with your young quarterback as opposed to
them feeling I think they were so ahead of schedule
last year there was like okay, well let's just try
and let's try and use this as our window right now,
(27:17):
a narrow window. And I think now they can think
a little bit more building approach and a little bit
more long term. And Adam did a great job when
he was you know, a big part of the drafting
process there in San Francisco. So they need to just
they need to buckle down, see if they get some
more picks and see if they can nail the draft.
Gregg (27:34):
Tunsl's also making noise that he wants an extension and
they've they've talked good. They've talked about doing it pretty
openly Adam PETERSAZ, So that's something to watch out for.
The Bucks are in good shape in terms of cap
space twenty five million dollars. I like that you start
with the picks. I start with the cap space.
DJ (27:51):
Whatever you're going. Yeah, oh CE is.
Gregg (27:54):
Wide open again. They interviewed Zach Robinson, the former Bucks coordinator, recently,
but they're going to have a lot of interviews. One
thing that's on my eye, and they have a lot
of interesting free agents, Jammel Dean coming off his best season,
Mike Evans, Hassan Reddick, Kate Atten is a good player.
I don't think they're going to let him go. Maybe
they'll tag him. Rashad White their their backup running So
(28:16):
a lot of players that have really contributed a lot
for him in a legend in Evans. But one thing
on my eye. Will they re sign Baker. My guess
is they'll just let him go into his contract year.
He's coming off an uneven season. But for capital f
franchise quarterback usually this is the offseason where a guy
like Baker would get a new contract. So that's just
(28:38):
something I'm interesting.
DJ (28:39):
I think there's still a lot of belief in him
there and a fondness there that could lead you to
to going with the glass half full and think, and
we get in front of this, well, we'll save, we'll
save on it. Okay, so we'll see. To me, I
could I could see them talking themselves into that pretty easily.
Gregg (28:55):
They need they need pass rush, they need linebacker Leanzi
David sounds like he might be retiring, and they need guards,
like they love three of their offensive linemen, and it
was interesting looking at their roster they basically don't have
a guard, which is crazy. They they got killed by
injuries and they're two guys that actually played are both
free agents, so like they are going to have to
(29:17):
add some real depth there.
DJ (29:19):
Yeah, and Jason Light's done a really good job of
finding offensive linemen and getting value for him where he does,
so I think that's a that's a solve there that
they can come up with. All Right, this next team, Greg,
this is my team of the off season. Okay, this
is the team that I cannot wait. Last year I
would have said probably New England, just because the resources
that they had and Drake May going into year two, like,
(29:40):
there was a lot of reasons to be optimistic about
them finding the right coach and using their draft picks,
and they had a bunch of free agent money. My
team of the offseason this year is the New York Giants.
I'm fascinated by it. I'm a Dart believer. I thought
he played really well, especially considering who was not there
around him. I don't love seeing the stuff on neighbors
(30:01):
about him being a little bit slow coming back from
that injury that maybe was more than we anticipated. But
you know, hopefully eventually you get him back in the fold.
But this is a team with if you look at
key pieces in place, They've got defensive linemen, got a
left tackle. I've got a young quarterback. They've got a
number one wide receiver that's a lot to kind of
build off of. They've got the fifth pick in the
draft and the thirty seventh pick in the draft. They
(30:23):
need to find the right offensive voice. Doesn't necessarily have
to be the head coach, but find that right offensive
voice to grow with Jackson Dart. I mean, I'm intrigued
by Stefanski I think could be a good fit there.
But I'm also could be talked into, Hey, go out
and get Shula or Minner and come in there, and
they immediately solve your defense and maximize the talent you have,
(30:44):
and they can bring an offensive coordinator there. I just
think there's some fascinating moves to be made. Do you
know you look at the draft that they had last year.
You get Abdul Carter, who I thought played better than
the stats would indicate, especially down the back half of
the year, when you've got Burns who has not only
the great play but the production. Thibodeau, is this one
(31:05):
that you could can Can you trade him? Like? What
can you do from that standpoint with him? Does that
create some more opportunities for you, you know, interior, offensive line,
more weapons on the perimeter. I don't know. I don't
just this is a team. I'm fascinated to see what
they do and how they put this puzzle together.
Gregg (31:22):
I agree that if you're just going off rosters, all
the Giants fans who are well would John Harbaugh come
here and we'll see they're definitely pursuing John Harbaugh. If
you're just going off roster I get the argument. I
think they probably are the best situation because of what
you said. I'll to use a RAMS term, all those
weight bearing walls that like kee key position, premiere talent
(31:44):
and a little bit of cap space and uh yeah,
a lot of needs though on defense in general, like linebacker, cornerback,
defensive tackle, like.
DJ (31:51):
Yeah, but again though, that's like the you know, you've
got to found the D line is the foundation of
the defense. That's the hardest thing to find. They got
to get Dexter Lawrence rocking and rolling, you know.
Gregg (32:02):
Because yeah, when you said Kavon, you know, as a
trade candidate, I was just writing down some notes for
this extors and I thought, like, would Dexter Lawrence ever
be a trade candidate? He's coming up and down here.
DJ (32:14):
Didn't. Yeah, I don't know if it was in shape
situation or what. I haven't talked to anybody there about it,
but he's been dominant at times, and he was not
really that same guy this year, and.
Gregg (32:25):
He was coming off a really serious injury. And as
we've seen really at every position. But kirk Cousins and
Rogers are even a reminder like the one year further removed.
Sometimes you look a lot better. Speaking of Kirk Cousins,
the Atlanta Falcons have twenty two million dollars in cap space.
They have a brand new team president, Matt Ryan. Will
(32:46):
Matt Ryan come in there and the first thing he
does is cut Kirk Cousins. He just signed a new
contract Cousins. Yeah, that moves the money around. That makes
it easier for him to cut. They have kind of
come out at least Arthur Blank. I don't know what
that means. You would think it means a lot that
Michael Pennix is their franchise quarterback and they have some
(33:09):
big free agency decisions. Kyle Pitts is a free agent.
He's gonna be pretty high on my list. Other than that,
Cayden Ellis is a good player for them, is a
free agent. But actually, thought, you know, doing this exercise,
they're in a pretty good position where you could upgrade
at almost every position, like other than running back of course, yeah,
and wide receiver one. You're feeling good, but there aren't
(33:32):
a ton of screaming needs. It feels like you can
get better in a lot of places. But I look
around this roster and actually think like they have a
pretty good baseline that Terry Fontina left for the next GM.
DJ (33:45):
I think it's fascinating for every team in that division,
and that because the division is so average. You have
a team under you know, they had three teams tied,
you go to the playoffs under five hundred, like Carolina
Panthers did, as you could say, man, we can just
go get this better in this vetteran, this better in
this veteran, we can win the division this year. Or
it's like I think the better approach is if we
(34:06):
just continue to be you know, discipline, and we're building
to the draft and we're targeting the right young guys
in free agency, we can build a model and we
can win this division for the next five six years.
You know. I think that there's two different ways to
kind of look at how you approach an offseason when
you're in a division it's just frankly very average.
Gregg (34:25):
I know, because it's funny you have the three teams
that tied for first and then you have the other
team who believes they have the best quarterback in the
division already and he's probably going to be a second
year player and shuck, and it's not that crazy of
a thought. I mean, I'm not ready to put him
like over Baker. But if you're telling me, like, who
(34:45):
would I rather have? Like indefinitely, I think I would
take the upside of Shuck Right now, he looked that good.
DJ (34:53):
I think the health of the quarterbacks in that division
is going to be something to keep an eye on too.
Gregg (34:57):
It's fair your last team, last team up is the Cardinals.
DJ (35:01):
Yeah, last one overall, you're out, huh. I'm finishing us
off here, Arizona Cardinals. They are picking three, thirty four
and sixty five, so full a lot, but they're in
the first three rounds. I believe about nine million dollars
in cap space, but it's going to be all contingent
upon the decision with Kyler Murray, and I just it
(35:22):
does not feel at all like he's going to be there.
It feels like that's a very strong likelihood that he
gets traded. But you've got to get the coach thing
figured out first. And I don't you know, I always
laugh because I'm like, if you're a coach coming into
an uncertain quarterback situation and you're coming into the interview,
do you come in there and go, I can fix them.
I can I can make this all right? I can
(35:44):
take all that bat you think is bad money and
I can make it look like good money. Or do
you come in there and say, you guys have kind
of already figured this out. I've already known this for
a long time. This isn't going to work. We're going
in our in our new direction.
Gregg (35:55):
I have an answer for you. You say whatever you
think the owner wants you to say. So last time around,
they had just given Kyler that contract. It was incumbent
on Jonathan Gannon to be like, I can fix him.
The first thing they had Jonathan Gannon Monte Austin for
it to. I don't know if actually the gm ausen
for it down in the weight room was sending him
well in the weight room. Yes, And then they also
(36:17):
send him to Oklahoma when they retired his number or
whatever to go support Kyler Murray in the middle of
the offseason say like, hey, you're our guy. But now
that they've been through that and he's gone this guy,
I think the right thing to tell the owner what
they want to hear is we're going to find our
new quarterback.
DJ (36:31):
Yeah, there's somebody knew out there. We'll go locate him.
Continue to upgrade the offensive line, is going to be
a big part of that for whoever's playing quarterback. Paris
Johnson's there, but adding some more talent around that front.
Obviously you got a big time tight end. Feel good
about that. Marvin Harrison Junior has been a riddle, just
hadn't been healthy, hasn't been impactful. Michael Wilson's end up
(36:53):
being a revelation. He's been excellent.
Gregg (36:55):
So want to sign him to the contract?
DJ (36:58):
Yeah, there are some is he free agent?
Gregg (37:00):
He will be entering his free agent year, but he
is He earned himself a lot of money the last
nine games of the season. DJ Number one it's Pukinakua.
Number two it's Michael Wilson, and number three it's Jackson
Smith and Jigba.
DJ (37:16):
Those are cracious. Yeah, that's not too shabby. No, So
that's encouraging. So there are some pieces there defensively, just
still a lot of work to be done there. So
they're kind of one of these teams that it's like
you stack up the the head coaching board of the
best jobs. I don't know, this one comes up on
(37:36):
the high end of that thing.
Gregg (37:39):
I think that's fair because of the history of the
organization in general and when you go through the division, right,
you're stuck having a coach against these three behemoths and
these three well run organizations, and when you go through
the roster, you know, matyasen for it was a little
defensive about it when some reporters pushed him out.
DJ (37:58):
I saw that. I did see that.
Gregg (38:00):
It's not a bad roster. I kind of get what
he means. When I was looking at it, was like, actually,
they're in good shape cap wise. They don't have any
young free agents like Jalen Thompson and Kalays Campbell are
their best rereadons. They're in good shape. They don't have
a lot of guys who are obvious cuts. But there's
just not a lot of sizzle. It's a lot of like, hey,
we're the eighteenth best team in the league at a
lot of positions, and we're against these three awesome teams
(38:23):
in our division, which is tough.
DJ (38:25):
Yeah. I mean I just think I look at it
defensively and say, if you're getting ready to play that
team in a playoff game, who do you circle on
that defense? And you're like, oh boy, we better be ready.
You know, we got to handle this person or that person.
Gregg (38:36):
I don't know jus Josh wed Ad and OK, you're
Buddha Baker. Unfortunately, when I wrote down possible cuts or trade,
I had to write down Yeah it was coming off
a tough year.
DJ (38:47):
But so that's an interesting one. This is a fun
exercise though, Like this is like the I told you
before we started off the air that this is like
you know, kind of personally in terms of the team,
and as we get a little bit deeper into it,
I'm kind of knocking out these draft guys. Is that
I feel like I'm the shallow end a little bit.
But it's a good exercise kind of getting a little
(39:07):
bit of a look see here at where these teams are.
Gregg (39:11):
No, this was a great homework assignment. I appreciate forties
and freedoms for that. And look, our producer Drew Christensen,
he knows what's up so much so that he got
us talking about Juwan Jennings. Remember yeah, last week's show
as a as a four star recruit quarterback and what
happens that next weekend? Yeah, the touchdown is great. No,
(39:34):
that what really happened was I sent out an image
that Drew sent me of the rankings of him ahead
of Burrow and Lamar Arnold and that's a hit tweet
two point five million views on that too.
DJ (39:47):
Did you really?
Gregg (39:49):
Wow?
DJ (39:50):
Did you have I stole it? Any attribution on that tweet? Drew?
Gregg (39:53):
You want to know we're doing it now. That's why
I feel bad about it. It's like Sean McVay says,
the best coaches are the best thieves.
DJ (40:01):
I did not did not use that opportunity to plug
forties and free agency either. As Drew puts in the chat,
I'm sure we have. I'm sure there's two point five
million listeners right now that's going to even that math
out as you just gave him some credit.
Gregg (40:13):
I mean, I didn't know. I didn't know it was
gonna pop like that. If I if I did, I
wouldn't have had a typo on the first try and
then had that.
DJ (40:19):
Man, maybe I would to edit on.
Gregg (40:21):
The picture to take away learn about this skidding cream.
DJ (40:24):
Yeah, I'm just learning about this and I'm and literally
within five seconds, I thought, Okay, how would I approach
this to be Like we had a fascinating chat on
forties and free agents this week about John Jennings. Here
you go, look at what he was as a high
school quarterback. Boom, everybody's covered, Like you just totally unselfishly
promote our little project we've been working on. But nope,
(40:45):
didn't happen.
Gregg (40:47):
Yeah, but see this is where you know your you
being a grandfather and me being you know, younger and
understanding the kids makes more sense. Like if you did
all that leading into it, maybe it does a million.
You know. It's like as discussed on forties and free
you don't need all that you gotta get. You got
to get to the meet. You know, does it look
like I have a dip in?
DJ (41:06):
I just popped a recolo because we're finishing up pair.
Gregg (41:10):
We are done. We're going to be back next week.
I really enjoyed this exercise, So we will do the
AFC next week as we start this off season planning
here on forties and free agents. We will see you
then
Welcome to forties and free agents. I'm Greg Rosenthal with
Daniel Jeremiah. When you hear that song, you know it's
time to start looking ahead to off season and player
acquisition season. And Daniel Jeremiah, you are back off the
road from covering the Chargers and now it's time to
(00:28):
start looking at teams and what they're going to do
this offseason in terms of free agency, in terms of
the draft. Just like kind of a big autopsy and
we're starting in the NFC this.
DJ (00:38):
Can I give you one one thought here before we
get going, please, you know you get through the year.
I don't know if you have this a lot of times.
It happens for me after the draft every year, and
this time sometimes happened at the end of the regular
season or whenever the Charger season is done. I've been
traveling around with them. You get a little bit sick,
so playing a little bit injured today. But I like
the ricola is a good cough drop. It is effective,
(01:01):
but it's too big. It looks like you've got to
it looks like you've got a Charleston chew in your
mouth or something like. It's just we've got a streamline
like we need a flatter cough drop than what I
mean has given me.
Gregg (01:13):
That's a hot take. It's been working since I don't
know since for like hundreds of years. That thing is great.
You can't just put it on your tongue. No one's
going to see it. If it's just on your tongue.
You don't have to do it like a dip.
DJ (01:24):
No, it's like it's like a big cube. It's like
that car, like that cube car that like you see it.
This is like cuban cough drop for me. You can't
you can't do it when you're working in this medium.
So just a frustration of mine. I just wanted to
voice that as we get into the off season.
Gregg (01:38):
It also would be disrespectful to have it, you know,
to our forties and free agents listeners in your mouth
while you're doing this show. It also doubles though, as
like a candy for kids. Just you know, like you're
going to say, it's a doorstop, let's go through the
NFC teams and we're gonna get ambitious here. Yeah, we're
actually going to go through every NFC team that is
(02:00):
no longer in the playoffs, So that's twelve teams kind
of an overview on some of the big questions, and
we'll start and I'll get going with the teams that
just got knocked out of the playoffs. So I will
start with the Eagles, a team that you know really well,
and to me, some of the bigger picture questions and
(02:20):
just thoughts of like, Okay, where did this team need
to go? The offensive line wasn't good enough this year,
which is different for them. We got to find out
one hundred percent is Lane Johnson definitely returning. You would
think he doesn't want to go out this way, but
that's a big question. I just personally have you know
as we're taping this, they have not gotten rid of
Kevin Patullo next, but the expectation is they're going to
(02:43):
get some sort of big name. I'm assuming Nick Sirianni
is not going to be gone. And then I also
think again, and I'm just talking big pictures, not even
getting into the free agents yet. You know, will Tanner
McKee and or AJ Brown get traded this offseason? Two
of the greats in the NFL right now, the backup
quarterback Tanner McKee and AJ Brown.
DJ (03:03):
There's a lot of fun thoughts there with this team
it's a big off season, formed big opportunity. I am
with you to me the you know, the offensive coordinator criticism.
Look that when you're not productive and they have as
many good to great players as they have on that offense,
there's going to be there's going to be fallout there.
So I would imagine we probably see a change. And
then Delane Johnson thing, you've got to now address that
(03:26):
in terms of either you're gonna just kind of okay,
we're going to go in a new direction here because
of not knowing whether you're in or out. You can't
have that hold you hostage anymore. You have to at
least go get a tackle, a highly sought after tackle
in the draft, so that you have insurance there so
that you don't get caught in this situation. I would
also say, then tier that offensive line, they didn't get
(03:47):
any push like when you watch them in years past
the run game they were able to dent the defense
and able to really get some push and knockoff. That
wasn't the case at all. It was like a stalemate
at best for far too much of the season. So
and Howie Roseman's always believed in the philosophy along the
line of scrimmage. I would imagine there'll be heavy reinforcements there,
and maybe they reimagine some things. But you know, from
(04:08):
the coordinator standpoint, the offensive line standpoint, I think that's
where you start. And I'll give you my my, my
AJ Brown team. If we ended up seeing a move,
a team that would be in the lookout for a
number two receiver, A team that's in a window right
now depending on if this certain quarterback were to come back,
A team that might have his college teammate as the
(04:30):
number one wide receiver on their team. He wouldn't have
to leave the state. Greg.
Gregg (04:36):
That is intriguing and it would go along with the
way that the Steelers have started to do business suddenly
the last year. Essentially, I was hoping you would send
him somewhere else in the Northeast, which a team that
has a Patriots one hundred million dollars in cap space.
That would be an interesting combo a J. Brown. Look,
they get they're going to be able to get something
when you look at when I looked at the money, though,
(04:58):
like if they trade him before June, it's actually a
pretty big cap hit that you're taking. Now he could
negotiate a new contract and you can maybe finesse some
of that. But it's not quite as easy as people
think because he just signed that extension. It wasn't one
that like he's on year four. I think this is
only going to be year two. So it's not simple.
(05:18):
And you know Howie Roseman, he likes to make moves.
He also doesn't like to take bad deals. And if
he can't replace aj Brown in a way that he's
confident like, they could smooth things over and it could happen.
But you're absolutely right. The offensive line. Maybe it's interesting
to think back a little bit, just going back to
last year's draft, because they took joh Hot Campbell, who
(05:39):
you know it's going to be an important player for them.
Na Kobe Dean is a free agent and to probably
let him walk. But they could have taken Josh Simmons there,
which would have been a very Philadelphia move, but instead,
you know, they let the Chiefs do it there. They
also have Jalen Phillips. It's going to be a free agent,
so that's a guy they might tag. Dallas Goddter is
a free agent. They might have to say goodbye to
(06:01):
him after a long time. But overall going through all
these teams, I mean, their roster is still in quite
good shape, especially on.
DJ (06:08):
The look at the young defensive players that are on
their first contracts. It's it's in they have. They're gonna
be fine. They got to just make some tweaks and corrections,
which you know, one thing about how he is, he's
never going to be scared about, you know, taking them
some bold action and figuring it out. I know there's
one you know name that keeps popping up in conversations,
which I'm fascinated to see if how it would work,
(06:28):
because you see Mike McDaniel's name a lot as uh,
you know, that would be a place he could go
as the office coordinator if he doesn't get a head
coaching gig. And I don't know how that gels with
with Jeff Stoutlin and what he kind of believes in
and how he teaches it, and he's been obviously a
fixture there is the offensive line coach. So I don't
know how exactly that marriage would work. But that's the
(06:49):
name you kind of hear floated around a lot.
Gregg (06:51):
All right, that's one team that got knocked out this week.
And how about the team with the most heartbreaking lost
I think of the week.
DJ (06:58):
Oh screen bit actors, buddy. They they had a great
opportunity there to get out of Chicago with a win,
and they just hit the brakes. We won't go into
the full analysis of the game because I don't think
that's what we're trying to accomplish here, but when we
look at him from a team standpoint, that ties into
that game. This is a team with no first round pick,
you know, with the Micah Parsons trade, they do pick
(07:19):
fifty two and eighty fours, they've got a two and
a three. It's all defense and you know having you know,
hopefully Michael Parsons comes back at some point in time,
he's back to one hundred percent because he was a major,
major difference maker there. But you saw the corner situation
in that comeback not good enough. They've got to upgrade
their defensive tackles that can help stop the run and
(07:40):
play strong and firm in there. Adding to that group
I think is going to be important. It just feels
like there's I'm not you know, the receiver position. I
think Romeo Dobbs a free agent, but I felt and
I think I saw you tweet this I was I
was on the road, but I do believe I saw
Greg Rosenthal tweet I don't think that I was wrong,
(08:01):
and I don't think that you were wrong, And thinking
I wasn't wrong about Matthew Golden. Give him some opportunities.
That was the most hit me. It's fourth first of
everyboy's going to talk about the incredible touchdown and the
spin and the hurdle and just how explosive an athletic
he looked. How about the fourth and eight or ten
or whatever it was when he hits the out route,
gets all kinds of separation and kind of saves the
(08:22):
game for them at that point in time. To me,
i'd let Dobbs go. You got to find targets, you
got to find opportunities. I think Matthew Golden's going to
be a really good player. And I think all the
hate that we might have taken, or at least I've taken,
I don't know if you've taken it, but it's a
little unwarranted. I think he just needed some opportunities. Man.
Gregg (08:40):
Yeah, he was a rookie and you saw the talent.
I heard some of his teammates Boat Mountain specifically saying
like that was the thing that gave him the biggest
smile was seeing him the next day that he finally
got a touchdown. And they all are big fans of
Matthew Golden. You're right. I think Romeo Dobbs, who had
a nice season, kind of priced himself out of there,
so did Malik Willis. They have some pretty high up
(09:01):
players on my free agency list. In the end, Kway
Walker is an interesting free agent Rashid Walker who really
struggled in that game as their left tackle. But any
left tackle that's played as much as.
DJ (09:11):
He did see see more slash Dan.
Gregg (09:15):
Yes, we'll get a contract somewhere. So they have a
lot of guys, and then look, they need offensive line helped.
Zach Tom has been their best player and he's apparently
going to get a surgery this offseason for a partially
torn potella tendon. And yeah, I think the offensive line
did not really perform. It's interesting last offseason they got
a little more aggressive in free agency, certainly a lot
(09:37):
more if you include the trade of Parsons, and it
didn't really work. Aaron Banks and Nate Hobbs were kind
of free agent bus Banks could be a guy actually
when I looked at the contract, they could cut right
away and save a lot of money. They have about
ten negative ten million dollars in cap space, so they're
going to need to open up some.
DJ (09:52):
Elton Jenkins is a part of that formula too. They
got to figure out with him.
Gregg (09:56):
That's intriguing.
DJ (09:57):
I read an Arcord said he's got a BIG's.
Gregg (10:00):
He does have a big numbers. Yea, the renegotiated Tron
Diggs is suddenly somehow on this team too. So yeah,
it's a it's gonna be a big transition year, even
if they don't change their coach. I'll do the Panthers
because they're they're easier to me, like they need everything.
It was a really good step forward. I think it's
(10:20):
a no brainer that they give Bryce Young the fifth
year option. That to me, that's not even really already.
DJ (10:26):
Come out and said that's going to happen, right, I mean,
I think that's out there.
Gregg (10:29):
So do you negotiate an extension this offseason for him?
That could be trickier. I think they'll be happy to
maybe just kick the can down the road for that.
There aren't a lot of spots on the team where
you feel like, oh, you don't need anything there, so
it's pretty wide open. But Ikya Khan, who suffered a
ruptured pateell attendant unfortunately in that game, and I actually
(10:51):
was thinking they already might not be thrilled with how
that offensive line really run blocked. I don't know if
that was the scheme or the players, but they really
fell off a cliff late last season.
DJ (11:00):
Yeah, I think earlier in the year when they were humming,
and I actually think individually, when you break down their
offensive line there, they are all, for the vast majority
of them, much better in the run game than they
are in the past game. So they were kind of
built to run, and then the run game just kind
of got to get stagnant late in the year. But
to me, it's adding more weaponry, and it's a compliment
to Tedoro McMillan that he came in there and immediately
(11:21):
became just kind of the lion on that and that
pass target group. But it's also somewhat of an indictment
that he could come in there and gobble up that
much of the attention because there was nothing there. That
they've got to add more firepower, more weaponry in the
past game. I was encouraged by Bryce Young. There's times
where you're still just is what it is? He's going
to look small in some instances where you're kind of wondering,
(11:43):
I don't know, is this going to work? But there's
still some magic. I thought that was a result from
the first round of the playoffs that's going to get lost.
It is the drive that he had, the throw that
he made, that was Bama. That was the Bama version
of Bryce Young on that drive where there was a
little to them, a little twitch, you know, being able
to place the ball extremely well, that was in you
(12:06):
know that To me, it was a really really encouraging
sign that Okay, let's get them some more. Let's just
get them some more guys and see if they can
take it up a level.
Gregg (12:14):
Totally agree because Jalen Coker they found something there.
DJ (12:17):
Right.
Gregg (12:18):
That's that's two guys, and that's including tight end, and
that's including I'd even throw running back in there. In
terms of like a receiving option. You know, you need
two three more guys to really build out an entire group.
They're one of the teams that has two the fewest
amount of like meaningful free agents. Rico Daddle one of
their interior alignment. Austin Corbetts a free agent, but pretty
(12:38):
much they're in a good spot where they can keep
pushing forward here in what will be what year three
of Canalis. So that's kind of your your go year
for the Panthers.
DJ (12:47):
Yeah, that's it for our playoff teams. Right, that's it
all right, let me let me jump into another one
here and we can. We'll step on the gas a
little bit going through some of these. Some of these
are not complicated. Some of them we can go, oh,
maybe this, maybe that, a little little of that. With
the Dallas Cowboys, that defense, yep, that's defense. They got
two first round picks, they're picking twelve and twenty. There's
(13:08):
no second, no third. So I wouldn't be surprised if
we'll get way ahead of ourselves and say one of
those picks, maybe you trade down a little bit, trying
to accumulate some more assets. But edge rush, probably need
a little edge rush, and then if they could find
some edge rush and maybe just a little edge rush,
If they could get some edge rush, is what I help.
That would help corner, linebacker, safety. What are the positions
(13:31):
we had good at defensive tackle? They are they are
locked and loaded at DT, but they're everywhere else, probably
a little bit of help. And then you got the
George Pickens thing, where, you know, I think, look, he
had an unbelievable year. The talent was never in question.
I go back to a very young or a younger
Greg Rosenthal will be like, I don't know why you
guys aren't high on George Pickens coming out of the draft. Well, Greg,
(13:51):
everybody knows about everybody knows about the ability. This is
not a can you do it in these sections? The
question is do you have the maturity and the accountability
to be where you're supposed to be on time, you know,
be a professional to the point that they feel comfortable
in laying out what will be a massive contract for
him going forwards.
Gregg (14:11):
I think it's because I see him, you know, almost
as the NFL version of me, just just incredibly talented.
Maybe underappreciated, yeah, underappreciated, unreliable, but just physical gifts and
very similar. They're thirty nine million dollars over the cap.
You said they're all set at defensive tackle. You're probably
right with Kenny Clark and Quinn Williams, but I don't
(14:33):
see a lot of obvious options here to save money
this offseason. They would save a clean twenty one million
dollars if they cut Kenny Clark. That that would take
a little egg on their face if they had to
do that. They can probably renegotiate stuff. There's some other
contracts like Logan Wilson and Terrence Steele. That's creating another problem.
DJ (14:51):
I think, Look, the quarterback deal, you can always yeah,
you can always push that down the road. You can
always keep redoing that thing.
Gregg (14:58):
They went, they went quietly on a bunch of re
signing spree right after they traded Michael almost like, hey,
look at all these things we can do without Micah.
And already they're aging a little weird. Deron Bland's contract
does not look great already. Ferguson at tight end that
that's fine. They also gave Taylor Smith a lot of money.
Who's Who's a good player. But yeah, they have a
(15:19):
lot of free agents too, Javon j Way, Sam Williams
like and fine.
DJ (15:24):
And that also goes along with hiring the right defensive coordinator.
What you know who I kind of like for that.
I saw a bunch of the names that they had
rolling through there and who knows when you're listening to this,
if they've already settled on one of these guys. Jonathan
Gannon didn't forget how to coach. I think he's a
good coach, and I think that was a didn't it
didn't end well, they're in Arizona, but it's a different role.
I think he's a very good defensive coordinator.
Gregg (15:46):
Okay, Well, I mean they're they're going to be listening
to it and you know, less than a day here. Okay,
so I don't think too much is gonna happ Okay,
I'll go with I'll go with the Vikings where the
defensive coordinator situation is huge because you know, they obviously
want to bring back Brian Flores, but he's a coaching
free agent. Also, they're really talented. They're a great defense,
(16:07):
but this group really fits what he does. I'm not
saying they're not talented enough to work with someone else,
but I think that's a really interesting situation. They're in
DJ and you've been in front offices of just you know, wondering,
like thinking, can we mold a defense and talent to
whoever is the next guy. Because they're an expensive team,
(16:29):
they're forty three million dollars over the cap. They have
some tricky decisions to make. It's going to be a
big challenge for REQUESTSI dopamenta this offseason.
DJ (16:37):
I mean, their biggest challenge is going to be what
is their belief system in their quarterback? I mean and
JJ McCarthy, and it's it's hard. Looks, it's hard enough
to gamble on someone's talent and readiness to play. It's
another thing when you're gambling on does he have the
durability to be able to last? Like that's another conversation
that you get your forced to face here. So it's
(16:59):
a big off season for Minnesota as they try and
figure this thing out. There's still, like I said, there's
a lot of money and there's still a lot of
talent there. So I mean, that's it's gonna be fascinating
to see. I would think they at least got to
bring in some some competition or some insurance, whatever you
want to call it here at the court.
Gregg (17:14):
Maybe they could be at the Tanner McKee level of quarterbacks,
sort of something in the middle of the road, not
like a Kyler Murray. Maybe not even Malik Willis who's
too expensive. But but someone like that. They also might
cut some of the guys they spent a lot about
plass off season. Hard Grave, Jonathan Allen. They could be gone, what.
DJ (17:31):
About a trade for one Max Jones.
Gregg (17:35):
Yeah like that. That's the sort of pond I think
that they should be, you know, fishing it in an
area like that. But yeah, there's gonna be a lot
of turnover Hargrave, Jonathan Allen, Brian O'Neill, Aaron Jones, Ryan
Kelly might be retiring at center, Harrison Smith is probably retiring.
So's it's it's gonna be a lot of turnover.
DJ (17:55):
There interesting stuff. I'm going to go to one of
the pleasant surprises of the and that is a I
think if you have an off season, Greg and tell
me where you stand on this, I don't know how
you can deem it anything other than a massive success
if you find your head coach and your quarterback in
the same offseason, which the New Orleans Saints did. I
thought Kella Moore did a really nice job, and I
(18:16):
thought Tyler Schuck came in there and more than held
his own and got better as the year went along
and finished up really strong. So to go into an
off season where I looked it up. I'm like, surely
they are they done with all this cap stuff, Like No,
that's still they're still dealing with that.
Gregg (18:30):
They're in better shape though they do have for them.
You won million dollars in dead money for to Mario Davis,
Taysom Hill, and Cam Jordan assuming they're not on the team,
although Davis and Cam might very well be on the team.
But they're in better shape. Like usually it's crazy. Now
there's there's teams with like way more money over the
captain them, so that feels different for them.
DJ (18:50):
Yeah, but it's never just clean and easy, man. But
so they gotta ge. They'll get that stuff sorted out.
Finding another wide receiver to compliment a lave after the
Rahis Shihed trade, I think is going to be important.
Getting some more weaponry there for Tyler Shutt corner as
an area they can look at. I think on the
positive side, I mean, I mentioned you get the head
coach and the quarterback right. Also, like from a foundational standpoint,
(19:13):
when you've got two tackles, they've got too young talented tackles,
I think that's a that's a great place to build from.
And I think that it also it shows you where
you know Kellen Moore came from Philadelphia and what was
ingrained in him and how you build it properly. And
they're in a they're in a very good spot in
terms of trying to build up that foundation. They got
(19:33):
a good center too, so they're they're in a good
spot there on the offensive line.
Gregg (19:37):
I think they love Calvin Banks Junior in that book
and how that is working out. Yeah, I looked at that,
you know, mentioned a good center, Eric McCoy. He's been
hurt a lot, but it's really not their style to
move on from a guy who's kind of one of
their guys. They could look to sign a love a
long term this offseason because he's going to be entering
(19:57):
a contract year, but not a ton of freedoms. And
I and I watch their postseason press conference, and you
got the real sense that Mickey Loomis is like, oh,
you thought we were done, Now we're gonna like they
see an opportunity here, I think to go win the
division next year, and.
DJ (20:11):
Everybody that division that way.
Gregg (20:15):
But you're absolutely right about Shuck and Kellen Moore, And
I think I didn't I didn't know what to think
about Kellen Moore for half the season, but the fact
that he is a quarterback guy, and both Spencer Rattler
and Tyler Schuck I think played at a level that
it was higher than you would have expected considering the
lack of talent around them, that you got to just
(20:35):
feel like it's a home run. Shuck was was way
better than I ever thought he could be. I'm taking
the l on that one. If I'm gonna take the
W on George Pickens.
DJ (20:43):
Well, look, I mean we got Tyler Shuck's got to
run out there for seventeen games. Sure, we got to
still have to see that the ability.
Gregg (20:49):
Wait, he looked like your guy Herbert out there. I
mean he played well. I'm talking about regular season Herbert, not.
DJ (20:55):
Playoff for oh man, it was tough finish.
Gregg (21:00):
We're halfway through. We're gonna come back. I was gonna
do it. Uh, And we'll all hit six more NFC
teams when we come back back on forties and free agents.
(21:20):
And and I heard DJ's coaching from earlier in the show,
and he wants to speed this thing up. But I
just this is this is my time.
DJ (21:29):
Have I told you have? I told you have I
told you my news by the way.
Gregg (21:33):
No, that you're going back to the Masters this year?
DJ (21:36):
You like that? Though this I didn't even go. This
was this was sent to me to the to the
tournament itself. The how old your youngest? Greg?
Gregg (21:44):
He just turned eleven.
DJ (21:47):
I'm gonna have my first grandchild in August.
Gregg (21:50):
Wow, congratulations, which you?
DJ (21:54):
And since I see us side by side here and
I don't think I look that much older than you,
which is kinda no.
Gregg (22:00):
I might have more gray, you're not. You can't be
that far away from Philip Rivers. So you guys could
just like hang out in the super young Athletic grandfather
club just down there.
DJ (22:16):
I don't know. I don't know if anybody. I love Philip.
He's one of my favorite people of all time, but
I don't think that that was necessarily the athletic vibe
that he was putting out there in those well.
Gregg (22:25):
I mean he's literally in the NFL at his well
pretty good. That's pretty good. Speaking of quarterbacks who get
by in this era without necessarily a lot of movements skills,
Jared Goff still in Detroit and the Lions, they're another
team that want to talk to Mike McDaniel, will see
he's going to have his pick of the litter. But
(22:46):
you know, who they choose as play caller is going
to be really important, and they're gonna have to reshape
kind of who we think of as the Lions because
Taylor Decker is openly considering retirement. Rag now is not
coming back, even though he tried to come back, like
he's not gonna come back for twenty six one story
we haven't hit on NFL Daily, which I thought was interesting.
(23:06):
Brad Holmes all but said David Montgomery is going to
get traded or not on the roster if they can't,
Like he said, yeah, we're gonna consider trading. Was like, okay,
I guess he's gone, and so they're gonna have to
kind of reimagine who they are, get better up front
really on both sides, on the edge across from Hutchinson,
and then I think even if Decker does return, you know,
(23:27):
finding a tackle and getting better on the interior.
DJ (23:30):
By the way, I love that I've got you saying
reimagine now it's been it's been a buzzword that I've
just latched onto, and I've given you this section. I've
passed it along to you. My other favorite one is
from my time with Brandon Staley, who is just that.
He's a great dude. But he used to always use
the phrase onboarding, like Hey, we're gonna on board some guys. Yeah,
And then he would say that, and then I would
find myself like randomly saying that, like to the kids, like,
(23:51):
are we gonna on board some friends this week? This week?
What are we? What are we doing?
Gregg (23:56):
It's very uh, it's very carpo speak.
DJ (23:58):
Is that what it is? Yeah? That sounds like it.
Gregg (24:01):
Like we would get that at an all all hands
meeting at NFL media. You're too big to attend those now, but.
DJ (24:07):
I get feedback and just let what I miss. That's
my that's my goal on those.
Gregg (24:12):
They're a team that can restructure, by the way, pretty easily.
They're over the cap right now, but not a lot
of concerns in terms of their free agents. It's like
DJ Reader alex Anzeloni. So I actually think they're in
a good spot to kind of.
DJ (24:23):
I think they're coordination. Their biggest that's their biggest move
that they have to make. It's not going to be
a roster edition. It's going to be can they get
the right voice in there? Because there's still so much
explosive talent that they have there. I'll go to my
next one here, which is Washington. Washington they have I'm
looking at this. They are picking in the first round
(24:44):
here and then they picked seventy one? Is that right?
Do they not have a second round pick? Let me
check that's is that fund? Yeah? You're I think you're right.
I was looking that up. Yeah, they picked seven and
seventy one. So, uh, they're a team that needs picks.
They are in al I just literally I wrote in
all caps, get younger. They've got a lot of guys
(25:08):
falling off the books here they've been, and I think
it's not Adam Peters's fault. I think with what he
inherited there, they had to turnover the vast majority of
the roster, and the only they do that was on
these you know, one year vet flyers and they hit
gold with it the first time. And you're one of
that with Jade Daniels coming in surrounded by all these
older guys who were able to kind of squeeze the
(25:30):
last few drops out of that. Uh, and then it
all kind of blew up this past year. But new
offensive coordinator, new defensive coordinator coming your way in the
Nation's Capital. Figuring out what do we need to do
to keep Jade Daniels out there healthy and for an
entire season is the key part of it. They do
have some cap space with all those kind of veteran
(25:50):
guys falling off. I think they have like sixty million
bucks or so, but I mean edge rush, secondary on defense,
more weaponry, wide receiver on offense. Like there's there's a
lot of needs, but I think the number one overall
thing is to me, like trading down, even trading some
existing players for picks, like they need to get younger faster,
(26:12):
just that they need a whole new vibe here they
got real old.
Gregg (26:15):
Yeah, it'll be fascinating to watch them in free agency
because they have almost the most amount of space as
anyone in the league and one of the worst rosters.
There's almost you can't find a position that they don't
have a need. You mentioned them, but they need it,
and they have so many of those older players like
von Miller and Wagner and Debo and Jonathan Jones, all
these guys coming off the books. Zach Ertz It goes
(26:37):
on and on. Mariota Ecklert like it just goes on
and on, and so it's just it's going to be
calibrat and get the right people in there and being competitive,
you know, because they're not gonna want they're probably cutting
marsh On Latimore by the way, that'll open up another
twenty million dollars. Like there's there's just a lot to.
DJ (26:55):
Work on there. Yeah. And then to me, it's going
after a different demographic in the free age market, trying
to find some of the you know, the younger guys early,
you know, mid twenties first come right off that first contract,
try and get that wave and looking at a group
that can grow with your young quarterback as opposed to
them feeling I think they were so ahead of schedule
last year there was like okay, well let's just try
and let's try and use this as our window right now,
(27:17):
a narrow window. And I think now they can think
a little bit more building approach and a little bit
more long term. And Adam did a great job when
he was you know, a big part of the drafting
process there in San Francisco. So they need to just
they need to buckle down, see if they get some
more picks and see if they can nail the draft.
Gregg (27:34):
Tunsl's also making noise that he wants an extension and
they've they've talked good. They've talked about doing it pretty
openly Adam PETERSAZ, So that's something to watch out for.
The Bucks are in good shape in terms of cap
space twenty five million dollars. I like that you start
with the picks. I start with the cap space.
DJ (27:51):
Whatever you're going. Yeah, oh CE is.
Gregg (27:54):
Wide open again. They interviewed Zach Robinson, the former Bucks coordinator, recently,
but they're going to have a lot of interviews. One
thing that's on my eye, and they have a lot
of interesting free agents, Jammel Dean coming off his best season,
Mike Evans, Hassan Reddick, Kate Atten is a good player.
I don't think they're going to let him go. Maybe
they'll tag him. Rashad White their their backup running So
(28:16):
a lot of players that have really contributed a lot
for him in a legend in Evans. But one thing
on my eye. Will they re sign Baker. My guess
is they'll just let him go into his contract year.
He's coming off an uneven season. But for capital f
franchise quarterback usually this is the offseason where a guy
like Baker would get a new contract. So that's just
(28:38):
something I'm interesting.
DJ (28:39):
I think there's still a lot of belief in him
there and a fondness there that could lead you to
to going with the glass half full and think, and
we get in front of this, well, we'll save, we'll
save on it. Okay, so we'll see. To me, I
could I could see them talking themselves into that pretty easily.
Gregg (28:55):
They need they need pass rush, they need linebacker Leanzi
David sounds like he might be retiring, and they need guards,
like they love three of their offensive linemen, and it
was interesting looking at their roster they basically don't have
a guard, which is crazy. They they got killed by
injuries and they're two guys that actually played are both
free agents, so like they are going to have to
(29:17):
add some real depth there.
DJ (29:19):
Yeah, and Jason Light's done a really good job of
finding offensive linemen and getting value for him where he does,
so I think that's a that's a solve there that
they can come up with. All Right, this next team, Greg,
this is my team of the off season. Okay, this
is the team that I cannot wait. Last year I
would have said probably New England, just because the resources
that they had and Drake May going into year two, like,
(29:40):
there was a lot of reasons to be optimistic about
them finding the right coach and using their draft picks,
and they had a bunch of free agent money. My
team of the offseason this year is the New York Giants.
I'm fascinated by it. I'm a Dart believer. I thought
he played really well, especially considering who was not there
around him. I don't love seeing the stuff on neighbors
(30:01):
about him being a little bit slow coming back from
that injury that maybe was more than we anticipated. But
you know, hopefully eventually you get him back in the fold.
But this is a team with if you look at
key pieces in place, They've got defensive linemen, got a
left tackle. I've got a young quarterback. They've got a
number one wide receiver that's a lot to kind of
build off of. They've got the fifth pick in the
draft and the thirty seventh pick in the draft. They
(30:23):
need to find the right offensive voice. Doesn't necessarily have
to be the head coach, but find that right offensive
voice to grow with Jackson Dart. I mean, I'm intrigued
by Stefanski I think could be a good fit there.
But I'm also could be talked into, Hey, go out
and get Shula or Minner and come in there, and
they immediately solve your defense and maximize the talent you have,
(30:44):
and they can bring an offensive coordinator there. I just
think there's some fascinating moves to be made. Do you
know you look at the draft that they had last year.
You get Abdul Carter, who I thought played better than
the stats would indicate, especially down the back half of
the year, when you've got Burns who has not only
the great play but the production. Thibodeau, is this one
(31:05):
that you could can Can you trade him? Like? What
can you do from that standpoint with him? Does that
create some more opportunities for you, you know, interior, offensive line,
more weapons on the perimeter. I don't know. I don't
just this is a team. I'm fascinated to see what
they do and how they put this puzzle together.
Gregg (31:22):
I agree that if you're just going off rosters, all
the Giants fans who are well would John Harbaugh come
here and we'll see they're definitely pursuing John Harbaugh. If
you're just going off roster I get the argument. I
think they probably are the best situation because of what
you said. I'll to use a RAMS term, all those
weight bearing walls that like kee key position, premiere talent
(31:44):
and a little bit of cap space and uh yeah,
a lot of needs though on defense in general, like linebacker, cornerback,
defensive tackle, like.
DJ (31:51):
Yeah, but again though, that's like the you know, you've
got to found the D line is the foundation of
the defense. That's the hardest thing to find. They got
to get Dexter Lawrence rocking and rolling, you know.
Gregg (32:02):
Because yeah, when you said Kavon, you know, as a
trade candidate, I was just writing down some notes for
this extors and I thought, like, would Dexter Lawrence ever
be a trade candidate? He's coming up and down here.
DJ (32:14):
Didn't. Yeah, I don't know if it was in shape
situation or what. I haven't talked to anybody there about it,
but he's been dominant at times, and he was not
really that same guy this year, and.
Gregg (32:25):
He was coming off a really serious injury. And as
we've seen really at every position. But kirk Cousins and
Rogers are even a reminder like the one year further removed.
Sometimes you look a lot better. Speaking of Kirk Cousins,
the Atlanta Falcons have twenty two million dollars in cap space.
They have a brand new team president, Matt Ryan. Will
(32:46):
Matt Ryan come in there and the first thing he
does is cut Kirk Cousins. He just signed a new
contract Cousins. Yeah, that moves the money around. That makes
it easier for him to cut. They have kind of
come out at least Arthur Blank. I don't know what
that means. You would think it means a lot that
Michael Pennix is their franchise quarterback and they have some
(33:09):
big free agency decisions. Kyle Pitts is a free agent.
He's gonna be pretty high on my list. Other than that,
Cayden Ellis is a good player for them, is a
free agent. But actually, thought, you know, doing this exercise,
they're in a pretty good position where you could upgrade
at almost every position, like other than running back of course, yeah,
and wide receiver one. You're feeling good, but there aren't
(33:32):
a ton of screaming needs. It feels like you can
get better in a lot of places. But I look
around this roster and actually think like they have a
pretty good baseline that Terry Fontina left for the next GM.
DJ (33:45):
I think it's fascinating for every team in that division,
and that because the division is so average. You have
a team under you know, they had three teams tied,
you go to the playoffs under five hundred, like Carolina
Panthers did, as you could say, man, we can just
go get this better in this vetteran, this better in
this veteran, we can win the division this year. Or
it's like I think the better approach is if we
(34:06):
just continue to be you know, discipline, and we're building
to the draft and we're targeting the right young guys
in free agency, we can build a model and we
can win this division for the next five six years.
You know. I think that there's two different ways to
kind of look at how you approach an offseason when
you're in a division it's just frankly very average.
Gregg (34:25):
I know, because it's funny you have the three teams
that tied for first and then you have the other
team who believes they have the best quarterback in the
division already and he's probably going to be a second
year player and shuck, and it's not that crazy of
a thought. I mean, I'm not ready to put him
like over Baker. But if you're telling me, like, who
(34:45):
would I rather have? Like indefinitely, I think I would
take the upside of Shuck Right now, he looked that good.
DJ (34:53):
I think the health of the quarterbacks in that division
is going to be something to keep an eye on too.
Gregg (34:57):
It's fair your last team, last team up is the Cardinals.
DJ (35:01):
Yeah, last one overall, you're out, huh. I'm finishing us
off here, Arizona Cardinals. They are picking three, thirty four
and sixty five, so full a lot, but they're in
the first three rounds. I believe about nine million dollars
in cap space, but it's going to be all contingent
upon the decision with Kyler Murray, and I just it
(35:22):
does not feel at all like he's going to be there.
It feels like that's a very strong likelihood that he
gets traded. But you've got to get the coach thing
figured out first. And I don't you know, I always
laugh because I'm like, if you're a coach coming into
an uncertain quarterback situation and you're coming into the interview,
do you come in there and go, I can fix them.
I can I can make this all right? I can
(35:44):
take all that bat you think is bad money and
I can make it look like good money. Or do
you come in there and say, you guys have kind
of already figured this out. I've already known this for
a long time. This isn't going to work. We're going
in our in our new direction.
Gregg (35:55):
I have an answer for you. You say whatever you
think the owner wants you to say. So last time around,
they had just given Kyler that contract. It was incumbent
on Jonathan Gannon to be like, I can fix him.
The first thing they had Jonathan Gannon Monte Austin for
it to. I don't know if actually the gm ausen
for it down in the weight room was sending him
well in the weight room. Yes, And then they also
(36:17):
send him to Oklahoma when they retired his number or
whatever to go support Kyler Murray in the middle of
the offseason say like, hey, you're our guy. But now
that they've been through that and he's gone this guy,
I think the right thing to tell the owner what
they want to hear is we're going to find our
new quarterback.
DJ (36:31):
Yeah, there's somebody knew out there. We'll go locate him.
Continue to upgrade the offensive line, is going to be
a big part of that for whoever's playing quarterback. Paris
Johnson's there, but adding some more talent around that front.
Obviously you got a big time tight end. Feel good
about that. Marvin Harrison Junior has been a riddle, just
hadn't been healthy, hasn't been impactful. Michael Wilson's end up
(36:53):
being a revelation. He's been excellent.
Gregg (36:55):
So want to sign him to the contract?
DJ (36:58):
Yeah, there are some is he free agent?
Gregg (37:00):
He will be entering his free agent year, but he
is He earned himself a lot of money the last
nine games of the season. DJ Number one it's Pukinakua.
Number two it's Michael Wilson, and number three it's Jackson
Smith and Jigba.
DJ (37:16):
Those are cracious. Yeah, that's not too shabby. No, So
that's encouraging. So there are some pieces there defensively, just
still a lot of work to be done there. So
they're kind of one of these teams that it's like
you stack up the the head coaching board of the
best jobs. I don't know, this one comes up on
(37:36):
the high end of that thing.
Gregg (37:39):
I think that's fair because of the history of the
organization in general and when you go through the division, right,
you're stuck having a coach against these three behemoths and
these three well run organizations, and when you go through
the roster, you know, matyasen for it was a little
defensive about it when some reporters pushed him out.
DJ (37:58):
I saw that. I did see that.
Gregg (38:00):
It's not a bad roster. I kind of get what
he means. When I was looking at it, was like, actually,
they're in good shape cap wise. They don't have any
young free agents like Jalen Thompson and Kalays Campbell are
their best rereadons. They're in good shape. They don't have
a lot of guys who are obvious cuts. But there's
just not a lot of sizzle. It's a lot of like, hey,
we're the eighteenth best team in the league at a
lot of positions, and we're against these three awesome teams
(38:23):
in our division, which is tough.
DJ (38:25):
Yeah. I mean I just think I look at it
defensively and say, if you're getting ready to play that
team in a playoff game, who do you circle on
that defense? And you're like, oh boy, we better be ready.
You know, we got to handle this person or that person.
Gregg (38:36):
I don't know jus Josh wed Ad and OK, you're
Buddha Baker. Unfortunately, when I wrote down possible cuts or trade,
I had to write down Yeah it was coming off
a tough year.
DJ (38:47):
But so that's an interesting one. This is a fun
exercise though, Like this is like the I told you
before we started off the air that this is like
you know, kind of personally in terms of the team,
and as we get a little bit deeper into it,
I'm kind of knocking out these draft guys. Is that
I feel like I'm the shallow end a little bit.
But it's a good exercise kind of getting a little
(39:07):
bit of a look see here at where these teams are.
Gregg (39:11):
No, this was a great homework assignment. I appreciate forties
and freedoms for that. And look, our producer Drew Christensen,
he knows what's up so much so that he got
us talking about Juwan Jennings. Remember yeah, last week's show
as a as a four star recruit quarterback and what
happens that next weekend? Yeah, the touchdown is great. No,
(39:34):
that what really happened was I sent out an image
that Drew sent me of the rankings of him ahead
of Burrow and Lamar Arnold and that's a hit tweet
two point five million views on that too.
DJ (39:47):
Did you really?
Gregg (39:49):
Wow?
DJ (39:50):
Did you have I stole it? Any attribution on that tweet? Drew?
Gregg (39:53):
You want to know we're doing it now. That's why
I feel bad about it. It's like Sean McVay says,
the best coaches are the best thieves.
DJ (40:01):
I did not did not use that opportunity to plug
forties and free agency either. As Drew puts in the chat,
I'm sure we have. I'm sure there's two point five
million listeners right now that's going to even that math
out as you just gave him some credit.
Gregg (40:13):
I mean, I didn't know. I didn't know it was
gonna pop like that. If I if I did, I
wouldn't have had a typo on the first try and
then had that.
DJ (40:19):
Man, maybe I would to edit on.
Gregg (40:21):
The picture to take away learn about this skidding cream.
DJ (40:24):
Yeah, I'm just learning about this and I'm and literally
within five seconds, I thought, Okay, how would I approach
this to be Like we had a fascinating chat on
forties and free agents this week about John Jennings. Here
you go, look at what he was as a high
school quarterback. Boom, everybody's covered, Like you just totally unselfishly
promote our little project we've been working on. But nope,
(40:45):
didn't happen.
Gregg (40:47):
Yeah, but see this is where you know your you
being a grandfather and me being you know, younger and
understanding the kids makes more sense. Like if you did
all that leading into it, maybe it does a million.
You know. It's like as discussed on forties and free
you don't need all that you gotta get. You got
to get to the meet. You know, does it look
like I have a dip in?
DJ (41:06):
I just popped a recolo because we're finishing up pair.
Gregg (41:10):
We are done. We're going to be back next week.
I really enjoyed this exercise, So we will do the
AFC next week as we start this off season planning
here on forties and free agents. We will see you
then
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