49ers-Eagles Trade, Three 2025 NFL Season Hype Bunnies & Madden Correspondent Nick Shook

00:00:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're living in a post June first world. I'm Greg Rosenthal here with my friend Nick Schuck. He's back off the road after going to EA Sports in Orlando to check out Madden. Big, big weekend for you, Nick.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, you know, you know.

00:00:24
Speaker 3: I'm a gamer of sorts, and it's always fun every year to go down to EA and check out the new titles.

00:00:29
Speaker 2: And now that they got too, it's two days.

00:00:31
Speaker 3: Of virtual football glory and it was a fantastic time with lots of information game that you will be hearing about from me in the coming days and weeks.

00:00:40
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how Nick got on this list that he's like a gamer influencer, but it's pretty cool.

00:00:45
Speaker 4: Do they pay for your flight to go down.

00:00:47
Speaker 3: There or no, well to keep it I guess kosher or whatever. We split it down the middle so they cover a little bit. We covered the rest interesting.

00:00:57
Speaker 1: We'll do some news, just little bits with our next full week of OTA's you know coming up right now with the mini camps are coming up next week, and then we'll talk about a couple players that we think are going to be hype bunnies. This year. To wrap up the show, after we hear a little bit from Nick about his Madden trip. Well, we'll start with news on the forty nine ers making a trade. How about Bryce Huff, who we mentioned last week not showing up to Eagles OTAs there was a reason for that. He is going to the San Francisco forty nine Ers, who have been looking a little thin in terms of their defensive line. They get an edge rusher from the Eagles. Not sure on the compensation. It's not gonna be much whatever it is, but the money is interesting to me. The Eagles will pay nine million dollars of his roughly seventeen million dollars guaranteed salary just to make him go away, and the forty nine Ers get a rotational pass rusher at worst and only pay him eight million dollars.

00:01:58
Speaker 4: What do you think about this movie?

00:02:00
Speaker 3: Smart move for the Niners to capitalize on what appeared to be a situation which the Eagles wanted to move on from Huff for one reason or another. Now, this has been a bit of a mass exodus up on the defensive front for the Eagles this offseason, but it was one that we anticipated. I didn't quite expect Huff to be involved, but they also made the addition of Zizogulari in the offseason, and they have other pieces there that they were preparing for this scenario, so it makes sense for them to get compensation back. And for the Niners, they were pretty desperate at the position, so it's a low risk, potentially higher reward addition for them.

00:02:31
Speaker 2: So I like it for both sides.

00:02:32
Speaker 3: It's pretty rare that we get a deal at this time of the year where you're like, oh, makes sense for.

00:02:37
Speaker 1: Both well, I referred to the June first thing. Yeah, now it makes sense for them because they would have taken a huge cap hit. I mean, Bryce Huff was a big time free agent signing a year ago one of Howie's big swings and misses, and he takes a lot of swings, and so one thing I like about the Eagles is that when they missed, they move off it right away. And they only have three million dollars in dead money because they waited until after June first. It would have been twelve million before that, so it's not taking up much of the cap. In fact, they actually save four million dollars in cap and when you're a good organization that doesn't mind ownership paying a lot of cash to get rid of problems. They are paying actual cash, like the Eagles actually have to pay nine million dollars for him to go away, but you might have even undersold it with you know, a nice upside for them. I mean, they're paying eight million dollars. It's it's so hard to get free agents. Did you know that Bryce Off The last time he was with Robert Sala, who was the Jets head coach and is now the forty nine Ers defensive coordinator. Bryce Uff had sixty eight pressures and literally led the league in pressure rate according to Next Gen Stats. And you get him for eight million bucks. It's a system that he'll make more sense. And for whatever reason, he just could not get on the field for the Eagles was a total bust. When he did get on the field, he didn't look good. I don't know if he had a bad offseason or he just didn't fit that scheme. But pass rushing should travel and it'll help them because they have Nick Bosa, of course, but they also have Mikel Williams, their first round draft pick.

00:04:01
Speaker 4: They brought in more of a run stopper.

00:04:03
Speaker 1: They have yetur grossmatos and suddenly they look a little more like a good forty nine Ers pass rusher that we remember in the past. It's very thin at defensive tackle. But I think this was a move that a smart team makes. I think the forty nine ers are going to be better this year than people.

00:04:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, they threw some draft capital of the defensive interior as well, so this is it was a transitional offseason for the upfront. They knew that was going to be the case when with Javon Hargrave, that whole thing, you know, them splitting signs. But I also think it's kind of a funny examination of what you just described, which is how situation matters and scheme matters. But like if we go back a year ago, it was Hassan Reddick ends up with the Jets, Bryce Huff ends up with the Eagles, a bit of a one for one swap, and neither The most we got out of it was Reddick's protracted contract dispute with them. Otherwise we didn't really get much of anything out of either of them.

00:04:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Huff is much younger, so you just figure he can bounce back than Reddick. Although I think Reddick would bounce back this year too, but it doesn't leave the Eagles a little thin. The Eagles are known for having such a deep defense to line in pass rush. Their pass rushers right now are Nolan Smith, an emerging player but still young and not a superstar. Jaylexon had a nice Super Bowl but a third round pick from a year ago that didn't play much. And then Josh Ucha and Azizo Jalari, who you mentioned two reclamation projects, So a little thinner than usual.

00:05:18
Speaker 4: But I like the move really for.

00:05:21
Speaker 1: Both sides, because Huff clearly I had no future there. All Right. We mentioned Stefan Diggs last week. I'm going back to this now because shook Diggs did show up to OTA's on Monday. Josh McDaniels did not sound any alarms about Diggs's future, kind of downplayed the boat video, which we discussed a little more at length last week. We don't need to go over that again, but I wanted to bring it up because Scott Zolac, who who we've.

00:05:45
Speaker 4: Mentioned plenty of times on this show, the radio announcer for the.

00:05:48
Speaker 1: Patriots who likes to pop off, and Michael Felder on their radio show, they're talking all week about Diggs talking about maybe he's gonna get cut. You have not seen any credible reporter say that in New England. I think there's a reason for that. Greg Badard, for instance, of Boston Sports Journal, said the Patriots were not gonna cut Stefan Diggs because of this. I think it's something where he'll have a stern talking to Nick Schuck. But I did want to put that out there that all this getting caught talk maybe sounds like they got nothing to talk about in New England because there's no sports going on other than the Red Sox thinking and just needing to talk about something.

00:06:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, thank you Celtics for you know, getting injured and falling out of the playoffs to kind of affect that. But yeah, it's also I think a good example of how one beat can get so trained in the ways of an old regime that they just expect things to happen because Mike Rabel's down back and the Patriots no nonsense type of organization, but failed to realize that it's twenty twenty five and that you are the Patriots trying to come back from the seller, and that you could use a player like Diggs as long as he's able to come back healthy at some point this year.

00:06:54
Speaker 1: Right, And it's not like they have him been happy with his recovery from his surgery. And you know, he is known for his work ethic throughout his career. Now you know when you have missed three substances on video that it's not a good.

00:07:08
Speaker 3: It's not great, man, it's just boats. Stop being on boats where videos are being taken. Do like comedians do at the shows. Put everybody's phones and bags.

00:07:16
Speaker 2: Lock them away, help yourself out. It's not great.

00:07:19
Speaker 1: It could literally get you in trouble with the NFL and the and the drug policy. So I'm sure they spoke to him about it, but it does sound like something where it's like, okay, this time, just can we can we make some better decisions And it's more like a stern warning from a teacher, and the next time it happens, it could be troubled. This is a one year deal, by the way, for Stefan Diggs. I think that's been lost in the shovel because it was counted as three year, sixty six million dollars. If it doesn't go well, they can get out of it after this year. But I do think they're going to play it out this year. Speaking of contracts, Quessi Adolfo Mensa, the Minnesota Vikings general manager, got an extension over the weekend. Any thoughts on where the Vikings are. We're at them giving their their GM now of what I think, it's been four years now an extension right now?

00:08:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, time flies because about four years, it feels like it's been shorter than that.

00:08:09
Speaker 3: But it's also I just think it's kind of funny because the Vikings are doing all the right things for a team that succeeded like they did last year, and they went into an offseason despite winning all those games last year, with a bit of uncertainty. It started with the Sam Darnold situation. We kind of knew how that was going to play out, and it did play out as we expected. It continued with Kevin O'Connell not having an extension. They get him won, and then it comes down to Quincy and he gets his done as well. So it's step by step, trusting the process. They get everything done. It makes a lot of sense. But again this league, as we get older and the longer we work in this business, we realize the patience just continues to thin out, and this is a pressure pack season for them because they're putting all their chips into the center of the table on JJ McCarthy and especially coming off of how they played last year. Not saying that they're not going to live up to those expectations, but there is a lot of pressure on them. So I guess it's good to get that extension done now as opposed to letting it linger into the season.

00:09:01
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know what, the Wolfs, who took over this ownership from what was really a rough group before Red McCombs if you wanted to go back, have been very patient. I think in general with their coaches, it's been a well run organization. They got that stadium built. I did find it interesting that the coach in the GM, the extensions came so far apart, right, it actually is more than three years. This will be going into his fourth season, and there was some buzz of you know, are those two guys always on the same page. I do think Chaos has more juice in that building. For whatever it's worth, Quesi's drafts have not been good. They have not been a good drafting team. They've made some good moves in free agency. Some of the players that were there before. They obviously have made great coaching hires with with koc and Brian Flores. So they really need JJ McCarthy to hit because that that's a QUESTI guy. But they're on the same page there, speaking of, you know, guys looking for contracts. A dophamento was Von Miller is too. He was quoted telling Mike Cleaes, who's covered the Broncos for a lot long time, that he's quote definitely playing in twenty twenty five. It was a reminder to me that von Miller is a free agent at all. I wonder does he have any information that he's got contract offers out there and he's waiting that that maybe is what that indicates to me, because he did not look great last year.

00:10:23
Speaker 3: Nick No, I mean, he hasn't looked great over the last few years because he's been hurt or just in the shadows when he was in his final years in Buffalo. I mean it kind of I made this comparison with the Aaron Rodgers situation on and on over the last few months, but this kind of does reek of a Michael Strahan situation where it's like, I'm gonna ride this out, maybe not go to camp, or just show up at some point in camp and just see who wants a Jadavian Clowney situation.

00:10:45
Speaker 2: He's done that before in the offseason.

00:10:47
Speaker 4: And he's a free agent too.

00:10:49
Speaker 3: He doesn't quite as have as much leverage, I think, as Clowney did maybe three years ago, but I could still see someone taking a flyer on him because you can never have enough edge rushing help, and if you get him cheap enough, then it's not even a risk. It's just like, all right, let's throw another veteran in here and try and get a little bit better.

00:11:05
Speaker 1: This is a guy who has made about as much as any defensive player has in the NFL over the last ten years, a guy who for a future project was looking at his resume and looking at him closer. I mean, he's almost obviously a future Hall of Famer and is in the upper tier really of pass rushers over the last ten plus years. Is he gonna want to play for just a few million dollars to go chase a ring, because I think that's what he's going to have to do. Then go make a team, because at his age coming off in a bit injury. But he says he's quote definitely playing, so maybe he has an offer out there. You know who does not have an offer? It's Bill Belichick on the Manning Cast. I take that back, I spoke incorrectly. He probably did have an offer shook, but he will not be on the Manning Cast next year. I find this interesting. Peyton Manning was at some golf event and he mentioned publicly that Bill Belichick will not be part of the telecast. I mentioned that partly because the last time this came up at all, his agent, for instance, said He's gonna still be doing all this media stuff, including the Manning Cast this year. But maybe when push came to show, he realized he did not really have time to devote like five hours every Monday Night to the Manning Cast.

00:12:15
Speaker 4: So will you miss the Belichick era on the Manning Cast a little?

00:12:18
Speaker 2: But honestly, I'm not a Manning Cast guy.

00:12:22
Speaker 3: Not that I don't like the interviews and everything else, but I prefer to stick to the traditional broadcast and.

00:12:26
Speaker 2: Do my job as the guy on Monday Night football.

00:12:28
Speaker 3: But I will say that this is an example of how the Belichick tenure at North Carolina has always has already gotten weird like it was. You can show up with all this pomp and circumstance, there's all the focus on his girlfriend and all the things he's doing outside of the program. It's almost as if he's had to take a look in the mirror or UNC officials have had to meet with him and be like, hey, reel it in. You're our coach, you're the CEO of the program. We're paying you to do that, not be this persona. So it makes a lot of sense as a coach who still has to handle recruiting and oversee a D one football program that he's not on a Monday night show multiple times per year.

00:13:01
Speaker 1: Right, you could look at it as it was good recruiting. I became less of a Manning cast guy last year. I really like it, But when we're doing these recaps on Monday Night, I'm with you, it shook. I feel like I get a little less locked in if I'm watching the Manning cast. But it was cool. I watched it a decent amount. He will he will not be there inside the NFL has an uncertain future, but I'd be shocked if he was part of that. Maybe he'll still still do the.

00:13:28
Speaker 3: I liked him on that that was a better example of who Bill Belichick could be on camera and inside the NFL when he could sit down and go through tape with you know, chatout Josenko and and the rest of the guys and kind of explain what's going on here and get back. And it felt like I was in a film room with the guys after a Sunday game and he was getting ready to tear somebody apart from making a mistake.

00:13:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they they mentioned it's not coming back to the CW.

00:13:49
Speaker 1: So right now it's a little unclear if and how that show will exist into next year.

00:13:55
Speaker 4: TJ.

00:13:55
Speaker 1: Why we just talked about Von Miller future Hall of Famer. Do you think TJ. Watt is a future Hall of Famer if let's say he doesn't do a time in the rest of his.

00:14:06
Speaker 2: Career, Yeah, already, Yeah, he'll be in there.

00:14:10
Speaker 3: Defensive Player of the Year kind of puts you in the consideration right away. I think the production has been consistent enough. I hope that that's not the last that we've seen of him, because he's.

00:14:19
Speaker 4: Not the last, but like it, for some reason, it fell off.

00:14:21
Speaker 2: So I was just trying to be Yeah, no, I get your transition.

00:14:24
Speaker 1: I understand it.

00:14:25
Speaker 2: I'm picking up what you're putting down. I get it. But at the same time, it's like, hey, like I'm worried about the.

00:14:29
Speaker 3: Whole He's the peace sign or whatever it was on social media and Steelers fans are worried about whether he's gonna leave.

00:14:36
Speaker 2: Do we trade him?

00:14:37
Speaker 3: Somebody sent me one of those graphics off of some social media site the other day where it was like TJ. Watt for a twenty twenty five first round pick, without you know, realizing that the twenty twenty five tracks is already coming gone. Like this is where we're at the off season right now. I hope he stays with the Steelers for the rest of his career and finishes strong and ends up, you know, cementing that Hall of Fame resume, because I think he's there.

00:14:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's not at OTA's right now.

00:15:00
Speaker 1: Mark Coboli, who's covered them for a while, set on his podcast if the Steelers have made an offer to TJ. Watt. So that's why I'm bringing that up. He's looking for a new contract. It's not the right time of year to make a trade. It just doesn't make any sense to me. If teams were more aggressive about this stuff, it wouldn't have been that crazy.

00:15:22
Speaker 4: If you could have gotten a Hall for TJ.

00:15:24
Speaker 1: Watt before the draft and you wanted to really invest in your young players at the position. Nick Herberg and Alex Hismith are awesome and you're pretty deep there, but at this time of year, you got to just give him that money. And the bar has been set. Miles Garrett, Max Crosby, they're all roughly in the same ballpark age wise as TJ. Watt and I went through his career, and that's why I asked about Hall of Fame, Like I realized he could retire today and he's in the Hall of Fame. He's been Top five and Defensive Player of the Year voting time, yeah, four times, Top three three times, he won it once. He's been First Team OPRO four times, like people have made the Hall of Fame with much less, and so that's an all time great And that's why that negotiation is tricky because you got to just pay the premium for TJ. Wat. I don't care if he's thirty.

00:16:13
Speaker 3: But what I what I hate about it is the fact that he has to come after Miles Garrett and Max Crosby, because the Steelers over the last few years have invested a ton of money into the defense. It's been like the most expensive defense in the NFL, and I worry that there won't be enough space to pay him well enough or as he deserves like it. You know, you reset the market with a Miles Garrett deal. I don't feel one hundred percent confident that the Steelers would give TJ. Watt more money than Miles Garrett. And at that point, it feels unfair to him because he's been just as good, if not better than Miles Garrett and for most of his career.

00:16:42
Speaker 2: I mean their and necond defense.

00:16:45
Speaker 4: From a Brown Sky respect words due.

00:16:47
Speaker 2: I mean, Miles Garrett is a hell of a player, but TJ.

00:16:49
Speaker 3: Watt is too, And I just worry that he's not going to get compensated as fairly if he's going to stay in Pittsburgh and he's going into the last year of a deal, so it gets a little uncertain, and I just don't like the vibe around it around it right now. But then again, it's a product of the business set in which they build these clubs.

00:17:03
Speaker 1: If we got really bored in the offseason, I could do a rankings of like holdouts that I actually think would last the longest, and TJ. Watt would be near the top if if he wants to push it because of everything you just said, well said, He's made so many big plays, they've been in big games. I'm still a Garrett guy. I think it's a decent amount. But his force fumble like he's been top five and forced fumbles five times. TJ Watt's.

00:17:33
Speaker 2: Except for the end of last years like.

00:17:34
Speaker 1: No one's ever no one's ever done that. Pay the man his money. Just a couple of little Ota notes. I just wanted to mention to keep everyone that listens up to date. John new Smith, we talked about him possibly getting traded to the Steelers speaking of Pittsburgh on Friday's show. He has made it clear through his agent he wants to stay in Miami, so they're going to try to work something out there. We'll see if that happened. CJ. Stroud was not throwing at practice last week.

00:17:57
Speaker 4: He might be back this week.

00:17:58
Speaker 1: They're really downplaying it, but is a pectoral issue. And then Hunter Renfro, who's been at Panthers camp, has quote made huge strides every week coming back from an injury and illness, and just so something to watch in the spring. I'm just gonna keep an eye on that. Let's tuck a little Madden though, Chuck, you were down in Orlando. They announced that Saquon Barkley was going to be on the cover of Madden, and they picked the picture that everyone would have expected them to pick. Adam Schefter got the news first. I guess he must be a friend of the EA family. And yes, it's Saquon Barkley on the cover jumping over poor Jerry and Jones of the Jaguars, who now has to be on the cover of Madden getting jumped over for the rest of his life.

00:18:45
Speaker 2: That's Britte Well.

00:18:46
Speaker 3: I mean that photo itself is staged to make it look good with studio lighting and everything. But they're replicating what happened in real life, the play that we all saw, the play that we discussed on NFL Daily, you know, hours after it happened during that week. And you know what, And do you think Schefter got the news first, brother, I got the news days ago, okay, but of course exactly Wait, so I didn't look closely?

00:19:06
Speaker 4: Is that that's not Jerry and Jones. That's not an actual game.

00:19:08
Speaker 3: No, those photos are staged to look good on the cover, but they were essentially recreating what happened in real life, just with better lighting, you know, so it looks more cinematic and everything else. But the I'm at the presentation on Friday and they're like, does anybody have a guess about who the cover would be? And everyone's like Saquon and they're like, oh, surprise, it's yeah, Saquon, Like, there's no better pairing for a video game and an athlete who made an incredible play than Saquon Barkley in the reverse hurdle to put in Madden, which, by the way, last season they had that ability to perform that you know, type of hurdle in the game with Saquon within a week of it happening, which is a credit to their their team getting that in the game. But yeah, they're very excited about the game and about having Saquon on it, and it's just the tip of the iceberg for what they're about to reveal in the coming weeks.

00:19:58
Speaker 1: Oh interesting little teas a lot of uh. I was, I guess not surprised that this was the cover because an account on social last week that was a fake shifter that was like Adam one shifter, but there was like a one where the tea should be said, this was going to be the Madden cover.

00:20:18
Speaker 4: It was a slightly different picture.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: But good guest by them faked out me and my son for about thirty seconds, and then I gave him a lesson in see, you gotta be careful. There's these fake accounts out there. It's not real, all right, kids coming up, It's got to be very tricky. Let's talk though about Madden. You were down there, what can you tell us?

00:20:40
Speaker 5: Like?

00:20:40
Speaker 1: What what did you find interesting being down in Orlando? For the gamers out there, I am curious.

00:20:46
Speaker 2: First off, the level of excitement. So I like to compare year by year.

00:20:49
Speaker 3: I mean, that's how we all go through life with contextual experiences and how he applied going forward. And last year, at this time, it was all about the return of the college football game, and they tiered it last year with Madden was first, college football was second. They saved the biggest and best for last with you know, new items and everything else to talk about.

00:21:06
Speaker 2: This year is reversed.

00:21:07
Speaker 3: This year was college football was Thursday. Madden was Friday, and as soon as I saw that, I thought they might have something up their sleeve for Madden. As we wrapped up college football on Thursday, all the people that you know are working on both sides with EA, between college and Madden what they call their American Football Division as a whole, We're so excited. They they looked at me and they were like, just wait till we show you what we got coming tomorrow.

00:21:29
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, okay, And I'm a.

00:21:31
Speaker 3: Cynic, you know, I'm skeptical, So I was like, all right, we'll wait and see. We get in that presentation and they were loaded with new features. I don't know how now it is part of they're able to, you know, work on multi year initiatives with the game. Now they do have a bit of a longer runway to try to improve the game over the long term. And now you're kind of seeing the fruits of that labor start to, you know, become realized, this is something that I've talked with these developers about, you know, sitting there in person, whether it was in Redwood City or in Orlando, over the last three years and thought, we know what's coming three years from now, we're working on you know, X, Y, and Z that we can't tell you, but it's going to change the game for the better in.

00:22:06
Speaker 2: The long run.

00:22:06
Speaker 3: Their biggest goal is to be the most realistic sports simulation on the market, not just football, but sports, and I think that the approach they took to this game this year without revealing a ton of details, is getting them much closer to that.

00:22:19
Speaker 2: They've attacked it in a number of different areas.

00:22:21
Speaker 3: Some of the things they've already talked about, including includes, you know, the way that they are approaching coaching, which in the past you would make your coach and you would just kind of play through seasons.

00:22:29
Speaker 2: It's different now.

00:22:30
Speaker 3: There are different ways to customize and game plan and everything else that might blow your mind. And as soon as they go through all these details with franchise mode and everything else, Whi's got a massive overhaul, the biggest in a decade, then they I'm thinking there's no way. They also put this type of effort into their other modes, and sure enough Superstar has a ton of great news stuff coming to it as well. So you know, I don't mean to sound like a like a shill of sorts, but I'm very I'm very excited for people to see this and to get my hands on it further than I did when I was playing it at EA on Friday, because if everything goes right, this will be a big leap four of them.

00:23:06
Speaker 2: And again, if everything goes right technicality, you know.

00:23:08
Speaker 1: You played it.

00:23:09
Speaker 4: Wait, so you played it, you know if it went right or a lot.

00:23:12
Speaker 2: Of fun playing it.

00:23:12
Speaker 3: But I wasn't there for I was only playing it for about an hour and a half for I to go catch a flight, So we need more time.

00:23:18
Speaker 2: On it for me to really figure it out.

00:23:20
Speaker 3: But if everything goes right and they can avoid some of the pitfalls that come with game development, people are going to be very pleased with this, and it'll be a sign of them putting significant effort into this game, and it's what fans have wanted for a long time.

00:23:31
Speaker 1: Okay, good to hear. And I think them being so excited, and maybe your excitement and skepticism might be partly because I think people can get in a little sick of the Maddens lately that they needed it, that needed a little juice, not like obviously it it's well known and this is a video game like industry wide thing. People are still playing and buying Madden, but I think there was Madden fatigue.

00:23:57
Speaker 2: I would say, well, okay, let me say this, how does Walker play Madden?

00:24:04
Speaker 1: A lot of in Superstar? A lot in Superstar. But I mean he plays with his friends, He plays in franchise, but he plays in everything.

00:24:12
Speaker 2: But there's something coming to Superstar that you're gonna watch him play all the time. Okay, with his friends. That's one thing.

00:24:18
Speaker 3: People like me who play franchise, who play in leagues or single players. I have a longtime friend who plays a single player Madden Franchise ten fifteen, twenty five seasons deep. The problem was that it was just formulaic and got kind of old after well, you had to use your imagination. A lot of that has been replaced with new mechanisms in the game that I think will keep people engaged longer, which is most important to the overall strength of the game.

00:24:41
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm I'm I'm interested, I'm excited. And yes, he does a lot of franchise thing. I mean, I guess he does it all. That's that's that's his main main game. Finally, let him start playing Fortnite lately, and so that's now taken up a lot of time.

00:24:54
Speaker 2: It'll be onto college as well.

00:24:55
Speaker 1: But like some absolutely absolutely ridiculous traits going on in franchise mode. All right, let's wrap up this show with a couple hype bunnies. This will be quick. But I was listening to the Lions talk about Jamison Williams and I just thought, oh man, this is one of those players this season that is gonna be a hype bunny everywhere, and I thought we would get ahead of it. Shook because there are just certain players in certain seasons that by the time the season gets there, you're like, okay, like I'm almost sick of hearing how this guy's going to have a breakout player. So we're here early June almost predicting and talking about just two players. I'm gonna pick Jamison Williams, but I'll let you go first and explain your pick of who's gonna be a hype bunny for this season, just a player that everyone is sort of talking about, that the league is talking about going into twenty twenty five.

00:25:56
Speaker 3: I'm gonna skew toward rookies because that's dominated a lot of the offseason, as it always does. But one guy I'm thinking of is Ashton Genty because I think that the Raiders lacked the presence that they had in the backfield Josh Jacobs in years prior, and the Raiders have a lot of positive buzz around them right now. You are a walking, breathing example of it at times because Gino Smith is their quarterback.

00:26:16
Speaker 2: Now and Pete Carroll's the coach.

00:26:18
Speaker 3: Genty fills out that offense, and I mean we're talking about him changing his stance and OTAs right and that that's getting traction. So I think he's actually going to produce at a relatively high level and people are gonna pay attention to him and love watching him run the football in the NFL throughout this season. He's going to be one of the big ones I think who's going to come in and have an instant impact on this team. And kind of like Bijon Robinson had a lot of hype following him into Atlanta a couple of years ago, it's going to be similar to that.

00:26:43
Speaker 1: It's a league white trend. Now running backs are back and we've got suon On. Matt Jeffrey was on the cover last year.

00:26:50
Speaker 2: Now you got Saquon.

00:26:51
Speaker 1: They're back we got Derreck Henry getting big time money, and we got stuck in this conversation for so long about how running backs are relatively fungible and that their careers end quicker.

00:27:06
Speaker 4: And that is all true.

00:27:07
Speaker 1: Why like they don't necessarily get or deserve big second contracts unless they're the best of the best, like a Henry or McCaffrey or Saquon. But it has never changed the fact shook that running backs are cool, that running backs are fun, that when you're a kid, what do you want to be? You want to be a running back when you're a kid. What do you want to watch when you're an adult? What do you want to watch? When you're a fantasy player? Who do you want to draft? Who do you want to watch? Like, no matter how much you tell us that the position is worthless, it's actually never been any less cool.

00:27:39
Speaker 4: And we should have superstars now.

00:27:41
Speaker 1: We don't have to go back to the seventies where running backs were literally the kings of the sport. They were almost more important than quarterback. But we need to find some sort of balance where guys like Ashton Genty are the biggest stars in the sport and if they're only.

00:27:53
Speaker 4: The biggest stars for six or seven years.

00:27:54
Speaker 1: Who cares.

00:27:55
Speaker 4: We don't need everyone to be Tom Brady.

00:27:57
Speaker 1: I'm with you. Like he makes the Raiders watchable and box office in a way that.

00:28:04
Speaker 4: They just haven't been for years, at least on paper.

00:28:06
Speaker 2: Right now, I think he'll do it though, Yeah.

00:28:09
Speaker 1: He'll do it all right.

00:28:11
Speaker 4: I will go with Jamison Williams as my pick. And he's entering year four.

00:28:16
Speaker 1: It's a perfect time a guy towards the end of his rookie contract to just start being the subject of all the pieces. He's had, this narrative arc shook disappointment right off the bat, immature on and off the field. I mean last season, we're coming into the season. You know, there's multiple suspensions going on in his career, whether it was the substance abuse policy, I mean the PD policy rather, I should say, and the gambling policy previously, Like he has not made great decisions. And then yet he shows up last season and he gets over a thousand yards and he finally shows that progress on the field that you wanted to see. And now he's coming into his own and he's just such an obvious candidate to get talked about so much. Let's listen to Dan Campbell talking about Jameson Williams last week.

00:29:08
Speaker 5: His ability to stop put his foot in the ground. Man, when you can run like you can run, and now you begin into where man, you can stop on a dime. I mean you talk about a hardcover. So the sky's a limit for him. He's exactly where we want him to be right now at this point. Man, he's been here, he's grinding, he's getting better. Scott, he's freaking grinding him. It's awesome. But we expect him to have a huge season.

00:29:35
Speaker 1: Sky's the limit, says the headlines where you expect him to have a huge season, and says, the headlines are you buying sick?

00:29:43
Speaker 2: I did say I'm a skeptic. I did say I'm a sinek.

00:29:46
Speaker 3: But I know the talent is there. It's just been the ability to stay on the field. And his fit in that offense is so good too. Like if you could extract near maximum production from Jameson Williams and aman Ross ain't Brown at same time, you got one of the best duos in the NFL right off the top. But we haven't seen it at the level that I would envision it to be. Is he talented enough. Yes, Sure, he didn't stick at Ohio State because they were loaded at receiver, and then he goes Dallabama and he's an instant breakout star and we haven't seen it consistently in the NFL because he hasn't been on the field. So if he's on the field all year and they are able to pick up where they left off despite changing offensive coordinators, then yes, because I think that he has every gift he needs to produce. It's just a matter of establishing consistency both on and off the field.

00:30:32
Speaker 1: I think they are big up being Jamison Williams in the off season because they see a change in him. Here's some quotes. This was from the Lions website. Sky's the Limit was the headline. They say coaches have raved about Williams off season for his play on the field, but his attention to detail in meeting rooms. Every time his name has been brought up, the person talking, whether it's Dan Campbell, Johnny Morton, the offensive coordinator, wide receivers coach Scotty Montgomery, or Williams's teammates, big smile crosses their face and say that he has a different attitude in terms of the work that he's putting in and expect a huge season. Just seems like they are all trying to build him up for what's going to be a big season because if he goes off, he can really, you know, get rich in terms of his contract. And I did see development over the last season and a half where he's better at those stop routes. He's not just a one trick pony in terms of his deep passing. In fact, he was third in the NFL in yak per catch. Now that's partly because he's got a couple where you know, he goes like seventy yards on a slam, but that's what he could do for you, second in the NFL in yards per reception.

00:31:35
Speaker 4: And then I watched a little of his press conference too.

00:31:37
Speaker 1: No huge takeaways, but just does seem like a player who came into the league immature like a lot of twenty one year olds are, and has grown into it in the right organization and seems kind of ready and relaxed and ready for a big season.

00:31:51
Speaker 4: So I'm I'm buying big time.

00:31:52
Speaker 3: This is also a club that's not afraid to pay their players. We've seen that in the last few years with their key players. So if he's going to go it, now is the time, and I think he would be rewarded handsomely. If he does earn it now, they'll have to fit it into the cap, but they've done a good job of that so far.

00:32:07
Speaker 2: So I like the upside there. I definitely do.

00:32:08
Speaker 3: We're gonna the next player I'm gonna pick for a hype bunny is I'm a Stavis receiver.

00:32:13
Speaker 2: Kind of a different narrative here.

00:32:15
Speaker 3: It's DK Metcalf and it's because and this is directly tied to Aaron Rodgers and whether he eventually decides to sign with the Steelers or not, which we've been waiting forever, but we all expect that to happen at some point because the Steelers, after meandering through this strange quarterback list territory where they just cycle guys in and out and try to figure out what they're doing.

00:32:36
Speaker 2: Can you pick it?

00:32:37
Speaker 3: Russell Wilson justin fields now, Mason Rudolph is back, but probably won't start unless Rogers retires.

00:32:43
Speaker 2: This is a big year for them again.

00:32:45
Speaker 3: You know, every time I talk to a Steeler fan out in the wild during this offseason, I repeatly get the same question, what do you think about Mike Tomlin?

00:32:53
Speaker 2: You know, is he really gonna be there that long? You know, why can't we win a playoff game?

00:32:56
Speaker 3: And I tell him the same thing, Guys, you wouldn't even be in the playoffs and Canon if he wasn't your coach because of what the hand he's been dealt at quarterback, He's have found a way to get them there. But if they have Aaron Rodgers and he can play like he did down the stretch of the Jets last year, and he can find an establish rapport with DK Metcalf, the new guy in town, the guy that they like better than they like George Pickens so much that they traded George Pickens the Dallas, then it's gonna attract a ton of buzz. We're gonna seeteeer highlights. They got four primetime games, first ones in Week seven and it continues on through the season. The league expects them to be in contention and to be worth watching in a primetime slot, and a big reason for that is DK Metcalf. So I think we're gonna talk about him a lot if he's able to get on the same page with Rogers.

00:33:37
Speaker 2: If Rogers becomes their quarterback again.

00:33:39
Speaker 3: A lot of question marks, but if it all comes together, not saying they're gonna win a Super Bowl, but we're gonna be talking about metcalf and the Steelers a lot.

00:33:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally agree with you. There there was always a feeling that there could be more to Dk Metcalfe. Well, if not now than when he turned in exactly this season, could he have a trell Owens' first season with the Cowboys or Eagles type of He hasn't had that level of season. We'll see if he can get it done. That is three hype bunnies to keep an eye on heading into the season. That's it for a nice, tight Monday show. We will be back on Tuesday with my friend Jordan Rodriege of The Athletic. We're trying to get Colleen Wolf on board. The negotiations are ongoing.

00:34:21
Speaker 4: What's going on.

00:34:22
Speaker 1: We will see, Well, she was off camping in Big sur she's off doing Good Morning Football. We'll see if we can get her. But it would be a big ad if we can.

00:34:30
Speaker 3: That is it.

00:34:31
Speaker 1: Like I said for today's show, there's a lot of otis going on. Good to have shook back in the show. I've missed you shook to be back.

00:34:42
Speaker 4: Yes, when we're trying.

00:34:44
Speaker 1: To, you know, tell everyone to just calmbound down like the boat thing isn't that big of a deal. Stefan Diggs is gonna play yet, you know football's finding