40s and Free Agents: Post-Combine Free Agency and Draft Buzz: What Positions are Deepest?

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to Forties and Free Agents. I'm Greg Rosenthal here with Daniel Jeremiah. I am lucky to have the most wanted man who was in Indianapolis and just got back in the first, you know, big show he's doing back is his favorite show, Forties and Free Agency.

00:00:19
Speaker 2: I'm you doing, buddy.

00:00:20
Speaker 3: I still doesn't get old seeing the little flipping the names on the screen there due to our little wager that we had from the regular season.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: Yes, it does say with Daniel Jeremiah and Greg Rosenthal. I think I think that's appropriate after the big week that you had.

00:00:35
Speaker 4: DJ is so big in Indianapolis. He didn't even speak to me.

00:00:39
Speaker 1: We tried to book him for for NFL Daily or for this show, and we actually have some photos here if you happen to watch it on YouTube or the NFL channel. The crowd that was at the Daniel Jeremiah press conference was bigger than any player I think all week long. Like I tried to get a question in uh, couldn't happen. Tried to work it through PR to get DJ as a guest. No, he said, no, he's doing serious. He doesn't want to talk to you. And I saw this other shot of you at the podium too, where it's like DJ looks angry? Did some did someone ask you like a bad question or something? You're just pretending to be the GM. You're the man in indian Hell.

00:01:19
Speaker 2: Oh I got I got trust me.

00:01:21
Speaker 3: I got texts from gms after, like this stuff started circulating on social media and it was.

00:01:26
Speaker 2: Like, oh, really, we've got media doing.

00:01:29
Speaker 3: Press conferences getting questions from media? Is that where we are right now? So I got busted pretty good on all that stuff.

00:01:35
Speaker 1: I mean a massive press conference. You should push back. I'm old enough to remember DJ Mayock used to do the same thing. Yeah, so I don't know if that's a first for you.

00:01:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have not. I have not done.

00:01:45
Speaker 3: Mayok used to do it like after the quarterbacks used to go earlier, so the quarterbacks were thrown.

00:01:50
Speaker 2: I think it was after that he would do is.

00:01:51
Speaker 1: But it was at a podium. It was at a podium people asking Mayak questions. So you can push back and there you go, and who knows. It's it's nice we got to book you for this show.

00:02:00
Speaker 4: I didn't get you in Indianapolis.

00:02:01
Speaker 2: No, But do you want to tell the story real quick off?

00:02:03
Speaker 3: How I got you when you were walking with Tyson Harman and all your buddies.

00:02:08
Speaker 2: We're walking, so don't tell the story.

00:02:09
Speaker 3: So we're I'm getting ushered to go to the next thing I got to go to, and they kind of running me through it and then I see Greg. I haven't seen him, you know, the whole time, and he's with all of his guys and chest out and I stop. I go, hey, Greg, well did I tell you what that personnel guy told me about you in the in the podcast on forties of three inches?

00:02:26
Speaker 2: You know?

00:02:27
Speaker 3: I go, yeah, because nobody's told me anything. And then I just kept walking and just watched the air kind of come out of your lungs. And then it was a highlight of my day that day. As I was bustling around between the interviews.

00:02:37
Speaker 4: Well, I'm glad I could give that to you.

00:02:38
Speaker 1: Twenty seconds with me in Indianapolis was your best twenty seconds. And I did hear from people from literally multiple teams in Indianapolis that they like listening to our show. So we're going to try to give him a good one. Here's what we're going to do. We're kind of gonna give a one on one. We are on the doorstep of free agency. We're taping this on Tuesday. It's going to come out of the franchise.

00:02:55
Speaker 2: Tags are flying around as we're Franchise tag Day.

00:02:57
Speaker 1: Brice Hall has been has been tagged, and we're going to kind of give the one oh one of like where we're at for all the different free agency positions, but also based on what we learned in Indianapolis in terms of the veterans, but also what you saw on the field and maybe how that impacts free agency position by position.

00:03:15
Speaker 4: And I've come to a thought about the quarterbacks. We'll start there. We'll go through the position.

00:03:21
Speaker 1: That actually there are a lot of quarterbacks of it. I know people don't think there are a lot of quarterbacks. It's a lower level of guys at quarterback and free agency and possible trades.

00:03:32
Speaker 4: But there's a lot of them.

00:03:34
Speaker 1: And the way I thought about it, and here's my theory, here are the amount of quarterbacks I would rather have start Week one than whoever you have as QB two in this rooky class. Malik Willis, Kyler Murray, assuming he gets there. Daniel Jones is going to stay with the Colts, but you know he'd be there. Gino Smith, I think there's more interest in than people expected. Aaron Rodgers, Marcus Mariota, Wowee, Kirk Cousins, Tuatungua Bailoa, Tanner McKee. Now we get a little tricky Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett, Mac Jones, Anthony Richards and Justin Fields, Joe Flacco. We're getting a little hazy there towards the end. But I think the way the NFL looks at it, I just listed fifteen guys that like, if you just had to win a game tomorrow, aka Week one, you might rather have those guys. And there's only about seven or eight teams that are looking for starters. So between all those guys, like that's you get that guy in place first, and in this quarterback class, it kind of gets hurt because of that.

00:04:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's fair, and I think it's you know, man, like the buzziest name, you know, the biggest conversations. I should say it's even more media driven than team driven. But like the Ty Simpson conversation is everywhere. So I want to an exercise this morning, not on the freemency side, but I went through you as we're recording this. He's my fortieth player. You know, maybe he'll probably move up a couple spots, but he's not going to be inside my top thirty two guys for this draft. I think he's the second round pick. But I'm like going through, Okay, where does he fit? Because I do think he is I think I think in the right fit, in the right spot, he has a chance he can be successful. So I'm going through it and I'm like, Okay, I don't see him as a fit in Cleveland. I do think Cleveland's gonna roll with with Watson and see what they have with him this year, and then they're in the quarterback market next year, try and continue to build out their roster so that they can support whoever they would take at the quarterback position the following year. The Jets, I feel the same way about where to me, they've got to believe three ones next year. So I got two this year, three next year. It feels like again trying to build out your infrastructure. Then with three ones, they're either going to be in position to take a quarterback or they have so much ammunition they're going to be able to blow somebody away to go up and get their quarterback next year. So that doesn't really feel like a fit for them. The Steelers, I don't see that as a fit. I just don't think his his you know, physical size and attributes. We've seen the Kenny Pickett experiment and that did not work there, and you know, I just don't see that happen.

00:06:00
Speaker 2: They're out, So then where are the fits?

00:06:01
Speaker 3: The Rams are one that's often discussed, but I think the Rams are in go for it mode right now. They're right on the cusp of a Super Bowl. That doesn't feel like that would be a move when you don't know how much long longer you have Stafford, how much longer is McVeigh going to stay. You know, this feels like a push to me. It doesn't feel like it's something we're planning for the future. So take them out of the mix. So I came up with two teams. Okay, and the two teams that came up first. Foremost for me was Arizona because he feels like to me, like an NFC West quarterback. We've seen purty Be, you know, obviously successful in that division. I think his skill set will work in Lafleur's offense. I just I like the factor endorse all those things to me that that one makes sense. Now it's not in the top of the first round. So is that We kicked around the idea at the combine with Rich I said, you know, the second round or if they want the extra year, you know, if you want to come and do that at the bottom of round one. So the Arizona is the first team running through the rest of these teams run through the rest of these teams. The one that I looked at and I'm like, huh, from an offensive standpoint, like playing indoors, how does he fit how they want to play the position. I was like, gosh, I literally tweeted it and I said, I'm going to duck and turn off my mentions. But like you look at Minnesota and say Kirk Cousins operating that offense of what he did, and I'm like, okay, he's kind of in that family of quarterback and that style of quarterback. Again not at eighteen. It would be your trading back or you know, whatever you want to do with and try and maneuver around the board whoever you would do it. And then people would say obviously I knew I turned I would never want to mention on it because it'll be guse JJ McCarthy has no experience, and I we're gonna get another quarterback with no experience. Is he better than JJ McCarthy.

00:07:39
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:07:40
Speaker 3: I just didn't get the sense of and you tell me what you heard, but I didn't get like this, there's this excitement around McCarthy and Minnesota and this is something that's going to get turned around. It's I mean, it is, it's very early on in his time there, but I didn't get a sense that that was going great to put the h.

00:07:57
Speaker 4: That's a leaky ship and it's not positive.

00:08:02
Speaker 1: I can't remember a situation where you're hearing that a team is almost ready to move on.

00:08:08
Speaker 4: I said it on NFL Daily.

00:08:09
Speaker 1: I think he has a better chance of being on someone else's roster than being their Week one starter. I think the most likely outcome is he's on their roster and he's not the starter. But I could see in a world where they took Ty Simpson, that they flipped JJ McCarthy as part of some other deal and he gets to try to restart somewhere else, maybe as a.

00:08:28
Speaker 3: I mean I realized, I realize how it sounds crazy, like when you just look at they have just taken a quarterback. There's similarities between the two of them. But I also go, Okay, it's kind of you know, Quessi's out, and then it's not like you're saying, oh, this was his pick and Kevin didn't have any impact on it. Obviously he had to have some influence there as the head coach and someone who develops a quarterback position. But I'm just saying it kind of makes it a little cleaner of like, Okay, GM's gone. Quarterback that was taken on his watch, it's gone. We're going to start new here. I think that finding a veteran because the team's ready to win right now makes makes a lot of sense.

00:09:04
Speaker 2: But I'm just I was scrambling trying to.

00:09:06
Speaker 3: Find a home for that guy, and I I struggle to come up with it, which.

00:09:11
Speaker 1: Makes me think you don't have to trade up for him if you're like an Arizona like it could be a sitt I sure like Malik Willis's draft where the guys after the top guy just fall. And yeah, that was one of my takeaways I wrote down was I just think the Vikings are getting a starter.

00:09:27
Speaker 4: It's not going to be JJ. And that's where you did hear a little bit that.

00:09:32
Speaker 1: There's a little more interest in Gino than I would have expected as maybe a fallback plan in Arizona or like a one a option for the Vikings along with Kyler.

00:09:42
Speaker 4: And then you know that you do hear some Kyler jet stuff which I don't.

00:09:46
Speaker 2: Buy that fusing, I don't buy that one. Okay, Yeah, that wouldn't make as much sense to Okay, I.

00:09:51
Speaker 1: Wanted to throw that by you because I'm not sure about that either. Jimmy G and Arizona kind of makes sense if you're thinking about the Ty Simpson because I here, you know Mike Lafleur and likes Jimmy Gen. He wouldn't be like a guy you really are moving forward with, but just a guy to buy your time by time that that you combine and so you add up all those guys that I just said, and again they're not guys that are gonna get the fan base excited. But there are just like a lot of options and they can they can play football.

00:10:17
Speaker 3: Who evoke the strongest opinions on the veteran market when you talk to people there, because I've got mine.

00:10:24
Speaker 1: Oh, the strong opinions like negative and or positive.

00:10:28
Speaker 4: Yes, probably.

00:10:31
Speaker 1: Probably Willis who because I just got so many people telling me I was crazy, but that some people that was like, you see the vision, thank.

00:10:37
Speaker 3: You, that's the one. That's the one there is. There are people that say this is the number one option. You know, there's excitement there, there's upside there, you know, warranted go get him. There's there's gonna be a fun future for whoever gets Malik Willis. And there's other people that say, you are the numbers that are getting thrown around him are insane. There is nothing to justify that that he would get that much money. So I just that was the one guy who people are there's no I like Malik Willis. There's this is gonna be awesome or this is going to be a colossal train wreck. Like there's nobody in the middle.

00:11:15
Speaker 1: And it does worry me. I don't I don't know, and they would probably keep it quiet. If there is a team out there like is there are there two teams out there that are on the high end of that spectrum, that really love him, that drive up his market. I'm not sure. So it could be a little closer to that. Justin fields contract from a year ago compared to maybe a Gino Smith or Sam Darnold contract for a year ago.

00:11:34
Speaker 4: But either way, I.

00:11:34
Speaker 1: Think he's going to get paid. I think he's going to get an opportunity. That's what I want to see. And it is interesting all these teams, the Falcons, specifically Vikings and Chiefs, where you're just like looking like maybe the Vikings aren't in that category where you're just looking for short term starters. I'm really interested to see where the Chiefs go there. All right, that's quarterback, and we spend a lot of time on quarterback, but it's quarterback, yeah, running back. Like any guys you think watching this is there anything like watching what happened on the field with the combine with this class, that change, you know, makes you feel any different because it's a super deep free agency class.

00:12:14
Speaker 4: I know Brees Hall is now off the market.

00:12:16
Speaker 1: He got tagged, but you still have Etn and Rico Dawdell and Kenneth Walker. You know, the Texans solve their you know issue if you want to call it that with David Montgomery. I think they'll be happy there. I heard back that I was a little too low on k Tyler Aljeer. I think he'll do well in free agency. Aaron Jones is still a good player. He's going to be out there, and so there's a lot of options where I think people are going to check that box and free agency before you even get to this draft.

00:12:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not a deep group in the draft. So the two Notre Dame kids, whereas advertised, loves, you know, top ten guys, my second overall player.

00:12:49
Speaker 2: He lit it up.

00:12:51
Speaker 3: His teammate Jadarian Price. I really really like him. I think he's a second round guy, you know. I think because and we'll get to the offensive lineman. I think because there's it falls off off a cliff after the group of tackles that you know, maybe Price where you could say he's one of the thirty two best players in the draft. Potentially, I think that he still goes in the second round somewhere, and then I think we have a couple guys go in the third round. So that's like Mike Washington junior from Arkansas, who he knew was going to fly. He did that, and then you get the Nebraska kids. So that's that's four guys. But it's not We've had other years where it's like, man, I love the guys we're going to get in the fourth, fifth round. I think that's why you're seeing Breecee Hall get tagged and Javonte Williams get done. Like I think teams are going to prefer the veteran market.

00:13:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like the David Montgomery trade to the Texas just okay, that's a six million dollar contract. I think teams look at the running back position and think like this does not cost that much to take care of that position. Kenny Gainwell, Rashad White two more names that are out there.

00:13:49
Speaker 2: Gainwell, I'm curious to see what goes on with him.

00:13:52
Speaker 4: Good player, Well, I think he'll do well. Everyone everyone needs a Kenny games Well. You mentioned offense plan.

00:13:57
Speaker 1: Let's just go yeah right there, because you said it's such a drop off at tackle. I think of the same thing in free agency. There's three guys that stand or four guys now if you want to include Juwan Taylor who just got cut by the Chiefs but he's not.

00:14:09
Speaker 2: A great player.

00:14:11
Speaker 1: Jermaine iluminor Rashid Walker, Brayden Smith are the three names you hear as guys that at least you can you can sign. They're going to start for you. Yeah, they have strengths and weaknesses. They're not going to make the Pro Bowl, but they're okay. Jwan Taylor, I think is going to get a contract after that.

00:14:29
Speaker 4: It's rough.

00:14:29
Speaker 1: There aren't many tackles out there in free agency, and it sounds similar in the draft.

00:14:34
Speaker 2: Seven guys.

00:14:35
Speaker 3: There's seven so when you look at it, I think there's a real chance all seven of them end up going in the first round. And because if you need one, you gotta take one, and you're gonna I like, I've got the Arizona State tackle, you're not yours like in the early thirties for me, But I think he could go in the in the twenties, just because if you don't get on that ride early, the ride's over. So there's seven guys to go along with a big time interior player and Yo Wanna from Penn State. So that's eight offensive linemen. Then there's a couple other intriguing guards. But I think, you know, see maybe those guys go early in the second round, mid second round, but those tackles, I just think there's there's enough need around the league. And it's such a decline and drop off after after those guys, I think they get pushed up.

00:15:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like there there are some guys a little deeper at tackle that maybe you can sign and you can figure it out. But it's just it just strikes me. We had Brandon bean On on the show. You know he would like he wasn't too big time enough for us, like a guy, Well, yeah it was.

00:15:40
Speaker 4: It was run a team that you know, made the playoffs year after year after year. Like he wasn't big time, but you were too big time.

00:15:46
Speaker 1: And I asked him about possibly losing his interior offensive lineman and his answer to me, without directly saying it, I think was telling, which was, hey, look, those are two guys we got pretty cheap in free agency. Like one of them was a sixth offensive lineman. One was a little later in free agency. And that spoke to me of like, that's a position where we think coaching and development and that's going to be what you can maximize. And it just hits me every year. And they just lost their offensive line coach. It was a great one. Those guys are under That's who's underpaid is the great offensive line coach and having the right offensive system to develop these positions that's such a huge advantage for NFL teams because then you can take a David Edwards or econor McGovern and three years later you spit them out and they're going to make fifteen to twenty million dollars in free agency. But you can find the next ones if you have a good internal system.

00:16:39
Speaker 4: It's just such a value add.

00:16:41
Speaker 3: I would just add though that increasingly it's become difficult for quality tackles to get to the free agent market, and I think you can find a lot of reclamation project guards. You can even find some taxles who failed to guard, and you can get some real, real value with those guys.

00:16:55
Speaker 2: It's hard, it's hard to.

00:16:57
Speaker 3: You know, get in the uh, get in a big time discount on a quality tackle like that. Just it's hard to find those guys. You have to pay the premium. That's why I think those you know, and I don't think free agency even really has him this year. So that's how it impacts the draft.

00:17:10
Speaker 2: Is boom those guys. Those guys are going to go.

00:17:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good call. Like Jermaine iluminor to me, I'll be really fascinating there.

00:17:16
Speaker 3: There's like I saw a lot of nice things about him, and a couple of the teams that I talked to and we brought up the names, and it was like a hard no, Like no.

00:17:25
Speaker 1: That's what I was gonna say, was he's a guy in the past who's just kicked around, like he's bounced around the league. But he has good He started a lot for teams that have successfully protected the passer, and so maybe it's he's not gonna be for everyone. But what I mean is like he's a guy who's been in free agency before and not getting paid much money, and I think this time you'll see just because of the lack of the market, he'll get it. But you're right at guard. There's there's a lot of guys the two bills I mentioned. We'll see if Joel Buttonio retires or not. But you have other guys who have played for the Browns at various points. Wyatt Teller, Kevin Zeitler, the Texans, you know they just traded.

00:18:00
Speaker 2: How about the tech Can we pause there?

00:18:02
Speaker 4: Yes?

00:18:02
Speaker 3: Sure, I'm curious to see how the Texans are going to build this thing out like.

00:18:08
Speaker 2: They joined the ring.

00:18:09
Speaker 3: Like when we look at the teams that need to overhaul the offensive line, right, okay, the Raiders, the Jets, the Browns, and then all of a sudden, it's like, oh my gosh, the Texans, Like the Texans are a super Bowl caliber team that have to rework some things along their offensive line right now.

00:18:22
Speaker 1: Nick Cassario cracks me up because he got annoyed by a question where the premise was your offensive line essentially wasn't great last year. You know what are you going to do to fix it? And he was like, are you watching the same tape that I guess? I got to watch that tape because the tape I watched, I thought they were much improved essentially, And I know what he was getting it.

00:18:44
Speaker 3: I thought last week Sursery got better as the year went on.

00:18:47
Speaker 1: And Ingram played well for them, and I thought Titus Howard was okay. I thought last year they did kind of what we asked, can you just have a normal offensive line? And for much of the season they were probably in the sixteen to twenty four or something.

00:19:00
Speaker 4: They weren't.

00:19:01
Speaker 1: They weren't the worst group in the league anymore. But for a second straight off season, they just wave goodbye to their best player. But so long, layer me tons of last year. So long Titus hour this year in Ingram. Maybe they're gearing up to give him a big contract.

00:19:12
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say, I'm gonna tell you right now, I will be shocked if when we reconvene after free agency, if they haven't gone top of the market shopping along the interior.

00:19:23
Speaker 1: And it might be a it might be a trade. And okay, so some of the top of the market. I mentioned a couple of them, but Isaac, Sayamalu, there are numbers.

00:19:30
Speaker 4: Like you said, it's easier to find.

00:19:32
Speaker 1: Caid Mays is a center for the Panthers, who I think is going to get a bigger contract than people expected. Sean Ryan's played for the Packers Zeitler. So there are guys. There are guys out there.

00:19:41
Speaker 3: I think those bills guys. I think those bills guys make sense there too.

00:19:45
Speaker 1: I think they make a lot of sense. Let's let's do the rest of offense before we take a break. Wide receiver is very top heavy, not a lot of depth. And this is where it seems to me in most years, actually, I think free agents have more a good wide receivers available. And you have Romeo Dobson and Wandol Robinson who. I think teams will give like solid contracts to guys who will play. Mike Evans will see what he gets. The Rachid Shaheed market is quiet out there.

00:20:12
Speaker 4: I have a heart.

00:20:14
Speaker 1: I have no idea what he's going to get, but I do wonder it seems like this draft class is just deeper. It's actually a position where you can find guys to play right away versus the free agency where the money doesn't quite add up.

00:20:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think because we're going to see the offensive lineman dominate the first round, like who's going to get punished because of that? You know, Dresher's deep, but I still think the ddressers go. I think the benefactor is going to be teams wanting wide receivers in the second round. I think in second, third round, Day two, here's a there is a plethora of quality wide outs, all different shapes and sizes of skill sets. It's like discount shopping. So I think, you know the fact that we don't necessarily have a deep group in free agency, that they can get that problem solved and to go back to the Texans real quick. I almost wonder if they take the approach with the interior offensive line potentially that they took with receiver last year, doubled up on those receipts, those Iowa State receivers in the second round or the second day. Maybe they use that same approach with a pretty good interior offensive line group.

00:21:17
Speaker 4: Ooh, but just do the double up on the Bills.

00:21:20
Speaker 1: We threw out that idea for the Raiders, but they should just import the Bills offensive line. They need both of those spots, and like they have all the cap space in the world. I like that because it's also a position where like who would you rather have a second or third round pick, even just to play Week one, or let's say Johan Dotson or Marquise Brown or Kurt Like.

00:21:41
Speaker 4: It's a reasonable discussion.

00:21:42
Speaker 1: There's some guys in the middle, Juwan Jennings, you know, could end up in Tennessee with his old coach, or you know, there'll be guys who signed decent condos. But it's not great tight ends Pretty awesome, though, remember when tight ends were supposed to take forever to develop at the NFL level. I am curious to ask you that, like they've they've had quick impacts lately, and I don't know how you think that could impact you know, Kenya and Sadeek or the rest of this class, because it's a really good free agent class. At tight end, I think maybe the strongest position pound for pound.

00:22:11
Speaker 3: Well, we had one of the best tight end groups we've ever had last year and it was you know, we talked about it in the run up to the draft. There's nobody in this draft that approaches the top two guys, even.

00:22:21
Speaker 1: The class before though, those guys came in and they putted right away Laporta, and you know they made a difference.

00:22:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the higher end of that class is the last two classes is better than this class. So there's Sadik, who's kind of an interesting guy because he a little bit undersized but super dynamic. He'll go in the first round, and then after that I think you maybe you could see a pause in the second round and maybe we start seeing more third, fourth, fifth round guys. So I don't think the impact we'll see will match what we saw with Levln and Warren and my guy from Bowling Green to the to the Browns last year, Haill Fannin, who was a really really good player. So don't I don't see that immediate impact of this group. But in terms of your point, like the ability for these guys to get on the field. Man, Yeah, I mean there are a lot of these NFL teams are flexing them out. They're doing a lot of the same stuff that they did in college.

00:23:10
Speaker 1: And way more to tight end, even three tight end sets. And so that's that's one of the reasons why I think you're gonna see money flying at tight end. I don't think they're gonna be monster contracts, but just teams picking these guys kits.

00:23:24
Speaker 4: Is gone now.

00:23:25
Speaker 1: But after that you have Isaiah Likely, you have Kada and who I think is a good player. You have godd It. You mentioned, you have Chigo kon Quo. Travis Kelcey does look like he's going to come back to the Chiefs, which which kind of crosses off the Chiefs as probably a big time tight end team. Charlie Kohler is a guy I was surprised to hear. I think teams do like him as like a second blocking tight end. It's it's tough to find those guys. And then like there's even depth like in Joco I haven't mentioned yet is a good player. Darren Waller looks shockingly good when he came back last year.

00:23:58
Speaker 4: I think he'll have a place some some Sean McVay.

00:24:01
Speaker 1: Tree is gonna sign Tyler Higbee to be there tight end too, and like be really happy with it. And so these are guys that are all going to play get varying levels of contract, but most of those first guys like Oconco and like like like those guys are going to be playing forty to fifty.

00:24:15
Speaker 4: Stumps a game and getting good contracts in for you.

00:24:17
Speaker 2: No, that's a good group.

00:24:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is kind of interesting how it kind of leans draft or free agency with most of these positions. So I'll lean towards free agency with that one.

00:24:25
Speaker 1: All right, that's the offense. Let's take a break, we'll come back and we'll we'll talk defense back on forties and free agents. You know, unlike Rich Eyes, DJ doesn't get that that flight right as the show he got out, Man, you didn't even get home until Monday evening, and here you are back grinding Tuesday morning. Like what what is a DJ post combine? And like do you do anything to celebrate what what goes on?

00:25:03
Speaker 2: Not yet.

00:25:04
Speaker 3: We'll do a couple of days of shows here and then uh, I got to work through Wednesday, Thursday. Yeah, Friday will be my That'll be my maybe maybe maybe go hit a golf ball on Friday or something. Get outside, see the sun a little bit. It's been uh been indoors, so I got to get out.

00:25:19
Speaker 4: We got a little World Baseball class that coming.

00:25:21
Speaker 2: Oh that's is that starting?

00:25:23
Speaker 4: That starts Friday?

00:25:24
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, yeah, I'll probably watching. I'll be watching a lot of that.

00:25:28
Speaker 2: I love.

00:25:29
Speaker 3: Side note, people are like the dr team, everybody's super excited about.

00:25:32
Speaker 2: It's like Tatis Machado, Juan Soto.

00:25:35
Speaker 3: I'm like, how did that team have that pottery team not make the playoffs in twenty twenty three?

00:25:39
Speaker 2: I still don't get that.

00:25:40
Speaker 4: Yes, you're the only one that's that's still wondering about it. I guess you and the rest of the Padres.

00:25:45
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Blake Snell won the cy Young that year, still make the playoffs, make thatchse.

00:25:50
Speaker 4: Let's talk let's talk edge.

00:25:51
Speaker 1: So you mentioned deep class, and it's maybe the deepest class in free agency too, whereas you it actually almost looks like maybe it mirrors it in terms of the draft, where you have the top shelf guys Hendrixon and Mafe and Jalen Phillips and Dafe Oway. Okay, we got some, you know, high price guys, but then you got the mercenaries like Bosa and mac Hassan Reddick, There's Cam Jordan, a lot of those types of guys, and you have some good up and comers like Joseph Asai kind of in the middle of his of his you know, I heard Arnold Evoketti might get a pretty good contract, aj Ep Panessa, Calebon Chason like you got to.

00:26:25
Speaker 4: You got different flavors, and.

00:26:27
Speaker 1: Then you can just pick out like eight more solid veterans that at least can play for you. So I do think it's a position where people aren't going to be crossing off edge, but they're gonna be at least feeling like we don't have to take them in the draft because we can get them in free agency.

00:26:41
Speaker 3: I'm curious to see where the like the middle tier market is because I think the the the Seahawks and the Eagles we've talked about at a bunch is just the number of guys. So instead of saying I want one twenty five million dollar player, maybe I'm gonna go try and get to eleven million dollar players, twelve million dollars players. So I think people will be really excited about that group that you mentioned in kind of that lower that middle tier group of guys, right.

00:27:09
Speaker 4: But then then they end up not being that big of a bargain.

00:27:11
Speaker 1: But yeah, some names that even I didn't say, Kingsley and Igbari, I think we'll get an okay contract and then you have like the the older guys like alkohed Mohammed or Kyle van Noy, who yeah, it's probably a one year contract, but they put up good production snaps, good snaps last year. And like in the draft, did this group kind of play to type when when you saw him on the field, like.

00:27:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was good.

00:27:35
Speaker 3: I mean the top guys were the top guys. I mean, obviously Ruben Bain's arm length was a big discussion, but I mean everybody knew he had shorter arms coming into it, so I mean it's not like it was this shocking revelation that he had short arms. Same with cash as how I think how maybe gets punished a little more, he could slide, you know, maybe he slides out of the first round at A and M. But there's there's a lot of depth there, so it's a it's a really solid group.

00:27:59
Speaker 1: I thought like when they when the Titans traded for Jamine Johnson, people are and people were like, well, then, you know, then they don't have to necessarily draft an edge at the top of the draft. And I'm thinking, Jamie Johnson can't be impacting your number four overall pick. In fact, they could sign someone else in free agency. Maybe it's not the top of the market, but it's it's one of those guys we mentioned as a solid starter type of player, and even then that shouldn't affect to me what you do at number four overall.

00:28:29
Speaker 3: I mean Saul as a defensive guy. He's seen with when when his Jets defense was really good, they had a lot of depth up front on that group. He's seen inside the division with Seattle and with the Rams, you know, and he saw what happened when his death depth was depleted last year with injuries. So they want waves of guys. That's a nice middle tier guy. They're going to continue to keep going at it and keep going at.

00:28:55
Speaker 1: It exactly when you have when you have a pick that high, you you want to get the potential of a guy that that.

00:29:01
Speaker 4: One day is getting that huge contract.

00:29:04
Speaker 1: Not a free agency but from your own team, and these are more middle tier type of guy defensive tackle. It's there's not many, and it it seems like, you know, I did, I remember I watched. I watched like every second of the defensive tackle.

00:29:17
Speaker 2: Nice.

00:29:18
Speaker 4: You know, you guys did a good job, you know, kicking that off.

00:29:22
Speaker 1: It's not a flashy class, but it feels like in free agency there's just like guy like Jonathan Franklin. Myers is an interesting guy who will get paid good money, and after that you're just looking at kind of guys who can fill gaps. I don't think a lot of defensive tackles in free agency that teams are excited about. It seems like it's probably pick your flavor in the draft, Like.

00:29:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I like the day too.

00:29:43
Speaker 3: I mean, like Banks is the one that everybody's kind of buzzing about because he's six six and changed three hundred and twenty seven pounds. He ran well, but he only played a couple of games this year. His tape is a roller coaster ride. He goes to the Senior Bowl. There's the flashes, but then he disappeared, Like that's the profile of a boombus. Second round pick, and there's people talking about him going up there in like the top fifteen.

00:30:07
Speaker 2: I can't. I can't get there on that one. I just can't.

00:30:10
Speaker 3: There's too many other solid players with you know, higher floors. To me, this this Detackle group lacks, you know, the star power. I think there are guys, there's a handful five or six of them that are Day two picks that I think will be good players.

00:30:25
Speaker 2: But there's nobody in there that I.

00:30:27
Speaker 3: Think is a top fifteen even a top twenty player in this draft.

00:30:31
Speaker 1: And yeah, there's the equivalent of kind of a Day two free agency pick, Like there's a lot of DJ Reid or Kalais Campbell on Yamada, Draymont jo and Sheldon Rangins. What this group lacks, though, is what you were talking about, kind of that, you know, the second tier of like guys who are coming off their first contract.

00:30:48
Speaker 4: There was almost none of that. I thought it was telling, Oh, go ahead.

00:30:51
Speaker 3: I was going to say, real quick, you know who we should give some credit with looking at this group free agency in the draft. Let's give the much maligned Dallas cow Boys some credit. There is nobody in free agency of the draft that comes anywhere close to the talent that Quentinn Williams possesses. You know, they were able to bring in last year. Now they've got other things they need to fill in. And I know Micah Parsons that's a tough one to replace. But I think that if you look at but I'm just going to give you the little Cowboys positivity here, which is not popular. But if we've talked about this and the waves of pass rushers, and you think about the last two Super Bowl teams didn't have anybody with double digit sacks, Like they found one of the hardest pieces to find, which is the defensive tackle. Now, can they build not a Micah Parsons level player, but they can they build up the waves of players to be able to roll through there. And who's their defensive coordinator? Parker where he come from came from the Eagles where they appreciate the importance of that depth.

00:31:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think they could be an interesting team. On Jalen Phillips, who haven't heard a lot about, but you're Jerry Jones. They do this every year, say like, oh, we're going to spend this year, this is the year we're going to spend.

00:32:00
Speaker 3: That one makes a lot of sense for impact familiarity. You plug you knows this is plugger Man, and you have proof of concept to how he plays there. He played great with the Eagles.

00:32:10
Speaker 1: And they have uh Os de Gazoua in the middle. They have Kenny Clark still, although I'm not.

00:32:16
Speaker 3: That might be the that's the one. If you're gonna tell me the free agent pairing that makes the most sense.

00:32:21
Speaker 2: You take it.

00:32:22
Speaker 3: You rob a division rival, You already have a coach, so you know he fits the scheme. They know him really well. He's a young, ascending player, they have room, they have money I need at the position. Like that just makes way too much sense.

00:32:33
Speaker 2: Greg, I like it.

00:32:35
Speaker 1: Let's go to linebacker, where suddenly off ball linebackers are back.

00:32:40
Speaker 4: Not only did I I.

00:32:42
Speaker 1: Think uh the the position there was there was some improvement, including like Devin Lloyd's at the top of my list, But I think this is a nice group in free agency, and it really seems like it's a great group in the draft, which I don't know if that that's not gonna help each other because I think this this is kind of the equivalent to running back or tight end, where it at least in free agency on the defensive side, I would say it's probably the deepest position along with edge.

00:33:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say this group has helped themselves the most from when the season ended to now, Like you saw seniable performances that elevated guys. You saw combine where they ran extremely fast, but not even just that, the field workouts were excellent. They caught the ball as well as any linebacker group that I can remember. I think it's a loaded group that obviously styles is going to go all the way up there in the top ten. And however you use Rvel Reese, I think on the edge, some people would leave him off the ball. But those are two premier, premier guys, and then there's a whole host of guys I think your second round, third round, like really really solid players.

00:33:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think that's going to help.

00:33:44
Speaker 1: Like Devin Lloyd, who's He's another guy you mentioned who did you get the most reaction for on at quarterback, it was Moleiku Willis. Devin Lloyd was kind of that guy for me at linebacker where not everyone liked him as much as I did. You mentioned too on the show, but between him, Nikobe Dean, Kayden Ellis Is a good veteran who's going to get some money. Leo Chanell is an interesting guy, kay Walker. There's opinions all over the place and then a ton of just veteran players to Mario Davis and Alex Angeloni.

00:34:16
Speaker 4: I think he'll do okay.

00:34:17
Speaker 1: Quincy Williams is out there, Alex Singleton, Eric Wilson, like, there's just players in depth there where you can kind of fill holes.

00:34:24
Speaker 3: Of all those guys, the name that I heard the most was Leo Chanal, just because he's a unique player men's skill set. He's a name that came up and that was definitely. I think he's going to do well in free agency.

00:34:34
Speaker 1: I wonder about him because he played for Steve Spagnolo and on a per snap basis, he made a massive impact. It was always interesting though at the end of the year. You know, you'd be looking at the list and be like, huh, he only played four hundred and fifty snaps. You know, they never played it more that he had a very specific role. They never trusted him to be on the field. So I don't know, as a personnel guy, like how you how you evaluate that and how a guy like that gets gets paid. Versus maybe a more standard like three down guy or maybe Yeah.

00:35:03
Speaker 3: I mean it's just a personnel packages. And when you've got Bolton out there, so yeah, you know, you can throw an extra dB out there and then you're limited.

00:35:11
Speaker 2: But he's a good player and there's love for him. I know that.

00:35:14
Speaker 1: I think the cornerback class in free agency is typical. It's average. There's plenty of guys who are gonna get ten million dollar contracts in free agency. There's not a lot of super duper stars, but everyone has different like flavors of the of the types of guys that they like. I think Cordell Flat is gonna sneaky get him a good amount of money.

00:35:34
Speaker 2: From Yea, his name's been popular.

00:35:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, Alante Taylor will too. I have no clue about Rieke wooland I'm not totally sure about Jalen Watson and the Chiefs what kind of money he gets. And then there's plenty of other names like Monteric Brown. I think I'll do okay from the from the Jaguars, But there's a lot of good, not great cornerbacks available.

00:35:53
Speaker 4: I don't know that matches up with the depth of the draft.

00:35:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good it's a good group.

00:35:57
Speaker 3: Again, I'm excited maybe more or so about the second tier than the top tier. And it was interesting I how to talk with a team that's, you know, desperately in the corner market outside and inside, and they told me they're like, look, we're prioritizing the nickel over our outside corner. We feel like in our defense and really a lot of the defenses. We've been discussing this right having impact guys in that position, in that role. So they were like, man, if we're going to take one, if we're going to take a couple of them in the draft, we might choose to take the nickel first and then turn on and take the outside corner in a later round. But that that's interesting to me. And it's a really good group of guys that can play inside of the nickel. And it's some bigger guys you can find too, a guy like Kilgore from South Carolina has really really helped himself and teams they're going to value that type of player that profile.

00:36:47
Speaker 1: Well, when I think about free agency and thinking about that, the name that stands out to me there is Alante Taylor, guy who I've always been intrigued by when he's at his best, I think has been.

00:36:58
Speaker 4: A really good player.

00:36:59
Speaker 1: Otherwise we're looking at mostly mostly outside guys flat flots played a little bit on the inside, but yet not a lot of guys with that sort of versatility.

00:37:08
Speaker 4: There are.

00:37:08
Speaker 1: There is versatility at safety though, like it's it's an awesome group you have.

00:37:13
Speaker 4: You have ten to.

00:37:14
Speaker 1: Twelve like real deal starters slash plus starters, but the I think the amount of them works against them. This happens a lot at safety, where a lot of teams I think, will wait it out and try to find that next Cam Curl contract. His last contract was two for nine million dollars and he's a free agent again specifically too, but there will be deals like that for safeties that wind up playing two thousand snaps over the next two years and you only have to pay him four million dollars a year, and they're going to be pretty good for you.

00:37:43
Speaker 4: There's good names out there.

00:37:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say there's there's five guys I love in the safety class, including three that I have first round grades on, and then two more that I would that I would take on on day two, and then it goes pretty deep to ten, eleven, twelve guys that I think have a chance to get on the field next year. So it's that the two positions I think that have elevated themselves in the draft side of things since the end of the season until now that have ended up being better than we initially thre at least I initially thought most people initially thoughts linebacker and safety, that those guys have really kind of jumped and emerged athletes.

00:38:18
Speaker 4: What's the deal with all the athletes playing safety now?

00:38:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it's hard.

00:38:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were faster the freaking than the corners the way they were rolling out there. And we have some of those guys in that safety group that are going to be the big Nichols that that I was talking about. So yeah, those two positions exceeded expectations.

00:38:35
Speaker 4: And there are guys available.

00:38:37
Speaker 1: So I'm really curious what the Seahawks are going to do in their secondary in general. I don't expect Riek Willing to be back, but they have Kobe Bryant at safety, who is very good for them. They have Josh Job at a cornerback who is good for them. But then I have Brian Cook is just a blast to watch play football. I think the cross of the Colts as an underrated player that I think will do okay in free agency. I mentioned Curl before, and then there's guys like Reid Blanke and hip. Jalen Thompson is a good player for the Cardinals. Yeah, Jakwan Brisker is a big risk because of the concussions. But if you want a guy who hits like, look no further. Jalen Hawkins played well a Looie Gilmot Like, there's this guys at safety where I think that I'm going to be updating a different safety signing every day next week. While I'm working hard, you're out watching baseball. We're cranking out shows every day here for NFL Daily moving Forward. We're live all week next week. This is this is my time of year.

00:39:30
Speaker 4: I don't know if you know.

00:39:31
Speaker 1: I know you're not a listener. But we call it the regular season. Oh is that what we call it?

00:39:35
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:39:35
Speaker 4: The regular season?

00:39:36
Speaker 2: What do you okay?

00:39:37
Speaker 3: Well, well, I don't love it, but work shopping, keep work shopping it. By the way, you know, you hear like all these different rumors while.

00:39:44
Speaker 2: You're at I was just give me some good one.

00:39:47
Speaker 3: Well, I was just thinking about it while you were talking and we're talking about Seahawks, and there was a rumor of like they could be a Max Crosby team that would like shock me.

00:39:57
Speaker 2: You hear them.

00:39:58
Speaker 1: No, they have so much cap space. It's a little under the radar. If you look at the teams, like with the eight teams with the most cap space, it's it's many of the worst teams in the NFL, and then it's the Chargers in the Seahawks and you're like, huh, well that's interesting.

00:40:15
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of their own guys, you know, like I think Job, I think Joe would be a priority for Seattle, try and get him done amongst all those guys.

00:40:23
Speaker 1: And Crosby would be fascinating to just say like, hey, this is our team right now, we can do it. Let's take advantage of this window. They don't have a rookie quarterback contract, but they have a quarterback contract.

00:40:35
Speaker 4: They feel good about that. They're not going too crazy for But.

00:40:38
Speaker 3: I mean, you'd have that would be already got de Marcus Lawrence, gosh, I mean, they've got Chenna and Wolsu on the other side, Like all said, you've got Max Crosby with all those dts.

00:40:48
Speaker 2: Holy moly.

00:40:50
Speaker 4: Okay, so you mentioned Crosby. That's great. I have a proposal for you. Yes, And I know you're big on the draft and all this stuff.

00:40:57
Speaker 1: For three weeks every year you be NFL insider Daniel Jeremiah. You know we've got potential changes here at NFL Network and all this stuff. The more you can do, those guys get top money. I mean, you see the suits that Pelisaro wears and everything, and Ian. You have so much information that I know that you get. You could, you could actually, and they're different. They're getting all their stuff. There's a lot of agent talk from them, self serving talk. You're getting it straight from straight from the sources. Sometimes you could be NFL insider Daniel Jeremiah just for like three weeks blow them out of the water and tell your agent that and get a big contract.

00:41:40
Speaker 3: Nope, I just like talking to you about it on the side, so that when it happens two weeks.

00:41:45
Speaker 2: Later, that's Greg. Greg. Greg's respect for me just grows just a little tiny bit.

00:41:50
Speaker 1: It annoys me. DJ has all this good stuff. I can't say anything about it. You you're not saying anything about it's ridiculous.

00:41:57
Speaker 2: Well, some of it's gonna happen soon.

00:41:59
Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, we're not supposed to say, you know anything, but yeah, the Patriots are going to get a J Brown Max Crosby their back now, all right, next week we're going to be off and running in free agency and DJ, thank you. It was great stuff every year on the combine. Appreciate it.

00:42:20
Speaker 4: I love watching you and Rich do it year after year. And uh, we'll see you next week.

00:42:25
Speaker 2: Appreciate you, buddy,