THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF HEED: FREE AGENCY EDITION

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The Heed the Call Podcast

is inching closer to the theology pod.

We all are.

Uh-oh.

Welcome to Heed the Call.

Ah, the long-rumored and anticipated theology podcast connected to our program.

Today might be the closest we ever get.

Dan Hands is here with Jordan Rodrigue, Michael Sean Dugar, and of course,

Sesi, Mark Sessler.

What's up, gang?

Ready to get closer to God, Jordan?

Yeah, I hear she's pretty cool.

Nice.

Bang.

I used to be a, okay, this is gonna, I'll make this short.

I used to be a janitor in college for a few years, and I used to work with a guy, tall, black dude, can't remember his name, but he majored in theology.

And at this job, we used to clean like where the basketball team plays, like the arena.

So we were together quite a bit, and they wouldn't let us wear headphones.

So you just had to conversate or converse converse with each other woof and i used to just he just talked my ear off about god for for hours

i just assumed not great he was a nice guy but it was not great this is and this isn't i'm not putting everyone in this box but i assume this this college guy that was a theology major was probably a major user of like probably weed and some pills or acid or something was he did he just kind of float

you know what i think he was actually there for like a like his master's or something because he was an older dude i think he was like well into his 30s actually now think about it.

Why do you, Dan, assume that someone studying theology is using LSD?

Why is that an automatic connection for you?

I guess it's the combination of that and like working in the old auditorium, like sweeping up.

He's just a guy that has been expanding his mind for a long time.

And then it's like when he had to pick a major finally, he picked the one about, you know.

Well, I think if you're sweeping non-stop, LSD feels like

a natural avenue.

So that part I connect with.

This is the plot of God will hunting, I think.

It basically is Godwill Hunting, which is a very egotistical part for Matthew Damon to make for himself.

Yes, God, man,

God, you know, in sports, God, everybody's thanking God all the time.

But the good thing about our show is he occasionally shows up on our program.

And today,

as we get closer and closer to the start of the new league year, and reminder, we'll be all over that with a series of dirty 30 shows for Heed the Call all next week as free agency kicks off and all that jazz.

But anyway, yes, before that happens,

Mike, I think it might be time to try to offer any help we can.

This is the last chance before teams make decisions that will make or break their season, right?

This is what we're offering with the help of someone higher than us to

protect those teams from themselves and set them on a righteous path to team building.

Yeah, honestly, the more I do this, this job, I mean, the more arrogant I get in thinking that I could build a team because we just every year see so many bad decisions that are like bad in real time.

I'm just like, oh, if you're making millions or whatever to just, you know, do that, you know, like Bill O'Brien when he was a GM.

Like every move that Bill O'Brien made when he had personnel say, I'm pretty sure I could have made something better.

So yeah, let's do it.

let's do it

let's do it with a little help from her Jordan

nail thanks Dan coming up a little later actually we're gonna actually share some hyper realistic league new league year transactions but first yes let's go Justin let's look to above these are the 10 commandments of heed free agency edition the first commandment thou shalt not kill thy cap space simply because thou have it.

Okay, this one's pretty straightforward, right?

Jordan, you got teams like the New England Patriots, like the Washington Commanders, as two prominent examples that are going to potentially be tempted to use all their excess cap space where they're right at the top of the league to build a super team.

But it's kind of hard to build a super team in free agency because there's not a lot of super players.

So be careful with your money, right?

it's very

like,

well, duh, Jordan, right?

But it's the real best thing to do is to draft good players, then extend them early with using, you know, that cap space.

then add here and there with extra little A-plus pieces that you might be able to be in the big leagues for and in negotiating for in free agency once your roster is ready to compete.

Now, most teams, even though this is a well-duh kind of thing, most teams do not actually operate this way.

So, it is interesting.

I will note that teams, this is a little-known fact.

I know you guys all know it, but for the listeners, teams do have a spending minimum under the CBA.

And

that last year, everything went from a four-year spending window into a three-year minimum spending window because the CBA keeps going up so much, or the salary cap keeps going up so much.

So, teams have to cash spend 90% of the salary cap between 2024 and 2026.

So, a lot of these teams are are entering the second year, all of these teams are entering the second year of that spending minimum with one of the maybe poorest free agency classes or top heaviest and then thinnest free agency classes that we've seen in quite some time.

So next year might be the time that you start to see a lot of players wanting these early extensions, wanting to sort of leverage for more money for their teams, but also teams trying to really identify and extend some of their internal players and then spending more in free agency in 2026 to try to meet that minimum threshold if there's not anyone worth spending on this year.

I mean, if I'm the Patriots, I follow the current trend where I'm looking to trade for players that are on the trade block,

that helps pat out the cap to some degree.

Like this free agency class, I would treat free agency like when you go to

like the thing that comes to mind, like when you go to like an Indian buffet, okay, like have some self-control, get a nice plate of food,

but don't, just because it's a buffet, eat like 32 pieces of naan bread and like seven plates of biryani then you're driving home and you fall asleep on the floor like let's not create problems for ourselves by overspending I think you do it the right way you so you fortify fortify self-control very nice Great two great examples.

Let's go to number two the second commandment two

shall not pay thy name

only thy game

All right, money mike this one to me and I want to I'm curious where you go with it, but I think about the wide receiver group in free agency.

There's a lot of name brands, a lot of guys.

I'll use one prominent example, DeAndre Hopkins.

Okay, I could have DeAndre Hopkins on my team this year,

or Stefan Diggs, you know, insert age 30 wide receiver with Pro Bowl resume.

But let's be sure

we're paying for and slotting that player in the right place, or you're just going to end up disappointing yourself.

Game, not name.

I agree.

I think that is important, that you don't want to just pay the name, but I do think the person does matter in both directions.

You know, like you get like, who's like a malcontent type?

Like Stephon Diggs, right?

Like, that's a guy.

His name does matter.

It can matter in the negative way, you know, because if he just cooks your locker room or something like that, you know, you like a Des Bryant, you know, just any of these like George Pickens, for instance, when George Pickens on the market, like his name can matter in a bad way.

But then I do think there are some names that can matter in a,

in a good way for what they can do for your locker room.

For instance, the guy that's, the team that gets Tyler Lockett, for instance, you know, I'm here in Seattle.

I know Tyler very well.

Like Tyler's a good locker room guy, just does a lot of the little things that shows the young dudes how to get down.

Speaking of theology majors, one of those hyper-religious guys, but like also a good dude, too.

You know, he kind of gets in the middle of the Venn diagram there.

Yeah, yeah, that's very, very impressive.

Like he just did little things.

Like last year, for instance, he just like he had a, he himself decided to put a sign on the locker room

on the training room door that said, don't come in here unless you're trying to get better.

You know, like just little stuff like that that the vets do that's going to be good for a locker room.

So sometimes the name matters.

I think more dangerous than I think the receivers, what I think of is running backs and pass rushers,

actually.

You got to be careful.

You know, I think that like the team that signs Hassan Reddick, for instance, maybe like a name that's that's been good.

That's one that worries me.

And then like Nick Chubb, I think is a free agent this year.

Like, and like the you're not getting the best version of nick chubb right now his knee went seven different ways you know so i like this commandment i do think that the name can help your decision for better or worse depending on what what you're looking for there might be a couple of commandments broken for the next team that does business with us on reddick stay tuned sesame

well i would just say that the in the actual um bible uh from thousands of years ago the second commandment well is no is no false images and i think that lines up with what you're saying let's not view the name falsely let's view the game realistically and so it kind of lines up with the actual Bible I would say one other thing that if God is a she the voice that we're hearing is very throaty very deep for a woman that's cool I'm sorry Mark are you saying that women can have different inflections to their voice I said it's cool like got him Jordan got his ass

He's on a magazine cover, Mark.

You better be careful.

This is the new, just the new cover, me, feminist of the week, back to back.

Oh, wait, wait, where's my sunglasses?

Here we go.

Let's freeze frame this one.

Back to back.

I said it was cool.

I would, I would accept it.

Okay, next.

Third commandment:

three.

Thou shalt not let temporary people make permanent decisions.

Ooh, you know, Ceci, I want to tee you up on this one because we've kind of bumped horns a couple of times about the New York Giants and their offseason direction.

They're a perfect example of when you hear teams that are like, man, we got to go be active in free agency.

We got to make a bunch of moves.

We've got to get some veteran players in here for a team that's not a win-now team that you should be building maybe from the ground up more Lions style.

So that's what this one means to me, which is like, by the way,

I think like a famous quote from an old Hollywood producer.

Just the people that are on the hot seat, don't let them make the organizational decisions that are

short term rather than long term.

I wrote down the Giants too as my primary example.

So we're on the same,

we're in the same pew there on that one, I'd say.

What I would say, here's the problem.

Here's the problem.

What a heater.

But temporary people are currently in charge.

So who are the people saying you can't like unless an owner said it's an offseason, none of you can make a decision, we're going to just let you kind of ride this out till I fire you in October.

But like it would require incredible humility and self-awareness for the temporary people on the hot seat to say we shouldn't make decisions because none of us will be here.

I guess I mean don't let those people have final say.

Make sure everyone in the organization

above that figure too is involved in the conversation.

Like is this best in the best long-term interest of our franchise to, you know, do business this way?

Like, I think a good owner has already gotten rid of those people, but there's plenty of teams where that's not the case.

And the Giants sit out there as a lot of bad owners, too.

Yeah, you could also have the issue of sorting through the extra aggressive push of said temporary people trying to become less temporary based on, you know, sort of these Hail Mary efforts.

And I think if in the Giants trying to go after Matthew Stafford and the Giants trying to go after quarterback in general, you are watching people who we perceive as temporary or on the hottest seats that there could be right now trying to slowly pull the car back off of the cliff and make sure that they can

actually convince the owner, okay, now we've got it right this time.

We can fix it.

It's fine.

True.

I don't know if any other team is as perfect as a fit for this as the Giants, but two other ones, maybe I just don't like the decisions they've made.

So I don't want them making decisions, whether they're temporary or permanent, or Andrew Berry and Cleveland.

And then,

what's the Colts GM?

Chris Ballard.

Chris Ballard.

Killable Chris Ballard is his full name.

Yeah.

I was talking to people about him in Indy.

I was like, yo, how is he still here?

But apparently, like, Ursa may not be doing too well or something like that.

So that's like kind of above him, you know.

But those are like some people who, whether if they're temporary or not, like it feels like they could be, like Jordan was just talking about people who are maybe making decisions with the idea, like, oh, I need to save my ass.

Be very wary of save my ass decisions.

And I could see both of those teams, maybe Barry, because he just signed his extension, maybe not filling that.

But like, it seems like both of those franchises have ownerships that are trying to win.

And the people in charge could make decisions that are like, oh, okay, we got to do this so I don't get canned.

I would maybe at a lesser tier of that throw Chris Greer of the Dolphins in there, but they're just kind of like, just a mess, no matter whether they're temporary or permanent or not.

Technically, none of us are permanent.

All of us are temporary.

Think about it.

We don't know half these people spirits, but fair.

Closest thing we'll get to the theology podcast.

Next.

Thou shalt not commit to one-year wonders in unique circumstances.

Mike, you're nodding your head on this one.

Yeah, because I was doing some research on something else, and I stumbled upon the Matt Flynn contract that the Seahawks gave him in 2012.

And I forget what it was.

It was like a one-game wonder.

Yeah,

that was the extreme.

That's what really made me think of this.

And then there are some others.

Like, this was...

This is to make it more modern, Sam Darnold really is who comes to mind in this instance.

But in researching some stuff about Sam, I was like, oh my God, the Seahawks did what now?

Matt Flynn threw for how many touchdowns in week 17?

Like, don't do those.

Obviously, there won't be another Matt Flynn again.

But yeah, one hit, like, Sam Darnold is probably the richest example we're probably going to see.

But sometimes if you see, like, like if another team had paid Zach Bond,

for instance, like I think that had the potential to go really bad when you see a guy shine under a specific scheme or with a specific position coach or coordinator, I feel like we see that sometimes because those guys are the ones who hit free agency because they're not necessarily damage goods per se, but there's that question like, okay, are you actually good or did you just flash for a year?

Whether you played in like one of those Blitz heavy schemes, so you ended up getting a bunch of sacks, or you were just on this monster defense, so you have like way more third-down pass rushes than all the other guys, which is why your pressure rate or something is super high.

Like a Bryce Huff, I think, falls in that category.

Like, I got to stay away from those dudes.

If you're retaining them and you keep the scheme, then yeah, sure.

Like, if the Vikings want Sam Darnold, whatever.

But if you're trying to poach a guy who basically just exploded for one year, don't do that.

You'll end up temporary very fast.

This is the Aaron Donald effect.

All those one and donees that rolled in and out of benefiting by playing next to Aaron Donald, who would acquire so much attention that then other people would get isolated blocking or none whatsoever and be able to get to the quarterback.

But I agree with you, Mike.

I think that the caveat to this is if they excel and everything else remains equal, so the coordinator does not change, the scheme does not change, much of the personnel around this player does not change.

And I think this is also a benefit for Sam Darnold potentially staying with the Vikings.

It is certainly for Zach Bond, in my opinion, and staying with the Eagles, that you should pay that guy.

If he thrives in your system and you have the confidence that there will be continuity of system, at least for the next

two of the years on the contract, at least, then I think that person is worth the money if you can raise their ceiling within that particular structure.

And just to button this up, the original example that Michael Sean gave us for the younger listeners, Matt Flynn threw six touchdown passes, I believe, in a Lambeau Field season finale where Aaron Rodgers and a lot of other players were resting.

And then the Seahawks turned around and gave him starter money in free agency based on that one game.

Rogers played all the time.

Or was it Favre at that point?

No, it was Rogers.

Sorry, it was Farve.

It was Rogers.

But then they also drafted Russell Wilson.

Then they go and they draft Russell Wilson in the third round, and then Russell Wilson is their starter come week one.

So at least they understood internally to get the right guy on the field in the end.

Next.

Five.

Thou shalt let the football people do

the football things.

Absolutely.

This one really cuts deep for Moi coming off a season where literally the owner of my favorite team was allowing his sons to go in the locker room.

One of his sons is literally named Brick, sending Brick into the locker room to make players uncomfortable and make roster decisions, reportedly.

That was so, yeah, the owner should, if the owner's not a football guy, and there's not a lot of

Paul Browns out there.

If the owner's not a football guy, you got to get the f out of the way and trust the people that are actually classically trained in this realm, J-Rod.

Yeah, I knew this one would A,

hit close to home for you, Dan, but then also

sting a little bit.

I do think that having these this very public example very recently of what not to do in this case or what

can compound failure or negativity or dysfunction within an organization,

these are all, you see this a little bit sometimes.

I'm not calling Mark Davis not a football person.

I think he knows ball, but he makes, he has made sometimes decisions in the past to try to put very football people into his building.

And then you've heard about involvement.

Dave Tepper struggled with this early in his tenure as the owner.

Actually, hearing good things about him pulling back in that regard and some of the success that you're starting to see them, the momentum they're starting to gain as a result.

There's examples right out in front of us everywhere.

And it's like, I know that power and ego is part of how you became so successful in the first place for some.

Others, it's like massive inheritance as last name.

But also, that doesn't necessarily mean that your power and ego is translatable as a skill set into this specific field.

So let the guys cook and women cook.

I mean, it reminds me, it's like the reason that you were able to buy a football team, the majority parcel of a football team, is because you were extremely successful as a billionaire doing something else.

David Tepper, right?

Was it hedge funds, whatever?

Like

you want control, you want power.

And I think the thing that owners have to learn how to do out of the gate, because it's a different job, is like get out of the way.

But they want to be part of committees.

They want to have their voice heard.

And then if they're the owner, everyone wants to kind of like give them a little piece of the pie.

So it's a delicate dance.

And I think like the bet, the

owner that's learned does get out of the way.

But I also think it's like, don't ignore good ideas from other parts of the building.

If you are a so-called football person, I just don't want it to be elitist where like only this person has say.

It's like good ideas can come from all sorts of people.

And so I'd be open as an organization, but not to a meddlesome owner like the Jets owner, Dan.

That's why I think James Gladstone is going to be a success in Jacksonville, by the way, is because of his sort of exploration of every element of the building over time.

Dan, if you don't want to just make your Jets feel bad, another good example I think of this is: remember the Texans had that chaplain basically making decisions for a little bit?

Oh, this is not.

What a poll for the theology cast.

Yeah, Greg Easterby, right?

No, Jack Easterby.

Jack Easterby.

Yeah, was like he had a page.

It was bad.

Like everything about him just was like, how does this, how does this guy just lead you in prayer and then makes all your draft picks?

It was like, it was not

a good idea.

That's probably the other

non-jets example of what is a perfect example.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And also, like, being an owner, it's funny, Josh Harris is an example.

Like, he's a conquering hero with Washington and the Commanders right now.

And then you go up the turnpike to Philly where he owns the 76ers, and everybody's like, this guy sucks.

He blew the rebuild and everything.

So, you know,

it's hard to get it right.

Some people have specific gifts in specific areas.

Yeah, it's true.

It's absolutely true.

All right.

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audience only.

All right, back to it.

God,

six.

Thou shalt not overcommit to trends.

I like God just opening with six.

Like, that's not how this unfurled back in the...

How do you know?

Well, based on

reporting from, you know, multiple thousands of years ago.

Based on reporting?

Rap sheet was classic.

Insider culture was running wild back then.

Absolutely.

What does this mean to you, Mark?

The trends thing?

Yeah, don't be like, you know what it reminds me of?

It's like the eight teams that went and hired patriots assistants and it didn't work out.

It's like just grab the coach from like team that's successful.

But in free agency,

it kind of lines up with the one-year wonder thing.

It's desperation.

I'd say you set the trend.

Find a way that your organization does the thing that other people's copy they they copy like be the trendsetter like if you people that follow trends are typically um

or over commit to them they're usually floating intellectually so i don't want to i don't want to follow a team that does what other good teams do it feels um uncreative like create the future create the trend right you you could be you could look to those teams uh for inspiration slash ideas but you don't have to be like slavish to it right right

like a fashion like a clothes horse you don't you just don't you create your own fashion.

I know.

Barrel jeans came and went very quickly.

So I feel like you know what I'm talking about, Dan, right?

I'm on the cover of Feminist Weekly.

Of course I do.

You do.

So I do think that in football, we, the collective, we mix up the concept of an actual trend, which is, again, to this point, not always the best thing to just copy paste.

And we mix it up with outliers.

Like we convolute the two things in our brain.

We think we see an outlier outlier that is a clear outlier.

The case of Zach Bond within the Eagles offense, the case of Saquon Barkley and the salary that he demands because of an outlier season, because of an outlier fit within this particular team and system.

And teams,

I mean, take the F them PICS era of the Rams and people trying to copy that.

These are clear outliers that are not necessarily copyable.

And so I think that one of the big problems that teams get into is they mistake actual outliers as trends and think, they did it.

It could work for us.

And that's actually not often the case.

You often revert down to the mean when in football because it's a parity-driven league.

So I think that not even convoluting the two, if you're a team, to go deeper on this commandment is the correct thing and that conversation to have internally.

Yeah, I think that what I see when I see some overcommitting of trends is like a combination of like scheme and coaching.

Two examples come to mind.

One I saw in the mid-2010s with people who were either hiring Pete Carroll defensive assistants and or his players.

Like that was a pretty popular one.

They had the cover three thing going.

They hired Dan Quinn, pull some former Seahawks, hire Gus Bradley, pull some former Seahawks, hired Ken Norton Jr., pull some former Seahawks, and then so on.

And it just never worked.

Dan Quinn got to the Super Bowl, but he had to change his defense to get to that.

And another more recent one is people

trying to pull coordinators who worked for Vic Fangio and then go get players who played in that scheme.

And it just just does not, it does not work.

It's like, okay, we hired some guy who was Clint's, or excuse me, was Vic Fangio's, you know, DB's coach way back when or something.

And then let's go find a corner or a DB who played for that, for that dude somewhere.

I understand the idea of the familiarity and cohesion.

That stuff can matter in free agency, but it feels like teams are just doing it just to do it sometimes.

Like we see it because it's working.

That was the case when the Seahawks were really hot.

But the secret sauce is usually almost always the guy who was the initial brain.

Like you see with the Eagles.

Like, okay, we get Fangio, and now we got it.

You know, I think unless you're getting the guy, unless you're hiring Pete and his defense, you're hiring Fangio.

Otherwise, you're just over-committing to a trend that you're not going to be able to replicate.

Next.

Well said.

Seven.

Thou shalt not commit adultery in favor of duplicative replacement.

Got to really struggle with the language on this one.

This is where you came down on it.

Explain this.

This is like this is, I feel like a lawyer came up with this one.

I don't know what's happening.

Commit a doctor.

I'll give you an example.

I'll give you an example, okay?

From

my past of

fandom.

So the Jets once had a great linebacker named Demario Davis on their team.

He's like a homegrown guy.

He gets away to Cleveland, maybe part of a trade, Cecil.

I can't remember.

And then a year later, after a year with the Browns, comes back to the Jets and has a nice year.

And then free agency hits and he's a free agent and the Jets make the decision, you know what?

We like DeMario Davis.

But this guy, Avery Williamson, this linebacker for the Titans, I think he might be a little bit better.

And so they get Avery Williamson.

He bombs out.

It doesn't work in their scheme.

He just gets hurt, all that.

Demario Davis goes down to New Orleans and becomes an all-pro multiple times.

So what this means to me is like, you know, thou shalt not covet Avery Williamson when Demario Davis is studying his iPad and making a protein shake in your team building.

Like, just identify your in-house guys and ride with them and develop them rather than try to get some type of maybe a moderate upgrade.

This is a slippery slope, obviously, but that's the thing.

Couldn't you point to Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield and two organizations that don't know what to do with players with potential?

Part of it is the development part.

Yeah, and pay them early.

The Eagles are so successful.

One of the biggest things that they do that for some reason is not being copied by other teams is they pay them early.

They grow their own guys in-house.

They identify them in the draft.

And if they fit, they pay them way before they even need to.

And they don't have to go look for copies.

Next.

Eight.

Thou shalt not wait until draft day to fill gaping roster holes.

This is why it's hard because in these Ten Commandments of Heed,

you are seeing us giving, laying out all these examples why you got to be careful with your building here and not to go overboard.

But also, you don't want to go too much, too far the other way, Ceci, because if you get out of the free agency signing period and you say, oh, I'll find a left tackle in the draft, or I'll find my wide receiver one or two in the draft, then you're drafting for position need rather than just best player on the board.

And I feel like these things can compound on each other and it leads to you finging up.

I was just watching like an interview with Johoritz, the GM at the Chargers GM, talking about why taking the best player works for that organization, like why they do it.

My only caveat here would be if you control the draft, you can use it to address like a massive need.

I don't like the idea of like teams sitting at number 12 and being like, hey,

we hope someone falls to us.

That's a fool's game.

So I'm with you.

Get into the draft feeling like you can stat out with the

God.

God.

Well, she's done a wonderful job.

And

I appreciate all that she does.

Can't spell omniscient without she.

Number nine.

Nine.

Thou shall not inherit someone else's problem expecting different results.

There we go.

Dugar,

there's the Hassan Reddick double box check.

If you're a player that checks the box on at least 20% of the 10 commandments, no knows, I'd stay away from that player.

So, yeah,

trying to fix.

It's the same thing in the dating world.

Jordan, you could tell us about this.

Trying to fix someone.

Am I?

Is usually a recipe for just pain and suffering.

I was literally just looking at all these and I'm like, minus the financial elements here.

I think I might take the next year and apply this to my actual life, in my dating life, which actually doesn't really exist.

So we'll see how it goes.

I'll circle back with you guys one year before.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Open the kimono.

Let us know.

Yeah, I think

there's a lot of examples.

All the ones that come into mind are actually receivers.

That Diva thing might be the case, but I think of like pretty much everyone we didn't know was nuts until they got away from Mike Tomlin.

Pretty much is coming to mind.

It's like he doesn't know.

Deontay Johnson is a poster boy here right now.

Deontay Johnson, Antonio Brown.

I mean, maybe I wasn't paying attention or Antonio Holmes.

I just didn't know that AB was like nuts before he left there, you know.

Yeah, Le'Veon, it just feels like, and we already kind of know where George Pickens is, you know, I guess.

But like, all of those

type of guys.

Yeah, man.

Mike Tomlin does.

He does really

good work there.

A Seattle example is Earl Thomas when the Ravens gave him a big bag.

And then like a year later, he was like punching teammates and just like doing his own thing and had to get out of there.

Yeah, this one I feel like happens quite a bit, you know, because he just you you see what you want to see with the other person.

You're like, well, he had that problem with that team.

He won't have that problem here.

I guess an example that maybe worked out a little bit, I'm picking on Stephon Diggs now, but like Buffalo, you know, it's like, okay, Stefan had the problems there, but he won't have those problems here.

And maybe for a little bit, it didn't.

And then what do you know?

History repeats itself.

You got to be really, really weary or wary, whatever,

of that.

I think I'm trying to think of a non-receiver example.

That's not Hassan Reddit because I feel like we're picking on him too.

But like, well, I think you can just do injuries.

Injuries, too, Mike.

I think you can say that.

This is like the arrested development meme where it's like, well, it hardly ever works for those people, but maybe it'll work for us.

Like, it is injuries to getting someone in your building thinking, yeah, they've been hurt a lot there, but

we have our medical staff and we can fix this.

It won't happen to us this way.

That's kind of this hubristic thinking that permeates across the league.

I like this amendment.

Beautiful.

And, and, you know, I do, it's fair.

Like, we, we, we're kind of

being mean to certain guys here.

Mean is weird, but like Stefan Diggs is a guy that

it kind of he pops up occasionally when you think about these things.

And the, the, the moment I knew that Diggs was a guy to watch out for, one of the great La Raville Magnificos of team content ever released was back during his Vikings days, where they sent, they sent, I'm actually surprised they even sent this out.

They sent a team guy with a mic around the locker room asking, like, who's the one player on this team you don't want dating your sister.

Let's listen in on this

Davin what guy on this team would you least

like to date your sister?

What the hell

Diggs?

Least I did my sister diggs 100%

there's actually seems to be a few guys that don't think that Feel differently about me?

Yeah.

You just don't know me well enough.

That's what I'm still.

I love that.

Dalvin Grico.

Thank you for a second.

Going to change.

All right.

Well, no chance.

No chance.

Definitely not.

Don't get your Stefan Diggs in free agency.

Don't do it.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Last one.

God.

Tend

honor thy organizational vision.

I like God did a good job here tying it up here.

Nice closing graph from God on this one.

I think, you know,

everyone has a plan.

The old Mike Tyson line, everybody's got a plan until you get punched in the mouth.

You know, you might not get punched in the mouth in free agency.

You might.

Or you might have opportunities that present themselves that you weren't expecting.

You can pivot, but just be mindful of everything you do.

You know, just always thinking what's the best solution for this team long term.

Don't end up like the 49ers giving out massive contract extensions in August and then six months later trying to get rid of those people that they just extended.

Keep the vision.

I mean, I would say

I would say to roughly one-third of the league, have an organizational vision.

Yeah, let's start there.

Have one and then try to keep it once you go into the storm of free agency and the draft.

Good stuff.

Very nice.

Pivot, Mark, Adread.

Got his ass.

Here we go.

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audience.

Only.

Gaping pause.

Gaping.

Cavernous pause.

All right, let's now.

I thought that was helpful.

A higher power.

And I really do think if you follow all those steps, you're going to be the next Eagles.

Now, can people do it?

Will people recognize that as gospel?

These are all things that we can't control.

We could just get it out there into the world.

Money, Mike Dugar.

Yes.

Money, Mike.

Mike was studying for something else.

No, because I was reading number seven again, and I was just like,

that is some fancy wording there.

Yes, it is.

It's a bit much.

So what really trips me about number seven is that...

Well, it's also, I have like, I'm split screening right now right so i'm only seeing half of the screen so half of it's cut off um so right now all i see is thou shall not commit adultery against one's own in favor so it stops there so then i'm like oh my goodness where is this going where's this going guy did an edit at about uh 8 a.m today where they they they decided that against one's own was too much of a uh word soup so they pulled that if that helps at all thou shall not commit adultery in favor of duplicative replacement well then it made me think of Steve Smith, actually, a little bit.

Once I

seen images of the people in question in his life, I was like, oh,

there's some adultery here.

There's some like duplicative replacement here, it seems like.

Yeah, that felt like the Steve Smith rule there, which everyone should follow.

Everyone should follow that.

I think it's do not be Steve Smith.

It's smart to

steer clear of those behaviors.

All right, let's now steer over to now.

Let's put on our

now that we primed ourselves here.

Oh, one last thing before we move.

Before we move, before we move,

these are just three commandments for the media during free agency.

This was a crowdsourced effort as well.

Number one,

thou shall not be deceived by agent fluff.

Okay, and that is Jordan, obviously, quickly here, Jordan.

The

agents, they try to deceive to make their own situation, right?

Yes, money is not always the real money.

And if you don't hear money, it means it's lower.

Yes.

Bingo.

Number two, thou shall not covet more than one insider in your leak game.

Mike, what does that mean to you?

Oh, man, this is so painful.

Because Jordan knows we do so much work on the ground every day.

Every day we're texting, we're calling, we're in, we're at practices, we're, you know, work, you know, building all those relationships.

And then you wake up, especially from the West Coast, you wake up and then all that work you did, and like Ian Rapperport has the contract details.

You're just like, like, what the hell?

You know,

I'm sorry, that's just me complaining.

It doesn't necessarily have to do with the commandment, but like one I'm never going to forget.

Now, this is just the Mike Vince portion of the show, but like one time I was trying to get a contract

and actually I give the player because it doesn't matter because because it's public info.

Now, I was trying to get Bobby's extension once, like, he was negotiating it during training camp.

Bobby's his own agent, too.

So, I'm like, okay, cool.

Now, there's no agents I got to sift through and beat.

And then, like, Taylor Rooks had it.

You know, I woke up one day.

She had his extension.

I'm like, she don't even cover the NFL.

I think she does now.

This is like 2019.

This is 2019 when she was more squarely in the basketball space.

I was like, what the hell, man?

I'm here every day.

You know, I hate that.

But yeah, once you get the, there's certain teams that now like have their like people when they get hired for the GMs like, hey, man, around here, we give stuff to Schefter.

And it's like, it's so, so dumb.

Don't do that.

Around these parts.

Also, Jordan, it could lead to

skirmishes like we saw last week in Indianapolis.

Yes, that was the talk of the town and beyond.

It was so funny how fast information.

became available because of the whisper network on the ground in Indianapolis.

And I just, I do want to shout out just line for line, what a masterpiece written by Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk.

Like line for line, every sentence was an absolute bar.

He was born for this.

It was amazing.

I would say that with Florio, sometimes we don't need some of the byline created content.

In this case, yes, this was exactly built for him by him.

You could actually hear the

elation slash arousal with each graph being tight.

It's honey from the bee for Florio.

Number three, thou shall not anoint a dream team in March, Ceci.

Yeah, I mean, because I think back to when we, Dan, you and I were like

in our earliest stages, kind of blogging for NFL.com.

And like the Eagles,

we survived the holdout.

And then you come out of the holdout, and there was that insane, like,

bizarre period free agency where the Eagles went nuts and they've got their own quarterback calling them a dream team and everyone's signing up.

Every year, there's one or two teams.

I think last year it might have been the Texans a little bit, although they showed promise where it's like, we're just hoisting them.

And I did, I did it myself into the Super Bowl, into the conference title game.

I will not fall for this nonsense again.

And if I do, you could cannon me out of my window right here to my left into the street because we've got to be smarter as media people to not fall for teams before they show it.

Now, you can look forward.

It's not, you can't have forward thinking, but dream team business is absurd.

These things usually fall flat on their face and they become comical, massive disasters.

Remember the Mets team, the worst team money could buy was a great book that came out of that.

That Mets team that like signed Bobby Benila to like a 200-year contract and added all these people.

And within eight games, you knew this thing was an absolute abject horror show.

Yeah, the 2025 Mets will do the same thing.

Stay tuned.

I think this also reminds me of whenever someone, a team adds like a tight end and a running back or just skilled position players, I guess.

And the like PFF for somebody puts up like the graphic, who can stop this team?

And it just includes no offensive linemen.

It's like, yeah, well, anyone with a front four will stop that unit if you don't have

an offensive line.

These own team accounts, the Twitter accounts run by the team.

You almost have to, obviously, we don't take anything they say seriously, but like their own hype jobs.

Their own ridiculous hype jobs on Twitter are some of the worst visual journalism out there.

I wouldn't even call it journalism visual on Twitter.

It's like, who's going to stop the Jets now?

Like, what do you mean?

You added like a second offensive guard who's 36?

I don't, I'm not, I don't go there anymore.

You don't need to use the Jets as the example, but go on.

And what I don't, I don't think people, again, we

just 32 teams.

Go ahead.

Just really good examples of what not to do for this particular show.

What I also don't think that people often on the outside know is that like PR, like public relations professionals approve.

They have to, the social team has to send every clip, every video.

They have to approve everything.

Public relations officials have to approve and then, you know, give the green light for every little snippet that comes out of the team account.

Like that's when you see like a highlight from like three days prior at training camp or spring camp, it has gone through several levels of approvals from the people who are in charge of shaping that team's message.

So just wanted to say.

All right.

With that said, pivot.

now we are going to share some realistic we have some demons transactions that we can see happening i mean i feel like it's it this exercise it's what we can see happening what make what makes sense to us potentially i think everybody has their own visions on it i would like money mike to get us going on this

all right uh so am i doing both of mine Why don't you do your first one?

Okay.

Unless they tie together directly.

Otherwise, yeah.

Not necessarily.

I have one and a half.

It's like an either or.

So they both involve the Texans acquiring receivers since both of CJ Stroud's two and three, just their knees exploded.

So he needs some help.

So in my first deal,

either one of these is fine for Houston.

My first deal, the Texans get Garrett Wilson and a 2025 six-round pick in exchange for their first round pick, which is 25 overall or 25th overall, and their 2025 third round pick, which is 89 overall.

If that's a little bit too rich for Nick Casario and the gang over there, he calls New Orleans and gives that same first round pick to the Saints and in exchange just gets Chris Olave to help CJ Stroud reunite him with, I like the idea of this more than like trading for DK, for instance, from Houston,

because of the connection, Ohio State connection.

Like CJ knows Garrett.

He knows Chris Olave.

Like he would ball a lot quicker.

There'd be that less a little bit of a, you know, know, guys got to get to know each other, you know, throw in the summer and post their shortlist workouts, you know, to prove us that they're working hard.

They don't got to do that.

If you get Garrett or Chris Olave, if I had to choose, I think I'd rather have Garrett, obviously, because his brain seems to be in a better space than Olave, who's had 17 concussions approximately.

But either one, I think, is good for CJ.

It makes the Texans a lot better and satisfies a need, which is receiver.

And I would pay both of them upon arriving.

I'd probably give Garrett what DK wants, wants, like 30 million a year, and then Chris, probably a little less than that, probably whatever, a little less than whatever Nico Collins is making now, which I think is like $24 million a year.

Yeah, I would like to see that.

And

with the Texans, obviously

you would have Nico Collins there also, so making him like a high-end two.

All of a sudden, if you had Garrett Wilson or Chris Olave there, you have some like Bengals level juice in terms of your wide receiver crew.

And then look out what happens with that offense.

I do think Wilson's going to stay in New York now that they got Rodgers out of there.

I think they're starting to patch things up, which would be very wise.

Speaking of smart team building, keep the young guys that are studs that you brought, keep them in the building, make them the

foundational pieces.

Don't trade them away to try to get somebody else that might be half as good as he is.

Anyway, up next, Jordan, realistic transaction next week.

I do want to preface this by saying you texted us this morning and said, let's nerd out a little with the transaction predictions, get specific, and then I blacked out and stopped reading.

Yeah, I was going to say, I probably didn't have to put this note for you, Jordan, but no, no,

it gave me permission, actually, Dave, because I have to, this is a dangerous thing to do for me because once you open that gate, it is a problem and it goes on for far too long.

So, okay.

Mark, you could sign off.

Jordan's going to take us home today.

I'll be back next week.

Right, Jordan, try to keep it.

Let's clock you on this one 90 seconds.

Here we go.

There's no shot.

Okay, so I also want to say that I don't think that DK Matt Keff will actually get traded.

I think this is a leverage move for a contract extension.

However, I would like to see this trade happen.

Let me be very specific.

I would like very much to see this happen.

Okay, it's April 24th, and the sun has gone down in the west.

The Las Vegas Raiders are on the clock at Pickett.

Or the 6th, if you're the quarterback of the lines.

Go ahead.

Plot twist.

Things are happening.

Pete Carroll chews his gum furiously as the Raiders trade back with the one-to-win now Green Bay Packers, who have their eye on Travis Hunter, who somehow fell to this spot, both for the sake of my fake trade and because of some wild top five quarterback shenanigans that surprise everybody.

The Packers trade what experts refer to as a crap load of picks to get the player who will not only be their number one receiver, but an excellent corner for them for the next decade.

The Raiders now sit at number 23.

No, they don't.

John Spytek picks up his red hat cell phone and calls John Schneider in Seattle.

The deal is done.

The Raiders are trading number 23 and the late third-round pick that Green Bay just sent them for Geno Smith and DK Metcalf with the intent to extend both players who both need contracts on multi-year deals where Seattle would not.

A twinkle in Pete Carroll's eyes.

He zips up his hoodie.

Damn, that man can wear gray and black.

A lone tear carves a tunnel through the silver face paint of Joe Raiders fan, who wore a full costume to the sports bar to watch the NFL draft.

The Raiders have an excellent veteran quarterback to pair with Chip Kelly.

They have their number one receiver who's kind of a perfect Raider.

They're going to the playoffs for, let's hear it, the third time since 2003.

Jesus Christ.

Thank you.

Thank you for the time.

My next one's very short.

Well done.

Can you give me the Cliff's Notes summary there, real quick?

Yes.

So Cliff's Notes summary is the Raiders trade for Geno Smith and DK Metcalf with the intent to extend both players where Seattle won't necessarily do that with both.

They trade back to get to 23 and then trade that pick to away to Seattle.

Plus

they get back.

They also trade 87, which the Packers had given them to trade out.

And we talked about Metcalfe to the Raiders yesterday.

I think that is a really interesting fit.

Like I'm with you on that.

I think that makes a lot of sense.

Pete Carroll strikes me as a guy who's going to collect some guys, you know, as he puts builds the organization

in his vision.

Now, DK Metcalf talked about this on our show on

Wednesday.

I'm so happy he's in the conversation.

And I do want to hear Mike's thoughts on the DK Metcalf vibes in Seattle because I have mine's about DK too.

But I'm going to send DK and a sixth-round pick.

to the New England Patriots, who we know are

way, way desperate to give their promising first-round pick quarterback, Drake May, a true number one.

We've heard them connected to T.

Higgins.

I'm going to kind of keep T where he is right now.

But Metcalf and a sixth to the Patriots for a third rounder in 2025 and a fifth in 2026.

Then they turn around and give DK the Brandon Ayu contract, essentially, four years, $120 million extension.

That gets him in that 30 million AAV club.

The guarantees are, you know, in the range of 80 million.

So he gets the extension.

He gets paid as a, you know, I think he's turning 27 or 28.

So this is probably his last big window for an extension.

And the Patriots get their number one.

And the Seahawks get their salary relief and a nice mid-round pick, which we know general managers love.

Mike, any chance Seattle does it for something like that?

Yeah, I don't think so.

I think, you know, Diana Rossini, our colleague, does great work at the athletic, reported at 4 a.m.

Pacific time

Thursday that

to see,

God bless her.

She sent me that beforehand, but I saw the timestamp.

I was like, yo, I was knocked.

I was knocked out.

But shout out to her for sending it to me ahead of time.

But anyway, she reported Thursday morning that the Seahawks won a first round pick and a third round pick, basically mimicking the A.J.

Brown deal from a few years ago when he got sent to Tennessee.

Obviously, three years younger at the time of that deal.

I can see why the Seahawks would put that out there as the, or I don't want to say where she got that per se, but I can see why that would be the asking price because the Seahawks don't want to move DK.

They, right?

For all the reasons that the teams, that the other teams want DK, is the reason they like DK, like his work ethic.

Despite kind of how it seems like outside of Seattle, like when he doesn't get the ball, he really doesn't, you know, bitch and moan about it as much as like a normal number one diva kind of receiver does.

And they want to win.

They do.

Like, this is an ownership thing.

Ownership's like, yo, let's win some games.

And that's just a tough sell if you trade DK, but you can do that.

It's a much tougher sell if all you get is like pick 80, whatever.

You know, that's like a really tough, tough, tough, tough sell.

It's not like they're really close and they're like, okay, let's swap DK for like, maybe we can afford a better lineman now and like we're good.

They're a lot further than that away, even if they keep DK.

So yeah, I think it would take like a get-blown away offer for them to do it.

And I think the other part of this is John Snyder, he's used to like dealing with, like, I say they don't trade DK, right?

And DK's pissed.

In Seattle, they're very used to like a player not liking John Snyder, but still playing his heart out for the coach and or his teammates.

Like, we've seen that quite a bit where they separate, like, man, I hate John, but I love Pete, and I love the guys next to you.

So I'm going to go out there and fight.

We've seen Marshawn do it, Richard Sherman do it, Cam Chancellor do it, Earl Thomas do it.

A long list of guys who like had real beef with the the front office over whatever, Bobby Wagner recently, too.

But like put that aside when it came to the on-field product, I think DK would fall in that same boat.

Maybe he'd be pissed if they didn't trade him.

But I think overall, it wouldn't affect how he plays or how he is in the locker room.

So I don't think that that's something the they don't have to give him away in fear of that.

I think the reason why I went with third and maybe after the way you the reporting, which I didn't see because it dropped at 4 a.m.,

that there's usually like a whatever you expect a veteran star to get in a trade, it's usually like below that tier when you actually see it.

And then you go, oh, wow, I'm surprised then it costs more.

Now, you make a great point about A.J.

Brown, who fetched a first.

He was 24 years old at the time and just finished his third year.

Metcalf's a little bit older.

So maybe I'll bump it up to a second round pick and see if the Seahawks bite it from the Patriots.

It also happened at the draft.

Like I think some of these trades at the draft can look different than one that happens like a week from now.

I think a non-receiver comp,

yeah, I think, yes, that was very good scene setting there, sending a DK to Vegas, where I think, where I think his people might live now, too.

I remember doing a story and talking to his dad.

He was like, Yeah, we got out of Mississippi, moved to Vegas, which sounds great.

But I also think a non-receiver trade that I've been thinking of as a comp that involves Seattle was when they traded for Dwayne Brown, the Houston left tackle in 2017.

He was like, he was over 30, but he was like the equivalent of how we view age relative to linemen compared to a receiver.

DK is turning 28 in December, which in like receiver years converts to like a 31-year-old left tackle, if that makes sense, because left tackles can play in their prime longer than a receiver.

And in that deal, they got a second and a future third.

Either that or a future third and or a current third and a future second.

Either way, it was a two and a three in.

in consecutive drafts.

I could see something like that for DK because he is still young.

He doesn't have bad injury history.

He's only missed three games for injury in six years.

I mean, you consider how big and physical he is.

He's like the anti-debo in that regard.

So I think, and he's just a good player, too.

So yeah, I think that's probably what would be close to getting it done.

They're not going to get a one, but I think they can do better than just a three.

Okay.

Mark, I understand yours kind of connect with each other.

So go back to back.

Yeah, I'm kind of snake drafting here.

And I, you know, I try to stop myself from talking about the Browns much because I think everyone's just like, that's all they talk about is like two teams.

Like, well, not true, but I do have a Browns.

I have a fixed the Browns

situation.

He says during the episode where we've referenced it.

I've spoken for 12 seconds and in you come.

What is it?

What are you about to announce to us?

Just pointing out that you say we don't only talk about two teams, but like every example we gave for a team doing something wrong was the Jets today, and now you're going in on the Browns.

When I say we don't, it's me saying it.

It's not us not doing it.

It's just me saying we don't.

But I honestly, because like, let's be honest, I think the Cleveland Browns, as an organization, have been in a very dark place.

And it's like,

how do you get out of this?

Here's how you get out of it.

Be realistic about who you are.

You've got a, you have arguably the best defensive player in the league telling you, I don't want to do this anymore.

And then you've got the Browns saying, well, we don't want to let you go.

Well, let's be real.

This is 2025.

These players have power.

There's a perception of this.

You wake up, you awaken, and you get into the business of trading Miles Garrett.

And here's what I do.

You trade Miles Garrett to the Philadelphia Eagles.

They want him.

They're willing to swing huge deals.

They're a bold organization.

He fits there, and he does not fit in Cleveland.

Here's the terms.

Okay, Miles Garrett and a fifth round pick in 2026.

You just throw a little pick in there to make them feel a little bit more wanted.

Then the Eagles give you this year's first, which is number 32.

And so you also get a second this year.

And then you get next year's number one pick.

And the Eagles throw in a player that I really like, Will Shipley, who I think can help the post

the running back situation in Cleveland a lot.

I think that would help for them.

They throw in tight end Grant Calcaterra, and

you go right there.

Calcatera's in the deal?

Well, I actually, these are two Eagles players that I think have promise in a young offense for the Browns where you are going to look very different because there's a second part to this deal.

You cut Deshaun Watson immediately.

You cut all that karmic karmic energy out and you deal with the money.

The Browns are one of the best teams in the league at pushing money down the road.

And the cap will allow this to, they can survive this.

You have essentially done Deshaun Watson in reverse.

You've set up your draft for years to come.

And you can now build a young team on rookie contracts.

The second move, and this is one that I think Dan, you will frown on, but you send a 2025 fifth-round pick to the New England Patriots, who have their quarterback of the future.

So you use that pick to get Joe Milton.

Played one game, looked really promising.

Why would I frown on this pick?

Because when I mentioned that the Patriots were like in the world of maybe trading Joe Milton, there were teams that were intrigued at one time.

Oh, because he's a week 18 all-pro.

The Browns take a chance on that.

And so in the draft, then you've got the number two pick.

And I'm just going to add this quickly.

You get Travis Hunter with the number two pick.

You don't have to worry about

Shador Sanders or Cam Ward.

You've got this quarterback.

You maneuver your way up to get Jackson Dart.

You've got two potential young quarterbacks to build around.

You've got Travis Hunter, Deshaun Watson's out the building.

You've got a ton of draft picks.

You got Will Shipley in the backfield.

You've got another tight end, and you start to roll.

And we start to keep the coach, we keep the GM, and we move forward.

And the energy around that feels different.

I don't like the idea of keeping Miles Garrett and when he doesn't want to be there.

You do everything that all the energy is pointing a certain way.

The Cleveland Browns feel completely different by September.

That's my plan.

Mark, I really appreciate how

down the line you thought, too, about all of these things, because I thought you made an extremely good point in the middle of that as well about how

like a couple years ago, taking on $75 million in dead money was unheard of for a team.

And you can't possibly win and you can't possibly, whatever, whatever.

Well, the Bucs did it, and even more than that.

The Rams did it that same year.

And now the salary cap is exponentially increasing year over over year over year over year.

So similar to the a 28-year-old receiver is a 31-year-old tackle.

This is a 2025 $120 million in dead cap is like a 2029

$60 million in dead cap.

You know, and I'm estimating and paraphrasing, obviously.

So, but I would say I really appreciated that point because this sort of inflation is going to render a lot of these concerns meaningless a few years from now.

And at some point, cleaning house has to be done.

Right.

My only contribution: well, two contributions: one, Deshaun Watson restructure.

Good lord.

Oh, my God.

Between that and Aaron Rodgers, no wonder we talk about those teams.

Those teams are disasters.

The Jets and the Browns.

The Browns.

The second thing.

Wait, converted $44.745 million of Deshaun Watson's 2025 salary into a signing bonus, creating $36 million in cap space.

Dead cap now in $25,

36.9 million.

2026, 81.6 million new caps.

Dead cap hit, not the dead cap hit.

2027, $53.7 million cap hit.

Correct.

The dead cap in 2025 for Watson is now $172.3 million.

I understand the point you made, Jordan.

I don't know.

No, yeah, I thought it was more, I thought this, I thought we were looking at the 2026 number, to be honest.

I think that's a little bit, I mean, none of it's manageable, let's be clear on this, but

that is much more manageable in 26 than 25.

However, I do think the point that Mark was trying to make and the one I agree with stands is that at some point, you have to do this because you understand you're not even looking at these next two years.

You're looking at this inflation of funding in 2028.

You're not even looking at a real team over the next two years because of the situation that they put themselves in.

And I'd add, too, that everything that I outlined there involves rookies or young players that don't cost money.

Like you've got to find a way out of this.

And you've got to find a way with young players.

Like that's, that's your way out.

Like, I don't think you, the Deshaun Watson thing is the worst sports decision that's been made in decades.

And you got to live with it, but you've got to still field a team with some promise.

Mike, back to you.

My final contribution to that discussion is not very serious.

I just hadn't heard of Will Shipley, so I googled him.

Did not expect that.

So Howie Roseman, they're preying on this market inefficiency, I should say, about how he scouts players relative to how other teams are scouting players.

Just a quick Google search of Will Shipley, and you will see what I am referring to.

Yeah, between Will Shipley, Cooper Dejean, Reed Blankenship.

I think that Howie is doing it right over there.

He is recognizing what

he is not doing.

I did not say that.

But

Howie over there, recognizing market inefficiency, exploit.

Good for him over there.

Good point.

All right.

What do you got, Mike?

Back to me.

Yes, so

I am freeing another member of the Jets from the Jets.

This is completely unintentional, by the way.

I realize that.

Would everyone to the record be stated that it's not me that's repeatedly bringing up the Jets on this episode?

It's everyone else in my orbit.

Go ahead, Mike.

So on this, the first first one was was more so my first one was more ohio state related which is like help cj with someone he knows it just happened to include there's ohio state receivers everywhere yeah really so i just you know picked two of them this one i kind of view my i should say it my contract offer i'm sending dj reed to the baltimore ravens uh for three years uh and 44 million uh we can like guarantee like 25 26 million uh of that uh pays him It's basically the same contract he got from the Jets a few years ago.

It's like 3 and 33.

This is just adjusted for the rise in the salary cap.

I'm freeing him from New York, but honestly, I kind of view DJ Reid more as a Seahawk, maybe just because I just got to know him when he was playing in Seattle, saw the Niners give up on him, him ball out in Seattle as an outside corner at 5'9.

So

that's why he came up.

The Ravens, they're letting Brandon Stevens hit free agency for reasons that make sense.

If you've seen any Baltimore Ravens game on defense, so I like Nate Wiggins, their other corner on the outside for first-round pick.

Marlon, all-pro Marlowe, keep him in the slot.

I don't want to move him.

Just bring another guy.

Yes, you could draft.

I think they should do that too.

But DJ Reed is a baller, man.

One of them feisty guys.

Like, he has really good, just like baseline numbers for a corner.

Doesn't give up a lot of touchdowns.

Doesn't have a lot of picks either, but just like gets his hand on the ball a lot.

His

PBU or interception rate this last year was like 18.6.

For point of reference, like a good corner, you won around like 16%.

Anything in the 20s, you're probably really elite.

Probably gets you like defensive player of the year or something.

So yeah, we paying DJ like a top 10 corner-ish.

He's only like 28.

So I feel comfortable giving him a multi-year deal.

Ravens have a need there.

And yes, we get him out of New York and on to a team that plays meaningful football in January.

I would say with Reed, it could have been one of the 10 commandments, which is don't

thou shall not pay someone to fill a role that they're not capable of.

I'm not saying he can't be a cornerback one, but he was playing across from Sauce Gardner the last few years, even if Sauce was a little off this year.

But he is a very good player.

I would predict with him that very good chance because I know his DCs loved him.

And now you got Bob Saul in San Francisco and you got Jeff Ulbrick in Atlanta.

It would not surprise me to see him head to one of those locations.

But yes, he'll be hot in demand for sure.

All right, let me do my second one.

Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.

Here we go.

This one's just kind of crazy, but whatever.

Let's have fun.

Let's not take things so seriously.

The Colts, they secretly are out on Anthony Richardson.

I thought it was notable some of the comments that came out of the out of their building about the quarterback at the combine.

It's the first time they seem to be hedging their bets openly beyond just roster decisions in season, but actually management being like, well, you know,

we might need to have someone else in here to help.

Okay, so

what if you dangled Richardson?

Because if Richardson sucks this year, here's here's where the Colts are at right now.

Richardson could become the guy this year.

That could happen.

He could bloom.

He could stay healthy and improve as a passer and continue to be a game record with his legs.

Or he could be really bad or really hurt or pull himself out of another game and be almost worthless next year.

So if you have your doubts now about this kid, trade him before his value dissipates any further.

So what if you sent

Anthony Richardson, and this is kind of a dart throw, but why not, to the Raiders.

We'll bring them up again in exchange for a 2025 six-round pick and

second and fourth-round picks in 2026.

Now,

I'm not pulling that out of the thin air.

That is the Sam Darnold to the Panthers trade way back then.

Another depreciated former first-round pick

that

was able to bring back value despite not showing anything really in the pros yet.

So,

could the Colts pull the trigger, reboot a quarterback, and get value back from Richardson before it's too late?

Throwing it out there.

I would say that I could see Chip Kelly

being intrigued with elements of Anthony Richardson's game.

Where I think it falls apart,

and I could see the Colts wanting to do this too.

I'm with you on that.

I don't think Tom Brady is going to center the team, the offense around Anthony Richardson.

Like, I mean, I just don't see them putting any faith in that situation, even though he's intriguing, and I think teams are out there.

Like, the Tom Brady part of it stops it for me.

But it's juicy, spicy.

I like the parallel.

I like the parallel, too, of

quarterbacks who desperately might need a new home.

The parallel with Darnold is good.

Yeah,

the thing I keep coming back to is Pete Carroll being on just a three-year deal and

them being at the lectern in their joint press conference and talking about how much they want to compete now and how much they believe they'll be intelligently aggressive to compete right now.

And I just don't think Anthony Richardson is the person that gives you a shot to do that.

But as a sort of reclamation task or someone who could maybe stay behind the scenes for just a little longer, get more actual reps, which he didn't really have a lot of in college or in the NFL that were valuable,

I do think that long-term vision on this guy is certainly something to apply.

Take the Raiders out of it, but just in general, I get the feeling, like Darnold back then, there are teams that would be interested in this and sniff around this as we could fix this.

I agree.

Yes.

Every team always thinks they can fix everyone else's players.

Pick up the phone, Chris Ballard, if it's ringing.

Pick up the phone.

I mean, it breaks one of the main commandments we just discussed, but yes.

I do like

don't pick up other people's problematic individuals.

Like, don't try to fix someone else's crazy girlfriend or boyfriend.

Yeah.

Hit it, Justin.

There you go.

There is an aspect I like about it.

I think I've mentioned on the show before, I kind of consider Pete Carroll like a QB whisperer, so to speak, not in the same like Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Andy Reid type of bag, but more just from like a confidence standpoint.

Like it gets quarterbacks to believe in their abilities and just be who they are, like play to the best of their abilities.

And if you get Anthony Richardson to do that, that's really fun.

They would run him into the ground, though, as a

gradual.

I feel like this would be a guy that Pete Carroll would be absolutely enthusiastic about.

And the Brady thing is a good point.

And we just saw him try to land Stafford, so maybe he's looking for a traditional veteran passer that can lead the team.

But I feel like Carroll would be, he's enthusiastic about everything, but I think Richardson might be someone he well.

I think the other two downsides to this from the, that would probably be like, okay, we're not doing this from the Raiders' side, mostly just because what I know about Pete, he comes from like the Bill Wall school or whatever of quarterbacks, where it's like his baseline judgment is like, can you throw a catchable ball?

That's kind of how he starts from there.

And the answer with Anthony Richardson is no.

Not with any consistency, unfortunately.

And then the other part is like, you want your quarterback to be one of the hardest working guys in the building.

And like, if you just talk to people who are in Indy, that is not his reputation, Anthony Richardson's accurate or not, that's just what the word is.

So, I just don't think you, that's just not, Pete's not bringing that in.

There's somebody who's not going to be first guy in, last guy out, you know, type of dude at quarterback.

He, he got to have that.

He needs to have a come to Jesus conversation, it sounds like, or God.

Jordan, close us out.

Well, I kept this one very short out of a fear of crippling self-consciousness that my first one was extremely long, even though we spent no time discussing my first one.

So, the Los Angeles Chargers.

You know, if you want, like

if the setup is really long, it might come at the expense of the reaction.

I feel like my setup, and I set a timer, actually, my setup was about the same as multiple other setups.

So just wanted to point that out.

You are thinking about it.

We'll fact check here in free agency season.

Don't fall for agent fluff.

Okay, the LA Chargers sign Devontae Adams to a two-year $20 million deal with $12 million guaranteed, but $10 million guaranteed at signing.

So obviously that gives them the option to open it back up in 2026 if he has a good 2025.

He's 32 years old.

It's been said that he wants to get back on the West Coast.

I would love to see him with Justin Herbert and Lightning Lad McConkey.

I like that.

By the way, the Chargers also

parted ways with Joey Bosa, which seems like a long time coming and opens up some cap space.

Yes, I love this one, Jordan.

I love this one.

I do love the idea of like, Devontae, go play with somebody else.

It's okay.

Be free, friend.

And it doesn't have to be Derek Carr and it doesn't have to be Aaron Rodgers.

I think everyone wants to see if there's like, once and for all, if there's like another level to unlocking Herbert as a passer.

I just don't know, Jordan, if that's ever going to happen under Jim Harbaugh, who might always keep the handcuffs on, or maybe it was a personnel issue last year.

You only need two receivers if you're throwing 14 passes a game.

So half of them go to Devontae, half of them go to Ladd.

It's great.

I love the pairing of those two.

I think that works.

you know, he had Keenan Allen, he had Mike Williams, but if you get Devontae Adams, who is absolutely motivated to be with this young quarterback, like we haven't seen that version of Herbert, and I'm not sure we ever will at this point, because it feels, I feel like we've been talking about Justin Herbert the same way for half a decade by now, but give him that and like maybe Harbaugh changes it up.

He threw the ball with the Niners a little bit back in the day.

It wasn't just, you know, non-stop Greg Roman-esque ground and pound.

Now,

Harbaugh and Greg Roman, they both are fine throwing the ball.

I just want to be efficient when they do it, you know, and I think that's where you get like, I think if you're going to pair Justin with someone, you just keep getting him these like separator, like sure-handed cats, you know, not like boomer.

Like, they're reportedly in like the DK kind of sweepstakes.

I just don't see that.

I don't see that as like a good fit.

I think like Devontae, Cooper Cup,

guys who are going to be shifty, like separate from their dudes, and you know, like you can trust their hands at all times.

I i think that's the the better move like they should just punt quentin johnson to the moon like guys like that nah there's a reason why justin locks in with like lightning lad it fits it fits what what he needs because they're they're striving for efficiency not volume with their passing game um and yeah you need a certain type of receiver to really achieve that yeah the the chargers stuck it to uh

to Howie Roseman with the lad pick, which they nailed.

But otherwise, on the depth chart,

it's pretty shaky.

You got Joshua Palmer and DJ Chark going into free agency.

Jalen Rager also is on the depth chart.

You have Quentin Johnson, as you mentioned, who's basically a bust first-round pick.

And then there's not a lot left there.

So

they have to add people.

Might as well add someone of Devontae's ilk, Jordan.

Any other thoughts on this?

No, I'm done.

Thank you.

Yes.

Good combo.

Good talk.

I feel like...

I'm fully prepared now for what's going to come next week when the league year kicks off.

Legal tampering period is Monday.

We'll be with you whenever news breaks live, including Mike and Jordan with us next week.

Thank you to the athletic beat reporter calmness podcast superstars.

You're the best.

This really inspired me to go back to school and major in theology.

Yeah.

And a reminder to the audience,

again, the Patreon Friday fun show is free this week.

If you just sign up for the free tier at patreon.com slash heed the call, check it out.

I think you'll enjoy it and you might want to stick around for more.

Oh, and one more thing before we go, a special and hearty congratulations to our friend and fellow hero, Connor Orr.

He and his wife welcomed in a beautiful, healthy baby girl last week.

That's why Connor hasn't been around.

It gets his well-deserved

and important time off with his family.

But Jordan, Connor will be back with us next week.

But congratulations,

Seci, to the great con man in this beautiful time in his life three kids now that seems like a lot yeah we were like we we were lucky to know connor i don't know if lucky's the word but we did know connor before he i knew him before he was married and before he had any children and like now to see him um you know he's forming sort of a uh like a modern day version of little house on the prairie over there but like um he is i i wouldn't i you say this about everyone but i really mean it with connor he is a great dad like he fits the role and he cares very much.

I'd almost say I'd like look up to him in that sense.

He's just kind of grounded in a lot of daddism.

And so I know that that new baby, that new earthling is in good hands, Dan, and everyone.

What about me?

You look up to me as a dad?

Dad?

Well, you often look after my own children, so of course I do.

That tells you enough.

I trust you.

And then what about me, dad?

Yeah, congratulations to Connor, his wife, the whole family.

A bundle of joy.

And this was a bundle of joy.

Thanks to Jordan and Mike and everybody for listening and watching.

We'll see you next week

all over Free Agency in a New League year.

Till then, heed the call.

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