40s and Free Agents: Offseason QBs Preview and DJ's Top 10 Prospects

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Wasabi is purpose-built to free your business from skyrocketing storage costs and fees. Wasabi is the go-to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams around the world. Check out Wasabi's AI-enabled intelligent media storage, Wasabi Air, to the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cyber criminals. Wasabi, driving innovation in data storage for up to 80 % less than market competition. Try for free at wasabi.com. Wasabi, hot cloud storage, proud partner of iHeart Podcast Network. March is here and Uber Eats is delivering deals all month long.

0:42Score big savings on all the delicious food you need to fuel your sports fandom. Whether you're ordering in or hosting the whole crew, Uber Eats is serving up deals on wings, burgers, pizza, all from your favorite restaurants, plus snacks from top stores. Perennial powerhouse, underdog. However the madness unfolds, these deals keep it going all month long. Visit the Uber Eats app for all the latest deals and start saving today. Lowe's knows Sundays are for football. So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances, select Bounty and Swiffer cleaning products, and more.

1:21Then once your to-do list is done, Get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. Shop in-store or online now and earn your Sunday with help from Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Apple Card members can earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases wherever they shop. This means you could be earning daily cash on just about anything like a slice of pizza from your local pizza place or a latte from the corner coffee shop. Apply for AppleCard in the wallet app to see your credit limit offer in minutes. Subject to credit approval, AppleCard issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch.

2:07Terms and more at AppleCard.com. Welcome to 40s and Free Agents. I'm Greg Rosenthal, joined by my friend, Daniel Jeremiah, in a hotel in Mobile, Alabama. We have our two teams for Super Bowl 60 set, and DJ is in Mobile. That's how you know we are getting deep into this football calendar, and draft season is really getting going. Yeah, some people have referred to it now as 40s and Free Agents season. You know, like it really is where the name well, well chosen at that comes into play. We're getting ready to we're getting closer to free agency, getting closer to 40s. Got some players out here. So it's going to be fun.

2:52I will tell you, I did get some feedback in the league on the show. Great. Love to pass this along. It felt almost like a Tom Brady backhanded compliment to Sam Darnold throughout that entire game, which was, hey, I really like the new pod. Yeah. Like surprisingly, yeah, it's good. and it was like kind of snuck that little surprisingly in there i don't know i mean i guess we'll take it right i i will take that i don't know what that says about your other uh podcast you have another podcast right i think it was more about the new person i was working with like i think the expectations there and then they're like you know what he's not he's not bad he's good for you good for you who is who is that guy um look why don't we start with with the Super Bowl quickly because we've been doing the, you know, kind of autopsy of the teams that went out.

3:43And so we'll talk Broncos Rams in a second. We're also going to talk about your big top 50 list, which came out. And then we're going to do kind of an overview. We're doing a little bit of everything. It is free agency season of the free agent quarterbacks that will be available. Maybe some guys that could get cut in some trade options. But just on those games, I did kind of want to mention whether and wonder if you find this interesting between these two teams the seahawks and the patriots guess where they ranked in free agency spending from a year ago oh well i know the patriots just might be number one right they threw out massive amount of money they they were first by quite a bit that's correct and then seattle obviously the darnold money.

4:31They had, I want to say they did the linebacker, right? But I don't think a lot after Sam, I would say middle of the road. They finished fourth in free agency spending. I think the Darnold contract goes a long way. There weren't a lot of$100 million contracts and technically, even though it felt like a good deal, it is. And so if you just look at total money in all the contracts given, the number one team in terms of spending, the number four team in terms of spending. They also spend big money on Demarcus Lawrence. You mentioned Ernest Jones. Some of it was re-signing their own players like Ernest Jones.

5:05That's what I was thinking of. Cooper Cup was another guy who got a lot of money. If you think about, obviously you want to build through the draft, but this Patriots team especially, they hit on almost everyone. I do wonder if all the spending that they did, Milton Williams, Stefan Diggs, Carlton Davis, Roberts for Lane, some of the lower guys like Garrett Bradbury, Morgan Moses, Caleb on chase on. They're all making impacts. You can really turn things around in free agency if you get the right guys. Well, the other thing that's interesting, you know, if you were looking at it from the free agency standpoint, I can then also look at it from the draft standpoint and say, look at the rookie impact that these teams have had.

5:45Give you two just right off the jump from Seattle. Look what Graze Abel did to solidify that offensive line. And Nick Neiman Wari. I don't know if you can say he's been a better defensive player than him on that team, which is, you know, right there with Houston, arguably the best defense in the NFL. And he's arguably their best player. That's on the rookie side. Then, you know, your Patriots, they've got rookies all over the place. The offensive line and the backfield at wide receiver. They've got rookies playing prominent roles as well. So it's it's interesting to see, hey, 40s free agents married together.

6:12They aced it. They both aced it in the offseason. It is all happening. And there is a lot of salary cap space out there. Let's start talking about these teams that got knocked out. I was pleasantly surprised. I should have been on this of what a good situation the Rams are in because, you know, they spent a couple of years digging out of some expensive contracts. They have forty five million dollars in cap space. You know that they have the two first round picks, the 13th overall pick and the 29th pick. And they have some real needs. I'm curious what what you think maybe they would be before I throw mine out.

6:45But it might be where the free agents are. Cam Curl is a free agent at safety. solid player for them. Kobe Durant was, was pretty good for them at cornerback Roger McCreary, who they traded for as a free agent, but very few free agents draft picks up at the top of the draft and a ton of cap space. They, they are in position to, to keep pushing and, and, and try to get over the hump this year. Yeah. I'll, I'll tell you what I had them doing, which by the way, you turn this thing in this mock draft, like a week before, and then the, you know, the day before their secondary gets torched, you know, and becomes even a more pronounced issue.

7:22So the Rams fans did not like me, not giving them a corner there at 13, but I had them taking Makai Lemon from USC. You said, okay, gosh, why would you go back to the receiver? Well, I'm like, well, first of all, I don't know there's a human being put on this earth. It's a better fit than what they already have there with Puka, but Makai Lemon is in that of that same ilk. And it would just be so fun to watch how creatively they could deploy those guys. You can line them up in the backfield slot out wide, just a real big time playmaker I think he's the best wide receiver in the draft so I had him with their first pick and then with their next pick I had him taking a tackle and Blake Miller out of Clemson who I think is a really really underrated player a good player so I don't know that they they have free agency where they can address some some issues in the secondary that showed up and obviously they have some free agents there on the roster they need to figure out but I don't I don't feel like it's a draft situation where you know you're going to be picking towards the bottom of the first round as good as that organization's a run on most years so just take best player available get impact impact player there with your first one especially yeah Devante Adams has one year left on his contract but after cornerback linebacker those are two positions that they haven't really invested in high they find them they find them later or free agency so i would be a little surprised if they did it high in the draft but you could see them getting some veterans but after that actually i did write receiver because you know davante adams one year left on on what's been a good contract i'm sure he'll be back but it's a pretty steep drop off after those top two so you got to start thinking about the future offensive line depth uh would be up there too but i think they're in a good spot i also think they they're going to need to maybe take care of stafford's contract which wasn't the easiest thing to do last year and i thought he took a very team friendly deal which kind of kicked the can of like we'll deal with this again in a year now he has leverage and i'm i'm sure they will uh do right by him and there's no reason to think that he's not going to want to be back and play for them so they will figure that out i'm sure by the way uh our friend i'm not going to say it's just your friend our friend uh jordan roderick did such a phenomenal job on the piece that she wrote i mean She's incredible.

9:32Literally, when she does these types of articles, I get pumped when I see it come across my feed. I went through and read that whole thing. If you haven't read it, I would encourage people to go read it because it's a great look of how they've reinvented this whole thing with the Rams and the incredible job that they've done. Now, they've got assets now to do that going forward. I'm fascinated to see how they do it. You know, they're they're a 12, 13 personnel team. And now I think everybody thinks, OK, well, that's where they're going to stay and that's we're going to live. And I'm like, I don't know.

10:01Every time you think you've got them figured out, they pivot. So what's the next pivot going to be? I would call Jordan a friend. Everyone should check that piece out. And she she noted in her postgame piece, too, which was different just coming off the game, kind of how special teams has let them down over and over again. Maybe maybe that they will invest more there. But yeah, people like podcasts like your friends in the league. They're just they're just hearing about this one. she's on a great podcast called NFL daily multiple times, times a week. You should check that one out. It's got a great host.

10:28Yeah. One day, one day, uh, the Broncos,$27 million in cap space. And again, another team in a really good situation, not a lot, you know, with both these teams, I didn't see a lot of logical cuts where you like needed to take someone off the books because they had a bad contract. Like Darius Williams was one for the Rams. Evan Ingram maybe would be one for the Broncos, but I thought he was okay for them, but he, he's sort of part of the biggest issue I see on their team, which is just more explosion from any skill possession. I mean, you could take it at running back. They could use another one.

10:59J.K. Dobbins is a free agent wide receiver. I think they have guys they like to, they have guys teams are afraid of. I'm not so sure tight end. So any one of them, I think you could take best possible weapon, maybe near the top of the draft or in free agency. Yeah. I still think he doesn't have the tight end that he wants. I think that can take that to the next level. And I mean, And I know the expectation for Evan Ingram coming into the last year was so high. Trust me, I picked him way too high in a fantasy football league with all my high school friends. So that did not work out great. But I still think that's an area where they get a big time guy.

11:33He always just likes the bigger receivers. So there are some guys in this draft. Denzel Boston is one of them from University of Washington. Big physical explosive going to be there at that point later on in the draft. So later in the first round. So maybe that's an option for him at that point in time. But man, traditionally, he's he's not really enamored with the speed on the outside as much as he wants just big body, you know, ball winners. But maybe they can get a higher, higher quality player. They know if no offense to the little Jordan Humphrey, but I'm just still surprised in big moments, you know, that they're they're going to him who he brought from New Orleans.

12:10But yeah, both these teams and this was not true when we went through this entire exercise. I thought we're in really good positions in terms of, yeah, I think they want to get younger eventually on both lines. It's a really stable, talented offensive line and defensive line, but not a lot of really young players. So they're in a, in the perfect position in terms of team building where I think they can think a year or two ahead and get some of those premium positions. But I, there's no reason to think that they won't be back in the mix next year. And I mean it, maybe this is Patriots privilege.

12:41I wish Bo Nix was out there for that game. Cause I think it just, it gives an asterisk to it along with the weather where I just would have liked to see what, what Bo Nix and that team could have done. And if they beat the Patriots, so, so be it, but it would have been better to see it on a even playing field. Anything can happen on any given Sunday. Everybody all knows that, but Greg, even as someone who's a fan of the Patriots and I know the weather was an issue, but that was a Sunday of all Sundays that it felt like watching the JB game, which led into the varsity game. yeah but you could have said the same in in some other years uh including when the cardinals went to the super bowl i know they didn't end up winning but they they came about a play away from doing it maybe even in in 01 when the people thought it was the the jv patriots uh when they were going oh yeah it's happening so it's not necessarily predictive of what's going to happen next but i completely agree the caliber of football played in that other game was just on a whole another level, man.

13:36I completely agree. I think the defenses in the AFC were strong and the weather was not helping, but all season, I believe that the Seahawks and the Rams were the two best teams in the entire NFL. And it played out that way. I mean, I think we'll look back at that trilogy that they have. I can't think of many other examples like that in my time covering the league where two great teams in the same division play each other three times in one season. They're all kind of classics. I think history is going to look back on those games fondly. Rams fans don't want to hear it but it was kind of a for the average football fan uh it was great and you know what else was great was the patriots coming through not just because i'm a fan but do you remember dj back at the beginning of the season we did a whole episode drafting our potential super bowl winners and now that we have made the super bowl we each have one team remaining that's incredible man i have the patriots all of you have the seahawks and and guess where they were taken in each conference actually you should know this because our producer told us right before the show let's see if you were listening so i was ninth yeah okay it was ninth they were each ninth in the conference which uh another you know great friend of ours chris wurtz was saying what a league like before the start of the season barely anyone was putting either of these teams in the playoffs even even the two of us who drafted them we had them ninth in the conference each and now here they are in the super bowl you're like the the show uh deal or no deal and um you're looking up on the stage and there's like six briefcases up there and I've got like five of them and I'm like I'm gonna be fine and then just watching one of mine just get plucked off one after and you're won't you're low your lone little suitcase up there just hanging out and now there's only two suitcases left how about that yes I conveniently forgot to update this draft when the playoffs started and we learned that DJ had something like 10 or 11 of the 14 teams left and then six of the final eight in the divisional round but in the end my patriots got through and in three out of four last week and uh drake may is going to get it done for me in the super bowl uh before we take a break let's let's talk a little bit about your top 50 list which is coming out uh this is a big day well how does it feel to be a newsmaker we're just the little you know i like making lists i make little free agency you have different lists since I was a kid.

15:53But when you make a list, like it makes news, it can make people money. You got agents calling you thinking they're going to get more on their 3 % or whatever it is, just because you're putting them higher on the list. It's a lot of responsibility, DJ. It's not how those calls go. Those calls go, how the heck do you not have my guy X, Y, Z? You know, you got to talk to more people in the league. I'm like, yeah, it's fine. But But this will give you, this is my, this is the first, and I'm not even exaggerating, Greg. This is the first comment that I saw. Because I usually, I've evolved from the state of, I used to look at it and get mad.

16:29And then I was like, okay, just don't look at comments. And then you get to the point where you're like, okay, I can look at them and not get mad. And now I'm to the place where I just look at them and laugh. Like I can't get enough of them. It's like a guilty pleasure to watch these. So this was my, let me pull it up here. my first the first this is the first reply that I saw if we draft a white safety from Oregon I will lose my bleeping mind that was the first one at least that's funny at least that's funny I guarantee you he has never seen him play he's never seen him play and he's just like a white safety from Oregon like no shout out to Cooper DeGene who I think starting to open the eyes and maybe the hearts and, and the minds of the scouts like yourself out there to, to just be judging what's happening on the field.

17:24Read Blankenship doing it too. Riley Moss, I think had an underrated season it's happening. Yeah. Cooper Jean was in my like top 20 players. I remember talking to Howie Roseman on the phone after night one saying, I can't believe this guy didn't go. And then Howie Rosen made sure that that didn't last very long. What are the best at his position? Maybe the best right now. uh and all pro back-to-back years okay your list two quarterbacks in the top 50 yes yes but we'll start in the top 10 here uh fernando mendoza quarterback from indiana heisman trophy international champ he's number one um and this again is how i see him the the mock draft is with my ears uh top 50 with my eyes so fernando mendoza quarterback from indiana number one jeremiah love from notre dame running back two that's based off just the grade that i gave him he's a phenomenal player Arvel Reese is this continuation of what we've seen over the last handful of years, which is off the ball linebackers who twilight some on the ball and project at the NFL level as being outside edge rushers.

18:23So he's a freaky athlete out of Ohio State. David Bailey was a highly sought after transfer out of Stanford. Texas Tech paid him a ton of money and he helped lead that defense, get them into the college football playoff. Really dynamic, explosive, tons of production. He's fourth on the list. Sonny Stiles. Do yourself a favor. Your first homework assignment, Greg, for this draft season. Sonny Stiles. Just type in Sonny Stiles basketball and watch Sonny Stiles basketball highlights in high school. It's going to be the best thing that you see through the whole draft season. He is a freak show. Reuben Bain, if you've watched any college football, you know who he is.

19:00A real violent, just a fun, fun, physical edge rusher at Miami is six. But Kyle Lemon's my top receiver. He's number seven out of USC, right in the same school as Amon Ross St. Brown. Similar play style and temperament, all that good stuff. Mansoor Delane, a corner from LSU. Corners from LSU, you feel pretty safe about that. Really, really good, just consistent player every game that you watch this year. Carnell Tate from Ohio State. He is number nine. I'll be honest, as I was doing more people after I did this list and I watched some more crossover tape of Ohio State, I thought nine might be too low.

19:34So, Carnell Tate is not going to go south. He's probably only going to go north from here, starting at the ninth spot. And then his teammate, Caleb Downs, is number 10. So, if you're counting at home, that is four of the top 10 players from the Ohio State University. Does that mean they underachieved a little bit in the play? I think it's a great, because we do team building in our show, I think it's a great reminder. They had pass rushers. They had, you know, stud linebackers, stud receivers. you know the best player is not even in this list is going to be in next year's draft of jeremiah smith you know what they didn't have an offensive line that could block indiana and they could block miami and they're done lose a big 10 championship lose a playoff game because they weren't good enough up front offensively yeah so we have uh three edge players in the top six uh it's it's pretty even between offense and defense i like the quarterback running back to to start you mentioned maybe lemon as a rams uh possible choice you have two quarterbacks in the top 50 mendoza number one and then ty simpson uh number 40 so you have him as a as like an early day two type of prospect i'm curious before we do take that break um mendoza versus some of the quarterbacks that have come out near the top in recent years?

20:55Maybe not necessarily plain style comps, but like where they're at as a level of prospect in terms of where you're at, you know, in your evaluation. Sure. We start from, uh, to me, let's start on the high end, which was a couple of years ago, uh, represented by Drake may, who was my second quarterback in that class, you know, it was Caleb Drake, may Jaden Daniels, all three of those guys would carry a higher grade, in the pre-draft process than you would see with Fernando Mendoza. But in that same class, Bo Nix, who we've seen have tremendous success in the unfortunate injury in the playoffs, had a higher grade on Mendoza than Nix coming through the process.

21:32Had a higher grade on Mendoza than last year's top quarterback for me in Cam Ward, who ended up being the first overall pick. And in terms of comparisons, same grade to another player going in the wayback machine, who was the number one overall pick and in NFL MVP. Can you figure that one out who that is? Same grade, your comparisons. And this was my comparison and it was my comparison for this reason. Oh, I got it. I got it. Go ahead. Matt Ryan. Yes, that's it. That was my comment because I was like, Teddy Bridgewater didn't win an MVP, but you forget Matt Ryan in college could move around a little bit.

22:07And then that's where the Matty ice thing, you know, that's, this guy was ultra competitive, latent games, like fiery, um, just found a way to win. Now it's a little different personality. But when Fernando Mendoza got hit, when he got beat up and then big moments, he could step his game up and, uh, and guys kind of rallied around him similar, uh, to Matt Ryan there. And, uh, we'll just like deliver a big time throw when you're least expecting it. And Matt Ryan, Matt Ryan had more just talent, I think, uh, than people give him credit. So that's a, that's a fun comp. I feel like I'm on my back foot here.

22:38I got to start doing my homework on this draft, but I'm, I'm ranking all the free agents. We're getting that top one-on-one list ready. We're going to take a break and come back and we're going to talk about some of the quarterbacks that will be on that list and available this off season.

22:57For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tremphaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tremphaya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tremphaya, proper training is required. Tremphaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur.

23:37Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tremphaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit TremphayaRadio.com. Innovation is what gets your business to the big leagues, and Wasabi is designed to give every business a shot at competition. Break free from skyrocketing storage costs and unpredictable egress fees from old and top-heavy legacy providers. Wasabi is the world's hottest cloud storage company and the go-to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams and leagues around the world.

24:19And here's why. Innovation. From Wasabi's AI-enabled, intelligent media storage, Wasabi Air, to the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cyber criminals, data deletion, and ransomware, Wasabi has taken the lead in big lead data storage. Remember, Wasabi is up to 80 % less than market competition and doesn't charge a cent for businesses to access their own data. Wasabi, another championship story. Check them out for free at wasabi.com. Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage, proud partner of iHeart Podcast Network. Lowe's knows Sundays are for football. So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances, select Bounty and Swiffer cleaning products, and more.

25:06Then once your to-do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. Shop in-store or online now and earn your Sunday with help from Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. March is here and Uber Eats is delivering deals all month long. Score big savings on all the delicious food you need to fuel your sports fandom. Whether you're ordering in or hosting the whole crew, Uber Eats is serving up deals on wings, burgers, pizza, all from your favorite restaurants, plus snacks from top stores. Perennial powerhouse, underdog. However the madness unfolds, these deals keep it going all month long.

25:47Visit the Uber Eats app for all the latest deals and start saving today.

25:58We are back on 40s and free agents. About half of the NFL head coaching jobs are settled around the NFL. Well, in this little segment, DJ, we're going to talk about the teams that are desperately in need of a quarterback that need one that face some questions and talk about the players that will be available. It will not surprise you that many of many of the teams need a quarterback also found a new coach or a new play caller. There's like not a lot of carryover for teams like, let's say, Miami, that it's basically starting at scratch at quarterback. I love it. By the way, when you're in a hotel, this is a sign, you know, that you just don't, you don't really care about, you know, what's going on with pop culture and new shows and things.

26:44I can't even tell you how many times I've done this, where the, it's just the, the TV just stays on the little screen when you check in. I just realized it's been on this whole time. And it's just, I mean, I don't know if this is going to get into some Mario Lopez movie previews here pretty soon, but it's, it's trending in that direction. Does it say your name? Is it that nice of a hotel where it's like, hello, Daniel. Yes. Yes. Welcome, Daniel. Thank you for staying at the battle house. Thank you. Huh? How about that? That's how you know you're big time that you're making that coin. You're not making as much as Malik Willis is about to make, though.

27:17So the best the best free agency options, it's going to be Malik Willis. It's going to be Daniel Jones. It's going to be Aaron Rodgers. I had a longer list and there's all these backups. I think our producer just deleted them all because he just doesn't want to be talking about the riffraff out there. That's just going to kind of be filling these backup spots. But it's interesting that Rogers might have a path back to Pittsburgh now because of Mike McCarthy. Ultimately, I don't think that should be option number one for them. Do you think a team like Pittsburgh or Miami or whoever's out there and just has nothing should be looking at Malik Willis?

27:54I think everybody that's not settling at the quarterback position should be interested in Malik Willis especially when you you're not going to be in the mix for the number one overall pick in this draft as we've discussed I think there's a big drop off after that and I'd stack Malik Willis up quite favorably and he's not he's not old like he's still just getting going that one game it is it's risky but now you can look at a bunch of games it's not like it's not just that one start But the one against, you know, the Bears when when he came in, there was such a variety of the high quality. He looks so fast.

28:27He looked like the fastest guy on the field. So if you get the the right coach with him and so we'll see, you know, Jeff Halfley hired Bobby Slowik as his offensive coordinator. Not like an amazing run in Houston, but they're a team that's going to be looking for one. I want to mix up kind of the teams and the quarterbacks. Then you can give me some of your thoughts. My category of teams that were desperate were the Dolphins, the Jets, the Browns. Sorry, Shadir fans. The Steelers. That's a pro bowler, by the way. That is a pro bowler. Feels a lot like pro bowler Tyler Huntley from a few years ago, where he only played four games, I believe, but got a lot of joke votes from Ravens fans.