40s and Free Agents: The AFC South's 5 Impact Additions and Rookies

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1:56Welcome to 40s and Free Agents, my favorite time of the week when I get to talk to my frenemy, Daniel Jeremiah. And we get to go over the biggest impact players added to every roster in the league. And this episode, we are going through the AFC South. How are you doing, DJ? I'm doing great, man. I feel like these episodes are like just taking people onto the new car lot. You know, like you kind of know the inventory that you already have. But here's some of the new cars that we have at the dealership we're excited to tell you about. I love that. And I love that we're doing it now in August versus when it was just all theoretical.

2:34Now we've heard some camp reports. We've heard what's going on. And we get to hear all the zingers. Don't don't listen to all the listeners who are like, oh, my favorite part is when DJ puts Greg in his place like that's great. Like now you're just going to lean in it. Don't lean into it too much. Let's start with you. I don't really don't have to try. It just happens. Let's start with your rookies. You take the rookie side of things, your top five, and I will do the veterans. Well, we were talking before we started and you were mentioning how pre-agency wise, not the sexiest division in terms of some of the movements.

3:03But I think headliner wise, draft wise, when you've got the top two dogs here, it is it is going to be fascinating to follow and start with the Tennessee Titans, the number one overall pick and Cam Ward had a chance to go out there for training camp and see him. The arm is legit. It sometimes you see guys in college and then you see them on an NFL field and they might look small or the ball doesn't have life like he's got a big arm. He's very confident. He's very comfortable. I think we had talked about this previously off the air, but he's someone they told me is in the building every day. Five, five thirty.

3:35He's you know, he's bringing young players in there with him. I'm I'm very optimistic about the long term health and performance of Cam Ward. I don't think their team is going to be very good this year, but I think Cam Ward is going to make the Tennessee Titans a watchable product. I totally agree that he was box office and I'm not sure who what he's going to be like as a pro. you would have a better idea but he reminded me a little bit of a jay cutler type in just that i'm not sure how exactly this is going to go but i'm going to enjoy watching the ride did you watch his pre-season performance and i'm not i'm no mechanical expert but like what do you think about his throwing motion because it's it's very unique yeah he's got a he's very loose like some guys are very compact and tight he's got a very loose motion and there's a lot of whip that he's able to generate with it.

4:24I thought he looked comfortable. I, he is aggressive. He's not going to keep the bat on the shoulder. Like he is not afraid to attack in small windows and, and aggressively attack defenses. So, um, I'm, I'm, I'm excited about him. He's, he's someone who doesn't have to have, you always talk about getting your feet in the ground and get into your legs when you throw. He's, he's got such a strong arm. He doesn't really necessarily always have to do that. He can kind of fade and still get plenty on the ball. I mean, loose is the way he throws the ball. It's the way he plays, too. I mean, he almost looks too comfortable.

4:56He'll get stationary, and he'll just... He's done that in college where he just sits there, and it's completely flat-footed, but he looks like he just got a massage. He's just totally relaxed and just chilling in the pocket. His feet are stuck, but that's his thing. It's the ultimate sign that somebody is not sped up on him. He's very comfortable. It's kind of amazing. I was thinking, is that going to look different in the pros? Because I thought that watching him in college, too, that like I've never seen a dude just he looks like he's playing video games back there. He's just chill. And then he kind of looked the same.

5:29But I thought he has looked good to start. Let's stay with the Titans. So Dan Moore, not a big name, did get a big contract. So he is the new left tackle for the Titans. And when that deal came out, it was kind of the one deal everyone made fun of. initially it's like 77 million dollars for dan moore who's who's kind of a league average left tackle but then you think about what this team is trying to be what their team build is and i would posit uh dj that like their their identity is their offensive line and to get an upgrade at right tackle where you move jc latham their top 10 pick from a year ago back to the right side where where he's more comfortable then you get just let's say a league average tackle let's say he's the 13th, 16th best left tackle in the league.

6:13That helps a lot. You got a top pick in Skaronsky in the middle, a highly paid guy in Lloyd Cushenberry, who's hurt right now, but he's at center and you bring in Kevin Zeitler and to me, okay, they at least have a vision to me. Their vision is their offensive line. And Dan Moore really completed it for them this off season. Yeah. I had a conversation with a lot of their personnel guys down on the field before practice. and I mean look they don't hide from it they know that they played they paid sticker price maybe sticker price plus on Dan Moore and how that was going to be received you know outside they were and I agree with this we had a long talk about this philosophy which is when you bring in a young quarterback it's we'll worry about the defense next time like we are going to have to give him a chance to be successful to show progress to show growth and to provide hope so to go out and get Kevin Zeitler's whatever he is 35 years old and you know he's still playing at a solid level.

7:05He overpaid a little bit for a tackle, but it was by far their best tackle option. They felt like they have the first pick. It's going to be the quarterback. By the time they picked again, they weren't comfortable with what tackle options were going to be there, which would have to be on the field and have to play. So they kind of stacked Dan Moore up against the tackles they would see later on in the draft and felt like, okay, he's our best option. They go out and get two young receivers that they really liked. They didn't make my list here, but A.O. Manor from Stanford and DK from Florida two guys that I think as the season goes along, you'll see them play a lot more.

7:37But again, the whole philosophy, which I'm a fan of, is if you're going to lose games as a bad team with a rookie quarterback, I want to lose those games 20, 28 to 24. I don't want to lose those games 13 to nine. I want to show some progress and some hope. I hear that. And I love the offensive line coach. Of course, Bill Callahan is there the son of the head coach. My biggest fear with this team just for Cam Ward is that it could be a Caleb Williams situation, that the roster overall is not that talented. And then you're starting over with a new head coach, new regime. So I hope that doesn't happen.

8:12And how did you pronounce it? A.O. Manor? Because I've been saying it wrong. I said A.O. Manor, but I'm not super confident on that. It's been a long time since I had that guy in front of me for the draft. More on them in a little bit at the wide receiver position. but I've heard he's getting a lot of targets in camp. All right, let's go to your second rookie. All right, so that's the first high-profile guy. We go to the next one, and that's probably the biggest high-profile rookie in the NFL this year, and that's Travis Hunter. So with the Jags corner receiver, the big trade was made, which Cleveland fans I think are still upset about because they wanted a chance to see Travis Hunter and what all he could do.

8:48By all accounts, and talking to Bucky, who's there all the time and doing their games, the plan seems to be you know offense you know pretty much full time and then defense picking their spots that's third downs that's maybe down in the red zone but trying to pick and choose there but in terms of where he's spending the bulk of his time it's a lot more time to learn all the language on offense than to be able to learn what he's going to be asked to do on defense so he's spending a lot more time with offense yeah and according to the the practice reports there too that they have a great beat writer john shipley i think he was maybe not playing as fast as he's trying to figure it out early in camp and then as camp has gone on the lights kind of come on for him as well and he's making a lot more plays on both sides of the ball you mentioned browns fans are mad i'm mad i mean you got a chance you got a chance to take a guy who could be in your ring of honor one day you know who could make the hall of fame one day he's that type of prospect, DJ, why are you not more excited about Travis?

9:49And I still don't quite get why people just aren't excited about the show. Hey, Otani of football. Maybe it's your Dodgers hatred. No. Well, first of all, um, I had this, I, I called the Joe Ortiz at least last week and I was laughing because I'm like, you know, Travis Hunter getting all this talk, you know, he's the, you know, going both ways, the show. Hey, Otani. I mean, Hey, I think what Scott Matlock's doing a little more difficult. He's doing it on the line of scrimmage. Maybe let's get some Scott Matlock love out there for someone who's already been going both ways at the NFL level and banging with 300 pounders on both sides of the line.

10:23But no, I am very excited about him, Greg, from the Cleveland standpoint. I've said it, though. I understand it, which is this has been a journey and they've tried everything humanly possible for the last 25 years to find their quarterback. And they decided at this point in time, as special as Travis Hunter is, as great as he is, they want another, you know, another lottery ticket, you know, for next year. So they get the Jags first rounder. They have two picks that could potentially be top 10 picks, which maybe they're in position to get the quarterback. If not, they'd be loaded with, with assets to try and move and get them.

10:57So that's, that goes back to just a Cleveland obsession. You know, we know all the different turns that's taken, but their obsession with finding the quarterback. Yeah, that makes sense. And there's gotta be a lot of pressure on Hunter. And yet when I look at how he fits into this group and it'll get to my free agency choice for the Jaguars too. And in a second, I kind of like it. He's not necessarily having to be the number one receiver. You've got Brian Thomas, and then he moves the other receivers on the team down in the pecker pecking order. Like Parker Washington was getting to that word.

11:30Parker Washington has reportedly had a really great camp. Yeah. All right. Can I sidebar you here for, I just looked at this today. I don't know why I never hit, I never thought of this. two-parter. Do you think that it ends up this way with these top four receivers? And then how would you stack them? I'm going to go, I'm going to make Greg Rosenthal go into the draft room right now, but at the end of the year are the top four wide receivers in the NFL in terms of yardage, all LSU tigers. Is it Jamar chase, Justin Jefferson, Malik neighbors, and Brian Thomas jr. Last year, they were one, two, three and seven.

12:06I believe. I think there's a real chance. They're one, two, three, for all LSU. And to be honest with you, the next two probably have a high likelihood of being USC wide receivers in Amara St. Brown and Drake London. But if I took the four LSU receivers, Greg, and you can weasel out of it and just say for fantasy purposes, then you're not saying who's the best player. But if you were going to stack the LSU receivers, how would you stack them? Oh man, that's where you're going with this. To me, as great as Jamar Chase is, it's like 1A, 1B. I have been convinced Justin Jefferson is the most complete best wide receiver in the league, essentially, since he got to his peak.

12:40So I'd go JJ, then you go Jamar. I mean, at this point, I love Brian Thomas Jr., but man, it's hard to not take Malik Neighbors. But because I planted my flag in Brian Thomas Jr., and he came through for me, as a guy that just moves different. The size and the speed. The fact that Neighbors is always out of practice, been out for much of... I'm going to go Brian Thomas Jr. over Neighbors. How about that? I'm telling you right now, I would not be shocked at all in any order of like, if we looked at stats at the end of this year, if these four are in any order, if you told me that BTJ had the best season of these four guys, I wouldn't bat an eye.

13:20He's elite, elite, elite talent. Neighbors, if they can get solid quarterback play, could be he could have the best season of all these guys. And we already know what Chase and JJ can do. So it's pretty fascinating, man. What a heck of a job by LSU. The four best receivers in the NFL went to the same college. That's pretty bonkers. It's totally insane. And on your point for neighbors, they track the targets in practices, and it's hilarious to watch the Giants' target distribution in practices. Like Russell Wilson, Malik Neighbors is in the 40s or whatever, and the next closest wide receiver is like 10.

13:53And it's like running backs in between just on dumb bops. It's all Malik Neighbors all the time. So I mentioned Hunter I don't think is having to do too much too fast because they have some depth that receiver Deami Brown is there too, but I'm not choosing Deami Brown, who's his second. I'm actually choosing the cornerback pickup, Jordan Lewis. And this is partly based on the camp reports. He was a guy kind of like my first guy, Dan Moore, where people were like, wow, Jordan Lewis is now the highest paid slot, you know, cornerback in the league. It's one of those agent-driven advertisements. First of all, not really if you drill down.

14:27Yeah, if it's the guaranteed money. Second of all, he's actually got to play on the outside plenty for them. And like I said, I have a reporter I really trust there. And he said since the day the OTA started, he's probably been their best practice player consistently from May through now. A leader, a guy who's been around the league and to me adds a real solid starter to that cornerback group. They have Tyson Campbell back healthy. Then you don't need Travis Hunter to be like the superstar at cornerback right away. You feel a little better at cornerback so that he can just kind of mix in there.

15:01So I've liked what I've heard out of Jordan Lewis, and that was a bad secondary last year. That was why they were not a good defense. And he's a good guy to help upgrade them. Yeah, that's it's interesting when you see the, you know, kind of the slot players, guys who've been designated as a lot of players, how the value in that just overall in the league. And we've talked about him being starters for a decade. You know, everybody's kind of gotten to that point. But there's a lot of the best teams in the league. if they're going to play somebody inside, they have impact players on a lot of the best teams that can play inside there.

15:30So interesting. I'm going to go, I'm going to go to Houston Texans, their second round pick Ariante Ursary, who's going to start a tackle for him, who was a tough player for me to evaluate. And I'll pull up my, my notes on him. He was massive. He's six, six, 331 pounds. He ran a five Oh one. So he actually moved pretty well. I just, he's huge. I did not think he bent was able to bend. Well, he was a, you know, could pin and seal on the run game. He was okay on short pulls. I thought he could anchor well against power, but I just thought he was on his heels a little bit. I didn't think he played super loose and bendy and athletic, and we'll see how he's going to get challenged inside this division.

16:10But much of their success this year is going to depend on this offensive line that they've tried to remake, not only in talent, but really trying to remake kind of the identity and the makeup of that offensive line. So I'm still I love this Texans defense so much. I love the quarterback. I just to me, the offensive line, I'm still I'm a little nervous there. Yeah, I could have tried to shoehorn in one of the free agents they picked up, but I couldn't choose one between them. You know, they signed like seven different guys and they're just hoping one of them works. I have heard out of that that camp.

16:45Seth Payne is great, but that they're optimistic that it's going to be a little better and more cohesive this year. And your guy, they were terrible against games last year. Awful against any standard game that they saw. Like the next one they pick up will be the first. So maybe that means there'll be, there'll be better coach. And it's going to be a totally different group. Ursary, maybe more than any rookie that I feel like was very divisive. I think a lot of people were down on him. Some people loved him. He has really gotten big up for what it's worth by the coaches, by the reporters, by the teammates.

17:21He is an immediate starter for them. He is going to be in that starting lineup. And they've thought, like, for instance, I heard the ESPN reporter, DJ Biennemi, say that in the way that Blake Fisher just isn't coming along and kind of didn't have that professional look to him right away, Ursary's come out there and he's kind of looked like their guy. So there's been a lot of positive reports about him. That's a good sign. No, that's good. And this is why I love doing these episodes because I kind of go off of what I see from above, looking at the roster, and then also going back to my draft stuff, and then you are dialed in with how training camp's been going.

17:57So it's a fun little back and forth here. I just give you a small little compliment. I don't get used to it. Well, yeah, and I'll give you one too. I've heard that the DJ digging into the notes section is one of our listeners' favorite bits here. My coworker, Jordan Rodrigue, loves it, and it got me thinking. You have this database, right, in your computer. And it's going back to a couple of decades at this point, back to when you were in the league. Yeah. Are you thinking about you could possibly sell that? You know, people have these the sub stacks, the Patreon. If you just had a subscription to your draft notes, you know, I know those season tickets for the Padres are expensive.

18:36Your kids are starting to go to college. You could get a little extra scratch here. So this would be the equivalent in terms of putting all of my reports and rankings over the years this would be the equivalent of me loading a gun and handing it to a crazy person that's what that would be that would be uh that's fair that's fair we could we could bring up the the justin herbert um but you know what's great about that whole thing is um if you go back through if i don't tell you the grade if i go and just read the description the description's almost always because it's just there's no it's just what what you see that's what it is.

19:13The tricky part is then where did you grade him and how did you stack the players? But the notes, like if I read you the notes on these players, you go, OK, that's kind of who he is. But how do you value that? That's where the trick is. You can't hit them all. People would honestly pay for that. But that's that's maybe in a future life. You know, that's that's 10 years from now when you're just looking, you know, looking for some extra money. Well, let's see if ESPN can get me to work on the outdoor games and like when this thing goes through. Maybe if that doesn't happen, then maybe that's what we got to do.

19:43Okay. Where do I want to go? Let's talk Texans. Christian Kirk is my choice. He was actually a trade acquisition and they kept them. They didn't adjust this contract. So he is a free agent after this year. So he has a lot to play for. And I chose him because look, they're the favorites in this division. They need their offense to improve. I love CJ Stroud. I love his anticipation. What can you really count on with this offense? I'm not sure about the running back position right now because Mixon is hurt. I'm not sure about the offensive line. He talked about it. We can count on CJ Stroud, I think, and Nico Collins.

20:19But after that, it's a lot of question marks. You have some rookie wide receivers. So they could really use Christian Kirk to have a healthy season. To me, he's a reliable player as long as he's on the field and moving well. He's got that speed up the slot. And if he's out there, I think he's going to make a big difference for this team. So I'm going to skip around then because my wild card, which we do the five to keep an eye on and we do the wild card. This, this is the time to talk about it. So my wild card was Jaden Higgins. So they go out and get both the Iowa state receivers, two guys I really, really liked.

20:50And so with Jalen Noel and, and then Higgins, so Higgins size wise is huge. So you're trying to figure out who's going to be that compliment there to Collins and Kirk, you know, how does he factor in? Kirk's totally different receiver. He's more similar to, to Noel. um so with higgins 6 '4 214 pounds you know my comp was for him greg nico collins oh that that was right is that weird is that weird that's and you comp noel to kirk yeah that's exactly like two they're they're duplicates of each other uh on higgins he can accelerate he can go get the ball a lot of 50 50 wins vertical stuff um he drew a ton of penalties down the field and i thought he some stop start quicks for a big guy I think he's a really talented player he was my 46th player in the draft so I think both those guys are good to me I put them as a wild card just because how is the rotation going to work what's his role going to be did they see him more as he that was a nice compliment to Nico or you know how does that all how does it all factor in because they have two and two it's like they got two guys the same and other two guys are the same yeah and they they're really counting on CJ Stroud I think to take charge of this offense They're saying, giving him a lot of choices in terms of the protections and all that, like counting on his mental acuity, which is off the charts to really carry them.

22:09But it's a lot. I wouldn't be surprised because of the rookies involved. Kirk is new, the offensive line. Maybe they get off to a little bit of a slow start. But yeah, he's someone I'm really wanted to watch. I haven't heard a lot about him, but nothing negative or anything like that. Let's take a quick break and then we'll wrap up the AFC South after this.

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