Daily Buzz: Donald OUT, Tua IN and More Week 1 Notes

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2:25Welcome to NFL Daily, where we finally made it to the end of the offseason road. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in the Chris Wessling Podcast Studio for the 111th and final episode between the Super Bowl, between the Patriots and the Seahawks. And the week one kickoff recap between the Patriots and the Seahawks. And yes, I am flying solo. We decided it was going to be a simple news only show. What is that? I know it's been a little stormy here in Los Angeles. Is that Nick Shook? Is that Nick Shook arriving for the 2026 season? What a surprise. Who saw that coming? With a chair. Nick Shook's been driving across America and ultimately finishing a journey because we're not letting you go back to Cleveland anymore.

3:25That he began with me in the NFL Network newsroom over a decade ago in Culver City. He went back. He worked for the Browns. He worked for us from Cleveland, but we've been teasing it. And now we've got Shook. He's our big offseason acquisition in the studio forevermore. We're finally here. I'm ready to get rolling. I'm excited to be here. The season's here. I'm here. Not in a box. Let's go. That was so stupid. If you like seeing just how much Nick Shook towers over me, like he did when we went and saw the Dodgers this weekend, check us out on YouTube. Subscribe. Watch us. You can check us out on NFL Channel now three times a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday.

4:08And we love our podcast listeners because that's what keeps the ship afloat. Let's get into the football. It will still be a simple news show on this program. And we have to start with the Melbourne game. Aaron Donald is not going to play. We are taping this on Tuesday afternoon, LA time. And I bring up that timing to point out that Sean McVay just did a press conference and he's still in Los Angeles. The game's in about 48 hours. They have not left yet. Aaron Donald will not be leaving either. they decided he is not ready to play in week one there already is some reporting indicating that he's likely to play in week two but they just don't want to risk it he's not even going to fly over to australia does that change how you're thinking about this game no i'm not worried about aaron donald's involvement in this game i'm more worried about the clock the body clock how do you adjust to going to australia so quickly as somebody who's done some road trips with the nfl teams and done the two-day trip to denver okay and the difference in it isn't going to make a big difference.

5:08Is this a test? It's fine. Of strategy in how you approach an international game. Kyle Shanahan, the Niners, been there like a week. He doesn't know if up is down, left is right. The Rams, the Rams don't care. They don't care at all. They're just going to stick to the regular routine. I think it's fine. I don't want everything about this game to be a referendum on how they approach the trip. They did it similar to London. We've seen it both ways. It makes sense to me as someone who's made a trip to essentially the same time zone on a yearly basis. which Tokyo is, that that first night, you just stay up as late as you can, you get one good night sleeping, and then they're going to play the next day.

5:43But did you play a football game the next day? I didn't. You played in the mountain. I might have gone out for a jog or something like that. The Rams are expected to have their left tackle, Alaric Jackson and Puka Nakua. I was keeping an eye on whether the NFL was going to suspend either one of these guys at some point. There's been reporting from Adam Schefter that Nakua might not get suspended this season at all. I am surprised about Alaric Jackson. The NFL has a pretty clear domestic violence policy, and he's entering a diversionary program. So I don't know if he's off the hook permanently or they're waiting for something else to happen on a legal front, but that is good news for them because he might be going up against Nick Bosa.

6:24Nick Bosa and Christian McCaffrey both had full uniform, helmet on when they practiced in Australia on Tuesday in Australia. was Monday for us that you're getting to... And somewhere it's Wednesday. Right. Like the game is on Friday morning in Australia. Kind of crazy to me that Bosa has not really fully practiced once since tearing his ACL and he's going to play in this game. Yeah, I'm a little concerned about it, honestly. And the fact that he was dealing with knee issues, some swelling and that sort of thing in camp that kept him out. I'm a little worried about suddenly just going full go without any real ramp up.

7:00But these are the pros. These are the guys that, you know, know how to handle this better than I do. So I'll trust the process. I'll trust that they'll be perfectly fine. I think Nick Bosa will be a part-time player for now. Pitch count. Kind of like Aaron Donald's going to be. But if you look at that edge group, and they actually lost one of their depth pieces, Sam Okuwanu, who's played a lot of snaps for them and was part of a group that just isn't very deep. He broke his foot, we found out, in a practice leading up to them going over to Australia. So he is going to be out for a long time. The group is Nick Bosa, not at 100%.

7:40Romello Haidt, a third-round rookie. Keon White, who was shot early in the offseason and has recovered enough to play. But it was like a waiver pickup for them. And then Khalid Kareem, who is the guy they picked up off waiver. It wouldn't be an NFL season if the Niners didn't start with a bunch of injuries. It's not a great pass rush, even when they do get healthy. And as I mentioned on the previous show, look, it's an offensive line for the Rams that dominated this matchup a year ago. Let's quickly hit just some news out of the Patriots and the Seahawks who are playing that kickoff game. Christian Gonzalez signed his big contract less than two days before they have to suit up in Seattle.

8:22I do not think that's a coincidence. Four years,$135 million on the contract extension, $102 million guaranteed in terms of new money average and guaranteed money. So you can kind of play around with these numbers. Let's be real. He is now the newest, richest cornerback in NFL history. I do believe, Shook, that the threat of him not suiting up for week one helped them get over the finish line here. I think this is a classic example of a hold-in or a contract dispute in which you really refuse to budge and you force your personnel chief to answer for it multiple times ends up playing in your favor where you end up getting the money that you want because the threat, what is one thing?

9:06This actually motivated me the last week. The season's coming. You got to make moves. You got to get ready. I had to drive across the country. Patriots had to pay Christian Gonzalez to make sure he was on the field. They can't afford to not play without him. So good on him and his agent. Congratulations. It will be superseded by somebody else before long, but good for him. It's the same agent as Devin Witherspoon. top two contracts because Gonzalez had another year left on his rookie deal to me he's not the highest paid because if you actually do the total deal it's 25 26 million dollars a year it's totally reasonable there were these little whispers I wasn't the only one you know there has been this strange vibe sometimes publicly and sometimes behind the scenes of like how much does Mike Vrabel and the Patriots how much do they really love Christian Gonzalez maybe they were negotiating behind the scenes There were some little trade rumors bubbling around.

9:57I think this was a real thing, whether the Patriots were ever serious about it or not. I think there were other teams that maybe thought they could go get him, but in the end... What do you think happens in this scenario if they don't make the Super Bowl last year? Do they feel the same amount of pressure to make sure that he's locked up or not? Like, contract-wise? And that he had an awesome Super Bowl. Yeah. Like, I even heard... Because he hasn't been, like, top-tiered through... He got hurt in his rookie year, and he's been ascending, but... To me, he's kind of like in the NFL draft, how you evaluate not just production, but traits.

10:31His top end play, and I would say that was the majority of his second season, the 2024 season. He looked like he could be the best quarterback in the league, like him and Patrick Sertan. So once you show that level of play, you get paid like that. Now, last year was a little up and down. There's an injury, you know, it's cornerback. A little bit of fall in love with potential there. A little bit. Don't fall in love with potential. I love the energy you are bringing. How are you doing, Chuck? I mean, like, was it, you know, you left Cleveland. I'm happy to be here. I'm ecstatic. I'm excited. I'm fired.

11:01I know, but it's a lot. It's a lot. You were there for a long time. Yes. Family. It is an adjustment, I will admit. You go into the Dodgers game with me and my son and our friend Tracy. Shout out. You know, that can't fully replace your family, although we're pretty. No, that's true. I mean, it was a great introduction. And, you know, I got to say, I nailed my home run prediction. So got to be excited about that. Shout out Tommy Edmund. Yeah. That game, by the way, Christian Gonzalez saved a couple would-be touchdowns. They have it on in our office, which you're now a part of. They already put your name on the desk and everything.

11:34The Seahawks could have had more big plays in that game. I remembered how Darnold missed a couple deep shots where there was miscommunication. Gonzalez saved a couple. That thing could have been a big-time blow. I think the Patriots could go deep a little more in this game than they did because the Seahawks aren't as deep on their back end. Ty Okada, who played a lot of big snaps in that game, is not expected to play in this game. Nick Amenwari has been limited throughout the entire week, and we'll see if he's close to 100%. We think it's going to be a better Patriots offense in general. Do you think it's going to be a worse Seahawks defense?

12:13I don't know if I'd go that far. I will say that what the football world was introduced to, if they weren't paying attention as closely as some of the people like we were, in the Super Bowl was how Nicky Manmori freed up Mike McDonald to do all kinds of different things defensively and how important he is to this defense and how important he could be to this team in this week one game. But I don't necessarily think that they'll be much worse. They did lose a couple of other guys. They lost Rick Woolen. They lost Boye Mafe. They aren't in the top two in my power rankings, but they're at number three.

12:41So I'm going to give them a, you know. Put a pin in that. I gave you some grief last time we talked power rankings because it's a big earner. They already made you do another one, even though nothing's really changed in the last three weeks. I'm going to pick some nits with that. Also, Travion Henderson, don't expect him to play in this game for the Patriots. The next time, by the way, you'll hear from this podcast, Jordan Rodriguez and I will be live. Check us out. Join us on YouTube after the game, recapping the kickoff. So let's get to the rest of the news that's happened since we last recorded.

13:13Tua Tunga-Vailoa will start week one. It's crazy that we got this deep into week one preparation without knowing who's going to start. You just had a telling intake of breath sigh, which I found a little intimidating. Showed off the muscles here. Why did the Falcons make you do that? Because it's been a tough situation for Kevin Stefanski to navigate. I think that the tone of the conversation prior to their preseason finale was that they really shifted toward hoping Michael Penix to play in week one. Right. And then they rolled two out for the preseason finale and he fumbled away possession. He didn't look great.

13:55He bounced back a little bit, but it was marginal at best. And I just thought, man, there's it's not that there's no way that you can justify playing him in week one, but Michael Penix really has to not be ready to go in order to have to roll with to a tongue of my low, which I think is a disappointment for what the Falcons probably were hoping for going into week one. I also think it's temporary because as it stands right now, they probably want to see Michael Penix out there and not Tua based on how he's looked in this preseason. Not the greatest sign for Tua that they waited until the last second.

14:21And they're not starting Tua over Michael Penix as his backup. Michael Penix will be inactive. Cooper Rush will be the backup. Shout out to the Jack Strand believers out there. Like, where's he? Come on. He's just hanging out. Let's listen to Penix talk about his way back to the team. I had that conversation. I just told him I'm not where I want to be right now. and I want to be able to be 100 % so I can help this team with football games and I'm really close, really close. Sounds like it was Penix's decision. And it's a bummer for me because the week prior he was talking all about, basically the week, week and a half prior, he was like, yeah, I think I'm on track to be mentally and physically ready for week one.

15:05And he's not. And you can tell there's a sense of disappointment in his voice there where he's like, I'm failing my team, I'm failing myself. But he's not. It's just one week. It's pretty rare in football, and we'd have to know the machinations, but the way he made it sound, he went to Kevin Stefanski and say, it doesn't feel right, which I really appreciate. I actually don't think it's concerning. I think these guys know their bodies better than anyone, and sometimes just hearing athletes talk about recoveries from this, it is partly mental until you fully trust what's back, but he has a better sense, I think, than anyone else is going to.

15:41And so if he feels like he's not ready, he's not ready. He has recovered from a number of ACL surgeries. He has been through this before. And so it's smart of him. And I appreciate it. I think it shows some maturity to not force himself back. But the question is, how long does the Tua Tungvalu starting experience happen? How long does it last? He says, I'm really close. It was really close a week and a half ago. Is this a month-long thing? Is this two weeks? What is this? I don't think it's going to be very long. And Tua could always play his way into the job. but it's always a big question when you look at the schedule.

16:14Like, it depends what version of the team you play. And I don't know that Michael Penix is going to be a big upgrade, but I have a feeling he will be in this system over this version of Tua. They are at Pittsburgh week one. We got to figure out who's taking what games on Sunday, by the way. You don't just get all the good games just because you're writing about it. Is that a game you want? Maybe. Kevin Stavansky, familiar with playing in Pittsburgh. Do I want to sign up for the Tua experience? Aaron Rodgers versus Tua. I feel like you can do better in week one. And then the Carolina Panthers are the home opener for Atlanta in week two before they go to Green Bay and New Orleans after that.

16:53So all those teams will be watching this situation and interested. The most surprising transaction I saw over the weekend was Darius Slayton was cut. Wouldn't have been that shocking if it happened on cut down day because we heard it could be coming. but they're a little thin at wide receiver now because they've had some injuries and he's guaranteed$9.75 million, which tells me that Joe Shane regrets giving him that contract, by the way, if you're just looking to give Joe Shane L's, here's another one. There's a lot. There's a few and that they just couldn't even get a late round pick swap. They held onto him for as long as humanly possible, hoping to get something for him.

17:36some team to take on a little bit of his money. It's a major misfire that he can't make the team. It does save them a little bit of salary cap space, which is your new beat. You've been really trying to figure this out. But I think we figured it out once we looked at the cap space of the Giants. They have no cap space. Exactly. So it makes sense for a little bit of cap relief to be more flexible at this period at the start of the regular season. And if you want to convert one person off the practice squad up to the active roster and keep them there and things like that. Right. But what it really tells me more than anything is that Malachi Fields exceeded expectation.

18:09And they feel very good about Malik Neighbors. And they feel very good about the rest of this group, which, like you said, is pretty thin. Odell's also on that team. We got to remember that factor. And ultimately, they looked at a guy who turns 30 in January as somebody that they no longer wanted on their team for the rate that he was at. What do they got to do? They got to get it right before the game starts? Because right now they have about a million dollars in cap space. but there's actually four teams that have negative cap space right now. I would imagine it's right before. They got to figure things out in the meantime.

18:38But that's crazy. I can't remember the last time a non-quarterback had that much guaranteed money on his salary and was just flat out cut. They're going to pay him to go away. He could land with another team. The Titans tend to like ex-Giants, although they're pretty deep at wide receiver. The Saints are a little thin. I could see them adding a veteran. Daniel Jones had some nice days with Derry Saints. so he'll land somewhere. Yeah, yeah. Indy could definitely use another receiver. Injury news in the same division. Tyler Smith of the Cowboys, this came out of nowhere, is going to be out for four to six weeks with a thumb injury.

19:12They showed us how much they value Tyler Smith by giving him a monster contract. He's one of the better guards in the league. I think this offensive line has kind of one of the highest ceilings, lowest floors of any offensive line in the league where they could be top five, but they could be sub-mediocre. This is a disappointing way for their season to start. This was their most dependable lineman. And this is the guy that really allowed them to kickstart the reconfiguration of their offensive line when they moved on from guys like Nick Martin and mainstays that either retired or moved on elsewhere.

19:44And so to lose him at this stage is disappointing, but I understand the logic behind it, which is go eat your thumb fixed because offensive line, much of it's about grip strength and can you get your hands in a guy and hang on to him? And if you can't use your thumb, I mean, the reason that we're evolutionary, like advantaged over some mammals is that we have opposable thumbs. So if you don't have a thumb that allows you to get into the chest of a defensive lineman or a blitzing linebacker, I guess you're going to be a little bit limited in what you can do. So get it done now, four to six weeks before you even get to the halfway point of the season.

20:13It makes sense. But if you look at this team now, the questions with them were tackle. Where's Terrence Steele right now? Tyler Guyton was like threatened a little bit in camp for his job. Right. And now they have TJ Bass playing left guard. Suddenly the strength of this group diminishes a little bit. Yeah, they traded for Broderick Jones because I don't think they're happy with Terrence Steele. We'll see. They have a very tough matchup in terms of their offensive line, Sunday night football, week one against the Giants. The Super Bowl for the Giants. It is big. If the Giants got out to a one-on-one start beating the Cowboys, that'd be big.

20:47I couldn't help but notice Jerry Jones doing the thing that he does, which is stay in the news with a little bite that he feels like everyone is going to jump on. He noted after doing some restructures, they've changed some money around, that they have, quote, serious financial room for a trade. They have opened up about$30 million in cap space. And so if they wanted to trade for a certain edge rusher from the Raiders, that fits in perfectly into the Cowboys salary structure. I would not expect that to happen before week one, obviously, at this point. But if the Raiders are one in five, I wouldn't be surprised to hear Max Crosby's name thrown out there spice up some trade deadline episodes.

21:36That cap space is kind of a myth, too, because they have projected five next year. So it's really like an all-in situation. Let's go do it right now. But at the same time, Jerry's... It's not affecting next year, you know. We've talked about this with Jerry, because he's been saying this since they were still at training camp and he was outside doing a press conference. It's almost like he just likes to tease us with the idea that, yeah, we could, or maybe just put it out there that, hey, you want to move one of your guys? We're kind of all in right now. We'd pick up the phone and talk a deal, potentially.

22:04Until it happens, though, I'm just going to take it as bluster and keep an eye on the fact that they have cap space to work with. You're right. That could all be rolled over next year. But I think there's a part of Jerry that doesn't like that they've had this quiet. Yeah, he wants to be in the news. Offseason. By the way, when you were doing the, you know. The opposable thumb. The opposable thumb bit. I was just thinking, how different is this than if you were just in a box in Cleveland? You wouldn't see my hands. Well, you wouldn't be doing the bit. No. It just would be different. Because I would block my face.

22:33I love it. For as much as we've worked together, we haven't done a lot of podcasting in person together. Yeah. This is number two. Let's go. Nick will be part of our Sunday night recaps. You're going to be part of the Tuesday show. We'll try to get Nick mixed in as much as possible. And then Thursday night. you continue in your primetime journey with us. Harrison Smith is back with the Vikings, the unretirement that Vikings reporters seem to see coming throughout much of the offseason. So that's good news for them. I kind of was wondering about their secondary. It looked very thin at safety. And so Harrison Smith out there to prove that you don't really need training camp.

23:12This is going to be his 15th season, and it is a complex defense that not many people really know what Brian Flores wants to do. Harrison Smith is going to make them better. They also signed Kyle Van Noy, fun old name, to the practice squad. So we could have Van Noy and Van Ginkle on the same team. The Minnesota Van Vikings. There we go. Yeah, the Harrison Smith thing, by the way, it's the classic case of, congrats, you are the latest Michael Strahan to just avoid training camp entirely in the preseason and then join the team you've always played for. Good job, Harrison. Way to play it. Michael Wilson signed a three-year contract with the Cardinals.

23:47I mentioned it briefly. I think this is going to turn out to be one of the best contracts in the league. He is a rising young player. I really loved his perspective when he signed the deal, and I just wanted to get that into the show. It was a really cool example of what these contracts mean to the players and the people around. My dad came from Montego Bay, Jamaica. Grew up with a schizophrenic mom, came here when he was 18. You know, was a construction worker for 35 years. is he probably won't want me to say this, but he's like he never made over$100 ,000 in his entire life. And my mom was born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand, came here in her mid 20s to pursue a nursing career.

24:28So I think it starts at their story, right? Two immigrants came here. Like my mom still to this day doesn't know much about football. To be honest, she really doesn't like me playing football still. She's always she's a nervous wreck during the season. And so this is a big win for the entire Wilson family and, you know, starting back from their story. Very cool. What do they always talk about? Life changing money. Three years, 75 million for a guy who really worked his way to his role with this team. I mean, that is such a got to be such a rewarding feeling that knowing that you can be financially secure and you can help your parents and appreciate the path they took to get you here.