Free Agency Grades For Every AFC Team

19:26Patrick Claybon:Yeah. I'm in the low 90s. I'm in 92. Okay.

19:30Gregg Rosenthal:I'm giving them a 92 as well. Okay. Good job. John Spitek. The Chargers are... Why a season late, though? Yeah. I'm giving you guys a grade for last offseason. And and their power dynamics, Patrick. That's why. Yeah. But you have to you have to share that power. And yeah, you get it. You get a D minus for last year. Ultimately. That's high. I'm going to go. Yeah, that seems high. Honestly, the Chargers kept Cleo Mac and TR Tart with big deals. And I was a little critical on our last show about them not spending and doing the restricted free. I mean, the compensatory pick game a little bit. But then I remembered, like, the Tier Tart deal looks great right now, by the way.

20:13Like, it's aged well. Cleo Mack, that's a big signing. And then I kind of grouped all the, like, blockers that they signed. Charlie Kolar, the blocking tight end from the Titans,$17 million guaranteed. Tyler Biotis, the center, gets$15 million guaranteed, three for 30. Cole Strange and Alec Engle, the little cheaper, but a fullback and a guard, maybe a sixth offensive lineman, but Strange does get$9 million guaranteed, so that's good money. They bring back a couple of their Trey's, Trey Lance and Trey Pipkins, so that's important. They just keep working at the margins here with Keaton Mitchell, Dalvin Tomlinson.

20:48They bring back a lot of their guys. Delshawn Phillips, Denzel Perryman, and a ton of players leave. Adafi Owe, Deshaun Hand, four offensive linemen, Zion Johnson, Bradley Bozeman, Jamari Sawyer and Mekhi Becton is cut. He's still not signed out there. They still have$62 million in cap space. I kind of point out all that. They're very low in cash spending. That's where you could kind of critique them. And I think they should spend a little more. I point all that out to say that like these teams have different years where there's cycles, Jordan. I just think they were in a cycle where this was going to be one of those off seasons for them where they're incredibly active, signing, losing everything.

21:29and just was always going to be that way. I would like to see a little more, but considering they're from the Ravens mold, I don't think they're quite done yet either.

21:39Gregg Rosenthal:Yeah, and they're looking at the comp picks like you mentioned, and I think that goes toward whatever happens after, for example, you can no longer agree to terms with Julio Mack. Whatever happens after you assess really what's needed, once your tackles come back, if you still have needs that are significant enough to merit at these, some of these higher draft picks are bundling. Some of these picks, you have to be prepared in the just in case part of this, which is what the chargers are doing. They're kind of acknowledging the fact that, Hey, we think we've got this figured out. We think we're going to be very, very competitive and maximize Justin Herbert with all of these people that we've brought in, including offensive coordinator, Mike McDaniel is going to use all of these blockers in ways that I am just really excited about because they aren't just going to be blockers.

22:23Gregg Rosenthal:They're going to be move players and gap changers. And it's going to be fascinating to see what they do. You're maximizing one side of the ball in particular and try and trying to make sure that you do have just enough depth to get you through this year. They did try to have just enough depth to get them through last year on the offensive line. And then a position catastrophe happened. So I'm, I'm a little on the fence with, have they done enough for their offensive line depth specifically? Um, but we'll see how it goes. And they tried to design Zion Johnson. It sounds like they were very competitive and just the Browns went over the top.

22:55Patrick Claybon:Hey, they were able to retain bringing back Trevor Penning. Oh, I remember that one day that he played left tackle.

23:05Gregg Rosenthal:Me and Patrick and Greg were in the newsroom watching. And I was watching the Jaguars on one screen and the Chargers on another screen. And every time I went, oh, Trevor, which one? Which one? came very clear very quickly.

23:21Patrick Claybon:I don't know how many counterbids there were in that one. If it were an overall offseason grade, now Southern left coast Mike Mack is the biggest acquisition of all. I would be able to make that. Wait, I'm hearing from the committee. No, they're not allowing the coaching list to be included in these grades. Yeah, so can't do it. Got to ding them in terms that maybe we see more of a Mike Mack influence in terms of the draft because i know like you could you could pencil in um you know somebody that ran in the low four fours uh high four threes uh to to come into this backfield but they they bring back comando vidalgo trojans uh yeah kind of loaded there in that position so i don't think that necessarily changed i don't know how much more there can be to change or to improve this this overall grade so i'm gonna be low okay yeah well look guys like makai beck then and guys who aren't in my 101, for instance, are just going to be out there.

24:19My Kai Beckton a year ago at this time, I'm just using him as an example, was good enough to get like a$20 million contract. And now he's just going to be free floating out there. And there are guys of that level that can give you that sort of$10 million plus of year value that will be out there. So I think they're going to be a team that needs it because defensive line, they are a little thin. Dalvin Tomlinson was. And in the secondary, I think they're a little thin, especially at safety. I'm not in love with this. all. And since you missed that you wanted Zion and you didn't keep him, I'm going to go 76.

24:53Gregg Rosenthal:I am going B minus. 80. Jordan's definitely going to have the highest grade point average. He's the easiest. Well, I am a very positive person, Greg. But I also want to correct something I said earlier, too. Odafe Owe is currently their only comp pick, and he is the third rounder, obviously. Reportedly, these are not official yet. Nick Corte over the cap does a great job with that. But they're being very conservative while hanging on for dear life for that third rounder. That third rounder, I know that they think is going to turn into somebody who's going to be a core piece for them in the future.

25:27Patrick Claybon:Yeah, if not for Khalil Mack, I would be in the 60s. I'm going to be 72. Yeah. I like it. It doesn't surprise me that Patrick.

25:34Gregg Rosenthal:I just love all the big blocking guys. He expects a lot out of his students. He deserves excellence and he's going to demand it. Let's take a break. We're going to come back and do the AFC This is a fun, fun little exercise, a big one on a Monday.

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26:55Patrick Claybon:This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones.

27:35Patrick Claybon:Start your show today at Spreaker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I'm Greg Rosenthal. And this is 40s and Free Agents. The games may be over, but the NFL never stops. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Free agency, the combine, the NFL draft, pro days, trades. This is where teams reshape their future. This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money. On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits.

28:12To my top 101 free agents and how real rosters are built, cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move. We got teams rebuilding. It's hope season. Yeah, absolutely. It's hope season. We'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis.

28:36Patrick Claybon:Listen to 40s and Free Agents on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For 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.

29:19Patrick Claybon:Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before 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. Back on NFL Daily. I don't know if we've ever led with the AFC South. I feel like they're always second or third. There will be a day that we lead with the AFC South. They deserve it, but today is not that day. They are going second, though.

30:00The Houston Texans. We traded for David Montgomery. They gave Reed Blankenship$16 million guaranteed. Three years,$24 million. They signed Logan Hall. I don't know if that made it ever onto the show. From the Bucs. And like any defensive player, I just assume he's going to be great with the Texans. You know who didn't really agree with you? was the rest of the NFL because he's a guy entering his second contract that got paid very little money.

30:27Gregg Rosenthal:Listen, John Ledyard thinks he's a great player, so I'm on team John Ledyard for the Bucs analysis there. Could be getting better. Offensive line, they signed, man, there's just a lot of in, there's a lot of out. They signed Braden Smith, the former Colt that can play tackle or guard. They signed Evan Brown over the weekend, who might be kind of a fill-in interior offensive lineman. They re-signed Trent Brown and Ed Ingram. Ed Ingram got paid a lot of money. On the other hand, they traded away Titus Howard. They traded away Juice Scruggs. They also extended Daniil Hunter, their pass rusher, and Dalton Schultz, their tight end, for one year each.

31:02They re-signed a couple defensive contributors, Naquan Jones, Sheldon Rankins, EJ Speed, and a lot of their players are still free agents. Christian Kirk, Nick Chubb, Derek Barnett, just to throw out a few ones. They have$31 million in cap space. That is 14th in the NFL, so plenty to do some more work if they want. What do you make overall of this offseason so far, Patrick?

31:28Patrick Claybon:In terms of the things that they needed to improve, maybe I got to delve a little bit more into my offensive line understandings. I'm not necessarily seeing it. I don't know that the pieces around the quarterback are necessarily going to improve things that much for C.J. Stroud, considering just in purely free agency. So I got to go relatively low here. You know, David Montgomery. We've been throwing out the grades at the end. You can do it early if you want. There's no rules. All right. 76. Okay.

32:00Gregg Rosenthal:I kind of like, I mean, I just don't have any questions about their defense. I never, at this point, I just, I trust them to make the right decisions for their defense and on their defense. And so obviously a couple of the moves that they made there, Blankenship and Hall, like they're not stars, right? By themselves. There are guys that compliment a system or compliment stars very, very well. And I think that's exactly what they were going for here is sort of part to whole signings versus go out, go after somebody with a splash, even though they do have the money to do it. And them bringing in David Montgomery to be in tandem with Woody Marks.

32:39Gregg Rosenthal:By the way, locally, someone, maybe Seth Payne can help us with this. Someone locally came up with the nickname Woody and Buzz for Woody Marks and David Montgomery. I'm looking to cite that person. I don't know who it was. I just saw it floating around. So if it's you and you're listening, please let us know. I love that nickname. And them doing that makes me absolutely know that they're not done with their offensive line. Brayden Smith, I think, should play guard. I think he could be really good, especially in zone blocking. And I think they're still fiddling around and figuring that phase out.

33:13Gregg Rosenthal:And maybe they just understood that they couldn't do everything at once, especially in free agency. Maybe they're looking trade. Maybe they're looking draft to keep boosting that area. Because that's the biggest question for me is their offensive line still. Yeah, and they traded one of their best offensive linemen, Titus Howard. But on paper, Brayden Smith is now one of their best. So it's similar-ish. Montgomery, does he have to be part of like a cartoon combination nickname everywhere he goes? Well, they're going to use a two-back system. They love Woody Marks. Absolutely love him. They want him.

33:48Doesn't he deserve to have his own nickname? Why does he always got to be the sidekick in a cartoon?

33:54Patrick Claybon:I would make the case that the entire narrative of the Toy Story franchise, if Woody wasn't so selfish and jealous of Buzz's acquisition, that everything would have gone a lot better. Everybody probably would have gone to college and everything would have worked out. I have a confession to make. I haven't seen Toy Story.

34:10Gregg Rosenthal:What? Or any of the Toy Stories. It's understandable. And he hasn't seen Monsters, Inc. either, which is a really, really great lesson. Greg has a significant... A really great lesson about corporations. I think Ratatouille is the only Pixar and WALL-E that I've ever seen. Ratatouille. Creditable. I'll give him an 80. That's kind of my, like, eh, fine.

34:32Patrick Claybon:yeah they exist do more if you guys want better grades be more active yeah yeah but i again i

34:39Gregg Rosenthal:don't look at it as just in a vacuum i've given them an 85 because i think they're going to go after somebody i i really do think that like they're that they're not done here and they love their skill guys already like a big trade or something yeah i mean i like you can't be done with your offensive line i mean i don't buy it for a second than nick casario's thing i mean on paper this is they can be done because it's about the same quality they went into last year with And as Nick Casario said, that was their best offensive lineman in a while. We're not watching the same film that he is. I mean, they were okay.

35:07But, yeah, they're probably going to do in the draft at this point. Yeah. They made their formerly, like, very good and promising quarterback look worse. That's not good. Speaking of a quarterback that's been promising at various times, the Indianapolis Colts brought back Danny Dimes and Alec Pierce for roughly$74 million per year combined. That's why I described it. I know I decided to kind of combine them.

35:33Gregg Rosenthal:I wonder what Greg thinks about this. Well, it's just like, it's just a tricky situation is that they're, you know, you're bringing back a similar team. You're losing some players, but you're paying those two guys way more money. I considering how they end. I just think it made sense in the end. I don't really hate either deal on its own. I just think expectations need to be managed. They end up signing Michael Clemens to a three year, $17 million contract. only$7 million guaranteed. That didn't look as bad. Really a one-year deal. Arden Key is a pass rusher that got$11 million guaranteed. Both those guys, well, Key signed before they would have lost out on Trey Hendrickson, but really felt like that put a dent into their offseason.

36:16Ian Rappaport said they appeared to be in pole position for Trey Hendrickson and lost out on him. So it makes you wonder if they could do something else here, like in a trade. Mostly, there aren't big free agents out there. So$42 million in cap space. They are fifth in cash spending. So they've spent a lot of money. They basically gave up on Michael Pittman. They would have cut him. They just moved up like 15 spots in the sixth round. They traded Zaire Franklin to the Packers. They lost some key contributors, Quiddy Pay, Nick Cross, Braden Smith. They all played a lot for them. And just wanted to point out Laquan Treadwell and Jonathan Owens, Mr.

36:49Simone Biles, are on this team. Shout out to Megaquan. I know, still getting re-signed. That was one of those where they put the, the team announcement, I was just like, yeah, Laquan Treadwell getting re-signed as a special teamer in the first couple of days. You are now Mrs. Colts, Jordan.

37:08Gregg Rosenthal:No, it's always Colleen till the end of time. That's true. We do over-indexing Colts. Defend your Colts if you feel like you need to. Well, I mean, they still need questions to be answered along their offensive line, and they absolutely have questions to answer in their pass rush. I don't expect them to be done with either of those things. I don't think there's free agents now available, like you said, Greg, who are actually going to be like day one factor, like absolutely improve or answer all these questions. They have to look at a combination of trades and or picks. You know, them willing to be in on Trey Hendrickson says a lot to me because, first of all, the ripple effect of that Max Crosby situation, we'll probably be finding out what that actually was for for months to come and in terms of which teams were navigating in different ways uh predicated off of that move but i i don't know i feel like everybody spent a lot of time freaking out over these contracts and i just i just i can't muster the energy to do that i i feel like they actually gave themselves a relatively conservative contract uh situation in totality with daniel jones they're yeah the words up to a hundred or million dollars it's like a one-year deal it was fine from a team perspective if it goes poorly they can cut him and and also like he's like the fifth lowest paid once matthew stafford's deal gets done he's like the fifth lowest paid like franchise starter in the nfl and then even less so once all of these guys who come do this season come up then you can decide how much you actually are going to invest in this guy oh and by the way that's when you'll probably know not early in the season but late in the season you'll probably know how he's really coming back from that achilles it's just they've just bought themselves time while also locking in like the franchise player, which is Alec Pierce.

38:56Gregg Rosenthal:So it just, to me, it just makes sense. A lot of it. They have, they have holes. Don't get me wrong, but this does make sense to me. Those two teams, those two moves in a vacuum do make sense. They're almost the ultimate running a back team because I don't even know where, where their holes are. Like they are expecting Jalen Travis, their fourth round pick at right tackle to step in and be their starter. It is like Ashton Doolin. Maybe that's not a guy you want to start. Otherwise, you basically have the entire team back from a year ago. Arden Key might be the one new guy that is starting at this point for this team.

39:27It's just if running it back is good enough.

39:28Patrick Claybon:This is Nick Cross erasure. Come there. Well, you know, we don't want to do that. That's a good point. I kind of forgot about the safety spot there. You know, because we've seen Coach Lou's defense be very good and have a safety leave, and, oh, everything falls apart. So I want to acknowledge that. I, you know, obviously as a Alex Pierce, Homer, early, early adoptee and Alex Pierce, I'm all about that. The dimes contract, as you guys said, is escapable. I just for my grade, I need to know, Greg, if you felt as though that if the Arizona Cardinals did not passionately hate Kyler Murray and they had decided to send that tweet five days or six days before they ultimately did, waiting to the very last second to do so.

40:13Patrick Claybon:if Kyler was a real possibility here to allow dimes to have fully functional body parts before he plays football do you think that could have been a possibility if so I have to I have to grade lowly because yeah you can get out of it but you also want to have a viable team that plays and this is a significant injury that they need to be ready to deal with and if there were quarterback options available then yeah I got a ding ballard for not fully seeking those out I think I would have given them more credit for doing it than I will ding them for not doing it. There's never any reporting whether it was considered.

40:47I think they like Riley Leonard. With that in mind, I'm going to give them a 78.

40:54Gregg Rosenthal:Yeah, I'm giving them a 79. Oh. That's lower than I expected. Because I didn't want to quite go B. Just there's so much uncertainty. I wish they would have I wish they do have more clarity. I would have liked one more splash because I'm just a guy. And on defense, their defense just fell through a hole in the floor last season, and I just haven't seen enough so far to argue that, hey, they've done enough in that phase. And they tried. Yes, they tried. But, you know, Gold Star, you tried. I guess they got worse. Yeah, I agree. Pretty poor at linebacker, too. I really misspoke when I said they're just running back.

41:28I think they'll make some more moves. But like I said, they've spent a lot. It's time for the offseason ride-along presented by Toyota. The Jaguars, they have only made one outside signing. It is the running back, Chris Rodriguez. I think, what did we call the Basial Tootin fan club, Jordan?

41:45Gregg Rosenthal:Yeah, Tootin Hive. The Tootin Hive, the Rootin Tootins. Been a good offseason for him, I think, because Tootin is going to be RB1. Chris Rod is a good player who I think will have a role, but otherwise not much to talk about with them. They re-signed Buster Brown. They gave him$20.6 million guaranteed on a three-year deal. There's a lot of like three for 30s to three for 36s around the NFL. They re-signed Dennis Gardek and DJ Dallas. They lost Travis Etienne, Devin Lloyd, Greg Newsome. That trade didn't work out for them. That trade they made mid-season. I don't mind the process of that Greg Newsome trade, by the way, because you might get a comp pick and you gave it a shot and it didn't work out for you.

42:27They have$7 million in cash space. Not much right now. 12th in cash. They were first in cash last year. And I think that really informs what I was talking about before, which is I think teams have cycles where like it's a year where you're making a ton of moves and then a year where you're stepping back and you have a bit of a three to four year plan to Jordan's point. That's what good organizations do. And I think this was always going to be a quiet offseason, but I'm not going to give them extra credit for that. I'll just I'll just give them an 80 right off the bat. Like, I get it. This was your season to kind of take a step back.

43:00Patrick Claybon:Yeah, I'm going in the lower 70s, 74, in terms of just, again, I recognize the circumstances, but did you improve? Did you get better through free agency? And the Panthers and the Saints got a little better in terms of what they're able to do, where you had two very good pieces on both offense and defense of a very good football team. And not to slight the folks in Duval, but I think everybody recognizes that they haven't gotten better through, you know, recovery and, you know, injury luck and everything. They could be a better football team at the end of the day, but I think it's a downgrade from HN to Tootin.

43:36Patrick Claybon:And obviously with Devin Lloyd and the season he had, I've got to feel like that's a downgrade as well.

43:41Gregg Rosenthal:I'm going to give them an 85 because I think that the best thing that they possibly could have done this offseason was not pat themselves on the back too much for what they just accomplished and continue to push aggressively and stretch and kick the can down the road a little bit further like we've seen teams do in the past. Instead, they went super conservative. They're going for the comp pick game, understanding that they have to refill some of these positions that are aging out on their roster. What team, you know, really loved to get middle round picks that turned into bona fide starters? The Rams, obviously, James Gladstone was the figurehead of orchestrating those things behind the scenes with Les Snead.

44:21Gregg Rosenthal:This is absolutely the formula that they're doing. They're basically saying we are getting rid of the guys that maybe we don't think either are going to always be full time contributors. We saw when Basial Tootin's snaps increased. A-Chan was amazing last year. Please don't take this as a critique. But we saw the amount of snaps that were increased with Basial Tootin. And then also this franchise that will keep doing, again, following a very similar pattern. Drafting running backs every single year that will contribute and keep them cost controlled, essentially. And then kind of getting rid of a couple of guys that didn't work out, Greg Newsom being one of them, getting rid of veterans, Johnny Munt, Devin Lloyd, who we love, but is somebody who they weren't even committed to in the first place, and playing the comp pick game.

45:07Gregg Rosenthal:They didn't do anything that was outside of – basically, they didn't chase outliers. They basically were like, we aren't even an outlier. We have to stick to a plan. And I like that. If anything, they're running it back more than I would expect. I'm surprised Eric Armstead is still on this team. I think they're setting up contracts that they could sign in the future. Like Trevon Walker stands out to me as one of them. And they made some of their moves early. The committee decided the Cole Van Lannen contract from last year doesn't count, even though it was late in the year. But that was essentially a free agency signing.

45:41Gregg Rosenthal:I like the Buster Brown contract, too. That was, I mean, what a find. That worked out for them, and he earned himself a lot of money. And the Jacoby Myers acquisition, that was like a free agency or trade move early. That was the off-season ride-along presented by Toyota. Because when people are the destination, your ride is important. Learn more at toyota.com and find the vehicle that fits your people. The Titans, much more active. They signed Elante Taylor for three years,$60 million,$42 million guaranteed. Amazing. that I Alante who was so high on my free agency like top 25 that I did last August gets the bag Cordell Flott getting$32 million dollar guaranteed thank you I think I made it happen Cordell Flott getting$32 million guaranteed is almost as surprising three for 45 they definitely paid a Titans tax with a lot of these contracts Jonathan Franklin Myers gets$42 million guaranteed three for 63 they signed a bunch of other defensive players Jacob Martin Josh Williams from the Chiefs.

46:44Solomon Thomas was traded for. They traded for Jermaine Johnson, who's going to start. And yet, despite all that, I think they still could use an edge, and they might draft one at fourth overall. We'll see. Check out 40s and free agents this week. We talk about that. Daniel Jeremiah as an intriguing number four overall pick in his new mock. On offense, Wandale gets $38 million guaranteed. Essentially, that's a two-year contract. Bellinger, Daniel Bellinger from the Giants, the tight end, gets$14 million guaranteed. I thought that was a bad contract. uh slotman the former giant safe uh center gets two million dollars or two for seven mitchell trubisky over the weekend they kept calvin ridley so that's that's pretty big news i thought he might get cut they lost chigo conco uh they traded to vandre sweat they cut legeria sneed they cut lloyd cushionberry who's still sitting out there despite all that they still lead the nfl in cap space isn't that amazing yeah they do they definitely truly incredible they

47:39Patrick Claybon:do it through a formula that works. It's signing friends and people you know, which was the upset to me for Alante Taylor, where he's the acquisition that, hey, nice to meet you guys. Everybody else knows these dudes. That's a fair point.

47:54Gregg Rosenthal:That's what Greg did for me. You are so much more than Alante Taylor to me. All respect to him. He can play multiple spots. Good player. He's fun. This is maybe the toughest grade because do you just give the team that's almost like the most active a high grade? No. Okay. What do you give them? What do you give them? Well, I'm going to just go in the middle. I'm going to give them a B minus because they had to do this. They had to spend, first of all, they spent in terms of their total contract sum, they spent$298 million and then some change on just these new contracts. It's like something like 12 free agent contracts in totality, right?

48:39Gregg Rosenthal:and that's that's they still have 72 million left over they had to spend they had to do this they had to reset multiple floors within their roster and it was so clear that it wasn't just that they're paying the titans tax they're also paying the hey we really need you to come in and reset our culture and our identity and we already know you and so we're just going to give you more money because we really need your help here guys like that it makes a lot of sense because you're better than the guys on our roster. So that's why I think I'll go a little higher. I'll go like 87 because I think they did get better.

49:10And I don't hate any of these contracts.

49:12Gregg Rosenthal:How could they not have gotten better after what that roster looked like? The Taylor and Cordell Flott contracts are the riskiest ones, I think. Wandale, I think you know what you're going to get. Jonathan Franklin Myers, I think you know what you're going to get. The history of free agency would tell you that either Elante Taylor or Cordell Flott will age really poorly because it's hard to hit on those contracts. But I would have said that about the Patriots last year. And other than Harold Landry, maybe all those contracts aged pretty well.

49:39Patrick Claybon:Do you feel differently about them having the benefit of all the free agency in hindsight to see that we had these corners signing one year deals around like 10 to 15 million dollars versus the Titans feeling like they needed to be active early on and go ahead and lock up guys at corner because they don't necessarily know what the circumstances are going to be like at the time? Yeah, they paid they paid a little bit of a premium flat, especially. I mean, clearly they're they're bidding against the Giants. That's the reporting for that money to get that high. And Alante Taylor, there was a lot of bidding, too.

50:12Gregg Rosenthal:Patrick, are you laughing because you're imagining the room? Yeah. Yeah. I want I want I want Dave all in, you know, I just want to see the reunion. It does make you a little worried because you don't want to punish the Titans because in theory, they're GM Borgonzi. It's his first year really running the team, but he's been in the building for two years. It's a new structure every year. Who knows next year, their GM might be Brian Dable. How about that? Exciting bald. Wait, did you give a grade? No, 79. Okay. The Ravens, curious to hear Patrick's grade here. They signed Trey Hendrickson,$60 million guaranteed.

50:46He gets$112 million over four years. Really more like a two-year deal. They killed the max deal. That was good for content. I will give them an extra point or two for that. John Simpson is back. That was a very popular and sensible deal. $17 million guaranteed. Former Jets guard that started his career with the Ravens. They re-signed Chidobe Awuzie for$5 million. Tyler Huntley got$5 million over two years. His deal was not nearly as good. That was one of those that I was disappointed to see. The real money wasn't there. And then here's where their grade gets tricky because they didn't really add that many people.

51:27No, they lost Tyler Linderbaum, Isaiah Likely, Charlie Kohler, Patrick Ricard, Eloy Gilman, Ardarius Washington, the safety Draymond Jones, who they had picked up last season, David Ajabu and your boy Philele still out there. So is Van Noy. They still they have 30 million dollars in cap space. They lost a lot of people. How does that inform what you think about this offseason?

51:48Patrick Claybon:Well, it's nice that, you know, Eric DaCosta, the day after the Raiders let everybody know that the deal wasn't happening, came out and told us what the plan was, right, to have both Max Crosby as well as Trey Hendrickson. And you're going to have a guy who can do it all on one end, a guy who can just rush the passer on the other. Things are going to be great. I understand it's great to have plans, but you need to have plans to be able to execute in the event that those plans don't necessarily happen. You're graded on the execution, not the plan. Yeah, like you have to go with that. And so I'm seeing corners on a team that needs corners.

52:22Patrick Claybon:I'm seeing a lot of value corner signings to where we're talking about the flat contract being, you know, cost prohibitive. Why not? Why not become a player in this two-way conversation between Nashville and East Rutherford? Here's why not, because they were busy with Max Grosby. I do think that and Trey Hendrickson got in the way of what happened. on a surgery that happened in January. Not to rehash the whole thing, but nothing was a surprise here. The biggest fault you can give him, I think, is could you have gotten him in for the physical on Friday or Saturday? Why did it all happen Tuesday?

52:59Patrick Claybon:The surgery was eight weeks ago. What's the physical showing you?

53:03Gregg Rosenthal:And also, I would say this. They were planning, if they were planning, if they were indeed planning to have both of these guys on their roster, Structurally speaking, the plan for everyone else remains the same. They still didn't sign a receiver. They still didn't sign corners. You're not just doing one thing. You're budgeting. You're gaming out scenarios. You're budgeting these things. So if that was actually the plan, then you're ending up with the same lack of players. Do we not believe that that was the plan? Who knows? Like, it still didn't happen. He said it was the plan. We're talking about execution.

53:42I feel like maybe it was a plan if Trey Hendrickson was going to take a deal at a low number that they that they were hoping he would take.

53:53Gregg Rosenthal:I'm saying I'm just saying either way, they're not ending up with competitive pursuit of corners. They're not ending up with another receiver like either way, whether whether the plan was executed or whether and it wasn't either way. They're not ending up with the with players of need that they absolutely need. Yes, they also need to pass rush help, but they needed a lot of things to continue to, as they say they want to do, maximize Lamar Jackson's prime. I feel like there's some doubt here with how it's gone. I'm going to give them, I think they wanted Linderbaum too.

54:28Patrick Claybon:And it's good to want things. No, no, no, that's what I mean. But I'm going to ding them because they didn't get what they want and they get punished for it. 76, kind of low. Hmm. 70 yeah uh 67 okay i should be a harder grader i think that you i think that you

54:50Gregg Rosenthal:like a lot of people have an admiration for how the ravens typically have gone about their plan and you know i just think we're we need to look kind of closely at these last two years and and what they need to be doing and and the the hump that they have to get over and okay let's see it last year was a disaster they've had they've been a team i just mean in terms of the decisions that they made and then know what happened you could go total if you want yeah three comp picks also that reportedly scheduled to get three comp just that'll be good for you just in general i think you you could just as a as a world it was kind of like i don't know if you guys watch the oscars on uh sunday night no um conan had a pretty good joke that i'm gonna butcher now, which was essentially like, you know, last year we were here in Los Angeles and the city was unfortunately like on fire at the time.

55:46But at least everything's good now. I was like, good call. Bengals, let's go to Boye Mafé's contract. They do this old school thing where everything is super front-loaded and so they spend the cash early. They're kind of the opposite of what the Eagles are with all the void years and maximizing every dollar you can there. His contract's bizarre. Three for 60, but it's$27 million in the first year. There's almost no guarantees after that. If for some reason it went really poorly, it's like a one-year contract for Boyamafe. Jonathan Allen gets$26 million over two years. They re-signed Orlando Brown.

56:27They brought in Cook at safety, who fills a nice need. Dalton Reisner comes back as well. They lost Joseph Asai and Trey Hendrickson. Josh Johnson is on this team. Yeah. Which I was excited about him being the backup. It sounds like they're leaving a light on for Joe Flacco, that they want Flacco to come, and that it would be Flacco and Josh Johnson. That alone is worth a couple extra points. They have$31 million in cap space right in the middle. I mean, just the idea of Josh Johnson and Flacco.

56:59Gregg Rosenthal:I just like the way you say things sometimes, Greg. just like the imagery of like a candle. Oh, yeah, it is. That is occurring in the window along a dark lane. Like the wind's blowing. Well, that's how they save on electricity, too. They're doing all sorts of things at the facility. Oh, my God.

57:19Patrick Claybon:What do we think? I think it's an improvement because in terms of production, right, Jonathan Allen was you feel like a square peg in a round hole in the Flores defense. But he was out there for almost 80 percent of the snaps and they did execute the offense and everything. Not necessarily putting them in a position where they're going to have all of these counting stats, especially on the interior defensive line. but he makes them better in terms of adding like three veteran defenders where this whole like, yeah, we're just going to draft guys and Al Golden's going to lead the – it didn't work out.

57:53Patrick Claybon:And so like moving and improving on that, I got to feel good about it.

57:57Gregg Rosenthal:But they're still kind of doing that.

57:59Patrick Claybon:Yeah, they're still doing it.

57:59Gregg Rosenthal:You know? So it's like – it was like I religiously read Paul Daner, who does a great job covering the Bengals for us at The Athletic, and he said the same thing. It's like, man, that first day we're feeling really good about the Bengals and they're making moves and they're being aggressive. And then it was like, boom, like just nothing. And then just nothing, just a leaf slowly. They got Jonathan Allen. Eventually they got, no, I'm just saying they, they start. I agree. I'm counting Jonathan Allen. I'm counting Brian cook. I'm counting boy. I'm off. I'm counting those in that first, like splash.

58:32Gregg Rosenthal:This is going to, they're going to fix this defense. What they've actually done now is, again, set themselves up to mostly draft to fix their defense. And on the one hand, it is like, are they doing the same Bengals thing that they've been doing? On the other hand, I kind of understand the perspective of operating that way because your entire investment now at this point is in your offense. And you basically are saying we have to go maybe one premier player, maybe maybe pay one premier position in free agency, maybe two if we can get a guy at the right price on a shorter deal and and draft the hell out of everything else and just and continue to try that model.

59:14Gregg Rosenthal:And I think they've done that in this free agency period so far. I just don't know if it's going to work. I'd like a little more, yeah, more like more swing so that you can miss some. Because you're right. They have the same issues going into this draft that they had last time. Like linebacker, interior offensive line, third receiver. Like they somehow, you know, got Boye Mafe, who I really liked, was one of my favorite signings. And yet their pass rush is worse. There's no way you can argue that it's not worse because you lost Trey Hendrickson and Joseph Asai. I was going to say, do you know who would really compliment Boye Mafe quite well is Trey Hendrickson?

59:50Gregg Rosenthal:Like they could rush off of each other. That would be good. I liked the Orlando Brown and Dalton Reisner moves, especially for, and they were re-signing. So I'm giving them a little bit of credit there for the money. So I'm going to bump it over. And I like Mafé and Cook enough. I'm going to give them an 82 in the end. Whoa. Nice. It's because I like the players. I just think there'll be hits. Ultimately, if like Cook and Mafé are hits, and that's what I'm just going to project, then it's a good, then it's a good job. Hmm. At those spots.

1:00:21Patrick Claybon:I'm in the high 70s, 79, just because, you know, it's the same regime. So I'm going to go back and ding you for not trading. Also, Josh Johnson is there. I'm going 84 now. I just opened it up. You're up. Come on.

1:00:33Gregg Rosenthal:I'm going C, as in check out the draft. You need a number, because now I notice that Eric Roberts, our great producer, is putting the numbers in. But sometimes it's like Greg, 87, Patrick, 79, Jordan, B -. So you've got to give a number. well don't blame eric for my short that's what i'm saying it just looks wrong so so help him out

1:00:54Patrick Claybon:i thought i thought it's the number would help us get a total yeah order uh 75 for the bangles

1:01:00Gregg Rosenthal:um and it's i'm bumping them up from what i would have had them um because i do like the mom bay signing i do like the allen signing i do like the cook signing i don't even like the allen signing it's not enough but the allen signing it's again stop looking at things in a vacuum it's a compliment to every other stuff that's coming. I will look at things how I want. We need a Dyson sponsorship for this. I know. He was a significantly declining player in Washington. I think the Vikings gave him a bad contract. I think it's going to prove to be a bad contract. But they're not asking him to be a star.

1:01:31I mean, I'm not saying a star. I'm saying he wasn't a great role player. They need competent defensive players. Yes. The Browns.

1:01:38Gregg Rosenthal:What are we talking about here? You've got to be able to draft and develop. I agree there. The Browns, they signed four offensive line starters. They needed to Elton Jenkins. They need five. He's going to give him an a$20 million because they did it, Patrick. The Zion Johnson gets$32 million guaranteed. Tevin Jenkins on what I imagine is a low cost deal with the numbers aren't out yet. Titus Howard. The extension was a little different than it was initially reported, but they're giving him a lot of money. $34 million guaranteed. They also gave up a fifth round pick to get him from the Texans. That's the good news that they filled those spots.

1:02:15The bad news is they have a ton of holes on their roster. They gave Quincy Williams$9 million guaranteed. Some people really like that move, actually, that he could have a bounce back season next to Carson Schlesinger. But they don't have much cap space. They have$77 million in dead money and$50 million almost for Deshaun Watson. And so that's a lot of money between dead money. And I consider Deshaun Watson dead money. That's like$120. So that's the same group that did this. They set up that horrible offensive line situation and they lost Devin Bush. And they have a few free agents still sitting out there that are relatively high on my list.

1:02:52David Njoku, Wyatt Teller. We don't know if Joel Batonio is retiring, by the way, just throwing that out there. Do you give them more credit for filling in their offensive line or not?

1:03:02Patrick Claybon:No, I don't. They were going to have to acquire some humans, right, to do the individual thing. And again, we heard from the committee earlier, we can't consider, you know, the Bruttenberg of it all and the whole antagonism that led to the Schwartz departure and all that. Who knows what led into that situation? But Schlesinger now is going to have to play in some form of a different defense where they still needed to make the ads. And yeah, I'm one of those people who likes the Quincy edition a little bit. You saying those people makes me feel like you. No, no. I just didn't know who it was. I think it was maybe John Ledyard, as you mentioned.

1:03:44Shout out to John Ledyard. And Ollie Connelly. They've got a lot of pop.

1:03:47Patrick Claybon:Shout out to all the OGs who have NFL in their name on social media. That's how you know they've been there for a while.

1:03:54Gregg Rosenthal:I will not grade them high, even though they did the thing that they were supposed to do, because they also set up the reason that they had to do the thing that they were supposed to do and then did. there whenever a Packers lineman is not fought very hard by the Packers to keep my eyebrows raised because I do trust the way that they evaluate and and retain their offensive linemen so Elton Jenkins I he's a fun player I hope it works out I'm just not sure I do like the Zion Johnson move they had they absolutely had to have somebody at the sort of the top of the pool here But again, I can't grade them well with the way that they're structured right now with all that dud money, with Deshaun Watson's contract.

1:04:38Gregg Rosenthal:And also, they did this to themselves. All of these linemen came due at the same—that's hard to do. I think it's like a bad student when we're grading them that has a history of year after year, one of our worst students, unfortunately. And so you're not going to give them the benefit of the doubt just because they wrote in a different style this year. Do you know, I was always the kid in elementary school that they would sit the problem kid next to because invisible labor. So like I'm not giving them a good grade for the bars in hell at this point. I'm not giving them a good grade. They do not have the benefit of the doubt.

1:05:13And what I was surprised by when I sent out this idea on Twitter of like, okay, they got these offensive linemen, but they have all these holes and all this dead money and Watson. It's a bad situation. They're like, do they have a lot of holes? I think the roster looks pretty good. And I was like, what? What are we talking about here? I guess you look at the defense and feel like it's in pretty good shape. I think you could use a safety. I think you could use depth everywhere. But yeah, your receivers, your quarterbacks, I would put running back as a hole because Quinchot Juggins, you can't count them.

1:05:43They have plenty of holes and the offensive line is still a hole because you cannot count on these guys to laugh last. So yeah, let's because they also they tried to give them a 67.

1:05:54Gregg Rosenthal:Can I just point out? They also didn't draft a single lineman last year. So they knew that all these contracts were coming up and they did not draft a lineman. All right, I'll knock it down. Three more points. I'll give them a 64. All right, I'm giving them a 60, a D, as in dead money. 70. Jenkins.

1:06:11Patrick Claybon:70. Yeah. What are we, prices? We're playing the prices. Because I hated the Ravens free agency and I have to.

1:06:17Gregg Rosenthal:Ah, I see. Ethics. Yeah. All right. The Steelers, they moved up 16 spots or moved down 16 spots in the sixth round and acquired Michael Pittman for that. I still want to see the details on his guaranteed money. It sounded like it was a new contract, not an extension. Just my spidey sense is up of there might be some funny money, but it was reported as three years,$69 million. Sounds fine, depending on how it's structured for Michael Pittman. Jamel Dean. That was one where the contract, the deal does not look nearly as good for the player after seeing the details. It's essentially a one-year,$13 million contract.

1:06:58I mean, and then they can keep them.

1:07:00Patrick Claybon:Which is, again, like my issue with these teams that weren't able to get corners. Good point. Like everything Jamel Dean did, there were like six weeks last season consecutively where teams didn't complete a pass. The Steelers did really well waiting a day. That contract, the contract that they gave, what was my grade?

1:07:21Gregg Rosenthal:Just checking. Just noticing. The Titans, especially, if you look at those cornerback contracts compared to Jamel Dean, that looks like a nice deal. They extended Cam Hayward, by the way, the Steelers,$16 million guaranteed on a two-year deal. They re-signed Cole Holcomb and Asante Samuel Jr. for very little money. They did lose some good players. Kenny Gainwell, team MVP.

1:07:41Patrick Claybon:There it is. Forevermore. He has never been on the Steelers and not been the team MVP. 100%. Yeah, Isaac Sayamalu, who was a good signing by them a few years ago, leaves. James Pierre, who had a good year for them last year at cornerback, leaves. Calvin Austin is a member of the Giants right now. They also cut Jonu Smith. They're still waiting for Aaron Rodgers. You got to just assume that they know he's coming back and doesn't want to do OTAs or something. They have$22 million in cap space. Your overall Steelers vibe.

1:08:12Gregg Rosenthal:The Steelers overall as a roster, I think it's teetering toward decline in terms of the age and some of the money that they've invested in, especially in that defense. However, I really like what they did in free agency. I thought that they had a pretty solid free agency. It wasn't like the, you know, the splashiest or anything like that. But bringing in Michael Pittman is awesome for them. He absolutely, to me, becomes immediately the volume number one receiver because of all of the different things he can do. how physical he is. He can do anything you ask him to do. And that also will then free up DK Metcalf to do the things that DK Metcalf really wants to do, which is stretch the field.

1:08:50Gregg Rosenthal:So I love that. I like the Jamel Dean signing a lot. I'm excited to see what he does in this defense specifically. I give him a B plus, honestly, because the quarterback thing is always going to be sort of their deadweight question. We don't know, even if Aaron Rodgers does come back, we don't know what version of him it'll be. We don't, you know, he's, he's a player on the decline of his career. So absolutely huge question mark. One I wish they would have answered in free agency, frankly. But we did learn from Omar Khan that they love Will Howard as a possible, you know, as the backup, they really, really like him.

1:09:25Gregg Rosenthal:Mike McCarthy loves him. And, you know, we'll, we'll kind of just see how this goes. If they try to run it back with, with Aaron, I, I actually, I give him an 88. Nice. And I forgot to mention Rico Daudo, by the way, replacing Kenny Gainwell on a pretty low cost deal.

1:09:40Patrick Claybon:And so, yeah, you lose a little bit of that.

1:09:41Gregg Rosenthal:Get Rico on more screens. Yeah.

1:09:44Patrick Claybon:Rico wants to call the screen. Yeah. You know, to great success in, you know, he's had success in the passing game. But as a receiving back, I think Kenny G was up there with the each ends or, you know, if I could properly Louisiana pronounce it like Greg can. I don't think I can. Well, I lead to you on that. But just the. Etienne. If I'm going. Thank you, Greg. if I'm going to grade them, I would be up there in the high 80s where Jordan is, but the fact that we don't just say, hey, yeah, Aaron is coming back. He just doesn't want to. Why not just come out and say that? It's just exhausting. That's fair.

1:10:24Patrick Claybon:Putting us through it is... We're not even going through it.

1:10:27Gregg Rosenthal:Well, we know he's in shape, guys.

1:10:29Patrick Claybon:Oh, yeah. Gotta keep his stamina up.

1:10:32Gregg Rosenthal:For the extracurriculars.

1:10:34Patrick Claybon:But yeah, other than that being annoying and the fact that the Steelers have had such a good free agency being annoying. Yeah, it's an 85. Okay, I'll take Jordan's grade. What was it, 88? I'll not get down one for the Rodgers annoyance of it all. But I kind of forgot. I really like their free agency because I kind of forgot Jaquan Brisker, Darnell Savage, and Sebastian Joseph Day are all defensive, solid players. And what I was going to say when I would think about lowering the grade was, well, I'd like to see them take a few more swings, like we asked the Bengals to of like, let's just, let's just add a little more depth here.

1:11:14They are an old team that somehow got older, like in free agency, which is hard to do with Jamel Dean and Pittman, but they, they kind of fit the model, but like they have a type. Sebastian J fit, Sebastian day fits as well. I'm going to bump it back up a point. Now that I thought about him, it's back up to 88. Let's take a break. Our last one. We have four teams to go. The first time we've done this sort of exercise. I give us an A -. Nice.

1:11:40Gregg Rosenthal:What's the minus for? So far, just a little carrot, you know, ready to improve. Hopefully don't get the stick.

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1:12:55Patrick Claybon:This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones.

1:13:36Patrick Claybon:Start your show today at Spreaker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I'm Greg Rosenthal. And this is 40s and Free Agents. The games may be over, but the NFL never stops. This is my favorite part of the calendar. Yeah, mine too, Greg. Like free agency, the combine, the NFL draft, pro days, trades. This is where teams reshape their future. This is where Daniel Jeremiah makes his money. On 40s and free agents, we break down every move that actually matters. From my draft evaluations, mock drafts, and team fits.

1:14:12To my top 101 free agents and how real rosters are built. Cap space, contracts, and all the tough decisions included. You got quarterbacks on the move. We got teams rebuilding. It's hope season. Yeah, absolutely. It's hope season. And we'll tell you what's real, what's noise, and what it means for your favorite team. Smart analysis, real conversations every week. I don't know about the smart, but definitely analysis.

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1:15:47Back on NFL Daily. Shout out to Darius Slay, who retired. since we started taping this show. Great career. Yeah. Over-indexed in memorable plays, memorable press conferences, being in big spots. Was a very good player, too. A first-team All-Pro and part of the Eagles championship run in 24. Happy trails.

1:16:12Gregg Rosenthal:Absolutely phenomenal quote on anything. Loved Darius Slick. He did not want to be a member of the Buffalo Bills last year. what a way to retire be like nope not showing up there didn't want to be part of what was going on maybe he would not give Brandon Bean a good grade for this offseason here's what Brandon Bean did traded a late two for DJ Moore they did get a fifth back in that trade for what it's worth they guaranteed 15.5 million dollars of DJ Moore's 2028 money which is absolutely knocking him a couple points. That was one of the most unnecessary contractual moves I think any team made.

1:16:51They signed Bradley Chubb on a contract that doesn't look quite as bad when you peek under the hood, but isn't great. Three for$42 million,$21 million guaranteed. Dee Alford, this slipped under the radar. Was it day one signing? I was really surprised about that. But again, the money wasn't nearly as bad as the agents sort of made it out to sound with the up to. It's really like a one-year$7.8 million contract. That's fine. Connor McGovern, $31 million guaranteed. They re-signed him. That aged pretty well as free agency went on. Extended Dawson Knox a few years. They signed CJ GJ. Kyle Allen, I believe, is going to be their new backup quarterback.

1:17:31At least he is right now. They did lose some players. David Edwards signed with the Saints. They traded Teron Johnson, Reggie Gilliam. Their fullback's gone. They have a ton of free agents still out there. like Joey Bosa, AJ Epinesa, Matt Milano, Shaq Thompson, Larry Ogunjobi. There's actually like five or six more guys you recognize that just haven't been signed by those teams. Bosa and Epinesa could add to a team, possibly even the Buffalo Bills. So we'll see. On paper, they have negative cap space, which is not a thing that's allowed. So these things are in process. And part of what's maybe informing that, Jordan, is they are second this year in cash spending.

1:18:09So they are spending a lot of money in cash for this roster. Considering where we were in January, where we are now, how do you think it all looks for the bills?

1:18:20Gregg Rosenthal:I am looking at over the cap right now, and it is interesting. It's negative$6.4 million in cap space, but actually the effective cap space is even lower in the negative. Right. So a lot of these contracts, we haven't seen the numbers and it'll change. Yeah, but it's like the fact that that number is higher. It's like they're looking at some of the deeper layers of the contracts over the cap is. And they're saying, actually, you have even less money than you think you do. So I think this is fascinating to me because this is a team that by all accounts and moves they made in terms of coaching staff and the trade for DJ Moore.

1:18:58Gregg Rosenthal:It was like, we are going to be all in. We're going aggressive and all these things. And then it's like, oh, they look at their books and they're like, maybe we actually can't be as aggressive. And yet they gave Bradley Chubb all that money. We thought we could be. And Bradley Chubb being, I would say, like probably one of the more middle tier pass rushers that was available in free agency. They have a lot of holes. I have questions about even their offensive line, usually a strength of the group. David Edwards was a great continuity guy there. Aaron Cromer retired. I have questions there. I have questions all throughout their secondary.

1:19:32Gregg Rosenthal:I have questions up front. I have questions at pass rush. This is a team that has too many questions to be this in the red financially.

1:19:38Patrick Claybon:Yeah. And I think the biggest question is because you go from this defense that we've seen all these guys play in it from such a long time. And the same guy calling it, you know, through various stints as his as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, where he would come in and out of defensive play calling where Jim Leonard is. Everything's going to be different. And I think we see that in like the Johnson departure where D. Alfred comes back in from a very aggressive, like D. Alfred's played in multiple Falcons regime. And this last one was so blitz happy where it's, you can put D. Alfred in a lot of situations.

1:20:11Patrick Claybon:He's going to be able to execute at a high level where you're trying to grade this relative to the changes that they're having on defense, where the offense is going to be mostly the same with the addition of DJ Moore. I feel relatively good about it considering they did, address their needs in some capacity. Did they go about addressing those needs in the right way? Maybe not. But in terms of the talent on the field, I think, I think it's an improve.

1:20:36Gregg Rosenthal:Yeah. It's like Brandon beans. Like I got you, your damn receiver. Now everyone look away. Right. I don't think they went about it the right way because when you have such limited space and you're spending all this cash, they are a remodeling team. They're not rebuilding, But I think they could have stood to be a team that was very active, attacking a lot of different positions in the lower middle of the market. Instead, they gave Bradley Chubb a ton of money for a declining player. And they gave DJ Moore a ton of money and guaranteed money and a pick. I'm giving them a 67. And that's what tells me that internally they feel so much more urgent than a remodel would require.

1:21:20Gregg Rosenthal:And maybe that's the wrong direction. Maybe leaning into the remodel would have been the smarter decision, but that those moves tell me how urgent people in that front office feel that they must win. They must get over the hump here. Yeah. And and those two are not necessarily congruous thoughts. Like maybe maybe it's not just about what you think you are, how urgent you feel, but really what you actually are and really looking at that honestly. What do you give them? Oh, I give them a 65. Ooh, I love they're in contention for lowest. I love the DJ Moore move. I will say that.

1:21:55Patrick Claybon:73 would be, I think I could have made the case for keeping Edwards and McGovern. Like if you want to maintain on the offense and improve, you know, considering the money went elsewhere. But I understand choosing McGovern over Edwards, but why not both? I don't know.

1:22:09Gregg Rosenthal:I'm going to bump him up to a 68 because I do love the DJ Moore move. I think he could have a very good year and it's not a good move. It's one of my overall, just considering everything that was out there potentially. So, yeah, 68. They're not going to score well. Miami, really interesting offseason. They have the most free agent signings in the NFL. Malik Willis is the only one that got a significant amount of money, though. His contract was very heavily guaranteed. $45 million of his 67 was fully guaranteed, which essentially means it's a two-year contract. Not at crazy money, but they're pretty committed into the second year.

1:22:46I'm just going to list off the guys that they need. I mean, that they signed. You guys ready? Let's do it, Greg. You could do this at 2.5 speed if you want, if your podcast device has that capability. Here we go. Tutu Atwell, Jalen Tolbert, Ben Sims, Jamari Salyer, Matthew Butler, Robert Beal, Seth Coleman, Willie Gay, David Ajabu, Joshua Uche, Cameron Good, Zane Anderson, Alex Austin, Daryl Baker, Miles Battle, Omar Brown, Lonnie Johnson, Marco Wilson, Tucker Addington, Zane Gonzalez, Riley Patterson and the UFL punter Seth Vernon. That list was that order was provided by Simon Clancy who I called the game over in Dublin with great great Dolphins voice out there.

1:23:31They cut Tua. They cut Bradley Chubb. They traded Minka. They lost Cater Kohu and Alec Ingold in free agency. They don't have much cap space. They're towards the bottom of the league. Overall it all makes sense to me. I don't know. I don't think they're better but the process makes sense to me. So I'm going to give them because they signed Malik Willis, which I wanted someone to do, and I like that kind of... I'm going to give them an 89 just for process.

1:23:55Patrick Claybon:Yeah, 82 for going and getting your guy. Everything else is just kind of a wash. But I like the idea of they had guys they targeted for whatever reason, and they're just flooding the system. Some of these will work out, and we'll be with the team when they matter. Most of them obviously won't.

1:24:13Gregg Rosenthal:It's a sprint rebuild. they're eating all of their dead money at one time well over the next two years they're sort of splitting it uh there was some reporting out of my miami herald about the way that they they like pulled yeah they have 40 plus million dollars of to uh into next year right where they can sort of reallocate it a little bit but they didn't fear the dead money and i think that's important here because they yes they signed 11 free agents to your point greg but they're still like uh 20th in spending of free agents. And that's significant here because what they're doing is they're basically saying we have our quarterback on a team friendly deal and we think there's a high ceiling there.

1:24:52Gregg Rosenthal:There's definitely a high floor. We also have multiple difference making players on offense. So we're going to be fun. We're going to score points regardless. And the defense is a total rebuild and everywhere else you're patching low cost veteran acquisitions or low cost in general acquisitions to basically set space and to contribute while these draft picks are developing. And that to me, there's a blueprint for this. It's the 49ers. It's the Rams. It is the Bucks from a few years ago. It's teams that don't fear the dead money and instead say, who do we have? What really are we? And how can we actually make this whole rebuild go a lot faster by keeping certain players intact and adding to the quarterback room and then getting rid of the things that don't serve us anymore.

1:25:42And they don't have quite as much as those teams had, but it is crazy in the 2024 playoffs that like most of the good teams had were among the league leaders in dead money, which was great. Like the Rams, the Packers, the Broncos made the playoffs with the Russell money. Their defensive players are intriguing. They drafted, you know, they like Jordan Phillips, who was a nose tackle, a fifth round pick. Like they have Chop Robinson still there. They're not as far away, but they're pretty far away.

1:26:08Gregg Rosenthal:I didn't give them a grade either because I'm giving them an A. A 92 because I think this plan works. If you do it right, if you can coach, you have the right coach to front office tandem if you are identifying the correct players in the draft, and that's a big if, but this is absolutely very clearly the plan, and I appreciate how they're executing it so far. It's the easy part of the process. You've got to find the good players. That's the hard part of the process, but it also makes sense the way that they're doing it. And who knows, they might win too many games if they got the coach right. And that would be good for Malik Willis because then you don't have to worry about the quarterback crop next year.

1:26:45The Patriots, not as active this offseason, but plenty active. Vera Tucker, Elijah Vera Tucker, gets$21 million guaranteed. He also gets the most per game roster bonuses ever, we think. It's like almost$5 million a year in just like playing. So if Vera Tucker plays, that his contract really goes up quite a bit. Romeo Dobbs, I say only, but to me, it's only got$35 million guaranteed. It's all in the first two years. Draymond Jones, for instance, got$23 million guaranteed. Those are basically two-year contracts. They signed Kevin Byard. I feel like there's a lot of funny money in his up to$9 million.

1:27:25My guess is it's probably half of that or something. They cut Stephon Diggs. They cut Anthony Jennings. They traded their center, Garrett Bradbury. They They lost their safety, Jalen Hawkins. They lost Kairos Tonga. They lost Caleb on Chason. They lost a lot of people that played a lot of roles for them. And most importantly, they have$41 million in cap space. And this weekend, the stop and shop bag that was bought, I think, four years ago when I was visiting my parents in Massachusetts was brought back out when I went to the beach with my kids. Now that me and Mac have like a personal connection, we got to use that old Mac stop and shop bag that only cost$2 back in the day and use that as our beach bag.

1:28:12Gregg Rosenthal:Just call it a tote. But it's not a tote. The Mac Jones tote? I love that. What's a tote? A tote bag. Yeah, but that's more like cloth. It totes things.

1:28:22Patrick Claybon:If we have to call it like a, is it not just a bag? I think there's a difference between a tote bag, though, and a grocery bag. And this is like a grocery, you know, you're reusable. It's a big-ass bag. That's why it's working. Bab.

1:28:37Gregg Rosenthal:So it could tote a lot. It could tote a lot. But you wouldn't want to be like walking down the street in London, I think, with it over your shoulder. Why not? Not as fashionable as maybe like one of those Daunt book bags. You know, that's a tote. What? Got those two. A book bag? People know. People know. Yeah. You know, a backpack? No, it's like a bag that you buy at a bookstore. Oh, like a book bag. Like a tote. Oh. Like a book bag. That's where you get your toast.

1:29:03Patrick Claybon:Oh, to show everybody that you read books? No, that's just, you get, that's what keeps the books that you just bought, you know. That's a, it's a strand. The strand sort of famous.

1:29:11Gregg Rosenthal:Is a bag with books in it, not a book bag? No, because that means something else. People are running on the strand, Greg. People are running and walking. Not a lot of books. The strand I'm talking about in New York. Performative, am I right? Oh. What do we think about the, I don't know what to think about the. I like it. I like it. I think it seems fine. Yeah, it seems good.

1:29:30Patrick Claybon:You get some of the band back together. It's okay to be excited. You reunite Vrabel and Bayard. I think Romeo Dobbs is a good addition, a solid addition to this team. I mean, I think we've picked the old Titans Vrabel stuff, you know, dry a little bit. Like, that's not really something that I'm that excited about, that part of it. Like the Harold Landry thing, for instance. He was a huge part of the defense that let the NFL in turnovers. Yeah.

1:29:54Gregg Rosenthal:I know. I'm with you. He's a total quintessential Vrabel guy. Should be fine. I love it for him. The thing that I love the most is the Romeo Dobbs signing. I just think he is an absolutely wonderful fit here and basically just takes over the Stefan Diggs role and probably and then some just such a high volume target. Somebody who is going to continue to grow and evolve with Drake May, the young quarterback like this. This is a fantastic pairing. If this is not one of the more productive pairings in the 2026 season, I will be very surprised. Draymond Jones is a risk, I guess, because Seattle, like that contract did not work out for him, for them when he was in Seattle.

1:30:34But yeah, between these three contracts, I mean, Dobbs and Vera Tucker are two of my very favorite. I just like I guess I looked at all the players that they lost. Like those are those are significant.

1:30:45Gregg Rosenthal:You're intentionally trying to make your voice a little bit more monotone talking about the Patriots. I've noticed of late because that's how excited you are to be so back with the Patriots. They're back. 87. Yeah. I was going to even go 90, but I didn't want to get accused of bias. Oh, I'm giving them an A. That's why I had to go first. I'm giving them an A, 90. A flat A. That's an A minus. Oh, yeah, an A minus. Excuse me. Okay. I'll go 88 then. Let's go Jets. I didn't get many of those, so. Hey, now. I don't know what the numbers are.

1:31:17You didn't get a lot of A minuses? Please.

1:31:19Gregg Rosenthal:I got a lot of A pluses, Greg. Oh, here we go. That's me that didn't register very highly. Here we go. Great skill. Demario Davis,$15 million guaranteed at 37 years old. Two-year deal. David Onyemata, one year,$10 million. Nashawn Wright, only$3.5 million base salary. Joseph Asai gets$22 million guaranteed, very similar to the Draymond Jones contract. They traded for Tavondre Sweat and for Minka Fitzpatrick. They traded away Justin Fields for a late-round pick. they acquired Geno and only going to pay him$3 million. They signed Dylan Parham, which some offensive line gurus said was among the worst starters in the league last year.

1:32:05They resigned some kind of back end of the roster guys that they liked Jelani Woods, Andrew Beck, Max Mitchell. They lost John Simpson. Their offensive line is supposed to be great on paper, but they did lose their two great guards, John Simpson and Vera Tucker, Quincy Williams. They were happy to say goodbye to him. They traded Jermaine Johnson. They still have$40 million in cap space. Despite all that movement, they're actually 27th right now in cash spending. So they're not spending a ton of cash this year. I really didn't like what they were doing on defense day one. I like it a little more with time because they had to do something, but I just don't like the situation that they entered into January with.

1:32:51It's tough for me to look past what's going on with Aaron Glenn and Darren Mugee.

1:32:54Patrick Claybon:But the addition of Nashawn Wright, I've got a very high grade here, and again, which causes me to pull what remaining hairs on the male pattern baldness head of mine. I have out that Nashawn Wright has such a great year where he's turning the ball over so much and playing at such a high level in that second. And then only warranting this particular deal with the Jets where it's just another corner signing another one-year deal. And I have to, you know, not to defend the transition tag, and the franchise tag, which I normally draw out as cost control metrics. I think the compensatory pick formula and the way that that kind of generally lowers the floor for veteran compensation as well, I need to start pointing that out as a cost control metric as well.

1:33:40Patrick Claybon:But the fact that you can get Deshaun Wright for what you did, I'm in the 90s. That's fascinating to me. You know what's interesting that just occurred to me is no one paid these Bears guys in the secondary. Jaquan Brisker didn't get paid. Nation Wright didn't get paid. Kevin Byer didn't get paid. That's the NFL making a statement on our Sants discussion. They felt like the Allen Sants was the true Sants. The Dennis Sants. They did say that. Yeah, they're giving all the credit to Dennis Allen. Which is hell.

1:34:07Gregg Rosenthal:Yeah, that's who we send the sconce to. That is a wild that you're giving an A to the Jets. All right, you're up. I'm giving a B, flat B, 85 to the Jets because I see what they're trying to do. like listen I'm not giving them overly the benefit of the doubt like we understand this has been a dysfunctional franchise for a long time I understand that but I see their plan and it is it is the same plan that a lot of these rebuilding teams have and also with familiar players to Aaron Glenn to say hey you want to reset a culture you are going after guys that you are familiar with that you know that's one part of it the other part of it is some of the ages are very like eyebrow raising for some of these signings, but they're not costing you a ton of money, first of all.

1:34:54Gregg Rosenthal:And also, you're going to replace those guys with the mass amount of draft picks that you have. And you need these veteran players to tell these guys coming in and to basically set a floor for all of these young guys that are going to be coming in to this roster over the next several months to two years. Now, does it predicate what's going to happen to the coach? I don't think so. I still think he's unfortunately on the hot seat. But I absolutely see what at least the plan is for this because you have to at least establish what the floor of your team is going to be. I just worry with Onyemata and Demario Davis specifically that it's like one stop too far, that they could just be huge liabilities and they have a coach that can't help them because he hasn't been shown to help his defensive players in a while.

1:35:39And it is kind of like the Browns that I'm grading them based on a little bit on their past as well, because I think it's going to affect their future, that the next regime is going to inherit these guys. And the one thing that they did for him is that it won't be many long-term like deals that get in their way. But I would have liked, like, if you gave me the Raiders off season, like the younger, like investing in those sorts of players, make more sense to me. Like Onyemada is not a consistent player. He's been like kind of a disaster for his team. every second or third year. Demario Davis is a pretty big gamble, I think, at this.

1:36:16Patrick Claybon:But I think you get the known quantities where you know what they can do, and you get veterans. And if Kevin O 'Connell, you know, the quarterback whisperer, gets the, well, he needs a veteran to be able to do this. This J.J. McCarthy thing couldn't work because he had to do this. Then I'm going to give Aaron Glenn the credit of being a coach who's maybe better suited to play with guys who know what they're doing.

1:36:37Gregg Rosenthal:I agree with you there, Patrick. And I also think that you're also signing guys who you know what they're not to. You're not signing them to be everything. You're not signing them to even be plus two players. You're signing them to understand what spots or what traits specifically are being filled. And you know exactly what they are and what they aren't. And then you go fill in what they aren't with your draft picks. And also fill in guys that will eventually, again, replace these guys. To me, it's very clear what their plan is. They've been good in terms of the trade acquisitions, too. A.D. Mitchell and Harrison Phillips last year were good.

1:37:11They were good with their draft, the top of their draft. I like it was their free.

1:37:16Gregg Rosenthal:Here he comes. It was their free agency, though, last year. That was a disaster. Jamie and Sherwood, Brandon Stevens was OK-ish. I'll give it a because they got Gino. There it is. I'll bump it up over 70 at least. God, I thought we were getting close. He's toted his grade up over 70. 73. This free agency, if it was. Did you give a number? I forget. Yes, I did. Oh, yeah. You gave a B. We did it. We graded the entire NFL. I gave all the other numbers, too, but you, you know. There was a couple that it was like B minus, you know. I'm going to throw Eric under the bus. We did the AFC. Now let's do the NFC.

1:37:54Like right now. Okay, let's do it. Let's have a three-hour show. Now hit the music. Hit the music. Let's get out of here. The next time you hear from us in this studio will be me and Jordan and Colleen on Wednesday. That's exciting. But you will hear from Daniel Jeremiah and us, 40s and free agents, in the feed, talking about his latest mock draft on Tuesday. This is a treat. The Greg Gilder season never ends.

1:38:25I'm Daniel Jeremiah. And I am Greg Rosenthal.

1:38:29Patrick Claybon:I know that, Greg. We're teaming up on 40s and free agents, the podcast that owns the NFL offseason. This is where teams are built. Free agency, combine, pro days, trades. Every move matters. From my draft boards and mock drafts. To my vaunted top 101 free agents and how rosters come together. Quarterback movement. Surprise signings. We'll tell you what it means and who really wins. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search 40s and free agents, and listen now.

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