What We Learned: Stafford's Deal, Giants Drama and a Safer Caleb?

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2:43Will Gavin:Welcome to NFL Daily, where we definitely knew it was not AI, man. I'm Greg Rosenthal. here in my garage after a long Memorial Day weekend, talking to the only man that makes sense after honoring those who lost their lives in service. Yes, it's one of our allies, TalkSport UK's own Will Gavin. Thanks. Thanks for joining us, Will. No worries. Thank you for having me on. From the officially hottest day May has ever seen in London, in a country where we don't have air conditioning. So if at some point I just slump over to the side and pass out, keep going on without me, I'll be fine eventually. Yes, you are a man who can play hurt.

3:26Will Gavin:The twins are in the background. You might hear Will's beautiful young daughters. And you might hear us just updating you on what happened over a busy four-day weekend for me personally. I had my in-laws here. I went to Vegas. I went to a Dodgers game. We barbecued. Like, hey, I need a vacation for my vacation. But let's go through all the news. We got some. We just want to get you caught up. I got about 15 items, things that we learned over the long weekend. And it really started like right after we taped our last show. Matthew Stafford signed a contract extension. We were expecting this to happen.

4:04Will Gavin:Well, but I thought the details of it were the part that I was looking for and most interested in. The short version is it's a one year,$55 million extension. attention the details indicate it's really just a five-year raise for this season for Matthew Stafford what do you think about the way they're kind of approaching this era of Stafford contractually and of course with Ty Simpson now waiting in the wings yeah from their perspective what he's gonna boost he's gonna make at least 45 million dollars probably will make the full amount you imagine barring injury or anything else. And they've set him up so that there is that into next year, guaranteed money available.

4:50If they wish to continue this, if they don't suddenly decide that Ty Simpson is the future, obviously there's something going on there where they need to keep the man happy. After making the decision to draft a quarterback at 13 overall, it's not a decision I loved. I have to be honest. I've probably not been on here giving my views on this, but when guys have gone into situations before and been the backup for a top-tier star and it's worked with the Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Loves, et cetera, of this world, it's been somebody with a special level of talent and it's totally made sense to me. Ty Simpson isn't necessarily that guy and at 13 felt incredibly rich to me, but now they feel set.

5:31Now they feel like they're ready to go. I just, I kind of wish they'd given Matthew Stafford not just an extra$5 million, but maybe somebody else to throw the ball to. Yeah, I thought the contract was very team friendly.

5:45Will Gavin:The last contract Stafford signed was very team friendly. It was reported he could have gotten more money to leave for the Raiders and the Giants. Smart move, like they could have won the Super Bowl last year. But$5 million extra for this year and essentially no guaranteed money for next year. All it does is force the Rams to make a decision and more like Matthew Stafford make a decision whether he's still playing or not fairly early. I think his contract's guaranteed, you know, early into the next league year. It's right at the beginning. But even then, if he decides to return, one year,$50 million for next year is a bargain.

6:19Will Gavin:One year,$45 million, which is what he's getting this year, is a bargain. This guy just won the MVP. If he was angry at the Rams, and I can't imagine he was thrilled, my takeaway was, well, he didn't take them out on them on this contract. If anything, I thought he could have put them over a barrel. So if you're looking to give a Matthew Stafford pat on the back as a Rams fan, here you go. And listen, on top of all of that, I think that the fact that the real winners in this are us, the football reporting public, the public enjoying it as well, because what we don't get is at the start of next season, the willy wony.

6:59This year, did it at the awards ceremony. Well done, Matthew. Really appreciate it. But while we watch what's happening in Pittsburgh or happened in Pittsburgh, we're not going to have to have any of that next offseason. We'll know very early whether he's staying or going, whether they're going to give him that guaranteed money. I suspect that they want him to be there for at least two years. I don't think they see Ty Simpson as the starter in 2027, but it gives them that leeway. It gives Stafford that leeway. So yeah, it gives us an answer nice and early.

7:23Will Gavin:It puts a little more pressure on everything about this season. I think that's what Ty Simpson did. That's the most negative thing that they did with Ty Simpson, other than the opportunity cost of not getting a good player, was that if Stafford, for whatever reason, is hurt slash struggling through eight games, then we're just automatically thinking, is this going to be the end for Stafford in LA? Because this contract, on top of other things, makes it really easy for them to move on. Like he's going to have to be a top 10 quarterback. No reason to think he wouldn't be as long as he's healthy.

7:56Will Gavin:It's a great situation. So that's the Stafford of it all. The next section actually has our two through five points. We got about 15 things we learned. well I'm all about learning in the offseason I love it I'm calling this section in the land of giants we have four giants little nuggets starting with Joe Shane signing one of the most surprising contract extensions of the offseason if Joe Shane is getting multi-year extensions will hey I think we should all feel better in the world of football that we could be getting you know security long term it's not such a crazy business it's so obvious that the dynamic has shifted there right and under Joe Shane and there's some Giants fans who still back in based on the drafting he's done etc but 22 45 and one in the time he's been there John Harbaugh directing like reporting directly to ownership directly to the Mars directly to whoever else effectively what is he now is he just scouting?

9:00Is it just player acquisition? Is it just, what is his role? And so maybe, like, you know, they've worked together on this draft. They were pleased with bringing in Arville Reese and everything else they did. And so maybe they've turned around and gone, do you know what? We like it. We're redefining it. We'll give you a multi-year contract. But you're in this new job role. But none of that seems to have come out yet. It baffles me. It baffles me that I would have thought that John Harbour would have gone and got his own guy and had somebody that he would work with. But maybe Harbaugh's fallen in love with him and it's going to be a wonderful marriage.

9:33Will Gavin:You asked what his role is. I mean, I think for a lot of teams, it would be the role of like assistant GM. That feels like the role. Because he's reporting to someone, Donna Pondy, who's been reporting to John Harbaugh. And he, or he's like the director, you know, the director of scouting, essentially, like managing a couple of things. And that's fine. He probably has a great relationship with ownership. They like continuity. and these are the types of contracts, even though Joe Shane is making a great living for the average person, that if the Giants wanted to move on and Joe Shane is the fall guy after this year, he absolutely still could be.

10:08Will Gavin:So I don't take too much stock into it, but they just kind of wanted to quiet the narrative and he was entering the final year of his contract. Much more important to the 2026 Giants, Will, is Malik Neighbors. John Harbaugh spoke about Neighbors. Last week, the Giants, as we mentioned, a lot of the new coach teams had started OTAs last week. We've got 11 more teams on the field, Will. On Tuesday, teams are practicing. We got the majority of the league. It's football back, Greg. Football is back. I think football's back. And one of the reasons we know is John Harbaugh is speaking to the media. Yeah, he's in the middle of it.

10:48He's in the middle of it. It's just such a hard thing. It's an ACL and whatever else he had in that knee. not a simple knee, you know. So he's in the slog of it, you know, the grind of it, I would say. So he's fighting through it, you know, and he's here every day working hard at it. Just impossible to predict. I mean, the goal is to, you know, start the season and get out there sometime in training camp. That would be the goal, and we'll see what happens. If he's out there, great. If he's not out there, great. You know, we'll be ready to go either way. But I know he's fighting like crazy to do his best to be out there, and he's with the guys every day.

11:26Will Gavin:That's John Harbaugh and Malik, neighbors. The lack of specificity there and how John Harbaugh normally handles injuries, which is not to give away much of anything, actually did feel like giving away something there, Will. Yeah, and it was the, if he's not out there, if he's out there, great. If he's not out there, great. I'm not sure that that's quite right. I think they're desperate for him to be out there for the start of the season. They bring in Isaiah likely, right? That's the big pass catching option they brought in. And then a bunch of kind of wide receiver, three, four guys, Calvin Austin, Darnell Mooney, the guy they get in the third round, Malachi Fields.

12:01But the fact is, is Malik Nabors is where the pass catching element of this offense wants to run through. Jackson Dart, and we're going to get onto a bit more about him in a moment, I imagine. He's got a big year ahead of him. And they'd much, much rather, with a big year ahead of him, he had his number one guy on the field. So hopefully we do hear more in the offseason. and hopefully it's positive because he's a player you just love to see play. But yeah, as long as he's playing by the time they play internationally later in the year, then we'll play.

12:29Will Gavin:Stop. You are a selfish bastard, Will. I now put the odds on him just based on that quote and the follow-up surgery, everything we've heard. I think it's unlikely he's starting the season out there. And when he says great that he's not on the field, I do hope and think he's alluding to, we're thinking about Malik Nabors long term. And this could be something where he is not truly 100 % this season even, and that he's going to miss some real time, which is disappointing, but it happens. Another big injury for the Giants, they lost Roy Robertson Harris to a torn Achilles. Hate when these injuries happen during the offseason program.

13:10Will Gavin:OTAs working out. Not a familiar name to a lot of people out there, but he was slated to start. He essentially had a starting type role last year. They did sign a number of kind of stopgap veterans at defensive tackle. Shelby Harris, DJ Reader is a good player as a nose tackle. Leaky Fotu has played a lot in the NFL. But those guys in aggregate were supposed to help replace Dexter Lawrence. Roy Robertson Harris was the guy that they inherited from last year, was probably the best player of that entire group. So now you trade away Dexter Lawrence, you lose a core veteran for the season. And suddenly that run defense, which already on paper didn't look great, looks even worse.

13:52Will Gavin:Abdul Carter, not known for his run defense, but now he's known for mixing it up in terms of social media. You alluded to Jackson Dart. The biggest news on a pretty quiet NFL weekend, let's be real, was Jackson Dart introducing our president over here. You might be familiar, Will, Donald Trump at a rally for some congressman. yet. And, you know, it's just typical. He introduces Donald Trump and a lot of people get excited about it or annoyed about it. And then Abdul Carter jumps in and has the tweet. I thought this was AI, man. What are we doing here? Later on, he responded to a lot of people getting upset about it, saying me and JD6, referring to Jackson Dart, didn't know he was called JD six are good.

14:46Will Gavin:We spoke earlier as men. Y 'all can keep y 'all narratives. And that was in response to a reporter, Ben Volan of the Boston Globe specifically, who was like, oh, there could be dissension. There's dissension in the Giants locker room. Thoughts well, you know, from a sober international perspective on us, what's happening over here? Look, the moment Jackson's art turns up at that rally, it makes international news regardless. of whether you're a Giants fan, an NFL fan, or anything else. Because it's a major sports star turning up at a political rally for a guy who, you know, causes some controversies, it's fair to say.

15:24So when I saw the Abdul-Khahat tweet, I did, my immediate jump was, you know, raised eyes, sending eye emotions to people, firing it around and being like, do you think this is an actual issue? It feels like off-season fodder. It feels like the kind of thing that will get past. It feels like the kind of thing that John Harbaugh will squash out. But the fact that Abdul Qat was so open and immediate in his response to it, he might say we're all good and we're all cool and we've spoken about it. But I don't know. It doesn't feel like it feels like it's going to have to be a let's keep politics out of the locker room thing rather than they're actually suddenly best friends because it's quite a big move to make.

16:03Will Gavin:I guess. I mean, look, anyone who listens to this show knows I'm not a fan of Jackson Dart's politics or Donald Trump. But John Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh have literally been at the White House with Trump. They are vocal supporters of Trump. All these players, it's pretty obvious who they support, who they don't if they want to be out there. I know it's a different step to introduce them, but this is an NFL locker room. Of course, a lot of the locker room supports the president and plenty of the locker room doesn't and plenty is aware of that. to me it is it is kind of juvenile for the reporters who are like john harbaugh is going to have to address this is going to be a big problem it's like this they're grown men this is not a new phenomenon believe me everyone in the locker room probably you know has an idea of where jackson dart like lies politically and if they're like getting along personally it's it's just i don't know yeah it might be it might be off season storming a teacup it might absolutely be that but i just think for abdul kata to speak out for a guy who is very much a forefront of this uh of this team as well it's it that just that was what felt like a big deal to me not the fair you know the fact that they're going to have to all get on with each other there's yeah there's 75 guys in that locker room there's however many coaches as well like yeah they of course there's going to be dissent amongst them but i don't think it's going to be some issue that carries over into the season the funny thing is i do feel strongly in a way about this And that's about the people that are like aggressively, oh, this doesn't bother me.

17:45Will Gavin:I'm apolitical. Like, I don't care about anything. Doesn't bother me what people say. Grow up. The grown up perspective is like, yeah, like some people really support it. It's fine. It's totally fine for Jackson Dart. No matter. I disagree, obviously, to do what he wants to do there. and it's fine for someone to disagree it's like yeah that's that's uh living in this country uh living in this world right now it's just like it's fine adults can disagree about things we are covering a lot of uh of american culture within the world cup conversation right like obviously football soccer is the number one sport here i've been doing a show like a soccer based show uh over the last i was gonna pump it up let me cut you off so you don't have to i was gonna at the end of the show will is uh just launched a great podcast youtube show uh it's on talk sport the s word with master uh tefzfatsian who a great friend of jordan rodrigues on the show great great journalists over here and so people should be checking that out in addition to all the great work you do on the nfl will i appreciate that brother but obviously no no i appreciate it but Obviously, you can't help but get into the politics of the football, the Donald Trump of it all, the, you know, everything else that goes along with it.

19:05And so I think we are set for a summer where the conversation of politics and sport is going to really dominate the landscape internationally. And so I think this will disappear very quickly.

19:17Will Gavin:Yes. And it's a little more tight when it comes to the World Cup and everything that Trump and FIFA and yeah, good luck with all that. Our next item, it was going to be our last item, by the way. It was going to be our 15th item of the day was Robert Sala telling the Titans media that one of the first things that he did as Titans head coach was get rid of seed oils in the locker room. But I do feel like there is a connection here. JFK Jr. I'm really excited to hear this. Right, okay. JFK Jr. Very, again, seed oils. uh eric our producer notes that we're talking about political rallies and seed oils in the rundown which is an indication that football might not be back actually but football might not be back you attack those inflammatory markers bob saller and it's a game of inches anything that's going to get you over the line or your micro optimization nonsense all i'm saying is when all the when the doctors and the medical the health professionals are like uh no uh seed oils are totally fine like Salah, I'm just putting them into the bucket.

20:26Will Gavin:It's like the bucket of guys who got really into NFTs back in the day. Let's get back to the football. Big contract. Jack Campbell signed with the Lions. Four years,$81 million extension,$51.5 million guaranteed for the linebacker. Just going into his fourth season, you think back to that draft, Will, and the picks that the Lions said everyone reached on at the time, Jameer Gibbs and Jack Campbell. And back then the idea was like, well, if you just flip the picks and you put Brian Branch in the first round, who was their other great second round pick that I'm spacing on at the moment? Then if you just flip the picks, everyone would have said it's totally fine.

21:12Will Gavin:Well, in the end, they took Jack Campbell and Jameer Gibbs in the exact right spot. They are two of the best players at their position, and he is signed through 2030. Give the Lions some love. Yeah, it's funny you said that because I was about to sit here and say, it's funny that people will still knock that. Sam Laporte was the other guy they took in the second round. Yes, of course. And it was always one of those things to me where if Jack Campbell had been a second round pick and performed as he'd done and had the career he had, everyone would have heralded it as a sensational draft picker.

21:41He's such a great guy. He's such a great fit for the scheme. He's such a great fit for the locker room and for Dan Campbell. They absolutely love him in that building. He's very no-nonsense football. I've had an opportunity to chat to Jack Campbell a couple of times. Actually, he's a guy the Lions have put up for us a couple of times before. And if you talk to him about football, he's a great interview because he just loves talking X's and O's. I've got a huge amount of time for him. When you start to look at the numbers and you say, he's only in guaranteed money behind the likes of Fred Warner and Roquan Smith.

22:13He's only in overall money behind Roquan Smith because Fred Warner's deal was only three years. Like those sound like huge numbers, but we're talking about guys that are 29, 30 years old. Jack Campbell's still in his mid twenties. This is only that second contract. Got a lot of time there. He's really great at what he does. I think this is, as much as it sounds like a lot of money, I think it's a real win for the line.

22:34Will Gavin:Yeah. I mean, I'd rather have Jack Campbell than Rokhan Smith, no question. I mean, he was a better player last year. It kind of slipped on me that he was first team all pro last year, but his rate of improvement is really why you got to be careful with off ball linebackers specifically as rookies because sometimes he looked a little lost in coverage. That is a tough position to get, but he is so athletic. He is really the prototype of the three down linebacker that can do everything and he's gotten so much better. He was a playmaker in his third season and also has just kind of taken control of that room.

23:09Will Gavin:I remember Dan Campbell this offseason when they talked about letting Alex Anzalone go. He said it was in part not that Jack Campbell's changing positions, but it's just like that's Jack Campbell's room. We want him to be the dude. And so what they did was they they didn't give him the fifth year option. They did give him the huge money. And I assume it's essentially almost like a two year, three year deal with with a lot of the money guaranteed. So good on the Lions and Jack Campbell. They just got to start hitting in the draft. Are you high or low on the Lions heading into 2026? Do they do they win the division putting you on the spot right now?

23:44I really like the Bears to win the NFC North again, actually. But I'm higher on them than last year. They've corrected a lot of the issues that they've had. I still want to see what that line looks like. I still want to see what the protection looks like. I still want to see it on the field. But overall, I think they are in a position to at least be a playoff team this year. Not to just bring out cliches on a hot summer's day, but it's get in the dance, all of that stuff. So yeah, I think they've got a great chance of a great season, but it's such competitive division. Like if you said to me that you like the Packers for it, I couldn't knock it.

24:19Will Gavin:So yeah, I'm still trying to decide who I'm going to end up picking that division. I'll definitely have them in the playoffs. And yeah, with the extension, you always get a tack on the first year in the extension. So then it's really five for 83. I think actually that's a contract that'll age very well. You're the king of the extension for me, by the way. Like you were the guy who knocks. I like at this end, whenever I do our show, I'm like, it's like, it's an extension. It's not a four-year ex-contract. It's a six-year ex-contract. And therefore, he's actually only the seventh most well-paid corner in the market or whatever it might be.

24:50Will Gavin:Got to think about it. Thanks for spreading the esoteric gospel across the globe. Oh, yeah. Jacoby Brissett is looking for more money, do about$6 million. I don't know if we need to talk much about this. We've hit that he is holding out, but he is not showing up for OTAs. And ESPN, their local reporter there, reported that he's significantly far apart in contract talk. So people keep making fun of this holdout. It is having no signs of letting up. Let's go to what I'm calling Vic Fangio corner. A couple little items from Vic Fangio, who spoke to the media, I think he's, what, 67 years young now, had just like a good football nugget, which is that they're going to move Cooper DeGene back to safety in base formations.

25:36Will Gavin:That's what he was more commonly as a rookie. And then he's in the slot. Like he's, when they're in nickel, which is basically their main formation, you know, he is going to be in the slot. So I don't think much changes, but they do not want him to be playing outside cornerback. They have Reek Woolen there now, potentially in that spot. So just a little nugget. Let's actually listen to Vic Fangio too. Asked about the reports that he was potentially retiring this off season. No, I wasn't close. You know, I've had those thoughts, you know, the last few years. Every year at the end of the year, I just think about it, you know, and I never really got serious to where I would have done it.