The sneaky offseason additions shaping the 2026 NFL season

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1:26Robert Mays: Welcome to The Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. On yesterday's show, we chatted about some of the position groups that have been totally remade this offseason, like big, loud changes to certain areas of these rosters. Today, we're talking about the sneaky additions that were made on the veteran market this offseason and how that might impact some of these teams. We didn't lay out, I didn't lay out the exact parameters for this when I was asking the guys to come up with a list of names. We wanted to focus on guys that were making less than 10 million bucks. Aren't big name players. Aren't superstars.

1:58Robert Mays: You're really thinking that much about the guys that are on some of these smaller contracts, but for one reason or another, they are going to be important players for teams this year. And the way that those teams plans are going to come together. So really enjoyed digging into about a dozen sneaky additions this offseason with Derek and Dave. Let's get to that list right now.

2:28Robert Mays: We spent some time yesterday talking about the position groups that have been totally overhauled. Like, some of those are kind of sneaky. But when you're adding three new guys, it's kind of hard to hide. Like, we've seen what those changes look like. Today, we wanted to dig a little bit deeper and talk about a handful of players that, when we go through the whole wave of free agency and we're doing those live shows, there are going to be some one-year,$5 million deals that we just don't talk about very much. And now that everything has quieted down and we were truly in the depths of the offseason, we wanted to zoom out a little bit, or I guess zoom further in, and try to find 10 or so guys that we think were sneaky additions this spring that are going to make a difference for the teams that signed them.

3:13Derrik Klassen: Yeah, I was zooming in on that depth chart looking for names that we haven't really talked about, which I joked about it with you earlier today. when you make a show with sickos for sickos, finding somebody that fits the definition of sneaky gets pretty tough because there are some cheaper, more obscure players that have joined teams this offseason that we've talked about a bunch, but I feel pretty good about my list.

3:36Robert Mays: I mean, inevitably, when we do the buying or selling offseasons, we go through every single edition that the team's made. And so there's going to be some overlap when you're truly doing an autopsy or an accounting of every single team's offseason, all 32 of them, Derek. But I still think these are going to be players that we have not talked about at quite the same length as some of the bigger additions from this spring.

3:57Dave Helman: Definitely not the same length, but there were at least one or two of my picks here that I remember during free agency week being like, man, I really liked that signing for X team. And it's not a lot of money, but it's going to be really good. And this is a show to actually sit in that for a little bit longer.

4:11Robert Mays: That's exactly right. I'm sure we have mentioned these players on the show, but that was two months ago. That might as well have not even happened. And so now we're, I think we're totally in the clear to dig into it in this way. I'll tell you guys right now, I've got a couple of curve balls. I have a couple of coaches. Oh, well that's, you didn't, you didn't outline that as a parameter. I did not. It was just one of those things I was going through. I've been talking to a lot of coaches over the last couple of weeks, just catching up with guys, working on a couple of things. And so just some names have come up in conversation where I'm like, oh shit, I forgot that guy was on that staff.

4:43Robert Mays: Like, I do think that's going to make this meaningful difference. And these aren't coordinators. These are guys in like smaller roles. And so I do, we're going to do a ton of new coordinator content over the next three or four months. I guarantee you that. So these are even one layer below coordinator roles that I think will have an impact on their teams this fall.

5:03Derrik Klassen: DBs, coaches that are going to make the difference. That's, that's real sicko shit. I love it.

5:08Robert Mays: So I've got two of those just because I felt like, again, we have talked about most of these players. So this is a way to differentiate a little bit. Derek, why don't you kick us off here? buddy what was your favorite sneaky addition that you wanted to talk about today so one of my

5:22Dave Helman: favorite players last year in general and then one of my favorite signings this offseason was the chief signing kairos tonga to to be their nose tackle and i actually include this on mine

5:31Robert Mays: because i knew derek was gonna have it i had a feeling we'll cover this and at first i probably

5:36Dave Helman: would have talked about him anyway again i thought he just played phenomenal last year as a space eater but also a guy for his size i think he can get into the backfield a little bit but why i actually the more I looked at the Chiefs depth chart found this interesting is that they have been generally an even front team like recently with Chris Jones and the way that they operate and Leo Chennault sometimes they'll put him on the field and roll him down to the line of scrimmage to make some of those like three four looking odd fronts but generally they were like a four three team put three linebackers on the field and base but if you look at their depth chart now the way that it's set up it's like you would probably have Tonga at nose you would have Jones and Peter was their first round pick, potentially playing that like three to five tech, like other defensive end.

6:18Dave Helman: And then you could layer it with some of these outside pass rushers. George Karloff is our Mason Thomas is like a smaller pass rush body. And then I think linebackers kind of the final piece of this where, again, last year they had three good off the ball linebackers. They had Drew Tranquil, Nick Bolton, and Leo Chennault. And Chennault was a flex player, but he was an off the ball linebacker. They don't have that right now. Like their third guy would be Jeffrey Bassa, maybe who I liked as like a day three draft pick last year, but he's not going to give you what Chennault gave you both in terms of quality or in terms of like the flexibility of Chennault playing on the line of scrimmage the way that he did.

6:52Dave Helman: I mean, he played like 130 snaps on the line last year and gave them that flexibility in a way they didn't have. And so I wonder if the addition of Tonga, drafting Peter Woods, drafting R. Mason Thomas, who's more of like that typical three, four outside linebacker body, do they just play like a lot more odd front this year than they had in years past.

7:11Robert Mays: That's really interesting. So I was looking at the numbers when you were talking. They were, according to NextGen, about 31 % five-man fronts last year, which is an above-average rate and is just about middle of the pack. But like you're saying, a lot of that is just Chanel walked up to the line of scrimmage. And so that's interesting. We've done this at times before. Remember, I can't remember what offseason it was. It might have been the year where they signed Orlando Brown Jr. And then they also added a couple other bigger bodies that offseason. And we were like, Chiefs, gap scheme runs. Are we are they coming?

7:40Robert Mays: And the answer was yes. Yeah, they did it for a year. Times left some breadcrumbs about like some of the changes that could be happening. And so that's that's really interesting. So that's barely even a sneaky addition. Like this being a linchpin of like changing some of your defensive structure is there's nothing sneaky about that. That's a pretty loud addition.

7:59Derrik Klassen: And I don't have an issue with Derek bringing it up because it's a very fun signing, but they gave him pretty good money, too.

8:05Robert Mays: I think my rule of thumb on this was if it's less than eight digits, we're in good shape, like less than$10 million a year that that player is eligible for this show per year. OK, yeah, I mean, he's that wasn't a hard and fast rule, but that's kind of what I abided by when we're doing.

8:20Derrik Klassen: It's certainly not an enormous contract. But when you see the size of the deal, it's like, OK, this is this is more than depth. This is a guy that you have designs for.

8:29Dave Helman: I was definitely pushing the upper limits of like what counts as sneaky, but this was just like the restructuring of their defense. I was like, we didn't get to talk about it for their front in the last show. I was like, we have to talk about it.

8:40Robert Mays: Have they talked about that at all? Or is this something you're completely inferring?

8:44Dave Helman: I don't know. Like, I would I don't know if they've really said anything about that. Like, maybe they did after they drafted Woods and Thomas. I'm not 100 % sure. But that'll be something that as we get into training camp, as we start seeing what they're trying to do in the preseason, like, do they roll out some different fronts than they had been used to in the past?

9:00Derrik Klassen: This is what I love about a show like this, though, is we're like, ah, Tonga, of course, that's that's barely sneaky. and 95 % of the football viewing public has no idea this is happening or that he changed teams.

9:14Robert Mays: But we share a show with one of the biggest Kyra Stong fans in America. That's true. So I think that's part of it.

9:18Derrik Klassen: Driving that bandwagon.

9:19Robert Mays: He did not make my final list. A player I would throw out that I similar sort of thought process, not in how it'll change the structure of the defense, but just what adding that sort of like big body rung plugger can do. But for different reasons, the Chiefs didn't really have one and that's why it's interesting. Dalvin Tomlinson going to the Chargers. The Chargers have been good at identifying these players. Like the Chargers have been very good over the last couple years of saying, all right, we don't want to spend a lot. We want a group of four or five functional interior defensive linemen that we can cycle through.

9:51Robert Mays: You're Deshaun Hands, players like that. And I think Atito Ogbonia, they've done a good job of building out that room. And this year, Dalvin Tomlinson is that discarded, we're going to get him for$6 million interior defensive linemen. Like, Tyre Tartt was so good that they ultimately had to pay him. But for the most part, they've cycled through a lot of sheep guys at these.

10:10Derrik Klassen: I was going to say Tartt's like the ideal for that guy. And so adding Tomlinson to a front that already includes him is definitely intriguing.

10:17Dave Helman: They had Puna Ford for that one year. They really do a good job of these like one and two year D tackle deals.

10:23Robert Mays: They've done a very good job of identifying those players. And so the fact that it was Dalvin Tomlinson this year, I thought was notable. I was going back and watching some like late season Cardinals defense just to like get a sense of what was Dalvin Tomlinson down the stretch. Don't do that. Don't do that. Just spend your time doing something else.

10:39Derrik Klassen: There were a few guys that I watched for this where I was like, okay, I mean, the way you played most recently is important, but some of these circumstances are so bad where I'm like, all right, I'm not going to judge you completely based on this awful infrastructure that you were part of.

10:55Robert Mays: When you have a guy who's 32 years old, he just turned 32 years old, you at least want to do the wash, not wash check before you're going to talk about that player. and so I was like for that for Tomlinson specifically I was like all right let's go check this out and then you see like John Simons getting all these snaps at the end of the year and like I was just you know what we're good like the issues that the Cardinals defense my main question was the issues that the Cardinals defense is having against the run in week 12 of last year are those Dalvin Tomlinson and Calais Campbell's faults no that that was my conclusion is that was not their fault and so I think we're good to just move on from that Dalvin Tomlinson only being

11:32Derrik Klassen: 32 is the NFL in a nutshell. Well, compared to Calais Campbell, he's a spring chicken.

11:38Robert Mays: Yeah, absolutely.

11:39Derrik Klassen: I mean, he is a spring chicken. He just turned 32, but it feels so ancient when you've been in the league since 2017.

11:46Robert Mays: I've talked about this story before, but you could throw Calais Campbell into this list, by the way, too. Like, I do think that he is a nice piece for the Ravens at$5 million a year, even as he's about to turn 40 here in a couple months. I've told this story before, but I remember going down to Jacksonville, and I was looking at my texts when he signed with the Ravens just to remind myself of what year it was. And I'm pretty sure it was 2018. I went down to Jacksonville to write a story about how Calais Campbell was coming to the end of his career and how he was like an influence for some of the younger players.

12:16Robert Mays: That was eight years ago.

12:18Derrik Klassen: And he was ancient by NFL defensive lineman standards at the time,

12:22Robert Mays: eight years ago. So every time, every time it happens where he signs with a new team, I'm just going to go back and make sure that text is correct. The other thing I said in the moment, I firmly believe this. I love that Calais Campbell is just treating the last few years of his career like high fidelity. Like he's just going to revisit his old girlfriends and work through the emotions associated with that. So I just respect so much of how he's approaching this.

12:43Derrik Klassen: Derek, are you familiar with high fidelity?

12:45Dave Helman: I'm not, but he painted it out well. You've never seen high fidelity? I have not seen many movies. Are we going to do this again?

12:52Derrik Klassen: Fidelity. Derek doesn't even remember when Comedy Central used to air High Fidelity twice a day. Like, that's the problem.

12:58Robert Mays: That is, I cannot imagine a better, like, Friday night movie for you and your girlfriend just to go watch and, like, enjoy. Phenomenal movie. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. I'm willing to admit this now. Who is in this movie? John Cusack. It's just a John Cusack vehicle.

13:11Derrik Klassen: Okay, but also it's like an early star turn for Jack Black before he was famous.

13:16Robert Mays: Jack Black is in it. Catherine Zeta-Jones is in it. It's a phenomenal movie. I'm willing to admit this now because I'm far enough removed from it and I'm older and I'm less embarrassed by it I moved into my first Chicago apartment because it was across the street From the location of where the records were was in high fidelity. That is why I chose to live there So that's the biggest stand of approval I can give you. It's a good forgettable comedy Oh, it's not forgettable at all to me. Very memorable. What's your first one day? If your first sneaky guy that you wanted to talk about that you think is going to make an impact this year

13:47Derrik Klassen: We make reference to this a lot and we've done it plenty for John Harbaugh because he brought a lot of Ravens with him. But I would posit to you that of the five Ravens that John Harbaugh brought over from Baltimore, the guy I like the most is the one we've mentioned the least because he was a little bit of an afterthought. One year,$1.9 million. Our Darius Washington. I love this. I was very close to putting our Darius Washington onto this list. My 5 '8 king, our Darius Washington, lands in Baltimore. Obviously, I mean, the end of his or lands in New York. I mean, the end of his Baltimore career got out of whack because he tore his Achilles last summer.

14:23Derrik Klassen: He even played last year after tearing his Achilles last summer is crazy. It's crazy that it wasn't a bigger talking point that he came. He came back for the full last month of the year. He got back onto the field in week 15 after tearing his Achilles over the summer. And I did the same thing as you where I just went back and watched. And it's not a huge sample size. He didn't play a ton. shocker of shockers he's coming off a torn achilles but he was still hitting like a son of a for a guy who's only 5 '8 and moving around fairly well for a guy who just tore his achilles so he signs on in new york it's a small deal it's not a huge investment on the giants part but i would just imagine between his familiarity in this scheme and he was not only was he in baltimore with harbaugh but he was on the ravens with denard wilson as well so there is a lot of familiarity here.

15:13Derrik Klassen: He's going to know what they're asking this defense to do. He can wear a lot of hats. He can play in the slot. He plays deep. You can use them in the box, which again is pretty incredible for a guy who's five, eight. And from what I hear, just paying attention to what's going on up in New York, I think the giants would probably prefer to drop Tyler Newbin down into the box and ask him to do less in coverage. I think our Darius Washington could allow you to do that. My only question is how much are you going to use three safeties? Is he taking somebody else off the field? But that's just a problem you figure out as you go, in my opinion.

15:49Derrik Klassen: And I like, I think there's going to be more than enough snaps for a guy like this to go around.

15:52Robert Mays: I hope that he can play closer to what he was in 2024 before he got hurt. Cause I just, even if he's a limited player, he's undersized. Like I just think that the way he plays and some of the things he allowed the Ravens to do during that season, I really developed an appreciation for him during that year. And so having him enjoy a bounce back season for the Giants this year, Darius Washington, I think would be really nice.

16:13Dave Helman: Well, and there's so much value in a, you know, third safety, whatever you want to call him, second nickel, a guy who can play literally every spot, even if it's only at like a C level, like Christian Isian was this for the Bucs for like a couple of years where like, they would literally play him. Might have to be again, buddy.

16:29Derrik Klassen: Guys this year in Detroit. Spoiler alert. He might come up on my list later.

16:33Dave Helman: I see he I he almost came up on mine too so I'm glad we're going to talk about him but he's the utility of having a guy who can give you passable play at literally every spot um our Darius Washington not so much outside corner the way Izzy and you know would kind of moonlight at that times but the fact that he could play any spot for them like DB depth was a huge issue for them last year and then like Dave was saying Tyler Newbin I think is a good tackler and he can hit and he'll come up but his some of the angles he takes some of his coverage ability like the more that they could hide that and potentially use Washington to kind of overlap and push him into to a role that is more suited for him.

17:10Dave Helman: I think that could go a long way.

17:11Derrik Klassen: I don't know if this is cope or not, but it makes sense to me. He got on the field last year, and I think you can see just watching him that he's a guy coming off of a major leg injury. But the fact that he got onto the field and got those reps, it makes me feel so much better as opposed to the typical story here is like, well, what does he look like? When's he going to be able to go full speed? Like the fact that he already got back onto an NFL field and looked like he belonged there, it just gives me more confidence that he can be closer to the guy that we remember when this all kicks off in 2026.

17:44Robert Mays: I'll add another layer to that. He got signed by the coach in the NFL that knows the most about his medical situation. Like John Harbaugh knew every single beat of when he was going to be healthy, what he was going to look like, and he ended up being the guy that ultimately signed him. And so I think that's even one more layer to it. Let's go with the guy who gave the Ravens some safety flexibility in 2024 to the guy that hopefully will be giving it to them in 2026. We mentioned him in the moment. I really like Jalen Hawkins going to the Ravens for two years and 10 million. I just think that you watch the ways that those safeties played for the Patriots last year.

18:21Robert Mays: That's where he was last year. He spent two years in New England. He was with the Chargers for a year before that and the Falcons for two years before that. and you know I Brandon Staley did a very good job with the Saints last year but those Chargers defenses from 2021 through 2023 there was a lot to be concerned about there the Falcons have not had their defense buttoned up for quite a long while the 2023 Patriots I think there was a lot to be desired about what that team looked like the 2024 Patriots are probably the most stable situation that Jalen Hawkins has played in as a safety in the NFL and he brought a lot of stability to that situation.

18:58Robert Mays: In that scenario with him and Craig Woodson, Craig Woodson was a more capable physical box player when asked. And so Jalen Hawkins did play a lot in the post. He played a lot of free safety, but he is somebody that can walk down, can tackle, can be a blitzer. And so that just kind of, that's really do it all safety, but a flexible enough safety that's best role is identifying routes from depth and kind of being that last line of defense. That is exactly what the Ravens need to play Kyle Hamilton in the way that they want to. And so having Jalen Hawkins step in in that role, you watch him play and like the Patriots didn't play a ton of quarters.

19:35Robert Mays: It was a lot of single high. And he is that post safety a lot of the time. He's not the most explosive, like driving downhill sort of safety, but he identifies routes. Well, he's clearly very smart. He's somebody that when you watch a guy come into his own at age 28, I think there are reasonable questions about why did it take this long and is this real but Derek at safety specifically like a guy really figuring out how to see the game as he gets into his late 20s that's not crazy to me like that's a position where it's so much mentally that you have to be able to identify and pick up on and I really do feel like when you go back and you watch him last year like his ability to be like all right this is the crosser that I'm catching from you know all the way over here like seeing it be before the play even starts I just think that he seemed to have a really good grasp of what his role in the defense was last year.

20:24Robert Mays: And that's exactly what the Ravens are going to ask Jalen Hawkins to be this season.

20:27Dave Helman: Totally. I mean, one, it's a safety does typically take time to like learn mentally. And then I also think that that's true of guys who are not super physically gifted. And I don't think he's like a bad athlete, but again, he's not the most explosive guy when he's got to stop and drive downhill. His range is more fine than it is like good. And so when you are like that, you need to be ahead of things mentally so that you're not losing that time. And I think that that took him a few years to develop as a rotational player and as a backup and seeing different defenses. And now that he's been in three or four different systems and has gotten reps in some of those spots, he's kind of seen enough to be like, hey, OK, I know when to cut off these routes.

21:03Dave Helman: And I do think he takes better angles than he did when he was a young player like he is. He's the perfect player for this kind of defense to where this kind of defense. You've got to be sharp, dude. Like you cannot be misstepping or being in the wrong spot and all that stuff. and you need to be able to play all these certain roles and that not be overwhelming to you mentally. I think Hawkins is great for that in a vacuum. And then I also think, you know, last year, this was a team that they benefited from getting that slight bump up in play when they traded for a Logie Gilman. I think Hawkins is like an even better version and more flexible in coverage, I think, than like Gilman was.

21:37Robert Mays: That's interesting. Only Gilman got$8 million a year this offseason. Jalen Hawkins got five.

21:41Derrik Klassen: And so my point for this was just going to be when you see what Jalen Hawkins got, which is two two years 10 million kevin byard had a great season it makes all the sense in the world why mike rabel would want to reunite with kevin byard but i see that price tag and i'm like new england didn't want to keep them i'm like in a day and age where more and more teams want three capable safeties and you can mix and match these guys and use all sorts of different personnel groupings when i saw the deal he got i was like new england doesn't want to just have more guys on hand to do it to deal with this that doesn't seem like a contract that would prohibit you from

22:15Robert Mays: keeping him ball production maybe i mean kevin byard does take the ball away i mean that is

22:18Dave Helman: the number one thing he's bringing to the table right i think boring smart safeties just don't get paid on the market very much i totally agree like when cam curl got paid initially by the rams he got like three or four million dollars but he was a totally solid nfl starting safety and he's obviously proven that he was outplayed what that initial contract was and i think sometimes these guys especially when they are a little bit older like hawkins that 28 29 it's like teams are just not going to invest a lot but like I do think he is going to be a good player for them especially I

22:47Robert Mays: love what you said where he's it's not a lot of misstepping it's just there are times where he's a little bit late to trigger on stuff just because he is a limited athlete but like in this role specifically not making mistakes is the number one thing that you can do and I do think that again him is like a last line of defense Jalen Hawkins for this Ravens defense I completely understand the vision the price tag that they paid for it I think it's an important role within their defense And I think it'll benefit them from landing a player almost exactly like this. All right, let's take our first quick break here and then come back and chat about a few more of these guys.

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27:01Robert Mays: Derek who's your next sneaky addition from this spring that you are excited to watch next year

27:08Dave Helman: you actually mentioned him offhand uh earlier when we were talking about the Chargers I really like the Sean hand to the Atlanta Falcons I think that that is a very solid signing for them he's a player who he's been on a journey for his career right like he was drafted to Detroit seven or so years ago um and he he was a decent contributor for them but I think just like coaching staff changes and then some injuries and he just kind of fell out of favor for a while finally revives his career again in miami in 2024 he'd actually signed there the year before but then really stepped into a more prominent role in 2024 and then last year 2025 played a lot of snaps for the chargers and he's not an exciting player he gives you almost nothing on like pass rushdowns and even as a run defender he doesn't get into the backfield a lot but he commands space pretty well and you can flex him from he can play a little bit of one tech he can play at that three technique spot.

27:55Dave Helman: You can even push him out to be like a big end, like five technique every now and then. So he gives you a little bit of scheme flexibility in terms of where you want to put guys. And I think he's just a solid, stout run defender. And that's, he's not like a world changer in terms of run defense, but the Falcons just did not have anybody up front who was a good run defender last year, really. Like they were, I know their defense was fun in a lot of ways. And the secondary has got a lot of young pieces and the pass rush was great, but they didn't get into enough of those pass rush scenarios because the run defense was so bad.

28:24Dave Helman: And so if hand can help them a little bit there, I think that that could go a pretty long way for them.

28:29Robert Mays: Yeah, I he came up when I was talking to somebody from there last week, just about the types of signings they were trying to make this offseason, where it's like, we can't throw a lot of money around. We don't want to throw a lot of money around. We need the Deshaun hands of the world who are going to quietly make our team better. And I think that's exactly the sort of player that he is. His career is interesting. Like, you know, he was a huge recruit. He was like a big time five star recruit. I remember I was very randomly at the opening at the Nike campus in Oregon, which is like the huge recruiting event.

28:57Robert Mays: You were at the opening. I was there in 2013 for what I was invited there. Like when I was working at Grantland. And so I just happened to be there for a week. And I remember like Deshaun hand was like the big recruit that was there that week. And he was a five-star. He ended up going to Alabama, but it's just a name that like,

29:15Derrik Klassen: he was part of that run. I mean, he was, I don't know exactly the overlap, but like he was there around the same time that Quinnen Williams was there. I think he was a little bit before Quinnen, uh, Deron Payne, Jonathan Allen. I mean, they were pumping out bad-ass defensive tackles. I mean, they still are, but they just, they had a pipeline there for a minute.

29:35Robert Mays: I mean, it was 2014. I mean, he's, he's done a very good job of sticking in the league and having a role for a really long time. He's getting up there now.

29:42Derrik Klassen: Uh, I'm noticing a trend here that I just think is funny. It's, it, are y 'all's lists entirely defense? It's, I have one offensive player. It's hard to find sneaky offensive additions.

29:56Robert Mays: It's not easy to do. I'll try to find one while you guys are talking. What's your next one?

30:01Derrik Klassen: My next guy is. I'm curious what y 'all are going to say about this, because I'm not I don't want to build this as a team changing addition, but that's the point. Right. And this is a team. We'll see how much noise they end up making. But the Tennessee Titans spent a boatload of money in free agency. They signed a lot of big contracts. Some of them we have questions about. One guy that I think they got really solid value on, two years,$9 million for Jacob Martin, who was with the Washington Commanders last year. Had a career year. I'll be very honest. He's been in the league longer than I gave him credit for.

30:40Robert Mays: Every fan has had Jacob Martin on his team at some point. He's been on. Every single person who roots for an NFL team, and their team has employed Jacob Martin while they've rooted for that team.

30:49Derrik Klassen: Seven different teams over the course of his career, but he has 27 career sacks, which is pretty impressive production for a guy who's bounced around as much as he has. Lands in Washington, career year, five and a half sacks, 45 pressures. The problem is Washington's defense was beat to shit last year. Like Dietrich Wise got hurt, Dorrance Armstrong got hurt. So, I mean, he played 700 plus snaps in a situation where he was never supposed to be that guy. Like Jacob Martin just wasn't supposed to be a down in, down out star on your defense. But I thought he played pretty well. And I went back and watched a lot of his pass rush snaps today just to make sure I wasn't crazy.

31:28Derrik Klassen: And like I said, this isn't a calculus changing signing, but he's got a great motor. He's versatile. Washington played him on both sides. They kicked him inside in certain situations. and I just think adding him to a pass rush where he's a piece of a larger hole, I think could be really good. We talked about, obviously, they have Jeffrey Simmons. They traded for Jermaine Johnson. You add John Franklin Myers. There's just, there's pieces here and Jacob Martin being a small part of that instead of, he turned into basically a load-bearing player over the second half of the season for Washington and that just, that wasn't supposed to happen.

32:08Derrik Klassen: And so putting him back into a more familiar role for him after that season, I think, could pay dividends. And the price is nothing anyway. Like, there's not much downside here for the Titans.

32:20Robert Mays: I'm mostly just frustrated that Jacob Martin played in Chicago in 2024, didn't do very much, and then went to Washington last year and had the best of his career. So it's hard for me to see this with clear eyes.

32:29Derrik Klassen: I mean, how much of that is opportunity, though? Like, he was playing a shitload for Washington.

32:34Robert Mays: Just even on a rate basis, I think he was a more impactful player last year than he had been in Washington.

32:38Derrik Klassen: No, he had some very, very good snaps for Washington, even if you'd prefer he not play as much as he did. I thought he was very impactful.

32:46Dave Helman: I like him in terms of like body type for filling out the room though, right? Because that's a room that has a bunch of guys who are bigger, like Keldrick Falk, JFM. Jermaine Johnson is a little bit of a bigger body. They still have Oladagia. Like Martin being our, I mean, this defense always has like a Bryce Huff or a Bryce Huff-esque player, and this is their version of finding that. That would be him.

33:06Robert Mays: I was going to say, it's like this Tobey Maguire meme with the glasses, like Bryce Huff and Jacob Martin. That's kind of what we're doing here with Jacob Martin and Bryce Huff. So we're very much on the same page there.

33:16Derrik Klassen: Yeah, but Robert Sala got a lot out of Bryce Huff, especially with the Jets, not so much the 49ers, but definitely with the Jets.

33:23Robert Mays: While you guys were talking, a couple offensive players. I know I was a little skeptical of it last year, but I am open to the idea that it could work out and that it was the right move for them. Elijah Wilkinson going to Arizona is one that I would throw out there for three million bucks. Like I, I again express skepticism because I think it's warranted, but I absolutely think that's one that could look very good for the Cardinals by the end of the year. If he's like a workable piece, one that we talked about a little bit yesterday, but 100 % applies here. Keaton Mitchell going to the chargers.

33:53Robert Mays: Oh my God. Keaton Mitchell on the chargers. Absolutely. Warrants mentioned here. Another one that I, this is just one of those where it's, it's just a funny kind of process with players. sometimes where I remember watching Julian Hill two years ago, try to block for the dolphins and be like, this guy's barely playable. And then I watched him last year at tight end. I was like, he's gotten so much better. And so him coming in and now being like the second or third tight end for the Patriots as Austin Hooper, we'll say moves into the next stage of his career. I was shocked to see he still signed again.

34:30Robert Mays: I, I think that is a, Kevin Stefanski nostalgia play is Austin Hooper being on the Atlanta Falcons. But Julian Hill for$5 million going to the Patriots after really taking a big step forward last year with the Dolphins, that's another one I would throw out there. So there's three offensive players for you.

34:48Dave Helman: Hold on. Can I use that as a jumping off point? You sure can. My offensive player I had was Reggie Gilliam, the fullback that they signed for about$5 million a year.

34:57Derrik Klassen: I thought about Reggie Gilliam, but he's like a mascot of this show. Like we talk about Reggie Gilliam all the time.

35:02Robert Mays: Reggie Gilliam is not sneaky in this universe, but in the world, for sure. He but this does go back a little bit to it's not I'm trying to think of what I guess it's a little bit akin to what the Texans were trying to do where they rehauled their offensive line, where it's like last year they did try to be bigger and do more gap runs and do all this stuff.

35:22Dave Helman: And they had this identity this offseason. They go out and actually get the players to do it. So in 2025, the Patriots did want to use a fullback. They had Jack Westover, who was a tight end convert that they brought in to kind of play their fullback role. But he's a little bit like stubbier. He's pretty sought off. He's just not a guy who has like a ton of pop to him, even if he's a pretty good athlete. So now you sign Reggie Gilliam to go do all that stuff. Reggie Gilliam is much longer levered, like he's got 34 inch arms. He's a little bit stronger, but he's just as good of an athlete as Jack Westover.

35:52Dave Helman: And he's obviously he's been doing this for a handful of teams, played about 20, 21, I think, percent of the snaps for the Bills last year. And so he's a guy who has a lot of experience being this like lead blocker, a little bit of part of the passing game sometimes as a fullback every now and then you can put them on the line of scrimmage. And I think the Patriots very obviously want to be that kind of under center offense when they can. And so bringing in, like going from a C minus fullback or whatever, the way that they had with Jack Westover to a guy who is like B plus A minus for what we've got in the league right now.

36:23Dave Helman: I think that's, it's like, Like, I think it's easy to look at like, oh, Romeo Dubs. And if, you know, Elijah Vera Tucker stays healthy, the offense is going to really be big. But like if Gilliam is the upgrade, they want it fullback in the run game. Like this run game was bad last year. And so if he can be a help to that, like I do think that this could be a pretty quiet and cool signing for them.

36:43Robert Mays: Last year, so because you mentioned him being able to play in the line of scrimmage. There were times where he was there as often as he was in the backfield. In 2024, the snaps are pretty much evenly split. But last year is the first time where it was dramatically different. He was 167 backfield snaps last year, 45 in line. I'm wondering, like, when you consider his entire time in Buffalo, other than maybe, like, Ricard, who is a very different sort of body type, how often is there a fullback who is lining up in line as often as Reggie Gilliam was over the last couple years? Because Juszczyk's not really in line.

37:19Robert Mays: He's always offset. He's always doing, like, a bunch of other weird shit. And so even like the flexibility he's providing with the different places you can line him up even seems unique for the position.

37:29Dave Helman: A hundred percent. And I think I feel like maybe Juice Tech did it more in like the Garoppolo era. It felt like. And now that they move to a little bit more spread, I feel like he's really not done a whole lot of that anymore.

37:41Robert Mays: But like he's off the line of scrimmage consistently, even when he's against the formation and with Gilliam is just like he just played tight end a decent amount.

37:48Dave Helman: And I think that was probably to bring up another mascot of the show. Now that the Bills have Jackson Hawes, they don't need to put Gilliam on the line of scrimmage to be that third tight end or whatever. They could just have, you know, in 2024, it was like, man, if we want a third guy out there or if, you know, Knox was banged up or whatever it was and they wanted a second guy out there, it had to be Gilliam. And then last year, it just didn't have to be him because, you know, Hawes was giving them good snaps as that guy.

38:12Robert Mays: when you go so if you go to like the any free agent page and you look at the salaries handed out this spring the fullbacks are all consecutive in a row ricard alec engold and reggie gilliam all got like the exact same amount per year there's something very beautiful about it when you look at that little section of the free agent offensive i was just when you were asking about fullbacks

38:31Derrik Klassen: playing in line i could get to about five and then i start really having to rack my brain anyway you just don't have to there aren't that many to choose from that's true across three of them

38:41Robert Mays: Three of the more high-profile ones did change teams this offseason. So that's absolutely something worth keeping tabs on. My next one here, we talked about him a little bit in the moment, but the more I've thought about it and just some of the details around it, I do think that it has a chance to mean a lot. And especially considering them not adding a player at this position in the draft, it's James Pierre in Minnesota. The Vikings just didn't do much at corner this offseason after signing James Pierre to a two-year$8 million contract. You know, we thought, would they draft a corner in the first round when they do it in the first two rounds?

39:13Robert Mays: That just didn't happen. And so right now, you're looking at the Vikings depth chart at cornerback, and James Pierre's on the first line. It's him, Isaiah Rogers, and Byron Murphy. And I just thought that James Pierre last year, especially in the second half of the season, which is when he kind of stepped into a starting role, I really liked watching him play. like him on the outside and Brandon Eccles in the nickel. I just enjoyed watching that version of the Steelers secondary more than I ever would have guessed.

39:39Derrik Klassen: There was like a two week stretch in November where Pierre got onto the field. Eccles was in the nickel. Ramsey moved back to safety. And I just had a lot of fun watching it. It was, it was great.

39:49Robert Mays: And I think one of the reasons for this is that how many times Derek over the last couple of years has there been expressed frustration at the lack of layering to the Steelers offensive or defensive approach?

40:01Dave Helman: where it's just probably been most of the times we're talking about them i just like just give me

40:05Robert Mays: like one more layer of confusion in terms of what you're doing and i think in the back half of last year you know there are outlier games where they're doing wonky shit like the when they played against the the bangles and i assume that is playing with some of these numbers but in the back half of last season from week 10 on which is exactly when james pierre started playing in a high clip the steelers are playing cover to about 20 of the time which was the fifth highest rate in the league and a notable jump from what they had done in any previous season. They don't, they're not near the bottom of the league.

40:34Robert Mays: Last year overall, I think they were like 15-ish percent. It was the back half of the top 10. If you go to 2024, 2023, it's sitting around that 15%, like just in the top half of the league. But that 20 % for Pittsburgh from week 10 on last year was the fifth highest rate in the NFL. Well, he's going to Minnesota where they're doing it 26, 27%. And if you go back and anecdotally just think about the best moments from James Pierre's second half of last season, it's a lot of it where he's playing that cover two corner in the flat, sinking underneath shit, making stuff happen. They're having him do it like play inverted cover two where he's bailing into the deep half.

41:12Robert Mays: Like he was very adept at doing that stuff. And now he's going to a place where they're going to be asking their corners to do more of that than almost any other team in the league. So beyond the cool story, 28-year-old corner playing the best football of his career, getting rewarded, I actually think there's a lot of schematic overlap, Derek, that would lead you to believe that some of the flashes we saw from James Pierre in Pittsburgh last year are things that can carry over for him in Minnesota next season.

41:39Dave Helman: It's funny you said you left Tonga off your list because you knew I'd have him. I left Pierre off my list because I knew that you would have him on here for these exact reasons, though. It's the perfect thing, right, where I think for a lot of teams, if Pierre had signed for them, I wouldn't have thought that it was a bad signing, but I would have just been like, I don't know how much that is going to do for them beyond depth. But like you mentioned, in a spot like Minnesota where so much of it is based on, we're asking our corners to play in the flat. We're asking them to play the quarterback's eyes.

42:07Dave Helman: we're not playing a lot of man coverage and we're playing with all these like five and six man crazy pressures where guys are not having to buy a lot of time and they can play top down like that's how that's the type of defense you want Pierre to be playing in like if he went to somewhere where they're playing man coverage 23 percent of the time I don't know if that's what I would I would want to do but a place like this where I think you can utilize his skill set more likely than not I would bet that a guy like Brian Flores is going to get bang for his buck here with a signing like

42:33Derrik Klassen: that fair or not they also just did it like they gave Isaiah Rogers a very similar deal yes and I don't think they regret it Isaiah Rogers was I thought he was perfectly fine last year and he

42:43Robert Mays: was another guy that there were stretches whether it was even in Pittsburgh or even in Indianapolis but especially in Philly I was just like that there's something to this guy and so Brian Flores over the last couple years I think has done a good job of all right you're gonna send me to the clearance rack and make me pick my corners I'm gonna find one that is worth the money and he's hopefully for Vikings fans done it two years in a row. All right, let's take one more quick break here and then come back and chat about a few more sneaky additions.

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44:50Derrik Klassen: our darius washington but another undersized safety that's changing teams would be christian Izian, who Derek brought up earlier, out of Tampa. And it's really, it's not so much a bet on upside because Christian Izian got demoted last year. Like he only played 150 snaps of defense because the Bucs drafted so many DBs last year. Jacob Parrish and Benjamin Morrison played a ton and there just wasn't as much playing time for him. I just feel like the opportunity is there in Detroit. I mean, both of your starting safeties are dealing with issues. I know Brad Holmes gave a positive update about Kirby Joseph and Brian Branch after the draft but Brian Branch in particular tore his Achilles late in the year I mean December yeah like you have to you have to bake some recovery time into that even if he is on a good uh recovery timeline and so I just think Christian Izzy and as well as some other guys like Avante Maddox is still in Detroit but guys are going to have opportunities at snaps if I had to guess with both of your main two guys dealing with injury and is he and did play a lot in tampa i mean he played 45 total games i thought he had a a pretty good 2024 like i said he got demoted this past year but plenty of snaps of him being versatile he is he's not always a consistent tackler but he just he is a hard tackler like he will make contact he's not afraid to to put his face into the mix and and put put guys in the dirt when he when he does tackle well not so much a guy that I think you want playing away from like playing deep in coverage like playing free safety the way that I think our Darius Washington can do that I don't know if you want Christian Izzy in doing that but there's more than enough opportunity for him he can play in the slot you can move him down in the box and the opportunity is going to be there for guys to to play in this defense while these while the while Joseph and branch for cover and i think he he's just an obvious candidate of a guy who's going to have

46:48Dave Helman: a shot at that i think for a guy where you just or not for a guy for a team where again you don't know who's going to be healthy when and that that's true going into this year but for the past three years that has been true the detroit line secondary you don't know who is going to be healthy when and so to get a guy who literally can just like band-aid any spot i'd like it's it's i think

47:07Robert Mays: that's a huge thing for them is the lions defense like when we look at teams that have real super Bowl aspirations. And I was looking at the Super Bowl odds today as we kind of parse out the last two buying or selling offseason shows and try to figure out which team belongs where. I think the Lions are like 17 to 1 to win the Super Bowl right now. Like they are, those are very good odds, like league-wide. Is the Lions defense the single biggest enigma when it comes to the units on teams that have those sorts of goals in 2026? Like we look at what's happening there now. You have two of your most prominent players in safety.

47:41Robert Mays: We don't know when they're going to be back. You drafted a guy in the second round in Derek Moore that very likely is going to have to be a big part of your rotation at your other edge spot. I just, there are so many questions about what reasonable expectations for them should be, what they're going to look like that. I just don't know if we have that volume of questions about a lot of the other units on teams with these sorts of goals this year. Is that fair?

48:05Dave Helman: I think so. Like they've lost more talent either by injury or by letting guys go in free agency, like obviously Anzalone left in free agency this year, but they've lost more talent than I think that they added this offseason. And they were already a defense that was like, had their moments, but I think was already an imperfect unit. And so if they're going to lose some of that talent, we don't know what Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph's recovery time is or how good they're going to be when they come back. I think that that's a huge thing. And I think Branch especially where, I think for as long as Joseph and Branch you're out of the lineup right now how many pro bowl plus level players does this defense have like aiden hutchinson jack campbell aleem mcneil at his best but even then i think health wise has

48:49Derrik Klassen: been a little bit shakier recently yeah absolutely an end of list yeah that's it dj reed dj reed at

48:56Robert Mays: his best probably like bumping up against that but it's it's a fair set of questions like it i the lions are just an interesting team because my my knee-jerk thought with them is they got so unlucky last year with injuries like they are by the end of last season they were still a very good team and so on offense specifically i think it's very easy to look at detroit and just be like bounce back here they'll be one of the best offenses in the league you know their their highs last year were still very high like you look at points scored a lot of just like traditional metrics they were still up near the top of the league and a lot of stuff it was just way more of a week-to-week vacillation than it had been years and years past and so my thought is you know you shore up a couple of those spots, you go draft a tackle in the first round, you kind of get better offensive line play overall.

49:41Robert Mays: Are we going to be a spot where this again is one of the most dangerous offenses in the league. That's easy for me to imagine. And I think that's why overall I'm pretty bullish on like what this year's version of the lions is going to look like, but then you turn the page to the defense and it's kind of like, I don't know. Like I just don't know. And I think it makes them a hard team to kind of wrap your arms around. It's May 12th. We don't have to have every single one of those answers, but I just don't think I've really thought about them in those terms over the last couple of months.

50:10Derrik Klassen: I think I joked about this on a mailbag, but put your fandom aside, confidently back an NFC North team as definitively better than the other three. Like what tell, like make the case for me.

50:22Robert Mays: I know you say that you understand that in reality, putting my fandom aside means looking at the bears in a more positive light. Ah, interesting. I know I joke with you guys,

50:33Dave Helman: but like, what's funny about the nfc north is i think outside of minnesota who's kind of a weird team the other three teams the packers the lions and the bears you could totally sell me on the world where they all three have top 10 offenses and like bottom seven defenses and i don't know what

50:51Robert Mays: to do with all of that the initial ftn dvoa rankings came out this week and shots has the bears is the worst defense in the league i don't think that's really out of the out of the rebel

51:01Dave Helman: possibilities. That feels harsh. That feels harsh. It's gotta be somebody.

51:06Derrik Klassen: There is not a team in the division where there's just not some alarming problem that makes you hesitant to support one of these teams.

51:17Robert Mays: But at the same time, all of them could make the playoffs. Of course. All of them could win the division.

51:21Derrik Klassen: And I would throw Minnesota in there, honestly. Like, if Kyler is better than people give him credit for, that's all it would take for Minnesota to be in that conversation.

51:29Robert Mays: The whole thing is going to be a f***ing horn.

51:31Derrik Klassen: It's a mess. I'm really not looking forward to it.

51:33Robert Mays: All right. What's your next one here, Derek?

51:35Dave Helman: Yeah. So this is a player who was weirdly pushed. Not weirdly, but like pushed out of the lineup pretty hard last year because this team drafted a bunch of first round players. Arnold Ebiketti from the Falcons, I think between some of the coaching changes and like him being a very specific pass, like smaller pass rush only player, I think kind of got pushed out of his spot. He's also a guy who is typically more like hand in the dirt. he got pushed out of the Atlanta rotation a little bit last year. But I still think that he's a guy that purely on a pass rush role, like, you know, guys that we've mentioned, like the Bryce Huff, just pure third down role.

52:11Dave Helman: I actually think that he can be pretty useful as a player like that. And I think specifically for Philly, this is a team where I think while the defense was obviously good last year and Jalen Phillips gave them a lot off the edge last year, I think they went into this offseason being like, we just need more juice off the edge. and like Phillips is a good player, but he's a little bit more of a run defender and pocket pusher. So they trade for Jonathan Grenard. That's obviously the big move that they make at this position. And he's going to be more of your true like ace pass rusher off the edge.

52:41Dave Helman: But I think Ebiketti can be a good, like when we get into our second rotation of guys, or if we get into these NASCAR packages where we've got three and four pass rushers on the field and he's going to be one of our extra guys. I actually do think that he can be a guy who gives you a little bit more juice in ways that maybe they didn't always have last year. And so this to me just feels like for a team that now I feel really, really good about the entire cornerback room, a team that is going to be able to hold up in the secondary, just giving a guy like Ebiketti and now and obviously paired with Jonathan, Jonathan Gernard a half a second more to just be able to get home.

53:15Dave Helman: I actually do think that that could really turn up the juice on third down for this team.

53:19Robert Mays: And what's nice is that that edge room last year, they really did. I mean, especially after Nolan Smith got hurt, they had to piece together those positions where it's like we're cobbling together like one full player between Josh Uches, Darius Smith, Aziz Ojolari, like all of those guys. Now, by trading for Gernard, you move those players back into the role they're supposed to play where you're no longer cobbling them together as your second edge rusher. They can just be complimentary players. Like Josh Uche had 23 pressures last year in nine games. Like we probably would have noticed that more or thought about that more if he was less central to the defense for large stretches of last season.

54:00Robert Mays: And that's kind of what Ebiketti will be this year. It's like, oh, if he gets 23 pressures over nine games, it's like their fourth pass rusher. Like that's pretty good. That's the type of role he should be playing for four million bucks.

54:10Derrik Klassen: And I really appreciate bringing him up because the Grenard news pushed that completely out of the spotlight. Like I hadn't thought about Ebiketti since March, probably.

54:20Robert Mays: My next one here, I mentioned earlier, I have a couple coaches that I wanted to throw out that I just think are fun curiosities. The one that I'm like really interested in, and it's in part because I think this team over the last few years, it's been easy to identify, at least last year, it was easy to identify why this didn't happen. But I think the Vikings have really wanted to be a team that runs the ball well, efficiently, on their own terms. It's part of their identity. And I think it's been a consistent pursuit during the Kevin O 'Connell era that they'd never really figured out. And I think in part last year, just because the offensive line was never healthy and never came together in the way that they had hoped.

55:01Robert Mays: But this offseason, the Vikings hired Frank Smith as their assistant head coach. and I am very curious to see what bringing in Frank Smith, who for those who don't know, he was the offensive coordinator for the Dolphins for the last few years with Mike McDaniel. And my understanding is that he is going to be a part of their run game plan in a way where they really didn't have that kind of additional voice over the last couple of years. Like it was just a more traditional pot of people who would plan the run game in Minnesota. And I'm just curious what that looks like. Like, I just wonder what sort of influence that kind of Miami-based run game might have and what the Vikings are going to try to do.

55:40Robert Mays: And so that's one where I wonder if there's like a sneaky impact in the way that the Vikings run game operates because Frank Smith is now there in kind of like an adversarial role.

55:51Dave Helman: I like that because I can't remember that many times being like creatively impressed necessarily by the Vikings run game, really at any point over the last handful of years since O 'Connell has been there. And so I was pretty high on what they were doing, reshaping the offensive line last year. And obviously part of that is gone now that Ryan Kelly has decided to retire. But bringing in a guy who has been around Mike McDaniel, who I don't know if he's the best run game coordinator, but he's probably the weirdest. And I do think that this is an offense that needs a little bit of that.

56:23Robert Mays: I'm sure some Vikings fan would correct me if I'm wrong. But over the last couple of years, I don't think they've had a run game coordinator on offense. I think it's just been the offensive line coach that I assume that's kind of overseeing like what the run game looks like. There are some teams that just don't have that role. Like there are some teams that don't have a passing game coordinator role. Like every staff is built a little bit differently. And I don't think the Vikings have had a run game coordinator over the last couple of years. So this year, Keith Carter is their offensive line coach.

56:53Robert Mays: He's bounced around. He was in Tennessee for a bit. He was with the Jets. I don't remember exactly where he was last year. But he's now there because Chris Cooper, who was their offensive line coach in Minnesota for the last couple of years, is now in Philly. Because Sean Mannion was either on the Vikings or on the Vikings staff at some point over the last couple of years. And I assume work with Chris Cooper when he was there. And so I think overall, just the run game brain trust for the Vikings this year is going to look different. And I'm just wondering what sort of impact overall that has.

57:25Derrik Klassen: I just love looking at a coach's resume to see all the different threads. That's what I've been doing while you've been talking. And so Frank Smith worked with Mike McDaniel the last four years. Going way back, he worked for the Saints from 2010 to 2014, which means he worked under Aaron Cromer. So I'm listening. I'm intrigued by that. That was, I assume he was working. Joe Embardi was on those staffs too. Yeah. He was the assistant offensive line coach, and that's another through line. He was with the Chargers in 2021. so all of this makes a lot of sense.

57:56Robert Mays: Sean Mannion was not coaching for the Vikings because he was playing for the Vikings in 2023. So he was on the team when Chris Cooper was the offensive line coach. He was not on the coaching staff. And the other one that I was reminded of this today in talking to somebody with the team, Eric Studsville, who was the running backs coach for the Dolphins over the last couple of years, he's now the running backs coach for the Bears. And so that like Dolphins run game stuff, I think kind of German, like germinating is not that i'm not a biologist the dolphins run game stuff kind of drifting around the league and like those pods blowing to different places i'm curious what sort of impact that's going to have outside of the fact that the chargers are going to look a lot like

58:38Dave Helman: that yeah ben johnson already has enough creativity he almost needs someone to like

58:43Robert Mays: chill him out every now that was legitimately my response today when someone brought that up i was like i don't know if this is a good thing it's like it's like letting a drug addict like into a pharmacy like this seems like a terrible idea and that just brings us back to xavion thomas

58:56Derrik Klassen: and what the bears might do with it uh you guys have a couple more uh yeah i got at least one more uh and it just happened so you could say it's not sneaky because it just happened but i feel like post-draft signings tend to fly under the radar and when we get to training camp a lot of people are going to forget this happened i was disappointed the seahawks didn't really try to add to their edge room in the draft getting Dante Fowler for$6 million makes me feel a lot better about that there was a lot of smoke about that yeah even before the draft because they waited until after they waited until the comp pick thing ended so you sign him after the draft you don't have to worry about comp picks but and this is the guy I mentioned I mean Dallas's defense was abysmal last year I don't necessarily think that's a reflection of Dante Fowler I went back and watched him and I was like yeah he's still got bend he's still got a motor he can still he he's He pursues really well.

59:48Derrik Klassen: He's still an incredibly fast player. 30 pressures, three sacks on 358 snaps last year. And that was on an awful defense where you lose Micah Parsons right before the season. You don't have a lot of help in that edge room. He's going to a situation where he has all the help he could possibly ask for. If he's a piece of a rotation and a passing down guy, I think that's great. And he's played with Adam Dirty, the defensive coordinator in Seattle. Demarcus Lawrence apparently pitched him on coming when he was deciding if he wanted to go there. So fills the Boye-Mafé role, the absence of Boye-Mafé really nicely, and you're only spending$5 or$6 million on it.

1:00:27Derrik Klassen: In the moment, right after the draft happened,

1:00:30Robert Mays: when I was working through my softening on the Jadarian price thing, part of the thought process was when you looked at the available free agents at running back and on the edge, it was easier to find edge depth at that point in the calendar than it was to find explosiveness at running back. And so when you looked at just, all right, these are all, these are our alternatives at the position. I actually do think it makes it a little bit more justifiable to go the route that they went, because there is a Dante Fowler waiting out there in a way there isn't a running back who can rip off a 40-yard game.

1:01:02Derrik Klassen: I think it's an important thing to, you have to take off your draft goggles and you spend enough months getting ready for the draft and watching these guys. You get excited about options. And I mean, we saw all the edge rushers that flew off the board between picks 33 and 55, whatever it was, there were so many of them. And you fixate on what those guys could be. And if you take a step back and take off your draft goggles, you're like, all right, the opportunity cost here is fine. Like you can you can fill this void in your defense very well without spending a lot of money to do it. And, you know, even even if you think Darian Price was overdrafted, I think you're right.

1:01:40Derrik Klassen: the lack of that skill set is obvious when you look around the landscape. So I think it more than evens out. And for what the Seahawks lost in free agency, I feel pretty darn good about the work they've done to this point.

1:01:52Robert Mays: I also think it's about timelines. And it's about, like, what are your near-term goals? And if you're Seattle and you think you can win the Super Bowl again, there's a very real argument that Dante Fowler is going to be a better player for you in 2026 than whatever edge rusher you were going to take with a 60-second pick. That's a great point, too.

1:02:07Dave Helman: That probably is true. Even if I would have probably rather have them take an edge player, like more likely than not, especially as a pass rusher, maybe not as a run game guy compared to some of these rookies. But like Fowler probably does give you more than almost any of the edges they could have drafted.

1:02:22Robert Mays: You have another one, Derek? One more sneaky addition that you wanted to hit?

1:02:25Dave Helman: The only other small one I'll throw out really quickly was the Jaguars did not have a lot of money to spend this year, but I did like them signing Chris Rodriguez at running back. They gave him like two years. I think it's up to$12 million, but that's probably very incentive based and stuff like that. But this was an offense where obviously the run blocking was not perfect last year. But I also think for as good as Travis Achan is explosive wise, he can still be a little bit hit or miss in terms of like getting to the right spots, being able to run through contact, being an efficient runner. Rodriguez is the opposite of that, where he's not really explosive, but he will get to the hole.

1:03:01Dave Helman: He will finish plays and get five yards when there's four, just that sort of thing. And I think that this was an offense where I think we all got very excited about the flashes and some of the high end stuff and some of the explosive play design. But I think this is an offense that needed a little bit more meat and potatoes and a little bit more of a floor. And Rodriguez does give that to them as like a probably splitting the backfield with Tootin, I would imagine.

1:03:24Robert Mays: You are just ruining the hopes and dreams of every person in the fantasy football community that wants to see Basial Tootin get 20 carries a game next year. He's listening.

1:03:31Dave Helman: I'm sure he'll get a lot of run, that many carries for a guy his size. I don't know.

1:03:37Robert Mays: It all comes back to sizeism. That's what it all comes back to at the end of the day. That was my list. I had a couple other smaller ones, but I think we hit a good chunk of those guys. You remember anybody else? I think I'm I'm debating whether I think does it count as sneaky and a and also what does it mean

1:03:55Derrik Klassen: because I think you could make the argument Christian Kirk is washed but I tend to trust a guy that lands in a place like San Francisco like again fair or unfair much like Brian Flores with corners if Kyle Shanahan thinks it's worth it I feel better about it and so Christian Kirk hasn't produced at a high level recently but I think that's an advantageous landing spot they didn't give him a lot of money either and i feel like when we talk about the niners kirk doesn't come up as obviously he's not going to come up as often as mike evans but uh you know i'm i guess i'd say i'm hopeful that he's he's got one more one more good ride left at him i guess we didn't

1:04:33Robert Mays: mention them yesterday but we easily could have talked about the niners wide receivers in the remade position groups thing i mean last year uh juan jennings and kendrick born were their two top snap getters at receiver they had like 1600 snaps between them neither of those guys is on the team anymore. And so now it's Stripling, Evans, Kirk, and then the greatest receiver in the NFL, Ricky Pearsall. We're going to see a very different sort of makeup. You say that tongue-in-cheek,

1:04:56Derrik Klassen: but if he could stay healthy, I want to believe. You'd be so sick.

1:05:00Robert Mays: Every time I say it, I'm like only like sort of kidding. 40 % kidding. I've made the joke before. It's like it's the 30-rock line where Tracy goes, vampires are the greatest golfers of all time, but they never get to prove it. That's how I feel about Ricky Pearsall. Like he's the greatest player in the NFL, but we'll never get to show that he is.

1:05:18Derrik Klassen: Yeah, that's we're we're banking on older guys keeping it together. And obviously you want Pierce all to stay healthy. But I'm I'm intrigued by this Niners receivers.

1:05:29Robert Mays: Just the hamstrings in that building are just going to be in pieces by the time we get to like. So cobble together two healthy ones and they'll be OK.

1:05:36Dave Helman: I do. I will say quickly, though, I love that Dave says you have to trust Shanahan here, because I think especially coming out of draft season, we always make the jokes of like you can't trust Shanahan with like when he drafts a running back but with receivers he's been nails basically every single time like vets drafting guys whatever like the hit rate is it's pretty absurd so i actually do kind of trust

1:05:54Derrik Klassen: that he could get something left out of you is that you weighing in on the stripling pick the most controversial thing in nfl twitter right now i it's one of those things where it probably is a

1:06:04Dave Helman: reach but like i kind of trust shanahan with the receivers man like he's it like pierce all felt like a reach in the moment and he ended up being pretty good like he's just i think he has a very clear vision for these guys in a way that for whatever reason he does not with his running

1:06:18Robert Mays: backs i will say there are limits to this uh jordan walkins and jacob cowing have not been uh overwhelming contributors there and then the guy cowings a fourth round pick that's fourth round sure there's a limit to this the guy who was drafted higher than that that has now worked out a receiver i think there's a reason for this jalen hurd was like half running back yeah and so So a little bit of the running back stink is getting on Jalen Hurd in a way it doesn't with the receivers.

1:06:45Dave Helman: That's exactly right. Like it has to be full receiver or it just doesn't count.

1:06:51Robert Mays: On that note. All right. What about Danny Gray was picked outside of the top 100? We're now making arbitrary things. Right. All right. That is all we've got for today. We will be back tomorrow. I think Biden's selling some off seasons. Right, Katie? Isn't that what we're doing tomorrow? So we got two more of those. Very much looking forward to that for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating.

1:07:21Robert Mays: We'll see you next time.

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