Waddle It Be? Who Won Free Agency

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0:33Welcome back to the Minicam show featuring Lenny, the only NFL podcast where the host thinks Denzil Boston is a terrier. That's Lenny. I used to live next door. Not for me. I didn't live next door. My grandparents in Seattle live next door to a guy who's a Boston terrier whose nickname was Boz after Brian Bosworth. Wow. As in Boston terrier. I think about that every time I see a Boston Terrier. That wow was Kevin Clark, host of This is Football, friend of the show, here to join me to discuss the winners of NFL Free Agency, which is kind of at an end, just when we thought it was over. The Broncos and the Dolphins stunned us with a trade.

1:17There could still be some moves in the offing, but Kevin, in the time between my last podcast and this one a million things happened that i haven't gotten to including actually the undoing of the crosby trade that happened literally after right after i know it feels like a million years ago infrequently are you potting oh we needed to last week it was just insane non-stop news uh kyler murray becoming a viking uh so we're going to talk about those things uh we each have picked some winners and and then in the second half of the pot we're going to talk about pot teams that still have some glaring outstanding needs uh the broncos don't need a receiver now though if that was something people thought because after broncos fans probably were the most miserable of any fan base in free agency i feel like the first week in terms of like waiting for something to happen and being like we're a good team we were in the championship we have a quarterback on a rookie deal why are we sitting on our hands and not doing anything so i i they i feel like this has been a victorious day for them a little trolley by sean payton to let everybody think he was sitting on the sidelines and then to pull off one of the best moves of of the spring um that's what sean does trolley never i wouldn't oh the winner by the way is bo nicks so that that i'm oh yeah first here oh yeah clearly the biggest winner in this deal so that's our agency winner is bo i whenever i say bo i always feel like it's short for something like bo bo bo bo word nicks i want to say his full name like his government name anyways bo nicks is our first i do want to quickly nominate chargers fans for uh for agent angst because they had so much money and i think they thought there was going to be something that's a good point there's going to be something there um just bow just bow just bow next um okay so this move i love it and i kind of love it for both sides the headline obviously some pick swaps but you get the 30th pick if you're the dolphins They're trying to take their salary cap medicine, rip the bandaid off.

3:17Yet they sign Malik Willis. I don't, I'm a little bit baffled by that. And I was baffled by it last week and I continue to be. We'll get to that. Yeah. The point is to get Arch Manning and not win six games. And all right. But whether or not Malik Willis can win six games is a different conversation. All right. So this move for the Broncos. Yes. waddle is at worst the third best vertical route receiver in football um jsn is worlds above him worlds above anybody as far as stretching the field if you just look at the stats he gets 300 more vertical route yards um thin jaylen waddle is a solid number two and that stretches the defense it puts it creates space for everybody it just seems like a really logical move and in a year where Patrick Mahomes is coming off a torn ACL, where their roster still looks incomplete, where even before the ACL, the Broncos are going to win the division.

4:17And I just think that this is the right move. This is the right year to make a move like this. I completely agree. I think it's why a lot of teams have kind of pushed their chips in, right? Like if there's a theme of this free agency, it's that the contenders all traded away valuable draft picks one of them undid it. We'll get to Baltimore. But a lot of teams, the Rams trading their picks to get Trent McDuffie, the Bills trading a second, which is a lot for DJ Moore, is another example of a team that I think rightly viewed themselves as being a contender. And now you've got Denver, a team that frankly, you know, a lot of folks that should have been in the Super Bowl, right and they but they lost their quarterback to injury um yeah so like i i think that's the first point i want to make is just i love that they're all in here because it was a pretty obvious area of need for them uh it's a lot to give up for a while so so the miami dolphins get you talked about the first rounder this year but they also get a third and a fourth in this draft that's a big haul i think in total that probably pushes it value up from like 30 to probably somewhere in the low 20s depending on which draft chart you choose um and they got a fourth back uh as well as denver uh waddle but um this year he was 11th in yards per route run and obviously uh diary kill going down increased his usage over the last four years um when he faces and i want to make this point because the so denver's offense much better versus man than zone there's a bo nicks third in qbr versus man 21st versus zone this year some of that has to do with nicks himself some of that has to do with the nature of the offense um but i did feel like you know sutton is at his best just one-on-ones outside the numbers deep balls slants perhaps but i did feel like they needed a different type of receiver versus own coverage and over the last four years Jalen Waddell is fifth league wide in receiving yards versus zone coverage.

6:25He's averaged 10.2 yards per target against zone, which is tied for six in the NFL. Again, some of that has to do with Miami and the kind of coverages they face. But I really do feel he has an excellent spatial feel that is going to be really advantageous in this Denver Broncos offense. I think he fits in really well with their existing receivers. Sutton as like your true ex. He can play inside outside. he gives you yards after the catch we know Knicks this offense does have a lot of you talked about him stretching the field absolutely but this offense with Knicks has a very large short throw component and I think Waddle gives you some juice in that respect too so anyways all told I really like the way he fits in with this group I really like the fact that they're all in and as we've seen again time and time again there's like disconnects okay this team these two teams are in such dramatically different phases so you do a trade like this that does make sense for both sides and good on miami for holding firm they could have sold low and chris greer was fielding calls last year it was you know i'm sure it was second round but that was the whole thing with buffalo by the way buffalo is this an l for buffalo they couldn't seal the deal during the season last year they trade for dj more there have been a couple uh and maybe they didn't want to deal in the division although that that has become a little outdated.

7:46I mean, they just dealt with in the division for make Fitzpatrick like a minute ago. So I don't know how they viewed that. Maybe Waddle is a better player than make Fitzpatrick. Or do the Dolphins even care about the next two to three years and what looks like that, what the makeup of the division is. I don't, I don't know as the market for receivers evolves. I'm still pretty disappointed in how much they gave and then guaranteed in 2028 for DJ more. Yeah. Right. when you see a player like this change hands because Waddle is a better player. I'd say, yeah, Buffalo, that's an interesting one. The other, I guess, losers here, anyone who thinks they're trading for A.J.

8:26Brown. Yeah. Right, like, we'll see. Of course, that was always going to be later with the contract, but the price ain't going down, and that would be concerning. And then Malik Willis. I think the Miami side of this, that's what's complicating this for me a little bit because I do think this is a good deal for Miami. I do think they got good value. I do think it's important for them to be self-aware that they're not a good football team and that the goal right now is to amass draft picks. Pardon me. They have like a zillion dollars in dead money this year, right? But I don't understand where Willis factors into.

9:00I share confusion, especially from Willis' perspective. From Miami's perspective, it's like, okay, right. He's making essentially a little bit more than Justin Fields. Okay, right. You can talk yourselves into, hey, he's a good bridge quarterback. But for Willis' perspective, he was a true free agent. This was his opportunity, I would say, not to get a big payday, but to prove that he can be a full-time starter. Set him up for it because he's still incredibly young. And this is now the worst situation in football, right? Is that overstating it? I mean, right now your three receivers are Tutu Atwell, Malik Washington, and Jalen Tolbert.

9:37Like that is, I mean, I've seen some people say, well, you know, Miami can evaluate. No, you can't. You're not going to be able to, unless, yeah, they can use that, their first draft pick on a receiver. But like, are you really going to get a sense of what Malik Willis is capable of with these receivers around him? I don't think so. I'm 100 % in agreement with you. And the numbers have shown, so the guys who've gotten this kind of money for that level of experience, you're looking at Kevin Cobb, Brock Osweiler, Jimmy Garoppolo. Of those, the ones who had success was one guy. It was Jimmy Garoppolo.

10:12Why? Because he went to the best situation. Because he went to Kyle Shanahan. And if he had gone to whatever the 2017 version of the Dolphins is, he would not have had success. We have a track record there. And I'm interested in, like Kevin O 'Connell calls it the quarterback journey, but career management for a quarterback. This, if Malik Willis knew this was the plan, I would maybe have taken a couple million dollars less and gone to a better situation. Yes, 100%. Okay, so you got, what was it, like, low 20s to go to Miami. I would have taken less to go to the Jets. How crazy of a sentence is that?

10:47Yeah, dude, Garrett Wilson, these offensive line. Yes, yes, yes. No, I was thinking. I wasn't doubting. I was thinking. I would have taken less to go to the Cardinals. I would have really tried to force my way into the Steelers, which I always felt was a great landing spot for him. Like, this sucks. I am dying so like a big part of the reason why he went to Miami was the connection to the Green Bay guys right Halfley and the GM from Green Bay I really if he knew that this was their intention then I don't think he got good advice that's just my take on it and I'd love to be wrong I'm a Willis fan I loved watching him develop and thrive in Green Bay but this is not good I have a question.

11:34I know it'd be a nice problem to have. What if he's awesome? And then the dolphins like, Oh crap, we have to get good again. We have to speed up the timeline. I mean, you know, what's funny is like the Texans a little bit, and this is a different deal, but like the Texans, if you remember, they were doing this kind of slow and then the timeline accelerated because CJ Stroud and Will Anderson were freaking awesome. Yeah. And I think that's a little bit part of why they've always had holes in a roster is because the rebuild wasn't done when they got really good. And so then they had to start acting like a good team instead of a rebuilding team.

12:07And so when you have a timeline that doesn't match up and you have dueling incentives, you mentioned like the receiver thing, or are you trying to just build the 53 best players so that in three years you can compete for the title? Or are you trying to support and scout Malik Willis? That's my concern. When there's dueling incentives, mistakes are made. The other thing I don't understand about Miami is some of the, part of the reason why sometimes you bring in like a bridge quarterback instead of going full tank like it appears Cleveland and Arizona are doing is to keep guys on the roster happy if you have veterans or to allow you to evaluate like young receivers.

12:45I think sometimes when you're tanking, you have to recognize, okay, we actually need an adult in this room or like a capable starter so that this doesn't go completely off the rails. But they don't have receivers now. there aren't veterans they need to make heavy so i guess it's just it's just kind of confusing so and often stands in listening like again it's a good trade like you got a lot and i like i i like the fact that your team knows you're bad i just question did malik willis know that they thought they were this bad and that to me maybe we'll hear more reporting kevin but it's it's it's very perplexing to me and and maybe the answer is that Malik was didn't have the options we thought he did but he signed possible it's hard to know all right uh I'll go first my winner uh I have the Minnesota Vikings uh Kyler Murray 1.3 million dollars great excellent uh first of all I want to say this about the Vikings and you know we're talking about the Dolphins and incentives and And like, there is a world in which they don't actually bring in a replacement for JJ McCarthy.

13:59And I'm calling him a replacement. Maybe it's a competition. It's a replacement. There is absolutely a world in which JJ played, you know, a little bit better at the end of the year. And this is, they talk themselves into, you know, the draft pick and the development and the ability to coach and all of that. and this organization says, oh, let's just bring in Jacoby Brissett or Gardner Minshew or someone to compete with JJ. The fact that they did not go down that path and they were very clear-eyed about what they needed, and candidly, they did kind of luck into this in some ways. 100%. But I just think if you're a Vikings fan, you should be thrilled that your team did this and not didn't accept a sunk cost policy.

14:48Yeah, it reminds me a little bit of the Daniel Jones situation where that wasn't a competition. They gave Daniel Jones$14 million, and once that happens, and they already didn't like Anthony Rich, and once that's what happens, the competition is over. The competition was over in March. This competition is also over. You don't bring in Kyla Murray. It's not a half measure unless you want to replace your Jay McCarthy. You do the stopgap thing. you bring in the guy oh yeah we want to push him we want to teach him how to be a pro all that stuff they didn't do that they said we're going to bring in a starting caliber guy by the way kyle murray at 1.3 million dollars was only going to go someplace that probably gave him a little wink and a nod and said yeah like you're right you're going to be the guy he had the anti-will is he actually went to like the best possible situation and correct yeah yeah but the other thing is for 1.3 million dollars kyle murray should have had 32 offers like 32 too.

15:39So literally he had every option, even if it's to go be a backup for Joe Burrow, like the bangles should have been like, Hey,$1.3 million. That's pretty cool. So he could have gone anywhere. He's only going to go to a good situation. He's a very smart guy. He sees the league and I think a smart way. And also I think that he was just in Arizona and, and, and the last couple of years, it just felt like there was just no juice there. there was no anything now he's going to go into a vikings facility with and by the way he said he loved the facility that they love they have a great facility they really do have a great facility in in minnesota my favorite state of the nfl to watch out uh great facilities there uh but but he's going into a place with a defense that is ferocious with at worst the second best receiver in football um with an awesome head coach and the he has limitations to his game but kevin o 'connell i I think most people who rank this sort of stuff say that's a top five playbook on offense in the league.

16:38So this is going to be phenomenal. They're going to make the playoffs. Yeah, I have talked about this a lot. We talked about it ahead of free agency, like who Kyler Murray is, because I think it's kind of he has such a weird career arc. And I think perception of him has swung so wildly in over and under reactions. And I think now where we're at is he's sort of been mischaracterized because of that. Like, so Kyler is, I mean, first of all, and statistically, you know, the Vikings had bottom three quarterback situation in football last year, no matter how you slice it. The last two years, Kyler Murray has been average for the Arizona Cardinals.

17:24So already you are taking a massive leap from worst in the NFL or bottom three to slightly above average EPA play success rate, whatever you like, QBR, whatever, look at it. And then we know that his highs are much higher. I think the question, of course, is whether you can tap into that. And it was, you know, there was a bit of a ride. I'd say the biggest thing in Arizona that you want to find a way to get back is the deep ball because early in his career, he was just so incredible throwing deep. And then those numbers, even as he was above average, the deep ball kind of fell off. So I think that's something that you don't want to find a way to see if you can get back.

18:03But I think the other thing is he is sort of been misportrayed as this just like erratic playmaker. And he's not a machine like Jared Goff, no doubt. but he like has a very quick release with drew petting in arizona in the year in 2024 in particular in which he was i thought pretty solid he was a lot of under center play action booting him out all the stuff that kevin o 'connell likes to do he throws with touch which we know has been something that's been missing there um and then you have this uh you know you have to play making element on top of that as well as like his rushing ability. So there's a lot to work with is my point.

18:54Now I'm not sitting here and telling you you're going to get 2020 Kyrie Kyrie, Kyrie, and we're going to be talking about him as MVP candidate, but I think you and I agree. This all doesn't need an MVP candidate. If he is even average, that is a win at this rate. So I do not think anyone could say this wasn't a good signing for them. Is there more to work with, with Kyla Murray this year than there was with Sam Darnold two years ago?

19:24His, based on the tape... Skill set. Yes. Like, everything you saw out of Sam Darnold before he became a Viking, and he put that all in one bucket, the Jets, the Panthers, he played a lot. Everybody's like, never hold that, his Carolina Panthers career. And then he played one game for San Francisco. And then you put that next to all of the tape, the years we've seen of Kyler Murray it's no contest that's why I asked because I would yeah I've been thinking about this a lot the skill set the floor is higher as long as he's healthy the floor is higher the problem with Kyler is he came into the league instantly like B plus and stayed at B plus and he had a couple of different spikes he mentioned the the borderline MVP or the years where they started you know eight no or whatever and then there's one year they didn't to make the playoffs in that regard.

20:17But I do feel like skill set wise, this is the most Kevin O 'Connell has had to work with as a head coach.

20:25You made a really good point, which is 32 teams should be. Obviously, he's not going to consider any team where he does have a starting opportunity. But if this works out, I think the ones we're going to look back on Pittsburgh, Atlanta, if you weren't willing to no no I know they're making it a competition but they did two over the vet their deal and that in Atlanta is a competition but if this works out if he looks good I think we're going to look at that team and ask why didn't you just give him you know that was a little bit murky I think they're I think they're more open to the idea of Michael Penix being good I think so too than the Vikings are Indianapolis is another one I agree with that that has to go I would have so let's say you were implanted into Chris Ballard's head the day before free agency starts you know the situation do you try to recruit kyler and let daniel jones walk i don't think they would i i know yes i'm aware that they they're operating premise is that daniel jones is the most important human being on earth if you're asking me kyler flat out in a vacuum kyler murray or daniel jones for 45 million or whatever i like sometimes i'm like sometimes To be clear, we are talking, we're living in the world.

21:43We're not living in a hypothetical world where Daniel Jones didn't get hurt. I keep seeing him say, well, if he didn't get hurt, okay, cool. But he did, like, this is what happened. We're not living in a fake timeline. And I'm sure there's some, gentlemen, that gentleman's agreement is probably the wrong term. But, like, I'm sure there was, once you start dialogue, there's probably some unwritten rule about kind of not backing out or whatever, even though he was probably talking before the injury and all that stuff. but every time someone would broach the subject and say well the Colts are so committed to him why there's no legal basis for like for for for being committed Daniel Jones you could have all you could have walked away and said hey it sucks but you tore your Achilles they do with non-co teams with non-quarterbacks all the time it's just with the quarterback is such a unique position that it's like well we've we've cast our love Daniel Jones I I was surprised there wasn't more investigating or we didn't hear about more investigating.

22:37All right. Who is your first winner or your next? So I have two teams, but I will actually want to piggyback off of the Bo next thing because. I think that there's two teams that I'm really high on in the AFC this year. And one of them is probably not going to be at the forefront of like, you know, how you pick up like the the preview magazines in august and people and it's always like you know the buzzy teams here's a team that don't actually be that buzzy because i i kind of feel like they think everyone thinks that the league has passed them by um i think one of the winners of free agency is joe burrow and i want to lay out the plan here okay so the bengals just off off the top they get cook uh and and mafay the chief safety yeah yeah we talked about boy mafay is the passers are from seattle right right and so both of those guys are super productive moff a 13 uh pressure rate last year higher than anybody on the bangles last year um brian cook is a tackling machine fourth lowest missed tackle rate in the league last year gino stone who's replacing was not a tackling machine in fact uh the bangles i believe were the worst yards after catch defense in football so they immediately raised their floor with those two guys i don't love letting try anderson walk with that just who they are but then i look at this and i say all the bangles need to do is get to average or even like a notch below average on defense because of what a healthy joe burrow can do that's jamar chase that's higgins that's an offensive line like marius mims is better than people think like there's an offensive line that the narrative has swung because joe takes a lot of hits part of that I've talked to Barbara he likes getting guys into routes and he's okay with the tax you pay which is you get hit in the ribs a lot like that's just how he views things so the line can be better um the defense has a bunch of athletes and a guy like Shamar Stewart as an example high athleticism low production in college a lot of times those guys click in the second year a lot of times it takes them a little bit like the Colts Chris Ballard drafts a lot of those athlete types.

24:51The Seahawks draft a lot of those athlete types. And a lot of times you see a huge jump from year one to year two because it's just the athleticism being molded into being a professional and kind of understanding how that athleticism needs to manifest itself in the NFL. So there's a bunch of guys like that on the Bengals defense. But then more than anything, I'm looking around at the landscape and I'm seeing a Chiefs team that Mahomes tore in ACL, roster still needs work, lost Trent mcduffie this year lost the aforementioned brian cook uh i'm looking to this bills team that is just all over the map and i don't i don't know if they're better than last year i don't uh and then a ravens team that has still has work to do on the roster and and and but by the way the bills obviously and the ravens both importing new head coaches we have no idea what they and even though they're both of the system in some way because mentors obviously extremely familiar with baltimore and joe brady was in buffalo there's still going to be a transition period so i'm looking at the afc right now and I see a path and on March 17th when we're recording this I feel really good about the small little things the Bengals need to go right going right for them and then all of a sudden high level offense mediocre defense Super Bowl if the Bengals have let's say the 14th best defense and football is this not just a playoff team because that's it seems obviously yes is a legit contender you think they can win this okay so i asked that because i'm looking at the depth chart and it's totally possible that they can get there i think i've talked about this a lot but the defense really did actually show some improvement in the second half of the season the young players in the secondary the corners played well new dc out golden took them a little bit.

26:40They added a few free agents that, you know, not like the sexiest, biggest names, but Mafia and cook in particular, I do think are like capable quality vets. They also signed Jonathan Allen. Who's I don't know what he's got left in the tank for them, but pick 10. I really think they could be in position to get an impact defensive player there, depending on how things shakeout. We joked about, I was like, if Ruben Bain somehow falls to them, then like, I'm there. I do think there's still a pass rusher away, which is why I'm kind of curious to see how the draft shakes out. There will be a pass rusher there in some way.

27:23Or one of the Ohio State defenders. Sonny Stiles, Caleb Bounds. There's going to be an impact defensive guy there. I'm buying the vision and I think the thing that people are sleeping on is that they legitimately did show some improvement last year everybody was just kind of already like this defense sucks we're out on it and burrow was hurt so everybody tuned it out and then one yeah i'm telling you jacks hill is a good it's a good db now um and i and i like turner too so i i like this one i'm in on it um you mentioned the ravens okay so here's the deal because i haven't talked about this there's no winners here i actually think in the whole ravens Raiders, Hendrickson, Crosby fiasco.

28:03So I just wrote conspiracy theorists because the only winner I think was the content machine. And also more notably people who think that, well, I would say Ravens haters because, oh boy, this is one of those stories where when the story happens, you realize how many people, you know, when like somebody's downfall occurs and it, and it exposes is how they were already just like that that's how I felt watching not just like fans but like even like media no the media those GMs who but get the anonymous like do not like Eric I just want to know I knew this is an important thing I've been thinking about is it every it was like 20 GMs who couldn't wait to start texting reporters about how the Ravens clearly orchestrated some shady operation or was it one GM who was like I'm going to text 100 everybody about this because Because I could not believe how many reporters with no – Greg Rosenthal, our friend, pointed this out.

29:03Like, you know, the Ravens have the medicals, and nobody texting reporters right now have the medicals. So the confidence in which – Other GMs. Other GMs and then reporters were like, well, obviously, this is really – what the hell is going on? Have we heard any whispers of any interest in Crosby since then? We have not. uh Crosby's tweeting about being a Raider for life like so I understand yeah the dynamics have changed because of the timing and I think it is it would be a little wrong with me to say oh well of course these GMs would be on the phone with Vegas if they really believe that but surely there'd be a nipple or like a little bit of a report if you texted a reporter and said Baltimore is being shady then your second text should have been to John Spytech saying let me get Max Crosby because I so believe that Baltimore was screwing everybody.

29:56And yet, and yet, he's a Raider for life. Okay, so the first question I was asked on NFL Live the day this happened was like, do you think the Ravens did anything uncouth here? And just for everybody who's wanting me to join, I guess, the hate parade or to defend them, I'll say what I said there. we're gonna know because we're gonna see max crosby on the field and this isn't necessarily definitive but kevin if he's not himself and he never is again in in a couple years are people really gonna look back and say the ravens were shady or are they gonna look back and say they're conversely if he comes back and he's awesome then yeah i'm gonna side-eye baltimore a little bit at minimum, they have bad doctors.

30:45So I don't have a, all of which is to say, I don't have a strong take on the ethics of this situation. I also think, let's talk about it from the Ravens perspective. Crosby was a better fit for them than Trey Hendrickson. Much better against the run. Which Jesse Minter's defense needs. Now, I think once they pivot off of Crosby, they had to sign Hendrickson. It was the right thing to do. They desperately needed pass rush. Now they need somebody, I think, to help them set an edge. Maybe they'll get a Clowney or maybe someone in the draft. But, you know, I understand you'd probably, the picks are valuable for them.

31:25And I imagine that to me is probably my biggest theory is like, maybe somebody was like, hey guys, we really want to do this. But - Is Clowney available for another one year, 14 million dollar deal like he has been for nine years oh the end of time baby but yeah i i do think like like the ravens didn't genius this they backed themselves into a corner where they had to give hendrickson by the way a market rate deal that's that's what i was gonna say this idea yeah they didn't get it wasn't like oh his market's cratering we're gonna get him for 10 million dollars you gave him what every more or less what everybody expected him to get at the beginning of free agency.

32:04So why wouldn't you just done that? He would have picked you over a bunch of other teams that weren't going to be relevant, but no Crosby Crosby would have been so much better in Baltimore, a better. I don't know about Hendrickson in the locker room, but I do know that, that, that Max Crosby is an at was as like the mayor of Vegas. Like there's so many things that can, that they give the edge to Crosby that the Ravens are hurting. Yeah. The, the, the benefit of course, you get to pick the picks and pick 14 and there are needs on this roster. I mean, I was just looking at them thinking about you know I talked about needing someone to set an edge but um the interior of the offensive line is a major need and I suspect that's where they want to go in the first round if Matabuike comes back your good defensive tackle sounds like he's going to um but you know tight end corner is need so they have a decent amount of needs on this roster I don't think they're not that close um i'm still a believer in the team i just don't yeah oh yeah me too i just don't think they were they're only there from three years ago two years ago just different different makeup so the raider side of this is funny because my first thought was like oh no they spent all when the news broke they spent all this money they must be in trouble and then i forgot they had more money than god coming into this and they don't have a quarterback so they're actually just fine financially uh you know they still have a ton of cap space they still have a ton of cap space next year it's not a big deal even though they paid tyler linder bomb a zillion dollars and you know having max crosby is better than not having max crosby i think the big loss here though kevin is they really could have used pick 14 uh this year because there's when i look at their needs like i really think they could have added a receiver receiver yeah and i'll take jordan tyson there are teams that would need a receiver up there but they could have gotten a really good skill guy somewhere.

33:54So, yeah, I think that's just my... If I had, like, a misgiving about this from the Raiders' perspective, that would be it. Just that you lost that pick to do stuff with this year. What if the Raiders are good?

34:10I think that... I mean, look at that receiving group. I don't think they're going to be that good. I think they're... I love Mendoza Raiders fans, and I'm going to talk about him a lot in the coming days. And, you know, I like the players. I like that they signed young players to like build a core around. I just think like corner receiver, right tackle. I mean, can I, can I use that as a segue to my next winner? Yeah. Okay. So one thing I like about the Raiders is they're not waiting a year to get any sort of competence around the rookie quarterback because the Tennessee Titans waited until this year, but they finally did it.

34:50So the thing I'm obsessed with the Titans is it's actually quite similar to the Patriots build last year in as much that they just went out and got a bunch of starters and you overpay a little bit, but not really because you're paying a tax to not pay play scrubs, right? So like you go out there. So last year, Mill Williams, obviously awesome player worth a trillion dollars. One of the best interior pass versions of football. But then it was like Robert Spillane, Matt Collins, just guys who are going to give you snaps and just play good ball. Harold Landry, guys that in some cases are variable new, in some cases are front office new.

35:27We're just going out there and getting high quality snaps. You're not going out there and getting, with the exception of Mitt Williams, top of the line guys. So when I look at the way that Tennessee built, Elante Taylor, Cordell Flott, these are above average B-plus type of players. John Franklin Myers, I feel like I mentioned the interior pass rush. That's a guy where we're going to be looking in December and saying, oh, okay, worth every penny. Jermaine Johnson, who's fine. You at least have a body, a competent body who's played NFL ball, who's played a lot of football. He was hurt last year.