Maxx Crosby Bombshell Dominates Day 2 of Free Agency

19:31Diante Lee:The other aspect to it for the Raiders, the Raiders have spent wildly. They've spent more than any other team in free agency. Now, I don't think that getting Max Crosby back, it's not like, oh, they can't afford these other players. Now, if they wanted to play a little You know, if they had second thoughts on, let's say, the Quiddy Pay deal, could they say, hey, we didn't sign it yet. This is out of our control. They could do that. I don't anticipate that that's going to happen. They are not being forced to do that, certainly. So, all right, let's take a break. We come back. I want to get into some of the other teams that could be interested because, you know, a domino like this falls and it is a cutthroat business.

20:08Diante Lee:or now other GMs might look and say, we weren't interested for two firsts, but we're interested now. The price has come down. We're interested now. So let's get into some of those teams when we... This episode is brought to you by TaxAct. Like an expert coach, TaxAct offers step-by-step guidance and guaranteed accuracy when filing taxes. Get tips along the way,

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20:47Diante Lee:We come back. All right, we're back here on the Ringer NFL show. You know, we just caught up on a bunch of the coverage, Deontay, during the break. And there is nobody that I can find league-wide that is kind of taking Baltimore's side on this, that is making the case that, you know, no one's reporting. One GM said this happens from time to time. No one's saying that. Everybody is kind of calling the Ravens out, even though they don't have full information. They're on the outside like we are, but this is not sitting well around the NFL. Now, having said that, teams that could potentially be interested.

21:27Diante Lee:You mentioned the Cowboys. Yeah, the reporting there seems to be that the Cowboys are not getting back in on this. They make the Rashawn Gary trade. What a ripple effect that would be. if they backed out of the Rashawn Gary trade. And now, you know, he said he was hacked with the Instagram post. The hacker can win. The Instagram post can go back up and he can just be released. Because it sounded like the Cowboys were very interested in Max Crosby. What a what if that is, that Crosby could have potentially been a Cowboy, but because of the way this went down, they weren't. Now, the team I'm looking at, I think if you said, And, Ashil, here's$100.

22:02Diante Lee:You bet on one team where he lands. I'm looking at the Chicago Bears here, Deontay, because there was a lot of smoke that they were interested in Max Crosby. I think there was even one report that the Bears had offered multiple first-round picks, but that the Ravens pick ahead of the Bears. So the Raiders said, we're going to go with the Ravens. So now if you can get him for a first and something else, you haven't signed an edge rusher. You haven't made huge moves. You signed Devin Bush. You signed Kobe Bryant. Now, if you add Max Crosby to that, you're probably pretty excited if you're the Chicago Bears.

22:40Diante Lee:So that's my one team. I don't know if you have the same team or not, or what you think about that Bears possibility.

22:46Sheil Kapadia:I think the Bears, again, if you're asking me, if you were putting money in my hand and saying, I've got to lay a chip on one spot on this roulette board, it will probably be Chicago, right? I think that the situation aligns well enough for them to go make that deal, even if it does cost them a first-round pick because of what they netted back in the DJ Moore trade. They can say, hey, we can take some twos. We can pair together enough draft capital once we get to draft day to be able to recuperate whatever we're going to lose in this Max Crosby trade. And we already have so many other pieces on this roster that I think are in need of a force multiplier like Crosby to put it all together.

23:24Sheil Kapadia:Outside of that, I do kind of struggle to see what the rest of the market may be. Maybe Cincinnati calls, right? That would be kind of interesting, right? I don't know if you heard the Jamar Chase rant over the weekend when the trade went out, right? I think that you might hear a different tune from him when he's playing Call of Duty on stream, right? If you have Max Crosby in tow for him. But other than that, it is kind of a struggle, I think, to find a comfortable landing spot, right? Where all the situations align. The only other team I could think of that we haven't mentioned would be the Chargers.

23:57Sheil Kapadia:And I just think the in-division tax is too high for them to make a deal like that come together. And the Raiders might say, even if they had the best deal, I'm going to say, well, that the answer is no. So I was in the division. The Chargers is an outside shot. I don't know if that would happen. But I do like the idea of the Bengals. And I really like the idea of the Bears. And I would maybe put the 49ers and Patriots tied for third.

24:16Diante Lee:Yeah, there was a report that Tom Brady didn't want to trade him to the Patriots, right? I think that was out there. I didn't think that was out there. Listen, I'm sorry, Raiders fans.

24:27Sheil Kapadia:That's bad GMing. I'm sorry. That's bad operations, man. Who has time for petty stuff like that? Make your team better. I think you and I both like a little petty.

24:36Diante Lee:But yeah, if they're making you the best offer, they haven't made a huge splash yet, the Patriots. So they are a potential team here. Now I have a question for you.

24:46Sheil Kapadia:Is that a deal for Max or a deal for AJ Brown? I think if you're the Patriots, Which way are you leaning?

24:54Diante Lee:Or how about this? A deal that includes A.J. Brown and Max Crosby. Is Howie Roseman getting on the phone and saying, hey. That would be fascinating. We didn't want to offer you two first round picks. But what if we gave you, I don't know, A.J. Brown and a second for Max Crosby? Who says no to that?

25:14Sheil Kapadia:I think the Eagles say, let me sit with that. Or can we get a later pick back? Can we get a later pick back? AJ Brown in the second to Max Crosby in a fifth or something? A five, right, or four or five.

25:27Diante Lee:I think a trade could be consummated with those details. Listen, a few weeks ago when we were doing off-season storylines, I think the top two on our list were Max Crosby's trade market and AJ Brown's trade market. And as we sit here on the night of March 10th, both guys are back. AJ Brown has never left, but Max Crosby is still with the Raiders there. So yeah, it all depends on price. If you're the Patriots, if you're another team here, I, you know, I am sure Howie Roseman is probably going to call at least because you got to, it's a distressed asset. Yeah. They had interest in bringing Jalen Phillips back.

26:04Diante Lee:They don't bring Jalen Phillips back. They still have a need at the edge position. And I'm sure they're at least checking there. The other team I thought of, the commanders signed Odafe away to a big deal, 25 million per year. but it also feels like they've sort of been runner-ups maybe for some other. And I was looking at that roster earlier today and I'm like, man, that roster still needs a lot of work. Do they say, Hey, we're revamping this defense. Let's go get Max Crosby. Maybe we don't have to give up this year's first, but we're, you know, we're doing something else there. There's kind of an agreement that's worked out.

26:40Diante Lee:I was thinking about the commanders a little bit, but you're right. I mean, the problem, if you're a Raiders fan, this sucks because one, you thought you met, you know, You don't want to lose Max Crosby in the first place because he's been your only good player, but you understand the situation. Then you get to the point, this is how you cope as a fan. You say, all right, we want him, but he doesn't want to be here. Let's at least make sure we maximize what we get from him. And then they trade him for two first round picks. And there wasn't an analyst on the internet, in the podcasting space, on TV, who said, oh, the Raiders didn't get enough for Max Crosby.

27:12Diante Lee:No, there was universal praise that you did a good job maximizing your return for Max Crosby. You're feeling good. The vibes are better. Tyler Linderbaum, we praised the N 'Kobe Dean deal yesterday. All right, you're getting some professionals in the building. You're building around Mendoza. And now here you are 24 hours later. And it's like, is Tom Brady and Alex Guerrero? I know Alex Guerrero is not the one actually calling GMs, but I don't know what he's doing. It's just like, who knows? And spy tech, it's just like, do you trust them? This is a very tricky situation because now these other teams that would have been interested, that would have maybe given you two first round picks or at least a first and a second have moved on and they don't want to back out of their deals.

27:55Diante Lee:And now you just, the pool of suitors has shrunk and you are uncertain about the people steering your ship. And now they have to navigate this tricky situation and you have no idea how it's going to end up. So life is back to being very difficult. Deontay was a fun 24 hours as a Raiders fan, maybe, but life is back to being very difficult for Raiders fans.

28:17Sheil Kapadia:I mean, this has to just be the worst thing in the world, right? They, they so often it ended up being the butt of the junk. I know for me doing power rankings every week, I always kind of had some quip about just how useless and how feckless of a season this had been for the Raiders. And this would have been the one thing where if you had to tell them, you have to suffer through what 2025 was for them. But on the back end of that, you'll have an opportunity to net back two first round picks for a player whose timeline doesn't match your rebuild, you will be like, okay, I can go through that. I can grit and bear it through a rough season if you're telling me that we're going to speed up our rebuild by getting some extra draft capital.

28:52Sheil Kapadia:And now to be here, where, and I think I was just reading a tweet from Diana Rossini that there's a feeling in the league that now the Raiders are going to be the ones having to initiate these calls to try to drum up some interest again in Cosby because everybody does now have the leverage of this failed physical being out there publicly, right? And this is, again, this comes back to why Baltimore, I think, has to hear the shame bells a little bit. I'm really disappointed in the order of events, even if in my heart of hearts, I can understand why knowing a guy has a failed physical might give you a little pause.

29:26Sheil Kapadia:This is just a really, really tough situation that Baltimore has put the rest, not only Las Vegas, but the rest of the league in.

29:34Diante Lee:Embrace the heel role, Ravens. You know what? They just come out. If they're going to sign Trey Hendrickson, they should just come out and say, this league's about winning. We want to win a Super Bowl. We're not here to make friends. And until the ink is dry, you know, what do your parents tell you when you get your first job offer, whatever it is, hey, don't go around telling your friends you got the job until that thing is signed and you turned in the DocuSign and it's an agreement. I know my dad has told me that over the years. Until it's signed, nothing is actually official. So they should just embrace that, turn this into pro wrestling, that, hey, too bad for them.

30:14Diante Lee:They shouldn't have counted their chickens before they hatched. We didn't know Trey Hendrickson was going to be available. We have a better chance to win a Super Bowl now than we did with the Max Crosby trade. And anyone who's complaining about it, you would have done the same thing in our shoes. Oh man, that would be so fun if the Ravens just came clean.

30:30Sheil Kapadia:Have them come out and do the Ray Lewis dance pregame.

30:33Diante Lee:You're giving me like drum it all the way up. Drum it all the way up. I'm all for it. What a story. I love it. I'm telling you, this got my juices flowing when this came across the timeline. I love the other stuff, but a story like this now with finger pointing and GMs are appalled and we don't know how it's going to be resolved. And there's another shooter drop with what the Ravens do and what the Raiders do now with Crosby. I was even thinking it doesn't look like this is going to happen. But can you imagine if now teams started backing out of their agreements with some players because they said, man, we didn't know we could get Max Crosby.

31:07Diante Lee:I'm sorry, Odafeo. We don't want you anymore for$25 million per year. I'm sorry, Jalen Phillips. We're not signing you for$30 million per year because that was going to be official on Wednesday. But now we have a chance to get Max Crosby. Now it doesn't look like that's going to happen. But I'm not ruling anything out with the way this story could go here. And like you said, I don't know when it's going to be resolved. Is it going to be resolved by the time people listen to this? Or are we going to be doing a pod next week saying, all right, where are we with the Max Crosby discussions? Are we going to be doing a pod the week of the draft saying, is Max Crosby going to get traded this weekend?

31:43Diante Lee:There's no telling how long this thing could drag on. So amazing story. Did we miss anything, Deontay, with the Max Crosby story?

31:51Sheil Kapadia:I don't think so. I'm still trying to catch my breath, man. Like, you know, so I was, I was actually, we were running a workout at the high school I'm coaching at. And everybody ran up to, because they know what my job is. They all ran up to me with their phones out. Oh man, it looks like you got to go back to work. Like you got, you got stuff you got to get to. And I'm like, you're absolutely right, man. I was floored. I've been floored for the last two and a half hours now trying to wrap my mind around what we've been looking at.

32:18Diante Lee:Yeah. I sent Deontay four different versions of the rundown today. You know, first one was, it's kind of quiet. it. Maybe we'll hit on some teams that we didn't hit on. And I was like, all right, we've got some signings. We'll lead to this. Then we'll hit on some other teams. And then it was scrap everything. Have you seen this story about Max Crosby? We got to get into every single angle. So we'll see what happens with this story going forward. We'll continue to talk about it, but let's get to some of the other signings, Deontay, around the NFL. Then now they don't have the same juice, but they still are interesting in terms of, hey, first two days of free agency.

32:52Diante Lee:This was kind of the second wave. And let's go to New England, a team we just talked about. Could they get back in on the Max Crosby deal? Certainly, they could call the Raiders and try to do that. Are they still interested in A.J. Brown? Well, they signed a receiver today. It's not an A.J. Brown level receiver, but they signed Romeo Dobbs, $17 million per year. What did you make of that signing and how do you think it affects their potential pursuit of an A.J. Brown trade.

33:23Sheil Kapadia:That's cracking me up, right? Like, I've always been such a believer of good teams stay good and bad teams stay bad. And in the podcast yesterday, we talked about Tennessee putting up basically the exact same contract to Wondell Robinson on day one of the legal tampering period. And my thought then was, why wouldn't you just lay that contract out for someone like Romeo Dobbs, who is clearly a better player? Or Rashid Shahid, yeah. Right. And sure enough, New England goes out and gets Romeo Dobbs for effectively the same contract that Wondell Robinson got signed to. This is exactly how New England can protect itself against regression, right?

33:58Sheil Kapadia:Like, you think about two years ago after the Commanders go to the NFC Championship game and all the vibes are great. They kind of sit on their hands a bit outside of the Laramie Tunstall trade and then they don't really go anywhere, right? And you see that the season kind of craters last year. I think New England is wise enough to know that their run to the Super Bowl was not as good in terms of play quality as what they would like to be. And they recognize the AFC is extremely competitive. And this is a step in the right direction. And the best part about it is not only does Romeo Dobbs' play style not preclude you from going to chase a guy like A.J.

34:34Sheil Kapadia:Brown, the money doesn't either. They still have the cap space and they still have the draft capital to say, hey, we might be able to supercharge this thing by bringing in a guy like Dobbs to be our move around number two guy. Maybe you bring in AJ Brown to be your number one guy. And you still have a kid like Kyle Williams out there to be a field stretcher. That would be a nice trio actually. Yeah. It makes sense. Pretty complete, you know, wide receiver room. And now that also takes some stress off of Hunter Henry, who I liked last year, but it's not going to be the most explosive tight end in the league.

35:02Sheil Kapadia:That will make it really easy in terms of life for Drake may in the pocket, especially knowing that they're not going to try to put the ball in his hands. I think as often next year as they had to this past season in order to get wins. So I like the move and I like the fact that it still leaves a door open for them to be the team that they ultimately want to be in 2026.

35:22Diante Lee:Yeah, I think Dobbs is a solid wide receiver too. You can kind of pencil him in for 600 to 800 yards. The efficiency stats are pretty good with him. 24th out of 77 wide receivers last year in yards per route run. I had him projected for about 14 million per year, but I was low on a lot of these guys because that's kind of what happens in free agency. He's only 26 years old. So you think, hey, maybe his best years can be ahead of him here in this offense. He's a good route runner. So they have money. They had a need. You set the floor a little bit because, listen, they had a top five offense in the regular season last year, and it was not a great wide receiving core.

36:03Diante Lee:It was not a great offensive line. So to your point, they're definitely not like, we were fine last year and we can run it back. They're trying to upgrade, even with some of the offensive line moves they're trying to make here. I'm with you. I don't think it precludes them from trading for Adrian Brown. It certainly gives them a little bit of leverage. In my head, I'm just picturing Howie Roseman and the Patriots just in this staring contest. That's what it's been. Maybe there are other teams involved. It feels to me like those two teams have known for a while, this is probably going to happen, but we don't want to give in.

36:36Diante Lee:Well, we don't want to give in. And they're just kind of going back and forth in this game of chicken. And so I think it gives them a little bit of leverage where they can say, we were good last year and we didn't have a number one wide receiver. And we, we, sure, we would like AJ Brown, but we're not going to just meet your price. And now we got Romeo Dobbs who can replace Stefan Diggs. We can draft a wide receiver. And I don't know if you want to wait till after the draft, because what if we draft a really good wide receiver at 31 or in the second round, then we're definitely not giving you what you want for AJ Brown.

37:04Diante Lee:So I think this back and forth is kind of continuing, but I'm with you. If I were a Patriots fan, I'd be like, AJ Brown, Romeo Dobbs, and Kyle Williams. Let's go. I'm feeling pretty good about Drake Bay with that group. Not only next year, next two, three years, I can compete. I don't have to touch that position. I can go offensive line. I can go tight end. I can go running back. I can go defense. I don't have to touch that position for the next two to three years here. So yeah, I think that that's still in play. Whether it happens or not, we'll see. But I did like that Romeo Dobbs signing. All right, let's take one more break.

37:39Diante Lee:We'll come back. I want to get to the Eagles signing Reek Wollin. I want to get to the Jets trading for Geno Smith and some other stories to get to here on the second day of the legal negotiating period. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. So maybe the more surprising signing, I thought, Deontay, is that the Eagles signed Seahawks cornerback Reek Wollin for a one-year deal. Now, it's got the dreaded, if you're an agent, up to, phrasing here,$15 million per year, which means it's not$15 million per year. That is with incentives if he hits, all those things. But I did not expect the Eagles to throw money at a cornerback in free agency.

38:27Diante Lee:What did you make of this move by the Eagles?

38:31Sheil Kapadia:I think that the ultimate success that they had, and it's not like this was a roaring success with Adoree Jackson last year, but I think that during the back half of the season, once things stabilized, I think that Adoree Jackson played well enough for them to feel like their backfield was pretty stable defensively. And I expected them to maybe take another shot at a guy like that who has that kind of upside. I just figured it would have happened on the back end of free agency, right? Maybe you get a guy like Marshawn Lattimore who might not have as much of a market because he's been banged up.

38:59Sheil Kapadia:He's kind of lost a step. Veteran guy, played in a lot of defense. Somebody who Big Fangio could say like, hey, I've got a lot of respect for what he played like at his best. Let's see what he can give us. I would have thought even if it was a guy like Tariq Willen, it would have been because his market was extremely cold because he went out and expected to go get paid 20 million per season or whatever the case may be as one of those big, long, fast corners, and it just never materialized. So for this to happen this early, A, good on Philadelphia, clearly, for being able to go out and strike quickly on a corner that does have high upside.

39:33Sheil Kapadia:And I am really fascinated now to think about what it could mean for Philadelphia's defense going forward. I think that ultimately, if you were to lose a guy like Jalen Phillips, I think there are going to be questions about what the long-term contracts are going to look like defensively. I've kind of tweeted about that when you just think about what they're going to have to pay for their front seven. And then you add in the fact that Cooper DeGene and Quenio Missa will ultimately come up in years to come. Exactly what the shape of this roster will be like. These are the kind of moves along the margin that allows you to put those thoughts to the back of your head.

40:05Sheil Kapadia:Because this just reminds you that Philadelphia can go get enough high ceiling guys that we could be talking next January about how this team is within range of being able to be able to win a Super Bowl, potentially. especially if you get the absolute best version of Tariq Willen that you can. So I'm excited about what the upside can be. I also recognize the fact that his name was up around the trade deadline. Seattle didn't necessarily need him after Josh Jobe really seemed to break out and they had a lot of defensive back depth that they were able to rely upon. So it's not like I think that this guy's going to come in and go back to being an all-pro level player.

40:43Sheil Kapadia:He's going to have the interceptions that he did early in his career. but the upside I think is too tantalizing for you to be too cold on this deal. I think that there's enough for you to be encouraged by when you look at the entire body of work for Tariq Willen and what he's going to be playing next to in Philadelphia secondary.

40:59Diante Lee:This feels like such a boomer bust move to me lately. As you were describing it, it's either going to be next January. Everyone's got, I can't believe how he got away with it again. And he signed a one-year deal and oh my gosh, he is making less money than all these other quarterbacks who are out there. Now look at it, Reek Wollin and Quinion Mitchell and Cooper Dejean. No one can pass on this team. Where it's going to be like week five and Vic Fangio is like, that guy's not playing for me anymore. I'm not playing for him anymore. Yeah, because his strengths and weaknesses are so defined. Where at 6 '4", with his coverage ability, running a 4-2-6 or whatever it was, it's just like there's literally no one else in the league who has his combination of length and speed.

41:45Diante Lee:And it's not just that. His coverage ability has been very impressive when you just look at all the stats. When he's playing man coverage, and it's just like, you know, I was actually looking at it because I was watching his film from the playoffs in preparation for the Ringers Philly special. And that play, remember the NFC Championship game where he got the taunting penalty? Yes. His coverage on that play was unbelievable. He was lined up on Puka Nakua in the slot on an over route one-on-one and he's in his hip pocket and makes a play on the ball where I wrote down like, oh my gosh. And then I'm like, wait, was this the play?

42:19Diante Lee:And then I'm like, oh yeah, this was the one where he got the taunting right after. And then he gives up a touchdown the next play. So he can cover, he's athletic, he's long, he has that upside where it actually is really exciting if you're an Eagles fan where you're like, man, those three, that could be the best corner trio in the NFL. They've got that upside. And then he's got the other stuff. You know, he was benched a couple times in Seattle. One was for violating a team rule. Then it was for just kind of performance. He started, he was in a rotation last year with the other corners where he was playing about 75 % of the snaps.

42:55Diante Lee:His tackling metrics are pretty terrible the last two years. Yeah, he's not been a very good tackler. And it's weird because I was looking at it, his first two years in the NFL, he was good, you know? And I know not everything shows up in the metrics, but you wouldn't look at anything from the metrics and be like, oh, he's a bad tackler. And the last two years, you look at it, he misses like 20 % of his tackle attempts, which again, Vic Fangio, I don't know how long he would let that, but not that Adoree Jackson was a great tackler, but he didn't have any other options. So he's got penalties. Of course, he will get beat.

43:29Diante Lee:I think what's most impressive about his skill set is that he gets beat, but because of his speed and length, the way he recovers is probably the most impressive part of this game. He's never out of it. He can get beat cleanly on the line of scrimmage. By the time the ball gets there, he's actually right there. So you look at it last four years, I think he's second in the NFL in past breakups. We know he's got the wide receiver background in high school and college. He's got 12 interceptions. So I'm very curious to see how this one goes for the Eagles. I see why they did it, and I don't know which way it's going to go.

44:03Diante Lee:I really feel like that one could go either way.

44:06Sheil Kapadia:I've been looking to the side this entire time because I've just been scrolling through old big Fangio defenses to try to see, like, is there a guy physically who kind of checks the same boxes that Tariq Willen did? And the closest you'd come to is Patrick Sertan II, who Tariq Willen, for all his upside, very clearly is not. Patrick Sertan might be a Hall of Famer, right? He's on a Hall of Fame trajectory as a corner right now and clearly does not have a tackling problem, doesn't have a loss of discipline and coverage problem. Has no problems. Right, exactly. You know, like you're talking about a prototype, right?

44:36Sheil Kapadia:In terms of temperament and ability and consistency. That's definitely not Tariq Willen. So I am fascinated for a guy who, while it's very matchy in terms of coverage, they do still play a good amount of zone. So I wonder, similar to the conversation that I think existed with Philadelphia, when you're bringing a guy like Drew Makuba and you keep someone like Sidney Brown on who are not your prototypical Fangio safeties, that maybe he's just saying like, hey man, just bring me some ingredients that got some high upside and I'll figure it out. or maybe this is Howie telling them, hey, I can't totally break from my mold to build the Vic Fangio defense.

45:10Sheil Kapadia:Sometimes you're just going to have to take what's available and this is the best guy available. Let's see if you can make it work. But I do like what this team could be if this ends up being a heavy man coverage bump and run with Quinion Mitchell and Tariq Willen out on the perimeter. You have Cooper Dejean who can match up with any slot receiver in the league. That's a pretty fascinating thing for me to think about, right? And I think that having a guy like Tariq Willen at his best, it also opens up an opportunity for you to think about how little that second safety spot matters now that Reed Blankenship is out and playing for the Texans.

45:44Sheil Kapadia:You're mitigating other weaknesses on this team. If you're great in coverage, we don't have to spend as much time thinking about how Jalen Phillips isn't on this roster anymore because you're playing sticky. That was honestly the strength of the 2024 unit before the pass rush got hot in the playoffs and late in the season. So it is entirely possible that this can work out and work out really, really well. Again, I think it's just going to take a little bit of time for me to wrap my mind around how someone like Willen fits into the prototypical Fangio defense and what that's even going to mean when we get to the 2026 season.

46:16Diante Lee:Yeah, Fangio is generally just, you know, he'll get asked about this at some point and we'll know right away whether he was on board, like pushing for Requel.

46:24Sheil Kapadia:On his first comment, well, absolutely tell us how he feels about him as a player.

46:27Diante Lee:the players and you'll be like, uh-oh, all right, Rick Warren's getting benched in the first month of the season. So we'll know right away, Vic Fangio certainly does not hide it. All right, next move to get to here, Deontay, that happened on Tuesday, the Jets trading for Geno Smith. So we talked about the Jets on the previous episode. If you missed that, check it out. But the one missing piece, well, there's more than one missing piece, but the big missing piece was like, well, what are they going to do at quarterback? And so the way this one worked with the Raiders is they ended up doing a pick swap, moving from giving up 208 and moving back to 228.

47:03Diante Lee:So moving back 20 spots there around six and seven to acquire Geno Smith. Now they could have just waited for Geno Smith to be released and paid him$1.3 million. But if they do that, now you're competing with other teams. He's a free agent. He can say, I don't think so. I'm not going back to the Jets. I'm playing somewhere else. So instead you trade for him and now he has no choice, but now you are paying$3.3 million. So it's not a crazy amount, but you're paying$2 million more than you would have otherwise. That's according to Pro Football Talk. So Raider is still picking up a big chunk of his salary here.

47:40Diante Lee:Geno Smith back to the Jets, Deontay. I mean, are you less confused than you were yesterday when we talked about the Jets? Are you more confused than you were yesterday when we talked about the Jets? What does this move tell you? And how do you think this is going to play out?

47:57Sheil Kapadia:I have no additional clarity on this franchise right now. And that is honestly, it's really Geno Smith is independent of Geno Smith in this deal, right? I was going to feel this way about the Jets regardless. I do think that in terms of finding a bridge quarterback, this is probably about the best option you could have gotten, especially since it seems like the Jets are very focused on. We want to clear the slate before the 2027 draft to be able to bring in a young quarterback that we can hand the keys over to. I think their dealings for Minka Fitzpatrick and the veteran defenders that we talked about last year, or excuse me, last night, all those guys basically on one-year deals.

48:33Sheil Kapadia:That also tells you, we're just really playing out the string to get to next spring, and then we'll figure out what this roster is going to look like from there. And if you're Geno Smith, hey, man, what a great way, I think, to close the book on your career, right? And I think it's entirely possible that what we saw for the last month, month and a half when he was in Seattle, and what we saw for all of his tenure in Las Vegas, that might just be who Geno Smith is. And if it is, hey man, what an interesting career arc for you to have gone from the basement to being an above average starter, being a really good starter.

49:06Sheil Kapadia:And then ultimately, as you age and make more mistakes, you start to see some of those cracks start to show in this game. but I do think that there's a way in which Geno Smith might be able to stretch things out for an extra year or two right because he's going to have an offensive coordinator that's not going to be calling plays in the helmet that they didn't install during practice the way that Chip Kelly was in Vegas right you're not going to have an offensive coordinator for his non-social for his anti-social as Frank Reich seemed to be at the end of his tenure in Carolina I don't think he's going to be locked away in his office the same way that Chip Kelly was in Las Vegas last season

49:38Diante Lee:He's kind of the opposite of Chip Kelly in terms of probably like emotional intelligence. I feel like people like Frank Reich, but yeah, that doesn't mean he's going to be scheming it up. I mean, it's been a while since Frank Reich had sort of an edge.

49:51Sheil Kapadia:I think we kind of know what the Frank Reich offense is at this point, right? It's not going to blow us away. But if Gino Smith is the 23rd best quarterback on a rebuilding team and they ride that out for a year and then they say, hey, Gino, it's your choice on what you want to do with the rest of your career, I think that's fine for New York. And if you're Geno Smith, if this turns out to be it, your last shot to start in the league, again, I think it's just an interesting full circle moment. But no, I don't feel any better, worse, or worse about where the Jets are at for 2026.

50:20Diante Lee:I think the point you made about the one-year contracts is a key one that we probably didn't hit on enough when we had that Jets discussion yesterday. Because I do think as I was thinking about it more today and when this Geno Smith news came down, it's like, it feels like they told Aaron Glenn, we can get you guys that you want and get you some of your guys. But let's be clear, we're not committing to any of these guys basically beyond the 2026 season. Now, Joseph Asai was like a three-year deal, but I think you look at the signings overall, Demario Davis, some of the other veterans that they added on that defense, even they signed Nashawn Wright, the cornerback from the Bears.

51:02Diante Lee:That was a one-year deal today. They're signing these one-year deals, or basically they could be longer, but it's like, these are going to be one-year commitments. And they're saying, yeah, if you want to show us that you need a certain level of player so that you can show us you actually are the right man for this job. Whether this is said or unsaid, this is what I believe is happening. Then, all right, we'll get you those players, but we're not signing guys for the next two to three years because they fit Aaron Glenn. That's not where we're at to me. There's such a division there between the coach, who it feels like is coaching for his job.

51:40Diante Lee:I mean, Aaron Glenn needs everyone.

51:42Sheil Kapadia:He cannot afford to have a season one. Yeah, let's be honest.

51:45Diante Lee:We're going to pick one coach who's going to be fired by the time we get to Halloween next year. Aaron Glenn, I think is the favorite, whether it's the Brian Callahan Award or whatever we want to call it. Aaron Glenn is the favorite for that. Whereas the front office actually seems to be aligned in the fact that let's maximize draft capital this year and next year. Let's rebuild this thing and let's not get into any bad contracts that we can't get off of by this point next season. And you know what? If Aaron Glenn coaches up this group and we have a surprising nine and eight season or whatever it is, and the vibes are good, that's fine.

52:23Diante Lee:Then we learned about Aaron Glenn and his ability. We gave him an extra year to turn this thing around. But let's be honest, that's probably not the most likely scenario. And we're not going to get stuck trying to get guys for Aaron Glenn where now we know we're moving on a year later. So that's kind of how I see this Jets situation right now.

52:41Sheil Kapadia:I'm right there with you, man. And like I said, like I said yesterday, I feel the same way today. Let's just get to Halloween so we can just kind of stop with the charade. And again, this is not a shot across the bow at Aaron Glenn. Like I had a lot of issues with how he coached and how he managed his quarterback situation. The fact that the defense did not get any better under his watch than what it was when Jeff Ulbrich was the interim head coach. And that team clearly was not interested in playing football very much at the end of the Aaron Rodgers tenure in 2024. but still like this is a rough position to walk in a year or two with at least in Tennessee it was like alright they just got their number one pick at quarterback and Brian Callahan it's your job to prove that you're not as inept of a coach as what you showed in 2024 and he just wasn't up to the task this very much feels like a pre-fired type of you know table setting for New York so I do feel for him in that respect and it's tough because this is absolutely the right move for the Jets they traded away sauce Gardner.

53:39Sheil Kapadia:They traded away Quinnen Williams. They've totally reset this organization. There's no reason for them to be anchored to Aaron Glenn's coaching tenure or any or maximizing anything in 2026. But yeah, I think, I think ultimately the best version of this is that this team loses. Gino Smith is interesting, which makes Jets fans feel good because you get to bring back this guy who started his career there. And then we're talking around Christmas about how the Jets are already, you know, showing up or showed up to college games to watch Arch Manning and Dante Moore, and they're really interested in either of these guys as a potential number one pick or a high pick, or how they're already letting teams know that their 2027 picks are up for grabs to go get that number one spot, right?

54:20Sheil Kapadia:So that's kind of how I feel about it. That's where I'm at with it. And I think that that's just what's in the best interest for the Jets organization.

54:27Diante Lee:It raises the floor and potentially raises the entertainment value of the 2026 Jets. Now, let's be honest, Geno Smith was bad last year. It can go another way.

54:36Sheil Kapadia:Entertainment value in either way. Yeah, either way.

54:38Diante Lee:We saw a lot of interceptions from Gino last season. I mean, he was 30th in EPA per play, 29th in success rate. He was terrible. There's no sugarcoating it. I thought it was going to look a lot better. I thought he was going to play a lot better. He turns 36 this season. It wasn't a great situation. But again, I don't know. Frank Reich is going to give you a major edge schematically. O-line should be better or should be pretty good, I think. So it's going to be better than what he had with the Raiders. You do have Brees Hall. Garrett Wilson is maybe the biggest winner here because I do think Garrett Wilson, you know, you get open, Geno Smith is going to throw you the ball and he's going to know where his bread is butter.

55:15Diante Lee:So I think that's good for Garrett Wilson. And I will say this, they've got four top 50 picks. I mean, if they have one of those drafts where it's like, oh man, these are really exciting players and all these guys are getting on the field. Now you have Geno as a bridge QB, you draft someone next year, but maybe you hit on some of these picks and you're feeling better about your roster. going into 2027. It also makes it easier to evaluate the rest of the roster with a guy like Geno Smith versus a guy like Justin Fields. I mean, their styles of play are so different that the ball's going to go where it's supposed to go.

55:49Diante Lee:He might take some sacks, but then you can say, all right, our O-line maybe is not as good as we thought it was going to be. And you'll be able to evaluate the rest of the roster if you draft a wide receiver or something this year better than you would have with another kind of unknown quarterback. So I'm fine with it. We'll see. Let's see what they do in the draft. It's a weird team. I think we got to the right place in terms of what they're trying to do and what this probably looks like for the Jets in 2026 and 2027. All right, those were the big moves from Tuesday. There's still a bunch of other moves happening.

56:23Diante Lee:And I'm telling you, we're going to get to these other teams, the Bears, the Commanders, the Cowboys, the Giants, I think those are the big ones. Bengals, Saints, Steelers, Seahawks. There's other teams we will get to. As we continue here on the Ringer NFL show, we didn't know that the Ravens were going to back out of the Max Crosby trade. Okay. So you got to scrap your plans and you got to get to the biggest story in the NFL right now. All right. His name is Deontay Lee. He's got a column up right now on the ringer.com. Check that out. His takeaways from the first wave of free agency. Thanks to Deontay.

56:56Diante Lee:Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video. I'm Shiel Kapadia. will be back later this week on the Ringer NFL Show.

57:38Diante Lee:or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867.

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