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The Pat McAfee Show
PMS 2.0 1511 - Free Agency Frenzy LIVE From The ThunderDome with Adam Schefter, Dan Orlovsky, Peter Schrager, Alec Pierce, Malik Willis, AQ Shipley, & Darius Butler
02:52:27
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- [00:02]
Pat McAfee
Dudes getting rich Teens seeking fits the grandma and the glitz of the big money pitch who's signing where, why they go there This'll help us win. Every team swears so welcome to the show. Hey, from the Thunderdome, who's the next signing? We all wanna know Free agency frenzy
- [00:24]
Darius Butler
dreaming with your spending massive cash
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Pat McAfee
falling off
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Dan Orlovsky
is ascended.
- [00:37]
Pat McAfee
Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode. The Thunder O on this glorious beautiful, chaotic. What a time to be alive. Thank you so much for joining us live from the Thunderdome. It's not just me. It's not just the boys. The toxic table at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt 1/2 of the Hammer Cowboys AP Tone 9 year NFL vet 1 of the smartest humans to ever play football. Darius J. Butler is here looking incredibly cool. It's a massive day, boys. It's not just us. No, no. We got Adam Schefter here. And also in the free agency fun zone we have Shrags and Dan Orlovsky who are going to be breaking down why things happen, how things happen and they look incredibly cool. A nice little tag team of happiness over there in the corner. Don't you think so, boy?
- [01:27]
Ty Schmidt
Without a doubt.
- [01:28]
Pat McAfee
Shregs, what should we be looking forward to today, you think?
- [01:30]
Peter Schrager
Brother salary cap went up to 301 million. Meaning there's going to be a rush of signings with team looking to spend. I look for the wide receiver market to open just as the bell opens in just a few seconds.
- [01:41]
Pat McAfee
Okay, thank you Shrags. Dan, you look really cool. Really cool. Not uncomfortable at all. The pants aren't too tight. Now we actually have some breaking news to start this entire thing. Ladies and gentlemen, the bell of the ball was what he was named. A man who was a second round draft pick out of Cincinnati to the Indianapolis Colts. A wide receiver that everybody wanted. Wow, this guy can take the top off. A defense in this modern world where there's two shell coverage and everybody's keeping everything in front. Is anybody going to be able to be explosive? Is anybody able going to be able to go deep? Well, there was one man that did that this past season at a rapid rate. Alec Pierce. Where will he go? Well, he's staying with the Colts.
- [02:24]
Ty Schmidt
What's that?
- [02:25]
Pat McAfee
Over Adam Schefter. How the hell did this come to be? Shefty. And what do we know about the Alec Pierce Indianapolis Colts deal that I think is 116 over four years. Shefty?
- [02:37]
Adam Schefter
Is that what it is, Pat? 100. So just to confirm because you're the Insider here on your guy. The deal is done. I want to make sure.
- [02:45]
Pat McAfee
Yes, the deal is done. 116 over 4. I'm being told he's the highest paid free agent wide receiver in NFL history.
- [02:54]
Ty Schmidt
Wow.
- [02:54]
Pat McAfee
Chris Ballard. Carly Ursay opened up the checkbook. Now the deal was done. I believe this is how the game is played by the way deal is done by Mike Swenson and CJ LeBoy, who also helped facilitate the Max Crosby trade to Baltimore. You know what Max and or Mike and CJ are saying is, hey, we're in this thing, doing this thing. Adam, Alec Pierce stays in Indianapolis. D Butt. Huge news for the Colts. Now. Daniel Jones, potentially our quarterback, they put the transition tag on him last week, not the franchise tag. Other teams can still sign him and make the Colts match an offer sheet. Albert Breer was reporting this weekend that the Colts offered him the Sam Darnold deal, which would be three years, 100 million, which is about 33 PER. And then allegedly, his team said, we're looking for 50 of them tanks now, whatever he can get. We certainly want him to get played. With a broken leg and an Achilles tear last year, let him to 8 and 2. But Alec Pierce said, if Daniel Jones is a quarterback, that'll certainly make me want to come back. They had magic together.
- [03:49]
Darius Butler
D Bud, yeah, he's a game changer. Since he's come in the league, he's been a big play waiting to happen. The explosive guy. And when you look at that B roll, you look at those highlights. A ton of his highlights, his biggest plays, his best plays come against the best players and the best defenses in the league. So that's a guy that you want to keep in your building. Obviously, Chris Ballard and the Colts and the Ursas, they felt that way as well. This is a big, big signing, a big job. I know con man probably want him in New England, everybody wanted him. If you want an explosive wide receiver, he changed the game defensively. That free safety, if he's in the middle of the field, you better lean to 14 side. If you're split safety, you better be aware of where 14 is. So this is a big time sign about the Indianapolis Colts.
- [04:27]
Pat McAfee
Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the man who just signed the largest free agent wide receiver deal in NFL history, Wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts, Alec Pierce.
- [04:39]
Alec Pierce
Let's go.
- [04:39]
Pat McAfee
What up? Yo, yo.
- [04:40]
Alec Pierce
Appreciate you guys having me.
- [04:42]
Pat McAfee
Thought for sure you were gone, dude. We all did. We all did. We're so happy that you're back. Can you tell me a little bit about the process and kind of where your brain went through this all. As they transitioned tag Daniel Jones, which means they couldn't do anything to you, you set the hit to market. How did kind of the roads lead back here to Indy? We're obviously incredibly pumped about it, brother.
- [05:00]
Peter Schrager
Yeah.
- [05:01]
Alec Pierce
Now, I think, you know, with the whole tag thing, I thought. I thought initially, and my agents thought initially that we were going to be getting some type of, you know, franchise tag or. Or whatnot, and they were going to be getting a deal done with Daniel, and things kind of went that way for Daniel. So then they end up having to use a tag. So then it kind of opened it up like, oh, wow, like we're going to be the number one free agent receiver out here. So then those opportunities started flooding in, but I knew where my heart was. I knew, you know, I love the city of Indianapolis. I just. Just seeing where we were at last year, you know, early in the year, like, rolling, like, I truly believe we were the number one team in the NFL and just obviously didn't finish out the season like we should have. But, you know, I think we get. We get back to where we were. I believe in Daniel. I know they're going to get his. His deal done and lock him down. And I think we can be special.
- [05:51]
Pat McAfee
Okay, let's talk about being special, because you're right. Eight and two, number one team in the league. We had as the number one headline coming out of every single NFL weekend where the Colts are going to win the Super Bowl. That's how damn dominant you guys looked. Defensive side looked good, offense looked good. Special teams look good. A litany of injuries happened then obviously down the stretch, lose seven straigh the messaging from the team to you about like, hey, we can't go out like that. Was that ever talked about? Was that something you thought about? And why do you think this team still has the capability to go on and win the whole damn thing?
- [06:21]
Alec Pierce
Yeah, no, I think, you know, just. Just from what we did early in the year, I think you see like we had something going. We have the same pieces and it's. It's going to be. Especially offensively, I know we're going to have a lot of the same pieces and just keep on working to be better at that and just, you know, excited. We added my boy Sauce. We added him to the roster and things just kind of, you know, it felt like he got injured, you know, stuff. Stuff like that just was. Was not really rolling our way last year, which, you guys know how it is to. To really make the run and go the whole way. Like there's things outside of, you know, just football, like you got to be lucky in terms of like having people say stay healthy and. And a lot of things got to kind of fall your way. And I felt like those things didn't go our way last year, but, you know, just excited to play with like my college teammate Sauce and just, you know, a lot of other. Other things went into it, but I know we can be special.
- [07:09]
Pat McAfee
Next time you post a photo with Sauce, let's make sure he doesn't look like a fat ass. A lot of people attacking him out there, Alec. A lot of people attacking him. You getting the bag that you earned and staying here. We're all incredibly grateful. Congratulations, man. Enjoy this moment. You earned it.
- [07:23]
Alec Pierce
Yeah, appreciate you. Thanks for having me, guys.
- [07:25]
Pat McAfee
Thanks for letting us break it. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Alec Pierce. Okay, so quickly, what did you hear from him there? D butt. Whenever he was chit chatting, it was the glory days of that eight and two, which is. I think I need to find myself going back to a little bit more.
- [07:37]
Darius Butler
Yeah, it's a good run and like you said, we, we all know you gotta have a run of lucky things and being on your side to finish strong and kind of make a real push to win it all. They showed, they showed a lot of glimpses through that first half of the season. And now you get the whole gang back together.
- [07:51]
Pat McAfee
That'll help knock on to the Patriots.
- [07:53]
Darius Butler
Yeah. Too bad.
- [07:55]
Pat McAfee
He said a lot of opportunities start flooding in. I didn't even want him to say one of them was Vcon because I think he would have really liked Rabel. Happy you didn't talk to him if that was the case and at all. But him coming back home, big deal. I thought Patri were certainly a place that he could go to. Especially because how good Drake can throw the deep ball. Drake is a great deep ball thrower and they're building something and have cash, obviously Colts keeping them huge for us
- [08:15]
Boston Connor
and just a team that needs wide receiver. He mentioned he was the number one wide receiver target in free agency for all of the entire NFL. I think a lot of people connected Luke Fickle, his college coach in Cincinnati with Mike Vrabel. So that was big. Him mentioning Dan Jones kind of there getting a deal done. There something being there that is also kind of very promising for Cole.
- [08:35]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, he said that they're going to get a deal done. Okay, so maybe Albert Brier thing about he want 50 million he wants $50 million.
- [08:42]
Boston Connor
Maybe not true.
- [08:42]
Pat McAfee
I mean, maybe he does though. Got a broken leg. If he can get it, go ahead and get it. Let's head over to the free agency fun zone. I believe Dan Orlovsky and Schrags both have some thoughts on Alec Pierce, who was the bell of the ball in the wide receiver market. Staying in Indianapolis, boys. What's going on, Pat?
- [08:58]
Peter Schrager
First one out of the gates is obviously Alec Pierce. We're keeping an eye on Mike Evans, we're keeping an eye on a couple others here. But Dan wanted to break down a little bit of film and I think we got to show how he actually is the deep threat guy that everyone was covet.
- [09:10]
Dan Orlovsky
Cook here, Foxy. Okay, let's cook here. So in 2024, I think he was 22.3 yards per catch last year, 21.3. But I want to point out. So this is Pierce. Okay, so everyone paid attention to a one on one situation where when you're talking about like big plays down the field by Alec Pierce, okay, sometimes it's versus really good corners. Play this Foxy because I want you guys now freeze this, Foxy. So he's got what, pretty bad leverage. He's running a corner route, meaning he wants to go to this back pylon. Stingley, one of the best corners in football is outside leverage. So you can let it ride Foxy. Now he's got to win and get his head back. This is really good awareness by Alec Pierce of understanding like the route. Okay, now you're going to get a post route on the right side. Okay. He's going to be on our right side of the screen. Post route. Now freeze it, Foxy. This is the big deal to me. As you go down the field as a receiver, you could play it. You don't want to create. Freeze it.
- [10:01]
Pat McAfee
Okay.
- [10:01]
Dan Orlovsky
You don't want to create contact yourself here. He does a nice job. Instead of just running into the corner and creating contact, he avoids that corner and that corner doesn't have the opportunity to get hands on him. Then you allow the big speed play at Foxy to be the factor down the field. That's where that 21 plus yards per catch come into play. And so I think he's done a nice job with his route running or understanding. Like, yes, I'm big and physical. I could catch some of these one on one throws that we see down the field. But also not just getting into contact with defensive backs just because. So while he is a big play receiver, like this is awesome. He's a big play receiver, there's no doubt about it. But the fact that he can be a big play receiver and fight through some of that contact but also avoid it down the field, I think took him from, hey, he's a big, tall, athletic guy that can make plays down the field with his speed to a way more nuanced complete wide receiver. It's a big signing for Indy to keep him. I loved him in New York and I loved him in New England.
- [10:59]
Peter Schrager
I would add this. You know, you look at Alec Pierce, you think of him more. He looks like he's like a lacrosse player or whatever it is. This guy is a dangerous deep threat. The defensive coordinators have to worry about the list of wide receivers now as I'm going through my big board here that are available in free agency to keep an eye on Rashid Shahid, Juwan Jennings, Wanda Robinson, Mike Evans, Romeo Dubs, Devo Samuel. It is a loaded class and teams are looking to spend. Keep it right here.
- [11:23]
Pat McAfee
Pat Dubs in the chat. We appreciate you Shrags and Dano over there in the free agency fun zone. Now we Alec Pierce, obviously, Shrags just rattled off a bunch of names that are potentially coming. Let's head into, you know, the news, actually, and see how he's doing. Shefty Alec Pierce gets signed early. What else should we be looking for out of your Twitter account?
- [11:43]
Adam Schefter
Well, I think right now we're waiting on a number of deals. The wide receivers will come into focus. You heard Peter mention Mike Evans. We expect clarity there in this show. Rasheed Shahid wouldn't be a surprise there. Juwan Jennings is out there. Looks like the Niners will be losing Juwan Jennings at this point in time. Wanda Robinson out there has interest from a few teams. A lot of people have pointed to Tennessee as a natural fit. With Brian Davis as the offensive coordinator in Tennessee wanting to get back his former wide receiver, we'll see whether they can get a deal done at some point in time. And I do think the Rams are going to be busy here this afternoon as well.
- [12:18]
Pat McAfee
Okay, Shefte, on one final note. You broke Max Crosby on Friday. Congratulations. Okay, let's talk about that Max Crosby trade, shall we? Because we haven't really gotten a chance to take a bite out of the apple. Baltimore Ravens take a huge swing and bring in the Energizer Bunny, a guy who is considered a goat, considered a great. We've never got a chance to see him in primetime games. He' he's obviously been the heart of a Raider and the pillar of the Raiders organization since he got there. Now going over to the Baltimore Ravens feels like a perfect fit, honestly. Feels like a perfect fit. This morning Dan Orlovsky said, all right, there ain't no more excuses anymore. And Lamar Jackson responded with, like, there's never excuses. Dan, what do we even talk about with a sig with looking? So I don't know what all the emojis mean. I don't know if Lamar wants to smoke with Dan Orlovsky or if he's saying that Dan Orlovsky smoking, which we. I tried to get him to this morning. I must say he did not. So we don't know what this is saying. But what we do know, Max Crosby going to the Ravens is a huge move by them. And Minter now has Derwin James or Derwin James, Kyle Hamilton and he also has what Khalil Mack now Max Crosby, amongst other things. Feels like they're loading up for a defense that's about to be back to greatness again next year.
- [13:27]
Darius Butler
Yeah, they got great players on every level of that defense. Under a tree, underachieved last year. They were pretty bad last year. Near the bottom of the league when it comes to pass rush and sacks. And when you think the Baltimore Ravens in that defense, that's kind of the first thing you think about. Violent and then getting after the quarterback. So I know you have a guy who's an absolute game changer. Whenever you're trading two first round picks, you want to change that for a guy who changes the math. So when you bring in a guy like Sauce like we did, that guy got to be able to shut down one side of the field if it's a pass rusher. You have to change pass protections and impact the game even when you're not getting sacks. And you got to be able to affect the run game as well. So they're talented on all levels. We know the mind that Jesse Mentor is when it comes to calling defense and setting them up, this is, I think this is a good move. You swing for the fences. When you have a quarterback like Lamar Jackson and yeah, when you win a couple MVPs, definitely no excuse for. For the quarterback and he knows that as well.
- [14:19]
Pat McAfee
Got a couple of these guys who are going to go down as greats, you know, that don't have Super Bowls. Josh Allen, the heats on Lamar, the heats on Joey B. The heats on this is just the life as an NFL quarterback. There was a little bit of odd shift whenever Max Crosby goes to Baltimore. We've seen quarterbacks go to new teams and the super bowl odds not change at all. Max Crosby, the Condor, the takes no plays off and he's relentlessly annoying everybody on the field at all times. Change the math for the super bowl odds, Tone.
- [14:44]
Tone
Yeah. Going before the trade happened, the Buffalo Bills were the favorites to win the afc. After the trade happened, the Ravens are now tied with the Buffalo Bills to win the afc. They are behind the Rams and the Seahawks as far as overall super bowl odds go. But right after the Seahawks, right after the Rams, then goes the Bills and the Ravens, who are now tied to win the afc. Their third, third and fourth, respectively, to win the Super Bowl.
- [15:09]
Pat McAfee
Super bowl odds change on that side for the Raiders. They had $83 million in cap space on Friday at noon. Now 110 million, okay, after the moves that they make. So that's obviously great for them. We like seeing or thinking of Max Crosby playing in football. That matters, Ty.
- [15:23]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, I mean, we've been saying that for years on end now. And it kind of got to the point where we say that every single off season or around the trade deadline and it just never happened for whatever reason. But it's awesome that they finally pull the trigger. And just, you know, speaking from personal experience, you look back to last year, like if you're a fan, you know, Micah Parsons comes in and you feel that effect immediately. You feel it immediately makes everybody else better too. So if you're a Ravens fan, you're in seventh heaven this morning.
- [15:48]
Pat McAfee
Let's go to free agency. Fun zone. Shrag's. Who all was in for Max Crosby? I heard a lot of names. Cowboys, I heard maybe, maybe Patriots, Bears, Bears. Maybe instead it ends up being the Ravens. Did we know this, Shrek?
- [16:02]
Boston Connor
No.
- [16:02]
Peter Schrager
Several teams were involved with this one and the Ravens early on Friday did offer those two first round picks. What's interesting is no one else was able to match that. So the Raiders were dangling it a little bit and the Ravens become the destination. And I will add this. Jesse Minter comes from the Los Angeles Chargers. Played against Max Crosby four different times. In all four of those games, Max Crosby wrecked shop. The offensive coordinator in Baltimore is Now Declan Doyle, 29 years old, a wizkid offensive coordinator. Everyone thinks of him as a Bears coach, but no, he was with the Denver Broncos, where, oh, by the way, every time that they faced them, he was absolutely dominating them against the Broncos as well. So Max Crosby, that is your guy and he goes to Baltimore where they are thrilled and you better believe he'll be the last One out of the tunnel doing the Ray Lewis dance when they introduced them at MNT Bankfield, Dan Orlovsky.
- [16:49]
Pat McAfee
You talk about Joe Burrow having to send a message to Jamar Chase saying, hey, just a heads up, Myles Garrett, TJ Watt, and now Max Crosby. The AFC north is hot in the kitchen. Dano.
- [17:00]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, and I think that's kind of the.
- [17:01]
Pat McAfee
Why did you say to Lamar Jackson that there's been excuses before? Sounds like you don't think Lamar's right. What is Lamar saying to you in that tweet? You think, do you think he knows you look this cool? What do you think he is saying to you in there?
- [17:15]
Dan Orlovsky
I don't, I don't know what he's saying to me. I can confirm that you tried to get me to smoke this morning, but I chose not to. I think it's just, it's just like a figure, like he said it himself. It's just like a figure of speech in a way of like, hey, there's always pressure on Lamar, there's always pressure on Joe, there's always pressure on Josh Allen. Like there's always going to be. But when the organization moves off from a great head coach, brings in another offensive system and then takes future picks and says, all right, we want this guy, Max Crosby, who's been one of the best defensive players in football, it's just another sign of like, they're not sitting here saying, hey, we're going to ease our way into it. It's like, hey, Lamar, you're still in your prime. Let's go get this done, finally. And so maybe it's the one missing piece, that's all. It's like, hey, we're running out of things to reason why it hasn't happened. Josh Allen's in the same boat. There's no doubt about it. They fired Sean McDermott and hired the offensive coordinator, Joe Brady. So I think both of those guys are even more elevated than what they've been in the past. Josh and Lamar have been in the same boat. The most under pressure quarterback in the NFL for the last three seasons or so. This is a huge move. Just like Buffalo getting DJ Moore. So, yeah, I would say this. We all grew up in the era playing against Baltimore where it was like you walked into Terrell Suggs and it was like, oh, gosh, dude, we got to play against Suggs. This is like their generation of Terrell Suggs. He just sounds and plays like a Raven, you know, Max embodies a lot of what that organization's about. So I sat here this morning and said, buffalo, what's your move? You can't sit Pat. Kansas City, what's your move? Cincinnati, what's your move? You can't just sit back and watch Colts.
- [18:59]
Boston Connor
What's your move?
- [19:00]
Pat McAfee
We sign Alec Peters. Yeah, yeah.
- [19:03]
Dan Orlovsky
I just. I think these teams, like Baltimore's not sitting around and waiting for everybody. I love the fact that they did it.
- [19:08]
Peter Schrager
I'll add this, Pat. You were talking about the Cowboys. They were definitely involved. And then two first rounders they weren't giving up two first rounders for.
- [19:14]
Dan Orlovsky
Well, it would have been silly because they got two first rounders for Micah. So why not just keep Micah?
- [19:19]
Pat McAfee
I mean, you decide what's silly and then we'll see who the eye of the beholder is. That's the free agency fun zone over there. We appreciate them doing that. Another fun move to a tong of aloha gone. Okay, we're talking about $99 million now of dead cap. That's about to hit 67 of it next year. So $67 million dead cap is obviously the biggest that a team has ever accrued for one particular season for one player. Remember the Russell Wilson situation? It was like $40 million or something like that. $50 million, never been done before. Now salary caps up over 301 mil. These teams are living a dream. We got more money than we ever thought we could have. It bumped up 20 million. Not supposed to bump up that much. So they've projected what their contracts could be and can be. They end up with a little bit more money. And down there in Miami in the post Chris Greer era and the new Green Bay packers run down there, they say we can take 67 million dollar hit this year, right? 67. That'd be the biggest in the history of the game. That'd be a lot of money, bro. 301 salary. Yeah, start doing the math. That's a large percentage of money that we're not able to have. Sean Payton just did it in deadpool. You're right. Get us out of here.
- [20:21]
Boston Connor
Let's do it.
- [20:22]
Pat McAfee
Cut him. $99 million cap, 32 million. Next year they'll take in dead cap hit for Tua Tongvaloa as they continue to move on D butt South Florida. Brad Connie, hall of Famer, your thoughts on the TUA era down there in Miami and what comes next for the Dolphins?
- [20:37]
Darius Butler
I mean, obviously you hate how it ended. Miami, the Dolphins in particular have been looking for that guy since Dan Marino. Honestly, it's been a revolving door at the quarterback position. Been over, what, damn near 25 years since they've gotten a playoff victory. And then you thought once he got paid and then he had the kind of MVP run, you thought it was going up, but it didn't. It kind of went all downhill. And now with Halfley over there and Sully, a lot of the signs kind of point to Malik Willis being their next guy potentially. Or maybe they just go for their next quarterback in the draft. Kind of alarming. They couldn't get anything for him. Nobody was calling to trade and get number one in that building. But we shall see. Man, I hated how it ended up, but just like the Post said, thanks for the memories down in Miami. Tua.
- [21:19]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, shout out to Tua. And also shout out to a man who might have a little bit more information on this. Let's head into the free agency frenzy zone with Adam Schefter. Schefter, how'd they come to this decision? 99 million in dead cattle.
- [21:31]
Adam Schefter
Well, let's give you an idea of what's going on in Miami right now with Tua and the Dolphins. I think the Dolphins, obviously they'll be dipping their toes into the Malik Willis market. I think that they are going to be a team that is interested in Malik Willis. It's a question of whether or not they can work out a deal with him. But I think the Dolphins would be square in play. Jeff Hathley, the head coach, John Eric Sullivan, the gm got a firsthand up close look at Tua or at Malik Willis. Malik Willis in practice last year in Green Bay. As for Tua Tungavailoa, he is definitely going to be interested in joining the Atlanta Falcons. They're interested in him and you could just see it right now. Two left handed quarterbacks in the atl. Michael Penix, Tua Tungavailoa. You don't have to adjust the offense very much. They need help with Penix coming off that knee injury. Tua could be that guy. So Tua is set loose today and again I think he's supposed to talk to the Falcons this afternoon. We'll see if they can get a deal worked out. Where he goes in there shouldn't be an expensive deal. The Dolphins are already paying him guaranteed money. So. So again, Tua could be in line in Atlanta and I think that the. I think that the Dolphins will be in on Malik Willis and I think
- [22:43]
Pat McAfee
I'm getting a text message right now that I can't talk about this anymore. Heading to the Falcons. We appreciate you, Schefter. That's Very fascinating, you know, because the small deal for the veteran quarterback who's getting paid elsewhere, once again, Russell Wilson kind of mastered that with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Steelers were able to get Russell Wilson for 1.2 million bucks or whatever the case is. Kyler Murray also in discussions to be in that particular convo. Two available Kyler available. Kirk allegedly going to be available. D. Bud, it sounds like we're getting another wave of those second generation quarterbacks, maybe getting another crack at the apple.
- [23:12]
Darius Butler
Yeah, Geno Smith as well. I mean, look, these guys, you know, they are talented. You've seen them play at a high level in the league at some period in time. So, you know, they're talented. You know, they can get it done. But we've seen it in quarterbacks of the past. Sometimes you just got to be in the right system, got to be the right coach. You got to have the right players around you as well. You know, you have the talent there. If the money can make sense for the team, why not bring them in and give them a shot and we'll see, you know, where these guys end up.
- [23:37]
Boston Connor
Well, and you mentioned, you know, that massive cap hit that the Broncos took on, they decided to go with a rookie quarterback for the Dolphins. It is. If it's not Malik Willis, this is probably the time to have a cheap, you know, veteran quarterback available. There's five of them we've listed off TUA being one of them. So four, really, for the Dolphins to kind of choose from. So having that massive cap hit definitely sucks, but at least now you have a couple options to replace.
- [24:01]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I love the thought of Tua going and having success and going back and hanging 70 on people. I. I love the thought. I like the thought of Kyler going to a Kevin OConnell offense and throwing for 500 a game, 300 a game. But we also have to remember, some of these guys might just suck at football.
- [24:18]
Boston Connor
True.
- [24:19]
Pat McAfee
I don't want to say that today, because today is about dreams coming true. Chef D. Tweed. Somebody got a bag. Who is it? Kenneth.
- [24:29]
Adam Schefter
Kenneth Walker going to the Kansas City Chiefs. He obviously was going to be moving on. The Chiefs have had a need in the backfield. Questions about whether they'd be getting Jeremiah Love at the number nine slot. So Kenneth Walker will be going to the Kansas City Chiefs, solidifying their backfield.
- [24:44]
Pat McAfee
Okay. I love that Schefter. Way to go. Hey. Thank you, Sheffield. Now he's back at it, by the way. Now he's back at it. Okay, so Kenneth Walker signs with the Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously.
- [24:54]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [24:55]
Pat McAfee
Let's go to the free agency fun zone. Shregs, how come the Chiefs are in on everybody? That's cool. Super Bowl MVP is heading to the Chiefs. It feels like this is a repeat story.
- [25:04]
Peter Schrager
Well, we also saw that Travis Kelce is likely coming back, which is great news as well. That's the rumors here. But Kenneth Walker, he had a market. This is a guy who had a market with various teams but they focused in on the Kansas City Chiefs. His agent, David Cantor got him right before the playoff run. Think about that. He fired his agent right before the playoff run. Signs with a new agent, goes on and has that incredible tear, goes and wins super bowl mvp. And he had his choices. The numbers will be coming in shortly. They will be very strong. Strong enough where it was worth leaving the Seattle Seahawks to go to the Kansas City Chiefs. Big addition from Brett Veach who if you remember went and did a big signing with Sammy Watkins a few years back which really got things going for the Chiefs and that dynasty.
- [25:43]
Pat McAfee
Shregs, I love that. Dano, tell me a little bit about what this could do for Patrick Mahomes. Nobody's really talking about Patrick Mahomes. I just saw him post some photos. Travis Kelce coming back into the world. Nobody's really talking about the Chiefs being who the Chiefs is. Sportsbook still haven't met the fifth best odds because I think they have respect. But whenever you talk about general football convo in the AFC they're not really talking about does this change that you think is this an Andy Reid weapon that could change everything for him. Dan O.
- [26:06]
Dan Orlovsky
100%. The slide of the Chiefs offense over the last two or three years is directly correlated to them not being able to run the football really at all. Last year they were the only team in the NFL to not have a back average more than 4 yards per carry and they were the only they had a back have one carry for more than 20 yards. So this was a three it at all cost football team. Now you're looking at a Kansas City offense that Eric Bienami's back. They want to get more 50, 50 balanced, 60, 40 balanced. We'll see what Patrick's health is coming off of the acl. Maybe they'll have to be a little bit more reliant on running the football early on. And so this is kind of the trend in the wave of the NFL of exactly kind of, you know how offense has to get played. You got to be able to run the football. Kansas City has not been able to to the last Two years. So this is a really important signing. Also means Jeremiah. They don't think Jeremiah Love, they're back from Notre Dame is going to get the number 9 pick.
- [27:02]
Pat McAfee
Jeremiah ran a 4, 3 and then he did all the workouts and all the drills and he is outrageous. Obviously need a good run game. Tone, what are the Chiefs looking like from the sportsbooks perspective?
- [27:12]
Tone
So yeah, we just mentioned the Ravens who are now tied with the Buffalo Bills for the best odds to win the afc. Right behind them are the Kansas City Chiefs. So while yes, the Chiefs are being quiet right now because they had one of the worst seasons that they've had in over a decade as far as like us and media and people talking about them, the sports bucks still believe that the Chiefs are one of the three best teams in the afc. They're tied for fifth as far as odds are concerned to win the Super Bowl.
- [27:34]
Pat McAfee
We met Schneider. He can't throw a football for shit, but the guy can build a football team. Him moving on from Kenneth Walker, we were all like, that sucks. Super bowl mvp. He just came on late because Charbonnet got injured. They're assuming that Charbonnet is going to be able to be back into what he was. But we watched Kenneth Walker at Michigan State. State feels like every time Kenneth Walker gets the ball he, he's doing something with it like legitimately since I've known of his existence.
- [27:57]
Darius Butler
Oh yeah.
- [27:57]
Pat McAfee
Every time I've seen him have a football, he's been doing something with it. So for him to win a Super Bowl MVP and MB up, good for him. But Schneider had to made a tough decision kind of letting him go. And Andy Reid and Veech were just waiting for it I guess.
- [28:09]
Boston Connor
Well, and just talk about a culture guy like you're getting somebody who goes in and knows what it takes to win a Super Bowl. And when you talk about just his numbers in general because of the Charbonnet thing, there's a good six week run where a running joke on the Internet was how Kenneth Walker would get every single yard down to the goal line and then Charbonnet would basically take it home. So for the Chiefs to get him, that's massive. And now, you know, we mentioned Jeremiah Love. They have the ninth pick, they can get one of the top O linemen. You know, the O line has been a big question for them over the past few years, especially after trading Joe Tunney to the Bears. So them being able to then focus on that during the draft is even bigger for that team.
- [28:43]
Pat McAfee
The draft should be bananas. We cannot Wait to be in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for all of that. It's going to be special time, special night. And a lot of these teams are at the top, have a lot of money, you know. So what does the draft look like after this free agency spending period? To be honest, it's been kind of quiet. I don't know if you guys saw. Pelicero reported that in the last league meetings, there was a vote to Pittsburgh Steelers, I believe, put together where they could have an hour where they could talk to some of these free agents that they were looking to sign. In the past, it was just the agents, the agents, the agents, the agents. And you didn't even talk to the player before giving them 100 million, $200 million. Now there's something going on where you get an hour to talk to five different free agent prospects. So I wondered if that was going to slow down a free agency frenzy at noon, because guys that were supposed to give massive bags. Let's go ahead and do a double check and then roll it into hour two, maybe even hour three, which we will certainly be here for. Tom Pelisser, A subtle, subtle but significant change. When the NFL's free agent negotiating window opens on Monday. For the first time, clubs may conduct one video or phone call, maximum one hour with without five free agents. So these guys that they used to just give money to without even knowing, just being told by their agents and other things, now they get a chance to chat with them. This feels smart. Yes. Yeah, this feels like a smart move. That's why the Alec Pierce deal is so easy to make happen. The Kenneth Walker deal, I assume is easy because that was given earlier than that combine to get a chance to chat and kind of learn about it. It's a crazy last year's free agency frenzy. This is before they were even allowed to talk to guys. Okay. Not even allowed to have a hello with these guys. $2.84 billion in contracts. Yeah, that's Monday through Wednesday. Last year's free agency frenzy. D line won today, which is kind of an indicator of what the league is. You need four ones up front. So the D line gonna get paid. 862 million last year. Secondary 804May.
- [30:22]
Darius Butler
Hey, DB I like another corners got a bag.
- [30:27]
Pat McAfee
Who's that?
- [30:28]
Darius Butler
Trent McDuffie.
- [30:29]
Pat McAfee
Oh, yeah, he did. He just became the highest out here. 31 million. Trent McDuffie gets traded and then he becomes the highest paid corner corner in history at $31 million a year. There was also a corner down in Jacksonville that just got paid earlier Today, Buster Brown.
- [30:41]
Darius Butler
Buster Brown, Eric Brown.
- [30:43]
Pat McAfee
It does feel like D line dbs. If you can buy them and get them, you certainly try to do that. It has become a trend to the free agency frenzy.
- [30:51]
Darius Butler
Yeah, absolutely. If you look at the Rams, they. They kind of went DB by committee. A bunch of zone coverage. Only rush with four. So you needed kind of. But that kind of exposed them late in the end. Sam Darnold took advantage of it in that NFC championship game. Just kind of find their holes. So now you have a guy, Trent McDuffie, who can kind of probably get you over that hump. He can play, man. He can match up with number one receivers whether they're on the outside or on the inside. He's a tough guy. You talk about Kenneth Walker having that culture and know the wins takes to win the championship. Trent won two and now he's going over to the Rams and hopefully get them to the promised land again.
- [31:23]
Pat McAfee
Let's talk about another corner. Stokes just renegotiated a new deal with the Raiders. He's getting $30 million as well. Not a year, but he's getting a $30 million three year, $30 million deal with $20 million guaranteed. Says Ian Rapoport of N is also.
- [31:38]
Jordan Stout
Wait a minute.
- [31:39]
Pat McAfee
ESPN, I think.
- [31:40]
Boston Connor
Yeah. Uniting houses.
- [31:42]
Pat McAfee
Oh, yeah. Coming together. I Did you even see Shefty quote
- [31:44]
Boston Connor
tweeted interesting interest to outright retweets.
- [31:48]
Pat McAfee
They put their source swords aside.
- [31:50]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [31:51]
Pat McAfee
And said, hey, we can maybe go ahead and do this thing. So another corner gets paid. I think there's a lot of names potentially that we're not going to know that are going to get paid. Which leads me to go back to the free agency fund zone Shregs. A lot of money to go. Not a lot of names that we're going to find out. A lot of wealthy unknown folks seemingly going to be a storyline of this free agency frenzy.
- [32:10]
Peter Schrager
Yeah, look, this is it. The salary cap went pat from 280 to 301 million. And there are not dazzling names all over at every position group. But teams have to spend the money. So there will be guys who you look at and you say, what? I think Alec Pierce raised eyebrows. I think when Kenneth Walker's number comes in, it'll raise eyebrows. There are several that are going to go today and you're going to be surprised by how much money they're making. Throw that out the window. Realize that teams have to spend the money and they want to do so to fill out their team and hit that salary cap number. A lot of names are being in my phone right now. I know Adam's on it as well. I would expect Mike Evans in the next hour or so to announce where he is going. Whether he goes back to Tampa or explores a new option for the final chapter of his career.
- [32:49]
Pat McAfee
Shefty has hit the Internet. He is saying Cade Otten is returning to Tampa Bay, per source. Shefty, what's the deal with Kate Otten in Tampa Bay? As we hear, Mike Evans probably hitting
- [33:03]
Adam Schefter
market, one of a number of good tight ends in the free agent market. We've got a number of them out there. Chiga Konkwu's out there, Isaiah likely is out there, and Kate Otten didn't waste any time. He's going back to Tampa. And you heard Peter reference Mike Evans. It's a situation where if they lose him, you want to retain some continuity on offense. So important that they get back Kate Otten, and they now are doing that as we speak, finalizing that deal.
- [33:28]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so right now you're staring at your phone, waiting for the numbers to come through, like, so you'll get a text that says, yup, Kade's going back to Tampa. And then another text comes from another person who tells you what it's worth. She. Is that what we're watching right now?
- [33:40]
Adam Schefter
We're waiting for a number of moves, Pat. I think all these teams are checking in. And by the way, there were people that thought certain players were going certain places and agents are doing what they do. They're trying to extract better terms before they can get a deal done. So this is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out here in the coming hours.
- [33:58]
Pat McAfee
Here, Shefty, quick question for you. That hour long interview that teams are allowed to have with free agents, now, that's a new rule. Has that been a affecting any of this and are any of the teams doing that right now?
- [34:07]
Adam Schefter
I don't think it matters. I think these. These teams know what they're trying to do and they have an idea of which players they want to get signed.
- [34:16]
Pat McAfee
God, you look so cool over there, Chef. Yeah.
- [34:18]
Adam Schefter
You know what it looks like, Pat? You know what it looks like? It looks like Nightline. I feel like I'm doing Nightline from the Thunderdome.
- [34:25]
Pat McAfee
Well, basically it's daytime, but this thing can roll into the night. If you are, you're in where all the chaos is. So we try to depict that, and we think it's awesome. It really. It really paints a perfect picture for what's going on in your brain over there. There's a little bit of lightning, a little bit of thunder. Certainly some news and a lot to do. Okay. Okay. Give me off tv, please. Thank you. Thank you.
- [34:43]
Jordan Stout
Thank you.
- [34:43]
Pat McAfee
Got conversations to be had. Kate Otten remains with Tampa Bay. Mike Evans potentially on the move. You know, renegotiations. That has to be Alec Pierce. Alec Pierce. They thought he was heading maybe some other place. So now New England's able to probably open up that money. If they were the landing spot. Where does that go? That's kind of the frenziness of the free agency frenzy. Con man.
- [35:02]
Boston Connor
Well, let alone just the numbers itself. Like I wonder how many people thought Alec Pierce might have and, you know, 25, 26 million. All of a sudden his deal comes in at 29. Does that, you know, affect Mike Evans, some of those other guys, Rashid Shahid, you know him in Seattle, they said tried to get a deal done before free agency, couldn't get it done. You wonder if they now kind of bump their numbers up by a million or two just because of the fact that Alec Pierce got paid. And I'm sure Kate Otten will do the same for some of those other tight ends.
- [35:27]
Pat McAfee
A couple deals that happened over the weekend that we have to hit. Khalil Mack reached a one year agreement for $18 million, fully guaranteed to go back to the Chargers. That's a good win for Khalil and for the char.
- [35:37]
Darius Butler
Feels like, yes, obviously a good football player on the field, but what he brings to that, building the weight room, we all, we, we got a tour around it. Absolutely. Great. Resigning, I think for the, for the Chargers.
- [35:49]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, that we set the stage for free agency with a lot of deals that happen. I know you guys heard this. Eddie pinero and the 49ers, they reworked the deal. Good for him. Appreciative of him. Packers and tackle Sean ryan reach a 3 year, $33 million deal, up to 39 million, $11 million signing bonus. Gotta love that the packers are spending money on the big boys.
- [36:08]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, absolutely. And they're gonna to center, I believe, which is where he started like the last nine games of the year and was really good. So they're probably going to get rid of Elton Jenkins and he'll be their starting center.
- [36:18]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so we have some updates on the Kenneth Walker signing. Ari Miro has accrued some information. He says it's three years worth, up to 45 million, about 15 million a year. Let's assume it's 12 to 13 million each year. That feels like a very good price for Kenneth Walker and Once again, anytime anybody signs with Chiefs, they know the super bowl is an opportunity. So they're always going to utilize that as negotiation in the backdrop.
- [36:39]
Darius Butler
Absolutely. This was the move. Dan Omit mentioned it earlier when we were talking about the Crosby trade. Okay, Chiefs, what's your move? Bills, what's your move? So this was a big move. I think it's a big swing. We talked about Patrick Mahomes. He was the leading rusher for the Chiefs way too many times. And then him with coming off injury, you definitely want to protect him more. And I think Kenneth Walker, I know he was splitting carries and splitting touches with Charbonnet, but that'll bode well, I believe, for his future. Keeping those legs kind of fresh got him in a new deal which he absolutely earned. Not only does he help that run game game, but he's an absolute monster in the past game and that screen game as well. Andy Reid has always been a beast when it comes to dialing up perfect screens. So I think this is a perfect timing.
- [37:19]
Pat McAfee
A new deal has been done. Chiefs cornerback former corner Jalen Watson has reached an agreement today on a three year deal with the Los Angeles Rams. Shout out to Colin Roberts of Excel. The Rams now will have two former Chiefs corners, Watson and McDuffie. McDuffie just became the highest paid corner in the game with 31 million after being traded to the Los Angeles Rams. Now we got Jalen Watson over there. Let's head back to Shefty. Shefty, what are the Rams doing? Cooking? I would say.
- [37:44]
Adam Schefter
Yeah, they're cooking and obviously they're taking the Chiefs cornerbacks right now. And it's a situation where he is going to play one corner. Trent McDuffie is going to be the other corner. And the Rams have loaded up in the secondary. They are importing their cornerbacks from Kansas City. More coming up right now. Pat, hold on.
- [38:01]
Pat McAfee
I love that Shefty. Keep working. Keep pounding the buttons on your phone there. Let's head right over to the free agency fun zone. You know, Shregs, we know you're tight with the Rams. They're super bowl favorites and they're in the middle of cooking right now. What do you know?
- [38:12]
Peter Schrager
Corner was their biggest priority. They get Trent McDuffie to get Jalen Watson. Great signings for them. But I'm also going to go back to the Kenneth Walker because I think the 15 or the 45 over three years might be a little misleading. The key to the Kenneth Walker deal, $28.7 million fully guaranteed. So that's where the money really is. It's the guaranteed money. That's what the agents worked on. They said, okay, the overall is fine, whatever. But the guaranteed money for Kenneth Walker, he had options. As for Jalen Watson, Shefte and I were talking before the show. Rams have been in the free agent market as far as corner goes. Jalen Watson, Trent McDuffie, you basically take that Kansas City duo, you put them in a forklift and you put them right there in Los Angeles. You plop them in there, they're set. It also means they can go a different direction with that 13th overall pick they have from Atlanta.
- [38:59]
Boston Connor
Yeah.
- [38:59]
Dan Orlovsky
So in relation with Kenneth Walker to Kansas City, I'll just reiterate. Reiterate. What D butt touched on is like Baltimore kind of set the table this offseason saying, nope, we're still in the fight. Kansas City's matched it. Buffalo's a little bit. I still think Buffalo needs to go do a defensive move. And now the Rams on the NFC side have said no. We believe, because there was conversation with the Rams of, okay, are they going to take a quarterback in round one and start the springboard after Matthew Stafford. Stafford and kind of not try to have a drop back. And I think the Rams. Rams watched how last season played out and said, we thought we were the best team in the NFL, and we still think that this is a very real super bowl window. They trade for McDuffie, they signed Watson. If I were I, I wouldn't be surprised if the Rams try to get Mike Evans from Tampa Bay, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Rams try to sign Trey Hendrickson as a pass rusher.
- [39:49]
Pat McAfee
Mike Evans to the Rams.
- [39:51]
Dan Orlovsky
Absolutely. Absolutely. I would not be surprised if the Rams are in to try to sign Mike Evans and sign Trey Hendrickson.
- [39:59]
Pat McAfee
All right, That's a free agency fun zone over there. Jay's breaking a lot of hearts in a lot of different cities. Mike Evans with Matthew Stafford and Puka. Is Tay still there? Yeah, I think we got him muted. Do we have Dano muted right now? I don't know. He just started yelling, Dan, is Tay still over there?
- [40:15]
Dan Orlovsky
Devonte is still there. And so I think that they look at their offense and you saw what Devonte came over and did for them in the red zone. Went on one on one. Could you imagine this Rams offense, if you give them Devonte, Adams, Puka and Mike one on one, won't be able to stop him.
- [40:32]
Pat McAfee
I heard Shefte yelling, let's go, let's go. Let's go. Ladies and Gentlemen, the commanders and Laramie Tunzel have agreed on a new two year, $60.2 million deal. Let's head right to Shefty who's crawling out of his skin to talk about it.
- [40:47]
Adam Schefter
Okay. We got a bigger one than that, Pat that just came in. Jalen Phillip, 4 year, $120 million deal with the Carolina Panthers. That just gets done. That just gets done. 4 years, 120 million on Jalen Phillips. So one of the best pass rushers in the market. This is gonna have some implications here cuz there are a lot of people in the pass rush market. By the way, the WI fi in this room, Pat, is not working very well. No, I gotta tell you something, I'm trying to get things out here. It's not working.
- [41:17]
Pat McAfee
No. No way. It's thousand up, thousand down. Chef D, it might be your stuff, not ours.
- [41:22]
Boston Connor
Wow.
- [41:23]
Pat McAfee
On that note, 4 year, 120 million, 80 million in guaranteed. The Carolina Panthers say how you doing? Keep it moving. I love demo making the play. I love Tepper making the play. I like Canales doing his thing. They were close last year, started seeing success, they started filling up the stadium and now they double down and let's keep this thing going. Jaylen Phillips is an absolute monster heading to Carolina.
- [41:46]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, without a doubt. And like Shetty said, I think everyone just assumed like, oh, he's going to be going, going back to Philly no matter what. But this is the kind of move we talked about it all last year with Carolina Esco football team. These are the type of moves that you can envision them going from a good football team to a great football team. So what a splash from the start here.
- [42:01]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. D. But how do you feel about the Jalen Phillips signing for the Carolina Panthers down there in Charlotte? We're starting to take football real serious all of a sudden.
- [42:08]
Darius Butler
Yeah, first round pick when he came over to the Eagles.
- [42:10]
Pat McAfee
Seriously, we're starting to take football real serious.
- [42:12]
Boston Connor
They're going in.
- [42:13]
Darius Butler
Yeah, he was dominant and this is a premium position. You have one of the the best cornerbacks in the league on that defense with J.C. horn. And now you get a dynamic pass rusher and also a guy who's good against the run. So this is a huge, huge signing for the Panthers.
- [42:25]
Pat McAfee
Hey, Carolina Panthers.
- [42:26]
Darius Butler
Wow.
- [42:27]
Boston Connor
That's a good football team.
- [42:28]
Pat McAfee
That's a good football team. Cheers to them getting that job done. That's going to be a boost to that entire building. Let's head over to the free agency fun zone. What are your thoughts on this move? Shregs Carolina Panthers are real in Dano. That NFC south all of a sudden might be running through to Queen City.
- [42:45]
Peter Schrager
I gotta tell you, humbly, I'm surprised. I thought he was going back to Philly guys. I really did. I thought that was the plan to keep their own guys. I didn't see the Carolina offer coming in. That's the beauty of the free agent frenzy. We do this for a living. We're on our phones all day long. Carolina is truly a surprise to me and hats off to them for keeping it close to the vest. A major swing. 0evero. Their defensive coordinator, one of the most respected guys in the league, also known for his defensive backfield stuff. But they are putting together a nice little front.
- [43:12]
Pat McAfee
Sorry, sorry.
- [43:13]
Peter Schrager
What do we got?
- [43:13]
Pat McAfee
Uh. Oh, sorry, sorry.
- [43:15]
Dan Orlovsky
What?
- [43:16]
Pat McAfee
Sorry. Breaking news. What?
- [43:18]
Boston Connor
Oh, no.
- [43:19]
Pat McAfee
Culture trading microphone. Let's go. Here we go. Let's go, Steelers. Here we go. Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl. Here we go. They got Pittman. It's in his name. Here we go. He'll die while playing the game. Here we go. The Colts lost him now. I'm little bummed that, but it'll be nice to see. What's it about? Here we go. Pit man. Yeah, it's awesome. Is headed to Pittsburgh. You guys are going to love him. I put out a tweet that said something along the lines of hate the fact that we're going to be losing Michael Pittman because He has a $29 million cap hit. Especially after what we had to do for Pierce and for Daniel Jones. And we assume Jonathan Taylor's going to want a new deal as well before he puts his hoodie on and stands during training camp and tears everything down. Now, Pittman, I would like to say a huge thank you to you. You were a pro through and through for this Indianapolis Colts team. There was a lot of rumors coming out about the way the culture was behind the scenes. People late to things, people doing this, people making business decisions. Not this guy. This guy would dive head first into a freight train if he had to to make a catch or a first down for a team. We are very grateful for what he did for the Colts. And heading to Pittsburgh seems like it's on the up and up. Mike McCarthy's gonna love this guy and so are the Injers. He's a farmer, he doesn't talk much, and he balls. Alec Pierce obviously came into a role whenever Daniel Jones started playing quarterback that he was clearly, the number one. This guy was our number one for the last few years. He's a weapon. Obviously. 29 million was a big piece of it for the Indianapolis Colts. And the Steelers pick up an absolute go. No doubt about it.
- [45:01]
Tone
Yeah, Steelers had plenty of cap space, so we're all good there. This is awesome. You look at Pittman, he's got a C on the jersey. He's a leader. You talked about how the locker room, Colts locker room, that he was a leader in there in that locker room. And the big thing for the Steelers the last few years has been an issue with playmakers. Okay. That's why they traded for DK Metcalf last year. He was great in that situation, but there was still no number two on that team right now. What he was. Watch your mouth.
- [45:26]
Darius Butler
I'm sorry.
- [45:27]
Tone
Watch it.
- [45:27]
Ty Schmidt
Not today.
- [45:29]
Pat McAfee
Hey, not today.
- [45:30]
Boston Connor
Okay.
- [45:31]
Darius Butler
I like.
- [45:33]
Tone
So now they have dk. And then right now on the roster, besides, DK was just DK and Benny Skronic, who is one of the best special teams players in the league. But as far as wide receiver goes, we need another one. So now you have him. Pittman, maybe you don't necessarily have to go get one in the first run, first round now, or you still could. It just frees up some things that there's a legitimate number two now in Pittsburgh. It's going to be huge for Mike McCarthy, Pat Friarmouth, Darnell Washington.
- [45:57]
Pat McAfee
So is there a little heart that was sent back to you on you wishing somebody a happy free agency frenzy and them saying heart and wait a minute. Maybe the Steelers are going to do something pretty big here in the first hour of free agency frenzy that Michael Pittman has been traded. I like this new Steelers. Yes, new Steelers will make plays. This new Steelers will make moves. Well, this new Steelers win.
- [46:17]
Darius Butler
You know, their quarterback.
- [46:23]
Pat McAfee
Free agency friends. Fun zone over there has a lot of questions, I guess. Who's the damn quarterback, boys?
- [46:28]
Dan Orlovsky
Well, I mean, if it's not going to be any Aaron, the Steelers should sign Malik Willis. Okay, so a couple things with Michael Pittman Jr. I think Kenneth Gainwell led the Steelers in catches last year with 73. He's a running back. Believe they had the second fewest catches by wide receivers in the NFL last year. So this was a much, much, much needed upgrade at the guy opposite DK Metcalf. My guess is Aaron's gonna play for the Steelers, but if he's got any word to them that he's not coming back and is going to retire, they would be the number one option for Malik Willis as quarterback now. So then you take Malik Willis, you pair him with DK. You pair him with Michael Pittman Jr. This offense has got a chance to be a decent unit, but I expect it to be.
- [47:12]
Pat McAfee
Aaron. Dano, we watched you put out a list of things that every team needs in the NFL. We obviously just assume you want the chatgpt copy pasted it put the tweet out and said, these are my ideas. Is. But you could have done it yourself. Qb, wide receiver, running back, led team and catches. This is exactly what Mike McCarthy and Omar Khan thought as well. Dano. So maybe they're using the same research tool that you are.
- [47:33]
Dan Orlovsky
No, it's just my brain. I did it on the plane ride last night. I had a Delta flight with no tv, so did it on the plane ride. This. This is what they needed.
- [47:42]
Ty Schmidt
Thank you, Dan.
- [47:43]
Pat McAfee
Did you get any peanuts, any water?
- [47:45]
Boston Connor
No.
- [47:45]
Dan Orlovsky
No eating on just water. Just a bottle of water.
- [47:47]
Pat McAfee
Cookie. This guy doesn't eat. You see these pants?
- [47:50]
Peter Schrager
Yeah.
- [47:50]
Boston Connor
Geez.
- [47:50]
Pat McAfee
Hey, we've been checking out the hamstrings and the thighs. They're kind of all blending into one. You look good out there, dude. I understand you're not eating any time, but let's get back to the Delta flight that you took last night. Thank you so much for doing that. Geez, I know you had to do the entirety of it, but you go through every single team's list, Dan. Thank you so much. Superhero. Did you push the plane down a Runway to get that thing up into the sky? We appreciate you doing that, Dan.
- [48:14]
Dan Orlovsky
This is also you who I texted last week saying, hey, how far is the airport from the Thunderdome?
- [48:19]
Ty Schmidt
And you.
- [48:19]
Dan Orlovsky
You said my airport or your.
- [48:23]
Pat McAfee
Okay, let's move on. That is great question. Yeah, two very different.
- [48:27]
Boston Connor
Yeah, two very different opposite sides of the scene.
- [48:30]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, because one's real close, brother. One's pretty far. But you put in that list. That was one of the best tags of all time. I will say properly timed and delivered, but let's go through it. Wide receiver was something you thought they needed. It's been a few years they've needed a guy. It feels like Pittman fits their culture very well.
- [48:46]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, big time. He fits their culture. He also fits their style. Like this is now two big body, big framed wide receivers. I would imagine Pittman's probably listed as a 6, 4 guy. Obviously, DK is a big, physical dude. So now you've got two big receivers in a conference or a division that has got Baltimore with a very good secondary, Cleveland with a very good secondary. So I like the fact that Pittman Junior's traded for and it stinks that the Colts lose him. But this is a very good signing for Pittsburgh.
- [49:15]
Darius Butler
I would love to see them add a dynamic kind of space creator, guy in space. I know they drafted Roman Wilson. Hopefully he'll be, you know, healthy going into this year. But if you pair those big bodies on the outside who are going to be matchup problems week in and week out with the guy that can create.
- [49:29]
Boston Connor
Oh, shoot.
- [49:33]
Pat McAfee
Let's go to South Florida, who found
- [49:36]
Darius Butler
a new trigger man.
- [49:38]
Pat McAfee
Malik Willis and the Miami Dolphins have reached an agreement. Let's head to the mountain. The brook the story Adam Schefter. Malik Willis is now a member of the Dolphins has felt too easy with all the Green Bay packers connections.
- [49:51]
Adam Schefter
Well, we were talking about this, right? They move on from TUA today. They knew all the people there. They've seen Malik Willis, he's seen them need. And the Dolphins wanted him more than any other team. We'll see what the deal looks like. But he wasn't going to the Jets. He wasn't going to the Falcons. He wasn't going to the Browns. The Cardinals had a modicum of interest in. And so Malik Willis now reunites with John Eric Sullivan, the new Dolphins GM and Jeff Halfley, the new Dolphins head coach.
- [50:15]
Pat McAfee
Hell, yeah. Congratulations to the Dolphins. D Bud, I think I saw a little bit of excitement out of your body whenever that popped up. Now at least you know you have a quarterback. What is the price tag potentially for this? Shefty. Do we have any expectations?
- [50:27]
Darius Butler
Dan O told us a while ago. What price?
- [50:30]
Pat McAfee
40 mil.
- [50:30]
Boston Connor
Yeah, but they pivoted this morning about it.
- [50:32]
Pat McAfee
All right. Before. As Shefty continues to look up the numbers, let's head over to Dano at the free agency fund zone to. To tell us what Malik Willis potentially brings to the Miami Dolphins and why this first quarterback off the board.
- [50:44]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah. So, Foxy, let's make sure we live in the pass game world. So I think what you got, Malik Willis is a talented guy that's developed the understanding of how to play the position. So before we run this, you're going to see this safety. He's going to spin back and he's going to go to play what we call kind of COVID two. Okay. So when you're attacking cover two, you want a receiver to go down the middle of the field. Now, Malik Willis, you could play Fox. He does a great job of getting his ball out of the his hands, cutting it loose. And this is really nice.
- [51:10]
Pat McAfee
I want to.
- [51:11]
Dan Orlovsky
I want to like, freeze that okay, this is a very small window for a quarterback to be able to throw the football and do play it, Foxy. And that ball is just beautifully placed in between two defenders. That's outstanding. Okay? From a quarterback perspective, throwing the football and then you're going to see the ability to kind of understand protection. He's going to get pressure right there. Okay, I deal with that pressure. Good job by the back. You can play it, Foxy. And this is. Is the ball out on time now again, I want you guys to see these throwing windows. Let it freeze, Foxy. That's a tight window. In the NFL, that ball's out on time. Really good on that outbreaking route. So you saw his ball down the middle of the field. You saw a ball in the outbreaker. This is outstanding. Look at his eyes. Okay, I want everyone to see. I'm going to draw a line, okay? He is looking this way now when he's looking this way, he's going to take this defender that way. What that does is that now frees up this route on the backside. Okay? So Foxy, you can let it go see on time now. Ok? This is a guy that was physically gifted. He got the chance to sit Tennessee and then Green Bay and now you're watching him play on time and rhythm. This is going to be a beautiful. We're going to get a nice crossing route here. Excuse me. Nice crossing route. That's going to get designed by this quarterback and offense. Ok? This one's got to be thrown with a little bit of timing and touch and anticipation. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Crossing route. Beautiful in that window right there. Okay, so I'm showing you guys all these. There's a ball down the seam, there's a ball on the out, there's a ball on an in route, there's a ball on a crosser. These aren't easy throws, Foxy. Let it ride. And so then there's athleticism too. Get outside of the pocket, make some plays. And so, yes, it's a small body of work. And is it a dice roll for the Miami Dolphins? Of course it is. But I think when you watch this tape and you see some of the instructions, structure and outer structure, playmaking ability, there's a lot to like. And I'm sure this deal is not just going to choke Miami from a financial perspective. So I think it makes a ton of sense for the Miami Dolphins.
- [53:06]
Peter Schrager
I would add this Pat, you know, the Halfley and John Eric Sullivan thing cannot be understated. Everyone says we haven't seen enough Of Malik Willis, he only threw 35 passes all last year. Halfley is the defensive coordinator of the packers. When Malik Willis is the number two quarterback, meaning every day in practice, scout team, he saw this guy, incredible person. This is the scouting report. We get leader and on the run, strong, powerful, fast. They love this kid in, in Miami. So this is a picture where it's not just ah, throw it out, a dart. This coach sought after this quarterback and he knows him as well as anybody else on the market.
- [53:41]
Dan Orlovsky
The other thing I'd say is this isn't Bobby Slowik the offensive coordinator. So Bobby Slowik who was in Houston, CJ Stroud's rookie year had CJ playing at a really high level. He's got experience with a young quarterback, very similar system to what Matt LaFleur ran in green Bay. So Malik Willis is going to have the ability to go down there right away and not necessarily have to learn like this brand new system and or style. It's going to be that under center on rhythm, on time, play action outside the pocket. I'm not telling everybody that this guy's going to be the next top five quarterback, but I do think that he's got the chance to open up some eyes down there immediately.
- [54:19]
Peter Schrager
And you trust that?
- [54:20]
Pat McAfee
Oh, we got another bigger one. We have some big news on a tight end that we all like. Likely has reached a three year deal with the New York Football Giants. Harbaugh says, yep, I love them. I like them a lot. I've been in the building with him. Jackson, you're going to love them. Scatterbund, wait until you see what you're about to do. Let's head over to the man who broke the news. Schefter, what's the deal with Likely and how many people wanted him? I heard a lot of teams were looking to get.
- [54:49]
Adam Schefter
Listen, Likely had a big market. Baltimore would have liked him back. Washington, New England. This will affect some of the other teams that had an interest in the tight end Chigaconkwo. I would imagine he'll be next with Kate Otten going to Tampa and with Isaiah Likely now reuniting with John Harbaugh in the York, obviously a big deal there.
- [55:08]
Pat McAfee
Okay, we appreciate you Shafter, as your phone continues to vibrate. Okay, so we've had a lot of magic happen already here in the first hour. I think there is a chance, you know, with some of the places not being necessarily the locked in destination for some of these free agents, we got teams making moves. We still got two more hours here on espn Then we'll hand it over to the lovely Laura Rutledge as NFL will continue to be covering the free agency frenzy all through the afternoon here on espn. Espn. And then tonight we have some magic with some bats, do we not? Ty Schmidt?
- [55:37]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, we do. We got World Baseball Classic pool play game, Mexico versus the USA. And the US hasn't beat Mexico since 2006. So this is like a, a massive game. A good litmus test for our team as well. Who's looked a little sluggish in their first two games?
- [55:52]
Pat McAfee
Paul Skeens. Let's not throw a fastball right down the middle. First pitch, okay? Logan got in a bad spot. His only bad pitch was the first one. It was strike. Fastball right down the middle. They took it yard. Scubal first pitch right down the middle. They took a yard. S.K. from my understanding is going to do the same damn thing because that is what pitchers feel like they have to do if they they got to feel this fastball first.
- [56:16]
Ty Schmidt
Have to.
- [56:16]
Pat McAfee
And it took Great Britain was like, hey, that first pitch is the only one we got. This is all we know. Boom. And they actually connect on that Paul skin tonight against Mexico should be electrifying. Shout out to baseball for being spectacular. $704 million in contracts already given. On Monday. Free agency frenzy will roll on an hour two. Scott on the Jib is cooking. Schefter is obviously living in his two phones. The free agency fun zone with shrags and Orlovsky is obviously spectacular. And we are honored to continue on the other side of this break, breaking all the news and deals and dreams coming true around the entirety of the NFL. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. Take three. Three. O'Reilly Auto parts can help take the guesswork out of your check engine, ABS or maintenance light with O'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE certified master technicians. O'Reilly Veriscan can identify the most likely problem with just one scan. If you need help, O'Reilly Auto Parts can recommend a shot for you. Don't ignore a check engine, ABS or maintenance light. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan Today, a free service exclusively at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Want to earn extra income for your business?
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Peter Schrager
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Pat McAfee
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Peter Schrager
When you become a partner, you and
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Adam Schefter
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Pat McAfee
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Adam Schefter
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Pat McAfee
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Adam Schefter
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Adam Schefter
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- [58:07]
Pat McAfee
Welcome back beautiful people to our humble abode. The Thunderdome on this magical dream expensive frenzy. We are so incredibly lucky that you are allowing us to do this for a living. Today is a massive, massive day. Money is being spent all around the NFL. Over $700 million in contracts has already happened in less than 13 hours of this day existing. It's not just me. The toxic tables here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. 1/2 of the Hammer Cowboys AP Tone is here, not year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. We're not the only ones in the Thunderdome. We got a sick jib that can carry us from one place to the next. Like for instance the free agency fun zone with Shrags and Orlovsky. Dan O the numbers are coming out. 3 years 67 and a half million dollars with 45 million fully guaranteed for Malik Willis down there in Miami. David Mulaguetta reported that Take a victory lap. Dano, on what you said and how do you feel about that particular announcement?
- [59:12]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, I honestly thought that Malik just because like the landscape of the quarterback world free agency wise that he would get 40 to 50 million dollars. I thought it would be a two year 40 to 45 million dollars deal. You saying three for 60 plus 45 million dollars guaranteed is a massive number and a good opportunity for Malik Willis. So it's certainly good to kind of hit on that one. But good job by his agency. I think it's a good opportunity. I really do. I think that Malik Will is just kind of scratching the surface of what he potentially could be. We've seen so many quarterbacks over the last couple years that were maybe afterthoughts early on in their career kind of blossom into really good players. You can design the quarterback run game for him. You could do that zone read stuff so that elevates your offense and he's plenty capable as a passer and so it's a huge contract and Miami starts anew.
- [60:08]
Pat McAfee
Shregs we saw Alec Pierce go, we see Malik Willis go. We've seen some big names go that we thought could potentially get signed early. Who are we waiting on still in your world and what teams do you think are still going to dance a little bit here on this free agency frenzy?
- [60:20]
Peter Schrager
Oh, I think Mike Evans is a name to watch. We'll have that one today. And I think the tight end market's really interesting. You saw Adam broke K and then broke Isaiah. Likely Isaiah likely to the Giants could be an interesting shift for their offense if you think about it. Matt Nagy gets in there. Harbaugh obviously has experience with them. They like Theo Johnson, the Penn State kid who plays tight end for them. So now you can be looking at a Giants offense which traditionally has not had multiple teams, tight ends. It opens things up for them. But I would look at that tight end market. Chig Okonkwo, who was with the Tennessee Titans last year, he's going to get a big deal today as well. And you keep eyes on veterans like Dallas Goddard, David Njoku, Charlie Kolar who played for the Ravens as well. Tight end market, really interesting as the league is going more into that 13 personnel and of course using double tight ends when possible.
- [61:03]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I love what we're doing and the game is changing, but the money is growing as well. And we're continuing to learn about the money that's been happening. Shout out to the free agency funds on the boys over there. We appreciate you guys. We're now getting money on Michael Pittman who signed a brand new deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tone, what are they paying him to be a wide receiver too? For them?
- [61:19]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [61:20]
Tone
So he was going to be a free agent after 2026. So they got a new year, new deal done with him. Three years, 59 million for Michael Pittman. So that locks him up. Him and dk, I believe, have the same amount of time on their contract. So they'll be paired together for the next few years. So you're not trading for a guy who's going to be a free agent again next year. You'll have him for a few few years to build with Mike McCarthy. It's a really good situation.
- [61:39]
Pat McAfee
Couple big names here still floating out there. Trey Hendrickson, the hell is going to happen with him? He finally hits the market for the first time. Long time. Did he miss the window of the gigantic deal and what does his actual deal look like now? That'll be the question. Tyler Linderbaum, the center obviously in the market, former high school wrestler, Iowa grad. He's a guy that's I think is going to get paid. Paid because if you have an ass offensive line and you can fix it quickly like what we saw the Chicago Bears were able to do. If you think one piece can change your entire team and it's at the offensive line position getting Linder bomb in there, you know, you're going to have success. He might command a lot of money, Ty.
- [62:19]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's why immediate. You know, we've heard some of the names that are out there, but it just makes sense that the Raiders would be very aggressive and potentially give him, you know, upwards of like you're saying $30 million dollars or whatever the case may be. But he's going to be a wealthy man. He's going to be able to buy a lot of farmland in Solon, Iowa, where he's from. So very excited to see where Leonard Bomb winds up
- [62:42]
Pat McAfee
being tracked to Atlanta, says Adam Schefter. Okay, so you can kind of take him off the board. Romeo Dobbs, Mike Evans, Malik Willis, now Miami Dolphins quarterback. What's that mean for Kyler Murray? So Tua with Atlanta, Malik with Miami. What does that mean for Kyler? Is Kyler dancing with Kevin OConnell? Is that what's about to happen over there in Minneapolis, Minnesota? Let's head back to the free agency fun zone. Dano Kyler Murray with Kevin oconnell. Immediate success or do you think they're going to have to pay the price of cutting Sam Darnold after winning 14 games for multiple years here? A little curse.
- [63:21]
Dan Orlovsky
No, I think Kyler is going to be starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Just connecting all the dots. That's what's the one that makes the most sense. All Minnesota needs is average quarterback play. Their play.
- [63:31]
Pat McAfee
God bless you, Shregs. God bless you, Sh.
- [63:32]
Peter Schrager
It's a frenzy.
- [63:35]
Dan Orlovsky
All they need is average quarterback play. They're a playoff football team. KOC is a very good coach. This is a very good roster. I think the thing that I'm most interested in, because I do believe this is going to happen, yes, it's going to have an impact on J.J. mcCarthy and his future, but that's. That's just kind of. He's got to kind of handle that on his own. But this is a situation where because of Flores and koc, I think with average quarterback play, they're a divisional round playoff team at a minimum. At a minimum.
- [64:08]
Pat McAfee
He said last year was NFC championship, but we understand your respect for Kevin o'. Connell. They were ass this year, ladies and gentlemen. This is a staple of another program going to a very different team. Demario Davis of the Saints is now headed to the New York jets on a two year, $22 million deal that includes 15 million fully guaranteed. Davis returns to the Jets. Now Aaron Glenn and the Jets, I want to say, haven't had a lot of good no, it's not a lot of good. A lot of ass. Lot of ass. Even its cost combine, just not good. How do you lose it? You get caught. Sleep, that's all.
- [64:46]
Darius Butler
Check his phone.
- [64:48]
Pat McAfee
Okay, maybe. And we have gone to bat saying that is a very easy situation to nod off to. I mean, it's dead air. There's no show in the stadium. You're watching say it's almost like they're trying to make a lot of deals. A lot of handshaking going on late night to make things happen. So we could see how you snooze. You just got to hope that they don't expose you for it. But classic jets, they actually expose it and we actually get you anything about Frank Reich as the offense coordinator, it's like, okay, I like Frank. Frank. Frank was my great guy. Frank was my quarterback coach. Okay. Frank was my quarterback coach. I don't know if Frank's had a lot of success in a while. Not saying that he can't. But you still. You don't immediately go home run higher. There's a lot of things with the jets where you, you know, they get in there and Glenn hires all his guys. They have a terrible. They fire everybody but him. So there's a lot of.
- [65:37]
Darius Butler
They get interception.
- [65:38]
Pat McAfee
Not one interception for the entire. There's a lot of things that say, wow, this team might be the biggest shite bag in the history of sports. I don't want to do that though, because there's only 32 NFL team. No.
- [65:51]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, you wouldn't want to do that.
- [65:52]
Pat McAfee
Why?
- [65:53]
Tone
Why would.
- [65:53]
Ty Schmidt
Why would you do that?
- [65:55]
Pat McAfee
I laid out a lot of compelling cases.
- [65:57]
Ty Schmidt
They're shite, absolute shite.
- [66:00]
Pat McAfee
But we don't want them to be. No, we think this is a good move. Let's head over to the free agency fun zone. Shrags. Do we know the jets are going to be making a play for Davis to bring him back? And should I be thinking anything other than this might be the worst franchise in the history of sports?
- [66:14]
Peter Schrager
Look, they got to start somewhere. And this is a veteran leader. This is.
- [66:17]
Pat McAfee
They suck. They suck at everything. They can't even watch the combine, right?
- [66:21]
Peter Schrager
This is a Walter Payton man of the year nominee, year in, year out, and a guy who after Cleveland went to the jets and was huge in that players call coalition and was big in 2018 with the jets in 2017 in the community as well. So when you're building a team from the ground up, which is these guys, you bring in character people. I would take Demario Davis as the character even more than the player. And he is still a very functional linebacker on a team. Yes, they are going to be starting from scratch. They also have five picks in the first two rounds this year. So let's slow down with just telling them terrible.
- [66:52]
Pat McAfee
Okay? Yeah, they'll do the right thing with those. Yeah, right.
- [66:56]
Ty Schmidt
History would say proof time and time again.
- [66:58]
Pat McAfee
Hey, Will, what's that?
- [66:58]
Dan Orlovsky
Dano, who's gonna play quarterback for him? I do like Dominka signing and I do like Demario Davis, but who's gonna play quarterback for him? Cause Kyler's going a minute.
- [67:07]
Peter Schrager
I have one. I have one. Can I report a breaking news deal here, guys? Schrager, do I get a tweet or no?
- [67:19]
Dan Orlovsky
You better bring one here.
- [67:21]
Peter Schrager
Ravens to the Giants Pipeline might not be done. It sounds like the Giants are working on a deal to able to bring in punter Jordan Stout, one of the tops in the game.
- [67:29]
Pat McAfee
Pat, that's good. That is impossible.
- [67:32]
Peter Schrager
They're working on it. Not official yet. And I probably shouldn't have jumped the
- [67:36]
Pat McAfee
gun, but that's what I'm saying.
- [67:37]
Peter Schrager
Giants, Jordan Stout, they are working the
- [67:39]
Dan Orlovsky
deal out right there.
- [67:41]
Peter Schrager
That's a big one considering.
- [67:43]
Pat McAfee
Don't cut him off at the knees.
- [67:45]
Dan Orlovsky
I was excited he said Baltimore Giants.
- [67:49]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, but look at the fun zone. Dano, we don't need you. That's fine. Yeah, a big punter move is huge for us. Shout to Jordan Stout. I'll be excited to see what a punter is getting nowadays. Okay, first, when I retired and would that have changed anything? I'm Laura Her. Jordan is certainly worthy of the conversation. Let's head over to Schefter to get a little bit more details on the Davis signing. And I believe there was also another signing that took place while we were in the fun zone. Shefty, what's going on over there? How Davis happened and what else has taken place.
- [68:17]
Adam Schefter
Mario Davis started his career with the jets, obviously going back there to finish it. You heard Peter talk about the punter. We're waiting on a bunch of wide receivers. Joseph ASAI also went to the Jets. So the jets get Joseph Assai and Demario Davis and they trade for Minka Fitzpatrick. So there are three moves that get done today with the New York jets on defense.
- [68:35]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so Aaron Glenn wants to bring back a dominant defense for the New York Jets. He is a defensive guy. When he was with the Detroit Lions, their defense was great. That's just no questions asked. Massive piece and a massive reason for why the Detroit Lions got Back into a. Well, I guess not back. Why? The Detroit Lions got to a place where their fans were expecting to win games. So he was a huge part of that. We hope he has success over there. How do you feel about the moves Aaron Glenn has made for his defense with the Jets?
- [68:59]
Darius Butler
I like the move vet obviously he can play football at a high level. He can communicate what Shrag said. As far as been a leader on and off the field. He's been at for pretty much his entire career. Then the Minka Fitzpatrick was hap which happened this morning. You rarely see a in division trade like this for Miami going there, getting a new deal. I think still only 29 years old. So still have a lot of great football left and another player that can only. That can not only play at a high level but also communicate at a high level as well. So I like both of these moves right now from Aaron Glenn and last year it was a part of the sauce trade. I still have belief in A.D. mitchell on the offensive side of the ball. Who's going to play quarterback? That's big. But I think that A.D. mitchell trade will be good down the line.
- [69:41]
Pat McAfee
For what? For what? For.
- [69:42]
Peter Schrager
For.
- [69:42]
Darius Butler
For the Jets. Stay tuned.
- [69:44]
Pat McAfee
Market football.
- [69:45]
Darius Butler
What's this March 9th?
- [69:46]
Boston Connor
He. He had a nice game for him this year.
- [69:48]
Pat McAfee
I agree. He does have a lot of.
- [69:50]
Boston Connor
Yeah.
- [69:50]
Pat McAfee
A.D. has all the ability in the world, all the talent in the world. He could be guy. Like could actually be guy. Is that place going to turn him into it?
- [69:59]
Darius Butler
Is that. That's. That's the.
- [69:59]
Pat McAfee
I hope so.
- [70:00]
Darius Butler
That's the question.
- [70:00]
Pat McAfee
I hope that happens. We have some more breaking news as I think we wait. Will we wait for she to hit this one? It is within the year. ESPN family of tweez.
- [70:10]
Jordan Stout
Oh wow.
- [70:14]
Pat McAfee
Chefy has three. Might be flipping table two and please, they're laughing. Yeah, that is the fun zone.
- [70:24]
Ty Schmidt
No rules in the fun zone.
- [70:25]
Pat McAfee
All right, we'll give Shafty five, four, three, two and nothing from his Twitter account. Jeremy Father is reporting Kenny Gainwell to the Bucks for two years. 14 million. Wow. He was a huge piece for you guys on the offensive side.
- [70:39]
Tone
He was the team, team mvp, Pat. That's how big of a PC was last year. Ken Gainwell was awesome. Dan mentioned earlier led the team with 73 receptions. I believe it wasn't just receiving out of the backfield. He was. He was Aaron's go to guy when they needed to check it down, which happened to be a lot. That's how you get 73 catches. That huge play against the Lions right there in that game. But it wasn't just that he ran the ball really well. He never ever made a mistake. He was the perfect and that's why he was a great teammate and was voted the team and mvp. The Bucks got a good one there and I, I'm, I'm sad to lose Kenny G down there.
- [71:09]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I think Philly was sad. I think Pittsburgh said, yeah, I feel like the Bucks probably take advantage of it. And now there's some teams that have been absent from our conversation here a little bit. Let's look at the cap space. There's some teams have a lot of money that we haven't really heard from. I wonder what's going on or extra negotiations happening. Are agents trying to get some more money? Remember, this is the highest salary cap in the history of ball. It jumped up $20 million a this year. Unexpected. I think they were thinking maybe 15, maybe 12. It goes up 20 million and now all of a sudden GMs can make more plays. $110 million.
- [71:41]
Ty Schmidt
The Raiders have a lot of money.
- [71:42]
Pat McAfee
That's over a third of the salary cap is not spent yet. Whenever you talk about a full rebuild, especially if you're going to get a quarterback, you got Brock Bowers, you got Ashton Gente, you would think offensive line is where we're going to work. You get rid of Max Crosby. So you're obviously going to have to do some work on the defensive side, pick up a couple picks. It's like the Raiders are in a position to make massive changes to potentially become a successful franchise.
- [72:04]
Boston Connor
I don't see why not.
- [72:05]
Pat McAfee
Is that what's possible here? 110 million. When's it going to go out the door? We shall wait and see.
- [72:09]
Boston Connor
Yeah, you assume pretty quick, especially with Kubiak being a first year, you know, first time, not just first year head coach trying to basically bring in players that kind of fit his schemes. That's where you would assume Tyler Linderbaum or at least some of those highest paid guys would be going pretty soon.
- [72:25]
Pat McAfee
Ladies and gentlemen, for a punter, Chefy Tweet Jordan Stott as Peter Schrager alluded to.
- [72:38]
Ty Schmidt
Wow.
- [72:38]
Pat McAfee
Reach agreement. Giants on a three year 12.3 million dollar deal that makes him the NFL's highest paid punter and reunites him with his former head coach John Harbaugh. The deal cannot be signed until Wednesday. Like all of these miner per esp sources. What do you mean?
- [72:54]
Darius Butler
We had a Trager bomb here from the Fun Zone. We know where it came from.
- [72:59]
Pat McAfee
I thought we did journalism. I thought we. I thought, hey, chef, you didn't want to give Shrags any love. What was the pur. Sources all about? Shefty.
- [73:06]
Adam Schefter
Well, wait, wait. What's that? I. I love Peter Sha. I don't. I'm trying to keep my head above water, okay? That's all I know. We got more deals coming.
- [73:13]
Peter Schrager
Hold
- [73:16]
Pat McAfee
on. Oh, Shreks, you are per ESPN sources now. I'll take it.
- [73:23]
Peter Schrager
Look, this is a good one for them. They want to bring a lot of those culture guys and the guys that know Harbaugh and Roman and the whole crew, so they bring them over. Stout is a great punter and it improves that. That was the moment of the show for me. That was great.
- [73:33]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, there's going to be more. I mean, I feel like big punter news. I like anything I like anytime that can happen. That is big deal, though. Three years, $12.3 million, 4.1 million a year to pun 4A football. Congratulations, Jordan. You earned it. Proud of you, buddy. You should be incredibly happy. Now all the other punters look and say like, okay, when we're up. That's the new line for me. Remember when I was negotiating, we didn't want to get that. You know, let's have a couple misses potential. You know, if I get in there, I'm going to be loud. There's going to be a lot of tweets coming. There's going to be a lot of this. We don't need to be putting ourselves in a position where. Oh, is that right? Huh? So this guy's loud and he misses and we're ice. Yeah. Cap casualty in the special teams room is very real on a regular basis. Him going to New York, obviously. Great. I talked to Giants. Super duper fan back there. He said the Scottish Hammer just. He's okay with moving on from him.
- [74:24]
Boston Connor
Oh, it's time.
- [74:25]
Pat McAfee
Scottish hammer. Had a hell of a run over. Had a lot of magic. Great rugby player out of Scotland. He comes in and punts for the Giants. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, the new quarterback of the Miami Dolphins. Malik will
- [74:40]
Jordan Stout
appreciate you. Appreciate you.
- [74:41]
Pat McAfee
How are you, man? I love that the hair is where it is. Let's keep that going. Especially for Miami, obviously, we're. We're all involved in that. How do you feel knowing that you're the quarterback for the Miami Dolphins? Malik?
- [74:52]
Jordan Stout
Yeah, I'm great. Just got off the field. Super excited to be down there. I mean, guys are guys. I know Halfley and you know, Sully. I'm real familiar with Those guys and excited to go to work and try to do something special, bro. It's a blessing.
- [75:05]
Pat McAfee
We all assumed that you would be there because of what you just said there with Halfley and Solly. Schrager reported earlier that he talked to Halfley and he was like, I want to get some Malik every single day in practice. Literally every single day. So people were talking about reps, lack of reps, what's good, what's not good. Felt like they had a good feel for how great of a quarterback you could be in the NFL and wanted you in Miami. How many different teams were talking to you? Was it a wild time for you to experience this because of how good you played last year in this free agency period? And when did you kind of know that this was probably going to be home for you?
- [75:35]
Jordan Stout
I'm just trying to take advantage of every opportunity I can get. And we going to leave all that in the past. It's over with now. I'm just trying to go down there and do what I can to help them, you know, do some special things. And that's taking it one day at a time, putting the work in and seeing where the chips fall.
- [75:49]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so you've obviously seen what life is like at the top as the franchise quarterback. How do you expect yourself now to lead the Dolphins? What have you learned from the last time, maybe? And how. How do you kind of take what your past is and now make it the best version of yourself in South Florida?
- [76:03]
Jordan Stout
All you can do is be genuine yourself and do what you can to put everything that you have on the table. All you can do is do your part and, you know, hold guys accountable as well as hold yourself accountable and not be afra afraid for, you know, all those things to play together. I mean, we can't do it by ourself. It's a team game. I know they have all these different, you know, thought process about it, but it's a team game and we got to be all in it together.
- [76:27]
Pat McAfee
45m is guaranteed. Hell yeah. Hey, we. We doing good. Any first thoughts on what we're buying? Need to do something, you need to treat ourself. We worked hard for this moment. Any thoughts on that? Or we just working all ball all the time?
- [76:41]
Jordan Stout
Yeah. I gotta take a shower now, bro. I just got off the field. You gotta call me at a bad time to figure out something to eat.
- [76:48]
Pat McAfee
Get yourself a good meal, brother. Eat well. You deserved it. You earned it. And congrats on going to Miami. We got Dolphins fans in here who Are incredibly pumped for you going down there. So good luck, man.
- [76:58]
Jordan Stout
I appreciate it. Let's do it.
- [76:59]
Pat McAfee
D Butt has. Last question for you, Malik.
- [77:01]
Darius Butler
Hell, yeah. Was there one thing in particular that stood out for you last year? In particular that you. That kind of, I guess, slowed down for you? We know year in and year out, things slow down regardless of positions, but especially at that quarterback position. Anything in particular that jumps out for you last year?
- [77:15]
Jordan Stout
I mean, in all reality, it's my first time being in the system for more than a year since I've been in the league, so I felt just that much more comfortable being able to go out there and just do whatever it takes to get the job done. And it was just great having that familiarity.
- [77:30]
Pat McAfee
You're awesome to watch, dude. Your moxie was outrageous. It feels like Miami needs that more than anything right now. So good luck down there. Thank you for taking time and congratulations. Congratulations.
- [77:39]
Jordan Stout
Yes, sir. Thank you. Y' all have a good one.
- [77:41]
Pat McAfee
You, too. Ladies and gentlemen.
- [77:42]
Boston Connor
Yeah.
- [77:44]
Pat McAfee
Just want some work, dude. Yeah. I just got off the field.
- [77:47]
Tone
On the field.
- [77:48]
Boston Connor
Beast.
- [77:48]
Pat McAfee
Sorry I missed you. I know you guys were trying to do this, like, immediately after I signed. Sorry, dude. I was working out. You guys knew it. I didn't know when it was gonna sign, so I knew I was gonna agree to something. I guess we're off and running. Miami's got a guy. Yeah, Miami's got a guy. We also have another breaking news. Another punter. What? Did we know the punter market was about to be on day one? Vikings punter Ryan Wright is signing a four year, $14 million deal that includes $8 million guaranteed with the Saints. He's going down to Bayou. NFC south punting is a good place to be punting in as well. This guy bombs balls. I'm excited to watch that happen. I believe there was another announcement out of Shefty's Twitter account. If we were to get over to that about a Shefty tweet. This one's about a paisan. Former Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone is signing a two year, $17 million deal with the Buccaneers. Let's head over to the man that broke the news. Shefte. What's the deal with Anzalone? Did we know he was on the move? I thought he was the staple of the Detroit Lions defense.
- [78:52]
Adam Schefter
Well, here's the interesting one with Alex Angelone. Of course, he lives in Texas. Tampa. Wanted to stay in Tampa, but it's a situation where the jets were interested, the Giants were interested, but he didn't want to Leave Tampa Bay, and ultimately he gets a deal done with the Buccaneers. They give him the money to make it worth his while to stay in Tampa, which was his preference. And obviously everybody else now needs to regroup at the linebacker position, which you saw the jets do. The jets have been busy here getting Demario Davis, Joseph Assai, and Minka Fitzpatrick today.
- [79:23]
Pat McAfee
Anzalone on the move. He's gone. I love Denise. Know how that convo goes with his agent. Hey, we got a couple places here. You see my house? I like my house. Yeah, yeah. But the bay. We can get you a bay somewhere. Nope, I like my house here. Okay. I would like to stay right here in Tampa Bay. They're able to get a deal done. Good for him. Go ahead, Tone.
- [79:42]
Ty Schmidt
No, I just say the.
- [79:42]
Tone
The Bucks have been very active so far since noon.
- [79:45]
Darius Butler
They.
- [79:45]
Tone
They brought back Kate Otten. They get Angelone. They get Ken Gainwell. I think I'm missing one, too. So the Bucks so far have already done three or four deals, and it's only been an hour and 22 minutes.
- [79:54]
Pat McAfee
And that's all with Mike Evans just kind of looming over top as he returned to the Bucks. Let's head over to the free agency fund zone. Shregs, you kind of been on the Mike Evans watch since the beginning. All these moves are telling you they don't have money for Mike. Or are all these moves saying maybe they do bring back Mike?
- [80:09]
Peter Schrager
Let me make this clear. The Buccaneers are desperate to bring back Mike Evans. They love Mike Evans. They want Mike Evans to go wire to wire in his career. This will be a Mike Evans decision if he wants to leave. And the feeling around the league is that Mike Evans is going to have a market. He has a market. And that this might be the time he gets off the bus and he actually leaves Tampa Bay to finish his career elsewhere. We will see where it all goes down. But Tampa Bay has made several efforts to keep him. They love him. And you could tell the story of this. Jason Light, the GM of the Buccaneers. His first ever draft pick in that loaded draft was Mike Evans. And the families are even that close. So this is family to the Buccaneers. They would hate to lose Mike. Mike Evans. But it sounds like after all the years and all the work he's put in, he might be looking to explore and find another home. Now. I think it might be a surprise where he goes, too. We should know the next couple hours. I thought it was going to be in the first hour and a half. We will see. But Mike Evans, one of the biggest names a future hall of Famer is going to likely be with a new team.
- [81:05]
Pat McAfee
Dan Orlovsky said it. Rams. Isn't that what you said, Dan? Isn't that what you said, Dan?
- [81:09]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, my head goes to the Rams. My head goes to Buffalo. Even with the addition of DJ Moore, I think if financial would be tough, I go Baltimore with Lamar. I wouldn't be surprised if Houston gets into the conversation.
- [81:22]
Peter Schrager
He's from Houston. Texas.
- [81:23]
Dan Orlovsky
He's from Houston. Obviously. Texas A and M. With his college background, I still. Mike isn't what he was three, four, five, six years. He's still awesome. He's still one on one. An absolute problem in one on one coverage. You guys watch these clips. Mike's not getting wide open separation wise. But every single time it seems like Mike finds a way to come down with the football. But to Peter's point, maybe a surprise team. If I'm Mike and I'm going to take that jump to leave the place that I've been at forever, it should be for a 1 quarterback. That's a stud.
- [81:55]
Pat McAfee
2.
- [81:56]
Dan Orlovsky
We got a chance to win the whole thing. A legit chance to win the whole thing. That's why I say Buffalo. That's why I say Baltimore.
- [82:01]
Pat McAfee
Okay, hold on. You guys are saying 30 team. I mean, you're saying surprise team and now we're rattling off everybody. The league would love to have Chiefs, the Rams, Buffalo Colts.
- [82:10]
Dan Orlovsky
Four or five teams. I didn't say the Colts.
- [82:12]
Darius Butler
Contenders.
- [82:12]
Pat McAfee
Why didn't you say the Colts? What's that all about?
- [82:14]
Dan Orlovsky
I just didn't say the Colts.
- [82:15]
Jordan Stout
Yeah.
- [82:16]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Well, we got Alec Pierce, so don't worry about that. Highest paid ever. Maybe Mike Evans could learn a little something. Maybe he could learn a little something. Okay, I'll tell you what. Pittman gone is certainly. Which brings in room for Mike Evans kind of come in here. Has the team, the surprise team been said yet? Tr.
- [82:31]
Peter Schrager
No.
- [82:32]
Dan Orlovsky
No.
- [82:32]
Peter Schrager
And I don't want to put it out there because if it doesn't happen, it looks good. But there's a team that's laying in the weeds that has not been mentioned. Door attached to him yet. That might be a snake in the.
- [82:39]
Dan Orlovsky
Can I throw it out there?
- [82:40]
Pat McAfee
Yeah.
- [82:40]
Dan Orlovsky
49ers.
- [82:42]
Pat McAfee
Well, it's kind of been.
- [82:44]
Ty Schmidt
That's been intimated.
- [82:45]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, it's been. It's already been talked about. You were talking already though, so you couldn't hear us say it. All right. We appreciate the fun zone over there. Certainly getting active over there. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a fullback deal. Okay, this One's being reported by Jeff Howell. Fullback Reggie Gilliam and the Patriots have agreed to a three year deal worth up to 12 million. Million, including 6 million guaranteed. There was a Alec Ingold signing this weekend too. It feels like fullbacks are kind of making some cash. The Patriots are getting back in the game.
- [83:13]
Boston Connor
I mean, that's the thing. We always talk about how cyclical football is and some teams are ahead of the curb, you know, and some aren't. And it just so happens that the New England Patriots are one of those teams. Not to mention we stole them from Buffalo's hands, which makes it even sweeter. But, yeah, definitely thought we might have gotten a receiver to New England at this point, but I, I think everyone
- [83:31]
Pat McAfee
up there will be pretty poor. Pumped about a full back too. Yeah, listen, I heard he's. I heard he's got good hands. He's been working on him.
- [83:36]
Boston Connor
Oh, yeah, he's a junkyard dog.
- [83:38]
Pat McAfee
Yes. He's deceptive speed. Big son of a. Yeah, he looks for content.
- [83:42]
Boston Connor
Yeah, exactly.
- [83:43]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, he is certainly something. As Schefter is not at his seat over there, he's certainly running around trying to work. Don't know if he went to his first bathroom break since 6am or if he's just off screen trying to do his thing over in his room. There is some news that has broken. Has happened. I think we should wait for Adam Schefter to go ahead and do it. You know, there's like 45 different people breaking signings. It's a crazy time to be. Ladies and gentlemen, Schefter's heading back to his seat.
- [84:09]
Jordan Stout
Okay.
- [84:10]
Pat McAfee
Back to his seat. We do not know if he put a tweet up. Schefter, need you to put a tweet out though, so we can do the whole gimmick thing.
- [84:15]
Adam Schefter
Who on who?
- [84:17]
Pat McAfee
You know who. You know who.
- [84:19]
Adam Schefter
Oh, Kobe Bryant.
- [84:21]
Boston Connor
Boom.
- [84:22]
Pat McAfee
Do the tweet. Yep. Put the tweet out. We'll go back. Foxy will go back. Foxy will go back. We'll go. Leave him off the screen. He'll do the tweet and all of a sudden and boom. Big deal. Hey, what's going on? Something happened with Kobe recipes. Something happened with the NFL's Kobe Bryant. Schefter, what's going on out there?
- [84:46]
Adam Schefter
Well, he's going to the Chicago Bears from the Seattle Seahawks. So the Seattle Seahawks today, the world champions are paying the super bowl tax. They lose Kenneth Williams Walker to the Kansas City Chiefs. They lose their defensive back, Kobe Bryant, who they love they loved this guy's personality. They loved his play. He's going to the bears on a three year $40 million deal.
- [85:06]
Pat McAfee
Okay, I like Kobe Bryant heading over there debut. What are your thoughts on the Bears loading up with one of the young studs in the NFL.
- [85:11]
Darius Butler
I like this move. They have a couple free agents obviously Byard and Briskers guys and Sean Wright who had a breakout year last year at cornerback. I'm interested to see what his numbers look like. This is a big a good signing for them. They now they were up in the league, up at the top of the league when it came to turnovers. But we know year in and year out that kind of goes fluctuates a lot. This is a great signing for Dennis Allen. That defense.
- [85:33]
Pat McAfee
We have no tweet, no highlights there for Kobe Bryant because Schefter told us he was going to put tweet up. He obviously didn't. He was on to the next one. So we apologize just for the blank TV there as Debo was talking. We pro we try to never put people to sleep if they're watching this. Especially on free agency frenzy. A couple of the big teams still have yet. Can we get with the cat salary cap graphic back up there. Raiders we talk about them having $110 million. Tennessee Titans have cash. That's even after the Jermaine Johnson trade that takes place 90 million Washington Commanders Louisiana. Chargers have an opportunity. The jets have been making a lot of moves. Hey jets, thank you. How are you trying Seattle Seahawks not able to sign anybody. Still have a lot of cash. Fascinating move what Schneider got up his sleeve. Con man.
- [86:12]
Boston Connor
Well, definitely something big. You can assume that Seattle whether they be retained a lot of the players that might be up in a year or two. But the Titans one of the I thought locks of the entire, you know, free agent frenzy was Wanda Robinson rejoining day ball. And that felt like kind of an open, close, shut case. And then all of a sudden, you know, nothing's happened. Are these some of these deals affecting some of the other free agent deals. You wonder if some of these guys were like locked in, going to go Pierce comes through and then he'll hold on, give me a little bit more money. Like I don't understand why we haven't gotten as many deals so far.
- [86:45]
Pat McAfee
Pitman 3 years, 59 million also another deal that I assume some people are looking at and saying excuse me. And those salary cap that was updated as 10 minutes ago so not all the brand new deals have been put in there. So those numbers will obviously change but there's still a lot of cash out there for teams. Tone.
- [86:58]
Tone
Yeah, there is. There's a ton and like I'm surprised there's still a lot of big names out there and Connor mentioned the Wandell and he was tied. There's a lot of people in this office potentially talking about Wandell, the Titans earlier today. But you, you talk about Linderbaum and, and there's a lot of, a lot of edge town out there still with Hendrickson and Adafe Oway. There's a lot going on out there still.
- [87:16]
Darius Butler
Oh
- [87:18]
Pat McAfee
Shafty tweet. I think this one might be missing some information that we all need for Pat Mc show. Thank you Shefty. Another punter deal. Former Dolphins punter Jake Bailey is signing a three year $9 million deal that includes 5 million fully guaranteed to where
- [87:30]
Adam Schefter
she to the Atlanta Falcons. The tweet has been updated. Pat here from the Nightline set. We've just updated the tweet. He is signing with the Atlanta Falcons.
- [87:39]
Pat McAfee
Did we know the punter market was going to be like this, Chef?
- [87:41]
Adam Schefter
No, I really don't understand exactly what's going on. I did not expect a mad rush on punters in the first 90 minutes of free agency but clearly you missed the window. You made the right decision going into broadcasting, Pat, but you missed a punting window here with some big dollars.
- [87:57]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, we're in the golden era right here at punters. I will say there's a lot of great punters. Jake Bailey obviously been good for a long time. Falcons have tua Allegedly and Penix. They said we need. Yep, we need a punt. We're going to be punting a lot. Yeah, you don't deserve that. To amps. You don't deserve that.
- [88:14]
Boston Connor
To his best friend.
- [88:14]
Pat McAfee
Atlanta does not deserve that exactly. In the punter. Jake Bailey, we know him pretty well out of Stanford, obviously went up to New England. He's done a lot of incredible things, nice things for us. He did his my cleat my cause for further brand which was, you know, for dogs so we could raise money for veterinarian stuff. So like I'm a big fan of Japan. Jake Bailey, $5 million fully guaranteed on a three year deal. I think I'm pretty pumped that I'm not punting anymore but I am excited for these guys getting paid to bomb balls. D But I've been saying it this whole time, 2026, it's cyclical. We didn't know we were going to go all the way back though. The punter is the most important position ball. This is day one a free agency and they're making sure they got the money for it. I respect and appreciate that.
- [88:54]
Darius Butler
Absolutely. It's the first player defense. Right. You got to set that offense up. All about field position. I think they're. They're doubting. They know it's for the brand. This is free agency frenzy 2026.
- [89:04]
Pat McAfee
They're doing it for us.
- [89:05]
Darius Butler
Absolutely.
- [89:06]
Pat McAfee
Are you kidding me? Smart Chance McAfee. They. That they gave him the whole thing for three hours because he counter pro. They counter programmed in last year. Let's get some punter stuff.
- [89:14]
Boston Connor
Yeah, send out a memo.
- [89:15]
Pat McAfee
Let's get some punter stuff. Highest punter ever. Maybe another punter. Let's go ahead and do that. Oh, we have some more signings taking place. Millions and millions of. Of dollars kind of going out the window from teams in hopes. In efforts to bring in a guy that could potentially change their entire trajectory of what their season could become. What is the updated amount of money that has been spent thus far in this beautiful Monday, March 9th, free agency frenzy schedule because it's over 700 million. As we ended hour one, over a billion dollars.
- [89:44]
Ty Schmidt
Of course, man.
- [89:46]
Pat McAfee
$1 billion has been sent out in contracts. Now, granted, the gross number doesn't really mean shit.
- [89:57]
Dan Orlovsky
Sure.
- [89:58]
Pat McAfee
Okay. Now it means a little bit more than what it used to. Back in the day, the agents had a nice little gimmick with the reporters where they would give them a deal and say, this deal is worth $700 billion. Go ahead and send it. That sounds like a lot. Send it. That's what it is. What's the actual deal, though? Nobody needs to know. That's what it used to be. Nobody would ever even know what the actual deal is. Now we know guarantees and what injury this and what's this, this and that. It's much better than it was before because there used to be things that you had to do that you would never get money. Now we're starting to get to points where the. You know, the. What's it called? The In. In likely to be earned insta.
- [90:36]
Darius Butler
Incentives in.
- [90:37]
Pat McAfee
Oh, what's it called, Incentives.
- [90:41]
Peter Schrager
Yeah.
- [90:41]
Pat McAfee
But there's something that.
- [90:42]
Boston Connor
Installments.
- [90:43]
Pat McAfee
We'll figure out the word. Whatever the case, they hit the incentives. It's called escalator. The escalators of contracts are easier to attain, I think now than it used to be. But gross money up over a billion guaranteed. Probably obviously less than that. But the boys are making money. I mean, the boys are making money and dreams are coming true. And some of the biggest names have yet to even be chatted about. Whenever we talk about this free agency frenzy debuff.
- [91:05]
Darius Butler
Yeah. What I love to see is the shorter deals with a large chunk in guarantees and then you obviously have to get into the weeds on the real guarantees. Guarantees against injury was fully guaranteed, but I love seeing these three four year deals with essentially three of those years fully guaranteed regardless of position. We know, you know, we'll probably never get the fully guaranteed full contracts in football because how violent it is. But I do love the makeup of these new deals.
- [91:29]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I don't mind. I, I'll be excited to see where we end up at at 3:00 Eastern as we hand it over to SportsCenter's NFL Free Agency led by Laura Rutledge and entire NFL Live team. I believe Dan Orlovsky and Shrags will be live all, all day. Schefter's not leaving this whole.
- [91:45]
Boston Connor
No, no, no, no. Brought a blow up mattress.
- [91:48]
Pat McAfee
We had to plug in the Internet to his phone over here. Okay. And he said the Internet's not working. I know it's not working. It should be going up quicker than it is.
- [91:54]
Boston Connor
Got a bucket.
- [91:55]
Pat McAfee
Guy's underwater. We. Is he not it. Oh, look at him. He's getting, he's pa.
- [91:58]
Ty Schmidt
He's pacing.
- [91:59]
Pat McAfee
He's pacing. He's got things going on now. I will say this to Adam Schefter just to give him a little bit of credit. The league sources that we talked to, league source says told us that this free agency frenzy day basically driven by, by that guy, whenever he got to NFL Network, he wanted it. He was like, hey, I think we can do a lot of these tampering deals. We should promote it. We should promote. We should promote. And it was kind of like, nah, nah, I don't want to do that. Don't want to do it. The league year doesn't start till Wednesday or whatever. And I guess Schefter has been a big driver for this to become an actual thing, which is what I love. I appreciate the hell out of him doing that. But also getting to witness the creator, the founder on the day in which he is expected to show up has been quite an experience.
- [92:34]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, without a doubt. And you know, I mean he said to us last week and he's been right in terms of his intensity. You know, we, we needed to put a sign up that said the dog bites, you know, just so everyone isn't going in there and trying to distract him and get in his way. But this also should have been a thing a long time ago. I mean, with how popular the NFL has gotten. And also, I mean, over a billion dollars spent so far. Like, it lends itself to, like there's, there's constantly something to talk about. And in terms of fans, you were talking about it earlier. Like, any one of these signings could be that thing that puts you over and says, like, hey, we can go win a Super bowl next year.
- [93:07]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Let's talk about some of the things that has happened around the NFL. The Cowboys have given a second round tender to their kicker, Brandon Aubrey. Remember, there was a nasty, disgusting rumor. It's gross. Might have been down there at one of the coffee shops where people lie and fight each other. Could have been during the combine and say he was looking for $10 million a year and he's not accepting anything less than that. Then his agent and his wife came out. Like, that's not real. Now, granted. Did somebody say at one point you could pay Brandon Aubrey 10 million a year and you'd be okay with that? Maybe that is not what they're looking for. They're looking for a fair, fair deal. They get a second round tender for $5.76 million. Good for Brandon Aubrey, who certainly earned that. Let's go over to the free agency fund zone. Shregs, what does that mean, second round tender? And how often are those going to be used today in this free agency frenzy period, so guys can at least have to look at staying home as opposed to going elsewhere?
- [93:59]
Boston Connor
Yeah.
- [94:00]
Peter Schrager
That basically gives the Cowboys the right of refusal. If someone wants to offer him something wild, they can. They get a second rounder back. It's a complicated deal with the CBA with how these work. It's similar to what Daniel Jones did with the transition tag, where if another team wants to come in and go over the top, well, there's going to be a cost to pay. But the Colts, of course, would have that chance to match it. What's interesting to me is now we're 90 minutes in and yeah, we had our fun with the punters and all this, but you have some top interior defensive linemen. Nobody really has been signed in that list, which is John Franklin Myers and Sheldon Rankins and Logan hall. And then you go to the guys like Trey Hendrickson and Odafe Oy and Quiddy Pay, who obviously you guys know from the Indianapolis days. But, like, that was what we were told, that this is a good free agent class to solidify your defensive line. And yet so far we've Seen mostly corners, running backs, a couple quarterbacks go. When do the defensive top guys get off the board, especially the front seven.
- [94:53]
Pat McAfee
Last year D Line ran free agency frenzy. Over $800 million dollars spent on the D line. Corners are getting obviously contracts right now. Dan Orlovsky, Malik Willis to Miami after we talked to him. What did you hear there and what are your expectations now for the rest of the quarterback market including potentially Kirk Cousins getting into the game?
- [95:11]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, so I, I, I do think that him going to Miami just makes a ton of sense for where the Dolphins are right now. It makes me think of the butterfly effect of okay, with Malik going to Miami. Miami. What does that mean for Pittsburgh? Do they think in Pittsburgh that Aaron is a 100% going. What's going to happen with the New York Jets? Are the jets going to sign a Kirk Cousins or a Geno Smith? What's going to happen to Arizona? Who's going to play quarterback in Arizona this year? Because there's this small crop of teams that, you know, there's these, some of these veteran quarterbacks now that Malik is gone, who's going to come kind of be some of these bridge starting quarterbacks for teams. I also think of like Linderbaum. Everyone talks about young quarterbacks and they say the best thing you can give a young quarterback is a tight end. I think the best thing you can give a young quarterback is a good defense and then a good center. And so if I'm the Raiders, is Linderbaum going to go to the Raiders? Is Linderbaum going to go to the Giants with Jackson Dart and so not only quarterbacks but like he's by far the best center available.
- [96:15]
Peter Schrager
I think what's interesting with Linda Linderbaum is you mentioned you have that hour to talk to teams. You could also have this Linderbaum deal where all right, I got an offer in the hand.
- [96:23]
Dan Orlovsky
Okay.
- [96:23]
Peter Schrager
And now let's leverage these other teams. I think he's a highly coveted center. Who'd you mentioned? The Raiders.
- [96:27]
Dan Orlovsky
I mentioned the Raiders and I mentioned the Giants. I'd like to see him go to some.
- [96:30]
Peter Schrager
I would throw in another team and I can't confirm that it's actually like at that level, but the Commanders have been a team.
- [96:36]
Dan Orlovsky
I love that as well.
- [96:36]
Pat McAfee
A lot of money. The commanders have strength. Connor has a question for you actually.
- [96:40]
Boston Connor
Yeah. Now that the Eagles lost out on Phillips and that was kind of a conversation going into today, like hey Jeff, Jalen Phillips, they're going to pay him. They're going to keep them in Philly and even just the idea of Philadelphia keeping the band together. Strakes, do you see them pivoting to like a Trey Hendrickson? Obviously they were going to throw a bag at Phillips. Will they do that for Oway or Hendrickson or will they go in a different direction? Maybe even get one of the top safeties out there because Blankenship's on the move as well.
- [97:08]
Peter Schrager
I'll tell you this, Howie's main point today and priority of the this week was to bring back the talent they had. I think they're surprised and I think the league is surprised that Carolina actually got Jalen Phillips. So now you have to pivot. Question is, how do you pay Jalen Carter over the next few years when you also have Cooper DeJean coming up and Quinion Mitchell and all these guys. So they might be just staying put. I don't know if they're going to swing the bat huge on one of these players like Trey Hendrickson or.
- [97:33]
Dan Orlovsky
Oh, that's an issue though. In Philadelphia, when Philly won the super bowl, their path pass rush and mainly because of their edge guys was ridiculous. It fell off big time.
- [97:44]
Peter Schrager
Last year he brought back Jordan Davis, but Jalen gave him his money, A
- [97:47]
Dan Orlovsky
lot of money, 100%. But Jalen Phillips was the best edge pass rusher they had by far. Nolan Smith missed some time, they brought Brandon Graham back and so Phillips going to Carolina has got bigger ripple effect than we think. I agree with Boston Connors point of like they're going to have to find an edge pass rusher here that's going to have some impact because that's a pretty significant loss for a team that didn't have.
- [98:10]
Peter Schrager
I'm curious to see Nicobe Dean's market if he is someone that they can bring back at a deal that makes sense to them. Again the problem when you have all these great players out of Georgia and all these young talented players, you have to pay them at some point. Jalen Phillips was a third round pick trade at the deadline. He exceeded expectations. They loved him and he spurns them and he goes they'll get a compensatory pick back. That said Carolina, Brandt Tillis, Dan Morgan, those guys up there in the front office, this was done. You know, this was one of those that was a snake in the grass thing. No one had Carolina signing Jalen Phillips, which is why I love free agent frenzy. That's a surprise to round the league, but it's also a surprise in this chair right here.
- [98:46]
Pat McAfee
Dan Morgan put a 12 zinner in let's go ahead and go black ops. Go Navy SEAL on here. Let's get this deal done here. He certainly does that. What is Trey Hendrickson's market then? Where do we think?
- [98:59]
Peter Schrager
Your guess is better than mine.
- [99:02]
Pat McAfee
All right, let's go. Let's go into the free agency frenzy zone. He's not at the desk, but we will certainly call him over there. He could certainly hear us. Schefter might have a little bit more intel on who Trey Hendrickson might end up with. Shefty is eating a protein bar, trying to get more information. He has no idea that we are now. He's working on it. Yeah.
- [99:20]
Jordan Stout
He's locked in.
- [99:22]
Pat McAfee
He's locked in. He's. He's doing his.
- [99:23]
Tone
That's his. That's been his working spot. He stands literally right.
- [99:26]
Pat McAfee
Right there.
- [99:26]
Tone
I. I don't know. Maybe it's the best WI fi in.
- [99:29]
Pat McAfee
In this situation. No, he's plugged into the wi. We. We had to plug hardwire into his phone.
- [99:33]
Ty Schmidt
Yep.
- [99:33]
Tone
I didn't know that was possible.
- [99:34]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, didn't I also am a person whose phone shits the bed whenever it comes to WI fi and all that type of stuff. But if he was having both his phone, the bed over there, I mean, that's crazy. We got a wireless thing in there. That's right. Yeah. Cuz we knew that he needed to be plugged in. You also need certain type of protein bar. Need a little bit of water, obviously need a couple power stations. We need to make sure we got power coming through this place.
- [99:53]
Darius Butler
Oh, yeah.
- [99:54]
Pat McAfee
Chefy's rider is very easy, but boy, it seemed like it was definitely a necessity.
- [99:58]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, it's airtight. And if you mess that up, like, you're gonna have to deal with the dog. So that's why we knew. Hey, make sure you have all this stuff.
- [100:04]
Pat McAfee
Big news released earlier today was Travis Kelce coming back for another season with the K. Congratulations on that decision. We know that is not easy. It felt as if Travis was coming back last year. Felt like maybe he wasn't coming to play this year. Felt like he was going to come play. I forget who it was. The coach who just got back over there, Offensive coordinator in whatever he talked about. B Enemy re signing back with the Kansas City Chiefs. On the New Heights podcast with Jason Kelce, he basically said, can't wait to see him in the building. As soon as we heard it, we're like, oh, what, is he stocking a building or is he going to be in the building? Is he going to own the team. I think the Hunt family's going to keep it. But how, how is he going to see him in the building? It's like, oh, he's, he's playing. And then there was never a single thing that he said that made us believe that he wasn't going to play. I genuinely and I'll continue to believe this, and he has not said anything to confirm any of these sources or anything like that. I believe his relationship with Taylor Swift is only going to make him better and for the long haul. His career is already certified the guy's first ballot hall of Famer, maybe. Yeah, Bill Belichick wasn't a first ballot hall of Famer, but Travis Kelsey should be first ballot hall of Famer, should be in conversation of greatest tight end of all time. Should be a guy who after earning over 100 and some million dollars, be set up for the rest of his life regardless of who he is dating. He's a Super bowl champion multiple times. Everybody on earth likes him. It's like he has everything done that is called hay in barn. We can move on with next era, especially with how good the podcast is. But I think he sees Taylor kill it. I think he sees Taylor continue to kind of grow, continue to strive, continue to try to get better. And I think they work together off of that. I think that is something that is a beautiful kindred spirit that can motivate each other. And we said that immediately upon them dating each other. It's like when two greats are together. It's good for society. It's certainly good for the Chiefs, especially for everybody that wanted Travis Kelce to be back, which is Chiefs fans. And I'm pumped for him, man. They get Kenneth Walker, Travis Kelce coming back, Patrick Mahomes doing, doing his thing. Who knows what they do at wide receiver. But there's a chance this Chiefs team is all the way back. As we are hearing noise from somebody we're not 100% sure who wants. Let's head into the free agency frenzy zone with Schefter. Schefter. Is this on Travis Kelsey or is this on something else? Sir?
- [102:21]
Adam Schefter
Tyler Lindenbaum. Huge deal, Pat. Going to the Las Vegas Raiders.
- [102:26]
Darius Butler
Yeah.
- [102:27]
Adam Schefter
Three years. $81 million, 60 million guarantee guaranteed. Highest paid interior offensive lineman in NFL history. And think about this. The Raiders trade Max Crosby to the Ravens. It frees up salary space.
- [102:42]
Pat McAfee
They had a lot.
- [102:42]
Adam Schefter
They had all the space. Now they go take the Ravens center. Tyler Linderbaum going to the Las Vegas Raiders to snap for, we presume Fernando Mendoza.
- [102:51]
Pat McAfee
Congratulations, baby.
- [102:53]
Ty Schmidt
Hell, yeah.
- [102:54]
Pat McAfee
Happy for Tyler. Iowa Hawkeye.
- [102:56]
Ty Schmidt
That's right.
- [102:56]
Pat McAfee
Iowa high school wrestler. I mean, a dog through and through. At Baltimore, he was fantastic. Now he heads over to the Raiders. The Raiders had a lot of money, okay, they had 83 million or something like that. On Friday at noon, they make a couple different moves, then they end up with 110 million. Everybody talks about how they need an offensive line. Linder Bomb's name was still out there. It was like, is this a destiny thing? Is this a match made in heaven? They agree. Highest paid interior offensive lineman of all time. Over 60 million guaranteed for a body mover, a man shaker and a leader. Hopefully for an offensive line that has Ashton Genty in the backfield, Brock Bowers as a tight end, and in our eyes, Fernando Mendoza, who's a quarterback that's definitely going to be able to get it, especially if he's protected. What a play by the Raiders. This is Tom Brady getting in there. This is the boys getting in there and saying, hey, we suck no more. How do we get good? We invest in the trenches. They found it. I think everybody's going to love the this move, especially other interior offensive linemen that go, we can make a 60 million guarantee now. Life is good. Debu.
- [103:59]
Darius Butler
Yeah, you always got to build from the trenches out. And we know how shy that Raiders offensive line was. We saw Genty last year and even coming into the league, we knew he was a dynamic weapon, but he was getting hit in the backfield, it seemed like on every carry. So now you have a veteran center who Dano mentioned. You get this for a young quarterback. We expect Fernando Mendoza to be able to make all the protections and the checks and all these things. But when you have a savvy veteran that can do it kind of for him almost until he gets caught up to speed, that helps things tremendously. And I, I, I don't think they're done when it comes to offensive line and building that, you know, those trenches in front of who we think Fernando
- [104:35]
Pat McAfee
Mendoza, Creed Humphrey was making 18 million. Somebody's microphone's on. Maybe Shafters. Creed Humphrey was making 18 million a year. This is significantly more. He becomes the highest paid interior office offensive lineman. Good for him. Happy for him. Let's head over to the free agency fun zone with Shrags and Orlovsky. Shrags. Huge play by the Raiders who finally spend some of that money that they've had.
- [104:57]
Peter Schrager
Huge play. And remember last year, this was a disaster on the offensive line. They had a rotating door at center, they bring in Lindenbaum, some interesting things. Rick Dennison, the offensive line coach for the Las Vegas Raiders, who Kubiak brings in, 30 year offensive line coach, one of the most respected. Secondly, worth noting, the Ravens opted not to pick up Linderbaum's fifth year option last year, which is a wild decision in hindsight. Now he goes for the highest money ever given to a center in free agency. The highest money ever given to a guard in free agency. Just a year later after the fact not getting his fifth year option picked up.
- [105:34]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, it's the best thing the Raiders could have done for. If the pick is going to be Fernando Mendoza, I think it's one of the best things you can do for a young quarterback is just give him a great experience. Center everyone talked about this past weekend, Dahlman deciding to retire from Chicago and kind of the foresight or looking back on his impact on Caleb and their offense and his ability to control protections. It's not that Mendoza, if he's going to be the pick, can't do it. It's some taking something off of his plate as he's learning everything else. And so bringing Linderbaum not only in their run game to help Ashton Genty and his ability to play in that kind of that zone scheme, but also like his ability to kind of, you know, be in protection. You guys got some film? You got Linderbaum film? You got some Linderbaum film?
- [106:22]
Pat McAfee
Do you got some Linderbaum film, Dan?
- [106:24]
Dan Orlovsky
All right, Foxy, play it, play it. All right, let me get my aq. Shipley on. Okay, so we'll see. Aq, aq. So I want to go to the yellow here. This is going to be a little bit of a back block. Okay? So when it comes to the ability to kind of step backside in this run game, that's going to come over. That's power. So you pull the backside guard. This is a beautiful shot right there of Linderbaum just dominating his block. You can let it ride Foxy. And so not only does he come over with like experience, once again you're going to see, I want to go to this now. It's going to be once again a back block and it looks like we'll get another pull on the backside. And so, yeah, that's a down block or back block. Aq. You got it. And so Seattle runs. A little bit of. This is going to be really nice. A little bit of one on one. Let's zoom in here. Let's zoom in here. Come on, let's zoom in. There, that's Linderbaum. One on one. That's fantastic. One on one, the pass protection. And so Seattle went from one of the most run heavy offense offenses in football last year. Now the Raiders are going to adapt that identity. And so I love the fact that with Clint Kubiak as their coach, they've got a center that comes from a run heavy offense in Baltimore as well. And so I think it's a huge, huge signing. Everyone talks about perimeter players for quarterbacks. Keep them clean, keep them upright and keep them clean, Allow them time. It's a great signing for
- [107:50]
Peter Schrager
a world of difference from last year. And now you have not only Clint Kubiak, Rick Dennis and Andrew Ginoko who comes over from Seattle as well. It feels like the Raiders are becoming a more professional organization and outfit right now. And also, of course, you trade Crosby and you get Linderbaum back. It wasn't a clean trade, but that will be one. We'll analyze the impact that Crosby makes on the Ravens.
- [108:10]
Dan Orlovsky
It's kind of like three pieces, right?
- [108:11]
Peter Schrager
And then Lindenbaum over there on the Raiders. It's almost a one for one deal with the money. Want to throw it out the window? That was the deal that was made.
- [108:18]
Pat McAfee
Look at you guys over there in the fun zone, kind of batting it around. I like what you guys are doing. I like that. Now, Dano, you just did some good film breakdown there of offensive line. This is back blocking. This is Loopty Woo. Joining us now, former center in the NFL super bowl champion, AQ Shipley. Okay, Aq, we started something called in the Trenches with you because you watched Dana Orlovsky break down offensive line film one time and puked. You said so. That's why we started in the trenches. I think Dano did a pretty good job there talking about Linder Baum and what else did he maybe miss? Or what else would you like to add about why he's so good and worthy of the biggest deal in the history of interior offensive lineman? Yeah, Dan's really done a nice job
- [108:58]
Tone
taking, you know, really into the offensive line world.
- [109:01]
Pat McAfee
Really understanding. He did a great job there. Good back block. Great job. Now, I think the one thing that people don't talk about enough with Linderbaum is the fact that he was a
- [109:14]
Tone
former high school state champion wrestler. Right? That pass protection play that Dan showed,
- [109:19]
Pat McAfee
his balance is impeccable. He's incredible with his balance and pass
- [109:23]
Tone
protection right there moving people off the spot. He is so good with lateral quickness and this is only going to bode so well. For the type of offense that Clint Kubiak is going to to bring into that Raiders offense.
- [109:36]
Pat McAfee
And Rick Dennison, as Shregs mentioned earlier, I had him when I was in Baltimore.
- [109:40]
Tone
He comes from the Kubiak world.
- [109:42]
Pat McAfee
He was Gary Kubiak's O line guru forever. Now working with the younger Kubiak. I love this. This is a match made in heaven.
- [109:50]
Tone
John Spytek doing big things out there in Vegas.
- [109:53]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, Spytek is. And you calling us from your bathtub is certainly a cool thing. We appreciate you, aq.
- [109:58]
Dan Orlovsky
Thank you.
- [109:59]
Pat McAfee
AK I don't know where he was, but I'm happy he made some time. That was certainly not a preempted call, but him sitting there and watching Orlovsky was a nice little treat for me and Bruce. Who knew that he was on the call. Dano didn't know that. I don't think any of the Bulls here knew that. Dan, you were kind of dancing pretty close there. AQ was watching, ready to dunk on you. I think you nailed it, Dan. Oh, I think you nailed it.
- [110:19]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, that's good for me. I, I, I did not know AQ was going to be there. Honestly, when you pulled him in, I was like, fudge, dude. AQ's gonna come in and dunk on me here and tell me I'm some dummy. So I'm gonna take it, I'm gonna take it as a win.
- [110:30]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, Fudge, dude, you got fudged up.
- [110:33]
Darius Butler
Whatever you say in the trenches, AAQ is going to be there. Say his name. But I mean we always talk about pass rush when it comes from the edge, shoring up that interior.
- [110:41]
Dan Orlovsky
It's everything, man.
- [110:42]
Darius Butler
Offense that everything. Especially for a pocket quarterback.
- [110:44]
Pat McAfee
Especially for a rookie quarterback in Fernando Mendoza.
- [110:47]
Ty Schmidt
Dan Orlovsky if he is the number one pick.
- [110:50]
Pat McAfee
Okay, Dano, watch the rest of the season season before we talk about quarterbacks in the draft. And on that note, Chefy tweet who's changing the trajectory. Former Falcons running back Tyler Algier reached an agreement today with the Arizona Cardinals. Okay, the Cardinals are still making moves. Cardinals, this is a new le floor operation out there. They've had a thousand different coaches. They've been voted the worst facility in the NFL numerous times. Pittsburgh Steelers kind of took the lead on asness.
- [111:19]
Tone
You're welcome.
- [111:20]
Pat McAfee
In the most recent report card play ball. Why is Algier the move from for the Cardinals over there and who's their quarterback? Schefter
- [111:28]
Adam Schefter
on Jacoby Brissette as a quarterback. They got their rework deal done with James Conner over the weekend. They're reaching agreement here with Tyler Algier. That is quite a tough backfield when you've got James Conner coming up, the injury and Tyler Algier, who runs hard. That's a pretty good combination for the Arizona Cardinals out in the desert with their new head coach, Mike LaFleur.
- [111:47]
Pat McAfee
That is a pretty good little combo out there. I think so, hey, Cardinals. Pretty good little football team. Well, we'll see. We will see. We will see. I think Cardinal.
- [111:55]
Tone
I don't think Algiers ever fumbled his entire career. I believe I'm correct there. I could be wrong. I've been wrong before, but I think I'm right.
- [112:02]
Pat McAfee
I like the fact that you played that much defense against yourself. Just in case somebody tweets immediately afterwards, you dipshit. He lost the game for there. But I do appreciate the fact that we all think that's tough football player.
- [112:11]
Ty Schmidt
Yes.
- [112:11]
Pat McAfee
Like, we all think Tyler Algier, tough football player immediately upon seeing his team. Michael Fluor, interesting haircut. He's coming in with some meat.
- [112:18]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, his own.
- [112:20]
Darius Butler
He's coming. He's coming in with some awesome talent. And whenever you're good enough.
- [112:24]
Pat McAfee
He's coming in with me.
- [112:25]
Darius Butler
Whenever you're good enough.
- [112:26]
Pat McAfee
No bread.
- [112:28]
Darius Butler
Oh, my God.
- [112:29]
Pat McAfee
No water.
- [112:32]
Darius Butler
Go ahead, finish.
- [112:32]
Pat McAfee
No, no. I didn't know if we were doing the whole call. Oh, me. Shout out Booker T. Tyler Algier. James Connor, going back there. Jacoby Brissette, by the way, always an option.
- [112:44]
Boston Connor
Solid.
- [112:45]
Pat McAfee
Maybe the floor makes some moves in this entire.
- [112:47]
Darius Butler
Maybe, you know, it's a lot to fix out there, but this is you bringing in talent. That's what today is about. Spending money in the right places whenever you're talented enough to take carries away from a guy like Bian Robinson. You're a damn good running back. So this is a great signing for the Arizona Carters. We'll see what La Fleur can do over there. It's been a. It's been a long time since they've been relevant.
- [113:05]
Pat McAfee
It's been a long time since they haven't been asked. Every report called that says the building is trash. I mean, that's literally what it said. Yeah, those NFLPA report cards. I think I know who was most upset about those getting out public. Don't we have some sort of non disparage thing with the player? Like what? Every time I read these report cards, it's just dumping on my facility. And then it's like the players, like, well, that's the only way you change these things. It's like you're not allowed to do it. Yeah.
- [113:34]
Ty Schmidt
So I'm not changing.
- [113:35]
Pat McAfee
You're gonna find a new way. You're gonna find a new way because you're not gonna do that. And then the players are like, oh, yeah, we didn't put. Put it out. Leak right through there. Whose ass? Cardinals. Who else? Pittsburgh Steelers.
- [113:46]
Alec Pierce
Yeah.
- [113:46]
Pat McAfee
You guys maybe need to figure it out over there.
- [113:48]
Tone
I don't think so.
- [113:49]
Pat McAfee
We're here to play ball. We're not here to hang out in
- [113:50]
Tone
the locker room and have nice things.
- [113:52]
Boston Connor
That's part of it now.
- [113:53]
Pat McAfee
Okay.
- [113:53]
Tone
We from the Steel City or.
- [113:55]
Pat McAfee
Well, you got Michael Pitman over there now.
- [113:57]
Tone
He loves it.
- [113:58]
Pat McAfee
He's going to enjoy it. There's been a lot of moves made. Have any franchises changed the trajectory of their entire team for next year's hunt for the Lombardi? Feels like Linder Balm is a big play. Huge big play that's also like a culture defining type play. We knew it was coming. When did it come? Almost two hours in. What will the next hour hold?
- [114:16]
Jordan Stout
Wow.
- [114:17]
Pat McAfee
Still got another hour of magic here at the ThunderDome as the NFL's free agency frenzy continues. Then at 3 o', clock, we'll hand it over to the lovely Laura Rutledge. And then NFL Live will cover it. The NFL never sleeps and they're paying everybody. We're back on the other side. As you know, managing maintenance, repair and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by. Spring is here, and there's a whole new way to chai at Starbucks that's made perfect for you. Choose your sweetness. Dial it up or keep things light. Add a touch of pistachio, a hint
- [115:17]
Adam Schefter
of strawberry or vanilla, or make it a spring classic with lavender.
- [115:21]
Pat McAfee
Because this season there's endless ways to chai at Starbucks. Welcome back to our humble abode, the Thunderbolt, on this lovely Monday, March 9th, better known as Frenzy. What a day. What a time. Two hours in, there's already been over a billion dollars in contracts given out to players who have earned it, some for the first time in their life. Getting a bag That'll change the trajectory of their entire family. Some teams betting, not necessarily the farm just yet, but damn near everything they got on a couple different players to bring them a title hope and a title opportunity. It's not just me. The toxic tables here at Boston, Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Love that you wore your tuxedo T shirt on this free agency frenzy day, con man.
- [116:12]
Boston Connor
Yeah, it felt that important. It is such a massive day and there's still so many massive names as well. It's very exciting time in the NFL world.
- [116:18]
Pat McAfee
Let's go to 1/2 of the hammer down Cowboys. AP Tone has anything happened, any odds since any of these moves have been made thus far in the books?
- [116:25]
Tone
No, honest. To be honest with you, 100%. The odds have not moved. They moved a little bit this weekend when the Ravens traded for Max Crosby. But none of these moves today so far have have changed. I mean Linder bomb just happened. That may do something a little bit. Probably not though because it's the Raiders.
- [116:39]
Pat McAfee
We shall see. That's rude to the Raiders. I like the moves that they're making. Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. It's not just us on the stage. We have shefter breaking news in here. We also have Orlovsky and Shrags in the free agency fun zone over there. Boys, thank you so much for today. You've been absolutely killing it. But there is another. Chefty tweet couple. Huge news here. Former Giants wide receiver Wandale Robinson has reached an agreement today with the Tennessee Titans who have been spending money and have money. Remember they brought in Jermaine Johnson in a trade over the weekend. Now they bring in Wandale Robinson. Robinson will be reunited with Titans OC and his former Giants head coach Brian Daboll. We see these connections. Hawkins Ball has brought some players from Baltimore up to the Giants. Now you're seeing all the ex players of these coaches that are down in Tennessee maybe making the same moves. Let's head over to Schefter. Schefter. Wandale Robinson was a name you were kind of chit chatting about before the show. Now it's official. He's going to the Titans. They're making some moves down there in Music City.
- [117:38]
Adam Schefter
Yeah, we got a few moves. We got. We got Wandale Robinson. It's four years 78 million, 38 million guaranteed with the Tennessee Titans. They paid up. And we also have Jahan Dotson, the Eagles wide receiver now going to the Atlanta Falcons. We're going to put that out right now, Pat.
- [117:55]
Pat McAfee
Okay Jahan Dotson heading to the Atlanta Falcons. They've been making moves. The Atlanta Falcons allegedly in on Tua. They bring in a punter. They also bring in some other guys. And now Jahan Dotson, who is explosive and electrifying heading down there. We also have another. Chef key tweet. Former Jaguars running back Travis Etn will be signing with the New Orleans Saints. He's from Louisiana and it was important for him to be near home. He's a threat out of the backfield, both with his hands and his legs. Love what he was able to do this year with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Finding a new home with Kelly Moe. You like it, D Bud?
- [118:31]
Darius Butler
I love it. I love this. Another weapon for Tyler Shook. I'd be interested to see what they do with Alvin Kamara in the backfield, but this is a great weapon for him. He took a step up as far as receiving and he's excited, explosive. He's fast, he's still young. A lot of upside. I love this pick from this signing for them. I'm sorry.
- [118:47]
Pat McAfee
The Broncos were allegedly in on etn. He ends up going to the Saints. Let's head over the free agency. Fun zone. ETN signing with the Saints. Obviously another Wandell Robinson big deal made in Tennessee. Anything you're liking or want to expand upon. Shregs and Orlovsky over there in the fun zone. Hold on. You're muted. You're muted. You're muted. We need you back. We need you back. Hold on. You're muted.
- [119:11]
Boston Connor
Oh, no.
- [119:11]
Pat McAfee
Oh no. We lost you. Oh no. Oh no.
- [119:16]
Boston Connor
Both of you, hold on.
- [119:17]
Dan Orlovsky
Hold on.
- [119:18]
Boston Connor
Stan, Pat there. Fun zone.
- [119:21]
Peter Schrager
Just adding to the things you can do. Special teams player right there. Pat McAfee getting me the microphone here. I got another one here. Defensive tackle Caris Tonga, who is a player on the Patriots super bowl team this year is leaving New England to go two Kansas City on a three year deal. $21 million.
- [119:38]
Tone
Good deal.
- [119:39]
Peter Schrager
We'll clog the defensive line. That has been done by David Cantor and Ness McGrabbie there over at Aura Sports. Those guys get that one done there. That is another one. But Wondale and Travis ETN Dan are big ones. I think I'm gonna pass the mic is what they say.
- [119:52]
Pat McAfee
Pass the mic to Dano.
- [119:53]
Dan Orlovsky
Okay, so a couple things won Dale down to Tennessee, obviously. Cam Ward, Elick Humanor, if. Am I saying that last name right? Who's their rookie receiver? He led them in in ca Receptions yards last year with530.513. So like they needed Needed big time to add to the perimeter weapons and Chig their tight end. Okonku, he's a free agent and so you might be losing him, who was their second leading receiver. So I like the fact that Wandell's been added there. They got to get more out of Ridley. They got. Because Wand is really good. But Wondale is more of a slot. He's more of like an inside receiver. And so I do love the fact that he went there. But they're still going to need perimeter player on the outside down in Tennessee.
- [120:34]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, Dan, I think what you're saying about the Tennessee Titans is they're continuing to build is. And we're going to fix your microphone so we get. We'll get back to you here in a matter of minutes. Okay. Now they are working.
- [120:45]
Peter Schrager
It feels like I was just going to add fat that the Giants knew this morning that Wondale was no longer going to be in New York like they had. They already came to that conclusion. So they were already moving on to other options and seeing what else they could do because they knew the number would be that.
- [120:57]
Dan Orlovsky
Will they be looking at wide receiver? I know they've signed Isaiah likely, but that's only likely neighbors coming off of the injury.
- [121:03]
Peter Schrager
I think they're going to look to bring back a lot of their own guys now, and that's the job that they're going to be doing.
- [121:10]
Pat McAfee
Is that what you're saying? We think your microphones are working. We're not 100% sure. We're going to take you off the camera and test them. Go ahead, Tone.
- [121:15]
Tone
Well, I was going to ask Stregs a question, but since we're taking off camera, I won't, but I'll.
- [121:18]
Pat McAfee
No, you can. I think we can tell what is that?
- [121:20]
Tone
What is the ETN to New Orleans? Does that mean for Kamara? Could he be released? Could Kamara be traded? Because, I mean, they're very, very similar back. They're very athletic, they're very shifty, they're good out of the backfield. Are they going to have two of those guys or what's the situation with Kamara now in New Orleans?
- [121:35]
Pat McAfee
No, no need to handheld.
- [121:38]
Peter Schrager
I think what your instincts are right, Tone. I think that would be something where Kamara maybe who has been a great saint just like Cameron Jordan and demario Davis have been great Saints. It looks like it might be a window now to leave. You don't usually bring in a big free agent signing like ETN and then also keep a Kamara. But we will see what Kellen Moore wants to do.
- [121:53]
Pat McAfee
Oh, Dano wants the mic. I mean it should be easily just not do what you're doing right now. But this better be good. This better be good.
- [122:00]
Dan Orlovsky
Kamara has the biggest cap hit in the NFL for running backs next season. I think over $18 million. Only average 3.6 yards per carry. So the Saints have to figure out now with ETN there is the highest cap hit in the NFL. Is that going to be worth worth it with 3.6.
- [122:15]
Pat McAfee
Oh, the shrine's got it. Mike. Let's go.
- [122:18]
Peter Schrager
I would add this. Jacksonville is now in the market for running back. Obviously this is how this works and those two players, Kenneth Walker and ETN were never going to be a part of this. Who can Jacksonville get now at a discounted price? Maybe not that number, but yes, the Jaguars, remember they were a wild card team, almost beat the Bills. They're going to be looking to bring in another free agent running back.
- [122:36]
Pat McAfee
Be watching at the running back position. Obviously Breece hall was tagged I believe, right? He's gone. Etn. He's gone. He's gone. Javante Williams, Rashad White, Rico Dowdle, Isaiah Pacheco, Nick Chubb, J.K. dobbins, Tyler Algier, he's gone. Kenneth Gainwell, he's gone.
- [122:52]
Peter Schrager
Dobbins would be a name I would watch. I think he would work in that offense and I know there might be some contact but I wouldn't say it's a done deal by any means. But that might be the name that it's more of an affordable thing than an etn.
- [123:01]
Pat McAfee
Okay, we appreciate that out of the free agency fun zone as we try to fix your guys microphones. You guys actually kind of good little gimmick. Yeah, I got something. It's better be good.
- [123:10]
Darius Butler
Give it back.
- [123:11]
Boston Connor
Give it back.
- [123:12]
Pat McAfee
Good Dan. We appreciate them doing that in dodge duck dip diving and dodging their way through it. We speak about Bruce hall because he got franchise tag. He obviously is on the Jets. He put a tweet out to say damn, we sure got a lot of money in Florida bar all these contracts dudes are signing. Obviously couldn't come to terms on a long term deal before the franchise tag deadline. How do you feel about these guys getting signed right now? The running backs may be having a little bit of a run, a little
- [123:34]
Darius Butler
bit of a resurgence. I like it always like I'm a fan of running back by committee. Like Shra said though, when you bring in a guy like etn, you're probably going to get rid of a Guy like Kamar with that big number. But I still like running back by committee. I think it's frustrating. I know as a defender it's nothing worse than seeing some fresh legs jog on the field after another guy's giving you seven, eight plays. We saw it work with Sonic and Knuckles for some years out in Detroit. I know that pair got.
- [123:59]
Pat McAfee
They were saying ass and check.
- [124:02]
Darius Butler
We know with mcdc taking over the play call and we'll see how that all works out. But I love what's happening with these running backs. Kind of getting their time to shine again.
- [124:09]
Pat McAfee
It feels like Christian McCaffrey, they're going to run how he goes. Saquon Barkley a couple years ago, they're going to go how they go. It does feel. Kenneth Walker wins the super bowl mvp. It's like yeah, Dijon or Bijan Robinson obviously up there. But I'm just saying the successful teams have had an elite running back. So that is good news for the running back market. Remember a couple years years ago they were saying that the NFL was basically the running backs need to create a union because the NFL was holding them back. I think just at that time of the game there was kind of a weird phase where the running back position wasn't necessarily as important as it once was. We are back now at the position where the running back needs to be good. Not only do you need a good offensive line obviously to be able to protect your quarterback, but if that running back can turn a 3 yard gain into an 8 yard game or a 10 yard game or hell, 50 yard gain, that helps your team out so much. Especially in the stagnant football that's currently happening with how good defenses have become so good for the running back world. Getting some money. Saints are giving Travis ETN four years 52 million.
- [125:04]
Ty Schmidt
Wow.
- [125:05]
Pat McAfee
Wow. Congratulations ETN. That's awesome. Out of Clemson, obviously a stud gets 52 over four. We don't know what the guarantees are, but we're certainly happy for him for that. You need a running back that is just very, very apparent at this stage. Con man.
- [125:17]
Boston Connor
Yeah. Even in the draft you can make the argument. I forget when it was. Maybe it was Breece Hall's year where there wasn't a first round running back and that was kind of shocking. Is it not kind of odd because of this conversation just about the running backs, how none of the guards really none of the tackles aside from Linderbaum, really none of the centers, none of the linemen on the offensive side of the ball, it feels like have been picked up whatsoever and there's still a bunch out there. Do you think maybe over these next couple hours now that some of these other skill positions, maybe the offensive line starts to eat a little bit. It's kind of shocking.
- [125:48]
Pat McAfee
That's a good question, actually. To go to Splash for the Saints. They are signing former Bills guard David Edwards. But on that note, I do wonder if they were all waiting for Linderbaum. You know, like, and this is gonna sound incredibly arrogant and I do apologize for that, but my name is on the show and I try to speak from my own perspective. Whenever I was potentially gonna go on to become a free agent, there were other punters that were about to become a free agent that called me and said like, hey, when do you think. Do you know what your going to do? And I said it got bad today with the negotiations. I think I'll be out there. But yeah, I don't want to d like I would like to make my decision. It was pretty cool to hear, like, hey, we're probably waiting on you to kind of sit and figure out what's going on. Felt like Linderbaum was probably that for the interior offensive lineman. How big can this deal go? Some of these guys are potentially looking at it once he goes off the board. That's kind of where the domino effect kind of rolls in. Now we got guard David Edwards going down to the Saints and the Saints are spending money. They never have have money seemingly, no. But then they spend it. I don't know how they do it. They're like a. They're like a credit union down there. They're always getting the money up front somehow. I don't know how they're paying it on the back end. But call me now. I love every. I love everything about what they're doing down there.
- [126:58]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, they were the big, like, hey, we're just going to kick the can down the road team. For the last several years we've done this and that was kind of always the conversation like, well, you're gonna have to. You're gonna reach that can at some point. And maybe with Drew Brees off the books and they have a rookie quarterback quarterback like it is now, they can finally kind of start to do that. But it is kind of crazy how they seem like they are in cap hell each year and they still have money to give, you know, a running back, $53 million.
- [127:21]
Pat McAfee
Mickey Loomis is down there smacking his gums.
- [127:23]
Ty Schmidt
Oh yeah.
- [127:24]
Pat McAfee
And signing these checks. That might have been the worst couth I've Ever seen at a press conference just directly into a microphone, chewing gum a thousand times a minute. I mean, that was certainly something that made me judge him immediately. But on that note, they somehow always are over and somehow always paying. Yep. So I like it. They move on from Demario Davis. Cam Jordan also on his way out. Tyler Schuck comes in there. Kelly Moe is the head head coach. A young head coach. Maybe the Saints are kind of working in the right direction too. That's what money can do. You know, money invested in your team can give people hope that you're going to not be asked. Adam Schefter now reporting that the former Bills guard David Edwards is signing a four year, $61 million deal with the Saints. Congrats to David Edwards. Congrats to the Saints making plays. Let's head over to Schefter right now. Saints spending money, do they. How are they always able to do that when it looks like they always are negative whenever it comes to salary cap shefty?
- [128:16]
Adam Schefter
Well, they are. Amazing how they continually do this. Hold on. We got. We got a deal here that's coming up here. A couple of things. Just looking for the actual thing here. Hold on, give me one moment.
- [128:25]
Pat McAfee
I need to find their at. Fucking. AT isn't their name. So got to figure it out. They got an underscore in there where it shouldn't be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [128:33]
Adam Schefter
Okay. So here we go. Here we go.
- [128:35]
Pat McAfee
Okay, we found it. All right. And let's make sure we get it right. This better be a good one.
- [128:39]
Adam Schefter
Yeah, it's. It's pretty good. It's the Raiders signing former Vikings wide receiver Jaylen Naylor to a three year, $35 million deal, 23 million guaranteed.
- [128:50]
Pat McAfee
That feels like a big deal out of Raiders. Raiders continue to spend money. That's an incredible move for them. Saints also spending money.
- [128:55]
Adam Schefter
The Saints got David Edwards done. That's a big deal for them. They get Travis Etienne done. So that's. Where's the money here? The money came in on Travis. It was four years, $52 million, I believe. Four years, $52 million for Travis Etienne to go to New Orleans. He's from Louisiana, wanted to be there. They have Alvin Kamara. So now you have to wonder what happens with Alvin Kamara? Do they keep him? Did they restructure him here? What happens? Does he become a trade trip in this particular situation? We don't know. Know exactly how that's going to play out, but Travis at the end is a big time player and he's signing with The New Orleans Saints, who also have added a mauling type guard in David Edwards.
- [129:31]
Pat McAfee
How do they continue to do this? You were starting there and then you're breaking news. They're always over the cap, but they're somehow always active. I love it.
- [129:39]
Adam Schefter
You know what, it's just like the person who's on their credit card bill, you keep charging every month. You charge every month. You charge every month. You push it out. You keep pushing it out. Eventually you got to keep paying. But they are amazing like that. They are wonders. Whiz kid wonders with the cap. And they're doing it again here with David Edwards, Travis Etienne.
- [129:55]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I like that they're spenders here on day one. Let's head over to the free agency fun zone. Your thoughts on the last two deals that have been announced over there. Obviously, not only Etienne, but also the deal that he just announced headed to the Raiders. Raiders. Yeah, it was Jalen Aylor headed to the Raiders. How do you feel about everything going on right now? Shrag?
- [130:14]
Peter Schrager
Well, when Addison was sidelined, obviously with the suspension, Naylor stepped up and had a fantastic couple weeks with the Minnesota Vikings. So he made himself some money today. And the Raiders obviously are going to be desperate to add offensive talent all over the field. I would add this about the Saints. Mickey Loomis is what you call a G. He's one of the first dudes to be doing this, and he is a guy that just knows this cap, knows this league and knows how to do it under the guise of obscurity. We never talk about Mickey Loomis, but with he, Jeff Ireland and of course Kai Hartley on that front office, they have a loaded front office office that's been doing this for years. They are cap geniuses there in New Orleans. So don't worry about how they'll get it done, how they'll figure it out and when they'll pay the piper. In the same week they lost Demario Davis, they lost Cam Jordan. Money's going to be coming off and they will add it here with these ones. But they got younger and better today. The New Orleans Saints to me, are winners after one day of free agency.
- [131:01]
Dan Orlovsky
Okay, so a couple thoughts on the last four or five deals. One, Linderbaum going to the Raiders leaves massive holes in Baltimore on the end, inside both guards and now center. Okay, so that's the starting point. The second thing is David Edwards leaving the Bills. That's a significant loss. The Bills had one of the, if not the best offensive lines in football last year. That's a big loss for Buffalo at the guard position. Jalen Naylor going to the Raiders, really good receiver, has developed as the number three guy. With Justin Jefferson there and Jordan Addison there, he's going to become really stepping, stepping into probably the number two wide receiver role with the Las Vegas Raiders. You add Brock Bowers there, Tucker still there as a speedster. That's a good signing for the Raiders given the youth of their offense. The Saints are interesting. The Saints right now clearly believe that Tyler Schuck is their future. The interior of their offensive line was a very poor unit last year. This is a them getting Edwards is a big deal. I'll be interested to see what they do with Olave. Olave going into the potential fifth year option. They haven't signed into a contract extension yet. Correct. So I think the Saints right now are sitting there trying to rebuild this football team in many ways around Tyler Schuck. That's David Edwards there. So there's a lot of butterfly effect going and probably the biggest thing now is the Chiefs at nine have signed a running back and the Saints at eight have signed a running back with big money. What does this mean for Jeremiah Love in the NFL draft? And pay attention to Washington also.
- [132:38]
Peter Schrager
NFC south has kind of been crap the last few years now. You have the Panthers, you have a Buccaneers team that's still in it with Baker, you have a Saints team that's emerging. And obviously you look around in the Falcons, what they are all that talent on the rock. So all these teams are spending. It looks like this division is up for grabs. Carolina 1 it this year. But the Saints clearly aren't waving a white flag on this season.
- [132:57]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, the Carolina Panthers are saying we need to get better as well. We love what the NFC south is doing because yeah, you're right, everybody's mocking the nfc.
- [133:03]
Boston Connor
Yeah, they were.
- [133:03]
Pat McAfee
Oh, NFC south is set. Shite boy. Everybody's ass down there. They heard it loud and clear. Mickey started bumping his gums with that gum in his mouth and said we need to make some plays. We'll certainly do that. Congrats. The NFC south getting better seemingly on first day of free agency frenzy. And then a deal that happened in the NFC east that we didn't get to talk about enough. Jahan Dotson is a huge deal. He's reached an agreement with the Eagles. I'm sorry, with the Falcons on a two year $15 million deal up to 17 million, 10 million fully guaranteed. He's a weapon for sure. Atlanta Falcons making plays as well. This NFC South Continues to cook. Con man.
- [133:37]
Boston Connor
Yeah, pretty incredible. Especially for Stefanski bringing a guy in. They just. We're going to just slot to attack of Iloa to be their quarterback there this year. That we can just run away with that. And Johan Dotson is one of their guys. It feels like that is a very interesting thing. I think the Falcons just might implode on themselves. Which is kind of cool.
- [133:56]
Pat McAfee
You're saying first day of free agency frenzy.
- [133:59]
Boston Connor
I'm just saying it's kind of crazy to see the trajectory of some of these teams like coming into today. I wasn't thinking Tua is going to be the quarterback. And then right before we went live, that just kind of blew my mind a little. But then again you just assume Stefanski just. Just has free reign just like Cleveland because he didn't draft Pennix and Tua will probably be a one year deal. It's crazy.
- [134:19]
Tone
So looking at the NFC south divisional odds there, the Panthers are last. The team that just won it and won. That's a good football team.
- [134:28]
Pat McAfee
We had one of those. We had one of these last week on the show whenever we found out that the Dominican Republic was only favored by four and a half.
- [134:34]
Ty Schmidt
Correct.
- [134:35]
Pat McAfee
And we immediately like, okay, yeah, let's. Let's make sure we go in it. By the way.
- [134:38]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah, they did.
- [134:39]
Pat McAfee
We did hit that. Obviously sometimes we see things on this particular show pop up and we go, wait a minute, we need a second look at that. Panthers are a good football team. Let's go football.
- [134:50]
Boston Connor
Phillips.
- [134:50]
Pat McAfee
Jalen Phillips gets added into a litany of dogs down there in Carolina. Hold the phone now. Plus425 doesn't sound that bad at all. Tone day.
- [134:59]
Tone
No, it doesn't. And I'm, I'm shocked that the Bucks are like so far ahead, ahead of the other teams. I just, I just thought that whole group would be a lot closer together and the Saints would probably be in last because of what they have done.
- [135:11]
Pat McAfee
Where's Mike Evans?
- [135:13]
Ty Schmidt
Good question.
- [135:13]
Tone
That's a great question.
- [135:14]
Ty Schmidt
I was promised he was going to be done in the first hour.
- [135:18]
Darius Butler
1201.
- [135:19]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, 1201. Maybe we were told that. So what could potentially be happening? Is there a little bit of confliction? Let's go to the free agency fun zone. Hey, Shregs.
- [135:27]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah.
- [135:28]
Pat McAfee
I thought first battle hall of Famer was making his decision today. Whatever. Your phone lied to you.
- [135:32]
Peter Schrager
What to what to tell you though. This is the beauty of today. You put out a sprinkle like that and that's what I was giving the impression of that he was going to be signing somewhere. Well, Tampa Bay is not going to go without a fight. This could be what's happening right now where he is looking at multiple teams and he might be having second thoughts. But I was told to expect Mike Evans to announce his team early in the day. We are now entering hour three. I have the same cadence as Adam Schefter right now. I feel like I'm embodying him. We have to watch, we have to see. But the truth of the matter is this. Tampa Bay wasn't going to go out without a fight. They love this guy. That is a franchise player, wall of honor type deal. Raise the flags, the whole thing. They weren't going to go out without a fight. And I believe that might be at play right now.
- [136:09]
Pat McAfee
Huge news here. Okay. Albert Brear is reporting that word was Mike Evans camp has told teams that he had a one year, $27 million offer from someone. Whether or not that's actually the case, we'll see Greg Ohman also on the reporting of that. Maybe we had to air into the Schefter zone to hear what he has heard about the information surrounding Mike Evans and where his future is shefty. I don't know if you saw that out of Albert Brear Talking about a 27 million one year offer from Mike Evans. Do we know what Mike Evans is kind of pondering right now or what's kind of taking place?
- [136:41]
Adam Schefter
I still think he's going to wind up leaving Tampa in the end. There is no official word on that. And again, as Peter, Peter said, these things go back and forth now. He will be talking and has been talking to teams and sometimes you think that you're further along on a deal and then all of a sudden players come back for more things or teams pull back something else. And I think that's what's going on with Mike Evans right before he leaves Tampa. He wants to make sure that it's for what he wants, enough to get him out of Tampa. Now last time he was ready to move on from Tampa and my understanding was people in his family stepped in like let's stay in Tampa. And that's what happens every year. We see people reach agreements and then sometimes people don't get those agreements followed up and signed. So again, I still think ultimately he's going to wind up leaving Tampa. That's my sense. But this is still playing out. The negotiations still are going on and we have to see ultimately where it ends up.
- [137:38]
Pat McAfee
Wow. I'm telling you, Anzalone Said, I'm not leaving Tampa. Tampa. Mike Evans family heard the things were like, we're not leaving Tampa. Sounds like Tampa is an incredible city and obviously Mike Evans has had a lot of success. But if that number 27 million, do you think that why are people floating that number out there? Because Albert Breer, we know.
- [137:54]
Adam Schefter
Yeah.
- [137:54]
Pat McAfee
Know some people. Do we think that's a tactic or do you think There's a near $30 million one year deal for fucking Mike Evans right now? That's an incredible offer.
- [138:02]
Adam Schefter
All I could say is somebody told him that and maybe the deal will be coming close to that. I don't know any number numbers on a Mike Evans deal because I don't think there's any Mike Evans deal that's done right now.
- [138:12]
Pat McAfee
Okay, so you're saying could be, but it is not what you have heard. Go ahead.
- [138:15]
Adam Schefter
I haven't heard anything.
- [138:16]
Tone
I know it's the first year for it. I haven't seen any reporting on it. Are you hearing from teams like, yeah, we used one of our five one hour zoom calls on this player. Are you getting any of those today?
- [138:24]
Adam Schefter
This, you know, we're two and a half hours in almost. This is such a scramble. Like, I don't know anybody that's setting up a Zoom call sitting down in the midst of these crazy negotiations. That and punters flying off the shelf.
- [138:36]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, Shefty. Yeah, right.
- [138:38]
Adam Schefter
I mean, you got teams wheeling and dealing. I don't think that anybody's sitting in to schedule a video. There might be a certain case where if there's a question about somebody the team has, you want to get that guy on the phone or a zoom call, you have the liberty to do that. But I'm unaware of that.
- [138:52]
Pat McAfee
Hey, heard you had nobody at your birthday party. Anytime you need to understand what's going on, we appreciate you. Shefty. The thought of a $27 million 30 minutes million offer to Mike Evans for one year. What was Fitz's deal? 11 million every year if he just wanted to sign up for it. Remember that? Yeah, it was like 11 million three straight years. But it was also, I think, just like available. Like, hey, if you want to play another year, this is fully guaranteed. It is available for you. It was 11 million at the time. You know, it's a little bit different. I think Mike Evans had something similar is kind of how we all viewed it. Like, hey, if he wants to be a Tampa, it's going to be this. Then he gets a chance to Hear what other teams, teams think about him for the first time, long time. And it's like everybody in Tampa sees him as a one helmet guy. I think his family is potentially like, hey, not only one helmet, this is beautiful. This place is unbelievable. We're heroes here. We, we've done it all here. And then you hear from another team that's like, hey, just want to let you know we'd be willing to. We need you. Okay, Tampa. Maybe Tampa doesn't understand that they, they need you. We need 27 mil for one. I think that's a huge. Khalil Makta signed for 18 million for one year with the Chargers. I assume he was pumped to stay in la. I assume the Chargers were pumped to have him. Jim Harbaugh, one of his first things he did as a head coach for the Chargers was on our show telling Joe Ortiz, slapping him on the thigh like Steve Ballmer did in that one gift. And he goes, hey, need to sign Khalil. Need to sign Khalil. That is a guy that can't leave here. Then he talked to strength coach Herb and he's like, we need to keep him. So they make a deal happen for him. Eight to million, keep them here. Everybody's happy. It's like, is that what teams are trying to do to Mike Evans right now? 28 million guaranteed, one year. You just come there for six, seven months. I mean, that's a good thing. That's a good position to be in.
- [140:30]
Darius Butler
Absolutely.
- [140:31]
Pat McAfee
But also that's a tough decision to make. Whenever you have been a Tampa guy, you're in Tampa.
- [140:34]
Darius Butler
Yeah, I am. I know. We saw the reports. I am interested to know what the real market is for him. And, and you. We thought, hey, maybe he gets the Larry Fitzgerald treatment. He's a one helmet guy, ring of honor, you know, greatest receiver in their frame, franchise history. I'm not sure, but this is, these are the tough decision that the front office has to make because they have a lot of young talent in there when it comes to wide receiver. Godwin will be the OG if Mike Edwards, I mean, Mike Evans leaves, but you got Ibuka, who could emerge and kind of be that next number one guy. You got McMillan, who they drafted, who shows some promise, obviously brought Otten back at the tight end position. So we shall see. It's a tough decision for them to make. I would love to see him finish his career in Tampa, but we know business has to be done.
- [141:12]
Tone
So we, we thought, we heard maybe the Mike Evans deal gets done early. You know what Happened early. Was Alec Pierce signed and he maybe he saw Alec Pierce's number and said, oh, I'm going to need more than that.
- [141:22]
Pat McAfee
So they're similar styles of play.
- [141:24]
Tone
Yeah, exactly. I mean, and he's done it for
- [141:26]
Pat McAfee
10 years, a thousand yards for what, 11 straight years or something like that? I forget the number. With how many different quarterbacks. And then he sees Alec Pierce, who's the deep threat guy.
- [141:34]
Tone
Correct.
- [141:34]
Pat McAfee
He becomes the highest free agent paid wide receiver in the history of football or whatever it is. Mike Evans just goes, hold milk, check how what is going on here? And then potentially they renegotiate. Or maybe Mike Evans already had his deal. He respects Alec Pierce. We all respect Alec Pierce. I'm not saying that that's not the case. But maybe Mike Evans agents go, oh, oh, there's a whole new market potentially that we need to look in. There's so many games that could take place. There's so many games that legitimately could be taking place.
- [142:03]
Darius Butler
It could. But you, you, you know, it where, where you are in your career. And we know that, you know, Mike knows as well. I'm sure. I don't want to speak for him, but that's Alec Pierce's, you know, first bite of the apple. He's the top guy in line when it comes to free agency. He's a young guy in his prime. I'm sure Mike just wants a deal that he can be comfortable with sitting. And then like you said, you've been in the place for a long, long time. It is tough to leave. And if you do leave, it's a short number. Like you're not going to a rebuild situation. You're going to a team. Dano mentioned Shregs mentioned a quarterback and somebody that probably in that top one or two lines when it comes to super bowl. More odds going into this next season.
- [142:36]
Ty Schmidt
Well, that's what I was going to say. Do you think it's safe to assume that one of these teams that has a bunch of cap space that is absolute shite is maybe a team that's offered him 27. He's like, hey, that's nice, but like, I'm not signing up the Raiders. Exactly. I'm, I'm not signing up to do the devonte Adams thing where I think
- [142:51]
Pat McAfee
the grass knows Mike. Oh my God.
- [142:55]
Ty Schmidt
Yeah.
- [142:55]
Pat McAfee
Tom Brady going to Fernando. Like if he had a mic that's on Nick, that would be. Let's go to the free agency fun zone Shrags. Is that the team that just been kind of sitting there that we haven't even thought about. The owner of the team won a Super bowl with the guy and boy, we have the money. And a rookie quarterback's best friend could be a guy that could take a top off of a defense. Is that something that we haven't maybe chatted about Shrags and are we far off in that world?
- [143:21]
Peter Schrager
I think we're going to find out. Mike Evans shortly. And I'm going to tell you this. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers believe. Believe they are no longer in it for Mike Evans. They had made a strong offer and it seems like Evans's representatives have said, we love you, we love how this has been, but it looks like Mike Evans will be moving on. I don't have the team yet. We should know shortly.
- [143:40]
Pat McAfee
Dan, are you okay, bud?
- [143:42]
Dan Orlovsky
That's a bit. That's a big move. I mean, he's a Hall of Famer. He's been there forever.
- [143:46]
Peter Schrager
They wanted him.
- [143:47]
Dan Orlovsky
Yeah, I think not enough shrey.
- [143:50]
Jordan Stout
Okay.
- [143:50]
Dan Orlovsky
Okay. But now it's where. So my. I'll go back to this. My brain goes to San Francisco. My brain goes to the Rams. My brain goes to the Bills or the Ravens. If you're Mike Evans and you're willing to leave a place that you have made a Hall of Fame name on the field and an unbelievable name off the field, it's got to be for more than just cash. It's got to be for a place that you think quarterback's legit. This isn't going to be a problem where I'm not getting the football thrown to me or at the right place. Also, a team that's got a chance to win the Super Bowl.
- [144:23]
Peter Schrager
I've got a breaking news one and Tone Diggs. You might really like this one.
- [144:26]
Pat McAfee
Shut up.
- [144:27]
Peter Schrager
The Steelers have agreed to a deal with cornerback Jamel Dean, former Tampa Bay Buccaneer, 3 years, $36.5 million. Eric Burkhart, ROC Nation Sports will be the agent on that one. But the Steelers in acquisition mode. Jamel Dean, the corner from Tampa Bay, who has had a Super bowl career with them as well. So we're talking about Mike Evans, but here we go. Breaking news. The sheer tweet. I just got here. Jel Dean going to the Steelers.
- [144:53]
Pat McAfee
Thank you for that. Congrats to the Steelers on another big signing. In the corner, they brought in a wide receiver as well. They brought in Pitman, renegotiated his deal for 59 million. Now they bring in a corner. Steelers very active. Tampa very active. Mike Evans still sitting there open. Steelers fan feels like what with this
- [145:08]
Tone
deal feel really, really good. This is one of the positions of need. You have Joey Porter Jr. Who, who came into his own this year was one of the best in the league. You signed Asante Samuel Jr. After the injury last year. You signed him to a one year deal this morning, kind of on an approvit deal for about 5 million. So this is just another piece to sure up the secondary. So now as far as the defense goes, the D line's good, linebacker, solid secondary with with Dean and Joey Porter Jr. And then the safety figure that,
- [145:40]
Pat McAfee
Ladies and gentlemen, it has happened. Mike Evans is expected to sign a three year deal with the San Francisco 49ers just moments after Shrake said, hey, this Evans deal is coming soon and he believes that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are now out of the conversation for Mike Evans. Adam Schefter says, while you're saying that shrags, let me actually tell you what's happening. The Niners now have a first ballot hall of Famer. A man who has been able to accomplish great things no matter who's playing quarterback, has won a Super bowl, has experienced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from the top all the way down to the bottom. Now he's heading to San Francisco with a litany of weapons and an offense with Brock Purdy guiding it that can certainly put up ridiculous numbers. Him now going deep down the field for Shanahan and Paul Purdy. Good night. Maybe the Niners make a run at this thing. Let's go into the free agency frenzy zone with the man who put that tweet out. Shefty, what's the deal? How do we get here, pal?
- [146:42]
Adam Schefter
Well, the Niners have needed help at wide receiver. Look, they're moving on from Brandon Iuk this offseason. Everybody knows that. They have a situation where Debo Samuel left last year. So really Ricky Pierce hole is their proven wide receiver. They wanted a veteran presence out there. Mike Evans was interested in leaving Tampa for a variety of factors and at the combine, the word on the street all along was that he was interested in leaving. Now he lives in Houston. During the offseason, a lot of people thought initially maybe the Texans, but the Niners are the team that was interested in him. And they were talking today and I think the hang up, as we alluded to before was they were coming together on a deal and then there was a hiccup like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. We thought you could do this or we thought you could do that. And they had to work through, through that. Now it's going to be a three year deal. It's really a shorter term deal than that, but it's going to be called a three year deal for cap purposes. And this is an emotional departure for both Mike Evans and the Buccaneers. This was the very first draft pick that the Buccaneers general manager Jason Light made in Tampa. Mike Evans is going to be in their ring of fame. He's going to be in the hall of Fame. He is an elite wide receiver. For him to leave an organization, he just felt like he wanted to try something else, wanted to be in a different offensive system, wanted to see what life was like elsewhere. And so he now will finish his career in San Francisco as a focal part of their offense. The 49ers were in the market for a wide receiver, Mike Evans to the 49ers on a three year deal.
- [148:11]
Pat McAfee
A lot of turnover in Tampa Bay at the offensive coordinator role, obviously. Baker Mayfield now has been his quarterback for the last couple years. Tom Brady, Jameis Winston, the list goes on and on. He'll go out there with Kyle Shanahan's offense and Brock Purdy ready to slice and dice. I'm excited to see what Shanahan does with him. I think he's probably pretty excited as well. Let's head over to the free agency Fun Zone. Shrags thought the deal was coming quick and said maybe a sleeper team. I think we brought up the Niners but still didn't necessarily expect it. Why did they make this play? Shrags and what does this mean?
- [148:40]
Peter Schrager
Orlovsky that was so fun and that is why we do this thing in real time. I was hearing that the Buckets Buccaneers were out. Well, why were they out? Because seconds later we find out that the 49ers had closed the deal. I can't stress it enough and Adam's done it and I know at home you'll be rolling your eyes. The sentimental connection between Mike Evans and that franchise is so strong. Stronger than what Brady had with them, stronger than what Gronk had. This is a guy who's been there all these years, ups and downs, and is now finally leaving. And it was like if you love someone, you let them go. And at some point the Buccaneers said, you, you know what, if we're going to make an end, okay, go on and explore other options. Derek Gilmore is the agent. He's been with them all along. They worked the deal out and there were many other interested parties. But three years they get on Mike Evans and he goes to the 49ers who, yes, were Eliminated from the playoffs in a divisional round, but were so injured last year down the stretch, he believes he can still win and still make that top dollar money with the 49ers. I like the fit, but of course it's free agency frenzy on a Monday. I like all the fit.
- [149:38]
Dan Orlovsky
I love the fit for San Francisco. I love the fit for San Francisco, San Francisco. McCaffrey. And as great as CMC is, he led them in basically every offensive category this year or last this past season. Too much of a burden on that football player. So now Mike comes there, Pierce all there. They're probably going to lose Juwan Jennings, who's their dog at wide receiver, do it all type of guy. So now Mike is back. Last year is the first year that, that Mike didn't have a thousand yards receiving and I think 11 seasons and that's because of injury. It wasn't because he can't play anymore. And so I love the fit in that regard. For Tampa's perspective, it's their own fault in a good way. It's because all they do is draft good players. They've drafted McMillan, they drafted Egbuka, they drafted Tez Johnson. And so they've got these other young players that are really talented that make it, I don't want to say easier, but you can justify not, not overspending for Mike in this situation because you've got people in the, in the, the waiting. And so did I knew teams that wanted to get in on Mike Evans. I know the Bills wanted a Mike Evans. I know the Rams wanted in on Mike Evans. I know that the 49ers wanted in Mike Evans. So I think it's an outstanding signing. And think of Mike Evans down in the red zone with Kyle Shanahan, who's one of the great red zone game plan design guys in the history of the league.
- [150:53]
Pat McAfee
Shregs, what's that number going to look like quickly?
- [150:56]
Peter Schrager
I would think it'll be north of 25 a year. I mean that's what, that's the numbers that he's demanding and that. And that's a guy that good for him with this salary cap the way it is, that is something that he can guarantee. I mean, hey, look, they're going to be obviously moving on from iuk. They left the Debo's gone from last year and Juwan Jennings is a free agent. So there is room to spend. And you say Ricky Pierce all at one wide receiver. You throw this guy on as a second K comes back, Caleb comes and obviously you get Kittle Back you get use check back. You startingly put this thing together and it's like, all right, 49ers in a wide open NFC. We talk about the Rams and the Seahawks. All right, how about Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers still planted their flag and saying we're not going anywhere yet.
- [151:33]
Pat McAfee
Especially with Mike Evans. D butt. What does it look like in a Shanahan offense with Mike Evans? How do you think he is used? Because what we got a lot of like, hey, we need you to do exact stuff. Whereas Evans there to go ahead and take one of the safeties out of the box so everything else can open up. How does he directly affect everything else we going on whenever you're trying to game plan this Niners team.
- [151:50]
Darius Butler
Yeah. When you talk to defensive coaches or defensive players, they'll tell you Kyle Shanahan probably puts the most problems in front of him as far as game planning and calling plays. But at some point it comes down to the players in the mismatches and Mike Evans you talk about. We all talked about an all time great over 13,000 yards, over 100 touchdowns. He's going to be a mismatch as long as he's lacing them up. Especially when you get down in that red area. Like he's not going to be separated from guys like he used to. He can still run and you throw that ball up and it's a rebound. So you have got different guys on that offense that can create mismatches, whether it's the fullback with Juice, whether it's Kittle when he's healthy. Cmac, he's a mismatch for anyone that's guarding him. So now whoever they draft or whoever they bring in on part of that wide receiver core, they can sit in a room and learn from Mike Evans week in and week out. Because you don't have just these guys, you know, fall, you know, falling out of the sky.
- [152:39]
Pat McAfee
Can he still, still play?
- [152:40]
Darius Butler
I think, I think he still go because the type of guy he is, the body that he has, like I said, he's not a guy who's going to be taking the top off defense like he did five or six years ago. But even when he's covered, he's not.
- [152:52]
Pat McAfee
I love what's happening. Linder bomb goes. Mike Evans go. We're trying to update the amount of money that has been spent so far in these 14 and a half hours of free agency frenzy. It's over $1.4 billion in contracts. What a day for the boys.
- [153:11]
Boston Connor
Unbelievable.
- [153:13]
Pat McAfee
Hey, way to go boys. I think that says something about the health of a league. Obviously whenever you're able to give that amount of contracts out in 14 and a half hours and we're not even anywhere near when these contracts are allowed to be like actually officialized. That's on Wednesday. We are currently just in a place where it's like this is the deal that's being done. And it wasn't like this always. Schefter actually drove for this particular era to happen for the NFL schedule because it was happening but nobody was talking about it. And then the NFL opens up a tampering period. Then there's a pre tampering period that's allowed and it's like was it even tampering then? If you're legalizing it, it's, it's almost like first convo, second convo, deal and then official season start season, they're like yeah, whatever, tampering, whatever the case. So that is what this is. So these deals can't come into effect until Wednesday and I guess they're cutting be some bad faith stuff that could happen until then. But already over $1.4 billion with two and a half more days still of free agency money being talked about is an absurd thing. And good for all. There is more. Former Brian's linebacker Devin Bush reached agreement today on a three year 30 million dollar deal that includes 21 million guaranteed with the Chicago Bears per agent Drew Rosenhaus. Listen, they were good at the beginning of season, then they got better. They're looking to become the best. Okay. And they'll never let it rest until that good becomes better, which it has. And then they're better becomes their best. And that's Ben Johnson football baby. In a nutshell. Three years, 21 million guaranteed for Devin Bush feels like a good deal for him. How big was the market? Tone, what's up bud?
- [154:47]
Tone
So he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers as a top 15 pick. The Steelers moved up to draft him. It didn't work out there. He bounced around a bit. Had his best season by far last year with the, with the Browns playing next to Carson Swessinger who won defensive player of the year. He played Devin Bush played really, really good last year. And then on the Bears side they're letting Edmonds walk. So this he just kind of fills in right for them. It's actually, it's a really good fit for them.
- [155:08]
Pat McAfee
Let's do cool.
- [155:09]
Tone
Go ahead.
- [155:09]
Darius Butler
Yeah, you just talked about it not working out. Like it did not could have easily been been written off. So Kudos to him. Fighting back. A Michigan man, a South Florida guy as well. So a lot of, I guess, ties in this building. I'm glad. I'm, I'm really happy to see this deal for Devin Bush and I think it'll be great for the Bears as well because they, they struggle from a linebacker standpoint. Had a lot of injuries in that position. You mentioned Edmonds moving on. Great pick for him.
- [155:31]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, you're talking about Michigan man. Let's go to another Michigan man on maybe the deets. How many teams are in on Devin Bush? Let's go to Adam Schefter. Shefte. What are we hearing about the Devin Bush deal now? Making him a Chicago Bear.
- [155:42]
Adam Schefter
Yeah. Well, here's the thing. The Cleveland Browns were interested in bringing him back and the Chicago Bears have been looking to upgrade their linebackers. I think this is a breakthrough in the linebacker market. If we look at some of the linebackers that are out there right now, Pat, you're going to start to see some movement on some of these guys right now. Guys like Quay Walker, Devin Lloyd, Nicobi Dean, Leo Chanel, Kaden Ellis. A lot of good linebackers still out there. Alex Singleton, Bobby Wagner. So I think this is going to help break up some of the logic. Logic. I'm again two and a half hours in, but we're used to so much activity at this point in time. But the Bears wanted to add a linebacker. They identified Devin Bush and now they have reached agreement with him on that deal.
- [156:24]
Pat McAfee
1.4 billion. 30 million.
- [156:26]
Boston Connor
Yep. Yeah, good math there.
- [156:28]
Ty Schmidt
Well done.
- [156:29]
Pat McAfee
Thank you. I'd had to get the proper comma. Let's go over to the free agency fund zone. Shrags and Orlovsky, any thoughts on Devin Bush going to the Bears and how about the Bears immediately becoming a team that I think, oh, good decision. Wouldn't have thought that a couple years ago. Now with polls and Ben Johnson, there's already immediate credibility because of success.
- [156:48]
Peter Schrager
I will say this. The Cleveland Browns wanted Devin Bush back. So that is a great signing by the Chicago Bears to not only pay him the money, but to recruit him and to get him over there to that defense. Devin Bush, like Tone said, wasn't the first round pick necessarily for the Steelers. They had hoped after that first year, but last year completely rebuilt his career. If you're Bears fan, you're like Devin Bush father played in the NFL. And last year was an excellent linebacker for the Cleveland Browns. So much so that they thought he was going to be a core piece of this defensive they could bring him back. They couldn't retain him. He now goes to the Chicago Bears. I think it's a great signing.
- [157:20]
Pat McAfee
What's on deck? Real quick, Shregs, what's on deck? You think in your mind, if you had to project like you did before with Mike Evans. That was beautiful, by the way.
- [157:27]
Peter Schrager
That was really good. That was good. TV to the second. That was fun.
- [157:31]
Dan Orlovsky
That was good.
- [157:31]
Peter Schrager
Shefte with the home run at the end, again, getting the team in the top.
- [157:34]
Pat McAfee
That's USA Baseball.
- [157:36]
Tone
That was it.
- [157:36]
Pat McAfee
Beautiful.
- [157:37]
Peter Schrager
That was good. Honestly, I'm very curious to see and I think Shefte mentioned this when you start talking about that linebacker group and Devin Bush goes, that's of course. But this is a really good group of linebackers this year with Devin Lloyd, Quay Walker, and we know Kaden Ellis and Nakobe Dean are on the board. All of those guys. We've already seen a couple go with Anzalone and Bush, but those are the names that I'm watching. Not as sexy maybe as the quarterbacks, but when you have the linebacker play and some big names, who's going to start going now that we've got two off the board?
- [158:05]
Pat McAfee
Go ahead, Dan. Oh, sorry about that, buddy.
- [158:06]
Dan Orlovsky
No, you're good. It's also kind of the age of football right now in the NFL. Years ago, you would have never imagined someone within the first hour of free agency hitting, how much did Kenneth Walker get? 40 million, 30 plus million. Signing a running back to 30 plus million ETN going north of 50 linebackers
- [158:24]
Pat McAfee
for going for Linderbaum.
- [158:26]
Peter Schrager
Yeah.
- [158:26]
Dan Orlovsky
So it's just like kind of. I agree the linebackers are kind of the guys that are next. But I still sit there and I go, okay, where are these agreements going to come with some of these receivers that are still out there now that the Mike Evans edition has been signed? Some of the tight ends that are out there now that the Mike Evans, they're going to be signed. And speaking of Devin Bush. So the Bears jumped on Dahlman retirement, replace him with Bradbury and they're not the same player, but they don't. They don't hesitate. Then they go sign Kobe Bryant as a safety to start free agency, which was a very big deal. Now you get Devin Bush. The Bears just seem to con. I agree with you, Pat. Like, they're just making decisions that aren't. Oh my gosh. And then. Oh, it falls flat. It seems like very calculated call.
- [159:14]
Pat McAfee
Holy. That's that envy right there. I just saw it.
- [159:18]
Darius Butler
Did you see heard?
- [159:19]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, because like the way you said it, it just painted a picture in my mind because I thought of people going, oh, my God. And it was, like, such a good description. Thank you.
- [159:31]
Dan Orlovsky
Dan's been killing it, Pat.
- [159:32]
Pat McAfee
He's been killing it. What we're saying is, yeah, it's been good signings, even though we're not saying, oh, my God. Yeah.
- [159:43]
Peter Schrager
Hey, one name, Pat.
- [159:45]
Dan Orlovsky
That.
- [159:45]
Peter Schrager
That I. I think is interesting.
- [159:46]
Pat McAfee
I'll take it from here.
- [159:47]
Peter Schrager
I got it. I got it.
- [159:49]
Pat McAfee
Shoot it off of him. See a good teammate.
- [159:51]
Peter Schrager
All quiet on the Midwestern front with our guy, Trey Hendrickson. So I'm curious to see where he goes, if there's any action.
- [159:58]
Pat McAfee
I think that's good.
- [159:59]
Peter Schrager
I think we'll see. But you like that. That was a reference to the literary world. I bring that. I'm a little bit of a highbrow guy.
- [160:04]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, I respect that. We need that. We've been able to feel it in here.
- [160:07]
Peter Schrager
Yeah.
- [160:08]
Dan Orlovsky
I smell it.
- [160:09]
Pat McAfee
Is that what you smell? That's crazy.
- [160:12]
Dan Orlovsky
It is not what I smell.
- [160:14]
Pat McAfee
Dano's been smelling a little bit too much of it.
- [160:17]
Dan Orlovsky
Might be attached to some of the things I've said.
- [160:20]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Dano might be floating over there at the freezer. You also would love this.
- [160:24]
Peter Schrager
We have a peripheral view of Adam Schefter, and he's just pacing like a madman. It's so fun to watch this.
- [160:29]
Tone
From my angle.
- [160:29]
Peter Schrager
He's just going, pacing, going, pacing.
- [160:32]
Dan Orlovsky
We should put next year. He should get a whoop. Yeah, he's working.
- [160:36]
Tone
He's got it.
- [160:37]
Pat McAfee
He's got.
- [160:37]
Ty Schmidt
Adam's got it.
- [160:38]
Peter Schrager
He's going to.
- [160:38]
Pat McAfee
That's not a bad idea. We could keep the active heart rate on the screen, Dan. Oh, keep them coming. But this is what happens when you start. Oh, my. Oh, my gosh. What a crazy signing. The amount of money that's being paid out, obviously huge. Do you think anybody won the super bowl late? I really like the Raiders with Linder Bomb. It's hard not to just automatically fall to that. I really like Mike Evans of San Francisco. I like that we kept Alec Pierce here. I like Pitman going to the Pittsburgh. It's hard not to get excited about all because so much optimism and. And hope, but it does feel like we got a lot of positive done for a lot of teams today on
- [161:14]
Darius Butler
this free agency for the top tier teams, I would say that Kenneth Walker to the Chiefs. That was huge. We were obviously matching up all these running backs to that chief, whether it's Bree hall or Jeremiah Love. So them getting Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker was huge. And then something that may fly under the radar. I think Wandell Robinson Robinson Tennessee because coaching wise Brian Dayball taking that OC job to be Cam Ward. So she was my favorite kind of hire of the off season. So now get more weapons in there. I like their young tight end helm, their rookie tight end from last year. Some other weapons that obviously they need to bring up. But I love that those two signings jump off.
- [161:47]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. Day ball is obviously gonna do good things. We assume offensively the numbers are out now. Shefty has reported Mike Evans goes for a three year 60.4 million. Geez. 20.125133 million per year. Because that's going to be front loaded. We assume this will be a salary cap gymnastics three years. If we had to guess he said north at 25 is what he was hearing. So we could assume probably 50 million over the first two years here. 10 million for the third year potentially. However they decide to kind of structure it out. John lynch is a madman. Obviously he's able to accomplish the these things. What a weapon for them. I love that move. Con man. And the Patriots eerily quiet.
- [162:29]
Boston Connor
Yeah.
- [162:29]
Pat McAfee
Which eerily quiet in this whole thing. Mostly because I think you've been so excited about making a move. Just cuz last year you guys made moves. In years past you guys have made moves. We thought that was going to happen again with the Patriots. Cuz where you guys lie instead a little bit more cerebral. Are you bummed out or excited?
- [162:45]
Boston Connor
No, no. Very excited. Especially just because Mike Vrabel's at the helm. You know it's probably the right decision. Yeah. I don't have to be worried like I have been in years past. I can just trust. Especially because there are players out there that are trade targets. Grinard and Minnesota A.J. brown still out there. Move that happened early. Probably one of the bigger names. Carolina Panthers feel like they went from a good football team to possibly that's a great football team. Getting Jalen Phillips as kind of that premier guy. Pass rush, you know Trey Hendrickson being one of the other ones.
- [163:13]
Jordan Stout
But.
- [163:14]
Boston Connor
But him getting paid especially with the pieces they already have. I think Derrick Brown is there. All pro D tackle JC Horn. He got paid last offseason on the back end their corner. Like the Panthers quietly making that move and then seeing the odds that they're plus 400 the longest in that division makes me think like okay, I'm not. I'm not there all the way. Put all the chips in on the Carolina Panthers and the NFC South. But they feel like a pretty damn good football team.
- [163:42]
Pat McAfee
Is 12 a big one for zinc? Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [163:45]
Boston Connor
12, I think, is the biggest.
- [163:46]
Jordan Stout
Oh, yeah.
- [163:47]
Darius Butler
I thought it went up to six.
- [163:48]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
- [163:50]
Ty Schmidt
You can get international.
- [163:51]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, yeah.
- [163:52]
Tone
You got to go overseas to get 12.
- [163:55]
Pat McAfee
I think they're getting shipped in like rugs. Whenever I saw that exactly like rugs. Those things are getting shipped into town. When I saw this man put this.
- [164:04]
Darius Butler
The first thing to come is tomorrow.
- [164:06]
Boston Connor
I just thought, yeah, yeah, they're massive.
- [164:09]
Pat McAfee
That thing's got even little things at the end of it. Like, put that thing in there. Yeah, 12. I saw it happen. I don't really do a lot of the Zen stuff. Nicotine and tobacco are just legitimately the only thing I can't, like, in the whole world. It's like the only thing that my body just doesn't do well. So I've never been into it. Always at training camp with the offensive lineman. Yeah, let me. Go ahead. Yeah, sure. I mean, I guess we got to. And then it was always just like, sick as hell. But I know the Zen game, okay. Because there's people that toss them to me, ask me to sign them. I always feel honored when I'm doing that. And Parker McCollum, I watched him at one of his concerts, catch one, look at the dosage, shrug the person off and throw it back. That's when I knew, like, oh, they're competing here in what they're doing. I had a chance to kind of learn about it. I thought six was the max as well. Then I watched human pull one out. And I'm reading the thing from afar, and it's not Zen, it's some other company. And it says 12 on it. I'm like, I've never seen that before. Two of them.
- [165:16]
Darius Butler
12 pieces.
- [165:17]
Boston Connor
Yeah, it's four sixes.
- [165:20]
Pat McAfee
Then I watched.
- [165:21]
Ty Schmidt
That's a lot of nicotine.
- [165:23]
Pat McAfee
Holy hell. This man was still alive. Somebody else tried one that we know, okay. He might have be an Emmy award winning tik Tok editor.
- [165:32]
Boston Connor
Duck footed.
- [165:33]
Pat McAfee
Okay. Duck footed. Runs the most run sideways, but also forward. Okay. All those types of volunteer. Yeah, he was exactly. He was there. Goodbye.
- [165:42]
Alec Pierce
Yeah.
- [165:42]
Ty Schmidt
And he should have known. He's a three guy.
- [165:45]
Pat McAfee
He's a three guy. So he went to sleep. I mean, he was dead in the seat. Had to hit him. Had to hit him for when it was his turn to talk.
- [165:55]
Boston Connor
Freaked out.
- [165:56]
Pat McAfee
Yeah. One. So in that moment, I was like, you know what? This is going to be a great football team soon. I think. I think this team's got something that nobody else has.
- [166:04]
Darius Butler
Okay.
- [166:04]
Pat McAfee
Maybe even. I don't know if Raves could. I don't know.
- [166:09]
Ty Schmidt
Braves are smoking cigs while he's got Zinn in.
- [166:12]
Pat McAfee
We're inside. We don't know if that was a possibility. There's a chance that that would have been happening as well.
- [166:17]
Darius Butler
Think I know.
- [166:17]
Pat McAfee
It was outrageous. It was unbelievable stuff. Okay, let's head over to the free agency fun zone. Dano Shrags, as we wrap up here on ESP espn, can you two give us your favorite moves that have happened thus far? Favorite money spent. Triggs, we'll start with you, pal.
- [166:32]
Peter Schrager
I love the whole symphony of the Mike Evans deal. We thought Tampa was going to make a big push.
- [166:36]
Darius Butler
They did.
- [166:37]
Peter Schrager
It turns out he had the 49ers in play. Dan Orlofsky, to his credit, named them as the surprise team. He did have the 49ers. I want to give him love there. But this is why this free agency frenzy is so wild. I thought we were going to find out at 12:01. It took till 2:30pm Eastern and so Mike Evans announced it and he just put out a statement with his agent Derek Gilmore, thanking the Buccaneers for what they did to him and his life. But when you see an all time player from a franchise take his game and say, I'm going to go finish my career somewhere else, it is a significant moment in the sport. And I think Mike Evans was a wonderful buccaneer but onto better ventures. He goes over to the San Francisco 49ers and he's going to look to go win another chip with Brock Purdy and those boys.
- [167:14]
Dan Orlovsky
I think the best move is Striggs and Ivan at the Thunderdome.
- [167:19]
Pat McAfee
So fun.
- [167:20]
Dan Orlovsky
A blast.
- [167:21]
Peter Schrager
A blast. My first time here.
- [167:22]
Pat McAfee
A blast.
- [167:23]
Peter Schrager
Can I tell you this real quick? John Schneider, GM the Seahawks, who's been eerily quiet, texted me and goes, where does that 1970s playroom that you guys are in? I go, I love it. I never want to be anywhere else. This is where I want to be. Free agency frenzy with Dano. Let's go.
- [167:37]
Pat McAfee
Welcome, boys. Welcome, boys. Shout out to Ben mystic and the two bald mics out of New York that built that place up over there. Great work. Phenomenal workers.
- [167:45]
Dan Orlovsky
We got to try and keep this pretty cool. Try and keep this signed.
- [167:47]
Pat McAfee
I don't think so.
- [167:48]
Ty Schmidt
Be staying here.
- [167:49]
Pat McAfee
I don't think so.
- [167:52]
Dan Orlovsky
As far as football, I. I'm a line of scrimmage person. So one Raiders Linder Baum I think it's absolutely huge. Jalen Phillips going to Carolina. Absolutely huge. I think Mike Evans going to San Francisco as well. Not because of kind of like us being ahead of it. I just think Mike Evans is one of those difference making. The way you have to line up against an offense in play, play them. DBut knows this. How many corners do you really sit there and say, yep, you can play Mike by yourself? Specifically down in the low red zone. There's just not a lot. And so I, yeah, I just think Kyle Shanahan is going to use him as this piece to free up so much for their offense. And so I. I think that's a. A massive signing. I also think the Rams had a great day because the addition of Jalen Watson. Jalen Watson was a big deal. Outside of the acquisition of McDuffie, I
- [168:42]
Darius Butler
expected some more movement from the corners. Lante Taylor, Tariq pullin up there at the top, some Josh job. Super bowl champ.
- [168:51]
Pat McAfee
That was Kobe.
- [168:51]
Darius Butler
Great sign.
- [168:52]
Pat McAfee
We still got play. We had a lot of moves made. I appreciate you guys over there in the free agency fun zone. You guys crushed it today. Oh, yeah.
- [168:58]
Ty Schmidt
Well done.
- [168:58]
Pat McAfee
That's crushed today. So cool.
- [169:00]
Peter Schrager
Thank you, Pat.
- [169:00]
Pat McAfee
Yeah, no problem. We'll see you guys tomorrow. I'm very thankful for that. Let's head into the man who's been breaking all this news, who will continue to. To be live from this room for the next 50 straight hours. Chef D, your big moves of the day. Did everything happen how you thought it was going to happen when we started?
- [169:15]
Adam Schefter
Well, I think Jalen Phillips going to Carolina was a surprise. That upset.
- [169:19]
Pat McAfee
Got to take a call.
- [169:20]
Adam Schefter
You want.
- [169:20]
Dan Orlovsky
You want.
- [169:21]
Adam Schefter
You want to give me one minute? Hold on one second.
- [169:22]
Boston Connor
Hold on.
- [169:24]
Pat McAfee
Mute him. Is it worth anything? I'm on TV right now. Turn on your TV right now. I'm literally on here right now. They're showing me. I'm at the Thunderdome.
- [169:33]
Adam Schefter
So, Jalen Phillips. I think that leaves Philadelphia in an interesting spot. Tyler Lindebaum reset the market on centers, and it's interesting. The agent is a man by the name of Neil Cornrich. Neil Cornrich, at the outset of free agency in the first year, took Kirk Loudermilk, making $200,000 a year, and brought him to Indianapolis on a $2.15 million deal over three years. He got the highest paid center in free agency when free agency opened. And now, all these years later, you have a situation where Tyler Linderbaum resets the market. The Raiders get a quarterback for their offensive line. This was the player that the new head coach, Clint Kubiak wanted most of all. They were going to do everything they could to get him. He becomes the highest paid interior offensive lineman in NFL history. Nobody would ever have thought $27 million a year for a center, but that's what we saw. Right now. AQ Shipley's weeping. You're seeing all the punter deals, Pat, you're weeping. And I'm weeping because the WI fi in this room is very wonky and
- [170:35]
Pat McAfee
I've had a very hard time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard we bugged you and we appreciate you. How about this before we send this off to Laura Rutledge in the Sports Center, NFL free agency frenzy special. Darian Canard, Green Bay packers swing tackle with great hair, phenomenal flow. Four years of the league, three Super Bowls, no big deal. One year deal worth up to 3.75 million to green Bay.
- [171:00]
Tone
Love it. Great deal.
- [171:01]
Pat McAfee
All right, Shefty, we appreciate you. We'll continue to watch. Dano and Shrags will continue their days on NFL Live. We obviously will continue to follow along with everything happening around the NFL because it's the greatest league on earth. And days like today tell us why dreams came true. There was a lot of first time bags entering bank accounts where people have been earning and working their entire lives for that. Not just them, their kids, communities, their families. Now they're finding homes and new places trying to lift that organization to the tippy top. Because if you don't win the super bowl, does any of it matter?
- [171:31]
Jordan Stout
No.
- [171:32]
Pat McAfee
Nope. But the money's good. Over 1.55 billion already. Laura Rutledge and Sports center will continue then NFL Live. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. You're the best people on earth. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. And we're back tomorrow. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, team. Goodbye, Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster, Zero Ultra, that's the O.G. it kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing, but Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava. And they all bring the Monster Energy punch. So if you've been living in the White can, branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for everybody, Every vibe, and every single one is Zero Sugar. Tap the banner to learn more. Shot clocks, big shots, upsets, aces, TGL playoffs are here. First Atlanta Drive starts their repeat run
- [172:28]
Ty Schmidt
against Los Angeles Golf Club.
- [172:29]
Pat McAfee
Then Rory's Boston Common Golf and tigers Jupiter Links face off in their playoff debuts. Who will advance? Keep up its playoffs? Tune in Tuesday, March 17, at 6:30pm and 9pm only on ESPN and the ESPN app.