Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Adam Caplan's intel On Major NFL Trades involving Steelers, Dolphins, Giants
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to another edition of Inside the Birds.
- 0:12I'm Adam Kaplan. This is a special show here. I
- 0:15wanted to kind of give you some intel if you're
- 0:17a Steeler fan or a Dolphin fan. We're an NFL
- 0:21fan who wants to get caught up and get an
- 0:24idea of what and people are thinking around the league
- 0:27on the big Steelers Dolphins trades. Sometimes trades are overrated
- 0:31and people call it blockbusters. They're generally not. But this
- 0:34one's a blockbuster in a variety of ways, probably in
- 0:37more than you think. And we'll get into that and
- 0:40I'll give you an only reaction about but fit and money.
- 0:43And we also have the other trade on Tuesday, which
- 0:47came out that Darn Waller come out of retirement. I
- 0:49have some really interesting intel from the Giants when he
- 0:53was there. Unfortunately, his career ended prematurely because of a
- 0:58hamstring problem, which we'll discuss, but there's some interesting background
- 1:02on him. We'll talk about the Dolphin situation going forward.
- 1:05I know Dolphin fans are like trying to figure out
- 1:06what the hell are they doing? Where are they going here?
- 1:09Steeler fans, what they're trying to do is it's somewhat obvious,
- 1:12but as obvious as you think. And we'll explain schematically
- 1:15what this thing's gonna look like for both teams and
- 1:18away we go. So let's get to it. So Steelers, right, Steelers,
- 1:23they get Jonah Smith, they got Jalen Ramsey and a
- 1:26seventh round pick. Uh And you know you ask, okay, well,
- 1:33why are they doing this? Right, We're gonna get started
- 1:35with them. Then we'll get to Miami and everything that
- 1:37they're doing. But this from talking to some people connected
- 1:42to the Steelers over the last i'm gonna say three
- 1:44to four months, whether I was at the Senior ball
- 1:47combine getting information from kind of what people in the
- 1:50league thought they were going to do in the draft.
- 1:52There was this thought that and it really it really
- 1:55would start with the DK Metcalf trade, getting him from Seattle.
- 1:59They're gonna pay thirty five million in total cash this season,
- 2:02which is not the stealerway at wide receiver, but they
- 2:06did it. And that's the point here, Omar Khan, I
- 2:08got to give him credit. Their general manager. This is
- 2:11one of the classier franchises who's very old school and
- 2:16builds the draft, and they don't want to build their
- 2:18roster through free agency or in trades getting players from
- 2:20other teams. They want to build with their own players.
- 2:23But and Andy Widel knows this. Who is the Steelers
- 2:26assistant GM and others that were with Eagles there, I
- 2:30know that there's Max Scruder, who's assistant pro director, and
- 2:33some other people who are for the Steelers know this,
- 2:35who were for Howie Roseman. You could build your team
- 2:39in a variety of ways. You don't have to build
- 2:40it strictly for the draft. Why is Howie Rosemond arguably
- 2:43the NFL's best GM. Well, he builds through draft and
- 2:47for a free agency and how he really since twenty
- 2:50one has become one of the better drafters in the NFL.
- 2:54He's just not making the big mistakes that he used to.
- 2:55So how he's done a great job. He's like called
- 2:58like the King of free agency. But it's not just
- 3:00that he does a good job of balancing both. Where
- 3:02the Steely for years they just ignored free agency, would
- 3:05be very selective. Omar Cohn through caution to the win,
- 3:09you can't be scared to be great. Omar went after
- 3:12it getting Metcalf. They knew all along that Pickens was
- 3:15not going to be with the team. They as I
- 3:18was told, I'm gonna say a year ago, there was
- 3:22no way that Pickens was going to come back with
- 3:23that an extension. They didn't think he could handle it.
- 3:26It'll be a distraction of problem. And they got they
- 3:29moved him to the Cowboys to replace him with DK Metcalf.
- 3:33So Metcalf will replace him. It's very, very gifted. So
- 3:37and they're paying Metcalf a lot of money, thirty five
- 3:39million he's gonna make this season. And they made that
- 3:43trade and they got that done as you know, back
- 3:46in March, so you kind of know that they're set
- 3:49at receiver with Metcalf. Neil Arthur Smith is heavy twelve personnel.
- 3:53He doesn't play a lot of three receivers. Twelve personnel's
- 3:56two tight ends, two receivers of course, one running back.
- 4:01But the pay Metcalf about thirty three million a year
- 4:04is what the average value is over the four seasons.
- 4:08He's got to get the football, like you know, it's
- 4:10gonna go through him. But the other question is, well, okay,
- 4:13well where's you gotta have a passing game. You can't
- 4:15just go to one guy every every target, So where's
- 4:17it gonna go where. Well, and this is where Steeler
- 4:20fans don't understand, Well, it's gonna go for Pat Friedmouth next,
- 4:23he's making twelve and a half million. Why do they
- 4:25need to trade for John O'smith and then increase his
- 4:30pay from just over four million which he was gonna
- 4:31make from the Dolphins to now pay him around twelve million. Well. There,
- 4:37The way it was explained to me is not only
- 4:39does Arch Smith Obviously he coached them twice with if
- 4:41you followed Johnasmith's career, he coached them in Tennessee and Atlanta.
- 4:46He called the place for John oh for a lot
- 4:49of his years with the Titans. But it's really the
- 4:53way that they see this offense, not only this season. Potentially,
- 4:56Look if JOHNA. Smith blows it up, and they're gonna
- 5:00be they They believe it starts with a run and
- 5:02has always started with a one with them, unless they
- 5:06felt that their def wasn't good enough, or they were
- 5:09so deep at receiver they felt they need to play
- 5:11eleven personnel with Ben Roethlisberger, that's not the way they
- 5:14do it anymore. They're heavy twelve. So going forward, you
- 5:18get Jonah Smith in there. If he blows it up.
- 5:21By the way, he was terrific for Miami. It's quite
- 5:24the story. Who saw this right the way that he
- 5:27signed that huge deal four years fifty million with the
- 5:31Patriots John of Smith did in March with twenty twenty one.
- 5:35They got rid of him after two years of Patriots
- 5:37because he just didn't play well. He revived his corner
- 5:39Arthur Smith at twenty three improved on that last season,
- 5:42and the Steelers felt that because they're going to be
- 5:45heavy twelve personnel, let's get a second tight end who
- 5:48could do everything. And what does that mean? So Jonah
- 5:52Smith could play the wide position, which is in line.
- 5:54He could play the move position, which is the F position,
- 5:58and you also could do Friar Mouth could do both.
- 6:01Smith is a better mover, so you have that versatility.
- 6:04Either God could be the Y or the F. And
- 6:07now you're cooking here because with there are others with
- 6:12their tight end situation. With Darneld Washington and Donald Parham's injury,
- 6:18Darneld Washington is not quite developed as rapidly as they
- 6:21would want. Now. I know there's a question about his
- 6:25weight sometimes, but the guy's got talent. He just is
- 6:27not taken to the next level as their number two
- 6:30tight end, So they'll work it between Friarmouth now and
- 6:34Jonah Smith, and Washington will be the third and Connor
- 6:36Hayward's still there as we know. But the bottom line
- 6:39is it makes more sense and Steeler fans think to
- 6:43bring it in. It's twelve personnel and Jonah Smith, by
- 6:46the way, could carry the football. He's done a little
- 6:48bit in his career. He's terrific running after the catch.
- 6:52He's had a number of big plays. I like this move.
- 6:54I know that people are saying, why are you tying
- 6:57up all this money? Over over twenty three million on
- 7:01two tight ends. That's a lot of money. I get that.
- 7:03It's a lot of cash. You know, it's a decent
- 7:07amount of cap. The cash is what clubs care about.
- 7:09It's a lot of money to tie up. But I
- 7:12Arthur Smith has got to justify this in terms of
- 7:14his play calling. He's got to get Jona Smith the ball.
- 7:17The good thing is he knows in me obviously, the
- 7:18friar Muth who's coached them for two years. So I
- 7:21get it from that standpoint. Now let's talk about Jalen Ramsey,
- 7:25which I know there are bigger questions about why would
- 7:28you trade for Jalen Ramsey when you're paying Darius slagh
- 7:30ten million? Right, you got Joey Porter Jr. Who you love,
- 7:35So how are you going to make this work? Right
- 7:37from a schematic standpoint? Well, and then I know there
- 7:41are some people with the Steelers think that Brandon Nickles
- 7:44will be their Nickels going to make three million. That
- 7:45makes a lot of sense, by the way, I'm told
- 7:46to statements pretty good. With the Jets, there were a
- 7:48number of teams in it for him. I know the
- 7:50Eagles liked him for free agency so Ecchos is a
- 7:53good player formerly of the Jets, so they really felt that.
- 7:59And I think fans kind of lost this part of it.
- 8:01Jayalen Ramsey, Folks, He's not under contract just for one season.
- 8:07You have to look at that, because I get that.
- 8:09When there were rumors about this, I about a week ago,
- 8:12I'm like that, what sense would this make? Why would
- 8:15they make a trade for a guy who does turn
- 8:17thirty one this fall? And it just you've got Jarry Slay.
- 8:23What does it make for the season. But as I've
- 8:25learned this for twenty seven years, you got to think
- 8:27past the season if guys have long term contracts. Ramsey
- 8:32signed a three year extension worth twenty four point one
- 8:34million last season last September, right before the season started.
- 8:37I know Dolphin fans were like, why would you do this?
- 8:39And I get it. Chris Grey made a mistake and
- 8:42he went up trading him to the Steelers. But for
- 8:44Steeler fans, he signed. Ramsey signed through twenty twenty eight,
- 8:48so you've got him on her team control. By the way,
- 8:50this is a really important point. There is no fully
- 8:54guaranteed money past this season. They're obviously locked into the season,
- 8:58so if it doesn't work, it's not like they gave
- 9:00up a lot of future competition to get them. They're
- 9:03paying them a lot of cash this season, just under
- 9:05twenty million, but there's no commitment and fully guaranteed money
- 9:09pass the season, so they could just cut them or
- 9:12trade them if he doesn't play well. Obviously you don't
- 9:14want to cut them. Sure they'd be value in him
- 9:17even if he didn't play well. But you have to
- 9:21think outside of the box with this trig because it
- 9:22doesn't make sense on paper. But again, slaves up after
- 9:28the season. He's all a starting corner at thirty four
- 9:30years old. By the way, he had knee surgery in
- 9:33December of twenty twenty three. There was a concern with
- 9:37one of his knees, I'm told over the years. So
- 9:39you have to look at that, and you also have
- 9:43to look at this. If teams are going to run
- 9:45a lot of eleven personnel against them, I get it.
- 9:47Ecchos could be the nickel defender, the slock corner. But
- 9:51also if you play teams that have an athletic tight end.
- 9:56Ramsey's a tall corner at over six feet, there are
- 9:59certain Informationally you could play big nickel. There's a way
- 10:03for mationally, you could have him play safety. I know
- 10:04he's not a safety. I get that, the things you
- 10:07could do with him, But again, also to finish this off,
- 10:10think past the season. It's not just about this year.
- 10:13We we get to narrowly focused sometimes on trades. I'm
- 10:16not defending anything from either team. I've got my criticisms
- 10:20of more on the Dolphins and the Steelers. I kind
- 10:23of like this one for the Steelers. I like the
- 10:25out of the box thinking. But Arthur Smith here, he's
- 10:29just got to do a better job of play calling.
- 10:31He's got to look he's he's got to get Metcalf
- 10:33the ball. He's got to scheme them open. This is
- 10:36the one knock on Arthur Smith from a visual standpoint,
- 10:39from conceptual standpoint, from talking NFL sourciers on him, not
- 10:42the motion managerative play caller. Well, now you got Jonath Smith,
- 10:47you can move. Friar Mouth is a good pass catcher.
- 10:50And we know that the tight ends are going to
- 10:52play a lot. They might leave the league in twelve
- 10:54personnel the season. Would not surprise me if they did that.
- 10:57Now what Robin Wilson and probably will be there too.
- 11:01There's their number two receiver, by the way, whether it's
- 11:05Calvin Oser or Robert Woods who's near the end of
- 11:07his career, or Ben Scronik. Well, my man Rock Taylor,
- 11:10by the way, he always liked that in Memphis, who
- 11:12was not drafted. He's he's he should have been drafted.
- 11:14Let's see if he makes the team. But whoever the
- 11:16number two receiver is is not going to get the
- 11:18footba anyway, because it's going to go through the second
- 11:20pass target's going to go through the tight end. So
- 11:22don't worry about who the number two receiver is. It
- 11:25goes the target. The pass targetry is obvious. It's Jono
- 11:29Smith or Fried muth as the two. Metcalfe is the
- 11:33one and the next. The fourth guy is not going
- 11:36to get the football. Now on third down you're going
- 11:39to see a lot of Kenny Gamwell. Who's who's the
- 11:40best pass protection back. This is a bargain signing. It
- 11:44was between, as I understand, between him and the Eagles,
- 11:47between the Steelers and the Eagles to get him back.
- 11:49But he signed with the Steelers. They got Kable Johnson,
- 11:52who they who will eventually be their starter. Of course
- 11:54Jalen Warners on an RFA tender. So I mean there,
- 11:58you really have it, folks. From the dealer's end of it,
- 12:01I get why they did it. You gotta let it
- 12:03play out before overreacting. But the bottom line is it's
- 12:08about Ramsey. He's the centerpiece of this trade. The underrated
- 12:12part of it is Jonath Smith, who, clearly who turns
- 12:15thirty later this year, look great with the Dolphins. The
- 12:18Dolphins just didn't want to increase his pay. He was
- 12:20going to make just over four million, and the Dolphins
- 12:23did so. Excuse me, the Steeers did so. We'll see
- 12:26how this works out now. Also understand the Steelers play
- 12:30a lot of man coverage. They were top ten and
- 12:32man coverage last season about thirty three percent. He's played
- 12:35plenty of zone, He's played plenty of man. He's played
- 12:38inside before. By the way, I don't know how much
- 12:40he loves it. Vic Fangio did that with him two
- 12:42years ago. I mean you could play some safety and
- 12:44certain personnel packages. Right now. The Steelers think it's gonna
- 12:48be Wan Thornhill to replace Fitzpatrick, and we're gonna get
- 12:51to that in a minute. But Jan Thornhill is going
- 12:54to make three million this season. Looks like he'll replace
- 12:58at least right now Fitzpatrick. Now why trade and Mickey
- 13:00Fitzpatrick who had a high cap number, but more importantly
- 13:04fifteen point five million in not guarantee bass salary. Lack
- 13:07of ball production and not just interceptions, slow passes. Defense
- 13:10the last two seasons didn't make plays on the ball.
- 13:13And the other thing is this is what defensive coaches
- 13:16have told me over the years, then don't get so
- 13:19locked in on interceptions. It's also ball production is also
- 13:24did you make the play when the ball was around?
- 13:27You're not the interception. So much did you deflect the ball?
- 13:30Did you also make them go to somebody else because
- 13:33you were right on the tight end or the receiver,
- 13:38and he just didn't make plays and he was not
- 13:40the player the last two seasons that he was early
- 13:42after the trade getting from Miami, So you see, you
- 13:47kind of get it's called cash justification. They couldn't justify
- 13:51paying them fifteen point five million. I totally get that.
- 13:53And there was a filling around the league that they
- 13:56were open to trading him, and you saw what happened.
- 13:58Now far as TJ. Watt, I just want to clear
- 14:01something up because I was quoted. I do some videos
- 14:07for Sportscord every week with Scott Farrell, and I think
- 14:10what happened. Some bloggers conflated what I said and they
- 14:12didn't understand. They completely didn't understand what it meant. So
- 14:15I'll explain it once again for people to understand. The
- 14:19Steelers would like to take care of TJ. Watt. Okay,
- 14:22that's very clear to me from what I've understood for months.
- 14:25But you just can't roll over. He turns thirty one
- 14:30this fall. He probably will be a Hall of Famer someday.
- 14:34I mean, he's what a great draft back, great guy,
- 14:37been a great story development. Right, but you look at
- 14:42his situations. On the last year of his four year extension,
- 14:45he's making over twenty eight million. We know where the
- 14:47money's gone. You're looking at Michael Parson's a minimum forty
- 14:51million if not more, right per season. Now, Michael Parsons
- 14:56is is much younger than TJ. Watt is. They're a
- 15:00middle ground. Well, if I'm the Steelers and and f
- 15:03I'm TJ. Watt and his representation, I just want to
- 15:06see what that deal looks like first before getting it done.
- 15:10Now this other part, Now, let me explain Nate Nick Herbig.
- 15:14I didn't say, like, well, they the reason why they're
- 15:17not gonna sign TG Watter or if they don't is
- 15:19because Nick Herbig. That's not what I said on sportscrit
- 15:23What I said was it does impact his career because
- 15:26if you signed TJ. Watt to an extension, which will
- 15:29obstence really essentially he'll end his career as a Steeler, Right,
- 15:34you would think it would be a three or four
- 15:36year deal, so that would take him thirty four to
- 15:39thirty five. That's obviously gonna end his career with them.
- 15:41That that extension. Well, Nick Herbig's on a third year
- 15:44of his four year deal, so that that ends. That
- 15:46ends it for him coming back. So that's all I meant.
- 15:50I didn't say, like, well, the reason why they won't
- 15:53bring TJ. Watt back if they don't, it's because Nick
- 15:55Herbig that that's not the reason. It would play into it.
- 15:58But that's not the reason. It's just because they could
- 16:00agreeed on deal and what the numbers would look like.
- 16:02But everything I've been told has been they want to
- 16:04get it. They want to get a deal done for
- 16:06him to for tg Watt too and his career with
- 16:09the Steelers, but they're not there yet. It's not a lot,
- 16:13it's just not Now. You should know that the last
- 16:16time they did tg Watt steel when did they When
- 16:19did it get done? Hugging up to the start of
- 16:21the season September tenth, twenty twenty one. So Steeler fans
- 16:25don't don't go crazy here now if they traded him.
- 16:30And I learned this the hard way, when teams say
- 16:32they don't want to trade him, they don't want to
- 16:33trade a player. I go back to twenty eighteen with
- 16:36Khalil Mack talking to the Raiders. They told me flat
- 16:39out they're not trading them. And what happened is John Gruden,
- 16:44who kind of Commeddyer personnel control. He told he told
- 16:48Rachie McKenzie, let's let's let's move let's move him, let's
- 16:52move Colon Mack for as much as we can get.
- 16:54And they thought, I mean, they got good compensation from
- 16:56the Bears, but they also thought that Bears wouldn't make
- 16:58the playoffs in twenty eighteen, and unfortunately they did, and
- 17:01their their draft compensation, the pit draft picks were not
- 17:04as high as they originally thought they would be because the
- 17:07Bears were better than they thought. But the bottom line is,
- 17:10let's be careful of assuming anything with the TJ. Watt situation.
- 17:14Let's see how it plays out. But they do like
- 17:17Nick Kirbig, that's all. My point was, let's go to
- 17:20the Dolphins. Okay, so they get micka Fitzpatrick back, right, Well,
- 17:23why would they do this? Well, the Steelers because they
- 17:27put out so much cash in a way, they have
- 17:32to kind of move cash and to move this and
- 17:36again the convenient excuses. Micka Fitzpack was not as good
- 17:39as a football player the last two seasons which is
- 17:41a fact. Okay, So they move his cash. They have
- 17:45to Shaun Elliott, by the way, he's been a great
- 17:47story who the seious extend is contract. So that's the
- 17:49Steelers part of it. So the Dolphins got micka Fitzpatrick back,
- 17:53and they got a twenty twenty seven fifth round pick
- 17:54back right, a twenty twenty seventh fifth round pickback, and
- 17:57they gave it, but they gave back the seriers of seven.
- 18:00So I mentioned already the situation with with Johnah Smith.
- 18:05You know they moved him, Steelers get him. But getting
- 18:07back to micka Fitzpatrick. So they get micka Fitzpatrick back.
- 18:11They got Iffy Malfjuano over from the Detroit who's really talented,
- 18:15by the way, a lot of injuries tall safety they've
- 18:18got the Dolphins now have really good sides and athleticism
- 18:23at safety. Both both get me moved around. I like
- 18:27it from that standpoint. But trading Jalen Ramsey, who the
- 18:30Dolphins were gonna move, no matter, folks, there was zero
- 18:33chance that Ramsey's gonna be on the team. They were
- 18:35done with them. He was done with them. They just
- 18:38this is gonna happen. Anyone who covers the league from
- 18:40a national standpoint, knows what was happening behind the scenes,
- 18:44but they're good there. Action Davis comes over from the
- 18:46Jets as athletic mover as well, so they're good there.
- 18:51Cornerback's a disaster. Kia Kohu, Yes, could play Nickel. He's
- 18:55been a good now, he's been a good story development
- 18:57as a director for Agent twenty two. But Storm Duck
- 19:01is another end director of Free Agent was a good stories.
- 19:03These are not a level corners. They really want camp
- 19:06Smith to start. He was a second rounder in twenty
- 19:08twenty three. They're not gonna hand him the job. He
- 19:10isn't developed yet. Artie Burns, who's a journeyman former Steeler.
- 19:15You know they're they're gonna. They're gonna they're gonna figure
- 19:19this out in training camp. But would not surprise me
- 19:21at off they added another veteran. Uh, here are the veterans.
- 19:25I'll give you my list of best available free agents
- 19:28for Anthony Weaver, their defensive coordinator. They kind of have
- 19:32to it now it's before the season. They don't have
- 19:34to buy training camp, but behoove them. It's not a
- 19:37great group now, yes, they they cut Kennel Fuller. By
- 19:40the way, this is how much their defense has changed.
- 19:45Seven starters are gone from the opening game against the
- 19:48visiting the Jaguars last season. The only four starters remain.
- 19:51That's a lot of change. But getting back to the
- 19:54corners that are out there, Sati Samuel Junior, who's coming
- 19:57off a neck injury. He's by far the best corner.
- 20:00Stephan Gilmour who's older than Darius Slave. By the way,
- 20:03Kennel full wher they cut Russell Douglas is his own
- 20:06corner manual. Mostly too many ac all injuries, Fabom Rose
- 20:09at older corners, pretty athletic and tall. CJ. Henderson, a
- 20:12former first rounder for the Jaguars, Cam Sutton who's out there,
- 20:16and that there's not much out there. But they need
- 20:19add a veteran at some point before the season, or
- 20:20they could trade for one. But look, they're in a
- 20:24tough way. They're in a tough way at corner. I mean,
- 20:26if I'm any team that's going against their defense, I'm
- 20:31going heavy eleven personnel and I'm going after that secondary.
- 20:34I'm gonna spread them out that that, to me is
- 20:36the way that you would beat them Again. They got
- 20:40Micka Fitzpatrick back. Now let's talk about this situation with
- 20:45Darren Waller, which is fascinating. So Darren Waller, folks and
- 20:50the Dolphins were heavily looking for each tight end and
- 20:53I'll give you my list of free agents. Also, it
- 20:55doesn't stop them. Darn Waller's then't played football since twenty
- 20:58twenty three and the season on ir Darren Waller is
- 21:04an athletic mover at tight end. He's a f tight end.
- 21:07He's not an in line tight end. He can do it,
- 21:10but that's not his deal. He had chronic hamstering issues.
- 21:12But let me tell you something, folks, for Dolphin fans,
- 21:16I'll say this, if he's behind and I always looked
- 21:18into the hamstering problems, if he's got eighty percent left
- 21:25and his legs to run. He was dominant and I
- 21:29was there and I talked to the giants about it.
- 21:32No one could cover him two years ago in training
- 21:34camp and he looked fine to start the season, but
- 21:37the hamsterring problems got caught him early in the season.
- 21:40Started off well, but then they caught up to him.
- 21:44If the hamshring problems are behind him, I know that's
- 21:45a big if. If He's still run pretty well. Folks.
- 21:48You can't cover this guy. He's too big, memory, he's
- 21:50a former of receiver. No one could cover him in
- 21:53training camp. I remember talking to one of the coaches
- 21:55who was telling me every day he's beating us every day.
- 21:58Nobody could cover him. So you got to help him though.
- 22:02Now the Dolphins, this is kind of crazy. All they
- 22:05really have left is far Brown as a journeyman wide
- 22:08tight end, in line blocker, and a bunch of undrafted
- 22:11free agent tight ends. Julian Hill twenty three undirected for agent,
- 22:14Tanner Connor on director for agent twenty two, Jalen Connor's
- 22:18on director freegent this year, and Rougie who was an
- 22:20undrected forre agent last year. So they get Waller, he's
- 22:26got to get through a training camp. You got to
- 22:27see what happens now. The best available free agents on
- 22:30the street or Jerald Everett, who was cut by the Bears,
- 22:33is an athletic move tight end. Jordan Akins who could
- 22:36do both. By the way draft, he was a former
- 22:40Major League baseball player. He actually was drafted in I
- 22:43think like the third round as a third rounder. But
- 22:46he's also a tight end. Obviously, he turns thirty three.
- 22:48Jeff Swayin, who's really old. He's been around a long time.
- 22:51He's a y ten end in line, so there's not
- 22:54a lot of choice. They're probably gonna have to add
- 22:56another tight end at some point, but they don't have
- 22:59to do it now. So, folks, they're a team that's
- 23:02in transition. The team is built with Ed Dredgers, if
- 23:06they could stay healthy, Bradley Chubb, we know about the injuries. JAELH. Phillips,
- 23:10who know about the injuries? Chop Robinson look really good
- 23:12as a rookie. But they've got They've got a lot
- 23:16of questions to answer. I've called this team the team
- 23:18in neutral. They're right in the middle. They don't know
- 23:20who they are. We know that they're going to be
- 23:23heavy twelve personnel team on offense with two tight ends,
- 23:28and they got to figure out who's gonna help Waller out.
- 23:29Is it gonna be fire Brown as the why? Probably? If? Again,
- 23:33that's if Waller could last. We know it's start with
- 23:37a chan. They got Madison, who, by the way, could
- 23:40play a third down and goal line. He's a good
- 23:41pass protector, really smart back. Jaalen Right. They hope you
- 23:44could develop, and Tua's got to stay upright. And you
- 23:50know this reshuffled offensive line. James Janiels comes off his injury.
- 23:56Austin Jackson, you know, is back. Obviously, Aaron who was
- 24:00an undersized center, Patrick Paul first year start at left tackle.
- 24:04Not a great offensive line. It's a team that's in transition.
- 24:07They got to figure out who they are. I mean,
- 24:09it's it's a tough deal for Chris Greer and Mike McDaniel.
- 24:13I don't see this being a playoff team quite frankly.
- 24:17To me, there are a six or seven win team.
- 24:20I know some sports books are picking the Patriots to
- 24:23finish with more wins on the future numbers to have
- 24:26mere to have more wins than the Dolphins, the Jets, officer,
- 24:30you're going to fish and last, and the Bills are
- 24:31the class. That's a lot the lot. The Bills are
- 24:33locked win that division. So I feel bad for Dolphin fans.
- 24:36They just don't they don't quite know who they are.
- 24:38But I love I least get this. Their plan is
- 24:43to look at some younger players and the Steelers that
- 24:46are going for it to finish off. They got Aaron Rodgers. Obviously,
- 24:48we know what they're doing. That's obvious anyone who follows
- 24:52the Steelers who knows this. But I like the aggressiveness
- 24:55by their general manager there in Omar Khan. You gotta
- 25:00you gotta admire his willingness to be aggressive. We'll see
- 25:02how works out in that AFC North where it's it's
- 25:05the Ravens. Then the Steelers and Bengals will duel or yeah,
- 25:10they'll they'll they'll duke it out for the second place
- 25:14in the Browns, who the odds makers have three and
- 25:16a half wins because the shaky quarterback problem. But that
- 25:19is that. More on Inside the Birds check us out
- 25:22at Inside Birds on X, of course, and check out
- 25:28by the way. This week our series continue with Greg
- 25:31co Cell The Intel With Greg coast Cell, we took
- 25:33a look at the Washington Commanders and then the Eagles
- 25:37later this week, and that's it from here. I'm Adam Kaplan.