Alright, welcome back to the Buffalo Bread Podcast, JJ here with Dan as always.
And we are post Super Bowl.
I think that for everyone's benefit, we can stop talking about the season that wasn't
as a bill as a bill mafia and move on to the Hopium season, the off season, the bad and
GM time when we can just bury ourselves and how the heck the bills are going to win their
first championship next year because this year is no longer in consideration.
And we all suffered through watching another Patrick Mahomes and Travis Swift win yet
another ring and make it two in a row and prime themselves for that amazing NFL record
which is three consecutive Super Bowl victories which we hope the bills will spoil epically
for them next off season.
Dan, what did you think of the big game and why did every single person of our generation
immediately get down as soon as those, you know, first few beats of yeah hit during the
halftime show?
Because that is the music of our generation.
That is the anthem.
That is literally the anthem.
I think any party, any gas station, movie theater, playing house music, anywhere I went
played yeah.
And the car with its windows open?
Was legit the soundtrack to my life.
I could walk out of a Walmart walk into a fast track and it would pick up seamlessly
on what core core is playing.
Yeah, was on both locations.
Right.
Absolute.
Right.
Absolutely.
How did you know the Super Bowl?
I have I have lots of thoughts on the games mostly misery because we just got rid of Brady
and now we are sandwiched in between him and Mahomes.
We have the second best quarterback maybe of this generation but it doesn't matter because
the first quarterback of best quarterback of this generation is in the AFC and we can't
seem to get over that hum.
All that stuff aside, there was a lot of to me it was surprising debate about who bills
fans were going to root for in this game.
And I get that the chiefs and Kelsey in particular are more likable than the Patriots everywhere.
But the answer has to be you are rooting for the 49ers.
You cannot root for the people that are literally keeping you away from the one thing you want
to see before you die, which is the bills winning a Super Bowl.
I don't care that they're in the AFC because like that whole root for the people and teams
in your conference thing.
I never abided by that.
We just got done with 20 years of domination from the Patriots and I don't know how as
a bills fan, I was then expected because this team and the chiefs is slightly more likable
to root for them to continue to dominate us.
So to me, the answer was clear root for the 49ers.
But JJ, did you have a different take on that?
Because I was surprised hearing a lot of bills fans being like, well, I'm going to root for
the chiefs because they're in the AFC.
I didn't like that take.
Where were you at?
I don't, I agree with you completely, I've never understood the whole like AFC unity.
Like, no, why?
When did that become a thing?
How does rooting for your conference help your team?
Like, it's, I guess, like if you're going to go big brain on it, it's the fact that
the chiefs then have one worst spot in the every round of the draft.
Like, yes.
But really, it's like, I've never got that.
It doesn't feel to me like there's any sort of, you know, unity by conference.
That's silly.
I was straight up and down, you know, 49ers and for two reasons.
One, I like, I like the Brock Purdy narrative and the whole thought of, you know, someone,
you know, the underdog hero mentality stuff.
That's cool.
I also very much like Christian McCaffrey and his whole, his whole gym.
I wanted to see him get a ring having gone to the show and not gotten one before.
And then the third piece of that was the revenge angle, having, you know, the 49ers lose to
the chiefs a few years ago and then come back and win one on them.
That was, those were all the things that I wanted out of that game.
And the thing that I took away from that game was the chiefs proved yet again.
And I think by way of coaching that they are the class of the entire league.
They have the talent, of course.
But the point I wanted to make with coaching is the refs weren't calling freaking anything
in that game.
It was a strong let the players play game.
And I don't think, you know, for all the conspiracy theorists and nonsense out there
about the league being scripted or whatnot, I don't buy any of that.
Who will point at gifts and images of, you know, the chiefs players holding Bosa on every
snap or this and that.
Chris Jones was getting mugged every time you went up against the 49ers online, please.
That's what I'm saying is like it was, it was a matter of, and the reason I point to
coaching, it was a matter of the chiefs were better at playing dirty, knowing it wouldn't
be called than the Niners were.
But neither, both team had that advantage.
If they just would have taken, taken advantage of it.
The Niners just did a poor job and played too clean because like the rest weren't calling
anything.
The chiefs, the DBs were holding on every route.
They were stifling Iook at the line.
They were stifling all of the outside receivers.
They were jamming up Christian McCaffrey kind of dirty if he was out on a pattern.
So it's just that the chiefs played dirtier knowing they weren't going to get called than
the Niners did.
The Niners should have played dirtier is honestly what I think.
Yeah.
And that, and that's what the chiefs do in the playoffs.
We got a taste of it and that AFC championship game at the end of the 2020 season.
So technically in the year of 2021, we got a taste of it with the quote unquote sticky
coverage that those Kansas City DBs like to play against our wide receivers.
Like the chiefs know because they are so well coached and so well prepped and so experienced
at this time of the year.
They know that refs swallow their whistles in the playoffs and the postseason.
The refs do not want to be the story.
They do not want to blow a call or make a call.
There's going to ultimately take attention away from the outcome of the game.
They don't want to be accused of it.
They don't want the league doesn't want to deal with it.
So refs notoriously swallow their whistles in the postseason.
The chiefs know that and they will absolutely push the limits every down of what they can
get away with in order to game that advantage.
And that is not cheating.
That is doing what you need to do to win working the margins in every way so that you can continue
the success of that franchise has had.
So no, I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
Yes, the chiefs were holding every defensive player and every offensive player they could
on the 49ers and the 49ers are doing the same thing.
They just did not do enough execution wise, particularly on offense to win.
And I mean, listen ma'am, shout out to Spags.
Is he the goat of defensive coordinators?
Like is he the defensive coordinator?
This was his fourth.
Fourth.
The most among any assistant coach in the history of the NFL.
Yeah.
And he does until Spags, it was Belichick, right?
With the Giants against the Bills and that's a role in like various throughout history,
finding ways to just completely shut down an opponent who, you know, take away their
best thing.
And now I think it's Spags.
I think that he has supplanted Belichick in terms of being a coordinator who has put his
thumbprint on a championship caliber team roster and actual championships.
And it was amazing to watch him work with real talent.
And that's no shade.
Like I have not thought much of these chiefs defenses in past years.
It's been clear on the spot that we thought they were complete garbage for most of the
past three years.
And he always got the most out of those units.
He had an amazing toolkit in McDuffie and Snead and Jones to work with this season.
And he just he knows how to disrupt quarterbacks, right?
I get Lou and Arumo from Cincinnati.
Like, I get he gets a lot of credit for doing those things.
Spags has done it with lesser talent on a more consistent basis.
Even those Giants teams that he that he coached to beat the Tom Brady led New England Patriots
against, he had an elite pass rush on those teams had nothing on the back end by way of
coverage, right?
So I mean, he was he has made it a habit of working with a lesser lesser palette of colors
as an artist, if you will, on a lot of occasions.
And an Arumo has not done that.
He's done it with an ideal setup with like a Jesse Bates and a von Bell and all that
other kind of stuff.
But last season, when they clearly were missing some of those pieces for Cincinnati, the defense
wasn't nearly as productive as it had been.
Now he's still a really good defensive coordinator and he knows how to disrupt QBs.
And to me, Spags has heads and tails above and Arumo, who I believe is probably number
two on most people's list for best defensive coordinator working in the league right now.
You know, and Fangio is probably in there somewhere as well.
But it's Spags.
It's Spags.
It's Spags all the way and just like one note on the Arumo and the difference between
them.
Spagnolo will take literally any talent and turn them into an effective, effective, you
know, opposing defense.
In Arumo, and it's not just the talent basis, in Arumo is a schemer where Spagnolo is a
caller, right?
Like Spags knows what to call him the exact moment and he has a kind of a pretty natural
sense of knowing where somebody's going to attack him and dialing up the perfect, you
know, play to counter that.
And then also to adjust his counters so that just when the offense thinks they have him
solved, you know, they're getting the free rusher off the off the outside edge because
they didn't account for it because he anticipated what they were going to do to counter him
and he countered the counter.
That is where Spags excels and Arumo doesn't necessarily have that level of complexity
because Arumo's jam is again, he has a better, you know, talent pool to draw from.
And then his other thing is he just has his scheme complexity is what makes his defenses
so competitive.
It's about the drop eight rush three, it's about the like really exotic twist, you know,
and really the thing with Arumo is, and you can see this by the way that the Bengals have
been played by the Browns by the 49 or not the frontiers, the Steelers by I'm just thinking
old old teams, the Steelers, the Ravens, right?
Like, there are teams within that division that play him very tough.
And it's because they, if you study enough, you can do well, you can put up 20 plus points
on Arumo.
Yeah, absolutely.
And this is an overly simplistic take on Arumo who I believe is a really good, I believe
he's a really good coach, right?
But like my take is like, he watched Fangio invent the drop seven rush four and was like,
I will do you one better, sir.
I will rush three and drop eight, right?
Ha ha.
Meanwhile, Spags is like, guess what?
I'm going to drop seven and rush seven.
That's right.
People are like, what?
How does that work?
He's like, just watch.
He does it with 11 players.
Yep.
Somehow with 11 players, he makes you think that there are 14 on the field.
Yeah.
That's the beauty of Spags.
All right, man.
So yeah, another Chiefs victory, another offseason cycle of hope can begin for the Buffalo Bills.
JJ, we set this up on the last pod.
Some of the free agent priorities that we think the Bills are going to need to focus
on and really it's about some veteran floor stabilizers.
They're not going to be able to afford nor are there a lot of ceiling razors in free
agency that the Bills can really can really bring on to the squad.
So it's all about the draft.
So this is where we're going to begin some of our draft coverage.
What I'd like to do is if you are amenable to this, my good friend, as I want to talk
about areas of need that we want to see the Bills hit in the draft, we don't need to dig
too deep yet into players that we want to bring on board.
I think we can mention a couple of names for the listeners at home to dig into here in
draft season.
But we're going to save that for a later date where we really go all out with some of our
solo mock drafts and unpack why we think some of the players you want to bring to the squad
are good.
So right now, man, I just want to do some table setting for the draft.
I love this time of year.
I have started to get into to draft guide study and film study and a lot of these prospects.
And I think I think there is a lot, a lot of possibility and potential based on where
the Bills are drafting and how many picks they have to really address some needs.
So onto those needs, JJ, what do you think are going to be the top priorities, particularly
in rounds one through three that you think the Bills should focus on?
This is all kind of dependent, as we always say, everything's dependent on how free agents
the draft is dependent on free agency.
Free agency is dependent on who you re sign of your own like that, you know, so with all
that said, though, I think in the top three rounds, I'll say the top four picks the Bills
make wherever they are.
And that includes if they trade down from one and have two twos and two threes, you know,
like the top four players in this draft that the Bills pick need to be some combination
of one defensive lineman, one safety and two wide receivers.
And that's kind of where I'm at.
And that's, you know, and for me, it's like you have to value stack those.
So if you're picking a DT or a defensive end in the first round, you need two and three
to be wide receiver, and then you get a safety in the fourth or fifth, right?
If you are picking a wide receiver in the first round, you need to go DT, then safety
or safety, then DT and two and three, and fourth can be a backup, you know, double dip
at wide receiver.
But for me, it's it's some combo of two wide receivers, a safety and a defensive tackle.
And I'm afraid knowing Brandon Bean, Sean McDermott's preferences, that the top four
picks are going to be two defensive ends, a defensive tackle and a safety.
And they're going to be like, we're going to bargain shop in the fifth round for a stud
outside wide receiver, and they're never going to find it.
I have had similar nightmares as well.
I love your take.
I want to I want to up the spiciness of said take.
And I think I am zagging as I tend to do from where a lot of I think Bill's commentators
are at.
I think people look at this draft class and they see that wide receiver is really deep
and defensive tackle at the one tech is not as deep as it is, they would like it to be.
And as a result, people are deferring to the second round, a wide receiver pick.
We've heard names like Tyler Franklin, a dummy Mitchell out of Texas, as possible gets in
the second round, so that the bills can draft their one tech who will ultimately take their
place next to an Oliver and the starting rotation here.
I am of the firm belief that the Buffalo bills need to go wide receiver so long as one of
their their guys is there.
And by all accounts, this is a deep class with lots of round one graded wide receiver
talent.
They need to go wide receiver one.
And it's for this simplistic reason, I have no numbers.
I have no metrics by which I am basing the stake on.
We were not a defensive tackle away from beating the chiefs and the divisional round.
We were not a safety away from beating that team.
We were 20 yard plays explosive offensive plays down the field that our current personnel
package and makeup could not deliver.
When we needed those plays, we could not get those plays.
We are a wide receiver up true blue chip wide receiver away from being able to contend
with the chiefs.
Everybody is chasing the chiefs.
The chiefs need wide receiver help.
They also need tackle help and defensive line help as well, depending on what happens with
Chris Jones this season.
I guarantee you they're going to draft a wide receiver because they understand unlike
the bills in certain draft years, what their fastball is, they're going to draft a wide
receiver one and then they're going to make all those other positions of need work.
The bills need to stop chasing the chiefs and start thinking like that unit if they
want to beat them.
So to me, wide receiver one has to be the pick.
Dude, you're not going to, you're not actually going to get an argument from, from me against
that.
I will say this.
The only way I would counter is that is that they should not, they can't, I think it would
be a critical error, one that could cost them the ability to compete with the chiefs.
If they reach for a wide receiver who's not the guaranteed stud they're looking for, and
I know it's always a crap shoot in the draft.
There's no guarantees.
But if they, if it gets to pick 28 and Marvin Harrison, Jr. is of course gone, Roman, they're
going to be top 10 picks probably.
Malik neighbors or Brian Thomas, Jr. from LSU are both studs.
They're gone.
Heon Coleman is gone or Xavier Worthy, whoever you got, however you got them ranked.
And they kind of dip down into Xavier Leggetti.
You know, like that's what I'm, that's what I'm worried about is them using a premium
first round pick on Troy Franklin.
Because I think Troy Franklin is kind of a bust.
Oh man, we're, oh okay.
All right.
Yeah.
Anyway, no, we'll, we'll, we'll certainly get into that, the individual specificity of
the players that we're watching.
But I'll just like, I threw out some names there.
And what I mean is if, if there's a top five guy and they're able to get him a top seven
even get him at 28 or jump up and get him, if he's a top five talent on their board and
the way that they're valuing things, I am 100% in.
I don't care.
Give me fifth and sixth round DT is just filled the field with some, some chubby bodies and
you know, see what we can do.
But the, you know, the reality is if they, if they reached for a lesser talent, you know,
a second or third round talent at wide receiver in the first round and then also miss out
a premier defensive tackle or safety help, that's what I think could set them back.
No, it's a, you make a reasoned well thought out point.
And I think when we start to dig into some of the player profiles and top top prospects,
each position, you'll start to understand my thinking a little bit more, right?
Like I know, for example, at the safety position, a lot of bills, fans are enamored with bringing
in a guy like Cam Kitchens, for example, from Miami.
Jayden Hicks is another kid from Washington state, right?
There is surprising amount of depth in the safety class go though.
I think about Javon Bullard, well, a little bit undersized.
It's kind of like this chess piece out of Georgia.
And dude, the kid out of Utah, what's his face?
Cole Bishop, like I've just started watching a little bit of his college highlights and
game film.
He is everywhere.
Elite athleticism, elite speed, like he is absolutely a guy that could come in and fit
into this scheme right away.
And I think I know he's slotted at safety, but given the size and athleticism could have
some utility and diamond nickel looks as well as a straight up cornerback.
So like as we dig into this stuff, these high area, these areas of defensive priority that
you and I both agree, we've needed to turn over safety maybe a year ago, maybe two years
ago to bring an athleticism to that position.
I think traits that we are looking for to coach up and fit into the scheme are going
to be available in ladder rounds, maybe not a DT, but I think for sure it's safety, even
at edge, right?
I think we're going to be able to find some of those guys.
Wide receiver for as deep as this class is.
When you look similar to what the bills are doing on the defensive side, which is looking
for a one tech, we are looking for an X. We are looking for someone who's 63, 64 has the
right physicality at the point of catch, the right speed profile.
And there's only a handful of guys in this draft, right?
And yes, some of them may be in the second round or second round graded, but at pick
28, it wouldn't feel like such a reach to me to go for an Adana Mitchell or go for,
I think Xavier Legatio is going to be, I think he's going to come late.
I think he's going to get graded like a third, even a fourth round maybe.
Yeah.
I just think he's going to test well.
I think he's going to run very fast.
You think he's going to be fast?
That's going to be the thing.
He's going to be 40.
And I think that that's going to drive him up, I think.
I think that's the thing with Keon Coleman too, right?
I think if Coleman runs fast, because everything else is there, but people have questions about
his speed on film.
I think if he runs a four, four, I think he's out of draft range for the bills.
I think he goes in the top 20, almost definitely, right?
But all that aside, the trait profile and the skill profile the bills are looking at
at wide receiver is limited.
We don't need another 510 six foot slot guy.
We've got that covered, right?
And those are positions that are available in free agency on the cheap as well.
When you look at the profile that they need a wide receiver, there's only a handful of
guys available on this draft.
And I really want to see the bills just go all out and get one.
Yeah.
And I'm with you there.
And I think that the big thing for me is when we talk about setting the table and defensive
line wide receiver and safety is kind of our top three needs.
Safety is the is the one that like, I'm not going to sweat it at all.
If the bills don't get somebody in the first three or four rounds, like if Tyler Newbin
from Minnesota or Cameron kitchens from Miami are gone, and you're looking at maybe Javon
Bullard, he's pretty good.
Kailin Bullock is iffy, you know, like those guys are definitely second round talents.
If those top four safeties, you know, are off the board or, you know, go a little bit
earlier, I'm cool with them taking like you mentioned Cole Bishop is who's six, he's like
six to 200 pounds.
That's the kind of safety that the James Williams out of Miami.
I'm six, I have two 15 like who was the guy who came out of Syracuse a couple years ago?
Jeez.
His brother was in the league.
I can't think of his name.
Oh, not Trill Williams.
I know you're talking about.
He's got a very interesting name.
I'll look him up.
But yeah, you called him bust because of his family lineage.
You brought in like the bloodline and the family tree to call this kid a bust.
Let me look him up because yeah, because he yeah, his brother was in the league already
and was kind of like a highly, highly drafted way underachiever.
He has been a modest achiever, but still not certainly up to his draft position.
I can't again.
Sorry.
I'm sorry, but the thing about that is like huge, huge safeties, big size safeties tend
to be a little bit too lanky to have that kind of quick titch, quick twitch reactions
or take, you know, sometimes they struggle to take good angles or unable to kind of
really break down and tackle in the box when they need to and kind of get beat by shifty
or running backs and slots.
And so, you know, that's that's the question there is like is somebody that's a huge kind
of long safety going to be the guy because I know that that's one of that's one of Sean
McDermott's preferences for all DB positions is that they kind of have some size and Jordan
Poeier make a hide aside.
You know, I think that they could be looking for some of some of the size there and they
can get that leader in the draft.
And also you just sort of trust with Bobby Babbage and with, you know, some of the talent
they have in the coaching staff, they're going to be able to grab even if it's a rookie safety
or, you know, a veteran from free agency who's a little bit cheaper later in free agency,
they're going to be able to slap something together and have some, you know, some competent
back end play.
So that's the one position of the three that we're discussing.
And I'm just like, yeah, take, take somebody.
But I trust they're going to get it work.
Yeah.
The the DB are thinking of is I affect to Mila Fonwoo.
Mila Fonwoo.
Yeah.
I was going to bug me.
There is.
And again, I'm only just getting into my, my draft prep.
There is one DB, one DB where if all of our top guys, I'm talking all of them at wide
receiver were off the board at one, I would feel good about the bills taking with first
round picture and that right now is Cooper Dijon out of Iowa.
He has speed, size, athleticism, and he's got position versatility.
Like there is an open argument amongst a lot of draft gurus about whether or not he is
a safety or a cornerback.
And there's a lot of folks who are like, listen, he's got the speed profile and athletic profile
to stay with wide receiver ones.
He can be a cornerback in the NFL.
I imagine a chess piece like that for McDermott in the secondary and, and I salivate a little
bit with his speed profile, dude.
I mean, we could do some pretty crazy things.
Like we have talked about the need for that elite trait in the secondary for many, many
years.
We thought we might have had it with Elam, but he put Dijon back there.
And if Elam figures stuff out, all of a sudden you have maybe two of the fastest DBs in the
league on your squad.
Yeah, no, I agree completely with Dijon.
If it's available, like that's there, and there are, there are a few, right?
There are some prospects in this draft at some positions that we are not disgusting,
disgusting, disgusting.
That if they, if they're there when the bills are drafting, it's almost like just got, you
just got to turn that card in, right?
Like you just have to take that, that player.
And so yeah, I definitely see some of those.
And I'm trying to think like who's another player of a different position that I'd be
like, oh, get that guy, get that guy.
Maybe like, like I do to, you know, top 15 edge.
Even chop Robinson out of Penn State, although Penn State and edges really scare me.
We have not had good luck with that.
No, I will remind you, right?
But yeah, so there's, there's a few of those players.
I'm not really, I know there's some like excellent offensive tackles and offenses linemen.
I think you were talking to Steve before the pod about Jackson powers Johnson.
Love this dude, but that is a Mitch Morse dependent.
Yeah, if that ends up happening, right?
But yeah, yes.
And that's the, that's the hard part about getting too much into prospects now before
free agency, because we have no idea what the bills are going to do to a get under the
cap and then be how they're going to fill out some of the floor raising positions via
free agency.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
So there's just a few, there's a few pieces that it's like, okay, if that's guys are you
got to take him just because that's too much value to have slid.
But really, I think that the, I'll say this about the draft after looking at kind of prospect
rankings and kind of pre draft, the early pre draft stuff, the positions, the bills need
and the way that the board looks like it's falling in most people's mocks in the first
round.
I'm booned with this sir, because it feels, it feels like the positions of need that the
bills will like need to target there.
There should be a small handful, three, five, maybe players of, of talent at positions of
need who the bills could potentially pick from.
And I wonder if picking 28, like here, here's the thing I, the mental exercise I keep going
through is.
If they're picking 28 and they trade down to 34, can they still get somebody that they're
really excited about and add some second or third round picks, second, third or fourth
round picks?
Or are they just going to give up that stud wide receiver that they were targeting to
the Kansas City Chiefs at 32?
Dude, you just, you know, I took that right out of your, you did, you took that right
out of my head, but not, not give them the stud at 32.
Right.
I think about the Trent, I think about the Trent McDuffie trade up.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, some of the, the Kansas.
Chiefs snipe them.
Right.
The Chiefs like, so everybody of note gets drafted and two wide outs are left and the
bills are seven picks away from picking, right?
And that means the Chiefs are going to be what, 11 picks away or something like that.
Yeah.
So, and the only two guys left on the board, Keon Coleman and Brian Thomas Jr. on the LSU,
the Chiefs will not hesitate to leapfrog the bills to get one of those two guys, right?
In the first round.
So it's not about necessarily being trading back.
Again, it's like him thinking like Kansas City, if the guy I want is in this round and
he isn't striking distance because to trade up from 28 to 20 to get the guy that you want
in this draft, you're, you're giving up maybe a future third round pick.
If that's the case, maybe a second worth it, right?
Worth it if you can go get an X and then maybe your future wide receiver one after the digs
contract expires too.
So I want to see like with 10 picks and in pocket, right?
Depending on whether or not we get a comp pick for admins, which I think we are, I want
to see some aggression out of being this year.
I really do.
I want to see some, some bread beach like aggression out of him to go address some of the needs
on this crew because I do think it defensive tackle and I think it's safety we will find
guys later on, I think for sure.
Which means we're probably not going to argue that much about Byron Murphy, like we talked
about doing.
You don't like him.
I don't like him.
I love him.
So, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be a factor for us if our needs play out the
way that they're going to.
Well, if our needs play out and also like he, a lot of people are projecting him to go in
the top 15, so it might, it's not, it might just be a moot point anyway, because the bills
in this draft are not trading up for defensive tackle.
No, the way the needs are.
The way the needs are.
They're not moving up.
Um, yeah, on my note, because I watched.
So just to tell everybody who's, you know, our listeners new and old, the way that Dandan
approached draft prep is that we watch, it's important.
This, this is important too.
You can go into YouTube and watch highlights.
I like to watch full games and so it's harder to find, but oftentimes somebody will do like
a highlight, a player on a full, full game.
So you get to see every snap because that's important.
You got to see the good and the bad.
Correct.
Um, the reason that I don't like Byron Murphy is his highlights are ridiculous.
The dude can absolutely hunt and tackle anybody.
He's so, so much faster than six, one, three, oh, eight should be.
And that's valuable, he spent so much time on ground every single game, even his, even
his highlights, he's on the ground.
And that is a real giant red flag for me for a defensive tackle prospect because trench
play is so much about balance and so much about technique at the NFL level that this
is a player who if I'm a above average guard in the league, I look at that and sure the
physicality and the finesse and athleticism, all of that scares me with Byron Murphy.
But I also recognize that he'll get way too over over the front of his feet.
He will get way too off balance to the right or left when he's trying his different swims
and rips and you just put him on the ground.
That does not worry me.
Somebody that worries me is to Vandre sweat also out of Texas because he's like, he's
literally built like a tree stump.
He's like 64, 362 and the thing he's got amazing balance.
So where what he lacks in the athleticism that Byron Murphy has, he more than makes
up for in kind of advanced hand fighting for somebody who's in college and balance.
He's got incredible contact balance.
He maintains his leverage.
He regularly splits double teams just based on his size.
He's the kind of anchor in the middle of a defense that if you put him next to an undersized
at Oliver, there will be an opportunity to double team at Oliver, not a single snap of
the whole game.
The bills have any talent whatsoever outside.
To Vandre sweat will demand the double team of those five offensive linemen every play.
I like sweat and I don't want to say anything disparaging about him because he is my number
two DT right now as I'm going through the going through my my progressions and evaluating
these players.
I'm a little concerned he didn't weigh in at the senior bowl.
Yeah, his weight is way too concerned.
He has listed at 362.
A lot of scouts that I've listened to on media takes and stuff like that say that he was
probably pushing 380 385 at the senior bowl, right?
And we know the bills and how much they value body type, the only exception being really
Osiris Torrance and the McDermott era.
But I think back to what they asked AJ Epineza to do to fit their scheme.
And I worry, especially putting a first round pick on a guy like sweat, what the bills would
need to do in order to get him scheme ready and fit into the mold that they have for the
one tech that they want.
Because through 385 is big 385 is really big.
And of course, he's got a good center of gravity at 385.
The earth is literally holding him up at that point.
He's got density that creates orbits.
Exactly.
And that's I mean, that's a really good point.
The thing about Devon de Sway is if you draft him and then you ask him to change his body
type, that's like going down to your junkyard and buying a flatbed one ton like delivery
truck and then deciding you're going to make it into a drag like a drag racing car.
Like it's just not what you why would you do that?
Like that's not this thing has an incredible value given its operational function to make
something different just it seems asinine.
So if they draft him and then we're like, Hey, we need you to get down to 315.
Like I'm just not here for it because like that's even 350.
He'll be tripping over his loose skin.
Like that's not like and that's like I'm not making light of people who have amazing
body transformation.
But like it's you know, he seemed to play really nice at 350 360.
Yeah.
And kind of maintain that and that's the that's the thing too is like certainly that's a question.
I worry about that.
But if he is able to kind of you know, have some athleticism, keep some some of that size,
he will he will determine you know, what kind of running scheme that team can run at your
defense like he helps set ski.
Yeah.
I also like to other than Murphy and sweat.
I really I like Chris Jenkins not as a first round pick but as a guy who we can get in
the later round second or third round.
Right.
Again, all pending, combine measurements and how much we over eight people like running
routes and making plays in shorts and t-shirts.
Right.
But just based on the little bit of film I've been able to watch on Jenkins.
I really like what he would add in the middle of that defensive line.
That doesn't have the first quick first step that Murphy does, but I think would provide
some real consistency next to Oliver.
So yeah, there's going to be a dude, there's going to be a lot of ways that they can take
this but to me as I sit here today and my mind could change it.
There are less as deep as the wide receiver classes, less specific guys of the profile
the bills need a wide receiver than there are at other positions of need in this draft,
which is why I want to see wide receiver in the first round.
So long as one of those top seven or eight guys with likely get a first round grade are
going to be there.
Sure.
Yeah.
And trade up to get it.
Being trained up to get it.
Target your guy.
You have 10 picks.
Don't let each you.
You.
Don't let them beat you.
That's amazing.
I will say one more thing about defensive type, a specific defensive tackle in this draft.
And that is McKinley Jackson, Texas A&M probably like a.
Oh, you like.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, don't tell me you don't like him.
I don't like him.
Oh my God.
It's so funny that we like have such differing opinions on these.
What is that?
Oh my God.
This is going to be so much fun when we do our actual player breakdowns, man.
Yeah.
I'll save it for that.
This will be a tease for the future.
But yeah, I don't like his game.
I don't like his game.
I like his game if he's a fourth round pick.
I was going to say.
I don't like his game any higher.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not saying he's a second or even a third rounder.
Somebody might draft him second or third round and he'll be a bust at that.
Well, they'd be stupid to do that.
But like as a fourth rounder.
He's a rotational at best backup.
He.
Yeah.
We need those guys.
We don't have any of those guys.
That's true.
Pick them in the fifth.
I'll give him a chance.
But any higher, I'm just like, nope.
No, I like I like him as a fourth too.
So we actually agree.
Yeah, we're pretty close on that.
We agree on that.
I just think he's going to get overdrafted.
I think somebody's going to pick him in a third or second.
I mean, I don't I don't see him.
I only see him on a couple of top 100 boards like ESPN doesn't have him on top 100.
The athletic doesn't.
I don't think Danny Kelly at the ring or has him as a top 100 either.
So I mean.
It's a board says on a 76.
Really?
Oh, that's a little surprising.
No, I mean, I'd put him in.
I'd definitely put him in the lower lower half of the draft.
Yeah.
Yeah, me too.
That's okay.
So that's that's at least so good.
We agree on that.
And then there's on Newton at Illinois.
Is he one of those players that if he is like hanging out on the board at 25 you trade up
for?
No, because I think I think he ends up playing lighter at what his listed weight is, which
is 295.
And we already have we already have our undersized three tech in that Oliver for the future.
So yeah.
Yeah.
No shaded him.
His game is great.
He's an amazing pass rusher.
Lacks a little bit to be has a little bit to be desired in the run stopping game, which
is really what the bills are drafting, right?
And as a as a first round pick, he would basically be Oliver's backup and we don't need to worry
about Oliver's backup in the first round.
We need a one tech.
Yeah, absolutely.
No, I agree.
I agree.
Yeah, man.
I think we've honed in on it a little bit.
Safety.
I feel like I'm good if the bills go free agent signing there.
Like we said, like we said in the press pod and then draft a dude in the later rounds.
I really like Cole Bishop.
We're going to talk more about him.
So I'm good with free agent and then a rookie addition, right?
So you don't need to put the rookie in right away.
It's such a high leverage position in the McDermott defense.
And then rookie can be a fourth, third, fourth, fifth, you know, exactly.
Right.
It doesn't have to be premium top three pick.
Right.
Wide receiver, DT safety.
If it goes in that order, I'm a happy man on draft day.
So absolutely.
So no, I think we drill down on it.
So where we go from here for those of you listening at home is we are still going to
post weekly every Saturday.
What you're going to get for the next three weeks tacked on to the end of the pod is going
to be our annual segment, friends of the pod, not friends of the bills, where we're going
to invite our three friends who are fans of other AFC East teams to come in and kind
of set the free agency and draft table for their squads.
So please stick around at the end of this episode because you're going to hear our friend, Jared,
give what was a an emotional soliloquy about his New York, New Jersey jets and what he
feels like they need to do to reenter contention in the AFC East.
So you're going to get some of those pods over the next three weeks for us.
We're going to take you right up to free agency right through the draft and then we'll take
a brief hiatus between draft and OTAs.
All right.
So plenty of Buffalo bread coming to you every week, every Saturday morning.
Make sure you like, share and subscribe to the pod.
Make sure you set us up for an automatic download.
You can find us wherever you get your podcast, Google Apple Spotify and as always JJ, go
bills, go bills.
And welcome back to Buffalo Brad, Buffalo bills fan podcast.
You are joining us for one of our favorite annual segments that JJ and I like to do here
in the off season, friends of the pod, but not friends of the bills.
This is where JJ and I get to sit down with some of our friends who are fans of other
AFC East teams to discuss where they think their rival teams to the bills are going to
land here in the off season.
We've been doing it for a couple of years.
We're always excited to dig into a little bit of the details on who we think are the
up and comers in the division.
And today we are starting with the New York, New Jersey jets and we have friend of the
pod and that friend of the bills, Jared on with us.
Jared, how you doing today, man?
I'm doing good.
Let me also, I don't hate the bills.
Let me say I'm not a I'm not an enemy of the bills.
I respect their fan base.
I've loved my time in Buffalo.
And honestly, we get to this time every year and I just consider completely abandoning
the team I grew up watching.
So we're, you know, we just remember those those feelings and those years are not too
far removed from mine and JJ's memory.
I will say this is like the third or fourth time you've been on the pod.
You are like the, I would say out of the three guests we have, you are the most bills friendly,
I would say.
Like there's like a mutual respect.
Brandon, who is our resident New England Patriots expert, openly hate the bills and
it's hilarious.
One of the reasons he says he likes me and JJ's pod so much is because we rag on the
bills more than anti bills podcast.
Growing up 20 minutes from Shea Stadium where the Mets played cynicism and darkness informs
my entire lens of professional sports fandom.
Um, here, here's my thing.
And you know, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna start ripping out of the gate here.
Bring it.
This past jet season.
Was heartbreaking and disappointing and sad in an exceptionally different type of way.
Um, because it never has a team both look so close to real contendership and so far
from real contendership.
Forget about in the same season, in the same game, in the same.
They were, they were the most exciting, unwatchable team.
I could, I could make a compelling argument.
Maybe ever the most exciting unwatchable football team in modern forward pass.
I love the take.
I assume you're talking a little bit about the, the defensive, the gap between the defensive
efficacy of your team and then the offensive inefficacy of your team.
Cause your defense dude was something to behold every week, right?
And we'll get into some of those numbers in a bit.
And I'm guessing those were the exciting pieces for you.
And then when the offense took the field, that's where kind of like all the light drained
away and it was just darkness.
Yeah.
And I wish we had like a fun flashback effect because around a year ago this time you'd
hear me and at that time I sounded like a crazy person yelling in the streets.
What would signing Aaron Rodgers actually accomplish?
Does the offense get any better?
Does the play calling get any better?
You've fired LaFleur.
LaFleur turns out might have been the guy and you're still, you know, navigating what
I would describe as the same old Jets prop, which is in short, you hire its stubborn defensive
minded head coach and you hand him a rookie quarter.
It's basically like an episode of chop, except every secret ingredient is like coal.
What do you, what do you do?
And like does, you know, does Aaron Rodgers even solve this?
And you know, so then what happens?
Aaron Rodgers, after what I would describe as a very successful PR campaign on hard knocks
plays less than one series as a jet before rupturing his Achilles turns out that he's
the same old insufferable.
I have to be the smartest guy in the room.
Aaron Rodgers.
So even while he's not present, he's finding new and creative ways to like still decimate
the morale of the team from a distance.
It's like a, he was like a bad video game character.
And then in the forefront, as this is happening, Zach Wilson on four or five separate occasions
this season actually gave incredible glimpses of talent and potential.
Totally agree.
He's got, he's got a hand in of an arm, but he, he cannot make progressions fast enough
yet.
And if you combine that with the Jets biggest limitation that stayed at a limitation because
of their wager on Rodgers, their offensive line, it was, it was a nightmare.
And you can actually, and I'm sure we can talk, you know, a little bit further about
this, but like the jets every time a team tried to pass rush them every time an extra
edge rusher was utilized against the jets.
The jets couldn't generate offense despite having, I mean, we're, I'm not even being
delusional when I say this.
This hall, it turns out is a top five running back in football.
Yeah, he's great.
He's an amazing weapon.
Yeah.
Garrett Wilson, it turns out is a top 10 receiver in football.
And with both of those things, they literally averaged the step that stands out to me and
you shared this with me.
One point one five points per possession.
For context, I coach basketball professionally, if my basketball team averaged one point one
five points per profession, I would be on the chopping block.
You'd have a lot of 50% free throw shooters on your unit.
Yes.
That was the case.
So I mean, I don't even know where to begin to unpack it, Dan, except for saying to you,
I told you so.
I told you that this was going to happen if the Jets did this with Rogers.
This season gave me, by the way, zero evidence whatsoever that if Aaron Rogers played, they
would have even been three to four wins.
That's you know, and that's the burning one of the big and I think the biggest burning
question for you guys heading into next season is how much are you going to be able to hang
your hat on an Aaron Rogers comeback at the age of what 41 he'll be in season next year,
coming back from an Achilles injury.
So Jared, you have touched on so many juicy topics.
Powered by rage.
I jumped all over the place.
Powered by rage.
I love it.
But you hit, you went, you were, you very succinctly, I think, gave us your state of
mind as a Jets fan heading into the off season.
And now I think what I'd like to do for the listeners at home is let's guide them through
some of the things that we feel like are going to be priorities for your unit to dig into
here in this off season.
But before we can get into that, let's talk about the season that was by the numbers.
We said this pre pot and I might have said it a couple of minutes ago, but it bears repeating
the gap, the gap in performance between this defense, which was an all around literally
by several metrics, efficiency, success rate, DVOA was a top three unit in the league was
so anchored by what was one of the worst overall offenses, maybe in league history, no exaggeration.
I agree with you that Zach Wilson showed some flashes.
He's got big time arm talent.
His off platform, off platform throwing skills are still what they were out of college.
This is something that I think a good quarterback coach and offensive coordinator can develop.
But Trent Dilfer said at the best last year is, as Jets fans were going through another
Zach Wilson, Zach Wilson roller coaster ride last season, he's like, Zach Wilson just doesn't
want to do the boring stuff.
And that's his biggest problem.
He doesn't want to hit, take the easy yards.
He doesn't want to take the seven yard out route.
He doesn't want to hit the eight yard end cut.
He doesn't want to throw the sticks.
He wants to do something spectacular every time he has the ball in his hands.
And as a result, he's still making a lot of mistakes that you would not expect a third
or fourth year QB to be making, which is hanging onto the ball too long.
His time to throw average behind that offensive line was one of the longest in the league.
But because he's athletic, because he's got the arm tail and he thought he could improvise
more than more than he was actually able to.
You just you just Nick, Zach Wilson, by the way, but the problem that the Jets, at least
this iteration of the Jets is never going to answer is, could you solve those things
with a decent quarterbacks coach?
So I want to walk you through three angles here.
Angle one, their defense is as good as they are on paper.
And I would argue somehow underrated.
I think that they're the number one defense in the league.
If the offense can even remotely stay on the field, I agree.
We're not talking about an offense.
Oh, they got it into the red zone, but they struggled to score and they just relied on
field.
We are talking about an offense that could not clear its own 50 yard line more than twice
to three times.
We are like a a beacon of offensive utility in the NFL.
So that that's core.
What is just systemically, you have the two biggest problems that you could possibly have,
which is Wilson holds on for the ball to scan his progressions too long and they have a battle
and you put those things together and it's over.
Thing two, in spite of those two problems, I could also make you a compelling argument
that the Jets record is actually two or three games better than it should be.
Oh, God, I totally agree.
Oh, yeah, there are a lot and I mean, a lot in this modern brand of NFL football.
There are a lot of stubborn coaches and the Jets hung around some games that they had
no business being a part of, including week one against the bills.
And I was wondering what it actually we're 11 minutes and I was wondering how long it
take you to bring that up.
Yeah, McDermott learned.
And my goodness, did that second game look a lot different from the first game, just
in terms of a defensive scheme.
If you were a stubborn coach that played the Jets, for lack of a better way of putting
it, you tried to do things your way, which I was, you know, coaching, right?
You can't control it.
But if you are willing to kind of dive the plan and see what the best practices were
for defending the Jets, you held them.
You killed them.
The bills did that in game two.
The Browns did that.
The Jets were bounced by any team that was willing to do the actual homework on defeating
the Jets.
That's point two.
And now here's problem three.
Um, it turns out that all that junk Sean Payton was talking about the Nathaniel Hackett cleanup
job.
We can move that.
Um, at first we thought it was, wow, Sean, you know, Sean Payton is out of his mind.
We forgot about this, you know, forgot about the fact that he was the bounty gate guy.
We can actually now move that into a different file folder, which was maybe the wrong delivery
of the message, but 100% the correct message.
And Zach Wilson, in my opinion, Zach Wilson's offensive funeral as a jet quarterback will
be, you know, the writing on the stone will be was buried by Nathaniel Hackett's play
card.
It was a roshus all year.
And then hilariously, these two teams played and the Jets could barely move the ball because
the Broncos knew what he wanted to do.
And from that crossroads in like week five or six, when those two teams played, the Jets
became unwatchable on offense and the Broncos took like three to four gigantic steps forward
as a franchise, including one big one against my bills.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I've never felt it's it I was you're like stuck in a bad high school relationship
with this team.
You know exactly what needs to change.
And you know that the current leaders do desire changing.
And I will tell you that the big difference from me, maybe the only difference for me
from where we were talking last year about this team to this year was Robert Salas stock
with me as a Jets fan is now gone.
You were you were kind of down on him last year when we were doing this stuff too.
You really questioned if he was the guy even with Rogers coming in that was going to be
the one to like shepherd this team across the finish line.
There are trust me, I've learned this myself professionally.
There are great assistant coaches out there who go through an experience that they're
either they realize maybe they're ready to be a head coach or they realize maybe it's
not for them.
But that has happened to me before I was not ready to be a head coach the first time I
tried it.
I got better in the position.
Thankfully, it was like, but I wasn't ready.
I didn't think about a million different things.
He is now each season just made a stupid decision.
Like either early season or mid season that has completely scarred his team.
I don't think he's ever going to live down getting rid of the floor.
Like it turns out that was his thing.
LaFleur understood how to utilize Zach Wilson on the move and hide his weaknesses.
And you don't have that anymore.
You have a can you have, you know, Aaron Rodgers guy.
I think there's compelling evidence that Aaron Rodgers likes Nathaniel because he lets Aaron
Rogers do whatever Aaron Rodgers.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, and it's undisputable.
Yeah.
And you know, we're learning a lot.
You know, we have catered, we have catered our entire franchise.
We have mortgage the whole franchise to I'm trying to choose my words wisely, but I don't
know if I can do it.
A sociopath quarterback who, you know, maybe is holding the team hostage.
This is like, this is like growing up a fan of Kanye West's first three albums, knowing
what he did for the last 15 years of his life and saying, I want Kanye West to produce my
up.
This is the only way I can visualize this to the fans.
Well, it was definitely they, they treated Rodgers, I feel like like a silver bullet,
not just that he was going to fix their offensive issues with largely the offensive cast that
they had the year before, including that putrid offensive line.
But they also put the development on Wilson of Wilson on him as well.
And the coaching staff kind of washed their hands of that situation.
They were like, well, if Zach can just watch Aaron for a season, it'll ultimately make
him a better QB somehow by osmosis.
Like osmosis, right?
You know, so and then they didn't get the opportunity to do that.
Nathaniel Hackett, I would agree with you.
The track record says kind of like an Adam Gase.
He had it good with a with a legendary QB at one point in his career.
And it's kind of been trading off of that ever since.
He is probably not the guy, right?
There was not the guy last season in hindsight.
But your team sold out so much to make Rodgers comfortable and happy and feel welcomed on
that squad.
They basically turned the keys over to the kingdom for a short term investment in the
hopes that it would accelerate the growth of was a very, very young, young offensive
and defensive core for the most part.
And there's just been if you look at Roger's recent track record in Green Bay where he
had some really young teams, the Christian Watson's the Romeo Douds, he really, really
struggled with kind of mentoring and shepherding young players as they developed within season.
Look at the difference this year between what happened with the Jets and a young roster
and what happened just by subtracting Rodgers from that Green Bay team and adding in Jordan
Love.
They became a play, became a playoff unit.
Do you like anyone in Green Bay missed him?
Not at all.
Now, I mean, not at all.
Now from a reputation standpoint, JJ and I have talked about this.
Rogers seems to be well liked by his teammates for the most part.
Actually, the Jets gave him some sort of in season award for being the most inspirational
player on the team.
So yes, despite how we perceive Rogers actions as you put it so well, I would say narcissistic
and sociopathic.
His teammates love playing for this dude, right?
But it doesn't necessarily at this stage of Rogers career translate to results on the
field.
And I think when you look at the contrast between the Jets this year granted Rodgers
in play, but where Green Bay was at this year simply by removing him from the equation
and injecting a young up and coming QB into that formula.
I mean, I think the proof is in the pudding that was largely the same team that Rogers
had last year that love was able to schlep into the playoffs with some really great QB
play from Thanksgiving on.
So it still bears the question.
This might be a good, good opportunity for us to segue here into some of your offseason
thoughts like what to expect with Rogers because even if he is healthy at this stage
of his career, is he capable of working with tolerating and showing enough patients with
a young unit?
Like I love Garrett Wilson.
I think Garrett Wilson, I agree with you.
That dude has the chops to be a top 10 QB.
He improvises a lot of his routes sometimes though.
And that's stuff that drives Rogers absolutely up a wall, right?
He wants precision.
He wants to know where he's throwing the ball.
You guys are about to remake, I would assume your entire offensive line.
And as JJ and I previewed in our free agency preview of the bills last week, the pickings
are slim and free agency when it comes to offensive linemen, particularly guards.
So you guys are going to be dipping into the draft.
You're going to be dipping into some unproven players.
Jared, let me ask you, regardless of health, is Aaron Rogers the lynchpin that's going
to take what's going to be an even younger offensive unit and be able to get them over
the hump and into the playoffs?
Let me I'm I'm trying to offer a concise and swear free response.
And here's where my brain is leading.
We can put an explicit warning on the pot.
It's fine.
Just do it.
Please, please.
Jared's for the kids.
Trying to we're trying to clean up our image here.
If he isn't, it is over for everyone affiliated with coaching and managing that team.
And it is also over for him.
So hopefully his critical thinking skills have led him towards a hell of a steroid rep
so that he can figure out a way to basically be the bionic man on the football field because
to steal a freeze from Mark Marin podcasting guru, I don't think this is going to get
any better.
This is we are looking at a team.
So you just you just articulated one of the biggest problems the Jets have.
They put themselves in a problem where they have to rebuild exclusively with the draft
and with free agency, but they keep up.
And the free agency market is not very strong.
No, I mean, and even if you want to add another receiver, can you believe how much money T.
Higgins is going to command?
Like T. Higgins is the number one free agent wide receiver and he only played half of last
year.
It's crazy.
It's this wide receiver market is out of pocket.
Yeah.
So so the skill market is not good.
The offensive line market is not good.
And the Jets don't have a ton of draft stock.
And even if they did, even if they had the room to do this, they don't have enough space
to do it.
So the Jets had put themselves in a situation where like no one obviously no one thought
Aaron Rodgers was going to rupture his Achilles on the first snap or the first drive really
and being a little too facetious, very close by saying for a snap, but completely after
you're about three plays off.
So you're pretty close.
Recency bias, I guess.
But so it has to work.
What are the choice do you have?
These are the ingredients you have you have handcuffed yourself to these ingredients.
You handcuffed yourself to Rogers by handcuffing yourself to Rogers.
You've handcuffed yourself to hack it.
So long knows he's done.
He knows that if the Jets are a playoff team this year, it's over for him.
Um, Jets ownership.
Woody never speaks about the team.
And even Woody last week was like, oh, yeah, we need to be like way better.
And this time we need to back up quarterback.
Oh, yeah.
You're going to ride Wilson and say he's not good enough, then go get a backup quarterback
that is by the way, that's like the most New York thing ever and all of that.
I think honestly, Woody has, you know, earned that your saving grace is that Jets management
has drafted well the last two years in your early rounds.
You're not in a great spot.
You know, and what's the trade market for any of the people you want to get rid of?
You just spent your whole season publicly bashing Zach Wilson.
No, and mishandling that situation completely.
So, so, so maybe just maybe you drove down his trade value by doing that.
Um, so I think that for a million different reasons, the Jets are stuck.
And do I personally think Aaron Rogers is the answer?
Like no, mostly because I have eyes and ears.
But you know, even if he is, they get one year of it.
And this is gone after this year.
The way this team looks right now, even the pros are gone unless they can figure out a
magical way for people to want to take a hometown discount in the New York metropolitan area,
which is not.
Yeah, absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
All right.
So let's that is the and that is the defining question, I think, for your off season.
That's one that's not going to get answered until you see Rogers take the field and OTAs
potentially training camp and then ultimately preseason.
So let's set the stage here, right?
So I think we both agree and you've alluded to it.
The top two priorities for your Jets are wide receiver bolstering the depth behind Garrett
Wilson and also just absolutely revamping that offensive line when it comes to cats,
cap space and just for all of you listening at home, pulling all of these stats from spot
track.
I know a lot of people like over the cap or spot track.
I'm a spot track guy because I love the tools that they have available to them to tinker
around.
I think it's a really nice interface.
They are not a sponsor of this pot at all.
I'm just a big fan of their their platform.
So according to spot track right now, you guys are going into 2024 off season mode with about
$7.5 million in cap space, which spot track thinks if you make the right moves, you can
get to about 16, maybe 17 million with some ease.
After that, you guys have to start making some moves, one of which is trading Zach Wilson,
right?
And right now the trade market for Wilson has one anonymous NFL personnel manager shared
with I think it was Sports Illustrator, the athletic, when asked, what would you trade
for Zach Wilson?
They said he's not even worth a two week stay at the best Western.
First off, I have stayed at several lovely best Westerns in my life.
And just while we're talking about to shout out to La Quinta.
Yeah, as well.
I know, right?
Like let's not let's not drag best Western into the muck with the Zach Wilson dialogue.
All right, let's keep the discourse where it needs to be.
All right.
But it doesn't seem like there is a big trade market out there for his services, which push
comes to shove.
We'll see if there's one thing that I am sure about in the NFL is that there are a lot
of egos and coaching rooms and position rooms, there's going to be a guy who's like, give
him a seventh round pick because I can fix this kid, right?
Maybe it's Atlanta, maybe it's Carolina hedging against the Bryce young thing, which would
be absolutely crazy if they did that, right?
Maybe it's Dallas because why not?
We're collecting former former number one draft picks.
They've got Trey Lance.
They're going to extend back.
Why not bring Zach Wilson into the fold?
One is very likely going to take a flyer on this kid.
Do I think?
100% Do I think he's going to net a third or fourth
run pick?
No way.
But a six or seventh rounder, maybe, right?
Especially as we get to the end of the draft, maybe someone takes a flyer.
So you guys trade him.
That gives you another about 5.4 million in cap space.
From there, you've got some tougher choices to make.
You can release Lake in Tomlinson, which I think is a no brainer, but then you're really
starting from scratch on your offensive line.
But releasing him saves you about eight mil.
You could also release your entire tight end room if you wanted to, to save about another
nine million there.
And then you've got a couple of extensions that you can do with Mosley and Reed.
And then you could convert Williams based salary here to convert it to largely a cash
signing bonus, right?
And based on that, according to SpotTrack, again, you'll get somewhere between 16 and
maybe $25 million in cap space.
But if you pull on all those levers, you're also decimating a lot of units on your squad
that are already decimated.
Killing your future.
Right.
Pass catchers and offensive line.
So let's work, let's work backwards.
And I'm going to give you kind of like what I think needs to be solved in what order.
Do it.
I think the very first thing you do is you sign Reed.
Reed has to be signed.
Like maybe some of the most deceptive stat lines in football, because like literally every
tackle he got was a set.
So you have to, you have to resign him.
I feel like Mosley is sort of becoming the like Bart Scott slash David Harris archetype
of this team, like early thirties, just jacked linebacker that the team rallies around.
To me, I think that you have to start with the two of them.
I think that you spend most of your time as a management team pre draft, trying to figure
out what wide receivers you can sign.
And I think you want that done before the draft reason being again, maybe the Jets biggest
strength right now has been their drafting.
So I think your game plan going into it is offensive linemen.
We can draft a horse and we can teach them.
We can't necessarily draft get the receiver thing right with the picks we have in the
draft.
Like what I love to see Marvin Harrison, Jr. fall to 10.
Yeah, would give anything in the world for that.
It's not happening.
So, you know, you're not going to trade to get better than where you are right now.
You don't have the really the utilities to do that.
So you just start eyeballing free agent wide receivers.
The free agent wide receivers I would target to me, they actually fall out of the top 10.
And I think you sort of, you know where you are, you know where you need to get better,
where the Jets could really get better is the slot.
And I think that you look down into like the key slot receiver for the Lions, Josh Reynolds
is available.
The key slot receiver for the Vikings coincidentally in the same division KJ Osborne is available.
Noah Brown is available from the Texans.
And I think you're like, OK, maybe we just take a flyer on these guys short term contract
and say, hey, you think you're worth more?
Cool, play for it.
We'll pay you like a mid level exception right now NBA style.
Play for it and we'll see what happens.
And I think there are some guys that would jump at the opportunity to, you know, make
a little bit more money, but jump up the depth chart to potentially make more on the next
contract.
That's a good thought.
That's the wide receivers.
The Jets have to be targeting right now.
Whatever you do not get in free agency with wide receivers, you do you do something at
the end of the journey.
But I'm not kidding when I say this.
Maybe your first four rounds, especially with where you're locked in pick wise or offensive
linemen.
Fascinating.
I think I think you have to have to have to have to rebuild your offensive line that
way.
By the way, Jets have done this before.
Debricka Shoff Ferguson's like rookie year.
Like so I'm trying to work with things that this franchise has done.
You know, they had they had a veteran in Mangold and they still a terrifying line around right
and it was depth by running.
If you've learned one thing about Breeze Hall this past season, it's that you can check
down and run with him.
He can he can touch the ball 30 times a game and still have energy.
So you know, you try to build it inside out.
I think that's the only way you do this.
And you know, could a member of the Jets front office say, you know, oh, well, we're really
handcuffed here and there's not much we can do.
So we got to buy low and we got a draft.
Well, you know, could they use that as an excuse?
Like, yeah, but you did it to yourself.
So fix it.
This is your shot at making it right.
And this is probably the only shot you have.
Is there any thought in resigning Conor McGovern?
So he's one of your, I would say key unrestricted free agents this off season.
You've got a lot on the defensive line you've got to address to.
But on the offensive line, you've got Mackay back in, which I think now is a perfect time
for you to part ways.
And then you've got Conor McGovern.
So is your strategy resigned Conor McGovern and then hope hope Elijah Veratucker comes
back healthy next season and then build around those two guys?
It depends.
And I honestly don't know the validity of this answer only because I'm not in the room.
But to me, for the money that he's going to command, he better be the best leader ever.
Like like and I think that if if yes, then yes.
And if no, then no.
Because again, there's so many big problems.
I mean, you just don't have a recipe for success in general, if your offensive line is not
solid, the middle of the offensive line is important.
But the edges of the New York Jets offensive line is so bad.
Your tackle play was really bad this year.
I mean, for context, you guys were 30th and past block win rate, 29th and run block win
rate, which makes Hall season all the more remarkable given how little chance he had at
the line of scrimmage.
Yeah, Brie Brie Hall is basically basically like a mythological figure at running back.
So like, I mean, it's the most jacked up I've been about the Jets running game probably
since Curtis Martin.
Um, but it mean it's such a glaring problem that.
You know, why don't we look at it this way again?
They're not going to go from worst in the league to best.
They're going to go in one season, they will be capable of going from worse than the league
to average.
That is what the kind of dictates right now.
And that's what their picks kind of dictate right now.
The Jets need to decide what's better for us.
Average by the mean or average by the median.
And you know, if it's if the Jets are confident that they can scheme and plug some holes by
being average by the median, then I think you're resign some key guys.
It's hard though, like their play their play calling is so pedestrian and not creative.
And you know, most teams know whether or not they're going to run or pass before they do
it and they only fake punt when the game is over.
So it's hard to know what they're going to do.
And it's easier to just kind of predict that it's going to continue to be a gigantic.
I know, I know, but I feel like re-signing a guy like McGovern.
Even bringing a guy back like we'll talk about the defense of side in a minute.
Someone like Bryce Huff, who was a real I mean, real a budding star for you guys this year.
I just feel like you need a you need some veteran leadership in the room.
Mosley extending Mosley makes sense there too.
You just need some veteran leadership in the room that isn't only Aaron Rodgers.
If you guys are going to get through the season.
Let me add also, I misspoke before and I want to I want to fix this for any, you know, two
or three Jets fans that are particularly listening right now.
Huff is the one I want re-signed.
Right.
He is the one that only gets tackles that are sacks.
I said, Reed, that was an accident.
Yeah, yeah.
So I think everything everything builds on Huff and Mosley right now.
That's kind of where where I am.
And leadership is important and we learned that and we're about to see how much leadership
Aaron Rodgers actually brings because God knows that when he's not playing, it's not
alive.
And that that ESPN article by I think it was Diana Rossini.
Nothing in there was like revelatory about how things were operated.
Basically, the Jets sold out to make an empire in New York unto Aaron Rodgers.
He got to bring in his favorite play caller.
He got to bring in his favorite aging wide receiver weapons and all this other kind of
stuff.
They basically let him play head coach and GM all at the same time.
Lola was very deferential to Rodgers, if you believe that article as well, and really thinks
his future as a head coach in New York is tied to this guy.
And Rodgers loves that level of control, I think, over the staff and over the organization.
So it's my God, dude, it is you guys are in if you guys win next season.
Like winning is the best deodorant, right?
Like some of these young pieces that you draft come together and things like that.
And if you guys are winning, none of this is going to matter.
But if you guys lose and you start to lose badly again with Rodgers, who is supposed
to be the savior coming back into the fold, dude, that New York media market is going
to have a hate is going to have a field day.
I feel like it'll be between you guys and the Dallas Cowboys for how many headlines
you are getting on ESPN.
I think it's just going to be it could be insufferable for you guys of next year doesn't
go well.
So I think we both agree on the offensive side, fix the wide receiver room, add some
depth.
I like the idea of bringing out a veteran slot.
And then because this draft is so deep this year with wide receivers, maybe using that
top 10 pick on one of the elite X guys that you've got here in the draft.
But speed guys, speed kills.
Speed, speed.
But you know, Jay-Jay and I talk about this all the time too.
Like Ty Quant Horton, I think he's on New England, right?
Speed guy can't run around.
Horrible body positioning does not win at the point of catch, right?
You need someone who's going to do all win in all four phases.
Great route running and release.
Someone who is yes fast because speed does matter, but someone who can also win at the
point of catch with their hands and ball skills, but also their body positioning.
And there's so many guys in the draft that'll be attainable for you all there.
It's going to be so interesting to see because most mocks right now have you guys going offensive
line for the reason we talked about that the free agent market is just not budding with
a lot of plug and play guys right now on the offensive line.
So it's more likely than not, you guys end up going offensive tackle, I would think with
your number 10 pick.
But then you've got a third round pick at 72, two fourth round picks at 111 and 113.
And then you're getting into the six, one single six round pick and two seventh round
picks as well.
Because don't have a second round because of the trade for Rogers this past year.
So the more I think about it, I know man, the more I think about it, that top 10 pick
very likely going to an offensive line and someone like Joe Alt from Notre Dame or someone
of that ilk, right?
How would you feel about that?
If you guys deferred the wide receiver conversation to the third round in the draft this year?
I'm fine with it.
Especially I mean, the NFL is riding a train where like the best slot receivers are basically
coming out of like six and below.
So Miko Collins tanked out right there you go.
Yep.
So like, I mean, I just there I have so many I can't answer any question about the jets
directly because of the horrible situation they've put them in.
So I'm going to this is actually this is the best way I can both answer your question
and maybe articulate like articulately summarize my entire parents on this podcast.
Nice, which is and here we go.
We're going to really try for it here.
The jets sold themselves to have a good 2023.
And it went wrong.
And now they are living with the consequences of what they sold for it.
They are the 2008 2009 Boston Celtics minus the NBA championship.
I like the basketball comms are bringing to the table.
I mean, it's it's it that's this that's where I swim.
That's the pool I swim in the most.
But they are like any other team, any other team that did what the jets did to have the
season they just had has way more to show for them.
The jet state.
So we are kind of looking at one of two trajectories here.
I think to your point, it's a foregone conclusion that the draft is going to be heavy online
and it needs to be.
Worry about receivers when you can get them either free agency or the end of the draft.
If it is not remotely better and we're going to know, by the way, we're going to know by
like week two.
It will be a lot easier than this past season for me and my emotions, especially.
They're either going to the AFC championship and everyone gets to live another day.
Or it is one of the hardest franchise resets that the NFL has seen in decades and it's
coming quickly.
It's like watching it's a deer and the headlights are strong, but the car is like a hundred yards
away and it's just slow motion for the next eight months.
That's what this is.
Yeah.
Schedules don't come out till May, but I feel like if you guys start one in three, two and
four, you know, one in six, something like that, I feel like Salah's probably gone midseason
and you guys are going to start to hit the reset button right away.
Jared, man, those were great thoughts.
So I want to summarize here where you're at of the current UF, unrestricted free agents
that you guys have.
You're prioritizing Bryce Huff, which I think makes a lot of sense, extending Moseley, resigning
McGovern, give you some of that veteran core back into the clubhouse and then just draft
your faces off after that, right?
Draft and pray.
That's what the draft usually is.
So excellent, man.
Excellent.
You want to offer any final thoughts here on your team before we wrap up?
Yeah.
Jets fans.
I have, I have unfairly ridden you for a very long time.
It was hard for me, much like kind of I'm a self-loathing Jew from Long Island, New
York.
I'm a self-loathing Jets fan.
I think that our candor towards others is not good most of the time.
I think that your negativity and pessimism to start most seasons is for the most part
unwarranted.
Not last year, everything, everything that anyone in the world has heard a Jets fan say
about last year's team is true.
And I just want to say it took me a long time to get there.
I get I'm going, I'm going to elect to live my life void of that level of cynicism because
I want my marriage to flourish.
And for that reason and that reason alone, I'm not going to join you in the depths, but
I just want you to know that I respect it.
You deserve, you have earned whatever it is you have to say.
Jets fan, you deserve it.
I am here with you.
And if you want a reprieve from just perpetual disappointment, just remember there are other
teams out there.
You can do, you can watch them, you can get your fix.
It's really therapeutic.
You should try it.
It's therapeutic to watch another team that is like competent at football.
Oh my God.
I love it, Jared.
Wonderful summary and nice shout out for your Jets fans.
Before we before we sign off here, you want to plug any of your socials, anything like
that for the listeners at home?
Sure.
I am at Jared, the coach on every social media platform.
It's pretty insufferable right now because I'm promoting a passion project, which is a
book about the recruiting process.
I'm really excited about it.
Yeah, follow me at Jared, the coach.
If you're a therapist, you might, I feel like that's going to be the targeting I'm generated
after the last 40 minutes.
It's just going to be people reaching out to me.
Are you okay?
Please reach out anytime at Jared, the coach.
Appreciate you having me on.
Excellent, Jared.
Thank you very much for being with us today.
And for all of you listening at home, thank you for listening as well.
Like, share and subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
Google Apple Spotify.
And as always, go boys.
I'm Jared, and I'll see you guys next time.
Bye.