In this episode, Taylor talks about Lamar Jackson revealing that he requested a trade from the Baltimore Ravens and what that means, laments and discusses the delay in the Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets trade and then goes over the Dallas Cowboy trades and other offseason news.
In this episode, Taylor talks about Lamar Jackson revealing that he requested a trade from the Baltimore Ravens and what that means, laments and discusses the delay in the Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets trade and then goes over the Dallas Cowboy trades and other offseason news.
Taylor: What's up, everybody? It's the Roundtable sports podcast. My name is Taylor McLean and we're deep in the throes of the NFL offseason. We still got some time before the NFL draft when things really get kind of sealed into place and there is a second round of free agency at that point after teams realize where they're weak or where they want to kind of sure things up. But for the most part we've seen the big signings to this point and to be honest, I normally would podcast during that time, but it just didn't feel like I wanted to go through every signing and just give a little bit of information. I wanted to kind of let things play out a little bit more and then we could look at these off seasons more in a macro type view. But it also was I wasn't really just enthralled by any of the signings. It all seemed a little lackluster and maybe that's just not having as many quality skill position players out there to get excited about what they're going to do there. But regardless, Lamar Jackson gave us some excitement today on the first day of the owners meetings, which does typically get some things moving and does help things along at times, including them passing NFL legislature that is going to affect the season and them kind of getting together and figuring out where the league is going from here. And Lamar, right before John Harbaugh was set to speak at the NFL's owners meetings in Arizona, lamar let us all know that he had requested a trade on March 2. It was actually a tweet out to his fans so he could kind of let them know what was going on, which was interesting. I saw it within the first seven minutes and it had 1.2 million people had seen it, or it had made that many impressions at that point, which is important in the Twitter game. And during that tweet he let everybody know that he had requested a trade, which of course today it's March 27, so there are a lot of implications to letting this information out when it was let out and what it means for both sides. I thought at one point that Lamar Jackson might be the first domino to fall in this whole quarterback situation. I thought that him and Arod might hold up the whole thing and I want to get into Arod a little bit too after we get into Lamar, but it kind of goes together in that it does seem like a lot of the quarterback dominoes have already fallen and teams have already made their plans, no doubt. But it seems like that Lamar and Arod to me should have been the first things off the board when it came to the quarterback market. Then your Jimmy Garoppolo's, then your Derek Carrs start going to their teams once these teams have missed out. I also would have thought that this would have become before the Panthers traded for the number one pick, but each one of those teams decided that they were out either because the other side told them they were or because they were themselves. And now we're kind of left with the teams we're left with that don't have a quarterback sitting in the chair. To my estimation, it's the teams that are probably going to draft one with the Texans, with the Panthers. I believe that both those teams are definitely going to draft a quarterback. Then you have your Colts, who seemingly at the fourth pick, would be in a position to draft somebody, although they could be jumped by another team who might trade with Arizona, who, make no mistake, now that they've signed that contract with Kyler Murray, are locked into him as well. And there were a lot more positions going into everything than there are now as well. You would have thought that the commanders should have been somewhat in on Lamar, but they go off sign Jacobi Brusette, they've got Sam Howell who they are excited about kind of after really like a one game audition where he looked pretty raw but showed some promise. I hate the Derek Carr signing for the Saints, but I would have thought that would have been an interesting move for them. But honestly, they didn't have the cap move or the cap room to make that move and they have Derek Carr for 7 million on their cap this year. So part of the equation with Carr is that they were able to pull some cap shenanigans with him that they wouldn't have been able to pull with Lamar. But still, to my point, a lot of the openings that should have been openings have not been really teams that have been considering Lamar. So with the options Dwindling, with the jets, likely to lock up Aaron Rogers, with the packers likely to move to Jordan Love if they do, with the Ravens likely to go with Tyler Huntley, with Tyler Huntley also being an option if you wanted to go out and trade for someone. There's just a lack of leverage for Lamar at this point in a situation where you would have thought he would have had a ton. I think that the contract demands, the Deshaun Watson style contract demands, are kind of scaring everybody off. And I think that's what led to this trade request, or at least letting everybody know that he had made the trade request. And having that come out today intentionally from his own Twitter, which is essentially from his own mouth, it took me a second to kind of register the part where he had said that it was on March 2, so it's not like he requested it today. It's a lot different than that. Makes me kind of feel like it's a leverage play from Lamar to try and put more pressure on the Ravens to get this done and to get something moving on anybody's end at this point to get him out, either out of there or I think more importantly, to get him paid. I think this is a money play to try and get everybody moving in the right direction when it comes to getting his services under control. The franchise tag is very powerful and certainly gives the Ravens a lot of leverage on their part, where both sides could just come back to this and say, hey, we're going to play this out on the franchise tag and try again next year. That's certainly on the table and there's a long, long time to go on that end of it. If they want to play this out from both sides. I think Lamar could play this all the way out to week ten, and of course, he could sit out the whole year if he really wanted to, although he loses the year of service and there's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into sitting out that he wouldn't want to go through. So it'd probably be like a week ten situation at the worst. But still, the point is of all that little ramble right there is that this could go a very long time if both sides want to play it out that way. So I think this is Lamar trying to put the foot on the pedal, whether it's from his end or from their end. And to the Ravens credit, they're saying all the right things. Like I said before, this was right before John Harbaugh was going to talk and they asked him about it and he said, I'm getting ready for Lamar when Lamar gets back on this train. It's moving full speed. And on top of that, Ian Rap report is reporting that the Ravens are still negotiating with the Ravens and talked as recently as this last week, and of course, this is Monday as I'm recording this. So that's not as far in the rearview as last week makes it sound to me as I say it out loud. But still, even with that report and even with the Ravens saying all the right things, the smoke still doesn't look white to me. It still looks kind of black and kind of like there's still some cinders here and there's still some fire underneath that smoke. So once I had kind of wrapped my mind around everything and realized this wasn't a trade request today, this isn't anything new. This is just Lamar kind of firing a salvo, it made a lot more sense. And while I think Lamar would play for the Ravens again, I think this is about setting a precedence. I think this is about setting himself up, making sure that he can play the way he wants to play and not have to worry about injury because he has himself set up with the guaranteed money. I like to think that he would have played last year to get the Ravens further along in the playoffs had he had a deal like this in place. When you have that guaranteed money in place it's okay to risk that injury because you know you're taken care of no matter what. With the contract in flux and him not wanting to go out there and look like 50% or even 70% of himself and then have that affect the contract, that all has to play into the situation. And I'm not saying that I think the Ravens would have won the Super Bowl with Lamar last year but I think it's pretty obvious they would have had a better shot with him even at 75% or whatever the number really is. It's a curious case. There's a lot of things moving in every direction with Lamar being his own agent, with the Deshawn, Jack Watson contract with the owners not wanting to make this the norm. I mean, this would have been the third fully guaranteed contract. But for some reason, the NFL owners have been able to treat the other two like they're outliers and they're treating this third one like if they sign it or if they go through with it, that it's really going to affect things and it's really going to affect the status quo. Maybe it needs to be shook up, maybe it doesn't. But either way, the owners are looking to resist that and have been obviously a little reticent to give up picks. But it seems like it's more about the contract because owners have been willing to give out picks to get franchise guys and maybe that hasn't worked out for the teams that have done it recently. And so there are some buyers remorse on their end and their other teams are trying not to go there. I don't know but I mean I clock a bunch of teams that would get better with Lamar Jackson as their quarterback and honestly at this point I'm kind of dying to see him in a new system. I guess they did get rid of Greg Roman so we're going to see a new system either way but I kind of want to see him get away from Harbaugh too. For better or for worse I want to see Lamar with legit receivers. When Lamar has legit receivers on the outside things look a hell of a lot better and it just hasn't been good for several years. Mark Andrews be damned and a good running back running game be damned. It's all been on Lamar's shoulders with the running backs getting injured one year with wide receivers getting injured the next year, just not having the requisite talent to get them over the top. And with Lamar not being put in situations where it's all down to him and because the team can't get to that point that's not going to take his reputation or get him the wins. That he wants to feel whole and feel like he's getting a fair shake here and to see him with someone that I think could manage him and that could get the most out of him. Makes me drool, frankly, because he is so physically talented. The running is next level. Kyler Murray is a great runner because he's a great avoider of contact. Lamar mixes it up a little bit better. They have similar speed. They're the two fastest quarterbacks in the NFL is the reason I bring them up together. Lamar has just a little bit more frame than Kyler, and that allows him to run over the middle part of the field and run more downhill. And I think he's just looking for security so he can do that and try and be successful and take this team or take whatever team to a Super Bowl. It's just hard to stay healthy as a quarterback that runs downhill in the NFL. And I don't mean running to the sidelines and avoiding hits and all that. I mean actually running plays where you take hits. That's a big deal for quarterbacks and for everybody in the NFL. It's hard to hold up to that. So I get why both sides are hesitant to play without a deal like that and hesitant to give out a deal like that. I could see both sides of it, but it just takes one team to get on board. Maybe they play it out this year with just a franchise tag. I find that to be on the board and a likely scenario, but I don't know. I would have put my money on Lamar Landing. What he's looking for here? Because teams are so ready to get out of the quarterback malaise that they're in. But this guaranteed contract thing seems to have them scared off also when you have to throw in the two first round picks on top of it. One thing that is on the table with the two first round picks part of it is that teams could look wait till after the draft so that the pick they're giving out isn't a top ten pick. Because a lot of the teams that are in that mix are also that mix. Being the quarterback mix are also in the top ten mix too. So what if you're the Colts and three quarterbacks go in front of you? You're not sold on the fourth one. You draft Will Anderson after that, and then you give up your next year's pick for Lamar Jackson. Right. You give up 24 and 25. That makes a lot more sense than giving up four. I think if they were going to give up four, that's the only thing make a four and a second rounder. That's what I would think would be fair from a draft chart standpoint. When you're comparing that to 24 and 25 from a team, teams could be looking to play that angle too, though. That's the point of that. I still feel like the Colts, maybe this is a worthy gamble for them. If you're the texans or now the Panthers, I think you have to draft one of the guys. I really like Bryce Young. And I really like CJ. Stroud having a chance to be an NFL plus starter, levis and Anthony Richardson, that's certainly on the plate for them, but I find it less likely odds, like call it if Kenny Pickett was a 40 to 60, honestly, maybe you call Anthony Richardson and Will Levis on that same plane, but with higher upside. So I feel like there's still plenty of bus potential with them, but if they hit it, they're going to hit it hard. So I like that. And then I feel like it's like a 60 40 or maybe 55 45 or whatever. It's a better opportunity with CJ. Stroud and Bryce Young for reference, like Joe Burrow super prospects, like 80 20, right. That's not actually the odds. I feel like that Joe Burrow is going to be a star. Maybe I did whatever, but still, it's not that type of prospect. But I think you have to take that swing if you're either one of those teams on the Colt side of that. I don't know. I think I'd be more interested in the Lamar side, seeing what I could do there and trying to jump start this franchise. They have pieces, they have playmakers, they could use some more, no doubt. But it'd be interesting to see Lamar with that type of running game, too. They just hired an Eagles coach. He just worked with Lamar Jackson. He just worked with Jalen Hertz. I don't know, I think this is all grasping at straws at this point, but that's all we're doing because I need Lamar to be in a better situation because he is so physically talented. I started to go through it and I got sidetracked, but the running ability is pretty great. And then he has a really good arm. It's just the accuracy portion of it. And that is where my questions lie with Lamar as well, is that the game boils down to your ability to throw guys open, make tight window throws, and read the field on an elite level when it comes down to these end of game situations, a lot of the time, and there's times where running the ball isn't an option. So what can Lamar do in those scenarios when he's reduced down to a pocket passer? A lot of guys can't deal with that. Like when Jimmy G got the ball I refer to this all the time, but when Jimmy G. Got the ball with two minutes left against the Rams the year they won the Super Bowl, did anybody believe that Jimmy G. Was going to lead that drive and bring the 49 ers back at that point? No, because he doesn't have that throwing guys open elite, joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen type ability, and I don't mean that from a physical side. All those guys have tremendous physical ability, too. But they're such good decision makers and they're so good with their accuracy and with their understanding of the game and where to put the ball and where to go with it. And Lamar just hasn't proven that to this point. And I want to see now, is it the offense? Is it Lamar? I need to see something else to be able to make that judgment, because it is so tantalizing to think about someone being able to put all the pieces together with him, have him on the Patriots, trade Mac and a couple of first round picks or whatever. I don't know, just somebody that can manage him. I'd love to see him with Andy Reid. What would Andy Reid do with him? I know that's a little on the nose because of what he gets out of Patrick, but that's kind of the point, is I want to see what he can do with an elite coach. Is John Harbaugh elite coach? Let's see what John Harbaugh does with something different, because I think he's a good coach, too. Like he has a Super Bowl win right, with Joe Flacco nonetheless, who was good at that point and played himself into a great contract, but I don't think that anybody was mistaking Joe Flacco for John Elway either. So maybe this is frustration on my part that's not having this all go to plan, that as I said, I thought this would be the first domino to fall and that everything else would happen after that, and teams just kind of balked on it and it's interesting and maybe it's a labor strife thing, too. I certainly don't appreciate the man keeping me down sometimes and feeling that way, so I guess I'm on Lamar side. I've done a lot of defending of Lamar, even though there's been the playoff collapses and even though I recognize some of the flaws, I just can't get over the physical ability, the arm I said the accuracy was off, but the arm talent is there. It's just can he put it all together? Can someone get him some easier throws? I don't know, just some receivers? I don't know. There's a lot I want there, and I'll stop lamenting it. The other thing that I want is I want the jets and the Green Bay Packers to quit playing, stare down, and go ahead and trade Aaron Rogers to the jets, because I'm done thinking about it as something else. Seriously, I need both teams to figure it out one way or another. It's clearly a compensation thing at this point as Arod kind of let it be known that that's where he wants to go, and he's also made it known that he wants to play. The jets signed Alan Lazard, and they have Nathaniel Hackett as their offensive coordinator, who used to be the offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach, I can't remember exactly. But regardless, he was with Aaron Rogers in Green Bay, so it's pretty obvious that this is going down. Of course. Also, Zach Wilson must not forget he was a dumpster fire, the number two overall pick that got us to this point. But outside of that, the jets have drafted really well and they have young, talented players that they want to have a quarterback around, so they don't want to waste that time trying to break in another young quarterback. So here we are, both teams staring each other down, trying to get the other one to blink, and it feels like it's like a lack of leverage on either side because both sides know that this is going to happen. So it's like, okay, how much should it happen for? Well, we're taking the money. Well, we're giving up the hall of Fame quarterback. It doesn't feel like either side has the leverage because Arod let it know and this is where he wants to play. And the jets know that, the packers know that, and they just need to get it done because I can't have this continue to keep going on and feel secure about it. Feels like it just takes one team to bat their eyes at him and get this off the rails for the jets. But it also feels like it's just one New York Jets saying, you know what, screw it. We're out away from going off the rails for the packers, too. So give it a first round pick. Come on, just go ahead and do it. It's in the middle of the draft. Fine. Maybe even it's a pick the next year like the pick that you're playing Arod with. We have precedents here. Matthew Stafford wasn't playing near as well at the time that he was given up on by the Detroit Lions, but they got a first round pick for Matthew, and they got a first round pick for taking back Jared Goff's contract, too. In my opinion. I don't think that was the two first round picks and Jared Goff as assets. I think that they had to give up another pick to get them to take on that contract without that quarterback going back the other way to Green Bay. Green Bay already has the quarterback in house at this point that they want to trot out there and see what they've got, which is also part of the lack of leverage on the Green Bay side. So that makes me feel like the first round may be a little extra. It's a hall of Fame quarterback, so it needs to be something like at least a second rounder, right? I don't know. It feels like there should be some middle ground there and we haven't hit it. And just like with the Lamar thing, I'm extremely frustrated and it feels like that's why I didn't podcast last week. I was waiting for one of these two things to happen and then when Lamar did this, it was like, finally something's happening here when I don't know how much has really happened there, what has happened here with Arod? One thing that did make me feel a little better was that Robert Salas said that he's not hitting the panic button on the delayed trade for Aaron Rogers, that he's confident that things are going to work out, even though this is not him talking about it. Even though we're here two weeks removed from Rogers, saying that he's going to play for the jets in 2023 on the Pat McAfee Show. So I guess that makes me feel a little better that they're still on board and that everything is still kind of in the plans, that that's what's going to happen. But still, I don't like having these quarterback dominoes not have fallen yet, especially when it was my expectation that it was going to be one of the first things that got cleared up. I guess Arod has been cleared up, but until it's official, I just can't quite put it in the books yet. I mean, there's a ton of teams that Aaron Rogers would be an upgrade for even though they have their current situation kind of quote unquote figured out. So maybe that's the next move. I don't know. We'll hope the move comes there. We still have that. We still have some other stuff that seems like it's likely to happen as well. I do have a lot of interest when it comes to DeAndre Hopkins. He's another domino that hasn't fallen that I was expecting to have already gone off the board. Seems like the Cardinals and their asking price may be a little out of whack there. But I did want to say, as I was kind of skipping through some of the stuff that has happened since the last time we had podcasts that he did look like himself at times last year. And that I do think that while it might not be able to be as consistent with his availability and everything, and he might not be able to carry the same workload that he used to, I think he would be great for a team. He looked explosive. He looked like he still had juice, and he's got all that experience and really is a plug and play guy for a ton of different teams for any type of system. DeAndre Hopkins could make that work and it is just him kind of hanging on to his athleticism at this point. And as long as he can do that, I think he can be effective for teams. So if some team can kind of peel off a second round pick or maybe even less. After the Dallas Cowboys traded a fifth and 6th in the next year's draft for Brandon Cooks, recently, Cowboys made two under the radar moves that were completely on the radar. I guess since they're the Dallas Cowboys with Brandon Cooks and Stefan Gilmore, the Cowboys are pretty tight to the cap with the size of Dak Prescott's deal. You throw in some dead money for Ezekiel Elliot. We've got contracts coming up for Micah Parsons and Diggs and there's a lot coming into. Oh yeah, CD Lamb. Don't forget about that one. So a lot of stuff coming around for the Cowboys cap wise and their perpetual go for it attitude where they never have a rebuild, they just always perpetually go for the gold. For the Cowboys to be able to trade was a big deal, especially when they only had to give up picks that they kind of got from the compensatory system was a big deal. The biggest thing about it was that when you trade, you can typically get the cap number lower than what it would have been had you extended them when they were on your team or signed them outright as a free agent. Whatever signing bonus or it can be negotiated with the other team on how much money remains on that other team's cap. And the Cowboys were able to get those numbers right where they're able to fit these two players under their cap, whereas, had they been free agents and they signed them to a deal, they would have had to go a little bit over the top and likely wouldn't have been able to get the job done with either one of those guys. Both of them are getting a little older. Brandon Cooks has been on a bunch of different teams. Gilmore, I mean, four different teams, but still not quite the same mover and shaker that I feel Cooks is. I think he's the only guy to have 4000 yard seasons with different teams. Pretty impressive stuff. Hopefully there's another one coming with the Dallas Cowboys here. He gives them a lot more explosion than they were getting out of their wide receiver position outside of CD Lamb last year. Noah Brown had a great season by his standards and really had a good season for many, many wide receivers. It just wasn't quite explosive enough. And then you got that Houston guy out there at times. It obviously needed some punch out there at the wide receiver position. And this is also good because the Cowboys nearly gave up a third round pick last year, got rebuffed. Not sure that that would have made the difference in the playoffs anyway without the Gilmore trade, without some other things coming together as well. So you're giving up a whole lot less here. You're getting both players for reasonable figures. I believe it's 13 for Cooks and nine for Gilmore. Gilmore only has one year left on the deal and he is a little longer in the tooth. But I watched him play a good deal and way more than you would think for a team that was falling apart as much as the Colts, but they fell apart in some interesting ways that got them on the podcast last year. So I watched a lot of Colts film there and Gilmore looked legit. And we don't have. As much to go on on Cooks, but as reasonably. But he looked okay when I did see him and the year before. He had plenty of explosion as well and really looked like he would have had something if we can get that guy motivated and out there for America's team here. So good moves by the Cowboys had to actually talk about some moves that were made on the podcast, not just moves that were going to be made or are not going to be made, because who wants to hear a whole podcast about speculation? I mean, I want to see where Kalias Campbell ends up as much as the next guy, but talking about what teams he's visited and going through all that doesn't seem like a good use of our time. I liked the rashad. Penny and Damien Harris signings. There's a bunch of free agent signings that I like, but it still felt a little lackluster overall. I don't know, the class that there was, it didn't seem like there was as many earth shaking moves as I would have liked. I mean, I'm not talking a whole lot of Taylor Rap to Buffalo or Paris Campbell to the New York Giants as much as I might like both those moves. Like, I like Paris Campbell as an upgrade on the third receiver for the New York Giants, but they've got a lot of work left to do there if they're really, truly going to evaluate Daniel Jones for what he could be. Right? Same thing with Russell Wilson. Like, Sean Payton came out and said, they're not trading Jerry Judy or Courtland Sutton. I think it would have been silly to trade either one of those guys with Sean Payton coming in. It may make sense from, like, a cap standpoint, but really you need to see what both of these guys have with Russell Wilson before you go shipping them out the door, and you need to see it in a Sean Payton system, and that's a two sided thing because you need to see what Russ looks like. You need to see what they look like so you can make decisions about your team going forward. Not that they can get rid of Russ, but they can choose what the proper direction is from there. So big evaluation year for the Denver Broncos, although Broncos fans are going to be hungry from the very get go to see their team look a lot better and to move forward in a big way, they're going to be insanely hungry for that. But it's a transition. When you had such a disaster last year and you made a really bad decision as far as the coach you hired at that point, and you had to go way over the top, the top rope to try and get this situation into a workable one. And I'm hopeful. I have Russell Wilson in a salary cap, two quarterback, dynasty league, and I really need that to work out, at least for next year. But I don't know, I'm somewhat skeptical. But once again, I'm glad to see that a move that's not being made has been kiboshed. Other news on Russell. He did have a knee scope too, so hopefully that means that his knee wasn't feeling great and that's why he wasn't running around as much. And this is going to help a whole lot, but that's a very I think you'd have to read the glass as the glass is three, four full, even though it's just half full, you know what I mean? You have to really be an optimist to say that that's the way to read that. Especially when Sean Payton says that's something we're probably not going to talk about probably ever. And it has been said that this has been nagging him over the last several seasons. So maybe my last little diatribe about this being helpful, being hopeful could be true, right? Maybe it is more full. But still, I need positive reports coming from here on out to really give me any sort of confidence here that this situation is going to turn itself around because things were so dire. If anybody's going to do it as Sean Payton, though, I'm reserving all judgment. I'm just going to hope against hope and think that things are going to be okay here. And I think that's where a lot of Denver fans lie at this point because you don't really have a whole lot of options otherwise. So here's hoping for you. Appreciate everybody's time today. I know it's a little short, especially when we're leaving off for one week, but this is pre draft season here, we'll hope. For more information on all the situations we talked about today, I appreciate your time and thank you for listening. Look for more videos. I just did my 22 plays that make me believe in Kenny Pickett. I only made that videos of that sort for Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields last year and I'm only making that one for Kenny Pickett this year, so hopefully Kenny backs me up with that. So backs that video and what I said up there. Look for more videos this week. I'm certainly going to be putting out more. Got a couple of free agent videos and stuff already lined up, so we should be in good shape there and have a great rest of your day.