Between the Snaps - Crazy Trades, Position Competition & Unretirement

Originally recorded & published: 7/7/2025

Crazy pre-season trades

Waller comes out of retirement

Ramsey head to Pittsburgh

Deebo becomes a Commander

Wide receiver & tight end positional competitions within teams - who's gonna be #1??

Transcript

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I love the game of the I am literally just giving my opinion. George Kittle, Caleb Williams, Jonathan Taylor, Jared Goff, Tyler Walk, Max Crosby, Russell Wilson, Will Howard, Sam Laporta, McCaffrey, Mike Evans, Jaden Daniels, Tyrone Tracy, Ashton Genty, Fred Warner, Jackson Dart, Marvin Mitton, Brock Bowers, Bucky Irving, Najee Harris, Cooper Cub, Gibson Montgomery, Claywalker. This is what let's get into it. Hey guys, welcome back to Girl Meets Gridiron Between the Snaps. I am Maria Baker. So let's just go ahead and kick this off with a couple of news stories that I wanted to bring to everyone's attention just because I am a huge Notre Dame fan. And this week some exciting news came out for 2026, and that is that three-star wide receiver recruit Devin Fitzgerald has decided to commit to Notre Dame officially. If you guys didn't know, he is the son of one of the best wide receivers, in my opinion, of all time, Larry Fitzgerald. We also have a four-star linebacker recruit named Thomas Davis Jr., which is pretty obvious who his dad is, Thomas Davis from the Carolina Panthers, one of my favorite teams back in the day when they had Cam Newton, Luke Keekly, Thomas Davis, Greg Olson, Jonathan Stewart, that whole team, he was a part of that. And I think he's gonna do great on Notre Dame. It's gonna be fun to watch. Another four-star recruit, wide receiver Caden Finley, who is the son of Jermichael Finley, used to play for the Green Bay Packers back in the day, so that's pretty exciting. And coming this year in 2025, we also got recruit Jerome Bettis Jr., obviously, dad is Jerome Bettis, and a four-star wide receiver recruit, Elijah Burris, who is Plaxico Burris' son. So there's five guys that we just got, all dads in the NFL. It's pretty freaking cool. I just wanted to throw that out there because I think it's awesome. So let's get into a little bit of NFL talk. First of all, obviously, we've all heard the big trade deal that's gone on with these three teams: Pittsburgh, Miami, and the Giants. Craziest thing, Darren Waller's coming out of retirement. He hasn't played since 2023. Uh, he's going to the Dolphins. The Dolphins are giving Pittsburgh, or have given Pittsburgh, tight end John U Smith and cornerback Jalen Ramsey and Minka Fitzpatrick, safety from Pittsburgh, is going to Miami. Obviously, there's some draft picks thrown around in there, but I'm not gonna really get into all that. But one of the craziest things with all of the players is that all four of them are between the ages of 28 and 32. That's just insane to me. Darren Waller is straight up 32 years old. He'll be 33 at the beginning of September. So that's so crazy that he's even coming out of retirement. Um, and then we've got Jalen Ramsey, who's 30 years old. He'll be 31 in October. Like I said, he's a great player too. So basically, what I'm looking at here is Johnu Smith, he had his best year last year, and he had like 884 yards receiving. I mean, that's decent, and I mean, if you look at his past, you know, yardage, it's it's okay for a tight end, but it's not awesome. So I'm just a little confused as to like why the Steelers even brought him in, especially when they already have Pat Freermouth and Darnell Washington, and then some. Like, it's just odd. And then Miami getting Darren Waller, that's just so out of the blue. Don't get me wrong, I like Darren Waller. I really liked him when he was with the Raiders. He had two seasons over a thousand yards receiving, but that was back in 2019 and 2020. You know, he had since then he has not played a full season at all. And those were his best two seasons, and those were when he was in his prime. So I'm just not really understanding this whole thing. In 2023, the last time that he played, he only played in 12 games with the Giants and had 552 yards receiving. Okay, that's not terrible for a tight end, it but it's not great. He had one touchdown. Like, it's I don't know. And even like looking back at this, in 2019, when he had an uh over 1100 yard season, he only had three touchdowns. So when you're averaging 12.7 yards and three touchdowns, that's that's a little odd to me as well. And being 32, it's like, so where is this going for Miami? Like, what is this going to do? Because I think their backup is Pharaoh Brown. So I I don't understand what the go-to was with this. Um, just to like get him there for the season or what? And then if we look at like Minka Fitzpatrick going to Miami, like basically in exchange for Jalen Ramsey, obviously they play different positions, but they're still both DBs. Minka, his numbers aren't great either, but they're not bad. But also, he played on a very, very different defense in Pittsburgh. He was on a defense that had a notable outside linebacker, edge rusher with TJ Watt. He had Cameron Hayward, he had all of these people that made a def their defense what it is. And Miami does not really have a person who is like a TJ Watt or a Cam Hayward, if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, they have great players, but also looking at their depth chart, I'm like, the guys that are back, linebackers specifically, I guess, they're very prone to injury. Bradley Chubb, very notably an injury-prone player. So I'm just throwing that out there. Now that they don't have Jalen Ramsey, it's it's just gonna be a very weird season, honestly. I don't know how well Minka is going to fit into that defense. Jalen is also a little bit injury prone, not as much as the others. He's played quite a few full seasons and he's done very well. Last year, he had two interceptions, he had 39 solo tackles, his numbers have just kind of gone down a bit from past years. He had his best years when he was with the Rams, but you know, he was kind of jumping around to. So he's on his fourth team now with the Steelers. And this just feels so weird to say that Jalen Ramsey's with the Steelers. He's gonna be 31 years old. He's been a great player, but anyways, so I'm gonna move on from that. Um, I kind of wanted to get into something I haven't really heard anyone talk about, and that's kind of like the wide receiver tight end position competition within the teams after all these trades happened this year, which, like I said in my last one, has been so many. Who's gonna be wide receiver one? Who's gonna be the quarterback's go-to? Because every team pretty much has one. There's not a lot of teams besides, I guess the best example would be Cincinnati with T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. Joe does an amazing job of, you know, getting it to both of them, as well as Mike Gasicki. He's been outstanding with the Bengals. Besides that, there's gonna be some competition. These are the teams I'm wondering about, okay? Baltimore, DeAndre Hopkins, Zay Flowers. Who's going to be that go-to guy? D Hop is a well-renowned vet. Obviously, he's been with a lot of teams. He does great adjusting to the offense of all of these different teams, and he always comes out as a very good benefit to the team that he's on. So I'm wondering, is he going to outdo Zay Flowers? Is he gonna outdo Mark Andrews? Personally, I don't think he's gonna outdo Mark Andrews, but Zay Flowers, I don't know. But Zay's been Lamar's go-to wide receiver number one for a couple years now. Another one is Buffalo. And there's two positional quote unquote competitions. They're not brand new this year. We'll just say that. They're not brand new this year, but it's I'm still just kind of wondering. The first is gonna be Khalil Shakir versus Keon Coleman. Keon Coleman was a rookie last year and he did amazing. So did Khalil Shakir. So I'm just like wondering who is gonna be that go-to guy for Josh now. But again, Josh is another great example of somebody who throws the ball around to all of his players, tight ends included. And that's another one is the tight end competition. Dawson Knox has been there for quite some time now. He's been one of Josh's go-to guys for a few years. But then we had Dalton Kincaid come in and he kind of stole the show a little bit. He's nowhere near top-tier tight end, but but he's definitely shown a lot of progression and he's almost taking over what Dawson Knox has already kind of accomplished. So that's gonna be interesting to see. Is I don't know, there's so many depth charts out there that show Dalton Kincaid as tight end one, and then there's others that show Dawson Knox at tight end one. So that's gonna be very interesting to see this year. Josh reminds me of obviously my favorite team back in the day, 2015, Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton. None of his wide receivers were, I guess you could say, elite, but if you look at those stats, specifically that year, he threw it to everyone. Obviously, Greg Olsen was his go-to guy, his tight end, but at the same time, like there are so many wide receivers that have outstanding numbers from that season that he could just throw it to anybody Ted Ginn, Corey Brown, Funtice, all of those guys. So this kind of seems a little bit similar um to that era, which is really cool. So I'm hoping to see a lot more of that because Josh Allen's proven that he's he can throw it to anybody. You can definitely see that respect and that trust in him and all of his receivers and tight ends. So moving on to the Chargers. I don't really know if this is gonna be a competition or what. Lad McConkey, obviously, rookie last year, did phenomenal. He ended up, I think, 100th on the new um NFL top 100 from 2024 list. I think they've only done numbers 91 through 100, but he was 100. He had a great season last year, really proved himself, and I think he's going to do great things in the NFL. The Chargers just got back. Mike Williams, who notably has been with the Chargers for quite some time, was with the Steelers last year, but now he's back. Another older vet, but I feel more like this isn't really a competition as much as it is that Lad can learn a lot from Mike Williams. And I hope that that's what was in Harbaugh's head is to bring him in and let Ladd learn from him because that's a great strategy right there. The other LA team, the Rams, we've got Devontae Adams there now, and it's him and Puka. Those are two exceptional wide receivers for Matthew Stafford to throw to. So I'm thinking like this offense looks killer. You've got those two. You've also got Kyron Williams, who's one of the best running backs in the league. Their offensive line, it's decent. It's not notably top five, but it's it's decent. And I think I think they'll do very well this year. But as for the competition, that's gonna be one to watch because I have no idea who's going to be his wide receiver one. No idea. Um, another one is gonna be Indy, and I think I touched base on this last episode. I don't think that Michael Pittman Jr. is going to be wide receiver one anymore, but it's going to be another battle with him versus Alec Pierce. And you know, you're throwing Josh Downs in there too. I I don't know. Plus, we just got Tyler Warren. So I'm thinking, are Pittman and Pierce just not gonna even be the number one guys? Will it be Warren? I don't know. That one is way up in the air. We have got three more teams. Washington, the commanders. Obviously, they just got Debo Samuel. Terry McLaurin's there. He was in top five for receiving yards last year. He was phenomenal. The reason I love Terry McLaurin is that his stats just keep progressing. He doesn't necessarily have a bad year, he just keeps getting better. And I love seeing that, and I love that for Washington. Debo. The thing with Debo is, and this is what I'm assuming Washington is going to do. They're going to utilize Terry for throwing two, and they're gonna use Debo for a little bit of that, but I think that they're gonna use him more for trick plays, not necessarily trick, I guess, but if you remember last year when he was with the 49ers, obviously Christian McCaffrey was out, and so they had Debo do a lot of running, but that's how he's built too. He's built to do both, but they did quite a few trick plays with him and running, and I think Washington saw that and they liked what they saw, and they need a little bit of help in the in their rushing game as well. So I think that's what they're gonna utilize him for. Could be wrong, but I really do feel like that's what it's gonna end up as, just because they already have T-Max. So then we've got Tennessee, the Titans. Who the hell knows what's gonna come of this season for them? You never know. They just got Tyler Lockett, they already have Calvin Ridley. That's gonna be very interesting to see because you've got two vets, and that is what's gonna be the competition because they're not necessarily there to help another, you know, young gun wide receiver. They're there to help win the game. And also, I mean, don't get me wrong, Cam Ward can learn a lot from both of these guys, but I don't think that was their intention was to bring in two vets, you know, to help or for somebody to like learn from, I guess. That's gonna be a competition for wide receiver number one, and that's gonna be a lot for Cam Ward to process, I feel like. And my last one is Seattle. What is going on? You've got Sam Darnold now at quarterback, you've got um Cooper Cup now as a wide receiver, along with Jackson Smith and Jigba, who did phenomenal last year. He is another one I'm really looking at to progress and just keep getting better. I think he's he's gonna be a great wide receiver in the league. Bringing Cooper Cup in and having Jackson Smith and Jigba there, I think that's gonna be even better for Smith and Jigba because he just learned so much in the past couple years from DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, who had been with Seattle for quite some time. Tyler Lockett, obviously, more, but he learned so much from them. And now they're bringing in Cooper Cup, who has kind of a different vision or maybe a style or something. But Cooper Cup's another vet that Smith and Jigba can learn from. And I think that is so awesome. And he's just gonna soak in all of this information, it's gonna be a great learning experience for him, and that's just gonna make him better. So I think Cooper Cup's gonna be great helping out with getting that team better, but I don't think that he's gonna be the wide receiver one. I think Smith and Jigba is still going to be that wide receiver one for them. They also utilize a lot of both of their running backs in receiving as well, Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. It's gonna be interesting to see what that team does because there's a lot going on. They've got a great defense, I personally think. You got Julian Love, who's one of the best safeties in the league, and they also gained Ernest Jones from Tennessee last year, which was a super funny trade to me. Tennessee just didn't want him, it sounded like. And he just goes to Seattle and blows up. Like he is the leader of this defense now. And that that to me is just so awesome. Like in your face, Tennessee. Bye. And rightfully so. You're on a better team, Ernest. You're gonna do great things, and uh shout out to him. Okay, guys, so I think I'm gonna go over a few of my projections just because I think they're starting to go over them on Good Morning Football, and you know, I don't want anybody to think that I'm just taking information from that. So the most confident I am is with my wide receiver projections because you've got your same guys, you know. I'm projecting one and two, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, it's a given. Amon Ra is gonna be up there, obviously, CeeDee Lamb. I do not think that George Pickens is going to have any effect on CeeDee being one of the top receivers from here on out. Brian Thomas Jr., we still don't know what position they're going to have Travis Hunter play at. So that's kind of up in the air. But at the same time, I don't think that I think Brian Thomas is still going to flourish. Lad McConkey, obviously, obviously AJ Brown, Puka Nakua, Malik Neighbors. I think that Drake London is one that isn't talked of enough for Atlanta. He's obviously their number one. He's done so well the past few years, and I just don't think he's talked about enough, mainly because Atlanta hasn't really done shit, and Bijan kind of out does him. So I I'm not sure about Tyreek Hill. We're just gonna have to wait and see. I've got Nico Collins on there, Terry McLaurin, obviously T. Higgins. Yeah. It's gonna be interesting to see San Francisco. See what they're gonna do with their wide receiver core. Juwan Jennings did phenomenal last year, but at the same time, Brandon Ayuke wasn't there either. That's about all I got. So I'll go over some more of my projections next time and probably like running backs and stuff, and we'll get into that. This was more of like a wide receiver tight end kind of thing, so take it how you will, and um yeah, we'll see you next time.