Football Function
Off-Season Outlook: NFC West / Franchise Tags & Cap Casualties
It's Buck Sex and along with playtrivis talking about Dan capitalist law, but Dan's the son of a police officer and a guy who finished law school and aimed high to build a world class firm for the people where everyone regardless of background gets top notch treatment. Dan capitalist law lives that mission scoring record verdicts for folks from all walks of life and they don't care about your wallet. Right just cases are taken on a percentage fee basis. Need help? Visit dancapolislaw.com. That's Dan C A P L I S law.com. Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on Chumba Casino dot com. I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing. They're also playing Chumba Casino. Go incidents. I think not everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere, even at 30,000 feet. So sign up now at Chumba Casino dot com to claim your free welcome bonus. That's Chumba Casino dot com and live the Chumba life. No purchase necessary. What is going on? Everybody guys and girls welcome back to another edition of the football function podcast available on all your podcast platforms, including on patreon. If you prefer an ad free experience, as always, I am one of the hosts of the show Michael Ritter. You can find me on X and Michael five Ritter on Instagram and Michael Ritter five and also the host of the Smackdown review over on the WWE podcast. Speaking of that, I am going to smack down this week. So it's going to be a little bit of a different perspective. I don't know if I'm going to be the one covering Smackdown this week that's kind of still going to be determined. But nonetheless, I'm looking forward to doing that. However, this is the football function podcast and it's been a pretty busy couple of days, especially since the last time we talked, like I kind of mentioned it that I thought that this was going to be a pretty busy week. Some things we're going to actually take place this week that we're going to make some domino start to fall. The week is still young. It's only Tuesday and you know, I got a page full of no try here in terms of transactions and things that have happened today. Franchise tags, cap casualties, people getting released a couple contract extensions as well. So there's been no shortage of things to talk about here in the early process. The tampering period for free agency doesn't start until Monday the 11th. I'm coming to you right now on the fifth. So I do feel a little bit of a sense of urgency to get these episodes out. I only have four more, only four more off season outlook episodes after this one. So there's technically two in each conference remaining, both of the south divisions, both of the north divisions. So I'm looking forward to getting all of them done. But I'm probably going to have to cram them in a little bit tighter than what I originally planned. Just because we're creeping up on the new league year. And I know there's probably going to be at least one that I'm going to have to talk about after the tampering period has already begun. But it's also fluid. Like a lot of this stuff is going to be old news already, like because of how quick and how rapid all of these transactions are going to be happening. The salary cap for these teams are going to be moving up and down. So just because the team's cap is one number, I guess on Monday, doesn't mean it's going to be that same number on Tuesday. And that's the perfect example because I did my preparation for this division a couple days ago, and the Seattle Seahawks had $14.8 million. Well, they made some moves today, they cut some people that freed up a lot of money. And now they have $50.2 million to spend. So that's just a little bit of an example as to how quickly things can change in this period. So listen to these episodes quickly as they come out, because a lot of this stuff is going to age and probably age poor leaf. That's kind of just the nature of the business. I mean, I'm kind of talking about the possibilities of Justin Fields coming to the Falcons and Kirk Cousins. Like, I'm going to be wrong about one of those guys. Like, I'm wasting my breath talking about one of them because clearly we're not going to get both. That's why I've tried to hold off a little bit on the speculation. Because very rarely do the things we're talking about in February and early March actually matter. You know, once you get to late April and into the summer, once things have kind of taken shape and everything has unfolded the way that it has. But let's go ahead and get into the news, right? Let's talk about some of the things that have happened today. March 5th, we'll also talk about some things that have happened in, you know, previous days and weeks just to kind of catch up on all the franchise tags that have been placed and some of the more important roster moves that have taken place. So franchise tags. Let's go with that little bit of a list. First, the first guy to get it was wide receiver T Higgins from the Cincinnati Bengals. The second person was cornerback Lajeria Sneed from the Kansas City Chiefs. And those all happened like at least like a week ago. And then yesterday, outside linebacker Brian Burns got the tag from the Carolina Panthers. And then today is whenever we kind of got a little bit of a flurry of franchise tags. Free safety Antoine Winfield Jr. received it from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, defensive tackle Justin Mattabukay from the Baltimore Ravens, outside linebacker Josh Allen from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Cornerback Jalen Johnson from the Chicago Bears. Strong safety Kyle Dugger from the Patriots, he actually got the transition tag, meaning they tagged him, but he can still negotiate with other teams. And if he reaches an agreement with that team, like if they come to an agreement on a contract, then the Patriots are going to get a chance to match it kind of like, you know, happen with Lamar Jackson last year. He was transition tagged. And that's why a lot of people thought that, Hey, maybe all these teams should go after Lamar Jackson start negotiating with him. Well, the negotiation part of Lamar Jackson, that's what was really difficult because of his lack of agency, his lack of representation. So he was negotiating for himself. And it was kind of a strain situation because obviously the Mar Jackson is an extremely talented player, but the Ravens were never going to let him walk. They were never going to let him go to a new team. So they were saying, I will let another team do the dirty work. We'll let them work up a deal for you to agree to. And then as soon as they do that, we're going to match that offer. And you're going to be a Baltimore Raven, he was never going to leave. That's not necessarily the case with Kyle Dugger, you know, there's a chance that obviously he could find his way out of New England. If a team were to make an offer that the Patriots don't feel like is in their price range, then who knows, I've seen this happen in years past, I know Alex Mack, one time got franchise tagged by the Cleveland Browns before he ever left or maybe it was a transition tag actually because that's what I'm referencing is the Jaguars actually made him an offer and he accepted it and he was going to go to Jacksonville. But the Browns matched it very quickly and he remained with the Cleveland Browns until I think of what like four years later, maybe he ended up coming to the Atlanta Falcons. I'm not really sure when the years were, but nonetheless, Alex Mack almost found his way out of Cleveland. This exact same way. So we'll see what happens with Kyle Dugger. But Michael Pittman, the wide receiver from the Colts. He was also a player who got franchise tagged. Now cap casualties. Let's look at some cuts. Guard, Lake and Tomlinson. He was cut from the New York Jets. Kevin Bayard, a safety from the Philadelphia Eagles. He's already cut. That was clearly just like a half a season rental to try to get them a Super Bowl ring and obviously didn't work out. The Washington commanders cut Charles Leno and offensive tackle and Logan Thomas, a reserved tight end, maybe even a starting tight end. I'm not really sure where he falls on their depth chart right now. But clearly that the tight end position is going to be a position that they're going to have to address in this new offense with Cliff Kingsbury. JC Jackson was released by the Patriots. Alexander Madison was released by the Minnesota Vikings. CJ Uzama from the Jets race, Sean Jenkins from the Jacksonville Jaguars. And then the Seattle Seahawks cleared all that cap space by cutting will dislie Jamal Adams and quantitative digs. So clearly whenever you look at what their new head coach is going to be Mike McDonald, what he's going to bring to this team. You look at his defense. He's like, I don't really need these types of safeties. I'm going to be honest. I've never been a huge fan of Jamal Adams. He kind of flashed early in his career like early in his tenure with the Jets. And then obviously they kind of clash. They kind of butt like we're butting heads and the Seahawks give up a flurry of draft picks and get this player. And he's never really been an impact player for him. Like he's never been one of the guys you look out on their team and think, whoo. Jamal Adams is really the glue that holds that unit together. So it's not really a shocker that they're letting him go. And Godspeed to any team that's going to take on this player. But Quandray digs, I always thought was, you know, pretty good free safety. He finds his way to the open market too. I'm sure he's going to find a home drawn Baker from the Miami Dolphins. He was released and also inside linebacker Eric Kendrick from the Los Angeles Chargers. So there was some surprising names in there. Obviously, I didn't expect Jamal Adams and Quandray digs to be cut on the same day. Just having to replace both of your safeties at the same spots or at the same time, it's kind of a ballsy move from the Seahawks. But one that's probably going to end up panning out just given who the person is there that's making the decisions. Also, Eric Kendrick, I mean, I just didn't really, I guess, I didn't see him being released because of the pending free agency of Kenneth Walker. So kind of similar to what the Seattle Seahawks are doing, the Chargers are doing the same thing with both of their inside linebackers. And if you look at Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the Chargers, just look at some of the teams he had in San Francisco, like this is someone that had Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman. So I don't think he's worried about finding backers and his ability to do that. So I think that the Chargers are just going to get completely reshaped as a whole. Like you're going to look at the Chargers, especially like we talked about it on the previous off season outlook episode, like their salary cap situation is awful. So they're going to have to try to do something because what they've been doing hasn't been working at all. And they could be the team that whenever you look at here in five or six months, that looks the most different, especially a year from now, like once Harbaugh actually has an opportunity to go grocery shopping, like whenever he can go get his own players and maybe make a couple of splash signings, that's whenever I think they're going to actually be a threat in that division. But in terms of players that were actually signed and got extensions from certain teams, Jack Anderson and Emmanuel Mosley, they both got one year deals Jack Anderson got one from the Indianapolis Colts and then Emmanuel Mosley from the Detroit Lions. So both of those guys staying with their respective teams. And two more players that got extensions, Dalton Scholes, three year $36 million contract from the Houston Texans, they want to keep CJ Stroud's security blanket under contract for the next few years as he gets his V-Wet in the NFL. Very, and CJ Stroud, I'm referring to obviously Dalton Scholes is a veteran, but as CJ Stroud gets more, I guess, entrenched in the offense in Houston, having a reliable tie-down has already had success with your quarterback is obviously a smart decision. It's Buck Sexton, along with play drive is talking about Dan capitalist law. Buck Dan's the son of a police officer and a guy who finished law school and aimed high to build a world-class firm for the people where everyone regardless of background gets top-notch treatment. Dan capitalist law lives that mission scoring record verdicts for folks from all walks of life, and they don't care about your wallet. Righteous cases are taken on a percentage fee basis. Need help? Visit dan capitalist law.com. That's Dan C-A-P-L-I-S law.com. Lucky land casino asking people what's the weirdest place you've gotten lucky. Lucky in line at the deli, I guess? Aha, in my dentist's office. More than once, actually. Do I have to say? Yes, you do. In the car, before my kids' PTA meeting. Really? Yes. Excuse me, what's the weirdest place you've gotten lucky? I never win and tell. Well, there you have it. You can get lucky anywhere playing at Luckylandslots.com. Play for free right now. Are you feeling lucky? No purchase necessary. Boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy by law. 18 plus terms and conditions of policy. What's every details? With Lucky Land Slots, you can get lucky just about anywhere. Daily Beloved, we are gathered here today. Has anyone seen the bride and groom? Sorry, sorry, we're here. We were getting lucky in the limo when we lost track of time. No, Lucky Land Casino. With cash prizes that add up quicker than a guest registry. In that case, I pronounce you lucky. Play for free at Luckylandslots.com. Daily bonuses are waiting. No purchase necessary. Boy, we're prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. But Mike Evans signs a two-year $41 million contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be the last big contract of his career. But obviously, I talked about it. Why not just stay in Tampa? You already got the ring. You already got the Hall of Fame resume. So just finishing your career with one team seems like it would make a lot of sense and would be something that he'd be interested in doing and clearly he is. And I'm not sure if that guarantees that Baker Mayfield is going to go back to Tampa Bay, but I feel like it definitely helps. I mean, I just, I always thought that that was kind of like a we were going to bring both of you guys back or none of you guys. You know what I mean? But I mean, I always thought that Mike Evans should stay in Tampa. But I've seen better players leave teams that they've had all the same careers with. And that's not a shot at Evans, but just look at players like, you know, Lydanian Tomlinson, Emmett Smith, Jerry Rice. You know, players get moved at the end of their career. And you know, Mike Evans is really doing a hell of a job staying put there in Tampa Bay. And despite him being a division rival, I've always respected him. And I'm more than happy to have my team suit up against him for two games a year for the rest of his career. But anyways, let's go ahead and get into the NFC West, another division here. Once we get finished with this division, we officially only have four left. So this is the only thing standing in our way. And I'll be honest, this division, I'm not sure how much movement they're going to have now. Clearly, the Seahawks already made a lot of movement kind of shook things up a little bit. But whenever you look at impending free agents, this is the one division that doesn't really have a lot like there's not a team that's sitting here. And they're thinking, Holy hell, we have like a high 20 number of free agents coming off of our books. What are we going to do? How are we going to replace all these teams? Like let's start off with the Arizona Cardinals. Obviously they have 19 free agents, but not a lot of them are like really, really good players. Obviously their roster as a whole isn't really loaded. Like there's not a lot of good players on the Cardinals roster period. So they don't have a whole lot of players that are worth bringing back. I mean, obviously Buddha Baker, Marquis Brown, Ezekiel Turner, Jeff Swaim, Carlos Watkins. I mean, that's pretty much where it ends. LJ Collier, who's a former first round pick for the Seattle Seahawks, Elijah Wilkinson, who's a 29 year old guard reserve player. There's not a whole lot of players if you catch my drift that they're going to actually say, you know what, let's bring these guys back. They do probably want to bring Buddha Baker back and they do have a club option, a 14.75 club option. So I'm going to obviously, if you want to pay 15 million dollars for Buddha Baker, you're going to accept that. If you want to maybe come do an agreement and you can get him on a long term deal, I don't know how the Cardinals are going to approach that. I truly don't know how their head coach views bringing back somebody like Buddha Baker. So for all I know they could say, it's not really good fit. Let's go ahead and let this guy hit the market. We should have a decision very, very soon. Like I feel like that should be something that should already be decided. You know, like the deadline to pick up a club options would probably already have come and gone. But Marquis Brown is the other interesting one. Like I feel like you're going to probably bring back a handful of these guys because of special teams and because you do need to have somewhat of a deep roster and you don't want to just have to replace like 30 guys. But I truly believe that Marquis Brown and Buddha Baker should be the one that you really sit down with and you think, are we going to run this back? Are we going to bring you guys back? Buddha Baker seems like a no brainer. You bring him back and let him continue to be the face of that defense while you build around him and find other big time players. But Marquis is an interesting one because obviously the connection with Kyler Murray and you want to continue to have Kyler Murray, but why would you want to trade it or cut his best friend, you know, and get him off the roster. So that's one that kind of seems like if they were to draft Marvin Harrison Jr. then Marquis Brown would have a as crazy as it sounds, have a bigger role. He would be able to be in a more comfortable situation, a more natural situation for him. So that I guess that's one that I'm interested in seeing, but he could also get an offer from another team that's looking for some speed. I know the Falcons are looking for speed and there's probably a long list of teams that would be interested in Hollywood Brown services. It's no guarantee that he's going back to Arizona, but I feel like obviously because of the connection there with the quarterback, it just makes the most sense for him to try to reach a deal with that team before he hits the open market. There's not really a shortage of money for the Cardinals, so they could easily bring back anybody that they want. They're sitting at $51.8 million currently with the fourth and the 27th pick, the 27th coming from Houston, the fourth, they earn that themselves finishing the 2023 season with a 4 and 13 record, which is the last place spot in the AFC West, NFC West, I apologize, but they didn't have a 24th ranked offense. So I've seen worse, I guess, obviously they're not in the bottom five or six or anything like that, but clearly this is without having a legitimate identity on the offense. And if you were to draft somebody like Marvin Harrison, I think he would probably bring that identity to the team where you know, okay, clearly we have a player out here that we have to focus on and we have to absolutely devote some attention here, because if we single him up, I know he's a rookie, but he's got the size, he's built like AJ Green, this guy can absolutely make some plays on us. So that's going to be something that we'll see, because like I said, it's too early to make the hypotheticals for all we know Marvin Harrison go number two overall, team could trade up over the Cardinals with the Patriots or something like that, although I don't expect a trade to happen in the top three, you never know, the NFL draft is pretty unpredictable, especially this early this far out, but I think all signs are pointing to Marvin Harrison probably ending up in Arizona, but they should consider some defensive players. Maybe not a number four, I don't think there's a defensive player worth taking with that very premium pick with all the wide receivers and the tackles and everything else that you can do with that pick, even the trade offers you could be getting, but the defense was ranked 31st. So other than the Washington commanders, this is the worst defense in the league, and they do have a 27th pick in the draft, like I just mentioned, so thankfully they're going to have more opportunities to hit some defensive players and to probably fill some holes, because like I said, they have $51.8 million. So what they do in free agency is going to be very telling, and we'll have a little bit better of an idea on where they could go number four overall. But I think it's pretty obvious, slam dunk, you take the blue chip prospect, the phenomenal wide receiver, and you build your offense around him, and then you probably double div, whether it's the back end of the first, early in the second, rebuild this defense because 31st, that's absolutely unacceptable, especially for a supposed defensive coordinator who come from Philly as their head coach. So this is a unit that should see some improvement. They have the money and the resources to get it better. So if they don't, I think it's truly on the general manager and the head coach. Moving on to the next team here in this division, the Los Angeles Rams. They finished 2023 with a 10 and seven record second in the NFC West. The number eight ranked offense number 19 ranked defense. They have $43.6 million to spend in free agency and also the 19 overall pick in the draft. They did lose in the wildcard round to the Detroit Lions, as I'm sure you remember the battle with Matthew Stafford versus the Lions and all that storyline stuff that was leading up into that. Well, that's where their season ended, unfortunately, but it was not a failure of a season by any means. A lot of people thought it might be because they really haven't had draft picks. They've kind of been quote unquote rebuilding. But whenever you hit on players like Puke Nakua and the draft and you're able to, you know, have a defensive coordinator that ends up taking a head coaching job because I know their defense was ranked 19. That's nothing to, you know, right home about. But I think it's the style of play and the connection with players and the culture, ultimately, that really prevailed in Los Angeles this year because a lot of people were questioning Sean McVay. And, you know, is he even going to stick around in the NFL? Like, is he going to eventually just take a broadcasting job and go, you know, chase the check and have a much easier of a workload? He decides to remind us that he's still one of the best offensive coaches in the entire league. And he puts on a clinic, you know, you have the top eight offense in the entire NFL in this era. That's clearly something that you can be proud of and especially, you know, Cooper cut missed a lot of time. They had a fifth round pick running back, a fifth round pick wide receiver. Matthew Stafford was not the Matthew Stafford that won the Super Bowl. He's damn sure not the Matthew Stafford that was in Detroit. But he's still a phenomenal quarterback. And obviously, he meshes so well with Sean McVay that you would just expect this team to be successful. I think they did exceed expectations though. And I don't think that's a stretch of the imagination by any means. I truly think that the Los Angeles Rams kind of surprised everybody this year and absolutely just performed outside of themselves. 16 free agents though. So that's one area where we're going to have to look. I did mention they have nearly $44 million to spend. They're losing their starting center. Brian Allen, backup quarterback Carson Wentz, one of their rotational corners. He's been a starter before, but he's almost 29 years old. Akila Witherspoon, he's kind of bounced around that division. Strong safety, John Johnson, Troy Reeder, Duke Shelley, Bryson Hopkins, Jordan Fuller, I mean, they could pretty much say see you guys. Thank you for your services. Let's move on. You do probably want to look at Brian Allen and see if you can't bring him back because why not? You know, you have the money, he has the continuity. A quarterback and center relationship is very important. So I do think that if there's anybody on this list that you want to bring back, if none of the secondary players like Johnson and Witherspoon, then Brian Allen should be at the top of your list, not just because he had the highest price tag in 2023. He's still only 28 years old, so he still got some years left. But because the offense was so good last year, the center is a very important part. That's the quarterback of the offensive line. You know, he's making those reads. He's pretty much setting the offense up as a whole for success. Being able to identify blitzes and stunts just from like watching film and picking up on tendencies from defensive linemen and linebackers. So Brian Allen being a veteran, that just seems like a no-brainer. We got to bring this guy back. But in terms of the draft, like what can this team do? They finally have a first round pick. They haven't picked in the first round since 2016. And I do believe that they're going to make this pick. I don't think they're going to trade it away or anything like that. I think that they are going to hone in on somebody and they're going to get some first round talent on this team, which they really haven't had in a long time. And if you look at how their late round picks have gone, I think it's safe to assume that they could add a pretty talented player as long as obviously they picked the right guy, but the draft is an absolute crap shoe. So take that for what it's worth. But I do believe in the Rams. And I think they're going to be a hell of a team next year too. They might want to start thinking about that succession plan to Matthew Stafford. I do think that he's probably got two years left, maybe one, depending on, you know, how healthy he stays and how the Rams are doing. But something tells me that you can count on one hand how many years Matthew Stafford has left. And what I've learned in these situations is it's usually a little bit less than, you know, you might expect it comes sooner, I should say. But let's go ahead and talk about another team, the team that won this division, the team that won this conference, the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers finished 2023 with a 12 and five record first place in the NFC West, third ranked offense, third ranked defense, negative $3.4 million to spend. So they're a little bit over the cat, they can fix that very, very easily. And I have no doubt that they're going to do that. 31st pick in the first round, they did lose Super Bowl 58 to the Kansas City Chiefs. Unfortunately, but that just tells you right there that they have a very solid foundation, a very young quarterback who I think is only going to get better. The more he's in this league, the more he has or the more time he has in this system, they have some holes, maybe on the offensive line that they could address, they're going to have to pay Brandon Iyuk. But I do believe that the San Francisco 49ers are going to be right back where they were last year. Where are they going to get to the Super Bowl? There's going to be a couple teams that have a little bit of a say so in that, obviously the Detroit Lions, they're going to get better next year. The Dallas Cowboys are probably going to be in the conversation. The Grumé Packers had this team on the ropes. But with 22 impending free agents, you would think there's going to have to be some questions and the 49ers are going to have to make some decisions. Randy Gregory, Chase Young, Sam Darnold, Javon Kinlaw. That's really the only one I've seen so far that I would resign. Tashawn Gibson, Isaiah Oliver, who's already been released. Sebastian Joseph, Aaron Burke, Cleveland Farrell, Joe Feliciano, Ray Ray McCloud. I mean, there's not really a lot of impact players. Now, are they going to resign them? Are they not? Who knows? That's completely up in the air at this point. But I think there's some obvious ones that they're probably not going to bring back. I mean, Chase Young, still only 24 years old. I know that there's some questions there. He hasn't really lived up to the potential. But he did play well in the Super Bowl. If I'm not mistaken, maybe not in the NFC Championship game, but in the Super Bowl, did he not play OK? I don't want to speak out of pocket there or anything. But something tells me that maybe he is going to get a deal from another team. Mike Tomlin's always one at this guy. Why not bring him in? Let him be on the opposite side of TJ Watt and see if you can get anything going there. But that's just kind of a little bit of a thinking out loud situation. There's no telling where Chase Young is going to go. The Falcons could probably make it on for this guy for all. I know. But Javon Kinlaw is someone who I'd be probably a little bit more interested in just because I mean, he's still only 26. Interior defensive lineman don't grow on trees, especially guys with a trait in the build of this guy. But as far as the 49ers go, none of these guys really move the needle for me. I don't think there's a single free agent on their list that they should be breaking the bank for or should be worried by any means. Just worry about hitting on your draft picks this year and making the slight improvements that could get you better. Keep in mind, Dray Greenlaw tore his ACL. Or was it as Achilles? Something. He was knocked out in the Super Bowl. I think it was as Achilles actually. Just a devastating injury whenever he was playing phenomenal in that game. And who knows what happens if he stays in that game because of how crazy he was flying around. But because it was so late, that was a February injury. He's probably not going to be ready for training camp. Probably going to start the season a little bit behind the eight ball. Players recover from injuries way faster these days. So I'm not saying he's going to really like derail a season or anything like that. But it's going to get it off to a little bit of a slower start than what it would have. And that's going to be an adjustment. And obviously, the 49ers weren't perfect. But people take their roster 10 times out of 10. And if you ask most NFL fans, hey, do you want to trade your roster for the 49ers roster or your holes for the 49ers holes, most of the NFL fans would probably say yes, at least the smart ones. But who knows what they're going to do with their draft picks? It's so late. Like they're going to have to wait and just kind of let the draft and everything kind of play out to see who's available. That could be a sweet spot where a team might want to jump up. I've seen reset mock drafts where even the Falcons and other teams have traded back into the first round after making their first round selection earlier. Just to secure their quarterback and get that fifth year option. So it could happen, you know, and picking at 31, 30, it's that sweet spot where you can move up, you can move down. I mean, Thomas de Mitroff, he was always preaching that. No matter where we picked in the draft, he would always say, we're in a good spot because we can move up, we can move down, we could stay put. I mean, literally, I've seen us pick early, like number eight overall, I've seen us pick, who knows, like number 30, 31, whatever we lost is Super Bowl. Like I've seen us pick every spot, every range. And he always says the same thing, we're in a good spot. We can move up, we can move down. You never know. So I just don't listen to GMs. They are pretty much just talking out of their ass, not giving any type of insight. And they're not going to tip their hand at all. But the final team that we will talk about here in this division is the Seattle Seahawks, who had a nine and eight record in 2023, finished third knee in a C West 17th ranked offense, 25th ranked defense. And like we said, they made that massive jump from 14 million to 50.2 million dollars just by making a few swift moves. And I look at some of the other things they're going to have to do here. Leonard Williams, they made a trade for him. He had a 21 million dollar price tag last year. They got some money to spend more. They're going to want to spend it on a 29 year old defensive tackle. I have my doubts. I mean, technically, he's a defensive end, but I mean, he's versatile. He could play pretty much all along the defensive line. But because they traded for him, you would think that maybe they view him as a long term piece, but I mean, was a new head coach and a defensive minded head coach, who knows what's actually going to happen. Bobby Wagner is a free agent for this team as well. 33 years old, he's going to be 34 once the season starts. So there's really no telling if he's going to remain a Seahawks. The fact that he went back there after playing for the Rams was kind of surprising, you know, in and of itself. So the fact that they're kind of at this stage one more time where they're at the negotiation table, you don't feel extremely optimistic about his return to Seattle. It's buck sex in along with play drive is talking about Dan capitalist law, but Dan's the son of a police officer and a guy who finished law school and aimed high to build a world class firm for the people where everyone regardless of background gets top notch treatment. Dan capitalist law lives that mission scoring record verdicts for folks from all walks of life, and they don't care about your wallet. Righteous cases are taken on a percentage fee basis. Need help? Visit Dan capitalist law dot com. That's Dan C A P L I S law dot com. Lucky land casino asking people what's the weirdest place you've gotten lucky lucky in line at the deli, I guess, I'd my dentist's office more than once, actually. Do I have to say? Yes, you do. In the car before my kids PTA meeting. Really? Yes. Excuse me. What's the weirdest place you've gotten lucky? I never win and tell. Well, there you have it. You can get lucky anywhere playing at luckylandslots.com. Play for free right now. Are you feeling lucky? No, purchase necessary for everybody by law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply to see what's every details. If you only have a 401k, you're not getting the most for retirement. Wait, what? Add a Robinhood IRA on top, then they'll boost it by 3%. You can do that. And if you transfer in any retirement account, you get 3% on top of that. Is there a limit to the match? No limit. Robinhood gold gets you the biggest contribution match of any IRA on the market. Sign up for Robinhood gold at robinhood.com/boost by April 30th. Subscription fees apply. Investing involves risk. 3% match requires gold for one year from first match. Must keep irate for five years. Match on transfer subject to additional terms and conditions. Robinhood financial LLC member SIPC. But Drew Locke is a free agent. Kevin Bush, no offense. So both of the players they received in the Denver Broncos trade for Russell Wilson. Both of those players are unrestricted free agents. So I mean, we'll see if they bring him back. I don't expect Drew Locke to be brought back, even though he could be a safe backup. He could stay there and, you know, back up Chino Smith, keep the continuity together. Maybe he'll take a really cheap deal because, I mean, I don't think anybody's breaking the bank for Drew Locke. Just keep an eye on that, how they handle that situation. But Jordan Brooks, that's one that really is under the radar. Here's one of the best players on their defense. He's 26 years old. He's probably going to have a lot of suitors and free agency. I know that the Falcons should be a suitor. Jordan Books is a phenomenal linebacker from Texas Tech. I'm sure cousin Mike would hate it if he found his way in Atlanta. But I know that I would love to have that guy. And players like Mario Edwards, Colby Parkinson, DJ Dallas, Michael Jackson, the cornerback, not the other Michael Jackson. And, you know, Brady Russell will tie it in. Like there's all these guys that I just mentioned were making less than a million dollars. So they're not really moving the needle one way or the other. The Seahawks are in a unique spot where they have a real head coach stepping in the door. And that's not a shot at Pete Carroll. But very rarely do you have, you know, a 9 and 8 record. So you're over 500. You have a top 17 offense, the defense. Yeah, you needed some improvements, but you bring in the right guy for that, Mike McDonald. So very rarely do you go from a winning record to we got some holes. Well, let's improve the head coach. Because I do think that McDonald's is an upgrade for Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll's a phenomenal coach. He had his time. He's literally, he was the oldest coach in the league. So we kind of, you know, kissed good night a few old coaches with Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick this season. And he reads probably on the way out as well. So we're truly turning the page and entering a new era as far as head coaches go. But Mike McDonald, I think that, you know, the Seahawks team is going to be taking probably a serious or more serious than they have been since the Legion of Boom. Because they're going to have a real identity now, like whenever the Seahawks became this past happy team with all the wider receivers and their defense was suspect. Yes, that could be winning football and they weren't playing bad by any means, but that wasn't the Seahawks way. Like even earlier in the years, whenever they went to the Super Bowl against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Super Bowl 40, it was that running game with Sean Alexander and then playing great defense and, you know, just game manager football from Matthew Hasselback. I know we made some Pro Bowls and specifically that year, he had a really good season, but nobody was looking at Matt Hasselback as like a franchise quarterback that was going to carry the Seahawks to Super Bowls for years to come. And, you know, they're kind of in that same situation. Well, you know, Smith, he's pretty similar to Matthew Hasselback. Maybe Hasselback's a little bit better, but it's not like it's night and day different. So the Seahawks are probably going to get back to their ways a little bit more to their true self, although I will say, if there's one thing McDonald can do to really win me over, bring back that throwback, look permanent. Like, all right, let's go back to the old Seahawks. We've had fun with this, you know, what is it? This newer look, this modern 2000s look that we've seen the Seahawks do for the past two decades look great. I mean, yeah, they've switched uniforms here and there. They got those line green ones, those neon green ones, I should say. But let's be honest, man, that lighter blue, that Seattle Seahawks of the eighties that we saw them break back out this year. Yeah. Those are the best Seahawks uniforms in my personal opinion. But I'm really looking forward to seeing what Mike McDonald does to this team. I know I say that about every team that I'm looking forward to seeing what they do because I really am I'm a football junkie. But I really am looking forward to seeing what Matthew McDonald is going to do because he has a very good starting point, like the Seahawks kept their general manager and John Schneider. Pete Carroll is still somewhat working in the building. So it's not like a dumpster fire where they had to shake hand their head coach because it was a mess. He's coming into a pretty healthy culture and a healthy environment and he's just going to build on that. So that's why I think the Seahawks are going to be a team that can be taken serious a lot quicker than not. So, you know, just write that down and maybe put it in the back of your head or something like that. The Seahawks are going to be arriving very, very soon. But that is going to do it for me here on the NFC West off-season outlook as well as a little bit of a news dump with all this franchise tag and cuts and things like that. Like I said, things are going to be happening very, very frequently. We are into the month of March, March of 2023 last year was our busiest month in the existence of this show. And just a little bit of a side note, March 7th is the birthday of the football function, the official third birthday of this podcast. And, you know, that's a big deal. It really is. Time is flying. These episodes just continue to drop at a rapid rate. But last year, man, in March, we were just knocking them out. Now, of course, I had a lot of help last year. Like we had the XFL off and running or college wall function was doing its thing. And obviously, we just had multiple episodes that were kind of prerecorded that we would drop throughout the week. And it just worked out so well. I think I might have even been dropping some NFL immortals episodes. I'm not sure if that was going on at the time. But nonetheless, we dropped 30 episodes in 31 days last March. I wanted to do that same thing or beat it this year. I already missed March 4th. That sucks. We didn't have an episode yesterday. So we're going to have to try to tie the record, if anything. But even that's going to be a little bit of a challenge. So bear with us. If we can do it, we definitely will. But it's not easy. Luckily, we got Grim Reaper, who just dropped the Cleveland Browns versus the Cincinnati Bengals refirs rivalries. So that's an episode you definitely want to check out that that rivalry goes a lot further than the football field. Let's just say that. And you know, we're going to have more off season outlook episodes come that Grim Reaper episodes going to be dropped. I mean, it's already dropped right now, but it's going to technically be the Wednesday episode as well. This one's dropping actually on Wednesday. So it's technically going to be two episodes on Wednesday for you. But you know, if you listen to a month, Thursday or whatever, that's completely up to you. But like I said, it could be completely different by the time you listen to this. Things are happening, you know, things happen at 4am, things happen at midnight. So I can't literally make an emergency episode every time a cut happens or assigning. But we will try to touch base at least every couple days just to try to, you know, stay up to speed, make sure all these moves are being talked about. But with all that being said, guys, have a phenomenal rest of your week. I do not think it'll be long before I talk to you again. I plan on recording an episode tomorrow. So if I can do that, then you know, we're going to be off to the races here, but going to Dallas this weekend because of SmackDown. So there are some hurdles that are going to be ahead of us. But I think we're going to be able to get over them relatively easy. So thank you guys so much for listening. Tell a friend, spread the word, like, subscribe, do whatever you got to do to help this podcast grow because it really means the world to us. You listening means the world to me. But, you know, if you could spread the word and get this podcast to more listeners, that would be a very, a very good way to contribute, you know, really help the show grow, which obviously we love that. So thank you guys so much. Walk passionately in the direction of your dreams and I'll talk to you soon. It's Buck Sexton along with Playtrivis talking about Dan capitalist law. Buck Dan's the son of a police officer and a guy who finished law school and aimed high to build a world class firm for the people where everyone regardless of background gets top notch treatment. Dan capitalist law lives that mission scoring record verdicts for folks from all walks of life and they don't care about your wallet. Righteous cases are taken on a percentage fee basis. Need help? Visit dan capitalist law.com. That's Dan C A P L I S law.com.