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00:00The NFL, first and foremost, people are getting paid, and how about getting paid in Cincinnati?
00:07Something that we didn't think was going to happen.
00:09How about both wide receivers, Jamar Chase and also T. Higgins, record-breaking contract extensions.
00:15Chase, four years, $161 million, which includes $112 million guaranteed.
00:23Higgins, four years, $115 million and guaranteed for the first two years.
00:28So now we have Joe Burrow, high-paid quarterback, double wide receiver tandem, points galore at this point,
00:35but the questions always settle in for us.
00:38Yes, we love the signings of the two wideouts.
00:40Yes, we love the quarterback being in town.
00:42No, we don't love a defense that can't stop anybody, and if there's money left over.
00:47So, Ben, we look at this deal and say, yeah, fund the bet, but if we did it last year,
00:52maybe we could afford a defense in Cincinnati.
00:54The Bengals were a big time-over team a season ago.
00:56That seems to be the recipe this time around.
00:59Al Golden, new defensive coordinator in Cincinnati, who was last year the D.C. for a Notre Dame team
01:04that finished national runner-up in collegiate football.
01:07He was probably like, so what about that Trey Hendrickson guy?
01:09Are we trading him or are we trying to get him back?
01:11How about Jermaine Pratt, one of our defensive leaders, as well?
01:15That is the story, DRS, for the overall outlook.
01:18I'm glad the Bengals came through on their promise to at least pay two of their three guys
01:23of this young core and trio where everybody deserved to be paid.
01:28But again, we said this early in the offseason.
01:30If we even take Cincinnati at their word, and for a while that felt a little bit dicey,
01:36it does not mean we should compliment them outside of, all right, you got the deal done.
01:41Because this could have happened a long time ago with T. Higgins, after the end of his rookie deal,
01:45not being tagged twice, although the extension now, it could have happened last offseason
01:50for Jamar Chase, resetting the market then, not having to play catch-up
01:55in terms of what he had to be paid.
01:57Justin Jefferson, last offseason, was the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.
02:02Made a ton of headlines, getting $35 million per year.
02:06But the Bengals then promised Jamar Chase he would be the highest-paid non-QB ever.
02:11Max Crosby and the Raiders outdid Justin Jefferson and Minnesota.
02:15Miles Garrett and the Browns outdid even Max Crosby at $40 million per year.
02:20So the Bengals had to pay an extra $5 million per season just to be good on their word
02:26that Jamar Chase would be the highest-paid non-QB in NFL history.
02:30Again, the financial shrewdness, the flexibility, the foresight, not there for the Bengals,
02:35although Jamar Chase and T. Higgins happy raking in all the millions of dollars
02:39they just signed last night.
02:40Let's understand this point, because here's what matters most.
02:43Look at the team last year.
02:44They had Joe Burrow.
02:45They had Jamar Chase.
02:47They had T. Higgins.
02:48They had Trey Hendrickson.
02:49They also had a record that didn't get them in the playoffs at 9-8 overall.
02:53So now what did you do this year?
02:55Record-breaking extension for Higgins.
02:57Record-breaking extension for Jamar Chase.
03:00And now you're saying, like, you know what?
03:01I think we might be able to sign Trey Hendrickson.
03:03Let's see if we can put it together.
03:04So all three players, massive raises, which hurts your ability to bring in other talent.
03:10And once again, this isn't the preservation mode of, boy, we won a Super Bowl last year.
03:14Let's stay in this window.
03:16The window has never even opened just yet for the Cincinnati Bengals,
03:19who made a Super Bowl just a few years previous on a much quarterback-friendly deal.
03:23They just got a rookie contract there.
03:25Same thing with the wide receivers on the team.
03:27Now you're looking at them saying, boy, I think we can get back there.
03:29But the hill to climb is just that much harder because, again,
03:32the beating point is if all three of these were signed and last year you would have
03:36more money in your cap to go out and get after everybody else.
03:38I know it's easy to look at the Philadelphia Eagles and say, well,
03:41they have the same wide receivers and quarterback here.
03:43$100 million cheaper by signing sooner than then later.
03:48Yep. And when you look at the wide receiver duo that is now the highest paid ever
03:52with the addition of T. Higgins, four-year, $115 million deal,
03:57just a little bit shy of 30 mil per year.
04:00But T. is still now one of the six or seven highest paid wide receivers.
04:04Incentives can get him up to $30 million per year.
04:07You compare that to the duo in Philadelphia, who was also paid last offseason,
04:11A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith.
04:13They outdo that, but now you need the cap space and the financial freedom
04:18to pay everybody else.
04:20Let's get to some other headlines from the weekend that was around the NFL.
04:24Donnie, an interesting offseason in Seattle.
04:26You ship away Geno Smith and D.K. Metcalf.
04:28You pay Sam Donald, all right, consistent quarterback.
04:31Maybe he doesn't elevate the ceiling in the Pacific Northwest.
04:34You pay Demarcus Lawrence, and now you pay Cooper Cupp,
04:38three-year, $45 million deal for Cupp to stay within the NFC West.
04:43He heads back to the state of Washington where he played his college football
04:47at Eastern Washington University.
04:50What do you make of the move by the Seahawks to sign Cooper Cupp
04:52to a three-year, $45 million deal?
04:54I want to say I like it, but to me it actually doesn't make all that much sense.
04:58You take a look at D.K. Metcalf, who was on the team last year.
05:00They traded away.
05:01Big, hulking speedster, dominant wide receiver on the outside.
05:05The wily veteran that you also had in Lockheed.
05:07And then you also had a young wide receiver in Jackson, Smith, and Jigba.
05:10Boy, the three of those guys work in tandem together.
05:12So now you're left with Jackson, Smith, and Jigba,
05:14and you say we've got to add some talent.
05:15Cooper Cupp's the talent?
05:17Like Jackson, Smith, and Jigba played a lot of the slot last year.
05:19Cooper Cupp's going to be the outside wide receiver at this point now.
05:22And also understand this, you didn't sign him on like a vet minimum
05:26or a one-year, $5 million prove it deal.
05:28You take a look at that number, three years and $45 million,
05:30as if he's still an upper echelon wide receiver.
05:33Can he get back to the ways that he was maybe two to three years ago?
05:36Could be, but in the NFL, time doesn't go backwards.
05:39It moves forward at this point.
05:40And you are looking at a guy playing in an organization
05:43where he's one of the best in football,
05:44and that organization at the end of it goes,
05:46we're not even going to design plays for you at all,
05:49and good luck, we're cutting you in the future here.
05:52I don't get it.
05:54Donnie, you praise Seattle for having an understanding of their reality,
05:58of their context, and being like, hey, it's year number two
06:01for Mike McDonald at the helm in the Northwest,
06:04but let's peel things back.
06:05We're not going to pay DK Metcalf.
06:06We're not going to pay Geno Smith.
06:08They were in this interesting kind of limbo area
06:11where you're with a second-year head coach now.
06:14You're not just trying to figure it out, peel everything back
06:16so you can be bad and then draft a quarterback of the future.
06:19They get a couple of fine pieces in there,
06:21but they're almost investing but not investing in the guys they already had.
06:26An interesting reset, if you will, for Seattle.
06:30The Falcons did not trade Kirk Cousins prior to yesterday,
06:33triggering a $10 million roster bonus.
06:37So Kirk Cousins still on the docket in Atlanta.
06:40Terry Fontenot, the GM for the Falcons DRS, has said,
06:43we are comfortable having a very expensive backup quarterback
06:47where Kirk Cousins still remains.
06:48Malpractice by a franchise, especially against the salary cap
06:51that we continue to talk on and harp on where every dollar matters.
06:54We're trying to catch the teams ahead of you here.
06:56The fact that you're paying Kirk Cousins and you don't want to actually play him
06:59still stems back to one of the funniest quotes you're ever going to hear,
07:01and we bring it up all the time in the early line.
07:03Hey, man, if Michael Penix never gets on the field, what a great draft pick it was
07:07because that means Kirk Cousins is playing great.
07:09Like, the franchise is backwards.
07:10Arthur Blank comes from Home Depot money.
07:12Like, I'm pretty sure he wasn't spending this ridiculousness at Home Depot.
07:16Like, hey, let's buy 16 new stores out here and open one of them.
07:19Like, that's what you're really doing with that money.
07:21Imagine paying, like, $50 million a year and getting nothing out of that player.
07:24Like, hey, this is why we drafted Penix.
07:26That makes no sense at all.
07:28So whatever they do makes no sense.
07:29And if they're figuring that, if they show the rest of the NFL, Ben,
07:32that we're really serious about keeping Kirk Cousins, maybe we'll get a draft pick.
07:36Everybody knows the score.
07:37Caught him.
07:38We're getting him for free.
07:39It is a very interesting move by the Atlanta Falcons
07:43because you have a lot that you are on the hook for financially for Kirk Cousins.
07:47I guess it's an idea of value.
07:49If you keep Cousins on the roster for this second year of his four-year deal,
07:54you've now already paid out $100 million to Kirk Cousins,
07:58which is the amount that was fully guaranteed to Cousins just last offseason.
08:03So instead of one year for 90 mil or one year for 100 mil if you trade him away,
08:08if you keep him on the roster as that expensive backup,
08:11it's two years for 100 mil?
08:13Balanced out at 50 mil per year?
08:16Not entirely sure that makes the most sense.
08:19Makai Beckton, who had a great year in Philadelphia at the guard spot,
08:22probably going to be too rich for the Eagles to retain.
08:25He signs in Los Angeles with the Chargers.
08:28Another Cooper, Cooper Rush leaving Dallas.
08:31The backup now in Baltimore behind Lamar Jackson.
08:33Yeah, this is interesting because they were always like,
08:36let me get a clone of Lamar Jackson as our backup and our backup to our backup.
08:39Now you've got Cooper Rush.
08:41The opposite of that was a real interesting signing for Baltimore,
08:44something they haven't done in the past.
08:45Cooper Rush has played a ton for the injured Pat Prescott
08:48in the last three to four seasons.
08:49Hopefully Baltimore will not need his services nearly as much.