The Biggest Surprises of NFL Free Agency

Real quick before we get out of here, Albert, give me either the thing that surprised you the most over these first couple of days or, or a surprise that you may predict to come using your ball.

So I would say, The receiver numbers were interesting.

So I, I thought like Wandale Robinson coming off the board at, what was it, I think, uh, 170, he's, he got, he got 70 over, help me with the math here.

So he got 70/4, which I think is, I'm the wrong person to ask.

Hold on, 70 over 17.5. So you got $17.

5 million per, I Wando Robinson is a good player, but is he a $17.

5 million dollar player?

Well, similar to the now, now Dave all loves him.

You know what you're getting.

And the slot is a really important position in that offense, right?

But is he a better player than Romeo Dobbs?

No.

Yeah, so, like, I sort of like look at that.

That was one that was at least a little surprising, um, to me, and like caught me a little off guard.

So some, the way some of the positions came off surprised me a little bit.

Um, I think a surprise to come.

I, I like, I know, I, I do wonder if some of these guys have overshot their market.

Like Dobbs was shooting for 20.

Do you think the reason he's still sitting out there is because he hasn't gotten it?

And that's a bad place to be a day in, you know.

I think my biggest surprise, and it's a pleasant one, is, is that the Panthers are going for it, and I, I, I love it, and I think if I'm one team that I, I, I guess that I would be concerned about it all , and it's dangerous for me to say this, and, and you're gonna realize it as soon as it comes out of my mouth, but I'm the Bucks, I'm a little worried here, OK?

Cause, you know, yes, you have the talent to replace Mike Evans, but I think Mike Evans also adds a little bit more than just 1000 receiving yards every year, uh, in terms of professionalism and all that kind of stuff in your clubhouse.

The Falcons, I don't know if they've gotten better, and then maybe that's my other surprise is that they viewed Tuatungavioa like their backup to Michael Pennix.

It's like one of the most injury-prone quarterbacks in the NFL backing up one of the most injury-prone quarterbacks in the NFL.

I guess they're both left-handed, so that's cool.

Um, but, um, I was happy to see that the Panthers have said, you know what, Evro is.

One of the best defensive coordinators in the league, super underrated.

Let's get him Phillips, let's get him Devin Lloyd, let's spend a little bit of money here, um, and, and chase this, and, you know, it's not about overspending on Rico Dowdell, you know.

And I thought it was smart of them to let him go, you know, I think that was a flash in the pan moment for them, you know, although, isn't Dowdell, and this isn't even a Mike McCarthy thing, isn't Dowdell such a perfect fit for the Steelers, you know what I mean?

Like, oh, perfect.

Yeah, yeah.

Inside zone, like, great, great, yeah.

Yeah, so, so the Jalen Phillips thing, um, is interesting.

He was the top guy on their free agent board regardless of position, so they got the best player.

I, I think to some degree like what their front office did here was they may, they may have overpaid a little bit for him, right, but he's one of these guys where you can explain why he's free, right?

He's free because the Dolphins traded him.

And an interim GM traded him because the Dolphins were in a position where it's like, let's collect draft picks for the next regime, right?

And, and we're probably not gonna keep him.

So he gets traded in mid-season.

And then the Eagles badly wanted to keep him.

Like that was part of the reason why the Eagles were so tepid in doing anything in on Max Crosby was because they really wanted to keep Jalen Phillips.

And so, I think the Panthers are smart to look at that and say, Philly's making a push here, which tells you that they're really happy with what they got from him over the course of a half-season, which is almost like having like a good reference on a player, right?

And then, They also recognized the Eagles can't just keep bidding.

Like the Eagles are in a weird financial position where they have almost no one left on their roster to restructure.

I mean, I think they could get trade calls on Jalen Carter, huh?

I think they could get trade calls on Jalen Carter after signing Davis to a long-term deal, you know.

I don't know if the Eagles are going to have plans to extend Jalen Carter.

I think there is a, there is trepidation there about that one.

the 5th year option might even be a question.

I mean, like there are a lot of questions on what you do there and then there's the AJ Brown thing, right, like which I don't know the market for AJ Brown, right?

So I wrote this on Sunday night and maybe got buried under everything else.

I don't blame people for missing that they did, but You know, AJ Brown's camp, my understanding is they gave the Eagles 4 teams as preferred destinations, the Chiefs, the Chargers, the Patriots.

And uh the Bills.

The Bills almost um very quickly bowed out cause they got DJ Moore, right?

My understanding is the Chiefs and Chargers didn't have much interest at all.

So now, like with the AJ Brown thing, now you're kind of in this spot, you know, like where it's like, what do you do if you're the Eagles?

Um, do you try to reconcile and, and, and, and bring them back in?

Do you wait till the draft and see if somebody gets different?

Did, does gets, um, gets desperate.

That's, uh, that one to me is fascinating and, um.

I'll be really interested to see where that goes.

Howie Roseman is the best at this stuff, right?

It'll be really interesting to see the handling of the AJ Brown situation and like you said, the Jay Jaylen Carter situation going forward, because it does feel like all their spending, which is a tribute to them organizationally, they've spent on the right guys, they've invested resources and they've competed for championships, but the, some of the bills are finally coming due on some of that stuff.