Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Adam Kaplan is our NFL insider on SportsGrid.
00:07 Well over two decades covering the NFL.
00:09 You can follow him for free on @xatkaplanNFL
00:13 and you can see him on SportsGrid across the board
00:16 and on Coast to Coast with regularity.
00:19 Man, are they handing out money these days in the NFL?
00:22 Your boy, Jalen Waddell got a big bag today.
00:26 - Yeah, he did.
00:27 Over 20 million a year.
00:28 Good for him and good for the Dolphins
00:29 and Tyree Kill needs to get a raise here.
00:32 He's next there.
00:33 At some point they're gonna have to redo his deal
00:35 or give him more money because he's absolutely phenomenal.
00:37 He's gonna be a hall of famer, but yeah.
00:39 So Waddell's the latest to do it.
00:40 And this has been an interesting off season
00:43 for wide receivers.
00:43 This has been the off season for extensions.
00:46 Waddell, A.J. Brown, by the way, Devontae Smith.
00:49 So the Eagles right now are the first team
00:52 to pay both receivers super high money.
00:54 That's not often happening.
00:56 And they're a team that's done it
00:58 and we'll talk about some of the other teams here.
00:59 Amad Rasim Brown of the Lions is absolutely terrific.
01:03 Who's been a great story as a former fourth round pick.
01:05 He got his extension.
01:07 Nico Collins just got his with the Texans
01:09 and they're loaded on offense.
01:10 That's one of my breakout teams this season.
01:12 So they should have been.
01:13 Last season we all missed on that.
01:15 Michael Pittman Jr.
01:16 You might remember his dad, Michael Pittman Sr.
01:18 The running back for the Bucs.
01:20 Won a Super Bowl.
01:21 And also a couple of other teams.
01:22 And Jerry Judy.
01:24 Now remember with Jerry Judy,
01:25 the Broncos did not want to extend his contract.
01:27 So they traded him to the Browns.
01:29 The Browns is contingent to trade for him.
01:31 They got that extension done
01:33 with the re-signing of Michael Mike Evans.
01:35 Who's going to be a Hall of Famer someday
01:37 with the Bucs of course for over 20 million.
01:39 Now, how about the guys who are still unsigned
01:42 or need to get an extension?
01:44 Tee Higgins is not signed.
01:46 He can't practice.
01:47 He's on the franchise tag.
01:48 If he doesn't sign his franchise tender,
01:50 he can't practice so he's out of camp.
01:52 Shemar Chase.
01:53 He wants this extension.
01:55 Now you're starting to see where this money is.
01:57 AJ Brown, the highest paid receiver
01:59 in the National Football League at 32 million.
02:01 Chase will try to beat that.
02:02 So will Justin Jefferson,
02:04 who we could argue and debate who the best receiver is.
02:07 Justin Jefferson will get a minimum of 32 million a season,
02:10 if not 33 or more.
02:12 Also, Shemar Chase, as we mentioned.
02:14 And Brandon Iyuk is phenomenal.
02:15 The problem with Iyuk is,
02:17 when you look at this, Scott,
02:19 is Iyuk's on a team with Christian McCaffrey,
02:24 maybe arguably the best all-around back
02:28 in the last 20 years on offense.
02:30 Then you've got George Kittle,
02:31 who's gotta get the football.
02:33 You've got Debo Samuel, who's gotta get the football.
02:36 If you put Iyuk on the Bills or another team
02:38 that throws the ball a lot,
02:39 and if he was their number one receiver,
02:41 this guy's a top five receiver.
02:43 But unfortunately, he plays with a team
02:45 where there's so much talent,
02:47 and also a lot of guys are gonna have to get paid.
02:49 So it's gonna be hard to get him up to 30 million.
02:52 But he certainly should get,
02:53 if he gets his extension done,
02:55 Waddle money, which is over 28 million.
02:57 And also, when you look at the situation with Tee Higgins,
03:00 he's in a tough spot.
03:01 You and I have talked about him before.
03:02 Really good football player.
03:04 He's around 25 million a year.
03:06 He's around that Devante Smith money.
03:07 But can't imagine he'll get more than that
03:09 if he gets a deal done.
03:10 And remember now,
03:11 they're gonna get Shemar Chase's deal done.
03:13 So again, when we look at receiver,
03:15 a lot have gotten done,
03:16 but some big ones, the big fish,
03:18 obviously is Justin Jefferson.
03:20 - They're not gonna give Tee Higgins that money.
03:22 They have to give it to Shemar Chase.
03:24 That's all there is to it.
03:25 And why don't the Niners, I'm asking you,
03:29 trade him already?
03:30 I mean, they haven't been able to even come close
03:31 to a deal with IUK because of all the reasons you said,
03:35 and all of those reasons aren't going away.
03:38 So why don't they just deal him for God's sakes?
03:41 - And by the way, they drafted, this is a stunner.
03:43 Ricky Pearsall was their first round pick, a wide receiver.
03:47 They went with the highest player was on their board,
03:48 but that was clearly not a position of need.
03:51 They've tried to get IUK's deal done.
03:53 They still are confident they can get it done.
03:55 They've made it clear they didn't wanna trade him.
03:58 In fact, this is what John Lynch kind of hinted
04:02 after the draft.
04:03 Once they got past the draft,
04:05 the opportunity or the urgency to trade is completely gone.
04:09 It'd be an upset if they wound up trading him,
04:11 but you're right.
04:12 It's hard to find a reasonable number.
04:16 And they're another team, the Niners,
04:17 they don't play a lot of three receiver sets.
04:19 That's why the drafting of Ricky Pearsall,
04:22 the receiver out of University of Florida,
04:24 who I saw at the Senior Bowl, was kind of surprising.
04:26 And by the way, they just resigned Jawan Jennings,
04:29 the third receiver,
04:30 paying him really good money for a backup.
04:31 So it's hard to imagine that IUK's gonna get the deal
04:34 that he seeks, but he's under contract.
04:37 He'll be there this season barring something unforeseen.
04:40 - Which is trading him.
04:41 That's exactly what's unforeseen.
04:42 - Well, after this season, yeah.
04:44 After this season, moving him one way or the other
04:47 or tagging him and trading him is another option next year.
04:50 - They can't possibly wanna sit around for a year
04:53 with this hovering over them like a black cloud.
04:56 And it's already bad enough, the back and forth,
05:00 that they haven't been able to do a deal.
05:01 You're telling me that they're gonna leave it that way
05:04 for a year, another year, they're gonna just put up with this?
05:08 - Yeah, but when you're trying to win a Super Bowl,
05:10 don't you just, you try to keep it together
05:12 for as long as you can, and then you move on
05:16 if you can't get extension done.
05:17 At this point, what would be the point?
05:19 I know Ricky Pierce lost the first round pick.
05:21 Again, he was a late first round pick.
05:23 IUK is one of the top five to most,
05:26 top five to top seven in terms of talent
05:28 at the wide receiver position.
05:29 And by the way, and Debo Samuel, big cap number next year,
05:33 a lot of salary, and he's a great player.
05:36 He's also had a pretty big injury history.
05:37 So they gotta be careful here.
05:39 Their window of opportunity to win a Super Bowl is now,
05:43 and they gotta try to deal with their best players.
05:45 - Well, they're signing everybody else
05:47 and giving Jennings money.
05:48 They dropped Pierce.
05:49 - I know.
05:50 - They've got everything else except the IUK deal.
05:53 That blows my mind, is the best deal for the money.
05:57 You know what I thought was the best,
05:59 you know, in terms of GM moves and price tag,
06:03 was Pittman's deal.
06:05 He didn't get that much money in Indy.
06:07 That was a good deal for the Colts.
06:09 - It was very reasonable money.
06:11 Pittman's a really good football player, very competitive.
06:13 Now he wasn't a first round pick,
06:15 but he's been very, very solid.
06:17 But IUK, who's by the way, more talented than Pittman.
06:19 I don't think that's even debatable.
06:21 Pittman's a good player, but IUK's at another level.
06:24 IUK should come in if it gets done around this deal
06:26 that just got done with Jay and Waddell.
06:28 And again, with Miami, you look at their situation.
06:33 It's really a two receiver offense.
06:34 The tight ends don't get the football.
06:36 Whereas with San Francisco,
06:37 you got five guys that get the football.
06:39 I get where the Niners are,
06:41 and IUK, I've no problem with them wanting to get
06:43 the kind of money that he deserves,
06:45 which should be between 20 and 30 million.
06:48 He's not getting wherever Justin Jefferson gets.
06:50 I don't see him getting 30 million a year.
06:52 It's not that it's not worth it.
06:54 It's the situation they're in with the Niners.
06:57 - All right, let's talk about mandatory camps
07:00 that begin next week.
07:02 - Yeah, this is a big deal here.
07:03 So OTA has got, from being at these things for 25 years,
07:07 they're very light, mostly seven on sevens,
07:09 some nine on sevens, some 11 on 11s.
07:12 But the mandatory camp, okay,
07:14 these are three days of practice.
07:16 Everybody's got to be there who's under contract.
07:19 And there's no time off.
07:21 It's the three days in a row.
07:23 So these are the last practices
07:26 for training camps starting late July.
07:28 And also you should know that a lot of them are next week,
07:31 and then the week after, the ones that aren't next week,
07:33 and that's it, they're off to the summer,
07:35 really again, until late July.
07:36 So it's really, really important.
07:38 And the intensity, particularly for rookies
07:41 and second year players who are trying not only
07:43 make a roster, but try to impress their coaches
07:46 is very, very important.
07:47 And I've seen a lot of guys like really stand out.
07:50 And yes, you can tackle, you can hit.
07:53 There's not a lot of physical play,
07:54 but the OTAs are very light.
07:57 Once you get to the mandatory camps,
07:59 the competition ratchets up.
08:00 And we'll talk about some of the standouts
08:02 that I hear about once we get there,
08:04 but that's the big part.
08:05 And also the other thing that just came down,
08:07 and I love this, the Bears,
08:10 the Bears are gonna be on it.
08:11 They're gonna be on hard knocks.
08:12 I never thought I'd see it a day, Scott,
08:14 but I can't wait to see this.
08:16 That is a team that could break out.
08:18 And they finally, finally have great offensive talent.
08:21 What is the last time you talked about the Bears
08:22 having great offensive talent, maybe ever?
08:24 - 1985.
08:27 That's the last time I talked about the Bears.
08:29 But they mattered then, and they won the Super Bowl then,
08:33 and it's the last time they've won it.
08:35 And they've been awful ever since.
08:37 And the reason they're getting on hard knocks
08:39 is because of Caleb Williams.
08:41 And there's really no other reason.
08:44 - Well, Keenan Allen, who's at Stout,
08:46 is probably gonna be a Hall of Famer.
08:48 You got Roma Dunze, the rookie wide receiver.
08:50 DeAndre Swift comes over, Cole Komet,
08:53 Gerald Everett, the tight end.
08:54 They're absolutely loaded on offense.
08:56 The question is, can Caleb Williams
08:58 be offensive rookie of the year?
09:00 If he is, they're gonna make the playoffs.
09:02 (upbeat music)
09:05 [MUSIC]