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There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm J.J. Zacharisen, post of the award-winning late-round podcast. Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off.
Listen to the late-round fantasy-football podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Bobby Bones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle. Every Wednesday, on our podcast, lots to say, with me Bobby Bones and Matt Castle.
You're in training camp, and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media. Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over your week one. How do you handle this? You just go back out to practice the next day and wait for him to mess up.
Listen to lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joining us right now on the radio show, I realize here there's two things I'm missing in my life. Number one, a fully functional backswing on the golf course. And number two, more Hugh Millen.
When you go two weeks without Hugh Millen, you always need more Hugh Millen. And he's back from his vacation joining us right now on the air. How are you? I'm kind of like a bad backswing.
No, I'm fine. Good to be with you. It's been a while. Where did you go?
Can you tell us where you went? I've just been around. Hey, Hugh, where you been? Oh my God, that was going to be such a long description.
I was just, he just absolutely flummoxed me. But last week I was in New York City with my family. Kids flew everybody in and everybody just kind of tooled around New York had a good time. I love it, man.
That is awesome. Man, where you been? It's been around. So since we talked, there's a lot going on.
First of all, Mike McDonald canceling the last day of me camp. I know they got the extra time because of the extra because of the coaching staff. Obviously, but Dick and I on that day was like, oh, that's interesting. Give it brand new offense, brand new defense.
Everything's brand new. And you had an extra day to work on this and you gave it back. Were you surprised by that? I was a little bit surprised because, you know, you think, for example, DK Metcalf, there's some guys that are only showing up for mandatory stuff.
Right. And so if you're only going to have them for three days and some of the others don't mean to single out any one player. I would want to have all three now. There's no question that he got a lot of, you know, kudos from his team and a lot of, you know, affection and good will.
So, and they had the extra week as you described. And I think another part of that is that it's becoming now in the NFL. If it's becoming commonplace so that now players are not feeling like they're rewarded, it's they're going to feel gypped if they don't get it. In theory, that would never happen in reality at wood.
If that, again, if all these guys know that there's 20 teams, for example, that are saying so long and for going that last day, then they're going to feel okay, well, they're getting gypped. So I was a little bit surprised, but given that it seems to be commonplace, I think I don't think it was a bad move. Well, there's this, there's this idea that they're looking at. And tell me if I'm wrong here, if you're getting rid of the mini camps and the off-season stuff altogether and just extending training camp to which some players who have kids out of school that are home for the summer would say, yeah, I'd rather have camp while they're in school and then have more time off in the summer to spend with my with my kids.
How do you think that would go over with the players if they did that? Yeah, I don't think that the players going to be keen on coming in earlier than the mandate, which is 15 days before the first preseason game. Right. I don't know.
I think it's kind of a mess when you look at how the collective bargaining, I'll tell you, in my opinion, the league, our perception of the product is driven by quarterback play. Yes. Even defensive minded head coaches that the defensive minded head coaches that I've played for, they seem to be more chipper when the offense is when the passing game is just crisp in practice. If the quarterbacks are dirt and balls and airmail and balls, even defensive coaches, you might say, well, oh, I love it.
You know, nobody's completely in passing against my defense. No, they don't. Maybe the defensive coordinator does, but not the head coach. And I think fans, when you look at when you turn on a game, if you don't, if you don't have good quality quarterback play, it's, it feels like a bad product.
How many fans are sitting going, oh, the defense, right? No, they're saying the quarterback's stuck. Sure. Well, now if you're, if you're stripping down all these days for the quarterback development and I'll throw another component in its, its, its of a local nature 10 years ago, the Seattle cover three was the dominant, you know, everybody was trying to play it all the proliferation.
It was very easy to decipher for a quarterback. You know where everybody is now Mike McDonald. 10 years later, the, it's the Seattle head coach again, who is the premier strategist and it has nothing to do with the simple cover three. It's highly complex.
A lot of different looks, very difficult to process and, and where there used to be, I mean, I'll just to give you a term that I, when I was playing years ago, we had what's called quarterback school in your mind, Miss Cook. Well, the quarterbacks in the office, he's not going to school and it's just the quarterbacks. No, we would have. Four days, it might have been three days, some weeks, some four, four, we would have 11 on 11.
Dave, if you watch those practices, it would look exactly like a mini camp. Just like a mini camp, but they call the quarterbacks. Well, we have to week after week after week, we're getting this. So I think you need that.
And I think with, with Mike McDonald and some of his disciples over the next five years, you're going to see some lousy quarterback. And the perception of the product is really going to be questioned. Well, you just saw a guy in Trevor Lawrence, who is now the highest paid quarterback in the NFL along with Joe Burrow. And he's what he's got one playoff win under his belt.
There's a now a discussion. I think you may have kind of brought this up a few years ago as a possibility. Maybe I'm wrong on that. Tell me if I'm right or wrong about a separate salary pool just for quarterbacks.
What do you make of that idea? Well, you think as a former quarterback, I'd be knee jerk just, you know, ardently against it. I think if it makes sense and it's defensible and there's a fairness, I wouldn't be against it. I'd need to see the particulars, right?
And of course, it'd have to be bargained upon collectively. And, you know, it is interesting. I would kind of equate it on some level to the franchise tag. The franchise tag is really what's described if you do some research on it.
It's the Elway clause because I was a player rep when we were trying to get free agency. When I came in the league, there was no, it was what's called player indemnity when Joe Montana's contract expired with the 49ers didn't matter if he was in year nine. He was still the property of the 49ers had no ability to negotiate with anybody. And so we had to strike and de-certify the union and do all these things to get free agency.
The players now enjoy, of course, but in that process, we remember getting updates on the owners. There were some of the owners that were willing to go somewhere like no, never. And Pat Bolin was kind of a pivotal guy. And Pat Bolin, the owner of the Broncos said, Hey, I'm not signing anything that allows me to lose John Elli period and a story.
And I'm going to remain on the old circuit camp of these other owners. And so one of the compromises is okay, we'll have an Elway clause. And that's was born the franchise tag. And so you could say, well, if you're the guy in the league that's been franchise tagged and you lose some, you know, that is a, what could be termed a restraint of the free market, which is in violation of the antitrust.
Well, the only way you get that through is to have the labor laws which supersede the antitrust laws. And so that happened for the franchise guys. Of course, it's been exercised on players, not just quarterbacks, but there could be something in a similar manner where it was shoved down the John Elli's of the world. It could be shoved down all the quarterbacks.
But and a final point on that, I will say that the market, if we're talking about this great sport that we all love, and we always knew for decades, I've been watching football 50 years, you, you 40. We always knew quarterbacks were valuable. The market is showing us just in fact how valuable quarterbacks are. And now they want to put, you know, these, these, again, restraints and caps on it and what have you just to, you know, in some sense, just control themselves.
No question. I mean, all this just seems like it's there to suppress quarterback salaries and the story. I mean, I don't think owners are going to do anything that would make them pay quarterbacks more money. But suppressing it for sure.
And I'm like, you, what, what are the details? Is it, is it a portion of the current salary cap that has set aside? Is it a portion plus 10% plus 5% whenever it is that set aside? So I'm like, you curious to see, but from a quarterback perspective in Seattle, I remember having a conversation with you two years ago about Drew Lock and now you were Adam, we got to have a competition.
We got to have a competition between Drew Lock and Gino Smith. And there really wasn't a competition. I guess somebody could say, well, Drew Lock was going to start and then he got COVID and he was done. But I think we all saw what was going on when that thing began.
Are you as adamant now that there needs to be a competition between Gino and Sam Howell as you were two years ago with Gino and Drew Lock? No, because that was prior to 2022. And, and, and Gino hadn't done anything. Now, Gino has, has proven himself to be a serviceable quarterback.
You know, my feeling about Gino, he's about middle of the league, of the league. And, and I think that there should be some competition, but not to the extent that I would have advocated back in the Drew Lock situation. Now, in 2022, I think it's worth noting. We were talking about caps.
Gino Smith's cap was 3.5 million. That was 1.61% of the cap. Now, then last year was 4.55. This year, it's going to be 10.1% of cap.
His cap is 26.4 million. It's going up to over 25 million, or I believe 30 million next year. And we don't know the percentage because the cap will vary. But, you know, that, that I think is an equation.
And for Sam, how's, you know, here, and looking at Sam Howell and Gino, first of all, let's talk about Gino for a second. One of the concerns among many, and I've touched on them, and it's not a Gino segment, but the red zone pass rating, Gino last year, 29th, red zone completion percentage, 31st and lead, a successful play percentage, 36th. On third down conversions, Gino was 30th. And, and there's similar poor numbers for the Seahawks as a team in those, in those specialized areas.
So you're here about Gino led the NFL in fourth quarter Well, there's more options in that. And look, that's a great step. That is that there's no detracting from that. That's important stuff.
But in my mind, I'm almost thinking like, as an NFL player, you have Wednesday's your first back. That's first and second down. Is this a general rule? Some provide late.
This was a general. You can say Wednesday's the first and second down, Thursday's your third down day. And then Friday is your specialized day. That's short yardage goal line.
It's red zone. What, what have you right? So to me, it's like Gino, okay, you're good on on Wednesday. But there's some things on Thursday and Friday, the specialized stuff, like we've got to get better on third down.
And we've got to get better on the red zone. Now for Sam, how? Well, the big issue for him was he was the sacks that most sacks in the league, right? His pressure percentage went in the pocket was 34.6.
That was the eighth most percentage. Does he hold the ball? That's a fair question in the pocket. His average time to throw was 2.48 seconds.
These are these are commander plays a year ago. Sam, how with the football in his and he's in the pocket again, 2.48 seconds per play. Where does that rank? Well, tied with Pat Mahomes.
Wow, wow, for 19th and 20. He 2.48 is exactly the number that Pat Mahomes is in. And oh, by the way, it's Gino is 21st in that he was 2.47 seconds. So your basic strategy is actually, I think statiticians would say, okay, that's not an important statistic to correlate to good quarterback.
Because here we got the best in Mahomes. We've got, you know, whatever you think of how you got Gino and they all basically are the same. So, so that's not a strong statistical category. But at any event, for those I've heard it mentioned about, okay, the sacks is that because he's holding the ball.
What have you? You know, can he get? Does he have the capacity to get rid of it? The way Sean Payton was really needing after having Russell Wilson experience and he loved out Bo Nix gets rid of it and what have you.
That's a real thing. Get rid of the damn ball and those are the numbers that reflect. Well, he was with us on the show and you I heard Mike McDonald. I think Ian was alluding to this on his show talking about getting canine Kenny Walker more involved in the passing offense as a catcher as a pass catcher, not like a catcher like Kyle Raleigh.
But you get the time to stand as a receiver. Thank you in three years in college at Wake in Michigan State. He caught 19 passes is a 19 or 18. I added 18 at 13, 2 and 3.
But my research says 19. All right. So I just want to be accurate. You're the host 10 and 2.
We're driving 19. He's caught 56 balls in his first two years in the NFL. So for somebody to say we should use Kenny Walker more as a receiver. They are and they have been.
But is there another level? You think and Ryan Grub's off both of them has been under 30. I thought it was 29 and 28. But we're close on the numbers.
Right. And so there are 16 receivers. Excuse me. Let me start again.
There are 16 running backs in the league last year that had 50 or more highlighted by CMC music factory at 86. Right. So I'm not saying that he said catch 86 balls at Chris McCaffrey. But I don't think it's unreasonable given his dynamic, his explosiveness, his acceleration, his his I think there's a broken field running capacity to that he has that you get the ball amount on the wing and screens makes the first guy layer miss.
And I think now he's really dynamic in the open field. So for me to be under two catches per game, I think that's light. And so I think if we can push it up to approximately, you know, three or more, right? That would be 51.
Right. And again, there's 16 guys that are over the 50 threshold. So I don't think that's unreasonable. Well, I'll tell you what, Dick and I had this conversation a few weeks ago, this time in a year from now, or even like maybe 10 months from now, the Seahawks and DK Metcalf probably be talking about a deal, right?
Because he's got two years left in his contract for the agent year is next season. What do you think DK Metcalf's year looks like? And do you think the Seahawks are really in a good mood and a charitable way to get this guy resigned as soon as possible? Well, I think that they're going to use him more as a deep threat.
If you go back and you look at Roma Dunes, and obviously the constant variable is going to be Ryan Grub. Roma Dunes, they last year led the nation 49 attempts where the ball was 20 yards more. And that was in 15 games. DK and 16 games had just 26.
Again, 49 to 26. If you go on a per game basis, Rome had more than double and you can, and there's similar numbers on on balls in the air longer than 30 yards. So I think that we're going to see, come hell or high water, they're either going to get the ball to DK deep or they're going to die trying, or they're just going to see rolled coverage and safety is over the top, in which case I would not counsel Gino to just force the ball down the field, but there'll be other things open, and Tyler's already been a beneficiary of that of that role coverage. And so I think, yeah, look, I'm, if I'm the last guy that dies on the beach, according DK Metcalf, then so be it.
I will be that guy. That's just what I see in him. And I think he's been underutilized. I'm in Troy Aikman's camp.
They need to throw the ball to him more. And so you said this year, I think that probably because of the new offensive coordinator, DK is just 26 years old. I would say that the real referendum would be after two seasons, not one. I would argue for a real assessment that way.
But if you don't have any consideration, you know, trader or extend, if that happens to happen a year ago, I'm still going to be. This is a bull market for me on DK Metcalf. If you're asking my. Well, it's never a bad idea to hook up with Troy Aikman's camp ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.
Hey, listen, good stuff. Welcome back from the big apple. We're talking a week by the people. We're talking a week by the people.
Okay, I'm down. Hey, I'm Mike Am. And I'm Trevor Sikama. And together we host the NFL fantasy football show.
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Hey, it's Bobby Bones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle. Every Wednesday on our podcast, lots to say with me Bobby Bones and Matt Castle. You're in training camp and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media.
Suddenly everybody online says he should start over your week one. How do you handle this? You just go back out the practice the next day and we'll farm them that's up. Listen to lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
The entire draft room groans because you just took the guy they wanted. There's no better feeling than crushing your fantasy football league. I'm J. Zachary Sin, host of the award-winning late-round podcast.
Before your draft, our players to target and players to avoid episodes tell you exactly who to circle and who to cross off. Listen to the late-round fantasy football podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.