Giant Mistake? (Hour 3)

Alrighty, rockin' and rollin', it is the Zach Gelb show, hour number three of our radio program. So we got a lot cookin' in the NFL these days. Lamar Jackson, non-exclusive franchise tag. All of a sudden, none of these teams want Lamar. Collusion.

Cough, cough. Because the NFL owners don't want to set precedent in back-to-back off-seasons of Deshaun Watson getting $230 million fully guaranteed. And then Lamar Jackson getting $230 million fully guaranteed. You have Aaron Rodgers meeting with the Jets. They talked last night.

Trey Wingo broke that story. And then the Jets quickly shot over to California to meet face-to-face with one Aaron Rodgers. So we are on Lamar's watch. We're on Aaron Rodgers' watch. And then the Giants also got the four-year deal done with Daniel Jones. And then they slapped the franchise tag non-exclusive on one Saquon Barkley. So let's do two things here. We'll talk a little Lamar. We'll talk a little Rodgers.

And Hickey, let me just throw a question out there. Do you find it at all a little bit bizarre with how much money that these owners are worth? And I know you pinch pennies from time to time here and there. And there's like baseball, the owners cry poverty.

And it's an absolute joke. And you don't want to have something develop year after year after year. But it is a little bit odd to me with how much these owners are worth. With how much these owners are worth.

And how much they could also sell their teams for. That almost all these owners for now are falling in line with we don't want to pursue Lamar Jackson pretty much in saying we don't want to give him the fully guaranteed deal. If that is in fact what Lamar Jackson is asking for. That's the part to me, I think Lamar is asking for a fully guaranteed deal. There's been reports out there, but then there's been other reports coming from Lamar Jackson camp that Stephen Smith said last week that that is not true.

He's never asked for a fully guaranteed deal. But if I'm a team that needs a quarterback, Panthers, Raiders, commanders, Falcons. And look at the Panthers, how many quarterbacks they've swung and missed since Cam. The Falcons, I know they had Matt Ryan, but since then, you're nowhere close to finding your next guy.

The commanders, they were throwing a party for Carson bleeping once last year, which was a joke. The Raiders, their best quarterback recently was Derek Carr, but he was never viewed as this great quarterback. If I'm one of those owners, I don't care what the price tag is. I don't care if I'm not popular with the other owners.

I'm trying to win. I have all the most of these owners, maybe outside of Mark Davis, they have all the money in the world. Like Daniel Snyder, if the commanders sell and the commanders in this awful spot right now in this decrepit state, they could go for what, like $7 billion? To me, what is $230 million? $230 million fully guaranteed actually mean to you?

We look at it and we go, that's big money. Now we don't know the specific breakdown of the Daniel Jones contract, but Daniel Jones has got $40 million a year. So I look at Lamar, if that's what it takes, 230 over let's say five years, $46 million a year. I know you gotta manage the salary cap and all that stuff, but there's ways to work around that obviously. If I was an owner and I had all those billions, I wouldn't care about fully guaranteeing $230 million to a guy if you believe in the guy.

Like if you have questions about Lamar, I can't convince you it doesn't make sense. But if you need a quarterback and you fully believe in him, what's 220, $230 million fully guaranteed to you? And even if it's not 230, let's just say it's 200 million and the Ravens won't match that.

What is that to you? I would do it if I'm one of these teams. We'll say I would get the hesitation of not wanting to give a fully guaranteed deal because the last two years he's missed five games and six games respectively.

So I don't understand. You don't want to give all that money up. And again, when it's fully guaranteed, it's almost impossible to get out of it.

Things go south. You wouldn't give all that money up for someone who may or may not be on the field, especially at the end of the year. He's had a propensity now to miss the biggest games of the Ravens season.

I would get that perspective. But at the same time, you have last year, four teams with all the civil stuff hanging over to Sean Watson's head in a bidding war for Deshaun Watson and the Browns at the end of the day, gave him a fully guaranteed deal and gave him three first round picks. I have a hard time looking at Lamar Jackson. I know injury issues are concerned, but off the field, there's no concern. Like you said, he has an MVP where Deshaun Watson is not and everyone right away saying, no, thanks. I think it's easy today for these owners to rally together and say, I'm with you, Steve Basciotti.

We're all in the same boat. We're going to set the precedent here that that one Deshaun Watson deal was an outlier and we're not going to have it happen again. But again, come two weeks from now, come the draft, come after the Monday, after the draft of your team, like the Panthers. And you mentioned before, if they're sitting there at nine and all we've heard out of the combine is the Panthers are going to be super aggressive in terms of trying to trade up to get a quarterback. Let's say they can't, or let's say that the one or two quarterbacks they have and they love the most are gone right away and they can't get them. Well, now you're telling me David Tepper sitting there on Monday after the draft saying, Lamar's out there, but screw it.

I want to, you know, don't want to offend anyone else. I'm not going to give Lamar the contract that no one else wants to do. It's going to happen.

It's just a matter of when, not if, and I think it's going to take past the draft for an owner to then really kind of zone in and go after Lamar. Correct me if I'm wrong here. The Browns gave Deshaun Watson $230 million over five years, correct? Yes.

Okay. Fully guaranteed. Fully guaranteed, obviously. If the Falcons or the Panthers won the Lamar Jackson sweepstakes or won the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes a year ago, what would the contract have been? Probably not fully guaranteed. If it wasn't fully guaranteed, but what would be the guaranteed money you think? Like a buck 80, a buck 90? I don't know.

Maybe. I mean, I honestly, I don't know because you had the Russell Wilson deal. After that you had the Kyler Murray deal after that. So there was no precedent in terms of like what they got.

You got to over, you know, match them to that point. The contracts didn't happen yet. One 50, maybe again, there's also, I know we know they were okay with having as a quarterback. I just don't know how much they're okay with giving them all the money after everything happened off the field.

Maybe that was part of the hang up. And that's the reason why the Browns were able to swoop on in and get them. They're easily, obviously, want to give them way more guaranteed money than anyone else.

Now sometimes you think you understand these contracts. I'm just giving you numbers that I have right in front of me. Watson fully guaranteed 230. Kyler Murray fully guaranteed a buck 89.5. Russell Wilson a buck 65. Aaron Rodgers a buck 50.8. Josh Allen a buck 50. Mahomes, who contract continues to just look like a steal.

It shows you I have benefits to get the deal done sooner rather than later. 141.5. But those three recent deals were Russell Wilson a buck 65, Murray 189.5, and Deshaun Watson 230 million. So let's just say if you do 230 plus 189.5 plus 165 and you divide it by three, that's $194 million. So let's just say it would be 190 million fully guaranteed.

And maybe that's not the way that it would go. If you do 230 minus 190, we're talking about a difference of $40 million. At that rate, what does it mean to an NFL owner? So if you want to, like I don't know for sure if we get 180, 190 fully guaranteed, but if those teams for Deshaun Watson with all that was hanging over his head, and Deshaun not having unanimous NFL MVP, if let's just say they were willing to give a buck 80 or buck 90 fully guaranteed, what's like an extra 40, $50 million here? And it may not even be that much because if this is the stance from the start, we're not interested in Lamar kind of gets it and says, okay, then I'm not getting a fully guaranteed deal. If Kyler Murray just got a buck 89.5, wouldn't you think bare minimum in terms of the fully guaranteed world, that now he has to get at least 190 guaranteed? So is this really, if let's say he gets 230 over five, is this fight over $40 million like it's stupid to me, right? I would guess the fight is over more the precedent than the money. You're right on that. That I think is, I don't think it's a $40 million as much as we don't want to because then again, that opens the floodgates for the Chargers and the Bengals now with their quarterbacks, put pressure on their owners to get their quarterbacks.

I mean, I agree. I'm just trying to tell you from if it's like, if this is truly collusion, which it obviously appears to be when five teams in the span of an hour are all reaching out saying we're not interested, we're not interested. All who don't have answers at quarterback.

Right. Maybe outside the Dolphins, but there's still a question to it because we just don't know how long he's gonna be able to last in the NFL. So take the Dolphins out of it. But these other teams, commanders, we're not interested in Lamar. Falcons, we're not interested in Lamar. Raiders, we're not interested in Lamar. Panthers, we're not interested in Lamar. Okay. You guys want to go draft a quarterback?

Be my guest, it could work. You're gonna go trade for a quarterback? You guys lining up to go get Rogers?

I don't see him that way. You're gonna go sign Jimmy G? Like, what are you gonna give Jimmy G?

What is Jimmy G getting? If you just saw Carr, Carr, I know it's not exact, but 37 and a half. I think it was 35 a year. It was like 150. Okay. And Daniel Jones just got 40? Four for 160.

Yeah. Like what does Jimmy G then get? I don't think there's a big market for him. It's probably in a shorter deal. Gino Smith just got a bucko five over three. Is Jimmy G getting a bucko five over three? I would definitely say it's closer to that than the Daniel Jones contract.

I would agree. But therefore, I'd rather have Lamar than what you would have to give Jimmy. If it's given Lamar $45 million a year compared to $35 million a year to Jimmy G, it's a no brainer to me.

I spend the extra $10 million a year. Regardless of what the fully guarantees are. Now, if you want to tell me the injury concerns is why they're not giving him the deal, fine. But we've seen a lot of quarterbacks that get injured, get traded and go to other places. And they give them another chance hoping that that quarterback can be healthy. We've seen that time and time again in the NFL. And there's usually one and there will eventually be one that breaks away from the pack and takes the dirty looks and the the pushback from some of the owners that will maybe not give Lamar a fully guaranteed deal.

Maybe they will. Look, the Browns just did it last year with Deshaun Watson. But give him enough guaranteed money that makes the Ravens go, OK, we're not comfortable giving that number.

And that's the other thing. If you're one of these teams that end up getting interested in Lamar, you have to give a deal that you know the Ravens are going to say no to. And Steve Beshadi has made it clear he's not giving a fully guaranteed deal.

So if that's the precedent, if I'm one of these teams, let me ask you this, Hickey. Do you think Lamar would take now it's only 40 million dollars a year, but if I gave him 200 million dollars fully guaranteed over five years, you think he takes that? It's only 40 million dollars a year, but it's fully guaranteed. Do you think he would take that? Yeah, I think so.

Right? Probably. So and you could even up the price to get it to 230 over five, let's just say. And then that's 46 million dollars a year. But if you only fully guarantee 200 million, do you think the Ravens answer that? Do you think they respond to that with the yes that will give him that? No. So they want to do it at 200 million.

So you have to go to the fully guaranteed rate. Come on, guys. I would like to see David Tepper not get involved in Lamar Jackson.

I'll believe that when I see it. Arthur Blank, too. And I love to see these owners justify why now all of a sudden they're not interested in Lamar Jackson when a lot of these owners were just interested in Deshaun Watson. Like, if we get any owner on today that we would think would be interested in Lamar that's saying they're not. I would love to talk to David Tepper and Arthur Blank and just simply ask him this. You were interested in Deshaun Watson last year.

With all that was pending with him, why aren't you interested in Lamar Jackson and Hickey? I would love to see the way that these owners try to weasel themselves out of that answer. I don't know if they'd have an answer again. That's verbal diarrhea. It would not go. I don't think it would go well for them.

And again, I don't even know if their answer right now of not being interested is even going to stick in a month from now. I threw my Sharpie. I don't know why I'm writing with a Sharpie today. I was so animated during that that I threw the Sharpie during that segment. So don't sit next to anywhere close to me. You're lucky that there's glass separating us.

I was going to say good thing it's double pane. So I am safe and going to avoid some blue Sharpie on my shirt. And also our poll question today has to do with Aaron Rodgers. If the Jets do land Aaron Rodgers, what are your expectations for the Jets for this upcoming season just knowing that they have Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback? Be in the Super Bowl, win the AFC East, be a wildcard team and miss the playoffs.

Those are the options. Here are the returns right now. 20% be in the Super Bowl. 24% win or excuse me.

Wow. We've had some changes in this poll question. 20% tied. Be in the Super Bowl. Miss the playoffs.

24% win the AFC East and 36% be a wildcard team. You can get in on that poll question. We'll talk about it later at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Give us a follow also at CBS Sports Radio. We will take a break. Greg Allman will join us on the other side as we'll do a little QB carousel featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. The Super Bowl is over, but the NFL quarterback carousel is just beginning. You gotta ask yourself a question.

Do I feel lucky? What does the future hold for all 32 NFL teams at the QB position? Now I'm going to give you an opportunity to spin this wheel right here. Let's spin the wheel and find out which teams we hit today. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Alright Brady in retirement for now. We'll see who's playing quarterback for the Bucks in 2023. Greg Allman has covered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since 2013 and he now covers the NFC South.

The Bucks, Falcons, Panthers and Saints for Fox Sports and he joins us right now on the Zach Gelb show. Greg appreciate you doing this. How you been? Hey doing well.

Thanks for having me on. So when we go back to Brady retiring, I know it's been spun now as it was either go back to Tampa or enter retirement. It felt like though all throughout the year it was leave Tampa Bay and play somewhere else.

What's the real truth on the Brady decision-making process from your understanding? This year's or last year's? This year.

This year's. No I think he's done honestly. I mean I think you know the idea that he um you know didn't do what the Bucks kind of were hoping he might do in terms of waiting and processing as a June retirement to get some cap help.

The fact that he didn't do that definitely gives him the flexibility to listen to people in March that he wouldn't have had if he had done that. But I think he's done. I think it's one of those where you know he's already done this one come back once and I totally get that come August when it's the first time he's not in camp and not going through a season. It's going to be hard for him but I do think he's done this once already. Last year was a long year for him and even if it were an ideal situation and a playoff ready team that lost a quarterback unexpectedly or something like that. Right now I feel like he's done.

He could certainly prove me wrong here but I think he's done. Well the two that pop that come to mind and pop up you know in season would be Miami or would be the 49ers and we know both their their quarterbacks right Lance and Purdy and then also to a tongue of eye law unfortunately have suffered some injuries in their career. Yeah absolutely I mean it's it's there you can see how that could pop up and you see why it would be tempting. You know it's gonna be something that pops up anytime a major quarterback gets hurt this season people are going to wonder. Rich was talking about Philip Rivers trying to call and then jump in at the last minute there and obviously Brady's at a different level than Philip Rivers is post-retirement but yeah it's he's going to have the competitive drive. You know he's going to keep himself in shape.

It's just a matter of you know being able to stay away which is not going to be easy for him. We know Greg Almoni made the decision to retire but was the decision making process the Bucks returning and or then going to retirement or would he have considered other teams you think if he wanted to play? Yeah I guess I can't say that with any authority I mean I think there were people that said when he you know when he stepped away that it was just Bucks or or or done and that there weren't other things in play and the only thing I would tell you is that I think seeing some of these other longtime quarterbacks that go elsewhere and it doesn't go well to see Matt Ryan and Indy to see the year Russell Wilson had in Denver is a reminder that these second chapters at the end of the career aren't a given and aren't necessarily going to lead to a Super Bowl the way his his happened to here in Tampa so I just think he's aware of the the risk of going out the way you don't want to and that I mean this year was probably that to some extent even though he went to the playoffs and won a division to have a losing record to fall short of expectation is not the way he wants to go out but it could be worse than even this year was for him. Do you fully expect Kyle Trask to be the day one week one starter for Tampa Bay coming up this fall? I don't know yet I'll be curious to see what they're willing to spend on a veteran quarterback to kind of challenge him part of the problem is that now there's a new offensive coordinator so Kyle Trask is instead of being entrenched in the same offense for two years he's a rookie all over again in terms of learning what Dave Canales wants to do I don't think they're going to spend a lot on a veteran quarterback I think it'll be an underwhelming veteran who's been a starter before that could be literally as little as like Drew Locke who had a year in Canales' offense and was a backup in Seattle you know it could be one of these kind of middle tier you know Baker Mayfield, Jacoby, Percette types which would be a little bit more real competition for for Kyle Trask um you know I think he'll definitely you know the way they're talking right now they definitely want to give him a chance to uh to compete for the starting job to be able to work with starters instead of just working with backups as he has the last two years and show what he can do and show how he's progressed here in those two years. Do you think they'll pursue Jimmy G? It seems a little bit on the high end of what they can afford honestly um you know it's like if they cleared enough cap if they really you know let other people go um defensively they can certainly afford him I mean Jimmy Garoppolo is one of those guys that's a little harder to read what exactly he'll make you know is he a 20 million dollar quarterback is he a 15 million dollar quarterback um I don't quite know what his market is compared to some of these other underwhelming second tier type options below him so I don't know he would be at the very kind of very most ambitious they would probably be in a position to afford.

Is that just why they haven't made a run at Rogers? I know the Packers it seems like they don't have any willingness to trade them inside the the NFC but I remember you know like a month ago people were like oh if Brady retires or Brady did retire maybe Rogers goes to Tampa. It's just a substantial salary he's got like a 58 million dollar bonus um they're they're the worst capstrapped team in the NFL right now they're still 40 million dollars over the cap so to think that they could I mean I'm sure he would could always find the way I guess yeah I mean it's one of those salary cap is so fugazi these days right yeah even by those standards I think it'd be tough to pull off. Greg Allman here with us so you cover the entire NFC south it's bizarre to me that the Falcons and Panthers were both interested in Deshaun Watson a year ago and now all of a sudden all these teams coming out today when Lamar gets hit with the non-exclusive franchise tag and go yeah we're not interested in Lamar Jackson. Yeah and I can't tell whether that's just uh the idea of having to commit 200 million dollars to a quarterback is daunting and I totally get what you're saying about Deshaun Watson that it seems almost like a double standard but um yeah I mean the Falcons you know don't have a quarterback and they have the cap space to pull it off so I understand why people would talk about them as an option for him and as a potential match I just I for whatever reason I think they're they're okay um not making such a massive uh you know leap it is to take a quarterback like that and bring them in and put your whole franchise on one person like that.

I know we throw the word around collusion very just easily and there's probably no way to prove that this is going on but it seems like the owners are just saying we don't want to give back-to-back years in free agency to quarterbacks or via a trade market fully guaranteed deals because for the owners it sets up for what they view as a dangerous precedent. Yeah the only thing I would say is that it's not only the precedent for quarterbacks but I mean if you give a guy who's not on your team a four-year fully guaranteed contract when your best free agent comes up in another position they're going to want the same they're going to have a legit reason to ask for the same so I just think um you know Lamar Jackson's missed 10 games due to injury so I get why there's a hesitation to uh guarantee too much to somebody who plays the game in a way that puts himself you know vulnerable to hits vulnerable to injuries um you know it's it's tricky because I mean it's a former MVP who's available and you don't want to say available at a reasonable price but I mean players of his caliber don't really hit the open market very often um and he's not really on the open market is one of those where no matter what uh is offered to him you know the Raven's gonna have a chance to match so what happens then is you you do like the Falcons did last year you get people excited about the chance to get a big quarterback and then you fall short you don't have him and and now you know you have to move on from the guy who knows he was about to be replaced so to be replaced so it can kind of backfire if you go all in on somebody and then they get a matching contract and have nothing to show for it. Greg Almon who covers the NFC South for Fox Sports is here with us in the QB Carousel just one more before we get back to specifically the Tampa Bay Buccaneers I look at this division the Saints right now have to be the favorite after getting Derek Carr we don't even know the quarterback's gonna be for the other three teams but I look at the Panthers I think they have the best roster right now in this division and I just can't wait to see what they do and I'll believe that they're not going to be in in the Lamar Jackson sweepstakes when the offseason comes and goes but there's a lot of momentum of them moving up in the draft that immediate quarterback scenario for the Panthers is fascinating because I do think they could win the division if they address it properly. Yeah I mean it's really what the only thing I'm missing right now I think they have a lot of positive momentum with Frank Reich with hiring you know a star-studded cast of assistants to go with him um you know they got a couple free agents they got to take care of in terms of Deontay Freeman and Bradley Bozeman and some of those types but yeah I mean it'll be exciting to think what they can do I don't necessarily see them staying put at nine because I think at least with the momentum of the top tier quarterbacks right now nine might not even get you the fourth best quarterback right now so you know the extra picks they got in the McCaffrey deal last year certainly put them in a position to you know move up to four move up to five maybe get ahead of some of the other teams I mean four might be the third quarterback right now that's still tricky but you know I think I think they recognize you know you have an offensive-minded coach you have a new offensive staff um you know McCown is somebody who you know I think would be a good guy to develop a young quarterback so it's definitely exciting as they rebrand this franchise with a new coach to also be able to do the same thing with a young quarterback like this. So I don't know what we could expect from Tampa this year if they are starting Kyle Trask or another one of those middle of the road type of quarterbacks how much patience do you think the Glaser family will have with Todd Bowles if this year is like a six win season for Tampa Bay? Yeah and that's a good question and I don't know whether he would go into this year with any kind of understanding from ownership you know it's one of those things where you know I think they knew post Brady they would kind of have to take some lumps just because they did so much to borrow from future seasons to finance the run they made the last three years so I think they know they're a little bit handicapped that way they don't have the the full measure of a full salary cap or just the the ability to spend and address needs the way they have the last three years so yeah it is setting them up for a step back I think they still want to be very competitive in this division I think even with Derek Carr even with the excitement in Carolina I think this is still a division that's fairly up for grabs they're definitely not going to be as talented a team in Tampa especially defensively they won't be able to keep nearly what they want in terms of the free agents next week they are going to be leaving and going elsewhere so I don't know um how many games Bowles has to win for him to be safe but I would think the ownership here would understand the context of this season and kind of the limitations they're under. Two more things I want to get your thoughts on in the box Greg Almon um Byron Leftwich how much do you think the criticism he got and ultimately lost his job is justified that he received this past year? Well a fair amount I mean it's one of those where I mean they took a massive step backwards I mean they still have Tom Brady they still have Mike Evans Chris Godwin they got dinged on the offensive line but I mean they were were 14 game 14 points a game horse I mean the single biggest offensive drop off from year to year of any team since I think 1971 um and really never solved things I mean they they've you know had the worst running game in the NFL in yards per game in yards per carry struggled in a lot of key situations um you know and and I don't think Leftwich probably helped himself in terms of how he answered questions or took criticism about the offense um to where you know once they moved on there's not a lot of people upset that he's gone a lot of people that question that the fact that he hasn't taken another job um you know a year ago you know he's sitting there almost getting the Jaguars head coaching job so it's kind of a a tough turn for him in the last year to have the offense go as badly as it did with Brady still there um and now to have him you know kind of on the outside looking at I'm sure he'll land another coaching job he's still young he's younger than Brady uh but this didn't go the way he wanted it to this past season for sure it honestly reminds me a lot like uh John DeFilippo because when he was in Philadelphia people were like oh he's gonna go get a head coaching job one day and I don't even know where John I think John DeFilippo may be in the XFL right now like I don't even know XFL New Orleans maybe yeah yeah I think you're right I think he's the head coach there and it's just like crazy how quickly a guy go from getting a coaching job to then pretty much getting kicked out of the NFL or not even going to consider for one of those jobs again right yeah it's it's tricky I mean it's one of those the word you know left which hasn't been coaching that long I've been coaching about six years so it doesn't have quite the um you know the background that some of these coaches have but he's he's only 42 years old even if he takes this year off he'll get to come back and and kind of reset himself um you know that's the same offense that we're getting 30 points a game in 2020 and 2021 and a big part of why they were in a position to win a Super Bowl two years ago so that that hasn't changed last thing I'll ask you the Brady Arians relationship what is the the truth there on why Arians walked away a year ago oh I think it's overblown um I think it looks odd in retrospect now but I think you know what he said in terms of wanting to be able to hand a team over to Todd Bowles with a chance to win as opposed to waiting until after Brady it kind of backfired in that he gave him a team with the expectation of winning they fell short of it so it certainly didn't have the desired outcome but to see Bruce now I mean I talked to him in Arizona at the Super Bowl you know I think he feels like you know he kind of got a practice year at retirement this past year and then he was in a consulting role he was around the team but he's able to pull back now and be less involved and probably won't be around the team on a day-to-day basis this fall the way he was so I think you know he thought about how you know that that interim coaching year he had in Indy he kind of got a practice year to be a head coach and now he kind of has had a practice year retirement so I think you'll see him take a step back um but I don't think it was nearly the fractured relationship that some people made it out to be Greg Allman does a great job covering the NFC South for Fox Sports appreciate you jumping on board today for a few minutes Greg oh no problem you guys have a good night you got it there's Greg Allman joining us for the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio we'll take a break we will come on back we will react to a little bit of the Daniel Jones Saquon Barkley resolution with the Giants and also give you our thoughts on the poll question back in five minutes you're listening to the Zach Gelb show Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio so we were wondering yesterday how the giant situation was going to play out and I do think from my understanding it was stressful at times it was a brutal process and it literally came right down to the wire because there was 10 minutes to go and there was no news out there about Daniel Jones and I was thinking to myself okay this deal's not going to get done but you got to remember it seemed like at the end they had to be somewhere close because they wouldn't have met today if these sides were nowhere close and ultimately and I know there's a lot of specifics that have come out but it was reported as 160 million dollars over four years so you get the 40 million dollars a year for Daniel Jones and then I've seen that it's like 82 million dollars I believe over the first two years did I get that right Hickey on the con was at 92 million dollars over the first two years 82 million dollars over the first two years guaranteed and there's other things that come out and then there's like what 35 or 36 million dollars potentially in incentives on top of the 160 so these contracts really right when you think you understand the salary cap you don't and there's so many other ways where it's a reported originally that it's not we I always go back to Derek Carr last year oh he got an extension then it comes out the next day uh yeah he's actually not in a long-term plans because they so easily could get out of it and we ended up seeing that play out right in front of our eyes this year but ultimately the Giants needed to get Daniel Jones done on a contract today instead of a franchise tag because then if they had to use the franchise tag on Daniel Jones then Saquon Barkley would have been as good as gone now you get the Jones deal done I guess you could say even though it's a four-year deal it's really more so like a two-year deal it feels like and then if he stinks and bottoms out the next two years you could easily get rid of him but then if he continues to improve like he did this past year for the first time in his career you you may end up looking at the Jones deal and like three years from now is potentially it's like a bargain at 40 million dollars a year and who knows what it actually is per year with the way that this all gets reported so ultimately whether you believe in Jones or not the way I view Jones is he showed you enough this year regardless of what the stats say in terms of the passing touchdowns when you watched him with really nothing around him he showed you enough that he could be a competent quarterback in this league and he left me not knowing if he could be great not knowing how high the ceiling is but I wanted to see Daniel Jones with some other legit talent around him outside of Saquon Barkley I'm talking about pass catchers receivers so getting Jones done right now now your attention gets turned to working on a long-term deal with Saquon but at bare minimum you have Saquon Barkley on a tag and he will probably be in New York next year because I don't think it's really worth to go the levee on bel ray where you sit out a year and then you eventually cash in on your long-term deal now technically a team could give up a contract to Jones to Barkley and Barkley go back to the Giants they could match it or not but if they don't match and they get two first-round picks hickey I would be shocked if any team in the league at this stage would pay Barkley and then also give up two first-round picks to get him no chance especially with the way that we value or devalue the running back position where you look at teams like Kansas City running back by committee New England when they won Super Bowls running back by committee the Eagles when they won a Super Bowl running back by committee now even the Rams it's been running back by committee when they won the Super Bowl two years ago like who was the last bell cow back to win a Super Bowl was probably what Marshawn and we're going all the way back to to Broncos and and Seahawks in that Super Bowl so you don't need a bell cow back but if you're a team like Buffalo you you would have wanted Saquon on the open market if you're a team like the Eagles you know even in division you would want him on the open market but now he's not going to be there on the open market so that to me was the important part and maybe a year from now they don't get the deal done with Saquon they may get the deal done in the next few days or in this off season but at least you have him on the tag I'm just wondering do you think there would even be a team that would even run that risk of agreeing to the deal with Saquon and then thinking okay the Giants will just accept it but then there is a chance that they don't accept they just take the two first-round picks like I would think even as much as the Giants like Saquon Barkley they've made it clear there's a price that they're willing to go and there's a limit there I would think if you shoot Joe Shane up with true serum that if any team regardless of what the contract is agrees the terms with Saquon that they would just reject it and get the two first-round picks back for oh without a doubt someone's willing to give you two first-round picks for Saquon Barkley you are taking that in a heartbeat you're gonna draft Bijan Robinson draft another running back we've unfortunately I like Saquon as a Penn Stater myself but we've seen so many success stories of running back in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh rounds that it makes no sense to turn down two first-round picks for a guy like you mentioned has been injured is that a position that is being devalued in terms of money and you are giving your give-in basically free premium draft capital you could use to maybe get your franchise quarterback one day Daniel Jones doesn't work out or get him maybe that you know his stud receiver that he's missing you can use those two picks in a different ways to make your team better than just holding on Saquon Barkley. Yeah I'm with you I'm a hundred percent with you I think all this does today is make sure that Daniel Jones is your quarterback for the next two years and Saquon Barkley's on the roster for next season and if you're a Giants fan that's what you wanted like yesterday that was the conversation you wanted Jones on the roster next year and you want to Barkley on the roster next year and now you got to figure out who's the wide receiver that you could go add that go gives you a legit number one wide receiver to see if Daniel Jones could continue to ascend kind of like what Allen did with with Brian Deball that Josh Allen who was solid but it was never you know it was inconsistent and there was some thought that he was going to be a bust but the moment he got the fun Diggs give Allen credit because Diggs then turned into a legit number one wide receiver instead of one of those in-betweeners that he was like in in Minnesota like a one or two so you got to give Allen some credit but you didn't see Josh Allen's career really take off until he got a legit wide receiver in there and Saquon or Daniel Jones just didn't have that legit wide receiver last year there. And you get a contract where you have flexibilities you only get about 19 million dollars against a cap this upcoming year so you have room if you want to get a receiver and also you have an out if he does not develop if he does not get to the level where you feel like he is truly the guy you've been out in two years where you can move off of him pretty easily and still maintain flexibility to try to find the next guy for your team going forward so it's a win-win for everyone. Yeah and it was also bizarre to me and I know Elliott Shore parks very well ESP and and I worked with him a lot when I was in Philadelphia great dude very entertaining guy but today like he was before this deal even came on out it was like up the Giants have botched this I don't see how the Giants botched this yeah you had to give Jones the deal they ended up getting the deal done with Jones and for Saquon now he's on the tag so I know that Ellie didn't have that information when it came out but it didn't make sense to me today Hickey where people are taking shots at at Joe Shane Joe Shane ended up getting the job done and didn't really affect the Giants long term and still I know that expectations increase when you make the playoffs this year and you win a playoff game but the Giants are ahead of brilliant where they probably should be at because of the crazy success and the success that no one could have saw coming this year. Everyone looks at four years 160 everyone looks at 40 million dollars per year and laughs is Daylon Jones worth 40 million dollars a year absolutely not but here's the only thing you have to look at guaranteed money that's the only thing that matters in any of these contracts going forward how much is guaranteed how much can you get out of and that's when yes when you look on the surface four years 160 it's easy to put in laugh at the Giants of oh my god I can't believe they made this mistake when in reality it's only a two-year deal for 82 million dollars and now you have a short-term opportunity if Daylon Jones can develop if not you move off them almost kind of no harm no foul that's all that matters and that's why this deal actually works out when you actually get in the details and you realize oh it's not a four-year 160 deal it's really almost a two for 82 kind of deal and I really do wonder how we're talking about Gino Smith and Daniel Jones next year because that's still crazy to me whether how much the numbers are true or not and the inner lookings of the number Gino got 105 over three and Daniel Jones got 160 over four and let's see how much they can repeat their success next year who do you think will be better Jones or Gino in 2023 um right now without knowing who the Giants are going to add at wide receiver I would say that Gino Smith is set up better to succeed next year as the Giants play in a tougher division and you look at Gino Smith he has Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf I think he's set up better for success why you think it's Jones oh yeah yeah I don't trust Gino at all I think Dale Jones even with a lesser crew have a better year next year next year okay if the Jets land Aaron Rodgers what are your expectations for them I'll answer that next Zach Gelb show CBS Sports Radio