00:00Adam Calvin is our NFL insider on SportsCrit and on Coast2Coast over two and a half decades
00:08covering the NFL.
00:09You can follow him for free on X at Kaplan NFL and that is a strong move for you, mister.
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00:21NFL season throughout the season.
00:24And today we're talking about the Patriots to start because they gave Ramondre Stevenson
00:31a bunch of money today.
00:32Yeah, they did.
00:34It's funny in social media.
00:36So fans that don't understand Scott, we'll get into it.
00:38Why would they do this?
00:39The guy's on the final year of his deal.
00:40He got hurt last season.
00:41Well, a couple things.
00:42And by the way, it's a four-year deal worth $36 million, so $9 million a season.
00:46We'll tell you what that means in the landscape of running back in a minute.
00:51But here's the deal.
00:52They're going to be a run-based offense.
00:54This is what they want with Gerard Mayo and the changes Alex Van Pelt as the offense coordinator.
01:01They want to be a run-first team.
01:02And to do it, you need what we call a bell cow.
01:05A guy who could handle the rushing load.
01:07Stevenson is terrific in the run game, went healthy.
01:09He's a good player.
01:10But he was beat up physically last season, a bunch of injuries, he tried to play through
01:13them.
01:14And he's also good in the pass game.
01:16And they knew he was going to go in the final year, the running back numbers are going up.
01:20They wanted him to be a Patriot for a long time.
01:23A lot of the holdovers on the staff knew him.
01:26They knew Stevenson.
01:27So they knew he could handle it.
01:29And they made a decision, why wait?
01:31You know, the Barkley deal was very rich, over $12 million a year.
01:34We know that McCaffrey got a monster extension.
01:37So when you really look at it, how much is really $9 million?
01:40He's the seventh highest paid running back in the National Football League is Ramondre
01:44Stevenson.
01:45And they're getting it early here.
01:47They're not going to wait and see the deals in frequency next year go up to $12, $14 million
01:51per season for the best young running backs.
01:53They got him at $9 million.
01:54By the way, Josh Jacobs got $12 million.
01:56And he's got a one-year structure.
01:58So this is their guy.
01:59There's no question about it.
02:00They're going to go forward with Ramondre Stevenson as the guy.
02:05He has a four-year extension.
02:07Now, as I understand it, I believe it's a two-year structure.
02:09I mean, it's the this year plus the first year, mostly fully guaranteed.
02:13Then they'll see how just the third year.
02:15But the bottom line is for the near future, he's the running back.
02:19And they made that decision.
02:20They were pretty definitive.
02:22Stevenson said recently to the local media that he was close to getting the extension
02:25done.
02:26Now he's got it.
02:27There's no debate.
02:28It's not Antonio Gibson, who might be a third down back.
02:31It's clearly Ramondre Stevenson, and again, at $9 million per season.
02:36Even Joe Mixon, Joe Mixon, who got $9.875 million in his new deal with the Texans.
02:41He's making more.
02:42And he's older than Stevenson.
02:43Listen, I got to be honest with you.
02:47I have no problem at all with that price tag.
02:51And I think that's a deal for the Patriots.
02:54Remember when Barkley was struggling to get $10 million out of the Giants, right?
02:59And then they gave him $11 million like they had done him a favor and gave him an extra
03:04million to calm him down because he wanted so much more than being tagged.
03:09I think this is the window, Adam, in my opinion, from frankly $9 million to in the range of
03:17$13 million and anyone else above that has to be extraordinary.
03:21Oh, yeah, because when Kamara did his deal three years ago at $15 million a year, I mean,
03:26he was one of the top three backs in the league.
03:29The Niners just took McCaffrey.
03:30They redid his deal.
03:32They got some cap relief, but they extended it $19 million per season.
03:35So you're right.
03:36If you want in today's NFL, because running backs typically don't get paid, if you want
03:40to get big time money, you've got to be exceptional.
03:42I thought you said that very well.
03:44Now, with Stevenson at $9 million a year, it's nowhere near what people are making out
03:50to be on social media.
03:51I don't know what the outcry is, but Scott's a really good football player and he's been
03:54a good fourth-round pick out of the 2021 draft for the Patriots.
03:58Yeah, it's a good deal.
03:59It's good for him.
04:00It's good for them.
04:01It makes sense.
04:03This is the marketplace now for that position.
04:07He is certainly not McCaffrey.
04:10I would say they got him for what he's worth.
04:13Exactly.
04:14Again, and by the way, he was not a free agent.
04:17It's another point we need to make here.
04:19He was on the final year of his rookie deal, so they extended it four years.
04:23So yeah, we stand here.
04:24It's not like he was on the street and signed a big free agent deal in March where, yeah,
04:29like Barkley did.
04:30You mentioned that.
04:31He gets just over $12.5 million from the Eagles per season.
04:33Well, he was an unrestricted free agent.
04:35He was on the market when this player was already on our contract.
04:37They didn't need to do this deal, but they did, and he's going to be on our team control
04:42for five more years.
04:43So it's actually a smart deal from the Patriots standpoint.
04:45Now, Guy, by the way, has been very productive for being a fourth-round pick, and he won't
04:49be much of a sharing situation.
04:50And I know that they were pretty impressed, as I understand it, with his ability to play
04:54through injury last season.
04:55He had a bunch of injuries.
04:57I remember he got hurt in their game in London, but he was able to play through injury until
05:01it just kind of ended his season.
05:03But this guy's been a good story, a fourth-round pick.
05:05I applaud the Patriots for getting this deal done.
05:07Yeah, and I'll tell you what.
05:09The Saquon Barkley deal, they were giving him $11 million with the Giants off of a tag,
05:15and then the Eagles got him for $1.5 million more.
05:18I thought that was a great move by the Eagles, and I do think he's worth $12 million.
05:23They gave him $12.5 million.
05:24So let's talk now about all of your tanning opportunities that are going to be going on
05:29in the great Golden State.
05:32You'll be in California a lot because at least five teams have moved their training camps
05:37to Cali.
05:39This is fascinating.
05:40And by the way, there are going to be six.
05:42Most of any state of the 32 teams are going to have six.
05:45Remember, the Niners in Santa Clara in Northern California.
05:48So this is interesting.
05:49So the Chargers, now you and I have done segments here on Coast to Coast, right, over the last
05:56three years when I've been at Costa Mesa for the Chargers camp at the Jack Hammett Sports
06:00Complex.
06:01Well, the Chargers are now moving to Los Angeles to what's called The Vault.
06:05They're going to be in El Segundo, right near LAX.
06:07So they have their own complex now.
06:09That's where we're going to do everything.
06:11So what's going to happen is another team is going to move in there from the same division,
06:15the ASC West.
06:16The Raiders, who talking to them, they want to get out of the heat.
06:20And they're going to move in there to that complex in Costa Mesa.
06:23So you'll see me from there.
06:24And I'm sure I'll do a segment on the field there.
06:26We're on the 40-yard line after practice, which is always fun.
06:30And now the Rams, who had been at UC Irvine for many years, they're going to move over
06:35to Loyola Marymount, which is closer to Los Angeles.
06:39And now, how about this?
06:40The Saints, now here's why they're moving to California just for the summer.
06:45They're building a cafeteria and it's not going to be ready because you can't not feed
06:48the players and the coaches in the front office.
06:50So just this summer, they're moving to Los Angeles.
06:55And it's just funny.
06:56And they're going to do it at UC Irvine.
06:58So now the Saints and the Raiders, and we'll see if they practice with each other because
07:02those camps are about 12 minutes from each other.
07:05As you know, that's in Orange County.
07:06So it's really fascinating.
07:08So Scott, we're going to now have five teams in the LA area, six overall in California.
07:13So it's really, really cool.
07:15So yeah, Irvine and Costa Mesa are like five minutes apart.
07:20I know.
07:21So you would think that they would...
07:23That's in Orange County and it's right near the airport there in Orange County.
07:30I forget, but I used to fly out of there all the time.
07:32John Wayne, right?
07:33John Wayne Airport.
07:35So they're probably going to train together, but when did they build this bolt in El Segundo?
07:43I never heard of that.
07:45Yeah, they just built it.
07:47They just built it.
07:48It is called The Bolt.
07:50And yeah, they actually just got it done this spring.
07:52So this will be their first training camp there.
07:54And in fact, they're going to do everything there, their practices, training camp.
07:57And you know what, that sports complex where I've been to in Costa Mesa, where I would
08:01do the segments with you, they really play soccer there.
08:04And I'll give them credit.
08:06They've done a good job of somehow having three football fields there, because you have
08:09to.
08:10For a training camp, you can't just have two.
08:11You need to have three.
08:12And they're able to do that.
08:13But it's not the biggest park in the world.
08:15And I just find it interesting that the Saints, who, by the way, had practice, ironically,
08:21with those same Chargers at that park.
08:23They're not going there.
08:24The Raiders are doing that.
08:26So yeah, the whole thing is fascinating to have five teams in LA.
08:29And of course, we have the Niners in Santa Clara, by the way, in Northern California,
08:34which is about 90 minutes or a little bit less from downtown San Francisco.
08:38So I took my son to Vegas and he was blown away by two things.
08:43One, the Allegiance Stadium, because he's never he's never been there.
08:49And he was like, wow, is that the is that the Raiders Stadium?
08:52I'm like, yeah, that's that's Allegiance where they had the Super Bowl.
08:55And he's like, that's amazing.
08:57And then I took him to the sphere to see the Grateful Dead.
09:02And he thought that was even five times cooler than Allegiance Stadium.
09:05I think that sphere is the coolest thing I've ever been in for a stadium of any kind.
09:11It's unbelievable.
09:12Great stuff today on Stevenson and all the moves to camps in California.
09:16Adam, thank you.
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