00:00This was Ian Rapoport at the Combine. I saw this yesterday, and we're getting to it. A week from
00:06today, legal tampering begins, baby. Noon on, I believe noon or maybe 11 a.m. our time, on Monday
00:13next week, teams can start going after free agents. They can start talking to them and agreeing to
00:19deals with them, and then they'll be official two days later at the start of the league year.
00:23I would imagine shortly after Wednesday, March 11th, the start of the league year is when
00:28I'm predicting within a week or two after that, we're going to see a Willie Anderson
00:32Jr. contract extension. I've been saying that. Here's Ian Rapoport with the latest.
00:37Deals come together when they come together, and a lot of times these happen later in the
00:41spring. I wouldn't be surprised if this one happens at some point in the relatively near
00:46future, mainly because what the Houston Texans have done, and what Nick Casario and D'Amico
00:50Rhines have established, is a team that takes care of their stars. Every negotiation is a
00:56battle. But if you look at what the Texans have done, they have paid their guys. I mean,
00:59Stingley was the latest, right? I mean, that was a huge deal, three for 90, one of the best
01:04corners in the NFL. I mean, they make it a priority to reward the guys who should be rewarding. You
01:09look
01:09across that defense, and they got a lot of guys who are really good, who are going to make a
01:13lot of
01:13money. I would expect Willie Anderson to be the first, and I would expect him to be very, very worth
01:19it.
01:19And as far as T.J. Stroud goes, wouldn't be surprised if that waits a year just to let him
01:23have a little
01:24better year under his belt. And obviously, Stroud is a much bigger topic than just the throwaway line
01:29at the end of that cut right there. But the crux of this is, Willie Anderson Jr. is going to
01:34get
01:34paid, he's going to get paid highly, and it sounds like Seth, he's going to get paid soon.
01:40Nico, who had more barriers, perhaps, to an extension because of his injury history,
01:46because he didn't have as long of an unblemished track record of extreme success,
01:50his was done by May. So, yeah. And I think the other thing, Nicole Lynn is Will Anderson's agent.
02:00Yeah. And I got to fact check myself on this, but I feel like with her, there's been less drama
02:05surrounding some of the extensions, with the exception of Miles Garrett. There was a lot of
02:11drama around his extension. Yeah. But he was also in a different situation than a lot of the other guys.
02:17Yeah. Well, and then this was, that was his third contract. And also he was with a bad team agitating
02:22for a trade. Once they came to the table with the money, Miles Garrett immediately put pen to paper.
02:28So I don't, I don't, I, you know, I don't know that it's too unanalogous to, well, that's where
02:32all, and it's almost, I'm trying to vote. One of the biases I got to check is I almost have
02:36like kind
02:37of a, uh, a positive bias towards the fact that Nicole Lynn is, is a female because I feel like
02:42she's
02:43somehow like less, uh, doesn't get her ego involved in it as much. Um, but I'm not sure
02:48if that's, that might just be bias on my part. Yeah. I just, um, the, the fact that Will Anderson
02:55is her client, um, and that Will has a good relationship with Miles Garrett, I've always
02:59felt a lot better than that, about that than the fact that CJ's, CJ's agent is David Mulligetta.
03:05And I don't want CJ to act the way some of David, the way some of David Mulligetta's clients
03:09of X. Well, I, this is what you, you, you brought up Nico, which is fair. Like Nico was the
03:13first
03:13one of these guys that Nick, you know, after three years did an extension with, I think the,
03:19to me, the one that I look at is Derek Stingley Jr. Who is a Mulligetta client. Yeah. And last
03:25year
03:26Stingley's deal was done on March 18th, which was a week and like a week and two days after the
03:32league
03:32year had started. Um, that's what I think. And he was, he was made the highest paid player in his
03:37position. The contract was nearly fully guaranteed. Um, I would expect, we'll make it a longer
03:43contract who knows, but I think it's going to be a similar situation. I think I would not shock me
03:49if by say March 20th, Will Anderson Jr. Had a three year, $147 million deal. That was 140 of it
04:00guaranteed or something like that. Yeah. No, make him the highest paid non quarterback in football.
04:04The one thing about that is with a lot of these guys that the Texans have given this extension to
04:10it's, you know, Nick's not afraid to be right at or ahead of the curve a little bit because he
04:15knows
04:15where it's going. And so far they've done it with players where they, they're players that do
04:22everything the way they want everybody to do. And they've produced it on the field. And I think that,
04:26yeah, they understand injuries are going to happen and everything, but it's just, it's hard to,
04:30a lot of these guys that they've extended, if you want to replace that guy at some point,
04:34you might end up spending three or four draft picks to get a guy of the same caliber if you
04:39ever do at all. Yep. And you get that, you get that predictability of what your costs are going
04:44to be moving into the, moving forward. I think that Will Anderson Jr. is 100% the epitome of
04:50everything they want on their team. And it's not, it's not going to be rocket science necessarily
04:56in trying to find the number. And I think it helps that the three guys they've done that with,
04:59the three guys that they have given second contracts to after year three are Nico Collins,
05:05which looks like a phenomenal deal. Now, Derek Stingley Jr., which I think looks like a good
05:09deal for, he's a first team all pro. He's the highest paid second highest paid guy behind sauce
05:13right now. That looks, that deal looks fine. And then Jalen Petrie, his contract, they did him in
05:19April of last year. That looks like one of the best deals in football right now. He's getting 13 million
05:24a year and he should have been, he got all pro votes this year. I would say with Nico,
05:30the one catches that his injuries have remained an issue. They were, you know, they were an issue
05:36this year. He wasn't available at the final loss in the playoffs. Yep. So his injuries have been an
05:42issue, but the contract was already kind of modified because of that dynamic. Yeah. Yet I still think
05:48it's a good deal. He's going to be by the end of this off season. He's not, he's, I don't
05:51think
05:51he's going to be in the top 20 paid wide receivers. So that, that part of it, I still feel
05:57good about
05:57that extension, even though the injuries have remained a problem. He was a, he was a first
06:01team pro. He was a, he was a pro bowl starter and a second team all pro, you know, so
06:06however
06:06he got there and now that this, then that this last injury was a concussion. He had two concussions
06:11this year, uh, one in the regular season and one in the post season. I think that's just something
06:15to sort of keep an eye on, but here's one more from Rapoport. And this is probably why a big
06:20reason why Will Anderson jr. Is going to be probably the highest paid non quarterback
06:25from my kind of understanding of where the Texans are. Like, I think he's at, they thought
06:29he was awesome to get it up for him. Right. Great moment. I broke it. Um, he has been, I
06:36believe better than they thought he's they thought he was great and he's been better. Now, the fact
06:41that that defense is so unbelievably good that they make everyone around better. The, the Neil
06:48hunters of the world and you got, yeah, everyone in the secondary seems going to get paid. It's
06:52I mean, that is a star studded defense. That, that last part he said there, Seth is the most
06:56interesting thing to me. The Will Anderson jr. Contracts are going to get done. I mean,
06:59that's like, that's just, that's going to happen. That's the most interesting thing to
07:03me of the core, like seven or eight guys on that defense. And I think we can, you know,
07:08we can rattle them off chapter inverse. Everybody knows who they are. Who's the first one that
07:13they're going to have to make a hard decision on and say, yeah, I don't think it's going
07:17to be, I think Kamari Lasseter is going to be here longterm. They just say too many things
07:21about what he means to that team in and out of the building. Um, could it be Kaelin, Kaelin
07:26Bullock eventually a guy like that? Maybe it's funny. Uh, I admit, I had mentioned something
07:30about Daniel Hunter being long in the tooth, uh, on a live stream a couple of weeks ago.
07:35And one of the viewers made a very good point, which is like, is that really what long in
07:40the tooth looks like? Yeah. I mean, just by on paper, he's getting old and yes, but there's
07:48not a thing, single thing about Daniel Hunter that looks like he's getting old. I guess the
07:53question would be over, should I expect that he's going to look like that four years from
07:58now where the injuries aren't going to mount up? Right. Here's the thing. The guys that drop
08:02off, it's not like all of a sudden they drop off and go there. Look, there's a beer belly
08:05on the guy. It's at some point is he not going to be worth the money. Yeah. Yeah. The twitchiness
08:10doesn't show up on an eight by 10 glossy of a guy. Right. But as of all guys that could
08:14age really well, and there aren't a lot of speed, you know, Bruce Smith or the guy, the
08:19first guy I'm thinking of that kept playing a long time, but he became a six, seven, eight
08:24sack a year guy. Um, and then the question is, okay, how much do you want to pay that guy?
08:29Or if Daniel Hunter gets to the point where, all right, he's only playing on third and long
08:33or second and long. What's that worth? And does he just want to stick around? And so I guess
08:40maybe this is me punting on the question of taking the easy way out. I think just by the fact
08:44that
08:44he's, he's, gosh, he's still only, he's going to be 32 this year. He's got, he's got four years
08:50left in him. You think that you think at that position, he can play at a really high level
08:54till he's 35. I wouldn't say so, except that he's so strong too. Yes. And it's not, it's not
09:02blazing speed. That's his calling card. It's his overall athleticism and strength and his
09:08technical ability. Yes. The technical ability, if anything gets better with each successive
09:12year. This is the story of most defensive linemen's career. I know this because I lived
09:16it. Uh, you get to a point around year nine or 10 where you're like, Holy crap. It's like
09:21everything is in slow motion out there. I know which plays are coming. I know how to beat
09:25everybody, but ow, I tore my ACL. That's a, that's a, and, or, or, ow. Oh, well, my legs
09:32aren't moving as fast as I want them to. Ted used to say that Ted's like, everybody asked
09:35how I got so much faster in 2003 and 2004 when we were winning Superbowl. He's like, I
09:40wasn't, he's like, I was slower. I just knew what was coming. He's just somebody, yeah,
09:43he's smarter. You're taking, you're taking one less step to get there because you're not wasting
09:47a step early on. Exactly.
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