- 2 days ago
ITL reacts to major headlines and what they mean for the league and the draft.
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00:00Some other teams made an offer and ultimately had it be accepted.
00:04Those teams being the Bengals and New York Giants, respectively.
00:09As Sexy Dexy, as they like to call him, Dexton Lawrence has found a new home.
00:13He was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals from the New York Giants
00:17for the number 10 pick in this draft and nothing more.
00:23That's a lot.
00:24It is a lot.
00:25That's a lot.
00:25But just the idea that he was traded for the number 10 pick in this draft
00:29without getting to the draft, I found that to be interesting, right?
00:32This wasn't him being traded on the clock for a pick.
00:35Traded ahead of the draft, a week ahead of the draft,
00:38for the number 10 pick for the Giants.
00:41And then, of course, the Bengals on the backside signed him to a one-year extension.
00:45We could talk about all those things.
00:46What caught your attention the most when you saw that this deal had been
00:50consummated to send the defensive tackle to Cincinnati?
00:52Caught my attention the most is I think they paid too much.
00:55I think that's a lot.
00:58Number 10 overall.
00:59But I do have some questions for you.
01:02Okay.
01:02For you guys.
01:03Let's do it.
01:03First question is, what are the Bengals doing?
01:07Making their defense.
01:09Well, actually, let me start with the larger 30,000-foot view.
01:12Trying to keep Joe Burrow happy.
01:14That, to me, is probably it, right?
01:15Right.
01:16Trying to keep the quarterback happy.
01:18We've had the conversations.
01:20And I think we've also looked at the conversation and said,
01:23well, this doesn't mean what we would like to try and make it mean.
01:26But Joe Burrow has been out here saying things that make it seem like he is not
01:30pleased with where he is.
01:31It worked.
01:32He hadn't been happy playing football in a little while, doing things of that nature.
01:36I think it is a reasonable thing to look at that and go,
01:40hey, are you losing your star quarterback?
01:42Yeah.
01:43Right?
01:43Would you like to keep him?
01:44Because when was the last time that the Bengals were real threats in the playoffs?
01:48Was it four years ago?
01:49Five years ago?
01:50Well, that's my second question.
01:51How much of a difference is this going to make?
01:52Right?
01:52And so you want to try and make that difference if it is capable and keep that quarterback happy.
01:58I think that it does.
02:00Because I also, because the Bengals have done a couple of these this offseason,
02:04it's easy to fall by the wayside.
02:06They've added a few big names.
02:07They added Boye Mafe on the defensive line.
02:10There was one other addition that I'm failing to remember in this moment.
02:13They've added a couple of pieces that made me go,
02:15that's not going to fix your defense.
02:16But what it seems like they're trying to do is go,
02:18we don't need a good defense.
02:20We just need an okay one.
02:23Is it good enough to just get a Dexter Lawrence and an edge rusher and Boye Mafe?
02:27Like, is that enough to get this defense to lackluster, okay,
02:32and then the offense will carry it?
02:33I'm not certain.
02:35It will be important to have that run stopper in there to at least, you know,
02:38try and slow down teams trying to run on them.
02:41You have an edge rusher that you feel good, feel decent about.
02:44Opposite, what's my guy's name?
02:45Miles.
02:47Miles, I forget his name, the edge rusher for Cincinnati.
02:50Miles Murphy.
02:52You have, like, okay, can this be a decent average defense to then match with
02:57what should be if everybody's healthy and up and down off,
03:01or, like, you know, obviously a team offense that can get up and down the field.
03:04I can kind of squint and see what they're trying to do.
03:07It does feel like this is just we are flailing to try and keep the light visible.
03:13That's where I am, Figgy.
03:14I think they're keeping Joe Burrow happy.
03:17They're appeasing him.
03:19They're doing, you know, I say marginal.
03:22Dexter Lawrence is a big piece, but they're making some moves on their defensive side.
03:26I still wonder, you know, is it just more window dressing, you know,
03:30in terms of the big picture of this team?
03:31Like, have they become a better – have they become a contender?
03:35Have they become a contender?
03:36I mean, health is going to be dictated.
03:38Yeah, I think it's all on Joe Burrow.
03:40Like, we saw what that offense can do.
03:42This is true.
03:43And that's kind of a scary offense, to be honest.
03:46It just had a god-awful defense.
03:48Well, let me ask it to you like this.
03:49Before you made these types of moves, when you're talking about last year
03:53or the year before, if they had had a healthy Joe Burrow for the entirety team
03:57or a healthy remainder of that offense, would you have viewed them as contenders then?
04:00I think so.
04:01Well, then they are now.
04:02Yeah.
04:02Right?
04:02I don't think that there's any difference, right?
04:04They still are in that place where you need to be healthy.
04:07But, yeah, now it's just – you're doing it with a relatively pricey, I guess,
04:12but not that pricey.
04:13I think it's pricey.
04:15Because they gave up the pick, but the reason why we thought it'd be pricey
04:17is you give up a pick, you have to pay big money to him.
04:19You gave him one year.
04:20They only gave him a one-year extension.
04:21When I saw that, I was more floored than the trade itself.
04:24I was like, okay, they went and got him.
04:26You're going to have to give him a big-time deal
04:28because it felt like that's what he was agitating for.
04:30They just tacked on an extra year of $28 million to his deal.
04:33So, they really still have him under control for, what is that, two years here?
04:37Yeah.
04:37And it says to me that he just really wanted out of New York by hook or by crook.
04:43Yeah.
04:43No, I think it's fair what you said.
04:45The one-year deal does make a big difference.
04:48Yeah.
04:48Now, it does make me wonder, though,
04:49is he going to be happy with the one-year deal for long
04:51or is this going to be a thing?
04:52Because Dexter Lawrence –
04:53Well, they'll revisit it, right?
04:55Especially if they have a good season.
04:56They're going to need to revisit it
04:57because he has gotten a little bit of a name for agitating for more money
05:01fairly consistently.
05:01And so, does that change just because he's no longer in New York
05:05and on a team that maybe has an opportunity to contend in a bigger way
05:08than the Giants had at any given time?
05:10I don't know.
05:11Is that a gamble that I'd be willing to take?
05:13I don't know, but it feels like they're in the circumstance
05:14where they feel that way.
05:16And then also, the idea that they traded this number 10 pick –
05:22It impacts what we're looking at ahead of the Texans.
05:24It seems like the – yes, it definitely does, right?
05:26That is one team that it seems like you were wondering what they would add
05:30and they apparently feel like they would rather the given of
05:34we know what Dexter Lawrence is even with the added cost or what have you.
05:38The guarantee there is worth more than any of the possibilities in the draft.
05:42Do you think that says anything about the draft itself
05:44or is this more just about the Bengals in the circumstance and appeasing Joe Burr?
05:47Well, you have another team.
05:49Now the Giants have two picks in the first round.
05:51Another team to contend with, see where their focus is going to be.
05:54Yeah, but I would suspect probably one of each offensively and defensively,
05:57so not a whole lot.
05:58Okay.
05:58Right?
05:59No, because, I mean, I see what you're saying.
06:02Now the Giants, yeah, the Giants, what their outlook will be
06:06in the way that they draft.
06:07I wonder if it shifts at all.
06:09Definitely feels like them at five could be a defensive player.
06:12However, now, and I'm pairing this with kind of other conversations,
06:15there's the consistent conversation about Jeremiah Love,
06:18and obviously he is one of the dudes that people are looking at
06:22as maybe one of the best players in this draft.
06:23However, he's running back player value, all of that position value,
06:27all of that pops up.
06:28If he's able to slide past those first four picks into five,
06:32this maybe makes it more possible that they end up taking someone like
06:36a Jeremiah Love.
06:37Talk about a one-two punch.
06:38They could probably get to a player of pretty significant,
06:42a solid defense impact at 10 as opposed to feeling like they need to take
06:47someone like a Sonny Stiles for defensive impact there at five.
06:50No, I agree.
06:50And they could also flip.
06:51I mean, those are the things that are happening right now.
06:54They could maybe find a team that they're happy with their running back
06:57situation, even though he's got concussions and everything else,
07:00and they could maybe flip and get another pick.
07:03I think it's a lot of possibilities.
07:05Yeah, I guess that is.
07:06What do you make, though, of the additional reporting on the Dexter Lawrence trade
07:10that apparently the agent prevented John Harbaugh,
07:13the new coach of the Giants, from talking to Dexter Lawrence?
07:16I think that's easy to do.
07:18I actually think that's very easy to do,
07:20and that just speaks to how badly he wanted out
07:22and how badly his agent wanted him out, right?
07:25Yeah, I think so, right?
07:26The idea that they're like,
07:27we're not going to let you come in here and be a soothsayer and talk to my agent.
07:30It just feels funny that they felt the need to be like,
07:33no, we have to protect you from the coach there.
07:35Don't talk to him at all.
07:36Don't look at him.
07:37Don't smell him.
07:38We don't want any of that.
07:39So, yeah, Dexter Lawrence in the AFC now,
07:42and maybe you have a team that jumps back into being a team that you contend with
07:46because after Trey Hendrickson leaves,
07:50which, again, that's another portion of this where you go,
07:52so you didn't trade Trey Hendrickson.
07:53You didn't get anything from him,
07:54and you went and paid for a defensive lineman.
07:56How do you make that work?
07:57But either way, it does feel like this might be a team that steps back into that room
08:00of crowded AFC teams that possibly could be contending with the Texans.
08:05The AFC is getting very crowded at the top.
08:07Right.
08:08Very, very much.
08:09Especially if you want to look at the AFC North.
08:12Yes, but the entire AFC, look what the Patriots did.
08:15Who do you feel like is at the top of the AFC North right now?
08:17Because we also found out that the Steelers have not gotten any assurances
08:21from Aaron Rodgers yet.
08:22Oh, God.
08:23Did you see who's going to be QB1?
08:25Yeah, that's what I was talking about.
08:26No, what do you mean, did you see?
08:27That's your man's.
08:28That's your man's.
08:28I know he went to K-State, but he finishes the Ohio State Buckeye.
08:31That's our man's.
08:31Will Howard set to be QB number one if they do not get Aaron Rodgers back.
08:36Right.
08:36Who is atop that division right now?
08:38Yeah.
08:38Oh, boy.
08:39Right.
08:39You got this team here adding in to Dexter Lawrence,
08:42but, again, how do you feel about the Bengals?
08:45You look at the Browns.
08:46They are the Browns.
08:48You look at the Ravens,
08:49who they still need to figure out offensive line and some of these things.
08:53With Jesse Minter there as the new head coach.
08:55Maybe that's what the Bengals think.
08:56Like, it's open.
08:57We have a shot here.
08:58Possibly.
08:59You know.
08:59They at least got a shot to win the division.
09:01To win the division, yeah.
09:03He said, did you see?
09:04That's your man.
09:05You're supposed to be telling us.
09:06You're supposed to be.
09:07You don't sound like you hyping your mans up.
09:09That's crazy, Fig.
09:10I thought y'all Buckeyes stuck together.
09:12I thought it was OH and all that.
09:15But, yeah, speaking of the draft, again,
09:17less than 80 hours to the first round starting on Thursday evening.
09:22And I thought that maybe we had already gotten our equivalent of the October surprise.
09:27Is this it?
09:28Ex-Georgia wide receiver Zachariah Branch,
09:30who is set to be a draft pick in this 2026 draft.
09:34Apparently he was arrested in Athens, Georgia.
09:38Now, the 22-year-old was charged with, quote,
09:41obstructing public sidewalks and streets or slash prowling
09:44and also obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
09:47And this, in a weird way, might be more alarming than the previous one.
09:53You think so?
09:53Just because it seems.
09:54Than the Reuben Bain information coming out.
09:56Well, because that was rehashed.
09:58NFL teams already knew about it.
09:59Well, I think Olly Connolly, in doing his reporting,
10:03did kind of drop something that felt a little eerie in that
10:05some people in the NFL were talking about waiting for another shoe to drop.
10:09And I was like, that's odd, right?
10:11Well, that would be, no, that would change things.
10:12But I'm saying, like, right now, because this was very recent,
10:16right before the draft, and apparently he was just being a jerk to officers.
10:24And so, to me, it was like, come on, man, your $39 bond.
10:28He got a $39 bond on this thing just for being, you know, difficult, put it that way.
10:33Yeah, this is one of those where it just made me go,
10:35Wait, why did this happen?
10:37What are you doing?
10:37Yeah, what are you doing?
10:38I do appreciate, though, that we are in a place where we can get a little bit
10:41more detail sooner on, and I think we can sort out.
10:44Not every interaction with the police ends up in such a place where we have to
10:47be like, yo, this dude is undraftable, whatever.
10:50Can I read you the, I guess, is this the police report or what happened?
10:55Quote, a male later identified as Zachariah Branch continued to stand on the
10:59sidewalk without making an attempt to move.
11:01I continue to give him verbal commands to move from blocking the sidewalk and
11:06advise that if he did not, he would receive a citation for blocking the sidewalk.
11:10He smirked, then stepped backwards and to the right, and then remained standing
11:13upon the public sidewalk so as to obstruct, hinder, and impede the free passage
11:17upon the sidewalk.
11:19Quote on, so on, so on, blah, blah, blah.
11:20I'm not going to lie.
11:21This sounds to me like a power trip more than it is Zachariah Branch actually doing
11:25something.
11:25Well, it could easily be the officer, you know, or the officers that were
11:30involved.
11:31Hey, move out the way.
11:31You didn't move enough out of the way.
11:33It could easily be that.
11:35But dude, if somebody asked you, ask any of us to move out of the way in a
11:40situation like that, an officer, what would you do?
11:42Move out the way.
11:44Right?
11:45So you're doing the, he might be mischievous?
11:47He's just being difficult.
11:48You know, for no reason, days before the draft.
11:52I think he caught a jerk.
11:53I'm sorry.
11:53He might, no, no, no, look, both, both are possibilities.
11:56Yeah.
11:56I think just me, if I was in that position, knowing I'm about to get drafted and all
12:01that stuff, not only am I moving out the way, I'm getting the hell out the way.
12:05I'm getting, I'm getting out of this area because I don't need anything.
12:08That's what I'm saying.
12:09Like you didn't like a penchant for being around trouble is what you're doing
12:12here.
12:12No, it's just like, why are you doing this?
12:14He's a troublemaker.
12:15He's a knucklehead.
12:16Even I'm not saying anything remotely close to that.
12:19What I'm saying is, as Figgy just pointed out, you are about to be drafted.
12:22Yeah.
12:22And you might have a jerk cop.
12:24Who knows?
12:24At what point is it worth it?
12:26Right.
12:26Right.
12:27That's what I'm saying.
12:28This ain't worth it.
12:29Even if the officer is on a power trip, even if it's like, you know that he's just being
12:34difficult.
12:35Oh, sorry, man.
12:36I'll get out of your way.
12:37You know what I mean?
12:37We all dealt with something like that where it's just like, man, is this even worth my
12:42time?
12:42It's not worth it.
12:42It's like, nah, this is going to cause more trouble with me just kind of standing my ground.
12:47Right.
12:48Yeah.
12:48There definitely was a feeling of maybe like two ways on this street, and he very well
12:53could have handled his portion.
12:54That's what I'm saying.
12:55It's just not worth it.
12:56Just get out of the way.
12:57I appreciate this commentary from Brent in the Heights on the text line.
13:00This might have actually helped this draft stock because it shows that he's a wide receiver
13:03that's willing to block.
13:05Solid.
13:05Solid.
13:06I got to give you your points for that one.
13:07That's not bad.
13:08So, yeah, I don't know that this will do anything, but maybe, right, maybe there is something
13:11within that.
13:13Something that we, oddly enough, we had talked about a little while back, but we were wondering
13:16if this would ever get done.
13:18It fell to the wayside, especially with the Texans going and signing the people that they did.
13:21Big Trent Williams.
13:22He seemed to be unhappy with the San Francisco 49ers to the point where we were like, oh, is it
13:26possible they could be traded?
13:28Apparently, Kyle Shanahan's confidence in the situation was vindicated this morning,
13:35in fact, as Trent Williams and Elite Loyalty Sports made NFL history again, is what they
13:39said, securing a two-year deal, $50 million with the Niners.
13:44So, the contract includes $37 million guaranteed, $22 million signing bonus, so on and so forth.
13:50But ultimately, those big fellas, between him and Larry Tunsil, they get paid, man.
13:54Yeah, they're just going back and forth, man.
13:56At this point.
13:57Yeah.
13:58I mean, shout out to Trent Williams, though, because he knew that, hey, man, if I can him,
14:01I can him these boys up and get this money.
14:02Absolutely.
14:03And he absolutely should, because it's the weirdest thing.
14:06I don't know that there's any, there's some, I'm sure, but there's, I don't know there's
14:10any non-quarterback bellwether on whether or not a team will win that is so clear than
14:15Trent Williams playing for the San Francisco 49ers.
14:18When he don't play, they are not good enough.
14:20Right.
14:20And how about Brandon Aubrey?
14:21Just reached an agreement to become the highest paid kicker in the NFL.
14:26Guess.
14:26Guess what he's going to make.
14:28All right.
14:28So, I know that there was a report, there was reporting early on that he was asking for
14:31one year.
14:32I think that he was asking for about eight.
14:34I'm going to say that he ultimately got seven and a half yearly.
14:37I'm going to say, I'm going to say they gave him 10.
14:41Brandon Aubrey, the first kicker in NFL history to make $7 million per year.
14:46Okay.
14:46$20 million guaranteed.
14:48Wait, how many years did they sign the contract for?
14:50$20 million guaranteed.
14:52How many years is this?
14:54For Brandon Aubrey.
14:56You're not answering my question, John Lopez.
14:57How many years of contract did he get?
14:58I don't know what the years were.
14:59Did they sign up to like a five-year contract?
15:01I guess.
15:03That's scary for a kicker because.
15:05$20 million.
15:06He's been really good.
15:07Don't get me wrong.
15:08Oh, yeah.
15:09Kickers, don't they just fall off a cliff sometimes?
15:10They can.
15:11We know it quite well in this city.
15:14We've seen it happen.
15:15Hey, shout out to the Cowboys, man.
15:16They negotiate contracts in the weirdest ways.
15:19$20 million.
15:20And they also make everything hard.
15:22It's either really easy for dudes that you should not be making contracts with really easily.
15:26Yeah.
15:26Or dudes that is just like, hey, you didn't have to make that this hard.
15:30You didn't have to.
15:31Shout out to the Cowboys, man.
15:32They be doing weird stuff over there.
15:33And finally, before we go, apparently Mike Vrabel will not be subject to the NFL's personal conduct policy.
15:40After the picture surfaced with him at the adult resort in Arizona with NFL insider from The Athletic, Diana Rossini.
15:50Yeah, I'm kind of not surprised by this in a way, but it's also still odd with the entirety of
15:55the circumstance that he would not be.
15:58The personal conduct policy, right?
15:59Like, this is the place in which you can maybe say that it falls in line.
16:04Like, there's an argument to be made.
16:05And I feel like in years past, especially when we were in the era of the NFL really policing morality,
16:11that they would have done this.
16:12This feels like the NFL is just like, we don't want these problems.
16:14No, this was about as predictable as you could get.
16:16You know what it's reminiscent of for me?
16:17You remember after Manfred got all the hell dealing with the Astros scandal?
16:22And then the Red Sox scandal came up?
16:24He was like, ah.
16:24He was like, hey.
16:26I remember what last time.
16:27I remember what this looked like.
16:28I don't want any of those problems.
16:29We just got to sweep this under the rug.
16:30No big deal.
16:30Nothing to see here.
16:31I don't want to do this at all.
16:33Yeah, I feel like that's what this felt like.
16:35In the NFL.
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