00:00All right, finishing up this week with our own Ben Standig.
00:06Just had somebody on from San Francisco talking about Ayuk.
00:09I mean, they know just as little about him as we do.
00:13I mean, and I can't even get an answer on whether or not if he reports,
00:20because I've seen some information out there,
00:22but I don't know how accurate it is,
00:24that if he were to report, would they immediately cut him?
00:31If that's true, why wouldn't he just have reported to one of those OTA days?
00:35Well, maybe because he's an idiot.
00:38How are you doing?
00:41Dude, I'm doing all right.
00:44This is why this whole Ayuk thing is weird.
00:47We're obviously hyper-focused on it because the expectation,
00:50the assumption that whenever he's free, he would come here.
00:54But the idea that, like you just said,
00:56that the people there don't even know what is seemingly happening.
01:00I keep making the joke that this is the one time I want to see a player
01:06workout video.
01:06I want to see a video of Ayuk doing something, lifting weights, running.
01:10Something self-promotional.
01:13Yeah.
01:13Anything that suggests he's interested in playing football.
01:17You know, the other day when I asked Jaden about Ayuk's future,
01:24like, you know, what's your sense?
01:25You know, I literally wasn't asking, is he coming here?
01:28I know he's not going to say that.
01:29It literally is, does he want to play?
01:32Like, what is the deal with this?
01:33Um, it is, that's the part to me that is truly the bizarre part.
01:38I get why these guys would potentially want him,
01:40but I've never seen a situation where a guy is this MIA and yet everybody's
01:46assuming he's going to just keep playing.
01:47It's bizarre.
01:50Yeah.
01:51Meantime, there's some, you know, you know, it's this time of year,
01:55you get people surmising people, you know, thinking out loud, uh,
01:59in their writing, like Dan Graziano and the guy from Sports Illustrated
02:03talking about Keyshawn Booty, uh, perhaps being moved from New England
02:07and Washington would be a likely, you know, interested party.
02:11What do you think about him?
02:14Yeah.
02:15I mean, the, the idea that New England would trade booty, that part,
02:18I, I totally get in light of, you know, they signed Romeo Dobbs,
02:21they get AJ Brand, that I get, um, I guess you'd have to tell me a couple
02:25of things like one, what's the cost, you know, after what Adam Peters gave
02:29up the last couple of years for Mark on Lattimore and Laramie Tunsell.
02:33I just don't get the sense that he is really looking to trade picks,
02:37especially when 2027 is also viewed as this big time, uh, class.
02:43So that's the part to me, I don't know.
02:45So you got to tell me what the pick is.
02:46If it's sort of a late day three, well, you know, sure.
02:50But like, so, so there's that young that, um, you know, I mean, look,
02:55he's a guy that's been a talented player.
02:57Like I said, I really haven't considered the fit here per se on the field, but yeah,
03:03I mean, on the, on the surface, he would be an upgrade over what they have at number
03:07two.
03:08Sure.
03:10Um, is there anybody that you're sensing they're high on that might surprise fans?
03:19I mean, I know everybody's living data, you know, not everybody, some people are living
03:23with, you know, sort of the play-by-play of some of these OTA days, et cetera.
03:27And there've been some nice things said about Jaden Bradley, the undrafted free agent.
03:32There have been some nice things said about Traylon Burks, including from David Blau.
03:36You know, let's just say we're going into 2026 with the group they have.
03:42Who would you be optimistic about after Terry?
03:48I don't know that my opinions have changed from where they started, which is to say, you
03:53know, it's an uncertain room.
03:55I mean, I do think, you know, I keep going back to the De'Ami Brown, uh, bringing him back,
04:01not to suggest that I think De'Ami Brown is the starting Z and everybody else can go watch
04:06him play, but he brings back that speed element that we saw they just did not have last year,
04:12especially when Terry was hurt.
04:14They just didn't have nobody else besides him.
04:16And just having that element, I think is key.
04:20Just like having a guy like who's a vertical receiver in Traylon Burks, um, you know, potentially
04:27if Jalen Lane, I don't know how much he's going to play on the outside.
04:30But like, you have a guy with four, three speed in, in, in lane and et cetera.
04:34Like, I think they have better pieces that fit to just sort of form a composite receiver
04:41over there.
04:42But I don't know that I'm sitting here going, they have a guy that Antonio Williams might
04:46be the wild card, but I, you know, it's just too early to, to, to say for sure.
04:50But I don't think that, I don't think there's a guy, I know people really want Traylon Burks
04:54to happen.
04:55I mean, I don't know what to say.
04:57I mean, I, I, it's based on his career.
04:59I'm not sure why we're saying that, you know, like, why wouldn't you just say that about
05:02De'Ami Brown?
05:03We actually saw him be really successful at the end of the 2024 season with this quarterback.
05:10But because we saw the whole story, we'd kind of know, well, this really was not, that
05:16was more of a blip.
05:16And I think with Burks, it's sort of the same thing.
05:18It's, he's not done anything consistently to suggest that this is, that he's the guy,
05:22even though he was a first round pick.
05:23So the answer to your question is no, I don't think there's anybody for me that is standing
05:28out with the acknowledgement that we just haven't seen Antonio Williams do enough yet.
05:33If they don't add another receiver and let's just say that they struggle at the position
05:41in 2026, what level of culpability will Adam Peters have for that?
05:48I think a decent amount, like on the one hand, you know, in the three drafts,
05:53he took, he takes Luke McCaffrey in the third, Jalen Lane in the fourth, and now Antonio
05:57Williams in the third.
05:59Okay.
05:59That's not nothing.
06:00Terry McLaurin was a third round pick, right?
06:01I mean, it's not like you can't find a guy on the other hand, you know, I mean, if none
06:09of them really kind of work out to the degree that we're, you know, you would expect somebody
06:13being, you know, it's a quasi starter, then that's, you know, I don't know, it's a form
06:18of poor drafting.
06:19So at a minimum, it's that, at a maximum, it's how are you not at a point when you have
06:24this extra cap space before Jaden Daniels gets paid that you didn't go harder in the
06:30way New England did with receivers for Drake May, the way the Bears did with receivers for
06:36Caleb Williams, the way the Broncos did this off season for Jalen Waddell, et cetera.
06:41So that, that to me would be like, why didn't you take a full advantage?
06:45Now, granted, he, they tried to go get Alec Pierce.
06:48They tried to get Dobbs.
06:50So not, not saying they didn't try, but right.
06:53Well, that's, that's the, that's the answer.
06:55Like, Hey, it's not that we didn't try.
06:59We just didn't land on anybody that we tried for.
07:04Yeah.
07:05And look, I, as I said, you know, there's some discipline in saying, Hey, just because
07:09we were willing to spend a ton of money to get Pierce, uh, doesn't mean we're just going
07:14to send a lot of money on anybody.
07:16Like it is certain guys were willing to do it for and others were not, but you know, at
07:21the same point, it didn't, it didn't happen.
07:24So, um, yeah, I mean, I think, I think it would be, it would be tough.
07:28I guess that however it needs to happen that you didn't sort of go more all in on the Jaden
07:34front.
07:34Now I will say that if you sit to me right now, who's ultimately going to be the number
07:38two target, I would probably say Chigakonkwo.
07:42And if he's able to provide that athletic power yards after the catch aspect that, you know,
07:49he demonstrated with the Titans, but now he can do it a bit more.
07:53If they, you know, let him run more routes and he was able to run in Tennessee, then
07:57it may be, that's the answer.
07:59Just like, you know, you wouldn't say Patrick Mahomes always had a great number two receiver,
08:03but he had Travis Kelsey.
08:04I'm not saying Chigakonkwo is that.
08:06I just mean, you know, the tight end can be that guy.
08:10And maybe that's where this is headed, that maybe that is the move they made.
08:13They didn't get Pierce.
08:14So they went and got that guy.
08:16And maybe that's the answer.
08:17And that's not a bad way to go.
08:19But other than that, yeah.
08:20Was, was Ertz the number two target in 24 had to be right after Terry in terms of targets
08:28had to be?
08:30I think so.
08:31I mean, I, I don't know if anything off the top of my head, I would think so.
08:33I mean, Noah Brown obviously just didn't play enough.
08:35Eckler missed a fair amount of games.
08:37Yeah, he was 91.
08:40Terry was targeted 117 times.
08:43Ertz 91 times.
08:44Ertz did have the second most receptions.
08:47Then it was Zacchaeus.
08:49Well, Noah Brown only played in 11 games and was targeted 56 times.
08:52So it's very possible that had he played a full season, he would have been.
08:57I was just trying to think of, you know, when you said Akonkwo being the number two targeted
09:03guy, that makes a lot of sense to me.
09:05But they haven't had a true number two yet with Jaden.
09:12Right.
09:12That's kind of what I'm saying.
09:13It's like, he's now been here, this is going to this year three and, you know, we talk about
09:19with Terry during his career, how he played with, until Jaden, he had different quarterbacks
09:23every single year.
09:25He's also, what's been the best number two receiver he's had since he's been here?
09:30I mean, you could argue Debo Samuel last year, but that really wasn't.
09:34And he didn't get to play with him enough.
09:36Yeah.
09:37Right.
09:37And also Debo's not a real number two receiver, but okay, you know.
09:41So, yeah, I mean, I think he really did.
09:43I think he liked Noah Brown.
09:45I mean, in 24, when Noah Brown was available, he did get targeted, you know, 56.
09:51I mean, he basically averaged close to, you know, five and a half targets per game, which
09:57would have been second to Terry had he played the whole season.
10:01But that was his issue, obviously.
10:04Yeah, exactly.
10:05Exactly.
10:05Exactly.
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