Free Agent Predictions + Dak's New Contract, ARob & Godwin Tagged - Fantasy Football Podcast for 3/11

News and notes from around the league. All right, you mentioned it earlier. The Cowboys and Dak Prescott have agreed to a four-year deal worth up to $160 million tied with Patrick Mahomes for third highest compensation or completion percentage. Not compensation. You can't tie with Patrick Mahomes in compensation. No. This is an interesting deal for Dallas. It was one that had to happen. Four years is not a lot because the way these deals work is, you know,

You lock up DAC. You're not talking about it for what? Two years. Right. But then you're talking about it again. Well, and that was the biggest sticking point was ironic. It's so funny because they were. They were franchise tagging him and that was the big no-no because you want the big long-term deal. But ironically, one of the sticking points was that Dak didn't want a five-year deal. Dak wanted a four-year deal because he's smart.

and knows that the salary cap is only going to continue to go up over the next several years. He'll be a nice young age when his contract is up and he's going to get a contract that makes this one look silly and dumb and small and stupid. All right. So DAC is the quarterback in Dallas. But that's great news. Yeah, it is great news. We all assumed it, but it's nice to have it happen.

The rest of the stat that I confused with compensation for a moment was that he's tied with Patrick Mahomes for the third highest completion percentage for the first four plus years in the NFL. So that's impressive. Kurt Warner in there, Deshaun Watson in there. A couple of veteran wide receivers have been released, Jason. Emmanuel Sanders, John Brown, both released by the Saints and the Bills. You're going to see a lot of this happening. We talked about it, the salary cap.

came in. It is official. It is lower than what it was last season. That's the first time that it's gone down in, I don't know, forever. Is it ever going down? It dropped from 198.2 million to 182.5 million. Yeah. And so you're going to see a lot of players like this that are cap casualties. We've seen them already. Kyle Rudolph. And so Emmanuel Sanders, John Brown, it's going to be a hard free agency market for them.

I would imagine someone the age of Manuel Sanders is probably done. Could be, unless he wants to go take a little one-year veteran deal someplace to try to win a championship. That's true. He could replace Antonio Brown. No, that is a perfect situation like that. Add depth somewhere. But you're right. You are going to see more of this?

And it will provide opportunities for those players that are inexpensive, inexperienced back behind these veterans. Gabriel Davis. Gabriel Davis. You can just say it. You don't even have to pretend to sneeze. That's, that's solid. There's really no reason for that. Was that supposed to be secretive for like? Can you trade for Gabriel Davis now? Of course. Oh, no, you can for sure. Okay, good. Yeah, he's done nothing, really. Right. So that's why I would do it.

But, you know, Mike is not here today, probably oodling Adam Troutman pictures at his house. Emmanuel Sanders, who's going to catch the ball in New Orleans? Well, here's the three players we know it's not going to be. It's not going to be Emmanuel Sanders. It's not going to be Jared Cook. Yeah. And who is the other tight end that just Josh Hill? Josh Hill is not going to be him because they're not on the team anymore. So Adam Troutman is looking like a more important piece of the offense.

All right. Ryan Fitzpatrick does want to play again. We weren't sure if we'd have to say some final words about him moving on. There were some retirement rumors from John Clayton. But he says he plans to play. Thank goodness. Yeah, we need him. It's good for America. Yeah. So I'm Brian. I don't think that there's any other news that we should cover the New England Patriots picked up Trent Brown. For nothing. Right. For a fifth. Not even for a fifth round pick.

for a fifth, seventh swap. Yeah. Like, that's why every team out there needing offensive tackle help is like, wait, wait, why didn't you maybe tell everybody that you were open to trade? Could have maybe gotten a little more. See what the market was. Yeah, but it's going to be fun to look at the entire market, see what team needs are and who's going where. Andy, I think, I think I will get it 100% correct. And you will get all of the picks that you say the same thing as me.

Correct. Okay. That's how I think it's going to happen. But before we get to our free agency predictions, I want to thank today's sponsor. Hello, Fresh. We've all used them forever. You get fresh, fresh, pre-measured ingredients. Fresh. Fresh.

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slash footballers 12 use the code footballers 12 for 12 free meals including free shipping once again that's hellofresh.com slash footballers 12 use the code footballers 12 for 12 free meals including free shipping hello fresh america's number one meal kit free agent frenzy all right another thing that was requested beyond the explanation of the franchise tag was

Maybe just giving a brief rundown on the various forms and structures for offers in the offseason. You got the unrestricted free agents, the restricted free agents, the exclusive rights free agents. And basically you boil it down like this. Unrestricted free agents. That's what you think of when you think they're not under contract. Like Brooks. We let him sign with anybody. That's right. He's always available. Always available. But nobody can afford him. Right. Because he's a billionaire. Yeah.

So an unrestricted free agent, that means they're on the market. A restricted free agent means the players can sign an offer sheet with another team, but their current team can keep them on the roster by signing him to a restricted tender. Yep. And then an exclusive rights free agent is not one. That's the way I look at it. It's a free agent wink. Yeah. Yeah, it basically means they can be a free agent if the team wants to let him go. Right.

So they have no control. They're like as far away from what a free agent is as humanly possible, except for they've got the name exclusive right free agent. So it might make them feel better. I think the exclusive rights is really attached to the team. The team has exclusive rights. That's right. Yeah, they have no rights. That's correct. And then when we say cap hit and dead money, what are we talking about there? So a cap hit's not necessarily what the player is being paid.

It's what they count towards the cap that season. Dead money is guaranteed money left on a team. Like, they're not on the roster, but they're still counting against the cap. There will be a lot of that going on. Like, for instance, Carson Wince has a dead cap hit right now on the Eagles, I believe, right? Yeah. That's gross. Lots of money. Yeah. Just a lay of the land here. I mentioned that the cap had changed this year. It will impact the money made in free agency as well as.

Some of these releases that are going to happen to veterans and to players and restructuring and all of that. The top five teams, cap space-wise, Jacksonville, then New England, just barely behind Jacksonville. The Jets, the Colts, and the Bengals are the top five teams, and the bottom five in debt, trying to figure out their way out of debt, getting to the cap number. The worst, the Rams right now, than the Saints.

Eagles, Bears, and Chiefs. And most of the time these teams do figure it out. They do figure it out and they maneuver their way, the way that Drew Brees, even if he might retire, he restructured some things so that the team has cap flexibility. And then it'll happen after the June 1st deadline or is it July 1st, one of those. And then, you know, it'll move 11 million off of their cap space. So.

The truth is we've done this for years, and most every year I look at what teams have available cap space and think they're the only teams that can sign important players. And then all of a sudden a team that seems like they have no cap space signs an important player. It happens every year. I don't know how they do it. Voodoo, magic, and cheating is my guess. But, you know, if you're a fan of the Saints and you're like, oh, no, we're super under, you know, we have no cap room.

You'll be able to do something. You'll figure it out. All right, a couple of important dates before we start the breakdown position by position. Monday the 15th, which is coming quickly. That is when the legal tampering period begins, which is when a lot of news is going to break, because that is when teams are permitted to enter contract negotiations, and you're going to have reports of signings. Yeah, I mean, usually over the last, the more recent years.

that's opening of free agency. Like free agency doesn't officially open until that Wednesday, the 17th. That's when they can actually sign the paperwork. But really, I think it's going to be when the legal tampering period opens up. But you can always be Frank Gord. Never forget. Which is to say, I'm going to sign with you when the league year starts, but then not do that. Right. Frank Gore was a Philadelphia Eagle during the legal tampering period.

Before he signed with the Colts, it was announced he agreed to terms and yada yada. And then a couple days later, he's like, well, I think I want to go with the Colts. And then the league year starts two days later, officially. And that is when official signings will happen. And that is the 17th of March. And free agency is official at that point. All right. Most of our predictions are going to be in the running back wide receiver tight end department. Quick lay of the land, though, at the quarterback position.

A lot of quarterback needy teams, also a draft in which I think there will be four first round quarterbacks drafted, maybe five. I'd say five. Five. I would say there will be five drafted. So that would be Lawrence, Wilson, Fields, Trey Lance. Yes. And then who's the fifth? Trey, Mac Jones. Yeah. So it's that possible. There are teams that are in a position where they have a quarterback, but you're looking to the future like Atlanta.

Atlanta's in the department. And then you have teams Carolina, Chicago, Denver, Jacksonville, New England, New Orleans could be looking to the future. The Jets. You have teams that 49ers. I was going to say they've got a quarterback and they hate them. Right. 49ers. Carolina Panthers. Yeah. And obviously at the top of the draft there's going to be. So, you know, it's like, okay, the Carolina Panthers are looking for a quarterback and, you know, the.

Bears are looking for a quarterback. Denver desperately needs one. There's not really a free agent market to fill the need. You've got James Winston. We were talking about that at lunch today and didn't really feel like there was a free agent quarterback that would be sought after. You'd rather draft somebody and save the money. Right. Because the two main guys out there in free agency are James Winston and Mitchell Tribusky. Now, Mitchell Tribusky is the worst and has...

has truly solidified that he is not a franchise quarterback. And I'm not sure if he's better than James Winston. So personally, my love for James Winston knows very few bounds that it's willing to stay behind. I would love to see him go to the Patriots and just for science. For science. Let's have James Winston, Tom Brady swap teams and see what happens. But the reality is those aren't players.

on the free agent market. And they're going to cost a lot more than a rookie would that will guarantee fix anybody's franchise. So most of the teams are looking to the draft or the trade area trying to get a Deshaun Watson or a Russell Wilson. Yeah, or behind that, it could be a situation where a Derek Carr or a Jimmy Garoppolo become available based on what happens in the draft if they're cut. I will say this. We had a show five years ago that Al Borland found where the question was essentially pick a player

in fantasy football, and you have to have them on your roster for 10 straight years. And at the time, my answer was Russell Wilson. Andrew Luck's name came up in that discussion. Yeah, he retired, though. James Winston's name came up by someone not named Mike and Andy. Or J. Gris. Oh, narrows it down. Owl. You. You. Cam Newton's name had come up at the time. This was five years ago.