 The free agency period has been filled with many surprises and we're here to give you our take on the biggest transactions. We'll be getting you caught up with all the big names that have signed with different teams. Mention who we believe were the winners and the losers during this whole free agency period and give you three players who are a huge discount for their new teams. NFL News & Notes as well on a brand new episode of Time 2 Football. Glad you guys can join us on this wonderful Thursday. Welcome to SonCon, the host of this show. Free agency has been crazy this whole week. There's been trades as well that's been happening. Some attempted trades as well with Russell Wilson. We'll get into that later on when we talk about NFL News & Notes. But just seeing all the transactions happen and all these players going on to new teams and franchises and starting their new journeys with these teams makes me so excited about the 2021 season. It makes me actually miss fantasy football because I'm already thinking in my head like, oh, this player goes to this team. What's his fantasy football value like in 2021? So make sure you guys hit that subscribe button so you guys can stay up to date and stay tuned when we come out with videos mentioning these new free agents and their fantasy football potential in 2021. We're going to be talking about that for the whole entire off season as well as hitting us up on iTunes. If you guys want to listen to us on the go, just search for us on the podcast app, search Time to Football, all one word with the number two, subscribe, rate and review, listen to us on the go at any time at your convenience. Before we get into the free agent talk of this episode of Time to Football, we're going to get into the NFL News going around the league. We're not going to mention all the transactions that have happened. That's just going to be crazy. So I'm just going to go ahead and just mention some big headlines that have been happening for the last week or two. I think the biggest one so far outside of free agency, the biggest headline is that Saints quarterback Drew Brees has officially retired. His 20 year career in the NFL has come to an end. He has set numerous records in the NFL and he gets to enjoy life now as a retiree in a future Hall of Famer on top of that. So Drew Brees has retired, began watching football in 2006 when he was in his first year with the New Orleans Saints and how he just turned it all around with Hurricane Katrina hitting and grew up watching Drew Brees. So congratulations on a great career. We've been mentioning trade talks and a lot of players have been under the talk of potentially being traded, including David Najoku, the Cleveland Browns tight end, has been in conversations of being traded this past season in 2020. But on top of that, those trade talks have now reopened. So the Browns are still looking to move on with David Najoku and they're asking for a third rounder at least. So David Najoku is on the trade block. There are three teams currently interested in trading for a wide receiver. Nakeel Harry, if you guys forgot about him, he was a first round pick. The last pick of the first round of the 2019 NFL draft was drafted by the Patriots, has not panned out in the Patriots system and many teams have inquired about Nakeel Harry with Bill Belichick and the Patriots organization. Want to make a move and let's see if he has some sort of potential for him to be a star wide receiver somewhere else. Another wide receiver that could be a star with another team that's guaranteed to sign with another team, Kenny Golliday is visiting the New York Giants later tonight. So by the time that this podcast premieres on YouTube and then later on, he's going to have another visit with the Chicago Bears. But not only that, the Cincinnati Bengals are also interested in Kenny Golliday. So three teams, the Bears, the Giants and the Bengals have inquired about Kenny Golliday. Speaking of the Chicago Bears, oof. They've made some headlines this week with their failed attempt at trading for Russell Wilson. Crazy offer that they made John Schneider in the Seattle Seahawks. Three, not one, not two, but three. First round picks, a third rounder and two starters for Russell Wilson. That was the offer that Chicago put on the table to John Schneider. Actually, as a matter of fact, I think the story was that they were in North Dakota, I believe it was Ryan Pace, the general manager of the Bears and John Schneider, the general manager of the Seahawks in North Dakota at the same time at the pro day of Trey Lance in North Dakota State Quarterback where they discussed this and they said, listen, my man, Schneider, I'm going to go ahead and offer you three first round picks, a third rounder and two starters for Russell Wilson. Pete Kerr, on the other hand, has a little bit more power than you would think for a head coach. He said, nah, I'm not in a rebuilding phase. We're going to hold on to Russell Wilson from this point forward. We're not going to trade them anytime soon. So the Bears got declined from three first rounders and all of that on top of that. So that's the NFL News and Notes around the league. Now to get into the free agent news, notable signings that have been happening around the NFL. Speaking of the Chicago Bears, we have to mention for the time being their franchise quarterback at least for another year, Andy Dalton has signed with the Chicago Bears once the trade fell through for Russell Wilson, signing a one year, $10 million contract with the Chicago Bears. So it's expected that he's going to be the quarterback for the 2021 season. This was not well received by a lot of people. A lot of people believe that, okay, maybe you got the offer declined for Russell Wilson, but maybe you could sign another quarterback that was on the market. A lot of people were saying maybe Jacobi Percet was a better option than Andy Dalton. People were saying, just go with more youth. Maybe go in the NFL draft and draft someone, which is still a possibility, but Dalton is going to be the quarterback. And I'm not a hater of Andy Dalton. I love Andy Dalton. I think he's very talented, but as far as the criticism goes, I understand where people are coming from, where you could go in one direction the Bears could and drafting a quarterback of the future or signing another quarterback that's much younger than Dalton. Instead, it's looking like Dalton is going to be a bridge quarterback, hopefully for himself and for the Chicago Bears so he can develop into what could be a starting quarterback for the next three or four years. Another big name that has been signed, a seven-time pro bowler, Patrick Peterson, the quarterback who used to be a part of the Arizona Cardinals team has now signed with the Minnesota Vikings. If we're talking about a one-year, $10 million contract, that also goes into consideration when you talk about Patrick Peterson who signed for that amount. Bolsters, the Minnesota Vikings defense. Defense has not been a weak point. Some parts of it has, maybe the secondary has lacked a little bit ever since Xavier Rhodes kind of went on the decline and then eventually ended up with the Indianapolis Colts. So they needed some help at the quarterback position and Patrick Peterson, they believe is the answer at this point. He's a little bit further in his career at this point so maybe it's a little bit past his prime, but Patrick Peterson can still get it done. He's still a very talented player in the NFL. He's gonna do a lot of work and a lot of damage for that Minnesota Vikings defense. So Peterson, now a member of the Vikings. A veteran quarterback will continue his NFL career. Drafted in 2005 at the seventh round, he is playing for his ninth NFL team. Ryan Fitzpatrick has signed with the Washington football team on, I guess what, one-year, $10 million contract. That just must be the contract nowadays that you offer all these players. Fitzpatrick is expected to be the starting quarterback with Taylor Heineke competing for the starting quarterback position, but is expected that Fitzpatrick will be going into the 2021 season as the starter and Heineke will be the backup. How does this play out? Is this a good move for the Washington football team? In my eyes, 100% yes. If you have the money, if you have the cap space that the Washington football team did, offer that to a quarterback. Offer that to one of your weakest positions that was kind of holding you back and making a further playoff push. Heineke, he's great, he's wonderful, but you wanna go with someone that you can really trust and you know has done really well in the NFL and has proven to be a good starting quarterback and that is Ryan Fitzpatrick. You can't really trust anyone else on the free agent market more than you could a veteran like Ryan Fitzpatrick. So he's gonna be a reliable quarterback and on top of that, the football team has made a strong push in improving their offense. I mean, you got Ryan Fitzpatrick, you got Terry McLaurin as your wide receiver one and then they signed a Curtis Samuel to a three year contract as well. Another Ohio State wide receiver rejoins with Terry McLaurin in Washington and then you got Antonio Gibson up and coming running back on that Washington offense as well. So they're making some moves and they've really solidified their offensive line as well. So that defense we already know can get it done but that offense of Washington, watch out for him. A very underrated wide receiver that doesn't get the credit that he deserves. Marvin Jones is now officially a Jacksonville Jaguar signing a two year, $14.5 million contract with the Jaguars. Here's the interesting nugget about Marvin Jones. He played out his entire five year contract with the Detroit Lions. That's almost unheard of nowadays in the NFL, especially a guy at his position at wide receiver where they're so expendable and they get rid of them right before the contract ends, played out the whole five year contract, very good wide receiver in the NFL and he's gonna be a good weapon for Trevor Lawrence who's expected to be the Jacksonville Jaguars number one overall pick. His weapons are coming in for Jacksonville and if Trevor Lawrence, which we presume is going to be the number one overall pick can really come in and be that guy that a lot of people are saying is gonna be the NFL, most NFL ready quarterback, Lawrence and that Jacksonville Jaguars offense could do some damage in 2021. So Marvin Jones officially a Jacksonville Jaguar. Another underrated wide receiver, Corey Davis finds a new team. The former first round pick of the Tennessee Titans did not do well with the Titans until his last season with them last year having 900 yards receiving and five touchdowns and now he's gonna be a weapon for Sam Darnall at this point, which the Jets haven't really made moves at this point to try to get another quarterback. They've thrown out some offers in the way of the Houston Texans to try to get to Sean Watson. We don't really know if they've tried to sign another veteran free agent quarterback, but Corey Davis at this point with Sam Darnall who legit might have some talent if he's under the right coach and has the right weapons around him which he's lacked for his entire NFL career. Him and Corey Davis could light it up and Corey Davis could be the wide receiver one for the New York Jets and Jameson Crowder could be a good slot receiver dump off kind of guy. So Crowder, Davis team it up with Sam Darnold another aging wide receiver, Emmanuel Sanders one year $6 million with the Buffalo Bills was released by the New Orleans Saints because they needed to create some cap space. So the Bills at this point can plug and play almost any wide receiver in that system, in that offense and they'll do just fine. Emmanuel Sanders has really outplayed himself considering his age and this late in his NFL career. Like I said, plug any wide receiver in that system. You're gonna see Gabriel Davis step up in the absence of John Brown as well and Emmanuel Sanders is a good replacement, a cheaper replacement. They actually saved three and a half million dollars by getting rid of John Brown and signing Emmanuel Sanders. So pretty good move by the Buffalo Bills and this Buffalo Bills offense is just gonna continue to keep rolling with Josh Allen. A former Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor finds a new home with the Houston Texans signing a one year 12.5 million dollar contract with the Texans. Okay, so I gotta stop right there. The Texans are doing the best that they can. Really, I actually give them credit for how they've handled the off season situation for having no picks in the first and second rounds with all this controversy that's going on with DeSean Watson with the sexual assault allegations and him wanting to be traded as well on top of that. They're trying to get all their bases covered just in the case that they move on with DeSean Watson. Now at this point, because of those allegations, you might not get as much out of DeSean Watson if you were to trade them right now instead. You might only get one first rounder, maybe even just one second rounder out of DeSean Watson because you don't know if he's gonna be playing in 2021. Before, if they just made that trade immediately with like the New York Jets or the Miami Dolphins or whoever, they could have gotten maybe two, three first rounders out of it. But now it's not looking good since those allegations came out with DeSean Watson and Tyrod Taylor was signed to a pretty big contract for 12.5 million dollars just for one year just in case that it doesn't work out with DeSean Watson. So you could say that this money is not backup money, which it isn't. So could we see Tyrod Taylor be the starter for the Houston Texans of 2021? Hassan Riddick, that's a good name, Hassan. One year, eight million dollar contract with the Carolina Panthers. A good linebacker in the NFL. Double digit sacks last year, one of the more underrated guys. You wouldn't know about them unless you were a big football fan. I know that Romeo Arquois with the Detroit Lions is also another one of those guys. Underrated guys like those and I would put Hassan Riddick in that category. So an eight million dollar contract reunites with Matt Ruhl to bolster that Carolina defense. When I say reunites, he played at Temple under Matt Ruhl. And that's very, very big for the Carolina Panthers defense because for the past two years the run game has been horrendous. I mean, when you talk about fantasy football I always play my running backs against the Carolina Panthers because I know how bad that run game can be. So hopefully Hassan Riddick can put that run game or that run defense in check and be a great improvement for the Carolina Panthers which I believe that he's going to be. So that defense for the Carolina Panthers with Hassan Riddick there, with Brian Burns is up and coming player as well with Jeremy Chen who's a candidate for rookie of the year last year. They got some pretty good pieces in that Panthers defense. This actually just happened. Will Fuller signed a one year contract with the Miami Dolphins. When I said this just happened, I just got a notification as I was filming this podcast. So I don't know the details so far as far as how much money is going to be. I feel like it's going to be a lot of money. There's been talks about Will Fuller breaking the bank for the wide receiver market and free agency could sign him close to a 15 or $16 million deal a year. Will Fuller could. So with the Miami Dolphins he lines up with Davante Parker. So Parker and Fuller sounds like a deadly scary wide receiver combo right there. And you got some weapons in that offense as well. And it's all up to Tua Tugovar Loa and how much progression he makes with a Dolphins offense to see how Will Fuller and Davante Parker and this Dolphins offense can perform in 2021. As far as his stats and his numbers go, I don't think that he's going to reach that peak that he was with the Houston Texans. I think it's going to take a little bit of a step down with the Dolphins offense but still as far as the spot goes with a team that was so close in making the playoffs trying to make the playoffs, trying to compete in the AFC East, Will Fuller making a good decision signing with the Miami Dolphins. So those are some notable names that I wanted to mention. Just those, I believe nine players that signed with other NFL franchises. There are some many, many more names that have signed with other teams that are actually big names. I'm going to mention some honorable mentions. Yannick Negakwe to Las Vegas. Trey Hendrickson, we just mentioned him earlier. Very underrated to Cleveland Browns. Actually the highest paid defensive end thus far in free agency. Bud Dupri to the Tennessee Titans. Karr Rudolf, this happened just now. To the New York Giants. Kenyan Drake happened earlier today to the Las Vegas Raiders. Mitchell Trebisky, a backup quarterback to the Buffalo Bills. And so, so, so many New England Patriots. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. The winners and losers of free agency. Let's talk about that real quick. And I think we have to mention the New England Patriots when we talk about this. I mean, there's no other team that I can think of so far that has made a bigger splash in free agency than the Patriots. Let's just recap the Patriots free agency period thus far. It all started when they re-signed Cam Newton to a one-year, $14 million contract. And people were thinking $14 million for one year. Number one, I didn't think he was gonna come back. I thought that experiment failed. I thought they were tired of Cam Newton. They were like, okay, this was a bus. Let's just move on. Let's get a quarterback in the NFL draft. Which could still happen. But they bring in Cam Newton back into that New England Patriots locker room and you're thinking to yourself, okay, well, he's probably gonna be a backup. But like we mentioned with Tyra Taylor earlier, $14 million, that's not backup money. It really isn't. You're gonna expect Cam Newton to be the starter at least for one more year for the New England Patriots. So what do you do at that point? You need to give him weapons at this point because we all know that Tom Brady left that Patriots team because one of the reasons was the lack of weapons. And because the front office and the general manager, who is also Bill Belchick, by the way, was not doing a very good job and trying to bring in some weapons for Tom Brady. And then we saw in 2020, that all collapsed. We saw what could happen when you don't have weapons for a quarterback. That's not Tom Brady. Your team gets even worse. So Cam Newton, if you wanna bring him back for the 2021 season, let's sign some free agents. Who do we got? You need a tight end. I mean, Ryan Izzo who just got traded to the Houston Texans for a seventh round pick. He's not gonna be the guy. Asiata is not gonna be the guy as well. They haven't found a solid tight end since Rob Gunkowski left. Let's sign John Smith, an underrated tight end athletic who played for the Tennessee Titans could be a force in the NFL. Let's bring him in to make us a dominant team on offense as far as the tight end position goes. Okay, John Smith, your starter. Lot of money, four years, $50 million contract. You need some wide receivers on top of that. Let's bring in Kendrick Bourne, an underrated wide receiver little bit underneath the radar for the San Francisco 49ers can still be very good for this offense. Let's bring in another wide receiver on top of that for Cam Newton. Nelson Aguilar who's really improved since he's been dropping balls with the Philadelphia Eagles had a good year with the Las Vegas Raiders. So you got two solid wide receivers right there. Okay, cool, are we done? No. Let's bring in another tight end, Hunter Henry which I believe was the best tight end on the market signing a three year 37.5 million dollar contract with the Patriots. Head scratcher, you've got John Smith and Hunter Henry, two tight ends. Why do you need two tight ends to large contracts for this Patriots offense? Couldn't they be reverting back to a two tight end set? What Aaron Hernandez and Robert Gunkowski were for the Patriots a decade ago when they had so much success with that duo. I mean, you line them up in two tight end sets bunched up in the I formation or you can line them up wide if you wanted to as well. One outside, one in the slot, one at the tight end position. It doesn't matter, the possibilities are endless. This offense is getting better and better and better and they're still not done because according to multiple reports they've tried to make a push for a star running back. Now they haven't released the names of the star running backs that they pursued. There have been two of them, but we presume that it was either Chris Carson or Kenyan Drake, one of the top running backs on the free agent markets at this point. They're also make some moves on the defensive side of the football as well signing Jalen Mills from the Philadelphia Eagles, Devon Gacheau from the Miami Dolphins and then also trading for Trent Brown. So they're offensive line, they're trying to bolster as well and protect Cam Newton. Guys, there's a trend going on here. They want this offense to be great so that they can compete in the AFC East. Are they better than the Buffalo Bills at this point? No, absolutely not. The Bills are obviously the better team getting to the final four last year, but can they compete with the Buffalo Bills and make it a little bit harder for them and winning the AFC East potentially it's possible. I mean, they faced twice a year and I would not be surprised if one of those games, the Patriots pulled off the upset with this offense. I mean, year two with Cam Newton in this offense, Trent Brown coming in from a trade, all these weapons, four weapons for Cam Newton to play with. I'm liking what Bill Belichick and the general manager of Bill Belichick is doing in that Patriots offense. So that's why I believe that the Patriots are the biggest winners. So far in free agency. That's my thoughts, but hey, if you guys have any sort of comments or opinions or anything, leave a comment down below, interact with us and let us know who are your biggest free agency winners thus far. Which team has had the best free agency period in 2021? The second team that I would say is a big winner, the Arizona Cardinals. And Cliff Kingsbury and the Cardinals for an office is doing a very good job in trying to bring in the right weapons. It's not the sexiest weapons, it's not the biggest names, but they're bringing in the right weapons that you need to help this offense just grow. I think the biggest name that they brought in was actually AJ Green to be a compliment to Deandre Hopkins or maybe even Christian Kirk. He could be a wide receiver three, who knows? But the Cardinals are bringing in AJ Green, who's a big name, but that's not the biggest move that they made, even though he has the biggest name. I think the biggest move that they made was obviously JJ Watt, which they signed a couple of weeks ago, but also Ronnie Hudson that they brought in from the Las Vegas Raiders via trade. So the Raiders attempted to release Hudson and prior to them releasing, they said, hey, if any NFL team is interested in Ronnie Hudson, let's go ahead and trade them away. We can make you an offer. And the Cardinals made them an offer and they traded away a third round pick for Hudson to get some offensive line help for Kyla Murray, who has been lacking some offensive line help for the last two years. So to bring in Hudson, they signed Kelvin Beachham to a two-year contract extension on top of that. Now, the biggest loss that they had was Hassan Redick on that defense side of the ball, but you bring in JJ Watt as a replacement to that, line him up on the opposite side of Chandler Jones. I think that defense is gonna be just fine as far as the defensive line goes. This offensive line, we just mentioned, is gonna be fine with a two-year contract extension to Beachham and then Ronnie Hudson coming in via trade. Kyla Murray's gonna be well-protected. You got an extra weapon, an additional weapon if you wanted, and AJ Green. And on top of that, saying Gonzalez has been a little bit on and off for the Cardinals as of late, he was released and then Matt Prater was brought in to be the new kicker for the Arizona Cardinals. So I like the Cardinals, I like what they're doing in this off-season and I would say that they are a winner. Probably not the biggest winner. They're probably not the sexiest winner if you wanna talk about the biggest names that they bring in, but I would consider them to have a very successful free agency period. Another team that I wanted to mention, the Washington football team. We mentioned Ryan Fitzpatrick earlier, we mentioned Curtis Samuel earlier. What this team is doing, what Juan Rivera wants, is this offense to improve. This defense, already great. Chase Young is gonna be a difference maker for years to come, but this offense, with an upcoming running back in Antonio Gibson, as being the star player on this offense, that's pretty much it. You need a quarterback right now. And I like Taylor Hineke, I like Ryan Fitzpatrick. You still need to make some moves and they could draft another one for the future. But for the time being, getting someone that's reliable like Fitzpatrick to be your quarterback, with other weapons on that offense, besides Tim McLaurin and Curtis Samuel, this offense has now improved and this team is much better than they were last season when you talk about them going to the playoffs and losing out on the wildcard round. So this defense is already great, this offense has gotten much better. That's why I believe a winner and free agency is the Washington football team. An honorable mention I wanted to talk about and mention as a winner, the Las Vegas Raiders, I would put them up there with the Patriots. I really would, but the thing is, they've had so many losses on top of the big names that they've signed that I just can't consider them to be a legit free agency winner, although they are worthy of an honorable mention. I'm gonna explain that in a bit. So they signed Yannick Negakwe on their defensive line, good signing. Kenyan Drake, two-year, $11 million contract with the Raiders to be that Drake and Josh combo with Josh Jacobs, and then Solomon Thomas, we're gonna be talking about him a little bit later on, was also a good signing as well for something cheap. But their offensive line got worse in the process. They had to make some cap space or get some cap space and make some room, but what your biggest strength was for the past five years, I would say, your offensive line, you just lost a lot of pieces. I mean, you talk about Rodney Hunson, we just mentioned him traded away. Gabe Jackson as well is gone, he's now to the Seattle Seahawks. Trent Brown, we mentioned him earlier to the New England Patriots, so those are three big names that you just lost on your offensive line. Now they re-signed Richie on Incognito and, I guess that's okay, but because of the loss of the big names on the offensive line, I can't really make them a legit free agent winner. I'm just gonna have to give them an honorable mention, so the Raiders honorable mention as a free agency winner. Now let's talk about the losers of free agency so far, and this one hurts, because if you guys are watching the video podcast up on YouTube, and you guys are seeing the shirt that I'm wearing right now as a Falcons fan, I hate to say it, man, this free agency period sucks. And you know what I said last year? This free agency period sucks. And you know what I said the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that? Ever since 2013, I can go back and say, the Falcons bring in, or don't bring in a lot of free agents. I don't know if that's their philosophy, I have no idea, but they don't bring in a lot of free agents just because of the lack of cap space that they spend and put towards more players like Matt Ryan or Julio Jones that they just year after year don't have enough money to spend in signing big names, or they bring in players if they have the money that a lot of people would think, oh, that's a big name, they should do well for the Atlanta Falcons, and then they suck. 2013, we needed a running back besides Stephen Jackson for the Rams. Ended up not doing much. Want to speak about a running back that I was going to talk about last year. Todd Gurley, yeah, goal line back, had a decent amount of touchdowns if you look at his stats, but man, his knees, his knees are, it's a real thing. He's really lost a step. So they bring in all these free agents that really don't do that well. Dante Fowler as well last year. I like Fowler, I think he's a good player, but I don't think he really did much that last year. And even the players that they draft as well for the long run don't really end up doing much. Year after year, it's just a failed defensive lineman after defensive lineman with Vic Beasley and Takaris McKinley, and now this period, we're seeing that we don't have enough money to really even bring in a disappointing free agent at this point. Now they restructured the contract of Matt Ryan and Dante Fowler as well, freed up some money, which is good, but what that tells us at this point is that you are having Matt Ryan be the franchise quarterback for the time being, and you don't really expect to make a move for a top quarterback prospect in the NFL draft. Or at least what it tells us is you save money for Matt Ryan's contract, you don't want to trade back for the fourth overall pick, you could, but you're saving money and not signing any free agents this year so far because you want to save that money for that high draft pick because it matters as far as the contract and the money that you pay for the draft pick based off of the position that they were drafted, so you want to save that money for that fourth overall pick. Who that fourth overall pick is, I have no idea. My thoughts at this point after restructuring the contract of Matt Ryan, I don't believe it's going to be a quarterback, I believe it's going to be someone else, but we don't have money, so we can't do anything. The best thing that we did was we just signed Eric Harris, the Raider Safety, and we re-signed Jane and Graham, a backup tight end. Oh, let's bring in a third string tight end as well with Lee Smith, let's trade for him, let's trade a seventh overall pick. You know, there's not a lot of moves that the Falcons are doing and it just happens year after year and I kind of compare it to the New Orleans Saints, the division rival, who was dead last in cap space, minus $60 million that they had to spend this season. The Falcons had 10 times more than that, minus $6 million, and the Saints have still, still made better moves in free agency than the Falcons. Once Drew Brees retired, they restructured the contract at Taysum Hill, made that four years voidable if they wanted to, and they re-signed their quarterback of the future, James Winston for one year, $12 million contract. That's still much better than what the Falcons have done. I mean, if you want to make any moves to Falcons, Marlon Mack, a running back, a 24-year-old good player, who could be a running back one, you're starting running back for years to come, signed a one-year $2 million contract with the Colts, $2 million, so if you wanted to save money, you could have still gotten Marlon Mack for $2 million. Now, I don't know if he took a pay cut, Mack did to stay with the Colts, maybe the Falcons have already reached out to Mack and he declined, maybe he was just asking for $8 million, $9 million, I have no idea. But the fact that you signed Mack to a two-year, or $2 million contract, the Colts did, tells me that the Falcons could have made a push for him to be the starting running back of their franchise. Falcons, I would say, is one of the biggest losers in free agency so far. Speaking of Marlon Mack, this kind of pains me to put this team on this list because I really love this team. I love this general manager. I think he's one of the best general managers in the NFL on top of, I would say, John Schneider of the Seahawks is up there. But Indianapolis Colts haven't done much and they have the money to do whatever they want. The signing, the signings that they've had so far in free agency, Marlon Mack, re-signed him, that's it. That's all that they've done. Now they've signed a free agent, restricted tenders to Zac Pascal and Mo Alley Cox. But if you want to talk about legit re-signing contracts, Marlon Mack is the only contract offer that they've had. Now to get them to come back and back up Jonathan Taylor or to be a one to punch duo in that Indianapolis Colts Rush offense, to $2 million is a very, very good deal. So kudos to you guys, the Colts and Chris Ballard for saving some money, but that's it. You have $39 million that you could spend on big name free agents and you've chosen not to do that. And at this point, it seems like a lot of good free agents that you need on the defensive side of the ball to replace a lot of players that are leaving, such as Justin Houston, Xavier Rhodes and Malik Hooker. A lot of big name players at those positions have already been signed with other teams. Now I'm gonna give them a little bit of slack because they did trade for Carson Wentz. So consider that to be their biggest free agent move, signing, trade, whatever you wanna call it, transaction. And they have the quarterback of the future. Cool, that's good. And that's very, very important. I'm not discrediting that, but you still had the money to sign other big names and you chose not to. And I don't know what the thinking is. I don't know whether they're saving that for a draft signing or multiple draft signings or maybe there's other big names that they're talking to right now currently that we just don't know about. I don't know, but if you have the money, if you have the revenue, if you have the cap space and Carson Wentz trading for him is already a big move and a great move that you made and Marlon Mack through a cheap deal, I feel like you can sign so many big names, especially if you were just so close to making the Super Bowl. I wouldn't say so close, but you made the wild card round in the playoffs. You can make that extra push and go to the division round, go to the conference championship, and maybe even the Super Bowl if you bring in the right players and the right free agents. But thus far, the Colts have failed to do that. So the biggest losers, I would put the Falcons and the Colts up there. But if you have any winners and losers that you guys wanna mention, leave your comments down below. We'd love to hear from you guys. The last little bit of section that we wanted to mention, we wanted to mention the best deals, the best discounts that teams have been able to have and signed players to a pretty good contract considering that the name and the talent that they have for not a lot of money. So the first we've been mentioning him all episode long, Marlon Mack, just because he's 24 years old and he has a very good running back as he's proved it for the Colts, could have been the starter if they didn't draft Jonathan Taylor and Marlon Mack ended up having a knee injury that silenced him for the whole year. Marlon Mack, a very good player that could be a starter in the NFL. And if you resign him, that's starter level talent that you have in the backfield to go with Jonathan Taylor. I kinda compare it to someone like, maybe not to the next talent level as these two guys, but Nick Chubb and Karim Hunt were two viable starters that the Cleveland Browns have made it a priority to have them on their team. Jonathan Taylor and Marlon Mack could be a duo similar to that. I don't know if they're as talented as them, but they could be up there. So one year, $2 million, that is nothing. If this is a prove it deal for Marlon Mack to see if that he has what it takes so that he can go on in 2022 and sign with another NFL franchise, so be it, but the Colts, Chris Ballard, kudos to you. That's the one signing that I would give you kudos to and signing Marlon Mack to a $2 million contract to stay in Indianapolis. Another big deal, John Ross. Great discount. You guys are probably gonna laugh because you're like, John Ross does nothing. But the speedy wide receiver was a first round pick for the Cincinnati Bengals and he's moved on to sign with the New York Giants, a one year, $2.5 million contract with Big Blue. Why I believe this is a big steal and a big discount for the New York Giants is because, like I said, he's a top 10 pick a few years back with the Bengals. It didn't work out yet. He's had some injuries and you've had the emergence of other wide receivers as well, like Tyler Boyd just kind of really take the starting role for the Bengals. John Ross kind of got pushed back. But if John Ross can really prove himself and is still a very talented wide receiver, this top 10 receiver, like they drafted him to be, then I would say that this is a pretty good deal for the Giants who desperately needed some weapons. They're doing everything that they can to bring some firepower to that New York Giants offense. I mean, they've already signed Devonte Booker as a backup running back to Saquon Barclay. They've also are in talks with Kenny Gallode and interviewing him and bringing him for a workout to see if they can get him to be on the New York Giants to be the wide receiver one. And John Ross, if you want a deep threat, willful or kind of guy that can just run deep and catch balls, I would say that this is a good signing for the Giants. It is low risk, high reward. I'm gonna say that again. Low risk, high reward for the New York Giants. You got nothing to lose. If it doesn't work out, if John Ross absolutely is a bust, then so be it, you only lost $2.5 million in the process. But if he ends up being great, hey, guess what? He's on your squad and you can resign him before his contract is up for years to come. So John Ross is my second steal. The last steal that I have, you guys probably won't really understand my thinking behind this, but I'm gonna say Solomon Thomas, the defensive end who used to be a part of the 49ers is now with the Las Vegas Raiders. I said that we were gonna mention them eventually, signed a one-year $5 million contract with the Raiders. Okay, so just like John Ross, this one-year $5 million contract makes him this contract a proven deal for Solomon Thomas. Wants to prove it, wants to prove that he is a good defensive end in the NFL, which for the 49ers he wasn't that bad comparable to when he was drafted in 2017 being a top three pick for the 49ers. Yeah, maybe with the expectations that go behind that, you could label him as a bust, but last year I feel like he could have had a breakout season if he didn't get injured along with his teammate, Nick Bosa. So the 49ers decided to move on with him just because they weren't doing much with him and he's on a proven deal. He's a former first rounder. He's coming off a season ending injury and I like this move by John Gruden and the Raiders. Just bring him in. He's a very talented guy, former first round pick. Let's just see what he's got. And if it doesn't work out, hey, in the end you only lose $5 million. That's it. So very comparable to the thinking of John Ross, you only lose a little bit of amount of money. It's not gonna hurt you. I believe that Solomon Thomas is the 13th highest paid defensive end with this contract in free agency as far as all the free agents go. So, hey, now you've got nothing to lose at that point. So Marlon Mack, John Ross and Solomon Thomas are my three biggest discounts in free agency so far. But that's gonna do it for our free agency recap 2021. Listen, we call this a recap, but there's gonna be so many more transactions that's gonna be happening. I mean, Chris Carson is a big name that's still on the free agent market. Kenny Galladay, his fate is still up there with those three teams. A lot of trades are being made. We still don't know what's gonna happen with Nicky O'Herry. Russell Wilson could potentially be traded as well if they really wanted to, if they'd just given to what the bears offered them. But there's so much that's gonna be happening for the coming weeks for free agency and leading up to the NFL Draft. And because of that, make sure you guys subscribe to this YouTube channel. I am telling you, it's gonna be entertaining. It's gonna be fun, especially when the NFL Draft comes along. We've got a lot of great stuff and content coming out. We're gonna have a mock draft of the NFL Draft for the first round. And then on top of that, we're gonna do our annual live stream during the NFL Draft reaction show. And it's gonna be much, much, much better than last year if you guys tuned in. So stay tuned for that. Subscribe to this channel so you can stay up to date when we come out with all of that content. Also be sure to hit us up on our podcast app, on the podcast app, search for time to football on iTunes, subscribe, rate and review, five stars, nothing less, and listen to us on the go. With that said, thank you guys so much for watching this episode, free agency recap 2021. And I'll see you next week.