No rest from NFL news these days.

This was a fun one, though.

Now, I don't think a move outside of a keep to leave,

who apparently called this and knew it was coming.

I don't think a lot of us expected this to be the next major domino to drop in the NFL world. But Jalen Waddle headed to the Denver

Broncos, the Broncos sending first and third round picks to Miami. They're swapping fourth

round picks. I believe it's like 20 spots falling a little bit further. So for the most part, a first and a third round pick heading back to the Dolphins for Jalen Waddle. Let's walk through this. Let's start with the Broncos perspective here. We talked about whether Denver was better a couple of days ago when we did this about the AFC. And for the Broncos, the answer was kind of unequivocally no.

They hadn't really added any players, but it felt like they might be laying in wait

to do something big as part of their final push here with a roster that obviously was in

the AFC championship game last year.

And if their quarterback had stayed healthy, very well could have been in the Super Bowl.

So how do you feel about Jalen Waddle heading to this version of the Broncos and where they are right now? I mean, we've said, I think we said going into last off season and I would have said it going into this off season. They needed more pop at the skill player positions. And obviously you have a number one wide receiver in Cortland Sutton, but he's more of a big bodied. He's winning on dig routes. He's kind of like our third down guy. He's just not really the kind of just spit him out the ball and he can go make a play for us. And they'd tried to piece together this role with guys like Marvin Mims kind of was this for a little bit. Obviously, they signed Evan Ingram who for a tight end kind of gives you that, but I think that probably didn't even go as well as they wanted last year. They draft RJ Harvey out of the backfield who was supposed to give them that, but there was issues getting him on the field. Going and trading for Jalen Waddle, it is like a we 100% know that so long as this guy is on the field, we can get explosives. And I do think the way that they run the

offense where there's a lot of quick game, there's a lot of RPO's, there's a lot of like, can we just get the ball out type of plays to go get a guy like Jalen Wado, who is pretty and arguably one of the best guys in the league at that particular skill set. I think it makes so much sense for them. Yeah, saying they piece it together, I think is exactly the right way to frame it, right?

You have Marvin Mims and you're trying to figure out this role within the offense. This is just cutting straight to the point. It's like, we're going to pay a premium to get the best version of this skill set into what we do. And if you're the Broncos at this stage, I completely understand wanting to do it this way. And they gave up a lot to go get jail in Waddle. We'll talk about it from the Dolphins perspective. You go up a first round pick. You give up two top 100 picks. But you look at the contract coming back. I believe on Waddle's deal, this year he has a $1 million based salary. And then he has a $16 million option bonus or $15 million option bonus that gets paid out in three days, which I assume that was part of the timeline as to why this happened when it did. So the Broncos, you pro-rate that bonus. He's going to make, what is that, $7 million against the cap this year. And then his base salaries in each of the next two years are like $23 million and $25 million. So you take the 16 this year, the 25 and the 23, we're talking about like three years, 65 million. That's the contract Chris Godwin got last year. I mean, that's not a lot for a guy who is entering his age, I believe 28 season. So you're going to get 28, 29, 30. And for where you are, we know this. You're not going to get a player like Jalen Waddle in free agency. And so to add this type of talent to your roster on top of what you already have, you're always going to have to pay a little bit of a premium. And the contract is healthy enough that maybe you can justify giving up a little bit more because you can make it work with the books. So on a football level, I get this, from a timeline level I get this, even from the price, which is very high, I can understand the Broncos thinking this is the best way to improve our team on the timeline that we're currently on. And you probably weren't going to get this guy in the draft where they're picking. Like their pick is 30th in the first round.

Like you are probably not going to find a player who can give you the kind of explosiveness.

Like, you know, maybe if they had the chief's pick and it's at nine, maybe you can make the argument. You can find that. I mean, that's about where Jalen Waddle went. but with way they were picking at 30,

you were probably just not going to find that guy.

So you obviously give up that.

You give up the extra third round as well,

but I'm okay shelling out a third round pick.

Like I know third round picks are valuable, but it's it's not that often that those guys turn into like true, true contributors for you for you to pay that as your premium for like, this is certainty. We know that this guy can give it to us. I'm, I'm pretty into that. And so I really like this move for them. And again, they were not going to find this caliber of guy in free agency. I mean, Waddle is a tier, at least a tier better than all of the guys who hit free agency. And he like he's, again, this is like prime of your career sort of age, the 27, 28, 29. The money's not that bad. Like this is for a team like Denver, and especially like they're not paying their

quarterback very much.

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