Danny Kelly
Appearances
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Yeah, it's desperation. It just doesn't work in the draft. I think you just take a good player, take a player that you know is going, and this is what the Eagles do every year. This is the reason we always give the Eagles good grades in these draft grades is that they just end up taking good players regardless of where they're needed or where their need is.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
They keep taking defensive linemen even though they have one of the best D-lines in the NFL. They keep building on a strength, build in the trenches, take premium positions. It just makes sense. I think especially in a draft like this where the tackle class is really deep. You could get a good tackle in the second round in theory. You can get a defensive tackle in the second round.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
You don't have to take Mason Graham in the first round necessarily, even though I think those guys are really good. I think Will Campbell's really good. I think Mason Graham's really good. I think this is exactly the type of draft where you don't have to take for need. You can just take what player you think is the best player.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I think Shamar Stewart from Texas A&M. He's another guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I put him one tier below that, I think. I think he's really good. He breaks a ton of tackles. In fact, I think he broke PFF's record for broken tackles in his season last year. So he's obviously, you know, gyroscopic balance, breaks a ton of tackles. He's really slippery. He has some explosiveness to him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I just don't think I put him quite on the level of like the Saquon Bijon, you know, Adrian Peterson tier where this is a last 20 years. This is actual a generational pick. You know what I mean? I think he is one slight tier down and that's not a knock on him. I think he's really good, but I don't think I'm quite ready to put him in that tier.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Uh, what could go wrong? Um, so here's the deal. Sam Darnold, uh, I don't think he's as good as Geno Smith. However, he is 27 years old. He's quite a bit younger. He's probably going to be cheaper, I think, at the end of the day. And there is this theory or scenario where he could turn out to be a longer-term solution for the Seahawks at quarterback.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Right now, this contract is actually very middling. It's a middle-class contract. They can get out of it if they really had to after a year, probably.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
They're hoping that he can turn into a long-term solution for them at the quarterback position, whereas I don't think Geno was... They don't really consider him that. And I said this to Hyphens yesterday. It's like teams tell you what they think of players with their actions. Seahawks clearly didn't believe Geno was a long-term answer for them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
And so they got out while they could, and they get a new guy in here. I think there's also the element of... Putting the Pete Carroll era to rest for good. DK Metcalf, Gino Smith, obviously two guys that were really close to Pete Carroll. And now this is like fully a new era in Seahawks football.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Yeah. So I would say like, I'm not super, super optimistic about it. I would hope that. I can see the logic or the rationale for doing it. But I think with the Seahawks lack of, now they have no weapons receiver with just JSN. Just JSN getting double teamed. Yeah, JSN.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
And then if you could name the second best receiver on the Seahawks right now, like I'll give you 10 points, but it's like Jake Bobo or who I don't even know. Oh my God. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Yeah, yeah. That's an acronym I really like, personally.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Is that in play or no? Possibly. I believe him and Clint Kubiak have overlapped at one point in time. So probably not. But coming off of an injury, also the baggage that I think he would bring, I would hope that wouldn't be their solution. I don't know. DeAndre Hopkins, maybe? I think he's still a free agent. Danny, cover your ears. It's bleak. Cover your ears for this part.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
So quick question. What you just said, though, about how Tom Brady kind of changed everything about what we should expect from older quarterbacks, does that not apply to Geno because of... Basically, he took six or seven years of backup and he didn't really take any hits or whatever. It's possible. Should we pay attention to this?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
That's okay. The next one.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I mean, I think this is kind of becoming a cliche at this point, but it's just all about the lack of development in college football of offensive linemen. The schemes are wide open. They play wider splits. They don't actually do the real type of pass blocking that you see in the NFL or run blocking that you see in the NFL. I think just it's a... There's a...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
you know, lack of development coming up from college game to the pros. And you see these teams have to develop guys. You're basically now just taking good athletes and hoping that they can, you can teach them to block in a lot of cases, not, not always, but in a lot of Jordan, a lot of strategy. Right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
And I mean, you know, in this class in particular, and you've mentioned this, but a lot of the top tackles in this class are maybe guards. You know what I mean? They're either not quite long enough arm length or, you know, maybe not quite enough foot speed or whatever. Playing left tackle in the NFL, playing right tackle either side. Now, there's so many good pass rushers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
The best athletes on the NFL field are pass rushers. And it's an extremely, extremely difficult job to be a left tackle. So or to be a right tackle. So I think it's just a it's a development issue. It's a issue where all the best athletes are going to the defensive line instead of the offensive line.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
And I think, you know, the best teams in the NFL teams, the best offensive lines are putting a ton of resources into a ton of money and have really good coaching at those positions. Like the offensive line coaches is a huge like competitive advantage right now in the NFL, I think. So it's just it's a number of variables.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Yeah, something right around there. The thing I like about the Pats, what they've done in free agency, is it's kind of like the perfect example of what teams should do in free agency, which is... You're hedging against what you're going to potentially have to do in the draft.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
So the Pats can go any direction now with their pick in the first round and all their picks, really, because they they address the interior defensive line. You know, they added linebacker. They added a starting corner. they added a right tackle. I think the one thing they still really need is a receiver. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Game breaking a guy who can make a big play every once in a while, but they don't have to take that with, you know, their first round or they can usually, they could, they couldn't go for a second round guy. And I think he could still be a contributor. That's the kind of class this is. So they've, they've hedged. So they're not being, they're not being painted into a corner at any one position.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Like we said just before, you know, having to be desperate at any position is just, it's a bad play to make. So yeah, That's the one really, I think, just smart thing that they've done in free agency is they've addressed basically all their big needs other than receiver so far.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
You say that Belichick would be laughing and not even be paying attention, but it's Belichick's fault that the Patriots roster is in this position. Bill, you sent me, I think, just screenshots of their drafts.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Did you trade out of the Ladd-McConkie spot, too?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
We did that last year, yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
My point is basically, look, it takes a little bit for it to really show up and make an impact. But if you miss on a draft bus or if you miss on two or three draft buses... You miss on two in a row, it's death. A couple of years later, your roster looks really bleak. And then you have to spend in a free agency to just fill the holes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Because those are the types of guys that are supposed to come in and play role-playing positions, be... average starters at the very least. And if you get zero of those guys in a draft, or if you get zero of those guys in two or three drafts, your roster is bad after a couple of years. So that's exactly what happened here.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I mean, yeah. I was one of Justin Fields' biggest believers. Yeah, I remember. I loved him. I just think he doesn't... He just holds onto the ball too damn long. It is the fatal flaw.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
He's going to be more exciting than Aaron Rodgers on the field, though. So there's that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I think it's curious that people are forgetting that Aaron Rodgers just went into New York last year and got everyone fired. Are we forgetting that little detail? I think if you look at the touchdown to interception ratio, and that is the only thing you look at, And you don't watch the games. Don't watch the games. Don't look at their run game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I think the Gusecki thing is very interesting. Who are they competing against? Who are they negotiating against with that one? I'm curious. And then why would you sign Samaj P. Ryan? Spend any amount of money on a running back when you... Right. You just find that guy in August.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
You just picked a guy in the sixth round who is your starting running back in Chase Brown or fifth round or whatever it was. I mean, learn that lesson is that you don't have to put any money towards the running back position. Save it all for T. Higgins and Jamar Chase.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Um, and, but like, if you look at all their signings, it's basically just like, man, you really should be using this money to extend your superstar players. And you can just find all these other guys in free agent or in the trap.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Don't look at any of the other stuff outside, off the field. If you only look at the number of touchdowns he threw compared to his interceptions, that's where you could talk yourself into Aaron Rodgers. Everything else... You can't.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
The Saints, too, they are constantly and consistently forever overconfident in what they can do. You know what I mean? I think they probably believe they can compete this year. And honestly, in that division, maybe they can. I don't know.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I think Saints fans really don't like Derek Carr, from what I've heard.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Do you just want Tomlin to get fired? Is that really what you're going for?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Dude, the best strategy every team is going to have against the Steelers this year is just start fights with DK Metcalf. And it's like the Dennis Rodman thing. Just go get in their heads. Get in the heads of Pickens and DK Metcalf.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Anybody? I think from the fantasy point of view, and this is a strategy we have started to adopt on the show is just avoid anybody coming off of a massive injury, major injury. Yeah. Because it usually is the year after the year after they get back from the injury that they start to play well again.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Right. But yeah, I mean, you can look at so many different examples of guys that... Whether they re-injure the same thing or they have some sort of compensatory injury where their muscles are trying to make up for weakness or whatever from coming back from an injury, it's so hard for these guys to get back to where they were. He's getting older. I think Godwin is kind of built deaf.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
He's an incredible athlete and everything you hear about him, he's an incredible person, but Yeah, it's risky to give him that much money coming off of this massive injury like that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
The way that he plays to like running, he mainly was out of the slot last year. He moved back to the slot. I think that's a little bit different than trying to be like this guy that wins on the outside against one on one coverage and, you know, all that stuff. His role, I think, gives him an opportunity to still be productive.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
But I think at the end of the day, coming off of a major injury, it's it's scary.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
What were you saying? I've been addict.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Yeah, it was good. The Rams receivers, almost all of them making catches are off of motion last year, and he gives them, and what Heifetz said with the static thing is he can just line up on the line of scrimmage, get open. I don't know about the NBA comparison, but Devontae Adams kind of reminds me of an old guy with like knee pads and goggles at the Y. His game, his game to me just...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Craig, his game just translates or age as well. I think because he is, he's all about, you know, route running hands, body positioning, setting up guys. Um, and I think he doesn't, he never was really this guy that relied too much on speed.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
It's kind of like the DeAndre Hopkins thing where, you know, even if he's not very fast, he just wins because he's so savvy as a route runner and positioning and, um, I assume he's going to get on the same page really well with Stafford. Stafford's always made receivers. We call him the kingmaker in fantasy. He's the receiver kingmaker. He feeds his guys until there's no tomorrow.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
And so I'm excited. It makes me happy, Bill, that you're a little down on this because from my point of view, this is scary as a Seahawks fan that they signed Devontae Adams. I hate it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
But Daniel Jones isn't actually better than Anthony Richardson is the thing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Heifetz's joke for the longest time was he's worried about Daniel Jones crossing the street because he has no peripheral vision. He gets sacked and he fumbles more than anyone in the world. He lives in Hoboken. I'm like, he's going to get hit by a car, I guarantee.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Is this the Danny McBride like butterfly? Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
We did a bit on the show for a long time during Kenny Pickett's rookie year that was just Kenny Pickett facts. And it was like every Kenny Pickett stat was just sadder than the last. Every Kenny Pickett stat was just the saddest thing you've ever heard in your life. Josh Dobbs came in and passed more yards than him in two games versus Kenny Pickett's entire season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Every Kenny Pickett fact was funnier than the last or sadder.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Tanner McKee probably threw more touchdowns than Kenny Pickett did in his entire time in Pittsburgh, I think.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
We're the problem actually. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Ooh, that is a good question.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Josh Palmer's a funny one. DJ Reed to the Lions. I don't know if that was sneaky.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I've been a fan of him. I think he's a good cover corner. He has ball skills. The way he plays, he has an attitude. He brings an intensity to the defense. I think he's the perfect Dan Campbell defender. They needed some help in the secondary, and I think he's a really smart signing for them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Look, I don't want to jinx anything. Can the other two answer about this one? Right now, it looks good for me, but yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I rate him pretty highly. I don't know about top five. I'd say top 10 for sure, though. I feel pretty confident in him as a guy who can get a lot out of the talent he has on offense, which means a lot in the NFL.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
And the ability to go in and have a very good offense with the last pick of the draft, and he's done it with several different... Basically, anyone who goes and plays for the 49ers is going to average eight plus yards per attempt. I think there's a ton of value in that. Um, no coach is perfect though. You know, every coach has like a, it feels like every great coach has one thing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
That's like, they're really bad at, um, Kyle Shanahan's is like the late game collapses. I know 49er fans are probably pretty sick of that. Um, but.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Right. I think you're right. I think the Tom Brady element here is what makes me feel
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
feel that it's more possible I think if it was up to Carroll completely which I don't know exactly how the decision making is being made in that building to be honest but if it was purely up to Carroll I think everything we've seen on his record is let's build up the team let's build up the franchise get good offensive linemen get good weapons and then you drop a quarterback into the system that's exactly what he did
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
and tried to do with Seattle, that he talked about it constantly. It's like the number one job of a GM and a coach is to make life easy on the quarterback. That is the number one priority. So drafting a rookie in the first year of your regime doesn't make sense to me. But if the plan is to let him sit a year or two,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
Then I think you can make that argument and maybe Tom Brady loves Shitter enough to kind of step in and overrule. But I think right now it makes more sense for the Raiders to take like an offensive lineman or a defensive lineman, something to build up the trenches and get this team ready where you can drop a young quarterback in eventually like two years down the line.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
I mean, I think, yeah, it would the top three teams need quarterbacks. This is, you know, you traditionally see teams get a little bit desperate for the quarterback position. I think if in a vacuum, you probably wouldn't put Ward and Schroeder as top three picks, you know, types of guys that you would give that type of grade to. But the NFL is desperate for quarterbacks.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The 2025 NFL Free Agency Awards With Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly
You need to you need a quarterback. So I don't know if I would say I wouldn't be surprised if they go in the top three, but it wouldn't be shocking at the same time if they if they both go top three.