The Ryen Russillo Podcast
NFL Free Agency Hits and Misses with Sheil Kapadia, Plus Chandler Parsons and How History Will View the SGA-Jokic MVP Race
Tue, 11 Mar 2025
Russillo welcomes in Sheil Kapadia to share their thoughts on Sam Darnold and Geno Smith, reveal their favorite and least favorite free agent signings, and discuss why Justin Fields still has so much hype around him (0:56). Next, Ryen compares Jokic and SGA and wonders how history will remember their MVP race (40:49). Then, he’s joined by Chandler Parsons to pick the best teams in the East and West, preview where Kevin Durant could land next season, and break down the importance of a playoff scorer (53:17). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (1:21:03)! How do I handle my dad dating a woman my age? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Sheil Kapadia and Chandler Parsons Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Get Game Day Deals only on Uber Eats. Order Now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the key hits and misses in NFL free agency?
A lot to get to on today's pod, Chukwadia NFL free agency is cranking right now. We're going to get to a ton of names, so don't feel left out. We'll get to some of the quarterback stuff, what the Seahawks doing, what's going on with fields, and just some of our favorite and not so favorite signings. NBA Open.
NBA players love some things that I don't necessarily love, how that applies to Denver and OKC and the MVP stuff, some of the long-held historic claims by the guys that have played this game at the highest level.
And we've got Chandler Parsons on just taking a look at where Cleveland is in the East, the other West teams, and then just gearing up for the playoffs, going back to a couple of his Houston runs over 10 years ago and life advice. One of our favorite NFL guests to talk to from the ringer. It is Shil Kapadia.
What's up, man? Good to see you. Lots of signings. This is my season, offseason. Better than in-season as far as I'm concerned.
Whoa, I thought only the NBA had that for you. So let's go through this... barrage of signings, but I think the first thing you have to start with here is when we watch Sam Darnold, the Detroit game, the playoff game, potential blueprint games, what is Darnold worth on the open market? What is he worth away from Kevin O'Connell and this receiving core and the O-line and all this kind of stuff?
Well, he's worth three years and $100 million from the Seahawks, $55 million guaranteed. I think I'm scared to death if I'm a Seahawks fan.
Totally agree. I would be bummed by this offseason if I were a Seahawks fan. It just goes to a lot of the things we talk. It doesn't matter the sport where it's like a guy was bad. A guy was put in a certain situation. He played better for one year. And then you're the team that pays him based off of that one year.
I mean, I mean, to me, so much of this is just about the environment and the infrastructure and the moves that the Seahawks made were like you said, you don't have Kevin O'Connell's not coming over with you. Justin Jefferson's not coming over with you. You have offensive line issues. He's playing outside. And now you're expecting him to maintain his level of play from last year or improve.
Can it happen? Sure. Weird things happen all the time. They surprise us. So it could happen. He's young enough. I don't think that's the most likely scenario for Sam Darnold in Seattle.
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Chapter 2: How does Sam Darnold's value compare to other quarterbacks?
Chapter 3: What are the implications of the SGA-Jokic MVP race?
Not if you look at the wide receiver market, you know, he, that's not even in the top 15 wide receivers and through seven weeks last season, the receivers who had more yards than Chris Godwin, Jamar chase. That was it. And then he got injured and you know, he's coming back from an injury, but he's done that before and played well.
So I thought for the bucks to be able to bring him back at 22 million per year, that was a nice signing. And then they signed Hassan Reddick at one year, $12 million where that's a nice sort of buy low. He had a disastrous season last year. He gets traded from the Eagles to the jets has one of the worst holdouts ever.
You know, in NFL history where the poor guy just cost himself a lot of money by what he did there with the Jets. But now you get him and this is a guy who can rush the passer. He's 31 years old, I think was sixth in sacks from 2021 to 2023. So I thought that was a nice value signing. So, yeah, the Bucs are kind of underrated, sneaky in some of these moves that they make.
I thought they did a nice job there.
OK, give me one you don't like. Give me a couple.
Okay, good. I've got more there. Yeah. Javon Kinlaw to the commanders for three years, $45 million. You know, I do my top 50 free agents on the ringer.com. And whenever a guy who's not even on there gets signed for like $15 million or more, I'm like, either I'm an idiot or... That's a terrible signing. And maybe it's a combination of the both. But the commanders let Jonathan Allen go.
They release him at a similar number. And then they go out and they sign Javon Kinlaw, who was a free agent last season and signed a one-year $7.25 million deal with the Jets. He hits the quarterback five times in 17 games last season. He was 118th in pressures last season. And now you sign him to a three year, $45 million deal.
You know, I get nervous whenever there's a coach or a GM who brings in players who they're familiar with. And Adam Peters, the commander's GM, was in San Francisco when the 49ers drafted Javon Kinlaw. And so there's some familiarity there with those two guys. And they decided, hey, he's still got the upside. That was one of the biggest head scratchers I thought so far in free agency.
I love that you pick Kinlaw because I'm just going to go for like full transparency. I've not broken down a ton of Kinlaw tape. I understand the name recognition. I figured if San Francisco had brought them in, especially at the one year, there's probably something there. Let's see what happens. That seems to be a really good front office. They seem like pretty smart guys. I never noticed them.
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Chapter 4: How will the Thunder perform in the playoffs?
Yeah. Because if it was just like some OnlyFans chick, you'd be like, oh, that's asleep. Like, I don't know. Maybe they do love each other.
They love math. They have common interests. Yeah. Wait, so she found his work first or they hooked up and he did her homework for her? Not the second one. I don't think. Not the second one. Okay.
Okay. Sounds like she was legit. I don't think you just get to write a thesis by doing nothing. Unless.
Unless. Maybe I'm wrong. She's not in school.
She's been on a generational run since high school.
She just loves the size. What's the plural? She's not even in. It's a hobby for her. No, I'll read this sentence again. They met through Facebook, and apparently she wrote her undergraduate thesis on his math work. Okay. So that's maybe where she became aware of him. Okay. Well, obviously she wrote a thesis about it. They recently visited his family in Israel.
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Chapter 5: What should we expect from Michael Porter Jr. in the NBA?
I guess we're not worried about him tracking this one down. I think at this point we'd be able to connect a lot of dots. Meeting his family in Israel and she had very little meaningful interaction with his mother and two sisters. She had no interaction. He's had no interaction with her family in Brazil at all. They're now trying to get married in Hong Kong.
Her American visa was denied and it seems likely to me that he is being financially scammed. It's hard for me to tell him.
this without animosity regarding the way he treated my mom or the way he fell short in parenting is there a way to warn him empathetically about what i see as a careless deep dive it appears to me he is blinded by lust thank you i love the show and recommend it to all my friends okay yeah so is it a scam when this is the age gap or is ever are all parties sort of they all sort of read the disclaimer i feel like uh i don't know man
I honestly, this seems like less egregious than some other ones that we've seen where like, you know, just like, Hey, I'm just waiting for, you know, the check after death. And that'll be great. Like she seemed at least they got some common interests, but I don't know. I think the, I think the using thing is weird because like,
Like, financially, yeah, she may be benefiting from this transaction, but we love to ignore the fact that, like, maybe this guy's lonely, and he needs some emotional support. He just wants somebody to be there with him, even in his 60s. He's getting something out of this transaction. So, like, I don't know.
I kind of hate when people talk about it that way, because it's almost like the guy part is forgotten. Like, oh, he's just being used. Well, he's also kind of using her, because, you know, the only reason that this is happening is because he needs companionship. So... I don't know if he's happy. I think he just got, he's 62. Like let him just let him live.
Yeah. I think when the age gap and the hotness gap, you know, resemble each other, uh, in a, and they're large. I think everybody's pretty much abreast of the situation. So I don't know.
He is not hot. Yeah. Right. No, he sent a picture in.
62.
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