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Jeffery Simmons resets the defensive tackle market, while the Chiefs’ receiver rumors center on Deebo Samuel and George Pickens. The show also covers Patriots drama, NFL streaming battles, Jalen Brunson’s Knicks title run, and Jonathan Toews’ retirem
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Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar. Today on the show: Jeffery Simmons resetting defensive tackle money, Kansas City's receiver rumor machine, Patriots drama that won't die, and Jonathan Toews calling it a career. Let's get into it.
Jeffery Simmons just got PAID, and honestly, Tennessee had no choice.
The Titans gave Simmons a three-year extension worth one hundred five point eight million dollars, with one hundred million guaranteed. That makes him the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history by new-money average.
And yeah, that number is massive. But if you're Tennessee, what exactly was the alternative? Let your best defensive player get annoyed, let the market keep climbing, and then try to explain why the one elite guy on your defense is a weekly contract story?
No thanks.
Simmons is twenty-eight. He's still in the part of his career where defensive tackles ruin entire game plans. He can wreck the pocket without needing a blitz. That's the premium skill. Everybody wants edge rushers, and edge rushers still get the cooler headlines. But interior pressure is what makes quarterbacks look drunk. You can step up against edge pressure. You can't step up when Simmons is in your lap.
The fan argument is already predictable: should defensive tackles get edge-rusher money?
My answer: the elite ones should. Not the pretty good ones. Not the “solid starter, high motor” guys. The freaks. Simmons belongs in that group.
And this deal matters beyond Tennessee. Jalen Carter's agent just smiled somewhere. Dexter Lawrence's people are watching. Every young defensive tackle with pass-rush juice just got a new comp.
The Titans didn't overpay. They paid early enough to avoid getting bullied later. That's called having a plan. Weird concept, I know.
Around the league, Kansas City is back in the “one more weapon” conversation, because apparently Patrick Mahomes having a normal receiving room is a constitutional crisis.
ESPN floated Deebo Samuel as a possible final offseason move for the Chiefs, mostly because Rashee Rice's availability is still uncertain. Deebo isn't peak Deebo anymore, but in Andy Reid's offense? That still sounds annoying as hell. Jet motion, screens, manufactured touches, linebackers guessing wrong. That's the whole package.
There's also the George Pickens rumor lane. Bleacher Report's Moe Moton framed Kansas City as a logical landing spot if Dallas ever moved him. Pickens is with the Cowboys, sitting on twenty-seven point three million guaranteed this season, coming off a Pro Bowl breakout year. Dallas still hasn't locked him into a long-term extension. I don't think Dallas should move him. But if they do, sending him to Mahomes would be football malpractice.
New England's offseason soap opera is still hanging around. Pro Football Talk says the Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini situation has simmered, but could flare again depending on The Athletic's investigation or if Russini speaks publicly. Rob Gronkowski gave the most Patriots answer possible: winning makes it go away.
He's not wrong. That's how this league works. Win ten games, and everyone calls it “noise.” Start two and five, and suddenly every hallway whisper becomes a crisis.
On the football side in Foxborough, DeMario “Pop” Douglas is trying to keep a real role after the Patriots added A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs. Douglas said Josh McDaniels wants him to bring more swagger and juice to the playbook. Translation: you're fun, you're shifty, now prove you aren't just the guy everyone liked before the grown-up receivers arrived.
The NFL streaming fight is getting spicy too. PFT, citing John Ourand, says YouTube had been deep into talks for a twenty twenty-six NFL game package. Then the league reportedly pulled the Week one forty-niners Rams Australia game from that package and steered it toward Netflix. YouTube walked.
I don't blame them. If you're paying premium money, you don't want the league taking the shiny toy out of the box right before checkout.
Washington minicamp had some names worth filing away. Dan Quinn praised International Player Pathway guy T.J. Maguranyanga. The Commanders have been getting buzz from Rachaad White, K’Lavon Chaisson, Jordan Magee, Kain Medrano, Van Jefferson, and Jaden Bradley. Rachaad White and Chig Okonkwo are both in Washington now after signing in March. Behind Jayden Daniels, Athan Kaliakmanis and Sam Hartman both got positive mentions. That's backup quarterback noise, sure. But in June, backup quarterback noise is basically caffeine.
And in Detroit, Dan Campbell wouldn't rule out the Lions looking at Brendan Sorsby in the supplemental draft. He said Brad Holmes looks at everything. That doesn't mean Detroit is taking a quarterback. It means the Lions are checking every drawer before pretending they're done shopping.
In the NBA, Stephen A. Smith said Jalen Brunson “saved the NBA” by proving a smaller guard could lead a title team past Victor Wembanyama's Spurs. I love Brunson, and that forty-five-point closeout in Game five was ridiculous. But “saved the NBA” is a lot. The league wasn't trapped in a well. Still, a six-two guard dragging the Knicks to their first title since nineteen seventy-three is a pretty great argument against everyone needing to be a seven-foot alien.
Jonathan Toews officially retired at thirty-eight after sixteen NHL seasons. Three hundred eighty-three goals, five hundred twenty-nine assists, nine hundred twelve points, three Cups, two Olympic gold medals, a Conn Smythe, a Selke, and one last year with his hometown Winnipeg Jets. That's a hell of a hockey life.
The Special Olympics USA Games also begin today in Minnesota, with nearly three thousand athletes from all fifty states. ESPN's broadcasting it, and the opening ceremony is at Huntington Bank Stadium. That's worth your time.
The Hangover Take: the Chiefs should not chase George Pickens. They should chase Deebo Samuel.
Pickens is younger, more explosive, and probably the better pure outside receiver right now. That's exactly why he costs too much.
Kansas City doesn't need to win the press conference. They need a weapon who solves a specific problem while Rashee Rice's situation hangs over the offense. Deebo gives them touches. Easy touches. Dirty touches. Five-yard plays that turn into eighteen because the first tackler picked a bad career.
Pickens would come with contract drama, trade cost, and the weekly “is he happy?” weather report. The Chiefs have done that show before. It gets old fast.
Deebo in Kansas City is cleaner. Short-term swing. Veteran brain. Andy Reid toy. Mahomes doesn't need another receiver who needs ten targets to feel involved. He needs somebody who can turn weird offense into cheap yards.
If I'm Brett Veach, I call on Deebo first and let Dallas keep its headache.
That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.