Mike Florio and Chris Simms take a deep dive into who Kirk Cousins, Ryan Tannehill and Jimmy Garoppolo are working with next season to evaluate which QB has the better circumstances.

Video Transcript

MIKE FLORIO: On the flip side, some quarterbacks who have been around a while and who are getting toward their final opportunities in their current cities-- and for one of them, it's his first opportunity, but it may not last long-- Jimmy Garoppolo with Las Vegas, Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee, Kirk Cousins in Minnesota. Which of those guys is in the best situation to specifically do well enough this year that they extend the stay into 2024?

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, right? I mean, that's a tough one there. I feel like Tannehill probably has the least support around him right now.

But even with that, I'm like, I don't look at it as bad. I just think they're going to run the ball and play defense. And he'll be efficient. And hopefully Treylon Burke can make a next step for them to be a real threat at the wide receiver position. So I'm going to cancel Tannehill out because I think he's in the tougher, most tough position out of all of them, really, when you just talk about that.

And then it goes to Kirk Cousins and Garoppolo, wow, I'm probably going to say Garoppolo here. Just the talent around him-- I mean, hey, it's the number one running back in the game right now. They got a good O line. It's good. It's not great.

It's McDaniels. And we know how special he is. You got Davante Adams and, damn, some good receivers to go along with it, along with your favorite tight end in the draft in Michael Mayer, right?

So I'll give Garoppolo the advantage. But it's not by much. Cousins is in a pretty good situation with your Vikings, too.

MIKE FLORIO: No, I think it's Cousins.

CHRIS SIMMS: You do?

MIKE FLORIO: I really do, when you consider Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, TJ Hockenson, KJ Osborn, whatever they do at running back. I'm not worried about running back.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, I hear you.

MIKE FLORIO: And maybe they aren't either because they're just going to throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball.

CHRIS SIMMS: Apparently.

MIKE FLORIO: They're working on Cousins' mobility. They've got an offensive line. The defense can't be any worse. I think Cousins in great shape.

This Garoppolo thing, I pondered this over the weekend when it was kind of slow and I was looking for stuff to write. And I thought about Davante Adams' contract because I saw that somebody had written, there's no way they'll trade him, even if he wants out.

The thing that people overlook is the post-June 1 wrinkle. And I can't help but wonder whether or not they at least ponder either this year or next year trading Davante Adams after June 1. They could trade him after June 1 this year, and the dead cap charge would be $7.8 million this year. Now, they would have $24 million or thereabouts next year. But you can plan for that accordingly.

If he doesn't want to be there, if he's got an issue with their decision to entrust Jimmy Garoppolo to be the quarterback, that just creates extra crap on the way in. And Jimmy Garoppolo has been through crap the past few years. And now he's got this on top of it? He finally has a new opportunity where they're saying, you're the guy, and his top receiver is saying stuff that when you read between the lines and tie it all together, he probably isn't all that happy that that's who his quarterback's going to be.

I just think that just-- we're talking about the places where the drama is gone. This is a place where the drama has arrived via those comments that Davante Adams made to The Ringer that we talked about last week. That makes it harder for the team to have a successful competitive season, especially when you consider what division they're in.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree. I don't know why Davante Adams said that. I don't know what the good in it was. That's the one thing I'll question. I don't really understand what you're trying to accomplish there, other than you were trying to let everybody know that you, what, have a say with the front office, and you actually do get to talk to them a little bit. That's where I--

MIKE FLORIO: They didn't listen to you.

CHRIS SIMMS: I know.

MIKE FLORIO: He's got a voice, and they ignored it.

CHRIS SIMMS: Well, OK. It's not always that easy, too, right? I mean, just because he has a voice and says, I want Aaron Rodgers to be the quarterback, doesn't mean like they can go, oh, OK, we'll make that happen. Right?

I don't know what else he wanted to happen or what was the other option out there that he looked at that was so much better than Jimmy Garoppolo, other than Aaron Rodgers. I mean, really, that was it, right? I mean, that's where I'm a little surprised by it. But I don't think it's going to make this group blink out there, at least that we know in that group out there, Mike.

One, I think, hey, they're believers in Davante Adams. I haven't heard anything but positives ever since he got there. They built the offense around him. They just got rid of one of the favorite guys in the organization because he didn't give the ball enough to this damn guy, and he missed too many opportunities in clutch situations to get him the ball.

So that's where I'd be shocked, Mike. I think McDaniel has framed a little bit of his new tenure here around Davante Adams. They've given him some power, obviously. I don't know why Davante Adams had to say that because, like you said, it did no good for the team or Jimmy Garoppolo or the chemistry or anything like that.

MIKE FLORIO: The comments were jarring. They were more candid than what we see anyone say when they're in a situation where they may not be happy. We talked about it at length last week. You can find the stories at PFT.

And then the cleanup on aisle 5 was the photo of Davante Adams with GM Dave Ziegler with the words "The Man" superimposed in the front of it. And that caused somebody a little smarter than me-- because I didn't think of it-- to say, maybe that was just his way of saying Dave Ziegler is not the problem in Las Vegas.

CHRIS SIMMS: I didn't take it like that.

MIKE FLORIO: He's man, but maybe there are others.

CHRIS SIMMS: I took it more as--

MIKE FLORIO: I hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe he's got an issue with the coach, not the GM.

CHRIS SIMMS: Maybe. Maybe. I kind of took it more at no, he questioned that guy in the article. And now he's showing a picture, like, hey, we're friends. I like this guy. I respect it. That's the way I looked at it.

Again, I don't know. You could certainly take it your way, too. But that's when I first saw that, I went, no, he's trying to show everybody, hey, wait, I like this guy. We're friends.

Yes, I did say that, but we're still all good. That's more of what I was taking away from it. But I don't know. Maybe there was something more cryptic to it than I realized.

MIKE FLORIO: Hey, here's the key. Here's the key, though. We've seen guys say things over the years on a regular basis. It happens. Usually it's in that GQ, article that lengthy 10,000-word GQ article.

CHRIS SIMMS: I'm going to hang out with you all day and wait till you say something you shouldn't.

MIKE FLORIO: And then the guy-- and then the guy says, yeah, and the guy says-- the guy says, wait, wait, that was off the record, or you're taking me out of context or whatever. There was no effort by Davante Adams to try to put the toothpaste back in the tube, none whatsoever. He never said once, I didn't say what I said. And I respect him for that.

CHRIS SIMMS: I do, too.

MIKE FLORIO: He owned his words, But, again, to get back to the question we're answering, I think it makes it harder for Jimmy Garoppolo to have a big year because we know personality wise, the whole thing he doesn't like to answer his phone and he doesn't like to talk--

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, I hear you.

MIKE FLORIO: --text messages. If he wants to make this work, he's really got to strike up a relationship with Davante Adams, a real meaningful two-way relationship. And it sounds like maybe he's not wired to do that, which just makes it harder for him to be as successful as he can be in Las Vegas.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah. I hear you. So what you're telling me at the end of the day is you're liking a Kirk Cousins here. Is that true? You love him today. You love him very much. I hear. It was very close.

MIKE FLORIO: Well, let's just say--

CHRIS SIMMS: It was close. And Cousins third.

MIKE FLORIO: If you're going to give me three bad options, I got to pick one of them. And that's the one I picked.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, no. And I think when you talk about being on stable ground maybe more, you're probably right that Kirk Cousins is maybe on a more of a stable ground there with Minnesota and I think has a little more power in his situation, where yeah, Garoppolo, I think, is going to have to do something good this year and open up some eyes to keep his job. But I guess I was going in, you either support the players around him-- that's where I kind of went with Garoppolo. But when you bring up the other stuff, you're right, that certainly makes it maybe sway a little more Kirk Cousins' way.