Bears star Roquan Smith requests trade plus Bengals stadium gets a new name and Hard Knocks starts tonight

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Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!Yesterday was International Cat Day and I forgot to mention it, which was mainly due to the fact that I spent the entire day looking at pictures of cats on the internet. Fortunately, this actually worked out in my favor, because we're going to celebrate International Cat Day today with an all cats newsletter.OK, it won't be all cats, but we will be talking a lot about the NFL cat teams.Not only did the make some news today by changing the name of their stadium, but the are going to make some news tonight when "Hard Knocks" debuts on HBO. The show, which kicks off at 10 p.m. ET, will air each Tuesday from now until Sept. 6. I'm gue sing the star of the show will be Dan Campbell. Anyone who has ever made a promise to bite off kneecaps has to be good television, which is why I have high hopes for both Campbell and the Lions for this season of "Hard Knocks."You know, I was going to go full cat for today's newsletter, but instead, I thought we should go full Wizard of Oz with some lions and tigers (Bengals) and news.  As always, here's your weekly reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. All you have to do is . Let's get to the rundown. Thomas Vanek Jersey    1. Today's show: NFC West burning questionsFor most of the past two weeks, we've spent each episode of the podcast previewing each NFL division by asking several burning questions that each team needs to answer before the start of the season. Today, we're finishing our run around the league with the NFC West.There are a lot of big questions in that division this year, so I sat down with Will Brinson to try and answer those questions. In Arizona, fan are wondering if can live up to the investment that the team just made in him. In Seattle, the biggest question for the is whether they can survive without . On San Francisco's end, the biggest question is obvious: Can they win with ?  Brinson and I attempted to answer all three of those questions, plus we answered one simple question: Can the make it back to the Super Bowl?Brinson says no, or did he say yes?"I think they'll be good enough to be a quality team that can make it back to the Super Bowl," Brinson said.After that answer, I had to laugh at Brinson for trying to straddle both sides of the fence. It's a simple question, Brinson, so just give us a straight answer: WILL THE RAMS MAKE IT BACK TO THE SUPER BOWL? YES OR NO.  "I think the  Jason Zucker Jersey answer would be no," Brinson said. "But I think it's entirely po sible that they are good enough to make it back to the Super Bowl."That answer will have to do because that's as close to making him pick a side as I could get. As for me, I do think the Rams are going to be good -- and I even think they'll win the NFC West -- but I don't think they'll make it back to the Super Bowl. There's a reason we've only seen one NFC team this century in back-to-back Super Bowls (the Seahawks), and that reason is because it's difficult to repeat as NFC champion. Not only does everything have to go your way, but there's a certain amount of luck involved and it's hard to see everything working out in the Rams' favor two years in a row.Anyway, we actually answered three questions about EACH team in the division, and if you want to hear those answers, you'll have to check out the entire episode, which .    2. Bears star requests trade: wants out of ChicagoThe Bears already have one of the weakest rosters in the NFC, and that roster could get even weaker if Roquan Smith gets his way. The All-Pro linebacker.Smith is headed into the final year of his rookie deal, which is scheduled to pay him $9.74 million this season. Smith was hoping to get an extension done before the start of the season, but that hasn't happened yet, and now he wants out.Here's everything we know about the situation:Smith doesn't feel valued by the Bears' front office.Here's what Smith had to say about the Bears' front office: "Unfortunately, the new front office regime doesn't value me here," Smith . "They've refused to negotiate in good faith, every step of this journey has been 'take it or leave it.' The deal sent to me is one that would be bad for myself, and for the entire LB market if I signed it." Smith said the two sides have been working on a new deal since April, but haven't gotten anywhere.What the Bears have offered. According , the Bears are trying to give Smith a backloaded offer and are not interested in making him the NFL's highest-paid linebacker. Also, the team has proposed putting de-escalators in the contract, which is Mikko Koivu Jersey  almost unheard of for a highly paid position player. (NFL Media notes that of the 94 non-quarterback contracts that pay $15 million or more, not a single one of them has a de-escalator clause).Smith does admit there could be one way to salvage his relationship with the Bears. The 25-year-old is upset with the organization, but he said that might change if he gets a chance to meet with the McCaskeys, the family that owns the team. "I haven't had the chance to talk to the McCaskey family, and maybe they can salvage this, but as of right now I don't see a path back to the organization I truly love." Smith wrote.The Bears losing Smith would be catastrophic for their defense. That being said, this is a team that's about six players away from being a player away, so if the Bears can score a huge draft haul in a deal for Smith, then a trade might make sense. For more on Smith's trade demands, .    3. Bengals stadium gets a new nameThe Bengals have been playing at their current home stadium for the past 22 years, and in that time, the building has only had one name. However, that will now be changing.As of today, the stadium formerly known as Paul Brown Stadium will now be called Paycor Stadium after the team struck a 16-year.Here's everything you need to know:First name change in stadium history. When the stadium opened in August of 2000, it was named after Bengals founder and NFL legend Paul Brown. For most of the past 22 years, Bengals owner had insisted that he would never take his dad's name off the stadium, but he changed his mind this year.Why Brown decided to sell the naming rights. During the 2021 season, the Bengals were one of just three teams that didn't sell the naming rights to their stadium (the Bears and were the two others), but with the cost of busine s going up, Brown became more amicable to the idea of selling the naming rights to the  Ryan Suter Jersey stadium. "I think my father would have agreed with this move," Brown said when . "It's a time now where we need a revenue stream that will help us do such things as build the indoor facility. It'll help us perhaps handle the cap a little bit easier."Why Bengals are looking for new forms of cash flow. The Bengals have a lot of big expenses coming up. The biggest one will likely be the extension given to quarterback , who will become eligible for a new contract following the 2022 season. Brown is very aware of the fact that Burrow is going to . "We see that train coming," Brown said. Under NFL rules, teams have to put any guaranteed money in a player's contract into escrow, which means the Bengals are likely going to have to write a huge check once Burrow's deal is finished. Also, as Brown mentioned, the team is in the proce s of building an indoor practice facility, which is another project the Bengals need money for.Good sign that the Bengals plan on staying in Cincinnati. The Bengals lease at their stadium only runs through 2026, which means they could conceivably relocate somewhere after that. However, the fact that they Erik Haula Jersey  signed a 16-year deal with Paycor makes it feel like they have their feet firmly planted in the Queen City.The Bengals are now the second AFC North team this offseason to announce a new stadium name. Heinz Field in Pittsburgh is after the agreed to a 15-year deal with Acrisure. The Bengals better hope that fans in Cincinnati embrace the new name more than fans in Pittsburgh embraced the new stadium name there. (In case .)   4. Ranking the top free agents for 2023: leads what could be a loaded cla sIt might seem like it's too early to talk about anything that's going to happen in 2023, but with the NFL, it's never too early to talk about anything, which is why we decided to rank the top free agents who will be available next
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