Speaker 1: They Around the NFL podcast. He needs a sleepover at
Speaker 1: Mark's man cave.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL. My name
Speaker 2: is Dan Hansis, and I got heroes here, Greg Roosevelt
Speaker 2: and Mark Sessler. Sestog, you got a man cave. I've
Speaker 2: been to your place. I don't recall her being a
Speaker 2: dedicated man cave, nor have I ever seen you as
Speaker 2: a man that would go man cave if given the opportunity.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think like you could reference the whole place.
Speaker 1: Is that on?
Speaker 3: It's on from some angle, but no, the within the apartment.
Speaker 3: I don't have a room that would be called classically
Speaker 3: a man cave at the moment. But you've you know,
Speaker 3: before the show, you were if you're on YouTube, you
Speaker 3: were talking about my background that looks a little spartan,
Speaker 3: could use a little bit of help.
Speaker 1: So the place is in development, I'd say.
Speaker 2: And Greg, you know, because Greg's going to Greg and
Speaker 2: he was labeling it as constructive criticism, and that certainly
Speaker 2: was not what I was going I was offering a
Speaker 2: suggestion that maybe your remote background, because that's what we're
Speaker 2: doing the show remote for the next couple of days,
Speaker 2: that it maybe could use a touch of color on
Speaker 2: the wall, and I thought that would go a long way.
Speaker 2: Not criticism, merely unsolicited advice slash suggestion.
Speaker 3: I did not take it purely as critique. I understand
Speaker 3: what greg was attempting to accomplish there verbally, but I
Speaker 3: didn't fall for that either. So you know, point and
Speaker 3: pointer are taken, and I you know, I look at
Speaker 3: my own setup and it does look it looks a
Speaker 3: little suspect. It could use a little bit of just
Speaker 3: a little bit of life, and I'm going to work
Speaker 3: on that this offseason.
Speaker 4: It's not it's not normal criticism though, it's constructive criticism.
Speaker 4: That's the gentleman's criticism. Like if he's a man, a
Speaker 4: man manly enough to even have a man cave, he
Speaker 4: can take some constructive criticism. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't have the men to see where maybe I
Speaker 3: can't take the criticism, but I end in this case
Speaker 3: I can.
Speaker 2: And uh and less less we forget, I mean, silly me.
Speaker 2: Not only does Mark Havman kV has an entire Super
Speaker 2: Bowl segment based around it.
Speaker 1: That's true, and that went very well. Now time for
Speaker 1: a trip to marchmen.
Speaker 2: McGregor, I forgot the Devlin McGregor, the the crooked pharmaceutical
Speaker 2: giant from the Fugitive sponsored your segment.
Speaker 3: Well, the greatest part of that segment beyond I have
Speaker 3: no memory of it because of the state of my
Speaker 3: health that day. But the Denzel Ward and Miles Garrett
Speaker 3: were We're not wearing like the cans, so they couldn't
Speaker 3: they couldn't hear. They couldn't even hear any of that.
Speaker 1: So they greg.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget the anxiety coursing through Mark in addition
Speaker 2: to the the germs uh due to his illness ahead
Speaker 2: of that interview with two Brown's greats, and speaking of anxiety,
Speaker 2: I want to bring in the four person on today's show.
Speaker 2: You know her, you love her, you've missed her.
Speaker 1: Shoannie's the queen Queen. She is the Queen of NFL.
Speaker 5: That's how I get brought in speaking of anxiety.
Speaker 1: Great, how you been colly in anything new going on
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 5: No, I've just been laying real, lowing low, just chilling
Speaker 5: a lot of just not doing anything.
Speaker 6: Really.
Speaker 2: I can't wait until we write the the Around the
Speaker 2: NFL memoir.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna say. But it's so good to
Speaker 1: see you.
Speaker 5: Okay, it's so great to be back, guys, I've missed you.
Speaker 5: I'm preparing for a soft launch of the summer of
Speaker 5: Connie and go into full swing right after the draft,
Speaker 5: So it's this is our big months, huge lead up
Speaker 5: to what's going to be an amazing summer.
Speaker 4: Are you doing the draft night stage thing again? That's
Speaker 4: a big spot draft night stage thing.
Speaker 7: That's nice, that's exactly what they call it.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I will be in Detroit on stage for
Speaker 5: night one, and then I wanted to do Day three
Speaker 5: because they're doing puppy adoptions and so I've never done
Speaker 5: Day three before, so I'm gonna skip Night two and
Speaker 5: then stay for all of the shenanigans on day three.
Speaker 1: Are we gonna maybe leave there with a puppy.
Speaker 5: I don't know how. I don't leave without a puppy.
Speaker 5: So we're gonna see what happens. But I'm gonna probably
Speaker 5: get my pick of the litters since I'll be with
Speaker 5: them backstage, and that's kind of my dream, is to
Speaker 5: just be in a green room with a bunch of puppies.
Speaker 3: So it sounds great. And then like will the inevitable
Speaker 3: party at your compounds occur like how many hours after
Speaker 3: you return from the draft, roughly.
Speaker 5: Minutes, moments, seconds, Okay, it already starts on the flight home.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I beloved dog Captain, who's now about sixteen seventeen months old.
Speaker 2: But shortly before Christmas twenty three or twenty two, Emily
Speaker 2: and I went to this I should give them a
Speaker 2: shout out because they do really great work here in
Speaker 2: terms of serving as foster a foster home for pets
Speaker 2: here in the South Bay and in the Los Angeles area.
Speaker 2: But we went over to this couple's home and there
Speaker 2: they were in the laundry room. It was Captain as
Speaker 2: a a three week old puppy, and then three other
Speaker 2: siblings of his. So it was it was a female
Speaker 2: puppy and then three males. And here's the one advice
Speaker 2: I'll give Connie. Okay, we picked Captain. Initially, we wanted
Speaker 2: to get the girl dog, but she was totally insane.
Speaker 2: Emily wanted to get to the girl but she was nuts.
Speaker 2: And then you could tell she was the pied piper
Speaker 2: and she was a maniac. And we're like, all right,
Speaker 2: I love the dog, but we can't pick it. The
Speaker 2: other two dogs were various levels of overactive, and Captain
Speaker 2: as a puppy was chilling way in the back and
Speaker 2: hiding and acting.
Speaker 1: Really low key.
Speaker 2: And We're like, that's that's the puppy we want. But
Speaker 2: I'll tell you something, Connie. We got that little bastard
Speaker 2: home and immediately he morphed into the other two brothers.
Speaker 2: Total maniac that we We wouldn't have him any differently,
Speaker 2: but they are smart enough even as puppies to to
Speaker 2: con you and sell you.
Speaker 1: So just be aware. Can I ask you a question?
Speaker 7: He was He just wasn't tired at the moment.
Speaker 1: I am Greg.
Speaker 2: I am telling you, dude, the that dog was straight
Speaker 2: up acting to separate himself from the pack. And he
Speaker 2: is a very intelligent canine, so I really give him
Speaker 2: that benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: Wait, can I ask you a question like is it possible?
Speaker 3: And I'm this is a theory, and we don't always
Speaker 3: agree with each other's theories, and it's not it's.
Speaker 1: Also not alone.
Speaker 3: It's not a critique, but I is it possible that
Speaker 3: Captain is maybe a little less or maybe a little
Speaker 3: more emotionally dense and wasn't aware like the other three
Speaker 3: dogs that they were the city billions were about to
Speaker 3: be separated, where the other three are reacting. Then Captain
Speaker 3: gets home and realizes he no longer has his siblings.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, Mark, I love you, buddy,
Speaker 2: but I don't need a cat guy telling me anything
Speaker 2: about the nature of the dog advance.
Speaker 1: I'm asking. I didn't tell you.
Speaker 3: I'm asking the question, and it was, you know, constructive
Speaker 3: criticism as Greg would would say, or just a question.
Speaker 5: I was trying to find. I was trying to find
Speaker 5: the rescue that because you said it to me before
Speaker 5: and was telling me like, that's that after Blitzen, So
Speaker 5: I was actually looking at that rescue a bunch.
Speaker 7: They have the cutest dogs.
Speaker 5: But I can't find it now, but I will tell
Speaker 5: you that.
Speaker 2: I'm going to text my wife and we're going to
Speaker 2: get it. All right, Let's get on track. We got
Speaker 2: a good app today. We're going to talk about front offices, gms,
Speaker 2: you know, coaches with pop owners, obviously, the decision makers
Speaker 2: of the organizations that dot the NFL, who's under the
Speaker 2: most pressure heading into a draft weekend. And but before
Speaker 2: that we're gonna hit some news. Let's get caught up now,
Speaker 2: third down and thirteen Bli's coming press gott able to
Speaker 2: get out of the end zone, and now.
Speaker 7: Hears it out for Lamb.
Speaker 1: He's gone, He's gone. When he gets there, it's a touchdown.
Speaker 2: Calibourns time, CD Lamb from ninety two yards out. Those
Speaker 2: Although I do and we're gonna get to the NFL
Speaker 2: conquering the days of the week again in a few minutes,
Speaker 2: But I really do enjoy those late regular season Saturday
Speaker 2: night games where like Daddy can have a couple of Tito's,
Speaker 2: My sons are with me. We don't get to watch
Speaker 2: football enough do to the nature of our jobs. And
Speaker 2: when like a really exciting play happens like that, uh,
Speaker 2: it kind of electrifies the house. That was that was
Speaker 2: when and everyone knows that listens pot, I love me
Speaker 2: some CD lamp in what was a brilliant season. That
Speaker 2: game he was an absolute monster, and now the Cowboys
Speaker 2: are dealing with the repercussions of it being a monster.
Speaker 1: Because she gotta pay him like a god.
Speaker 4: I'm still a little stuck on you know, you calling
Speaker 4: yourself our daddy, But I do want to move on
Speaker 4: because that that highlight I think was the first time
Speaker 4: this offseason that I saw highlight from the season, and like,
Speaker 4: for a few weeks afterwards, I got to admit, like
Speaker 4: seeing highlights from the season, it almost gives me the chills, like,
Speaker 4: oh remember that. Back then, it was just like you
Speaker 4: were in a totally different mindset. But now teams have
Speaker 4: showed up, they've started working out.
Speaker 7: Football is back. I was excited to see, so I'll
Speaker 7: highlight there.
Speaker 1: Now let's go.
Speaker 2: Mark's going to reach through your monitor and put an
Speaker 2: end to your jugglers.
Speaker 7: We're working out.
Speaker 4: We got Kirk Cousins doing interviews in the Falcons facility.
Speaker 7: They're they're there.
Speaker 2: Football is back, all right, And we just lost Colleen.
Speaker 2: Hopefully we'll get her back. He has technical difficulties sometime
Speaker 2: design on these remote shows, but we'll hopefully we'll get
Speaker 2: Colleen back. And if we don't, it was a great
Speaker 2: seeing her and she'll be back soon enough. Let's get
Speaker 2: into the cd Lamb story here, which is I don't
Speaker 2: know if i'd call it thorny, but it's on the
Speaker 2: radar and it's worth talking about. The Dallas Morning News
Speaker 2: reported that there is quote NFL precedent for CDE Lamb
Speaker 2: not taking the field until he signs a contract extension.
Speaker 2: He's entering the fifth and final year of his rookie deal.
Speaker 2: But he is one of the best wide receivers in
Speaker 2: football we just talked about. He's coming off an incredible
Speaker 2: season where he posted career highs and receptions one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty five receiving yards seventeen forty nine touchdowns twelve.
Speaker 2: So he's a first time All Pro. He deserves a
Speaker 2: contract that matches that, and yet the Cowboys are just
Speaker 2: in slippery conditions here Mark with their salary cap, with
Speaker 2: what's going on with Michael Park, Parsons, with Dak Prescott.
Speaker 2: In some ways it's a good problem to have, but
Speaker 2: also in others ways you're seeing the challenges of a
Speaker 2: team with top flight stars bunch together.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's you know, this stuff happens. There
Speaker 3: is a precedent, I like that word attached to this.
Speaker 3: But they've gotten to this point with those three players
Speaker 3: you mentioned, like Prescott, Parsons, and Lamb where all of
Speaker 3: them need their contracts to be addressed, and it for
Speaker 3: all the business and hype around the Cowboys, it just
Speaker 3: feels kind of like bad business, like a little bit
Speaker 3: disorganized because these wide receivers each year get incrementally so
Speaker 3: much more expensive that you could have done this before.
Speaker 3: You could have found a way to do this before.
Speaker 3: Like the whole Dak thing, I'd say the same thing.
Speaker 3: It's like quarterback wide receiver becoming incredibly inflated price wise,
Speaker 3: And I think it's Lamb's prerogative to say, look, I
Speaker 3: want to be paid like what I am, which is
Speaker 3: one of the top receivers in the league, and you're
Speaker 3: not going to have my services without that money. And
Speaker 3: if you look at what else they have on the
Speaker 3: depth chart, they don't only choice but to make it happen.
Speaker 4: It's just part of the offseason playbook right now. I
Speaker 4: mean skipping offseason workouts. They're voluntary anyways. If he skips
Speaker 4: a mini camp or not, it's not that meaningful. If
Speaker 4: he starts taking into trading camp again, that's part of
Speaker 4: the playbook.
Speaker 7: It's it's a catch twenty two.
Speaker 4: With this fifth year option, you retain his rights longer
Speaker 4: than if he was a second round pick. But they
Speaker 4: just never want to play on that fifth year option
Speaker 4: if they're the kind of player that Ceedee Lamb is.
Speaker 4: He's made a total of fourteen million dollars in his
Speaker 4: four years, which is, you know, great money for a
Speaker 4: normal person, but for the level of production that he's had,
Speaker 4: you know, it's minuscule. They will get the deal done.
Speaker 4: They don't have a ton of cap space. But I
Speaker 4: do think the Dak Prescott situation is looming over this
Speaker 4: that they, in my mind, are going to choose on
Speaker 4: some level to pay CD Lamb first and wait and
Speaker 4: see how Dak Prescott does this year. And I think
Speaker 4: it's meaningful with the coming up because I just look
Speaker 4: at a fairly deep quarterback class and I know they
Speaker 4: don't have a high pick, and yeah, I just look
Speaker 4: at like the model that the Packers have shown, and
Speaker 4: to me, it's not crazy for the Cowboys to be
Speaker 4: considering taking a quarterback in this class. And part of
Speaker 4: that equation I think is Ceedee Lamb's going to get
Speaker 4: his money.
Speaker 7: It's just a matter of time.
Speaker 4: We don't need to spend like a crazy amount of
Speaker 4: time this offseason, even though I suspect it we'll go
Speaker 4: into training camp or something like that.
Speaker 2: And this is you know, their Cowboys are a victim
Speaker 2: of their own success on some level. But also it's
Speaker 2: another reminder and it's like you know, you saw the
Speaker 2: Digs trade and the Bills in some ways, and you
Speaker 2: look at their roster and what they're doing now. They're
Speaker 2: trying to reload on the fly with the star quarterback
Speaker 2: that the Cowboys had their window like they had it
Speaker 2: like that when you hit on Parsons, Lamb and Dak
Speaker 2: you had that three or four years where that's when
Speaker 2: you go and you win Super Bowls. And they weren't
Speaker 2: able to get over the hump in the NFC. And
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean that they can't contend for the Super
Speaker 2: Bowl again even this year, but now it's getting increasingly
Speaker 2: more difficult. And Parsons is a top five, maybe even
Speaker 2: top three player, maybe the number one player at his position.
Speaker 2: Lamb you can make the same case for his position.
Speaker 2: These are two of the highest paid positions in the sport.
Speaker 2: And then Dak maybe not top five, but probably a
Speaker 2: top ten quarterback and he's a QB, so that's the
Speaker 2: highest paid position in the sport. So it's almost a
Speaker 2: perfect store mark k which I'm less being feeling critical
Speaker 2: of the Cowboys, but that they didn't get the job
Speaker 2: done winning and now they have to find a way
Speaker 2: to pay these three dudes at like the most expensive
Speaker 2: price tags in the sport, and it's kind of impossible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think, like, I mean, there's no way
Speaker 3: to really shape shift the message to not say that
Speaker 3: Dallas has had an awkward, unpredictably strange offseason that I
Speaker 3: guess the starts goes against the actual messaging of what
Speaker 3: they claim to be this offseason. And I'm with Greg though,
Speaker 3: I mean, we can let this one go until he
Speaker 3: gets paid.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: The Chris Jones hold out last last year was one
Speaker 3: of the rare ones where like a star isn't there
Speaker 3: when the season starts. I typically just tend to think
Speaker 3: these things get ironed out, but they're they're in a
Speaker 3: thorny spot.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the story here is not the idea of
Speaker 2: will see Lamb play for the Cowboys?
Speaker 1: Will he show up?
Speaker 2: And more just like the bigger yeah picture situation around
Speaker 2: the Cowboys.
Speaker 4: He said, by the way to TMZ, I'll be in Dallas,
Speaker 4: which was like a clever non answer to like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you'll be in Dallas, you live there. But he wasn't
Speaker 4: saying he was showing up to practice necessarily.
Speaker 2: Yeah, parse that Harvey Levin all right? In other news.
Speaker 2: We told you NFL one. They've defeated days of the week.
Speaker 2: There's no longer any issue. You could play an NFL
Speaker 2: game whenever you want, and issues with competition be damned.
Speaker 2: There will be a way and a streaming platform that
Speaker 2: will air it. And let's talk about Week one. It's
Speaker 2: gonna have a new wrinkle. There's a lot of new
Speaker 2: wrinkles with this schedule now because everything's been blown wide open.
Speaker 1: The Eagles will play the NFL's first.
Speaker 2: Game in Brazil to kick off twenty twenty four, and yes,
Speaker 2: they will do it on a Friday night. So now
Speaker 2: we get the Thursday night opener. We're gonna have a
Speaker 2: this is the Brazilian national anthem, by the way, We're
Speaker 2: going to have Thursday night opener, We're gonna have Friday night.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have a dozen games on Sunday and then
Speaker 2: games on Monday. So you do the math. That's four
Speaker 2: out of seven in one week of football. So the
Speaker 2: Eagles last played an international game in twenty eighteen. We'll
Speaker 2: face a two be announced opponent in Sam Paulo Friday,
Speaker 2: September sixth, the day after the NFL season kicks off
Speaker 2: on Thursday, night, So it will be the NFL's first
Speaker 2: Friday game on an opening weekend in more than fifty years.
Speaker 2: Mark what was happening fifty years ago when they last played.
Speaker 3: I mean I was born fifty years ago, so I
Speaker 3: think that was probably one of the bigger news items
Speaker 3: in the country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just saying it was in your life cycle,
Speaker 2: so not Greg and I.
Speaker 1: So I didn't know if you knew who were the teams.
Speaker 7: They have TV back then? Did you watch it?
Speaker 3: There was a form of television back in the in
Speaker 3: the early seventies.
Speaker 2: Greg Roger Goodell had this to say, By the way,
Speaker 2: we are just incredibly enthusiastic about our.
Speaker 1: Growth on a global basis. Same seas.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was curious because I saw our frequent guest
Speaker 4: Andrew Marshawn, asked the question, is the NFL even popular
Speaker 4: in Brazil? And I know it is popular to some degree,
Speaker 4: but I wasn't sure as much. But the NFL says
Speaker 4: that Brazil has the third most amount of fans in
Speaker 4: the entire world, number one US, number two Mexico. They
Speaker 4: credit thirty million fans in Brazil. Now, it's not a
Speaker 4: huge part of our audience because of the language barrier,
Speaker 4: but bring it on, Brazilians.
Speaker 7: We're sending you a good game.
Speaker 4: It shows how much we respect Brazil to give them
Speaker 4: Packers Eagles.
Speaker 7: I mean, that might be the best primetime game of
Speaker 7: Week one.
Speaker 3: I also read that actually in Brazil that the Packers,
Speaker 3: you know, they probably looked into this, have one of
Speaker 3: the biggest, one of the biggest, like fan fit the teams.
Speaker 3: The Packers are like the second or third most popular
Speaker 3: team there. But you know, Dan, you said that they
Speaker 3: can play games any day. There is this like age
Speaker 3: old rule out there called the Sports Broadcasting Act of
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty one, which happened before I was born. But
Speaker 3: you are not allowed to play a game on Friday
Speaker 3: as of the second Friday in September. So what they've
Speaker 3: done is they've found these calendar openings where because Labor
Speaker 3: Day is happening on September first, second, or third, you
Speaker 3: can squeeze it in there.
Speaker 1: And they've noted.
Speaker 3: That the other years that are eligible will be twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five, twenty twenty nine, twenty thirty, and twenty thirty one.
Speaker 3: So it's they're not gonna they can't do Friday night
Speaker 3: every night. But when they find their way. They're gonna
Speaker 3: squeeze it in there and disrupt your weekend in we'll see.
Speaker 4: We'll see, Mark, that's true under reporting though by me
Speaker 4: like a challenge. Mark didn't know all that, and I
Speaker 4: think it was valuable to anyone making plans for twenty
Speaker 4: twenty nine.
Speaker 3: I could see the league. You're just challenging him on
Speaker 3: sports back too, all.
Speaker 2: Right, so, and thank you guys for giving me that information,
Speaker 2: an updated information about their opponent.
Speaker 1: That is exciting.
Speaker 2: Moving on, Josh Allen, No, the other Josh Allen, the
Speaker 2: one that plays for the Jaguars, gets paid. He agrees
Speaker 2: to a new five year, one hundred and fifty million
Speaker 2: dollar deal makes him one of the makes them one
Speaker 2: of the highest paid players at his position in the league.
Speaker 2: It is a contract that includes eighty eight million guaranteed,
Speaker 2: and it replaces the franchise tag that he was playing
Speaker 2: under that was set to pay him a little more
Speaker 2: than twenty four million.
Speaker 1: GREGGI.
Speaker 2: Allen coming off his second Pro Bowl trip in five years.
Speaker 2: He is coming off a perfectly timed breakout year where
Speaker 2: he had seventeen and a half sacks, sixty six tackles,
Speaker 2: two forced fumbles, an interception, big time player.
Speaker 1: They nailed the draft pick.
Speaker 2: Remember when he came into the league, was like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's another Josh Allen, Is this the right way?
Speaker 1: And it turned out to be yes, the right play right.
Speaker 4: He's sort of a classic example of a first round
Speaker 4: pick that was a big win, a B plus a minus,
Speaker 4: that wasn't a superstar but better than the average like
Speaker 4: and got better and better and developed, I think in
Speaker 4: times his best season for his contract year. And it
Speaker 4: just reminds me how important self scouting and getting ahead
Speaker 4: of all these contracts are because they could have paid
Speaker 4: they could have paid him so much less a year ago,
Speaker 4: and they could have paid him this contract months ago,
Speaker 4: and then they could have kept Calvin Ridley, but they
Speaker 4: couldn't because then the franchise tag wasn't available and he
Speaker 4: ended up being able to squeeze him. It's a good
Speaker 4: thing though, for players like franchise tag players we saw
Speaker 4: with Kyle Duggart earlier this week are getting their long
Speaker 4: term money, which is sort of how it's intended to
Speaker 4: be used. But these quieter contracts like the Eagles, for instance,
Speaker 4: with Dickerson and my Lot, who are doing it years
Speaker 4: ahead like those are the teams that are smart, they're
Speaker 4: even money in the long run, because this is pretty wild.
Speaker 4: I think it's seventy six fully guaranteed eighty eight gart
Speaker 4: like he's getting that money.
Speaker 7: It's it's not backloaded at all.
Speaker 4: He actually has a chance to play a lot of
Speaker 4: this contract that I think by the looks of it.
Speaker 3: And it links to exactly what we were just saying
Speaker 3: about Micah Parsons. I mean, it's exactly what Dallas has
Speaker 3: to look at and say, oh, we're gonna have to
Speaker 3: top that. And like, you're right, seven of nine tag
Speaker 3: players have gotten contracts and quicker than they would have
Speaker 3: in other times. So like, I like that's that part
Speaker 3: of it. And the Jaguars needed to do this. I
Speaker 3: mean they Calvin Ridley is not to me like a
Speaker 3: star wide receiver, but they are letting players go. And
Speaker 3: you're watching the AFC South, the Texans specifically turn into
Speaker 3: a fire storm and you got a wait and see
Speaker 3: on what Anthony Richardson's makes the cults. So it's like
Speaker 3: the Jaguars, who you know, six hundred days ago were
Speaker 3: a really sexy new operation in the AFC, are now
Speaker 3: like maybe the second or third at least the second
Speaker 3: best team in the South and maybe the third.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, hold that thought, but it
Speaker 1: was too late. We'll talk about the Jaguars a little
Speaker 1: bit later. Potentially we're gonna.
Speaker 4: Have a Balkie off. I mean our multiple co hosts here.
Speaker 1: Don't be ridiculous, all right.
Speaker 2: Finally in the news, God, if there's one person out
Speaker 2: there that got that reference, please hit me up.
Speaker 1: I did social media. I enjoyed it, but go ahead, I.
Speaker 7: Mean I do.
Speaker 4: I don't want to spell it out for the listeners out.
Speaker 7: There that you know. I give me the locky barlacamists.
Speaker 2: I'm fans, Okay, the Bartaka heads out there.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 2: Finally in the news, Bill Belichick is about to enter
Speaker 2: an NFL season not as a head coach or a
Speaker 2: coach of any kind, and that will be the first
Speaker 2: time since nineteen seventy four, which.
Speaker 1: Predates Mark Sessler.
Speaker 3: No, it is I was, you know, on the earth
Speaker 3: to witness the start of that career for Bill dom Man.
Speaker 2: This is like a whole fun game, like can we
Speaker 2: find an event in history where Mark wasn't alive anyway?
Speaker 2: Fifty years okay? And Belichick, though, is keeping busy. He
Speaker 2: recently spoke at Nebraska's annual coaching clinic, and you know,
Speaker 2: the head coach is an old man, an old friend
Speaker 2: of the show, a guy that once stole Mark's heart
Speaker 2: at the NFL scouting combine at a tavern, a local steakhouse.
Speaker 1: That is Matt Ruhle.
Speaker 2: He did not do well as a head coach in
Speaker 2: the NFL, but obviously he's landed on his feet well.
Speaker 2: And he was blown away by Bill Belichick's presence, his knowledge,
Speaker 2: his quah at this clinic. Let's listen to Rule, who
Speaker 2: also was very pointed in his commentary about Bill being
Speaker 2: out of work and how is that possible?
Speaker 6: He is so smart, It's seemed so much that he
Speaker 6: can make the complex so simple that it humbles you
Speaker 6: and embarrassed. I was embarrassed just how smart he is,
Speaker 6: how simple it was.
Speaker 2: He went, what he how we went?
Speaker 7: He went?
Speaker 6: He went four and a half hours, was just with
Speaker 6: the coaches. Forget the clinic, Like he came in and
Speaker 6: met with our coaching staff, and three and a half
Speaker 6: hours in, I was like, coach, would you like a
Speaker 6: water coffee? Like to use the restroom because I desperately
Speaker 6: had to use the restroom, you know, and he's like,
Speaker 6: I'm fine, Matt. I was like, yes, sir, and just
Speaker 6: sitting there and just talking right, and just his recall
Speaker 6: from things fifteen years ago. And you know, the only
Speaker 6: reason why we don't get through more information is because
Speaker 6: he's having to slow down to make sure you understand
Speaker 6: what he's saying. I mean, So, you have this man
Speaker 6: who's a savant, right, Who's been a defensive coordinator, He's
Speaker 6: been a special teams coordinator, he's coached, you know, he
Speaker 6: could be an offensive coordinator, has been a head coach twice,
Speaker 6: he's been a GM person. I mean, he's and he's
Speaker 6: talking about football in a way that just like I mean,
Speaker 6: illuminates things and make things so simple that you're like,
Speaker 6: oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: And I wish things worked out better from that rule,
Speaker 2: because he seems like a good guy and a personal
Speaker 2: guy in the NFL. So and some people and I
Speaker 2: saw some you know criticism out there that who cares
Speaker 2: what that guy says?
Speaker 1: He's terrible at his job.
Speaker 2: Okay, he was bad as a Panthers head coach, but
Speaker 2: he's clearly someone who respects the profession that's done it
Speaker 2: for a long time, and what he's telling you right there,
Speaker 2: does that sound like an over the hill football man,
Speaker 2: someone that doesn't have more to give to this league.
Speaker 2: I think it's one of the great follies and honestly
Speaker 2: the most ridiculous thing in all our time doing this podcast,
Speaker 2: which is we're going into our twelfth season that Bill
Speaker 2: Belichick wanted a job and did not get one this year.
Speaker 2: And that will probably be rectified next year, but let
Speaker 2: it be remembered when the next round of firing and
Speaker 2: firings and dismissals goes down, that a lot of those
Speaker 2: teams had a chance to get Bill Belichick and instead
Speaker 2: chose to outthink themselves.
Speaker 3: I could I could see one you know, silver lining
Speaker 3: here for Belichick, because it's pretty trenchantly noted that when
Speaker 3: coaches take a year off, they their health improves, they
Speaker 3: are able to watch football more globally. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: you're not gonna teach Bill Belichick new things. I get that,
Speaker 3: but just the idea of kind of getting out of
Speaker 3: the grind, re energizing, taking a look look at football
Speaker 3: from a different place, and I think for Belichick to
Speaker 3: go around to these you know, these coaching clinics and
Speaker 3: to talk to other coaching staffs. It's got to be
Speaker 3: fuel for him. And I think it takes the hot
Speaker 3: butt rankings and everyone who's on that list. It dials
Speaker 3: the notch up. Because whatever exhaustion or agism was happening
Speaker 3: around Bill Belichick a couple of months ago, at the
Speaker 3: end of the New England thing and the documentary that
Speaker 3: came out all that, It's like other owners are now
Speaker 3: gonna be like, wait a minute, everyone passed on Bill Belichick.
Speaker 3: But if I'm like the Giants owner, I'm like, we
Speaker 3: could bring Belichick Bill Belichick back to New York to
Speaker 3: be the Giants coach in a bit of poetry, if
Speaker 3: this thing continues to go south. So I think everyone's
Speaker 3: now about to be watching it, like, wait a minute,
Speaker 3: Belichick is already the lead candidate to take a job
Speaker 3: a year from now.
Speaker 4: Like that's all stuff I agree with from both of you.
Speaker 4: And yet I don't think it was some travesty. He
Speaker 4: didn't get hired, He needed a year off. What he
Speaker 4: was doing was stale, he was doing a poor job.
Speaker 4: I think it's going to be extremely valuable for him
Speaker 4: to take a step back and do some self accounting
Speaker 4: of how he went twenty nine and thirty eight with
Speaker 4: no playoff wins for four years, three out of four
Speaker 4: losing records, like cause there's no way he is happy
Speaker 4: with that. And he is as critical as it gets.
Speaker 4: And I randomly like reread a critical of himself as
Speaker 4: he gets as he used to be.
Speaker 7: I reread this book, Patriot.
Speaker 4: Raign, which is one of the great season in the
Speaker 4: life embedded reporter books that kind of got slept on.
Speaker 4: It's Michael Holly who spent two seasons all sorts of
Speaker 4: inside stuff with the Patriots two thousand and two, two
Speaker 4: thousand and three.
Speaker 7: It's kind of amazing.
Speaker 4: It's like him going to Belichick's cousin's house with Belichick
Speaker 4: when she has cancer, all this stuff, and that like
Speaker 4: the number one thing that he stressed that he was
Speaker 4: important to him was to not have yes men around him,
Speaker 4: to have people around him that he respected that could
Speaker 4: push back on what he said, because it can't just
Speaker 4: be one person running the show, like it can't just
Speaker 4: be one person. And Scott Pioli, especially in that book,
Speaker 4: was really important as someone who he trusted to do
Speaker 4: a lot. And he loved how me and Genie pushed back,
Speaker 4: and he said, I never want to be the type
Speaker 4: of leader that gets masturbatory. Heed that word in terms
Speaker 4: of my opinions, and no one's gonna didn't have to
Speaker 4: use that word, but he didn't.
Speaker 7: But he was.
Speaker 4: And and what did he turn into. He turned into
Speaker 4: a guy who had who started making all the decisions,
Speaker 4: had had no one around him, didn't groom anyone that
Speaker 4: would push back, and he will, I'm sure reflect and
Speaker 4: say I did a poor job for four years twenty
Speaker 4: nine and thirty eight with three losing seasons is a
Speaker 4: bad job no matter what.
Speaker 7: And I think he'll come back a better coach.
Speaker 4: But it to me, it's not some like like he
Speaker 4: was a little He needed to reset and change the
Speaker 4: way he was doing things.
Speaker 2: I know, but everybody, everyone seems to be so sure
Speaker 2: of their opinion that he needed to reset and he
Speaker 2: needed this.
Speaker 1: Year away, But he didn't. He didn't think it.
Speaker 2: And just because he listen, he could have gotten a
Speaker 2: job in January and still done some self reflection and
Speaker 2: self scouting and went into this enlivened and re energized
Speaker 2: and learning from what happened at the end of the
Speaker 2: New England Run and the idea, like I think agism
Speaker 2: played a part in the fact that he's in his
Speaker 2: early seventies and now you're kind of in some way
Speaker 2: like the point I'm trying to make will be made
Speaker 2: in January when multiple teams want the guy, and it
Speaker 2: won't be because like, oh, now he's had the year
Speaker 2: and head coach jail where he was able to, you know,
Speaker 2: come clean and go to confession and finally see the
Speaker 2: air of his ways. Like he's going to be the
Speaker 2: same guy and he'll learn and he's learned some things
Speaker 2: away from the game. But I think he would have
Speaker 2: been learning and scouting himself. Either way. That's such a
Speaker 2: bad job. Well he I mean that's also unders I
Speaker 2: understand what you're saying, and you could point to the
Speaker 2: end of the run. He also ended up with a
Speaker 2: quarterback that couldn't really play and that and that really
Speaker 2: shades things. I think if if he ended up with
Speaker 2: a better quarterback prospect than mac Jones, we probably aren't
Speaker 2: having this conversation. And that's not to put everything on
Speaker 2: mac Jones, because he played a major role in Mac Jones.
Speaker 2: He was the face of the organization behind the scenes
Speaker 2: as well. I just I still can't believe, and I
Speaker 2: don't want to dwell on it anymore. And I think
Speaker 2: we're all on the same page. I'm just a little
Speaker 2: more strident in my feeling that the teams, Uh, these
Speaker 2: teams think they're so smart and it's a copycat league,
Speaker 2: and I think once other teams kind of put it
Speaker 2: out there that, oh, we don't want that guy.
Speaker 1: He's he needs a.
Speaker 4: Good team, though I'm not assuming he's going to do well.
Speaker 4: The odds would say like he could be mediocre.
Speaker 1: He loves that Greg.
Speaker 4: The Jets, not like the Jets are going to high him,
Speaker 4: but a team that actually has it in place. His
Speaker 4: mind is obviously so sharp. He's such a great defense
Speaker 4: of mine, like he can do all that running an
Speaker 4: organized I think he showed that his best days are
Speaker 4: are behind him.
Speaker 7: When it comes to that.
Speaker 2: He'll he'll need to make some adjustments, obviously, But I
Speaker 2: and he's not somebody to speak on this. He's not
Speaker 2: going to do a Last Dance Jordan thing and speak
Speaker 2: his mind on this stuff. But he loves like guys
Speaker 2: like national guys like a Greg Rosenthal, who no one
Speaker 2: was ever more in his corner saying he can't do
Speaker 2: it anymore. He's got to be in a perfect setup.
Speaker 2: He needs to kind of. He can't run the show
Speaker 2: like he used to. I think he's going to be hungry.
Speaker 2: And I think it would have been hungry this year too,
Speaker 2: I guess. Is my point this idea that he needed
Speaker 2: to take the year off, Well, he's getting the year
Speaker 2: off and let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: Because I think a little all of it.
Speaker 3: I think a little bit of all of that can
Speaker 3: be true, Like even if he didn't want the year off,
Speaker 3: it can help him. Like he can be doubted, but
Speaker 3: we don't. You have to look at the full body
Speaker 3: of work. He's one of the greatest coaches, if not
Speaker 3: the greatest coach of all time. And I find your versatility,
Speaker 3: Dan to be impressive that you can come out and
Speaker 3: attack appropriately the aegis and the people that you know
Speaker 3: killed for his age on a show where you're asking
Speaker 3: if I was here for to witness the Revolutionary War?
Speaker 3: So I that moatility is?
Speaker 2: I think versatility, I'll tell I think I think you're
Speaker 2: saying it's a little hypocritical.
Speaker 1: Versatile seems like the word that's a nice guy move.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a break and we will talk about,
Speaker 2: speaking of pressure and decision makers, who's under the most
Speaker 2: as we enter a draft season.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what this sport is not for the
Speaker 2: meek of heart and leadership in the front office, that
Speaker 2: Holy Trinity owner, GM, head coach. All teams are different
Speaker 2: and who has the juice, but ultimately there's always someone
Speaker 2: who's responsible, who will be either celebrated or dragged through
Speaker 2: the mud.
Speaker 1: For the draft and.
Speaker 2: Free agency is a test for these decision makers. But
Speaker 2: I feel like the real pressure point, the future of
Speaker 2: the organizations are really built on the back of these
Speaker 2: three days every April.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're going to talk about right now.
Speaker 2: And that's why you're hearing that ominous synth Mark Sessler,
Speaker 2: because I can only imagine. I mean, look at we
Speaker 2: just talked about Belichick. One day, you're the goat, the
Speaker 2: next day you can't even get a job. And that's
Speaker 2: the pressure these guys are under. It's what have you
Speaker 2: done for me lately? And if you're coming off a
Speaker 2: so so draft, for instance, and there are a lot
Speaker 2: of gms and front office leaders that are coming off
Speaker 2: so so to bad drafts, man, you better hit on
Speaker 2: this one. Or you'll be joining Bill Belichick at the
Speaker 2: next corn Huskers summit.
Speaker 1: If you're lucky.
Speaker 3: I think you're right. It's a stark, stark environment. That's
Speaker 3: why it seems to be happening a little bit less.
Speaker 3: But you got these like coach doesn't like to brag
Speaker 3: about being in the office ninety hours a week. In
Speaker 3: gms right now are doing the same thing. They don't
Speaker 3: see their families for four months. And I think this
Speaker 3: year especially to a lot of new gms, but the
Speaker 3: pressure is turned up on some of them, but especially
Speaker 3: some of these guys that have been around for a while,
Speaker 3: and there have been some disappointing tracks in the background.
Speaker 1: So this segment comes at the right time. Den.
Speaker 2: I don't want to get you know on this podcast especially,
Speaker 2: but I did hear one of the many of what
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of new head coaches. To make
Speaker 2: your point, Mark, I heard from a birdie that an
Speaker 2: example is one of the coaches toward the facility after
Speaker 2: being hired, and the first thing he asked was like,
Speaker 2: where are the beds where the pullout couches for my assistance?
Speaker 2: And you could infer quite easily what will be expected
Speaker 2: of that staff and the fact that the assistant coaching
Speaker 2: offenses didn't have a place to sleep meant that needed
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: Handled. Put it that way.
Speaker 2: So, yes, there's a lot of pressure all the way
Speaker 2: down the chain. But let's get into some teams and
Speaker 2: front office leaders who are under the most pressure entering
Speaker 2: this draft. And Greg, why don't you get us go
Speaker 2: and throw throw a team out there. We'll go around
Speaker 2: the horn. And by the way, for those that are wondering,
Speaker 2: Colleen Wolfe still missing in action. We're going to continue
Speaker 2: to track this and hopefully she returns, but hope is
Speaker 2: growing dim.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, great, I'll save Bartokamas for you because I'm
Speaker 4: that kind of teammate. And I want to mention a
Speaker 4: name I feel like has not been mentioned since the
Speaker 4: day he was hired. And he's going to be drafting
Speaker 4: for the first time actually, and he's not in a
Speaker 4: great spot, and yet I still feel like he's under
Speaker 4: a lot of pressure. His name is Dan Morgan. He's
Speaker 4: the Panthers GM not getting a lot of pop pop
Speaker 4: this offseason. The Panthers get a lot of attention, partly
Speaker 4: because they don't have a first round pick, but you
Speaker 4: know what they do as have is the first pick
Speaker 4: in the second round and then another pick six picks
Speaker 4: later in a draft that it's the perfect spot to
Speaker 4: have those two picks where people really feel like the
Speaker 4: strength of this draft is in the top fifty picks,
Speaker 4: that the difference between let's say fifteen and fifty is
Speaker 4: not that great. And to me, the Panthers have so
Speaker 4: many needs that he can put a little bit of
Speaker 4: a fire sale up for that thirty three spot overnight
Speaker 4: and see what he can get for and pick up
Speaker 4: more and more.
Speaker 7: They're thin everywhere.
Speaker 4: I love the Deontay Johnson move, but Adam Thielen, you
Speaker 4: can't expect what you got out of him to happen again.
Speaker 4: Like he is a three in a perfect situation. You
Speaker 4: need more juice. You don't have a receiver, you don't
Speaker 4: have a tight end. Your left tackle from a couple
Speaker 4: of years ago has essentially been a bust. And they're
Speaker 4: gonna say that they love them, but they're gonna need
Speaker 4: another option there. And then I look at their defense
Speaker 4: and they've added some good, just veteran players that kind
Speaker 4: of fill the the snaps. Josie Jewel, DJ wantam Ayshawn
Speaker 4: Robbinson like clown he's there like a bunch of solid
Speaker 4: guys who can play, and they needed that. But when
Speaker 4: you look on our lads, which have my favorite depth charts,
Speaker 4: you could see, you know, when they got drafted where
Speaker 4: they came from. And I noticed like only three players
Speaker 4: on the Panthers starting defense were drafted by the Panthers,
Speaker 4: and one of them, Shaq Thompson, who was practically playing
Speaker 4: with Dan Morgan. Back with Dan Morgan was quite an
Speaker 4: exciting middle linebacker back in the day. And so they
Speaker 4: need homegrown talent and they need to win fast because
Speaker 4: we've learned with that owner. Like you might think you
Speaker 4: have a timeline. Dan Morgan's been in the building, he
Speaker 4: was part of the last regime. He's not gonna have
Speaker 4: that long of a timeline. And they just need to
Speaker 4: start finding some players. And I just wanted to say
Speaker 4: hello to the Carolina Panthers fans that listened to.
Speaker 3: This show, I'm with you, because they've they've been completely excited.
Speaker 3: That is a perilous spot because I think if you're
Speaker 3: anyone's gonna want to try their test at being a
Speaker 3: GM and it was kind of an un I think
Speaker 3: Dan Morgan could be as good as anyone else somewhere,
Speaker 3: but it was a higher from within, which tells me
Speaker 3: sometimes about what the owner wants to be able to
Speaker 3: have control over. I don't know if that's the case here,
Speaker 3: but the odds on situation tells us the tepper wants
Speaker 3: to have the strongest voice. You don't know if the
Speaker 3: quarterback can play. You inherited a job where you have
Speaker 3: given away a ton of draft picks for the future
Speaker 3: and made a ton of terrible team building decisions over
Speaker 3: the last three or four years.
Speaker 1: That's why Matt Ruhl doesn't have a job.
Speaker 3: So it's like I think Dan Morgan like selling that
Speaker 3: pick maybe and acquiring all the assets you can. I
Speaker 3: agree with Greg, I think that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because this is obviously the critical year for Bryce Young.
Speaker 2: It comes quick in the NFL, the number one overall
Speaker 2: pick coming off a nightmare rookie year. If he's bad again,
Speaker 2: very very real chance that they just clean house.
Speaker 4: Two fifth as they mentioned too high seconds and then
Speaker 4: the first pick of the third like they keep like
Speaker 4: that third is almost as good as a late. Yes,
Speaker 4: so he does have some even though they traded all
Speaker 4: this picslay, they have some maneuverability.
Speaker 7: They got to make it happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I though one more before we throw it to
Speaker 2: Mark with his pressure point just a little.
Speaker 1: Greg. I liked the way you did that.
Speaker 2: That was an optimistic type way to say hello to
Speaker 2: the Panthers fans. That one thing that you got to
Speaker 2: remember to do, no matter what, no matter what obstacles
Speaker 2: you face, no matter the hardships in your past, there's
Speaker 2: only one thing you gotta do.
Speaker 1: Piled in.
Speaker 7: All right, it's been a while.
Speaker 3: I you know, when you look at like the last
Speaker 3: Panthers GM, Scott Fitter like not surprising why he's not
Speaker 3: there anymore. I think there's one GM sitting out there
Speaker 3: that it's like it is a surprise to me that
Speaker 3: he's still in the building. And it's George Peyton, who
Speaker 3: I think we have a nickname for. Was it Keaven Saunders?
Speaker 3: I believe that's it. Okay, So Kevin Saunders has enough
Speaker 3: on his resume where he shouldn't be there. I think
Speaker 3: he's a He's got a head coach who essentially like
Speaker 3: probably runs that front office, if not directly, just sort
Speaker 3: of spiritually, and a head coach and Sean Payton who's
Speaker 3: verbally whether I know, Greg always thinks whatever Sean Payton
Speaker 3: is saying that he's lying, but he says, you know,
Speaker 3: there are teams up there above us in the draft
Speaker 3: where they're at number twelve that we are. You know,
Speaker 3: trading up for a quarterback makes them very valuable front
Speaker 3: offices and assets. And I think, like you're looking at
Speaker 3: a team that has Jarrett Stidham and Ben Denucci in
Speaker 3: a post Russell Wilson apocalypse, and there is a lot
Speaker 3: of pressure to get up there and get someone if
Speaker 3: they don't like who's going to fall to them as
Speaker 3: the fifth or sixth guy. They do have more draft
Speaker 3: assets than you would think. But I think either way,
Speaker 3: if for some reason it doesn't go the way that
Speaker 3: Sean Payton wants, that Sean Payton has the easiest.
Speaker 1: Fall guy around.
Speaker 3: And there are you know, once every couple of years
Speaker 3: there's a team that cleans house in the front off
Speaker 3: right after the draft, and I could see that being
Speaker 3: a real problem for George Peyton slash Kevin Saunders if
Speaker 3: it doesn't come out real well for them.
Speaker 1: I mean they absolutely need it.
Speaker 7: I mean that's happening. The decisions already made.
Speaker 4: If it doesn't matter, they're not gonna let him do
Speaker 4: anything on draft weekend if they're gonna fire.
Speaker 3: Well, so I'm saying I don't know if the decision's
Speaker 3: already made or if they maybe they work better together
Speaker 3: than we realized.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I just think that the power structure puts them in
Speaker 3: a tough spot. And it's almost like you have someone
Speaker 3: you can blame other than Sean Payton. If you're Sean Payton,
Speaker 3: if it doesn't go well a couple weeks from now, I.
Speaker 2: Mean you could almost like look at it a different
Speaker 2: way than Mark like that, Especially these teams coming off
Speaker 2: disappointing years, there's not a lot of pressure. I mean
Speaker 2: there's pressure to try to be better. But if things
Speaker 2: go wrong, Sean Payton's pulling the strings anyway, and he
Speaker 2: could just blame the GM and start over there. And
Speaker 2: if things go right, well, Kevin Saunders keeps his job
Speaker 2: most likely, and mickveigh and and Peyton gets all the credit.
Speaker 1: I don't like that.
Speaker 3: I don't like the power structure for George Peyton to
Speaker 3: begin with. But I would say, secondly, who like Kevin Saunders?
Speaker 3: But if you, if you like, go into another rough
Speaker 3: year with Sean Payton. I think things get real ugly,
Speaker 3: and you know, I just I just do. I just
Speaker 3: think they I think they've got to come out of
Speaker 3: this draft with a lot more hope than they were.
Speaker 3: Their roster to me on offense is just like come on, guys,
Speaker 3: like and the drafts have not been great. They out
Speaker 3: they've not had great drafts under Kevin Saunders. So it's
Speaker 3: like walball track record here.
Speaker 2: As a Walmart that that owns the Broncos. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2: We don't know yet how patient they are. We when
Speaker 2: we talked about the Russell Wilson trade, I I made
Speaker 2: my opinion that I shared my opinion that I thought,
Speaker 2: if they're being run the right way, that Peyton should
Speaker 2: be mostly absolved of year one because he had to
Speaker 2: inherit the Russell mess and everything that came with it,
Speaker 2: for sure. And now it's pretty widely known across the
Speaker 2: league that the Broncos are in a very difficult spot
Speaker 2: and terms of how they can spend over the next
Speaker 2: couple of years because of that disastrous Russell Wilson transaction.
Speaker 2: And I guess I just disagree just a little bit
Speaker 2: about like what the expectations are in Denver and when
Speaker 2: the expectations are lowered because of their unique situation that
Speaker 2: maybe it's it's not as high a pressure point as
Speaker 2: other teams.
Speaker 4: Brongos fans didn't like it going into last season, But
Speaker 4: I'm gonna make the same point now, is like, where
Speaker 4: is the strength of this team? Give me a position
Speaker 4: group that has has much. It's a pretty bad roster.
Speaker 4: I might put it in the bottom six in the NFL.
Speaker 4: Like I think Peyton did a fine job, Sean Payton.
Speaker 4: That's why we talk about Kevin Sun. They find job
Speaker 4: coaching up what they had. But there's not a lot.
Speaker 4: There's not a lot to like wrap your arms around
Speaker 4: here and feel good about for the Broncos. So I'm
Speaker 4: with you. They need some talent and fuse it and
Speaker 4: if it and it's tricky like b Nicks as the
Speaker 4: second rounder feels okay, Bonnicks if you take them in
Speaker 4: the top fifteen feels a little rich.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they definitely need to get beat all right. We
Speaker 2: started with two bad teams, two sad teams. A bad
Speaker 2: team in a sad Panthers are kind of sad and bad.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 2: Panthers Broncos two teams that are looking up at hill.
Speaker 1: I want to look at.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about a team that's in a
Speaker 2: really the opposite place, but I kind of attached the
Speaker 2: headlines to these. So the headline here is take a window,
Speaker 2: for granted, and soon enough it will be a wall.
Speaker 2: M I like that pretty good. Made that one up.
Speaker 2: Talk about the Packers, and yeah, Brian Gouda Kuntz has
Speaker 2: been there for a while now. He survived the Aaron
Speaker 2: Rodgers power struggle, handled it beautifully looking back on it,
Speaker 2: nailed the Jordan Love pick. You have Matt Lafleur there,
Speaker 2: his sixth season with the team. There's been a lot
Speaker 2: of success in those six seasons, but also they have
Speaker 2: not gotten to the big one with Lafleur. And then
Speaker 2: that's this is an organization that expects to get back
Speaker 2: to the super Bowl. And last year's the whole last
Speaker 2: season they went nine to eight, They closed very strong. Obviously,
Speaker 2: they went into the playoffs, they were the team nobody
Speaker 2: wanted to play. They took the gave the Lions all
Speaker 2: that they could handle. And now it is understood that
Speaker 2: this is the year that they make that leap. And
Speaker 2: it better be because I think that these windows, especially
Speaker 2: at the Jordan Love situation, Greggie, and maybe you can
Speaker 2: provide just a little clarity because of his situation, where
Speaker 2: is he that contract was.
Speaker 4: He's entering the second year of a two year contract.
Speaker 4: They're probably gonna give him a new contract this offseason.
Speaker 4: If I had to guess in the summer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then things get a little more difficult for
Speaker 2: the Packers. And so what you have with their situation.
Speaker 2: They have the twenty fifth overall pick and they have
Speaker 2: an early second round pick that is the Aaron Rodgers trade.
Speaker 2: It was going to be a first rounder, but Rogers
Speaker 2: didn't reach the percentage of snaps because of his injury,
Speaker 2: of course, so they get a second rounder, so that
Speaker 2: is the ninth pick the second round. They also have
Speaker 2: the twenty sixth pick of the second round, and they
Speaker 2: have two third round picks. So that's pretty nice they
Speaker 2: have for a team coming off a successful season with
Speaker 2: a really exciting young corps.
Speaker 1: They now have five picks out.
Speaker 2: Of the first ninety one, including three in the top sixty.
Speaker 2: And I think the pressure here is it's not like
Speaker 2: Gudakun is going to lose his job, but this is
Speaker 2: look at the Bills as a recent example, or what
Speaker 2: the Lions are now entering as they come into what
Speaker 2: feels like a big time important year for their organization.
Speaker 1: I could have talked about the Lions in this exercise.
Speaker 1: This is kind of the year.
Speaker 2: And if Guta Kunz nails this draft and makes smart
Speaker 2: moves and picks up, hits the first round pick, and
Speaker 2: then gets value in those ever valuable second and third rounds,
Speaker 2: that could really fill out whatever ills this roster at
Speaker 2: this point, whether they decide they want to go after
Speaker 2: an offensive tackle, even though they had a pretty good
Speaker 2: season from Rashid Walker who filled in for Bacdiari, but
Speaker 2: that's a former seventh round pick. You want to upgrade
Speaker 2: at that position. If you want to add some help
Speaker 2: to the defense. You finally made the decision and change
Speaker 2: defensive coordinators. But do you want to add more talent there?
Speaker 2: I suspect that they will, and they'll be aggressive addressing
Speaker 2: the defense because the offense is in a very good
Speaker 2: place overall. But this is such a pivotal moment in
Speaker 2: recent Packers' history because if you hit this draft, look out,
Speaker 2: you could be hoisted in Lombardi in February. If you
Speaker 2: miss on it, you could be the next Bills a
Speaker 2: team that could have, would have, should have, that was
Speaker 2: on the make and then never got there.
Speaker 3: I would just say, like one thing though, quick though,
Speaker 3: because I see what you're saying that it's could swing
Speaker 3: either way. But you know, with the way the Packers
Speaker 3: operate in general, like I would give Goody like an
Speaker 3: A if not in almost an a plus on rebuilding
Speaker 3: the offense, because in a way, even though Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 3: is Aaron Rodgers, it was a little bit of a
Speaker 3: progress stopper. And we're only only like four months removed
Speaker 3: from finding out that Jordan Love can play, and now
Speaker 3: I think like the hope is gushing out of the organization.
Speaker 3: They went back to back MVPs before that last season.
Speaker 3: No I know, but I guess it's more like you, like,
Speaker 3: in a way, they found a good quarterback in Love,
Speaker 3: but then you his rookie contract has been eaten up
Speaker 3: by that situation.
Speaker 1: It's two different things in a way.
Speaker 3: But like they're pretty conservative with what they do with
Speaker 3: their front office and stuff, and I think Goody has
Speaker 3: to be as safe a GM is anyone in a
Speaker 3: division in a way.
Speaker 7: But also.
Speaker 2: Because I'm not talking about I don't see this segment
Speaker 2: as like who's on the hot seat. Necessarily, it's about
Speaker 2: like who is in kind of in many cases it
Speaker 2: will be, and probably the other teams that bring up
Speaker 2: it will be. But in good cunts the situation, it's
Speaker 2: more like, here is a moment and it might not
Speaker 2: be on everyone's radar that this kind of could be
Speaker 2: the year that separates them and makes them a true
Speaker 2: super Bowl team if he hits it, and it's like
Speaker 2: a moment in time before love gets that big deal.
Speaker 3: Well, I think you said that he would be in
Speaker 3: trouble for some reason if things went, if this draft
Speaker 3: and go well, which maybe you weren't.
Speaker 1: But you would live with regret more than he'd be
Speaker 1: in trou Okay, I.
Speaker 4: Think that's so true that as you were talking and
Speaker 4: I'm thinking about it, like they have a chance to
Speaker 4: really set themselves up as the consistent team in the NFC.
Speaker 4: A young quarterback and a really good young core, a
Speaker 4: lot of which is on offense.
Speaker 7: That's that's how you win consistently.
Speaker 4: And when you say watch out, you turn into the Bills,
Speaker 4: And part of me thinks like, well, you should be
Speaker 4: so lucky.
Speaker 7: I mean, they did win.
Speaker 4: Like the most amount of games over the last four years,
Speaker 4: and I don't view the Vill's story as remotely closed.
Speaker 4: To me, Josh Allen is in the middle of their
Speaker 4: prime and so their windows open. So consistent winning is
Speaker 4: what they want. You want to get a little over
Speaker 4: the top and some good picks on defense, especially, I
Speaker 4: think in the secondary. Mate, maybe you get a little
Speaker 4: younger with the pass rush. But they're a team unlike
Speaker 4: the Broncos. Where I look around, I see a lot
Speaker 4: of strengths and I don't see a ton of huge,
Speaker 4: screaming needs.
Speaker 7: You mentioned a couple of them.
Speaker 4: I think they'll definitely address the secondary at some point
Speaker 4: with those first three picks.
Speaker 7: But he's in a good spot.
Speaker 4: I mean, if Damashek does that list of like the
Speaker 4: greatest positions in sports, and you know he puts like
Speaker 4: Bruins center and Yankees something I don't even remember what
Speaker 4: it was centerfield, It's like, how about Packers GM going
Speaker 4: from Wolf to Thompson to Guda Kunst.
Speaker 7: You know that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: I feel like.
Speaker 2: Most of Dave's like cross sports points just circle back
Speaker 2: to Mario Lemieux.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's it is.
Speaker 7: The center I think is like number one all time
Speaker 7: or something.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's take a break and then we will
Speaker 2: go around again talking about different teams that the decision makers.
Speaker 1: What am I calling this again? Pressure points? Was decision
Speaker 1: making team builders? Pretty good? All right, we'll be right back.
Speaker 2: Right everybody, you never played that, Thank you very much,
Speaker 2: Greg Rosenthal who said that. Uh, by the way, Greg,
Speaker 2: any have you given any thought so far about the
Speaker 2: Delaware tapes now that they are in the possession?
Speaker 4: No mean, despite you know, the firestorm on of interest
Speaker 4: on social media. Wait, no, I haven't heard from one
Speaker 4: listener on this thing. Nobody cares. We waited too long
Speaker 4: for this bit. The desire has really diminished over the years.
Speaker 4: After the listeners are like, what's Dan even talking about?
Speaker 4: It's this is from eight years ago.
Speaker 2: What a mistake that was? Everyone, all the soldiers of
Speaker 2: the ATN Army. Please hit up Greg on Twitter. We
Speaker 2: need and let him know that you do want to
Speaker 2: hear the Delaware tapes and and and it would be
Speaker 2: a win, Mark, like you said, a win for everyone,
Speaker 2: a win for you.
Speaker 3: And I think so, I think, like you know, when
Speaker 3: we're hearing the innocent voices of children, you know, young
Speaker 3: minds and hearts asking that this be the wish that
Speaker 3: were fulfilled not only just for us, but for the
Speaker 3: future generations.
Speaker 1: So I think it's important.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a rookie mistake by me, and I
Speaker 4: know you're not. I will be turning off notifications until Monday,
Speaker 4: April fifteenth, all.
Speaker 2: Right, so start sending this on Monday April fifteenth now.
Speaker 2: And I know you're not in it for the glory,
Speaker 2: but just think, Greg, that you two could have a
Speaker 2: sign football from Dabo Sweeney.
Speaker 1: Like me that I helped.
Speaker 2: I potentially played a role in the I'm gonna say
Speaker 2: an orphanage that was erected in the Clemson region. I'm
Speaker 2: not sure, but I did play role because I got
Speaker 2: that ball. You too could have some type of artifacts
Speaker 2: celebrating your great Filmthrampic mind.
Speaker 4: I think it was thanking you for speaking to the
Speaker 4: Young Capitalists of America conference or something.
Speaker 7: So let's come down with the Orphanage.
Speaker 1: Young Capitalists of America. That is so that's so false.
Speaker 2: So anyway, again, just before we get back to it,
Speaker 2: who wins Mark and I, who wins the audience, and
Speaker 2: who wins the Santa Monica Food Bank as an example,
Speaker 2: we will donate on behalf of Greg if he lets
Speaker 2: us all here the Delaware his Prague acid rock group
Speaker 2: from the mid nineties in high school out of western Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Some of their great work includes I have it under Delaware,
Speaker 2: bio under stickies on my laptop, how.
Speaker 1: Do you want to cook? Shiny Men went to frog Town.
Speaker 1: These are all output from Delaware. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: back to it.
Speaker 2: We must listen to Delaware.
Speaker 1: Shy Man went to Frogtown. You're up, Greg, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with Brandon Bean point you.
Speaker 4: Know, I started with Carolina. Let's go to a former
Speaker 4: Panthers staffer here, Brandon Bean who arrived in Buffalo after
Speaker 4: one season of Sean mcdermotty. He joined his power there
Speaker 4: twenty eighteen. I think what they've done since McDermott got
Speaker 4: there could be taught at like a sports business school
Speaker 4: of how to rebuild a franchise through picks, through trade,
Speaker 4: through free agency, how to take something where there was
Speaker 4: basically nothing and create a consistent winner. Hopefully they you know,
Speaker 4: for them, they get a Super Bowl eventually, and it
Speaker 4: really completes that story.
Speaker 7: But I think he was excellent.
Speaker 4: But you look at the track record over the last
Speaker 4: few years and in the draft specifically, there's just not
Speaker 4: enough home runs. There's a bunch of singles, Like at Oliver,
Speaker 4: you found a guy who you can kind of build around.
Speaker 7: That was twenty nineteen. For the most part, all.
Speaker 4: Their best player, their core players, were found back then
Speaker 4: when they first got their seventeen eighteen nineteen, maybe twenty,
Speaker 4: and since then they've been hitting singles. He needs this
Speaker 4: fine guys that can be around now. They don't pick
Speaker 4: until late. I've seen some stuff that maybe they trade
Speaker 4: up for wide receiver. I think that's crazy because they
Speaker 4: do have some fifths and sixth in this class where
Speaker 4: they can trade to move around. But I think they
Speaker 4: need to find two or three real difference makers in
Speaker 4: the top seventy five picks. We're going to talk receiver tomorrow,
Speaker 4: but you know their number one receiver right now out
Speaker 4: wide is Curtis Samuel or Khalil Shiftier.
Speaker 1: I don't even know who.
Speaker 7: Geez it's concaid. I mean they need a wide receiver.
Speaker 4: They've signaled that they're really happy with their offensive line.
Speaker 4: They recently signed Layout Collins too, so I think that's
Speaker 4: one area they won't hit. But especially in the secondary,
Speaker 4: the defense and at wide receiver, They need core guys.
Speaker 4: They need the bills that are gonna help carry Josh
Speaker 4: Allen to where he hasn't gone before. I think he
Speaker 4: can do it because he's done it before. But they're
Speaker 4: they're starting to run out of time. I liked the
Speaker 4: draft last year. It worked out okay, but they need
Speaker 4: to start stacking him.
Speaker 3: One thing I don't like about Buffalo's situation is when
Speaker 3: you know, less than a month before the draft, you
Speaker 3: created a burning need at a you know, for an
Speaker 3: offense that you know you can say, Josh Allen, go
Speaker 3: do it all on, it's on his own. Well, no,
Speaker 3: we can't. Like, that's just not how this is going
Speaker 3: to work. And so you have to go find that
Speaker 3: wide receiver. It's absolutely you need to use it. You
Speaker 3: might need a trade up if you fall in love
Speaker 3: us on, but then you need that wide receiver to
Speaker 3: like produce right away.
Speaker 1: I just don't love the situation. I think things. I
Speaker 1: think there is a.
Speaker 3: Lot of pressure on the coach, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: pressure on the quarterback. There's a lot of pressure on
Speaker 3: the front office. And they were they did Brandon Bean
Speaker 3: did such a good job building this thing. But they're
Speaker 3: in a place that they did not plan to be
Speaker 3: I don't think on any level right now.
Speaker 2: And they could they could make an aggressive move up
Speaker 2: the board potentially to grab one of these top wide receivers,
Speaker 2: but it might end up being more likely that with
Speaker 2: that twenty eighth overall pick, or even in this second
Speaker 2: round where they pick sixtieth. Yeah, they have to be
Speaker 2: sharper than ever and identify someone that is a high
Speaker 2: value guy and hope they hit on it. They see
Speaker 2: I agree with it you're saying, Mark, They just seem
Speaker 2: very kind of vulnerable where they where they are right now,
Speaker 2: and if you were going to trade digs, the timing
Speaker 2: of it post free agency, pre draft almost just puts
Speaker 2: more pressure on the organization to hit on something. And
Speaker 2: it's not easy to hit on these guys. It's as
Speaker 2: good as this wide receiver classes. And like Greg said,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about that episode later this week, Like,
Speaker 2: it's not easy to land on the guy that actually
Speaker 2: turns into a big time pro, and they need a.
Speaker 1: Guy who's going to be a big time pro. They're
Speaker 1: trying to win a super Bowl.
Speaker 2: It's not good enough anymore just to go twelve and
Speaker 2: five or thirteen and four. Immense pressure in Western New York.
Speaker 2: That was that, GREGI Marky.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think the most interesting spot in the
Speaker 3: first round is number four there on the Cardinals. And
Speaker 3: I think with some of these guys, like with Brandon Bean,
Speaker 3: you can look back and say, well, what have his
Speaker 3: drafts been? And with Monte Austin Fort their GM, I'm
Speaker 3: less concerned with. You know, he doesn't have that track record,
Speaker 3: but he did. He almost reminds me of our old
Speaker 3: guy Sashi Brown, where he came in with a very
Speaker 3: distinct strategy they used last year to compile draft picks.
Speaker 3: They didn't trade Kyler Murray, which was kind of this
Speaker 3: thing that people, you know, I thought might happen. But
Speaker 3: they're cool at quarterback, so they're not a candidate to
Speaker 3: take a quarterback at number four.
Speaker 1: They talk about a team that needs wide receivers.
Speaker 3: They've got Michael Wilson, who I like, Greg Dortch, who
Speaker 3: I like. Is these are supporting guys and Chris Moore essentially,
Speaker 3: so you know there are there another team that like, well,
Speaker 3: what do you do?
Speaker 1: You created this burning need.
Speaker 3: You could also, I think, obviously trade these picks to
Speaker 3: the Vikings and get a good wide receiver down down
Speaker 3: in the down the board a little bit. I guess
Speaker 3: I just cannot wait to see what they do. They've
Speaker 3: got eleven picks in this draft, and it's cool to
Speaker 3: keep accruing them. But to go back to Sashi Brown
Speaker 3: because the one that kind of comes up is like
Speaker 3: I love the strategy because I think it's it's like
Speaker 3: you're always gonna have a team when you're number four,
Speaker 3: and they have needs all over the place, so recreate
Speaker 3: this team with young players. But that's Sashi Brown, a
Speaker 3: crewman of draft picks, and this is other teams to
Speaker 3: try this too. It's like you got to hit on
Speaker 3: them and they missed on a lot. There was one
Speaker 3: draft where they drafted like four wide receivers and a
Speaker 3: quasi like tight end wide receiver type hybrid and like
Speaker 3: none of them worked. None of them worked, And like
Speaker 3: that's only the beginning of how it didn't work. So
Speaker 3: I guess what I want to find out is like
Speaker 3: Monte Austin fort, great plan, good strategy, You've got you
Speaker 3: sit at the inflection point of the entire first round
Speaker 3: where you're gonna get great value like you did from
Speaker 3: the Texans a year ago, and you can't argue with
Speaker 3: that strategy. But then are you the front office, the GM,
Speaker 3: the group of people to go get the right players,
Speaker 3: because if that doesn't happen, you passed on someone like
Speaker 3: Marvin Harrison Junior. It's like you could get a legit,
Speaker 3: bonafide likely Hall of Famer, or you can continue your
Speaker 3: draft capitol building plan. I just cannot wait to find
Speaker 3: out what they're offered, what they say yes to, what
Speaker 3: they say no do, and what they do.
Speaker 4: They have so many needs and they're just like a
Speaker 4: little unlucky. Do you remember I sort of memory hold
Speaker 4: this game, but week seventeen, they were down twenty one
Speaker 4: to six to the Eagles and Kyler Murray ends up
Speaker 4: putting up thirty five points. This is like it felt
Speaker 4: like the bottom of the Eagles season, and yet they
Speaker 4: had more lengths to go and they won that game,
Speaker 4: and you know, they would have only won three games.
Speaker 4: I think they would have been two picks higher if
Speaker 4: they hadn't won that game, and they would be in
Speaker 4: such a better position here to trade that number two
Speaker 4: pick for a quarterback that they could have gotten the
Speaker 4: farm for. And sometimes it is a little lucky. It's
Speaker 4: like the Panthers got this one pick for the pan
Speaker 4: I mean the Bears got this number one pick for
Speaker 4: the Panthers being like this bad. No one expected them
Speaker 4: to be this bad. So it's just like a little
Speaker 4: bit of bad luck. And they have so many needs
Speaker 4: that it's like you could pick any position and they
Speaker 4: need it other than quarterback.
Speaker 7: I would say maybe maybe offensive line.
Speaker 2: I'll go glass half full in the sense that, yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't know if this management you know, and never
Speaker 2: forget ownership, and when you look at the teams are
Speaker 2: successful and teams that aren't, like it all connects like
Speaker 2: can you trust the Arizona Cardinals to make the right decision?
Speaker 2: And if they were sitting with the number two pick,
Speaker 2: as you're saying, like, then they have to or more
Speaker 2: most likely make a decision either to draft a quarterback
Speaker 2: or they trade out of the pick, and maybe they
Speaker 2: the trade they make is great, or maybe it makes
Speaker 2: them overthink things and mess things up. The way it
Speaker 2: is now, it's almost dummy proof. It's like you got
Speaker 2: in a top flight wide receiver year. You need a
Speaker 2: top flight wide receiver for this quarterback that you paid
Speaker 2: all this money to go Just take Marvin Harrison or
Speaker 2: whoever you think is the best wide receiver, don't overthink
Speaker 2: it and and get better overnight.
Speaker 1: How do you mess this one up? Like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: It seems like a tough one for even the Cardinals too,
Speaker 3: But they're like I think they're likely. I would greg,
Speaker 3: where would you put the odds that they trade it?
Speaker 3: I mean, it depends what I think the vikings are
Speaker 3: already called them. It's like I would put it at
Speaker 3: like sixty percent that they would maybe trade it. That
Speaker 3: may be a little bit high.
Speaker 2: But or just like justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase or
Speaker 2: a player of that level to your roster right now
Speaker 2: with your quarterback that you're still trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: Like right, I guess that's what I mean.
Speaker 2: I said, there's nothing wrong with trading back when there's
Speaker 2: a quarterback starve team out there and you have to
Speaker 2: pick up the phone of it.
Speaker 1: It rings.
Speaker 2: But also, like I feel like just taking a potential
Speaker 2: first team All Pro level wide receiver is a path
Speaker 2: to getting a lot better also, you know.
Speaker 4: And to give my Monte Austin for credit, look, last
Speaker 4: year Will Anderson turned out to be great for Houston,
Speaker 4: But the Cardinals are happy with that trade. They already
Speaker 4: did a trade down last year, and they had a
Speaker 4: sneaky good rookie class. They got, you know, four or
Speaker 4: five real contributors, real NFL players, so they're off to
Speaker 4: a good start. I think it's a good coaching staff
Speaker 4: and the GM has done a good job so far.
Speaker 4: And yeah, Mark, I think it's significant the chances they trade.
Speaker 4: I'd put it a little lower just because Harrison's so
Speaker 4: special that it's like forty sixty. But it feels like
Speaker 4: it could happen for sure.
Speaker 2: Okay, I got a weird one here in terms of
Speaker 2: the headline, because I wanted to give a headline for
Speaker 2: each of these Yes, the Jaguars, let's talk about the Jaguars,
Speaker 2: Little Bartacamas, the Bartaka heads are going off right now.
Speaker 2: Got Doug Peterson, and I was thinking a headline for
Speaker 2: some reason. The phrase I do not want what I
Speaker 2: haven't got just came into my head, and that is
Speaker 2: the title of Shenado O'Connors nineteen eighty nine album that
Speaker 2: had of course nothing compares to you on it, And
Speaker 2: I'm like, why did I think of that? Why did
Speaker 2: that just come into my brain? That seems strange? I'm
Speaker 2: not even like a huge shnade head, like a respector
Speaker 2: and rest in peace, and he is Irish. I loved
Speaker 2: Sinead O'Connor's voice, but like, it's not like I was
Speaker 2: a super fan. I don't own an album, so why
Speaker 2: did I do not want what I haven't got come
Speaker 2: into my brain? So anyway, apparently it's a you know,
Speaker 2: it's a song off the album, and it's it's said
Speaker 2: to be about finding acceptance for what can't be changed,
Speaker 2: making peace with loss and limitation, and finding the courage
Speaker 2: to live and love.
Speaker 7: I said that.
Speaker 1: Kind of it's about Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 2: Wow, like are the Jaguars now we maybe didn't draft
Speaker 2: the savior of all saviors and and he's he could
Speaker 2: he could be very good, but there's some limitations here.
Speaker 2: He's not gonna be the guy that takes you just
Speaker 2: on his back.
Speaker 1: But you can move on from that. You once you
Speaker 1: know that you have a.
Speaker 2: Very good, potentially great quarterback, but maybe not a first
Speaker 2: ballot Hall of Famer. Now that we know that, we
Speaker 2: process that and maybe there's some grief involved there, but
Speaker 2: it's not the end of the world. You still have
Speaker 2: a quarterback that twenty five teams in the league, maybe
Speaker 2: twenty three teams in the league, maybe twenty teams in
Speaker 2: the league would kill to have.
Speaker 1: So we move forward, and how do they do that? Now?
Speaker 2: They and this is here's a quote. Do we have
Speaker 2: this quote by the way, etp from Doug Peterson.
Speaker 8: I don't know if I'll ever get over it. I
Speaker 8: think for me, it's going to be my motivation, my fuel,
Speaker 8: you know, moving forward, you know, and I'm not going
Speaker 8: to let it cloud the vision. But at the same time,
Speaker 8: it's going to be it's going to be close in
Speaker 8: my mind as I move forward with the team.
Speaker 2: This spring, Doug Peterson was talking about the one in
Speaker 2: five finish to the season when they were eight and
Speaker 2: three and on top of the world. They won in
Speaker 2: Houston on right around Thanksgiving to go to eight and three,
Speaker 2: and then the wheels fell off and Trevor Lawrence's injury
Speaker 2: played a big role in that, but it wasn't the
Speaker 2: only thing. The defense melted down as well. So now
Speaker 2: they have to figure out where they're at and they
Speaker 2: have let's see, they have the seventeenth overall pick. They
Speaker 2: also and they have the forty eighth overall pick in
Speaker 2: the second round, and then they have a compensatory pick
Speaker 2: in the third round. So they have three picks in
Speaker 2: the top ninety six, two in the top fifty.
Speaker 1: Where do you go if you're Balki? Where do you go?
Speaker 2: If you're Doug Peterson, who took the end of that
Speaker 2: season very personally, you're definitely set at quarterback.
Speaker 1: You believe you got to decide whether you're going to.
Speaker 2: Make Trevor Lawrence a top five paid quarterback in the league.
Speaker 2: That's a decision that it's going to be difficult. But
Speaker 2: what do you do to try to get better in
Speaker 2: the AFC South and be as also Peterson said in
Speaker 2: that press availability at the owners meetings, like they're back
Speaker 2: to being the hunter in the AFC South, and I'm
Speaker 2: looking at like move the sticks mocks Terry and Arnold
Speaker 2: to cornerback out of Alabama to Jacksonville. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of issues with miscommunications in the secondary, a lot of
Speaker 2: blown coverages late in the season, So that makes sense,
Speaker 2: and say also the repercussions of a move that a
Speaker 2: lot of us first guessed at the time that Trayvon
Speaker 2: Walker first overall pick when you had Aiden Hutchinson who
Speaker 2: seemed like the safer pick because Walker hasn't become the
Speaker 2: guy they expected them to be. They have a big
Speaker 2: needed edge rusher still. So I think it's the defense
Speaker 2: where you're focused, but you can't ignore the offense that
Speaker 2: needs help. With Ridley out the door and Trevor Lawrence
Speaker 2: at a kind of an inflection point in his career,
Speaker 2: like who is he will give him the right setup
Speaker 2: and give him the cast that allows him to maximize
Speaker 2: what he is very important, a lot of pressure on
Speaker 2: the brain trust in Jacksonville.
Speaker 3: I'd kind of maybe part of it is, like, see
Speaker 3: what type of wide receiver falls to you. They're seventeen,
Speaker 3: you said, because it is, it's a special draft on
Speaker 3: that note, and like, I kind of think it's easier
Speaker 3: when you're a team that has a couple burning needs,
Speaker 3: like they need a wide receiver, they need secondary help.
Speaker 3: Like you maybe can't go I mean, you can go
Speaker 3: wrong with any of these picks, but you probrobably can't
Speaker 3: walk away from the first round of feeling good about
Speaker 3: whoever you add, Like it's I don't hate their spot there.
Speaker 1: I'm higher on Trevor Lawrence maybe than you are. And
Speaker 1: I know what you're saying.
Speaker 3: But like the injury hurt him a lot last year,
Speaker 3: but he's still like the way he ended the season
Speaker 3: before outside of the playoff game, Like he's six y six,
Speaker 3: he can run, he can do everything.
Speaker 2: Mark, Where would you have him in your quarterback rankings
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 3: Well, so, I mean the QB rank the QB Index
Speaker 3: is based on like literally the last kind of stuff
Speaker 3: we saw.
Speaker 7: Over the off season, we just kind of doll I
Speaker 7: wipe that.
Speaker 3: Just in general, I would say this, I think he
Speaker 3: has absolute potential to be a top ten quarter But where.
Speaker 1: Would you put him right now? That's all I'm saying. Twelve?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I would too, I would put him in
Speaker 2: that territory. And I'm saying, do you is it time
Speaker 2: to give the ghost that you have the top three guy?
Speaker 1: Not yet?
Speaker 3: And that's all I'm saying, Yeah, just not yet. I
Speaker 3: mean that that would be like ad But.
Speaker 2: By the way, you can win with the top ten
Speaker 2: quarterback obviously and many half so it's not the end
Speaker 2: of the world. I'm just saying him as the all
Speaker 2: world savior Peyton Manning type guy. Maybe that's the calibration
Speaker 2: that need or the recalibration that needs to be made.
Speaker 4: Yea, I need to I need to write the list down,
Speaker 4: and I feel like I'm lower on Lawrence and consensus,
Speaker 4: but maybe not in this room. I feel I think
Speaker 4: he's still in the top ten. He's probably right around
Speaker 4: nine or ten. And that's his play so far, and
Speaker 4: I think he can get back. I think he's he
Speaker 4: had a lot of good play last year that that
Speaker 4: they were not supporting him early in the season. But
Speaker 4: they are a weird team. I agree Mark that the
Speaker 4: need the needs aren't that screaming. They're a better version
Speaker 4: to me of the Broncos, where it's like they're average
Speaker 4: to good at most spots. Secondary to me is an
Speaker 4: especially cornerback is the biggest need.
Speaker 7: But they feel like.
Speaker 4: They solve something by signing Ark Armstead, but that you
Speaker 4: know that's an older player with an injury last year,
Speaker 4: and so you need defensive lineman even if it's a
Speaker 4: third edge with Walker and Alan, or if it's a
Speaker 4: defensive tackle, and they would have loved to keep Bridley,
Speaker 4: so that receiver wasn't a need, but now you go
Speaker 4: into it with aany like. I think Lawrence is emblematic
Speaker 4: of this whole team. It's sort of in the middle.
Speaker 4: They spent a lot on the offensive line, and it's
Speaker 4: not a bad line, but they've spent a lot of
Speaker 4: resources for it to just be eh uh. And you
Speaker 4: know their guy, our guy Balki, our guy. You know,
Speaker 4: he survived a lot of different power struggles. Do you
Speaker 4: know who the coach was when Trent balk entered the
Speaker 4: building there.
Speaker 1: That'll be ridiculous.
Speaker 4: It was Doug Maroone, it was, you know, he was
Speaker 4: there with Moron my urban Meyer kept him around as like, okay,
Speaker 4: you can kind of be my guy who takes care
Speaker 4: of that side of things.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: Darryl Bebbll remember he was an interim head coach there
Speaker 4: for a while and now he's still here with Peterson.
Speaker 4: He had all those power struggles in San Francisco. He
Speaker 4: supposedly wants a team that's like bigger and tougher and
Speaker 4: stronger and faster than everyone. And I don't quite see that.
Speaker 4: They're they're very middle of the pack.
Speaker 1: Hmm. I agree.
Speaker 2: That's you know, it's time figure some things out there.
Speaker 2: All right, good stuff, let's a break and then we'll wrap
Speaker 2: things up. All right, we're back, and by the way,
Speaker 2: we're still you know, Colleen has been missing for about
Speaker 2: forty five to fifty minutes now, and it's I think
Speaker 2: where we're at now, Mark, it's gone from a search
Speaker 2: and rescue to I hate to say this a search
Speaker 2: and recovery.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean, I think part of the difficulty
Speaker 3: is that we're still, you know, locked in our chairs
Speaker 3: trying to produce the show while realizing that we've lost
Speaker 3: our friend. And so we're going to shift into full
Speaker 3: investigation mode after the show. But if you can find
Speaker 3: the Delaware tapes, I believe we can find like a
Speaker 3: five foot one blonde.
Speaker 4: There have been reports out there from various police scanners
Speaker 4: on the East side of Los Angeles that there's been
Speaker 4: witnesses to a young blonde woman talking about Quescia Dolfo
Speaker 4: Mensa's third year in his rebuild that that it's kind
Speaker 4: of go time. So I do feel like that might
Speaker 4: be a little bit of a clue for where to
Speaker 4: find her, just talking just on the street street street corner.
Speaker 7: It's a little worriesing.
Speaker 2: Colleen has become like the gone girl of this podcast
Speaker 2: over the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: We just got to find her and hope she's okay.
Speaker 2: All right, That is it for the Wednesday show, and
Speaker 2: we'll be back a little later in the week. As
Speaker 2: we said, we're gonna continue our draft wormhole and and
Speaker 2: really dig in on one of the most exciting positions
Speaker 2: or maybe the it depends quarterback wide receiver position groups
Speaker 2: in this draft, which is wide receiver.
Speaker 1: So that's coming up later this week. Anything else to add.
Speaker 9: Boys before we say goodbye, been a pleasure as always
Speaker 9: as always, and Mark again, not constructive criticism, but just
Speaker 9: a suggestion about your background on remote.
Speaker 3: You have put it on my radar fully and I'm
Speaker 3: going to think about how to address it.
Speaker 2: Oh and let me underline this with my wife got
Speaker 2: back to me. The dog rescue place is Love Leo
Speaker 2: Rescue if you are in the southern California area. It
Speaker 2: is an incredibly run organization that really put the pet first.
Speaker 2: Adopt a dog, save a life. Love Leo Rescue as
Speaker 2: a non based profit based a nonprofit based in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: We believe all dogs deserve a second chance, so check
Speaker 2: out Love Leo.
Speaker 1: Rescue dot org. That's where I got my.
Speaker 2: Beloved captain and they do amazing work, So check that out.
Speaker 2: And until next time, he's the call. Where are you, Connie.
Speaker 10: Hey, guys, thanks for listening to this episode of the
Speaker 10: Around the NFL podcast.
Speaker 7: I can't wait to do the same.
Speaker 10: I'd like to thank producer Eric Roberts for going into
Speaker 10: the office on an off day just so I'd have
Speaker 10: everything I need to do the show remotely.
Speaker 7: Eric, we tried our best.
Speaker 10: To Greg, thanks for sending out the news items so early.
Speaker 10: It's a true hero move.
Speaker 7: You know me so well.
Speaker 10: To Mark, my brother in anxiety, thanks for probably over
Speaker 10: preparing today. You're always ready for anything and everything. I
Speaker 10: just wish I could say that about my internet provider,
Speaker 10: especially today. And to Dan who never stops believing that
Speaker 10: my remote appearances could maybe work this time. You miss
Speaker 10: all the shots you don't take, and we've taken a
Speaker 10: whole lot of shots, so good times. Gang will reconvene
Speaker 10: in studio to properly heed the call. And now I
Speaker 10: gotta go.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go throw my computer into the sea.