Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast, make way for my man
Speaker 1: coming through. Welcome to another addition of the Around the
Speaker 1: NFL Podcast. My name is Dan As. I'm coming to
Speaker 1: you from a city filled with heroes in bunkers. Mark Seessler,
Speaker 1: Chris Westling, Greg Grossen thought, what is up boys? Hey Danton?
Speaker 1: Of course, the iconic quote right there, Mark Sessler at
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty NFL scouting combine making room for the
Speaker 1: coronavirus written Sean Payton. Well, we didn't know at that
Speaker 1: time at all what was going on with Sean Payton.
Speaker 1: And um, he didn't, he didn't have it. Then he
Speaker 1: didn't have it. Then we don't. We don't eat that's unclear,
Speaker 1: Dr Rosenthalt, we don't. That is unconfirmed. But I I
Speaker 1: you know, I've never tested myself for it. But um,
Speaker 1: I'm symptom free if I haven't roaming inside my blood
Speaker 1: stream at the moment you there are. You can get
Speaker 1: the antibody test, perhaps, Mark, if you want to make
Speaker 1: sure that Sean Payton didn't do you wrong. There wouldn't
Speaker 1: it been Sean Payton's fault? But no, I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: blamed him. Um, directly, they got test for anyone in
Speaker 1: l A. If you want to mark, you just gotta
Speaker 1: sign up online. Go for it in retros because everyone
Speaker 1: got caught, you know, excuse the term with their pants
Speaker 1: down when it comes to COVID nineteen. If the NFL
Speaker 1: or the world knew what was coming, scouting combine would
Speaker 1: have never happened either. And that was quite a hotbed
Speaker 1: of activity in Indianapolis. Um and now you look where
Speaker 1: we are now, still in the buckers had an unnamed
Speaker 1: friend who wouldn't who wouldn't shake hands or um want
Speaker 1: to hug at a at a dinner event, and at
Speaker 1: the time seemed like, uh, it was a little much
Speaker 1: and look look at him he was now. I didn't
Speaker 1: say anything. I didn't know. I also remember called him
Speaker 1: a fool and throw wine in his face. There was
Speaker 1: also a lunchtime work lunchtime meeting where Greg This was
Speaker 1: a probably ten fourteen days before you know, the stuff
Speaker 1: at the fan and Greg and of dismissed coronavirus as
Speaker 1: that petty little illness that would float away by junior July.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I remember your thought of that. I
Speaker 1: feel like there was a comment Greg, you made that
Speaker 1: this was gonna really stick it to capitalism, like you
Speaker 1: were saying capitalism was overdue, to take a shot to
Speaker 1: the gut, and it's unfortunately. So maybe, yeah, maybe you
Speaker 1: had some good takes mixed in as well. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's a good take. I don't want I
Speaker 1: don't like that being out there at all. Happy belated
Speaker 1: Mother's Day to all the mothers. You know, we we
Speaker 1: joke around that it is a male dominated audience for
Speaker 1: the show, and it's certainly is, let's be honest, But
Speaker 1: a few weeks back, when I did that little exercise
Speaker 1: on d M, spurned on by Mark's Truth or Dare
Speaker 1: segment on this podcast, there was As it turned out,
Speaker 1: when I went through all of them, there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of women that listened to the show, and so all
Speaker 1: of you women who are moms, many of them mothers.
Speaker 1: Well that's that's not necessarily representative. Like the I'm gonna
Speaker 1: open my d M s and come come at me.
Speaker 1: I mean, you were looking to get I see what
Speaker 1: you were doing. You were and that's sad. I do
Speaker 1: got like a tar here. I'm gonna do a little
Speaker 1: Daughters by John Mayer Father. I would have believed it
Speaker 1: would get a few titos in you you will you
Speaker 1: will do that? All right? This is the Monday edition
Speaker 1: to the Round the NFL podcast. I hope everyone checked
Speaker 1: out the Around the NFL Broadcast, our NFL Network show,
Speaker 1: which returned on Friday, and it will be back on
Speaker 1: the air waves again this Friday and hopefully each Friday
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future. Now are we on the air? Uh?
Speaker 1: When and if the season begins? We'll find out. Greg,
Speaker 1: Are we more like a plug in play desperation uh
Speaker 1: scenario here? Or are we? Are we part of the
Speaker 1: network schedule going forward? We're gonna find out and the
Speaker 1: listeners and viewers will find out. Are we desperate? Miller TBD?
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it only took a pandemic to get
Speaker 1: us on, but we're happy for It's like anything right now,
Speaker 1: they're just playing it by year and seeing it it's
Speaker 1: week to week, they can indefinite like an usual Josh
Speaker 1: Gordon suspension, you never know what could happen. We are
Speaker 1: the Josh Gordon of the NFL Network schedule right now,
Speaker 1: but we're happy for the opportunity. So check it out.
Speaker 1: Uh This upcoming Friday, six pm Eastern three pm pacifically
Speaker 1: around the NFL broadcast. Coming up on today's show, we're
Speaker 1: gonna just get caught up. We haven't had a podcast
Speaker 1: since Wednesday, so we're going to check in on the
Speaker 1: schedule release which dropped late last week. We're gonna check
Speaker 1: in with Mark Sessler, who wrote a banger. Mark. I
Speaker 1: read it. I really enjoyed the pros as always, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna dig into your teams with a chip on
Speaker 1: their shoulder entering. I would lab that a scientific study
Speaker 1: if nothing else. But before that, let's do some news.
Speaker 1: Oh my God, should have known. Um. Mark and I
Speaker 1: have a longstanding tradition of occasionally sending each other old
Speaker 1: commercials that aired in the Northeast in the early to
Speaker 1: mid nineties, And that was a Stetson cologne ad that
Speaker 1: ran excessively And I don't know if that rang a
Speaker 1: bell greg up there in New England West definitely, And
Speaker 1: that was one of the colognes my dad had in
Speaker 1: the cabinet. Steps in a little Brute by Faberge got
Speaker 1: a lot of NFL play, if I'm not mistaken. Back
Speaker 1: in the day. Yeah, I had friends and I were that.
Speaker 1: You know that coral um chime at the beginning, we
Speaker 1: would walk around. My brother and I would sing that
Speaker 1: to each other, playing legos um. You know, my friends
Speaker 1: and I would walk later on walk down the high
Speaker 1: school hallways singing that like groups seven or eight. I mean,
Speaker 1: it really registered for It aired regularly during commercial breaks
Speaker 1: of WWF programming in their own nineties also, and I
Speaker 1: was just talking about it with Mark before the show.
Speaker 1: If you break down the lyrical content, first of all,
Speaker 1: it's a very pure female choir and the lyrics are
Speaker 1: stetson makes it easy for you, easy for you. So
Speaker 1: basically it's about scoring with chicks, but it's coming from
Speaker 1: this like church choir. It's a bit of jarring in retrospect,
Speaker 1: doesn't it sound like the background vocalists and um rolling stones.
Speaker 1: You can't always get what you want one and the
Speaker 1: same um. All right, let's get to the news, starting
Speaker 1: with a bizarre, bizarre incident involving Earl Thomas of the
Speaker 1: Baltimore Ravens. I know a lot of people had their
Speaker 1: jokes on Twitter involved regarding the situation, but it was
Speaker 1: quite serious when you're reading into it that Earl Thomas
Speaker 1: was involved in some type of um escapade with a
Speaker 1: woman his brother was also involved, and then Earl Thomas's
Speaker 1: wife caught wind of it. Dissolved from a police report
Speaker 1: this is not speculative reporting, uh, and she barged into
Speaker 1: the house with a firearm and it led to it
Speaker 1: essentially a standoff. The safety was off on the gun.
Speaker 1: All this like really dangerous scary stuff where what's a
Speaker 1: kind of quote unquote funny internet story could have turned
Speaker 1: into a huge tragedy. But as it turns out, Earl
Speaker 1: Thomas wasn't arrested or charged. His wife a different situation,
Speaker 1: and the Ravens said they became aware of the Earl
Speaker 1: Tooms situation on Wednesday night when TMZ reported the incident.
Speaker 1: And this could have greg some actual, um big time
Speaker 1: ramifications for Earl Thomas, a man who fought very hard
Speaker 1: to get the big contract he felt he deserved from Seattle,
Speaker 1: didn't get it from them, and got one from the Ravens. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I immediately thought, you know, it's different because obviously his
Speaker 1: wife's involved, but is this something that could affect his employment?
Speaker 1: And Pro Football Talk reported Baltimore Sun rather reported on
Speaker 1: it that the Ravens looked into whether he could avoid
Speaker 1: the contract, and then Pro Football talk. Mike Florial, my
Speaker 1: old boss, followed up with a report saying they can't
Speaker 1: do anything with this contract related to it, that the
Speaker 1: people high up in Baltimore knew that, and you know,
Speaker 1: Mike essentially intimated that maybe if they could do something
Speaker 1: about his contract they would look into it. UM, but
Speaker 1: that since there's nothing they can do, they expect nothing
Speaker 1: to come from it, and that he'll be a member
Speaker 1: of the team this season. Thought it was interesting that
Speaker 1: there was there was some side reporting to that. UM.
Speaker 1: You know that Ravens weren't totally thrilled with aspects of
Speaker 1: the Earl Thomas experience last year. They someone mentioned that
Speaker 1: he didn't totally buy into the team concept at times
Speaker 1: and that he kind of struggled to grasp the defense,
Speaker 1: which annoyed some of his teammates. I don't know what
Speaker 1: to to what degree, but I mean it the vibe
Speaker 1: of the avoiding the contract suggested to me that the
Speaker 1: Ravens would like to but cannot. What were the analytics
Speaker 1: of Earl Thomas, the advanced analytics Leisture did and what
Speaker 1: did you guys see on tape? Was he still Earl Thomas?
Speaker 1: He struggled early? UM, we talked about it on the
Speaker 1: show that he he he lost foot speed a couple
Speaker 1: of steps, but as he got to know the defense,
Speaker 1: and as they changed their defense to be more back
Speaker 1: end heavy with a lot more defensive backs, that defense
Speaker 1: really jelled from the second half of the season on.
Speaker 1: And it surprised me that they weren't happy with him
Speaker 1: because that secondary played so well and was the strength
Speaker 1: of that defense down the stretch. He changed his role
Speaker 1: a lot, you know, his towards the end, and Chris
Speaker 1: is absolutely right. Seemed like he started slow and then
Speaker 1: he was part of one of the best groups in
Speaker 1: the league. Uh, he wasn't necessary that deep center Earl
Speaker 1: Thomas safety trying to read the quarterback's mind. It was
Speaker 1: a lot about run support and rushing the quarterback and
Speaker 1: a guy near the line of scrimmage. So they found
Speaker 1: a different way to use him, but it seemed like
Speaker 1: he was he was helping them. And yeah, pff, Adam
Speaker 1: as a top thirty safety, which is good, not not
Speaker 1: the not quite the Earl Thomas of old. Unfortunately, the
Speaker 1: last visual that we have of him is Derrick Henry
Speaker 1: just blowing him up into another hemisphere. Good point, true,
Speaker 1: Thomas will turn thirty one this week on Thursday, four year,
Speaker 1: fifty million dollar contract with the Ravens and uh god, yeah,
Speaker 1: crazy stuff a gun held to his head. Um moving on.
Speaker 1: The Saints have made a move that many people expected,
Speaker 1: moving on from guard Larry Warford. Uh. This comes after
Speaker 1: they drafted a young prospect last month or was it
Speaker 1: this month? What month is it? What year are we
Speaker 1: in right now? Okay? Anyway, they drafted Caesar Louise, who
Speaker 1: is you know, interior aligneman, first round pick invested, so
Speaker 1: it seemed like Warford, with a bloated salary, would be
Speaker 1: squeezed out, and sure enough he was. He turns thirty
Speaker 1: twenty nine next month. West. Uh, this seems like a
Speaker 1: guy who not only get a job, but could end
Speaker 1: up starting because he wasn't terrible last year. No, he
Speaker 1: wasn't terrible. And sometimes we get caught up in the
Speaker 1: rumor mill that ever since they drafted Ruise, this move
Speaker 1: was expected and got me thinking that maybe Larry Warford
Speaker 1: was passed his prime and just fell off a cliff.
Speaker 1: There's no good anymore. Pf gravity graded him slightly blow average,
Speaker 1: and teams seem to be lining up to sign him now.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he earned that Pro Bowl birth last year,
Speaker 1: but there will be interest in him. Basically hasn't missed
Speaker 1: a snap in five years as a starter on the
Speaker 1: best or one of the best offensive lines in football.
Speaker 1: This is one of those moves where, yeah, you maybe
Speaker 1: there's something else going on behind the scenes, whether you
Speaker 1: fit in or I don't even know, um, but it
Speaker 1: absolutely is a money move. There are very few like
Speaker 1: usually I just think, well, it's more about the they
Speaker 1: don't want the player. In this case, they drafted someone
Speaker 1: and they free up ten million dollars where they were
Speaker 1: like having to move things around for every little move
Speaker 1: that they make, and that helps him in this regard.
Speaker 1: In other news, Mike Lennon it's got a new job.
Speaker 1: He is signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Like Glennon spent
Speaker 1: last season with the Raiders. He threw ten passes uh
Speaker 1: last season and two appearances with the team. Gardner means
Speaker 1: shoe Mark Sessler good news for him because Glennon is
Speaker 1: not anybody that you would think the franchise is gonna think, Oh,
Speaker 1: we gotta get a look at this dude. They're gonna
Speaker 1: ride with the kid. Yeah, I guess you could have,
Speaker 1: you know, initially it was a landing spot for Randy Dalton.
Speaker 1: You could suggest that Cam Newton could probably go there
Speaker 1: and steal a lot of starts away if the offense
Speaker 1: fell off a cliff. I mean, guys like Joe Flacco
Speaker 1: are out there, Trevor Simeon and so this to me,
Speaker 1: it's like they they sort of said all along, like yes, gino,
Speaker 1: sorry to admit that that name. Um, they believe in
Speaker 1: Gardner Minshew at least giving him a full year to
Speaker 1: see what happens. I don't just don't love the situation
Speaker 1: for Gardner Minshew, and I hope he doesn't get you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of quarterbacks in the draft next year
Speaker 1: in one of these scenarios where you know, in a
Speaker 1: handicapped offense, Um, he's blamed for it. Our old buddy
Speaker 1: Michael Lombardi saw this move. I think it was when
Speaker 1: he tweeted this out and just said, like it's official. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you know are we used to be colleagues,
Speaker 1: Um where you know us and especially you guys you
Speaker 1: know writing up his copy. I've heard that story a
Speaker 1: few times. Uh. And he tweeted out right after this
Speaker 1: like it's official. They're tanking. And you know, I don't,
Speaker 1: of course, I don't think the coaching you know, we've
Speaker 1: been through this with the Dolphins. I don't think the
Speaker 1: coaching staff is trying to lose with Is there a team, um,
Speaker 1: you know running the Jaguars like high up that might
Speaker 1: be thinking, well, worst case scenario, if we lose, we're
Speaker 1: in a good spot next year. That doesn't seem that
Speaker 1: crazy to me that that they would hold onto marone
Speaker 1: um and called well for like one more year, because
Speaker 1: why why blow it up and start over when we
Speaker 1: might just not be ready to really compete this year.
Speaker 1: The football world has lost its grip on the concept
Speaker 1: of tanking, just completely lost touch with what it actually is.
Speaker 1: Nobody has any idea anymore. Teams did this all the
Speaker 1: time before the Dolphins last year. With the Jacksonville Jaguars
Speaker 1: are doing They've signed eight veteran free agency this offseason.
Speaker 1: That's not what a tanking team does. They had a
Speaker 1: huge draft. Um, I just like, what what do you
Speaker 1: mean they're tanking? They're just not good, they're rebuilding. Well
Speaker 1: this if you have Mike Lennon, who I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody thinks can play at this level, at least at
Speaker 1: a starter level, although has he ever really been given
Speaker 1: the chance so much? He won some games. He wants
Speaker 1: games with the Bucks. How many games did he started?
Speaker 1: He start like a full season? He started like more
Speaker 1: than half of the season in Tampa, didn't he And
Speaker 1: then he started more games in a different season. A
Speaker 1: huge contract, Right, we were writing Mike Lennon Fantasy you know,
Speaker 1: team want tea Max wants to trade for you know,
Speaker 1: intriguing Mike Lennon back in like decades. So, I mean
Speaker 1: he's officially six and sixteen as a starter, he played
Speaker 1: almost every He played thirteen games for the Ducks one
Speaker 1: year as an injury replaced. So here's the Lombardi tank theory,
Speaker 1: Mike Lennon. We have evidence he's been in the league
Speaker 1: for a while now. He can't really play. If Minshew
Speaker 1: stinks and he was a flash of the pen, they
Speaker 1: have no quarterback to keep them above water, and they
Speaker 1: can very quickly become one of those three and thirteen,
Speaker 1: two and fourteen outfits. Yeah, that's what like seven teams
Speaker 1: a year have done for the last I don't know,
Speaker 1: seventy five years. What are you talking about? Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm with it's it's a it's not to be just
Speaker 1: the wrong word. They're like rebuilding and with a young team,
Speaker 1: and they and they probably have their eyes wide open
Speaker 1: that you know, they they're not likely to be a
Speaker 1: playoff team this year. But that doesn't mean they're trying.
Speaker 1: They're tanking. Did the Dolphins tank last year? The team didn't.
Speaker 1: I think the front office did last year. I think
Speaker 1: that that there was like legit reporting from well beforehand
Speaker 1: that that was a concept they were, you know, considering,
Speaker 1: And I think that it's unfair to ask a coaching
Speaker 1: staff to play along with that, and the Dolphins coaching
Speaker 1: staff utterly refused the notion of it. It does suggest
Speaker 1: that the state of quarterbacking is entirely different than it
Speaker 1: was five years ago when Mark and I were writing
Speaker 1: these courts these articles about some unknown quarterback in Tampa
Speaker 1: who was a third round pick. It might be the
Speaker 1: savior for other teams. And now Cam Newton can't get
Speaker 1: a job all right. In other news, the shoe is
Speaker 1: finally dropped over at ESPN. Richard Ditch of the Athletic
Speaker 1: dot Com reports that Joe, Tessa, Tore and Booger Booger
Speaker 1: McFarland will not be back on Monday Night football d
Speaker 1: D D D D D D D D yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. Well were you adding some lyrics to that jingle?
Speaker 1: I thought I had heard words there. Yeah, ditch ads
Speaker 1: that the replacements will come from within ESPN. Decisions have
Speaker 1: not been made on that part, but tests and Booger
Speaker 1: are out nodded out at the company. There will remain
Speaker 1: in quote, prominent roles at ESPN. Just did not work
Speaker 1: out over two years, uh protests and Booger. They put
Speaker 1: McFarland in the Booger Mobile, which is one of the
Speaker 1: infamous follies in the history of really uh NFL broadcast television.
Speaker 1: I mean that will be remembered forever as one of
Speaker 1: the great gaps. Just how silly it looked, and the
Speaker 1: man was wearing a seatbelt calling a football game. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I mean unfairly. I mean, the Booger mobile is
Speaker 1: not nearly as bad as just hiring Jason Witten, but
Speaker 1: that it's not funny. Yes, well yeah, I don't wanna
Speaker 1: yeah over overshadow that Jason Witten was the I mean
Speaker 1: that two thousand and eighteen set up is the worst ever,
Speaker 1: because Witten, despite good intentions, was completely overwhelmed and not
Speaker 1: ready for the job. He was green, he didn't have
Speaker 1: the if factor. Testator rubbed people the wrong way with
Speaker 1: some of his history onics and then Boogers were in
Speaker 1: a seat belt on the sideline going fifteen miles an
Speaker 1: hour up and down the field. I mean, what are
Speaker 1: we doing here? Anyway? They tried to rain it back
Speaker 1: in last year Witton. The Cowboys gave him a nice
Speaker 1: out by signing Witten back into the league. And then
Speaker 1: they went to man Booth brought Booger upstairs through the
Speaker 1: Booger Remobile romobile into the ocean. But the two it
Speaker 1: just didn't work. So we'll find out. I know our
Speaker 1: friend Andrew Marshand of the New York Post floated some
Speaker 1: internal names, uh, including who was it? Do you guys
Speaker 1: were called Steve Levy, Dani Rolovsky, Lewis Riddick. Um, I
Speaker 1: heard Bryan Greasy all in the mix potentially, So we'll
Speaker 1: find out. But there will not be no Peyton Manning,
Speaker 1: no Tony Romo, no Al Michaels. And we'll see. We'll
Speaker 1: find out Kurt Warner has been thrown in the mix too,
Speaker 1: and and Nate Burlison as two guys they looked at
Speaker 1: from the outside, but it sounds like they're more leaning
Speaker 1: on just staying internal, right exactly. And um, your boy
Speaker 1: Mike Florio greg who by the way, he's filing stuff.
Speaker 1: This caught my eye over the weekend. Florio's filing stuff
Speaker 1: at four oh eight pm on a Saturday, my night.
Speaker 1: He just does it all the time. Huh, how does
Speaker 1: that work? Is he just doesn't? He never was one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I wanted to leave ultimately, because I
Speaker 1: mean I respected it away, but I respected it, but
Speaker 1: it was there were no days off, like literally, theyre
Speaker 1: just it was a seven day a week operation, and um,
Speaker 1: with kids, that was that was tricky and like if
Speaker 1: the boss is doing that, then you're expected to do
Speaker 1: that too. So I don't know, you know, what else
Speaker 1: is he gonna do. He's in West Virginia and quarantine.
Speaker 1: That's true. That doesn't explain the other ten years of that,
Speaker 1: but well, that's true. You know, I don't know. He
Speaker 1: loves it. And I mentioned Florio because he does mention
Speaker 1: at the end of the post that he wrote about
Speaker 1: this that the change, whatever ends up being the booth
Speaker 1: could be temporary. There are rumors that the next deal
Speaker 1: for Monday Night Football, which starts in a couple of years,
Speaker 1: the game could move back from to a C from ESPN,
Speaker 1: And if it moves back to broadcast television, will they
Speaker 1: again load up looking for big time name talent. We
Speaker 1: shall see. I thought it was interesting. I know we're
Speaker 1: going to get to the schedule in a in a second,
Speaker 1: but it related to Monday Night Football. They got a
Speaker 1: better schedule this year. Not only did they get Ravens Chiefs,
Speaker 1: they got some they got some big time games and
Speaker 1: that's the biggest game of the season, and they got
Speaker 1: it Ravens Chiefs. Great segue. Greg, let us check in
Speaker 1: on the schedule release it did. It rolled out Thursday,
Speaker 1: evening us our first chance to talk about it on
Speaker 1: this show. We talked about it, uh in pretty good
Speaker 1: detail on the Around the NFL broadcast on the NFL Network.
Speaker 1: But what was a big takeaway for you, Greg from
Speaker 1: the schedule if any, It is the kind of the
Speaker 1: last big rollout of the league that they had control of.
Speaker 1: They rolled it out on schedule, but we all know
Speaker 1: changes could come. A few things. One they're doing a
Speaker 1: Friday Christmas game Saints Vikings rematch leading in It's into
Speaker 1: essay and I mean, yeah, I think it's I don't
Speaker 1: think it's great now. I don't love it because I
Speaker 1: like spending the day completely with with my family. But
Speaker 1: it's little bit of a middle finger to the NBA though,
Speaker 1: that is that's been the NBA's um breakout day for
Speaker 1: a long time. Well, part of it that's interesting to
Speaker 1: me is that it's right before a Saturday full of
Speaker 1: NFL games too, so it's not it's it's Christmas and
Speaker 1: then it's like a triple header probably on Saturday and
Speaker 1: then Thunday. So I'm just thinking that's Week sixteen, which
Speaker 1: to me is kind of the biggest regular season week
Speaker 1: where it decides so much and so that that it's
Speaker 1: a prime time game. Yeah, I think it's six thirty Eastern,
Speaker 1: so it's ESPN. No it is. I read class of
Speaker 1: the second half of one of their yeah games. Yeah wow,
Speaker 1: what what a shot across the bowl. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: you're a move, Adam Silver. There's only so much I
Speaker 1: can care. Um. Oh, speaking of which, any other how
Speaker 1: about you, Wes? You got any schedule takeaways? I know
Speaker 1: you have to give um thinking Uh, people put way
Speaker 1: too much stock in strength of schedule in May. It
Speaker 1: doesn't mean anything. That's my takeaway. None of the strength
Speaker 1: of schedule stuff means anything. Week week one wipes everything out.
Speaker 1: I want Peter can one good point that um that
Speaker 1: it was you know what, it makes sense that it
Speaker 1: was by leaps and bounds because I think creating this,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to go into that war room
Speaker 1: with like eight eight people in four thousand charts and
Speaker 1: deal with concerts and live events and all this other
Speaker 1: nonsense that's on the slate for autumn. But none of
Speaker 1: that exists right now. And they said it was the
Speaker 1: easiest schedule to make by so by such a large degree.
Speaker 1: And also that you know, you know, Dan are Browns
Speaker 1: and Jets playing Week sixteen in New York. But there's
Speaker 1: what happens there is the Browns play the Giants the
Speaker 1: week before, And there's a lot of instances where I
Speaker 1: think they're trying to if there's if travel is going
Speaker 1: to be involved and we're gonna do this, that teams
Speaker 1: going to the West might be there two or three
Speaker 1: weeks in a row or vice versa, to you know,
Speaker 1: prevent unnecessary zigzagging. Across the country. Yeah, that's true, Greg.
Speaker 1: You love the Thanksgiving schedule you have chopping it up
Speaker 1: PM Texans at Lions, one thirty pm Redskins at Cowboys,
Speaker 1: and then prime time the Ravens show up again against
Speaker 1: the Steelers. I'm into that, you know, that's slate. It's okay,
Speaker 1: But I do have takeaways from one. They gave Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson some big pop in this schedule. They're in prime
Speaker 1: time a lot, but they're also you know, they're in
Speaker 1: the kickoff game. That's a big that's a big nod
Speaker 1: to Deshaun Watson. And they're in Thanksgiving. Uh So that's
Speaker 1: it's kind of putting some you know, it's putting some
Speaker 1: faith in the star power of Watson and Bill O'Brien.
Speaker 1: And that is the only national game of the year
Speaker 1: that the Redskins are in. What a fall from grace
Speaker 1: from that franchise. There's been some good Thanksgiving ones and
Speaker 1: that that is it. They they don't have a single
Speaker 1: prime thanking. That's a bit overdue. Let's be honest, right,
Speaker 1: can't just keep pumping that organization at the prime time
Speaker 1: until they're interesting? Uh And then finally I wrote a
Speaker 1: revenge games piece. I'm gonna cycle through these. I think
Speaker 1: we might get West fired up on one of these.
Speaker 1: Here we go. Week twelve, Carson Wentz against the Seahawks.
Speaker 1: Week six, oh Mark Miles Garrett Pittsburgh Steelers, which they
Speaker 1: essentially put um in an anonymous early game early slate
Speaker 1: time spot. I think they don't want to pump that
Speaker 1: up as as much as you choose to. They cut
Speaker 1: down the Browns prime time. Yeah, they got to, and
Speaker 1: they don't deserve more than two. Okay. I wonder if
Speaker 1: that of the Garrett thing has anything to do with that.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm more paul that the Saints have fewer prime time
Speaker 1: games than eight other teams. Odell Beckham Odell Beckham Jr.
Speaker 1: Plays the Giants for the first time in Week fifteen. UH,
Speaker 1: the Chargers against Tom Brady. Tom Brady was more wants
Speaker 1: a little bit of evenge. You don't want to come
Speaker 1: to us. I mean, Dan, you wrote that you seem
Speaker 1: puzzled by your own entry there. I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: it's there's a pandemic. Uh, Packers, Niners, Dolphins, Patriots, Texans, Chiefs, Titans, Ravens,
Speaker 1: Viking Saints, all great revenge matchups, and now we just
Speaker 1: wait to see if any of it happens. And that's
Speaker 1: what's happening in the news. All right, Mark, did you
Speaker 1: write a banger? Sub banger, actual banger? The weird um
Speaker 1: NFL article that I because it was do you know
Speaker 1: you get these these monthy can look ahead for the
Speaker 1: month and here's what you're gonna write, and here's when
Speaker 1: they're due. I noticed this, you know, got on my
Speaker 1: radar a while ago. Do Monday morning at seven am? Um, okay,
Speaker 1: so that means I'm gonna be right right. That means
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be writing that. Um. I wrote it on
Speaker 1: a Saturday morning, um in our you know, in my backyard,
Speaker 1: and Sunday is the Sunday is Mother's Day, right, So
Speaker 1: I I knew that I was dealing with a strict
Speaker 1: um window to you know, turn this text out. But
Speaker 1: I had kind of enjoyed writing it because it wasn't
Speaker 1: one of these ones where you have to dig in
Speaker 1: and look at you know, PFF and all this other
Speaker 1: stuff for four hours in a row. It's just kind
Speaker 1: of like picks and teams that seem like they might
Speaker 1: be a little on edge or feel a little dismissed
Speaker 1: by people, and I guess to me that would equal
Speaker 1: having a chip on your shoulder as a as a franchise. Alright,
Speaker 1: so you started with the New England Patriots. Why, Well,
Speaker 1: my first words there were Belichick lives. I just think
Speaker 1: that it's funny to me that, um, you know, we
Speaker 1: have no idea how any of this will go. I
Speaker 1: think they're fascinating to me because anyone ticketing them for
Speaker 1: five and eleven. Um, fine, that's a reasonably logical outcome
Speaker 1: because of what's gone. But I still think you're the
Speaker 1: best coach in football. Who Um, yes, I realized he's,
Speaker 1: you know, trotting around with his little dog and doing
Speaker 1: these nice segments. But um, I would I right, I
Speaker 1: would imagine behind the scenes that Belichick, um would like
Speaker 1: nothing more than to take whoever starting a quarterback and
Speaker 1: just stick it to the rest of the league. They
Speaker 1: have I think, five prime time games, and you know
Speaker 1: it's fair to think they could be disasters, but I
Speaker 1: think the opposite on that. On that note you said
Speaker 1: stick it remind me of Jared Stidham great West excusing
Speaker 1: you read something in the Boston Sports Journal are the
Speaker 1: joint where he essentially dug in a little bit on
Speaker 1: where Stidham actually stands with the Patriots right now. And
Speaker 1: your takeaway is that a lot of people have this
Speaker 1: all wrong about what's actually going on at the quarterback position. There.
Speaker 1: The entire football cognescente has been misreading this quarterback situation
Speaker 1: for three months, Greg Bard, who told him the Patriots
Speaker 1: view Jared Stidham is another year away, as not ready
Speaker 1: as basically as ready as Jimmy Garoppolo was after in
Speaker 1: the season, which means they just need to see a
Speaker 1: lot more before they can determine that he's the guy.
Speaker 1: And Belichick's comments have backed this up that our quarterback
Speaker 1: room of Brian Hoyer and Jared' Stidham is not by design,
Speaker 1: that's just the way it's played out. Um, who knows
Speaker 1: if if Jared Stidham can play. I just think this
Speaker 1: idea We all think that the Belichick persona now is
Speaker 1: he's so sneaky, he's got everything figured out and he's
Speaker 1: always waiting to drop some surprise on the NFL. And
Speaker 1: I don't think that's what this is. I think they
Speaker 1: just haven't found a quarterback that suits them so far.
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton was making too much money. Maybe don't they
Speaker 1: don't think he's a major upgrade. I don't know why
Speaker 1: Greg might have been fill on whether they like cam
Speaker 1: Newton or not. Andy Dalton's making too much money. Well,
Speaker 1: when the Bengals were trying to trade him, I mean,
Speaker 1: but he was a free agent. The action standpoint they you,
Speaker 1: I get by design. They don't just think this is
Speaker 1: what it would be Hoyer and Stidham, But what's the
Speaker 1: action item to add someone year? Right? I agree with
Speaker 1: everything Less said, And I think that's how weirdly Bell
Speaker 1: A lot of times people say, Okay, Beligian's got all
Speaker 1: this master plan and here's here's how he like like,
Speaker 1: I think he is a very in the moment, reactive
Speaker 1: doing the best decision that he thinks for the team.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't think this was part of their
Speaker 1: long term plan. I think they wanted Tom Brady back
Speaker 1: on some level, and he and he wanted to go.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think, or at least they were caught
Speaker 1: a little flat foot. Yeah I know, I'm just saying
Speaker 1: like they didn't necessarily think he was gonna have a
Speaker 1: strong market, and they almost were right there, but not
Speaker 1: not right enough. I think they like Stidham and they
Speaker 1: like him more than Andy Dalton, or else they would
Speaker 1: they would have found a way to sign Andy Dalton.
Speaker 1: Salary cap is significant here. It's also you know, the
Speaker 1: season hasn't started. They could add someone. The only thing
Speaker 1: I think that's clear though, is Stidham did beat out
Speaker 1: Hoyer last year. You know, they got rid of Hoyer
Speaker 1: because of Stidham's performance and trade an in camp, So
Speaker 1: that was something that now you did that with Tom
Speaker 1: Brady being the starter, but they still made that decision.
Speaker 1: So I just don't see how you are having a
Speaker 1: very good chance at winning the job if if it's
Speaker 1: between the two of them, if this is true, If
Speaker 1: this is true, that inter internally they don't think Jared
Speaker 1: Stidham is going to be ready for at least another year,
Speaker 1: Well that's they It was more that they don't know that,
Speaker 1: Like how could they know that he's played a year?
Speaker 1: They liked where he was at, but he's a young players.
Speaker 1: The risk of it all though, that if if you're
Speaker 1: the Football's are slash GM, as Belichick, your principal job
Speaker 1: is to have the team prepared um roster wise, and
Speaker 1: then the coach side of it takes over after that.
Speaker 1: But there's certainly seems like a very real chance because
Speaker 1: who thinks Brian Hoyer can really lead anything at this
Speaker 1: stage of the game, that they'll be completely caught with
Speaker 1: their pants down. And then you get into the whole
Speaker 1: theory I can't said pants down again the show. Then
Speaker 1: you get into the theory that would Belichick be kind
Speaker 1: of cool that if they ended up being terrible, because
Speaker 1: maybe that leads to their quarterback of the future. And
Speaker 1: he is looking two steps or two paces ahead, as
Speaker 1: many people often assume he is. I think he he's
Speaker 1: going to adapt and he thinks once he gets into
Speaker 1: the season and he sees what Stidham has or doesn't like,
Speaker 1: he thinks there's other ways to win games. And that's
Speaker 1: how he's operated. I think he looks as his offensive
Speaker 1: line as a total strength. I think he likes his
Speaker 1: running backs. I think he loves his secondary, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think there's things he likes about the team,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna try to play to those strengths. But
Speaker 1: you gotta see if Stidham can play or not. Like
Speaker 1: if you just can't, then you might have to go
Speaker 1: with Oyer. It's also may. I mean I may not
Speaker 1: play football until November. I mean, who knows. So I
Speaker 1: don't think that the quarterback room now is the same
Speaker 1: it's gonna be by the time the season starts. Well,
Speaker 1: he's also in Nantucket. I do wonder like he's been
Speaker 1: in this football grind. I've thought about this, like which
Speaker 1: teams are gonna benefit and there's it's hard to really know,
Speaker 1: but I mean it's a totally different offseason for all
Speaker 1: these coaches too. It's like he's just in Nantucket like
Speaker 1: cooking up who knows? Why are they gonna be totally
Speaker 1: different than Like are a lot of teams gonna be
Speaker 1: totally different from because these coaches are in their bunkers
Speaker 1: just coming up with crazy ideas that would be fun.
Speaker 1: Is there, Greg? Is there a Nantucket Martha's Vineyard rivalry
Speaker 1: up there? I don't think so. I've never been um
Speaker 1: like elites on elites, right, I mean, and Tuckets like
Speaker 1: a really small place. I don't know how you get
Speaker 1: blue blood. Yeah, I don't know how you get there.
Speaker 1: You know, Martha's Vineyards got like a hundred thousand people
Speaker 1: and the or eighty thousand people in the summer. I
Speaker 1: don't think like Nantucket has much in the way of
Speaker 1: even stores and stuff, But I don't really know. I
Speaker 1: think they've got some stories. It's just you know, not
Speaker 1: like a you know, not a tough advantage. Martha the
Speaker 1: Vineyard also has the Kennedy's right, I feel like that's
Speaker 1: no neither that they're on Cape Cod Well. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: let's bringing Ricky on this. Rickie, you are blue blood
Speaker 1: up there. You come from an incredible amount of wealth.
Speaker 1: Tell us more. I know Erica is like the only
Speaker 1: one of us who truly is a blue blood. She
Speaker 1: never gets any Erica's told the stories of sitting on
Speaker 1: the lap of Ted Williams and other great uh lumina right,
Speaker 1: and frankly I thought he was inappropriate. But you know,
Speaker 1: oh stop that. Um No, Nantucket is the bomb. It's
Speaker 1: so there's a ton of fairies, even from Martha's Vineyard
Speaker 1: to Nantucket. Okay, I've never been, I don't know. And
Speaker 1: the downtown is so historic and beautiful Nantucket over Martha's
Speaker 1: Vineyard any day. Wow, Ricky coming info that downtown with
Speaker 1: the cobblestone streets. I know, Martha's Beneard has a lot
Speaker 1: they're very similar. But Nantucket, oh you get that. You
Speaker 1: get the you wear your Nantucket reds. You're just on
Speaker 1: the boat and you know, shark fishing whatever I mean,
Speaker 1: Nantucket from the top of the deck. That's good info. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's our that's our street smart correspondent. All right,
Speaker 1: who else, Mark? You have? The entire af C North
Speaker 1: has a chip on their shoulder? Now talk this one
Speaker 1: out for that's how you do this. You can't just
Speaker 1: you know how this works. You can't just pick uh
Speaker 1: six teams. One of them has to be a little
Speaker 1: bit different and kind of like a good point. Is
Speaker 1: it one giant chip collectively on the division itself or
Speaker 1: do they have four separate chips. Yeah. I think the
Speaker 1: imagery was troubling. I mean, kind of a tough imagery
Speaker 1: to begin with. I've gotten a lot of tweets like
Speaker 1: a team doesn't have a shoulder, blah blah blah. So
Speaker 1: it's like, I hear what you're saying, But I would say,
Speaker 1: if you're the Cleveland Browns, you have a chip on
Speaker 1: your shoulder. Because of everything we've talked about over talked
Speaker 1: about on the show with what happened last year. I
Speaker 1: think they're they were embarrassed, UM, and they have a
Speaker 1: lot to prove that that that you can't go out
Speaker 1: and do that again. And I would say they there
Speaker 1: have to be some people, some fairly angry individuals and
Speaker 1: their Steelers. I mean they went eight and eate, they
Speaker 1: lost every quarterback possible. Uh, things couldn't have gone any
Speaker 1: worse for them, and they still see themselves completely as
Speaker 1: a playoff team. UM. I would say the Ravens for
Speaker 1: the way the season ended, it's not that you know
Speaker 1: they were That's two years in a row where the
Speaker 1: playoffs UM equal to shocking departure for Baltimore, but especially
Speaker 1: last year, I mean, they just got totally punked in
Speaker 1: the weirdest way. I still feel like that playoff game,
Speaker 1: UM was one of the weirder experiences I've had UM
Speaker 1: in a while, watching a game and just feeling like
Speaker 1: everything that you didn't expect is happening right in front
Speaker 1: of our eyes. UM twelve. It was never really in question.
Speaker 1: The Titans were in control of the game from the
Speaker 1: very beginning. There was the insane stat speaking to the
Speaker 1: weirdness of the game, I believe the Ravens got stopped
Speaker 1: on fourth and short three times, something that had not
Speaker 1: happened once in sixteen games over their fourteen in two campaign.
Speaker 1: So it was, now, can you is it flukey? I will,
Speaker 1: I'll pull it back. I don't know about the entire team,
Speaker 1: but I certainly could see Lamar Jackson having a chip
Speaker 1: on his shoulder, which you usually don't get from an
Speaker 1: m v P because fairly, unfairly a lot of people
Speaker 1: are gonna remember that season for oh yeah, he was
Speaker 1: this amazing dominant player, rush for twelve hundred yards and
Speaker 1: through for thirty yards whatever it was, and then again
Speaker 1: two straight playoff of years he didn't get it done.
Speaker 1: He needs to kind of lose that quote unquote and
Speaker 1: narr which play. I mean, Peyton Manning had that tracking
Speaker 1: him for a while in his career, and like what
Speaker 1: you know. It's one thing I noted in an overly
Speaker 1: long intro of this thing was that I don't think
Speaker 1: that certain players would even care about this, no matter
Speaker 1: what team they're on. It's the certain type of guys.
Speaker 1: And like you look at how Bill Parcels knew how
Speaker 1: to rile up Lawrence Taylor five minutes before kickoff and
Speaker 1: deal with another player completely differently, So you know, you
Speaker 1: can't just slap this label on um entire teams or
Speaker 1: frankly an entire division. But I think the Bengals might be.
Speaker 1: But the Bengals, like you know, they've been they even
Speaker 1: when the chip I mean, I don't know, Zach Taylor
Speaker 1: doesn't strike again, I'm not I quite. We have questions
Speaker 1: about the coaching staff, but um, they from a maybe
Speaker 1: I would go Bengals fans who I think have just
Speaker 1: taken it um you know, for years and they have
Speaker 1: just they've been a laughing stock. The team doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to want to do much to get him out of
Speaker 1: that situation. So you know, things got to change here
Speaker 1: for the fan base. Totally throw one more out there, Mark,
Speaker 1: I mean, look here that Ravens. That Ravens Titans game.
Speaker 1: By the way, it's one of three games on my DVR,
Speaker 1: and Walker just likes to my son likes to watch
Speaker 1: football sometimes, so I've seen that game now a handful
Speaker 1: of times. It's that it's Bills Patriots Week fifteen, and
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl from last year. So seeing these games
Speaker 1: over a decent amount of times, that game was I'm
Speaker 1: just saying it's like an amazing football game that was
Speaker 1: like that Titan's Body rock. There's just there's something about
Speaker 1: a divisional round game like that, and it was it's
Speaker 1: fascinating watch, like they just hit him and the Ravens
Speaker 1: didn't know what had happened, and it was like an
Speaker 1: amazing thing to to rewatch. The imagine going to that
Speaker 1: game as Ravens fan, Oh, you think you got a
Speaker 1: ticket punch to the super Bowl and you're walking home like, wait,
Speaker 1: do we just score twelve points and essentially get our
Speaker 1: butts whipped. That's when they would rather have the old
Speaker 1: mouser made the old mouser. I mean when when Tannehill
Speaker 1: hits uh Calif Raymond on that bomb and it's suddenly
Speaker 1: third team nothing. That was like one of that was
Speaker 1: of the moments of the season. I feel like, hello,
Speaker 1: it's Monday, mower day. Yeah, yeah, I can hear that
Speaker 1: the great plane actually rolls through here. Who Candelario like
Speaker 1: John Candelario, Well it's his first name. He's a good guy.
Speaker 1: I give him a handle of Captain Morgan's for Christmas.
Speaker 1: Every year he's he's he comes and cuts the grass,
Speaker 1: he tends to the yard for us. Nice. What a
Speaker 1: classy gesture, right, And for those who think that's some
Speaker 1: type of sign of me being an upper crust person,
Speaker 1: that's fairly normal. If you rent a house in Los Angeles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know you guys thinking almost it's very normal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's part of rental agreements in in the l A
Speaker 1: area that the the owners have to take care of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: would want him swilling Captain Morgan's before cutting the lawn,
Speaker 1: but who knows. I feel like you could do that
Speaker 1: with a little bit of it. It's not that hard.
Speaker 1: Going back to my mail man days, I appreciated anyone
Speaker 1: who would leave a tip in the mailbox or give
Speaker 1: you a gift certificate. I never got a handle of
Speaker 1: Captain Morgan's though, Yeah, I gave him a handle Captain
Speaker 1: Morgan's in a half a Rock nice. I was like,
Speaker 1: you gave him cocaine. I was like, it seems to
Speaker 1: fit you. And then we have we have a drink.
Speaker 1: There you go and well, what do you talk about?
Speaker 1: That would be that would be more of digging into
Speaker 1: where you see yourself With them, there's a bit of
Speaker 1: a language barrier, but we we talked about we talk baseball.
Speaker 1: He's a Dodgers fan, Yes, thank you? All right? Um,
Speaker 1: anything else? I don't know. I get this does not
Speaker 1: feel like um trying to remember a segment that was
Speaker 1: interrupted by two or three like super deep a team
Speaker 1: to oh yeah, I was kind I thought, we have
Speaker 1: the m about do you have one? Yeah? Okay, great,
Speaker 1: go ahead. I don't just one. Well, my mind was
Speaker 1: on Mark's list, which was the Saints. Just that, just
Speaker 1: like a team that's been a top five team in
Speaker 1: the NFL three straight years, as heartbreaking playoff losses as
Speaker 1: humanly possible, and as as all in like one last
Speaker 1: year as any roster I can think of for a
Speaker 1: long time. So that's a chip on your shoulder. It's
Speaker 1: also a lot of pressure. But when you look at
Speaker 1: what Mickey Loomis has done with his financial jiu jitsu,
Speaker 1: keeping this team together in the depth chart at every
Speaker 1: position looks awesome. I'm a team and an NFL team,
Speaker 1: but I've always thought that was you know, he's done
Speaker 1: a great job with that. With those dual responsibility, they
Speaker 1: got to be coming into this season feeling like it's
Speaker 1: title or bust, which is dangerous, but that's just where
Speaker 1: they're at. Doesn't it feel like that's been where they've
Speaker 1: been really for the past four years though the entire
Speaker 1: Drew Brees I get it, But this time it's like
Speaker 1: it's his last year. I'm I'm just feeling like this
Speaker 1: is his last year. There's no more guaranteed money. He
Speaker 1: took a job with NBC. Everything's going to be different
Speaker 1: after this year. Well, you wonder if he has another
Speaker 1: great season, if he's gonna want to walk away and
Speaker 1: Tom and Tom Brady over in Tampa is like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take all those counting stats records if you quit.
Speaker 1: These guys care about that stuff. I would now that
Speaker 1: you're right, your records are really important until Matthew Stafford
Speaker 1: breaks all of them. Well, I mean, it's it's easy
Speaker 1: to say that all those records will be broken, but
Speaker 1: the lyngevity they matter to Breeze, that's what it's. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a big part of his calling card. Brady. You
Speaker 1: would think it would matter a little less at this point.
Speaker 1: He's got all the rings, makes sense, anybody else got one? Well,
Speaker 1: Mark mentioned the rams. I want to hear that Mark
Speaker 1: on the rams. The rams to me, I mean, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a mark as a chip on his shoulder about
Speaker 1: the Rams. Not not, not with the way they are
Speaker 1: right now, because I suddenly find them um less everybody's
Speaker 1: favorite and more intriguing. They've really transformed the coaching staff
Speaker 1: and the roster in I think Sean McVeigh suddenly is
Speaker 1: in sort of the second phase of his time there
Speaker 1: and and has a big challenge. And I have a
Speaker 1: lot of questions about Jared goff Um not to the
Speaker 1: same degree, what about other guys. But you're you're in
Speaker 1: a crazy division where you're no longer the class of
Speaker 1: that division. Uh, you're in a top heavy NFC. You
Speaker 1: went nine and seven, missed the playoffs, kind of kind
Speaker 1: of like fizzled out at the end there. They were
Speaker 1: eight and five at one point. I think there's a
Speaker 1: bit of a chip on the shoulder there. I would
Speaker 1: say that you know you were you were the bell
Speaker 1: of the ball a year ago, not now. What's interesting
Speaker 1: about the two thousand twenty Rams, I think is that
Speaker 1: Sean McVeigh, just a couple of years ago was the
Speaker 1: next you know, offensive whiz kid genius. And the defense
Speaker 1: looks better than the offense to me. In fact, by
Speaker 1: far the two less best players in the team are
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald and j Jalen Ramsey. But they have a
Speaker 1: totally you know, they but they lost some starters and
Speaker 1: they have a totally new defensive coordinator there. You're right,
Speaker 1: they they have a lot to prove. I mean they're rebuild.
Speaker 1: You know, they took over a bad franchise and they
Speaker 1: won a lot of games. Even you know, going nine
Speaker 1: and seven. If that proves to be a down year,
Speaker 1: it isn't the worst down year of her It's just
Speaker 1: they didn't expect that to be the step back year
Speaker 1: at all. Like this makes more sense as a step
Speaker 1: back year. Uh. He does have a lot of I
Speaker 1: mean it's I think about it, like driving around the city.
Speaker 1: I mean there was Todd Gurley, Uh, billboards everywhere it's
Speaker 1: Todd Gurley, you know for subway, there's Jared Goff and
Speaker 1: all this stuff. I don't know if he's getting that
Speaker 1: Banana Republic money again. It's like they you know, they
Speaker 1: they're not the bells of the balls that they were
Speaker 1: hoping quite as much going into the new stadium. There's
Speaker 1: been a lot of golf dunking by um, you know
Speaker 1: the football Uh, pundits out there this offseason after what
Speaker 1: was a down year, I wonder the Rams are in
Speaker 1: a lot of trouble if he continues to regress this year.
Speaker 1: He's due thirty one million and twenty seven and a
Speaker 1: half million guaranteed salary in the next two seasons. His
Speaker 1: Captinet number jumps up over thirty million from four. I mean,
Speaker 1: you want to talk about you regrets. There's no way
Speaker 1: they give him that deal again. Now they just have
Speaker 1: to hope it doesn't turn into a huge disaster if
Speaker 1: he kind of becomes a rich man's Mark Sanchez or
Speaker 1: something over the next year. I see, I'm not that concerned.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're that he's paid like a superstar.
Speaker 1: It's not exactly what you want. But I think even
Speaker 1: the way he played last year, men, his bad games
Speaker 1: were just awful. Um, But I don't think he was
Speaker 1: much worse than an average starting quarterback. I don't think
Speaker 1: he was like a huge problem. The problem is, you
Speaker 1: know you have to number one overall better be better
Speaker 1: than the average starting quarterback. Well, I don't think he
Speaker 1: was last year. I think he was about average or
Speaker 1: a little work my measure, just wasn't he wasn't Mark Sanchez.
Speaker 1: My my measure, I said rich Man's, um my measure
Speaker 1: of a disaster is if he goes below average. So
Speaker 1: if he's not only a guy that's sitting at the
Speaker 1: table and he's not bringing things from the table. When
Speaker 1: he starts taking the salt off the table, the pepper,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, some forks and iibes are missing,
Speaker 1: he's taking things off the table, then it's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, what did we do? We just shipwrecked the
Speaker 1: franchise over this guy, right, And it also would would
Speaker 1: point fingers at the Rams front office and coaching staff
Speaker 1: for mis evaluating him, I mean and paying him with
Speaker 1: the wrong evaluation. I think they got some good young
Speaker 1: um rookies uh on offense, but yeah, he's got to
Speaker 1: be better. I remember that Cowboys game, which kind of
Speaker 1: man Jared Goff was terrible and that well, I don't
Speaker 1: know if his week fourteen, Week fifteen, but it was
Speaker 1: kind of the moment where you're like, oh, the Rams
Speaker 1: are just not gonna do it, and golf was Goff
Speaker 1: was a huge, huge part of the reason. Why how
Speaker 1: about the Ravens game. I mean, there were just too
Speaker 1: many instances of the Rams just not showing up last
Speaker 1: year and they've got to turn that around. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: feels like with being a team builder, and less Need
Speaker 1: is a great example because he's been and there forever
Speaker 1: now it's like that old Batman thing, die a hero
Speaker 1: or live long enough to become the villain. He was
Speaker 1: a guy that seemed like this was not gonna work out,
Speaker 1: and then he hit on some moves and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden he was the face of like the the
Speaker 1: young industrious GM that UM teams love would love to
Speaker 1: have connected to them. And now things have come back
Speaker 1: around and he's facing a lot of pressure. I imagine
Speaker 1: I think McVeigh has more What do you think it
Speaker 1: is a fair to say McVeigh has a lot more
Speaker 1: job security than less Need right now? Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: I think I think they both have pretty good job
Speaker 1: security because we're talking about this like there was a disaster.
Speaker 1: They you know, they were nine and seven last I mean,
Speaker 1: they weren't good, but let's see how this season goes.
Speaker 1: I guess even if they struggled, I think I think
Speaker 1: this is kind of their team for this is their
Speaker 1: group for a while. Well, I would I would say
Speaker 1: that McVeigh if you want to say someone has more.
Speaker 1: I mean McVeigh is sort of the centerpiece of the
Speaker 1: organization and a brilliant coach that you're not just gonna
Speaker 1: let walk because of even one bad year. I wonder
Speaker 1: if he's a potential guy. If because this is gonna
Speaker 1: be a tough year for them and McVeigh will be
Speaker 1: really tested with all their loss is in free agency
Speaker 1: and their and their salary cap issues, uh and lack
Speaker 1: of draft picks and all that. If if this year
Speaker 1: doesn't go well. Um, I wonder if Peyton could end
Speaker 1: up being or McVeigh could end up being a Sean
Speaker 1: Payton type down the line where he is the czar
Speaker 1: of the whole organization, the Andy Reid type role. Right now,
Speaker 1: that is not the case, but maybe in the future. Mark,
Speaker 1: you did it? Van orl No, I don't know what's
Speaker 1: happened to those. Um, it's just the you know NFL
Speaker 1: dot com last named Sessler and hope it's not the hope.
Speaker 1: It's the last thing I wrote. Or you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to scroll down and look for it. All Right, there
Speaker 1: you go. Anything else, anybody else have anything to add today? Yeah?
Speaker 1: People can. People can if they missed it. By the way,
Speaker 1: it's on Game Pass our show. I think I never
Speaker 1: check out the around the un personally verify it. But yeah, Also,
Speaker 1: the Last Dance is getting better every week. What a
Speaker 1: show I've actually, I kind of I'm doing a new
Speaker 1: thing now where I watched the first one on Sunday
Speaker 1: and then I saved the one second one. It's like
Speaker 1: cup and then it takes me another reason not to
Speaker 1: go on Twitter, because God knows it's good to get
Speaker 1: off Twitter every once in a while. A lot of
Speaker 1: takes always connected to Jordan's uh in The Last Dance,
Speaker 1: all right, Dan Hanson signing up for Buie Storm, the Mailman,
Speaker 1: the Old Boss, Ricky blue Blood, Hollywood over in West
Speaker 1: Hollywood Util Wednesday s