Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast. No pants needed for the
Speaker 1: Bunker Cast. Well, welcome to another edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast, presented by Intoit Quick Books, the official
Speaker 1: sponsor of the NFL. My name is Dan Hansens, and
Speaker 1: I'm coming to you from a booker full of heroes
Speaker 1: across l A. Mark Sessler, Chris Wesley, and Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: What's up with hey? Dan? Happy Monday. I get the
Speaker 1: feeling talking to Dan and others that maybe for some
Speaker 1: this weekend was not exactly a a waltz through Rose
Speaker 1: Gardens centered in Los Angeles the weekend for me, the
Speaker 1: weekend for me was fine enough. But today, because it's
Speaker 1: a two income household, as it must be in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles for many of us, um Emily had a very
Speaker 1: booked morning for work. I had a very book morning
Speaker 1: for work. We have two little monsters going crazy. The
Speaker 1: center does not hold. Don't you understand COVID nineteen. You
Speaker 1: can't do this to us? And once again we're just
Speaker 1: getting started. I mean, I think if you're gonna I'm
Speaker 1: already looking forward to the final Bunker Cast. As much
Speaker 1: fun as this is, like, imagine like the party feeling
Speaker 1: when we realize it's gonna be like the last one.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be like inmates, like ready to get out
Speaker 1: of jail. Because I'm putting the over under. It's gotta
Speaker 1: be into May at the very least. Right who might
Speaker 1: be conservative? I mean based on you know where you're where,
Speaker 1: you're reading updates, you know, Uh, today's show gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: We are going to introduce to you the listener a
Speaker 1: little sneak preview, actually because the piece on NFL dot
Speaker 1: com won't go live until tomorrow morning. But the two
Speaker 1: thousand and twenty Gray Beards a roster comprised entirely of
Speaker 1: NFL veterans not currently attached to a team. Um, I
Speaker 1: roll out the sixth and of that roster, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to essentially go through it position by position, and you,
Speaker 1: gentlemen and Ricky are feel free to chime in with
Speaker 1: any thoughts on it, positive and negative. I'm excited about
Speaker 1: this year's team, this squad, it these are the glory
Speaker 1: days for Gray Beards. I don't want to give too
Speaker 1: many spoiler alerts, but this roster is it's competitive. It's
Speaker 1: the one team that COVID nineteen is helping apparently, coronavirus
Speaker 1: has been good for the Gray Beards. The longstanding The
Speaker 1: longstanding goal of the Gray Beards is to feel the
Speaker 1: competitive team, best case scenario A five team. This is
Speaker 1: the first time I ever did this exercise, and honestly
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, a bounce of the ball one way,
Speaker 1: a holding call or p I call goes your favor.
Speaker 1: We could we could sneak in the back door of
Speaker 1: the A C playoffs. Well, there's a couple of position
Speaker 1: groups that pop off the page. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: really recall that in the past. It like there were
Speaker 1: some people legitimately with gray hair on their faces and
Speaker 1: probably having waves sports goodbye. You know when you did
Speaker 1: this exercise at different times. There's there the pass rush,
Speaker 1: some other areas. We'll get into it. Yeah, you couldn't.
Speaker 1: You couldn't get a quarterback to stand behind last year's
Speaker 1: offensive line on that team. But this year we've got
Speaker 1: a sentry out there. Unbelievable and a little tradition. I'd
Speaker 1: like to start this year at the Gray Beards. At
Speaker 1: the end of the show, I'm gonna unveil the theme
Speaker 1: song of the Gray Beards, So stay stayed. At the
Speaker 1: end of today's show, including you, Greg, you can't leave,
Speaker 1: all right, Um, you want to get into it, please,
Speaker 1: all right, let me pull up my copy I sent
Speaker 1: to you, gentlemen, as West was alluding to, um, the
Speaker 1: rough copy that went over to Phil Specter just moments ago,
Speaker 1: the gray beards. Um. What I try to do here
Speaker 1: is build out close to a full roster, so you're
Speaker 1: gonna have uh backups at many positions. I don't do
Speaker 1: backups for certain positions like do you really want me
Speaker 1: deep diving on backup offensive lineman? Do you really want
Speaker 1: to know what my swing lineman is. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: go that route. So, but I have five starting offensive lineman,
Speaker 1: actually five offensive lineman. I don't think that's that bad.
Speaker 1: And uh, but for some of the other more fun
Speaker 1: position groups quote unquote fun, um, I have backups and
Speaker 1: and and um. And let's stag in here because yes,
Speaker 1: as I said, I'm feeling really good about this team.
Speaker 1: I want complete honesty where you think the team needs
Speaker 1: to be improved, maybe a player that I missed. Again,
Speaker 1: this is a exercise where it's not live on the
Speaker 1: website yet, and until it goes live on the website,
Speaker 1: I can make roster changes, and just just so everyone knows, um,
Speaker 1: once a gray beard, always a gray beard. So for
Speaker 1: instance Cam Newton and we'll get to the quarterback room
Speaker 1: in a second, Cam Newton obviously gray beard if he
Speaker 1: signs with the Denver Broncos, and hey, Denver Broncos, beef
Speaker 1: up that quarterback room. Um before on Wednesday, say, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter he was on the gray Beards. He was
Speaker 1: a free agent Tuesday morning when this went live. That's
Speaker 1: the only thing you really need to know. This isn't
Speaker 1: like the top one on one list that you and
Speaker 1: I created where we have to pull players from the
Speaker 1: one oh one rankings when they get signed by someone.
Speaker 1: This is a evergreen exercise, absolutely, and it's always better
Speaker 1: that way, isn't it. I would think? So, you know,
Speaker 1: based on our work together, I trust your work solo,
Speaker 1: and it does. It does happen every year, Greg, without fail.
Speaker 1: I know you're you're a man with an eye on
Speaker 1: the transaction wire at all times. In the hours that
Speaker 1: lead up to the publishing of the piece, without fail,
Speaker 1: one to two, sometimes even three players come off the board.
Speaker 1: Because are we in the third wave of free agency? Now?
Speaker 1: Where are we exactly? Wave who knows. Uh, the guys
Speaker 1: tend to fall off because again, the guys I've put
Speaker 1: on this team are quality players for the most part.
Speaker 1: So the fact that they still don't have jobs, uh,
Speaker 1: that typically doesn't last. So let's get into it. Will start,
Speaker 1: yes with the quarterback room. And I just want to
Speaker 1: give a little perspective to people. Last year, in the
Speaker 1: same exercise last March, I think it was March two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, world was a lot different. So was the
Speaker 1: quarterback room of the Gray Beards because installed as the
Speaker 1: starter was Sam Bradford coming off another year where he
Speaker 1: was just wrecked by knee injury's now out of football,
Speaker 1: now getting killed by Mark Sesler on Twitter for the
Speaker 1: money that he brought into his family during his career.
Speaker 1: Uh perhaps factual. The backup to Bradford in this exercise
Speaker 1: last year, brock Osweiler. Oh my god, brock Osweiler was
Speaker 1: the second best quarterback I could come up with. And
Speaker 1: I don't recall there being a huge pushback from you
Speaker 1: guys when we talked about it on the podcast. And
Speaker 1: then I had third string Josh McCown, classic locker room guy.
Speaker 1: He ended up playing in the playoffs. So that was
Speaker 1: the He's the only one of them that actually played
Speaker 1: last year. So here we go. Last year Bradford, Ossweiler, McCown.
Speaker 1: This year, Cam Newton, my starter, Jamis Winston, my backup,
Speaker 1: Andy Dalton, the clipboard holder inactive on most Sundays. How
Speaker 1: does it happen? Who knows? But that is the best
Speaker 1: quarterback room that I've ever had in this exercise, and
Speaker 1: really probably better than almost any team in football. When
Speaker 1: you look at the pure level of talent across the
Speaker 1: entire depth chart, I don't know how you got them
Speaker 1: all under the cap. You know. That's one of the
Speaker 1: ways that Dan does a great job with this Gray
Speaker 1: Beards team. But Cam Newton has been posting these, you know,
Speaker 1: Instagram videos of him like working out on the stairs.
Speaker 1: I'm by I'm usually not buying into this offseason stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm buying into the Cam Newton's gonna really train hard
Speaker 1: and got to be better than ever and you better
Speaker 1: watch out for Cam Newton on the Gray Beards. There
Speaker 1: was the classic. It happens sometimes in the off season
Speaker 1: a player puts out an Instagram at a charity function
Speaker 1: and then everybody's like, oh, he's so skinny. He does
Speaker 1: look a little bit um streamlined this offseason, not quite
Speaker 1: as bulky. Well, let me ask you this question, was
Speaker 1: are you comfortable with my depth chart or would you
Speaker 1: rearrange it? No? I like it. I think it's you
Speaker 1: gotta have Cam number one, and then Winston's got a
Speaker 1: little bit more potential than Dalton, so I'm fine with that. UM.
Speaker 1: I think the Winston Dalton decision really depends on the
Speaker 1: specifics of your team, and I think Dalton to me,
Speaker 1: i'd probably if I was a contender, I'd be more
Speaker 1: likely to go with him. If I was a builder,
Speaker 1: I'd be more likely to go with Winston. Think about
Speaker 1: this too, Joe Flacco Mark didn't make the cut for
Speaker 1: the Graybeards and the same exercise last year, he would
Speaker 1: have been the starter. So even the fourth best guy
Speaker 1: in the market right now, and we know Flacco is
Speaker 1: of advanced age and and the body isn't what it
Speaker 1: used to be. UM, but he's even available if we
Speaker 1: wanted to for this exercise. I think that you have
Speaker 1: UM benefited playing off of a healthy amount of trepidation
Speaker 1: by a lot of coaching staffs to bring in someone
Speaker 1: like Cam Newton to play back up or even Jamis
Speaker 1: Winston based on what we know about Cam Newton and
Speaker 1: the weird sort of Jekyl side of the Jekyl and Hyde,
Speaker 1: if that was the good one of the two, I've
Speaker 1: not read that book recently. Um and where you know
Speaker 1: you get the good side of Jameis Winston, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get a head coach kind of feeling like I want
Speaker 1: to see this guy if panic sets in by week four,
Speaker 1: week five. So I just thinking in Dalton is a
Speaker 1: consistent guy you can rely on. So your quarterback room.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have a ring of honor
Speaker 1: on this team, but I feel like they've already got
Speaker 1: a better shot that some of these jabronies playing under
Speaker 1: center in years past. This is a hot room. Isn't
Speaker 1: Jackals the doctor? That would be the respectable one, right?
Speaker 1: I mean it to sure. I don't know what he's
Speaker 1: doing creating the hide person, but I don't. I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, we have to revisit that one. I think, well,
Speaker 1: it's probably like an early undiagnosed bipolar split personality larrea
Speaker 1: that played out as a horn. This is this quarterback
Speaker 1: room is better. All three of them are better than
Speaker 1: any quarterback that's available in some of these off seasons,
Speaker 1: like brock Eiswiler was the number one quarterback back in
Speaker 1: his off season, and I went back and looked at
Speaker 1: some of our lists, like there's been years where any
Speaker 1: one of these threes would have been better than any
Speaker 1: quarterback available. Pretty wild. There really is a once in
Speaker 1: a generation or more type off season when it comes
Speaker 1: to the quarterback position, and the Graybeards are reaping all
Speaker 1: the benefits. Moving on to running back, all right, I
Speaker 1: don't I kind of like this position group too. We
Speaker 1: got Devanta Freeman. I have him as my start right now,
Speaker 1: and I totally understand if, based on the tape he
Speaker 1: put out there with the Falcons, you want to bump
Speaker 1: him down or hell, throw him off the roster because
Speaker 1: he really did very little that team. Maybe had a
Speaker 1: had a moment here or there where it made you
Speaker 1: think maybe still got it. But at twenty eight years old,
Speaker 1: basically starting over. Given his track record, especially in his
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan years, um, he's a guy that the Gray
Speaker 1: Beards are gonna take a flyer on every single time. Okay,
Speaker 1: every day of the week, twice on Sunday, okay, um
Speaker 1: and then you have behind him a really nice one
Speaker 1: to tandem that I just lifted. I pill I'm not
Speaker 1: the only person to pilfer Bill O'Brien this season. While
Speaker 1: he's gone and getting David Johnson and like praying to
Speaker 1: the gods that he bounces back. He lets Carlos Hide
Speaker 1: and Lamar Miller, a pair of twenty nine year old
Speaker 1: cheap veterans that combined and I don't think a lot
Speaker 1: of people realize this, they combine for two thousand yards
Speaker 1: last year as a tanem okay. So we have Hide
Speaker 1: rushed over a thousand yards at almost four and a
Speaker 1: half yards to carry. You have Miller who just missed
Speaker 1: a thousand yards. So you put two guys in there
Speaker 1: that could get it done. Lamar Miller a little bit older,
Speaker 1: but I think he still has that home run ability.
Speaker 1: And then finally, Greg, out of respect to you and
Speaker 1: your son, who looks very cool with the glasses. I
Speaker 1: like it. Um Frank Gore, welcome to the gray Beard.
Speaker 1: That's been a long time coming, thirty seven years young,
Speaker 1: classic veteran guy, and just like Josh McCown last year,
Speaker 1: he's the guy that beat writers can pre write the
Speaker 1: piece about what a what a great locker room guy is,
Speaker 1: and then they quietly take the four day weekend with
Speaker 1: their families in August. I mean, like so much of
Speaker 1: Frank Gore's career, He's going to start out with lower
Speaker 1: expectations here on towards the bottom of the depth chart,
Speaker 1: and he's climbing that thing. Even even DeVonta Freeman at
Speaker 1: twenty nine years old doesn't have nearly as much juice.
Speaker 1: I like Carlos Hide as the starter here, though I
Speaker 1: don't have to. I don't know she used for Freeman.
Speaker 1: I'm with Greg on this one. Running Backs are like
Speaker 1: baseball pitchers. If a baseball pitcher's arm isn't right that year,
Speaker 1: you can't you can't count on them running backs that
Speaker 1: their legs aren't right. You can't count on We have
Speaker 1: no indication that the DeVante Freeman's legs are right. What
Speaker 1: have you done for me lately in the running back world?
Speaker 1: Carlos Hide coming off a much better season, and for
Speaker 1: the sake of your copy, Lamar Miller's yardage came two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen. That was Duke Johnson who teamed with I
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. That's a huge catch and completely
Speaker 1: uh invalidates many of the things I said prior to
Speaker 1: you speaking. Lamar had an A c L. I believe,
Speaker 1: by the way, it is good be the end here
Speaker 1: of um Lashawn McCoy did not make you didn't even
Speaker 1: make the gray beards, which is a slap in the face.
Speaker 1: Could be the end of his career, could be the
Speaker 1: end of Frank Gore's career. Here this offseason, I could
Speaker 1: see it and see them possibly not getting jobs. Where's
Speaker 1: Duke Johnson He's still employed? Yeah, Okay, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: great last year, played great in that playoff game. I'll
Speaker 1: slide out Lamar Miller and that does open up a
Speaker 1: roster spot. Then, so hey, you might Lamar Miller might
Speaker 1: still be a good candidate, maybe maybe a bounce back
Speaker 1: guy off the A C L. Yeah, that injury happened
Speaker 1: in the summer, not like in December something Walker, who
Speaker 1: do you who do you think should be starting? Hide
Speaker 1: or Freeman? How? Yeah? Good call with his parental units,
Speaker 1: so you know there's harmony at home. Alright, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: slide him up the old depth chart, moving right along
Speaker 1: to full back all right. NFL dot Com has a
Speaker 1: page that they update periodically available free agents tracker and
Speaker 1: Roosevelt Knicks was the only fullback on that list, so
Speaker 1: he is the fullback of the Gray Beards by default.
Speaker 1: I mean, I I don't hate to pick um you did,
Speaker 1: you didn't have. It's like the man running against nobody
Speaker 1: for city councilor alderman in eight he's gonna win. But
Speaker 1: I if I'm the person updating that page on NFL
Speaker 1: dot com, I want to take a long look in
Speaker 1: the mirror and say it's time to, you know, pump
Speaker 1: up that residu gets somewhere else that Look how far
Speaker 1: fullbacks have fallen there? You know how every time there's
Speaker 1: an opening for a kicker, there's like eight guys that
Speaker 1: the kicker circuit. You bring them all in, you try
Speaker 1: them out. There's only one fullback on the circuit. If
Speaker 1: you need a fullback, you just bring in Rosie Knicks
Speaker 1: and there you go. Patriots swooped in and took old
Speaker 1: Danny vitally right off the free agent market. Have to
Speaker 1: have a good But what about the like illustrously overhyped.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not saying over hyped. I don't know how
Speaker 1: good he is at fullback, but I feel like Derek
Speaker 1: Watt has like eight billion articles written about him because
Speaker 1: he's playing full I can go into the Steelers. Well
Speaker 1: there's something else there too. It's a nice little meaty
Speaker 1: hook for feature writers there as well, you know J. J. Watt. No,
Speaker 1: I mean I get that, but it's you know, I
Speaker 1: think we all get it. And it's been pounded over
Speaker 1: our head repeatedly. John Kuhen waiting for the phone to ring,
Speaker 1: but the grave beards ain't calm. He's retired, right, I
Speaker 1: think when one thing, just thinking of fullbacks in the Patriots,
Speaker 1: because that is going to be a really great full
Speaker 1: back room. Um is that. Yeah, they lost Brady, but
Speaker 1: they're getting James Devilon back in two thousand twenty according
Speaker 1: to most people, like that's the reason why they were struggling.
Speaker 1: So with Devil and back, they should be fine. All right, Wes,
Speaker 1: I want to see you up on this one because
Speaker 1: when we get to the wide receiver room, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a man at the top of the depth chart
Speaker 1: that nearly ended our podcast last September. His name is
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown, and I know he's a jerk and he's
Speaker 1: had some issues off the field that are you know,
Speaker 1: to put it mildly uh disappointing and worrisome. But when
Speaker 1: I'm putting together a roster like this, I just couldn't
Speaker 1: do it. Was I couldn't look away. And when I
Speaker 1: look at the wide receiver group that's remaining in general,
Speaker 1: it's one of the weakest positional groups. I needed this guy.
Speaker 1: So I signed Antonio Brown, uh thirty two years old
Speaker 1: entering week one to lead my wide receiver group. Let's
Speaker 1: start there. What do you think was well? I think
Speaker 1: you have as much integrity as Bill Belichick bat This guy,
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown, um just walks into everyone's life, throws out
Speaker 1: his poison, spews it out to everyone in life. Antonio
Speaker 1: Brown is poison, and he shows no remorse whatsoever. And
Speaker 1: to me, you separate people who show remorse versus people
Speaker 1: who don't. And the two people I've been most angry
Speaker 1: about on this podcast have been Greg Hardy and Antonio
Speaker 1: two people who do not show remorse, will not change
Speaker 1: their behavior, and just spew their poison out wherever they can.
Speaker 1: That's fair. I'm certainly management's gonna sit down with him
Speaker 1: and see if he's at all contrite because he's now.
Speaker 1: He's now. Why would you believe him. If he says
Speaker 1: he's contrite, I get it. I get it. He is.
Speaker 1: He's been terrible, but he's human and we all deserve
Speaker 1: second chances, where most of us do. What about seven chances?
Speaker 1: I just want to see West where he's at headspace wise,
Speaker 1: if he feels like if it feels like he's in
Speaker 1: a healthy place mentally, and whether he's willing to try
Speaker 1: to salvage his NFL career, which is on life support
Speaker 1: at this point. It's your team by all means, sign him.
Speaker 1: I do worry a little bit about you know you
Speaker 1: hear GM say, we don't just you know, bring a
Speaker 1: collection of talent together. We build a team. And I
Speaker 1: am imagining the wide receiver room Antonio Brown, Josh Gordon,
Speaker 1: and Dez Bryant. It's just it's a lot going on.
Speaker 1: There a lot of people there that are gonna want
Speaker 1: the ball. Yeah, just a tad psychedelic. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what happens by week five with Josh Gordon in Antonio Brown. Uh,
Speaker 1: I kind of like with Shard Higgins in here, one
Speaker 1: of the chances anton Neal Brown and Josh Gordon are
Speaker 1: both on the team in week five, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: the game that this team has five actual opponents to play.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not aware of the rest of
Speaker 1: the league that they're involved in. But in the NFL,
Speaker 1: just replace Team X with the Gray Beards. Oh, I
Speaker 1: think they'll still be on your team. I've got some
Speaker 1: I've got some other options for you, though, Dan, two
Speaker 1: guys i'd rather have than many of these players. Ted Ginn.
Speaker 1: I think Ted Ginnon could play in the NFL at
Speaker 1: least have a little role. And Paul Richardson. Uh. I
Speaker 1: would take Paul Richardson over Dez Bryan at the at
Speaker 1: the very least. Well, I like I like, as anybody
Speaker 1: that follows the Gray Beards knows. I like a little
Speaker 1: name brand sizzle, and maybe he can't play anymore, but
Speaker 1: get Dez in the building, let's see what he what
Speaker 1: he's got left. But I do like the gain one
Speaker 1: again is also we don't talk about special teams on
Speaker 1: the Gray Beards, but he certainly would be a presence there.
Speaker 1: That's where you are separate from Belichick, who seems slightly
Speaker 1: obsessed with one third of the game exactly boring. And
Speaker 1: you're gonna say something Mark about um Higgins. I believe right, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I I don't. I think he's gonna get
Speaker 1: picked up somewhere. I'd be surprised if he doesn't, just
Speaker 1: based on his age. But so he's twenty five, and
Speaker 1: when we call the gray beard, I believe if he
Speaker 1: were to grow a beard, it may not have a
Speaker 1: lot of grain at the age has no if for
Speaker 1: the reader down the road that you don't you could
Speaker 1: be nineteen and be on this thing if you had
Speaker 1: been on an NFL team. Right, he's the one. I
Speaker 1: think he's the youngest guy too. I would guess I
Speaker 1: hadn't done this yet. I planned to do because I
Speaker 1: always do. Get the median age, which I would guess
Speaker 1: is gonna ping right around thirty one or so, which
Speaker 1: is gray beard territory in the NFL. Anyway, moving on
Speaker 1: to tight end Mr big Chest on the gray Beards,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, wes Hey. Like I said, it's your team.
Speaker 1: I don't have to stick up for this team. I
Speaker 1: don't have to defend them. They go out there totally
Speaker 1: independent of any of my views. And you people on Twitter,
Speaker 1: if any of you idiots start to criticize me for
Speaker 1: putting a player on a fake team in these times,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get mad at me about putting Antonio Brown
Speaker 1: on a fake team. Idiots tight end. They're already idiots,
Speaker 1: and even we had the article is not published and
Speaker 1: you're fighting with trolls in your brain. It's coming, it's coming.
Speaker 1: I've been in the game long enough to know it's coming.
Speaker 1: Delaney Walker is my starting tight end. Don't love it.
Speaker 1: It's a very thin positional group on the free agent market.
Speaker 1: Thirty six years old. We've talked about him on this
Speaker 1: pod when the Titans moved on that he was sneaky
Speaker 1: old and has been a playmaker for them, but also
Speaker 1: now has been dealing with injury issues and uh, what
Speaker 1: does he have left in the tank as a backup?
Speaker 1: The best I could do is Luke Stocker, who's a
Speaker 1: capable blocking back. He has two hands and legs and
Speaker 1: a heart. I'd say no worries because looking at your
Speaker 1: receiver room, you could just go four wide and dominate
Speaker 1: um quarter after quarter with what you've got set up there.
Speaker 1: I'm just sad that that your see now on what
Speaker 1: really should be Jason Witten's final act should be team
Speaker 1: captain of the Graveyards. I mean, how that the Raiders
Speaker 1: screwed that up for everyone. They totally botch it. All right,
Speaker 1: let's take a break here before we moved to the
Speaker 1: trenches at this time to get an update on the
Speaker 1: news of the NFL since we last left you Flash
Speaker 1: with Mark the Manko Sessler, Thank you, Demon a scoring
Speaker 1: update the NFL one coronavirus zero. Good afternoon, It's too twenty.
Speaker 1: I'm Mark Sessler and this report brought to you by
Speaker 1: Joseph about a modern take on heritage men's where Joseph
Speaker 1: aboot Suits offer modern luxury, the refinement and globally inspired
Speaker 1: American elegance. Joseph Aboud dot com optimism a bounds, NFL circles,
Speaker 1: Demon were league heavies remain hopeful that a global pandemic
Speaker 1: will not slow the dead president's churning out of pro
Speaker 1: football's mega machine, with Falcon's owner Arthur Blank telling Peter
Speaker 1: King by September, my hope is we'll be able to
Speaker 1: bring people together they're in some former fashion, in a
Speaker 1: safe manner and play Corona time can't slowdown. Oregon quarterback
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert scheduled for a video call Monday with Las
Speaker 1: Vegas Raiders with the Las Vegas Raiders cut to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: where Lee Harvey Oswald level Patsy Tyrod Taylor wants to
Speaker 1: win quotes turn heads as a starter for the Chargers.
Speaker 1: We all wait breathlessly for the Demon to adjust his
Speaker 1: power rankings. Just stick to the copy of Jerk. In
Speaker 1: other news, Vick Hip Derek Wolfe agrees to a one
Speaker 1: year deal with Baltimore. The Lions, determined to underwhelm until
Speaker 1: Jesus circles back around, signed ex Packers white out Geronimo Allison.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs three signed to Marcus Robinson to a one
Speaker 1: year deal, and in baseball, the Padres option righty Gerardo
Speaker 1: Reyes to the El Paso Chihuahuas. The Redskins also added
Speaker 1: x Philly coverman Ronald Darby, which led the Jettison Quinn
Speaker 1: Dunbar now as Seahawk to call Washington an organization that
Speaker 1: in quotes, lies and makes excuses. Dune Ares since deleted
Speaker 1: his Twitter account, leading us to wonder when the Dmon
Speaker 1: might think about Deep sixteen one or two of his
Speaker 1: online projects reports every twenty minutes. This is Mark Sessler
Speaker 1: with your sports uptake. Yes, beautifully moving on to uh,
Speaker 1: let's see a veteran unit, A savvy veteran unit led
Speaker 1: by Jason Peters. Happy to have Jason still on the board.
Speaker 1: Um at this juncture here in the fourteenth wave of
Speaker 1: free agency. Free agency. Of course, I'm former All Pro
Speaker 1: with the Eagles, but still according to the metrics out there,
Speaker 1: Greg was getting the job done last year. Not at
Speaker 1: the same peak Jason Peters levels, but plenty good enough
Speaker 1: to get a job somewhere. This has to be one
Speaker 1: of your best looking left tackles and tackle the paring
Speaker 1: that this offensive line. I know you haven't gotten into
Speaker 1: all of it. It's about as good as as some
Speaker 1: teams out there. Let me roll through it. Ron Leary
Speaker 1: at left guard, um whose solid Josh Klein. People are
Speaker 1: surprised the Vikings dumped him just thirty years old. He's
Speaker 1: at right guard. He might end up back with Minnesota.
Speaker 1: A K Shipley. I got him in a Q Shipley.
Speaker 1: I got him in the pivot, as insiders call it. Um.
Speaker 1: He has been a really durable player for the Cardinals. Uh.
Speaker 1: He missed one year I believe with an a C L,
Speaker 1: but has been a starter for every game every other year.
Speaker 1: He's there. Nice veteran present there and then on the
Speaker 1: right tackle side, a bit of a reclamation project. Greg Reford.
Speaker 1: Uh to Damar Dotson thirty four years young. He had
Speaker 1: a long run with Tampa. A nice crafty technician I
Speaker 1: call him. This offensive line is is way better than
Speaker 1: like every other year, the one that the Dolphins run
Speaker 1: out there. It's better than the Jets. I would take
Speaker 1: this over the Jets right now. A little calm down there.
Speaker 1: But yeah, So it is interesting that you that that
Speaker 1: Joe Douglas is the quote unquote offensive lineman mastermind and
Speaker 1: he's picking up all these guys on the cheap. Well,
Speaker 1: I just did the same thing, and I do think
Speaker 1: it looks better right now. Recognized the names on this
Speaker 1: offensive line. Joe Douglas, who I I agree as a mastermind,
Speaker 1: has signed three or four interior lineman last I thought
Speaker 1: that that he just crafted the names out of thin
Speaker 1: air and sent it out as a press release. But
Speaker 1: they are apparently beefy men attempting to protect Sam Donald
Speaker 1: already bought his George Phant jerseys for both of his sons. Uh.
Speaker 1: Sorry that you guys weren't tape dogging enough like Joe
Speaker 1: Douglas to know that those guys are really on the
Speaker 1: up and up. I really miss Van Rotten. You know what,
Speaker 1: West your Van Rotten. Uh, let's move to the edge defender.
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's a really kind of solid veteran offensive
Speaker 1: line and a lot better than many teams he saw
Speaker 1: last year in the NFL. And yeah, wake up call
Speaker 1: two teams that are looking for lineman that there might
Speaker 1: be talent out there still if you're willing to pay
Speaker 1: an old guy, I'd throw this out too that you
Speaker 1: know this team, this, this Graybeards team, despite their age
Speaker 1: out on the median, are totally disobeying all COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: rule as they are together right now practicing. Uh, they're
Speaker 1: in sessions together rolling out what is going to be
Speaker 1: an innovative offense. So leg up on the rest of
Speaker 1: the league that is, I would say overcautious COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: and there and they that'll be the end of the grave.
Speaker 1: They are there, Uh, the higher risk group at their age,
Speaker 1: all right, jadeveon Clowney, I mean that's a gift from
Speaker 1: the gods. This happens maybe once a year, once every
Speaker 1: two years, where because of some market deficiencies for the player,
Speaker 1: he ends up still on the market. Clowney at twenty
Speaker 1: seven years old, uh is a star, or at least
Speaker 1: he has a star named brand and he is the
Speaker 1: leader of our edge group. Now we got some good,
Speaker 1: good other edge options here. Everson Griffin thirty two years old,
Speaker 1: has had big years with the Vikings. Of course, Cameron Wake,
Speaker 1: who's very old now thirty eight. But Griffin and Wake
Speaker 1: of nine combined Pro Bowls. So you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna give them, uh, you know, a hundred snaps the game.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go send him a hunting every once in
Speaker 1: a while. I'm gonna use them smartly. And then Clay
Speaker 1: Matthews always zeus or always wants uh certain guys that
Speaker 1: I could slap on the media guide, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have Cam of course to represent the offense. And then
Speaker 1: I'll have a shot of Clay Matthews and his amazing
Speaker 1: flowing locks um on the defense representing the defense for
Speaker 1: the media guide. So Clay's there, and you know, he
Speaker 1: wasn't so bad last year in Los Angeles either. You're
Speaker 1: more like an empressario in this one. You're barn storming
Speaker 1: with Clowney and and Everson Griffin. They're only good for
Speaker 1: the off season. By the time the season rules around,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be off your team. It's like Babe Ruth
Speaker 1: going to Japan in they made the cut as of today,
Speaker 1: Griffin played really well last year. I mean, that's one
Speaker 1: of the better defensive end duos in the entire NFL
Speaker 1: that the Graybeard own. Thank you. And I don't know
Speaker 1: if the Micman hit it um, but there is a
Speaker 1: report out there that Clowney might wait until training camp
Speaker 1: to sign. Now, so uh, that market is fairly standing.
Speaker 1: Have enough time, had that Joseph Aboud copy to get
Speaker 1: through it. You know, you only have so much time,
Speaker 1: and I you know, ideal with that. When that when
Speaker 1: that report becomes factual and I have triple sources on
Speaker 1: my own, then it becomes part of the news copy
Speaker 1: on the interior D line. I just got some hogs
Speaker 1: in here. You're doing damage, taking up space and we
Speaker 1: had we had last year. West. I remember you complimenting
Speaker 1: the gray Beards as a team that was gonna be
Speaker 1: hard to run against. I feel like that's an every
Speaker 1: year thing because these guys tend to last a little
Speaker 1: longer because they're not you know, it's flashy, but Mike Daniels.
Speaker 1: Maybe he has fallen off a little bit, but just
Speaker 1: thirty one years old. Good reclamation project projects. Same could
Speaker 1: be said for Snacks. Harrison, who really did not play
Speaker 1: well last year, wasn't stopping the run, but that was
Speaker 1: what he was great at um and all the previous
Speaker 1: years in the league. So I'm banking on to come
Speaker 1: back there. Timmy Joern again twenty seven years old, could
Speaker 1: be a value signing. And then I got the big
Speaker 1: Estonian Marcus Hunt thirty three years the eastern block. I mean,
Speaker 1: how many six ft eight Estonians can you put on
Speaker 1: your roster? Well, I'm doing it. Yeah, Snacks is a
Speaker 1: good get. Um, these guys, Snacks and Mike Daniels same
Speaker 1: age as lin Vell Joseph, and yet Joseph is getting
Speaker 1: paid big bucks while these guys sit around on the
Speaker 1: gray beards. Well, Daniels is barely played the last two
Speaker 1: years and and did not look like himself the uh
Speaker 1: the brief times I think, yeah, just you know, these
Speaker 1: aren't guys you're gonna be putting on the on the tickets.
Speaker 1: You've got enough defensive ends for that linebacker Nigel Bradham.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have him in the middle. Don't ask me
Speaker 1: if I'm playing four three or three four. I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's your flexible, your versatile. Braden's like guy in the middle,
Speaker 1: the eyes and the ears of the defense, alco Ogle,
Speaker 1: Tree and Darren Lee a couple of reclamation projects as well.
Speaker 1: There thoughts about the linebacker group, uh not the strength
Speaker 1: of your team. Uh I would say that. And Uncle Tree,
Speaker 1: somebody will pay him like ten million dollars and then
Speaker 1: cut him in November. I like Darren Lee getting um
Speaker 1: kind of the coveted former jet that Dan knows. So
Speaker 1: he's gonna make the team spot. He's got to be
Speaker 1: one of those guys every year, every year, every year,
Speaker 1: and there's gotta be something that got him picked in
Speaker 1: the first round. He's got speed, he's got agility, goes
Speaker 1: sideline and sideline. Baby. This is a totally this is
Speaker 1: off topic of the linebackers, but I just realized there's
Speaker 1: I think only eight of our top sixty free agents
Speaker 1: that West and I put on our list are still available.
Speaker 1: And you've got two of the top two of the
Speaker 1: top three players in the entire market are on the graybeards.
Speaker 1: You've you've had, You've won the off season. It's always
Speaker 1: dangerous to win the off season cornerback. I like this group.
Speaker 1: They're obviously a little overly seasoned, uh and they're and
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be going any Pro Bowls. But in
Speaker 1: past years it's been an absolute disaster, and I don't
Speaker 1: think that's the case. This year got Prince Amukamara and
Speaker 1: Brandon Carr on the outside. I got Logan Ryan in
Speaker 1: the slot, and then Traymont Williams, who, at thirty seven
Speaker 1: years old, is um you know to be uh not
Speaker 1: the youngest guy. But the metrics tell us in the
Speaker 1: advanced analytics tell us what is what is gentleman, call
Speaker 1: it my computer? Then whatever he calls that that he
Speaker 1: can still play the guitar in twenty nineteen, So welcome
Speaker 1: to the gray Beards for four years. I'm confused. I'm
Speaker 1: confused why Logan Ryan um is a free agent at
Speaker 1: all right now. Maybe he's buying that PFF hype that
Speaker 1: he was like one of the best cornerbacks in the
Speaker 1: league for the first eleven or twelve weeks this season.
Speaker 1: Not sure he's at that level, but he's still he's
Speaker 1: still a good ball player. I saw something that he
Speaker 1: he wasn't taking a penny less than a ten million
Speaker 1: dollars he made last year, so that might be the
Speaker 1: hold up. Moving out to safety to Marius Randall, twenty
Speaker 1: eight years old. Uh, verse, little guy could use him
Speaker 1: uh in a couple of different ways as a safety.
Speaker 1: He's there. Tavon Wilson, same thing. Um. Eric Reid, who
Speaker 1: had a down season in Carolina after signing that extension,
Speaker 1: still just twenty eight years old. Bounce back guy, um.
Speaker 1: And then of course Eric Berry, A little nod to you,
Speaker 1: Chris Westley, Come on, you got to give the cancer
Speaker 1: survivor another shot. Oh yeah, get Eric Berry. That's your
Speaker 1: team leader right there. Uh. And you've got a good
Speaker 1: one two punch with Randall and Reid. I think the
Speaker 1: ro also reports out there that Barry, you know, wanted
Speaker 1: to get as healthy as possible and is doing quite
Speaker 1: well right now. So this might be just another steal
Speaker 1: where you're um operating and churning. Uh, maybe a day
Speaker 1: or two or three before most NFL operations. Well done,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mark Special teams kicker Adam Vinetieri. I mean
Speaker 1: this is always gonna happen. An actual Gray Beer joins
Speaker 1: the Gray Beer forty seven years young, very very difficult
Speaker 1: final season with Indianapolis. We all know that. But this
Speaker 1: guy is a legend, and he says, and I find
Speaker 1: him to be a man that wouldn't lie, even if
Speaker 1: it meant trying to extend into his marathon career. He
Speaker 1: said that his struggles last year were more related to
Speaker 1: injury issues in his lower body than age, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take him at his word and give him a shot.
Speaker 1: He's so much older than everyone else on your team
Speaker 1: that you've got like a Smurfs dynamic here, and he's
Speaker 1: Papa Smurf. That's fair. And then UH punter Marquette King.
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring one guy back from the XFL,
Speaker 1: and UH King was playing for the St. Louis battle
Speaker 1: Hawks prior to the COVID nineteen uh pandemic. You know,
Speaker 1: kind of a guy that nobody seems to like. Um
Speaker 1: In the piece I wrote, he's kind of like the
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard of the NFL, where he does a lot
Speaker 1: of bits. He's he's wacky and he gets up in
Speaker 1: people's faces with his comedic stylings and no one really
Speaker 1: likes it. But after sitting down with UH management for
Speaker 1: the Gray beards. He'll know to use more of the
Speaker 1: leg and less of the mouth. Well, this happened in
Speaker 1: the same talk where Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon and
Speaker 1: filling the blank are also in the room learning about
Speaker 1: the behavior boundaries required. You know why you turn it
Speaker 1: on Josh Gordon now that he's not a Brown. For
Speaker 1: years you just said, oh, Josh Gordon, he uh oh,
Speaker 1: he smoked marijuana once and now he's going to prison,
Speaker 1: and he used to mock the NFL. He's not a
Speaker 1: bad person, he just has a dig don't. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: call him a bad person. I think it's fair to
Speaker 1: call him um dangerously unreliable um per at least per.
Speaker 1: I don't. Again, you're operating in a new rule system,
Speaker 1: so maybe you catch as everyone else tried to get
Speaker 1: that Josh Gordon five year comeback. Don't think so. He's
Speaker 1: really only there because there aren't a lot of options
Speaker 1: to choose from. In fact, maybe he'll be the guy
Speaker 1: that goes in favor of Ted Gainn. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but he's so good it's like worth it may you know,
Speaker 1: like maybe it comes through for even a gamer. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he was even that good last year
Speaker 1: before he disappeared from Seattle. And that is on Marquete
Speaker 1: King philosophically, are you a comedian if nobody pays attention
Speaker 1: to your comedy? I think people have people have to
Speaker 1: wonder about, you know. The NFL dot com did a
Speaker 1: long form on on Marquette King. Our our editor was
Speaker 1: the was the author, and um, the way his career
Speaker 1: has gone since that long form, it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a curse, a bit of a curse, a bit of
Speaker 1: a red flag, but of a lot of nifico. All right,
Speaker 1: And as promised, those are the gray Beards. And before
Speaker 1: we get to uh making predictions on their record if
Speaker 1: they were to replace a random team in the NFL,
Speaker 1: I'd like to um perform a song in honor of
Speaker 1: a proud group of men. Ricky. Once upon a time
Speaker 1: I was a young star. It wasn't very far a god.
Speaker 1: But now everyone thinks you're done. It's not fun, no
Speaker 1: time to run. You gotta get that back while I care.
Speaker 1: Great bills, always keep the faith, great bills. We're gonna
Speaker 1: save the day. We're here to day gone tomorrow. Room.
Speaker 1: Will you watch your follow It's done me in I
Speaker 1: can't play you will see me leave the way, prays
Speaker 1: never go away, rapists never go As a workout, just
Speaker 1: watching it, I can't imagine singing it. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was one of my favorite. Um, it's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite experiences of any like live music, is watching singer
Speaker 1: read the lyrics off of the teleprompter or whatever was
Speaker 1: going on that was there was some intensity in those eyes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought I had good energy. It's one of those
Speaker 1: kinds of songs where I thought it was over and
Speaker 1: it went on for another eighty eight five seconds, which
Speaker 1: was you know, I liked it, joined it, and I
Speaker 1: think it's I think part of what makes it more
Speaker 1: emotional is um getting older myself and you know, growing
Speaker 1: out this beard during this pandemic and they're being gray
Speaker 1: and the beard and and maybe just the times in
Speaker 1: general where we are right now that the gray beards
Speaker 1: have never been more relatable is as underdogs and people
Speaker 1: looking just to stay alive, stay alive. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: this is a hard scrabbled crew, most of them, you know,
Speaker 1: scraping by on the eight hundred thousand dollar remaining year
Speaker 1: contract they have where they're still going to be paid
Speaker 1: by ex employer. So I I hear you. This is
Speaker 1: what we need to be getting behind moralistically and just
Speaker 1: you know, as we think about our children. All right,
Speaker 1: we will be back tomorrow. Check it out again. Oh no,
Speaker 1: I do want to get it real quick. What do
Speaker 1: you guys think? What is this team's record? If you
Speaker 1: you know, everybody does these stupid predictions where they go
Speaker 1: game by game on a touch screen, what would be
Speaker 1: the record of this Gray Beards team? Will start with you, Greg,
Speaker 1: I'm giving them six wins. I don't think I've ever
Speaker 1: put you over two or three before. No, you haven't,
Speaker 1: so that is notable, wrong, but notable. Mark. You know,
Speaker 1: this reminds me one of those like really interesting football
Speaker 1: life type squads where everyone you've got it just all veterans,
Speaker 1: and the locker room is gonna be raucous. They're gonna
Speaker 1: support each other, They're gonna surprise people. Go nine and seven.
Speaker 1: I like that, Wes. I actually, to tell the truth,
Speaker 1: I had the exact same record as Greg. I had
Speaker 1: six and ten in my head. Um, I think you
Speaker 1: might have some durability issues. Um, maybe some team speed
Speaker 1: issues at the skill positions, and some insurrection issues. I
Speaker 1: think that there may not be many people wanting to
Speaker 1: be cohesive and listen to authority in this locker room. Wait,
Speaker 1: wait a second, we got Eric Berry in the locker rooms.
Speaker 1: We got who else do we have? I had another
Speaker 1: big Frank Gore's in the locker room. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are people that are gonna keep things number. We're giving
Speaker 1: you a lot of credit for cam And and Clowney.
Speaker 1: Those two alone, can can they win six games? They
Speaker 1: gotta make up for some dry spots here. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I feel like you sneak into the playoffs there you go.
Speaker 1: I don't know you. This is the best team you've
Speaker 1: ever had. Yeah, there's two teams in the playoffs too,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think this is true. And Erica went
Speaker 1: back and listened to all the episode that she wasn't
Speaker 1: involved in with the Gray Beards, just for that analysis.
Speaker 1: Bro al right, we will We will be back um
Speaker 1: on Tuesday with another edition of the show. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna keep rolling in a short uh you know, shorter
Speaker 1: terms of time to the show. But we're gonna keep
Speaker 1: going five days a week until someone says we shouldn't
Speaker 1: do that, including you, the listeners. Feel free to tell
Speaker 1: us if you think this is too much content for you,
Speaker 1: but uh that's certainly uh in play as well. But
Speaker 1: until then, thanks for listening to the Around the NFL podcast,
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Speaker 1: Remember to rate and review on iTunes. We're gonna check
Speaker 1: in on that soon, sailed Juser, signing off for The
Speaker 1: Quiet Storm, The Mailman, The Old Boston Rick, Hollywood, Behind
Speaker 1: the Glass Tail Tuesday s