Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL podcast as misplaced It's mirth. Welcome
Speaker 1: to another edition of them Be Around the NFL Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan Jansas. I'm joined from a virtual
Speaker 1: room filled with some heroes. Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler. Was
Speaker 1: it a merk? Said I can almost you didn't hear it?
Speaker 1: Said they've misplaced their mirth like you guys anymore? That's
Speaker 1: very different. Yeah, I don't know where you got Merkin.
Speaker 1: And for listeners out there, if you don't know what
Speaker 1: that is, just google it. Oh you don't know. You
Speaker 1: don't know how I got Mrkin out of mirth. It's
Speaker 1: not that far off. It's but American is according to
Speaker 1: Google search, and artificial covering of hair for the nether regions.
Speaker 1: It's used a lot in show business production and for
Speaker 1: certain scenes. And uh and that's what I thought the
Speaker 1: bit was. So we are flying here on a Wednesday
Speaker 1: hump day. You know that's not true, Dan, No, he
Speaker 1: Dan keeps his you know, right by the desk. That
Speaker 1: was a real lot peek behind the Hollywood curtains right there, Dan,
Speaker 1: for like a real stage hand. This is this is
Speaker 1: your wife. Being in the BIS really paid off everywhere
Speaker 1: you go in my house. You open up any draw
Speaker 1: you will find a market that is just that's just
Speaker 1: what when you live in Los Angeles and you have
Speaker 1: a spouse that works in the entertainment business, merkins are
Speaker 1: literally everywhere you look. Dan, I was at your house
Speaker 1: last night for Emily's birthday, and actually I was playing
Speaker 1: with the boys and I was like, oh, let's get
Speaker 1: a board game. And we opened up the drawer and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, what is that. And
Speaker 1: you're four year old was like, oh, that's daddy's merkin.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, it's normal to them. Greg
Speaker 1: and I obviously not invited to Emily's birthdays. A birthday.
Speaker 1: My gift to my wife for her birth day, for
Speaker 1: her twenty ninth birthday, we'll call it that. Um was
Speaker 1: Erica came by for a visit, came by the babysit.
Speaker 1: I gotta find out where you ate some some dinner
Speaker 1: down there. We went to Mercado. What a place, great
Speaker 1: Mexican restaurant. All right, we're in the weeds right off
Speaker 1: the bat Big Show Wednesday show that I mentioned, It's
Speaker 1: hump Day, merking Day, and hump Day, the rare Merkan
Speaker 1: hump Day and we have a new guest that's coming
Speaker 1: on a little bit later, um, a new member of
Speaker 1: the NFL Network family, Cameron Wolf, who is a reporter
Speaker 1: for US and he does a lot of work down
Speaker 1: in Miami with the Dolphins, which is good because the
Speaker 1: Dolphins are an interesting team at this moment in time.
Speaker 1: He also has been over in Panthers camp. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna have Cam on. I don't know if it's Cam acceptable,
Speaker 1: We're gonna yeah. I mean, I've heard him referred to
Speaker 1: as Cam like on another and also another Sea Wolf
Speaker 1: with the same spelling of the last name, Colleen is
Speaker 1: Colleen is a class act all the way. But you
Speaker 1: you have to wonder if it annoys her just a
Speaker 1: little bit. I call her celebrating it, like she was
Speaker 1: saying that it added to the Sea Wolves that she
Speaker 1: apparently knows other Sea Wolves. Maybe not totally honest, Be
Speaker 1: totally markcause I know your answer, Greg, you be totally honest.
Speaker 1: If a Gary Rosenthal started working at NFL Network, would
Speaker 1: you be not mad or even annoyed, but just a
Speaker 1: little bit like, Oh, I wish he had a different
Speaker 1: name if it was Gary. I want all the Gary's
Speaker 1: I can in my life, so I would be g
Speaker 1: I do like being confused for Ken Rosenthal occasionally on
Speaker 1: on Twitter. You know another domin diminutive man in sports
Speaker 1: media who's done very well. You know, baseball man. You're
Speaker 1: basically Ken without the bow tie. That's how I always
Speaker 1: That's how I know which one is which, without the
Speaker 1: without bank account, I think maybe the airtime to bank account. Yeah,
Speaker 1: coming on out today's show, I mentioned cam Wolfe. Also, yep,
Speaker 1: it's back. I gotta tell you our editor Ali, we
Speaker 1: had a phone call the other day. I said, listen,
Speaker 1: load management, ever you here of it. He had me
Speaker 1: write a Hard Knocks preview. He had me drop an
Speaker 1: entire Power rankings column. Uh. And last night I'm up
Speaker 1: until one o'clock in the morning writing the Hard Knocks
Speaker 1: recap the premier of Dallas Cowboys UM season sixteenth season
Speaker 1: of Hard Knocks, and I quite enjoyed the episode. I'd
Speaker 1: like to hear how much an annoyed Mark. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna come up a little later in the show. I'll
Speaker 1: save it Mark eight. Sorry Boux do not um. But
Speaker 1: before that, we love doing it. Greg. You know, this
Speaker 1: time of year, it's a great way to info dump
Speaker 1: and share some of our own analysis. It was time
Speaker 1: for some training camp. Mm hmm, let's go. Let's get
Speaker 1: it going. What are you hearing? Greg here to the ground.
Speaker 1: Where should I start? Let's let's go with the Ravens camp.
Speaker 1: I feel like the Ravens are quietly having an annoying
Speaker 1: camp for them and uh, you know, started with lamar
Speaker 1: Um and it's continuing with a variety of injuries now,
Speaker 1: Rashad Bateman with a week to week injury that initially downplayed,
Speaker 1: and John Harbaugh, you know, confirmed on Wednesday that he
Speaker 1: might not be ready for the start of the season,
Speaker 1: so that that is more than a week to week injury.
Speaker 1: He made sure to say it was gonna be a while.
Speaker 1: And you just like look at all the different little pieces.
Speaker 1: It's the Ravens. They'll be better in November than they
Speaker 1: were in September, but it might be a team you
Speaker 1: want to catch early. Uh, Like their offensive line. Zeitler
Speaker 1: has been out for most of camp. To Miles Boykin,
Speaker 1: the receiver who was a starter last year might not
Speaker 1: make the team right now. I just feel like there's
Speaker 1: a lot going on there. And Bateman was one of
Speaker 1: those rookie receivers that they needed to come in and
Speaker 1: make a big impact because as you mentioned last week, Dan,
Speaker 1: like Marcus Brown, has not practiced at all. He's had
Speaker 1: a hamstring injury too, So you're basically counting on Sammy
Speaker 1: Watkins and that's it. That's the thing. You have a
Speaker 1: Lamar who's deep into his scientific um research on COVID.
Speaker 1: He's been down for the count again, it's just been
Speaker 1: kind of a little bit slop. Ronnie Stanley there, you know,
Speaker 1: arguably their best player along with Lamar, Uh hasn't you know,
Speaker 1: he's just coming back to practice. People forget you know,
Speaker 1: one of the highest paid left tackles in the league.
Speaker 1: I think he might be number one Uh and hasn't
Speaker 1: really practiced either because he's coming off that serious surgery
Speaker 1: that knocked him out of last season. So it's just like,
Speaker 1: there's a lot, there's a lot there. I I really
Speaker 1: do think sometimes it's about when you play the team,
Speaker 1: and the Ravens more than any team, them and the
Speaker 1: Patriots I think have a tendency to look a lot
Speaker 1: better at the end of the season they do early.
Speaker 1: And you know what, It's funny because doing the power
Speaker 1: rankings and I wrote it over two days leading up
Speaker 1: to going up today. It does it is good in
Speaker 1: terms of an exercise keeping things in perspective, because I
Speaker 1: did think about all this with the Ravens the way
Speaker 1: you just laid it out, Um, But it wasn't enough
Speaker 1: for me to drop him out of the top five.
Speaker 1: I still say, Okay, it's been a little bumpy, But
Speaker 1: am I gonna say all of a sudden the Ravens
Speaker 1: are taking on water. No, it's just a little bit
Speaker 1: of a hiccup in their season preparation. Anything calling it
Speaker 1: annoying is um. It has been just there's been a
Speaker 1: little a little bit, little bits of annoyances, which is
Speaker 1: not typical for the Ravens. But Jimmy Smith is another
Speaker 1: guy that's out a couple of weeks who they're neither
Speaker 1: counting on to play snaps. It's it's just it's a
Speaker 1: lot of them stacking up. All right, how boy, you Mark,
Speaker 1: give us a whisper. I've been focusing on rams camp
Speaker 1: a little bit where you know, I know when they
Speaker 1: lost cam Akers, Um, the thought was I thought cam
Speaker 1: Akers was someone that could lead be a top three
Speaker 1: rusher in the league, if not have a chance to
Speaker 1: lead the league in rushing with the way that all
Speaker 1: sense might look. But they lose them obviously, And you
Speaker 1: know the problem was, you have Darryl Henderson. I really
Speaker 1: liked Darryl Henderson. Body has had um durability issues. But
Speaker 1: Jordan Rodrigue from the Athletic two weeks in a row
Speaker 1: with her you know, risers and followers at camp has
Speaker 1: listed all three of the running backs Darrell Henderson, Xavier Jones,
Speaker 1: and Jake Funk as guys who have um. They both
Speaker 1: wrote they they all rotated in his first team and
Speaker 1: second team snaps. No one's taking the starting job away
Speaker 1: from Dale Henderson. But even just today, Sean McVeigh listed
Speaker 1: Xavier Jones as someone who is going to have a
Speaker 1: big role in the offense. Jake Funk is sort of
Speaker 1: this analytics darling. I let. I mean, I like the name,
Speaker 1: but actually I've had people reach out and see like
Speaker 1: this guy is gonna grow on you with the more
Speaker 1: you watch him. And but he sounds like a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a special teams dabbler who will get
Speaker 1: some snaps at running back. But it just sounds like
Speaker 1: um A. Obviously, this will drive fantasy heads um to
Speaker 1: drink probably, but it will be a total committee scenario.
Speaker 1: But if you go back and look at what Darryl
Speaker 1: Henderson did in a couple or ear least weeks last
Speaker 1: season where they lean on him as the number one guy,
Speaker 1: he was electric against the Eagles and the Bills, And
Speaker 1: I just think they're talking about him being explosive, um
Speaker 1: looking healthy, which is key for him. That wasn't the
Speaker 1: case earlier in the off season. So I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna be okay on this front. They just need that
Speaker 1: depth because, yeah, as you said, the other players behind him,
Speaker 1: there's really no one with any type of pedigree, and
Speaker 1: Henderson has had injury issues and he wasn't really the
Speaker 1: the guy at Memphis even a college. So it's like,
Speaker 1: if he goes down or if he is not as
Speaker 1: good as they want him to be, you might find
Speaker 1: yourself getting into a little bit of an issue. I
Speaker 1: don't I still wouldn't be surprised that there's a veteran
Speaker 1: that shows up that everyone knows, uh and it won't
Speaker 1: be Todd Gurley, but I could see someone else popping
Speaker 1: into view here. Um. If I think they if they
Speaker 1: lost someone right now, I think they're like he's basically
Speaker 1: shim m mmcveigh has said, we're riding with these guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, if there's some sort of hiccup, yes, funk.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Mark loves the the scrappy white
Speaker 1: running backs, like you know Christian McCaffrey was right there
Speaker 1: for him a couple of years ago. Really wasn't interesting.
Speaker 1: Laffrey was too good. He was the first round pick
Speaker 1: through he was this is a you have to be
Speaker 1: do you have to have a cool name like Zack Zenter, Uh,
Speaker 1: what's his name? Jake Funk, Toby Gerhardt, But that was
Speaker 1: really the original. I just like bringing that up. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about their running game. By the way,
Speaker 1: they're always kind of an underrated run blocking team and
Speaker 1: that I just think it's almost undersold how many weapons
Speaker 1: they have, even without acres. The fact that Van Jefferson
Speaker 1: is out there, Deshan Jackson, I know, it's the Sean Jackson,
Speaker 1: you know, practicing without pad season. He always looks good.
Speaker 1: But if he's their number four receiver and Tyler Higbee
Speaker 1: is like their number five is the tight end, like
Speaker 1: that is a loaded group. I'm not worried about their
Speaker 1: running game. In other whispers, it's been an annoying a
Speaker 1: little bit more than annoying. I would actually maybe flipped
Speaker 1: to switch a little bit to alarming. Training camp overall
Speaker 1: for the Cincinnati Bengals, So the last thing they need
Speaker 1: and this uncertain time around Joe Burrows he works his
Speaker 1: way back from that catastrophic knee injury. Is dispatches from
Speaker 1: the Beat reporters saying that number five overall picked Jamar
Speaker 1: Chase has, according to Paul Denner of The Athletic, has
Speaker 1: not shown as much separation as you'd hope in training camp. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is a player who did not He opted out
Speaker 1: of his final year of College's twenty one years old,
Speaker 1: so he's obviously rusty, and the hope here is that
Speaker 1: that's all this is that some of his struggles in
Speaker 1: camp in terms of really standing out, are all tied
Speaker 1: to his lack of play, and Cincinnati knew that was
Speaker 1: a possibility, I'm sure when they drafted him. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, this is such a big pick for them.
Speaker 1: They took Chase because he was Joe Burrow's teammate in
Speaker 1: college and they thought they would have an explosive one
Speaker 1: to punch. They can't miss on this pick. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying they're coming close to missing on the pick.
Speaker 1: We have no idea what's going on, but what you
Speaker 1: would like, You would like to hear things like you're
Speaker 1: hearing in Floren Park around Elijah More the Jets draft
Speaker 1: pick was like, Oh, this guy's an instant playmaker. He
Speaker 1: might be a star in year one. You want to
Speaker 1: hear that from Chase, especially when you went wide receiver
Speaker 1: over protection for Burrow. So far not the case not
Speaker 1: hitting the panic button, but when you factor in all
Speaker 1: these other issues around Cincinnati and their offense, I'd be
Speaker 1: concerned because you have got to look at what they
Speaker 1: did in the draft as a whole, not just Chase.
Speaker 1: They chose not to take Sewel like you said, and
Speaker 1: what they did, you know, to help their offensive line
Speaker 1: was take Jackson Carmen in the second round, which was
Speaker 1: a guy that had a lot of people split on.
Speaker 1: Was surprised he took in the second round. He has
Speaker 1: struggled so much, uh in his early snaps that he's
Speaker 1: been benched supposedly for like the fourth round pick. You know,
Speaker 1: so that already, like that plan isn't going well, and
Speaker 1: who knows. The Bengals would argue, Okay, we took three
Speaker 1: offensive linemen like one in the second fourth and somewhere
Speaker 1: else and maybe one, you know, one of them hits
Speaker 1: and maybe the fourth is hitting. But like when you're
Speaker 1: hearing that the offensive line is struggling in Bengals camp again,
Speaker 1: and Joe Burrow is struggling too, it's just, uh, they
Speaker 1: are probably the team I'm like less excited about than
Speaker 1: I was two weeks ago. And maybe it's the rational,
Speaker 1: but I don't care. Well, I mean, Paul Denner has
Speaker 1: been writing one sort of um, you know, fatalistic report
Speaker 1: after the next, and it started with the Burrow um scenario.
Speaker 1: And I do kind of wonder if they if they
Speaker 1: brought Burrow back a little too early, just when you
Speaker 1: hear like Tyler Board we mentioned this on our network show,
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd saying that you could sort of see him
Speaker 1: favoring one leg um, you know, limping a little bit
Speaker 1: like that. That just seems to me, like with you,
Speaker 1: with the injury he had, it wasn't just like a
Speaker 1: clean e c L. It was much more than that.
Speaker 1: Like that's a little tough. So I just I just
Speaker 1: I felt the same thing at what some organization. It's
Speaker 1: just a waste of my time. It's pretty rare to
Speaker 1: hear Mark swear it is a comprehensive waste of my
Speaker 1: day on the ground. By the way, you know who
Speaker 1: you know? Um, Nick's Nick Westling. You know Chris's brother,
Speaker 1: Ricky's dying best man. Um. His wife's been at Bengals
Speaker 1: camp multiple times and has given Boots on the ground
Speaker 1: reports about burrows struggles. They're worried, really and it is.
Speaker 1: It's it's funny you mentioned Nick because I thought about
Speaker 1: Chris and um we You and I had conversations early
Speaker 1: in April when the Reds got off to a hot
Speaker 1: start starting how bitter sweet it would be if the
Speaker 1: Reds finally pulled it all together and West was around
Speaker 1: to see it, at least on this uh earthly uh plane.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but the Cincinnati Bengals. For years, I
Speaker 1: try to say, West, come back to the Bengals, go
Speaker 1: into their loving arms. They're waiting for you to come home.
Speaker 1: We know you built the file. It was a thick
Speaker 1: I wonder where that is right now. It's somewhere somewhere
Speaker 1: in Lakisha in West's house, right Now there's that thick
Speaker 1: file that the dossier that Chris prepared, um as only
Speaker 1: Chris could with utter focus on all the reasons why
Speaker 1: he was divorcing this team. This was what fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: Now maybe more might bring him back in and the
Speaker 1: guy remember draft day being like and and Chris was
Speaker 1: excited about Barrol just like everybody else, like this is
Speaker 1: the guy to do it? And I just I worry
Speaker 1: that is Cincinnati on the right track here? And to
Speaker 1: your point, Mark, the same thing I went through my
Speaker 1: mind and I did write about it in the Power
Speaker 1: and says are they having the right conversations in that
Speaker 1: building right now? Um? Because it is a conversation that
Speaker 1: should be had. Are we pushing too fast on this
Speaker 1: quarterback to have him ready for week one as opposed
Speaker 1: to when he's truly ready to compete Again, he's struggling
Speaker 1: with the mental side of things. We've heard that it's
Speaker 1: been dispatch. He's spoken about it, something to keep an
Speaker 1: eye on. Well, it's just no like, well, where is
Speaker 1: our ground to trust in ownership in co Cheene? I
Speaker 1: mean that report or that file that Westling had was
Speaker 1: like two Warren commissions stacked on top of each other,
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of evidence for him to
Speaker 1: lean on. I don't think he was about to come
Speaker 1: back anytime soon. No, I don't think he was all right,
Speaker 1: let's go uh, let's go to Green Bay because I
Speaker 1: don't think it's been talked about enough that David baktr
Speaker 1: you know, the best left tackle in football. I think
Speaker 1: it's trending towards not playing Week one. You know, we're
Speaker 1: protecting Aaron Rodgers. There's a chance he could go on
Speaker 1: the pup list, sounds more likely. Maybe they'll keep him
Speaker 1: off of it and hope, hope that he returns early
Speaker 1: in the season. But that's a big deal for for
Speaker 1: an offensive line that also lost their their center, Corey
Speaker 1: Lindsley to the Chargers. And yet I'm not that worried
Speaker 1: about it because they've been playing Elton Jenks Jenkins at
Speaker 1: left tackle. He's a third year player who's played everywhere,
Speaker 1: and I'm at the point where I just think Elton
Speaker 1: Jenkins can like make all the money in the world
Speaker 1: by playing left tackle. Who else has played guards center?
Speaker 1: And then if he does it at left tackle at
Speaker 1: like a Pro Bowl level in the first three years
Speaker 1: of his career, he's sneaky been one of the best
Speaker 1: UH draft picks. Guta kunts this kind of statue. Know
Speaker 1: quietly stacked up some pretty good draft picks. His first
Speaker 1: one is Diarrey Alexander and all Pro Jenkins. If he
Speaker 1: steps in at left tackle, no one's gonna make more
Speaker 1: money than him. Reportedly, the whispers are just that he's
Speaker 1: shutting down the Packers pass rush, that he looks totally
Speaker 1: natural out there, and that they're not as concerned about
Speaker 1: the whole left tackle situation. It was a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago that Matt Lafleur had a comment about the
Speaker 1: Green Bay's line, saying it was sort of as deep
Speaker 1: as any line he'd really ever been around. That there
Speaker 1: is a lot there, a lot of um valuable moving
Speaker 1: pieces there, and they're starting a rookie at center. They're
Speaker 1: just gonna draft Josh Meyer's play him right away even
Speaker 1: though he's not like a first round pick or anything.
Speaker 1: And they sound pretty confident. La Fleur just seems confident
Speaker 1: in general. Taking taking shots at Arthur Smith earlier today,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw that Smith took one
Speaker 1: back though, Well, yeah, smithe Smith smarted started it, said uh,
Speaker 1: he does. Listen, I don't think I'm sweeting and awesome. Um,
Speaker 1: you know I don't spend an hour like not Lafour
Speaker 1: does looking in the mirror before he warns out there.
Speaker 1: So you can tell what did la Fleur say in retort? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm honored that he would think of me, um, first
Speaker 1: of all. But you know Arthur and I did share
Speaker 1: a lock for room together in Tennessee, so yeah, I
Speaker 1: might have been looking in the mirror getting my clothes right.
Speaker 1: Well he was trying to get his hair right with
Speaker 1: that just for men. Uh you know you guys, you
Speaker 1: guys know he's younger than me. Right, that's spicy. You
Speaker 1: can you could tell Matt Lafleur like prepared that, and
Speaker 1: that's Arthur Smith went back again and he was glad.
Speaker 1: He was like, I'm glad, you know, Matt spent like
Speaker 1: another day preparing that joke to come back at me.
Speaker 1: It does feel like if if I'm in the locker
Speaker 1: room in Tennessee and that's where they were teammates, I guess,
Speaker 1: you know, colleagues on the same staff with the Titans,
Speaker 1: Like I'm taking Arthur Smith kind of in a jab
Speaker 1: back and forth. It feels like la Fleur is not
Speaker 1: going to be as quick, not the first like coach,
Speaker 1: because we don't know him that well that I would
Speaker 1: have predicted to come out with such a burning arrow
Speaker 1: that goes right through Matt Lafleur. I mean it was
Speaker 1: pretty nice. Jab By Smith. Yeah, I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: nothing cuts as deep as Keith Hans is casually tossing off.
Speaker 1: He looks like a bearded boy. Hey, Danny, I like
Speaker 1: this La Flow guy, But it looks like a bearded boy,
Speaker 1: doesn't he. I wanted to talk about packers because I
Speaker 1: do feel like all we did was like, let's talking
Speaker 1: about Aaron Rodgers is psycho drama all offseason. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: been very little focus on the football of it all.
Speaker 1: So I was like looking for some sort of good
Speaker 1: packers that ain't horfault good enough, good enough, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I refused. I don't want to go back down this
Speaker 1: road because I know it's very unpopular in the public
Speaker 1: forum to say anything critical of Aaron Rodgers and his
Speaker 1: role in what happened over the summer. Public opinion was
Speaker 1: very much in your favor. Greg Over. Guys are hearing
Speaker 1: the you know Mark Mark and you have been hearing
Speaker 1: the chirping too much you're worried about I don't mind
Speaker 1: the chirping. It's just it's okay to be aware of
Speaker 1: what's around you as well. Greg, And I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 1: that's fine. If if everyone thinks Aaron Rodgers is a
Speaker 1: god and there's nothing he could do that is wrong
Speaker 1: and everything that the management does is wrong, that that
Speaker 1: is what it is. But can we at least allow
Speaker 1: that Brian good Guns, the guy that at Rogers has
Speaker 1: been trying to get fired for six months, has actually
Speaker 1: done a lot to help Aaron Rodgers, whether he sees
Speaker 1: it or not in his time at the Helm, or
Speaker 1: will we at least allow that? We can't. We will
Speaker 1: not allow it. The number one and they it was
Speaker 1: like to two percent, like Greg's sound smart, Dan and
Speaker 1: Mark don't know what they're doing when I'm talking about
Speaker 1: daily things about this. You gotta turn tune these clowns out.
Speaker 1: You gotta tune them out. No, this was weeks ago,
Speaker 1: but it was a shocking response to what I thought
Speaker 1: was a two sided conversation. You're absolutely right, by the
Speaker 1: way good icuns. Here's what he did the start. He
Speaker 1: fired Mike McCarthy will get to hard Knocks Layer later,
Speaker 1: but I think goody that you know the uh, the
Speaker 1: first decisions he's made have all been great, drafting Diane
Speaker 1: with his first pick, hiring Matt Lafleur, that's worked out great,
Speaker 1: like back to back thirteen win seasons. You're right him though,
Speaker 1: because we decided to not keep Jake Kumero or whoever
Speaker 1: the Rogers was on about. I don't know, but no,
Speaker 1: we're wrong, Mark, Oh No, clearly, who's up, Mark, It's me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to Jacksonville. Number one. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about the Jaguars because I cannot think of a
Speaker 1: team that has been to me more blase and um
Speaker 1: passible and don't need to watch them and for years
Speaker 1: on end, But now I cannot wait to see even
Speaker 1: the preseason games to see what's going on here because
Speaker 1: it's a completely to me. I think the offense under
Speaker 1: urban Meyer has a chance to be productive right away.
Speaker 1: I mean number one, Gardner Minshew was putting a bad
Speaker 1: position in the past couple of years. But you look
Speaker 1: at the talent on the offense right now. Starts with
Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence. Obviously, if he is what what has becomes
Speaker 1: as advertised, everything changes. Marvin Jones D J. Chark. I
Speaker 1: know he's going through something right now. Leaviscus Nult who
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be great. Those are solid white outs,
Speaker 1: better than some of the wide out rooms around the league.
Speaker 1: James Robinson obviously last year rookie Travis E. T N
Speaker 1: who has been described as you know, moving all over
Speaker 1: the field and totally uncoverable as a running back, catching
Speaker 1: catching passes out of the backfield. I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: be a run heavy one of the remost run heavy
Speaker 1: teams in the league. And I kind of just can't
Speaker 1: wait to see it because it's the Urban Meyer factor too.
Speaker 1: I these things sometimes they work out, sometimes they're total disasters.
Speaker 1: If you're a college coach that figures out I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this NFL thing. But he has said
Speaker 1: over and over this is not a four year rebuilding plan.
Speaker 1: We are here to win right now and inside that division.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that they're a playoff team at all.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of issues and some weaknesses there,
Speaker 1: but I would not be surprised to see them go
Speaker 1: from one win to like seven or eight. I really
Speaker 1: have a feeling that they're gonna be one of the
Speaker 1: bigger stories of the year. Well, while the as the
Speaker 1: Texas have devolved into force and the Colts having all
Speaker 1: their issues of course um, and even the Titans now
Speaker 1: adjusting to life without their play caller, Um, the AFC
Speaker 1: South really needed some juice. And yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: that's what Trevor Lawrence and Urban Meyer provide. I I
Speaker 1: totally I could see that. I mean, it really does.
Speaker 1: A lot of it goes back to Lawrence. Not to
Speaker 1: oversimplify it, but if he is as special as people say, um,
Speaker 1: they are going to make a leap. And they lost
Speaker 1: fifteen straight games to end the last season and they
Speaker 1: went in the tank. Um, so it's gonna be hard
Speaker 1: not to be better. But how much better will be
Speaker 1: interesting to say. First season they went they became a
Speaker 1: playoff team after being a complete disaster the year before.
Speaker 1: It's not impossible. There's a lot of money in the
Speaker 1: offensive line. I don't know if it's a great offensive line.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's great. They drafted Walker Little, who's
Speaker 1: my son's new favorite player, just like saw his name
Speaker 1: on the draft and has been asking about him. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I and his report. They look a good uh
Speaker 1: good in Jaguars camp over there. But I do wonder
Speaker 1: about like the urban Meyer ringing some of the college
Speaker 1: stuff to him. I'm fascinated by this thing he's been
Speaker 1: doing in practice where it's like they have this winners
Speaker 1: and losers session and like they have an announcement it's
Speaker 1: like Robinson versus Jack, and then like that, you know,
Speaker 1: they have the matchup and they declare a winner and
Speaker 1: a loser after each one, and they keep they keep
Speaker 1: track of it, and urban Meyer was like, well, this
Speaker 1: is too important. These are like people's livelihoods. I want
Speaker 1: to keep track and like that. He's saying that the
Speaker 1: winds and losses metric as you know, as he was
Speaker 1: referring to the data will inform him in terms of
Speaker 1: like who makes the team and the depth charts and
Speaker 1: all this, and it's like it's a big raw rack
Speaker 1: college thing. Uh. Every day at Jaguars camp makes it
Speaker 1: sounds like it'd be fun camp to go to and watch,
Speaker 1: at least per listen. I'm not going to panic about
Speaker 1: Zack Wilson. I have a different outlook on the Jets
Speaker 1: quarterback situation that I've had in the past, certainly different
Speaker 1: than Sam Sam Donald, who I was all in and
Speaker 1: on and truly believed in and it didn't work out.
Speaker 1: I don't know about Wilson. We'll see. Let's say I've
Speaker 1: always been kind of a I wouldn't say on the
Speaker 1: fence about Zach Wilson, but it just felt like a
Speaker 1: gamble when it happened. And Um, maybe he'll turn into
Speaker 1: a superstar and be the Mormon Mahomes, but I'm fully
Speaker 1: prepared put it that way for this to go the
Speaker 1: other direction. With that in mind, Um, he has not
Speaker 1: played well in recent practices. And it started. It started
Speaker 1: with the Green and White scrimmage, which they hold every year.
Speaker 1: Well they didn't last year, But last year didn't happen,
Speaker 1: you hear me. It never happened, um where they have
Speaker 1: twenty thou people in MetLife Stadium. And Wilson struggled mightily
Speaker 1: through that scrimmage eleven and twelve yards two picks. And
Speaker 1: then he took those struggles into practice. Um, And as
Speaker 1: the week went on, and he's been having some issues
Speaker 1: and a lot of this ties back to where they're
Speaker 1: at in the the install of the offense, which they
Speaker 1: are completing now. And once they started live play calling
Speaker 1: in the seventh practice, Wilson went from being this really
Speaker 1: bright spot in camp to all of suddenly struggling. And
Speaker 1: my overall takeaway, and this is maybe a message to
Speaker 1: fellow Jets fans that are listening right now, is like,
Speaker 1: just chill out, don't freak out. This doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: Wilson is a bust um, but it does remind you
Speaker 1: also that this is going There's gonna be a learning
Speaker 1: curve here. Hopefully there's more highs than lows. But the
Speaker 1: idea that Zach Wilson at twenty two years old, coming
Speaker 1: out of that program at b y U, against that
Speaker 1: level of competition, was ever gonna step right in and
Speaker 1: be a dominant force in the NFL. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: some really bad days and I'm prepared for that, and
Speaker 1: the hope is is that there will be good days
Speaker 1: as well. So once he gets more comfortable, the install
Speaker 1: is complete, he gets more into the vibe of things.
Speaker 1: Hopefully he's making progress heading into week one. My concern
Speaker 1: here is if he if he kind of falls into
Speaker 1: some mental funk here in addition to the physical, and
Speaker 1: he's trying to overthink the Jets don't have a plan
Speaker 1: B here, and he could potentially go into Week one
Speaker 1: uh in a not a great place mentally and preparation
Speaker 1: while and then things can snowball, and you know the
Speaker 1: New York media is gonna be all over that if
Speaker 1: that happens. So keep an eye on the situation. Hopefully
Speaker 1: next time this week there will be reports that he's
Speaker 1: bounced back. But this has not been a good week
Speaker 1: for the number two overall pick. I mean we also
Speaker 1: live in in sane times where first round quarterbacks, because
Speaker 1: this has happened a few times, are expected to come
Speaker 1: in and look like the world savior right away. I mean,
Speaker 1: it just seems so natural that he'd go through some
Speaker 1: ups and downs. It's probably a tough offense to learn,
Speaker 1: but the Shanahan offense is also great for quarterbacks. Um
Speaker 1: the one thing that you mentioned because this is where
Speaker 1: you kind of lose some of these guys, and I
Speaker 1: think it happened at Donald to some degree. I can
Speaker 1: think of a billion Browns quarterbacks that had happened due
Speaker 1: all around the league to where if that first season,
Speaker 1: they don't have someone that can kind of put in
Speaker 1: to give him a pause if he needs a week
Speaker 1: just to regroup. If he's got to go in there,
Speaker 1: there's good things that can happen for seventeen games, battle tested,
Speaker 1: but also it could just shake you for for years
Speaker 1: to come. And I like, I think this Jets regime
Speaker 1: regime though you don't see that happening. If it were
Speaker 1: the past one or the past I'd be concerned. And
Speaker 1: I think that's on the quarter Like if the quarterback
Speaker 1: is gonna be a good pro, I think they can
Speaker 1: shake that stuff off. Alex Smith Eli Manning two of
Speaker 1: the worst rookie quarterbacks I've ever seen, and took it off.
Speaker 1: I think had the careers that they were they were
Speaker 1: destined to have. I do think Zack Wilson will be
Speaker 1: supported by a much better offensive line, could be very good,
Speaker 1: pretty good weapons around him, and in a potentially good defense.
Speaker 1: I do look at that schedule that you're right, then
Speaker 1: all the other rookie quarterbacks have you know someone they're
Speaker 1: competing with or even in Lawrence's case, I'm not that
Speaker 1: Lawrence isn't gonna play every game, but like you know
Speaker 1: a quality backup, and the Jets, you know James White
Speaker 1: or James Morgan, they might want to they might want
Speaker 1: to look into that, and they might, And they play
Speaker 1: the Patriots in the Broncos weeks two and three. So
Speaker 1: those are two defenses that will be ready to send
Speaker 1: a lot at Zack Wilson and see how he responds.
Speaker 1: And I was saying that, you know, two months ago
Speaker 1: that it felt a little off to me that they
Speaker 1: have not built than any any security blanket behind him.
Speaker 1: And but I think a big part of that goes
Speaker 1: back to an overall organizational above the tree tops of
Speaker 1: viewpoint to use some corpo corporal jargon, that this is
Speaker 1: the new era of the Jets and it's gonna be
Speaker 1: with the new head coach and the GM who's fully
Speaker 1: in control and this young quarterback who's picked by the
Speaker 1: people that are in the building. Um, but maybe it's
Speaker 1: better to have a little nuanced to your organizational game plan.
Speaker 1: Do you want to go around one more time? Sure?
Speaker 1: I got a lot, Um what should I go with?
Speaker 1: I think about Patrick Robinson retiring with the Saints. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is a whisper as much
Speaker 1: as a transaction, but I think if you want to
Speaker 1: put the Saints changes on defense and perspective, they cut
Speaker 1: this guy Ken Crawley a few years ago because they
Speaker 1: were so deep at cornerback that they didn't need him anymore.
Speaker 1: He had killed them in multiple situations in the playoffs
Speaker 1: and all this stuff. Patrick Robinson at that time was
Speaker 1: probably like their fourth or fifth quarterback. They came into
Speaker 1: this UH treating camp with Patrick Robinson starting basically on
Speaker 1: the outside, which he hadn't done and played a full
Speaker 1: season and like almost nine years. Then he retires halfway
Speaker 1: through camp. Michael Thomas isn't returning their calls on your
Speaker 1: mata is suspended. Suddenly Crawley, the guy that was like
Speaker 1: seventh on the depth chart just a year or two ago,
Speaker 1: is number two. Now they're playing their their young kid Adebo.
Speaker 1: I think at linebacker some to who we thought he
Speaker 1: would play quarnerback. It's like, I don't know, man, there's
Speaker 1: some weird stuff going on in New Orleans and they
Speaker 1: are there. I know the way Mark talks about England,
Speaker 1: you talk about New Orleans. I love the city and
Speaker 1: I think Jamis Winston is gonna is a better player
Speaker 1: than people get him credit for it. But I'm I
Speaker 1: think the downside of this team is quite low. It's
Speaker 1: last place total team in transition material. I mean, I
Speaker 1: you know, they've been through so much, but if they
Speaker 1: won seven games, I wouldn't be surprised, all right. I
Speaker 1: mean a starter retired in the middle of hamp at
Speaker 1: their worst position too. And it's just like things like
Speaker 1: this just weird things keep happening. I keep thinking back.
Speaker 1: I keep thinking back to that year where Sean payton
Speaker 1: um was suspended for the year and they had a
Speaker 1: poster of Sean payton looming over all their practices. I
Speaker 1: don't know why, but I just keep thinking of that.
Speaker 1: My favorite, It's one of my favorite stupid football things
Speaker 1: of all time. It was like, listen, we got jobbed
Speaker 1: and they stole our coach from us. But we know
Speaker 1: how to straighten this out. Let's build a like a
Speaker 1: mural of like the dictator of North Korea and put
Speaker 1: it up in the practice with giant lettering that says
Speaker 1: to your jobs. Right. It was foot flag that was
Speaker 1: hanging over everything. It's not even their monica was crazy.
Speaker 1: It really was like a North Korea thing. That's well,
Speaker 1: you can I think we could all see them. If
Speaker 1: the wheels fall off going six and eleven this year,
Speaker 1: does anybody here see them? Going to eleven and six.
Speaker 1: I think if like a million things went right, Sean
Speaker 1: Payton's old some magic out over the years that are like,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can totally take it off the table,
Speaker 1: but it seems pretty darn unlike, very unlikely. They could
Speaker 1: have wins inflated if like, for instance, the Falcons never
Speaker 1: got started and the Panthers and Sam Donald totally crumble
Speaker 1: as a duo. They like winning from Caesar Ruiz, who
Speaker 1: was their first round pick last years now at guard.
Speaker 1: If he was good, their offensive line might be the
Speaker 1: I would probably be might pick as the number one
Speaker 1: offensive line in football. So that is something that doesn't
Speaker 1: tend to get mentioned. And they are they could be
Speaker 1: incredible upround and they you know, since they had a
Speaker 1: huge draft class, I believe it was um. They've been
Speaker 1: you know, money in the bank as a double digit team,
Speaker 1: a true playoffs, super Bowl contender, they made deep runs
Speaker 1: of the plaoss that got ripped off on a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl bid by that Nicole Robie coleman Um play um
Speaker 1: And it makes you think, oh, they're like the Patriots,
Speaker 1: Like they've gone ten and six or eleven and five
Speaker 1: or twelve and four. Every year for the past eighteen years,
Speaker 1: so though they year out, but no, they actually before
Speaker 1: that big draft, they went seven and nine three years
Speaker 1: in a row. So it's not like and people are
Speaker 1: talking to Sean Payton's job saving all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: It's going to the Cowboys. Like, so it's not inconceivable
Speaker 1: that the Saints could take a step back under Sean Payton.
Speaker 1: It's happened before. They feel like Patriots, except now it
Speaker 1: is seven and ten and except instead of seven and nine.
Speaker 1: Uh Mark, alright, a little off the field, um nugget
Speaker 1: from the Chargers, who I think one of the things
Speaker 1: about the Charges that was kind of put on put
Speaker 1: on ice last year was with no fans, we don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about, you know, the optics of the
Speaker 1: Chargers having seven thousand people in their stadium and eighty
Speaker 1: thousand Raiders fans, and so now it's like, where are
Speaker 1: we with that? And I read this little nugget this
Speaker 1: morning that the Chargers actually they according to the team,
Speaker 1: they have blown past the average season ticket sales from
Speaker 1: their final twenty years in San Diego. The number right now, um,
Speaker 1: that number average back then about forty five thousand. It
Speaker 1: is well beyond that. They say, at this point, at
Speaker 1: least you know, tangibly beyond it, and that means that
Speaker 1: you know, from a visual sense, it's not going to
Speaker 1: be as bad as we thought. Um, this was just
Speaker 1: always on my radar because I never thought that l
Speaker 1: A should have two football teams, And had this been
Speaker 1: a total disaster, it would be a huge talking point.
Speaker 1: The NFL wants nothing to do with that, and you know,
Speaker 1: you're still probably gonna get fans from the other team,
Speaker 1: which happened to them in San Diego. But it doesn't
Speaker 1: sound like a white hot disaster, you know. I I'm
Speaker 1: glad you, brother, Sup, because I saw this last week
Speaker 1: and I had the same initial reaction as you. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're not out of the woods yet, because first of all,
Speaker 1: this is a very fickle town. Um. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Lakers are always gonna draw, the Dodgers always draw extremely well. Um,
Speaker 1: the King's I have a really fervent fan base, and
Speaker 1: you could point and then of course the college teams U, S,
Speaker 1: S U, C, l A. I mean, it's it is
Speaker 1: a really good sports down but you can get lost
Speaker 1: in the shuffle, and if the Charges get off to
Speaker 1: a bad start, all those people that bought season tickets, Well,
Speaker 1: what are they gonna do. They're gonna turn around and say,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go see these guys. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: spend the money and you know, pay eighty dollars to
Speaker 1: park at the new stadium and then watch them lose
Speaker 1: in the last minute. I'm gonna sell this to some
Speaker 1: insane Steelers fan and make a profit. So I don't
Speaker 1: think they're out of the woods, but it is promising.
Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like I don't know. I haven't
Speaker 1: met anybody yet. I don't have a lot of Charger
Speaker 1: fans in the Los Angeles area that I've interacted yet with,
Speaker 1: but this data tells us that they're out there. I
Speaker 1: know one. I know one. I know one why I
Speaker 1: met at the bar when we watched the soccer friend
Speaker 1: of yeah, dad of a of one of my kids friends.
Speaker 1: I um, I think they would not which the pandemic
Speaker 1: on anyone. But if any team's sort of uh benefited find,
Speaker 1: you know, from the pandemic in any way, it was them,
Speaker 1: you know, avoiding last season that which would have been awkward.
Speaker 1: I don't think there was much build up and but
Speaker 1: then suddenly you have. Herbert is most one of the
Speaker 1: most exciting young quarterbacks in the league. And I think
Speaker 1: we've seen had a lot of sporting events in the US,
Speaker 1: the pent up demand to just be back among people
Speaker 1: and route on live sports is different than it was before.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing this across sports, is not just the NFL,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure the NFL is going to get a
Speaker 1: little bit of a boost from that, assuming you know,
Speaker 1: things don't get totally dark in the coming weeks. And
Speaker 1: you could see the Chargers being a team because they
Speaker 1: are a buzzier because of what happened last year where
Speaker 1: you get like the guy, the dad that moved to
Speaker 1: l A and like he was a let's say, a
Speaker 1: Dolphins fan or a Jets fan or something probably not Jets,
Speaker 1: so too loyal. They moved to l A. They reboot
Speaker 1: all their loyalties and like bring their kids in because
Speaker 1: they want their kids to watch football live, and they
Speaker 1: all become Chargers fans. I mean it's like the Rams are,
Speaker 1: by the way, don't have the roots they claim to
Speaker 1: in this city either right now. I mean it was
Speaker 1: thirty years ago they they don't. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: they're both coming find us saying the Chargers. The Chargers
Speaker 1: were the Chargers cue rating was so low a year ago.
Speaker 1: At this time, I think it's vastly changed, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna I think you're gonna get people curious about that
Speaker 1: team if they get if they stay hot, Herbert was
Speaker 1: a godsend. And and let's see if he continues on
Speaker 1: his trajectory. I'm gonna do a quick double banger out
Speaker 1: of the NFC East and n J Advanced media as
Speaker 1: Mike k reported that Jalen Hurts his quote heavily targeted
Speaker 1: Dallas Goddard. Of course he's a tight end on the rise,
Speaker 1: but also zach Ertz in training camp. You remember zach Ertz,
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl hero. He'll never have to buy another
Speaker 1: meal in insert city here, like he Arts is in
Speaker 1: that club. His game winning touchdown catch against the Patriots.
Speaker 1: Um and I just thought that was interesting after an
Speaker 1: offseason of speculation that Arts would be leaving town and
Speaker 1: maybe you still will. They could still trade Arts hypothetically
Speaker 1: before the season starts. Without the fact that he's having
Speaker 1: a good camp does add a little bit more credence
Speaker 1: to the idea that, okay, he's still just thirty years old.
Speaker 1: Maybe he just banged up last year. Maybe he's still
Speaker 1: a player. And the fact that Jalen hurts through to
Speaker 1: his tight ends a third of the time and his
Speaker 1: playing time last year, maybe it's a good idea to
Speaker 1: have to tight ends that can play the guitar and
Speaker 1: then over in Dallas and we'll get to them more
Speaker 1: thoroughly with hard knocks. But I just want to mention
Speaker 1: here that Michael Gallop, according to the Dallas Morning News,
Speaker 1: is seeing more work in the slot, which I like
Speaker 1: because Michael Coppy it's almost like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: the Cowboys know what to do with him, and he's
Speaker 1: such a great talent, and it seems like they just say,
Speaker 1: go run deep and every once in a while, we'll
Speaker 1: throw out your way. If maybe you could carve out
Speaker 1: a more nuanced niche to him in the game plan,
Speaker 1: I think he could be a real stud receiver. He's
Speaker 1: I think one of the more underrated UH wide outs
Speaker 1: in the NFC. They're gonna be so hard to cover
Speaker 1: because if Cooper is healthy, I can't think of a
Speaker 1: trio in the NFL that can all do everything like
Speaker 1: those three. They're all very they're all diverse, especially if
Speaker 1: Gallup is moving outside. He probably would be the one
Speaker 1: of the three that you know you you think he
Speaker 1: has mostly one trick, which is going deep down the field.
Speaker 1: He's a great boundary guy. But the three, I mean,
Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb can do everything. Amari Cooper can do everything.
Speaker 1: You got gallop cross training like good luck trying to
Speaker 1: come up with a defense to stop that. And by
Speaker 1: the way they did it, we saw him do it
Speaker 1: for the first month of the season before Dak Prescott
Speaker 1: went down. I mean, he was on route to an
Speaker 1: m v P type season. And if you'll allow me,
Speaker 1: just because I think it's very important given the status
Speaker 1: of the world right now. UM Tampa Bay Buccaneers running
Speaker 1: back Leonard four nette Um, who told reporters a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks back that he wanted to learn more about
Speaker 1: the vaccine, he has now updated his stance. He said,
Speaker 1: we're almost there. So Dr Fournette is almost there in
Speaker 1: in the research and deep research the digging on the vaccine,
Speaker 1: and this podcast will keep you up to date. UM
Speaker 1: four nets research and when it's complete, the number of
Speaker 1: skyrocketed of the of the league has gotten at least
Speaker 1: the first job. That's pretty high. I mean it was
Speaker 1: like fifty on June were almost good whispers. I was like,
Speaker 1: do I have a speed round whispers? Or did you
Speaker 1: want to throw one in there? I don't want to know.
Speaker 1: Let's go, let's go. It is Cam Wolf here, let's
Speaker 1: stock to Cam. Let's welcome him in. He is, of
Speaker 1: course the newcomer at NFL network or reporter, and hopefully
Speaker 1: the hazing hasn't been too rough. I know he did
Speaker 1: some work with rap sheet and you know rap report.
Speaker 1: He could be real rough town of Newvies. So hopefully
Speaker 1: we'll check in on that. How is the great Cameron
Speaker 1: Wolf who has been doing a lot of work for
Speaker 1: us at the network? First of all, welcome aboard and
Speaker 1: his rap She had been cool? Or was he a jerk?
Speaker 1: To be honest, he was good, man. I can't I
Speaker 1: can't complain. I was preparing for everything they were told about.
Speaker 1: I was prepared to curryous Mike and do all kinds
Speaker 1: of rookie hazing. But he was actually pretty good. You know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he was just trying to trying
Speaker 1: to figure me up the first day, but you know,
Speaker 1: he just let me take lead on on the air
Speaker 1: and not tripping over me. And all types of things.
Speaker 1: So he gave me a good welcome cool man, Well,
Speaker 1: welcome aboard. And I know you're you're based in Florida
Speaker 1: and you're doing a lot of Dolphins coverage for us.
Speaker 1: You've also done some Panthers coverage. But let's start with
Speaker 1: the Miami football team. And they got the deal done
Speaker 1: with Xavier Howard. I imagine that was a huge relief
Speaker 1: for the entire organization and it allows them to kind
Speaker 1: of move forward. What is the vibe around the team
Speaker 1: post Xavian drama? Man, I was a big weight off
Speaker 1: of everyone's shoulders, especially if you're Dolphins fan. You know
Speaker 1: Xaving Howard is the best player on the team. I
Speaker 1: don't think there's really any question. And you know they've
Speaker 1: already seen this happen two or three times over the
Speaker 1: last few years. You know, make if this actor gets traded,
Speaker 1: every tuncil gets traded. It's like, man, we can't teet
Speaker 1: our best player every year, can we? So I think
Speaker 1: you know, early in off season he had requested to trade.
Speaker 1: He wanted this new deal, but the reality was he
Speaker 1: never truely wanted to trade. He just wanted to respect
Speaker 1: that comes with money, and you know, he didn't feel that,
Speaker 1: so I think that there is a lot of ease
Speaker 1: attention over the last three or four days with with
Speaker 1: him being sort of satisfied. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: fully finished. I think maybe if he has another great year,
Speaker 1: we revisit this next offseason. But at least for now,
Speaker 1: it seems like everyone's on the same page. The way
Speaker 1: Brian Flores defenses, they need man and man shut down corners,
Speaker 1: and Xavian Howard is one of the best in the league,
Speaker 1: so I think that helps everyone the team. His teammates
Speaker 1: love them, and it's a lot easier when you don't
Speaker 1: have to tiptoe around questions about why X isn't here,
Speaker 1: you know, try to pick sides and whether you're with
Speaker 1: the team or you're with X. So that was their
Speaker 1: biggest maybe hurdle coming into camp. It seems like they've
Speaker 1: overcome it. Are you wearing like a self branded shirt?
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why I rap sheet didn't give you any
Speaker 1: of the business, Like if you come in that's a
Speaker 1: power move, like I'm at the new company. What if
Speaker 1: your shirt say the wolf Pack, So you're you're like
Speaker 1: another Sea wolf, You're like en is you know, a
Speaker 1: regular on this show. That's another sea Wolf. Any like
Speaker 1: tension there, like what's going on between YouTube? Please? Oh no,
Speaker 1: oh no, that's that's no. No, We're we're a wolf pack.
Speaker 1: We're a family. Um you know, of course of course
Speaker 1: she's she's the she's the highest ranking sea wolf and
Speaker 1: the wolf pack. You know, I'm just a new cup.
Speaker 1: But we wolves, we stick together, so it's gonna be
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a stronger. As you guys know, when
Speaker 1: wolf packs are together, they're stronger in pairs than they
Speaker 1: are as singles. So, um me and are you talked?
Speaker 1: You know, you guys are not gonna hear the last
Speaker 1: of this this wolf brand, and we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna hte this. They tell us about to stop
Speaker 1: the worst in their own names too. I think it's
Speaker 1: a strong it's a strong move. This is the worst podcast,
Speaker 1: by the way. It's just like all our questions, who
Speaker 1: are Dolphins and Panthers reporter right now? Are just like
Speaker 1: do you hate this new guy you work with? You
Speaker 1: hate this new person? Are they nice to you or
Speaker 1: they mean? Mark? Give us, get us on track, give us,
Speaker 1: I do have it. I have something about the Dolphins
Speaker 1: that on our show I've raised many times as just thinking,
Speaker 1: So I just want to know how it's gonna work.
Speaker 1: You've got two offensive coordinators, Eric Studsville George Godzi and
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm hearing that the offense has changed
Speaker 1: a lot. Miles Gascon had comments saying, you know, it's
Speaker 1: gonna look real different, more motion, there's more deep passing,
Speaker 1: it's more flexible. I mean, what is it gonna look like?
Speaker 1: And can you just tell me how did these two
Speaker 1: guys work together? And like who gets the blame if
Speaker 1: like the offense crumbles, and like who the fans decide
Speaker 1: to point fingers? That just feels a little bit atypical
Speaker 1: to me. Is there a Batman and a Robin in
Speaker 1: this mix? How does it? How is it truly going
Speaker 1: to break down here? Again? Yeah, I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: thumb Russell every game so you can call plays and
Speaker 1: the winner is now I'm just guys, I'm just kidding. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Now they they've defined the roles. I think I think
Speaker 1: what helps is that, you know, George Garsie coming from
Speaker 1: more of a path background, U Eric Studiensville is coming
Speaker 1: from more run background. So although they have pass game
Speaker 1: coordinator run game coordinators. You can kind of look at
Speaker 1: it as maybe something of that help. We've seen that
Speaker 1: in the past with teams who've had hey coaches that
Speaker 1: are offensive offensive coordinator quote unquo, they'll have run gamelayers
Speaker 1: the officers coordinators. So um, I think that they'll they'll collaborate,
Speaker 1: but I think you'll see them fall a lot in
Speaker 1: their lane. You know, George will probably have the heavier
Speaker 1: hand on the passing games. He's worked with quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: the past. He spent all of last season, the second
Speaker 1: half of last season working with two of being the
Speaker 1: guy who's directly in his here, So I'd anticipate that
Speaker 1: George Gods would have a lot more contact in the
Speaker 1: quarter room and in the passing game where Eric He's
Speaker 1: been a running back coach his whole career, so he's
Speaker 1: gonna be having a lot more impact and in the
Speaker 1: running name as with the offensive line and the protection.
Speaker 1: So they haven't quote unquote named the play caller. I
Speaker 1: have an idea of who I believe the play caller
Speaker 1: will be, but I can't confirm that yet. So I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna good reporters just kind
Speaker 1: of let it free for now, sit on it until
Speaker 1: I can get it come from. But I know who
Speaker 1: the guy is. There's gonna be one play caller. There's
Speaker 1: not gonna be you know, a back and forth for hey.
Speaker 1: But I think that that what helps them. And we
Speaker 1: saw it last week because George Gotzi techt the positive
Speaker 1: for COVID and he was out for a week. You
Speaker 1: have two instead of one. So in this COVID era,
Speaker 1: it probably helps you just in case something happens that
Speaker 1: another guy can step in. And also it double helps you.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he got doubles and it helps
Speaker 1: with a little versatility, right because you know you're you're
Speaker 1: playing your game playing is the Patriots one week you
Speaker 1: want to run the ball forty times, it's probably gonna
Speaker 1: be at Eric Scutisville game plan. You know, when you're
Speaker 1: playing Kansas City and you gotta keep up with Hatrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: you know you're probably gonna have a Georgian Garzi led
Speaker 1: game plan. So I think that's probably how it's envisioned. Um.
Speaker 1: But to kind of jump off what you were talking
Speaker 1: about earlier, it is going to be different from what
Speaker 1: I've heard the three words I've heard have been flexibility, motion,
Speaker 1: and deep balls, which are three things that are pretty
Speaker 1: simple to us. But if you watch the doffense offense
Speaker 1: last year, they're bare of all those things. So that's
Speaker 1: probably a good word, good way to start for them
Speaker 1: to try to get this uh get to uh in
Speaker 1: the offense in in a better situation. I'm started done
Speaker 1: doubting them, like you were there for the fish Tank season,
Speaker 1: as we dubbed it a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 1: they ended up being any more competitive than anyone thought.
Speaker 1: I went into last season thinking they were like a
Speaker 1: bottom five roster just in terms of talent, and then
Speaker 1: if you actually look at the big free agent money
Speaker 1: that they spent, most of it went terribly. And yet
Speaker 1: somehow they show up on Sundays and they're like dynamic
Speaker 1: and there's something there that seems like it's greater than
Speaker 1: the some of their parts. You've been there for the
Speaker 1: for the Brian Flores era. I guess, just from your perspective, like,
Speaker 1: what is that? Because I think they've really overachieved back
Speaker 1: to back years, and I have doubts about them again
Speaker 1: this year. Yet now I've been learned from the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. I'm kind of done doubting them and
Speaker 1: figuring that that they'll look a little better than they
Speaker 1: do on paper. Must be something in the fish change,
Speaker 1: to use your word, But I think that when you
Speaker 1: look at all of it, it's got to start with
Speaker 1: the head coach, you know. And I think that they've
Speaker 1: made a good hiring Brian Flores. I think he's a guy.
Speaker 1: A lot of people were afraid when you hire these
Speaker 1: Patriot assistance, who are they gonna be? Are they gonna
Speaker 1: be copycast for Bill Belichick? And so far he's been
Speaker 1: his own guy. I think he's owned a lot of
Speaker 1: respect and I think he's maximized those teams. That year
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen UM, that first month, month and a half
Speaker 1: of that year was miserable. I'm walking in the locker
Speaker 1: room and guys are just you know, it's it's somber.
Speaker 1: It felt like somebody in funeral walking there every someday.
Speaker 1: And there was so much turnover that I had guys
Speaker 1: asking me, you know, where where's the restroom? Where how
Speaker 1: do I go? They just showed up on a Saturday
Speaker 1: and they gotta play playing and expect there was a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of stuff going on, But I
Speaker 1: remember halfway through that year that was a big focus
Speaker 1: point for them when I think Ryan Fitzpatrick came in
Speaker 1: that game, and I think bran Flores earned a lot
Speaker 1: of respect and that team sort of earned respect that hey,
Speaker 1: we could be better in our talent says so on
Speaker 1: paper this year, I think they're an average team. Like
Speaker 1: you said, I think on paper, you look at him,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe a playoff team. Maybe you know, maybe
Speaker 1: he's seven and ten aid and how do you want
Speaker 1: to kind of rank them? But I think that they
Speaker 1: have a little bit of magic in this defense and
Speaker 1: particularly how they scheme this defense up, and really it's
Speaker 1: all on to a to a plays better than he
Speaker 1: did last year, Um, which is you know, obviously it's
Speaker 1: a low bar. Then I think there's no reason why
Speaker 1: they can't push for the playoffs. One of those Walker
Speaker 1: spots in the ANFC. Man if the if the Dolphins
Speaker 1: go in a positive direction this year and the Patriots improved,
Speaker 1: and we know what the Bills are, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: a really interesting division, especially if the Jets are also
Speaker 1: competitive at least. Um, before you go, Cam, you were
Speaker 1: also at Panthers camp and I wrote a little about
Speaker 1: this recently, and I saw you reported it on as well.
Speaker 1: You when you take a step back and you look
Speaker 1: at the Carolina offense, Um, it's actually you don't have
Speaker 1: to squint to see it as a as a unit
Speaker 1: that can move and score points and make them potentially dangerous.
Speaker 1: What were you seeing when you were boots on the
Speaker 1: ground there. Yeah, you know, I'm a big fantasy football guy.
Speaker 1: So you start looking at the roster. If you start
Speaker 1: seeing some CHRISTI mccaffrees he helped, If he's helping top three,
Speaker 1: top five back in the league. You know Robby Anderson,
Speaker 1: d J. Moore, both of those guys had a rousing
Speaker 1: yards last year. You know. Um, and you bring in
Speaker 1: saying Donald and he's a question great. You know he's
Speaker 1: the to quote unquote of the of this offense where
Speaker 1: we just don't know what we're gonna get. Um and
Speaker 1: their big thing for that for him is kind of
Speaker 1: what we were talking about. You guys, have you have weapons.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be Superman. You don't have to
Speaker 1: you know, throw all these interceptions you through with the Jets.
Speaker 1: You know, a dump off isn't to the Christiancaffrey isn't
Speaker 1: check down, Charlie. It might be a touchdown, you know.
Speaker 1: So I think they're am and I don't know if
Speaker 1: they're gonna be effective or I can't sit here and
Speaker 1: tell you that that the same Donald experiment is gonna work.
Speaker 1: But I think their focus is, let's simply things for him.
Speaker 1: Let's maybe hope that he can have a Ryan Tannehill
Speaker 1: tight turner where we put him in the system with
Speaker 1: Joe Brown. We make things, you know, from what I heard,
Speaker 1: the Jets kind of through through the book at him
Speaker 1: and said, hey, learn, learn and learn. So maybe they
Speaker 1: simplify things. Maybe they tell him to focus on Europens.
Speaker 1: They've got a good defensive front. There's no reason why
Speaker 1: they can't be the second best team in that division
Speaker 1: in my opinion. Who Mark is loving this, He's that
Speaker 1: real corners. Very good cam again, welcome aboard. It's great
Speaker 1: to have you and the best of luck uh in
Speaker 1: your maiden voyage here with NFL Network, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: we'll be in touch down the line. We gotta get
Speaker 1: both wolves on at the same time. That's their thing,
Speaker 1: that's their thing, seems friend on their I P But
Speaker 1: that's up to them. Ultimately yeah, all right, yeah, well
Speaker 1: we'll get we'll get something together. But I appreciate what
Speaker 1: fun there. He goes Cam Wolf actually never asked him
Speaker 1: if he's okay with Cam, but Cameron Wolf didn't seem
Speaker 1: not okay. Dan Arnold was another guy that's getting some
Speaker 1: pop a little abbreviated whisper here at the tight end
Speaker 1: that the Panthers brought in You. Yeah, but it all
Speaker 1: goes back and you gave I think Donald a negative
Speaker 1: forty seven point three mark greg and our division power
Speaker 1: ranking segments. So if Donald can't play the guitar, none
Speaker 1: of this matters. But they're hoping for the post gaze
Speaker 1: bump basically, I mean the Tannehill post gaze bump. That's
Speaker 1: exactly right. I will say that there's been some very
Speaker 1: clunky Sam Donald to Dan Arnold tweets. It's just like
Speaker 1: the most predictable, um you know, flurry of like kind
Speaker 1: of clunky wordplay stuff going on out on Twitter. Dan
Speaker 1: Arnold is, I think an interesting player, but the the
Speaker 1: the way the tweets have come out to me because
Speaker 1: Donald and Arnold is simply in the same sentence, there
Speaker 1: both things, both things. Yes, alright, everybody out there. You
Speaker 1: heard Mark clean it up, get that get that murkin
Speaker 1: out of there. Not the mirth all right before we go,
Speaker 1: and this is spoiler alert now to um all the
Speaker 1: UK listeners and and other international territories that haven't had
Speaker 1: access yet to the Hard Knocks premier. I did connect
Speaker 1: with Handsome Hank, our UK ambassador and all things here
Speaker 1: at NFL Media. He said that you could Hard Knocks
Speaker 1: will be up and in your UH screens Thursday afternoon
Speaker 1: or Thursday night on the game Pass app and UM
Speaker 1: I believe Sky Sports will also be airing it on
Speaker 1: Thursday or Friday, so check that out. As for the
Speaker 1: rest of you, let's dig into it. The premier Tuesday Night,
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys and UM I'll start here the Cowboys. Yes,
Speaker 1: it has been a twenty five year drought, um actually
Speaker 1: since they've been to the Super Bowl. And you could
Speaker 1: say that's gonna take some of the shine off the organization,
Speaker 1: and some ways it has, But in other ways, the
Speaker 1: Cowboys are as high profile as they've ever been. And
Speaker 1: I think it's it's just fun to have them because
Speaker 1: even if they're not successful, they're always interesting to me
Speaker 1: and they and they have star power and that's that's
Speaker 1: important for Hard Knocks. So when the show opens, I
Speaker 1: think it was I think it was a noted it
Speaker 1: was something that was a calculated move by Hard Knocks producers.
Speaker 1: When the cold open of the show is we're in
Speaker 1: tight with Dak Prescott, one of the most recognizable figures
Speaker 1: in pro football, and he's speaking intimately about the struggles
Speaker 1: of twenty with the death of his brother and then
Speaker 1: the the horrible injuries to stain against the Giants six
Speaker 1: months later. Um, we're often running. And that was what
Speaker 1: I took away from the premiere episode that this is
Speaker 1: just gonna be fun with all these big stars right
Speaker 1: all the way up to the top where Jerry Jones,
Speaker 1: who's gonna obviously be a big presence. All through the
Speaker 1: five weeks. There wasn't even an episode one. There wasn't
Speaker 1: the here's the underdog and that's coming because it always
Speaker 1: comes in Hard Knocks, here's the underdog, seventh round pick
Speaker 1: or the street free agent who's trying to make the team.
Speaker 1: They said, no, this is the Cowboys, this is the star,
Speaker 1: and that's what we're gonna lean on this premiere. UM
Speaker 1: and I like that. Um. So that was an initial
Speaker 1: takeaway I had Greg, what did you think about the premiere? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was different format. Everyone says it's always like the
Speaker 1: same thing every year. It really wasn't. It might have
Speaker 1: been COVID impacted or they made They also just consort
Speaker 1: of made a decision. There's no build up to it.
Speaker 1: It was just like, let's get on the practice field.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of news here. Usually there isn't. Number One,
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott says he had two surgeries now, one right
Speaker 1: off the bat. No one knew that. Uh number two,
Speaker 1: we see, we see what Jay Glazer had sort of
Speaker 1: reported about that. It was this, you know, this muscle
Speaker 1: injury that's more common in baseball, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like a good thing. It's like we're
Speaker 1: we're calling the Rangers medical staff because we don't know
Speaker 1: how to handle this. I thought it was very telling
Speaker 1: when Troy Aikman said on the Fox broadcast, like, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's probably a little more serious than people think.
Speaker 1: When everyone everyone, you know, working for our company and
Speaker 1: everywhere else immediately all they said about Dak's injuries like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's not a concern at all. Well, you saw what
Speaker 1: a concern it was like to Dak Prescott and I
Speaker 1: to me, it makes me a little concerned about what's
Speaker 1: coming up. You saw how it important it was to him,
Speaker 1: to the coaches, to everyone like that he's on the
Speaker 1: field or not. That the fact that like him and
Speaker 1: Zeke are like best buddies and they're trying to they're
Speaker 1: like making a buddy comedy out of it, and the
Speaker 1: biggest stars are totally fine with the cameras there, and
Speaker 1: that you know that starts with Jerry Jones. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's gonna make it I think more fine. Well, how
Speaker 1: about to that point, Mike McCarthy and one of those
Speaker 1: coaches meetings, they have this very I mean hard to
Speaker 1: understand as an outsider, but they have this GPS tracking
Speaker 1: data that it's a metric that tracks how much activity
Speaker 1: a player has in a given practice, and Dak like,
Speaker 1: where is Dak at five seventy six? And McCarthy's like, WHOA,
Speaker 1: that's way too much. And then they reeled them back,
Speaker 1: put him on a pitch count, and and das frustrated.
Speaker 1: But then sure enough he shows up a couple of
Speaker 1: practice later with a bad arm, and market did and
Speaker 1: make me think all these things in the in the
Speaker 1: edit can make things a look like b when that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily case. But it did at least insinuate on
Speaker 1: some level that the Cowboys maybe brought him back too
Speaker 1: fast initially and that led to the injury. By their
Speaker 1: own words, I think you're exactly right, And you know,
Speaker 1: I think the thing, the thing that is great about
Speaker 1: this show is even though we have an impression of
Speaker 1: Dak Prescott and we kind of know how rough life
Speaker 1: has been for him over the last two years. You
Speaker 1: mentioned losing his brother in the injury. Um that I
Speaker 1: just came away knowing him and feeling like I had
Speaker 1: a whole different experience with Dak Prescott. I mean, first
Speaker 1: of all, I wanted to watch the show with my children,
Speaker 1: but um, Dak Prescott is a quarterback who drops about
Speaker 1: seventy two F bombs in this episode. McCarthy to y, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there was there was There was a lot
Speaker 1: of language, but you know what, like I kind of
Speaker 1: loved um him pushing back on not wanting to be
Speaker 1: put out of practice, like just I think he came
Speaker 1: across to me as far more determined and fiery than
Speaker 1: I imagine I think and Zeke Elliott is sort of
Speaker 1: a wonderful foil for him because Zeke Elliott. I remember
Speaker 1: I once talked to his mom about a Mother's Day
Speaker 1: piece in their relationship and she sort of said candidly like,
Speaker 1: Zeke is a big boy like he you know, we
Speaker 1: saw he had never really wrapped a present before that
Speaker 1: He's operating in a bit of a different world than
Speaker 1: other adults too. I thought that was really good. Um.
Speaker 1: The part that gripped me and I know, Dan, I
Speaker 1: think you maybe we're not is one over this by
Speaker 1: this was John bones fastle Um digging into the process
Speaker 1: of having a vasect to me and then having it reversed.
Speaker 1: I don't understand um personally why anyone on the planet
Speaker 1: is having that operation to begin with, But then I
Speaker 1: want to know why it was reversed. But I thought that,
Speaker 1: you know, bones fastl is a guy that's kind of
Speaker 1: seems like UM hired by the studios to show up
Speaker 1: in Hard Knocks every couple of years and like steal
Speaker 1: the scene. And to me, I loved it. I think
Speaker 1: the kids players were fascinated by it. They think I
Speaker 1: think some could not figure out what was going on.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I thought it was just striking.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, we cut to the scene and
Speaker 1: Bones is like talking about the surgery on his balls
Speaker 1: and he and he's and he goes into it in
Speaker 1: the players because they're a bunch of twenty three year
Speaker 1: old dudes. It's a last thing there ever thing about
Speaker 1: his best sectimies. When you get to be our age,
Speaker 1: you become you know, people that have had the procedure done,
Speaker 1: and you might get you might get some actual heat
Speaker 1: from certain people in your life to undergo such a procedure. Um,
Speaker 1: that's a dishes decision that people need to make. But
Speaker 1: after all that, and I thought the players, some players
Speaker 1: were kind of interested in it and like kind of
Speaker 1: making sense of the players are just looking at him
Speaker 1: like he had a third elbow growing out of his forehead,
Speaker 1: and I thought that, And then just the bomb at
Speaker 1: the end, the twist, It's like, oh yeah, and then
Speaker 1: you know they had to put me under it again
Speaker 1: when when they reversed it, and it was like everyone
Speaker 1: you know, you think of Michael Scott in the office,
Speaker 1: snip snap, snip snap, Like what happened? What's the backstory?
Speaker 1: I need to know more about because it was just
Speaker 1: I mean, my my guests would be that he wants
Speaker 1: to have children again, you know that would that would
Speaker 1: be the guess, I know, maybe a situation who who knows? Uh.
Speaker 1: The coaches though, like I don't know. I've had a
Speaker 1: very very somber and he's like, listen, this is what
Speaker 1: really happened. He mean, you guys are making it like
Speaker 1: a big mystery. What's the story w after He's probably
Speaker 1: was controlled the first time around and then he retook control.
Speaker 1: I think there's more to the store. I would like
Speaker 1: to know why that's a big decision to get the
Speaker 1: surgery and then to reverse it. Is also I am
Speaker 1: I've always had like an image of Mike McCarthy and
Speaker 1: I was I was prety hard on him, I think
Speaker 1: towards the end of the Packers or just the way
Speaker 1: he ran the offense, and just like, is he connecting
Speaker 1: to the this to his team? And I don't know
Speaker 1: when he started going with the mojo moment and when
Speaker 1: he started and the players seemed to like it, But
Speaker 1: when he started talking about Charlie Chuck around and Harry
Speaker 1: high school, I'm just like, this dude's corny. Let's listen
Speaker 1: to a little bit of the Mojo moment, which is
Speaker 1: the motivational employee that he's building into the camp experience.
Speaker 1: But whatever point in practice, okay, will be a Mojoe
Speaker 1: moment when it's time traditional confidence, chrisma performance, no matter
Speaker 1: what the situation. Like a smaller mojo, Mama, come, let's
Speaker 1: the announcement, Mojo, give me the defense on the wall
Speaker 1: side offense over here. Yeah, you look like your fire.
Speaker 1: I will behave. That was another thing like McCarthy, such
Speaker 1: a dad move. You know when that Austin Power sequel
Speaker 1: was huge. Uh, those guys were in diapers almost everybody
Speaker 1: in that room, and it's like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's the target audience. Uh, but I actually liked he
Speaker 1: won me back a little bit with Charlie Round and
Speaker 1: high school Harry I was gonna into that. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I do think though, Dan was a huge victory for
Speaker 1: you because, for the first time ever, I guarantee on
Speaker 1: NFL dot Com, the character Fat Bastard was put into
Speaker 1: a write up um by yourself, which I thought was marvelous.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm just I'm just saying like, at some level,
Speaker 1: like you see him at the beginning, McCarthy and Jerry
Speaker 1: Jones is tearing up and talking about coming back to
Speaker 1: football and what it means to him, and they just
Speaker 1: sort of so show McCarthy next to him, and he
Speaker 1: seems to be looking over thinking, like what the He
Speaker 1: looked to be fuddled. To me, he was like, what
Speaker 1: the hell is happening right now? And it's not like
Speaker 1: he's running the offense. Kellen Moore's running the offense, and
Speaker 1: like he's coming up with with the mojo moment. I
Speaker 1: don't I just don't know what's happening there. Mojo moment, Ricky,
Speaker 1: can you can you bring up the mojo moment? What
Speaker 1: it means? Also? I mean, and coaches do this stuff
Speaker 1: all the time. I just was fine. It was more
Speaker 1: than Charlie that. Charlie was like, nothing else matters. We're
Speaker 1: in this for a championship. Charlie Brown, he's out of
Speaker 1: the building mojo amojo moment, according to Mike McCarthy, And
Speaker 1: he has all the coaches yelling at also. And that
Speaker 1: was the p a guy at practice yelling it out too.
Speaker 1: So this is a major initiative for the Cowboys. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is what it said on the power point presentation.
Speaker 1: When it's time for additional confidence, charisma, and performance. This
Speaker 1: one I got a little confused. So mojo moment is
Speaker 1: established initially here that there's a time for a mojo moment, okay,
Speaker 1: and it's like when that time hits, it's time for
Speaker 1: the mojo moment. But then the second part of this
Speaker 1: um the slate says, no matter the time, the place,
Speaker 1: the situation, kick in your mojo, which makes me think
Speaker 1: that you should be having your mojo at all times.
Speaker 1: It feels like wasted energy undercuts what the initial thought,
Speaker 1: which is when the moment calls for it, that's when
Speaker 1: you need the mojo. Anybody, No, I think it's I
Speaker 1: think number one. Um, it's probably I guarantee he's probably
Speaker 1: run this mojo moment thing like six summers in a
Speaker 1: row in Green Bay back in like the like two
Speaker 1: thousand eight region. But um, it feels like he has.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a certain number of he maybe winning
Speaker 1: up from different angles. But on that graphic he smushed
Speaker 1: two angles together and they're almost they clash a little bit.
Speaker 1: You're you're constantly in your mojo, but then you need
Speaker 1: to know when the mojos finally needed, please finally, like
Speaker 1: Kyle Sayingahan or Vic Fangio or Bill Bell. It's like
Speaker 1: watching this and being like, well, we're gonna kill them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But he is also the only coach I've ever got.
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodger is over the mountain top. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I find him, even though I don't think he's I mean,
Speaker 1: he inherited Aaron Rodgers and he was the head coach.
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying I think he's an interesting figure
Speaker 1: to track just because he's been around for so long
Speaker 1: and you get this. I'm not saying he's the leader
Speaker 1: of men that you want one, but for the cowboys,
Speaker 1: he is right now. Finally, Jerry Jones, um Mark, this
Speaker 1: had to be the low point for you. The episode
Speaker 1: his Breakfast seventy eight years old and get a shout
Speaker 1: out of this Ricky seven eight years old. And Emily
Speaker 1: was watching it with my wife and and she said, oh,
Speaker 1: she thinks it's a brioche bun with what looked to
Speaker 1: be a cheese and a sausage. And I said, no,
Speaker 1: look at the consistency of the bun. I think, first
Speaker 1: of all, I think it's an egg in there. I
Speaker 1: think you probably have cheese. You definitely have the sausage patty,
Speaker 1: and then I think it might be like pancakes, a riddle.
Speaker 1: It's a mcgriddle, And in fact, I thought there was
Speaker 1: you could see. I thought McDonald's um packaging. But I
Speaker 1: looked up what is in a mcgriddle and this is
Speaker 1: from their website. It is griddle cakes. That's the breadish
Speaker 1: item that it's I think it is like a sweetened pancake, UM,
Speaker 1: a folded egg, pasteurized, processed American cheese, thick cut applewood,
Speaker 1: smoked bacon. In this case, it could be sausage, clarified
Speaker 1: butter um. We see him pouring salt on top of it,
Speaker 1: but just would like to point out to Jerry Jones
Speaker 1: that it already comes packed with thirteen hundred sixty milligrams
Speaker 1: of sodium. So the extra salt uh okay. He put
Speaker 1: so much salt on his macgriddle that they actually cut
Speaker 1: away from it when he was already like deep into
Speaker 1: the process. We have no that were watching. They were like,
Speaker 1: this is a bad example. You guys can frown upon it.
Speaker 1: I actually made me like him more too. Now I
Speaker 1: would I would open the morning. He's seventy eight years old.
Speaker 1: He's gone. I'm gonna eat a macgriddle. Well, you guys
Speaker 1: have been up in Oxnard, right, and that like that's
Speaker 1: set up that the Cowboys staying to me is very interesting.
Speaker 1: I think you'd you get a reflection of that in
Speaker 1: training camp. It's not it's it's not fancy. It's like
Speaker 1: a huge you know, no no slack to the Renaissance brand,
Speaker 1: great great hotels, but it's pretty much the worst hotels
Speaker 1: those players are going to stay in all year for sure.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty low key, very chill scenario and everyone's
Speaker 1: staying in it. There's no like special house. Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: Jerry Jones has someplace on the beach. I don't know about,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure they're all just like staying in
Speaker 1: this little hotel complex. It's not a big deal in
Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere, and there is something to that
Speaker 1: that I like that. Very few NFL teams still keep
Speaker 1: up with that like old school nineteen fifties, sixties tradition
Speaker 1: of like we're all going to camp and we're in
Speaker 1: it together. It's cool they do that. I love it.
Speaker 1: They're in the dorm rooms and I don't know it
Speaker 1: just said it just feels like, like you said, old school,
Speaker 1: because as as the sports world, the bikes around and stuff,
Speaker 1: everything is so much more high glossy and everything else
Speaker 1: has done at such a high level now that you
Speaker 1: kind of lose some of that innocence of what the
Speaker 1: sports sporting world was like even years ago. Gassie is
Speaker 1: not something I would attach to the Dallas Cowboys on
Speaker 1: any level. So, I mean, there were moments it felt
Speaker 1: like a bit of a like I could almost feel
Speaker 1: West shuddering. He would not have liked. There were felt
Speaker 1: like it was like a pr video for the one Cowboys.
Speaker 1: There was a little bit of that. But I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm on the moment that is. And John Gonzalez tweeted this,
Speaker 1: and this is a part of Hard Knocks as well.
Speaker 1: You come out of these episodes you're like, oh Man
Speaker 1: Steave looks pretty good. Yeah, I mean they do have
Speaker 1: a ton of talent. I mean, they are they are
Speaker 1: a fascinating teams. Gonna lose. I don't know, I'm worried
Speaker 1: about that. I'm I'm a little I'm a little more
Speaker 1: worried I think than must. Yeah he's throwing lightly now,
Speaker 1: by the way, but that will be You know sometimes
Speaker 1: that these things dovetail together nicely. When Hard knocks sinks
Speaker 1: up with an actual big NFL story a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago with Antonio Brown, that comes to mind his
Speaker 1: contentious hold out with the Raiders and the foot issues
Speaker 1: he had after going in the cryogenic cham What is
Speaker 1: that guy was nuts? Um, but we're gonna get a
Speaker 1: good coverage of the stack thing that otherwise they would
Speaker 1: be able to shield in secrecy. Um. So there you go.
Speaker 1: This is my tenth season, by the way, at NFL
Speaker 1: dot com writing these recaps. I started two thousand twelve
Speaker 1: with the Dolphins and have done it every year since.
Speaker 1: I've only missed two episodes when Harrison was born and
Speaker 1: gret no no when Jack was born in two thousand
Speaker 1: uh fourteen, and Greg you had jumped in for those
Speaker 1: two apps. Otherwise, every recap every year sands man sands
Speaker 1: through the hourglass, I mean, but conversely, when Greg leaves
Speaker 1: the set to go pick up a child, he's land
Speaker 1: based id by you and myself. Well, the birth of
Speaker 1: a child, I mean, got to be there with the
Speaker 1: white in the house. Mean, I think we should all
Speaker 1: be flexible, you know, with with things. We started the
Speaker 1: show a little late because the lawnmower is making a
Speaker 1: lot of noise. It's like we're beginning end of the show,
Speaker 1: changing times. What is I don't there was no lawnmower.
Speaker 1: There's something like that. I don't remember. There's no lawnmower.
Speaker 1: We have a slide at handsas manor a pool slide.
Speaker 1: It had to be sanded down. Very loud process, very
Speaker 1: loud process, very expensive process. By the way, this home
Speaker 1: ownership thing, you gotta watch out. And but you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you mentioned you had a pool man Sandy in the slide.
Speaker 1: But he also brought a pool boy with him. Very intriguing.
Speaker 1: Whatever happened to Gary Cooper? A pool man and a
Speaker 1: pool boy. Yes, and I'll send them your way next Mark.
Speaker 1: There won't be anything for them to do in my place.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you need them for. We'll put
Speaker 1: them to work getting weird. All right, good stuff. Hey,
Speaker 1: NFL Network program is back Friday. Hey, we got a
Speaker 1: great time time and we're right before Washington Patriots six
Speaker 1: pm Eastern. That's that's as good on a Thursday. That's
Speaker 1: as good a time as we've ever had. So it
Speaker 1: keeps you to watch it. That's great. So we're the
Speaker 1: lead into the preseason action. That's good. That's a good
Speaker 1: time slot. Please check that out. UM. We are very
Speaker 1: excited about things that are happening over on the network side.
Speaker 1: UM and we will be back with this program UM
Speaker 1: on Monday. Barring any type of crazy news, you won't
Speaker 1: hear from us on the podcast again until Monday. But
Speaker 1: thank you to everyone for listening, thank you to Ken Wolf.
Speaker 1: UM and we will be back on Monday. Until then,
Speaker 1: He's the car s