Speaker 1: Around the UNITL Podcast is not a hit it and
Speaker 1: quit it guest. Welcome to another edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hans has come
Speaker 1: to you from a virtual room filled with some heroes.
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal is with me. That's nice, but also joining
Speaker 1: us with Mark Cecil on vacation. A dear friend of ours,
Speaker 1: Cynthia Freeland. Welcome back to the A T N Podcast.
Speaker 1: My dear, well, you know, thanks for having me. It's
Speaker 1: only taken I don't know two years. Thanks friend, it's
Speaker 1: been like a billion years. Wait a second, you see you.
Speaker 1: Last time we had you on, you went with that
Speaker 1: same old thing you said, Oh it took so long
Speaker 1: to have us on. Now you get the second invite,
Speaker 1: which is always the seal of approval. You're not a Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not a hit it and quitic guest, and you're
Speaker 1: still gonna bury us here in the biggest of all
Speaker 1: spots at the top of the show. Listen the top
Speaker 1: of the show. There's two things that everyone needs to note.
Speaker 1: Number one, Dan Hands has a savage tand that's the
Speaker 1: only way to describe it. It's savage number one. And
Speaker 1: number two, I was working today, but of course I'll
Speaker 1: work anytime you guys call. I pick up the bone,
Speaker 1: I pick up the zoom, I pick up the stream
Speaker 1: yard link, you know, anything for you guys. Know that's
Speaker 1: very nice to you. And you know what, since you
Speaker 1: mentioned that I do have a savage tan, it's my
Speaker 1: not my Irish side side. It's definitely not your Irish side.
Speaker 1: And I want to do a little roll call, like
Speaker 1: where are we right now? Ricky? You could kill that
Speaker 1: music anytime you want. Um, where is everyone right now?
Speaker 1: I am on the Jersey Shore, Um, in my parents bedroom.
Speaker 1: It's a heat wave here on the in the northeast
Speaker 1: where magic happened and stop it. And that's where I
Speaker 1: am until tomorrow when I head back to l A.
Speaker 1: Where are you Greg? I'm back home in Santa Monica.
Speaker 1: I was on the east coast Cape cod and then
Speaker 1: um at my parents place at the vineyard for nine
Speaker 1: days or eleven days. But just return this week, so
Speaker 1: I mean I don't feel quite ready for it yet,
Speaker 1: like just jumping back in. We've got our network show
Speaker 1: coming up, and this is like an ease into it week.
Speaker 1: We're doing one. And where's your tan? By the way,
Speaker 1: not savage? It's like a little bit. But this this
Speaker 1: lighting in this room is as rough as always. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you put the light on real bright, it's just
Speaker 1: it's you always the same color. It's perfect. Here's another
Speaker 1: by the way, as I throw to Cynthia, when you're
Speaker 1: staying with your parents. Right now, it's just me and
Speaker 1: my two parents. You know how they're really bad with
Speaker 1: cell phones, Like they just leave them around in other
Speaker 1: rooms because they treat them as landlines. My mom's phones ringing,
Speaker 1: So let me tee you up, Cynthia. Where are you
Speaker 1: right now? I'm in Flathead Lake, so Lakeside, Montana. So
Speaker 1: just go like almost in Canada and like a little
Speaker 1: bit down so right by it's in big Sky country.
Speaker 1: So there's a very large sky here, also a very
Speaker 1: large lake, Flathead Lake. I was telling you guys before. Uh,
Speaker 1: they'll tell you around here. It's the largest freshwater lake
Speaker 1: east or west of the Mississippi in the continental United States.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of caveats. It's like the first Uh,
Speaker 1: do you have like a history their family? There is
Speaker 1: there a reason or you just go to Montana. Um So,
Speaker 1: I ran a marathon near Missoula like two or three
Speaker 1: years ago and it was really really great. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: stupid marathon goals, it's ridiculous. Um and uh. And it
Speaker 1: was always really beautiful and this is kind of a
Speaker 1: hidden gem, like it's not super expensive, still got good
Speaker 1: food and everything that you want to do. And the
Speaker 1: lake is really really beautiful and not too cold because
Speaker 1: I was in Duluth, Minnesota and I jumped in that
Speaker 1: lake and Lake Superior is the coldest thing that could
Speaker 1: ever exist. It was. It was insane. Um because my
Speaker 1: ear piece was out. Did you mention the lake bit
Speaker 1: that you had? Yes? I did. Oh, don't got my lake.
Speaker 1: I got at lake content that is really good. The
Speaker 1: audience needs to know that, you know, keep that in
Speaker 1: the chamber. Alright. So Cynthia's here and it's awesome. Cynthia,
Speaker 1: by the way, she is like the skeleton key for
Speaker 1: the A t N podcast non podcast stuff because Cynthia
Speaker 1: has a big role in the Power Rankings TV program.
Speaker 1: She has a big role on the pick Um TV
Speaker 1: program that Greg does with Cynthia and Hawk. Uh and
Speaker 1: we're all big, big fans of her and listen, she's
Speaker 1: a huge hit in the analytical community. She has she
Speaker 1: has a machine. She's big on the broadcast. She does
Speaker 1: a lot with the broads. Don't forget well, okay, that too.
Speaker 1: She has a giant machine, like a giant computer, supercomputer
Speaker 1: she keeps in her in her boudoir. I believe it's
Speaker 1: actually here in Montana with me. When I hear about
Speaker 1: your computation machine, I picture like those supercomputers that Russia
Speaker 1: built in during the Cold War, where it takes up
Speaker 1: half of an airport hanger. But now you're telling me
Speaker 1: you can actually pack your supercomputer and bring it with
Speaker 1: you anywhere in America. Listen, if you thought that the
Speaker 1: audience you need to know about lakes. Here's what you
Speaker 1: mean about how this works. When you write software like
Speaker 1: you don't, the computer can be anywhere. It's like it
Speaker 1: goes to like a cloud and then it comes back
Speaker 1: down like this thing's like it's like it's everywhere and
Speaker 1: nowhere at the same time. It's pretty great now with Dan.
Speaker 1: The bigger the computer, the bigger the information. It's huge
Speaker 1: to Montana. You're going to get a call from your
Speaker 1: agent right after this podcast, because I'm sure your agent
Speaker 1: listens to everything and watches everything you do, and your
Speaker 1: agents number one mistake of being a giant in the
Speaker 1: analytics community. Never tell them you don't have a supercomputer,
Speaker 1: because it's more impressive you have it. No, the hardware,
Speaker 1: not software hardware. But I also have a supercomputer because
Speaker 1: that's the way it works. It's just they make them
Speaker 1: smaller these days because you know that she's breaking another
Speaker 1: of the analytics community. Never do a program with someone
Speaker 1: else from the analytics community who can challenge you. And
Speaker 1: we have Sam Munson from PFF coming up late. How
Speaker 1: exciting that? Are you exciting that? I'm really excited. I
Speaker 1: have one question for Sam because when he does these
Speaker 1: and I love the voice over. He does this like
Speaker 1: really cool graphic video that I watched every week, like
Speaker 1: you know, for it describes something for a matchup of
Speaker 1: the week, whatever, but he suppresses his accent in it,
Speaker 1: and I don't get it. So I needed to, like
Speaker 1: I need. I have so many questions because I love
Speaker 1: the accent working use it. Women love that he's going
Speaker 1: to be on the stoographic and just a little bit
Speaker 1: and I think that's fascinating and we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: get into that. UM. But before we do, I just
Speaker 1: want to um touch base about UM as some of
Speaker 1: you may have heard if you follow the machinations of
Speaker 1: our business. UM. Two weeks ago, NFL Media UH announced
Speaker 1: a wave of layoffs across the company. UH. Sadly, our
Speaker 1: little world, UM, the podcast world, in the editorial group
Speaker 1: were not spared. It was a sad, sad week a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks back, and a lot of us are
Speaker 1: either on vacation or just kind of taking some time out,
Speaker 1: and it kind of jolted us back to reality. And
Speaker 1: I just thought, and Greg, I know you and Erica
Speaker 1: UH and Cynthia perhaps feel the same way that it's
Speaker 1: that we should take a little time just to share,
Speaker 1: UM and acknowledge and say thank you to some people
Speaker 1: who are very important, instrumental really to the growth of
Speaker 1: this show, to our careers behind the scenes. And we're
Speaker 1: just nice people to work with, starting with Ryan Bartlett,
Speaker 1: who's a rock behind the scenes, working arm and arm
Speaker 1: with Rickey on a variety of projects UM in the
Speaker 1: digital realm. Just a great guy, passionate, casey chiefs fan
Speaker 1: and UM we remember the get Bartlett to Miami, so
Speaker 1: you got to see the Chief super Bowl. Second, John Marvel,
Speaker 1: who was our boss on the writing side of things,
Speaker 1: and you know a real blue guy in the news room,
Speaker 1: a huge Tom Petty fan, a guy with more experience
Speaker 1: and news than all of us combined in, a supporter
Speaker 1: of our show and us as individuals, and um, just
Speaker 1: a fun guy to work with and get a drink
Speaker 1: at the cozy, which I want to do with him
Speaker 1: when I get back to l A. Finally, Mark Brady,
Speaker 1: who was the guy pulling the strings of the podcast division.
Speaker 1: He was our train conductor, the man who always was
Speaker 1: passionate about the job. You put an endless hours, vital
Speaker 1: to the success of our show, and we've grown so
Speaker 1: much as a podcast since two thousand thirteen when we started.
Speaker 1: Mark was key to that. And he was also relentless
Speaker 1: in his pushed to get us to London and in
Speaker 1: nineteen and this is just a measure of the man
Speaker 1: to me that when I had a nice conversation with
Speaker 1: him last week, just kind of talking about everything, and
Speaker 1: the phone call near the end, he's like, here, here's
Speaker 1: where I was and trying to get you guys to London.
Speaker 1: This ball you should have this information and kind of
Speaker 1: work with the bosses like who does that? Um, after
Speaker 1: what happened? So in short, it sucks. We don't work
Speaker 1: with these people anymore. It's part of the business. This
Speaker 1: is how it all works, unfortunately sadly, but just to
Speaker 1: thank you to them for everything that they did, and
Speaker 1: we hope to see them all down the line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had great times with with Ryan. I'm so glad,
Speaker 1: you know, Bartlet got to see the chiefs um when
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl up close to the memory. I know, well,
Speaker 1: we'll you know, remember forever. And and Marvel was so
Speaker 1: instrumental helping um execute how the message of Chris is passing,
Speaker 1: you know, got delivered to NFL network and was a
Speaker 1: rock through that Super Bowl weekend and helping us among
Speaker 1: among a lot of other things, working closely with them,
Speaker 1: and and Mark Brady especially to me as such a
Speaker 1: special place in the show. We always joke about the
Speaker 1: shadowy League figures in theory. Mark Brady was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, what was one of them? You know, he
Speaker 1: was the head of the pot always. Well, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I can think of some truly shady characters that have
Speaker 1: left the company since These were more of the guys
Speaker 1: that we we liked, but they were part of the
Speaker 1: machine as well. But but Mark was our biggest supporter.
Speaker 1: I mean it it. He was our supporter in terms
Speaker 1: of believing in what we did from day one, more
Speaker 1: than anyone. It's just a fact that even when we
Speaker 1: were being a pain and you know, being a pain
Speaker 1: to him early on. Sometimes I remember West and him
Speaker 1: going out. We all we all had our things. He
Speaker 1: believed in us and supported us behind the scenes. And
Speaker 1: when we weren't around two to other people tirelessly like
Speaker 1: he always believed in us. He always tried to make
Speaker 1: the case of how important we were at the company
Speaker 1: in a way frankly that that no one else at
Speaker 1: this entire company didn't. So it's really sad. He's just
Speaker 1: a great man and and a and a dad and
Speaker 1: and he knows we love him and a huge supporter.
Speaker 1: I know, he was a big, big part of your
Speaker 1: career to Erica. I mean huge. We you know, we
Speaker 1: were very very close and he's the reason that I
Speaker 1: am at the NFL. And there are many times that
Speaker 1: I was going to leave and he was like, you're
Speaker 1: not leaving, like this is what we're gonna do. Um
Speaker 1: and and talk about fighting for someone, I mean just
Speaker 1: to have someone to have. And I've worked for a
Speaker 1: lot a lot of people and there's a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot of of asks out there and he is not
Speaker 1: one of them. Like there will be times where it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, he just just a sweet guy to his
Speaker 1: entire core. And we we talked, you know, we talked
Speaker 1: a lot still, um, but he told me on the phone,
Speaker 1: you know, started the whole phone call was saying how
Speaker 1: thankful he was that I was referred to him by someone.
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm so thankful by this person that recommended
Speaker 1: me to you, like recommended you to me, and like
Speaker 1: you are instrumental and you deserve everything that you And
Speaker 1: I'm like, what why are you saying this stuff to
Speaker 1: me right now? Like this it's he is and Ryan
Speaker 1: did so much for the podcast team as well, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's really really really sucks. It's it's what's what's
Speaker 1: terrible and this, you know, losing friends at the office
Speaker 1: like this, it stinks. And then you look at how
Speaker 1: much has changed for for us as a podcast in
Speaker 1: the last you know, fifteen months or something. Obviously we
Speaker 1: lost West and now a lot of these very important
Speaker 1: people all around the show. So it feels a little
Speaker 1: bit and with all some uncertainty about the media group,
Speaker 1: right now this feels a lot like the Great Unknown
Speaker 1: era of the podcast as we edge toward our ninth season.
Speaker 1: But you know, we're very excited about what's to come
Speaker 1: on the show. But it's also very important to talk
Speaker 1: about this because these are the people that helped make
Speaker 1: the show what it is. If you're a fan of
Speaker 1: what we do, really quick with where you move on
Speaker 1: one in true NFL Network style, I didn't know Ryan
Speaker 1: was one of the people. I didn't ask. I didn't
Speaker 1: go around asking who's gone um, And I will say
Speaker 1: the thing that I love about all three of these
Speaker 1: men that you haven't brought up yet. In addition to
Speaker 1: being super supportive and being very helpful and instrumental in
Speaker 1: all of our careers, I loved how good of dad's
Speaker 1: they are. You you could never be around I mean Marvel.
Speaker 1: Marvel's son is a baseball player, and if you've been
Speaker 1: around for five minutes, you you feel the like glow
Speaker 1: of this dad who's just like so happy and so
Speaker 1: proud of his son and it's so sweet. And the
Speaker 1: same thing with Mark, like his kids were the world,
Speaker 1: and his wife the whole thing. Like you just around.
Speaker 1: I mean, Erica and I actually were in Boston. We
Speaker 1: went to a Sloan conference three sloans ago and we
Speaker 1: did the podcast that I was doing, and he was
Speaker 1: so great about making it fun and a team trip
Speaker 1: and really just pushing hard for that too. So when
Speaker 1: you talk about it, I mean, we even went on
Speaker 1: a tour of hard Harvard because like his wife had
Speaker 1: gone there and he was just so excited to see
Speaker 1: it because his only meant everything to him, and it's
Speaker 1: the same thing for Bartlett as well, like his I mean,
Speaker 1: these people are just great human beings. And I will say,
Speaker 1: as an alum of ESPN, I've never met people that like, like,
Speaker 1: go fast forward eighteen months down the road, they'll all
Speaker 1: be in better places because they're all hard workers, they're
Speaker 1: all good people, and they're all really good at what
Speaker 1: they do, so they're gonna land in a better spot.
Speaker 1: Almost every single person that I've ever encountered that's gone
Speaker 1: through something like this, this is not it's not personal,
Speaker 1: it's not anything to do with it's literally like changing
Speaker 1: business models, all these different things that are going on
Speaker 1: with our business. We're trying to partner, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of strategy things going on, so they're gonna all be
Speaker 1: in great spot and then they can go hire us
Speaker 1: when we need jobs again. So they're gonna be They're
Speaker 1: gonna be okay. But they're great dads. And I want
Speaker 1: to point that out. We might yeah, we might. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is how this industry works. Like, yeah, you know
Speaker 1: for sure. That was one of my favorite moments in
Speaker 1: the newsroom history. Because my as a kid, I always
Speaker 1: want to be a baseball player. And um, I still
Speaker 1: if you if I had to pick one career in
Speaker 1: a dream scenario, would be like playing seventeen years in
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball. I just feel like that would be
Speaker 1: the greatest life. So I've always had such um ah
Speaker 1: uh and um looked at people that are in professional
Speaker 1: baseball and James Marvels, John's son who's in the Pirates
Speaker 1: organization in Pittsburgh, and when he got called up to
Speaker 1: the majors in September two thousand nineteen, that coincided. It
Speaker 1: just happened to fall on a Sunday week one. So
Speaker 1: we're all in the news room and John was in
Speaker 1: the news room, was at the game in Pittsburgh. Uh,
Speaker 1: and he was on TV and the and they I
Speaker 1: think they interviewed him and and and James pitched well
Speaker 1: that day. Um he threw five or six innings and
Speaker 1: pitched well, and it was just like such a cool
Speaker 1: moment to be part of that, and following James's career,
Speaker 1: and I hope to see him back in the big
Speaker 1: league soon. But I thought you were gonna say that
Speaker 1: one of the best moments in the newsroom with Marvel
Speaker 1: was when um, he broke up another reporter like wanting
Speaker 1: to like punch me in the face. It's like, everyone
Speaker 1: out of here, Okay, you're coming with me, and he
Speaker 1: like that was all right. That was actually the best
Speaker 1: moment ever. We'll tell you about it afterwards, Cynthia. We've
Speaker 1: referred to it a handful of times on this show.
Speaker 1: But uh, well, all right, anyway, we'll see you guys
Speaker 1: down the line. Let's get to the news. He's an
Speaker 1: NBA owner, a self taught guitarist, and has guest starred
Speaker 1: in both the Office and Game of Thrones. He's unhappy
Speaker 1: with his boss and has no options. Who is Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers ding Ding? That is correct, well done, projection time.
Speaker 1: I never said I'm un happy with my boss, you know,
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. I liking this guy more and more. Greg
Speaker 1: It took about twenty years, but that was in some
Speaker 1: interview ahead of that dopey golf match they were all
Speaker 1: involved in. Um that Aaron Rodgers team one. I believe
Speaker 1: Cynthia is a big golfer. Maybe she can give us
Speaker 1: more uh information on that, but uh yeah, Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: who I guess is still in limbo, is NFL future
Speaker 1: Tom Brady having some fun at the reigning m v
Speaker 1: P S expense Cynthia, why was his background blurred? What
Speaker 1: is Aaron Rodgers hiding like his bags? Like, what's going
Speaker 1: on with that? Why? Brady is the guy who's not
Speaker 1: really very funny, but he found one joke that everyone loves,
Speaker 1: and so he just keeps hammering this one joke. And
Speaker 1: that's the way to do it. I mean, that is
Speaker 1: the way to do it. It's like it's the first
Speaker 1: time anyone's like, hey, Brady's got some pretty good singers,
Speaker 1: and so he just keeps going back and back on
Speaker 1: this Rodger. You better believe if I ever said something funny,
Speaker 1: I would keep replaying it. I'm just not funny, So
Speaker 1: if I kept doing I would just keep going to it.
Speaker 1: That's one of that's one of your long running um bits.
Speaker 1: I guess that's a bit. You just say you're not
Speaker 1: a funny person. I'm not. I'm truly not. Then I
Speaker 1: don't try and I'm never going to do, which makes
Speaker 1: you an outlier. Because the great Dave damaschik Uh is
Speaker 1: known to say, the problem is that everyone thinks they're funny,
Speaker 1: um deep down, and that leads to a lot of
Speaker 1: problems when they tried to share a sense of humor
Speaker 1: that maybe actually isn't as strong as they may believe
Speaker 1: it to be. But Cynthia, no, you know what I
Speaker 1: think with Brady by the way, and I think when
Speaker 1: you win six Super Bowls and three m v p
Speaker 1: s and you're generally recognized as the greatest football player
Speaker 1: in the history of this country, um, you realize that
Speaker 1: you're like, oh wait, I'm in the Sinatra zone. And
Speaker 1: like Frank Sinatra could say or do anything and nobody
Speaker 1: could get mad because he was Frank Sinatra. Like Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers is basically that in the sports realm. So he's
Speaker 1: the only guy that can give Aaron Rodgers and know
Speaker 1: that Aar Rodgers has to take it because Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: might be Aaron Rodgers. But he's not Tom Brady. That's
Speaker 1: all good fun, but you know, you can mess with people,
Speaker 1: and Aaron Rodgers is a sensitive sort. He's like another
Speaker 1: member of the rat pack. But Brady Sinatra, Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: still Sammy Davis. So ultimately, oh that's actually pretty good.
Speaker 1: Uh who's Dean Martin? Would that be Peyton Manning? Sure?
Speaker 1: Who's the other guy? There's the other guy? That nobody Joey? Uh?
Speaker 1: Who's the last guy in the rap? Back? This is
Speaker 1: where is y needed? Google? We need the Google machine?
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the news. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get going here starting. Uh, well, so we this is
Speaker 1: the first time we've done a show, Cynthia um in
Speaker 1: I guess almost two weeks. We're podcast in two weeks. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's that's kind of a record for our show.
Speaker 1: So we're just gonna catch on what we missed, um
Speaker 1: and we'll start with the news that went down late
Speaker 1: last month. The NFL is fine the Washington football team
Speaker 1: ten million dollars as a result of the league's investigation
Speaker 1: into the team's workplace culture. That money will eventually be used,
Speaker 1: We're told to support organizations committed to character education, anti bullying,
Speaker 1: healthy relationships, and related topics, the league said, and also
Speaker 1: Tanya Snyder. So, Tanya, Tanya, I don't I never know
Speaker 1: what that was named the team's co CEO this week,
Speaker 1: and we'll take over the day to day duties and
Speaker 1: represent the team at league functions for what's been deemed
Speaker 1: the next several months, so that's pretty open ended. Her husband,
Speaker 1: of course, is Dan Snyder, and he will put his
Speaker 1: focus on, we're told new stadium plants and other matters.
Speaker 1: The NFL said, Greg, you're kind of big picture on
Speaker 1: how this is played out. The you know, the fact
Speaker 1: that it came out right before the July fourth week
Speaker 1: and you know, played into the stereotype, the idea that
Speaker 1: it was a news dump because it did feel that way.
Speaker 1: This is one of the worst chapters in the last
Speaker 1: couple of decades of a team. Quote, you know, scandal,
Speaker 1: I guess, for lack of a better word, that that
Speaker 1: there's been. You know, it's funny to think of the
Speaker 1: attention that like the flate Gate got, just just media wise.
Speaker 1: I'm not blaming the league totally on either um compared
Speaker 1: to this and then it you know, it was kind
Speaker 1: of shuffled at this time of year where there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of people paying attention. And I thought almost
Speaker 1: all the reactions were understandable because, on one hand, you know,
Speaker 1: the NFL sometimes feels almost powerless compared to the owners
Speaker 1: who have all this money and are ultimately the commissioner's boss,
Speaker 1: and and it's pretty rare. It's unprecedented essentially to basically
Speaker 1: remove an owner, even if it's not fully in practice,
Speaker 1: if even if there's you know, it's his wife now
Speaker 1: running the team, it's a pretty big message to be
Speaker 1: sent that, like they're essentially removing him from his duties
Speaker 1: as an owner, is day to date duties, and how
Speaker 1: publicly like embarrassing that is and everything that that goes
Speaker 1: along with it, and the money is significant, and it's something.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, I totally understand all of the
Speaker 1: points that have been made about like the lack of
Speaker 1: clarity of what they actually did in this report. There
Speaker 1: was very few specifics, and I thought Sally Jenkins point
Speaker 1: in the Washington Post about like, okay, let's just stick
Speaker 1: the woman, let's stick the wife to clean up the
Speaker 1: husband's mess was was well was well said too. So
Speaker 1: on one hand, I do think it's kind of unprecedented,
Speaker 1: but it also uh, you know, in terms of the
Speaker 1: level of money and and and everything that they did
Speaker 1: to kind of put a spotlight on Snyder. On the
Speaker 1: other hand, it did show like the lack of power,
Speaker 1: because in theory, if everything they're seeing was true and
Speaker 1: they had the power to change owners, this would be
Speaker 1: the spot right, and they can't go that. They couldn't
Speaker 1: go that far. They couldn't go that far. And so
Speaker 1: I kind of get it on both sides. But it's
Speaker 1: not unlike any other story I've ever seen in the NFL,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. The team had been under the independent
Speaker 1: investigation since July, stemming from a number of sexual harassment
Speaker 1: allegations by previous employees over a fifteen year period, UH
Speaker 1: detailed by The Washington Post last summer, and an attorney,
Speaker 1: Beth Wilkinson, led the investigation, interviewing more than fifty people,
Speaker 1: mostly current or former employees of the organization, all granted anonymity.
Speaker 1: It's a tough one to get out. You're rolling your eyes. Cynthia,
Speaker 1: as a woman who has worked at the NFL for
Speaker 1: a while, Well, um, I love um, I love Ron Rivera.
Speaker 1: I think he is an amazing man human, and I'm
Speaker 1: really I loved how he went about his cancer situation.
Speaker 1: I like Jason write a lot he he and I share.
Speaker 1: He started he went to the University of Chicago booth Um,
Speaker 1: the booth I started physical there. It's a long story.
Speaker 1: We'll can talk about that another time, but we share
Speaker 1: kind of some roots there. There's a lot of good
Speaker 1: people that work there presently. I don't know how I
Speaker 1: would handle this because I don't know any of the truth,
Speaker 1: but I do know that a great organization in l A.
Speaker 1: If you want to donate to what it's called Peace
Speaker 1: over Violence. So that's kind of my thoughts. Well said,
Speaker 1: all right, moving on, UH, I feel like the start
Speaker 1: of the NFL season is the premiere of Hard Knocks.
Speaker 1: UH in the second week of August, and here it
Speaker 1: comes once again, and it will be the Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: who will be feature on the program. They are the
Speaker 1: first team to be featured for a third time. Hard
Speaker 1: Knocks premiere twenty years ago with a profiled the then
Speaker 1: defending champion Baltimore Ravens. A lot of Todd Heap pop
Speaker 1: that season, a lot of Brian Billick lounging in a
Speaker 1: hammock in a d G A F mode, as I
Speaker 1: recall Tony Saragosa. But that was then. This is now
Speaker 1: five episode season debuts August ten at ten pm the
Speaker 1: old Zeusser, as he's been doing for roughly four d
Speaker 1: years now. We'll be leading the episode recaps on NFL
Speaker 1: dot com, so stay tuned on that. Uh. And the
Speaker 1: Cowboys two thousand two and two thousand eight, we're involved
Speaker 1: in now two thousand any one and I cynthia Um
Speaker 1: you know when they you know, they throw us an
Speaker 1: as Simon at you right after the Super Bowl to
Speaker 1: keep the website alive. Uh, they asked me to write
Speaker 1: a Hard Knocks preview laying out the teams that could
Speaker 1: be picked. The Cowboys were amongst them that could be
Speaker 1: quote unquote mandatory uh inclusion because they uh check three
Speaker 1: certain boxes that would leave them open to being on
Speaker 1: the show even if they didn't want to be. I
Speaker 1: don't believe that, especially last year after they had the
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers and they did not pick them. But anyway,
Speaker 1: it's beside the point. The Cowboys were selected, and um
Speaker 1: Jared Jones and company to me, I wrote back in
Speaker 1: February they were the best choice of the five teams
Speaker 1: that could be compelled to be on the show. Uh,
Speaker 1: and there will be plenty of meat on the bone
Speaker 1: and uh. People like to complain about Hard Knocks like
Speaker 1: people like to complain about Saturday Night Live, how it
Speaker 1: used to be better and it's derivative at this point
Speaker 1: and all that. But you know what, people still watch
Speaker 1: it and you will be watching it as well, many
Speaker 1: of you listening right now. I'm a big fan. I
Speaker 1: think this is a great choice. First of all, last
Speaker 1: season was I mean with COVID, and everything was super
Speaker 1: confusing with two teams, like the jump cuts between the
Speaker 1: two if you didn't kind of know what the players
Speaker 1: look like, if you hadn't been as familiar as we are,
Speaker 1: like it's it was harder to follow. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: to But that was COVID's fault. It wasn't Hard Knocks fault.
Speaker 1: I think they do a brilliant job. It's a masterful show.
Speaker 1: I always like it. I always like Saturday Night Live too,
Speaker 1: so we're good on that. But I also think that
Speaker 1: the thing I'm most looking forward to. Will they please
Speaker 1: do you think that they're listening to this right now?
Speaker 1: Can they please like take an inventory of everything coach eats.
Speaker 1: I just feel like he's that guy who gets the
Speaker 1: entire picnic table and he's like a little bit of this,
Speaker 1: a little bit of this, a little bit of this,
Speaker 1: a little bit of this, a little bit of this.
Speaker 1: Like I just I have to know what Mike McCarthy eats.
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy dietary habits like that. It's got to be
Speaker 1: like amazing. It's gotta be amazing. Like that's the sub
Speaker 1: story right there, Like there's gotta be a lot. I mean,
Speaker 1: they had rexn and we didn't get that with Rex,
Speaker 1: although he iconic. Let's go get a goddamn snack, but
Speaker 1: we didn't see Rex eating a lot. But maybe we're
Speaker 1: overdue for a food focused Hard Knocks. They the jones
Speaker 1: Is usually give a lot of access, which I like.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're not gonna be like pressing on
Speaker 1: the edits, like when they did All or Nothing. That
Speaker 1: was the best All or Nothing season because they because
Speaker 1: they like allowed themselves to look a little vulnerable at
Speaker 1: times and allowed the coverage to be better. So I'm
Speaker 1: all for it. Anyway, Hard Knocks back in August. Can't wait.
Speaker 1: And by the way, the funny thing about hard knocks,
Speaker 1: And like I said, I write the recaps, everyone watches
Speaker 1: the first episode and it's all anyone's talking about. And
Speaker 1: then I start to feel like I'm fading into like
Speaker 1: a solitary chamber as the weeks get along and we
Speaker 1: get closer to real football. But those first couple episodes
Speaker 1: especially are always so fun because everyone's watching and talking
Speaker 1: about it, and everybody I can tell you everybody around
Speaker 1: the league, in the buildings, the coaches, gms, they all
Speaker 1: watch it too. It's fun to see what's going on
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. UM with colleagues all right. Uh. In
Speaker 1: other news, to kill Harry has been a huge disappointment
Speaker 1: for the New England Patriots. Um a number thirty two
Speaker 1: overall pick, a wide receiver, UM who has not been
Speaker 1: able to get his career off the ground, and after
Speaker 1: just two years with the team, he has requested a trade.
Speaker 1: Greg when we went through UM, is it rosta reset?
Speaker 1: I think it is project damn it. I knew it
Speaker 1: was the projected starters. I kind of specifically targeted Harry
Speaker 1: when I was looking at your depth chart. Is what
Speaker 1: happens with him as a first round pick? Um, It's
Speaker 1: starting to look increasingly possible that he's going to be
Speaker 1: one of those rare guys that doesn't get a third
Speaker 1: year with the team that drafted him in the first round. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a little weird because after Nelson Aguilar, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure anything's really set, you know, in the receiver group.
Speaker 1: But he he's not feeling the vibe. So it's almost
Speaker 1: like he's trying to beat the Patriots to the punch.
Speaker 1: Doesn't want the the shame of getting traded for a
Speaker 1: late seventh round pick or whatever it would be, and
Speaker 1: they're not gonna get much They're not gonna get much
Speaker 1: more for him. I don't think I was like nice
Speaker 1: little a nice little bit of NFL news to just
Speaker 1: sprinkle into the week. My focus has been mostly on Wimbledon. Dan.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know. I'm doing a another
Speaker 1: side podcast now, inspired inspired by Mark Sessler just uh,
Speaker 1: and you for a long time saying that eventually or
Speaker 1: Mark saying I'm gonna leave someday to do uh Courts
Speaker 1: of thunderblog, and now I'm actually doing Courts of Thunder.
Speaker 1: It's podcast, not a blog. Wait is it called Courts
Speaker 1: of Thunder? Actually? I called the Courts of thunder. Why not,
Speaker 1: that's right for my own enjoyment. Um, it's only during
Speaker 1: the Grand Slam, so it'll be over, you know until
Speaker 1: US open uh in a week. But yeah, me and
Speaker 1: I'm legitimately curious and you're hyper knowledgeable in the realm
Speaker 1: of tennis, so I'm sure there's a lot of good,
Speaker 1: good talking there. And you do it with a co host, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: with Glenn Clark. Um, who's a boss who's been on
Speaker 1: the show before. Um, Ravens guy. Um. Do you are
Speaker 1: you finding it's connecting with an audience so far? I
Speaker 1: have no idea, you know. That's why I'm trying to
Speaker 1: let them know. Come, come subscribe you now I'm here,
Speaker 1: and you know, the people that have been listening to it,
Speaker 1: they like it. I mean, I know it's a niche
Speaker 1: audience here. You know, you're not slicing the biggest pie
Speaker 1: with tennis, which is too bad. That's why I want
Speaker 1: to do it. It's just, you know, it's like, it's
Speaker 1: such a great game, it's such a great next year
Speaker 1: when you redo it, when you bring it back, then
Speaker 1: you need a partner with like you know, Amazon or
Speaker 1: one of these things, and then they can send me food,
Speaker 1: so I can listen to it and eat like I'm
Speaker 1: there right because there's special food there right, Like when
Speaker 1: you go to Wimbledon, you're what are you supposed to eat?
Speaker 1: It's like strawberries and cream. You get that ready to
Speaker 1: breakfast at Wimbledon this weekend? Yeah, you could get must
Speaker 1: be hungry all I'm talking about his food right now.
Speaker 1: But but next year I have Amazon delivered to me
Speaker 1: to my door. You can you know, there's there's your
Speaker 1: business idea then they can. Getting me paid is almost
Speaker 1: impossible with this endeavor. So getting free food for you
Speaker 1: it seems like another and for it. I really doubt
Speaker 1: that will ever happen. Did you have to push courts
Speaker 1: under through Congress? Or was Glenn like all right, whatever?
Speaker 1: Did let's just start the episode. Liked the name of
Speaker 1: the podcast, h Yeah, I and I had a better
Speaker 1: name initially called only Slams, like kind of like only fans,
Speaker 1: but we're only doing during the Slams. It that was better.
Speaker 1: And yet um, I don't know. I just courts no
Speaker 1: Courts of Thunder. That was the right move. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know what that was till this summer. I watched
Speaker 1: a lot of episodes of Catfish. That's what I learned
Speaker 1: when only fans was so, you know, learning everything this summer. UM.
Speaker 1: In other news, offensive line news the NFL excuse me,
Speaker 1: uh NFL football team the Pittsburgh Steelers, now that UM
Speaker 1: have released right guard David DeCastro. This was pretty stunning
Speaker 1: when it happened a couple of weeks ago. My Garifolo reported.
Speaker 1: Then we found out that he's dealing with all sorts
Speaker 1: of issues with his ankle and it could lead to
Speaker 1: the end of his NFL career. UM. So the Steeler
Speaker 1: is with a lot of turnover on their offensive line
Speaker 1: and a stone age pony, as Mark Sessler puts it
Speaker 1: behind center in Ben Roethlisberger. A huge roll of the
Speaker 1: dice on that offense in a lot of ways. And
Speaker 1: another news, my New York Jets continue, in my opinion
Speaker 1: and the opinion of many others, to get better. They
Speaker 1: signed Morgan Moses, the right tackle, to a one year,
Speaker 1: three point six million dollar contract UM. He will compete
Speaker 1: and most likely win the job at right tackle UM,
Speaker 1: which would kick George Fant into a swing tackle type
Speaker 1: role which might be a better fit for him and
Speaker 1: also with as great as McKay Beckton one was as
Speaker 1: a rookie, he had trouble standing on the field, so
Speaker 1: it gives you some much needed depth. I just really
Speaker 1: like um this Sprain trust, the sale and Joe Douglas
Speaker 1: and this was a move that made a lot of sense,
Speaker 1: and the Jets have a proven starter. Um Moses was
Speaker 1: a good, dependable guy in Washington for several years. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think anything to address the Jets old
Speaker 1: line is smart. I think if you're if I'm a
Speaker 1: Jets fan this season, I'm thinking, okay, let's just make
Speaker 1: it look better and better. And if I'm going two
Speaker 1: years out, then you can start to talk about things
Speaker 1: like you know, late January football, like you know not
Speaker 1: because obviously the season has been pushed out, so now
Speaker 1: everyone's playing January football. But you know, it's it's just, uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things where just be patient.
Speaker 1: Jets fans aren't known for their patients, but this is
Speaker 1: a situation. The offense is good, that's all that matters
Speaker 1: to me. It's just like the secondary is not good.
Speaker 1: Your secondaries back Wilson looked good. This was the move
Speaker 1: where it's sort of got me over the hump of
Speaker 1: being like, Wow, the Jets could be a pretty fun
Speaker 1: offense if Wilson can play the guitar. As Dan would say,
Speaker 1: I mean they really did. This was this is one
Speaker 1: of those moves like if Morgan Moses was a free
Speaker 1: agent coming into March, he probably would have gotten like
Speaker 1: four years, fifty million or something from some team. Not
Speaker 1: saying he would have been worth all that, but he
Speaker 1: probably would have. But because this all happened late, like
Speaker 1: and everyone would be like, oh, that's one of the
Speaker 1: big signings of the off season, number thirty three on
Speaker 1: the top one hundred, Morgan Moses goes to, you know,
Speaker 1: the Jets, but now it's just like kind of buried
Speaker 1: in June. They look they should be eminently watchable on offense.
Speaker 1: I really am. Actually he'll be fun, like a scheme,
Speaker 1: the players, everything about it. I want to I want
Speaker 1: to watch them more than I have for a while.
Speaker 1: It all hinges on Zack Wilson, and I'm I'm refused
Speaker 1: to get too excited because the Sam Donald experience was
Speaker 1: pretty hurtful and we know there are a lot of
Speaker 1: factors that went into his struggles. But the reports on
Speaker 1: Wilson are very good. At a camp from beat reporters.
Speaker 1: I trust that he just looks like he's gonna be
Speaker 1: able to handle this and maybe even thrive in an
Speaker 1: offense that is modern and suited to his skill set
Speaker 1: with better players around him. I want to watch I
Speaker 1: want to look forward to watching the Jets again. It's
Speaker 1: been a couple of years now, um where I haven't
Speaker 1: even been excited about watching them, and I feel like
Speaker 1: this could be a turning point, but I'm trying to
Speaker 1: keep things under control here, Cynthia. Okay, So Reagan on
Speaker 1: our show where we have to pick the winner of
Speaker 1: every game, and it's it's a lot of fun. And
Speaker 1: I think, because yeah, I struggle to coming back, we
Speaker 1: don't know, but I think in honor of that, whether
Speaker 1: or not it comes back, in honor of that, I
Speaker 1: think right now, since Week one is Sam Donald versus
Speaker 1: your Jets, I think that that me and Greg should
Speaker 1: in the Panther side and you should be on the
Speaker 1: Jet side, and it should be for like, you know,
Speaker 1: some snacks or food, because I can't stop talking about food,
Speaker 1: like something, you know, go have a beer somewhere and
Speaker 1: we'll be the Panthers and you be the Jets. It'll
Speaker 1: be fun and we all right. I'm certainly down with that,
Speaker 1: is because somebody don't even know if I want that.
Speaker 1: You're sticking me with Darnald. I'm a pretty anti Darnald.
Speaker 1: Like my anti Darnald panther, Thank you's going to travel
Speaker 1: with me to Carolina, so I'm not too high on
Speaker 1: these panthers. I'll do a sandwich with you on this, Cynthia,
Speaker 1: good week one all right? And final in the news,
Speaker 1: UM Rest in Peace Supplemental Draft. It won't be held
Speaker 1: this year. And I actually reached out to Handsome Hank
Speaker 1: Henry Hodgson, who for multiple years on our website NFL
Speaker 1: dot com. UM offered up his UH supplemental draft mock draft,
Speaker 1: which was always one of my favorite pieces of content
Speaker 1: on our fair website. I asked for him to give
Speaker 1: me a statement to read UM. But what he sent
Speaker 1: back to me, unfortunately, UH is not something I would
Speaker 1: keep him employed. So I'll just say that he's disappointed
Speaker 1: and UH, is this the end of the supplemental Draft?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't read the story very closely
Speaker 1: and forgot to check it out before we started. I
Speaker 1: just know it's not happening it's startbreaking two straight years.
Speaker 1: No supplemental draft, just the the amount of draft prep
Speaker 1: that goes into it um for me, for all the
Speaker 1: people who love it like Henry, you know, just the
Speaker 1: citement it brings, like Wimbledon and NBA Finals. No, this
Speaker 1: is supplemental draft season and we've missed it two straight.
Speaker 1: We need to rebrand it. It just needs it just
Speaker 1: needs a rebranding. Supplemental draft sounds awful, like some terrible
Speaker 1: iron pill you have to eat with a banana or
Speaker 1: something in the morning, like you need to real you
Speaker 1: need to think of a clever name for it. If
Speaker 1: if it were called Courts of Thunder, people would they
Speaker 1: wouldn't get rid of it. You just need to rebrand it,
Speaker 1: all right, let me get Greg's projects fit before we
Speaker 1: bring the sand Bounce all set, before we bring sand
Speaker 1: Bouncing on. He has the Around the NFL podcast, he
Speaker 1: has the Debrief, he has the Debrief, a written piece
Speaker 1: on r j VP podcast with Anthony Jesson or the
Speaker 1: Rosenthal and jel Nick project, which was the previous iteration.
Speaker 1: Well that was at the end of the Yeah, now
Speaker 1: he's got the first name, Courts of Thunder. Now you
Speaker 1: have UM one of my missing uh your Game Day
Speaker 1: Pick Show, game Debut, Game Debut, Yeah, um, anything else
Speaker 1: Emmy nominated just so you have some national radio spots.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have an Emmy nominated host of that show.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if it was nominated for
Speaker 1: his work on our show, but Hawk was nominated for
Speaker 1: an Emmy and he is on our show. So you
Speaker 1: guys get a little bit annoyed when in our newsroom
Speaker 1: everyone has an Emmy except for us. Yeah, maybe you
Speaker 1: have one, st I don't know. I don't have. Seriously,
Speaker 1: I want an Emmy. Maybe make a better TV show
Speaker 1: because that would help us. Actually, I think I do
Speaker 1: have one. But when I on the other side of
Speaker 1: the business development side, like I worked at the ABC
Speaker 1: and we did that show, like we did that sync
Speaker 1: project with Gray's Anatomy, it was like, you know, you
Speaker 1: have the trophy. We'll didn't get the trophy. You have
Speaker 1: to pay for It's like and it was like my
Speaker 1: name in a list of like fifty other people, So
Speaker 1: it wasn't that special. I got to vote on some
Speaker 1: other Emmy sounds cool. Thank you for running through them.
Speaker 1: I might be returning to an old object though again
Speaker 1: this season that Chris Wesleyan took back over for me,
Speaker 1: taken back the reins on the old QB index. I mean,
Speaker 1: what a moment, What a moment to be on the
Speaker 1: Greg train. That's all same of which I am a passenger.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I'm like. I'm in the first roup.
Speaker 1: I paid for the upgraded seats. I'm the first class
Speaker 1: on that one. That's what's happening in the news. You
Speaker 1: promised the guest. And you know, we really sprung this
Speaker 1: upon Cynthia because we know she is in the analytics
Speaker 1: community and here with us now joining us on the
Speaker 1: show is a man who is the lead NFL writer
Speaker 1: analyst for Pro Football Focus. I mean that is that's
Speaker 1: a job title right there. It's a great Sam Monson,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Round the NFL podcast. A thank you.
Speaker 1: And it's a critical distinction there that the you know,
Speaker 1: the writer not math person because smile level of math ended.
Speaker 1: You know, we did from adcational system being over in Europe,
Speaker 1: but g c S intermediate level, which is like just
Speaker 1: above being able to count numbers, so other people do
Speaker 1: the maths stuff and then not just you know, interpret
Speaker 1: it makes sense and write about it at PF. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but like a lot of the guy you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of guys over at PFF. You guys are
Speaker 1: now in Cincinnati. You have that like underscore PF in
Speaker 1: your Twitter name, but none of them are the lead writer.
Speaker 1: I mean they're all just kind of like, hey, we're
Speaker 1: just guys. We're not Sam. You know that's it's a
Speaker 1: big it's a big flex go and lead right, But
Speaker 1: a big part of that was just claiming it and
Speaker 1: hope nobody noticed or criticized me for it. So it's
Speaker 1: I'm not sure there's a ton of merit involved in that,
Speaker 1: just uh you know, you shoot your shot and see
Speaker 1: what happens. So about a week ago, uh, PFF dropped
Speaker 1: their fifty best players in the NFL right now. Uh
Speaker 1: Sam had the byeline on that, and we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into that and also some guys that were notable cuts.
Speaker 1: It's a great piece of content to run in late June,
Speaker 1: and I know the football world devours it and that's good.
Speaker 1: But before we kind of get to that, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to talk with you, Sam because I touch based
Speaker 1: with you briefly before the show. Um, just that just
Speaker 1: to know how long you've been around and at PF
Speaker 1: and you said since two thousand and eight, which is
Speaker 1: going way back there. And you know p F has
Speaker 1: a seat at the table um in professional football. And
Speaker 1: I think, um, that's very interesting because the NFL, like
Speaker 1: most businesses, but especially in the insular world of pro football,
Speaker 1: they don't take kindly to outsiders, especially those who quote
Speaker 1: never played the game. And I know Nick Hornsby uh
Speaker 1: founded the site in the UK. You're an irishman, so
Speaker 1: I mean that's another layer to this, and I'm just curious, Um,
Speaker 1: as someone who's been with the company for well over
Speaker 1: a decade now, Um, how long did it take in
Speaker 1: your in your mind, uh to get a foothold and
Speaker 1: to kind of feel like you would earn the industry
Speaker 1: respect because you certainly have because as of a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, h PFF has customized data that they
Speaker 1: send out to all thirty two NFL teams, n C
Speaker 1: double a FBS team, CFL teams, media all over the country,
Speaker 1: sports agencies. I mean, you are a power player as
Speaker 1: a company. Um, how did this take hold? And did
Speaker 1: you sense a lot of pushback industry wise until that happened?
Speaker 1: You're right, the NFL doesn't like people didn't play the
Speaker 1: game or aren't real football people. And you can only
Speaker 1: imagine that that gets magnified massively when you're foreign as well. Right,
Speaker 1: you know, you're British or you're Irish or you're European.
Speaker 1: Coming over and telling us what to do with football
Speaker 1: and never played the game, everything's going to gain you.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that was definitely a big thing that we
Speaker 1: had to battle against all the way. But critically, once
Speaker 1: you talk to people you know for any ended period
Speaker 1: of time, it becomes very obvious very quickly if you
Speaker 1: do or you don't know what you're talking about. So
Speaker 1: as soon as you're actually able to get in front
Speaker 1: of any NFL guys and walk them through what it
Speaker 1: is PFF was doing and what it is we could
Speaker 1: bring and help them with, that disappears and that dissolves.
Speaker 1: And that's that's the story in a nutshell of how
Speaker 1: Chris Collinsworth ended up buying the company that you know,
Speaker 1: he found PFF was really interested in the data, bought
Speaker 1: a kind of kind of consumer conscripted or subscription that
Speaker 1: we were selling at the time, and then you know,
Speaker 1: I thought they realized that the site was run by
Speaker 1: European British guy Neil Hornsby and you know, phone him up,
Speaker 1: thought he'd been cheated out of his money. But ten
Speaker 1: minutes later on the phone with Neil and you know,
Speaker 1: he was convinced. It's like, okay, this guy maybe from
Speaker 1: a weird place and the bank orders of Britain, but
Speaker 1: he he knows what he's talking about. He knows football
Speaker 1: as well as anybody in the NFL. And that's where
Speaker 1: that starts. So the first hurdle is the toughest. Once
Speaker 1: you can yet in front of people, once you can
Speaker 1: get them to accept the premise of what is you're
Speaker 1: bringing to the table, then it all falls into place.
Speaker 1: And really, you know, our first few years, we would
Speaker 1: go to the Combine and we would try and set
Speaker 1: up meetings with all these teams, and just getting the
Speaker 1: meeting was the achievement. You know, once you got them
Speaker 1: in the room and you walked them through the process,
Speaker 1: nobody ever left that room going well, this is ridiculous,
Speaker 1: Like this is useless. We don't need any of this, this,
Speaker 1: this doesn't make any sense. Every single meeting you would
Speaker 1: be like, wow, this is amazing stuff. We could do
Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff. This is fantastic. Getting the meeting
Speaker 1: was the achievement, and then each year it it built
Speaker 1: on the last year, and we went from a few
Speaker 1: meetings to you know, half the league, to most of
Speaker 1: the league to all the league. Um, And that was
Speaker 1: sort of how it went over those for a few years.
Speaker 1: I think it also partly changed. I noticed when like
Speaker 1: pffs evaluation started having real world implications, like guys like
Speaker 1: Andrew Wentworth. I'm trying to think of a few off
Speaker 1: the top of head, just like guys that like PFF
Speaker 1: always had as one of the top people started making
Speaker 1: more money because I think in making more Pro Bowls,
Speaker 1: I think partly because PF had them ranked so high,
Speaker 1: and so the media sort of started, you know, catching
Speaker 1: onto how good they were, and like people started getting
Speaker 1: paid through like some PF grades and then I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: that is that is some real like economic impact they're making. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny. Um. I think offensive win in particular is
Speaker 1: one area where we've really helped a lot of players
Speaker 1: along guys like Witworth. You know, Evan Mathis was one
Speaker 1: of our first players who we were kind of championing
Speaker 1: way before anybody else. Because offensive line there aren't You
Speaker 1: don't get the stat right there, before we existed, all
Speaker 1: the writers ever tell you about the offensive lineman that
Speaker 1: your team and signed is you know, started eight games
Speaker 1: last year. Well what does that mean? I mean were
Speaker 1: they good games? Were they bad games? What? Like? That
Speaker 1: tells me nothing? Um, So now you know with PF grades,
Speaker 1: even ignore the grade we'll give you date on in
Speaker 1: terms of pressure and pressure rat and all those kinds
Speaker 1: of things. So you can start to quantify how good
Speaker 1: these offensive lineman are. And even if you don't agree
Speaker 1: with this, like even if you think we're crazy, it
Speaker 1: makes you go and watch that guy. Right, So, even
Speaker 1: if you think we were way off and Evan Mathis,
Speaker 1: people that would never have watched a snap of Evan Mathis,
Speaker 1: we're going and looking at this guy and it's ruining
Speaker 1: from the cells, whether it was good or not. And
Speaker 1: then people watch this tape came to the conclusion and
Speaker 1: suddenly Evan Mathis is a guy that actually does get
Speaker 1: covided in the NFL signs. You know a couple of
Speaker 1: decent deals with teams having been you know, the essentially
Speaker 1: the backup and a two man rotation at guard with
Speaker 1: the Bengals back in the day, I would say the thing,
Speaker 1: those those metrics, the ones that you've pioneered and created,
Speaker 1: I think, especially like from the college into NFL kind
Speaker 1: of the bridging the gap between the two. Nobody has
Speaker 1: those for college, especially right, Like some teams have their
Speaker 1: own version of like they do a free agent tracker
Speaker 1: and blah blah blah. But you know, it's it's really
Speaker 1: standardizing and become like the gold standard of what is
Speaker 1: like an a accepted form of a pressure from college
Speaker 1: and then a pressure from the NFL. So that's it's
Speaker 1: really like very I think those, even more than the grades,
Speaker 1: are what's really been so instrumental. I think just generally
Speaker 1: being able to put everything on a standardized universal system
Speaker 1: across all Like it's huge. You you know, so many
Speaker 1: fans will will sort of come at you with this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. It's well, I watch every snap of
Speaker 1: this guy, and I think you're wrong about where you
Speaker 1: have him ranked or where you have him rated, Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: where does that rank compared to everybody else? Like maybe
Speaker 1: the league level at that position or that spot is
Speaker 1: a lot better or worse than you think it is.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to have the context of everything else,
Speaker 1: even if you disagree with the exact methodology and how
Speaker 1: it's all put together, the fact that it's all done
Speaker 1: the same, and you know, we put all this time
Speaker 1: and man hours and double blind systems across the board
Speaker 1: to make sure that it's as standardized as possible. Like
Speaker 1: that in and of itself has some value. Well that's
Speaker 1: why the good teams actually can use it as like
Speaker 1: an arbitrage. Right, If you're the league standard, then the
Speaker 1: team can find the undervalued stock for their system. Right,
Speaker 1: So I think that I think that that's like if
Speaker 1: they have one system and they know every league, every
Speaker 1: team in the league's looking at you know, this is
Speaker 1: the number or this is the this is the whatever.
Speaker 1: On our team, we believe that number can be expresent
Speaker 1: higher because we play you know, with we have this linebacker,
Speaker 1: you know something like that. Right. So Dan was cool
Speaker 1: with this discussion until you said arbitrage like a little
Speaker 1: too much, just like you know this just think it's
Speaker 1: like you get the better thing, you get something for nothing,
Speaker 1: little extra. It's actually arbitrage. But you know it's like
Speaker 1: when they give you the guacamole at Chappolan forget to
Speaker 1: charge you kind of like that right by the way,
Speaker 1: I like to imagine Colin's Worth just kind of rolling
Speaker 1: into the office and his pajamas with a cup of
Speaker 1: coffee at a random time in Cincinnati just to keep
Speaker 1: everyone sharp, like or is he kind of like and
Speaker 1: I know, maybe it's all a remote type gig because
Speaker 1: everyone's all over the world here, But is he like
Speaker 1: a Lumberg type that will kind of just like head
Speaker 1: you off at the exit at five pm on a
Speaker 1: Friday in the middle of June and be like, I
Speaker 1: need you to do some p f F TPS reports
Speaker 1: this weekend. What kind of I haven't seen the pajamas thing?
Speaker 1: You know, That hasn't mean he'll He'll roll in there
Speaker 1: with you know, one of those kind of airport travel briraces,
Speaker 1: the things on wheels with the like six foot long
Speaker 1: handle that he tracks behind them. So he'll be pulling
Speaker 1: one of those with the laptops and the iPads and
Speaker 1: all screens that he's got with him, um, you know,
Speaker 1: rocking the kind of the summer casual, you know, the
Speaker 1: khaki shorts and the polos. But yeah, you can definitely
Speaker 1: catch some you know, wayward flak if you just happen
Speaker 1: to be in the vicinity at the time when he
Speaker 1: wants a question answer, you know, because if you don't
Speaker 1: have the answer off the top of your head, it's
Speaker 1: now your job to go find that answer. So that
Speaker 1: can definitely happen. You gotta keep right and in all seriousness,
Speaker 1: I mean Collinsworth obviously, UM he has one of the
Speaker 1: top media jobs in football Sunday night football. He watches
Speaker 1: obviously a ton of games. Is he is there ever
Speaker 1: a situation in UM without calling anyone out specifically, where
Speaker 1: Collinsworth is covering a game and then he goes and
Speaker 1: he checks his website and the grade doesn't match with
Speaker 1: what he saw and then he's upset about it. Do
Speaker 1: people catch heat if they're not on the Collinsworth scale
Speaker 1: of what you guys do in terms of measuring play.
Speaker 1: It's it's never we've never been in trouble for it.
Speaker 1: But there's definitely times where we've had to explain that discrepancy.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, explain to me why this guy's great
Speaker 1: is whatever it is when I'm seeing this, and you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the times there's there's reasons, right, there
Speaker 1: are things that either you're you're not paying attention to
Speaker 1: or there's like again, sort of the idea documenting all
Speaker 1: is important because I think the brain functions is like
Speaker 1: a highlight reel system, and you remember the good, you
Speaker 1: remember the bad, and you toss that everything in the middle.
Speaker 1: But everything in the middle actually makes up of a
Speaker 1: guy's game, right, So if you're just throwing all that
Speaker 1: out as the same, it isn't like it's various gradations
Speaker 1: of either side of zero a little bit um and
Speaker 1: that's where the difference is. So a lot of the times,
Speaker 1: stuff like that is you're remembering a few big plays
Speaker 1: and you're sort of not remembering the tremend a little
Speaker 1: bit and not like this whole show about Evan Mathis again.
Speaker 1: But I think that's one of the reasons why we
Speaker 1: were so different on Evan Mathis to everybody else, because
Speaker 1: he didn't have a ton of those highlight reel blocks.
Speaker 1: He was playing at about the same time as Carl
Speaker 1: Knicks for the Saint, and Karl Knicks was like a
Speaker 1: walking highlight reel machine. That guy would just pancake defenders left,
Speaker 1: right and center and bury them like his highlight reel
Speaker 1: would have been phenomenal for offensive lineman, but Carl Knicks
Speaker 1: got beat more often than Evin Mathis, and Evan Mathis,
Speaker 1: this thing was he just never lost. Now, he didn't
Speaker 1: always bear a dude and can fire guards off line
Speaker 1: and you know, open up this giant, yawning chasm for
Speaker 1: the running back to go through. But he was consistently
Speaker 1: winning a little bit every single snap, you know, just
Speaker 1: moving this guy enough to give the running back a crease.
Speaker 1: And that's all you need. And if you do that
Speaker 1: sixty times a game, you're coming up with a really
Speaker 1: good grade. So in your PFF fifty here and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna quote your blurb as we get into it now. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is a bit of a humble brag open by
Speaker 1: Monson and the biggest of all spots with a lot
Speaker 1: of metrics, Uh, a lot of clicks. One of the
Speaker 1: benefits of watching and degrading every player on every play
Speaker 1: of the NFL season is the unrivaled ability to compare
Speaker 1: players with the help of the largest football database on
Speaker 1: the planet. Whoa um And with that said, how do
Speaker 1: you not have Patrick Mahomes is the greatest player on
Speaker 1: the planet Because you have Aaron Donald number one and
Speaker 1: Pat Mahomes number two. And we're gonna dig in, and
Speaker 1: I know Greg has some he wants to call out
Speaker 1: in Cynthy and I will, But just how does Aaron Donald?
Speaker 1: How is he the greatest player alive? Right now? So
Speaker 1: I think everybody I saw yes had a guy that
Speaker 1: ranked down Donald fourth among interior defenders. So almost everybody
Speaker 1: acknowledges that Aaron Donald was the best player at his
Speaker 1: position in the NFL, and Patrick Mahomes is the best
Speaker 1: player in his position in the NFL. So the question
Speaker 1: essentially is, well, how do you compare those two positions
Speaker 1: are completely different. One of the things that the PFF
Speaker 1: fifty does and most PFF list is we get rid
Speaker 1: of position value, right because if position value was relevant here,
Speaker 1: the first twenty five players would be quarterbacks, and frankly,
Speaker 1: that doesn't make for a great list. So position values gone.
Speaker 1: You can be the top of this list if you're
Speaker 1: a guard, if you're a defensive tackle, if you're a quarterback.
Speaker 1: It's all the same. So now you're like, well, how
Speaker 1: do you kind of quantify relatively how much better than
Speaker 1: the rest of the league those guys are. And I
Speaker 1: think that's where Aaron Donald separates himself because in any
Speaker 1: given year, Patrick Mahomes might not be the best quarterback
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Aaron or Aaron Rodgers was the best
Speaker 1: quarterback in the NFL last year when m v P.
Speaker 1: The year before that, Lamar Jackson was unanimous m v P.
Speaker 1: So Momes might not be that guy any given year.
Speaker 1: And if he is, the gap between him and the
Speaker 1: next guys it's not huge. Aaron Donald, there's not like
Speaker 1: it's never a discussion. Aaron Donald is the best player
Speaker 1: in his position in the league. There is a huge
Speaker 1: gap between him and number two, and it hasn't been
Speaker 1: a discussion for what like five six years now. So
Speaker 1: the gap between Donald and anybody else at his position,
Speaker 1: I think it's just so huge that that has to
Speaker 1: be relevant in terms of just how good a guy
Speaker 1: is and whether he's the best player in the NFL
Speaker 1: or not. Like I get throwing out positional value, you
Speaker 1: gotta do that some up. But there is still something
Speaker 1: weird about seeing like five running backs in your top
Speaker 1: or like three in your top thirty, and you have
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry, who's not really a huge weapon on passing
Speaker 1: downs number twelve. You know you've got McCaffrey up there
Speaker 1: in the top thirty chub. But somewhere in there, Camaro
Speaker 1: was in there, Dalvin Cook was, I mean, it has
Speaker 1: to give you the like high it's to be ranking
Speaker 1: a bunch of running backs that high when all you
Speaker 1: do is talk about how fungible running backs are. I
Speaker 1: have a huge degree of sympathy for running backs generally,
Speaker 1: because that is one of the most like a tri
Speaker 1: you know, abuse, physically difficult, demanding, taxing positions all of football.
Speaker 1: And it just so happens that all of the numbers
Speaker 1: say that it doesn't really matter who the guy is
Speaker 1: getting the garries, like you can you're a product of
Speaker 1: the environment on a bone on a late June lift,
Speaker 1: and you think that makes up for it, not even
Speaker 1: throw them a bone, just like acknowledge that what they're doing.
Speaker 1: Like when when running backs complain about the running backs
Speaker 1: don't matter thing, they're right, like it's it's a brutal position.
Speaker 1: They're all incredibly talented. There's some of the most spectangular
Speaker 1: athletes playing the game. It just so happens that, like
Speaker 1: the thing that will determine the most whether or not
Speaker 1: you're having success, it's not you. It's not you versus
Speaker 1: your backup versus a guy you can get off the street.
Speaker 1: It's how good is your offensive line, It's what kind
Speaker 1: of formations are your is your offense turning out in,
Speaker 1: because that's going to dictate the box count, which is
Speaker 1: going to dictate how much success you have. Like it's
Speaker 1: just this sad Henry kind of Henry Peas number twelve
Speaker 1: and the other guys that are in the top thirty.
Speaker 1: Putting them there, to me has to be saying that
Speaker 1: they rise above that they rise above the other factors, right,
Speaker 1: And I think for Henry in particular, we're now going
Speaker 1: on a couple of years of him statistically dramatically outperforming
Speaker 1: what should be possible given what we know from you know,
Speaker 1: all the stuff that we just talked about. Derrick Henn
Speaker 1: is not a bad offensive line in front of him,
Speaker 1: but he certainly hasn't had an offensive line that has
Speaker 1: produced that should have produced what he's been producing. And
Speaker 1: you know, there there are not that many players where
Speaker 1: we can think of specific games where it hasn't been
Speaker 1: going great and then Derrick Henry just took over and
Speaker 1: you know, won the Titans the game. So I think
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry right in the day is saying that running
Speaker 1: backs generally don't matter. Derrick Henry might Like Derrick Henry
Speaker 1: is bucking that day to trend and has been for
Speaker 1: a long enough time now that it's it's at least notable.
Speaker 1: I think it has something to do with supply and
Speaker 1: demand two over time, not necessarily the one to one,
Speaker 1: like your replacement versus you. But I think that if
Speaker 1: you look like this list is for next season, it's
Speaker 1: a projection of the top fifty players for this particular season.
Speaker 1: If you were to make this list out for five
Speaker 1: seasons and try to forecast it out in some way,
Speaker 1: you might have running backs on there, but it probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't always be the same one or they probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: be in the same position. Right, So it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: that each that that the running back, Like each individual
Speaker 1: running back isn't helpful or in a specific season, very impactful,
Speaker 1: but it's that over time. Like, look like you had
Speaker 1: some pretty good running backs come out of this year's
Speaker 1: draft class, and I guess Naja Harris is a first rounder,
Speaker 1: but like you got Javonte Williams is getting a lot
Speaker 1: of talk about him, and they got him pretty late.
Speaker 1: So it's at the end of the day, it's it's
Speaker 1: less about like an individual being replaceable and more about
Speaker 1: kind of the trend of the position and all the
Speaker 1: other factors that that's kind of how I read it
Speaker 1: at least. Yeah, I mean, I think a big part
Speaker 1: of the running backs don't matter the running backsplace thing
Speaker 1: is a lot of it is like a lot of
Speaker 1: talented run backs. Once any running back in the NFL
Speaker 1: is an incredibly talent athlete and player, and part of
Speaker 1: their problem is that the drop off between you know,
Speaker 1: the top ten guys in the NFL and the guys
Speaker 1: that are strong, you know, strong just to make Brosters
Speaker 1: is not big like it feels like it should be.
Speaker 1: But I think it's closer than a lot of other positions.
Speaker 1: And part of the reason they're that replaceable is because
Speaker 1: you can just go to the bargain bin and grab
Speaker 1: these guys that were incredible college running backs, um and
Speaker 1: and they're still fantastic athletes and playmakers, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: have that big a drop off, and so it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a knock on the athlete the position. It is
Speaker 1: part of that that that supply there there's an abundance
Speaker 1: of running backs that can all do a similar job.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the list and I was trying to
Speaker 1: figure out in my mind, who's the guy in the
Speaker 1: top outside the top ten who I could see kind
Speaker 1: of making that leap. And you have Miles Garrett at
Speaker 1: I could see him being a guy because the ada
Speaker 1: that you pulled from grading every play, obviously it's connected
Speaker 1: to um every snap. And he was not the same
Speaker 1: guy after he got sick. I wonder where he's in
Speaker 1: this list. If he was the same Miles Garrett uh
Speaker 1: leading in after week ten as he was in the
Speaker 1: first ten weeks, I could see him being the guy
Speaker 1: that ends up maybe cracking the top five. Even is
Speaker 1: there somebody that jumps out to you that you could
Speaker 1: see making a leap based on what they gave you
Speaker 1: last year? Yeah? I think Garrett Stephaniely good one. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be writing an article tomorrow about look if if
Speaker 1: Myles Garrett puts it together for a full seventeen game schedule. Now, um,
Speaker 1: he's a defensive Player of the Year candidate. He's he's
Speaker 1: the one guy, or one of a few guys that
Speaker 1: could rival Aaron Donald on that particular award. And it
Speaker 1: feels like that's happened already, but if you look at
Speaker 1: his career, we haven't really seen that yet. We had
Speaker 1: half a season of that and then he you know,
Speaker 1: brain Mason Rudolph with his own helmet and missed half
Speaker 1: the year, and then we got another half a season
Speaker 1: of it, and then caught COVID and you're I wasn't
Speaker 1: quite the same guy. So we haven't yet had this
Speaker 1: full season of Garrett in full flow, the peak of
Speaker 1: his hours. But it feels like we're right on the
Speaker 1: edge of that. But like maybe one is that year
Speaker 1: where we get the full, unadulterated, full version of Miles Garrett.
Speaker 1: And I think that player is special and it's a
Speaker 1: top ten talent um. I think, you know, Nick Bosa's
Speaker 1: the guy. It's crazy that we've we've still only seen
Speaker 1: rookie Nick Bosa. You know, we really haven't seen what
Speaker 1: that was gonna look like. In the year two, we
Speaker 1: lasted what for something snaps and then got injured. Nick
Speaker 1: Bosa broke the rookie record for pressures in the season,
Speaker 1: which had stood until since. Like that was Aldon Smith's
Speaker 1: record that he broke, So that was a long standing
Speaker 1: number and he didn't just break it. He like blew
Speaker 1: past it by a ton of pressures. Think ended with
Speaker 1: eight on the season and was still cooking in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl at the time, way past the rookie wall
Speaker 1: that these guys are supposed to hit. Nick Bosa, I think,
Speaker 1: had twelve pressures on Patrick Hims in that Super Bowl
Speaker 1: and was one of the best players on the field. So,
Speaker 1: like Nick, Chase Young is the best edge rusher prospect
Speaker 1: we've ever seen come into the NFL, and he looks
Speaker 1: like he could be special. But Nick Bosta was like
Speaker 1: right there with him. I mean, his college production is
Speaker 1: right there. He was young, he was a tremendously special
Speaker 1: talent and rookie boss phenomenal, So I could easily see
Speaker 1: him take the step this year, and like some ending himself,
Speaker 1: was one of the best players and edge rushes in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Did you get a lot of grief for
Speaker 1: having Brady seventh? Actually no, it wasn't an awful lot
Speaker 1: of back on Brady and people were more. People were
Speaker 1: drawn to other either omissions or you know, against football. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is. It is ridiculous. He's the number
Speaker 1: two quarterback on this list. He's forty three years old.
Speaker 1: Dan was talking about hashtag gradual of decline literally like
Speaker 1: six seasons ago. Now this is whatever at the end
Speaker 1: of his Patriots run, I stay by it, I get it.
Speaker 1: That's changed around. You said that before one of his
Speaker 1: is like last MCS Right, that's what we thought. And
Speaker 1: it is crazy though that credibly. I almost think his
Speaker 1: buck season got a little underrated because he had a
Speaker 1: couple of interceptions, you know, in one of the playoff games,
Speaker 1: and so people want to bring uh, you know, in
Speaker 1: the championship and want to bring that up. Whereas now
Speaker 1: he really was one of the top two or three
Speaker 1: quarterbacks for last nine or ten games. He didn't start
Speaker 1: the season that way, but the way he finished, he
Speaker 1: was a top three quarterback at age forty three, which
Speaker 1: is just so blowing past the um, you know, like
Speaker 1: level of anything we would even have considered was possible
Speaker 1: for a forty or forty one year old. Well not
Speaker 1: just that, but you have to put it in the
Speaker 1: context of a quarterback in a Bruce Arian system. Right
Speaker 1: before the first year of quarterbacks in the Bruce Areas
Speaker 1: system is almost always an absolute train wreck of turnovers. Right,
Speaker 1: Andrew Luck, Jamis Winston, Carson Palmer, those three guys each
Speaker 1: forty turnover he plays in a season the first year
Speaker 1: with Bruce Arian. That isn't like it's a monster number.
Speaker 1: I think those are all the highest numbers we've ever
Speaker 1: seen from a quarterback over season. Brady thought one second,
Speaker 1: just because I'm curious, m who had the most turnover
Speaker 1: worthy plays since two thousand eight? Is it Winston in
Speaker 1: the thirty thirty year? I think that, Well, that was
Speaker 1: one of his for that was one of those forty numbers.
Speaker 1: I think forty is the highest we've seen over season,
Speaker 1: and all three of them have been the first year
Speaker 1: in the Bruce Arian system. But Tom Brady in his
Speaker 1: first year in the Bruce Arian system absently any preseason
Speaker 1: had twelve. So like a completely different scale. It's just
Speaker 1: not what happens, and it's not like Brady in a
Speaker 1: Bruce Arian system. Or was it Bruce Arians in a
Speaker 1: Brady system? Well, I think they met in the middle, right,
Speaker 1: But this was definitely a more aggressive offense than Tom
Speaker 1: Brady has been in for a lot of years. Like
Speaker 1: his average depth of target was you know, pretty far
Speaker 1: down field compared to what Brady normally works with eight
Speaker 1: point nine or sorry, yeah, Tom Brady nine point six.
Speaker 1: So that's that's getting up there, said he would go
Speaker 1: entire halves of Sure, but you got better. You had
Speaker 1: better receivers than he's had in a long time in
Speaker 1: New England that ran deeper routes. I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you tell to I don't know
Speaker 1: how much like telling Tom Brady what to do anyone?
Speaker 1: Does you know what I mean? Like, I'm sure you
Speaker 1: want to do that. Great when he's getting the house
Speaker 1: for five weeks, like in the families leaving, then you're
Speaker 1: seeing who's wearing the pants, even in that powerful household,
Speaker 1: you're seeing. But that that essentially was the highest average
Speaker 1: at the target of anybody in the NFL that actually
Speaker 1: played most of the season, like the only guys ahead
Speaker 1: of him last year or Joe Flacco, Jalen Hurts and
Speaker 1: then again yeah not you know, not great um and
Speaker 1: then Drew Lock who was a tenth of a yard higher.
Speaker 1: So it's just okay, it's just a lot I don't like.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't talk about the Flaco Jets, Like
Speaker 1: if I ever want to really annoyed Dan, bring up
Speaker 1: bring up my Flaco versus Donald Jets. Listen, if Flaco was,
Speaker 1: if Donald was still in the building and Flack over
Speaker 1: that matter, it would bother me more. But we've moved forward. Finally, Sam,
Speaker 1: before we go, yes it is, I did the Lamar
Speaker 1: Jock Jackson cough move because I would say the biggest
Speaker 1: thing that got the football gagnasanity buzzing was Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: missing the top fifty year after he was. Yes, the
Speaker 1: unanimous m v P. Now, the one thing that surprises
Speaker 1: me the most because you wrote a nice little like
Speaker 1: a bonus piece that people should check out over at
Speaker 1: PFF dot com on players that missed the cut that
Speaker 1: are you know, top players, and you kind of ended
Speaker 1: your right up on Jackson saying that you know he
Speaker 1: was behind these six other quarterbacks and spinning forward to
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty one, you don't think that was necessarily
Speaker 1: an off year in he might just be in that
Speaker 1: seven to twelve range potentially as opposed to one of
Speaker 1: the true grades of the league, which I know it
Speaker 1: doesn't sit well with a lot of people. So soon
Speaker 1: after that incredible twenty nineteen. Yeah, but I think the
Speaker 1: really like the the step back that he took last
Speaker 1: year I think is important because the whole quarterback landscape
Speaker 1: is kind of volatile. You know you're gonna look at
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, right, Rogers, Well, I don't I don't know
Speaker 1: if he made the list last year, if he was
Speaker 1: a certain he was nowhere near where he was this year,
Speaker 1: and the Green Bay Packers drafted his replacement and it
Speaker 1: wasn't crazy like everyone was gone, well, yeah, Rogers had
Speaker 1: the client for a while. I wasn't been the same guy.
Speaker 1: But maybe drafting is replaying the well spur this Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers revenge tour, and that's exactly what happened. Is the
Speaker 1: best quarterback in the NFL. But before that, you were
Speaker 1: looking at this guy who was still really really good,
Speaker 1: but was you know, ranking fifth, stick seventh, eighth in
Speaker 1: the NFL somewhere like that. I think everybody except Mahomes
Speaker 1: is in that bracket now, right, You're looking at these
Speaker 1: guys and you're saying, if he ranked number two or
Speaker 1: number eight in the NFL next year, wouldn't surprise you.
Speaker 1: And I think you can throw like Deshaun Watson, assuming
Speaker 1: he plays Tom Brady, Josh Allen, you know, Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: There's a whole bunch of those guys I think that
Speaker 1: fit into that category, and Lamar Jackson is one of them.
Speaker 1: I think if he has an incredible year and the
Speaker 1: Ravens have figured out the answers to why the passing
Speaker 1: game fell off, and the guys like Bateman, Rachad Bateman
Speaker 1: there are number one, Um, it's a huge jack there.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't shock anybody. Uh. But equally, if they've just
Speaker 1: figured out a little bit and Lamar Jackson is still
Speaker 1: an incredible athlete, it's still one of the most devastating
Speaker 1: book carriers in the NFL, but it's not the most complete,
Speaker 1: polished pastor in the NFL. And that's going to be
Speaker 1: the cap of how good that offense can be. Will
Speaker 1: that shock anybody? And if he ranks, you know, behind
Speaker 1: Prescott and Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, you don't have to,
Speaker 1: you know, come up with that many names for him
Speaker 1: to rank behind before he doesn't make a list of
Speaker 1: the best d players in the NFL. Now, if it's
Speaker 1: the best fifty athletes in the NFL, Lamar is what
Speaker 1: like one to three. He's somewhere in the top couple. Um.
Speaker 1: But in terms of just actual player, he needs to
Speaker 1: be a better passor than he was last year, and
Speaker 1: we've seen that from him. But the projecting it forward
Speaker 1: is how likely is it that that is going to
Speaker 1: happen again in one Now? I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think there's a reasonable case to be made. I
Speaker 1: the one point I would all make though, is that
Speaker 1: my hands were tied by our quarterback. Pankings came out first,
Speaker 1: which makes the whole thing Bruce Bruce Gradkowski's fault and
Speaker 1: not mine. That's the important thing. I guess, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess when people come at you and you're like, what
Speaker 1: Bryce Callahan is thirty six, Hey, hey, Lamar Jackson is
Speaker 1: down on this list, then oh you can just go
Speaker 1: blame old Bruce and account and Bruce and fault. I
Speaker 1: like Bryce Callahanny, I was actually gonna get make sure
Speaker 1: you get that in there that I love that he
Speaker 1: made so well fifty. There's a lot of players in
Speaker 1: the league. There's like I just liked you even play
Speaker 1: that much last year. It hurts Greg that he's out
Speaker 1: of the top fifth. You should know that. Sam. So
Speaker 1: before we go, um uh, Sam, and thank you for
Speaker 1: your time. Cynthy has something she wants to get off
Speaker 1: her chest. Um, you have a lovely, lilting Irish brogue,
Speaker 1: and some people want to hear more of it since
Speaker 1: I do. So we both do videos these voice everything,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's brutal. I like, I hold my iPhone.
Speaker 1: It's it's not the best sometimes, I'll admit, but I
Speaker 1: want your accent in it. Sometimes like it dulls your accent.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the music they but you
Speaker 1: need to play up that accent. We need to bring
Speaker 1: in more women. There's so many women that watch football.
Speaker 1: You know how much they'd like it better to watch
Speaker 1: those videos. If you got oh there's like this, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna believe everything that man says. It's wonderful. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you play that up. The real problem is that living
Speaker 1: here is radicating my accent. It's not voluntary, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's just a like I pick up and drop off
Speaker 1: accents depending on where I live. I've had like half
Speaker 1: a do some ridiculous ones in my life, and moving
Speaker 1: over here is losing the Irish one. I can't stop it.
Speaker 1: Somebody pf F. We this c series of podcast a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago that We're History Fat Ones Talk
Speaker 1: Neil Holmesbying got like the the origin story at a
Speaker 1: PFF and it's a different Sam on it. It's an
Speaker 1: Irish Sam that it doesn't exist anymore. The accent is dead,
Speaker 1: and it's I'm now somewhere over the mid Atlantic, even
Speaker 1: further over to the US. It's starting to worry me.
Speaker 1: That's the downside of living in Cincinnati. Like eventually everyone
Speaker 1: starts sounding like the Westleying Brothers. That's that's that's why
Speaker 1: you're starting to sound like I'm a Midwesterner. I'm a Midwesterner.
Speaker 1: I used to say pop it was a thing, but no,
Speaker 1: bring the Irish back. I'm gonna give you some like
Speaker 1: tapes to listen to you before you do it, because
Speaker 1: I'm like, I want his accent back. I think, give
Speaker 1: me the accent. I like the I did like the
Speaker 1: way you put it, though, Sam, because sometimes I feel
Speaker 1: like that's what our podcast is is just like floats
Speaker 1: somewhere over the mid Atlantic, existing partly in this world,
Speaker 1: part lee in another world. So you are a natural
Speaker 1: fit for our show, and we thank you so much
Speaker 1: for coming on, buddy, and check out Sam's work on PFF.
Speaker 1: Check him out on Twitter at PF Underscore Sam, and
Speaker 1: keep up the good work. My friend, Thanks Gay, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me there, He goes. You know, I have
Speaker 1: I know what he's talking about too, because I um
Speaker 1: grew up in the suburbs outside New York City. My
Speaker 1: father has a very um and people know from this
Speaker 1: podcast he has a real strong Bronx accent. Um, and
Speaker 1: my mother's from Queens and all my family UM that
Speaker 1: I grew up around, grew up in the cities, and
Speaker 1: even if you grew up in the suburbs, it's a
Speaker 1: very strong New York accent. And I do find that
Speaker 1: it has maybe gotten toned down from eleven or twelve
Speaker 1: years in California. And then I'm I'm back here and
Speaker 1: I'm throwing bags, and I'm on my seventh Tito at
Speaker 1: one am down here at the Jersey Shore. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you know, I start to hit talk a
Speaker 1: little bit or something. I gave Wess a lot of
Speaker 1: humor when I was talking about a an ex girlfriend
Speaker 1: in my life who had moved on and I said
Speaker 1: Cara got married. That really gave him. He got a
Speaker 1: kick out of that. He said, what did you just
Speaker 1: say is that Cara got married? Whoka Apparently there's something.
Speaker 1: I'm glad Mine's got Mom. Can we go to the cottage?
Speaker 1: It ain't a pop like Midwestern accents are awful, So
Speaker 1: I'm glad Mines smoothed out. I mean, Boston took it
Speaker 1: away that I haven't lived in Michigan. I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on with Greg because like Greg grew up
Speaker 1: in New England and that is famously um and then
Speaker 1: this sounds negative, harsh Western masses like its own little farmland.
Speaker 1: It's flat. When I lived in New Orleans, though, I
Speaker 1: did find myself talking slower. It's not like I put
Speaker 1: on an accent. But if you just take Southern accent,
Speaker 1: if you just slow down how fast you talk by
Speaker 1: that was? That was all the scissor if you were
Speaker 1: drinking down there at a sty from I didn't know it, scissor,
Speaker 1: I googled it. Um. That was good, Sam's really good.
Speaker 1: That was. That was a good talk. Uh and uh
Speaker 1: if you haven't checked out that top fifty, it's great,
Speaker 1: great summertime reading, even if you don't agree with the
Speaker 1: PFF stuff. And that was um. West is coming up
Speaker 1: a lot in today's show, and that's always a good
Speaker 1: things used to be very vocal about certain disagreements he
Speaker 1: had with UM how they went about their grading system.
Speaker 1: But it's just I think the league is more fun
Speaker 1: when you have these grades, especially as he said, for
Speaker 1: like interior alignment, and really anybody on defense. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: mean the offense. There you have those counting stats that
Speaker 1: make it easier for the quarterbacks, running backs in the
Speaker 1: wide receiver, the tight ends. But I feel like that's
Speaker 1: where it's helped me as like a football fan the most,
Speaker 1: when you you can kind of know more about somebody
Speaker 1: in the secondary or someone in the front seven, and
Speaker 1: obviously the offensive line, which to me is like the
Speaker 1: most guarded mystery and all of professional sports, like how
Speaker 1: is it actually played, who's good, who's not? UM so
Speaker 1: much technical knowledge is necessary, so even if people don't
Speaker 1: always agree with them, it's good to see that they
Speaker 1: have this dedicated team putting in the work, and Collinsworth
Speaker 1: has kind of the face of it gives them a
Speaker 1: lot of Grammy toss. I'm having a flashback to an
Speaker 1: episode where we where we did have someone from PFF
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure who was, like four years ago,
Speaker 1: and West just like wanted to grill him about like
Speaker 1: ben hart Sock being there number one. Remember that it
Speaker 1: almost got a little awkward. It's probably I remember that.
Speaker 1: I have vague memories of that. Um, alright, good stuff, Cynthia.
Speaker 1: You've said it all I mean, and I'm glad I
Speaker 1: got it off my chest. About the supercomputer, I think
Speaker 1: hardware is important, not just software, and it's it's it's
Speaker 1: important to have the big piece of machinery. And even
Speaker 1: if there's a hollow inside, almost like a TV prop,
Speaker 1: if you just had that and then you had that
Speaker 1: in the background, we did your TV hits and it's
Speaker 1: lit in a certain way that's imposing. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: your career is on fire, Cynthia right now. But you'd
Speaker 1: be the biggest name in sports media if you just
Speaker 1: have a prop supercomputer in the background. I'll call it
Speaker 1: the hands Who's five thousand? Um? You know you know
Speaker 1: what's actually like really interesting? UM. So I wear I
Speaker 1: don't need glasses, but I wear them for the UV
Speaker 1: filter for my because I look at a screen for
Speaker 1: a really long time. And not even kidding, Like starting
Speaker 1: off any of my career, peop were like, can you
Speaker 1: wear your glass or it makes you look smarter? A
Speaker 1: lot of people. A lot of people do that move
Speaker 1: thought right, shows up with the glasses and I would
Speaker 1: wear them even more if it wasn't a sunny outside
Speaker 1: all the time. It feels good. Alright, thank you, Cynthia.
Speaker 1: Enjoy Montana. Uh, in the in the lake, which, as
Speaker 1: I understand, is very large. I believe that was the
Speaker 1: data point you had on it. Big lake, big sky,
Speaker 1: All the things are big here in Montana. Enjoy it.
Speaker 1: I will enjoy my final day here on the shore
Speaker 1: with the family. Greg. I will. I won't see you
Speaker 1: in l A, but we'll be back in the same
Speaker 1: city very soon, and that that will feel close that
Speaker 1: I feel like that would be going to get together.
Speaker 1: You know, we we should have an around the NFL
Speaker 1: preseason before the seasons summit when Marcus back and Ricky
Speaker 1: when can coordinated off. Yeah, well, I also know that
Speaker 1: now it's only your second appearance, Cynthia, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you're making this. Before the show started, Cynthia mentioned
Speaker 1: that she had gotten together with someone that works in
Speaker 1: the league and that person went out of their way
Speaker 1: to say that they were friends with Greg and then uh,
Speaker 1: Cynthia was like, oh yeah, he said he's friends with you,
Speaker 1: and then Greg like went out of his way when
Speaker 1: I asked, oh, you guys like personal friends, He's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm closer to him than I am to you. What
Speaker 1: I was like, why was that is such a greg answer?
Speaker 1: So necessary to put it that way to rank things? Yes, No,
Speaker 1: that's not what I meant. He was saying, do you
Speaker 1: do you ever like talk on a personal basis? And
Speaker 1: I was just saying, like, yes, probably, probably so more
Speaker 1: just like you know, on the I don't talk with
Speaker 1: many people on the phone in my life, very few.
Speaker 1: I would say, that's one. Oh you guys just talking
Speaker 1: the phone, but you tall on the phone occasionally, how
Speaker 1: that's like really old, pretty occasional, but still even any
Speaker 1: because you've got a tight circle you you've said, it's
Speaker 1: not like you have a like you you're you're a
Speaker 1: very you're gregarious guy and if you're in the right mood,
Speaker 1: but you don't have like a huge friendship group. I
Speaker 1: would say it's pretty tight. And Mark and I hope
Speaker 1: to be in it one day. I guess that's maybe
Speaker 1: that's wrong with me, But we've been through a lot.
Speaker 1: You know that we're closer than you know some rando.
Speaker 1: That's in the industry that I mean, we just just
Speaker 1: the time. Just think about the time we've spent on
Speaker 1: air together, like on this podcast for real. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I never feel more that can't be like, hey, we've
Speaker 1: done a lot of shows together, man, like the world.
Speaker 1: At some level it does count though, because we've both
Speaker 1: been getting aid by a company at the same time
Speaker 1: a lot. It's like some of the most meaningful, um well,
Speaker 1: certainly the most meaningful work experiences we I think we've
Speaker 1: Sthy has her head down texting, I was, I was.
Speaker 1: It is family business. You're right, Okay, Well, I just
Speaker 1: this is an unnecessarily website keeps tweeting at me, and
Speaker 1: I don't know what they're saying. It's I got to
Speaker 1: learn German. I guess all right, that's it. Thank you, Cynthia,
Speaker 1: We love you, Stay head. The signing off for the
Speaker 1: Old Boss Ricky Hollywood and Sam monson the Little Thing
Speaker 1: Irish Brogue until I don't know need the fall next week.
Speaker 1: Joe Mantanga, No, Joe Montana was not in the rat back.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? Oh my god, that's the
Speaker 1: guy who's married to m the lady I realized who's
Speaker 1: the final of the rat fact Joe I don't know
Speaker 1: as good as I don't know Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,
Speaker 1: Sammy Davis Jr. Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. Joey Bishop
Speaker 1: was sent packing because he fell out with Sinatra. You
Speaker 1: sent rap packing