Speaker 1: Be around the NFL Podcast. I can't do any TikTok. Dancy,
Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition. Will be around the NFL podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Dan hand As. That comes to you
Speaker 1: from a virtual room filled with some heroes. Gregg Rosenthal's here,
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler's here. Someone else is here. She's carved out
Speaker 1: some time she travels across these great United States of America.
Speaker 1: Back on the A T N podcast. You know who
Speaker 1: it is, the Wolf. I'm about seven here today, little um,
Speaker 1: worse for wear, not on not on air today, Colleen.
Speaker 1: And it feels like you're feeling the effects of whatever
Speaker 1: happened last night. This song that was getting me ready, Connie.
Speaker 1: Connie Fox is definitely here, Colleen Wolf did not. Can
Speaker 1: I know she is? Can I offer some unsolicited advice? Colleen?
Speaker 1: And we know? And we thank you so much because
Speaker 1: Colleen is in Philadelphia, her hometown, as part of her
Speaker 1: spin across the country for training camp coverage with NFL Network.
Speaker 1: And and I understand it. You've been meeting up with friends,
Speaker 1: You've been getting a little loose. Um. Connie Fox is
Speaker 1: tagged in for Colleen Wolf today. What what I would
Speaker 1: suggest is when Tugboat text you and says, hey, do
Speaker 1: you want to come on the show? Just say no.
Speaker 1: Just say no, and just assume that whatever you have
Speaker 1: going on later in the week is gonna make today
Speaker 1: very difficult for you, and nobody's gonna have an issue
Speaker 1: with it, um, because I hate to see you like this.
Speaker 1: I feel ready to go, ready to rock. Um. I'm
Speaker 1: in Philly, yes, and I got two three days um
Speaker 1: between inside training camp shows. So I met up with
Speaker 1: some friends and let loose a little bit. And now
Speaker 1: I'm picking up all of the pieces this morning, so
Speaker 1: I will I'm ready to go. I will offer to
Speaker 1: you that you know, for behind the scenes, we do
Speaker 1: a lot of texting, um, sometimes not a lot before
Speaker 1: the show to plant out. And I would say that
Speaker 1: Connie got pulled into one of the heavier um nights
Speaker 1: of texting and planning and questions around the show ever,
Speaker 1: and you can kind of just feel the aura of like,
Speaker 1: why the F did I say yes to this potential
Speaker 1: non paid assignment. Well, I thought that, like I was
Speaker 1: just gonna pop on. We're hanging out, it's light, it's
Speaker 1: training camp, it's like still like not crazy busy yet.
Speaker 1: But and then I realized that I was going to
Speaker 1: be in like seventeen different cities, and this was my
Speaker 1: one off day and I woke up this morning to
Speaker 1: do a lot of maths. So thanks Dan, Well, this
Speaker 1: is yeah, you picked a really great episode to accidentally
Speaker 1: um say yes to, because this episode will be covering
Speaker 1: the overly esoteric division power rankings UM which what is
Speaker 1: that emphasis on? What's that emphasis? So that is odd
Speaker 1: per odd per if there can be UM D V
Speaker 1: O A and all these other words and abbreviations. That's
Speaker 1: a big one, all these things that everybody's pat themselves
Speaker 1: on the back. Look how special I am. I made
Speaker 1: my own little thing, and now it's becoming industry standard.
Speaker 1: Well guess what odd per is here? The overly esoteric
Speaker 1: division power rankings. And yet I did I did. It's
Speaker 1: some somewhat of a homework assignment. I gave each of
Speaker 1: the heroes here, and it's I did the same work
Speaker 1: and then so so it's not like I'm just the
Speaker 1: the teacher who's checked out emotionally. And then you do
Speaker 1: all this work and then you come in and I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, we're watching a movie, and you pop a
Speaker 1: video and the and the VCR and I take a
Speaker 1: nap at my desk. That sounds so nice that it's just,
Speaker 1: you know, we I asked team for team. I gave
Speaker 1: you a whole list of how to break down each team,
Speaker 1: and then I took those numbers that you sent back
Speaker 1: to me. And that's very dangerous because you put a
Speaker 1: lot of math in my hands. And I figured out
Speaker 1: the division power rankings in the NFL entering one and
Speaker 1: we will get into that later today. I'm excited and
Speaker 1: I was really interested the results some interesting stuff. Math
Speaker 1: usually not you're you're strong suit famously, you know, struggled
Speaker 1: in a state mandated test. I got a thirty nine
Speaker 1: once in a state mandated math test in But here's
Speaker 1: the thing about the old jus are numbers. I kind
Speaker 1: of love them. I have a difficult relationship with numbers
Speaker 1: because they don't love me, but I love them and
Speaker 1: I love what they tell you because they kind of
Speaker 1: reveal a lot, not just about these teams, but I
Speaker 1: learned a lot about you guys studying your Excel spreadsheets.
Speaker 1: I like that you're wielding around a mug right now
Speaker 1: as you as you talk about math, and I don't
Speaker 1: really believe any word you're saying. About how much you
Speaker 1: love math, and I honestly have a lot of mistrust
Speaker 1: in this segment now considering that you've added up all
Speaker 1: of the scores, yankes, how is how is your first
Speaker 1: week on the road college? Because I know, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've all we we've heard this from our listeners, like
Speaker 1: it's not having West here has has been on everyone's
Speaker 1: mind kind of as the season is cranking up today.
Speaker 1: Today's actually the six month um, you know, anniversary of
Speaker 1: him dying, um and that that stuff. I know, we
Speaker 1: like sort of felt that weight going into it, like
Speaker 1: fight feeling like a little ambivalent maybe going into training
Speaker 1: camp of like what does what does this mean? Right now?
Speaker 1: We're not totally feeling up for it. I'm curious, like
Speaker 1: how you how you're doing, because actually getting in the
Speaker 1: flow I think feels good. I think I think I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of West last year. He was never more like
Speaker 1: ambivalent about football in his entire life and talked about
Speaker 1: it a lot, uh going into the season, but once
Speaker 1: once it started, it actually sustained him quite a bit,
Speaker 1: like and he was totally happy to sort of lose
Speaker 1: himself in just the season, which we are all like
Speaker 1: such seasonal people at this point, we are seasonal people.
Speaker 1: Uh you, Well, so it's it's interesting to bring this
Speaker 1: up because I had texted you, and I think I
Speaker 1: texted Sessler too, I was texting Keisha, and I was
Speaker 1: just really um. There was a part of me that
Speaker 1: really felt anxious about coming into the season, and I
Speaker 1: think it was a lot of it was just like
Speaker 1: not having West here and coming into the it just
Speaker 1: like after everything happened I've I felt like I just
Speaker 1: wanted to take my hands off the wheel completely and
Speaker 1: unplugged and check out. And then as each like week
Speaker 1: went by and it got closer and closer to training camp,
Speaker 1: I was just going through team by team and it
Speaker 1: just didn't feel as important as it had um before.
Speaker 1: And like after losing West, it just kind of felt
Speaker 1: I was like, none of this is like. It just
Speaker 1: felt like I wanted to spend more time with you guys.
Speaker 1: I wanted to spend more time like hanging out. I
Speaker 1: wanted to spend more time with my family. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to just sit around and be pouring over every
Speaker 1: single team like I normally do every year. But then
Speaker 1: once I finally got to the training camps and started
Speaker 1: getting into every single doing the shows and going through
Speaker 1: all of the stuff that you have to do to
Speaker 1: put these shows on the air. I got it. I
Speaker 1: got more excited about everything. And now that I'm in it,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm just I've completely jumped in and
Speaker 1: immersed myself in it. At better, a lot better. Now
Speaker 1: this is us hanging out um right now. I mean Keisha,
Speaker 1: I know, wants to like thank all the listeners, and
Speaker 1: she will when we can can all get together, but
Speaker 1: I appreciate the listeners reach out and telling us like
Speaker 1: they're thinking of them. I mentioned on the TV show
Speaker 1: how I listened to this podcast. It was the DFS
Speaker 1: Rise and Fall podcast, and Keisha like couraged me to
Speaker 1: listen to that, and it was it was Chris and
Speaker 1: and I hadn't mentioned on the pod, and he had
Speaker 1: really pointed it out that it was this meaningful pot
Speaker 1: um and it was. It was hard. It was hard
Speaker 1: to listen to it, of course, UM, but it also
Speaker 1: like Keisha's taught me a lot um throughout this whole process,
Speaker 1: you know, like celebrating Um and keeping his name alive
Speaker 1: and hearing his voice was honestly, it was it's like
Speaker 1: beyond words, like what it meant like you feel everything
Speaker 1: at once, but it was also nice, like it felt
Speaker 1: like being in Tybee and felt like being close to
Speaker 1: him and doing the football on us, Like that's part
Speaker 1: of the reason why I'm really looking forward to getting
Speaker 1: back together like all four of us, um and inside
Speaker 1: a podcast studio and doing like it's gonna be hard,
Speaker 1: but it also like, I don't know, that's that's how
Speaker 1: we keep to me, like celebrating them and hearing his
Speaker 1: words and stuff. It was a great way to sort
Speaker 1: of keep keep him alive and close to us. I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's it's I think it's on all our minds,
Speaker 1: isn't it really this season because we're going through this
Speaker 1: all for the first time this season, Really we're starting over.
Speaker 1: That's how it feels to me and Um. And when
Speaker 1: you start over, it's just like when we began the
Speaker 1: podcast together in two thousand thirteen. And I'm only speaking
Speaker 1: right now from a show perspective, but in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, like just our relationships together. UM, it's kind
Speaker 1: of a reset and that that comes with some bumpy
Speaker 1: times and and also it's you know, this is this
Speaker 1: is tricky stuff. Um. Without West, here we went through
Speaker 1: last season without Chris for the most part, with the
Speaker 1: exception of those Sunday nights that he gave us, which were,
Speaker 1: you know, let's face it, heroic, and UM, I'm so
Speaker 1: happy that we had those those last shows together with him.
Speaker 1: But of course this is totally different. This is to
Speaker 1: do to go into a new season without Chris at all. Um,
Speaker 1: it's weird and it's um, it's one of those and
Speaker 1: texting Keisha last week, there's nowhere to go but forward.
Speaker 1: You just gotta you can't. You know, you remember West,
Speaker 1: but you also know that you can't. You can't just
Speaker 1: stay where you are and stay looking back. And that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of where I'm at right now, where we're
Speaker 1: trying to figure out the next step for the show,
Speaker 1: UM without West because Frankly and I think you know,
Speaker 1: we've all had this conversation or thought it. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't know what the show is without West. So
Speaker 1: the part of what this spring and summer has been
Speaker 1: about is just trying to figure out how this even
Speaker 1: works anymore. UM. And then there's the obviously the human
Speaker 1: friendship component, family component of him not being around anymore,
Speaker 1: which is still very strange. UM and I'll catch myself
Speaker 1: at numerous points, Um every week where I'm just like, wait,
Speaker 1: he's actually gone. It's it's part of it's part of
Speaker 1: this whole process. I mean, I would just say briefly
Speaker 1: that for me, it's like it's completely starting over, um
Speaker 1: from a football angle. And you know, like most of
Speaker 1: my memories football wise are not with my family, for instance,
Speaker 1: because we're always together during most of football stuff. They're
Speaker 1: they're largely like inundated with West and West is UM's
Speaker 1: and West comments. And I mean even with the preseason,
Speaker 1: his disdain. For most of the preseason, I remember sitting
Speaker 1: beside him, you know, and NFL dot now and like
Speaker 1: the would sit there for seven straight hours like covering
Speaker 1: these games, and like it was mostly just him and
Speaker 1: I talking, you know, and Um, like I don't think
Speaker 1: we're all in the same place in terms of our verve.
Speaker 1: Like I'm just being completely honest and as you have
Speaker 1: to kind of fake it till you make it a
Speaker 1: little bit. And I don't have like a tingling in
Speaker 1: my loins to watch like Cowboys Steelers tonight. But I
Speaker 1: think once it starts, then it starts, and you just
Speaker 1: get back into it. But Um, it just won't be
Speaker 1: the same without a friend. It's just never will It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you talk to people who spent their whole
Speaker 1: lives watching football with their dads and when they're if
Speaker 1: their dads are suddenly not around, like the sport will
Speaker 1: never be the same. That's what I would compare it to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's honestly, like it's hard to even like talk about
Speaker 1: him without completely falling apart. Still, so that's been really hard,
Speaker 1: it is, and and I and I only I want
Speaker 1: to bring it up in some level because like I
Speaker 1: I do, we do hear from the listeners, and I
Speaker 1: think like that's important just to let them know, like
Speaker 1: of course we're thinking about him all the time, and
Speaker 1: we we know that you guys are too, like not
Speaker 1: only listeners that had all these DM conversations with him,
Speaker 1: and believe me, there's really you know, had meaningful relationships
Speaker 1: in that way, but just listening, Um, that's a meaningful
Speaker 1: relationship and like we we know like they're going through
Speaker 1: it too, and it's on everyone's mind. And especially yeah,
Speaker 1: I think with with the season started, with training camp starting, um,
Speaker 1: it's kind of I told TSA this, like her kind
Speaker 1: of sharing like on her I G stories and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Like it's helped me because I'm not someone
Speaker 1: who it would be my inclination to like share that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. Um, but her sharing as like help
Speaker 1: helped me a lot to just hearing about it because
Speaker 1: it's totally normal what we're you know, what we're going through,
Speaker 1: we're gonna continue going through. It's starting over. But it's
Speaker 1: also like he will always be without you know, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, like he'll always he built this podcast up
Speaker 1: with us, and that that's part of it. And we're
Speaker 1: never gonna it's not like we're ever gonna forget him. Um,
Speaker 1: Like on the shows that we don't talk about him,
Speaker 1: he's always on our mind and in the best ways. Dammit, Greig,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. I know I can't. This is our
Speaker 1: time together, honestly, is our time on air. We you know,
Speaker 1: on on some level. Um. That's that was such a big,
Speaker 1: big part of it too, especially with the listeners. I
Speaker 1: do think about the listeners too, because look a lot
Speaker 1: of them ducked out. I think after after West died too,
Speaker 1: and maybe you're coming back now or that's just like
Speaker 1: a natural flow of things too. And um, and so
Speaker 1: I just you know, we we see them out there too.
Speaker 1: We know, we know it's not we do and we
Speaker 1: we love the listeners because they've been so supportive of
Speaker 1: us during this whole process, and it's been a difficult one.
Speaker 1: There was one listener that um on our subreddit said
Speaker 1: that I look terrible in a baseball hat. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I love that. I don't. I don't know
Speaker 1: who that was. I don't know if I feel total
Speaker 1: love for that person? Still why I never read the
Speaker 1: reddit ever, ever read the reddit. I responded to it
Speaker 1: on the subrect You did, you'd responded. At a certain point,
Speaker 1: a subreddit graduates too. It's it's not something the people
Speaker 1: that are the focus of the subred should be looking at,
Speaker 1: because it's it becomes the fans and anything that you
Speaker 1: look at and you upsets you becomes it's kind of
Speaker 1: on you at a certain point, like a guy saying
Speaker 1: you look bad in a hat. I mean you're not, Dan,
Speaker 1: see that, Dan, the way that I'm built like I
Speaker 1: I understand what you're saying and you're correct, but that
Speaker 1: will affect me. It was like an erraw that got
Speaker 1: shot at. Dan had to call me. Dan called me
Speaker 1: and was like, you need to stop looking at the reddit.
Speaker 1: Number one, they all hate you. Number two, It's not
Speaker 1: going to help the show. I did not say they
Speaker 1: all hate you, but but they do. I mean on Reddit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like talk about you look bad in a hat,
Speaker 1: Like try put on my hat for a day. Mark, No,
Speaker 1: I don't doubt that. Why are they coming to me now?
Speaker 1: That feels unnecessary, but just because you guys are all
Speaker 1: being emotional and I just like love you and you're
Speaker 1: my family, and like, I'm so thankful for Wes and
Speaker 1: I think you know he's brought us even closer than
Speaker 1: we could have ever been. So Mark, I love you
Speaker 1: and you look stupid in a hat, Like I honestly
Speaker 1: ask you that question now, Like like next time we're
Speaker 1: hanging out, I'm gonna wear one. You look good. I
Speaker 1: think you've been you Lyn looking different lately, and it's
Speaker 1: like a new fun Mark. He's like a little wild.
Speaker 1: I know you guys have been like watching The White
Speaker 1: Lotus and it almost reminds me of the hotel manager
Speaker 1: in the Whiteice, Like you don't know what's coming next
Speaker 1: with this guy. Interesting comparison, Greg, I'm very pro baseball hat,
Speaker 1: so I think you should continue doing that. Do your
Speaker 1: own thing. Who cares. My favorite Marc Ses baseball hat
Speaker 1: is the one that he went to like the the
Speaker 1: promenade in Santa Monica and got his initials MONOGRAMM don
Speaker 1: the hat and then or for two straight years I
Speaker 1: lost that hat. But you're right, that was an odd move.
Speaker 1: All right, let's do the news. Hello, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the new West Coast home of the NFL. I'm colleague
Speaker 1: Woolf and it is my sincere pleasure to introduce you.
Speaker 1: They made me saying I had no choice, and they
Speaker 1: made me do like seven different times. I can't all
Speaker 1: right for the listeners, though, did they make you do
Speaker 1: finger bombs pointing downwards at the same time as you
Speaker 1: said well to the future. Everyone needs to know that.
Speaker 1: Um this is a couple of months ago promotional. It
Speaker 1: might have been in house promotional video introducing the new
Speaker 1: Hollywood Park facility. Um too, I guess people that will
Speaker 1: be working there, and and it got sent my way
Speaker 1: and immediately I wanted to play it all on the show,
Speaker 1: and I believe Eric was like, yeah, let's just hold
Speaker 1: off because I don't know if it's for like public consumption.
Speaker 1: And I still don't know if it's necessarily clear, but
Speaker 1: it's it's so amazing, and so many Ricky hit me
Speaker 1: with more. I just can't get enough of it. Collegium
Speaker 1: ever seen, Yes, yes, yes, yes, I knew it. I
Speaker 1: knew this was going to happen. I kept saying, how
Speaker 1: do we do it this way? And then they would
Speaker 1: let me do it my own way, and then they
Speaker 1: just kept all of the lines that they wanted that
Speaker 1: where I was like, well, this doesn't really work and
Speaker 1: I wouldn't normally say that. Where are they playing this?
Speaker 1: Is this on a video like board of every on
Speaker 1: and he totally buys into the message, so he's going
Speaker 1: to just play this. This is the This is a
Speaker 1: terrible day for me. You know what, I won't I
Speaker 1: won't play anymore, not just getting give me another one?
Speaker 1: Almost magical, and the possibilities for brand partnerships almost endless,
Speaker 1: so so so so so so so everyone out there
Speaker 1: needs to know that I hate, hate, hate, hate seeing
Speaker 1: myself on TV and I hate hearing the sound of
Speaker 1: my voice. So this is like a double whammy because like,
Speaker 1: I know that that's cheesy, and you're give me watching
Speaker 1: it and listen to it. So this is horrendous, Dan,
Speaker 1: all right, No, it had to be from like middle
Speaker 1: management corpor types. Right, you're saying it was horrible, But honestly,
Speaker 1: I've never been more excited about brand stuff and Super
Speaker 1: Bowl fifty six, which works out word for us and
Speaker 1: you because two hundred and fifty five ft away from
Speaker 1: SO five Stadium, right here is the new headquarters of
Speaker 1: NFL media. Fans will fall in love with football in
Speaker 1: a powerful new way, and they'll do it right here.
Speaker 1: Only question, now, where will you be? Why did I
Speaker 1: say yes to doing this show today? Permission just to
Speaker 1: log off at this point. That's enough. The last two
Speaker 1: felt gratuitous, like at that point it felt like too much.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, you know, for our listeners at
Speaker 1: one point they showed Colleen was on a big screen
Speaker 1: over our entire workplace. On some level, it it is.
Speaker 1: You have to admit it's cool that Colleen is the
Speaker 1: person that they chose for that. Like you, you are
Speaker 1: the face, you're becoming the face of NFL media. They're
Speaker 1: not having You're not having me do that, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, They're not they're they're not they're not
Speaker 1: called I don't know why they wouldn't have picked you, Gregg.
Speaker 1: That's that is. Every person who has seen this since
Speaker 1: has given me so much he about it. So you
Speaker 1: guys aren't the first, and you won't be the last.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad we're doing this here. Let's just get
Speaker 1: it out there. Let's just get in front of it
Speaker 1: right now. So I colly and I sincerely apologize. I
Speaker 1: just could not help myself. Great work. Let's get into
Speaker 1: the news. Philip Rivers. Remember a few months back, um,
Speaker 1: maybe it was like two months ago, there was that
Speaker 1: clip of him working with his high school team. Where
Speaker 1: is he Alabama? Yeah? St. Michael Catholic High School in
Speaker 1: Alabama and he's the head coach there. And we saw
Speaker 1: the clip of him doing his thing on the sideline
Speaker 1: and we all reminisced about how great it was that
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers in our lives for so long, and it
Speaker 1: just seemed like he was in a great place in
Speaker 1: his life. Well, he already hates high school coaching. This
Speaker 1: is how I'm doing this, and he he needs to
Speaker 1: be in the spotlight. He needs more money. So that's
Speaker 1: why Phil Rivers has said he does not rule out
Speaker 1: returning to the NFL. In December or January, Greg, I mean,
Speaker 1: when is it enough enough? I mean, this is so disrespectfully,
Speaker 1: so not just to Philip Rivers, which of course it is,
Speaker 1: you're twisting his words, but to Sam Farmer, the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Times reporter, the venerable Sam Farmer, who pointed out
Speaker 1: repeatedly how much Philip Rivers loves high coaching high school football.
Speaker 1: How Rivers, but the season's gotta be by like December.
Speaker 1: You know, you got the playoffs around Thanksgiving or whatever,
Speaker 1: and he could be free after that. And uh, this
Speaker 1: happens with a lot of guys who retired. Training camp
Speaker 1: starts and they start feeling that that juice again. And
Speaker 1: I just say, bring it on, Like I feel a
Speaker 1: little bit of anxiety about it because he I thought
Speaker 1: he ended about as well as he could have. Um,
Speaker 1: but bring bring on Philip Rivers taking over for some
Speaker 1: injured quarterback. Hopefully it's it's in Indianapolis. It's perfect right
Speaker 1: at ending ending his career with the first round playoff
Speaker 1: loss was pretty pretty okay. He outplayed Josh Allen in
Speaker 1: that game. He played a terrific game. It was just
Speaker 1: it was kind of a perfect ending for him where
Speaker 1: he played well, and it's like he had a good season.
Speaker 1: It was about as good as you normally got. I
Speaker 1: just kid, because I know how much you love him.
Speaker 1: You love Philip Rivers more than maybe your own children.
Speaker 1: So I just needed to give a little um tart
Speaker 1: with the suite. That's all. That's all. It would be
Speaker 1: cool if he showed up again. I don't know, Conny,
Speaker 1: do you think do you think Philip Rivers showing up
Speaker 1: in December January for a team that is in an
Speaker 1: emergency quarterback situation? How would that even work? And by
Speaker 1: the way, he's already said he's lost a bunch of
Speaker 1: weight because he's not in that training schedule. I see
Speaker 1: what you're saying, Greg, with the anxiety. Would you like
Speaker 1: to see it happened? Colleen? Do you think he should
Speaker 1: stay where he is? I'm picturing, like for anyone who
Speaker 1: watches Ted Lasso, Roy Kent who retired and now he's coaching, uh,
Speaker 1: like a kid's look. I think he's coaching a girl's
Speaker 1: football team, so he's like a very ordinary character. And
Speaker 1: I'm picturing, uh, Philip Rivers, like a different side of
Speaker 1: him that we've never seen before is coming out now
Speaker 1: that he's not uh in the NFL anymore, and he's
Speaker 1: coaching at a high school level, saying Michael Catholic High
Speaker 1: School and Fair Hope, Alabama. But I think that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know what, bring him back. I love a little
Speaker 1: bit of drama. Let's see, uh, let's see what he
Speaker 1: can do. He said that he wouldn't have made weight
Speaker 1: if he reported last week, and that he's he's lifting
Speaker 1: and running now, so let's see if he can get
Speaker 1: back at it. I would like, let's say Justin Herbert
Speaker 1: like stubbed his toe, nothing serious, but out for the
Speaker 1: wild card round. Rivers comes in Drew Bledsoe like the
Speaker 1: year they won the Super Bowl, and wins a playoff
Speaker 1: game for the Chargers and then hands it back off
Speaker 1: to Justin Herbert comes in for one game. I don't
Speaker 1: think we need seven weeks of Philip Rivers, but just
Speaker 1: comes in and does something heroic and then really rides
Speaker 1: off into the sunset. I can see it, like he's
Speaker 1: the type of guy, especially last season, you would think
Speaker 1: maybe the wheels are to come flying off, and maybe
Speaker 1: he throws a couple of ducks earlier in the game
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh boy, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden flash forward late in the fourth quarter and it's
Speaker 1: and he has the ball at midfield, Like I could
Speaker 1: totally see Rivers doing something special like that. Um, I
Speaker 1: feel like the Colts probably won't be around by December
Speaker 1: though at this rate. And I didn't trust them with
Speaker 1: with Carson Wentz. And now if Carson Wentz is limited,
Speaker 1: Quentin Nelson since we last tape, is out for five
Speaker 1: to twelve weeks somehow, with the exact same bone injury,
Speaker 1: which is bizarre that supposedly he's had since high school
Speaker 1: or since birth. Perhaps they both have the same bone
Speaker 1: defect and had the exact same surgery with the same
Speaker 1: bizarre five to twelve week timeline. Weird things are happening
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis. I feel like your season can over by
Speaker 1: one little thing. Though, Greg there is a report and
Speaker 1: it's it's not Jacobies and it's Sam Ellinger at this point,
Speaker 1: according to Stephen Holder, has people within the organization buzzing,
Speaker 1: so you never know, you never know what could happen. Also,
Speaker 1: that's like such a big window five to twelve weeks, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a lot. And it also screw was
Speaker 1: the Eagles over too, because if Wentz comes back at
Speaker 1: the back end of that, you know timetable, then the
Speaker 1: Eagles don't get that first round pick. It reminds It
Speaker 1: reminds me of those cable guys they tell you they'll
Speaker 1: be there from twelve to six pm. Can you be
Speaker 1: a little more specific? Please? I love him Greg, Those
Speaker 1: voice work. Hey, Connie, are we okay? By the way,
Speaker 1: are you mad at me? Are you? Like? Honestly? Man?
Speaker 1: Maybe you even shoot me a text after the show, like,
Speaker 1: hey man, that was an ambush, like what was up
Speaker 1: with that? Or are you getting Are you getting those
Speaker 1: vibes right now right now? But I can't. I can't
Speaker 1: tell because of there's like a haze of Petron right now,
Speaker 1: so I can't really get through. Honestly, I feel like
Speaker 1: I am drenched in tequila right now. Um, I don't
Speaker 1: have feel anything at all, quite frankly, so I don't
Speaker 1: anywhere like spending time with you this offseason. Your natural
Speaker 1: state is hungover, at least when you're used to it.
Speaker 1: She's such a pro though, It's amazing. She's like learning
Speaker 1: those legends. You would never know it. Hey, is it
Speaker 1: too personal to ask about the finger? Oh? No? So yeah,
Speaker 1: I know this is an audio show, so I'll describe
Speaker 1: my my finger right now. So Kurt Warner threw me
Speaker 1: a pass. Uh, and I've never actually like caught a
Speaker 1: ball while running, Like I've never caught an actual pass
Speaker 1: from Hall of Fame quarterback for sure. So he threw
Speaker 1: me the ball and then I don't know, I think
Speaker 1: I might have broke my finger. Um, it's I can't.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. I think I'm gonna go to thank you.
Speaker 1: Your cat was incredible. We have do we have that
Speaker 1: Ricky high point his blonde hair just you know, hanging
Speaker 1: out there in the wind carere just getting some reply
Speaker 1: before the show. That's right down, thank you, thank you. Uh,
Speaker 1: we'll get into that a little bit later as well.
Speaker 1: Break down that play. Great quarterbacking there. Kurt. Wait, so
Speaker 1: is that that's the actual throw and catch where you
Speaker 1: injured the finger? Yeah? Yeah, it's so when I went
Speaker 1: to catch the ball, uh, it hit it hit the
Speaker 1: top of my pinky, and I like, I think it
Speaker 1: just went sideways. And then I was with Baldy the
Speaker 1: other day, so I was like, well, this is perfect.
Speaker 1: Maybe he can give me some pointers here on what
Speaker 1: not to do. So I think I'm gonna go get
Speaker 1: X rays after this show, just to make sure that
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, not going to be a problem,
Speaker 1: because I messed up my thumb on the other hand too,
Speaker 1: so I have I was wearing a splint last night. Um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's just turning like a lot of different
Speaker 1: colors and I'm probably gonna lose my nail. And it
Speaker 1: sounds like you super jammed. It was that the first take?
Speaker 1: Or did you go to the end zone four or
Speaker 1: five times before they recorded a catch? Well, I will
Speaker 1: tell you that I caught it on the first try,
Speaker 1: but they weren't rolling. So then I went out again
Speaker 1: and I caught it, but it dropped it. Uh. Then
Speaker 1: I went out again and I missed it, and so
Speaker 1: I at it on the fourth try there, So I
Speaker 1: got it on the first four you get you get
Speaker 1: credit for that. And is Kurt Warner aware that he's
Speaker 1: seriously maimed you? I don't think so. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think he's because I was like Kurt, I can't.
Speaker 1: I couldn't feel my panky for the entire show that
Speaker 1: we did. And also typing right now is difficult whenever
Speaker 1: there's like an A or w involved. That's a lot
Speaker 1: of words, and I have you typing out esoteric power ranking.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, next time I'm saying, no, Kurt Warner,
Speaker 1: you're listening, and I know you are, buddy, Conie a
Speaker 1: text just to check in. Yeah, little lady bird bones,
Speaker 1: I know, I am like a little fragile bird. All right,
Speaker 1: that's what's happening in the news. I'm sorry to hear that, Connie.
Speaker 1: I hope it's just I hope it's just a sprain
Speaker 1: or something in that waldy fingers the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: But it does have like a lot of weird colors
Speaker 1: going on. So yeah, I know it's crooked and it's
Speaker 1: like blue and red and there's a lot of press swollen.
Speaker 1: Still anyway, I think I'll be just fine. All right,
Speaker 1: that's what's happening in the news man, the culture and mess.
Speaker 1: And that was one of the takeaways when I looked
Speaker 1: at the overly esoteric division power rankings UM presented by
Speaker 1: no one at all, not yet anyway. But once it
Speaker 1: takes off, once the odd pers really take off, it's
Speaker 1: going to be a different situation. Here's how it works.
Speaker 1: This is how I figured it out. Okay, the math,
Speaker 1: probably right, I can't guarantee it. And let me start there. Okay.
Speaker 1: I did use an Excel spreadsheet to help me here,
Speaker 1: I broke. I asked you three to break each of
Speaker 1: the thirty two teams um to get a score out
Speaker 1: of based on five categories. Okay, And I asked, And
Speaker 1: I want the listeners to understand this. It was not
Speaker 1: something to do. A deep dive and a and studying
Speaker 1: and research and tape watching. Kind of a gut instinct
Speaker 1: when I tell you one to five Bill's quarterback, offensive potential,
Speaker 1: defensive potential, coach and coaching staff. Which is that certain?
Speaker 1: Hard to define something, do you you? I took it as
Speaker 1: juice translated as juice, same thing. I can't speak French,
Speaker 1: kind of same thing. Okay, juice, the factor, it factor,
Speaker 1: all that. So those five categories. I then took your
Speaker 1: final scores, reached team okay, added them up divided by four,
Speaker 1: got a division score for everything. I totally. I told
Speaker 1: you it's overly esoteric. But guess what when the math
Speaker 1: was all through and I figured out the division average
Speaker 1: some interesting stuff. So let's go through it. And I
Speaker 1: sent it to you guys, if you want to check
Speaker 1: it out in your emails, UH, if you want to
Speaker 1: see some of the score is and where we differed
Speaker 1: some general overall takeaways on the assignment that I had. UM,
Speaker 1: the most optimistic grader was Mark. Mark's grades were higher
Speaker 1: for most people. I was on the other end of that.
Speaker 1: I was lower than you, guys. UM. The only person
Speaker 1: to privately request our ballot remain anonymous. Colleen the only
Speaker 1: person to offer a score that does not exist Colleen
Speaker 1: A five and after the Packers and uh, Greg, you
Speaker 1: and I were very simpatico UH with our grades. We
Speaker 1: were very close on a lot of teams. UM, and
Speaker 1: then Colleen and Mark were very close with each other.
Speaker 1: Which is an interesting breakdown. UM, So let's get to it.
Speaker 1: Eight divisions and when you when you figure it out, yes,
Speaker 1: it adds up to one hundred hundred score maximum. Who
Speaker 1: do you think is the highest score team? By the way, well,
Speaker 1: you just told us you sent the results during the show,
Speaker 1: but you told us to look at it, So now
Speaker 1: I feel like I can't answer. I didn't. I would
Speaker 1: have guessed right anyways, it's pretty I would think Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. Why not the Chiefs. I would
Speaker 1: have got the chief because that's who I had. I
Speaker 1: had I think as the highest in my mind, in
Speaker 1: my mind, in your mind. Yes, the highest graded team
Speaker 1: in this exercise was the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers,
Speaker 1: who had ninety three and a half out of one
Speaker 1: d UM between the four of us when you add
Speaker 1: it all up, and there was another ninety team I
Speaker 1: think a couple more nine teams in there, but nobody
Speaker 1: was at that level. So we we loved the bucks
Speaker 1: um Around these parts. The Chiefs also were high at
Speaker 1: ninety two and the lowest team. That's pretty easy one
Speaker 1: to figure out too. There were some ghastly scores for
Speaker 1: the Houston Texans who finished that thirty three and a
Speaker 1: half um when you add up the four scores that
Speaker 1: we gave them, I mean the juice factor. I that
Speaker 1: was my one. I think the only zero I handed out.
Speaker 1: I wanted to go negative one, but I thought that
Speaker 1: might bab think about zero. Yeah, yeah, there are not
Speaker 1: too many zeros. I think Connie and Mark had a couple,
Speaker 1: but um I I stayed away from them, as did Greg.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to it. So the according to
Speaker 1: our overly esoteric division power rankings, the worst Division Football,
Speaker 1: and it's not necessarily it's not particularly close as the
Speaker 1: a f C South with a average score of fifty
Speaker 1: seven and a half out of one hundred. It is
Speaker 1: the Colts, Jaguars, Texans Titans division that is worse than
Speaker 1: any other one entering the season. I think, you know
Speaker 1: we have the Titans is a heavy favorite. We had
Speaker 1: them at seventy six and a half. Um Texans, of course,
Speaker 1: I said thirty three and a half at the bottom,
Speaker 1: the Colts at sixty three and a half and the
Speaker 1: Jaguars at fifty six and a half. So I think
Speaker 1: the whole Carson Wentz and now the Quentin Nelson drama
Speaker 1: probably dropped. I would say the Colts. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: some thing that the neighborhood ten points in that drag
Speaker 1: this division down even further. Well, you got to think
Speaker 1: about that division has the worst in football because it's
Speaker 1: got a team that went one in fifteen and it's
Speaker 1: got the team that everyone thinks is no like no
Speaker 1: other division has a two pack that bad, and that
Speaker 1: because of that, you have to think that the Titans
Speaker 1: are one of the most likely teams in the NFL
Speaker 1: to make the playoffs like the I would throw the
Speaker 1: Bucks in there. Certainly in the Chiefs um the Bills,
Speaker 1: but maybe maybe the Titans just in terms of like
Speaker 1: likelihood to make the playoffs? Is up with those teams
Speaker 1: because I don't know, Indianapolis proved proved me wrong. But
Speaker 1: even the Titans as the best team, you wouldn't create
Speaker 1: them the way you would like the Tom Brady New
Speaker 1: England Patriots year after year. I mean, they're good, Are
Speaker 1: they great? We don't know. Yeah, that the the defense
Speaker 1: for the Titans is the one thing that worries me
Speaker 1: a little bit. But with the Colts, just everything that's
Speaker 1: happened with Carson Wentz, you just have such a question
Speaker 1: mark now at that position. I mean, even if he
Speaker 1: does come back at the beginning of that time table,
Speaker 1: the rest of the roster for the Colts is really
Speaker 1: really good top to bottom. But if with that huge,
Speaker 1: huge void there, I mean, you don't you really just
Speaker 1: don't know what you're gonna get from Carson Wentz when
Speaker 1: he comes back. If he's going to be like the
Speaker 1: Carson Wentzen, or if he's going to be more of
Speaker 1: the Carson Wentz that we saw before, or if he's
Speaker 1: going to even be healthy The whole year. Right next, fans,
Speaker 1: we know, we hear you, we know you're out there.
Speaker 1: If I'm a Jacks fan, I'm thinking this division is winnable.
Speaker 1: It's not that crazy. Their offense. I gave him pretty
Speaker 1: high juice factor at least if nothing else. The Jaguars
Speaker 1: are going to be more interesting with that offensive. Laurens
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people are curious what
Speaker 1: the Titans offense will look like without Arthur Smith. The
Speaker 1: fact that they're in this division, it's going to give
Speaker 1: them a lot of cushion to kind of figure things out.
Speaker 1: And you would think to me, and you know, maybe
Speaker 1: the Jaguar surprise surprise us here. Um, I don't think
Speaker 1: the Texans are And we'll see what happens with the
Speaker 1: cults here as message as they are. Don't want to
Speaker 1: get too caught up in a moment, but this feels
Speaker 1: like nine wins could win the division. A nine and
Speaker 1: eight team could come out of this division, and even
Speaker 1: the Titans stumble this year. I feel like that's where
Speaker 1: they can get um all right. Next, the number seven division,
Speaker 1: A little spit of a surprise. I thought the NFC
Speaker 1: North had coming in sixty three point to five out
Speaker 1: of one hundred was the average weighted score. I don't
Speaker 1: know if average weighted is the right terminology. I'm just
Speaker 1: say it with compouns intelligent and then if somebody can
Speaker 1: urry me on that subreddit and then Mark let me know.
Speaker 1: Um not weighted in any way. So I don't think, Greg,
Speaker 1: you gotta just you gotta go with edit out the
Speaker 1: word waited and just saved. But that doesn't sound good,
Speaker 1: just like, oh, the average um average weighted is something
Speaker 1: to pop tonight, you know what I mean. It's not waited,
Speaker 1: so it's it's incorrect. We have the favorite. The heavy
Speaker 1: favorite is the Packers. Um, we have them at um.
Speaker 1: Our average score was eighty five out of one hundred,
Speaker 1: which is very good. But it's interesting the true Super
Speaker 1: Bowl level teams that are seen as favorites. We all
Speaker 1: kind of had them, those teams in the early nineties,
Speaker 1: late eighties, so it seems like as a group we
Speaker 1: see the Packers as maybe just a click below those
Speaker 1: great teams, but they're still a heavy favorite in this division.
Speaker 1: The Packers are the Vikings a distant second seventy out
Speaker 1: of one hundred, which actually is a little high. I thought,
Speaker 1: and then The reason why this this is so low
Speaker 1: this division is that the Bears and lines are weighing
Speaker 1: them down. The lines are buried at forty one and
Speaker 1: a half. Uh. The Bears at fifty six and a
Speaker 1: half surprised me a little bit. I thought they would
Speaker 1: have a little more juice and you guys will be
Speaker 1: a little more into them, but apparently not so. The
Speaker 1: fact that the division has one very good, too great team,
Speaker 1: one team that's a little on the bubble, and then
Speaker 1: two teams we see is afterthoughts held back the division
Speaker 1: as a whole. Where where did everybody fall on the Vikings.
Speaker 1: I'm high on the Vikings. I thought they were team
Speaker 1: three and a half. I think that was like the
Speaker 1: one note I took. It was like they are the
Speaker 1: ultimate three and a half team, and I think they
Speaker 1: could be better. I'm trying to be conservative. I think
Speaker 1: they have a chance to win this division. I think
Speaker 1: their defense will be good. I think their offense will
Speaker 1: be good enough. Uh. And like they I don't I
Speaker 1: don't see them as two differently than I did going
Speaker 1: into last year, or maybe even a little better on paper,
Speaker 1: I think than than they were going into last year.
Speaker 1: When they're coming off a division title. I'd considered a
Speaker 1: shocker if if the Packers lost the division to any
Speaker 1: one of those teams. But I'm with you that the
Speaker 1: vikings to me and I had to. I have a
Speaker 1: couple of teams, like at the Cardinals just sort of
Speaker 1: like three and a half type. You're you're a B plus.
Speaker 1: I trust you to annoy me long enough and then
Speaker 1: get completely mashed in the playoffs at some point. It's
Speaker 1: the same old story. I think you guys all had
Speaker 1: them at an eighteen at score and I had them
Speaker 1: at sixteen. First of all, Kirk Cousins is the most
Speaker 1: three and a half out of five quarterback that's ever.
Speaker 1: He's not a three MR three and a half four.
Speaker 1: He is MR three and a half out of five UM,
Speaker 1: and I think I ding them a little bit more
Speaker 1: on defense UM and I think I talked about it
Speaker 1: earlier this week that they have so much turnover. I
Speaker 1: think they have sixteen UM new members of their defense
Speaker 1: that it's just such a titanic task for Zimmer to
Speaker 1: now put those guys and get that team playing. But
Speaker 1: if Zimmer, who's a defensive guy, gets it done, my
Speaker 1: two and a half score, that should be a little higher. Also,
Speaker 1: don't have a ton of juice for them. Was only
Speaker 1: two out of five from you, that's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 1: But they have a chance, I think, to beat up
Speaker 1: on the on the Bears and Lions, and I think
Speaker 1: there's a chance. All that defensive talent is a huge upgrade.
Speaker 1: That defense is where I'm coming from. They're also getting like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they have a ton of new faces as starters, but
Speaker 1: they get Daniel hunterback who had the neck injury. He
Speaker 1: missed all of last year. Anthony Barr missed like fourteen games.
Speaker 1: Um Michael Pierce opted out. So they have a couple
Speaker 1: of guys that are returning who are actually like big factors.
Speaker 1: I think in that defense, I trusted Zimmer and I
Speaker 1: don't need the Packers fans to remind me. I know
Speaker 1: they didn't. I said they won the division two years ago.
Speaker 1: They did not. They famously gagged on Monday Night Football
Speaker 1: and in front of Keith Hansas while me, West and
Speaker 1: Mark and Dan all watched them. Uh, and they didn't
Speaker 1: make the playoffs. But when one of that's when Keith
Speaker 1: Hansas labeled Matt laflour little boy with a beer And
Speaker 1: I've never got in that sense. Come on, Danny, these
Speaker 1: guys didn't even show up. That's exactly what it sounds like.
Speaker 1: Number six. A little bit of a surprise, um that
Speaker 1: they're this high the NFC East and the slight favorite
Speaker 1: according to this group. UH and my computations, my weighted
Speaker 1: computations is the Dallas Cowboys. We haven't at seventy one
Speaker 1: and a half, So we are as a group sucked
Speaker 1: in once again by the Cowboys. The summer of hype
Speaker 1: around everything with this team has us seeing them as
Speaker 1: a division favorite, just slightly over the Washington football team
Speaker 1: at seventy and a half, the Giants far behind the
Speaker 1: pack at fifty nine and a half, and then the
Speaker 1: Eagles Connie buried at So they are they have This
Speaker 1: division according to our um overly esoteric division power rankings,
Speaker 1: has to kind of eight to ten win teams and
Speaker 1: then two teams that are kind of afterthoughts here. Well,
Speaker 1: I think with the Cowboys, the big question is the defense.
Speaker 1: How that rebounds with dan Quinn with Uh, I mean,
Speaker 1: they have a lot of different pieces, but last year
Speaker 1: it was just so horrendous to watch, So that's the
Speaker 1: one question for me Dallas. But I mean also, it
Speaker 1: doesn't surprise me at all that the Eagles are so low.
Speaker 1: Where where did uh the scores come out for the
Speaker 1: coaching staff with the Eagles? You know what, that's funny
Speaker 1: you should say that, because that's one of those ones
Speaker 1: where I tweaked it later because I thought I was
Speaker 1: being a little bit me and I had it. I
Speaker 1: had it a two and a half because I just
Speaker 1: haven't been um overly impressed by some of the sound bites.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, that's totally unfair. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give him the ben of that, and and I just
Speaker 1: slapped the three there for the Eagles coach, I gave
Speaker 1: him a two. I gave new coaches at two unless
Speaker 1: they felt like they had a little extra juice, because
Speaker 1: you just it's hard to tell if new coaches are
Speaker 1: gonna and I gave a two and a half. I
Speaker 1: gave them another half because they're not doing any Sirianni
Speaker 1: and they give up good vibes. Um, but like, you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta show me at first. Let's see, it's
Speaker 1: such a young staff though, to like even beyond Nick Sirianni,
Speaker 1: that all of like the assistants are really young to
Speaker 1: um but my favorite quote from Sirianni I think that
Speaker 1: was from last week when he was talking about how
Speaker 1: their players are all in attack mode and they're gonna
Speaker 1: attack everything. They're going to attack like these practices and
Speaker 1: then they're going to attack rest and that was my favorite.
Speaker 1: Attacking rest is truly spectacular. You know who you know
Speaker 1: who attacks uh rest? Your husband, John Gonzalas. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean loves a nap. That's uh, that's he does the
Speaker 1: old reda nap every day. He's a man of leisure.
Speaker 1: Remember on on Tybee Island. He during the day just
Speaker 1: like hard right turn out of social activities to like
Speaker 1: a four hour nap. Yes, this is uh, that's what
Speaker 1: not having kids is like, you can you can nap.
Speaker 1: And I like how that that we get kind of
Speaker 1: grades here because you say we're kind of we're falling
Speaker 1: for the Cowboys. But they got a seventy one and
Speaker 1: Washington got a seventy that's right, where like Minnesota was,
Speaker 1: which we were just saying wasn't too high. It kind
Speaker 1: of what makes sense, like they're a SEAMA. Does that
Speaker 1: mean they're kind of a C minus team? It's like,
Speaker 1: you know the Bucks are A's it's it works out
Speaker 1: pretty that's interesting. I don't know if it quite translates
Speaker 1: to the education educational system A to F scale um,
Speaker 1: but that's where the waiting would come in. We would
Speaker 1: have to have raise it. I don't think on any
Speaker 1: of these teams. This is part like when I was
Speaker 1: saying that the the numbers um. Although they don't like me,
Speaker 1: I like them. I like that when you actually have
Speaker 1: to assign a score, even if it's something as simple
Speaker 1: as a zero to five, you kind of learned something,
Speaker 1: a little bit something about how you see these teams,
Speaker 1: when you see where you have other teams in the
Speaker 1: same same realm. But I think if you hit seventy,
Speaker 1: you're kind of right on the borderline of being a
Speaker 1: playoff team, Like you're right there. That's what I think
Speaker 1: that this uh data. Some people say data, sometimes I
Speaker 1: say but right now I'm saying data because I think
Speaker 1: there's a little more pop to data. Sure, Hey, did
Speaker 1: any team get a thirty six? Exact? Isn't that what
Speaker 1: you got on the state mandated mattah No? Thirty nine?
Speaker 1: Oh thirty nine? Anyone get a thirty nine? Let's see
Speaker 1: the Texans got you got a thirty three. No one
Speaker 1: else is thirty three and a half one of the Lions.
Speaker 1: Perhaps they got a four. That's really what I was
Speaker 1: getting at perfect um look where I am now, ma alright,
Speaker 1: number five the NFC South. How about the NFC South,
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the pack, the heavy favorite,
Speaker 1: the Bucks. We all love the Bucks ninety three and
Speaker 1: a half out of one, and I think uh Connie
Speaker 1: and Mark both had a twenty four out of with
Speaker 1: no and then buried in a distant second place the
Speaker 1: Saints at seventy. The Falcons, I thought, a little little generous,
Speaker 1: and then the Panthers the bloom is off the map
Speaker 1: rule Rods, I guess with some people on the show
Speaker 1: fifty five and a half Um Greg particularly buried the
Speaker 1: quarterback position. That's Sam Donald Vendetta, which I thankfully I'm
Speaker 1: not connected to anymore. I think a one and a
Speaker 1: half out of five as low as anybody got. The
Speaker 1: Panthers buried by Rosenthal, one of the worst, one of
Speaker 1: the worst quarterbacks in football for three years straight. What
Speaker 1: what well? You don't well? I guess the point you're
Speaker 1: making when you give him that great is you do
Speaker 1: not divorce his situation with the player. You think he
Speaker 1: was as responsible as No, I'm not He's equally responsible.
Speaker 1: I would say, I would say it's on him and
Speaker 1: it's on Gaze because I've seen many quarterbacks play under
Speaker 1: Adam Gatee and they all played better, like every single
Speaker 1: one of them. Tannehill by like a pretty good amount
Speaker 1: at the exact same part of his career. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then I like Matt Rule as a coach. I think
Speaker 1: I gave him a rolet of the high thing. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess it's donald And it's a lot of questions.
Speaker 1: I think in Carolina, what was Sessler's grade for Matt
Speaker 1: Rule for the coaches there and a half? I think,
Speaker 1: I think you have this cuts through it because he
Speaker 1: has to give a pure grade and stay out of
Speaker 1: his feelings. And but you like him. You give four.
Speaker 1: I think that's the highest grade anybody gave him. But
Speaker 1: you didn't do five because you're a man of integrity. Well,
Speaker 1: you know that there's a weighted data skill to Dan
Speaker 1: according to this exercise, So I had to remove, you know,
Speaker 1: my emotions and my empathies toward him. I like, I
Speaker 1: like him as a coach. I believe in him where
Speaker 1: I where I disagree with Greg a little bit or
Speaker 1: where at least I have more patience with Sam Donald
Speaker 1: is like he's never been in a better situation like this,
Speaker 1: and I think he's got a great play call or
Speaker 1: two and a lot of talent around him. And I
Speaker 1: don't know why, you know, you get Christian McCaffrey back
Speaker 1: to they lost like thirteen games or thirteen games last
Speaker 1: year were decided by one score. They were the worst
Speaker 1: red zone team in the league. So if any of
Speaker 1: that starts to improve, you're looking at a team that
Speaker 1: can get more wins in a pretty shaky divisions. So
Speaker 1: I think it's like arrow up. I'm not saying like
Speaker 1: into the heavens, but one out of five, not even
Speaker 1: one and a half. I don't like proven, the proven
Speaker 1: mediocrates thing, like you'll give a like I didn't give
Speaker 1: that to rookies or whatever. But I'm I'm not optimistic.
Speaker 1: I'm not I wasn't optimistic about Carson Wentz either, just
Speaker 1: because he's in a new a new spot, like maybe
Speaker 1: he'll be fine, but if he's Teddy Bridgewater, I think
Speaker 1: they'll consider that a pretty big loss. And I have
Speaker 1: my I I have my doubt that he'll have that
Speaker 1: their offensive line I also think on paper could be
Speaker 1: one of the very worst. And that's that's a bad combination. Uh.
Speaker 1: When Sam Donald, they're closer to the Saints and the Falcons,
Speaker 1: then like the Buck the Bucks are so far away,
Speaker 1: like Saints fans have to like. Ultimately, the Saints, Falcons
Speaker 1: and Panthers weren't that far apart compared to how far
Speaker 1: away the Bucks were as the one team. I I
Speaker 1: like the Pants have Christian McCaffrey coming back, and that
Speaker 1: Sam Donald as Robbie Anderson, who Matt Rule knows from Temple.
Speaker 1: It's just that that feels like it could maybe break
Speaker 1: uh in a positive way potentially. But yeah, they don't.
Speaker 1: They don't know who their left tackle is going to be.
Speaker 1: All right, Halftime halftime of the overly esoteric Division Power Rankings,
Speaker 1: odd per and a little special guest, A little surprise guest.
Speaker 1: I don't even think we mentioned at the top of
Speaker 1: the show. But this is a big deal because this
Speaker 1: is one of the best beat writers in the game.
Speaker 1: He covers the San Francisco forty Niners for the Athletic.
Speaker 1: He is the great Matt Barrows and he joins the
Speaker 1: e T N podcast. Matt, welcome to the show. First
Speaker 1: of all, this is and Greg d. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I'd like to say that I'm also a data guy.
Speaker 1: Data to me sounds like an art movement, so I
Speaker 1: think we should all go data on this one. Do
Speaker 1: you want to There's this second half to that segment
Speaker 1: that the interminable segment. I will switch over to day
Speaker 1: in the second half of it after this conversation. All right,
Speaker 1: mattter you for joining us. We appreciate it, and listen.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make it easy on you. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: necessarily ask for a above the tree tops forty niners
Speaker 1: breakdown right now on the podcast. I think the audience
Speaker 1: and especially as we're very excited to know what is
Speaker 1: going on with Trey Lance because you have a piece.
Speaker 1: And again the Athletic hate plug the athletic a lot.
Speaker 1: I don't get paid by the athletic, but if you shirt, yeah,
Speaker 1: send me a T shirt or whatever, because that is
Speaker 1: just like you know, um, the coverage is so great
Speaker 1: and at training camp you are singing the praises of
Speaker 1: Trey Lance. You're wild like everyone else, what he's been
Speaker 1: able to do in these practices. He's barely throwing in
Speaker 1: completions Matt. And it's I think the question, of course
Speaker 1: becomes how much longer can Kyle Shanahan look the other way? Eve?
Speaker 1: And if this is against second team defense, is is
Speaker 1: it becoming a situation where this is a freight train
Speaker 1: in San Francisco? Yeah, it seems that way. I Mean
Speaker 1: what struck me is that, Um, I guess that the
Speaker 1: best word to describe him is he's got a boldness
Speaker 1: about him. He's not acting like a rookie. He's not
Speaker 1: you know, checking down. He's not hesitant. He's attacking this defense.
Speaker 1: And it's a good defense, um, you know, pretty deep defense.
Speaker 1: But he's attacking it deep. He's attacking it with those
Speaker 1: um you know, it's bread and butter. Kyle Shanahan throws
Speaker 1: the deep crosses, he's attacking it deep down the sidelines,
Speaker 1: he's attacking the scene, he's attacking it with his legs.
Speaker 1: And and the big takeaway is the is the juxtaposition.
Speaker 1: I mean, it really highlights what Jimmy Garoppolo isn't great at.
Speaker 1: He doesn't throw the ball deep, he doesn't attack the sidelines,
Speaker 1: he's not a runner. So it's this contrast that's been
Speaker 1: he ate it over the first seven days of camp
Speaker 1: that you know, Jimmy Garoppolo is having a fine camp,
Speaker 1: but he's doing Jimmy Garoppolo things. He throws the short pass,
Speaker 1: the intermediate past. Well, he's really good at um hitting
Speaker 1: guys on the run, but he doesn't um, you know,
Speaker 1: threaten the whole field. And so I've got to think
Speaker 1: that Kyle Shanahan, who loves aggressive, always attacking offense, sees
Speaker 1: Trey Lance doing this out of the shoot um and
Speaker 1: that was different than what we were thinking was going
Speaker 1: to happen, just given uh lances scant college career. That
Speaker 1: the fact that he's being so aggressive, so bold, so early,
Speaker 1: I think is what has really surprised a lot of observers,
Speaker 1: including me. Yeah, I want I wanted someone that's seen
Speaker 1: him every day. And I'm especially happy to have you
Speaker 1: because you've been there forever. I think you were there.
Speaker 1: Were you there for Alex Smith rookie year? Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. You've seen Alex Smith come in, You've seen
Speaker 1: Colin Kaepernick come in. You know, you've seen young quarterback
Speaker 1: I am as fast. I think Lance is the most
Speaker 1: fascinating story right now to enter the season, I've thought
Speaker 1: he would be the Week one starter if he looks great,
Speaker 1: like it's not about Jimmy G. Like, it's not about you, man.
Speaker 1: Like if if Lance just shows up and he's electric
Speaker 1: off the bat, that's that's why they drafted him. And
Speaker 1: I'm not buying anything that they're saying about this being
Speaker 1: the best Jimmy g We've ever seen. It's like they
Speaker 1: hadn't even put on pads when John Lynch said that,
Speaker 1: which felt like a giveaway that he's b seen so
Speaker 1: after like seeing you know, Kaepernick and Alex Smith and
Speaker 1: other young quarterbacks come up, Like I guess i'd ask
Speaker 1: you to just compare, compare how Lance is looking, whether
Speaker 1: you think he would be ready to possibly get out
Speaker 1: their Week one Yeah, to me, there's there's really no
Speaker 1: no comparison. He's He's way better than both of those
Speaker 1: guys were at at that stage of their careers. You know,
Speaker 1: Alex Smith had the the issue here that the famous
Speaker 1: Urban Myer quote was that he would be nonfunctional until
Speaker 1: he learned the whole system. That's sort of how he was. Um,
Speaker 1: he was very uch uh you know, baby horse learning
Speaker 1: to walk for the first time, as as a rookie UM,
Speaker 1: and I love Alex Smith. I came to really admire him.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to make fun of him or anything,
Speaker 1: but he was not great his rookie season, certainly early
Speaker 1: in training camp. Um. And then Colin Kaepernick. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he had an injury going into his first year, UH
Speaker 1: rookie season. My memories of him was, you know, he would,
Speaker 1: you know, do a five yard dump off to the
Speaker 1: running back, but it would be a hundred mile an
Speaker 1: hour fastball. He didn't have a lot of touch early
Speaker 1: on in his career. So Lan's like I said, I mean,
Speaker 1: if he's just head and shoulders above where those guys
Speaker 1: were early on, and like I said, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of everything. Um, He's he's throwing the ball, um,
Speaker 1: you know, to all aspects of the field, and only
Speaker 1: recently did they start doing the read options stuff. And
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's great that in that regard to
Speaker 1: I mean, he's it strikes you he's six ft four pounds.
Speaker 1: He's not an easy guy to tackle. So even um,
Speaker 1: you know, once he gets into the secondary, he's he's
Speaker 1: going to be the guy delivering blows to the defensive backs.
Speaker 1: He's different than Kyler Murray. He's different than Russell Wilson
Speaker 1: in that regard. He's a big guy who's gonna put
Speaker 1: pressure on defenses. I guess a question I'd have for
Speaker 1: you is, you know you hear Shanahan and Lynch still
Speaker 1: singing the praises of Jimmy G. There's been a lot
Speaker 1: of verbal commitment to him starting the season. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're Jimmy G and you're watching these Trey Lands
Speaker 1: practices happening, I don't know what his mental makeup is,
Speaker 1: but I'm wondering, does Jimmy G thinking side Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: this guy is the better start of than me. But secondly,
Speaker 1: if they do roll out Jimmy G and just keep
Speaker 1: that promise per se and he's outplayed in the preseason
Speaker 1: by trade Lance, does this locker room start to question
Speaker 1: the decision making. I mean, would there be a potential
Speaker 1: insurrection if you're not starting the clear cut electric electricity guy,
Speaker 1: the young guy that you you read some of the quotes.
Speaker 1: The other players are happening about Trey Lance. They see it,
Speaker 1: they seem to love, and so it's like, why would
Speaker 1: anything other than Trey Lance starting occur. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: if if that were the case and the forty Niners
Speaker 1: were losing, I think that that absolutely would happen, that
Speaker 1: they would they would conclude, why is Jimmy Garoppolo in there?
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, it just makes um, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Garoppolo's rope all the all the shorter. Uh. They may
Speaker 1: indeed go into week one with him as a starter,
Speaker 1: but you know, he doesn't have very much willow room. Um,
Speaker 1: as soon as he falters. There's a guy that's that's
Speaker 1: proven that, you know, like I said, you mean, he
Speaker 1: really puts pressure on defenses, has so far? Um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's only been seven days. So I don't think
Speaker 1: the forty Niners are in any rush at all to
Speaker 1: make any big declarations about a rookie. Um. None of
Speaker 1: the rookies that they drafted are are in starting positions
Speaker 1: right now. So I think that's just a theme. I
Speaker 1: think Greg is right. Uh, it's it's a lot of
Speaker 1: coach speak GM speak. At this point, no one is
Speaker 1: eager to anoint any of these guys. But to answer
Speaker 1: the first part of your question, that there was a
Speaker 1: scenario the first couple of days of camp where Trey Lands.
Speaker 1: So it was a little bit late on throwing to
Speaker 1: to Deebo Samuel who had broken, you know, deep down
Speaker 1: the field, and it wasn't a great throw, but it
Speaker 1: still was enough to get there, and Samuel h called
Speaker 1: it and went in for an easy touchdown. The next day, um,
Speaker 1: you know, Garoppolo was in a very similar situation. He
Speaker 1: sees Deebo Samuel breaking down field, He hesitates a bit,
Speaker 1: and I wonder if in his mind he's thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: this other quarterback is going for these throws, now I
Speaker 1: have to do this too. So he rears back and
Speaker 1: gives it everything he's got and his throw is tenure short,
Speaker 1: easy interception for Jason Burrett. On the play, didn't everybody
Speaker 1: knew that it wouldn't get there. I think Jimmy Garoppolo
Speaker 1: probably knew that his his throw wasn't going to get there,
Speaker 1: but he sort of forced himself to throwing it, and
Speaker 1: it was a horrific path, the worst path as a
Speaker 1: training camp so far. I'm just wondering whether when you're
Speaker 1: talking about pressure, those sorts of things start to show up.
Speaker 1: He's he realizes he has to push himself out of
Speaker 1: his comfort zone. He just may not have the tools
Speaker 1: to be able to do So, Hey, Matt, what's in
Speaker 1: a big spot? Not what's some Trey Lance's personality? Like,
Speaker 1: how how do the other guys respond to him? Um?
Speaker 1: On the field between practices. I feel like when you're
Speaker 1: there and you're able to watch practice and and see
Speaker 1: how the guys sort of react to each other, you
Speaker 1: can tell a lot more about a player beyond what
Speaker 1: you know his incompletions or lack thereof. What's what do
Speaker 1: you kind of what kind of field do you have
Speaker 1: for him? He hasn't been terrific in front of the
Speaker 1: media to this point. I mean kind of saying all
Speaker 1: the all the rookie things. UM. I think that the
Speaker 1: biggest thing in that regard is that, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: he did look like a rookie and O t um.
Speaker 1: You know, you saw him drop back and you on
Speaker 1: sort of methodically go through his his progressions and he
Speaker 1: usually checked down or through to the sideline. Um. But
Speaker 1: when he came back for training camp, it wasn't that anymore.
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said, he was bold in his decisions.
Speaker 1: He's attacking, and I think that everybody um concluded his teammates,
Speaker 1: UM that he put in a lot of work during
Speaker 1: that that forty days off between O t S and
Speaker 1: training camp. So I mean there's a respect there obviously
Speaker 1: that that he put in the work. And he's not
Speaker 1: not just um, you know, looking at the playbook. He
Speaker 1: was executing the playbook during his time off. He was
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, he was in l A. He was in Fargo,
Speaker 1: he was in Minneapolis, and um, he was working out
Speaker 1: the whole time. And it wasn't just you know, working
Speaker 1: on his legs or gaining strength a gaining way he was.
Speaker 1: He was doing the playbook. And that was evident when
Speaker 1: he came back. So I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: respect for that. Feel free to shoot this down as
Speaker 1: national media. No nothing malarkey. Um, but I'm curious if
Speaker 1: they put a percentage on Jimmy g not on the
Speaker 1: forty Niners by Halloween, My Halloween, I think that the
Speaker 1: trade deadlines. Uh yeah, yeah, but yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: would put it at, I would put it below. I
Speaker 1: put it at. And the reason I say that is
Speaker 1: because the forty Niners have just been torpedoed by QB injuries.
Speaker 1: Um So, even if you know lance Is is the
Speaker 1: starter and frankly, I think he will be by that point. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure they want to go, you know, ostensibly
Speaker 1: into a playoff race with Nate Sudfeld as the as
Speaker 1: the number two quarterback there, so I think they'd love
Speaker 1: to have Jimmy Garofolo is the backup in case something
Speaker 1: does happen. They would have to be blown away by
Speaker 1: an offer, I think, and if if trade answer is
Speaker 1: indeed taking over for Jimmy Garoppolo, I don't know if
Speaker 1: any team is offering a first round pick or even
Speaker 1: a second round pick at that point for jim Garoppolo.
Speaker 1: So that's why I don't think it probably doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: But I mean, and there's also the money factor. Any
Speaker 1: team that that takes on Garoppolo is going to have
Speaker 1: to take on half of that uh what is it,
Speaker 1: twenty six million dollar shalery at that point. So there
Speaker 1: are a lot of reasons why it might not happen.
Speaker 1: So we'll keep million dollar backup, maybe even in Week one.
Speaker 1: It's not that crazy. Jake Briskett was a seventeen million dollars.
Speaker 1: I mean, it it happens, uh, And I think it
Speaker 1: kind of makes sense for where they're at even if
Speaker 1: it was week one, that they just keep them, keep
Speaker 1: him and pay him his money and he stays as
Speaker 1: the backup. Matt Barrow, Matt Barrows, I should say cover
Speaker 1: covers the forty niners for the athletic reading stuff. Follow
Speaker 1: him on Twitter at Matt Barrows b A R r Ows. Matt,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. And I really sensed in
Speaker 1: that your most recent write up it's almost a my
Speaker 1: home zeen. It reminds me of how like Chiefs writers
Speaker 1: were writing about my homes early now not saying that
Speaker 1: that's what this guy's gonna be, but it sounds like
Speaker 1: an exciting time to be on the beat, and we
Speaker 1: look forward to reading more about it as things go along.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. Thank you by that. There
Speaker 1: he goes. It's good, that's good. It's perfect for him
Speaker 1: to come on just as Connie's computer was crashing, like
Speaker 1: the listeners will never know like a future it's just
Speaker 1: like me today. All right. Back to the division power rankings.
Speaker 1: The data not dad any longer because Matt was right,
Speaker 1: data is a little more hardcore. So we had a
Speaker 1: f C South fifty seven and a half NFC North
Speaker 1: sixty three point to five NFC E sixty four point
Speaker 1: one to five NFC South right in the middle at
Speaker 1: seventy one. Now the top half will start number four,
Speaker 1: the A F C West, all right, and the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: As I said, ninety two out of one hundred, we
Speaker 1: all love the Chiefs. Um. They are right behind the
Speaker 1: Bucks as our number two team in this exercise. A
Speaker 1: distance second. I thought maybe they'd be a little bit higher,
Speaker 1: But we have the Chargers at seventy three, then the
Speaker 1: Broncos at sixty three and a half. Again, they're hamstrung
Speaker 1: by that QB situation, but we all seem to like
Speaker 1: them a lot um otherwise. But also the QB situation,
Speaker 1: and this is the magic of the overly esoteric division
Speaker 1: power rankings. That QB situation affects the June's qua of
Speaker 1: a team and the office. It's all connected. It's the
Speaker 1: most important position. And even though QB is only one
Speaker 1: category out of five, it bleeds into the others. Because see,
Speaker 1: it's a perfect thing. I've been on something. Everybody the data,
Speaker 1: it doesn't lie anyway. Charger seventy three, Bronco sixty three
Speaker 1: and a half, RATEAR sixty one and a half. Average
Speaker 1: score seventy two and a half, just above the nfc
Speaker 1: S and just below the team will talk about next
Speaker 1: big picture thoughts. This is to me the Bills are
Speaker 1: the heaviest favorite. When I think about who's the division favorites.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs are right there too, and this data backs
Speaker 1: that up. Wow, I think the I think the Bucks
Speaker 1: are the biggest favorite, but I see where you're at,
Speaker 1: where it'd be shocking if the Chiefs didn't win the
Speaker 1: division yet. This division is interesting. I'm glad I got
Speaker 1: in the top half because it feels like the other three,
Speaker 1: any one of them could make the playoffs, and any
Speaker 1: any one of them should be pretty entertaining to watch
Speaker 1: or at least has things to watch. I think the
Speaker 1: Broncos have like a legit chance to make the playoffs
Speaker 1: this year, and I'm sure I think fans of all
Speaker 1: three of these teams are going into the season thinking
Speaker 1: that way. Obviously they'll they'll someone's gonna be overly optimistic.
Speaker 1: Someone has got to be lower on the Chargers than
Speaker 1: I am, because the way that I did this, I
Speaker 1: believe I have them as a locked in playoff team.
Speaker 1: I like them a lot um. I gave their new
Speaker 1: coaching situation. I think I don't do this two point
Speaker 1: five thing that you do, Greg. I I kind of
Speaker 1: go three unless I really like the idea of one.
Speaker 1: But I think Brandon Staley is going to be a
Speaker 1: big help because think coaching issues were a big problem
Speaker 1: for the Chargers for like the entire time we've worked
Speaker 1: at NFL dot Com. So I think it's arrow up
Speaker 1: and I look at Justin Herbert and say, well, the
Speaker 1: offensive line has improved. Why is why would this not
Speaker 1: be a playoff team? To me? Was down on them.
Speaker 1: I was pretty high on them too. Mark. I don't
Speaker 1: think Greg, you had him at seventeen. I had him
Speaker 1: at sixteen and a half. Connie had them at nineteen
Speaker 1: and a half, and Mark you had them at I
Speaker 1: don't know that you might that there was there an
Speaker 1: addition problem here. Rule it out, will rule it out.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Now you're probably right, but let's know,
Speaker 1: because yeah, that's uh, I'll double check that. You guys
Speaker 1: keep talking. I know. I think I think I might
Speaker 1: have just made a mistake glancing through it. I think
Speaker 1: they have legitimate roster issues on defense. Other than Joey Both,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot there in the front seven. You're
Speaker 1: really county on Brandon Staley to sprinkle you know, his
Speaker 1: magic dust on a roster. I don't think necessarily looks
Speaker 1: much better. You get there when James back healthy. Obviously
Speaker 1: that that's huge, but you I think the defensive line
Speaker 1: and the rest of the past rush other than Bosa
Speaker 1: and the linebacker spots are pretty big question marks. And
Speaker 1: everyone assumes the offensive line is way better. The names
Speaker 1: are so much better. It looks better on paper, but man,
Speaker 1: they're cursed on the offensive line, and it's the hardest
Speaker 1: group to predict in football, Like good groups can turn
Speaker 1: bad without really a lot of reasons. So I'm not
Speaker 1: just assuming that these names like Matt Feeler comes in
Speaker 1: and he just solves everything. Brian Bulaga is suddenly healthy
Speaker 1: of first round rookie tackle, you know, Slater is suddenly great. No,
Speaker 1: like that's all hopeful stuff, But it could be a
Speaker 1: bad offensive line. I gave Herbert a five, though I
Speaker 1: thought or a four and a half, and so to me,
Speaker 1: it's it's Herbert that is the reason for optim to
Speaker 1: give him this team. Yeah, wow, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: like the fact that they brought in Corey Lindsley. That's
Speaker 1: definitely going to help the offensive line. You have a
Speaker 1: healthy Austin Ekeler to this year. I don't like that
Speaker 1: they don't have Hunter Henry there anymore, but I think
Speaker 1: that Justin Herbert showed so much last year, and that
Speaker 1: was his rookies in. I mean, with Brandon Staley, I
Speaker 1: don't know what that scheme is going to look like.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much different it'll look um from
Speaker 1: last season. But Justin Herbert, he's been so much fun
Speaker 1: to watch. I feel like he's only going to get better.
Speaker 1: I know people are down on Joe Lombardi, but it
Speaker 1: sounds like they're using a lot of Saints. There's definitely
Speaker 1: some Shanahan Tree stuff in there, and I think that
Speaker 1: they've spent the off season saying, look at we're gonna
Speaker 1: try to make this work for Justin Herbert, not shove
Speaker 1: him into something else. But Greg I the one thing
Speaker 1: I don't agree with with that. Yes, the line has
Speaker 1: been cursed, but that doesn't predict what's going to happen
Speaker 1: down the road. I mean, at least they tried to
Speaker 1: patch that up. They did a great job, but I'm
Speaker 1: not assuming they're better than average, just because they signed
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys if they were if they were average,
Speaker 1: if they were average, that would be better than last year.
Speaker 1: I think they can get to that point. There's a
Speaker 1: there's a lot of projecting with the Broncos too. I
Speaker 1: know they have a nice defensive roster, but they're one
Speaker 1: of one of just a few teams in the league
Speaker 1: with a raging question market at quarterback. And those are
Speaker 1: the teams that I am less willing to give any
Speaker 1: rope to, no matter who's around that position. The data,
Speaker 1: by the way, does check out the Charges. We have
Speaker 1: them at seven at seventy three average, and that is
Speaker 1: again once you figured out it's kind of a playoff
Speaker 1: bubble team, which makes sense. Let's come down about the Charges.
Speaker 1: This is not the super Bowl team. Maybe they are,
Speaker 1: but they feel like that's where they should be. I
Speaker 1: am a little surprised. I know everyone and their brothers
Speaker 1: down on the Raiders, but that that's a you put
Speaker 1: them at sixty one and a half, that's you're talking
Speaker 1: about a double digit lost team. UM. I wonder if
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of piling on with the Raiders
Speaker 1: that's filtering through in this exercise. Well, what category, because
Speaker 1: I think you could look a lot of these teams
Speaker 1: that have show promise, one of their categories gets a
Speaker 1: five or a four point five from almost everyone. Tell
Speaker 1: me what category it is on the last Las Vegas rates, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: they don't. Where did they get better other than defensive coaching,
Speaker 1: Like I think I think they're hoping they're coaching is better,
Speaker 1: but it's not like Gus Bradley has been dialing up
Speaker 1: a lot of like you know, great defenses lately, by
Speaker 1: the way, and they're deeper on defense, but I think
Speaker 1: you look at the losses they had on offense, they're
Speaker 1: one of those teams that it's really hard to make
Speaker 1: a case that they got better when you when you
Speaker 1: at least are putting on your rosie, you know, optimist hat.
Speaker 1: Almost every other team can do that, and the Raiders can't.
Speaker 1: A lot of four is on offense, which I think
Speaker 1: makes especially if Josh Jacobs bounces back. Um and Derek
Speaker 1: Carr really did take a step up I thought last year,
Speaker 1: and the tight end and maybe Henry Ruggs makes leap.
Speaker 1: There's there's a you could you don't have to squint
Speaker 1: to see the Raiders as a very good offense. The
Speaker 1: rest of it is pretty much a crapshoot to me.
Speaker 1: Um all right, let's now move into the top three,
Speaker 1: just edging the a f C West with a average
Speaker 1: score seventy three point three seven five is the A
Speaker 1: f C East. How about that? About the a f
Speaker 1: C East? I love it. It is more interesting than
Speaker 1: it's been time that and the breakdown is as follows.
Speaker 1: The favorite and a significant significant favorite of course, the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills, who just missed that ninety tier. They are
Speaker 1: eighty nine and a half points out of one, so
Speaker 1: they're right there knocking on the door as a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl contender. That checks out uh, second place the Patriots
Speaker 1: seventy three and a half. So there you go there,
Speaker 1: right on that like borderline if you're if you're in
Speaker 1: that seventy seventy four range, we kind of see you
Speaker 1: as a playoff bubble team. Uh. Just behind them is
Speaker 1: the Dolphins at seventy and a half, so they're a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a uphill climb to get a plasspot,
Speaker 1: but they're right there knocking on the door. And then
Speaker 1: the Jets at sixty um, which is kind of right
Speaker 1: at the breaking point. Between bad teams and mediocre teams,
Speaker 1: which I can kind of see that's where they're going.
Speaker 1: So I could think kind of nailed this division. What
Speaker 1: do you guys think? I think the Dolphins are really intriguing,
Speaker 1: Like that's the that's the team that I feel. It
Speaker 1: could go either way, like they could either maybe not
Speaker 1: make the jump that some people think they will, or
Speaker 1: they will improve because of the guys that they brought
Speaker 1: in Jalen Waddle with two I mean, they really worked
Speaker 1: hard to surround to uh this offseason. And I know
Speaker 1: we've talked about it before on this podcast about how
Speaker 1: does the two offensive coordinator thing work in Miami. Um,
Speaker 1: it doesn't always work out. Sort of maybe having two
Speaker 1: worked out because now you have a backup when if
Speaker 1: one gets That's a perfect point. Actually I love that,
Speaker 1: But I wonder about the Xavien Howard situation to how
Speaker 1: that's going to play out. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 1: it would be smart for them to trade him, but
Speaker 1: he's obviously not happy. Sounds like it's probably getting settled.
Speaker 1: I've been surprised that the team is so optimistic and
Speaker 1: that he actually did go on the practice field and
Speaker 1: then he got hurt. Uh. I think it was a
Speaker 1: minor injury. But he's been there kind of like doing
Speaker 1: the Jamal Adams thing where he's on the field and helping,
Speaker 1: and so it doesn't I don't think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of bad blood. I think they're going to give him
Speaker 1: a cosmetic adjustment to his contracts, similar to Rogers, where
Speaker 1: they maybe knock off one of his years, just like
Speaker 1: you're too even to get him closer to free agency,
Speaker 1: but not really do much else and that and that solves.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. They're fascinating because I think they've been
Speaker 1: greater than the some of their parts. I think they're
Speaker 1: fun to watch. I think the Patriots defense is fascinating
Speaker 1: this year. They added so much in Belichick coming off
Speaker 1: that year, like they they're they're upside on defense, is
Speaker 1: like a top three defense, but they stunk last year
Speaker 1: on defense. And the Jets are more watchable and more
Speaker 1: interesting to me than they've been in a long time.
Speaker 1: And you've got a superpower team in the Bills. The
Speaker 1: af C East has been so boring as a division,
Speaker 1: I would say for the most part, for like fifteen years.
Speaker 1: I think like these games are gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: more watchable. I'm glad. I'm glad it's in the top.
Speaker 1: I think you have stability where it used to be
Speaker 1: obviously the Patriots, and it turns to ill scenario for
Speaker 1: the other three teams. In terms of coaches, GMS, just
Speaker 1: NonStop transition. I think you look at Sean McDermott and say,
Speaker 1: this is a potentially a top five coach, if not better.
Speaker 1: I mean he he is. He's brought incredible growth to
Speaker 1: the Bills. They've gotten so much better so quickly. The
Speaker 1: Jets have stability. I really look at what they're doing,
Speaker 1: and I believe in the plan. And if Zach Wilson
Speaker 1: works out that whole story in that narrative changes drastically
Speaker 1: and the Patriots angrily reloaded. And Bill Belichick, I don't
Speaker 1: care what anyone says, is furious behind the scenes. He
Speaker 1: is utterly furious. And what happened last season, So the
Speaker 1: division is going to be a dog fight. Mark back
Speaker 1: on the Belichick train. If he ever was off, he
Speaker 1: never left off. Um. It's interesting. On the note to
Speaker 1: inside the data numbers the way to data one, only
Speaker 1: one of us, only one of us, did not get
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick. Of five out of five who do you
Speaker 1: think it was? Greg so great? It's such a Greg
Speaker 1: moved really check half a point. Well, I didn't give
Speaker 1: it almost any fives to any teams in anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess so, But that's fair. But he's coming off,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the worst coaching jobs he's ever done.
Speaker 1: I think, I know, you can say you make the
Speaker 1: argument that they had the talent that they had, and
Speaker 1: so it's hard to you know, divorced personnel from his coaching,
Speaker 1: but his defense collapsed, and I think, like and what
Speaker 1: they were gonna plan to do on offense. It wasn't
Speaker 1: a one season coaching career, and they had last year
Speaker 1: like Mahomes got Mahomes got a five and that was
Speaker 1: about it of the mas of coaches. I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like he kind of a right, okay, the greatest
Speaker 1: coach in NFL history of four point five. They also
Speaker 1: were right at the beginning, you know, I didn't know
Speaker 1: how hard the grading was going to be. And then
Speaker 1: the other I also have to pick up my kids
Speaker 1: from camp right now. I know I'm part of the
Speaker 1: reason from honking too much, but I gotta miss the
Speaker 1: top two divisions right now. I have to pick up
Speaker 1: the kids are gonna be waiting that camp. They're like,
Speaker 1: where is They'll be fine? Um. The other data here
Speaker 1: two and a half, two and a half, two and
Speaker 1: a half for the quarterback situation in Miami, except for
Speaker 1: Mark you had him at three. Alright, just right there
Speaker 1: are a classic two and a half quarterback situation number two.
Speaker 1: I really, I really am leaving. I love you all.
Speaker 1: What is that you can't leave to his children? Have
Speaker 1: to get them there? Usually this is just leave the show.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm also out in the city. You know,
Speaker 1: they're just gonna be like, like, if you can. The
Speaker 1: explanation is part of the problem. Here, we get it.
Speaker 1: You go do it, can't go. There needs to be
Speaker 1: a penalty for this that he loves. You just left
Speaker 1: the screen up. It's like an empty chair. That's such
Speaker 1: a bad job. Some background noises. You gotta get somebody.
Speaker 1: You gotta get somebody else to pick up the kids.
Speaker 1: You can't just leave the show. Yeah, I mean, he
Speaker 1: should have just told us. He should have been way
Speaker 1: upfront with us about this. Look at this. They're doing
Speaker 1: the odd Pers today, Today's the odd Per Show. Did
Speaker 1: it Dan? It is a bit treason, is I I
Speaker 1: hear what you're saying. Well, I can't say trees this
Speaker 1: because it's he's going to get his kids, But like,
Speaker 1: where where are we Can we get an old pair
Speaker 1: to pick up the kids? Can we we have an
Speaker 1: all a parent in the house. Can we figure out something?
Speaker 1: I mean, Greg, Greg's like, rich, now, can you have
Speaker 1: a house manager or something? Don't don't have some type
Speaker 1: of like boy that works there. Greg just actually wants
Speaker 1: to go take a nap. That's what's happening. I cannot
Speaker 1: believe he left, Like his audio recording is probably still
Speaker 1: going right now. Like it's just it's just empty. I'm
Speaker 1: actually supposed to be interviewing um Hall of Fame inductee.
Speaker 1: I don't care anybody where they got to be. We're
Speaker 1: doing the podcast. Everybody's like, hey, we gotta go. Everybody's
Speaker 1: giving me hard outs. I don't give anybody's heart outs.
Speaker 1: Guess what, I'm still here. How is Colleen not the
Speaker 1: one that at some point said I'm out of this
Speaker 1: this scenario podcasting? It's me. Oh, you know, at the
Speaker 1: top of the show, I'm trying to move things along,
Speaker 1: and then we have like a fifteen minute like conversation
Speaker 1: about life and it's like that was great. I love
Speaker 1: talking about it. But did Greg not realize that he
Speaker 1: was on a clock himself at that point? No, he
Speaker 1: did not. I can tell you affirmatively he did not. Well,
Speaker 1: we will pick up this conversation with Greg when he
Speaker 1: returns to the show at some point I assume Monday.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Well, it depends what the parental um
Speaker 1: you know, responsibilities are that day. Apparently Greg did not
Speaker 1: did mention multiple times that he does not wear the
Speaker 1: ends in his house. I mean, I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: he said that to us on a show, so you know,
Speaker 1: deduct as you will wait wait that I can't wait
Speaker 1: to pull a Greg on inside training camp. Like on Friday.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be like, yeah, I gotta I have
Speaker 1: something to be at now, so I'm gonna be leaving
Speaker 1: and then just get up and walk away. Do you
Speaker 1: think if he's like sitting, if he's sitting in for
Speaker 1: nap Earlson on Good Morning Football, do you think he
Speaker 1: just walks away in the middle of the show. You
Speaker 1: just don't know. It's it's a respect thing. At this point,
Speaker 1: I think you need to have a conversation with him.
Speaker 1: This is this. Let me just remove this. Here we go, Mark,
Speaker 1: This is a hey, let's go get dinner and have
Speaker 1: a conversation. I think it is. And those are always um.
Speaker 1: There's sort of a sobriety aspect of that. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that we're not drinking beer. But it's a somber conversation.
Speaker 1: We've had it for Sometimes we have to have those
Speaker 1: break bread conversations. This is a break bread conversation because
Speaker 1: he just broke my heart. I feel like he broke
Speaker 1: up with us. He chose his kids. It's over us,
Speaker 1: and that's something that needs to be addressed. He's got
Speaker 1: to have like a boy that fans him at the
Speaker 1: house somewhere, that has a driver's license or at least
Speaker 1: can drive and make a couple of right turns. Right.
Speaker 1: They weren't expensive mhm boy little boys? No, I mean
Speaker 1: it's like I can think you could hire a boy
Speaker 1: probably doesn't charge that much. I'm picturing the little man
Speaker 1: and Boogie Knights, who's throwing the those little sound things
Speaker 1: the Snappers assume the does Nick podcast allows him to
Speaker 1: have a Snapper boy. I think there was some there
Speaker 1: was other elements to the relationship with Snapper boy in
Speaker 1: that film. But um, I hear I hear you. What
Speaker 1: if you found out that Greg was going to do
Speaker 1: the podcast with gentle Nick right now and he left
Speaker 1: this podcast to go do that one. No, I'm still here.
Speaker 1: I'm still here. Nothing would surprise me. What do you
Speaker 1: do that to jes Nick? I don't know. That's that's
Speaker 1: the part of the conversation when you break bread with
Speaker 1: the little dark prinsive comedy. What do you do that
Speaker 1: to jell Nick? All right, let's try to let's pull
Speaker 1: things together, let's be professionals. Number two on the overly
Speaker 1: esoteric Division power rankings is the a f C North
Speaker 1: How about that marks number two. Some people would have
Speaker 1: said number one, but it's not how it worked out. Um,
Speaker 1: according to our data, and it breaks down as follows.
Speaker 1: The favorite in the division just slightly, the Baltimore Ravens
Speaker 1: eighty four and a half out of one. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: Number two, the Cleveland Browns two. Number three. The Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: steel Or seventy seven and a half. So, as we've
Speaker 1: talked about that seventy to seventy five is a bubble team.
Speaker 1: We see the Steelers out of that bubble as a
Speaker 1: group we kind of see them more as a team
Speaker 1: that is in the in the dance, most likely anything
Speaker 1: plus seventy five, and then the Bengals rounding it out
Speaker 1: and pulling down the average at fifty seven and a half.
Speaker 1: If the Bengals had a little more juice to them. Um,
Speaker 1: this is the number one team in our power rankings,
Speaker 1: a number one division our power rankings. That's not how
Speaker 1: it worked out, Mark, the Browns would have been number one.
Speaker 1: But I think you were a little harsh on them
Speaker 1: grading wise. Uh, to be totally honest with you, UM,
Speaker 1: and I saw some of your scores were a little
Speaker 1: lower than I expected for your favorite football team. I
Speaker 1: was trying to, um, look at this division from a
Speaker 1: couple of different angles, and yes, I think the Browns
Speaker 1: you could argue, have the most balanced and powerful looking
Speaker 1: roster on paper. I think they do. Um. There are
Speaker 1: questions about Baker Mayfield that most people have. I have
Speaker 1: probably fewer of those questions than others. I think if
Speaker 1: he can just do what he did last year, there
Speaker 1: are a playoff team. But for me, and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe this was where a little bit of emotion came in.
Speaker 1: But just because of evidence in what I've seen. I
Speaker 1: want to see the Cleveland Browns as an organization say
Speaker 1: say to everyone, we can do this two years in
Speaker 1: a row where I have no questions about out the
Speaker 1: Ravens repeating their success and frankly, like I do think
Speaker 1: over the course of the offseason the Steelers they have
Speaker 1: some holes, but they have addressed certain concerns, and just
Speaker 1: as we get closer and closer to the year, I
Speaker 1: kind of just trust them to win eleven games. And
Speaker 1: so I had the Browns just a not a nudge
Speaker 1: below Pittsburgh based on sort of organizational history maybe as
Speaker 1: much as anything else. Maybe that was a little off base,
Speaker 1: but I don't have all three of them is playoff
Speaker 1: type teams. We both had Baker at three and a half.
Speaker 1: I think, like Kirk Cousins, that's a perfect spot for
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield in one. And I think he has a
Speaker 1: ceiling personally of a four quarterback and a floor of
Speaker 1: a three quarterback, I think. And that's why if you're
Speaker 1: the Browns, you can understand why, UM, they're like, is
Speaker 1: that a guy to do a long term deal with? Um,
Speaker 1: He's maybe not going to be a superstar, but he's
Speaker 1: shown us He's demonstrated that he is a sturdy guy
Speaker 1: that can run an offense and can get hot, Like,
Speaker 1: is that is that enough of UM skill set to
Speaker 1: do long term business with I think they will eventually.
Speaker 1: I think that I was a four with Baker. I
Speaker 1: think I gave him a little bit more of an
Speaker 1: edge because I almost feel like people are two down
Speaker 1: on him and they don't give him enough credit UM
Speaker 1: for last season. But the biggest thing for me, uh
Speaker 1: is the Steelers. I have a lot of questions about
Speaker 1: that offensive line there there it's basically completely new UM
Speaker 1: and then they're trying to revamp and revitalize a run
Speaker 1: game there. So Nagie Harris, he's great, but it's really
Speaker 1: going to fall back on the offensive line, like how
Speaker 1: much how much will they be able to protect Ben
Speaker 1: and what kind of run blocking will they be able
Speaker 1: to do for Nagi Connie, you had the Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: at four and a half out of five, you are
Speaker 1: very high. I love Joe Burrow. I thought it was
Speaker 1: really good before he got hurt and I got hurt.
Speaker 1: I hate how training camp beat reporting, and it's not
Speaker 1: on the Beat reporters because they're doing their job, but
Speaker 1: the way the football agnes, and they takes the reporting
Speaker 1: and then it spends it into this is the way
Speaker 1: things are now, and that's what's gonna happen with this
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow report that's out there today that he's been
Speaker 1: really had a tough training camp so far. He's missing
Speaker 1: a lot of passes. He doesn't look nearly the same
Speaker 1: as he did last summer. Mark, Is that concerned you
Speaker 1: a lot? Or for for me? I I you gotta
Speaker 1: reconstructed knee surgery, no joke. He's trying to get his
Speaker 1: feet wet. I'm giving him a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a pass. But I can see why some people are
Speaker 1: gonna run with this. I think you can. You can
Speaker 1: say though that there is you know, there are quarterbacks
Speaker 1: in time, back in time where coming off of knee surgery,
Speaker 1: they just weren't the same type of person now Burrow.
Speaker 1: I mean he does it all, um, but he's not
Speaker 1: like a scrambling quarterback. First. You know that it's a
Speaker 1: little bit different than when r G three came back
Speaker 1: from a major knee operation. You know, Burrow Burrows deep
Speaker 1: ball is something people have concerns with. Um. My thing
Speaker 1: with them is like, is this organization, where if he
Speaker 1: were on a different team, different organization, would they manage
Speaker 1: this the same way would would would he be an
Speaker 1: environ himant to put some better place for success. I
Speaker 1: always have issues with the Bengals on that front, um,
Speaker 1: But Burrow the player, I'm with Colleen that, like a
Speaker 1: month ago, I absolutely thought the world of him. And
Speaker 1: we'll wait and see if there's some sort of tentative
Speaker 1: nature to his play. I mean, one week of bad
Speaker 1: camp practices does not shake my opinion to the core though,
Speaker 1: mm hmm. But also, yeah, all right, let's let's no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I want to hear it. Well, I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: you have your quarterback who had such a great season
Speaker 1: before he was hurt, and he has been coming off
Speaker 1: the knee injury, and the fact that the organization didn't
Speaker 1: take Pinasol or didn't take someone for that offensive line
Speaker 1: I think is troubling because if he gets hit again,
Speaker 1: you don't know where he is. I'm sure, I'm sure
Speaker 1: he's going to be okay, But I just if it
Speaker 1: was me, I would have taken a player to protect
Speaker 1: my franchise quarterback. Um, not someone that another guy that
Speaker 1: he could throw to. Obviously, It's nice that they have
Speaker 1: the reunion, but I just think it's really important to
Speaker 1: protect your guy. And you're you're, you're, you're, you're preaching
Speaker 1: to the choir. Is it's singing to the choir. Now
Speaker 1: you're preaching to the choir. I've been the choir. Would Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know why they didn't do it,
Speaker 1: but that's it is what it is. You hope the
Speaker 1: offensive line Riley Reef and there are some other pieces
Speaker 1: there that are trending upward that offensive line will be better.
Speaker 1: But I do hate because I think we're all really
Speaker 1: excited about Burrow entering last year and he really flashed
Speaker 1: in moments uh and during an imperfect rookie season. I
Speaker 1: just hate that now that the conversation around him is
Speaker 1: is he gonna be okay? Is physically is he the
Speaker 1: same guy? You just it's just a kind of a
Speaker 1: bummer for year two of his career. You can answer
Speaker 1: those questions real fast, he can, and you just hope
Speaker 1: it's not an RG three situation where he ends up
Speaker 1: getting hurt in a way where he was kind of
Speaker 1: hung out to drive by his team on a certain level,
Speaker 1: and then he's never the same guy physically again. By
Speaker 1: the way, RG three retired from the NFL now works
Speaker 1: for ESPN. How about that? Um? All right, finally, according
Speaker 1: to our tabulations, and this includes Greg's data even though
Speaker 1: he's no longer part of the conversation. Let's check in, Ricky.
Speaker 1: This is for the YouTube audience. Yep, chairs still empty.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have to have a sit down. We have
Speaker 1: to break bread mark. Yeah, it's gonna be you know.
Speaker 1: We we thought we got through some of this, um,
Speaker 1: Apparently not. The NFC West is the best football division
Speaker 1: according to me around the NFL podcast over the esoteric
Speaker 1: division power rankings, and uh, it makes sense to me
Speaker 1: and it very interesting. So we have the Rams as
Speaker 1: the ever so slight favorite one and a half out
Speaker 1: of one hundred average grade. Uh, the Seahawks at one
Speaker 1: right behind him, and then not far behind the Rams
Speaker 1: of the Seahawks, the Niners at seventy seven and a half,
Speaker 1: and damn. After talking to Matt Barrows, I'm like, man, yea,
Speaker 1: if this Trey Lance dude is but he looks like
Speaker 1: he is in camps so far, you might have to
Speaker 1: bump this team up seven or eight points. But for
Speaker 1: now we can only go off a completely inexperienced rookie
Speaker 1: quarterback and Jimmy Jimmy g in the driver's seat to
Speaker 1: be the starter. Seventy seven and a half. So we have,
Speaker 1: based on our data here we have three teams that
Speaker 1: should be comfortably playoff teams if things play out how
Speaker 1: they want them to. And then the Cardinals out of
Speaker 1: the mix, a victim of a lot of things, including
Speaker 1: a very tough division. Sixty seven and a half. Nothing
Speaker 1: to be ashamed of sixty seven and a half, but
Speaker 1: that is not a playoff team, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if that would be enough to keep Cliff Kingsbury employed
Speaker 1: if they end up going let's say seven and ten. Well,
Speaker 1: they had such a disappointing end to last season. They're
Speaker 1: the start though, was really promising, and then once Kyler
Speaker 1: heard his shoulder, everything sort of went downhill and he
Speaker 1: wasn't able to do the same things that he could
Speaker 1: do before. But I thought that when you watch them
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the year, they had so much momentum,
Speaker 1: and I'm a little bit higher on them. I think
Speaker 1: that this is the toughest division, no like, no doubt
Speaker 1: about it in football, But I think the Cardinals could
Speaker 1: also be very much in the mix. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think that there. It's not so much like
Speaker 1: I'm down on the Cardinals. I just think that to
Speaker 1: be in that environment in that division is gonna be rough. Um.
Speaker 1: I think the forty nine ers a year ago, we're
Speaker 1: a team that could get picked off, you know, here
Speaker 1: and there because of their injuries situation. I think their quarterback,
Speaker 1: tight end, running back in two starting whiteouts played together
Speaker 1: for two games the Tops, and now the environment's totally changed.
Speaker 1: I mean, if trade Lance, to your point is what
Speaker 1: we're hearing, um, that they are the odds on favorites.
Speaker 1: To me in this division, I just want to see
Speaker 1: it first. The Rams just feel really solid. I mean
Speaker 1: I give their quarterback of high score, their coach, their defense,
Speaker 1: their offense, their juice. They're coming to the new stadium.
Speaker 1: We know that Colleen's a big fan of that place.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot to like here. And I mean
Speaker 1: I think it's there's they are the better division than
Speaker 1: the a f C. North. I think we got that
Speaker 1: right as a group now that we have you know,
Speaker 1: I was the it is a quad juice factor of
Speaker 1: the Seahawks I had it down at three because there
Speaker 1: is some like bubbling tensions UM in Seattle right now.
Speaker 1: But you know I had I had Russell Wilson at
Speaker 1: four and a half as a quarterback. I think it
Speaker 1: was mostly five's uh for UM Russell Wilson's you have
Speaker 1: that quarterback, you have the coaching staff in place, you
Speaker 1: have a defense that that that can get the job
Speaker 1: done on offense with a high ceiling. Yeah, the Seahawks,
Speaker 1: it's we've talked about it, to make or break a
Speaker 1: year for them, Um, and then the other team in
Speaker 1: the mix here of the Rams. Listen, Mark, you've been
Speaker 1: up and down on the Rams at times, but when
Speaker 1: you just kind of go through it all, Oh look,
Speaker 1: who's bad? Oh my god? Greg? What look you guys
Speaker 1: are you know? Did you already pick up your kids?
Speaker 1: Still chatting? Yeah, they're pretty clear. You know, the camp
Speaker 1: is very close. We're very determined across the ninety minutes
Speaker 1: still doing the podcast should be You should know Greg
Speaker 1: that we spent ten minutes discussing your exit before we
Speaker 1: got back into the chat, So that might explain where
Speaker 1: we're still doing this. But we are at the NFC
Speaker 1: West seventy six point eight seven five, the number one
Speaker 1: team on the Overly Division Power Rankings Overly Elongated Division
Speaker 1: Power Ranking. We have a dinner day ahead, Gregg, just
Speaker 1: to let you know, Um, how does this change things now?
Speaker 1: Since Greg came back onto the show after he got
Speaker 1: his kids. What you said it was a bad job
Speaker 1: by me or whatever, Well, listen, we don't We're gonna
Speaker 1: be breaking bread to really have the conversation. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's for the show. But no, we wondered if
Speaker 1: you were sitting in for night on g NFB, or
Speaker 1: if Tony gesl Nick was next to you with a microphone.
Speaker 1: Is Gregg walking off with These are questions that are
Speaker 1: we're just kind of thrown out there with no real answers. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you guys are you know this camp schedule has been
Speaker 1: going on for a while. It's why we were We've
Speaker 1: been taping a little earlier. Today just went a little long,
Speaker 1: you know, but large partly because of me. So I'll
Speaker 1: take that responsibility. But I can't just can't just let
Speaker 1: them sit there in the parking lot at Memorial Park
Speaker 1: over there, and can you can you um confirm or
Speaker 1: deny that you have a what did we call a
Speaker 1: snapper boy. Well, it's sort of like a house boy. Um,
Speaker 1: like a young young man, not even a man, not
Speaker 1: even a young man, a boy helping you out with
Speaker 1: various boy, someone who could drive maybe sixteen. We don't
Speaker 1: have any help. Please if if you, if you are
Speaker 1: a good babysitter something. We haven't had a babysitter since
Speaker 1: you know, this pandemic began here. Let's let's do something. Hm, alright,
Speaker 1: so let's wrap it up, Greg, do you have a
Speaker 1: f C North came in at second seventy three seven five,
Speaker 1: just ahead of the NFC West, and the way that
Speaker 1: our numbers broke down, we like, we like playoff team,
Speaker 1: three playoff teams coming out of here and then comfortably
Speaker 1: and with you know, the Trey Lance who knows what
Speaker 1: happens if he takes off, because we have the Niners
Speaker 1: ranked third in the division, but they could easily vault
Speaker 1: the Rams and Seahawks, Cardinals a little behind the pack. Um,
Speaker 1: do you have anything to add the numbers? Got it right?
Speaker 1: What other what other division has three Super Bowl contenders? None? Sorry,
Speaker 1: unless you want to throw the Steelers in there, as
Speaker 1: I and they squinted hard enough, but I think I
Speaker 1: think the Seahawks playing in the super Bowl is something
Speaker 1: that could happen. They is playing the super Bowl, I
Speaker 1: believe is something that could happen. And the Rams as well.
Speaker 1: And the Cardinals aren't. We don't think the Cardinals are
Speaker 1: a dog team. There's really bad teams that are picked
Speaker 1: to be fourth place. The Cardinals are not. The Cardinals
Speaker 1: have a ceiling where I could see them winning ten games,
Speaker 1: so that this is a really really good division. They
Speaker 1: deserved it. It would have been troubling if they didn't
Speaker 1: finish first, but they have. And that is let's close
Speaker 1: the book or close the Excel spreadsheet. I thought it
Speaker 1: went well, maybe a little long, but I think we
Speaker 1: really learned some things and it was a good com in.
Speaker 1: I liked it. It It kind of worked as an overarching
Speaker 1: season preview, you know a little bit, which we haven't done.
Speaker 1: So that's that's good. And now maybe we don't have
Speaker 1: to do we have next week off. All right, Connie,
Speaker 1: you you said it all. I sure did. I really
Speaker 1: did today. This is work. I gave you. I gave
Speaker 1: you some poop early and the reason is because I
Speaker 1: know that you're a great sport and thank you. Are
Speaker 1: you trying to just like avoid an angry text from me,
Speaker 1: like we gotta break bread. We have to sit down
Speaker 1: and break bread. Yeah, we're gonna have to go out
Speaker 1: to dinner. And then I am looking up for the
Speaker 1: longest show in history with the most amount of homework.
Speaker 1: I know I'm supposed to go get like hand X rays,
Speaker 1: but I think I might just take a nap instead
Speaker 1: and hope for the best. And I look forward. I
Speaker 1: look forward to Hollywood Park, Colleen. I just want to
Speaker 1: let you know I haven't been there yet, but I'm
Speaker 1: really excited to see the stadium. Well you should be.
Speaker 1: It's the future. I wish that was your delivery. All right.
Speaker 1: We'll be back on Friday tomorrow on NFL Network, So
Speaker 1: check that out, check your local listings, DVR at find
Speaker 1: a way to watch it Saturday morning. I think Saturday. Yes,
Speaker 1: you can do that with us too, if you'd like, Colleen,
Speaker 1: if you'd like to do Oh my god, that's so
Speaker 1: nice of you guys. But I'll be in Atlanta for
Speaker 1: Inside Training Camp Live. Yeah, what's up next? So you
Speaker 1: got Atlanta? Then where are you going after that? So
Speaker 1: I have Atlanta on Saturday and then I'm in Tennessee
Speaker 1: on Monday and Indianapolis on Wednesday. M you're squeezing your
Speaker 1: eyes so hard thinking there. I'm sorry, I'm challenging you
Speaker 1: so hard to use the brain today it's broken. Well,
Speaker 1: safe travels, Connie. You're doing awesome work. You are a
Speaker 1: star in the network and we're happy to have you
Speaker 1: on the show. Yes, NFL Network Show this weekend, and
Speaker 1: then we're back Monday with another edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL podcast. Thank you everybody for listening until Monday.
Speaker 1: I'll well see that call