Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast is still beeping with the
Speaker 1: move the Sticks podcast. Welcome to another edition. I could
Speaker 1: use an editor of the Around the NFL podcast. My
Speaker 1: name is Dan Hansis. I'm coming to you from a
Speaker 1: virtual room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler and Greg Rosenthal.
Speaker 1: What is up? Boys? What would you have liked to
Speaker 1: edit from the top that top? It felt like they're
Speaker 1: about three to four extra words there, just a little clucky,
Speaker 1: that's all. That's fine. They're not all gonna be gems.
Speaker 1: Just like the Sticks podcast itself, would you have liked
Speaker 1: U Matt Money to edit it himself? I mean he's
Speaker 1: he's a good radio man. He says a good good
Speaker 1: ear for a good line. Know what I do in
Speaker 1: the whenever we have these type of situations, you know what?
Speaker 1: You know? My move is just blame America. Well, another
Speaker 1: another option, um is to blame Daniel Jeremiah just for
Speaker 1: even recently starting a podcast. I'm glad he took our advice.
Speaker 1: I threw it out there on the Around the NFL broadcast.
Speaker 1: That would be cool. He's had this popular Twitter account.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows him, you know, in terms of the NFL
Speaker 1: draft analysis, and he has started a podcast we found
Speaker 1: out recently, and good luck to him. I think people
Speaker 1: enjoy it. It's a good job by you. I mean
Speaker 1: to suggest, you know, another vehicle for him to get
Speaker 1: his voice out. I don't know why. It's last college football,
Speaker 1: so you know, there's just it's gonna be strange times
Speaker 1: for the draft analysts. Uh, this is the Wednesday edition.
Speaker 1: I'll be around the NFL podcast. It's it's a fun one.
Speaker 1: Football is getting closer, boys, it's getting closer. So today
Speaker 1: wedn Day, day Day, and then day. Yeah, is football
Speaker 1: three weeks from Thursday. We're as we tape, it's twenty
Speaker 1: two days from right now. Oh my goodness. How about that?
Speaker 1: I mean, hopefully there's football, but you know what on
Speaker 1: that on that subject, I do not want to jinx
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna knock on wood right here. But it
Speaker 1: feels like, and yes, you can get on the league
Speaker 1: for maybe being slow to action through the summer or
Speaker 1: or perhaps that's just how was perceived on the outside.
Speaker 1: But but things seem to be going very well right
Speaker 1: now in terms of how these training camps are operating
Speaker 1: once again, and we're watching Hard Knocks every Tuesday night.
Speaker 1: You see the way the Rams and the Chargers are
Speaker 1: going about their business and all the safety precautions. So far,
Speaker 1: so good, So far, so good. Yeah, I think it's
Speaker 1: like the only blip on the radar is you know,
Speaker 1: in in Seattle where uh, you know, a low a
Speaker 1: low tier player tries to sneak in a female dressed
Speaker 1: in Seattle garb. That's the kind of thing that's gonna
Speaker 1: throw teams off. I mean, outside of that, I'd have
Speaker 1: to agree that. I don't know if I've ever been
Speaker 1: more optimistic about the league and the season getting underway
Speaker 1: than the last couple of days. Right, And they're just
Speaker 1: starting to really practice and play football, which is a
Speaker 1: pretty big step to take in terms of contact and everything.
Speaker 1: But with the daily testing, it's like they're gonna be
Speaker 1: daily testing. They're gonna be testing daily through the start
Speaker 1: of the season. They're talking about maybe extending it beyond that.
Speaker 1: And I know that's not gonna solve the virus, but
Speaker 1: it does have to make you feel better about these guys,
Speaker 1: you know, bumping up up against each other. It is
Speaker 1: really good. There's less I think there's a and each
Speaker 1: other stuff. They're bumping bumping ugly. How about like athletic combat.
Speaker 1: There's gotta be another way to put this. I mean,
Speaker 1: Mark will tell you as an next player. I mean this,
Speaker 1: it's a physical sport. You know, you're you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get in close contact with that with almost any other
Speaker 1: humans in your life. Greg, You're right. I mean there
Speaker 1: is a lot of bumping going on, and so I
Speaker 1: think it applies. Oh yeah, a lot of rubbing and
Speaker 1: bumping and hugging. All right, today's show, it's gonna be fun. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're three weeks away, just about from the first kickoff
Speaker 1: of the season, so we're going to continue to kind
Speaker 1: of spin around the league and find our league, excuse me,
Speaker 1: and find some storylines out there that are percolating just
Speaker 1: beneath the surface. Yes, it's that time again. People training camp,
Speaker 1: which I hope everybody did their homework. I got a lot,
Speaker 1: I mean with less kind of like on site reporting.
Speaker 1: It's just almost a breeding ground for whisper. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just like an or whispers. You can't you can't
Speaker 1: speak out loud anymore. They got all these media rules
Speaker 1: about what you can and can't report, so it's got
Speaker 1: to come out in a whisper. You'd have to be
Speaker 1: six ft under the last couple of days, not to um,
Speaker 1: you know, be on the receiving end of some of
Speaker 1: these whispers, because it's the season to me, starts when
Speaker 1: the news move so quickly that if you leave your
Speaker 1: computer like an hour, you come back to like four
Speaker 1: hundred and six. Um some of them very snarky rohdo
Speaker 1: world updates. And that's what that's been the last couple
Speaker 1: of days. And that's when I know that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: social life, family life is veering towards a hard stop
Speaker 1: for the next half a year or so. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: about right. So we'll spin around the league and get
Speaker 1: you caught up to date on what the Beat reporters
Speaker 1: and so on are talking about. But before that, let
Speaker 1: us do some news the other thing. I uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you get a chance to reflect on it. Uh. I
Speaker 1: apologize for my four judgment taking my shirt off on
Speaker 1: hard knocks, all right, I mean it's all there. The
Speaker 1: theory that I posited last week totally checks out. McVeigh
Speaker 1: makes up this idea that the dog that he had
Speaker 1: can do a trick with a football near basketball who
Speaker 1: clearly he's just pegging the dog in the snout repeatedly,
Speaker 1: dog does a know any tricks, you know, but it
Speaker 1: gave McVeigh a chance to take a shirt off, and
Speaker 1: then he takes them ribbing, both internally and probably on
Speaker 1: social media, and now he really He circles back an
Speaker 1: episode two of Hard Knocks, the recap of which you
Speaker 1: can find an NFL dot com by the way, written
Speaker 1: by yours truly, and mentions again that he had his
Speaker 1: shirt off just in case some ladies may be watching
Speaker 1: missed the premier, they could cycle back and see Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh and his glory. He he is a very well
Speaker 1: prepared coach, and you can tell his comedy as well
Speaker 1: prepared to I mean, he he has like he has
Speaker 1: his rundown of what he's going to accomplish at the meeting,
Speaker 1: and he knows he's gonna end that coaches meeting with
Speaker 1: that joke. He knows he's gonna make the Andrew Whitworth
Speaker 1: has been playing for forty years joke while addressing the team.
Speaker 1: It's all very planned out. I don't know if that
Speaker 1: always leads to the best comedy or not, but at
Speaker 1: least he's given it a shot. When I think about
Speaker 1: what's what is the secret sauce to comedy preparation. Well,
Speaker 1: that's probably as good as it gets an NFL comedy.
Speaker 1: And I'm to again Colleen, I'm gonna give her all
Speaker 1: the credit because she's the one to mention on text
Speaker 1: that guy is turning into Jon Gruden. He sounds like
Speaker 1: Jon Gruden. He started to look like Jon Gruden. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was his mentor. So it's not like it comes
Speaker 1: from you know, nowhere. It was the guy that he
Speaker 1: was trying to be like when he was a young coach.
Speaker 1: They love showing those clips, uh NFL Films does. And yeah,
Speaker 1: there's definitely a little imitation as the sincerest form of
Speaker 1: flattery there. I mean, but not every ment not every
Speaker 1: mentee winds up looking uh like mannerisms like speech like
Speaker 1: the mentor. In this case, that's you know, he's going
Speaker 1: all out singing the Monday Night Football song, please, I know,
Speaker 1: I mean I didn't even piece that together. Are the
Speaker 1: great Andrew Marshand who dropped that nug that ESPN and
Speaker 1: McVeigh had a conversation and now he's singing this on
Speaker 1: when you know, I thought that was like it's in
Speaker 1: terms of preparation, that to me seemed like he was
Speaker 1: serving that up so that we would sit here and
Speaker 1: others would sit here talking about it for the following day.
Speaker 1: Or to speaking of Sean McVeigh and Hard Knocks, Peter Schreger,
Speaker 1: a buddy has the Hard Knocks podcast and McVeigh is
Speaker 1: on the show this week, so make sure you check
Speaker 1: that out wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get into the news. The charges are also subject a
Speaker 1: subject on Hard Knocks Los Angeles this season, and one
Speaker 1: figure who has not been on the field for the Chargers,
Speaker 1: Melvin Ingram, the great uh defensive end the book end
Speaker 1: with Joey Bosa that makes things go on that Chargers defense.
Speaker 1: The athletics Daniel Popper reports that Ingram is holding out
Speaker 1: from practice because he's dissatisfied with his contract situation and
Speaker 1: Greg this is an interesting situation here because in the
Speaker 1: old days holdouts were commonplace. Today, with how heavy the
Speaker 1: fines are with the new cb A, you never see
Speaker 1: it anymore. Is Ingram a trailblazer? Has he found a
Speaker 1: way to hold out while also being in the holden?
Speaker 1: It's either the holding or the in house hold out. UM.
Speaker 1: I think he is a sign of things to come
Speaker 1: because this is the first training camp since the c
Speaker 1: BA has been been signed, and they now it now
Speaker 1: No doesn't give it, No longer gives any wiggle room
Speaker 1: to teams finding players who skip camp. They have to there.
Speaker 1: It's a mandatory fine, and I think this is a
Speaker 1: way to do it. You're gonna have to have some
Speaker 1: sort of mutual respect between the two sides, which these
Speaker 1: two should after nine seasons together, and he's coming up
Speaker 1: at the end of what was a massive contract extension
Speaker 1: back in I believe, and I think he's probably confident
Speaker 1: they can work something out. I did see a report
Speaker 1: though he wasn't at practice today. He's at least been
Speaker 1: outside watching practice, but now he hasn't even now he's
Speaker 1: not even at practice anymore. And it's tricky because he's
Speaker 1: a leader, and yet I don't know if they would
Speaker 1: want to give him a big time extension. He's thirty
Speaker 1: one years old. He's coming off um his worst season
Speaker 1: in the last you know, probably four or five seasons.
Speaker 1: He had a couple of injuries. Still played well, but
Speaker 1: not at his previous level. So it's a thorny situation.
Speaker 1: A lot of times when there's a player like this,
Speaker 1: They'll find some way to make them happy. Maybe give
Speaker 1: him some incentives, guarantee some of this money. If coronavirus
Speaker 1: ends up wiping out some of the some sort of
Speaker 1: small compromise without giving him a big contract, maybe gets
Speaker 1: it done. Like the agents shot that down. But that
Speaker 1: seems like a logical Uh. Perhaps the thing that he's
Speaker 1: pursuing is in a season that right now it looks good,
Speaker 1: but if things got weird, he's in the final year
Speaker 1: of his deal making sixteen million, none of it guaranteed.
Speaker 1: Maybe angling for some guarantees at least for now, but
Speaker 1: trying to do it in a friendly way where then
Speaker 1: the contract comes after. But I kind of like the
Speaker 1: approach of um, you know, the being at work, sort
Speaker 1: of like I could imagine going to the newsman say
Speaker 1: I'm here, but I will not be producing anything. That
Speaker 1: was the entire run at Walgreen's, the drug store Pro River,
Speaker 1: New York. I mean, I think we've all had jobs
Speaker 1: where we're literally punching the clock and then just counting
Speaker 1: down the hours. Your strawberry truck. You you almost took
Speaker 1: down the whole fruit industry, uh in New England. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I my effort was strong with the tic strawberry truck
Speaker 1: going up and down the East coast. Now did I
Speaker 1: get lost many times in a pre GPS era, to
Speaker 1: the point where I was almost in tears, you know,
Speaker 1: like six hours from home at eight p m. And night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that happened. But I was trying. I was putting in
Speaker 1: a good effort. I just don't have a great sense
Speaker 1: of direction. We've seen that sense of direction, and it's
Speaker 1: it's all four of us are tagged with the lack
Speaker 1: of it. When you know, let's leave our hotel and
Speaker 1: go walk to uh the convention center on Super Bowl
Speaker 1: week and no one can find it and we we
Speaker 1: end up in a rough corner of town and need
Speaker 1: West to get us out of it. You young uns,
Speaker 1: No really, patra Patrick is the only guy that no better.
Speaker 1: You young uns don't understand. Before GPS, before ways, before
Speaker 1: Google Maps, all you had was this thing called map Quest,
Speaker 1: and it would be something and you log onto your
Speaker 1: computer and you put in the entry point in the
Speaker 1: destination and it's spit out directions and that those worked
Speaker 1: okay until you made one wrong turn and then they
Speaker 1: were useless to you. And I remember to your point,
Speaker 1: Greg of you on being on the verge of teers
Speaker 1: when I was nineteen, uh, and I was not somebody
Speaker 1: that ever really left my hometown. Really at that point,
Speaker 1: I was still just a kid, and I was driving
Speaker 1: to Villanova to visit my friend Sarah, and I got there.
Speaker 1: I got there with no problems, and I was really
Speaker 1: proud of myself. It was a little like victory in
Speaker 1: my Ford escort. But then going back, I made the
Speaker 1: wrong turn and another wrong turn, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I had no idea where I was. I
Speaker 1: had no cell phone, and I remember, I still remember
Speaker 1: this day, gripping the top of my steering wheel. It's
Speaker 1: hard as possible, racing seventy miles down for hour down
Speaker 1: some turnpike and being like, what am I gonna do? Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: you kids don't understand now that we'll all have this time.
Speaker 1: But my dad once tested me, and I was not
Speaker 1: that young. I was probably like eighteen or nineteen, and
Speaker 1: also had essentially never left my town and he was like,
Speaker 1: come pick me up at work in Westchester, and I,
Speaker 1: I mean, I had never really been dried. I've never
Speaker 1: driven into metropolitan surrounding before, and I'm like lost on
Speaker 1: the tappan Zee Bridge or somewhere like that, and you know,
Speaker 1: weird like to you to your point, and I thought
Speaker 1: my life is over. I've failed my father. Um. The
Speaker 1: quickest thing to do would be to park this car
Speaker 1: along the tappan Zee and just hoist myself into what
Speaker 1: other ever body of water is below. What can I
Speaker 1: have from this point? You know what I had though
Speaker 1: in the in the Strawberry track, No, lie was a
Speaker 1: car phone like you know plugged in the one is
Speaker 1: a car phone? Now did I get lost sometime because
Speaker 1: I would just call up my girlfriend at the time
Speaker 1: on the car phone while all driving around and racking
Speaker 1: up phone bills in in uh in retaliation for the
Speaker 1: eight dollars an hour they were paying me for Like
Speaker 1: long loaded, give me a break, Greg, that was that
Speaker 1: was sneaky loaded with humble braggs. You had a car
Speaker 1: cell phone and I had an extended astro van owned
Speaker 1: by this farm. It's not like it's sounds like the
Speaker 1: worst employee ever for that industry, But I didn't last
Speaker 1: long anyway. Good luck to you, Velvin Ingram. I think
Speaker 1: he's probably um part of the reason this might be
Speaker 1: the end of the road beyond the fact that he's
Speaker 1: thirty one, is that Joey Bosa just signed a five year,
Speaker 1: one and thirty five million dollar contract. Maybe not fiscally
Speaker 1: responsible to do multiple massive deals on one line, but
Speaker 1: you never know. These teams find a way with the
Speaker 1: salary cap. But we'll see how it plays out. In
Speaker 1: other news, speaking of money news, NFL networks, Tom Pellisero
Speaker 1: having a big summer, right, Pellisero is having a nice summer.
Speaker 1: I haven't really spoken to Al Sarah much. He's kind
Speaker 1: of not a guy that I know too well. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give him credit where credits do he reports?
Speaker 1: The vikings gonna be in a long time. You know,
Speaker 1: he's putting in the work, you know. And when we ever,
Speaker 1: when these league events ever, you know, come back together,
Speaker 1: the show is gonna be six hours long. Um. I
Speaker 1: am going to make a point of it too. Have
Speaker 1: a friendly conversation with Tom Pellisero. I mean, and he
Speaker 1: should know, or he should understand through back channels that
Speaker 1: if after many league events that you and he have
Speaker 1: not had that conversation, that he might be on your radar.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's possible. I don't no one knows
Speaker 1: that but he would be but who it would behoove
Speaker 1: him to get off your radar on that on that
Speaker 1: front if we ever go to a league event ever again.
Speaker 1: Right anyway, Tom reports that Dalvin Cook, the great Vikings
Speaker 1: running back, broke off contract talks with the team and
Speaker 1: we'll focus on preparing for Week one. Uh. He has
Speaker 1: one year remaining on his rookie deal. He wanted to
Speaker 1: get paid going into this year after his big breakout
Speaker 1: season in twenty nine. Team there was talk that he
Speaker 1: might hold out. That didn't happen. This feels like kind
Speaker 1: of a best case scenario for the Vikings where he
Speaker 1: appears to be ready to drop his grievance and just
Speaker 1: focus on ball. But we'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1: He's one of many really good running backs that are
Speaker 1: slated for free agency. Alvin Kamara, um Joe Mixon is
Speaker 1: one of the players out there. And then like kind
Speaker 1: of a long list of guys who are like a
Speaker 1: solid second tier and uh, I don't know, I sound
Speaker 1: like Dalvin Cook pop up in the top twenty five
Speaker 1: players on the top hundred list and I was like,
Speaker 1: I love Dalvin Cook, but um, I don't blame the
Speaker 1: Vikings for being hesitant considering his injury history and that
Speaker 1: it really was one amazing thing. He always looks great
Speaker 1: when he's out there, but it I would not want
Speaker 1: to be giving him a Todd Gurley contract right now.
Speaker 1: I think they also love Alexander Madison, not in replace
Speaker 1: with Dalvin Cook in anyway. But these running back contracts
Speaker 1: make gms look like fools in some cases, so the
Speaker 1: hesitation makes some sense. If you're a GM, you kind
Speaker 1: of love the franchise tag when it comes to running backs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll give you ten million dollars for one year. I
Speaker 1: just don't want to like give you, you know, four
Speaker 1: year contract. And other news, the Kansas City Chiefs will
Speaker 1: not be one of the NFL teams playing in front
Speaker 1: of an empty stadium. The team finalized plans to host
Speaker 1: games at Arrowheads Stadium with approximately two percent capacity. I
Speaker 1: don't know how much it holds, so you don't get
Speaker 1: a chance to see me figure out the math on
Speaker 1: this one, but let's let's guess it's around fifteen to
Speaker 1: twenty people. I don't know. Uh, So we'll see how
Speaker 1: this goes. This comes um after the Chiefs rolled out
Speaker 1: enhanced cleaning and sanitation measures and they will subject all
Speaker 1: staff members to health screenings upon arrival, and will direct
Speaker 1: all staffers to where personal protective equipment and exercise proper hygiene. Greg,
Speaker 1: what do you think you nailed it? By the way,
Speaker 1: sixteen point eight would be their capacity right now, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm getting worse and almost every other way as a man.
Speaker 1: But man, I'm just going through the roof lately. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure I do the trade off there. I mean
Speaker 1: every other way. I mean, what's what's the up notot idea?
Speaker 1: What are what? I don't know all these colleges, for instance,
Speaker 1: that you know, brought their kids on campus for a
Speaker 1: week or two and then realize, oh, that was a
Speaker 1: terrible idea. Let's quit that, Like is this actually gonna happen?
Speaker 1: And what are what are they really getting out of it?
Speaker 1: I guess the fans are getting the experience of going,
Speaker 1: and they do want to go, and and and it's
Speaker 1: outside and and hopefully there's a way they can do
Speaker 1: it safely and everyone separate. But it's like when you
Speaker 1: talk about like the sanitation and all, it's like that
Speaker 1: that feels like pr It's like it's like the research
Speaker 1: shows that the virus is not being transmitted too often. Um,
Speaker 1: you know through touch on on surfaces anyway. Yeah, it's great,
Speaker 1: it's great you're doing that, but it just doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like the reward here is worth the risk. And I
Speaker 1: think you look at the rest of the world, which
Speaker 1: is in seven better shape whatever, like a million percent
Speaker 1: better shape, and they don't have fans in the crowd.
Speaker 1: So I don't know that is that now that didn't
Speaker 1: really make sense. They're they're in much better shape than us,
Speaker 1: and they don't have fans in the crowd despite being
Speaker 1: in better shape. So it's like, maybe we should start
Speaker 1: taking a queue from some countries that are doing a
Speaker 1: better job. That part of the cynical part of me
Speaker 1: initially don't do this part of me is the NFL
Speaker 1: attempting to Um, they always want to be the center
Speaker 1: of attention and the spectacle of spectacles that that opening night.
Speaker 1: They want Americans in the stands cheering and the slick
Speaker 1: cutaways to that, I mean more reasonably, like the league said,
Speaker 1: some cities can handle it this way, others that it
Speaker 1: feels a little bit in the zone of competitive disadvantage.
Speaker 1: If I mean, sixteen thousand fans, aren't it so weird.
Speaker 1: It's going to be mostly empty, like a right, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be Is that really gonna make you feel good? That?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be depressing? I don't know. Well,
Speaker 1: And they're talking about you know, they're looking into piping
Speaker 1: and noise like which we're seeing in other sports, and
Speaker 1: I think that that's fine. I don't have a problem
Speaker 1: with that. I would love that job. I think you
Speaker 1: could do really weird things and freak some people out
Speaker 1: if you were able to control the crowd noise through
Speaker 1: a whole NFL game, if you're like an editor of that.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I mean if if you
Speaker 1: replaced that with fifteen thousand fans and at any given moment,
Speaker 1: you know, three thousand or getting beers are going to
Speaker 1: the bathroom, that feels like a kind of lame crowd
Speaker 1: to me. So I'm sure they want to do it
Speaker 1: for the For the to push the just raises a
Speaker 1: question about responsibility to the community you're in, which is
Speaker 1: where I think the university should take a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of heat for what's gone on already across
Speaker 1: the country. You're contributing to your community, um having more coronavirus.
Speaker 1: You made it the decision out of you know, in
Speaker 1: those colleges, UH for more money, and the decision ended
Speaker 1: up being you are making it less safe for the
Speaker 1: people in your community. So that would be the concern.
Speaker 1: We don't want to go to the team to team
Speaker 1: Why would one do you? Does anyone else think to
Speaker 1: have like four teams that can have fans going crazy
Speaker 1: and then the next week that same team goes and
Speaker 1: visits the stadium where it's you know, completely silent. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's a failure in the realm of common
Speaker 1: sense by the NFL, both because of the safety obviously
Speaker 1: that Greg is hitting on, and also what you hit
Speaker 1: on that anything that gives a competitive advantage to however
Speaker 1: many teams do. This feels like it's unfair and and
Speaker 1: it almost encourages other teams to take risks. But heyst Cowboys,
Speaker 1: they have fans too. They haven't really specified the details,
Speaker 1: but but Jerry Jones has been pretty clear about that.
Speaker 1: In Texas obviously is not, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: places that's in better shape, whereas New York is very
Speaker 1: clear there's no fans all season, and yet they're in
Speaker 1: the best shape because they've kind of been scared straight
Speaker 1: That's why I think it's tied to politics and who
Speaker 1: your governor is. But there are a bunch of teams
Speaker 1: that have not made a final decision yet, so you
Speaker 1: we could see and maybe part of it is you're
Speaker 1: waiting to find out where we are a month from
Speaker 1: now or you know, middle of November exactly. My point, like,
Speaker 1: teams are gonna keep the door open, and then when
Speaker 1: it works in Kansas City, other teams are gonna open
Speaker 1: the doors. But are they gonna have the same safety protocols?
Speaker 1: Will they be able to carry it out in the
Speaker 1: way Kansas City hypothetically? Can? It seems unnecessary. Let's talk
Speaker 1: some injuries. Not fun to talk injuries, but it's part
Speaker 1: of training camp. The Dolphins place linebacker Vince Bagle and
Speaker 1: injured reserve at the torn achilles that ends this season. Uh.
Speaker 1: He has been in the mix for uh the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: He had fifteen appearances last year ten starts um, but
Speaker 1: he will not be involved this season. Yeah. The handful
Speaker 1: of players that have been deemed out for the season
Speaker 1: with kind of non contact injuries this week haven't been
Speaker 1: like Series. Bagal was their best pass rusher last year
Speaker 1: and they don't have many good players on defense, but
Speaker 1: you know, he kind of came out of nowhere. Robert
Speaker 1: Alfred was another guy, the cornerback for the Cardinals that
Speaker 1: caught my attention just because their their secondary to me
Speaker 1: is a big problem, and Alfred was expected to start.
Speaker 1: And Uh, I think when you look at the Cardinals
Speaker 1: being kind of a buzzy team, they have a lot
Speaker 1: of fun things about him, but they have some parts
Speaker 1: of their team that look up as bad as any
Speaker 1: team in the NFL. And I would include, you know,
Speaker 1: their their cornerback depth and their defensive line among that. Right,
Speaker 1: only the Lions gave up more yards through the air
Speaker 1: than the Cardinals last year per game. And you know Alfred,
Speaker 1: I wonder what the future. He's a friend of the show.
Speaker 1: You remember Dan, You and West and I interviewed him
Speaker 1: after the Falcons knocked off the Rams, uh in the
Speaker 1: playoffs a couple of years ago. A best friend of
Speaker 1: the show, A best friend. I mean, there's the the
Speaker 1: I mean, what could have been a Super Bowl hero
Speaker 1: if the if the team had finished it off big time?
Speaker 1: Pick six? Am I am? I crazy? In the Super Bowl?
Speaker 1: I mean is that a bad memory? I don't to
Speaker 1: check our research I was writing about this as well.
Speaker 1: What you were saying. They're Greg on the power rankings,
Speaker 1: which you might think it's improbable, but it brings the clicks.
Speaker 1: So they asked the Zeusser to roll out a training
Speaker 1: camp power rankings that dropped today. And I said that
Speaker 1: very thing, Greg, that that the Cardinals, they're a buzzy
Speaker 1: playoff pick right now. But you can't ignore the fact
Speaker 1: that no team in the league allowed more yards on
Speaker 1: defense last year. And Alfred, even if they were high
Speaker 1: on him, he broke his leg last year and missed
Speaker 1: the whole season. They were asking him, hey, now jump
Speaker 1: back into the league and line up across with Patrick
Speaker 1: Peterson and solidify that spot. Well, even that was seemed
Speaker 1: to be a gamble, and now they're scrambling. Three weeks
Speaker 1: before the season. He was the one with the pick
Speaker 1: six in the Super Bowl, which at that very moment
Speaker 1: was one of the lowest moments I felt in the
Speaker 1: Brady era because it was like, Oh, this isn't gonna happen,
Speaker 1: this is never gonna happen. Ago. I love that the
Speaker 1: lowest moment in the Brady era, last one out one
Speaker 1: minutes and then suddenly you know the greatest moment in
Speaker 1: the Brady era suddenly is birth from that on the
Speaker 1: lowest Brady moment happened in the Super Bowl. Think about it,
Speaker 1: probably when he blew out his knee in week one,
Speaker 1: coming off eighteen and one and having revenge on the
Speaker 1: mind and then it all going away. But maybe it
Speaker 1: was speaking of whispers, there are whispers that maybe rookie
Speaker 1: Isaiah Simmons could see a little time at slot corner,
Speaker 1: could see you know, they want to they want to
Speaker 1: move him all over the place, and so maybe with
Speaker 1: Alfred out of the mix, that could be uh an
Speaker 1: answer there. You know, Mark, don't think we didn't notice.
Speaker 1: You missed Monday show for moving and internet purposes, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, Tuesday you're all over Twitter.
Speaker 1: You're tweeting about the Lions defensive backfield, your tape dogg
Speaker 1: and on Tuesday night and then and then here you go,
Speaker 1: here you go dropping nugs about Isaiah Simmons. We're noting this.
Speaker 1: He's got the NFL Network Polo on today now? Is
Speaker 1: he on Insight training Kip Live? Maybe yes, maybe no,
Speaker 1: But as the job that you want, that's that's right.
Speaker 1: And I somehow moved to um, you know the studio
Speaker 1: that we were in last year, if you want to
Speaker 1: last week at this time in my other house, was
Speaker 1: you know, leveling off at about nine degrees each time.
Speaker 1: And I've found a room that is somehow about eight
Speaker 1: degrees hotter. And so I don't know if that's an
Speaker 1: up an upgrade or not. Bears cornerback Already Burns also
Speaker 1: on injured reserve with a torn a c L. That
Speaker 1: is very bad, uh for Burns, the former first round pick,
Speaker 1: rarely played for the Steelers last year, and now his
Speaker 1: chance to kind of reboot things with the Bears goes
Speaker 1: by the boards. You wonder what comes next for the
Speaker 1: year old. And finally, Mack Wilson, a linebacker for the
Speaker 1: Browns who was in the news this week for the
Speaker 1: horse collar tackle that gave Nick Chubb a possible concussion,
Speaker 1: Well that I believe the same practice he suffered a
Speaker 1: what Mike Garrett Folo the next day, Mike Garrett Folo
Speaker 1: reported a significant hyper extended knee. ESPN reported it would
Speaker 1: be highly optimistic if we saw Wilson before October. So
Speaker 1: it could have been worse, but could have been better.
Speaker 1: Is this guy a difference maker? For you, Mark, I, well,
Speaker 1: he was projected to be a starter. And you know,
Speaker 1: you follow some of these guys on Twitter, and I
Speaker 1: cannot find I cannot think when when this happened. He
Speaker 1: is the guy that I thought of all the Cleveland Browns,
Speaker 1: who seemed like he was working out like crazy and
Speaker 1: so determined to make a big jump. And he did
Speaker 1: a couple You know, PFF did not love him last year,
Speaker 1: but mac Wilson had a couple of plays they gave
Speaker 1: you a lot of hope that they had found something,
Speaker 1: and I think enough that allowed them to think, we
Speaker 1: can move on from Joe Schobert, we can move on
Speaker 1: from Christian Kirksey. And now that linebacking corps has literally
Speaker 1: nobody other than b. J. Goodson with any experience, and
Speaker 1: I would be very concerned about you know, they played
Speaker 1: the Ravens three weeks from now. I don't like the
Speaker 1: matchup at all. And and no matter what everyone talks
Speaker 1: about the offense, the defense could be one of these
Speaker 1: two if they get more injured than they are now.
Speaker 1: I don't like the situation for them at all. Against
Speaker 1: the run. It's devastating. Their linebacker corps maybe the worst
Speaker 1: in the league in terms of like known quantity right now,
Speaker 1: on paper, that was their worst position group before this
Speaker 1: in and he was probably their best player. Um, I
Speaker 1: guess if you're the positive would be that's a good
Speaker 1: position to have as your worst position group off ball linebacker.
Speaker 1: So we'll we'll see I think their defense. Okay, alright,
Speaker 1: that is what's happening in the news. I need you
Speaker 1: to close your eyes. It's time now to listen, very
Speaker 1: very carefully, get in tune with yourself. How are you
Speaker 1: feeling inside? Do you hear that If you close your
Speaker 1: eyes and tilt your head a little to the right,
Speaker 1: you can hear the training camp with Wow? Does that
Speaker 1: just put you in a place or what that was needed?
Speaker 1: That was serene? Sometimes I forget, like this is going
Speaker 1: to be the part that's cut for social I should
Speaker 1: I should like dial in that we're on camera. I
Speaker 1: try to just think it's like a podcast, you know,
Speaker 1: But then I just halfway through that, I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this one's gonna be cut, and I'm just sort of
Speaker 1: like checking my text. I had the same exact thought,
Speaker 1: and suddenly it was like, oh, dance. Dan probably knew
Speaker 1: that this was coming, so he very in a very
Speaker 1: organized way, closed his eyes, and I caught up later
Speaker 1: and thought, I'm gonna jump in here and do as
Speaker 1: I'm told. I mean, it's an audio form, you know.
Speaker 1: To begin with, um, that is that is true? Like
Speaker 1: if if this podcast had pff it advanced analytics and
Speaker 1: there was a staff for like parts of the show
Speaker 1: that get cut for social, the numbers would really tell
Speaker 1: you that it's Erica tam posey jams that get cut
Speaker 1: more than anything. We're just again, just background players the
Speaker 1: chorus when it comes to our social game on around
Speaker 1: the NFL, many of them very deserving because if we
Speaker 1: get too far down that wormhole will never appear on
Speaker 1: social again. So wise, all right, let's go through it.
Speaker 1: We're just gonna kind of jump around the league, our
Speaker 1: league with whispers. Let's try not to get too bogged
Speaker 1: down on any one topic to let's hit him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have quite a few as well. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: kind of jump around and it on things and then
Speaker 1: move along, uh, sharing the whispers that we're hearing across
Speaker 1: the league. All right, let's start with one. I thought
Speaker 1: I was very intriguing today out of New England that
Speaker 1: Mike Reese the dean of Patriots reporters suggested not just
Speaker 1: in an article, but to Bill Belichick that the team
Speaker 1: might use a two quarterback systems. You don't do that
Speaker 1: unless you unless right. Well, I think he was. I
Speaker 1: think he has not only a good feel of the
Speaker 1: type of team that they are, which is a team
Speaker 1: I could absolutely see doing this, but that he has
Speaker 1: some information um backing this that he's not going to
Speaker 1: report anything. He's responsible. He also knows that they haven't
Speaker 1: made any final decisions, but that someone like Mike Reese,
Speaker 1: and that's why I wanted to bring it up as
Speaker 1: a whisper, would not bring this up unless I think
Speaker 1: there was some conversation that Okay, let's say Cam Newton,
Speaker 1: who supposedly early you know, it looks great, but you know,
Speaker 1: obviously doesn't know the offense as well as Didhaman Hoyer
Speaker 1: who have been there. Um that they could shuttle them
Speaker 1: in and out. I think this is something Bell Bill
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick would like love to do before settling in
Speaker 1: later into just Cam Newton most likely, but early on
Speaker 1: maybe a little of both. You know. I can remember
Speaker 1: a game I was sitting in college was like four
Speaker 1: thousand years ago, but Broncos Cowboys and the Broncos shuttled
Speaker 1: between two quarterbacks the entire time, and it was amazing
Speaker 1: as a fan to watch. I thought it was highly dramatic.
Speaker 1: It didn't work at all. I think that when this
Speaker 1: has been tried, people always hate it. It just doesn't work.
Speaker 1: And I think Belichick would have a beat on the
Speaker 1: fact that it's um. It could be like a one
Speaker 1: or two week type thing. I think Belichick would want
Speaker 1: to know exactly. He would know by then who his
Speaker 1: guy is. But this is the weirdest lead up for
Speaker 1: can New or anyone else to succeed. Belichick, though, came
Speaker 1: off that and said that don't be not you know,
Speaker 1: he said, we could lean on a ton of super
Speaker 1: heavy sets UM twenty three formations where you know you're
Speaker 1: talking to running backs three tight ends. I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna get really freaky um, which only adds to the
Speaker 1: intrigue of what Belichick. You know, I think that he's
Speaker 1: got a heart of revenge the season to show what
Speaker 1: he can do, and all these little people saying the
Speaker 1: Patriots won't be relevant will be bitten in the butt.
Speaker 1: If anyone else was connected to this type of scheme
Speaker 1: in a lesser coach would be absolutely destroyed. Since it's Belichick,
Speaker 1: people will say, that's an interesting thought. He has a
Speaker 1: little bit of credibility, doesn't he. I mean, well he
Speaker 1: did when Tom Brady was his quarterback. We'll see what
Speaker 1: he can do. Now, see if you can still play
Speaker 1: the guitar. Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't see him rolling
Speaker 1: out fourteen win seasons before Tom Brady was around. Well,
Speaker 1: he was there for one year before that, but okay,
Speaker 1: I mean Cleveland also, I think he got canned, as
Speaker 1: I recall, but they also had a GA the fewest
Speaker 1: points in the league, win eleven and five, and in
Speaker 1: the last team to win a playoff game in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: So Belichick was treated unfairly when they moved to both
Speaker 1: eleven and five with the Castle too. Let's move on
Speaker 1: to the next Whisper Snow playoffs. Go ahead, Mark, alright,
Speaker 1: I'll go to Philly because I think we've been focused
Speaker 1: on their wide receiver group for a while and it
Speaker 1: sounds seems like they've hit on something with Jillen Reagor
Speaker 1: like they winz is pushing him. Uh, He's compared him
Speaker 1: to Julio Jones. They are working together well in practice.
Speaker 1: Aaron moorehead, the wide receiver coach, says that he has
Speaker 1: that swag. I think they're just very pleased with their
Speaker 1: overall rookie group. I throw another name in here too,
Speaker 1: who is sort of like a dark horse to make
Speaker 1: an impact. Quez Watkins, super fast, UM six round pick
Speaker 1: average six, most receiving yards per game in college football
Speaker 1: last year. He's a super small guy that when you
Speaker 1: take Marky's goodwin out of the picture, someone like this
Speaker 1: could get snaps that he might not have otherwise. But
Speaker 1: I think Jalen Reagor is someone that is obviously at
Speaker 1: this point ahead of the curve. You know, you get
Speaker 1: some of these white outs that don't really pan out
Speaker 1: early and dot. This is a huge for the Eagles
Speaker 1: if they you know, you get to Sean Jackson back
Speaker 1: to h a team that basically had forty two skill
Speaker 1: position players six ft under a year ago. Even even worse,
Speaker 1: even more pressing or more important for the Eagles is
Speaker 1: the Smiles Sanders whisper out there. Uh he's weak to
Speaker 1: week with a lower body injury, and this man was
Speaker 1: the key to their offense in the second half. I
Speaker 1: don't like the sound of it. ESPN reports at Sanders
Speaker 1: quote will be ready to play in Week one. Hopefully
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things where he's uh, they're
Speaker 1: being safe and cautious, which makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: But then you again worry about the odd nature of
Speaker 1: this year and whether injuries are going to stick with
Speaker 1: players the way everything has been rolled out. Sanders was
Speaker 1: on the field for their snaps in the second half
Speaker 1: of last season and was a dynamo for them. They
Speaker 1: cannot afford with that wide receiver opium and if some
Speaker 1: of these guys pan out, Sanders not to have a
Speaker 1: similarly productive year. And he's he's a guy. I think
Speaker 1: everyone is expecting to be one of the clear lead
Speaker 1: type backs, that he is going to be a fulcrum
Speaker 1: of their offense. But you have to do it, you know.
Speaker 1: Running back is one of those positions where it's like
Speaker 1: you gotta see it, you gotta see it before you
Speaker 1: believe it. He he had two carries his last year
Speaker 1: Penn State, so that's a pretty big workload. But he's
Speaker 1: never he's never been that guy um that's kind of
Speaker 1: been a bell cow type. There are fantasy drafts where
Speaker 1: he's going number one. There is a belief and that
Speaker 1: he can do it. I don't think this is a
Speaker 1: serious injury at this point because the Eagles and other
Speaker 1: teams are basically just shelving anyone who get these lower
Speaker 1: lower bodies. And there are people You're wait, you're telling
Speaker 1: me Mark that there are people out there taking Miles Sanders.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's like happening all over the place,
Speaker 1: but I actually watched the show you yesterday where that's
Speaker 1: where that exact same thing happened, and it threw me
Speaker 1: because you're getting into fantasy suddenly. I'm let's dive into
Speaker 1: this little I'm hearing a little whispers about Mark Sessler.
Speaker 1: This is the time to prepare. You know, it's been
Speaker 1: a weird offseason where I thought maybe nothing would exist
Speaker 1: in October November. Were suddenly, you know, we're two fortnits
Speaker 1: away from everything existing and probably being the only thing
Speaker 1: that exists in our life for six paces. You used
Speaker 1: to call the fantasy community a bunch of hobby horses,
Speaker 1: like playing like a pretend game, but now you're watching
Speaker 1: like live stream draft, so it just feels like a
Speaker 1: big one eighty degree turn. You know, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: I'm trying to change in better ways. But I also
Speaker 1: i'd ask you this is it bad to be a
Speaker 1: hobby horse playing a game? Hey? Look it worse than everything.
Speaker 1: I love Fantasy. It gave me a entry into this
Speaker 1: whole thing. I thank God for Fantasy. And let me
Speaker 1: neatly transition into a plug for the Fantasy Extravaganza, which
Speaker 1: returns to the Around the NFL podcast next Wednesday. And
Speaker 1: let me just say this, listeners, this will be the
Speaker 1: biggest extravaganza yet. That is a promise. No extravaganza in
Speaker 1: the history of a t M extravaganzas will ever approach
Speaker 1: what we're doing next week. Make sure you listen to
Speaker 1: that episode before you draft. We don't even bother showing up. Well,
Speaker 1: you could listen to Extravaganza all dayvaganza. It was a
Speaker 1: year ago during the Extravaganza that you, um, you deemed
Speaker 1: me to go sit behind the glass. I wasn't even
Speaker 1: part of the show. I don't think you can pull that.
Speaker 1: You can't pull that move on me this time. Or
Speaker 1: we could, like we put you in the waiting room
Speaker 1: of stream Yards. Well you probably could, or Erica could.
Speaker 1: So you know what, why would we want to after
Speaker 1: this development that you're watching live streamed drafts, can I
Speaker 1: jump in the middle. That's in Philadelphia, it's connected, we're
Speaker 1: doing eagle US. I heard a little whisper and this
Speaker 1: is not someone that's with the team. But after I
Speaker 1: sent out something um talking about the whole Nate Sudfeld thing,
Speaker 1: he might be the backup, not Jalen Hurts because they
Speaker 1: don't have a time I got, I got a little
Speaker 1: whisper from someone connected that was like, that's a bunch
Speaker 1: of that's a bunch of public bs, that that Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts is out there impressing the heck out of this
Speaker 1: coaching staff and team on a daily basis, that sunfell
Speaker 1: baby shrinking from the pressure a little bit, and that
Speaker 1: anything Peterson was saying publicly was a bunch of expectation
Speaker 1: lowering um nonsense hopefuly that they loved that they loved
Speaker 1: them some Jalen Hurts early on a natural leader and
Speaker 1: a you know, an athletic marvel. Wow, that's a good whisper.
Speaker 1: That's like a legit whisper. It was meant to lead
Speaker 1: with that. I think we whispering about Jalen Hurts on
Speaker 1: our network show a few times. Did you guys hear
Speaker 1: that by the one? Why do you seem so scared?
Speaker 1: All I wanted to do is to play with you bag.
Speaker 1: That is problematic. Ure, Let's let's uh, let's head over
Speaker 1: to uh your neck of the woods. Mark Sess. I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the Cleveland Browns, and this is
Speaker 1: not just Cleveland Browns thing, but more a reminder of
Speaker 1: what's going on in our league right now. J C.
Speaker 1: Treader their starting center has a nice scope that they
Speaker 1: clear out some loose particles, and so far there is
Speaker 1: positive vibes. Rap Sheet reported that Treader will be ready
Speaker 1: or should be ready for week one. But the Browns,
Speaker 1: like my Jets and other teams out there, are really
Speaker 1: up against it. If you're trying to gain a coherent
Speaker 1: feeling on your offensive line this summer, it's hard enough
Speaker 1: as it is. It's been it's unheard of to imagine
Speaker 1: to get an offensive and you can play all the
Speaker 1: call of duty you want. I've read some notebooks that
Speaker 1: offensive lineman are finding other ways to bond group text
Speaker 1: chains with memes and everybody's becoming best friends. But she
Speaker 1: actually got to be on the field getting the work
Speaker 1: in to develop chemistry and know what the hell you're doing,
Speaker 1: so the Browns will use in his example, tread or
Speaker 1: maybe back week one. Even if he's back week one,
Speaker 1: he's not practicing with the team right now. This is
Speaker 1: a Browns team that has new tackles on the right
Speaker 1: and left side, and now a potential fifth round pick,
Speaker 1: rookie Nick Harris, who's gonna be picking up snaps at
Speaker 1: center in the pivot as they say in the game. Uh.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, it's just the challenge for the Browns
Speaker 1: and other teams that are trying to get things figured
Speaker 1: out on a reworked offensive line. I think they have
Speaker 1: one secret weapon, and you're absolutely right, because they like
Speaker 1: Nick Harris, but this was not the plan. They had
Speaker 1: a number of of offensive lineman opt out um which
Speaker 1: really killed him at right guard. And you're asking Jendrick Wills,
Speaker 1: and we talked about us a hundred times. I can't
Speaker 1: think of a tougher deal than a guy that played
Speaker 1: right tackle in college to go have to suddenly play
Speaker 1: left tackle again three weeks ago against a revamped Ravens
Speaker 1: defensive line and a Ravens defense that's gonna come in
Speaker 1: and kick people's butts. Anyways, I think the secret weapon
Speaker 1: is Bill Callahan. I mean, everywhere he goes the offensive
Speaker 1: line really shines. And I had watched an interview with
Speaker 1: him where he went on for about forty five minutes
Speaker 1: about each one of these guys and barring injury, I
Speaker 1: do think they'll be much improved. But losing Shredder, who
Speaker 1: got a contract extension last year and totally deserved it. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't like that situation at all, or the idea
Speaker 1: that he that he gets in there too early. I mean,
Speaker 1: I this is this is a huge concern and it
Speaker 1: would affect every part of the offense. Arguably the best
Speaker 1: coalfensive line coach of the last and yeah, Callahan is
Speaker 1: maybe the best in the game. But back to my point,
Speaker 1: he's still gotta be on the field and these guys
Speaker 1: gotta be getting the reps. It's gonna be very It
Speaker 1: is gonna be and I know I'm not the first
Speaker 1: to make this point. It is gonna be sloppy those
Speaker 1: first few weeks, especially Week one. I'm gonna call right now,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a record in um pre snap pre
Speaker 1: snap in fractions. They're gonna be talking about that on
Speaker 1: the second Monday Night Football game, making them run those laps.
Speaker 1: Speaking of what they they announced that the lead Monday
Speaker 1: Night football team is on the second Monday Night game,
Speaker 1: while the Herb Street Combo Fowler is on the first one.
Speaker 1: If you're a conspiracy theorist, it's kind of like, well,
Speaker 1: which team do you really want? You know more, which
Speaker 1: team Steelers Giants get a bigger game? Is going to
Speaker 1: the college guys? It kind of raises the question of
Speaker 1: who's gonna be there next year. I have a I
Speaker 1: have a theory about that. Monday Football has been under
Speaker 1: so much fire for so long now that they probably
Speaker 1: want to get a big chunk of the East Coast
Speaker 1: audience to go to sleep after the Giants game, so
Speaker 1: that the second team, if they don't thrive in in
Speaker 1: week one, out of the gate, there's a lot less
Speaker 1: less pressure, a little less pressure. Yeah, alright, I like that.
Speaker 1: Let's move on, Greg, alright, um, let's go to Oakland?
Speaker 1: Where are our friend vic Victor four? How did we
Speaker 1: mispronounce his name before I remember we did. It's tap
Speaker 1: for I'm gonna check. I'm pretty sure it's tap for.
Speaker 1: So he he was noting that that Mariota um buzz
Speaker 1: coming from John Gruden's press conference. Um was maybe a
Speaker 1: little overstated in retrospect, and he even prefaced this little
Speaker 1: note saying, here's one for the aggregators and then noted
Speaker 1: how stiff he he noted, how stiff and um not great.
Speaker 1: Marcus Mariota looked throwing the football little four five of
Speaker 1: training camp, which makes sense because we've seen Marcus Mariota
Speaker 1: throw throw the football, and that if you were just
Speaker 1: watching these two guys, you would not think there's there's
Speaker 1: anything remotely close between Derek carr uh in Mariota, especially
Speaker 1: for a guy like car who has now been in
Speaker 1: that offense, and it is often very good in camping
Speaker 1: and should be good in camp, and it's just it's
Speaker 1: just worth pointing out a little nice whispers stunning Tafer
Speaker 1: in a big spot, stunning that Marcus Mariota actually doesn't
Speaker 1: look that good, as if we didn't get enough years
Speaker 1: of tape to concern that they are pumping up Henry
Speaker 1: Ruggs and Brian Edwards quite a bit. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know it's rookies, and I know it's early, but I
Speaker 1: do think these guys will be playing and I don't
Speaker 1: doubt that Henry Ruggs speed is kind of on other worldly,
Speaker 1: so they are liking at least what what they see
Speaker 1: so far in practice. From those guys, mark, you're up,
Speaker 1: well go to Buffalo. And I just impressed with how
Speaker 1: quickly the Bills have put together, um a bunch of
Speaker 1: interesting skill position players where they were a an empty cupboard,
Speaker 1: you know, two or three years ago. Running back, you've
Speaker 1: got Devin Singletary, Zack Moss is getting a lot of heat,
Speaker 1: Joe Biscaglia, and Matthew Fairborne from the Art the Athletic
Speaker 1: UH went off on how he has been sort of
Speaker 1: a physical berserker at the goal line and basically saying
Speaker 1: if he if this continues out of practices and into
Speaker 1: the regular season, that you pair Moss, who is a
Speaker 1: like a really thumper type running back with single Terry
Speaker 1: and you've got something in the backfield to go along
Speaker 1: with the rebuilt wide receiver group. The same crew though,
Speaker 1: has mentioned that I think the thing is with Josh
Speaker 1: Allen and this is and this is not a whisper,
Speaker 1: this is George just sort of like what we would
Speaker 1: expect to happen, is that he had a practice earlier
Speaker 1: in the week. I think it was Monday when Cole
Speaker 1: Beasley said he is making throws, completing throws that he
Speaker 1: couldn't even attempt a year ago. But then on Tuesday
Speaker 1: he was completely all over the map according to some reports.
Speaker 1: So that's the Josh Allen experience. But there's a lot
Speaker 1: to like around him, and it does not dim my
Speaker 1: hopes for buff Low as an potential a f C
Speaker 1: title team, title title game. I'm not saying they're gonna
Speaker 1: win the game. I mean, if they get to the game,
Speaker 1: they can win it. I mean, if you're if speaking,
Speaker 1: here's a little fantasy extravaganza, uh teaser for you. Do
Speaker 1: not hesitate to draft Josh Allen because he's gonna be
Speaker 1: great in fantasy. He's gonna run the ball, he's gonna
Speaker 1: score touchdowns of his legs. He'll throw twenty to twenty
Speaker 1: four more. But geez, I don't put too much into
Speaker 1: these practices. Right now, everything is so out of whack.
Speaker 1: But geez, yeah, I don't need there, I do. I think, hey,
Speaker 1: early fantasy stuff, don't be hesitant to draft Singletary. I
Speaker 1: know Moss is there and he's gonna steal some touchdowns
Speaker 1: and maybe that helps I think mom to bump Singletary's
Speaker 1: value down a little bit. But Devin Singletary is a
Speaker 1: special talent. We'll see if Zach Moss is and if
Speaker 1: he gets more work, which he should forget it. Why
Speaker 1: are you eating the microphone? Greg, give it to me,
Speaker 1: Mike a phone. It doesn't sound good or look good. Actually,
Speaker 1: that just became the social clip. All right, let's cycle
Speaker 1: through quickly, a couple more guys each, Greg, alright, Uh,
Speaker 1: I want to give Jason Varette a little shout out.
Speaker 1: I I mentioned the forty nine secondary could be a problem.
Speaker 1: Jason Varette has only played one healthy season in the NFL,
Speaker 1: so this comes with a major asterix. But there's some
Speaker 1: whispers in San Francisco that he kind of looks like
Speaker 1: the old guy that we used to see with the
Speaker 1: Chargers and that he's getting first team snaps, and uh,
Speaker 1: he would. He would be a major boost for them,
Speaker 1: even if they got five hundred seven hundred snaps out
Speaker 1: of him. I don't know if he's going to start
Speaker 1: or not. They should, they should try to be careful.
Speaker 1: But he was a dynamic player. I mean, he was
Speaker 1: a pro bowler. I thought he was maybe an all
Speaker 1: Pro quality player that was five years ago now, so
Speaker 1: it's it's asking a lot. The guy has not been healthy,
Speaker 1: but he's just a name we kind of forgot existed
Speaker 1: on the forty Niners and he might be playing. You're
Speaker 1: obsessed with the forty is right now? Greg Mark Mark,
Speaker 1: all right. I will just say I think the early
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year race to me is getting exciting
Speaker 1: because up in Detroit, DeAndre Swift has been doing it all.
Speaker 1: Tim Twentyman saying that he's been great not only as
Speaker 1: a runner but on passing downs, which means, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're carry on Johnson, I don't know what the
Speaker 1: role will be there, but I love the under Swift.
Speaker 1: And then what if he goes up against Jonathan Taylor,
Speaker 1: who the cults are at this point now where they're
Speaker 1: putting clips of Jonathan Taylor weaving through the defense to
Speaker 1: classical music. They love him, and I think that he's
Speaker 1: going to have a huge role in a pretty young,
Speaker 1: but exciting offense. Let's circle back to the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1: T J. Hockenson, the two thousand nineteen first round pick,
Speaker 1: acknowledge this week that his ankle is still not quite
Speaker 1: on after sustaining a season ending injury less November. You
Speaker 1: may remember Hocketson going off in his NFL debut last
Speaker 1: September for a hundred and thirty one yards, but then
Speaker 1: he just kept getting hurt a bunch of injuries and
Speaker 1: then the ankle injury that ended his season. You hope
Speaker 1: that his lower half is right or close to completely
Speaker 1: right by the time games start, because if he could
Speaker 1: build on his chemistry with Matthew Stafford and already solid
Speaker 1: Detroit offense gets that much better. But it is fair
Speaker 1: now to be concerned that the angle that wrecked his
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen could impact his Sorry, Patra, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna throw out one uh in the same division Minnesota.
Speaker 1: A name I haven't seen a lot, you know getting
Speaker 1: buzzed this offseason is Irv Smith of the Vikings. Hit it.
Speaker 1: Let's hear it for the little girl. How do you
Speaker 1: seem so scared? All I wanted to do is play
Speaker 1: with you. Don't be scared of this Vikings offense. If
Speaker 1: Smith could be dynamic, He's one of a bunch of
Speaker 1: second year guys who I think can be really exciting.
Speaker 1: They're using him a little bit more as receiver. He's
Speaker 1: a guy if you waited till the end of fantasy draft.
Speaker 1: Too much fantasy info here that I'd be excited to take.
Speaker 1: But he he seems to be flashing. Maybe it's taken
Speaker 1: justin Jefferson the rookie a little longer to get up
Speaker 1: to speed than than you would want. Uh, But to
Speaker 1: me or Smith might be might be the number two
Speaker 1: receiver in that team behind Adam Feeling. I got one
Speaker 1: for you real quick. Well, I just go down to Miami,
Speaker 1: and I didn't expect, you know, to a to start
Speaker 1: right away necessarily. I think it's because chan Gailey is
Speaker 1: there and they know Ryan Fitzpatrick so well, the two
Speaker 1: of them, that it's gonna be fitzy. But there were
Speaker 1: some whispers I read some things here that even Josh
Speaker 1: Rosen has at times looked a little more with it
Speaker 1: and better than to uh. And I'll tell you know,
Speaker 1: it's camp. I mean, don't well it means so, it
Speaker 1: means it's a whisper. It's not a news report, but
Speaker 1: it's a little it's a little whisper out there. I
Speaker 1: still think to uh, you know, probably by week four
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to see what he can what he
Speaker 1: can do. Ben Roethlisberger is throwing with some quote nice velocity.
Speaker 1: According to the Athletic, his throwing motion appears the change
Speaker 1: Mark Caboli, who's I think been at it for a
Speaker 1: long time with the Steelers, Big Big often on the
Speaker 1: d DFP. I feel like, there you go. Caboli Uh
Speaker 1: said he noticed it especially later in practice. So it's
Speaker 1: throwing motion a little bit different, more of a quote
Speaker 1: whip action, almost like Philip Rivers esque. So I don't
Speaker 1: know what that means. It's just a whisper. But Ben
Speaker 1: Roethlisberger with a Philip Rivers type arm sounds like a
Speaker 1: total disaster. But we'll see, uh if he could still
Speaker 1: play the guitar after tearing three elbow ligaments. Uh last September.
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting because I read all that and um,
Speaker 1: you know, he said it was especially at the end
Speaker 1: of practice. Short army, the short army. But then you
Speaker 1: I went to NFL dot Com and that's my employer,
Speaker 1: so I think they do a wonderful job. And the
Speaker 1: top video was big Ben lobbs deep dimes at Hines
Speaker 1: Field and training camps. It's like we've got a couple
Speaker 1: of different storylines clashing here. I mean, is it that
Speaker 1: or is he short army philip rivers? I mean, you
Speaker 1: guys have been to some of these you know, we've
Speaker 1: been together to these rams early practices and stuff, and
Speaker 1: and seeing them live, you do realize how much you're
Speaker 1: putting your faith into the reporter recording like hot takes
Speaker 1: off of this stuff, because I think most people watching
Speaker 1: it would be like, oh, there was some practice. You
Speaker 1: gotta really know what you're watching, and you know what
Speaker 1: a guy like Mark Coboli has been going for twenty
Speaker 1: plus years and is a real football head. You know
Speaker 1: it and you respect it, and that's why it's one
Speaker 1: of the whispers. But then you've got to be careful.
Speaker 1: There's some other cities, there's some other sources maybe you
Speaker 1: don't want to put as much stock into And speaking
Speaker 1: of the Steelers, whispers whispers, whispers whispers, the d D Kinkabala,
Speaker 1: who does great coverage of the nf A f C
Speaker 1: North and the Steelers for NFL Network, I believe she'll
Speaker 1: be joining us on the Around the NFL broadcast on
Speaker 1: NFL Network on Saturday morning, so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1: Will almost certainly be asking her about Big Ben and
Speaker 1: other matters concerning the black and gold, black and yellow,
Speaker 1: black and yellow brow, black and gold, black and yellow,
Speaker 1: black and yellow. Well, I have a different name for them,
Speaker 1: but I'll accept that your daddy basically since two. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, that that closes the whispers for now, but well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll bring back some whispers before the season
Speaker 1: kicks off again, because that's a good way to you know,
Speaker 1: you see what's going on out there, because we are
Speaker 1: now it's legit. And I loved, I really loved the
Speaker 1: most recent episode of Hard Knocks. How they really did
Speaker 1: um managed to show you the enthusiasm and the excitement, uh,
Speaker 1: and the joy, to be real honest with you, that
Speaker 1: was coming out of that those buildings as they actually
Speaker 1: put on helmets and and shoulder pads and run and
Speaker 1: all over the field and hitting each other, rubbing their
Speaker 1: bodies against one another. As Greg would say, UM, so
Speaker 1: it's good, it's good. It almost felt it almost felt
Speaker 1: a little bit normal, um watching Hard Knocks when they're
Speaker 1: just going through a practice and some poor undrafted rookie
Speaker 1: is getting absolutely obliterated for being overweight, and it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this feels normal. Normalcy is not a bad thing, right.
Speaker 1: It was like kind of slow paced, but it was
Speaker 1: a little it kind of reminded me of like football
Speaker 1: a SMR. You know, it's just like kind of pleasant
Speaker 1: to have football things happening, you know, with the sounds
Speaker 1: and everything on the TV. It didn't have to have
Speaker 1: a lot of like juice you know, or big like
Speaker 1: you know, um plot points. I mean, you want to
Speaker 1: you know, you want to fall asleep talk to Jared
Speaker 1: Goff while playing golf for a few more minutes. But
Speaker 1: it was just sort of like pleasant to have there.
Speaker 1: I like that. I like the episode a lot just
Speaker 1: because it really did feel like a slice of life.
Speaker 1: They kind of accomplished what the show sets out to do,
Speaker 1: which is taking you behind the scenes to what it's
Speaker 1: like there, and that I think exactly. I think they
Speaker 1: got that across ahead Mark. Yeah. I think the contrast
Speaker 1: to like what we were dealing with with the Oakland
Speaker 1: Raiders a year ago in Antonio Brown, which was you know,
Speaker 1: a massive news story and unfolding. I don't you know
Speaker 1: that with this And I'd like to interest to see
Speaker 1: what they do with Melvin Gordon next week. They're both
Speaker 1: very likable teams, and I've been harsh on the l
Speaker 1: A teams, but I've grown fonder of them this week especially.
Speaker 1: I didn't like last week's episode very much, but the
Speaker 1: whole like Andrew Whitworth thing, um finding out how Corona
Speaker 1: spread through his family and him like sort of calling
Speaker 1: out his nanny on HBO, I thought was the next
Speaker 1: level of music. He did not go out of he
Speaker 1: did not call her and he actually went out of
Speaker 1: his way to say he didn't blame her for it,
Speaker 1: but he was, like it started. Her name has ever
Speaker 1: appeared on television, She's probably not. You know, there could
Speaker 1: there could be other circumstances. But I thought also the
Speaker 1: Seth Ryan Rex Ryan's son thing was fast neating to
Speaker 1: watch because from another Corona angle where like there's this
Speaker 1: decision or you know, results come in and then is
Speaker 1: it true is it not? And like, but the whole
Speaker 1: idea that Seth Ryan materialized, which makes so much sense
Speaker 1: because you know, Anthony Lynn and Rex Ryan are super
Speaker 1: tight and it makes sense that Seth Ryan would show
Speaker 1: up there. But um, I thought there was a lot
Speaker 1: to like in the episode. Speaking of beat reporters, anyone
Speaker 1: that's a Jets fan that keeps up with the team.
Speaker 1: Back in the golden years of Rex and the Jets,
Speaker 1: it was a very popular notebook item that Mark Sanchez
Speaker 1: would attend a lot of Rex's sons football games, high
Speaker 1: school football games. So it's just funny how the passage
Speaker 1: of time. Now that high school kid is Seth Ryan,
Speaker 1: who's a centerpiece of an episode of Hard Knocks for
Speaker 1: a false positive coronavirus test. I wish we had more Ryan's.
Speaker 1: It's good to have some Ryan lineage still in the league.
Speaker 1: But we gotta get Uncle Rob back in the league.
Speaker 1: I know he's doing great stuff at Sky Sports, and
Speaker 1: now we need I want Rob coaching on the sidelines,
Speaker 1: and not just as a linebacker coach. I want him
Speaker 1: as a d C and swaggering up and down the
Speaker 1: sidelines of the flowing silver hair and the belly and
Speaker 1: just being completely in control of his domain. I want
Speaker 1: that Rob. Oh that means we can't have beer with
Speaker 1: our Robs. So I I like the just in London
Speaker 1: with us somewhere, you know, And that would take away
Speaker 1: if he if he left Sky. I think he's Neil
Speaker 1: Reynolds as best friend, So we can't do that. You
Speaker 1: couldn't do that. All right, good stuff, guys, we'll be
Speaker 1: back on Friday. Lock. Coming up this week, we'll have
Speaker 1: our news edition of Rundown edition of the Around the
Speaker 1: NFL podcast, and then also we'll be taping our Around
Speaker 1: the NFL broadcast that you could check out on Friday
Speaker 1: afternoon on NFL dot com and then Saturday morning on
Speaker 1: the network so everyone can see it if they like.
Speaker 1: All Right, is Dan hans As signing off for quiet
Speaker 1: Storm Your boss, Ricky Hollywood. There she is, wondering where
Speaker 1: she's been, all right until Friday.