Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL podcast has had enough of the
Speaker 1: off season. Welcome to another edition of the Around the
Speaker 1: Unbolt Podcast. My name is Dan Hansers and I am
Speaker 1: joined in a conference room build with some heroes. Chris
Speaker 1: Wesley right across from me. Hey, Dan, you hear that? Yes,
Speaker 1: you hear that? What is it? I hear something like
Speaker 1: a miss? I see a shadowy figure. It's not a
Speaker 1: league figure. She mysterious scrounging slender good good physical sight specimen.
Speaker 1: How you doing, guys, Mark, Welcome back to Welcome back,
Speaker 1: Mark you, thank you. I have to say that I
Speaker 1: think I cracked the code on how to schedule summer vacation,
Speaker 1: and I will literally be doing this next year and
Speaker 1: every year after that I'm employed. Here is uh. You
Speaker 1: have to sandwich your to backload your vacation and sandwich
Speaker 1: it around the July fourth week because it was my
Speaker 1: intention to be in here that week of shows and
Speaker 1: to be plugging away. But then the week previous, when
Speaker 1: I was somewhere on the East coast, you guys recorded
Speaker 1: the July fourth episode, so I simply had no responsibilities
Speaker 1: at all that week and it turned into this epic
Speaker 1: works stay away. So you were here this we're piecing
Speaker 1: some of this together now in real time. Uh. West,
Speaker 1: And I so you were here that July fourth week
Speaker 1: quote unquote working, I mean I was here working is
Speaker 1: stretch because there was there was some thought, Um, and
Speaker 1: I know you when you're on vacation, don't expect it
Speaker 1: to be tracking the podcast closely or Twitter. You didn't
Speaker 1: seem active on social media. There was some thought on
Speaker 1: this show and amongst the audience that perhaps you'd finally
Speaker 1: done it, you had detached from the main frame and
Speaker 1: gone on to the next thing in life, whatever that
Speaker 1: may be, including working at a CBS somewhere in Middle America.
Speaker 1: I mean I pondered all the possibilities because suddenly, and
Speaker 1: I West, I would imagine you're the only one that
Speaker 1: could really even have had this experience where when you
Speaker 1: were away for three weeks from this show, which we've
Speaker 1: done religiously outside of being gone or maybe a week
Speaker 1: here there, I started to forget that I was even
Speaker 1: on this show. I started to like, I didn't listen
Speaker 1: to a lick of it. So you're right, I had
Speaker 1: no idea what was happening, and you, I kind of
Speaker 1: I would say that I missed it, but I it
Speaker 1: was a very strange experience, and I this sounds cheesy,
Speaker 1: but it made me think. Last night I was like,
Speaker 1: I kind of missed these guys, Like I have not
Speaker 1: done a show with these people and so long, and
Speaker 1: so the three of you and Greg is not here today.
Speaker 1: But I wanted just to say that it's it's great
Speaker 1: to be back. It was very awkward to be so
Speaker 1: if any of this, if this thing comes to a
Speaker 1: crashing halt at some point, the transition will be rough
Speaker 1: for all of us. I predict we felt the same
Speaker 1: way we said we missed Mark, and it did feel
Speaker 1: like a long time. We didn't really see her hear
Speaker 1: from you either, And then you started piecing together other things,
Speaker 1: like you dropped the NFL from your Twitter handle, very coincidental.
Speaker 1: Your desk looked more spartan than ever. Uh that's been
Speaker 1: the case for a while. But the name drop of
Speaker 1: the NFL, I've been working on for a long time,
Speaker 1: and uh, it triggered immediately when I took the vacation.
Speaker 1: So it is suspicious. And Greg made the good point
Speaker 1: on our last show that I think we all kind
Speaker 1: of felt although we would have missed you so much
Speaker 1: that like ben Affleck's character and goodwill hunting, the best
Speaker 1: part of his day was walking up to Damon's house
Speaker 1: and hoping that he wouldn't be at the door to
Speaker 1: go to the construction site because he he had just
Speaker 1: left without saying goodbye. Damon gone on to something that
Speaker 1: kind of appeased him, fulfilled him as a man. And
Speaker 1: if that would have but to you, we would all
Speaker 1: been sad, but we also would have been like, we
Speaker 1: get it. Greg may be less sad than the rest,
Speaker 1: But um, I now and I Matt demon has life
Speaker 1: options that I do not have. So bad, all right,
Speaker 1: So Mark's back. We're getting there. We're getting close to
Speaker 1: getting I used the pop culture reference with the Avengers.
Speaker 1: There's some type of stones or something. You collect the
Speaker 1: stones and then when you get them all you win
Speaker 1: the battle. Yeah, and the monsters in the big glove. Yes,
Speaker 1: in the glove, oversized glove. It's like a metal glove
Speaker 1: that fits whoever's hand. I've seen it because I have
Speaker 1: kids that are obsessed with It's that's what we're going for.
Speaker 1: We want all the the Infinity stones they are Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the then the giant power glove. Remember the power
Speaker 1: Glove and Nintendo. Yes, we're more like Kidney Stones Stones
Speaker 1: back that improv class. Ricky's back, She's I love it.
Speaker 1: I love We're in these conference rooms and Ricky's not
Speaker 1: behind the glass but right next to us. It feels
Speaker 1: like a different show and I like it. I also
Speaker 1: like that every time we go to a new conference room,
Speaker 1: it reminds me. It brings back bad memories of meetings
Speaker 1: connected to this show. This was the room where in
Speaker 1: a it was again, there were probably twelve people here.
Speaker 1: We were on one side of the table, all these
Speaker 1: Shadow League figures on the other being shouted down out.
Speaker 1: I don't even need to get into what it was about.
Speaker 1: But being told that we couldn't do something for the
Speaker 1: show that we wanted to do it was another. It
Speaker 1: was spearheaded by a bald a bald man, that's all
Speaker 1: I'll say. Very serious, very serious mind self serious bald
Speaker 1: man who told us we couldn't do what we wanted
Speaker 1: to do. Uh. And now he's gone as well. So
Speaker 1: that's the other nice little recurring theme. All these uh,
Speaker 1: evil Shadowy League figures who stood in the way of
Speaker 1: our great podcast, our humble podcast, uh just being washed
Speaker 1: away while we survived got a sinister field. I did
Speaker 1: hear one thing that you two did a show together
Speaker 1: and people gave it high ratings, which that put me
Speaker 1: at ill at ease. Also just thought, maybe they've found
Speaker 1: something better than what we have already. I'm never sure
Speaker 1: how to figure out where to find these ratings. Wess
Speaker 1: and I took note of it. We had a private
Speaker 1: dinner to discuss um options. Just leave it at that.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Greg Mark pot would do as well.
Speaker 1: All right, This is the Monday edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL podcast. A lot to get to. It is
Speaker 1: still the quiet season, but things are starting to percolate. Now.
Speaker 1: Think of it like an old graveyard and the thriller video,
Speaker 1: you know, during the interlude or all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: things start moving, going bump in the night. Because the
Speaker 1: NFL slowly coming back to life, corpses coming out of
Speaker 1: the ground. It does sound like a horror show. But
Speaker 1: it's back, you know, and we we and next week
Speaker 1: teams will report. Um I think teams we are reporting
Speaker 1: this week right to training Camper is it next week?
Speaker 1: So we're getting there and once that happens, not only
Speaker 1: is the new NFL season in full swing. Essentially we
Speaker 1: will go back to three times a week um when
Speaker 1: that happens, but for now we have one another week
Speaker 1: of two shows and on today's show July still you
Speaker 1: know very you know, it's the middle of the summer,
Speaker 1: so let's not get crazy about like we're in the
Speaker 1: middle of the league here all of a sudden. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Money's drop at the beginning was a blatant line we
Speaker 1: are not ready for the impatient for the season to start,
Speaker 1: or something that total fabrication. A couple of weeks we
Speaker 1: were at west manor what do we call your Westsylvania
Speaker 1: and Westsylvania over the weekend. Had a great time. I
Speaker 1: brought the boys and my wife Emily, and uh, you
Speaker 1: you really have brought the spirit of Tybee to the
Speaker 1: west side of Los Angeles. You know we've got people,
Speaker 1: you lepers coming have Uh you have neighbors next door,
Speaker 1: you know, friends, family, foes, everyone's welcome at Westsylvania. Well,
Speaker 1: I like inviting people to things, but also I think
Speaker 1: when you've been through something like cancer, like to me,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I'm into cooking now is one
Speaker 1: of my life goals is just to surround myself with people.
Speaker 1: I enjoy being around and totally shun the rest of society.
Speaker 1: I like that you're bringing foes over the according to Dan,
Speaker 1: just neighbors, uh delicious ragu West. Oh yeah, I've made
Speaker 1: the rag that I talked about making for a dead man,
Speaker 1: Anthony Bordin. That's right, that's right on our previous show.
Speaker 1: Check it out. All right? Anyway, So July fift what
Speaker 1: if we made some predictions three months from today October
Speaker 1: of two thousand nineteen. That will be the Tuesday, just
Speaker 1: so you know, after week six completes Monday Night Football
Speaker 1: the fourteenth, it's a matchup between two teams. I forgot
Speaker 1: who the matchup was. It's fine, um, but week six complete,
Speaker 1: where will we be in the NFL? So a couple
Speaker 1: of predictions each, But before that we do that, how
Speaker 1: about some news come back colonels good Barcessler come back, colonels,
Speaker 1: bar Sessler come back, colonels with bark Sessler, come back
Speaker 1: colonels with bark Sessler, come back, colonels with bark Sessler,
Speaker 1: come back colonel with barr sss. The range of your voice, Dan,
Speaker 1: you missed us, you missed Nick that song I did
Speaker 1: not miss Gonna be real with you there. Uh, let's
Speaker 1: get into it, um. Ezekiel Elliott, according to a report
Speaker 1: from Pro Football Talk, he has privately said that he's
Speaker 1: planning a training camp holdout. Oh boy, okay, So, of course,
Speaker 1: last week Melvin Gordon to the Chargers said he was
Speaker 1: looking to hold out until he gets a new deal,
Speaker 1: and Zeke might be in the same boat. Per league's source, UM,
Speaker 1: he is saying he will hold out training camp. He
Speaker 1: wants a new contract. UM. But unlike Melvin Gordon, Zeke
Speaker 1: Elliott West is not in a contract year, but he
Speaker 1: wants to get that guap and he wants it now.
Speaker 1: Anything to be worried about here as a Cowboys fan,
Speaker 1: what it's Charles Robinson from Yahoo added some context to
Speaker 1: this report, and he's basically saying talks have been ongoing
Speaker 1: and this week will be very important as far as
Speaker 1: the UM I guess tenor of those talks. If it's positive,
Speaker 1: that's all Zeke Elliott needs to know, and he's gonna
Speaker 1: report for camp. But if it goes haywire and it
Speaker 1: goes sideways, then he knows in his back pocket, I
Speaker 1: can I can hold out a training camp and see
Speaker 1: if I can force force their hand. Unlike Melvin Gordon,
Speaker 1: this guy is the engine that makes the offense go
Speaker 1: and he is their team identity. It's almost like Gordon's
Speaker 1: trying to make that argument, but Zeke doesn't need to
Speaker 1: make it because it's clear as as day that their
Speaker 1: offense once again will evolve around him entirely. And that's
Speaker 1: one area where I kind of trust Jerry Jones because
Speaker 1: he is very faithful to his star players and you know,
Speaker 1: for years probably got criticized for overpaying his own guys.
Speaker 1: But they're not gonna allow this, I think, to turn
Speaker 1: into a some sort of monstrous hold out. No way. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Whereas Melvill Gordon does not carry the
Speaker 1: Chargers the way Zeke does the Cowboys. Gordon also has
Speaker 1: injury issues, which has not been an issue with Zeke,
Speaker 1: but Zeke has off the field issues, which would be
Speaker 1: something I guess could potentially cause give a team pause. However,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is gonna be a situation Like
Speaker 1: you think back, what do the Cowboys do the last
Speaker 1: time they had an elite rusher who wanted money to
Speaker 1: Marco Murray, they just ran him into the ground, waited
Speaker 1: till the contract ran out and got the best years
Speaker 1: at of Murray and then let him go. I'd be
Speaker 1: surprised if it happens with Zeke because he is he
Speaker 1: is kind of in some ways with Dak and Jarro
Speaker 1: the face of the franchise, and um, I think they'll
Speaker 1: get a deal done. This feels like something I will
Speaker 1: get done. Whereas with Melvin Gordon, I don't see it.
Speaker 1: I think he's like, so, Zeke makes just north of
Speaker 1: nine million next season, and he's looking at Todd Gurley
Speaker 1: scheduled to make seventeen million plus in a what is
Speaker 1: going to be a reduced role going into this year.
Speaker 1: It's like it makes complete sense for Zeke to say
Speaker 1: pay me now. The way DeMarco Murray played in his
Speaker 1: career year, that's the way Zeke plays every game like.
Speaker 1: That's the production you expect out of him every single game.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the difference. The Cowboys know that
Speaker 1: he's their best player. Let's move on today. Monday was
Speaker 1: the deadline for franchise tagged players to get deals done. Uh,
Speaker 1: and we got couple here that did get done and
Speaker 1: one notable name did not get done. Let's get Let's
Speaker 1: start with the guys that got it done. Grady Jarrett
Speaker 1: and the Falcons agreed to a four year, sixty eight
Speaker 1: million dollar contract that from rap sheet. Uh. The deal
Speaker 1: comes with forty two and a half millions and guarantees.
Speaker 1: They got the deal done a little more than an
Speaker 1: hour to spare ahead of the four pm Eastern deadline
Speaker 1: on Monday too. For franchise tag players. He had signed
Speaker 1: his tag for fifteen point two million back in April
Speaker 1: and the two sides kept working at it. Uh. And
Speaker 1: where does that put Jarrett? Now? Seventeen million per year
Speaker 1: average on the four year packed places Jarrett behind only
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald twenty two and a half million and Fletcher
Speaker 1: Cox seventeen point one million among interior defensive lineman west uh.
Speaker 1: Has he deserves to be in that neighborhood. Yeah, based
Speaker 1: on the timing of this contract and the franchise tag,
Speaker 1: he deserves it. I think if you look at his
Speaker 1: breakout game basically came in the Super Bowl against the
Speaker 1: page It I believe he had three sacks, and since
Speaker 1: then he's been in sort of the Geno Atkins Darrell
Speaker 1: Casey tier, just behind Aaron Donald and Fletcher Cox, who
Speaker 1: who I think are accepted as the two better ones there.
Speaker 1: I think he's extremely he's versatile, he's been totally consistent.
Speaker 1: He's twenty six years old. He could get a third
Speaker 1: contract from the Falcons at some point, and their front
Speaker 1: office does finds a way to get these deals done.
Speaker 1: And this is a major bounce back defense this year
Speaker 1: because of all the injuries they had last year. You're
Speaker 1: getting them all back and he's at the center of it.
Speaker 1: Another big time star of the Falcons looking for deals,
Speaker 1: Julio Jones, a wide receiver. RAPS reports that Jones on
Speaker 1: an extension is now the Falcons quote most pressing priority,
Speaker 1: but it could take a while, so keep an eye
Speaker 1: on that. Another player who got a long term deal
Speaker 1: ahead of the deadline, Robbie Gould, is staying in San
Speaker 1: Francisco after all, after all of this, Robbie Gould signs
Speaker 1: a deal. Tom Pallisero reported Monday that the Niners and
Speaker 1: the kicker of Greed and Principle on a long term deal.
Speaker 1: Uh they had up until the deadline today. And why
Speaker 1: is this a surprise? It's a four year deal where
Speaker 1: nineteen million first two years fully guaranteed from rap sheet.
Speaker 1: Why is this a surprise because Robbie Goulds would put
Speaker 1: it out there. He didn't want anything to do, was
Speaker 1: staying in San Francisco. It's some tough talk on both
Speaker 1: sides here. A lot of people were connecting gould to Chicago,
Speaker 1: and some good gets better every time we play it.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, uh, money talks
Speaker 1: and Blank walks. Mark Seler I like watching West move
Speaker 1: his body right now to this music. You know who
Speaker 1: has a butt. This whole thing was a bit mystifying
Speaker 1: because he was talking about wanting to be close to
Speaker 1: his family in the Midwest. Will you know what makes
Speaker 1: a family feel connected? How about millions of dollars flowing
Speaker 1: into your checking account that connects families. He's like the
Speaker 1: Nick Kissario of Kickers. You think he's out the door.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want anything left to do with his old employer,
Speaker 1: and they pulling back in and guess what. Now you
Speaker 1: can take a private jet to Chicago whenever you want.
Speaker 1: Building that house, no problem. Now the Bears don't have
Speaker 1: a kicker. Well they still don't mean if this was
Speaker 1: their plan, like they you know, that was just reaching
Speaker 1: Maybe a better plan than signing a guy named blew
Speaker 1: Itt Uh, yeah, at least they got blue It out
Speaker 1: of the building. Want a disaster. One player did not
Speaker 1: get his long term deal ahead of Monday's deadline. To
Speaker 1: David Clowney, the two sides, uh, the Texans and Clowney
Speaker 1: failed to get business done. Didn't sound like it ever
Speaker 1: got serious. It was serious about happening. I heard, Um,
Speaker 1: I was doing some you know reading this morning. I
Speaker 1: heard that part of the issue between Clowney and the
Speaker 1: Texans is Brian Gaine, Pearl River's finest who was no
Speaker 1: longer with the organization. Uh, he wanted an extension for Clowney.
Speaker 1: Bill O'Brien not so hot about the idea. Game gets
Speaker 1: washed out and Bill O'Brien they didn't even they're not
Speaker 1: even hiring a general manager this season. So it's Billy
Speaker 1: o Brian show there. So perhaps connect the dots. Dan,
Speaker 1: you have been perhaps on this podcast the most vocal
Speaker 1: texts and supporter over the past couple of seasons. Are
Speaker 1: you a little worried about the I guess chaos. Chaos
Speaker 1: is the word I'm thinking of who's running this ship
Speaker 1: and what's the future like Because there's not much depth
Speaker 1: on this roster. It's very star heavy. I get it,
Speaker 1: and uh the idea that there antagonizing jadeveon Clowney uh
Speaker 1: and perhaps not looking to keep a star pass rusher.
Speaker 1: We just talked about it on last week's show. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he's in the Superstar Club. I don't
Speaker 1: have him in mind, but he is obviously a big
Speaker 1: time impact player. I bet his contract demands are in
Speaker 1: the Superstar Club absolutely. Uh. So you want to keep
Speaker 1: those guys healthy and productive. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's a smart idea not to do business with Clownie,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't sound like they're going to to your
Speaker 1: greater question. I just you know what, Bill O'Brien seems
Speaker 1: like maybe a prickly guy to deal with, but they've
Speaker 1: results under him, I know, not super bold result results,
Speaker 1: but that team has been very competitive. They're defending division champions,
Speaker 1: and they have in Deshaun Watson a guy that you
Speaker 1: could build around for a decade. I think they're okay.
Speaker 1: I know it's not the deepest roster, but I think
Speaker 1: they're going to be competitive in that division. Um regardless,
Speaker 1: if you've got the last two years of Clowney over
Speaker 1: the course of his career were there with this just
Speaker 1: have been done last offseason or before, because now you
Speaker 1: have to ask, like you call him a star pass rusher,
Speaker 1: but sacks aren't his number one trade. I think he
Speaker 1: does a lot well, but how do you do you
Speaker 1: pay him? Like von Miller, I think it's a tricky contract.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Watson, he was of course on Marcus is
Speaker 1: breaking news too, but he was added to the Superstar club.
Speaker 1: Well this is the one you know. Like, I did
Speaker 1: not spend a lot of time on Twitter, but it
Speaker 1: was hard not to gauge the reaction to this piece
Speaker 1: that you wrote last week. Uh started building like a
Speaker 1: like a snowball turning into what do they call giant snowball?
Speaker 1: Is it the avalanche? Yeah? I mean that would you
Speaker 1: would be the one the end game would be an avalanche,
Speaker 1: like the Indiana Jones type thing. Only is you know
Speaker 1: it got big. It was chasing after me. I don't
Speaker 1: think that that was a boulder, by the way, but
Speaker 1: fair enough. Yeah, I know, um, but like the snowball
Speaker 1: version of a boulder is what I meant bolder anyway? Um,
Speaker 1: that started to pick up the heat and the criticism
Speaker 1: because not only did I put Watson in I took
Speaker 1: Tom Brady out. You know, even Barstool took the stinky cheese. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they wrote a whole article up about it, and uh,
Speaker 1: I could have predicted that they weren't happy with it.
Speaker 1: They gave a a nuanced take on why the NFL
Speaker 1: dot com reporter was wrong, which, you know whatever, Thanks
Speaker 1: for amplifying my piece. I'll take the clicks. You really
Speaker 1: handled this well. You didn't mean you haven't mentioned I
Speaker 1: had no idea there was kind of this kind of
Speaker 1: strife going on in your life. I mean, Will Brinson
Speaker 1: turned on you a little bit, I thought on Twitter today.
Speaker 1: Now I wouldn't turn is strong, but he had. He'll
Speaker 1: sort of asked you where you were coming from, and
Speaker 1: you openly acknowledged, if I saw your response, that you
Speaker 1: had no idea what you're doing. When you write something
Speaker 1: in a Starbucks and on a Thursday night and early
Speaker 1: July about football, sometimes you just write it and then
Speaker 1: you just send it off to your editor and you
Speaker 1: forget about it. What I forgot about is when there's
Speaker 1: nothing going on in the NFL and you write that
Speaker 1: Tom Brady is no longer a superstar, and it's on
Speaker 1: the NFL dot Com platform a lot of people are
Speaker 1: gonna write about that, and people are gonna be happy.
Speaker 1: But I could take it. You see these shoulders west powerful,
Speaker 1: I put it on me. And you know what else,
Speaker 1: None of it matters. It doesn't matter what their opinions
Speaker 1: of Tom Brady. It doesn't matter what your opinion of
Speaker 1: Tom Brady is. Of your opinion, I'm not sure Dan
Speaker 1: agrees with that. September eight football games are gonna start,
Speaker 1: and what you thought about Tom Brady in July is
Speaker 1: gonna mean nothing unless I'm right, because then I'll be
Speaker 1: bringing it up on a near constant basis. One of
Speaker 1: these days I will be right. Moving on UH. This
Speaker 1: came out late last week a report in the Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal that part of the negotiations towards the new
Speaker 1: seed be A involve the pitch of an eighteen game season. UH.
Speaker 1: Coming from the league side, this is something we've heard
Speaker 1: for years now, but now it's something that's kind of
Speaker 1: tangible that you could talk about because it's part of
Speaker 1: the negotiations. UH Union executive director Demorris Smith confirmed that
Speaker 1: report essentially UH and had this to say about it.
Speaker 1: I don't see an eighteen game schedule under any circumstance
Speaker 1: being in the best interest of our players. If somebody
Speaker 1: wants to make an eighteen game proposal, will look at it.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anything that makes me think that it
Speaker 1: would be good for the players, thoughts Mark, you're not
Speaker 1: happy about it, well, I to me, it's it's pure greed.
Speaker 1: It's the concept of just more and more and more
Speaker 1: were there. This football has thrived in this age of
Speaker 1: media and television because it's bio rhythms are set perfectly
Speaker 1: to American schedules, and we don't need two extra games,
Speaker 1: and and the whole concept of adding games was to
Speaker 1: remove preseason games. You're now telling me that I get
Speaker 1: why the players don't like it. What what's in it
Speaker 1: for the fan that has to decide when they're buying
Speaker 1: tickets to a game, which one is going to suddenly
Speaker 1: have quarterback X starting instead of a star player if
Speaker 1: you're going once a year because the tickets already cost
Speaker 1: a bundle. How to coaches have to suddenly treat their
Speaker 1: rosters like fantasy football lineups, where you're shuffling offensive lineman
Speaker 1: and star players, and outside of injury, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to take your best players out two games this season.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's riddled with issues. I don't see
Speaker 1: a single thing about it that makes sense to me
Speaker 1: at all. I love to hear someone come up with
Speaker 1: a reason why it's better for anyone at all. West, Well,
Speaker 1: anyone think about the fantasy teams too? What have you?
Speaker 1: Two Greeks? Come on, Well, there's all these can of
Speaker 1: worms that will be open, and Mark alluded to that.
Speaker 1: But you know, you have to satisfy the player health
Speaker 1: thing first, and if it if you find a plan
Speaker 1: that makes sense where they not preseason games down to
Speaker 1: like one for established players and one for roster hopefuls
Speaker 1: and then make it eighteen games. But players have to
Speaker 1: sit for two games. But then how do you that
Speaker 1: kind of makes sense to me. You're starting to satisfy
Speaker 1: the players get an extra bye week, so you're satisfying
Speaker 1: some of that, But at what point do you do
Speaker 1: you solve the quarterback issue? You can't have quarterback sitting
Speaker 1: for two games and then play backups and that they
Speaker 1: side too good. Who goes to the place. Well, one
Speaker 1: idea is that they put all this protection in for
Speaker 1: certain players and including of course quarterbacks. What if they
Speaker 1: are exempt from the sit for two games, but you
Speaker 1: know other players that are in you know, more high
Speaker 1: risk positions put it that way, would be eligible for
Speaker 1: such a thing. I mean, it just seems a little
Speaker 1: just see, you know what, everything's perfect the way it is.
Speaker 1: It's it's sixteen games is perfect. I know it's not
Speaker 1: as it doesn't make as much money, but it just
Speaker 1: works and it's worked since nineteen seventy seven or whatever,
Speaker 1: and there's no reason to mess with it when he's
Speaker 1: starting the schedule. By the way, are we suddenly starting
Speaker 1: the regular season in August or are we going to
Speaker 1: going to go deep into February? Give me a break
Speaker 1: on that front. You guys know, because this has been
Speaker 1: reported for at least six or seven years, there is
Speaker 1: a plan to have billion in revenue by what the
Speaker 1: year um one of those somewhere in the twenties they
Speaker 1: want in revenue. I want the exact years before you
Speaker 1: going with your touchet anyway, Like growing it internationally and
Speaker 1: growing it through more games are the two ways to
Speaker 1: get I'll give the final word because it's a great
Speaker 1: one from d Smith. If a coal miner is willing
Speaker 1: to spend more time in the hole, that is correct. Terminology.
Speaker 1: We use that whole time back in. Does it likely
Speaker 1: result in more money? Yeah? Is that a good thing
Speaker 1: for him as a person? Probably not. That's the question
Speaker 1: nobody confronts. It's easy to say it's more money, but
Speaker 1: is it good for us? The answers can we think
Speaker 1: about the coal miner? Can we stop comparing millionaires to
Speaker 1: coal miners? Please? I mean it's just a humble request.
Speaker 1: Please stop comparing coal miners to millionaires. Moving on retirements,
Speaker 1: It's retirement season. Players inside there, quentin hanging up the cleats.
Speaker 1: Derek Morgan's one of them. The linebacker told ESPN he's
Speaker 1: retiring at the age of thirty. My purpose in life
Speaker 1: is bigger than the game, Morgan said, amongst other things.
Speaker 1: The nineteen the number sixteen overall pick out of Georgia Tech,
Speaker 1: Morgan spent his entire career with the Tytoons, compiling three
Speaker 1: five tackles, forty four and a half sacks, twenty six
Speaker 1: past defended five force fumbles, sixth all time in sacks
Speaker 1: and Titans Oilers franchise history. Um The linebacker rooms three
Speaker 1: games in eighteen due to shoulder and knee injuries. He
Speaker 1: was a free agent and he walks away. A starting
Speaker 1: pass rusher with zero point five sacks on the entire season,
Speaker 1: did not get any interest on the open market. Time
Speaker 1: to walk away. Sometimes you get retired, Sometimes the NFL
Speaker 1: retires you. But this guy seems like a bright guy
Speaker 1: who's got a lot of prospects. A hit him more
Speaker 1: trouble for the Cincinnati Bengal's offensive line, Clint Bowling has
Speaker 1: called at a career. The team announced Monday fourth round
Speaker 1: pick out a Georgia in the two thousand eleven draft.
Speaker 1: He started one and twelve of his a hundred and
Speaker 1: fourteen appearances for the Bengals. Uh a rock for that
Speaker 1: team on their line. Uh started for them last year,
Speaker 1: but he dealt with and Mark, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: your thoughts on this. You've dealt with, unfortunately some issues
Speaker 1: of blood clotting, and we talked about that on the show.
Speaker 1: If not, we'll take this. We have no we have,
Speaker 1: we have, You've had some plots come out, yeah anyway, Um,
Speaker 1: Marissa Cotta Pelli of at Bengals Marissa Uh said after
Speaker 1: speaking with Clint Bowling today, he indicated a blood clot
Speaker 1: in his right leg was discovered after the season ended.
Speaker 1: He met with a number of specialists this offseason, but
Speaker 1: decided it was ultimately about his family. Said he's excited
Speaker 1: to chase around his daughters this fall. Go ahead, Mark,
Speaker 1: I mean to me, the only thing that confuses me
Speaker 1: a bit is that I've been hospitalized three times for
Speaker 1: blood clot issues reverse humble Bragg. I guess that is
Speaker 1: I am bragging about that on some level, I'm not.
Speaker 1: It was, Yeah, like the two of the times is
Speaker 1: because I was not on medication, and if you're on
Speaker 1: blood thinners, you essentially cannot get a blood clot So
Speaker 1: I don't know if the issue would be if this
Speaker 1: is the primary reason he's retiring, is that you can't
Speaker 1: play on blood thinners. I guess that could be dangerous also.
Speaker 1: But when I read that, it kind of threw me
Speaker 1: because it's something that a lot of people deal with
Speaker 1: and continue to work. But they work in offices. They
Speaker 1: don't get smashed by defensive tackles necessarily. And as you
Speaker 1: remember two thousand nineteen first round pick for Cincinnati Jonah
Speaker 1: Williams toward the laborum and his shoulder. He's also out
Speaker 1: for the season, so you know there's there is there's
Speaker 1: a sneaky level of optimism around your former love West
Speaker 1: the Bengals. That was Zach Taylor. There. Perhaps they can
Speaker 1: turn things around and start going in a more successful,
Speaker 1: maybe a more exciting direction, except that it's a franchise
Speaker 1: with no distinct interest in winning. Well, that's a problem.
Speaker 1: But the if you don't have anybody to protect the
Speaker 1: quarterback into block for the running backs, Uh, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a tough go. We'll see what they can do. Well.
Speaker 1: I think at various points in this offseason you've heard
Speaker 1: Mark greg and myself say the Bengals might be better
Speaker 1: than people think they are. That has slowed to a
Speaker 1: halt and skidded to a fiery crash, with their offensive
Speaker 1: line being even worse than it was last year. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what you know. That's why I held back.
Speaker 1: That's why to hear measured, measured response, I just said,
Speaker 1: Tom Brady sucks. Now. That's all I said. Um, all
Speaker 1: right and uh. In suspension news, Richie Incognito suspended two
Speaker 1: games for violating the personal conduct Policy. Uh. That goes
Speaker 1: back to an April incident at an Arizona funeral home.
Speaker 1: I will not get into the details here, but if
Speaker 1: you want to hear some bizarre stuff and again makes
Speaker 1: you wonder, uh what the Raiders were thinking perhaps bringing
Speaker 1: this man in their building. But I guess he can
Speaker 1: block giant men trying to kill the quarterback. Uh, so
Speaker 1: you give him a shot. But he has suspended two games,
Speaker 1: also suspended. Uh my boy, Chris Herndon, a very promising
Speaker 1: tight end for the Jets, a guy that really flashed
Speaker 1: as a two year old rookie last year. He is
Speaker 1: suspended four games free d U I. I was a
Speaker 1: little surprised when I saw four games. Usually it's not
Speaker 1: that heavy, but then I read about some of the
Speaker 1: details of the d w I. It was not pretty.
Speaker 1: It involved an accident that injured other people, and he
Speaker 1: was very drunk at the time of the accident according
Speaker 1: to the local police. So, Chris Herndon, I really like
Speaker 1: you as a player, but get your head on straight, son.
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of the worst situation if you're Sam
Speaker 1: darn to roll into a pretty rough early season schedule
Speaker 1: without your tight end. I just would want my second
Speaker 1: year quarter to grow with that very promising titan. They'll
Speaker 1: be back week five. I think the one thing about
Speaker 1: the NFL that confuses me the most is how many
Speaker 1: chances Richie Incognito gets to play in the league. You
Speaker 1: said it, I mean he may. We don't need to
Speaker 1: get into that incident, but it is a colorful incident,
Speaker 1: and he finds ways to get suspended and punished in
Speaker 1: in to a degree of variety that few other players
Speaker 1: have well put. Finally, in the news this under a
Speaker 1: headline from Pro Football Talk, Would Mike Rabel cut his
Speaker 1: generals off to win a super Bowl? Play it? Ricky?
Speaker 1: Super Bowl? Been married twenty years? Yeah? Probably You've got
Speaker 1: three as a player. Guess will be married for twenty years?
Speaker 1: One day, would you if you need If you came
Speaker 1: home holding a bag of ice and Jen was like,
Speaker 1: oh honey, would you do like I thought you already
Speaker 1: got fixed. We're gonna win a seer roll, She'd be
Speaker 1: like all right? Would she be upset? She'd probably on board.
Speaker 1: She would be like, do you want me to do it?
Speaker 1: You wanna do it now? Mike Rabel a student of
Speaker 1: the Al Bundy School of Comedy. He was a guest
Speaker 1: on a podcast hosted by Titans left tackle Teller Luan
Speaker 1: and former Titans linebacker Will Compton, And You heard that
Speaker 1: whole exchange. Uh, yes, he rabel won three super Bowls
Speaker 1: with the Pats, but he'd give it all up. He's say,
Speaker 1: Sionara to the manhood West, if it meant winning a
Speaker 1: title for the Titoons, well, let me known to you.
Speaker 1: Maybe there are teams who already asked that question during
Speaker 1: the combine. It's such like a nineties like um, married
Speaker 1: guy things that is like, hey, I don't need it
Speaker 1: no more. Hey I've been married a long time. That
Speaker 1: thing is useless to me at this point. Am I
Speaker 1: right right over here like in this or well that's
Speaker 1: a sort and this scenario is he this age when
Speaker 1: this procedure happens and he suddenly becomes like magically a
Speaker 1: better player. I don't know. The whole thing makes way.
Speaker 1: So he's saying he would love to um win another
Speaker 1: super Bowl in exchange, he would give up this very
Speaker 1: valuable part of his body no more. But it's is
Speaker 1: he would be this age, what team would need him?
Speaker 1: No genitals? He would give up his genitals to be
Speaker 1: the head coach champion of the Titans. From a coaching
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I think it's a it's
Speaker 1: a heavy sacrifice. To make. I don't. I don't think
Speaker 1: that nothing seems that important. It's a materialistic Take my wife, please,
Speaker 1: that's what's happening in the news. All right, let's see,
Speaker 1: let's get into it. Boys, stop messing around. I enjoying it. Mark,
Speaker 1: you feel you feel back in the flow. It's enjoy
Speaker 1: I mean we are in a very strange I don't.
Speaker 1: Every couple of minutes I look up and there's like
Speaker 1: a corporate workers staring at us from one of their desktops.
Speaker 1: Computer here sound. I don't know that's that part of
Speaker 1: it's awkward. But this is my look. By the way,
Speaker 1: I'm now a shock jocks wearing. It's like glasses with
Speaker 1: the bows Bluetooth technology. I mean, if we weren't concerned
Speaker 1: about our employment here before, it's starting to head into
Speaker 1: that territory. Let's get into it. Fearless predictions for October
Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen. We each we'll go around. We'll go
Speaker 1: around the horn twice. Here throwing out some fearless predictions
Speaker 1: we have for the new season three weeks six, Mark,
Speaker 1: would you like to get us gone. Let's have some fun, alright,
Speaker 1: So one thing that does concern me, um that I'm
Speaker 1: noticing that's picking up too much steam this summer. Is
Speaker 1: the hype around my Browns and unnaturally just concerned in
Speaker 1: general about the other shoe dropping and dropping with a vengeance.
Speaker 1: But October fifteen would kick off essentially Cleveland's bye week,
Speaker 1: and I am predicting that at that time, and I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to be a downer here or play some
Speaker 1: sort of psychological warfare with anyone, that they are going
Speaker 1: to be a two and four team with the media
Speaker 1: turning on them extremely violently. They open with the Titans, Jets, Rams, Ravens, Niners,
Speaker 1: and Seahawks. I predict they will beat the Titans and
Speaker 1: forty Niners and lose out the rest of that opening
Speaker 1: six games, Slate people will be asking, what is up
Speaker 1: with Cleveland's offense, What's up with Cleveland's secondary? What is
Speaker 1: up with Miles Garrett, Will Baker Mayfield survived? Behind this line?
Speaker 1: Is Steve Wilkes? The wrong fit for this defense is
Speaker 1: Freddie Kitchens completely underwater? Should we be concerned that Odell
Speaker 1: Beckham this time around used a big lighter to set
Speaker 1: a kicking net on fire along the sideline after drop
Speaker 1: be a would be game winning touchdown pass and that
Speaker 1: awful Week two loss to the Jets. What happened to
Speaker 1: the field good vibes of last season? Can we trust
Speaker 1: the Haslems to not blow up the machine again? Does
Speaker 1: this entire season hinge on Cleveland returning from the bye
Speaker 1: and knocking off the New England Patriots in New England?
Speaker 1: You left out Todd clashing with the head coach. You
Speaker 1: left that one that might be the spark that sets
Speaker 1: it all off, and that has already happened according to
Speaker 1: some reports. So you your preamble included something about not
Speaker 1: playing psychological games here. Well, I have noted that it
Speaker 1: is not psychological warfare, so you have to believe me
Speaker 1: on that. But I do think that schedule Titans win
Speaker 1: win a loss, who knows, and I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: that's a kind of a team Cleveland that's gonna take
Speaker 1: time to Jael or you know. I'm not sure that's
Speaker 1: gonna happen in training camp. The Jets game freaks me out,
Speaker 1: just because it's all this energy between us and the
Speaker 1: show about it I see going. It's gonna be rough. Uh,
Speaker 1: the Rams is very rough. I think the Ravens could
Speaker 1: win that division. The forty Niners. I think it's in
Speaker 1: San Francisco and then the Seahawks. What's the other way here?
Speaker 1: You got the Titans at home. Come on, Mario is
Speaker 1: gonna throw for a hundred twelve yards? Not if Mike Rabel,
Speaker 1: you know, it goes through with his plan here. I
Speaker 1: mean it's concerning evidence at Jets. The Jets are no powerhouse.
Speaker 1: Come on, they are going I just think that the
Speaker 1: Cleveland is losing that game because it's too much remembered
Speaker 1: from last year. I think there's gonna be a flip
Speaker 1: up there, all right, home home to the Rams like that,
Speaker 1: but not as hard as if you were on the
Speaker 1: West coast at Ravens. Tough game, very tough game at Niners.
Speaker 1: You know the big bell bottom is that scary to
Speaker 1: go into San France. That's the other win I gave them.
Speaker 1: And uh, Seattle at home, which is will be top.
Speaker 1: But again you're in your building. You play well there. Now,
Speaker 1: I would say if I were to continue the prediction,
Speaker 1: but I think they're going to round into shape. But
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be rough start, and we're
Speaker 1: all we're the media. This is a scenario where if
Speaker 1: they if they struggle early. It is going to be
Speaker 1: absolutely rough and tumble ugly for the way the media
Speaker 1: is going to treat Cleveland there because they've already acted
Speaker 1: like they've won three Super Bowls. They won seven games
Speaker 1: last year as a personal affront to the national media.
Speaker 1: If Cleveland doesn't back up all of the you know,
Speaker 1: puff pieces and praise, they're gonna take it personally. West Europe.
Speaker 1: We spent the whole winter making our little jokes sports
Speaker 1: writers did. Oh, then everybody gonna hire the next Sean McVeigh,
Speaker 1: all these offensive gurus. You could be twenty eight years
Speaker 1: old and get a job. That was the offseason conversation.
Speaker 1: The October discussion is gonna be we need an ancient
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator. We need a master defensive mind. Because the
Speaker 1: best minds in the game are Bill Belichick, Vic Fongio,
Speaker 1: Who's who's the guy from the Ravens, um Mink, Martindale,
Speaker 1: all these old dudes, bum Phillips, Mike Zimmer and they're
Speaker 1: the best defense and people are gonna be son of
Speaker 1: son of Bumps. Instead of praising all these offensive young minds,
Speaker 1: people are gonna be asking, why do you have to
Speaker 1: be ancient to run a good defense in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's because some of these offensive minds,
Speaker 1: for instance, the Bengals new coach, some of these guys
Speaker 1: are gonna struggle through weeks? Think it's because Vick Fongio
Speaker 1: is gonna blow the door off people with with Bradley
Speaker 1: Chubb and Von Miller and a guy like Shelby Harris
Speaker 1: who was lights out down the street for the Broncos,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna be returning to like Super Bowl fifty
Speaker 1: form on that because you carrying the torch for Denver. Again,
Speaker 1: I just like Vic Foio and their quarterback. Well, I
Speaker 1: think the quarterback is way better than other people think
Speaker 1: you is. So yes, wonderful. All right, that's a good
Speaker 1: one week six in the books two thousand nineteen. Anybody
Speaker 1: else have any other thoughts about that? So you you're saying,
Speaker 1: where where's where's the young dogs? Where's I'm saying it's
Speaker 1: an inherently um Experience matters way more on defense than
Speaker 1: it does on offense. On offense, you are creative, You
Speaker 1: are bringing the action to the defense. The defense is
Speaker 1: responding to what the offense is doing. And I think
Speaker 1: experience really helps because you've seen it all you've been around.
Speaker 1: You can take different bits from your past, and it's
Speaker 1: contingent on the young, new new faces on offense succeeding,
Speaker 1: and that is a that is an unknown at this point.
Speaker 1: Take take Fongio himself, who you know was great and
Speaker 1: for with the forty nine when he was there, But
Speaker 1: last year, what did he spend all the last year
Speaker 1: doing in practice going against Matt Naggie, who's got the
Speaker 1: Andy Reid offense. Matt Naggie's own offense was impressive, Like
Speaker 1: he's one of these bright young minds, and I think
Speaker 1: Foggio has been defending against that for a while. I'll
Speaker 1: throw it out there. Um, you know, a few weeks
Speaker 1: back on this podcast, earlier in the summer, I throughout
Speaker 1: the possibility at that Patrick Mahomes might not ever reach
Speaker 1: the heights of what he did in his first year starting,
Speaker 1: and I drew the Marino's eight four season as a
Speaker 1: parallel that Marino was a Hall of Fame grade even
Speaker 1: after eight four, but never reach the same heights. And
Speaker 1: now I'm thinking about it more and I'm like, why
Speaker 1: would I even want to put that out there. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go the other way on top of the Tom
Speaker 1: Brady stuff, You're going down this appod No, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go the other way because why would I even because
Speaker 1: then you know how you know how we are, this
Speaker 1: is what we do for a living. So if Mahomes
Speaker 1: was struggling a little bit, I'd be like, oh, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: but yet that I'm not gonna get on that on
Speaker 1: that corner. Instead, I'm gonna say by week six through
Speaker 1: week six, Mahomes will again be pacing the league in
Speaker 1: nearly every relevant quarterback statistical category, be the heavy early
Speaker 1: favorite for m v P, and essentially be the guy
Speaker 1: that tour the league upon art last year. And strangely,
Speaker 1: and I say this, I don't know if this is
Speaker 1: more just in our studio or in my head or what.
Speaker 1: It's almost like Mahomes isn't getting enough love for what
Speaker 1: he accomplished last year, which was remarkable. And remember, this
Speaker 1: guy was probably playing in the Super Bowl last year.
Speaker 1: If his defense is crumby Kansas City defense could get
Speaker 1: a stop, the guy doesn't even get a chance to
Speaker 1: get on the field. And the overtime of the af
Speaker 1: C Title Game because Tom Brady, former superstar, marched right
Speaker 1: down the field and got it done. So I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna say that Mahomes is gonna be out of his
Speaker 1: mind again this year, put up stats that are gonna
Speaker 1: approach what he did last year, even surpassed. Because he
Speaker 1: is that once in a generation guy. We were due
Speaker 1: for the next like mind blowing athlete in the NFL,
Speaker 1: transcendent Michael Jordan's type. Guy, it is Patrick Mahomes. I'm
Speaker 1: getting behind it. He'll be tearing the league apart again
Speaker 1: by the middle of October. I can't believe all that well,
Speaker 1: said Wilson. I can't believe he said. He almost doesn't
Speaker 1: get enough credit. Like people act like he invented the
Speaker 1: the the left handed past that Brett Farve already did.
Speaker 1: They act like nobody's ever thrown it as far, like
Speaker 1: outside of a stadium or whatever. Patrick Mahomes did not invent,
Speaker 1: like the scrambling play where he has to no one's
Speaker 1: done that in the NFL at that he did not
Speaker 1: give him that. Here's here's the story. UM nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: seven NFL Skills competition in Hawaii. All these quarterbacks are there.
Speaker 1: Um Pastorini just throws it twenty yards further than Terry Bradshaw.
Speaker 1: Dan Pastorini is the Oiler's quarterback at the time. They're
Speaker 1: back at the hotel drinking a bunch of these quarterbacks
Speaker 1: and Billy Kilmer Dare's Pastorini to throw a football up
Speaker 1: four stories of the hotel. Pastorini takes it out and
Speaker 1: throws it ten stories and here's here's the punch. Here's
Speaker 1: the punch. Line Unitas says, yeah, but as the receiver
Speaker 1: was on the fifth lore. So you know, you could
Speaker 1: anybody could throw the ball and people have had strong
Speaker 1: arms before. And it was reported that Mahomes threw the
Speaker 1: ball out of the stadium and Arrowhead recently. That also
Speaker 1: was not that. Do you remember back in the day,
Speaker 1: remember the aerobee, the frisbee, the it's it's still around,
Speaker 1: it's the like the orange ring that does has no sentence.
Speaker 1: And they threw that thing out of Giants Stadium. Someone
Speaker 1: later threw it across Niagara Falls. I mean, so you know,
Speaker 1: and whe did you get that person? It got nothing.
Speaker 1: I don't even know who it was who did it? Second?
Speaker 1: And heck of an advertisement for that product that well,
Speaker 1: I had one of those, and you could literally throw
Speaker 1: it across like we had we had you could throw
Speaker 1: it through a neighbor's yard to the neighbor beyond the
Speaker 1: six neighbors if you had the arm. When I was um,
Speaker 1: a kid, a teenager. UM, you know the way it
Speaker 1: is with the season tickets package, where they basically rope
Speaker 1: fans into buying to home preseason games at price of
Speaker 1: a regular season game. So when my dad at his job,
Speaker 1: the only Jets tickets that would be floating around a
Speaker 1: lot were either games in December when they were already
Speaker 1: buried in the standings, or those two priests in home games.
Speaker 1: So we went to a home game every year just
Speaker 1: about because some guy would be offloading the tickets in
Speaker 1: August and uh always halftime, it didn't matter what year
Speaker 1: it was through two thousand three, any preseason game and
Speaker 1: went to it's the dude throwing the frisbee eight yards
Speaker 1: and the dog catching him. They just ran that thing back.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the same dog or what,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you could fling that it might have been
Speaker 1: the same. Phrase is eternally entertaining, though that's part of
Speaker 1: the reason dogs. Um. All right, so mahomes tears it up.
Speaker 1: Let's go one more time around the horn, because I
Speaker 1: could be the guy that says he's coming down to earth.
Speaker 1: And I was that guy about thirty five days ago.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your about face. I don't want to be
Speaker 1: that guy. I want to be the guy that says,
Speaker 1: this guy is gonna do things that's gonna rewrite the
Speaker 1: history books. I'm on that train. But you dump that
Speaker 1: negative energy off you, thank you might not be a positive.
Speaker 1: And then once the Jets actually become a contender, if
Speaker 1: they become a contender, then I will wish ill upon
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 1: But right now I'm in that sweet spot where I
Speaker 1: can be all positive. So you're a better person than Mark,
Speaker 1: who just like voice voice the Browns problems into existence
Speaker 1: with his Now I liked what he did there. That
Speaker 1: was beautiful reverse. I'm struggling which with which direction to
Speaker 1: go because I have one that is extremely negative and
Speaker 1: one that is I've got a negative one too, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go negative. One head coach will be fired by
Speaker 1: week six due and I have been thinking about this
Speaker 1: for weeks. This is this is happening. One head coach
Speaker 1: will be fired by week six due to a wild
Speaker 1: scandal that grips the league early in the season and
Speaker 1: becomes a national and ultimately an international news story. Trump
Speaker 1: will weigh in on the topic. No, this is this
Speaker 1: is a prediction that by week six, it is after
Speaker 1: the week's six slate of games, that this will essentially
Speaker 1: this scandal will eat up huge amounts of real estate
Speaker 1: on our podcast. Asked on our Twitter show. If that happens,
Speaker 1: it'll make bounty Gate look like a chorus trip to
Speaker 1: Action Park. Remember that place? It was very dangerous Action Park.
Speaker 1: I think that this is going to end where the
Speaker 1: owner of this team will be forced due to overwhelming
Speaker 1: public pressure to pull the plug after week six action
Speaker 1: to get rid of this coach when the owner necessarily
Speaker 1: does not want to do it, but he has to.
Speaker 1: It's all guesswork. I mean, what we're throwing out is
Speaker 1: no different than yours, but yours is just kind of
Speaker 1: predicting something with No, there's there's not a team that's
Speaker 1: a little because because it's gonna be so negative that
Speaker 1: if I I initially is there something in your head?
Speaker 1: Initially pinpointed someone and then I thought that's a little
Speaker 1: aggress talking about it is north of Ohio? No is
Speaker 1: he west of the Rockies. No, can you get to
Speaker 1: his stadium? Off? No more quest does have a female?
Speaker 1: No more questions? All right, I hope that doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: It just sounds. It sounds not only bad for that guy,
Speaker 1: and maybe he'll deserve it under whatever the circumstances are,
Speaker 1: but bad for us. It's bad you. We were here
Speaker 1: when bounty gate broke and I'll never forget he's gonna
Speaker 1: hate this. But David really, who was early in his role,
Speaker 1: basically told me this is a non issue. This is
Speaker 1: going to blow over pretty quickly. And it turned into
Speaker 1: a mushroom, into an a total disaster. You just heard
Speaker 1: him worse than that girl basically judgment and said it
Speaker 1: was He has developed an incredible judge b of news
Speaker 1: since since. I would second that he's very good at
Speaker 1: deciding what's news and I and for the record, I
Speaker 1: will take you up on that sandwich problem. Okay, um
Speaker 1: all right, West one more. I feel bad because um,
Speaker 1: I criticized this man's ability to play quarterback for a while.
Speaker 1: He proved me wrong. Eli man, all right, let's get
Speaker 1: into it. And I really like him as a person
Speaker 1: and as a player. But my fearless prediction is that
Speaker 1: Nick Fools will still be seeking his first win in
Speaker 1: a Jaguars uniform. Let me take a look at the
Speaker 1: check worse schedule that is, well, I can tell you
Speaker 1: what the schedule is. They have the Chiefs at home. Okay,
Speaker 1: tough game, but winnable. Tough game, and they don't have
Speaker 1: really the weapons to keep up with Kansas City. If
Speaker 1: if the Chiefs can score more than twenty at Houston
Speaker 1: at the Texans game number two home versus the Titans,
Speaker 1: cupcake layup. Titans, to me are one of the ten
Speaker 1: strongest rosters in the NFL. At the Broncos, we know
Speaker 1: what you think about them. Yes, well, nobody's being the Broncos.
Speaker 1: That's a that's right there, Carolina Panthers and the revamped
Speaker 1: front seven to that's home versus the Saints, not a gimme.
Speaker 1: I like their next game though, right, That's why this works.
Speaker 1: They travel to Cincinnati to face the punchless BEng and
Speaker 1: then they start to get their sea legs. And then
Speaker 1: they trounced the Jets in week eight, and I see
Speaker 1: that coming. That's why I've hearned him back by then. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's a big difference Uh. I don't know. The
Speaker 1: way the NFL, the schedule makers, they're really good and
Speaker 1: that they seem to have almost like a seer likability
Speaker 1: to make sure teams stay above water. Most teams. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, using the Jaguars as an example, could they
Speaker 1: trip up at home against the Chiefs in Week one? Yes?
Speaker 1: Could they go to Houston and lose? Absolutely, But then
Speaker 1: then the schedule God was like, hey, let's give you
Speaker 1: the Titans at home. You're gonna needs You're gonna need it.
Speaker 1: The Titans will have a win already, so they could
Speaker 1: deal with the loss and everybody's gonna be one and
Speaker 1: two and be fine going into the Titans own the
Speaker 1: Jaguars late. I'd have to look that up. I think
Speaker 1: even when the Jaguars had their really good season, that
Speaker 1: Titans were beating them. Um, all right, Yeah, their last
Speaker 1: head to head mat uch up a thirty to nine
Speaker 1: Titans win. Was that when uh uh, when Dark Henry
Speaker 1: ran for like a thousand yards in the game, is
Speaker 1: that that particularly? I feel like he ran for a
Speaker 1: thousand yards in the entire second half of the season.
Speaker 1: To answer your question, at least their last three games
Speaker 1: that Tennessee Titans have prevailed. So two low scoring affairs
Speaker 1: nine six back in September last year, fifteen ten on
Speaker 1: New Year's Eve this season before. Well, I have respect
Speaker 1: for the Jaguars defense, and I respect for fools, but
Speaker 1: I really their offensive line as a mess or wide
Speaker 1: receiver corps a mess. They're running back didn't try last season,
Speaker 1: So I mean, I don't know. Um, all right, I'll
Speaker 1: wrap it up with a little bit more negativity. Unfortunately, Um,
Speaker 1: you guys know, just like I wasn't on board with
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati bandwagon, I am not all here for the
Speaker 1: Jimmy G as a stud carnival. Just I'm sitting out
Speaker 1: that merry go around until I see him do it.
Speaker 1: And now he's coming off of catastrophic the injury and
Speaker 1: all that not a great thing. Um, So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw this out there by week six. And you have
Speaker 1: to understand this isn't all on Jimmy G. It's also
Speaker 1: about what's going on around the San Francisco forty Niners,
Speaker 1: an organization that, despite a brain trust reboot, has found
Speaker 1: very little success in the John Lynch Kyle Shanahan era,
Speaker 1: to the point where if they get off to a
Speaker 1: slow start in twenty nineteen heads could roll. I don't.
Speaker 1: I think Shanahan probably safe through the season, but Lynch
Speaker 1: is gonna need answers. They're gonna need to put up
Speaker 1: a season where they are competing for a playoff spot,
Speaker 1: uh come December, and they can't afford to fall too
Speaker 1: far back in the standings. So what if Jimmy g
Speaker 1: isn't playing well because he wasn't playing that well before
Speaker 1: he got hurt last year and now he's gonna be
Speaker 1: rusty and he's oh damn near thirty years old and
Speaker 1: still hasn't really played a lot at the NFL level.
Speaker 1: What if he gets off to a slow start and
Speaker 1: the Niners are seeing their season slip away, and oh,
Speaker 1: we have this guy, and I know he's getting ready,
Speaker 1: he's fixing and to use a Texan term for a
Speaker 1: camp battle um with C. J. Beathard. But Nick Mullins
Speaker 1: moved that team on offense last year. They kind of
Speaker 1: rallied around him. He was a nobody who showed up
Speaker 1: out of nowhere. And while not a perfect quarterback, he
Speaker 1: turned the ball over too much. And maybe he doesn't
Speaker 1: have all the trades you look for, not the biggest
Speaker 1: arm and and whatnot. But he moved that team. He
Speaker 1: showed a lot of promise in his audition last year.
Speaker 1: Would they be perhaps tempted to turn it over to
Speaker 1: the kid if Jimmy Gan the Niners got off to
Speaker 1: another slow start in twenty nineteen, that's a fearless prediction
Speaker 1: that they just might. I would struggle to see that
Speaker 1: happening early on. They have three games, then they have
Speaker 1: a buy and you're talking about someone that's making twenty
Speaker 1: million next year and million plus over the next three year.
Speaker 1: So the only thing is if it went real, real, rough,
Speaker 1: it could be part of the master plan where by
Speaker 1: trade deadline they have shipped Jimmy g back to the
Speaker 1: Patriots and the Patriots get them for less than they
Speaker 1: sold him and they have that quarterback in place for
Speaker 1: the next five years to be careful. Wait, I don't
Speaker 1: want that. But if you look at their schedule at Bucks,
Speaker 1: and I know West Bruce arians is at some country
Speaker 1: club right now, he's not even thinking about football. But
Speaker 1: turned the team over to Left which some people believe
Speaker 1: that the Bucks are going to be frisky this year,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a They start with two road games,
Speaker 1: which is not easy schedule. Makers at Bucks at Bengles,
Speaker 1: but two road games and then home to Steelers by
Speaker 1: and then home to Browns, who even if they do
Speaker 1: get off to a slow start, Mark, I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna start piecing it together by the time he gets October.
Speaker 1: And I've already told you that San Francisco was winning
Speaker 1: that game. I know I disagree. I've seen enough out
Speaker 1: of Garoppolo to be more optimistic than Dan, but it's
Speaker 1: worth noting that he is now what twenty eight years old,
Speaker 1: He'll be twenty eight in November, and his entire career
Speaker 1: is nothing but small sample sizes. We don't really know
Speaker 1: what he is yet. And that last game the week
Speaker 1: six game at Los Angeles. So if you stumble in
Speaker 1: those opening road games and then have trouble the Steelers
Speaker 1: and Browns, then you're going to the coliseum. The Rams
Speaker 1: need to do some business ear or I mean the
Speaker 1: nothers need to do some business early in the season.
Speaker 1: And they got a quarterback who's gonna be knocking off rust.
Speaker 1: Just keep an eye on it. That's all fair enough.
Speaker 1: And I like Jimmy d too. I want him to
Speaker 1: do well, Like I don't want to make it seem like,
Speaker 1: I'm rooting for Jimmy G's career to go up in flames,
Speaker 1: but it's worth throwing out there that maybe he's not
Speaker 1: the stone cold lock franchise savior that we've perhaps positioned
Speaker 1: him in. Is it possible, Chris Westling, that Jimmy G's
Speaker 1: last five games of the season is the new Geno
Speaker 1: Smith's last two games of the two thousand fourteen season.
Speaker 1: I it's possible. I think it's much more likely that
Speaker 1: people are making too much of a deal out of
Speaker 1: struggling for two and a half games at the beginning
Speaker 1: of last year. I get that, but, like I said,
Speaker 1: his entire career a small sample sizes, So let's see
Speaker 1: what happens with sixteen games. Nice guy to talk to him.
Speaker 1: After that ridiculous Super Bowl win by the Pats, when
Speaker 1: the uh Seahawks through at the goal line, what were
Speaker 1: they doing there? We've been over that a few times,
Speaker 1: but west and I actually after the Combine flew from
Speaker 1: Indianapolis on a rather infamous flight. We were not sitting
Speaker 1: near to Meg, thankfully, But was that in this conference room?
Speaker 1: The discussion afterwards, there were there were some discussions he
Speaker 1: couldn't have been nicer though we talked him a couple
Speaker 1: of times. In fact, when leaving l a X taking
Speaker 1: a taxi home, I saw him again. He's like you again,
Speaker 1: Like we ran into him like three or four times
Speaker 1: on this trip. That was before he was drafted. You
Speaker 1: were still hoping he'd be the Browns quarterback. I was, uh,
Speaker 1: there you go. It might not have been a coincidence
Speaker 1: that he kept running into you. Um, are you saying
Speaker 1: that perhaps Mark put himself in position for such encounters,
Speaker 1: some low level stoking potential. There's a thin line between
Speaker 1: stalker and intrepid reporter, very thin. And I crossed, I
Speaker 1: mean I crossed into both territories on that trip. I
Speaker 1: was talking. We were at the bar the tavern after
Speaker 1: Stopball last week talking to our star wort stop um
Speaker 1: masculine guy. But we kind of stumbled into a conversation
Speaker 1: where he discussed despite being a straight man, the men
Speaker 1: that you know, he would ponder some thoughts in the
Speaker 1: other direction. And he shocked me by just throwing out
Speaker 1: Jimmy g is head and shoulders, the number one guy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He he was quite adamant that Tom Brady is not
Speaker 1: in Jimmy. Jimmy G's class. That was a hot conversation
Speaker 1: four years ago. Tom Brady is aging rapidly according to
Speaker 1: uh time. Um, all right, so yeah, no matter what
Speaker 1: happens that Jimmy G's gonna be fine. What do you think, Ricky? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's okay. Do you miss you miss Jimmy G being
Speaker 1: a Patriot? Because wasn't he as a Patriots say in
Speaker 1: the Ultimate Security Blanket? Also, it felt great having him
Speaker 1: back there. Um, but I think it's gonna come fall circle.
Speaker 1: For all of a sudden, there's gonna be this crazy
Speaker 1: trade where we're gonna get like George Kittle or something. Wow,
Speaker 1: because we traded Jimmy G out of nowhere. You've been
Speaker 1: hanging out with Keisha to you're getting George Kittle in
Speaker 1: reverse for that trade. Because everyone was like, what why
Speaker 1: did Jimmy G go to the forty niners out of nowhere?
Speaker 1: Like this big deal? How could be Kittle for like
Speaker 1: a fourth rounder going back to New England. So you're
Speaker 1: saying this, this is more premeditated as opposed to like karma,
Speaker 1: just like deciding to no, no, no, no, this is
Speaker 1: like a Shannahan knows us now, well, it's a you
Speaker 1: and God knows, you could use that. That's the best
Speaker 1: prediction we've heard all day. So so there was like
Speaker 1: a wink wink, nudge nudge part of the Garoppolo trade
Speaker 1: at the time. Yeah, come on, we you know, scratch
Speaker 1: your back all scratch yours later. You know, I haven't
Speaker 1: seen a lot of scratching for San Francisco so far.
Speaker 1: That's back to the original point. I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you're one in ten and you win five straight
Speaker 1: games to end the season, I'm not going to put
Speaker 1: you in Canton. I know. That's that's where everybody's at
Speaker 1: with this guy. Well exactly. So that's that's good. That's
Speaker 1: why Belichick got rid of him. Mark's a good kid.
Speaker 1: I mean, I I understand that you are. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, We'll be back on Thursday. I hope that
Speaker 1: works out for you, Reggie Um with another edition of
Speaker 1: the pod. Uh and then after that are we are?
Speaker 1: We doing three shows next week? So it's this is
Speaker 1: that seems that's sobering. Um, But we love our job.
Speaker 1: It's just shocking because the sum the quote unquote summer
Speaker 1: for us while everyone's enjoying, you know, late July. So oh,
Speaker 1: we got another month of summer, going to the beach,
Speaker 1: hanging out with friends. Really, our summer is truncated or
Speaker 1: shifted from May through kind of mid July, so it
Speaker 1: ends very quickly while everybody else is still just like
Speaker 1: right in the middle of it all. But don't don't
Speaker 1: cry for us, Argentina and I know you. We've been
Speaker 1: too busy having fun. We haven't had a chance to
Speaker 1: enjoy our summer. Well somehow we we just push on.
Speaker 1: Don't like it should be a time for relaxation. And
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm tired because of my Yeah, just
Speaker 1: wait to have kids. I'm all right, and I'll need
Speaker 1: I need this thing no more. Hey, my wife don't
Speaker 1: need it. I will need it, all right. That's it.
Speaker 1: Don't have to sign up Jesus, uh sign up for
Speaker 1: the Mailman, Uh, the Quiet Storm and Ricky Hollywood behind
Speaker 1: the Glass till third Day