Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast, The NFL Always waits.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL. Yes, the
Speaker 2: NFL always does. Win May fifteenth schedule release, blowing up
Speaker 2: the sports where old Dan Hans is here with heroes
Speaker 2: Greg Rosenthal and yes, Mark Sessler, And that is what
Speaker 2: we are all about on tonight's episode. We're taping this
Speaker 2: Wednesday evening here on the West Coast, Mark Sessler, the
Speaker 2: schedules out. We're gonna go through all the interesting nugs
Speaker 2: that we can dig up on short notice. And I
Speaker 2: know I can see the goosebumps through my monitor right
Speaker 2: now looking at you, Bud.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I was thinking though that back
Speaker 3: when I was in like seventh and eighth grade, that
Speaker 3: there was a very special day each I think it
Speaker 3: was back in April back then where USA Today would
Speaker 3: print and it was breaking news as a newspaper back then,
Speaker 3: like the entire NFL schedule, and like my brother and
Speaker 3: I would have a wrestling match over like who got
Speaker 3: to look at it first? So it is historically has
Speaker 3: meant a lot to me. I think now I'm surprised
Speaker 3: that it's not taking place over four or five or
Speaker 3: six days. As a week long event, because I think
Speaker 3: that's probably where we're heading with it at this point.
Speaker 1: For some reason, like when Mark started telling that story,
Speaker 1: I expected it to be like and then the Milkmen
Speaker 1: came over and totally from.
Speaker 4: The time of their radio he's older. Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 2: I huge fan of the NFL, you know, since I
Speaker 2: was probably about ten or eleven years old, but I
Speaker 2: don't remember the NFL. Obviously they didn't handle it at
Speaker 2: all the way they do now is in terms of
Speaker 2: a blowout event the way it is now, But even then,
Speaker 2: I feel like when the NFL schedule dropped, you would
Speaker 2: find it I don't know, and like the backpage or
Speaker 2: deep in the sports section when it was released, and
Speaker 2: there would obviously be your local football team or teams.
Speaker 2: The Beat reporter would hammer out eight hundred words on
Speaker 2: it maybe. But now as everything is tied to the NFL,
Speaker 2: it is it is a huge to do and while
Speaker 2: we and this is a good time when you think
Speaker 2: about our great late friend Chris Westling, we like to
Speaker 2: keep it in perspective and not be one of those
Speaker 2: shows or people that cover the game that put too
Speaker 2: much into these schedules and look at them and actually
Speaker 2: try to figure out, Oh.
Speaker 4: This team's gonna be good, this team's gonna be bad, and.
Speaker 2: You're gonna see a lot of that over the next
Speaker 2: few days and weeks and months.
Speaker 4: But also it's fun.
Speaker 2: It's still fun to look at what's going on and
Speaker 2: I think, GREGGI what And I'm gonna give you the
Speaker 2: last word before we jump into it, before we look
Speaker 2: at week one. That's a good thing to remember too,
Speaker 2: Like it's all fun and maybe it's a little bit
Speaker 2: over the top and overdone a little bit on some level,
Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, it takes us
Speaker 2: one step closer to a new season, and that's exciting.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was my role, I feel like back in
Speaker 1: those shows with Wes to just subtly needle and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's lighten up there, Larry and have a little fun
Speaker 1: with football. They'd be like, you already know the schedules,
Speaker 1: you know who's home and away. You just started like
Speaker 1: saying win the games.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, okay, but but then you see see
Speaker 1: the week one schedule and it does get my blood
Speaker 1: flowing and yeah, like Walker could not have been more excited.
Speaker 1: So now I feel like I'm reliving what it was
Speaker 1: like to be a fan. Not that we had this,
Speaker 1: but he immediately starts looking at the schedule and doing
Speaker 1: the win loss thing for various teams, which is like,
Speaker 1: that was the number one columnist slash beat writer move
Speaker 1: back in the eighties and nine.
Speaker 3: Well, they've got an NFL segment that copies that exact
Speaker 3: same friend, and maybe he can step right in and
Speaker 3: fill that role if they won't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Falcons a corner. By the way, I think
Speaker 2: that's Rank's corner. You better watch out. Rank could be
Speaker 2: somebody that will He'll go after you if you come
Speaker 2: toward his corner.
Speaker 4: Watch out.
Speaker 1: He gave the Falcons at thirteen and four to start Walker,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, you gotta you can't just make
Speaker 1: every team twelve and five. It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1: You gotta wait the Falcon balance and I know, I mean,
Speaker 1: you got to balance it out. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4: Why the Falcons.
Speaker 1: Why did he he started in alphabetical order. He's gonna
Speaker 1: do every team.
Speaker 4: Listen.
Speaker 2: Now, far be it from me to ever doubt what
Speaker 2: Terry Fonteneau could do. You know, the brain trust over there.
Speaker 2: Fourteen seems like a better number. Let's start with week one, Yes,
Speaker 2: and we're gonna go through. We'll go through yes week
Speaker 2: one because that's the next week of football games, and
Speaker 2: we'll check out the primetime slate, we'll check out the
Speaker 2: international games. For the listeners out there that love that
Speaker 2: and maybe or maybe not you saw. I was on
Speaker 2: social media talking with Handsome Hank Henry Hodgson, and he
Speaker 2: gave me one of those things, which I love it.
Speaker 2: He's like, hey, do a promo read where it's you're
Speaker 2: giving away the tickets. It's like, I have two tickets
Speaker 2: to Jets Vikings October sixth, and you give them to
Speaker 2: the audience.
Speaker 4: I was like, I love that.
Speaker 2: That felt like a career checkpoint, like a check mark,
Speaker 2: like like I've always wanted to do something like that,
Speaker 2: So win Dan's tickets.
Speaker 4: Like that's nice.
Speaker 3: I like me, I'm giving two o'clock here in La
Speaker 3: when I, you know, logged on my phone for about
Speaker 3: the six hundredth time today and noticed that that had dropped,
Speaker 3: and I thought, I know Dan is enjoying this moment
Speaker 3: because it is it's kind of like a you're a
Speaker 3: contest announcer at that point, that's you are.
Speaker 1: Terry Bradshaw.
Speaker 4: Shut up?
Speaker 2: All right, Yes, the Holiday games, what's on NFL Network,
Speaker 2: all that Stuff're gonna get to. But let's start start
Speaker 2: with week one. And how about this Greg as a
Speaker 2: way to get into it. Because you are I say
Speaker 2: this begrudgingly, but it is what it is. You are
Speaker 2: the defending locks champion. So when we do get to
Speaker 2: that first Thursday show ahead of week one, the Thursday
Speaker 2: Show will do on September fifth, you'll have the first pick.
Speaker 1: Two time defending locks champion, four out of five. I
Speaker 1: don't forget enough enough.
Speaker 4: You took it. It's late at night. We don't need
Speaker 4: to hear that right now.
Speaker 2: You will have the first pick. As a result, what
Speaker 2: would be the game? And if you don't know, if
Speaker 2: you're new to the show or just a little hazy
Speaker 2: on how we do it, we don't draft island games.
Speaker 2: But what would you take in a non island game
Speaker 2: draft Week one?
Speaker 4: Pick one?
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a spicy question, because I'm going to take
Speaker 1: one that I don't think you guys would want, but
Speaker 1: I want it. It's Texans Colts. Actually I want Anthony
Speaker 1: Richards and c J. Stroud like I think, Please please
Speaker 1: lock yourself into that pick. Okay, first of all, and
Speaker 1: second I love it. First of all, the best games
Speaker 1: in Week one are the primetime games. We know that
Speaker 1: the kickoff game is great. Ravens, Chiefs, Packers, Eagles is
Speaker 1: in Brazil on Friday night. That's incredible. The Sunday night
Speaker 1: game is delicious, that's rams, Lions. Your Jets are back
Speaker 1: in primetime on Monday night again in Week one, and
Speaker 1: to be those are like the four best games of
Speaker 1: the week. Actually, so the draft is a little different.
Speaker 1: And yes, I'm all about quarterbacks. And the one hundred
Speaker 1: like twenty minutes of complete games that Anthony Richardson played
Speaker 1: last year, to me were just so electric and I
Speaker 1: love me some CG Stroud like that that or like
Speaker 1: Caleb Williams would be where I would probably go because
Speaker 1: I just want to see you right away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great one. I would have the second pick,
Speaker 2: and h hell, let's do it. Hmm tough.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you what the other one I was debating?
Speaker 4: Yeah, what's the other one?
Speaker 1: You were thinking Falcons Steelers just because it's either Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson or Justin Fields with the Steelers and it's Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousins with the Falcons.
Speaker 3: To me, that's why this is a classic Reg move
Speaker 3: to pick multiple games when he's already picked a game.
Speaker 2: Sorry, you know what's funny because I would do just
Speaker 2: to either I would leverage it for a trade or
Speaker 2: I would take it just to get the season off
Speaker 2: and on a horrible foot Cowboys at Browns and Mark,
Speaker 2: you texted me about what the news that came out.
Speaker 4: So I think that's a really good game. I think
Speaker 4: it's an interesting game.
Speaker 2: It's the late Fox game, and who is on the call,
Speaker 2: Mark Sessler, for that particular game.
Speaker 3: That's why I think it's just incredibly spicy and we're
Speaker 3: all going to be watching it. But it is the
Speaker 3: debut of Tom Brady, and you know, I think that's
Speaker 3: something that you know, Greg and I the booth as
Speaker 3: the number one guy, the number one guy for Fox.
Speaker 3: Greg and I had been on a beat wondering if
Speaker 3: this would ever occur. It's clearly happening at this point,
Speaker 3: and Greg Olsen has been bumped to the second booth,
Speaker 3: which I think is I did a segment about that
Speaker 3: earlier in the offseason.
Speaker 4: Feels unrighteous to me.
Speaker 3: They're loaded Foxes loaded, But of course you're gonna want
Speaker 3: to watch that game and just see how does Brady
Speaker 3: handle a the Cowboys and the Browns. But like I
Speaker 3: texted Greg's saying, like I am legitimately surprised with all
Speaker 3: the teams you could have found to play the Cowboys
Speaker 3: in Week one and have Tom Brady announcing. I know
Speaker 3: the Browns were a playoff team, but that to me
Speaker 3: felt like an upset that the Cleveland got that spot
Speaker 3: at home for Tom Brady's first game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 3: Kind of a strange pick, but that was where That's
Speaker 3: where I would have gone with with the number two
Speaker 3: the Cowboys.
Speaker 2: Listen and we all know the Cowboys having him been
Speaker 2: to the guy super Bowl in over a quarter century,
Speaker 2: but that they always do the biggest number, and Fox
Speaker 2: is like, put Tom on that game and and cross
Speaker 2: their fingers and see what happens.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean Cleveland, though it could have been,
Speaker 3: you know, the Eagles versus Dallas or something, but they're
Speaker 3: going Cleveland Versusallas. The Cleveland side kind of threw me,
Speaker 3: But why.
Speaker 4: Not, I'm changing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take it just to annoy Mark and
Speaker 1: I do want the Tom Brady factor.
Speaker 4: So that's a big one too.
Speaker 2: Late, too late in fact, that I kind of picked it,
Speaker 2: I think, or maybe I traded into Mark for seven
Speaker 2: number ones to be named later. I do, Uh, it's
Speaker 2: there's plenty of good games there to pick from. I
Speaker 2: I do think it's a little you know, that guy
Speaker 2: Greenberg on ESPN, they they kind of use him as
Speaker 2: the Jets fan mascot, and it's a little over the
Speaker 2: top to me, to be honest, every time I try
Speaker 2: to read a story about the Jets on ESPN dot com.
Speaker 2: You know, I like Samini as a beat reporter. He's
Speaker 2: the longest tenured beat reporter in team history, and so
Speaker 2: he writes from a perspective that's unique on the beat.
Speaker 2: And I can't scroll down without a giant picture of
Speaker 2: a video still of Greenberg's eyes bugging out, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: what is he?
Speaker 4: What is he fired up about? Now?
Speaker 2: In a performance based a pure performance, Like, I know,
Speaker 2: this isn't how he actually feels like when I'm talking
Speaker 2: about the Jets. It's how I actually feel. It's not
Speaker 2: it's not for the cameras or the microphone.
Speaker 4: What a joke? What a joke? Point being wow, hit
Speaker 4: piece on Greenberg in a big spot.
Speaker 1: I know was like, what did he actually say?
Speaker 4: But he said he was.
Speaker 2: He stood up on his morning show and was screaming
Speaker 2: that why are the Jets in primetime again Monday night
Speaker 2: Football to start the season.
Speaker 4: I don't know why.
Speaker 2: I guess bad juju because of what happened with Rogers
Speaker 2: last year. I think it's I think it's fun and exciting,
Speaker 2: and it's going to be obviously a reset for the
Speaker 2: for that team, and damn, I think it's gonna be
Speaker 2: a lot of fun to see the Niners and the
Speaker 2: Jets in that spot. The Jets are that great defense,
Speaker 2: the Niners with the unstoppable offense at home. I think
Speaker 2: that's a great game. I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: And I'll throw one game that could be sneaky great.
Speaker 2: How about nobody's talking about the Jaguars this year? How
Speaker 2: about the Jaguars at Miami? Maybe a nice little shootout
Speaker 2: with two quarterbacksam playing in the warm weather.
Speaker 4: I'll give you one.
Speaker 3: Like not all the matchups are great, but I would
Speaker 3: think that a second round draft pick in one of
Speaker 3: our drafts. Like I want to see Jim Harbaugh's Chargers
Speaker 3: in their debut.
Speaker 4: They're playing the Raiders.
Speaker 3: The Raiders aren't that sexy to me, But like, I
Speaker 3: can't think of a team that I'm more interested to
Speaker 3: check out early on is just where the Chargers are
Speaker 3: right out of the gate and what they become. And
Speaker 3: it's like, go play the Raiders in Week one and
Speaker 3: be something different than these past Chargers teams.
Speaker 4: I think they will be.
Speaker 2: I mean, if the Chargers at home against I think
Speaker 2: that's gonna be a bad Raiders team. Like if they
Speaker 2: can't beat the Raiders in the Jim Harbor homecoming game,
Speaker 2: I mean, Chargers fans are gonna be like, are you
Speaker 2: kidding me?
Speaker 4: Is this happening again?
Speaker 1: I know there's like, yeah, there's varying levels of excitement
Speaker 1: about the teams around them, but to me, like Jaden Daniels,
Speaker 1: you want to see his first start. That's against the Bucks,
Speaker 1: so that's at the same time as the Cowboys. If
Speaker 1: JJ McCarthy's starting, he gets the Giants in an early
Speaker 1: game and Bo Nicks, We're gonna have so many damn
Speaker 1: rookie starters. It's kind of outrageous he starts in Seattle.
Speaker 1: But the primetime slate though that might be the best.
Speaker 1: I was kind of looking through it that might be
Speaker 1: the best primetime slate of any week all season. On paper,
Speaker 1: those are pretty much I mean, and you can't ruin
Speaker 1: it with injuries, hopefully, you know, praying to the football gods,
Speaker 1: you can't ruin it at least with bad records, like
Speaker 1: we know they'll all be zero and zero going into it.
Speaker 1: That is a like four bangers in a row to start,
Speaker 1: So good job, Bite.
Speaker 2: It's a good point though, because these networks, they especially
Speaker 2: this past year, are just getting absolutely banged over and
Speaker 2: oh every week by matchups that looked amazing in May
Speaker 2: that are dog poo by November because of the injuries.
Speaker 2: And you definitely give yourself more coverage by front loading
Speaker 2: these schedules, so we'll be ready for that. Now, let's
Speaker 2: move to Monday Night Football. Let's go through the some
Speaker 2: of the primetime Island games. We'll start with MNF. I
Speaker 2: guess I could start Mark, depending on your perspective. I
Speaker 2: could start with T and F because it's kind of
Speaker 2: the first game of the week. But I've already said Sunday.
Speaker 2: We've talked Sunday, so now we've gone to Monday first.
Speaker 2: I think was that a mistake.
Speaker 4: I don't know if we've made a mistake.
Speaker 3: I do think it's interesting that, like, while you just
Speaker 3: ripped Greenie a new one, he probably, like you know,
Speaker 3: minutes later, is wondering who this Jets guy is giving
Speaker 3: away Jets tickets in London.
Speaker 4: So I think there's just a rivalry there. But anyways,
Speaker 4: we can move on. You don't think Greenie knows who
Speaker 4: I am? Now that that hurts no.
Speaker 3: I think I think he's he's probably now you've heard
Speaker 3: seen you, he's probably dismissing you to the level that
Speaker 3: you're dismissing him. Because Jets fans in the media don't
Speaker 3: like other Jets fans taking their spot. I have noticed
Speaker 3: that in like over the years. I think that's a thing, so.
Speaker 4: I would like it. I would love some examples.
Speaker 1: By the way, I mean, that's a deep cut into
Speaker 1: our Culver City newsroom. I know exactly who Dan is
Speaker 1: talking I mean, who Mark is talking about. I know exactly.
Speaker 2: And for the record, you know, Greenie is legit a
Speaker 2: legitimate Jets fan. I just think they've kind of leaned
Speaker 2: into his Jets fandom in a bit of a overly
Speaker 2: performative way.
Speaker 4: But that's that is what it is.
Speaker 2: All right now, you don't think he knows me Monday
Speaker 2: night football, I do. All right, here we go. So
Speaker 2: we talked about Jets at Niners. Week two, we have
Speaker 2: Falcons versus Eagles, so we're gonna get have the Falcons do.
Speaker 4: By the way, with primetime games.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked that they are in primetime three
Speaker 1: of the first five weeks. We're going big on Kirk
Speaker 1: Early at Philly Monday Night. We two for Kansas City
Speaker 1: Sunday Night. Week three, we'll get to the Sunday night games,
Speaker 1: and then they got an Amazon game Tampa week five.
Speaker 1: So it is it's a lot of Kirk Early we
Speaker 1: got that. I'm with that.
Speaker 4: I like that.
Speaker 2: We also have three Monday which I've never been a
Speaker 2: fan of, Mark, and I know you feel this, especially
Speaker 2: three Monday night football double headers Week three when you
Speaker 2: have Jags Bills and Commanders Bengals, Week four Titans Dolphins, Seahawks, Lions,
Speaker 2: and Week seven when you have Ravens, Bucks, Chargers, Cardinals.
Speaker 2: So you get three of those in a four week stretch,
Speaker 2: in a five week stretch, and you also get another one.
Speaker 2: This feels is that it might be tied to the holidays,
Speaker 2: but Week fifteen, you're gonna get Bears Vikings and then
Speaker 2: the Falcons again versus the Raiders. Week seventeen, by the way,
Speaker 2: you have a epic showdown potentially in NFC Championship Showdown
Speaker 2: preview between the Lions and the Niners. So ever since
Speaker 2: Joe and Troy hit the scene and the the the
Speaker 2: rights in terms of just what ESPN pays for Monday
Speaker 2: Night football and then what they're paying for that booth,
Speaker 2: these games are so good now. Sunday night football is
Speaker 2: always going to be king, but Monday Night football now
Speaker 2: is a very respectable silver medalist.
Speaker 3: I'd say this like, we are veterans of watching multiple
Speaker 3: games at the same time on Sundays, so if anything,
Speaker 3: we have the skills to watch these Monday night doubleheaders.
Speaker 4: I just I kind of it's just marked that's that
Speaker 4: energy in October. Okay, no, I'm saying I like that.
Speaker 3: It's the classic sense that Monday night football used to
Speaker 3: be like the sporting event of the week, and they're
Speaker 3: competing against themselves with everything else at this point. So
Speaker 3: I at some point you got to give up the
Speaker 3: ghost and be like next year, there'll be five of
Speaker 3: them in the years after that.
Speaker 4: They'll be seven or eight, so you got to just
Speaker 4: roll with it.
Speaker 1: At least I'm glad they didn't do it in week one.
Speaker 1: There should be an asterisk though, Like when you're looking
Speaker 1: at all the teams, it's like shows how many primetime
Speaker 1: games each team has. But then you're you know, like
Speaker 1: the ESPN Plus game for the Arizona Cardinals Chargers as
Speaker 1: part of a double header, It's like, that shouldn't count
Speaker 1: as a full prime time game. That's a half of
Speaker 1: a game for the Cardinals. Sorry, you didn't even really
Speaker 1: get a David Zaslov over here. Now it's the same thing,
Speaker 1: like you can kind of see it. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's give the Titans one prime time game, but it's
Speaker 1: the it's the ESPN game when ABC has one that
Speaker 1: that's better. On that same Monday night, Monday Night got
Speaker 1: one of the games. I was keeping an eye on,
Speaker 1: where's it going to land on the schedule, The Harbor
Speaker 1: Little Jim Jim and John John coming to LA on
Speaker 1: Monday night after Thanksgiving. So it's it's a big football weekend.
Speaker 1: And then you get a little Harbor v. Harbaugh in
Speaker 1: Week twelve. I'm intrigued by that. You know you remember
Speaker 1: the awkward press conferences.
Speaker 4: It's fine.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sure modern day Jim Harbaugh is going to
Speaker 2: handle that extremely well with the daily pressures of the
Speaker 2: gig at the place he is at now emotionally otherwise.
Speaker 4: It's not just another day, it's two day, all right.
Speaker 2: Why don't we take a look at Sunday Night Football?
Speaker 2: Less have been any other MNF takes.
Speaker 3: The only one that stands out to me also though,
Speaker 3: is Bengals Cowboys Week fourteen. It's my main note there
Speaker 3: is like, can we please still have Joe Burrow at
Speaker 3: that point? That's some of these games I would like earlier,
Speaker 3: just for what we talked about before. But if everyone's healthy,
Speaker 3: that is, you don't. I can't really remember a Bengals
Speaker 3: Cowboys game of much note in my lifetime.
Speaker 2: I'm honestly like Burrow, sure, you always want to make
Speaker 2: sure he's on the field.
Speaker 4: I don't know. Are the Cowboys even gonna be good
Speaker 4: this year? I don't know. I got a weird feeling
Speaker 4: about the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Fourteen would be shocking to me. But you're right, I'm
Speaker 1: with you on the are the Cowboys going to be good?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 2: Let's pause real quick take our first break and when
Speaker 2: we come back, more schedule talk.
Speaker 4: All right, let's check out Sunday Night Football.
Speaker 2: So I just said that Monday Night Football's slate is
Speaker 2: always you know, okay, and then it to good and
Speaker 2: then now that Joe and Troyer involved that now it's great.
Speaker 2: But nothing ever touches Sunday Night Football it is, which
Speaker 2: is funny, like speaking of Mark, you're.
Speaker 4: Talking about the old days.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, checking out the agate in the back
Speaker 2: of the sports section in ninety one to see what
Speaker 2: the brown schedule was. But you know, Sunday Night Football
Speaker 2: used to be a total afterthought.
Speaker 4: On some level.
Speaker 2: It was almost like why does this game exist? Monday
Speaker 2: Night Football was the marquee game. There was no Thursday
Speaker 2: night football. Sunday Night Football was this kind of weird
Speaker 2: ESPN telecast. I remember it was like Joe thigh, what
Speaker 2: was it thise minute? Paul McGuire was on the call,
Speaker 2: Paul McGuire and was it McGuire Paul McGuire, Yeah, Paul
Speaker 2: McGuire was on the call, and the games were sometimes.
Speaker 3: Why am I suddenly like making only comments about the
Speaker 3: eighties and nineties, like I do have takes about this generation.
Speaker 2: I think you're just correcting me there. Don't don't beat
Speaker 2: yourself up about that, and that was actually very important.
Speaker 4: That was very important.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so Sunday Night football back then was not
Speaker 2: the place to be.
Speaker 4: Now it is.
Speaker 2: Let's check it out Sunday Night Football twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: and remember at a certain point, and it's earlier than
Speaker 2: ever now, Greggie, I know you'll have the details.
Speaker 4: These games can start to be flexed out.
Speaker 2: That could happen with other primetime nights as well now, but.
Speaker 4: Sunday Night Football opens.
Speaker 2: We mentioned rams lines a rematch of that great one
Speaker 2: point Wildcard showdown in Detroit in January. Week two, Chicago, Houston.
Speaker 2: Oh give me all you got with that.
Speaker 4: I like that.
Speaker 1: I love that. That's creative. I think that was like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna put Caleb in primetime maybe a couple times.
Speaker 1: Let's do it right off the bat and Sunday night.
Speaker 2: That's juicy, right because especially the Bears obviously a huge market,
Speaker 2: huge hype around them, but they could still suck. I mean,
Speaker 2: they have a rookie quarterback well within the range of outcomes,
Speaker 2: but in Week two ill sexy and there's no stink
Speaker 2: on them if stink were to potentially exist down the line,
Speaker 2: and then you get CJ.
Speaker 4: Stroud Chiefs Falcons.
Speaker 2: The leaning into the Falcons thing is interesting to me,
Speaker 2: but it is what it is. Bill's Ravens week four.
Speaker 2: Who that's nice, Cowboys Steelers week five. I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: go through the Bengals Giants week six, Jet Steelers Week seven,
Speaker 2: Cowboys Niners week eight, and I'll pause here after Jaguars
Speaker 2: Eagles Week nine. Any thoughts in the first half of
Speaker 2: that slate, keep it up, please.
Speaker 3: The one thing I noticed that I love about this
Speaker 3: season is that you've got the AFC North where you've
Speaker 3: got four potential playoff teams against the NFC East that
Speaker 3: it doesn't really matter how good they are their primetime goal.
Speaker 3: So it's like there's all every week is dotted with
Speaker 3: these North versus East showdowns, and I'm looking up and
Speaker 3: down this Sunday night slate. I don't see a bad
Speaker 3: game outside of a couple a couple teams in a
Speaker 3: little suspect, it's like there's not a game on the
Speaker 3: sleep right.
Speaker 1: You can flex games starting Week five. I mean, it'd
Speaker 1: be sad if you had a Week five game and
Speaker 1: you got flexed out of it, but maybe it would
Speaker 1: be a big injury a maximum of two between weeks
Speaker 1: five and ten, and then you can flex whatever you
Speaker 1: want after that eleven and on as much as you want.
Speaker 1: What strikes me, Dan is your is your boys. You
Speaker 1: know they're not living on Sunday Night where they never
Speaker 1: used to get any action. But they're just in. We
Speaker 1: might as well mention it here. They're just in primetime
Speaker 1: all the time. They got a Monday Night game Week one,
Speaker 1: Thursday Night game week three, they're in the Hot Toddy,
Speaker 1: which is an island game, week five, Monday Night week six.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the Steelers on Sunday Night week seven. They
Speaker 1: got another Thursday and another Sunday coming up in weeks
Speaker 1: nine and eleven. That's outrageous. They are in. They are
Speaker 1: in primetime more than any team in the NFL. I
Speaker 1: think they're tied with the Chiefs, but they're all also
Speaker 1: in the first eleven weeks for whatever reason, and then
Speaker 1: and then it dies off. So it's just get ready.
Speaker 1: They are not They're not America's team, but they're just
Speaker 1: gonna be the conversation, like among the leaders in conversation
Speaker 1: week after week after week.
Speaker 3: I think America's time team might be the team with
Speaker 3: six standalone games, which is the Lions. We live in
Speaker 3: a world now where the Jets and Lions have a
Speaker 3: combined thirteen standalone games and they lead the league.
Speaker 4: That is an unusual place to be. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 4: about the Jets. It's about Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2: And if you look at Aaron Rodgers, how many primetime
Speaker 2: games he's had, I would imagine no one's had more
Speaker 2: primetime games in the last fifteen years than Rogers.
Speaker 4: He's bankable.
Speaker 2: And last year, you know, Jets fans had it the
Speaker 2: worst and Rogers had it the worst the way it
Speaker 2: all played out, But then everybody got dinged as well
Speaker 2: with all those games that showed up. So it's almost
Speaker 2: like the networks in the NFL had a decision to make,
Speaker 2: which was do we, you know, sit on the Jets
Speaker 2: a little bit and move away from them, or did
Speaker 2: last year just not count in a lot of ways,
Speaker 2: And this is the route they went.
Speaker 4: So I'll get it.
Speaker 2: I'll get the frustration of the Jets disappoint and they
Speaker 2: keep popping up, But there's also a very good chance
Speaker 2: when you look at their roster that they are going
Speaker 2: to be a team that is a competitive playoff team.
Speaker 2: So I get the consternation if it's out there, but
Speaker 2: it makes sense to me with.
Speaker 1: Rot, that makes sense. It makes sense, all right.
Speaker 2: In second half of Sunday Night football, Lions Texans dogey.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Texans too. Yeah, they're betting big
Speaker 1: on the Texans, which makes sense.
Speaker 4: Colts Jets.
Speaker 2: So the Jets are back again and week eleven, hopefully
Speaker 2: Anthony Richardson's back as well. Him against that defense makes
Speaker 2: some sense. Eagles Rams week twelve, Niners, Bills week thirteen.
Speaker 2: This is a who's who in the NFL, at least
Speaker 2: where we stand in May Chargers Chiefs Week fourteen, Packers Seahawks.
Speaker 2: Seahawks get a prime time game in a Sunday night
Speaker 2: that makes sense. They get it week fifteen, Bucks Cowboys
Speaker 2: week sixteen. Week seventeen a game mark that potentially could
Speaker 2: have huge ramifications in the AFC playoff picture, the Finns
Speaker 2: and the Brownies. And then Week eighteen is TBD VTBD.
Speaker 2: They always try to make that one either a win
Speaker 2: or go home game or a game that otherwise has
Speaker 2: big playoff ramifications.
Speaker 3: The one thing I see, because if you look across
Speaker 3: these like primetime the only they used to you know,
Speaker 3: TNF used to be a way to you know, wedge
Speaker 3: the dirt nap teams at some point into the primetime schedule.
Speaker 3: And only the Panthers weren't given a primetime game this year,
Speaker 3: which I think when it's only one team, that's a
Speaker 3: real slap in the face.
Speaker 4: I hope I was.
Speaker 2: Saving that nugget when we got through the primetime games.
Speaker 2: But oh yes, while we're here, Yes they are not
Speaker 2: Monday night or Sunday Night, and they won't be Thursday
Speaker 2: night either, the only team without a primetime game.
Speaker 4: But man, you go to and.
Speaker 2: Fifteen and you know what, I don't know if the
Speaker 2: NFL is thrilled with the operations in Carolina and how
Speaker 2: things have been handled in the last year or so,
Speaker 2: so you might have a little bit of a slap
Speaker 2: on the wrist there as well. It doesn't not make
Speaker 2: sense to me, But if you're bryce young, you were
Speaker 2: the toast of the town one year ago today, and
Speaker 2: now you're on a team that doesn't even get a
Speaker 2: single primetime game when the NFL is probably about fifty
Speaker 2: nine percent primetime games now. So it does tell you
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: So one thing I noticed looking at this NBC schedule
Speaker 1: is the Chiefs are on NBC like four or four times,
Speaker 1: and we don't see it if you're looking at the
Speaker 1: graphic on YouTube. There's also a Saturday game, which is
Speaker 1: a new little wrinkle that's part of the NBC schedule.
Speaker 1: Sometimes was I think on the NFL network, I think
Speaker 1: CBS as a game and it's this it's Saturday Week sixteen,
Speaker 1: But NBC has it, and it's like going up against
Speaker 1: college football a little bit. You know, some bulls are
Speaker 1: going on by then, and it's a big time game.
Speaker 1: It's Texans Chiefs, so it's not surprising that they're leaning
Speaker 1: into the Chiefs. But like the Chiefs are of the
Speaker 1: Sunday Night Football are like the NBC team which a
Speaker 1: lot of Tariko and Mahomes, well.
Speaker 4: Well it's Collinsworth in Mahomes sure, and Mark.
Speaker 2: I get the frustration of people not wanting to hear
Speaker 2: the folksye wisdom of Collins Earth screaming about Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 2: for the ninth straight season.
Speaker 4: But I really do hope.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of concerns based on the current
Speaker 2: construction and the roster and the uncertainty around Rashi Rice
Speaker 2: and the amount of pressure being put on a rookie
Speaker 2: wide receiver and Hollywood Brown to be big time stars,
Speaker 2: that we might have another somewhat ground and pound type
Speaker 2: Chiefs team that maybe they're not as fun to watch
Speaker 2: in prime time. But certainly you can't complain about the
Speaker 2: Chiefs being a prime time they're the back to back champs.
Speaker 3: No, but that's not one of my top fifty concerns
Speaker 3: about the upcoming season is the Chiefs being unwatchable.
Speaker 4: I know what you're saying.
Speaker 3: I think they have a better wide out cores already
Speaker 3: without even if you miss Rice for a big chunk
Speaker 3: of the season potentially wise, and they did last year.
Speaker 3: And my issue is more with Tony Romo and Mahomes
Speaker 3: and this is taking some of those Mahomes moments and
Speaker 3: big matchups away from Tony Romo and giving them too
Speaker 3: Chris Collinsworth. So you're right, you're there's more to consider there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that Saturday thing is weird. It was a little
Speaker 1: twist because now I'm looking at it and we'll get
Speaker 1: to the Wednesday Christmas games. But they put the Ravens
Speaker 1: and the Chiefs both on that Saturday game, two big
Speaker 1: time games. The other game is Steelers Ravens and that
Speaker 1: one's on Fox. And so that that's just a little
Speaker 1: new wrinkle. They're trying to take out college football. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're coming for everyone, putting big time games on those
Speaker 1: days and then putting the big time quarterbacks, making them
Speaker 1: go from Saturday to Wednesday, you know, on a Christmas wind.
Speaker 4: When does it end? Who? I mean, where when do
Speaker 4: the slaughters? See?
Speaker 1: There's no such thing as enough enough, as it does
Speaker 1: not exist.
Speaker 2: All right's take a break and we'll take a look
Speaker 2: at that Thursday night football schedule.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, welcome back. In case you're just joining us.
Speaker 4: Would be weird.
Speaker 2: But maybe you wanted to jump ahead of the ads
Speaker 2: and then you went too far and you were like,
Speaker 2: I'll just start here, you know, like I'm sure that happens.
Speaker 4: Sometimes people have a lot.
Speaker 1: Of min thirty minutes. How bad are they at pressing
Speaker 1: the thirty second forward?
Speaker 2: You know, it's just it was a decision they made,
Speaker 2: and you know, they didn't lose sleep about it.
Speaker 4: They're not going to lose sleep about it. Anyway.
Speaker 2: We are going through the NFL schedule release that went
Speaker 2: down on May fifteenth, that is today's taping. And you know,
Speaker 2: I just think we're throwing up these graphics. You could
Speaker 2: watch this on YouTube. Check out the program on YouTube.
Speaker 2: Uh if you want to get another viewpoint and how
Speaker 2: this show looks and operates and throw up like throw
Speaker 2: up Thursday night football right now at ETP because I'm
Speaker 2: see that there's it's an issue because it's covering up
Speaker 2: Greg right now. And it is there a way to
Speaker 2: make let's play with our our head shots? Is there
Speaker 2: a way to get all take it down? Take it
Speaker 2: down a second?
Speaker 4: It's obscuring Greg that doesn't see Yeah.
Speaker 2: All right, try a different grouping of the images for video.
Speaker 4: Okay, now throw it up?
Speaker 1: Good?
Speaker 4: I like that?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this one like that.
Speaker 3: This works, but this is ridiculous. Then I'm now I'm blocked.
Speaker 3: And that works for you.
Speaker 1: But it's cleaner and it's actually even tighter on Dana
Speaker 1: looks good.
Speaker 4: It looks good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Eric said he was going to fix it. I
Speaker 3: don't see how this is how I would label it.
Speaker 3: I mean, I you know, I can understand for some
Speaker 3: of the listeners of the viewers, but I'm completely off
Speaker 3: the screen now.
Speaker 4: So nice work.
Speaker 1: This is accellently kind of amazing, just hearing marked disembodied
Speaker 1: voice behind a you know, Broncos versus.
Speaker 4: Slowly getting more angry like that I.
Speaker 3: Need to do. Do I need to discuss Thursday Night
Speaker 3: Football still?
Speaker 2: Or you know, it would be good if we could
Speaker 2: do in post production the literal steam starting to come
Speaker 2: out from on the sides of the schedule for Thursday
Speaker 2: Night Football, so pictable. All right, No, you could go
Speaker 2: back to the original one, because Mark's gonna be get mad.
Speaker 4: So all right, let's let's go.
Speaker 2: Let's go through Thursday Night because Thursday Night is again
Speaker 2: it used to be the redheaded stepchild of the primetime slate.
Speaker 2: But then the NFL network sold or NFL Media sold,
Speaker 2: or NFL sold it to Prime, and and now Prime says, no,
Speaker 2: you got to give us some good games. So we've
Speaker 2: gotten better games as a result. So what we found
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways here is that the Sunday product, ironically,
Speaker 2: which is you know what it's all about. Because of
Speaker 2: the business side of the NFL, so many games now
Speaker 2: have to be farmed out to these primetime slots. Mark
Speaker 2: that Sunday doesn't always have the best games anymore, and
Speaker 2: usually doesn't, except when you take out Sunday Night Football.
Speaker 2: But the plus side is these Island games have gotten
Speaker 2: a lot better over the years.
Speaker 3: Thoughts on that, Well, yeah, I still think that that
Speaker 3: four PM slot, whether it's Fox or CBS, will continual
Speaker 3: to have major bangers because they're paying a ton of
Speaker 3: money for that. But you're right, like the best games
Speaker 3: on paper when we're looking at it now, each one
Speaker 3: of these primetime venues are solidified. There isn't like one
Speaker 3: that's just sort of floating stinkers out there like TNF
Speaker 3: used to be. So I see on this one we
Speaker 3: can get into it. But on this slate for TNF
Speaker 3: this year, yeah, they're leading hard into divisional rivalries and
Speaker 3: they got a lot of good divisional games, especially late
Speaker 3: in the year.
Speaker 1: You know, I agree with everything you're saying, Dan, but
Speaker 1: this is the spot where you sneak in a couple teams.
Speaker 1: So we get the PAI. The Patriots get one primetime game.
Speaker 1: Oh how the Mighty have fallen? You know, they got
Speaker 1: the international game, but they have one prime time game.
Speaker 1: You do it early before their record Maybe is too bad?
Speaker 1: Is Drake May? And isn't it funny? Now? The Jets
Speaker 1: are the big team lifting up the Patriots for their
Speaker 1: old only primetime game, and then you kind of see
Speaker 1: it here. It's like the Bucks didn't get a lot
Speaker 1: of primetime love even though they won their division three
Speaker 1: street times. Let's sneak them in here. It's like the
Speaker 1: Broncos and Saints don't get a lot of love. Now
Speaker 1: let's do the Sean Payton revenge game. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's revenge, but Sean Payton comes to New
Speaker 1: Orleans and so that's like a fun game. So some
Speaker 1: teams still this is like where they slide.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's still of the of the island slots. Thursday
Speaker 2: is still going to be the landing spot in that sense.
Speaker 2: But I mean, I've been with the company for the
Speaker 2: entire run of Thursday Night Football, and it used to
Speaker 2: be it used to feel like the Jaguars and Titans
Speaker 2: played every week, and if it wasn't actually the Jaguars
Speaker 2: and Titans, it was those type of matchups almost every Thursday.
Speaker 4: And now we got Bangers.
Speaker 2: So let's go through a Week two because obviously Week
Speaker 2: one is the kickoff game and that.
Speaker 4: Goes to NBC.
Speaker 2: You have Bills, Dolphins, and then you have a rivalry
Speaker 2: game Pats Jets with new quarterbacks in the mix, Cowboys, Giants, Bucks, Falcons.
Speaker 4: So Mark, you're dead on.
Speaker 2: These are big time division rivals, Niners, Seahawks. Now we
Speaker 2: have an intra inter conference Broncos Saints Week seven, Vikings
Speaker 2: Rams Week eight, Texans Jets, Big Showdown Week nine, Week ten,
Speaker 2: Bengals Ravens Week eleven, Commanders Eagles Week twelve, o Markie Steelers,
Speaker 2: Brownies Week fourteen, So I think we got Thanksgiving their
Speaker 2: week thirteen, Week fourteen, Packers Lions, Week fifteen, Rams Niners
Speaker 2: Week sixteen, Browns are back against the Bengals, another big
Speaker 2: primetime game. And then week seventeen, two teams that are
Speaker 2: hoping to be in the postseason race Seahawks and Bears.
Speaker 3: Like that week takeout, Week eleven, Commanders Eagles. I mean,
Speaker 3: we don't know where we're gonna be about with the Commanders,
Speaker 3: But ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, those are megaton matchups
Speaker 3: between playoff teams, Like that's that's unusual for TNF six
Speaker 3: years ago.
Speaker 1: To your point, Yeah, Packers, Lions and Rams Niners fourteen
Speaker 1: and fifteen back to back. The Bengals Ravens.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 1: This does seem like they're doing everything they can to
Speaker 1: keep al as invested as possible in this last year,
Speaker 1: potentially on this contract.
Speaker 4: So the Panthers are the only one. Yeah, that that
Speaker 4: feels a little personal. It should have been like twelve,
Speaker 4: two teams, then you're not alone, you know.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but me though, GREGI like, if it's two teams,
Speaker 2: then you can say, well, you know, there's a reason
Speaker 2: and there's only so much space.
Speaker 4: But when it's just the one team, I'm.
Speaker 1: Just saying the Cardinals had only ESPN plus the Jags
Speaker 1: get the international games, but they only have one sort
Speaker 1: of secondary Monday Night football. Actually, now they have a
Speaker 1: couple of my Now, you're right, it's it's not great,
Speaker 1: but they were you could they were truly an abysmal team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, let's check you You know, we have
Speaker 2: a ton of listeners overseas, so why don't we check
Speaker 2: out the international game schedule as you know, and that
Speaker 2: the Zuzzer is giving away two of his own tickets
Speaker 2: the Jets Vikings October sixth about at the Hot Toddy.
Speaker 2: Check out social on NFL UK and Irish NFL side
Speaker 2: of things, and of course my own handles where you can.
Speaker 2: All you got to do, by the way, on that
Speaker 2: post is comment and tag a buddy and you could
Speaker 2: get those tickets.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do that. There's no there's nothing. I watched
Speaker 1: the video. Nothing in the video says that Mark and
Speaker 1: I are you know.
Speaker 2: No literally in the video and says yeah, you you
Speaker 2: must be a resident of the United Kingdom or Ireland.
Speaker 4: So we are not eligible.
Speaker 2: But we can hopefully if we're at you know, that game,
Speaker 2: we can meet those fans that I like.
Speaker 3: Where Greg's head is out though, I mean that was
Speaker 3: that's I would have done there too, if there were
Speaker 3: no stipulations.
Speaker 2: I like, I like us being involved in like a
Speaker 2: quiz show level scandal over this. That feels like a
Speaker 2: nice way, Like of all the ways that we could
Speaker 2: exit the company. That feels like the best version of
Speaker 2: our out of our ouster.
Speaker 4: Hot take.
Speaker 2: God Saved the Queen better song than God Saved the King.
Speaker 2: The lyrics had just hit harder. I thought, lyrically, it
Speaker 2: was a better song.
Speaker 1: He had a great run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's check out the schedule. I mean, King Charles,
Speaker 2: they just had his portrait. Do you see that he
Speaker 2: looks like Vigo from Ghostbusters too, like what are we doing?
Speaker 4: They made him look he looked relatively youthful and hotter
Speaker 4: than I believe he is today, by my per just
Speaker 4: my personal take, but he looked a little more fiery
Speaker 4: and youthful.
Speaker 2: But well, the reason it looks more fiery is because
Speaker 2: you could see it as what it would feel like
Speaker 2: to be in hell. I mean, that's all. It's it's
Speaker 2: quite red, that's all all right. Let's see the schedule.
Speaker 2: Nice king talking a big spot, A little king breakdown.
Speaker 2: International schedule, sen Paolo, Brazil, Friday Night, Week one. You
Speaker 2: know what, I've come around on this. I came around
Speaker 2: on this pretty quickly. I bet this is going to
Speaker 2: be an awesome vibe, great energy, and a great game.
Speaker 2: Jordan Love coming off his breakout twenty twenty three season
Speaker 2: against the Eagles, who obviously are the offseason champions as
Speaker 2: they always are, but they have some doubters to prove
Speaker 2: wrong now as a new season kicks off and they
Speaker 2: get a fresh start in Brazil and then we get
Speaker 2: three games in London. I mentioned that the Jets Viking
Speaker 2: October sixth at the Hot Toddy.
Speaker 4: You have Jaguars.
Speaker 2: Doing the back to back as they are wont to
Speaker 2: do Jaguars against Bears, so you're getting again, you're getting
Speaker 2: Caleb Williams. Hopefully the Bears are the real deal and
Speaker 2: they're a good team or an entertaining team by the
Speaker 2: middle of October and the Jaguars bounce back after a
Speaker 2: rough ending to their previous season, and then the next
Speaker 2: week you get the Pats who It's interesting, Greggy. The
Speaker 2: Pats people might not know this people in the United
Speaker 2: Kingdom do, but and surrounding territories that the Patriots, because
Speaker 2: of their winning ways, were the most popular team in
Speaker 2: that region when we first made our trips to London
Speaker 2: about five years ago. I wonder what kind of hold
Speaker 2: they have now that they've had some down years post
Speaker 2: Tom Brady. It's just interesting, but they are there obviously
Speaker 2: for a reason. They want to keep a foothole in
Speaker 2: the market. They get the Jaguars. That game's at Wembley Stadium,
Speaker 2: so let's talk about the London games.
Speaker 1: I think they have a huge foothold just based on
Speaker 1: social today because I saw the announcements for these games
Speaker 1: and every other reply just about where Patriots fans being
Speaker 1: like five make say yeah, like we're so excited because
Speaker 1: they actually haven't played in the UK. They were in
Speaker 1: Germany last year, but they haven't played in the UK,
Speaker 1: I believe in a decade, so it's been a while.
Speaker 1: So these are popular team. Bears are a very popular
Speaker 1: team in the UK. That's a fun matchup.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 1: We got we gotta get to the Hot Toddy. I
Speaker 1: guess we're going to see your team, you know, if
Speaker 1: we were picking one. I don't know if we're going
Speaker 1: to any of these, but I feel like if we
Speaker 1: were going to one, we're probably aiming for that Jets game.
Speaker 3: They do get Aaron Rodgers, you get you know in
Speaker 3: theory JJ McCarthy, that's another rookie.
Speaker 4: And I think.
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers versus Sam Darnold at the Hot Toddy, pinch me.
Speaker 4: I've woken up and gone to have.
Speaker 3: I think they're trying to squeeze least one win here
Speaker 3: for the Jaguars based on the opponent, and because you know,
Speaker 3: they only have seven games in Jacksonville, so I feel
Speaker 3: like a home game.
Speaker 4: Am I crazy? I feel like they play well over there.
Speaker 1: They've been good overall. Last week, last year, yeah, last year,
Speaker 1: turned their season around really at least for a while
Speaker 1: until until it didn't. They you know, reached the new
Speaker 1: stadium deal, which I was wondering how that would affect London,
Speaker 1: but as stipulated and it's not completely agreed to, there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff going on. But they still
Speaker 1: be coming to London one game a year. I don't
Speaker 1: think they'll be coming to anymore, or at least according
Speaker 1: to that deal, that they'll be still planning to do
Speaker 1: the one game in London. Uh even when that starts,
Speaker 1: which won't be for another five years.
Speaker 4: You'll be kind of an awesome move.
Speaker 2: If Shotkun's Sun still had the neck brace in October.
Speaker 4: You got to lean into it. I think he I
Speaker 4: think that'd be incredible.
Speaker 2: Or maybe even like maybe he's more injured, maybe he's
Speaker 2: in the you know, the old what's funnier or more
Speaker 2: pathetic than the neck brace whenever someone's in the full
Speaker 2: body cast, when you have it on the arms and
Speaker 2: the legs and you're in the wheelchair, you're just a
Speaker 2: human disaster and stuff ramp it up. And finally, the
Speaker 2: international game in Germany this year in Munich is.
Speaker 4: Against the Panthers, so.
Speaker 1: They get a stand alone game.
Speaker 2: They do, they get I guess they give them that,
Speaker 2: yet keep on, they bury the Panthers somewhere in Eastern
Speaker 2: Europe and uh and and they get they do get
Speaker 2: a nine thirty am Eastern Germany game. So Okay, I
Speaker 2: didn't know that. I didn't realize that. So so they can.
Speaker 2: So let me just walk back what I said a
Speaker 2: little bit earlier, like they didn't get nothing, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. They got, Oh, we're sending you, we
Speaker 2: are And imagine the phone calls like no, no, no,
Speaker 2: you can't be upset. We're sending you to Germany. That's
Speaker 2: an incredibly important and ferociously growing territory for US, and
Speaker 2: we've chosen you, mister Tepper, to represent us there. So
Speaker 2: they're covered a little bit there. That gives them a
Speaker 2: little bit of back end coverage from this perspective.
Speaker 3: Also, I mean, that's how you grow a German fan base.
Speaker 3: There could be a bunch of seven to nine year
Speaker 3: old first time football observers and they fall in love
Speaker 3: with the Panthers, unknowing of what state they sit in
Speaker 3: the NFC South at the moment.
Speaker 1: Maybe they'll be much better. It does make me think
Speaker 1: about the Germany game last year, though I know there
Speaker 1: was two. One of them was called Pats. But I
Speaker 1: saw the little the graphic for this one, you know, Giants,
Speaker 1: and I'm excited. Those three London games and the Germany game.
Speaker 1: They're all our NFL Network games. That's our time to shine.
Speaker 1: But I remember the graphic for last year's game in
Speaker 1: Germany and it was Tyreek Hill and Patrick Mahomes and
Speaker 1: in this time it was you know, Bryce Young and
Speaker 1: Dexter Lawrence. And I actually had to google because I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's probably Dexter Lawrence, but I'm not really sure what
Speaker 1: his face looks like. He's he is the best player
Speaker 1: on the Giants, and it was kind of a beefy face,
Speaker 1: but I had to make sure it was Dexter Lawrence.
Speaker 1: It was Dexter Lawrence.
Speaker 4: Nice. Well done, by the way, Yes, good point. Mark.
Speaker 2: Because these European football fans, they are they have long memories.
Speaker 2: I mean the fact that the Bears are a popular team.
Speaker 2: The Bears have done like nothing in forty years. But
Speaker 2: a certain age of a football fan that came up
Speaker 2: in the in the mid eighties, when the NFL's first
Speaker 2: started trickling through and getting across the sea. That's why
Speaker 2: there's a lot of Marino and dolphin fans like Handsome Hank,
Speaker 2: And then there's a lot of people are like my
Speaker 2: favorite players, Refrigerator Perry.
Speaker 4: What a specimen nut Perry was over there? So that
Speaker 4: makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, from one yard out, why didn't Walsh
Speaker 2: a python get the ball? All right, let's check out
Speaker 2: the holiday games back here in the States. Thanksgiving twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, can't wait, maybe my favorite holiday outside of Christmas.
Speaker 2: Love Thanksgiving November twenty eighth. We got Bears lines in
Speaker 2: the early game. And again there's you know, Marky, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of pressure on the Bears not to suck
Speaker 2: when as we go through these island games here on
Speaker 2: schedule release day, because if the Bears are fun and
Speaker 2: Williams is ahead of pace and I did see. We
Speaker 2: had our first trope alert around a rookie quarterback that
Speaker 2: popped up on social media earlier today, some type of
Speaker 2: beat report. I don't think it was a beat report.
Speaker 2: It might have been a TV reporter. I actually don't
Speaker 2: know who it was. I think he was a fan
Speaker 2: more or less a fan account was It said I
Speaker 2: know I shouldn't say this, but Caleb Williams as he's
Speaker 2: just throwing warm up tosses on you know, Slants, is like,
Speaker 2: he looks so comfortable, he's ready for this, Like ope, alert,
Speaker 2: Holy God, can we just let the guys get a
Speaker 2: little more deep into the summer at least before we
Speaker 2: start with that business anyway, Bears Lions on CBS, and
Speaker 2: then you have Giants Cowboys, And I'll be fair here,
Speaker 2: you know, I try to be positive about the g Men,
Speaker 2: but we need the Giants not to be one of
Speaker 2: the worst teams in the league, which they could be.
Speaker 2: That game, of course, is always going to be in Dallas,
Speaker 2: so that game could be a dog potentially, and then
Speaker 2: the Thursday Thanksgiving night game Dolphins versus Hackers. We're outside
Speaker 2: of the Super Bowl September Dolphins at this stage, so
Speaker 2: the idea is this game in Green Bay. Yes, I'm
Speaker 2: a little nervous about the Miami Dolphins in late November
Speaker 2: giving us a show, but maybe this.
Speaker 3: Year is different, or or it's a way to show
Speaker 3: us that, like in the fridge or that temperature bay,
Speaker 3: they can survive. But this slate throws me just a
Speaker 3: little bit because I think I feel like, you know,
Speaker 3: it's this always seemed like a place for like Ravens
Speaker 3: Steelers or something that just like absolutely had, like you know,
Speaker 3: conference title game implications. I just don't see that with
Speaker 3: this slate. But I kind of love the idea that
Speaker 3: we could get a really spicy Bears team here, Giants
Speaker 3: TBD and Dolphins Packers. Is uh, that's intriguing and it's
Speaker 3: just a little atypical for Thanksgiving to me.
Speaker 4: I do like sacking the Giants and the Bears both
Speaker 4: to be good might be a lot, But if one
Speaker 4: of those teams is feisty, then then I could live
Speaker 4: with it.
Speaker 1: I love Dolphins Packers. You're right though, I saw that
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, that is a It doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like a Thursday night game, but it does are
Speaker 1: a Thanksgiving night game. But Green Bay like Lambeau on
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Night. There is something spicy by that. And I
Speaker 1: was thinking about the Giants Cowboy because they had this
Speaker 1: game just two years ago. The Giants were pretty good
Speaker 1: two years ago. But this is usually the most watch
Speaker 1: game of the year. Is that game or it's the
Speaker 1: lie the two most watch games of the year Our
Speaker 1: Lions Early you know, Thanksgiving and then the next Cowboys won,
Speaker 1: and it's like maybe they just feel like it's it's
Speaker 1: team proof. You can you can throw anyone in there,
Speaker 1: you throw in a big market or whatever. But it's
Speaker 1: like people are watching that no matter what. I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not turning it off.
Speaker 2: If it's a blowout, maybe they should actually, you know,
Speaker 2: because at this point they're like, we dominate the ratings
Speaker 2: no matter what.
Speaker 4: Let's put Panthers Jags in there and see what happens.
Speaker 4: Kind of number we do.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's yeah, that's a that's a bridge good concept
Speaker 3: and I take that to the top of the network.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm gonna say it. It is my favorite,
Speaker 1: and that is the best holiday. It's past Christmas for
Speaker 1: me now? Is that because my family leaves me like
Speaker 1: three nights before Christmas and we have to pretend it's
Speaker 1: Christmas the week?
Speaker 2: Greg Rosenthal, so whatever we saw, Hi, I feel like
Speaker 2: for you and Jeneral, it.
Speaker 1: Always was as a kid, we we always celebrated the
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, it was Presence Day, but yes, Thanksgiving wins.
Speaker 4: They said President's Day.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, you celebrate the US President's on
Speaker 2: December twenty fifth.
Speaker 4: President Day.
Speaker 2: All right, let's check out Christmast further ado, somehow we
Speaker 2: made it happen because the NFL defeated days. Now Christmas
Speaker 2: falls on a Tuesday, I think Tuesday or Wednesday.
Speaker 4: It's a Wednesday.
Speaker 3: And in fact, to your point, like the one little
Speaker 3: nugget about the team that we want, like the Chiefs,
Speaker 3: who we're gonna they play on every day of.
Speaker 4: The week this season except for Tuesday. Every day of
Speaker 4: the week except for Tuesday, I read. I mean, if
Speaker 4: you go look at it, because this game seals it.
Speaker 1: But well they don't play out of Friday though, but yeah,
Speaker 1: but close, there's that one Friday game.
Speaker 2: Anybody else that gets funny Like when we were kids,
Speaker 2: like every game was on Sunday and maybe one Monday
Speaker 2: night game. And now you have the defending champion playing
Speaker 2: what six days a week?
Speaker 4: Greg they play on blacks, Oh my god, they do.
Speaker 1: I'm so they play.
Speaker 4: Every day of the week except for Tuesday. Like that's
Speaker 4: never happened to an NFL team in the history of
Speaker 4: our of the earth.
Speaker 1: Never.
Speaker 2: You just laid out another challenge for Mike North in
Speaker 2: the Park Avenue, like how can we make ca we
Speaker 2: get all seven they'll do it.
Speaker 1: They'll figure it out. They got the Black Friday Game.
Speaker 1: They really you know, it's not quite to the level
Speaker 1: of NBA where like the players like if Lebron or
Speaker 1: Curry's on, it's just like that's why, that's why they
Speaker 1: talk about them so much. That their games just like
Speaker 1: do double other games. But Mahomes and the Chiefs are
Speaker 1: kind of like that now that they're just like, anytime
Speaker 1: we need a big spot like Amazon, tell us the
Speaker 1: one thing you want the most this year, we want
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes on that Black Friday game. I swear, I
Speaker 1: bet bet that was it. And it's like, okay, we
Speaker 1: can make all that.
Speaker 4: And by the way, I hope, I hope you the listener.
Speaker 2: Have the financial wherewithal to have multiple streaming options because
Speaker 2: it continues to build up what you need to watch
Speaker 2: all these key games.
Speaker 4: Because the Christmas games this year are on Netflix. That's
Speaker 4: a new.
Speaker 3: One, and the next two years also they would get
Speaker 3: for that.
Speaker 1: They're great.
Speaker 2: So the Christmas Day games, which again is a Wednesday,
Speaker 2: but now football's played on Wednesdays. Chiefs versus Steelers one
Speaker 2: pm Eastern, and then you have Ravens versus Texans gorgeous
Speaker 2: four thirty pm Eastern. A little bit surprised that they
Speaker 2: don't have a Christmas night game.
Speaker 1: I wonder why Wednesday. I think that's why even two.
Speaker 1: I saw that there was two. I felt like that's
Speaker 1: a stretch, just because.
Speaker 3: I think it's because you had these but these teams
Speaker 3: mishmash and play each other the Saturday before, so you'd
Speaker 3: have to get another two teams.
Speaker 2: Right, because the turnaround is so brutal, you have to
Speaker 2: at least do an earlier game to do a primetime game,
Speaker 2: which you can't give all these I guess you could
Speaker 2: figure out a way. What I'm curious what the Ravens
Speaker 2: and Texans have the week after Christmas? Right, but it's
Speaker 2: after byes, so they're both playing, so that that is
Speaker 2: tough Jesus, I mean that is.
Speaker 1: That's tough. So we had Puka Akua on NFL Network.
Speaker 1: I'm using the the NFL network. We and he said
Speaker 1: they asked him what he thought about the schedule, and
Speaker 1: he said, all I look for is that is the
Speaker 1: Thursday night games, because it's like that's the that's the
Speaker 1: weeks you have to sort of almost plan ahead to
Speaker 1: prepare my body and that's just going to be a
Speaker 1: totally crazy different week than any other week. That's on
Speaker 1: the player's minds first and foremost.
Speaker 4: Think about that. Think about the by the end of the.
Speaker 2: Regular season, the physical toll of these games and these
Speaker 2: these two teams, I mean four teams playing on Wednesday,
Speaker 2: that they then have to turn around and I'd have
Speaker 2: to go before I kind.
Speaker 1: Of well, they go Saturday, they go Saturday to Wednesday.
Speaker 1: So it they those four teams. As Mark pointed out
Speaker 1: that that weird Saturday I was talking about before that's
Speaker 1: now going to be on major networks. Those teams will
Speaker 1: then flip and also play on Wendes.
Speaker 3: Think about this though, because I mean, you know, this
Speaker 3: isn't huge to us, but even from like a fantasy angle,
Speaker 3: if the game is on Wednesday versus even Thursday or
Speaker 3: the next Sunday, there's a handful of players that might
Speaker 3: be like, well, I could have played on Sunday, but
Speaker 3: I can't get out there on Wednesday. And there's teams
Speaker 3: that don't even really add a lot of like schematical
Speaker 3: intricacies for Thursday night games, or don't even practice they
Speaker 3: just do a walkthrough. So it kind of truncates everything
Speaker 3: in a way that we haven't really seen outside of
Speaker 3: that Raven Steelers Wednesday game during Corona when half the
Speaker 3: Broster's route with Corona.
Speaker 1: Now, the flip side is that's like Fantasy playoffs, and
Speaker 1: you got people who like their dfs and they like
Speaker 1: watching the games for gambling reasons or whatever, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of fun to add an extra day of that,
Speaker 1: you know, and don't Saturday and add the Wednesday of that.
Speaker 2: I'm glad we're talking about this though, because if you
Speaker 2: really want to dig in and like, what does matter
Speaker 2: in the middle of May when you look at these schedules,
Speaker 2: the turnarounds and which teams have these brutal turnarounds does matter?
Speaker 2: So And I'm citing because you know Florio, I mean,
Speaker 2: how many he's written, probably fifty five articles today about
Speaker 2: the schedule he has won. Here he mentions that there
Speaker 2: was a rule for many years that the NFL acquired
Speaker 2: teams to play only once per year with a four
Speaker 2: day turnaround. They got rid of that before last season,
Speaker 2: and now multiple teams play multiple games with only three
Speaker 2: days off between games.
Speaker 4: This year, thirteen teams do it twice.
Speaker 2: So the Jets that is a flip side of having
Speaker 2: all that, you know, the spotlight on you is that
Speaker 2: you have a lot of short weeks. The Jets, the Niners,
Speaker 2: the Seahawks, Rams, Bengals, Browns, Dolphins, Cowboys, Giants, Bears, Steelers,
Speaker 2: the Ravens, and the Texans all have multiple games with
Speaker 2: only three days off.
Speaker 1: Basically last year's playoff teams plus the Giants and the
Speaker 1: Giant those are all good teams.
Speaker 2: So the two New York teams and then playoff teams,
Speaker 2: so you know, you could you could kind of figure
Speaker 2: that out. For Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston, one short week
Speaker 2: happens between Sunday and Thursday, and the their lands on
Speaker 2: US Saturday to Wednesday for Christmas. The Chiefs also have
Speaker 2: a five day turnaround to Black Friday and a four
Speaker 2: day turnaround between Saturday, December twenty first and Wednesday, December
Speaker 2: twenty fifth. There are studies that the league has done
Speaker 2: that short week football injury rate is not higher. But
Speaker 2: you also listen to the players and they and as
Speaker 2: you just said, they have to wrap their head around
Speaker 2: it and plan and be prepared mentally as well as physically,
Speaker 2: because it's very challenging, all right, anything else, guys, before
Speaker 2: we do a little news and say goodbye, anything about
Speaker 2: the schedule that jumps out to.
Speaker 1: We get Russell Wilson returning to Denver's week two if
Speaker 1: he make if he has a job. I did think
Speaker 1: like the teams that and this is more of a
Speaker 1: schedule thing, if you were ever going to try to
Speaker 1: get into this schedule of like what's helpful. I feel
Speaker 1: like the team's divisions that play the NFC South, that's helpful.
Speaker 1: So the NFC East plays the NFC South or vice versa,
Speaker 1: that that's helpful. The AFC West, the Chiefs. The Chiefs
Speaker 1: to me have one of the even though they have
Speaker 1: the quick turnaround and they have the first place schedule,
Speaker 1: they actually have one of the easiest schedules because I
Speaker 1: think that division's pretty lame, and they play the NFC
Speaker 1: South out of division, So you know, did the victor
Speaker 1: go the spoils? I guess Chiefs.
Speaker 4: We also get Chiefs Niners week seven in that four
Speaker 4: to twenty five slot, so not everything's on prime time.
Speaker 4: I can't wait to see that one.
Speaker 1: That's good. That's fun.
Speaker 2: Let's see the NFL research department. Who I am, as
Speaker 2: you boys are quite fond of.
Speaker 4: They have.
Speaker 2: Some great tidbits in their schedule released research packet. They
Speaker 2: take a look at They have a whole section.
Speaker 4: Here on revenge. Throw some revenge games at you. You'll
Speaker 4: love revenge.
Speaker 2: Right, this is where Chris's eyes would especially glaze over.
Speaker 4: Let me see, let me see if I can find this.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break real quick, and then I'll find this,
Speaker 2: and then we'll hit a little bit of news and
Speaker 2: say goodbye.
Speaker 4: Be right back.
Speaker 2: All right, we are back as promised. And I know
Speaker 2: people were just.
Speaker 4: They couldn't.
Speaker 2: I mean, they wanted to respect the sponsors, so they
Speaker 2: didn't fast forward through the commercials. But it must have
Speaker 2: felt like an endless weight to get to the to
Speaker 2: the top ten revenge games of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: I want to hear them. I guys ready that the
Speaker 1: rust I mentioned has to be on there. I spoiled
Speaker 1: one of them.
Speaker 4: I'm sure.
Speaker 2: Etp give me some like revenge background music. Okay, all right,
Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley versus the Giants, saqua and you know what
Speaker 2: I'm sick of, like being critical of the Eagles and
Speaker 2: taking a little break from that.
Speaker 4: But also Saquon did not cover himself in glory.
Speaker 2: He was sitting courtside at Sixers games during that Sixers
Speaker 2: Knicks series. It's like he was like trying to taunt
Speaker 2: Giants fans because some Giants fans were mean to him
Speaker 2: on Twitter. Buddy, just you know what, live along and
Speaker 2: prosper my friend Star Wars reference. Just you know, have fun,
Speaker 2: enjoy yourself. You don't need to tweak Giants fans. They
Speaker 2: didn't want you to leave. That was management that decided
Speaker 2: to sign Daniel Jones. Bizarre anyway, saquon Giants week seven
Speaker 2: and eighteen, we mentioned Russell Wilson at the Broncos Week two.
Speaker 4: He throw magical, He.
Speaker 2: Turns into twenty fourteen Russell Wilson and lights up Sean
Speaker 2: Payton for four seventy and four touchdowns.
Speaker 1: That's like legit revenge. That's a real revenge game if
Speaker 1: it is but dark.
Speaker 3: But Russell Wilson was like, if you have to come
Speaker 3: from the angle that Russell Wilson was done really wrong
Speaker 3: by the Broncos.
Speaker 4: Like it.
Speaker 3: He didn't come in there and shine and then was
Speaker 3: ingloriously cut. It was like a disaster that they had
Speaker 3: to to walk away from.
Speaker 4: No, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Him and his coach didn't get along. His coach showed
Speaker 1: him up a little bit.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: They were the late season benching, which was financially justifiable,
Speaker 2: but was also you know, for a guy of Wilson's
Speaker 2: stature in the league was it was a tough one
Speaker 2: to swallow. He was released. I'm just looking at this
Speaker 2: written down. It's still crazy when you look at it.
Speaker 2: Wilson was released after two seasons into a five year,
Speaker 2: of two hundred and forty five million dollar contract he
Speaker 2: signed in twenty twenty two. Stefan Diggs versus the Bills
Speaker 2: in Week five.
Speaker 4: I'm sure he's gonna want to have many catches in
Speaker 4: that game. We'll see if he can get open still.
Speaker 2: Kirk Cousins at Vikings in Week fourteen. Aaron Jones versus Packers,
Speaker 2: Week four and seventeen.
Speaker 4: Derek Carr versus the Raiders.
Speaker 1: Oh, I kind of like that.
Speaker 4: That's good. Well that's in week seventeen. Let's see where
Speaker 4: Derek Carr exists in our life at that point. That's fair,
Speaker 4: that's fair.
Speaker 1: It could be Spencer Rattler versus the Raiders.
Speaker 4: All Right, this one, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna
Speaker 4: swing by the U.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna swing by the research department to say we
Speaker 2: need to remove this one. Calvin Ridley versus the Jaguars.
Speaker 2: I can't, I can't go there.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: They just needed a round ten number. Let's get Jakobe
Speaker 1: Brissette versus Washington or something.
Speaker 4: Montes sweat at.
Speaker 1: The Come on, I mean they needed ten fine.
Speaker 2: Sweat at Commanders. Brian Burns at Panthers. Ooh la la
Speaker 2: from Germany, im Germany.
Speaker 4: Revenge.
Speaker 1: I love Dexter Lawrence, but yeah, give give the Burns.
Speaker 4: We will have revenge up. Bryan Burns.
Speaker 2: Hacktung Baby forty nine Ers versus chiefs Ah because of
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: Wait, what order is this list in that's not buried below?
Speaker 4: Derek Carr versus the Raiders.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I love our research department. They have
Speaker 2: honorable mention. Let's keep going. Bills at Rams, Tredavious White
Speaker 2: versus the Bills.
Speaker 1: Hell, yeah, okay, Rams.
Speaker 4: You know, Devin White versus the Bucks.
Speaker 1: Ravens tox somesh on on Devin White back in the day.
Speaker 1: So that's real revenge.
Speaker 4: Ravens versus Bengals. Geno Stone versus the.
Speaker 2: Raven Chiefs at Bills twenty twenty two AFC Divisional Round rematch.
Speaker 4: We're losing. Momentum Ravens versus Steelers, Patrick Queen. Patrick Queen
Speaker 4: goes and makes a ton of money and it's his
Speaker 4: revenge game.
Speaker 2: And finally Marky me arc Jerry Judy versus the Biancles.
Speaker 3: Me Ork, I don't Jerry Judy to me? Is like
Speaker 3: if like the Broncos won that one.
Speaker 1: See they they clearly are focused on players that change
Speaker 1: teams this last year. Yeah, but I'll circle another one
Speaker 1: for you. Week thirteen, Danny Boy, Yeah, Gino Smith at
Speaker 1: the New York Jets, let's go.
Speaker 4: Okay's got that? I buy?
Speaker 2: That feels like the water is way under the bridge
Speaker 2: at this point, but it's fine. It could probably replace
Speaker 2: Geno Stone versus the Ravens. I think it could probably
Speaker 2: edge out.
Speaker 1: In met life Gino shows you proud of me?
Speaker 2: No, Dad, I could probably. I know this sounds crazy, Greg,
Speaker 2: but I could probably. Not one Jets fan has ever
Speaker 2: thought to themselves if only we had Gino Smith this
Speaker 2: whole time?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 2: News Jared Goff, Yes, the Lions have six primetime games.
Speaker 4: How about that?
Speaker 2: And Jared Goff will be the quarterback if the fates allow,
Speaker 2: and he's going to be the quarterback there for multiple
Speaker 2: years to come. Because right after we finished recording and
Speaker 2: I thought, I thought we declared vengeance, by the way,
Speaker 2: the whole industry to do this. But not an hour
Speaker 2: after we left the studio on Monday, GoF and the
Speaker 2: Lions four year, two hundred and twelve million dollar contract
Speaker 2: extension got out there. He was heading into the final
Speaker 2: year of a four year extension. He originally signed with
Speaker 2: the Rams back in twenty nineteen, traded, of course, to
Speaker 2: the Lions in twenty twenty one. Listened to this show
Speaker 2: at that time, listened to anything at the time. It
Speaker 2: was widely assumed that GoF was a bridge to whatever
Speaker 2: came next to quarterback for the Lions and nothing more
Speaker 2: than that. But instead GoF returned to playing at a
Speaker 2: high level like the early days with the Rams and
Speaker 2: became a beloved figure in Detroit, almost the rare Greggie
Speaker 2: underdog figure for a guy that was a number one
Speaker 2: overall pick who had been to a Super Bowl before
Speaker 2: he got to Detroit. So now he is amongst the
Speaker 2: highest paid players in football. He will receive one hundred
Speaker 2: and seventy million and guaranteed money on this new deal,
Speaker 2: contract runs through twenty seven, an option to remain with
Speaker 2: the team through twenty eight. It's a remarkable comeback story
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, a unique one because the
Speaker 2: circumstances are so different than a typical comeback story. But
Speaker 2: it is a comeback story. Don't get it twisted.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. There isn't quite a perfect comp to
Speaker 1: anything like this happening in NFL history, partly because we've
Speaker 1: never had these sort of contracts, but a player that
Speaker 1: was traded as a distressed asset, where goff last contract,
Speaker 1: which was very similar, I've actually believe depends on how
Speaker 1: you slice it up. I think the numbers are a
Speaker 1: little fluffed up. But there's one way to look at it.
Speaker 1: With the new money that he's like the second highest
Speaker 1: paid quarterback in new money per year average. And that
Speaker 1: was what he was when he signed the huge deal
Speaker 1: with the Rams, that he was the second highest paid quarterback,
Speaker 1: and that contract proved to be so bad that they
Speaker 1: had to trade him essentially as a like with negative value.
Speaker 1: And yet here he is just a few years later
Speaker 1: signing the equivalent to that contract. Again, it's remarkable. Basically
Speaker 1: the first three years of this are more or less guaranteed,
Speaker 1: so he he is locked in at least three twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six, which and for huge, huge money.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I think, like you always wait a couple
Speaker 3: of days to find out like if there's Fugezi elements
Speaker 3: to some of these deals. Like it's a lot of
Speaker 3: real money that he is getting, and I mean it
Speaker 3: is interesting to see what happens with him the player.
Speaker 3: But in twenty twenty six, he has like a nearly
Speaker 3: seventy million dollar cap hit, So I mean it's it's
Speaker 3: just like it, I think. But in general with the cap,
Speaker 3: like these deals don't concern you the way that they
Speaker 3: would have in the past.
Speaker 4: There's just a way to get through these.
Speaker 3: But this is like not they this is full belief
Speaker 3: in a player that the general manager knew going in
Speaker 3: and like took a chance on. And even at the draft,
Speaker 3: it's like the roster loves him, the town loves him.
Speaker 3: He's getting paid, and it's one of the it's one
Speaker 3: of the better stories because you're right, Dan, like I
Speaker 3: used to make I used to just use words to
Speaker 3: describe Jared Goff as one of the most dull to
Speaker 3: the eyes quarterbacks around and he's completely transformed the way
Speaker 3: that we look at him over the past two seasons.
Speaker 1: Can I have like a medium hot take on this,
Speaker 1: Like this contract might not be great, Like even in
Speaker 1: a best case scenario, we are in this weird spot
Speaker 1: where like the top thirteen or fourteen quarterbacks all get
Speaker 1: to be about the highest paid quarterback in the league
Speaker 1: for a little while, but they're not even Like the
Speaker 1: fact that Jared Goff essentially is getting the same contracts
Speaker 1: as Joe Burrow and Josh Allen and stuff, and think
Speaker 1: he's nowhere near as good a player, Like that's that's
Speaker 1: not that helpful to the Lions. I don't think you
Speaker 1: want to. You maybe just don't have a choice. But
Speaker 1: like he's significant, Like his numbers are very poor against pressure,
Speaker 1: they always have been. He needs things to be right.
Speaker 1: He's somewhere in like the eight to twelve range, and
Speaker 1: that's great. They he stabilized them. He's perfect for them.
Speaker 1: But like just as a pure like analytical numbers thing,
Speaker 1: like it's not great for them that they basically have
Speaker 1: to give him Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow's contract when
Speaker 1: he's nowhere near as good as those players. I mean, Kelly,
Speaker 1: it's worth noting, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, who's the big the biggest winner or all
Speaker 2: these quarterbacks that are better than him? Like right, Like,
Speaker 2: well they just raised the floor. So if you're now
Speaker 2: I eight even feels strong. I like golf a lot,
Speaker 2: but I feel like, and we'd have to do and
Speaker 2: we'll do this exercise, We'll do little Dalton scale at
Speaker 2: some point this offseason. But I would say he's in
Speaker 2: that ten to twelve range maybe, And and if he's
Speaker 2: getting paid this outrageous sum, that just lifts it up
Speaker 2: for everybody else. I feel like, ultimately, though, in a
Speaker 2: lot of ways, like the Lions were in a tough
Speaker 2: spot because what are you gonna do? You're gonna play
Speaker 2: hardball with GoF You're gonna move on from golf like
Speaker 2: you're gonna or are you gonna try to keep this
Speaker 2: the ship which is running on very the fuel is
Speaker 2: like high octime, high octane, good vibes in Detroit and
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, a lot of feeling about this.
Speaker 4: This could be the year.
Speaker 2: Hey the quarterback, you heard it, You heard those fans
Speaker 2: hens of that, hundreds of thousands of Detroit or is
Speaker 2: chanting his name. It's they overpaid, I'm sure, but if
Speaker 2: if you're a quarterback that could play at a high
Speaker 2: level in that offense, there are worse ways to spend
Speaker 2: your money.
Speaker 3: I also like the Lions are, and not like in
Speaker 3: an annoying way that I think, like the Eagles get
Speaker 3: on your radar, Dan obviously, but like they just kind
Speaker 3: of Brad Holmes and the whole front up, they do
Speaker 3: things their own way, and they kind of they believe
Speaker 3: what they believe and they've been proven correct building this team,
Speaker 3: and it's like they got this done before, like Dak
Speaker 3: Prescott gets paid or too.
Speaker 4: I mean there's other quarterbacks sitting out there.
Speaker 3: There's a Trevor Lawrence sitting out there and other dudes
Speaker 3: Jordan Love where it's like these contracts are should have
Speaker 3: happened in some cases, I think twos is a is
Speaker 3: a mysterious one. How to handle that, But like now
Speaker 3: it adds like a little heat to all of those
Speaker 3: deals as well.
Speaker 2: By the way, it's the coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles
Speaker 2: that I have a problem with, not the Eagles themselves.
Speaker 3: Well, but I mean when they're like the Eagles think
Speaker 3: differently It's like, I think the Lions think differently, but
Speaker 3: it's not on everyone's radar because they're probably closer to
Speaker 3: being America's team than the Cowboys for many.
Speaker 4: And one other transaction.
Speaker 2: Marquez Valdez Scantling, formerly of the Chiefs who won a
Speaker 2: Super Bowl, made a few plays there on the way
Speaker 2: to the Lombardy has signed with the Bills. And you know,
Speaker 2: we did that exercise a couple of maybe last week
Speaker 2: looking at some position groups and I pulled the Bill's
Speaker 2: depth chart and trying to make sense of it in
Speaker 2: a post Digs world, And yeah, MVS is just like
Speaker 2: yet another guy in that room.
Speaker 4: It's you take a look at this Bill's depth right now.
Speaker 4: This is listen.
Speaker 2: We're putting a lot of faith in Josh Allen. The
Speaker 2: offensive line is good, and the running back broke out
Speaker 2: last year, James Cook. So we're not gonna say the
Speaker 2: Bills are gonna have stroke struggle scoring points.
Speaker 1: But he's probably their wide receiver for although I think
Speaker 1: he actually adds some value just because they didn't really
Speaker 1: have like an outside burner.
Speaker 2: Usually he keeps on signing with the right quarterbacks. I'll
Speaker 2: get I have to give MBS that.
Speaker 1: He's usually good for like four hundred yards in the
Speaker 1: regular season, but then suddenly it's the AFC Championship game
Speaker 1: and he's like two for seventy five with a game
Speaker 1: winning play, and so maybe he'll keep that going. But yeah,
Speaker 1: your your depth chart would be what there's no one.
Speaker 2: This is awesome. They are the just the guy all stars.
Speaker 2: Here we go. Curtis Samuel, I know we like him.
Speaker 2: We got the rookie second round pick, Kean Coleman, who
Speaker 2: knows what he's going to give you a year one,
Speaker 2: you got Khalil Shakir. You have you have Chase Claypool's
Speaker 2: in the building. You have kJ Hamler in the building.
Speaker 2: You have Andy Isabella in the building. You now have
Speaker 2: Marcuzveldez Scantling in the building. Mac Hollins is in the building,
Speaker 2: Quintes Cephas is in the building.
Speaker 4: What a motley crew. They just need to tell those
Speaker 4: guys the pop.
Speaker 3: It just reminds me of like the last team MBS
Speaker 3: was on a bunch of guys in the wide receiver room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little better a little bit. Shakir is a
Speaker 1: nice player, Damuel's a nice player. They're a little similar though, But.
Speaker 4: They're leaning on a rookie to do a lot quickly too.
Speaker 1: You're gonna lean on Dalton Cancada. I think they're hoping
Speaker 1: at least yeh.
Speaker 2: Finally, in the news, I don't know if you saw this,
Speaker 2: but Tom Brady has come out and said he regrets
Speaker 2: the Netflix roast mark that you attended last weekend.
Speaker 4: He said that he on.
Speaker 2: Some level misread it and he didn't realize the effect.
Speaker 2: Let's see, he was on the Pivot podcast and he
Speaker 2: was upset about how it impacted his children, the people
Speaker 2: he cares about most in the world. So he has regrets,
Speaker 2: and I should I should throw out there that I
Speaker 2: was texting with a friend of the podcast, Nicki Glazer,
Speaker 2: who was the breakout star of the roast, and we
Speaker 2: were just commiserating about this. Nikki, who was on the
Speaker 2: show super Bowl week, had no connection to the sporting
Speaker 2: world and then shows up at this roast and her
Speaker 2: career goes through the stratosphere and becomes linked to Tom
Speaker 2: Brady kind of forever as a result.
Speaker 4: Can someone say sneaky back door flashpoint focus?
Speaker 1: Yes, I.
Speaker 4: Think so. She I mean, I mean.
Speaker 3: She noted to us at the Super Bowl and she
Speaker 3: said this since when people asked about you know, why
Speaker 3: she did the Roads, but that she had no connection
Speaker 3: football at all and was it was it was Taylor
Speaker 3: Swift that got her involved. And you know, she she
Speaker 3: wrote a lot of the her own stuff. She she
Speaker 3: went through a lot of her material on Stern that
Speaker 3: she didn't use. Got a little bit of help too.
Speaker 3: But like I think I texted you guys during the show,
Speaker 3: this was the runaway hit from the night. There was
Speaker 3: a lot of good stuff, but she was the runaway hit.
Speaker 2: But as for Tom Brady, like I mean, yeah, you
Speaker 2: see the reaction and you didn't want to do it,
Speaker 2: but you knew what was gonna come up.
Speaker 4: I would imagine topically during that during a rose.
Speaker 1: I listened to it, and I don't think he totally
Speaker 1: had like wrapped his head around it for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: just that like he said, it affected his kids, and
Speaker 1: I guess he just like for some reason didn't connect
Speaker 1: the dots of like, oh, yeah, they're going to bury
Speaker 1: me related to my divorce and that that's gonna hurt
Speaker 1: my kids, he said. He said, the rest of it
Speaker 1: was fine. Everything was about me was fine. It was
Speaker 1: a fun night, Like I love comedy all this stuff. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think he even fully said that I regret
Speaker 1: doing it, but he he does regret that part of it.
Speaker 4: Oh, I think he regrets doing it. Gregory, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: guess you're right.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't he said, he I wouldn't do that again
Speaker 1: because of the kids, and yeah, shout out. You know Nicky,
Speaker 1: you know, the the AFC couldn't stop Tom Brady, but
Speaker 1: Nicki Glazer did, you know?
Speaker 2: And like, Nicky and I go way back, and we
Speaker 2: would joke about how like I was like a sports
Speaker 2: guy and she didn't know anything about sports and didn't
Speaker 2: care about sports. And then I said, isn't it ironic
Speaker 2: that like being involved with this sports event like changed
Speaker 2: your career forever and sent you into the stratosphere. She
Speaker 2: kind of had a monoculture moment out of it, which
Speaker 2: is just so crazy. But you know, Tom, I don't know. Listen,
Speaker 2: Tom lost thirty million on Crypto. Tom has made some
Speaker 2: some strange decisions in his life, and this is another one.
Speaker 2: He's gonna fascinating guy to track. Now He's going to
Speaker 2: go into the Fox booth. Is that going to be
Speaker 2: a similarly similarly disastrous decision?
Speaker 4: We shall see a.
Speaker 1: Little bit of a like a wandering soul.
Speaker 4: I think, so, I think there's something going on there.
Speaker 1: But I do want to say, as much as you know,
Speaker 1: I love everything I've worked on, when it comes to
Speaker 1: the flashpoint focus, I do want to say, like, as
Speaker 1: executive producers, I would have thought if that was a
Speaker 1: flashpoint focus now, we probably should have. We should have
Speaker 1: probably mentioned, as you're talking about Mark and I, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about you guys that what would you.
Speaker 4: Have done differently? Greg, you tell us.
Speaker 2: I mean would usually it's not the gaffer's role to
Speaker 2: be sharing this, but go ahead.
Speaker 1: I would have maybe mentioned or said the word flashpoint
Speaker 1: focus at some point in the Nikki Glazer conversation.
Speaker 2: No, I think Mark, I think I called it a
Speaker 2: uh sneaky back door flashpoint focus, which I think it was,
Speaker 2: And they have industry wise, they have backdoor pilots things
Speaker 2: like that where it doesn't seem like it in the moment,
Speaker 2: but you look back and like, oh okay, and I
Speaker 2: see they had something cooking.
Speaker 4: The whole time. I knew what you were saying.
Speaker 1: I think up a sneaky backdoor flashpoint focused song with
Speaker 1: Las said, all right, good show.
Speaker 4: Get up. We'll be back on Monday.
Speaker 2: Oh before we say goodbye, Mark, Uh, do you want
Speaker 2: to share with the audience why you weren't here on
Speaker 2: Monday's episode?
Speaker 3: I want to compliment uh some of our listeners because
Speaker 3: someone sent me a link to there he goes to flute.
Speaker 3: People were like, oh, what's the flute about? Because we
Speaker 3: had talked about floutests and flutes during the you know,
Speaker 3: big Funk song. But someone connected the dots that I
Speaker 3: went to a Los Angeles Renaissance fair.
Speaker 1: Wait, how did someone who are the who is setting up?
Speaker 3: Because I think these are like the the It was
Speaker 3: a thread of people trying to guess and I was
Speaker 3: like stunned that someone pieced it together.
Speaker 4: Uh that in the LA region that they start? What
Speaker 4: the I don't know. It wasn't It wasn't like.
Speaker 1: This. This was on the Reddit board.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like it was not.
Speaker 3: It was just someone pieced together and someone else like, Wow,
Speaker 3: that's a really interesting like theory or something. I was like,
Speaker 3: how did how did they possibly know that? But I
Speaker 3: went with some friends. I had never been to one
Speaker 3: in my life. I had no idea what it would
Speaker 3: be like. It was about ninety six degrees out with
Speaker 3: a burning sun. I just was happy to get out
Speaker 3: of there without a sunburn. But it was a it
Speaker 3: was an experience, and I made sure that no photos
Speaker 3: leaked because I did. I was given a slight costume
Speaker 3: slash outfit to wear. It never arrived, it was It
Speaker 3: was sent to my building, but then was either stolen
Speaker 3: or the package was put somewhere in correct, so I
Speaker 3: had to buy something else on Hollywood Boulevard on the fly.
Speaker 4: And it was an absurdist looking thing that I'll have
Speaker 4: to share with the audience.
Speaker 3: I really don't even know if I have a photo,
Speaker 3: because like I said, it was ninety like eight degrees
Speaker 3: and this was like a furry like tunic that was
Speaker 3: so hot that I was dying.
Speaker 4: So it wasn't on me for long. But I will
Speaker 4: if I can find it. If I can find a photo,
Speaker 4: I will, out of honor, I will provide you.
Speaker 2: Wearing I like to picture furry tunic is probably what
Speaker 2: I would have guessed. A veil of flowers and then
Speaker 2: like pantaloons and then kind of like moccasins that like
Speaker 2: kind of curled up almost like a like a like
Speaker 2: an elves.
Speaker 1: No I imagine like the puffy pirate shirt from Seinfeld, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing.
Speaker 3: It wasn't that furry, But like I made, I with
Speaker 3: a good attitude. I decided to not be like the
Speaker 3: only one not in our group dressed up.
Speaker 4: But there was there was a there was a limit
Speaker 4: to it to it, that is for sure. You know,
Speaker 4: I can't believe I'm telling you this. I could have
Speaker 4: said that the incredible story.
Speaker 1: No, I like this is the new Mark. He's yeah,
Speaker 1: you're on a journey Mark and you're.
Speaker 4: Going through like new adventures.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And you know, as as someone who is now you know,
Speaker 2: married for a long time.
Speaker 4: I just celebrated my twelfth anniversary.
Speaker 2: You know, the idea of not having to do things
Speaker 2: I don't want to do is something that I really
Speaker 2: one of the best, very best things about weddings. But
Speaker 2: you're not You're not there right now with your life.
Speaker 2: So but I'm I'm I'm hoping you made the most
Speaker 2: of an event.
Speaker 4: I would say this, it was definitely for adults. I
Speaker 4: would put it that way.
Speaker 3: It was not like there were some kids running around,
Speaker 3: but it was for adults in many ways, and I
Speaker 3: found that angle of it to be intriguing.
Speaker 1: I also believe that Mark is a man who does
Speaker 1: what he wants, and that you might not want to
Speaker 1: be dressing up in a furry tunic.
Speaker 4: Dan.
Speaker 1: I know I'm not, but I think Mark Mark probably
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. If he did it, he wanted to on
Speaker 1: some level.
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm just gonna apply thank you. I
Speaker 4: was like I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: It, and so naive.
Speaker 4: Greg. No, it was enjoyable, had a good time.
Speaker 2: Maybe the Renaissance Fair is something because I could see Mark, you.
Speaker 4: Know, Mark pre spirit and he float around.
Speaker 2: I could like, I get picture Mark. Oh yeah, I'll
Speaker 2: float around like the the fair grounds for a few hours,
Speaker 2: like on a Sunday.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know some of these events, it's like, Wow, Mark
Speaker 2: went to this, Mark went to the roast Tomorrow, Mark's
Speaker 2: going here, Mark's going there.
Speaker 4: It's like the roast was connected to our career on
Speaker 4: some level.
Speaker 1: I think roast was very normal. I'm not gonna a
Speaker 1: lot of people were at the roast.
Speaker 4: O Greg, all right? Anything else? Anything else? No? All right?
Speaker 4: In that case, we'll be back on Monday. What we're
Speaker 4: going to talk about? What do we talk about after
Speaker 4: the schedule.
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's some OTAs and you never know, so
Speaker 2: make sure you check out the show. We'll certainly find
Speaker 2: something fun to chatter about with the league. Thank you
Speaker 2: for checking this show out. Until next time, beat the Call.