NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 18 Game Regular Season; Fearless Predictions for October 15th

Episode Date: July 16, 2019

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus and Chris Wesseling bring you all of the latest news around the NFL including Ezekiel Elliot talking about holding out (10:08) the status with the proposed 18 game regular season (21:07) and what Mike Vrabel would do to win a super bowl. (30:36). The heroes give their fearless predictions for a few months from now including a very large scandal and an unexpected losing season. (33:30)Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast has had enough of the offseason. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined in a conference room filled with some heroes. Chris Wessling right across from me. Hey, Dan. You hear that? Wes, you hear that?

What is it? I hear something. It's like a mist. I see a shadowy figure. Not a league figure. A mysterious. Scrounging. Sender.

Good physical shape. It's a specimen. How you doing, guys? Mark! Welcome back. He's alive. Welcome back, Mark. Thank you.

Thank you. From the wilderness. I have to say that I think I cracked the code on how to schedule summer vacation, and I will literally be doing this next year and every year after that I'm employed here, is you have to sandwich your to backload your vacation and sandwich it around the July 4th week because it was my intention to be in here that week of shows and to be plugging away. but then the week previous, when I was somewhere on the East Coast, you guys recorded the July 4th episode.

So I simply had no responsibilities at all that week, and it turned into this epic work stay away. So you were here. We're piecing some of this together now in real time, Wes and I. So you were here that July 4th week, quote unquote, working. I mean, I was here. Working is the stretch. I mean, you know.

Because there was some thought, and I know when you're on vacation don't expect it to be tracking the podcast closely or even Twitter you didn't seem active on social media there was some thought on the show and amongst the audience that perhaps you'd finally done it you had detached from the mainframe

and gone on to the next thing in life or whatever that may be including working at a CVS somewhere in middle America I mean I pondered all the possibilities because suddenly and I guess I would imagine you're the only one that could really even have had this experience where when you're away

for three weeks from this show which we've done religiously outside of being gone or maybe a week here or there I started to forget that I was even on this show I started to like I didn't listen to a lick of it

so you're right I had no idea what was happening and I kind of I would say that I missed it but it was a very strange experience and this sounds cheesy but it made me think the last night I was like

I kind of miss these guys like I have not done a show with these people in so long and so the three of you and Greg is not here today but I wanted just to say that it's great to be back it was very awkward to be so if any of this thing comes to a crashing

halt at some point the transition will be rough for all of us I predict we felt the same way we said we missed Mark and it did feel like a long time we didn't really see or hear from you either and then you started piecing together other things like you drop the NFL from your Twitter handle

very coincidental your desk looked more Spartan than ever? That's been the case for a while. But the name drop of the NFL I've been working on for a long time, and it triggered immediately when I took the vacation. So it is suspicious. And Greg made the good point on our last show that I think we all kind of felt, although we would have missed you so much,

that like Ben Affleck's character and Goodwill Hunting, the best part of his day was walking up to Damon's house and hoping that he wouldn't be at the door to go to the construction site because he had just left without saying goodbye, Damon, to gone on to something that kind of appeased him, fulfilled him as a man. And if that would have happened to you, we would all have been sad, but we also would have been like, we get it. Greg may be less sad than the rest, but I...

Some birds aren't meant to be caged by. No, and Matt Damon has life options that I do not have, so I'm back. All right, so Mark's back. We're getting there. We're getting close to getting... I'd use the pop culture reference with the Avengers. There's some type of stones or something? Infinity stones, I think.

You looked at me with what you had said. You collect the stones, and then when you get them all, you win the battle against the monsters, something like that? In a big glove, yes. In a glove? Yeah. Oversized glove? It's like a metal glove that fits whoever's hand.

You know about this. I've seen it because I have kids that are obsessed with it. That's what we're going for. We want all the infinity stones that they are in the giant power glove. Remember the power glove and Nintendo? Yes, I do. I'd say we're not as a failed venture. We're more like kidney stones than a penny stones.

Ouch. That improv class? Yeah, right off. Ricky's back. I love it. I love we're in these conference rooms, and Ricky's not behind the glass, but right next to us.

It feels like a different show, and I like it. I also like that every time we go to a new conference room, it reminds me it brings back bad memories of meetings connected to this show. this was the room where in a it was again there were probably 12 people here we were on one side of the table all these shadow league figures on the other being shouted down out i don't even need to get into what it was about but being told that we couldn't do something for the show that we wanted to do it was another it was spearheaded by a bald a bald man that's all i'll say a very serious very serious mind self serious bald man who told us we couldn't do what we wanted to do and now he's gone as well. So that's the other nice little recurring theme, all these evil shadowy league figures who stood in the way of our great podcast,

our humble podcast, just being washed away while we survived. Got a sinister feel. I did hear one thing that you two did a show together and people gave it high ratings, which that put me at ill at ease also just thought maybe they've found something better than what we have already.

I'm never sure how to figure out where to find these ratings. Wes and I took note of it. we had a private dinner to discuss, options. Just leave it at that. I don't think the Greg Mark Pod would do as well. All right, this is the Monday edition of the Around the NFL podcast. A lot to get to. It is still the quiet season, but things are starting to percolate now.

Think of it like an old graveyard in the thriller video, you know, during the interlude or all of a sudden things start moving going bump in the night because the NFL slowly coming back to life. Corpses coming out of the ground. It does sound like a horror show. But it's back, you know, and we, and next week, teams will report, I think teams are even reporting this week, right, to train of camp or is it next week?

I think it's the 21st. 21st. So we're getting there, and once that happens, not only is the new NFL season and full swing, essentially, we will go back to three times a week when that happens. but for now we have another week of two shows. And on today's show, July 15th, still, you know, very, you know, it's the middle of the summer. So let's not get crazy about like we're in the middle of the league here all of a sudden.

Yeah, money's drop at the beginning was a blatant lie. We are not ready for the – Not at all. Well, was it impatient for the season to start or something like that? Total fabrication. In a couple weeks, we were at West Manor. What did we call your – Westlvania?

I don't know. Westlvania. Over the weekend, had a great time. I brought the boys and my wife, Emily, and you really have brought the spirit of Tai B to the west side of Los Angeles. You know, you've got people. You have lepers coming. You have neighbors across the street. Neighbors next door.

You know, friends, family, foes. Everyone's welcome at Westlvania. Well, I like inviting people to things, but also, I think when you've been through something like cancer, like to me, one of the reasons I'm into cooking. now is one of my life goals is just to surround myself with people I enjoy being around and totally shun the rest of society. I like that you're bringing foes over, though, according to Dan. And lepers.

Well, not foes. Just neighbors. Delicious ragu, Wes. Oh, yeah, I made the ragu that I talked about making for a dead man, Anthony Bourdain. That's right. That's right on our previous show. Check it out. All right.

Anyway, so July 15th, what if we made some predictions three months from today October 15th of 2019 that will be the Tuesday just so you know after week six completes Monday night football is the 14th it's a matchup between two teams I forgot who the matchup was it's fine but week six complete where will we be in the NFL so a couple predictions each but before that we do that how about some news Come back, colonels with Mark Sessler. Come back, colonels with Mark Sessler. Come back, colonels with Mark Sessler.

Come back, colonels with Mark Sessler. Come back, colonels with Mark Sessler. Come back, colonels with Mark Sessler. The rain. of your voice, Dan. He missed this. He missed me. That song I did not miss.

Going to be real with you there. Let's get into it. Ezekiel Elliott. According to a report from pro football talk, he has privately said that he's planning a training camp holdout. Oh, boy. Okay, so of course, last week, Melvin Gordon of the Chargers said he was looking to holdout until he gets a new deal.

and Zeke might be in the same boat per league source. He is saying he will hold out training camp. He wants a new contract, but unlike Melvin Gordon, Zeke Elliott-West is not in a contract year, but he wants to get that guap and he wants it now. Anything to be worried about here as a Cowboys fan? Well, it's Charles Robinson from Yahoo added some context to this report,

and he's basically saying, talks have been ongoing, and this week will be very important as far as the, I guess, tenor of those talks. If it's positive, that's all Zeke Elliott needs to know, and he's going to report for camp. But if it goes haywire and it goes sideways, then he knows in his back pocket I can hold out a training camp and see if I can force their hand. Unlike Melvin Gordon, this guy is the engine that makes the offense go, and he is their team identity.

Yeah, it's almost like Gordon's trying to make that argument, but, Zeke doesn't need to make it because it's clear as day that their offense once again will evolve around him entirely. And that's one area where I kind of trust Jerry Jones because he is very faithful to his star players. And, you know, for years probably got criticized for overpaying his own guys. But they're not going to allow this, I think, to turn into some sort of monstrous holdout, no way. Well, here's the thing. Whereas Melvin Gordon does not carry the chargers the way Zeke does the Cowboys, Gordon also has injury issues, which has not been an issue with Zeke,

but Zeke has off-the-field issues, which would be something I guess could potentially cause, give a team pause. However, I don't think this is going to be a situation like you think back. What did the Cowboys do the last time they had an elite rusher who wanted money to Marco Murray? They just ran him into the ground, waited until the contract ran out and got the best years out of Murray and then let him go. I'd be surprised if it happens with Zeke because he is kind of, in some ways, with Dak

and Jara the face of the franchise and I think they'll get a deal done this feels like something that will get done whereas with Melvin Gordon I don't see it I think he's like so Zeke makes just north of 9 million next season 2020 and he's looking at Todd Gurley

scheduled to make 17 million plus in what is going to be a reduced role going into this year it's like it makes complete sense for Zique to say pay me now the way DeMarco Murray played in his career year that's the way Zee's

Zique plays every game. That's the production you expect out of him every single game. And I think that's the difference. The Cowboys know that he's their best player. Let's move on today. Monday was the deadline for franchise tagged players to get deals done. And we got a couple here that did get done. And one notable name did not get done.

Let's start with the guys that got it done. Grady Jarrett and the Falcons agree to a four-year $68 million contract. from rap sheet the deal comes with 42 and a half millions and guarantees they got the deal done a little more than an hour to spare ahead of the 4 p.m. Eastern deadline on Monday for franchise tag players he had signed his tag for 15.2 million back in April and the two sides kept working at it and where does that put Jarrett now 17 million per year average on the four-year pack places Jarrett behind only Aaron Donald 22 and a half million and Fletcher Cox 17.1 million among interior defensive lineman, Wes,

does he deserve to be in that neighborhood? Yeah, based on the timing of this contract and the franchise tag, he deserves it. I think if you look at his breakout game basically came in the Super Bowl against the Patriots. I believe he had three sacks. And since then, he's been in sort of the Gino Atkins, Jerell Casey tier, just behind Aaron Donald and Fletcher Cox,

who I think are accepted as the two better ones there. I think he's extremely, at all. He's been totally consistent. He's 26 years old. He could get a third contract from the Falcons at some point. And their front office finds a way to get these deals done. And this is a major bounce back defense this year because of all the injuries they had last year. You're getting them all back and he's at the center of it. Another big time star of the Falcons looking for deals, Julio Jones, the wide receiver. Rapsheet reports that Jones on an extension is now the Falcons, quote, most pressing priority, but it could take a while. So keep an eye on that. Another player who got a long-term deal ahead of the deadline.

Robbie Gould is staying in San Francisco. After all, after all this, Robbie Gould signs a deal. Tom Pelliserro reported Monday that the Niners and the kicker agreed in principle on a long-term deal. they had up until the deadline today and why is this a surprise it's a four-year deal worth 19 million first two years fully guaranteed from rap sheet why is this a surprise because Robbie Gould's been putting it out there

he didn't want anything to do with staying in San Francisco there's some tough talk on both sides here a lot of people were connecting Gould to Chicago and a song's so good it's fantastic it gets better every time we play it but at the end of the day money talks and blank walks Mark Sessler I like watching West move is

body right now to this music you know i mean you have the but this whole thing was a bit mystifying because he was talking about wanting to be close to his family in the midwest well you know what makes the family feel connected how about millions of dollars flowing into your checking account that connects families this guy's like he's like the nick casario of kickers you think he's out the door he doesn't want anything left to do with his old employer and they pull him back in and guess what now you can take a private jet to chicago whenever you want please build in that house no problem now the bears don't have a kicker Well, they still don't have...

I mean, if this was their plan, like, they, you know, that was just reaching to begin with. Maybe a better plan than signing a guy named Blewett. Yeah. At least they got Blewett out of the building. What a disaster. One player did not get his long-term deal ahead of Monday's deadline. DeVian Clowny, the two sides, the Texans and Clowney,

failed to get business done. Didn't sound like it ever got serious. It was serious about happening. I heard, I was doing some, you know, reading this morning. I heard that part of the issue between Clowny and the Texans is Brian Gain, Pearl River's finest, who is no longer with the organization. He wanted an extension for Clowny. Bill O'Brien, not so hot about the idea.

Gain gets washed out, and Bill O'Brien, they're not even hiring a general manager this season. So it's Billy O'Brien's show there, so perhaps connect the dots. Dan, you have been perhaps on this podcast the most vocal Texan supporter over the past. couple seasons i'd say so are you a little worried about the i guess chaos chaos is the word i'm thinking of who's running the ship and what's the future like because there's not much depth on this roster that's very star heavy i get it and uh the idea that they're antagonizing jadavian clowny uh and perhaps not looking to keep a star pass rusher we just talked about it on last week show i don't know if he's in the superstar club i don't have him in mind but he is obviously a big time

impact player. I bet his contract demands are in the Superstar Club. Absolutely. So you want to keep those guys healthy and productive. And I don't know if it's a smart idea not to do business with clowny, but it doesn't sound like they're going to, to your greater question. You know what? Bill O'Brien seems like maybe a prickly guy to deal with.

But they've had results under him. I know not Super Bowl results. No, but that team has been very competitive. They're defending division champions. they have in Deshawn Watson, a guy that you could build around for a decade. I think they're okay. I know it's not the deepest roster, but I think they're going to be competitive in that division

regardless. If you got the last two years of Clowney over the course of his career, would this just have been done last off season or before? Because now you have to ask, like, you call him a star pass rusher, but sacks aren't his number one trade. I think

he does a lot well, but how do you pay him like Von Miller? I think it's a tricky contract. Speaking of Watson, he was, of course, and Mark, this is breaking news to you, but he was added to the superstar club. Well, this one, you know, like, I did not spend a lot of time on Twitter, but it was hard not to gauge the reaction to this piece that you wrote last week. Highly critical reaction.

It started building like a, like a snowball turning into, what do they call a giant snowball? Is it the avalanche? Yeah. I mean, that would be, that would be the end game would be an avalanche. Like the Indiana Jones type thing only is, you know, it got big. It was chasing after me. I don't think there's a name for that. That was a boulder, by the way, but fair enough.

Yeah, I know. But like the snowball version of a boulder is what I meant. Okay. Snow boulder. Anyway. It started to pick up the heat and the criticism because not only did I put Watson in, I took Tom Brady out, you know, even Barstool took the stinky cheese. Really?

Yeah, they wrote a whole article up about it and could have predicted that. They weren't happy with it. They gave a nuanced take on why. the NFL.com reporter was wrong, which, you know, whatever. Thanks for amplifying my piece. I'll take the clicks. You really handled this well. You haven't mentioned?

I had no idea there was this kind of strife going on in your life. I mean, Will Brinson turned on you a little bit, I thought, on Twitter today. Not a, I wouldn't know. Turn is strong, but he had a heel turn. Sort of asked you where you were coming from, and you openly acknowledged if I saw your response that you had no idea what you're doing. When you write something in a Starbucks on a Thursday night in early July about football, Sometimes you just write it

And then you just send it off to your editor And you forget about it What I forgot about is when there's nothing going on in the NFL And you write that Tom Brady's no longer a superstar And it's on the NFL.com platform A lot of people are going to write about that And people aren't going to be happy But I could take it

You see these shoulders, West, powerful Put it on me And you know what else None of it matters It doesn't matter what their opinions of Tom Brady It doesn't matter what your opinion of Tom Brady is or their opinion of your opinion. I'm not sure Dan agrees with that.

Slow down. September 8th football games are going to start, and what you thought about Tom Brady in July is going to mean nothing. Take it easy. Unless I'm right, because then I'll be bringing it up on a near constant basis. One of these days I will be right. Moving on, this came out late last week, a report in the Wall Street Journal

that part of the negotiations toward the new CBA involve the pitch of an 18-game season coming from the league side. This is something we've heard for years now, but now it's something that's kind of tangible that you could talk about because it's part of the negotiations. Union Executive Director DeMora Smith confirmed that report essentially and had this to say about it. I don't see an 18-game schedule under any circumstance being in the best interest of our players.

If somebody wants to make an 18-game proposal, we'll look at it. I haven't seen anything that makes me think that it would be good for the players. Thoughts. Mark, you're not happy about it. Well, to me, it's pure greed. It's the concept of just more and more and more. This football has thrived in this age of media and television because its biarrhythms are set perfectly to American schedules. and we don't need two extra games.

And the whole concept of adding games was to remove preseason games. You're now telling me that I get why the players don't like it. What's in it for the fan that has to decide when they're buying tickets to a game, which one is going to suddenly have quarterback X starting instead of a star player if you're going once a year because the tickets already cost a bundle? How do coaches have to suddenly treat their rosters like fantasy football lineups where you're shuffling offensive linemen and star players and outside of injury, you're going to have to take your best players out two games a season.

I mean, it's riddled with issues. I don't see a single thing about it that makes sense to me at all. I love to hear someone come up with a reason why it's better for anyone at all. Wes, will anyone think about the fantasy teams, too? What have you, 1816 proposal where your biggest stars aren't playing two weeks? Come on. Well, there's all these can of worms that will be open, and Mark alluded to that.

but you know you have to satisfy the player health thing first and if it if you find a plan that makes sense where they knock preseason games down to like one for established players and one for roster hopefuls and then make it 18 games but players have to sit for two games but then how do you that kind of makes sense to me you're starting to satisfy the players get an extra buy week so you're satisfying some of that but at what point do you fall do you solve the quarterback issue you can't have quarterbacks sitting for two games and then play backups and that decides who goes to the playoffs. Well, one idea is that they put all this protection in for certain players, including, of course, quarterbacks. What if they are exempt from the sit for two games?

But, you know, other players that are in, you know, more high-risk positions, put it that way, would be eligible for such a thing. I mean, it just seems a little, you know what? Everything's perfect the way it is. Right. Like Mark was saying, 16 games is perfect. I know it's not as, it doesn't make as much money, but it just works, and it's worked since 1977 or whatever, and there's no reason to mess with it.

When are you starting the schedule, by the way? Are we suddenly starting the regular season in August, or are we going to go deep into February? Give me a break on that front. You guys know, because this has been reported for at least six or seven years, there is a plan to have $25 billion in revenue by, what, the year 2024? Or 2020. One of those, somewhere in the 2020s,

they want $25 billion in revenue. I want the exact year, Wes, before you go out with your money. Too-shay. Anyway, like growing it internationally and growing it through more games are the two ways to get more money. I'll give the final word because it's a great one from D. Smith. If a coal miner is willing to spend more time in the hole, that is correct terminology we use that whole time back and forward.

Does it likely result in more money? Yeah. Is that a good thing for you? For him as a person, probably not. That's the question nobody confronts. It's easy to say it's more money, but is it good for us? The answer is not. Can we think about the coal miners?

Can we stop comparing millionaires to coal miners, please? I mean, it's just a humble request. Please stop comparing coal miners to millionaires. Moving on, retirements. It's retirement season. Players decide they're quitting, hanging up the cleats. Derek Morgan's one of them, the linebacker told ESPN, he's retiring at the age of 30.

My purpose in life is bigger than the game, Morgan said, amongst other things. The number 16 overall pick, 2010 out of Georgia Tech. Morgan spent his entire career with the Titans, compiling 305 tackles, 44 and a half sacks, 26 past defended, five-force fumbles, sixth all-time in sacks in Titans Oilers franchise history. The linebacker missed three games in 2018 due to shoulder and knee injuries. he was a free agent, and he walks away. A starting pass rusher with 0.5 sacks on the entire season.

Did not get any interest on the open market. Time to walk away. Sometimes you get retired. Sometimes the NFL retires you, but this guy seems like a bright guy who's got a lot of prospects ahead of. More trouble for the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line. Clint Bowling has called it a career. The team announced Monday, fourth round pick out of Georgia in the 2011 draft.

He started 112 of his 114 appearances for the Bengals, a rock for that team on their line, started for them last year. But he dealt with, and Mark, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. You've dealt with, unfortunately, some issues of blood clotting. Have we talked about that on the show? If not, we'll take this right out. I believe we have.

No, we have. We have. You've had some plug. It's come up. Yeah, anyway. Marissa Contepelli of at Bangels, as Marissa said, after speaking with Clint Bowling today, he indicated a blood clot and his right leg was discovered after the season ended.

He met with a number of specialists this offseason, but decided it was ultimately about his family, said he's excited to chase around his daughters this fall. Go ahead, Mark. I mean, to me, the only thing that confuses me a bit is that I've been hospitalized three times for blood clot issues. Reverse humble brag. I guess that is, I am bragging about that on some level.

I'm not, it was, yeah, like, two of the times this is because I was not on medication. And if you're on blood thinners, you essentially cannot get a blood clot. So I don't know if the issue would be, if this is the primary reason he's retiring, is that you can't play on blood thinners. I guess that could be dangerous also. But when I read that, it kind of threw me because it's something that a lot of people deal with and continue to work, but they work in offices. They don't get smashed by defensive tackles necessarily.

Quite a difference. And as you remember, 2019 first round pick for Cincinnati, Jonah Williams, tore the labrum in his shoulder. He's also out for the season. So, you know, there is. They have issues. There's a sneaky level of optimism around your former love, West, the Bengals. That was Zach Taylor there. Perhaps they can turn things around and start going in a more successful, maybe a more exciting direction.

Except that it's a franchise with no distinct interest in winning. Well, that's a problem. But if you don't have anybody to protect the quarterback and to block for the running backs, it's going to be a tough go. We'll see what they can do. Well, I think at various points in this offseason, you've heard Mark, Greg, and myself say the Bengals might be better than people think they are. That has slowed to a halt and skidded to a fiery crash with their offensive line being even worse than it was last year.

Well, I mean, you know, that's why I held back. That's why you didn't hear you were. I didn't say. A measured response. I just said the Bengals would be better than people think. I just said Tom Brady sucks now. That's all I said. All right.

And in suspension news, Richie Incognito suspended two games for violating the personal conduct policy. That goes back to an April incident at an Arizona funeral home. I will not get into the details here. But if you want to hear some bizarre stuff, and again, it makes you wonder what the Raiders were thinking, perhaps, bringing this man in their building. but I guess he can block giant men trying to kill the quarterback so you give him a shot. But he is suspended two games. Also suspended my boy, Chris Herndon, a very promising tight end for the Jets, a guy that really flashed as a 22-year-old rookie last year.

He is suspended four games for a DUI. I was a little surprised when I saw four games. Usually it's not that heavy, but then I read about some of the details of the DWI. It was not pretty. It involved an accident that injured other people, and he was very drunk. at the time of the accident, according to the local police. So Chris Herndon, I really like you as a player, but get you head on straight, son.

It's kind of the worst situation, if you're Sam Darnold, to roll into a pretty rough early season schedule without your tight end. I just would want my second year quarterback to grow with that very promising tight end. It's not ideal. He'll be back week five. I think the one thing about the NFL that confuses me the most

is how many chances Richie Incognito gets to play in the league. You said it. I mean, we don't need to get into that incident, but it is a colorful incident, and he finds ways to get suspended and punished to a degree of variety that few other players have. Well put.

Finally, in the news, this under a headline from pro football talk, would Mike Rable cut his generals off to win a Super Bowl? Play it, Ricky. Would you cut your... for a Super Bowl? Oh, yeah. Been married 20 years?

Yeah, probably. You've got three. As a player. I guess we'll be married for 20 years one day. Would you, if you came home, if you came home holding a bag of ice and Jen was like, oh, honey, what did you do? She'd be like, I thought you already got fixed. I had to cut my dick off, honey.

We're going to win a super bowl. She'd be like, eh, all right. Or would she be upset? She'd probably be on board. She would be like, do you want me to do it? it you want to do it now mike rable a student of the albundi school of comedy he was a guest on a podcast hosted by titans left tackle teller luan and former titans

linebacker will compton and you heard that whole exchange uh yes he rable won three super bowls with the pats but he'd give it all up he'd say sianara to the manhood west if it meant winning a title for the titoons unbeknownst to you, maybe there are teams who already asked that question during the combine. It's such like a 90s, like, married guy thing that it is like, hey, I don't need it no more. Hey, I've been married a long time. That thing's useless to me at this point. Am I right?

Am I right over here? Nothing. Like in this, oh, well, that's absurd. In this scenario, is he this age when this procedure happens and he suddenly becomes, like, magically a better point? player i don't know i the whole thing makes way what say that again so he's saying he would love to um win another super bowl in exchange he would give up this very valuable part of his body ain't no valuable no more but is it's is he would be this age what team would need him no with or without his genitals he would give up his genitals to be the head coach champion of the

titans from a coaching i don't know i think i think it's a it's a heavy sacrifice to make i don't i don't think that nothing seems that important it's a materialistic take my wife please that's what's happening in the news all right let's see let's get into it boys stop messing around how you enjoying it mark you feel you feel back in the flow it's enjoy i mean we are in a very strange i don't every couple minutes i look up and there's like a corporate worker staring at us from one of their desktops computers can they hear is this sound i don't know that's that part of it's awkward but i'm wearing sunglasses the show is going okay this is my new look by the I'm now a shock jock.

Dan is wearing his sunglasses with the Bose Bluetooth technology inside. The man wears... There we go. I mean, if we weren't concerned about our employment here before, it's starting to head into that territory. Let's get into it. Fearless predictions for October 15th,

2019. We each will go around the horn twice here, throwing out some fearless predictions. we have for the new season through week six. Mark, would you like to get us going? Let's have some fun. All right. So one thing that does concern me that I'm noticing

that's picking up too much steam this summer is the hype around my Browns. And I'm naturally just concerned in general about the other shoe dropping and dropping with a vengeance. But October 15th would kick off essentially Cleveland's bye week. And I am predicting that at that time, and I'm not trying to be a downer here or play some sort of psychological warfare with anyone,

that they are going to be a two-and-four team with the media turning on them extremely violently. They open with the Titans, Jets, Rams, Ravens, Niners, and Seahawks. I predict they will beat the Titans and 49ers and lose out the rest of that opening six-game slate. People will be asking, what is up with Cleveland's offense, what's up with Cleveland's secondary,

What is up with Miles Garrett? Will Baker Mayfield survive behind this line? Is Steve Wilkes the wrong fit for this defense? Is Freddie Kitchens completely underwater? Should we be concerned that O'Dell Beckham this time around used a bick lighter to set a kicking net on fire along the sideline after dropping a would-be game-winning touchdown pass and that awful week two loss to the Jets? What happened to the feel-good vibes of last season?

Can we trust the Haslums to not blow up the machine again? Does this entire season hinge on Cleveland returning? from the by and knocking off the New England Patriots in New England. You left out Todd Monkin clashing with the head coach. You left that one. That might be the spark that sets it all off, and that's already happened according to some reports. Your preamble included something about not playing psychological games here. This is a reverse jinks, classic reverse jinks, which is fine.

I do the same thing. I have noted that it is not psychological warfare, so you have to believe me on that. But I do think that schedule. Titans, win or loss, who knows? And I think that's kind of a team, Cleveland, that's going to take time to jail. I'm not sure that's going to happen in training camp. You'll be fine against the Titans.

The Jets game freaks me out just because it's all this energy between us and the show about it. I see that going. It'll be a close game. It's going to be rough. The Rams is very rough. I think the Ravens could win that division. The 49ers, I think it's in San Francisco. And then the Seahawks, what's the weird?

Let me spin it the other way here. You got the Titans at home. Come on. Mariotta is going to throw up for 112 yards. Not if Mike Rable, you know, goes through with his plan here. I mean, this is concerning evidence. At Jets, the Jets are no powerhouse. Come on. They are going to crazy here.

They won't even have Herndon. I just think that they are going to win. Cleveland is losing that game because it's too much remembered from last year. I think there's going to be a flip-lop there. What if we let it play out? All right. Home to the Rams. Tough game, but not as hard as if you were on the West Coast.

at Ravens, tough game, very tough game. At Niners, you know, the big bell bottom. Is that scary you to go into San Francisco? That's the other win I gave them. And Seattle at home, which will be tough, but again, you're in your building, you play well there. Now, I would say if I were to continue the prediction, I think they're going to round into shape,

but I think it's going to be a rough start. Where the media, this is a scenario where if they struggle early, it is going to be absolutely rough and tumble ugly for the way the media is going to treat Cleveland. They are going to, they are going to pounce because they've already acted like they've won three Super Bowls. They won seven games last year. It'll be viewed as a personal affront to the national media if Cleveland doesn't back up all the, you know, puff pieces and praise. What could go wrong?

They're going to take it personally. Wes, you're up. We spent the whole winter making our little jokes. Sports writers did. Oh, then everybody got to hire the next Sean McVeigh. All these offensive gurus, you could be 28 years old get a job. That was the off-season conversation. The October 15th discussion is going to be,

we need an ancient defensive coordinator. We need a master defensive mind because the best minds in the game are Bill Belichick, Vic Fongio, who's the guy from the Ravens, Wink Martindale, all these old dudes, bum Phillips, Mike Zimmer, and they're the best defense. And people are going to be asked.

Wade Phillips, you know, bum, great coach. son of bumps no longer with us instead of praising all these offensive young minds people are going to be asking why do you have to be ancient to run a good defense in the NFL do you think it's because some of these offensive minds for instance the bengal's new coach some of these guys are going to struggle through week six I think it's because vongio is going to blow the door off people with with bradley chub and von miller and a guy like shelby harris who was lights out down the street for the broncos and they're going to be returning to like super bowl 50 form on that defense could you carry the torch for denham again. I just like Vic Fongio. And their quarterback. Well, I think the quarterback

is way better than other people think he is. So, yes. Wonderful. I like that. All right. That's a good one. Week 6 in the books,

2019. Anybody else have any other thoughts about that? So you're saying where's the young dogs? I'm saying it's an inherently experience matters way more on defense

than it does on offense. On offense, you are creative. You are bringing the action to the defense. The defense is responding to what the offense is doing. And I think experience really helps because you've seen it all. You've been around. You can take different bits from your past. And it's contingent on the young new faces on offense succeeding,

and that is an unknown at this point. Well, take Fongio himself, who, you know, was great with the 49ers when he was there. But last year, what did he spend all the last year doing in practice? It's going against Matt Nagy who's got the Andy Reid offense. Matt Nagy's own offense was impressive. Like, he's one of these bright young minds, and I think Fagio has been defending against that for a while. I'll throw it out there.

You know, a few weeks back on this podcast earlier in the summer, I threw out the possibility that Patrick Mahomes might not ever reach the heights of what he did in his first year starting, and I drew the Marino's 84 season as a parallel that Marino was a Hall of Fame great even after 84 but never reached the same heights and now I'm thinking about it more and I'm like why would I even want to put that out there

I'm going to go the other way On top of the Tom Brady stuff you're going down this avenue too I'm going to go the other way because why would I even because then you know how we are this is what we do for a living so if Mahomes was struggling a little bit

I'd be like oh yeah I nailed that no forget out that I'm not going to get on that corner. Instead, I'm going to say by week six through week six, Mahomes will again be pacing the league in nearly every relevant quarterback statistical category, be the heavy early favorite for MVP, and essentially be the guy that tore the league apart last year. And strangely, and I say this,

I don't know if this is more just in our studio or in my head or what, It's almost like Mahomes isn't getting enough love for what he accomplished last year, which was remarkable. And remember, this guy was probably playing in the Super Bowl last year. If his defense, his crummy Kansas City defense could get a stop, the guy doesn't even get a chance to get on the field in the overtime of the AFC title game because Tom Brady, former superstar, marched right down the field and got it done. So I'm just going to say that Mahomes is going to be out of his mind again this year,

put up stats that are going to approach what he did last year, or even surpass it because he is that once-in-a-generation guy. We were due for the next mind-blowing athlete in the NFL, transcendent Michael Jordan type guy. It is Patrick Mahomes. I'm getting behind it. He'll be tearing the league apart again by the middle of October. I can't believe all that.

Well said, well said. I can't believe you said he almost doesn't get enough credit. Like people act like he invented the left-handed past that Breed. Farve already did. They act like nobody's ever thrown it as far, like, outside of a stadium or whatever. Patrick Mahomes did not invent, like, the scrambling play where he has to improvise. He invented a no-look pass. No one's done that in the NFL at that level.

Okay. He did not. Give him that. Okay. Here's a story. 1997 NFL skills competition in Hawaii. All these quarterbacks are there. Pastorini just throws it 20 yards further than Terry Bradshaw.

Dan Pesterini is the Oilers quarterback at the time. They're back at the hotel drinking a bunch of these quarterbacks. Shocker. Billy Kilmer dares Pesterini to throw a football up four stories of the hotel. Pesterini takes it out and throws it 10 stories. And here's the punchline. Up, not down. Here's the punchline.

Unitas says, yeah, but his receiver was on the fifth floor. So, you know, anybody could throw the ball over the. I'm saying, like, people have had strong arms before. Right, and it was reported that Mahomes threw the ball out of the stadium in Arrowhead recently. That also was not, that, do you remember back in the day, remember the Aerobee, the Frisbee? It's still around. It's the, like, the orange ring that does, has no center, and they threw that thing out of giant stadium. Someone later threw it across Niagara Falls.

I mean, so, you know. Then what did it get that person? It got nothing for that. I don't even know who it was who did it. It's a heck of an advertisement for that product. that well i had one of those and you could literally throw it across like we had we it's you could throw it through a neighbor's yard to the neighbor beyond right or six neighbors if you had the arm when i was um a kid a teenager um you know the way it is with the season tickets package

where they basically rope fans into buying two home preseason games at price of a regular season game so when my dad at his job the only jet's tickets that would be floating around a lot were either games in December when they were already buried in the standings or those two preseason home games. So we went to a home game every year just about because some guy would be offloading the tickets in August. And always half time. It didn't matter what year.

It was like 1991 through 2003. Any preseason game we went to, it's the dude throwing the frisbee 80 yards and the dog catching it. They just ran that thing back. I don't know if it's the same dog or what. But yeah, you could fling that. It might have been the same frisbee. It is eternally entertaining, though.

That's part of the reason. Beautiful dog. deep distance um all right so mahomes tears it up let's go one more time around the horn because i could be the guy that says he's coming down to earth and i was that guy about 35 days ago i appreciate your about face i don't want to be that guy i want to be the guy that says this guy's going to do things that's going to rewrite the history books i'm on that train well you dumped that negative energy off you thank you why not be a positive and then once the jets actually become a contender if they become a contender then i will wish ill upon patrick mahomes and the rest of the kansas

chiefs but right now i'm in that sweet spot where i can be all positive so you're a better person than mark who just like basically just leave it right there voiced boy voiced the brown's problems into existence with his no i liked what he did there that was a beautiful reverse jigs i'm struggling which with which direction to go because i have one that is extremely negative and one that is i've got a negative one too i'm going to go negative okay go ahead one head coach will be fired by week six and i have been thinking about this for weeks this is this is happening one head coach will be fired by week six due to a wild scandal

that grips the league early in the season and becomes a national and ultimately an international news story Trump will weigh in on the topic Is this a sandwich prop? No, this is a prediction that by week six, it is after the week six slate of games that this will essentially,

this scandal will eat up huge amounts of real estate on our podcast, on our Twitter show if that happens. It'll make Bountygate look like a, chorus trip to Action Park. Remember that place? That was very dangerous, Action Park. I think that this is going to end where the owner of this team

will be forced due to overwhelming public pressure to pull the plug after Week 6 action to get rid of this coach. When the owner necessarily does not want to do it, but he has to. It's all guesswork. I mean, what we're throwing out is no different than yours, but yours is just

kind of predicting something with no, there's There's not a team you have in mind that there's something percolating? Well, that's a little because it's going to be so negative that if I initially pit... Is there something in your head, though? I initially pinpointed someone, and then I thought that's a little agro. Off air? Yeah.

Is he north of Ohio? No. Is he west of the Rockies? No. Can you get to his stadium off I-95 corridor? No more questions. Does he have a female owner? No more questions.

all right i hope that doesn't happen it just sounds it sounds not only bad for that guy and maybe he'll deserve it under whatever the circumstances are but bad for us it's bad for us because if you we were here when bounty gate broke oh and i'll never forget he's going to hate this but david ely who was early in his role basically told me this is a non issue this is going to blow over pretty quickly and it turned into a mushroom into an a total disaster you just heard him worse than that girl basically just called his news judgment and He has developed an incredible judgment of news since, since. I would second that.

He's very good at deciding what's news. I like Dave, just fine. And for the record, I will take you up on that sandwich prop. Okay. All right. West, one more. I feel bad because I criticized this man's ability to play quarterback for a while. He proved me wrong.

Eli Manning. All right, let's get into it. And I really like him as a person and as a player. but my fearless prediction is that Nick Fools will still be seeking his first win in a Jaguar's uniform. Oh, out. Let me take a look at the Jack Horse schedule. That is harsh.

I can tell you what the schedule is. All right, you want to go ahead. They have the Chiefs at home. Okay, tough game, but winnable. Tough game, and they don't have really the weapons to keep up with Kansas City if the Chiefs can score more than 20. At Houston. At the Texans, game number two.

Tough game. Tough game. Home versus the Titans. Cupcake layup. Titans, to me, are one of the ten strongest rosters in the NFL. At the Broncos. We know what you think about them. Yes.

Well, nobody's being the Broncos. That's an 18-0 outfit right there. 19-0. At Carolina Panthers and the revamped front seven. Tough. That's tough scud. Home versus the Saints. Not a gimmie.

I like their next game, though. Right. That's why this works. They travel to Cincinnati To face the punchless Bengals And then they start to get their sea legs And then they trounce the jets In week eight

I see that coming All right That's why I've heard him back by then They will And that's a big difference I don't know The way the NFL The schedule makers

They're really good In that They seem to have almost like A seer-like ability To make sure teams Stay above water Most teams So for instance

Using the Jaggars as an example Could they trip up at home against the cheats in week one yes could they go to houston and lose absolutely but then the schedule god's like hey let's give you the titans at home you're gonna need it why are you acting like the titans aren't good you're going to need it the titans will have a win already so they could deal with the loss and everybody's going to be one and two and be fine going into the titans own the jaguars of late i'd have to look that up i don't think even when the jaguars had their really good season the titans were beaten um all right yeah their last head-to-head match up a 30 to 9

Titans win. Was that when Derek Henry ran for like 1,000 yards in a game? Is that that particular game? I feel like he ran for 1,000 yards in the entire second half of the season. To answer your question, at least our last three games that Tennessee Titans have prevailed. So two low scoring affairs, 9-6 back in September last year, 1510 on New Year's Eve the season before. Well, I have respect for the Jaguars defense and I have respect for fools, but I really, their offensive line has a mess.

their wide receiver core is a mess. Their running back didn't try last season. So, I mean, I don't know. All right. I'll wrap it up with a little bit more negativity, unfortunately. You guys know, just like I wasn't on board with the Cincinnati bandwagon, I am not all here for the Jimmy G as a stud. Okay.

Carnival. Okay. I'm sitting out that merry go around until I see him do it. And now he's coming off a catastrophic knee injury and all that, not a great thing. So I'm going to throw this out there by week six. And you have to understand this isn't all on Jimmy G. It's also about what's going on around the San Francisco 49ers. An organization that despite a brain trust reboot has found very little success in the John

Lynch, Kyle Shanahan era to the point where if they got off to a slow start in 2019, heads could roll. I think Shanahan probably be safe through the season. but Lynch is going to need answers. They're going to need to put up a season where they are competing for a playoff spot come December. And they can't afford to fall too far back in the standing. So what if Jimmy G. Isn't playing well because he wasn't playing that well before he got hurt last year.

And now he's going to be rusty and he's almost damn near 30 years old and still hasn't really played a lot at the NFL level. What if he gets off to a slow start and the Niners are seeing their season slip away? And oh, we have this guy. And I know he's getting ready. He's fixing. to use a Texan term for a camp battle with C.J. But Nick Mullins moved that team on offense last year. They kind of rallied around him. He was a nobody who showed up out of nowhere.

And while not a perfect quarterback, he'd turn the ball over too much and maybe he doesn't have all the traits you look for, not the biggest arm and whatnot. But he moved that team. He showed a lot a promise in his audition last year, would they be perhaps tempted to turn it over to the kid if Jimmy Gene and the Niners got off to another slow start in 2019? That's a fearless prediction that they just might. I would struggle to see that happening. They have their buy early on. They have three games.

Then they have a buy. And you're talking about someone that's making 20 million next year and 26 million plus over the next three years. The only thing is if it went real, real rough, it could be part of the master plan where by trade deadline, they have shipped Jimmy G back to the Patriots, and the Patriots get them for less than they sold them, and they have their quarterback in place for the next five years. So be careful what you want that. But if you look at their schedule at Bucks, and I know Wes, Bruce Ariens is at some country club right now.

He's not even thinking about football. Turn the team over to Leftwich. Some people believe that the Bucks are going to be frisky this year, and they start with two road games, which is not easy schedule makers. Well, one's against the Bengals, but fair. At box, app angles, but two road games, and then home to Steelers, buy, and then home to Browns,

who even if they do get off to a slow start mark, I think they're going to start piecing it together by the time he gets October. I've already told you that San Francisco is winning that game. I know, but I disagree. I've seen enough out of Garoppel to be more optimistic than Dan, but it's worth noting that he is now, what, 28 years old? He'll be 28 in November,

and his entire career is not. nothing but small sample sizes. We don't really know what he is yet. And that last game, the week six game, at Los Angeles. So if you stumble in those opening road games and then have trouble with the Steelers and Browns, then you're going to the Coliseum. The Rams need to do some business early. I mean, the Niners need to do some business early in the season,

and they got a quarterback who's going to be knocking off Rust. Just keep an eye on it. That's all. Fair enough. And I like Jimmy G too. I want him to do well. I don't want to make it seem like I'm rooting for Jimmy G's career to go up in flames but it's worth throwing out there that maybe he's not the stone cold lock franchise

savior that we perhaps positioned him in is it possible chris wessling that jimmy g's last five games of the 2016 season is the new gino smith's last two games of the 2014 season i it's possible i think it's much more likely that people are making too much of a deal out of struggling for two and a half games at the beginning of last year i get that but like i said his entire career is small sample sizes, so let's see what happens with 16 games. Nice guy, too. Talk to him after that ridiculous Super Bowl win by the Pats when

the Seahawks threw at the goal line. What were they doing there? We've been over that a few times, but Wes and I actually after the combine flew from Indianapolis on a rather infamous flight, we were not sitting near Jimmy G, thankfully. Was that in this conference room, the discussion afterwards? There were some

discussions. Those were other rooms. He couldn't have been nicer, though. We talked to him a couple times. In fact, when leaving L.A.X. taking a taxi home, I saw him again. He's like, you again. Like, we ran into him like three or four times on this trip. That was before he was drafted. You were still hoping he'd be the Browns quarterback. I was. There you go. It might not have been a coincidence that he kept running into you. Are you saying that perhaps Mark put himself in position for such encounters? Some low-level stalking potentially. There's a thin line between stalker and intrepid reporter. Very thin. And I cross.

I mean, I crossed into both territories on that trip. I was talking, we were at the bar, the tavern after softball last week, talking to our star shortstop, masculine guy. But we kind of stumbled into a conversation where he discussed, despite being a straight man, men that, you know, he would ponder some thoughts in the other direction. And he shocked me by just throwing out Jimmy G. His head and shoulders is the number one guy.

Yeah, he was quite adamant that Tom Brady is not. not in Jimmy G's class. Tom Brady also. The former superstar. That was a hot conversation four years ago. Tom Brady is aging rapidly according to time. All right. So, yeah.

No matter what happens that Jimmy G. He's going to be fun. What do you think, Ricky? Yeah, he's okay. Do you miss Jimmy G. being a Patriot? Because wasn't he as a Patriots say in the ultimate security blanket? Oh, it felt great having him back there. But I think it's going to come full circle.

All of a sudden there's going to be this crazy trade where we're going to get, like, George Kittle or something. Wow. Because we traded Jimmy G. And out of nowhere. You've been hanging out with Keisha too well. Wait, you're getting George Kittle in reverse for that trade? Like a make-good? Because everyone was like, what?

Why did Jimmy G go to the 49ers out of nowhere? Like this big deal? How could Belich do this? So, like, Kittle for like a fourth rounder going back to New England? So you're saying this is more premeditated. This is more premeditated as opposed to, like, karma just, like, deciding the page. No, no, no, no. This is like a Shanahan owes us now.

Well, it's a. And God knows you could use the break. That's the best prediction we've heard all day, so. So there was like a wink, wink, nudge, part of the Garoppel trade at the time? Yeah, come on. You know, scratch your back. I'll scratch yours later, you know? I haven't seen a lot of scratching for San Francisco so far.

That's back to the original point. I don't know. I mean, when you're one in ten and you win five straight. games to end the season i'm not going to put you in canton i know that's where everybody's at with this guy well exactly so that's a good kid he's good kid that's why belichick got rid of him mark he's a good kid i met him i mean i i understand that you uh yeah okay all right uh we'll be back on thursday i hope that works out for you reggie thanks um with another edition of the pod uh and then after that are we are we doing three shows next week right so it's this is it we're back

to normal That seems, that's sobering. It is. It very. But we love our job. It's just shocking because the quote unquote summer for us, while everyone's enjoying, you know, late July's, oh, we've got another month this summer,

going to the beach, hanging out with friends. Really, our summer is truncated or shifted from May through kind of mid-July. So it ends very quickly while everybody else is still just like right in the middle of it all. But don't cry for us, Argentina. And I know you won't. We've been too busy having fun. We haven't had a chance to enjoy our summer. Well, somehow we just push on, don't we?

Like, it should be a time for relaxation, and I feel like I'm tired because of my summer. Yeah, just wait to have kids. I don't need this thing no more. Hey, my wife don't need it. I don't need it. All right, that's it. This is Dan Hans to sign up.

Jesus. Sign up for the men. Well, man, the quiet storm and Ricky Hollywood behind the glass till Thursday. This is an I-Heart podcast.