NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2021 Schedule Release #GetATNtoLondon

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, and Gregg Rosenthal break down the most anticipated day of the offseason - the official NFL schedule release! The heroes break down Week 1 before jumping to some awesome revenge games, the teams with the most primetime games, and the big holiday lineups.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. You used to have to, you know, find a nickel under the couch and walk all the way to the newsstand to buy USA today to see the schedule. Shut up. The Around the NFL podcast is Mr. Irrelevant every year. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I come to you from a virtual room.

Still, I mean, at a certain point, filled with heroes, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler. Yes, the 2021 NFL schedule has been released. And you know what? I'm not going to be a wet blanket about it. I'm into it. And we talked about this right before we went on. we were all once boys Ricky was once a goyle

and some ways Ricky still is a girl she's a girl not yet a woman Britney Spears is that fair to say Erica just jump in real quick I just want to get a little update are you a girl not yet a woman do you think you're fully a woman

where are you at right now in your maturation process yeah no I think you know I'm turning 30 I think I'm a woman by now I think but what's what's 30 in Los Angeles if you're a woman at the bars every night with no social like awareness or responsibilities i think you're saying mark what is the age equivalent in the rest of america right versus like if you were in iowa like pounding way to factory you know i'm like probably 19 in l.a she's in iowa 19 um anyway so erika is a woman

but still you know having fun that's the final word there anyway we were once boys and And we loved the schedule because this time of year is when you're kind of dying. You're in the middle of the other sports that you're following, but you're always got an eye on football. You love football. And then this comes along and you start to be able to actually piece together how you think your season will go at least in your mind's eye mark. So it's like, I enjoy this.

I like the fun of staring at the schedule. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to break it down and have some fun of it. Well, we are wonderful friend, Chris Wesleyan, was a little more, I think, philosophical slash cynical about the schedule. It's sort of suggesting that it doesn't really predict much. It doesn't, you know, I don't want to speak for him. But his take on it was in another way refreshing.

But he also did tell me that, like, he was one of seven brothers, that when they were young, and this happened to my house too, like when the sports section arrived, you went, you battled for it. And like, and I was getting killed by Ricky before the show for the fact that we receive USA Today at our house. But like when in mid-April back, I think it would get released in April back in the day, like the schedule would show up in USA Today. I mean, it was like a dream. And you could start to chart out for me what the Browns were going to do, what that opening week looked like, that first month, how they closed. I mean, there was a lot going on there.

I had to walk uphill in snow both ways to get to the newsstand. I mean, how about this Mr. Fancy Pantsy. You're getting USA Today at home. I don't know if I've ever met anyone like that. That's some real Connecticut's up there. When we had our summer vacation in Ocean City, Maryland or something, and the USA Today would be in front of the hotel room. And we felt like fancy boys looking at all the baseball stuff.

Well, that's like embassy suites. You know, that's some embassy suites free paper stuff there. Yeah, I'll tell you why. Because our local newspaper, the Danbury News Times, you know, nice production for local news. But when it come to the sports section, like, you're getting left out. Let's support the Hartford current. You know,

let's support the Hartford. I didn't live anywhere near Hartford. I don't care less about that town. I mean, you know, USA Today brought the heat from a sports angle, and they gave you all the box scores and everything from the, they were completest. So that was my Christmas gift. I like that.

We had to take the horse and buggy down the highway. You know, Erica, I will, I will, it's here's where I apologize for having read a newspaper as a child. I mean, I don't know what you're, what you're doing with your time when you were young. But here's one thing about this schedule release, by the way, seeing how this went today and how they announced the week one on all the networks first and it was like an all day thing. And I think the NFL has succeeded at making the schedule release a thing. It's never going back to the pre-draft time is my prediction. I have no information from the NFL league offices. I just think the NFL is always looking to extend their season.

And so the draft was always kind of the end of the, you know, at the end of the big event. And putting this a couple weeks after the draft instead of a couple weeks before, I think extends the excitement. And the biggest thing is you have the rookies on the team. So when you see the Jets first game, you officially have Zach Wilson going up against Sam Darnold. Like, spoiler alert there. And it's like, I think that matters. I do think knowing that Justin Fields is on the Bears gives the NFL a little extra juice and what they want to plan. and I don't think we're ever going back to the pre-draft schedule, at least.

Oh, it adds so much more, you know. I can't believe they ever did it that way. Yeah. Because, I mean, for instance, and we're going to dig in here, but we did a little crash research right before because, you know, we are the VIPs getting our hands on this before the rest of society. You have the bears that got a lot of prime time games, I feel like. They got, and imagine if they didn't have Justin Fields.

But that was also the reality that they have four primetime games. This is what Mark wanted. If we got Matt Nagy starting Andy Dalton in week one, it's basically Mark's fault on Sunday night football. It's Mark's fault. They were the team you wanted to see in prime time. They're in four times. The bears just, you can't get them out of prime time.

One little nugget, though. Andy Dalton, if he played week two, would play the Bengals with the bears. So that would be kind of spicy to me. But not spicy enough. I still want Justin Fields in there. Listen, on this podcast, guest. I'm the Andy Dalton guy. I don't get any pop out of Andy Dalton against the Cincinnati Bengals. I don't know. Maybe a kneel down at the end.

All right. By the way, your crack research, Mark, I mean, and I was scrambling as well, but I don't see bears listed in the teams with four games. So we received the teams that had five and the teams that had one. I stand corrected. You did stellar work, perfect work. Well, the research team did. Thank you to Ali Bon Party. So he, he helped me out so speaking of ali i got a message right as we were starting if i sounded a little bit distracted um ali wanted me to tone down some houston texans heat on my upcoming uh now live in the world revenge games piece so we're going to talk about and i'm good you know what i'm going to do on this

podcast hey houston texans be thankful for any attention you get in the year 2021 because it's going to be like dark. You might not be mentioned on NFL media properties until 2022. Any any press is good press at this point, please. I just want you guys to know I'm going to be sharing the hot take that was too hot for NFL.com right here on the podcast. I had a little Texan zinger that snuck through. So I'm pretty thrilled to hear what Texan fans. I do feel bad for them. I put it on a carrier pigeon and they flew all the way to NFL network. You know what? She's saying your old mark. By the way, like, am I that much older than you people, please.

You are, sneaky old. You're older even than my older brother, who I think of as like a totally different generation. He's five years older, yeah. Maybe, maybe not within. You look great, though, Mark. You look like a man five years, your junior. I'll take that. All right.

Now, revenge games. We're going to get into that. We're going to get into the international series, and there's something big percolating there. I just, a little tease there. We're going to talk some of the big primetime games, the other tent pole games, Thanksgiving, all that stuff. But I feel like a good place to start is the first games that we're going to be seeing in 2021. So obviously, week one, Thursday, September 9th, the season will start Cowboys at Buccaneers. On Monday show with Matt Money Smith, we threw out some different ideas and we all kind of had the inkling that this is where it was going to go.

and you know what? I get it. Everyone hates the Cowboys. If you don't love the Cowboys, I find them to be good theater, especially if they're a healthy Cowboys team with a refreshed expectations here and everyone hyping them up that makes them kind of interesting in the beginning of the season. I like this. You know, DAC and that great offense taking on the Bucks great defense. The Bucks, one of the best offenses in the league against the Cowboys defense under now Dan Quinn trying to clean things up. After last year's misery, the game is in Tampa, of course. because they are the defending Super Bowl champions. They will be a favorite in this game,

but I could definitely see it being competitive and fun. What do you guys think? Actually, I thought our inkling, I thought Greg and I both suggested the bills. But I totally get why this would be it. This is a television sport, and the Cowboys are, like you said, quintessential theater.

I don't always look at them that way, but the ratings do. I think had they gone, just for me, had they gone, bucks bills, it would have been a nod to the league as it's changing, the rising new powers. It would have been something super spicy. But Buffalo Bills, as exciting as they are to certain people, probably just aren't going to draw the same numbers.

I don't know. Right. I think this is the NFL going as big as possible. It's like forget that Falcons Eagles opener. Remember back, you know, when the Eagles were defending champs or whatever? The Patriots have had like the Titans one year when the Titans really weren't that good. It's like, no. We haven't had fans in the crowd for a while.

Last year was not our normal year. Let's go as big as humanly possible. With, by the way, the most loaded offense in the league on paper with Dallas. I mean, we haven't seen this offense together because I'm doing the projected starter series. I realize all 11 starters for the Cowboys were on their team last year. They're all black. And it's like, they are loaded. On paper, I think you can make a pretty good argument.

It's the best looking offense on paper. But only five of those or six of those 11 played. you know half the season last year it's not just that coming back from injury it's jarwin and tyrant smith and lyell collins was an opt-out and uh zach martin missed a lot of time so i don't know i'm into it i like i mean there's a lot of whether you like them or hate them or think they're tiresome they have a lot of juice and a lot of fun storylines that's great that's great um the first sunday night game uh bears at rams this was very obvious to me i had thrown out as a possibility for the Thursday night opener, and this never happens, but maybe the bucks go on the road to L.A.

to open up this stadium for a full house on Thursday night football. Well, they did instead on Sunday night, which makes more sense. And to top it off, maybe you get Justin Fields against Matthew Stafford, Mark, this, I know this would be on your radar if we somehow ended up with Andy Dalton starting in the first Sunday night football game of the year. But also, I think, you know, feels pretty good that Fields could end up being the guy here. and then that becomes great TV to see his pro debut. I always wonder if, like, you get, you know, some league heavies

tapping Matt Nagy on the shoulder and saying, you don't start Andy Dalton in week one. Trust me, you don't do it. You don't want to do that. You don't want to do that. One of those things. Like, I'm not telling you not to do it. Right.

But it's in your best interest for that not to happen. Right. And then he takes the cigarette out, drops it in the parking lot, underground parking lot, stubs it out with his shoe and just walks away. You never see the guy's face. No. he's in the shadows driving home alone you know kind of shaking let's think of the real subplot here

we're going to be taping our first week one recap show yeah of the season i think that'll be our eighth season doing the recap shows this sounds right and we will be literally hundreds of yards away from this game as we're taping so the parking lot's going to be full over there that's a whole thing. Are we going to, are we going to be able to like walk over and watch the game? I don't need like that. This is the whole thing. I look. There's only two Sunday night Rams games. So it's there's only twice all year that this could come into our lives. But this is the whole thing. Maybe we do a live, a live, a live, a live show from the game. Who even knows? Oh, the Chargers are are obviously treated as second class citizens in their own stadium. They're kind of like the Jets giant. No one wants to say that. But it's like, wouldn't you have been shocked if the Chargers had the first opening night, Sunday night? Greg is basically having sexual feelings right now. What are you talking about? I'm worried about the traffic. Mark, you're so crazy.

Who's that? What was that? Mark, you're so crazy. Oh, it's frag, where she's been? The Chargers did get one Sunday night game. So there you go. So we got three of those. And people are not going to feel sorry for us.

But that will be interesting for sure. All right, Monday night football. And we're not going to go through every week, but since this week one, let's just talk about this week a little bit more specifically. Ravens at Vegas, another instance to me. The league wants to reward teams that build new stadiums. They want to put them on pedestals. And if the team has some juice, like the Raiders do,

another national team, even better. So you get the Ravens against the Raiders in the desert. Not bad, not bad at all. And that is the only Monday night football game in week one. They have now excised. the Chris Berman big bell bottom late game as we discussed on the show a few weeks back. Yeah, Lamar is in primetime the first two weeks against the Raiders and then against the Chiefs on Sunday night football in week two, which is one of the highlights of the season, I think, when Lamar and Mahomes play against each other.

And a lot of prime time early. They maxed out their prime time. It's most of the early season. I'm happy to see that. Lamar has kind of made the Ravens as national team as possible. And yes, so here are the teams that got the most primetime love. The Ravens, the Cowboys, the Packers, the Chiefs, the Rams, the Saints, the Steelers, the Steelers, the Niners, the Seahawks, and Bucks. No surprises there, really, right?

One. Saints? Saints, there's a little bit of a surprise to me. I know they've been there. In the Post-Breeze era, yeah, that's fair. But, like, in what world is the Saints are getting five primetime games and the Browns only get three? In 2021, I'm a little surprised. And they didn't take any Jordan Love factor into consideration with the Packers.

That doesn't surprise me, but it's just worth noting the Packers are all over the prime time early in the season, just in case, you know, that might be a little weird. I wonder if they came up, because, you know, there's like mirror schedules and they come up with a lot of different options. Like, is there one out there where they almost pulled the trigger on a non-Aaron Rogers Packers team? We just don't have enough information that, but that could get really grisly. If, you know, they, if it's Jordan Love, because their schedule, I had to do toughest schedules, they play a league high, 10 games against playoff teams from a year ago. So I'm just saying, that's great if you have Aaron Rogers. But if you have Jordan Love, who everyone is saying, not ready for prime time.

And we have to watch them in prime time five times. What I used to feel about the Bears quickly becomes the Packers at night. And then if Jordan Love bombs out in this hypothetical and the Packers end up going, you know, four in 13 or they drafted a quarterback next year. And there's all these different scenarios that could play out. But of course, right now Aaron Rogers is still there. While we're there, Mark, what are some other teams when you, in your NFL.com piece, which everybody should check out, that have the toughest schedules.

And of course, this is all based on last year's standing. So a tough schedule now could be the easiest schedule in late December. But for now, who got banged? I'll give you just a couple I looked at the Colts because I kind of want to see like if you're Carson Wentz and the Colts

like how do you how do you get out to a hot like a hot start and they open with the Seahawks and the Rams all right then they go on a three game road trip against the Titans

Dolphins and Ravens that's not a cinch their by week isn't till week 14 and I think another thing that you can factor into schedules that got tougher

was who got banged with like the gifted 17th game and they got got the bucks. So the, you know, the cults in general, they're in the AFC South. So that helps. But the entire AFC South is in hot water, I think, because they play the NFC West. And so, you know, we talked about the Texans. And I basically said, light a candle for David Cully, because it's going to be a long year. I mean, you look, there's just no break for them for the entire time.

I'll give you one other one. Here's a break. You start with the Jaguars in week one. That's the easiest possible game. Maybe. For each team. Right. Maybe. Is there, is this year, that only one playoff team comes out of that AFC South? Seems like a very possibility. Okay, go ahead, Mark. The Steelers and Ravens, you know, the thing that last year, and I don't strength of schedule is a little shaky to me, but last year the Ravens finished first, or two years ago,

had a first place schedule. It had the easiest strength of schedule in the entire league going into last season. This year, they have the second hardest behind the Steelers. And I look at what they have to do. The Steelers... They had this one little chunk of time, the Ravens, excuse me, where they play four road games in five weeks against the Dolphins, Bears, Steelers, and Browns.

And they basically play the Browns. And this is weird for the Browns, too. Baltimore, Cleveland, by week, Baltimore, Cleveland. The Steelers have a really weird scenario where, I don't know, the Steelers have a tough schedule, too. Forget this. But it's a rough patch for both of those teams. I like they're out of division schedule.

though. Like when I looked at the AFC North, you're right, because they have to play each other, it's hard. And, you know, the first place schedule the Ravens have or whatever it's hard. But I actually thought the AFC North had maybe the easiest. And I know the strength of schedule, you know, numbers would not agree on a division schedule. Because I looked at like what divisions get to play the AFC South. I think that's an advantage this year. And that doesn't show up necessarily, because I don't think the Titans and Colts are going to be as good. So the AFC North gets to play the AFC South. And the other division they play is the NFC East. So I think if you were handpicking, which two divisions you would want to play, those would be my top two draft picks. Well, they play the NFC North. They play the North, not the East. That's what they had last year, and I think that inflated their results. And I'll hear it real quick.

So the Steelers close against the Titans, Chiefs, Browns, and Ravens. They're not going to go 11 and 0 to start. I think that's a tough way to end their schedule. The whole, like, home road splits are weird now because of the AFC getting an extra home game. I definitely notice there's a couple teams like the Packers, for instance, have six out of their first nine on the road, including a stretch of like four or five. And that's the type of thing that would not happen, I don't think, in the old schedule. But now that it's uneven, you're going to see some weird stuff like that.

The Patriots on the easiest front get five out of their first seven at home. So even though some of the opponents are hard, like that is a recipe. to start off pretty soft. And the whole like 17 game unbalanced thing, that's one of the unintended consequence. I'll give you one other quick one, the Chargers, so we already, you know,

you worry about them in that stadium, but they open in Washington. And this is Brandon Staley. We're wondering how will Justin Herbert answer in year two? After Washington, they open, they go to the Cowboys, Chiefs, Raiders, Browns, and Ravens before they're by.

So, you know, I keep thinking they're a playoff team. They're going to have to be one to come out of that. into that buy with a good record. There are some good defenses in there, obviously, but also some teams where you would think that Herbert, that offense continues to progress, will be able to put up points.

Yeah, it didn't seem to matter last year. The three-game road trip, that's the way to do it. I've written, I wrote toughest schedules year after year. You always just look for those three-game road trips. Oh, yeah, yeah. Those are terrible. Who wants? All right.

By the way, so we mentioned the teams with the most games, five. Here are the teams that got the least primetime love. And this is all, this can change because there's a lot of flexing opportunities more than ever, actually, in the back end of the season. In week 16, they have multiple Saturday games and then there's a pool, I believe, that of 12 teams or something in that range that could all get pumped up into a Saturday game, maybe a primetime game as well. But the Falcons, Panthers, Bengals, Broncos, Lions, Texans, Jaguars, and Jets all have one primetime game as things stand. Jets obviously improve it mode to the NFL schedule makers. I feel like every time they've been in prime time in the last five years, it's been a bad game. But everything else kind of makes sense.

Maybe Trevor Lawrence getting a little bit more love would have made sense. But I guess if they play well. the Jets didn't. Imagine had the Broncos gotten a quarterback that, you know, everyone can see as a flaming asteroid, suddenly they wouldn't have one primetime game. The rest of their offense is loaded. Is a flaming asteroid good? Well, you can see it. I don't know what I'm seeing at their quarterback position.

And don't discount that Jets Patriots Monday Nighter last year. That was easily the highlight of the Canada. No, that's true. That was a good one. I'm surprised, but I guess this is another result of, the 17 game schedule everyone gets one again that used to be a thing and last year there were there were a handful of teams in the last few years where teams were just completely left out because like the lions for instance getting a prime time game at all almost surprises me because if you look at

the beginning of their schedule uh it's like the lions very likely are going to be out of it from the jump their first three games are 49ers packers ravens it's like hey thanks thanks dan campbell Well, thanks for playing. You got to play them three. And then you go on the road for two division games after that. Like, if they are anything better than one and four, he's in the early race for coach of the year. Also, and I've kind of been on this train before,

and people get sensitive about it. And I get it. I get it. But just saying the lines always get Thanksgiving because it's tradition. Well, that counts too. That's a big spotlight island game that Detroit gets. And speaking of Thanksgiving, yeah. So you get Chicago.

again, Chicago's got four primetime games. Hopefully, Justin Fields plays and plays well. Otherwise, there's going to be a lot of boring football involving the Bears. Chicago at Detroit in the early game, Vegas, the Raiders at Dallas. Cowboys obviously always get a game as well on Thanksgiving. The second game, then the late game, the post- Thanksgiving supper game. We usually eat Thanksgiving dinner around four to five. I don't know what you guys do.

So it's a little bit after that for us. But you get the Buffalo Bills at the New Orleans Saints, which could be great or could be me, depending on what happens to this quarterback situation. A lot of faith in the Saints. Not only did they get five primetime games, but a lot of them are at the end of the season in big spots. That's good for Buffalo, though.

If we feel like they got jobs a little bit in week one, you give them the prime time Thanksgiving game. that's a massive ratings winner. I mean, I guess, you know, I feel like Greg snuck into the little war room when they put these schedules together. And, you know, Mr. James Winston guy went in and just sort of dotted it with a bunch of night games. One little nugget from our NFL network show producer Matt Tanton, who is a Bears fan.

I don't think this happens often at all. The Bears do not have two straight home or away games all year. They alternate home and away every single game. That is bizarre. Hmm, interesting. It's not that interesting, but it's okay. Yeah, it's fine. It's okay.

I think it's called it a nugget. I think it's a nice little nugget. So that's the Thanksgiving slate. Let's talk international slate. How about that? The NFL returns to London. Hit it, Ricky, after a one-year sabbatical COVID-19 induced. The Atlanta Falcons will play the New York Jets.

So Matt Ryan. against Zach Wilson and the Jets on October 10th. What is that week before, I believe? And Trevor Lawrence, the number one overall picks. Week 5. That's the week. That's week. The week after that, Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Got to call them the Jaguars when you're overseas. We'll play host, quote unquote, to the Miami Dolphins on October 17th. And week six, both games will be played at the hot toddy. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Were they involved with the Super League? That goofy business? Unsure. I can check that, but I know Shod Khan's not happy about this.

He had insisted on playing in Wembley Stadium because Tottenham was kind of like a rival, but now it's like you don't even have the option. They're just putting them there. It's a COVID has made no choice for them. I like those two games. That's an island game for the Jets. It's not a prime time game, but it is an island game. And, you know, we would like England's an island, right?

Yes, I mean, the United States in the whole... Let's get to that island. Yeah. How about that? We have been lucky enough to go overseas twice, and it's time to go again. And with the New York Jets playing in that game, and the Falcons who were kind of intrigued by, it is time to start a movement, fans, listeners,

hashtag get ATN to London and send that the way of the NFL UK account on Twitter at NFL UK send a message to them make sure you use that hashtag am I using the right hashtag get ATN to London yeah that's correct

get ATN to London tell them why that we should be there make sure you hit that hashtag and we're going to be working on this side of the pond to try to get over there. But with your help, maybe we can implore some others on that side of the pond to make it happen. I mean, I'm so excited. The Jets actually played a London game a few years back.

It was the game that got poor, who was the Dolphins head coach? Was it Chan Galey? Someone got fired. Some got left behind in London, a head coach with the dolphins a few years back. But having been there, the idea of going there and seeing the Jets with you guys, that would be amazing. and hopefully we can make it happen. That, by the way, is October 10th is my birthday, just noting. So if we were to do that, that would signify, you know, there's no way to usher in,

according to Ricky, I'm turning 109 that week, but like, no way to usher in that kind of celebration, then watching the Jets on what will be a 16-hour workday, but I would be thrilled to do it, and I would say this, why not stay for both games? Why not luxuriate in London for multiple weeks and, you know, really make it count? I mean, let's stretch it out. to Scotland and Ireland, a UK tour. There we go. Go on to Germany, Austria.

It's like back when I was a kid, we had to take a sea ship all the way over to England. It would take us 10 weeks. Half the crew was dead. By the time we got it halfway through the ocean. Anyway, so I like that. I like those matchups, though.

You got Kyle Pitts, you got Zach Wilson. And then the other one is fun too, Tua and Trevor Lawrence. I like that. They're trying to get the Jaguar some wins early, I noticed. The Texans, Broncos, Cardinals, Bengals, you know, it's as easy as they could make it early so that maybe they get to London with a couple wins in their pocket would be nice. That's good. And I wonder, yeah, it's good to see the games back in London. It's such a thriving fan base. Is there a Mexico game this year?

No, it got pushed to. Actually, Handsome Hank tweeted about it yesterday. It is not this year. It'll be pushed to 2022. So it's back on the map. I think COVID is still having an impact. So I think London would have more than two games. in a non-COVID world, and Mexico would definitely have a game. Didn't Mexico, wasn't that the game that was also removed because of an earthquake or some sort of natural disaster? They've had a little bit of a rough run there. All right.

Anyway, that would be awesome. Hashtag, get ATN to London. Let's make it happen. Yeah, we do live shows. Mark and I, you know, take a trip over to Ireland and stopping in some pubs, get loose there. You know, you don't know what's going to happen, but we're going to make the effort. And, of course, it is still. We want to pretend like COVID's over, but it's not.

So who knows if that's going to be obstacle for us, imagine it could be. But hopefully if the fates allow, we'll get back over there. We can have like video footage of me on Sky Sports, like trying not to pump my fist while Kyle Pitts is running down the field to win the game against the Jets and Dan's getting annoyed at me. It'll be great theater. That does sound fun. I'll have to stand in between you, too. It does sound fun.

You were referring to Joe Philbin, by the way, who is one of the more. more milk toast head coaches of this century. Joey Fibb. I'll never forget Joey Fibbs on hard knocks walking around the field picking up bubblegum and telling guys to tie their shoes. I was like, okay. Head coaches have a lot of tasks.

That's one of them. All right. Speaking of the Jets and revenge games, there is some good revenge on tap this season. But before I get to the Jets, I want to talk about the game, obviously, that I think you want to talk about huge ratings. what will do the biggest number of the season.

It's week four. It's Sunday night football. It's Al, Chris, Michelle, and the world. Tom Brady going up to Foxborough to face Bill Belichick, the throne of slees torn apart, a broken marriage. Now, for the first time ever, Tom Brady is against Bill Belichick. who delicious yeah that's good and they they did it intentionally i believe on a night where tom brady could be passing drew breeze is the all-time passing leader again like i feel

like they threw it back and forth but now that drew breeze is gone if brady averages 289 games 289 yards per game he would pass it that night which which would stick i you guys i know you never quite bought into, but I really did enjoy watching Brady and the Bucks, like he's, he's one of my favorite athletes ever, but this is not, this is not a comfortable moment. I'm not looking forward to this. I'd be happier, obviously, if this was not on the schedule. Well, there are, like, there are, you know, Dan, I'm sure when you did this exercise, you can dig in others, but there are revenge games where you're kind of like, let's call, let's, you know, kind of squeeze it into that box, but this is truly dripping with fire. And, like, you know,

I can look at some of these games, feel I can't wait to see it, but, this is when I'm like, holy F, like, I'm going to sit down and watch every second of this. Like, and I know we try to tape during these Sunday night games, we're going to have to figure something out that night. Yeah, that one's for sure. Because, and we've had countless discussions on this show about it, Belchick's never going to admit that he made a mistake by not finding a way to keep Brady in house. And there might even be a reality where he still doesn't think it was a mistake.

But after Brady goes and wins the Super Bowl, I just, imagine there's going to be a lot on the line for both guys because these are guys with egos and there's a lot of pride involved. And if Belchick cooks up a defensive scheme because no one knows him better that embarrasses Brady on a prime time stage, that's going to be, I don't care what Greg says or any other people carrying the water. That's going to be incredibly satisfying on a high level for Bill Belichick, probably a better, more satisfaction than he's ever received from any other regular season game. And for Brady, Brady has nothing to prove. he's coming from a more comfortable place because he just won a Super Bowl in Tampa.

But if he can go and light up the Patriots in Foxborough and he's going to get a ton of cheers, that crowd's going to be completely behind him, maybe even sets that passing record. It could become an absolute carnival celebration, which is going to make Bill very uncomfortable as well. It's legit drama. Well, I think he's always looking for new sources of not motivation, but just something to grind his gears. And this would do it. You can say he doesn't have much to prove, but I bet there's no game he wants to.

He's the same as Belich. I do think there'll be no game that he'll want to light up the opponent anymore than that game, of course. Who writes the, because neither have ever. Edelman's like in the crowd, like holding signs or stuff. It'll be a whole thing. There's a, yeah, neither of these guys are going to really ever talk to the media about truly what went down in the end of the relationship between the two

in terms of being on the. same team who's going to write first of all there's going to be some brave reporters that can have to ask about ask belchick about that all week leading up to the game good luck to you guys but who writes the first um you know retirement biography that discusses it at length do you think it'll be bell check or brady how about it's tom curran writing the the the brady bio come on tommy this what about jimmy gray this is this is your job you are meant to do it this is watch out for jimmy gray and the biggest of all spots this guy can write i mean he can't even write um those little half-time segments are cheesy.

Come on. What about one of us writes it? I mean, why do we keep, why do we keep handing these assignments to everyone else? That would be a best-selling book. Like 14 machine gun shells

into the back there from Rosenthal. For some reason, I'm like always in the car because I was driving to, was it Thursday night football that they did that and stuff? I was often in the car and I heard those segments.

And there, it's just terrible. Yeah. Other revenge games, week seven, a 1 p.m. Fox game. Jared Goff versus the Rams, just a lot of fun.

The Rams didn't come out and say it directly after last season that Jared Goff was capital T, the capital P problem. But they danced right up to the line and let everyone know that, no, it wasn't that the league was catching up at all to Sean McVeigh's offense. It was the quarterback's thing. They pitched them for John Wolford. They kicked him out the door. That should not be forgotten.

John Wilford would have started multiple playoff games if he could have won one, if not for him getting hurt. That is not a false revenge game. I mean, you know, you don't get a lot of sense that Jared Goff sits around like contemplating these things and kind of burning inside. That his personality to me does not give that off. But that's from us as people that don't know him. No, I know.

So I know. But I was going to say, though, we don't, we don't know how annoyed he really is. He's going to wear like his meanest banana republic outfit that way is going to be all into it. He's going to drink the like the meanest bottle of Merlo from his winery. up near San Francisco. But, no, I mean, the competitor in him has to be going mad with excitement for this opportunity for payback

because I think he was scapegoated. And I'm not saying that Goff played well these last two years, especially last year where he was a liability. But I just, if I'm Goff, I'm wondering if, like, he's ever like, the coach and that regime never took any ownership

for our struggles on offense. It was just me. Well, now he gets to maybe stick it. I do, I do worry about like there, because you know when I can start to feel bad for him, if things are totally going south on the Lions, and it's the kind of game where like suddenly Aaron Donald, sacks, Jared Gough, like five times.

Like, I don't know. I hope he, I hope he fares well. Right. Halfway through the first quarter, and they have to abandon their run game, and his team stinks, and maybe he exits the third quarter with a collarbone injury. Like, you could see something like that as well.

As we've said, he's in a very difficult spot guy with Detroit. He's getting paid handsomely. But he's going to pay for that payday. The Jets, Sam Darnold, never say the schedule makers don't have a sense of humor. The Jets open in Charlotte against the Panthers. So it's Sam Darnold against Zach Wilson in week one, right out the gate on September 12th. And guess what? Every Jets fan feels like they're going to see it coming here.

23 for 28, four touchdowns, no picks. Darnold lights up. Robert Salah's defense. That's what's going to happen. That's the dark mind of all Jets fans who always assume everything is going to play out poorly, but it is a new era, but it is important to note. And we had Rich Samini on our podcast that really was a difficult decision internally for that organization. Not everybody was on the same page with the decision to trade Donald as opposed to just

starting with the number two overall pick. So there was definitely hemming and hauling. They made the decision they made. We'll see how it works out. But for Sam Darnold, this guy, the Jets treated him so poorly, not a purpose. It was just they were bad at what they were doing for three years. And this gives him a chance to basically stick it to this team that got his pro career off to, just an absolutely terrible start.

I totally hear what you're saying, though, because it reminds me of when Cleveland had to go up against Carson Wentz, who they didn't draft in week one. And he torched them. And you're just thinking, like, you kind of, you know, you wait all off season for the season to start. And then sometimes by the end of the first game, you're thinking, oh, here we are again. We are back in total darkness. But bottom line, the Jets have a better quarterback, I think. But I cannot wait to see.

I hate that they buried that early. I hate that they buried that as an early game. It's a, it's kind of a double revenge game because it's also the Jets going against the coach who turned them down. Who was like, you don't have your house in order. according to reports you're not letting me hire my coaching staff i'm going to go i was the bell of the ball that's matt rule two years ago in the coaching cycle and decides to go down to carolina i don't want to get too deep into this but they already you know all the websites putting up the point spreads now we're now we're allowed to talk about this stuff i mean the jets being heavy underdogs in week one

struck me as a as a surprising thing i do i don't see these teams as uh as too uneven there so i might i would i might be on your gang green there in week one interesting i would if if If I had a guess, I would say it would probably be Panthers by three. It was more. I think it was like five or something. In New York, too. It's a lot of faith. I think it's in Charlotte.

It is in Charlotte. It is in Charlotte, but it's still a lot of faith in the Panthers. I'm not a darned a believer. I'm just going to spin through the rest of these revenge games. DeAndre Hopkins and J.J. Watt get the Texans in Week 7. That's a 425 Fox game. I just think, like, the revenge can come in different forms, and... When you think about, like we're talking about Tom Brady going up to Foxborough, those fans are going to go mad for Brady.

They're going to be, because they love him. And everything he did, there is no bad blood unless there's something I'm missing Ricky and Greg between Patriots fans and Tom Brady. I think the same thing will be said with Hopkins and Watt. And you wonder, Texans are obviously just dealing with a lot of bad stuff right now between poor management decisions. this the Sean Watson mess, which has turned the franchise even more upside down or it already was upside down. So would that turn it back, right side up?

No, it just spins them off into this other weird universe of dysfunction. I mean, I think this is the purgatory of the NFL. That's the line I had to take out, by the way. This is the NFL purgatory right now, the Houston Texans. And I could imagine Watt and Hopkins having big games and Texans fans kind of actually being into it

to kind of in a cathartic way. Like, look what you did. J.J. Watt was a giant on the field and in the community for us, and he wanted to go elsewhere. You traded DeAndre Hopkins for 40 cents on the dollar. And look at this guy. He's a Hall fame level player. I would think if they got whipped by the Cardinals, a lot of Texans fans would almost get a cathartic feeling out of that. That is a dark corner.

I mean, because I don't think you're wrong at all. There's got to be a pocket. Maybe I am, and I'd like to hear from Texans fans. I think of anything, that's a good thing. I think right now, I feel like I tend to, I follow a lot of Houston people for whatever, and Seth Payne and Zierline and Stephanie Stradley's great. I think the Texans have to be worried about the apathy of their fans right now. I think it's less that they're even angry, that like they're such a great fan base that for

the first time ever, they're just kind of like, man, we're not, maybe like we'll tune in in a year or two. Like we're not interested in this team anymore, which is a bad place to be. And I'll throw one more out there. Cam Newton versus the Panthers, week nine, we don't know if we're going to get this. I hope he gets there. That would be a win for me. Yeah, because Mac Jones, of course, is in that building for the Patriots and he's a first-round pick. So the way, and Mark, you were hitting on this on Monday show, the way things go is typically

that rookie quarterback is going to play sooner rather than later. Unless they give Cam the chance to start the season and then New England is having a nice year, then you get into a situation. of course, Matt could also start the season to get hurt. There are different ways where Cam Newton can play in this game. But you would imagine, because I've thought about this one too. And I don't blame that rule and Tepper for this, but they kind of didn't seem to struggle with saying goodbye to Newton,

a guy who had that organization on his back for a decade under Jerry Richardson. Is that the name? Yeah. Ron Rivera. Yeah, I mean. Ron Rivera. So it's like, They just basically kicked them out the door.

And they still don't have a solution that they can trust. Teddy flamed out, sorry, Greg. And Sam Darnold is a huge role of the dice. So it's not like they had the situation where it's like, we're getting rid of Cam and we got Trevor Lawrence coming in the building or Zach Wilson or somebody that we know we can trust or know we can get excited about. They're still kind of searching. And Cam was an MVP and a guy took him to the Super Bowl and the best player in franchise history mark.

And now he gets a chance to show the Panthers, maybe you would have been better off all along just sticking by me. You'd have to, well, I think we've talked about the Panthers, as much as I like what they're doing at one of the losers of the offseason because of what happened at quarterback. I mean, unless, you know, four weeks in, Darnold's a totally different guy, but can you imagine, even if Mack Jones is the starter and they're faring well, that Josh McDaniels puts Cam Newton in on, in sub packages,

or maybe has them like rip off a couple drives where he runs the ball like nine times in a row and scores a touchdown and then he just runs off the field. that's revenge baby oh one bonus one rickie uh play the clip of justin jefferson the vikings wide receiver former ls u star who was on the column cowherd show what is it the herd the herd with colherd word um and he was asked if uh he was surprised that the vikings reportedly inquired about drafting or wanted to draft justin fields uh before he was taken off the board by the bears right in front of them? No, you know, we have to build on, you know, for after Kirk or whatever the case may be.

But having Justin Fields brings a little bit more pressure to other teams by having, you know, a dominant quarterback like he is. And they also, Justin Jefferson also said that Joe Burrow, his former quarterback, has a swag and confidence to a game that separates him from Kirk Cousins. And so I guess maybe Kirk Cousins will get revenge against his own wide receiver on some level at some point in the season. I don't know. Well, they play each other right off the bat, Burrow versus Cousins, too. I mean, Jefferson was careful.

He did what we want out of young athletes or any athletes where he answered the question. He didn't say anything bad about Cousins, but he was asked to choose between Cousins and Burrow. And he said, Burrow. He said, Burroughs got the swagger that you don't normally see. But the most, the key thing, which for whatever reason didn't get picked up as much was like, And he's not afraid to take a hit. And to me, that's what, like, makes a great quarterback. And I'm thinking, like, hmm, who in the NFL gets a little skittish when the pressure's on?

I find it interesting that you think he didn't say anything bad about cousins because he didn't, he didn't directly, but like, it's one of the more heat-seeking team, praise Joe Burrow. It's one of the more heat-seeking teammate on teammate comments of the entire off-season or money off-season. I mean, he basically said, we sort of, like, make these into such a big deal that it's tough for them to be honest. He was asked a question, and he pumped up Joe Burr. And so he answered the question, and we can read into that as we should. I was going to say, but you don't have to read between the lines on that. Just read the lines.

He was saying that Cousins doesn't have swagger. He doesn't have the same type of confidence. He doesn't, he's not as fearless in the pocket. The Vikings need to start thinking about life after Kirk Cousins. I mean, imagine like. You can tell what's happening in that locker room with the Vikings. He's like the new Stefan Diggs. He replaced them like perfectly.

Replace the production. That's true. But you can tell. we're not in the locker room, but like, it seems apparent that Kirk Cousins isn't the most popular guy, and a lot of these young players would rather have someone a little more dynamic as a leader of the offense, despite the numbers that Kirk Cousins puts up, which if they got that production from Justin Fields, what he did even last year, Cousins, people would say Justin Fields was the rookie of the year. Cousins' production gets overlooked because there's just

something about him that doesn't inspire excitement or, I don't know, fearlessness and your leader. Yeah. You know, we say that how important that is as a quarterback. And I think it's fair to say, yeah, he doesn't seem from the outside like he would be inspiring. And the players keep telling us as much. All right.

Anything else we want to hit on the schedule, boys? Yeah, one quick thing. Well, first, Halloween is on a Sunday, which I'm really bummed up about that. I'm like, how many, how many Halloween? Do I have left where my daughter Ellis would be 10 by then is actually going to want to go with me that like she looks forward to that and I'm going to miss maybe why couldn't why couldn't Halloween fall on a Sunday last year when Halloween already got ruined by coronavirus we're losing that I'm with you I got a six-year-old son and a four-year-old son you trying to treasure all these years but that's that's the breaks and then Christmas the big Christmas game which based on past precedent I think might be the most watched game of the year that and the mid-afternoon Thanksgiving game the Browns only got three prime time that was a surprise

that's a surprise especially they don't even show up until week seven of Thursday night football which obviously is different than the Sunday night game I would expect they gave him that Christmas one though so there okay that's good but I would have thought you would see the Browns in the first couple weeks of the season in a true primetime island game a little surprised about that mark for a team that has a dedicated fan base.

You talk about losing Halloween. We're losing points there. What's going to happen on Christmas Eve if the Packers beat the Browns and I'm storming around the house is one of the most annoyed people in the country? It's Christmas Day. So right in the middle of your Christmas afternoon

is Packers Browns to the whole country. So that is a big spot that they put the Browns in. Yeah, that's true. In the late season ones, they're almost saying, well, we're not worried about the Browns flaming out. We think they'll be in it until the end, we're going to put them in this big spot against the Packers on Christmas.

There's two Christmas games, though. And that's the national one. And then there's also an NFL network. Mark, ultimately it's good, though. The timing there, because who knows, maybe things go poorly on Christmas Day for the Browns. But the fact that it happens after Santa comes, it doesn't lead to any Santa issues.

You know, it's not like Santa will destroy the toys or light them on fire and arrange because Christmas Eve went terribly. They're largely gift focused. So if that box will be checked heavily, but I will just say, I don't even sit down during these Browns games in our house. So it's like, you know, it's going to be, it's the opposite of like sitting around with a cup of cocoa having a nice snowy Christmas day. My children actually, they're like, we don't need Santa here because Christmas, A, is a season of giving. And B, ultimately, it's just about being around family and loving the people who you love. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, guys, it's Christmas.

You want presents. They're like, no, dad. No, we don't need that. Look at these two. What a father. What a father. Meanwhile, I can just imagine. They could not be further from the truth.

The Browns are down 13-3 in the second quarter and Mark is just grinch. Christmas is over by that point in the, in the Sessler household. I'll set the tree on fire twice. Simone might have to kick them out because at that point, no one's having a good time on Christmas. Put all the toys in the car. We're going to Target. We're returning everything. And then our gift is like a 14-hour workday the day after.

This is a, you know, we're getting kind of hit in the head with a bat here, let's be honest. Also, the season ends on January 9th, by the way. That's, that just seems weird. It's late. And so right now, as we're taping this, we're four months to the day until that first week one Sunday. So we're actually equidistant right now. We're four months to the day. It's still a long time.

So everyone pace yourself. Let's enjoy the next few months because that is, you know, we have four months to the day until week one. And the entire regular season is exactly four months. So the season is only as long, basically, as our time now. So we got some time and let's enjoy some of it. Good public service announcement there, Greg. Thank you. That was really nice, Greg.

Week 18 for the first time, of course, there is a week 18, which is why the season ends later on January night. There will be two Saturday games, both ESPN ABC joints. they're both to be announced. And I had mentioned that there is another interesting Saturday wrinkle. That's in week 15. So you're going to have the Chiefs at Chargers on Thursday night. Oh, man, those Chiefs fans getting out of that Kansas City, getting out of that weather,

head to Southern California for a little pre-Christmas vacation. I might want to go here. That place is going to be. If you're Chargers fans, if you are listening to this podcast and you're in the Los Angeles area, you need, you need to support your team and get in that building if you feel comfortable being in a public space, because otherwise, there's going to be 50,000 Chiefs fans in that building. Anyway, so you have the Thursday night game in week 15.

Then there are two Saturday games in week 15. And like I said, there's a pool of teams that could squeeze into that. And there is one primetime game as well. So Carolina at Buffalo, Vegas at Cleveland, New England at Indies. Jets at Miami, Washington at Philly. Those teams are all eligible to slide into that Saturday game. The rest will, the two games will slide into that spot and then the rest of the teams fall back into Sunday.

So interesting, interesting, interesting. It's the biggest season ever, they say. I mean, it's a fact. It's technically true. It's the longest season ever. So I think that's where they're going. I think we covered everything. We got revenge games, hardest schedule, international series,

Thanksgiving. week one, anything else? Oh, hashtag, get ATN to London. Yeah, that's important. But we've got to do that. We've got to make that happen. We are going to do live shows. We're going to be at the stadium.

We're hanging out with Neil Reynolds and the Sky Sports Gang. No, no Rob Ryan, unfortunately. No, but a lot of this, you know, this boils down to, let's be real. I think it boils down to money and funds. So, you know, we've got thousands of listeners. If there's like a secret multi-millionaire out there, You can make this happen. It doesn't have to all come through our company.

You're saying our fans could pay for us to go? I'm saying one like one multi-billionaire type figure who's listening to this, like driving around like in a cream-colored porous, just like drop half a mill and we're in, you know, the whole trip is taking care of. And just to be clear to the listeners, because you guys are so giving. Don't start a go-fund me or anything. There's no way for us to process that. That money would just end up going to a vice president in an office on Park Avenue

in New York. So just hang tight. We're going to do the work behind the scenes and hopefully get some help in different areas and get back to London because it's going to be great. All right. Good stuff. All right. So we got your special Wednesday show here in the can. We're going to pop up an NFL network a couple times this week, which will be nice. And then Friday we'll have our NFL network program, the around the NFL broadcast.

We'll be back. And then we go onward. not for it next week. Two more shows and another network show. Hashtag, hit the music again, Ricky. God save. God save. Ricky.

Hashtag, get ATN to learn. All right. This is Dan Hansis. Signing off for the old boss, the quiet storm. He will not be quiet on Christmas. He's going to be walking around the South Bay looking for a tavern on Christmas. I'm like, sorry, sir, we're close, but I must watch the Brown. Let me in your building.

Is that little peatman, anyway? And of course, Ricky Hollywood behind the virtual glass. Until Tuesday. Heath the call. This is an I-heart podcast.