NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2023 Training Camp Whisperssss

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

In a room full of heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, and Marc Sessler get you caught up on news from around the league including updates on the injuries to Joe Burrow (07:10) and Jalen Ramsey (13:06), Jim Irsay's comments about Jonathan Taylor (16:14) and the latest chapter in the Sean Payton versus the Jets drama (25:00). After the break, the heroes tell you which whispers out of training camp intrigue them the most including whispers about the Chiefs (41:50), Darren Waller (46:39), a pair of rookie tight ends (55:09), Lamar Jackson (01:04:05) and the Seahawks running back position (01:16:22).  NOTE: Time codes approximate. NFL 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 got that dog in there. Oh, yeah. From the Chris Wesleying podcast studio, it's Around the NFL. I am Dan Hansus Heroes here, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, and I think, hope everybody had a nice weekend. Greg, Mark, he's a Hollywood legend. He's a cinephile.

You thought he wouldn't see seconds before we started. You're like, I heard the new Mission Impossible wasn't that great. Mark was like, I beg to differ because he sees them all. Well, you said that you heard it was the worst one. I would disagree with that, only because I can think of a few that I very much disliked. This one was... That it was all, like, about teamwork and being... It was kind of corny compared to the last one.

I think it pointed fun in itself, like, in a way that was... A little winking, a little self-referential, yeah. We were also talking about we both saw Oppenheimer. Right. It's fine. I agree. like did it blow me off the earth I liked it

I saw it at 6 a.m. to be honest which was I've never done in a theater I don't think... Were you tired? I thought like I got up super early and even went running to try to be like and drank some coffee to be like I'm going to go into this thing feeling like it's midday and it was like it was around 6.53 and I'm like

I'm nodding off here like I'm struggling to stay awake. If the movie started at 6 and you went running Yeah, GMPEC What time did you pull on your gym shoes and hit the pavement. Like 4.30. Well, the theater's across the street

from where I live, so I didn't have to get a... Did you sleep? What do you mean? Did you go to sleep before the run? I tried to go... Previously, yeah, I went to sleep at like 10 something at night. I tried to. Well, that's good. Well, that's good. Yeah. Well, no, it was an attempt to not try to go straight from bed to a theater and then just continue to sleep in a dark, cozy theater. Smart. So, it was a battle. You saw it at 9. Easier. Yeah. I'd assume. Yeah. It's fine.

pop culture news and we got so much to get to in the NFL of course it is around the NFL but today in fact it's going to happen during today's taping they have a raffle amongst NFL media employees to see taylor swift the eras tour next tuesday right here at sophy stadium and it is all anyone is talking about right now i mean this whole building is on fire with like 26 year olds that can't stop talking about will they get the the tickets which are going for thousands of dollars on the secondary market Let's bring in Sean Kelly behind the glass here. Shawnee, give us the temperature of the Generation Z right now. Well, it's really hot, Dan. It's everybody is firing on all ballistics today. I'm just all the middle, like the 20, the mid-20s is just buzzing. The office group chats on Slack are just going bonkers. Everybody wants these Tatea tickets.

Don't do that. That was offensive. Isn't that her nickname? I'm just the way. Maybe coming through the way that you did it. It's also two tickets. There's got to be hundreds of people in this raffle. Yeah, there's a lot of people in the raffle.

It's Swifties, right? Oh, is it Swifties? I always thought that was their nickname. I don't know. I have good luck in raffles. I'm not generally going for the tickets. I've already promised a coworker that the tickets would be theirs if I do win. And I see Christy Stableton behind you.

It is Christy Stapleton behind me. She will be getting the tickets. But it's going to be an intense event. I'm assuming 12 p.m. for the drop. They just said Monday, so that's like a good middle of the day line. Can you be our official monitor of this if it happens during the show coming in with some breaking news? There will be a breaking news. Sean Kelly came in here and told us he was doing this thing.

And Greg informed him logically, like, you're probably not going to win. And Sean acknowledged, this was his quote, the odds are heavily stacked against me. So at least he's got a dose of reality. Who doesn't love it? But he's good at raffles, apparently. He's the Brock Purdy of this. You know, everyone's counting him out. Oh, yeah.

they can fill up the parking lot, the lines, whether she can match BTS. I would not doubt. She's going to crush B.Swif right now. I'd resell them. I'd win it, then resell them. I don't think that's allowed. You're not allowed to do that.

Officially, I would not be. Are you in the raffle? I don't have email right now. I'm in. I'm in. And it actually, the show conflicts with the Hard Knocks premiere next week and the podcast I'll be doing with Colleen. So maybe my tickets would go up for grabs.

What a wild time. Calee, yeah, excuse me, Christy, you're out, though, because you kind of hinted you might poison me to get the tickets that I already have that I'm going with my wife on Monday, so. Oh, this was a long, like, brag. Yeah. I'm already going. All right. All right, good stuff. All right.

Here we go. She did. She kind of hinted, hey, if you were to get sick, I'll take your tickets. Is it too late to enter this raffle? Yes. You're out, bro. Okay. All right.

the NFL is really starting to hit up now, boys. The pads are on for everybody. That was a big thing. Monday throughout the league, the pads are on. Now, for a few teams, they were on before that, the four or five teams before that. But now everybody. Football's back.

Now it's back, right? Pads are on. Sure. Until there's a game this week. Then it's back. Then football. Then we realize the preseason is somewhat of a sham and so then it's going to back at a later date.

Well, actually, but also you put the pads on, but the way the rules are now, you can't do full tackling, full hitting for another few days. Then it's back. And it's back, sort of. And then when the preseason actually kicks off in earnest, to me, that's when football's back. It's vaguely back at that point. Until Thursday, the week went opener, football's back.

Bingo. But really, it's the Sunday that follows. Well, it really doesn't even count until Thanksgiving. That's when the season starts. Right. Football's back. and really, it really comes down to one game in the end, the Super Bowl.

And it's really, and it's here. That's truly back. It's dark. All right, we're going to share some whispers coming out of training camps across America. Whispers. Creepy. But first, some news.

I kind of live by saying, if you ain't got no haters, you ain't popping. So hate away. We're going to get to the storyline around Sean Payton. One of the better kind of summer stories that have ever has ever happened on this podcast as we enter year 11 i don't think there's got so there's so many layers to it it's wonderful it's wonderful well we're so used to players going at each other you know online or in some form it's coaches when it's coaches it stands out

and i find it delicious and not for nothing sean payton your initial when you know i have to do some damage control i thought i had my fox hat on you never said anything interesting on fox that you cannot use that as an excuse someone point out one thing shone Peyton said in his year on Fox that anyone ever talked about. Endless milk toast commentary. The only thing I remember is trying to get a new job is like him wearing those pandas, you know, the dunks, like the

sneakers that he wore every, that was about all that anyone took away. And the goodbye tweet from Fox, which is like Sean Payton, thank you for everything you've done. It's like, what, take eight million of our dollars? All right, let's get to it starting with obviously the big news that broke and yes, we are undefeated

here. This is just this is what we do. We record and then major news happens immediately following the recording of said podcast that happened on Thursday at Bengals practice where Joe Burrow rolled out to his right, pulled up with a calf issue, was later diagnosed as a sprain, an injury that's expected to keep him out several weeks. So you're not going to see him in the preseason. Obviously, NFL networks Mike Garifolo reports that week one, quote, should be realistic for Burrow. However, Gregie, couple things here. Number one, this I believe is the fourth straight year. Burroughs summer has been impacted either by the recovery of an injury or COVID or an occurrence of an injury.

Appendectomy last year. Right. It's never, it's not an ideal situation, obviously, for Cincinnati, not one that they can't overcome. Of course, he had the appendectomy appendectomy last year and had his best year ever. Still not great. The other concern here, Greg. is the calf is one of those injuries where it could come back. And if you come back too soon and injured again, all of a sudden, everything's up in the air.

Right. I think of Kevin Durant, obviously a very different sport. But doing that and then tearing his Achilles coming soon off the calf straight. And it can linger. It can come back and forth. It's disappointing. He was really excited Joe Burrow to have a camp. And you can point out, yeah, he ended up having a great year last year.

But he's tended and the Bengals have tended to start the year. slowly. You remember that disastrous week one game he had against the Steelers. They also lost week two to the Cowboys. He was trying to avoid that. The thing if you're a Bengals fan, I think you are holding on to here, is they're not

making any move to bring in another quarterback. Trevor Simeon is probably their backup. It might be Jake Browning. They did sign a quarterback. I think a USFL guy reads Senate. But if they were really worried he was going to be out into the regular season,

And don't you got to give old Teddy a call or Carson Wentz? Like we have some real players that can play quarterback here. The season's over if you're playing Jake Browning in a bunch of meaningful games. So I got to think they are pretty confident he's back for week one. That has to be the biggest bomb for Bengals fans, that exact thing. There's no panic. I thought even their social media account was being playful with the whole thing in the hours and days after. But, you know, there was this moment because our Thursday show was about rivalries.

And we dug into the past, but one we talked about was this, like, triumvirate of the chiefs, the bills, and the Bengals. And we're driving home as this news is breaking. And it's one of the few times that Twitter slash X is, to me, really valuable because you're just re-refreshing over and over trying to find out what news is. But the news got softer and softer and softer about the injury itself. But there was a moment where I'm just imagining, like, wait a minute, the AFC suddenly, the Bengals are a non-factor, essentially, if Joe Burrow is gone. and it changes the way you think about the season. It's just a reminder that, like, you can talk about these teams month after month in the off season,

but then now it's like we are going to start to, we're going to lose about 20% of the people that we spend our time talking about this season. And it's like the complexion of the AFC would have changed drastically, but I don't like calf injury because you're right. If you tweak that thing, it's like, can come back and knock you out for a month more, month or more. Football is a completely different sport than baseball.

But. Yeah, in multiple ways. I would say that you still. have to look it as a long year, right? And I would just hope there's always this thing all players are and all teams are. They always circle week one for injuries. Oh, he'll be okay for

week one. But if there's any concern that he's not 110% ready, yes, I would say, you know, if you have to go a couple weeks out of borough to ensure that he doesn't pop his Achilles in October, do it. We'll see. Man, that would stink. Start with a couple

division games, Browns and Ravens. It does get me think, like, I looked at this and there's some other quarterback situations around the league. Like, this CBA really does job veteran players, guys like a Teddy Bridgewater or Carson Wentz. It's crazy that, like, Jordan loves backup right now as a fifth round rookie no one liked, like Sean Clifford. Like, Matthew Stafford's backup is Stetson Bennett. They got no real backup in Cincinnati.

Like, a lot of teams out there just go so cheap on these rookie deals where, like, in other sports, Guys like Teddy Bridgewater and Carson Wentz, I'm not a huge Wenz fan, but it's like they can play. But the way the CBA is structured, it's like these mid-level veterans just get totally left out in the cold. Some cases, though, they're looking for the right landing spot and job too and roll because it's like Teddy Bridgewater's made a ton of money. He doesn't have to. That's what I mean. In other sports, like high-level backups get like $10 million a year. That's a quarterback position.

They're not going to be getting more than $3 million anyways. And the rookie wage scale, in part, put in as a benefit to the veterans, though, because those rookie contracts are so crazy? Yes, but it ended up helping the stars and crushing the middle class. That's why since then, those contracts, those rookie contracts are so valuable that there's a way higher percentage of rookies in the league, a way lower average age, the average career length is shorter. Like, it's really helped out there. I don't know. It's just a random top. Just thinking like...

They signed another CBA after that. No, yeah, the 20, 2011 one. But have they signed another one since? They have, right? There was a new one created, yeah. So the players didn't get that tossed out. But you're right. That does seem to be, in general,

and you're seeing it with all the running back stuff, the players maybe didn't get the deal they wanted in retrospect when Robert Kraft was hugging. Yeah, I think we're learning that now. Yes. All right, the NFL networks. Ian Rappaport reports that Jalen Ramsey underwent a full meniscus repair surgery. It's going to take him out of the picture until December.

So the dolphins, obviously when they acquired Ramsey Mark, they saw him as a linchpin of that defense. A guy who's a future Hall Famer potentially that they believed had elite years. And maybe he'll come back in December and be elite and be a nice, you know, jump start. But this is really bad news. It's a significant injury that that requires a significant amount of missed time. It's a really stacked defense when we were looking at it. You know, a couple months ago, it's like it's hard to find a weakness. Injuries will create that.

They went out and signed Eli Apple. Not the worst signing there. I think they need some depth, but they've still got Xavier Howard. Cam Smith is a second year guy or actually a rookie. So I don't know. I mean, I think you've got Vic Fangio. I trust him to kind of maximize everyone. I kind of love the pairing of Mike McDaniel and Vic Fangio.

But when you start losing guys like Ramsey, the only, I guess, the bright spot would be is he comes back and he's healthy in December. That might be perfect timing for, like, a push. Here is Mike McDaniel on the Jalen Ramsey surgery. I think the surgery went about as well as it could have. So we're related about that. And, you know, in terms of where his mindset is at, you couldn't, he's a self-proclaimed alien.

And, you know, he couldn't have a better mindset with which to attack this process. He's immediately tell me whatever the timeline is, and I'm going to beat it by a month. I thought it was interesting how his contract really maybe led to the path they took surgery-wise. Our guy, Rapshie pointed out. He got fully guaranteed salaries in 23 and 24.

I was critical of that trade because they were acting like Ramsey got a lot out of it, and he really didn't. He didn't get a raise. He's kind of under a pretty, I think, team-friendly contract. But this was the positive was that he got his salaries guaranteed. And it wasn't hard to read between the lines that the team or in a different scenario might have preferred a smaller surgery that he would have been returning in early in September, like mid-September, that it would have been not a full repair of the meniscus. That was the initial reports. Then they said, well, they're going to see how it looks like.

and Rhapsie all but said, look, if he was a free agent next year, he might be coming back on less of a complete surgery. And so it's interesting. You talked about Mario da last week. It's kind of a similar situation here, except Ramsey's protected by a guaranteed salary in 2024, so he doesn't need to rush it. He wants to get all the way better. And I'm not that worried about the dolphins.

I think they're secondary could be very good. I like Cater Kohu as the slot. I like Brandon Jones, Javon, Holland, as the safety. Zaving Howard. Cam Smith, some people love him as a as a rookie. Like, they're pretty deep at cornerback. Okay. In other news, you have Jonathan Taylor running back of the Colts who has been outspoken about all the running back drama and the pay, and he wants a new contract. And we talked about it last week that Jim Ursa, the owner of the Colts has been outspoken

about, you know, the CBA and how it was structured and how owner or agents were not operating a good faith with this situation. This led to what was said to be by beat reporters a dramatic moment where there was some type of luxury mobile like home or something. I think he's bought like a Jerry Jones. He's got a lower level Jerry Jones bus.

He's got the Erse bus now. So there's an Erse bus adjacent to the practice field and Taylor and Ersee late last week meeting it for an hour. They come out of that meeting. Didn't go so hot, I guess, because Taylor, we learn, has asked for a trade. This then rolls into the next part of this storyline that Taylor reportedly a reported back pain during his pre-training camp physical that was deemed to be an injury that was not sustained while playing for the Colts.

The situation now has the team considering whether to place Taylor on the non-football injury list, which could result in Indy withholding his salary. Yikes, that's according to Stephen Holder at ESPN. And then Jonathan Taylor hits back on Twitter or X and says one, never had back pain. Two, never reported back pain. Not sure who sources are, but find new ones. And then just for fun, here is. Find new ones. Here is Ersa talking about an increasingly big mess involving his best offensive player.

If I die tonight and Jonathan Taylor's out of the league, no one's going to miss us. The league goes on. I mean, you know, we know that. The national football rolls on. It doesn't matter. Sunglasses. Who comes and who goes. Jackie L.

Yeah, you know, and it's a privilege to be part of it. And now is the time, you know, for us to do our work. It's now is a time as an organization. And, you know, players that are, you know, 24, 25 years old, now is the time to seize the moment of greatness. He hit him with the Kyle Sannahan. We might not even be here on Sunday. I mean, I would admit.

I would miss you, Jim. I mean, don't, you know. I think he's talking about the big picture. Yes, he's technically correct. I mean, he's very fast. The league would move on. I'm sure Jonathan Taylor loved hearing this. The funny thing was the timeline of this.

Get back out there, kid. So that interview happened after they got off the bus. And that interview, Erce said, we're going to keep it in house what me and Jonathan talked about. It's going in a good direction. A great Twitter moment because 15 minutes later, sheet then reports Taylor wants a trade. And then Ursei has to respond. And then Erse responded after that.

He's not going anywhere. Like he's going to be on this team. There's no way we're trading him. Wait, so his, we're all going to die thing came before trade demand. Well, I think after the actual trade demand, but he tried to hide it from the public. He's like, we're not going to talk about that publicly. We're not going to say what happened between us. 10 minutes later, it comes out.

Jonathan Taylor requested. I love the Ersay quote. I couldn't agree more. I mean, we would just keep rolling. no matter what happens in this situation. We're talking about it today. It'll be old news soon enough to figure it out. I think if you're like, it's just another extension.

I said on our last show that the whole running back thing, I empathize with them vaguely, but like I'm starting to get tired of the whole situation. It is what it is. But like Jonathan Taylor, like you want to get traded. Like you're going to need to find if this even were, if they even vaguely could happen. Like you need to get a team that sort of says,

we're a Super Bowl window. We're not going to get someone to trade for Jonathan Taylor. and offer a massive extension. It's like, you're a free agent after this year. Maybe we bring you in, we plug you in for one year and make a run of it. But that has to be a team that has an excellent offensive line. Because if you look at last year, what happened with the cults, like Jonathan Taylor is an all-pro level running back,

not behind a bad offensive line. That offensive line needs to be patched together and be a better unit overall to actually get anything out of the running back situation. They also have Zach Moss who suffered a broken forum today. They're in a bad spot at that position. Yeah, they are. I just, I understand the, I have empathy for the running backs. But again, Taylor, I don't know, and I don't like the way Ursae put that, like,

hey, now's the time for these kids to be out there playing because that's too reductive. And you understand why these players understand for the same reasons. Erce is saying get out there and play because the window is short. That's why these guys are trying to get paid right now because they know there's not a big payday coming five years from now. I think he's just mad at his way. boss. It might be a rare case where he would just rather play for another team, even if he wasn't getting the contract.

Because to your point, Mark, I don't think there's a single team in the NFL that would be willing to give up a decent draft pick and a good contract for Jonathan Taylor. Well, that's what I was going to say, which is... He's coming off an injured year where he didn't look great when he did play. And he, we don't know this physical, who knows what's going on with this physical, but if the ankle is a part of the red flag here, which it sounds like it, it's like, am I going to give a long-term huge contract to a running back who was in someone else's building that suffered a serious injury to his ankle that's still not healed yet.

I just think he's not being realistic. There's no contract coming for this guy from the Colts or anybody else. Could you see a team? I don't know. You could think of someone like the Cowboys or someone's like, oh, we'll do this for a third-round pick. And then it's like we've got, you know, like some team. So then you got to pay him.

Right. But someone, you don't know. Maybe not. Maybe they don't. It's a one-year thing. And then I think to Jonathan Taylor's point, like, he's. just wants out of this world of disrespect in Indianapolis, you get a one-year situation on a good team, then you go out to free agency. It might be a better situation for him than trying to lobby for a contract he's not going to get right now.

Chris Ballard has to have the least amount of power of just about any GM out there because he was quoted saying how important Jonathan Taylor was to this team, not that long ago, how he did want him long term. And I think he was being truthful. And then you see these reports about them trying to put them on the NFI list. And the reason they would do that is because they wouldn't have to pay them. And it seems like a threat. It seems like dirty pool. It seems like if you had to do some source guessing, it's probably coming from ownership, not from the front office. Because I don't think the front office wants to make him any more mad.

And so this could be a situation where the emotions are so hot that something does happen. We have this conversation a week or two ago. What has a shook? I mentioned just like, you know, the cults. like you have an owner that's increasingly expressing, you know, how he feels in public and has more control than ever, it seems, in terms of the football operations, that would have me shook as a Colts fan because you want something collaborative, not just the owner pointing things out and saying, this is how everything has to be.

And you could say whatever you want about running backs. Jonathan Taylor is vital to this team. Our friend Daniel Jeremiah pointed it out. He should, like, he's got a lot of these good thoughts. he should start, he could collect them together, do a podcast. Say it into a microphone. It's a growing thing. It's just not, you know.

Who cares about Jeremiah? That's a good one. He pointed out there's no explosive element to this offense. Anthony Richardson is all sorts of explosive, but Michael Pittman, not the fastest guy in the world. Alec Pierce, that's not really his game. He's, you know, he's got to catch him jump balls, Josh Downs. That's not him. They don't have it at running back like Jonathan Taylor is their explosive guy.

One last note. By the way, on the Colts camp, Anthony Richardson, offered mention, got a nose job. All right, in other news. He did not get a nose job. I mean, you could call it that. Our guy rap sheet said specifically it was not a nose job. But yes, it was something to do with like.

A septum, like corrected or something. Internally, I don't get a nose job. It wasn't reshaped. I mean, sure you could call it. It wasn't a cosmetic surgery. I was thinking how. I wait until camp to get a nose job. I was thinking how funny that term is.

And it's just everyone's, oh, you get a nose job? Like, nose job. It's just kind of funny. It is. Two funny words, but together. Yes, it is. Anthony Richardson got a nose job. That is not inaccurate.

It is. It is. Because nose job implies that cosmetic surgery. It implies, but I didn't say. It is not accurate at all. If you asked the surgeon, oh, Richardson, is he, do you check out? Oh, yeah, earlier. Nose job?

Yeah. That's what you think the surgery. Like, yeah, I fixed the septum. Casual surgeon. No, I'd follow up. what type of nose job of septum correction okay welcome back to earth man why don't know what you're living in a different universe than Greg and I um Aaron Rogers Sean Peyton Nathaniel Hackett Robert Salah bunch of players around the Jets it's a big old stew of funkiness after Peyton shot off to USA today

about how terrible Hackett and the Broncos coaching staff was last year as I said Peyton came out the next day when I don't know how another element of the story how long has he been in this game did he not realize that this was going to be a major storm did he not see this coming or at our other theories maybe you know when he gave the interview

you're in a bit of a little more clear-headed state yeah he just was a little loose despite all the like all the Denver reporters and nationally where they were like hey it's Sean Payton does it He has intention behind it. He has purpose to everything he does.

Cut to the next morning. Sean Peyton's like, actually, I totally regret it. Why did I do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you heard Robert Sal, obviously, in the news drop how he addressed it a couple days ago. If you got no haters, you ain't popping.

My favorite part was Claibon's reaction to that in real time, just burying his face in his hands with cringe. But then Schreger, was at Jets Camp this weekend for back together weekend NFL Network

great job by everyone on the team and this is for us well we were supporters okay yeah I do support what they did we were in the stands clapping

yay everybody did great here is Shreger teed up Rogers in a way that gave Rogers a chance to give a very kind of nondescript answer but Rogers was very descriptive in his response. Yeah, I love Nathaniel Hackett, and those comments were very surprising

for a coach to do that to another coach. My love for Hat goes deep. We had some great years together in Green Bay, kept in touch, love him and his family. He's an incredible family man, incredible dad, and on the field... I could say that. You know, he's arguably my favorite coach ever at the NFL. Just his approach to it, how he makes it fun, how he cares about the guys, just how he goes about his business with respect, with leadership, with honesty, with integrity.

Pause it. It made me feel bad that someone... Now the blowtorch comes out. Yeah. All right, play. Someone who's accomplished a lot in the league is that insecure that they have to take another man down to set themselves up for some sort of easy fall if it doesn't go well for that team this year.

I thought it was way out of line inappropriate and I think he needs to keep my coach's names out of his mouth. That's my quarterback. Also, if you're Peter Schreger, who looks good in those sunglasses right there, you know, oh, I just generated an absolute heat seeker of an interview. Nice job for NFL Plus. That was on NFL Plus. First they'd get us locked in to doing some content this season

than that. big fire by the way I love that first of all I'm a gentleman I love that I love Rogers being all fired up there I also like like or what like what is Aaron Rogers actually going to do if Sean Payton says something else is he going to punch him in the mouth in week five like that was that was that a physical threat by Aaron Rogers towards Sean Payton I love it all this story is ridiculous and beautiful I I thought of this quote that I often think of it was by an author I like like Rachel Cuss where she wrote, like, I thought how often people betrayed themselves by what they notice in others. And to me, this was a game recognizes game. Who has purposefully managed the media in deceptive ways more over the last 10 years than Aaron Rogers and Sean Payton? Like, these two guys are similar. And Rogers, like, when he's saying that how you feel bad for a guy that he would be so insecure, that he would bring down. others in the process.

You almost feel like, it's like, oh, that's something Rogers hit on in therapy a couple years ago when he was burying his management. And so, like, I don't think he's wrong. And I think he's speaking from experience what Peyton was doing there. I loved it. Maybe if you peel back the layer, maybe he was more just like, it's a way of saying he was disappointed that Peyton,

the guy who's playing the game as long as he had isn't a little more cunning and was so surface level about it rather than Rogers who will do the back channel route to, try to destroy his enemies. I think part of it, too, is because, like, when people would absolutely verbally flame, like, Urban Meyer, it's like, Urban Meyer seems like an unlikable individual. And, like, Nathaniel Hackett, yes, that was a botch job. We all knew out of the gate, you know, you're a month into the season wondering how soon

he might be fired. But Nathaniel Hackett has never been described as someone who is not, like, a warm, enjoyable guy. He's, there's something about, like, I think the coach on coach hate is so rare. We don't see it that often. But I've always thought what Sean Peyton was trying to do, and he did not do it elegantly at all, was reset Russell Wilson and reset Russell Wilson with the locker room and go out of his way to put no blame on Russell Wilson, which I think he deserves plenty of blame for last season, but to put it all somewhere else. Because the one thing we didn't talk about when we, the first time around, was that he flamed his own general manager. Right.

He claimed his own general manager who's still in the building. He's still the GM. Yeah. Wait, what's his name? Kevin Saunders. It's still the GM. Right. I mean, so I think Peyton probably afterwards was thinking, yeah,

Sean Payton, not Kevin Saunders. Right, Sean Payton, like, I think having to go apologize was the stoop, like it's the worst part of it because it's like, then you just look like you're bungled the whole thing. You're a fool. Like, had you just stuck to it, I kind of would have been like, Sean Payton's kind of bawling just doing what he wants to do. But instead, you know, when you have this thing two days later,

we got to like come up with this fake apology. I don't know. It is fun because I think both of these guys, you know, Rogers is obviously going to be in canton one day. Sean Payton's going to have like a case for it. So these aren't just like mid-level guys taking shots at each other. I love it. That's why.

What a story. Week five. And you might have missed the summer episode. Maybe people are coming back now. We decided collectively as a group, you're on the NFL podcast, that because Sean Payton's there and George Peyton, the general manager, it's too confusing. Right.

So we just changed George Payton's name to Kevin Saunders on the show. I think you're helping journalists everywhere, too, You don't have to do the song and dance where you put their first names when you mention the both in the same article. And I have mixed feelings that you circled back here because you want to reward the people who have been with throughout the opposite. So you get it too. But understand, this is it. It's Kevin Saunders moving forward. No more catching you up.

And to that point, people that come after me or either of my colleagues here in studio on Twitter or elsewhere saying, whoa, he really butcher that. He doesn't even know the GM's name. you will be flamed for it. Right. Keep Kevin Saunders' name out of your mouth. We actually have a way to prevent you from ever listening to the show again. We can geoblock your podcast app of choice. That doesn't really help us.

I mean, that's a strategy that does, of no service to our coverage. Daniel Hunter and the Vikings make nice. agreeing on a one-year, $20 million contract. Hunter, Greg, has been a difference maker for the Vikings, 71 sacks since entering the league in 2015, three pro balls. There's a no tag clause here that gives them a chance to hit the open market and get a more lucrative deal. So you like to see this team and player working together for the common good.

And, geez, the Vikings need all the help they can get on that side of the ball. I think it was so important. I think Brian Flores, they're really excited. Like, they really could improve so much on defense. But his defense, for instance, in Miami always has good pass rushers. I love what Questia dofa Menta did with this Vikings team this offseason. And I think you can see it by how he handled Zadaria Smith and Hunter. They both wanted out.

I think he did the right thing moving on with Zadaria Smith. That just wasn't going to work. They knew how important Hunter was. And for once, like a team just gave a guy a raise. Like, he was due only five and a half million. They decided to give him a big raise. They're recognizing how important he is. He can be a free agent after the year, and it's, like, great for both sides.

I think that was probably their plan from the beginning. He let the player, in this case, Hunter, calm down. So good job by Quessie. Yeah, they have completely cleaned the books. And so I think this was a give Brian Flores a centerpiece and a chance because we can get into this a little bit later, but some of the whispers out of Vikings camp is that, you know, Flores is working with a lot of young players.

But almost to a man, they seem genuinely excited about the Flores scheme, about the contrast to what they were doing last year, the overcomplexity of last year's defense compared to what Flores is setting them up to do. So Hunter sits in the middle of all that. You still have Harrison Smith, but it's going to be a big transition. You've got a lot of young, young players. What's the official team slogan of the 2023 Vikings? We talked about it last week.

Well, it was so effective that I've completely. Isn't it like Happy Trails at Donatale? Yes, it was. Check you later. had Donatella. Let's circle back to the Broncos real quick here. Tough, tough news at a camp today where wide receiver Tim Patrick, who once not so long ago last summer was seen as maybe their number one wide receiver or a number two type

guy with them, he's not going to be involved with the team for a second straight year, it sounds like, because he suffered what is believed to be an Achilles injury, collapsed to the turf during a seven-on-seven drill. He missed all of last season after he tore his right. right ACL in a non-contact drill in August 2nd. So almost a year to the day, I talked about, mentioned my dad suffered an Achilles injury a couple of weeks back, about a month ago.

It happened in front of me. It was not fun at all. But I know from learning more about it through my dad and his subsequent doctor visits. When the Achilles goes, it goes, you know. So even though we don't have confirmation right now, if they sit thinking on the field, they could tell right away. and that's terrible news.

It's a tough injury for any athlete to come back from. They were talking about him as, you know, some were saying he was the best football player in the receiver room this offseason. They were really excited to have him back. I was always underrated. I can't imagine because we don't, these guys vanish off the radar. We just move on with who's still available.

But it's like Tim Patrick has gone through two years. He's about to go through two years of complete and total hell. Because I think the one thing you hear about, I remember when they featured Gronk on the rehab journey, that you're just spending all this time alone. you're just alone and like if you're Tim Patrick you know your dad doesn't have to go run a four three four 40 a year from now I actually did tell him he has to do that well that would be remarkable yeah and he might find a different line of work if he's able to do that but I mean Tim Patrick you're wondering like it could take you two years or more to get back to where you are physically I'm really glad he signed because he was an undrafted guy he signed a pretty nice extension late in the 2021 season which is well timed that he got his money before all this happened it does make you you think if Cortland Sutton was going to be traded, if someone, I just thought Sutton was very much available. We heard Sutton and Judy was available, and it felt like Sutton was more

available that at the end of this camp, if someone needed a receiver somewhere, there was no one more available than Cortland Sutton. Maybe a little less available now. They're still fairly deep at wide receiver. They've got a couple of young players, Marvin Mims. They brought in Callaway, but I would think now Sutton is much more likely to stay there. And finally in the news From the two First and goal Oh yeah

Oh yeah For the touchdown Sony Michelle His sixth touchdown in the postseason Three against the Chargers Two against the Chiefs And now the first touchdown of Super Bowl 53

Super Bowl 53 A two-yard touchdown The only touchdown in that game The worst Super Bowl The greatest Super Bowl ever. 133 Patriots over Rams, the final Tom Brady Super Bowl. And it was, yes, Sony, Michelle, who had that lone touchdown in the game, the two-time Super Bowl champion.

He won another one with the Rams a couple of years back. He decided to retire on the opening weekend of training camp with the Rams. He's 28 years old, four-year college career in Georgia, had the run with the Patriots. And Sean McVeigh called Michelle the epitome of a pro. 129 yards in that Chargers game and three touchdowns division around six touchdowns in that postseason six touchdowns in most season 113 yards against the chiefs in that afc championship classic and a couple touchdowns and a game winning super bowl touchdown then no one remembers that it's like jeremy shockey had a game winning super bowl touchdown with the saints i feel like no one ever remembers that one either so uh that was a controversial pick in new england everyone wanted lamar jackson that's a great sliding doors uh moment uh Then again, they got that sixth ring with Sony Michelle. I have a great.

I don't know if they would have done it without him. I have a great sports stock idea, Greg. I think you would like this. Maybe it's a little too esoteric, but I kind of like it. That Patriots run of, what, 02 to 18, is that, does that kind of encompass it? 01 to 18. Just about the running backs. There's so many different guys that just went in and out and all had amazing moments.

I would watch 15 minutes on, what's his name? Jonas Gray. I do 15 minutes on a Sunday night four touchdown game and then missing his his iPhone didn't go off the next morning and he missed practice and never like played again for the team. Like like Garrett Blunt looking like Jim Brown. Cory Dillon? Oh, out of nowhere. Yeah.

All these dudes. Not bad, right? You know how our friend Jordan Rodriguez did the playmakers this off season? That's going to be that'll be yours. That's going to be yours next season. I'll pass this idea off. I don't need to be too hands on. You got a producer with a Patriots 01 to 18 breakdown.

but Gregi, if you want to take it, I'll just be EP, yeah. The Patriots could have drafted Nick Chubb. It was, you know, drafted after Sonny Michelle, but teammates in college. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's. So passed on Nick Chubb and Lamar Jackson. Maybe we were very. Lamar, there was a lot of, where did you, where did you have Bill Belichick in your GM ranking?

Well, there just was a lot of buzz there. It's with, with Lamar back then. It is, I can imagine, I can't imagine really like being an NFL veteran. You show up to camera and you're just like, I can't do this. Maybe it's your body, maybe it's your mind. It happened to Eddie Goldman, too, for the Falcons. Again, this is actually the second time this happened that they thought he was going to be a part of the rotation. And he just was like, I can't do it.

Well, there's always nothing beats the Vante Davis at halftime being like, yeah, I'm out of here. Yeah, this is. I don't feel like doing this anymore. And you should know, Greg. It's good to, we all get little bones thrown our way on this podcast. Every time a Patriot retires, I was connected to that run, it finds the news run down. And it never gets shot down because, you know, I know you like it.

I think in this case, you know, we had to recognize Sony Michelle. See, I even gave you that highlight. Sneaky, big moment in history. All right. We'll be right back with some whispers. Whispers. Gross. Welcome back.

So gross. We should maybe do some live reads. Maybe. Live whispers. Maybe. Maybe we get some female voices in the whisper. It just seems a little aggressively. Us.

Yeah, it's just a lot of us whispering in your year, which I think would be unappealing. Hey, me, are. How about some? We have spiars. Don't need that. That one's good. Hey, Stabledon, if you want my Taylor Swift ticket,

can you give me a little whispers at some point throughout this segment? Just drop it in occasionally. Get that headset on. She hates this. That's why I like it. All right. It looks like she's going to go along with it. All right, let's get into it.

Whispers. What are we hearing? What are we following? Beat Report. are filling out notebooks, writing dispatches from training camp where the pads are now on. Football has started. It's back. Start us out, Greg.

We're going to go around the horn a bunch of times here with things that we have called from our research. Okay. Tireless research. Go. The most meaningful whispers to me are players we didn't know about emerging into roles. And I think that's happening with an undrafted rookie named Deneeric Prince in Kansas City. of them. Because there's only so many right now. I know, but that was a good one.

They haven't put on the pads and everything, but everyone there that we trust say he's popped so consistently and is playing so often with the starters that he's a little bit about like the Isaiah Pacheco of this year for that team. They certainly have

some room at the running back position. And it makes me think of this chief's team in general. You think of them as this dynasty and they're getting back to the same place every year. But because of their setup with it, they really have like a stars and rookie contract kind of roster that there's a lot on the line like Rishi Rice that their rookie wide receivers having a chance to play with the first team their linebacker spot where they signed Drew Tranquil is definitely a little up for grabs and he might

take some playing time race so there's a lot of position battles there but Deneerick Prince is one that I think is going to get drafted in fantasy league so that's we just did five minutes on Sony Michelle and you took the one I was most excited about that's why I took it first just felt Very whispered. I think it is whisper. It's five on Sony, Michelle. I think it's notable that pads are just going on. And beat writers like Adam, is it, Tecker?

Teacher. Teacher. And others are saying, well, he's an undrafted rookie, but he's already on this roster. He's made this team now. It's just about, is he going to be a special teams guy, or is he going to really find a way in that running back room to make an impact? And you're right. I think that's part of what makes the Andy Reid,

side of things and this Chief's dynasty in part so interesting is that it's not just collection of all stars it's Mahomes, this great offensive mind and Reed and then Kelsey obviously you've got to put him in the mix and then how they find and develop

young players as satellites around these Hall of Famers and we'll see maybe Prince's won't come up again on this show that's certainly possible but it could yeah because I was reading about him too and other players are emerging from the woodwork to talk about how impressive he's been.

And, like, the one thing I love about Andy Reid, because it's like, how do you avoid sort of rote exhaustion? You've won the Super Bowl a couple times. You keep coming back to do the same thing. Their training camp, the other was a feature on this on the athletic by Nate Taylor, that practices have been insane, that there have been fights three days in a row. Kelsey every time. Yeah, Kelsey was in a fisticuffs with someone named DeCaprio Boodle.

So I love that. Who? Decaprio Boodle, a defensive back. Hell yeah. So there's a lot of young players, a lot of stars, and heated practices, and Reed is loving it. He's just been saying, he's been shouting, edge, edge, we're never going to sit down.

And I think the chiefs just find a way to reboot. And I know Kelsey. Reboodle. Reboodle. Apologized and said he has to control himself. No, I love that. Yeah. A team that's had that much success fighting in training camp,

they still got the fire. Shout to Pete Sweeney over at Arrowhead Pride. We might have to have them on if we want a chief's guest. He has some, they have some of the best, like, recaps of any practice in the entire league. And there's so many battles going on. I'm just seeing here on his timeline here, one of their undrafted rookies that they were playing, like, as a starter in a lot of snaps. Naze Johnson sounds like he's suffered an ACL injury either Sunday or Monday. So that is disappointing.

Whispers, whispers, whispers, whispers. That's not Christy. Not at all. It's the counter opposite. Sean, it's past news. Do we have any updates on the Taylor Swift front? No updates on the Taylor Swift front as of right now. There's been inquiries waiting back.

I think it might be an afternoon. I did say 12 is like a middle of the day. So I heard Monday. So I'm going to start at 12. You said 12 to us. I think an important thing. If you're going to be talking to other journalists, accuracy is important. Oh, yeah.

Don't just make up a number. I just picked the middle of the day. So you threw out that time, but you just threw the first possible second that becomes afternoon, which is noon. Yeah. Well, I would assume, like, in the middle of an average workday, right? You do stand-up, right? So, like, when you're doing a show, you don't just, like, say a time specifically,

and then it could be any time. Right. Come to the stage in the middle of the day. Yeah. Come see me in the middle of the day up in, you know. I never, like, exactly said to what was the, it was going to be on the nose. This entire episode has been built around the drawing happening five minutes ago. Oh, no, yeah, no.

If that is what you thought, I apologize for my inaccuracy. This is why you're the journalist. And I press buttons. You've destroyed us. Mark, you're up. Love you all. I love the reports about emerging players, which we just did. I also think there's guys that we spent all offseason wondering, like, this guy still got it?

Is this going to work? And so I go to Giants Camp where Dan Luggan is an athletic talked about the fact that Darren Waller, who I was like, he might be washed. Maybe this was a nice idea, nice trade, but like he has been uncoverable. all over the place, frying their defensive backs, to the point where, like, rookie Deonte Banks, who they invested a lot in, is having a very uncomfortable rough start to camp,

largely because of Waller, but other reasons too. But I think that's a huge, huge element for the Giants in Brian Daibald. If you get this version that the Raiders basically gave away, it doesn't look good for the Raiders to give this player away, injuries, everything he went through. But if you get the best version of them, It's great for Daniel Jones. It's great for Saquan Barkley.

It's great for an offense that kind of quietly has like 22 wide receivers too right now. They kind of remind me of the bills where they just have done everything they can when they had Josh Allen to reload and add guys. And Waller working out would be huge for the Giants. It would be huge. There's a little, to me, a little trope alert element to this that new player with Pro Bowl pedigree shows up and, you know, moves around well and the beatwriters are all kind of smitten by it. Right, but there's a trope alert sort of attached to it.

every one of these things right some degree but that i guess just with with waller mark didn't appreciate that no but it's not personal i it it was not your reporting notable to me but he's he hasn't been healthy in a while so i did find that notable he has not healthy looking good on in practice right for a long time you know what triggers me what is moving all over the field like it's like whatever of course he's going to be moving but this was the exercise he's going to line up here

maybe he'll be in motion on this play that doesn't do anything for me he's moving all over the place well we've said that the season doesn't even start till the Super Bowl. So none of this may have any meaning. Yeah, I am a little, I have some doubts about the Waller-John's thing, but maybe that's an important extent of my criticism here of the reporting. I don't know. Get him to week one.

I think he is one of the most important people on that roster. If he could pop, that's huge. In other. Whispers. Whisper. The 49th's quarterback's going. throwing ham the niners offense this was a report from nick wagner the ESPN had its best day of camp this is over the weekend tray lance 12 of 16 and first team reps five of eight with a touchdown pass and a touchdown run and red zone work sam darnald who took the other four first team reps and 12 with the second unit eight of ten with a pair of touchdown passes to brandon iuk in the red zone we talked about last week that brock purdy has been cleared and seems to be on target for week one.

I guess my takeaway based on this is, yes, usually you hear, especially this time camp, defenses are ahead of offense. I kind of think I have no concerns about the Niners because I think the team is kind of quarterback proof, which is such a obviously highest compliment you could give to Kyle Shanahan for what he's good at. I think they're going to move the ball and score points, really no matter who's quarterback. I think Donald would do well in this offense. Trey Lentz is such a mystery, but I would think that Shanahan would put him in the best position.

And we saw that Purdy has the ability to move this team and be proficient as well. Niners are going to be good. I want to add to your report in the newsroom this morning. Not my report. Well, your entry. Reporting on the report. Your, yes, your review of the report. Omar Ruiz in the newsrooms today.

And I asked, you know, like where you've been to a couple camps. He's been to Raiders. Arizona was like 114 degrees. You're wearing makeup and it's running into your hair. It's a terrible situation. But went up to San Francisco and I was like, did anything like stand out about any player you saw at any camp? And like I know this is a player that we've talked about before.

It's like this is the year he becomes a superstar. But there are like superstar vibes around Brandon Ayyuk that like what he's been doing up there. And he mentioned Sam Darnold like whip this like 15 yard bullet. Sam Darnold. Right into the end zone. And like this player emerged out of nowhere. high into the sky, and it hit him right in, like, the hands. And it was like Brandon Ayuk jumping, like, twice his height, almost.

So everything is going right for him. And I'm with you that the Niners just feel like they're picking up where they left off on off. I think it was on Road to World, I think, had a passing reference to Sam Darnold as the next Steve Young. I mean, that's just the way it's being important. That's what Shannon said. Couldn't he be the next Steve Young? And that quote to me was like the end of Tray Lance's career in San Francisco. Yeah.

I was just like, I guess it's obvious because even just the way they're cutting up the reps, Purdy is healthy enough that he's taken off one of every three days. But otherwise, he's getting twice as many reps as those two guys combined. So it's really a pretty same. But the fact that Darnold, who just joined the team on like a one-year, $3 million contract, is splitting reps with the guy who was the unquestioned starter, who they gave up three first-round draft picks just a year ago at this time. And it was getting all the...

The fact that Darnold is splitting with him already, like they're not even giving Lance a chance. I do wonder if Lance is on this team even in week one. Oh, I think they want to trade them. If anything, feature them in the preseason and ship them out. Give us another one, Greg. Okay. Let's go negative.

It's hard to be negative first. You don't usually do that. Week, no. I got a lot. Jets, I actually am concerned about their tackle situation, their offensive line. Mark, Dan's taking this off. What am I taking it from you? He took my second pick.

actually I should have I could bury this one you want it's too late you started you started yeah that would be okay mckeye back didn't that not not looking good that was mine hasn't really been healthy not good at all dwayne brown uh turning 39 this year I think and was like okay last year it's still hurt still on the pup list so I don't know what's shoulder they drafted um tipman second round uh center but the idea was like okay that's that's like maybe three of those five spots for now he's second or third team. Who knows? That's not a huge concern. It takes rookies some time to get lifted. But if Billy Turner and who is it, Max Mitchell are your tackles and they're struggling every day in practice against some good players, that's the huge fly in the ointment. It's more than a fly. It's a cockroach. Yeah, it's we talked about it, Greg. When we talked about what

are the training camp early storylines to keep an eye on? Yeah. I mentioned the O line. And this is so far for everything that's going great around the Jets and it's basically everything else. This is the one unit of the team that leaves them very vulnerable. Beckton sounds like he's a mess, I got to say. They had, um, they had, and I thought it was like, he, he, he lost a ton of weight, but he hasn't played in essentially two years. And they finally kind of start working him back in to training camp and they have to shut him down on Wednesday.

Salas said that his rehab knee wasn't up for it. And this comes when you've heard, you know, whaspers, things I've heard from people that, no, I like the Jets will tell me about his, you know, his, you know, his dedication. and how you know his love of football is it there and it's yes he dropped the weight but when he learned that he's basically in a competition to be the right tackle and he's tweeting a couple like a month ago that he he's a left tackle like is his head even in this is he is he is he and they're not playing them with the starters even when he is no so i think everything around beckton both physically and mentally is a huge question mark the the second round center it

sounds like yeah like you said he's a little behind and yeah you do want to see dwayne brown to get out there. Now, are they being extra careful with Brown coming off surgery in his late 30s? Sure, but you also want to have reps as a unit together when yes, you are protecting a quarterback who's nearly 40 years old himself. Hamina, it's the only thing.

I think if this offensive line is good, everything else, barring a lot of injuries or whatever, the Jets will be a great team. But the line has the ability to really cause havoc. And Dalman Cook, by the way, it seems like it's going to happen, but we don't have it officially yet. Man, he was on Good Morning Football, and like,

He really sounded like there was a connection there. It was like there on Sunday, just watching practice. It would be weird at this point if he doesn't sign me. It would be really weird. Yeah, he's like signing autographs and there's like 3,000 fans chanting his name. All right, Mark, you're up. Buffalo. Whisper.

I like this because. Who's that? Who's that? That's a good, Eric. That was a good one. That was live. That was live, yeah. Oh, dang.

I'm everything out the whole bench. I'm going to have everybody do it. Christy has disappeared, so I think she sees it coming down in the pipe. So she's like. She doesn't like to do on mic stuff. Conveniently, not in the room as the show is going on. She doesn't like that. No.

So she took off. There's a humility to her. I see Randy in the back, though. Yeah, Randy did whisper one in last runaround, but you got upset over Greg taking his and he threw your head to that off. Oh, I missed Randy? Okay. I apologize.

We'll get Randy. I apologize to you, too, for that actor bludgerence on my part. He thought you were mad at it because you took it off as he whispered it, so his eyes got all big. Randy, it wasn't about you, bud. is Greg's fault that I got mad all right I should have known

don't take the Jets topic how many years have you been doing this I don't know I have the years many though wait but if you get if you in your next turn

get his third topic that would be good can I tell you something there's literally no way he can get my next one because I know Gregie and there's no way he'll have the take

that I have okay you're up uh Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo. I mean, there are positive reports bubbling up about, in general, this rookie tight end class. There's a couple of people dotted around the league. But I like this because Kincaid, I think, like, they didn't go get DeAndre Hopkins.

People questioned why they didn't draft like a wide receiver high. Kincaid's going to be used that way. And like if he was a buster or he's not picking it up, you got problems, I think, on that offense. But instead, they talked about Joe Piscoglia from the Athletic, does a great job with the bills, has said that he's just looked the part. Like, he's just had this, like, incredible feel. He's been getting nonstop 11-on-11 first team work. Josh Allen is already, like, in sync with him,

hitting them all over the field, blah, blah, blah. I know he doesn't like all over the field, but he is looking like. He looks the part of an NFL tight end. He's like a week one NFL starter. And I think in general, tight ends, you got to wait till year two or three to see who they are. And maybe if that's not the case here,

Buffalo arrow up in a very tough AFC. Yeah, I think the, and we've, we've, talked about. The tight ends in recent years haven't set the league on fire, which makes it even more. Wide receivers have. A lot of these wide receivers come into the league and they're immediate difference makers and the bills we know need somebody to come in this year and a key year for the organization and be a difference maker on that offense. I hope King Kate is because I'm rooting for the bills away. He's so much fun to watch. They rookie tight ends tend to struggle a little more with the mental side of thing and then the blocking too. So that's going to ramp up when you put on

pads when you start tackling. But yeah, you were referring to, I think Sam Leporta, especially has been getting juice. That was my guy in the draft. The Iowa came like, and I fully expect Leporta, who's getting a ton of hype and Kincade who is getting it as well, are going to be week one starters, whether they're, whether they come through or not, like, we'll have to find out. But I don't think it's going to be them being brought along slowly. I'm excited about Loporta.

They're talking about Loporta as like literally flat out looking at one of the, as like one the best players on the field. So this could be, like, we haven't had a tight end class like this in a long, long time. That would be... I do like that. That is a trope, too, but I do like that one, best player on the field one. That means that it's to the point where

he's just cooking everyone and he just looks better than everyone. Usually that does translate. There was a lot of that, I have to say, as Justin with Elijah Moore as well. Like, he was like one of the all stars of the best player. Yeah, but who's getting hype right now? Elijah Moore, all that was.

place. So that's the thing. These guys, these guys, he is lining up all over the place as well. This is his month. This really is. Like the guys who make people miss,

you know, who run the best routes. And, and a player like Kincade would fall on this too in terms of a tight end versus linebacker, like, they're going to win these one-on-ones

before the, like, it's a great, it's a great month for like 5-9, 170-pound slot receivers. But, but now we've seen in the NFL, you know,

and like the beat reporters who are 75 yards away from the action and they got the binoculars on. Like, oh, he made that guy miss. Who is he? He's winning. Yeah, but then there's like the first round cornerback that looks confused and lost.

On the various reporting, I'd rather like. And to be clear, 59-170, when I say that it's not in a derogatory way, that man is huge compared to me. I'm saying like, that's a monster, 5-9-170. Speaking of the bills, Kim, DeMarer Hamillan, back and pad. Depends what your body. You could be 5-9-170. It could be like 88% body fat. I think they're off.

gelatinous. Right. That's true. That's a good point. Damar Hamlin's back in pads. How about that? Is that crazy or what? It really is.

He was resuscitated on the field in December. It's crazy wild. Because I was going through the hour lads and everything. Man, they are deep at safety. He's their fourth safety. I think there's no way you're going to cut Damar Hamlin. And he was a good player for them, special teams, and as a fill and starter. But they're really deep there.

Like, he's going to be no higher than fourth on the depth chart. if everyone's healthy. You're up, Greg. Actually, try to get it. Try to bang me in a big spot here. Okay. I'm whistling a tune here out in Arizona. A Clayton tune.

Here's my whisper. Whisper. There's like a non-zero chance that Clayton tune is a week one NFL starter as a rookie. Yakes. If you're not familiar with Clayton Tune's work, and I wasn't either, I believe he was at Houston, right? He was at the University of Houston,

air raid guy. Inflated QB numbers typically. Yeah, popping him out. Very old for a rookie. He's like 24. He's 24. Fifth round pick. Take a little higher than some people thought.

Some people liked him. Some people did. Sam Howl Territory. His name, for some reason, you just imagine that he's like this try hard little guy, but no, he's actually like prototypical size. 3, 220. Size, and he moves pretty well.

he's taking a lot of the first-team reps, but everyone is there. I find this fascinating that this is what's happening at an NFL team. They say Colt McCoy is not taking any more reps than anyone else, that all four quarterbacks there, which is not a good sign. Jeff Driscoll, Colt McCoy, David Blow, and Clayton, Tune are all taking reps. And McCoy's maybe like late in the mix, and maybe they're bringing them back slowly off. But Tune seems like the guy that they're gearing up. and that I think I'd be surprised

if Clayton Tune doesn't start multiple games this year it might be later in the season and I feel like there's actually a chance you might turn on a week one game and Clayton Tune will be the starter just because either of a primetime game it's probably going to be Colt McCoy but like at some point it's probably Clayton Tune

which is just crazy maybe he'll be good it's crazy but I could see like four different quarterbacks starting for them this season but like why start Jeff Driscoll and David Blow This group drafted Tune. So I think David Lowe made is not a terrible option if you're trying to win three games. I'm not saying that. I don't think they're trying to win, but they are trying to develop.

I think they're trying to win three games, to your point. Not anymore. Right. You roll a rookie out, a low around rookie out because it's like the plan is clear. If they can develop Clayton Tune into a good backup for Kyler Murray or whoever is the quarterback next, sure, that's a victory. But if you play Colt McCoy, what is Colt McCoy? He's a placeholder for a team that's obviously going nowhere this year.

It makes more sense that you would start younger guys. I think so. Even Blow. Because I think Cole McCoy, I mean, they're not, they had a lot of issues, but like, Cole McCoy might put you in the world or like, if you get the good version of Colt McCoy, you suddenly were winning a few too many games, maybe. Right. They didn't even, it's not the same GM and coaching staff.

I'm sure they love Colt McCoy, but you got to be a little worried that every time he goes out there. I'd just rather see him as a backup the guy who's like the coach. Remember I saw Colt McCoy in the. Super Bowl hotel lobby. You thought he had a nice bod. I thought he looked to be, and he looked to be vibrant. Vibrant thing.

Everyone acts like he's 72 years old. He looked better than like anyone else in the lobby of the hotel. Who, Colt? Yeah. It's like, oh, by the way, here's an NFL quarterback who's like in his early 30s. Like he's going to look better than 96% of the other men trouncing around with their Starbucks and their croissants and like whatever else. And he's in his late 30s. He's almost 40s.

But he looks younger than that, too. I'm just, he looks, he's sort of ageless. I mean, he's, yeah, he's in tremendous physical condition. Professional athlete, yeah. He's a quarterback. Quarterbacks many times are attractive people. Yeah. And they're just different than us.

Even Colt, who doesn't seem like an athletic freak. That's how he came across in person. All right, everybody holds up one second. Let's take a break and then share some more whispers. All right, we're back. Greg. I know it might seem that I'm more critical of Lamar Jackson and the pro-raven's agenda that you sometimes push on our platform.

I know it seems that way. Yeah. But I think some of it... Just your denial of it is the annoying part. I think some of it is just a frustration from my standpoint that Lamar sometimes it seems like he ducks, not him himself, but the way he's portrayed in the media narrative around the Ravens as not really being at fault when things go wrong for an organization that has,

by the way, one playoff victory in the last eight years, okay? And Lamar's been there, what, five of them now? My point is, I think Lamar, just like the Ravens front office and the roster needs to improve as well if they're going to really get to their true goal, which is winning the Super Bowl. And with that said, a minor, but, interesting note out of Ravens camp where new offensive coordinator Todd Monkin has eliminated Jackson's use of a wristband to call plays in the huddle. Since he's been the quarterback, it's been common that he uses the wristband to call in plays. And Monkin came out and explained that that is part of what we're trying to get rid of because the offense has been pretty rigid in the previous, under previous

leadership he didn't call out the previous coordinator Greg Roman but that's how you treat a right the play calls getting in late here's what Mocken had to say about this this change in terms of the setup for play one of the most important things is if your ability to communicate the calls and the best way for that to happen is to not start with wristbands he has to hear what I say he has to process the call he has to regurgitate to the players he has to to get the cadence, we can always go to wristbands. Wrist bands are easy. You just read it.

Hard is learning the offense, being able to process, and make the calls. So that's interesting to me. It's actually empowering Jackson. If you can handle this, Lamar, and you're able to do this side of it just in a different way, that will give you more power to change the plays at the line of scrimmage, will get plays into you faster, and the offense can perhaps improve. Because even before he got hurt last year, the offense wasn't operating. a high level. Monkin and Lamar with a better surrounding talent. There's going to be pressure on

them obviously to be much better. A small but somewhat interesting nugget at a Ravens. I like that. I think he's showing faith in him. It's not a slam on Lamar. I mean, you're in your sixth season. I think, you know, I've always thought like doing the work of being a quarterback physically versus the suddenly having to call like a 27 word play, I would probably be baffled on how to do the latter, not if not the former also. But like, I think the former would be tough. I mean, I'm just saying if they seem like different skill sets. Mark thinks he's Patrick Mahomes back there.

Like, I'm just going to freak that. I just, I've never understood, like, how they do that. But like, this assumption, though, because my last memory of Todd Munkin in the NFL was he was on that disastrous 2019 Brown staff as a sort of quasi-offensive aid slash passing game type deal. And it was an absolute mess. And like, Todd Munkin's done a lot in his. career. So I don't, although I hope

it goes great for them. It was kind of a mess with the bucks wasn't it too? Right. There's this assumption. He went back to college and had a lot of success in college and he had a great reputation at the beginning of his buck's time. Right. So, but all that could materialize. Like, I mean, you know, he he's there for a reason, but it's

like this thing about Lamar Jackson was he going to throw 6,000 yards and all this like, a lot needs to happen for any of that to work. Oh, well, I thought it was more than that. But like, oh, no, I was thinking of the Chicago. Yeah, no, I think he put on a preposterous number. It's like, Okay, but there's a big wait-and-see aspect to Todd Munkin slash Lamar Jackson. The only thing is if Lamar struggles with the wristband situation,

it's a new offense to begin with. We saw what happened even with Shanahan and Matt Ryan that first year. It was like, you got a lesser version of Matt Ryan before I turn into an MVP. Like, there's a lot of variables here. And I'm just, I don't know, it's this assumption that they're going to be explosive just because they have like O'Dell Beckham. Okay, maybe. I think the key is the getting the plays in and having flexibility to change it.

You just can't be running an offense in 2022 where you're basically not audibly and if you're not starting like an early rookie quarterback. And it is a little crazy. And I think that's why Greg Roman got a lot of criticism. Nothing wrong with the wristband. I mean, Tom Brady wore a wristband pretty much his whole career. He liked it. I think I was trying to streamline things.

Yeah. And, but, you know, I went and looked at Lamar's pro football reference page and you say like the unnecessary, like, lifting up. It's like without delivering. I'm not a QB wins guy, but the man was, you know. But now I'm going to use it to strengthen my argument. I'm just saying when he started over the last five years, he finished his last season, only 25. 45 wins, 16 losses.

That's just nice. So you're going to pay attention to that kind of team. And oh, by the way, the greatest running quarterback. Oh, by the way, he did say, he said, I think I told someone like, man, I want to throw for like 6,000 yards with the weapons we have. Okay. I mean, I think he's just throwing out 6.5. I know. I'm not saying, you know, just got on my radar, it's like there's the

confidence is there. I hope it works. Developing news. Wow, downtown golf. Developing news on the Taylor Swift tickets. Just want to say per source, I have inside sources. The names have been pulled. Some final

approvals are being weighted on right now. That's a little shi. Final approvals? Yes. So, So whether the names that were pulled or... You can say no to someone that won a raffle? This is what I'm very confused by. Obviously, there was multiple...

Per email with eight tickets were available, so I'm assuming two tickets per person. It would be four sets. Four sets. So the names have been pulled, and approvals are in the works per source. What is approval? Let's see if, like, the reporter thing that we're talking about? Email content or something?

When we talk about the reporter aspect of what you're doing, which that's a night... This is good information. Follow-up question. Because that's, that's... Approval for what would be the... All I know is, heard approval is nothing more, nothing less than that.

So I don't know what that means. Can you dig on that? Can you see what are they seeking in terms of approval? I will put in some work with my sources. Maybe it was like some hot shot third floor executive one and they were like, oh, this is going to look bad. As much as I don't want that to happen because God knows the people on the third floor, they could spring for the secondary market. I got to say, if they're in the raffle and their name comes out, I'm not going to complain about that. They shouldn't have a raffle then. If you want to take them out, that's fair too. Once you allow them in, we can't have an approval process deciding who's worthy of the tickets.

That's basic raffle integrity. And I don't like this. We're behind the scenes toying with the results. That sounds fishy. All right. Keep digging, show. We're going to come back to you at the end of the episode. Will, uh, if I have any updates, we'll let you know.

I once won the Rams raffle very early on in this building's history. And then I think the rule was you could not enter another raffle for a certain amount of time. So I don't know if my time. That seems sketchy, Greg. I remember you won that. That seemed very, something very suspicious. Great. All right, let's go around again one more time.

Great. Just one more time. Well, you could throw out a quick one. Because one is a silly one. It's more of a point that I want to make. The Packers sent out a happy birthday message to a young man. I don't need to put him on blast even on Saturday. Send out a happy birthday message.

Two hours later, they released him. And so what we need to do here, what we need to do here is we need to get social in the meetings, I think. If they're having, you know, Matt Lafleur and the GM and everything's there. Like, we now need to bring in the social media element into that meeting so that they can avoid a mistake like this in the future. Because you've got to work as one organization. You're responsible for that. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Better a whisper a bit more.

That was a take. I like it. I just want to point that one out. The Seahawks running back position feels cursed. Kenneth Walker, were you taking this one, too? You got the hat trick on the Zozer. All right, you take that one then, because I got another one I like a lot.

Asante Samia might not start in Los Angeles with the Chargers, I think is very interesting. I don't know why I took them a couple years to realize this, but they need people that can tackle. They're such a bad run defense. He doesn't really work in the slot. They're going to have Jazeer Taylor there, who is the safety. Now J.C. Jackson's back.

But you also had Michael Davis. played really well last year. It's interesting because Asante Samuels made some plays, but it really sounds like he might be the guy on the outside looking in this year. That's a little whisper. I like that. You got one more?

Oh, well, one little nugget. I was going to say, Greg, did you have one more to want to get off your chest before we? Or you got a natural connection? I mean to say that, like, go ahead. We're wondering what Kellyn Moore's offense will look like how they'll use players.

Like Mike Williams, who has been a natural, dominant outside receiver's been playing in the slot a lot. Move it all over the field. Everywhere. I do have one. I do them on the outside. You put him in motion. You do your one more.

Do you one more. One more means one more, not eight more. People were excited about that, about Cowboys drafting at tight end. Luke Schoonmaker thinking like, oh, they kind of reach for this guy and put him right in the line up. And it does not, it sounds like he might have a lost entire camp. And it's going to maybe be Jake Ferguson as their starting week one tight end. So a little disappointment there. A pretty vaunted second round pick they were hoping to get something out of and might be out for,

at least a few weeks. Tough sitch. Mark? Justin Fields revealed that he's a pescatarian. Do you know what that is? Yeah. He only is fish or doesn't eat fish? He eats fish, but he doesn't eat like meat, steak, chicken.

Yeah, any other type of... Just fish. Feet. Like food that comes from animals, basically. Right. Or maybe cheese. But he was vegan. So he's adding...

He's added fish. I think that's, you know, there's not that many... What is going on with your meat journey, by the way? You had the double cheeseburger. I don't like called a meat journey. That's not... attractive but um it's not inaccurate though yeah i mean it sounds like a great saturday night a meat journey put me on it i'd like to take a meat journey around uh the south bay i did try the for the

where are you at with me i don't i'm not it's just like a small part of my diet but um i did try like because i used to go to in and out and i'd get like the like the grilled cheese with kind of thing you know with nothing yeah they would get the in and out truck used to come to our old office sometimes and everybody would get you know the typical burger mark we'd get the grilled cheese which was always like so i tried their actual burger and I've been hearing for like a decade plus it's only the greatest thing it's ever happened to Los Angeles of the planet

totally overrated oh well for instance remember the one I had with you this is a tired take I also think every take about in and out is tired but I just out's moving all over the field I just ate it and like

it was like okay it's fine you know what it is it's part of California culture and the more that you eat it and then it's it's the children and the more you eat it everything is good it's the regularity that it's available everywhere

so that's just replacing McDonald's essentially but at a much higher level. Without the kids being in the mix then, yeah, I see your point. Yeah, well, I'm not trying to make a big point. I just thought it was like... How many times you're eating me a week? No, not that much. Like twice maybe. Oh, that's a lot. I'm more just trying it like little spots.

You know, like had steak one time, which was amazing. You did? At Muso and Franks. You went to Muso and Franks? Oh, I go there often, but like it's, like, I've never... Shlaws. Huh? Schwartz. It was incredible.

Did you get? But there's a certain cocktail you got to get at Frank. I've gotten it. For the ones, yeah. We should do it. We should go some time next time you're up there. I would love to. Whiskey sour at Frank and Musos.

Anytime. Just like Rick Dalton. You can sit in those same seats. Love it. Place is old-fashioned, old school. Seattle Seahawks. They are cursed at running back, Gregie. Ken Walker.

Because every year we talk about how amazing that running back room is going to be. And then they draft and they load up. And it's like, wow, you know, they're just going to keep coming at you in waves. And then, like clockwork, injuries creep their way into the room. And they're not wasting any time. These guys are just getting pads on. Ken Walker is sidelined from Seahawks practice with a groin injury. Carol, P. Carroll made it sound like this could be an injury that could cost them significant time.

So we'll see how long he's on the shelf. and then you have Zach Charbonnet. He's out indefinitely with a shoulder injury. And he was, you know, so this went from Greg, this like Charbonnet versus Walker. And are these guys going to be who's going to be the true alpha here? Now we might not have either of them on the field week one. We don't know yet, but it's just not a great way to start.

I just feel like every season this happens. And there are some teams in some positions that are like this, but especially starting like with the Chris Carson era. but they've they've just like every year there's injuries and there I think they're you know guys who are taking the first team reps right now are DJ Dallas and Kenny McIntosh that's a real person I was got to call him Rocky McIntosh I don't know this sounds like that would be a name but this it's always happens it's very disappointing and as someone whose son owns a Kenneth Walker shirt you know I'm always rooting for this guy but any millennials behind the glass that remember the movie about the shot penny was always hurt for them everyone always The movie about the kid who found the million dollars Maybe that's before their time I think his last name was Macintosh What happened in this room?

Blank check. He found a blank or he got hit by a car Backing Up and the guy says he's in a hurry Gives him a blank check runs off and he like Makes a fake persona with a computer Like back old school computers and like something something McIntosh and uses like the AI voice Yeah, yeah sounds absurd Has some like old FBI chick hit on him

Somehow never heard of this movie. We were 15 years old, so we were a little old for it when it came out. Yeah. He was, yeah, he was Mr. McIntosh, he went by. No, it was a very weird Duff who was an MTV, VJ at the time, was breaking into

acting. She plays like an older woman in her late 20s who's like in a romantic relationship. That's surprising how many movies in the 90s have a child, usually a boy that has some type of crush on an older woman, and then they have

some type of romantic moment at some point. They run through like some museum sprinklers together. They have like a night out on the town. Bazaar. Well, remember, what about big with Tom Hanks turning into a child and having all sorts of adult adventures? Just that you don't see it anymore. No, I think it's a bit off the grid.

We don't need to. I was expecting it in Oppenheimer, a little bit of it. Don't need it. Yeah, I thought Oppenheimer would be a right, right territory. Third act? Yeah, I think you're right. A little Duff and McIntosh running through the fountains? Anything else?

Oh, can I just say, can we pull up the Rams t-shirts. You know, this is a trope itself. Head coach is as long. I remember going to Jets Camp in 99 after they went to the AFC title game and Parcell said, everybody's going to wear this t-shirt. It's going to say start

over on the back because last year didn't happen. And then Vinnie Blue is Achilles in week one. And they never did start over. So Sean McVeigh has a t-shirt that they're banding around at Rams' camp that says the following on the back. It's a mouthful.

Is that Sean? McVeigh wearing it. That looks like Stafford. That looks like Stafford. All right, this is all capital letters across the back. Mentally and physically tough players who play smart and love to compete. Mark, as you and I entered this company is primarily as copy editors, the thing that really jumps out to me immediately is the top line and is spelled out.

And then the second to last line between smart and love, there's an ambrasand. That's run me nuts. Why the inconsistency there? I don't like players. two words away from play. Two and's pretty close, too, even if it was both spelled out. I would have maybe workshopped this a little bit.

It's a mouthful if you ask the players to take the shirt off and repeat the slogan, I'm sure. Is it a bit? Or is this really? I think the players might have made it, so McVeigh might have been off the hook. It was actually Cooper Cooper, Matthew Stafford's But who's responsible for the and? I don't know.

Well, I think it's more who's not acting responsive. Jordan Rodriguez, if you do hear this episode and you could maybe fill in a little bit on this to give us an idea of why the Rams T-shirts are the way that they are, that would be helpful. Plus, it's like when you're a player, what's going to get you excited for that day's actions? Like, hey, like, guys, let's go be mentally and physically tough players

who play smart and love to compete. It's like no one's ever spoken that way in the history of the human league. Oh, what do you like at work today? I'm just a mentally and physically tough player who play smart and love to go. Yeah, the two plays is terrible. Unsolicited advice,

something that would be maybe a little more just you could picture on the shirt, compete. Well, that, I think that would ring through the team. Isn't that just kind of? Yeah, just it, you could remember. If you want to stylize it, put a period. Well, there's no period.

Hell, put an exclamation point. Put a slammer on the bitch. I don't care, but let's shorten it up. Yeah, there's got really crazy. Do the Spanish like backwards slammer and the slamer. Right, I like that. And it's like, are we getting tacos with this? Like, what has happened?

You never know. You never know. All right, anything else? I think we're good, right? Oh, we're great. Anything else from Sean Keller, developing news? Last thing, Taylor Swift, Raffle. Don't play it.

There's no developing news. I just, I haven't heard anything. I'm not told any more information, and I just have to wait. Did you try? Yeah, I. Did you follow up on the approval? The approval, I was told the approvals, I was not. allowed any more information on the approvals.

That was it. But there are approval. There's approval protocol. You can confirm that. There's approval protocol. The story's pretty big, actually. I mean, I don't sense that he did a ton of work. He didn't push back at that point.

I can't push a lot. He's showing as rookie. That's not how a journalist thinks. To be a true journal, you have to be doggin, bro. You don't go tell you. I did as much as I. You don't accept easy answers. If you risk rubbing people

And you're such an agreeable guy And you're such a nice guy shown I know you maybe don't want to rub people the wrong way But sometimes you've got to unturn stones That people don't want you to unturned You could find out where this person's office is And just go up Sometimes you can get something

When there's not a When there's not a digital footprint Sometimes people are a little more willing To give you the truth, you know Not on email Person to person Take that advice. Thanks guys More information will come when available

check out Sean Kelly on social media he's a stand-up on the rise by the way go see him in the LA area that's true all right good stuff good stuff we'll be back on Wednesday with more coverage of the national football league as football is back on Thursday

but it's the start of football being back you guys get it until then Dan heads of signing off for a quiet story I'm the old boss Eric Roberts and the gang behind the glass. Approvals. Dirty. Hercie.

Eve the call. This is an IHeart podcast.