NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 8 biggest surprises of the offseason

Episode Date: March 30, 2015

A room filled with some heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal and Chris Wesseling -- react to the latest NFL news including Rodney Harrison's comments on Geno Smith, the Eagles' next target and more. The guys then list their biggest surprises of the offseason so far.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. Never gets at Chris Wesleyan references. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with some heroes. Chris Wessling to my left. Greg Rosethal to my right. What is up, boys?

Hey, Dan. I feel like I get most wrestling references, but sometimes they don't always land necessarily that's where i that's what i wow he's taking a lot of shots first no shots first he comes with the some heroes i mean you should be excited about the heroes you got we're here we're here we're ready my point is when when west drops like a 70s tv reference like if you say something about alan alda or something i'll know where you're coming from but i'll know also the audience will be like i don't know what they'm not not sure if i follow well i have a philosophy about that it's not my fault if the audience isn't educated go get educated read a book audience i like it so

about Alan Alda. Go read Alan Alda's biography, dammit. I don't think I've ever mentioned Alan Alda on this program. This is Monday's edition of the show. Mark is in the wilderness. We've already on his social media feed. He's on his off day. Apparently, I'm alone taking photos of Los Angeles.

Up sidewalks. Using filters on his iPhone 6. So you can figure out what he's doing today on his off day, which leaves the three of us. And there's, Greg just pulled up. one of those photos. What is it, Greg? Describe it for the audience. It's a sidewalk with grass on each side of it, blue sky.

Hashtag art. So, yes, the three of us will talk about the news of the last few days, and we're going to get into something Greg wrote last week, which I quite enjoyed. I liked it so much, Greg. I don't know if you noticed when I was diligently working at 6.14 a.m. yesterday I tweeted out your eight biggest surprises of the

off season and we're going to talk about that because I thought it was a good kind of refresher of what's gone down in the last month or so we're going to talk about that and of course we're going to touch base with TD who did such a great job with the Win West's toaster video cast the first

annual which was a great success Chris Wessling how are you feeling now 11 out of 12 questions answered correctly you have the swagger, don't you? I feel like I've almost reached my potential. I should have gotten Wesley Walker. I knew that in the back of my head. I couldn't remember it, but I feel like your Jets hate got to you there, and you just had blocked out any Jets trivia. I expect five or six out

of every six questions. That sounds like a champion that's ready to take a fall. I've reached my potential. Someone that's ready to kind of start kicking back, you know, Aaron Rogers kind of after his first Super Bowl time. Or we would take it easy a little bit. We would call it a Rosenthal, pulling a Rosenthal. And a little later in the show, we'll hit up on some tweets that you guys sent in after checking out the game, Win West's Toaster, and also this past weekend, the first

ever, Wesselmania, Chris Wessling. Greg and I were both there. We actually brought our young children for a bit. Separately, you know, we didn't roll in like my two-dad style. And then we played some cornhole, you used the big green

egg. Great time was had by all. Great party. I had a blast. Great Sessler Day. Oh, Mark was in rare form. All time. It was nice. How did you like the pull-pour? How do you mean rare form?

Well, I don't know if we need to get into details, but he was the star of the show for the last time. I left too early, unfortunately. Yeah, once the PG element got out of town, Sessler was the star of the show. Yeah, he was. Mark was definitely the star. And Wes, I'll tell you one thing about Wes. A great party, and the pulled pork was delicious. Brought home some from my wife, and Emily loved it as well.

It was tremendous meat. products from Wes. One thing, the one hiccup in the party was nobody takes their music more seriously than Wes. Wes cultivates a playlist for a party and he sees it through. I mean, I don't even know, but I would think, Wes, that you're one of those guys that, you know, think out in advance, like what's part of the party to put this song on. Like you do, I'm the same way. Like, I take my playlist seriously. So when some rando rolls into the party, a woman you barely know and takes her iPod out, takes yours off, and plugs her in. And then she's, and she's, I kid you not.

TD, help me know, she was playing this song at one point. I like this kind of potty. I wish she was playing that. That would be good. That would be cool. She was playing this song. I'm throwing corn at Wes's house and Furgey's on. So that led to a revolt.

I did not even know who, I know who Fergie is. I had no idea. who sang that song, just that it makes my ears bleed. And the general consensus from everyone else at the party was get this chick off of the music. And you're right. I did spend hours cultivating a playlist. I had a theme. I don't know if people noticed it, but like, you know, I spent eight years on Tybee.

This was an American South introducing California to the American South. So I'm talking about. You've got pulled pork. You've got a little bit of country, little alt country. I was enjoying it. Yeah, you've got cornhole, all of these southern things. This was early in the process in the party, too, because I'm not. I was still there with my daughter then.

And I was trying to calm West down a little bit about the music. You know, it's someone at the party. I'm on the team west. And Wes had no, he had no qualms about his anger about the situation. He did not, you know, play it easy on this poor young woman. What's, well, listen. I was more, last words. I was more surly because several people came to me and had objections to her music taste.

Okay. That's what, that probably put me over the end. Yeah, I mean, listen, it all, it all played out because Wes is. music returned and it felt like you were in the south but also in the west td by the way thanks for going to west's party despite the invite no you didn't you didn't show up i missed out on this one guys and i already feel bad but next time to west i got you and plus you know i'm pretty good uh house party dj so let's make it happen oh you're out west is very serious about if you play house music not only you out i'm going to have full of house he means house

house party whatever that's it you know these as i've learned from dan these invites aren't uh right they're a privilege So are you passing on it the first thing? I didn't pass on it. I intended to go. That could definitely affect your standing. TD, just think I have a holiday party that I throw every year. This year could be the year you get an invite.

I don't know if you come, but it's all, it's in your hands. All right. How about some news? TD, let's do it. That's what she said. Michael! Well done. The great, iconic Michael Scott.

All right, let's do some news. And we'll start with the two big news stories on Monday. You know, we had these issues regarding fair competition rules that the NFL was doing some investigating into. We'll start in Atlanta, where, of course, the Falcons were accused of piping in fake crowd noise into their home games the last two seasons. And the NFL came down hard on the Falcons. Find them $350,000. And then the franchise will forfeit their first. fifth round selection in the 2016 NFL draft, the NFL announced on Monday, and also

President Rich McKay will be suspended for at least three months from the Competition Committee effect of April 1st, and McKay is one of the figureheads of the competition committee, so obviously it's not a good look. He's the head of it. Yeah, so it's obviously not a good look when he's somehow about, he wasn't directly involved with this, but since it was on his watch, he gets banged for it. So we'll start there, Wes. Was this enough punishment for what the Falcons did?

By the way, there weren't even a 500 team at home the last two years. Yeah, I think that's plenty stiff. What made my eyebrows arch a little bit? Freezing. What? Roddy White is in charge of the crowd noise. What's going on with this? Yeah, there's a different Roddy White, which is one of the weirdest thing. Different Roddy White.

I wouldn't be surprised. How many Roddy whites are there? I wouldn't be surprised if there's only two Roddy White's in all of America. And they're both, or they were employees of the Falcons. So it's not the wide receiver. No, I was a little confused by that. No, front office, Roddy White is no longer with the company either. I guess not.

He was in the events department. But, yes, that was strange. I thought they should be happy with how they got off. I know it's not the biggest crime in the world to be piping in crowd noise, but Rich McKay is the head of the competition committee, and his team was found to be breaking the rules of competition, and they suspended him for at least three months. Ultimately, what does that really mean?

He's got to miss one league meeting, maybe two. You know, that's a day or two. And it sounds like he'll have his job back. And in the fifth round pick, you know. And I've got to be honest, I would be surprised if the Falcons were the only team that was piping in noise. Really? I think this probably happens in a lot of the NBA. I'm sure it happens.

I'm sure it happens in the NHL. I would, it wouldn't be shot. I just don't think it's something that's beyond impossible that other teams were doing now. I don't think they, I think everyone stopped once. This went down, but, you know, listen, the Georgia Dome is not exactly a hotbed for fan loudness or anything, so I kind of get where they were coming from, but it was not worth of risk. That's one thing they lost when they lost Michael Vick. When Michael Vick was there, that place was jumping, and Mike Vick was the hero of the town.

Ever since then, they've had a hard time replacing that excitement, even though they've had Matt Ryan. They've had some really good teams. And now we move to Cleveland, where the other discipline came down, of course, the Browns, their general manager, Ray Farmer, had admitted this was while an investigation was unfolding about him texting down to the field during games from the press box. He admitted it at the NFL scouting combine. Brian Schottenheimer, oh, excuse me, Kyle Shanahan, left the team after one year as offensive coordinator, and there was a lot of speculation that is because of this incident

is a major driving force. So now the league came down on the Browns and general manager, Ray Farmer, Spended without pay for the first four games of the 2015 season. The Browns are also fined $250,000. And this is the thing I think the NFL got right because the Browns don't need any other issues. They do not lose a draft pick. So it's really a Ray Farmer thing and then the slight money hit, relatively speaking, Greg. Ray Farmer, it's a big money hit.

So again, it's a punishment for him. And I think in here the punishment fits the crime because, let's be honest, he was texting Shanahan about, you know, put Mansell in or whatever he's putting, you know, he's not happy with it. It's not something that you feel like is changing the complexion of a game or unfairly, but it's a rule, so you punish him. I wish we would have gotten the, seen the text that were being sent. If it was like Hoyer L-O-L and stuff, that would be funny. I don't like care about these punishments that much.

I mean, whatever the league decides is fine with me, but losing your GM for September isn't really that stiff. No. Someone else is going to have to put the waiver claims together. No, it's not a big month. If they really wanted to hurt the Browns and Farmer, you take them out for the draft process. But he will, I assume, be suspended without pay, so he loses a month of pay.

So personally, for him and his family, that's a big hit. But otherwise, it doesn't seem like it hurts the Browns much at all. And Mark, I saw he emerged from the Los Angeles wilderness to tweet that he thought it seemed fair as well. So it's good for the Browns. They've dealt enough to have a heavy-handed league ruling against them. It felt like something that was just going to happen to cleveland.

Evelyn. See, it didn't happen. I was happy for that. By the way, I don't want to sound like I was knocking Mark's photos on Instagram. He's a great follow on Instagram. Another picture. You backpedaling like the real reason. No, but it's true.

He is good at the old photos. He's got a little, he's got some skill there. Praise for Mark. Praise for Michael Vic. Greg trying to dig himself out of multiple holes in this podcast. And as we know, when Greg, if he ever gets his GM job, he'll just fill his team with suspect character guys. So Vic,

love is right up his alley. Cessler will fit in too. He'll be the team photographer. Speaking of a suspect character guys, Rodney Harrison decided to speak out about the Jets, the former Patriots safety, who now works for NBC. That feels unfair. He's a great guy. As an analyst, and I'm surprised he doesn't have herniated discs in his back from carrying all the Patriots water,

came out and just destroyed the Jets after their offseason of spending, namely and focused his anger, or I would say, his venom at Gino Smith. as vitriol. This is the quote from Rodney Harrison, who probably is a great guy, actually. But, you know, just understand, Rodney, if you're listening, which I'm sure you are, I do root for the Jets. Greg, you made it seem like I should throw something out there a qualifier. Well, I don't care about that, but he's anti-Geno Smith. I haven't exactly heard you've been singing Gino-Smiths. You guys have more similar than you think.

I know. Back off. The Jets are all of a sudden, this is the quote. The Jets are all of a sudden on a high thinking they're going to win the championship, by the way. I don't know anybody from the Jets had said that. He told, he said on NBC Radio, you're not going to win a championship. You're not even going to make the playoffs because you don't have a quarterback. If you go into the season and you're expecting Gino Smith to improve, it's not going to happen. He might get a little better, but when times get tough, when adversity hits, guess what he's going to do?

He's going to fold just like the last couple of years. He goes on and on. It says the Jets are a five or six-win team with Geno Smith. Now, I think it was a little, it felt a little patrioty, the shots by Rodden Harrison. I felt it that way. But I'm not saying they're baseless either. I mean, I'm not a Gino Smith fan. If anything, Greg, it should be you that has an issue with these comments because you believe in Gino.

I do. I think he has a chance to get better. And I think they can be better than a five or six win team. I don't agree with Rodney really here at all. But of all people, you're kind of the same camp. Oh, why improve everything? Not why improve everything else. But hey, we're improved, but we're going nowhere with Gino.

So you're rooting on Fitzpatrick already. Fitzmaidic. I'm not doing that. I'm rooting on Marcus Mariotta still. But it was more of him saying. the Jets are walking around saying they're going to win the championship, which has not been something that was going on. But he's not off.

I mean, in fact, I think the Jets could easily go in the tank if they'd get behind Gino Smith again and be a five or six-win team, and then you hand it over to Ryan Fitzpatrick, and he doesn't bring the Fitzmagic, and then you're a bad team. Wes, your thoughts? From what authority does Rodney Harrison speak on this issue? He's not a former quarterback. He's not a coach. So what? Neither are we.

We talk about all that stuff. But nobody's writing blog post on my opinions. Well, they should be. Wes is some good hot take. Are you taking shots at me at 7 a.m. on a Sunday on a post that got almost 1,000 comments, even writing this up? What's news? Golden blog material.

Lake March is different than what's news in early March. I just don't care. I mean, to me, I filed this under the Joe Namath, Fran Tarkington bluster posts. I don't really care what Rodney Harrison says about Gino Smith. I do get a kick out of Harrison who just, I don't know if he's ever spoken out against the Patriots, even on the Sunday Night Football Television.

I think it's even a little bit of a running joke on that show. You know, he always picks the Patriots to win every game, which for the record. One of our unwritten rules for what's opposed and what's not is what gives you a little juice, what puts a little hop in Dan Hans' step, and you obviously, this got you going, and I think that's perfectly fine to write about it. All right, good. Thanks, Wes.

I feel like, Wes, you and I are in a good place today. Yeah. All that chemistry we've been doing on NFL now. I know. Hey, make sure you check out. They are the Paul Riser and Helen Hunt of NFL now. Wes and Dan, you've got to watch these two guys together. Wes and I were not arguing.

There's another reference. T.D. has no idea. We were trying to piece together who would be Paul Riser and who would be Helen Hunt. There's really no way. There's no connective tissue on any level with us with those two particular human beings. I was a toss-off. I was happy that Greg decided I was Helen Hunt. You get the Oscar or the Golden Globe.

Yeah, I don't want to be Paul Riser. I'll be Riser. I'm sure Riser is a very nice house in Malibu. uh ralando mclean uh who had a really nice bounce back season with the dallas cowboys last year and is now a free agent um who's expected to be he's facing a suspension potentially uh to start the 2015 season he's he's meeting uh with the new england patriots this is a move that was first reported by espn mclean is still a negotiation with the cowboys media NFL media insider ian rapp report reports but though a final price tag on his deal will be nowhere

year what it would have been during the middle of the season last year before his off-the-field issues came back into focus. Greg, you are the Patriots guy. Is McLean a guy you want in your building? Yeah, I like when the Patriots take a chance on these guys. And they have problems at inside-linebacker right now. Dante Hightower, who's been inside and out, has an injury where he's out six, seven months. Gerard Mayo's coming off a big injury. Yeah, they can take swings on guys like Ligarrett Blunt or Rolanda McLean, throw him in there, see what happens. A lot of talent. I assume he's going to be for very little money.

Is this a situation where Rolando McLean's agent and the Patriots are using this for separate issues? The Patriots to send a message to Gerard Mayo to take a pay cut and McLean to send a message to the Cowboys to up their offer? I wish I knew who his agent was. They have a very good relationship. Carl Schmelkberg. They have a very good relationship with Drew Rosenhaus. Work very closely on a lot of things. Maybe that's it.

little favor? My favorite Drew Rosenhaus image from this past Super Bowl was when I covered in a rainy Arizona bar of Madden Bowl and LaShawn McCoy, his client was in the finals against Patrick Peterson. He's vanquished in the finals and now needs to get to his car in the rain to be taken away to the next party or whatever and it's raining. Drew Rosenhaus with his sports jacket covering LaShawn McCoy's head as they walk through the rain together. Wow, that's a real agent. That's an agent. That's Jerry McGuire stuff.

That's Kwan. That is Kwan. Moving on, Miles Austin. Back on the grid. Expected to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles. The former Cowboys receiver was a middling, somewhat subpar receiver for the Browns last year in 12 games before landing on injured reserve with a kidney injury. So now he's 30 years old now.

He's now crossed the 30-year-old Barry, and he hasn't really been a big-time receiver in several years. So the Eagles, Wes, this feels like they're just going to maybe take a look at him, see if they can get something out of him. Listen, a lot of people can succeed in that offense, right? Yeah, I'm surprised he's only 30. He plays like he's 38. He did better than expected with the Browns last year,

but he doesn't move well anymore. West really battled, I remember, in our top 100, to have Miles Austin even higher. I remember going into last year. You were a big Austin guy, so I'm going to count that as a win for me. No, no, no, no. It was Miles Austin versus Sidney Rice, who you wanted hire and who promptly retired. Okay.

Scientistate. Nowhere. Miles Austin, I think Greg. He's working at Wingstops, so it's not truly retirement. I mean, he just changed his career. He owns the Wingstops. Greg made this point a week. Oh, yeah.

Chip Kelly decided that wide receivers are easily replaced in his system, and what better evidence than bringing in Miles Austin. Yeah, right now it would be Austin, Riley. Cooper, Jordan Matthews, and Josh Huff as their top four, not pretty, but you figure they'll draft someone. They're reportedly pretty high on Josh Huff. They think he has a higher ceiling than Matthews. Who, by the way, is, um, we talk about all the time the Dalton scale as him being a prime

meridian of quarterbacks. Who is the Dalton scale for wide receivers? Well, it was the heartline. Yeah, it was the heart line. That's what we're, I mean, that was way below now, right? That was more of a contract thing, too. I don't have the guess of stuff, man. He's just lost.

No, it's a good question, because Hartline was... Because he's certainly not anymore, Hardline. No, and it was a unique case where it also was counting his contract was really the heartline. So it's an interesting question. Kenny Britt making a push for this one. Kenny Britt, well... Well, that's good for him. The Rams have him as their number one receiver, and he's really not even a number two for other teams.

Yeah, but he... The fact that he has so much talent, he seems like a... He had so much time. He seems like a strange choice for this. It really should be someone who's middle. Got one out of the road. Who do you say? Groucher.

No, he's two up and down. How about Doug Baldwin? Yes. That's perfect. Oh, look at you. Nailed it. Eat it, T.D. Relevance.

I think that's the answer. Doug Baldwin. And finally, Jared Allen, coming off a bad year in Chicago's first year there, signed a big contract. Only had five and a half sacks. This is a guy that basically was a lock for 11 or 12 sacks every year. it gets to the Bears, and that doesn't work out. Now, under a new regime, so the GM and coach that brought him to Chicago is gone,

the defensive scheme that he's played in his whole career, which was a 4-3, it's now a 3-4 there, so he would have to be an outside linebacker as opposed to defensive end, so that's changing. He's 33 years old. As I said, he's coming off a year where he didn't play well and was injured, and yet he wants everyone to know, or specifically Ryan Pace and John Foxenough, I'm good still, really. He said that.

He actually told the Chicago Tribune that he said that to the GM and coach when he bumped into them at the annual meeting in Arizona. So, Greg, I'll start with you on this. Jared Allen, is there a reason to suspect he can have a bounce back season under Fingio? Or is this a situation where he's only there because of his salary, kept him there, guaranteed money. And he's not going to have a big role or a big impact this season. He would not be on the team if not for the contract, but because he is on the team with the contract,

they're going to try to figure something out, but he doesn't have a position really in that. And then you look at the other people at that position there. Let's go through it. McPhee, Lamar Houston, and then who else am I forgetting here? I think they're moving Chey McClellan inside. They're moving McClellan inside. He could be the fourth best passfisher.

Jared Allen struggled for most of the last year. He came on a little bit at the end. But at this point, he would be like the, Dalton scale for a starting defensive end, or maybe even lower than that right now, would be Jared Allen. Your thoughts was? I think that Jared Allen had a bad year, as we predicted on our top 101 free agents last year when we assigned him a grade around 30, and his agent got all peeve.

Oh, that's right. Started slamming me. Do you remember any actual lines or quotes from the email? Similar to what I said about Rodney Harrison. Who's Chris Wesley? Why should we care? he thought that Jared Allen should be ranked like one of the top 10 free agents last year, a 32-year-old pass rusher, and now the Bears wish they could cut him.

Right, and you know he did a good job getting a big-time contract. Really an amazing contract, if you think about it, that he didn't have that much interest, and he got all this guaranteed money this year. He had five-and-a-half sacks a season ago, so he was not effective as a pass-ratcher. They're now moving positions where he's possibly standing up. The guy, I forgot, by the way, had more sacks than Jared Allen as a free agent. agent for much less money, Willie Young. So, Alan could be fourth on the depth chart here on the outside.

And one thing, I'm a little surprised you didn't have a great market last year. He kind of was, he was kind of getting a little too cute, if I remember, with the Seattle visit, and he wasn't really playing the market maybe to the full. Those seven seasons before he got to Chicago, he was putting together a borderline Hall of Fame resume. Well, he might be a Hall of Fame. Yeah, these are just out of just his seven-year sack total, 15 and a half, 14 and a half, 14 and a half, 22 in 2011, 12 and 11 and a half, before dipping down to 5 and a half.

And he said he had a back issue and a flu issue that cost him like 20 pounds. And if he's healthy, maybe he does bounce back. But I would think the scheme issue is the biggest concern. If he didn't have a $12 million guaranteed contract this year, the Bears might be able to trade him somewhere to a team where he could play in a 4-3 defense. But I agree with Greg. He's a bad scheme fit. Maybe they'll even have him play inside.

I mean, he's a tough guy. Who knows? maybe not really be an outside bass rangers. Four time, by the way, first team all pro. He's going to have a pretty good case for the Hall of Fame someday. Yeah. The thing is, there's so many pass rushers from his generation, guys like Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis.

There's all kinds of guys there. Have similar DeMarcus Ware. I can't wait. Me and you will be on the committee. It'll be great. That's what's happening, gentlemen. Greg, I know you have a high-octane management meeting at two. Yes, we've had to move our time of this.

show in general so i can get to a meeting and then just you know repeat something that i already have sent an email form previously handsome hank's not going to like what you just heard if he listens to the show the notorious d o p uh do we have time for a couple of uh tweets about win west's toaster please whatever right uh i i asked west or west volunteered to uh throw me some tweets uh from from you listeners and viewers that checked out win west's toaster now keep in mind i haven't looked at any of these and Wes submitted them, so they're probably going to be very pro-West, I'm going to say. I'm going to go out on the limb. We'll start with the first one.

This from Kevin Brown. Damn, I thought your trivia rep was hype. But 11 out of 12, verse 2 out of 12, you're the king and the rightful owner of the toaster. Ow! Wes, good job. You asked me to send you tweets. I don't think anybody was really knocking the segment. Let's see.

I didn't get any of those tweets. Bill Diamond, from one 12th man to another, nice showing on Win West. Mrs. Toaster, this is to our friend. Who was our first contestant on... Was it our second one? Vanilla Gorilla. Oh, Vanilla Gorilla. Chris Wessling is not human. He's an NFL Wiki hashtag. Well, I think we can separate Wes's outstanding performance,

one of his best, with the ineptitude of the tomato cans that TD lined up. Because they had no control over them going two out of 12. And I have heard from another high octane, high-octane, high-old. up in the company producer at NFL that thought we did a poor job scoring and that you should have not got two of those answers right in the future if you blurred out an answer wrong you're not allowed to correct it so the rules committee we'll talk about it well then you wouldn't have ever had the toaster because you corrected yourself against oh who is this producer I we're not gonna get into it's a fan of the show he couldn't be any more wrong it's definitely on the table

you get to correct yourself he says that you can't do that on jeopardy and other this isn't Jeopardy, it's Win West's Toaster. Get out of here, high-placed producer. The power is getting to West's head. Putting his name in the title alone is a problem. Get out of here. Anyway, so a bunch of glowing stuff. Here's one more from Graham Brown.

Eighth to 21st Century Great. Watching Win West's Toaster from around the NFL. I think that's a reference to us being on NFL now for the first time, which hopefully... I thought that was a reference to my joke. What could be more than 2015 than like a radio quiz show? That's basically what we are. Greg's instincts have been impeccable on this game. He's never thought it's been good.

Everyone loves it. Greg, eating all that humble pie every time we play the game. Oh, people love to hate me in this row. I'm like the... Bobby the Brain Hean. I'm like the heel in WWE. You are a little Bobby the Brain Heaney. And hopefully we're going to have more and more NFL now content in the coming...

Greg, the Brain Rosenville. ...year, so, you know, stay tuned on that. All right. Now, finally, let's get into... the piece that Greg wrote up, as I said earlier, and it's called Eight Biggest Surprises of the 2015 off-season. And right off the top, this doesn't surprise me at all. The number, is this in order?

No, I didn't mean it to be in the order. All right. Well, you have right off the top, the Saints go crazy, go trade crazy. Should I just go through the eight, and maybe we'll pick one out. Number two, the Rams get a big return out of Sam Bradford. Let's start with those two. So the Saints, we've talked about, Greg, your thoughts on that. They're fascinating because you don't see this in the NFL too often.

You see it in the NBA. And it feels at once kind of desperate and without a real plan. But on the other hand, it feels like maybe it's going to work. Maybe it will energize. I'm not putting a big judgment on it that I think it's a terrible decision, what they've done. But you trade grubs, stills, and Jimmy Graham all back to back, get rid of Curtis Lofton, it's like, what a big overhaul. I thought that Jimmy Graham trade itself was more surprising than the Rams getting a big

return for Sam Bradford. Sam Bradford's a former number one overall pick, and we've said multiple times, scouts and executives love his arm. But we weren't saying that in February or March. And I'm partly putting it as a surprise. Maybe not February, March, but I'm thinking about when we did a podcast last August or September, if we could listen to what we said about the future of San Bradford then, we thought he was either get cut.

The San Bradford era was over, which that was right. It was over. Or he would have to take a massive pay cut to somehow stay on the team. Instead, they end up getting second-round picks and he gets all his money. I'm just saying it doesn't surprise me at all. We were writing about this a month ago that so many teams need quarterbacks and with his obvious talent, even with the injuries,

it doesn't surprise me that someone took a chance on him. I have a bit of a cessler that everyone's going to sleep on the Saints this season And they're going to drop a 12-win hammer. Would not surprise me. Oh, all right. Got a bit of a Cessler there. Let's see if, Wes, are you going to choose him to win the Super Bowl again? No, I'm never doing that again.

All right, the two of you guys on the Saints Corner, maybe. I'm not picking up for the Super Bowl, but I think they're going to. They can win that division. It's possible. You're saying they don't have a plan. I think they do have a plan. This isn't the Oakland Raiders. Well, they keep changing it and making it up as they go along.

I mean, they thought they had a good defense last year, and they didn't. They were wrong. Brandon Browner There are some things that also feel like they don't have a plan Danelle Ellerby Brandon Browner I don't know

Next up you have Greg Hardy and Trent Richardson Get paid I don't feel like this is one was a little overplayed Because Greg Hardy's not going to get a ton of money Depending on the suspension I don't want to just give you

The eight biggest headlines Trent Richardson Trent Richardson gets paid exactly like 600 grand if he doesn't You know Do anything else That's 600 grand more than I would have expected You made a proposition he wouldn't even get a carry in the league.

I'm still standing by it. I think it could happen. Right. And I agree. So why are the Raiders or anyone giving them $2 million for this year if he makes a team in $600,000 to start? I'm not. No, the Raiders. Yeah, I was shocked that Trent Richardson got $600,000 guaranteed.

I thought that was honestly a sandwich in the bank, sandwich in the belly with Sessler, because I thought there's no way any team's going to go near Trent Richardson. He doesn't work hard. He's not a productive guy, but I forgot the big old Reggie McKenzie in the room. Anything's possible when Reggie's involved. Except signing good players. And with Greg Hardy, in this environment in the NFL, after what he was arrested for domestic violence last year and that he could be suspended, the fact that he can make more money per game this season than Des Bryant,

he's going to make way more per game than DeMarco Murray. That's stunning. It's stunning to me. I agree. It was stunning to me. Well, look at the discrepancy between him and Ray Rice. Ray Rice is still radioactive. Greg Hardy gets 13 million possible. But it just shows this off-field stuff is overrated in terms of how teams will view.

And it helps if your owner is the GM and is ready to just spend the money and doesn't have to worry about ownership because he'll take the heat. Greg Hardy right now, imagine if he was coming out in the draft and he had gotten arrested for domestic violence a year ago. Wouldn't that crush his stock? And yet he's in the NFL. He's getting paid $13 million potentially. It's crazy. Two veteran names that are on the move

are two more numbers on Greg's list. The Ravens Trade Lodi Nata coming off a very strong season in Baltimore. And Frank Gore, according to Greg, found a better home. This is the one that was maybe a stretch because I'm a Gore fan. But it's just nice after being in a perfect run-heavy offense. Like Jim Harbaugh, last few years, he finds an even better spot in Indianapolis. plus. I think the NADA thing is similar to what you were saying about Bradford. It would have surprised us in December or January, but we knew leading up to the deadline, or leading up to the start of the league year that they wanted him to take a pay cut, and there was a chance he might have even been released.

It's just interesting. They're eating $7.5 million in dead money to get rid of him. It was on the last year of his contract. They're paying $17 million, $18 million in salary cap space this year to Haloti Nata and Ray Rice. We talked about this when it happened or somewhat recently, that given Ozzy and Newsom's track record, there's probably maybe something that a lot of people don't know about NADA. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if you fell off the map this year. That's fair, and when I looked at his snap counts, I realized he already was a part-time player last year, that Brandon Williams and Timmy Jernigan were playing a lot for him. So part of the equation had to be, can I pay this much money to a guy playing 500, 600 snaps? I think that's the biggest part of it.

of it is Brandon Williams and Jernigan. I think that they are really high on those two guys. Two more, the Bills, three more. Bills become one of the NFL's most fascinating teams. The Matt Castle led bills, according to Greg, and also... Not according to Greg, it's a fact. All right, go ahead. Well, tell us why.

The Bills, Rex? I mean, when Doug Marone left, we thought... Marron. We thought that was some sort of big loss, and they replace them with Rex, and then they get Lashon McCoy and Percy Harvin and Charles... They bring Charles Clay into the mix. get you upgrade at quarterback and oh mark you know west doesn't care about that you did upgrade at quarter they did whatever it's a really interesting team

upgrade at quarterback it's a it's a big really highly of tyrod taylor the bills have been boring and in the NFL wilderness to use a cessler phrase for a decade they're on they're on the front of the map they're kind of like the jets were in 2009 10 yeah well i like that west is uh that rex is in a situation now where it looked very depressing when he took the job and that he let his ego get in the way. Now they're a genuinely frisky team, but he still does have that quarterback issue. And that's why I can't get it. They still feel like it's an eight-win ceiling as long as they don't have a quarterback. They have that defensive line, which is fun to watch. And they're one of those teams. Maybe, I guess I'm by myself on this one among our group, but they're

one of the teams like, I want to watch them week one. That's one of the teams I can't wait to watch. They're just going to be really interesting to see how that all works together. I agree they're an interesting team. I don't know how fun they will be to watch with Matt cancel my quarterback my favorite by the way Tyrod Taylor I'm in okay be careful what you wish for um Doug Marone by the way since you brought it up my favorite

like 24 hour news cycle moment of 2014 it technically was because it was on New Year's Eve because I remember I was in the office is when he walked out on the bills and then all over the internet where tweets and reports Doug Marone

everyone around the league loves what this guy did in Buffalo this is one of the hottest names on the market right now. The Jets are going to make a hard play. Get ready. Doug Marone is on fire. And now he's like he's writing the yearbook for the Jaguars or something. Every single insider took to Twitter that day to tell us how sought after Doug Maron was.

He was sought after all right. Write some yearbook copy. Now he's teaching Luke Jokal the kickstep. Let's see what else we got here. Los Angeles. Let's do two more. Greg, you got to get out of here. You've got to go to some management meetings.

LA gains even more momentum. This is finally happening. One thought on that, Greg. Well, just because we've always had momentum, and there was some during last season, but then it picks up in the off season with them voting on the Rams Stadium in Englewood. That's been approved.

And then the Chargers and the Raiders combined on a stadium proposal. If you had just told me that in November, that seems ridiculous. Yeah, I agree. 100%. Wes? Oh, yeah.

Greg said it will. And finally, because there's only one way to tee up this discussion, this was number eight, the final one in your list, retirement stun the NFL, especially 49ers. So I'll tee it up the way. For some reason, it's like almost contractually obligated. Hey, Greg Rosthal, is this the start of a trend? No, it's not. Or I don't think it is.

I mean, we'd have to see what happens next year. Each one of these situations was totally different. Which I'm not making light of like why it might be a trend, but everybody kind of jumped to that automatically. Chris Borland was the only one that was the head issue concerns. Borland is a fascinating case because we've never seen a player that we can think of citing head trauma and risk and worrying about it before anything really happened to him at the NFL level. If that starts happening, like that is a story. But until we see it, Jason Whirls and Jake Locker, it's like those had nothing to do with it.

I think this was the most surprising if you put all these four guys together. Yeah. It's the most surprising of all of them. And if only one of them retired, it would have been the most surprising of all. all of them to me. Hmm. I didn't expect any of these guys to retire. No, Willis probably was the least surprising.

World's walks away from 15 to 20 million guaranteed. Just in terms of pure surprise, I was as surprised when I got that text that World's was retiring as anything that happened this off season, except for the Jimmy Graham trade. Well, we were all sitting at work for that one. The Jimmy Graham trade was, I don't know, that was insane. That, yeah, that got a little ruckus out of the newsroom. I was with Greg at a taco shop when the World's News came over and he looked at. at his phone and you went, what in the world?

That's accurate? I wish we hung out at taco shops. Dan knows a good place. I do. We should go. We should get some tacos, buddy. That's it. Yeah, I love tacos.

Tacos are great, especially in Los Angeles. All right. That's it. Those are the eight big surprises. That is it for Monday's edition of the Around the NFL podcast. A nice tight 38. We'll be back on Wednesday with the great Mark Sessler. Wes's last show before a vacation.

Greg is off to meet the man. This is Dan Hansa signing off for the whole crew and T-D. Until Wednesday. We get this a lot of question. Had to fight in a cage match, who wins Aetian mailbag? Yeah, that seems like we get that every time.

I've addressed that before on the show. All they ever do is try to pit things about how we argue who's better than the other person? Well, in this case, it is a good question, because I don't, you know, Wes is probably the most likely. Wes would probably do it, yeah. But I don't know.

I don't know. I just do it, guys. It's not like Wes's Captain America over there, you know. Well, Sessler's dead on the floor, let's be honest. I've got a lot of, uh, I've got a lot of want to. I've got some win to me. That's where I got what you guys don't have. I can run around.

I can run. I got stamina is what I'm trying to say. Wes is going to be tired after a little while. I can just keep taking it. All takes is one hit, though. Yeah. Okay, that's fair. Close line.

I've got the Ronda Rousey arm bar. Basically, Mark will be dead, and then Wes and I will corner you and kill you. Then Wes will probably kill me. It's probably how we go. Mark throws hashtag real punches. I hope you're taking on this. It was kind of like this. Yeah, it's like this is the Mark punch.

All right, save it for the pot. This is an I-Heart podcast. Thank you.