NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 9th Annual Schedule Release Extravaganza!

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

A room stuffed with some heroes - Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler, Colleen Wolfe, Rachel Bonnetta and Patrick Claybon break down the most anticipated day of the offseason - the official NFL schedule release! The heroes start with Week 1 highlights (6:30) before jumping to the Thanksgiving Day matchups (16:20) and teams with the most primetime games (19:00). Then, the group goes around discussing random games that buzz their loins (21:00) before giving Claybon his own segment: the 5 best games to follow on Twitter (32:00). After that, the heroes get into their favorite Revenge Games (48:00), teams with tougher schedules (52:00) and teams with easier schedules (55:30) as we sit analyzing the matchups in the middle of May. (Note: timecodes are 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. Maybe this year will be better than the last. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. I'm Greg Rosenthal. Sitting in for Dan Hansis in the host chair. Surrounded by a room overstuffed with heroes, Mark Sessler, Rachel Bonetta.

And Connie Fox Hit the music We have to have the intro music If we must then fine We are here I just find it interesting That you know I'm sitting in this chair And Dan's nowhere to be found

I just find it really curious I find it interesting that you're talking over Colleen's intro music That's what we do. Guys I don't know how this thing works You do talk over it You can do every one of this music We're all together and it's kind of nice and I'm giddy about it.

Yeah, that's the idea. Dan's, you know, on a beautiful anniversary trip in an undisclosed location. You guys invite me on this show. He's nowhere to be found. I just think I'm just stating. He's fleeing from you in theory. I thought, is he a coward?

I don't know. You had asked, you wanted to be like in the inner circle on the bench with Beneta podcast. Correct. Everyone should check that out. If you like this podcast, you've got to love that podcast. It's a great listen.

What could be more inner circle than being part of the ninth annual schedule release extravaganza? I'm happy to be here with my gal. Let's go. Let's talk about it. I mean, do we need to talk about it? It's like the day where it's like it's a confection more than any other NFL day of the year. I do enjoy it, though, just kind of like getting excited. But Colleen, you know, stopped us before the show instead she had some very pressing matters

important matters to really hit us with first. So you have the floor. First of all, last podcast, I just got to say, Connor or Mark Sessler, you have to bring back heat and light pod. Like that's, it's got to come back. It was such a fun listen to have you guys together again. And I felt like it, Mark really was just, there was a different energy about him.

It felt like you were more alive talking to Connor or. He's in love with Connor. And I appreciated being along for that ride. So I would like for the Heat and Light Pod to come back. I think either Connor or was pulled from my rib, if that's how that story goes, or vice versa. There is a kinship there. We did 10 episodes, and then we were snuffed from existence

for an explanation I can't really discuss further. Whoa. So the topics would be controversial. Let's put that way. This just got real. Shout out to a lot of listeners who hit me up because I have now the entire compendium of the Heat and Light podcast.

No. Oh. How did you find that? It's on the Internet or you found it like in the NFL archives? No, it's on the Internet. Twitter user at Juan the Hoosier was the first one to make me aware of a Reddit user whose name is Fony Cox, which is funny. She's, watch your mouth. Got a problem here.

Has them all uploaded to YouTube under a channel called Heat and Light Podcast Stan. You can go find this on YouTube right now. Well, why don't you tweet it out and then pin it to your Twitter account? This is now that, like, you've taken this oath as our podcast producer. I would never ask you to do something like that, by the way, Justin. Right. To Rachel's point, like, we tacked on an addendum to the list of oaths that he has to listen to every single heat and light episode, which is a lot of time wasted for Justin that he was out of because these did not exist. They now go, they're back in existence.

Have a nice weekend. Otherwise, you wouldn't understand, like, all of our, like, there's a chance we make an inside joke 18 months from now and we want you to be prepared for it. Graver is just drowning in work now from tasks that you guys are giving. That was all you had to bring up. That was the pressing matter. You know, now that I look at the... That's very dismissive, by the way, Greg. I'm just saying that sounded important.

You should show support support. We have a schedule that needs to be released. Hold on. I have one pressing thing before we get started. I know that this is an audio medium, but I feel like Mark's giving me Jeff Probstone Survivor today. Yeah. The shirt, the whole, the attitude.

His shirt matches our macho. The attitude. Oh, you just give a. a little Jeff. I don't quite know what that means because I haven't watched Survivor since about 2003, so I'm mistaking that as a positive.

You're missing out. It's still alive and well. Wasn't he kicked off because he had some off-field issues? I think he's come back. I think he's come back. I think he was a mainstay. You're definitely mixing that up. Jeff's shirts are always...

Yeah, wait. No, that was the Bachelor. Jeff's like an actual good guy, right? Jeff's a great guy. I don't think he's been canceled. No, definitely not. Mark, on the other hand. So did you have another one, Colleen?

Well, now that I look at my list of pressing matters, My notes just say passenger land at a plane in Florida with no flying experience whatsoever. Oh, I saw that. And then something about tattoo talk. Okay. You can also mix these things in during the show, too. Okay.

Let's do that. Go off topic. I like that. I like that there's no rules when Dan's here. I like the airplane's not. This feels really off the rules. It does feel like the kids are just playing. There's no organization.

If you're listening to this, that means the schedule is out. We are taping this before the show. before the actual schedule was released because we're very special people. We got early copies of the schedule, like every season. And this is the ninth annual edition, Justin tells me. He went back and counted them up. They always make the producers turn off all the cameras so that it's not going throughout the building. They warn us if they can trace any leaks of the schedule to us.

Like if Canadians start tweeting. it out a lot. Then they're going to be like that's on Beneta. No, don't put that out there, you guys. We get in big trouble. But if you're listening to this, that means it was just released. So let's dive into it. Let's dive into week one. I feel like week one is always the right place to start because I'm like a small child. I can't focus on too many things at once. We're going to be talking about week one for the next four or five months. And beyond that, it's like it's too far in the future. Mark, why don't you get us started like something that excites you about week one. Well, I think

it started the very first game because I think some of the kickoff games have slightly been underwhelming. Depending on, you know, like they've just not always been the greatest matchup of all time. Depending on like the visiting team, the bills at the Rams is pretty

much the best thing you could have asked for. Yeah, that's so fun. There's a chance we've got people fist bumping in the control room here. People are excited. There's no weak point here because... The same group was literally like not paying attention to market in the highest podcast the other day, like whatsoever. Oh, they were, they were, they had other things going on mentally,

but this is a different show. It's about different things. Bills at Rams, I mean, it's, it's the Super Bowl winner against the team that everyone should, many thoughts should have gone from the AFC and will go this year. So there you go. I like that one. That's a great one. You have Matthew Stafford hasn't played the Bills as a RAM yet.

You have the Von Miller aspect, which really doesn't matter that much. It's not like a huge revenge game. He was only there for not even a full season. I feel like they did him like a huge favor and he did that with a huge favor. He like cashed in because of that. However, when I look at week one, Broncos at Seahawks, I'm losing my voice.

Broncos at Seahawks, they went for it week one. I can't believe. Russell Wilson right off the bat going back to town. I love that. It feels like we're getting spoiled with that one. Like I feel like we should be forced to wait for that one a little bit. But they're giving it to us right away. The one that I'm excited about, Mark,

I don't know if you're feeling the same way, but I want to see what these browns look like, week one. I feel like I dated somebody hot and heavy in high school, and now it's like the 10-year anniversary. You bet the whole thing is you're looking for a new team. Listen, I just want to see if they, did they get fat? You know, did they get too much Botox in their face? You know, are they a mess?

That's what I want to see. I want to see them flailing. They buried Cleveland in terms of national exposure on this schedule. They have two primetime games, and a bunch of hidden away contests, and I think we know why. But I love this idea. Let's say something goes wrong.

Because they sold their souls to go get the shot on. Let's say something goes wrong with the Panthers quarterback situation, which is not hard to, between now and then, an injury. What could go right? Well, because they're not aiming for Baker Mayfield in theory at this point. But if they lost Sam Darnelso, let's say they signed Baker Mayfield, and you get your 10-year high school reunion Cleveland Brown's version going up against Baker Mayfield,

who would be like the third guy in that. I love trying. Picture, you know, that Elmo Giff when he's, like, in fire? Like, that's going to be Mark and I, like, aren't? If Baker Mayfield beats the Browns in week one as a member of the Carolina Panthers. I would cry. I would cry. I would think I would cry.

That could maybe sell me on that. I would be so happy. You can't roll out Sam Darnold to play football again in 2022. Just do it. We know that they were interested. They were talking trade during the draft. They weren't willing to... take on all of his salary and the Browns weren't willing to pay like half of it,

whatever the Panthers asked for. But that means they would like change. That means they would accept them at some point. The Browns are at the point where they just got to give up the ghost. They lost this. Like you're a big loser this off season for everything that you've done Browns. And you're going to get your wins in the future. At least you believe so like with Deshawn Watson.

But the whole Mayfield thing's over. Like it's such a distraction. He should show up to work and just like be a pain in the ass so that they have. to get rid of him, and so that he ends up on the Panthers week one. That would be great. I also really like Patriots at Dolphins. That seems... No, I hate that. That's always fine. Why? Come on. Mike McDaniel's grand entrance. Mike McDaniel versus Belichick in his first

ever game. Exactly. The Patriots like always crappy when they play the Dolphins? Like don't the dolphins have a way better record in Miami? That true. That's true. That's true. But it's also the third straight year that this has been the week one game. It's just an annoying, weird subplot to me as like a Patriots fan that they keep doing the same matchup every year. I mean, it's been like different quarterback matchups,

depending on the year. Aren't these dolphins different, though? Like Mike McDaniel having to deal with Belichick, like the dolphins in general are interesting. I just don't like that big of a division game, Miami where they always lose like right off the back. And it's the same thing year after year. I'm with you, though, on the Russ versus Pete Carroll thing, week one.

Maybe they were kind of thinking how I thought, like, we're small children. We can't, like, hold our attention. in terms of this revenge rivalry, why wait until week nine? Maybe the Seahawks aren't going to be good by then either. So it's got every like ounce of juice that you can possibly have. But I love it because Russell Wilson's on the Broncos because ultimately Pete Carroll didn't really believe Russell Wilson is as good as Russell Wilson thinks he is.

And he's also on the Broncos because Russell Wilson doesn't think Pete Carroll is as good a coach as he thinks he's like. I love that. And it's just true. Like like they they did not think Russell Wilson is a top five. of quarterback anymore and so they were willing to do this and he gets to like prove him wrong in Seattle. I do think that when they meet and like hug and stuff like that, it's going to be boring. Like they're both so, you know, like, polite and it'll be nice. Like, you know, when like Belichick faced off against Brady last year, we were all like, oh my God, are they going to hug?

Are they going to kiss on their cheeks? Like, what are they going to do? And it's like the most excruciating. Kiss on their cheeks. I would have loved to have witnessed that. Kiss on the forehead would have been nice. I was trying to decide what I wanted to say. And that's what came out. The next four months, too, for Seahawks fans, like, knowing that this is first and it's home. You can already see Seahawks fans. I've noticed some that are rooting against Russell Wilson a little more than they expected. Like, of course, they loved everything that he did for him.

But now that they're seeing him, like, have the cheesy videos with Ciara where he doesn't know whether his dog is male or female. And that's not a great dog, I think, if you're going to pick a dog. They've stopped dancing, I feel like. There was a time where there was a lot of dancing happening, and that was making me bed face. Seahawks fans are like, great. That's not our problem again. If we win week one with Gino Smith against Russell Wilson, everything feels better. Greg, one thing, Seahawks fans right now are completely in space because I tweeted out that they had a quarterback scenario that was a problematic thing.

You've got Truelock or Gino. I know you love Gino so much. But all these terms of like, you don't understand the Seahawks have a plan. It's a trenchant plan. And you're blind to what they're doing. And I'm like, talk to me in week five when they're one and four and they're trying to still sell Drew Locke to us as an actual entity. If that happens, does Pete Carroll?

I feel like it's so weird to see the Seahawks without Pete Carroll. Obviously, he's getting older. He's going to have to retire at some point. But like if the Seahawks are really bad this year, is he still there? I don't know. I feel like they gave him the power to go through whatever this rebuild is to some degree. They're going to let him kind of have. I mean, at this stage, right?

There's word, like the Allen's, you know, Paul Allen died, their former owner, and they're supposedly going to sell the Trailblazers, are the Seahawks potentially next. I think that's partly why Peaccaroll is still there. It's like they just didn't want to deal with all of that. I think the Seahawks think that they're going to be good. Yes, I do too. Like they legitimately think it. I kind of think they'll find some way to win eight or nine games, which is about what they did last year.

And everyone will, like, raise it up as like, oh, it's, you know, a great job by Pete Carroll. Week 1 is a lot of fun. You also have Justin Fields and Trey Lance going up against each other from the 2022 draft for like a relatively low octane game. I think that's kind of fun. Eagles Lions. Yes. This is going to be right after Hard Knocks too. The first game of the season.

Two Buzzy teams. You have Bucs. Eagles Lions, you said, it's going to be fun. Come on. I think the Lions are really, I think the Lions have already thrown it out there. I want to be the schedule makers don't think so. The team of around the NFL. Well, right.

It's a 1 PM game. They have zero prime time games. They all, their schedules like almost every. single week is just a one o'clock game for the only team with no prime time. I feel like that was The Lions? Yeah, it's unrewarded because they were fun down the stretch last year. Right, like that week one game is absolutely fun.

It was not a fun matchup when they played last year, though. They're also just a fun team to root for, whether they're fun on the field, like they've just got such characters and we're going to get to know all of those people way better. Oh, that's true because of Hard Knocks. That's what I'm saying. Like the first game of a Hard Knocks team. That will be good. It's like the NFL saying, we're

bigger than you too. I know. That is surprising. because I think they're going to be fun, and I think the Eagles are going to get overrated by a lot of people like me who already see them as, like, a top eight team in the NFL. I'm very into the Eagles. Bucks and Cowboys, by the way, are the Sunday night game there. So they are definitely swinging for the fences,

just like going for monster ratings right away. Let's go to Thanksgiving. We always kind of head there. Also, by the way, real quick, Raiders Chargers. Do we mention that one? Oh, that one's going to be really good. That's a great one. They ended their season together.

Full circle. They end where. They begin where they ended. I also love Steelers at Bengals because for 20 years, that's been the week one or week two thing where Pittsburgh goes in and just wins 40 to 7 to get going. Now they're in space on some level. And everyone is starting to know, well, the Bengals actually last year was a magic ride that won't translate to this season. I don't agree with that.

Disagree. Yep. I could talk week one the whole time. I know, truly. Week one is the best week of the year. I think it's always the best week on the football calendar. You got the most football to go. everyone is so like fresh and new nothing's been ruined hopefully people are injured like it's like sensory overload though it's a little much it's a little much with these games in primetime that that is maybe

the best prime time slate possible bills rams bucks cowboys bronco seahawks that's pretty awesome let's go to thanksgiving next just because i think of that i think of our family like it's my it's my favorite holiday in general and it go there go back to the bills in a big spot the bills have five primetime games and they're on Thanksgiving this year, which is exciting. It's Bill's Lions. So that's the Lions big moment. They don't get their primetime game, but more people watch that game than any game all year, usually, even though the Lions are involved.

That is the number one game of the year. It's not been a big moment for the Lions, like 20 out of 24 of the last Thanksgiving. I'm just saying it's the most people watching. Even when it's like, who is your guy, David Blow and the Blauards the other year? Like, people just, they're starting, and they watch that game. You have Giants Cowboys for the million things. time on national television, and then Patriots Vikings as the nightcap. Do we have any thoughts here?

I'm kind of excited to see where the Cowboys are at in November. I believe this could be wrong. I believe they have one of the easier strength of schedules. We're giving the Cowboys everything. Here's all of these gifts. You've got this incredible schedule. Jerry, here you go. Let's see what you do.

So I feel like by Thanksgiving, we will have a good indication on are they going to throw it away again? They usually do after the playoffs. This is a Dan colonel that he likes to throw out there. Just like literally they've never followed up a playoff season with another good season. That's like the NFC East, too. They're horrible with success. They start feeling themselves.

And I think the NFC East, like the Cowboys are listed as, you know, one of the easiest strengths of schedule. The entire NFC East is because A, they get to play each other. So the best one to me would be, you know, the Eagles and the Cowboys because they don't have to play themselves. They get to play the rest of the division. And then out of the division, they play the AFC South, which is as easy against, sorry, Graver, and the NFC North, which maybe isn't the easiest NFC division. You could argue the South, but that's the easiest combination of out-of-division schedule.

So the entire NFC East wins. I like the idea of Mack Jones and Kirk Cousins on Thursday. I do, too. But the one thing about the schedule, it's like, hey, let's look at a game in early December be like, player X versus player X. Can't wait to see that. The chances are half these teams are shattered health-wise by then. And we're projecting, but it's true. It's supposed to be a fun day.

I know, but that's why there is an element to this. Jeff Probe's energy right now. Whatever. Is Probs the big, like, kind of downer? I mean, I don't know. I've completely made up a story about Jeff Probs. I don't know anything about the man. I just keep on saying it.

Like, Mark is the one who always puts in his sandwich propositions predicting the season that some horrible act is going to either befall a player, a team, or the earth as a whole. And once you were right, you pretty much predicted the pandemic, like you finally nailed it. It is Survivor after all. Right. I mean, I have no concept with the Jeff Probst

thing. I'm going to have to go do some research. I take it as sort of a slight. It is. I was wondering if the Patriots would get as many primetime games as they used to, and the answer is yes. They got four weeks in a row of primetime games late in the season. That is ridiculous. That is

a little outrageous. I hope they're good. I do too. I think they will be. I think Mac Jones is going to be better than everyone thinks. But 13 teams have five primetime games, which is a lot. And you can end up with six if you get moved into Sunday night football. But it's 49ers, Bengals, bills, Broncos, Bucks, Chargers, Chiefs, Cowboys, Eagles, Packers, Patriots, Rams, Steelers. No huge surprise.

Probably the best chance for one of those teams to totally stink and ruin a primetime games. I'm going to go Steelers. I'm really excited that the. Chargers have five. I feel like they, I feel like they can be something special. Well, they watched the Rams win. They have that. They had so many, I talk about this nonstop on our show. They had so many, like, one-score games that they lost. Like, they were so close. Your show being bent with Beneta. No, our show. Oh, Game Day View. Everyone also should check out. Did you forget that we were on a show together for a show? No, I thought that's what you meant, but I didn't know. Game Day View, we have a schedule

release show too, which is on all sorts of streaming platforms, and we'll just be sitting there. If you want to find it on Amazon Prime or Paramount Plus. Peacock. That's on the big show, right? It'll just sit there. No, no, we're digital only, you know, for the most part.

How did so many vehicles agree to work together to air this episode? I don't know. They wanted the goods, baby. I think they needed something and they were like, well, we're not going to give you Rich Eisen and them, but we will give you this other show. And we're going to knock it out of the park. People should check that out.

That show is on NFL Network 11 p. It is. It is on tonight. Thank you, Justin. I didn't know that. And I think it's on Friday as well. I like that Lions game early. Is there any other games, though?

Mark, you suggested a segment that we could do here today. Just randomly picking games that buzz your loins. Ew. We had two. I mean, totally separate reactions. You could take that to mean what it means. I mean, if you were picking, like, one of us to use the word loins in a show, it would definitely be marked. It's like I text Greg these things, and then when the show arrives, it turns around, he turns around and uses it against me on the actual show.

What I sort of mean is it just gets you going, okay? You should be proud of your loins. I like that whole concept. And I would say this, too, Bengals at Cowboys, Week 2. They've got the Steelers in Week 1, and as I mentioned, I think people are starting just to act like the Bengals were maybe not for real last year. I love the uniform matchup, number one. But this is going to be late on CBS. You're going to get Tony Romo announcing this.

And the Bengals also closed the season against the Bengals and Ravens. So, like, for me, like, they've got a ton of exciting ones. But if they go in and take care of the Steelers and then take care of Dallas on a national stage, it's like, don't tell me the Bengals aren't legit. I love that the Bengals have five primetime games, too, by the way. And there's so many good matchups for Joe Burrow coming up. like Burrow and Brady play for the first time. Week 15.

Burrow and Josh Allen, week 17. Burrow and Tua, that's fine since they're LSU, Bama, whatever. That's week four. So that's a great one. I'm so excited about week six, Bill's Chiefs. That's like best game of the year. There's no way it's going to live up to what we want it to be. But I want 25 points in the first two minutes.

So that's how they ended the last game. It'll be 10-9. That's how this works. It will be a completely different type of game. I feel weird, like picking games at the end of the year. It makes a good point, Mark, that we don't know what's going to happen by then. Week one or two is, like, easier to get excited about. But I do kind of love the Chargers, Rams, like, battles for L.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Let's all go. I'm down. It's week 17. It's on New Year's Day. The entire slate is on New Year's Day. So you can look at that any way you want, but we could go to that. I think we should go to that.

I want to go. And one of the reasons I love it, not just because it's the Super Bowl champs and they're both entertaining and it's Herber is they sneaky don't like each other. And I don't even think it's sneaky. I don't think they like to advertise it, but it's a better sneaky don't like each other because it's not really the players. The players don't care. They like each other. It's like a sibling rivalry. It's the organizations.

It's like the team, the Rams. It's like, hey, we built a stadium. Oh, you want to come like join us? Like the Chargers, whether they like it or not, are forever going to be the Jets with the Giants when they were, like, leasing in the Giant Stadium. When it was called Giant Stadium and the Jets had to play there. That is who the Chargers are. They're the little brothers, but they look pretty good. So it's like a fun thing to imagine.

I really think that they need to kind of buy into this rivalry. In Major League Soccer, there's L Trafico. It's the Galaxy versus L-AFC. They have billboards around the city that are like crapping on each other. And it just meant you want to go and watch these games. It's like a part of L.A. versus another part of L.A. Like people for some reason hate each other even though we're all in the same city. Like it's fun.

Buy into that. More people are going to want to go to these games. I would definitely. The charges especially. It sounds like, yeah, you're buzzing, right? Sure. Is that how, I don't want to talk about my loins. I mean, it's May 12th.

What else is going to get your loins buzzing? On vacation? Bucks, bangles. is getting my loins buzzing as well. 19-year age gap, I believe. Nice. That's good. I feel like this entire schedule would be so different if Tom Brady hadn't returned

because the buccaneers are basically in every high-leverage spot that they could possibly be in. I like the TNF Lamar versus Brady, Ravens bucks. What else you got, Mark, that's buzzing your loins? I like Chargers-niners. It's a little bit more nerdy, but the idea of Kyle Shanahan versus Brandon Staley,

Justin Herbert versus maybe trade land, I just want to see what the Niners are doing a quarterback at that point. When is that? Sunday night football, week 10. I mean, that's going to have a lot of meaning. I think the Niners could be a team on the brink at that point. And the Chargers that they keep winning games like this. To your point, Rachel, I mean, they can start hanging in there

with the Rams in terms of how they're viewed. We also get a Rogers Brady week three. That's another possibility. Could be the final dance for those two? It will. I have one. We get the rematch go ahead. The Carson Wentz Revenge Tour. Yes. I love that. It stops an

Indy Week 8 and Philly Week 10. I cannot wait. I want to go to that one. That's going to be a Connie Fox on location special. Connie Fox special. I like that. That's one of those paid all by Connie Fox. Those are truly revenge games

because the Colts brass, for lack of a better word, their ownership and their general manager basically made it as clear as possible how they think just getting rid of Carson Wentz is going to save them. And he knows that and hopefully he's still the starter

by week eight. I'm not totally sure he's going to be the starter there for the entire season because it might go poorly, but I hope he lasts at least till week eight for the Colts in week 10 Eagles. I like Chiefs Bengals to week 13. I feel like that's sort of gotten slept on

as the biggest collapse since 28 to 3. One of the biggest collapses in NFL history, one of the most shocking games I've ever seen since we've been doing this job. I put that right with Seahawks Packers. As the two games to me that just stunned me the most as I was watching them,

what happened? Like the Chiefs just giving that up. People treat Bill's Chiefs as the AFC title game. And it wasn't, we all know that. And it's like, I'm with you. The Bengals scenario, what they did to Kansas City coming out of the second half, into the second half was like a epic comeback and like essentially sealed how magical the Bengals were and unstoppable. I just cannot get out of my mind during that game.

at being at Lakeisha's with you, Greg. And Lakeisha walking around the backyard, burning sage at halftime. And it was the Kansas City Chiefs. Like, it was the winningness team in the NFL over the last five years. The team I still sort of can't get over that. Rachel, you are so busy. You have so many things that you're doing. You're hosting game debut later.

You're editing some other piece. You've got the bench with Benetta podcast. I should have mentioned at the beginning of the show. that we had a special guest that's actually going to be replacing you halfway through. And his name is Patrick Claibon. I want you guys to actually be on the show together for at least like one minute because we're going to be making some history here.

They said it couldn't be done. Patrick, could you just stand with this headset for a couple minutes before Rachel leaves? And I want to make history here because they said it couldn't be done. Five headsets, five hosts at once. and I don't think you guys have ever been on a program together Rachel and Patrick we had. We had a really nice moment

at the Super Bowl where we were sitting next to each other for the very first time and I think I just looked at you and I was like Patrick you're very funny and I was like Rachel you're so funny too and I was like oh okay and if you're Greg Rosenthal

and this magical fifth headset this would have happened this is a special moment that we all got to share and it's so nice and Dan's not here That might be the best part of all of it Tough such

You know Mark and I are too smart to say things like that I'm going to stay quiet on that He's declaring vengeance on me Dan is my friend by the way We are trying to make up for how much We miss his presence By overstuffing this show I don't know if we've ever

Dan's here Mark looked over his shoulder very quickly I thought he was in Mexico last I heard But Mark was in total fear of Dan at all moments even if he's out of the country uh rachel it's been a pleasure i don't know if you have any final thoughts but um we loved having you here and we'll we have you back on i know there's been some tension you weren't happy with uh the oath that justin took as our podcast producer did you guys talk that out yet we tried to and i'm so sorry i talked over your intro song that's what

i was trying to get out i mean i was trying to get it out right right away we're here you know life life is too short to be having i will only let me make me make this proclamation right now. I'm only ever coming back on the show of Dan's not here. Wow. Wow. And you can tell him that. And you can tell him that. I thought this would be a nice way to quickly squash that. Because, you know, we have enough beefs. Like, Daniel Jeremiah and the

little show that he is just started. Like, that's enough beef in my life. I don't need anymore. Isn't that a hint to you guys, though, that maybe you need to work on yourselves if you guys have all of these beefs? Oh my gosh. I am on Not worried about that. Welcome in, Patrick. Okay, here's your seat.

Thanks for having me, guys. We're going to be more introspective as we get older. Clay, but I don't want you to sit the whole show. You should take Rachel's seat. That'll just make everyone feel uncomfortable. Bye, Banana. One thing I thought about with Patrick here is that he is such a versatile co-host. He always just sits in for the whole show.

He's just another host, just like you, Colleen. You're just another host on the around the NFL podcast. But there's never like a Claibon-themed segment. Back in the day, there was. It was like your tweets. It was trash-takes. Oh, my God, I forgot about that. Literally like six years ago.

Whoa. A golden segment. No, it was a great segment. But this day where I thought, oh, hey, we got a lot of people in here. Maybe Claibon, he's busy at the news desk. At least I thought he was. And was only going to pop in for 15 minutes. I thought, we got to do a Claibon-themed segment.

I don't even know what this segment is. He's surprising me with it, but it's some sort of list of games where Claibon prepared, and I'm excited. And let's do it right after a break. That's what the host has to do. I mean, you're making me look bad, Justin Graver. You can just like, fuck me that or text me that. You probably did, but I've ignored it. You need it to jump in.

Let's do that, Claybone by you, a segment after this break. I'm Drew Franklin, and this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining.

And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. All right, we're back. You just fast-forwarded through all those ads because you just wanted to get to this Claibon break in this Claibon segment.

What are you treating us with here? These are games that will be incredible on the Twitter.com. Okay. Maybe not on paper, but we don't care about paper. Paper isn't real. Tweets are real. It's a construct. Yes.

I like that you're leaning into it because when I think of NFL games and NFL Twitter, I think Patrick Claibon, a very active, a volume shooter, as they would say. It does land and I appreciate that.

Okay. Because that is me. I will start, I guess we'll go in the order of days because that makes sense. Yeah, chronological. September 18th, the commanders take on the lions.

Okay, wow. And nothing gets the juices going on the bird app. like a quarterback who's not good and is not having a lot of success that has been a part of conversations for a really long time. And if Carson Wince goes to the meltdown land, like the self-destruction land that he finished last season with against the Jacksonville Jaguars,

it'll be bad for the commanders. Of course, it'll be bad for Carson Wins. It'll be great for Twitter. I think it will make tweeters fun, especially those that have the predilection that Colleen does, right? That's when I stop my, like, I'm basically on Twitter strike most days. And then I come out and then I become a volume shooter just in like a two-hour span. And then I do a blackout again.

The sneaky story here is like Wentz, watching Wentz and maybe the commanders not do well. And look, they haven't had a likable offseason as an organization or likable last couple of decades, really. So it makes sense, but it sounds like people are ready to root against that. And that could be lions coming off hard knocks, maybe coming off a home win, against the Eagles and maybe going for a two and o record. Your one concern is that it's buried on Fox at 1 p.m. Eastern. So I'm not sure it's a national movement, but maybe you're turning it into that.

Well, what you hadn't considered, though, Mark, is what Carson Wentz is planning to do when he arrives in Washington, which could get the entire nation talking. As we all know, I'm excited to really go ahead and start to take command. Oh, no. The punash, my favorite drop.

Actually, yes. Start two in week two. All right, game two. All right, let's go to game two. We'll go to the Jets and the Steelers. And it's perhaps the same premise because it's early. And we might still be getting Mitch at this point in a huge game at home. And remember the Thanksgiving game a few years back where Mitch is throwing screens and slants against the Cowboys?

And everybody was like, oh, he's back, baby. This is the Mitch that was promised. I think it would be hilarious and spectacular and great and good and everything we need to get the timeline going. A little Trubisky fun. Clayvon, I love this so much. You are beaming. You are absolutely choosing games that Claibon will be on fire about, and I don't know about the rest of America.

Wait, which game was this again? A week four. We got week four. Steelers, October 2nd. Jets and Steelers. Yeah. I wonder, the Jets schedule here early. The Jets, I feel like people would be into the Jets if they could get interesting this year.

The belief, right? You hear it. They believe. And, you know, should they? I don't know. There's a lot of AFC North teams and fans. I think that would be happy to see the Steelers completely collapse. Well, it's time.

Do you think it's going to happen? No, because that's not really their DNA. I mean, what is a collapse? Like, they missed the playoffs. Winning, like, five games or something. I think it's equally possible. They're starting with Bengals, Patriots, at Browns. Let's say they're 1 and 2 or 0 and 3 going into that Jets game.

And in Claibon's right. Trubisky's throwing some bad passes, and they're, staring at one and three. They're trailing at a half time. I could see it. Trubisky could vibe losing his job in week one to Kenny Pickett, though. I might take Pickett to win week one. He could.

And it depends on the philosophy and how they go about that. But it's just the chance. Just the chance that it might happen. And even though it's buried in the same with the first game, right? If somebody throws a left-handed interception or does something wacky, then it's good. We're going to see the video and people are going to make jokes, and it's just good. People are watching Red Zone anyways. I will get more.

If people think I'm being negative, let's get more positive on October 9th. Tottenham Hot Spur Stadium, the Giants and the Packers. Yeah, that's good. Well, I will get personal because if I'm lucky enough to do Game Day Live for another year, it's three and a half hours every single Sunday where I don't really get to live tweet games. Like I don't get to go into the trance. You're busy. Or like on primetime games where I'm dual-wielding children and I have to try to get Cocoa Mellon going, right?

Right. You're on air as the games are on hosting the show, so that's impossible. What is Cocoa Mellon? Consider yourself lucky that you don't know You don't know It sends small people into a trans-like state That allows you to... Is it a cocktail you give them?

No, no, it's a YouTube thing. It's a video. Which is a cocktail in a way? But when they are asleep And along with the rest of the world And I can sneak into the garage And really go into Twitter And watch a game and live tweet it

That is special And I know that there's probably A whole bunch of other parents On the West Coast That would really look forward to that opportunity. And so I think that's a great Twitter day, a nationally, nationally, globally televised.

We'll make it the entire Milky Way. It's a picture of. Multiple galaxy giants. We got a picture of Sagittarius A-Star earlier today, right? They have a photograph of the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Maybe it's the biggest game in the galaxy at that time, right? Even though time is relative. This is where, you know, I often say Claibon is too smart for the job he has.

And once again. Is this still around the NFL podcast? I'll save it for the Spacetime podcast. But seriously, it's a good opportunity to take it back to my late 20s and live tweet of a football game. Claibon time, I think that sounds valuable to us and to you. I think Giants could be more watchable this year. I've thought this for a few years and I've been wrong because I think Daniel Jones has a watchable couple of seasons in his career in him. I think he's a relatively entertaining player if he was in the right system.

and it doesn't get much more right than Brian Dable and spreading out the field. And all these, he's got like four slot receivers. I don't know how that's going to work. Cadarious Tony Sterling Sharp, Wondale Robinson. It's like,

and there's no one really on the outside. There's Goladay. But I think they're just going to throw the ball like 60 times a game. Throw it to Sequin. It's in Tottenham, one of our favorite places to go. Maybe we'll be at this game, Mark.

Maybe, maybe you too. Pack me in your suitcase. Okay. This time, maybe you can come. Maybe you can pull it off. Maybe I'm going to strap myself. You're usually busy traveling all around the country, so you're a hard person to get,

but maybe we can get you for this one. Okay. This would be a good one. Get Colleen to Tottenham. That's it. Maybe not in a suitcase. Like, you could just go as a human being in a ticket. You could put me in the overhead.

Claiborne is speaking. I don't know why you keep suggesting these scenarios, but. As an adult, like a parent here, because you're right, the 6.30 a.m. game as I've gotten older, is like, actually, I enjoy that game. I'm happy to wake up for that game. It's quiet in the house. I'm totally with you.

At first, I was like, oh, you know, like I was, you know, it was almost like showing your professionalism by waking up for the beginning of Bengals Dolphins there. But now I'm totally into it. There's no other games that are that quiet and, like, you can just watch football. It's like Christmas morning. You get an opportunity to really, to really enjoy something.

It kind of cuts into my sleep schedule a little bit, so it's fine. Colleen has never watched the first half of a London game. That is for sure. You can be real about that. All right. Game four. Also, on October 9th, after. maybe people have gotten rested up.

The Seahawks visiting the New Orleans Saints. It's a matchup that we don't get to see a whole lot. And similar theme, Drew Locke in the dome against a really good defense. Drewlock. What's wrong with you? What do you mean? It might be bad.

It might also be funny. And it's not that I'm against these guys in any way. I want to see people who are good at football have success. I can't help that it's really funny when people at the quarterback position continue to get chances, and they continue to be bad. So all I can really do is point out that, hey, this is funny, and this is also really bad. It may be... So the train racks, basically.

And then, in theory, somebody else can get the job. Well, maybe James Winston on the other side. So, I mean, there's a lot of leeway for collisions and problems. Yeah, it could be chaotic, which is always good, always great for the timeline. And this Saints defense could be about the hardest matchup possible. I think people just think they're... going to be mediocre this year for some reason, even though their defense is loaded. They start off with Marioada, by the way, in week one.

Like, that's a tough week one. Then you get the Tom Brady game where it's the only team that stops Tom Brady. Then you get Sam Darnold potentially in week three. This Saints team and defense could be cooking. Then they go to Tottenham. And yeah, that Seahawks game, by the way, a rematch of some good playoff matchups and heartbreak, really, for the New Orleans Saints. Revenge. We like revenge.

Leibon's chaos is great. The beast quake game. That was a tough one. All right. And then finally, number five. Finally, we have Thanksgiving Day. The Patriots visiting the Minnesota Vikings. And this one is circumstantial as well. By the third game on Thanksgiving, everyone is lathered up. People have had their nap, presumably. People have eaten. They've probably imbibed some substances. The phone batteries have died and been recharged. People are at their best for that final game on Thanksgiving. I feel like we've gotten some duds.

They look good on paper, but they've been blowouts. The Saints game last year was terrible. We need the last game. Not necessarily to be the best game. Probably the middle game is a game we want to hold our attention because it's competing with so many things. But that last game, let's relax. Let's talk about random stuff and also football at the same time.

And kind of appreciate the spectacle that dominates our lives. You don't need the third one. Right. You don't need to be overly complex, though. No, no. You just need like... Remember the Steelers Ravens game where it was like, I was covering that, and it was like the one... Hey, I'm Mike Tom, I'm going to run out on the field, and like, there's going to live on Bells going to get like a dangerous concussion at the end. It was like, there are 18 spinoff stories. We don't need that Thanksgiving night. So this is actually the ninth annual spectacular, but another anniversary is this is actually the ninth straight schedule release extravaganza that Mark has mentioned that game.

And I know that. I know that for a fact because on the way to work this morning, I decided to crank up our, I think it was our first ever extravaganza. It was back in 2014, and you did bring up that game on that extravaganza. It had been the previous Thanksgiving, and you've brought it up ever since. There was also a great moment. I'm just going to play it now. I was thinking of playing it after the show, but I want to hear it now,

where the name of this very show, where we are talking, first came into being and was first decided. Just a little piece of around the NFL history. Let's listen to it. This is a very special, very special around the league podcast. It is the, let's see, what are we going to call it? It is the scheduled release special. Bonanza.

Sounds good. Bananza. It's extravaganza. What do we like, bonanza or extravaganza? Extravaganza. Extravaganza. It is the schedule. Release Extrava Bonanza

That doesn't mean the same thing It is the scheduled release extravaganza So that's live workshopping, that's podcasting at its best And it's always great We don't plan these shows No, you can see that It's always great in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio to hear his voice.

I was looking for like a clip where West just ranted about how much he hated the schedule release show. And at one point, I almost prompted him to it saying how much he hated writing about the schedule release. And instead he just went on a rant about how bad the recent Superman was and totally didn't answer it. Which was very West. Very West.

I recommend it if for some reason you're a big fan of the show, go back. That was a fun one. Gold Standard. It was our producer. I will say in Wes's honor that doing these shows for schedule release is the most annoying thing of the entire year

because we can't get our hands on the information until like basically right before we do the show and we have to beg people and sometimes like side text people and promise them that we won't tell anyone that we got the schedule but we need the schedule to actually do a show talking about

the schedule. And that person who you're requesting that from is under fire from the employer, our company, that if you do share, you're essentially fired. So you're putting them in a tight spot. But you're a preparation person. So you're also. I feel like though it's a sign of where we are. Like we, our jobs are easier, frankly, than they were nine years ago. We were having to make a content plan and write all this stuff and do all this stuff. And you're right. We were begging and borrowing and stealing. Now I know the person to go to. I'm not going to say it out. I just, you know, you just walk up, you ask a few days before, and we had, Mark and I had it, no problem. Well, in advance, it was the easiest year.

I don't know why they be keeping. You get people. You get with us and you get it and it's all. Which is more of a statement on your acuity. That's what I'm saying. To manage the system as opposed to like when it's Colleen's actual job to release the schedule, but they don't release the schedule to Colleen. There were a couple years, like years ago where I would be like frantic and I would. would be basing my notes off of leaks on Twitter.

And I'm like, the show is in like two hours and I still don't have the schedule. Like, how am I going to do a show? That is slightly hostile on the part of the producers for you. A little stressful. Yeah, that is absolutely ridiculous. We've done this so long, though, that I've heard every schedule release take that there have been. And I've actually had every schedule release take that there've been.

Like, you go through the cycle of it. It's like, at first you think you're clever for being like, hey, they're, there's They're not even announcing the games. You already know this schedule. They're just announcing the order of it. Like, okay, everyone's already said that. We know that. Then there's the other side.

Then there's the response, which is like, well, fans schedule, they're planning around it. They do travel. And so it's very exciting. And I agree with that too. Now I just accept it. I accept the fact that the NFL is so powerful that this is even a thing. And that's ultimately going to pay for my kids to go to college. Yeah, they're prestige and the power of the NFL.

Take it. This day proves it. It is largely meaningless, but I do think probably there are hotels all over the place where the phone lines are blowing up when you find out what Green Bay's schedule is. I love schedule release day. It's my favorite. My kids are so into it. That's how I know.

Weren't you when you were young as a fan, though? I was. Big time. I don't think it wasn't nearly the same thing, but whenever it was, like, you probably got it in the newspaper the next day. USA Today or something. But, yeah, that was extremely exciting. But, yeah, my kids want to, like, write down everything.

They were looking for leaks. from me. I gave them like a couple this morning. I was like, don't tell the kids at school. That it's Bill's Rams, week one. Well, if there's a bubbling up in the Santa Monica school system of what we know what's going on with the Rams schedule, we know where that came from. Right. Raj is like looking

at a Twitter account of some nine-year-old in Santa Monica that breaks this news. I'm in trouble. All of us, you're just silent there. We didn't tell our kids. I didn't tell my kids. I told them one game and I made them promise. Well, one game is no different than 50. Like you broke the seal. And Ellis is super smart.

So she could take that one game and extrapolate probably the rest of the schedule. She's leaked it to the Times. Do we have any other things we want to go over here? Maybe like the revenge games. We hit some Carson Wentz. I saw the Matt Patricia versus the Lions game. Week five.

There's no one that Lions fans hate more than Matt Patricia. So if I was a Lions fan, I would find it very annoying if Matt Patricia is getting a lot of love by then as some offensive genius that has helped. helping Mac Jones get to another level. I don't think that's a likely scenario, but that's one of many possible scenarios.

Especially when you consider that the winningest coach in the franchise's last 40 years was fired specifically because Matt Patricia was going to come in and take the next step in the franchise cratered and they had to start over from scratch with the tight-ins coach. How about this one? Like this got on my radar, Yonik and Gokwey, who is now with the cults.

And like you think, oh, well, you know what? He got traded away. Like, he's for the Raiders. He's with his old defensive coordinator. He should be happy. No, his quote was, they'll see how I feel when we play them. We go to their house. They'll see why they've f***ed up.

They'll pay. Whoa. That's a revenge game. A lot of these revenge games are nonsense. But how about Doug Peterson also going to Philadelphia? What about Mike McCarthy going to Green Bay for the first time? When is that? It could be under fire at that point, too.

Week 10. Yeah, in Green Bay. He's under fire right now. True. That is a great one because I know that. I do love Doug Peterson, too. The Packers haven't gotten. What does he say?

What is his little clip? Who? I'm annoyed now. I would play that on loop in Philadelphia over and over while he's trying to do this job. I love that Ingaquay thing, too, because it's kind of like, you traded me for Rock Yassin, bro? Yeah, genuinely, he seems highly annoyed. I'm pissed off, Angelo. That's it.

I'm pissed off, Angelo. We've got Bobby Wagner against the Seahawks a couple different times. He mentioned specifically he was going to be ready for that. game, more excited for that week. What else do we got? How about, I don't want this revenge, but I'd just like to see how it goes down. Josh McDaniels versus Bill Belichick, Week 15, Sunday night football Raiders, Patriots. And McDaniels already has a win as a head coach over Belichick.

It is, right? It is pumping his little fist running across the chest. I remember that. That was pretty much the high point of the McDaniels era. It is wild, as you mentioned, Mark, that the Patriots have four prime. Prime Time games in a row. It's that Thanksgiving game. We should have mentioned they get the bills the next week in primetime.

They always do that thing where two teams that played on Thanksgiving, then get the Thursday night game the next week. It's usually the Cowboys. It's usually in a big spot. It's like December 1st. It's week 13. It's like right at the height of the season. This time it's going to be Bill's Pats.

That's pretty good. Then it's at Arizona on Monday Night Football. And then, yeah, the Raiders that you mentioned. I did notice in general, and I don't want to get us in trouble here, but I thought the Thursday night prime video schedule was not as – Not a lot of juice. Not as juicy as the Fox Thursday night schedule was. And that's why you need to embrace alternate means of enjoying a football game if things get bad,

if things get a little sideways. Don't be that guy that's like, oh, Thursday night football again. Like you're not watching anything else. Like law and order. There's only so much you can watch. That's why there's, I think that's why there's 13 teams with five primetime games. That's more than ever. It ties for the most ever, like last year there was said.

It's spread out. I actually like that better because the more it's spread out, the more you have some teams that are popping up that you haven't seen a ton of. And hopefully you don't have like the 20-21 bears who are like in prime time. Thankfully, the bears are only in three times. I'll take it. Three times in six weeks, though. And it's like, to me that that stood out as a little bit obscene. Justin Fields could make them, if you have a good quarterback or an interesting quarterback, you could be interested.

The Eagles also have the most home primetime games. They have four, so I'm not pissed off about that, Angelo. And then also a couple other things that I looked at, weeks 9 and 14 are going to kill fantasy teams. Each of those weeks, six teams are on by. And then this was interesting that the Packers, Steelers, Texans, and Texans, and, Titans each face two teams on their schedule that are coming off-bys. And the Packers, Titans and Steelers, like, they aren't easy teams. I think the Packers probably have it the worst because they face the bills and the

Cowboys who both will be coming off-bys. The Titans have the Chiefs and the Broncos off-bys. So those, Steelers have the Eagles and Bengals. I mean, that's tough with the Bengals. But that's not easy. Those teams kind of got screwed. I never like that. You never like the team that gets.

stuck on the road the first couple of weeks. I hate that. Or if you have any three game road trips, that's bad. I looked and I did not see any. We didn't mention the Christmas Day games, by the way. We have a triple header on Christmas. Packers, Dolphins is the first one. Then the Broncos Rams, which we had talked about, Russell Wilson here.

I've gotten word back from my kids. They don't want to go to football on Christmas. They do not. No. But they could go on New Year's Day, though. I was like, I brought it up. I thought it'd be cool. That's fine.

They had so much fun going Christmas week last year to Rams Seahawks. But they both were like, no, we want to stay home the whole day and play with their toys. And I was like, okay, that totally makes sense. I want to do that too. I just thought it'd be like a one-time thing. And it's like it'd be unique. Like, you're only going to go to one Christmas Day game probably ever if you're here. Like, I just thought, but no, they're not.

New Year's Day, though. That's perfect. And then Buck's Cardinals is the NBC game. They're doing a Sunday night football game on Christmas. they're really trying to ruin our families. Speaking of the Cardinals, they buried them, and this had to be DeAndre Hopkins-centric, but they bury them

I think six, seven weeks in a row at 1 p.m. out of the gate. And then they play, they have a tough finish. They have a bunch of backed-up primetime games at the year, but their final five games, and we know what they do at the end of the season under Cliff Kingsbury historically include the Patriots, Broncos,

bucks, and 49ers. I just don't love that for them. I mean, they're going to have to reverse field and finish as strong as possible. I think when you're trying to do like hardest schedules, easy schedules, it's really, this is the part that Wes hated was it's impossible ahead of time. I think the best way to do it, though, is probably just look at which divisions play which divisions. You could kind of look at like the Vegas overunders.

That makes more sense than the strength of schedule we usually put out on NFL network. But to me, there's a commonality of all the hard schedules. If you're in the AFC East, you've got a very tough out-of-division schedule. in general. So if you're trying to be an up-and-coming team, like the Jets or Dolphins, like I think it's a little tougher than it would have been. And then I think the two Western divisions are very difficult just because they're playing each other.

And outside of the division, it's a pretty tough schedule too. So I feel like the AFC East, AFC West and NFC West, if you're any of those teams, to me it seems pretty tough. AFC West has like 19 primetime games too. Right. Which is the most in the Super Bowl era for any division. Whoa. And the dolphins, to your point, you're Mike McDonough,

Daniel, you're a different dolphins team. Out of the gate, you have the Patriots, Ravens, Bills, Bengals. And then late in the year, between week 13 and 15, three straight road games against the 49ers, chargers, and bills. That feels like an arrow to the forehead. All people really want to see is some sort of progress. I mean, of course, wins and losses ultimately matter. But if you have a tough schedule and you're competitive,

hopefully franchises don't bail on new coaches. I think that happens all the time, that people end up getting fired or hired based on, like, if they got a little lucky from the schedule. On the flip side, do you guys have any easy schedules that stand out to you? Anything? I think the AFC South in general pretty easy because, again, they get to play each other. Like, you'd rather be the culture of the Titans because then you get four games against the Jaguars. And they're out of division schedule doesn't look too tough to me.

NFC North gets to, I don't think that's that tough a division in general. And you get to play the AFC South out of division. So I like that. And the NFC East in general, I think those are the easier ones. Yeah, I think Tampa and New Orleans made out with a very successful year with what's going on in Carolina and then being good teams as well. Of course, that means they have to deal with each other, but you get two on the other side.

And I think that that makes things easy. And with the Saints, the one thing that kind of stood out to me was week seven, they play the Cardinals in, I think, a primetime game. It's a Thursday night game. And that should be the first game that DHOP is back off suspension. So that has a little bit of fun. A little bad luck there. So one of the first things I did while we're talking suspensions looking at the schedule is like,

okay, what do they do with the Browns? Because I was just curious if they were going to strategize around Watson's potential suspension. But I didn't really have that takeaway. My bigger takeaway just from a football angle was their schedule is loaded up with their easiest games on paper early. and that could be advantageous to the Browns. I don't know if that was intentional, but they open at Panthers, home for jets. Then you do have a primetime game.

So if you were a conspiracy theorist, they're not hiding the Browns there in week three while Watson could be suspended. That might be Jacoby Brissette. Well, that's where you'd want them to play. You don't want to have to talk about Deshaun Watson. So I think if anything, that's when you want the primetime game. That's a good point.

And then they're at Atlanta. After that, their schedule, like the rest of the division, I think is extremely challenging. but that is the easiest four-game stretch of the year for the Browns, and it might line up exactly with Deshaun Watson's suspension, but we have no idea. I do find it like... The longer this goes, the more I'm concerned the NFL is not going to do anything about this.

Right. I find it confusing that the league would cater to the Cleveland Browns because they were the team that went and got to Sean Watson and trying to give them cupcakes while he's suspended. Yeah, I think there's so many possible permutations of the schedule that we could draw any kind of conclusion, right, based on how we want to view it. Claiborne, why do you have the cord

wrapped around your neck of the headset? He does this on a frequent basis. So if it were to fall off, it wouldn't fall far. And you're tugging on the cord. Well, the thing is, the West clip made me think of how much Chris hated the whole pin the thing behind your head. Yes.

So it just makes me think, like, let's make this as ridiculous as possible. well, let's drape this entire court. It's just not a good image. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. We are big Claibon fans. It's distributed. You're right that we probably shouldn't read too much into it.

But I think you can absolutely read into that they only have two primetime games. What's what I'm saying? In a world where Deshawn Watson just got traded there and he had never been accused of all of his sexual assault and misconduct, the Browns would be in primetime five times. Absolutely. It would be a premier team. So the other prime time game is in week. gate. We don't know if Watson will be back by then necessarily either. That's

against the Bengals. But yeah, that was really surprising. They are at 1 p.m. 15 times. This schedule... More than any team, I think, other than the Lions. This looks like Cleveland's schedule during the 18 years that they'd win about four games a season. Yeah. And hopefully, right,

there was no decision made by anybody that would try to hide from facilitating a conversation around sexual violence. I mean, I think that's absolutely... Because, I mean, we should do that anyway. We should do that regardless of whether Deshaun Watson is playing football. But hopefully it's just, you know, there's so many scheduled permutations. And if this was Baker Mayfield, then he would be like, oh, this is a personal offense.

They don't want us. Nobody believes in us. I'm Baker Mayfield, yeah. But like instead, you know, this, maybe he'll get traded. Wow. So we get a Baker. Baker is going to join the Panthers. He's going to beat the Browns in week one.

Then we're going to have the Sessler-Hansis Bowl. And Zach Wilson's going to beat the Browns in, in week two. Right. Same for the fact, Greg, that I'm not a Browns fan anymore.

I know. I'm not. Now you're going to actually, I don't know if you'll enjoy it, but it's not going to bother you like it normally would. And then they would be 0 and 2 heading to the Steelers

on Thursday night in week three. That would be a tough situation. And the football gods, maybe they would be speaking there. But that's too much of a downer to go out on. Let's go out on something positive. Colleen just say something positive. The pilot landing the plane that had no experience.

How about that? Yeah, shout out to that guy. That guy was incredible. It was a single-engine Cessna flying from the Bahamas to Florida. And this guy gets on the air traffic control radio and is like, we have a serious problem here. Our pilot is incapacitated. And the air traffic controller was like, Roger, what's your position? And the guy was like, I have no idea.

I don't know how to fly a plane. I don't know any of this. And they ended up, the guy who was controlling the traffic was also a flight instructor. and he literally talked him through landing the plane and he landed it like beautifully. When did this happen? This happened yesterday. You were breaking the news to me. That is an exciting story.

And you have been a pilot before. People don't know this. I'm a student pilot. And my dad's a flight instructor and an air traffic controller. So this took about a half hour away of my morning where I was supposed to be looking over the schedule. But I was like, wait, he did what? I need to hear the audio. I need to see the video.

Who is this guy? That's amazing. like yeah so pretty impressive of course my brain is so ruined the first thing i thought was oh well they were ferrying some sort of illegal material and the deal got bad in mid-air this person knocks the other person out and then feigns ignorance to the entire experience of flying in order to escape the authority that feels that's so highly possible everything you just said like it just is uh mark any any final thoughts uh the only thing that i would like to see outside of football i mean if that's where we're going, is what if we had, like, a scheduled release on Earth where, like,

you find out on, like, January 1st for, like, 2023, like, holy shit, like, Halloween's on June 6 this year. Or, like, Christmas is on March 9th. Like, we, not every year, but, like, one year where we, like, that's the only thing that could be bigger than what the NFL has created. If it went down and just affected all of us. I love it. I'm changing my birthday this year, so that works. Keep people on their toes. Never let them know where you're going.

Right. I, that was so beautiful that we need to make that an episode. I'd at least do a schedule release of like our podcast and maybe our world, we could release some dates for what's coming up. I think that is a million dollar idea. We're not going to top that. We could get a sponsor for that. I think we should go out on that. Graver, your Titans are not in prime time, five-time maximum.

So that gives your team another thing to complain about. The Titans Twitterverse will be on fire, no doubt. But they're in there plenty. This has been a dense slice of heaven Go Sixers Would say Game Six Go Celtics Friday night

Thank you Patrick for coming in For tag it in Thank you to Rachel Benetta Yeah Colleen Wolfe Mark Sessler We'll see you next week He'd the call

All of this makes sense I am on board with it Look you want You want to race to the schedule And find out your road trips Plan all that Put a W and L next to every team

on your schedule, I get all of that. Just don't ask me to analyze it five months. There's no analysis necessary. Just enjoy the schedule being released. All right. This is an I-Heart podcast.