NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Asking the Big Bay Questions with MJ Acosta

Episode Date: June 27, 2019

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal are joined by NFL Network reporter MJ Acosta to bring you all of the latest news around the NFL including the Bengals losing their first pick and Panthers on "All or Nothing". The heroes address all major questions about the bay area football with BAE expert, MJ to close the show.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 needs to take a vacation. Oh, my God, yes. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined in a room filled with heroes. Chris Wessling to my left, Rick Rosenthal to my right. What's up? Hey, Dan.

Boys. And a very special guest, as teased. on Monday's show her first time here in Studio 66 NFL Network's own MJ Acosta. Welcome. Oh, thanks, guys.

I didn't think I was going to make it. Whoa, what a journey it's been. We're taping this. One of the latest shows we've ever done on a non-football playing night, probably the latest. This is history. But that's how badly we wanted

Acosta in the studio. That's, I mean, think about that. Also, you already teased it. Yeah, we were kind of locked in. It's next level professionalism to come straight from the airport. though. That is a level that, you know, frankly, many of your colleagues wouldn't do. I'm all in.

And let's also, MJ, delayed flight comes straight here, and she's dealing with airport stuff. Your most recent tweet, as of this taping, I will never understand people who yell at a gate agent because the flight is delayed. What exactly do you think your temper tantrum will do to help the situation? Hashtag rude frowny face. There was a literal three-year-old right next to him, so well-behaved. Waiting patiently, and this grown man had to go just like berate this gate agent who had just walked up. She probably didn't even know that the flight was delayed. This is good, though, because usually, again, as someone that works in television for sports, usually we're used to on Twitter, Greg, like people tweeting, oh, hey, United, you really screwed the pooch on this one.

Maybe you could help me out. No, no. That's not what MJ does. Here, let everyone else know your problems. That will solve it. MJ is more putting people on blast that are just inappropriate. There was no reason. This poor woman was standing there.

And to her credit, he walked away and she's like, I'm sorry you're having a bad day, sir. That's a better human than that. That's similar to the person who goes crazy on the waiter or waitress when it's not the waiter, if it's not the waiter or waitress's fault. And they're giving you fine service, but they just take it out of them. That's the number one red flag for me if you're dating someone. They are rude.

Yeah, how they treat service people is the number one. You know what that is. What's that? La Raville. It is, absolutely. Magnifico. La Raville. Perfect.

What grinds my gears the most is I'm a father of two young boys who were babies not very long ago. And we have to fly across the country a lot because my family lives in New York. And what happens is sometimes the babies get upset and they cry. the people get mad at the parents because the baby is having a rough little stretch, which I understand it. I've been on the other side of it that you're just trying to get, you're in a small

two. There's no one who wants the baby's call more than the baby's parents. And then I still people on Twitter, always without kids of course, to this day they're like, oh, I hate people who bring babies on airplanes. You don't leave a kid behind unattended. You're a monster. Someday you too will have children.

You too. I feel bad for those kids. that's the truth MJ Acosta in the house MJ you have a great backstory we're going to get to a lot including that we're going to get what are we going to do it today MJ NFL network

about a year now almost almost a year man it comes out you quick yeah so you cover the Bay Area teams the Niners and the Raiders other stuff too but primarily there so we figured on today's show we're going to ask the big questions about Bay Area football

and I'm holding in my left hand old school NFL helmet. I stole it off someone's desk. It's very quiet at NFL media right now. Yeah, I borrowed it. We know Andy Fenelon doesn't listen to this podcast anymore, but I'm going to call it out. I hope to remember to return it.

But if I don't, I'm holding it. Inside it is questions. We've all written questions about the Raiders and about the Niners. We're going to go around the horn picking questions at random and answering them. That's going to be fun. We're going to do some news as well. well but before we get to that yes mj you have a great story i did i just learned this by the way that you are a new york city native yeah um like mannie ramirez who we brought up someone recently

um also uh you uh are a yankees fan which is great totally a yankee as i and you're known for your great hair as well like me so we got this really a lot a lot in common right now uh but yeah a great story and um and you kind of uh you got into sports, but you kind of did it at your own pace, right? It wasn't something that you aspired to initially. It took a while to get there. Your family was from the Dominican Republic, New York. They moved to for better life.

You end up in Miami, and then your journey kind of begins after a stint as a Miami Dolphins cheerleader as well. It was in tandem, actually, with my time with the Dolphins, because I was already a sports reporter at a time I finally made the team, because I tried out for the Dolphins like five times. Really? Yes. We're jumping in the fish tank. That's good.

So it's a pretty lengthy process to become an NFL shooter for most teams. It's like three weeks of like auditions on camp and interviews and all this stuff. And so every year that I'd try out, I'd make it all the way to finals and get cut right before. Soul crashing. Oh, man. Five times. So after my fourth audition, I was like, you know what? Let me focus on school.

At that point I had finally figured out that journalism and broadcasting is what I wanted to pursue. I went in, finished my degree, started working, and there was just this little tug that said, man, if you don't try this, at least one time, you're going to hate yourself. And sure enough, winner, winner, chicken. You got it. On the fifth try.

And so it was interesting because. So who do we have to blame? Joe Philbin? Parcells? No, it was what it was. It's hyper competitive in Miami. There's a million talented, beautiful women. It's really hard to make that team.

It's similar, you know, all of the directors, I worked with were former Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. So they kind of ran it, the audition process anyway, very similar to how they did in Dallas. So it was like, you had hundreds of thousands of women come out every year. It's really tough. What's like one thing that people wouldn't know about being a professional cheerleader that you could share with us? Oh, man. So I always like to say it's a part-time job with full-time responsibilities.

I was working full-time as a reporter and then running on. over to the facility at night and we'd practice four hours a night, four to five times a week. I was in the best shape of my life by default, right? But I think it's the time commitment. How long you're actually there, how much time you're putting into it, the hours upon hours of practice with these other women, it's really, really taxing. Did you find that wasn't an advantage at all as a reporter that people almost took you too lightly? It's like, okay, now you arrived and much like you've done here at the NFL network, you've, you know,

stomped on all your competition, jumped to the top of the ladder, and now you're going to the top. Made enemies everywhere. It doesn't matter. It doesn't go to the top. In one sense. I mean, just that they knew you were doing the cheerleading thing while you were being a reporter. Oh, right.

Well, yeah. There was that, like, I can't take her seriously. And to that, I'd say I'm so over the narrative that you can't be feminine and fom and equally intelligent and qualified to your job. I mean, I was a Dolphins cheerleader, and I had the best seat in the house for every home game. So I, you know, I recently told the story. It was interesting on game days to be on the sidelines and your role is to cheer on the team no matter what, right? That was our job. So it's really tough for me as like a football person to not react to like a bad call or, you know, like

oh, you're not going to call that. And, you know, just smile there. So that took a bit of a learning curve. Really like the whole Chad Henny era, I would feel like would be tough. We have a lot of listeners who are college to age and work. wonder about getting into sports if it's worth it how to go about doing it but we also have listeners in their mid to late 20s who are thinking is it too late to get into sports and i think the four of us on this show and you share this in common you didn't know at 18 years old that you wanted to do this absolutely not i was a business major at 18 years old and i'm not very good at math which is why i speak for a living um but i it took me some time and a lot of trial and error and

a lot of ELs to figure out that this was my path. And actually, my love for dance was what finally led me to a job in television. And that's when it was like that epiphany. Wow, I really loved this. And I'd go in and I'd head up to Master Control and I'd talk to the producers. And I'd just ask the hosts while they were getting their makeup done, like, hey, can I pick your brain a little bit? And at that point, I was probably 23, 24.

Still hadn't finished, you know, I had an associate's degree, but that was it. So at 25, I went back to finish my bachelor's and, you know, all of my other peers in journalism were already in their first media markets, you know? And I'm like, oh, I'm trying to finish this media law class and pass it. But you know what? It gave me so much more of an appreciation for the process for what I was doing. I was not wasting time at that point. I was like, how many credits do I need? I need to go.

And I was, I think because I was a little older and had that perspective, I was able to get a job before. I graduated, about a semester or two before I graduated, and I was kind of balancing all of it at the same time, which was interesting. But it's like once you know and you're set on it, but there was no way at 18, I would have known that. That would be the only advice that I would ever give to anybody, like we have younger listeners that reach out to us is that especially, you know,

certainly in my case, in all of our cases, you don't have to figure out everything in your 20s. You actually have that decade to kind of eventually get on a path. So never stress out if you're 23, 24, 24. And relax, you don't need to know. You got a lot of time. The next move that you make or the next decision you make isn't like for the rest of your life. Try different things.

It's always going to change. Just like MJ did, who ended up in San Diego, covered the Chargers. And now here she is an NFL network. And in the studio at the Around the NFL podcast, now you've reached the pinnacle. That's it. This was the coal, man. Let's do some news. Coach Belichick would probably say something like, you know, we're not on the program of making these kind of things right now.

You know, it's National Football League. This isn't Hollywood. That's pretty good. That's amazing. The deep exhales in between. He really nailed it because he did the nose snore at the end where he sucks in. And that's like everyone who has a Belichick impression. does it wrong, just kind of does this monotone.

It's Edelman forever now. Well, I'm just saying that was pretty good. Also, if you're trying to place a Belichick impression, do break out your old Christian Slater impression, which is not far off. All right, let's get into the news, and we'll start with some bad news for a franchise West that bad news always seems to follow them.

The Cincinnati Bengals, first round pick Jonah Williams, will likely miss the entire 2019 season. This is a guy that was slated to be the team's starting left tackle, picked 11th overall. Instead, he underwent left shoulder surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn labrum 21 years old, expected to make a full recovery. The Bengals added, so he's a 2020 and beyond prospect. But as far as this year, there will be no impact. And Bengals head coach Zach Taylor had described Williams after he set out mini-camp as being, quote, dinged up.

But after seeing the doctor, it turned out, obviously, much worse. Wes, as a recovering Cincinnati Bengals football fan, as you put it, this one has to sting for people back on the west side of Cincinnati that we're looking forward to an improved offensive line this season. Yeah, they're snake bitten when it comes to rookie first round draft picks. If you've been on Twitter in the past couple of days, you've probably seen the list. Basically, Billy Price, last year's first round pick at center, started 10 games and was well below average as a center, and he was by far the biggest impact of any first round rookie the Bengals have been. Here's the numbers. Jonah Williams, probably zero. Billy Price, 558 snaps.

John Ross 17 snaps as a rookie in 2017. William Jackson didn't play a snap. Cedric. Abouillet. Abouillet, 65. Darquise Danard, 62. Iford played six. 73 back in 2013. Kevin Zeitler played a full season. Drake Kirkpatrick way back 2012, only 42 snaps. So this has been something that's going on forever. This is a team that needs a lot

of questions to be answered in their favor, and this is a question that will not, the offensive line is not going to be answered in their favor now. It's such a Bengals thing to happen. The guy who seemed like, quote unquote, the safest pick possible who played more snaps than anyone

else in college. he's not going to play at all his rookie season. I feel bad for him as well. Just to start, it's not how you want to start off your professional career. I mean, yeah, he's young, he's 21, he's going to make a full recovery. But you hear so many of these guys first entering the league, man, it's all about that change of pace, you know, from college, how much the game is going to slow down for you after your first season, and now he's got to wait a whole year.

They have a pretty good left tackle and Cordy Glenn there to play, but now they have Bobby Hart at right tackle, which is the problem. They also, this has been, and this brings me back to good. Jonathan Carter all the way back in the 90s. They drafted number one overall, blows out his ACL in August. They drafted a guy named Kenny Irons at running back from Auburn. And the second round blew out his ACL before he even started. The Bengals just seemed to have a lot of these guys who get injured before they ever get a chance.

And that's a domino situation because, yeah, Glenn was supposed to kick over to guard. And if he took to that position, that would strengthen that and left tackle if they hit on the pick. But now that all hits, you hit the pause button. Let's move on. But I got a lot of tweets over the last, I'd say, two or three months about all or nothing. Now, if you remember last year's season, which chronicled the Cowboys? Was it Cowboys last year? No, was it?

Yeah. Last year, it dropped during draft week. And we hadn't heard anything about all or nothing, the Amazon series this spring. Well, we found out today that it is going to be back and it will be covering the 2018 Panthers for people that aren't aware of the all or nothing. It's excellent. It's another great NFL films production, and it's basically hard knocks taking you through an entire season.

The Panthers, of course, last season got off to a six and two start, and then things kind of fell apart. They lost seven in a row at one point, finishing seven and nine. And it will be kind of be a season remembered MJ as Cam Newton's shoulder injury, which they hoped was going to, he was going to turn the corner. It just never happened. And eventually he had surgery, got shut down. So there, the nice little trailer for all or nothing,

you're going to be watching this as a football junkie? I'd watch the trailer. Now, you know, especially with Hard Knocks following one of the teams that I'm assigned to. And I saw a lot of similarities there, right? So there was one line that Cam said in it. And I'm not sure if it's because him and AB have worked out together before. They have sort of a friendship. but he said that line look good play good get pay good i don't know i mean to a lot of players

look good play good play good but it's something that a b said to me when i interviewed him right after he was introduced um in oakland so it's like huh okay interesting the parallels there i mean this will drop before hardin arcs starts in august so but i will be watching i love these kind of behind the veil eight episodes premiering july 19th on amazon prime i think all or nothing's underrated. The format's a little tricky because you already know what's going to happen, obviously. And just the fact that too

many of the episodes are just here's game one, here's game two, and then the next week is, okay, three and four. And they do better when they kind of mix it up and then they have themes. But if you're willing to watch it, and I've watched both seasons, I think it's only been two right? Cardinals and Calvaries.

Three. Cardinals and the Cowboys. Rams. Cardinals, Cowboys. Yeah, I've watched it. And they each have had some unbelievable genuine behind the scenes moments that rival or beat anything from hard knocks i think you have to sift through it a little bit more but there are things that i took away from from the cowboys from the rams ones that were like that were better than anything that you'd see on tv throughout the whole year i'm looking forward to this i love this stuff you know i write the hard knocks reviews on nfl dot com and i've written these pieces as well it's just the where it falls in

the in the year it kind of i feel like it gets sometimes lost in the shuffle But if you do love Hard Knocks, you should try this show. There's one aspect of the Panther season that will be very interesting to see how they handle it. I talked to David Ely, of course, our luckless and love desk editor downstairs. Also, Big Panthers fan, MJ. He once bought a bottle of champagne right before Super Bowl 50 that he planned to celebrate with. Brought it to the newsroom. Brought it to the newsroom.

Shortly before this happened, his girlfriend broke up with him. and then the Panthers lost the Super Bowl, and then he ended up drinking the bottle of champagne alone in a hot tub. Oh, this is this. Wow. Like, and if that sounds bad, then for the next three years running a popular host on a podcast, brings it up repeatedly over and over. She meant a lot to him that had to hurt.

Anyway, he brought up to me, reminded me that four games into their losing streak, Ron Rivera, the Panthers coach, threw up the strategic equivalent of a Hail Mary as a coach. He demoted defensive coordinator Eric Washington, fired their D-Line coach, and the secondary coach, and they had a press conference, and it happened, obviously, after a discussion with Marty Herney, the GM, and the new owner, David Tepper. I wonder if we see all that, because that, see, Hard Knocks, everything's rosy typically You know, the cuts and stuff is sad, but the optimism around the teams is always there.

What happens when you have all the cameras around and you have to do dirty business like that? Do we get access to that? I feel like it's kind of what you sign up for when you do the show. I would imagine so, especially since it's like a retrospective. You saw, I feel like they've shown some stuff on all or nothing. The Cowboys, when there was the national anthem, some of those moments was interesting.

It kind of showed that Jason Garrett maybe didn't have that much power, that it's all Joan. Not that that was surprising. The Case Keenham kind of, I feel like no one watched that season, but watching Case Keenum crumble a little bit during the Rams season as he lost his starting job and Jared Goff took it over. It was pretty fascinating and they showed some stuff there that if I'm Case Keenom, I would not want to have watched.

So I hope so. I hope they should be on. John Elway didn't see that season either, apparently. I'm looking forward to the just about mid-November epiphany that Riverboat has when he sees one of the strongest armed quarterbacks in the league can't complete. He basically has a Keenham arm or less than that by November. And Rivera is sitting on a six and two team and he has to just know at one point, we're not going to the playoffs because my quarterback can't pass.

I'm curious about the interaction of Cam and every, just like a little more Cam behind the scenes. Cam and everyone. I mean, just like how he interacts with his teammates and everything going into a season that kind of falls apart, like how much you see that. It could be interesting. the wardrobe selections. There you go.

Does he have a stop? Is it just him? We're definitely going to be taken to his house and into the closet. I feel like that's going to happen. All right, moving on Tyreek Hill, Kansas City Chiefs. What's going on there? Hill completed his meeting with NFL investigators in Kansas City on Wednesday regarding recent child abuse allegations against the Chiefs wide receiver.

He'll met with Lisa Freel, the NFL senior VP of Special Counsel for Investigations and other league officials. represented by his personal lawyer and an NFLPA lawyer, according to Rapsheet. This was Hill's first interview with the league and a chance to answer to these allegations of child abuse. We've heard the local authorities are not pursuing a case at this time connected to the incident earlier this year. There's no timetable for a ruling on Hill's case, Rappaport added in his report. So we've talked about this, that what happens? What's next is Tyreek Hill going to be on the field with the Chiefs?

How long will he potentially be out? Still, we don't know, but it continues to kind of hang over the franchise as we approach training camp. I think this was a significant step because it put kind of a – I don't know if it put a deadline, but it moved it forward. The NFL was basically saying until now, and Roger Goodell said that they were waiting for his child services cases. to end before they would proceed. And now they're proceeding and they met and just little whispers and you hear people talking around the newsroom or in just kind of reading between the lines of what Ian's

saying, I think you're going to hear something from the league, whether one way or another, well before training camp starts. And I wouldn't be surprised if it's, you know, sometime in the upcoming July 4th, you know, in the next couple of weeks, I think you'll find out whatever the NFL is going to decide. How long, how much more time do they need? Hill is expected to report to the chiefs for training camp when it begins on July 26, barring a development that is unforeseen. Finally, in the news, every year, Emory University ranks the NFL fan bases. Gets people fired up.

Those dummies over at Emory because they know this is, if you want to get stoke the flames and get people talking on social media, you drop it on June 26th. Right. Smart. Emory was like... College-educated people. Emery was like the school that I kind of wanted to go to, but I just figured like I probably wouldn't even get in so I didn't even apply to that school.

If you got in, maybe you'd be involved with this project, which they rank the teams and let's see, who is the top five, number one. The teams that are always on TV. Cowboys. Number two, Patriots, number three, Eagles, number four, giants, number five Steelers. Those are the top five.

Anybody surprised by those? Let me tell you why. It was specifically the most popular. This is what they used to figure it out. Best fan bases. What was the algorithm? Best fan basis. Here's the algorithm.

I got the algorithm for you coming up right now. If I can find it. Here it is. The approach uses data on attendance, revenues, social media following, and road attendance to develop statistical models of fan interest. Well, I think it's first helpful to realize that this is a professor of marketing. Got it.

So he's putting a lot more stock in marketing than just about anything else. It's a little too close to Darren Ravelle for me. But he's definitely going with volume over rate and quantity over quality. The key is that the models are used to determine which cities fans are more willing to spend or follow their teams after controlling for factors like market size and short term changes and winning and losing. So I gave you the top five. The bottom... I mean, I think to Erica Tamposi is an example of why the Patriots have, you know, ranked so highly here. I think they deserve it.

Well, yeah. I mean, a lot of winning. A lot of titles in that group. I mean, they showed up. I mean, that was in the Super Bowl last year. They're dominated. You figure, okay, they've been to a lot of Super Bowls. That was like a home game for the Patriots.

I went to college in Boston in the turn of the 2000s, and that was the fourth most popular. pro sports franchise in that city behind the Red Sox the Celtics and the Bruins and that's fine I'm not angry about it but that just shows you

how you build as a fan base through winning like that was not a great fan base it wasn't now it is congratulations let's see what happens you don't win every year Ricky I mean I was watching when they weren't winning

anyways back then because some people are just football fans is it great do you get more bandwagon fans yeah of course but does your college experience get you the ranking of the fan base of the Patriots in New England? I don't know.

Yikes. Ouch. Shots fired. The bottom five, by the way. Let's see. Bengals, Jaguars, Titans, chiefs, and Rams. Now, the chiefs, how do the chiefs end up down there?

The chiefs, I can't have them. I don't know about that. That is terrible. Arrowhead, and it is insane. That is a rabid fan base. Really bad on Twitter, though, I guess. Yeah, they don't, they only have one. Beat Rider, leave them alone.

That's crazy. I mean, the Browns, the Browns were just out of that bottom five, too. One above it. They would have been 25th. And the Chiefs, I mean, those are as loyal, as loyal fan bases as you can possibly find, despite not a lot of success. Oh, how about this, MJ? I don't want to get you in trouble with, you know, up there north of us.

But Raiders, Niners, you know, who's got the better fan base? Uh, the more colorful, vivid and travel well, greater nation without question. They're insane. Y'all have been to a game in the policy, I don't have to tell you. It's a different world. They run. Fevered. And having covered teams in SoCal for several years, anytime any other team plays Raiders,

it's like, more Raiders. There's no other fan base you could. say, hey, we're leaving you for again. But we're just going to, like, hang out for a couple years and then leave you. Other places, imagine if you try to do that in Boston with the disposally. It'd be like, they do screw you. Right. And the Raiders have been bad forever now.

I mean, they have been a couple, you know, right spots, but the fans, they support him. They really do. They support it. In full garb, I mean, the costumes are insane. Exceptingly loyal. They move to a desert. The chief's thing is that's preposter. Yeah. Come on, man.

That's La Raville. So Emory University, La Ravio Magnifico. Whoa. Well, this. We're coming for you. This particular marketing professor. Okay. That's what's happening in the news.

Professor Lewis, take it up with him, Wes. Nah, he doesn't need any more attention on his little ranking. I'm glad I didn't apply, Emory. Ducked a huge bullet there. All right, here we go. Let's get into it. M.J. Acosta in the house. Oh, that's the other advice I would give.

If you're going into sports, because you're bilingual, MJ. What a huge advantage. I would say if you were looking to get into journalism, take Spanish. You know, that's got to be a huge help. That was the number one benefit I had in being able to get a job right away. And I was able to stay in a larger market like Miami. I started off in a Spanish station doing sports in public affairs. Don't take Latin.

How is Latin going to help you? French? Spanish was... I mean, I was lucky. Janish was my first language, but still. But it's, and it's still helping you out. She does some work with our friend NFL, UK Hank, handsome Hank. What's the show during the season?

Trendzone. Trend zone. Oh, and game organized game and all that stuff. So there you go. She's tied in. Anybody know how to speak Spanish? I was trilingual when I was like 20 years old, and now I'm one. What else you have?

I took French and Spanish in high school. How fluent were you? I was French club president. That was a lot of trips to Huckapoo's ago. Yes. I was actively killing off brains. All right, here we go. I hold in my hand a recreation of an old-time football helmet.

Within it is three each three times. Two, six, six, six, two, twelve. Twelve questions about the Bay Area football scene. And we're going to pass the helmet around. MJ, you are our guest, our bilingual guest. What a weapon to have in the industry. So I will start with you. You could use whatever language you feel.

Pick a question out. If it's one of your questions, put it back in. Otherwise, read the question. You answer it. Then we all can answer it, but MJ will get us going. What's more likely, 49ers' defense or Raiders' offense is most improved unit in the league? I would say 49ers' defense. is the more likely most...

Can I hear that one more time? What's more likely? The 49ers D or the Raiders O is the most improved unit in the league? What about this cross-section of segments here? What's more likely jumping into the helmet? I would say 49-R-D, just because their lack of turnovers last season,

lack of sacks, just statistically all around, they have no place to go but up. And they have fully reinforced that complete line, the secondary, Guys who were banged up are coming back healthy, unwilling for their sake. So I really do think that that's where we'll see the bigger improvement for comparing those two. I agree.

The Raiders offensive line still worries me quite a bit. And the 49ers added difference makers. Nick Bosa can be a difference maker if he's anything like his brother, D. Ford. Jason Verrett, who is a complete wild card, but was pro-ball caliber before all the injuries, And Kwan Alexander, another guy coming off injury. With a little bit of luck, that's as talented a front seven as there is in the entire NFL. And Robert Sala, who our guest, Peter Schrager, was talking up as kind of a riser, even though he hasn't really had results with San Francisco.

Like, he should get, if he's a great coach and this team's healthy at all, they should be a top 10 type of defense. Okay. I'm with you guys. Go ahead. Cut Wes. Oh, we have another what's more likely. Ooh.

What's more likely? During the 2019 Raiders season, Derek Carr uses Twitter to address reports he is frustrated by John Gruden's coaching style. Or Antonio Brown misses at least one game connected to a disciplinary action by the team. Like a hardcore, would you rather? Okay. I'm going oh wait you you answer that's right I forgot you're not asking it you're answering it Wes I think it's more likely to Antonio Brown misses at least one game because what I've seen from him for the last I don't know 10 months he hasn't been a

exceptionally sane human being so he's unpredictable Derek Carr as much as he loves the block button on Twitter is generally not controversial with his comments we had we also had Adi Kankovwala on our show at the owners meetings and she was inside that building and she was open about it. She said that Antonio Brown had changed in a way that was

troubling. It was too strong but it changed the dynamic of his relationship with his teammates and then eventually with the coach and the front office leading to him leaving town. I do have a lot of questions. That's why I think it's more likely how that will work with John Gruden who is a very strong

personality as well, who if they butt heads, Antonio Brown's probably not going to win that battle. So I would say that's more likely. What do you think, MJ? What has your opinion been or what have you taken from your early interactions with Antonio Brown if you've had any? We have. I think it's more likely the Antonio Brown angle only because I can't imagine Derek Carr.

Like blasting his coach. Not blasting. He would be addressing reports. Addressing a frustration. It could even be just like this is all BS. It could be a good thing. Yeah, it could be like

things are great with John but there are reports out there that their relationship isn't too hot. I mean, he's sort of already addressed those. You're saying more. I think it's Carr. He's already done stuff like this.

I think I miss red. But he has to do it on Twitter. On Twitter. Okay. That does seem more likely to me only because from what I've seen and I'm only speaking in the context of from free agents,

to OTAs to minicamp, what I've seen from Antonio Brown thus far. It would appear that everything that he's doing is to prove I'm for real. Honeymoon. This is where I want to, sure. This is where I want to be. We need a win,

and I'm going to be the guy who's going to do it. I think you're getting the best Antonio Brown who's one of the greatest receivers of all time. He is motivated. He's going to be on his P's and Q's. And we've already seen Derek Carr, you know, on Twitter, do something very similar just this offseason.

I remember those eyes emotive. When they were working out, Kyler Murray. That was an interesting little moment, so I could see it happening. I've talked about it on this podcast. Year 2 is when the Antonio Brown experiment could go sideways. Early October. Year 2. Vegas, I don't know.

We'll see how it goes there. Week 2. All right. Here we go. Raiders question. Does the Raiders game day theme song fit in Las Vegas? Now, this is interesting because I do not know what the Raiders theme song is. So good. MJ, can you sing it for us?

So, okay, so it's more of a spoken word with like a really good beat. Okay, let's hear it. It's like the autumn wind. Oh, that one. John Fissenda. Oh, yes. The autumn wind is a rainer. We're plundering what it wants, that all thing. Yes, classic. Can we play that, Ricky? The autumn wind is a pirate. blustering in from sea with a rollicking song he sweeps along, swaggering voicelessly. His face is weather-beaten.

He wears a hooded sash, with a silver hat about his head, and a bristling black moustache. He growls as he storms the country, a villain big and bold. and the trees all shake and quiver and quake as he robs them of their gold. The autumn win is a raider, pillaging just for fun. He'll knock you round and upside down and laugh when he's conquered and won. Does it still fit? Does it still go with the franchise in Las Vegas? It's so synonymous with the black hole, with the Coliseum, with that game they feel.

What do they call that a Zeppelin? Or no, Saraka? Not us. I don't know. What are these words? I feel like you're just making up there. It's a desert windstorm. Oh, I don't know.

Oh, I don't know. It's a desert windstorm, I call it. Yeah. I don't know. Well, you can still have a windstorm in Vegas. I would think they have to, that's such a great part of their tradition. Yeah. But no longer is, you're right, though, because you can't, you're not coming in from the sea to plunder anymore.

They're trying to have their cake and eat it, too, keep all the tradition, keep all the Raiders stuff. You know, I'm a little skeptical that you can pull that all off, but Raiders fans, it seems so loyal. I guess you can. All right. Greg, he's got the old helmet. He's opening it up. Let's see what the handwriting is.

It's neat, so it can only be one person. Who? Wes? I can't get this thing apart. I folded it in like full pageant on-stage question manner. That's not mine. I don't think I hope. Outside of George Kiddell,

which member of the 49-7? offense scares opposing defenses. George Kittle is terrifying. That is a superstar. He's fun to cover, right? Kiddle seems to be almost like a professional wrestler. You know, I think it's a fair question that they don't have difference makers that you have to game plan for.

I think Tevin Coleman's speed can scare it. I think Kyle Shanahan's running scheme can, but that's more of a scheme. I think Dante Pettis can certainly get better and maybe turn into that guy. Mike McGlinchy's like a run blocker you might have to worry about, but it's pretty much just George Kittle. You're counting on your coaching to make up for the lack of players that do scare you. Kyle Shanahan's the answer, I think.

He's the one who scares the defense. You mentioned Jerich McKinnon? I did not. Is he just out of the – He's back in the mix? What's going to with Jerich McKinnon right now? Is he going to be a part of this offense? They took a real slow journey.

offseason programs with him just being extra cautious with that knee but he's going to have he has a much harder recovery just because of what he has to do in his role compared to jimmy who's also recovery from somebody good is going to be inactive on game days right between bretah oh and that backfield yeah yeah and use check and then most are a special teamer and he's coming off a major injury so McKinnon got paid a lot of money before he suffered that injury hmm interesting plot line to watch, trade. I like it. Sell it, baby. All right. MJ's up.

Will pro football work in Las Vegas? Most seem convinced that L.A. will be unwilling to support two NFL teams, but why should we think Vegas will support one? Good question for MJ Acosta. Well, I think you don't need to give people a reason to go to Vegas. Everyone's down for a trip to Vegas. And I think now coupled with game day. action, I think it will work.

Hmm. I think it will. Maybe, though. I guess my take it on it is we've heard about this for years and it was used, you know, the Davises were trying to get the building built in Oakland. It just wasn't going to happen and Vegas became

what Los Angeles used to be, which was hey, you better build our stadium or we're moving. And they just acted on it, which is a very Al slash Mark Davis thing to do. But all this hand-wringing about the chargers and it's not unwarranted about what are they going to do here, how are they going to fill up a, you know, a 75,000-seat stadium

when they can't fill up 30,000. That's all fair. But I don't hear anybody saying, man, are the Raiders going to work in Vegas? And they're all in. They got a new building being built right now, too. Because it's Vegas. It's the allure of Vegas. But is it a football town?

The NFL sells itself. If you have a stadium, they're going to fill it. It's a small town. Well, that's, yeah, I don't think that's true of the Chargers. They don't have a stadium. Yeah. I am not worried. The answer to the question would be because of the Golden Knights.

I think that the fact that the hockey team has been not just a success, but like a raging success where it's become a civic pride thing. Yeah, and they were good too. But that's 40 dates a year. It's 40 dates a year and they're filling it up. And there seemed to be that it was locals going, even though it's a very small market, it's immediately one of the NFL smallest markets,

there was enough kind of local pride that kind of jumped on board that you figure eight days a year maybe because Raiders fans are so loyal they travel and they make it a weekend of it it could work if you squint the right way but also part of the reason why the golden nights thing works is that you could build it into your Friday night in Vegas where oh we'll go gambling we go at the pool then we'll hop over to the arena which is right in the middle of everything and then we'll continue our night a football game is different it's a it starts early

it's it's you get to the stadium you're there it's i guess it's close to the strip but it's not like right in the middle of everything it's a different fan experience i'm thinking maybe they'll have some feature in the stadium like they do a la hard rock in miami where there's an actual literal nightclub inside of the so that something like that has to has to be incorporated in a Vegas thing give it the Vegas feel i mean people are legit with those foam glow in the dark things and glasses on and, like, popping bottles at a 1 p.m. Miami Dolphins game. Right.

So I would imagine they'll have something like that in Vegas as well. Did you ever as a former Dolphins cheerily, did you ever meet Gloria Stephan? I only saw her from afar. Was the sound machine flanking her or protecting her from the masses? No, but there was a red carpet that led up to, like, to go into. What about the part owners, Serena and Venus Williams?

Again, with the knock. How many other part owners are? How do the cheerleaders not get a chance to meet all the owners? No, others did. I didn't. Oh, that's not right. Costa should have been part of that. All right, Wes, he's got one in his hand.

He's going to lay it out. This is Dan's purview here. Who will be the breakout star of Hard Knocks? Good question. Well, I think, well, the obvious answer is Gruden, just because that's who's going to be focused on the most. I think Rex Ryan in the 2010 hard-knock season. You know that they're going to hit that hard.

Who would be kind of like the sneaky breakout star? I don't know. Mike Lennon? Let's go home. Let's go to Mike Lennon. I'm going to go Vantes Burfect. I mean, there's so many guys that you would think the NFL would not want to be promoting. You want to know what's going on behind the scenes with Mike Lennon because I do.

Personally. I forgot in Mike Lennon's there. The Glennon versus Nathan Peterman battle, actually, is kind of juicy. Yeah, I think Vantes-Berfect is a lot. I mean, the Ritchie Incognito thing will be interesting to watch. I'm curious how hard they're going to hit that, but that's out there. And then people will say Antonio Brown. If he's on his best behavior, he might be in good spirits.

You know, he always has the extravagant training camp arrival. It's going to imagine what that's going to be. but the breakout star, I'm going to go with John Gruden just because I think it's a perfect match. Who are we missing here? This is so off the radar, you guys. I mean, this is just an observation from camp.

Running backs coach Kirby Wilson is hilarious. Great call. Kirby Wilson, did he? Please watch him. He's hysterical. He has these one-liners. The things he shouts at the guys while they're running drills. I mean, a lot of times I have to remind myself,

all right, girl, you've got to watch the rest of practice. because it's so entertaining. I like that. That's a great call because a classic hard knocks move is to focus in on a eccentric assistant coach and they become breakout stars. Remember the guy last year for the Browns with the belly with the belly when he said hut and the whole belly moved?

That guy was great. I love that guy. There's always a coach. All right. I'm up. Okay. This is feminine handwriting. I'm going to guess this is from an MJ Acosta.

It's an MJ Acosta joint. How will Kyle Shanahan split carries in this reinforced backfield? Well, we kind of hit on that a little bit, but I don't know. I mean, didn't we see so much last year after McKinney go, he goes down, didn't we see so much from Breedah that he deserves the shot? And he played banged up. And he still banged up, right? Yeah, yeah, he has a pectoral muscle strain.

situation there. To me, he's, he's the most talented runner on that team. The question is, do you want to give him more than 10 to 11 touches per week? And you have enough running backs where you can limit it. Well, between the three of them, it should work out perfect because they've all had injury. They've had some issues. I mean, Kevin Coleman's generally been durable, but they'll probably take turns sharing the ball. That's how I kind of work themselves out too. The chances that all three are healthy. Yeah. You know, you don't want anybody to get hurt, but just do the map. of that load last season, less of a heart.

So I'd take one, though, it would be Kevin Coleman. He's the one that's been with Kyle Shanahan before. You hated him last year. I don't love him. I don't like, I don't like love him as a player, but I think he's going to get plenty of opportunity.

But he's a role player. He's done it. He's a role player. That's why he didn't get paid, even though he's going back to Shanahan. All right, Greg, Greg Rosenthal up. We only have four questions. Kyle Shanahan's 10 and 22 as he enters his third season.

would a third consecutive double-dudget loss season cost him his job? Who's answering this, Dan? I am. It's similar to another question that's sitting in there, which is I wonder how much faith Jed York the owner has in this combination, because it seems like they're on the six-year contract that he loves them forever, and a season like this would test it. I think Kyle Shanahan would somehow survive it,

which almost never happens and that if I had to guess that he would survive ahead of the GM, but I have no idea. If I'm a Niners fan, I would be worried that John Lynch, the GM, maybe he's not the guy. And if they have another tough season this year,

they decide to clean house. And then Shanahan, who's a very bright mind who maybe didn't get a fair shake here, goes somewhere else and becomes a big-time coach and you just were a victim of timing on some level. The other side of an MJ is that, well, if he loses 10 games, 12 games and, let's say, 11 games, maybe you've had enough time. I don't care what the background is. And it's time to go with someone else because you didn't get the job done in three years.

I think they do acknowledge that last year was just crappy in terms of injuries. Right. You know, like, who, no one could have seen that Jim McGrawble injury coming. And so much of his offense was to be built and kind of raised around. and Jimmy and what he was going to do with Jet and losing both of those guys right before the season. I think maybe a mulligan, but I don't think there's such thing

in the NFL. There's no mercy. But I do agree with Greg that if anyone can survive it, it would be him, but it would take some, like, craziness. All right. One last time around the horn. MJ Acosta. If that were the case, Kyle Shanahan might, for once,

encounter just a little bit of doubt on this podcast. Hasn't happened yet? Has it not happened yet. Is John Gruden a liability? Wow. Someone's cutting right to the ice. Short and sweet. No.

No, I don't think he is a liability. I think we have yet to see what this team is supposed to be under him. I don't think that last year was the Gruden of Yore that we remember and that we know. There were many times last year where I'd hear him in like postgame pressers and he's like, well, it's going to get better. it's going to be fun because so passively and I'm like who are you I think I was just a consequence of of what it was of that transition of the season of everything that was happening but I can already see a shift back just even through this awse season in our interactions and conversations that we've had and in the press conferences that he's given so I don't think he's a liability but I do think that this year similar to the Niners it's like all right well let's see it then I'm with you anybody that drew conclusions last year was both a misguided and a prisoner of the moment. He signed a 10-year deal. This was never going to be put back together in one year.

Starting this year, though, I think it's fair to really take a look at whether he can do the job at this stage of his life. We've seen some coaches make an instant impact when they really are ahead of the curve. Right. Like Sean McVeigh, for instance. He tore it down, though. He decided, yeah. I don't know.

To me, it is a question because on some levels, in terms of team building, he was a little bit of a liability in Tampa. for about five, six straight years there. So that's a little bit of a, it's a, it's a body of work. But is he a liability right now? I don't think it's fair to say. It's premature to say that. It's also, you can't say he's been an asset either.

Yeah, that's fair too. All right, we're going to have to lean heavily on MJ for this answer. Do Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch get along as much as it appears? Yes. Yes, they do. Because I think that's, if things did go squirrely this year for them, I feel like. If that wasn't true, then that would come out.

And it's like one survives or the other. But no, they really are on the same page. I've seen them both on hand at the facility outside of it, and just events centered around the team, but off campus. And you can't fake that funk, right? And I don't think, you know, one of them is, I don't think, you know one of them is the type to be contrived in that sense. Like, I'm just going to smile and be cordial for it.

Like, they're both hyper competitive. but I think they're also on the same page. That's a great sign. I kind of want to see one of these long-term plans actually pan out where there wasn't success so that other teams can point to it. Has anybody pulled their own question yet? Are we pitching a perfect game here?

I could kind of tell which one's mine is so I avoided it. I can tell my own handwriting through the. Oh, you've been, okay, that's kind of cheated. I thought you said, don't pull out. No, well, you pull it out and then if it's yours, you put it back, but you guys are looking. I didn't know you're just. Well, why not save the listener that, like,

like enthralling 30 seconds of a podcast all right here we go two more wait this one stuck together good too oh yeah i really sealed mine like like there's a pope why did you know this this is enthralling as well great radio west right right do you see blue on this thing i know and he he was like walking around all peacock and like i put my questions in the best you don't know what What are you talking about peacock? You were, you walked past my desk. He was pretty proud of him. You was like, I came up with this.

I came up with this whole plan. I'm going to use the other side of the sticky. You don't know what you do. That was true. Greg tells, no tails. Ooh, another edition of What's More Likely. Vante's Burfect and Ritchie Incognito are both week one starters or at least one will not survive final cuts. Ooh, I like this one.

Okay. First of all, good handwriting, Chris. Thank you. All right, so incognito, Phil's a huge need. Ossimile left the team. They need a guard. He fits there as long as he could stay on the straight and arrow. He's a weak one starter.

Burfect, I don't know. Hasn't perfect kind of been in decline as a player? Oh, he was one of the worst linebackers in the NFL last year. So that seems like a toss-up at best, or at least one will not survive. I think it's more likely that Vante's Burfect gets cut or Incognito does something dumb to undermine himself. So I will go with one of them will not survive.

Can I just point out that Ritchie Incognito is 36 years old? Coming out of retirement. And we've seen better guards. Guys like Jari Evans have to shut it down way before age 36. These types of signings. Last time we saw him. You're making a lot of sense, but he was a productive player, yes. In Buffalo.

Dan, you know, I know you had your rules that you were so excited about. What happens now? It's the last question left, and there's only one option, and it's mine. I have to put it back in, and then the show is just over. No, we have to stay here for eternity. We live here now. Raiders fans in 40 nights. Ricky misses her flight.

It'll be horrific. She's got to miss it in. Shield Falls. We've kind of covered this, but Raiders fans and 49ers fans, overrated, underrated, or properly rated, answer separately. Answer separately. Well, you know, you can't group them together. All right, I'll start.

Niners fans properly, excuse me, Raiders fans properly rated as being badasses, our buddy Scar, listener of the show. Like guys like that, that no matter what happens, they dress up like maniacs, They cheer. They fill up a dump of a stadium. They fill that place out, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, that place has raw sewage flowing through it half the time.

And they will fill up your mentions too. Well, I've gotten more death threats from Raiders fans than the rest of the 31 teams come on. See, I use that as positive. Niners, I feel like there's a difference between the Candlestick era Niners fans or how they're perceived. And now at the Levi's Stadium, the big bell bottom um i feel like they kind of take a bad rap now that maybe they don't deserve they didn't decide to build the stadium up in like Washington or whatever it is now uh so i'll put them properly rated to or maybe slightly kind of they get a bad rap and it's not their fault

i like 49ers fans i don't think there is crazy like psychopathic as some other fan bases but they know what they're talking about they're very educated on their team and football And I have a high sports acumen for sure. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think 49ers fans are underrated. I agree with that. Even within the Bay Area, they kind of, because the Raiders fans are so overpowering, I think that the 49ers fans do get a little bit of a bad route there.

A little spoiled, you know, had a lot of success. Well, time ago. They had a nice run there last. Not filling up that stadium. I mean, the stadiums is, what, an hour and a half away from the city? It's like an eternity. They also had to address the sunlight issue, which was a killer right. They had to build like in Miami almost.

They had to build some type of tent around it. Like a little awning. How much do you get paid to build the stadium? We've got to get these things right. They do that on purpose, though, don't they? What? Make sure that the sunlight hits the opposing team. That's nasty.

MJ, you came in and you said it all. You've done it. There's nothing else. You got off a plane that was delayed. you dealt with, well, you didn't deal with them, but you saw unruly people at the airport and you desecrated them as you should. I have to remember I work on TV

because I don't want to end up on a viral video. No, you got to be smart. Telling somebody off at the airport for being rude, then I'm the rude one. We loved having you, and we'd love to have you back. I would love to. You're the least likely NFL network analyst to have like a Britt McKinney moment.

It's a point of pride now. Like in Vegas, connected to your team, you would be at the bottom of the board. Right. Which is, I think, the place to be. Which is great. You know, that's where you want to be. Okay. So, that's it.

That's it for this week's shows. We'll have one very special show, 4th of July week, the return of really a renowned, extremely popular game show. I would say the number one game show in the podcast game. Speaking of overrated This game Greg tries to get off the Schneide We won't say what it is Did we say what it was on Monday?

No we didn't say Could be any game show You could figure it out though Based on Greg's demeanor What it is probably But MJ, thank you again Thank you guys Thank you, MJ

All right This is Dan Hansa signing off For MJ Acosta The Mailman, the old boss And Ricky Hollywood Behind the Glass Till next week. Podcasts.