NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - ATN: Preseason Week 3 takeaways

Episode Date: August 26, 2014

A room with some heroes -- Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- evaluate the "dress rehearsal" performances from Week 3 of the preseason: Just how for real are the Seattle Seahawks and Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles? Plus, preseason MVP candidates and is Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald back to his very best? Find out.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 League podcast throws a sexy deep-bo. Welcome to another edition of the Around the League podcast. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm joined by a couple of heroic individuals, Mark Sessler and Chris Wessling. The preseason's almost over. Mark, are you alive? You know what?

I like that switch-up. a couple of heroic individuals. Hey, Greg. Everything is different right now. Dan Hansis, our host is on paternity leave, and so I'm trying to step into his shoes as the host, but he will be back next week. And until then, we're just going to get down and dirty

with some preseason action. We've got awards predictions coming later in the week. We've got our NFC preview dropping on Wednesday. Mark, when was the last time you were not staring at a computer? Wow, it has to be maybe last Wednesday at roughly three or four in the morning. You were cranking yesterday on Sunday. A lot of news. We're at that time of the year where any one of us sitting down there on a shift,

a lot of stuff is happening. It's nice, actually. The quiet summer has given way to a massive wave of transactions. You don't believe what you just said. I do like it being, I like real news versus having to write fluff pieces about the same guy over and over. And actually, what I'd like about the preseason is some of the mythologies. of the off-season quickly becomes nonsense. Do you like spending your Saturday nights with Chris Wesleyan and I

watching some pre-season action at work? Well, I came here specifically to watch, you know, the team that I grew up with, the Browns, and that was an epic train wreck. So outside of that... You are a factory of sadness! It's fair point. But spending the night with you two watching football was enjoyable.

Chris. Well, Greg's not even in regular season form or else. you would have gotten a few shoulder bumps, a few pushing you in your chair. He gets very excited when football comes on. Yeah, he does. Yeah, I mean, this, you know, enthusiasm. You did go a little nuts.

You went, Devin Hester got you going. That's true. Well, Hester, I was like, wow, this Devin Hester as a receiver thing is real. I was getting excited. I mean, he broke a couple of ankles on the same play right at the line of scrimmage. And then Bernard Pollard in the open field, was it? I mean, give me a break. Suddenly, Hester's making returns.

like 10 years ago. Do you think Bernard Pollard could tackle you in the open season? Maybe not. Pollard definitely struggled a bit in that game. Struggled against Julio Jones, too. It was not a good look for, he should have just sat that one out. Yeah, this enthusiasm, it's real, baby. What would happen if Ray Rice of

last November squared off against Bernard Pollard in the open field? A black hole would form. It just would end right there. Well, we're talking a little bit about the Titans and Falcons preseason game. We're going to go through every preseason in game. And just have our takeaways. Also the end of camps. Some cuts are starting. Other news

is popping up. And we'll try to hit each and every team, except for the two that played on Thursday night, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. But we got to start with a little bit of news first. And to do that, we go to our producer, TD, in the house. What's going on, guys? All you guys are you feeling? I'm doing great. Like I said, man, when I started doing a podcast, the one thing that surprised me the most is just Greg Rosenthal's energy. You know, he does stand. up. He does get out of his seat. Like I said, he's like a Michael Serra mixed with, I wouldn't go to McLevin. This is a terrible mix.

When you have a mix of people, you can't have them be the same. You know what I mean? That's like, that's not the same. That's pretty close. Yeah, but, you know, he has a little bit of that going on. It's like, he's kind of like a Tom Brady mixed with a Peyton Manning. You know, it doesn't really make sense. I don't think that's what TV was saying.

It kind of was. But yeah, it's good. I love the energy. guys. Why don't we do a little bit of news, TD? Chris Wessling will eat his cup ball. Wow. A little shout out for one of our biggest listeners, Tristan, who sent that to me a couple of days ago at midnight. You know, it was the remix version.

Obviously, it's not asking the question. It's a fact. Yeah, it's a fact. There's still time, Tristan. There's still time. And we're going to talk about that game first, the Rams and the Browns. And, you know, You never know. Maybe the Browns could have a change of heart or maybe Brian Hoyer gets hurt. We would never wish that.

But Chris Wesleyan will not eat any softball pants until after week one, that's right? True. Brian Hoyer has to take the first snap for Chris to lose his bet. But let's not bury the lead here. Prediction, he will get sacked on that first snap. You'd still be eating a lot of cloth.

Let's not bury the lead. Sam Bradford, hurt his knee in the game, tore his ACL. didn't know that after the game. In fact, Jeff Fisher said he was very optimistic that Bradford would be back and he thought it was just a hyper extension, but we learned a day later. He indeed tore his left ACL for the second straight year. Sean Hill is going to be the starting quarterback. At least that's what they're saying. Let's start with that. Do we believe that Sean Hill will be the starting quarterback for the Rams for the, not just the remainder of the year?

How about the majority of the season, Mark Sessley? Well, you know, based on what Fisher said yesterday, I think I take Jeff Fisher as somewhat of a straight shooter on this stuff. They seem to, I think there's not a lot of other options right now. Obviously, they're going to look and see if they need to bring someone else in for depth because they don't have a lot behind them. I think they believe in Hill enough to guide them. I'm not sure it's a massive downgrade from Bradford. Hmm.

That's, but it's kind of a depressing downgrade, don't you think? I mean, if that's true that it's not that big of a downgrade, then you shouldn't be paying. San Bradford $15 million or whatever it is. This regime didn't agree to do that. They did. They had a choice to make during the draft two years ago would have been a little tougher to do then, and they definitely had a choice to make during this draft. They could have gotten rid of San Bradford. They could have drafted a quarterback. I don't think they agree with what I just said. I think they do think he's much better than Hill. I thought you're saying they

didn't make the choice to pay him all that money. I tweeted a week ago that my next version of Crash Davis's I believe speech. We'll include the line. I believe Sean Hill gives the Rams a better chance to win than Sam Bradford. Wow. So you don't think the Ram season is over. No. Look at what happened last year.

They played their best ball of the year when Kellyn Clemens replaced Sam Bradford. But where were they going with Kellyn Clemens? Were they going to, can you get anywhere? Look, they're seven and nine seasons just going to look a little bit different than it would have looked with Sam Bradford. They're still going to be seven and nine. All right. So you guys don't think it hurts them that much. I disagree.

I mean, I think their best. chance to be a difference-making team was to get better play out of the quarterback position and Bradford was their best chance for that to happen. You guys are basing all your Sean Hill love on what when he played four years ago. He's 34 years old now. He hasn't started a game since 2010. It's not just that. If you watch the opening preseason game and it is preseason, he moved the offense down

the field better than Bradford has in his maybe since his rookie season, I don't know. I think Bradford was having a better than expected preseason, and he did a nice job against the Browns on Saturday night. But my issue is more that I don't care what quarterback you plug into that offense. That offense reduces quarterbacks to milk-toast versions of Mark Sanchez. And Bradford is not, he doesn't have anything special enough about him to get out of that dilemma. And neither does Hill, but Hill in that mold will be as serviceable as Bradford would have over the course of a season. If anyone...

He'll take some more chances, I think. If anyone listening bought the Football Outsiders Almanac, do yourself a favor and read the Rams chapter just for Mike Taneer's analogy of what Brian Schottenheimer did to that offense. Okay, good teaser. It's a great read anyways. I mean, do you think that they could be a legitimate playoff team? You think seven and nine, I guess.

I never thought they would be anything, but they're their quintessential seven and nine team. They're the picture of mediocrity. I mean, their defense is the thing you'd anchor your hope on, but that alone isn't going to get it done in that division or in the NFC in general. Do you think Sam Bradford's on the roster next year? No. I'm not sure he, we don't even know if he wants to come back and play again.

We don't know that yet. I would assume. Well, are you going to anchor your, if you have a problem with anchoring your offense or your team's fate to a guy coming off of an ACL surgery, how about a guy coming off too? Right. They can't. Their first priority, this office is.

and has to be finding a quarterback. Could part of that be bringing back Bradford if he's willing to take a pay cut from, say, 17 or 16 million to 4 million? That might be tough to pull off. But if he wanted to try to continue his career in St. Louis, I could see that. It's probably better to make a clean break. They got unlucky.

I think they made the wrong choice by sticking with Bradford, but I also think they just got unlucky and it's kind of tough to kill him. As Wesleyan points out in the past, maybe they will stick with them because they're so allergic to getting a playmaking quarterback. They passed over RG3. Right. You know, whatever you think of Mansell today,

they passed over the concept of taking him or someone else. They passed over Bortles. There you go. I mean, so maybe they will. Maybe they continue to live in this fiction. There are a lot of people, executive and scouts, who are on the league who still think very highly of Sam Bradford

just because of his golden arm. Even though he's never really used that arm. I did a feature called Top Ten Quarterback quarterback's 25 and under last year. Bradford was the hardest guy on the list to evaluate. Even when he's played, he's never consistently showed special traits where you would think that's the number one quarterback in the draft. He hasn't been that consistent. It's just a bummer. I know you guys think Sean Hill could keep them competitive. And maybe that does happen. I don't know if he's the same guy he was four years ago. It's Sean and I'm...

I think we're saying it could keep them to seven and nine. I don't know if that's... I think it could be a lot worse than that. And I just think it's depressing because if you're a Rams fan, you've seen some of the worst NFL teams over the last decade, and now the season is over before it starts. That's what it feels like, at least. Let's move on to the other side of the ball in that game, the Browns. Why not? What was your thought when you watched Johnny Mansell and Brian Hoyer take turns at quarterback once again? Well, more of the same. The more disappointing takeaway for me was the defense, because in the previous game, I thought, well, you know, there's some hope here. You talk about almost like a Rams team. There's nothing

going on at the quarterback position that we can see right now, but maybe in a tough division in the AFC, that defense could have gotten them to eight and eight, something would have been, that would have been big for them. I don't know. What I saw in the last game, and they were short in the secondary, and that is going to cripple a Mike Patton defense to begin with, but they were eaten up all over the field. I didn't see a whole lot to take away outside of some of the younger players, like an Armani Bryant who's a really promising young pass rusher.

Chris and I, like, Kirksey at linebacker, he's got a lot of speed. Yeah, he looked good. He jumps off the screen. Kirksey alert. I don't know. I don't know. It was not encouraging. Their cornerbacks had some trouble with Kenny Britt, who has me believing in him again.

Kenny Britt looked great on two downfield catches. He has his legs back. I don't think the Rams' weapons are that bad. If, you know, Britt keeps this up, he's looked okay. Chris Givens had a long touchdown that play. I'm not, I don't love Chris Givens, Brian Quick, I'm not really fine in that. Their weapons haven't been bad, but have they been deployed correctly? Right.

I don't know if that's going to change. It all comes back to that. And you know what? No one's giving them any heat, not to turn it back to the Rams here, but they passed on Bordoles and Mansell to take Greg Robinson, who didn't even start in this game. That's supposed to be a pretty safe pick, number two in the draft, a guard, and he's not starting. That's a problem. Imagine if it was some other position.

It would be a lot of chatter about that. I saw some stats on what he did in college last year. He only passed block 30% of the plays. And on those plays, he gave up an unusually high number of pressures in sacks. Before we move on, your headline for the game, Mark, was Brian Hoyer does not look ready for prime time. Are you even more worried now about the whole Hoyer experience? Is there still a chance Wes could avoid eating his softball? I think there is a chance because we're going to see a lot of Mansell.

this next game. Nobody has lit up any team. They scored their first offensive touchdown last game. It took three games. I think there's a chance number one, but I don't think there's any reason to believe that we won't see both quarterbacks, if not three or even four Browns' quarterbacks the season.

I don't say that. That'd be a disaster. Well, but you have to understand something. Only once. Manzo would have to be hurt. Only once since they've returned in 99, has any season gone by where only one quarterback played all 16 games. that was 2000 with Tim Couch.

This is what happens to teams without a quarterback. You invariably cycle through many of them in a season. And I think we're just going to naturally see the switch from Hoyer to Manzell sooner than people think. Watching that game, Manzell's touchdown run was the first time I've seen energy out of that offense all preseason. I agree. And it made me think they just made the wrong choice.

It made me think that even stronger. The concern unless there's in that we've seen shot, we've seen Shanahan do this in the before. He'll hide the offense to week one. That's not a crazy thing to do. but Norv Turner's offense in Cleveland last year got a lot of their young players to turn them into weapons I see none of that happening with Josh Gordon

with Jordan Cameron with anyone in that offense it's concerning well it's a tough offense to pick up Kyle Shanahan and you know for all the criticism the Browns have taken maybe for going with Hoyer Mansell had his chances and he hasn't done that much with him he had really the same stat line as Hoyer in this game 15 pass attempts for 85 yards That's in the Gabbard zone again So he struggled throwing the ball

Basically every game or at least as an offense I didn't think when I watched this one That he played that poorly I think he was a little better than Hoyer He seemed more comfortable He's been a little better than Hoyer every single game Yeah I think that's fair Let's move on to our next game on the docket

Broncos and Texans And the big headline out of this one was Wes Welker Suffering another concussion Peyton Manning getting really fired up about it when it happened. DJ Sweringer, who we had learned on Hard Knocks if you watch the show, is quite a trash talker, was getting the Atlanta Falcons really fired up because he just would not shut up that week and would hit guys late.

And he did the same thing against the Broncos in practices. They didn't like them then. Manning got mad, got in Sweringer's face. Now Welker's status for Week 1 is in doubt. Wes, you were assigned to this game. What were your big takeaways? Well, the Welker thing, I get, like you said, not only is his week one status and doubt,

you don't know what's going to happen for his career. For what it's worth, the beat writers around the team and John Fox's public statements are making it sound like they don't believe it's going to be a long-term situation that there's actually a decent chance he'll play week one, which is surprising to me.

Yeah, they say it's not as serious as the concussions from last year. So that's a good, if there is a good sound, that's it. Then they gave some credit to his helmet. Do you think this offense would be that much worse without Welker? I do. I think that last summer when we talked about how they were going to break records, it was because when you have Welker and Julius Thomas,

you can't afford to double Demerius Thomas. And I think Welker is one of those guys. Look, he's been on the two best offenses in NFL history. He's been a part of it. That's not a coincidence. He's been the guy for Tom. It's at least a little bit of a coincidence. I don't think it is at all.

think that he's a guy who is exactly where he's supposed to be when Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are looking for him. And I do think Emmanuel Sanders is best suited to the slot and they could move Latimer in or Rochay Caldwell, but that's not as good. That's not nearly as good. Isn't Latimore preferably an outside guy? Right. They could put Latimer outside and move Sanders to the slot, but I don't think Latimer's ready. He's not even playing ahead of Caldwell in four receiver sets. Any takeaways from the Texans here? Jadavia and Clowny sat out this game, but it sounds like he probably will be back for week one. Their offense has looked better overall after that first bad preseason game that had everyone freaking out.

Their offense looked bad the other night. Overall, I would say it was more competent, wouldn't it? No, it was terrible. What about Tom Savage coming in and lighting the house on fire? He actually completed some passes beyond two yards this week. But Fitzpatrick did not look good. The offense does not look good. I assume, like most bad quarterbacks, he'll be moving the ball once they are out of the game

and the defense slackens up a little bit. That's when they'll move the ball. Greg, you are a Patriots faithful. And do you think that there's a chance that, you know, there's a story coming out this morning that they're holding mallet out of the next Patriots preseason game? Will he be on a different roster? Could it be Houston? Yeah. They have the number one waiver. I think so. They have the number one waiver. pick it sounded like there was some level of interest in him before there wasn't much though or else they would have traded for them the patriots if they had any chance to trade them should have done it back in april because i can't imagine they'd get anything more than a conditional seventh round pick

or sixth round pick right now for him what about to the rams why bother i i'm not as big on shon hill but are you really going to get a big upgrade like shooting for seven wins or eight wins with Mallet or Mark Sanchez over Sean Hill. Like, you don't even know if that's better. He hasn't been in that system. Mallet doesn't strike me as a guy that's going to pick up systems quickly. If I ever... If I'm ever made an NFL head coach,

the first thing I will do is refuse to play some of these mid-tier quarterbacks at all because we saw Kirk Cousins, his trade value, plummeted into the Netherworld last season when they tried to chase him. And the same thing with Mallet. It's like, wait, this guy who's this mysterious... He can't beat out Garoppolo.

Right. He's not an enigma. He's just average. If I ever own a team, I will hire you because that sounds delightful. Do you think that Belichick wants his pupils to succeed, or does part of him... How evil do you think he is? I don't know. Is there a little part of him that's like, oh, let's let everyone know. It wasn't because of Charlie Weiss that I was winning those games or Josh McDaniels or Bill O'Brien or Romeo Cornell. It's all me, baby.

I'm glad they stink. No? A little bit. Yeah, I think you're right. I think it might be human nature to want credit for what you've done. O'Brien is the one guy just, it seems like he does get along with O'Brien. I don't think he would wish ill will and try to trade him a terrible Ryan Mallet. But I don't know.

I'm not that optimistic about the Bill O'Brien era. I think it's more likely that he sends Josh McDaniels out to Denver. And he's like, just take about two years, ruin that franchise. And then come back home. That was the one franchise that always beat the Patriots when they were at their best, Denver. Get them embroiled in a scandal, gets the owner. We're very mad. A couple lost draft picks, blow the place up, come back home.

We got a job waiting for you. Diabolical. What part of that plan involves the Broncos getting Peyton Manning? Well, that was years later. He sabotaged them. He got them out of the way for a bit. All right. Bill Belichick, clearly one of the biggest masterminds in NFL history.

Another one of those guys? Dennis Allen. Reggie McKenzie. The Oakland Raiders General Manager. He's making moves five steps ahead that no one even sees. He's like signing Matt Schaub to a lot of money and then sitting him down in practice because he has a sore elbow.

Let's move to the Packers and Raiders. What do we think of this, this Matt Schaubb Raiders quarterback fiasco? Well, I was watching this game at a local establishment and I believe one of the texts was Greg just saying, this is sad. It's just sad to watch him play. And Dennis Allen had the unmitigated goal

to tell reporters when asked Have you noticed MedShob's lack of arm strength? No, I haven't seen it. Of course, you want a liar. Exactly. That's a quick one. Dennis Allen.

Dennis Allen, in over his head, Reggie McKenzie has no idea. You can't let Reggie McKinsey ever pick up a quarterback again. You might not get the chance. It might have been the last one he picked up. I mean, he did take Carr and they did pick up McGloin. I like both of those guys better

in shop. I think that they're stuck in, and hopefully it won't last for long because they don't have time to mess around in some damage control. This is one of these myths. You spent the whole offseason hoisting shop up as this more than serviceable, this AFC West, you know, king, but it's just not true, and we know that. I'm going to defend Dennis Allen. It's not his job to be great with the media. Maybe he's not great with the media, I'll admit, and he lies a lot or whatever. Puffs people up. So do a lot of coaches. That's not really what I'm judging about. I think he's been given a bad hand. And now Shab, we're taping the show on Monday, missed his second straight practice with elbow tendonitis. Derek Carr is taking first team reps. Maybe this just works out

better for everyone. Maybe Carr is the weak one starter. When I heard Ian's report that Shob has elbow tendonitis, immediately, I just thought this is a face saving thing. To save face for Shob and for the organization, just get him out of the way with this. arm injury. Now, Ian said the plan is still for him to start week one. I'll believe that when I see it because you cannot let this guy play in an NFL game right now. He's going to get injured and he's going to, he might injure other people around him. That's what we said in the office this morning too, that something about it felt like an easy backdoor to get one of their younger quarterbacks on the field and let that guy. Why would Shab go along with that?

Because he saw how bad he played. I mean, he needs to walk away from the game for a while. T.D., what do you think here? You look like you got something to say my thing with quarterbacks as is you got to always be excited like there's nothing with the upside to start a match up there's no upside there put in a dairy car see what he gives you if not i mean where you go in a shop i personally thought they should have made me even play mcgloin yeah yeah mcloin still by the way a lot of people have been heading us up on twitter about this whole preseason MVP race really an idea that's taken hold i would say across america mcloin is absolutely in the mix i'm going to narrow it down to five or six individuals

that are in the mix for preseason MVP before the Thursday finale's got a chance. Mark Sanchez has a chance. Mark Sanchez in the mix. I think Travis Kelsey. Mark Ingram would be, ooh, I like Ingram. That's a good one. Although he doesn't get enough carries each game. He's only seven or eight.

How about Zach Mettenberger leading the league in passing? Super jock. Every time I see a lot of excitement, I mean, the preseason MVP award, it's really, the season's going to be a letdown after that. I don't know why we do the regular season. Let's talk about the Packers. They lost BJ Raji in this game. We learned afterwards it's to a torn biceps. He was going to play nose tackle for them.

How big a loss is BJ Raji? I don't think it's that big. I think he's a bigger name than what he's actually produced over the last few years. And when you look at the Packers, they have one of the deepest rosters in the NFL. They've got Josh Boyd ready to step in. They drafted a guy in the third or fourth round this year who's a nose tackle. They have an undrafted free agent named Mike Pennell. who has been nicknamed Baby Hainsworth in training camp.

They have some guys ready to step in. He didn't complete the conditioning test. That's not why. They were talking about him picking people up and just moving him off the line of scrimm. He was known just, like, as a big jerk. It's not like the Packers, like, went hard after getting B.J. Raji back on the roster this offseason. I mean, it happened.

Supposedly he was having a good camp. It's still not a good thing. For a team that's been so injury plagued over the last few years, they just traded worthy. It wasn't doing much for them. They've been so injury-plagued, and who's been more injury-plagued the past month? They lose Raji, Kolt Laerla. They're starting centers out for five to six weeks, J.C. Tredder. They lost Jared Aberdehras, a guy who was a good receiver prospect.

All these guys are already gone down. I think there's another guy who's been injured, too. They lost quite a bit. That's two starters with Tredder and Raji. So that's a big loss. It's basically what you're trying to avoid in the third week of the preseason, and them and the Rams had a bad week. Let's move on to the Panthers and Patriots.

My takeaway watching this game was not Patriots-related. It was Cam Newton that he didn't play very well. We learned after the game that he injured his rib. He's going to sit out practice this week. They are very optimistic. He'll be ready for week one. But didn't really get to do a lot of stuff in the preseason. Are we worried about Cam Newton heading into week one?

I am. He looked like he was too easy to sack. But this, you know, one thing thinking about that game, though, all this came after the injury. It's worth noting that he injured himself in the second drive. He wasn't moving well the week before. That's true. I mean, I don't know how you...

The accuracy problems, for instance. I mean, he suffered a pretty serious injury. He always says accuracy problem. Right, but he stayed in the game after the injury. It's just tough to evaluate a guy when he knows he's playing hurt. When you, if you go back and watch the Chiefs game, which week before is Wes says he, you know, maybe, oh, maybe in a month from now they're thinking his ankle would be better,

but he was not the same guy. they took part of his game out. He can't do what he could do. This is why, on the last show, I dropped the nugget. Don't go out and make this guy your fantasy quarterback. I liked it. Next year, fine. Last year, fine.

This year, uh-uh. Wow. I like that. Very prescient by you. Sessler is giving like a finger wave. I felt like we're on like the Mori show or something like that. It's almost McLeon-esque. What was going on there?

I was my version of McLeon, just, you know, a first-ever fantasy nugget that I've ever given. Just walked down the field and just say, Listen, I'm done. One other takeaway from this game, the Chandler-Jones-Byrin-Bel matchup tells us things about both players. Chandler Jones could be him for a breakout season.

If you look at some of Bill Belichick does a few things where he talks, he breaks down plays, and I saw this during the off-season, he mentioned Chandler Jones more than any other defensive player. He's that important to their defense. And Byron Bell, who the Panthers are playing at left tackle, just could not block Chandler Jones. That's a problem area for the Panthers.

Well, and they had really good success last year, lining up Chandler Jones as a defensive tackle, because even though he's a little lighter and lankier, they just couldn't handle him on the inside and his speed. So you got a guy that strong that can move inside, and now they're playing him an outside linebacker, too. I mean, that's, they haven't had a dynamic player up front like that, and I don't know. I'm trying to think. Two years in New England. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

They really haven't had a player. Exactly like that at all in the Belichick era. And Richard Seymour is certainly the last sort of dynamic, pass-rushing defensive linemen that they've had. That's a while. Get excited. Jimmy G., by the way, looked pretty good in his appearance. That long-suffering New England fan base,

it's been a long, it's been a long period. I would use the word harrowing. I get a sense they may be in for a little bit of a playoff run this year in New England. Good for them. They deserve it. Kelvin Benjamin, by the way, does look legit. Yes, very legit. That's one thing we've learned from the preseason.

I think you can single out some rookies and players you haven't seen too much in new places. I mean, he's got some strong hands. I don't know if that sounds weird. Perfect Cam Newton wide receiver because he's got a huge catch radius. A lot of the – Newton's numbers would have been terrible in that game if wasn't for Benjamin because he made three or four tough grabs with defenders draped all over. I thought he looked good when he was paired with Derek Anderson a couple weeks ago. That's what we might see come week one.

Yikes. Oh, my gosh. Let's move on from that then. Bucks and bills lighting up Americans all over the place. Let's start with E.J. Manuel. That's another thing we learned this preseason. One of the worst preseason by anyone. My takeaway listening to Doug Marone after this game where he just, you know,

and Doug Maron's got a short fuse sometimes, he just went off. on the crop of backup quarterbacks. But for me, the subtext included Manuel because what's the difference between manual and really any other quarterback on that roster? I think he's a lot better than those guys. He's a lot more talented. Dennis Dixon was second at quarterback in this game

and he's no longer on the team. Yeah, I mean, that tells you everything you need to know. I think they always wanted to have a Kevin Cobb type. I'm not saying Cobb's the answer, but he wanted a veteran that he could really trust. That didn't happen that got short-circuited last summer. They're going to pick someone up. They could have done that in the offseason.

Well, you're right. They did a terrible job managing this. The thing no one asks about the bill's offense and the bills in general is, are we sure that Paul Hackett's son Nathaniel, who's never coached truly at the NFL level, is ready to run an NFL offense? Why, you got to throw Paul Hackett in there? I'm just saying, like, that's Nathaniel Hackett's biggest credit at this point

is that he's Paul Hackett's son, right? which most people listening probably don't even know Paul Hackett is. Well, that's pretty much who he is. Yeah, the honeymoon for him will quickly be over. But I'm asking you, if you take, you got your little Josh McDaniels that you love so much, you put E.J. Manuel on the Patriots. That's fair. I mean, part of it is if you don't have a quarterback that can make the quick decisions

and the correct decisions, your offense is sunk. That's fair. I'm just saying Marone and Hackett as a combo. No one really asked the question, like, do these guys know how to coach at the NFL level? Their biggest credit is that they went six and five at Syracuse. I mean, that's not usually the resume that you, before you get to the NFL. It's a fair point. I mean, Marone had been in the NFL before, though.

Right, but never as a coordinate. Never really as a coordinated. Let's switch it over to the Bucks. You know who has a lousy NFL resume. Don't you try to take public transportation in Buffalo? You're going to get housed. I don't think they're going to take kindly to your comments. Really?

I don't think that was. I like that. that someone else would be their bad guy in a city. I'm always rooting for the bills and their fans, but someone's got to ask. Yeah, sounds like it. All right. They always, you know how I knew the Bill's fan base and some writers

that cover the team were crazy? Because they really, really sold Chan Galey and Buddy Knicks hard. Like, they're like, oh, they're really going to turn it around. And that was... Bo and Luke Duke? And I've just said that means you're going to sell everyone hard if you're selling those two guys hard.

Fair. Quit bullying the bills and let's get the Richie Incognito. Oh, look at that transition. Why are the Bucks working out, Richie Incognito? By the time people listen to this, there's a chance that they'll have signed them. We really don't know. It seems crazy. It's a bad idea.

It's not like that guy was even playing well last year. I guess for me, it tells me that the situation is so bad on that interior offensive line. And your quarterback that you went out and made a big deal out of with Josh McCown, who actually looks good when he's given some time to throw, is going to be gone. week four if you don't fix this up so you go go you don't you drop the character thing you want they they're going to do due diligence they want to bring him to make sure he's not a total headcase you are looking for something that's an upgrade that is desperate though yes it is miss made it sound like monday afternoon that everybody was making too big of a deal out of it and they're very good

chance they won't sign i don't think it's too big of a deal to make uh i don't think we're making too big of a deal about it this guy seems like a sociopath yeah what is it just shows that talent is all that matters in the NFL, because he's not even that talented. You just look at him and think, well, maybe he's a slightly below-average starter. And if that improves us that little much, like, we'll give him a chance. Who cares? I mean, there will be a flock of guards released in the next couple of days where they can decide incognito is not the guy. Yeah.

Flock of guards. I like that band. Let's move on to the Jaguars and Lions. Blake Bordels, the fever continues. We all are loving us some Blake Bordels this preseason. I thought he might be in for like a letdown game against first team defense, and he looked as well as he has all preseason. This guy is the goods.

He's the real deal. And I, you know, I got on Jacksonville for clinging to this Chad Henney narrative. I think they're actually in a really good situation. I think they're going to do the right thing. I think Bortles will start sooner than they ever anticipated. And that's because they didn't know what he would, they didn't know this is how he's going to look. Any team that is looking for a quarterback

and suddenly sees this happening in the preseason, you have got to roll with it. Yeah, they showed so much confidence in him and he showed confidence in himself when they started his first drive on the five-yard line in the two-minute drill with no timeouts and only, I think, like a minute 10. And they were just like, go for it.

and he moved them right down the field despite a couple penalties that set them back, set him up for points and had a couple just lasers. I can't believe he wasn't known for a big arm. Like, that was actually a criticism of him that he didn't have like a plus arm. Nothing wrong with that arm. No, it's impressive.

He even tried the damn Reno fake spike. That was good. That's right. He's got some onions. Yeah, he has that like... Can we get a body language on Blake Moro's TD? All right, I was going to jump in on this because before the draft on a DDFP, I gave a little take,

and I wasn't high on boarders' body language, because he was a little bit, like, too calm, you know, not really high or low, just kind of, like, straight. But from what I've seen of him, like his arm, for example, and the fact that he does have some cahunis there, like, hey, a guy like that, it's his play that improves his body language. Guys, like, oh, he can actually play. I can buy that.

I can hang out with him, you know? Watching this game, and I know that they must believe in Henney in terms of probably how he prepares, and that they can trust him on that level, but it was 28 minutes of Chad Hennie in a lifeless Jaguars offense. In 84 seconds at the end of the first half, Bortles came in, led a scoring drive, generated excitement, started making connections and chemistry with his wideouts.

This is what you're asking your young quarterback to do. I don't know how they can go with Hennie for more than a week or two. Right, and two or three of those throws in that drive were throws that a lot of starting quarterbacks either don't pull the trigger on or they just can't make it all. like beautiful passes over the top of his own, but you have to throw it with a lot of velocity or else it doesn't get there in time. Yeah, he's 28 of 44.

He's 28 of 44 over the preseason, 435 yards in a touchdown, a pass rating of 103.9. This is what people thought, oh, this is how we're going to be talking about Mansell, or if not him, Teddy Bridgewater, and if not him, someone else. No one thought this about Bortles.

And it's, it is him. The Jaguars did. He couldn't be happier for the Jaguars. How about undrafted rookie Alan Hearns? Seven or eight catches over 100 yards? He looks legit. Also looking good in this game. You gave Reggie Bush some grief last week.

I did. You can apologize now. I was wrong. And he looks fast, like just as fast as he did early last year. And it wasn't even the 86-yard touchdown or however long it was. It was the pitch, a couple of plays before that or the play before that. I thought he looked like he was shot out of a cannon. Reggie Bush looks really good to me.

All right, moving on to the biggest game of the week, the Snoopy Bowl. Let's talk about the Giants' offense to start. We have a pretty good body of work because they've played four preseason games. It seemingly gets worse every week, although they did finish up their half of play with a good drive. Do you expect this Giants' offense to be dead on arrival or at least not play very well early in the season? I think they'll be one of the 10 worst offenses in the NFL. They were last year, too. There are teams without quarterbacks, and Eli, maybe you can have a little more faith in him than Chad Haney and Matt Castle.

I don't know. Matt Castle is borderline. But, yeah, I might take Castle over him. I was not buoyed by this performance just because they scored before halftime. They look miserable for six or seven drives before them. I think it will. We saw last year a couple offenses in Kansas City and others where it was until later in the year they started to develop their chemistry. They talked about New York's offensive line as being a really bad fit for this.

scheme and the wide receiver is a better fit. But I think it takes a while if you're a new guy that comes in to get the players that actually do what you need them to do. It's not going to happen in four or five weeks here. I mean, it's going to be slow. Gino Smith played well in this game. He will be the week one starter. That quote unquote competition never really took off the ground. The whole preseason was a little blah. Any takeaways about the Jets offense in general from the last month? Chris Johnson. made some people miss the other night. He looks faster to me than he did last year.

There's a little more life in his legs. Chris Ivory looks good. This could be a good rushing attack. See, Dan Hansis hopefully will listen to this at some point. He thinks we're biased against his New York Jets team. Decker and Gino just missed on a few plays, too. That looks like that could be a good connection. They were this close to hitting a few plays.

I'm willing to give another. I want to see Gino get another full season and let's see what he can do. I mean, remember when Greg Kosell came on the podcast last year? He said, I like him a lot among the rookie quarterbacks. And one thing I think we also don't do, he takes shots downfield, he's not scared to. He had zero weapons around him last year, deserves another chance. He knows how to slide, too. By the way, if Dan, if you are listening, Dan and I did have a go get my sandwich bet for the podcast

on whether Richie Uncognito would ever play in the NFL again. It's not over yet, Dan. It's not over yet, but I'm not really happy. about that. Before we move on, just we'll mention quickly, Dimitri Patterson, who was supposedly going to start in New York for the Jets. At one point this offseason, when AWOL for a couple days, Rex Ryan said on Monday, he's never been in a situation where a player just didn't show up for the game. He returned to the team Sunday night, and they're considering a suspension.

He is on a suspension, rather, and they're not sure how long it's going to be. So weird. Manish Maeda of the New York Daily News reported Monday afternoon that the reason Patterson went AWOL is because he was unhappy with his place on the depth chart. He had been moved down

because he's been suffering through these calf and leg injuries. Well, it's a weird way to handle it and I think the one thing that was brought up a couple of times was, you know, especially with a guy like Rex Ryan, can they trust this guy?

They're about to go into the rough and tumble situation of week one through week 17 and I'm not sure he's going to be around for long. The cornerback situation was already dire there. And now it's gotten worse throughout the preseason with injuries, with Patterson. It's a problem. I'm going to break a little bit of news to you guys.

All right. This may shock you. But we're a little behind on time so far during the show. Imagine that. We've talked too much. So we've still got a bunch of games left. Let's try to go through some of the remaining games a little quicker. Let's start with Seattle and Chicago.

Mark Sessler was just going crazy, getting excited watching the Seattle. One thing, everyone, and this is fair, we all look at the preseason and say it doesn't matter, you know, teams don't need to do X, Y, and Z. And then there's Pete Carroll that basically says, I'm going to win these games, and I'm going to drop a hammer on every team that comes into this stadium. And they are fun to watch. And that's what they... You don't beat the Seahawks in that stadium, preseason, postseason, regular season, it doesn't matter. But it's also about... They are flying around. It's great.

And their philosophy doesn't change, whether it's a practice in the middle of May or June. or you're on the field in the middle of January, and other teams can't get that same thing done. It's a little bit shameful to see how other teams operate compared to the Seahawks. It's a fever pitch. They just fly around. You guys are right.

That game was never close. Russell Wilson has looked outstanding. I know it's been the preseason, but he's hit a number of throws that were, if Blake Bortles or someone like that was making him, we would just be saying how he looked like the second coming. Maybe Russell Wilson's ready for a little. Nobody's ever going to call him a game manager again.

It was silly to call him that in the first place. You should go read, Bucky Brooks on our site wrote a very interesting article about what he's already seen from Seattle's passing game and has a lot to do with Percy Harvin and how they're using him and others that they're going to expand the passing game that Russell Wilson is not going to be viewed the same way four months from now. Harvin looks awesome. And I throw a sexy deep ball.

Wrong podcast. Still a great. I had to. Still a great pull. Germaine Curse looks good. too. He's got a little bit of size. Looks like Wilson's favorite red zone weapon. Bears didn't look ready to play.

Jimmy Closson continued his solid preseason. He has officially won the backup job and Jordan Palmer can go back. I guess the coaching. Seems like he could be a good quarterback coach for his future. Kevin Patron next time you're in L.A., I will have my sandwich. Oh, what

happened there? I told him there's no way Jordan Palmer was going to make that roster. He said, well, that was before they signed Jimmy Clausen and Who knows what would happen once you sign a quarterback of Claussen's caliber? Dolphins and Cowboys, I watched this one, didn't have a lot of big takeaways. The Dolphins have had a pretty boring preseason. No Sean Moreno looked better than I expected.

The Cowboys' defense looked exactly like I expected. They talked yesterday that Moreno may be in play for, they didn't rule them out as the starting running back. I think no matter what happens, he and Lamar Miller will split time pretty equally. Like the Cowboys' Offensive Line, for instance, struggled in this game, and it's one of those things where I don't take too much from it, because I think that's a great offensive line on paper. Or what? Henry Hodgson would like us to believe.

That says a lot more about the Dolphins' pass rush. Maybe. They've got one of the best pass rushers in the league in Cameron Wake. Olivier Vernon hit a big hit on Romo. Yep. Dionne Jordan suspended to start the year. Oh, wait, that's... We don't even include him anymore.

What's he do? He's in the mix. He's just hanging around. Top five pick from a year ago. Man, that draft is going to turn out to be brutal. Terrible. Wait, the first three picks right now,

Fisher, Jokal, and Jordan. Oh, that's brutal. Lane Johnson, who's suspended right now. Who's number five? That's terrible. Jonathan Cooper's up there, and he's benched for Ted Larson. Number seven is like the son of the unabomber.

I mean, come on. It's a bad list. Redskins and Ravens. Everyone was talking about how Robert Griffin, the third looked after this game. Chris, you started off the office. season saying Robert Griffin the 3rd was going to be your comeback player of the year, favorite, any change of heart here.

Yeah, I ditch that car on the side of the road. TD, get a Charles Barkley quote ready because RG3 looked terrible. Oh, wow. Just terrible. What, uh, do we really think, though, that from the preseason, is that big a deal? He looks like he doesn't know how to play quarterback. That's how he looks. He's hesitant to do everything.

He's not even beating linebackers and defensive backs to the edge when he scrambles. I mean, he's also in a scheme change. Does that have something to do? I'm sure that it has a lot to do. It probably has everything to do with it. I think his head was messed with last year. I don't want to make too much of that, but it's like it may take some time for him. His footwork is off on his throwing motion, which I think is a huge problem,

and it got off last year and has not been back on track. Well, he's known as a guy without great fundamentals, and I guess that's Gruden's task to build those. up. You've got tons of weapons around him. So to me, the margin of error for him is actually pretty big because I think Robert, I think RG3 could play mediocre and still wind up with pretty good numbers because of all those guys around him. This, Greg, is the argument, and this is going to happen next spring, and you're going to bump against this, but I'm going to suggest that we don't write an article on the website for like four or five months. And I'm

going to tell you why, because everything coming out of Washington, right? And I'm not referring into the comeback. You mean don't write any articles about RG3, not like don't write any articles on the site at all? Maybe any article on the site, because everything is fluff and mythology. All we heard out of Washington was how amazing RG3 looked. 2012 form.

But be fair, everything we're talking about right now could be mythology. That's true. If he comes out, week one is 21 for 27, 27, 27, 27, and three touchdowns, then we should apologize for this. But the best evidence we have are three games. Okay. That's the only evidence that we have

And what we're seeing is disturbing. My one Ravens takeaway? Yeah. The demise of Steve Smith greatly exaggerated. He has looked good. He looks tall and he looks good. You love this guy. And he caught a diving touchdown out of the back of the end zone

was the best highlight of the weekend, I thought. This guy looks good. A lot of people are hitting me up on Twitter, actually, that Steve Smith does look taller in Ravens. That's what I'm talking about. They support you. Saints and Colts, that would be a fun Super Bowl. was a fun Super Bowl.

It would be a fun Super Bowl. The Colts weren't a bad team. They got a fun quarterback. The Saints played the night after Seattle, and Seattle had a perfect game. New Orleans' starters had just about a perfect game. It was 21-10 at halftime, but their defense had tons of pressure on Andrew Luck, and Drew Breeze looked like he hadn't missed any games. He looked awesome. The offense looked totally ready for the regular season. And Breeze didn't even have Brandon Cooks for this game.

Right, and he only played a quarter. He left after a couple touchdown drives because this was his first preseason game. Ingram looked good again. Marcus Colston looked good. Marcus Colston looks better than he did last year. Ingram looks phenomenal. I haven't seen a better running back this month.

I just, again, though, and I don't want to keep hitting this, but it's like you've got Sean Payton and the same quarterback and a lot of the same parts in place for so long that the preseason does not present the challenges for New Orleans that it does for some other teams where they are right now. And as they should, they look awesome. But they're also our Super Bowl picks, so I think that we're not just saying they're good in preseason.

Reggie Wayne returned from his torn ACL. That's something to watch. You know, I had one target in the game. He didn't catch it. He's a 35-year-old that everyone thinks is just going to step back in and be a big factor. I don't know. I mean, if Reggie Wayne comes back and has 500 yards this season

and there's a controversy about him not starting by the end of the year, I wouldn't be that surprised just because that's what happens to 35-year-olds coming off torn ACLs. I would expect Hakeem Nix, they have a better year than Reggie Wing. I agree with that. Bikings and Chiefs, my boy, Matt Castle, officially named the starter on Monday after what was his worst preseason performance of the last three weeks. Although he did have a nice touchdown drive to start the game after that.

A lot of pressure didn't look so good. Alex Smith did not look good in this game. We worried at all about the Chief's offense. I'm worried about their offensive line. and it seemed like Alex Smith was on the run all game. He was. Their offensive line has been abominable. It's been one of the worst groups,

an offense or defense for any team in the league this month. And it's not really a surprise. We were worried about that offensive line all offseason. And I think one of the other more disturbing things is every time you watch the Chiefs in the preseason, Travis Kelsey barely plays with the first team offense. Even though he's a much-needed playmaker for them, Fasano isn't really helping that offense.

They did have a three-tight-end set. at one point early with the starters that included Kelsey, but it was only those sort of plays that he's getting in on. They just don't have enough weapons. Their defense looked good. They do have a lot of players on defense. Their defense looked good. They still have issues in the secondary,

but they can definitely get after the passer. And we've got to move on, but Wes and I and Mark were talking today. I don't know. I think Vikings as a potential team of ATL, they got some late momentum, surprisingly. They are fun to watch. Anthony Barr looks like the real deal.

I think I need to see two-minute teddy at quarterback, though. I can't get behind Matt Castle. I like Minnesota. I like Minnesota. I think a whole bunch of teams. I've never liked Minnesota, and I like Minnesota. A whole bunch of teams around the league that have not gotten a right at the coaching spot for a long time. Or thinking, hmm, maybe we should have hired Mike Zimmer half a decade ago. That's a good point.

49ers and Chargers. Chargers looked okay on offense. They looked good. 49ers offense struggled again. Callan Kaepernick, rough preseason. Well, I think their line is, I have issues with their line right now. Kaepernick got hit three times, four times I think it was. And one time when he was on the run, he took a hard hit.

I mean, they just, they look untracked. This offense is one I'm not worried about, even though they have preseason struggles. I have total trust in their brain trust. Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman, I think, are great at what they do. We always talk about vanilla schemes and not showing anything in the preseason. I don't think the 49ers are showing anything right now. And we know in the regular season,

they don't get enough credit for this. They're one of the most creative offenses in terms of multiple positions. They're not doing anything with that now. That's true, but they're missing Glenn Dorsey, missing Alden Smith, missing Navarra Bowman. There's some concern maybe the team sick of hearing Jim Harbaugh's message a little bit. I don't know. I think they could be headed for a fall.

Let's wrap up with that. That excites you. It does. Screw the 49ers. Wow. Bengals Cardinals. Last game of the week, not a lot of huge takeaways here, but how about the Cardinals' receiver situation? I had a huge takeaway.

Larry Fitzgerald looked like Super Bowl Larry Fitzgerald. Last year, he just wasn't that guy with the hamstrings in the year before that. He was catching past 10 feet over his head from Ryan Lindley and John Skelton, those guys. I think he has, I've been here and talked that Michael Floyd will be the number one. There's no way. Larry Fitzgerald's better. Larry Fitzgerald's better than Michael Floyd. John Brown looks dynamite

I mean Floyd and Fitzgerald They'll be on the field together What's number one anyways in a wide receiver spot I mean they'll both be on the field It's one of the better duos in the league And John Brown is one of the few Offseason hype bunnies That we say wait a minute

This guy lived up to it I'm excited about all those fluff pieces we wrote Because he's doing it Offseason hype bunnies I liked it That's a Jim Reinalkin term That honestly should be a feature next year Offseason hype bunnies.

And we choose our height bunnies. Editor downstairs, the Rhino King, Jim Rhino King, who uses hype bunnies religiously in the off season and John Brown fit the mold. You know how we know he's made it. They had Pittsburgh without an H highlights, Pittsburgh State highlights or whatever it's called on Sunday night football. It was like grainy film.

Bruce Ariens told Peter King Monday that John Brown, he guesses, will play 60% of the offensive snaps. that's pretty good get excited not good news for Ted Gint no well whatever it's good news for America

and maybe good news for the Cardinals as a potential team of ATL because I still like them not happening all right that wraps up we got through 15 games and Bradford's injury

we did okay a little long but hey we're going to be back on Wednesday with our NFC preview Mark are you what are you going to do immediately after work right now

can you sleep I got tagged with that Water Bucket Challenge thing from a family member. No, it's for a family member my uncle, Uncle Bob, I'm going to do it in my backyard with my children

watching on and I'm going to post that thing somewhere in the social landscape. More importantly, who are you challenging? You're going to find out, and you know what? You just put yourself on the radar, you just put yourself on the radar.

That was a terrible move. For all the listeners, you don't have to send me any tweets to do the Ice Bucket Challenge. I've been challenged about five times over the last two days and I have been remiss, but I'm going to have Mark dump some water on me later.

Yeah, we're going to do a double ice bucket challenge. Wow. I regret asking now what you're doing now. You're in trouble too, buddy. It's all your fault, Greg. It's all along you. All right. For Mark Sessler and Chris Wesleyan, I'm Greg Rosenthal.

We will be back here on Wednesday. We'll see you then. This is an IHeart podcast.