NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Biggest Position Battles

Episode Date: July 20, 2015

A room filled with heroes -- Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and NFL Now's Colleen Wolfe -- discuss the latest NFL news including reported interest in Reggie Wayne (4:11) and reaction to Khalil Mack topping the "Making the Leap" list (14:00). The heroes then discuss the eight most intriguing camp battles heading into the season (19:25).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 is down with the get down. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. I'm Greg Rosenthal sitting in for Dan Handis, and I'm surrounded by a room full of heroes, Mark Sessler, Colleen Wolf, and Chris Wessling back from vacation. Good to be back. I mean, literally right back from vacation.

Right from the airport. It was a bit of an adventure. Yeah, I've been here since Thursday. I just haven't left the studio. Chris rolls in like a complete hero today. I feel like I'm about 40% today. I mean, you're coming straight from the plane. You lost your lunch on the plane, we hear.

You had a long week in Cincinnati and Tybee Island. I did. Some highlights. Cincinnati is a much-neater city. The first time I've realized this since I've moved away, much-needer city over the last 10th. years. Neither, like, cooler or neither clean?

There's so many more things to do. I had two of the best dinners I've had ever in my life. What did you have? A tri-tip sandwich from a place called Tafts Alehouse that was phenomenal. They talk about this place in San Luis Obispo that has these famous tri-tips, not even close. This is the PG version of your trip, though. Well, wait, something you've eaten did not agree with you. Yeah, something I ate last night came back to haunt me on the plane.

Tybee was great. Were you on the aisle and you could quick. get up and go to the men's room? I was by the window and I had to get the whole row up. That's embarrassing. Wes is an incomplete fever dream scenario right now. Wes, he's straight from the flight.

He took connecting flights today. He's fighting through pain. He shows right up. It's great to have him back. We will have Dan back for Thursday's show. We're taping a day earlier than we told you about today. Monday and Thursday this week. Hopefully you'll get back to three shows a week next week.

I mean, but it's good to see you. It's good to be back. It's good. I mean, it feels like... Well, I never really know if I'm going to come back when I go to Tybee. Well, you also had good news during your break. Well, that's true. Do you feel any closer to leaving the NFL media company after this trip?

No, I don't think my body can physically handle living on Tyby. I mean, it just... Sounds like a great time. It was incredibly awesome. And, you know, you go around... If you're only there for a weekend, everybody I see is just, you know, bear hugs and smiles. It's just awesome. You also mentioned you heard.

heard good news on your trip because you listened to our letters from the future, which was a very popular segment. Thank you for all your feedback on that. And you found out that you're still hanging out with Mark in 25 years at the local bar. I like that the alien invasion has not prevented us in any way from doing what we do. Well, like I was saying, much to the dismay of probably my entire family, we are still downing beers at a seaside bar roughly 30 years from now. I am still wondering about the visitation and why it's snowing in L.A.

but, you know, I'm just glad the whaler is still here. Yeah, I mean, we can only go off what we got in the letter, and it was very vague, so I'm with you. Maybe future letters will spell that out for us. We'll see. Who knows? Colleen, how was your weekend? It was great.

My sister's in town, so spent some time with her. She's coming off of a road trip with somebody that she met in Bali and Australia. Yeah. Well, you know what they say? No one parties like the Wolf's sisters. That's right. So, TD, back behind the glass. Are you planning to leave the show within?

the first five minutes this time i am here for the show guys just uh sipping on some very berry tea from starbucks and uh sat over some more disturbing russellus and twas and cair you got endorsements now yeah product placement try if you have anything you want to jam into the show right now i'll give you the chance before i ask you to start the news just more disturbing russellson tweets i'm not even going to talk about that just going to move on but just hanging here with uh co-piler brandon just chilling that's good all right let's do some news And before we get to the news, we will point out, this is a big show.

We're going to talk a little position battles later in the show. We're going to tape some of that. That'll be up on NFL now and NFL.com. But let's start first with Reggie Wayne. Not a lot of huge news out there. There was a report this weekend that a number of teams were showing interest in the former Colts receiver, Patriots, Raven, Texas Packers. Some teams have now put out there through reporters that they are not that interested.

Do we expect to see Reggie Wayne in 2015? I do. I think that, you know, of course he's lost a step, but I think the injuries, you know, as we talked about last year, he had three or four injuries he was playing with and he just wasn't the same guy. If he's healthy, why not give him a kick the tires a little bit? See what happens.

I mean, if you're Bill Belichick and you've admired Wayne for his entire career, isn't that perfect type of New England signing? And fans hate that every time anyone is available, Of course, we matched him with the Patriots, but the New England does this kind of thing. And is he better than, I don't know, Brian Timbs or someone like that? We don't know. He was not healthy last season.

Yeah, and you look at, yeah, he's coming off the surgery for the torn triceps, and he also had some elbow issues, but that really contributed to why he didn't put up a lot of good numbers last year. And rosters like the Ravens, they could use just, if anything, just somebody a serviceable backup, if anything else. And that fits because he's not going to. going to want to go play for a team that's, you know, staring down a five-win season. He wants to win.

That's true, but I think he'll play, he wants to play and he's not going to have options. I think his 80-yard catch in week 17 against the Titans really stands out to me is one of the sadder plays you'll see because he couldn't run anymore. He got an 80-yard catch out of the play, but he couldn't move. And I just thought there, like, are we watching the last play, essentially the last significant play of Reggie Wayne's career. I don't think he's going to be back. It's a bad sign this report came out.

And then within hours, both the Texans and Patriots, there were local reporters saying they don't have any interest. Totally dismissing the concept I just had. Well, who knows? Maybe that reporter's wrong. You know, people are off. I wouldn't shock me maybe if he signed after week one when the contracts aren't guaranteed.

Wait, the hidden story here, is it not bad for the Titans that a guy who can't run scored an 80-yard touchdown on them? Well, he was always. He was open by like 50 yards or something crazy like that, and he couldn't move down. I think he's going to really start that clock to Canton. Do we think Reggie Wayne's a Hall of Famer, if it is, is it? I feel like this debate has coming up every year over Twitter for the past five years, and I specifically remember an Andre Johnson versus Reggie Wayne debate,

and I think Johnson was a much, much better player. I don't think it's close. I think Reggie Wayne will have a decent chance, though, if you kind of compare him to Tim Brown. He gets in and Steve Smith doesn't. I'm going to be incredibly upset. All that Hall of Fame Jones. I'm going to renew my threat. It just depends who's out there, though.

Cameron Hayward, you know it's a little thin right now. These are really kind of the last shows we're doing. And these are the shows where we make our money. I mean, I was proud of Thursday's show. We did Letters from the Future. That was great. Yeah, it was fun. We did senior superlatives.

We're just baking things up out of thin air. Let's be honest, because there's no news right now. We're about a week away from training camp happening. There was some news, though, on Friday. It was late Thursday night, really. Cameron Hayward signed a six-year deal with the Steelers just quickly. You know, he's getting almost $10 million per season. They've been looking for guys to kind of build around on defense.

Cameron Hayward's clearly a guy that they feel they can build around. Yeah, I mean, they kind of had to keep him considering all the losses that they endured during the off season. You look at just from a continuity standpoint, they sort of need him to be there to keep the guys that are there together. Yeah, go. Their best defensive player is Lawrence Timmons, who, you know, you look up and all of a sudden he's entering his ninth or tenth season. He's no longer a young guy. I think they're going to build around Cameron Hayward and Ryan Chazier. He's one of the few guys that, you know, produced in terms of sacks last season, he can rush the passer.

And it's hard, and that defense relies on that. And they don't have, you know, there's a massive transition happening there. I didn't realize how well he played at the end of the season. He ended up with seven and a half sacks, 12 QB hits, and 38 hurries, which is big production. for a 3-4 defense event, and most of it was in the last half of the season. Reminds me a little bit of Jason World, who came on at the end of his rookie contract. The Steelers have been known to develop these defensive guys slowly. I mean, that's what they used to do, and they don't really have as many of those guys now.

Hayward's a guy they like. Timons is now, it's weird to think, but he's the big veteran guy there. All the big names are gone. They need other guys, and we'll talk about that a little later, Jarvis Jones, they have a rookie bud to pre i mean they need some other people to step up it's a good thing their offense is going to score about 35 points a game it's the bizarro stealers a totally mediocre defense and a great offense uh another great offense of course my new england patriot i mean they just been rolling through uh julian edelman had some quotes this weekend that you uh you don't want

a mad tom brady that tom brady right now is a little bit ticked off and if you're an opponent That's not the kind of Tom Brady you want to see. Do you think this sort of off season stuff, a ticked off Tom Brady that he's upset makes any difference in the world? Zero. I think he plays every game like he's pissed off. Yeah. I mean, he's already one of the most hyper-competitive people to ever play in the NFL.

I mean, I think it matters a little bit with a guy like Adrian Peterson, where he is, seems like a house on fire. Brady, you're absolutely right. I mean, remember him coming down the tunnel at the Super Bowl? It's no different than week three. That was the same dude. Goose pimples. We've seen him look really angry on the sidelines when things aren't going right.

But to me, this quote, it's just like, uh-oh, Tom Brady's angry. Better watch out for the Patriots. Well, okay, great. Yeah, I mean, you're going to watch out for them anyway. He's just good. That's the problem for the other team, not that he's angry. He is always angry, though, and I think keeping that edge is what a lot of great players do to stay great. And there is something, I don't think the fact that he's angry is going to make them any better

necessarily, but I do think it's not a bad thing for this Patriots team and Tom Brady coming off a title that felt like a coronation, like the title, the final thing that they were trying to get in this whole Brady-Belgic era, that this story, that fighting back against the flakey, it gives them something different. Okay, here's something different. We just won a Super Bowl. If there was any chance of even getting a little complacent, this season is totally different and we can kind of separate that and be pissed off about that. Well, I know the league would rather, none of this ever happened because it takes the opener and completely sideswipes that. But the idea that the schedule makers, without knowing what was going on,

have this thing lined up where he could come back on national TV against of all teams, the cults, I mean, it all feels absolutely fictionalized on some point. The Colts are a team we think could be racking up some big numbers this year. Really, the team like that that we thought would be breaking all the records over the last few years was the Denver Broncos. Thomas was quoted during his press conference after his contract was signed that he still wants to be breaking records, that his goal now is to break 2,000 yards, is to break the all-time receiving record in a season. This comments stuck out to me.

I'll ask you guys if it stuck out to you in any way. It did, just because I wonder if he can do it with Gary Kubiak there now and the system that they're running. I think any other year, yeah, he would have a chance with Peyton and Demarius, them together. They're great. but now with Gary Kubiak in there, I don't know. I think he makes some good points that he was basically unproductive the first three games of last year when he was playing through a foot injury. So if not for that, he could have flirted with it last year.

But the big question to me, I think the biggest question in the NFL is which Peyton Manning are we going to see this year? Yeah, and he really had about 100 yards over the first three weeks, and if you tabulate out what he would have done, if it was the way he finished the year, because he had something like 230 in week four. But to Colleen's point, it's not that offense anymore. It's not that offense, and it's maybe not that quarterback.

And, like, they are going to run the ball, and that's what Kubiak's always done. It's still, Kubiak had Matt Schaub for many years. He did not have Peyton Manning, if Peyton Manning is the guy we know. So it's going to be a mesh of what he's been and what the Broncos were as well. I mean, if he did break 2,000 yards, that might be the greatest individual season of all time, because 1,900 of them is going to have to be after the catch, because all Peyton Manning does is throw him those little bubble screens or whatever and make him go run. Well, Reggie Wayne can go for.

80 yards, so can this guy. He's not catching deep passes for Peyton Manning. At least he hasn't been. That was to Tebow's territory. 39-year-old quarterbacks aren't known for taking bold chances down the field and throwing balls into tight windows. Yeah, I think it's going to be a totally different scene. I think fantasy owners are adapting to that.

They're going to draft Emmanuel Sanders to Marius Thomas a little later. I mean, you're taking them, Colleen? You have fantasy? I don't know, because, no, the thing for me is CJ Anderson. because everybody has him ranked really high, and I don't know if I'm putting him as, like, number eight on my board. The same people were putting Monte Ball number eight on their board players, too. Right. What is that?

And Ronnie Hillman the year before that. I'm not touching. I mean, Emmanuel Sanders, that's the thing why, another reason why Thomas, I mean, I would say over under, under 1,500 yards, just because that's hard to do. And Emmanuel Sanders is on the team. Thomas is a better player, but they're kind of one-in-one. it's not like I see Thomas and Sanders

as two totally, totally different players. Another guy we think we'll have a big year this year is Khalil Mack. And we'll wrap up our news just with a quick note that Khalil Mack was our number one player on our Making the Leap series, the award-winning production on many continents. It's a big international box office hit.

Has wrapped up for the 13th. Mark tried to get it shut down at one point. Well, less work in the summer. Well, you're, let's be on it. I enjoyed it this line. You were a little shell-shocked from some of your players last year. Some of all of our players didn't play as well as you would have hoped. And it felt like you took it personally.

Well, I had some tomato cans thrust on me. Oh, stop. No, write 10,000 words about this shell of an individual. Really? We were pushing the Jaguars 2014. I don't remember how it went down, but it did not feel just. Wow, so you campaigned against this actively? Well, it was not so much actively because that would have angered, Greg.

It was subtle. It was like, maybe we can do without. But I was wrong, obviously. One thing Mark is not great at is being subtle. How did Dan get out of it? Whatever little kernels he's dropping. I was getting up on it. Dan got out of it with a 10-day vacation,

teared along with his pain rankings. So he put a lot of work into the pain rankings. So he got out of making a leap. Mark quickly backtracking from that. Yeah, Mark, Dan was doing his pain rankings. That's seven big features in a row. That countdown continues this week. Number three, two, and one being unveiled Tuesday through Thursday.

Dan will be back on Thursday's show. And so we'll have a full feign-paying ranking discussion then. Dan gets stuck doing pop culture things every once in a while. So I feel like that balances the ledger out a little bit. Get stuck. That's his thing. That's how you'd view it. And that's potentially how I was.

I was just sticking up for you, Dan. You're saying you don't want to write the Marshawn Lynch playing kickball. I don't know what that means. When you were gone last week. Why would anybody write about a guy playing kickball? Was the number one story? on the site by far. That does not surprise.

Shout out to Manuk, who wrote that up. I like it when a story takes like three minutes to write and then it gets all the clicks. All right. That's it for news today. Actually, wait, let's get a couple thoughts. Just quickly on making the leap. If you had any sort of takeaways after doing everything this season, was there any surprise that you had, anyone that got left off, any thoughts?

I think the most interesting is who got left off. And one guy who we almost shoehorned in after the proceedings already started was Alan Robinson of the Jaguars who drew raves all throughout spring and I liked his rookie year tape a lot. So you wanted to add, if you could do another player on Making the Leap, you would add? I would add Alan Robinson. Well, the one good year that Rob Ryan had coaching in the last half a decade, we correctly picked him as a Making the Leap candidate in New Orleans.

And I always like to do a coach. The same year I did Dennis Allen making a leap. There you go. Wow. That started the softball pants. That's disturbing. I mean, we didn't do a coach this time. We all stayed away from that.

Last try I picked Gus Bradley. That was an absolute tire fire. So, though. Well, that was tough for you because it's, I don't know if you've ever been to Mark's bedroom, Colleen. I never have. Probably not. There would be no reason for that. I was just going to add anyone here.

It's weird. Mark actually has, to start every season, 32 different posters on the ceiling of all the offensive of coordinators in the league. And then as the season goes along, he slowly takes them off one by one. That's how much he loves the coordinators. Because Greg has been, you've been there. You know.

Somehow this is our making the leave takeaway. Listen, not a coordinator. A head coach that I think we miss the boat on. Because this is a huge hype-filled boat, and it's the Minnesota Vikings boat, not that boat, a different boat. There's a lot of boats. That's a lot of votes.

It's got Mike Zimmer. How about him? I think Mike Zimmer should have been our making a leap coaching candidate because I think the stars are finally aligned against a lot of Vikings. We had three Vikings on it as is. Anthony Barr, who let's be honest, if I did it again, I wouldn't have put him number three. I like Anthony Barr. I would have put some of my guys, like Jason Verrett, I would put him in the top five.

I think he's got to. Well, he only rose up because you yourself were on a break and came back. Well, he was going to be number five. We were moving pieces up because we didn't, you know. It's got to be number five. Yeah, that's a little peek behind the curtain. But, yeah, Zimmer could be. Well, we almost chose him just because we have so many Vikings.

If all these are correct, if we're saying we're right, then you've got a bunch of good players. You've got Adrian Peterson back, Mike Wallace, you've got Norv Turner. Is Mike Wallace on the list? No. He's not made. In unison. This team is definitely trending toward team of ATL. I have a problem because I agree with all that and I like, I want to root for the Vikings.

And yet they have that thing where they have that thing where they, They're the team now that is trendy, and then I immediately am repulsed by that. How about the Cardinals? Warring facts. I always like the Cardinals. Well, Teddy Bridgewater came out, and he was like, we're not as good as you guys are saying. And you're instilling Green Bay's division, by the way. Right.

So, well, that's making the leap, 2000. Any takeaways from Colleen? Guys, I think he did a great job. Solid work. Yeah. Is it potentially the last year that we do it in your mind? I don't know what the right answer is. We're definitely going to do it again.

Top 20, you know, it was... On it goes. We're going to do it. I really like Verrett. I mean, I like when you start to like players a little more. I mean, you automatically start to like players a little more if you throw them on there. Tyrone Crawford's headed for defensive rookie of the year. I mean, player of the year.

Wow. I'm just kidding. That's not really going to happen. All right. Let's get to our position battles segment. All right, we're going to go through eight of the most intriguing position battles. across the league. Let's start with Colleen. No surprise, really, where you're going to go to start. I know, I know. I have to. But come on, this is a big one. The Eagles quarterback battle.

You look at the quarterbacks that they have now. It looks like a boy band, essentially. But you have Mark Sanchez and you have San Bradford up at the top. Now, for anyone watching on NFL now or on NFL.com, we're doing a video of this. For some reason, our producers put Matt Barkley and Tim Tebow as part of the group. Well, they're completest. They've gone the whole roster. How are they part of the battle? I mean, you know, technically, I guess, but not really. Ryan Reynolds also, well, Ryan Reynolds, doesn't San Bradford look like Ryan Reynolds, by the way?

Yes, he does. I mean, Dead Ringer. vaguely. So, but Ryan Reynolds is not coming off of two ACLs. Ryan Reynolds has about as much a chance to win this battle as Tim Tebow. That is accurate. Yeah, so it worries me with the ACL tear. You're still laughing at that one.

And the fact, though, that San Bradford has never really had good weapons. around him. So I think it's going to be interesting to see how he does with Chip Kelly's offense. I mean, yeah, the receivers in Philadelphia are not great, but you do have a running game that's going to help take some pressure off of him. And then when you look at the games that he played in 2013, those seven games, he was on pace to put up really great numbers. I mean, when you look at the yardage, the touchdowns, the passer rating, that was great. And then Sam Bradford and then Mark Sanchez, he actually put together some good games with Chip Kelly. Some good games and some terrible games.

As he played, he got a little bit worse, but, I mean, it's going to be interesting regardless. I think we're not that far away from preseason games. And last we checked, Sam Bradford was not running around at full health. So if you have Sanchez taking the majority of the preseason action and maybe even starting the season, that completely alters Bradford's departure point and what it even means for this team. I think this is more about where Sam Bradford is from a health angle. We've never seen a quarterback come off two massive knee surgeries like this.

Yeah, I think the competition has waited in Bradford's favor, but like you said, if he's not healthy enough to do it. Look at the money. They're paying them like a starter. That's what they want, but you can't just make them play. It's almost Bradford versus his health. That's really the battle. Bradford versus his health. And Sanchez versus like the memories of Sanchez.

Because who knows, in year two, maybe Sanchez could be better. Do you think, I mean, in Chip Kelly's system, Do you think Mark Sanchez could be like a borderline Pro Bowl type of guy? I think he can put up those numbers. That doesn't mean he's going to win 12 games. But I think he'll put up the numbers. And I think that all the beat reporters said he was more improved, noticeably more improved this spring.

And here's the thing. If Sanchez, though, does beat Bradford and plays all 16 games, then the Rams are sending a third round pick to the Eagles. And the Eagles are off the hook for all the money that they signed Bradford for because $0 are guaranteed. So they could just release him before. the start of the season. Yeah, they're not on the hook for half a decade with Bradford.

This is a, let's see what happens in one season. You should never be on the hook for Saddam Bradford for more than that. I mean, if Mark Sanchez starts all 16 games for the Eagles, that would be a miracle. It would be. But you've seen what McKellie is able to do with big holes. We have a better chance of winning an Emmy than Mark Sanchez does of starting 16 games. Don't bury us. Let's, let's move on to the Rams running back.

I think the Eagles quarterback situation is probably the most impactful position battle in the entire League. Rams running back, maybe not as impactful on a league level, but I find it really interesting. Trey Mason and Todd Gurley, and you're really talking about, again, a guy maybe going against his own knee injury. Because if Todd Gurley is healthy, you know, they drafted him that high to be the guy, but we don't know if he's going to be the guy to start this season. And if he is even close to 100 percent, like that is the most fun and potentially fun to watch backfield in the entire league. What?

You don't think so? The most fun backfield to watch the entire league. Have you watched Todd Gurley's any of his, any of his came from college is really fun to watch. And to me, Tray Mason was great. I love Tray Mason last year. He was the best rookie running back in the league. Yeah, but how's their run blocking?

Well, we'll see. Well, they have. Ray Mason was better than Jeremy Hill? No. No, but Tray Mason, Tray Mason, though. Here's the thing. I got a little carried away. Was in one of the most boring offenses and he still looked.

He was the reason. Rams team was somewhat watchable last year from a fantasy angle I thought he was interesting as well I mean it depends you keep picking these internal battles guy versus own ups and downs girly versus knee but that's what it comes down to but Mason is so good and I know they they clearly so good that the Rams took another running back at number 10 overall they had a guy who they say was their number one player overall on their board and it's the NFL in 2015 you get you get two running backs Mason maybe isn't a 300 carry guy but he's a lot of fun by the way Nick Foles is your quarter We have no idea what's going to happen with that team.

Colleen was very concerned about their runback blocking, but I've got two words for her, Rob Havenstein. Saucy. And I just wanted to show her this picture. I mean, he's just like a guy that you look at and you think, Havenstein. Looks like a Viking, literally. He does.

They have five rookie offensive line. I don't know. You don't need, you know, you're on turf. That is not promising. Where you head towards you, you don't need an offensive line. All right, let's talk about the Texans quarterback situation. And we have to start with Ryan Mallett, who played just two starts last year.

He looked pretty good. He's going up against Brian Hoyer. And our graphic here says that Tom Savage, I believe his name is, is somehow in the mix. How did they get a picture of here? I don't know. Greg, in theory, this was my segment, but you have done an excellent job starting this off.

Tell me how intriguing this is. Well, I don't think it's intriguing because I, think no matter who wins this battle, it's a situation where Bill O'Brien, not unlike he had to do with Mallet last year. In that Browns game, they ran the ball a ton down the stretch. He's got a big arm, and we saw Brian Hoyer all last season. You have to mask this quarterback play. Look, for all the defending, I tried to do a Brian Hoyer last season, statistically, by the end of the year, an absolute bankrupt passer-runner center. So I do not know it. He was. And Mallet is a wild card.

Like you said last week, Greg, when Mallet is not on the field, his myth grows and we think more of him. I think the more we see of them on the field, the less we'll think of them. And so it's probably a situation where we're going to see both of these guys. Who starts the most games for them? That comes down to injury, but I would say Hoyer based on the fact that he has done that before.

I'm not even sure this is a battle. I mean, Tom Savage, we're not even sure he exists. Well, apparently he does. And I wouldn't be surprised if, a week of training camp starting or less that Brian Hoyer is just the starter. No, I agree with that. If I had a nickel for every time Damashek mentioned Ryan Mallet's whip, well, he's spin it, he's got a whip, you know.

Well, come on. The one thing, he would have played more by now. In Houston, all the beatwriters. Ryan likes Hoyt. Yeah, I think he likes Hoyt. I think they're both better fits than Ryan Fitzpatrick for Ian O'Brien's mind, number one. But that fan base absolutely wants Ryan Mallet to start.

That's been an issue down there. And I think if it's Hoyer to start the year, he's going to get the hook when they invariably have bad quarterback play. Good running game there, but the receivers. DeAndre Hopkins, they should have a good running game. DeAndre Hopkins, Cecil Shorts, rookie Jalen Strong, your tight end is Garrett Graham, C.J. Fedor. I mean, you're not generating as much excitement as the Rams backfield. You're not cooking with heat. You know what I'm saying?

Jaylon Strong, Philly guy, kind of like that. You're always just showed up out of shape. their eyes. Let's talk Cowboys running backs. And this is a conversation. You know, we've talked about the Cowboys running backs, you know, throughout the offseason. How do you see this battle shaping up during camp? Because you've kind of been in the McFadden.

I see Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, and every Cowboys beatwriter handing the job to Joseph Randall. But John Daly is a man of vision. John Daly. Yes, I love this. John Daly, the golfer. predicts a 2,000-yard season for Darren McFadden. He sure does, everybody. This is going to be good.

Couldn't disagree more. And I think you're going to see. And you agree with that. Well, you just threw that out there. I think one thousand. Well, that's a fair. I think you're looking absolutely at a committee structured backfield, number one. It's going to just, it just has to break down that way.

And I think that what they had last year was a one-year situation for Dallas. Rome was not going to get by with throwing the ball 430 times. It's going to be much closer to putting him back near the 500. mark and they're going to, Des Bryant's going to have a huge year because they're going to lean on him much more than they plan to. It's not good for Romo's back either because that, I mean, DeMarco Murray was able to really bail him out of situations and take that pressure off of him literally and figuratively. So it hurts your back to hand off and then watch someone run for 1.7 yards if he can't hand the ball off and he's throwing and throwing, yeah.

Well, it's got a point here mathematically the more times you throw, the more times you can get hit. And Wes, you pointed this out before, too. Randall, and all, he can talk all day long. I don't really care about this. He's let his mouth go off. Most of his production last year came, what, late in the game when the defense had dealt with DeMarco Murray for three and a half quarters and they were exhausted.

That's when Randall's big numbers came. That's a little bit of a myth, though. Well, that's not a myth. Rewatch this thing. He had a couple big plays late. He looked good all the time. I think it's more just can he do it for more than 125 years. When they show, when he goes and plays,

starter-type snaps, that's when he starts to not do it. So you view him as a 20-carry-a-guy game? No, I view him as a guy who's going to split the carries, and I think this whole battle is almost misplaced because the battle is going to be Randall versus the guy that gets cut from another team eventually. I think that's the Cowboys. Or Chris Johnson. Would you say that Joseph Randall and Trey Mason are in the top five running backs in the league?

Oh, wow. Give me a break. What? These guys are on your Mount Rushmore for the NFL. I'm saying they're good secondary pieces. Randall is a guy. They put the rush in your Mount Rushmore. Oh, give me a minute. Hey, you know, you're rooting on Darren McFadden, who had one good year where he ran, you know, straight ahead very fast.

Yeah. That was three years ago. You can do that behind this offensive line. You know, get, you know, I think, Wes, we need to bring you to the present. And so the present, you know, Darren McFadden, not too exciting. The present, also the Bill's quarterback situation, not too exciting. Matt Castle is the guy. Who looks like the favorite, but he might not even make the team.

This is your next one, Wes. Yeah, you've mentioned that the Texans could be decided within a week. This one might take until September to figure out who's going to start. And the battle isn't like Gurley and Bradford, a guy versus his health. It's Matt Castle versus the Bill's final roster. If he loses his starting job, I don't think he even makes the team. And they've talked about him being on the bubble for the last month plus. And I think that this is a nut when you don't have a solid quarterback,

and unless you want to believe all the Tyrod Taylor mythology, which maybe it comes true. We don't know. Is there any? Well, there is because Rex Ryan. Rex Ryan likes this type of quarterback or something. I don't know. Give me the mythology.

Here's what I'd say, though. Whenever you have a situation like this, let's check in December, every one of these guys will start. It's such a shame. Like, they have such a great defense, and they added all of these pieces. And Rex Ryan, he just never has a quarterback, ever, wherever he goes.

It's kind of a, what's the chicken or the egg here, though? Is it that Rex Ryan has no idea how to find a quarterback or find someone who can coach a quarterback or knows how to coach a quarterback or he's just been really unlucky? You know what I mean? Like a combination of all those things potentially? I mean, that's sort of what it is. These guys were so bad in the spring that there's a narrative starting to be built

by Buffalo bloggers that E.J. E.J. Manuel was actually pretty good and Doug Morone just ruined him. And it cracks me up. Who's the favorite here, do we think? I mean, Matt Castle, I guess. Is there a scenario where they could be successful with one of these guys? I think the rest of their team is good enough. I think Manuel, I'm not ready to write the book that E.J. Manuel's, you know, the worst player ever in his Blaine Gabbard.

Maybe he can be the 20, maybe he can be Brian Hoyer last year, which is not exciting at all. But maybe that and a great Bill's team around him wins eight or nine games. I don't think they'll be a great team. This is hard to say. but Kyle Orton, because for all his ups and downs, he's not as mistake prone as some of these guys. And I would take Kyle Orton over these three. Kyle Orton was absolutely horrendous in December last year.

When I was doing the Sammy Watkins, making the leap. Kyle Orton, his ball placement was probably the worst. Would you take him over these three guys? No. Because I don't go Matt Castle. That's who they wanted, but he's shown up to take. No, I'd go with Tyrod Taylor. I already know the rest of the guys stink.

Let's find out if Taylor is. We don't know. One of your old crushes. was Greg Roman, offensive quartering now of the bills. And the difference between this and the Houston battle that we talked about earlier, okay, these quarterbacks are not exciting at all. But they do have Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, Percy Harvin, Charles Clay, LaShawn McCoy, it's like they've got so much talent around them.

Maybe they don't need to be that good. Well, all right, and point to all those NFL teams without a quarterback that make that case. I mean, there just aren't that many. They were nine and seven last year with bad quarterback play. Could they duplicate that? Potentially, yeah. One team that knows their quarterback in San Francisco, Colin Kaepernick,

but they don't know they're running back quite yet. Carlos Hyde, you know, figures to be the start. But Colleen, the 49ers running back is your choice. Well, you look at Carlos Hyde and Reggie Bush. Carlos Hyde last year, he obviously had Frank Gore ahead of him, but they tied for team high four touchdowns, woo. But, I mean, we don't know what he's going to be, but I think he shows way more promise than Reggie Bush,

who has been hurt, who had such a down year, and who just seems like he's on the decline and on his way out. I don't think Reggie Bush is a 200-carry-a-year guy, and I think the Dolphins for one year were the only team that ever saw him that way. So I'd be surprised if it wasn't high, but don't forget another guy on Greg's Mount Rushmore. Kendall Hunter. A Greg Rosenthal favorite for years.

Coming off at ACL, right? Yeah. He looked pretty good in the spring. Well, they have talked up Bush as a guy that can be that, but that just feels like an offseason win to me because Hyde is the, I like Hyde. He wasn't perfect every game, but the issue there is that Frank Gore, number one, was Frank Gore, but he was playing behind last couple years one of the best offensive lines around and they are stripped down. I don't like the situation for any of the running backs behind what they have going on up front.

Well, let's let's be honest. If Reggie Bush and Kendall Hunter are big factors here in terms of the starting job and splitting carries evenly three ways, then something's gone wrong with Hyde. That's not the idea, right? And yeah, exactly. Plus, as you said, Mark, Mikey Potty, he's with the Cardinals now. He was their best run blocker. That's not a good situation.

There's questions up and down this offense, really the entire team. I think they're looking at Hyde as someone that should be making a leap. That should be a guy who is a centerpiece of their office. He was not on our making the leap list. I believe he was on making a leap list. It was early on. He was like six or seven, was it? Seven maybe.

Yeah. Well, we might want to forget about him. We'll see. He lost 15 pounds. Is that good? Yeah, hey, he's coming in. He's looking spry. It's never a bad thing when you lose 15 pounds.

It's never a bad thing when Colleen Wolf joins us in the podcast studio. No. Excellent segue by Greg. But she's got to leave us right now. We still have a couple more battles to go quickly, but you have to run off. and do a couple now segments. So we're going to say goodbye to you mid-show. Guys, it's been real.

It's been fun two in a row for Colleen. I know. I'm just going to keep staying here. Well, you'll know what I didn't, you know, I said we're full of heroes here because, I mean, Colleen is a hero. She's, yeah, she's part of the show now. She's on the show and we'll figure out. This is great.

We'll figure out ways to keep that going. Dan, you know, sorry, but no, no. Can't wait until Dan's back. Thank you, Colleen. All right, guys. We just have a couple more minutes here. We'll wrap up, Mark. You want to talk a little Brown's running backs.

They make our list of the eight most intriguing position battles. That sounds like a shot at Mark. Yeah, that did sound a little bit like, you know, but it's a legitimate battle because, number one, I wonder if they run the ball more than any team in the AFC this year. Because who's going to throw the ball? I mean, they don't want to get into situations where Josh McCown has to, you know, throw 20 plus times a game.

So I look at, number one, I think this would have been less of a battle if it were just what they had last year, which would have been Isaiah Crowell. and Terrence West, and the way they managed those two backs was a little bit enigmatic last season because suddenly some guy would be inactive. I thought the Crowell was the better runner on tape, a totally undrafted dude.

West seemed to have some locker room issues, got in it with Ben Tate. Ben Tate was meant to be the guy they cut him, but now they got Duke Johnson, and all of the buzz you hear out of OTAs and mini-camp was that Duke Johnson's going to be a larger and larger part of this. When I did do that backfield Rankinston and talk to someone from the Browns,

he mentioned Duke Johnson, and nobody else at all. My question would be, do you believe they see him as more than just like a passing down special? I think for this year he is, and they talked about him as a G.O. Bernard type guy. I think they've gone up against the Bengals and saw what the combination of Hill and Bernard can do. When you put Bernard in the right role where he wasn't a feature type guy, you've got someone else pounding the ball. But Duke Johnson, you know, and because he's gone back and looked at some of his stuff from Miami, he is better between the tackles than I expected. He is probably on that, and it's college tape, but he looked like the best runner of anyone in Cleveland.

So I think this is something that's a developing situation, and they don't know right now who's going to win that. So it's a true battle. I loved everything I heard about Duke Johnson coming out. He just sounded like maybe the most complete guy, the type of guy who... He fits your profile. It slips a little bit. 8, 195 pounds. You're right.

He's not a big guy. No. He's not. And so you have to wonder in the AFC North what that means for his role. So I think you might be on to a passing down type specialist. Who plays Mark Sessler Intrepid Reporter in the CBS 8 o'clock on Wednesday show? That sounds like a bad time slot. No, that's great.

CBS, I mean, a lot of ratings. Not a lot of young people watching it necessarily. What's CBS? It's one of those procedural shows. Mark Sessler. I don't know. I don't do casting four roles and fictitious television shows involving us. Wrapping up, I'm going to just mention briefly. I think the Steelers linebackers, I just wanted to have some defense on here.

Initially, I had Titans receivers, and then I realized we had eight straight offensive positions. So I threw the Steelers linebackers, and we already hit upon the Steelers defense a little bit. But it's something to watch, because if James Harrison is still playing two-thirds, three-quarters of the snaps for them, that's just not what you really want. I know he played okay last year, but you have Jarvis Jones who is supposed. People love Jarvis Jones coming out. You have Bud Dupree.

I know they bring along first round picks slowly, but you would love to see those guys on the field and actually creating a pass rush, because otherwise, you know, I don't think you can really count on Cameron Hayward to be your prime pass rush. It's Arthur Mote's involved in. Yeah, he might be the projected starter right now, Arthur Mote.

That's kind of deflating for Steelers fans because this defense, I mean, they're in a make or break kind of window for what this defense is going to be post Dick LeBeau, and they have to hit on these first-round draft? Yes. Which they had not done for many years. And one of the reasons that these Steelers teams can, you know,

in quotes, bring rookies along slowly is because they had a laundry list of high-octane veteran producers. That's when you don't have, you can show patience with your first year guys. Not now. They don't have the luxury of it now. Right. And I'm really intrigued by this defense and really this team right now

because Dick Lebeau, some people think he's the greatest defensive coordinator of all time, or he's one of them. He's in the conversation. And the run that he just had with the Steelers is legendary. You'll never be able to take that away. But Mike Tomlin's never had his defense since he came there. I mean, he inherited Leboe, and he made a smart decision to keep him, and that worked out great for everyone.

But now it's a big change. It's really Tomlin's time, and you're right, maybe they're not going to work people long slowly anymore. Maybe they'll throw those rookies right in. Everything is a little different. This team can win another Super Bowl, with Ben Rathesberger at the helm. He's right in his prime.

Why not? It looks great. Why not? The defense coordinator now at Keith Butler, who's been basically Lebeau's right-hand man for over a decade. That's fair. I wouldn't expect him to do much different. Well, it reminds me of Arizona where, yes, the coordinator switches in,

but like Arian said, not a single thing is going to change schematically. And Pittsburgh's not going to, you drafted all these guys. Well, maybe, but you're not going to suddenly, you're not going to change your whole front seven look because you drafted these guys for the previous regime. I guess it's an interesting time, I think, for the Steelers because I think, like you said, that Super Bowl window is wide open.

It's an interesting time for Tomlin, who's had so much success, and yet you feel like he could be, if he had a terrible season, would he still be there? And yet they could win a Super Bowl, and then he could be there for the next 10 years. He could be a guy who wins two Super Bowls.

They're just one of those teams. They're like a boomer-bust team. I'm convinced me myself. Three head coaches since 1970, right? Right. Not exactly. They don't panic. Yeah, they don't panic.

But there's also been some talk about, you know, Tomlin being sternly worn by ownership about some of his actions, some of his office. Well, the last time they ushered someone out of town, that was Bruce Ariens. Right. I didn't like that move. How about this? Cult's Steelers AFC Championship. I'm suddenly, as I'm talking about.

I feel like I'm convincing myself into picking the Steelers to win the Super Bowl or something like that. Although I always have the Patriots in there, but I don't know. Winning the Super Bowl. Well, don't you think because I think the offense is going to be great. And all they need to do is get 20% of their offense is absolutely loaded. Good looking defense. I could see them being right in the mix. When we did weakest position groups, they were, they made the finals on safeties and

cornerbacks. That's a problem. That's a problem. That's not good. But at least they have the ability to win shootouts. Yeah, because they're going to be in a whole bunch of them. Absolutely. So a lot of position battles, I guess, on the Steelers defense and the back feet, you know,

defensive backfield, linebackers. We hit the eight. Biggest ones in the league. enjoyed it that's our our monday show and uh i love the way you do this great what you always remember just start wrapping it up the other show you always i always remember what you know go ahead do it you oh what you're talking about your segment that we haven't done in two weeks and not one person has even mentioned it on twitter hey where's that segment that's not sure that's a actually td over over the weekend what happened yeah over the weekend i listened to the last show

And it was a great episode about all you guys, including Future Mark Sessler. So I would say this, Future Mark Sessler has an MVP awarding present day, not so much. That's fine. All right. So who won it this time then? For today's show, two words, guys, flu game. So I'm going to give it to my man. All right.

I like that one. You know, sticking it out. And I did like Mark, he set up a money tagline. Laundry list of high octane producers. That sounds like that. That is pretty good. My man, Brandon is Sean, man. Wes, I mean, it was all worth it.

All the gut, the puke and the guts and the blood. That's why we lift all those weights? This is why we play this game? We're like shot out of a 1970s NFL canon, your production today. Everyone will be happy. Dan Hansis will be back in the host chair on Thursday, and we'll have all four of us together back again. So that'll be the next time we're here on Thursday.

It's almost training camp time for Colleen Wolf, who did a great job for us. What song is that? We have a new outro song, T-D. Oh, T-D. Give me a break. That's my dad. Thoroughly exposed to us.

LVP. LVP award goes to T-D. Let's keep this all in the show. And T-D's defense, he hasn't produced since we, that became so. That is true. This will be my first time. He never makes it to the end of the show. No lie.

This is my first time playing. I've been dancing for this lately. Yeah. Give me a break, TD. But again, we want to thank Colleen for stopping by Mark Sessler. TD, just start any time you want. There it is. Finally.

Furbark Sessler. Colleen Wolf. Chris Wesleyan. I'm Greg Rosenthal. Thanks for listening. Once again, back on Thursday. This is an IHeart podcast.