NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Black Monday reaction

Episode Date: January 5, 2016

A room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, and Marc Sessler – discuss all the fallout from Black Monday, including Tom Coughlin stepping down as the Giants head coach, and the Colts agreeing to a contract extension with head coach Chuck Pagano. Then, the heroes cash in on their regular season “Go Get My Lunch” propositions before checking in with Chicago correspondent, and weekly game picks champion, Kevin Patra.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 stuck in traffic with Ryan Mallet. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm joined by room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. It is a soggy, soggy, Tuesday afternoon on Los Angeles. I can only think that this is the football gods,

you know, realizing the error of their ways, you know, dismissing the underdog jets on the playoff equation. So they take out Los Angeles? What they do is they seem's a little peculiar. They call in a favor of the big guy, big guy upstairs, let it rain, let them know we messed up. That's how I look at it. But only in L.A. where the Jets don't matter. Well, I'm here.

I thought you were saying. I was an apology to me. Okay. So the football gods and God. organized to make you happy. Yeah, well, no, not that's how you see, you know, nature and society. But to, yeah, send a message,

hey, we goofed. It's a symbol. Maybe it was the football gods, and I don't think this is true, but coming down upon us, because this is a big day for the Around the NFL podcast, and our listeners should know this that we're going to be on. By the time you hear this,

we maybe were already on, the Around the NFL television program, twice a day for the next three days and Tuesday to Thursday next couple weeks live live for a couple hits a show the show is 2 to 4 Pacific Time better known as

5 to 7 Eastern Time and so we're on a couple time What about London time Well they can figure that out What can go wrong? Live television What about us? People should watch it Why not? Sydney time Well you have to ask her What's going on? Dublin time

Not much guys just loving the rain actually so oh wow you know what you're you're a soul you're a soulful woman so I would get that the raindrops would connect with you on some level yeah well I just like change every once in a while it's too sunny here yeah I do like variety okay but let's stick with the original idea that this is a you know a little hey old zeuser football gods here also god we goofed I like I like that the football gods refer to you by the name of the most famous Greek god Old Zeus. It gets a little complicated.

It's like your old pal, your cronies. It gets a little complicated. It's a strange gift, but we're happy for you. And your gift from the gods is coming, Mark. I promise you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, keeps coming. So we got a big show, jam pack show today.

Most of it news and just digesting Black Monday or as MJD in our NFL now hit yesterday, Greg Rosenthal. He said he prefers Red Monday, Game of Thrones reference, and maybe just to mix it up a little bit. I like that. But Black Monday, Red Monday, all the fallout. A more troubling image, the blood of coaches, you know, washing through the streets.

I don't really like that. That's pretty heavy. And so we'll get to all that. We'll also, obviously, we've got some big football games coming up this weekend. So we will look ahead toward those games, some different injury situations, some different heat around those games. We'll really dig into those games on Thursday, our Thursday show. Where Colleen Wolf, by the way, will be sitting.

getting in for the old Zusser, I am traveling to, what's so funny, too many references? It's already like two third persons in the first three minutes of the podcast. That's a lot of third person. He's in playoff for him. I like to see it. But I am traveling to the Dominican Republic, an ill-timed family wedding that I am in the wedding party. I'll be wearing a linen shirt and like khaki pants. Is that shortstop getting married? I don't know what's going on with the outfit,

but I'm where I will be on a tropical island on the first weekend of the playoffs, just doing what I got to do. Colleen will hold it down, though, on Thursday with the preview show, and Sunday, I know you guys will plow through as well. Hold it down or shine. Or shine, one or the other, or get by.

There's different ways this can go. But so that's what's going on. And we'll also check in, go get my lunch. You turd. That is our game where we make predictions before the season. We do it before the draft. We do it before the regular season. And now that the regular season, of course, is over and ended Sunday,

we will revisit all of our predictions and see who came out on top and who's buying a lot of sandwiches for the group. And then we might get somebody on the phone at the very end of the show. But let's get into it. Let's start Miss Sydney with a little bit of news. What is that? That's Levi Smith's hot. But.

Lovey Smith, safe. Not one of the eight teams that are eligible for hard knocks, the bucks. Or should I say they are? They're one of the eight teams that are eligible. Check out around the NFL for more deets on that. Wrote up a nice post. But let's get to important news. We'll start with New York.

And the Giants who, after 12 years, are moving. on from Tom Coughlin he resigned officially resigned but really it looked like this was a team decision and he went along with it Coughlin of course won two Super Bowls with the Giants and not surprisingly in his final address to reporters on Tuesday he said the right things the guy a gifted orator I like to call him and this is what he had to say this is how he closed the press conference addressing his longtime quarterback eli who was standing in the gallery with tears in his eyes and his lip and chin quivering this is what tom cofflin had to say he's done it before he'll handle it again he's extremely bright he's

extremely competitive he's what you want a son to be made out of i mean he thinks he's the reason he's not the reason that i'm eli it's not you it's not you it's us we win we lose together and he ended it with that comment and walked off the podium. It was almost a scene out of a movie or something. So a very nice touching moment there between coach and quarterback. Greg, is this the end for time coffee? No, I think he wants the coach again, and I think there's going to be teams out there that are looking to hire him,

whether it's as a head coach this year or as some sort of consultant or he stays on the sideline in a different capacity. And it's hard to say, Ian Raffport, our NFL media insider, indicated he's going to take a little bit of time, but that he could be back on the sidelines next year. And I think he'll be considered possibly as a head coach. And you mentioned that scene from a movie. You couldn't be more right. That whole press conference was really fascinating.

But the movie scene analogy works because as he gets off the podium, he walks right by John Mara, who stands up to shake his hands. And Kaufflin walks right by him. and gives him the cold shoulder. And Mara kind of almost like in a surprise way. Like his body language is very open to Coughlin and he's almost like confused because probably not a lot of people do that to multi-millionaires.

And you could just see billionaires. That's probably true. The tension that was going on between Coughlin and the front office and ownership. I just thought of a great idea. They do make a movie about it. Coughlin has executive producer controls. he's in control of the casting process.

He brings in Rooney Mara and Kate Mara for auditions, strings them along and then doesn't give them a roll. Eat it, Maras. That's what he would be saying. Not me. It seems a little over-the-top vengeful. Okay. Just an idea that popped in my head.

They'd be a good get for that movie. They'd bring some good insider knowledge. Better than Luke Wilson playing Roger Goodell. Yes, it is. That was an odd casting. Your thoughts, Wes. I have several. The first is we're talking about a guy who is going to have a strong Hall of Fame case.

He's revered by his players past and current. Well, they're all former players now. And he seems to be revered by everybody who covered that team. The Giants are going to go out and improve on this guy? I don't understand why he had to go. He still wants to coach. He does, and he said that had they gone seven and nine, he would have argued like hell for his job.

Like you're going to go in place? Yes, he said that. during the press conference and it makes it sound like there was just there was some decision where you're going to go but he is not on board with this and he's not done he made it very clear that his desire was to stick around and it i think he's sticking it to the morrows in that press conference a couple different times you're going to go get a dug marone type to replace this guy the question is why keep jerry reese and not tom cofflin because my opinion is that tom Kaufflin did a good job with this year's New York Giants, that it was one of the most

talent-poor rosters in the league. Now, they did have the best young receiver in the league and a above-average starting quarterback, which is a great place to start. You're going to win some games with those. But it's a bad roster. That said, let's not overrate what Tom Kaufflin's done in New York. The Super Bowls are amazing. He was not a good regular season coach. They have a losing record overall since 2009. That is a a long stretch. He has had one season with more than nine wins since 2009. And that was a year, was not a Super Bowl year.

The Super Bowl year, they only won nine games. So this has been a mediocre franchise other than the playoff run in 2011 for a while. I would say for the Giants, you know, beware of change for the sake of change. And we'll see what happens. Yeah, what if Bronx native Doug Marone ends up being their higher? What if it's somewhat uninspiring like that? And all of a sudden, you're two and five next October, and you're thinking to yourself, wait, why did we do this? Yeah, but, I mean, that said, they aren't a sake of change organization.

They're one of the most patient around. They've had him around forever and, you know, stuff's going on behind the scenes. All right, let's move on. It would be fascinating, by the way, if they did get involved in the Sean Peyton sweepstakes. They asked John Mara about it on the Mike Francesa show, and he said they would be willing to trade for a coach if it wasn't, you know, too much. And I got to think they're talking about Sean Payton, the former Giants coordinator. How about Rich Cotite? It could be a coach.

It would be another way to go. All right. Let's move on. So everyone thought insiders, fans, media, all thought Chuck Pagano was done in Indianapolis. But guess what? He ain't going nowhere. And neither is Ryan Grigson. The head coach agreed on a four-year extension.

Same deal with the general manager, Ryan Grigson. So here you go. The two guys that we had heard reports leading up to the end of the season that their relationship was, quote, unquote, toxic, one of my favorite terms to be attached to teams. They now are going to work it out. And this is a big day for Chuck Pagano, a guy that has beaten cancer, of course. He's married. He has children.

But what happened late Monday night, might have talked tomorrow. It was a great day. I've had a lot of great days in my life, but none better than today. This is absolutely the best day of my life. the right move mark i think it was definitely the right move and we talked about this on an NFL now hit before you've got eight teams looking for a coach if it's right so so why not pagano six right now six so pagano you let him go he's going to get snatched up by someone else right away he is beloved in the locker room and i think you know the reason it's the right move is

that the owner before just deciding to emotionally make a decision the minute the season ended sat down the coach and general manager that don't get along and why don't to find out. Get in a room, talk, and can you work this out? He let them work it out largely from what some people said, and they came out with both of them getting new contracts. It's a new commitment. Now, the question is four months from now, are we going to be feeling this way if more whispers and more reports come out? But Pagano would have been snatched up by someone else in a second, and it brings continuity. It brings back a coach the player's love. I like the move. It goes 11 and 5 for three straight years. Loses to a more talented, better roster Patriots team

the playoffs goes eight and eight this year six and three with as he said a 40 year old matt hasselbeck a country and western star with a bad hammy who couldn't tap out because he loves his teammates charlie whitehurst the poor jesus and the coney island thrash or josh freeman thrasher and they finish eight and eight they win two games he comes out with a great speech to end it with jim mersey there to me it makes all the sense in the world that he's back and i never understood why a fight with the general manager would make you fire a coach who was, like Mark said, beloved in the locker room, respected in the coaching community, and pretty much is drawing interest or was drawing interest from several other teams already. I'll just take the other side of this for the sake of the conversation.

Obviously a gifted public speaker. Obviously a guy that you can get behind and root for for what he's been through and what he's overcome. Obviously, the guy that the guy's in the locker room love. but is he, you know, a good coach? And I know that we have talked about, you know, that he might have some flaws as a coach in past seasons. I mean, that's come up here and in other places. Is he actually the guy to get them over the hump?

I don't think he's a difference maker, but I don't think, that goes with my theory. I think there's five or six coaches that matter to the good, five or six that matter to the bad. Everyone else is in the middle. I'd put Pagano in that middle, and he has some strengths. I think you need to surround him with, good coordinators.

It worries me that he's a defensive coach. Their defense has not gotten any better. In fact, it's gotten worse since Chuck Pagano has been there. Ryan Grigsden hasn't done a good job for him. He is terrible at game management and is very conservative. But he gets his team to play hard overall. He has a lot of good things too. He's shown proclivities to get outside of that conservative nature through stretches.

I think it depends on how his roster is looking, though, for him to be able to do that. I don't think there's any shame in being outcoached by Bill Belichick with weaker roster. And I think that Ryan Grigsden had a great quote last night, paraphrasing, he instills life into that team, into the people in that building, and you can't put a price on it. Well, and he instilled money into Grigsin's bank account. So everyone was feeling good last night.

Will we see Griff Whalen under center again? It was the strangest press conference since, and people forget about this one. It was the most surprising, strange, happy press conference you can imagine. Since 2011, when Marvin Lewis and Mike Brown got together, after Marvin Lewis supposedly interviewed, or he was going to interview with the 49ers. They didn't want him back.

He had a free contract too. And they were taking shots at each other at that press conference. That was the weirdest, you know, higher since this one. All right. Greg digs into the history. I liked it. Let's move on now, Mark, and talk about the Cleveland Browns, who have to rebuild their front office.

They got to find a head coach. A lot of people were scratching their heads when Jimmy Haslam announced Sunday night that they hired a man named Sashi. to be the team's executive vice president of football operations, a man with no football IQ in terms of personnel knowledge. They continue down a non-traditional route on Tuesday. The team announced that Paul DePodesta is leaving his executive post with the New York Mets to become the Browns' quote, chief strategy officer.

And Dei Podesta is best known in terms of culturally as the Browns. the money ball architect along with Billy Bean. He was played by Jonah Hill in the Brad Pitt movie from a few years ago. So this guy is somewhat of a legendary figure in the baseball analytics world, but he has no football experience. I saw some tweets out there that he played football at Harvard about 30 years ago. But now they have two front office figures reporting to Haslam's hired so far, Mark. Neither has a real NFL personal pro football background.

Are you worried? Well, other teams are getting Brad Pitt. We're getting Jonah Hill. I'm a little concerned. But, you know, I think that all this is leading towards a coaching hire that they've had in mind, although they're interviewing so many different people. I'm concerned because of what I tweeted yesterday, that you're going to go hire a coach first,

but then you're going to try to find a general manager that does not have, final say over the 53-man roster, which allows a lot of bright young executives to not be, their teams can say absolutely not Cleave when you're not going to be able to hire this guy because it's not at a higher position of power than we have him in. So that removes a lot of people. But that GM isn't really a GM. Isn't he kind of a doubting director? What Miami is doing his career?

Right. So, I mean, but in general, you don't have necessarily an empowered. These two guys are not scouts. Sashi has control over the 53-man. roster he's never scouted he's never done an interview with the combine he dropped his last name by this morning sashi brown is his full name he only goes by sashi exclamation point people say they're both very bright smart guys and cleveland maybe is trying to do something completely different here why not everything else they've tried has not worked this is by far the most far flung concept

they've come up with but if you don't get a coach and the other people in this building to finally agree because that has plagued them dating pre-man genie there have been there hasn't been a duo or a crew of people in this building that can get along and make decisions. It won't change the final result one bit. That's all I'd say. This is why I'm dubious about this whole thing, is that are the Cleveland Browns,

and under Jimmy Haslam, going to be the team that busts the mold how to figure out how to build a winning football team, using football analytics, not leaning on personnel as much. We don't know what that. Well, from an on-field perspective, everybody should be highly skeptical that you can use analytics and football to the extent that you can in baseball.

The game doesn't lend itself from that. You can't extract one player's value like you can in baseball. But if they brought these guys in to do analytics for a coaching search and a GM search, that's a whole different level. And like Mark said in his article, I thought you put it well. These guys, you know, there will be snarky chuckles for the way they're handing this, but these are also two strong independent thinkers. We have no idea what's going on there. Right.

I think they're thinking about it more. from an organizational standpoint, how different parts of the teamwork, you know, from the front office to the team, it's a lot. It's very different and it's a very conservative league that doesn't like any change. So I'm willing to, at least I want to kind of see how it works for a couple years. To me, analytics isn't about crunchy numbers. I think they would say it's about obtaining as much information as you can in a variety of areas, not just, you know, statistics which football doesn't lend itself to. And I want to give it a, I want to see what's they do for the head coaching job and I think they'll get football quote unquote people in there for

for the GM and the head coaching job who knows maybe it'll be jim schwartz i don't know i think one thing that it does do which is which is a bit of humble pie for haslam is it is removing haslam from being the primary sounding board to some of these people but they're reporting directly to him which they are but the coach and gm would have other people to me that puts more on haslam almost than ever and that would be a concern for me, but I don't know. I want to see it happen. You know what convention has gotten them?

Joe Banner and Michael Lombardi and Mike Holmgren. And you know what convention keeps spitting out Dick Geron for a third job? And Ken Wisenhock. Convention would have kept these coaches around for a few more. Mike Mularky, that's fair. I mean, convention works, though, when you're making the right decisions. I mean, I can't give the Browns any benefit of the doubt. This to me smells like another failure.

And for Mark's sake, I hope it's not true. Get Chip Kelly in there. It makes too much. I don't like it. Dan, could you, could, they have not hired their coach slash player picker, whatever you want to call them. I mean, I think I want to see what happens there. And it, but if they go get to retreads or duds or completely low level guys two months from now,

yes, you have all reason. And so do I to think this could be another train off the rails. There's so many trains off the rails at this point. I don't know where they all fit. Yeah. If nothing else, it's. going to be more fascinating than your normal train wreck if it's a train wreck it's going to be on the back of the t-shirts so they've had the browns have had so many train wrecks since

1999 that they're just going to they want to have a different type of train wreck now cleveland browns 2016 a more fascinating train wreck that's you can sell it that way uh moving on uh i wouldn't go as far as calling the chargers a train wreck maybe their situation with their home base is one but let's talk about the team itself. They announced their decision to keep Mike McCoy for a fourth season. McCoy lorded over a team that went four and 12 this season. They went nine and seven in each of their first two years, including a playoff run and a win over the Bengals back in 2013.

Tom Telesco is back as well, the general manager. Not back is Frank Reich, the offensive coordinator. somebody had to take the hit for this season. Reich went from, you know, a guy that had some respect around the league. He was interviewing for head coaching jobs with the Jets and Bills last year. He gets fired here. They ranked 26th in points this season and the worst rushing attack in the league. But I'll just say this.

Like, you know, what are you going to do? You have no offensive line. It's a makeshift offensive line. And Melvin Ingram made the spice rack look bad. Helvin Gordon. Excuse him. Melvin Gordon made the spice rack look terrible. So it's like, what kind of running game you're supposed to have?

Yeah, I think this is about the running game. You're right. It was just a year or two ago that we're writing all these glowing off-season articles about Frank Reich and Bucky Brooks is talking to his San Diego contacts and going down there, and they all love him. They're going to have this high-flying, high-octane, no huddle offense, and everybody gets injured. How can you properly grade the guy?

Especially on the offensive line. This was the job that Sean Payton had circled along with the Indianapolis job as the one that he wanted the most because both of those places had franchise quarterbacks and neither one ended up. You ought to go to Tennessee. Yeah, neither one ended up becoming available. This screams to me that they want to bring Ken Wizz and Hunt back maybe.

Wizz would make sense. And the team did file for relocation officially. In that interview, if you're a longtime football fan, just reading the statements and watching the interview with Spanos or reading the RAM statement, it's something else. I don't know. It really hit me when I read that RAM statement And just it's crazy.

It's an unprecedented thing, at least in my time covering the NFL, certainly in the last 20 years. Let's move up the coast to the Bay Area where 49er CEO Jed York announced Monday that Trent Balke will remain in place as the team's general manager. Balke has been with the team since 2005. He will lead the organization's search for a new coach to replace the Patsy, Jim Tom Sula, You know, Jed York, not a popular figure right now up in the Bay Area. And I guess he doesn't want to blow up the whole thing. So he's keeping Balky in the building and hoping they can find a guy,

a coach that's more to their liking this time around. I put them the number six most attractive coaching vacancy out of six. Gave your Browns a little bit of love by putting there at number five. Because so much pressure with this job, high expectations. You're in a division with the Seahawks and the Cardinals. and you have unrealistic expectations from Jed York who just fired one of the most successful first-time head coaches of all time in Jim Harbaugh, and then as you said, fired his patsy after one year.

I think it's a toxic situation potentially, not a great roster. Be honest, Greg. Be 100% honest. How much did Mark factor into you not putting the Browns' lap? It was a factor. Was it the main factor? No, it was a factor. You need to reassess why you're skirting the issue.

shoe with me and the Browns like I'm not arguing you that's by far the worst job you wouldn't take it's a little it's a little complicated I have a healthy amount of fear I'm with Greg on this point no I really do think the 49 I hope you really do think that mark is scary or the nineers matters to me expectations matter to me expectations are wildly low in Cleveland you want to work for a guy who fired Jim Harbo and chose Trent Balke over him no thank you yeah I'm with Greg on that well one last thing on the the press conference was very strange And not that Haslam's going to keep around for more than a year or two either west. But the press conference with the owner was spent mostly apologizing

in saying that he was not going to use Twitter the same way with his little snarky comments saying, you know what, I've learned a lot. I mean, he's clearly learning on the job. And so keeping one, keeping the GM around one of the few guys that knows football that he can trust made sense. It would have been weird to see him clean house. He just has not experienced enough to probably even know who to pick. If you watch the press conference, you could have.

actually hear the San Francisco area beat reporters sharpening their teeth. That's a sneaky, like, feisty beat. Well, they have been, you're right, they have been angry all season. They don't like that out. Sometimes they start a little heat with us. Yes, they do. They have all sorts of issues. For Connor or.

It's time for them to relax. Well, they don't want this fight. They don't like York. You don't want none of that kind of coming. They don't like York. That came across. I mean, they went after him. Yes.

I think that's a little personal there. It's gotten personal. Moving on. I hope it wasn't personal with Rustin Webster, but he is out in Tennessee. The Titans have fired their general manager who had the sense to stay in the number two pick and grab Marcus Marriota, usually something that should give a GM some job security. But when you're talking about the Titans, they were just a disaster in the regular season this past season. They decided they had to make the move.

So not only they fire their head coach, Ken Wisenhunt at midseason now, the GM is out, Webster, during his four-year tenure, the team went 18 and 46. So with that type of record, and again, the number one overall pick this time instead of number two, they decided they didn't want Webster being in charge of that. And in other news with the Titans, the Titans, that's all you get because you don't deserve more. Mike Malarkey has a legitimate chance to be retained as the coach, the interim coach, this from a rap sheet and i'll tell you what i joked on this very podcast a couple weeks ago that he wouldn't even get like a cursory interview because they were so terrible under him obviously they

weren't playing hard i know it's a tough situation but malarkey shouldn't even be considered and they want to keep them potentially yikes it's you know when this when they fired webster this may have been a smart move on their part well for multiple layers and reasons but there was reports that a lot of people were contacting the titans saying we're interested in both the coach and the jam slots. Now, maybe that's all agent-speak and nonsense, but that's the power of when you get Marcus Marriota and you have the number one pick. You don't have to pick a quarterback. You can build around your quarterback. This is an attractive landing spot, I'd say, but they have so many layers of leadership. It's almost like Cleveland. They've got 45,000 vice presidents. They got the

guy with a hair and the mustache and the glasses. The rest of them, I mean, well, no, Strunk's not the man. That's a woman. But the rest of them, please. It's a shame this franchise is unmoored to the point where I believe they're trying to sell it. So the thinking is, well, why don't we just keep malarkey around for another year until we get a new owner in here? That's a shame because I think it's with Marcus Marietta, who Brian Arakpo told Albert Breer, for sure is a franchise quarterback. And Delaney Walker made several comments.

Those guys totally believe in him. And they have the number one overall pick. I agree with Mark. It would be a very attractive job if there was stability up top. I put it number one. It was a risk. It's probably the highest risk, highest reward job, put it ahead of the Giants and the Eagles

because those franchise quarterbacks are your golden tickets. It's a tabula rosa. You never know. He might not pan out, but I think you just got to take the chance that you could ride a top five quarterback. I'm not even going to pretend I know what that means, but if you want to...

Tabula rasa. Help me and a lot of the audience at home. It's a blank stone. You get to paint whatever art you want on there because you got Mario de number one pick. You're starting friends. I got the real-life Cliff Clavin to my left. And you have a media conglomerate that's not going to eat you up.

I mean, it's a very easy place. Does anybody cover the team? It's literally one guy, Jim Wyatt, and the team then hired him to work for them for the website. So that's pretty friendly. Smart. Him and Titans Amy. Go to heist.

Struck. Bill Parcells was no dope. He always looked for the team that was at the lowest. That's when he would go out to save the day. There's no way to not improve a team that's won five games combined over the last two years. So you're getting in at the bottom and you're going to be a hero if you win. But what made Marcells great was that he didn't just build that team

into a 500 team. Yeah, you got to be a title contenders. That's why Bill Parcells is better than Bill Belichick, West. Nobody ever accused Bill Parcells would be in a patsy. Better than Bill Belichick. Negative. No one thinks that. I do.

So deal with it. Moving on, let's talk about the Miami Dolphins front office structure. And I'll tell you what. Mike Tanibom is a friend of the podcast. And, you know, He's a personable guy. You know, we've bumped into him at league events, super friendly, remembers his names, always remembers that Greg went to Tulane, all that stuff.

Well, Greg emails him once a month with his resonator. I just know that. No, the email's just in big block letters. I went to Tulane, too. It's fine, though. I was hoping to get the GM job in Miami. This guy, you know, we're talking about some fangs. Mikey T's got some fangs behind the scenes because he won an internal power struggle.

Who'd he learn from? Bill Parcells. your boy and and he took down Dennis Hickey there was a schism in that organization with some people siding with Hickey the Hickster and others siding with Mr. T won that battle and now he is the a lot we got a lot of good information from Jeff Darlington who filed a good column over the weekend breaking it down but he now is essentially the football czar in charge of all the big picture decisions for the Dolphins Tanabom is he hired or the Dolphins hired on Monday Chris Greer or promoted Chris

Greer as the general manager but really his duties will be to serve as kind of like the scouting guy which is a little bit of a Tanibam blind spot so he'll handle those duties I think Dona Ponte is still in the picture they needed to sort this stuff out that's what they're trying to do she's uncillable but it is Mike Tanabom who is the big cheese in that organization. Now he's got to find a way to fix it with that quarterback he gave a lot of money to. Guaranteed money. That changes a little bit what you would think in terms of a head coach that would be coming there. Sean Payton, for instance, was supposedly not interested. Who knows if he, you know, was if they were interested in him. They've interviewed Mike Smith, who

Ian Rappaport. Davis reports is a serious candidate. So imagine replacing Joe Philbin with Mike Smith. Did they watch the 2013 season of Hard Knocks? That'd be vanilla to vanilla. 2014. Why not spread a much wider net than Mike Smith? Oh, no, they are. They're interviewing a number of people, including Mike Shanahan, which is another. That one doesn't make sense to me either, because why would you win this Holy War within your organization to win power and then bring in Shanahan,

who is one 11 and five season away from, like, wiping you out on a power play? I wouldn't do that. I mean, I think Shanahan's a guy with a little bit of space. His reputation just gets bigger and bigger. I think he's a good coach. He had a lot of bad seasons. I think he was like the Chip Kelly on steroids where he was a very good coach that was terrible as a personnel guy and always had too much power. But if you could somehow isolate just the coaching, you know, I think he was a tough guy to prepare for.

I'm going to, I just realized that handsome Hank, who of course is the, not co-host, that would be too strong, but he is Dave. Sidekick. Side kick, that's a little too weak. Something in between there. He's the Ed McMahon of that show. Yeah, that's fair. on the Dave Damshack football program, big Dolphins fan,

and he would often, in a derisive way, in a mocking way, refer to the general manager as the Hickster. As in the Hickster will get everything right in the end. Now we don't get to hear that anymore. Those jokes are over. Bold prediction. Todd Haley, next Dolphins coach.

Interesting. Well, they've got, you've got Tannenbaum's from the Bill Parcell coaching tree. Halley's from the Parcell's coaching tree. And right behind Fergie and, and Gloria Stephan in the Dolphins power structure is Bill Parcell still looming as a consultant. He's ahead of the Miami Sound Machine and behind pit bull.

He's like right in that sandwich. Great organization. Let's talk about Sean Peyton for a second here. What is going on with Sean Peyton? He is on some level, the bell of the ball, or maybe just appears that way. It's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes. According to Rapsheet,

the Saints are seeking a second round pick for Peyton in any deal that would send their coach elsewhere. That seems like a lot for Sean Peyton, but I don't know. I guess it comes down to this. And actually that first report was Fox Sports on that, but it comes down to this, Greg. This is the question. Is he, you said everybody's either top five, bottom five, or in that middle. Is he in that top five or is Sean Payton in the Dalton zone? Dalton line.

I really painted myself into a corner here. I should have little areas of gray. Because if he is not in that top five, you do not give up a second round pick. He's not in that top five, but the thing I took away from this report was that the Saints are totally ready to trade him and that they want to trade him.

I mean, a second round pick. It's not that much. If you're saying, okay, just go, man. All we want is a second round pick. It sounds like they're ready to do a divorce. Second round pick for a coach is a lot less of a bounty than some coaches have been traded for.

and if you're an organization that believes what he can do for your offense, then I think it's worth the second round pick. I think the thing is, what is Sean Payton's other baggage? It doesn't seem like a complete flower to me, but, you know. Oh, no, he seems terrible. I mean, let's not sugarcoat it. Seems like a real headache and a diva, and you better not bring him to a market where the media is going to come after him hard

because it's going to lead to a real cantankerous type situation. I don't know. I mean, it sounds like we should give up a high draft pick for him. I just, I don't see it. He does bring him a coordinator. He brings something to the table. I used to say with Wade Phillips, like he's, he at least brought something to the table, a proven defensive system, even if he wasn't a good head coach, that put him in the

middle at least because he had something. Sean Payton can dial up some offense. He's created a lot of yards with a lot of guys people didn't want. Well, he is Drew Brees. This is quarterback. That helps. Or in the other option is you go get Doug Marone, which the Saints might wind up with. Sean Payton.

Or Doug Marone gets cited as the bad coach. Well, no, but, I mean, that's the apparent link is that Morone will go to New Orleans. That's a downgrade if you're a scene. I need Doug Maron's agent. He's working hard. I don't feel like poor Doug Maron needs to be said. I don't know. I feel bad for that.

He's the one who backed out. It's all his fault. Failed on his play. Totally his fault. Flashback to Black Monday 2015 podcast. It was, yeah, it was on New Year's Eve 2014 when he made the bold power play and there were reports out there. Oh, yeah, he's a slam dunk for the Jets. And then Mniche Mehta, another friend of the pod, he's been on the show before,

single-handedly slaughtered any chance of that happening by a series of, you know, columns saying that Marone would be bad news. I think that's a fair assessment, right? Yeah, well, Robert Klemko talked to a bunch of agents about Maron doing a bunch of coaching availability type people from S.I. Robert Clenko, and he said that one guy said he is an incredible leader, absolutely incredible leader. The next guy said, people in Jacksonville don't even like him. So I think it's all over the map. All right. And finally, over on the throne of slees.

And let's fire up the real danger, you know, sorrow, throne of slees. Please, Sidney. I want to hear people. Yes, I want to hear suffering. Because Tom Brady, that leg injury he suffered in the season finale, a loss, by the way, to Gloria Stephan and the Dolphins. A high ankle sprain, the dreaded H-A-S. So he said, he's coming out and said, I've had worse injuries than this.

Well, yeah, your knee exploded one day in September once. That sucked. But high ankle sprain, ain't no joke. Wes couldn't even walk on the damn thing once, once upon a time he told me. There are varying degrees of high ankle sprains. Once I couldn't walk for six weeks on one. The other one I could get around fine after a couple weeks. You're not eating Himalayan nuts seeds, though, Wes.

Tom Brady pays like 14 people millions of dollars a year to make sure they care diligently about him being ready for the divisional round of the playoffs. It's a problem. It's a problem. It's hard to listen to Tom Brady high ankle sprain right before the playoffs. It's hard to hear those cries of the poor New England people caught in a fire or whatever on the throat of sleep. I like to picture people flying off a busted roller coaster into the mouth of hell. I think you're absolutely right. Or it's a nice fair ground right where they're celebrating the AFC's title and a giant, Ferris wheels tipped over on like 4,000 New England residents.

I'm starting to rethink my decision. Brandon Marcus, our producer, had the idea on Sunday to do a little J-E-T-S on Sunday night with bombs exploding at the end. And I was like, I don't think that's going to. You would have been stabbed. I was like, I don't think that's got to play well. Was it in a... No, it would not have played well, I can tell you that.

No, you got a little, let a little time pass. I know. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. It's all about letting time pass. So that's going on. So you, I guess it's time to check. You know, you put on an adult diaper, and, you know, there's different levels to it.

One, a couple trickles at a P. 10. P's everywhere. It's like, oh, this diaper's used up. I've got to go get another diaper from the store and changing my pants. It's a tough answer right now. P scale, where are you at? It's a tough answer right now because on one hand, I keep in my head with the Patriots now, what I said at the end of the last Super Bowl.

That really was the championship I wanted as a Patriots fan for so long. and I keep that in my mind. But when you're just talking about this year's team, the P scale is very high. You know, seven. Dan, why is the person peeing from like East Flushing, New York and like a 67-year-old gravelly-voiced adult? I don't know.

I mean, I like it. Can't explain these things sometimes. So that's what's happening. That's what's happening in the news today. All right, let's touch base. Go get my lunch props, guys. Nick Fortier just to. tweeted out the update on who owes whom and a lot of people owe Dan Hanzas.

Oh, a little teaser. Well, we wouldn't be doing this segment otherwise. Oh, wait a second. By the way, that's classic Sessler. When I got absolutely obliterated at the draft, did we do the segment? I don't remember. Yeah, exactly. Selective memory over there, Quiet Storm.

I did. And it was a terrible job at the draft. I've learned my lesson. I know how to play that game now. But I always said the regular season, that's one. I shine. We'll get to that, but let's go right down the list with all the different props. We'll start with Chris Wessling, who finished 8 and 10 for the season, which means you won eight sandwiches, you lost 10 sandwiches, and Nick Fortier, who does a great job on go get

my lunch.org tracking this stuff also has the around the NFL soundboard. Do we have anything from the soundboard, Sydney? While we talk about this, you can maybe find something. but here we go this is what Wes had he won this one this is a big winner kirk cousins throws for at least 20 TDs and 3,000 yards in 2015 both myself and gregg oh sandwiches got the 4,000 yards on that one that so that was a monster win although halfway through the season i remember having a conversation with west that it was going to be very close it didn't turn out that way next up christin michael leads the cowboys in rushing yeah dan gregg and

Mark all made a sandwich off that. I don't quite understand how Wes is going to eat 8 out of 10 if he's only 1-1. Well, because you're getting the sandwiches from the other people's. Oh, I see. He's played off our folly. Gotcha. So Wes's predictions weren't good, but I should have stuck with McFa.

That was maybe the worst prop that anyone made. I was a total McFadden believer, too. Can you mark down the worst ones and then we'll pick the winner? Okay. Or the loser? Ain't nobody got time for that. There's a drop right there. So, yeah, Dan, Greg, and Mark made sandwiches

there. Nick noted in this copy, but Mark thinks it will be close. It was not close. Brandon Cooks will have more touches than the Saints next two wide receivers, tight ends combined. That did not work out. I wish we had the final numbers on that, but I don't believe it was even close. We have the final numbers. He's got him on here. Cooks had 92. Watson and Sneed had 143.

All right. So Dan and Greg made sandwiches there. Mark, you didn't take him on that. James Winston is benched for performance. Greg, you took Wes on that and you won a sandwich, so a win for there. And finally, Wes said Tevon Austin has over 1,000 yards from scrimmage. It had to be very close. It had 907.

I feel like this is a bit like your Case Keenum one last year. I mean, come on. That's close. Oh, no, no, no. Come on. That's a big round number. Yeah, but he didn't get to it. It wasn't very close.

His career high was like 500 before. Here's the annoying thing about Tevon Austin. And again, the Rams, congratulations on your seven. and nine is that he had like 700 of those yards in five games and then just disappeared for 11 also had a very good season was he and gurley were the only decent things on their offense dan and greg both made sandwiches there we move on to mark sessler who went seven and seven even stephen is what they call him down the middle sessler yep old even stephen avery die um brock osweiler will make at least one start in 2015 victory for mark sessler both dan and gregg took you on that that West did not next uh the Patriots will miss the playoffs we all took you up on that was a hope not a logical you didn't even believe that that was that might be the worst one I you have to nominate that one come on it's bad um Adrian Peterson Michael's not even on the cowboys Adrian Peterson will not lead the league in rushing Mark try to suck us in with that one and

really a credit to all of us in the room here nobody took him on it Peterson did indeed lead the league in rushing beating out, Doug Martin by like 90 yards or so. Dan Hansis will beat Wes the season long pick contest. I like this one. I think Wes got me by about six games if I'm not mistaken.

This makes no sense. We should outlaw this type of thing. It didn't even have anything to do with Mark. I don't even know what's going on here. I liked it. All right. Wes knows that Greg not being part of the picks needs to rain on this parade. That's true.

Moving on to Greg, who who finished 8 and 10. Nice little comeback because he was deep in the hole going into the last couple weeks of the season. That's why you don't do an update with, you know, two weeks left. Taking shots at Nick, who does this? I don't know. Well, you guys were giving me grief for being 0-1-9.

It's not, it's about how you finish. The St. Louis Rams will finish in first or second place in the NFC West. Bye-bye. In 2015, they finished in third. Dan Mark and West all took you up on that. That might be one of the worst ones. And gobbled on some sandwiches. The next one's pretty bad.

Austin Davis starts more games than John. Johnny Manzell. Are you kidding? I'm proud of that one. I got pretty close. You lost six sandwiches on people associated with the St. Louis Rams. That Davis one, though, was a Hail Mary. He went all in on the Rams this year.

I got pretty close with Austin Davis. I think that Johnny Manz all started five games. He appeared in 10. Davis did two. And Davis started two. Andrew Luck will not receive a single MVP vote. That's how you play the game. Take advantage of the hype.

That was good. And I'm mad at myself because I remember not wanting to do it. And then I went along with it. And I got banged. on it. We all gave you sandwiches there. And then only one team from the AFC North will make the playoffs. That was a stupid. Mark took you up on it.

And guess what? Two teams made the playoffs because of my Jets. Jets helped me lose the same. So we all got a little pain there. And then finally, Dan Hansus. Get you Dan Hanses. Get you Dan Hanses. Hansus is the man's best ready.

You'll read. Now listen to the sound. this day will end eventually winning again duh winning again duh winning oh my god you're right he will handle this well 11 and 4 the old zooser went let's go over these

I believe yeah it was the only one to have a winning record the Jets will win at least eight games in 2015 I always thought they were going to win between 9 and 10 they ended up winning 10 and it still wasn't a enough, but I do get the sandwiches from Greg Mark and Wes on that one, so that was good at least. The Cleveland Cavs will win three games before

the Browns. That was a complex one. That was not even close. Actually, it wasn't that complex. Well, you have to look at the Cavs destroyed them. You have to check when they started what week it was. I was essentially pressured into taking this, or I wasn't like a loyal Browns fan, and I will never

take this again. They won't get this next year either. Well, the Browns did get the two fairly quickly. It was in the most like six weeks. Two and three, right? Yeah, first five weeks. And then it took them, I think the Cavs probably had 10 or 12 wins before the Browns got their third. So I won one off mark there.

Peyton Manning will throw for 30 TDs in 2015. Listen, I will not be a shame that I was, if I'm going to stay on the ship a little too long, that's okay. I like Peyton. I'm not saying, oh, my gosh, to you. I'm saying it to me and Mark for not taking you up on that one. Only West took me up on it, so I only lost the sandwich on it. and then J.J.J. Watt and Jadavian Clowny will have more combined sacks than Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. No one took me up on that. Do we have a breakdown of what that was?

I don't know, but Watt and Clowny did have more. They did. So it's a good thing you guys didn't take me on it. So there we go. Well, that's how you win the game, too. You know, you like to talk about the nut hangers. That's the opposite. The onion hangers? The onion hangers, whatever.

Very crude, Greg. Greg, you're supposed to be our supervisor. He's the one that made up the phrase. Hey, get your nut hangers out there. Oh, fucker-lug-a-l-l-l-l-oo. Don't forget the Irishman's country. But whatever the opposite of that is, that's what this one was. They're snug and safe and, you know, well-protected.

Yeah, that sort of bet. 11 and 4-Baddle-down. The Irishman Brandon McManus, one of our past producers, a great man. He went 0-3. A producer, by the way, fun fact, Sydney, if you're still around, next time we do one of these, has never won a sandwich in this. They are terrible at it. inherently i don't know why but uh he said that tony romo would have more passing yards than

elai manning to be fair he kind of got he kind of got that was bad luck yeah that's fair that was really bad luck yep do you know part of the durability's part of the thing really really proud of that by the way so proud eli manning never has never missed the game tony romo misses on average four to six well we have had worse producer bets than that yeah i'm i'm i'm tallying it up now i guess td and gold standard have one sandwiches you know but they've lost far more than that. Overall, the record is just grizzly. It just shows what sort of football experts we are.

I'm doing it math quickly. I think 3 and 23, I believe, is the producer record. Yeah. My favorite thing about the all-time standings is not that Greg and I are in a virtual first place tie. It's that Mark has wagered 20 fewer propositions than Greg. Yeah, well, that is because if you looked at this, that this was like a quarterly report, I did no problem. oppositions early on, and I'd done far more of late, and I paid for it.

How about Mark's record, 41 and 41? Oh, even Stephen. Yep. Well, listen, I don't mind it. Even Steven. We are all at 500 or better thanks to the ineptitude of the producers. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you.

So that's where we are right now. And what are the nominees for worst sandwich prop of the year? Yeah, I guess there's three nominees. Chris and Michael will lead the Cowboys in rushing. The Patriots will. We'll miss the playoffs, and I'm going to go with the third pick would be the Rams will finish either in first or second in the NFC West. So, yeah, you were betting against both the Seahawks and the Cardinals this season.

Betting on the Rams, which is just shameful. It's not as bad as Michael, though. I mean, Michael ended up on three different teams, not the Cowboys. Also, I had a hundred-yard game three days ago. For a different team. Hey, I admit it was a bad one. Also, when he signs with a new team, the team's like, Oh, here's your iPad with the playbook.

And he's like, nah. I'm good. Just give me the ball. It was especially bad because I said all off season I was in the McFadden camp. And then at the last minute, I was swayed by the charms of a team. It's only slightly. The siren song of Christine. Christine Michael.

Not picking the Patriots was just stupid on my part. So maybe his was the weirdest, whatever mine was just flat out, a dumb person's. All right. Before, you got anything else work? I thought it was an out. I mean, I'm sitting here. sandwiches because of one of the dumbest things I've ever said. You only lost one on that.

No, he lost three. Oh, you did. Ouch. We weren't going to pick against the pads. All right, before we get out of here, it is time to talk about what happened with the picks. We talked about last week's show that Wessling and Patra went into week 17 in a flat-footed tie for the picks title, a night of drinking on the line after a phone call that quick. swerved into, you know, some edgy territory between the two colleagues.

And I have to say, um, Kevin Patra won this thing going away. Woo! He went 11 and 5 for the week, the best record of the week. Wes had his worst week of the season, perhaps. He went seven and nine. So Patra, who was down two games going into week 17, ends up winning the whole thing by four games. and, you know, a big win for Kevin Patrick. So now we have them on the phone.

Kevin Patrick, your thoughts on your big victory. I'm by winning. I win here and I win there. Now what? Oh, well, that was a joke. You know, I like Charlie's shit. All right. Now, Kevin Patrick.

Duh. Winning. All right, no. Kevin Patrick. It was beautiful, Dan. It was beautiful. Hey, Wes, I want to know how it felt to be like the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl 27.

Whoa. I don't know. I assume they cared whether they want or not. Oh, yeah. Play that card all you want. I can't wait to buy about a thousand Miller Highlights on your tab. It's going to be beautiful. Why would you be buying the champagne of beer?

Because he's a common man. He's number one of the common man rankings. First of all, first of all, it's delicious. Second of all, I can drink a thousand of them so it'll go up. Your tab will go higher. He is not number one in the common man rankings. He never delivered mail or was in a union. I don't want to hear it.

You know how Kevin called his shot, though. He came on here last week. He was like Babe Ruth pointing out to the outfield, and then he took Wesleying out. Oh, it was a miserable performance by me. I was terrible. Not only was it a bad week for West, but Patrick also blew away the fan consensus with, you know,

they go chalk typically and went 9 and 7. Patrick took some chances, went 11 and 5. And, you know, sometimes in the studio went, is Patrick being sucked into? an alien portal then. Sometimes Mark gets, you see, the Mark wild eyes. I can hear the wild eyes on Patcha as he's going after Wesleying right now. Kevin, why he's so angry?

Did you feel like Wes had kind of looked past you? No, I just think I was confident what I was going to do and I pulled it off. I mean, just straight confidence. Nothing on that's nothing else other than that. Yeah, you deserve the kudos. Well done. Excellent performance by you. I don't understand why there would be any anger involved.

There's no anger. There's only happiness from my end. I mean, it's just the way Detroit guys are. You can move them to Chicago. You can put them, you know, USC. You could send him wherever. He's always going to have that Detroit bad to the bone. You're a bad boy.

That's what you are. He's a bad boy on Slack every day. He is. No comment. All right. Kevin Patrick, congratulations on a big victory. You have to defend the title next year. And maybe, Greg, you know, if he'll come down from Mount Pius,

we'll jump back in and we can have a real showdown between the 2014 winner and the 2015 winner. We'll see what happens. Let's do it. All right. So there's Kevin Patcher, victorious. Going to get some drinks from West whenever it happens. We will get out of here now.

We'll be back on Thursday. I should say the guys will be back on Thursday with Colleen Wolfe. We'll preview all the playoff games. It's going to be a great week of football. So we will dig in hard on all those games. So make sure you tune in for that. It will also be on YouTube and on NFL now, I believe. We have some other news to share a little later in the week.

So just make, be ready for that as well. So until then, this is Dan Hansis. Signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the boss, and la seed behind the glass. Tell Thursday. I know what I want And I want it now I want you I'm Mr. Vane

Hey, what's up? This is the R&B podcast. I'm Nate Burleson. I'm Real Mike Robin. On this week's podcast, we preview all of the Wild Car Weekend matchup. Please check us out, NFL.com, backslash podcast and iTunes. We'd real us out. This is an I-Heart podcast.