NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Bold free agency predictions, ATN Mailbag!

Episode Date: March 20, 2015

A room filled with heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling -- continues its analysis of free agency, making a raft of bold predictions about how players will perform��in their new uniforms. Elsewhere, the gang dips into the mailbag to answer burning questions from ATN Nation.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 a solid third round round draft pick. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. All right, back. I'm back.

Thank you for holding it down. while I recovered in my abode. Are you, you feeling better? Yeah, I am. People were worried. I'm a lot better. But it was a little touch and go there. And I listened to the show.

I always listen. Yeah. I loved it. I thought you guys did a great job. Wow, good. B minus. B minus. Well, that's higher than the last show we did.

You said C plus on that one. I thought it was really good. It was really good. Now, a goal of ours because we've, Greg, we talked about this on text. We've been, you know, having our hour shows. there's a lot to cover. We're going to try to knock it down, get back into our zone,

our 45-minute zone in the show. But that doesn't mean, gentlemen, that it's not going to be action-packed, right, Mark? Yeah, well, hold on. I mean, did you notice us trying to stick up for you when TD was just taking shot after shot at you? Well, yeah, I did notice that. And I would be going back at TD.

We got, once again, gold standard Thursdays behind the glass. Gotta love those. Yeah, apparently I was unaware of this schism between TD and I, and I will speak with him privately about it. Apparently, I give him too much grief. But then you notice, after

he said that, Greg botched the news queue and all of a sudden TD saw, oh, maybe I'm not giving Dan enough credit. Your best move was just to let Greg do his thing as a fill-in host, and suddenly he wanted Dan back. I thought Greg did a fine job, though.

Excellent job by Greg. Mark, always playing both sides of the same. Everyone did great. By the way, Mark, you... I was like TD was too. Mark, I'm glad that you're in some Good Spirits. This, of course, is your least favorite day of the year. By the way, I like that Dan has a little plan for the show, and I just look over at it.

And in parentheses, it says, Greg, vulnerable. You know what's really good about that, too? Right before TV. In huge letters. Right before TD started the show, I saw that I wrote that. I was, like, trying to jog my memory what this was in reference to. I think we just covered it. I don't know.

I don't think it's come up yet. If I remember what this was for, then we'll talk about it. That was it. No, it's not. It's not. But anyway, Mark, this is the toughest day of the year for you as a man who likes silence in the newsroom. It's the first day of March Madness, and it makes you sad, I know. Well, I mean, I thought I handled it. Did you hear one complaint for me today? No, I didn't hear anything. I feel like you just kind of plug. Other people love it, and I think it's a celebration in the newsroom that I was not a part of.

It's reached a point where it's like a Brown's game on a Sunday where people know that you, have certain feelings about it, and then they want to talk to you. And I feel like it's reached a point where you don't want to talk about it. So the quiet storm is in action. By the way, I grew up watching this every year and loving it. I just, I have two kids. I have to parcel out my time. NCAA B-ball does not get into my life at this point.

Just go B-ball? Well, that's what I keep seeing. Yeah, I'm with you on this one. It's great. It's one of the best things about working in sports is that you have these TVs on your desk, can you get to watch and also be getting paid for it. I have no issues, but I'm not a big basketball fan.

Northeastern went down today, but they put up a good battle gold standard. It was awesome. I really enjoyed it. I'm sorry. My alma mater. Yeah. So anyway, so we got a really big show today. By the way, when Wes's toaster need to get this out, it's happening a week from today, next Thursday.

I would think it's possible that gold standard will be behind the glass for it since we have these gold standard Thursdays. There's a chance. So, you know, I would say if you want to be, you know, in the mix to potentially be on the show, this is your last chance now you've got probably got the next few days to reach out to app producer TD, explain why you want to be on the show, get witty about it, because I'm sure there are a lot of people now that want in, but that doesn't mean you can't jumpstart. So next Thursday, Wes, the toaster. It's time for you to go back to work and reclaim your invincibility.

Yeah, putting it back on the line. You know, I don't need to take any pot shots from former champion Greg Rosenthal over this. Look, you haven't won... When was last time you won one of these toasters? You're 0-1 over the last seven months or something. It was because when you had the title belt, you would not accept your top challenger. This is similar to when Tyson went to jail, and he just went away for a while. Now, here's the thing.

What are you so similar? What are you accusing me of? Nothing happened with Wes that would have led to him being incarcerated, but you've been gone a while, and people are now wondering, Is he going to be the same guy after this period of an activity? It's fair to ask that. It's fair to ask it. I feel like I'm better now.

Sure, but so does Trent Richardson. I can't wait. I'm really excited. All right, gold standard. Why don't we do some news? Sir, let's do it. Okay. Okay.

By the way, not B-minus. It's like a B. Hard B. That's good. That's like 86 out of 100. I loved it And Mark, I noticed You must have really liked it

Because you had You went all over social media on it You went on your Facebook You went on your Twitter page You got it out there I took it as a shot against me Oh my God You know how I work

With perceived slights Finding new waves That is unbelievable to me It's just simply Whenever you see me getting active anywhere I've had an hour of free time I took it as a perceived slide A thousand times

I put our group for a cross show also on these social media platforms. So you say it wasn't a shot under the radar, aren't me? Oh my gosh. Yes or no? Absolutely not. It's confusing to all of us to hear that. Listen, this is what my brain is damaged.

No, I understand that now, but... You did come in today, the... Dan wasn't there at the time, but you did come in and say you listen to the show, which is rare for you and that you really like it. I do listen to them. I listen to quite a few of them. That's another myth that I've never listened to,

a show i just don't find the need to because i was just on it yes gotcha all right here we go let's move forward as a group together is one we're one but we're not the same the vikings tell adrian peterson they will not cut him let's start right there the minnesota vikings running back gregg you wrote a good think piece on peterson i read it i actually did read it and i really liked it it was it was it was something we wrote on the cp which is the main page on our nfl dot com home site uh lot of eyeballs on it. You said it makes sense that he's going to end up in Minnesota. Everything pointed that way. Now we're hearing that the Vikings will not cut him, according to NFL media inside of Ian Rappaport, who heard this from Peterson's agent, Ben Dagra. Dagra. Dagra. Dagra. So,

you even wrote it. You wrote it, Greg. Not a surprise. Well, that wasn't a surprise. And one of my points for making a case why Peterson will go back to the Vikings was releasing him is not an option. So now we know that that's confirmed. The next step, if Peterson really wanted to get out, would be to ask for a trade or ask to be released. But the Vikings are making it clear. They're ready to pay him $12.75 million. I don't think there's any team out there that's going to be willing to pay him that much money. So he knows the most money is in Minnesota. I don't know if there's any teams out there that want to give up a great pick for him.

Maybe Arizona, that's about it. He's talking to the Vikings. He's going to be back with Minnesota. I don't think so. I still think he's going somewhere else, and it looks like Arizona. From multiple national reporters, it looks like the magic number is $25 million guaranteed over three years. So it would take a team willing to give him that on a rewritten contract. And Charles Robinson of Yahoo says, if Adrian Peterson does go on the block,

the Cardinals will offer a high draft pick. Right, but a high draft pick is a second round pick. So they're going to be ready to give up a second round pick at least and $25 million guaranteed. I still don't know if the Vikings will say yes. No, we don't know that. And for all this, you know, there's a sense among NFL media insiders, all of that ilk, that when you include a high draft pick and a high salary, trades can't happen. That was the reason why Sam Bradford trade was not supposed to happen.

That's a good point. But these teams get desperate, especially with Adrian Peterson where he's the best running back of his generation, and he's the kind of talent who will get the fan base excited, get ownership excited, get the GM and coach excited. I could see that happening. And you have Carson Palmer for, what, one or two more years, right? And so not that there's a window that closes when he leaves, that they find someone else, but if they don't, you're sitting pretty in an NFC West that is strong,

but the Niners have fallen off a cliff. Why not go for it? I agree with all that, but I thought the money was a problem for Arizona. Well, it was, reportedly. You're saying he's going to redo his deal. I don't think they would take it as it is now. Right, and maybe he'd be willing to take a little less money to get out of Minnesota. Well, he's, you know, reports are still trickling out that no matter what happened with him meeting the GM and the coach at his house, that he's not happy there and doesn't want to play for them.

Well, just talking, though, says a lot. And just the fact that he hasn't asked to be released, he hasn't asked to be traded, the clock keeps ticking. And every day that goes by, he's more likely to stay because Minnesota wants him. They want to win. They're moving into a stadium next year. They'd love to do it with the best player in franchise history. I think they've gotten over, whatever happened off the field. They want to win, and they own his rights.

And so unless he really wants to be a guy that holds out all offseason, I don't think he's going anywhere. Moving forward, the Cleveland Browns have added another wide receiver to their group. It is Dwayne Bo, the former Chiefs wideout, who once upon a time led the NFL with 15 touchdown catches back in 2010. He had been in a state of regression for years with the Chiefs. Didn't even have a touchdown this past year.

However, he seems to be an upgrade for a group that needs it, Mark, after Josh Gordon's suspension. So now you have a Dwayne Bo, Brian Hartline wide receiver set up on the outside. Your thoughts, Mark? Well, I mean, I think one of the problems with Bo after Matt Castle fell off a cliff was he's never really had strong quarterback player or a strong, you know, quarterback that can throw the ball and make the use of his gifts, which are depleted at this point. And that doesn't get any better in Cleveland. So it's hard to get overly excited about it. I mean, I think it's better than what they would have had to put out there, which would be Travis Benjamin.

but Cleveland has to make drafting a wide receiver and a difference making one a priority that if they got, if they hit on a rookie wide receiver and then you look at the other guys they added, they've improved that group. But as it stands, not overly excited about Cleveland's wideouts. Bo and Heartline combined for two touchdowns last year on 160 targets. Well, throw in Hawkins and it's four for three wide receivers. And Taylor Gabriel, I mean, it's not going to, to be among the best wide receiver cores in the NFL. Well, that is fair.

That's an understay. Wes suddenly is soft-pedaling Browns criticism. I mean, give me a break. If these guys came out of college right now, the Browns would have just signed the first two starting wide receivers in the league with a 4-940. I mean, that is a slow group. Yeah.

And that always worries me, teams that are just slow. I guess that sounds obvious. Well, and you remove Jordan Cameron from the mix. So they don't have a tight end. Who's their tight end? Not a single person. What is the Browns, now that we're past free agency for the most part? And Greg, you tweeted that you thought this, Duane Bowson,

it kind of ended free agency. It's over for any type of mid-to-high-level agency. It's a little bit of a joke, but yeah, it's true. It was hilarious, but also factual, I thought. Mark, in your opinion, the Browns, what should be their number one draft day target? You got to go, they have a number 12 and a number 19. I'd go wide receiver. We don't know much about these draftable guys,

but there's three of them. If one of them slips to 12, you go get him, and then you go defensive tackle with the second one, maybe offensive line. I got to go rewatch Bo maybe a little bit. I'm not sure if he's totally at the end of the line or what, because he could be a good signing. I don't think Heartline was a good sign for the money,

whatever he was fine. But Bo is, you can't not get a worthy starting wide receiver. He was the best guy, or at least the most reliable guy out there. So I don't think it's a bad move. Well, why not go get Kenny Stills? for a third round pick I'm not saying for a third round pick that's what they had to give up for him

I mean these are underwhelming signing I bet I don't know if we have the numbers for Boe yet but we do know that it couldn't have been a huge deal at this stage of the game so I like the signing I mean I like the Browns I think about a good week after it was a little shaky that first week the second week I think's been better

well they've been active we'll find out if it's good I feel like Dwayne Boe has been moving like a tight end for two years and that's not good for a number one wide receiver maybe he can be their tight end Again, they don't have one. Ooh, I'll say. All right, moving forward, another team that's been very active,

but all through the period, the Buffalo Bills, it looks like. In fact, it is. Charles Clay will be their new tight end. The Miami Dolphins will not match the bills as five-year, $38 million offer sheet for the tight end, according to rap sheet, that according to a team source. This comes after the Dolphins had signed Jordan Cameron, as we just spoke of.

last week, I guess that made Clay on some level expendable, and the bills built, as we heard, we were hearing for days, they built an offer that front-loaded a contract that even if the Dolphins wanted Clay, it was gone. So, in my opinion, the moment they put that transition tag on Clay, it didn't seem like they needed, they necessarily were going to be destroyed if Clay was out the door, the Dolphins, right?

It was a strange move, the transition tag made even stranger by the signing of Jordan Cameron. At that point, they must have just figured Clay is gone. I'd rather have Cameron and roll the dice for his contract than the contract the bills gave Clay. Clay's one of the most overpaid players in the NFL right now. It's a crazy deal. I mean, he's going to make more than Jimmy Graham and Grunk the next two years.

Quite a bit more. If he stays there five years, the last three years won't be bad. So they're counting on him having a good NFL career and not getting hurt. A guy who was injured for most of last year. Dan, what about you? you look at the Bills and the Jets, both very active in different ways, which team got closer to the Patriots? I think they're both, like, you know, probably eight to nine-win teams

and maybe if a couple things go right, either of them can sneak the tent. I would need the Patriots to come down. Let's not pretend they're starting off at the same point. The Bills had a great defense. The Jets had Rex Rina as their coach, and their defense was terrible. Well, and they were a pretty bad team. They were a four-win team and a nine-win team. The Jets rebuilt the spot that made their defense bad.

The defense is going to be, I'll put a sandwich on it with you, by the way, the Jets will have the top 10 defense this year, if you want to take me on that. Points per game or yard? I don't really trust yards. You, whatever you want to use is the. I don't know if I want to do that. I thought you were going to go Jets versus Bills. That I would take.

I would take the bills over the defense. It's pretty pathetic that Ryan Fitzpatrick's the best quarterback in this whole group between the two teams, and Gino Smith has the highest upside. Gino Smith is going to be getting all the reps in OTAs. Ryan Fitzpatrick is coming off a broken leg. I think Gino Smith is the starter there, but we have an off-season to talk about this. By the way, the bills,

the bills only barely listen to most of that. By the way, the bills, a lot of work, obviously, they did now. Let's take a look at this. They traded for LaShawn McCoy, obviously, and they gave him that huge contract. Matt Castle. They got Charles Clay,

Jerome Felton, big time fullback signing, Percy Harvin, Greg's boy, your boy, Tyrod Taylor, re-signed Jerry Hughes, Gyrus win Gyrus win Marcus easily So I mean

They've been active Let's see if it makes a difference Brandon Spike still doesn't have a job He is not He was on NFL Network this week I had the bills By the way as my winner of free agency That's going to be a post going up on Friday

On the round of the NFL page We each chose That was written before the bow signing Big winner Victory All right moving on The Jaguars speaking of slights perceived slights i heard your little bernard pierce dig on me on yesterday's show

greg once upon a time i had bernard pierce like in middle of the pack uh as a guy on the rise after a great playoff run with the ravens he kind of went downhill after that then he gets a DUI cut by the ravens picked up quickly the jaguars have claimed the running back he's now in the jaguars a couple days after that DUI arrest the best part of this to me is that he sent out a tweet saying, God works in mysterious ways with a prey emoji. So God gave Bernard Pierce a DUI. I think alcohol works in mysterious ways also. I think he was praying about going to Jacksonville.

After being part of the Ravens organization. Who would want to stay with the Ravens to go to the Jaguars? I agree. This guy's crazy. I don't know. I think none of us can really make heads or tails of this. I just, I'm sorry that Mark's. boy, Toby Gerhardt keeps falling further and further down the...

Well, listen, he's not my boy at this point, but I don't think that Bernard Pierce is a huge threat to anyone in that running back room. Bernard Pierce, the last two seasons, is averaging, what, 3.27 yards per carry? I mean, he's been an absolute disappointment since that Super Bowl game. Did he just whip that at the top of your hand? Yeah, because I just wrote the post about 30 minutes ago. That's pretty good.

It's called recall, baby. This is a kind of flyer teams like the Jaguar should take. They wanted a running back in free agency. They didn't get one. Bernard Pierce has one year of good film as a powerback. Then he got injured and never responded after he got injured. I remember he buckled his knee in a preseason game and was never the same. I like Denard Robinson, too, not as their main starter.

I like it as a change of pace guy. I kind of like Storm Johnson when they gave it the ball to him, too. Well, Gus Bradley gushed over Robinson at the Combine and Heat when they asked about Gearhart, not so much. Is Toby potentially a guy that could be a surprise release? Could be. Rapsheet has said that they plan to move him into an H-back role to play some tight end and some lead blocker in addition to running back. Getting paid a lot to do that.

Well, maybe not this year. A million or so. And that's what's happening. I don't know if I said at the top. Night news day. Yeah, light news day. Nice change of pace after a bunch of shows where we have a ton of news. I don't know if I even did like a full rundown of the news.

I'm of the show today, did I? A little rusty. Let's tell him now. All right. Well, we just did the news. So that was that. We're also going to play a game, one of our favorite games that is called What's More Likely? And then after that, we're going to hit the mailbag because there's going to be a around the NFL mailbag on NFL.com Friday morning, it goes up.

But you guys send so many great questions, and a lot of them, frankly, more than half, end up being related to the podcast, which is fine. I like it because then I get to sift through all those and then bring them to the room full of heroes. and we'll go through those, so we're going to hit up the mailbag and, you know, Mark, I find this is a good way to connect with the audience. Yeah, I mean,

this sounds like a show based on what you just described that I'm going to hit all media, social media platforms with tonight. I mean, it's just to make you feel better about where you stand here. You eased my mind, put it that way. You've got to hit Instagram too.

He's been getting active. Are you on Insto a lot now? Well, I don't want to waste anyone's time. I was on it three years ago, and Greg's like, are you on? I said no, and I realized I was. I put like 15 pictures up. And then I got back on this week and threw a few more out there.

Oh, by the way, speaking of our listeners, Greg. Have you thought of what made me vulnerable? No, I'm still jogging my memory on that. Was this really like your around the NFL takeover plan? And I stumbled by, Greg is vulnerable. I would never want your job is always safe from me trying to go after because I just don't want to do the schedule. Okay, yeah. That's it.

No, it has to be related to the Patriots, right? I don't know. Greg being vulnerable. Sorry, I interrupted you. I don't think so. We're going to figure it out. But shout out to the listeners. We got a tweet. One of us was sent to the group because it came up, I believe, on the show from Wednesday about where the listeners are from.

And we got to, you know, you guys talked about our highest downloaded show. And then the listeners are from all over the globe. And then someone tweeted, Greg. They said, let's hear more about where your listeners are from. Yeah, a number of you tweeted, by the way. And I've got some info. First, let's give the top six, because there's some surprises. U.S. is number one.

Then the U.K., big supporters. Go America and go England. And then Canada, Australia. And then here, a little surprising. Denmark and Sweden next on the list. Old Swedish, huh? McHale Haig, you wanted to know. He made a joke.

He bet there was only about four downloads from Sweden, but... No, no, no. O Contrere, about 1,100 in one episode. When I made the spreadsheet for the ATL listener map, The Scandinavia, we're big in Scandinavia, all of those countries. Rodrigo Cardenas. I messed that up, Rodriguez. I'm sorry.

He's from Chile, and he wanted to know how many Chileans listen. Was he the only one? And again, not giving enough of your Chilean credit here. 47, ranked number 40 of the countries that listen to us. 47 Chileans out there listening to us. Yeah, Chile. What about, Greg? What about the countries that actually have just...

one listener and I love that there are about 26 of them so I don't know if we can go through them all but I'll list a few here Congo San Marino thanks to the dude in Sri Lanka or the lady

Ghana St. Kitts and Nevis which apparently is one thing Totally man It is. This one I've never heard of Bonnare Saint Astusius and Saba Do you know what that is? Gold standard

Is there anyone to lie about that? Can anyone hear me? That's from St. Kitts and Nevis. That was a live feed. Montenegro. All right. I know that place. Tunisia.

Nigeria. That's Christian Akoya. He's a big fan. Nigeria and Belize. So if you're the one person listening from any of those countries, thank you. And keep it up. And tell a friend, make double your output. How about the billionaire in the infinity pool in Belize?

Listen to my show. Whatever, bro. I once had to write a massive encyclopedia entry on Hits in Neuevis. I worked for a encyclopedia company. Shut up, really? No. No. Yes, I did.

I'm not kidding. Was it factually correct? This is a rare Sessler one where I don't know if he's lying or not. I know this story. Absolutely true. True. Something about you had to put the security metal in the binders so people wouldn't steal dictionaries. That was a different job.

So many jobs. So many, so much mileage. I want to see your resume. would be awesome. I'll produce it. All right, here we go. So now, let's play the game. What's more likely?

Yeah, sorry, I was just getting really stuck on that St. Kitts and Nevis Wikipedia. Yeah, what do you got on? Nothing, I mean, no, I'm still learning. Okay. I'll come back with a fun bag. Give us one nug by the end of the show. We'll do. We'll do.

Here we go. Live from Culver City, California, it's America's favorite. game show. What's More Likely? Yes. What's More Likely a game where we present two options and the room has to

decide, what's more likely? So I have a few here and I know each of you gentlemen produced a couple maybe, one or two. So we'll just kind of go around the room. But I'll start I'll throw out the first few just to get us cooking here and I'll start with a, you know,

Kind of an easy one, or maybe not. What's more likely? Andre Johnson has 1,200 yards receiving, or Frank Gore has 1,200 yards rushing. Two veterans, both with the cults. A lot of people think this is a perfect spot for both of them. Who has a big year? Both could do it, but. I think it's Andre Johnson.

I think he has more left than a tank than Gore. He's a wide receiver. Gore is a running back. I think running backs have a harder problem aging in the NFL, and I liked what I saw of Andre Johnson when I watched his, I went back and watched his tape the other night. Well, for the sake of argument, I'll go Gore, because I think that they brought him in to be by far their lead back.

They're going to use him all over the place. He fits well in the offense. And, you know, Andre Johnson isn't 23 years old either. Yeah, 1,200 yards for receivers a lot. The logical answer says AJ, but the heart says the inconvenient truth. Frank Gore. He probably needs what, 250, 275 carries and a nice per carry average. to get there. I think he can do it on that team.

What's more likely? Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick makes at least eight starts or Texans quarterback Brian Hoyer makes at least eight starts. Two guys that were being told are in a camp battle, two guys where when you break down the contracts, it wouldn't be crazy if they ended up as the starters. Who's more likely to start half their team's games? Two very good what's more likely questions so far.

I'm back. Very even. I'm back, baby, because this is a tough one. My belly hurt, but now it's better. Going with Ryan Fitzpatrick for the Chain Galey connection. Feels like Galey imported him just to start. Well, and O'Brien is a connection to Hoyer, but also to Ryan Mallet. And I got to believe, just the way they talked about Ryan Mallet, forget the Hoyer contract aside.

They seem to love him so much a month ago. And then what they did with Hoyer confuses me, I'm going Fitzpatrick. I'm going to go Hoyer just because. the Gino-Smith bandwagon. That's really my corner. That's where you want to be right in the Gino-Smith. That's kind of my thing right now is sticking up for Gino-Smith. So I'm going to stick with it that he'll have a nice season.

I think it actually strangely works to Gino's favor that this will not be a sham competition this time run. He's got a beat out Ryan Fitzpatrick, not like the Vick thing from last year. Let's see if it maybe motivates him. Because he's got something in his tank. He shows it two to three times a year. That's not enough. What's more likely? The Patriots get knocked off their AFC East Throne

or the 49ers make the playoffs. I'll go the 49ers make the playoffs. I talked about this a little bit on the last show that everyone's just assuming they're going to win three or four games, but they're still the guts of a fairly talented team and as much as it's fun to make fun of them, you could see Colin Kaepernick and scraping out nine or ten wins or something to get in there.

Plus, I don't want to think about a world where I'm getting grief from a Jets fan and winning the division. I said AFC East Throne, not AFC Throne. Right. Division. Yeah, got to go with the 49ers here. The Patriots don't lose that division. I got one. Oh, you were going to answer this?

Are you going to answer that one? Are you texting? What's going on? Coming up with my question. Let's repeat the question. What's more likely? This is a special repeat. It's just for Mark Sessler.

The Patriots get knocked off their NFC, East Throne, or the 49ers back the playoffs. Mark has tuned out as that time Ian Rappaport was on the show. New England will absolutely win the division, so anything else is less likely. I'm going more likely the Patriots win the division. That was kind of more like a cold check with the group.

I got a few mailbag tweets about why we were so down on the Niners. But apparently as down as we are in the Niners, we're more down on non-Patriots AFCs teams. I think it should be self-evident while we're down on the 49ers. Oh, 49ers fans. All right. Mark, you obviously have one ready. Well, see, I didn't.

What's more likely? I didn't, so I was scrambling to come up with it. All right, so it's week 16, and what's more likely? E.J. Manuel is the bill starter, or Johnny Mansell is the Brown starter? It would be bad news if Johnny Mansell is not starting by that point of the season for the Browns. I would think the bills are out on E.J. Manuel. The Browns still, I would think, have some investment, even though they're definitely, I would think, have a lot of trepidation about Johnny football.

But I would think it's got to be Mansell starting. think it's manzell i think the browns have to find out what they have in manzell the bills are that that ships already floated when they benched him for kyle orton this is a very complicated i mean week 16's old that's late mark likes the the long term by then they might have may might have found out what they had in johnny mansow you said they got to find out i think maybe by then they might have found out and then he's no longer starting based on why 16 right he said on i said it's week 16 yeah in week 16 i'll give it to e j manual I hate to think of what, you know, basically Matt Castle, I guess in this scenario,

Matt Castle led them to a 10-and-4 record. They're just going to rest their starters the last couple weeks, put E.J. That's highly like it, Greg. That is out there. West, do you have one for us? What's, oh. What's more likely? By May 1st, Adrian Peterson is playing for a different team,

or I have gone on five dates. by what date May 1st Well this isn't fair Because you can Wait a second You can I wasn't gonna

I wasn't gonna bring your private life Into the show But since you invited it It's important that everyone knows That West has some things cooking right now apparently Right you need to let us know that there are some A couple of irons in the fire Irons in the fire

So you're This is like It's a loaded question Hold on but I I maintain that I've never been on a date in my life So this is this would be breaking new ground Right but you also have inside information It's about you

It's really, this is really a prism for, to talk about Wes's personal. Even if I'm talking to like four different girls. So what's the lady's situation then? Well, you know, that's for me to know. I don't even know what the lady's situation is. Well, I'm going to say you making that five dates, because I don't think you bring this up with a little bit of spring in your step. There's a, I won't say anything other than I think Wes is a little,

you know, is a little flutter to his heart right now, and he thinks he's going to be on several dates. And I also have always long disagreed with your notion that you've never been on a date. If you hung out with a lady this past weekend, which I don't know if it happened or not, that's a date, buddy. Even if it's not tuxedo and roses at the local S-cargo factory, it's a date. I'm going west because, I mean, otherwise, it's like we're not showing faith in you. Escargo-fax. We got to show some faith in you.

I think you can pull this off. I mean, are you going to try to pull it off? Look at his poker face. He's definitely, he's got some cooking behind his shoes. I want a commitment. Are you going to try to go on dates? Absolutely. All right.

I'm a new man. All right. then I'm going to go on your side here. What's more likely? Greg, vulnerable? I don't know. Again. I still don't know what it is.

All right. Dan, no, let's say Mark gets a tat. No, no, let me think about it again. All right. Who's got another one? What's more likely? Mark gets his wife pregnant once again, and at the end of the season has a new baby.

maybe that he names Bo or Dan gets his wife pregnant and names his kid Crow after Antonio Carmardi. So either Dwayne Bo or Antonio Carmardi have such good season that your name your prodigy. It's B-O-W-E is the name of the top. Yes, B-O-W-E. I hope that was clear. I can only speak. Hashtag Bower Crow.

I can only speak to myself that my wife, sweet Emily, would absolutely. And I'm not joking. Leave me and fly back to Texas if I ever try to force her hand with the name Crow. And she saw the hard-knock season where he couldn't name his kids. Well, Darrell might have been a better option, I guess. But I was trying to think of a player more on the level of bow. I'm trying to say no way it happens. Mark already has several kids named after NFL players.

Well, I named a child Colton after Colt McCoy, which was ill-faded potentially. But listen. What about Luke McCown? Colt McCown. You re-signed today officially. No, I like Cole McCoy. It doesn't matter. I'm going to bet on myself here.

Why not? I like that. I know my powers. I like that. I'm going with Mark, too. You should. I'm telling you, you should. What's more likely?

Trent Richardson averages four yards per rush in Oakland this year, where Ted Williams wins the American League back in time. Two thousand fifty. Poor T. Rich. All T. Rich needs us one carry for four yards and then shut it down for the season. Wait, are we the first people that? ever call him T. Rich, by the way? No, that's all that for a thousand years.

I'll tell you what, that T. Rich, he believes in himself. Yeah. Does that mean anything? No. What's more likely? All right, Charles Clay, Chucky, as more than eight touchdowns, or Jordan Cameron has more than eight touchdowns. What are the people are thinking?

I'm going to go, Jordan Cameron. I just think that they, number one, they've shipped out all the wide receivers they have. And they've got a quarterback much more than the Buffalo Bills do. Eight touchdowns? I mean, he, in Cleveland two seasons ago, that's who he was. So you've got to hope he can get back. We've not seen that from Charles Clay in Buffalo with E.J. Manuel or Matt Castle, what the hell?

I'm going Jordan Cameron as well. I think he's the closest thing we've seen to Tony Gonzalez. He can post up in the end zone. Highly athletic, boxes people out. Charles Clay, I mean, first of all, you need a quarterback who's going to throw eight touchdowns. So I'm not believing that. And I am following the law of God hates the Browns, which means Jordan Cameron will sustain no head injuries this year,

and we'll go to the Pro Bowl and have eight to ten touchdowns. It's sad, but that's how we're saying. What's more likely? Chip Kelly flames out this season with the Eagles and either quits or resigns, or Sean Peyton flames out with the Saints, neither quits or resigns. Or he gets fired, excuse me, for each one. I'll go to Sean Peyton just because of, of the craziness around that franchise.

I don't know if he would have to resign or what would happen. Unsettled ownership stuff always causes issues. Yeah, that's your Trump card. What was the first one? Chip Kelly or Sean Peyton essentially. Who flames out and either quits or gets fired? I agree with the Sean Peyton sentiment. Kelly is an interesting one to put up, though,

because I could see Kelly if things didn't go his way specifically, the kids could get bounced to go back to college. He's got that in his, where's Sean Payton going to go necessarily? I'm going to go Peyton, though, just because that organization seems to be in flux. The Cowboys will go 5 and 11, and Jason Garrell will go back. What's more likely? I got one more.

Jason Garrett goes down as the next Tom Landry. This is a callback to Tony Romo, who was on Kimmel yesterday, and was talking about a conversation he had while drunk on the party bus, Jerobus, and made a off-handed reference to Jason Garrett being the next Tom Landis. or Reggie McKenzie goes down as the next Ozzie Newsom.

Who's more likely to be fondly remembered by football historians, Jason Garrett or Reggie McKenzie? Jason Garrett has had some success now. He won a division. Reggie McKenzie has only shown that he can tear down a roster. Here's the thing. Reggie McKenzie, this is a team that's sucked for so long that if he found the quarterback last year and if they could drive another draft or two that works and they get good,

suddenly everyone forgets all the crap that happened before. But I'm going Garrett because I think that the cowboys have put... Old two sides of the fence. Well, no, because, I mean, McKenzie, like, it's so easy just to dismiss him entirely and bury him, but, like, he might have found a quarterback and then things start to roll. Garrett, they've put 20 years of work into this guy. From Aikman's backup through all the times he was coming up, you know, endless years as an assistant, I'm going Garrett.

I think they already feel like he is someone that they want around for a long time. I'm going to McKenzie. all this McKenzie shots that Wes has been taking. Garrett's already had his chances for five or six years. I feel like we know who he has a coach. Who knows? What's McKenzie done? Maybe McKenzie's going to turn it all around.

He had a great draft class last year. Colee Mack, Derek Carr. They're coming for you, Wes. Yeah, I don't, forgive me if I don't have Derek Carr in my Hall of Fame yet like everyone else does. All right. Anybody have any other ones? That's what was more likely today. That's how you get out of a segment.

guys that's good see that's why you need me in this chair that's how you do it vulnerable I think you were listening to some of the segways your segue game was tight oh man I'm serious the segue game was great never

one of my strongest suits but you forget about it all right now let's hit it it's time we haven't done this in a while but this is one of our favorite things to do because we adore all of our listeners let's hit the mailbag hit the song

just kidding just wanted to keep on your toes. There is no song for the mailbag. That really killed me. I actually was waiting for a song. Yeah, me too. I got this one. We're going to get sued by every artist, like dance artist that had one hit in the 90s and is now eating, you know, stove top dressing every day.

We're going to get sued by all of them when they find out what's going on in here. We need to get the conga line going next time when that song comes on. I'll give, you guys that know who came up with that song? Come on ride the train. I'd be very impressed. Kenan Ivory Wayans. Dirty South. The Quad City DJs.

Oh, yeah. Quad Cities is in like Rock City, Iowa? I guess. I don't know. You know, now you're past me. All right, let's do the mailbag. Let's hit it up. We'll get through as many as we can before we get out of here.

Let's see. Where do we want to start? This is from Nicholas Lanigan. who asks which city would the around the NFL boys like to set up an expansion podcast in excluding Tybee Island, Wes? Oh. Yeah, it is very specifically stated. Where would you set it up? I'll go first.

I don't know why I popped in my head. Austin, Texas, big fan of Austin, Texas. My wife's from the area. I think it would be fun to be set up in Austin, go to Austin City Limits, a lot of good beer. What does that mean the expansion pockets? We're part of it, or it's a new group of people? No, no, we would. The way I thought of it is, like, kind of.

If we were taping in a satellite office somewhere, what would be? Well, New Orleans, that's the easy answer. It's the right answer, too. I'd go London, England. Very nice. Playing to the audience, and I like it. Well, we're already, we have a campaign underway. This would make it more logical to get us over there.

Three great answers. I've often said if I could pick anywhere I had to move in the United States, and it wasn't L.A. or Tubby Island, Austin and New Orleans would be too. Yeah. Maybe one and two on my list. How about St. Kitts and Nevis? Well, what's not the like about that?

This from Tom Marshall, when... And this is for you, Greg, really. When will we know if the AT NFL team is coming to London? On to London, hashtag. Send all your mail to Roger Goodell 345 Park Avenue. He has nothing better to do than sort through the postcards. Just keep sending them. And send us the tweets of the postcard that go out.

We like those. I would love to know. I'm afraid we'll know sooner than later. but you might not like the answer. Well, that means we're not working hard enough. Well, that means if right now it's looking less than definite, that means the boss is, I would think the boss, that means he's got to step up.

I need to step it up. It'd be tough to imagine the whole group going, but let's step it up and get a couple people at least. Well, that would cause a total. Schism. Yeah, that would be issues. We're going to send two or three people and someone else sits back in Culver City.

I'm staying back. Moving on, I'd love to go. This is from Stephen at Durenho. I mostly picked this because he has, strangely, his wallpaper is a bunch of photos of the doctor that killed Michael Jackson, and then splash across the photo. It says, legend. So this guy nodded a Michael Jackson fan?

It's kind of strange. Weird. Would Greg mind if I wanted to start a Delaware tribute band in the UK? Please. You wouldn't be the first. Of course, Delaware is Greg's got punk band, emo band, from. the late 90s that he found it and has buried all the tapes. How would one start a tribute bin?

They would have to know what your music was. Got a lot of tweets about that too. People are asking, can we get some files? They're out there. Again, because we've gotten pictures in the past. Right. I dropped the ball on that one. If you are out there and you're listening right now

and you have audio of Delaware, specifically songs where Greg was the lead vocalist, please get them to us. We will send you some NFL merchandise. Moving on. This is from T Jr. Tell a Tales 88. Dre, that's Andre Johnson. Going to the Colts was like a punch right to the Texans fans collective.

What move had that same effect on you? A move in your football fandom life. That hurts so much. How about Cleveland moving to Baltimore? Yeah, that hurt your d'I. I would make sense to me. It did. Um, this sounds weird, but the only real painful one I can think of off the Patriots

was when Robert Edwards, uh, blew out his knee at that beach. Get that throne music up. No, but whatever. He was the rookie of the year. And then his career was over that some, that immediately after the season. That was a pretty devastating moment. How about Brown's rookie, Don Rogers dying? Wait a second.

I can, and he can't, nothing new. What New England narrative can talk to him? Imagine, imagine you had the rookie of the year. And then in February, right after the rookie of the year, his career was over. That's a legit one. And it was a gruesome injury playing beach flag football, which they discontinued, not surprisingly.

The inspiration for the dossier of despair, the Bengals cut Lee Johnson a day after he went and criticized everything wrong with the franchise. He listed everything wrong, and it was like, all right, I got a punner representing my exact viewpoint. They cut him the next day, and I never rooted for him again. Oh, and it did say what move, so Edwards really doesn't qualify. I've got to think of this. Yeah, I was going to say, my all-time genital shot, I would say,

is when Vinnie Testab already popped his Achilles in 99. But the move, it's strange because the Jets obviously haven't had a lot of success in my lifetime. But Kishon Johnson, when he was traded to the Bucks, that really bothered me a lot because I was younger and the team meant a lot to me, the 98 team, and then they shipped them off and it was just like it was a reminder of how sports work and it hurt. Do you have one, Greg? You don't have anything. You just win tons of Super Bowl.

Good question, though. Great job, T. Moving forward. Oh, this is a big one, TD, excuse me, gold standard. So I'm going to need your help with it. This was from Connor O'Leary at O'Leary C-5. Hashtag elimination chamber.

Jiris Birds, sound drop. Jiris Bired. Jiris. Bired. And just to clarify, he's giving us two options and one would have to be, I guess, eliminated from the show. Or Brandon Flowers, Sounddrop.

want to make flowers today? If only one could be eliminated forever, these are like our children. This one's easy for me. Yeah, me too. Geras Bird. Oh, I would get rid of flowers. To be eliminated. No, no.

I would get rid of flowers. Right. I would get rid of flowers. I haven't even watched True Detective. Plus Bird, it feels like that's like a historical part of the show somehow. True Detective in my top two or three shows ever, but not because of that sound drop, so I'm going to go Flowers. You're out.

All right, good answers, guys. This one from Tom, big-time listener. Budgie is here. Would any of the scientists, so, you know, this is Wes and Greg, and, you know, Mark, you hang out with me above the fray, but you know what, I know you want to go down there every once in a while. I have no idea. If you do, that's fine, and I'm okay upstairs.

So this goes to everyone in the room, but the old zooser, as they call me. Old Zeus. Would any of the scientists ever aspire to work in a front office in a GM-type role? Interesting question. from budgie is here absolutely yes i would same here in a second no i mean i guess in some fantasy world but no not in a real world situation i like i like my job yeah no one's asking me but no i would not i would rather be on the outside maybe gregg's not the real scientist here i think i could build a winner i mean if you're starting over from scratch but i'm talking about

where i am in my life with two children stuff starting that whole process yeah I'll see you in 15 years when you get to that point when you're... Well, you don't have to go... I understood the question. I'm just stationed as the GM. You don't have to go scouting on the road for 15 years. Oh, I'd love to do that, too. You basically had a...

You would. You love traveling. It's basically a five-year march, let's say, to GM. That would be fun. I mean, I don't like all the scorn that I would get from all the football people in the building. Oh, you never played. Neither did Bill Belichick or Chip Kelly. We'd cut an interesting...

figures at GM because there's zero football background in our history on the field. Nothing. Moving forward. All right, Wes, this is one you wanted to make sure we added because it's something you wanted to address. This is from Stu at Lanky Streak of. Where is Wes's map of the world with all of your listeners

from last off season? Now, before Wes answers, just a quick reminder, way back in the day, Wes said, you know, we have so many your listeners around the world, I'm going to get a map and then put pins where all the listeners are. And through the year, over the past year, so people wanting to see this map doesn't exist physically, but it does exist, right, Wes? It does exist.

Greg actually bought a map for us, or he bought the cork board, and then when they redesigned the studio, we couldn't put it up. So a gentleman by the name of Ralph Graham was nice enough to make an online map through Google, and I input all of the names that were given to me, all of the countries around the world. and we had, I don't know, probably upwards of a thousand names on this map. I've tweeted it out six or seven times. I can tweet it out again, but we might need a place, you know, like a home for it online somewhere. Sounds like people need to do a better job of following your Twitter feed. That's basically what I'm getting at. Speaking of things to get off our chest, another question that I get all the time on the mailbag,

and I want to address it now. This from George Mason, the Grievous Angel 85. Brevis Angel 85. That's a Graham Parsons song. He's a bad boy. Okay, he's probably a big GP fan. Of the around the NFL crew, if they're the Beatles of NFL podcast, who's Ringo? Oh, that's not a fair. That's not a fair.

By the way, this is what you're asking when you do that. You're saying address publicly who's the worst member of the podcast. First of all, none of us are the worst. We're all equally awesome, number one. So stop trying to cause dissension. Aren't you a fan of the podcast? You know who's Ringo. Grievous Angel 88.

Oh, but, you know, in his defense, he thinks, It's fun, you know, but it causes issues. But now that I'm reading it more closely. Hey, Ringo's alive, you know. Really insane. Wise point. I'm just saying half the Beatles are not alive. I wouldn't mind being ring.

I'd rather be Ringo right now. Yeah, I'm sure his life's wonderful. I'd still rather be wrong. Yes, I am sure his life's wonderful. He's Ringo Starr. Greg is slipping very comfortably into a Ringo star role. He has all the money he's ever wanted and he was in the Beatles. There's your answer.

Greg's our Ringo Starr. Yeah, that's fine. Congrats, bud. This is another one. Richard Stalky. This is from Chris Moriarty, at Ginger Moriarty, and that usually means garrette. Can Chris Wessling email me his Bangle's dossier

for, quote, research purposes, sincerely a Redskins fan? I guess to streamline this, how would one go about starting a dossier or getting that ball rolling on quitting a team? I'm trying not to sound too cantankerous here, but this has really touched a nerve ever since I brought up the dossier

all these fans of their teams think that they can just quit their teams and it would be so easy. I compiled this dossier because rooting for the Bengals in the 90s in the 90 was much worse than anything any fans are going through now and I can point out things that have happened

even since the 90s that are worse. The Bengals turned down the entire draft of the New Orleans Saints plus two more first round picks and a second round pick so they could draft Achilles Smith. they instituted something called a loyalty clause, which sounds Orwellian, like a team would institute a loyalty clause

because players didn't want to play for them anymore. Corey Dillon said he'd rather flip burgers than play for the Bengals. This stuff doesn't happen to any team now. I don't know. I don't want to hear from Eagles fans saying, and it's so hard. Redskins. Redskins fans, all right, you're like knee-high to a Junebug. How about this? Bengals wouldn't exist if Art Modell hadn't fired Paul Brown.

Yeah? So how would they go about it, Wes? Well, I think you should be a lot more patient, would be my first thing. It would be my first thing. And then if you've reached the point where you've had it with the owner or something else, start compiling your, you know, I don't know. You can start by printing out the Chris Culliver signs for $32 million news articles and see how that looks in a year or two.

All right, let's see. I'll do one more. Greg, what's your favorite type of cheese from James Beauty? That's how you go out This is more just setting up for the last one I don't know I don't have a favorite cheddar Okay

Wes just so you know Grant Everett wants you to know that Tybee Quote Island is barely even an island More like a glorified peninsula Peninsula I wish Wessling wasn't a liar That's Grant Everett

That doesn't confront me Not playing the sound drop on principle there Yeah yeah It's not nice No that's not fair This one also I know this one It's up there with your mom's and

We all know about the breakup songs list that Wes has, but what about, what does Chris listen to when he's in a relationship? I know this. I actually, over there are, if you're plugged in, there's something cooking with Wes right now, and I heard this in his iPod the other day. No, that song's terrible. Bolton.

What is this? I don't even know. When Wes had a car, he was also playing this in his tape deck, so I can confirm. It's an assault on my character. Michael Bolton has my least favorite song of all time He redid when a man loves a woman A wonderful song by Percy Sledge and he killed it

That is an awful And finally, finally, finally, finally This from Danny Thompson at Danitello underscore 7 Oh, he's sneaky when people throw in those underscores Like you, Mark Sessler, underscore NFL No, I don't know, no underscores are confusing I think you probably lose a lot of potential followers

But he doesn't I agree with that. No, you don't, you're just Mark Sessler NFL I don't like the underscore This from Danny Thomas. Would you rather your team won a Super Bowl and then stunk for 15 years or was fun to watch for 15 years but never won a Lombardi trophy? And this caused, I brought it up downstairs in the newsroom, caused a lot of a debate.

Wes will start with you. Well, I, you know, I saw too many 0 and 8 seasons with the Bengals. I mean, and I don't think there's anything worth that misery. To me, it was enough to dump the team when you go through enough of that. And I've been through enough Cincinnati Red seasons that end in June to know that I don't want my baseball season to ever end in June. And I'm lucky enough to have seen the Reds win a World Series. So I feel like it's something where I got enough happiness in my own life. I don't need the team to provide it for me. But I do need them to entertain me through a full season

of the sport. So I'm taking the, be good for 15 years. Keep me interested. Mark. Honestly, at this point in my journey with the Browns if they won a Super Bowl, I probably would just be like, thank you, this has been fun, it's over now, I don't care what you do for the next 15 years. I don't need a bunch of get close entertainment episodes. Get it done. You kind of did that in the 80s. Get it done, and let's call it a day. Greg, I think you take the title. I mean, that's the best thing you can do as a fan. Why is everyone out there, if not for a title? Yeah, it's just, it doesn't matter what's happened before. You just want that one, great season. And it kind of depends

who you are too because while I definitely see Wes's point, he makes a good one. When I brought this at the Daniel Jeremiah downstairs who apparently has a podcast, and he's a Padres baseball fan, and in a minute he went in a second. He was like, oh, give me the World Series. I'll be bad for 15 years.

And I feel the same way. And as a Jets fan, as someone that was born in the year Ronald Reagan was elected and my team has never even been to a Super Bowl, let alone won one. Give me a win. I've dealt with misery before. should find the hardcore bucks fans out there because that's pretty much the organization that was terrible forever they've won one and now they're terrible they've been more or less

terrible since they've won one i've much rather be an eagles fan for the past 15 years than a bucks fan it's interesting i and i'm with i'm with gregg in the point that that's what being a fan is about is that climb that climb to finally be the champion i know you don't get a ring and it's not your i think that's what being a player's about i think as a fan that's what being a fan's about too is finally getting to the top of the mountain and knowing how that feels 15 years we're all you know none of us are 12 years old here i mean you take us 15 years from now and you say have a nice 15 years you have some fun seasons when are they going to win a title my lifetime let's get this thing let's make it though here's the answer i like we'll be good every year for 15 years part of the

question and then the 16 year we'll win it well that's that's part of it that's well we're good every year we've got a great chance to win it in the 16 year we're always there said fun to watch And before we go, one fun fact on our favorite nation in the world. Absolutely. All right. St. Kitts and Nevas. Apart from Carnival, the island of Nevis has its own unique festival called Kulterama. Kulterama.

Looks like we're going there. Koltarama. We should bring Colt Sessler there. Celebrated on the weekend of Emancipation Day, it began in 1974 when some islanders feared that their native folk art and customs were being lost. So, they started Colterama to reconnect people with their traditional culture. In addition to arts and crafts, the five-day-long celebration includes dances, music, drama, and religious sacrifices. Parties, boat rides, swimsuit contests, and street jams have all become a lot. It's a lot going on there.

What time of the year? That, I don't know. Let me look that out. I think we can put this on our agenda. Our listener from St. Kitts and Nevis, better listen to this episode, right? They just missed, like, an awesome kind of. I think Mark's right. There was just somebody who was on vacation for a week.

Do you think that any? You think that the St. Kitts resident listens to our show ever walked through Kaltorama while listening to our podcast? They have to. It's got to be out the door. It can't be that big, right? All right. So we will, thank you very much for that Gold Standard. I always love

Gold Standard Thursdays. We will be back on Monday with another week of shows. So thank you very much for listening. Before we head out, Greg is going to name the rest of the one-person countries that listen to our show. This is Dan Hansa signing

off for Quiet Storm. the mailman, the boss, and Tadee behind the glass until Monday. Let it rip, Greg. Thank you to our listener in Cape Verde. Ow! The Falkland Islands. Zambia. My brother once went there.

Go for it. Senegal. Oh, yeah. Sen. Belarus. Oh, Rousseau. St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Vinny.

Joey Watts. Ethiopia. Myanmar. I know someone from Myanmar. The Republic of Maldivia. Uh-huh. Not a real place. Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Angola.

Thank you, especially, Palestinian territory, Tajikistan, and Madagascar. Also, gold standard behind the glass, not TD. That's all right. This is an I-Heart podcast.