NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Building the Perfect QB

Episode Date: May 25, 2016

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Conor Orr– break down the latest news from the NFL including Roger Goodell’s comments on the Raiders’ potential move to Las Vegas and the current situation in Buffalo. Plus, the heroes discuss NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt’s article “ The Perfect QB” and build their own perfect QB before wrapping the podcast with the first ever LIVE edition of “Orr you kidding me?!?”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. Hi and hello football fans, your old pal, Dave Damasek here. Make sure you check out the Dave Damashek football program. You can watch it on YouTube, NFL.com. You can listen to it on iTunes or Stitcher or NFL.com slash podcasts. We look at the world of pro football and the game called life. Can't play the guitar. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast.

My name is Dan Hansus, and I'm joined by room filled with some heroes. Connor or Chris Wessling and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Hey, Dan. Conner's first time you're part of the intro. And I hope you take it with a sign of accomplishment the way Lindsay, Rhodes did last week when we included in the intro.

She felt like she was one of the gang finally. And now you are when it comes to Studio 66. Yeah, I guess so. You know, whatever you want, Dan, you know. I'm here to make you happy. Whoa. You know, a little bit, a little fresh there. But I think after what happened with the show on Monday, when Connor was here, West, the first show,

So he talked a little bit about horrible movies. Oh, I heard. Yeah. And did you have any thoughts about horrible movies? I do have thoughts. Yeah, let's hear him. I disagree with everything Connor said, and I thought he hit a grand slam with his segment.

I just thought it was. Well put. It was entertaining and amusing, and knowing Connor, I knew exactly what he was trying to do, and I thought he pulled it off. Well, not everyone felt the same way as Wes, you know, the Reddit board. And by the way, if you are a fan of this podcast,

make sure you get sign up on the around the NFL podcast subreddit here are just a couple of comments that I saw Connor or is my private dancer of dissatisfaction which I like that's a great comment Connor is a goddamn cultural wasteland and I love it that's my sentiments exactly so it's that kind of stuff so you know it was much there were some DNA strands some connective tissue with spice rack where it was very hot and cold was with how the audience. And I know you struggled a little bit with that, Connor, knowing that much criticism coming your way. Yeah, it ended up being hard for me, you know. I really, you know, my goal at the end of the day is to connect with people, and I feel like I failed.

And people that maybe didn't check out the show on Monday. Shame on you, but Connor took some shots at some of the best movies in the history of the silver screen. And Connor, he came to me and we had a private conversation. You wanted to address all the criticism that you've received. received. So why don't you do that? All right. Yeah, I just prepared a brief statement. Okay, actually.

Where are you, Doug Whaley? We'll get to that. All right. Here we go. Brief statement from Conor. To the listeners of the Around the NFL podcast, wow, what have I done? After listening back to my words from Monday, I realized just how wrong I was. I completely underestimated how many people like dumb movies. Oh, no. and how many of you would be crying about it the next day.

I should have chosen a more deft way to inform you that a majority of the best movies of all time are stupid and get quickly replaced by better, funnier movies. Imagine if films were medicine. People used to decapitate themselves when they had headaches, and now we have Tylenol. I don't think anyone longs for the days of manual decapitation, which is how I felt when I was watching Citizen Kane.

I should have realized that I was not in the company of fellow radicals love Connor thank you I mean it's very big of you to come through with that kind of apology I don't know I don't know where you're coming from and I in terms of where you're trying to actually throw out put the out I'll branch out but I don't know if it's going to work out for you well you said from the heart so I kind of dug in there and that's what I came out In the immortal words of Kanye West, Connor, I think you should keep these words in your mouth.

Everybody's going to say something. I'd be worried if they said nothing. You got the people talking. You're doing something right. That's absolutely true. Listen, embrace the debate. That's the way I look at things. That's the model I like for sports.

This is the Wednesday edition of the Around the NFL podcast, sponsored by no one. Connor is sitting in for one last show. He's on a plane tomorrow morning. so we're going to make sure we enjoy every second with the prodigal son from New Jersey a little later in the show and I am so excited about this

we are going to have our first ever or are you kidding me live edition with a special guest we can say that right little tease I can barely contain my excitement you got a lot of stuff cooking in that brain of yours that you want to get off your chest it's important that you do so we'll do that a little

maybe at the end of the show. We'll also talk about Gil Brandt, the godfather of the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Cowboys, 1970s dynasty. Yes, former general manager. The architect. Architect, him and Tom Landry, hand-in-hand for decades, worked together. Gil now is a writer and an analyst for NFL.com, and he wrote a piece recently, building the perfect quarterback in which he took different elements and skill sets from today's

best passers to make what he finds to be the perfect quarterback. So we'll take a look at what what Gil came up with, see if we agree, disagree. And then maybe we'll take it and we'll kind of turn it upside down and create the anti-franchise star, a Frankenstein monster, if you will, of the exact quarterback you would not like to have. That will be fun. But before we do of that we go behind the glass what's up irishman i'm just excited for you know our segment later i just can't wait for it yeah we

we test we test ran it earlier and it was great between us well it'll go it'll go terribly when we do it and that's why it's going to be great yeah uh let's do some news buddy Seinfeld sucks too i don't care oh man

all right we'll start with uh some tight-end injury news. OTAs are underway for many of the teams in the NFL, almost every team, in fact, and yet the Cincinnati Bengals cannot be happy because Tyler Eiffert, who injured his foot in the Pro Bowl, late in the Pro Bowl, is now going to be out for a significant period of time after he had to undergo surgery on Tuesday to repair the ankle. It was an ankle injury actually it was described as a quote minimal procedure by the Cincinnati inquire but here's the thing he's going to likely begin training camp on the pub list according to rap sheet and his status for week one against the Jets by the way is in some level of doubt so you know and by the way everybody

have fun when the pro bowl is in Orlando and realize that you could get an injury that negatively impact your career Chris Wesley can't imagine missing actual NFL time due to a pro It's crazy. In a contract year. Like he's supposed, he literally right now is up for a contract. They said they were going to try to take care of him this offseason. And now it's a guy who hasn't been able to stay healthy. He'll be a walking billboard.

Don't ever play in the pro quo. And there wasn't a guy down there who was a better ambassador for the game. Like when we were down there, there was an event with the troops. You were in Hawaii. Yeah, when I was down in Hawaii. Humblebra. Going around all the soldiers and getting the soldiers to sign autographs for him. and like just a total ambassador for the Pro Bowl.

And how does Karma treat an American hero like that? They bang out his ankle. Not good. 13th touchdowns last year for the 6 foot 6 effort, just 25 years old. So if he can have anything close to what he did last season, he's going to cash in in a big way. But now there's some, you know, clouds around that. And it was a Pro Bowl injury.

And a couple thoughts just quickly on it. Think about what Andy Dalton's lost this offseason. Hugh Jackson, Marvin Jones, Mohamed Sunu. So you have a new coordinator. You're going to be working in Tyler Boyd, a rookie, and you're going to be working in Brandon Lafell, and now you don't have Eifford there. It sounds like for the beginning of the season.

Bad news. You're going to want to play the Bengals early in the season. Yep. And fantasy nerds are going to be excited because that means A.J. Green will have approximately 900 targets this season. It's all in play. In other tight-end news, Laderius Green, the former Chargers tied-end now with the Steelers.

A lot of people think that he is, including people in this room, a big potential breakout candidate in Pittsburgh's offense. He is also recovering from ankle surgery. This was an injury that kind of nagged him into the second half of the season. You know, this has been a surgery that happened some time ago, potentially, but he's in the recovery stage. Hopefully this isn't something that a link is with him. Because, again, when you're starting over with a new team,

you do not want to be missing installation periods and getting rapid. with the new teammates and a new quarterback. Hopefully, Liddarius Green will be back on the field sooner rather than later. They hope he's back by training camp and you lose Martavis Bryant, and now you lose the offseason for Lidarius Green. The Steelers, we still all expect them to be one of the best offenses in the AFC, but I don't know how many players you can keep losing or miss time with. Well, we think the surgery happened in January, which we believe so.

I guess is good news. But with these things, you never know what to believe, because if you remember with Eiffert, right after the Pro Bowl, they said this is not a major injury, it's not surgery. So you never quite know right up to bat. Moving on, you know, the Oakland Raiders are trying to get a new stadium. We were just talking, trying to get a new stadium built. We were just talking a couple of weeks ago about how their current stadium,

which they share with the Oakland A's of the Major League Baseball, is such a dump and they have sewage issues like every few weeks. There actually was one again last week, where the visiting dugout, I know this because the Yankees were in town, flooded, and all the Yankees had to go wait somewhere else. I mean, that's what we're talking about in Oakland. So you understand why Mark Davis, the Raiders owner, wants a new stadium, and you might understand why he is the son of Al, of course,

that he's going to Vegas and meeting with city officials there and getting everyone excited about the idea of the Raiders potentially moving to Vegas if they can't get a new facility in Oakland. It's gotten to the point, guys, where Roger Goodell has to, you know, talk about this in a serious way, and he did just that. Roger Goodell said that any talk of a move to Vegas is, quote, premature, and he discounted most of the rumors as speculation during a news conference at the Spring League meeting in Charlotte.

He also said that the Las Vegas market would have to be considered, quote, from a gambling standpoint. So we all know that there are hurdles here, Greg and Goodell, now that it's becoming more and more a real idea struck out, truck out on some of them today. Well, you just recognized that it's early, but at the same time as Goodell saying that, probably the most powerful owner in the league,

Jerry Jones was saying how it's a real American city and it's the type of city and it's the type of spectacle that the NFL wants to be associated with. Robert Graff got behind it too when Judy Patista spoke with him in the hallway. Right. So it's got some real support. And it also has Mark Davis saying, look, all they have to do is deliver and we're coming. He also had this.

So this was my favorite quote of the day from Mark Davis. It's a virgin market, so to speak, which is a funny way to describe Las Vegas. Because Vegas has a lot of sex. More than 80% of NFL teams play their games within an hour drive of a casino. So this is not, you know, insane. Vegas isn't just a casino. Yeah, but it's not a casino. Yeah, but it's sports gambling's different.

Yeah. But the London thing in Goodell even said that they've evolved some on gambling. I mean, they play the games in London. Dante Stalworth had some interesting comments on Twitter today, starting with if the Raiders or any professional team, for that matter, move to Las Vegas, they will lose every game, every last one. That's not the first, he's not the first one to have that sentiment. I remember that was something that people said about if there was ever an NBA team in Vegas.

They had an all-star game there once, and it was just an absolute free-for-all where everyone was partying constantly, I'm sure it affected the quality of play in that game. But I don't know. Do I really think that the playing in Vegas would lead to these guys having lack of focus? I guess it's possible. I think it's probable. I think a little bit.

I've always thought that that's a little bit of an issue for the Saints. It doesn't mean they can't win or not. But it's maybe if it's a couple players on the team that maybe if they were in Green Bay wouldn't be getting into as much trouble as they are, New Orleans or eaten as much. Another quote from Stolworth. take a pull of pro athletes and ask them what city would be the worst to have a pro team in. And I guarantee you, the majority will say Las Vegas. All right.

So we'll keep tracking the Raiders and what's next with them. Moving on. And you know what, Brandon, can you get a little clown music for this next? Oh, no. Because it's like the Buffalo Bills. Like I said last week on the show, a year from now, we'll all look back at the Doug Whaley, Rex Ryan era. and say to ourselves, how did anyone take that organization seriously?

Let's be honest. It's always one thing after another. The latest here is Doug Whaley, the team's general manager, Teflon, Doug, I call him, spoke out when asked about Sammy Watkins and the idea, is Sammy Watkins an injury-prone guy, do you have concerns about him? This is what he had to say. I wouldn't say that.

Are things going to come up with a guy like this? We hope that it gets limited in the future, but this is a game of football, and injuries are part of it. It's a violent game that I personally don't think humans are supposed to play, and these things are going to come up, but we just trust in our medical staff. You're a general manager, bro. Individual athletes do what they have to do to get back on the field. I don't need to hear any more of that guy.

And then he then released a statement, the bills, and I couldn't imagine, Greg, who asked them to do this, but released a statement on those comments a day later. clearly, Doug said, I use a poor choice of words in my comment yesterday morning. As a former player who has the utmost respect and love for the game, the point that I was trying to make is that football is a physical game and injuries are a part of it. Playing football, no doubt is very physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging, and that is all part of what makes the game so compelling to play and watch. And he goes on a little bit more.

Rex, by the way, as you might imagine, was also asked about this. This was on the same day. that the statements were made, and Rex had this to say, I can say this. I love the game. I think it's the greatest sport. I know it's the greatest sport. It's the greatest game when we all know how I feel about that. Awkward times at Orchard Park.

Can I play the devil's advocate, though, and say that I'm, like, the only person, I think that got what he meant the first time. Oh, I did, too. If you watch, like, gymnastics or something, like, they'll say the body is not meant to, like, contort in that way. I think that's what he meant. Like, people are not meant to be hit that part, you know? I mean, I think that wasn't, I don't think it was inflammatory.

The things we apologize for in this country just stagger the imagination. He met in the same way that baseball pitchers shouldn't throw overhanded because it's an unnatural human thing. Human beings shouldn't run upright. It hurts your lower leg. He shouldn't run marathons. There's a lot. And I'm with you. I thought this is why we didn't do this post yesterday.

Dan's shaking his head. But as a- I'm not. I made the decision yesterday that I thought that this was a story that was getting blown up too much. and even just by writing it with no opinion, I thought it was unfair to him because they did know what he meant. He's right.

And by the way, every football player, of course would agree. Of course the human body's not meant to play football. You have to, when you're one of the most visible public figures for a franchise. Right. It was a part of the choice of words. Part of the job is you need to express yourself well.

And at a time, and this is why, by the way, the statement came out because I'm sure somebody over a park avenue rang the bills quite quickly after the statement was made. at the time when the NFL is dealing with all these issues about safety of the sport and the CTE and all these things for him to make that statement the general manager of one of the 32 teams that's why he got in trouble for it and that's why I'm getting on Doug Welley for it too not it's not the end of the world he flubbed it up he did and he's done that before

a few times heck last week he said you know Shaq Lawson's shoulder injury was not a concern three days before he underwent surgery that was from WGR I just want to give than the proper credit before Brandon gets mad at me. You don't want to mad Brandon. I mean, I just, I have everyone's back here. I don't want anyone to get any trouble, all right? Pick up the chisels. Let's move on.

The Eagles quarterback situation will be something to track, obviously, all summer. But the staff might be preparing us for a situation in which Sam Bradford is not the team's opening day starter. This is what Jim Schwartz, the team's defensive coordinator, had to say, don't judge. referring to Carson Wentz on somebody else and then also don't predetermine the results of the race. Just let him go play. Marron, Frank Reich, the offensive coordinator in an appearance on WIPFM,

had this to say when asked if Bradford was the clear cut number one QB. No, that's probably not the right impression. I've been around this business a long time as a player and as a coach, and one of the things I've really come to appreciate is it's not a contradiction to say you've got to have order. because if you don't order, it's chaos. Interesting because Doug Peterson, the head coach, has been very big about getting behind Sam Bradford at this time. I'm wondering if it's like one of two things,

if it really was the kind of thing where Schwartz kind of spoke in a stream of conscious way, and then Reich actually didn't hear the comments until he was asked about it live on the radio. So he was maybe trying to kind of flub an answer a little bit. But if it's the other way, if they're trying to kind of light a fire under Bradford and push Wentz along and make sure he's not complacent. I think this is kind of a fascinating little power play. Even if it's not a power play, it's interesting to hear a defensive coordinator disagree with the thinking of the head coach, right?

In any. I mean, are they really disagreeing here? I think what's going on here is common sense. Sam Bradford has never been established as some guy who's going to stay healthy for 16 games and hold off the competition with a great 16 game stretch. So they're saying if you don't play well, you've got pressure from Chase Daniel and Carson went. Absolutely.

But Schwartz is saying he's not necessarily the week one guy. It's not a good policy to predetermine the results. What I really think's happening here is that because of what happened with Bradford, they had to put a PR spin. And even Doug Peterson doesn't necessarily believe that Sam Bradford is the number one guy going into training camp. But that's just sort of the public stance that they decided to make to calm the situation down, to make Bradford happy and to shut up.

the Eagles media probably for a little bit. Yeah, my first reaction when I saw this was Doug Peterson can't be happy because a lot of head coaches don't even let their assistants talk for this very reason. I was going to say, this is why Bill Parcells never let anybody talk. But it's also refreshing from a fan angle or a writing angle to hear these guys actually telling the truth instead of getting the Doug Peterson spin that they had from the beginning. Schwartz had to have talked for 30 minutes yesterday. Like I saw him up there talking.

In Philly, they'll just keep asking questions. I saw them up there talking, left, like got lunch, came back, did something. something else, and he was still talking 25 minutes later. I was wild. What I liked about him, too, is I don't think that was a direct question to him. Schwartz kind of dovetailed into this, like, side response about how, like, just blowing this whole thing wide open, which is fantastic. I love Schwartz in general, and he's definitely going to use the pulpit in Philly, I think,

with a good defense to raise his profile, and I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, he's a guy we talk about a lot on this show for saying different things. I bet he gets a, if I could see him getting a head coach job next year, is what I was going to say. because he helped rebuild the lines to respectability. Then he killed it in Buffalo. I said killed it. Oh, you're the worst. And then Rex came and kind of pushed him out the door.

Savage. Savage. Savage move by Rexey. But now watch him do a good job here again. These guys get second chances. All right. Finally in the news, the NFL announced the locations for Super Bowl 53, 54, and 55 on Tuesday. It goes to.

Are you ready, Greg? Well, I know. You wrote the piece. It goes to Miami, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. There we go. And that means Greg's beloved New Orleans is adopted home. If Greg could rewrite the narrative of his life, he would be from, he would grow up in a bayou. If anything, or I'd be living there now.

Like you'd be wrapped in a bonnet. And they'd find you in a bayou, like right as an alligator is about to take you under. Some foster parents would come find you. In a fan boat. The beginning of your origin story. No New Orleans Super Bowl. So that takes us through. It's Super Bowl 50 just happened.

We can do a little math. Super Bowl 55 is five years. So that's a long time, Greg, before we even have a chance of New Orleans getting back on the grid. And I'm with you. sucks it's terrible i mean i i appreciate the the image you put in my head now it's really going to stick there as me as kind of the kid and beast of the southern wild i don't know if you saw that movie i got the vapors look at this boy he's in great danger let's raise him as if he was our own not we'll teach him to love football not how i remember it exactly but i like that

and pavement it's ridiculous uh Atlanta got Atlanta got the first version the first one coming up And I think the article by Pro Football Talk today was very interesting that Miami almost didn't get it, that the vote between Atlanta and New Orleans was much closer than people expected. It went to the fourth vote, apparently came down to a couple votes. And that was because the owners were thinking, there was enough owner, a lot of owners thinking, despite all the money that Miami put in,

this is just a report from Pro Football Talk, but despite all that money that they liked the idea of going New Orleans, Atlanta, L.A., and maybe cutting out Miami. And Miami and Tampa Bay ended up being very close, but they got it, and it's BS. It's the best town. It's the best place to hold the Super Bowl. You should have it there every year.

I was just talking to downstairs, Matt Zawicki, who is the biggest Jets fan down there that I know, and he was saying, oh, yeah, oh, Super Bowl's coming back to L.A. It would be awesome if the Jets were in that game. And I was like, well, first of all, just making a Super Bowl is funny. but if the Jets ever actually got back to the Super Bowl,

New Orleans would be the pick. I would love to see Jets Nation down in the French quarter after an amazing victory to break the curse of Broadway Joe. What a party that would be. There's a Jets Nation? Oh, it is a big fan. What's your favorite spot? Miami's a fine Super Bowl city.

Nothing wrong with that, by the way. I'm really excited for Atlanta. I went down there to cover a game once and I got tangled into like this speed bike convention that was at my hotel. telling I had a great time. If I go to Atlanta, I guarantee you I'm taking a side trip to Tybee. Ooh.

Well, that's the closest one. Are you guys coming with me? We can record the podcast from Huckapoo. We would definitely have to do that. It's only three seasons away. That's what I'm talking about. Well, hopefully we'll be around, guys. That's what's happening in the news.

You never know. Everything changes. That's the one thing we can. Well, a couple things you know for sure. We're going to die. Definitely that'll happen. We'll get into that more in the death. podcast oh you don't think so let's agree to disagree

yeah save it for the mortality podcast coming up this summer uh and also things change that's the other thing that you know those are the two that's it everything else if you know those two things you can get through this crazy game of life all right let's move on and talk about the perfect qbill brunt NFL media senior analyst there's something to shoot for Greg one day, has written a really nice piece. We could probably all just change all of our titles to senior analyst. Yeah, would anyone notice?

Well, it just means like you're old, usually. Actually, Will Brinson is senior analyst. He was just on the show. I think I'm a senior editor, actually. I don't know. What does that make, Wes? Yeah, well. Junior editor.

No more junior stuff. All right, anyway. So here's the piece that Gil wrote. We could talk about our own opinion. on this, the perfect NFL quarterback, and he breaks it into, looks like, about 10 categories. So I'll just go through Gill's perfect quarterback, and you guys, all three, you jump in with any disagreements or, you know, opinions that people might be interested in. That's how sports talk works.

Just, I think, Connor, you haven't been here before. Just make it as personal against Gill as possible. That's just how we're going to do it. Gil's a very good guy. I'm kidding. We all love Gil. Okay. The perfect NFL quarterback would have the accuracy and touch of Drew Breeze.

Let me do like five here. The toughness and big playability of Ben Rafflesberger, the mental alertness of Tom Brady, and the leadership ability of Philip Rivers. All right. Let's stop there. How do you guys so far so good or Connor not into it? A little bit of a...

I don't know. I mean, I kind of just started picturing what this person would look like and then I just got... It's not a good looking guy. I got, like, super sidetrack because I, you know, I would freak out with, like, Drew Breeze's head on, like, Ben Rothesberger's body with, like, one Cam Newton arm would just be, like, I don't know.

I mean, I think these all make a lot of sense. If I was looking for one of these to change, when I saw accuracy and touch, I mean, it's hard to argue with Drew Breese, but I would maybe give it to Philip Rivers. It would be another great. I had Rivers, Brady, and Rogers as three who would be alternatives. And for the accuracy and touch. Yeah, that's what.

Philip Rivers was the first one to come. Philip Rivers, I mean, Drew, I would put those one, too, in that category, so it makes total sense. And Philip Rivers is something else. Gill noted that last year he had Aaron Rogers leading that category, but Rogers did show some fits of erratic throwing last year. There's a lot of stuff working against them, of course, but I get why maybe he would be knocked out of this type of conversation, at least for this year. Let's keep going on. The athleticism of Cam Newton, and I find it hard for anyone to disagree with that, unless, Wes, you want to get on your marriage. Marcus Marriota train there.

He was the one I had written it as an alternative, but I would take Newton number one. Yeah. The arm of Matthew Stafford. Ooh, Matt Stafford getting a little pop here. He's always had a strong arm. The running ability of Russell Wilson, the competitiveness of Aaron Rogers.

I don't know about that. Is Aaron Rogers? I would go Tom Brady. I would go Tom Brady, too, but I get why Gil did it for those Hail Mary throws. Oh, I agree with Gil on this 100%. Aaron is probably one of the most twistedly competitive people in the NFL. I don't think it's,

And I don't think it's even close. The leadership ability, by the way, to go back on Phillip Rivers. I don't know. I would take Brady there, too. I think I would go Brady there. Arm of Matthew Stafford. I'm going to give it to Joe Flacco, is my... I like that, Greg.

I give it to Aaron Rogers. Yeah. Easily. Because arm means armed talent, not just how strong it is. And Aaron Rogers can throw from different angles, different footwork, on the run, any angle. He can make throws that these other guys can't be. That's why I think Flacco, I and I get that with Rogers. but why I'd take Flack over Stafford,

and I think he'd be a strong guy to take this thing, too, even over Rogers. It doesn't have the mobility, but he can throw it in any sort of situation across his body any way he wants to. I think the running ability of Russell Wilson was the only one here that's uncontested. Yeah, that's inarguable.

What about athleticism of Cam? I think you could make an argument for Mario. You could even make an argument for Blaine Gabbard if you wanted to. Yeah. Whoa. Just wait, baby. You can make an argument for Andrew Luck. You could make it for Russell Wilson there, too.

By the way, the competitiveness of Aaron Rogers made me think of the Bachelorette premiere this week and Jordan Rogers, Aaron's brother, who was a quarterback of Vanderbilt and then kind of washed out, never really made it in the NFL, caught on with a couple teams for workouts, but then I don't think every threw a pass in the NFL. But he is, first of all, he was the guy that was the, he jumped out to the early lead. Wait, he's in the show. He's in the show. He's the Bachelor?

No, he's one of the, like, 30 male contestants. and he jumped out ahead of all the other guys made out with Jojo and then they showed like coming up on this season of The Bachelorette and he's the guy that everyone hates everyone's like oh Jordan's not in it for the right reasons

and like oh I just want to punch that guy in his face and then at one point one dude as opposed to all the jerks there with pure hearts well this is there's always there is always the guy that's doing well with the lady and then all the other guys are telling Jojo who, yes, Connor pulls up a picture of Jojo,

one of the most tremendous reality stars ever. I just want to say that. There's always one person that jumps out as, oh, he's not in it for the right reasons, which should be translated as he's just trying to get famous. He doesn't actually love you. Isn't every single person associated with that show doing it? Well, you can make that argument.

But, you know, Wes, I would love for you to watch that with me. Yeah, it's a great idea to find love on national television. Didn't one of the contestants in like an argument call him a failed NFL quarterback? Yes, that's like part of the, yeah. You're going to find your genuine, wonderful, down-to-earth woman on national television on a reality show. You guys are incredibly lame. Listen, Wes, Jojo, I want you to check out Jojo before you make any decision. There's no chance I'm watching The Bachelor.

Of course, none of it. Well, Dan is, but I'm not. It's an interesting move from Rogers, though. He didn't try to hold out to be the actual Bachelor. He's just throwing himself in the mix of 30 others. Well, it's also. Jesse Palmer got to be The Bachelor. Yes, sometimes you get picked, but one other,

I've been watching a couple of seasons now. The guy that comes in second place usually ends up the Bachelor the next year. So he could actually be a bachelor. Okay. Parlay that. But we'll see. By the way, he calls himself a commentator slash media analyst. And I was like, where have we been seeing Jordan Rogers in this media landscape of ours?

Four stringer on the Riverhogs. Oh, is he still on the roster? Yeah. We keep them around. A lot of people were asking for a Madden update, and Connor told us over lunch, Wes and I over lunch yesterday, that because of the wedding and all,

you know, house stuff you got going on, that you haven't been playing a lot. So we don't really have a true update at this point. No, I mean, everybody needs an offseason. The hogs of, you know, five straight Super Bowls. It's time to relax a little bit. Right. Plus, you're an adult, so.

All right, let's talk about the Frankenstein monster then. So that is, so we all agree. Gil did a nice job with the list. And, you know, you can quibble with it, but a good job overall. Let's go the other direction now. Who would be... We're building a hideous monster? Yes, a hideous Frankenstein monster.

It's like, mm, accuracy, bad. Things like that nature. Things of that nature. Mm, mental alertness, bad. All right, the perfect NFL quarter... Now I know why Dan wanted to do this. The terrible NFL quarterback would have the accuracy and touch of. This is easy.

Greg had to have the same thought I did. Kaepernick. Yeah, I thought you were maybe going weed in or something Oh, you could go weed in. I mean, you've made jokes about Kaepernick hitting people in the head on the sideline and stuff. Yeah, that's true. He definitely has injured the most people that weren't on the field. RG3 today threw a ball over a 16-foot fence and into a condominium complex,

according to the plain dealer. Wasn't he done that for effect, though? Because they were concentrating on getting him to throw the ball away instead of taking his. This is almost, this is cruel. This is a cruel exercise. But the other person that came to mind was John Skelton, E.J. Manuel. John Skelton. I mean, that's kind of old, but he'd be like six yards away from you.

And you'd get like a fireball over your head. All right. The toughness and big play ability lack thereof. It's another easy one. Okay. Go ahead. Sam Bradford. Oh.

You hit him and he's out for six months. Also, big playability. Give me a break. Alex Smith. They made some plays last year. Alex Smith is criticized for throwing short of the stick. Nobody checks down like Sam Bradford. Well, that's the thing.

Alex Smith doesn't make the big plays. Can't disagree with that. You got to give him credit for toughness. He's definitely tough. Excuse me there. We're basically trying to create John Beck, by the way. I just want everyone. Shannon will start in week one.

I'm literally the only person that takes shots at John Beck on a biweekly basis. I love it. Yeah, Bradford will argue, hey, I played like 13 games last year. It's a start, buddy, but yeah, no big playability for the most part. Here we go. The mental alertness, who has no mental alert. This one could get a little cruel. This is dangerous territory.

Let's do it. Let's do it. Well, can I just give you a couple of anecdotes? Yes. How about the time two years ago when John Gruden just destroyed J. Cutler's ability to diagnose plays at the line of scrimmage and call out the correct blocks and pick up blitz. Remember that? That was brutal.

Also, the undefeated's takedown of RG3's pre-snap and post-nobes. Knapp reads. Well, the first name that did come to mind was the first one you said with that Gruden story. Just because you've heard, you've heard different, you've heard different things. But then again, actually, I heard Kyle Long said he's like the smartest, but it might be one of those football smart, real life thing. He said he's one of the smartest people he's ever met in his entire life.

I mean, the guy went to Vanderbilt. You can't be an idiot and go to Vanderbilt. But I guess it's football, football stuff. You know, Johnny football, I don't want to pile on here. Oh, Jesus. Are you watching the news? I'm not sure. he's alert period.

I'll go with another guy out of the league right now that could win both the lack of accuracy and lack of mental alertness. Tim Tebow. Yeah. Not a guy that was dissecting defenses at the line of scrimmage. Put it that way.

All right. A lack of leadership ability. I know Wes is going to jump on with Jay Cutler here. That you would think so, but I have a wild card here. Who? Look at the way things devolved descended into chaos in Miami last year.

With even the cornerback's wife taking shot. at the quarterback's leadership. Interesting. Ryan Tannahill. To be fair, that cornerback's wife has a lot of opinions on a lot of things. I don't think she was alone in this one. That wasn't the only controversy about Tannahill telling the practice squad guy that, what was it?

Oh, that he makes more money. Yeah, that he makes more money. This is basically guys that maybe aren't too popular. Well, that was denied vehemently. With their teammates. Not saying it happened. Connie, you've been in locker rooms. I want to hear your thoughts on this.

I don't know, man. You know, I think that Ryan Tannahill is probably. a good option there, just because they're so dependent on him being the guy. Who has less leader, and sorry, Greg, who has less leadership ability than Gino Smith? Got got knocked out by his own teammate in the locker room. Good point. And after he gets his jaw broken, did you hear one jet? Maybe Brandon Marshall maybe got in his corner a little bit.

But everybody was like, yeah, you know, things happened in the locker room. He's got his jaw sewn shut. I remember, like, going there that day to try to, like, figure out what happened. And if you talked to, like, a couple of the players, they were like, I mean, he owed him 600 bucks and like it like it wasn't like it wasn't the craziest thing to just like cold cock him after i i remember telling my dad on the phone about it when the news broke this is like one of the the the greater moments of infamy in jet's history that it happened i was like you know and my dad was like over the phone he's like why did it happen said it's over like 600 dollars like

a plane ticket in like a car service like over six rocks rocks is a term yeah did you know that no no it's a bronx term Not in the vineyard, I guess. Oh, please. You know, the coal town, by the way, that I grew up in. I grew up in a farm town in Western Massachusetts. I actually did grow up in a cold town. Yeah, you were in Pennsylvania, right?

We're all kind of in the same network. What was it like for you and your cold town? I mean, you know, after the black lung, it was tough, you know, but we moved on. I know. I've got another leadership one that popped to mind was Caprona got in a fight, right, with Alden Smith. And it later came out that he came out that he, he was dating Alden-Smiths. Also, bad when you date, when you date.

Can't do it. Multiple reports that that locker room had a schism. Skisms, love schisms. All right, this is a little bit of a mean game in retrospect, but we're going to keep plowed through it until it's over. A lack of athleticism. Oh, this one's easy. No athleticism, bad.

The mechanical man. Peyton Manning? Zach Metenberger. Oh. Well, Peyton's out of. league, but he would have been a good choice. Eli, Manning. Brandon Wheaton.

Eli's more athletic than Brady. So athleticism isn't everything. But yeah, Brady. Although he's gotten better. He ripped off like that. He's gotten a little better. He's gotten better. Movement in the pocket.

I shouldn't say that. That big sea salt. Of established quarterbacks, you can throw in some backups, but the worst arm. I mean, Matt Schaub is the glaring one. We can throw him out. He said some surgeries. I'll throw out The three starters

Go ahead Ryan Fitzpatrick does not have a cannon Right I have him Alex Smith and Teddy Bridgewater For the three starters with Arms you would want better You would want a better arm than that Yeah I think Smith stands out there

And it was a weird little Storyline in the middle of late last season Like John Gruden they were talking up That he could throw some peas or something I don't know it was almost like the coach told John Gruden To say that or something Kell and Moore would be a good one too Shout out to Patcher and I who said that our bold predictions before last season that Alex Smith was about to get vertical.

Hoyer would be another. A lack of running ability, that has to be Tom Brady, right? I won't hear any other arguments. I think you could say Eli Manning or Philip Rivers. Even Bill Belichick mocks Tom Brady's. Remember when he did the lacrosse interview? I'd like to see Rivers in the goal. Yeah.

Rivers is in that mix. but yeah, Brady. Yeah, I'm fine with it, Brady. All right. And then finally, a lack of competitiveness. Who's missing the fire? Come on, this one's easy, too. Kyle Orton's out of the league, so we can't go with him.

Who's the guy who didn't want to compete just a couple of weeks ago? Sam Bradford. Oh, you know what? Okay. It's fair. You didn't name me the starter. I'm taking my ball and going to Denver. That's fair.

Tom Condon deserves a bit of an assist here. I think we should just hand the award in perpetuity to Kyle Horton, though. You've earned a starting job on the free agent market. Why don't you go get a... No, no, no, I'll just take the Cowboys' backup job and sit back and enjoy life for a few years. I don't blame him, man. That's a great gig.

His little Buffalo run, though, is one of the more amazing ends to a career. The fact that he came out of retirement in the middle of a season and won games for them, that's how I'll always remember the tough guy, Kyle. You should go back and watch those games from December when he couldn't get the ball, even within five feet of Sammy Watkins. All right. So that's the conversation. Apologies to all the players that we just destroyed.

I mean, it's one thing to criticize a guy, you know, but that felt it got a little too real there. Yeah, it felt weird to just randomly, like, go after Nick Foles' competitiveness. Like, what do I know about his competitiveness? It didn't feel right. So just understand that we were aware of that, but at the same time, we had to continue with the segment. All right. Finally. We don't quit.

We get the competitiveness award. We're competitive. We don't quit, savaging people. All right, let's now, okay, here we go. Now, this is what I've been waiting for, so excited for this. You know, or are you kidding me is one of our favorite recurring segments. It allows Connor or, usually on the phone from the haunted mansion, to get something off his chest. because without Conner, we would be, you know, up S's Creek without a paddle

because he writes all that great early AM content with Kevin Patra. And MVP. So what we do is we allow a Connor to, you know, what's grinding my gears right now? And that clears his head and allows them to keep working at a high level. And since Connor is here for the first ever live, or are you kidding me, you know, I thought it'd also be, this is a special day. So I reached out on our independent instant messenger client. I will not, well, the name of it is it's run by garbage people and said, who knows how to play guitar.

I want to get a live guitar. Let's make sure we bleep out, please. Twice now. Yeah, twice. Who knows how to play guitar? And sure enough, someone responded from the second floor. His name is Patrick Cagongo, bring him in right now. now here he comes impressive impressive man all right patrick welcome to the around the NFL

podcast can you put on that headset if you would uh and Patrick responded to my my instant messenger request um and said I can play a little guitar and I first things first what's up Patrick good afternoon how you guys yes welcome to the around the NFL podcast and I sent Patrick you know this is what this is what are you kidding me all about and what was your reaction when you were listening to the segment was it a little these guys are weird like what is wrong with the this is on the NFL's platform you can be honest just another day it's a job really have you ever heard of the around the NFL podcast yes I have okay I would hope so did you sell your soul to the devil at the crossroads to get this

musical ability I don't know if I well you haven't seen it play yet but I will say that who did that That was the famous stuff. Robert Johnson. Yeah, Patrick knows his stuff. Not only does he know how to play the guitar, he plays it extremely well, but he also repairs guitars, we learned. This is true. You give out lessons, you do lessons and things of that nature?

I've done lessons here and there, but it's been a long time. I've been spending most of the last couple of years learning how to repair guitars. So I started off with just really basic things like setups, things like that, and changing out pickups and doing little custom things. and now I'm actually thinking about refinishing something, which is a much more serious job. This guy is a guitar nerd, but in the best way, right? He's a guru.

I don't know about guru. So this is the right guy, Conner, is what I'm saying. He's like this generation Stevie Vi. I wish. Actually, I do know a guy who actually just came off tour with Steve Vi. There we go. It's a humble brag. Perfect.

No, no, no, no. This is interesting enough. It's a fellow called Tosin Abasi, and we both lived in Washington, D.C. around the same time. And he used to, whenever he was off tour, he would crash at our friend's apartment, which was downstairs. And he'd always ask if we could borrow our internet connection because he was giving lessons online. Fast forward a couple of years, he's driving a Porsche and living in L.A. And he just came off tour, I think it's like Steve Vye. Wow.

He's actually considered one of the best eight and nine stories. Did he pay it forward? Did he buy you guys a Porsche or anything? I feel like that would only be there. I'm toasting. I'm still waiting. All right. So this is the biggest moment I think of Patrick's musical career.

He will be handling guitar duties for our favorite game. Or are you kidding me live? Yes. Yes. And now it's time. I'm just thinking back. I'm just got to enjoy the rest of this segment. Let's just, you want to take some video?

What do you have to get off your chest this time, Connor, now that you're in Los Angeles, or are you kidding me live? I think for the first live one, I think we should really, we should tackle the big problems, the biggest major issue in the United States, which is inter-United States commercial air travel. We've got to ban all the airlines. Break them up.

Ban the airlines. They're all terrible. All right, so why? Perfect. I was on my way out here, and I was, like, 20 minutes into a documentary about Faberjah eggs, and the guy trying to get out of my seat smushed the input cord on my brand-new custom Bose headphones

and rendered them completely useless for the rest of the trip. Oh, man, that's my private property. That's messed up, man. I just think that, you know, I think, like, I'm not meant to be out here, you know? Like, I'm kind of, I've developed my, I've evolved to the point where I can live in New Jersey. I can't be, yeah. You're a married guy in the suburbs. You got a wife.

You got a house. You got a mortgage. You don't need any of this L.A. stuff. Don't need it. And I don't think other people do. You just stay where you are. Stay where you're comfortable. Never take a chance.

All right. What else is going on? What else is grinding your gears right now? Here, you know? I mean, I'm out here, you know, and this is just like, it's not my scene at all, you know? What? Where we live or coming to work at the NFL media?

What do you mean? I like the office. I like you guys, but L.A. is the worst, man. L.A., it's filled with plastic people. What do you mean? Because that, to me, sounds like a cliche, Connor. I mean, like my phone doesn't work as good here. I hate that.

Yesterday, like, cab driver did something, like, really, like, distractingly nice to me, and, like, there was nothing that I could do about it. There's just no, there's no flavor in this town. It's got no heart. Well, you do make – well, you're not making a lot of good points there, but I will say that I was struck when I moved to L.A., that people are really nice, almost annoyingly so. Like, the guy that works at the supermarket will be a little too nice

where he's telling you, like, where the green peas are. You're talking that type of thing. It just gets on your nerve. Like, you know when your mom always said to combat with kindness, but you didn't do it, but then everybody who did do it just moved out here, and so they all hate you, but they're also really nice to you.

I can feel that. I can tell. Connor, what's your problem, man? Why don't you ever live outside your own box? Any other problems with L.A.? I'm good, man. All right, so I guess I have just one more thing to say, don't you? Were you kidding me?

Beautiful. We jumped the shark in an amazing way. No, that was amazing. Patrick. What a performance. Yes. Patrick Cagongo, is that pronounced correctly? Patrick Cicango with the ax were beautiful stuff.

Would you mind in a moment because we've got to get out of here playing us out of today's show. I will say, Connor, safe journey. You get to go home now, don't worry. You're happy you get to leave Illinois. I'm thrilled, yeah. You don't have to worry about ever doing, you know, the horrible movie segment again. Yeah, that's off my back too.

So I'm just checking up all these boxes. We've lost all Connor's bits to visit this year. But safe journey back. That's it. We will be back. It is Memorial Day, actually, on Monday here in the United States. So no show next Monday. We'll be back on Tuesday, though, with a brand new around the NFL podcast.

What about Thursday, tomorrow? Oh, I forgot about Thursday show. Oh, that means there's so many days left. Thursday. All right. Don't rub it in, Patrick. Wait, this wasn't the playout yet. Sitting in, Conner's chair is vacated, but Colleen will back in action.

Connie Fox on Thursday show, then Memorial Day, then we'll be back. now everybody knows what's going on with the podcast until then this is dan hansa signing off for connor or you kidding me the mailman the boss and the irish from behind the glass patrick kagongo take us away baby I'm not I'm going to be. I'm going to I'm going to

I'm going to This is ariva. Woo! IHeart Podcasts.