NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Casting Choices & NFL Win Totals

Episode Date: April 12, 2021

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all the news around the league starting with what's going on within the Eagles organization (8:50), the Washington Football team potentially looking for a quarterback (19:10), and another Clowney report (26:42). Marc breaks down why April 12th is important (43:19) and the heroes discuss the potential win totals for all of the NFL teams (48:05).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Well, boys, it happened. Remember Frank the Tank from that movie Old School? Sure. And when he said he had a nice little Saturday coming up. and he said he's going to Home Depot and all the frat brothers laughed at him and I remember watching that film as a 23 year old and being like man that guy's finished

well that was my entire weekend I made two trips to Home Depot I didn't even use the shopping car I used the big one the big like kind of truck thing where you have to put lumber and all sorts of things like that my in-laws were in town and my father-in-law is extremely crafty

as we work on this new home so all sorts of projects man all sorts of projects I mean ridiculous changing filters doing some light carpentry building railing staining wood tending to a garden installing locks handles

sweeping raking very sore right now do you find any enjoyment out of this I do it really is a challenge this thing this new world I'm in of home ownership but it is rewarding when you finish the job the thing about it is though

And anyone that is listening right now that owns their own home will undoubtedly agree. It never stops. You finish one project and then the next one comes and the next one comes. So I understand that's part of it too. But yeah, a nice little Saturday. I mean, the laundry list of activities that you listed are probably on the lowest end of the spectrum of things that I'm skilled at. I'm not skilled at those things. Me either.

And you know what's interesting about this stuff? Like you come out of these weekends and bolding. Like I have all these bricks randomly that were left behind by the previous owner. And now I'm like looking at, ooh, can I brick and mortar in the front of this house? It's like, no, you can't. But you start to feel like you have the ability. And I guess with practice and reps, you do become more handy because I could speak for myself and probably the total of the round the NFL podcast. We're not like the manliest men when it comes to, you know, working with our hands and things.

of that nature. So you're kind of coming from behind and we're on the comeback trail though, or at least I am. Yeah, I mean, I am not. If we go to Home Depot, I just distract the kids for as long as we're there so Emeka can do all the buying and doing whatever's going on. But that's why, you know, I'm team, team rent here. I don't have to worry about that stuff. My perfect weekend day is an overcast, not sunny beach day. You get there as early as possible. You spend the time at the beach, you'll leave maybe a little, you know, a little after lunchtime. Then the kids are kind of wiped out the rest of the day. That's a perfect Saturday for me, and I've done it weekly, I would say, during the pandemic. I would put myself in the category that's probably, Dan is clearly

pleased the wife with this home purchase. I mean, you're an all-star category at this point, and you've crossed over to a certain world where you really, the no complaints could be lodged against you for the most part. Greg's activities outside of work seem to me also to be largely of the pleasing wife variety and himself. But, I mean, it aligns. I don't feel to be part of either of these universes in any way. I could purchase things at Home Depot. My dad was quite crafty, that stuff.

But when you have a rental mindset, the last thing I do is hammer anything or touch a wall or recarpet any patch of floor. And I think that ties into it's a generational thing because our parents are all buying their first homes when they were 22 or whatever, 23, and raising families. And you have to learn that stuff right away, whereas our generation, at least in this country, like, it's almost unheard of to own a home before you're even 30 unless you come

from a considerable means or even 35. There's a whole other world outside of these big cities that we always live in. But yeah, you're right. No, yeah, I mean, I can only, yeah, I can only speak for where I've lived in New York and now in L.A. but yeah, it's, you know, it's rewarding, though, I will say. Well, I'm, we're excited to come over and see the house, Greg and I. We're going to come over the two of us and have our way. I like that.

Yeah, just the two of us. All right. Good stuff. Good Monday. It's the Monday show. Just three heroes and Ricky. I see Ricky as a hero as well. A heroin.

A heroin. Is that in play still? Oh, maybe I can't. Because we've kind of dropped. Actress from the lexicon, it's actor. I didn't know if heroin is out now as well. No, she's, I'd probably misstep there. I feel like actress is still in the mix,

but heroin is great in multiple ways, as, you know, to describe a woman hero. Ricky, come in, I mean, help us out. We're drowning here. I mean, at its base, it's a compliment. I mean, it's not, you're not taking a jab at someone, but yeah. Yeah, no, I would say that I am heroin to you guys. Ah, well played, well played.

all right thanks for stopping in erika all right today's show um we are going to have some fun again this is on my radar i think it's on everyone's radar uh this the 17 game season yes it's more football um but it's hard to like kind of look at certain things the same way so for instance we're going to talk about some pff pro football focus uh release their latest win projections for each of the 32 teams. And it's, it's just messing with my head because I'm looking at the totals and I'm like, oh, this team is, you know, supposed to win 10 games. Oh, that's a, that's good season. That's 10 and 6 or maybe 11 and 5. No, no, no. Now that's a 10 and 7 season. Nine wins. No, that's a 9 and 8 season. What does it even mean anymore? It's going to take a while to

get used to this, Mark. Yeah, no, I, in fact, we've, you know, taken a look at this list as a group. And I, I didn't even think about that the first time we did because I'm still in that 16-game mindset, it totally changes things. You win nine games. You're essentially average. Well, I feel like Vegas will win at least like an extra 10% on win totals this year just for like the 10 to 20% of people that forget about it and just like start betting on the wrong, on the wrong total. That's true. So we'll check that out. But first, let's do some news. Ricky, hit it. 7-10. Come on, man. 10. The 7-10 only been made on television three times. in the history of professional bowling on TV.

Come on, kid, do it. He did it! He got the 7-10, Randy! He did it! Woo-hoo! My goodness, the Ginger Assassin! Just dropped the 7-10. You bet, kid. You bet.

Oh, yeah. The Ginger Assassin, they call him. 18-year-old kid rolls a 7-10 split. Third time ever. All right? I guess who's the fourth time ever to do it on television. Ricky, can you get me his actual name? Although Ginger Assassin is an incredible name.

Who needs an actual name? And maybe with Andy Dalton's got another, you know, three to five years in the NFL. I had called him the glowing Ginger Man early in my NFL media run. I know a lot of people call him the Red Rocket, I believe it was. Red rifle. Red rifle? Yeah.

Maybe Ginger Assassin is what we should go with for Andy going forward. Anthony Neuer is the young bowler's name. Congratulations to you, young man. I mean, he's got to assassinate some people to get that. The bowler is clearly assassinating. Were you watching bowling or something this weekend? After the Celtics game yesterday, by the way, they started flipping and the kids were around. And we saw some world axe throwing league championships on ESPN.

That is next level. People, kids were into that. I watch a little Yankees, Rays, and then a little bit of the Masters, just a tiny bit. And then I didn't get a chance to check out bowling. I just saw that on Twitter. But I did grow up watching Saturday bowling on ABC with my dad. So that is my dad, you know, Keith Hansis averaged $1.85 for his entire amateur career until he had to get knee replacement a couple of years back.

I've told him to get back into it, get it on the senior tour. But so far, no dice there. All right. Ginger Assassin. All right. Let's get to the news. starting with what's going on with the Philadelphia Eagles. Now, if you are at all plugged in or just paying attention,

you know something is off in the mix with the Eagles right now, with Doug Peterson being fired with Howie Roseman still there. Jeff Lurie, the owner, very plugged in, perhaps two plugged in. And in general, that entire Super Bowl team, a legendary team in the city of Philadelphia, beat the Patriots in that shootout in the 2017 season, basically gone, wiped away. So what's going on behind the scenes? The Athletic did a great breakdown, Shield Capadia, Bo Wolfe, Zach Berman,

worked together on a piece digging into it. And Greg, a lot of angles and a lot of ways to jump into this. But for me, the biggest takeaway was the danger when the owner gets too involved. and most specifically on the personnel side and how that could lead to a domino effect that could create a lot of issues in an organization. What did you take out of it? Yeah, I agree that Jeffrey Lurie has probably been more involved

throughout than has been reported, that if he's putting his finger on the scale, as they said, with some of these draft picks, that's problematic. That he's watching tape. It's like, come on. And that the situation that they're in now with a lot of backbiting,

and you can pretty much put it together here that it's a lot of fired Eagles, coaches, and or personnel and or personnel people, you know, complaining about the setup where ultimately Jeffrey Lurie, they thought was listening to too much of the analytics side, but also that, you know, the analytics side, Howie Roseman is like in this difficult spot too

where it's like, Lurie's almost intentionally pitting the two sides against each other. And Lewis Riddick, you know, I feel comfortable talking about him because he's been on record about it. granted this was four or five years ago when he got fired, you know, just thought the whole setup was a problem. And you're seeing all these football guys who may not be inclined to trust the Howie analytic side, even in the least bit from the get-go. And then Lurie almost sets it up in a way where

he's the kingmaker and he's choosing which side he wants to believe at a certain level. And it's like, you're just asking for problems. But it's amazing now how he's kind of survived all of it. I love some of the little details in this that talked about Jeffrey Lurie. huddled away in his basement or above his garage or something watching the blue gray game and the senior bowl and the Japan Bowl. It's just like he's very, very dug in. That's when he bought the team. That was from a Peter King article decades ago when he first bought the team. So he's always been into it, but he's starting, it seems, or maybe not starting, but has really ramped up his presence in terms of making day-to-day decisions. I don't know.

The thing is, though, it's like, look, the Eagles are worth $3.4 billion. He's, he's, He's the money man. It's his business. Unlike some owners, he is football first, and he goes to every practice. It's his, I guess it's his prerogative to be as involved as he wants. But I would point to what Greg said to, the structure of that organization seemed to stir up suspicion and animosity between an analytics department that a couple years ago was the bell of the ball. Everyone always talking about the forward-thinking eagles and how they had that. Especially the Eagles.

The Eagles talking about that, letting everyone know. Well, they were getting, I mean, if you go back and look at old roto world posts and stuff, they are just getting glowing reports from everyone. And the bottom line is there's always going to be a fissure between coaches and the analytics wave. And, I mean, Roseman is a friend, and he's probably been kept around longer than, I think he's probably the central antagonist to most Eagles fans because he's sort of, yes, they won a Super Bowl, but he also clung to that roster way too long. The coaches in the Philadelphias, to me, seem as depowered as they are almost anywhere, maybe outside of Dallas.

And, you know, the way that Doug Peterson was treated, you can understand why he was pissed off, as he said, and frustrated and probably felt not listened to. And it made me, to spin it forward, it makes me look at Nick Siriani and say, you weren't the first choice, but you're going to play, you're going to be a good little boy that does what the rest of this power structure wants to do. Yeah, and Siriani makes a lot of sense that that he's, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he. must know what he's getting into here because you don't say no to a head coaching opportunity and it wasn't like he was the hottest name on the market and but when you look at it when Andy Reid was the coach for 14 years they never had these Tuesday meetings with the head coach and the GM it's Lori it's Roseman and it was Doug Peterson every Tuesday and win or lose according to this athletic piece they would sit down and go over the things that Doug Peterson did wrong and I can't

imagine how that must have pissed off andro i get it i get it Doug how that would grind on you as a coach where you're just being uh meticulously picked apart and it gave me two thoughts one yes i think syriani it's unfair to say he's like a puppet and all this but very clearly he's going to have a defined role in the organization and it's not a very loud voice and two and maybe think doug peterson he's i guess he's out of football right now um whoever hires him next i feel better about him because if anything, he dealt with a lot of garbage behind the scenes and still put together a winning team for several years, including a Super Bowl champion. Right. There's a couple things that aren't mentioned in the piece, which is that they've been the most injured

team in the NFL in like three straight years. And sometimes, like, I just feel like that's a huge part of it. Like, their roster looked awesome. And other than last year, they still ended up making the playoffs and usually into the divisional round, like getting over these injuries. But I think like how you handle success is not just like players want more money it's everyone it's the owner who suddenly as you mentioned like wants a lot of the credit like look look who's important like let's put it out there it's the GM who wants a lot of the credit and putting out how great they are it's the coach who wants a lot of the credit and it's the team trying to make tough decisions of thinking they're in this window to win a bunch of super bowls and maybe making not making the best personnel decisions

it's one of the reasons why the Patriots run i don't think will ever be duplicated just because like there's so many problems of dealing with success, and they're showing it. Like, I don't know. I don't know how long Siriani is going to be able to last. He's probably got about a two-year window or else they're going to blow up this whole thing. I think it's interesting that you mentioned the Patriots because they came to mind because of any team in sports, or at least in the NFL, I mean, their coach is their GM essentially, is their final, you know, outside of the owner once in a while. Belichick doesn't have to worry about these layers of external power pressing against each other. And I mean, as a Jets fan, Dan, and as a Browns fan, it's like, I feel like I've read

20 hit pieces. This wasn't a hit piece, but 20 in-depth reports about what's wrong in Cleveland over the past 20 years. And the same with the Jets. And it's like, it's just poor organization. It's poor structure. And it's infighting and it's ego. And it's a desire for power and money. And it's like this story has been going on for thousands of years. The Eagles are just like today's version of it. And you bring up Belichick in the patriots it's funny there's no like there's no perfect way to do it because belichick is the be all end all up there and when you look at their their past four or five years of drafts maybe it would help to have someone else's voice and there'd be something in there i think of what it comes down to

is you have to find that balance and the and everyone needs to be talking together and the analytics department has to be playing ball with the gm and the owner and and the scouts and and i think that's just such a hard thing to get right and the organizations that manage it build the long-term winner and the organizations that don't, maybe you flash and you get an improbable Super Bowl victory like the Eagles did, but then it comes back and it will come back to bite you. Like, Howie Roseman, I thought that was interesting too. How what he was, and he was famously, and we've joked about it for years,

that he was banished to the Poconos by Jeffrey Lurie when Chip Kelly was hired and was given team building skills. And they sent him to the opposite side of the Novacare complex. That was the non-football side, which was a huge slap in the face to Roseman. He said later on that that helped inform how I changed the way I do my business, although he has kind of gone back to his earlier form, apparently. He did the same thing to the analytics guy that he was unhappy with,

banishing him to the opposite end of the building. It's just like, whoa. And it's a big soap opera ultimately. It's fun. It's fun for us. I mean, the thing with like the owner meeting, like that's very typical, by the way, like an owner meeting with his coach to go over. And now whether.

The tone of it, though. Yeah, I think the tone is what stands out. Exactly. But you're also getting this tone from, you can assume, the coach's side of things. And I think it's just winning. It's like winning papers over all this stuff. I think probably everyone had these feelings while they were winning too. But it's cool because it's like the Super Bowl raises everyone's profile and raises everyone's money and everything like that.

And then the second you start losing, then the backbiting comes. Well, I mean, I wouldn't note, though, that, like, they talked about Lori City. down in a sort of secret three-hour meeting with Jim Schwartz, like, days into that Super Bowl winning season because people thought he was looking for Peterson's replacement. It just seems like they never really bought into Peterson as a vision guy. Someone he needed to have his handheld. And I think you're right that those meetings every Tuesday probably became, you know, we all have things during the week. It's like the worst part of your week. And it's like that probably was Peterson's worst part of his week for years. And they get Eagle's

fans are salty and I've given them a little bit of grief for being so upset and angry and critical in the last couple of years considering what you have that many fan bases have never had, which is a Super Bowl title. But you get it because it wasn't supposed to, you know, happen this quickly go from being a Super Bowl champion to all this dysfunction. But, you know, that's the way. Good job by Bo Wolf, by the way, friend of the podcast. He was involved in the reporting of that story. All right. In other news, speaking of the athletic, Michael Lombardi does his thing over there.

Michael Lombardy, he bounces around quite a bit. I can never really track. Is he still there? I'm not even sure. I don't know. Maybe he is. Yes, he is there. Okay.

Guys, that's how you make money in this business. Just stack paychecks from all over the place, you know. Anyway, Lombardi believes that the Washington football team, will be willing to trade up to land a quarterback. Trey Lance, North Dakota State, star. We're talking about a godfather type offer. Look at me. I bring up Lombardi and now I'm bringing up Italian motion pictures,

Italian-American motion pictures. That's his thing. Anyway, this would take a lot, obviously. They're sitting at number 19. They are the defending division champions in the IFC East, of course, Mark. So to get up to what I assume would be, you know, around the top five to get Trey. Lance, you're probably going to have to surrender everything, which they already did once before

with RG3. Should they be thinking about doing that again? I just think it's an interesting, I mean, there's a lot of varying opinions on Trey Lance and Lance Zeerling, our guy, his comparison NFL wise was Josh Allen, but he doesn't seemingly have that same powerful arm. He is certainly a dual threat. And you know, you've got Scott Turner there, young Turner. You've got Ron Rivera. They went to a Super Bowl with Cam Newton. So you wonder if maybe that's something they've always valued if you're Ron Rivera, that kind of a quarterback that can do it all. I mean, he really is someone that with his feet, like you build an entire offense around

what he can do on his feet. They talk about him being one of the smarter guys coming in at the quarterback position. He can read, he set his own protections as a runner, which, you know, your center could be doing that typically. He is like a brainy kid, but not fully formed. And so I don't know what you give up for him to get up there. but you have to really believe it. And I wonder, I mean, it's got to be a Ron Rivera thing

because this, you know, this is a team that took Dwayne Haskins a couple years ago. Trey Lance, to me, is someone that is just, you look at what people say. They're all over the map. So Washington must be fully in belief of what he can provide. I just think there's so many teams that are going to make such big mistakes this draft because there's less information, unless all these guys are just, like, good. Tray Lance is uniquely a black box of a draft prospect. He played one game last year, which sort of didn't even count.

He threw 18 passes per game the year before in the most highly schemed offense that exists, basically. Carson Wentz's North Dakota State offense, which is about as far from like an NFL offense as you can get. But he looks awesome. Like a lot of people think he looks better as a prospect than Wednesday, for instance. And like everyone loves him. But you're basing this off of 18 throws a game two years ago at the FCS level. And, man, like, you can make mistakes that way. But it's not that different with Fields and Wilson.

Like, they didn't play that much either. That, you know, for, like, big time college quarterbacks, they're in a different category, too. And they have their own questions with scheme and, like, the, you know, how much the scheme helped, how much they played. And for Wilson, like, the opponent. So to me, it's like, yeah, these guys just, like, look awesome. The quality of like the talent in terms of just like physicality in your arm strength. Lance to me has more than a good enough arm. It's like they all look like grade A prospects,

but you just figure some of these teams are going to totally botch this. You called them a black box candidate. I never heard that before. You know, with a black box, that's usually something you don't learn what happened until you're digging through the wreckage of the airplane. So you're basically like kind of pointing your. prediction and analysis here in a certain direction. No, I kind of, I'm really interested in Traylands,

just because no one seems to know it much about him, or he just seems to be the guy that's getting ignored in this process, even though, you know, he's pretty fascinating, just his athleticism and where he comes from. The Black Box thing is more like, how do people really know how he's going to translate? It's a pretty big projection. Josh Allen maybe is a good comparison.

Is that what you just said? Yeah, Mark, that's what Lance Zierling said. Right, as a prospect, that makes a lot of sense to me, because I think he was a really tough one to know how he would fit at the next level. I mean, you know, who's a really polarizing prospect last year? Justin Herbert. And I, you know, my team has the number two overall overall pick. I'm probably going to be rooting for Zach Wilson next year.

Would I like if he had another full college season and all that stuff? Sure. But at the same time, it just feels like it's all this is a crap shoot really no matter what. So I don't feel like the Jets are in some type of or these other teams. teams are in a total disaster situation because you can do all the research and watch all that tape you want. But when the lights go on week one or whenever these guys get the chance, that's when you finally see whether they can, you know, Greg, play the guitar. Moving on. A lot of guitar playing on this show lately.

Throw the football would be preferable. None of us. We should get my brother, Dean. You know, Dean went to college for a guitar. You want to see the tape, the Delaware tapes. Forget about that. We got a lot of Dean Rosenthal tapes playing all around western masts um you know we're not forgetting about the delaware tapes but also some like cover cover songs of like kiss and uh you know ugly kid jo and and guns and you're an a plus deflector but dan and i are not um off the case on the delaware tapes nor will we ever be off the case and i know i know on your other podcast your best buddy is like a legit celebrity

and you guys do your comedy thing if if the delaware tapes ever service on that show and not on this one this whole thing's over we are folding up shop that that is that is that is not reversible that would never occur to me no I would not do that to you that's also giving Greg incredible power over our careers Dan I don't know I might return to still do an episode of time all right uh what was I saying oh up next all right this again Josina Anderson reports free agent, defense of Ngedavian Clownie is visiting the Browns. Does this sound familiar? Yes, it does sound familiar because he already did meet with the Browns.

I don't know if it was virtual or in person, but this is back in March. No deal. And can we just, and don't take this personally, Mark, it's not about you, your favorite team. Can we please just sign with the Browns already so everybody can get all excited about their hype bunny Browns and how clowns. and how Clowny is going to be across from Miles Garrett, and that's going to unlock this magic that we've been waiting. Can just do it already, just sign,

and then let people start writing those articles, and then we could let the games play out, and then Garrett has a great ear, and Clowny gets hurt and does nothing. Can we just speed the process along here just a little bit? Ricky, please, and I know this is a personal sun firing, because I don't want to, maybe you guys want to do more of these, but I want to fire this,

where is DeDavian Clownie story going into the sun? because nobody needs nobody needs this much speculation considering the production. I'm sorry. Into the sun, you know. Let me know where he is. I mean, you know, they also met last off season. So this is an elongated flirtation.

I'm with you. I find it ponderous. But to me, it tells me more about maybe what they think about where they pick in the draft, the edge rusher position in the draft, is certainly missing a Miles Garrett type character, you know, pushing better guys down the list. Like, maybe they want to go into the draft

with this position sealed up so they can take a cornerback or the best player available. But I'm with you, Dan. I find it juicy, though, if my team signs the player that really, I can't think of too many players that you're more happily antagonistic toward

and not without reason, but the, but the, the whole scenario there, I find compelling if that happens. Your friend Andrew Barry, the GM, This is what, if I had a direct line to him, if I could, like, tap into the GM app if it existed, if you do sign, and you will sign Jadavian Clowney for a one year team friendly deal with nice incentives to the player. If he stays on the field, it makes plays. Do not say I have defensive end opposite of Miles Garrett covered and I don't have to worry about it and I could turn my attention to other positions in the draft. That would be a mistake.

Signing him would not solve any issues. Why don't she just bring back to Olivier Vernon? What's going on with his account? well i mean i thought vernon like like closed the season very well and was exactly what he popped in achilles though right at the end so right so but that he's just off the table right now i don't think it solves like the position but i think they're probably just thinking i think it's incredible upside i think it's incredible upside and if you take out last year he's been very consistent overall i mean he's maybe he isn't like the transformative number one

overall pick but he's better than most number one overall picks and he's and he's and he's had a pretty consistent career until last year. I do wonder, I think it says more about the time of year. We just got, we got no news to talk about. Justin Houston's visiting the Ravens, throw that in there. We just got nothing to talk about. There's no, there's no news right now. My counter to that, Greg, is how come nobody wants to pay this guy?

It took forever for the Titans to finally give him that one year deal. And now he's on the market again in April. I think the way he plays and the lingering injuries that he's played through are a serious concern because he plays he's kind of like the running back that takes 250 hits every year is his career going to be shortened and i think that was the concern for clowny and it's kind of coming out that way after last season so i get the concern too anyway i apologize if i got a little fired up there but you know we'll wait until he signs we'll wait until Thursday when he's by then he will have signed and then we're going to give the exact same analysis i know i know but let's just not do

another clowny story until that signing happens and um he was the first overall pick in i believe 2014 right that's right yeah and this pod you started in july 2013 so it's like i feel like we've been talking about this guy for a long time for somebody that's never had 10 sacks in a season anyway all right um i hope he signs with the jets actually because then you're going to be in a really weird place he won't joe douglas is too smart for that i love i trust you joe kevin james will play Sean Payton in a Happy Madison picture. Happy Madison is the production company owned by Adam Sandler. And Adam Sandler has a extended deal with Netflix to put together these movies with his buddies and put them on Netflix. And they apparently do pretty well regardless of their

artistic achievement. And Kevin James, the full figured comedic actor playing Sean Payton in a movie. What do we think about this? Well, I think if I'm Kevin James and I'm reading Peter King write about it and like the one thing Kevin that Peter King mentions is, well, Kevin James is going to have to lose some weight for this role. I'm thinking like, I'm thinking like, who are you to talk first of all? And you're just talking about me like that. And by the way, Sean Payton, like Kevin James, if we're going to go there,

it's fluctuated over the years for certainly. he's a guy he can be like jacked at times and he can he can look like the coach at the end of the season like his old coordinator rob ryan they can go back and forth that's all and king also was wrong in not understanding the uh the business involved here again happy madison they they don't really care what what kind of project they're putting together they're just getting their buddies together there's no like i need to dedicate for this role to play sean payton kevin james is going to stay exactly on his diet and cash the paycheck and do the movie and then like a bunch of people watch it on Netflix and that'll be it. I watch it now. I don't think they were going for like the

realistic, most realistic looking Sean Payton casting choice because Greg is right. There was a period and it was around 2014 or so that Sean Peyton who is now 58, so this is not easy to do, transformed his body and became legit muscular like he looked awesome. And I think that's waned since then but he is not young but this happened in 2012 so you have to cast someone that looks like he did back then he didn't really have gray hair back then um he was a different looking guy it's about that it's about bounty gate well it's it's about the it's about the season it bounty gate i assume will be like the almost the preface to it and it's about the season he spent away from the game that he coaches his kids uh team and you know learn to love again it is kind of funny though

that the whole precursor of that is like you know getting some suspended for for taking kill shots on a quarterback and by the way there was a pretty well reported like you know drug um controversy that to me i always felt was was part of bounty gate of like you know them the the saints got in a little trouble with some um how they were using prescription drugs but i that probably is going to be glossed over in this movie most i do have some casting choices the pa the paul blart mail cop uh actor uh Kevin james probably not going to hit the drug abuse behind the scenes of professional football angle very hard. Don't think so.

I do have some casting choices for you, though, which I mentioned. I was good. This kind of... This is good. Well, it did kind of just said, is this a jester giving it to your friend? So I want to throw... And we could get Ricky in here if she wants to chime in. Is this a slide show?

Are you? Well, there are... So here it is. I would say that the vast majority of who I'm going to mention, you would just know, their household names. But there's a couple where heard the name, but I'm not sure I could put a face to it. So I wanted to help you out there. You can just sort of tell me yes or no.

Well, I wasn't necessarily going there first, Ricky, but we can... Oh, I went by your list. Well, it's okay. So let's just say, if you want to look... I'm going to start with a couple people that I think you could make look like Sean Peyton. Daniel Craig, we could start with. I understand that he's like a super haughty, but...

Well, he's fine. Okay, but I mean, he sort of perceived that way. If you dressed him up as Sean Payton, I think you've got a more Sean Payton-esque look than Kevin James there. No, that's a good one. And you know what? But you say when he was cast as James Bond and he was an excellent bond, some of the criticism was that he wasn't quite photogenic enough to pull off James Bond, who's like a supposed to be a suave, Pierce Brosnan type. So yes, I think you can put him in the Sean Payton world.

I like that one. Okay. I'm just going to throw this name out. There's no photo. Or maybe there is Greg Kinnear. There's no photo of Greg Kinnear on the internet. Well, no, no, there is. There is.

Yep, that's a good one too. They are the same age. I think, you know, this movie's going to have to be a little bit dramatic in terms of the backdrop. Greg mentioned what you're in chaos in a way, if you're Sean Peyton during this year of your life. And then something good has to come out of it. Greg Kinnear can kind of rainbow through that whole arc of emotions. I like him as an actor. And Greg Kinneur is probably available because I feel like it hasn't been too hot since as good as it gets overall.

He seems to be. Also, he could play you. I mean, he's like a little like hotter version of you, Mark. So I like that as well. I like that one. Underrated, Conier, you know, a lot of range. Talk soup to dramatic stuff. Let's do it. Not much hotter than you, Mark. Steve the Pirate and Dodgeball. Can he command the room? Can you command an NFL locker room, Greg Kinnear? That's part of it. That's part of it. But he also is not with an NFL locker room. Can he command six graders? I think he could.

That's true. What else? How about this? Alan Tudick. Let's throw that up there, Ricky. Yeah, we can use the photo there. These are the ones where I'm going for looks. Don't know who that is Oh, that's Steve the Pirate from Dodgewold He's been in lots of stuff But okay This one I think If you look at Sean Peyton's facial structure

Greg German Who was famous for Allie McBeal No one knows who these guys are I know him He's a he's a been around the block TV actor Absolutely Absolutely Steve Zahn I threw in there as a possibility

Zani? Yeah okay Because now he's a little bit older their age is not that far apart. Plus, this is a comedic film, most likely, and he's done comedic work. He's a New Orleans guy, did Tremay. He was very good in Tremay, actually. He also seems available to me.

Now, these ones are just more. I'm talking about some household names. Yeah, well, we can just rip through these. I don't know if you have photos of these. Woody Harrelson. You could do anything. Woody's good. I would watch that.

I think you need some pop. Kevin James, at least, you know, to each his own. He's got pop. He's got a fan base. I think that's good. The Allen McBeill guy, maybe not. so much. Woody Harrelson? Yeah, we could work. Yeah, that's why I'm going into more movie star world here. Now, these ones are not for looks so much, but Steve Carell, how would he not do a great job

at this? No, it doesn't seem like a football coach. Okay, so we got a know there. We're batting a pretty good batting average here so far. How about Dennis Quaid, if he were maybe a little younger? He's a football guy. I need a break. All right, okay, so that's a no. You've been going heavy quade lately? I don't know, whenever we talk, whenever we're there's like conversations about a sports movie everyone's like how about tennis quaint it's like all right let's just well i was trying to please that per part of the room if someone's looking for that kind of guy um this guy may be also a little overexposed right now but chris pratt if you really wanted to pull in like a certain audience yeah too young though i mean i guess you could age a little too young yeah

uh how about this um sean penn i want to see that i want to see that movie i think it'll be an sane movie, Sean Penn playing in the children. I struggle with like Sean. I think, yeah, I watch Sean Penn in a Happy Madison production. That's interesting. I'm interesting. I'm intrigued.

That's good. The last person I would note, because this is where we are in a society at this point, of course you could do this. Sean Payton plays himself. Unsolved Mystery style. Okay. I mean, you know. I need to know the tone of the film. He's providing notes. I think it's

going to be a happy, you know, it's It's teaching kids and learning life lessons and he's grumpy at the beginning and then he has some hijinks with the kids and that connects him to the love of the game. That's why Sean Penn would be at once the worst possible choice and the one I would want to watch because I've heard Sean Penn lately on like a podcast and he seems off his rocker at this point. He seems a little out he seems out there. The novel that he wrote sounds like the thing I like to read the last thing I would ever want to read. is Sean Penn's novel. And just, you know, one bit of unsolicited advice to Adam Sandler. When you're casting really anyone and you're forced to choose every time between Kevin James,

Rob Schneider, and David Spade, you've probably boxed yourself in a little. Let's just open up the net over at Happy Madison Productions. I mean, that would have been true 15 years ago, so it's even doubly true now. Two quick news items before we get to the PFF win projections. First, the Cardinals who traded for DeAndre Hopkins last season, they fleeced Bill O'Brien and the Houston Texans in that deal. They received something called, you know, we're up for a Cyclops, as everyone knows. And I heard from Ricky that the live stream of the award show will be on April 21st.

So we might have to find a way to connect that to the podcast when that time comes. So we got a Cyclops nomination. Hopkins and the Cardinals, more specifically, received the Alpha Award for Best Sports Transaction of the Year. That one didn't ring quite true to me because Tom Brady feels like one of the best free agent signings ever. I mean, I know nobody wants to give Brady or his team any more awards than they already get, but how does the Bucks not win that hardware? Are they not judging off of the idea of what they gave in return? I mean, I'm with you, like, the most impactful signing was Tom Brady, but, like, if you looked at the best trade or swap, I would give that, I would give it to DeAndre, but what you're really saying also is that the Texans made the worst move of last off season. Well, you know what, so this is from, I didn't, I've never heard of this before, but it's from the Sloan conference, which is an analytics conference.

So, you know, they're saying from an analytics perspective, maybe, who, who use the data, who fleece the other. team you know who won in 2020 uh the your new york yankees for a player i've never heard of because i'm not a big baseball fan dj la matthew that acquisition won in 2020 i don't know how that held up yeah he's the reigning batting champion dj lay mayhew oh love mey but uh yeah we love dj we call him the machine uh all right oh the slow people get excited about that sloan stuff i want to know when whenever i see people tweeting about the sloan conference and stuff though because they're they're all about into analytics they're all about into analyzing how to best use like a payroll and in contracts i always want to know how much are the panelists getting paid like and what are the differences in the panelists because that would inform like which panels you would go to like do i want kevin clark at a certain value or bill simmons at another one like that i think they should is kevin james there right because they're analytics i think they should release that to the public

They're all about the data. They should release that data. We should. I think getting Clark on here to say how much it got paid by Sloan would be awesome. For all, I know, they don't get paid at all, but that would seem weird. Finally in the news, oh, it's another trope alert. I told you it's my responsibility to you, the listeners, to keep you up to date on all the tropes as we approach a 2021 season. Trooper alert.

Trooper alert. George. Patton, the general manager of the Denver Broncos, is hoping, not Peyton, forget about that, he's Patton on the show. He needs Drew Locke to take the next leap forward and make the Broncos a playoff team. Well, guess what? Good news.

Broncos guard Dalton Rizner told Matt Lombardo of fan-sided on his podcast last week that Drew Locke has been having film sessions with Hall of Fame QB, wait for it. Peyton Manning. Hit me with that trope alert again. Peyton Manning meddling with a team. Ostensibly to help them. But that's not always the case.

That's not always the case at all. Peyton Manning, meddling. The whole Peyton Manning as like a football spengali has taken, like narrative has taken a big hit with his undying support of Adam Gase. Like, that's the guy he stood on a table on more than any other player or coach. Big time. So it hurt.

It hurt me. I was thinking, like, that British trope lady, I don't know who she is, but I think at this point we should get together for drinks with her just to learn more about her life. She seems enjoyable. Am I wrong? Yeah. I'd like to see who she is. She's had a big impact. Sure, yeah.

She seems forceful to me. It seems like you would like to have some private time with her if you could. No, no, I said as a group, we would, we would. Sure. Mark definitely likes, likes a forceful British woman. I can see that. I can totally see that. That's a little change of pace, if you will. That's what's happening in the news. Mark, did you have something to lead us into our next second or transition us out of this current one?

Well, I can never tell what day it is anymore. I'm sure I'm not alone, but it's, I didn't even realize we were in the double digits of April, but April 12th. This is just a little quick. There are some interesting things. Ah, the double digits of April. They always sneak up on you. Do you know what happened? Speaking of baseball on April 12th, 144 years ago.

144 years ago, whoa. In 1887, the first catchers mask was used in a baseball game. Okay. I can't believe. It took how many games were played before that because that feels like a recipe for mouth disaster. Those guys worked in like meatpacking plants back then. They didn't care. baseball to the face.

Also, old Johnny and Billy died in the first two days of the season. So let's put on a mask. I got a mask. So also on April 12th, this is a significant day, 110 years later after the first catcher's mask was featured in 1987, 21 Jump Street premiered on Fox. Is this going to lead to you giving us more casting options for Sean Payton? No. So it's been exhausted.

No, but then the other thing that happened on this date that stood out to me, I think you guys probably, I witnessed this in person. It caused quite a ruckus in the tabloids. In 1995, Drew Barrymore appeared on the late show, the David Letterman show, and basically jumped on his desk and flashed him frontally from the waist up. It was Dave's birthday. It was his birthday. That also happened on this date.

So it's not just a meaningless day just to cross it off the calendar and go walk around. Mark Sessler this date in history I like that. Drew Barrymore to show you how far things of and by the way that was Drew was my girl like everybody had like especially when you're younger a celebrity that was your celebrity and you just loved everything about her

Drew Barrymore was like my ideal of the peak of what a woman could be and so I was a huge fan of her in the 90s so when that happened I was like oh that was pretty cool she was shamed like shit like her career took on water after that and you think about it like

if that happened today people would be like oh that was pretty cool crazy thing but back then she was basically branded with a scarlet letter she was a bad girl she was too naughty and like it brought up all these issue other conversations rickie does that to us every week it's like that's not a big deal weekly Craig Craig's like someone said something that made me uncomfortable I'll be quiet I didn't no one said anything well the Ricky part yes but I meant the the Drew Barrymore I didn't You had more background knowledge on all that as a seminal moment. It was interesting to learn.

Wow. All right. Well, you know, this really, the segment really landed gracefully, but I liked it overall. I don't think we're going to be, that segment will never appear on this show ever again. Why not? It's a good transition. No, I just felt like this month feels highly anonymous to me, so I was trying to drill down for a little bit of identity, calendar identity. That was good.

I enjoyed it, and I think it's something we should bring back. We're in between. We're in between on, like, the NFL calendar. We're in between with this pandemic. We're, you know, it's just sort of like a transition. This is like the Nick Siriani of months right now. It's just like get it out of the way until we move on to the real stuff. Ricky, you could have also jumped in there and broken that uncomfortable silence when Greg turned off his mic to protect himself.

Well, I was going to just see how long it went. Yeah. And I was just like going to let that play out. And then I was going to come on and just flash you guys. yeah all right good stuff Greg has now left the studio he's not even on the show anymore PFF they do it

everyone respects PFF it's Chris Collinsworth's site does he get all the money like how does that work is he did he just invest in it or did he launch it where has Collinsworth come down I know it's based out of Cincinnati isn't it He did not launch it.

It existed and was robust before Chris Collinsworth was ever involved. At some point, he invested and became, I don't know, the percentage. It seems like it's a pretty high percentage. At some point, he became like one of the owners, if not the main one. Well, definitely, mutually beneficial. For both sides, it sounds like Collinsworth getting involved. And much respect to all those that worked tirelessly to get PFF off the ground before he arrived. That's great.

Great for the Cincinnati community. No, it's been huge for the Cincinnati community. Just enormous. Massive. The pride. All right. So they do it every year. NFL win totals always, as Greg knows very well,

one of the more popular ways to bet the NFL, which we do not do, by the way, because we are employees of the shield. However, people outside of the walls of our virtual building are free to do these things and they enjoy it and that's a big people like that in sports

the idea of wagering never my thing it never really was my thing but I you know I dabbled in my youth and some people are obsessive about it Mark did you ever get involved in the old days

no no no because I didn't I never read the capital I probably spent my money poorly if anything but gambling seems like a poor way to spend it also for many people But a little bit of horse racing. When I lived in New York City, I'd go to the off-track bedding with a couple friends and you drink some beers. Yeah, but some of those, if you ever walked into one in Manhattan, some of them are the end of the earth.

Just take the subway out to Aqueduct. That was a weird afternoon that I partaked in there. I saw this speculation, by the way, that the NFL with this new CBA, they have an out after like five or six years, something like that. and some of the speculation is that by then the in-game betting will have over have will be such a big part of the broadcast that like it'll provide an opportunity for the NFL to take this out and like renegotiate um things related to that that it's providing all this extra value we'll see I don't know but things have moved pretty quickly on the like betting front including how the NFL treats it it's not too long ago that the NFL didn't allow our our old friend Michael Fabiano who's no longer at the NFL not to do this fantasy football conference with Tony Romo because like you had to because it was loosely associated with betting and now the NFL's got owners, you know, buying betting companies,

buying Fandle, buying all this stuff. They're kind of embracing it now. What? You can't talk about that? No, now I'm being silent in case the bosses listen to this or unhappy with you. No, they wouldn't be. I think it's totally, I think they've,

They've been pretty clear about it. Roger Goodell has been out and about that they're, they're cautious, but they're cautiously like allowing this stuff now. Yeah, absolutely. Things have changed in a big way over the last 10 years. All right, let's get into it. And again, this is all based not on 16 games, but 17 games.

Just go through the divisions. AFC East. I'm just going to say what their totals are. And then you guys jump in and tell me if something doesn't pass the smell test to you one way or the other, okay? They have the bills at 10 and a half as a significant division favorite. The Dolphins and Patriots sitting at nine, which puts them right on the playoff bubble. And then the Jets, and I imagine this is a jump from last season, they're up to seven.

So a competitive division with the Bills is the clear favorite. Anything jump out to you there? It's a lot of faith in the Jets. I like it. I kind of think that you look at where they were the year before. They did win a certain amount of games with not a great team. I mean, last year, you know, it's almost as hard to go winless or close to winless as it is to go 500 sometimes. And so I think they'll bounce back.

It's a lot of faith in Robert Sala and in Zach Wilson, whoever they draft. It's a 10-lost season, though. And again, when you look at the difference in schedule, but that 7 and 10, would that be progress with the Jets when they just went 2 and 14 and they have a new quarterback? Yeah, I think as tough as it is because as Jets fans, you've been waiting over a decade just to go back to the playoffs. But I view that as progress. If the young quarterback is looking promising, yeah, I would take seven wins. To me, that's a big jump. I mean, that is a big jump from two.

I get the coaching thing. But where are the defined strengths of this team personnel-wise? And then you're just counting on the rookie quarterback to be not just okay, but like to improve their quarterback position a lot. That's a lot to ask out of a rookie. That seems a little rich. And what, it could be a pretty decent division there. It's the solid factor.

It's, I guess, some of the additions, Carl Lawson, C.J. Mosley back. And then you have a big draft. And then it's on Joe Douglas to lead the way and make those right decisions. All right. In the AFC North, the Ravens are in the same way that the bills are a significant, somewhat significant favorite at 11. They haven't pegged at 11. So that's 11 and 6 season is where they kind of see them coming down. the Browns are up next at nine and a half so they're kind of a bubble team which is surprising the Steelers eight and a half and the Bengals six and a half this one I think you can make a case for all these ones being interesting Mark but let's start with your Browns there it felt like 2020 was a stepping stone season to this being a big year for Cleveland I kind of think it's that way but PFF doesn't quite see it that way it seems yeah I mean if it's a 17 game season you're saying the odds are they probably go like nine

and eight in their view. I don't think that's, I don't think it's too harsh because I think the wrong thing to do is just to project Cleveland into the AFC title game based on what happened last season. This whole division had the easiest schedule in the league a year ago, playing the NFC East and, you know, really like Cleveland benefited from that and they faced teams at the right time. They're still a good football team. I don't have a problem with them at 9.5. I wouldn't say they're 10.5. I'd have more of issues with slotting the Ravens half a game above the bills. I mean, we're a team that seems to me with a number of big questions going into the season. Right. I think the Ravens have had one of the toughest off seasons in the league.

And at 11, they are third, you know, in win totals behind the bucks and the chiefs, the two Super Bowl team. So that's weird. To me, the nine and a half, like, that's fifth among the AFC teams. I know that sounds like it's low, but that's not low. When you're building in these probabilities, ultimately, like, there's a lot of room where you have to, you know, understand. that the mean, you know, which is 500, is a powerful thing. So they're still saying that the Browns are like the fifth best team in the AFC, which that sounds about right. I love the Steelers here.

Probably as my number one gut instinct on this entire board here is that I feel like the offseason narrative is burying them way too much, putting them at eight and a half significantly behind the Ravens. I mean, what, two plus games behind, a game behind the Browns, and then more importantly, right at 500. the Tomlin's been there for 14 years. They haven't been below 500 one time. They won 12 games last year.

I just feel like there's this weird, we overrate the end of the season, and statistically it's been shown the end of the season, which was great for the Browns. Those Browns are pretty consistent. It's not any more, like, predictive than the beginning of the season. Ultimately, they were good enough to win 12 games. They still have a lot of those defensive pieces.

I know it's been a bad off season, but if you're telling me, I got all I need is a 50-50 chance to go over. above 500. I'm taking the Steelers there. Is it predictive when your quarterback is declining over the course of that year and it's not the same guy at the end of the year that he was? No, I don't think so. I think the course of the whole season is more instructive and ultimately they were a passable offense. They weren't good, but the running game was the bigger problem and that's still a concern. Their offensive line and there's a lot of concerns

there. Don't get me wrong. If Vegas were idiots, like everyone would be just making money, but I like this. I'm with you. I'm pounding the over. there and the Steelers were an absolute mess in December and then that playoff loss but man they they went 11 weeks before they even lost one game before that happened I don't think you could throw all of that away I would by the way strip one W from Baltimore here knock them down to 10 give Pittsburgh that to if you're talking about the the averaging it out Greg and then you get Baltimore at 10 Cleveland nine and a half Steelers nine and a half and keep the Bengals where

they are that feels exactly right that feels exactly right. AFC South, Colts, the favorite at 10. The Titans right behind it, nine and a half. The Jaguars, who went one in 15, hmm, this is an interesting one, set at six and a half. And the Texans, I don't know if anybody's as low as the Texans are in this exercise. In fact, they're not.

There's nobody predicted to be the worst team in football, four and a half. And it is certainly within the realm of possibility that Terad Taylor is their quarterback at the start of 2021 and perhaps deep into it or even all of it, I'm cool at the Colts and Titans. The Jaguars at six and a half, just like the Jets. It's a big leap of faith for a team that was a dumpster fire last year. I'm with you. I don't see them being two games better than the Texans, for instance. I'd probably go with the Texans over just because things happen. It's not that hard to win six games. Man, that's a low number. And I don't know. This whole division is kind of reminding me of the mid-2010s. I used to write like the division power rankings and the

AFC South was kind of garbage for a while. I think we're getting back to those days. I guess that's why the Colts number is 10 because there's a thought that they're going to be able to beat up on Jacksonville and Tennessee. But I don't know. The decline to Carson Wentz, I think, could be a problem and you lost your left tackle. I like the structure and everything there, but this is not a good division. I mean, that AFC South malaise went on for so long because there were no quarterbacks in the division. Now you're saying if the cults are going to go 10, 10 wins, you're suggesting that Carson Wentz, you get the better version of Carson Wentz. I think the Titans are a little disrespected here, but I mean, could they go nine and the same as the Browns

though? Right. That's pretty good. I just, I don't know if I see the cults as a better team than the Titans necessarily. And the Jaguars and Texans, I don't hate what they did there. I think it's just you're giving a boot. You're probably trying to get some action off the Jacksonville thing, but they're not, they don't decide where action come from. This is PSFs. They're not a voting lobby, so. It is crazy to think on your quarterback.

Well, they're not a gambling house. So it's like, I mean, I don't know what they're trying to do. Just the voting lobby thing. It was wild. I enjoyed it. AOC West, this one I think they pretty much nailed with a, for me, I would make one slight modification. They have the chiefs at 12.

That's the highest of any team in the league. The Chargers at nine, the Broncos at seven and a half, the Raiders at seven and a half. You know, I would probably bump up the Chargers to nine and a half and drop the Broncos to seven. Where do you guys come down on this? Man, I'm going to do it because of Herbert, but it's like we're just right back on the same train of giving the Chargers the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, I'm not going to do it until actually. Why are they ahead of these two teams that when they've been so disappointing these last two years, the Raiders, have a lower win total than they did a year ago with 16 games.

I know sometimes the offseason narrative is a little bit much. That said, I'm probably going to be picking the charges to have a great season, but I don't feel confident at all. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that they're so beloved. Well, I mean, if you get Derwin James back and he's healthy, Joey Bosa healthy, you have Austin Eccler for more time this year.

You've got second year with Justin Herbert. I think Brandon Staley, I know I get a little hot on these coaches, But I don't think Brandon Staley, everything we know about him, suggests late game meltdowns and mismanaged. What do we know? What do we know? We don't know anything. Everything that's been written about him, that he is like a football junkie, extremely detailed, that he's not going to be like a shaky game operator, that little things like that seem to have mystified chargers, brass, and coaches for a long time will be different.

Game management in the heat of the battle, you know, these guys that are completely untested. Well, I would say that one of the more talented. for them too so he's a defensive coach so it's like i mean he wouldn't be calling their offense but um they've won 12 games combined the last two years that's just my main thing and like yeah we always say how talented they are i i'm talking out of both sides of my mouth because i'm gonna be rooting for them and thinking they're good but i would not feel comfortable putting any uh money that's they're already kind of building in that everyone likes this team with that number yeah and you the point you were making mark all those things make sense for the charge but it never seems to really

come together that way, whether it's meltdowns or injuries or whatever. But I'm just like, in one of the rare instances of this, I'm trying to think more logically than with my feelings, because it's like logically, they should be much better than they've been. So is that, so are we chipping two games, three games off of this version of the Chargers with a new coach and new, all this other stuff because of the weird stuff that's occurred? I don't know. It's like the same, yes, somewhat, because it's the same reason why. you know, the Ravens make sense to me

as the slight favorites over the Browns because you just give like the benefit of the doubt to the organization and the chargers are sort of the opposite of that where you don't, at this point you should not give them the benefit of the doubt. Over in the NFC, we'll start with the East and PFF projects another down year for this former juggernaut. And the Dallas Cowboys, of course,

because it is spring and summer, are the significant favorite to win the NFC. C.E's at 9 and a half. So they see him as a 9 and 8, 10 and 7 type team. The Washington football team set at 8. The Giants at 7. The Eagles at 6.5. I am dinging the Cowboys a win and I'll give it to, I'll split it between the Giants and Eagles. So I'll knock the Cowboys down to 8 and a half, Washington football team at 8, and then 7.5 for Giants and 7 for Eagles so just a big stew of mediocrity with the Cowboys not above anybody sounds about right I like that yeah I am with you that this division it does look more interesting at least I mean

what are the Cowboys I know Dak Prescott's back but and I know we got rid of the defensive coordinator so that's all sob because you got the guy that was coaching the Falcons but it's like now now we're just going to say their head and shoulders the best team in the division I no I'm out of that game. I'm out. No, but if Mike McCarthy goes, you know, if they go like a soft nine and eight and nine, if they go eight and nine, Mike McCarthy should be out of there because they, they do on offense. They should be a top seven offense. But they could be a top seven offense and still go eight and nine. I don't know. I mean, NFC North. Let's keep moving. Packers, a heavy favorite, 10 and a half, Vikings, eight and a half, bears seven, lines five.

Okay. I'm cool with this. I'm cool with everything here. Maybe Aaron Rogers is probably not going to play at that level again. Maybe you will. Who knows? But still, I think the Packers are just a better team than all these other teams in the mix. Well, considering they've won 13 games each season, the last two, 10 and a half in a 17 game season is a little low. So they're kind of building in that regression a little bit. Yeah, maybe maybe an opportunity there. I think going under on the Bears would be just kind of fun to root for. I feel like I don't know how they've won as many games as they have the last couple years. I feel like if you told me they're picking first overall next season,

like that wouldn't shock me. I feel like they could totally, totally fall apart. I'm banging the under there. I'm with you. The bears are screaming. They're screaming at me, five and twelve. Right. Five and twelve, what the fuck?

I think they could be a three. Wait, I can't even do the math. Three and fourteen? Oh, my God. That is, that's where it will. get me if some no probably not but if some team goes three and 14 or four and 13 for some reason those numbers sound terrible oh that scrambles my mind i don't like that uh all right the nfc south so the bucks just panced the chiefs in the super bowl and were basically unstoppable the last six

or seven weeks of the season but they don't get to be above the chiefs in this exercise they're at 11 and a half, which is a very nice season, but not installed as the best team in the league, according to wind projection, but still a significant favorite here. The Saints, it has to be five years since the Saints were this low in this exercise. They're at nine, Panthers, seven and a half, Falcon 7. Give me that half from the Panthers and give it to the Saints. So I would go 11.5 bucks, nine and a half Saints, seven and seven for Panthers. and Falcons. What about you guys? Did this come out after Sam Darnold went to Carolina?

Estard. This published date says April 7th, so it was after. Okay. Hmm. So I'm into, like, checking the out of division schedule, and of course they are doing that when they're making these. And the NFC South plays the two Eastern divisions. I like that, you know, if I'm them. I'll take that if I'm the Bucks. Um, the Panthers were the one that stand out to me, though, uh, that it's a little aggressive here, them improving that much, uh, having to go over seven right now with the quarterback situation. I don't like their offensive line. Like a lot of questions on defense. You, you're, you need to get

to eight and not eight and nine there to win that. It seems a little. Yeah. I think had they, if they had they made a big splash at quarterback, I'd have no problem with a higher number, but I, they're a question mark right now to some degree. If before all this madness, if they had had, if they got to Sean Watson, where would they be here? They'd be probably nine and a half or ten, you would think, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, and you know I'm going to bang that, uh, if in, in another world where we were allowed to.

You're banging it over on the saints. You don't even have to tell us, Craig. You don't even have to tell us. Thank you. Finally, the NFC West, the Rams and Niners. This is the only division in this whole exercise where they've installed co-favorants, both, 10 and a half, um, Rams and Niners. So they are all in, uh, PFF on the Niners getting healthy and becoming a, a force in the NFC again. The Seahawks who fashioned themselves a win now

champion level team, nine and a half. So PFF thinks they're, you know, a wildcard team at best. And the Cardinals is an important year for Cliff Kingsbury and that entire operation. They set at eight so a middling 500 just below team which is not going to get it done in fact i think that's going to get cliff kingsbury fired if they finish under 500 this year yeah i'm with you i mean if they go eight and nine you'd have to question what the vision is there they have their quarterback um they got the sloan award for the greatest trade of last season to bring in dandre hopkins and they got j j wad i know it's not the version of j j wott from half a decade ago wasn't the sloan award either i just want to make sure we got the right it was from the alpha award it was from the sloan conference

yes the sloan conference alpha award for best sports transaction of the year so the sloonies no i i was more surprised by the nfc west totals than any other um especially the rams and the 49ers having the same total as the packers and the bills for instance i don't that's a lot of lot of eye in there. That's a lot of projection. And I like what the Rams have done the last few years and I like the Matthew Stafford move. But I don't know. You got to see it. And then the 49ers especially, let's be real. Kyle Shanan said one. I know the injuries have been crazy, but they've only had one season over 500. So they're putting up their high without really any clarity of the quarterback situation and a little concern that, you know, you're asking a lot out of a rookie potentially. I think they're shown a lot of faith in Sean McVe, a lot of faith in Kyle Shanahan, which wouldn't surprise me from from PFF. but the Niners, like, last year probably would have been a wild card team if they weren't ravaged by injuries. But I will say this, that there is a lot of projecting the Niners doing X, Y, and Z, and I do a lot of it because of Shanahan, like, if you get to a healthy quarterback for the full season

and they don't make the playoffs, you'd have to look at what's happened with the Niners in San Francisco and say you'd expect a little more from Kyle Shanahan. So I think it's an important, very important season. If they go less than 10, you're in trouble. I'm ripping off a half win from Rams and Niners and giving it all to the Cardinals. So I'll put them at 10. Seahawks at nine and a half.

They deserve to get a little more respect for what they've done over the last 12 years or so. And the Cardinals chill there at eight. I'm not very high on that team. Even though they did win the Jumbo Award. Excuse me, the Alpha Award. I mean, Cliff gets a lot of heat for... Give us that Cyclops!

They have improved their win total. significantly in each of his seasons. And even eight wins would be, what, another? He took over a very bad team. No, but it's okay. They're okay. You don't have to fire everyone. Yeah, give us that Cyclops.

Maybe we'll do like a live, like when they're announcing the award. We'll go on live on Instagram or something. If we win that. Or right after to say how mad we are or to how happy we are. Either way. Either way. Give me the Klops. Well, why were we not invited to the event?

I mean, any gala award banquet type scenario, We'd be at a round table. It would be us and probably, you know, some other podcast types. You weren't invited? No. So you, okay. Yeah, Dan and I got this. So you guys are going to do your live Instagram from the event while I'm at my house.

Yoich. Someone, a shadowy league figure, emailed me late last week, said they were entertained by our general approach and reaction to our award nomination. And to that I say, don't miscarobey. construe where I'm coming from. I want that cyclops and I want it bad. And if I don't get it, uh, there's going to be hell to pay. Maybe some vengeance will be declared. I don't know. I hope it doesn't get to that. I mean, I look at our competition and I respect everyone because I know how hard it is to put

together a quality program. But you can't say anybody else deserves the cyclops this year. Well, what if we lost a mad dog? I mean, that's like a childhood hero of ours. It feels, I mean, didn't he win like 17 Marcones during his mic of the mad? Mad Dog Run? Can we calm down with that? I love Chris. And Dan's done the work. He's listened to extensive back catalogs of all these podcasts. Like, you know, golfing, golfing Joe, wrestling, Bob. And, you know, he's been If we lose to a golf podcast, it would be time for some deep introspection. Right. Who is talking, who is listening to a goal? I mean, you know what? I'm probably going to get like,

I listen to it. It's like, it's like. I know, but to sit and chat about it, like on a, is it a three times a week grinding through the golf campaign? Ask Brinson. Will's Twitter feed was like a live stream of his thoughts about the golf tournament. People love it. I try to, like, I'm trying to improve myself as a person enough that, like, I don't judge people for liking golf.

Because it's, after this pandemic, everyone should just do whatever you enjoy. Go be there. But I haven't quite gotten there yet. I don't. Greg is coming at me to some degree by it. I do judge them a little bit. I believe this podcast was as well. I believe this podcast had a bit of a defiant anti-golf streak to it in past years.

I would say that. Not myself, but some of the other members of the show. Hey, I worked at multiple golf courses. I know. We heard that. You were a cat. I liked playing, but the whole thing. I did too, Greg, and I formed my opinions off of that, you know, carrying like two giant golf bags up and down huge hills and making $8 for the entire.

like 18 holes in 1989 or something, absurd job. Erica, I'm just continuing the podcast right now just because you didn't jump in soon enough about the Drew Barrymore conversation. It's a penalty to you. Oh, there we go. Now we're all covered. Thank you for that.

Golf sucks. All right. And Will Brinson, if you're listening, I'm sorry. I thought you had to hear that. We love Will. It's the sport that he's a fan of. Will, of course, of CBS fame. We will be back on Thursday with another show.

So make sure you check that out. And then Friday, the NFL network program returns. We had a nice show this past week. We did some ATN Jeopardy. Ricky Hollywood came out on top. Nice job, nice performance by Erica there. Greg did not even make it to Final Jeopardy. You have to be, have positive cash earnings after.

Double Jeopardy to qualify for Final Jeopardy. And unfortunately, Greg was sitting at a goose egg eliminating him from the competition. He was not happy about it. And he kind of hit out at me, which felt unfair because all I was was the host. Sometimes, though, it's not about who won the title. Like, I was the audience's favorite. You know, it's like sometimes the actor that doesn't win the Oscar, that's the performance that everyone remembers years from now.

I saw you kind of as the Kevin James of that particular segment. The Greg German. I can't believe Greg German was disgusted today's show. All right, that's it. Good stuff. Dan Anza signing off for Quiet Storm, the old boss, Ricky Hollywood, behind the virtual glass. Until Thursday. Keep the call!

I mean, people didn't even know Greg German when Ali McBeal was on the air. No, he had good pop back then. He would stop. He didn't know his name. I didn't know his name, but I knew exactly who he was. I do. I watch the L.A. McPhil regularly, I would say, at least for a few seasons. Yep. It was, it was, it was a pretty good show. I'll defend it. I'll defend it. I think it fell off the cliff pretty quick, but it was kind of fun for a while. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you.

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