NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Chaos Theory: NFL Pen Pals & "My Guy" for the 2023 Draft

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

A room filled with a chaotic collection of heroes - Marc Sessler, Colleen Wolfe and Patrick Claybon react to the latest news from around the league, starting with the report that the Patriots could be shopping Mac Jones (4:44). The Ravens reportedly have an offer out to Odell Beckham Jr. (12:36), and the Titans are a potential team to watch to trade for the 3rd overall pick (14:45). The heroes quickly discuss Lane Zierlein's chaotic Mock Draft 3.0 (18:28) before hitting Odds and Ends (24:22). Then, each of the heroes assumes the identity of an NFL persona writing a letter to their NFL pen pal (27:56). After that, the heroes go around claiming a 2023 NFL Draft prospect as "their guy" (39:00). Note: timecodes approximate.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. You're listening to Garden Gorgeous. Getting to the root of horticulture culture with your host, Mark Sessler. It's a show for those who garden, by those who garden. I am joined as always by my fellow co-host, Colleen Wolf and Patrick Claibon, two of Southern California's premier G-thumbs. That's what we call green thumbs around here. Welcome, guys.

It's so great to be here. Good, as always, growing into the future with you, Mark. I want to dive right into it, Colleen. You know, the rain that we have received in the L.A. area over the past couple of weeks has been out of control, correct? And I just would ask, you know, I know your particular garden, the succulents, the various varieties of flowers that don't do well in an abundance of rain. How have you survived this era?

Well, I'll tell you what, a lot of my cactuses have not survived this rain. And if you told me last year it was going to rain this much, I would have been like, you're lying at this point. My fiddily fig has some type of fungal infection because of all of the... Do you know what I could do for that? All of the sitting water? I wish I did. The Around the NFL podcast.

Chaos praise. All right, from the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio. It's Around the NFL. I am Mark Sessler, joined by some heroes. Patrick Claibon, Colleen Wolfe, satellite heroes. Satellite heroes have landed. These are the real heroes. We are so excited about this combo.

It's never been done before. It's never been done. It is essentially a podcast combo scoreagami. Dan and Greg both on vacation. Hope they're having a great time. We have no idea how this will go. It is odd to me that I am in theory hosting a show with two people who have hosted roughly about a thousand shows on it.

It makes no sense. It's not odd to us. It is a very strange thing. But we did get a little bit of news today, which was unlike our last show, which we just deep six news. So we'll get to some of that. We have a special segment coming up.

I think that's also never been done. It's called NFL Pen Pals. Oh, my God. Also, never been done before getting a rundown of the show in such detailed fashion so ahead of time. I almost drove off the road when I saw it. Mark's underselling his ability as a host and a producer, a schedule maker.

This has all come to. together like this, you've got it. We're two minutes in, you got it. I have extreme OCD, especially so a day like yesterday, which was a sort of an off day to some degree. It's like I don't do anything well until we get the details out. So it was really just selfish. Our brains are very aligned.

I think so. Very much locked in. I think so when I saw it, I could not. I mean, I threw myself a party and then I never gave you guys my answers, but at least I knew what we got them eventually. We got them eventually. We also were going to do it because we're We're also a bit Machiavellian with the stage within set today.

We are going to do a My Guy draft edition, minus all these six-week, eight-week office business about it getting approved by someone. We're going to each pick someone from this draft, and it's simply our guy from going forward, rise or fall with him. So we'll see how this goes. That's great. Have you picked someone, Colleen for it? I finally have narrowed down my list. I have quite a few, but I have now one number one guy. And it happened.

I do know that you did. and you pick someone who has, there are multiple people with the same name in the draft who you picked. It's like, yeah, it's akin to like the two Lamar Jackson's that we have in the league right now. It would have really been something

for us to not talk about it beforehand and then out of 743 participants picked the same guy. It would have been great. That would be our way. I don't know. Gravedigger. Hey.

Oh, hold, no, come on. I'm not letting you get away with that. Graveigger. I think you just do that on purpose at this point. Sometimes it's like, I know it's going to take me a second to get to the drop, so I start talking, so there's not just, like, silence. Oh, that's good.

That's smart. You've had, like, 70 or 80 reps on this, but I understand it's great to have you with us as well. We're going to need you a little bit today to chime in. He has a great Shawneck on today. It's a nice. Is that what that's called? Yeah, it's a very nice sweater.

I've never heard that term. I always just called it a cardigan, but thank you. Yeah. I appreciate it. Let's do some news. How about that? Mr. Kisicki, do you think you've done enough to improve the offense for this season? Well, we'll see.

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like we've been doing, we've done almost 1,500 episodes of this show. And I think for the first, like, 1,400, the Patriots just sat on their little chair up above all of us, telling us how football teams are run, how organizations, you know, it's like Bill Belichick is used in, like, common business tactics, because of the way that he orchestrated one Super Bowl championship after the next. It feels like a little bit of chaos is starting to dip into all of it. And there are these creeping reports.

A couple things happened here since our last show. Tom Curran, friend of the show from NBC Sports, went on air basically and talked about the fact that Belichick has been essentially agitated with Mack Jones for seeking outside help last season. He's annoyed now. He's annoyed now. And for that and sort of all the Mac Jones, you know, a lot of times in prime time, the meltdowns.

And now there was a report from pro football talks, Mike Floreo, that the Patriots are actually looking to shop Mack Jones, that this, I guess, is Bill Belichick behind the scenes, talking to a couple of different teams, the Raiders, the Texans, the Bucks, the commanders. Colleen, how do you take all of this? Where are you with this? So, well, as soon as you were talking about the Patriots being in their mighty chair above everyone else, like, you know, they've been in the power chair, which you are in today

and filling in nicely. Like, we haven't really addressed the power chair and the dynamics. You're in a totally different seat, so the logistics are all different at this point. I think the more that we mention that I'm doing well at it, it starts to feel like that's probably not the case, but I'm just going to ride with it. And see, there's the modesty. Another chance to succeed in a spot in a power move where the power is the grace that you put into it, Mark.

And it's just, it's going so well. You are graceful. Okay. So anyway. Okay. So, yes, there was this report. And Tom Curran, what he was on, W.E.E.I. Yes.

And talked about how Mack Jones, obviously, was not happy with the coaching situation last year. And so he sought outside help. And going outside of the Patriots organization is not something. that is celebrated, I would imagine, by Bill Belichick. And it is something that is seen as disloyal. And I would think, judging by Bill Belichick and every single soundbite we get from him, that is something that is going to annoy him to an extreme level. And I wonder if now that we're hearing these reports that Mac Jones might be shopped around,

is it all stemming from that? is he kind of just letting it fester and now he just decided that this is this is it and that was the breaking point for them because even yesterday in lance surline's mock draft lance had the patriots taking anthony richardson which would be an extreme pairing and i think we'll get to lance's mock draft coming up a little bit in the show but that was the first time that i kind of thought about Mac Jones really being out if you're starting to get some rumors like this and mock drafts or mocking certain quarterbacks there because at that point they're getting a guy that is extremely inexperienced with the most experienced head coach in the NFL arguably right now

and you would think that you could get like a Lamar Jackson maybe a known commodity but instead going here with Anthony Richardson would be a choice for them. And this would be really interesting if they really did send Mac Jones away. I think, like, there's so many different ways to take. Of course, Tom Curran's report makes perfect sense. Like, Bill Belichick sat there and watched Alex Guerrero do all of these things with his quarterback for decades. And there was clear frustration at that point. And Bill, like, as indicated by the way he responds to questions, he's not, like, secretive about voicing his frustration.

It makes perfect sense. But the thing is, we watch this Patriots tree, familiarity is seemingly all they care about. Like Josh McDaniels is signing the same guys all the time. Like Bill Belichick is looking for the same coaches to come back despite the lack of success that they've had in other spots and all the turmoil and other things there. I just wonder if Belichick's conversations about Mac Jones are like literally every other conversation that happens at the Combine. And it's like, hey, you know, what do you think of Mac? oh and then they don't get the offers that they want and it all just goes away but like to me like them being frustrated about being historically bad on offense and like not necessarily knowing who was

calling plays or like what the actual system was that that makes perfect sense to me but like looking at florio's report and Mike you know he likes to hedge sometimes and it's like a source close to the situation tells us that he's been shopped but he can't tell us who all of the teams are it's like well why did why did you stop talking to the source at that point like shouldn't you have a few more I just wonder, like, who the source is, too, because two of the teams mentioned, the Raiders and Texans are, like, bathed in ex-patriots employees. So, or is it, like, usually there's this cone of silence around anything the Patriots do? It's, like, suddenly they traded a big player or acquired someone.

You don't hear a lot of whispers around New England in general. Like, is this the rare time where, like, New England's floating it? I mean, that seems atypical to me. I don't know why Belichick would do that, but someone's talking to someone about this. And I'm just intrigued in, like, who. the sources. Oh, I wonder. Did you watch a game on Monday?

Perfect. I do wonder, that would be interesting, if Belichick himself was the source. And after a year very down for the Patriots in a changing division with a sort of uncharted territory for Bill Belichick to be in, maybe now he's playing all of these roles that he wouldn't have before. Yeah, he's like, hey, guys, you know, I don't necessarily talk to you guys. so let me call up Mike Floreo, a pro football talk. Yeah, I mean, it becomes a little surreal. I mean, I think in sort of an adjoining scenario, Brian Hoyer, there were whispers that Brian Hoyer

after being such a, you know, a patriot sort of top of the student, head of the class type of guy who got, I think had four different stints in New England or something. He's now signed with the Raiders. It seems like Brian Hoyer kind of ran into the final stages with Bill Belichick's patients as well. I mean, it's like, I think that, Hoyer last year sort of sided maybe with Mac Jones a little bit on a super frustrating

situation because Matt Jones to me, it's like no matter what happens, he got to complete mulligan for next season, but I still look at them and think they've got the worst quarterback in the AFC East. Yeah. And Hoyer, in that report, Curran said that Hoyer anticipated being back in New England. And Hoyer was vocal about the situation that Mac Jones was in every single week last year. So maybe that is a reason why they didn't end up bringing him back. And maybe Bailey Zappy had a little bit of something to do with that. There was that little bit of, there was that moment, right?

Remember when even the crowd in Gillette was like, yeah, Bailey Zappy, this is it. How could I forget? They were into him. And then minutes later, it's like, oh, God, that was a mistake. Terrible. We're very sorry that all this happened. But I think that little bit, despite how loyal Bill and that organization are to people who continue to come back, it's like, okay, the time has come, Brian.

It's not really there. It's never really been there. but we're going to roll Bailey now. All right. In other news, the Ravens reportedly have made an offer to Odell Beckham. Now, I do feel like I know where these reports are coming from. I mean, because this is strange. It's also, I think, if there's any other team out there that probably is an interest in Odell,

we know it's the Jets. But what are the Ravens doing? How would Odell Beckham or any receiver make a decision to go to Baltimore right now when you don't know what's going out with Lamar Jackson? But is it the Ravens maybe trying to say, hey, Lamar, like we're trying to find these guys that could elevate you, help you out. What do you think, Patrick? I think the best thing to do if you wanted Lamar, if you want Lamar to be interested would be to come up from three years, $133 million.

Like, that's the clear example. If they wanted to do that, my contention has been for a long time that the Ravens aren't interested in paying Lamar Jackson to be the quarterback. And Lamar has gone public in saying that that's the way he views things. I think this may just be looking at the talent on the roster, looking at what they need, the fact that they've, They've gone in a new direction. Todd Manken is here. It's like, let's just try to get some talent. We'll put an offer out there, kind of try to see where O'Dell stands.

I think it's a good sign. I would like it more if they had paid the quarterback a couple of years ago or literally right now. But it makes sense. Like we saw what O'Dell could do in Los Angeles. Clearly, the injury hurts, but he was on his way to potentially being a Super Bowl MVP. I think it's worth making an offer just standardly. And this could also be the Ravens Prepared. for potentially a rookie quarterback coming in and bringing a new weapon to set up

said rookie quarterback for success. If they do end up figuring out a deal for Lamar, whether they trade the cults for Lamar and, you know, jump up. And I don't know. There's a bunch of different ways that they could do it. But I could see that making some sense of bringing in someone who's inexperienced and making sure they have some playmakers. around that. I think O'Dell Beckham has been shopping his services for like four years at this point. Someone somewhere is going to want to do it.

The Rams have had showed interest. That makes the least amount of sense to me. I don't think that one's happening. All right, from our own little headquarters here, a little news story from Daniel Jeremiah. He didn't report this. Like on his podcast, though, he talked about the fact that the Titans to keep an eye on Tennessee as a team that might want to jump up to the number three spot. And I think that, you know, when you're doing these mock drafts, we had DJ on a week

go, and he talked about, these things are crafted by hearing certain things. And Tennessee, the idea they're just going to stay on Pat with what they have, maybe not the case. Grave-digger, do you want to comment on this first? Yeah, so I think that there's definitely validity to the idea that Titans are looking to trade up to three. A couple months ago, maybe not that long ago, there were reports that they were in the mix to trade up to one with Chicago.

And I don't know how much you can take the, there's random Twitter people saying that, but then the Bears did move the pick. and somebody who reported that the two teams were the Titans and the Panthers, and then three days later, the Panthers traded for the pick. So I do think there's some truth to this. And you look at who the Titans have been meeting and pro days they've been visiting. They have spent time with all five of these top quarterback prospects, significant amounts of time. And to me, that means that they are definitely looking into it.

It doesn't mean they're definitely going to do it. But I think it's definitely a possibility. And, you know, DJ said that he's been told by people around the league to watch for the Titans, right? So this is what other teams trying to come up with their own mock drafts and figure out how this night's going to play out thinking like Tennessee could be the team

that comes up to three. I don't know if that's dot connecting because Tana Hills getting older, they might need a quarterback of the future and they have met with all these quarterbacks or if there's more substantial rumor to it, but it's interesting. Tana Hills is on the last year of his contract.

So who knows if this is Arizona sending out these men, messages for people to jump up, but if there is a quarterback that the Titans love, and let's say, I mean, who knows what happens with the Texans at two, but if D'Amico Ryans is like in love with a defensive player and okay with one of the not two quarterbacks, not Bryce Young, not C.J. Stroud, like maybe that's when the Titans jump up and take whoever they have there. And, you know, even if it is a Will Levis or an Anthony Richardson, guys that need a little bit more time,

if you have Ryan Tannahill still on one year, he can sit and do the traditional weight. And I know, obviously, if you're trading up to get a quarterback and it's a very, very high pick, people are going to want to see him right away. But also these guys, we know they're raw, we know they need time. And that could be a nice situation.

But you have to be comfortable with the third quarterback in the draft. And I think so. Unless Stroud drops for some crazy reason. And three, it gets you ahead of Indianapolis. You know Indianapolis would like a quarterback in some means. And so it gives you that power, despite how you feel about Richardson or Levis, you get to dictate the remainder of the draft for everybody who's interested in one of those first round quarterbacks. And you can make a choice.

And it makes perfect sense for Arizona to not just have conversations with Tennessee, but literally everybody in the rest of the league. because there's just no value there for them in a quarterback. They have Kyler. Kyler's going to be back. It's not like they're going to draft somebody in the top three for five months of quarterback play. So they should be having these discussions with everybody.

And it just makes sense. Like you go down through. Atlanta says they're fine. The Bears are clearly fine at quarterback. The Raiders won a quarterback. Does Detroit make a decision? Does Seattle look towards the future? Like, if you can get ahead of all those teams, then you're in a better position than you

were before. And that does bring us to Lance. Zerling's mock draft, which I kind of, I love Lance because he's the guy that there is a bit of a code to be, you have to wear a tie now on NFL network versus, well, that was out there. I mean, at least I've, I got, saw it in an email. We're going, we're going tie on path. Wait, this is new? There's been a new memo sent out?

I just, I just know, we previously had no tie and now we have ties. Yeah, and Lance sort of continues to issue the rules. He doesn't seem to care about this, that rule at all. So he's in my wheelhouse on that front. The mock draft, it has to be one of the more chaotic mock drafts we've seen. Because he has Bryce Young going to Carolina. That's not that crazy, although C.J. Stroud has been whispered about it a little more heavily there. But then at number two, and Lance Syrian is from Houston.

He's down there on radio every day. He knows a lot of people. He has the Texans going Tyree Wilson, Edd from Texas Tech, and just skipping quarterback at that position altogether. Right. So he has Tyree. First of all, like not having a quarterback there seems wild to me. and Bryce Young going over C.J. Stroud is super interesting going to Carolina. But then to have Tyree Wilson over Will Anderson Jr. is also a choice that a lot of people would disagree on

because they think that Will Anderson Jr. is the better edge player and the better defender. And like there was also so many crazy trades in his draft too. It was a fun draft, though. It was not a basic draft. No, at number four, because that's to talk about what happens at number four, suddenly you're staring at the Baltimore Ravens who send Lamar Jackson to the cults, and in result, Baltimore gets C.J. Stroud. There's a lot happening in this mock draft. And Lance said two days before this draft came out, like, hey, people are going to be mad at this mock draft.

But there's so many possible permutations, and this is one way it could play out, because he has the Texans coming back and getting Will Levis. And if they've looked at C.J. Stroud and said, well, the preemptions, premium's not necessarily there. We would like Bryce. The Panthers want Bryce. That's what they trade it up for. If they evaluate Will Levis and say, hey, Bobby, you've seen all these quarterbacks have success within this Shanahan tree.

Like, could Will Levis do that? If they feel that way and they can get the value, I've clearly, like, to me, and I'm not some draft Nick, I've watched Will Anderson's productions since he was a freshman. That's a bit of a stretch to me to say like, oh, yeah, we would like traits over production when the production has been. like that for so long. But we saw Cleland Farrell go on the top five. I mean, these things happen. It's like when Trayvon Walker went over Aiden Hutchinson last year. That, you know, that buzz really ramped up as we got closer and closer to the draft. And Tyree Wilson has a lot of, you know, he's athletically similar to Trayvon Walker. And Will Anderson,

production-wise, is pretty similar to Aiden Hutchinson. And we saw, you know, the Jags decide to take the athletic freak over the productive player. And that's Trent Balky's thing, too. He always loves, like, to take the gamble on a guy that's more athletic. Another thing I thought that was interesting, and we sort of touched on it before with Lance's mock, is Lamar Jackson being traded to Indianapolis and then thinking what that fit would be like. It's kind of a fun game that we've all played over and over and over again, so it's becoming

less fun, but what Lamar Jackson would look like in certain offenses. And I did find this one quite interesting because Shane Steichen, as the head coach had dealt with Jalen Hertz before in Philadelphia, same style of quarterback. So just to see Shane Steichen and Lamar Jackson work together. And you have Jonathan Taylor. A lot of your key pieces there are in their prime. So you need to get someone now if you want to make it work for Indianapolis.

And you got to be, if you're Frank Reich, I mean, you're going to have your own quarterback, but you're like, I just did this the last five years in Indianapolis with a bunch of ham and eggers. And now I leave and the new guy gets Lamar Jackson. sounds a little absurd yeah it is and he should but there was so much it was a whole lot of clarity and honesty and frank rick has been in the league for so long at his news conference and he says well you know the question what went wrong and he's like i don't have a problem answering that

like we were able to run the ball we had great line play and we couldn't get it done and now here comes a guy who's instantly going to improve the run game purely by being on the field like lamar doesn't have to do anything for the run game to get better he could just turn the and hand the ball off and it can be improved and I think whoever the offensive coordinator is Lamar Jackson's next job it's not going to be Greg Roman like there's going to be differences we're not going to have a 300 that feels safe yeah 320 pound guy is not going to be running dig routes anymore so it's it's clearly going to look different and I just think get guys open like get guys open and snap the ball to Lamar and I think everything is going to be fine because otherwise what is

their choice at quarterback what are they going to do because they're going to miss out on the top guys in the draft. They really haven't done anything in free agency. They're coming off a season where they won four games. So this is the only way that they can really have a solution to the problem. Seems like the obvious choice. Did you see the report from the athletic today, or sorry, Wednesday morning? Jim Ursay wants to draft a quarterback.

Colts owner, quote, deep down, prefers to find the next quarterback in the draft. Sure, of course. Everybody, every owner, every GM, every coach. which would love a rookie quarterback because that rookie quarterback money allows you to build a team. Of course, they all want to find the gem in the class, but how are they going to get there? Yeah, it's great to want things, but Lamar Jackson is 26 years old. Like, it's not, you could have Lamar can see if it'll be your quarterback for the next 13 years if you wanted to. Yeah, I mean, I would be outside of Lamar, I'd be a little concerned about Chris Ballard selecting another veteran quarterback at this point.

I feel like that's happened a lot. Fair. All right. Colleen, we have to do this to you. At this point, I feel like this used to be a fun exercise, but we're going to dip into some odds and ends. Would you mind doing the latest incarnation of what's become a psychotic ditty? I don't know if I have another key to give you guys, but... We'll try.

Okay. Odds and ends. Odds and ends. Hey, everybody, tell your friends. It's odds and ends? I think you nailed it. That was perfect. The aura of that song has turned dark. All right, let's go with the other song.

There we go. All right, from Pellraiser, Tom Pellisero. Dalvin Cook is making excellent progress in his recovery. Patrick, do you care? I do care because I think Dalvin's a good football player. I want running backs to be healthy. How about this out of Denver, Colleen? Tim Patrick on Steve Smith's Cut to It podcast.

Everyone has a show at this point. He's clear to do everything post-ACL tear. Yes, I love it. I was at training camp last year. I'm a huge Tim Patrick guy. I was so upset with the ACL tear that was supposed to be his breakout season last year. This will be his season.

All right. And out of Ohio, Joe Burrow, now tops reigning champ Fiona the Hippo as the voted in Best Cincinnati. Patrick, do you care? I do care because there's so many incredible people. Silent film actors, Theodore Bada, is from Cincinnati.

Andy Blockenburton, a dancer and choreographer, Ron Bomer. There's so many great people from Cincinnati. I'm definitely not reading this off of Wikipedia. I'm like, how? What is happening? I'm also a human is lost to an animal five years in a row.

That hippo was on a five-year winning street. Mark, if you were an animal, what would you be? A bird, I think. I mean, that sounds very cliche, but it's the person. No, just, you know, there's lots of different choices. Yeah, fly maybe out of here. My initials are call, so it makes sense. That does.

Mine are mess, so that also makes sense. Mine are polk. How about this last little bit? I grew up a Browns fan and John Elway tortured my youth. And then he came back and brought the Broncos new Super Bowls and all this other business. He is officially out of business with the Broncos. His contract has run up.

And I don't know what else we can do other than to bid farewell with another one of our songs that we've created on this show. This one's for John. This one's for John. This one's for John. This song's for John. John. This one's for John, and that one's for John.

Also, this one's for John, and all right, that one's for John. Come to think of it, this one's for John, and also that one's for John. I mean, that's from the great low, Sid, though, if he has a, you know, his going away press conference if that occurs, why is that not the, intro and outro music. It should be. Is he going to, are they going to give him one? A press conference? I mean, I feel like he's had 75 of those, but

walk-up music for it? I'm going to start playing that at my house. That was really soothing. That was really nice. It was really nice. All right, now we're going to take a quick break, and then we will come back. Hey, this is Matt Jones.

I'm Drew Franklin, and this is NFL cover zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining.

And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. All right That was a really incredible break We just took so much occurred during it When you take these breaks

You really get a chance to Go backstage, hang out I don't think people realize that Just the reset Yeah, healed Truly an organic human moment for us Now we are going to do something called NFL pen pals

And the conceit is essentially And I know a lot of times we do these segments Colleen and we leave you off a cliff Where you come in and like What is the second about This felt pretty straightforward I thought This is good. I can't mess this up.

Yeah, I didn't get too many follow-up questions from you. You basically take the role of an NFL player, character, GM figure, and just like, I don't know if you ever had a, did you ever have a pen pal, Patrick? I did, too. My handwriting is catastrophically bad, so no. It never worked out in the letter thing. That's why? Because you had bad handwriting?

Nobody would be able to read it. But Instant Messenger? I was your guy. What was your name? What was your screen name? It was Pac-Doo 52. It was my basketball number and Pac-Doo as if I blocked a shot because I was. You know, 13.

I love that. Mine was Malibu 420. But this was post. As a child. As a child. Did you actually have like a written pen pal? I feel like I'm really high. That's a drop.

Everyone should know this. Sometimes when I'm listening, I honestly don't know if it's a drop or not. I had an actual pen pal that I met on a train. Who? What was like? Could you describe the person? I think her name was Julie. And we messaged and wrote physical letters.

to each other for many years and she was like really cool and really sweet and I like really looked up to her and then all of a sudden she didn't answer and she was gone and I lost her forever she's just like a friend you've never like you know her last name and stuff you weren't able to relocate her online I feel like that would be the next move I just can't remember a lot of details about her now and I think in the moment I felt like sort of upset that I had been broken up with by her for some reason she had ghosted me it was the first time I had been ghosted Julie, if you can hear us. I'm sorry, Julie, whatever I did.

I feel like AOL, you could get heartbroken on AOL too. Oh, easily. Yeah. Did you have a screen name, Mark? I, you know, I skipped the AOL thing for, I don't know how. It's just like, my dad worked for this side AOL company called Prodigy, which I think Oh, yeah. Come on now.

I wrote to a few people on Prodigy here and there. I don't, not to the level of Julie on a train, but there were some individuals. But that's the case here. In this case, it's sort of like you get a chance to be someone to write a letter where you're just confessional. You know, we're dropping you in mid-relationship. And why don't we start Patrick with you? Okay. Mine is from Mack Jones to Matt Patricia.

Hey, Matt. I just wanted to reach out to you in light of recent speculation regarding my relationship with Coach Belichick. And to let you know that there's absolutely no ill will between me and coach. It's you that I hate. When Malcolm Butler pulled me aside last year and said he got benched in the Super Bowl because you two had beef, I thought to myself, no, that's preposterous. No one would undermine themselves on the world's biggest stage, only to see Nick Foles throw for 373 yards and three scores against you, but clearly I underestimated you.

In Tuscaloosa, I watched Jalen and Tuba go on the field before me, and I returned to my ancestral home of Jacksonville, Florida, and had a vision. I would never be benched again, only to see you run Bailey's Sappy out there on a mission to run your catastrophic offense. I'm not surprised by the reports that I was frustrated after regressing in almost every statistical category. They also could have reported that I have 10 fingers and 10 toes and there's 50 million nucleotide pairs in my DNA.

What I am surprised by is the commitment to you by coach. He was just asked if you would be back with the team and said he wasn't sure. Here's one thing I'm sure of, coach. If you're back, be ready to fight me. This isn't a metaphor. I will physically strike you. Render you unconscious and remove you from the premises as if you were a Detroit beat reporter

who ran a file of your dress code. You limited my capacity to throw touchdowns, but I promise I can throw these hands. Hatefully, Mac. So good. So a threat, so a threat letter. A promise. Yeah, I don't know.

Is that one where they're writing back and forth the number of times? It feels like that was sort of a one-time school. Did you cut out letters from a magazine? Like a ransom note? Mac might go Julie after that. Yeah, Mike's going to, he just may not respond. That's fair.

That felt cathartic, because I think we've all felt, like, frustrated for Mac Jones, and when he's going nuts, like, coming off the field onto the sideline, it's like, I feel this guy. Like, what's he allowed to do? What's he allowed to say? We need to bring back pen pals. Like, I have a friend that lives in San Diego, and he'll just send us postcards from random spots all the time, and I love it.

I love getting physical mail. I'm so old. I am an 80-year-old in this body. That friend sounds slightly, I feel like we need more details. It's Dentino. Have you met Dentino? You probably have. You guys have met him.

Okay. Dentino sending postcards. Yes. Okay. That was good. I like that one. Oh, thank you. Good start.

Do you want to follow up? All right, here we go. So this letter is to Dan Quinn, Cowboys defensive coordinator, from Mike McCarthy. Oh. Okay. Here we go. Hey, Dan. DQ, Mr. Quintessential.

What's good? MMC here, just hitting you up in a super cash way. I know we'll see each other in the office soon, but don't you think we need a wide receiver? We don't have enough offense. It's looking a little suss, and Jerry just keeps showing up at my front door with photos of Tom Landry.

Is that good or bad? We just got rid of my favorite tight end, Dalton Schultz, and I like Brandon Cooks, but look at you in your defense. You have Micah Parsons. I would love to have Michael Parsons on offense. I love C.D. Lamb. I think I need two CD Lambs.

Can you believe I almost beat Philly last year with that super team? And what I did with Cooper Rush, do you think people noticed that at all? Maybe. Can you imagine losing Michael Parsons and still competing? What I did, do people talk about it, by the way, at all? I mean, people should really have, people should have talked about it. We went four and one with Coop. I sure hope Dak can stay healthy this year.

Do you think the offensive line will be okay, Dan? How do you think Jerry will like my offense? Do you think Jerry likes me? Don't you think he'll like it a lot more my offense with a wide receiver? Okay, Bet, signed your boy, MMC. Brilliant. Wow, I feel like we, I did not know Mike McCarthy this way before. I understand a whole lot more about Mike McCarthy.

through the way that he views not just his boss but his co-worker the guy that's allegedly working for him. Yeah. Does he realize he's in charge? Yeah, I think he's working through some things and you can tell that he's looking for some validation maybe there's some insecurities there his first time in a while calling plays is coming up

so I'm sure that that is probably an anxiety in the back of his mind and Dan Quinn seems very confident, very able in his position and he has a group of stars on that defense. So I can sense just some, you know, some stress coming from Mike McCarthy. There's a lot of people out there dealing with imposter syndrome. And I think despite the generation of the... I am Mike McCarthy.

Oh, Zaddy, you're so extra. Famously Zaddy, Mike McCarthy, despite what C.D. says. I think you mentioned imposter syndrome, like, when I went to one of your parties, it was like the third thing you mentioned me. like the third sentence. I was like, I relate to that, I think. Well, you know who, the first time I ever heard about imposter syndrome, Joe Thomas was telling me about it.

And Joe Thomas was telling me how he had imposter syndrome and how so many of the players that he played with had it as well and so many of his friends in the league. And so I was like, I'm sorry, what? Tell me more. Go on, what is this? And I'm like, oh, my God, I have it. I didn't know this was a thing that other people had.

I feel like the Browns might have had something to do with the Joe Thomas part of it, But that is stunning to me, because you would not think that at all. All right, I will offer a third letter. I can't wait. This is a letter from Cliff Kingsbury, stationed in Thailand to Kyler Murray, his ex-quarterback. Kyler, hello again from Thailand. You didn't respond to my last letter. Have you been over to water my plants?

I only asked because that one fern in the den, comes an absolute disaster if it isn't tended to every four to five days. If you can't make it over, please have Rondale Moore swing by. He's helped before and knows the door code. Secondly, have you considered my invitation? Zero response from you. Don't hide away. Veronica and I demand that you visit.

Our hut has Wi-Fi. We're in the beating heart of the Golden Triangle, opium country. Kyler, nobody here talks about the cover two shell. By the way, your name came up at breakfast. We've met this couple from America. The guy is Bernie, the girl is Susie. Bernie is this failed author who won an Audi on the Price is Right. He turned around, sold the vehicle on the dark web, and bought a ticket to Bangkok.

Anyway, your name came up because Susie is some sort of super-seleb on that Twitch site you're into. She banks about 4K a month, live gaming, eating lollipops, and talking to dudes from Ohio. These are your people. During breakfast, I got a text from Bill Belichick. You ever coming back, he asked. Someday you'll buy that one-way ticket, too, I wrote back. Kyler, I know we have had our ups and downs, but I want you to know something. Last season is nothing more than a sheet blowing gently in the wind on a clothesline over the hillside in a gentle rain.

You are my friend, Cliff. Why are you not writing fiction? Like, why are you doing this? You have such a gift. I feel like I'm living out. How did you develop four characters in the two minutes? I think like... We could get fleshed out.

Like Bernie and Susie are... I'm rooting for... You know, one thing I learned about what I have respect for Dengis, I was, like, coming up with this, like, eight minutes before the show started, and I had, like, eight different names, and they were all the wrong names. So it needed a proof.

I'm glad I approved it. I like the sound of a hut with Wi-Fi, by the way, too. So I actually looked up where I think, like, someone like Cliff Kingsbury would stay, and they had these super luxury huts. that are waterproof to start. But Wi-Fi, talked about, like, white linen robes. So I'm sure he's, I don't know if he's still there.

I actually tried to look and see if he was still there. There wasn't concrete evidence of where he was. When you're in the heart of opium country, you can be anywhere. Yeah. That's a great way to. Life is a metaphor. Yeah, that golden triangles had some problems there. I'm picturing a glass bottom hut.

Like, so you can see all the fish and the coral and everything underneath. Yeah. I love that. All right. Now we're going to take a quick break. and then we will come back. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin.

And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get.

Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the I Heart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. All right. Now, before we get out of here, we're going to quickly go around. We've had this thing, my guy, for a long time. I don't think I had it.

I picked up Tyler Algier, like, through a lot of red tape at the end of the season. But Greg had roughly 12 of them. Dan maybe. Tyler Algae here. He is officially your guy That's how that process went But this time around we've got the draft And we're even letting Gravedigger get a guy

You're going to pick someone that you just want to back Tell us why briefly And we're just greenlighting it right now This is your guy, Gravedigger, you go first I'm going first All right, my guy is a big 12 pass rusher Who has a lot of bend He's probably not maybe a late first round guy

not exactly a first round guy, but I'm going with Will MacDonald the fourth. I think that he's one of the bendiest pass rushers in this draft class, the way he can turn the corner. He's got a great dip move, a great rip move. He's really technically sound with his hands. I think he has a pretty advanced arsenal of pass rush moves for a guy just entering the league. And he's got really long arms, which I think helps him. He's able to get to the quarterback pretty nicely and force fumbles, which is a thing that I think, you know, can change games. and that having those long arms helps him do. So I am pretty much all in on Will McDonald-the-forth as a pass rusher.

I think when he comes into the league, he might need a little bit of time to bulk up. He's a little bit lighter, so he probably won't be an every-down guy when he first comes into the league. But I do think that he's going to be a guy that we're talking about as like a pass-rush havoc wreaker. And I don't know if you saw this. I'm about to play a clip for the YouTube audience. Look at this. He can jump over a car if you want to roll this. What?

Sorry for the audio listeners, but you've got to check us out on YouTube. This guy is a crazy athlete, and I'm all in. And that was not a super flat car either. That was a 2017 through 2022 Mazda CX-5. It's impressive. So like a crossover type vehicle. It's a full-on SUV. I mean, he put his hand on the hood just a little bit.

He still jumped over the car. So he was the fourth version of that human. You hard passed on the first three, but you're now finally into it. exactly right he's just an athletic freak and he's really technically refined for for a young guy so I'm all in all right with it's got he's yours there's no issues here congratulations officially your guy I am going to take a cornerback out of TCU who's actually the nephew of one of our co-workers and one of the best players in NFL history it's Trayvion Hodges Tomlinson just finished an incredible season at TCU he was the Jim Thorpe award winner played in the shrine bowl which we love The Shrine Bowl is a great bowl game, but something that popped up on my radar was Jim Nagy was asked why the Jim Thorpe Award winner didn't get a chance to be invited to the Senior Bowl. And he's 5'7, and 5'7 guys don't normally get drafted. I don't care. I do not care.

Go back and watch the Michigan game. People are like, oh, why are you talking about a defensive player from a game where the other team scored 45 points? They did nothing on Trayvion. Absolutely nothing. In fact, one of the two passes they attempted at him, he knocked one away. They picked off the other one and ran it back for a touchdown. It's like, do you need, there's all kinds. I'm six feet tall.

I can't cover A.J. Brown. Like, how much is height really doing for you? You need a guy who can be there, who can cover, who can tackle, and Trayvion can do all of that. And I'm just, I'm sick of the height thing. Like, I have, I'm with you on that. I'll join you on that. I have all the height privilege in the world. It's overrated.

It's not doing anything for me. I'm going to the knee doctor today. It's pointless. Like, Trayvion is my guy. I'll take him, but he doesn't, he won't need me because he's. He'll be perfectly successful in the NFL. That is to so many listeners who are, you know, under a certain height range where it's just like you're not even showing up on dating sites, you know, so you don't even see. Like, you're just thinking, you know what?

You're a hero to those people, to all of them. Well, you guys are heroes. All the short kings, all the short kings and queens and non-binary short folks. Like, you're the hero. Don't literally, I will. Thank you. Look up to no one. Look up to no.

Your distance from the ground is not a personality. We just end the show right there. That's it. Yeah. Just end it right there. Is your knee okay? No. We're discussing that before the show.

I'm going to get an MRI. We'll find out. We'll keep us posted. Blah. It's more machine than man. How about I'll save you for last and I'll get my gun. Because my thing is more of an issue with teams that make this kind of mistake. Joey Porter Jr. is my dude.

No questions asked. First of all, Joey Porter, Sr. was one of the more like rag-tag badass players of AFC North history. I'll never forget the Steelers defender when he got in a fight with William Browns running back in the day, and it totally rattled the Browns entirely pre-game. He just knew how to get into people's head. He did the thing where he did the crab walk across the field. This is Joey Porter Jr., cornerback Penn State, six two and a half inches, 34-inch arms. There are things, there are some things that's maybe not the greatest

cornerback in the draft, but this guy is a disruptor. He gave up of only one 15-yard pass play last season, according to PFF. He's got great size, length, speed. But here is my issue. As someone who watched the Browns house Clay Matthews for a decade plus is one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history, and then trying to build identity passed on Clay Matthews, his son. Just a highly annoying PR move, and it turned out to be a disastrous idea. For everyone that watching JJ Watt said, hey, you know what, we'll go pick some no-nameer instead of T.J. Watt, another dumb move. I don't know how half these guys are doing any of this, But if you pass, if you're in that middle of that round

and you pass on Joey Porter Jr. And you're the Steelers, bad idea. But especially if he ever came down to where the Ravens would be or something and you could take a great stealer from the offshoot of a great stealer, you've got that in your wheelhouse for the next decade plus. So be smart about this.

Don't pass on this guy. I like everything about him. He's yours. That's your guy. Joey Porter Jr. He is officially your guy. All right, Colleen. Okay.

Here we go. My guy, Byron Young, out of Tennessee, all right? Okay, that was that up. So I'm going with Tennessee. Okay, so the reason he is my guy is because I love his story. He went from working multiple jobs, including assistant manager at Dollar General, worked at Burger King, worked at Circle K, to a second round prospect in three years time. So his boss at Burger King convinced him to get a second. second job at Dollar General to potentially make a career as a store manager. So he's stocking

shelves. He's making milkshakes. He's mopping the floor. And he sees by chance a flyer for a football tryout at a military college nearby. He loved football. He went to the audition. He made the team. He was ready to be discovered. Then COVID shut down everything. So what he did was he made his own highlight tape, his own mixtape, sent it out, and then went back to work in the grill. Tennessee noticed. Awesome.

And three years later, he's a starting defensive end for them for a top program playing in a national championship game. He shined at the combine. He ran a 4-4-3. This guy is everything. I love him. He's mine.

He is yours. You've got him. He is officially your guy. He's twitchy. guys. Oh, okay. So that is... Check that box?

That is something to keep an eye on. But yeah, his, like, he's disruptive. Lance Sirline says that he has a great motor. And, you know, he's chiseled as well, which most of these prospects are unless you're, I guess,

an offensive lineman. I love it. We went deep into the fast food realm into the day job realm and look everyone out there. You just look at those flyers on that wall. You never know. Don't do the one where it's like

ride a ride share across the country with Person X. Is that one that you considered? Have you done that? I mean in college all the time it's like oh I've got to get back to the East Coast from like Central Ohio it can I could just say the variance levels on how that goes is high. Yeah and it's also like

don't don't stop just because the structures that are in place like have missed you doesn't mean like that there's some sort of failure in you it's a failure in the system he fought back and look at him now he's Colleen's guy like are you kidding? I think he's on Twitter I'm assuming right

Maybe. We've got to let him know that he is your guy. I'll let him know. All right. I put all these notes together for this show, and I just got to a period in my notes here where it's just blank. There's nothing else to do, apparently.

I did, unlike Dan, I did not use the little clock here to tape this. Oh, yeah, I have no idea how long the show went. The last show is 67 minutes, apparently. This has not gone that long. If you need more time to fill, I have a couple other guys, but like if we're done, we're good. I think that would run afoul of the premise. Okay.

Oh, right, right. I mean, I'm trying to get you out of here on time, Colleen. No, we're, we're having a great time. I mean, we can go longer if you need to. Tell me, tell me, no, I want you to tell me what, like, give me something that is annoying you right now before we leave, each of you. Oh, my gosh. Something that's annoying me right now.

Well, I did a, like, I did a very high potency face mask thing to resurface my skin. basically gets rid of all of, like, the dead skin and stuff like that. And so now my skin is peeling off. Like, I got a really bad sunburn, and I had to put makeup over it. So that's really, really annoying me right now. Okay. I can piggyback on that because they have those whatever it's called my colloid patches. My wife had a pack, and I had a zip.

And I'm like, oh, I'll put this on and it'll do something. Now I have, like, a permanent dark mark from this patch. And it's like, why didn't I just let the thing? Like, it's not going away. It's right here, right? I see it. I have a dark spot on my forehead where I try to use this patch that allegedly gets rid of pimples. Sounds like a litigation heavy rate.

I don't know. It's not going away. So we'll see if that happens. Also, anti-labor practices. Branching out into that. Those two things are bothering me at this moment. I will tell you what bothers. We have a wonderful building here.

It's a great place to work. I am contractually off. I must say that. But it is a nice building. But when you get into a scenario where, like, you're walking behind someone who's, like, walking down the hall ambling, slowly texting. Mall walkers. Yeah, just like a slow walker. Like, there's no way to get around the left side or the right side without it being super awkward.

And it's like, I have somewhere to be, and it's taking me five times longer because they're pounding out a huge text to, like, their honor uncle. You have to be on the left guy. You have to just, like, say on the left, on your left, and then they'll move. You know what? Like, I, when I do what I do, which is the worst, like, I'll dump. down a side hallway and to sort of wait for like 15 seconds and then come back around and be like there's more space I can attack this again from a different way you all are incredibly nice people I just I look for the seam and then I hit the hole like I'm running to I'm starting to take that approach though because there's the wasting of the time it's not working so I do that too Patrick except I'm really like I don't know I'm just like very awkward and shy about it so I'm like oh excuse me sorry sorry sorry I'm walking by sorry the other day I saw Sessler in the hall and I we were moments before the podcast and I just mindlessly started following Sessler so it's like I'm sure he's just going to the studio and all of a sudden I found myself near the screening room because you were like getting some type of beverage and then I was just standing next to you for no reason basically so my my annoyance is my navigation it's not always on yeah well I apologize for setting you down that that dark alley or wherever that was but it was meant to be all right well this was this was fun Thank you for joining me.

A-plus. I hope we can do it again, but we need to have Dan and Greg back here at some point. Assuming they don't get like another outbreak of something that happens and they're on vacation for seven years, Pete the call! This is an eye heart podcast.