NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Clowney Trade; Other Money Moves

Episode Date: September 3, 2019

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all of the latest news around the league including the Texans shipping Clowney to Seattle (6:21), Shady signing with the Chielfs (21:56) and the latest with Ezekiel Elliot (26:50). The heroes spin through 8 o'clock delight (41:25) and then preview the TNF opener! (50:30)Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Around the NFL podcast will never actually buy a sandwich. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I'm joined in a room filled with Heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling and Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan. we've made it we've made it we've made it out of the wilderness goodbye

goodbye combine and mock drafts and OTA practice runs rundowns and training camp and hard knock stories and preseason games and even surprise

retirements all that gone Mark and now plug in, baby, because we are locked and loaded for another year. You're acting like we've escaped something rugged into something calmer. I mean, we're walking right into like 75 armored weapon tanks fired at us with news coming from 45 different places where there was no news before. I'm separating what doesn't matter to kind of matters, interesting, blah, blah, blah,

to this is what it's about football that counts. I mean, I'm on board. I get it. I'm just saying you're acting like we've downshifted the way you opened your preamble. Mark would a C. We have upshifted into utter chaos and, you know, I'll talk to you.

If you have any hopes of a personal relationship with any of us, see you in March. We have traded mind-numbing holdouts for the possibility of two-minute drill magic. Come on. That's an upgrade. Mark, come on, baby. Like when we...

I said I'm on board, but I just, I think you open it as if we are walking into some sort of calm schedule Drill. No one said that. It's more that it's a reminder to the listeners. Next April, June, when we're really pumping up how great our next show is going to be, it's all nonsense.

It's better in the season. You know, hey, we make our money in the off season. That's when it's tough. Hey, those guys, they're a little looser. Hey, that's our favorite shows of the year. They have fun in the off season. It's just like crazy shows. Okay, yeah, that's all fine.

We appreciate that our listenership somehow doesn't go down. I mean, you guys are amazing in the off season. season, but let's be real. Well, I don't think I agree with that either. I think you prefer, like Greg prefers to go through the drill of the game previews and the game reviews, but in terms of the show taking on a different form, I like the off-season shows too. Of course I do.

Of course I do. We all enjoy our lives in the off-season. Hey, if I get to sit in this room and talk ball with my friends. That's all we're looking at you. Hey, hey, they pay me for this? And don't try to paint me as someone who's like, oh, I don't, I'm not excited. I'm totally excited about the season, but I'm not going to have it. Hey, you're holding the brush.

I'm not going to have it put out there with some tonal thing that where everything now is, you know, peachy keen. We're walking into utter chaos. Utter chaos. By the time this show comes out, half the things we discuss will have changed fundamentally. We better get to going then. Way to sell it, baby.

It's like three hours from now. What's going to change? We'll see. Tune into next year's off-season episodes where we're trying to find the replacement for Mark Sessler. I don't like that either. This is getting awful. all right well i hope everybody had a nice weekend labor day weekend and uh whoa a lot happened

so that that's what today shows about it is our first this is real football week one begins thursday night bears hosting the packers at soldier field and uh will end today's episode by previewing that game uh yes we are in the mix now and this will be our schedule uh going forward because there is no Twitter show, quote unquote, this season. We are back to Tuesday shows, which we are all happy about. It's our preferred schedule. So you're going to get the Sunday night flagship show where we break down all the games. Tuesday, the show that will recap Monday night football and then have some fun looking

ahead to the next week. Thursday, the preview episode for the week to come and again and again and again. Get up and do it again. And those Thursday and Sunday shows will be steamed. We'll be, who knows, I think we have an idea for a special way to handle Thursday night football this Thursday and maybe moving forward. So we'll let our listeners find out then. I'd like to find out. We have to talk about that.

All right. Wes, are you excited? I am. I'm excited. You're wearing an NFL league sweatshirt. It makes me think you're all the way in. Well, you know, no, that's not. It's just something to wear, but like, it's the rhythm of the season now.

There's a pattern. There's a rhythm. It's sort of like, you know. what bears go through where you have hibernation in the off season. Now we've got to track down large animals and kill them for food. Yeah, we hibernate. We went to the beach this weekend. You went to your lovely wife's reunion.

You know, we all tried to get one last little thing and now we go. All right. Let's get to it. Let's start with a whole mess of news. So, Ricky, are you ready, Ricky Hollywood? Oh, yeah, excited. Really excited. Yeah.

Finally. You're in. Oh, yeah, all the way. Give me Patriots record this season. Now, now, no, no. 17 and 1. Now, hold on. What does that mean?

Do they not play a game? Do they dodge, does the plane go down after the AFC championship? They haven't played the requisite amount of games. That's not true. Well, no, they 18 and 1. 17 and 1 means you went undefeated and then lost in the championship round. That's the only way that could. No, you lose like one up top.

But then you had. Yeah, but then the season is. I'm sorry. Well, math is interesting. Let's do some news. You mentioned that audibles weren't be a big part of... You guys just will not stop with this audible thing. It's unbelievable.

What do you guys want me to say? It's comical to me, but... Oh, Matt LaFleur. You're in the NFL now, son. Get ready. Because people are going to be asking questions about you and Aaron Rogers until we see that you guys can ball out together. We'll get back to the Packers later.

But let's start with the trades that shook the NFL. NFL over the weekend and happened to surround a Texans team that has become a lightning ride of controversy in this studio. So let's dig in. The Texans had backed themselves into a corner with the Jadavian Clowny situation. We all know that they apparently felt they had to move on. So they did. NFL Network Insider Ian Rappaport reported Saturday that the Seahawks traded for

Janavian Clowny in exchange for a third round pick, linebacker Jacob Martin. and pass rusher and Mok's boy, Barquevius Mingo, the trade later confirmed. The Texans agreed to pay $7 million toward Clowny's salary to complete the trade. And the Seahawks agreed not to franchise tag Clowny a second time next year, which is what Clowny wanted, some more freedom. Wes, we'll start with you here. The Seahawks side of it will get to. But I want to start with the Texan side of it.

We knew they didn't have a lot of leverage. Did you think they had this little leverage? Well, yeah, I think it's a sign of bad decision-making when you leave yourself with unappetizing options and then select the most unappetizing option, which is what the Texans did with Clowny. And my read on this is that Brian Gain is gone because he and Bill O'Brien butted heads over paying Gidevian Clownie. We've heard that. Bill O'Brien wants to pay the offense, take the resources from the defense, protect his quarterback in any way he can and make sure this is an offense guided team going forward,

offense-oriented. And it's, to me, to, you know, boxing analysts and NFL networks Greg Rosenthal are fond of saying that styles make fights. And you look at the AFC South now, and the Texans are in cults are like diametrically opposed in philosophy and style and everything else. The Texans are built around their franchise quarterback. If he goes down, they are banged. They have mortgaged the future severely.

They have holes all over their roster. They are threadbare on their roster. The Colts are the exact opposite. They have stability up top, leadership. If their quarterback doesn't make it, they might be able to throw a backup quarterback in there and still survive. They are deep on both sides of the ball.

They have a plan. They're sticking to it. And they are stable all around. The Texans, this is like to me the plot from Armageddon. I didn't see that. film. Bill O'Brien sees his asteroid

He has left himself with the only option is I've got to stop this asteroid so he's going to make the season more fun for Texans fans but now Texans fans are all wrapped up in Bill O'Brien's future not the organization's future.

Who's got the animal crackers on Bill O'Brien's belly? Deshaun Watson. Sexy. I don't even know what that means. Oh! You were born age 32. Missed 1999.

I mean, I don't think I missed much. This, like Bill O'Brien did what. what most coaches on the hot seat would do, I think, if they got a chance, which is make their team better this year. And it was a disastrous value that he got for Clowny. I mean, I think that a year of Clowny is worth more than what they got and just seeing what happens. There's something more to it then, right? Because the same minds would understand that. They paid him to go away. Well, that's the thing that was crazy, that they paid him to go away. And it showed there was no

market for Clowny, which is also interesting. I did see reports that the Eagles were in at the last minute and there were some talk. I think you can safely assume the Eagles offered less that other teams weren't offering more, which is interesting. There is a larger question in terms of building offense defense of whether Clowny was the guy that is worth that contract. I think that's a fair question. But all the intrigue and all the palace upheaval, and the fact that he didn't trade him sooner is the reason why they got nothing for him. Because you could have gotten a ton for him back in February and March. We've been over that.

And it just doesn't make any sense what they got back for. They basically just gave away. Let's hear from Bill O'Brien, who obviously everybody wants to know why things played out the way they did, that they could have planned better, that they could have made, they could have had more leverage and they lost all that leverage based on the timing. Let's hear how O'Brien explained himself. There were a lot of talks that took place. there were contract proposals between, you know, the player and us that we just couldn't come to an agreement on, you know, relative to the franchise tag.

You know, the spirit of the franchise tag is to try to, you know, give yourself more time to possibly come to an agreement on a long-term contract. We couldn't come to that agreement. We had several discussions with many teams over many months, and we feel like we made the best decision for the team. Well, so we. What is we in Houston right now? We made the best decision. Bill O'Brien as more power than most coaches in the league right now and is showing point by point why you need a check and balance system inside of any NFL organization. Because it's not just this. We'll get to the other move they made as well, where you're essentially openly being fleeced to some degree. I can enjoy Bill O'Brien's ability to, in the course of 24 hours, become one of the most radioactive figures. in the NFL. That doesn't happen if you don't have charisma and power and you don't know how to wield it. But at the same time, I think that you look at the long term, Texans fans can, if you really want to have rose-colored glasses, you can point to what you added in terms of players and what has essentially become a go-for-broke year for Bill O'Brien. He's got to find a way over the next 16 regular season games to prove us all wrong about what we're saying about the way the team is run right now.

But unless you are going to go rogue for the next four or five years with Bill O'Brien playing coach slash GM while having only coach vision on how to run a team, which is get into personal issues with Jadavia and clowning other players and have it affect his long-term stance on the team. What happens to his contract? You move on from the guy. And how do you, if you choose to have a powerful front office voice, lure someone in at this point after you've mortgaged insane amounts of draft capital for the future? We know that the Texans made themselves weaker in the future because they gave away the top of their draft the next couple of years. The question to me, and the second part of this, of course, trade is that the Texans sent two first round picks plus the second rounder to the dolphins.

They get back left tackle Laramie Tunsell. We've been talking about for months on the show what an eyesore the blindside was for them. Well, Tunsell is one of the better guys in the league at that position and wide receiver, Kenny Stills, who gives some depth than a guy. that never misses action. The question, Wes, is we know they're worse than the long term. Are they better today than they were Friday?

Because if they're not, and we'll see it play out starting this weekend. If they're not, it's Bill O'Brien is not only going to look really bad, he's going to get fired because he is in the crosshairs, I think, right now after these deals. It's a fun deal to analyze because as an impartial observer who doesn't have to root for the Texans in the future, I can say this makes my viewing of the Texans much more fun this year. They'll be more exciting. They'll be more entertaining. Nobody can say what's going to happen in that division this year with no Andrew Luck.

Maybe the Titans are the best team in division. Maybe the Jaguars are. You don't know who's the best team of the division. I think the Texans are kidding themselves a little bit about their holes. They had such an easy schedule last year that they think they're a little bit better than they are. They're kidding themselves a little bit. But they could easily take this division. Nobody knows what's going to happen.

I think they're better. I mean, I'd rather have Laramie Tunsell, Kenny Stills, Jacob Martin might contribute than Jadevi and Clowny. I'd rather have those three guys than Jadivian Clowny. Now, you lost all those picks, and the value when Tunsell isn't even signed long term was a little wild, but man, it's hard to get a left tackle. Like, to me, that trade was far less objectionable than the Clowny trade.

You can pick Nitz over that they gave up too much. I mean, they gave up a lot. Like, you know, but if they end up signing Laramie Tunsel long term and he's a top 10 left tackle. Well, as many people have pointed out, they left themselves with so little leverage that you never even see this by not sign into an extension when they made the trip. Yeah, and I don't think it's a knit to be concerned about what they gave up. I think that you found one of the most valuable positions in football. They have the franchise tag. I mean, they're going to have to make him the highest paid tackling. Right. You're going to have to pay him crazy amount of money. You're going to, if things go right with the Sean Watson, you're going to have to pay him crazy amount of money. and you're going to have to pay him crazy amount of money,

and then you have hamstrung yourself to build around the team with high picks. They have so much salary cap space. That's one of the reasons. But so does every team. Not every team. They have one of the most. My point is they should have spent it on clowny. Like it never made much sense.

But salary cap, like they can sign tonsil. They can sign Watson. I wouldn't be that worried about that. It's more of the process. And I think it goes back to trading Dwayne Brown. It's funny how the ownership group, which has changed. So it used to be, it's now Cal McNair. It used to be Bob McNair.

Cal McNair is his son. So it's still the same family. But ultimately it was a personal thing between Dwayne Brown and ownership that got Dwayne Brown traded away to Seattle and started this whole mess. And all they got back for Dwayne Brown was a second round pick. It turned into two years of disastrous protection for Watson and then having to give up way too much to Tunsell. Meanwhile, you're giving the Seahawks like another like.

reward for giving away Clowny. So it all stems from personal stuff, and that's a bad sign. And O'Brien's, you know, in personal stuff, too. You hear it when you hear, like, that Devin Clowny wasn't necessarily the hardest worker in the world. Like, you know where that's coming from. The Texans got hopscotched by the Eagles who picked Andre Dillard in the draft, and Bill O'Brien has overseen six drafts in Houston, and they never found a way to stock up the line or to find a tackle. That's coaching, too, to me. Like, you'd be able to be able to coach better. I can't, I'm sorry, I know you don't mean it, that it's a nitpick to call. giving up two first and a second for this player.

But, like, to me, the Texans are all in on one year, and then we've got a lot of issues after that. Now, let's say that Tunsell is great. I just mean, what would the appropriate value be for stills in Tunsel? To me, if it was a first and a second... Let me say. Yeah, I would say a first and a second would have been more than fair. So now it's an extra first.

Like, maybe that first should have been like a third. Yeah, I agree. To me, it's just more you lure in to help bolster the organization, too. Let's say Tunsel's great, okay? let's say stills is stills but tunsell is a great left tackle and the and the Texans as a result are a team that their first round pick is in the 20s the next couple of years teams give that up all the time in a second if they can get a franchise left tackle I really I thought that this trade salvaged the weekend a little bit for for Bill O'Brien and I still think they're the best team in the AFC South I don't think they got a lot better and that's why I think Bill O'Brien could be in a lot of danger but I think it's At the end of the day, they're a better team, maybe not a lot better, but they're better. And I think that's enough to win this division again. They better be better because 2019 means a lot more to the Texans than it does to other teams now.

And what trade reminds you of a coach taking advantage of a power vacuum and ownership, giving up too much? I know where you're going. Yeah, it's Carson Palmer and Hugh Jackson. It is. And that was rightfully, and what happened to all those people the year after? They probably will. It's obviously terrible process. One of the big questions of the trade to me, though, is, is Laramie Tunsel fine?

Or is he going to be an all-pro left tackle? Now, Brian Baldinger loves him, thinks he's ready to kind of step into that role. I don't know if the dolphins really saw him that way as the top five left tackle thus far to his career. Like, if you're trading for a guy who's going to make five pro-bowls, it's a good trade. Do we trust what the dolphins think about anything? No, and you're going to have to code, you know, whatever it is, like his level of play is a big factor in, yes.

Like, is he even Dwayne Brown? You know what I mean? Is he going to be like Dwayne Brown youth? Is he going to be that level of type of player?

And are the other four linemen starting next to him not going to be terrible? Right, it wasn't a final piece on the puzzle on Houston's line. By the way, great job by this. We got to give the CX a little love to make it.

They really needed, they really needed some help at that position. They got a great value. They smelled blood in the water. It's what John Schneider does. Why are they not a playoff team? I think that, I mean,

it's the kind of thing that can change their pass rush, change the front seven and might some of us thought they were a playoff team before that sure but we're but we could you can't get back on the corner by the way you can point to the pass rush as a concern a couple months ago I'm not and they totally addressed you're not allowed back on the corner

I'm sorry I know you you're very upset about that because right when you got off the corner they get one of the better pass rushers in the league well the information changed but you can't come back no I don't I don't see them as a difference making team I do think clowny I've loved watching clowny I just think he's maybe the strongest player in the NFL and I think Pete Carroll

So if he's going to be, yeah, just like pure strength, maybe the strongest guy in the NFL, I think Carol will be able to maximize his talent. Yeah, he will. The one last thing I wanted to say about the Texans is, you know, we point out all the time organizations with an identity. The Ravens have an identity. The Steelers have an identity. The Patriots do.

The Texans idea, to me, their identity is to be reactive instead of proactive. And it's always to me that Brian Hoyer are getting benched that half time in the season open. That's fair, dog. This is how Bill O'Brien has run the text. I will say Bill O'Brien, though, is interesting in the NFL. I love anything interesting in the NFL, and so I'm not all out on Bill O'Brien as someone in my life because I enjoy him. He's a little bit of, like, you need some bad, not that he's like an evil character,

but he's a little bit of like, he's a little bit of a heelish. He's a, he's a Belchick guy, like a disciple, I think he's trying to fall on that path. But he's the Belchick, like Belichick loves pointing out how much he loves Matt Patric. and who else am I, forget it, Brian Flores and who am I, oh, and very able. But O'Brien's the one that, like, kind of, you could tell, rubs up the wrong way. Someone made the comment to me in the league that Bill O'Brien's the type of coach

that, like, hates all his players, which is kind of a damning comment. That's unfair. That's eventually wants to get rid of it. That's something somebody says. He doesn't feel that, I'm sure. But you know what? That's it. We had a good conversation about Bill O'Brien.

We're going to see how it all shakes out. By the way, neophyte GM, Bill O'Brien, you know what he could have used this weekend. He could have used the app. You could use the app. Yes, he could use the app. He really needed that app. You put it out there. Hey, everybody.

I am an AFC South General Manager. I have player X and I'm being offered to journeyman linebackers and a third round pick. Who can beat it? And guess what? Somebody's beating that if the GM app exists. I just think I would imagine he's someone with ill manners in a chat room who's not fun to and an ugly emailer. Well, where's your, where's your, where?

Where's the product and development team, Dan? This was your app. This is your idea. Wes and I are working on it together, and that's the hardest thing to do. Here's a bug. To get the technology right. Here's a bug in the technology. The dolphins, they text back and say, we'll beat it.

And then Clowny says, well, I'm not going to Miami. So Seattle lucks into Jadevian Clownie because he refuses to go to Miami. But here's my thing. I think there's three teams that come out of the gym app and say, we got this X, Y, Zay. Hey, Jadavian, we'll give you three different choices. But we'll never know because it doesn't exist. We won't know. not yet. All right. Let's move away from that drama. Let us move on. Let's take a look at the Kansas City Chiefs,

the defending AFC West champions who made a move over the weekend that, oh, I'm sure Chris Wesleyan has thoughts about this one too. LaShawn McCoy, a surprise cut by the Buffalo Bills over the weekend. Well, surprised to me. Maybe not you guys. And very quickly, and you read scoops up his former running back from their days together in Philly and adds him to the best. Backfield, the backfield, by the way, got a little lighter when they moved Carlos Hyde to the Texans who gets some depth after that Lamar Miller injury. So in comes Shady McCoy. He got paid pretty good money, too, Wes, which makes you think that he's going to have a role in that offense with Damien Williams, who fantasy owners are very upset about this. I'm sure that went all in on Damien. Anyway, your thoughts, Wes, I'm going to imagine you don't think this is a move that's going to make a big impact in Kansas City, and I imagine I'm going to disagree with you. Let's see what you got. It's going to tell us a lot about situation in the NFL that he goes, Shady goes from maybe the worst running back situation in 2018 to the best running back situation in the league in 2019. Last year, the bills, seven of the offensive linemen

they brought into the season and on the practice squad are currently unemployed. This year they kept 10. They lost Adrian Waddle to injured reserve and they traded two guys. So they might have had 13 NFL caliber offensive linemen, which is so different from last year. So to me, I can go with Greg's point that throw out the 3.2 yards per carry. That's not reflective of who Lashon McCoy is.

I still thought that he was outplayed by his backups at time last year. He was a step slower. He's a guy who needs to be one-on-one in space to make people miss. And sometimes he's not giving himself that opportunity to go one-on-one in space because he's going down easier and he's not going for the big play as much.

He doesn't have that speed anymore. So I think he can be successful for the Chiefs because the spacing in their offense is unlike anyone else and Andy Reid has proven for 20 years he knows how to use running backs as well as anyone. They're deep. I mean, it was a week ago, two weeks ago, we're wondering if Darwin Thompson was going to steal carries away

from Damien Williams and now you throw in Shady. And, you know, if the preseason does have a value, you can look at running backs and see if they look fresh or not. And I thought that Shady looked pretty fresh in the last couple weeks. And they probably would have kept him if they didn't have the rookie blow up, Devon Sing. Yeah, he was paid six. million dollars and Frank Gore looked like Frank Gore does and Devin Singletary look great.

So why pay Shady McCoy six million dollars? It didn't make sense for the bills. He does make sense for the Chiefs if he stays healthy. I thought he looked good early in the season. He was really, he hurt his hamstring in December, didn't look good. Then if he has a bad offensive line, he's going to freelance too much. But in Kansas City, I think he can make plays. And I'm a small person. I mean, like literally, if you meet me, you'll know how small I am. But I'm also small, like emotionally that I enjoyed, I did enjoy on some level every, every fantasy person complaining like, oh my gosh, like this ruined my life. And like the Roto World blurb essentially dismissed McCoy's chances of even like being a factor just because they had hyped up Damien

Williams. Wait, didn't they give them $4 million? That's why you don't invest too much in like half-lousy player. Like players that aren't like, I just mean players that aren't as talented. as the players getting drafted behind them in fantasy? It's like, that's what happens to Damien Williams sometimes, is they bring in other people? I trust Andy Reid just about more than anyone else when it comes to looking at talent and being able to know who to bring in,

who to cut ties with. He said there are not a lot of 31-year-old running backs running around out there, but he still has the great feat and the vision. And then McCoy, he kept it real, he kept it real without really playing the blame game. Maybe you guys read it otherwise, but he said,

I mean, that's three pro, bowlers on the line. And then we had guys to kind of fill them in at the last minute, you know, which, give them credit, they did good to the best their abilities, you know, but then we had a young quarterback. Then we had a lot of quarterbacks coming in and out the games from injuries, different things like that. We had probably three to four quarterback starters, you know. So that was a tough year. Mentally, physically was definitely tough. So he's saying, I'm not washed up. I was just in a terrible situation. And I just think this is all trending in a crank-back-the-clock scenario for McCoy. I always thought that if he ever

ended up in Indianapolis, which was speculated for a while over the last year or so, that he would have another, would have one more nice run in him. And I think that's what's going to happen in Casey, which is scary. When you think about that Chief's offense, what if he does crank back the clock, West, and has a nice season? The Chiefs are going to be impossible to stop. I mean, they're going to be impossible to stop with or without 2014 LaShawn McCoy. I mean, I don't expect that guy to show up for them, but this offense is going to be good, no matter who's running the ball. They're also going to have to be good because of the defense. All right. Let's keep moving, gentlemen. Here's a story around the Cowboys that might be dated

as, you know, when you listen to us. But we want to plug in here on the Ezekiel Elliott Cowboys situation. ESPN reported that the two sides are quote very close to an agreement on a deal that would end the star running backs holdout. There was a report out earlier today, Tuesday, that Deke was on a plane and headed back to Dallas, which certainly seems to be trending. And it's all trending in the direction of Elliott being on the field for the season opener against the Giants on Sunday. And also, Laos Collins, one of the important members of that offensive line, signs a five-year extension. So if I'm a Cowboys fan, I'm feeling good right now because I would be very nervous before today,

but now it looks like things are all going to line up. We'll find out for sure. but the Cowboys are getting close with Zeke. I mean, whether or not we are fully updated on the news when people listen to this, the distinct tone shift is that it went from acrimonious and ugly to Zeke flying from Cabo back to Dallas and things have taken a big step in the right direction. And I just look at the Dallas team, though, they're talking about six years, 90 million, which, you know, if he's a still great player.

That's a report out there. That's a report. If he's still a great player four years from now, that looks like a great contract probably for the Cowboys to some degree. but this is not DeMarco Murray anymore where maybe you use them for another season or two and then decide to move on. You're now attached to him at least four more than a year or two, and you have to find a way to manage his carries to some degree. And I think that Tony Pollard, the rise of Tony Pollard, is a very positive step for Dallas as well. He's the best player on the team. I think that's

why he's going to get paid. And I think we should probably start thinking about holdouts a little bit differently. If nobody's going to play their starters in the preseason anyway, why does it matter if these guys miss all of camp. This is the week to get all the stunts. Right, so many players just miss all of camp. They send everybody to Cabo. They show up for week one. It almost seemed like the Cowboys were trolling

like their fans at some point, like keep signing these other players other than Zee. But these two deals are worth mentioning just that Jalen Smith and Laos Collins, those are very team-friendly deals. I mean, they got a starting right tackle for $10 million a year for the next five years. Well, look at the cap numbers too.

It's going to be like $4.2 million. next year, and then $9 million in 2020 for capital. And so that's a good job by their front office. In other running back holdout news, Melvin Gordon has been given permission to seek a trade from the Chargers. L.A. has given him that opportunity. We'll see if that leads to anything. Wrapsheet had the report on that.

The running back has been away from the team all summer as he seeks an extension worth more than $10 million per year. Fifth year running back set to make $5.5 million in 2019. We, you know, we've been talking about this since the very beginning that this didn't feel like a great setup for Melvin Gordon in terms of negotiations. And the Chargers, they just seem to, they continue to roll on. They're like, hey, do whatever you want, buddy.

We're fine. We're going to keep rolling. And I don't think this ends with Melvin Gordon signing a beefy contract extension with the Chargers anyway. Well, they essentially announced, I mean, they told Melvin Gordon they're not going to negotiate his contract anymore, which is a pretty big hammer drop to let out there. that not only are, you know, we're not giving you the money we want.

We're not even going to talk because it's obviously not going to happen. And go ahead, try to get your terms with another team. We don't think you can do it. It's not a great year to be a running back trying to force a trade somewhere else because if you look at the running back rooms around the league, it's kind of like quarterback. Most teams feel pretty good about where they're at. And for everyone saying that the clowny situation is a new day for players

to simply, you know, out of complete self-interest and self-determination, basically outline your own career and hold out until you get what you want. This is the other side of the coin because if they don't need you, you suddenly, who's going to bring, maybe there's an injury in week one and someone needs Melvin Gordon

and some sort of trade is outlined. It's not because this kind of money that he wants is going to be coming next. It's not like he's making the minimum. He's getting over $5 million this year. Right, which is, I think it's more than half of the money that he made in the first four years combined, which you would think would be rather significant

that he's going to want that money sooner than later. Erica, can you get Melvin Gordon on the phone? I think maybe we should try to talk to him. It would be who've this man. We had him right now.

Did we have him on the show once? We may have. Doesn't he have to be back by week 10 anyway to get his He does? He will have to show up at... He's in a different situation than Levion was last year.

He has to show up to a crew. I think Clownie and Kirk Cousins pointed out that players under a franchise tag do have a little bit of power. You know, if you want to look at the, you know, player empowerment, at least trickling into the NFL compared to the NBA.

Guys on tags can do that. And I also think that the whole tag situation I just smell is going to change in some way with the next collective bargaining. He's in that Uber trying to find that one Uber driver that didn't know who he was now. Maybe it's all about, maybe that's where it all started. Like he was upset that he wasn't recognized. Yeah. And now that's just all dictating his contract demands.

Let's move on. The Colts in a post-Andrew luck world are. doing some business at the quarterback position. They hand Jacoby Brissette, the team's new starting quarterback, a new, they rip up his old deal, give him a two-year, $30 million contract. Reset was entering the fourth and final year of his rookie contract and was set to earn $2 million in 2019. Now he's under contract for the next two years.

And then they make a decision to add a new backup to the room and they get Brian Hoyer, who couldn't hold on with the Pats, but that doesn't stop him from getting a three-year, $12 million deal with the cults to be their number two, 33 years old. He's bounced all over the place, Hoyer. And that is pretty good money for both gentlemen, I want to say. Greg, I'm going to, and we're going to get to one of my props, which doesn't look like it's in good position right now.

But does it feel at all to you that the cults in this time of great trauma around the organization, they're almost trying to pay their way back to some type of quarterback tranquility after the bombshell of Andrew Lux retirement? I was surprised by the amount that Brissette got. It's very, on some level, laudable for the Colts to not just try to have him play under that salary. Then again, they get something out of it too, which is that if he is good,

it's under contract next year at a very low salary. So it seemed like a win. If he's bad, I was just looking for it. haven't really shown the details of how the money's spread out. 20 million's guaranteed. If I had to guess, you know, they can get out of it, basically. I mean, they'll eat a little bit of cap, a little bit of cap space if he's bad and they get out of it.

Jacks were still able to get Nick Fools after they made the mistake of paying a bad like portals. They have $50 million. They have more cap space than just about anyone so they can just eat it. It was telling to me that Hoyer got $9 million guaranteed. That's a lot. That was surprising. I think it was to keep him away from the Patriots.

So the Patriots wanted to bring him back. He didn't necessarily. That's always up in everybody's head at all times. Well, they really did want to bring him back. And I think for him to move his family and decide to do that, hey, I'm not going to turn down this kind of money. And Dan, I wouldn't be too worried about your prop bet yet. And you mentioned what, the Chad Kelly was going. Well, hold on a second.

Hold on a second. There's a factor here because your thing was that Chad Kelly would see. Was it four meaningful starts? Not just starts. Not meaningful. Starts. Okay, starts, whatever, four starts. But we have a listener because our listeners are plugged in.

Good. A listener tweeted to us under the handle Dusty Bottoms. And he said, here are his words, I'm going to pull back the veil for you guys with Chad Kelly and the Colts job. Now, this is pre-Bryan Hoyer, but still, my childhood teammate is now the offensive coordinator for the cult's Nick Siriani. And as a child, as a young football player, he had posters of Jim Kelly all over the place.

He is a huge Jim Kelly fan, and I'm going to read from that that there is something that's going to happen here. He is not out on Chad. He is not out on our boy, Chad Kelly. Swag Kelly. Swag Kelly. And I'm not giving up on Dance Brett. Who in this room honestly believes Brian Hoyer is a better quarterback than Swag Kelly? I don't. I do not.

You know, is Swag still on the roster? I guess that at all sincerity. I mean, not officially because he's suspended. But yeah, he'll be their third quarter. Will he return and be their third quarterback? Yes, I believe. I think there is some reason. concern about what Chad Kelly gets up to in his time off. And so you've got the very milk toast,

Brian Hoyer, to sort of just plug in the backup. Let me keep it real. I'm totally screwed because of the money involved here. Because how was I supposed to know the cult were going to panic and pay Jacoby percent like he's an established starting quarterback? And then turn around and give out the best backup quarterback money in the league just about in Brian Hoyer. I did point out on the show they might bring in a backup. No, you did. And that's fine. And I'm proud of you for that. But I'm just saying like, Thanks, Dad. The only way now that I have any shot, and I won't do it, is if one of these guys gets injured and then the other guy stinks. That's the only shot I get a four-starred.

Yeah, but this could be your episode of a football life. It starts in such bleak territory, but you always had some idea of what would happen. Right. Like, almost all of our props will lose three sandwiches on, but we won't remember, like, my Dalvin Cook one, but we'll remember. Well, that was the other thing I was going to say, it's kind of like, when you're in Vegas and you're playing blackjack with your buddies and you get you get beat after you play about an hour you have a great time you end up down about a hundred bucks and then you say to yourself oh well you know that you basically paid to have fun with your friends sitting

at the table that's already paid for the sanguages because we had a nice conversation about swag that's fine everything else is just icing on top sometimes legend legends are burnished by what could have been i mean come on bow jackson people love him because of what could have been or what because because of what he actually did. Absolutely. Moving on. Trent Williams, another holdout. He is not a lost cause in Washington.

The former Redskins' defensive end, DeAngelo Hall, an ex-teamate of Williams. Cornerback. What did I say? Defensive end. Defensive back is meant to say. Ex-teamate of Williams said on the hail to the podcast on the athletic that Williams could return, quote,

sooner rather than. later. Hall, who had said in the past, there was zero chance Williams shows up, so that the left tackle unlikely to set out the entire season because he won't want to lose out, once again, on that accrued season toward free agency. So the question now becomes whether or not that report date, if it happens, Mark, is far off in the distance or imminent? We don't know, but something to track. Hall mentioned week two, and so I would assume that, you know, he's attached to a gigantic flaming car going off a cliff. So I don't know what his rush to come back is other than obviously, you know,

personal financial game. Money, obviously. But to me, this is the team that should have been open to trading one of their valuable assets for a lot of picks to plan for the future. And they've been so door closed on this, at least in public, even the concept of someone coming and courting them for a big pick swap. I would have done it in a second if I were with the risk. Bill O'Brien.

But their front office is probably the worst in the league. Bill O'Brien, rightfully getting killed for how he handled Clowny, but the Redskins, a team clearly building for the future. What need do you have for a 30-something left tackle who has huge value on the open market? Well, it depends what they would get. There was a report, which everyone denied, that the Patriots offered a first round pick for him two weeks ago. I'd rather have Trent Williams.

He's 31. That's about the same age that Dwayne Brown was when the Texans trade. I mean, you might still get three years of quality left tackle play. I don't know. That's fad dog. I mean, I don't want New England's first round pick as much as I'd want someone else's. You're giving that analysis, Greg, based on the knowledge that he's going to report sooner rather than later. Right.

I didn't know that then. Right. It should be noted that, and a lot of people don't know this, that the Patriots' first round pick this year is going to be number six. So. Well, that adds some spice to it. New England. Weirdly. Weirdly, I would win sandwiches from that.

You were saying the Patriots are going to have the number six overall picks. Just think about if you're the Dolphins, and all it takes is one Deshawn Watson injury to maybe have a top ten pick, two top ten picks from the Texans. That's fair. That's true. We didn't even mention from the old dolphins angle.

Enjoy being protected by Julian Davenport all season, Josh Rosen. I mean, Josh Rosen. I know he's not the most popular guy. I don't know if Josh Rosen even sees the field this year. Why wouldn't it? Well, of course he will because Ryan Fitzpatrick is going to get killed there. There is this one little amazing nugget that came out of, not to do, this will take one second,

but ESPN did a thing where they ran 20,000 simulations on the upcoming season. And they randomly picked simulation 1,721 to unfurl this long, amazing article. The kind of thing that any football nerd would like that talked about week-to-week results and where teams wound it up. The Jets finished 8 and 8. The Browns made the playoffs, won the division after some ups and downs. And the dolphins opened 3-1. Week 2, they sandblast the Patriots.

This is with no Laramie Tunsell, with no Kenny. stills. They are six and two at the midpoint and playing for the division title against the Patriots in the final week of the season. And in this, in this, well, hold on, before you scoff at it, every, in every other team that you look at how they did, it came out kind of reasonable. They just, they viewed the dolphins, this simulation, it's not a person as doing much better than people thought.

And Josh Rosen didn't even play a meaningful snap because Fitzpatrick carried them from wire to wire. Sounds buggy. It's all checks out. It may be buggy, but. I think, I think, I think we can accept that. NFL is unpredictable enough for the Dolphins to have a winning record. I mean, crazy things, crazier things happen all the time.

I agree with you. And yet we always act so confident. When's the last time that the worst roster in the league had a winning record? I mean, them having a winning record, then they ultimately would prove they didn't have the way. It's an anomaly. All right, good talk, gentlemen. Time for a little 8 o'clock to light. Jack signed Miles Jack to a four-year $57 million extension

Both him and Jalen Smith West get paid That is cool That's the point I was going to make They were drafted right around each other in the same draft Both had questions about how they would do in the future That's why they didn't go in the first round And now both made it to their second contracts One time hard-knock sweetheart Giovanni Bernard

gets a two-year extension With the Cincinnati Bengals To pair with Joe Mixin Mark Sessley You like that one-two punch? I'm fine with it. You know, I think Juvenor was someone they talked about as maybe not making the team this year or not being in their long-term plans.

They lost Rodney Anderson. That was a button. But good for him. Hopefully not forever. You made money. Good. Report. Steelers extend quarterback Joe Hayden

on a $22 million deal, including $17 million signing bonus. 30 years old. Greg, he's had a great career. Always unclear why the Browns wanted to get rid of Joe Hayden. so much. Dude, too. That's a good point.

He's set to eclipse $100 million in career earnings in 2019. Wow. Oh, Greggy. Seahawks. Cut. Then re-signed.

Gino Smith, who beats out Paxton Lynch for the job. Why the Seahawks doing them dirty, not giving him that guaranteed veteran money. I see all your tweets of celebrating when he got cut. Wait till the end of the weekend

before a spike in the football. Gino's back. That's fair. You got to know. I send you a positive Gino tweet, if you recall. It's true. There was a lot of tweets. Before you come after us on Twitter and get our mentions, know the business side of the game.

That's the lesson. I don't even look at my mention there. In other news, the Falcons bring back longtime kicker. Matt Brian, Wes, I was hoping they were going to keep it quiet. He'd stay on that golf course and go to the Jets, but he's going back to the Falcons. Unless you have someone better at your fingertips, do not get rid of your veteran kicker. Giorgio Tevecchio. Yeah, this guy was never bad, Matt Bryant.

He had a terrible summer, and now he gone. The Vikings signed Josh Doxon days after cutting Lacan Treadwell, so two first round bus picked right around each other in the first round once upon a time. Does that matter, Mark? I like Dodson more than Treadwell, but it was signed for the league minimum, so I guess it's a bit of a save face. Maybe we just picked the wrong guy, and the Redskins didn't, and we'll figure it out, but it seems like a footnote at best.

Redskins are paying most of his salary this year. Eddie Pee Eddie Pineiro wins the bear's kicking job for week one I mean what a drama he shanks the extra point

Wes about 30 feet to the left in his final preseason outing but still gets the job but it's made clear by Matt Nagy he wins the job Thursday night

what a world what a life to have where's their headquarters Bourbonnet Burbine yeah Stacey Dale's reporting for Bourbonnet

says they really do believe they found their guy they wanted a young guy who can throw They said he's got the right demeanor, the leg talent, and the team has embraced him. I think that latter part is important coming off what they're coming off. In preseason plays, 8 of 9 on field goal attempts hit a 58-yarder. That got him the job, even though that horrible P.A. TMS,

Greg, the Broncos at X-Rams practice squatter. Brandon Allen is their number two quarterback. John Elway knows QB. Hey, John Elway doesn't just mess up the starting quarterback situation anymore. He's got to pick up someone off waivers for his backup. How could he possibly be so bad at understanding quarterback talent? A man, that was one of the greatest to ever play the position. Well, they say those that can't do teach, those that can't teach do.

He did do. He already did it, and now he can't put the rest of it together. He do and didn't. IR updates. Derek McKinnon of the Niners is a setback with his knee. He goes to IR. The Patriots seem to be cursed with their first rounders. Nikiel Harry, he goes to IR.

Equan St. Brown of the Packers. IR. Nathan Peterman Hard Knocks Hero has an elbow issue. He goes to I.R. And Graham Ganoe, the Panthers kicker. He has an issue that didn't get better. He also goes to I don't know, boomerang or not. These are not

Boomerang. These are all IRR. They're gone. No, some of the ones that waited until the weekend. Like, Nikiel Harry, I expect we'll be back. I think he's the only one. All right, guys, put on your college shirts, put on your Fahrenheit cologne, spike up that

I used to wear Fahrenheit Clem. Me too. Used to love it. Loved it. Fahrenheit was the 90s jam Bartholins. It was, yeah. What about Trachar?

I used to wear that, I think. Give me that Fahrenheit all day. Oh yeah. In fact, I try to take Fahrenheit into the next decade and then I, my wife brought it back. I tried to, my wife said,

no, this smells like high school. Right. Find me like anyone that's actually asking someone to wear that at this. I guess I was just an hour. I never really, I never wore Cologne,

just the U de Rosenthal. Anyway, as I was saying, use the dry car, use the Fahrenheit, use the natural scent. No, all musk on Rosenthal, no deodorant even. Step behind the velvet rope or going to the kicker club. The jets have changed kickers acquiring, I don't even know how to say his name, so it's bad, bad. Kare Vedvik? All right. Kare?

Kare? Kare? On waivers from the Minnesota Vikings, they released Taylor Bertolet, who got the job after Chandler Kandazero abruptly retired. Bertolet was a disaster. Might be Bertolet. Doesn't matter. Vedvick, of course, was so in demand that the Vikings gave up a fifth round pick to the Ravens

to get him, and then he stunk out the joint once he got to Minnesota. The jets who were in the mix for a trade before the Vikings got. them, they scoop him up off waivers. So now he becomes the latest Jets attempt to find stability, which they wouldn't even have to worry about if they just paid Jason Myers, who now kicks for the Seahawks. Come on, guys. I mean, when you can sign a guy who just went one for four in the preseason

with no experience in the regular season as your kicker, how to do it. What could go wrong? I think Chris Berman would have to call him Carrie-A-Laison Vedvick. And finally, in the news. And now, another edition of Keeping Up with Bowringer. You know, I was worried that we'd never get to do one of these again. And I've got to be honest, I told this the mark before, that it took quite a Google search to find the latest news on Maurice Bowringer,

the German-born wide receiver turned tight end, who's trying to make it in the NFL after being the first international player to get drafted. Is that correct? Was that the hook back of the day? It's been a while. Something to do with Came Through the International Player Program? Okay. I'm not going to speak because you've already angered Henry by not nailing that down.

Anyway, the Bengals signed nine players to the practice squad on Sunday, and one of them is Mobo. And a reminder that an NFL practice squad may include up to 10 players of the Bengals have up to 11 with Mobo, who is an international player pathway program participant, and is eligible to be added as the 11th practice squad player. So this is my one takeaway, and you guys could jump in with some of your own. We've reached the time we've been very patient with Mobo for a couple of years now to make the leap, if you will. He's got to get out of this pathway program and get at least on legit practice squad, best guy available. Get out of the pathway program and start making a charge. Yeah, just for a dose of soft of spot.

So how do you know the difference between pathway program and just regular practice squad? He's designated as that. Right, but why wouldn't they use that spot? It's a free spot. I know, but what we want is... For him personally, I think. He needs to make a roster. Because he can make the 10 and then they can add another pathway guy,

but Mobo won't be connected to that. I think what Dan's saying here is he's skating by on a technicality. You got to start earning things. Here's what he did. He was the first international or the first European player that didn't play in college. Okay, there it is. So he came up like through learning the game elsewhere. And hey, there's been a lot of successes.

F.A. Obata made the Panthers once again. and Christian Wade, it has that pathway program for the bill. So they're coming. But Mobo, you're right, as the first one through the door. It's a lot of pressure on it. You're paying for his housing. You're paying for his, you know, three, four, five meals a day. I mean, he has a job.

Come on, let's start to do something. He has a job. Earn your keep. He makes income. I mean, he's 43 years old. It's time to make that charge. Why you do that? And that was another edition of keeping up with both.

All right, let's close by talking about the first game of the NFL season. How about that? Mark, come on, fuck up. This is exciting. I like this. Happy, happy, happy. Real football. A nice matchup.

The Thursday night football opener, which also begins the 100th anniversary celebration of football. So what do they do? They push the defending champions, the Patriots, to Sunday night where they'll face the Steelers. and they open up the schedule for Bears versus Packers at Soldier Field. One of the best rivalries in football. I'm sure fans of those teams will say this is the best rivalry in football, certainly the oldest. But there are so many storylines, Greg, here,

which is what makes the first game of the season so great because you get to really dissect it and see some actual results. So Matt Lafleur and Aaron Rogers, as we talked about from the news drop earlier today. The Bears without Fagio, and with Mitch Trubisky and the idea of taking the next leap there. How does the kicker do? So much stuff to break down.

What are you looking at for Thursday night football this year? It's amazing how the first test for Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rogers against the best defense in the league. But on the other side, we have data. We have a matchup of Matt Nagy's offense going up against Mike Patton. And Mike Patton did a great job in week one a year ago. Trubisky had four yards per attempt in that game. Bears did a better job, but not great offense.

defensively the second time they played. I am intrigued to see how Mike Patton with these six defensive backs gets a little creative and tries to really shake things up against Trubisky. And I think this could be a defensive game because of it. I like to see these week one games like you think differently about a team just because of who arrives that you didn't expect to arrive. And I don't know. What if Roshan Gary is one of those guys who's just dynamite right off the back?

or Darnell Savage for the Packers, the other guy they drafted in the first round. Or what if, you know, Trubisky looks like a totally new quarterback this year. David Montgomery looks like a stud. I mean, it's just those, how are we going to think differently about these teams? And I'm with Matt LaFleur.

Shut up about the Ottawa. Just shut up. Stop asking about them. Let's play football. And enough with your narratives. The one thing that comes out of the preseason of today where you don't see Aaron Rogers for even, in one second the entire time, you don't see Aaron Jones, is that I think it amps up the excitement

for week one because these guys are pulled out from behind the curtain for the first time since last winter. And, you know, these opening games, we were in London when this Bears Packers game went down last year. A lot is, whether or not it's right, it's probably wrong. We learn a lot and talk a lot about what happens in that week one game. And I thought last year what the, one of the narratives was was Ms. Chubisky, as Greg pointed out, kept in check by Mike Petton, but couldn't get it done at the end when he had a chance to seal that win with a winning drive. And on the flip side, you've got Chuck Pagano taking over for Fongio. And if the Bears struggle on defense, or if there's a market difference in this game and going forward,

Chuck Pagano's going to be in for one of those coordinator seasons where they're pointing at you every week for not doing what happened last year. And odds are, they're not going to be last year's defense for a variety of reasons. His goatee is looking clean. I'm feeling a big year for Pagano. He looks like a younger man. That's strong. It's like when Greg Williams showed up with the Titans after the bounty gate and all of a sudden had a light down goatee and like wavy brown hair

and it was like, wait a second. What is going on a time machine, sir? Wes, I get what you're saying. No more narratives. I want to hear about it anymore. But guess what? If the Packers struggle against a very good bear's defense on Thursday and Aaron Rogers, who, you know,

he's one of those guys where you could read his face and they'll have the camera on them at all times. If he's showing frustration, if we catch him barking at somebody at some point, and they lose 24 to 10 on Thursday, it's only going to get amplified. That's part of the drama and what makes us such an intriguing situation

where this is what you wanted, Aaron Rogers. You wanted McCarthy out of there. You wanted fresh blood. Well, let's see. Can you actually play with fresh blood? I think that is well said, Dan, and it's absolutely true. my exhaustion level with this

is specifically about reporters asking stuff about an audible that they have no idea what they're talking about. Well, Wes, you are in the media, so it's going to be part of your job to beat that drum as well, whether or not you feel that it is ethical.

And we know week one could be misleading. I mean, the Bears' defense gave up three touchdowns to Aaron Rogers in the fourth quarter. And it wasn't really indicative of the type of season they would have. Although they did, you know, kind of give up that end of the game

to the Eagles in the playoffs. Like, we're not going to learn that much in week one. But I am curious just how much the Packers are going to lean on the running because just because Lafleur was so run heavy in Tennessee and Mike McCarthy was the total opposite in Green Bay in terms of running on early downs. Just what kind of Packers' offense is he going to roll with early? Can I mention one little bit of history? Absolutely. So when they first met these two teams back on November 27th, 1921, when it was not the Bears, but the Chicago Staley's, according to a newspaper article, wailing,

wailing on the Packers, 20 to nothing. That's how this rivalry began. And a little nugget on how the Green Bay Press Gazette, to your point about Media West, harping on annoying things, this is how they wrote that game. The Packers, again, they lost 20 to nothing, were beaten but not disgraced. Every man on the team played great football, okay?

They were there in the battling every minute, and when the final whistle blew, there was plenty of glory in the defeat. Sounds a lot like an article from today or a talk show. But then listen to this. This is some amazing writing from an early on football writer.

The guy is long gone now. He'd be 100-something years old. Stinchcombe, Sternman, and Huffine are quite some footballers. They got off fast and run like deer. Stinchcombe was the main thorn in the Packers' side. His dashed for a touchdown early in the second quarter was a sensational piece of footballing.

That actually kind of sounds a little cecelerian. I love the way, you go look up some of the early reports from this. Totally different type of style. But they talked about how the people in Chicago were utterly won over by the fans. It said the Chicago football fans had won into their hearts the Packers for their gritty back. That this entire Chicago crowd is simply left as Packers fans because of what they witnessed in a 20 to nothing Packers lost. Feels a little convoluted to me. Fair enough.

There were probably only like seven people there. Right, there's no one to call them on this. They also noted that the Green Bay's band, which had come down to Chicago, also helped win over the entire Packers operation for, again, Chicago's fan base. Let's pick this game. Mark. Packers, 20, Bears, 17 in overtime. I'll go the other way.

Bears 20, Packers 17 in overtime. Okay. Part of me feel. It feels like it's inevitable that it's going to come down to a 43-yard field goal attempt by poor Eddie Piniero. But then the part that I'm going to actually ride with is that there will be some bumps in the road early on with Rogers and this offense. And the Bears at home in prime time in the earliest game of the season will take advantage of that. 2413 Bears. I have the Packers making the playoffs and the Bears not.

So what better way to kind of change that sense? scenario from a year ago than get a road win in the division. What do that counts? They always say, oh, that counts double. Not really. It's like one and a half. Yeah, I get what you're talking about. Anybody want to lock it up? No. Definitely not. Wow. Only because there's so many very practical locks situations.

I forgot about that. Football's back, Gregi. The locks? All right. Who wants to go for a lock, and then we're all hanging out on Thursday night, and one of us is 0 in the locks, and it's not even Friday yet. forget that nonsense. I've seen you, I've seen you Matt many times, Mark,

when the double doink happened, because I think you had picked against, I don't know, whatever it would have been, you had picked Eagles to win or to lose. When the double doink happened, there was so much fury in you in the newsroom that you were turning red. I don't want to see that from you in this situation.

You don't want to have a lock on them. You took it out. I'd pour Mitchell Trubisky on the podcast later. Well, he deserved it. I have won two straight lock season titles. I don't really, I'm kind of, you know, foot off the gas this time. I'll let you one of you guys take this. You co-won the first one.

I have a trophy. I didn't lose it. All right. There you go. Next time you hear from us will be Thursday. Show will go up late Thursday night, early Friday morning, and we'll have a recap of the Bears versus Packers season opener. And then, yes, we'll dig into every game to be played

on Sunday and Monday, a preview of all the week one action. How exciting is that? Before we go, some plugs. Some plugs. Starting with Greg. Well, I didn't know this was a whole separate segment of the show. Greg, yeah.

I asked for a plug, something NFL-related. You responded with, JRVP is back. Yeah, we're taping Tuesday night comes out once. You didn't say NFL-related. If you had, I would have said I'm writing the game picks this week, so I got to come up with a real score for that Packers' Bears game. Didn't you just give us one? Oh, you didn't?

It could change. Plug into NFL.com, Rosenthal, for that. Mark Sessler has a new column on the radar. You've done two now, right? On my radar. Oh, on my radar. Let me make a note of that. Different piece of technology,

the Venda radar. Which is getting a lot of positive buzz on the internet. You wrote about the Dolphins Texans drama this week. So check that out. The power rankings, the old Zusser, that is back Tuesday. And also, if you catch us in time tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on NFL Network, me and Money Smith and MJD. and Cynthia Freeland have a power ranking special.

And finally, last but not least, Ricky Hollywood, everybody making move. Fantasy League One begins this week, four times a week. So check that out. That's a video show where Ricky's in front of the camera, NFL.com slash Fantasy League One. Oh, yeah. This is your moment.

What is the show? What happens on it? There's six celebrities and six fantasy people in network, and we're playing for charity and it's basically picks per week and a lot of fun challenges that go on within a fantasy team

and the celebrity should play for charity are you you're in the celebrity group I am not I'm just in the people that work in you should be able to play for cold hard cash I know but unfortunately our NFL rules don't allow us to Compliance Vanquished again

Yes but charity is a great a great thing Depends which one, but yeah. All right. My plug, check out Chris Wesleyan on Instagram. Sometimes good Insta stories on there with the big green eggs and good music. Not good, great. Smart.

And there's been some pop and heat about Wesleying a cooking show in development alongside the app. Well, I don't know if it's in development yet. We can launch our own media empire west. Well, we got two locked and loaded home runs. We need to put miss. Didn't they have an idea to do a cooking show here like four shadowy league figures ago or something? No, I don't want this to be attached to anything. No, no.

Check out Wes's Instagram. It's banging at all times. All right. That's it. Then Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss. Ricky Hollywood behind the glass. Real football. Next time you hear from us, we're talking about a game that counted.

Till Thursday night. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday.

Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.