NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Combine Winners & Losers, Plus Trash Takes With Patrick Claybon

Episode Date: March 5, 2018

A room filled with heroes- Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler & Patrick Claybon- are back in the studio to recap the NFL Combine. The heroes catch up on the latest news, including a trade between the Dolphins and Rams (5:30), Michael Bennett could be on the trade block (24:00), Antonio Cromartie retires and Aldon Smith’s career could be over (33:00). As the final day of the NFL Scouting Combine wraps up, the guys discuss their winners and losers of the event (36:00); And back by popular demand: Trash Takes with Patrick Claybon! (48:00).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The future is coming. Make it brighter with Squarespace. Squarespace makes it easy to turn your idea into a unique website. My mom asked me just this week, when is my blog, Courts of Thunder, coming along? I had to tell her, I'm working on it. The people at Squarespace are helping. You can customize everything.

You head to Squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code around. I'm going to use it to start up Courts of Thunder, very excited about Juan Martine del Potros win in Acapulco this week. Again, use the offer code around squarespace.com. The Around the NFL podcast is very open to change. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Greg Rosenthal.

And I'm joined by a room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling. And how about a little patch of Claibon? Hey, Greg. Weird show. You know, Dan called in sick. He's got a stomach virus, which is taking out the entire Hanses family. So that's unfortunate. Colleen sometimes, you know, steps into the host chair.

She's in Indianapolis covering the final day of the Combine. So we forge on, but we got a big addition with Claibon in the house. There's a fair bit of wreckage, I think. Even with the, you know, I got back an extra day late from the Combine, stayed an extra night, volunteered my trip because there was simply no flight for me in the connecting city of Atlanta. So it made sense. Chated with Jerry Jones, Jason Garrett at about 1.30 the morning.

Nearly missed my flight the next day because it was a 5 a.m. wake up. But I will say the entire weekend, I just felt like I was in a total fog. And Dan was fighting that sickness for probably two and a half weeks. And I think it finally just came home to roost in full-throttled fashion. Hope it gets better. It's tough to dodge. And it's something before you have a kid, you know, you hear people talk about it. It's like, oh, yeah, whatever.

My stomach's good. Right. But he went down like two weeks ago. And, you know, I'm washing my hands. I'm keeping my head away. Your son, Malcolm, pronouns here. Yes. Oh, well, of course.

I have a child, proof of sexual act. It's out there for me. But he, yeah, so he gets the stomach bug, and I'm thinking, I'm great. You know, I've got this taken care of. And then, like, at midnight, it just hits you. And you have no chance. So big ups to Dan. I like that you view a child as proof of prowess in that one.

Yeah, card carrying them. That's, I mean, I think. Interesting. That reminds me of an old RJVP segment we used to have called they've had sex. And basically, whenever someone gets pregnant, it's proof. Fruit positive. I would say before cancer, I had a very strong anti-missing work for sickness. Like, I don't know.

Like, is that a good enough excuse to miswork? But now that I've had cancer, I'm like, do not come in here and infect me with those germs. Yeah, that's fair. Stay home. So Dan is recovering. We're recovering from our trip to Indianapolis, which is not a place that you normally leave feeling better than when you arrive there. At least not for the combine. Well, just because you think...

Kind of a sneaky atomic bomb on Indianapolis, and I appreciate it. It's more on us because you have certain nights like being out at 1.30 in the morning and seeing the Jones family before taking a 5 a.m. flight, no matter what, that you're not going to be feeling great after that. I know the Wessling clan maybe woke up on Friday morning, as it were. I don't know if they were feeling 100% because I had a 4.30 wake-up call on Friday. I ducked out about 1-130 maybe that night, but I think the Wessling Boys, and you had four of your brothers there?

Yeah. You guys were out late. That night went really well for about six or seven hours, and I'll just leave it at that. I witness the positive side of it. I want to hear the rest of this. None of it involved me, so I'm in the free and clear on that one. Okay.

There was a late night incident that happened outside of the mix that I was involved in. Maybe outside a steak and shake or something like that? No, it happened back at the Airbnb. At which my brothers were all renting. We'll have to hear about this after the show. Not surprising at all. It was great to see them all. Yeah, and I had a few friends came in town too.

Thank you for coming out. We had a blast. Mark Connor, Patra, they were all involved. It was a gun. You were there for a little bit. It was a fun mix. A little bit. I mean, it was, you know, I was there at a 1.30 in the morning.

Greg, Greg, pulled a late night for me. Late Greg night. It was a strong showing. Had some listeners join us. Very fun. So that's it with the combine. the on-field drills did wrap up on Monday, the defensive backs. So we're going to talk a little combine winners and losers later in the show.

We've also got the return of one of America's favorite segments, trash takes with Patrick Claibon. Not a fully fleshed out trash stakes, but we had one we wanted to throw out there. And then it turned out that both Wes and Mark have a trash steak. They want to throw out each. So it's a little different. A movement. But I like this format. we'll wrap that the show up with that but before we do either of that let's say hi to lindsay

fulton and do a little news oh la now i'm going to do the news what's up everybody man i want to let y'all know i got invited to the NFL combine i thank y'all for all your support you know the entire nation's behind me and i couldn't do it without you i'm let you know something special coming soon and you're going to see it they invited the right one to the NFL combine i'm going to show you i got a lot to prove against all eyes That is the voice of Shaquim Griffin, one of the big stories, probably the big story, I would say, of the NFL scouting combine. That's a little bit of a tease for when we really break down the college players and the winners and losers from all the on-field stuff. He, of course, will be in the winners.

But we're going to start the news instead with a big trade that happened just before the weekend. The Miami Dolphins sent a fourth-round pick. to Los Angeles with trade in less need for Robert Quinn, the veteran defensive end, a couple of sixth round picks were also exchanged in the deal. But Robert Quinn, who had one of the great pass rushing seasons of this decade back in St. Louis in 2013, got a huge contract off of that season, is no longer a ram. Wes, what do you think?

It's that time of year. It's time for the dolphins to make news for chasing. names that are bigger than their games. They do it every March. It happens, you know, like the salmon returning to Capistrano. The dolphins just go chasing names. Wow.

I mean, it's the first thing I thought, too. This is the Miami Dolphins time of year. If it was any other team, I might give him the benefit of the doubt and say maybe Robert Quinn is due for a bounce back year, but it's been about four years that we've been counting on a bounce back year.

And who knows how much the back problems have really just made him a different player. like him in that cast to character, those with Cameron Wake, Doddaman Sue. Nice guy to add to that little mix. He gets the benefit of playing with Donald last year, and I think the number was eight and a half sacks. Ian said he was still owed about $22.5 million.

And actually, the Rams wanted to ship him to KC as a part of the Peters trade, but KC wasn't interested in that. They chose to go with picks instead. So you're just wondering, as Wes said, you know, what's really there? What do the Rams know that the dolphins presumably do not know? Well, he wasn't a difference maker as a starter last year.

The difference was he stayed healthy. He was really hurt the two years before that, and he stayed healthy, played all 17 games for them, played a lot of snaps. I watched him really closely because I've always been a fan of Robert Quinn because I feel like that season that he had, it was almost like lost to history because he was on a kind of a dead Rams team. And it was, I thought after that, here's one of the best, defensive players in the NFL for the rest of the decade.

He's going to be that kind of guy because he was such a special pass rusher and he's never been able to stay totally healthier back up that season. I've always watched them closely. I watched them a lot this year and he just, he made a few plays, but I don't, on a snap-to-snap basis, I don't think he was really helping them out that much. It sounds like the bucks and Browns almost chased after him as well. But how do you, if you're one of these other teams,

you're the Browns, you have 142 draft picks. How do you not top what Miami offered? If you really wanted this, look at a fourth guy they've missed. Maybe your evaluation is that he's not worth them. I mean, people must feel the same way. A fourth round pick is not much. There were stretches last year where guys like Matt Longacre were more disruptive than Robert Quinn on that Rams defense. Yeah, I mean, a fourth round pick, to me, that seemed about fair for the chance.

Look, he's still just turning 28 years old. And maybe there is a chance that he, another year healthy and removed from that back surgery, that he kind of dials it up a notch. I didn't think it would have been crazy for the Rams to keep them, but you owe them more than $10.5 million. And it makes you wonder, you mentioned the big names. In Domok and Sue, Cameron Wick, they're paying Andre Branch, I think, $9 million a year.

If all of these guys are still in. Whenever you can do that, you must. Are all these guys even going to be on the team in a week? I think we saw, at least from the Eagles, that there is a value in investing in the known versus the unknown. And so that does come into premium. but again, what's the number? What's the value that they're really getting out of Robert Quinn?

And the Rams had to dump some salary so that they can pay Lamarcus Joyner, potentially pay Sammy Watkins, get active in free agency. They also got rid of Tavon Austin. So they're clear on the decks, $11 million off the books for them. And you have to wonder if Jarvis Landry is coming off the books for the Dolphins. He reportedly is going to sign his franchise tag. And there are a quartet of teams. chasing Jarvis Landry.

So I feel like by this time next week, we're taping this on a Monday, rather in two weeks time, that he's probably not on the Dolphins in two weeks. Yeah, I think our initial instincts were correct on that one, that the dolphins tagged him to trade him. And the other part of this news is they've already given him permission to seek a trade. It looks like the bears are heavy into him, the Ravens, the Titans. I think the Browns have been mentioned. I'd like to see him with the Bears.

That makes a lot of sense. The Ravens were interested in him last season, so that would make two off seasons in a row where there's some sort of pursuit out of Baltimore for him. I think when you look at the Bears, they have an absolute ton of cap room, so that makes, they need to surround Mitchell Chubisky with weapons. That was a consistent theme for them at the Combine,

so I could see that happening. And if it's Chicago, you wonder what they're going to do to augment Jarvis Landry if he's there because they're still going to need a guy to be out wide that's going to take the top off of defense. Jarvis isn't going to be that guy. But as far as tagging and trading, you go back, Matt Castle, fun trivia, the last guy to be tagged and then traded back in 2009.

Trade it along with the Tennessee Titans current head coach. It's been so long since it's... Oh, yeah. Mike Rabel went over to Kansas City in that move. Yeah. Forgot about it. Following Pioli. It's crazy that they got basically the same for Matt Castle that they did for Jimmy Garoppolo.

Very concerning. It's a little problematic. So we think Jarvis Landry is moving on. I expect it because they're over the cap right now by $8 million. And that's not even counting the 11 that Robert Quinn is going to cost them. So that puts them 19 over. They're going to have to move Landry, I believe by March 16th it would be. One note that the Ravens right now have about 9.6 million in cap room. So if you're going to pull a deal like this, you're going to have to move other people, restructure people.

Yeah, we still haven't seen the big wave. cuts. So that's going to happen throughout this week and really hit over the weekend and early part of next week. I believe Monday we're doing a little free agency frenzy on the NFL network. Are you hosting that at all? The early halfs. And then Andrew comes in and full production, but you know, my little rag tech grew. No, you're like the starter. You're like the starter and he's the closing. We're just going to try to get three innings out of me. We can get Andrew in. Before we move on from the dolphins, a lot of dolphin news. I thought it was interesting that there's been a lot of reports that the dolphins,

including from Peter King, are in on quarterbacks in this draft, and people would almost be surprised if they don't take one with that number 11 pick or if they trade up to take a quarterback. Baker Mayfield, a while back, tweeted something about, you know, come get me dolphins. And I think I could see why a quarterback would want to play in the city of Miami in general. But that's the name that there's been continued sort of whispering around the idea that the Dolphins and Baker Mayfield could be a match on some level. They're at number 11.

I don't know if he's going to be there at number 11. You may have to find a way to orchestrate a trade. I could see four quarterbacks. I think we came out of Indianapolis feeling like, for better or worse, four quarterbacks could go in the top seven spots, leaving some incredible other players there in the middle of the first round. I think outside of Greg, this podcast has been very reluctant to place Ryan Tantahill on the right side of the Dalton scale that we've always doubted him.

shots fired. I mean, give me a break. You know, he's right there. I kind of gave up on him. I think that we've been criticized for it, that a lot of people complain that we don't respect Ryan Tannahill enough. And it says here that if the dolphins are in on quarterbacks, then they've soured on a guy who hasn't been on the field in about 20 months. Adam Gase has spent all offseason saying, no, no, no question about it.

Ryan Tana Hill. Except that also could mean Ryan Tana Hill is your starter next season, but you're not looking at him as the four or five-year answer. And that would be pretty telling because if Ryan Tane Hill's a bridge, like, where is he a bridge to? Terribithia? Remember that book? Or nowhere. I mean, it's a bridge to whatever they've been doing the last four years, which is just they're just that middle.

They are kind of the Dalton scale of teams, the Miami Dolphi. They are generous. They might be the most boring organization in the NFL. But the way it breaks down, you're looking at the way that the top 10 works. if they want just any guy, then that's really saying something about Ryan Tannehill. If it's just like, oh, if it's one of these four guys or maybe we go try to get back seven picks and take Lamar,

like how do they really feel? Based on what Adam Gase is saying, as you said, Marge. It's probably not a bright idea to go tell everyone that you're in love with Baker Mayfield if that's the guy you want. Exactly. There's going to be a run on quarterbacks, obviously. I just think they're going to be stuck having to pay a lot. I will say this.

if you are the dolphins and you're boring according to you, and I don't disagree, Baker Mayfield would change that energy a little bit. True. Yeah? Instant, not boring. I don't know how much to trust all the draft information that comes out this time of year. Probably not that much. But when it comes from NFL Network insider Ian Rappaport,

who joined us for a fun segment of live rap sheet rumors if you haven't checked out our podcast from the Combine. Or half those rumors even still in play at this point, it's been moving so fast. account. Well, he had another one on Monday, or on Sunday, rather, that he believes Sequin Barclay is in the mix for the Browns at the number one overall pick. And there's been some reports out there that even went a little further than that, that basically said they thought that Barclay was the favorite for that pick. I mean, I think this combine certainly seemed, you got a lot of coaches that when you say, hey, what do you think of this player from, you know, Iowa State or whatever, the coach is like, I have not watched

tape of anyone yet. I don't know. Don't ask me those questions. So they're just beginning. And then you go to the combine and what happens, I think everyone gets overvalued or undervalued because it's a workout and Barclay blew his out of the sky. We'll talk about it later. But one team came out with a perfect grade on Barclay. And it's something that team had done, I think, four times in 20 years. So, I mean, it's not shocking. With the number one pick, you'd potentially be interested in the best player in college football. Well, yeah, I think when you look at his tape and and then his combine, of course you're going to consider him. He might be the best talent in the draft.

But you also look at the Giants and Colts are drafting right behind you at number one. And they both have massive holes at running back. So it behooves you to say you're interested there, you know, keep all the options on the table at number one. And then you're back there at number four. So my question to a Brown's person who's thinking this way, if you're not at four, are you still thinking Sequin at one? Like if you don't have that opportunity to get back. in there. And if that's the case, then how are you really... I think they're clearly going to chase after a veteran because I don't think they want to

go in with the pressure of a rookie playing in week one. But if all they had was number one and then the 33rd pick, I think you would be putting yourself in a PR mega-disaster to pass on the quarterback for the 18th year in a row. But it would... On some level, in Barclay, by all accounts, is deserved of this kind of hype. It is less to do with just blowing up the combat. and more just his tape and you can see it. He looks like a, I don't know, a rich man's David Johnson. I mean, that would be an incredible NFL career,

but it kind of reminds you of that. And why not consider take that guy? But also, if you have a quarterback, you clearly will have a preference for which quarterbacks. It's kind of insane not to take that guy won because whoever it is, you have to then be willing to live with the fact that he could get taken, that a team could trade up or whatever was.

And that just, we've been there before. NFL scouts and GMs have opinions on everything. Like they're not going to have an opinion on who they want at number one by then? I don't believe that for a minute. And you mentioned Sessler that the Browns are likely to get a veteran to pair with this rookie. I really wanted to ask John Dorsey, by the way, about Deshaun Kaiser because I didn't hear his name. I don't know if he'd answer you after you called him a 1980s science teacher on our last show. I mean, that's not an insult.

I mean, I don't know if it's a, it's somewhere in between insult and compliment. I don't know if it's, I don't know where I'm at a. How are science teachers from the 80s supposed to feel about it? Well, I think Ben Stein and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He's doing fine. I don't know. There's your one example. The only one I can think of.

Actually trash now, though. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's true. I forgot about that. What are the reports out here, Mark, was that the Browns want A.J. McCarran, that Hugh Jackson, that's his preference. It's to have A.J. McCarran as the veteran. This is from the MMQB's Peter King. I mean, we heard that out at the pubs and restaurants,

like within five hours of being in Indianapolis. And Peter King used the words that the team is exceedingly interested in signing him. I think it's a olive branch to Hugh Jackson that says, we're largely going to control everything that happens from here on out. But if we can get A.J. McCarran at a relatively decent price, because we're not going to pay for cousins. We're not going to go give Case Keenham some four years. Sounds like they're in the mix for Keenham, though, which makes sense to me

because I think he's kind of that lower, that may be at the right price. They'd be like, all right, Keenum for a year. Again, though, like it's bridging to the last question, how do you sell the fan base on any lower tier veteran as your answer? It must be a one-year patch or otherwise there'll be an uppercise. Yeah, they're going to have a rookie with McCarran. And in that scenario, that sounds fine to me. In fact, I kind of like it if you don't have to pay him much,

because it doesn't make much sense to pay Case Keenum $16 or $17 million just, you know, for a year. Maybe A.J. McCarron's not going to cost that much. That's kind of what I would do. How do you sell the fan base on a bridge anyway? It's just... Oh, yeah, this is one of your things that's on your radar, bridge quarterbacks. You know, the whole concept is starting to bother. Well, I mean, it's all about excitement, right, and generating buzz and it's like, oh, well, I want to go buy a jersey. I want to go. And if the idea coming in is we drafted this guy, but this guy is going to play, well, is he playing because the other guy's not good enough?

And when do you make that switch? I don't think Hugh Jackson deserves this so-called olive branch. I'll just say this at all. I'll just say this. He spent essentially every one of his coaching starts with the Browns with rookie quarterbacks. I think he just desperately wants something different. He's got to need that branch to take him out of the lake when he still jumps into it for going 16.

I love this idea of the AJ McCarran one-year bridge so Hugh Jackson can be hoisted on his own patard and fired when A.J. McCarran leads them to a two and fourteen season as their quarterback. Well, Hugh Jackson gives John Dorsey an excellent scapegoat when everything inevitably crashes into itself. It seems like a lot of scapegoats are leaning on each other. It's like a house of scapegoats. Bunsen burner blowtorch here. Goats do tend to climb up on the roofs and stuff. So yeah, I can see how that it works. House of scapegoats. I'm going to look up the etymology of scapegoats. Somebody's going to have to Photoshop that one. the etymology of scapegoats we already know what that is

from the old biblical times when you know something when the whole village would have a problem they would put it on a goat instead of a person and run that goat out of town really yeah they would put they would like put it on a cursed goat run that goat out of town it's kind of like sending pigs off the cliff it's like so you don't have to kill a human in retaliation for something you just put all the sins on a goat save it for the biblical etymology podcast knowledge bombs I was thinking escape had something to do with it.

I like when people say skate, wait, how do the people... In a scapegoat? Yeah, in a scapegoat. That's what the goats wanted to do, but then they got set on fire or whatever. So, but Karen almost got traded last year to the Browns.

One guy who could get traded this off season is Michael Bennett. He's had some run-ins with our fearless host of this podcast, Dan Hansis, back in the locker room after losing the Super Bowl. Not Michael Bennett's finest day.

He's had some run-ins with a few people. He has also been one of the most versatile and maybe underrated. Although I feel by the end of his career now, people properly rate Michael Bennett and recognize what a great player he's been. The Seahawks might not be able to afford him anymore. And so he is reportedly on the trade buck. Multiple teams are in on Michael Bennett and the Atlanta Falcons is one

that ESPN.com's ESPN NFL Nation reporter throughout there as getting in the mix for Michael Bennett. That makes sense with the Dan Quinn connection. He can still play Michael Bennett. His pass rushing numbers were better last year than they were the year before. That said, he's turning 33 during the seasons. But to me, doesn't he make more sense on the Falcons now? Because I think the Falcons have a much better roster than the Seahawks. I think it's like when you're trying to figure out what the Michael Bennett experience is all about. Like Dan Quinn, any former coach makes sense because you've been there, you've dealt with the player you know. Is it Chris

Rashard and Dallas is another guy who might be out there. They could always use some pass rushing help. I find it interesting. Seattle would be ready to give up on him. Am I read this wrong or not? It's $1.5 million is his salary this season? That's his base salary. He does have, I just put it up.

I obviously would not have known this. A $4 million roster bonus. Don't say it. Just act like you would. He has a $4 million roster bonus. So that's a total of $5.6 million. Maybe there's some other bonus money in there. But that's certainly not crazy.

but the Seahawks, I think they're ready to kind of push the button and start over and they have salary cap issues. And I think they want to get aggressive, maybe signing some new players to their team. And one really telling quote that stuck with me from last week was talking to Pete Carroll and hearing him getting asked questions about changing his coaching staff. And he just said, I thought it was time. He's like, I thought it was time. He said he needed to be challenged more that he said he needed to be challenged more that he's, He's looking forward to the challenge. You want some new coaches, and I kind of fill in the blank, maybe new players that challenge him.

He said he likes the challenge almost of not starting over, but it's going to be a different era of Seahawks football. Cam Chancellor might be gone. Cliff Averill might be gone. And maybe their thought is why keep Michael Bennett one more year. We need some extra cap space. Let's send him away. I guess the argument would be because he can still contribute in the NFL. And I understand you want to make some changes.

but I don't know if that defense is something that you want to give up on right now. Yeah, be careful of these house cleaning sometimes because sometimes the head coach can be the last element and can come in late December. It's something that I think they would have to be on the same page, though, that John Schneider and Pete Carroll are kind of in this together, and I think they always have been really in lockstep. And Bennett was injured, and he is turning 33,

so he's not without a risk. On the Falcon side, watching that, after watching the game against the Eagles, I had to go back and ask research if Vic Beasley actually played in that game. Yeah. Did he play all year? He played like 20 snaps a year

and 20 snaps a game and was kind of playing a linebacker. They said, by the way, they're going to move him back. They change his position every year, moving back to the defensive end. But they have a lot of guys on that team that are just kind of taking up space.

Derek Shelby. They cut Derek Shelby. It would be often to be terrible to be described that way. I'm just saying a lot of guys. career. He played pretty well. I guess a lot of guys who are making kind of Michael Bennettish money that maybe aren't as good as Michael Bennett.

The minimum descriptor for a human alive or dead. That's all I'm doing. Occupies space. It's taking up space. This new segment's taking up space. I think I've got to pick up the pace. With hands, it's not here. Let's move on to the Eagles where a couple stories came out over the weekend.

One was from Jeff Mosher, who's covered this team for a long time and reported an AFC team offered a second round pick for Nick Foles. And the other story was that Vinnie Curry could be cut. Initially, it looked like he was going to be cut. That was from R.E. and Rappaport now, they might try to restructure the deal or potentially trade him. But two different stories there. And it sounds like the Foles price tag is going to be very high if a team really wanted it.

Well, ESPN, Chris Mortensen from ESPN, after we kind of drummed up our segments for this news thing, reported that the Eagles are seeking more than the first and fourth round pick level they sought for Sam Bradford in exchange for Nick Foles. So it does not sound, two things. It sounds like, A, we don't want to let him go. And B, we want to make sure that Carson Wents is actually ready to roll because there have been a couple concerning reports about the level of the knee injury that Wenz suffered. How do you know right now that if you get like Knit Foles go that Wenz will be there ready

to go week one? And C, they kind of want, they might want people to know about how much it would cost to get Nick Foles. Because these reports don't come out of nowhere. So that makes me think that like, okay, we're not just going to trade Nick Foles. They really do value him. And why wouldn't they? He just won them a Super Bowl. But they also don't mind maybe hearing, you know, telling other teams, hey, if you give us a first and a fourth, we'll think about that.

What's this AFC team that offered a second? That to me sounds suspect. Grounds have a couple seconds. But again, you're giving away a second for Nick Foles and you're also pursuing A.G. McCarran, it just doesn't really pass the test. It doesn't, a Fools trade doesn't make sense for any side, except Nick's side. It doesn't make sense because any team lacking the coaching acumen and surrounding talent of Philadelphia will be giving up way too much for what he's worth.

That describes a lot of teams. Yeah, it just doesn't make sense. Why would you be giving it more than you'd be giving up more than he's worth to the Eagles? to come play on your team and a guy who would be a stop-pack quarterback and you bench him after eight games. There's too many other options out there. I don't know why you'd ever give up a massive amount of picks.

You're not buying the Nick Falls career resurgence that he could take your team to the promise fan play on? I sat there and said the Eagles were dead just like plenty of people did. So obviously anything can happen. That's why they play the games. But as to what I want my team, if I had a team, a hypothetical team that I'm a fan of,

Let's be, let's be real. You try to keep it underground, but I've been doing some insider reporting. I know you don't like putting it out. I'm going to confront you in the hallway. You don't like putting it out there. Swear names. You grew up a Cowboys fan. Those colors, it takes a long time to give that up.

I went to college with DeMarcus. He was a really nice guy. He got drafted by Bill Parcells, and I enjoyed his success. So now your stance is you've moved on because DeMarcus where has moved on? No, I moved on because of Jerry Jones. There's some corroborating. evidence here. All right.

Patrick has had a more vigorous take on JJ Wilcox than any non-Calboys fan could possibly. Exactly. Kind of like, kind of like Wes for even though he says he has no feelings towards the Bengals whatsoever, he followed them closer because his family does. That's not even true.

He has stronger takes on other teams. And now you've got Wilcox hot takes. Well, I got roped into another segment of Cowboys defense because people used to say, It was constant Twitter, Tony Romo this, Tony Romo that, as if Tony Romo was the worst football player who'd ever played the game. He was really good. I would constantly put on my cape defending Tony Romo.

And because of that, watching the other team breeze past the Cowboys defense as though they had a file cabinet back there and safe. I like Greg opening that comment with attempting to call that breaking news, that we simply know what team our friend roots for in the opposite. Well, he tries to keep under wraps. He's an NFL network personality. tries to hide it, and I'm here. I'm all about truth.

If somebody's really a fan of a team. I watched the Oscars, and they told me that it's all about truth in 2018. Oh, yeah. From our friend. Let them guide you. Another big truth today we learned. Antonio Cromarty is retiring. I thought we should mention this.

He's had a very notable NFL career. He announced it on Instagram. Mark, what will you remember most about the Antonio Cromarty NFL career? Well, I mean, probably because so much of, I mean, there's so much hype around certain storylines of these quirky, the quirky aspects of these players, I'll just remember that he had like 106 children and couldn't remember them. I also another, I have a memory of a time when the Jets played the Broncos on Thursday night football when the Tim Tebow parade was at its height. And there was a play where Tim Tebow, with the Jets sort of season kind of hanging on the cusp, Tim Tebow soaring towards the end zone. for a game deciding or altering score, and Antonio Cromartie dodging to get out of the way

and not have to deal with Tim Tebow head on running full steam towards Paydert. I'm sure if Dan were here, he would see him as a much different place. Yeah, I watched the game with Dan. I know he remembers it too. I have some very specific memories from early in his career

when the Chargers were going deep into the playoffs and talking to my boy Spice rack about him. Spice rack with... I see. There it is. He would text me during Chargers game and say this guy is one of the most naturally gifted players I've ever seen on a football field and rave about his leaping ability body control hands that he should be playing wide receiver

not defensive back that he's so naturally talented and that second year in the league he's just a part-time starter and I think he led the league with 10 intercepts he did he led the 10 picks that he was including three against Peyton manning I believe on Monday night football to be that I could easily check this but it was kind of the Antonio Cromartie game where just people are going nuts. And he had a couple seasons like that throughout his career, including one of his jet seasons where for one season, he was just a shutdown, unstoppable guy.

Made four Pro Bowls, made a first team all pro. And to do all that when you're not known for your work ethic or your technique is pretty impressive. I'll go positive as well, a guy that played limited. He had an ACL and I believe a couple other injuries at Florida State. And so when the Chargers drafted him, it was always like, what? Like this guy, you know, there's not a lot of tape out on him. And like well, said, he came in, played in the NFL for 10 years. In that book, in that

Collision Low Crossers, Jets chronicling book that we've discussed probably 127 times on this show. He is one of the top three most intriguing, bizarre, and enigmatic people because I think from whoever the coach was, or only certain coaches were really allowed to communicate with him and impact him. He just seemed like a total a character off the field in every possible way. I vaguely recall those coaches being hot on him one minute, cooled on him the next, and then an endless cycle of just whether we like Chrome,

whether we're going to keep him on the team or not. So that's the end of Antonio Cromarty's career. Probably the end of Alden Smith's career came about this week with a couple items in the news, and we'll be quick on this. But the San Francisco police were searching for Smith after he was allegedly involved in a domestic violence incident, police confirmed to NFL.com over the weekend. And then the Raiders officially released Smith.

I wasn't even totally aware he was officially on their roster. He was set to hit free agency. The 28-year-old came into the league as one of the best pass rushers in the league for his first two seasons. And he has not played since 2015, I believe. And he was good under Jim Harbaugh. He had 19 and a half sacks his second year and has not played a snap since 2015. Cannot get out of his own way. He's not coming back.

It's a wrap. It's one thing to have substance abuse issues. It's another to be domestic violence several times. Yeah. So he could face another suspension. We'll have to see. Let's move on to more fun and more happy news. And that's talking about Squarespace, ready to start your business,

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Kuhm, what's coming up on Courts of Thunder this week? Indian Wells is coming up. Big tournament. Excited to see Serena back into the mix. Keeney Shikori, check it out again. Courts of Thunder.com. And when you're starting your blog, use a round on Squarespace. The offer code around squarespace.com.

I can't say Squarespace. You watched it. You enjoyed it. The NFL Scouting Com. Combine. You know, there's a lot of guys running around. My kids watched it. And at one point, my daughter asked, like, how do you win? And I thought that was a fairly good question. And you know what? We've got an answer right here. Combine Winners and losers. We're going to tell you who wins. Let's maybe start with the- I don't believe that we have winners. No, I don't know. Why not? We're going to try. Because I don't believe that any of it really means that much. No, it's not. But we're going to talk about what happened. And we can at least have fun of it. Send of this. it's a little too much grunting here it's a deep burn it's far too much that's way worse than the misophony

yeah if you're if you're grunting that much while lifting you're in trouble let's start with patrick claibon give us give us a winner uh mike gisicki i think he had the best performance in the combine uh his three cone time was comparable to that of cornerbacks uh the tight end out of pin state you know people are drooling over saquan's workout and they should be but i really think there's an argument that Mike Gassicki, at 6'5, right under 250 pounds, running 4'5, getting around 6 seconds in the in 3-cone, that's a performance that may get a lot of people had him at tight-end one, but I think that might lock up our first-round selection if you want a guy. He's not going to get in there and block.

He's not going to be that guy, but how many teams are really getting that blocking tight-end anyway? It kind of reminded me of Vernon Davis. Vernon Davis had a higher profile probably going into the combine, but he's someone whose draft stock went way up because of the combine. Maybe he went from a mid-late, first-round type of guy to one who ended up going sixth overall. And we're not draft next year, but you kind of hear the same about Gassiki. I mean, I think the obvious one is Shakeem Griffin, and it's it played big all weekend, and it should have.

This is someone who at the senior bowl, they pulled him aside at one point. and he was making a pitch to go to the combine because he wasn't invited. And it's someone who, positionally, they have to figure out what to do with him. That was Bucky Brooks' takeaway was he had an incredible performance with the bench press. His speed is explosion. It's all there. He's still someone that they talked about is like his developmental project. He's a special team's potential standout leader.

But I really have to say that if there's anything, the combine is so, there's so much about the combine that I have to look at in question, what value do you, you take from, just to your point, West, that watching some of these quarterbacks throw passes to wide receivers they've never played with and zero defense ahead of them, that's nice that you can throw a 60-yard pass, but what does it tell us in September in week six when you're getting thrown in there when your quarterback goes down? With this kind of performance, just simply saying, I don't really care what anyone says about me. I'm going to prove every one of you wrong. It's a little bit crazy to go in and do what he did and that no one found him good enough

to even go to what is essentially just a large scouting event. Plenty of players that will never emerge as NFL players. They looked right past him. That's me. In the initial invites for the scouting combine. That's right. Not on the list. That's right.

I think we did learn something about this guy. Don't put limits on Shaquine Griffin because this is a guy who a few years ago when he got to college and they had to fit him for that prosthetic hand to do the bench press. He was so wobbly he could barely get the 45 pound bar up. and then here he is four years later doing 20 reps of 225 don't put a limit on this guy because he's still testing himself

well his own brother was putting limits on him I believe his brother guessed that he was going to run about a 4-6 wow and he ran faster than Calvin Johnson and his brother of course is on the Seattle Seahawks his twin brother cornerback played pretty well

another shack Griffin too giving up 30 pounds to him and yeah and and they he was he interviewed a little bit on Tuesday, on Monday's show, on the scouting comment, he called in to Rich and Mike, and they were there together, and they asked the question, who's, what twins are faster than us? It's the fastest twins in the game right now. I'm saying. Hang your hat on that.

I mean, if the Hardy Boys were technically twins, I'd put them potentially in the, in the conversation. If I was a Seahawks, I'd want to go, I'd want to draft him, wouldn't you? Fastest linebacker since 2003 at the Combine. I saw Pete Carroll's reaction to his run. He seemed intrigued. Yeah, and they're a team, I think, that they do, they march to the beat of their own drummer. They take some guys sometimes that only they want. So he was, Griffin, I think, was a guy people didn't think of necessarily, whether he was going to get drafted, whether or not.

Now he's looked at as kind of a mid-round type of pick. But who really knows? Twelve and a half tackles for loss in his senior year of college. Wow. You can do a lot of stuff. Wes, who do you got? There is, you know, analytics was sort of brought into pro sports as a way to get rid of. dogmatism, but as it happens, there's a certain segment in every sport of the analytics

crowd that is very dogmatic, and they don't trust their eyes because they don't have an eye for the sport, so they only go by tenants of analytics and numbers. And Josh Allen is a guy they hate. They cannot stand him because they can't see and they can't extrapolate from tape how he's going to do in the pros like scouts can. And I don't know if he's going to be good or not, but he is a guy who helped himself this weekend. By all accounts have one of the best pro days out there and one of the best arms that we've seen in a decade. So to me, I'm just intrigued by this guy

because I don't think I am dogmatic. I'm willing to see what's going to happen with his career. Bucky Brooks agrees with he called him the biggest surprise of the quarterbacks for how well he showed during a drill that I largely just killed. But I was he surprised, though. It wasn't great... I think he showed more accuracy than they thought. He showed on just, in general, I think the knock was,

Again, a lot of people are watching for the first time live. Right. I think it was the accuracy and the ability to change speeds and throw with finesse too. And I think one part, and it kind of plays into the conversation like, what are you looking for? As you said, out of these, we're watching guys run post-corner routes. And you see a guy like Josh Rosen or Kyle Lilletta wait for, well, not wait. They're trying to time the receiver's routes to get the ball there on time. What Josh Allen has the ability to do that not a lot of people can do.

He can wait for that guy out of his fifth step going towards the corner and then just rifle a bullet to him. Yeah. So on that stage, on some particular drills, it highlights what he can do best. And it has the ability to throw away bad tape. If you draft Josh Allen number one overall, for instance, it sounds like he's in that mix at least that the Browns would consider him.

You have to be willing to apparently throw out. out a lot of ugly tape that you can put somewhat on the coaches and the situation at Wyoming. Maybe you can put it all on there if you're confident enough in your ability to do that. I still do worry there's kind of an innate natural ability to play quarterback that's hard to measure, kind of like your comfort with the position. And maybe that's some of the, and that's different than analytics, but I think that's some of the problem that some people have with Josh Allen. It's like, I remember with Ryan Tannahill, people thought he had all the upside in the world on some level because he was, you know, physically talented, not a huge arm, certainly nothing like Josh Allen.

But they thought, well, you can kind of, he'll once he plays quarterback more, he'll have a better feel of how to play the position. But I don't know if, I don't know if that's something you can learn at the pro level. Well, I think scouts have doubts about that stuff too, not just analytics. Scouts questioned his field vision and his ability to go through progressions. So that's an issue. Should we go, should we go to a loser? I'll throw out a winner because we haven't talked exactly about Sequin Barclay. But the fact that he's now in the mix for the number one overall pick, the thing that stood out to me was, and this is so kind of surface level, but just listening to him do the interviews with the media and with Total Access and with Rich and Mike Mayak, I mean, when you listen to him, I mean, he does seem like about like the total package guy.

And if you're going to take a guy to be the number one overall pick or the number two overall pick, because I think the Giants could certainly be looking at him strong, you kind of want everything, you want him to be a franchise guy. And, I mean, he is just an impressive young guy. He's like the offensive, we had Miles Garrett last year, and on offense you're getting sort of that version. They say when he does running back things,

he looks like the best running back you've seen in eons. And when he does wide receiver things, he's doing stuff that some of the top wide receivers don't do on some level. And it's impossible to measure kind of what, you know, who wants to be the best pro, who's going to, once they get to the pro, really want to be, like, the greatest of the greats. But everything that you hear about him and his interviews and if you want to throw intangibles

in there, it seems like he's got all of that. So you can see why he'd be so tempting because you would have to feel if you're a GM, like, I'm not going to miss on this guy. Like, I could miss on the other guys. There's literally no piece of information that somebody could bring to the table. say you don't want Sequin Barclay on your football team? Not yet. No, not at all. I mean, one other guy I throwed as

Bradley Chub because they talk about him as in other drafts. He'd be clear, outside of Barclay, but he would be really in the mix for the top overall pick. And in this whirlwind of quarterbacks and Barclay and even Griffin and everything will happen, completely forgotten this weekend, I feel like,

but blew away his combine and someone's going to land him at somewhere between like three and six maybe. Maybe the Jets again. The Jets I mean, I'm just saying, like, they're going to get the guy that could have been another years, a totally qualified, successful number one overall dude. It's a good draft. I want to throw out some winners?

There's always guys I've never heard of when this comes up because I don't really watch college football. DJ Moore, a wide receiver from Maryland, whom I had never heard of before Saturday, and I saw Matt Harmon tweenied about him, and I always trust what Harmon has to say about wide receivers because he studies him so intently. And this guy, everything I heard. after that was phenomenal. This guy, it seems like a can't miss guy at wide receiver,

had a great combine, and then when that matches sort of what people are seeing on tape, he seems like a guy who will be flying up draft boards. Any losers from the scenario? It's tough. Maybe we shouldn't put it on these guys. Well, the poor guy Maurice Hurst who had to leave with a heart condition, I'll throw that out there, just because that's terrible news.

and you hope that everything's okay, but he was a defensive tackle out of Michigan that was expected to go in the first round, and maybe he still will. Similar things have happened with players, Star-Lodaleigh, Nick Fairley, who ended up popping back up, but these guys still ended up getting drafted pretty high.

So maybe it's not that big a deal, we'll see. I don't think it's about us tagging someone as a loser, but it was impossible not to hear the assessment on Orlando Brown. I mean, Bucky Brooks said it was, in quotes, one of the worst athletic displays I've ever seen at the NFL scouting Heinbein. And that's, I mean, it's a tackle prospect who has NFL jeans and he just came in apparently, he was not prepared to shine. Hopefully he gets a chance to light it up at the pro day because it wasn't super impressive. I don't, I, tackles at pro days, you're going to have to

remind me of Andre Smith. You know, what was that about seven, eight years ago when, yeah, he was just kind of flopping, flopping all around. Very famously, he needed like a sports bra for that work. Yeah, I always feel like I need to take a shower after the analysis on this stuff. No doubt. It's just like, it makes me feel kind of dirty listening to people analyze bodies in that way. Well, with that, I think that's a nice little capper to our combine. Ah, yes. I like that I'm going to be the one person that dropped like negative energy on some future. Oh, no, Audentate out of Florida State. Okay, there we go. He's a big body guy. He had some Florida State schedule you play against a lot of good talent. He scored a touchdown on Mika Fitzpatrick.

came to Indy and ran about a 4-7 at a 30-inch vertical. And, you know, he really didn't, he had a chance to make some money. And I don't think he... Yeah, it's more situational. Like Ronald Jones tweaked his hamstring and couldn't run the 40, and he was someone that was trying to vie to become the next running back off the board. But there's still plenty of time for that. I don't care that Sam Darnold didn't throw.

Should I? I mean, I guess you want to see him do that. But why are you waiting until now to find out if you find out, You can throw or not. It's not a big deal. We're over it. He'll throw. He'll light it up at the combine.

I mean, at his pro day, rather. And it's basically all, just kind of a precursor, all an appetizer to the main entree of this program. And that is trash takes. The people demanded it. It's back. Ew.

What's that smell? It's trash takes with Patrick Claibon. We even have a drop for it. And it's not just with Patrick Claibon. It's with, Patrick Levin, Chris Wesleyan, and Mark Sessor? The idea comes up, and Mark and Chris are like, I've got one. And so...

I'm not entirely sure how the segment works, but I have something that I'm annoyed with. No. Okay. Okay. It's one thing, one of the great things about this segment is that we'll never run out of resources. Yeah. People say, people have been saying dumb stuff since people. Yeah.

Since people came out. Since vocabulary. Mine is just one that I had to get to because it got so much reaction from everybody. I got to it late. It was a tweet from the Field Goals account. that said, you can't make fun of the Jaguars for having to pay Blake Bortle's $19 million next season unless you're giving equal ribbing to the Panthers for paying Cam Newton $21.5 million. Bortles is arguably the better passer of the two.

A tweet that spawned so much reaction that Chris Wessling. Yeah, this is, Claybide brought this up as a potential one, and I thought, oh, we need to do this because Chris sent a very almost apologetic tweet. to field goals after this and said, I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to unfollow you. It's an account that I've really respected and considered smart.

I don't know who's running the account on that day or not, but some smart guys have come out of field goals. Isn't Danny Kelly? Absolutely. They do a great job in general. I would say it's one of the best, the better team's sake. Yeah, but it's such a rotten, rotten tweet.

And it's a bad take, and it makes no sense. That was because my initial. So that's it. They're done with you. So did you unfollow? You unfollowed them? I haven't gotten around to it yet. Okay.

My only four-o-way into it, if I could say it, was, hey, we just got to find out which one of the guys sent this tweet, you know? And Chris comes in there just barreling in, like, with a parachute, like, no. I'm out. I'm out of the whole thing. You're out on the entire organization. That was perclimped. That's how I was very early.

First, like, five years maybe of Twitter or three or four years. If someone sent one really bad tweet, unfollow, you're done. And then, but then now you realize people can always re-follow them. Sure. People get their feelings hurt. Things happen. It's tough. They need their feelings hurt in this case.

Yeah, they do. First of all, you can't even argue that Blake Bortles was that comparable this season. And you have more than one season to look at. You have the entire decade to look at for Cam Newton. It's a ridiculous. Maybe like a young blogger named like. Even this season, they're not close. One of these guys was the MVP within the last three years of the entire

League, and then the other guy have one of the worst passing performances we've ever seen in a playoff game against the Bills. I would check out their Mastead. I mean, maybe there's like a Willoughby Bortles tucked away as like a late night blogger for them. But if you juxtapose

Cam's game against the Saints with Blake Bortle's game against the Bills, and it gets pretty gnarly. It's tough to imagine Blake in that Panthers game down at North. Sorry, we had to do it. It's a trash steak. I saw what they're going for. It turned out to be Trash. Confirmed, yes. Confirmed trash. Unfollowed, literally unfollowed. That used to be

the kind of the premise of this. Yeah, that's how it's going to, are you going to unfollow the person or are you going to mute them or what? This person's getting unfollowed by Wes. Wes, what is your trash take? This comes from Peter King's column on Monday. This is him paraphrasing. This is him paraphrasing sort of the negative surrounding, the perceived negative surrounding Josh Rosen. He's too smart for his own good. He's anti-jointed. He's anti-jointed. Trump into politics and cares a lot about the planet. Quarterbacks need to be myopic football only. This is absurd and it's endemic to the NFL and the culture they have created.

Could you possibly imagine an NBA GM worried that his top prospect might be anti-Trump or care about the planet? You can't be a pro planet. Because the business is, like, I totally agree that that would be something I would not care about. But when you work for who most NFL owners are, I think most NFL owners prove to us this past season that they are not looking for quarterbacks with super high-octane political takes. I agree with that. It's not probably even how scouts feel, but scouts have to think about the organization, their boss. And that's the problem.

You don't want a player to be too smart because if they're dropping back into coverage and they're trying to read, whether it's cover two or cover three, and you start thinking about the planet, right then? There's not enough time to react. There's not enough time for planet. But wait, are we saying that there's no aspect to this where they're working for typically very rich Republicans who run the entire shit?

I think you're letting scouts and GMs off the hook. A lot of them are politically conservative and narrow-minded. Maybe they are, but like a lot of scouts are also 23 and on the road eight months a year. I don't know what their political things are. It's less about politics, I think, than just having other interests and intelligence that they almost are somehow threatened about by an athlete with a lot of opinions. NFL coaches don't really like challenges. They don't want to embrace a guy who's going to be a challenge.

A guy like Josh Rosen, who, you know, his senior year in high school was out doing the same stuff that Peyton Manning was doing at the line of scrimmage. And his coach said to him, you don't need to wear your intelligence on your sleeve. And Josh Rosen said, you know what? I needed that ego check. And at several steps along the way, he's gotten ego checks, and he's smart enough to put those to use. And I think there's a nuance about Josh Rosen. There's a complexity about him that a lot of NFL coaches who are just going along for

the ride don't want to deal with that complex. They bring up that he, and this is another thing that I feel like has popped up a lot in the last couple drafts is that quarterback X, or even player X, but quarterback X comes from a wealthy family. So it doesn't need football or has never needed football the same way that someone else would. That also is an incredibly massive assumption about the complex chemistry that makes Josh Rosen who he is. That's ridiculous. Give me a break. It's dumb. Josh Rosen, his interview was great at the Combine.

Baker Mayfield, who everyone had issues with. All you heard was day two, day three. The teams love Baker Mayfield behind the scenes talking to him. So it's all trash on some level. Right. I mean, well, Peyton Manning, he did grow up, you know, coming from the other side of the track. So I do think. I think that there is some similarity between Rosen and Peyton Manning that they are both very intelligent, especially on the field. Rosen's even smarter than Peyton Manning, probably by quite a bit. But he's, Peyton Manning is very single-minded, driven about football being the center place of his life. And Josh Rosen seems to have more interest, which makes. him a much more fascinating human being to me, but I can see how coaches might question that a little

bit. I would say if your political or just general life ideology is so fragile that a 23-year-old working for your team is going to cause issue with that, then maybe you should reevaluate the way that you look at the world. But I think Josh, like as far as the criticisms of Josh, you take out some, you know, absurd things people have said about Lamar Jackson. Like, Josh has really gotten hammered through this process for literally just saying pretty basic main, like the idea that the planet, like, he cares to. Exactly. It's preposterous.

And so, like, it's preposterous. It does get me thinking, though, I like that this rookie class, I think, is going to add some spark to the league, which we could use that. Yeah, much good. Between him and Mayfield and then Josh Allen, who I think is just going to cause reactions. That's good. There's quarterbacks in the NFL that have to hide that teams need to hide to keep people from asking them questions. I don't think you would ever need to hide Josh Rosen from answering a difficult question. He refuses to be anyone else other than who he is, which is admirable to me in a league where nobody says anything interesting.

Right. And that said, we don't know him personally either. So it's like we're all just gleaning everyone else's facts and takes. But you don't. You know him. Big time for him. On the tennis circuit. I'm sure that's accurate.

Rose in. Rosen. What's his favorite football team? Any more breaking news you have to, you want to share with us? Dallas guy, UCLA Brew. At age 12, he was the number one ranked tennis player in all of the, there you go. Wow. Maybe you were friends with them. Another thing we have in common. All right, we're running out of time. Trash steak, final one. Mine is not, I have a completely, this does not fit, nor is it nearly as deep and nuanced as the previous one. I just simply, it's more not what people are saying, but what they're doing. And it has to do with men who are still wearing neckties. I feel like it is, I am really annoyed with men's fashion in

general. And I've been thinking about this, talked a few people out about it at the Combine, and you're doing it with your actions. You're saying, oh, when I'm told I need to dress up or something, I go put a necktie on. And it's a clothing item that has literally zero meaning at this point in our society anymore. It's not some tradition that most people even care or know where it came from. It's personally something when you were a kid. Oh, you're going to a wedding you're going to church or it's time to dress up to go to aunt shelley's event whatever she's doing you have to put a tie on and it's a clip on tie and then we're going to teach you how to tie a tie no concept or acknowledgement that it is one of the most stupid things that you could put on your body

it doesn't look good it looks rather stupid i don't think it does i am done with ties and i think that inspired this i felt this way about men's clothing for ages and i just think one of the things Even at NFL network, I noticed it. It's like, oh, wait, you talk all, we talk all week, and we talk up here, but occasionally when they throw us, when we've had to go down to do it. It's like, oh, well, now you're going into this other room, put on a sports blazer and a tie, and now what is that saying, that now suddenly your opinion has more to give? You have more to give?

It's a construct. Blow it up. It's TV. I agree with you. I agree with you on everything except the fact that it doesn't look good. I think it does look. They can look good occasionally, but I really. really just don't think that the trash take society i think no by by the actions that we still

are like clicking our mind i'm going somewhere dressy i must put a tie in or someone another man is telling me i have to wear a tie and so i do it which is weird that it like you're a 40-something years old and another grown human person is telling you what to put on you could easily say no i mean at this point the grown person is society and it's like we don't we don't bloodlet anymore there's plenty of things that we if an alien comes down and says hey why do you wear that tie how am I going to rationalize this to this being that has... I'm hiding my buttons. Yeah, I mean, you could get pretty deep into it, clothes in general.

Or buttons bad? I don't know, but you've got to figure that's why... There's a lot going on. I don't think... I believe 100% West that when you say you liked the way it looks that you do, and that's why... Because you've often said, I'm not even going to the holiday party because I don't want to dress up. So you obviously don't bend to another person's fashion take, but I don't think that the majority of men who are... and just in the habit of wearing ties do it because of a great urge they think it looks good.

I do not. I think unless that's, I think many of them do it because they're told to. Yeah, I like it. I like either totally casual or like a suit. I hate when we're like in like a dress shirt and then jean, I don't know. Like it's all terrible. I'll say 100% the reason that I wear a tie is I want to avoid fashion conversations that are critical of me. And so I wear a tie on air because I don't want somebody to ask me why I wasn't wearing a tie. That's literally the only... I get it. That tells you the man is hovering, ready to critique.

That's our theme to the show. Well, we live on the West Coast, so we have it pretty good. The standards out here are much looser than they are in the Midwest or on the East Coast. Well, I'm glad, you know, much like Colleen not quite understanding the rules of different segments,

Mark threw that out there. Because even though he didn't understand the rules, it was fire. Way off. It was a hot take. All right, we will be back this week. Two more shows, Wednesday and Friday. The franchise deadline is Tuesday, so we'll have some news coming out of that. We'll have some cuts. We'll see what else is happening.

I don't know if Colleen is joined us. She's usually in on Wednesday, so hopefully she is. That would be good. But what a treat this was to have Claibon in the house. Thanks. I missed you guys. All right. See you guys.

Thanks for coming back. All right. For Patrick Claibon, hit the music. Mark Sessler and Chris Wesley. I'm Greg Rosenthal. We'll see you Wednesday. Done. Come on.