NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Comedown Players of the Year

Episode Date: June 5, 2019

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler are joined by Patrick Claybon to bringing you the latest news around the NFL including Aaron Rodgers lackluster beer chug (5:49), the Panthers signing Gerald McCoy (9:18), and Packers coach LaFleur coaching in a golf cart (13:18). We always talk about comeback players of the year, but what about players that had an impressive season last year that might be on the decline? The heroes list their comedown players of the year. (36:18)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 Around the NFL podcast. Fangirls over Freddy Kitchens. 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, Patrick Claibon, and Greg Rosethal. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan.

Nicely done, sitting in the West chair. Wes, I believe, yes, he is back from his honeymoon, but... Oh, really? Is he? Yep, because Lakeisha is in the lineup for the Shield softball team tonight. West, though, on the seven-day I-L with some type of chest cold. So he came back from Mexico ill. Not great to hear. But what we do know is that he took all this week off and good for him.

He'll enjoy it and hopefully get well soon. And Patrick, I just, right off the top. You know, I just want to talk about how I... I don't know. We were talking about music, and then I asked Claibon, when you were young. Claibon's a few years younger night. What are you in your mid-30s, right? Yeah.

What did you listen to when you were, you know, teenagers? Significantly younger than you. Well, you, yes. I already know where you're going with that, but that's still content, so. What did you listen to? What was the music that you liked? And your answer was? Yeah.

Bad Hair Day was my first CD. Weird Al. Weird Al Yankovic. And I, because Weird Al, a famous kind of parody music artist, the parody music artists of our times but I didn't know if Patrick was joking

you know some people were a little you know a little closed in about what the music they like because it's kind of revealing a lot about themselves no Claibon is just being totally honest his favorite musical artist is weird Al Yankovic you learn something new every day yeah it's tough for me to partake in a lot of people's

music discussions because people are so incredibly passionate about it and it's like well this means this to me it's like oh well you you know this album is that's normcore and I like Pop Verdeh or whatever there's so many genres and stuff and I just I like to you know listening to

a guy who made jokes and even now in 2019 you go back a lot of stuff stands up and it's not like super problematic jokes and you can go back and weird else so he's still at the top of your list yeah I I enjoy a guy who

wasn't too serious about everything he would be deemed somewhat problematic as a fat shamer for some of his 80s work. For sure. And it's like every chapter that opens. Eat it, of course. Not in the 80s that no one was saying that.

No, not not. Eat it was a smash hit. Yeah, I was about nine years old for that. And that was right in my... Wasn't that 88? Six or seven. Making up numbers. Wasn't that 88?

No, not even close. But he did fat, which was a parody of bad by Michael Jackson. That was around 88. That's what I was saying. Oh, my bad. Oh, my bad. I'm confusing them all. We have come a long way and we've grown as a society,

but I still love. I still love Weird Al Yankov. And then I told Claibod, my first concert was Weird Al opening for the monkeys. And we had a legit moment. Our eyes connected. Dan and I are closer now. And now we're going to get lunch together after the show. My first concert was Blues Travel, but what was your first CD though?

Because it was around what, 89 that CDs hit? I would imagine, Dan, you were in the CD buying industry back then? I wasn't for, again, you're much older than me. You're a nine-year-old, cannot buy a CD? Five years. Not until I was, like, 13 or 14. I think it might have been 10 by Pearl Jim. Mine is, I want to say this would sound embarrassing,

except that I still love this artist, and so does Dan. Phil Collins, but seriously. So why would it be embarrassing? I'm just saying, I can think, well, oh, Phil Collins, it's like, but I bought it and listened to it like a thousand. I think Phil Collins is, it's great. Collins' appreciation, I think, is come around. You know what?

But to his thing on music, like, a lot of times when I mention someone that I like, I just prepare for a wave of snobbery. Orision, yeah. Basically, like, it's hard to hit the sweet spot. Oh, the damage checks of the world, the Matt Money Smith. They're like, like, or like, well, how about whatever I like is what matters. That's where we will begin. Is pavement a real band?

They are. Oh, yeah. They are. They have no problem with pavement, but the music. I want to go see, you know, the reunion in Barcelona next year. That would be a nice little tour, nice little trip. all right you're not going

you won't be able to pull it off but if you will send us some video all right big show coming up with Claibon we are going to talk about all right

we do comeback players of the year predictions on the show and perhaps if we want we could throw some in on today's show I think that's a different show or we could save

for another show but what today's show is about come down players of the year who are the players that enjoyed, you know, saw their careers shoot to dizzying heights in 2018 and it's going to come down a bit. And it doesn't mean it's going to go through the floor and their

careers are going to be over. And certainly we're not predicting injuries or anything terrible like that. But just guys that may be a, how about this, a regression to the mean? I mean, I'd say even this podcast has had some years where we really peaked and then the next year coming down a little bit and you got something to work on it. The next year after that. That'd be a good show. That's well put, Mark. You guys wrecking the years of the around the NFL podcast. Well, I don't know if it's a great idea. Yeah, we're like barely above the Dalton scale of podcasts right now.

All right, so that's what we're going to get into. Come down players of the year. But before that, let's do some news. Yeah, I kind of said what I said. If you want to go scotch, I feel pretty good about it. As far as those other guys, you know, for some of them, there's finally a talent where they can say they're better than me at. Boom. That is Aaron Rogers. Speaking of Packers camp, asked about how he was shown up by his teammate Bacchiari and other quarterbacks around the league and beer chugging. And I have to say, I know, Mark, you're not on the same page. I really enjoy Aaron Rogers. I probably wouldn't enjoy him as much as if he was my teammate from what we hear. But I really do like his sense of humor and the way he's dry and kind of always.

winking, but never really letting people in on the joke. He follows that up. People ask, you know, there was a follow-up question about a ongoing competition with some of these guys that have been veer chugging. This is what Roger's response was. I think we need to be smart about the example we're setting for kids. A lot of kids watching. If we're going to start highlighting and glorifying Ben's drinking, you know, we need to be

very careful about that slippery slope. And that to me is hilarious because it's all tongue and cheek. He's basically kicking all the pearl clutching calmness out there that took this beer chugging fun and said this is what the kids shouldn't be seeing. So I like Aaron Rogers. And it slides in the, hey, like, just so that you remember, I might be the most talented quarterback to ever play this game. So calm down.

Like a bit of a subversive flex there. And both of them served a couple of different purposes. Like, hey, it's not that serious. And be like, why is chugging beer that important to see? so many of you guys that it's like this side of masculinity. Are you commenting on toxic male masculinity as well? Maybe. I just don't know why.

So many, Mark, so many layers, Aaron Rogers. I like the tongue and cheek comment, but from another angle, nail the beer. You're on camera, nail it. Get it done. It's like, I don't think that it's. Are you, like, good at chugging water even? No, I'm not. I'm not an NFL quarterback on camera.

Like, there's another side that just says, just get it done. Like he's a part, he was a part owner of the team, and he was partaking in a little thing on the JumboTron. Right. I don't get it. He's a little bit of a different guy. We know that. He mentioned, you know, if we're drinking scotch, I could probably hold my own.

But I'm not personally, I'm not like a beer chugger. You might find that surprising. I might look like the guy that could chug a beer, but I've never been that guy myself. But some people, they just shoot it straight down. The first time I went out on a date with Simone, my wife, and she was only a few years removed from college at that point. and I like did it got into one of these hideous like she was around all her like old sorority and frat friends I'm like what am I doing in this room first of all awful scenario and we was a beer chugging thing and I was awful at it like Dan and she absolutely coursed through like three beers no problem I was like she has a special skill that I've never known about you have two children with that woman well she's not doing that today but I mean we yeah I remember we once had to this is ridiculous but chugged like a bottle of mad dog 2020 in college

Which is a great way to, like, end up on the pavement outside during Mardi Gras. Pavement's the only man that matters. No, the, there could be an oral history on your, your pledging days. Because it's, it's somewhat surprising you survived it, the way they abused all the people in your class. Oh, I was one of, I was in good shape. Some other people crumbled mentally. I was, you know, I could take a beating. Let's get into it.

Let's get into the news. Gerald McCoy. This came shortly after we signed off on Monday. After visits with the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens, Gerald McCoy met with the Carolina Panthers, and that's where he signs. The defensive tackle signs a one-year deal with Carolina. Rapsheet reported this.

He'll earn roughly $8 million, can make up to $10.25 million based on playing time and sack incentives. Six-time pro bowler, made his bones with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and now he's on a Panthers team that he sees as a contender. He said that leading into the signing process. He wanted to sign with the contender.

He sees Carolina as a contender. What do you think about this fit, Greg? I think it's a great fit, and it's potentially a really intriguing defensive line with the rookie Brian Burns now added to the mix, Kwan Short, Duntary Poe. That's kind of the Mario Addison is still. still there, the Panthers teams of old that we thought, but the other thing that I thought

with this was it was kind of an old school free agency tour, where he actually chose the team that he felt, you know, fit the best. This is what they used to do in the 90s or early 2000s a little bit more. He tried out the Ravens and the Browns, and according to Rapture, he actually took less money to go with the Panthers because he kind of just liked the fit and the vibe and the defensive and the city, he said, in the defensive kind of mindset that they have there. I thought he had three good choices because had he gone to Cleveland, we would be saying that defensive line

is now completely peaked. We've never seen anything like that from Cleveland before. If anything, they didn't even need him. I would argue that they, with Larry Oaken Joby there, that they really probably were not the team that needed them the most. But for me, this is something that shows, again, to Greg's point, that the tour matters because he said that this was the place where,

and I don't know what happened in Cleveland and Baltimore, that Panthers' teammates came and took him out to dinner and then he got a first-hand look of what that defensive chemistry was like and that it helped tip the scales. And it wasn't just a money thing. It reminds me on a much lesser scale of when Reggie White kind of cracked open free agency for the first time and went from city to city to city before picking the Packers for the right reasons.

Clear this up for me. What has this traditional tour been replaced by? Just signing a player without ever going to the facility. Or free agency doesn't even start in. We already know players go into place. It's been replaced by the agents just making a deal and talking to the player and they just pick the best. This makes a lot more sense to me.

And just in terms of having a choice and being a part of the process, Gerald McCoy went into this at a point where he still had those 21 quarterback hits last year, which is the same amount he had in his all pro season, and that was on a miserable defense. There was still interest in him as a productive football player where a lot of times the way that the CBA and everything is structured now and teams aren't willing to take chances on veterans, it's like, hey, man, this is the team that you got,

and they're the only ones that want to sign you. Right, but even the highly touted guys, like Zadaria Smith wasn't going around and checking out tours. He just got the best offer from the Packers, and that thing was done before Free Agency even started, and that's kind of how it goes. But McCoy, you know, he's later in his life. He seems like a really smart, interesting guy, too.

And I think he was thinking quality of life. And I think it really sounded like Ron Rivera and staying in the South in general, like was a comfort for him. And I wonder if the age, the respective ages of his teammates on the defensive line had anything to do with his choice. He's going on with a group of veterans who have been in the league in certain different situations versus, you know, in those AFC North teams where the guys were a little bit younger.

Gets to take on his old team a couple times a year, including in London this year. He'll have to wait a year to make a return to Tampa. As Greg said, they'll play their game against the Bucks this year in London. Moving on, Matt Lafleur, tough setback for the first year Packers coach, who was playing that old game, a knockout. Great game, great playground basketball game. It's where you shoot the foul shot, and if you get it,

you grab the ball and get back to the line, and you've got to make it for the other guy shoots his foul shot. But if he misses it, he has to grab the rebound, put it in. There is a lot of stopping and starting and sprinting. And what happened is 39-year-old man, Matt LaFleur playing that game, his Achilles Pops. That sucks. He undergoes surgery on Sunday. And unfortunately, that means he'll be severely limited in his mobility.

He showed up at Packers' minicamp this week in a souped-up golf cart. And that's how he'll coach the rest of OTAs and mandatory mini-camps. and I imagine into training camp, although maybe he'll be on crutches or something by July. Either way, it was kind of a funny subplot or it was kind of described that way, oh, how silly, knock out. But that sucks.

This is a guy that's trying to get established on the sideline, be a hands-on coach, show what he can do, and this is not going to help him. It reminds me the one other instance of this that I can recall was when Don Shula, in the final weeks of the 1990, season back when Greg and Dan were like eight and I was 47 according to them. He had tore he ruptures Achilles too

and the age is still on your radar after all these shows. It's brought up every five seconds on the show when I look just as long young as both of you. Whoa, there we go. There it's going out. But how about this? Don Shulat did not look so young and he was this sort of aging coach roaming up and down the dolphin's sideline

during these critical late season matchups and into the playoffs on this slow-moving cart. In the NFL behind the scenes, I went back and looked at there were some reports that the NFL was a little annoyed that Shula wouldn't just go up into the booth, but he wanted to be down with his players, the same issue, LaFloor faces.

But I found this quote where this one NFL official privately remarked to Larry Guest of the Orlando Sentinel that you can imagine the uproar of, say, Steve Young had injured himself crashing into Don Shula's damn cart. And then later on, the fact that there was a playoff game in San Diego, with some wet surface

where they went on to lose to the Chargers because the Chargers went on to the Super Bowl that year that they wanted no one on the field to practice before the game but Shuler insisted

on going out on the field and going up and down the sideline before the game on his cart and causing all these issues in the field and they're just like can we please put this man

up in the booth at long last and he refused to. And I think LaFleur got some grief he had one cart that didn't look too good and then he kind of brought out

a more souped-up one. How souped-up are we talking here? The next day. I don't know. That's what Roger. It goes 90 miles an hour. Roger said, and he also said he had a tumble, he had a scooter and had a little tumble on the scooter before they went to the golf cart.

Rogers read out a pre-written script to say, I want to say Matt Lafleur is a highly athletic former athlete who had an unfortunate accident in the gym. But because of an exceptional diet and work ethic, he'll be back sooner than later. As a fan, by the way, of knockout, what a great game for, like, like a five-foot-five guy. The sneaky killer. In terms of basketball. I love that.

Knockout is the person that's in front of you that can't pass. And so they'll throw you this miserable pass. And you'll have to reach to get it. And then it just sets off a whole chain of events. I'm sure there's probably somebody to blame for Matt Lafleur's. This reminds me of when Daniel Jeremiah tore his Achilles playing basketball in his late 30s a few years ago. It's a dangerous time. We have to have our head on a little, Greg.

Eye opening moment. As a little guy, you're saying, because you didn't have. to box anybody out there's nobody under the glass necessarily to fight for the one was all about wind and just shooting there's no your height didn't get in your way at all those things you could do as a short basketball you did well in our pig contest during west's bachelor weekend i thought right moving on the cleveland browns a little bit of drama in brown's camp centering on running back duke johnson who reminded everyone on the first day of minicamp that he wants out um he skipped voluntary workouts last month after the brown signed cream hunt he was in cleveland on tuesday uh but

doesn't mean he's in only different here's a quote only differences this is mandatory nothing has changed johnson um has said that he uh john dorsey the brown's GM had shopped him for a month before he made his trade request there's nothing the team can do at this point to change his mind he wants out um that led to baker mayfield who had this to say to the assembled media You know, it's self-inflicted. It is what it is. It's not awkward for anybody else in this building. He's got to do his job.

He said he's a professional. I hope he does his job. And Freddie Kitchens had this to say. He wants to be traded, you know. I want to win the lottery. All right. So it doesn't matter. He's a Cleveland Brown.

He's under contract. He's going to be used to the best of his ability and what benefits the team. People are annoyed with Duke Johnson. I'm kind of annoyed that they're annoyed with Duke Johnson. Like, at this point, because both of these guys said it is what it is, which effectively doesn't mean anything, nobody's saying anything when they say that. I think Duke Johnson was reacting to the fact that he was on the trade block, said, all right, yeah, if you guys want to trade me, then let's have some discussions. They didn't ultimately trade him.

And so he's asked the question, hey, do you want to be traded? Yeah, I'd still be traded. and somehow this is creating a thing when what's the actual problem, I don't know that there is an actual problem. Right, Baker-Mayfield, I have a feeling, won't. I wonder as he gets older, he'll maybe not think it's even worth

getting into someone else's pocket like that. I was just about to say the same thing. I wonder if 10 years from now, Baker Mayfield is doing things like talking to the media about this or fighting with Colin Coward on social media, things that he probably doesn't need to be involved with, but at this stage he feels that he has. Well, Duke got some bad timing.

He signed a three-year contract less than a year ago. And so the- And it was not a good contract. If you go look at it, I would say it's not a great contract. Yeah, it was a team-friendly for sure. And it wasn't a great contract. And then the coach, you know, that was there when he signed that contract's no longer there. They put him on the trade buck.

They signed Kareem Hunt. But they're going to use, I mean, Duke Johnson's a pretty valuable player for them. Well, you don't have Kareem Hunt until deep into the season. And if anything happens to Nick Chub, you suddenly have no one at running back, essentially. So they do need him. I don't, like, Duke Johnson has vocally talked about himself as a featured back since he hit the league because of his very successful career at Miami.

And he has, if you look at him from a certain collection of statistics, he has been a pretty solid NFL player, better than solid in certain statistics. Yet his volume as a running back has never really carried out. He did not beat out Isaiah Crowell for a featured role. So I think they're in a bit of a place. I think they couldn't trade him. They didn't find anyone that wanted him for what they wanted to give him away for. But I don't really have a big problem with – I know I was on Twitter yesterday.

Everyone's all upset at Baker Mayfield for saying something. I don't know. Like, I guess from the perspective of a Browns fan that watched 34 previous, like, ultra breezy quarterbacks, not really call out anyone on the team for any reason. I don't have – this is Baker Mayfield, and the experience includes this, and it includes the good stuff too. You can't just slice off. I wouldn't say, I'm definitely not killing him.

I think it does when the star quarterback inserts himself into it, it makes it a bigger story. Do you want to make something like this a bigger story? No, I don't. But I think it's, I don't know how the whole media thing works out. When they put Duke Johnson out there on June 4th, this story was inevitable. You're going to get this.

Is that what they wanted? It was not the first person I would have put out there to talk to begin with. And the thing that I come back to, does any of it actually matter? Does this affect the Brown's wins and losses or is this, would we just be talking about something else? No, he'll be out there when it's mandatory in camp and he'll be, you know, a nice role player on a good looking off. Let's move on the end of the road. Happy Trails to Navarro Bowman, who stopped by Niners, the Niners facility this week and told the team that he wanted to retire as a member of the 49ers, the team he played his first seven. plus years. Bowman is a really sad story of this decade of the NFL to me.

He came into the league as a third round pick and instantly was perhaps one of the best defensive players in the league, not perhaps he was, one of the best defensive players in the league, arguably the best linebacker in the league. He was named first team all pro four times, three pro bowl appearances, really was the heartbeat of that great Niners defense that went to three straight NFC title games starting with the 2011 season. The last game they appeared in is when he suffered that horrendous knee injury. It was really a gruesome play near the goal line. And he missed the entire next season, came back. He got another all pro, maybe a little bit more on reputation, then bounced to Oakland out of the league last

year. So it was a knee injury that from a Hall of Fame trajectory to his career essentially being over a few years later. So a sad story in that sense. But still, he was a success story is a third round pick and the Niners will no doubt put him in their ring of honor or some such honor in San Francisco. Had one of the best stadium closing plays of all time. That would be a good list. I mean, we're hurting for content on NFL.com on June and July. The best stadium closing plays.

Certainly Vinatari's kick kind of stands out, but Bowman had the pick six against the Falcons. It was in the red zone to put them in the play. playoffs on the final game ever played at Candlestick. It doesn't get much better than that. Like a pick six to win the game with about a minute left. You know the nickname for it, right?

The pick at the stick? The miracle at the stick? No, it's not the miracle. It was a little less than a miracle, but... The pick of the stick? Is that what it is? The pick at the stick. I like that.

I'll always think about him and Patrick Willis together. It's a pretty special linebacker group that one guy retired early and the other guy had an injury and it's just how fleeting success can be and how we need to kind of appreciate these guys when they're in special. Right.

The red zone, the other red zone play that stands out is that, you know, I think people forget that Falcons 49ers NFC championship game where the Falcons get into the red zone. They look like they're going to go win the game and they do not end up scoring. It was Patrick Willis, I think, with the past deflection at the very end.

But the two of them were just that way. It was tough to get around those two. It was tough to get to the outside on those. Is that when Roddy White and Richard Sherman were jawing? There was a long touchdown. I'm trying to think if that was the game you're talking about. No, Sherman. I mean, it was 49.

Oh, sure. I just remember the noise in that game was insane. And it was Kaepernick having to deal with incredible noise. Yeah. And in the end, it looked like the Falcons might make a comeback and pull a really big comeback to go to the Super Bowl. But Willis and Bowman helped block it down. All right.

Let's move on. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, he was at Jim Kelly's charity golf tournament outside Buffalo, New York, and he touched on again something that's come up repeatedly in recent years. He reiterated his stance. He wants to reduce the preseason schedule at a time. Now the league and players association have begun preliminary talks toward a new CBA. Here's what Goodell said. I feel like what we should be doing is always to the highest quality. and I'm not sure preseason games meet that level right now.

I'm not sure talking with coaches that four preseason games is necessary anymore to get ready for a season to evaluate players, develop players. There are other ways of doing that, and we've had a lot of discussions about that. The NFL, they back the idea of reducing the preseason, but there is also the other end of it. Where do those two games go? Well, the idea of expanding to an 18-game regular season,

something the players, Claybon, are against, citing both health concerns. It's already a grind enough, 16 games, and also the idea, well, if you want to have us do more work, you've got to pay us more for that work. So this, to me, could be the thorniest or among the thorniest issues as the CBA approaches.

And that's what jumps out to me is as the CBA approaches. And it seems like around this time, discussion about adding games to the schedule seems to come up. And it's almost like a pre-negotiation tactic like, oh this is the thing we care a lot about we care a lot about this and then once the conversation starts it's oh well we're going to have to give up on this thing that we really really care about guys but hey you know we'll keep the same money split and then things go back to normal so i just it's tough for me to to kind of latch on to the idea when when it feels like an early negotiation tag

well you know the marijuana policy is certainly something i think the league could you know And I feel the same way about that. Right. That's what I mean. They could use that as a negotiating. But it's a little different. Like, Jay Glazer had it in his mail bag. I know you don't like that to be brought up on the show.

No, that's fine. But it's just a mail bag. Yeah, it's a mail bag. A mail bag. You said the email bag. In the athletic day. He does think that it'll be a two-game preseason in the next CBA. And whether it's Locunfora or Mark Maski of the Washington Post, you know,

does think that they're going to push that the 18-game season. and one idea that was floated out there was everyone but quarterbacks would play 16 games but the quarterbacks would play 18? What? So you're treating real football like fantasy football at that point?

Well, that basically that the players only play 16, you know, their body, who knows? It's interesting to me that the idea has... Wait, so player by weeks? Yes, additional player by weeks. What are we doing here? I think the much more likely possibility,

which seems to me like a... a relative no-brainer is just give every team an extra buy week, because that's an extra week of TV for everyone, and everyone gets two buys, and who is going to complain about that? And I think it's pretty logical. With the 16-game schedule? A 16-game schedule and two-by-weeks for every team.

Well, there was a year they had two-by-weeks. Right, a couple years, and people didn't like it for, I don't remember the reasons why that was back in the 90s, but that's a way where without, you know, if anything that's adding to player safety, It's adding, you know, money, which is it what everyone's concerned about, and it seems like a winner. I don't really like the idea necessarily. It's just like another...

Wait, what's the downside to the... Well, just another week of work for us. It's very selfish. Well, it's more than that if it's 18 games. Well, just one... No, 16 games, but 18 weeks. It can't happen. I would just say that the one snag, though, is that there are players that need the preseason.

And that's always been the issue. The product is, we get it. It is white-hot garbage compared to... The one thing about the... preseason it starts you're excited for it then by the end of week one of the preseason you're realizing this needs to end right now so i get the product not uh making sense with the rest of what the nfl offers but we also forget in the middle of june that when you get into some of these games even late november early december there are some trash bag scenarios happening on teams where we don't

need two extra weeks of like the most hideous third or fourth string quarterback squaring off on prime time against another hideous third string quarterback. Flipside teams that are, say, 7 and 8, then be dead otherwise, two extra games. They're still in the mix. Is this really what? Do fans really need two more regular season games, though? I do not personally.

Yeah, what's the problem that we're trying to solve that, like, the preseason is not as entertaining as it should? 16 games is perfect. Well, here's the problem, is that they charge full price for those tickets. Otherwise, there isn't any problem. But it's the time of year to bring up some wild things. They were talking about maybe making the field bigger. That's interesting to me.

Glazer throughout that one. What's going on? Glazer throughout that one. Let Vince McMahon do that stuff. The field's a little bigger. That would be good for player safety. It's an interesting thought. They could play with a Nerf ball.

An interesting thought. Because everyone's faster and bigger, it's not that crazy. Okay. Finally, on the throne of slees, the Patriots are looking to move on from the Granc era. And Austin Savarian Jenkins was to have to be a part of that movement forward. not anymore. He signed a one-year $895,000 contract on April 10th, but he wasn't at the team's mandatory minicamp Tuesday,

and it turns out he's been released. The Pat's Cut, Safari and Jenkins, who has some personal issues going on, and perhaps they revisit their relationship once that situation is taken care of, if it gets taken care of. But for now, S-A-S, no, wait, I got this, ASJ, nailed it.

Exits the picture. He still got Benjamin Watson, who they brought out of retirement, but he's suspended for the first four games. So you got guys like Matt Lacos, Ryan Izzo, Stephen Anderson, Andrew Beck. What is going on at the tight-end position for the defending champs, Greg? I think Safarian Jenkins was a long shot

to make the team regardless. For whatever reason, no one wants to get on board with the Matt Lacoss era. But he was the guy that they gave half a million dollars to guaranteed to sign with them. And he very likely will be starting week one, whether Ben Watson was eligible or not. He's more of a Dwayne Allen type.

You know, get excited. This is my weekly reminder that Seth DeValve will be on the Patriots come week one. Windows open now, wide open. I mean, every time, consider when I told you this five weeks ago. It was like, oh, that just seems like a little, that's a little bit ridiculous because we talked about Seth's... Classic Mark. And it was like two weeks ago.

I mean, it kind of fits if he gets cut, but no, probably definitely not going to happen. Now it's like, it's happening. Just lock it in. It's going to happen, though. Right. This feels like a premature celebration. When Matt Lacosz, you know,

essentially decides he's leaving the NFL to pick up a role as a shop right baggage handler. A script girl. Just wants to stay home a more comfortable life. Where is shop right? Are they around? East Coast.

We had a shop right in our town. It's just a classic grocery store scenario. Oh, yeah, they're around. Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. So it's topical. ShopRite was the supermarket of the town of friendly people per over. That's where everybody, you saw everybody at ShopRite. True story.

Is it a problem? We didn't have shop rights. I don't buy it. That's the slogan. It's right there on Route 304 on a big sign. All right. This Father's Day, give Dad a gift packed with the Omaha steaks. he craves, go to Omaha steaks.com and enter code around in the search bar for 74% off the Father's Day steak fix gift package.

Greg, you got some steaks in your freezer. You're supposed to grill them up a couple days ago. Your father-in-law was a big window wide open. Speaking of wide-open windows, your father-in-law, finally, he would say, I respect you. Thank you for the steaks. I put it on the grill and you have a great dinner. Getting him those tickets in Arizona to the Super Bowl, Patriots. That was big.

was actually the moment where I think he finally respected. But this would have been like, if he had any other doubt, you're showing up with the homeless states. Literally the first time I ever met him, he said, someday I want you to get me tickets to the Super Bowl. And at the time, I was working at rotoworld.com, you know, making less than, you know, the average,

I don't know, shop right employee. And it seemed like a long shot. And then, look, it happened. Yeah, but what if you've lost his respect since then? Now the stakes bring you back up a notch. Okay. I will. Yeah, he's cooking them today. We had a delay. but it's happening today. Yeah. So Greg's going to have some meat.

Put him to work. It's going to be great. Omaha steaks. They do it. The flay mignon, the sirloin, the pork chops, steak burgers, gourmet jumbo, Franks, the chicken fried steaks, the all beef meatballs, the chicken breast, the caramel apple tartlet. You got that Omaha steak signature seasoning, and you get four extra Omaha steak burgers free. That's all in the same package.

So check it out. Just go to omahostakes. com and type code around. in the search bar, that's Omaha steaks.com and type around in the search bar to get the Father's Day steak fix package today. Speaking of ShopRite and the one that was in the center of Pearl River, that was my first job. I got a job as a cashier at ShopRite, and it was the first time math really banged me in a big spot.

Of course, I got the 39 on the state mandated test in high school, went there, and back then there was a lot of cash. It was now everybody uses their cards. back then there was a lot of cash and mom's writing checks. Oh, yeah. And that was really how the game worked. And the big part of the end of the day, you had to balance the till. The till had to be balanced.

So there had to be the right money giving out. Sometimes mom would write checks. It was a $38 grocery bill. They'd type in 58 because mom wants that extra 20 in cash. Who knows what she's doing with it, but I'm giving it to her. But all that stuff made the till pretty hard to balance. And I failed to balance the till on three separate occasions, got me written up, and led to me eventually moving down.

You don't seem, it doesn't seem like they put you with your skill set into the best into the best role there, knowing that you are a hideous mathematician. Put you in the freezer. What was the total loss here? In the write-ups, it would say how much, it was usually like, they probably thought I was stealing money because I'm sure there were a lot of dirt bags

that would steal money. I was just handing out money that wasn't. Well, hold about this, but here's a chance to own. Probably like 20 bucks, 30 bucks. Did you ever steal any money? You can own up now and not be interested. Never. I would never steal cash from a business.

I mean, the word guide, though about Dan as an easy mark among kind of like the all the moms like the match stick man have you ever seen match stick men just kind of like the ones with who like to play some games are just like oh yeah hit up aisle 3 like you know write the check start saying a bunch of numbers he'll get confused would you ever get like nervous and start to sweat a little bit some of those like public facing roles I worked in the grand union and you have to deal the customer you know the answer just like I applied to stop and shop multiple times never got hired stop and stop is what they call it in shop please

well you have to nail the interview maybe you were a little I never even I never even got it I don't think really never got hired hmm all right let's get to it everybody knows comeback player competitive Claybond's looking at me I just why would somebody not hire a young Greg Rosenthal I don't know

well you were in an emo band at that point or whatever I don't know how like a teenage Greg Rosenthal would interview I never interviewed with them they never called me back those were competitive jobs because because you were competing with high school kids, but, you know, the regular workforce, too, and they paid better. Like, I ended up working at a golf course or whatever.

That paid you minimum wage at Stop and Shop. They'd pay you, you know, 10, 11 bucks. I wonder if it's an hour, 10, 11 bucks an hour. Minimum age was, like, a minimum wage was like $5 an hour. Okay, maybe it wasn't that. But they were well above minimum wage starting out. And so those were competitive. I had like five classmates working with me at Grand Union.

I mean, it must have been a different job, you know, workforce in my town. With 1G, I wonder if you would have got a response. Springfield was maybe a little bit more of a depressed economy at the time. So it was a little more competitive. I mean, Greg is rewriting history from multiple directions here to explain this. Bag boy is getting $12 an hour in 1995. You can go through a Springfield mass.

Tell me what you think. All right. Let's get into it. Come down players of the year. Like I said, players that maybe will have a regression to the me, come down a little bit. I'll get it going. How about that? I'll start things off.

And the reason I'll start it off because why not start at the very top of the game and I will say Patrick Mahomes and Patrick Claibon nods his head because yes, is it maybe an obvious pick? Yeah, maybe, but let's just talk about it because I do not think by any stretch

that Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs is going to crater this season. Absolutely not. But what I think would happen last year, and certainly it could be wrong, we could be dealing with a talent that is so transcendent that he's going to rewrite the record books. But more than likely, having followed the game for many years, it's probably more likely that it's a Dan Marino-84-type situation where this is a all-time talent that could go on if he stays healthy

and on the right track to have a Hall of Fame career in Mahomes. But like Marino, who in the 84th season, And the numbers are bonkers now because it's hard to remove it. You know, the time context is so important. When Marino threw for 5,000 yards and 48 touchdowns with a pass rating of 109 and throwing for 320 yards a game, that stuff was unheard of, nine yards per attempt. And that's kind of, if you look at what Mahomes did last year, almost the 1984 equivalent in 2018, what he did, which was 5,000 yards, about 5,100 yards, 50, 100 yards, 50,

touchdowns through the air, 9.6 yards per attempt, a QBR of 82, pass rating of 114. So what Marino did as a follow-up, it was great. He led the league in touchdowns, but he only threw 30 the next year. He was 41. He was the best quarterback in the league. He was still a great quarterback, but he didn't have that type of historic season. So that's what I'm thinking with Mahomes that, yes, he would be, he'll still be in the conversation for first team all pro he's still going to be maybe maybe the best quarterback in the league but and the reasons why oh because tyreek hill's not there that's why and maybe that's not going to help if hill's not playing but i really think it's more that mahomes did something truly historic last year that it's going

to be very hard for him to ever top could be wrong it'd like to be wrong well if he's in the mix for first team all pro then i feel like yeah that's not even i mean maybe it's a come down from where he was but that's what i'm saying that would be totally he's still going to be a a great quarterback. This is a little bit of a side note, but are we sure Tyree Kill is not going to be there? I know we're not supposed to... Well, it's a fourth, it's a factor to mention today. They've kept the window open. I just, as this is going on, and he'll face a league suspension, you would assume. But as this is going on, I think it's interesting how quiet the Chiefs has been. That's all, but we can move on. They also, you know, they had Kareem Hunt for part of last year as well.

You have, you have potentially lost at least one or two of these guys. And even if, even if they're able to maintain the success that Damien Williams had late in the season to replace Kareem Hunt, and even if Tyreek Hill is there, it was such a lightning and a bottle type moment for last year. Right. It's one of those special. I think he breaks the rules, though. We talked about him a lot in the offseason last year, and there was understandable chatter.

You know, are we hyping this guy up a little too much, you know, and we weren't doing it nearly enough. I do think he just kind of breaks all rules. So, yeah, maybe some of the numbers will go down a little bit. I still expect to believe that he's the best quarterback in the league. And he could be an even better football player, but still not have the success that he had last year. That was a truly special season.

And again, the parallel with Marino and Mahomes, both their second seasons, both at age 23. So, like, that's right. I think Mahomes, what we're looking at is the beginning of a Hall of Fame career,

but will you ever reach the heights of last year, which were insane? Greg, you're next. Well, now I feel like I got to take a big swing. Who do I got? I got a bunch of different names.

I think Drew Bree is going to start coming back to the pack a little. And that's, I guess that's where I'll start. Just because he was right there in the MVP talk with Mahomes. I don't think it was as crazy one-sided, even a race is now that we think about it. That his season was just so extraordinary and everything there has been great for so long. There's no real reason to think it's going to fall off a cliff, but can their offensive line stay as good and stay healthy? Can everything around Breeze, you know, be as just totally electric? Are the defenses in the NFC South going to get a little bit better?

I just feel like he's overdue to come down. And it does make a difference to me he's 40. It has to happen eventually a little gradual decline. Well, you're making the mistake I made several years ago with Tom Brady where you're not basing on anything else other than it's just got to happen. It's time for it to happen. Well, I'm basing it also on Breeze's career over the last five years, which has said some ups and downs, which I think, you know, you forget about.

There was four, about three or four years ago, I thought he was starting to make a decline. I forget if it was 2015 or 16, where he probably wasn't at his best. And he certainly wasn't at his best at the end of last season. I don't think he was playing his very best football then. So is he still a top 10 quarterback? Yeah, I would expect that. But I wouldn't expect him to be one of the top two or three quarterbacks in the league. That's expecting too much of someone his age.

And they could still be a great team if he takes a step back. They have enough talent on both sides. He doesn't have to be as supreme. extremely great as he was and that's why he can be tom brady 2018 that team won the super that's why what happened last year is so painful for saints fans for obvious reasons getting robbed by the officials the way they were but also such a perfect storm in a special season for them where they had there had everything cooking it and breeze having yet another elite all-time season and then it gets kind of it is amazing it was 2014 by the way that he threw 17 interceptions and

I don't think played quite as well that was like six five five seasons ago. It's amazing the career that he said. All right, Claybon, you're up. Okay, so last year, Aaron Donald had 41 quarterback hits. He was, in my opinion, the runaway best player in football, as he has been for the past few seasons. I still feel like Aaron Donald is the best player in football, but to have that kind of success even better than his previous years, there has to be some sort of drop off. And I, I, was almost going to make the same Mahomes pick that you did. And I figured, you know, got to swing fint big for the fences.

You know, I'm a replacement player just getting in here for the podcast again. You have a good war, though. You're going to strike out. I might as well swing hard and heavy. It's like Adam Dunn style. You're a three-outcome podcaster. For sure. And so it's just, he's been so dominant, 20 and a half sacks, it just has to fall.

He had the, it just has. The sacks have to fall. He had the defensive lineman equivalent of the baseball Triple Crown last year. He led the league with sacks, tackles for loss, 25, 41 quarterback hits. But the one thing I'll say, because I see him is different than Mahomes and that I just think that's who this dude is. Like, I can see him putting up two or three more years like this before he starts to get older. Right, so second, second, it's the highest Kubey hits he ever had, but the second most he ever had was 2015. He's done it four seasons now, and now he's getting to the point where, like, of course he's a Hall of Fame.

player, but he's putting together now a five-year run, which is starting to rival, you know, the greats of the great defensive linemen of all time. I do think the sack number, historically, I would guarantee that could almost be halved because he never had more than 11 previously. And if you look at the other dudes that topped out, Strahan went from 22.5 to 11 the next year. Jared Allen went from 22 to 12 the next year. Mark Yasino, way back when, went from 22. to 13 and a half, Justin Houston, 22 to 7.5, Chris Dolman 21 to 11, and Lawrence Taylor

from 20.5 to 12. So I think that from that one category, but I mean, we're not really saying those are all edge players. We're not saying like, oh, these guys' physical traits are going to fall apart, but there's some outlier seasons where you're going to come back to the mean a little. And when you've had this kind of sustained success, to a certain extent, he's dictating the draft processes in the West. Like teams are structuring them. themselves in terms of how do we deal with Aaron Donald. And there just has to be a drop off at some point. And like Greg said, put him in Canton.

Just go ahead and get ready to do it. I wonder, do you think JJ Watts' greatness has been overshadowed a little bit by Donald in recent years? Because if you look at what Watt did three, four, five years ago, you could argue it's even more impressive than what Donald's doing now. But now it seems like Donald is just recognized as the greatest defender of his I think to use one of your phrases, he's been adequately praised, at least in this room, J.J. Watt. In this room, yes. But I don't think he's been overshadowed. To me, I would even take Watt's very peak over Donald.

But what Donald's now put together four years at that insane level, which Watt couldn't do in a row because of injuries. You're up, Mark Sessler. All right. I looked for a player who last year kind of shot out of the skies to do something we hadn't seen him do before and why I don't think it's going to have. happen again. And it's Eric Ebron, who had 14 touchdowns last year for the cults after never, you know, and we understand Detroit was a much better fit to be in that offense within Indianapolis than anything that happened in Detroit. But he never had more than five. And there's other factors happening. There are, and you can take it as what you want for mini camp reports, that Mo Allie Cox is turning into a major factor for them. That's what part one. Also, Jack Doyle,

who played just six games last year, is back as well. And so the position is more crowded. And I think that Eric Ebron, nice season, solid player. But are we going to get anything like that again? And will he even be used or leaned on quite as much? I would say no. We are almost on this could alternate or also be accepted as a Mark Sessler fantasy corner segment. For those of you who saw what Ebron did last year and everyone is high on the cults and the idea, oh, he'll do it again.

Well, maybe not. Well, still high in the cults. I think they just have more people to spread it around to, too. And in terms of the touchdowns, 13 touchdowns for Eric Ebron, 1-5, 1-4 in his previous seasons with Detroit and just jumps off the page at you to have that kind of success because touchdowns are hard to predict, especially a tight-end in terms of unless it's Gronk or Travis Kelsey,

and even those guys aren't. Well, it's a great pick because it's like he wasn't even playing that much last year. He was very often playing 30 snaps a game. He was just kind of like a loaded up fantasy guy, but he wasn't playing that much more than the other tight ends on their roster. Let's go one more time around the horn. A little bit of a come-down speed round.

Rolls off the tongue nicely. I like it. This one, it doesn't bring me any joy to say a Hall of Fame player is about to play his last season, but that's what's going to happen with Adrian Peterson. who, despite a 1,000-yard season last year, he's the all-time come-back player of the year for what he did in 2012,

coming off the shredded knee and running for 2,000 yards the way he did, and he's going to Canton. But his 1,000 yards with Washington, maybe a little bit, I don't know, looks better on paper than it was in reality. If you looked at what he did on a game-to-game basis, I believe there was a 95-yard touchdown run

that helped juices yards per attempt average. and with Darius guys coming back from injury, there's some more options in the back field. This is a team in transition on offense, the Redskins, and despite the fact that Peterson is saying to the media this week that he's still setting his goal of 2,000 yards, and I don't think he should be mocked for that because he's an all-time great athlete,

and that's just the way his mindset is. I think it's more likely that he does not get the workload he maybe expects. I hope it doesn't end poorly, with him requesting a release or getting cut. But I just don't imagine him having a big part of this Redskins offense. And beyond that, maybe I don't want him to turn into the way Jamal Charles' career ended, where he's bouncing around and being on a team for three or four weeks that has injury issues.

But I would not be shocked if that's how Peterson's career wraps up. He's due for a come down. Sobering, guys. Never doubt Adrian Peterson. He'll just come and get you. I think if it does end and however it ends, he's going to finish things up in Washington. I just, it feels like this is the last.

Him getting, yeah, him getting that season last year actually felt like it was a nice kind of bow, you know, a nice bow on his career after what had been a couple pretty ugly years that he got one more year where everyone remembered. Oh, yeah, Adrian Peterson's probably the most exciting running back we've seen. What about you, Greg? I'm going to go

I'm going to sneak two in just because they're on the same team and cheat I'm going to go to Dante Fowler and Jared Gough of the Rams coming back to Ouch not a great segment for Rams fans I just feel like

Fowler's a guy who we've seen kind of what he can do throughout his career and he had a great five week run that's so he's just going to come down from those five weeks in the playoffs well he got paid got paid quite a bit

And Goff, I don't know, like I think he's absolutely solid NFL starting quarterback. And I've wondered throughout, like, is he a difference maker or is he closer to the Dalton scale? And we'll see, last year for much of the year, he did feel like a difference. Big year for him. Absolutely. Claibon. I'll step outside of the player realm and take a flyer on the premise and go with Matt Nagy. I like that.

I just, you know, Trayvon Hester, tip to kick. This was a team that had an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl. And there's just been a lot of turnover and a lot of change. Fangio is in Denver now. Asio. Fongio. I just, I don't see the success. I don't see the success this year.

I like that because I think it's hard for coaches to matter that as much as Nagy helped them a year ago. I think it's just hard for coaches to matter that much year after year. I just don't think they do or generally do. Like, he was giving them huge schematic advantages. And it's like how many coaches can do that year after year? It's almost impossible. We are on the same page because you had Aaron Donald, Patrick, and that was topping my list.

And my second was... Well, my second was Chicago's turnovers on defense. Kyle Fuller had seven picks, which was number one in the NFL. Eddie Jackson was second with six, and he also had two force fumbles and two touchdowns. And they leaned on that defense. in the turnover so hard. Chuck Pagano has never,

and his scheme, never had a player with the cults, have more than five picks. And most seasons, it was one, two, or three. It was just a lot less of that. And a lot of magic happened with Chicago. So there's more pressure on Nagy to make the offense go. You're putting them in the category of the 2018 Jaguars who had the massive season with the big turnovers

and huge plays in 2017. 2018, all that got cut in half. and when the quarterback couldn't step up. I think one of the most predictable statistics for teams going back to the mean is when someone, and Cleveland did this last year too, they jump out with a huge turnover plus margin scenario. You just don't expect, you can't really predict that to happen year after year. It's going to come back to the center.

It shows how slim the margins are because it was kind of that turnover that did them in. Eddie Jackson picked off Aaron Rogers and was trying to score a touchdown a meaningless touchdown because he likes to get in the end zone, hurts himself. and it really had an impact on the remainder of their season. It just like, the margins aren't that big between a lot of these contenders. What about one little Evan Silva-esque bonus? He has been tweeting about this.

He's been hot on this trail. The big fish. It's based on Patriots-centric information where Sony Michelle, Evan tweeted this yesterday, has not really been seen much at Patriots OTAs. They don't really know what's going on with them. And Damien Harris is, someone that they feel certain people close to the team

could be slotted in for a bigger role chewing away at Sonny Michelle's role. Sonny Michelle's already on the outs? Well, I'm not saying that, but they have a history of juking left when people think they're going to go right at running back, and maybe they are going to continue to maybe his carries come down a little bit. How will you recover from that, Greg?

I mean, I think that's fine. That would mean they just have other options. Yeah. They've got like four running backs. Keep Sonny Michelle nice and fresh, so if you need them to carry the ball, you know, 80 times in the playoffs like he did a year ago, he'll be ready to go. That's right. Why do these other teams need to get rid of their second choice at running back when the Patriots

consistently house four or five and use them all on the field at the same time? There won't be any games to play in January this year, Greg. You just got the 16. If that happens, I'm fine living in the past. It's a beautiful thing. Claibon, you came here, you said it all. And you've done it again. Just glad to get on the roster, you know?

Your war for this episode was 3.4. There we go. I don't know what that means. Yeah, I don't know what that means either. Like for a season for 162 games? I'm giving you 3.5? Yeah, it's... Just for this one game.

I don't know. What's a good war number? I don't know. Well, I hope it's close to 3.4. Otherwise, you've insulted our guest, but... Whatever a good number is. Well, I mean, if this is football, then that's huge. Those are quarterback numbers.

It's football. We're talking about football. Yeah. Dominance sparks score for you. I'm Brian Hoyer, baby. All right. We'll be back Friday with our third and final show of the week. So make sure you come back for that.

You know, how about on Friday? Let's check in on some iTunes reviews. So this is your chance. Get on there. Well, iTunes is dead now, isn't it? They just killed iTunes, the actual program, right? But you can still make comments on podcasts through your app. Apple Podcasts.

Go give us five stars and leave a comment. And we really appreciate that helps the show. and then we'll read some on Friday show and also we've got the subreddit which I believe is about 11,000 strong now so go to the round the NFL on Reddit and subscribe and be part of that community and root for the shield

who tonight faced Dollar Taco Playball! If you don't beat those guys, what are we doing here? Two five and two teams going after with huge playoff ramifications. Huge. You ball, Claybone? Whenever you guys need me, man.

Stan Hans is signing off for a quiet storm. Claibon, the old boss, and Ricky Hollywood behind the glass. Till Friday. This is an IHeart podcast.