NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Describing an NFL Team in One Word

Episode Date: July 30, 2018

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler & Chris Wesseling – bring you the latest news around the NFL including Sam Darnold signing a deal with the Jets (4:03), OT Brown’s extension with the Seahawks (08:15), and Dez Bryant’s social media meltdown (12:35). The heroes close the show with describing a team in one word while Marc struggles with the rules. (29:50)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. Watch them whip. Watch them, nay, nay. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast presented by New Era. Name is Dan Hansis joined. In a room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys?

Hey, Dan. Happy Monday. It's grind 30, Mark. It is. Worked yesterday, so it's already in the middle of my week. Grind 45. It's grind 45. Quarter to grind.

Big, big, big weekend. Greg, how was your weekend? It was delicious. Delicious. Sure, why not? That's good. Although I barely ate, so that's maybe not the right. Nice descriptive word, though, because later on in today's show,

we're going to use one word describing a team player situation after one week of training camp. delicious a nice way to describe the weekend even if it's not literally about food yeah it was just you know fun there's a lot to chew on very nice very nice there as well well done uh west how was your weekend it was delicious i made my 36 ingredient spaghetti sauce yesterday whoa 36 took all day oh i've got plenty i'll bring it in are you just throwing random things from the refrigerator in when you get past 25 ingredients well first of all that's how people should cook whatever's in your kitchen you throw it in that's how cooking has always been done.

This idea that you have to follow a recipe is ridiculous. It's like a Southern woman from 1912. Throw it in there, sugar. Get it out of taste. That's how cooking's done. That's the art of it. Like this idea that there's a recipe, you'll never be a good cook if you follow recipes

because you're doing someone else's cooking. Mark, you're a noted fooditarian, so maybe you wouldn't use delicious as a descriptive term, but maybe it would. How was your weekend? B minus C plus, tops. Okay. I saw your friend.

I have my gripes. Your friend, Nikki Glazer, at the Roast Battle. I went to the taping of Roast Battle. Did you say that you, Comedy Central? You worked with me and were best friends? Did you talk to her? No, it wasn't a deep conversation or anything. I saw your friend, Tony Jezelnick, at a...

RGVP. Jeff Ross taping a couple years back. I introduced myself. He was very nice. I said, hey, great. I work with him. That would have been a nice, like, comedian tradeoff there. Complete the circle of conversation.

Next time. Yeah, maybe next time. Yeah, so we got a good show coming up today. Yes, the one word seg. And then some news, including we're down to just one rookie, first round rookie without a deal. Thank goodness my team's not attached. And some Des Brian Juice.

You know, it's that time. It's that time, folks. It's time to talk some football. Let's do some news. They were with a dog sitter, but They're like so, my husband picked them up, and they've been so anxious and stressed out ever since he got them. So I think they had a tough vacation. What is that?

I mean, I know it's Colleen Wolf talking about dogs. I haven't heard Colleen it so long. I don't even know if that's her. But what is the point of that? I was watching the remote, like, feed, and that was her talking during inside training camp, and I, like, was just listening to that. She's going to love that. And I was, I had to clip it off because I was like, this is just on my TV. That is fair.

She was on vacation for roughly 45 to 50 days and not with the dogs. So the dogs probably are a little antsy at this point. It's on brand for Erica's appreciation slash, you know, maybe obsession with Colleen. It's a real thing. Yes or no? Yeah, it's mutual, though. No doubt. Definitely mutual.

There's tons of evidence to point that it's mutual. I see M of VB back there. Not or shake your head is the obsession. Mitchell, Emma. That's just Emma's shaking. Let's start with, yes, the first round rookies. Sam Darnold and the Jets get a deal done. And thank God.

Rap sheet reported Monday that the Jets and Darnold agreed to terms for a year. 30.25 million fully guaranteed. The signing became official this morning. Darnold joined his new teammates on the field and practice. So that drama is in the rear view and it was a very Jets drama shaping up. very happy and I don't even know and I don't even care honestly the holdup I believe it was about offsets I don't know who won who lost I don't care it's annoying but that's taking care of and it leaves just one first rounder without a deal and it's bears lionbacker roquan not rayquin

roquan smith who still doesn't have a deal and and he's it's part of the holdup is potential fines or punishment that could be tied into the league's new helmet rule. So that's, if I'm embarrassed and I'm a little nervous because that just sounds dicey. Let's start with Darnold. Your thoughts, Mark? I mean, with Darnold, I almost feel that when this bubbled up, that there was this snag over the weekend that was making this more of an issue. Because Greg made the point on Friday down in the office, like, listen, if Darnold's still

not there on Monday, Dan, we're going to have to finally talk about him because it's becoming something. Not that I was putting it off. No, no, no, but it was just kind of you felt like this will get done. They'll solve this away. But I almost thought that the swift reaction against Darnold's camp and the Jets might have pushed both sides to end the ugly PR and get this thing done because it really wasn't a very typical thing that they were caught up on.

It was forfeiture language, according to Michael Silver. And the other reporters had it based on other stuff. Forfeiture language means like you could lose guaranteed money if you get hurt skiing or Silver referenced hiking. I don't know how much hiking Sam Darnold does, but apparently he is very obsessed with that side hobby off the field. I don't know about the forfeiture language, and I don't think any football fan cares about the forfeiture language,

but he's going to get all 20 million of his signing bonus within the next two weeks, which good for Sam Darnold. Yeah, I don't think it's a big deal that he missed a few days, but the battle that they were having contractually included really the same time. topic as Roquan Smith does. It's basically, can they take away your guaranteed money for on-field rules violations? And so that Sequin Barclay had it written into his contract, so he's protected. The Jets did bend on that topic.

And so the Bears, it's hard to put, from our perspective, blame on one side or another. It's just annoying. The system is not set up to have hold us. But in this case, it really does seem like the Bears are trying to get something a little ridiculous that no other teams are trying to get and that the bears are out on an island and Roquan Smith's agent, understandably, is

trying to not set a precedent. I think you can question whether it's worth it for an organization to have their first round pick missed extended action over fines on-field suspension from on-field rules, like suspensions

and fines from that. Like, it's not worth it to have them missed that time. And they're it's a new development that they're trying to insert this into the contract. The rookie is reported for the Bears two weeks ago. So this is a pretty long holtout for Roquan Smith. And in other new Jets news, new uniforms coming next year. I don't know if they bring back the 80s jet.

Well, I was going to say, is it new or are you going to revert to one of the old classics? I bet it'll be like a combination where maybe the 80s Jets back, but it's in like a new one. I would just say be careful what you wish for because I was excited when Cleveland announced the uniforms. What does the Jets just put like Cleveland across the Jets? They can have Cleveland. current uniforms is their old ones. I do like the Jets didn't try to like pretend like they were punishing Darnold for this at all.

He jogged on to practice halfway through it starting. He gets a slow clap and he immediately is getting first team reps. And we have props on the line, a tag team sandwich prop. If he missed too much more time, it really would have put into peril any chance of week one starting now. It remains wide open. Moving on, the Seattle Seahawks last season pulled the trigger on a trade to acquire left tackle Dwayne Brown from the Texans.

He immediately filled a void for Seattle, and now the two sides are locked into a long-term deal. The team announced they've signed Brown to a multi-year contract extension. Rapsheet reports the deal worth $36.5 million. This has been something that's going on for weeks. Brown had been set to enter the final year of a contract worth $9.75 million. Now he's in Seattle through 2021.

and everybody getting paid on the line right now, Greg. Yeah, he improved them immediately. And so if you're a halfway decent starter, he's now signed until he's 36 years old. I think there's a chance that the Seahawks offensive line is significantly better because of Dwayne Brown and because of just getting rid of Tom Cable. That if you just have sort of average coaching

and a little bit of Dwayne Brown, then maybe they're fine and that's a big room for improvement. It's a huge spot for them and issue for them for years and years. and they gave up a 2018 third rounder and a 2019 second rounder so you couldn't let this deal not get done. You've already put resources into Brown. His strong play down the stretch

really obscured how inept the rest of the offensive line was because he was on the field for those games when Aaron Donald was just wrecking the entire line and Russell Wilson couldn't do anything. So you've got Dwayne Brown but I'm far from convinced

that they're going to be a better offensive line this year. In injury news, yes, it's training camp guys are practicing, people get hurt, it sucks. We'll start with the Panthers where right tackle Darrell Williams suffered a dislocated kneecap and an MCL tear on Saturday in practice. No timetable yet, but this seems like something that could end Williams this season. How much is this going to hurt Carolina was? Well, you would think if you spend a second round pick on a guy the year before, Taylor and Moton, the guy they drafted last year, that he ought to be.

ready after a year of coaching in the NFL in the wait room that he ought to be ready to step right in at right tackle and maybe not be that pro bowl level guy that darrell williams was last year but good enough but this is why guys hold out you know he was an all pro who was underpaid going into his contract year and if he held out he probably would have just gotten a big contract and it only in football is it when news comes out that he's got a dislocated kneecap or whatever it is and in a torn MCL and everyone was like oh great news. Good news, not as bad as everyone expected. Because when he went down, they thought, okay, he's out for the year. And now he's like, maybe not out for the whole year. He's

maybe overturned. Doesn't sound like a highly fun injury. That sounds terrible. Well, this next injury, I'm going to talk about ties into that. So that was, you know, wishful thinking to try to tie Williams's injury into something that wasn't too serious. Ramon Foster, for the Steelers, he collapses in a heap. He gets carted off from practice. You're expecting, oh, God, we just lost our guard. major injury loss for the season. No, it's hyper extended, which is a best case scenario in this situation and a bone bruise. He's expected to miss four or five weeks. So his status for week one up in the air, but that could have been worse. It obviously looked terrible and

Twitter was freaking out about it for a moment. Well, that's the window. They're hoping week one. And this guy's played more snaps for Pittsburgh than any other player on the offensive roster since 2009. So he's been he's been durable. He's been part of that offense. He's not young, but they, I guess for them, it's B.J. Finney is the backup. West, your scouting report on B.J. Finney. I'll leave that to you. He's fine. They got away with Marcus Gilbert at right tackle out for a big portion last year. They'll be fine if Ramon Foster misses a game or two. And finally, Elijah McGuire, Jet's second year rookie, had some moments last year,

and it looked like he had a roster spot locked up. This year, he suffered a broken foot. He's going to have to undergo surgery. He'll be out six weeks. Could get the Boomerang IR designation, we'll see. and that could be a good news for Thomas Rawls. If you're wondering, where's Thomas Rawls these days? He's on the Jets roster trying to make the team. He's a bubble guy. This might allow him to catch on the Jets backfield.

It's somewhat wide open, I think. So we'll see how that shakes out. Des Bryant on Friday, you know, it's the afternoon in the newsroom. Everybody wants to unwind a little bit, maybe. But there was no unwinding, especially not for young Mark Sessler, who was tasked with writing a story about, about Des who went ham. He went nuts on Twitter when people started, I guess we're adding him about, or actually

he saw the Stephen Jones, the president of the Cowboys, and Jarrah's son, had made a comment how Dak could be better this season because he'll be able to progress without having Des in his face, you know, all the time, which seemed unnecessary in Des's defense. So Des starts going at it with people on Twitter making statements about. about how the team treated him, how certain players on the team, including Sean Lee, talked behind his back and weren't real with him,

leading to one of the immortal nicknames, Greg Rosenthal. Snake Lee. Snake Lee. Sounds like a wrestler from the 80s. Yes, it does. So, Des not happy and still a free agent, perhaps a little bit surprising, Mark, that he would be so vocal about his displeasure

with his former team when you really maybe want to put your best foot forward while unemployed. Well, right, because while this was happening, in the atmosphere was another report that the Cleveland Browns are interested in bringing in Des Bryant with Josh Gordon in abstentia at the moment. So it's a bad looking for sure.

And there are actually people that have been hanging around Cleveland's camp sort of saying, no, this is not a good person. This would not be the right person to bring into what the Browns have in their wide receiver room. They have some characters in there to begin with. But I just think if you're Des Bryant too,

where would you go where you're probably going to be the third or fourth receiver? That's not a good mix for him, I don't think, in there. Let's open the kimono a little bit here. At the same time, you were writing about this, and Des was tweeting, I was tasked with writing a post that Des was going to sign with a different team. And neither the Browns, neither the Browns nor this undisclosed team has signed him since all these tweets. He did report on the air, Jane Slater, that another team was interested,

and she said that team was not bothered by his tweet storm, that whatever their interest level was, was not going to be affected. We'll see. I don't know. It hasn't been signed yet, but maybe it's not a huge hurting. And if listeners find it interesting that we're saying what team and Wes is hinting that he knows the team, guess what? We do know the team, but we will not tell you because we're journalists and we protect our sources.

It's called integrity. And we protect our own fellow colleagues in the field. I have no sources on this. Jane does. I have so many thoughts. on this story. Jane can say, in other words, not for us. Right, it's not my place.

But I'll start with that the whole storyline is especially annoying because it was all based on a growing, terrible trend, which is that whoever was running Sirius XM's Twitter account is basically responsible for this entire story because he or she paraphrased it poorly. When the full quote came out,

number one, Jason Witten was also included as a guy in Des Bryant's year. And with a little more context, it didn't sound quite as bad. The way that they paraphrased it, and if you're going to paraphrase something, you better get the true meaning of the quote right. And whoever was running that Twitter account, and I don't know if they were trying to get more attention or if they were just being lazy, made Stephen Jones sound a lot worse.

And so Des Bryant, I think, understandably got upset based on hearing that. and all of this discussion for a couple hours on Twitter and across the country is because someone did poorly at their job. Could have been avoided entirely. I mean, that said, it takes the Des Bryant half of the equation to respond the way he did. Not every player would decide to do that at all. That's not surprising. The comment was still a little poking the bear unnecessarily at Des,

but it wasn't quite as dramatic, and it did include Jason Whitten in it. The nature of Twitter often leaves. without context. That's just the way it is. I also thought my other takeaway was the Cowboys are the Cowboys because there is no other team in the league that would make Sean Lee, who had spoken to the media the day before, talk to the media for 30 seconds while walking off the field without probably even have seen the tweet himself.

I'm sure their PR director gave him a background, but he basically said, Sean, you got to address this with the media right now. Everyone else would just try to avoid the issue, but instead they want the story to be as big as possible until they get Sean Lee to comment on it and he was pretty hard core about that Des should have been more of a leader last year and then it really blows out.

That would drive me crazy if I was a certain type of personality if I was a guy that sought to avoid that type of circus and my team was asking me to feed into it. I mean, that is... Like you can't be a coach for the Cowboy unless you're willing to be as media

available as possible. Speaking of Jason Whitten and social media, I came across this in Peter King's Football Morning in America column. I thought it was interesting. Witten wrote a piece for ESPN, who he now works for, about the impact of social media in locker rooms, and it was pretty interesting.

I'll just read a little blurb from his bigger piece, which you could find again at ESPN. One of the defining images of the modern locker room isn't a fiery post-game speech or a group of guys strategizing. It's players with their heads down buried in their phones. The impact, it's not good. I've seen the negative impact social media can have, particularly on younger players who grew up with Twitter and Instagram

as an integral part of life. A player checking Twitter at halftime, I've seen it. The most concerning, watching a really talented player corrupt his mind and confidence by reading all the critiques from anonymous football experts around the world. Negative social media can ruin a player reading your mentions. It's poison. This kind of ties into what you said, Greg,

about somebody on a serious XM could misquote or misparaphrase and it could cause a whole issue. This is the other side of it that players can really, these young guys are really affected by what they're seeing about themselves on Twitter. I think Witten's advice is spot on

and this is one of the reasons I have been heavy on the block since the early part of Twitter that if you do read your mentions, you can become obsessed with it and you can waste a lot of time replying to people. It can affect your psyche based on what people say about you

and you can get caught saying something back to one of these people, that will cost you your job, it's better to block, it's better to ignore these trolls than to engage. And I think Jason Winton is exactly right. This article was brilliantly written. And I'm starting to look at the Cowboys and say, essentially if you play for the Cowboys,

you want to go announce, you become Tony Romo and you become the best announcer in the entire league in year one. And this article is better than like 98% of the stuff that's on our own website. Are you sure you wrote it? Yes, I am sure he wrote it. I really think he did because he actually goes into... They probably have a Brooks or Sosimo type who works with him.

He might be working with him. But it's pretty... You can't draw... I mean, you couldn't make a movie that... I mean, he wrote this the morning before this all happened with Des Bryant. It was on ESPN, and then that happens later in the day. He said one teammate, and I had... I started trying to think who it might be.

He said he saw one teammate get completely swallowed up by Twitter feedback, that it's sort of that a person kind of... caved and my immediate thought was like who is that and des bryant was certainly one person i thought maybe could have been a candidate for that who knows yeah i mean uh also players apparently uh are way into pf and it could affect them negatively there as well um which is obviously just some guys that are watching the games and handing out grades which are fairly arbitrary uh but the players they really are connected and too connected perhaps but uh you get it's a human thing well no somebody's themselves on Twitter.

And I think that's like, if you're an athlete, all these people who had never say anything to your face, they say the most despicable things to athletes. Like to me, if I was a pro athlete, I would not engage on social media in that way at all. In other news, this is interesting. Davey, of course, is in the running to be Wes's best man next year. Also has found himself in a,

maybe I would call a mini feud with the Cleveland Browns. Oh, we're taking a trip to the dog pen. over naming rights of young puppies that the Browns are seeking to adopt on social media. See, it's not all bad. And as we know... Except this turn ugly, so... Well, that's true.

Last week, Ely suggested a name. What was it, Miles McGruff? That would have been better. It was Miles Gouruff. Garuff, which the Browns then used but then didn't credit Ely, which got Ely ticked off. And then Dave followed up on Friday

with, hey, at Browns, I have another dog named suggestion, Jibril Puppers. Which he also said on this podcast. She also said on this podcast. And then sure enough, today the Browns posted another dog, a real beautiful young animal. I was looking for the breed, but they don't have it listening in the tweet. Anyway, meet Jabriel Puppers. Oh, a feist mix. And again, no credit given to Dave Ely.

And what do we have more on this, Mark? Well, I think the first instance, David Ely has a real case. Obviously in Cleveland, they probably had some sort of group of people sitting around brainstorming, going through the roster, and picking up names. And Jibril Puppers feels like something that probably 25 people would have come up with. That would be my take. Greg, do you have any more on this story? The Browns responded immediately to David Ealing.

What do you know? Gibreel Puppers and they said he's already on the list and gave him a little passive aggressive wink. Maybe it was even a sign that, hey, we've had a list. You haven't been necessarily coming up with these. But like, for instance, in our- A wink they went with because they could have done like the hands up emoji or some type of thumbs up or something else.

The wink, really. They don't like his tone, I would imagine. He's coming back over and over saying, no, I came up with this. And I think he's got a case. But at the same time, even in our direct messaging client today, I, suggested how about a manual og bark and Andy yeah but Andy Hagman our editor said they already came up with that and it's a case and point there's just this collective group think here yeah I think Ely like the takeaway for me is he really missed his calling that he has the same brain

that really like a social media intern has so this is causing you know it's causing a lot of drama between Ely and the Browns and everything and Mark because Mark's always tied in with anything Browns. But I... And he's my boss, so I have to kind of be like, yeah, I agree with you, Dave.

I have some sources actually down in the newsroom that Ely's continued presence on this show and now with this running dog bit here and he gets on it again is becoming a bit of source of consternation

and jealousy within the root newsroom and I've actually obtained through these sources. Very good. An audio file, which we're going to listen to right now. Let's hear it.

There's been two softball seasons where I've been a star fucking player and you guys talk about me and then don't have me on but then you call frat we need you to do a voiceover we need you that was that was brassy

that is our parts on catcher of ourselves that is about 2% of the harangue that she went on for an hour I mean she's our Des Bryant so this character Brassy who she's probably mentioned

a handful of times on the show. And she said that we've been exploiting her, that we're using her name, and that she is very upset that she hasn't been on the show. There, she mentioned Frags, who's been done some voiceover work, but she also was very dismissive of David Ealy

and his presence on the show. Some of that I just decided I could not put in good conscience on our air. Yeah, I've spent a lot of time professionally in newsrooms in my life here in other places. And I could say that newsrooms are viper pits by their nature, and none of this surprises me but I just I think what Brassy needs to understand

who is again a part-time catcher for our team and she said she was a star yeah she was a part-time catcher I would say what did she say it? Yeah let's hear it again there's been two softball seasons where I've been a star

fucking player and you guys talk about me and then don't have me on but then you call Frank we need you to do a voice over we need you I think that's she is You know what, Brassie, she's the player, the charismatic player, the Santonio Holmes type, that when things are going good.

The only player ever kicked out of his own offensive huddle. Yeah, exactly. When things are going good, and you could maybe put Des in this category as well, he's a great, or she's a great person to have in the locker room, almost like glue type character. But when things maybe start to swerve in a not so great direction and the rats are jumping off the ship, I'll leave it at that. ship be sinking. Well, I did tell her, she does have a point that she would be a great character. So I'm in favor of having her on at some point, and we'll have to talk after the show. We all, she may be annoyed.

We offered it once. We did offer this one. But now we can tell her, look, you have been on the show. I'm not in love with her tone. I'll just put it that way. Yeah, but you, it's, you're good, you need, hitting out a David Ely thing is a little bit aggressive. We got a few more minutes. That was the PG part.

That was the PG part. Yeah, we had to get it so it was safe. We don't want her. You guys didn't give her a confirmed yes. No, no. Okay, good. No, in fact, Greg left was waiting for his Uber, and she was in the backyard, still running about Greg threatening her, and she doesn't appreciate it.

Well, I said, I said, look, you have to keep this quiet until Monday. If you, if you chattered anyone, that'll prove. She took that as a threat. Finally in the news, very interesting developments down in the newsroom. Finally in the news, David Ely's favorite team, the Carolina Panthers, they still have a superstar quarterback in the fold. Cam Newton and this from ESPN staff writer David Newton. And Cam Newton sported a pair of fashionable sunglasses as he strutted through

rows of teammates already on the grass stretching at the start of Sunday's practice. Let me tell you something, Cam said. Ain't nobody dripping like I'm dripping. And Mr. Newton, the staff writer for ESPN, then translated that to mean dripping means something that is awesome or super. cool. Look at Cam. Just like changing the world, you know,

more people learn in vocab. There's people dabbing all over the world now. Partly because of Cam, he's just bringing him. I don't know if I need all of that, but he is, Cam is, you know, some people like Cam. Some people don't like Cam. But you will learn new things that maybe don't always tie into your, your nature or

where you grew up. Cam is a great guy to teach you about things. Some things work. The dab work. He's dripping. Drippin's working. That's out there. It's not like that's a cam creation. But he's bringing it to, you know, people like us.

Sports reporters. Sports reporters. What will we do without it? Not everything works. Remember his fake language he uses on Instagram? All his Instagram posts have a fake language that he uses like a wing. He's hit or miss. That didn't work.

But he never stops innovating and teaching. And I respect that. It also means extremely highly fashionable. And if you look at his press conferences, is the guy is never dressed normally on any level. So I think he's speaking of his own fashion sense. Greg played Cardi B's drip song for us at the fire pit the other night. And it's catchy.

Song of the summer. It's catchy, but you can't help think that like, so music, songs were invented, say, 10,000 years ago because someone had something profound to say about the human condition. Like, you're the one at the campfire who's going to speak out. You've got this story. And in this case, this woman just has bibles dangling off body parts that she thinks make her dream. I just think like that's, is that what really we need for music? I don't know.

A lot of creativity, though. Come on. Sometimes we slip into this segment. This is the Greg likes rap segment. He brought it. Almost every show. What do we have? What is the name of the song?

Drip. Classic. Takeoff versus the first of the summer. I'm going to say it's not a classic. That's what's happening in the news. By the way, don't be self-conscious that Greg likes rap is a second. Just saying, you know, you made it sound like it's like a self-promotional one. brought it up.

I didn't bring it up. Greg did not slide into that segment. It was put on. Okay. Okay. Dan likes it. It keeps us, you know. Dan likes it.

Ducker, duck, duck, duck. If you're counting on me to be hip, but we're in trouble. Greg likes rap. All right, that's what's happening in the news.

All right, here we go. It's time to play the game. One word. One word to describe something. Camps are about, there were some late stragglers, which are way on my radar,

by the way. There were two or three teams is that waited until Friday to report. Who's that? Which, you know, come on, guys. Wasn't the Lions, was it? Not the Lions. I will say it wasn't lies.

I don't even want to say what the teams are. I'm going to wait and see how the rest of their count. How this plays out? If they're going on bowling trips and, oh, we're probably, we're calling practice up. Let's go to the arcade. You know who you are and you reported late. I will be watching this. So you're not convinced that they show up on a mandated day,

which is based on when their first pre-season. season game shows up that they're clearly I'm not totally convinced Greg clearly I think they took a loophole and they will pay for it once football comes around in regular season form anyway so camps for the most part

are a week old everyone is preparing now for the 2018 season so let's now get into it one word to describe something we've picked up on and then an explanation I'll get it going just to so everybody knows exactly what we're going for here

I'll start with the team the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles why not start with the champs and the word here comes the word I wrote it down in my phone and oh here it is here's the word

the Eagles are maybe conflicted how great is it that Carson Wentz is practicing and looks healthy his head coach, Doug Peterson, said that maybe he's a little hesitant still and it's tying into what was a very serious knee injury.

I was a little bit, I'm only now learning and maybe because it was in the middle of the season when it happened and he just kind of, oh, he tore his ACL, it happens. But it was a more serious knee injury than just the torn ACL. He also ripped up his LCL. So it's a considerable reconstructive knee surgery

you that Carson Wentz underwent and it was late last year that he had the surger and maybe even early January as I recall one of the waiting for the swelling to go on down situations anyway everything is going in the right direction he's practicing uh I referenced the Peter King column I read this morning uh King was at the camp and said that he was able to avoid pass rushers make good throws everything seems to be in the right direction but I would think that the Eagles must remain conflicted about how they're going to play this situation situation because you do have the defending Super Bowl MVP in your building. Your first, your schedule to start the season is not unforgiving.

I mean, they could probably survive with Nick Foles and maybe even thrive with Nick Foles. So I'm wondering what Carson Wence is going to have to show to make them say, all right, we are 100% confident. He's our week once started because I don't think they should start him unless they are fully confident that they're not putting any risk on the situation. I think that's how medical teams in the NFL work. If he gets the green light, he plays. If there's any reservation. I feel like they usually end up playing, but they have such a good backup plan here.

They have the best backup plan possible. I don't think that really figures into it. I think if he's cleared, he plays. I don't think it matters who's behind him. He's reportedly looked great. Everyone that's gone down and watched the Eagles and Doug Peterson essentially echoed it by saying, And if you didn't know that he had surgery, he just looks the same.

And so when I hear that in the first few days of camp, I'm figuring it's going to, I'm expecting him to be the week one starter, barring some sort of setback. What about the conflicted side, about how much to play him in the preseason and put him out there and test him that way versus playing it safe, getting him fully healthy? That maybe is where they have to game plan for him in August. That's a little tough.

Because you don't want to not give him enough work and then you don't really know how the knee's going to operate when it comes time to actually play or if you give him too much work and he suffers a setback, all that stuff, they have to be a little bit conflicted. But still, ultimately it's a good problem. And the Eagles right now, a lot of things around the Eagles are good. They are. But they're balancing a lot of these situations. Alshan Jeffrey has an injury. I don't know that's serious. But Jason Peters obviously coming back from a really serious injury. Brandon Graham is coming back from surgery. Timmy Jernigan, probably not going to be ready for the beginning of the year coming back from surgery. So they're managing a lot of

key players and trying to figure out when they're going to be available. Mark, you are going to give us one word involving the Indianapolis cults. I will as soon as the drum roll begins. Wow, he wants it. He wants the drum roll and I respect it. I'm hyphenating this word. It is sleeper cell. Okay.

And I'll tell you why. Well, you called to the drum roll but didn't wait for the drum roll. That's my fault, Erica. Apologies. Now you can end it. Sometimes I do my version of Colleen, who you're obsessed with, by not knowing how games operate, already slipping into a hyphenated two-word word, but sleeper-sell.

Again, a two-way obsession, according to Erica. Two-way. It goes both ways, according to you. Does Gonzo know? Well, leave it right there. She's not responding. He's called it. Okay. Sleeper-Sell for the Colts. Yes.

And because I just viewed them as asleep for all of last season, and for really for a while. And I think under Pagano, they to me had just lost any sort of intrigue. Their luster was gone. And then you've lost Andrew Luck. Last year they were a rough watch week after week. Now over the weekend, because this is about what happened in the last week. Finally, we get to see Andrew Luck play in this scrimmage.

And he's 19 of 22 in full pads. And it's not just forget the numbers. It's that he immediately is connecting twice on deep passes with T.Y. Hilton. The offense is waking up, and suddenly you look at this team that I would have, without Andrew Luck, just simply buried as a top five pick in the next year's draft. I could see them doing a little bit of damage. They're not a complete team, but they never have been with Andrew Luck. You could see them doing some damage, basically riding luck through the season,

taking out a few AFC South teams and being in the mix in December. Sleeper Cell, a sleeper in the AFC. Yes. I'm with you. In a week AFC. It was a Sunday evening or special season ticket holders come and watch the team situation

and there was one tweet where luck had hit four straight deep passes and like that got me excited right in the season. That was one of my favorite items and most significant, I think, items of news that we've had because a week ago at this time

you didn't really know and now I think it's fair for Colts fans to get excited. Sleeper sale extends to fantasy too. I want the Colts quarterback in a lot of shootouts with that defense. fence in fantasy. Sleeper sell.

Is that hyphen it? It's a word. It's just, you know. I'm seeing a lot of two words. Is, is, is, oh, just saying. No, no, I think that you have a point that it's often. It could just be sleeper. Isn't the white, isn't the White House a word?

No, it's two words. I know it's two words. I'm going by definition. You're going by amount of words. That's, uh, you can turn it into a verb and sleeper sell something. When I realized that. Amounts of words, I feel like is. probably the right metric

when we got so hooked on the one word thing I was like on the thoris.com during this podcast trying to find something else for sleeper cell and I could not come up about sleeper. A little boring. Okay. Yeah. All right. And again as we move on to the next person, Wes, the name of the segment, one word.

This is one word. Wool gathering. Oh, let me set you up. I'm sorry. All right, Wes. That's a word. I'll set you up. Oh, geez. Dallas Cowboys.

Wool gathering. That is a word. I'm looking it up. It's probably used by your grandma and grandpa at some point. All right. They both passed on, but thanks for bringing that out. Are you going to tell me what it means? Wool gathering, one word.

Wes is in the money. Indulgence and aimless thought or dreamy imagining absent-mindedness. Lost in fanciful dreams, trying to stuff clouds and debris cases. like the Cowboys are doing with Tavon Austin and Cole Beasley. Give me a break, your daydreams of Tavon Austin as this hybrid running back receiver getting 15 touches a game, leading your receiver's room. Give me a break.

Cole Beasley, we're going to have him run the whole route tree. We're not going to put the 5'9 white guy in the slot anymore. We're going to put him outside and have him beat the best cornerbacks in the league on the outside. You guys. Don't check your mentions, Cole. You guys are wool gathering. I knew Wes would be good at this game. by the way.

I knew this would be a West specialty. Excellent word. Yeah, there's something to what he's saying to. Like, their backup quarterback situation. It's funny how the storylines are always based on what happened the previous year. So, like, the year when after Romo got hurt, it's like everyone's talking about the backup quarterbacks in Cowboys Camp. Now, Dak Prescott's the starting quarterback.

Their backup quarterbacks are Cooper Rush, Mike White, and Dalton Sturm. And when I, and when I, that Dalton Sturm is an underestimate. Crafted Free Agent, probably not in the mix there. But Mike White and Cooper Rush, and they like Cooper Rush, and I heard them talking. It was great in the preseason last year. And maybe he's fine. But when I hear them talking about how they're really excited about the depth at their quarterback position, that feels like a little cloud stuffing or whatever he said.

A little wool gathering. Cloud stuffing work. He said cloud stuffing, he said stuffing those clouds into your briefcase, Jerry Jones. I love that. It was a great image. Very good, very good. Football Almanac, pro football Almanac. Is that what it's called?

Yeah. Dak Prescott was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league in the second half of last year. There'll be an interesting guy to track this year. Great, great looking offensive line, though. With Tyrant, like that was what killed. Well, Ben McAdu told us that. I believe in, Dak. Yeah, I do too.

Yeah, he's like a second year quarterback last year. When Tyrant Smith went down, that killed them even more than when Zeke went down. And football outsiders wrote about that. Great, great purchase if you're into a little preseason book. That's awesome. Greg Rosenthal, one word on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Okay, I didn't know we were just looking for like a hard word or anything. You can use any word.

Yeah, I was just looking. Again, the segment, one word. Yeah, I was looking. All right. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Awkward. Okay, there you go. All right.

That is my word. It even has word in it. Awkward. They put up all of these signs all around the stadium. Get excited for the next season. their starting quarterback, not on any of those signs. Even more importantly, Ryan Fitzpatrick is taking first-team reps because he has to get ready for the start of the season.

Awkward. James Winston with the backup sometimes with the first team, that's awkward. And then what really made me want to talk about them is that Dirk Cutter has talked to James Winston about possibly toning down his vocal leadership. Now, I don't know if this is something that, the writers in Tampa that I'm talking about Roy Cumming, who wrote the column, said that maybe James was going to do anyways a little bit, maybe tamp it down a little bit, some of his antics.

But the fact that you have the coach of your team kind of telling your quarterback, hey, lead from behind, that was his wording. Maybe lead from behind this year. And this is a coach without a lot of long-term security either. And you're telling your starting quarterback that. And to me, that's just awkward. And what a point of departure from a year ago and even the year before where the word out of Tampa Bay was always how enamored they were with Winston's leadership. And he was the centerpiece of Hard Knocks for being that vocal leader. And one season later, it's please tone it down. I feel like, and I'll count myself in this, kind of got taken for a ride a little bit by James Winston on Hard Knocks. I even named him the Hard Knocks MVP because he came off as not only,

only a guy that just 23 years old last summer and a guy, this is who you want to build your roster around. He's taking to his old neighborhood and showing how he grew up and how friendly he was and how everybody seemed to connect with him. But as it turns out, and he was drafted one, 2013 was it? 14. 2014. It's now turning out four years on. 15 maybe. All right, three, four years on. It's turning out that he is kind of all the things that people worried about. and what made a lot of, like, hand-wringing and the consternation is James Winston, a guy you really want to build your franchise run. Here the bucks are in 2018, and they're still asking themselves that question,

and that is not a good thing. Leading from behind is the last thing you ever would have hoped for that to be the message to your quarterback at this stage. It's very possible they'll have a new coach next off season who has to rethink this whole James Winston experience. To be clear, I think Cutter is making a mistake. You let, obviously, you have conversations with James. Miss Winston about all of these things, but to put it out in front and say that we kind of don't want you to be as much of a leader,

he's going to be the starting quarterback in week four. And that, to me, it's a confusing message to send, to tell him don't be as much of a leader. Yeah, it's not confusing to the other 52 players on the roster, though. Like, he's, he doesn't, he's not just James's coach. He's the whole team's coach. All right, well, one more time around the horn. Mark, get us going. Do you want to announce the team as you've been doing?

Are you ready? Yes, I am ready. One word. I repeat one word on the Atlanta Falcons. Drum roll. Let it play out. It's going to take some. I got you covered, Dan, when you get back to me.

Disruptor. No. You got to wait until the drop stops. That's what the drum roll is. Disruptor. All right. What a disaster. The Falcons disruptor.

Now, I initially had it. as dynasty Disruptor because I think the Falcons Hypen in there You made a good edit I just went disruptor I said it bro

Thank you They to me I was when I was watching them yesterday On NFL network They brought Dan Quinn over And we've met with Dan Quinn We like Dan Quinn for a long, long time I just think that he

Last year was all about How do you shake the Super Bowl And how do you deal with this new Offensive Coordinators There's all this hideous, psychological adjusting that he needed to be in charge of. They, from top to bottom, seem, ultra-confident. All their star players are back. I think this coaching staff has done a better job than almost any team in the league

of drafting and developing young players. You've seen the defense where they were at the end of last season when we were at that playoff game, when they shut the Rams down, we're going to get more of that. And they just have a great core of veteran and young players. This reminds me a little bit of the Broncos team after getting whipped in the Super Bowl by Seattle that two years later came back against all expectations

and won the Super Bowl when most people thought, no, it's going to go somewhere else. I think this is a Super Bowl team that's going to disrupt Philadelphia's plans to become a dynasty. Disruptor. One thing I've noticed about how quickly they've turned around that defense, basically purely with draft picks,

they placed an inordinate emphasis on explosive dynamic athletes with high spark scores. It makes me wonder why every team in the league doesn't rebuild their defense in the same way. I think Quinn got that from, we want to redo what we had in Seattle, similar type of, like, edgy athletic players. And sometimes that's a nice plan,

but then four years later you don't have any of those guys. They found them and they turned them into good players. And they're going to start signing him. Grady Jarrett's next up in line for a contract extension, and he deserves one. Chris Wessling. One word to describe the Cleveland Browns. Brigadoon.

Brigadune. For those of you, under the age of 80, is a musical. I believe from the 50s, about a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. It's a musical, so you know when the Scottish village appears. People spontaneously break down to dances. There's gala, seductions, romantic dalliances, trists. In Cleveland, in training camp, you've got puppies, you got RVs, you got the hardland, you've got Bon Ami, you've got festivals, you've got everybody's darling.

It's going to last one day and then be buried again, fade away into the mountain mist like Brigadoon did. Wow. A little bit of a drive-by. That was great. Mark's actually under the table in a little position right now. I see what you mean from the... That's not where I thought that was going, by the way. I see what you mean from the training camp angle, where it actually...

like it's a month-long celebration of all that has been and is to come. And then September arrives, typically. And by around September 12th, you realize you don't have a team. The one thing that I think is a little bit different here is that Tyrod Taylor is giving them some consistency and taking almost all the first-team reps when last year, for instance, in many years, it was three quarterbacks all splitting first-team reps. None of them were first-teamers. And I am starting to buy into everything that's being said about Baker Mayfield.

It is growing daily But this is the problem That your head coach who last year Could not pick a quarterback and stand by him for a week at a time This year has picked a quarterback And is sticking by him and saying there's no competition Even though Baker Mayfield is so far Proving to be everything that would make you want to draft him

And number one overall And by October people are going to be saying There will be a controversy, why isn't Baker Mayfield playing? Yeah Browns are a high profile team for a team that never wins in a game It's interesting. That's helped me. They are a national conversation.

That's made them a high profile team that they've been so bad. Well, they're never boring, but they're also never good on the field. Right. They're a special type of bad that makes them a story. They're not just the Bengals or the Jets or some other team that's just kind of like wandering through lost seasons. They're really good at being bad. And now they're trying to be really good. There's a lot of, there's juice to it.

Let's face it. I think at the end of the Brigadoon, isn't there a happy reunion? Union, I think it ends happily. I'll have to go back and rewatch that film. I'm not sure I've seen it the first time around. One word, one word to describe the state of the Seattle Seahawks. Listen up, 12s, midstream. And you can look it up, that's one word.

Midstream. Earl Thomas is still... What's the definition of it? Kind of just in the middle. Just you're caught. You don't want to interrupt someone midstream. Yeah, you don't want to be, they're not on one side or other of land. They're kind of just floating in the middle.

Here's one definition. Yeah. The middle of a stream. They're in the middle. They're literally in the middle of stream. Here's an organization. Where did they come up on that? That's online right now.

There's a second definition. What's the second definition? The middle period of a process, course, or the like. That works as well. Yeah. It's midstream. So Seattle, obviously, who's gone? Michael Bennett, Richard Sherman, Cliff Averill.

I'm missing. Cam Chancellor. And Earl Thomas is just this one guy that's held over from the famed Legion of Boom Days. And really, it is overdue that he should have been moved out of here. If they thought they weren't going to give him a new deal, they should have moved him out before the draft. They should have picked a better time that maybe last year when they could have seen this all coming. But they didn't. And now they still have him here.

And you have Pete Carroll and press conferences. at training camp saying he should be here. You have Earl Thomas who's digging his heels in and you're looking at a situation that could be, A, a huge distraction for the team, but B, and that's kind of where the midstream thing comes in, it's time for this organization to fully move on, but the Earl Thomas thing is kind of keeping them in this past,

this recent past, and not allowing them to fully do that. And I don't know if at this point things are so toxic and the timing of the NFL calendar makes a trade very difficult, but I would take what I could at this point and just move on and give the younger guys a chance to play. I know they have Maurice Alexander, a guy they picked up last year. He was working with the number one defense today. Bradley McDougal is a free safety.

So they have these guys that are kind of the future of the team. Move on, get out of midstream, get to the other side, get to dry land. So to what end is this Seahawks current stance on our old Thomas. What do they hope to get out of this? Tim's just play out his deal? That makes no sense to me. That's what they're hoping.

That makes no sense to me. In what is a midstream year, we're not going to use rebuilding. A midstream year, I don't think they're strong enough to contend for the Super Bowl title this year. So why are you trying to get one last 829 season out of Earl Thomas? What else are you going to get a draft pick that you can get in the off season anyways? You can get it now. If you get it in the off season, you can't use it until another year.

Except part of it. What do you mean? I mean, either way, it's a 2019 draft pick. So if they let him go through, they get a compensatory pick that they can't use. In a potential trade. I mean, they could franchise them. They can't trade them in the offseason. The whole problem, though, is that Seattle's trying to sell to their fans and everyone,

this idea that we're, it's not rebuilding, but we're going to give you a second version of the Seahawks. And that means a new culture where a lot of these players that were around that got tired of potentially of the Pete Carroll message have been moved on. And Earl Thomas is sort of like the guy that's still there. You blew up the whole Legion of Boom and he's still there.

He's not happy. Just finish the job. Move on to the next phase of your organization. He's like Marcus Grant right now. The roster's midstream. Poor Mark. We don't want to trade Marcus though.

I mean, they're playing guys because there's a couple injuries at wide receiver and guys like Keenan Reynolds and David Moore and Marcus Johnson are getting a lot of snaps. If you look at who's getting the snaps on defense, and maybe these will turn out to be good young players like Tidrick Thompson, but it's drawn Reed on defense, Marcus Smith.

You know, it's a midstream roster. A lot of guys that I don't necessarily think will be a big part of when they are good. Maybe the case for a trade is you can bring somebody an actual player back that can fill a hole. I don't know what his trade value is at this point. A year ago, maybe they could have gotten a second round pick or who knows, maybe a late first round pick. But now what?

fourth rounder? Worse? I think if they wait, I think they'll wait it out. He has to show up at some point or else he loses that year of eligibility. So he will show up at some point. And so you either trade him,

I guess, or you try to get some value out of him and maybe tag him next. It seems like a dude. It's not worth if they have him come in after 10 games so he can keep his free agency or whatever. To Dan's point, the timing of it all is a disaster right now.

And he seems like a pretty strong-willed individual. It's a rough situation. Finally, Greg, one word on the Buffalo Bills. Dispirating. I was hoping you're going to go in a positive direction because some people are getting excited,

but you're saying dispiriting. There are people getting excited about the bills? I don't know. You wait to make the playoffs for 17 years. You finally have a good young head coach, I think, in Sean McDermott, and you would hope to be building on that. And instead, you're splitting reps three ways between A.J. McCarran, Nathan Peterman and Josh Allen.

And that never really seems to work. And depending on who you read, you know, Peterman started off very slow, but he's getting a lot of first team reps. McCarran isn't really processing the offense. Allen is up and down, but you've got to make some decisions. The two veterans between McCarran and Peterman aren't good enough to bother to split it three ways and keep Josh Allen out the field. Develop Josh Allen and make a choice with one of the other two because they're going to need

all the work they can get. They got Andre Holmes and Malachi Dupree as starting wide receivers right now. So they need to get as much work as they possibly can with the quarterback that they're going to go with in week one. What about Des Bryant pulling the late period Terrell Owens move and going to Buffalo? It's a logical team because he would make them better. They showed interest reportedly from the beginning and Des didn't want to go there. Well, I wonder now when he realizes how few options he has, except why not wait two weeks because everyone's getting injured left and right?

And then you see maybe another option opens up. I couldn't agree more, Greg, because the teams that do this where you're giving reps, three ways. It never works. It never works. And their offensive line is going to get two of these quarterbacks killed before the third one has to start anyways during the season. Is that really their fault or is it that the offseason program

is so much shorter now that they don't have enough time to figure out which one of those three guys? Well, that's fair, but at the same time they're dealing with the same limitations that every team is. Why not have one guy get as much preparation as you can going into week one? Right. The other guys are going to get snaps. It's just going to be with the third team

And the biggest problem is they signed the wrong guy in free agency. They signed A.J. McCarran instead of somebody better. They reportedly, I think, wanted to be in on San Bradford. That didn't happen. And, yeah, they ended up Karen. Do you think Des, Mark knows about, you know, Western New York. It's a beautiful area. I think he knows about NF, Niagara Falls.

I would imagine it's probably, you know, anecdotally been introduced to him. I don't know if he's been there. And I just looked it up. It's not one of the seven wonders of the world. Niagara Falls absolutely has a case in my mind let's get on that to be one let's get on that three hundred what's that there are like 300 wonders that have a case which wonder are you knocking out of the lineup for you know you want to hear you want to hear what I'm getting out of here get out of here hanging gardens of Babylon that doesn't even exist don't need you those are ancient wonders

there are seven new wonders I'm update this list get Niagara Falls on there and present that to does and see what happens he's signing all right I would have replaced something else but I believe there is an updated wonders of the world list well that was the classic seven right I only I use the there is I don't think the Colossus of Rhodes is still around

either that big donut near the airport at LAX you know that you've that's that's in I only recognize the classic seven wonder what about see you later Taj Mahal that's one of the new ones no don't take out Taj Mahal

Well, you're not getting rid of the Roman Coliseum. He's been doing good work. Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza. What about that? Chechen It's one of those ones. That kind of you can maybe sort of combine those two into one thing. I've already stated my case to get rid of the hanging gardens. All right.

That's it for the Around the NFL podcast presented by New Era. Have you nominated the Around the NFL podcast for the listener podcast awards yet? It's free. Easy to do. Just head to podcastawards.com. Nominated around the NFL in the sports category. You know, if you just do this, I'll never read this ever again. And you'll never have to ever worry about hearing this.

Just vote. And once we win, Erica, are we going to win? Definitely. It'll be a bit of a la ravié magnifico if we don't win. Put it that way. And I don't think you guys listening want to know who's being exposed. The subject of that. Yeah.

Anyway, again, podcast awards.com nominated around the NFL in the sports category. and a reminder that our video show is coming up later this week. So our next time you'll hear from us is Wednesday. And then on Thursday, starting at noon Eastern NFL.com slash ATN Live. You could check out our video show. Good stuff. We'll be back. Oh, one announcement, not a minor one.

Yes, we'll be in the studio on Wednesday. On Friday, Friday show, we'll be recapping our time at Los Angeles Rams Camp. How about that? The 2017 team of ATL. We're going to be at Rams Camp. We're going to talk to some big fish, not Evan Silva, but some big fish connected to the Rams.

So we're going to be on the road. Road trip. It's a big announcement. Shotgun. I mean, you put out a list of who you want to talk to, and sometimes, like, they might try to give you the lowest level, but our list of seven or eight requests are all major names.

You're just setting us up for failure there. We don't know who. We're going to end up with like Jim Everett. it's like caddy. We could work with that. All right, that's it. First, thereby, next stop, London. Oh, yeah.

Oh, we heard you all of the people excited about our trip to London. First week of September, Twitter blowing up over that. We cannot wait to see you. So we'll get, we're going to have more London talking. Maybe a famous London sports personality or British sports personality coming on our show soon to talk about that. Maybe a prince. A little hint.

Little hint. It's Prince Harry, baby. All right, let's go. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss, and the loose cannon behind the glass. Till Wednesday! This is an IHeart podcast.