NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Ezekiel Elliott and Trade Reactions

Episode Date: August 11, 2017

A room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Colleen Wolfe, Marc Sessler & Gregg Rosenthal – recap all the latest news from around the NFL including the recent Ezekiel Elliott suspension, the Bills trading Sammy Watkins and Ronald Darby. The heroes also recap Thursday’s preseason games and the gang has a big announcement.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Around the NFL podcast has completely fixed their mechanics. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Zessler, Colleen Wolfe, and Greg Rosenthal.

What's up, team? Hey, hey, hey, hey. Okay. Likeed it? Yeah. I'm in. Cool. A little bit of a wink Martindale feel to that intro today.

I could do that job. Did you guys see Money's mustache, by the way? I have seen a tweet. I didn't know if it was for something he was shooting or what. I think he said, I saw him at Chargers Training Camp, and he was saying something about the fact that guys grow playoff beards. Why can't he grow preseason mustache? So, yeah, he was rocking the stash.

I thought it looked good. It does follow the trend. People are always coming up with reasons to grow mustaches or beards or whatever. Like they need. That's a thing. Just own it. Do it. It's like you want to grow a mustache.

That's fine. It's 2017. It is actually, that is funny. And money, if you're not aware, he handles those intros so well for our podcast at no cost to us. And certainly no income to him. But I think money's doing okay. I think men in general. That's his name.

When, if you're shaving. beard or you're in a situation you decide to grow out a mustache it looks a lot better when you're in your bathroom by yourself looking in the mirror and you're kind of sold on it and you know the stigma attached to the mustache you have experience with this oh yeah i definitely do and then you walk outside the bathroom and then you just hope it doesn't get ridiculed but almost every time especially women um they'll say it and be like no no no no no you just got to own that thing you got to i mean you've had a mustache before right so i i i have worn one for the most part for the last four years on and off so yeah that explains a lot yeah um but yeah terrible time for facial hair in general where

the idea of a beard in general has become this like artistic thing where there's like deep websites about beard grooming in beard culture beard oil beard oil yeah i mean you know is this is this is gonna are you heading into a rant against the millennials here no no no i mean i actually this has been around from early 2000s this is this is pre-millennial it's not a millennial it's not a millennial shot i just think the idea of, like, let's not over-celebrate a beard. Having a beard means that you've done nothing. You didn't shave. You did nothing.

Hair just grew on your face. Okay. All right. That's fine. I mean, you're getting fired up about it. I'm just saying. A beard can look good on the right person. It does.

And it does. Yeah. Anyway. Way off track. Way off track. Because we got a lot to talk about today. Because, yes, the Ezekiel Elliott news came down about his suspension. and there's going to be huge fall out there.

We're going to talk about that in the news. We also have a lot of preseason football to get to week. One of the preseason has started, and we're going to break down what happened on Thursday and then a bunch of games on Friday. And then, of course, I got a big announcement. Big announcement. Whoa.

Big announcement. That's coming up at the end of the show. That's classic tease. In the old days of television, you could tease something for the end of an episode. And the people, they just sit there like the yokels and just wait for it and sit through commercials and all the other stuff. Now people can skip to the end of the other stuff. You can do it, but don't because I think we've got a good show, right, Greg? It would seem strange to skip past the Ezekiel Elliott News.

We've got a big phone call coming up. There was a three-team trade that was one of the most interesting trades in recent history. It would be weird to skip ahead. Counterpoint, you could skip ahead, get the news if you really want it, then come back and listen to the rest. Just don't do it. Very flexible. I mean, you could even skip ahead and skip the rest of the show and go read about it elsewhere.

You have a lot of options in today's media. Double time. You could listen on double time speed. I do that sometimes. Yeah. You know, I don't get that. I don't like people. We've had other people show us.

Well, I like one and a half speed sometimes. If I, like, if I just need the information and it's not a lot, like if it's not just I'm hanging out, I want to listen to this and really. like take it in. If I just need information quick, fast, I go one and a half. Who sounds the weirdest on one and a half speed from what about Greg? Yeah. I go from like annoying to unlistnable.

Yeah. It's like how if you heard like a filmmaker getting annoyed when someone says, oh, I watched your movie on my laptop, that's how I feel when I hear people say, oh yeah, I watch it two and a half times the speed. Like, no, as the Artis wanted it to be. You were really taken back by that when I told you. You were like, well, do the jokes? Does the timing still work?

Yes, everything still works. I don't like it. I don't like it. It doesn't sit well with me. All right. Before we get it to anything, we got to check behind the glass with Sally. What's up, buddy boy?

What's up, guys? Last show on the mic. This is it. Yeah, this is it. I'm sure you're crushed. Crushed. Crushed. No, it's been a fun summer outside of the,

random, random, no. It's been a fun summer outside of all my involvement with your show. No, no, no, no, no. Outside of the random 15 minute before the show requests from Dan and the random snarky comments from Greg, it's been a great summer. Sully style, taking shots on his way out. All right, well, who's going to take the mic? Erica is taking over the mic.

She has been here for a little bit over a week, and she's awesome. She's going to do great for you guys, a big fan already. All right. Stub for you guys. All right. Sully, so long forever until the next time we are in a disaster mode, with our production team, which could happen in about eight to 12 months. Yeah, we'll see you guys in.

And welcome, Erica. No pressure. Don't worry about it. It's going to be smooth sailing. Let's do some news. Football time. All right. Sully going out on top with a great drop.

All right, we'll start with a huge story coming out of Dallas. Zekele Elliott, the running back for the Cowboys, suspended six games for violating the league's personal conduct policy. The ruling comes after a marathon investigation by the NFL, which caught, got on a lot of people's radar, led to a lot of issues in terms of criticism for the league about how long it was taking. It was a year-long investigation, in fact, into domestic violence accusations made against him by a woman named Tiffany Thompson, who had identified herself as a former girlfriend. Elliot had denied, and always has denied the allegations. He's 22 years old, but the league handed down the ruling six games.

He's already appealed it, as you would expect, Elliot. But this goes back to Greg the allegations with Tiffany Thompson, but also the incident that happened on St. Patrick's Day with the woman that Elliot groped and was caught on video. So the NFL sends a pretty big statement by taking them out of action six games. I think it was surprising the length of the suspension, wasn't it, Greg? It was, and yet maybe it shouldn't have been, because the domestic violence policy,

which was enacted with so much attention on it, is pretty cut and dry and sets up very specific numbers for how long a player is going to be suspended upon their first infractive. six games. I mean, we've seen this before. And for whatever reason, I think primarily because it wasn't a case that got Zeke in trouble legally, you know, through the court system, people just assumed that there wasn't going to be that much follow-up here, that it wasn't that big of a deal.

And the NFL very clearly and had someone speaking, really representing the NFL of why they did this, said they believe there was a series of interactions where violence occurred, point blank and that he should be suspended for it. Well, and Elliott's team has already come out with a statement of their own, and they are going to fight this hard. And it makes me wonder if the suspension, almost like with Tom Brady's, if the appeal is going to take a long time that this does not happen this year potentially. One note in their response from the Ezekiel Elliott team, they said the NFL's findings are

replete with factual inaccuracies and erroneous conclusions, and it cherry-picks so-called evidence to support its conclusion while ignoring other critical evidence. That said, the NFL did not rush this investigation quite the opposite. It seems from the note that they sent Elliott, a five or six page, dense recording of their findings, that they took their time and they came to a conclusion they believe in. Yeah, this was something that I think that if they came down with it a little bit quicker, it wouldn't turn into the mess that it's about to turn into. It's already a mess, and it already has lingered so long.

just looking at the timeline of everything. There's so many events and there's so much time that has passed that it's hard to get a grasp on what the chain of command is and why it's taken so long to actually hand this down. Well, there was a March incident this year, as Dan mentioned, that was ultimately added to the investigation. Yeah, I don't see. I don't, there is always, the NFL is always going to be criticized

for basically anything they do. Sometimes it's fairly, sometimes unfairly. in this case, I don't think, I don't think the NFL was really, I think they did the right job here. I think that Elliott absolutely was doing things that the league has set very clearly, as Greg puts, in their guidelines of how you're supposed to carry yourself. And it should, and they handed out the punishment before the season started. Yes, it took the better part of a year, but it's squared away before week one. And the Cowboys know exactly where they stand a little late in the game, but that's just,

hey, listen, that's part of the problem when one of your players gets out of line like this. I think for the big picture for me also is Elliot, it's got to be a wake-up call to this guy because there's been multiple incidents. And we work in the league, we hear stories. Clearly this guy is kind of living a lifestyle that can get him himself into trouble. And this was a product of that directly. How does he react going forward? But we'll have to see.

I find it interesting. Greg, I agree with you. Now that we have had this new kind of landscape on how these kind of issues will be dealt with, that six games was going to be a real. regular ban, a regular punishment, that we went from thinking 48 hours ago where the Jones family and the Cowboys were saying, we're confident that nothing will happen. And then you're hearing one game, it could be maybe one or two games, that this really, if it's exactly what the NFL said, would happen to players in this situation. But again, they're not completely synced up with

lawmakers. They are acting as their own godlike force. But it's a totally different, and I don't know if there's been a lot of anti-NFL reaction of, wow, this is curious that they're doing it. First of all, it seems like there's anti, you know, if it was the other way a few years ago, obviously. I don't want to really dive into that because I don't feel like I have enough information to be like, oh, yeah, of course he deserved it.

Of course he didn't. It's like calm down. Like, everyone having these hot takes out there don't know what they're talking about. Like, I don't know. What I can evaluate is how it affects the Cowboys, how it affects Ezekiel Elliott. And they shouldn't be so surprised.

Like, I'm a little weirded out. It's not the same. What I was going to say was it's not the same thing as a court of law. It's kind of like the difference between a court of law and a civil case. In a civil case, you just need to get 51% of the blame to end up being guilty. In a court of law, like, you have to be beyond a reasonable doubt. The NFL's not looking for beyond reasonable doubt. They're looking to make, was he probably?

at fault for this violence against her. Were the reasons that they gave for her having bruises, et cetera, credible? They didn't think it was credible. Right. All I'd say, though, is that we can move on to the football side, but it's not a complete mystery what the NFL, their process or what they're thinking, because they sent a very detailed letter

that anyone can read on Twitter to Ezekiel. That's their thinking and exactly why the ruling happened. We don't know everything about it, but we know what the NFL used as a basis, and I feel like that's enough personally to make an opinion on whether this was a just punishment. That's where I come down. Yeah, I can't speak to the details of what happened between Ezekiel Elliott and the woman.

But I think that the league has to be consistent with their punishment. And if it's six games, it's six games. But it's interesting on the football side of it because they, the Cowboys have a biweek, week six. So he's not coming back until he won't be playing until week eight of the season. I mean, do they have what's on their death chart behind Elliot? Can they survive this? Ronnie Hillman, they brought in. And they have Rod Smith, who, like, Darren McFadden will be the starter, but Rod Smith, he, if you guys, everybody who watched the Hall of Fame game, he had a good, some good plays in there.

And he's had a really good training camp. They like him. I think they brought in some guys because they were bracing for the suspension. Dallas is the only team to play four top 10 defenses from last year in what would be the window where he's gone. They'll play the Giants, the Broncos, Cardinals, Rams, Packers, and 49ers. NFC East is wide open. Yeah, I mean, Alfred Morris was believed to be on the roster bubble that maybe Rod Smith, who's impressed who can play a little fullback too,

was going to kind of kick him off the roster. Now they have Alfred Morris there. That's another back who's had a thousand-yard season. They'll keep him around. We've seen how this goes. We saw it a couple years ago when Darren McFadden was kind of the bridge running back in the year between DeMarco Murray and Zika Elliott. They weren't too bad.

The question for me is, is the offensive line as dominant? I mean, they have three of the best players. they should be fine, but they have a total question mark at left guard. You know, Jonathan Cooper there right now? Right, a former top 10 pick who's washed out, and that's a competition. Lyle, Collins, should be good at right tackle. It's, you know, it's worth mentioning. He's moving from a guard position.

He missed most of the last season. So it's a little more uncertain with their line than it usually was. They also, if you look at, and again, they're going to have time potentially to mix and match and use other running backs and get them, you know, in sync with Dak Prescott. But if you look at Prescott's numbers when Elliott was not in their, last year. I mean, they fall off, his numbers don't fall off the cliff, but the running game falls off the cliff. The way that offense operated, and it comes down to time of possession, that their rush play percentage went from 56% down to 35.5 without Elliot. That's

not who they are. They want to run the ball at least around 50% of the time. I want to see how it affects DAC, and also with all the suspensions on defense, this is the 16th player to be suspended since 2014 on the Cowboys. That's amazing. Yeah, that's part. of the narrative with that team, and I thought all summer it was going to be hard to match 13 and 3. This obviously adds another obstacle for them. I'm telling you, they feel like a team where things can go sour. Well, now you've had this prediction for a long time. This is starting to come into play in a strong way. He'll be back and play if he's healthy 10 games, but it just, I don't know, get a lot of bad juju. And if you're Roger Goodell, the last two owners that you've

gone hard at are Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones. Well, look how it worked out for the Patriots. That's true. If you're going to look at a positive, that opener against the Giants is the only division game in that mix. You've got the 49ers and Rams out of those six games, which are about as easy a game on paper as they have all season. But you have some very challenging ones, too, at Denver, at Arizona.

You get that Packers game there early, and you're doing it without Zeke. Well, by the way, Mark, how do you know I didn't know that this was going to happen? Oh, God. How do you know I didn't have sparrows the whole time? That's all. I don't know. I won't, I will not argue. I mean, you made this prediction.

You've had, you've been very confident for months about it. I mean, if I know one thing about NFL, you know, network insider, Dan Hanses. ATN. He's not one to really, like, not talk about things he knows, you know? It's true. He generally has got to, hey, hey, hey, hey, kind of, go out. For the truth, go to the suits. Get him on.

The drops point. I mean, it's also very rarely about on-field football-related happenings. It's typically more, you know, personnel movement, in-house work-related gossip type things, and occasionally a locker room scenario like what happened with Tom Brady. So you've expanded your rule of insidery. You really do always have the best gossip. That's true. I want to know what you're giving your sparrows.

I know that's secret. Gossip on you. Let's start gossip on you and Greg and myself and others. That's it, you know, we're being played here. What were you trying to say, right? It seemed like you were getting yourself worked up to taking a shot at me, but you never got to finish there. I think I basically said it.

If you've got a bit of information, you're going to put it out there. Oh, it wouldn't. Not unless I got the big three. Source one, two, and trace. Triple source, baby. When Mark said rarely do you have sort of league information or player, you know, personnel stuff,

you know, you could change rarely to never. So far. So this would be a first. That's all I'm saying. So salty. Moving on. Big trades. Big, big trades.

Come on, Greg. That's not like you. That's not like you. It's totally like me. Kind of is, actually. The Bills, the Buffalo Bills, join the New York Jets in the give-up club in the 2017 season. They make a move.

A couple moves, actually. The team announced that Sammy Watkins, their wide receiver, first round pick in 2014, traded to the Los Angeles Rams. along with a 2018-6th round pick in exchange for cornerback E.J. Gaines and a 2018 second rounder and another corresponding deal, the Bills acquired wide receiver Jordan Matthews and a 2018 third-rounder from the Eagles for cornerback Ronald Darby. Mark will start with you on this one. Your initial takeaways, let's start from the Bills side of things. Your thoughts.

Well, when I had to write this thing up, and, you know, the tweets were coming fast and furious, my head was spinning because at one point I thought that, oh, Sammy Watkins will look great with Carson Wentz in Philadelphia, but then you realize all these players are going elsewhere. If I look at from the bill's angle, that when the bills never, when they chose to completely pass the idea of giving Sammy Watkins to sign up for his option for next season, you knew he was not on the long-term plans. I thought, you know, unless he stayed in Buffalo had a monster year and they thought he fits here, that it shouldn't be shocking that he's been traded, although it was surprising when this happened today. You look at what Buffalo's done here. They have accrued a second and third rounder from 2018, and they have a first rounder with the trade from Kansas City to allow Kansas City to trade up to get Patrick Mahomes. They are full force going after the 2018 draft, and I wouldn't be shocked if it could even be to package themselves to get their quarterback of choice if it's not Tyred Taylor after this season. This was a, they are getting rid of Sammy Watkins. They have gotten Jordan Matthew. it's I'm not sure about

I think Jordan Matthews can do just as much as Sammy Watkins in that offense but this is very much about the future in Buffalo yeah this was so interesting first of all the Bill's having six picks in the first three rounds next year obviously now they are in full rebuild mode as you said but I thought

it was really interesting just bringing in Jordan Matthews getting rid of Ronald Darby Ronald Darby he had a he took a step back last season but so did the entire Bill's offense as a whole. Ronald Darby had his best season with Jim Schwartz when he was with the Bills. Now he's with the Eagles in 2015 when he was a rookie. And I thought that he played almost as good to, as good to have defensive rookie of the year status, even though Marcus Peters got it. But I believe he only allowed

four touchdowns and a two game span in 2015. And I think the Eagles got a great guy because they really needed a cornerback, but from the bill's perspective, they, what are they going to do at corner? I mean, Stefan Gilmore is already gone. You drafted Tradavius White, but yeah, if you're rebuilding. It's not scamper Sam in Buffalo. It's not that dire. I think they'll be able to be competitive because their quarterback's a little underrated and they still have some players there. But, you know, it makes sense to me. Maybe they have a huge hole in their cornerback, but secondary. Who cares? Who cares? Because they're just like the Jets to a certain extent, just like the dolphins even the dolphins don't realize it yet it all has to be building for tomorrow because

nothing's happening in the in the present so i also think it was part of the culture move let's dug waley let's sweep his legacy out of the building let's get these guys out of here and just put my stamp on it right i think it was a couple things i think the waily side of it and at the team just realizing what's our ceiling 10 wins if everything goes right uh what does that mean we're going to go to new england and win in the in the division round if we i just think that they realize what their ceiling was they realized it's time to play for the future and that's the move they made well they're it it's hard though and and they shouldn't pay for the sins of buddy nix and chan gaily and doug waley and rex ryan and every other plan that they've changed every two years

in buffalo but i think it's fair if you're a bills fan to be a little annoyed that hey we just gave up two first round picks and another pick for sammy wakins that was our guy we bought a ton of jerseys he's the most talented guy, you know, receiver we've had in a long time. He's gone. Ronald Darby was PFF's defensive rookie of the year. This is the part of the move that doesn't make much sense to me because he's got two years left on his contract. Yeah. That total $1.3 million. The Eagles have to look at it like, we just got an extremely talented player who doesn't cost anything. Worse case scenario, we franchise him like three years from now. That's a three year contract at a very low price for a very good player and all we had to give up was a third round pick and Jordan

Matthews who was in the last year of his contract who probably wasn't going to stick around Philly right probably wasn't going to be that big of a fact I think is a very replaceable uh wide receiver that they're not going to really miss too much with Nelson Aguilar and they've got some depth there and they get Ronald Darby back it's great for them and I think Bill's fans just have to put their faith in like, okay, I guess we have to trust that McDermott and Billy and Brandon Bean are going to make the right picks. But when was the last time of Bill's GM made the right picks? It was about 20 years ago. So I don't blame the fans for being upset. I know it's different people, but these are, you're looking for really talented young players and they just traded away two of their most

talented young players. As I'd say though, down in the news when we were saying it, it technically is not a three-team trade. No. But it is in the sense that the only way that they get Watkins out the door, which was going to happen at some point anyways, was to get something in return. And the Philadelphia side of it, I think they got, they didn't get fleeced, but they gave up a lot to get Jordan Matthew. No, I'm saying the bills. The bills giving up Darby is an expensive piece.

But I think there was an agenda to get Watkins out of town. I don't think that Jordan Matthews is going to be better than Sammy Watkins, though. Jordan Matthews has never had a thousand yards receiving. Even Kenny Britt last year had more receiving yards than him. He has a high ceiling Watkins. On the ram side of the ball, Let's just look at the Rams before we move on here.

So they get another weapon in Watkins. And listen, this guy has been eight games last year. The bills traded up and passed on essentially Mike Evans and O'Dell Beckham to get Sammy Watkins three years ago. And now it's now the Rams, it's their turn to really invest in the idea of Sammy Watkins as a superstar. But on paper, I get it. You first overall pick, Jared Goff, had nothing to work with.

Had a coaching staff that was over to match last year. Let's now give him a real weapon on the. outside the where you could come at them a little bit Greg is you could say all right you know Watkins is unproven he's got a foot he has foot issues uh and it costs you a second round pick when your team that's clearly still building towards something it's expensive to get a guy with as much risk as watkins has especially when the 2018 free agent class of wide receiver is so deep you don't want to get in the habit of trading away future picks and this this group sean mcvay was still paying for jared golf trade they didn't have a first their second round pick this year

year, now they trade away next year's, this deal only makes sense if Watkins is there long term. They now are in the spot where they have to get a contract done with Arrow Donald. They basically have to make this Watkins move work because it really makes no sense for it to happen as a one-year rental. That said, the Eagles' biggest hole on their roster was cornerback by far. It was not a competitive cornerback group. The Rams' biggest hole on their roster by far was a vertical type of receiver. I mean, the closest thing they had was Robert Woods, who's a possession guy.

Former teammate to Sammy. Right. Suddenly, it makes a lot more sense. Okay, Robert Woods is the possession guy. You got Cooper Cups, your slot receiver, and Tavon Austin is essentially a forgotten man and just kind of a utility number four guy. And it all works a lot better. This team is much better with Sammy Walker.

One thing. I mean, this Rams front office, A, you had to cut bait on Greg Robinson. And now all the whispers are, oh, how do we get rid of Tavon Austin? Can he be traded? Oh, he doesn't have a certain, you know, you don't own a certain, amount of money after this season. It's more doable after signing the ridiculous extension that he assigned, which was essentially the team saying, we've created a star player, but no one else saw him as a star player. If Tavon Austin moves and you are the Rams GM, you have essentially with two first

round picks, on your tenure, they're already off the team. How much more time do you have in that organization? That's why I think it lowers the honeymoon period here. Now with Watkins and God, it's like, okay, we got to have golf and walk into do some damage right now. I think they got to win seven games minimum this year and show something and be competitive where I think Sneed finally runs out of time. He's had quite a bit of rope now. Now, before we move on, just because it's such a seismic deal, I got to throw it over to the fantasy corner. The Mark Sessler Fantasy Corner, it's a dangerous place to be.

It has volcanic viewpoints. And also, I forgot my mace. Yeah, just quite frankly, it's not a nice neighborhood. It's been worse. Mark, what is the fallout for Sammy Watkins and his fantasy value in 2017? I think his fantasy value is, listen, if he can play a full 16 games, I can see 60 catches, 940 yards, about five touchdowns, which is in the neighborhood of what he did his first two seasons

before last year's injury-ridled campaign. But that all triggers off Jared Goff not being a fundamental disaster. Sure. Yes. Question, follow question. Is that a military tank behind you? Yes, this part of town is hot on the North Korean radar, and so there are concerns. How much of your outfit is Kevlar? Not sure what that means. Oh, Kevlar, the Kevlar armor?

I don't wear armor, because, listen, a reporter just has to put themselves right into that you want to be part of the real common man when you're out here on the street. Gonzo style. Most of them are running. All right. Let's put our windows up and drive away. Before we move on, though, I know we talked a little bit about being you're, of course, the ATN insider. Media insider, yep. But you're not the only one who had a little bit of a scoop earlier this week.

It's becoming more clear, and the Philadelphia Eagles trade Jordan Matthews to the bills for a mid-round pick, let's say, fourth-round pick. Wow, you nailed it. That was Monday. That was Monday. That was just last show. You listened to our show. We said make one prediction what's going to happen in the off season. There we go.

That's pretty good, bro. Wow. Who's who? That was an interesting voiceover. Erica, who was that? It was like a weird paranormal activity. I grabbed someone randomly walking by. Well done.

Good producing. Erica flying. That's great. Coming in off the bench early in the first quarter and doing a nice job so far. All right. Good trip to the fans. Fantasy Corner. By the way, fantasy extravaganza coming up later this month. Finally, in the news real quick, just because it's kind of a silly story at this point.

Brandon Albert, the offensive lineman, the Jags traded for. He was holding out for a deal, and then he retired, and then that was in late July. And then earlier this week, Albert expressed his desire to return to the team. The team, in turn, placed him on the reserve slash retired list, Colleen. and then the Jaguars, they just washed their hands entirely. They released the offensive tackle, according to Rapsheet. On Friday, put a bow on it, Colleen. Yeah, this was a...

Put a bow on a tiny box. A lot of activity for Brandon Albert for actually not doing anything, but we've been talking about him a lot. It's been a weird journey for him. On the team, off the team, retired, maybe not retired. I think that he is having trouble with his decision-making right now. Well, or what's going to happen? happened to his bank account.

Maybe that wasn't completely, maybe the agent needed to give a little more information about the consequences. Right, but now they can't go after his $3.4 million. So it was a nice move for Brandon Albury. You just pretend that he wanted to play again. Yeah.

I think it was like a $3 million signing money. I like what Roto World called it, a bizarre cat and mouse between these two ridiculous entities. It's also silly. Grow up, Peter Pan. You know, just play out your contract, gut cut, but, you know, retire. No, I want back in.

Well, yeah. If you had to give back your signing bonus, you'd be like, hey, guys, listen, I'm back. I'm feeling good. There's certain to be a certain lack of dignity involved with the process. That's all. I don't want to point fingers. You wanted more dignity involved in all of this. The branded Albert Saga.

That was what you were looking for. A touch of dignity. You would leave the money behind? If my integrity is threat. Really? There's no way. 3.5 million? No way.

Didn't you just tell us on a recent episode that you like wandered back? into a temp job that you would bolted to get your $35 paycheck? Come on. That was a different me. Great callback. But that is a, yes, that is an efficient turning of the tables there, Mark. That's what's happening in the news.

New Era. Oh, man. So many hats. NFL's training camp collection has a great combination of innovative performance and style with features like UV protection, moisture wicking, and cooling technology. There is no reason.

None at all. You shouldn't. there's no reason you shouldn't make the new era NFL training collection. Nailed it? I guess. It's a copy issue. A part of your daily attire available at retailers like Lids, NFL shop.com, and Dick's Sporting Goods in your favorite team. Is it shouldn't be available in your favorite team at retailers like Lids, NFL shop.com and Dick's sporting goods?

I think they've done an excellent job with the copy. Yeah. We appreciate their help. It should maybe be mixed up. a little bit. Maybe tweak that. Hey, Erica, can we, you know, one of your first jobs? Just tweak this copy a little bit. You got it.

So it reads a little better? Great. You're going to blame Erica now. No, no, no. I'm actually saying if she can help us out with this. You feel like she can multitask. She's already shown that ability. I think she's a straight shooter with the upper management potential. It's the early scouting report. All right. Let's move on to talk some Thursday and Friday. do we want to talk to Wes now

or do we want to say that to the end of the show as well? We're going to call us. Yeah, we're going to talk to Wes today. Should we do it now? Yeah, he said he had some news for us. All right. Let's call him. Yeah, let's do it because

pulled the curtain back about five minutes before we came up here for the show. West said he had some news and he wanted to tell us about it on the podcast. Now, we're extremely curious what that news could be. Now, I want to speculate. here. I hope it's good news, but it could be anything. Pull the curtain back even farther. I'll pull back a little further. I know what the news is.

Everyone here, what's everyone, these information brokers all of you with like your deep sources. A lot of sparrows. I got the scoop. Do we have what? Do I hear Wes on the phone right now? I'm just curious who got the scoop. My husband, do you know him, John Gonzalez? John Ronald Gonzalez, born March 12, 1977 is an American sports writer who's married NFL media

the broadcaster, Colleen Wolfe, John, who's a Pisces resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two dogs. Oh, okay. All right. Wes, are you on the line, buddy? I am. I just got out of Colleen's car with her husband. Oh, the motorized monster.

You were in it. I love it. I love your car. I've always wanted a jeep. Yeah, it's fun. I really want to get to the news from Chris Wesleying, but why is it called the motorized monster? Because it's a four-door wrangler, but it's stick,

and so it's just like hulking down the highway. So it's a beast. It's impressive. Yeah. Drive stick in this day of age. It's not smooth. Yeah, I bet. All right, Wes.

So you said you have some, should we call breaking news? Breaking. All right, we got breaking news. Floor is yours, bud. So let me set the stage for you a little bit. In the past couple of months, since they found the tumor and started radiation and chemotherapy, we have no way of knowing how much the tumor has shrunk, if it's spread, how well everything's worked. They ran CT scans on me Monday, but I haven't heard, so I didn't know anything.

And we ran an endoscopy today when I came to from the Propheal, which put you under. The doctor was crying. Whoa. What's up? In a very good way. She woke me up, said, the cancer is obliterated. Whoa! Oh, boy.

Yeah. Wow. She, her job was to go in and tattoo the tumor, so the. surgeon can find it and there was no tumor to tattoo she said so that is amazing news wow west wow i feel like i'm going to cry right now yeah when i called the paramour she was she had me a little misty they used the they used the word obliterated obliterated they also use the word you are going to go in and have surgery on wednesday because they want to make sure nothing hiding in the walls or anything like that.

And then you'll be cured. She's the word cured twice. That is amazing. That's the best news in the history of the around the NFL podcast. Oh, my God, Wes, I'm so happy. That's the greatest news ever. Like, this is amazing. And we will be able to soon go to Hanano together and celebrate.

Oh, yeah. John was talking about Anano at least seven or eight times on the way home. I'm sure. Wow, that's great. So, I mean, where does that rank in? Chris Wessling lifetime good news. I mean, is there anything even approaching that? I think it rings right behind a few months ago

when I found out the cancer had not spread and I wasn't going to die in the next year. Yeah, that feels fair. That feels like a fair number one placeholder. What was your, when she told you that and she used the word obliterated, what went through your mind? It's amazing because so much of this has been me reading her face over the past few months.

When she found the tumor on the first endoscopy, there was grave concern, and she's such a good doctor, and I could just see it on her face that she was worried. And then a few days later when we ran the test, and she saw that it had not spread, just the relief. And again, she was in tears when she found out it hadn't spread, and I saw the same look on her face today. So I knew it was going to be just great news, but you're still like, you're coming out of the propofal, which puts you under. So there's still a few cobwebs, and I'm trying to take it all in, and I see her frying, but also smiling really wide. And like, you think worst case scenario, as poorly as I've been eating and as much kind of suffering as I've been going through the past month and a half, a lot of things into your mind, and you don't know, like, how much of it is the tumor and how much of it is the radiation and the chemo, like doing a number on your cells and killing them. and you just don't know why you're suffering. So to find out that the chemo and the radiation did their job

and you were suffering because they did their job and it wasn't the tumor, like that to me was such a relief. Oh, my God, Wes, I wish I could give you a big hug right now. Well, John's going to have us at a non-no this weekend. That is amazing, Wes. Oh, my God. Wes, are you at all worried that you've rendered the rest of this podcast kind of pointless because there's no way to top that.

Like I don't know how we're going to go back into talking about like the Brown's offensive line on Thursday night. The Falcon's strong side linebacker situation, suddenly meaningless. I was so abhorient. I just had to share my news. You know, I just had to get it out. That's awesome, buddy. Awesome, awesome, Wes.

Well, that is a great way to send yourself into the weekend. I can imagine, Wes, obliterating cancer in a big spot. Some say the biggest spot. I would say the biggest. Just a little bit of help from the doctors and medicine and technology. You see it your way. I see it in mine. Wes, awesome.

That is great news. It's great news for all of us. And we can't wait until you knock out the surgery. And then, yes, Hanano's podcast, all the good life stuff. We'd love you, brother. Love you, guys, too. Love you, bud. All right.

Wow. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Just end the show right there. I don't even, I don't know. Yeah, we should have done this at the end. I'm now an emotional wreck. My instinct was doing it at the end.

I didn't know the news, so I didn't know it was going to be that great. That's great. John texted me before. Dan's announcement at the back is really what's going to suffer in comparison. That's true, too. Well, all the people that fast forwarded just to hear that and they've missed this announcement entirely. They got banged. They get banged hard.

That's awesome. Oh, my God. Just hearing Wes, though, tell that story, like really got me. Great news for the local bar scene. Wes is back. He's ready to spend some cash. It's been just taverns across West L.A. shuddering over the past, like, three months or so.

But, no, business is about to pick up in a big way. So, yes, that is great news. And let's move forward with the show. Listen, it would be, imagine it was bad news. We have good news. There's no reason to stop the show. We'll just keep rolling, but now we're all happy. Okay.

If anything, it makes the preseason more exciting to talk about because that's what began. On Thursday night, you know, you count the Hall of Fame game. I don't count the Hall of Fame game. What? Why? It's part of the preseason. I don't really buy into it as part of the preseason. You didn't buy into the beginning of Hall of Fame weekend?

Listen, a great 2018 win by the Cowboys, really squeaker of a victory over the Arizona Cardinals. But now we're... Come back. Come from behind. Big time comeback in the Hall of Fame game, but I don't care. I want to get into the week one of the preseason proper. So let's go through the games that have been played. there were, I don't know, about seven on Friday, on Thursday.

Seven. And one on Wednesday. Let's start. I guess we'll just start. Let's just go in order. Let's talk about the Wednesday game first because there were some good things to take away from that. It was the Texans against the Carolina Panthers. And everyone wanted to see what happened at the quarterback situation.

Greg, get us going there with what you saw behind center for the Texans. Of course, the situation, Tom Savage. people think that, or he's been positioned, is this guy that could be a real starter? Deshawn Watson, the team's first round pick. I think Deshaun Watson just showed it and confirmed everything that you've heard about him in training camp, that he's a little ahead of pace,

that a lot of the things that you were excited about in terms of, you know, to use a terrible word poise and his decision-making, he just kind of looked like, all right, he's ready to play some NFL quarterback. Wasn't perfect, but he was fun to watch. like you had those super side, you know, those Alex Smith comparisons going into the draft, and you can kind of see that watching him play. He seems like he's going to be ready to play

sooner than later. Yeah, I think he absolutely will play this season, the idea that that's not going to happen. Even it maybe doesn't happen at the start, but there's not, Tom Savage, nothing happened with that Texan's offense against the Panther starters. Carolina took Houston to town early on. Watson came in. He was not facing the starting defense, but I thought he extended play as well and he had a nice connection with flipper anderson son drays anders that really oh wow i did not know that historically i did some research on this guy and found that out when i watch humblebrake when i watch tom savage i'm just it's not a humblebrage i'm telling you i did not innately know that it's good though it's good that you did the research time oh please he kind of

looks like every other kind of i don't want to be mean but kind of stiff backup, mediocre quarterback you've ever seen, kind of a statue in the pocket. Savage. Kind of a statue in the pocket. Maybe holds the ball too long. Maybe he can hit a pass every once in a while. And so he leaves the game.

And then the rookie comes in. And Watson, I think to me, I think there's a real chance he's going to start week one. Just I don't want to make snap judgments. But the fact that he came in and the way he was able to move in the pocket, the way he was able to make plays happen, I just thought there was such a big difference to me. in seeing how the offense just seemed to be more lively with Watson behind center over Savage.

Yeah, there was a little bit more of a pop in the offense when you watched it with Watson. I think they were able to do a little bit, some different things just because of his athleticism. Also, I felt he had the ability to, he was cool with throwing the ball away when there was nothing there. And I think that that shows kind of, that shows his maturity too. Yeah. And when I watched with Tom Savage, it was just kind of a boring vanilla offense. He's Tom Savage. Yeah.

But it's also, you know, he was like 9 for 11. It's like we always talk about preseason sample size. Like normally a football player plays a whole game and you make an evaluation. This is two or three series and one of them ended in a touchdown. It's like I drew nothing from Tom Savage's performance in particular, but it was nice to see Deshaun Watson kind of confirm all the good things you've heard about. I really doubt he's going to start week one. I thought Christian McCaffrey looked good.

He looked at sort of, you know, you saw little bits of what we've been hearing to some degree. He didn't break free or anything. Demir Byrd looks like he could be potentially a deep threat for the Panthers and fill that slot for them. I was stunned to find out that Joe Webb is still playing quarterback. I thought that I feel like he's been around for like 88 years. He went to receiver for a while and then I think it was laughter. He settled back into like special teams captain slash third string quarterback, which is badass. I mean, he played pretty well.

Eighth year in his career, to carve out a career like that, if you had said that when he was the most random playoff starter, I think probably of this decade, when he was told he was going to start 30 minutes before the game and had that terrible performance. He's still going strong, making that money. But Derek Anderson, I think when we talked about our backup QB rankings, maybe even knock him up a notch or two.

You want to take him up? Yeah? Derek Anderson, you put him in there, he just makes things happen. You know, I know. How about Calvin Benjamin? He brings back. Oh, my God. He looked great.

Derek Anderson brings back glory memories for you of the 2007 season. Well, that season went very south at the end, but there were some incredible moments, yeah. Kelvin Benjamin, yeah, he looked good. He lost 20 pounds, by the way, since that spring camp practice where he showed up and Ron Rivera said that he was looking heavy. A lot of weight talk. Yeah, he was in the mid-260s when he reported this spring. He's playing in the 240s now, and he made a nice catching traffic for a touchdown

and kind of looked like maybe the 2013 Kelvin Benjamin a little bit. You were on Twitter calling out the, was it the belly truthers, that you're down on belly truthers? Get out, I'm getting after the belly truthers. And by the way, just so you know, Greg, H. Butker hit a 51-yard field goal with 421 to play in this game, but it wasn't enough as the Panthers won 27 to 17. Are you tracking that kicker battle? You've got to get that score in.

Big Bucker fan. So why on earth do we need the score? The Panthers improve to 1 and 0 in the preseason. Texans fall to 0 and 1. Track this heavily. Please. Let's move on. And by the way, a shout out, despite, you know, Greg taking shots at me about my insider status.

Shout out to both Greg and Wes for their write-ups on Wednesday and Thursday. The winners and losers. You got to check that. Check it out. Because you're going to learn a lot. See? Frank, see? Thanks, buddy.

I love what we learned. No, it's just a compliment of your work. Not looking for anything back. Well, I'm sure he is. So you better be, you better deliver something back verbally before the show wraps. Let's move on to the Friday games. Greg, since you or the Thursday game since you did rightly what we learned, where do we want to start maybe in order of what jumped out to you the most on Thursday night?

Well, the big story to me was Mitchell Chubisky. the last most people remember him was getting filleted on draft day by all the people who thought the bears were insane for trading him up and this is a guy we've barely seen play college and we haven't heard too much good or bad in camp and you watch him play on Thursday night and he was the most memorable thing on Thursday night I'm not saying he was exactly like Dak Prescott a year ago but he basically had a perfect opening statement like literally they had no points and just about no first downs in six drives before he came in and he comes in touchdown touchdown field goal he didn't have an incompletion you know for his first 11

throws and three or four of those throws especially late in that third drive the field goal drive there's a third and 18 where he gets hit after the play you know perfect there's a couple throws right on the run and it's just like okay this is a guy that looks like a guy who should be drafted in the top five who's got some talent fun to watch and suddenly the bears look you know there was such a stink on the bears around this whole thing tom pellicero wrote an interesting piece that people have started when this happened with dac prescott that league executives around the league would start texting him saying like this prescott guys for real that that started to happen with trabisky the people are saying he looks in control and there were a couple of plays with him over and

over it wasn't like run for your life in the wrong direction it's step up in the pocket throw your throw the ball and it's on point, throw after throw. The accuracy that they talked about was there. There was a play where he had to spin into, through defenders into a wide open space and the play broke down. He spun around and then just ran for a first down. He's good on his feet. I don't know.

It's one game, but, like, I was expecting a disaster from Trubisky. You know what? Shame on the football cognoscenti, too. Because you can't, if you're going to now. I'm just going to say, it's on my radar a little bit. I'm not going to cast any shame on him yet, actually. But if you're going to all of a sudden come around and all of a sudden love Mitch Trubisky and be like,

oh, wow, the bears are doing it. They've really hit on something special here. Well, you better have a Mia Culpa for burying this team for three months without ever seeing the kid take a snap. Us in the room should? Well, everyone. But it's too early to say either way. I think DJ points us out every Daniel Jeremiah.

I'm not going to be ignored. Points us out every preseason. and scouts should never start bragging or taken out from preseason performances. There's a lot of like, oh, look, they were right. It's like, no, I mean, no one knows if they're right or not. A couple years ago, we're glowing over Blake Bordels. We're all saying that we've found, like, the child of Ben Rathlisberger. You know, it's like, please.

I think Bears fans can be excited, though. Yeah. Like, okay, hey, this was fun. I was flying back from the East Coast. So this is the only game that I got to watch live. So I watched it pretty closely. And I was really excited when Trubisky came in. At one point, he completed 10 straight passes.

And this comes after Mike Glennon had a rough start to this game. He had a pick six, and then there was a high snap. I mean, Glennon is a pretty tall dude. He's like six. Well, the snap wasn't on him. The snap went over his head. No, what I'm saying is. Like a two second three and out in between those two events were on him too.

I mean, the contrast is what you're talking about. It was messy, yeah. And Trubisky came. in and all of a sudden it turned around. He looked good. And then also, Tyree Cohen, the running back, had a lot of really good plays. I mean, he played a little bit of everything. He was returning punts.

He was carrying the ball well. And Adam Shaheen, the tight end. I really liked him, too. Glennon should win the starting job, you would think, at least in week one. But he has to be better than he was, obviously, in this game. And if Chibisky plays lights out all season and puts. them in a position where they might convince themselves to just bail

on this Glennon thing entirely as a start. Well, there was this belief that, oh, you know, Trubisky is the one quarterback, that there's no way he'll play this season. Even if the Bears fell. Well, Mahomes, yes, but Trubisky was packed into that too, that yes, they're sold on Glennon. Glennon is, Glennon

could be yanked within the first game of the season, honestly. Chibisky is playing really against like week three Mike Glennon right now. Because if he just looks good all month, then it just makes that leash so short. You never know. I mean, if he looked this good all three weeks

and Glennon struggled all three weeks, you have to think about it. John Fox said, John Fox said that one game is not going to change his depth chart. So fear not, Mark Sanchez fans. You're still probably ahead of Chubisky on the depth card, which is stupid.

One of my favorite Gregisms is he really doesn't like Mark Sanchez. That's not true. Don't play the old veteran in front of Trubisky. Or John Fox for that matter. I don't even disagree with you, but I do like you'll never miss an opportunity to take her shot.

I knew you would like that. Yeah, and my boy Mark Sanchez, who went into Foxborough in January 2011 and won a damn playoff game. Yeah. Keep re-watching that. That's almost a decade ago. Oh, you should talk.

You're watching your Browns games from 1981 in front of the television. That is multiple decades ago. You're watching Brown's losses during a party. Nor am I telling you, nor am I telling you during a podcast how great, like, Webster Slaughter was. I mean, I'm not using podcast.

It was a great name. At the softball celebration, true or false, the drive was being played on the television at the house. It was. I mean, we were outside, but then we came in and it was on, yes. And all right, let's just move on. He's getting killed for that in my own house. Let's move on. And by the way, you guys should know that DeAngelson's 41-yard touchdown run with just 149 to play, lifted the barcos.

Not a person to a 24-17 win. We should mention Paxon Lynch did not. look good. I think making decisions took a while and it really was a repeat of all the camp practice reports that we've Broncos want. That Simian looks fine and Lynch looks not. Broncos fans

want Paxton Lynch to look the way that Trubesky did last. Exactly. So that's where it can be a little different. Like you'd love to see that. Let's reset the decks here. Six games to still talk about. That's the only one that really matter. Fifty four minutes into the show. So I'm not saying we should not say things that are on our mind. But

Let's remember. Got you. That's the speed round. Those were the two quarterbacks. That's good hosting. All right. Let's, I don't, I would love to just stay here all day, but I know we can't. So let's move on and talk about, Mark, what does you throw one out there?

Colleen, you're on deck. How about a little Saints Browns action? All right. I thought when it comes to, A, Cleveland's defense played one of the better preseason games I've seen them play in a long time. This is the Saints Browns game in 2017 or like 1984? That's your trick, bringing up some Jets game that I watched it. Jocks are Daly's seven years ago.

Give me a break. Go ahead. When it comes to another quarterback of note, I think that Deshaun Kaiser absolutely outplayed Brock Osweiler. Cleveland's starting offense under Osweiler was a stillborn operation. It was a disaster. And, you know, Kaiser initially, not a lot happened. Wow.

I love everything about this place. I love being a brown, and I'm just very thankful to be here. Well, he's lucky he's there because I'm not sure where he's going to be on that depth chart come the season. because Kaiser, again, it's a preseason game. He was not facing starters. Impressive night, I thought. He showed, number one, his arm strength is something that I can't really think of a Brown's quarterback having in a long, long time.

Look like Big Ben. People are like, oh, that's against third or four stringers. Give me a break. It doesn't matter who you're against when you're dodging people in the pocket and then pump faking a guy and throwing it 65 yards. That's just talent. Yeah, it was not nearly as clean as what we saw from Trubisky, but I think that he's a different type of quarterback, number one,

and he moved that offense down the field multiple times at the end of the game. It was a weird sight for a Browns fan to see. It was the same thing when I was watching the Texans. Same thing, same experience in my mind, which was, right, they got the guy starting who is completely uninspiring and is just another guy. Then you got the kid who's making things happen and looks exciting, and you want to make sure you bring these guys along at the right pace. You don't want to throw them in too quickly.

but if you're the Browns, you have to be thinking to yourself, if this guy continues to make wow plays and Brock Osweiler is going to continue to be Brock Osweiler, do you just go for it in week one? Hugh Jackson wants him to be there, a quarterback of the future. Today, I don't know what will happen. One quick note, Alvin Kamarar, I thought for the Saints,

looked awesome, shredded Cleveland's defense, and Cam Irvin, Cleveland's first round draft pick from a couple years ago, I honestly think he's a cut candidate. He was an absolute mess. You can't have Brock. At left tackle. Can't have Brock. starting games.

It's just so, it would just be so depressing. He's working himself out of the job. After the games, he's saying things like this. Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure in the history of the game, no ball's ever been completed

that was thrown out of bounds. I'm going to miss this guy when he's gone after this year. That was a joke. Like, that was his version of a joke or something. But he also was pointing out that he couldn't throw the ball in bounds, which isn't a good thing. That's a problem. Connie, you're up.

Okay. Wait, but one more. This game, Miles Garrett, he looked good. Congratulations, Mark. For what? That was a fun game to watch as a Browns fan, wasn't it? You've got a quarterback. I mean, I honestly, well, I don't know if either of those things are true.

It was fun to some degree. I don't know if I have a quarterback yet. Connie, I was saying to move on to the next game. Oh, okay. No, I was just going to say Miles Garrett looked as good as advertised, not that anybody was expecting him to do anything less, but he disrupted some plays and look good out there. That kid's got a motor.

All right. you're right next game um i'm going to go with the bills and the vikings all right bills bikes what was your big takeaway so with that i just thought it was funny because uh tyrod taylor he the first three passes were to sammy walkins all completions and i feel like they were setting this up for the trade like hey look at sammy's healthy he's feeling good he's catching balls i think they were yeah i think they were exactly what they said it too i think i think they obviously had worked Not on this trade, and Jordan Matthews got a lot of targets. I know.

That was by design. It's so sad as Bill's fans were going crazy to watch Sammy Lockins. I know. Feel bad. Yeah, so it was that. And then McCoy's backup, Jonathan Williams, he looked really good, too, on some of those runs. That's a familiar name. Shout out.

Spicey. Spice rack, that was his guy. Spice. He left with a hamstring injury. I don't know how serious is, but he was running well in Spice Rack. And when Spice Rack had his. complete, talk about obliteration, an obliteration of his potential podcast career when he melted down last year on our airwaves. He did manage to sputter out that Jonathan Williams was a guy

to watch on the Bills, or I guess he wasn't on the Bills yet. Or was he on the Bills at that point? Was this a pre-draft spicy? Pre-draft, yeah. It doesn't really matter. He likes Jonathan Williams and see if we see more from him. Yeah, because that position's pretty thin and that's a run-first offense. So, I mean, he looked good. I am a concerned about Sam, Bradfrey got sacked big, he got destroyed twice in two series. And that line, which was such an issue last year, it was injury related to some degree. I wonder if it's that much better. Little housekeeping real quick.

Jordan Payton, touchdown pass from Kaiser, 2014. The Browns won that game, won an 0 for the Brown. I thought we had moved on. But you just have to get that score in. Got to get the score. And in this game that we're talking about now, Desmond Lewis is one-yard touchdown reception from Nathan Peterman, which was followed by an Austin rare cow kick, gave the Vikings a 1710 victory over Buffalo.

So a tough couple days for the bills. We're going extra points now added. Any other thoughts from that game before we move on? I think Dalvin Cook is an interesting pass catching back. I wasn't totally sold on him running the ball, but just want to see more. Moving on, Greg throws the game. We got four more to get to. Do you need help?

Here they are. I'll do a one quick point off of Eagles Packers. Okay. Which is that Ty Montgomery had reportedly had fumbling troubles throughout training camp. It's been some buzz that Jamal Williams from Sydney's own BYU was coming on fast and maybe taking some carries away. And Ty Montgomery lost the fumble on his second carry of the preseason. So you would think this is starting to be a problem for a guy who also is known not to be too great at pass protection. So that's, I love watching Ty Montgomery, but that's a little bit of a couple of a couple of.

cautioned for all the fantasy buzz that he's getting. I think that's fair. Derek Barnett also looked really good in that game. Solie, as soon as I came in, he bombarded me with highlights. Go to my Twitter. Look at this. But he did really look good. You know, it's August.

All the time. You know, it's August when Matt McGloin throws the ball 42 times. Wow. That was an odd. Totally odd box score. For less than five yards per attempt, by the way. So, Maddie, not really lighting it up. A 24-9.

Packers' victory. Let's take a look at Atlanta, Miami. Atlanta, Miami. It looks like Dolphins' second rounder, Rayquan McMillan, his knee injury. It appeared to be pretty serious. I don't know. Yeah, that happened early in the game. I think he has a torn ACL, if I'm not mistaken.

Yes, he is expected to miss the season with the torn ACL. So that's a big blow for them. Tough news for him. Not overall for the game so far. Probably was going to start for that team, by the way. a position that could be a weakness, plus, you know, named after Rayquan the chef. For real? Is that right?

I don't know that for sure. Oh. I think so. I'm pretty sure. You could have just told us, yeah. How are you pretty short? I looked it up at the time and I was like, whoa, is he named after Rayquan? And I think the answer is yes.

We saw Matt Ryan for one series for the Falcons and three for three, 32 yards and a touchdown. I think they converted to Devante Freeman on a fourth and one for a touchdown. So they got the offense in there. They do their work. Matt Moore, one attempt for the Dolphins. I guess that surprised me a little bit, but they're trying to get a look at their. A lot of Brandon Dowdy last night.

It was a big dowdy party. Tough week for Jalen Collins got suspended 10 games and then gave up a 99-year-on touchdown to like a third string. Not great. Yikes. More bad news for the Falcons. They fell 2320.

Miami outscoring the Falcons 13 points in the fourth quarter. Is that sound familiar? Hey, hey. This could be a tough one. Close out your games. Dan Quinn. It's going to be a tough one to bounce back from. All right.

Also, around the league, let's talk about, ooh, the Jacksonville Jaguars in New England, a Patriots. Tell me a little bit what you saw from Blake Bordles, Greg Rosenthal. Not much good or bad. He wasn't in long enough. He was just kind of there. It would be my Bordals assessment. And then Jimmy G, I learned that some of the Patriots homers who were kind of like it was a sponsorship

slash announcer. I was confused what was going on. He's called Game Day Garapolo. Apparently, he's okay in practice, but put him on game day. And Jimmy G's going to inspire. I thought Dionne Lewis looked good. How about Leonard Fournette, man? I'm into some Leonard Fournette.

Yeah, he thinks he's going to lead the league in rushing. He's a load. I mean, that coach wants to run the ball like roughly 57 times a game, so it feels possible. And they did in that game. They ran the ball twice as much as they threw it. They were using him on fourth down. He plowed right through the Patriots for like an eight-yard gain at one point.

Rex Ryan, Gino Smith. Esk in that Monday night game, 18 pass attempts for the entire game in a preseason game. So I don't know if it's Doug Moran sending messages in week one of the preseason about... They scored 31 points. They did. That's what they wanted to be, I think. That was more than enough. What about Austin Carr?

Oh, that's true. Another nifty white for New England to go up and down the field with. Undrafted and he made some really good catches. He's been making, like, the Patriots fans are convinced this is like the next West Welker. And he did, you know, have an – probably the play of the night, I would say, was his touchdown catch is skying over the air. That was amazing, yeah. But guess what?

Wow, that's cool. Guess what? It wasn't enough because the Jaguars held on for a 31-24 victory over the Pats. So the Pats fall to 0-1, including dropping a home game, which is significant. West predicted they would fall on the preseason. He was not wrong. That's true. That's true.

And by the way, it just occurred to me now. There will be at least 14 listeners of the show that are going to think that I'm being serious about the scores. Well, you're right. I'm very serious. You are. New England, a bad start to their season. Finally, Washington and Baltimore.

I call it the Battle of the Beltway, but it wasn't much of a battle. The Ravens with a 23-3 win, cruising to a victory. And if you're, again, if you're still on the Kaepernick watch, which seems kind of to be an exhausting task here in the Ravens Nest, Ryan Mallett, again, does not look like a competent quarterback on any level. Completed half his passes, 9 for 18, 58 yards, about three yards per attempt. So I don't know.

I honestly don't know what else. At one point, the Ravens have to say to themselves, our starting quarterback has a back injury. And those things can crop up at any time, especially when people start getting hit, Mr. Flacko. We got to get somebody else in there. Yeah, by the way. It seems like a place Kaepernick should land. Remember it was supposed to be three to six weeks for Flacco? Right.

Oh, first, he said it was only like a week. Right, from the time of the injury, which was mid to early July. We're now in mid to early August, so it's been a solid month, and he has not practiced at all. One thing in that game, I mean, the Redskins, Kirk Cousins, nearly throws a pick right out of the gate to Eric Weddle, gets hammered on a sack later on. This team could not run the ball against Baltimore. Their offensive line got completely controlled by the Ravens from start to finish 2.2. yards per carry. Rob Kelly got destroyed.

None of these guys that Redskins were so out of sync. And a Washington Post writer noted that their camp has been very luxurious, very kind of easy going and low-key. And they kind of called him out and said, time to turn it around. Damn cupcake. You don't want to get that. Camp cupcake. Hey, numbers don't lie.

23-3. I mean, toughen up. Small subplot. I know we got to go. Scott McLuhan has a Twitter account, which I highly recommend. It's great. Really? And one of my favorite subplots is he does not miss an opportunity to talk about Matt Jones as a future.

Over and over. Over and over on his Twitter account. Just get Matt Jones on the field. He's going to be a star. I asked him a question. He did not respond. I've been a big Scott McClellan guy. Don't give up.

Keep firing away. It was Kaiser related, I believe. It was like at one in the morning. So you have a good relationship with Bernie Kozar now. Yes, I do. There's a lot of effort on your part and eventually. Very organic, actually, did it? Very organic.

It wasn't like tweets every day to Bernie until he... No, just completely sort of a natural human friendship. I thought you guys might be close to actually, like, grabbing a beer. Well, roughly 2,000 miles away, but outside of that, yes. It's a problem. So the rest of the games are coming up on Saturday and Sunday. Tonight? Friday, too.

Friday as well. I keep on getting the days mixed up. A lot of games. Yeah, three games today. You'll note that the lion. The Lions bring up the rear. They're the last team and the Colts to start the preseason. Connect the dots, people.

The old lions taking some naps under the tree in the jungle. Is that what's happening? Well, I'm glad they're actually on the week one's schedule. Put it that way. You're not aware of the situation? No, you really sniff this one out. I know. I know.

You have an issue with their training camp schedule and how they've started to solve there. They float in whenever they felt like. Don't isolate me. Okay. I'm with you. I'm with you, Dan. Okay, you and Sessler. Greg, are you involved in this as well?

No, I pointed out that their preseason finale was Sunday because that should remind Dan they weren't allowed to go to training camp as early as some other team. I think Lions fans would get on board with this. How about show some efforts? Start winning some games, please. Yeah. Thank you, Mark. What, one playoff wins since 1958?

Oh, check that box. We've checked that box. What's going on? I don't know. All right, so that's the preseason talk for today. Before we get out of here, yes, it's been teased, it's been promised. Big announcement. Oh, it's a big one.

All right. So. I think Wes already got that honor today, but. Well, it's not the biggest announcement. Right. It's just an announcement. It's a pretty big announcement still. In fact, now they think about it, maybe Wes, we should have used this music on Wes.

It's okay. What can you do? You didn't know what the news is got. I had no idea. All right, here we go. Here's the big announcement. We've been talking about the subreddit. The big 5,000 announcement and the 5,000 subscriber on the subreddit,

we wanted to give him a prize. But then we realized there was no way to tell who the 5,000 subscriber was. Kind of failed there. And then it swelled to over 6,000 now. So you know what we're going to do? We're going to do a contest. Oh, yeah. A contest that everyone on the subreddit can potentially be involved.

Wow. Everyone on it. You don't have to be in the first 5,000. You don't have to be the first person or the 6,000th person. You can be anybody out there. You can be anybody. And this is how we're going to do it. Each of the heroes are going to pick 10 names from the subreddit,

10 handles from the subredder. At random. Or any way you want. You guys can tweet us if you want to be on our team. Possibly. Okay. Lost my train of thought. Yeah, you can do a

based completely on chance just duck in there and grab names or you could pick people that you like or comments you like, oh, that person deserves it. This music is more confusing to my brain than actual effect. You could send us gifts, possibly. Yeah, anyway, where was I?

So each of us will pick 10, username, 10 handles, until we have 50. So the four of us here in Wes, of course. Of those 50 they're chosen, we will now, then we will then take those names, jumble them up, and then have basically a draft owner. And the first person, obviously, that's up will then be asked onto the show to do a little around the NFL podcast slash NFL trivia. Four questions, you've got to get all four right. and it's a mixture again of NFL trivia and of podcast history trivia

the first person and we'll keep going until we find someone it could be the first person gets four in a row and they're the winner or hell it could go to the 48th person the 50th person we would have to take it down

the drawing potentially hopefully not that would be terrible yeah if we were doing that weekly the contest that would never die this is already on Greg's writer I can tell but no it's not that would take us into the 2018 season which seems a bit much.

That would be terrible. Part of this is we're counting on you the listeners to be okay at trivia and things of that nature. It's coming up with the questions. We all worked out. Okay, okay, okay. But, so yeah, we'll go through it. And then the winner, first person to get four questions right once you get on the air, we'll get the grand prize. Grand Prize, we're still working out what the grand prize is.

We're going to try to make it something. Could be sexy, though. Could be sexy. could be highly underwhelming. We're working on the details of that right now. But this is going on. It's not going to start yet. There are meetings.

Corpo conversations, phone calls. It's a big deal. It's genuinely happening. So how do you get involved? Oh, I'm not on the subreddit. How do you know, I want to be involved? Well, figure it out, bro. Or lady?

Yeah, exactly. Sign up for the subreddit. Anybody can do it. You could still get in right now. So we'll be doing the drawing at some point in the near future, I would believe so if you are interested in potentially being on the show and winning the grand prize subreddit grand prize then sign up for the subreddit and then maybe just maybe you'll be on the airwaves there you go can i submit myself cannot okay i don't know what the prize is

you would have to renounce your hero rights to do so okay it's kind of like it's super don't want to do that maybe you'd be fine doing that too yeah so that's it's not No, no, no, I won't. Do you remember in Superman, too, when Superman renounced his superpowers for love? He made that decision. You could do something similar. Got punched out in a diner. It could be coming.

Colleen's got a lot of jobs coming up with this 2017 season. Her star is rising. She is. It might be eclipsing this little studio here. No way. Might be. It's like a new face of NFL Network, basically, to our lap. This might be the last time she's in the studio.

This is my favorite thing I do here. Well, we love to have you here. Kenny Bugs. All right. So there you go. Was that Connie Fox or Tiny Box? It was a combo. No, it was a Connie Box.

So there it is. I like Connie Box. It's very versatile, you know. It's kind of grosser. Yeah. Tiny Fox. Somehow it's fierce. All right.

All right. Not everyone else is on board with that. Oh, by the way. Before we go. Oh, okay. Go ahead. No, that was it. Oh, before we go, I just want to say that I was really, really close to ordering a

clown to the shield celebration party but there were two things that held me back one i was about to get on a flight and i'm i was afraid of going down clown like wormholes a little bit rabbit holes why uh because like it is a little bit creepy and also i i don't know who's tracking my stuff and all of a sudden if like they see a bunch of like weird clown searches like all that comes out that's weird yeah and second but and more importantly i was i struggled to follow the logic there a little bit, go on. What, like, if the plane crashes and a general paranoia based check here.

Paranoia and also like a little bit of laziness because I was like, that seems like a lot of work. Let's say what it is. And then two, I was a little worried for the clown safety if I did send a clown to the house. I would say this. At the state that we were in by this clown shows up at 8, 39 o'clock or something, they would have been taken down.

Oh, for sure. I, yeah, Colleen is making, I hate clowns. I always have. If at the state I was in By the end of that party If that clown showed up after 10 p.m., it would have turned into Jared Lido's face in Fight Club.

I wouldn't even, by the time I snapped out of my rage, literally there would be no face left on that clown. And this poor clown would have came in with balloons and games. It would have been cruel to the class in the center. Oh, it would be a happy clown that? It wouldn't be like a scary clown?

No, it would be a happy clown. Well, all clowns are scary, actually. You are a strange person and I'm glad that's not happening. Me or Dan, I'm a strange break. Both. I'm pointing to you on this one. Yeah, a bit of an odd bird, but we like having you around, Colleen. All right.

Thanks. You should have done it, though. I know, I know. Well, next time. All right, next time indeed. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm Tiny Box, the boss and Erica and Sally behind the glass until Monday. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks.

On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.