NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Fly On The Wall: Training Camp

Episode Date: July 25, 2018

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler & Chris Wesseling - assemble to recap the latest news from around the league, including Todd Gurley’s hefty extension with the Rams and what it means for Aaron Darnold (8:00), extensions for Dimitroff & Quinn (15:00), an update on Carson Went (18:00) and the Browns could be considering Dez Bryant (22:00). The heroes then reveal the NFL training camps where they’d like to be a fly on the wall (30:00).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast is due for a Durnasance. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast presented by New Era. My name is Dan Hansis, joined in a room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan. Dernesauts. A little update on the Dernesstle.

Let's hear it. Well, we have a friend here at NFL media Tara Deeker who is friends with Laura Dern and multiple other high-level celebrities. So I'm very suspicious of whatever Tara is doing outside of work. But the message got to Laura Dern that she was the centerpiece of a segment on our show. And she said, thank you for acknowledging my Dernasance. Wow. That's it.

Not like I'd love to come on the show. Big news. My favorite team. I think it's an opening cell, but we could make that. that we could try. Although Decker seemed to want, I asked if I could text Laura Dern and just say thank you for thanking us.

Did not allow me on her phone to do that at all. Well, asking for her, yeah, phone number seems maybe a step too. No, I was going to be on her phone and she said, this will not be happening. You've grown used to taking liberties with other people's phones.

It's usually, it usually surrendered to you with no qualms. Deaker knows that, so. What do you mean, phones? What's cooking with you on phones? Well, he often, you know, he writes little, you know, modern Sirono de Bergerac love letters to people on dating sites for other people. That could be a whole side business for you.

He's had control of my phone on dating sites before. It's four friends. And now he's engaged to be married with four friends. It's for people that gave up to. Yeah, you're not like hacking into people. Yeah, I took David Ely. He was about to go on this high-octane date based on all the work I did. Ely took over the conversation, no date of her.

happened. No. Speaking of which, we don't know if Ely is going to be Wes's best man for the wedding next year. We got an idea. We got an idea, but nothing's official. He also, if he ends up defying the odds and gets invited to Wes's wedding is somehow the best man in a highly unlikely scenario, he's got to get a date too.

So maybe if that ever happened, that would be phase two of Ely's involvement with the show during the 2018 season. I'm not sure we're getting out of phase one on this plan, but probably not. Uh, by the way, this is our, uh, first Wednesday show since we went back to three times a week. And it will be for the foreseeable future, I believe, at least through training camp, our video show. So if you want to see what all these bozos look like, you know, in the flesh, uh, you can check out the around the NFL video show presented by new era. And that streams Fridays at noon Eastern. And you can find that at NFL.com slash ATN live. and if you miss the live airing,

don't fret. That same link will just take you to a continuous stream. It actually streams Thursdays at noon. Oh, thank you. Thursday. Now that we've moved to Wednesday. Yeah, that makes sense. Thursday, noon Eastern.

So make sure you check that out. Today's show, a lot to get to because teams are now all reporting for camp, as we know. So so much to talk about including a big, big deal involving the Los Angeles Rams and another Ram star that didn't get a deal who because he doesn't have a deal isn't with the Rams so we'll talk about all that and also we will debut a new segment

always good to debut new segments so it were like 7,000 shows deep it's always good to like work something new in the mix right you can't just rest on your laurels no I mean that's absolutely true you won't get very far resting I always I think it'd be fun for one off season to do no segments that we've ever done before.

What do you think about this challenge for next off? I mean, you openly disdain many of our segments, so I see I'm a little suspicious of the plot. You move it along. Seems like a lot of work. New stuff. Let's see offseason four. Anyway, a new segment, fly on the wall.

What if you could be a fly on the wall? at any facility in the country during training camp what would you like to be on a fly on the wall and like to see in here that is a nice sake

you don't want to be a fly in the wall in Patriots camp and Pelichick just takes out the swatter and you're dead you'll be squashed yeah all right so that's what's coming up on the show but before we do that

we say hi to our producer Lindsay Fulton hi Lindsay ohla you'll be going on vacation soon so this is your last show for a bit That's correct. I will be gone for about three shows.

Okay. Going up into the wilderness, hiking in the Allegheny Mountains. Oh, boy. With who? With my family. Okay. Can I recommend a book for you? Sure.

Bill Bryson, walk in the woods? Oh, great book. It's walking from one end of the Allegheny Trail to the other. Oh, really? Yes. Oh, wow. I'll write that down. I actually was looking for some books.

I'm a little nervous, though, because my friend who's already there said they've had a 500-pound bear and four cubs on their porch this morning, so. Well, that's problematic. Wait, you're camping, but you have a porch. Well, they have, they stand a cabin. Okay. Well, I just don't, I want to get like a spectrum of how rustic this triple be. That puts it somewhere between two and three.

It's pretty, pretty rustic. There's like outhouses that haven't been pumped in, God knows how many decades. It's pretty disgusting. I'm not a big fan of the idea of camping. It just seems, you know, problematic itself in general. But I did the Today Show was on in the background of my home in the morning, as it often is. My wife is, you know, she'll pound the tail. for the Today Show.

And they now have tents that you can buy them. And they basically are on your car roof. And then they can just be assembled on the roof. Put me up there. I'm all in. Are you guys going to take your kids' kids? That's a big decision whether you take your kids camping. Oh, I definitely would.

But have you? They're getting it. We've camped a little in the backyard. And the book you're talking about, he goes from Maine to Georgia on the Appalachian Trail. That takes like four months. Oh, yeah. He didn't make it all the way. One book, one book not to read, Into the Wild.

Right. Oh, yeah, saw the movie. I feel like camping's a lot like religion with your family. Like if you grew up with no religion or no camping, that's not something you're going to just start doing out of nowhere. At least that's my experience. It's also feels like just going to like start the trend. Let's start doing it.

Well, unless the significant other had that in their roots, but you're right. There is a bit of a regression there. I mean, it's like, let's go live how people did 150,000 years ago. At this point, I just am trying to make sure Dan can't. Dan's, we have about roughly 108 news items to get to. We're in minutes 16 of the show. I feel like we've hit the camping thing pretty good. Okay.

Let's do some news. I know you're all about this year, and we all understand that this year. That's right. And I would be doing my job if I didn't ask about last year. Yeah, last year is last year. I'm not focused on last year. What about the fact that everywhere we go folks want to ask about Malcolm Butler? Yeah, we've talked about that.

That's multiple months ago. Is there going to be any more explanation about why he didn't play? focused on training camp. Would you do it any differently? Training camp? Well, we're getting started. We'll work on that right now. We'll do it the best we can.

Let me say. He's kind of ruined my life, at least as a football fan, but I will miss that man when he's gone. Billi-Belichick? Belichick. I won't miss Dan Chonnessy, who is the man asking that question?

Hey, he had to ask the question. An infamous reporter in the Boston area. He's basically if you want a guy to go just annoy Belichick, you send Dan Shaughnessy. He's famously called CHB, the curly-haired boyfriend by former Red Sock player, Carl Ebert. I once, this is how old I am. I once read a column of, or a book of Dan Shaughnessy columns, and it was definitely in the 1990s. Oh, yeah. He's been around.

He came up with the curse of the Bambino. That was his book in the 70s. Wow, we're really off topic. let's start with the los angeles rams and a big big signing for the team the rams and running back todd girly have agreed to terms on a four year contract extension worth up to 60 million 45 million and guarantees rap sheet had this uh that keeps scurley in l a or should um for the next six seasons through 2023 uh and that is the largest amount of guaranteed money 45 million ever for a running back, a lot of wheat, Greg Rosenthal.

You wrote about Gurley and the amount of money you got paid, which would raise eyebrows, considering we were in the era where running backs don't tend to get paid. But you think, Greg, this should just be the start of a trend. I think it will. I think the Rams were smart to get ahead of it. A lot of people immediately say, like, don't, why do you, why would you pay running backs? Well, first of all, Todd Gurley, Azico Elliott, David Johnson, Levion Bell, they're all going to get paid over the next year or two,

and they are all difference-making backs, big backs that can play every down. And so they're getting that contract out of the way first. Those guys are probably going to wind up making more than Todd Gurley. Second, it's guarantees, not guaranteed money. So we haven't quite seen all the deals, you know, all the details. That's always on your radar, too. Yeah, and so I want to see that.

And then most importantly, he's 23 years old. He's 23 years old and has already been an offensive player, the year. They're not signing Sean Alexander at 31 years old or Chris Johnson, who was limited in some aspects of his game or Adrian Peterson's last contract. They're signing a guy who can do everything and they have him locked up for six years in the middle of his prime. And the same people that are criticizing how much money they gave him are going to be saying three years from now. Wow, this guy's really underpaid because he will be underpaid in three years. That's just how these things will. You made a good point in your write-up that are we trying to say that it's not

every starting running back that's going to get paid this way. There's a small collection of guys that do everything for you, a levy on Bell, Todd Gurley, and that are we trying to say that their running back money should be lower than a Sammy Watkins or the 9th or 11th, 10th best receiver in the league? He's getting less than Nate

Solder. I mean, he's still getting less than Nate Solter. You can't tell me he's not more valuable than Nate Solder. There is position scarcity, and that's why Nate Solder gets paid because it's much easier to find a running back than a left tackle. But the Sammy Watkins point is a good one, because wide receivers is not a scarce position.

You can find a wide receiver. Why would Sammy Watkins get paid more than a guy like Todd Gurley or David Johnson? And I would argue a running back like Gurley is a scarce position to that level of, and I think he really does tilt the field. But not if you can put like, say, James White and I don't know, who's a great running back who's not involved in the passing game. There probably aren't many anymore. But if you put like a good two down back with James White, you can.

Adrian Peterson? Yeah. You could get, for a very cheap contract, you could get Todd Gurley-level production. And speaking of great running backs that are scarcity just because of their skill, Elvian Bell, who's been trying to get this type of deal for years with Pittsburgh, he tweeted after the news got out, LOL, and people thought I was tripping? Yeah, did we look at the Steelers and say they did not get, they did not handle this correctly? I, from the Steelers perspective, I can't kill him.

They pay him 20. First of all, he's already getting. paid a lot. He's getting paid like a top five player at any position. He's gotten $26 million over the last two years. I think they're kind of okay with letting him sign a big deal elsewhere after getting another 400 touches on him. With that said, if he's healthy and he makes it to free agency, I fully expect him to blow this Todd Gurley deal out of the water because you're going to have two or three teams competing. He also has a bad knee injury. Suspensions. Right. Suspensions off the field stuff. He's four years older. I've always, it always has started to feel like to me that the Steelers are going the route that the Cowboys once went with DeMarco Murray.

I agree. Use them up and then let somebody else overpay for a guy in the back end of his prime. In other Rams news, Aaron Donald, who's also been trying to get paid forever as he watches his teammates, new teammate Brandon Cooks and Gurley get big contracts. Donald can't get paid. So he begins training camp not with the team. And if you remember Mark last season, he also sat out all training camp before rejoining the team. And once he got in the action, he was still an impact.

player, but are we head that way again? Well, Wes wrote up a great piece on this talking about the Rams sort of team building and cap space, so I'll save that for him. But the one thing I think that's tricky is if you're Aaron Donald, you have to see what happens with Khalil Mack and the Oakland Raiders. I don't think he want to be the guy signing the contract first. You probably want to come off that contract and make better off of that. And the Rams have said, we've planned for this signing, but General Manager Les Sneed called it a very tricky, complex situation. He's already said they're going to make Aaron Donald the highest paid defense a player in the league. They've allocated the resources in their cap to make sure they have the space to do that.

I think all the criticism of the Rams for signing Cooks and Gurley before Donald is misplaced. Because first of all, you don't know how much you don't know. Anyone criticizing the Rams? You don't know what kind of due diligence they've done. You don't know if Donald's representatives are holding up a deal waiting for Khalil Mack. You don't know how much you don't know. So to me, what's interesting now is Donald has to report. a month before the start of the season, or else he loses a year of free agency,

which would make him a restrictive free agent, are his agents so confident that he's that good of a player that it doesn't matter if he's restricted or unrestricted. They're still going to get a huge payday regardless. I think the criticism is insane, all the people pointing out. How does cooks and girly – well, because first of all, they're getting paid far less. I bet if you combine their true guaranteed money of those two deals, it won't add up to what Aaron Donald.

Also, they accepted the offer. Right. And what Aaron Donald is probably already being offered. There's reports out there that he's already being offered, you know, to be the highest paid defensive player easily. And what does it really matter what the order is? I have absolutely no doubt that he is going to be a Los Angeles Ram for a long time. And I'm pretty confident he won't be on the field again until he has a new contract.

So just... I think some of it is Rams fans are... Come down, Dan. Stop being so fired up about it. Dan does not look fired up at all. But they also, this happened last year with there in Donald. I got to be honest. Exactly.

People guys are all going to get paid. This is that time of year where there's about eight of these sort of annoying situations just hanging out there in the atmosphere. Like Julio Jones, who does not plan to report to camp on Thursday, according to rap sheet. He is comfortable sitting out all of camp. Rap report added, Julio skipped all offseason team workouts. He did attend Matt Ryan passing camp.

He wants a new deal. He's got three years left on his. current deal, and the Falcons have indicated that they are looking to get contracts done with players that have a more pressing contract issue than him. So they're playing, this is a businessman, apparently a very good businessman, Julio Jones is, and he's using the leverage of being one of the best wide receivers alive and hoping something comes of that. I mean, get what you can, but I would say in this situation, he has very little leverage. Doesn't seem like he does. It doesn't, but it's also inspired some of the worst commentary in Atlanta about.

it's some radio host saying he his his his son had to change the desktop on his computer oh no because who not his desktop is Julio Jones is no longer a person that he can look up to because he's like he's money hungry and another guy I believe his co-host or a guy on the radio that said I'd trade his butt if he doesn't show up yeah Greg won't be appearing on that show anytime soon what 10 year old is still using a desktop computer on a day or day basis well it's the man's own computer and he needs to really I mean I How can we explain this to the children? What 10-year-old is listening to a radio show?

In other Falcons News, general manager Thomas Dimitrov and head coach Dan Quinn, both get three-year extensions. This is how it should be done. My stupid team, they always mess this up. You get a pairing that you like. You keep them on the same deals together. They keep everything in lockstep. The Falcons are doing things the right way.

You don't feel the Jets have that at the moment? Very rarely does it seem like this. always seems like a no-brainer, but you see it across the NFL where the contracts are mismatched between the coach and NFL and general manager, and that is such a key partnership. I like what Roto World said in a bit of a cynical that they thought this was simply done now to take Julio Jones out of the A storyline. Oh my God. Roto World is one of these peep.

Roto World has become like Twitter. No, I saw like Bill Barnwell or something tweet about this. What you give these guys extensions, but not Julio Jones? Well, first of all, they're not players. They're coaches in the executive. It's probably done weeks and months ago. You don't have to worry about setting a precedent for other coaches and general managers in your organization that will, like, it's just insane. The amount of commentary from people who think they know more than team.

Dimitroff is, he's a gangster. Like, not many. Dimitrov. Dimitrov. Dimitroff. Correct. Not many GMs have had the job as long as he has and very few ever pull it off with like two contract extensions with different coaches. That's the next, that's the top level of GMs. When you can have different

coaches and you're still getting contracts. He learned that sodding the Cleveland Brown Stadium field under Bill Belichick back in the day. Absolutely. In non-contract talk, Carson Wentz, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, likely headed to the Pupp list to start the training camp for the Eagles. Rapsheet reported that the most likely cautious scenario is that Wentz, begins on the PUP list, and any player placed in that list, of course, can come off at any time. So this shouldn't necessarily be read as a situation, Mark, where he's not going to be ready for the start of this season. That still seems like the goal and a reachable goal. But he's not all

systems go. A long way away from week one. There's plenty. Again, it's another thing where there's players all over the league where you're taking the cautious approach and this is the most important player on your roster, why not? Why not start Nick Foles the first four weeks? If you have any concerns whatsoever, the first two weeks. I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility. This is the one injury that

we'll be watching week after week in camping. I don't think it's crazy to imagine Foll's starting week one. Remember when RG3 came back from his knee surgery and during like spring mini camp he released a hashtag mission accomplished? Yeah, that

generally that tag doesn't work for people. That George book? Yeah, I was going to say it's typically that doesn't have a good track record. Was it a mission accomplished? It was something mission accomplished. I think that I'd be right. You're telling me, RG3 came up with a hashtag? It was like maybe hashtag no problems here.

Yeah. Something like that. Hard to believe that guy didn't have a bumper sticker or a hashtag. I found a random article I was going through my archives for some reason. And, well, I was looking for a specific article. That was the reason. I'm just trying to get airtime here. And there was an article I wrote in 2012 and it was Andrew Luck explains why.

why he doesn't take as many endorsements as RG3. And I thought about like, people were like, oh, yeah, Andrew Luck, what a great guy. RG3 was smart to take all that money. I mean, why not take all that endorsement? You never know what's going to happen. Look at what has happened to him. Yeah, that's right. You have very strong opinions on taking endorsement money.

I'm sorry, I'm trying to Google to find what the hashtag was. It was like a T-shirt he was wearing. I'll find it by the end of the answer. Of course it was. I will, even if it takes me out of the podcast completely. moving on Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh

in all this talk about Lamar Jackson and Joe Flacko I'm very excited about it because of that 1999 sports movie as Wes figured out on Monday show

but you know a lot of drama around the rookie and the veteran the Super Bowl winning veteran but John Harbo says hey everybody and speaking of RG3

he's going to nicely connect Harba says we're going to see the rook one way or another he's going to be out there taking snaps according to the Toronto Sun. What's the Toronto Sun doing? Lamar is

an exclusive by John Crick of the Toronto Sun, by the way. He was the only person that had this information. He's a good beat guy. Lamar is also a weapon for us who can play quarterback, and we're going to play Lamar at quarterback. So we're going to play all of our good players. I don't see why we wouldn't. You've got

this first. He even gave the Toronto Sun's John Crick a shout out. Mark, you thought. I loved it. I had to write this up. Two things. Number one, I think... You didn't have to write. Well, hold on. I'll get into that in a second.

But the Ravens, I think, are... I really looked at this with a suspicious eye when this whole started and these training camp plays and stuff. I really think they want to find a way to use him. And I think it's legit. They're probably just trying to... Who do you have to take off the field to do that? But number two, this is like the fourth or fifth day in a row that Lamar Jackson is

dotting the NFL.com website. And we had, I think, three Lamar Jackson's stories, either yesterday and the day before combined. And I can tell already that he's one of these guys that our news desk, any time he speaks, opens his eyes, rolls out of bed, drives across town to get a sandwich. We're going to be writing a story about it. Well, he's exciting.

He's an exciting player. I'm just saying... Yeah, once he starts playing, maybe that'll be exciting. But I don't think we need to, like, spend four days out of a week talking about Lamar Jackson, who's going to be on the field four times in a month. Once a season starts. It's great PR to play in that Hall of Fame game because you get a whole week. of news all by yourself, podcasts, NFL network.

Really on top of the world at that point, aren't you? You can't pay for that. It is kind of weird to me, though, that he basically is saying RG3 has, I don't know, no chance to be a backup. Or they would keep all three quarterbacks active on game day because he was making it clear. Not only will he be active, he will be playing snap. So that's over.

They've decided. Are we convinced RG3 is making this team? No, necessarily. But it's still strange for the head coach to say a few days. There was a play where it was Lamar Jackson and RG3 and no flacco on the field, too. The one thing, Mike Garifolo, our boy, he was at, he's been at Ravens Camp. And he did pour a little cold water on the buzz hype train here for Lamar Jackson, where there was inconsistencies in his game that they have to work out.

He has no experience calling plays either. Not that all that can be worked out, but it's like he's not going to start games right away. Finally in the news. I don't know. The Cleveland Browns are, I'm still looking for them. We've lost Dan. Dan is looking for this. hashtag thing.

I rolled my eyes because you spend all this time. Everybody acts like, oh, it's a big mystery. What's going on with the Ravens? No, it's not. Flacco's going to play every game in September. Lamar Jackson's going to be on a field for like one play or one snap. And RG3 is not going to be on the roster. That's going to happen with the Ravens in September.

All right. Moving on. The Browns are considering Des Bryant. What? Mark Sessler? The Dallas Cowboys wide receiver who has been out of work since being released a couple months ago. Now there is a potential job opening in Cleveland now that Josh Gordon has removed himself from the mix as he tries to get well. And that remains kind of a hard to discern situation surrounding

Gordon. So would he make sense? This is what John Dorsey, the cowboy, had to say in an interview with the plane dealer. I've had a chance to be around Des. I've known Des. I got a chance when he was down there in Lufkin, Texas. I actually went down to his workout and got a chance to meet him down there, okay? I know what kind of person he is and what makes him. He's a very talented player. Have we had discussions about Des Bryant? Yeah, that's natural. I mean, I'm not surprised that the name would come up the minute you don't know when Josh Gordon's going to come back. But he also said, Dorsey said he absolutely expects Gordon to play this season and could be back anytime in a couple days or a couple weeks. And it was also interesting. And Lindsay actually

played it for me before the show. When Dorsey was talking with reporters, they kept on hitting at him. We're like, yeah, have you been assured by the NFL that he is not facing any issues, any suspension, anything like that? And he dodged the question time after time after time. That can still be something that comes into play here. And we don't know yet.

But Dorsey went out of his way. I mean, it wasn't like kind of a thing blinking, you miss it. It was, they kept on coming after him and he would dodge it again and again. So we'll see if Gordon. It's not fair to be tired of Lamar Jackson and not be very tired of Josh Gordon. Do you know what? The result of those Des Bryant,

discussions were they didn't sign we're not signing him or else he'd be signed so far it'd be to me des should be on a team and he might make the browns better if you had no josh gordon but i feel like it's a lot that that room landry gordon cori colman and josh gordon just in des sounds like i don't know juicy too much starting receiver opposite landry if gordon well obviously cori coleman carrie coleman still in the mix I think he is still in the act Mark, why are you booing? Why do you bring your family in here?

Luke Colton, how you guys doing? Look, I love for him to be productive. Let's do some odds and ends. Got a lot more to get to here. Odds and ends. Let's get some odds and ends. Get your odds and ends right here. I didn't even recognize that person.

Where's she been? Richard Sherman. The San Francisco 49ers cornerback has been cleared for the started training. camp, Greg. Great news, and it means he gets a big roster bonus for being ready for the start at training camp. Hubba, hubba. Gerra Jones had this to say about Cowboys defensive lineman David Irving, not expected to come to training camp at all. This is a man that said issues, Wes, and it seems like the issues continue. If you're a casual NFL fan, you must assume that all Cowboys defensive ends

are the same person, and they just take turns serving suspensions under different names. It does get confusing. Have they ever had a lineman healthy? and not serving a suspension. It has literally never happened. JJ Watt, quote, crushed his conditioning test. Mark, that's awesome news. Well, the photo,

you've got to go find the photo attached to this announcement, if you can. He looks like a non-green, Incredible Hulk-type figure. But talk about getting people on the field together. We've really never seen Watt and Clowny

do their thing together and for one full season. I would love that if that's possible. Every year. Watson's not on the podcast. Watson's not on the pup list. And how come no one else crushes the conditioning test? He's like the first person.

Have you seen him? The giant supplemental draft pick, Sam Beale, the defensive back. He's out for the season with a shoulder injury. That sucks. They're very thin at that position. That's why they took them. They're starting Eli Apple. It's a waste of a draft pick.

They wanted that depth for this year. Yep. Another round, Linz. Earl Thomas, a no-show at Seahawks camp. And the Seahawks, meanwhile, still won a really high price in a trade. So this, again, continues to be going nowhere. There's no end in sight here. Because the Seahawks, according to Ian, do not want to pay Earl Thomas

after seeing what happened when they paid Cam Chancellor last August that they don't want to take that risk. And Earl Thomas pretty much is adamant that he's not playing unless he gets a... It's a rare one that could go into the regular season. Right. This is the one of them all where you could see them missing two or three weeks and maybe the whole year. And finally, Mark. Hey, Mark.

Antonio Brown showed up to camp at a helicopter. Yeah, well, I don't want to sound like I'm, like, ultra grumpy about all these players, but I don't need that. I don't need that. Doesn't he show up in a Batmobile helicopter type, some kind of contraption every year? Go on, Mark, isn't it kind of fun? It's inside training. I know what they're trying to know. And again, we're watching, it's a great network.

We're watching it for 12 hours straight a day, and it's that's that I've seen it 14 times. For those who are not aware, every year, Antonio has arrived at camp in some type of luxury automobile of some kind. This year, oh, he's in the whirly bird, Sessland. It's like, how's he going to, how's he going to top it next year? This guy's flamboyant. I do not need it. Not even a particle of it. All right.

I had heard from a source. You weren't happy about it. Okay. Good stuff. Oh, by the way. Yeah. Cleo Mac, not expected to be in camp. And Ian has also said, this one has no end in sight.

there appears to be some hard-feeling negotiations haven't gone well on that. Okay, so that's another one to keep an eye on. Looking forward to all these conversations. Let's just play football, guys. Hey, you're getting paid millions dollars to play a boy's game. Keep that in mind next time you go to the bargaining table. I think let's just play football is a good pause. Yeah, thanks, Chip from 103.5.

You know, in Atlanta. Our show kind of needs maybe that one guy, like the cliche bad sports guy, that we could just punish when he has these takes. We should be friends someone like that and just call them up. All right. So anyway, as we said at the top of the show, we're now going to introduce a new segment,

fly on the wall. And as I said, ooh. The flies, they're the wars. It's fly season, Mark. It's fly season. But in this segment, we're the flies. Oh, we are the flies. So we're annoying us.

And are we, we're flies with our flies. mental capabilities flying around, right? It's like Jeff Goldblum in the fly. No, no, we have human brains. That's what I'm saying. We have our... Jeff Goldblum was like a monster fly, right? He was, but he still could think...

Speaking of dated pop culture references. I haven't even ever seen it. I just know it exists. That was also a remake of like a 60s movie, so it's even more dated. Yes. So we are... Goldblum, though, he stayed relevant. You gotta admit.

He just built a 25-foot statue to him in London. I think he's even better than ever. I mean, he's having the gold bloom asance right now. Him and Thurne together. Yes. Former lovers, I believe, as well. That's reportedly. I think that's true.

Not confirmed. I knew there was some connection. Or they were in Jurassic Park together, one or the other. Or both. Something funny about when people use the word lover. Yeah, it is. I believe he took her as a lover for a while. Like, that was, it's absurd.

Like, for our younger listeners, that was very routine that, like, people who would talk about, like, lover. Like, that was like, oh, yeah, his lover, Billy Joel. Wasn't there a Saturday Night? There was a Saturday in live skit about that. Where they called each other lovers. We're old. All right.

So, anyway, we are human flies. We are humans shrunken down to fly size and we're going to appear into any camp, any segment, any part of camp and dive in. Mark, you will be going first. We're essentially spies, but, yes, I just wrote these up because I was going to forget them otherwise, but I would like to be a fly on the wall of Oakland's football compound, where I'd buzz between the offices of Coach John Gruden and general manager Reggie McKenzie, capping an offseason that saw plenty of Gruden-esque moves with McKenzie shoved into the deep background, I'd glean information on where this relationship stands. Do they talk? Do they

verbally backstab from dawn till dusk? Or do they make it work and sometimes go out for ice cream in a glass of white wine while discussing their shared passion for off-canon-little House on the Prairie fan fiction. Where are we with this relationship? Off canon. Like, not the official storyline. Can you give me the Cliffs notes? I missed some of that.

Basically, I want to buzz around the building to find out. I feel like Reggie McKenzie. He's in mode yet. He's just tuning out. Reggie McKenzie has really... Sugar bear! He did so much to build that team up for that one playoff season and got through an early bad period to show how good he could do with the job. And then I feel like Gruden has come in.

ultra-powerful, and there have been a lot of weird anti-Regi-McKenzie-type moves made this off-season, at least to me, I see it that way. And it just feels like a Grude and power move that... Where is Reggie McKenzie in this? Is he happy? I want to find out. You're saying, is Reggie, like, doing some grumbling at the snack bar station? Maybe so.

Hey, I don't have as much juices I used to. He's saying he's like Howie-Rosman. A little bit of a Howie-Rosman. Maybe not that... In the Poconos off the way. I mean, that was obviously known to everyone, and it was embarrassing. scene. This has been kind of kept this issue doesn't seem to be out there

as much. I don't know Reggie McKenzie but just based on his media appearances he seems so amiable and wanting to get along and he has this history with Gruden back to Green Bay

that I suspect even if he's got some thoughts in his heads about how things going on he would never be the type that the fly would hear anything he would keep it to himself that he'd be ultra-professional that he'd be doing the best that he could, even if he's not really thrilled with the fact that he's just executing Gruden's orders. Mark, I want you to fly on over to his private office when he's on the phones with one of his

buddies and the league circles when he's already kind of on the phone trying to get a new job because he's like, there's no future for me here. You've got to hang out in that complex for a couple weeks as this fly, eating things the flies do and get the job done. Yeah. I mean, there's bad things about being a fly. You like poop and things like that, and you have a short lifespan and everyone hates you, and you're easily slaughtered. But it's pretty cool to be able to do this.

Well, in an era when a lot of journalists are losing your job, what better job security than being an actual fly who can listen to any conversation? Bingo. Bam. You're up, boys. I'm going to Rams camp. Job security for your 13-day life. Exactly. Well, it's lifetime security.

It's not life security. I'm going to Rams camp. The most fascinating person in the NFL to me right now is Sean McVeigh. And if you caught Brian Gumbull's real sports interview with him, you started his uncanny recall bordering on photographic memory of plays called in a random game from last year. To me, why he's fascinating, a lot of these offensive geniuses, these coaching geniuses, have massive outsized egos. And he seems to be a preternaturally. humble guy who is supported by every former player, every current player, everybody's ever coached

with him. And he seems to have a high EQ, emotional intelligence, to deal with these players. I'm just, is this guy perfect? Or like, what is the flaw with this guy? Because he seems like he is what you would build in a lab to be an NFL coach in 2018. So your job as a fly, on some level, you're looking for dirt. You're looking for some, something that shows. you maybe has this guy as perfect as he seems this is a very non-judgmental fly who is willing to go this guy is he's he's he's he's fascinating because he is that great not a judgey fly he's not a judgey fly at all he's just like flies don't really have any brain capacity you say by nature they're not typically very judgmental about human behavior but in this case you have you I've seen ostracized

philosophy there you go it's tough situation very good any other thoughts are let's keep moving I'd be curious what the interaction, yeah, between McVeigh and Leigh and Phillips, who is one of the best personality. It would be a kind of a fun, it'd be a fun campus. If he, they appear to be doing everything right. Yes. And if he puts together another season that is close to what he did in his breakthrough year last year, you might be looking at the new. Bill Walsh guy, yeah, like the new name that people write books about one day. He's got to string together a few more years, but I would just say we haven't seen him as a coach go through any great adversity in terms of something really happening that put the Rams in a bind. How he responds to that, we'll say a lot too.

As you won't surprise you, I'm obviously going to buzz on over to Florin Park, New Jersey, check in on my Jets. And I'm very nervous because, as any Jets fans should be, they have never, this organization has never handled a quarterback room very well. Whether it's drafting quarterbacks, bringing quarterbacks in, developing quarterbacks, it's always been kind of a mess. One time one quarterback punched another quarterback in his jaw and broke it, although that's maybe not the organization's fault. But just it's been always kind of messy.

And now here we are with a number three overall pick, Sam Darnold, he's the DFS, the designated franchise savior. And they have to figure out how are we going to handle our musical chairs in the quarterback room? And there's some different things that play here because you keep hearing that Sam Donald's a guy that they are not ruling out as a week one starter. okay well that's fine to say but then you're also hearing from our own mike silver for instance yesterday that the jets are quote obsessed that's the word they use which is such a interesting weird word to say

with teddy bridgewater and how great he has looked and how how he looks like he's all the way back and he's basically back to being the type of prospect that he was before the knee injury whatever if you believe it or not whatever but they love him enough where you're either going to try to develop him or you're going to have to trade him but he's going to have to see time and then you have Josh McCown, who last year, if you guys recall, they did not play at all in the preseason. And he was essentially a bad, bad quarterback until about week three, which you could easily contribute to him. He had to knock the rust up because he didn't play. So what are they going to do? How are they going to get all these guys work without messing up Donald who's the key to all this?

I want to know what that conversation is. I don't know why you get obsessed with Teddy Bridgewater after drafting your future. And you're a coaching staff that is under fire. You're a front office that's under fire. So you're a. You have to put the guy in there that you really think you can attach your future to. If Sam Darnel goes out and struggles to some degree, everyone's going to expect that to be the way it is. I think they're basically going to glow over Teddy Bridgewater verbally and in the press all summer in an attempt to trade him. But you still have to showcase him too to then actually turn that into him being a real trade show. I think at Darnold of all the rookies has the best chance to start week one by far.

And if unless he really implodes during preseason action, I think that's the one team that would roll with him. I think I might put him last. Darnold to start week one? Because Josh McCown played really well last year, and they love him. And Bridgewater, to me, is one of the most interesting figures in August to watch. Because he has a pretty good chance to beat out McCown, but he also is a pretty good chance to bring a draft pick,

a pretty hefty draft pick in return if he looks good. I just don't know if you're this front office and coaching staff that you can fiddle around with Josh McCown. for eight or nine weeks. Well, you also have to remember they might want to fiddle around with Josh McCown, who proved last year that he could run the offense. They got to save their jobs. They got to win seven or eight games, the Jets.

A good point. For this regime with Todd Bowles and also Mike McCagnan. So I really, I still see it. The most likely way it plays out is McCown, four weeks, and then Darnold takes over in October. And I think Teddy does get traded, but it's the platonic ideal from a fan perspective, not a Jets fan necessarily, but just the average NFL fan

for a quarterback battle. I mean, it's got everything. It's got the old trusty guy who's coming off the best season by a Jets quarterback probably since Chad Pennington. It's got an interesting trade, you know, package guy who's about as beloved as anyone, and it's got a young hot shop.

But I can't imagine the Jets are dumb enough not to just prioritize Sam Darnold over everything else, and that's really the only thing that they truly care about. that is what I believe. What does that mean? You can't give Bridgewater reps if you're giving because whatever they think's best

for Sam Darnold that that's what's going to do. So if they think getting all the reps for Sam Darnold's the best thing, then yeah, then the screw Teddy. But it sounds like, and I agree with Dan,

like they probably want to slow the rule with Sam Darnold. He's the youngest quarterback to enter the league in a long time. He doesn't have a whole lot of college experience and you've got these two veterans. So they probably, I would think they've arrived at the decision.

We're going to slow play Sam Darno. I think Josh, I don't know. I think he's not going to get many snaps. I think he's starting week one, Donald. Maybe not in practice. I think McCown's like almost a player coach there, and they'll have to get him ready in the week or two before the season.

Before that, maybe not. This is not John Beck and Rex Grossman behind. I think they like both their options. And I would put a sandwich on it with you, Mark, if you want to do it right now, that he's not the week one stuff. Can I get in on that action? Well, what's up to him? I'll go one-on-one with Dan because he's the jet fan.

What if just for sporting sake and none of these sandwiches? is that, you know, ever get paid out anyways. I'll go with on Mark's side, and it'll be a, it'll be a duo same. Well, let's do that. Tag two versus two. I only agree to that if there are sandwiches. Okay, we will. We will pay out of sandwiches.

Okay. We'll eat. All right. It's happening. I love it. It's like the Cornhole squad back together. Bad news to the other team. All right.

It's not a fair. It's not fair if you two are in the same. Yeah, not at all squad. I'm my fly, or I'm a fly and I'm buzzing. I'm buzzing down to Spartanburg. Isn't that? By the way, before Greg goes on, you have to understand that this is the new era training camp spotlight. Okay.

What you're about to hear from Greg Rosenthal. Yes, it is. That's great. I don't know what new era is going to think about the heat down there. I mean, it might be the hottest training camp. You know, Spartanburg has some historical significance to this podcast. That is the exit I pulled over when I called Greg to accept this job. Wow.

I was driving from Cincinnati back to time and stopped at the Spartanburg. Exit to tell Greg, I was leaving Road to World. Is there a shrine there? I guess James Dean's accident site. That would be amazing. I want to listen to the conversations that Ron Rivera is having, partly with Marty Herney, maybe with some trusty assistant coaches, maybe even with his wife on the phone, when he kind of looks back and sees the organization that he's running right now.

53 weeks ago, Dave Gettelman was fired. Think of everything that has changed with the Panthers. Wow. One of the steadiest in terms of wins, losses, teams in the NFC over the last five, six years. Dave Gettleman was fired. The owner was embroiled in a sexual assault case in which he had to give up the team. This is the same man, Jerry Richardson, that hired Ron Rivera, that as I said, founded the team, has a statue out front. He has lost his job. There's a brand new owner in place. place. On top of that, there's a brand new offensive system in place with Norv Turner arriving. Mike Shula has been there since the day Cam Newton arrived. It has just been a lot of

change for a guy in Ron Rivera who's had a lot of consistency over the last five or six years. And I'm just kind of wondering, like, what is he feeling? What is he thinking about this situation? Does he feel like he's suddenly on a hot seat with a new boss? What is he saying behind closed doors? to Norv Turner about Cam Newton, who's had kind of a couple rocky years, I would say, on the field, not as high a level the last two years. It's just a lot of spy work. It's just a lot going on, I think, with this franchise. A lot going on.

Rivera feels like underneath the Belichick by his lonesome tier, he feels like the most overlooked guy in the next tier down for NFL coaches. He's made the playoffs, what is it, five or six years, I believe. Until he arrived, no one had ever won back-to-back in that. No, it was nearly fired at one point, you know, years ago, survived. that survived, has survived this up until now? And he's just been such a steady presence. I think that's one of his defining qualities.

And yet this is maybe one, has been one of the most unsteady teams in the league. And they have a quarterback who I think, I always believe in Cam Newton, but I think Cam Newton, he wants to have a great year this year. His contracts come in. Not that they're not going to re-sign him, but he hasn't played as well. I don't think throwing the ball the last couple years as he did before that. And that was Training Camp Spotlight presented by New Era. one more time around the horn, Mark Suss.

All right. I'd like to be a fly on the wall in Buffalo. Listening to offensive coordinator Brian Dayball and quarterback's aide David Cully discuss their plan for the team's signal callers. What must Josh Allen do to blow up the concept of a red shirt season and fly into the skies as the teams sometime in the season earlier on and later as their new starter?

Also, I travel to the team's newly refurbished cafeteria to see what players are saying about the new lunch time menu items. Have you had the pork butt sandwich fullback Patrick DeMarco would ask Vlad Dukas? No, Dukas would say, I'm pescatarian. DeMarco would counter by saying we can both agree the new sourdough rolls dipped in salt butter are delicious. Not too dense, very rich in flavor, crisp on the outside and just right in the middle. No, Dukas would say, I'm staying away from carbs, bro, in an effort to jumpstart my large and small intestine with a more alkaline-based diet.

This is why you have to watch the video show just to see that the B-roll of the delicious sandwiches that Menzzi was showing. We could focus more on the quarterback angle. Wait, have you actually flown into the future and you already witnessed this interaction as a fly on the wall? Yes. Well, I actually, I'm saying they would say that to each other. That's what I'm thinking they would say.

Mark is continually breaking the space time continuum in his bits. I mean, I'm a human that turned into a fly, so a lot of new territory to begin with. In Patrick DeMarco's defense, every time I get a choice, I go sourdough when it comes to bread. Oh, totally. It's a great bread. Totally agree. It would be interesting to hear Brian Dable speak, as anyone had recalled that happening. He's an under-the-radar important figure in the NFL, you know, former Patriots guy, former Alabama guy who suddenly has to run an offense where he's got an uphill battle.

Well, he was Eric Mangini's. play caller in Cleveland. He's a bit of a nomad. Yes, he is. He is. Just the Dolphins for a bit? His number one... Alabama?

I mean, his number one quarterback is pretty rough. And then you look at... Does he have a number one? Right. And then you have Kelvin Benjamin's the number one. After that...

Nothing. It's either Zay Jones or Jeremy Curley. It's going to be tough to create an offense out of that team. They lost three of their best offensive linemen. Their line,

their line is a major issue for Alan's behind closed doors. Plain early. It might be a little concerned. Chris Wessling. This fly is going to hang out in Colts Camp and hope I don't get swallowed by the frog. Whoa.

What's your favorite type of frog? Nice. Oh, bad. Well done. Well done, Chris Wessling. And it's obvious you want to see how Andrew Luck looks. We were informed Wednesday that basically Ian Rappaport was saying the ball is flying out of his hand.

arm strength looks pretty much like it's always looked. Beyond that, to me, though, since he entered the league in 2012, we've been asking, when are the Colts going to get a creative play caller, a reliable offensive line, and a consistent running game? And I think in camp you say, this might be the most improved offensive line in the league. They have not only added two impressive rookies, but veteran depth that they just haven't had since luck has been there. They've got guys like Matt Slosson sit in the bench,

and he might not be, you know, the best center in the league or best guard in the league, but that's depth that they're throwing, they don't have to throw a seventh round rookie in there this year if something goes wrong. Also, Frank Reich, if you look at Carson Wentz, the most close quarterback in the league to him, athlete-wise, skill set-wise, is probably Andrew Luck. And Frank Reich did wonders, along with Doug Peterson and John D. Filippo with Carson Went. I think he's got that creative playcaller now, and you have a running game where you've got some more interesting running backs than you've had in a while. I don't like their defense one bit at this point, and they have a lot of work to do there.

They have a new scheme, a new coordinator there, a first-time coordinator, ever-fluss. I feel like their offense. Aren't they back in the mix in the AFC South if Luck is going to play 16 games? Wes is excited about the Colts. I'm always excited to watch Andrew Luck play. Is that potentially going to be your team of ATL nominee? No. Because I don't think you guys would go along with it and keep that in the holster.

I keep my heart open to any team. I'm not close. And Andrew Luck return to greatness would be a story I could get behind. All right. I am going to head on. I might be in Oxnard right now, actually. Nice. Shoot up to Oxnard.

Okay. I'm going there tomorrow. Very nice. Humble brag. What are you going to be doing there? Fact. What are you doing up in the Oxnard? I'm going to watch some Cowboys practice.

Sexy. I like that. Little network work? Little. little look at you all growns up cowboys coaches i want to be in that cowboys coaches room you know actually if you remember all or nothing if you watch all or nothing everything is done jera's there stevens there the brother-in-law's there the dog's there and they all get around a big old conference table and they talk and i want to be a fly on the wall when they have the

discussion uh hey guys how confident are we that we've set up our quarterback for success this season because Dak Prescott, who was an incredible draft value by, of course, a couple years ago and then was an amazing rookie quarterback for the team, took a step back last year. It wasn't all his fault. It was kind of a tough situation, as we know, with Zeke Elliott and everything else. So I'm wondering, they obviously must feel okay, I would think, because they didn't make any big free agent pickups. They didn't pull the trigger on a big trade.

They cut Des loose, let Jason Witton retire. I'm sure they didn't stand in his way on that. So when you have a wide receiver group headlined by Alan Hurons and Terrence Williams and Cole Beasley and a tight end group led by Brett Swain. Some guys. Jeff Swame.

I think. Blake Jarwin. Blake Jarwin is the guy who's been getting all the height there. Dalton Schultz and Rico Gathers still in the mix. When you factor that in, I'm wondering if they're privately like, hmm, let me put this kid in a tough spot? or will the offensive line and the running game

and Dax's natural ability be able to cover up for deficiencies in the skill positions? I could really see that team going either way this year and it would not surprise me at all if they ended up being like 11 and 5 with this chain moving rushing attack and Dack Prescott playing pretty well. I have faith in Dack Prescott.

I did too. They would be a fun team to listen to. I think the conversations, the colloquial, They really get a lot. That's one thing I took away from all or nothing. I think the Jones family, they're living life. They're having fun. You need it all or nothing to tell you there.

They're like being the Jones. I don't know. No, I don't assume that all like powerful, successful people are happy. I don't think they're any happier than anyone else. But I think the Jones are, they like being the Joneses. They like each other. They have the Jerry Jones. He's a bon vivant.

Right. That's what I'm saying. It's the job he always wanted owning the Cowboys. And he's been living it up for 30. years and now his whole family's in on it. Well, at the Combine, I missed my flight on the way back because of some connection things. So they just said, stay in Indianapolis. There's no way to, we'll send you out the next day. I went back into town because I was staying at some bizarre motel with like a

cosplay convention or something. I don't know what's going on there. But went back into town, met some people from work and we were at a bar and uprolls the Jerry Jones bus and off roll. Jerry, Garrett, everyone, the whole posse. And they were running the room. And they Yes, he enjoys life. Jones and his entire family seem to enjoy life quite a bit. If you haven't been lucky enough or just never been in the position to be at a major league event, obviously the Super Bowl, the most notable one, but really any of them, whether it's Combine or Draft, whatever where the city's held, you will most likely, if you're in the downtown sector, see Jerobus roll up in front of a steakhouse or a notable bar in the area.

And the party is where Jerobus is at. no doubt you're living life all right last time last time Greg you're that bus might be coming up and down the 101 come out you know you might see it in Hollywood something like that on one of these nights

I'm just saying possible Oxnard not too far away I'm I'm shrinking into a fly and I'm heading straight to New York I miss New York in the summer I'm talking right in the middle of the city I'm not going to a team I'm going

to Park Avenue and I'm visiting the league office and that's what you miss about New York No, I don't miss that. But I want to hang out with Al Riveron. I want to hear behind closed doors what Al Riveron and the league office is saying about these rules. First, the kickoff rule. I think it's almost underreported. I think this kickoff rule is going to profoundly change football and special teams.

I know it's only the kickoff, but I think there's going to, especially this year, be a real wow factor. And just a lot of different things that we haven't even thought of are going to come up. and I think they're talking about it in terms of how they're going to apply the rules because they're really complicated when you look at it on the kickoff. Bell check's going to figure this out. There's a lot going on. Just what he needs, another edge. There's a lot going on.

I want to hear what they're talking about there. And then also the lowering the helmet rule, which has been talked about quite a bit. There's so many different variations that Al and the gang are having to go over. And they have to be concerned with how they are going to ref this in its first year. I'd like to hear kind of how they're planning to do that because as great as he was when we heard him speak, I don't think you can really answer the questions until we see how it plays out.

Remember the Trent Richardson rule? Right. No one, that ends up not matter at all. No one ever threw a flag on that. You wonder if we could be in a similar situation where you just, that one doesn't really come up as much as you would think it would. I think it's going to be a big difference.

Richard Sherman's criticism of the new rule today reminded me of Riveron's performance in which he basically said, guys, guys, I'm not debating you. I'm telling you what the new rule is. This isn't a debate. You're going to have to fall in line. Yeah.

He was similarly impressive at the Talent Summit last year. And then I think we and so many football fans are driven insane by some of the NFL's rules. So it's like this is peak Riveron season where he's kind of infallible. And then the season starts, you're like, who's involved with the rules? Get rid of this guy.

Yeah. All right. That's it. That's it. Good seg. Good close to the seg. Good overall seg. We will be back on Friday. How about that? We'll be back on Friday with our third show of the week. A reminder again that this was our video show. If you're listening to the audio show right now, why don't you head over starting Thursday at noon Eastern NFL.com slash ATN live. And you could check out that segment. We just don't. talked about. And you could see the videos that accompanied Mark's mess hall reading. Yes, please rush on over for that. And have you nominated the Around the NFL podcast for the listener podcast awards yet? It's free. It's easy to do. Just head to podcastawards.com and nominate around the NFL in the sports category. And just a show of might, a show of it's like I'm watching the Ken Burns Vietnam documentary gripping, sad stuff. and not the United States military's finest hour.

But, you know, they would show their might, especially the Air Force and the airstrikes. The might show the might of the listenership by voting and winning this thing. Or another George Bush's. I'm a little shock and awe, please. A little shock and awe. Let's get on that.

I like to know where we are in this. I don't know if, yeah, we want, you know, the Vietnam quagmire to be associated with us. A symbol of what we want our listeners to do. I try to make a question. clear it was more of the military's might but yes how about nuclear lusch announce your presence with authority yes we did it uh so yes thank you to everybody for listening you guys are the best we'll be back uh until then this is dan hansis signing up for a quiet storm the mailman the old boss

and lindsay fulton behind the glass stay healthy lindsay stay alive that for the fairs till friday This is an I-heart podcast.