NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Friday News Rundown with Steve Wyche

Episode Date: August 28, 2020

A bunker filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler and Steve Wyche break down all of the latest news in the NFL. Marc Sessler talks about getting lost in the mountains for hours.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Oh, that's nice. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hans. This is coming to you from a virtual room filled with you. heroes. Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, and our old buddy, the great Steve De Weish. What's up, boys? Coming up, Fantasy Spectacular, a little pop there. Nothing's happened in the world or in sports or the NFL since that fantasy spectacular. Not at all. You haven't been busy at all on NFL Network. No, no, I mean, nothing in pro sports whatsoever, especially the NBA, boy. And quiet. Nothing at all. Yeah.

that's actually if well you can't see it listeners but we're on a video stream while we're doing this and they've Steve is in front of what I imagine to be his bed they just move that to NFL network and he just sleeps in that they put it in the green room and then they wake Steve up and then have him anchor another seven hours of either hard hitting news analysis or major social events and they just have Steve at the front of it at all times I'm sure it's not at all a grind for you this summer and spring Steve hey look there's a difference between a job and there's a difference between work. So what I am doing is a job, and the NFL network is definitely keeping me in a specific lane.

I couldn't help, but you've been here a long time. You've been at the network since the beginning, right? No, no, I came in in, when did I start, in 05? So I think I was three years after the founding. Yeah, well, there hasn't, I mean, there's never been. a, you haven't had a, you have never seen a summer like this or you never seen programming like this. I get, that, that hits me watching it yesterday and you did an awesome job. You know, some of the interviews like with, with Eric Kendricks were, you know, emotional.

They were a lot. They were impactful. And, but watching it, I just thought, man, NFL network is different than it was, you know, three or four years ago at this time. And if, in, if nothing else, that's some, that's some change. You know, if racial progress in this country is like an ocean liner, it's like that's it moving a little bit. Because I would have never imagined like some of just the programming that we've had. And I know a lot of people are proud of that. I never would have imagined that being possible on NFL Network a few years back. No, look, let's go back just four years to this past Wednesday through August 26, right?

That's when Colin Kaepernick sat for the national anthem at the game I was at the preseason game against the Packers up at Santa Clara. Of course, that's what started the whole protesting, you know, racial injustice during the National Anthem. And the crap we had to go through just to have that discussion, everything had to be run up 15 levels of chains. Like, why can't we just have a discussion? And so you talk about an evolution.

So now it's just like, hey, let's have an idea. Let's discuss it. You guys are pretty much greenlighted. I mean, still, as we know. know at our network and where we work some things do have to go through a lot of clearance that's at any workplace but you know again that that is an evolution that you talked about an ocean liner moving racial progress at least in terms of programming this is more like been a speedboat so you know I will I will give the network in the NFL credit for that I think some of the

genesis for that were the you know company-wide Zoom calls that you host along with MJ some of that. And there was just very real, raw life experiences on there. And it kind of blew the walls down. There was no, I just felt like that it was a turning point to some degree where it's like, we're not going to turn around and it's not going to be 2015 with all this red tape to get stuff on the air at this point. It's going to be real.

Or I think people are going to jump ship. Or just wait for it to die down and then wait it out and then move up. Let's get back to football. I'm totally with you in that. Steve, so obviously great to talk to you about all this stuff, but also you are such a great football reporter. So as much times you have today, we're going to going to spin through what's going on in the league. If you got to jump off, if they yank you and say, we need you back in the studio to anchor 14 straight hours, we got you. If you want to hang in for half an hour, that would be awesome too.

I'm here for you guys. Don't worry about it. You just, you know, I'm here. All the bandwidth you need. I got you. All right. Let's get into it. So the last time we spoke to you, we did our standard Monday news show. And then the fantasy extravaganza, which you could check out, of course, right now if you have a fantasy draft coming up Wednesday. So we didn't hit any news. And then everything exploded in this country. Again, there was the terrible police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin that has really upset a lot of people in this country. And the NBA had a historical. moment on Wednesday when in the middle of their playoffs, in the middle of a bubble down in Orlando where all the teams are, there was essentially a walkout. And a decision was made by the teams that

were scheduled on Wednesday and the league players in general that were not playing while all this is going on in our world and affects obviously black players so much and all of us. And then the NFL, the next day, practices start to be canceled. In fact, nine teams had their practices canceled, Bears, Jets, Packers, Colts, Titans, Broncos, Cardinals, Chargers, and the Washington football team. They did not practice Thursday in response to the shooting on Friday. The Ravens didn't practice and announced that they were going to have a hold a unifying session about social justice reform. It's all at the forefront. And Steve, what have you taken out of the last 72 hours and not just the NFL world but the sports world here?

Well, look, there's always been this kind of simmering discussion, right, with the NFL being 70% black and the NBA being, what, 80% black and these professional sports. What would happen if these players of color decided to strike, so to speak? They're going to withhold their services. Everything pretty much other than the NHL and the NASCAR opposite of Bubba Wallace would come to a screeching halt. so what we've seen these athletes do and some people are like well what is missing a practice actually do for you know leveling the playing field so to speak well it gets people once again talking about something so and i said this on air yesterday let's give these athletes credit all

summer long they've heard the discussion we need sports to give america a distraction we need something to take us away from the content discussion about you know this racial tempest, you know, the societal ills. So these athletes said, okay, we've given you that. There's been the NBA playoffs, Major League Baseball, whatnot, but yet we have another police shooting. We've got a 17-year-old white kid shooting protesters with an armed rifle that apparently his mother helped him get and drove him across state lines to execute. So we're going to step back from sports. So you don't have that distraction. So we have to focus on these conversations one more time because there is an election coming up in a couple of months

where maybe you can vote out some district attorneys who are not holding police officers accountable. There are things that these players are trying to draw attention to because, you know, you hear a lot of these athletes, too, saying, what is, what is, what's going on? We've been, we've been in the streets for months. We've been doing this and they're still shooting on armed black people, the law enforcement. And so there's a sense of frustration there as well. But, I mean, that's where some of these conversations the teams are having saying, look, this isn't necessarily as much we want to be short-term. This could be a long-term play, too. This is why you have to educate.

And this is why you have to take a step back. And as Troy Vincent, the NFL's senior vice president of football operation said on an ESPN radio interview yesterday, if you don't think NFL players aren't talking about missing ball games, then you're wildly naive. Jim Trotter had a tweet this morning saying that he has heard from players saying this conversation is going on. So could you imagine after a whole summer of the NFL coming up with all these plans to play football during COVID and no fans in this stadium? If all of a sudden the players pulled out the trap door and said,

we're not taking the field, it would be gutting. And you talk about enhancing conversation and potential action and stoking. emotions that would be a trigger and again let's let's not think if if all of a sudden something else happens and police officers aren't arrested or nothing is taken into account it's it's a different day we talked about it is a different day and this could absolutely happen and the the players voices are so powerful together I and I think part of is, you know, with people wondering what can you accomplish by sitting out? Well, there's a lot of people that aren't listening.

They don't have any black people in their life to listen to. It's going to be athletes. I mean, this is the conversation that wouldn't be happening in a lot of places if it wasn't for sports. And when people say, like, well, what's the actual action? Like, is anyone paying attention here? Like, the NBA literally just announced that they're going to agree to essentially require any NBA arenas, which the owner of the team owns, to open up and be a voting facility. The work that LeBron has done there is happening, and all these players, which we try to

highlight sometimes, but we know it's not football, but they're doing a ton of things in their community, and they're just trying to get people to listen. And I think that that's effective on a grassroots level, but it's also just effective of like emotionally. I think if anyone's listening, you know, just listening to these people, to Eric Kendricks, for instance, you know, talk about his pain. And so how can you not be affected by that? And so that's, I think, reaching people that otherwise would maybe not have black voices in their lives. And that's a powerful thing when they stand together, because I think you look at the ownership level. And people are saying, okay, well, what are the NFL owners going

to say, you know, because we haven't heard a ton from them. Well, you look at the Ravens. That's the team who released the statement with some very specific, you know, requests. And that's a team, you know, they asked Mitch McConnell to bring the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act to the Senate floor. That's very specific. And some people might think it's political. Well, the leadership of that team in terms of, you know, ownership and coaches and stuff, to me, that they're saying it's not political because they're from different sides of the aisle if you want to look at it that way. Like you're talking to their players, but they're not necessarily voting the same way that their players vote.

But they're saying this is just not shooting unarmed black people. This is human rights. You know what? You know, this isn't like a political statement. And for that organization to move to that statement from three years ago at this very time their team president was saying in the public forum that they. sponsors and their fans, whether they should sign Kaepernick or not, as an excuse sort of to not sign Kaepernick after, you know, John Harbaugh was pretty clear he wanted to. I mean,

that's changed. I mean, that's having a pretty big impact on a pretty big organization that has a lot of say in the city of Baltimore. I mean, there is, there's, there are no black owners, and it took the NFL 100 years to hire the first black team president. So, I mean, it's totally discordant with the fact. And Steve, just like you said, I mean, the communities where 75 or 85% of these players, many of them come from, are unrecognizable to what the owners grew up dealing with and many executives. And I do see one thing that I find encouraging is, I mean, I think the coaches were in a real different place a couple years ago. I had talked to one head coach, you know, and this doesn't happen often, but he basically unloaded on the Kaepernick

situation and basically we this is a distraction to us we don't want to deal with that kind of stuff i see coaches today uh listening and interacting with their players and even those teams that didn't cancel practice they took time and a lot of time and we'll continue to to say where are we on this you look at the titans the message they put out as a team that was very powerful visually to see that and you know their players are powerful they have they have this has swung in their favor and i think that's so different than the NFL that I grew up watching. And, you know, I can only imagine where we'll be a couple months from now because I have grown more. I think when this started, and Steve, we had you on right after, you know, the George Floyd incident, that I thought, oh, this is very

hopeful, all this is happening. You kind of, you know, step down and said, I don't, I'm not there yet. I don't think we necessarily can just say everything is going to change for the better. And I have come to agree with that in the sense that it's not an amount. of if but when the next thing occurs that causes the entire sports world to pause again. I just, it doesn't seem like we're out of, out of the woods on any front. Um, good stuff, guys. You know, I, I, I just curious, Steve, if you had anything else to add before we move on from this topic. Um, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, it's, everything you guys said was so eloquent. I mean, from the fact that the players using their, their voices, I think the NBA has

really led the way on this. And the NBA's always been more outspoken because the players have interesting the Lions on Tuesday, not to cut you up, but it isn't interesting. The Lions on Tuesday sort of were the first ones to react. I did find that kind of compelling, you know what I mean? A team led by Matt Patricia was the first one to act. Right. And this is a team where before we heard the Matt Patricia wasn't listening to his players. So, I mean, you know, that's, you know, to get to the point you talked about where coach is being in a different place. I mean, that's a great step. And we're seeing teams like the Carolina Panthers using their stadium as a polling place.

And, you know, one of the cities where gerrymandering has been highlighted for years in a state where gerrymandering has been highlighted for years. It's just, again, you know, to hear Devin McCordy yesterday, the Patriots, though. Oh, yep. It was gutting. and for him to say that, you know, even if we do miss games or do this, there's just so many people who still won't care about black and brown lives. And over and over, he talked about the hopelessness. But this is where hopefully some of these people understand.

If you've got a 10-year-old son or daughter who says, hey, dad, how come they're not playing NBA games tonight? he's got to answer them something and this is where they're either going to direct their children to seeing the world through a straw of white privilege or hate

or they're going to say well listen they're they're not playing because you know we've seen this summer a lot of black people unarmed black people have been killed by police and blah blah and explain some of the social dynamics where even eight years

from now when that child has an opportunity to vote or to do something, they can grow up with a different type of mindset. So that's why I'm, look, as a 54-year-old man saying, you know, we just can't give up, as frustrating as it is. As many times as we say nothing is happening, like what Bruce Ariens said, hey, protesting, I've been doing it since the 60s, nothing's coming out of it. And I think a lot of people took his words the wrong way because Bruce Ariens, Frank is about it is about it I mean he's done he's done more for you know integrating his coaching staff

with people of color and women than anybody so far by light years and and so just because we're not seeing short-term results which we all want doesn't mean that the steps players and coaches and teams are taking isn't working yeah arian's pointed to 1967 and 1968 because he was on the ground back then too and like he was a an educator and a teacher before he became a coach. So I hear you on that front, too. All right. Let's move on.

And before we do, Mark, I talk to one head coach. What got going on up there, Mark? What's going on at Sessler Manor? Well, I'm just saying, like, because first of all, I, like, wait, this is back in the day or re? No, this was years ago. Me acting like I, like, do this all the time is what I'm trying to say is it was an unusual occurrence for me to be speaking with a head coach.

But the conversation. You did. You left it. You left it vague enough to make it seem like maybe you picked up the phone yesterday. And you're like, you know what? You know, this is a sensitive time in the country. I need to hear from one of the 32. I know on this show that that comment would be followed up on.

So it wouldn't stay vague for long. I'm guessing it was after a couple pops in Indianapolis. Well, wrong city, but you're not wrong on the other point. That was actually a verbalized tweet by Mark. That was very well done. So open-ended. Prop. You're right there, brother.

There you go. Greg, it was a right pub, wrong stool. All right, let's move on, talk about, all right. The Washington Post on Wednesday reported additional examples of workplace sexual harassment. Inside the Washington football team organization, there are allegations that Dan Snyder, the team owner, was personally involved. Watch out now. Watch out now.

The Post reported a former cheerleader saying Snyder invited her to a hotel room with one of his friends and that longtime team executive Larry Michael. How about this dude made extra cheerleading videos for the owner showing sensitive material that wasn't made public? Snyder released a statement denying those specific allegations and saying he was unaware of the incidents until now. Greg, you know, the league quickly came out with the league quickly came out with the statement said we're going to investigate all of this. The allegations are abhorrent and all that when the post, which obviously is a source to be trusted, continues to have this avalanche of material, and now Snyder is personally implicated, it potentially changes the outcome of this organizational reboot. Yeah, I was really confused by a lot of the public statements.

And that's what we can go off. I guess, you know, if we want to just stick to strict reporting. The NFL's statement, you know, said how aggressively they condone the behavior. Of whom? Of whom? Greg. They didn't name the team. Right. And I, I also think of whom the person, because the behavior that was alleged was the owner. You know, he was at the top of the alleged behavior. So that's part of it. Then you look at the Washington football team's statements. And part of it was stronger than it was a few weeks ago that the team said the behavior had no place in our society. Snyder said at one point he takes full responsibility because he's in charge of the organization.

But then the rest of the statement went on to aggressively attack the victim condoning the behavior. it also went on to say how much better that they need to be as an organization while saying they denied all the allegations. So why do you need to be better if you're denying the allegations? It's very confusing. And then on top of all of those statements, you have a confusing investigation that's going on, that the NFL used the word independent,

but ultimately the investigation is hired out, by the team and you add that all up and in jason wright had their new team president had a great statement on that but it it's a lot it's a lot to deal with and it makes it's discouraging and it's discouraging for right like i thought about this when they announced him and everyone was excited about the progress and they should be but i also thought well you know what ron riva you know what you know it'd be great um if the first black team president isn't um having to defend the indefensible on some level within a week of getting the job, that he got a job that it wouldn't require that.

Well, I mean, if he came to that organization didn't think he was going to be. Right. He knew what he was rocking into. Yeah. I mean, Jason knew what he was coming into. I mean, this is an organization that's had misstep after misstep, but this is awful in terms of, you know, additional allegations. But you're right. Who's going to be investigating this? Okay, if this is, I mean, just think about how much heat the league took, you know, when it hired the independent investigator to investigate Bountygate and just like how much of the supposed evidence, I mean, it seems so skewed in some cases. It's like, okay, so the NFL ended up lacking credibility because it hired its own in-house investigators and we saw the punishment was like Sean Peyton getting suspended for a year and some of the punishment handed down, significant. seem to outweigh the evidence that this independent investigation was able to get

its hands on. And so what's going to happen here? I mean, suppose this independent investigation finds out all these incendiary things that Dan Snyder was accused of. Okay, what's the recommendation? Yeah, what's the result? What's the result? Are we going to, should he sell the team? He's getting sued by his minority owners essentially right now. That was a big part of the report. I mean, and that's part of what they want is for him to sell the team. There's two more interesting turns on this. My former employer of The Washington Post, you know, Daniel Snyder accused them of this being a hit job, right? Who owns the Washington Post guys?

Jeff Bezos. Correct. Well, who's the number one name you hear as someone the league would love to have owning an NFL team? So it was almost like Snyder was accusing, okay, this is an intentional hit job to undermine me so Bezos can get his hands on my ball club. And it's complex.

And so there's so many layers I don't think that's the case at all. Again, working for the Washington Post, they are aggressive when they see improprieties and they get, this is what we've done. I've done investigative stories for the Washington Post. This is the Watergate Washington Post. It doesn't

matter who you are. If you're up to something bad, like they're going to report it, and They're not going to deny. And they've done a lot of reporting on Snyder over the years. Right. And the secondary part of that, my dear friend, the columnist Sally Jenkins, who, if she decides to sharpen and knives to come after you, you're toast. The column that she wrote about that, first off, the lead was probably the most

incredible lead I have ever read that had something to deal with the NFL is basically getting its just due for not scraping Daniel Snyder off the bottom of its shoe. And I was like, all right, this is not going to go well, the rest of the way for Daniel Snyder. But she's saying, she's putting so much blame on the other owners in the NFL for not holding him to a higher standard before. Because, of course, they had to know some of these things. We don't know how much they knew. But this could have far-reaching implications if more and more of this continues to shine. And how that organization on the field this year has to function.

all this going on. If you're a player there, you have to be like, what, like, what is going on you? The job Ron Rivera has to do while he's also battling an illness, is just going to be absolutely, I mean, this is, you're climbing the Himalayas with toothpicks right here right now. All right. Stay tuned to what comes next with the Washington football team. I don't get the vibe that the Washington Post is done yet. I don't think they're ever done. In other news, let's move on to some football news. We'll spin through an update around our league.

Bad news for the Eagles who continue to take hits on their offensive line. They placed second year left tackle, Andre Dillard, on injured reserve with torn biceps. Unbelievable setback to the team that had already lost right guard branded Brooks to an Achilles earlier this summer, Dillard, the number two. overall pick in last year's draft. He was a little up and down, Mark, but he was the guy they were counting on a lot to protect Carson once's blindside. And now they're talking about maybe moving Jason Peters back to LF tackle,

the guy that they obviously weren't in a rush to bring back in the first place and they were going to play him at guard. This is not a good situation in Phyllis. Well, they're very lucky they brought him back for the guard role initially because they would be in serious hot water otherwise. I mean, if I want to look in a weird year like this, at teams that I could start to rule out. I'm not talking about the Eagles at this point, but it is banged up or totally insufficient offensive lines. And they went from solid

to extremely questionable in the course of a couple months. And I just, you know, I think teams that get out to a slow start and then you see what the chaos that could unfold this season, I don't like the chances for in a run heavy early part of the year. If you can't protect your quarterback and blow holes open for runners, I just don't like it at all I mean, they have the worst injury luck year after year. I mean, we were just talking about it last week. It's like their season doesn't get going until they lose a few keep starters. So they lose an all-pro in Brandon Brooks.

Now they lose their left tackle first-round pick. I think though they've got- He turns 25 this year of that first-round pick. He's not, you know, young either. I think they've gone from excellent on paper, maybe the best, most talented offensive line in the league, certainly one of them, to solid. At least that's what they're hoping.

that I think if Peters can stay healthy. It was okay last year. He just was banged up and they wanted to move to the young guy that they could be solid. But it's got to be disappointing. The Eagles injury luck is now like four years running. The numbers back it up, the starts that they've missed from good players. Well, they're missing those Chip Kelly shakes and, you know, that's probably going to say. I've seen this happen in other sports.

The Yankees did it last year, fired their entire training staff because everybody got hurt. And then the new staff is on retaining. now and everyone got hurt again. I imagine the Eagles have tried everything they could to try to reverse this trend, but maybe it is simply bad luck. Who knows? In other news, the New York Jets,

it's been another nice week for football fans and our Jets fans to point and laugh at my team because it's been a rough week, Greg especially, enjoying himself. What did I say? I didn't say anything. What did I say? I know you're enjoying the Jets first team.

And Frank Gore rising up that depth chart, you better believe it. Oh, yeah. Well, it's Frank Gore season because it's August, and people are going to say nice things about Frank Gore, who has looked very good, according to all beat reporters. Levyon Bell didn't play much in the wipeout scrimmage where the Jets B team beat the team soundly shut them out, according to the beat writers. After the practice, Adam Gase reported or told the reporters that, yeah, we kind of took it easy with Bell didn't use him too much because he had some hamstring tightness.

And then Levyon Bell heads over to Twitter, says there's nothing wrong with my hamstrings. I can't stay loose if I'm not on the field. And the circus car goes round and round and round. Steve Weish. Yeah, I mean, when Leff Bell came out was like, hey, Adam Gase, I'm good to go. I want to play. You know, this is a weird one, though, because coaches, he knows he's probably going to have to give Leff Bell the ball 4777. thousand times this year so he's trying to preserve him but i mean where's the communication here

yeah once again you immediately say here's adam gauged and a star player not see and eye to eye we saw it in miami we saw it with the jets this is an easy conversation hey lev i'm not gonna i'm not going to work you that much during practice when i say i'm not working that much here's your specifics i'm going to give you so just roll with it instead of kind of going like this and maybe love is is feeling the footsteps of a frank gore a little bit there's got to be a text thread out there with like Kenyon Drake and Lev Bell and others that are, you know, that had gone through the Gase experience. And my concern, Dan, like from the positive angle that I see with the Jets. Please tell me your concern with the Jets because I know there are many concerns.

I hear you. I hear you. I don't root for a stalwart dynasty either. But, you know, Joe Douglas is the thing I think you have going into the future. And is, is our Gase and Joe Douglas on the same page with this? Or does this turn into another deal, right? Like more disenfilling, you don't want to have Douglas gets swept out in the middle of this. He just traded for Adam Gase's running back. So that, you know, Cali, Kalin Belage. So that makes you think like either Gase is making personnel moves or at least that's my question. Did Joe Douglas ever been like, let's go trade for Kalin? I mean, really? Like, I think Joe Douglas is making different types of moves than that in general. But, well, I would hope that any GM coach set up has some.

level of communication. And if Gase likes Belajun is 1.8 yards per carry last year, bring him into the building. Why not? Surrender a draft pick, if you must. Get him in the building. Now that Mark brought up the head coach thing, I got to get into the game. And I talked to some people after the Joe Douglas hiring. And it was a little overblown in the media how close Joe Douglas and Adam Gays are. They worked together for a brief period of time, I believe in Chicago. And they are not married. to each other. And I would think, listen, I've got to be honest with you. Like, Leveon Bell, he's in great shape, they're saying, and maybe he's going to have a great year.

But I am just exhausted by this mini era that includes Adam Gase and Levyon Bell. And I don't know if either of these guys are the future of the franchise, to be quite honest with you, beyond 2020. So to see them squabbling again in the press, it's just all kinds of exhausting for me. Because there are other aspects of the organization that I am excited about, the quarterback, the defensive line, the idea of their defense trying to figure it out without C.J. Mosley and Jamal Adams. But this is not what I'm excited about. And it's just, it's such a grind. It's such a grind. Just talk to him. Talk to your players. I think he was trying to do him a favor of like not embarrassing him that he's not getting all the steps, but it's just like. Gage doesn't get it.

That's not who he is. That's the problem. He doesn't, he doesn't understand that an important part of the job is communication. and being on the same page of the players, before you go to a press conference and tell reporters about the hamstring thing, have that talk with Bell so he doesn't run to Twitter and get upset because Bell will go to Twitter. We know that. It's not like Lev Bell's, you know,

somebody who could get obnoxious at times on social media. I can't wait for his Adam Gase disc track on his next album. Oh, it's coming. It's coming. Is there any way? Is there any way

Woozy Bangor that he gets moved? Yes, I was thinking that all along. I'm glad you brought that up. I was like, what are the odds? No guarantee money after this year. So it's like, it's very tradable. If a team got into hot water, you know, at the running back position,

you're paying them this year and then you can do what you want after. If someone wants to give up a sixth for Love Bell, I bet they could just go get them before camp. Or I'm with you. It wouldn't shock me if Love Bell's on a different team. Joe D got a third rounder for Leonard William. last year. That guy stinks. Oh, please. Let her voice.

I want a mid-round pick for that bell. All right. Let's move on. Buda Baker got paid. The Cardinal Safety signed a four-year, $59 million extension. Don't want to shorten that nine-mill. The 24-year-old is now the highest paid safety in league history. Good job by Buda Baker, who was a second round pick in 2017. Let all safeties and tackles last season. He could cover. He could tackle. He could tackle. He's a guy you want in your building, Steve Weish, and now the Arizona Cardinals have locked them up.

Yeah, he's a really, really good player. And for what they ask their safeties to do, especially this year, because you remember they drafted Isaiah Simmons? He's going to play that Moe inside linebacker, kind of the strong side inside linebacker that they could stack over a tight end if they need be. Buda Baker is going to be responsible for an awful lot on the back end,

whether they play him free, whether they bring him down. And we know in this division, when you've got all kinds of running backs, who can catch the ball out of the backfield. That's an important position. But this also goes to show you. I mean, Arizona Cardinals, first off, they're not really paying a ton of people.

They don't have to pay Kyla Murray yet. You know, the DeAndre Hopkins contract is coming. But to secure a young player on your defensive nucleus, which they really haven't done since Patrick Peterson, you know, Chandler Jones is there as well. That's a really good start because that secondary has the potential to be pretty good this year. You know, Robert Alford, the corner got hurt again, They've got some pieces.

You know, I talked to Vance Joseph from time to time. They're pretty... Another coach whisper here. There we go. But they really feel pretty good about their defense. The problem last year when they were so terrible is that secondary, it was never together. Pat Peace, you know, Peterson suspended six games. Alfred got hurt again last year.

I think they've got a pretty good nucleus right there. And if they can get the ball over to Kyle and Murray from time to time, they really think they could be a pretty good team. I think he just represents the kind of player that we're starting to see where, the positionless player, I guess, on defense, where Baker played, you know, safety, but he played outside linebacker, inside linebacker, edge defender, right cornerback, left cornerback. And you go look at his next gen stats breakdown. I mean, he's did everything essentially.

And that's, you know, we used to say, well, Bill Belichick loves those players. Well, by the way, so to 31 other coaches. So, you know, they got to know how to use them. Oh, no, no. There's one. We were just talking about it who doesn't. Oh, that's one with the jets don't like that type of player. no he doesn't want that guy 30 other guys he likes him some kellen bellage it is it is

telling baker got that money everybody in baker got that money pat pete didn't pat pete uh probably probably a future hall of famer is in a contract year to me he could be kind of the the x factor with that team if you get old pat pete in a in a contract sort of push as an all pro type player then watch out if you get last year's pat pete after the after um the injury where he's just kind of He was out there. He was a guy. Then they're a different team. So that's kind of something to watch her.

Are you going to get old Pat Pete? You're going to get old. Right. Well done. Anyway, issues for the Browns on defense, Mark. They already lost the linebacker, Mac Wilson, to that knee injury. It's going to cost them a lot of time. And now they've moved Grant Delpit, safety to injured reserve after he ruptured his

Achilles and Monday's practice. So you're losing some pieces of that defense, Mr. Sessler. Well, this pairs well with the previous news item because Joe Woods, when they lost Delper, they invested highly in the draft. They had big plans for him. He basically said, look, it was an honest comment. We don't have anyone else on the roster that can do what we had him to do. And the Brown's linebacking core in front of the secondary is so questionable that they were

talked about as a team that was going to run a lot of, like, four. four to five as their base, like five and six defensive backs. And using Delpit all over the field, he's gone. They've got Anderson Dejo, you got Carl Joseph, a different type of player. Sheldrick Redwine, who they drafted, and basically it's sort of saying, I think they keep trying to find someone who's not Sheldrick Redwine. So they have issues. They're one of the more banged up teams in the league right now.

It's been a long couple of weeks for them. And I think that, you know, they've got the Ravens in about 16 days or whatever it is. don't like that match up a whole lot in other news the league our league is considering fake crowd noise range in the range of 70 to 85 decibels all right i'm going to give you here's 75 that was okay I'll tell you right now. This is 75 decibels. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la Okay so they're yodeling.

Did you test that out beforehand? How do you know this? Yeah, that's science, Greg. As the source explained to pfts, the sound level likely would be constant throughout the game, regardless of whether the home team or the visiting team has the ball. Florio reached out to the league and a spokesman replied, we are finalizing plans. Weiss, where do you come down on la la la la la la.

I've actually had experience with that, having gone to the Rams scrimmage at the new SoFi Stadium last Saturday. And it's weird because as we know, the new stadium is near the airport. So I kept on saying to my photographer at the game, are there that many jets landing because it seemed it's it's it's like white noise okay think of poltergeist and for those not young enough to know go back and google it it's like the static sound that you're constantly hearing right you can speak to the person next to you without yelling but you just

noticed there's someone there so sean mcvay after the game was like that is the worst right thing possible right because you do have to scream a little bit it's where the quarterback has to, you know, give you some noise about his play calls. Cooper Cuth, the wide receiver, says he never really thought about it, but then once he recognized it, it was just something you thought about. I mean, they'll have to get used to, but it's a very peculiar sound. Now, the Ram Stadium has, like, why are they doing it? Are they locked into that?

Why not not do it? How about not doing it? I don't think they're locked into it. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's something to give cover to mic up, you know, because some of the language I don't know. It's going to happen, whatever.

It's just, like, I didn't necessarily mind it, again, because I could have a conversation, three feet away or six feet away, I should say, from my photographer. Gosh, you're probably more than that without screaming. But you knew it was there. And like I said, I'm thinking it's planes landing overhead, but as we know, there's not that much air traffic these days. So it was just a really weird sound. Again, just go back and read some of the transcripts, Sean McVeigh.

He was like, this is. The worst. It's a delightful solution. No one's ever done it before either. It's kind of like the fake noise that they're doing for the broadcast for the NBA games, which is bad. If you were better at it, maybe I would be into it. But it's like, why is this weird, bad, fake crowd noise that doesn't sound like a real

crowd and it ends up distracting the viewer. Now, the players aren't hearing that in the actual NBA stage. But it just goes to show like, no one's ever done any of this stuff before. Of course, they're bad at it. They don't know what they're doing. I wouldn't mind if they added like a laugh track. like something, like a bad play. You know, let's just maximize.

Jared Gough like fumbles the ball. Ha, ha, ha, ha. But here's the other part of it. Here's the other part of it. What happens when you go to those stadiums and have 20,000 people in it? I mean, is it off, is it, is it, are you still using it?

Right. I mean, what's the deal? What about dome stadiums is compared to open stadiums? I mean, how is that going to work? I love your theory about they're super quietly nervous about the parabolic mic situation because it's going to be wild. You know, the language is saucy in all professional sports. But at a football game, especially on the sidelines, on a tackle, you know, there's some stuff being shared.

Yeah, but Dan, those don't always work. Brown Steelers. You know, there could all these female functions. I just wanted to say parabolic. That's all. That was for you. Other injury news. I enjoyed it.

Rapsheet report. that running back David Montgomery is expected to miss two to four weeks with that groin injury. People thought it could have been season ending when he was taken off the practice field. So it's better news than initially feared, but still not a great situation. Put them right up against week one, bears, lions. All right, Matt Nagy, they gave you the Coach of the Year award. Let's see this offense be watchable or else they might have to take that award away. You know, it's like we might have been a little premature here.

If this offense is as boring as I'm fearing it's going to be, I don't know. We were a little too quick on Nagy. Well, before the pandemic shut us down in studio, Kyle Long, the now retired Bears Guard, was very open about what the Bears have to do in this offense. It doesn't function well unless you run the ball. So last year, the offensive line wasn't good. Dave Montgomery did not have that explosiveness. You know, everyone was talking about his open field.

speed. He didn't have the get-off the ball type speed. Then Tariq Cohen, they were playing him more at wide receiver. When I saw Montgomery go down, my big question was, what is going on with DeVante Freeman is to where nobody is giving him a call. I mean, he's still out there. There's still some guys out there. And this is, he would fit the scheme well.

So I don't know what's going on. You know what? Left bell. Left bell. Oh, there you go. There we go. There we go, Dan. Let's do it.

I'm fine. That's fine. Just give me a first round pick and we'll roll. You know, Ryan Pace will pay maximum, maximum amounts. He doesn't exactly win trades, I don't think. I just want to say, because there was some shots you're taking there, Greg, at Matt Nagy. I would have loved to see how people were talking about Nagy entering 2020 if Patrick Mahomes was his quarterback instead of Mitch Trubisky. And I thought Nagy did an incredible job. That was always my argument against Chibisky during his.

better year in 2018 was this is all scheme. These guys are wide open. And that is why Nagy won the word. So, so to be fair, maybe it'll look a little better if Nick Foles is behind soon. Quickly, quickly on that, go back at Watson Bears tape. You will see Alan Robinson running right, right, open all the time. They just didn't get him the ball, which sucks, because that guy is a hell of a play. Real quick, the Giants defense, which already looks on paper to be bad, lost two starters, Xavier McKinney and David Mayo, both McKinney, the rookie safety, fractured left foot, Mayo torn meniscus in his left knee. He started 13 games for the team last season, both believed to be non-contact injuries. Greg, you've been banging this drum a little bit on

the pod that the Giants have major deficiencies on the other side of the ball where Daniel Jones and Saquan Barkley are not playing. This is not getting better. Right. On paper, I think that's the worst defense in the league just in terms of talent. And they were the worst, they were one of the worst defense in the league last year, you know, in reality. They have a new coordinator, Patrick Graham. You know, White, Wyshe is going to be doing total access a little labor. I mean, you're not getting into David Mayo and McKinney on total access. We bring you the real stuff. No, we only, we talk about the Cowboys and Patriots. But I mean, you know, it's fun. When I look at the Giants and it was real cool,

because, you know, NFL Films did this film session where he's watching film with Barry Sanders. You know, they're eating the popcorn and the film breakdown studio. And that's what I think his career is going to be likened to. One of the best running backs, most talented players in the NFL right now, is going to be doing it on a team that's never going to get anywhere. And it's just, look, it happens.

It happened to Walter Payton until the end of his career. He played on some god-awful teams with the Bears. and you just hope, like, someone is remarkable. Saquan Barkley gets something around him. But I look at the Giants, and I'm thinking they are the leaders of the pack. And Mark, you and I have been joking about this with the Lions because you're on the train, and I definitely am not. But, I mean, the Giants, to me, are already on the clock.

They don't need Trevor Lawrence, but they're going to hold, they're going to hold, they can hold a piece for somebody to come up to get him. because I look at their talent, and I'm just kind of like, man, I feel horrible for Sequan Barkman and Daniel Jones. Yeah, like we have to cover all these teams, obviously, nonstop all year long. And if you weren't doing that, you jump out quick on a few. And I just, I get annoyed with the team like the Giants. It's like, hey, here's a great idea. Let's not have an identity on defense for nine straight years.

Okay. That's one way you can attack the NFL season. Come on, guys. in other news finally in fact good news the father of bengal's cornerback mackenzie alexander has been found alive in florida according to officials jean odney alexander was found thursday morning after he walked up to a ranger station and kissimmee prairie preserve state park uh this is a paragraph i want to read to you guys because it's pretty wild story okay So I'm just going to read this whole paragraph.

This is from an ESPN staff writer. Alexander, and he has a different spelling than his son's name. So there's the first thing that's like, oh, okay, was reported missing on Monday, according to police records. Alexander was picking Palmetto Berries with a friend. He had known for more than 10 years when he disappeared in the woods around 2 p.m. Monday. Authorities were not able to ping Alexander's exact location because he did not have a cell phone. That's interesting, too.

2020. No cell phone. Alexander, the player, left Bengals Camp and aid to search for his father. On Tuesday, Alexander and another man were arrested on misdemeanor battery charge after allegedly hitting the man who went Barry picking with his father. So Alexander the son dealing with legal issues, the father's safe and sound. That is a weird story. I don't even know what to say to it. It just felt like it should be in the show. It was just like I read that story. I was following it all week. I'm so, you know, you're happy for him that he, that he found his dad.

He's going to be a key part of that secondary, McKenzie Alexander, by the way. But it was nice to have a happy ending, but it was just like, wow, you don't see a story like that too often. I don't know. It was pretty wild. I will tell you one time that I, this came to mind when I read this because, Dan, you're right. The story struck me. There's nothing to say about it. Nobody has anything to say about it, but you wanted to do it in the news.

I just put it, I just, very, very true detective. It was just like, hey, our listeners, they might not be aware of this one. I just thought, yeah, they should be. There was this one time, though, that I went hiking alone, like off the PCH, you know, up in, I don't know if it's like the Santa Monica Mountains or whatever. And parked the car, brought a fully charged cell phone with me, got like an hour into the hike. And it was one, it's like when you get to the end of a cell phone and it's about to die, the thing died on me. And I thought, no problem. I'll just have to get back to the the car. Then I realized, holy shit, I am totally lost. I took like five or six left and right turns, had no idea where I was. It was now like six or seven o'clock. And I told Simone, you know, I'll be home at four. And so there's, there's that and like, you know, it's no follow-up call. I can't be reached. You can't ping that phone, I guess. And I've managed, I've stumbled upon some weird campsite that was a next to the PCH. I got out to the PCH and realized that I was about nine miles or so far up the PCH I had no idea was it was dark out the PCH was under heavy construction and I walked for like three more hours until I got to this sort of fish and chips

place along the PCH and had to convince the manager at closing time I had to sit in the parking lot for two hours I had no money on me to go drive me back to my car which was up you know three miles away up a hill and then I drove home and got home at like like 1240 five in the morning and Simone was just like, what is going on here? And so, you know, don't, don't have gotten that story, Dan. Don't do that. And that, you know, whenever I can tax seven unnecessary minutes onto the show, I will do it. So. Yeah, something tells me there was a little bit more to this story than your, than you're a great adventure, which actually sounds quite harrowing. One note is that Mark had used that excuse six times previously to someone.

No, this was, I legit walked like 15 miles. I took the next day off again, honey. All right. Well, I'm not going to win this. Honey, I'm lost. Unsolved mysteries. All right. Well, we're glad you made it out, Mark.

You took the next day off. You're working at the NFL, right? Right. It was like about a month in the job. And I had like both my legs were like, you know, if you haven't really exercised in like six months and suddenly you walk 15 miles, the next day is unpleasant. is unpleasant. We know that. That is incredible. He's like, get me back to TA.

I want to put that suit on and drive it over. Oh, my God. I just can't wait until his wife uses that excuse on him. Yeah. All right. Steve, you've said it all. You've done it again. You're one of our very favorite people. You know, a lot of people say that about Steve because Steve is one of those guys that everybody loves. but we love Steve a little bit more. I'm just going to say it.

Yes. Well, and you know I love you guys. You guys are the absolute best, man. Totally appreciate you having me on. Thanks, Steve. All right, great. Check out Steve everywhere on NFL Network, NFL.com. He's the man.

All right, that's it. Everybody, remember the broadcast around the NFL broadcast is coming up. Friday, the streaming version on NFL.com. Saturday morning, it's on the network. So make sure you check it out, support the show. We love you. Everybody have a nice weekend to eat your palmetto berries, but be careful. Bring a compass with you, or at least the cell phone.

Stan Hans is signing off for Steve Weish, The Quiet Storm, the old boss, and Ricky Hollywood. Wild. Until Monday. Buddy Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies,

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