NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Latest news & NFC West rosters

Episode Date: May 21, 2015

A room with some heroes -- Dan Hanzus and Chris Wesseling -- are joined by special co-host Colleen Wolfe to discuss the latest NFL news including Geno Smith and the Jets QB position (5:13). The guys then hit roster reset on the NFC West (19:53), remember their first music concert experiences (34:15) before discussing Wess' "Ohio River Offense" article (44:26).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 legal in the continental United States, but not Hawaii. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansus, and I am joined by a room filled with some heroes. Chris Wesleying to my left and to his left, the great Colleen Wolf. What's up? Hey, Dan. Welcome back.

Colleen. It's great to be here. It is a... That was by request. Yeah. It is a little bit jarring to be in the studio with Wes and Colleen who did NFL now hit, you know, on camera right before. And I'm wearing a four-year-old polo shirt. And they're both looking like Madam Tussaud's wax figures.

Yeah. All made up. I have a mask on, actually. You both look beautiful. I took it right off. I took my makeup off. It is jarring. You might not be able to nose

And that looks like a new jacket, Wes I bought myself a suit when I was at the draft Mr. Hanson Did you really? I did, yeah I like it It's like my first adult suit I'm 41 years old

And I could tell That that that's a nice shirt too By the thread count Oh, you can? Yeah Did that cost you money? From three feet away, you can tell it Did that cost you more than $50?

Yes Okay Colleen, how you like that? That's great That's good analysis GQ, I'm available No, I'm not. The NFL is very kind to me.

Shadowy League figures. So, big show today with Colleen. We got Mark on vacation, staycation. Although I did see Mark yesterday. It's good to know a Brit. Handsome Hank got his tickets to the Noel Gallagher show at the Orphium downtown. And we actually ran into a podcast fan, Eddie, from L.A., who we took a picture. Eddie!

Hey, oh, Eddie! We'll get a picture, yeah! So, Eddie, thank you for listening. So that was pretty cool. But we'll talk a little later in the show. We'll get into a little, some concert experiences amongst the group and TD. You can get involved with that as well. I know you are a musical man.

In, you know, in addition to being youngish Kobe on the court. And it's slightly competitive. I'll be in there. All right. I don't know what competitive. Is it a competition? Trying to win? It's a competition.

Oh, you're trying to win the best first concert. Okay. I didn't know it was a contest. Oh, well, I lost. Yeah, mine's going to lose big time. It's like a lose-off. All right, so we're going to, yeah, we'll talk about that a little later in the show. We're also going to get to Chris Wessling, you wrote a piece that's earned why to claim it internally.

So he's been out for three minutes. Yeah, everybody telling Wes's long form piece on the Ohio River offense, which is really what the West Coast often should be known as. He wrote a great piece, and we're going to dig into that a little bit. We highly recommend you check it out. And actually, when we make this stuff up, when I make. make-up vanity URLs. In this case, there is one, NFL.com slash Ohio River offense. Also, we're breaking new ground here. This is the first time you actually have read the article before

you've talked about it. That's why I'm really excited to do. It's being prepared, it's almost like the show could be better. And we'll also get into the roster reset series, which I think we touched on the AFC East last week or the week before. We're hitting every division, but we're not hitting everything on the pod, but we will do the NFC West because there's some interesting stuff going on in the west the west you also wrote that so we're going to kind of you know go through the great westling well-dressed spent over four hundred dollars on the clothes he's wearing today in addition to the makeup and the shaved head what a package you look great west thank you i feel good dan is pumping me up today i

feel great but before before we get to any of that we turn our attention behind the glass Mr. Competitive himself, TV. What's going on, guys? And with Greg not being in today, I can't lie, completely milled in the money tag open today. I didn't even make sense. How come the continental U.S. what was it, banned or something?

Band in Hawaii. But what about Alaska? I know. Alaska is my favorite state. Puerto Rico. I did not factually check that money tag. My apologies. West definitely took issue with it.

It didn't make sense. And even, you know, Money, who does such a great job, even he struggled to get through the wordiness of it. It was just clumsily written. That was the, I don't know where that one came by. Okay. Yeah. All right, let's do some news.

I got a few guesses. I feel bad for you. I don't think about you at all. One of my favorite moments in history of madness. Classic Don Draper. Shout out to Don. No, no spoilers, though. I'm still like five episodes.

No, you know what? I should spoil it just to punish you. It's a cultural. Touchstone moment, the finale, if you're in on the show. I know, but I had a lot of stuff to do. He was too busy. Oh, yeah. It's Madman, baby.

The greatest show ever. Maybe Sopranos is better, in my opinion. The Wire. I think you're sleeping on Northern Exposure. Is that the Moose show with Bert Reynolds? Bert Reynolds. All right, let's do some news. We'll start with the New York Jets, who we had been led to believe Todd Bowles, their new coach

said that Gino Smith was going to get the first team reps initially, but Ryan Fitzpatrick, who they traded for in the offseason, was going to be in the mix with the starting job. It sounded like, but then Chan Galley, the team's offense coordinator, came out on Wednesday and said Gino Smith is going to be the team's starting quarterback. He said that that's what they expected it to be, that that's always been the plan.

So, Gino, as we know, or I specifically, I've rode that Gino coaster up. up and down for two years. It sounds like he's going to walk into a third year as a starter. I don't want to ride it, but I got to ride it. I got no choice. It's not a train. It's a roller coach.

It's fun. Yeah. So that's true. That's the other thing. We need a roller coaster and a train are two different things. It was a feeding. Anyway, Colleen, we'll start with you on this. Are you surprised that the jets have essentially handed Gino the job before the summer has even hit?

On one hand, I'm surprised just because. because there's no reason for him to do it this early, for them to do it this early. But part of me kind of thinks that it might just be them saying it, so they don't have to deal with the questions and the stories and just everything that they'll have to deal with the entire offseason and preseason. So maybe they are going to have a competition, but maybe they think that Gino is going to end up winning it.

I thought there was a headline on this, and I think it was in maybe Deadspin yesterday. they put it well, those Jets look at their depth chart, sigh named Gino Smith starting quarterback. Because ultimately what you have, you have, Bryce Petty, who they drafted in the fourth round, he's not going to touch the ball this year. Ryan Fitzpatrick, who I seem to like a little more

than some other people on this podcast, but still at the same time he's Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know what you're getting out of him, and he's coming off a broken leg, so he's not even healthy right now. Gino Smith-West seems like the guy that's the best fit for this team, for better or worse. Mattie Boy Sims, you know. He's a nice guy.

Yeah, I think this was the surest sign we've seen yet that the regime is not going to handle things the way they did with under Rex Ryan and the, what is he, the iceberg, the glacier. The glacier. Yeah. Well, I mean, look at the last three years. You had the circus with Tebow and Sanchez. Then you had Sanchez and Gino Smith. And then last year they could, for some reason, they just couldn't, they didn't have it in them to tell Michael Vick that he wasn't even involved. Right.

in the process but it was still a controversy every year now they nip it in the bud and to me it's a no-brainer this division's wide open you're not winning a division with ryan fitzpatrick he doesn't win more than six games in any season i think the surrounding talent says take a chance on gino he has more talent than fitzpatrick and see what he can do well we were talking about it and i don't know if you collie and listen to our last podcast where we try to dig through the dalton scale a little bit and we blake mortals i thought of gino we were talking about blake boardles and west you had said that You'd rather have Bortals in Dalton because you're thinking of upside. You can say the same thing for Gino Smith.

There's more upside there. So if you're really looking, every team's trying to win the Super Bowl. If you're looking for the quarterback that has the best chance to make a leap, it's probably Gino Smith over Ryan Fitzpatrick. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, and he's improved his completion percentage, his touchdowns by one, but also he's lowered his interceptions, and you look at the weapons that they have, and they brought in Brandon Marshall, they have Eric Decker, they drafted Devin Smith.

their run game last year was like third in the league with Chris Ivory. This is what it's good. They're going to have a really good defense. I'd be shocked if they don't have a, you know, a top 10 or even top five defense. And, you know, to me, it's like all they have to do to get to nine or 10 wins is have a quarterback that doesn't kill him. But I'm very nervous about it because Gino Smith kills the Jets. He did it for two years. Maybe Chan Gale gets something out of him, Wes?

Changayle, I think that's his reputation. I mean, he got something out of Tyler Thigpen one year. He got Ryan Fitzpatrick. a $60 million contract. So I think, yeah, Chan Cayley can work wonders. He's shown that. But to me, it comes down to almost every quarterback controversy comes down to this question. Gino Smith has a chance to be the answer.

Ryan Fitzpatrick doesn't. Well, it's bad news for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yeah. If Gino Smith has already beaten him out and they have him and Chan sort of have a history. I would not be surprised. In fact, I would expect them both to start games this year. I still feel that way. That would not surprise me.

the Gino scale, maybe. Maybe that will work in a long time next year. It's possible. This time next year. All right, moving on other Jets news, Daryl Revis, of course, won a Super Bowl of the Patriots in his one season there, and then jumped back to the Jets. And the New York Daily News, Manish Mehta,

who's been on our show before. He is the columnist for the Daily News, the Jets' former beat reporter, spoke with Revis' first real comments about the deflategate scandal. and a little bit surprising really didn't have any sympathy for the Patriots or Tom Brady This is what he said

Everybody's blowing it up because it's Tom Brady I understand that But if the NFL feels He did the crime or he did something They want to penalize him Then that's that The Patriots have a history of doing stuff You can't hide that

Tom was there when they did that stuff In the past, Colleen What is that all about? I love that he just comes right out And he's saying that they have a history of doing stuff I like that that is all Like, that's the headline. Like, of course, they have history of doing stuff.

But also that he really, yeah, exactly. He didn't really hesitate to sort of throw his old team under the bus, the team that gave him a ring. So I thought that was kind of interesting. Really taking his higher gun roll to a new level. There was absolutely no emotion whatsoever about his time in New England. Cut that. He's a cold, cold man like, uh, what, um, Jeff Dank, or no,

who's Jeff Bridges Right Jeff Bridges and the fabulous Baker Boys He's just this cold, cold man Baker Boy's reference One of my favorite movies Michelle Pfeiffer calls him on it

He's so cold That's Derell Revis If I fail a drug This is a quote I'm not saying this If I fail a drug test Then I fail a drug test If I get a DUI

I get a DUI Revis said If Tom gets caught with a DUI DUI, it's a DUI They're saying what he did What he's done Then the suspension Is the suspension

That is an analogy that does not work on any level. It doesn't click. No, sorry, Daryl. Stick to football. Wow. What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. I love it, though.

I mean, and, you know, I agree a guy from Billy Madison, but I also love that Revis is all in. He's back on my, he's the guy in green. Let's do it, just. Let's do it. Let's get back to the playoffs. And let's, you know, let's get back to the game, the big one. Great.

1969 we have not been back it's going to be all right i don't think this is the year though no probably all right moving on a big big setback for the new york giants and their offensive line left tackle will betty uh undergoes surgery for a torn pectoral muscle he was lifting weights uh working out and he suffered the injury this is a a big setback uh that will keep him out probably deep into the season and now west this puts him in a tough spot. They drafted Eric Flowers number nine overall. He was supposed to be the future guy at left tackle. You have Justin Pugh in the mix, too. Maybe he becomes that guy. But all of a sudden, all this effort they put into stabilizing this line for the back end of Eli's prime. Now they have

an issue in a major one. Well, the way I look at this, you're weaker at three positions now because you have to move Flowers to left tackle. You have to move Pugh back to right tackle. He was supposed to make guard better. And you have to put John Jerry back in at guard. If that's the route they choose to go. It was a, Will Beatty was their only good offensive linemen last year. He was one of the best left tackles in the league. And now you've got a raw rookie who was supposed to be worked in slowly guarding Eli's blindside. It's not a recipe for success. Yeah. And the thing that we talked about all offseason was one of the biggest needs for them besides safety was an offensive lineman so you could move Justin Pugh inside to his more natural position. So when they've drafted

Eric Flowers, this was like, oh great, they got the safety, they did this. Like, It's perfect, and now they're going to have to have Justin Pugh outside, and that's a big liability for them. I mean, if there's any positive, and there really isn't, but at least you could say, you know, it's May 20 if the injury happens, you have a lot of time to figure out how to rebuild the line or rebuild on the fly here. But let's face it, Manning is, you know, nobody's more durable than him. He's never missed the start. So you don't necessarily worry about him getting hurt, but at the same time he's not a mobile guy. so he's not going to be escaping the rush. If you don't have a good line in front of him,

he's going to throw 25 interceptions. Yeah, Colleen and I just did an NFL now hit, and she talked about how the Giants' offense looks really good on paper. But when you talk about an offense on paper, you always ignore the offensive line, and I think that's a big thing. The Giants were going to be my pick to win the NFC East, a surprise pick, but I don't think I can do that anymore.

Wow. So it's that biggest setback for it? I think it is. I think it's a huge setback because the offensive line's been an issue for them for, what, three or four years now? now. To me, it's not fixed now. Moving on to another NFC East team, the Dallas Cowboys did not take a running back in the draft.

They didn't re-signed to Marco Murray and free agency, and yet they have remained confident. Jerry Jones going as far as saying that they'll get more production this season than they did last season, so it's pipe dream time in Dallas. But it does seem like they're still looking to tinker with the backfield, Ben Tate, who played with three teams last season. season, including Pittsburgh for a game in the playoffs, is working out with the team. Tate, of course, when he was with Houston as the number two guy behind Aaron Foster,

showed some things, but he really regressed last year as a player, but Cowboys are kicking the tires. Now, Colleen, this is almost like the ultimate test. Tate seems like if he's healthy, good enough running back, you would think. And Jerry Jones is very confident they have the best offensive line in years. put Ben Tate behind that line and give him 200 carries. Is he a 1,000-yard rusher? Yeah, but is he going to be happy with it?

Because that was the whole issue with him, was that he was complaining about his role before. So you have Darren McFadden and you have Joseph Randall there too. So if he's not the main guy, he's not going to be happy. Wes, you're a big Darren McFadden. You're on the bandwagon. It's a little lonely on it, but you're not afraid of that. You like that.

Does this give you any pause that they're bringing Tate in for a workout? No, we've talked about. this on now also you evaluate the game not the name ben tate was one of the slowest running backs in the NFL last year that's the reason he played for three different teams he couldn't make any plays and running backs are a little little bit like major league baseball pitchers you never know what's going to happen in a new year maybe their arm gets fixed maybe his knees better this year you kind of have to take running backs on a year by year basis so maybe he comes in and he's a different

guy but what we saw last year there's no reason to believe he'll even make the team All right. Let's play the over-under game. Wes and Colleen. Do this every once in a while. And it's time again. Okay, Colleen. Okay, all right.

Are you cool? What is it? What are we doing here? You know? Play this to me. No, it's just like I could feel you judging me with your eyes. And I don't appreciate it. Well, you're talking, so I'm looking at you.

Yes, okay, okay, okay. You guys all done up with your fancy outfits and your makeup and stylists. All right. Very simple. Very simple. Over Under game, Darren McFadden's 2015 season, okay? Over under, Colleen, 200 carries. Over.

Wes. Let me look at his career character. Oh, come on, you can't do that. You can't be on the bandwagon and say he's not getting 200. He's so injury prone. I just feel like he's going to be their only option. I don't know if Ben Tate's going to be there. I think that Darren McVadden's the guy they have to go with.

I'll take the over. All right. 1,100 yards. Collie, over, under. Under. If he's getting 200 carries, I'm taking the over on 1,100 yards. Behind that line? Eight touchdowns, Colleen.

Over. I'll take the over. That's including receiving. Touchdowns? Yeah, we'll do tall. Touchdowns? Yeah, I'll take the over. There you go.

Yeah, I mean, if he can stay healthy, but that line is so good. And then you have Lyle Collins there now, too. so it just got even better. He's a rookie, though. I mean, I've seen plenty of high-profile rookies struggle to come into the line and offensive line in the NFL. And, you know, people also, and maybe to me, I feel like the Cowboys, there's been a little bit of, you know, overconfidence here.

You can love your line in May, but you get two injuries, and all of a sudden you've got some guys that aren't doing the job. All of a sudden, what is the super strength gets knocked down, and then what do you got? And you got a bad running back on? I don't know. I just feel like we shouldn't, like, lock them in for whoever, is in that backfield to be a stud because you don't know what's going to happen.

Well, it's like if that doesn't work and if there's injuries on the offensive line and their running backs don't work, then everything is going to fall apart. It's going to all crumble. And Tony Romo won't play 16 games either. Right, exactly. It all affects the next thing. All right. And that's what's happening.

Not sure if you guys brought it up, but news reports, hey, Felix Jones is trying out for the Cowboys. Yeah. Didn't he run a 4-940 at the Veteran Combine? I'd like to see Hey listen TD say don't shoot the messenger I would like to see a foot race between Felix Jones and Ben Tate right now

with like the fastest guy in our newsroom against the two of them Maybe Dwayne Munn against the two of them Dwayne Munt's the fastest guy on the news I clocked Dwayne Munt at a 5-240 A couple of months ago It's our social media guy For people that don't work

Five two is pretty good for a grown man 35 year old We're clocking people in the office We went outside to the parking lot because Dwayne claimed he could break a 5-0 and it's one of my contentions at no man in his 30s unless he was like a major college athlete can break a 5-0. Okay.

All right. Well, you know... 5-0 is much faster than your average 40-year-old man believes. Well, you have strong feelings on this, West. I do. I do. Everybody thinks they're a better athlete than they are. Well, that's true.

People got to let go of the dream. All right, so let's talk about the projected starter series, where we've moved on to the NFC West and we'll start why don't we start with the defending NFC West champions the Seattle Seahawks you know I look at this piece

which you could see at NFL.com slash around the NFL and Wes you see the offensive line as a quote I'm going to quote you a glaring weak spot well they you're looking at a team that really has no weak spots other than the offensive

line you lose your starting center and Max Unger in the Jimmy Graham trade, and then James Carpenter signs with your jets, so they lose... But he's not that great either. Right, but there was a reason why he was starting over a guy like Alvin Bailey, who now has to be playing, and Max Unger was starting over Lemuel Jean-Pierre, I believe who might be from Haiti. But anyway, two of these guys who, when they've played in the past, were liabilities. So now you're making them starters. They drafted a pass-law of guys in the mid-rounds, but they're probably not going to be ready to play.

So you're taking the strength, their running game, and now it's a bit of a question mark. Colleen, when the Saints traded for Jimmy Graham, that added obviously major weapon for Russell Wilson, and they didn't really upgrade their wide receiver group, which a lot of people thought was going to happen. You got Doug Baldwin there, Jermaine Curse. The number three receiver spot is up for grabs right now.

Maybe Chris Matthews, who had that stud Super Bowl game. Yeah. He came out of nowhere that guy. Right, he sure did. Do you think that they made a mistake? by not bringing in somebody in free agency or the draft. Well, I mean, I think that we saw what they've been able to do this entire time without a big wide receiver they brought in Jimmy Graham. So that's really all they need.

They have Marshawn Lynch. I'm worried about the offensive line without Max Unger. I think it is going to affect them. But also, I'm worried about Carrie Williams being their second quarterback. I mean, they get rid of Byron Maxwell and they bring in Carrie Williams. You have Richard Sherman, sure, but everybody is going to throw at Carrie Williams. Everybody. Well, old sconces.

And here's the thing with the Seahawks, and that's part of the reason why, you know, any Super Bowl loss is devastating. Any Super Bowl loss in the final seconds is devastating. But also there's a window here with the Seahawks. And every year, since they've gotten good now, you know, first they had all these manageable salaries. But now they're starting to have to sign these guys. They're losing people every year, especially in that secondary. Eventually, it's going to catch up with them. Maybe this is the year.

I wouldn't bank on it. What, in the secondary list? No, I think that, I mean, most of these guys who, Richard, they're big guys. Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Cam Chancellor, they're supposed to be backed by training camp. And if they've got a few weeks to get ready for the season, you know, maybe they come out of the gate a little slow, but they're easily the best team in the division. What happens if Richard Sherman gets hurt? And then you have Kerry Williams.

Oh, they're in trouble. And who? I mean, that's a major issue if that happens. Yeah, I think that's a fair question. If he gets hurt or if Earl Thomas gets hurt, they're in big trouble. All right, let's move on to the second place team in the division. The Arizona Cardinals, 11 and 5 last year, limped to the finish because they had all sorts of quarterback issues with Carson Palmer going down with a knee tear.

He's going to be back. We talked about him on our last pod about where he fits in on the Dalton scale. We kind of agreed he was in the middle there. He's probably still the guy. you hope he stays healthy. But, Wes, the question to me, I never understood why they didn't make that move at running back. Maybe a stronger push to get Adrian Peterson.

Andre Ellington is not the guy to be a workhorse. Well, yeah, we've been criticizing them for this since a year ago, that they want to give him 20 to 25 carries a game. We know his body's not going to hold up to that. So why didn't they get somebody better? I don't think that David Johnson is a guy who's going to come in and run between the tackles, and they've talked about Ellington. is going to continue to be the leadback.

I see this as an issue for them. And it's been an issue for a while. The Cardinals have ranked 28th or worse in rushing yards in eight of the last 10 seasons. Yikes. Look at their yards per carry. 3.3, that was last in the NFL last year. I mean, they really needed help here,

and they couldn't do it. They didn't do it. So I don't know what they're going to do. It seems like they believe with Mike Yuppati and a healthy Jonathan Cooper and then they draft DJ Humphreys that the offensive line is going to make the running game better. and I don't know if that's true. On the defensive side of the ball,

they have Lamar Woodley there. Do you think, Wes, that Woodley's got enough in the tank to make an impact on this defense? Not from anything we've seen in the past three years. I know that Ariens knows him because they were together in Pittsburgh, so he's taking a chance on his guy.

Maybe he's envisioning the 2010, Woodley. I haven't seen anything to make me believe that Woodley is going to break out with double-digit-sack. Yeah, and also you look at that cornerback position there, too, and Antonio Cromartie, he's with your jets now and they didn't replace him. Yeah, and I'm curious about, you know, Honey Badger, how he comes back. Is he going to be all the way back this year?

What, Wes, what were you seeing by the end of the last season? Was he close to the guy he was as a rookie? No, they were still, he was still on a rotation basis. They were not playing in full-time snaps. Now, we did, I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week ago, that the Cardinals believe he's all the way back just in the past couple of weeks, what they've seen in practices. And I think their off-season moves tell us that he's going to be in that same role he was in a rookie

where he plays safety in base packages and then moves into the nickelback rule on third down. So I think that they're counting – that's one of the reasons they let Chrome already go is because they're counting on Matthew to play that role. One guy I'll be keeping on – keep an eye on also is Michael Floyd. Kind of a put-up or shut up year for Floyd, who we've been high – he's been on our making-leap list before. obviously there's a lot of people thought he was going to kind of succeed Larry Fitzgerald as the guy of the leader of that wide receiver group but it hasn't quite happened yet now you got John Brown in the mix

who's a promising second year player where does Floyd fit in going forward I think Fitzgerald's still better than him and I think John Brown's a better talent than him too I think Michael Floyd it seems to be kind of limited to that deep threat sideline guy and they've taken Larry Fitzgerald out of that role to put Floyd in it, and to me, Fitzgerald's still better than Floyd. Do they put Fitzgerald back in it? I don't think so. I think Aryan sees Fitzgerald as a guy who plays the Reggie Wayne rule and moves all over

the offense. Now he plays a lot of slot. I think that's where they're comfortable with him. All right, let's move on to the 49ers who are coming off really a tough off season. As we all know, a lot of guys out the door, and just this week, they lost Justin Smith, who decided to retire after 14 seasons. We know all about their other issues. Colleen, I'll start with you here.

You know, you look at this offense. You're going to have no Frank Gore. You have Kaepernick, who's now, you know, starting with a new coaching staff. Carlos Hyde, Anquan Bolden, Tori Smith's there. Quentin Patton, if you want to get excited. Where is Vernon Davis? Who is Vernon Davis anymore? I can't figure.

Oh, my gosh. Poor Vernon Davis. What is this? Is this a good offense? Just where are we at right now? I think that we're at a place that might be worse than last year. I mean, you bring in a new head coach. you have all of these pieces that are moving.

And it's a lot like the Rams, too. They have a lot of pieces that need to sort of mesh here. And I don't think they're going to be better than 8-8 next season. I can't get excited about this team. Yeah, I feel like that way. A few of our regular listeners keep sending me Twitter messages saying, don't quit on the 49ers, but what's to get excited about? I mean, have they fixed anything that was a problem last year?

There are so many question marks. You lose all of your leaders. Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Frank Gore, guys that were the backbone of this team. I just, I don't know, they have so many question marks. You need Navar Bowman to come back and be healthy, and we don't know if that's ever going to happen. Darnell Dockett, too, also coming off an ACL injury.

You need Docket to be the guy he was. You need a new secondary to gel quickly. You need Colin Kaepernick to start heading upward again in his career trajectory. You need Vernon Davis, who I said earlier, when he was one of the top five tight ends in football two years ago. And last year, what did he have, like, 300 yards receiving? How was that even possible?

He had a back injury in the middle of year that I still believe was the reason for his down season, but you're right. We don't know what he is right now. To me, I look at this and a lot can change. I feel like a lot of things have to go right for them to get the nine wins. And I'm wondering what Colin Kaepernick is going to look like when he comes back next season just because of all the stuff we're hearing about him working in the offseason, about trying to be better in the pocket,

and he's working with Kurt Warner and all this stuff. I mean, does it really matter? Do we really see a difference? Or is he just going to go back to doing what he was doing? Because he's good at it, but, I mean, doesn't work. We see this with quarterbacks every off season. Like, this guy's working with so-and-so now. I mean, either you're good or you're not.

I was going to say, who's the last? Because you do hear that every year. It's one of the tropes. When's the last time that actually led to the quarterback then being a different guy? I can't think of any of it. All right. On to the Rams, who every year people get excited about the Rams and every year they win six or seven games and maybe this is the different year. I know Greg has been chirping or to use one of Greg's choices of words honking that this is the year the Rams get over the hump and become a playoff team.

We'll see. I mean, you've got Nick Bowles, a quarterback, Trey Mason at running back. Of course, they drafted the rookie Todd Gurley at number 10 overall, so he's going to be in the mix and could be a major player. Wes, Kenny Britt, who's interesting to me. I'll start there with their number one wide receiver. Two years ago, you said he looked worse than any player in football, or at least any wide receiver. And then he showed a little life last year,

and now he's at the top of his depth chart. Yeah, he's not your ideal number one receiver. He's not what he was early in his career when he was explosive and he could make big plays. He has about two or three. I think he had two or three really good games last year, and then wasn't much of an asset for the other 12 or 13, so he's not a guy that you're like,

all right, we're lining up Kenny Britt. That's an advantage. Yeah, I mean, they have a new offensive coordinator and Frank Signetti. Officer Signetti. Exactly. Frank Signetti, Brian and I. I love that. Nick Foles, Todd Gurley.

I mean, all of the, they brought in how many offensive linemen, and all of these pieces have to fit together and build some type of chemistry for the season. You have to wonder about that. Now, obviously, their defense is improved. and their defense was great last year. But it's, I mean, if they're going to win games, it's going to be running the ball, and it's going to be really low-scoring.

The offense, I think, could be one of the worst in the NFL. Whoa. I mean, look at the right side of their offensive line. You've got a rookie right tackle, a rookie right guard, a first-time center who has really not shown well. That's three pieces of your offensive line, who could be well below average. Your receivers as a whole are among the worst in the NFL.

You know, Gurley's coming back from an ACL so who knows what he'll be in September and October and Nick Fools to me is a bottom 10 NFL quarterback I mean there's the defense is very promising what a great front line that is but to me and I when we did one of our exercises post draft I thought that um that you know Todd Gurley could be if he's healthy guy that gets the ball a lot and can put up a big season as a rookie they need that they need somebody behind that in that backfield to have a big season they need the defense to be a top five defense. And then to me it would be crazy for them to win 10 games if those things happen.

But Foles also has to be closer to the guy he was his first year with Eagles as a starter as opposed to that second, where he was really shaky. But now he's got Frank Signetti and not Chip Kelly. When your case goes cold, call Detective Frank Signetti. They're going 7 and 9. It's what they do. Is Nick Foles an upgrade over a healthy San Bradford? I tend to doubt it.

A wash, maybe? Yeah. It doesn't really do anything for me. No. They're both Hammondaggers, to quote Bobby the Brain Heenan. Curtin jerkers. Curtin jerker. Tomato cans.

All right. So that is our look at the NFC West projected starters. Colleen has to get back to, you know, NFL now. She's so in demand within the... Oh, yeah. And we call it the campus here at NFL media. We do. I have Charlie Casperly waiting over there.

Ah, see, you got to get back here, Colleen. They have a prow. But before we let you go, let's talk a little music because, yes, as I said, Noel Gallagher, the erstwhile frontman or songwriter of Oasis, Mark. I'm sad I missed this one. Yeah, Mark and Handsome Hank got us in, Hansom Hank's connections to the Gallagher family. Of course he does. Yeah, so thank you to Hank for that.

So we decided, why don't we go down memory lane? and talk about our first concert experiences before we get out of here today. And this is when T.D. needs to earn the money. That was T.D.'s first concert. TD earning the money right now. This is kind of rave as that. I don't know.

What was that, Tadde? What was going on? Like I said, guys, it's off the show completely mailing it in. Ready for a moment. Wow. I like that he's honest. Just a little hiccup there, but we should be ready to go on here in a second. All right, good.

So why don't we all, you know, share our first. concert experiences i thought that'd be fun to talk about it and maybe we'll get connor or on the phone um uh and if you're wondering i haven't brought up kevin patria i talked to kevin before the show uh said kev do you want to be involved with the pod like what was your first concert experience and uh he said that he had you know no concert experience he's not a music fan i don't know if i trust him anymore patrick and i have talked about this and it's been shocking that he just basically has no feel for music whatsoever he doesn't even it's not part of his life.

I think we talked about it at the draft, actually. This is all coming back now. His exact quote in the instant message conversation when I said anything about music, and he said, nothing of note. Nothing of note. Oh, I like that. All right. So why don't we start?

I guess I'll start. Why not? And technically, my first concert was August 87, Monkeys, the Monkeys, and Weird Al Yankovic. What? No. My sister was a Monkeys fan because they... Last train to Clarksville?

Yeah, they started showing reruns on Nick at night. got like a second life amongst like kids and teens of the 80s weird story and i was dragged to that i was a kid but my first real concert that i was i paid for and all that got to go to 96 a beacon theater in manhattan great band out of san francisco county crow oh i love them with opening uh with the opening act of cake so it was a real nice one two 90s punch with you know seeing adam durst moping on stage i think he was dating Courtney Cox at the time soon or Jennifer or Anderson who was in a good time has any

frontman ever had a better career year than Adam Duritz's he he had a nice run there in the mid-90s both as a musician and as a Lafario I still love the Counting Crows I still listen to them well my second concert ever really wow yeah interesting well we'll get to that

them and live I was at that tour I've been to multiple County Crows stores I am not ashamed to admit now Chris Wessling as we know, famously, Wes, a little older, has tastes that are a little famous for, being a little older. A little, you know, a little more vintage when it comes to his taste. He's a little more of a, you know, classic type dude. So, Wes, your first concert experience.

Well, I love music. I'm a huge music. You are. But I hate concerts. I don't like masses of humanity just putting their B.O. and other bodily things on you and just being it generally annoying. I don't like concerts with a lot of people and the music's never as good as it sounds in the studio.

So to me, concerts, I love going to a bar and listening. So my first concert ever was at a bar down the street from the street, basically like a five-minute walk from where I grew up. It was called the Blue Note, a very smoky bar, and it was a band from Australia called The Little River Band. They had a bunch of top ten hits. Including this. The Albatross and the Wales, they are my brother.

Yeah, cool change. By the way, I was doing the pre-production, work before the show, the YouTube video of this is just a bunch of dolphins jumping through the air. I can't wait to check that out. Actually, at this concert, the guitar

player from the band player, which had the song Baby Come Back. Yep. Any kind of fool could. I don't know. But I was wrong. Actually, it was redone as a parody song, Cutty Come Back by a Bears fan a few years ago about Jay Cutler. But anyway, they

played that song, too. Also a huge hit in the late 70, early 80. The name of the band again? Little River Band. All right. T.D., by the way, just does T.D. know. Have you heard of the Counting Crows? Yes. Counting Crows, yes. Have you heard of Wes's band? No idea. I knew he would not hear of them, yeah. All right. Colleen, your turn, Charlie Casterly right now,

looking at his pocket watch. I know, I know. So let's get, you might have to actually pull a Greg and leave the studio, but we need to hear your first concert experience. You said the Counting Crows are your second experience. Yes. You know, Can and Crows Live 2000 tour. Oh, and it was so good. Yes, and there was, like, a lot of Dave Matthews bands sprinkled throughout there,

but my first ever concert was 2000, and I was way too young to be going to a concert. I didn't even really, let's just leave it at that. So it was Jimmy Buffett. Wow. So in beautiful Camden, New Jersey, yeah. So Camden as like a 15-year-old, that probably wasn't the greatest. But who doesn't love little Jimmy Buffett in the summer when you're sitting outside by the pool or whatever? I mean, it's not bad.

I get it. I never understood the appeal personally, but not in a snooty way. But I get that he really connects with a strangely high number of people. Cincinnati is his hotbed. Like, he would do four or five concerts a summer in Cincinnati. He would do more concerts there than anybody. And I think it's because it's so landlocked and they don't get to have any fun. Yeah.

So that's like they're living through Jimmy's. Buffett. You know, the song like, she came down from Cincinnati? Probably. Well, that's how Finns, I believe Finns to the right, Finns to that song opens with that line. He did as a tribute to the city that, you know. There's a lot of like pageantry

involved, too, with everybody that goes, the parrot heads. Oh, yeah. Oh, they get all dressed. The parrot heads, that's right. So far, by the way, the cool quotient, not through the roof. Nobody saw Velvet Underground. Nobody was... I like Velvet Underground. You know, nobody saw the first Nirvana show. at, you know, some little club in Hoboken.

Well, we are... I think we take pride in being a little anti-hypster. Well, you know, we both like hipster music, too, but at the same time, so far, a little mainstream. We don't have to claim to be the first one to see Velvet Underground, you know? How about Connor Orr? We'll get him on the line, because... And, Colleen, if you have to go, you got to go.

Okay. But stick around, walk out whenever you want. All right. We will judge you. Connor on the line. Are you there, buddy? What's going on? Hey, there he is.

from his haunted mansion in suburban New Jersey. It is Connor Oar. How's things going in the old haunted house? It's pretty good. I mean, the summer months, usually the haunting is kind of, you know, the ghosts need time off to, so it's nice, a little bit of the time to get your equilibrium back. I would think your psyche and your emotional well-being also

it's good not to have spirits wandering through your, you know, library and such. Absolutely, just turning the voices off in your head for a little bit. I felt like you would be a good person to ask your first concert experience. So far, we have the Little River Band, West, County Crows, Dan, Jimmy Buffett, Colleen. Give me something edgy. Give me like you saw the strokes on the Lower East Side, right when Is This It came out in 2001. Give it to me. Yeah, it was me and Julian Casablancus, and we were sharing a camelite and just kind of opining on.

It was awesome. No, it was the Dave Matthews name. You know, I was worried they were going to come up. How did you enjoy your sorority, Connor? On that note, I'm leaving. Goodbye. That's not. You just sent Colleen back. You know, yeah, what is hazing like? Is it, do you feel any humanity? Oh, man. At least it was like, I'm not going to defend it, but, you know, it was a time of my life.

You know, it's a certain thing that happened, you know. Yeah, there was, as somebody that went to college, in the early 2000s, there was a rule that every girl, it seemed at least, had to have that one Dave Matthews poster where he was, it was like, I think it was black and white, it was just him standing on a stage. Colleen's nodding her head as she walks out of the studio. Thank you, Colleen for joining us. She's off to do now. Always great to have the great wolf woman. Give us a wolf sound effect. Yeah, everyone had that, Wes. It was a picture of Dave just chilling on a stage and was like

I would go to parties at colleges like Bowling Green in Ohio and girls would have posters of Brady Anderson with no shirt on. Oh God, that's terrible.

What year was the DMB concert? I think that was like 2003 or 2004 somewhere in that so really at the height of you know like every teak house

in the country was playing like the new post 9-11 album that had just come out Like, you know, I was just, it peaked commercially already by that point, but you were still in. Oh, yeah. I mean, at that point, I was, you know, I thought that was it. I was like, this is, this is, this is great. But, you know, it wasn't the best concert I've ever seen. All right. We'll keep you on, we're going to keep you on the line, Connor, because finally, TD decided to chime in. He said earlier in the podcast that it wasn't just that he wanted to take part, he wanted to win.

So, TD, you will now share your first concert experience. I feel like I'm definitely going to win with our audience, the millennials, as you guys would call them. For me, I'm with West. I am not a fan of crowds. I do not like to go in places where a lot of people just gets annoying. So my first concert experience, I actually didn't go to a concert. The concert came to me in college. Lupe Fiasco came to perform on the campus.

And, oh, Lupe was my guy. Okay. Lupe's first couple of albums, especially the cool. I studied that album like a book. Probably I should have been studying my college books. but Lupe was my guy, so this concert on our campus pretty much right next to my apartment was, uh... That's pretty cool, and Lupe Fiasco also

won a Kanye's best singles Touch the Sky. He sings the hook in that, doesn't it? Yeah, he's on there, man. Yeah, so that's a good one. That is probably the coolest one. You did win. I'll give you the win. Yeah. Congratulations.

Hey, thanks, guys. You win, I've just done the report card of this podcast, and you won the podcast. Well, actually, like I said, I'm mailing it in today, guys. So I have no real reason for the podcast MVP. I was just going to go with best dress and the best dress and really just left the room. So by default, Chris Wesley.

Okay. It is. He's way better dressed than I am. Definitely. All right, good. So there you have it. And, you know, people, like, oh, I talk about football. We can mix it up.

It's May. You know, we can talk a little, you know, music or whatever. Why not? Greg's going to probably send me an email. We pride ourselves on being a little more well-rounded. I mean, you don't want to just be. Connor and I were discussing this on Slack the other day. You know, fans are ripping on him for he's got the wrong outside line, inside linebacker for the Packers on his projected starter series.

I told him he should answer every tweet with, take your sweetheart for a stroll this evening. It's mid-May. Give up on football for a minute. It's not even the wrong outside linebacker. It's just somebody's opinion on who it should be. It's like, you know what? It's beautiful outside. Yeah, it's a beautiful life.

You know, it's a wonderful time to be alive. But let's do, we'll talk a little more football before. we get out of here because we do need to touch on Wes's excellent long form piece and I say this completely educated on the matter because I read it. It is titled the Ohio River Offense. It is about

Wes, I'll throw it to you but it is in essence you dig into the roots of what most people remember or see as or how it's known. The West Coast offense really had its roots in your home state. Well, Bill Walsh was the offensive coordinator in Cincinnati in 1968 when the Bengals were an expansion team, and Paul Brown was

the head coach, they had a quarterback named Greg Cook who, if you believe Bill Walsh and Sam Weish, and the people who played for the Bengals and people around the league, could have been the best quarterback in NFL history and was probably the most gifted quarterback of the era. People believe he was more gifted than Joe Namath. And a handsome man to boot. Hansen man could have been, I think a lot of people said, could have been the Marlboro man. So Greg Cook suffers a torn rotator cuff in his rookie season. And to me, he had the best rookie season in NFL history for a quarterback.

A lot of his records still stand for yards per attempt, yards per completion, et cetera. Tears his rotator cuff, really only throws three passes again the rest of his career, and that came four years later. So that was the impetus for the change to the West Coast offense. They brought in a guy named Virgil Carter who had no arm. So Bill Walsh and Paul Brown decided to do a. a rollout offense where it would be really short passes, precision passes, an extension to the running game, and this is what the West Coast offense became under Bill Walsh,

but it all started in Cincinnati. And Bill Belichick, among other people, has said it should be called the Ohio River offense, not the West Coast offense. In fact, the first time it ever is called the West Coast offense is 1985. Late 85, Bill Parcells, who was an adherent of power football, smash mouth. You need big guys. fun of Bill Walsh after the game is that how do you like your West Coast offense now? Right. And then the name kind of stuck. And Bill Walsh kind of always

bristled at the name. He thought it was lazy. Most West Coast offensive coaches think it's lazy. And then Sam Wisch, who was Greg Cook's backup, ends up being an assistant coach under Bill Walsh. And he becomes the Bengals head coach in the early 80s and starts the no huddle offense, which is now the offense that most of the NFL uses. And at the time, he was criticized he had to fight for it. Marve Levy, before the 88 championship game,

went to the commissioner and said, basically, I'm in a fake injury. So Pete Roselle, the commissioner at the time, told Sam Wichie couldn't use it. Weish had to fight for it. He finally got to use it. Two or three years later, Marve Levy and Jim Kelly are using the K-gun,

no huddle, and they get more credit now than Sam Wife. This is wild. Which is crazy. Not only did Levy try to affect the game, the integrity of the game, in one of the biggest games of the season. He then basically gets the credit for the offense he was trying to stop by faking injuries, having his players fake injuries.

It's a wild thought. And believe me, a teenage Chris Wesleyan was not a big fan of Marv Levy at the time. Yeah, I don't imagine you would be. And just the idea that Walsh gets all this credit, which he deserves, obviously, for being the architect of the West Coast offense or the Ohio River offense. And then you get Marv Levy, who gets all the credit on the back end for the Noah Huddle Kegar.

an attack with then there's poor sam weish who really is forgotten now coaching as a in high school and uh you had a great i thought you ended the piece in a really excellent way which again proves that i read it um you know to victor go the spoils so he gets because they fell short in two super bowls against the niners and it's really their own their own fault i mean that's part of the pathos of the piece that the bengals don't have this reputation as so innovative even though they were because paul brown in nineteen seventy six walks away leaves the sidelines and becomes an He already was the owner, but he decides to give up coaching. And Bill Walsh was obviously the most talented coach on his staff,

but he didn't think Bill Walsh was tough enough. So he named Bill Tiger Johnson his successor. Walsh knew then that he would be typecast as an assistant if he didn't leave. So Walsh leaves, ends up in San Francisco, and beats the Bengals in both of their Super Bowls. And the Bengals have only themselves to blame for that. Connor, your thoughts? I think it's like, you know, it makes me think today then, you know,

how we're going to, like, if that era is going to at least force us to think deeper about the innovators today and have, like, 20 years down the road, who's going to be kind of screwed out of credit for something that they came up with right now? You know, not to open a whole another can of worms, but I feel like there are probably a lot of, you know, Wishes out there right now. Oh, absolutely. And you're absolutely right. And I think to me, one of the reasons I wrote the piece is because, well, for two reasons. In 1968-69, Cincinnati was about to hit a golden age. The Bengals had back-to-back rookies of the year on offense.

They had the reigning defensive rookie of the year. They had the coach of the year. They're moving into a new stadium in 1970, along with the Reds. The Reds are hosting the All-Star game in 1970. They go on to have the Big Red Machine and dominate the 1970s. Late 70s, WKRP, and Cincinnati hits the airwaves, dominates TV for a while. It's supposed to be Cincinnati. Maddie's golden age, and they never have it because Greg Cook gets injured.

Paul Brown doesn't appreciate Bill Walsh. So that's one reason. And the other reason is that Sam Weiss is one of the best innovators in NFL history and is not seen that way. Very interesting. So, yeah, you really got to check this out. NFL.com slash Ohio River offense along for him from Wes. And whether Wes wants to or not, he's made his own bed now because I think we're going to

see more of these long-form pieces from Wes. And if you had any hair, it would fall out, I would imagine. Shadow League figure called me over this morning. I was about to head to NFL now, so I was just trying to have, like, a 30-second conversation. And he said, hey, do you want to do those once a month? And I said no. I thought he was joking. You pulled two, like, back-to-back all-nighters, right?

Yeah, I thought he was joking, and I pointed out. I said, no, I put myself through hell to write it. And he said, well, I think it's going to be on your plate now, whether you want it or not. And that's why he's your podcast MVP. There you go. There you go. Wes wins the Farsicle MVP honors for today's show. All right, that's it.

Thanks, Connor. Thank you for calling in, buddy. Anytime. It would be the ghost presence of the podcast. I loved it. All right. Dan Hans is signing off for Colleen. Wolf.

Thank you for joining us. Colleen, great job. And the great Chris Wessling and TD Behind the Glass. Until next week. This is an IHeart podcast.