NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Latest news, rookie review & Cutler reaction

Episode Date: December 18, 2014

A room filled with heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- discuss the latest news including DeMarco Murray's hand injury, Jay Gruden vs. RGIII and a rookie review. Plus, the guys preview Thursday Night Football and react to Jay Cutler's benching.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. What is happening? This is Greg Rosenthal before we get to the show. A few words about our favorite sponsor, Fandul.com. NFL season, not over. Just yet, your fantasy football league's probably over. I'm in the title game this week,

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The Around the NFL podcast doesn't do route concepts. Welcome back to another edition of the Round the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansus and I'm joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling and Greg Rosethal. What up, boys? Hey, Dan. Wednesday show. Middle of the week.

Hump day. Get over that home. Week 16. Get excited. I sense a little bit of fatigue setting in. Mark seemed very quiet today at the office. Mark was a little dark Sessler this morning. Greg, I explained it to you.

I woke up in the middle of the night in my house. It's three in the morning. I couldn't get back to sleep. There is an end of the season fatigue. It's a real thing. We've been cranking at it. That's happened. We've talked about that before too, right?

That's a very real, tangible thing. was a separate issue. That's always alive at this time of year to some degree. Greg, I mean, Mark is kind of like late period Namath though, where even though his body might be shot, he will tape up those legs. He'll go from calf to thigh to get

on that field come kickoff. That's what you're doing right now. So you're 50% of what you used to be. At least you're trying. Yeah, I'm not, you know, Dan, I'm going to have to go back and listen to that again. Throw in the Stone Temple Pilots plug here. Half the man I used to be. Wow. A little STP.

Wes, I like you moving into the 90s with your song references. That's good. Come on, man. That's a 20-year jump. I love it. All right, big show today. A great show today. A lot to get to.

We're going to, speaking of Mark Sessler, and we better hope he's got those legs taped up because we're going to dig in deep on his rookie grades, both the AFC and NFC, which he's rolled out the last two weeks. You should definitely check that out. Am I wrong? Why is everyone smiling? Well, it's just showing once again you clearly haven't read these articles.

It was the offense and the defense. That's fine. I say. You said the ASC and a C. Not a single difference between the two. You guys get caught up in the semantics. I loved both pieces. I really did.

Also, we're going to, we're going to open up the mailbag, mailbag, which we haven't done in a while. We sent out a prompt about a couple hours before the show and got a lot of great questions. We're going to hit that up. I'm just glad I no longer have to deliver it. That's true.

The mailman. He got his name because he was a mailman. It's a true story. We're also going to hit on that scorcher, Thursday night game. between the Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars. So we're going to do all that. But before we get into those aspects of the show,

we're going to start by saying hello to TD behind the glass. How are you, buddy? What's going on, guys? Mark, you have a rookie great for me? Yeah, I got a solid B minus. But you weren't a first round pick, so that's fine. You're actually over-delivered. Mark only graded the first-round picks.

He only graded the first round. Wait, what round are we talking for T-D? TD was fourth round, which, by the way, no, you had some off-the-field issues that scared probably 25 teams away. Some baggage. You were a second rounder that dropped to the fourth. It's what he's saying. There were some negative reports, well, mixed reports, I would say, from other executives, league executives. Look, you got to get out of the trainers' room.

This missing practice because of sniffles thing. Yeah, sure. You can't make the club in the tub, my friend. You should not have asked, basically. Anyway, let's love you, T.D. Merry Christmas. Let's do some news. NASCAR, Trout, deep, Scooby, right, F short, switch-salt, swirl.

I'm ready to play, guys. I know about you guys. I love it. All right, we'll start in Dallas where the big injury news of the week revolves around running back to Marco Murray, the league's leading rusher, who suffered a fractured bone in his hand late in Sunday night's win over the Eagles, underwent surgery on the hand Monday, and by Wednesday, day was on the practice field in some semblance. I think he was officially

listed as DNP, but he was doing some work on the side. So it appears from everything we're hearing that the Cowboys have not abandoned the idea of DeMarco Murray playing on Sunday in a huge game against the cults. So, gentlemen,

is this, first of all, none of us are doctors, but does it seem a little strange that someone who would have surgery, a running back would have surgery on his hand on Monday and then play on Sunday? We've heard some examples of this happening before. Emmett Smith was one. I forget the other one.

And generally... Thorel Owens was another. A player usually misses one week and maybe they can get back for the next game. Emmett Smith, a different category of human being, though. I don't know. I played through some crazy, crazy stuff. No, that's true. I mean, Murray has been a guy that's been injury prone.

It's a good call. I think one thing to keep in mind, though, is... And I believe Jerry Jones said it, that the Cowboys, in his opinion, have the deepest... backfield in terms of depth, their backfield is something that he thinks is the deepest for this team. So Joseph Randall can do some damage. So, you know, we don't necessarily have to give DeMarco Murray the ball 30 times. You have some other guys you can lean on here. I'm dubious of that. I don't agree with Jerry Jones that this is one of their deepest positions. I think it's a

huge, huge drop-off from DeMarco Murray to Joseph Randall. It is a crazy profession that you have hand surgery on Monday, and your profession is literally to do an athletic feet with your hands, and he's out there on practice field. We saw him making one-handed catches today, you know, they listed if it didn't have practiced, but he's running around making one in the catches. Imagine if, you know, if TD had hand surgery Monday, he'd be out the whole week.

Week? What about decade? Sorry, that was on necessary. I mean, listen, it is funny, though. Imagine if one of you guys had hand surgery Monday. I don't know. I don't know if we're back right in. The Cowboys, they put Tony Romo back in the game. What do you

take us for we wouldn't be able to come to work and hunt and pack at a type at i don't know you only got one hand there oh come on i had a day where i did 11 posts with a concussion that's true well you didn't know you had a concussion to the disservice of the reader i was going to say how were those posts they were a gasoline mess but it seems to me especially a tony romo came at back into the game on the same day he broke his back essentially uh that the cowboys they'll probably lean on the side of taking a chance and putting in a star player because they're that desperate to get back to the playoffs they know we talked about it in our last show that despite the win over the eagles they are very vulnerable to getting knocked out of this picture with just one bad week so i think it would be surprised

if murray isn't on the field would murray's status be enough for you guys to like change your pick potentially he's playing i'm picking the colts regardless no i think it's the center of their offense all year long so and i agree with west you can't expect oh we're going to go 80% joseph rannell he's been good in spurts i mean he's not a bad guy to spell demarko murray but if they The Colts aren't scared of Joseph Randall. No, of course not, not as a lead guy. Okay, moving on. Aaron Rogers has come out and spoken about the issue with Jay Cutler and Aaron Cromer,

the offensive coordinator for the Bears. Of course, Cromer, as an anonymous source for Ian Rappaport, our NFL Media Insider, said that the Bears might be having some buyer's remorse. Well, he didn't say that. He went out of his way to tell the team, I didn't say the buyer's remorse bit, But he did admit to the fact that he had frustration with Cutler and that Cutler wasn't changing the plays at the line of scrimmage, the game management.

That was the one thing he was particularly frustrated with. Right. So anyway, that turns into Cromer apologizing tearfully to the team for speaking about Cutler to a reporter. And now Aaron Rogers chimed in on the situation this week saying he was, quote, baffled by the situation. Here's Rogers' quote, Tuesday in an interview with our own Mike Silver. I would have a major problem if somebody said something like that.

I think anybody that plays the position, you can't help it empathize with Jay for that situation. And he goes on and continues to basically get in Jay Cutler's Corner, which not a lot of people are in Jay Cutler's Corner this time of year. Isn't the difference here that there was an attribution to the comments? I mean, players across the league are ripped internally, and it goes to national media sources. We hear about this every week, or coaches are, or GMs,

or whatever. There's all this internal criticism floating about. Kromer, whether he considers it a mistake or not, he owned up to it or was caught somehow. That's the difference. He must have been forced into, I don't know how no one knows and no one's reported how that all happened. But some way, somehow, Mark Tressman decided that Aaron Kromer,

the coordinator was not going to be punished for this, no discipline, but he did address the team about it. That's not something that he was, Kromer was going to go to the team and fess up about it, I feel like he had to do it. That's somehow it got out. It's like being in a relationship and you have committed a discretion. Do you tell your significant other if you know it's going to hurt them more to find out the truth?

Well, the three of us have never been involved in a scenario like that. So, Wes, what have you done in that situation? I tend to be a guy who tells the truth too much, but in that situation... In that situation, I think you go with whatever hurts the person less. Well, I mean, Ian, you know, if you looked at his original reporting, he made it clear that he had many sources for that report, and I believe he even specified bear's sources. So it's interesting, even within that,

Cromer's one source, but someone else is there talking to Ian. It's not a totally unique thing, but it's bizarre. And after watching them on Monday night in that just terrible team we've seen, you start to wonder, like, who is there? next year. He is a seven year, $126 million contract. Is it a surprise that there are people around that team that are freaked out by that? Well, what you also got out of that Monday night football game was John Gruden repeatedly ripping Cutler for the same exact things that Kromer was killing him. Right. And I wonder who Gruden talked to before the game. You know, who knows who it was,

but it's people on that coaching staff. They don't just say these quotes in a vacuum. The thing with Kromer not getting fired, it's like, that was nice of trustmen. He doesn't want to kill the guy. But even if Tressman's there next year, there's no chance that Cromer is with him. The bigger conversation maybe down the line is will Jay Cutler be there? A lot of stuff going down in Chicago right now. Moving on to Carolina where Ron Rivera said Wednesday he's not sure if Cam Newton or Derek Anderson will be starting in a huge week 16 matchup against the Browns on Sunday. Cam Newton, of course, in the big car accident. Last week sat out the win over the bucks.

Derek Anderson got the job done. He's now 2-0 as a starter. And this is what Rivera had to say about who will be quarterbacking. Tomorrow will be a big day referring to Thursday, especially in the morning, to see where Newton is health-wise. If he's sore, if something's bothering him, the staff put him through very rigorous stuff today with the intention of trying to stress it to see how it feels. So this seems to be very up in the air.

And, you know, listen, Derek Anderson has done a pretty nice job so far, obviously. They have two wins and it starts. But they need to get Cam Newton on the field that have any shot, right? The reports we saw today were that Cam Newton looked great in practice and that you couldn't even tell he was injured. It seems like he'll play. I mean, the other thing is, if they ever had to put Derek Anderson in there, Joe Hayden might not play this week. He didn't practice with a shoulder injury.

They could beat the Browns at Derek Anderson. They've got a ton of injuries, and all you have to do is Jonathan Stewart has one of his better weeks, which he has had some good months here. I mean, that might be all they needed. The Bengals won by 30 against Cleveland with a D-plus performance from their quarterback. I think Derek Anderson can play better, but it really sounds like it's going to be Cam Newton, which from my, I love little storyline sometimes.

I kind of want to see Derek Anderson against the Browns in a fairly big game for both teams. I know the Browns are essentially out of it, but the Panthers are right in it. Wouldn't it be just kind of fun, Derek Anderson, Brown? What we talked about a couple weeks. I don't know what revenge does he need. He got massively overpaid to totally, you know.

That's always like the underlining thing whenever somebody tried to push the revenge game, it was the team that made him a multi-millionaire many times over. Right. They're still paying him. It would really be more kicking Browns fans in the nether regions, once again. To get officially eliminated from the playoffs by Derek Anderson would be another indignity. Also known as December.

Mark, do us a favor. I know you have some type of poll with the Browns. Don't lose out here. And Scar, what's been a nice building season. Let's get one more win. Get to eight. and then you build. I think it's going to be this week.

You're saying that like Aaron Kromer, I'm able to talk to sources within the building. Yes, exactly. All right, to Washington, where Jay Gruden is still talking about Arbor Griffin III, of course, because he's back in the starting lineup. They have moved Colt McCoy to injured reserve,

another one of Mark's boys. And now it is RG3's turn. Kirk Cousins, I think Wes, poisoned Jay Gruden's dog, so he is not an option to ever start. They had to go back to RG3. And to me, this is kind of interesting, that Gruden, if you remember about a month ago, I apologized because he was a little overly critical

of RG3 in a press conference, so he came out and said, I shouldn't, you know, said all that stuff. On Tuesday, he had this to say about what Washington needs to do to win with Griffin under center this week. And here's his line. It's important for us to have success

on first and second down so we don't have to drop back and throw it 30 times a game, have a lead so we don't have to worry about it. Basically saying, if we're in a situation where Griffin has to be a real quarterback, were screwed. That's how I read it. I found that to be a weird way to be talking about your starter. Why?

That's exactly what I wrote down almost word for word in my game rewind notes after watching that game. In the first half, they went play action and RG3 was able to get out of the pocket and make a few plays. Without the threat of the play action in the second half, when they got down, Griffin was terrible. Yeah, but you're an analyst. Right.

He's the head coach. And part of being the head coach, I think, on some level is, yes, you shouldn't be lying to the media. but you also, you don't need to be so honest to the point where it makes things weird in the locker or that makes RG3 uncomfortable. RG3 makes himself uncomfortable. Here's what Jay Gruden's number one job is, what he was brought in to do, develop RG3. And what Steve Young and Trent Dilver have said and many other people is

RG3 needs to capitulate to coaching. He needs to be broken like a stallion because he thinks his way to play quarterback is the right way. Jay Gruden is saying, no, your way to play quarterback is the wrong. way. And what I think was the breaking point. Jay Gruden was irate when RG3 threw his teammates under the bus when he can't even run the offense. And I think

everything about Gruden since then has been to point out RG3, you cannot run my offense. You cannot go through the reeds. And Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy do run the office. So you're saying he's punishing the quarterback through the media for something the quarterback said.

I'm saying this is part of his development. He's sending a message to RG3, you've been coddled your whole career. Unless you break yourself down and build yourself up and do what an NFL quarterback needs to do, then you're not going to be successful in this league. I think

what he said this week was harmless, and coaches around the league say that every week about their quarterbacks, about young quarterbacks, that we want to play with the lead, we want to stay out of third and longs. That's what everyone says. That's with young quarterbacks. It seemed like a very benign

comment that people were jumping on because of the previous back and forth. The whole kerfuffle started because Mike Jones from the Washington Post phrased a tweet in a way that sounded a lot more poisonous than it was. Right. If you read the whole quote, he has a big preamble about what young quarterbacks need to do and different great quarterbacks that have struggled over time, it's like what he said is what they always say.

It's kind of just coach speak. But I mean, I think you're right, Greg. The thing is that it was another episode of Gruden going to the well and discussing RG3 to reporters. And maybe, I think Wesleyan, you think he's refreshing for the way he's talking about. I don't think he's refreshing. Well, you've said that downstairs, so that's why I thought that you think that. I did?

Yeah, many times you said it's refreshing to hear a coach speak honestly about his player this way. I don't think that's the heart of the matter, though. For me, the heart of the matter is he thinks that this is the way to develop RG3. But why can this effective breaking down and coaching not happen inside teams? Walls. Why do the reporters need to know about this? I think that taking it public as a way to show RG first of all show the team that he's not playing

favorites, that RG3 has been favored by management all along, he's been best friends with Daniel Schneider, and RG3's gotten away with a lot of stuff. And I think this is a way of saying to RG3, look, you have to do what I tell you to do. Your way of quarterbacking is wrong, and I think by

going to the media, that's the way to kind of, RG3 has reputations a bit operatic, a bit of a diva, and I think this is part of breaking that down. Here's the thing, though. Maybe he responds to that more than other things. We've seen reports, though, that Gruden doesn't want anything to do with RG3 in the future, and with two games left in a lost season, he's not looking, if that's

the truth, he's not looking to grow RG3 as a player. It seems like, it feels like to me he's trying to stick it to the guy. That's my sense, that he doesn't see RG3 as a long-term project that he wants to attach himself to. I do think there's a part of sticking it to him for that throwing your teammates under the bus when you can't even operate the offense. I think that really rankled Jay Gruden. Right.

All right. Okay to have a little fire and a little fucking attitude. You should have bleeped out the F bond there. No, it's Andrew Luck. He agrees with me. That was a very spirited debate. I love it. What of heat.

TD, very good. Well, you didn't, not one Bunsen burner blow torch. I know. That's why I had to Andrew Luck. Okay, okay. Moving on Reggie Wayne. Here's a little nuggin on Reggie Wayne. He played his 209th game as a member of the Colts.

That's the most in franchise history on Sunday. But four catches for 24 yards in the game. We've been talking about Reggie Wayne. Wayne for a couple weeks on the show as somebody that might be a guy that might be in decline. Wes, where are your thoughts on Wayne right now as a player? Well, I think I've been a little flipping about this, that I haven't given it the nuance it deserves. Reggie Wayne is playing through a torn triceps and is playing as bad as any wide receiver in the NFL. He's also a respected team leader, and I'm sure within those walls, they want him to battle.

They want him to battle through this and show what he can do. So I feel like maybe we should give it a little bit more thought. I mean, you and I have talked about what adult, why would adults be interested in sports? And I think this kind of speaks to that, that kind of, if you, you mentioned a few minutes ago, I'm thinking like an analyst when I watch Game Rewine. And I think Mark's probably read this book, Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, he makes the point, the analyst, something has always lost in art or, experience when you analyze it like mark twain once he became a riverboat pilot and learned the

technical side of it the Mississippi River was no longer beautiful for him and I think that's part of being an analyst in football we kind of lose track of what's important about sports you know when you get old you know athletes naturally rage against the dying of light and I think Reggie Wayne's doing that and we have to let him do that I mean I just I guess I just wanted to get that off my chest you you feel badly for being negative to a guy at been a great player for a long time. Well, I think if you, if I was to hire a sports writer, the first question I was going to ask him is, how do you reconcile the essential meaninglessness of sports?

Wow. I should use that in my interviews with the new editor downstairs. Because there is an answer. I mean, how do you reconcile watching young men bang into each other and try to advance an inflated pigskin against marked territory? I mean, that's what you're doing. How do you reconcile the? important to that and I think it's that at its best sports is look at what humans can do this is

the best that we can do it's like shakespeare's poems or beethoven's moonlight sonata this is going above and beyond we're sending somebody out there like you know we can't get to mars so we send the rover this is we're going above and beyond and i think we've seen examples like the best willis reed hobbling out of the tunnel kirk gibson limping up to the plate against an unhittable closer, Michael Jordan in the flu game, when an athlete is injured and especially towards the end of his career like Reggie Wayne is, look, older players can still get it done. It's just that those plateaus are fewer and far between, and I think there's something to be said for an older player trying to do that. There could still be something left. There could still be some

light in Reggie Wayne. The Zen Mailman. Well, and that was also very possibly the last regular season home game of Reggie Wayne's career. And I think what you're getting at is that maybe Reggie Wayne bring something to them just being out there and competing that maybe giving 25 extra snacks that Hakeem Nix isn't, it's not worth it. You know what I mean? Because he's Reggie Wayne and Hakeem Nix is just Hakeem Nix. And as analysts, we're not going to see football and judge it and judge players' performances weekly the same way that coaching staffs dealing with veterans and human beings and a lot of issues in the locker room will fall short at seeing what they see. Yeah, well said. All right. Moving on.

Gentlemen, that's what's happening. That's what's happening in the news. That was the most intense news segment we've ever had a podcast, by the way. Wes was on fire, though, man. I love it. I could picture like Wes smoking one of those long pipes and sitting on a pillow with the Beatles. And not one filled with tobacco, by the way. I mean, Mark was sleepy when he came up here.

He's wide awake now. Some good discussion. Gave me ideas for new drops and everything. I think we should test Wes for PED. after his last two conversations. I would like to have been on a pillow with Beatles or whatever. All right, moving on. It's time to talk about Mark Sessler.

Oh, man, what great work he does every week for around the NFL group. And he wrote his, what? You do good work, yes or no? I am going to have IT look at your computer, see if you ever even clicked on to these two lost in space articles. They are the grades for the offense and defense sides of the ball. for rookies in the NFL, and how do we want to attack this? Do we want to look at Mark's list one by one, or do we want to just draw out somebody that

jumps out to you? Why do we start with the offensive side and the first round grades? And let's see, we got Greg Robinson right at the top of the list, but a C-minus. Let's figure out how you have the structure. You don't have a lot of high grades for the rookie class, it looks like. Well, number one I learned when you do an exercise like this is I sure West gets with this top 10 list. You find out that a large portion of the country, if not, the internationally disagree with you vehemently. And, you know, again, this was one guy's attempt at taking a swipe

at this. And with a lot of the offensive players, I did not, one or two guys got like an A plus or an A for me. And that, that was sort of the height. Here's the A crowd. Zach Martin, A plus 16th overall pick. Looks like Jared did a good job not picking Johnny Mansell there. You have Kelvin Benjamin with an A-minus, and of course, O'Dell Beckham gets an A-plus for his breakout season. Also Mike Evans, A-minus. And Mikey Evans, A-minus as well. I mean, I thought you were very fair. If anything, Eric Ebron kind of stuck out to me, if he wasn't in a D, if he wasn't in a D range like I was for geometry freshman year of high school, then who is? This guy seems like he's lost him a couple games on his own. Thanks. I think with that position, too, part of me is

Like, I don't want to, I feel like if you're putting the D or an F, and I did on defense, you're almost kind of writing them off as a project, and I don't with Ebron yet. But he was, he, I switched that grade. I had it lower initially. The grades are also a reminder on offense how, you know, people always say the offensive line, well, that's a safe pick. And you can just plug and play Greg Robinson for 10 years or Jake Matthews, and those guys have struggled, like any rookies can.

And maybe Matthews has been struggling, battling through an injury, and Robinson's had to change positions around a, couple times, and they could certainly bounce back, but it's no safer taking those guys at the top. In the last couple years, most of those picks have not really worked out. They've not worked out. I mean, I think that offensive line is an area where we'd all admit we're not, you know, we're not the experts at judging what's happening. Right, Dan is. Outside of Dan, who is. We look to Dan for that. It's like a Brian Bold and your junior. I don't share anything, though. I keep it all inside. Well, we've learned that.

Dan's take on Joanne James a few nights ago. when we were just talking on the phone, and he went on a crazy Juan James Jag. Beautiful. I can't stop. Thank you about that guy. Every night. Joanne James.

That's why I've stopped calling down the phone because it's just too much of that. It's like, get on to this. All right, enough with the guard stuff, bro. I like that you were putting some grades during the season because I remember right after the draft, you know, there's those grades. And what was the pick that got criticized more than any other,

I would say, in the entire first round by the, you know, draft nix was juan james who look we're not offensive line experts but he's been better than those other tackles that we've been criticizing good pick miami dolphins you got something to go for yeah confess that this is the first i've seen of this list wow you guys on offense well we can go to but i would i just want to say that my one takeaway is that i would not change a single grade mark did a heck of a job you just looked at it for five seconds literally i just looked at the grades are You're that on fire that you're a speed reading now. Yeah.

My boy Teddy Bridgewater on there getting a bee hiring. I know, I have a Teddy B, okay? Let's move on to the defensive piece that Mark wrote. And I think I see only one F grade here, and it's for the 26th overall pick, Marcus Smith. Tell us why, Mark. I think for me, because of what I seem to, when I'm reading about him and what the coaches are saying,

that they've almost given up on him for this season. He's had to switch positions a few times, and he's going to have to play this week because of injuries. But he's been basically not had a snap since week 12. And they've talked about his practice habits, hinting that that's an issue too. And when you're taking 26 overall and basically Howie Roseman GM said this was our number one guy in the board, it just feels sort of like a comprehensive failure for the Eagles. By the way, Calvin Pryor at C-minus is awfully nice of you. Awfully nice.

Yeah, I think he's played a little bit better in recent weeks, but he got bench. He doesn't make any plays. Who's making plays on that defense outside of the defense of the line? But Calvin Pryor has brought in to be an instant playmaker, and it hasn't been the case. Tell me the guy on defense, Mark, that you watched that you like the most. Well, Wesleyan actually sent me a vine, I think, in week two or so of Aaron Donald, taking out Adrian Peterson at light speed and he's been fun to watch

because I think the Rams people are like oh the Rams are these number one picks a lot of them who are they haven't really hit one out of the park and they keep taking defensive linemen Aaron Donald to me would be my pick for defensive rookie of the year I would love to hear what you guys think

but CJ Mosley's second but Aaron Donald's just been gotten better and better as the season has gone on and he's got more sacks as an interior lineman than Khalil Mack and C.J. Mosley put together. Yeah, I think Aaron Donald should be the favorite up there with C.J. Mosley. Khalil Mack and Anthony Barr should be in the discussion.

That's been good. I think the one guy on this list that I would change, I'd give Ha-ha Clinton Dix a B-plus instead of a B-minus. I think he's been very good. Yeah, and he's certainly jumped into a starting role of Lay 2, and the people around him seem to like him, so that's fair. Shazir is a guy, Ryan Shazier, the Steelers, who you gave an incomplete. You know, he did play a decent amount.

not much since week nine. Now he's back on the roster, and he's not even playing. He was a guy we thought could maybe win defensive rookie of the year. I would say even when he was on the field early in the year, he was okay. He wasn't a guy who came in right away and made that big time instant impact that we kind of expected. All right, gentlemen, Mark, great work on those two pieces. You could get them. Is there a vanity URL on this?

Of course not. We could get one. No, I mean, it's just, you know, just you go to work, you plug in the copy, you write it out, You're too humble. It did great. It did great. And just to show he doesn't play favorites, he gave Justin Gilbert from the Browns a D.

Well, we knew Mark wouldn't be, if Mark was going to go one way with the Browns, it would be toward the harsher end. I'd be the same way with the jet. You just get, like, that's why I think Calvin Pryor did worse than he. I mean, he even pointed out, Kowan Williams, undrafted looks better than Justin Gilbert. Looks a lot better.

Have it a little bonus money sent Mark's way. Maybe he could be a two-time MVP award winner. All right, so before we move on, our boss, Greg Roosevelt, had to step out of the studio because big news out of Chicago or the Bears, according to NFL media insider Ian Rappaport, have benched Jay Cutler for Jimmy Clausen, according to two sources informed of the situation. Rappaport previously reported that Mark Tresman

considered benching Cutler when the team was trailing at halftime to the bucks in week 12 Cutler has continued to struggle since that game and now the decision has been made in a lost year for Chicago to move on from Cutler and start Claussen and obviously like I said the season they're not going anywhere this season but what

does this mean long term it obviously seems to be pointing toward the end of Jay Cutler in Chicago correct? It is. Last off season I did a study when I was doing a Matt Schaub post on franchise quarterbacks over the age of 30 who have been benched

in season. The lone exception is Kurt Warner as far as ever coming back and having sustained success as a franchise quarterback again. So out of 10 or 15 guys who were over 30 and were viewed as franchise quarterback, only one has come

back and reached a highlight. I mean, you're taking even beyond the bear's end of it, you're saying this is the sign at least going by the data that he's just done. Jay Cutler, this is now the long decline for a guy that just signed a massive contract. Yeah, I compare him some note to a guy like Jim Everett,

who was in a similar situation, had a big arm and big stats, but never won again after that. It seems like it's not just a physical thing with Cutler. It's, you know, he left Denver with some ill rapport going on with that coaching staff, and that was their franchise quarterback there, goes to Chicago, hasn't produced. You know, offensive coordinator, how many offensive coordinates he left in his dust? Ron Turner, Mike Martz, Mike Tice.

Right. And Aaron Kromer? And Mark Trussman got brought in chiefly because he was known as the, quote, quarterback whisperer. And that started off, promisingly enough last year, but it has been downhill since. And then we'll talk about the financial side of it. The Bears O Cutler, 15.5 million fully guaranteed next season as part of that seven-year deal. He signed in January. But Wes, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're tied to him really beyond that.

It doesn't. NFL media is Charlie Casserly, a former general manager for the Texans, and he worked for the Redskins. Explain this yesterday on our airwaves that the Bears can cut him and if another team signs him, which we expect that another team will sign him as the starter, they might not give him $15 million,

but if they give him $10 million, that counts against what the Bears will owe him. So they can cut him, and if it was $15 million, maybe they'll only owe him $5 million. And that financially, depending on where you are, salary cap-wise over the next, that may be worth it to them

if they want to completely start fresh. I mean, the other question is, does Tressman stick around? Does the GM stick around? But this is on the GM to have created this contract. And by the way, there's now most likely another team that's going to be the top 10 or 12 in the draft that will be looking for a quarterback. To me, Jimmy Clawson is not the answer. This is a stopgap guy. They're either going to try to find someone else and create.

To me, my opinion, is that Cuttler's done after a decision like this. I guess it could change with new management and new coaching. But it seems like Cutler's played his last game in Chicago, right? I think that's an important distinction. He's not getting benched for a first-round pick like Johnny Mansell. He's getting bench for Jimmy Clausen, who has already washed out of the league, and Mark and I saw him in an elevator with basically a beer gut how many months ago. Well, that was at the Super Bowl.

He probably didn't know he'd be starting for the Bears at this point. I hope he still has that beer gun. I hope he shows up on the field with a massive beer gun. That would be fun. I would enjoy it. Sure, that would be an interesting footnote to all of this. Yeah, so that is the big news of Week 16 and the end of the season. season. I mean, this is, it's going to be a chaotic offseason in Chicago, and this is the sign that

we're heading towards some crazy stuff in Shytown. All right, so that was a pretty wild news, but let's get to the real big story of week 16, and that is Thursday night football gentleman, Tennessee Titans against the Jacksonville Jaguars, this game being played in Jacksonville, and Mark, I think we don't need to get too caught up with this game, Mark and West. But what is the biggest thing to you that jumps out to you about what this game means I think a lot of people, I hear it all week long the rip in this game, but you know there is, if you're these two

two and 12 teams, you're operating in reverse order and your fan base at least is thinking about the draft and I think it's always an interesting dynamic these fans, they may want to lose this game because you could get set up very well the loser of this game to get the number one draft pick. That's not what how coaches

think, but fans certainly do at this point in the year. Titans are down to Charlie Whitehurst at quarterback. The only thing to root for in this game is the number one pick. Yeah, I mean, this game is more important to Titans fans than Jaguars fans. Which of these two teams is closer to turning around? I think the Jaguars, because I believe Blake Bortles can be their quarterback of the future and the Titans don't have a quarterback in the future.

And look for if the Jaguars were to end up with the first pick, they would be, unless there was somebody they were absolutely in love with it, number one, look for them to trade out of that pick because they have their quarterback or they believe they have him and clean up on some poor team using the Jets is an example, but certainly also the Tennessee Titans is an example, somebody that will trade up to get that one spot. So from an actual game perspective, there might not be that much to get excited about, but the game could have huge ramifications for the big picture of the NFL.

That's the best we can do. That's not bad, right? That was well orchestrated. Move on. All right, moving on. And we are going to move on to the mailbag, as I said, around the NFL listeners who are just amazing. I say it all the time.

Sometimes when I'm talking to friends at a bar or on the phone, some friends back home and I explain how passionate the fans are and I send the tweets and it's amazing how great you guys are. We appreciate you so much. And when I sent out a prompt for some questions for the mailbag, immediately roughly 6.4 million questions. Not accurate. But there were a lot and I sifted through them and I just picked a few

if you are chosen congratulations you are part of the around the NFL podcast forever and if you weren't chosen you know keep trying this will happen again well what Mark's really saying is be better that too let's start with Christopher

I don't know how to pronounce his name watchin but he's at sing for the day that's a nice Twitter handle I like that we here is the question we all know about the breakup songs list but what does Chris listen to when he's in a relationship I have very eclectic music taste.

I like jazz, folk, old country, rock and roll, hip-hop. But specifically, when Chris is in love and Wes and the birds are chirping ahead, overhead, what are you listening to? I have a list, I have a playlist on Spotify that I listen to. There's one called, if you want to look up my Spotify, there's one called Road Trip. There's one called Saturday in December. These are my go-to playlist. But is there one called I'm in love? No.

Well, that's the question. No. It's not like David Cassidy or anything like that. You're saying you can't program love. Is that the answer to this question? You don't know? That is a very deep way to put it, and I salute you. I can't match the depth that you brought earlier in the show today, but I do say that.

Moving on, this one from, you guys are putting me on the spot. Hakan, Ang, at Ang Hakkan, says, who? I don't know. He seems or she says. He seems like a very good person. Will we have the honor to see you guys at the 2015 Stockholm World Championships? Oh, without question. I mean, that's just like that will be there.

We've booked our hotels two years ago, actually. Is this like log spinning, caber tossing? What sport are we talking about here? I don't know. We'll be there, though. If you give us beer and food, pretzels and other things and put a roof over our head. Housing. Housing, we will be there.

It's a good nice dating pool Well for Wes For Mark and I Just a landline So we could reach our families And tell them that we love them Moving on this one from Damashek At Damashek

You might know him He is verified on Twitter Come on player What's that what's up with that This one was actually to me Do you feel it's a form of emotional abuse To make your young child a Jetsvan And it's a shot

Listen I get it It's a shot by Dave This was tied to me and handsome Hank, notorious programmer Hank, saying to me and him went back and forth about the dolphins and the Jets earlier today. He jumped in. Dave did. And I will say that being a Jet fan is horrible, but it builds character. But when my son was born, when Jack was born, and I did, I think I told you the story in the podcast,

when I got some Jets pajamas and stuff for him, it did cross my mind. Do I want to put him through this? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Ultimately, I said, I've got to take him along with me because otherwise, you know, that's empty and hollow. And what if the Jets became great? And my son missed out on that. So that's why I'm sticking with him.

Jack's being raised in L.A., and soon he will have his own team to root for. Well, that's something I need to battle, too. There are a lot of battles on that front. But, yes, I've thought about it, but he's going to be a Jets fan if I have something to do with it. Here's a good question to the group. Do you think Antonio Gates is a Hall of Famer? Yes.

I would agree with that. I don't know why I can't put myself in that club. I know that he last two seasons also. If he would have had, if he has one more great season, but he's kind of trailed off the last two years in a row. And I've never looked at him the way I look at like Gronk, even when he was at maybe at his apex. Gras the greatest tight end in history.

Potentially, yeah. But I don't see Gates is quite that player. Mind-blowing stat on Grunk? Yes. I believe he has 54 touchdowns. and 56 games it took Tony Gonzalez

twice as many games to get to that touchdown that's unbelievable and that's a guy that's had significant injury issues too Grok and he's overcome them and has never missed a beat I see Antonio Gates is better than Shannon Sharp

Yeah I guess you could say that That's fair Gates will probably get in Sometimes in these debates It's that oh people can think of Shannon Sharp being attached to these championship teams too and you're hard press sometimes if you're not in one of those teams

that had an Antonio, Antonio Gates moment in January. But he made a good point over the summer that basically I never played in college. I'm fresher than people realize my career is not over. I think he's looked that way this year. This one's from Mike at M-I-K-E-U-SK-A-F. That's a D-plus Twitter handle. You've got to clean that up. Clean that up, Mike.

But this is a good question. Which team makes the best half-time adjustments? I don't know, Patriots, who cares? The second part of the question I like better, which of you heroes is the best skier? Snow ski or water ski? I looked at it as snow skier, but I guess it could be water ski. Never snow skied in my life.

I did a lot of snow skiing growing up. You had some Colorado ties, too, didn't you mark? Never actually skied when I was in Colorado, but would ski in like the badlands of Vermont. But that was... We didn't know Vermont had badlands. We're talking 20, 30 years ago, so I mean, this is not a new hobby, so I wouldn't put myself in the running.

TD, you have an additional question? Read it out. Like you read the rest of it. Oh, look at that. From at producer TD. What's your favorite route concept? What a jerk. I like the wheel.

Moving on, this is from Kevin Brown, not the Surly Major League pitcher. This is at Cavillian, Kevin Brown. What's more likely? Mansell, I believe he's referring to Johnny Football. makes a Pro Bowl or is out of the league in two years. This is a good What's More Likely. Can we get a What's More Likely drop?

What's More Likely? Well, I would just say with the way quarterbacks are that I would go Pro Bowl. I don't think either are likely. But you don't see a first-round quarterback's disappearing out of the league in two years. If he's not in Cleveland, someone else is going to take a shot on him. You are out on Johnny Mansell. No, I'm not at all. You say it's unlikely he'll ever make a Pro Bowl.

That's what you just said. I said it's more likely that he'd get a Pro Bowl. Okay. I misheard you then. I apologize. Yeah, I don't think any quarterback, unless they are an undrafted nobody, is out of the league in two years. Yeah.

Even Brandon Whedon. Sure. Got another job. Cole McCoy's still floating around. Tim Tebow three years. Yeah. Tim Tebow, the one thing that's a little bit like Mansell is the high-octane, like, media factor involved, but Tebow...

Gamick offense. I would say that Manzell has some quarterback and gift. that Tebow does not. I agree with that. But he has been mentioned in the same breath with Tebow by critics. I am going to refrain from an answer on that one because I don't like either choice. Okay. That seems a little extremist.

It's a little extremist in the question asking if he asked me. Well, he said what's more likely. It's like saying what's going to happen. But, you know, listen, I think we're going to survive. We move on to Tom Marshall at Red Zona, UK. No, Tom Marshall's from the UK zone. Tommy. Oh, this isn't.

Pomey. Hello, Thomas. This isn't the guy who won 30 grand. Maybe. I assume at this point everyone is 1.30 grand off Fandul, except for us in this room. And by the way, I've gotten your tweets, everyone from overseas on Fanduel. I guess you have no access to it if you're not from the United States.

I don't know. Tough cookies. I didn't know that either until I started getting your tweets. It's a great service of that Fandul. This is from Tom Marshall. With the season end near, can you, and quote, fork the career of a player or two? Reggie Wayne and MJD for me, Tom says, and those seem like fair choices,

two guys once great players that seem... Sorry, to bring up Reggie Wayne, Wes, by the way. I apologize. I feel like I'm being evasive in this whole question and answer section, but I have always been philosophically opposed to fans and media telling a player when his career is done, so I don't want any part of this. I like Wes who just had hardcore opinions.

This softer version of Wes doesn't do it. I always thought this. I remember when sports players were telling Dan Marino to hang him up and I was like, who do you think you are? All right, put it this way. I'll rephrase the question. I said it downstairs. It's not over for you. Go to a farm and retire from football. It's a guy that was a great player or a very good player or was a highly tattered player. You now believe that maybe he's never going to be that guy again or never going to realize his potential. That's a different question. If you want to go from that angle, why not Trent Richardson? Okay. It's certainly fair. First round pick. Is that guy in the league next year? Yes. But I mean, I don't think any team can look at him at this point, whether it's the cults

or otherwise, as anything other than one of your rotational backs, maybe a backup. Do you want to put a high-octane sandwich on that? I think he gets cut next summer. Wait, and doesn't play in the league next year? I just got a bit of a Cessler. I would bet you a sandwich on that. I don't bet. It's just a wager.

I'll wager. Proposition, thank you. Yeah. He'll be in the league next year. I have an answer now that you rephrase the question. Andre Johnson Okay Has clearly been bypassed by DeAndre Hopkins

I believe Hopkins has the greatest percent of his teams receiving yards of any receiver in the league But has The one thing I'll say about Johnson I'm not sure that he's all the way in Mentally there either

Oh, I think he is Yeah Mine would be West Welker The Broncos I think that this is something Maybe over the past two years We've seen because he's had the health issues But he's become a human six-yard gain receiver

which would be great for Trent Richardson He catches it He's dumped That's twice as T-rich He catches it And he just seems to be He can't shed anybody anymore It has no real acceleration

So I think Welker We've seen the best of Welker And I don't know what his future holds So that is that question Wes, sorry to get so negative This one kind of I'll look toward the glass on this one From Tom at Budgie is here

Why aren't there more gold standard cameos TD? Well, you know It's a whole production team we have back here, and Goldstander is a busy man, very bright young man, working on some great things. And he comes up here when he can. And we have a whole team, though.

It's not just GoStand. We have Z. Drizzle. We have Rob C. We have, you know, social media Mike. Kay Rich, you know, so we've got a whole team. But he's busy working on some good things, and hopefully we'll be back here. You know me.

I love my days off. So we know. Since we're here, TD, one more toward you, Adam Thompson. Thompson, A, 2006. I like this part of it. the show. Odds that Megatron averages eight TDs over the next two games to make Black Tye look like a genius. Black Tye, of course, predicted 25 touchdowns for Calvin Johnson.

I'm crazy for predicting that the best wide receiver of our generation was going to have a career year and break records. No, a historic year, yeah. You got it wrong. I'm sorry, dude. It's over. Does Matthew Stafford even have 25 TDs? I don't think it does. This one from...

That injury, though. A couple more from Mitch. Who do you consider better at their respective position? or Rogers. Real quick, guys. Watt, he's the best at any position. I'll go Rogers because I think that's the hardest position in sports. Is he saying compared to his peers?

Yeah, at the position. Yeah, I think that's what. And finally, Sam Brown at Mr. Sam Brown. Mark, this is for you. And you've got to be honest. We're in the trust tree. Have the Cleveland Browns ever made you shed a tear? Yes.

Specifically. uh not the drive you're a factory of sadness you know that'll be fine after the fumble i was in seventh grade when the fumble happened and i could not quite comprehend that it was real and there were rumors the next day that the refs were going to reverse some call and it didn't that was just garbage didn't happen i was uh probably 12 and you cried yeah yeah i got very emotional when uh when game five at the kingdom and 95 when Don Mattingley's career ended. I remember going on a long walk as a 15-year-old boy

knowing that I would never see my hero play again. That was the only time I've ever truly felt like I was on the edge. But I don't know if I ever sobbed over it. Well, I'm a more emotional person than you do. You are an emotional guy. You're going to make me cry. Donnie ball game. All right, that's it for, thank you again for everyone sending your questions.

That's Wednesday's edition of the Around the NFL podcast. We will be back. on Thursday where we'll break down that powerhouse Thursday night game and then get into all the Sunday action and I'm sure dig in a little bit more on the Jay Cutler situation, which is pretty wild. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the boss, and TD behind the glass. This is an IHeart podcast.