NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Mack Trade, Season Superlatives FROM LONDON

Episode Date: September 3, 2018

A boat filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler & Chris Wesseling – detail their first day in London (1:20)! While floating down the River Thames, the heroes discuss the Raiders most recent moves, including the blockbuster Khalil Mack trade (4:25), parting ways with Martavis Bryant (15:00) and acquiring AJ McCarron from the Bills (17:30). The heroes then converse about Jerick McKinnon’s season-ending injury (18:50), Nick Foles starting against the Falcons (21:00), noteworthy players that were cut (23:20) and finally, season superlatives (32:30).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Workforce Innovation that works. The Around the NFL podcast is in the UK at last. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast from London. My name is Dan Hanses and I'm joined in a boat filled with heroes. Mark Sessler. Chris Wesley and Greg Rosentball. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan.

We made it. Cheerio. But filled with a couple of poor passes. It just turned around and it's like what is happening in our boat. I'm sorry, people. I'm sorry. Yeah, we are on a tour boat on the freshwater river Thames. There's about five other people on this massive boat and they had no idea that this was in store for their ride.

A total screw job, let's be honest, for all of those people. But we are here. We finally have made it. London. Yes, I did get my passport. Yes, we all made the plane. We made the flight. And 10, 10 and a half hours later, we landed. That's our friend Stephanie. Hey, Steph. Keep it down. And now we are a little bit jet lagged, but alive and well on the River Thames, bringing you the Around the NFL podcast from London. You guys are excited, right? I love it. This, the Architecture on the river is fantastic.

All the buildings, a mix of old and new, the history. The history is rich. Everyone's always killing London and England about the weather. We've gotten so far what feels like, what do you call it yesterday, the Southern California of Europe? People call this the Burbank of Europe. You do. I've not heard a single other person call it that. Yeah, very nice weather, cannot complain.

Everything is set up well for a great week. And, of course, tomorrow, Tuesday is our live show. from the Curtin Club in London. And if you are lucky enough to have tickets, we can't wait to see you there. And if you didn't get tickets, maybe just show up anyway and we'll let you like walk over some shadowy league figures to get into the venue.

No, not allowed. I got a shadow league finger shaking his head at me right now. But after the show, maybe we'll meet up at another place nearby if you aren't able to make the show. So that's coming up Tuesday. We'll tweet out info on that. Whatever it is, it'll be relatively close. to that bar. We do continually promise that we're going to be tweeting out info and nothing

has been tweeted at all. People continue to address that. Yes. And then we'll be doing some stuff with Sky Sports. And of course, we're doing three shows as we lead up to week one. The kickoff on Thursday between the Eagles and the Falcons. And speaking of the Eagles, we're about to get into some news right now. Their quarterback situation will come up. But before we get to that, my goodness, One of the biggest trades in recent memory went down. Hey, loose cannon. What's up, Dan? What's up?

I'm just sitting on the floor over here on this boat. Yeah, you are. I was going to say you're sitting Indian style, but they don't say that the schools anymore. It's called applesauce. Chris Cross Applesauce. Chris Cross Apple sauce. What the kids say.

Yeah, that's true. That's new to me. That's the way it is now. Mark, you know that too as well. I was aware of that. I have small children that go to school. Wes, you went to elementary school along with me about four. 45 years ago, so we did not know that.

They didn't call it then back then. So, Lewis Cannon, why don't we do some news? Let's do it. You definitely get a hard worker, a guy that's going to come in and be a great teammate. And that's the two most important things that you can pretty much say at this point for me. I'm going to come in and be a hard worker,

and I'm going to try to lead by example and be a great teammate. And everything on the field is going to take your head. It's up, baby. All right. Oh, my goodness. Khalil Mack, it was the standoff between the Raiders and the star pass rusher that was going nowhere. The two sides weren't communicating. And the Raiders make a bombshell decision to trade their star defender, the 2016 defensive player of the year, to the Chicago Bears. My goodness, for two first round picks.

The Bears also get a second round pick, I believe. Is that correct? That's right. Yes. And the Chicago Bears now have Colleen. The Raiders got a second round pick in return, yes. Right. The Bears now have Khalil Mack on their front seven, and the Raiders fans are left scratching their head.

Wes, this is a bombshell trade. How does it change the Chicago Bears' fortunes in 2017? Well, I think most people looked at. And even 2018. Yeah, most people thought Edrusher was the big issue there. Leonard Floyd's coming off an injury. Even if you think that Aaron Lynch was a nice signing, reuniting with Vic Pongio. Spongi, y'all.

Hasn't practiced at all, yeah. I thought there were weeks last year where this Bears defense looked like one of the best defenses in the NFL. And if you add a healthy Leonard Floyd and Cleol Mack and then bring in Roquant Smith, this could be one of the best front sevens out there. It starts to remind you a little bit of the early makings of what Vic Finns. had in San Francisco and they've had every layer they've got they've got interesting talent of players this boat's going faster right now fuller but's going a little too fast right now i love it i love that vic fangio is like the perfect answer for colio i mean the perfect scheme

for calio mac i think people that like it can't go too wrong this trade for chicago like maybe you don't get an exceptional value because you're giving up two first round picks you gave up all those picks for Chubisky, but you know what you're getting. Like it almost seems. A Hall of Fame player and his prime. Right. It seems like a total, full-proof way because Mack should be better. It's a better coordinator than he's ever had in Oakland.

And it's better teammates than he ever had in Oakland, not just up front, but their secondary looks really good this year on paper, and Mukumara, and Fuller had a good offseason. I like their safeties. So those are guys that can cover longer, give more time for Mack to get to them. And it's just another reminder. or Ryan Pace, their general manager, he's sort of in an all-in mode right now. I don't know if it's to save his job or not or if it's just while Trubisky's on his

rookie contract, but it's like there's no more, hey, let's win six or seven games. That would be a nice improvement story. This is a team that's trying to go to the playoffs right now. I think another big winner is Matt Neggi. I mean, you come in and you thought, well, this is the guy that's going to come in and take Mitch Trubisky and maximize the quarterback position, but suddenly your defense is becoming a strength in a division where you're going to deal with Aaron Rogers, right out of the gate in week one.

You're going to play them twice a year, Matthew Stafford, the rest of that division, Kirk Cousins, you've now got the one guy that all three of them have to deal with. Makes them juicy. They're very exciting. In fact, I mean, I don't know, maybe we'll wait for the live show to discuss this formally, but a team of ATN consideration, I think now you have to look at the Bears team on the rise now with a stud in Khalil Mack who they just made the highest paid defensive player ever, got that deal done immediately.

everything is positive and fun and exciting about the Bears and when's the last time you could say that? The only reason I didn't nominate them on the last show is because I figured one of you guys would. All right. They've been such a trendy team. Let's stick a pin in that, though, and we'll get to it on Tuesday.

Now the Raiders side of this trade, it's, you know, it's wild. And if you're a Raiders fan, you're trying to figure out how this could have happened, and I get it because it always felt like to me that this was just a, they were doing the seductive dance that happens a lot. in the summer between star player and team and eventually they get the deal done.

And instead, John Gruden didn't blink and Gruden spoke about why he made, he made the decision. And let's be honest, he made this decision. Poor Reggie McKenzie. Poor Reggie. Well, you know, I mean, let's listen first to what John Gruden had to say why they made the decision to trade their best defensive player, their best player.

People are trying to divide us. And I wanted him gone. He wanted them here. You know, we made a decision as an organization. Mark Davis, Tom Delaney, we all got the information, and we made a decision together. You know, it wasn't my goal to trade Khalil when we got here. One of the reasons I'm here is because of him. Unfortunately, we had a standoff with a contract, and we could not come to terms.

And the Bears made us an offer, two first-round draft choices, and here we are today. I mean, we've been talking all offseason, wondering what's going on in Oakland between John Gruden and Reggie McKenzie. And while that quote tries to sell us on the idea that they're part and parcel, that they're of the same mind that they came up with this trade together, when they asked Gruden, so why did you include, why did you like want the second round pick and all this stuff and the machinations of the deal? He basically said, well, that wasn't up to me. I had nothing to do with it. It was Reggie McKenzie. It's like he was kind of dishing the whole thing off on McKenzie. when it got uncomfortable.

And didn't we see this from Gruden in the old days after the Super Bowl win where he'd find sometimes the blame game would come out with him. That's what happened in Tampa. But he blames the players. I mean, to me, he blames the players usually, like they somehow weren't good enough. And this, to me, felt like such a strange move that they almost were choreographing from the beginning. I guess there was some hesitation, and Gruden alluded to this to, okay, if you pay Derek Carr 25, $26 million a year, and you pay MAC $25 million a year, whatever it's going to be.

22 million here. Do you want to have $47 million of your salary cap in two players? It's a fair question to ask, but I still think that the answer is yes. Good team say yes. Right. If you're lucky enough to draft a Hall of Fame caliber talent like Khalil Mack, you can figure the rest out. Because think of the money that they spent this offseason $25, $30, $40 million in terms of free agents, and you add some of those players up. don't really amount to that much to me. I'd rather have one Kaleo Mack. Yeah, absolutely.

And I wonder if this is like a perfect storm type situation. I can't see any other franchise in the NFL making this move. It feels like something out of the 1990s Bengals where you, money, it was an obstacle here. And for most teams in the NFL, money really is it. People say that, that it's somehow maybe like a cash flow problem for Mark Davis. I'm not sure if I buy that, considering the amount of cash that they've spent all off-season. I mean, they spent a ton of money all off-season. But then their priorities

are heavily out of whack if they've been spending money on, I think, some questionable free agents and putting money in other places and letting Max live out the door. Two weeks ago, there was, I wrote this trade piece suggesting that he could be someone that might be traded if things got ugly. And Raiders fans came out of the woodwork understandably to say, you're insane.

This will never happen. The night before the trade went down, Raiders fans were so in the aisle. They're the big losers in this. I think the honeymoon's over for this. It's our already was over with the national media and Gruden and I think for fans now this is this is going to be on

their radar. Good teams say yes. You shouldn't discount getting two first round picks. I know you have to give back a second, another third is coming back. That is significant but it says to me that like they're thinking about the future. Yeah, I tweeted about that back in 2000 the Jets got two first rounders for Kishon Josson and they turned that

into real talent that made them a contender for about a decade. But Raiders fans came back at me and Twitter said yeah, but you had Bill Parcell's helping to make those picks. They don't trust what's going on in that front office. The last thing I'll say is Gruden seems to have this old school mentality in a lot of ways and like sending a message by being the new boss and sending away your star player and saying, I'm the boss here. Maybe it's some sort of message to the rest of the players. That to me streams old school and it seems

Anthony. All right. The boat is stopped. Is the boat, is it over? Anthony. No, we're over. We've got a ways to go. So Anthony is a photographer. Is it Anthony? or Anthony? Anthony, come on the mic. All right. Can you tell us something? What are you, a rookie?

Anthony is one of those guys that knows everything and he's given us a lot of good information so far about London when we were outside taking photos and tell us a little bit

about the history of the River Tame. Blimey. How long have we got? Blimey. A two-minute version. No. So we are on the title

part of the Thames which means the River Thames enters the North Sea from here and the gateway to Europe. Are we in danger? No, not yet. Okay. And we are basically on the east side of the London, which during the days when Great Britain was a big trading nation,

this is where all the goods came from around the world to Europe. That's what I'm talking about. Anthony knows everything. And we've actually stopped by the North Greenwich Pier for the O2, which was the Millennium Dome, which for the turn of the century, millennium, that's where the big celebration was. And directly above us is the cable car, which was specially built for tourists to come to the dome. Have any of those ever slipped off the cable right into the water? be my concern riding on that.

No. This is Great Britain, where we do things great. There you go. Anthony, maybe we'll check in with you a little later in the show. Always. Wealth of information. One of many British guests we have surprising you guys for this show. We have some royals coming up.

Andy Murray. The Prince Harry baby. Those are the only British people I know. NFUK. Hank. All right. In other Raiders news, what a crazy day for the Raiders. So they trade one of their best players ever. And then they cut Martavis Brian.

And this is another black guy for the Gruden regime because they gave up a, not a premium draft pick, but a solid mid-round draft pick to bring Martavis Bryant from the Steelers. And with a suspension looming, and it would be another, I think it would be his third and an indefinite one that could knock him out of the league forever, Martavis Bryant with that looming is cut. The Raiders say that has nothing to do with the decision, but I do not believe that. I mean, how do you come out of that saying and it's nothing to do with the decision? This comes days after they moved on from Ryan Switzer, who they acquired earlier in the offseason, too.

It's hard to decipher a roadmap in Oakland at all, and every time Gruden speaks, I become almost more confused. It's almost as if when one of the best organizations in the league, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are desperately just trying to get rid of an extremely talented player who, who's had multiple suspensions that maybe you shouldn't pick up the phone and give them a good pick for it yeah this is that was a kick-in-a-teeth day for especially Oakland fans the fans that have been there for years and and to know that your last year there is going to be just a flat-out rebuild and last few years you're you're acquiring players you mentioned mark ryan switzer you traded for him you traded for martavis Bryant they're both gone before they even play a game I just wonder what

Let's say Oakland were on Monday night football in week one, and Gruden were still the Monday night football announcer. Okay, well, let's say if he were still in his previous job. What would he say about, let's say another coach had done everything that he had done this offseason? What would his analysis be? I cannot imagine when he took this job. He thought this would be the next six months ahead. He'd probably be fake positive about it.

He probably would say it'd be great since he's fake positive about everything. It comes down to those two picks, but one of them was already Khalil Mack. That was your home run. You just think of what the Steelers got for Martavis Bryant. dumped a guy and instead of having this headache who is now out of the league perhaps forever, they have a four-year contract for James Washington, who's a not a similar player in some ways, skill set-wise, for like what, a total of $2 million. That's how good organizations stay good.

They have James Washington for four years while the Raiders just have a huge cap hit. But don't worry, Raiders fans and anybody else that's saying, oh, Oakland's not going to compete this year because A.J. McCarran's in the building. John Gruden said a few days ago that he was not He didn't know if his backup quarterback was on the roster Well, he sends a sixth round pick to the Buffalo Bills Who very quickly decided that AJ McCarron was not part of their future Speaking of hints, other teams should be giving you

And now McCarran is the number two to Derek Carr So that is a flurry of activity for the Raiders They wiped out E.J. Manuel, they got rid of Connor Cook That was that was Gruden's decision at the end of the preseason And now you're bringing in a backup who has been with the team for hours and doesn't know the playbook yet, and you just got to hope something doesn't happen to Derek Carr. And you have a suspension for Darrell Worley, another guy that they brought in, like their first-round pick from a couple years ago, Carl Joseph, isn't starting. It's just,

it's so much to the point where I think Raiders fans might feel differently, but to me, expectations should be extremely low. In a league that feels pretty balanced overall, I feel like the Raiders are in the bottom five. Never forget the Browns tried to get A.G. McCarran for a second and third-round draft pick. It's, it's, and in, in, while they were critiqued, because the whole thing fell through to, to technical issues. No, they should have been critiquing him for wanting to give up that much for a lot of things to critique there. And it's like the luckiest thing that happened to that team. Moving on, terrible news for the 49ers and running back Jarek McKinnon.

During a practice, he, he cuts, he goes down in a heap, the team feared. It was a potential ligament tear, and it was a torn ACL that ends McKinman's first year. year with San Francisco, Derek McKinnon, Greg, who was signed to a rich contract to come to come to San Francisco from Minnesota and be like a centerpiece for them. And now he's gone before the season even starts. That's pretty crushing. It is. It's going to be $11.5 million that he'll make this year and he won't wind up when to play. John Lynch has paid a lot of money to guys who haven't contributed much. They cut a guy, Jeremiah Atachu, who got three and a half million guaranteed this year. He didn't even make the team. Lynch has been sneaky on

my raider for spending a lot of money on guys that don't help mckinin was just bad talking so fast it was bad luck but it also was a case where they gave him a lot of money and then he tried to rush his way back on the field which you just feel bad because he was coming back from a knee injury you could tell he was trying to get back from week one he probably came back too early to practice and now they'll probably be starting alfred morris uh... 2012 all over again the funny thing is i don't know if they're that much worse with that i mean alfred morris looked pretty good last year in my mind i had already I already assumed as soon as they signed Alfred Morris and he looked so good in that first game. And then you look at his history with Kyle Shanahan, back with the Redskins.

Those were his best years. And it already looked like Alfa was going to play a big role, whether McKinnon was healthy or not. But it's disappointing that a guy that Kyle Shanahan, who's really good at this stuff, targeted him for mismatch purposes in the passing game. And maybe Matt Brita can do some of that, but not all of it. Yeah, you were left to wonder what Shannon could have do because I could have done with him because he obviously had big plans. And I was thinking just a couple days before this happened, I didn't speak on it because that's how you jinx these things. And perhaps I did it anyway.

You're the reason this happened. It all comes back to Dan. Yeah, a preseason and a summer. It's about me where we haven't had a ton of or, you know, too many notable ACL things, which is always the worst part of this time of year. But McKinney got bang there. Let's move on. By the way, early winners and losers in this podcast,

You and I right now in the Losers category, we have a bright sun shining on our faces and skulls. Well, these Greg and Wes are nicely shrouded in the shade over here. Yeah, I didn't even know it was an issue. You know, we needed to light it up a little bit for the video. You guys are a little bit in darkness, and now we're going to open up this one too. Wow, rough situation. Still mostly on you guys. We haven't moved.

The boat's been docked for about 15 minutes now. Perhaps that's a good thing. Finally, in the news, Nick Folles expected to start week one, that from Rapsheet for the Eagles. So Carson Wentz, as we had kind of all suspected, they were going to play this safe. And safe also means smart. They're not going to rush Wince back to action. So it will likely, or is Nick Foles, who will be playing against the Falcons on Thursday night. How much, Mark?

Well, you're a big preseason guy. We all know that. You take a lot out of it. I am not. And Nick Bowles was a bit of a nightmare, let's face it, in the preseason. But the last time he played a game that counted, he basically didn't blink against Tom Brady and won the Super Bowl. You think the Eagles are going to be okay here? Well, I look more like the long term.

I mean, it's not great to have this situation against the Falcons on Thursday night with Alshan Jeffery. Still a situation. And you got a couple guys out for the Eagles. But this is a team that I trust long term this season. And I think we forget how long the seasons are, that if you need to put Foles in the there for a couple weeks, that you absolutely don't rush Carson Wentz back before he's ready to go. I wonder how many times the Super Bowl champion has been the underdog in the NFL kickoff game. They're not, though.

I would pick the Falcons in this game, and I would do it confidently. Desert people say otherwise, and Greg would know. No, but you're going from the two football team angle. I agree with you. I agree. I think most people wind up picking the Falcons in that game. Maybe we all will on Tuesday night if we're going to pick that game. I agree with you.

I love the Falcons coming into this season. But maybe that's, like, what Nick Foles likes. Like, every time that, you know, when we assume Nick Folls had last year. Maybe he just had two good games and we think too deeply about this stuff. He had a great season. And people forget, he's had some ups in his career. I mean, he had a great year. No, I mean, in 2014, when 26 touchdowns in an interception.

All right. And last thing, before we close the news, it was cut down weekend as teams look to get to the final 53-man roster. And this is a tough time. on the calendar, so let's go through some notable names that jumped out to you guys that maybe surprised you. Mark Sessler will start with you. How about Dan Bailey getting cut by the Cowboys? Second most accurate kicker in the most surprising one, I think. I got kicker corner. I was excited to bring up Dan Bailey, Mark. I will say nothing else. I'll allow you to say to add to that comment. It's going to be in Dan's next, actually all of our next contracts that we're not

even allowed to speak on kickers anymore. Dan Bailey, a surprise cut. He was making good money for Dallas and maybe that was behind it or maybe this why don't you tell us where he's working out this week for the new york jets which make a lot of sense because the jets have a lot of anxiety about who their kicker is going to be after they let chanler canisero sign with the buck so yeah he's working out another name that jumps out if we want to say on the kicker corner robbie iguio didn't make it yeah tough tough he didn't make it uh what jumped out to you great paxton lynch not that it was a surprise but just that it came a day later than the original initial cuts, you know, were announced, and the fact that they're replacing him with Kevin

Hogan is like a bit of a kick in the teeth on your way out. Does John Elway assess that Kevin Hogan gives them a better chance to win than Paxton Lynch? Not that either do, but it's like, really? That's damning. Who else? Tom Savage is now out of the league. That does not surprise me.

That doesn't surprise me. You know what stuck out to me, though, is Terrence Newman retired at 40. So that wasn't a cut, but I think you can probably surmise. that he was not going to make the team. And they, you know, decided to have a conversation with him. That is a guy just an under the radar, great player for the Bengals and Vikings, that he made it to age 40 as a super undersized cornerback. And it just happened to be a really deep cornerback room there in Minnesota right now

and some injuries I think maybe squeezed him out. But it's an incredible career. How about the state of Corey Coleman's career right now? He's basically Justin Gilbert. A first round pick from the Browns who his attitude was questioned throughout his stay has no value left at all just a couple years after he was drafted. He hasn't had any lower body injuries. He obviously has to have incredible raw ability to be a first round pick, even if he shouldn't have been that high. Where is that?

Is that just not on display? It's baffling to me that a Buffalo team, I'm not saying they made the wrong decision, that they wouldn't just hold on to the guy and try to cultivate him. but there must be nothing to work with it. They must have not been happily surprised with him. Whether it's desire or, you know, there was talk about ability to, you know, pick up the playbook, stuff like that. They did make the wrong decision to trade for him. I mean, the seventh round pick whatever, but they're actually, he has like $3 million on their cap this year. I mean, they get to give him money.

The Martavis Bryant deal almost like took the heat off of the bills for that because it was so bad, but that was pretty ugly. Bad news for Spice Rack, Jonathan Williams, surprise cut by the Saints. Another surprise, not really surprised, but another first round pick, along with Lynch that got whack, Rashad Perriman, who ends what was really a deeply disappointing a couple of years with the Ravens. Now working out for the Jets. Now maybe their worst first round pick ever. Matt Elam and him would be. And they struggled to draft wideouts in general throughout Ozzy Newsom's history.

There were two surprises to me, it's not like headline news, but Landry Jones and Davis Webb were guys that the cognizanti Nice. Doing that right. But everyone thought that they would be a backup. In fact, I saw some Steelers writers essentially call fans and, you know, idiots for suggesting that Landry Jones would be on the waiver wire because that's Ben's guy and Ben wanted him to be. And it's like, yeah, Ben's not making the personnel decision. So but that and Davis, well, a third on pick from a year ago for the giant. I think one hard knocks battle that we were told would lead to one of two players getting cut between Nate Orchard and Carl Nassib. NASA, the star of Hard Knocks, both are gone.

Spoiler line. And along with Devin Kajus. Juice. So all three of them out of the door. How dare you? This is really the first move by this new Browns regime in John Dorothy that I can't get behind. Like you can't just put Kajoust on your week one roster to make people happy. Well, once you saw the rocks and the stones and stuff, it was time to move on.

You want to cut him in week two? Well, if you gets his guaranteed money for the year, yeah. I just think for the Hard Knocks story of all of it all, like you're not going anywhere. Cleveland this year. Let's just make get America behind you. And lastly And now, another edition of keeping up a Boeing. Mo Berringer released by the Bengals

Mark. He just, he won't, he can't seem to stick. Well, now he's been released as a wide receiver and also a tight end where he was trying to make a career shift in Cincinnati. Has he ever come close to making a roster well don't tell henry he hasn't and that was another addition of keeping up with bow all right gentlemen that's what's happening in the news oh one

Antonio gates still in the league signed with the chargers how about that didn't want to go through training camp or preseason I like that you got the sense from the chargers just reading between the lines their front office they were almost like a little a annoyed by how long Antonio Gates didn't want to come into camp because I was there at one of the camp practices in a fan yelled out to their general manager, Tom, so let's go like, where's Antonio? Bring Antonio back. And he made kind of a comment just like, yeah, we're waiting. We're waiting to, or something to that effect. Yeah, so Gates comes in there. Hunter Henry, by the way, not placed on IR. He's placed on the Pupp list. So I don't know, make. that make of that what you will i don't know but he's not on the r i are yeah if they're in playoff contention he might be able to return in late december or january okay gentlemen here we are we're still on the boat um might be here all day what did you think about the uh

calil mac trade the where mack traded to the bears your thoughts i haven't got a scooby-doo. that's good analysis as well i finally found something you didn't know about that's a drop We go. All right. So, the season is three days away. I don't even know what day it is anymore. What is today? Monday?

Oh, it's Monday. Rough. Rough Monday. I mean, it's all the people walk to work today. It's a sunny, beautiful day in London. You're on a tour boat. We're highly annoying customers here. Yeah, so with week one upon us, we thought, and here in beautiful London, and it is beautiful,

and people have been friendly, and our hotel is nice, and the whole. hotel bar is great and there's what's the name of the game it's not billiards it's not pool snooker snooker which fascinating to me it's a the balls are small history of snooker please snooker not snooker it seems like a very sorry anthony it seems like a a royal game the balls are a little smaller uh you call them soft i don't know i just like maybe i like the eight ball being involved? Well, you and our producer, Todd Metcalf got into a, you and Todd got into it last night. Well, we're hitting another very, it's not a secret where we're going on Friday, right?

Another very British sport taping at the cricket match. Who's the opponents? England versus India. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good. It's a rivalry going back here. It's giving me a little bit of a background on that. It's going to be fierce.

It's either going to be a deciding game or the next team will be pulling. playing or England's playing the next game? Yeah, I've heard it's sort of like just talking to the people around here. It's like the Jaguars Titans of Europe. It's just like it really goes back. A lot of tough, a lot of feelings back and forth. Hold that thought, guys. We have more words from sponsors.

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can design and install us a cure smart home just for you. All right, so with the season upon us and being here in beautiful London, England, let's preview, throw out some season preview, kind of storylines, narratives, things that we're seeing out there. And Greg, I'd like you to get, you nervous? Are you nervous? No, I'm ready.

I'm ready for these superlatives, I thought, or award. These are superlatives. That's what I believe they were, too. All right, good. Some superlatives. All right. Greg Rosenthal. Well, this is the Robbie Williams slash Be Here Now by Oasis Award for failing to follow up, like, on a big hit.

And I would say there's a few candidates. The Jaguars and the Vikings are two candidates, but I'm going to give the Pittsburgh Steelers this award. Even though on paper, the offense should be terrific, I think the division is deeper. I don't think the AFC-NFC imbalance is going to be nearly as bad as people. I think there's more bad teams in the AFC, but I think there's enough good teams between the AFC North. I think the Jaguars and the Titans and Texans are all going to be very competitive. that you're going to need 10 or 11 wins to make it. And there's just something in the fact that this team has been better.

I've been together long enough, and they haven't gotten over the hump. And if you look at, especially in Mike Tomlin's run, they've had a hard time kind of avoiding those occasional nine and seven type years where they disappoint. And the defense, especially in the secondary, has me worried. And I think they're going to struggle to follow up. I think the Vikings and Jaguars are two other candidates for this. But it always happens that there has to be one disappointing team.

I'll go with the Steelers. Well, while we're on the Steelers, maybe we should give out the Big Ben Award to Big Ben. Big Ben. That's confusing. The monument here under construction, you know, a little bit dilapidated. This is so funny, by the way, because you took my exact thing. Big Ben under construction motif, so run with it.

Yeah, but it's going to come back more beautiful than ever. And Ben can't move the way he used to. He's not making magic happen in the pocket the way he used to. There's probably an injury at some point in October or November. going to have to grind through by January, it's going to come out looking as good as new Steelers. Deep playoff run, the Big Ben Award, Big Ben. My Big Ben related scenario was under construction. Nailed it, just like you. But the teams that are like we're not able to see Big Ben on this trip, which is actually

called what, Anthony? Elizabeth Tower. Did you know that? I did not know that. Well, no, that information is unknown in the States. Big Ben is the bad. And don't, is Elizabeth Tower. And don't you dare call Tower Bridge London Bridge, like a lot of, like a lot of American

rooomkeys. We know. Yeah, we know, we see you. It is not London. The actual bridge, the fame bridge is Tower Bridge. Learn that from Anthony as well. All right. Anyway.

We got some hot picks under that, by the way, today. Don't worry, like if you're worried that not enough of this trip's being documented. minute. We have a picture for every moment. We're actually taking a picture is right now. Wait, let's stay on the Steelers, actually, before we get into more big Ben talk. So you think the Steelers are ready to come down a little bit. I do. Yeah. I think, as Anthony shows us, some beautiful pictures under Tower Bridge. Yeah, I do. I just, I mean, it's a, it's just like a gut feeling that kind of this team, Levy on Bells last year, and Tony around, there's a lot of personalities and we've seen that and I can just see like when the going gets tough here there are always a team that has some sort of drama during the year and maybe this is the year they can't let me ask you this if this plays out the way that you believe you think Mike Tomlin will be out the door along with Levi on Bell after this season that's a very different Steelers team going forward I mean you're essentially predicting doom for a team that might be the best team in the AFC if they went nine and seven with the Rooney's keep Mike Tomlin I think they kind of would because that's just what they do it probably depends on the

level of struggle that they have. What that season looks like. Greg, nine and a half wins over and under. I'm going to go under. Wow. So you really seem to go. I'm going to go push. They are going to win nine and a half games.

Wow. See, that would actually change reality, just in general. Dan, I get the sense that you feel like we've suddenly turned too negative on the Steelers. I think so. That would be my feeling that the Steelers are ready to, I think they're kind of, the window is maybe closing on the Big Ben era, but I think maybe there's a year. but I think maybe there's a year left. I see them as like an 11-win team still.

They're too talented to be like a huge disappointment, I think. I agree with you. And they're not the team. I hear you, Greg, that they have the letdown season every once in a while. But not with this cast right here with Antonio Brown, Levi, on Bell, and Ben Rothsburger. That's not been the case with these guys. So it would be a first.

Juju could be a star too. They've got so much talent. All right. I'm going to ditch my Big Ben thing. I got a superlative for you. Unless you want to throw a second one in I haven't done one yet Throw a first one in

I'm confused I feel like you've talked about five things at this point Yeah well I have There's a lot of talking going on today's podcast I'm going to throw out Actually why don't you go Mark You seem excited I would be happy to

Go ahead I'd be happy to I mean you know here We're here in England in London And a lot of people talk about Prince Harry And Megan Markle as one of the great young couples here Really on trend here I love it Well I'm trying to follow what you guys said I actually put that up on the fly.

But I will say this, the cutest couple in the NFL this season is Jets, General Manager Mike McCagnan, and rookie quarterback Sam Darnold in my book. I'll tell you why, because I think this season is going to look a lot different. If we want to talk about the Pittsburghs of the worlds and the changing of the guard, this crop of rookie quarterbacks for me makes this entire campaign interesting. We have new quarterbacks to look at. It's not the same cast of characters. And Darnold's the one guy that have out of this whole group, this team believes it's fan,

Base believes. Jets fans, am I wrong? They are in love with Sam Darnold. And I think no matter what he even does this year, they just see him as their savior. And he doesn't need to go out and win 10 games. It's about him growing as a quarterback. And he essentially has probably saved Mike McAgnon's job. Saved Mike McAgnon's job as a piercing screech comes in over the boat. Airweds. If he does not hit as a quarterback, it will cost Mike McAgnon's job. Isn't it a little surprising. I was thinking about this the other day that in today's NFL, in this quarterback rich draft where there were five guys taken in round one, only one starting week one. Yeah. It's just Arnold. That's sort of like a case-by-case basis, right? Because

Cleveland is adamant that Tyrod Taylor is going to start. In most years, the team picking number one overall isn't trading for a veteran and installing him right there at the top. And then the Cardinals had already gone out and gotten Sam Bradford, who they brought in specifically to run that offense. It's like last year we were all worried that Tom Savage was starting in week one. Ultimately, like, I picked Baker Mayfield to win rookie of the year on our predictions for the season. And I, like, I don't know how that's going to happen. I'm just figuring at some, whether it's injury or the bounds are losing or they just want him in there, he'll find a way into the starting lineup by week five or six. And that, to me, is long enough to win rookie the year.

For him to win rookie of the year, he'd have to be in there in the first four or five games at the latest, right? Yeah, I mean, you could, you could start ten. If you, if you started 10 games and you look great, you can win a rookie year. Vince Young did it, certainly. I picked Sam Darnold to win because I think, barring total disaster injury, they're going to keep them in there for 16 games no matter what it looks like. They have to, right? They cannot yank him

due to tough weather in October November. A week is a long time during an NFL season. It's a soap opera. That narrative can change so much over one or two bad games by Tyrod Taylor. Well, exactly with Tyrod Taylor, but with Darnel, I think they cannot blow him up by pulling up. I think

if, A, obviously, if he was hurt, but B, if he was so lost that they felt like they needed to get him out of the heat. But I don't, everything that I've seen from him thus far tells me that he might not set the world on fire immediately. But I think he's going to be steady. I think I really have a very good feeling about him. And I think, Wes, we talked about it at the airport bar before we got on the plane yesterday. Oh, yes, you did. This is like a great time to be a jet span in terms of the optimism angle. Like, it's a lot to be excited about.

You know it reminds me of the 49ers last December. There's nothing more uplifting in sports than having a young savior with a world of possibilities in the future. You have no idea what Sam Darnold's career could look like, but you can sit and dream about a Hall of Fame and, you know, back to the promised land. This is all within the realm of possibility. Dan, let's say this boat, let's say we were to be stuck here for 15 years, cannot get off. Would you rather be with Megan Markle or Sam Darnold? Who is your, who would you like to be coupled with? You know, theoretically not.

Wait, so is my relationship with my wife over? Well, she's not here. She's in America. She would be attending to your children in another country. If Emily was cool with it, it would probably be Meg, I would have to say. Just like in terms of company. It's actually kind for, you wouldn't be pulling Sam Darnold out of a Jets career also. I mean, I don't think people love Sam Darnold for his conversation, you know?

No, that's a problem. All right, I'm finally, I'm ready. Now, you know, I've gone back and forth about whether you make my Big Ben analogy. You can do a couple. I have a couple, but I will do the Big Ben analogy. Under construction, all right, so we don't get to see, we don't get to see the great tower, the Elizabeth Tower, because it's covered in scaffolding, and it's been that way for a while now, and it will be for how much longer, Anthony?

Three years, but it's a British workman, so it could be longer. Such a patriot. Oh, it could be longer. That was a shot. So. It's your time. You look at teams. that have been under construction

see that for the last year a couple of years that now people are starting to get excited like this is the year what to you gentlemen and I'll give my choice first and then I want to hear what you guys think which team that's been under construction

is actually not ready and it should be got to they should be under construction for another year even if people are saying they're ready to land now I will throw out the chiefs or maybe a little unconventional because they've been a contender, but people are saying they're ready now to kind of take the next step as an organization. And I think that right now with Mahomes, not as concerned about him,

but with the defense, which was terrible last year, we're not, we haven't gotten any good signs in the preseason that it's better. They would be my team that is not ready, just like Big Ben wasn't ready for our visit here, is not ready for Super Bowl contention status. in 2018. I got one for you. And only because not that I believe this room or this boat thinks that thinks this way. He was so dismissive of the boat when he said that. It's like it's not a room. It's not a room. We're flying again by the way. We're off and running. The Union Jacks, you know, flying in the breeze up there. It's a beautiful thing. How about the people that want to put the New York Giants back in the playoffs? I feel like I see this all the

time on Twitter. And to me, they are under construction. And I think that there's some enticing pieces in place on offense. Don't love the defense. You have issues, potentially a quarterback. If, you know, Eli Manning could fall apart at any moment. And no backup to save the debt. And no backup. So it's just that let's hold off a little bit because I think that there are a couple players away before they're going to challenge in a very tough NFC. So you're out on Eli this season? I'm not out on Eli in the way that West and Greg historically are out because I think that he's probably at some point going to find a way to win one more Super Bowl over the Patriots and we'll be there to watch it but but yes I don't think they're a playoff team I think they're going 11 and 5 I think James Betcher their coordinator was kind of a

sneaky big pickup and they do have players on that side it's a little like they have stars and then they have big drop-offs but they're dangerous I feel like there that any team in that division could make the playoffs it wouldn't shock me the Giants were my choice too the chiefs are good the Niners Yeah, I was going to say the Buccaneers Because they do have talent They've got talent at the skill positions on offense They've got a really interesting front seven now And I don't trust anything about the quarterback coach dynamic

That's fair I would go with the Niners because of the defense And because it almost came Not because it came too easily last year Just because I think the And because the Giants are going to steal their wild card spot in your Right and the problems that they've had over the last few years Kyle Sanehanan and Garabolo fix like a lot of them,

but they don't fix the whole team. I guess I'll throw out my other one. The Oasis v. Blur, nasty Britpop feud of the mid-90s award, that could go to Oakland Raider fans and this current Raiders regime. And it's something to keep an eye on how this can turn if this gets ugly,

because you can from an organization, organizational standpoint, even though I disagree, and I think you guys all agree with their decision to not keep Khalil Mack, who's like a once-in-a-generation talent at a position where it's almost impossible to get a guy at that level. But I just think that if they get off to a slow start, if they get off to a slow start, the fans are going to turn on that team and on that coach and organizationally yes you have two first round picks coming that doesn't do anything for these people in oakland who kind of got banged a little bit here and and i could see them really you know dishing out some vitriol uh if this team gets off to a slow start making it a really

ugly season yeah the thing i never bought to begin with was that hey let's give these oakland fans two really nice seasons before hey we just moved your team to las vegas but there'll be no hard feelings about this is a different type of fan base than the 31 other in the league because every sports bar you go to hold on one every sports bar you go to there are Raiders fans and they're they are the one of the most loyal groups around this feels incredibly toxic from where we were six months ago when it was the John Gruden press conference with 250 reporters and they're all hands on deck in our newsroom this is what we've been waiting for

since the late 90s it couldn't you could never have imagined how poorly it is gone right now well you got to do is win week one against the Rams and the one thing and then everyone that's all they have to do pretty much because I don't know about that they're going to win go five and eleven is the previous week for these fans in general like if you can win games is my point then they won't care my my thing i'd just say about rators i've never seen them turn against the team they were mediocre and terrible for year after year and they were so loyal and they would just fight against everyone else so my fight would be raiders versus us raiders fans versus no but the rest of the league and they're always different because they never

they never took the team and moved to vegas before that's a big part of this you can't you can't even compare that and then everybody's playing nice like mark said this idea that for two years it's going to be fine you know nobody's getting all that upset and it seemed like that and now this trade comes and it's a reminder why am i rooting for this team that's picking up and moving to a different city it's a reminder to all those fans is it worth it i i would say just they're not logical like you see the chargers raiders game or even the raiders when they were in the preseason and they're all there in l.a like the raiders fans are just like They're a different breed.

I kind of give them credit for that. Because I agree in the sense that you could never have tried to pull this move off with any other fan base. And they seem to fine with it. You're telling Oakland fans, though, we're playing the long game. We care about being successful in that brand new stadium in Las Vegas. We don't care about you, but we're still going to play eight home games a year in front of you. That's what I was specifically setting up as the Raiders fans that are in that area of the country. It's like when they made the announcement to go to Vegas, it was like opening up a wound for that team.

And now this, the Mac move is just like throwing salt on that one to be like, oh, do you want to root for us now? You still want to root for us, Oakland fans? Because we're basically daring you to leave us at this point. That's how it came off to me. And I'm wondering how. They've got one foot out of the door now. That's what it would seem like if I'm in Oakland, if I'm in that area, the Bay Area. I'm a Raiders fan for a long time.

It feels like the team has one foot out the door and is already headed to Vegas. If Twitter is any indication, they are pissed right now. They should be. Pissed. Anybody have any other ones before we? I did one, and I thought it was perfect, and I didn't really need to come up for the second perfectly. Let's go back to the Chiefs for this.

Hugh Grant, biggest flirt award. Chiefs are out there flirt with everyone. I feel bad for the UK fans. This is all you guys know about the UK is like Oasis twice, and Hugh Grant. And Big Ben. Chiefs flirting with excitement and the notion of unlimited possibilities all year long, and then Patrick Mahomes, rawness, his turnovers, his up and down season is going to be the biggest flirt

that you think you're ready to compete, but you're not yet ready. Like Hugh Grant, Patrick Mahomes has kind of an annoying voice. Hugh Grant has a great voice. He's always nervous. Yeah, he does play the nervous guy. I mean, he's done well with that act. I think, though, that as Tamposi, shows me some award she wants me to read i'm not reading your material you want to say you can

say it in a couple of minutes give me a break great you're not you're throwing her under the boat yeah why not i want her i'd be happy i'd be happy with her on con the show angry gregg is right now mahomes the home's uh definitely not angry just giving her grief um my homes i feel bad for erika's poor eyes right now has more like potential to make insane plays than almost anyone that's entered the league since Michael Vick. Like, like, like,

maybe Michael Vick and Aaron Rogers as first year starters who are just going to dominate like highlights, you know, on the weekends. Do you want to, let's have you read it. I want you to read it.

I did his best to get through that point. I don't want to anymore. It was the Queen, the Queen Elizabeth, old A.F. And I'll give that to, I guess Adam Venetary would have to get it, you know.

It's like, how about Tom Brady? Are we just talking about? That's what I wrote. but you had to take Tom Brady, Queen Elizabeth. He's old but respected. It's a great award, Erica. It's a great award.

He barely, like, can move around. Anthony is Queen Elizabeth respected? Yes or no? Of course. There you go. Tom Brady, Queen Elizabeth. You think he's going to put otherwise on a public show? No, I was just, that was a test of your allegiance to your nation.

He's already besmirched the workers of England. There's a lot of candidates for a lot of people, old AF in the NFL, Drew Brees. It would be another. I'll throw out one one here. I just thinking, how about the, like, bandwagon we're going to claim this team after all award it's it's after andy murray how this country really tried to claim the scotsman even though they had a mixed feeling about him for a while but once he's some esoteric tennis talk i mean it's not that esoteric he's a pretty big sports star so

they claim them even though he's uh he's scottish how about los angeles claiming the chargers when they get the number one seat in the afc and people just start jumping to board and be like all right let's just do it this is the most fun that's what they need team ever. Let's just jump on board. And how about Los Angeles being the center of the pro football universe with two of the best teams in the league? I think it would be a major upset if the Chargers

become a big thing in Los Angeles that leads to massive ticket sales. The only thing that could bail the Chargers out of a very uncomfortable situation that they chose to put themselves in, by the way, which is playing in a city that doesn't necessarily want them, is to win. And if they put

together like a 12 and 4, the city will definitely, there will be a bandwagon building. I don't know. By the way, they weren't bad last year. No, no, but I don't think. They started 0 and 4. I mean, that's a tough way to move to a new town.

I've lived here for like 10 years now. I just, I don't know if Chargers fever is going to grip this town. I don't know that it's not going to happen. I really think that their record is the reason they struggled last year in this town in Los Angeles? No, but I think starting O and 4 certainly didn't help. No, it didn't help in the way that they did it. I do think, though, maybe not even so much the local fans in L.A. catching aboard,

If you have a situation where the Rams and the Chargers are both teams that are getting buys or competing for buys, there's going to be a lot of, like, ooh, Los Angeles, you know, a lot of, like, kind of combining them together in terms of national stories that, like, you know, the NFL wasn't even there a few years ago. Now it's the center of the NFL universe. You know, when the Rams and Raiders were both here, Tim Brown, when he went into the Hall of Fame, talked about returning a kickoff in his rookie season in the Coliseum, getting to the end zone and having it be completely empty. Los Angeles is not a two-football team town. It absolutely is not. Harry Stiles flirt award. You got a flirt award?

Yeah, Harry Style T's Award. Now we're just... It goes to the Chargers. Who's Harry Stiles? You don't know Harry Stiles? No, it sounds like a made-up name. You know how the four of us were doing a photo shoot out there? Well, it's not unlike One Direction doing a photo shoot when they were launching.

Do you know who One Direction is? Sounds like a British boy band. there you go he's like the star they're not too it doesn't matter uh the chargers the chargers are tees you're going to get sucked in gregg and then they're going to drop another nine and seven on your head and you're going to be mad it's it's the raiders who should have moved to los angeles can we agree with that i mean this this whole chargers to l a thing just simply does not make sense i just think we should have anthony on one more time before we say goodbye it's antony actually anthony thank you anthony and the johnson's being a great photographer a friendly bloke

and just highly informational. Well, thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure. Love that, man. All right. Next time you hear from us, it will be Wednesday probably, right, Erica? But Wednesday is when you'll hear the show, but Tuesday night at the Curtin Club in London,

we will do our live show. We're very excited about that next time you hear from us. And then just giving you a schedule the week on Friday, you'll get our week one preview, and Thursday Night Football season kickoff recap. So a lot of good stuff coming your way. That's it. Anything else?

Forget anything? All right. The boat is docking. I don't know if that means we can get off. No, we're not near where we were, but we didn't park here. It doesn't matter. All right. Here we go.

Let's get out of here. This is Dan Hansa, signing off for The Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss, the loose cannon, and Anthony on the boat. Oh, my goodness. We're in London. on Tuesday night. Thank you. You know,

I'm going to be able to be. This is an Ihaired podcast. Thank you.