NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Make or Break Playcallers

Episode Date: July 31, 2019

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all of the latest news around the NFL including Michael Thomas' big new contract (7:18), Andrew Luck's setback at training camp (10:45), and the Redskins considering trading Trent Williams. (14:45) The heroes then discuss five new playcallers with make or break potential. (22:26)Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. Really support Josh Rosen. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast presented by Sirius XM. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined in a room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling and Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan.

What up? By the way, Josh Rosen, can I just see? and keep those Matt money drops coming. The chosen one, the Rosen one. It's not a good look, by the way, that he's buried on this death trap behind Ryan Fitzpatrick. It's not like he's an actual rookie anymore.

Go win a job against a 36-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick in training camp, and it's already being set up by floors in Miami. I know we jumped into the fish tank real quick today. But it's being set up as is like a done deal. Like he's their backup quarterback. Not a great look. I agree with you.

It's not a great. Look, this should be an open and check case for Josh Rosen if he's as good as everyone said he was coming out of that trip. I mean, he's a young man. Ryan Fitzpatrick's been here comes the excuses. Ryan Fitzpatrick was quoted this week saying, I feel more comfortable with myself in my game right now than I ever have. And you know what? When it comes to right.

I don't doubt it. I think he's always felt comfortable with himself, but now he's just, he loves his life. He loves being Ryan Fitzpatrick, and maybe it's showing up on the field. We shot something today with Neil Reynolds over at the NFL UK, our friend from Sky Sports, great man, Neil. And I noticed in the studio lights a glistening off a nicely manicured Greg Rosenthal beard. It's like, why is it glistening so? Product?

Confirmed. Yeah, a little beard oil is in there. Whoa, what a hipster. Keeps it from getting, you know, itchy and whatnot. So you have a special comb aimed directly for your beard exclusively. I know, I don't have any combs. But you put the oils in now. You put the oil on your hand and then flesh it through your beard.

If you're a good time buddies from Tulane, who you probably spent some time behind bars with, what would they think about this new trend towards your hipster identity? I mean, I think they would embrace it. Really? It's 2019. I don't know if that's true. It's 2019. My wife does not embrace it, so I think it has a short shelf life, and it's going to be gone for the season.

What is her complaint? We know because she told you to go on a show and tell everybody that you wear the pants in a relationship that you wear the pants in the relationship. Well, it's made it, you know, I've done it despite her wishes for months and months, but I feel like, what doesn't she like about it? Well, you know.

Mommy coming back from Japan. It's scratchy. It's scratchy. When you're like in a make-out session, when we're just like making out. Make-out session. Yeah. When you're playing tonsil hockey with your wife.

You got a promontory point for that one? All right. Gross. Proventory point. Is that a West Side thing? I think it's just a movie. The great thing about this podcast is like their friends even off the air. They'd be having this conversation downstairs.

Listen to those bros chop it up. All right. Coming up on today's show, the Wednesday edition of the Around the NFL podcast, Chris Wessling wrote a banger. And, you know, he was a little sheepish about his banger. The last banger we spoke about. But this one, he passed. pounds the table for he believes in it yeah or nay absolutely i think that bangor has been thrown around

loosely lately especially toward my work but this one is is a certifiable bangor five new play callers with make or break potential uh that does sound like a saucy bangor so we're going to dig into that and the the coaches that west will be tracking closely in the 2019 season uh but before that Here's what we're hearing presented by Sirius XM. Let's do some news, Ricky. And now inside the NFL, Pro Football's Most Informative Hour with your host, Land Dawson, Nick Bonacani, and Chris Collinsworth. Yes, first of all,

that's Harry Callis. Correct? Yes, from Philly. Absolutely, who was the voiceover guy for HBO Films Forever, HBO Sports. And, yes, Nick Bonacani, who had an incredible playing career in the NFL. He was a member linebacker of the 1972 undefeated Dolphins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, played with both the Miami Dolphins and the Boston Patriots.

He passed away at the age of 78. on Tuesday and I just wanted to say and the reason I played that is I grew up how I became an NFL fan really was watching the Jets with my dad but then also

where I learned about the NFL was HBO and inside the NFL and Bodakani and Len Dawson and later Collinsworth they were your guide to take you through all the games is before the internet you know this is before you would have easy access to what was going on around the league

and you would have NFL films going through each game. And in fact, that I feel like that show was the blueprint for our podcast and going through every game on Sunday nights, our flagship show. So inside the NFL, a very important show for me and a lot of people, Mark, I know we've talked about that show before. And Bonacotti was a big part of it. So I'm sure he will be missed. At the age of 78, Nick Bonacani passes away.

I feel the same way you do about that show. And it was, you know, that was back during a time when, you know, my brother and I would fight over the sports page in the morning because it's the only content out there. Now that feels like an absurd thing that anyone would fight over a newspaper of any level. But Beconi, like, he was a great communicator. And, you know, we're too young to have known him as a player. But think of how many, like, young people now will know Tony Romo for the next 15, 20 years because of his ability to communicate. And so, you know, he also, he had a son that was paralyzed at age 19.

Playing football. Right? And he raised, he went on to raise a ton of. of money for research and paralysis. So there was a lot of angles and factors and assets. Hundreds of millions of dollars for the Miami Project to cure paralysis. A great Patriot, too. I mean, was part of a bunch of all NFL teams, was part of their team. They did make a championship game in the 60s and the AFL. He was part of that team, and he's from Springfield, the town right next to where I grew up.

So, I mean, he had a great Patriots career and a great Dolphins career. Awesome. All right. Let's get into it. The news. Michael Thomas and the Saints, they get it done. Thank God. The worst headlines to talk about in July and August are the holdouts. There's just no, there's no juice to it. But it's important to talk about because they're superstar players. So whenever the deal gets done, it's good for everybody. A five-year, $100 million contract extension that includes $61 million in guarantees that from rap sheet. Thomas had sat out the start of Saints training camp. He wanted a new deal. Instead, he jumps out of that holdout list that still includes Zeke Elliott, Melvin Gordon, Trent Williams, and others. 26 years old, now sits atop the wide receiver market, surpassing what O'Dell Beckham makes, 18 million per year average. Greg, Thomas, he has really exploded onto the scene, and he certainly deserves to be in that conversation. of the best wide receivers in the league.

Maybe he's not always brought up, but he certainly should be there. He should because not many people match the physicality that he has, and he has maybe one of the most physical bodies just in terms of cornerbacks can't get around him. He can just box them out with deep speed. I think that's what was surprised a lot of people in the NFL. That's why he fell to the second round

that he could be such a big playmaker, and he is. He breaks up a lot of the, when they don't leave a safety deep, Thomas will kill you over the top, and he's earned it. In the age of analytics, he's a guy whose nickname could be positive outcome. He was the most reliable past completion, positive play in football last year. As the security blanket for Sean Peyton and Drew Breeze, I think he's battling with DeAndre Hopkins to decide which one is the new Larry Fitzgerald. I just want to mention who was taken in front of him in that at wide receiver. Call some people out.

Corey Coleman. Will puller, Josh Dotson, Laquan Treadwell. Those were at least the first round picks with Thomas going midway through the second round. You remember in the 80s, an early 90s, speaking of inside the NFL in that era, when they had the NFL posters

and it would be ridiculous, like, dome patrol for the saints or, like, the Giants would be the bad fellows and they'd be dressed like gangsters. Wes, your positive outcome, can't you just picture Michael Thomas and it'd be like calculators, Oh, tons of calculators.

Spread sheets. Spread sheets all around. Layed out on your bed sheets. Right. And he's just wearing like a sleeveless shirt and his football pants. I feel like a listener can make that for us. Yes. Send it to us.

Hey, the artistic listeners out there help us out. It'll never beat the Donnie ball game. Donny baseball poster. The hitman, which hangs in my garage to this day. Anyway, and just so you know, I mean, if you're not aware, if you don't know, now you know. Michael Thomas last season, 125-14-06. nine TDs and no wide receiver ever has had as many catches in his first three years, 321.

So he entered the league as a star. He's got nuclear now. He's a superstar. Now he's paid like one. Pretty good player. Pretty pretty good. First time they've really had a guy like that. In all the years of Sean Payton, a guy that dominate, didn't never have the numbers like

that though, nothing close in terms of just like dominant. I'm saying dominating the ball and being a top. You always thought it was a spread-the-wealth type of offense. They didn't need a number one receiver. Jimmy Graham had some years that were every bit as good as Michael Thomas is last year, right? Scientists going at it in a big spot. Wes, you know what?

You're going to get a little uncomfortable in your chair right now because I'm going to talk about something dangerous around the Indianapolis Colts. Andrew Lux, calf injury. It's lingering. The Colts quarterback sat out Tuesday's practice session. Frank Reich, the Colts coach, said reporter. said luck will not participate in the next two practices and ruled him out to play in the team's first preseason game.

It's a nagging injury. It's been around for three months per NFL network's Tom Pelliserro. There are no more doctor appointments, scans or surgery skeletal for luck. But it's been labeled a calf string and kind of a setback that he's not ready to play football yet. Where's your P-scale at, West? One is completely dry, 10, underpants is soaked. hoping you would ask this exact question, the P scale. It's about a one. I don't know, bro.

I mean, compared to last year when it was a 9.9 because of his shoulder, this is, this pales in comparison to last year's concern. He said he's played through worse pain. Basically, they said if he had to play tomorrow, he'd be, he'd be all right to play. He's got five or, what, five or six weeks before the season starts? So it doesn't bother you at all that he's had an injury for three months that has not gotten better? Doesn't bother me. Okay. I mean, especially when they said like previously that he would be ready for training him and we're very confident I would put it higher because Andrew Luck sounds like he's higher he sounded practically dejected when he said it's going backwards he said the injury was going backward and he was frustrated

because it's been it's been months and it doesn't seem like it's serious come on it's like a four one point one though there's still some still some dribbles of urine in your hands to that point one just in the last four minutes yeah it's on the rise so west you know no concern i would jake brisket i'd say just get him loose and keep him ready god i hope i don't have to watch him play for a whole year uh but this is obviously something to watch and we talked about it on the show that they cited the kevin durant injury um as you know a template in terms of be extra careful with this last thing we need is andrew luck suffering another serious injury so it makes all the sense in the world to bring them along extra slow.

But how about some positive development? That would be nice. Nothing good comes from training camp at all. Just negative time box. Speaking of which on that very topic, AJ Green, yes, he was injured in the first or the practice at training camp at that field with all the pebbles on it. He will miss multiple regular season games,

which is not the outlook that was originally presented. He underwent ankle surgery on Tuesday and when they went in there to check it out they realized the damage is a little bit more severe than anticipated so it went from the hope that he would be ready for week one to expect it to miss multiple regular season games. Rapsheet reported, Zach Taylor, the new Bengals coach, confirmed that it is going to be a bit of time on the shelf

for a superstar wide receiver and yes, by the way, Cincinnati follows an opening a week one trip to Seattle with games against the Niners, Bills, and Steelers. So they could use their best player, and they're not going to have them for at least the first couple games it looks like. Maybe more.

I was taken by Zach Taylor immediately putting that timeline out there, almost as a way to send the signal to green, like, take, you know, we're behind you. It's like a player

friendly move. We're going to put this timetable out as far as possible. But coaches usually don't do that, saying, oh, he's definitely going to miss some games in the regular season. Like, don't rush it. You know, if he comes back earlier than that, then you could look like a hero, and that'll be a pleasant surprise. But I thought it was interesting. He went out of his way to kind of take the pressure off. Moving on.

Trent Williams, where is he out with the Redskins? It's not good. Everything we're hearing is negative. That it is a relationship that is fractured beyond repair. Well, the athletics, Jeff Howe reports that the Redskins are, quote, having trade discussions regarding Williams and Howe added that the Patriots, Greg Yeboys, expected to be in the mix if Williams does hit the market. He's on the record, Williams, saying he's not going to play for the Redskins anymore. So if this is as bad as it seems, we could see a trade coming where, yes, he's 31, he's had some issues, injury issues. but these type of offensive linemen West don't typically, you know, wiggle free this close to the start of the season.

I would imagine there would be a very healthy market, especially for a contender or a team in dire straits at offensive line. Like your Cincinnati Bengals, that would never do that. But teams that could use a left tackle is going to be a market if he's out there. Houston Texans come to mind. The guy they drafted in the first round has been playing guard, not tackle, Titus Howard. So they come to mind. It seems that in the past 48 hours, it finally not dawned on the Redskins, but they've accepted the fact that Trent Williams is probably not going to play for them,

so we might as well start listening to trades. They signed Donald Penn, and when Donald Penn spoke to the media, he said, I didn't like playing right tackle last year. I wasn't comfortable with it. I'm coming to the Redskins to play left tackle. They must know something that we don't know that Trent Williams isn't coming back. It's just a terrible situation for Dwayne Haskins, for whoever is playing quarterback for that team.

Because I already view the Redskins as one of the... Offensively, there's just not a lot to love. There's not a lot of weapons. And last year, I felt like they were basically a running team with heavy passing options to the tight end. They had nothing going on. It's not a good situation for a rookie quarterback. I would go as far as to say, Greg,

that this would be a blessing in disguise for the Redskins to trade Trent Williams. And certainly when these are the circumstances, it deflates your ability to get high value back for him, but he's a 31-year-old left tackle for a team that's probably at least a couple years away. The idea of trading him and getting good value back is not the worst things for a Redskins team in transition. Depends what's good value, though. He's their best player or he has been there. I'm just saying, is this a playoff team next year or this year?

No, no, but he's their best player. And okay, are the Texans going to give up a first round pick for him, a second round pick? Maybe. I mean, with health concerns. I mean, to me, I wouldn't Trade Trent Williams unless you got a second round pick. He's too, like, why is that helping your team? So just let him sit out all you? See what happens. I don't know. Call the bluff on that.

I think they could get something. I mean, Dwayne Brown got a second round pick at midseason. Why can't Trent Williams? Trent Williams is better player. Who do we trust to win the deal here? And the Texans have a million, have 40 million. Why all these teams have so much cap space? Spend it.

Just spend it on Trent Williams. $40 million. If it's the Patriots, who do you trust to win the deal here? Bill Belich or Bruce? selling. Doug Williams is on the phone too, you know. You got to trust Doug. I'm a little surprised that if the Patriots got in there,

but their first round pick from a year ago, Isaiah wins, still not practicing. So right now they have Joe Tooney, who's their left guard playing left tackle for the most part. So it could be a problem. And the other news to take out of this that, yes, it does continue the streak. It's been going on for the last 747 high-level veterans

that hit the trade market. to immediately be attached to the Patriots as a potential suitor. It's just the record. It's a record that will never be. It's Cal Ripkin. Baseball, and baseball, it's the Yankees, and that's been the case since the 90s. Right.

It's been the case since the 40s and 50s. That's true. Although, you know, what are you doing? The Reds trading for Trevor Bauer. Oh, did you won him? Stay out of the race. I forgot every superstar in Major League Baseball is ultimately ticket for the Yankees because they're the only game in town.

And it's cute that you guys fancy yourself contenders, but, you know, stay out of the, you know, big play box. Well, the oldest team in baseball thinks it's allowed to win games, too. Some unexpected LP heat. The British listeners are furiously Googling Trevor Bauer right now. I don't know if you're going to like Trevor Bauer, but I read up on him a lot last night, and you could not create in a lab anything or anyone with a more galling personality than this guy. Yeah, yeah.

He's a real menace on Twitter as well. Oh, my God. I think he's a sociopath from the comments. Very good pitcher, though. Yes, absolutely. It's just going to be hard to root for a shutout from that guy every time out. Yeah. All right.

In other news, Mark, why don't you jump in there? You've been active on Twitter with baseball stuff recently. I, you know, my baseball content, it arrives when it arrives, not when it's asked for. Wait, although that reminds me of interaction we had walking up here where Andy Gregg, who's big-time director, Exact giant, you know, because he's so tall with his nickname. Just walked us by and he's like, Sessler, you've been tweeting out some weird shit lately. Well, you know, I love that people think that I only know about football and that I don't have a rich history covering baseball as well.

Moving on. The Cowboys back in business with Alfred Morris, this deal comes, of course, at a time when and Dallas could use more bodies in their backfield that running back as a potential protracted holdout with Ezekiel Elliott goes on. So 30 years old, Alph Morris, you know, he's had moments. He's had moments. He's been 30 years old for seven years.

That's fair. Yeah, I accidentally called him Albert Morris, our last show, and we're talking about his rookie season. That was 2012. But it feels like he's been in the league since about 1996. He's one of those guys. But he actually did some things a couple of years ago with Dallas in limited duty. And you could do worse probably.

Probably can do better, but you do worse also. Nice little insurance policy. He knows the system there. Jane Slater reported something interesting on Tuesday that her sources from Dallas told her, the Cowboys do not like the way Todd Gurley's contract was structured. And they want to reset the market rather than set the market. And she said they're not close, that, you know, there's some chatter about they don't love the look that he's in Cabo right now working out. It is a good test case of whether Levi-on-Bel really did potentially change the way players are thinking, because Gordon and Zeke, in theory, you know, could do the Bell playbook, not the whole season, but maybe actually missing some games.

in theory, if he actually has changed their minds at all. I mean, I think it was the other show, a couple shows ago, when I mentioned that the only holdout that had me concerned at all was not this one. And this is starting to get on my radar a little bit as a nettlesome issue. For the Cowboys. Good word. Well put, Mark.

That's what's happening. Just like making, you got to make a comment at some point. About the topic. That's what's happening in the news. All right. It's like, crap, now I have to say something. It's like a window into Mark's interior. Oh, shoot, I better say something.

Soon they're going to know they can do it without me. Easily. All right. That's what's happening in the news. All right. So, Wes, he's back. A bit of a soft launch for the banger in the banger zone for Wes with his last piece. But now he is all.

training camp is done he got some reps in week three of the preseason you know he met with his trainers he took all the right supplements then he gets suspended he is ready for football and you showed up to camp a little overweight there yeah i got to knock this this was an exercise in knocking the rust off for me i've got to learn about kellen more you know i've got to learn about what chuck bagano did last time he was defensive coordinator that's good so what did west write about. He wrote about the assistant coaches in new places that really are going to be big factors with their teams. And I imagine West, these are teams that fancy themselves Super Bowl contenders. So there could be a make or break element to these gentlemen and their presence with these

teams want to get into the list because... Well, I have a feeling that one person on this list will not be a Super Bowl contender in the eyes of you three. Rich Skangorillo. Denver Broncos offensive. Well, why do we start there? Everyone calls them. Skanges. Scang's, I mean, their friends call them Skangs.

Skangs. I called him Skangs in the article. All right. So tell us about Skangs. He's the new offensive coordinator of the Broncos. Gary Kubiak, of course, who we'll talk about later. Seemed to have some type of falling out might be strong, but disagreement or philosophical break with John Elway. So he left the team and took his hair, his gorgeous hair to Minnesota.

But Skangs is there as the OC. Tell us about what do you think about what's going on there? Well, Skangs is only the OC because John Elway got on the phone to another Stanford legend, John Lynch, and basically coaxed him in to allowing the Broncos to interview Skangs. So he had to promise that he was the lead candidate, that he was probably going to get the job when they hired him. This guy comes from the Kyle Shanahan tree. and I think that Mike Moncheck, the offensive line coach, is just as important of a hire as Skangarello. He's one of the most respected line coaches in the NFL.

The Steelers were top seven in DVOA, all five years that he was running the offensive line in Pittsburgh. And this is the team with the second most blown blocks in the NFL last year, the Broncos. They've got at least two new starters in Joanne James at right tackle, Dalton Risner, the rookie at Guard. and Flacco had the lowest rating, passer rating under pressure in the NFL last season. So it's very important for him not to be under constant pressure. I feel like between Skangs and Muncheck, this will be an improved offense, much improved.

They're going to have a lot of new starters on this team. I like it when teams have kind of a connection to the schemes that they've run throughout their history. And this is very much a Denver Broncos type of offense. I mean, it's very much a Mike Shanning, which is, look, it's still working. as you can see with Kyle Shanahan and the influence he's had with Sean McBay and everyone else across the league. But what a come up for this guy.

He was the Wagner offensive coordinator three years ago. Wagner. He was at Millsaps like five, seven, eight years ago. What's Millsaps? Millsaps. Millsaps is another college, also the last name of Paul's Mil-Saps. It's a female prep school in Iowa. Denver Nuggets Power Forward.

So, I mean, I think he's the guy that Kyle Shanahan really, like, loved. And I think that word got around the league, and now he's in debt. Mark, this is your slot. What are you asking me today? I'm bathing in the knowledge that West is just pouring out on us right here. Next topic, please. Stanks. All right, let's talk about Gary Kubiak.

It didn't work out in Denver. They couldn't figure out a way to do it. So he goes to Minnesota. And this is a situation where offensive coordinator, Kevin Stefanski, he'll still have the gig and he'll still be calling the plays but Wes Kubiak's going to be I mean that offense is going to look different

if Gary Kubiak is in town talk about a dream hire I mean Stefansky's calling the plays but they not only brought in Kubiak they brought in Rick Denison Kubiak's long time right-hand man who manages the running game they brought in Clint Kubiak

for quarterbacks coach Kubiak's son I mean they bring in all these guys because they're implementing Gary Kubiak's system a system which is tailor made not only for Kirk Cousins but also for Dalvin Cook in that offensive line there aren't going to be seven step blocks or seven step drops the law offensive line will have more time

they won't be under as much pressure with all the rollouts and bootlegs they're going to have Kirk Cousins is the only quarterback with a thousand passing yards and a 100 or better passer rating on play action throws in each of the past four years which is the foundation of Kubiak's offense I feel like this is just a perfect...

You talk about the problem last year. Mike Zimmer's desire for a run-oriented attack versus an offensive line that couldn't pull it off, and John D. Filippa, who's always been a very pass-heavy play caller, you bring in a guy who marries the run in the past as well as anybody has for the past couple of decades, Gary Kubia. That was your slot, Mark?

No, I don't play that to me. I just... I was going to jump in, of course. But instead, I decided. Now, you referenced, Mark referenced a slot, and now all I can think about is Mark's slot. I think that we need to feel a little bit more organic. Here's what happened, though. When he is wrapping up, I gave Mark a look that was like, okay, you go now.

I knew what was happening, so I'm not just going to play that game. I thought Dan was going to jump on it because this was your topic on the Sky Sports hit. You are a Gary Kubiak believer. We did, yes. I believe in the Vikings. By the way, this hit was for Game Pass, which everyone, should buy a game pass Europe. I think it's especially for the overseas listeners.

So people should buy some. If you're American, you cannot see it. It'll show up, I think, closer to the NFL season. But it's a big season preview. So go do that. You know what? I think the Vikings are so primed for a bounce back season. And I think it helps them so much that last year after the Minneapolis miracle

and then getting cousins, which seemed like a obvious upgrade over Case Keenum, that they would be a team that would. get to the Super Bowl, finally get back to the Super Bowl. And they kind of wilted it felt under that. And Cousins didn't live up to expectations, even if his numbers seemed as strong as always. This year, though, they seem to be lying in the weeds in the NFC. And I think, Wes, everything you're adding is just adds more fuel to that fire.

And my feeling that this is a team, this, to me, they could be a 12 and 14. If that offense gains more consistency, I believe in that defense. I believe in that home field advantage. It's one of the best in the NFL. they seem to be a potential NFC monster. There was just a stink on them from the earliest reports we heard of DeFilippo and Zimmer not being on the same page. And I think it kind of rotted that team from the inside out.

And so this feels like Zimmer's got his guy, his guys, Coob's 2.0, the son. Don't know what he looks like. But, I mean, it sounds like a good, I think they are a bounceback type team. He brings an entourage. It sounds like that's why he left Denver. is ultimately, when you hire Coobes, you don't just have Coobes. You have Denison, you have Clint Kubiak. They got to all go on the payroll.

It's like hiring the star, and you've got to find, like, a job for, like, LeBron James' as, like, you know, third best friend or whatever. And that's why he ended up in Minnesota. And he's got a great running back to build around in Dalvin Cook, who I think wasn't totally back from the ACL, but still looked quite good last year and will be even better this year. Look at Kubiak's track record. He has turned a slew of undrafted guys.

and late-round picks into 1,000-yard rushers. Now he's got a second-round pick in Daven Cook. Let's connect again back with the Broncos. The Broncos are connected to all these. It's like a Kevin Bacon situation. Well, this is, the Shanahan family is running through this entire list. Interesting. So, yes, I just brought up Case Keenham.

He went from Minnesota to Denver and Kubiak. He went from Denver to Minnesota. Minnesota. Now, Chuck Pagano, he replaces. Vic Fagio, who went from Chicago to Denver. He is the new defensive coordinator of Deppers. Trademark me, your thoughts, Wes. Well, this is the one that this instigated the article.

Thinking about Chuck Pagano, because you lose Vic Fongio, who is, I think along with Wade Phillips, the most respected defensive mind in the game right now. Well, Bill Belichick's sort of on an island up there by himself, but, you know, throwing Romeo Crenel is another guy who's respect. but we don't really know what Chuck Pagano is. He had one year as defensive coordinator with the Ravens where they finished third in defense with Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs,

and then he went to the Colts and he never really had much talent to work with on defense. Now he's token over a defense that is almost sure to regress to the mean just because they had a sky-high turnover rate, lost very few games to injury last year, and cannot end 15% of drives with an interception. like they did last year,

especially with a slight drop-off and talent in that secondary. The problem with taking a job like that is that they invariably will regress back to the mean with the turnover stuff, and they needed that defense every week to make up for their offense, I felt like. And if you're in the situation, Pagano, you're going to get blamed from the earliest part of the season

if it doesn't go well. I want to take a job for someone who floundered before me, you come in and you look good. On the other hand, when you have a chance to work with, at Cleo Max, Akeem Hicks, Roquan Smith, Danny Treve, I mean, they're absolutely loaded. Eddie Jackson, Kyle Foote, they are loaded.

And yet, I think it's a tough spot to go to, for Pagano. You know, Dan Pompei wrote a good article this week on The Athletic about the Bears. Just the teams that return all their starters and the expectations are there, sometimes those are the ones I'm worried about. There's no longer like the competition. All the starting spots are back. they were kind of hungry and trying to prove everything. I think Nagy did such an amazing job.

Can he create that many plays again? But defensively, it's just proven statistically that it is tough to stay that dominant, stay that hungry. On paper, though, they are the best. I don't think, like, you need to try to come up with some hot take that there's some other team. They are the best on paper. I'm interested in your number four on your list.

And again, Chris Wesleying, Rhoda Banger, five new coaches with make or break potential. So the Falcons, we all know what happened. Kyle Shanahan. New coaches, okay. Presided over an offense that was historically great in the 2016 season in Atlanta when they went to the Super Bowl and nearly won the damn thing before collapsing. He leaves, gets the gig in San Francisco head coach job. So Steve Sarkisian comes in and he never kind of was able to match it. He was never able to match the magic even though they did score points just wasn't special.

So what do they do, West? They bring back guys that were familiar to Matt Ryan and company before that amazing 2016 season, which is almost to say, I don't know, from a perspective and outside perspective, maybe we'll never capture lightning in the bottle like we did in 2016. But we liked what we were before Kyle Shanahan got there. We didn't like the Sarkeesian version of us.

Let's try, as you wrote, go back to the future. First four years of Matt Ryan's career's coordinator was Mike Malarkey. Next three years, his coordinator was Dirk Cutter. Falcons hired both of them this year, one to coordinate the passing game, the other to coordinate the running game, and Dan Quinn cited continuity. Basically, they want to run the system Matt Ryan's been running while he's been a top five or six quarterback the last three or four years, rather than going back to what Dirk Cutter was doing. And Dirk Cutters, he runs an Air Correel, like, vertical spread scheme that should be pretty similar to what they were running before, so it shouldn't be a big change. but I think what they're going to find is even though they were a top 10

offense during Dirk Cutters first time around, Matt Ryan's a different quarterback now. He was a much more conservative passer. His average depth of target was always kind of bottom third in the league. And now he is one of the most prolific downfield bomb throwers in the

NFL. He is excellent at it and has been for three years. I mean, if we talk about the Vikings as a bounce back team, I'd go Falcons because a lot obviously went wrong, health, wise for them last year. But Cutter and like Matt Ryan have proven that they can get along well and work with each other. And that's a huge factor in the NFL. And another option, I guess you'd have to be munking around with the categories here, you know, and new coaches. But Dan Quinn,

I mean, Dan Quinn's a defensive coordinator right now. They didn't hire anyone. He's under pressure because he fired all his coordinators. Peter King pointed out, I think it was from football outsiders, actually. They were the first team since the 88, 89 Colts to fire all three of their coordinators and keep their head coach, which is crazy. And he's fired a lot of coordinators over the year. And then he put himself in as a defensive coordinator. So to me, there's a lot of pressure on Quinn to deliver with that young group. I guess I was a Falcons fan.

I'd feel pretty good about that. I would too. If you trust those offensive minds, and of course you remember, if you know the NFL, that Quinn was the D.C. of that historically great Seahawks team. So he's got it in him to scheme it up. Yeah. Ask Peyton Manning. I like the moves.

I like all the moves. I think a huge thing in Atlanta, too, is you've used two first-round picks on linemen, and if they hit, if that works out, you've added big strength to that team. Finally, Wes, tell us why, when you talk about the Dallas Cowboys offense, you could waddle on in, maybe if you're not you, Wes, you're a very fit man, and you swing open those doors, and welcome to the last chance saloon, as you put it. Well, Jason Garrett is in the last year of his contract. Super Bowl clock is ticking with Jason,

Whitten and Sean Lee, who are possibly in the last year of their legendary careers in Dallas. The offensive line nucleus, which the whole thing is built around, is creeping away from its prime, especially at left tackle and maybe at center. And you have a stable of young stars in need of huge contracts. Stable of boys.

The sand's running through the hourglass here. It's time. Scott Linnehan, who was actually Kellynne Moore's mentor in both Detroit and Dallas, was sort of scapegoated for having a stale offense. I think Freddie Kitchens, Brown's coach, said this at the end of last year. When you're running offense these days, defenses are so athletic, so speedy. It's really important pre-snap to give them a moment's hesitation. And that's what Kellan Moore is supposed to do here.

He not only comes from Linnehan's scheme, he comes from Boise State, where they have a wide array of formation shifts and motions, and I think you're going to see the same foundation, the same philosophy the Linoang used, just with a lot more options before the snap to try to confuse defense. I'm looking forward to a new coach in Dak Prescott's here and everything that we've heard.

I think we talked about a little bit, but Dan Orlovsky, who had time with Kellynne Moore, talking about what he's implementing is sounding a lot more like closer to Cliff Kingsbury than it really is to Scott Linnehan. And I think he's laser-focused. on making all the things that DAC does well, especially that deep ball and throwing on the move, accentuating that.

And I, for whatever reason, I don't think they were getting the most out of DAC last couple of years, and I'm more excited, you know, to watch this offense undercut. I love this story because, I mean, this is a guy who, a coach's son, right away, they talked about how his acumen, his smarts, creativity were an asset,

but he wasn't much of a player. But it's crazy to think that he was just playing a couple years ago and he's now running an NFL offense. You don't see that kind of rise very quickly. He was his own quarterback's backup. I mean, he's coaching Doc Prescott now, and he used to bathe the money. That's not exactly.

Prescott was elevated because Kellyn Moore broke his ankle on one of the first days of training camp. I happen to be there that day, and suddenly everyone is crowding around this fourth-round pick-deck-Prescott because, hey, you're going to have to be the backup. And, you know, as we found out a few weeks later, he was going to have to be the starter. That was one of my favorite plot points of Gregie does that.

Ellis. The things you hear about... People don't usually talk about the plot that much, but it's underrated. It sets everything up. Touche. It's not the same. The things you hear about Sean McVeigh, you hear about Kellynne Moore. John Kittner said he had a beautiful mind.

Dak Prescott said he's one of the, quote, young genius phenoms in the game. Who is this now? Kellyn Moore. Dang, Kellyn Moore is only 30 years old. It's just crazy. I like it. Jason Garrett's the man who will replace Jason Garrett. if they don't get Sean Peyton, essentially.

So he was 29 when they hired him. Wow, that is wild. They've got Chris Fashard on defense who really took over play calling from Rob Marinelli last year, even though Marinelli is the coordinator. So they've got a couple of head coaching candidates. Nice. Well, check it out, NFL.com slash Wessling to see all that analysis in one place. I guess while we're here, Greg, you've been writing your training camp pieces,

winners and losers. Is that a weekly sag, basically? Yeah. It goes up Monday mornings, some winners and losers, big recap of the training camp week that was. The old Zooser will have a Friday calm, to be determined, and then Hard Knocks Recaps return on Tuesday when Hard Knocks is back covering the Oakland Raiders. So I think it'll be like the eighth year I'm doing it. This is getting ridiculous now. You would think at some point your career advances past certain things, but no, it's hit this nice little plateau and just sits where it is and we just coast along deeper and deeper and deep.

into our lives. I'm not complaining. Mark, anything for you on the horizon? A new column that will be featured every week is beginning in a week or two. I'll tell you about it then. Through some ideas by the original content team and one of them they accepted. You reeled them in. A couple of them, they said, this is stupid.

This idea doesn't work. This man knows how to deliver a tease. Yeah, an eight-part expose on sex in the NFL by Mark Sessler. Okay. All right. Oh. I wanted to hit Orson Wells and I was like too stunned. I couldn't even lift my finger to hit it.

I'm glad you did not. And remember the fifth-ish-annual fantasy extravaganza will be held later. And I think we're trying to reel in the big fish, right? Anybody, one of you guys. Evan Silva? Yeah, you've got to get the big fish back in the boat. Oh, yeah. With his exciting career change and also his immense knowledge.

in the fantasy realm. So now I'm already kind of, if you're listening, and I know your regular listener, Evan, hop in the boat if you can. We'd love to have you as our guests. You've got to pull in a big fit. I know. It's not going to be easy.

I mean, now if he declines for whatever reason, this just looks terrible. For him. I mean, it doesn't look great for us to be declined either. He's out there trying to promote his new site, establish the run. He's taking these media requests now. It's like now, now he owns the boat.

Yeah, that's absolutely true. All right. We'll be back on Friday. uh with another show so thank you to everyone for listening until then this is dan hansis signing off for quiet storm i feel like we got to look into your brain mark today i'd be concerned the mailman's the old boss and ricky hollywood behind the glass till friday This is an I-heart podcast.