NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 'Making the Leap' debate

Episode Date: July 8, 2015

A room filled with heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- react to the latest NFL news including Jason Pierre-Paul's firework incident (7:53) and Odell Beckham's latest gripe (14:12). The guys then review the latest "Making the Leap" candidates (21:57) before trying to find a new outro song for the show (43:25).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. This is how we do it. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan.

All right. The boss is back. To have the whole gang back. together back from one show hawaii yeah it's pretty sweet any brady bunch like uh curses going on or anything that would be you know something to fun to report back on brady bunch curses yeah what does that mean oh uh mark you know yeah it's a very special two-part episode of the brady bunch where they the two of the children unearthed uh some sort of medallion that was buried if i've ever called i left for a week but the 1960s references remain usually not dan involved no every time the medallion

it makes an appearance in that show doesn't isn't there some kind of like do do do do do do sounds about right brady bunch is also 1970s right yeah um but welcome back we did miss you we had both uh you know we had lindsay in last week so that was nice she she did a nice job filling in for you but listen there's no substitute for the actual boss let's face it well you guys did a great job um i listened to every podcast the minute it came out i thought mark especially was fantastic i hope td rewarded him for it mark wasn't here last week oh that's good no that's not sure that was a test he was mark is here mark was there and he's still with us still alive uh we have a very nice show today and yeah Greg welcome back but thanks very nice show today and a lot

of stuff to get to um as we inch closer and closer I'm surprised you didn't lead off with some like July 4th shenanigans that you guys were all doing it oh we did go We went to the Dodger game on Friday night. I was just watching kids and, you know, sitting by the pool, which was very nice. Well, that would recall, you know, that would ask us to recall most of it. Mark and I had some good fun on Saturday night. Oh, that was a West Fest. Yeah, we had another Wesselmania.

Oh, Westinia, too. Yeah, it was a good time. My life doesn't include July 4th parties because my son must be asleep by 8 p.m. Or he turns into like a Grimlin monster. So I missed out on that, but I'm sure it was. a lot of fun. You had enough fun the night before. Yeah, we went to the Dodger game.

Damashak was with us. Henry. And handsome Hank, and we enjoyed that, so that was fun. So, yeah, all good times. Greg and Hawaii doing his thing, but now he's back and we got a lot to get to. We're going to talk about, you know,

the making the Leap series is now halfway through, more than halfway through. So we felt like this was a good time to check in on the Making the Leap series with a segment that I like to call, fake it till you make it, colon, making a point to make some observations about making the leap. Mouthful. Very catchy.

Yeah. Whatever happened to the title, Making the Leap. Well, no, it's look, fake it till you make it, colon, making a point to make some observations about making the leap. It's all there. But Dan is not involved in making the leap. He's just openly poking fun at the rest of the group. He's just trying to torpedo it.

He sees it as competition for his big fan pain rankings coming out next week. A lot of heat between the two segments. Warring factions. I definitely thought I was a good sell, but you could say that it wasn't. Also, one thing we wanted to touch on, we'll touch on later in the show is, actually, you know, I'll save it. I'll save what we're going to do after fake it till you make it, making a point to make some observations about making the lead. You can say that whole thing every time?

Well, that's a segment name, guys. It's a very important list, and it's something that deserves respect. But before any of that, we're going to check behind the glass with TD, who I'm sure had a nice weekend himself. We're not going to ask him about it, but I'm sure it was nice. It was great. Thanks for asking. I'll get an answer later.

But just real quick, your title has more awards than the rise of the play. Planets of the Apes, which is not a good thing. But also, also has more punctuation than Star Trek into darkness, which has no punctuation at all. I mean, something to show on. More sci-fi gibberish from TD. Yeah, I didn't catch a word of that. Why don't we do some news if we could?

What's up? I got to tell you. Is there like an MVP again or something? No, not that. You guys are big fans of the office. Well, Dan and Mark. Sure. And you guys are big fans of Aaron, who was on the office for the latter a couple of seasons.

Oh, yes. If you haven't seen Unbreakable Kim and Schmonds. on Netflix. Yes. Put down whatever you're doing and go check it out now. It's a great, great show. You're absolutely right. I vouch for that.

I tore through that series and I really enjoyed it. I was going to watch a movie this weekend, but I just watched that and it was fantastic. Unbreakable Kimmy Smith. Kimmy Smith. Kimmy Smith. Yeah. It's great.

It's awesome. And that was TV reviews. I know. We don't give TV reviews. Why do you get to give them? Well, I got to bring some of the table. I got some. How about some good producing?

Well, everybody calm down. everybody let's get in better spirits okay i know terrible tuesdays as they call them up next hump day what's after that you know what i mean but let's have a nice show tedious this news let's do it before that oh my god i mean because our you know a main man gold stand up pretty upset if we didn't mention that you think USA won the walk up on sunday oh yeah so congratulations team you job ladies it's great stuff we had a good time watching it see we have nothing but respect for the great champions of the United States. Hey, TD, let's do some news.

Let's do it. Yeah, we're talking about sex. What? I know what that's from. Russell Wilson. Russell is arrogant of the abstinence. If you're not going to have it, you better talk about it. Yeah.

Yeah, we're talking about sex. Yeah. I loved it, though. It was Russell, quarterback speak, actually being real for once, in his realm anyway. And then obviously he went on to say, I ain't going to lie to y'all now. I need y'all to pray for us. I know y'all seen it on the screen now

I don't like Russell Wilson that much I'm with him on that one he's fine very nice quarterback and all that but I could do with that some of the personal life Russell Wilson stuff coming through he's a church though that's good I like he's a good man he's a holy man I take it back I like Russell Wilson

let's start with some July 4th shenanigans we're talking about that and Wes I don't know if there were any fireworks I know there was probably some fireworks. Metaphorical? Drift at old Wessling Manor in the old West Cave, as I call it, that night. But I was curious if there were any fireworks that were sent off from your condo. Well, I live in Marina del Rey, and they have a huge fireworks display. You can barely get into that section of Los Angeles on Fourth of July because it's such a big event.

But Mark and I and Colleen Wolf and a few other people watch the fireworks from the water. What I'm trying to say is that you did it from a standpoint of let the professionals handle it. That's not what Jason Pierre Paul did. And let's talk about that. On the 4th of July, Pierre Paul, of course, the Giants Star Pass Rusher was injured. He injured his hand potentially severely or at least enough where it's kept him in the hospital when he let off some fireworks. This is something that came out on Sunday. and here's the update that we got on Tuesday.

Kim Jones, one of our NFL media people, says that athletic trainer Ronnie Barnes visited JPP at a Miami hospital. The team source told Jones that they believe the pass rusher is, quote, doing okay. Of course, the Giants, you know,

assign their franchise tag to JPP. They also had a long-term contract offer on the table that they pulled after this happened for what seems to be obvious reasons. Greg, we'll start with you on this. What were your thoughts when you found out about this? And what do you think it could mean for the Giants and Jason P.R. Paul? Well, I thought there's always some story on July 4th weekend of some player doing something stupid.

And this could be one of the more costly boneheaded moves ever. We still, as we're taping this, don't know the details of how long he might be out or whether he will be out at all at the beginning of the season. But he's not going to get that long-term money from the Giants this year, I don't think. They'll have to wait and see. I remember hearing at the combine that with JPP specifically there were concerns inside the organization about his maturity and he was a little bit of a tough guy to deal with. It wasn't dominant because we haven't heard a lot of that. But, you know, this is probably not the first guy in the Giants roster that just stay home.

Don't do anything stupid. It's an accident. If you check out his Instagram page the day of this incident before it went down, he has an entire U-Haul van apparently that was filled with fireworks and he's just like he's singing a song and it's all gibberish and he's holding his young son and just like geez like if the giants have some trepidation about whether this is a guy they want to do long-term business with like i kind of get especially after what ended up happening what a mess and what a horrible situation and if there's a positive to it is listen i was working the shift when this was all coming down there were some grisly reports like he lost

parts of his hand and fingers now we still don't know exactly what happened it sounds like there There was some flesh burning and potential nerve damage we've heard, but it could have been a lot worse. It's just scared to imagine how bad it could have been. It's 2015. Can't we have better entertainment for our events than fireworks, which have been around since the 600? Well, and have not improved, frankly.

Fireworks. Right. What's the major breakthrough in fireworks technology over the last 1400 years? I'm always amazed about that people watch fireworks on TV. That's ridiculous. It seems like the most insane thing. Yeah, that makes no sense. Couldn't you do, can you play a video game that would simulate fireworks?

You can do that any day of the year. Yeah, but on the spectrum of what's on TV, not even halfway the dumbest stuff that people watch on TV. So it's not that surprise. But as a kid, I was never, you know, I felt like as a kid, it was one of those things that your parents were like, oh, get the kids out. They're going to be really excited for this fireworks show. And it's almost like once you're eight, nine years old, you're like, you're almost pretending to enjoy it more for your parents. when really you're like, wasn't this the same last year? Once you see one firework, you've seen them all.

I have an uncle that I'm close with that to this day, whenever he watches fireworks, he tears up. I think he connects it with his own father who's no longer with us. People, there is something about fireworks. But just you don't have to set them off yourself, especially if you're about to sign a $15 million one-year contract. Come on. Well, we don't know what the circumstances were.

So it's truly, what if he saw like a child hovering near the firework? and he ran over to get the child away and then he's a hero three years, three weeks from now. You think that's what happened? I don't think so, but we just don't. You think his agent had to floated that if that was the case? Well, sure. The public information officer spoke with our desk downstairs at NFL media

saying the department actually did investigate whether he was using illegal fireworks. They determined it didn't take place in the jurisdiction. It doesn't seem like he's going to get in any legal trouble for this, so the fireworks are mostly illegal in Florida. It is really stupid, but it kind of gets me. that people are, oh, I can't believe how stupid this guy. Well, he's stupid just because it blew up in his hand. Like, a million people use fireworks.

And they're stupid, too. I guess everyone's stupid. But everyone's stupid all the time. Don't you think whatever happens in 16 games this year means so much more than this fireworks incident? Yeah. When it comes to his contract? Absolutely.

His contract, and we have no idea. Maybe he will be ready for week one. Maybe he's going to miss half the season, which would be a huge loss for the Giants a team that does not have any other pass rushers. More stupid behavior, Green Bay Packers' tight-end, Andrew Corliss, was arrested early Saturday morning in charge with misdemeanor discharging of a firearm in public. The Miami Beach Police Department confirmed to NFL media. This coming after officers responded to a call of two shots being fired in the 500th block of Lenox Avenue in Miami Beach,

following an argument between two males and a group of women near a parking garage. he was attempting to hide his gun in a potted plant near a local bar when he was arrested and police matched those rounds from the gun to those found near the parking garage. So, Andrew Corliss, who very recently Aaron Rogers was talking him up as a guy ready to take the, quote, jump in 2015, gets himself into hot water and this is not a good look. It's a rest season. Late June, early July, that's a rest season in the NFL. These things happen.

There's a report that the Packers won't cut him, so they'll probably be forgotten about in a month. It definitely will. And really, the stuff we're hearing about now is only the stuff that becomes official through police channels and the news. I mean, what these teams are dealing with on the average, which is a massive roster right now before you cut it down, the issues that some of these players have and the drama that the team finds out about

that we'll never even hear about, this feels low drama compared to some of it. Unless it's definitely one strike or two strikes against them, you'd think. It puts you on watch within the organization. It's not a good look at all. Not a great look, no. It's like something out of ballers. It is something out of ballers.

Which, by the way, not a good show. I agree. And by the way, Hollywood, I do not know who told Hollywood we want more entourage. I don't know what, who told Hollywood that that entourage movie should have happened. and I don't know who said that this show ballers should turn into the new entourage. All of it's bad, people shouldn't watch it. My feeling. Moving on, hey, O'Dell Beckham Jr., your boy, Wes.

He's doing the body issue. You're not going to believe this, but O'Dell Beckham agreed to pose nude for ESPN's the body issue. Along with a trio of Colts offensive alignment. Yummy. And in the accompanying interview had this to say, you know, feel bad for ODB, because the catch he made against the Cowboys, that one-handed catch, it's not allowing people to see the true greatness that is O'Dell Beckham. Quote, it's unfortunate in a way to be known only for the catch.

There were so many other things I did during the season. It's hard for me to distinguish myself because of that catch. I know that I'm more than that, but at least people know you. You know what I mean? He's exactly right. I mean, of course I'm going to agree with him because I said the exact same thing a week ago in this podcast, that people who... Maybe he was listening.

His only critics are people who don't watch the game film and think he's only a product of one catch. Who is a critic of him other than his... There's a lot of people who say you can't crown him after one year and we need to see another year or two out of him before we can say he's... But I feel that, but that has nothing to do with me thinking that catch overshadowed how good he was.

Well, I think that you wouldn't feel that way unless you watched the game film and saw that he was much more than just a half. That's almost like a philosophy that you maybe wouldn't crown any player after one season where he missed six games. You know, you would basically think, let's see it again because the NFL is about doing it after your year. Well, I need to see it from Tom Brady a 16th time.

Well, you don't see a difference there? No, I think that if it's on game film, it happened. You can see the traits is what I'm saying. You can see that O'Dell Beckham has traits that no other wide receiver in the NFL have. And unless there's an injury, there's no reason to believe that that success won't carry over. I think it's a fair point that he could be underrated in a lot. a way that most people do just think of him as a guy who makes great highlights, whereas he could be a complete receiver, or he is a complete receiver that could already be among or if not the best

receiver in the game. That doesn't mean that I, which I feel like is happening every third day in our newsroom. I have to hear long soliloquies and self-explanation from this guy. I want to see him go do it again because that just means games are happening again. That's fair. Right. It's every third day. It's look at him. He threw a soft ball, he struck someone out. He climbed about. Connor covered this territory. Well, yeah, and we've had enough.

And his latest, or are you kidding me? We've had enough. Well, on our network. So you're basically calling out NFL network. It's that period of exhaustion with guys like Odell Beckham. You're basically calling out Dan Helly, personally. That is not accurate. Yeah, that's a shot.

That's fine. I did not even see that. But, I mean, is the point lost? Odell Beckham has been asked to talk too much, answer all these questions. Enough. There are going to be, I think now we've done this long enough. like four guys or two guys every off season that are just those are the guys this off season that are going to have a million articles and talk a million times and it's unfortunate

and it that's it's been ODB that unrelenting void of football news that must be filled is the reason we have jobs bad news moving on bad news for uh lovers of unintentional comedy marshaun lynch's movie his uh is a biopic or biopic Biopic. Biopic. That is like, yeah, I guess so. It's biopic. Anyway, it's called Family First, the Marshawn Lynch story.

And when the trailer dropped or a promo clip of it dropped in late February, it led to a lot of, you know, a lot of people had fun with it, myself included. It was ridiculous. It looked terrible. It was bad acting, stilted dialogue, poor lighting and editing. Everything about it was, I was really legitimately excited to see it. Well, we're never going to see it because Marshaun Lynch has put the. kibosh on it. He owns the rights to the movie and he was so upset with a director who was a lifelong family friend for dropping that promo without any permission and by I guess the

overall product that came out of the production that they have decided not to ever release the movie and Rolling Stone magazine of all places did a interview or did a post on it a story about it and this is what Lynch's agent Doug Hendrickson told Rolling Stone. He did a terrible job referring to the director, a man by the name of Mario Bobino. He did a terrible job, and the film will never be released. So, you know, the NFL's version of the room, which I was very excited about, now will exist on a shelf somewhere in Marshall Lynch's basement unless some hero leaks it out to the public.

It's coming out. Everything comes out eventually. It depends how tight that inner circle is, because this is such a, it was a one-thousand-a-one. $100,000 budget project, and it looked it obviously, and it was really probably kept pretty tight within his crew of people. It seems like he keeps a tight circle. And once the agent, I'm sure, played a role in saying this cannot get out there, got involved, and Lynch wasn't happy with the product, I'm sure they're taking a lot of measures to make sure it's not seen because it looked like a pile of dog crap, and I'm sure that's what it was.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't trust Francis Ford Coppola having to direct Marshaun Lynch. You know, Lynch's own acting abilities came across as part of the issue. I don't know. I think we're giving him a little bit too much credit from the acting scene front because what we saw in the preview suggested, what, he was an old guy playing young and old the same time he's playing multiple ages. That's a director's decision, but yes.

He didn't pull any of them. He didn't even play himself well. So it's like then you give it to this guy, a family friend, to take a $100,000 epic and go try to have your way with it. Well, please. I think we know how it's going to work. Everything comes out in the end. It's like that Wessling sex tape we've all heard about.

Eventually, we'll see it. You heard about it. We were there. What? Do we have, TD, by the way, on the board? Do we have any clips from the Lynch biopic? We have a new board now, and it's a Marshawn Lynch people called me up, and they said, dude, everything. Confiscated.

They made you get rid of it. Wow. Well, I would probably listen to him. So, yeah, no Marshaun Lynch movie unless. as Greg predicts it leaks sadly that's what's happening in the news all right let's start talking about it it is the segment that's really starting to gain some buzz and uh you know this it only has one name and if i could find it i will repeat it well how about while you're looking i'm going to add a little item to the news okay very quickly breaking news no it's not that big a deal just a little

jpp update we'll tack on to the end how's his hand rap sheet says he won't sign his tag, which is very surprising to me, but it means that the Giants can't place him on the non-football injury list, which is a way that they could have avoided paying him. And so this is where this is all going, is fight over money. And it also indicates that, I don't know, that they don't think he'll be playing early in the year. Well, it indicates that he might miss two or three weeks to begin the season instead of six or seven. Right. And if he doesn't sign that, it's interesting because they could always just get rid of him.

but he must be confident enough that he's going to be playing this year and they're not going to want to get rid of it. What a mess. What a mess. This guy is a vital part of their defense. Maybe O'Dell Beckham can rush the pass or two. It's a shame people only remember me

for my pass rushing skills. I'm a great wide receiver too. All right, this is our second. Good update, Greg. Listen, back from vacation, not even skipping a beat. I feel like I'm rusty right now. Okay, we're getting there. Bring the heat.

We're working our way back into the groove. Here's the next segment. Fake it till you. make a colon making a point to make some observations about making the leap so we have each of us have of course well i'm not writing any but i'm reading them all many of them multiple times we've unveiled 11 so far and this would be a good time to i guess go around the horn if you will and each talk about one of the players that's been unveiled so far and mark i would like to start with you and you wrote about a player on the Saints that has some big shoes to fill.

Josh Hill, tight end. The so-called era parent for Jimmy Graham. And I, you know, there's not a lot. Some of these guys have a lot of tape because they're maybe not that young, some of the guys we've done. This guy is, obviously, has limited tape because, you know, when you have Jimmy Graham, he ate up all his snaps except for, you know, some red zone work and some preseason stuff.

Coming away from what I saw, though, I feel like, the good thing about making the leap is you can learn about guys that you didn't maybe watch last season a whole lot. I really came away impressed with Josh Hill. It's kind of a tale of two situations here because one, I think physically he can do a lot of things that Sean Payton would want his athletic tight ends to do in that offense. And he showed it in the preseason especially. I think he's got excellent after the catch ability. He's got like a 38-inch vertical. I mean, they just let, basically Sean Peyton, so all these scouts that said, we want to go draft

someone to take over a young tight end. And he said, we already have the guy. Anyone you go find me in last years or this year's draft, we already have them. So, you know, I think if you look at, check out the piece on NFL that come, put three or four highlights in there that really showed what I liked about him the most. The issue, though, is I think that sometimes with these guys, we get excited about them, you know, for good reason because of the way

they've been talked about, maybe a year. year too early. And that could be the case here because even after all the spring practices, a couple of the beatwriters said, Ben Watson did all the work, that he was not really, and I, Ben Watson is a completely different tight end, but maybe it's not going to just duplicate Jimmy Graham. He's like 46 years old, Ben Watson. I'm just saying, if Joshua is good, he'll be played. I think he's definitely going to be playing. I just think that some, the amount of work he's going to do and what he's going to, the chances, we'll see. Well, he's not going to be out there blocking. I was initially skeptical of him when Peyton came out after the Jimmy

Graham trade because you don't see players of Josh Hill's measurables, like you mentioned, his speed, his jumping ability. You don't see skill position players like that fall out of the draft entirely. So why did so many teams miss on this guy? But here's a great quote from Sean Peyton in March. This Josh Hill is another player that I love. I love. When you look at his runs, jumps, height, height, weight, speed. You look at his measurements. and he didn't go to the combine, thank God. One point I'll make, too, is it is one of them may be a trope we didn't talk about, but whenever a big-name player leaves a team,

there is always that call the coach or the offense coordinator or the position coach will come out and say whoever this unheralded guy in the roster is, he has all the tools to slide in and be that guy. Now, that's not to take a shot at Josh Hill, but this is exactly what, of course, they're going to say. they think that they found somebody, but it's not that easy to replace Jimmy Graham. And I would be stunned if he has half the production of what Graham did.

Graham was a superstar guy when he was healthy. And I think we've already talked about their offense changing too. You know, from where we are at this point, it seems like you have Mark Ingram. You went out and got C.J. Spiller who could, you know, could eat up a lot of catches for certain types of players in that offense too. And then maybe, you know, the whole thing was built around Jimmy Graham. It fits that type of offense.

Two tight ends and he's on the field, catch and passes. he could be their number two receiver. Brandon Cooks, I guess, is their number one receiver if I had to get. They don't really have a number one receiver, but I would guess he would lead the team in catches for sure. I think that's a safe bet. And I think Hill has a chance, at least, to beat out Colston and be number two.

And then we'd look pretty good. And you know why we get a lot of these making the leaps wrong? I learned one thing writing those fantasy football magazines every year. I used to edit and write all those. And here's a little trick. You do a lot better on the bus list than you do on the sleepers list. Because in general, people's expectations for everyone are too high. So you hit three quarters of the bus because most people are ultimately disappointing.

That's what I've learned in life. There's something I learned doing fantasy people too. And I'm just saying if you picked optimism, it's tougher to do. It's tough to pick. Do we disappoint you a lot? No, I'm just saying in the world, that's outside of this podcast studio. Okay. There's what I learned during my Roto World days.

Yes. May, June, and July are for potential October and November for production. You hear all these young players talked up throughout May, June, and July, but come November, they don't know where they're going on the football field or if the quarterback doesn't trust them. They're not going to play. Oh, Lerias Green got us last year. And when you talk about your Roto World history and your fantasy history,

I must remind everyone that we are blowing it out next month. It's going to be Fantasy Week for the Around the NFL podcast. podcast with two of the great minds and fantasy, Greg Rosenthal, Chris Wessling, Mark's here, and I will host. We'll be just, you know, well, not every show will be completely about fantasy, but we will get into the fantasy and really give some, give some hot takes. It's my favorite part of the year because of the endless disrespect from Dan Hanses towards one fourth of this podcast.

Didn't your wife's team, which you drafted, basically lay waste to the entire league. Absolutely. That's true. But Dan overlooks things like facts in recent history. Hey, final thoughts on, that's not true, maybe a little. You, Mark, wrote that you believe that Josh Hill could have a Zach Ertz type line, what Ertz did in Philly last year.

So 58 catches, 702 yards, and 5 plus touchdowns. I think the Saints would sign off for that, right, in a second. Yeah, I mean, listen, this is the point. part of the exercise that I find sometimes a little bit insane because, you know, I went back and looked what we did last year and picking numbers and lines with these guys. Well, not I'm walking it back. It's just that I don't think you have, there's any, there's no way to know with a complete unknown. And either of my guys.

All right. Well, I did, but I think there's just, I'm saying out front, there's no way to know with a guy that hasn't done it. But you're saying that wouldn't shock you. It wouldn't shock me if they continue to use the tight end the way they have in the past. He's the guy to fit the bill. All right. Mark, let's keep talking, a little Sessler. Peace you wrote, but actually Wes is going to talk about.

That's a transition. That's called monkey transition. You'll only find it on fake it until you make it, making a point to make some observations about making the leap. Number 12 on the list, Devante Adams, Mark wrote a stellar piece, comprehensive, and always about the Packers wide receiver. But Wes is going to talk about him because when we budget out the podcast

before every show. We've been trying to get to this. Wes has some hot takes about Devante Adams, and now the time has come, Christopher, to share them with us. Well, I watched him for our series a couple of months back when we did a redrafting the 2004 class. And Devante Adams was a guy that I liked a lot more after I did that project, because on film,

he's not a guy who's going to blow you away with any physical attribute. He's got great leaping ability. That might be the most obvious thing to see, because there's that video circling around of him dunking. I think it's through his legs and dunking it. But great athlete, but he's not a deep threat. He's not going to jump off the screen. He wins with route running and physicality,

which works great with what Aaron Rogers does because he throws a lot of slants and crossing routes. And Adams was great on those. He's not great at gaining separation, but he has a double move that reliably got him separation against veteran corners. He reminds me a lot of an early career, Michael Crabtree, with strong hands and physicality.

And just the level of effusiveness of the prey. I mean, you can tell they think he's a more talented player than a James Jones ever was. They think he can be a number one type of player like Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb, who weren't first round picks either. And if one of those, I think he's going to have a massive year. If one of them goes down with an injury at one point, they sound extremely confident that he could step in and be a full-time player. I mean, he played a lot of snaps last year.

I think there was only like five rookies that played more. snaps at the position than he did last season. And doing the film watching on him, there was a play that I showed you last week, the Cowboys game where he catches it basically on the sideline, turns around and pushes a Cowboys cornerback off with one hand. I mean, he's strong, and he's not extremely fast, but he's extremely physical.

It's a promising sign that his biggest games came in, the Packers' biggest games against the Patriots, when that was the game of the regular season, and then against the Cowboys in the playoff. Well, how many rookies can you say won games for your team? He won the Patriots game. I came out of that thinking if they didn't have Devante Adams on the team, that matchup won them the game.

I mean, if you can get a rookie, especially a rookie receiver to win you a game or two, that's a huge plus and a sign that he's going to be doing some big things. Well, on a team that doesn't lack for receivers and you wouldn't necessarily even see a rookie, you know, stepping up in a big position like that. What is this offense missing? I don't think they're missing anything. Quarterback position is a little shaky.

One thing that's overlooked is they might have the best offensive line in the NFL. I mean, the Cowboys get credit for it. Packers have been together for a long time in that offensive line. You did great last year. Yeah, you could say a premier left tackle or someone, a guy you think is going to be like a pro bowler at any point in his career. You know, I guess you could. But then you see Rogers dancing around in the pocket the way he does.

It's like he makes up for, I mean, he helps make up for some of that. I don't know, and I think the odds on being right on this one are especially high because I think, you know, between Nelson and Cobb, someone will probably get hurt at some point and he'll get his chances to be a starter for part of the year. I think we're all kind of in the camp that this could be a potentially special, potentially record-breaking offense. My only question is we say, yeah, if Cobb or Jordy Nelson get hurt, he slides into the void. But what if that doesn't happen? What if they're all healthy?

Does he get lost to the mix or does he still make an impact that shows up in the statute? I think it'll be a lot like last season. It'll show up big for some games, but it depends on the coverage. If they're going to double cover Nelson or Cobb, Adams will have a huge game. But if they single cover those guys, maybe he's not. Rogers will keep looking to Nelson and Cobb instead of Adams. I think it. Inconsistency probably.

Yeah, and it helps that they don't have some sort of go-to tight end that's eating up a big chunk of what Adams would have. I mean, I looked at every third wideout on the Packers since McCarthy and Rogers were together. and the numbers were what you think they were. They were not overly impressive. They're very average, but the way they used them last year, like you said, he blows up in certain spots. And Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb have had injury issues here and there. They're going to miss some games.

Can you imagine this offense which are Michael Finley too? That would be crazy. Yeah, I think he would have been the one to take away from his Adams production potentially. I feel like Finley is not going to have a good year this year. Wow. Too soon. All right. Unfeeling.

Moving on, Greg Rosenthal, you wrote, we were just talking about the Cowboys and their offensive line. How about their defensive line with number 15 on our making-leaf list? Tyrone Crawford. You saw him make some guards look like fools this year, didn't you? Yeah, one of them was Kyle Long, who Daniel Jeremiah, was talking to some people. He helped influence this choice of Tyrone Crawford, DJ did.

I believe he works at this network in some other capacity, but I'm not. I am actually not familiar. I'm sure what he does. What you're talking about. T.D. would jump in, but he's not listening right now. I would listen to the Moly Stakes podcast. What are you going to talking about? Tyron Crawford would make Kyle Long look bad on one sack.

And I just watching Cowboys' Games thought he always stood out to me. And I did a little more digging. And I found out, you know, he was coming off a torn Achilles tendon. And usually that takes a while to get back on it. He looked very good coming off of that. And he was not supposed to be a defensive tackle last year. He spent the entire offseason practicing at defensive end. Injuries happened.

They really needed someone. He switched in week two, two defensive tackle. And he was fantastic. And he was kind of in a part-time role. I think they're going to get him more snaps this year. But he's just a guy you watched. And he's always in the backfield. He didn't quite finish a lot of plays, but he had a lot of hurries.

29 hurries, 12 QB hits, which is huge numbers for a guy who only played about half the snaps last year. So I like a little Tyrone Crawford. We know he's going to be on national TV enough to get some buzz. Did I read this correctly, a poor man's in Domkin's Sue on tape? It's high praise. Now, that was what DJ said to me. Sossy. He was one of the names that came back to him from other executives saying,

who are some young players you think could bust out? And they thought Crawford because of his strength. They kind of reminded him of Sue that he's always just going, go and going, pushing, pushing, that kind of player. But, you know, to be honest, most of the hurries and the hits and the saxon, he had were from beating people on moves too so i think he's versatile he was a fun guy to watch after reading this it seemed like you believe he could be the best defensive player on the cowboys i thought that last year for the first half of the year i thought he was the best probably per play he was i mean i'm not exactly

stepping on a limb here pro football focus liked him a lot too they had him as a top 15 guy as a part-time player so if he just increased his snaps that would make him one of the best guys in the entire league is there any obstacle attached to this player on any level? No, he's perfect. And that's a podcast. I mean, he didn't, you know, play a lot last year. That could be a problem. He's a defensive tackle, you know, so just getting noticed is never going to be that easy.

He's not a big guy for a defensive tackle. You know, I say he's not big, but relatively for a defensive tackle. Yes, he's a large. He would be like four times bigger than any of us. A poor man's smaller version of the Domic and Sue then. like almost like a nom can see you would keep in a pocket and walk around the park oh that would be cute a little cute little football player whoever heard of a cowboy guy uh being kind of under the radar too when you watch their games i always like that tyrone crawford he always he always made three

three or four plays every game that makes it different how about jera who's taken plenty of deserve criticism in the last 10 15 years or whatever they got some good players on this roster they've They've done better in the personnel department than they did during the dark period in the early aughts. There may be more, I think there are more checks and balances in-house at this point. And they look at the risk they took, the so-called risks on some of these Gregory and the offensive linemen. I mean, if they hit on those, he's going to be seen in a holder for him. And we'll move on from him soon. But that's one of the reasons why I picked them up is there's other good people around them now, too.

At some point, they could have a line of Gregory, Hardy, Demarcus, Lawrence, and Tyra. Ron Crawford. You're cooking with gas there. That can be fun. You can move Hardy inside if you want. He did that in Carolina. And this was a guy there, defensive coordinator, Marinelli.

He had Warren Sapp. I mean, that's this position. He made Henry Melton a lot of money in Chicago by playing this position. And now here he is in Dallas, coaching him up. Excellent point, Greg. Great job, Greg.

Welcome back. Now the rust has been knocked off and just hitting bombs. Greg just set his own personal record for most arm races in one post. A lot of celebrating. Celebrating by Tyrone Crawford excitement. Great job. Finally, number nine on our list, and it's the most recent one.

You could see all of these at NFL.com slash making the leap. Sam Bradford, Eagles quarterback. We've talked about him a lot, but it's worth talking about him again now because, Wes, you wrote the piece on this, that Bradford enters a great, great situation for quarterbacks. We knew that. But what we're trying to figure out now. We're trying to make sense of people in the football world is this guy was a former number one overall pick who flashed legitimate star skill at times, blows out his knee twice.

Now, for him to be on the making the leap list, that means that we believe, or Chris believes, that not only is Bradford going to be healthy or healthy enough, he is now going to thrive and become the player the Rams always wanted him to be. I'm not convinced of that. Okay. He's an interesting guy to write about, but he's a maddening player to watch. I mean, he's just, he's the most maddening quarterback to watch in the NFL. He's got, he's as physically gifted as just about anybody, and he approaches the game like he's Alex Smith.

I mean, just watching him, there's like three plays a game where he throws it beyond 10 yards out of 40 passes. It's just maddening that he checks down the entire game, and it's just, I don't know how much of that is the Rams scheme in his surrounding town. I know that no, no quarterbacks ever had more. use is made for him than Sam Bradford. I don't know how much of it is the way to look at it. This is the kind of the put up or shut up season for him because no one's going to say

the scheme held back San Bradford this year. If he's healthy and he doesn't produce, it's hard to imagine him ever really stepping up at this point in his career. You would think so, but Sam Bradford attracts Scouts, executive, and coaches. Like he's the hottest bell at the ball. I mean, this guy's done nothing in six years. Really since he had a good rookie season, he's done nothing but regress. five years since then and coaches and scouts drool over him still he he could have gone for more than

a first round draft pick he's a good looking guy there you go is it hard to say like this is this is a make or break put up or shut up year when he's coming off of two massive knee injuries we've never seen a quarterback come back from that as far as I can remember and if anything even with one you'd say oh well he's not going to be the same this year you almost have to project to next season when his knee is potentially healthy I mean how what can we really expend physically basically from Sam Bradford. He was hobbling just a couple weeks ago. But I made make or break for his next contract, though.

He's going to be a free agent after the year. So if he plays well for six games, he could have one of those Tony Romo or Colin Kaepernick contracts. Well, I mean, the knee is the easy thing. But to me, the most important thing is Chip Kelly has to rewire the guy the way he plays. I mean, the most telling sign was that Austin Davis came in, third string undrafted rookie quarterback and accomplished things in his first three NFL games. that Sam Bradford never did in six years.

69% completions in three straight games, 7.5 yards per attempt. Bradford had never done that over a three-game stretch in his entire career, and he had devolved into this guy who just wouldn't take chances on the football. But everyone gets those numbers in Philly. That's what I'm saying.

I mean, nothing else, Sam Bradford's just got a... Does that even mean that he takes the leap, though, if he puts up Mark Sanchez numbers, does that mean that San Bernardford took the leap, or does it mean that he just is playing at the level of any quarterback? No, he'd have to be better than that. Sanchez made too many mistakes. His numbers were good, but I don't think anyone watching him thought he was.

Sanchez was really accurate. His ball placement was impeccable between the numbers, but he's absolutely horrendous outside the numbers and downfield. Can we expect Bradford to be better than that? Well, he's got the arm. Yeah, I think he's got the arm and his decision-making is a little bit better, and his ball placement's really good. I think it just comes down to,

are you going to trust your offensive line and your wide receipts? Theaver is enough to throw the ball down the field once in a while. Mark Sessler. Yes, sir. Sam Bradford on the Eagles in 2016. Yes. I think that Kelly had his chance to move on this guy multiple times, and I think the faith in him is real.

And, I mean, again, I don't. Unless he stinks this year. Sure, if he completely stinks. But I think it's more about what's his opportunity going to be because if he's not fully healthy, I think Sanchez starts the year potentially. I think if he can stay healthy, this one will look good, and he'll play well.

Well, we just said, yeah, a couple weeks ago we said if he played all 16 games or played 14 or 15 and ended the season in a promising fashion, in Sam Bradford's world, isn't that making a leap? Yeah. I would rather have Sam Bradford as my quarterback than Nick Fools, so I agree. I like the potential to hit on this one.

Fake it till you make it, guys. Dan, well, what is it again? Make it until you make it, colon. Dan can be separated from the entire exercise. Make some observations. There you go, Greg, read it out. Go ahead. Feels good, doesn't it?

Fake it till you make it, colon. Making a point to make some observations about making the leap. That's it. NFL.com slash making the leap. Faking that whole thing was a good idea. We did it until we made it. Exactly. Exactly.

Yes, Greg's back, and he's on fire. All right, before we go, again, I was teasing a little bit of something that came up. A couple weeks ago, I was listening back to the show, as I do, taking notes, pros and cons in each of the members of the show. and the outro music played. And let's just hear the outro music for our show. And it occurred to me that I'm a little... And let me know if you guys agree.

I'm a little over the outro music. I don't even really remember anymore how it came to be, but I feel like maybe we can do better. Am I crazy to think that? I'm as over this outro music as I am of T.D.'s cool and the gang drop. Okay. Well, that speaks volumes right there. So what I did was I asked each of the members of the Around the NFL team,

and I included myself in this, to put the faith in the hands of Sully and TD behind the glass, and I don't know if the Irishman McGuinness is involved with this, but I said this is what we're going to do. Each of the members of the podcast, the four of us, are going to give you 10 words to describe what we imagine the new outro song of the Around NFL podcast to sound like, and then it will be up to you to go through our library and choose something that's similar to that.

And then hopefully, A, behind the glass, you guys do a good job picking something that's representative of the explanation that we provided. And B, maybe as a group, the four of us, or maybe the listeners can decide what to actually use. So I thought this would be a good exercise. I mean, Christ, it's July 7th. So, let's do it. So, TD, at first, before we tee up the first description with the accompanying song, did you find, and Sully, did you find this to be difficult? Not at all.

As you guys may not know, in my other life, I was a breakdance dancer. In this life, though, I am a pretty good house party DJ. All about the music. And the trick is you don't set the mood, you compliment the mood. You see what's going on, and then you hit the tracks, and everyone has a good time. So I had fun with this one. Sully involved in this as well, and he was loving it. And he was downstairs laughing like usually does coming up in new stuff.

I mean, that guy, he is outgoing and friendly, and he's got a sense of humor to him, that's silly. Yeah, that guy, man. It's weird stash, but, you know. A little bit weird. All right. So, why do we, I'll go first. So, again, these are the rules, and I hope,

and I didn't see anybody else's, but I hope everyone followed the rules. Ten word, max, okay? This is what I wrote. Hip-hop, hip-tinged. victorious celebratory adventurer's spirit sonically fresh and let's hear what you got

what you got out of it all right here's what we got a little tinge a little bouncy all right listen I'm going to say right bang drop it oh yeah yeah okay

you guys did a great job with this is this is exactly when I this is an adventurer's spirit to this open it up to the floor I like it that's a really strong opening salvo I even told you at the time

you sent that out by mistake to everyone you haven't seen ours we were told to send it out to everyone well whatever it was no I was sent it to the people behind the glass I was told by TD to send it to this is by all Nusha when Dan sent that out I said that that's the song I want

that he pretty much he really stole what I was high five that was it that was it TD did it maybe I'll go next then let's see what mine's a little different let's see if it's the same song What's, or who knows? Okay, what was yours, Greg?

Mine was foreboding, rhythmic. Okay. End of days, youthful, parties over, jaunty. Ooh. Backstories of this, too. Greg then came over. It's like 14 different things. How can it be jaunty and party?

That's why I'm... End of days slash jaunty. Gotcha. It's like, it's like the end of days is coming. No more description. Part of this exercises, they just get... Well, Greg also came over to my workstation. and we spoke about Lil Wayne

and the Chaudet three albums Cheating. That's cheating. You were politicking? All right, that should be held against Greg's pick. It was the Carter, too. All right, go ahead. The outro. It takes a while for it to drop. Which is exactly what you want in a 10 second action.

Yeah. You're building it up. All right, till Thursday. What is it? Yawning. What was that? Let me just try this one out. I like this.

That's it for another edition of the Round of the NFL podcast, blah, blah, blah, kill me. We've got to do it again. You've got to be doing that while it's rising. Okay, okay. Let's do it. All right, let's go. All right, that's it for another edition of the Roundle League podcast. I'm going to go home and drown myself in my bathtub.

And I hope you guys will come to my funeral. And whoever's taking out the show after me, good luck. Until Tuesday. Oh, that sounded good. That was pretty good. That sounded good. The room explodes. Wait, Dan, you did an excellent job.

You got to nail the timing on that one. Apoliticking against Greg to remove his song, but then it went back against you because of that perfect drop right there. That was nice. I think what you did was you listened to the words they gave you very well, no matter what. Whether it's better than Dan, the song or not, I think you... I like them both so far.

I didn't like that little, like, scratch thing. I was kind of like Hansen Dust Brothers-y, and I wasn't into that, but everything else was good. Wes, yours. Inspired, Sing. syncopated funk dropped from Mount Olympus like manna from heaven.

Interesting. And this feels like something Tudy and Sully might struggle with but let's see what they got. So yeah, to pull the curtain back, we're already up in the studio

at this point. So Sully went on this. I have full faith in him. But in case it messes up. That's that buck. This is all it's all right here. Let's check it out.

It takes a little while for the drop as well. We have Rises music because I'm not worried about that. So funky Okay I was thinking more along the lines Of parliament

Or Shaka Khan and Rufus This seems a little more blues rocky Yeah I don't I will say Although I liked Wes's description Not an easy thing to work off In terms of putting together

The Sonic palette That was tough Yeah We still have to like I think it's safe to say That one's a loser It does not reflect Either on Sully or West

I must not have reported it. Whoever's the generic artist, be better. Now finally, Mark. Hold on. Let's see. That's right there. All right, ten words, hallucinogenic, boundary stretching, alien mind from solar depths, not Kanye. I like Kanye.

That's like you need it. It's the last bit. All right. Let's go. And that's it for another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. it was a great show no that's all it does it just sits there

kind of like Mark doing a podcast oh wow can't go a show without just some wild shot from TD that makes no sense um atmosphere yeah no it

I feel like it does sync up with the description what do you think Mark is this what you have to mind I like it I like it I don't think it fits the what we're looking for I wouldn't call that boundary stretching

not quite all right finally so I think we can narrow it down down to the first two. So can we hear the first two one more time? All right. And maybe, I don't know, should we decide here or should we have the listeners decide? Let the listeners.

Okay. All right. Here we go. And, Tita, you figure out how to facilitate this on Twitter. But this is, let's call this the old zooser option. The outro, the outro. That's it for another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. We will be back next week with Billy Crystal and Shaka Khan.

Until then. Quite a pool. I would say it needs to be versatile enough because sometimes if we have some outtakes that we want to put on the back end, it must be good enough to be underneath. And now, finally, Gregs, this would be the boss version.

I like it I like it I don't know why it works I guess the room going I like them both I like a ball

I actually kind of like Dan I do and I like mine a little better but I wouldn't fight this one I like them both I think mine is more more better

across the board but yours has the real moment of splendor it does have a moment of splendor it does require you to do some more work though I know I don't like that

show is a little bit better I want to do any more work but it's not my decision it's the listener it's like counting you down on live TV, you know? All right. Just since we'll never hear it again,

let's do an actual outro with Wes's clunker. Because we got to go. We got to go to a meeting right now. All right, partners. That's it for another edition of the Roundy NFL podcast. We'll be back Thursday with another show. It's going to be a rollicking good time. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm,

the mailman, the boss, and Taday and Sully, and the Irishman behind the glass. I don't like them Irishmen. until that Until that This is an IHeart podcast.