NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Manziel, Dez Bryant & rookie whispers

Episode Date: June 17, 2015

A room filled with heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- react to the latest NFL news on Johnny Manziel's growth (7:10), Dez Bryant's contract situation (11:38) and the Packers offensive fire power (27:21). The guys then reveal the latest rookie whispers surrounding Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Amari Cooper and much more (32:31).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 has its swagger back. 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 is up, boys? Hey, Dan. All right.

Happy hump day. Kill me. Cessler going on about three hours of sleep here. Still here, still operating, still turning out content. Cessler, Wes, and I all went to the flock of dudes premiere in downtown L.A. It was a fun time had by all. Now you're making me look like a jerk. Well, you know, you didn't even mention it to me that you're going.

I guess it was on the podcast last time. It was mentioned. Yeah, it was very clear. We didn't get there until after 10. We enjoyed herself. We met it around the NFL listener. that was nice. Mark, his name was.

I actually didn't speak with him. You guys did, but he seemed like a very nice person. What was his name, Wes? J.C. or something. He was a nice guy. He was a nice guy. It was probably not J.C., but it was nice to meet him. He was a good guy.

So that was cool. Great story, guys. I'm sad I missed it. Excellent story. So that's what's going on. And we have a big news. T.D. is back with us behind the glass. I think that's why he chose the money drop that the swagger was back.

I mean, reading between the lines. Not at all. I'm not the type to just overload the show or production elements that has anything to do with me being back. I don't do that at all. It's not how I get down. All right. Glad to be back, though. This was the song, the moment that Eminem just never was the same after this.

So maybe it was fitting that you chose this. But thank you for using a pop culture reference 15 years old because that works for all of us. It does. I appreciate it. And there is, Sully has now been demoted back into his Jimmy Garoppolo backup roll and you can see it on his face.

He's a little sad TD, I would be careful. Because Sully was getting a little comfortable in that chair. We're a team here, guys. We're all the team, and we all know that we have roles to play, and it's all about playing the ball. The best part is that T.D.

doesn't realize or pretends not to realize that he's in a viper den. Nancy Kerrigan thought she was Tanya Harding's too. Sully's going to have some under the radar 2001 level, Bledso backstabbing. Just trying to get Tom Brady out of the chair. A little tease, you know, three shows this week before Mark, you go on vacation.

Tomorrow's show, we will bring back the game of Skill and Valour, Win West's Toaster. We have our contestants locked in. The offer mentioned Sully did a great job doing some cat wrangling there. So we have our contestants. The scripted entertainment of Skill and Valor. All right, Greg. You know, it's been an award-winning segment.

Who has given any awards? Best of iTunes, the Stitcher. We were a finalist, I believe, for that. Well, let's hang a banner. Put a banner up. Put a banner up. Put a banner up, finalists. So, yeah, that is on tomorrow's show, so get excited for that.

Wes has a lot of confidence after dominating the last time around. Today's show, we're going to get to a lot of news. There's a lot of stuff to get to as mini-camps. A lot of teams are in mini-camps right now. This is the last week before the NFL goes dark for a six-week period ahead of training camp, hypothetically speaking. But so there's plenty of teams to get to, I think, 21 teams are in camp right now. 25. 25 teams in mini-camp.

So we'll go through some storylines out of there. Also, since there are so many teams practicing and we're starting to get our first looks at some of the most recent draft class, we will do a little rookie whisper. I almost stumbled over because Greg put together the budget today called it Rookie Buzz Oh yeah

That was the name of the article It was a lot different Whaspers So we'll do that We'll go through We'll each highlight Two rookies that we You know

Have caught our eye And you know Talk about them In an educated way A little dash of mirth That's how we do it here But before Any of that

Back to TD behind the glass TD you are aware with the code words There was some controversy That perhaps the code words That I was dropping into earlier podcasts While you were gone To make sure you were listening That you might have been getting fed

The code words Is that true or false? I'll take you at your word Well, let's put it this way Like Barras, the character in Game of Thrones I have people that whispered things to me You know, crows and whatnot But I did listen to the show as much as I could

And I tried to always save them for my flights Because I had a bunch of flights but I got, you know, I got tipped off on a few code words and some of them I heard myself. And by the way, just so you know, if we get hard evidence that you got tipped off on everything, we will march you through Culver City nude, throwing garbage at you and chanting shame.

By the way, game of throne. Do I get a body double? TD, you got tipped off on a few code words. There were two, so. Oh, I got tipped off on one. Okay, so one. I actually got tipped off on both, but I heard the other one myself.

Gotcha. It's starting to become clear. I did like your theory that I didn't actually take vacation I was just watching the NBA Finals. I mean, the finals did end yesterday. There's a lot there. Back in work. And everything good with the family in Nigeria.

Great. Fun times, a great wedding for my sister. It was a joy to watch. I got to walk her down the aisle. My father's not being there because he's not in great health. He's doing better. But it was good times. What an honor for you.

Congrats. Really, really awesome. Did your mom say like, hey, TD, time for you to get married now? That how your mom sounds? I have a, not at all. Not like an Italian, dude. No, she doesn't. But it was great.

It's time for you to pick a man. Woman. Getting offensive. Getting offensive. Dan has gone so far afield from reality at this point. All right. I did bring that a gift for you guys. You know, it's some British candy, Cadbury heroes.

That was very nice of you today. Don't finish it, though. But they're not all for us. You made very clear. All for you guys, no. Have as much as your heart desires, but not. Save some for the coaches. They'll be here in six months.

Yeah. They're in the process of building the chains that Mariucci and Billick will be fastened to under this desk. All right, let's do some news. Been cooking with the sauce, chef curry with the pie, boy. Yeah. Shout out to NBA champions, Steph Curry and the Warriors, and obviously Roddy Curry, the real MVP. I'm back into that. That's Steph Curry not getting an MVP vote.

Crazy. Somebody else that didn't get an MVP. vote last season in the NFL Johnny Mansell who suffered through the transition of you a miserable a miserable rookie season

as Mark and everyone else the false football can attest Mark clearly doesn't have a vote if Johnny got left out oh yeah he would have been my vote he brought all my dreams to life so Mansell has been trying to keep a low key since

you know getting out of rehab he's trying to put his career back together he's clearly lower on the totem pole now than when he came into the Browns organization, but he's doing his best to fight back. And on Wednesday for the first time, all offseason Mansell spoke to the media and, you know, again,

asked for some privacy as in terms of his personal life, said that he's doing what he can, not to let down his teammates again, like he did last year. He owned up to some issues with maturity. And I guess the money quote that people took out of this, you know, his signature money sign celebration and his quote was the money sign will not be back

said johnny mansell mark will start with you on this uh as i give you the money sign to get going here uh do you buy this or is this johnny mansell saying the right things to get back in people's good graces well i know i do buy it because i think the first step he took was without being tugged into rehab by someone else he went under his own power and from you know from all you hear, that's the first step to growing. And I think listening to him today, you know, he spoke well with the media last year. I think he's savvy at that. So you have to wonder what has changed.

It's a fair question. But by all accounts, the people around him say that he's working hard, that he's very focused. And I like that he went out of his way to basically apologize to the Joe Haydens and the Joe Thomas's that had to answer all these questions about him and say, I put this on them, and I don't want it to be that way. So what more could he have done? He did a good job today. He's not seeking attention necessarily outside of getting stuck at this ridiculous wrestling event that happened where he was labeled Johnny Idiot Face. I don't know what that was about.

I would have said he got stuck at it. He voluntarily went and said to the front row. But that doesn't mean he did anything wrong. You know, you're going to be mentioned. But overall, I mean, he's not 36. He's a young guy and he is showing some signs of growth, in my opinion. He convinced us last year, though, that he was. mature guy and all that.

I totally agree that what more can he say. I thought it was smart to apologize to those teammates for answering questions. You know, that's all great. I don't know if his maturity is even, you know, the biggest issue. His football ability is the biggest issue. Oh, well, that's a whole different topic, and I think that's been completely up and down from what we've heard. Tuesday, I thought I saw on Twitter that he fumbled three out of five snaps at one point.

It was three in a row shotgun snaps. Yeah. So he's obviously a work in progress. And everything you hear out of Berea. Beria, Baraya. Which Dan is labeled an Indian burial ground. It's a camp built on an Indian burial ground. But everything you hear is that Josh McCown is Joe Montana in 1988.

Everyone, and it's okay. Everyone's optimistic this time of year. But people are just glowing out of that camp. They love what Josh McCown's doing. So it seems like there's no way Johnny Mansell is a weak-one starter. Some of the whispers coming out of last year was that Brian Hoyer was painted as an absolute angel was not always the easiest teammate. and McCown has been Cleveland Springsteen?

McCown has been a leader, I think, and a veteran, and I think they're pointing to what was not there last year. When you were in your early 20s with the world laid out before you and dreams of becoming a writer, did you think that someday you'd be penning some tribute to the 70th best quarterback in the NFL no longer making a gesture? Yeah, I do. It's fair point.

It's funny that we have all these starting quarterbacks talk almost every day. and when Mansell talks, we quickly must get an article up with four other points below it. And it's just like he's still treated as something that he's not. He's not even a, he's maybe not even the, he's maybe the third best quarterback on that team right now. To be fair, he's one of the most high-profile players to Ender League, someone we were all really excited for. And then he went into rehab after his rookie season, and he hadn't talked for four months since. This is the first time he's addressed the media in any way.

He's still a big storyline, and he's a charismatic guy. He's an interesting guy to see how he answers questions, so it makes sense. I think my transition from Roto World to NFL media, the one difference that shocked me was that when certain players talk, no matter what they say, you have to write about it. It's just because they're available and they're speaking. Well, that's how our site operates. You signed a deal with the devil, Wes. Welcome to California. Moving on, Des Bryant told our own Michael Silver recently that it was a legit.

Jit possibility that he would hold out into the regular season to get a long-term contract. Jason Garrett earlier this week said he wasn't concerned with the contract dispute, basically calling Bryant's Bluff. On Wednesday, Des took to Twitter and had this to say, Everybody voice and opinions, 13 mil is cool, but where is my security? I'll wait five years without complaining. So how am I selfish? Hashtag family one.

I don't know what that happened. What is the family one? Family first, probably ran on a character. Let's calm down with the hashtags society. Thank you. Good luck with that. Greg, you were saying? I wasn't saying anything.

I think the fact that Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett have both now publicly come out and said, yeah, we don't believe you at all does, Brian. It's almost surprising to me. Like, they're not respecting him. Jerry Jones spoke today as well and said he loves the game too much. He's not going to miss any football. He loves the money too much, too.

Their stance is a little dismissive and perhaps condescending. I agree. They're not helping matters by saying, we don't believe you. And Des will be here because he cares about the cowboy. Come on. Now you're putting a lot of pressure on Des, and it's not fair. I hear you, the line, where is my security? The $13 million.

That's pretty good security. More security than I've ever had. That should work. Right? Yeah, but he's not operating unilaterally. Like, he's got agents and other people in his camp saying, no, you're worth more than this. and we want to put you here, and we're going to fight for this, right? I mean...

My takeaways from what Jones said, his son, Stephen Jones, on Tuesday, was that the Bryant Camp is asking for the moon, and the Cowboys think the Bryant Camp is asking for the moon, and they're just far apart in money, and that's all there is to it. They'll get a contract done eventually, but they're far apart. I had a debate with Corey Griffin of NBC today that he thinks that Des Bryant not only deserves to be the highest paid receiver in the game, but will

become that. That shocked me. There's no way I believe that. He'll get a better contract than Calvin Johnson. I think it'll be close because it's been so long since Calvin Johnson signed it in the new month. But he was given a once-in-a-generation talent deal, not a top-wide receiver deal. That's fair. And I think that he's a model citizen face of the franchise. Des isn't those things. At least we know the Cowboys have, and the Cowboys have never overpaid their veterans before, so it's impossible. They stopped doing that. They cut DeMarcus Air loose.

Moving on, the San Francisco 49ers under Jim Tom Suli. He said, I guess it was last week he made a crack about it. He doesn't know what's going on with Twitter. He's not really plugged into that. But then we read an interesting story from Kevin Clark of the Wall Street Journal who wrote about what the 49ers are doing to get in touch with the millennial generation, that being generally the age group between 18 and 34. the average Niners roster age is 25 years old,

so they're doing some different methods in their effort to better communicate. Some options include changing two-hour meetings to 30-minute blocks with 10-minute breaks, introducing enhanced digital playbooks that help more visual learners by including video clips, getting rid of paper altogether

and sending alerts on phones, basically all in an effort to connect with a generation with a short attention span and a deep love of Taylor Swift. Your thoughts, gentlemen. It doesn't seem that revolutionary to me. Get rid of paper.

I thought we were doing that like 20 years ago. Yeah, the NFL seems like such an old school business that it really is maybe implementing some methods that aren't that aggressive. It's just they're so old school. Chip Kelly was asked about and he said, we've been doing that in terms of short meetings for a long time. It makes sense. Chip Kelly football hipster.

We've been doing that for years. That's all dudes. We're way ahead of the moment. millennial thing. I just wanted to hear because you guys, the old, I don't know what

we would call this corner of the room. What did you call it like reactionary or something? Well, that was a different. Reactionary 40-somethings? Yeah, that was a different thing.

This is more about the crotchety, the crotchety. Crotchety corner? Crotchety corner. How about this? I will own up to what I am,

but I've asked I quietly over the last couple days when this story started to bubble up, asked, you know, probably five to seven millennial target

age individuals like do you consider yourself a millennial oh no not me there's a stink on it the title well and there is and it's not fair because you can't put everyone in that category but i couldn't find one person that said yes i am and yes i don't have an attention span and yes i need things visually i mean not a single person known up to it i don't think anyone chooses you're you're either a millennial or you're not just when you're born td td is a millennial oh youngish kobe yeah wait what you guys talking about exactly goes back doesn't skip a beat uh yeah so we love the millennials because that's probably three quarters of our audience you were impressed with jim tomsula i was i you know jimmy t doesn't seem like a guy that he's to me i one of the

reasons i see him as the guy that shuffling deck chairs on the titanic is that he seems kind of old school like the coach you would have seen pop up in 1991 in the nfc west or something tell the truth you see him as like crow magnon school a little bit yeah he seems very old school not really a guy you would think in 2015 but this shows he's sitting in on weekly meetings where people introduce new apps and technologies to him that his players might be using. That seems... It's a little bit weird.

I'm just throwing out the info. At the league meeting, he sat in on some type of dissertation or a panel in which a that was targeted towards youth marketing and teaching people how to connect with the kids. I don't know if any of this means anything, but Jim is making it. He's doing it. I think it's a little bit of an effort. It's good.

It's funny that all of these. guys have somebody in the organization who would make sure that they're up on every technology but as soon as they publicly talk about it is what's this face space or tweet tweet Twitter yeah they have to act like they don't know the name of things it's a similar type thing I was saying it to mark downstairs during this mini camp in OTAs where all beat reporters or on camera people and I'm sure we've done it on the same podcast where it's like before we announced some stats like passing stats from a practice we need to be like it doesn't mean anything and it's stupid that people track it but tony romo is 18 for 27 in practice today so something

to keep an eye on it's like just own it whatever you're talking about just own it can you imagine uh bill bellichick at the weekly meeting of how to use snapchat or whatever like that that part the 30 minute meeting seemed like really what that sounds kind of like the sort of thing that shadowy league figures put upon uh fine young writers like yourself well we all go to meetings so we don't want to go top down things hey jim jim i really think it's important that you start learning about this new technology that's coming from above can't blame him though i still don't know how to use snapchat it's really i don't even what's belichick can't even set his clock in his car i i'm i'm amazed though uh that you two guys did not use any this for any rants on millennials that you're

usually doing well i don't dislike millennials okay neither why i mean we work with them all day i think it's fun to make fun of them in general but like but i well mark you have in the past that this very off as you've steamed over millennials so let's not pretend now well i think it's more personality type not age group because i i don't want to go too far into it i don't think a team trying to figure out how to teach and engage their players that makes better that does and i think the like teachers do that yeah teachers are they are like oh we can't just teach the way we did 30 years ago and the teams are probably way late to the they're way late on this if anything we should have our theology podcast and then also our millennial

talk about it, something. Nothing makes me more annoyed than the generation always complaining about the next generation. Oh, well, my generation, you know, we did things the right way. Here's the thing, it's the most predictable thing in human history. Every

single generation ever has ever said it, and yet the next time, every time you get 35 or 40, then you start doing it to the next group. It's a fallacy of the innocent past, is what it's called. Exactly. It was never any better. The world, you know, it was never any better. My problem isn't the millennial. It's with anybody who is, I guess, willing to sit there in a pool of ignorance and not look to the past and say, we can learn from this.

And this is what gives us perspective on the present. And, you know, young people have done that for a long time. It's not just millennium. And we did too. I mean, oh, you kids with your yo MTV raps and your Nickelodeon, you're crazy. You're rock and roll and your damn Fogelberg. You guys got it out of your system? All right, let's move on.

The Rams, you know, they traded for Nick Foles in the offseason, and according to RAP sheet, they are very interested and motivated to get a long-term extension done with the quarterback ahead of week one. This struck everyone immediately, you know, is a surprise to see that the Rams would want to get deeper into a commitment with a player who's coming off a poor season, who really only has one good season of work under a different regime across. the country, Wes, I'll start with you on this. How surprised were you to see this report that the Rams are looking to lock up Foles? I was definitely surprised. I didn't know what, where's the

fire? What's the hurry here? I mean, you got a guy who by the middle of last year, the Eagles were already convinced that they were going to part ways with him, that he wasn't going to be their quarterback. He wasn't accurate enough. His footwork was a mess. He was a product of Chip Kelly's system. I don't see why the Rams think this guy's some franchise quarterback. It's more important to be right in your evaluation than to try to get a cheap deal. This reminds me of the Andy Dalton negotiations last off season when I just implored Dalton, go sign that contract. You know, don't haggle over millions here or there.

Go get it while you can. You might be Kevin Cobb. According to Rappaport, one of the reasons or the primary reason they want to get the deal done now is they want to cash in while his value isn't too high. So they're working under the assumption that Foles is going to play at a high enough level that they're going to get burned in the back end on this, which is optimistic, sure, but still it doesn't seem like good business. And if they do this, let's say they do give him an extension,

it probably wouldn't be astronomical, but they lock into him long term. And then he flames out, which is highly possible, and they are not a playoff team. This extension with a so-so season could be something that gets GMs and coaches fired. Well, except they spent three years singing the praises of Sam Bradford, no matter what he did on the field,

it was, this is our guy, this is our guy, this is what St. Louis does, and it didn't get anyone fired because it feels like Sneed and Fisher can do no wrong. They can go seven and nine from now until the end of days, and there will be no change. It's almost Bengals-esque in the way that it is so static there. So it doesn't surprise me to see them backing the guy that they basically swapped out for Bradford. If they did a deal, I'm sure it would be closer to the Dalton type where it's a two or three year, it's year by year without a ton of money. And it would less than Andy Dalton, but to Chris's point, you want to see the whole Nick Foles in a Frank Signetti PI offense throwing to a receiver group where Kenny Britt is the number one.

Let's see if that works out a little bit first before giving the money. Detective Frank Signetti's on the case. From what we've seen out of this coaching staff in this front office, do we have any reason to believe that we should trust their evaluations on the offensive side of the ball? Well, I think one thing, Brian Schottenheimer, not that we've, you know, we've pounded on this guy before, but he's out the door and there are multiple Ramos players that have said it's completely different with Signetti. The offense looks different. We're more creative, et cetera, et cetera.

I think Schottenheimer in many stops show that he could not look at a quarterback and tell you what you have. Jeff Fischer not exactly known for dynamic. No, he's not. Signity, you're out of control. Give me a badge. I'll take your badge and you're not. a gun. Is that also T.D.'s mom in your world?

That was, I don't know who. I don't think that. Why would you say that she would speak in such a masculine way? Because your past impression was equally off target. I'm sure she is a very delightful woman. Can you do an impression of your mom for the show? Not really, no, actually. It sounds nothing like that, though.

TD, you've got to get married. No. Way off. All right, moving on. The Houston Texans, they have a real barn burner in the quarterback room, a great competition between Brian Hoyer, the former Browns quarterback, Cleveland Springsteen, and Ryan Mallet, who we know around here is Damashek's boy. According to one prominent beat reporter, or now columnist, John McLean of the Houston Chronicle,

Hoyer, he expects Hoyer to be the week one starting quarterback and everything that apparently they're seeing, Hoyer looks comfortable in the offense. Bill O'Brien trusts him. He's going back in their history in New England, and Ryan Mallet has not really impressed anyone so far. So, Mark, I'll start with you on this one. Are you surprised that Hoyer is potentially beating out, or so far has outplayed Ryan Mallet? Or is this kind of what we should have expected? Well, not really because Hoyer has more starting experience.

He's gone through more first-team reps than Matt. it could ever have dreamed up at this point. But it was a year ago, just like we talked about a minute ago with Foles, that it was Cleveland talking about already wanting to get an extension for Hoyer in place. And one year later, he's on a different team, and he's a bad training camp away from not even being a starter. I think we have the same conversation about Roy. Exactly. I think these guys are a mix and match. Both of them are going to play this season, no matter what.

But here's the thing. Mike Silver wrote a piece last week where he said O'Brien wants to get the starter announced early in training camp, possibly even before trading camp, although that would be a surprise. That indicates to me, he knows who his favorite is. And based on John McLean saying it, Tanya Ganguly of ESPN said, you know, Hoyer's been very consistent. And some of the things I listened to from O'Brien, and a little buzz we're kind of hearing behind the scenes.

Whispers. It would be surprising at this point if Brian Hoyer's not the weak-one starter. Sorry, Damashek, but I think Ryan Mowl's going to be the backup. When you cover news on a daily basis, you start to develop a spidey sense. And yesterday was that, that you've got John McLean, who's been on the beat for, what, 30 or 40 years. He's very well sourced in Houston. Tanya Gungoley, who's been on the beat for a few years. And they both have almost identical tweets that Hoyer looks like the guy.

He's so much more natural in the offense, almost like they were being fed this information. Exactly. They're not making this up out of thin air. Someone is telling them that, and they're now confident enough to send it to the podcast. public that he's going to get the job. So I feel like I'm going to take this sandwich prop that I have with Damashik. What was it? 12 starts for Mallet this year.

Oh, I wish I got on that. Yeah, that was an easy one. Mallet might not make a single start. The things that Shaq was saying about Ryan Mallet from about February until last month were outrageous. Yeah, you could be arrested for some of them. We'll see what happens. All right, moving on. So the Green Bay Packers have.

You know, obviously one of the best offenses in football, if not the best. And there is reason for excitement that could be even better this year with Aaron Rogers behind center and some interesting players, Chris Wessling. You have the rookie Ty Montgomery, second year wide out Devante Adams, who is being called the MVP of the off-season program. And then six-year tight-in, Andrew Coralus, who is looking for a bigger role this season, West. You think that this could be a year where these guys become big. big-time players in an already great offense.

Well, records are broken, you know, on a semi-annual basis now in the NFL just because of we're in the past heavy offense age. So, I mean, to me, why can't the Packers break Peyton Manning's records from a couple years ago? You've got already one of the best offenses in the league. I think Mike McCarthy said, if we improve a little bit, we'll be the best offense pro football has seen. Pretty high praise.

And then that was before Devante Adams came on like gangbusters this offseason. I went back and watched his tape and loved everything about it. Aaron Rogers has been saying since the playoffs that this guy's a future number one receiver. You throw in Quarles, who he says is going to take the jump, I think. It's making the leap, yeah. And then Ty Montgomery, who the spice rack, basically, the spice rack basically compared him

to some kind of Steve Smith-Anquan Bolden hybrid. For new listeners, Spicey. This is some sort of Sven Gali in the mountains that does nothing but watch football film. and feeds Wesleying his four pearls of them each year. College. And they're always right.

College. Wes pays him in granola. Keep him alive and Gatorade. It's like Wes and I were talking about yesterday before watching the calves go down in massive flames. That the Packers have proven to be the one team that without signing free agents and bringing in other players that other teams developed, they develop their own and they just keep reloading. And this happens every year. There's this dark horse candidate in Green Bay. that gets a lot of praise.

And this time around, it sounds like they found a number three who's going to set it up. Yeah, I hope he's not the this year's Cordrell Patterson. Because I think Adams, the way Rogers is talking about him in terms of his work ethic and his leadership, and he likes his confidence. He thinks he cares himself like a number one receiver. I think they believe he's at the point where he can be as productive and maybe as impactful as Randall Cobb and maybe even Jordy Nelson coming off hip surgery. One thing we underestimate in the 21st century because of the free agency era is the value

of stability and continuity, and you read old football books, and they'll tell you that offenses, dynasties happened, basically, because all of these players were playing with each other every year. And look at the Packers. I mean, Adams is the only one who hasn't been there longer than two years, really. I guess Richard Rogers is a tight end, but Rogers has been thrown to these guys for years. The offensive lines gelled for years. That's a big advantage going into the season.

One of the funnier aspects of going to that premiere yesterday was a lot of people that were there we know on some level and people were giving Mark condolence messages about the calves and it was clear Mark had checked out days earlier on this Cleveland reawakening and you didn't really care that Well no because you know

not to be negative on the calves I thought they fought very hard but I just felt like it was over before yesterday's game I was a zombie man emotionally attached to them Not yesterday You detach very quickly You were for like the end of game one

through game four. It was a little weird, yeah. You were very invested. Then you realized it wasn't going to happen. I did an emotional checkout, self-defense. I don't blame you. Finally, the Tennessee Titans released Sean Green, Green who came into the league with the Jets.

And he was awesome as a rookie. I remember him running over Antonio Cromartie ducking to get away from Sean Green in the playoffs on a 50-yard touchdown run. I remember he tore through the Bengals defense like they weren't even there in the playoffs. He did. hard downhill type runner and he looked like a guy that was going to be good for many years

and he kind of just petered out and he was basically an afterthought this season there was no way they're going to keep him so sean green on the street mike munchack once compared him to eddie george when he came to tennessee he's going to be like our eddie george well and we've been here long enough where we were writing articles about he was going to be the jets bell cow and then that never happened and he never has been that guy since and they've found y'allel younger players in Tennessee that they like a lot more than them. Little spoiler for the next segment coming up. Might be.

We're going to be my talk some Titans running game. Whispers! It's fitting that he was released by the Titans because he hasn't been relevant in a few years and the Titans are just now starting to become relevant. Oh. It's like they're shedding their former identity. So getting rid of Green's like the last little bit they need. Sean Green was like, it's irrelevant.

He was like the perfect representative of the Titans. Yes. And he doesn't fit in with the new. He doesn't fit in with the Marriota Titans. The six Titans fans that stuck with us through last season are loving this talk. All right, that's what's happening. Let's move on and talk a little rookie, rookie ball in a segment we like to call rookie buzz or rookie whispers.

Careless whisper by WAMT. This is a Sully special actually. Sully. He is trying to get it. Sully fighting to stay relevant. The guilty feet have got no rhythm. Look at Sully fighting for relevant. That's one millennial that knows his music history.

Yeah, very good. That is a jam. No question. What a song. Anyway, so yes, we're going to do some rookie careless whispers. And, you know, we'll start with Mark Sessler, who really, I mean, this guy, when you want to come to someone that's plugged in on the backfields of America. and the depth charts and everything you want to know about running backs.

You go to Mark Sessler. So, Mark, I believe your two choices are both running backs. Yeah, let's start with David Cobb. The Young Titans running back, who Daniel Jeremiah thinks is a sneaky candidate for offensive rookie of the year. And one day, you know, day after he said that, they go and they cut Sean Green and Ken Wisenhunt basically said it's, we've got the young guys have looked good enough.

We don't need him. And I do think that, you know, Sanky was. because Sanky was Greg's boy last year. Maybe we can swing and miss twice on the same team and the same position group. But it sounds like Cobb gives that team what they need. He advertises a tough between-the-tackles guy who maybe isn't necessarily a super flashy guy on tape, but they want to be a tough running team.

That's what they've tried to be for years. And, you know, they want Sanky to add weight and get bigger. But Cobb's already a bigger guy that can do it. The only thing I wonder is if they loved him so much, why did they take him in the fifth round? DJ talks about him as a sneaky offensive rookie of the year candidate, which is maybe he will be. Alfred Morris was a six-round pick.

They took a fullback before him. It happened sometimes, but they clearly didn't think he was going to be a game-changing player if they took a full-back in front of him. True. I looked at his draft diary that we have on the site, and there was an AFC running backs coach that said, like, I hope we can get him.

He can step right in and play because he runs tough and he knows how to pass protect. I have to wonder if that was Tennessee. But again, if it was, they really waited a while to get him. At the same time, like, Sanky is, he feels vulnerable because he's under pressure to come in and be something he was in all last season. It's like maybe he's just automatically going to be second down, second string by the time the season starts.

There's nothing special about him. Whispers. That means to do your next one. We're going two in a row. Oh, yeah. Back to back, maybe. Well, the second guy, you know, Duke Johnson from Cleveland, because I thought they already had their two young.

running backs. Greg, go ahead. What do you can do? I just wanted to do it. A second duplicate sound effect. I like that. You know, Mark, stay focused.

Sometimes it's in stereo. I am trying to. There's multiple sound effects. You have to stay focused during your thing. We could just go, Whispat. I will forge on. And in time.

They, I think that, you know, Adam Kaplan from ESPN came away saying that Duke Johnson is out. All right, enough is enough. Enough is enough. He's been by far the most impressive running back. Wilbert Montgomery, their running back's coach, said they're going to use him as a G.O. Bernard type character.

Where's Waldo type character? We'll see. I don't know. I like it. I am done. I'm not saying another word. Continue on. Whispers.

Chris Wesley. When I started hearing about Amari Cooper a few weeks ago, Adam Kaplan had a report that he was the real deal in OTAs. And Eric Edholm of Yahoo spoke with an agent who said his client was in all of Amari Cooper playing like a veteran So he was coming on the scene I reached out the rap sheet to figure out What he's hearing and he said well

He knew that when Cooper came out of Alabama They considered him the best and most ready NFL wide receiver They have ever produced including Julio Jones And then rap sheet I believe is fairly tight with Reggie McKenzie The Raiders GM who came over from Green Bay And tried to sign Randall Cobb as a free agent The Packer signed him right before the deadline But apparently McKenzie views Cooper as a bigger and more NFL ready, Randall Cobb, which is pretty high praise.

Cooper has been everything he was billed to be. Maybe that came from them not getting Randall Cobb. That was one of their big free agent targets. You don't get him. You get him, Ari. Get somebody better. Who else he got? Philip Dorset.

Philip Dorset, I believe is how it's pronounced. No, not. Brissette. That's right. Was that TD's mom? No, no, no, no, no. I'm going to have to give my mom on a phone before. Yeah, T.D., I apologize.

I already asked to lay off this nonsense. T.D., it's time for you to find your woman. Oh, my gosh. That is not correct. What was that? That is, now she's an Irish man. Gotcha. Let's go ahead.

Smell Gibson and Braveheart, basically. Always loved you. Always loved you. It's like I'm watching Rob Roy. All right. Sorry. This is my phone. Well, Philip Dorset.

You know he's going to. come in and his speed is going to impress right away and that happened but when these fast guys come in i remember when chris johnson came in in 2008 the key is the coaches and the quarterback are they are they praising you for the right reasons dorset's playing all the wide receiver positions he's got a handle on them he's in the right place he's where he's supposed to be dante moncrieff wasn't doing all that stuff last year doris it is he's coming in and andrew luck trusts him and the quarterbacks love and the coaches love him i think that's a great sign They're going to be, if the Packers could break records this off-season, why can't the Colts?

I mean, this season. I mean, why can't the Colts? If Dorset is as fun as he is as we think he is and the run game is better, like they are a team that should be competing. I would be the leading leader in point. Two reasons. Packers' offensive line is considerably better than the Colts. And as much as I like luck, he's not Aaron Rogers.

Well, and how about the Colts defense? Can they get off the field? I don't love the defense. They also get the play. That would help them score. Yeah, exactly. They're lousy defense. Defense, give up 40 points a game, and luck is get a shootout.

Not if they're on the field for 40 minutes a game. Whaspers. I'll go next. The Chicago Bears used their seventh. The seventh overall pick on Kevin White, just June, of course, but there is an injury that he's dealing with that they're tight-lipped on, haven't said anything. Our own Stacey Dales tweeted that it was, quote, something to keep an eye on.

And meanwhile, you know, when you talk about which guys hit the ground running, which guys need some time to get going. I found it somewhat notable that Jay Cutler said that White is competing for the fourth wide-out spot right now behind Alshon Jeffrey, Marquis Wilson, and Eddie Royal. So, you know, all rookies need to work their way up a depth chart, but this is a guy you expect to have an instant impact, and it seems like maybe he's a little slow out of the gates and his health isn't helping matters. I think that's the John Fox Factor, who just absolutely is disgusted by playing rookies.

Jay Cutler, once again, building a bridge to a great relationship. relationship with young converseers. Hey, you're worse than Mark East Wilson. Eddie Royal, for Christ's sake. But that's a fair point about Fox. Whether it's White's fault or not

in the injury, we'll see if it's serious at all. Fox could get in the way. As he's got in the way of a lot of young players over the years, that could be a problem. I'd be shocked if Kevin White

isn't starting opposite Alshan Jeffrey when the season opens. Wouldn't Adam Gase have some saying this? Cutler also said Jeffrey has a chance to be like a true number one type of. Well, he has to be. I don't think he has been at this point. Well,

nobody has to be now. Way, you were, you were saying on this very podcast two years ago that Jeffrey was better than Brandon Marshall. He was playing better that year and he was making more big plays. I guess I'm thinking more about last year. He wasn't a consistent guy you looked at each week and thought that that's the guy we got to worry. You were Elshon Jeffrey's biggest fan. Well, it doesn't help when Cutler's the one setting you up with the football. I mean, that's a major issue. Whisper. I'm starting to get excited about the James Winston experience. Big, strong, talented, you know.

Backup. Comes on to an offense. Yeah, not a start yet. Comes to an office with two all-pro playmakers, some other interesting pieces. You know, Crab Man's going to do some work this year. And I also find it interesting that he's been, I've watched his press conferences and his meeting with the media.

He's come off as impressive. I know, you know, it kind of brought back some. memories for me of when Cam Newton came out of college with all that baggage and then he's been kind of a model citizen ever since he got to the league maybe the Bucks luck out and all their scouting work that he was an immature kid but he was going to it would click so far so good it seems like he's got the respect of his teammates he's doing the right things he's getting raves from the people covering the team that he's looking really good so far

I think so far so good for James Winston who to me is the favorite for offensive. If we're worried about John Fox managing the career of a young offensive talent, what do we think about Lovie Smith? He says he has a plan. I'm going to put him at number two and keep rolling him at number two snaps. What plan is this? Because this is not a guy that's rolled out a lot of successful offensive plans ever, not even one.

This is the most proven offensive coordinator and most capable offensive coordinator he's ever had. And that's not, their cutter is not that proven than Mike Martz? Super Bowl, Winning offensive coordinator, Mike Martz? Well, Architect of the greatest show on earth, Mike Mark?

What era, though? How's Mike Martz done since then? But that's fair. He's not as proven as Mike Martz. Most of the Bears' offensive coordinators, and there were... Mike Tice. There were a lot of them,

you know, weren't really guys that had just come from a very similar and positive situation. I'm giving a little credit to Cutter because Smith's not going to be involved. I think we've learned that. He's like a Rex Ryan type that just has no clue.

hope some other guy does the offense for him. If Lovie Smith has a plan involving a quarterback, I'd want nothing to do with that plan. Oh. Why is my whisper? This is petering out. Well, the podcast is coming to a close, and, you know, how many whispers can a man have before it's his final breath? Whispers? That's strong.

All right, give him a little music, too. He seems to be needing it right now. Yeah. How about Marcus Mariotto? We might as well stick with the. top quarterbacks. I think if I was reading between the lines of all the top players that were taken in the draft, including Winston, I think Marriota's made the strongest, most

immediate impression with everyone around that team saying, you know, I know they're going to say it about the new franchise quarterback, but the position coaches, the players, the reporters, everyone's saying that they're far more impressed than they expected with how he's jumped out of the Gates in terms of taking charge of the team, learning the offense, and zipping some accurate passes in practice. Devil's Advocate? I would love to go back to 2011, June, and see what they were saying about Jake Locker.

That's fair, because you hear this stuff about everyone of these guys. He was struggling to get playing time. Mariotta is a guy that they're putting in right away. That's the number one guy right away. He's taking charge. Locker was sort of the opposite. But my point more being usually these high-end guys, everyone's in love with them initially. But you just talked about Winston.

Yeah, but I said that, you know. I didn't just talk about his actual ability on the field that he seemed to be carrying himself in a good way after being troubled in college. But Locker's a good example. And Mansell and Ponder and a lot of guys, those guys were known as being inaccurate in practice. They did take a long time to kind of learn the system and everything.

It just, I guess it's the level of that they think he's ready to go and more of the approach that he's had in the building. People were worried about the leadership all that. Well, remember a couple of months ago when we're huddled over our TVs watching Winston go through his quarterback thing where they're swinging a broom at him? Oh, yeah. What's going on right now is not a whole lot removed from that, honestly. So let's get the pads on and let's see it against a real defense. It's all wind right now, and we know it.

Whisper. Hey, that's not the whispers we're hearing, Greg. Let's be accurate about what the whispers are saying. Whispers! I don't even remember who is my second guy? I don't know. I thought you've already done like... He's an animal.

Oh, Devante Parker. We cover that. Devante Parker, the point with him is that everyone is expected that he's going to come back and make a big impact. This is a foot surgery that he's going to be out for three to four months. So I just wanted to kind of put this out there that he might not be ready for the start of the season. And he's going to be way behind in terms of learning things in training camp. And this foot surgery, he's gotten a lot of buzz like, okay, everything was great before the foot surgery. and just putting that to the side.

It's a pretty big deal. He had foot surgery. He wouldn't have been drafted in the first round if he had foot surgery. That's one of the most problematic injuries that you can possibly have, and it makes me a little worried if you're a Dolphins fan

about the improvement of that. How about if you're DeVanta Parker's mom, don't go say, I don't want to play my son playing for the Browns. I don't want him playing in Cleveland. How about you get on the field in Miami first? Is that what DeVante Parker's mom sounds like? Yeah.

Well, I don't know that. No, I did not shift into one of your fantastic female impressions right there. Whisper. That's it. I'm throwing out another one. All right. Oh, no. How about Delvin Bro?

B-R-E-A-U-X. Now, that is a name that you want. That is a New Orleans Saints name, if I ever heard one. I've been to a Cajun Crawfish Festival in Bro Bridge, Louisiana. I mean, that is a Cajun word, a Cajun name. You mad, bro? Guy, no one ever heard of, and he's their starting slot cornerback right now out of nowhere, passing the immortal Kyle Wilson.

I did hear about him. know why I heard about him? He shut down Duran Carter in the CFL playoffs. Like, just locked him down. D. Bro. On the biggest stage in the world. The CFL playoffs. Physical cornerback who's coming off of two years in the CFL.

Watch out for him. He counts as a rookie. Dan or Greg here who, you know, this is not well advertised, but along with being a Patriots fan, the Saints fan. And now that the Patriots, there's been an offseason a little bit rocky, they've already, they've come off a big Super Bowl, getting back in his D-E-Bro. mode. He loves D-Bro, cornerback, slot corner guy, and he's getting back on the Saints.

They look good this season. He just shouts. He bailed on the Super Bowl, just like he's bailing on the Patriots. He will shift right back into Saints mode if they got hot. Watch. Once you get a little success, you get bored. That's ugly. All right, that's it for rookie whispers, the careless edition. And that is it for, yeah, let's play out with this. That's it for today's edition. Well, no, before we do that. Oh, silly me. You know the... I forgot. I forgot.

Okay, go ahead. You were doing so well, T.D. Can I just say, before you do this, I have a feeling that I'm pulling for Mark here. I've got a good feeling about today. Oh, good. I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this, Mark. For once, didn't come last.

Oh, wow. Wow. That goes to Dan and his horrible mother impressions. TD, come on, man. Horrible. And I got to go with Greg. I mean, he was enthusiastic with Rickler's conspiracy. He was jumping on the sound effects.

He was ready to go. So I got to go with Greg. Great choice. Good job, Greg. Now, before we leave, though, before we leave, I have a voicemail for my mom. Oh. I hear what she sounds like. Very good.

Maybe. Maybe we will say. But here's my mom calling me and singing for some reason. Somebody love you. I want you to know. That was very nice, and, you know, I'm happy you have such a great mother. But that didn't sound too far off from my husband to be honest. Somebody loves you. You need to know that I always loved you and I always really. In his mind, he sounds like he, in his mind, he thinks he's doing the great impression. I was like that.

A young me was like that was Snoop Dog. I thought I sounded like Snoop. A true young Kobe. Your mom just, Snoop Dog and young Kobe? That was beautiful. Your mom just put moms everywhere on blast. You got a voice mail from their mom like that today. That's pretty good.

All right, let's get out of here. Congratulations, Greg. We'll be back on Thursday with our big win, West's toaster, skill and valor, spectacular. Maybe Connor Orr will be on the phone, too, so get ready for that. Are you kidding me? Stan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the boss. TD behind the glass. Until Thursday.

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