NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Manziel reaction & Bucky Brooks

Episode Date: December 10, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- react to the latest NFL news including the Cleveland Browns naming Johnny Manziel as the Week 15 starter and the fallout of Cam Newton's car accident. Plus, Bucky Brooks joins the program to discuss Drew Stanton and other upcoming quarterback prospects.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. All right, this is Dan with the Around the NFL podcast. Before we get going today, I want to tell you a little bit about Fanduel. Your season-long fantasy football league is winding down, I know, but the one-week fantasy football leagues on Fanduel have never been bigger. Don't wait till next year, play more fantasy football for real cash this season, Mark. Over at Fanduel.com, Matt Nichols, Matt A, from Ohio, turned a $25 deposit into over $25,000 playing fantasy football on Fandul.

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That's Fandul.com. Sign up today. The Around the NFL podcast. Likes this kind of party. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hanses and I'm joined by room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys? Hey, Dan. What is happening? The kind of party West does not like is our holiday

party, which was last night. Three of us went, no wrestling. Stunner. Upset of the year, I like to call it. Well, look, events conspired against me, and I chose to spend my night in a different establishment. True or false. That's even stranger that you went out to a different bar. I'm mysterious. True or false, the requirement for cocktail attire is what really confused you and stopped you. That went into it. Look, I lived on an island for eight years. I lived on an

island. Where the attire for a wedding or funeral was flip-flops and T-shirts. I don't have a section in my closet called cocktail attire that I can go to on a random Tuesday. How about the fact? And just plug in and get a like cocktail whatever.

Did Greg scheduling you for a 4 a.m. wake up this morning have anything to do with it? exaggeration. He was in a 6 a. Greg scheduled me for a.m. wake up. 6 a.m. start time. Did play into it, but this is not kissing up to Greg,

but I do not want any part of making the schedule, so I don't complain about the schedule. I like that. So, Wes, we wish you were there. It was a fun time. Mark, thanks for behaving yourself this year. After last year's shenanigans. Well, I learned from previous ups and downs. And the office is hurting a little bit.

I saw somebody in the huddle actually passed out with their face buried in their hand. and obviously stayed out a little too late, maybe hit a nightcap bar. Who was that? I can't see. Well, we don't need to go down that road. I need to know. Great job by all the people who responded to our picture we sent out with TD. Of course, Mugging right in the middle.

That's where he wants. We got some comments that, TD, that you're a good-looking fellow. But especially our follower, Sean Batchelor, who sent in the new Delaware album. The New Table of Boys, parental advisory because of explicit lyric. because it was a great job. I retweeted it if you guys want to check it out. I appreciate that Boys is with a Z. Oh, yeah. Very well done.

You know, so it's fun talking about the party and we're going to obviously get to everything that we have a lot of news today. A little Thursday night preview. We're going to have a little guest, Bucky Brooks, the great analyst and former players going to come visit and we're going to talk a little football, a little quarterback. Well, football makes sense. I do want to say I'm a little disappointed.

The news came down yesterday. that we are not iTunes best of 2014. We're not? Oh. We did not. We did not get chosen. Well, that company, that outfit, has obviously gone off the rails. That is a high-octane outrage.

Well, they only picked 10, in fairness. Last year we were in the new category. There's a lot less new. Then there's classic, so that's everyone else. And only one sports podcast made it. It wasn't us. I tell you what, I put us up against fresh air any day. I'm a naturally competitive.

person so I wanted to see who else who won who do we have to go after it turns out one of the winners was snooky from jersey shore uh naturally Nicole was the name of the podcast so I had to listen to it and it did make me quite angry I don't think you had to listen to it it was for the purposes of the show I think you could have gotten the gist of it without listening to it and it looks like you know there's a mountain of trees growing on my leg wait that sounds a lot like something mark would say i kind of like that commentary from her anyway so we'll maybe we'll get them next year it looks like an old angry italian woman with her mouth open west do you still think i shouldn't listen to the episode because i had a lot of gold that was like the packers falcons game you could have written that

before it happened if that turkey was alive that turkey would be so high right now wow anyway so yeah next year we'll get them next year um let's uh t-d behind the glass again Listen, TD, he got in front of that camera, and the camera loves him. What's up, buddy? What's going on, guys? West, we missed you out there, man. We miss you out there. Well, a lot of feedback.

I'm just got a bad job by Wes. If he went to another bar, bad job. Look, I could go to another bar and wear jeans and a ball cap. It's that important to you what you're wearing. They priced me out of this party. It was free. It wasn't for writers. It was for executives.

I don't have, look, no one gave me a uniform allowance for this. You're wearing nice enough clothes. Every time you're on NFL now, that's plenty good. One comment, everything at the party was free. All these other people get paid to, like, dress up, like, models. And I'm not going to go there with my, like, mailman clothes. You could have been like Z-drizz. You're not a mailman anymore.

You could have been like Z- Drizzles, Zach Dressler, a producer. I think he had a long-sleeved t-shirt on. He didn't care. He just straight-up didn't care. I was like Z-Drizzled, but I was doing it at another establishment with my long-slee. We totally barely the lead, though. Dan and his hair got a lot of people. That's true.

CD, we spoke to a bartenderess who saw a photo of you and could not stop raving about him. Mm, TD's hot. Let's do some news. He's peanut butter and jealous. What is there to be jealous of? They hate us, because they anus. Is that Dennis Green? That is not Dennis Green.

That's James Franco and Seth Rogen. You guys need to keep over your movie trailer, man. Peanut butter and jealous. Wait, is that the movie, the North Korea movie? Yeah, the interview movie. Got Sony hacked? Yeah. I don't stand by that film.

because I don't want to be hacked. All right, let's get into some news. And we'll start in Carolina. Scary, scary incident. On Tuesday, of course, Cam Newton driving to the team facility gets in an accident. His car, his truck, a big monster truck he drives flips. They say at least once he suffers two fractures in his lower back area. So there were reports initially in Rappaport, our insider, said the team felt it was unlikely he would play.

That was said on Tuesday, on Wednesday. It became official. Derek Anderson will start in week 15 against the Bucks. Derek Anderson, who started one other game this season, Week 1 also against the Bucs and got the win. So Newton out, we don't know for how long. Anderson in a virtual must win for the Panthers. I guess if, I mean, if Carolina lost this game to a Bucks team

that is just a collage of ugliness, if they ever lost, I mean, maybe they just shut Cam Newton down for the year. You got nothing to play for. Yeah, that assumes the Saints or the Falts. Falcons win this week, too. That's a lot to assume, which we shouldn't. But that's a fair point. I think we were all in the newsroom when it happened.

Yeah, I'm sure the Panthers are just relieved that that's all it was. I mean, the guy flipped over three times. It's insane. It was wild. One of those things, the way journalism works now, everything is on Twitter. It's happening as it goes along every second. There's a new development. What happened outside the Charlotte Observer?

You can literally see the Charlotte Observer building. at the crash site. So yeah, to my point that, you know, there was erroneous tweets floating out there that he had broken legs, and then there was a picture. Someone took a picture of him, what they said was smiling. It was probably more like a grimace because he suffered a real injury. So crazy scene, and Derek Anderson actually played pretty well that one game he played. I was really impressed.

I mean, it wasn't a perfect game. They let the bucks back into it, but he made five or six throws in that game, and they had the offense moving very well in that week one game. I don't see any reason why they can't win with Derek Anderson. And there's actually a scenario where the Saints are eliminated before the Panthers. If Carolina, because they have a division game left against Atlanta and they have this one left, they can get all the tiebreakers in the NFC South win that division. They've been running the ball so well with Wes's boy, Jonathan Stewart of late,

that I don't think Anderson has to do everything alone. He's always had a strong arm. Here's what happens though. If they ever win this thing, it's going to be Derek Anderson. versus Cleveland of all teams in week 16, what could be a elimination game for both teams. Very weird. It's my favorite part of this story?

Yeah. Cam Newton's license plate preens as much as he does. Oh, not trying to take shots at him. It says, you too small. We're very happy that he is okay. Very interesting that he was driving a 1998 Dodge Monster truck, essentially. Dodge Ram? That used to be my car.

But, I mean, it was like super. No, mine was not souped up. It was huge. It was something else. Not souped up like your big Irish car is now. That thing's about to hit the junkie. 93 Toyota Camry. Chris is driving around with broken glass in his backseat. That was so sarcastic.

Speaking of Mike, speaking of the Cleveland Browns, Mike Patton, he's excited to see Johnny Mansell play. This is news that came down right at the same time just about as the Cam Newton accident. Mansell was officially announced as a starter, sending Brian Hoyer to the bench. sending Chris Wessling into cartwheels at Casa del Wessling. Well, kind of. I mean, I like watching exciting players. Exactly. So now Mansell is the quarterback.

He will start in a huge, huge game for the Browns this week. And Petten had this to say, on Wednesday I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't excited to see him play. And you know what? That's what I'm talking about. To your point, we're all excited to see him play. I believe it's a week too late, but that's in the past now. And now he's in and it's his chance to save the season, Mark Sessler. I mean, I think for any football fan, it's kind of a little late-season gift-wrapped bit of pleasure.

Because, you know, this whole crop of rookie quarterbacks, they've been interesting to some degree, but I'd say they've been an underwhelming group on the whole. Because all along, this is the guy we thought we'd see earlier in the year. And here he is, and they've got a chance to do something for that team. They haven't been to the playoffs in over a decade. You know, it's a very slight chance because it's not an easy schedule necessarily, but three games left. Mansell.

It's awesome. You got no tape on the guy. You don't know what he's going to do. I don't think even Petten said he had to take Kyle Shanahan, went into a room for hours just by himself to figure out what to do with Mansell this week. So, you know, this is a game of the week potential. It's a little gift for everyone except for Scrooge Mick Groupthink over here. What?

I wasn't excited. I wasn't that excited because he came in a 20 to 3 game when there's five other great games going on. Of course I'm excited to go see him play. Why not? I mean, Brian Hart, there's only so many times you can see a ball sale 15. yards over a receiver's head. Well, endless times with Hoyer, but not anymore. The saddest moment was on Wednesday when Brian Hoyer met with the media, and it's just the

saddest goal. I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me. I got to live out a childhood dream, and it's not over. There's still a chance I could play for this. It just, I don't know, there was just something about it, that this was his dream, his whole life, and it's like he's realizing it didn't happen. Well, in Petten, I mean, and I think that, for my take, Petton, maybe they should have put him in a week ago, Mansell, but he's done a nice job managing this all year, and he said it was one of the hardest things he's had to do professionally to tell Hoyer that his season was potentially over. On Sunday, there will be a chill in the air.

They took his team. Viciously below average. They stole his innocence. A childlike, but not to suggest innocence or purity. They made a football life about his misery. Control, alt delete. And opened a factory of sadness that never closed. Now the climate is right for revenge.

This winter, there's a hurricane coming for anyone who looks in this direction on a Sunday. It'll be an apocalyptic sunset. Mark Sessler is Quiet Storm. This show cannot end fast enough, and I have a sharply worded letter to hand to you, my friend. Looking forward to it. Apparently not good enough for iTunes, though. Yeah, exactly. By the way, Snookie.

You got anything like that? Where's your production value, Snooks? Don't look like a freak. Whatever, lady. Moving on the Norleans Saints. No Orleans Saints. Sean Payton is shaking things up with the team coming off. Really, we talked about one of the low points of the Peyton era.

And the big, big move that stood out. Kenny Vaccaro benched, of course, the first round pick of a year ago, is having a not a great season. So I guess Vaccaro is being, the message is being, sent to the Saints, shape up or sit on the bench. Spent the offseason saying that with Jairus Bird. Jairoos fired. Jairooos.

Tdio fired. Kenny Vicarro and Raphael Bush, the Saints threesome at safety, could match up even with the Seahawks. And here they are. With the season on the line, none of the three is going to play on Sunday. Well, not only that. Kenny Vicaro is number two on our making a leap list before the first. the year. Cordarelle Patterson right now has been bench for Charles Johnson. Kenny Vaccaro, I think,

was bench for some plumber in New Orleans they found to play this week. Our number three was Andre Ellington, which wasn't terrible, but he just got put on injured reserve this week. It's been a bad week. I are. He was averaging three and a half yards of carry. And then it spills into Toby Gearhart. And number four, Levyon Bell and Jamie Collins, four and five. I like those two. Well, last year, we had Bruce Carter number two and Ryan Tannihill number one. This series is over. I'm not going to use all of next June writing 7,000-word love letters to Toby Gearhart's brother

who's going to sign up with the Arizona Cardinals. Forget it. Wow. Sessler sticks a fork in the Making a Lips series. Not sure I'm going to go... Segment on segment crime. I'm not sure we're going to go along with it. The more interesting thing in this saint story,

Sean Payton called ten different saints into his office for review, like it was the principal office, and they released Joseph Morgan. It just, I've never heard of such a thing. Like, on an off day, like, he's calling people in to chew them out. It's just, that's the most. Well, maybe he's trying to send a message above if anyone's listening. Like, I still care.

I'm still here doing something. Are you taking any notes from this approach, Greg? No, I'm not going to do that. My biggest note is they lose three straight here or something like that to end the season. I don't know. We could have some ugliness in the off season in New season. war runs that involves Peyton. That's all I'm saying.

All right, moving on. Jadavian Clowny has played his final snap of the season, and the news is not good on the knee. He underwent micro fracture knee surgery this week, which is obviously a very serious procedure. He's expected to miss nine months the recovery. They're hoping for a full recovery, but obviously for a player that entered the league

with as much hype as anyone in the last few years, this is a really devastating setback, both for the player and the Texans. I think my biggest takeaway is it's hard to judge him, but we know, I mean, pretty much for a fact, if he had a concussion, sports hernia surgery, and major microfracture knee surgery a year ago, he's definitely not going number one overall in the draft. He's not going in the top 10. I mean, not with microfactor surgery. There's not a long list.

I don't know if there's any list of guys that really recover that well for microfracture surgery. It depends on the variety of microfracture. But Deuce McAllister did Travis Kelsey is coming off micro fracture But there are minor and major versions of micro fracture The Texans did I think the Clowny It seems sometimes there's a knock on him

Maybe he's not an all-in type football player like some But Bill O'Brien went out of his way to say This guy was here every day Worked tirelessly to come back I mean they're not all the same injury It was a variety of injuries It's bad luck, yeah That would be sad though

If he's played his best football before he ever really got to the NFL because they were talking about him like he was an L.T. type talent. We all remember the famous tackle in the backfield he had in his junior year. So you only hope that he gets all the way back. And, Wes, to your point, with microfracture surgery, Jake Ballard, wasn't he another microfracture? His was of the very serious variety.

Yeah. Well, and just to this year, imagine if they had him all year and that he was a contender for defensive rookie year. This is a team we never talk about, but they're seven and six, and they'd be, they're right in the mix, they could be a lot better. Marvin Lewis has apologized twice for making an insensitive remark toward Johnny Mansell or in Mansell's direction. He called on a radio interview in Cincinnati.

He was asked if they were worried about defending a player. He said, well, we're not worried about defending a midget was the term he used. So he issued a quick apology to Manzell and the Browns and then offered up a statement, which he read up on the issue on the Little People of America website. So not a great couple of days for Marvin Lewis, who opened his mouth at the wrong time and said the wrong thing. I think if you're Mike Patton,

you're very excited that the opposing coach has had, you know, a lot of team mandated apology letters, a public issue, and you've got to spend a day on a little people of America's website when you should be game planning for the Browns. You love it, don't you, Mark? Well, I think it's Marvin Lewis occasionally says stupid things. We know that. Really?

He would have been like one of the last guys I would have expected to say things. I remember there's a few moments earlier this year? Yeah, he's had a few moments, but this was an odd one. I mean, it was like, did someone, you know, drug his drink or something? I don't know what happened to this guy. Did you hear Mansell's response today? Yes, I did.

Why don't you tell our listeners? Mark didn't. No, I did. He said it's not like I'm going to sprout five inches before the game on something. He was a good sport about it. He's not exactly a little person either. He's almost six feet tall. He's just the shade under six feet.

If he's short, he'd be the top. tallest guy in this room. I mean, he'd just narrowly beat out Dan here, but he'd be towering over me. He'd certainly push Mark and Wes around. Wes might be able to put up a little bit of a bite. Mark. Oh, just Wes. Mark. That's not pushing me. Do you have

any apology you want to issue right now? Oh, we're on time for that. Okay. Just want to throw it out there. Maybe for your support of Brian Hoyer last week. No, I don't apologize for that, Greg. All right. And that's what's happening. Now we welcome into the studio. He is a great man. He's

talented scout former NFL player he's an analyst for NFL network NFL media NFL now NFL dot com he does it all man did we get do we get all the entities he is and he also has a laugh similar to iconic rap star jZ he is shi boy bucky brooks shi boy he loves it we haven't had bucky on in too long it's been too long welcome back bucky What's been going on in your life? Not too much, man.

Just football, football. Nothing personal going out. We never really delve into the man behind the Bucky. No, not too much. You're taking out. He's an enigma. We saw this is how this happened, and this is how things come together quickly at the NFL network campus, if you will. We are in the huddle, which is the office commissary, and we saw Bucky there.

We just started talking ball, a couple football heads, and we ended up talking about a little Mansell and Drew Stans. So he said, why don't we get Bucky in here? We asked him. Bucky was kind enough to join us. So why don't we start with Johnny Mansell? We were just talking about him in the news during the news portion of the podcast, the right move, in your opinion, to move to Manzell right now? Long overdue.

Yeah. Should have happened in the precede. Wow. That's a hand. That is one of the upsets. It is one of the quiet upsets of the year that Hoyer kept the job until week 50. We would have never get them. Softball pants.

I haven't eaten anything. They have to be made into goulash or else out of town. The plan now is, because we've got a ton of tweets, by the way, Super Bowl Sunday, West will be eating a softball pants, potentially. Go ahead. No, I thought the move was well overdue. I believe that if you have a veteran and a young player competing for a position, if it's close, it goes to the young guy.

Because if the veteran can't supplant him can't, like, clearly beat him in the free season, I just felt like you should have gone with Johnny Mansell from the beginning. And then time to build around what he could do. So by this point in the season, he could be doing maybe. be some of the same things that Teddy Bridgewater is doing in Minnesota. Like, I'm not saying that a young quarterback can carry it all on his shoulders, but you can start

building things around what he can do while also kind of put him in a situation where he can learn how to do some of the things that you eventually want to get to. You hear anything about Johnny Mansell behind the scene since he's been to Cleveland? You know, practice and whatnot? No, I mean, I think the big thing is he's tried to keep a lower profile

than he had, like, obviously, in the off-season in the summer. I think the thing that people that I know that know him will say like he's never been like what they call like the a plus student necessarily in the classroom where he does everything and digs into it but he's a lot smarter than people give him credit for a lot of the improvisational stuff that you see on the field some of that is calculated like he is kind of like crafty like a fox like he understands some of the stuff that's going on now the big thing for him going forward is can he play within the confines of the offense enough that can't Kyle Shanahan can build a game plan for him to be effective. The tough thing with guys who like to run around and like to kind of flee the pocket is, it's hard to stay on schedule when a guy doesn't fully exhaust the play. And so can he be disciplined enough to at least get through the first two reads of his progression before he looks to flee the pocket?

That would be important. Well, we know Kyle Shanahan can build an offense around his talents because he did it with RG3. but that's the question can he develop him into a long-term NFL starter you know I think just the little glimpse that we saw from Buffalo I think kind of shed light on what he can be in the national football league you saw them kind of float from some of the regular bootleg movement base pass and stuff some shotgun did a couple different things to put him on the move I'm not a big believer that like hey he didn't run a lot of zone read and read option when he was at Texas A&M a lot of the runs that he had at Texas A&M

in where quarterback design runs, quarterback draws, quarterback sweeps, things that he did on his own. When he runs, he typically runs because it's out of necessity out of the pocket because the pocket collapses and he breaks. I think for him, because I know a lot of people worry about quarterbacks that leave the pocket taking hits, well, in his history in the SEC, he never really took a lot of solid shots unless his competitiveness gets the best of him. Like when guys talk and chirp at him, he has a tendency to want to engage because that's how he's built.

That's going to be a bad idea. And so the big thing for him in the SEC when he would take shots, like guys would start chirping, so he would try to run them over and do stuff. I think he's smart enough to understand. They've got a little Brett Farve in him? Yeah, I mean, he's a super competitive dude. So you're saying Ray Mataluga and Adam Jones this week, they might want to just get in his ear. Well, they're going to talk.

Like, I'm sure they're going to talk to him. There's going to be a lot of conversation about that. We saw it in the preseason when it was a redskins. they talked to him, and he flipped them off. I think the big thing, the big thing for him is kind of keeping everything under control within the Florida game and just do the deal. Because I think he can give them some of those off-scheduled plays that they needed. That offense needs something to kind of take it over the top.

And I think Johnny Mansell's skills can do that. I wanted to touch on Drew Stanton, another quarterback like Brian Hoyer, who ascended into a starting role and then kind of has faded a little bit. You had an interesting theory you were sharing with us yesterday. about some of these guys that come up and they initially do well and then they start to falter. Yeah, with backup quarterbacks, I believe there's a huge difference between a starter and a backup.

A backup got, and even in Scouting Turns, we're talking about who can we have that can get us out of a game or two that can play for a couple games and then we can get our starter back in. It's hard to find the backup that can be a viable long-term solution at the position. And the difference between starters in our league at the quarterback position is they have the ability to constantly,

adapt and readjust. In the National Football League, defenses quickly find out what you do well, and they try to put you in a situation where you have to play to your weakness. So when you see a Drew Stanton and when you see a Mark Sanchez and when you see these guys play

and they have success for two or three weeks, and then they start struggling after that, it's because now their film has circulated around the league. You have a better feel for how the play caller is going to maximize what they do, and then you eventually build a defensive package that takes that away, and then you challenge that quarterback to find another way to beat you. I was talking to William McGinnis, who we were talking about defensive football,

and we were talking about Aaron Rogers using him as the example from that Patriots game. Well, early in that game, you saw the Patriots said, we're going to take away Jordy Nelson, and we're going to take away Rundle Cobb. What is your answer? Then he started going, Devante Adams. Okay, so now we'll switch in the middle of the game. We'll take those guys away. What would be your alternative?

We'll run it with Eddie Lacey. Can you find enough pitches in your arsenal to find the way to get it? That's what defensive coordinators do. They try to test to see if you're willing to be patient to take the other alternatives. I mean, one thing, Bucky, we talked about also yesterday that in the old days, I mean, going back 80s, 70s, quarterbacks would have four or five years worth of starts to get their sea legs and really, then you start to judge them. Now they're judged so quickly they were ready to throw the towel in on Drew Stanton and other guys.

Is it really enough? people are adjusting to their tape but also what about their careers in terms of getting a real chance Well that's that's the funny thing like when you think about Drew Breeze and even Peyton Manning and Aaron Rogers Early in their careers they didn't have that the level of success that people expect from young guys right away There used to be a time where you take a quarterback early you stash him for a year or two Then you allow him to play even think about Carson Palmer Carson Palmer was the number one overall pick but his rookie year he didn't play And they let John Kenton to go the next year, and he took over.

But there used to be a period where you could fully develop guys on the practice field. Steve McNair was two years, wasn't it? Yeah, it might have been two years for Steve McNair. It took a while for those guys to go. And also the CBA has changed where in the offseason with the young quarterbacks, you could develop them through the quarterback school, summer camps, and those things. They cut the number of days down to where you have 10. That's not nearly enough time to get guys enough reps to see where they can do and how they can develop.

The last thing we wanted to ask you about, I'm a Jets fan. I'm in a tough situation right now because I find myself wanting them to go 2 and 14 because the one thing I want this season not to go totally in vain and get a quarterback out of this draft. So I tweeted out. He's giving up. He's rooting against them and now he's just looking at box scores at college players. I sent out a tweet to my followers, Marcus Mariotis stats this season,

38 touchdowns, 2 picks, 669 rushing yards, 14 TDs and this is the guy we need. Somebody fired back that Gino Smith threw 45 touchdowns with West Virginia in his last year. So I ask you as the man, the scout guy, Marcus Marriota, is this guy a top-level quarterback at the next level? No. I mean, I don't think. No, I don't think. Who did these shoes that he want? No, I think here's the thing.

And I think when people dig into it, and part of it, I took some of this from the piece that you put up about the death of the running quarterback, which was really good. And you put a link in to a piece from the San Francisco Chronicle where Steve Young talked about the maturation process of being a quarterback and evolving from a running quarterback to a championship color quarterback. People need to check that out. But anyway, with Marcus Marriota, much like Colin Kaepernick and RG3, these guys played in a system, a read-option system where typically they would read one, maybe two, then they take off.

So with Marcus Marriota, his biggest transition will be going to a pro-style offense where you ask him to read the entire field, meaning you work from left all the way the right, which some of the things in the West Coast offense requires you to do. When you're a player that plays with so much play action and you're putting the ball in the building, you identify one defender to read. If he comes towards the field, you take the slant.

If he drops off, you hand it to the back or you keep it. It's hard for those guys to now make a quick transition. transition to doing some of the things that you would do where you have a high, a low, a checkdown. It's a lot to ask a young quarterback. So for Marcus Marriota, people will have to dig into his tape and see, can he do those concepts that you want him to do on the pro level? And then also, I believe that people have to look at how comfortable is he under duress in the pocket. He is much different than James Winston in terms of playing the game. And I understand, like, if James comes out, there are concerns about his character, but just,

from a football standpoint, James Winston looks more like the quarterbacks that we're used to seeing on Sundays than Marcus Marriota, which is why he'll be more comfortable to deal with for some offensive coordinators or whatever, which is why you hear the name, Connor Cook from Michigan State. Connick for Michigan

State has buzz about him because he plays in a pro-style system in Michigan State. When you look at the tape, what he's asked to do is what most pro-quarterbacks are asked to do. So from an evaluation standpoint, it's easy to see how a guy like that can fit into an offense.

It's much like Zach Mettenberger. Why would people get excited about? Why would Ken Wizard Hunt get excited about Zat member? Well, because at LSU, he played under Cam Cameron, ran a pro-style system, the verbiage is the same, this is the same, so you can start more advanced with that guy as opposed to having to be in a remedial offense with someone who doesn't have that familiarity. So the subtext here, if I'm hearing you right, Bucky, is that Dan's Jets are doomed. Connor Cook?

The way we go. Connor Cook. Bob McGinn in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interviewed a bunch of scouts, and they said coaches in the NFL will love Connor Cook. Yeah, they'll love Carter Cook because they're saved. My thing with offensive coordinators, they're always comfortable with what they're comfortable with. Like, they want, understand it, like, defensive-minded head coaches are more apt to go with a quarterback that runs and flees the pocket. If you look at the history of the league, most of the guys,

that were running around guys, play for defensive-minded guys because they're okay with a guy playing off script because they're not as tied to, this is my system, run my system. Offensive coordinators, in the end, remember all offensive coordinators want to be head coaches. The way that you become a head coach is the owner sitting in the box is like, wow, that guy called a great game, where if it runs off script, you don't get the credit.

Whereas if you're a defensive guy, you don't really care what they do. you just want enough plays to do it. And also, from a defensive standpoint, the one thing that drives you crazy as a defensive coordinator is making the right call, and then the guy runs away and gets out the blitz. And so that's why they like those guys, which is why Mike Fettin is like, oh, I'm excited to see.

You hear Rex Ryan talk about that? Yeah. He's excited to see a Johnny Menzel play and those things. So it makes it tough for offensive guys because it's tough for them to live with a guy that doesn't use all the pieces that are available in the route. Hey, Bucky, would you like to hang around while we preview the Thursday night football game? Let's do it.

Oh, fun. Real quick, I'm glad you enjoyed that Steve Young piece from the San Francisco Chronicle. I thought it was the most enlightening thing I read about football all year. I thought it was one of those things that it should be a must-reve-for-all-young quarterbacks to just talk about how he was challenged. And he's another one. Like, if you look at the early part of his career, he's just like all these other guys. Colin Kaepernick and RG3, like, he's.

struggled down in Tampa and those things and it took him a while sitting behind Joe Montana having Bill Walsh and he's talked about Mike Holmgren kind of being his ear about this is how you play the position you can't just flee and so I think with the young quarterbacks

unfortunately we don't have the time coaches are no longer given those five year plans no they're not with the advent of social media and all the talking heads and all of us chiming in it's hard for fans to stay with that but yeah it'd be interesting to see how these young quarterbacks do.

I will chop your head off with a knife. Wow. I largely blame, Dan, your presence in the media for the demise of many young passers because there's too many of us. And you might be the extra person. The extra person. It's a weird point you made there. One more.

So, by the way, Greg had to take off breaking news calls. Not even sure what it was, but he's downstairs now. Bucky's kind enough to sit in for the rest of the podcast. So let's talk about a little Thursday night football. And this is an interesting game. This will be a tough one in our picks. In our picks, the four of us, or three of us, I should say, are within one game. Four of us are within one game.

Wes has fallen out of the race this year. So every game counts now, and whoever wins the picks title, listen, that is something you cannot. There's no money value on that. No, just bragging rights. Just bragging. Yeah, there is no money on it. I went 13 and 3 last week.

You did, and that was very good. You can build momentum for next year. That's right. I'm like the Raiders. So this game, this initiative will be a tough game to pick. The Arizona Cardinals, you know, they got back in the winning side of things this past week. A nice performance, another comeback win to get to 10 wins. But they head to St. Louis, and we've been saying it, or at least I've been saying it,

that this was the best five and seven team in football. Now they're the best six and seven team in football. They're coming up back-to-back shutouts. We know Drew Stanton is not playing particularly well at this stage. This seems like a recipe for a low-scoring game, right? Well, I mean, I think so. I think this is a defensive struggle. I think this is a game where we're seeing the Rams defense kind of play like everyone expected under Greg Williams.

He now understands the talent and the pieces that he has at his disposal. The trade for Mark Barron was huge for them. So now they can use some of their big nickel packages. They can be a little more creative. But now he understands Drew Stanton will see every blitz in the book because he believes that if you kill the head of the snake, the rest of it will fall apart. he's going to come after him. He's going to put a lot of pressure on him,

and they're going to make sure that they take care of the back-to-back. Curran Williams had 100 yards last week. They'll make sure that he's a non-fact. They're going to try and put this game on Drew Stanton's arm, and they don't think that he can get it done. And that running game, I mean, outside of that Kerwin Williams' performance, that's been one of the second or third worst run games in the league. And I think that hurts any quarterback trying to just figure it out

when you can't even lean on that ground game at all. Yeah, because they're different than most teams because their running back, even Andre Ellington, is more of a scatback time. If you look at the top teams, the top offensive teams that are playing there with the exception of the Colts, the quarterbacks that are thriving, they have a big physical running back

that can do it, or dominant guy, like a Shady McCourt, Jamal Charles. Without that presence, the ability to hand the ball to the running back 20 to 25 times, it's harder for the quarterback to have these open windows off play action. I believe with the Arizona Cardinals, part of the reason they're struggling offensively

is because they have a backup quarterback and they don't have the physical running game that you need to really cover them off. We were talking on Sunday's show about how it felt like the Rams were perhaps one, and it's a big piece, but one quarterback away from being a NFC contender, a big shot Super Bowl-type contender. Do you think they're that closer or they just need the quarterback and everything else can fall into place? Well, I mean, they need good quarterback playing. They have to figure out, is it a quarterback in the draft,

or is the quarterback trying to lean on Sam Bradford again? Like, that would be the big decision because it's still hard to envision a young quarterback coming in and leading a team to a Super Bowl. I think the big thing is making sure you figure out what you have. You still would like to maximize Tavon Austin because you committed a lot to him. He's made some plays here or there, but can you find a way to get him the ball more? Sean Hill has come in and when he's been right and healthy, like he's a good decision maker. He can manage it.

And understand from a defensive mind of coach and Jeff Fisher, he doesn't necessarily need the quarterback to kind of drive the bus and do all the bells and whistles. don't turn it over, make enough plays for us to get close, and then allow that defense to create short field so they can punch it in. One thing with the Rams, I know last time Bucky was in here over the summer, we went to town on Brian Schottenheimer just for, I find that he stifles attacks a lot. But I feel in the last month or two. It's not personal.

I love his dad, number one. But like, you know, listen, I feel like he's gotten more creative. He's using his young talent a little bit better over the last month or two. Yeah, I think they're playing much better on offense. I think the big addition has been Trey Mason. Trey Mason is a guy that is a little more dynamic than Zach Stacey was and some of those other guys. He's beginning to carry the workload.

We're beginning to see him chew up clock and have these 100-yard performances. That makes it easy for the rest of the guys to get involved. Kenny Britt was another big pickup because he's a big receiver. He's a guy that was on the cusp of being maybe a guy that you consider a pro bowl receiver when he was at Tennessee prior to his injury. So you got a big guy in him, you have Tavon, Austin, you have Stedman Bailey, you have Chris Givens. You have enough little pieces to make it happen.

and Jared Cook also gives them stuff. If they're just efficient on offense, that defense is good enough to get them there. And they're built to play the right way. They're built to play kind of like that big boy football that you have to play in January. And because of that, that's why they're being really, really tough

and physical and effective with these teams down the stretch. Who's your pick in this game? I'm going to take St. Louis. And the reason I'm going to take St. Louis, they're playing at home. The defense is really brimming with confidence. And Robert Quinn and this crew up front, they are coming after the quarterback, and I just know Bruce Ariens, he refuses to choke it down.

He's going to release five in the route. He's going to throw it, and I just think that at some point, Drew standing to have a mistake. Wes? I'm picking the Rams. You mentioned Trey Mason's more dynamic. Pro football focus has a stack called breakaway rate. Trey Mason leads the NFL and breakaway rate. Long runs.

And when I was researching the Seahawks defense of their dominance, they've given up one play over 20 yards the last two weeks. The Rams have given up zero plays over 20 yards the last two weeks. The Rams defense is the best unit in this game. Mark. I'm going with a tie. I see a lot of factors here. This is going to be even.

Fun game to watch, 7-7. It will be amazing if you do win our picks because you are... With a tie. Such an outside, your guy that thinks outside the box, if you win on a tie... I don't think you can predict a tie on our NFL. Dell.com picks. It doesn't allow for that.

You're an iconoclast. I say it all the time. You've changed all the rules, and you're rewriting them. Bucky Brooks, thank you so much for joining us coming in, really replacing Greg seamlessly. I don't know if we want Greg back. Greg is our boss, but he's on his heels right now. Yeah. I mean. The only problem is, and I was, it was actually, we have our internal monitors down in the newsroom.

I actually got to watch the college football 24-7 podcast. Oh, yeah. How about that? and that money smith no no hair product in money smith's hair which is always fun it's always different and it's you guys do obviously great job so download that you got to listen to that show so we might try to poach you and maybe money and gregg can form a podcast how about that you just kenny vicarre gregg rosenthal how about that send him down hopefully he doesn't listen to this or i will be getting as marks as a sharply worded letter um all right so we will be back uh tomorrow

with another podcast we'll go over the thursday night game and we'll look at to all the Sunday games. Bucky, thank you again for joining us. You can get all his stuff on your Twitter feed is... And Bucky Brooks. Perfect, beautiful. Shiboy! So thank you for listening.

We will be back Thursday. This Dan Hanzas signing up for Bucky Brooks, the mailman, the sizzler, T.D. behind the glass and the boss in absention. Until Thursday. That was so sarcastic. This is an I-heart podcast.