NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Media Day recap

Episode Date: January 28, 2015

A giant room filled with heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Conor Orr -- react to the mad house that was Media Day in Arizona for Super Bowl XLIX. Plus, they discuss the story lines that nobody is talking about but should be!Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast is winning on and off the field. Welcome back to another dish of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hanzus, and I'm joined me. bedroom filled with heroes a giant room filled with heroes mark sessler chris wessling connor orr and gregg rosato what up boys from the media center super bowl media center

in phoenix radio row radio row around the NFL podcast on the road for super bowl 49 guys this is very important we almost started the podcast while Connor was still in the bathroom we were in the dark that's not the best way to sell our Oh, yeah, kind of. Not normally here. It's great to have you, you know. I'm here to permanently ruin the chemistry that you guys have so. You're off to a great start.

That's for hijinks. This is our first of three shows from Arizona. This is the only show we'll be doing from Radio Row. But there is a video podcast. So maybe it is not the only show. We're doing another podcast on Thursday, but it'll be all video. And Greg, do you have the details for that? Because I have none.

Well, first it's Friday. Friday, right? Oh, it's Friday. Okay, so we're really, you know, off to a big start. We're taping. We got lots of playing games. There's going to be some softball pants involved, which I'm very excited about. It's going to be probably the biggest around the NFL show ever.

And yes, it's going up on Friday afternoon, which is a little different, but you know, you can watch it all weekend. On NFL now. Maybe on Sunday, on NFL now, before the Super Bowl. Maybe just instead of the Super Bowl. It's going to be the best show ever. Remember, last year at this time, we were operating in New York City out of a week. out of a weapons closet. Right.

So this is a massive upgrade for the, for us in general. Well, the podcast is growing. People have come up to Mark Sessler especially. It's got... Well, that didn't go so well. I think we lost more fans than we gained today. A podcast fan really was yelling at Mark Sessler how much he, how much he loves the quiet storm. And Mark pretty much gave him like the high hat.

That is not fair at all. That is accurate. It was up in the stands. Let me just set the stage. Well, I don't know. It was... We were working down on the... We were working down on the floor, and a gentleman from Canada,

which is a country north of America, said, quiet storm, quiet storm. And Mark just shot up an icy glare. And I said, Mark, you know, that's a fan. Now what happened. Okay, well, number one, we are next to a wild swarm of Seahawks fans that were chanting. I had the headache of the decade, and all I heard was this person looking down on us, I thought he's trying to antagonize us and get us in some. sort of a scuffle. I'm not going there. But then I realized later that he was trying to get

our attention, and we had a nice chat with him, and I've gone back and forth with him on Twitter multiple times to try to heal this. This is what you call damage control in the industry. All right, so this is our show. We're going to get into Media Day, which was an absolute zoo at the home arena. A lot of people say, oh, the whole marina of the Phoenix Suns. I'd like to say the Phoenix Mercury, four-time WMBA champions. So we were there this morning for Media Day, which was insane and we got a lot of stuff to get to. Also, we're going to talk about the headlines. We haven't been, we haven't talked together in a while. It's been the longest we've gone between shows in over a year. So we're going to get into some headlines. What's going on

in the league? We're going to talk more about deflated balls, which is fun. Good. And then we're going to get it. We're going to talk a little bit about storylines that nobody's talking about what they should be ahead of Sunday's game. Because everybody's, everybody's talking about the same. stuff, but this is where Wes, you're the scientist, we bring a different perspective on the game of football. It'd be nice to actually talk about what happens on the field. That's what we plan to do. So let's, yeah, let's start with Media Day.

We'll talk about what happened before what's become known as the Sessler incident. This was the craziest. And Mark, you and I have done four of these together now. To me, moving it from a stadium into an arena, wasn't that big a deal last year in Jersey? It felt like it was more condensed, but not too condensed. This year, with all this stuff going around the Patriots, I imagine, led to a flood of additional credentials being handed out. This was a madhouse today. Yeah, I just, the main takeaway for me was the smells.

You know, you just have people, large bodies just pressed against you, and like $20,000 equipment banging into your head as people are trying to, you know, and I'm not a giant guy. I'm an obvious target. These guys think we're going to move him out of the way and get our quote, and I don't like that. behavior at all. I don't think that either. There are probably other things that happen in Media Day, too. It's a bizarre combination of self-promoting bozos, like the guy in a barrel or the provocatively dressed.

The only guy had a big day. Acting like reporters. And then you have actual reporters who have, you know, the manners of barnyard animals, just muscling their way through because their story is more important than yours. So that's basically what Media Day is. Did you learn anything important, anything at all, football-wise? I think Chris Berman is my outlier. this year. Oh yeah, Wes had a run-in with...

Last year, Outliner was a punk. Just pushes his way to the front, nudges everyone out of the way. Herman pulled the same thing today. He's more important than everyone else, and then he asked the most inane question. Media Day is not a good day for Chris Wesleying. It's just not a fit with his sensibilities. I guess, Greg, I'll toss it to you. What did you, what did you take away from the event? That maybe you're not as prickly about the event. I just curious what you asked. I thought Michael Bennett is a delightful... Oh, he's great. Fountain of Insanity Like he is commit

Like it seems like with most guys Who are kind of like the wacky guy on the team That it's a bit Contrived usually And I feel like he's naturally just insane Because he's so committed to each And every answer being from like planet Jupiter That I appreciate

He was very entertaining My favorite line of the day when I asked him Why we should expect Dan Quinn To be a successful head coach That would say And he said I think it's because In big games he continues to drop his lower extremities.

Right. That's pretty much what you're looking for. One thing that I took away was Russell Wilson. We know that he's very good at the Derek Jeter School of Say Nothing at All. But he seems like a guy that is a complete ease. I don't know if you guys got to stop by his podium at all. But he was very loose, very relaxed. And I guess that's, you know, I guess maybe that's one thing you could look at with the Seahawks,

that they're in such a better spot in terms of they for the last, you know, eight days now or whatever have had no distractions. They have not dealt with any of that stuff that the Patriots are with the deflated ball stuff. I mean, did you sense it all, like a difference between the teams and how they were reacting? I almost felt like they needed it, though. Like the Seahawks are like a team that needs to be bothered in order to thrive in some capacity. I like it. Maybe they're getting soft, right? Kind of like they were in the NFC championship game, which people have conveniently forgetting they got, you know, tossed around the field for 56 minutes, and the Patriots maybe they're the ornery ones. I think the Patriots, like, Monday, Monday's press conference,

Monday night was tension-packed, and it was very weird setting. I think this was, you know, I like to go over to where the assistant coaches are because it's less crowded. You love assistant coaches. I love them, and they, you want to be an assistant coach. Well, it's their chance to talk, and I thought the most impressive guy for me today was Josh McDaniels, who in the past has been labeled as something of a disaster on very, very, scales. And like, he really was, he spoke for probably, what, 50 straight minutes. Connor was over there, too. I mean, he just, nothing stopped him. And the coaches seem focused. If it's all, I think Kraft and Belichick have taken the major brunt of this

and Brady. But players and younger coaches, assistant coaches, did not seem to be off their game. No. And especially McDaniels, who was basically asked 30 times, do you remember how bad of a head coach you were? Right. You know, and just gracefully just handles it. Denver For media who came here, it's close by, Phoenix and Denver, and they have nothing else to do, really, other than talk to McDougain. Oh, go ahead. I was going to say also, I think, like Mark said, yesterday got a lot of the bad vibes out of the way for the Patriots. And it did feel like today, after a week of talking about deflated balls, that we sort of turned a corner. And maybe there will be other reports, but I felt like the craft and investigator, Ted Wells, and the Glazer Report, which we'll talk about later.

All that happening on Monday, that was kind of everyone trying to get the last word in before we switched to football for the rest of the week. I think one thing the Patriots benefited from here was there was no big turn in the story before, immediately, before media they started. And to me, it felt like Belichick and the whole team got off the hook a little bit on what could have really been a feeding frenzy. You didn't hear about that afterwards. It was more, to me, a lot of the storylines were your typical storylines, you know, Marshaun Lin, didn't talk again this time he said the same thing 30 times and then walked off the podium you know I went over I talked to gronk and it was like you know it was there wasn't no edge talking to gronk because of this scandal going on it he was typical

gronk he told me by the way Bobby Goons his personal driver he told me this is a around the NFL exclusive exclusive told me that they're driving the gronk party bus from Foxborough to Arizona it's in route right now Dan Hans this exclusive I I will accept the Pulitzer at NFL honors, by the way. I liked when someone asked or offered to Belichick to murder someone on behalf of the team.

Yeah, that's the third question, and Belichick said, I'm just focused on Seattle. Someone else said, Belichick. Seriously, did. Tell a Katie Perry halftime show, what's your breakdown on the minstress trying to do something at halftime? Belich, I'm just focused on Seattle.

The guy is unflappable would not be taken down. He did, though. He did, flawlessly answer what his favorite Joe Pesci movie was, And it was both Home Alone's. Oh, get out of here, Belichick. And then he said, my cousin, Benny, was third. Even though he heartfully...

Home Loan 2 was awful retread. Home Loan 2 was Home Alone 1, but put in New York City. Maybe that's, you know, a fond memory with Steve Belichick's son. Maybe they watched that together. Ooh, is that a little bit of a tease for the Mark Sessler? Talk about Pulitzer. He's going to drop a feature on Steve Belichick, Bill Belichick's son. Well, good luck trying to get the Patriots to even describe what this assisting

coaching coach does. No one would say a thing. He's a mysterious man. Speaking of Pulitzer, Sessler taking some hot shot photos with his iPhone at Media Day, put him in black and white, threw him up on his Facebook page, people buzzing, both in his internal social media circle and on Twitter. Yeah, I mean, our photographer Ben Liebenberg, I saw him sweating a little bit because he produced a photo of our group that had Dan's head fully obscured. Yeah, I was like, you're a professional photographer, and you're chopping me out. What a jerk.

Speaking of jerks, and I don't know if I'm speaking out of school here because I didn't have a lot of interaction, but I did hear from a certain around the league member that, around the NFL member, that Earl Thomas, media days jerk? Yeah, I think that's fair to say. You know, every year you find some people that are pleasant surprises. I really thought Chandler Jones was an interesting, engaging guy to talk to.

He was. There were a number of Seahawks as well. But Earl Thomas, he was kind of giving everyone the high hat. Kind of a jerk. And you know who took, he took the title from? Last year's biggest jerk of the media day, Matt Prater. Oh, yeah. That was a Dan-centric villain.

Last year they had, like, in little pig pens, the people that weren't as important, that didn't get risers. And they stuck all the special teams guys and other players that weren't stars. And Prater pretended to be on the cell phone whenever somebody tried to ask him a question with a big giant diamond earring stud in his earlobe. But it's like, bro, kicker. So many problems there. He got his come up. He did get his come up.

Anything else from Media Day that we want to get to before we move on to the headlines? One thing last year I remember coming out of Media Day with a pretty clear idea of what Seattle's plan was against Peyton Manning, that they were really actually right out there saying, we're going to get to this guy, hit him early, and shake him up. I mean, we had written four stories on that front at this point. I didn't hear as specific a take on how to deal with the Patriots from Seattle. They're not giving anything away this year. Not this time. Well, it's the same, isn't it?

You're right. They're going to do what they do. Get quick pressure to them. One thing I did here today on that front, and I'm not even remembering who it was right now, but one of the Seattle defenders talking about that they thought playing Rogers was really good prep for Brady, especially Rogers in his hobbled state because the Packers were so focused on getting the ball out quickly and that's what Brady does

and they talked about just really being on top of tempo because they say Brady's very tough to predict when he's going to snap the ball and that surprises defenders and keeps them behind. So I thought that was interesting that he thought that was the best possible preparation was Rogers, one of the smartest quarterbacks in the league but sort of in a state where he was about as mobile as Brady.

Although McDaniels was touting the newly, mobile Tom Brady today. So, we'll never come down. I think that's true. I went back, so I'm serious. I went back. Bray's into Patriots narrative. I like this.

I'm going to do a piece later in the week, you know, how the Patriots win, how the Seahawks win. So I went back through my notebooks, one of Dan's favorite things of mine that I always have. It's like Charlie Day's Chicken Scratchett. Oh, he's like a sign of a chicken in there? So see if I can find any common themes when I looked at the different games. And a lot of it was, like, Tom Brady is making more plays with his feet this year.

More plays kind of late in the down. As people say, you know, he's not Aaron Rogers out there, but he was doing it. The Broncos game, that the Patriots. Right, the regular season. He was very, you can tell a big difference between him and Peyton Manning in that game. One other thing McDaniels said was that having Derell Revis on the roster, they believe that that is a major benefit to deal with Richard Sherman, though, because they're such intense practice players.

prepares and game in game film watchers that they think it's just helped the entire offense. Well, another thing now that we are, we're still talking about Revis and the secondary and Browner, now a member of the Patriots. I liked how honesty was when they brought up, they tried to bring up, you know, the fact that he said he told his wide receivers, you know, take Sherman out, take his elbow out, take Earl Thomas out, injure him. He basically just said it. And normally a player is going to walk that back. but today Browner just said that's part of the game. You have an injured

ankle, I'm going to go for it. He's like you have an injured knee like we're going to dive at it. I don't know. I like Brandon I like Brandon Brown around this team. That reminds me of Brandon what Damasek told me at the Media Day and we really should move on to headlines but it was so funny. Damashek always asks a great inane question to these players

every year. Last year was asking players, do you think this is a must win game? Really is. That's the greatest of all time. This year he was asking and I hope I'm not giving away his segment, but, you know, what are you going to do? He was asking players, you know, who do you think wants us more? Who wants it more? Is this game going to come down to who wants it more? And he asked Brandon Brown, and that Brenner looked him up and down and said,

I can't believe you work. They pay you at NFL Network. I like your broader impression more than your Sherman impression. Thank you. All right, let's move on to the headlines. And we'll, yeah, we need to get, because we, as we've talked about, we've been out of the mix for a while. So let's talk about some of this deflategate stuff. NFL gumshoe Ted Wells, Mark Sessler, back in the mix. He is handling the independent investigation of the deflated football scandal, tying back to the AFC championship game. So that's an ongoing thing. We got an update a few days ago from Wells saying they've spoken to 40 people inside the organization. Not Tom Brady, though. He said, Ted Wells also said, though, don't read in...

NFL gumshoot Ted Wells. Don't read into who they've talked to and when. Don't expect an answer anytime soon. Basically, they're going to talk to everyone. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Yeah. So anyway, so then Bob Kraft, who, after initially wasn't really in frame on this story, has popped up now the last couple of days. And he had a press conference in which he said,

and here's a quote, and Greg, you just listen in because this is your boy, if the Wells investigation is not able to definitely determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure to the footballs, I would expect and hope the league would apologize to our entire team. And in particular, to Coach Belichick and Tom Brady, for what they had to. Here's a key word,

indoor this last week. This is a big story, Greg. I wasn't that into this story on any level. Initially, I thought, you know, it's making a mountain out of a molehill. I started to get into it a little more on Monday when the Glazer

report came out that we'll talk about and the Robert Kraft surprise press conference before Belichick because it's pretty rare to see an NFL owner go out there and really challenge the league and say that he was disappointed how the league and the media has handled something and he expects an apology and it does raise like the craziest conspiracy theory at all what if the Patriots didn't do anything and people think this is crazy to even crossing my fingers that Greg's going to cry like Brunel No, but just imagine, but they're coming from that perspective, and he's saying, imagine that, that these guys have to go through all this.

And the Patriots are going to use it as fuel, right? I think they will. Unless they find a smoking gun, craft's not going to live the regret that. He's not going to get any apologies. To that note, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported Monday that the league's investigation has zeroed in on a Patriots locker room attendant who was seen on surveillance video, taking the footballs from the officials' locker room into another room at a that stadium before bringing them out to the field prior to the kickoff.

And we got some more details from another source, too, right, about what room it was. Right. I mean, there's been reports. It was on pro football talk about that they took it into the bathroom. Nodding. It just, it goes on and on. But I think it's a story that we're not going to learn too much more the rest of the week. Unless someone drops a big bomb on Sunday morning, that would be something.

How about Belichick suspended Sunday morning for this Super Bowl? and every Super Bowl in the future. Well, I was at the park with my daughter on Saturday. Explanabrag. When Belichick suddenly they called the Surprise Patriots press conference out of nowhere, and that was the Belichick one where he just went on a rant and people loved it. And I thought at that point, anything's possible. Didn't you guys, when you heard that, it's like, what is this press conference going to be?

Like, he cops to it. Brady suspended. I don't know. It just feels like anything's on the table with this. It had the feeling of a self-imposed, like, suspension, like, that first five minutes was one big hanging clause where I expected him to be like, and that's why I'm no longer going to be the head coach of the Needing with Patriots. And then all of a sudden, it was just a really long, boring...

I was in his H.C. of NEP. I didn't realize that press conference existed. Wes, clearly not plugged into the NFL world. It just seemed like the Patriots were one wave after another trying to say, this is the last time this will be spoken about. Kraft, though, it was not that it was a master stroke. I mean, because he came out and shielded, essentially, I think Belichick

from having to take all that heat. I mean, it is a distraction, I think, if you've got to keep answering these questions. It's not easy for New England in a huge game. What about parents? I think Belichick also thinks, what's the best for the team? And for him, it's doing that press conference. And if nothing else, getting all

those players fired up or feeling like someone's standing up for them and basically giving a big middle finger to the rest of the world. What about the Marissa Tomey? We mentioned my cousin, Vinnie, earlier. It was one of the more surreal press conferences, the Belichick press conference on Saturday, in recent NFL history. And that includes today's where he wore flip-clops.

Yeah, that's a good job I know, by the way. That's just like, that's almost like a middle finger to the entire process. But referencing a 23-year-old movie and Marissa Tomei's Mona Lisa Vito character, that was the point where watching the presser at my home, with my son, my infant son, bouncing on my lap, take that, Greg, with your park stuff, and your daughter. Let's just go around.

Are you thinking shots at my daughter? No, no, it's like you're trying to explain yourself as the greatest dad ever, and we're trying to do a football podcast. I'm saying I had to leave it. I got a lot of heat on Twitter for saying, I can't believe you left the park scene. I have multiple children, too, but I'm not explaining the Patriots'

situation away with their presence. Anyway, but that was the role. Chris and I had some important stuff going on, too. All right? So that's the point where, I bet. It went from like a weird, strange press conference, truly surreal to the point where Marissa Tomey is then on The Rich Eyes of Podcast, explaining that she believes that Bill was being honest.

Then it spins into Super Bowl Week madness, which, you know, just the way it is. Belichick is clearly also behind the Kennedy assassination and a laundry list of other issues that have heard of our history. I mean, more Tomey, though, the better, right? The more we can talk about. Absolutely. The wrestler, you know? Love her.

There's probably an end point to her. I'd be fine with that stuff. If you haven't seen before the devil knows you're dead, that's a gem. Check out that one. Grab the reins, too. All right. Before we go, we want to go around the couch here and talk about the things that we're expecting that people aren't talking about, but they should be.

Because this is where we step in our expertise in the game. I'm looking at the great Connor Orr, he's going to get us going. What are people not talking about, but they should be? The fact that New England hasn't really faced a mobile quarterback, especially not someone like Russell Wilson this season, I think Ryan Tannahill was the most prolific rushing quarterback that they've faced all season. And now you're going to face a really judicious quarterback that handles and takes advantage of running lanes better than any quarterback in football,

I think, right now. And I think that could be definitely a game change. Well, they also haven't played anyone that's really used the read option on them. Like, in theory, the dolphins did sometimes in their season, but they didn't when they played the Patriots. And I think back to the NFC Championship game was like when the second they started using the read option a little more, that's when they started moving the ball. And that frightens me so much as a Patriots fan that they'll just kind of go back to using that heavy.

when they had their best offensive games in the 2012 playoffs when they got knocked out it was read option like crazy i think that could give the patriots a lot of problems mark all right quick two points number one bill bell is a little more handsome than i realized up close i got right up to the front lines this is just my opinion because you mentioned that you you mentioned it on our way down here and it's like yeah he's masculine i think he's a little more handsome than i thought okay all right going i'm sticking to that number two i'm looking for what about new england's Pension for trickery. Not a team that did a lot of that historically in terms of trick plays. They don't need to. They're up by 25 points in most games, but you got the Edelman Pass against Baltimore. They're throwing the ball to offensive tackles. They're lining up in crazy ways. And I thought that, you know, number one in the AFC Championship, look, the cults knew had to know some of that stuff was potentially coming and they were disorganized and unprepared for it. That won't be the case with Seattle. So how does Seattle counter?

what New England brings on that front, a little bit of maybe some magic, some madness. Well, today Michael Bennett said if they try to throw the ball to Nate Solder, Camp Chancellor is going to hit him into next week. Good luck with that. Although I'd like to see someone try to hit Nate Solder into next week. That's a large individual. He's a big dude. He's a little concerned.

I can feel it in the air in general. I like the trick-play idea. No, we are not saying who we think is going to win the game until our final podcast before the game. And to be honest with you, even if I did know it, I wouldn't say it. But I don't know who I'm going to pick yet. This is a weird game to pick. I have no idea who I'm going to pick. Really?

I don't want to give anything away, but I have an inkling of which way I'm leaning. Chris Wesleyan. This segment is what are people not talking about? But they should be. I would say, you know, we talked about the Patriots haven't faced a running quarterback yet. Seahawks' offense running game is dominant, one of the top three runoff. offenses in NFL history, but what's being overlooked is the improvement of the Patriots run defense, which ranked 26 by football outsider's metrics at mid-season and ranks second

in the NFL since mid-season and run-de-fields. Wow, really? Yes. That shocks me. Well, you've got Jamie Collins, Dante Hightower, Chandler Jones, three of the best young linebackers in the NFL, and people really don't know those guys because they're only in their third or, well, in Collins' second season. They're still young, and they're just below, like, all pro status.

They are, but they're also starting a totally diminished Vince Wolfork, who had a terrible AFC championship, by the way, and not really a very good game against the Ravens. And then Silver Siliga, that is the least known starter in a Super Bowl in a little while. He was a custodian when I was in high school. I would think. And then I was watching the AFCJ. A lot of times their defensive tackles right next to each other are Silliga,

and Alan Branch. And I'm thinking, this is interesting that these guys are going to be such big parts of a team trying to stop Marshawn Lynch. So you just drove all over my stat and basically don't believe it. No, I don't know. Because when I think, when I'm worried about this game

as a Patriots fan, that's the number one thing I'm worried about, is the interior of that line. And, like, Jamie Collins is a great player, and Chandler Jones is a great player, but I don't think of them as, like, Willie McGinnis or guys who are good at kind of setting the edge and really tough against the run, that's not really their thing.

Dan, is it uncomfortable when these two are arguing in a larger public setting? I hate it because people are watching. Kind of just tuning out like a kid who doesn't want to hear it. They say statistics say you cross your leg when you become disinterested in a conversation. So it's just a reflex. Patriots have 11 defensive starters, and according to Greg, not one of them is tackled a running back all year. Stop. Okay.

Cut it out. I'm looking out for the Seahawks pass rush because, listen, Aaron Rogers could not move. in that game. And they got six hits on him. I think they did a little better near the end of the game, but there was a large stretch of that game where Rogers was untouched. Sack just once, again, a statue is getting one sack.

Now, Seattle's defense isn't known for its ability to necessarily pile up sacks as a stat. I think Michael Bennett led the team with seven this year. But one thing I know, as a sad Jets fan, the way to get to Tom Brady is to rattle him, to hit him, to make him uncomfortable in the pocket, make them see shadows and ghosts, as Greg likes to point out, sometimes can happen to him.

And if they don't do that, and they have another bad job in terms of getting to the quarterback, Brady's going to have a big day. So people aren't talking about that. But you know what, Wes? They should be. They should be. Greg, final. I have so many things.

I got to pick one. I was going to go more on the Collins High Tower Chandler Jones Trio, but that they're uniquely suited to stop Russell Wilson and keep them inside the pocket. That's what I said. All right, whatever. I thought you were talking about the running game. I'm saying more like running after.

I'm crossing my leg. I also switch it around the other way. One thing I'd like as a Patriots fan, everyone looks at the Seattle run defense like it's so great. They haven't been quite the same since early in the year. Dave Damashik was talking about this earlier since Brandon Meebain left, and they've given up some good days on the ground. Eddie Lacey looked like the better running back in that game for three quarters last time.

And I think the Patriots are going to run the ball a lot more than you would expect. I think Blunt's going to be a big factor. It wasn't just a fluke game. I think that was like the game of his life, and he looks really good right now. And I think they'll stick with him. It's not like they're going to go switch to Jonas Gray or Shane Marine. There you go. That's pretty good.

That's pretty good. And this is a shorter pod today. So I apologize to people who thought they were going to get our typical 50 to one hour show. But you'll have a lot of juicy pod content the rest of the week, starting with Friday and then Sunday night after the Super Bowl from the University of Phoenix Stadium. And West, just before we go, is your stomach prepared for the softball pants that will be consumed in three days? We've got a few exercises that Mark and I have been doing in the hotel lobby the last couple of nights that have prepared my stomach for this. Okay, that's good. So, yes, the big show on Friday will be on NFL now.

So make sure if you're not familiar, our wonderful listeners, with the NFL now, and I would hope you are by now. But if you're not, now's the time to get in. This will be our first video podcast. It's a big deal for us, and we're going to make sure it's a big show. The greatest show ever, actually, by any group of talent ever associated with the entertainment business. I like, Donna, use the bathroom, like, well before the show starts. Right, exactly.

So, yeah, so we will be back on Friday with that big show. Thank you very much for listening. This is Dan Hansa, signing off for Connor Orr, which we need a nickname for him. The Haunted One, Connor Orr. The Ghost. The Ghost. Quiet Storm, The Mailman, the boss, and TD in a truck somewhere. I miss you, and I want to be with you again, TD.

Sooner, rather later. Until Friday, thanks for listening. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens

on Sundays. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league? this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy

vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more.

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