NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - MNF Recap; Quarter Pole Power Rankings

Episode Date: October 1, 2019

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler recap the Monday Night Football game between the Bengals and Steelers (05:09) and then get you up to speed with all of the news in the NFL. Vontaze Burfict is suspended for the season (13:37), Bradley Chubb tore his ACL (18:10) and Adam Thielen airs some frustration with his QB after Week 4. (30:01). Say it louder for the people in the back, Quarter Pole rankings are a thing if you make them one! (36:56)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. 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. 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. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, 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 and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Around the NFL podcast.

Love to Google Cornhole. Wait, what? Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansus, and I am joined in a room. Failed with Heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosethal. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan. What?

What? What? What? Mark, what? Gave me a look. I'm not going to, the listener does not need to know what that was about. That's inside baseball. You mean football?

No, because anyone says inside baseball is one of those archaic terms attached to a dying sport that I'm going to allow it to continue to grasp on to. All right. A nice little baseball. in there again. Mark has spent most of this week complaining that all sports, the seasons are too long. Regular seasons are too long. And what I've... It's literally every sport now that he has the same conversation. It used to be baseball, but now he's moved on to basketball. All sports, he doesn't watch it. Well, I found it interesting

that you really dug your... You really dug your heels in when I brought up hockey as being as being too long. No, I really like my sports. I don't think you know anything about these sports. But the season's too long. I know they're too long. You don't even watch the games. But I would... I think a large chunk of people that even enjoy basketball would say the regular season has lost some of its essence and meaning. Jerry. Jerry.

Jerry. The takeaway here is that we all have empty lives and we need this to fill them. That's what sports are, aren't they? Something that you could turn on and watch when you get home from the factory. I'm sitting out this show. That's it, Mark.

I've got a great seat. You're not going to participate. Put my feet up and watch this magic. This is great. There's no easy. into this show. Do you want some real magic? Yes. Oh my goodness.

Our live show next Friday. A show that Mark would like to shorten half the time. He told me private. It applies to certain things that must be shortened. Sold out. Our London show sold out in less than a minute when it went on sale this morning. An incredible, incredible feeling for the whole group here because, I mean, what else can you say? It's like now we know what Limp Biscuit feels like

when they toured Jacksonville or something. London is our hometown. You know what I mean? We are Fred Durst today. An incredible feeling, but hopefully for our shadowy league figures, an incredible feeling of a missed opportunity that we could be filling up a theater

four times the size. I mean, we've made these thoughts And this was a big venue, you guys. We're not selling it short either. It's not like we sold out a 20 person theater. It's 150 to 200. Next time around, we're going to keep pushing to get a bigger place so we can see more of you. We'll see you throughout the way.

There will be that show. We should keep pushing for a bigger venue where you get to the point where there are roughly 30% empty seats. And that's going to feel like a different episode to pull off live. We need a manager who will bilk us out of most of our money is what we need. We need that with Colonel Parker? Yeah, we need a kernel park. Take all of our money in some rig deal and then... I mean, I'm not trying to get after the shadowy league figure, you know, who's helped us a lot on this way.

It's larger than one person. It's NFL corporate policy. But hopefully we can chisel away at that policy. Put us in an arena. And if you have to tarp off the upper deck, tarp off the upper deck. We want to know how many people we... How much meat can we put in the seats in England? That's the question now.

because we know when a show sells out in under 60 seconds we have an audience feels indicative of something well hopefully somebody upstairs for our non-UK listeners you guys are going to love the next week

and a half yeah it's hand delivered to you we will be since Greg brought it up I think it's important and we promise to the listeners are like oh god they're going to London again

and we're going to have to hear about it all week. We'll balance it out. It's not going to be, you know, we're not going to be talking about cricket all week. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. We're going to have our same number of shows, maybe even an extra show, if we put the live show up as well. So you're going to get more content and we'll only be gone. Yeah, I mean, in case and point, we did our week one preview from a cricket stadium last year.

We were highly professional in variable. Highly hung over as well. I thought we did one of our best. Best shows of all time. I've never seen us all that sick before. That was a rough day. Collectively. Not very professional.

We will be on better behavior in 2019, potentially. All right. Got a lot to get to. We're going to talk some power rankings at the quarter poll. We're going to do some news, including a couple injury updates, unfortunately, and a surprising suspension. But first, let's close out week four with the Monday Night 4. with the Monday Night Football Recap.

Rudolph stays in the shotgun, the Oklahoma State kid. Connor stands to his right. He wants to throw it. He's back, big rush, throws it down the field, a man wide open, and it's pulled in by Diompe Johnson from a touchdown. Rudolph to Johnson, 43 yards, and the Steelers are having fun playing football. Bill Hillgrove, first time we've heard him this season,

WDVE with the call. Yes, the Pittsburgh Steelers got the perfect anecdote to end their early season funk. It was the Cincinnati Bengals coming to town. A 27 to 3 pounding of Cincinnati at Heinz Field. Mason Rudolph threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns. Jalen Samuels had a big day. James Connor finally did something at running back. And the defense took it to Andy Dalton, who got sacked eight times.

Bengals didn't score in the final 51 game minutes A total disaster of a showing For the Bengals West The Steelers for all the doom and gloom And when you start O'N3 It is doom and gloom and it's well earned Well, they're only a game out in their division right now Well, we saw a couple of teams

And we'll get to one a little bit later Who had, here's a new kind of game for you The last stand game This is the last stand for the Steelers season And they pulled out all the stops They pulled out their gadget game plan, which included a lot of Wildcat and Jalen Samuels. Because to this point, they don't trust the processing ability of their quarterback pre and post snap. And he's only had, what, one start before this game, so that's understandable.

They want to turn their season around and not have their quarterback ruin it for them. So this is the game plan we got. It didn't tell me that much new about the Steelers, other than they can make a game plan for a race. because we've said it. Stefan Tuert, Cameron Hayward and T.J. Watt are having great years, not good years. They're having among their best years, and these are three really good players in their front.

It didn't totally shock me that they can stuff the Bengals, but 175 yards, 2.7 yards per play for the Bengals, and the amount of pressure Dalton was under. It is still pretty remarkable. We've seen some of these defensive performance, this year where the bad offenses in the league just can't operate. And more in this September than we've seen in a while. We didn't, you know, the Bengals weren't immediately placed in the same category as the

Dolphins of the Redskins on offense. No, they've been competitive in two weeks. Right. Two other weeks they've been blown out. Right. And it's, I think it was obvious to see that the mismatch of Cincinnati's line, which has been a liability all year, was in hot water against a Steelers front. You mentioned the players involved there.

They've tied or led the league in Sacks the last two years. feel like that gets, that slips off people's radar a little bit. They don't see that and they don't see the team that way, but they've gotten pressure consistently for a long time. They laid total havoc to the Bengals and it's not a good look. And I, you know, I saw the tweet that Booger McFarlane mentioned that, you know, he really loved what Zach Taylor was doing, you know, deep into the third quarter when they're losing by like 24 points. Well, that's, that's not the quote he probably was looking to tell the nation there. But I'd be really concerned with the whole organization of the Bengals team.

because they're not an organization that is going to fast track a way out of this mess based on what we know historically. No, they had some pretty big line questions to begin with, and then you lose three or four starters, a couple to retirement, and in your first round pick, and suddenly you can't even operate. I'm just curious, can Mason Rudolph, and we get an answer this coming week against Baltimore, that's a big week five game considering that the Steelers are one and three. You know, how many of these games can you come up with where you're protecting your quarterback like that? There's a lot lately, though.

The NFL's different where you see a pretty shaky quarterback, or not shaky, but not one of the best quarterbacks, start the game 12 for 12. It's like Jacobi Brissette starting 16 for 16. Josh Rosen's 7 for 7 all around the league where they're scheme. Mitchell Trubiske basically did that against Washington. They're scheming all these throws that don't go past five yards. And it kind of works. I just don't think it can work for the whole season.

It can work a few games. Well, this is the trend. It's not brand new, but I think over the past two years, we've seen that they're taking the high risk plays out of the passing game across the league. It's college football. There's something called, you know, they used to say going into the draft, it's like, oh, can he make pro throws? It's like, you can watch Jared Goff, who's struggling right now, and you can still see

10 pro, quote-unquote, throws that probably Mason Rudolph, and some of these other quarterbacks haven't made in their entire NFL careers combined. And he does it in one game in which he struggles. My natural skepticism of analytics and the impact it has on the beauty and art form of sports leads me to believe this is an analytics-driven thing where it might be helping the risk for teams, but it's not helping the viewing product for us. No, and I, like, you know, we'll get to the power rankings part of the show later, but why did you say it like that, the way you're telling them?

Because I'm hitting into something that I saw. in the power rankings that I feel is very unusual for any time that I've been alive even covering the AFC North or watching it as a fan, but us together to have two AFC North teams out of four buried deep, deep, deep in rankings like that. And I think I give the Steelers just because there's innate trust in that organization to climb out of the hole they're into some degree, but they're in a much different situation than they've been in before based on your quarterback comments. All right. And we'll look ahead, of course, on Thursday. episode at week five, but we got Baltimore coming to Pittsburgh on Sunday.

So things can get interesting if the Steelers can find a way to run back a similar performance or effort as they did against the Bengals. All right, let's do some news. Big welcome back to NFL Fantasy League One, and right now we decided that we're going to mail it in and start stealing segments from other shows. And it's a segment that APN likes to call, what's more likely? You know what? Adam Reich, if he's putting it out there and he's owning it,

that you're lifting the bits, that's cool with me. What about you guys? Yeah, absolutely. I kind of think you, like, I like the approach is just saying, we've essentially just stolen your creative property. Well, this particular one, too, never bothers me when you see some, if you see similar ones, because it's just like either or. It's not like we came up with that.

The words, though, itself, what's more likely? I like that, I stick to the line that it, that we did come up with it. It is ours, and let's try to have some ownership over these items. Do you know what the first What's More Likely was? What's more likely? Ricky Hollywood returns from her Europe vacation, her European vacation, or Sammy Watkins becomes a top 10 wide receiver. And they said there's absolutely no chance that Sammy Watkins becomes a top 10 wide receiver,

but that's still more likely than Ricky Hollywood returning from Europe. You do have like a second leg to the trip after our London trip. What is that? I'm going to Barcelona. And then also potentially Lisbon, Portugal. Wait, and there's a trip preceding the London trip. Yes, Emma's wedding is this weekend. I'm going to New York.

Hey, you know, the regular season is currently ongoing, right? Yeah, but if I leave now, I don't have to leave during free agency again. I don't even dare ask why you're going to Lisbon and what's going to be happening there as week seven turns into week eight. Seems like a great place. And, you know, our show over the course of a thousand episodes or so, We've never lifted anyone else's idea for any second what we've ever done. That happens quite a bit under the umbrella of this NFL media group for ideas we've come up with. So the fact that rank is at least putting a name on it, that's nice.

I mean, we have five creative powerhouses sitting here around the table. So we don't need to lift Jack from anyone. All right. Let's get to it. You knew Vantes Burrific was in trouble when he laid out, didn't even lay him out. Jack Doyle, the Colts Tide End, was in a prone position. and he was vulnerable. He was already, his momentum had stopped,

and Berwick comes from the other side and cracks him helmet to helmet. And knowing Berfic's history and his background when it comes to fines and suspensions for dangerous play, you knew something was coming. Well, it really did come.

Berfic is done for the year. Rapsheet reported that he's been suspended for the rest of the season for his hit on Doyle. Rapsheet reported Burfick will appeal the suspension and it's interesting little note to this. The Raiders are in the United Kingdom this weekend for a game as part of the London series.

And Berwick flew to London and just had to come right back to the United States because he ain't playing no more. Well, isn't he free to – my question, too, I think you guys over on our text thread was once you've landed in London and you no longer have a job to do between now and at best next July or, or something, why not do what Ricky's doing when she does have a job and just vanish to Lisbon or points unknown and throughout Europe? Why are you flying back to Oakland? I think it could. You get the free flight, you know, free, you know, you don't have to pay for it, I'm sure, on the way back. Say that, save a little money. Vantes, perfect, just clotheslining random tourists across Europe.

I'm John Runyon, NFL VP of Football Operations in a release following each of your previous rule violations. You were warned by me and each of the jointly appointed appeal officers that future violations would result in escalated accountability measures. However, you have continued to flagrantly abuse rules designated to protect yourself and your opponents from unnecessary risk. Your extensive history of rules violations is factored into this decision. And Frank Reich, the Colts coach, told reporters on Monday he's just thankful the league took the action it did. This goes back to college where he had 22 flagrant penalties in 37 games at Arizona State, which helped him slide through the 2012

undrafted, almost immediately upon getting to the NFL, 2014. He's fined for intentionally twisting the ankles of Cam Newton and Greg Olson after the play. He lines up Max Williams, former Ravens tight end for a terrible cheap shot in week 17, not long after, lines up Antonio Brown for a cheap shot on the head, once knocked out three Steelers for the game in one season. This guy, I mean, he's just, this is what he's done his whole career. He'll end up playing 47 of a possible 96 games since 2014. He's unavailable to his team half the time.

He is an important part of that defense, which is not very good at linebacker. He had been up and down to play pretty well this year, and they have to hear Whitehead. they had one of the Hard Knocks stars, Jason, what was his name? Jason Cabinda, who they want to bring back now from Detroit. Like they've cut some of these guys and then another team picks them up and they have no depth. It is a really bad defense that I think in a given week can get schemed up by a pretty good coordinator. But just talent-wise, Mayak has not been able, he hasn't had the time to fix everything that's going on on that side of the ball.

They're in trouble. Also was flagged 12 grand for flipping off. that's called using your middle finger, Dan. The bird. To the crowd, using the bird aimed at fans, either for or against him. Once shoved a cameraman to the ground just because he happened to run into him and then he was still standing there. Right.

He didn't get suspended for this hit. He got suspended for everything he's done in the NFL, in terms of it being this long. If a different person had had this same hit, I think they might have been suspended, but it certainly wouldn't be for the rest of the season. It's like the reverse of the Academy Award that goes to someone for like their 12th best movie, but they're almost done.

And so you've got to get that thing. Like when Scorsese got best director for, what was that movie? The Departed? The Departed. That's a great movie. A very highly watchable movie, a rewatchable movie, a nice piece of work for Scorsese, but not anything close to his best work, which he never got honored for. Anyway, good Scorsese talk.

I thought, we don't talk about this too much just because where can we go with it, but there were too many head shots in week four. Too many shots to the head, too many guys leaving on stretchers. And I applaud anything that leads to more ejections, more suspensions. You've got to get it out of the game. And these guys are wearing helmets that are bigger than ever, harder than ever, and they're not afraid when they go in to make a tackle. They're not afraid of their own head.

And I think start losing games. That's when coaches will pay attention and put a stop to this. Moving on. Terrible news for the Denver Broncos, who as we know are really scuffling this season, 0 and 4, and now they lose one of their best players for the year. Pass rusher, Bradley Chubb tore his ACL. It was a partial tear of his ACL. He's out for the season.

James Palmer reported this on Monday. ESPN first had it. Vic Fangio confirmed it to reporters. Chubb actually left the game multiple times against the Jaguars, came back, finished out the game with the knee injury, came to the facility on Monday. It wasn't feeling right to get the MRI and they get the bad news. It's also, I believe, seven years to the day since the injury came since he last tore his ACL.

So he's actually now torn the ACL twice in the same knee, which is obviously not great news for a second year player who went right. And I know the Broncos defense as a whole got off to a slow start, but Chubb looked like a superstar once he got hot last year as a rookie. And his backup from last year is now leading the NFL in Sacks for the Tampa Bay Buccaneer. Shack Barrett. I think if Vic Vanjia didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all. This Broncos team is experiencing some like old school country music hard times right now. Yeah, Chubb is one of the guys you build around. He had such a good preseason.

He had the fourth most votes predicting defensive player of the year on NFL.com. Three people picked him. Only Kille, Mac, Miles, Garrett, and Aaron Donald had more, which is a little silly that he was two votes ahead of Von Miller. But either way, that was like the expectations for this guy going into the year. And I don't know if there's worse teams, like the Bengals and Redskins and the Dolphins. But I don't know if any fan base is more bummed out right now than Denver, just because of how swift to fall it's been from their championship run

and just how hopeless it feels right now. That is a like deep, like father to son, mother to daughter fan base. You do not like that does not. You don't become the child in Denver that suddenly roo. for some other team. Having lived there, that place is all about the Broncos from head to toe. And it was amazing to see Chubb making plays on the field after he hurt his knee and big plays. And that was, Von Miller and Chubb gave you, no matter what the team's record was,

an immediate identity that you'd focus any primetime game around. You'd spend 35, 40 minutes talking about Chubb and Von Miller. And when that's gone by the time you're heading into October, and that coaching staff and Vic Fongio has got to be some of these dudes, I just wonder if he could reverse time, he'd say put me back in that Chicago booth.

I want to be back there. They lost, smoking my cigars. As opposed to the Steelers, they lost their last game against the Jaguars. And now to me, the Broncos are more interesting from like a human laboratory perspective who's checking out under adversity the rest of the way. I like this, West.

So we have the cornered animal game at O and 2. We've, now established the last stand game for O'N3 outfits. And you can see a last stand game when you watch the game, the emotion they're playing. Von Miller doing dances through the Jaguars' offensive line when they get penalized, and he's out there playing with like 110% intensity. Their whole defense is swarming, and then Monshu has an 11-minute drive, and it all goes in a gardener Munchu breaks teams.

But you can, yeah, the Titans have just not been able to rebound from that lashing he gave him. The last stand game, because that can happen any time. at the year, though, right? I mean, you could have a 5 and 7 last stand game. Yes, I was about to say. Five and seven was the number that came to me as well. Sometimes last stand games pop up different stretches of the season.

Could have a December last stand game from a team that might have started out 4 and 0 and is now. I mean, almost every team has won. However, a cornered animal game is specifically applied to 0 and 2 outfits. That must be made clear. What is an 0 and 8 team trying to get their first win? What do we're called? Dead animal. I mean, they've been dead for, the air is.

There's a smell coming off of that. That's the great apathy war. That's called like a Hugh Jackson game. Ouch. Okay. Another star player out for the year, Kwan Short, the Panthers Pro Bowl defensive linemen, who had missed each of the past two weeks

after suffering a rotator cuffed hair in his shoulder while the Panthers decide this is not going to work out. So they put him on the IR and he will miss the rest of the season. season, the Panthers have signed defensive lineman Brian Cox Jr. is that the Brian Cox? Yeah, it's his son. Does he

have the big pads in the back? He doesn't have the neck roller. Yeah. The neck board? Bad temper. Brian Cox Jr. from the practice squad to fill the spot on the active roster. Big loss there, Greg. Massive. It's been under the radar that they've improved

their defense last two games without him. It says something about the star power of this team that you can lose Cam Newton and Kwan Short and win two games. And you still have guys like Christian McCaffrey and Luke Keeckley, two of the best players going on their respective sides of the ball, still on the field. Not many teams have like a top list like that,

but this is massive. He's been their best defensive player behind Kikley for a long time. They've also hooked into the unbreakable trend at the moment that if you have a player named Shaq on your roster, he's going to be electric. And Shaq Thompson is coming off one of his best performance. in a long time. But you're right. You look up a dumb. Mario Addison never gets mentioned, always productive. They have dudes, and they found a way to do sort of a soft reboot of that

defense where you kept key guys around, but the secondary is a different cast of characters and was. They're allowing the fewest yards per game in the NFL passing-wise. They are tied for the Patriots for the most sacks in the NFL, and that's without KK Short for the last two games. Great news for International Player Program graduate F.A. Obata. who's been playing inside lately was a big story last year and it's going to get some more snap. A lot of hype around, a lot of buzz around the possibility that Murray's Bowringer lingering somewhere right now of Cincinnati still? I believe so.

Isn't he hurt, though? As part of their pathway program, whether he will continue to get that spotlight treatment from the around the NFL podcast. It's an ongoing discussion internally. We'll leave it that for now. Well, there's other players to talk about. But Jacob Johnson, I mean, the Patriots thought so much of them, they wouldn't even use that little special spot

because they thought they might have to have them in the regular season. And who was making a big block on a key first down in the fourth quarter last week? Jacob Johnson. Not Jacob. Not Jacob, it's Jacob. At a certain point, Mobo is going to have to come off scholarship. Why does everything, why does it have to turn around and be negative? Why can there just be more love?

Because there's a lot of, I mean, there's a lot of that happening from you. So, Dan's. Well, Greg is afraid of Henry, and Henry's got a sharp way and a cutting way about him. Most people are afraid of Henry. Yeah, and I respect Henry as a friend, but I just, I have to call a spade of spade and just point out that Mobo can't be on scholarship forever. Henry directly scouted many of these international players and a lot are working out. So I would say overall Henry's track record as a scout, a pure player finder, is strong. He's like the Steve Belichick of Europe.

Jay Gruden, he's not ready to decide which quarterback will get destroyed by the Patriots this weekend. He's evaluating three quarterbacks ahead of the matchup against the defending Super Bowl champions. Case Keenham, who was yanked from Sunday's game against the Giants after a slow start. There's the first round rookie, Dwayne Haskins, who looked like a total mess when he got his chance to play against the Giants. and then there's that boy, Mark's boy, Colt McCoy, the man who Mark named one of his children after. He is also in the mix if his leg allows it. He's had that lingering leg injury.

So Jay Gruden is just staring at a wall right now, trying to decide which man will be sacrificed to the football guys. I don't doubt that Colt McCoy, on the whole, would be as ready as Case Keenham, if not more, in this offense where the coach likes him a lot. I think it's not exactly, you're not exactly doing a favor to a player that's been through some strange issues with the team in terms of the way his physical health was treated, not the only one on that team with those concerns. And you're saying, welcome back. I'm now going to put you into it completely broken down dysfunctional offense that will ensure you endure a ton of punishment come Sunday.

I'm not sure if I'm called McCoy. I want to do that, but at the same time, his career is longer than anyone ever expected. He's a warrior. You might not want to play if you were Colt McCoy, but Colt McCoy, that's not why you named your kid after he wants to play. I just closed my comments saying I think he would want to play. Yeah, that's what I mean, this is... I just say it's an unwelcome scenario to throw a quarterback into it.

But talk about last stand. Jay Gruden has been wanting to start Colt McCoy his entire run in Washington. The entire life. He entered this off season, I think... Last stand was three years ago. Right, wanting to start Colt McCoy in week one, that that was his preferred guy that he's kept around. And he's running out of time.

They're both running out of time. He knows it. You used to let your Case Keenham flag fly. I mean, Jay Gruden, let your Colt McCoy flag fly. He's the only one with a chance to beat the Patriots. Who are? He would have a change. He's beating them before.

He blew the Patriots up 34 to 10 in 2010 under Arabians. If I was going to give anyone a chance, if I was going to give anyone a chance, it would be Colt of those three. Question for the room. Who are Wes Martin and Robert Davis? Were there some of the deep receivers on the team? These are week four starters for the Washington Redskins, which fielded the worst offensive personnel we've seen all year, including the Miami Dolphins.

You did not have Brandon Sheriff, Trent Williams, Jordan Reed, Scary Terry, all out of the lineup. They are West Martin starting at guard. Robert Davis elevated from the practice squad, immediately made the number one receiver and then cut after the game. What is going on with this team? I would allow Greg to lock up New England, England against the Patriots against the Redskins because the last time Colt McCoy faced

them, he went 14 for 19 for 174 yards, ran for a long touchdown, and Peyton Hillis stomped over a totally confused Tom Brady led Patriots team for 184 yards and two touchdowns. Let's dial it up again. All right. Sold. I'll take them. Of course, that was before Colt McCoy walked with a limp permanently. I don't know.

Fair point by you. There's a long time ago now. It was almost a decade again. Hayton Hillis. It's a decade again. Who was on the cover of Madden once. One fair and square through a fan vote. I feel like that's the type of thing that wouldn't happen in 2019.

Beat out Michael Vic. People wouldn't allow it. They just are like, nope. No, no, no. Yeah. This cannot happen. Wes, if you're talking about that West Martin, I think that everybody knows, I mean, they drafted him in the fourth round.

They must see some promise in him. Nice analysis. That's just what I don't know if I'm talking about the right guy. Are you talking about the guy that played college at Indiana? And he was like, fourth round guard, you got it. Yeah, he's like 315 pounds. Filling in for Brad on the door. If I'm remembering correctly, I don't know if that's the right guy.

This fantasy show is Ray really stepped up Ricky's game. Who has left their keys out for Ricky to go into the layup? She's allowed in and poor Mark still upstairs. That's fine. He's chilling out of. More house to myself. Finally in the news, Adam Thielen has thoughts on the Vikings' offense. after Minnesota no-showed on offense

against the mighty Bears defense. Thielen expressed some frustration. I'm not sure if it was with the offensive philosophy or the guy who's supposed to be thrown in the ball. Let's listen in. Well, I think that's probably the most frustrating thing is we knew that that was going to happen at some point. At some point, you're not going to be able to run the ball

for 180 yards, even with the best running back in the NFL. And that's when you have to be able to throw the ball. You have to be able to make plays. You have to be able to hit the ball, the deep balls. You have to do that because otherwise it's too easy for teams to just tee up and rush the quarterback. So we have to be able to run the ball and pass the ball. In this league, you cannot be one-dimensional.

It's just too easy to defend. It's odd to see Minnesota struggling at this level on offense. West, you may remember shortly before the season started, I was very high in their offense. I thought they could really maybe even be a top five, top three, number one unit. But it's all gone totally to hell. And the one thing that has really jumped out to me that has surprised me is that the one thing you could always count on in a Kirk Cousin's offense was he was going to put up numbers.

And his team will move the football. That is what's disappeared here. And that's been to me the most surprising thing that you add Dalvin Cook into the mix. And we talked about it on Sunday, the offensive line obviously has issues. but that they would be this inept. I just did not see this coming at all. It's fascinating to me. Cousins is a rhythm passer,

and he hasn't been in rhythm really since last October. And I think if you read between the lines with Adam Thielen, at least he and maybe other players with the Vikings have some issues with Kirk Cousins right now. And maybe it's that he's not pulling the trigger when the passes are there. And in Cousin's defense, it's not often that the passes are there because his offensive line, the mixture of that offensive line,

that system and Kirk Cousins isn't working. Yeah, it's not a good thing when Thielen in that same interview was kind of asked, you know, what's the difference this year, you know, with you guys, you know, not, you know, getting as much separation. And the most telling thing is he immediately said, that's not what I see. I mean, he's saying he's open.

And, yeah, Cousins has been under pressure. There's a good article in the athletic yesterday about it. It hasn't been extreme. Watching that game, there were many plays where he did have time, and there are deep throws, you know, you would think to give a shot to Diggs and Thiel. And then he did try a couple. He hit one. And he's instead checking the ball down.

And I think that's the frustration. And when you have Mike Zimmer on Monday saying the same thing, you've got to pull the trigger. When you're talking about your quarterback that way, I don't know. It's just bad. Yeah, there's bubbled over frustration. And there probably is an effect that you can't really measure scientifically on most quarterbacks. outside of the most mentally tough that if you've been damaged and battered and hurt

for a season plus behind a line, you lose some trust for them. We've seen younger quarterbacks even earlier this year after a game or two of that not act the way you'd expect them to. You've seen Aaron Rogers do it in the last couple of years. You've developed bad habits. Absolutely.

There's this one play where they do the boot action and Cousins rolls out to his right. And there's no one within 20 yards of him at that time. and he immediately like fires a fastball over the middle to his running back. I think it was C.J. Ham, who was one yard past the line of scrimmage. And he did it like right away. And that's the type of play where you just, it drives you crazy. I think if you're a risk.

Whenever C.J. Ham is open, though, you've got to get the ball to him. Get it to him in space and watch the magic. That's the philosophy. The football coaches the world over, believe it. That's what's happening in the news. All right. Let's get to it. Oh, I want to do a plug, by the way, before we get to the power rankings,

there's a new edition of the Mark Sessler Weekly Jam out. It's called, I'm blanking on it right now. Help me out, Mark. On my radar? On my radar with Mark Sessler. Not on your radar. Let's get that radar. Let's get that radar sound effect back, Ricky.

Mark, what's on your radar? What I wanted to hit on this week? was we talk about all these dead animal teams and all these animals that are on that's sonar by the way. Last stand that can't get out of their own way. Radar is that works though. That works. Does radar make a sound? Does

submarine have radar or sonar? It depends how rich our sound studio catalog is but I think that that gets the message across to some degree. I just wanted to look at some teams that have kind of changed the way I feel about them, a team like the Lions where I first spent a decade plus

thinking that they're like a raging bowling of vanilla ice cream and I can't wait to not watch them every week and they're changing my mind after one month. A raging bowl of vanilla ice ice. Right. I feel that way a little bit of obviously about the Jaguars with Gardner Minshew. I thought that week four changed the way I feel about the Browns from where I was a week ago, which was internal concern about them, that there's some light. So a couple teams that in week four changed kind of built some stock and some belief. I think I'm understanding the hook now of the weekly column on my radar by Mark Sessler. that typically when we use the phrase on my radar on this show,

it's for negative reasons. But that is the beauty, the subversive nature of on my radar with Mark Sessler, that it's positive radio. Well, radar is something you're seeing. You don't know if it's a friendly craft or a, you know, you'll probably have some negative radars, but it seems more positive overall.

Well, I have also learned that, you know, when you're authoring one of these things a week, that if you go super negative, it tends to disappear in the mix from the social selling point. So if you can pump up a couple things. But I also think it's early in the year and I've not gone totally cynical yet. That will happen.

I think this will get a very grim weekly piece by November December. It was very positive ties in directly again with the Cleveland Browns making you happy on Sunday. And that all filters out. So if we got another big Browns victory on Monday night, I bet on my radar is going to be another. Well, I'm not going to be writing about them every week. Then it's, that looks ridiculous.

That's true. What about the, you know, what about the journalism saying if it bleeds, it leads? I never heard that negative. I mean, does that remind you of NFL.com? Not me. The NFL game pass Coven got together. We convened and rendered a verdict on the Lions. They've been upgraded from Frisky to just plain fun.

And I'm fresh out of caveats with this team. Right, there we go. Stick a pin in that because we're going to get to the Lions here in the power rankings. We're a quarter of the way through the season. Quarter poll, it is a thing. If you say it's a thing, it's a thing. So don't tell us it's not a thing. Quarter pole.

So let's check in with the old Zusser who has authored every Tuesday since the beginning of, really since the middle of the preseason power. What person is this? You're checking in with yourself. It's like seventh person. I don't know what that is.

We've got to be very quiet. Up in the clearing, we have the incredibly rare NFL networks. Dan Hanses. I'm lonely. I'm lonely. I'm so. Oh, crap. You're scared it away.

Yeah, so Dan did a really nice job putting together. You know, he's doing the work, and you could tell. I feel bad. You're setting us up in a nice way. You could have asked one of us to gingerly do the same. No, I have no problem doing it for myself. You're writing a lot of words. You seem comfortable doing this.

A lot of words. Or you could have used the first person like normally. A lot of effort. Dan is really putting in the work. And you're seeing that on the paper. And it's everyone wins. So let's dig into it. We'll go through essentially breaking into tens, 10, 10, 10, 12.

Start with the top 10. And I'll point out, and you can check this out at NFL.com slash power rankings. Patriots and Chiefs won two. I think if you look at power rankings across the universe and there are millions of them, but there is only one on NFL.com. Everyone will have the same too. Things get trickier in the top 10 after that. I was really sold by the Saints performance on Sunday night

and just how great they've been the last two weeks as a team. And I have them all the way up to three, the Cowboys dropping one spot after losing to the Saints. And then I moved the Bears to number five. move them up three spots, and that is a testament to just the dominant level of their defense. Anybody have an issue with the top five here? No, I sort of, like, I think it shows where philosophies can differ, but still make a lot of sense regardless.

I think if the Saints and Cowboys played seven times on a neutral field, I would trust the Cowboys more. But the Saints have earned this. They went into Seattle, and then they beat Dallas, and they've earned this. I get it, but they probably wouldn't be in my top 10. The Saints. The Saints would not. You know, they won a game in Seattle.

There's a difference, I think, between like a great football story and you're getting wins and that's important for the rest of your season and looking good as a team. I don't think they've looked that good as a team. The offense has had three of the worst performances of the Sean Payton era. They weren't competitive against Los Angeles. They were doubled. They didn't look like the better team in Seattle.

I mean, they're resourceful and that's terrific. And the home performance is impressive. I went to check football outside. I'm just curious what their efficiency is. I was guessing it wouldn't be I. They have them as the 21st best team in the league right now, which obviously seems a little harsh. But I don't look at them other than they're solving early season problems

and think this is a good Saints team. Well, I think they have an offensive problem going back to last year. Yeah, but they have a bigger problem with Teddy Bridgewater, a quarterback. That problem is amplified. Defense played unbelievable on Sunday night. If that's a sign of things to come, they're going to be a lot better. But they've had some line issues. They're not deep.

I mean, they have the star power, but they don't have. the debt, even with Drew Bree's back, I wouldn't see them as a top fight. See, Dan, I think you're dealing with, no matter what you did at three, you can make an argument for someone else because there is no clear cut. And this is true, untrue of other seasons. There's no third or fourth dominant or pressing to be dominant. No, not yet. The Cowboys probably would have been my choice by the fall. There's a team at six and you can get to it. That's who I would have put into the top five over some of these others. Let's get to that in one moment, Mark. But you would put the Cowboys ahead of the Saints after the Cowboys. I would put the Cowboys. the Eagles, the Niners, the Rams, the Packers, I put them all ahead of the Saints. All right. Let's, yeah, let's check in now. So in the top 10, I have the two AFC teams and then eight NFC teams right now. I just can't figure out what's going on in the AFC right now.

But the Eagles, I have them, I moved them all the way up to six because the rest of the teams that I got, I got Niners at seven, and I'm giving them a little bit of a lollipop because they're undefeated. They got the undefeated lollipop, but they're going to have to win again to stay there. the Rams at 8, dropping them five spots, the Packers at 9, and I'm closing out the Seahawks at 10. Mark, you would have the Eagles higher. Well, so I don't know how, if you're saying this is as of last Sunday or Monday night, this is where I'm ranking them.

For me, I look at the Eagles overall, holistically, and say, I totally believe in this team. They've been through a ton of nonsense injury-wise early on. I thought that was a huge win on Thursday night football in a tough environment to play. I thought they were going to win that game, and they did. And I believe that the Eagles will be there at the end of the year, minutes away from the NFC title game, no matter what happens record-wise through all of this. And I would take them personally, the Bears defense, best in the league maybe right there with New England,

but I would take the Eagles as an operation over the Bears in a second if I could own one of the teams and hope to have the ride. I think there's real concerns about their defense, and you might not get, you know, you get Tim Jernigan back. eventually Darby back. They just haven't looked great on, they don't look as balanced. I'm with you for the most part, and I think this is where I'd put them to, Dan, and agree with what Mark's saying.

But I think there's a bigger concern than previous years that their defense is just, that they're not balanced, that the offense is going to be better. They're not even balanced on defense. They stop the run, and they're terrible against the pass. I just think that they're going to be more

than the sum of their parts a little bit, and they're going to win a playoff game. Maybe they shouldn't against, on the road, and they're going to just be at the end. edge right there at the end. Let's make the case for the Niners, though. You said you're giving them a lollipop. A little bit of a lollip. Their fans could say, hey, we're number two in efficiency right now in DVOA. Our defense has played lights out three straight weeks. You know,

opponents are crucial in that. I get it. They played Mason Rudolph, and they did a good job against the Bucks in week one. They played the Bengals. And then they have a chance to be explosive on offense. Hasn't always been there, but you've got a great play caller. Just on what they've done, they've been pretty impressive. Monday night is a fascinating game with them in the Browns. The buy is so annoying because you want to see more from them. You want to see and the fact that the Niners and Jets both shut it down, it was actually good for the Jets. But for the Niners, you want to see more from them because they've been very intriguing. In the middle of the power rankings, there are two teams I want to point out the Browns who

have at 14 up seven spots from last week. We hit on it a little bit at the end of the Sunday flagship program, West, that who do you really, who can you vouch for and pound the table is the third team in the AFC. And I look at the Browns with their upside potential and how high their ceiling is. And the Texans, a team that's trying to figure some things out right now, it feels like, but can get hot at any moment, I believe. Those are the two teams that I would point to say I would be most confident in them becoming, maybe not powerhouses, but real strong teams that could put a scare into the top

two teams in the AFC. I would have both of those teams you mentioned, the Browns and the Texans, over the Chargers, which you have ranked 12th, two spots higher than the Browns? I just haven't been impressed with the Chargers. Chargers have looked terrible to me. I think they have the pieces to get better, but I'm with you. And I think the Browns, to me, I've noticed that with each year, the NFL community, the overreaction to each week's swing gets more pronounced every year.

And the Browns are this week's prime example of the Prisoner of the Moment team. you know before they beat the Ravens they were a bumbling stumbling can't do anything right we'll never overcome their offensive line their head coach is in over his head their players are buying into their hype they're a joke we can't stand them why are they on TV why does Baker have so many commercials carry overrated wrong everything's wrong you take that back Greg Hall of Fame is that even real now they beat a Ravens team that was picking on lesser lights early in the season and we're calling you know the Browns the third best

team in the AFC, just because of one week's data, and I think you need to be anchored by more data than that. But I agree that the Browns are probably right in the middle of the pack slightly above average, and their talent is even better than slightly above average. I think some of that overreactions because of the sample size is so small, and Cleveland legitimately looked like a different team than they had on offense. But it felt like a fluky game because they had three plays over 60 yards, you know, where a lot of it was the defense, the defense having breakdowns. Now, the defense been really solid. And you asked

this, Dan, I think it was off, Mike, you know, who would you pick as the third AFC team? Like you just mentioned, I think Wes and I did say the Browns, just long term, because I like the makeup that they'll figure it out. Right now, I would have to... If you were just basing strictly on what we've seen, I think it would be the Bills, because I kind of know

who they are. And people coming out of that Bill's Patriots game saying, oh, you know, the Patriots, I have one of the best defense of all the time. I mean, they weren't the best defense on the field. The Bills' defense is fantastic. Tremaine's making the damn leap. And I kind of know who they are. Maybe their upside isn't that high, but I think they're going to be really tough to deal with everything. Yeah, it's interesting you're saying that. And you put them first

out of those teams. Yeah, I mean, I certainly respect them and think they can make noise, but you're so down on Josh Allen right now and you're, you've been leading the charge saying he's really not making as much progress as people think, well, if that's your starting quarterback and hopefully he gets back from that confession. There's also more to playing quarterback than passing the ball with touch. I mean, that's a huge part of it, but I think when Greg's talking about Josh Allen not getting better, you still have to factor in what he does as a runner. Yeah, when he's not knocking himself out.

But you're right. It's a good point, Dan, that it totally caps their upside. It's just I feel like I tweeted something about they have a lot of gimmies on their schedule, so I think they have a good chance to make the playoffs. But everyone respond to, okay, well, that's only eight wins if you count those gimmies. And I look at the bills is they're going to be in every game. So all these games against the Browns and the Texans and the Chargers, that they have, I give them a good chance to win half those games.

They can get to 10 wins. I mean, to start the way they did, that carries at least one or two playoff teams a year. I could be wrong. I've been over-excited about Bill's teams early in the season before, as Bill's fans have. Their defense is legitimate, and, you know, when you watch the Bears and the Patriots, I think you're seeing what continuity does for a team. And those guys have been playing together for a long time, the cores of all three

of those defenses. That's a great point. Bill's Panthers are two more. I count, and it's easy to count it because it's basically count the winless teams, dead-ass teams, Bengals, Broncos, Cardinals, Jets, Redskins, Dolphins. So forget about them. But in the 20s, I'm going to ask you guys a question. So you got the cults, I have at 20, the Bucks at 21, the Titans at 22, the Giants at 23,

the Raiders at 24, and the Falcons at 25, the Cs. Steelers at 26. What is, which of those teams are you most confident will get hot, get on a run, and be playing in January? Pittsburgh Steelers. Wow. But I've come around a bit on the Bucks. And I know I jumped on you and, you know, after they beat a bad Giants team.

And I really don't think the Rams are a good team. But I did think their defense. Also the Giants, unfortunately, for Mackay. The Bucks have my attention They're making plays on defense Winston is playing well But the offensive line has really exceeded my expectations And Ronald Jones is running like a man possessed

He is my new like Dalton scale for running backs If you're not playing better than Ronald Jones I mean He was way better than Todd Gurley in that game Hmm I mean he might be above the Dalton scale I just use him for like Hey why can't you get extra yards

When I just saw Ronald Jones get extra yards He embarrassed John Johnson our former guest on this show, on one play. On a couple plays, but one actually that was called back by penalty, but he just, he unpanced him. I still buy into the cults. They're 20. I still buy into them.

Bucks would be my choice. They're banged up. Bucks would be my choice. I know I've... I want to see if the Titans are going to suck anybody in after that performance against... I don't waste a lot of verbal energy on the Titans because I agree with Dan that it's a week-to-week proposition and it's too much to deal with. I need to see a six-week stretch where they play strong with no let-down games in that six weeks.

Well, as someone who's been overexcited about the Bucks, like you have been with the Titans, I guess we're just extending out our quarterback argument into the teams. I want to see the Bucks these next two weeks in New Orleans, and then we'll see them in London against the Panthers, two tough division games. They've just been so different, like great on defense the first two weeks, great on offense the next two weeks. I want to, you got to at least split these two games to stay right in that mix. I think it's only fair.

I will suggest this to Mark and maybe he'll agree with me that Bruce Ariens and his staff have earned the right to put a stop to all jokes that he's just already regretting taking that job. Well, no, I've moved that over to Vic Fangio because that happened all on Sunday because that happened midway through the third quarter. At halftime you were still saying Ariens didn't want to be there. There is something about Ariens. It's where I feel like a little bit of air has been let out of the balloon

in terms of the Aryans that I once loved. He just seems a little bit annoyed. But when you go and drop 55 points, a franchise high on a Rams team that was completely beguiled for half the game, you're probably happier. I kind of think he got wind of this and kind of said to eat this 50 burger. I know you don't like meat, Sessler. shove it down your gullet. I mean, a 55 burger should actually be rounded up to a 60 burger.

Give it to him, 60 burger. He turned 67 years old on Thursday. What if it's just, hey, he's accomplished more than he ever expected in life. He's just a little more at ease with himself. Speak on it, Greg. Not as much fire, but you don't need the fire. Doesn't mean you're not doing as good a good job. Maybe.

Doesn't mean he still isn't going for a legacy grab. By the way, don't forget about the number 23 team on Dan's rankings. The old Zeuser has the team working their way up. and they get the Vikings in total panic mode coming into the medal lines on Sunday. It feels like good timing to get the Vikings or bad timing depending on how things can play out. With this article,

they were previously ranked number 23 and they're ranked again at 23. So they're not... Be the dead-ass team. Took care of business at home. You just described them as coming up as if the winds of change are blowing, but that's exactly where they were a week ago.

They got to beat the Vikings. I'll hang tight till next week to see. I'm all in on the Giants if they beat the Vikings for a third straight. Well, I hope you'd be all out on the Vikings if that happens too. Oh, yeah. Okay. They'd be in the dead ass group, potentially.

Wow. It's the Battle of, the Battle of Hanses Sunday, East Rutherford. We might have to draft that game, and you'll find out on Thursday. All right, before we go, let's preview Thursday night football. The Los Angeles Rams, who I believe West just said, almost casually. are not a good team. Not a good football team. Travel to Seattle.

The clink in prime time? Who wins in Seattle in prime time? Well, the Rams are going to have to try to do it against the Seahawks. The Rams do the last few years. Yeah, in prime time? One of those. When the lights clip up at the clink?

One of those, for sure. They clinched the division. There was also like the Jeff Fisher special would he pull out those like nine to seven wins where Russell Wilson and a complete anomaly would be sacked like 12 times. Anyway, this is a great Thursday night game, great division rivalry, and Mark. This is a game you'll watch.

Oh, this is a, this is a, I've watched every Thursday night game. The Bengals Steelers game tested my patience, and I eventually had to say goodbye to that one. But this one, forget about it. This is actually great for Thursday, too, because division rivals don't need as much time to familiarize themselves. And Seattle is one of these teams. I don't know where they were in the rankings. I trust them to be there at the end. Number 10.

They fit well at number 10. They belong there. And they are not a perfect team. But when you plug in a guy like Judevian Clowny, and he is making impact plays every week, I know that Chris Carson is someone that obviously would have lost some coaches trust, but they got a nice game out of him last week. Russell Wilson, statistically, is at the best.

He's been in every category. In an offense where I thought they were going to run the ball 240 times a week, He is playing in an MVP level. Greg, you mentioned that. I don't trust the Rams right now at all. I don't even know what they, I just don't know what they are after the Bucson. He locking it up?

This is a kind of game that I would really like to lock. But if I lose my lock on Thursday night, either one of two things happen. I totally forget about it on Sunday. Or it absolutely casts an ominous glow over the entire weekend. So I'm going to think about it. Watch out of the on-my-radar column if Mark loses the clock. Yeah, I would go right at that team that cost me that.

It's a matchup where two. units I think that want to play a lot better go against each other in terms of the Seahawks pass rush and then the Rams pass protection. The Seahawks pass rush hasn't been nearly as bad. The Rams are dead last in pro football focuses pass protection grades. So Rob Habenstein, who was pretty good for a few years, is dead last that tackle. I'm hoping he's playing through an injury. There are two guards are ranked right near the bottom. Their all pro left tackle, Andrew Whitworth, has been fine, but he hasn't been the dominant guy. And so that's why Jared Goff is making these mistakes.

I swear Jared Goff, if you just counted the number of great throws each quarterback's made this year, he's near the top. He's also just made a ton of mistakes, and he's not a guy maybe that's going to thrive with pressure on him. Real quick to your point, the PFF has five of six Rams linemen from that last Bucks game ranked in the deep red negative 12 or below category. That is hard to do in a single game. out of six. It's fascinating matchup.

There was a great segment from Steve Weish on the Aftermath Show Monday, breaking down the book that is out there now on how to stop the Rams. And a lot of teams are going to a 6-1 defensive front, six defensive linemen, stop Todd Gurley on early downs, take away the off-tackle runs, deny Brandon Cooks or vertical routes, make golf throw more than 40 times from the pocket instead of doing boot action, rollout, play action, play action. make him play quarterback instead of holding McVeigh's hands. And now you're stopping the Rams because this guy, I believe, had a 37-7 TD interception ratio on early downs through his first 28 games.

It is 6 to 7 on early downs in the most recent 11 games. They are not getting it done on third downs because teams are taking away first and second down. I'm not sure if they could do that if Todd Gurley was still Todd Gurley. And I know the game script got banged. against the bucks as they fell behind and were trying to play catch-up, which led to how many passes, attempts were there? 68. But Todd Gurley got five carries.

Well, part of, if you watch the game, part of that is because the offensive line was penalized almost every time in the first quarter when they try to run play. I mean, five for 16 yards and Gurley after the game, I don't call the plays, bro. He also doesn't false start every time. This is a big game. I love it. This feels like maybe it's just the flip to October. week five feels a little

meteor. This feels like the first big game of the year. I don't know. That we've seen enough of these two teams. I like what you've seen out of Seattle getting a little bit better each week. I don't know if they're overachieving on defense, but they're doing well with what they have. And L.A.,

the defending NFC champs in a big spot, they can either put the NFC West right back to where it's been, basically, hey, this is our division, or it's suddenly this pretty cool three-team race where the 49ers and the Seahawks are both ahead of them. Tasty.

The desert sees this game essentially as a pick-um, and it's really, let's pick this game because this is a real toss-up for me. On one hand, I do love the idea of the Seahawks at home. Russell Wilson, like we've said, playing as well as he is, Chris Carson, running the ball well when he's not fumbling it. And then you have the Rams who are probably pretty T-Oed

after what happened last week. and they got a great coaching staff, and Steve Weiss made great points, but also Sean McVeigh, we're told as a genius. So, you know, he sees the same thing, too, and he's going to try to make adjustments,

perhaps as soon as Thursday. So for that reason, I think I'll pick the Rams to a bit of a statement win for L.A., who have not played very well this season, but perhaps this will be their coming out party. But I can easily see it going the other way as well. Guys, how about everyone else on the podcast? First time,

You've froze us in our tracks. You made some good points, and I've lost so much faith in the Rams that I would, of course, pick against them on the road in a short week. Yeah, on the road in a short week, but I don't know. I feel like I've been doing too much reacting off of the previous week in my picks so far. Wes and I are combined 0 and 8 in our locks so far. I'm in my own head right now, and maybe I should just pick the Rams because, as you said, don't do it because they'll definitely lose that.

John McVeigh so smart, if we know that there's a book on the Rams, then he must know it. But that book is written by Vic Fongio in week 14 last year. I mean, there's been a couple good articles about it. The Bears had the blueprint. The Eagles basically copied it and did a good job in Los Angeles. And the Patriots did a lot of similar things in the Super Bowl. And other than the Panthers, almost every team they've played this year has done something similar. How much is that the book and how much is Todd Gurley's just a shadow of what he was?

And the line's not as good. If I was a Rams fan, I'd take encouragement. from the offensive performance against Tampa. You know, those interceptions that he had, one he got just confused on, one was a tip. You know, he made a mistake under pressure. Like, they were big plays,

but they moved the ball. They moved the ball really from the first drive on. Yeah, but they couldn't run, and they were moving the ball against the team just trying not to mess up a huge lead. I don't know. Lose your pick, Greg. I'm taking the Rams.

Wow, three for the Rams, Mark. I'm taking Seattle for the Rams. All right. That's why I didn't, I didn't jump in. See, I'm thinking like a producer. I thought it'd be good to go back and forth, Rams. Shop it up a little bit. I was like, I didn't want to go with another.

Think like a podcaster. Let's just stay right there. Like, I'm going Seattle and I'm soft locking it for right now. What is that? Because I may change my opinion. Well, I'm allowed to change my opinion. It's a soft lock. It's, I'm locking it for now.

Okay, it's a lock. Lock for the volume. The volume is turned down. I think Seattle's defense. It's soft lock. Cannot wait for this. So it could be easily picked by a lock. And when you've got.

a guy on your defense and Michael Kendricks who was nailed for insider trading everyone thought he'd be out of the league he's back in kicking butt I thought he was in prison I want to do insider trading if what do you're on his lawyer it's like a two week slap on the wrist apparently well he's back he's part of the defense that I think is going to win this game

they're going to take it 24 16 in fairness it really seemed like his friend basically did it all and used his money I don't know the details it seems like it's not that bad of a thing to do apparently and Becky's going to get the electric chair for you know getting her kid into college and we got people getting thrown the slammer for like a week for insider trading. I think it's because I think what happens is most people don't understand what insider trading is,

including myself. So you don't. Sounds bad. You don't cling to it. But when like the actress like shoves her daughter into a college and everyone feels there's a lack of justice, well, everyone can jump on that story and you understand it. That's why I, but don't put her in the chair over it. I'm not the judge. How about the public shame? Isn't that enough? I don't make the decision someone else will okay maybe she does belong to go there uh we'll be back thursday with a preview of all the week five games and then there will be a mini pod uh featuring dan hansis and mark sessler i like this new thing he says it's completely disconnected now it's not that new reality i don't know it just feels even more distant now like i'm drifting away for

myself somehow. Mark and I will handle the Thursday night recap of that very compelling game in Seattle and finally yes, thank you to the fans in London. Like we can, our careers

could go in the toilet tomorrow over, you know, something that Mark says that gets magnified and we get canceled. That could happen. And they'll never be able to take away that we have a show that's sold out in less than 60 seconds. That's all, you need to say that that is a huge career accomplishment i don't care if there's four people packed into

the venue that sold out quickly and it's a testament to the hard work of us as a group and the amazing fans overseas if you ever get a wikipedia page it'll be in the first pair bang it better be in that first graph right in the lead if your career goes down the toilet does the person you continue to refer to today in the third person is he still safe i believe so i'm not sure it's a little confusing all right let us head off rickie it's your accomplishment this is well. Thank you very much, Dan. Dan Hanzas signing off for Dan Hanzas,

the quiet storm, the mailman, the old boss, and Ricky Hollywood behind the glass till Thursday. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Flawio, 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 man.

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