NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFC 'Freak Out' Scenarios

Episode Date: May 16, 2016

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler – analyze the latest news from around the league including the Titans decision to cut Zach Mettenberger and Tom Coughlin's itch to coach again. The guys then decide if it is time for certain teams to freak out about possible personnel issues. Can the Seahawks overcome yet another weak offensive line? Should the Cowboys freak out when they look at their starting front seven?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. Hi and hello, football fans. Dave Damishik here. Be sure you check out my podcast of the Dave Damashik football program as we dive into the NFL from a fans and players perspective. See if you can guess which one I am.

Also, be sure to listen to the Around the NFL podcast to keep up with the latest football news and move the sticks with former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah. It's so good, you're guaranteed to be a smarter football fan. Go to NFL. com slash podcasts and subscribe on iTunes today. The Around the NFL podcast features Chris Wesleyan's time machine. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast.

My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling and Greg Rosethall. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. What is this time machine talk? The reference is lost on me. What helped me out? I think that might be the reference, that most of my references are to 1970s and 1980.

Okay, well done, somebody. All right. It's too bad, Dan, by the way, you missed. Of course, last week I controversially started the show without you. Not your best moment. No, I think it was one of my favorite moments in show history. You missed a great money drop, which was that around the NFL podcast is looking forward to the next Rosenthal family vacation. That would, yeah.

I mean, if the show had been started properly, we could have really all enjoyed that together. What a great money drop. Big news, by the way. This came down from, you want to talk about shadowy league figures. This came from an email corporate bot called NFL hyphen administration at 1032 AM to all personnel landed. Everyone that has an email account with the NFL. Monthly MVP winners for the month of April. Marron.

out of the Los Angeles office Christopher Wessling the old Zusser and Mark Sessler Woo! And you know A lot of people would say Rooms going crazy.

Yeah, why bring, you know, why why bring this to light at some silly internal you know, pat on the head from, you know, big football? But I see it as a great achievement and really something you it's now in the first paragraph of our obituaries. It is?

Yeah, April 2016 NFL media MVP of the month. It's a big honor. I mean, part of Mark's obituary, I guess, would be two-time MVP. That's always been a running subplot. I never felt right. Down on the floor that Mark was an MVP winner. Now you guys can share the, where are you guys going to celebrate? Oh, I was thinking Cancun maybe.

somewhere. I'm not happy about this. I mean, what took so long? You have any speech? What took so long? I'd like, Greg, you are our superior. I'm assuming you nominated us for this. That's true, yeah.

All right. Well, Greg is the real winner. Why don't we hand the floor over to you and you explain how valuable we are? You are the three most valuable people at the entire company. You know, you provide, what, like 80% of the written content practically on this website

while pumping out podcasts and videos and who all checks out. Not bad to look at either. It feels wrong that whoever is above Greg in the food chain isn't equally pushing for Greg to be on this list. I mean, why did Greg need to be left off? Greg, you might have to take it up with your boss. That's true. I'm a no-time MVP still for you.

Wow, that seems still trying to get. Your time will come, Greg. They also nominated roughly 87 people in the New York office. So I'm not sure that it's the equivalent. of Cam Newton taking the trophy home. Greg, if there's one thing, I want you to be able to have the feeling that I have right now, the warmth. And I believe there's a gift card coming, guys.

That's the rumor. There's a coin, too. And a coin. And a case. I'm not sure what the case is for. I hope it's beer. Negative. You have to hold your coin.

And before we get into today's show, which I give a pre-grade of a minus, I want to apologize to Chris Wesley who I stated on last week's show that he does not change his opinion on anything and that was before there was an I am in our I am client that we use that will go nameless because it's run by garbage people

Wes said I've come around I love the new Kanye West album I've changed my opinion and he pointed out that's evidence and proof that I am not someone that's too stubborn to change my mind on things so I apologize Wes and I'm glad that you're enjoying the new Yeezy

I've always appreciated his musical talent which is exceptional it's just that I think he's a bad human being yeah he can separate Has that changed? No you can separate the art from the art So wait what's changed? The beggars top to bottom you always appreciated his music and now you're continuing to appreciate

his music you thought he was a garbage person you still think he's a garbage person So what was the dramatic shift that we're hearing about? I thought the album was a little overhyped, and I went and listened to it, and I enjoy it. Do you thought it was like Annie Apple overhyped? I thought it was like anytime Kanye West does anything, he gets a lot of hype.

Yeah. All right. That is true. But what about the guts of that statement I made, the apology? Do you accept it? I do. I think that's very big of you. Okay, thank you very much.

This is the Monday edition of the Around the NFL podcast, sponsored by no one. So you got three MVPs on the dais right now. And you can't get a sponsorship. That's interesting. Great show today. I like this. We're going to do a segment a little later today called

Is it Time to Freak Out About? And then slide it in about. We're going to kind of focus on some NFC teams. Maybe we'll do AFC teams later in the week. We have a lot of, as you know, Mark, we're doing seven shows this week. Yeah, I mean, if we don't get to it, don't freak out. Yeah, relax. Yeah, is it time to freak out about?

And we'll go through all picks of the NFC teams that might have an issue that, you know, maybe it's time to freak out about. Or maybe it's not. Maybe, for instance, Wes will say it's time to freak out about, and then he'll go through a whole spiel. And then Greg will say something to kind of go at Wes. And Wes will be like, you know what? My opinion initially was freak out, but you're right. I'm with you now. But that's now possible in my mind.

Anything's possible. It's all on the table. Everything's in play. It's like the world. Now that I'm a MVP, I see things different. Old Waffling Wesleyan. Waffling West. Yeah.

So we're going to do that. We're going to go through, talk about nine or ten teams that perhaps have a fatal flaw as we inch, and I mean inch towards the 2016 regular season. And we'll also do the news. And there's some stuff. to get to in the news. But before we do that, check behind the glass. The Irishman out of the office today.

I mean, is it a put down the chisels moment that he took a day off? I'm not going to go that far, but we're all here on a Monday. Well, I think he has some family concerns, you know, as you bury him. Yeah, our best wishes to Brandon. Good job, yeah. All right, thanks, guys. But in his place, in the big chair is Sully. What's up, buddy?

What's up, fellas? Well, it's a long time to see. One of the great characters of NFL media. Maybe I could finally get my name on the NFL Reddit page on the side. I'm not listening. Oh, wow. What is your, by the way, what is your Twitter handle so everyone knows? At Sullyvall.

Sullyvall. He is a tremendously interesting man that last time he works in this convoluted, you have to work for like seven months and they make you disappear for five months. Last time Sully was here last year, after he left, he just went and followed the Tennessee Volunteers Football Team for months. I pretty much went back to college. Good life. You lived in your old frat house, didn't you?

Pretty much. So the Tennessee football program is like your version of fish in concert? Yeah. Well, no, I would say all over the South people travel no matter what the mileage is. Like your life sounds like the idea behind a Judd Apatow movie or something. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Where it's like, yeah, you're like kind of like not ready to grow up, but then a girl, you meet a girl,

and it makes you kind of see the man that you could be. I could see that all happening. Oh, dear. Let's do some news. I'm so relieved to be speaking to a graduating class from Ole Miss. If I were speaking at Alabama, I would have to use smaller words in shorter sentences. We'll be getting into a commencement speech a little later. Was that Vince McMahon?

That was brocall. I recognize that. Anytime I could fit a Bama joke in anywhere. None of us know what that dig was about is it's all like. It's all Bama. C C C C C stuff. That's late stage Brokaw, by the way. You can tell.

I mean, I think we could figure out with the context what it was about. It's always funny to your- Alabama people stupid. It's always funny your southern states calling each other stupid. That's turning your back. Hot takes. On the Bermuda Triangle, the NFL. I love the South, but come on, we're not looking to them

for the best educational programs in the country. I don't know. Let's get into the news, guys. The Buffalo Bills took Shack Lawson, the Clemson Pass-Rusher, with the 19th overall pick in the NFL draft. he had a shoulder issue that got red flagged at the combine, but the bills were very confident that Lawson would be able to play without a problem as a rookie, that he would, if he needed surgery, it wouldn't be until after the season,

and then guess what happens? On Monday, it's announced that by the team that Lawson will undergo surgery on his right shoulder. Rapsheet reported that he's likely to begin training camp on the Pupp list, and that could carry over to the regular season, which would mean what? He would miss at least half the year if that happened. The decision to undergo surgery was made after Lawson had a, quote, occurrence of the condition. Last week, the bills were in heavy spin zone, Greg. When this went down, the news release, they made sure to call it a preventive measure.

And Doug Wellie lauded Shaq Lawson for being a team player by getting this done. But that's all putting lipstick on a pig, isn't it? It was so strange the way they worded the releases, basically trying to distract everyone from the fact that we just drafted this guy who we said a week ago would not need shoulder surgery and he needs shoulder surgery. And if they knew that he was going to have this surgery and the early reports are a four to six month injury, he wouldn't have gotten taken number 19 overall. That's absolutely true. And I think, you know, I wonder if they would have taken Reggie Raglan over him if that was the case. I mean, Doug Whaley is one of the rare GMs

that completely whiffed on a first round quarterback and is still employed at the same. same place. And I don't, if there was a book about this bills team, I don't think I'd want to read it, but I'd like to read the chapter about what happened behind this repik. Who lobbied the hardest for this? And you mentioned downstairs, and they knew that the red flags were out there and they just bypassed it and picked them. It was, and Whaley was so high, Teflon Doug, I call him, was so high on this pick that he was given interviews last week, or he was saying that the bills were going to have three guys, three rookies starting. He said that Shack Lawson was going to, quote, walk off the bus as a starter.

So this obviously blindsided them. And I like to what you're saying, Mark, doesn't it feel like five years from now, we're going to look at Teflon Doug and Rex Ryan this regime and we're going to laugh that anybody took this right back seriously? Wow. I mean, doesn't it feel like this is not? It's shaping up that way if you wanted to look at last year

could not have been more of a train wreck. Well, look, I mean, if he gets back in the middle of the season and he's a decent player, it's not the end of the world. It's just that they were basing it clearly. They were basing their pick clearly on information that was wrong. We saw reports that a lot of teams took them off their board, and the bills obviously disagreed with that, and they proved to be wrong.

They're very thin at that position, too. I was trying to come up with for our projected starter series NFL.com slash starters. How about that? Well played. Who is going to step in for Lawson? And the options are, you know, they kind of either Manning Lawson's playing outside linebacker, but basically when you're looking at linemen,

It's guys like I.K. Ed and Polly, your old past or other players that really have no experience. And this is a team that used to be very deep on the defensive line. Now I think they're very thin and they need these two rookies, including Washington, to come up there. You know who agrees with me, by the way? Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News, usually a mild-mannered man tweeted out after the news. This is a major embarrassment for Whaley, Rex Ryan, and the Bills football decision makers. Plenty of questions to answer for ownership. I just think it's a terrible look.

and it just speaks to the dysfunction that's been around that franchise in the last several years. Wes? I agree with everything you said, Dan. And more bad news, guys, for the bills, surfacing just as we are talking about the bills, a report out there from Tyler Dunn

that multiple team sources are telling Dunn that Sammy Watkins has broken his foot. So he suffered a broken foot. That, of course, was Whaley's major power play last year in the draft when he gave up a whole bunch of picks to move up to get Sammy Watkins, envisioning him as the heart of their offense,

and you never want to hear broken foot with a skill player. So you want to talk about a bad day in Orchard Park, Marrown. A lot of bad omens here for the Buffalo Bills' 2016 season. And then you have also the contract with Tyrod Taylor hanging over their heads. There's a lot going on here. It doesn't seem like it's going to be their year. Well, I think it's too early to say that. It's a bad day.

Well, I already didn't think they were better than a 500 team. and now you've got all this information coming out. I think their starting lineups on both sides of the ball is pretty talented overall, but it's including Sammy Watkins. And one part where you can say that's not true is wide receiver. Because after Watkins, their starter is Robert Woods. And after Woods, their number three receiver is probably Leonard Hankerson. Thank you.

It was on a couple teams last year. That is a very, very thin, wide receiver group. So losing Watkins, and we have no idea the report just came out, how serious it is, but any level of broken foot is pretty serious, and who knows, who knows how it happened. I mean, we talked about run-heavy teams emerging this offseason, the bills, if they lose Watkins, they've got, they are deep at running back, very deep, and they may have to run the ball a ton.

I thought Carlos Williams was awesome last year. You have McCoy. You have all five starting offensive linemen, including two pro bowlers, or three pro bowlers, returning for the first time in 20 years in Buffalo. So they do have some things good going for them on offense, but a lot of questions. Zach Mettenberger no longer employed with the Tennessee Titans. Our next news item, the team released the quarterback who was a sixth-round draft pick from 2014, the same Zach Metzenberger, of course, that the organization once internally labeled a, quote,

poor man's Tom Brady. However, Zach Metzenberger never really proved to be anything other than the prototypical big guy with a big arm, a scattershot thrower 6-5-224 only takes you so far he had a total quarterback rating of 16.5 in his career that's the worst of any QB with at least 10 starts since the stat was created in 2006 so historically bad start to his career and now it is over at least with the Titans

lost his job to the guy who lost his job to Kellyn Moore the Titans decided they'd rather have the washed up version of Matt Castle than Zach Mettenberger, which is as damning as you can get in 2016. Team Metzenberger, of which I was definitely on a couple years ago and saw a lot of things as rookie year that I liked, I think the number one defense that Team Mettenberger would have at this point is he did not, you know, fit this offense. He was drafted in another offense. And he's clearly a guy that's not going to be a great, great player. And if he is going to have success at the NFL level, it's going to be with a specific type of team and

offense and it wasn't going to have success at the NFL level i mean you can make excuses for him but the guy has he entered the NFL with a late career drew bledso skill set way too slow in the pocket way too slow in every movement he does and way too inaccurate i was also on so-called team mettenberg well yeah i just made that up i mean well no but it's out there because there was a lot of like oh i won this one this morning on twitter a lot of nonsense going on for those that don't remember a little way back machine last August Mark was high on Zach Mettenberger. Very high.

Dear Mr. Farmer, I'm writing you today absurd. Absurd. I'm time to make a bold statement. One that will change the fortunes of the Cleveland Browns today and forever. What kind of statement? It is time to trade for a quarterback. Your

quarterback of the future. And I have just the guy. Zach Mettonberger, the freaky, big arms six foot five live wire down in Tennessee. Look, some don't like his game, but I see growth. I see the makings of an AFC North-type arm ready to do battle. You wanted Marcus Marriota.

You wanted Sam Bradford. Those ships have sailed. The good ship Mettenberger, though, sits on the docks, ready to travel. This, Mr. Farmer, is your Ron Wolf moment. Pick up the phone, make the call. Unwulf. Do not hesitate. Change Cleveland forever.

And guess what? was wrong. I also remember who they had a quarterback at that time, which was literally nobody. A fresh from a fresh from rehab Johnny Mansell and Josh McCown. So they wanted them initially, what I wanted them initially to do was to go trade for a guy like Mike Glennon. And that ship had sailed. And yes, I jumped on Mettenberger and I was absolutely dead wrong. And I am now going to keep track of everything that is said by everyone on this podcast and get with the producers before every show. to have it aired audibly for everyone to realize that if you're going to comment on football 365 days a year you're going to be wrong about some things now we're keeping score he's right

I do want to point out because mark it's important you know this that I forgot that this ever happened but three people reminded me of it oh I know 10 a.m. this was my award for getting into work at 630 a.m. and half our office playing a loud volume it wasn't me I got to don't throw it behind the glass you are definitely involved. Everyone is going to go down in a rain of fire. Oh, no. Oh, no. The only thing I'm going to remember of that letter is that you gave us the phrase

Good Ship Mettenberger. Which has sunk. Well, they could claim them off waivers. It could still join the team. Well, the only place you really went off there, you know, you're just trying to make it entertaining was the Ron Wolf moment thing. Yes. Change Cleveland forever.

Change Cleveland forever, but that was all window dressing. that felt like at the time there was logic to it but ultimately Mettemberger was you know deeply flawed as a passer. Well one thing any if there were two camps to Mittenberger I do think that the people that were on his side lost a lot of steam specifically last season and Wes you from the very beginning never liked what you saw with Mettemberger you were dead on but I thought that there were things about him in his rookie year and he was a rookie and I'm not one who wants to judge rookie quarterbacks after four or five games I did like some stuff and you not right. You had two smart people in your camp, Greg Kosell and Greg Rosenthal.

The Greggs. Rod Jaworski. A big spot. I mean, Rod Jaworski said something like he thought Mettenberger was going to have a better career than some of the other guys that were drafted. But this is a weakness of Jaws and CoSell that they always fall for big, statues. And by statues, I mean the way they move. Right. Pocket passers with big arms.

They also loved Brandon Whedon. Right. And I'm sure they love Christian Hakenberg. I'm sure they love Mike Glennon, too. I think they did absolutely love Glenn. I think the thing they liked about Mettenberger is he would show anticipation. He would make some tough throws where he had to anticipate. I mean, you're saying we're absolutely wrong.

Who knows? Would it shock me if Metenberger has a decent career as a backup? It's always like whenever we're wrong about something, we're so, we feel bad about it. We want to go the whole other way. He's still just two years into his career. I'm not saying he's going to have a great starting career. But if he winds up in the right situation and is an okay eight-year NFL backup,

that wouldn't surprise me. That would shock me. He is too flawed. Most likely he'll be most remembered for a one-sided feud with J.J. Watt. That's my prediction. That's fair. That's absolutely true. Moving on, Tom Coughlin,

involved with a kind of a strange parting of ways with the Giants earlier this year where after winning two Super Bowls and, you know, being the coach there for over a decade, they moved on from Coughlin but kept all of his staff and elevated his offensive coordinator to head coach. So Tom, some issues with the Giants. But he doesn't want to give up. That's not how he wants to end it.

He told Peter King a Monday morning quarterback on Sunday night. I've coached 47 years of my life. You take it away, and that's not an easy thing to duplicate. Coughlin added that his, quote, motor is starting to run again. He's going to be 70 years old. Is he the type of coach, Mark, I'll ask you, that you would be okay with your team hiring next year if you needed a coach? If you were in a floor just fell out scenario and you had a kind of team that could overachieve with the right kind of coach, Coughlin to me would be a good guy to get in to cease chaos.

If an organization is just utterly chaotic and needed someone to come in and kind of clean it up and hand it off to someone else a few years later, yes, I would sign off on Coughlin. I agree. It has to be the right job. 70 years old should be a factor. Like you're not supposed to be agist, but it's, His birthday is in August, so he's going to be 71 going into the next season. Right.

And it doesn't mean that you can't hire him, but I think that's a factor. I think it's one of the hardest jobs possible, and it's a young man's profession. NFL coaches, obviously guys like Carol and Belichick, you can have success later in your career, but I don't know. He's one of the best coaches in the world. Dick LeBose is 78 years old and still doing good things with the Titans. I think it's not so much about age. If you're right, 95% of 70-year-olds are too old to coach, but there is that subset where his energy is there,

he's still plugged in. I guess for the right owner, maybe, you know, if it's a three-four-year deal, you don't really care about the age. It reminds me of with the Yankees when Joe Torrey first took the job and he was not a young man, but he was a guy that had some energy. But then by the end of his run, you know, this is around 2007, he'd be slumped in the dugout and you'd wonder if he was even alive.

Like, someone would have to nudge him. Like, Joe, get up, wake up. and you can tell some guys lose that kind of edge as they age. But Coughlin is like he comes from a military background, and he's very fit. He loves going to the gym so much. He goes to the Giants facility even after they fired him. He seems like he's got the pep in his step. I think he'll get another job.

Describing a weekend at Bernie's scenario here where they've got to prop him up on the sideline and wheel him out. I think he could be the Bill Snyder or the NFL. Snyder's still at K-State. He's 76. He started his NFL in coaching career more than 20 years ago, though. Don't you want to shoot for a guy that's going to have his best years with you? I mean, I think the Jaguar's got his best years. This is ageism.

Well, but so many young guys blow up and do nothing either. And so it's like with Coughlin, if you needed a known quantity for a short amount of time, I think he's a safe bet. It's interesting the Giants got rid of him and they didn't get rid of anyone else. And it's interesting the reports that we heard about his interviews immediately after losing. his job and maybe that was just timing but you know the this kind of scuttle butt was that his interviews with the eagles was a mess that he just talked the whole you know that that it was all about he wanted to sort of get back at the giants and it maybe it was just he wasn't focused there

in that moment but i don't know you got to look at the motivation motivation for the right reason to come back moving on wave goodbye to the hayne plane the san francisco 49ers announced sunday that running back jared hayne has retired from the NFL and will pursue playing rugby in the Olympics. Hayne had insisted this offseason that he was preparing to battle for the playing time in the Niners backfield. The National Rugby League star in Australia said that he plans to try out for the Fiji Rugby Sevens Olympic team, which is a big deal in that angle of the sports world or that area of

the sports world. Haynes signed with the 49ers last year. He appeared in eight games, compiled 17. rushing attempts from 52 yards, had issues with ball security, 28 years old, bounced around, practice squad, and roster never really was able to make anything of it in his first year of San Francisco and we'll never know if the Hane plane could hack it, or maybe we do know we learned it in his one year. I think that shows, I mean, he wasn't, even if he stayed with the 49ers, he wasn't going

to have a big rule. It shows how hard it is to make it in the NFL if you've never played before. This is one of the best rugby players in history, right? Right. Certainly looked like he was an exciting athlete to watch, but that's different than being of an experienced football player. He made the team. I mean, you could argue the other way.

He made the team in his first year. I mean, that's something, if you're a fifth round rookie, that's an achievement. And that was his first year. I think he had a decent chance to make the team this year. I think he had a pretty good chance was the general thought around the 49ers. Who knows what kind of role he would have had. Maybe his upside was just as a relatively low-level role player for three to four years, and he saw that,

and he saw another sport where he could be a man. The best rugby player in the world is the 53rd best player on his own roster. It was absolutely the right decision, you would think. I mean, there are parallels to the Michael Jordan going to baseball, failing there for a year and then realizing I'm too gifted in this other sport to walk away from it, so he comes back. And I'm sure. But Jordan was not good at baseball.

I give Hayne. I think you probably were about the same level, to be honestly. No, Hayne made the NFL. Jordan's the same thing, though. Like, it's phenomenal that a guy who hadn't played baseball in 15 years went straight to AA and passed rookie ball and single-old. But he only did because he was Michael Jordan. He did not perform like a good double-A player.

Any analysis of Michael Jordan's dallions with baseball fails if they don't consider that he didn't start in rookie ball or A ball. Right. That you brought up where college graduates go, like first-round picks go to AA and that's it. All I mean is it's impressive he could make the team when guys that have been playing running backs their whole life and have been the best player on their high school team, by far the best player on their college team.

They can't make NFL rosters, and he did. So he showed something. They have like a designated PR person just like furiously writing announcements about retirements in San Francisco. I mean, can we get out of one off season without half the roster disappearing? Yeah, and I'm glad that, you know, he didn't, you know, do special teams grunt work and get his knee blown out or something. He's going to get back to the sport where he thrived

and he's probably going to be the same player. We'll see. we're going to lose track with Jared, though. I know a lot of our listeners won't because we have a lot of listeners in Australia. Maybe he just saw the heat coming from Mo Ritz Borringer and was like there can only be one of these stories every year. I'm being outshined by this guy, Mo.

Yeah, this Adrian Peterson fan. It's everyone out there because I did a lot of oomlout talk last week that are tweetingly, you know, Dan, now that you know that there's an umulat, you should pronounce it like it has an umlout, as if I'm supposed to know how, what does that mean? You could tell me that there's an umlaut involved. I still don't know how to pronounce it. I think people say this guy's an MVP.

We wouldn't be shocked if he were bilingual or at least able to pick up a second language quickly. I was the MVP in April. Remember, not May. That's fair. Finally in the news, Russell Wilson, a bit robotic. You could say, you could argue, but some people, if you want to really get, dig in a little bit. We'll say Russell Wilson would be a little bit phony, a little synthetic. But I, for one, was impressed by his speech at the University of Wisconsin.

He gave a commencement speech. He attended grad school at Wisconsin after graduating from North Carolina State a few years back. And he went back to Wisconsin and showed a lighter side, Sully. Of course, I'm also here to share some things I've learned. Things like if you're dating a woman that's way out of your league, ask her to marry you. That's lame. If you can throw a football 80 yards, for some reason, people think that's pretty cool. And if you're playing New England Patriots in the Super Bowl,

and you've got 26 seconds left, and you're down by four, and a second and goal on their one-yard line, try not to throw an interception. How about that? Wes, you weren't impressed, though. Polite laughter. Give me a break. It's not funny. Russell Wilson should give up the comedy act.

I watched the rest of it, though, and he did show some personality. and more... Give up the comedy. What is he been a comedian? More human. He's about the least likely candidate on earth to be a comedian. He can't go with any flow. Give me a break.

Wait, do you think he wrote that or did he have someone write that before him? I think he wrote it. I don't think that was even comedy. I think it was... He was just showing a kind of a... That was totally intended... Totally intended to get laughs. And it did.

It delivered, Wes. He got some polite applause and laughter. Well, I... No, I do give him credit because I... Wes is anti- Russell. Wilson commencement speech is the most surprising heat of the year. I know. He's a great quarterback.

He's the worst speaker in the league. I honestly think that, and if you watch it, did you watch the video at all? No, I did not watch it. Yeah, watch more of it. His body language and the way he was kind of presenting himself and he was kind of in a gregarious mood. It seemed like he was being a little more human-like. And you know, Wes, you know me, I've been on Russell Wilson for years now about being

a robot. A phony robot. And I thought this was progress. Well, apparently, did anyone here see Entourage the movie? I mean, this guy can act. I made it through about 21 minutes. You did not. I actually did on a very long plane ride where they give you the choice of films.

It was like the fourth, I think it was coming back from England, actually, the fourth film I watched. How bad was it? I could not do it. When the show was out in its heyday, I liked it various episodes, and it was a shell of that. So I don't know what, did I like it? You know, it passed the time. Like when a skinny turtle, who. Turtles shows up a lot around our office because he's in, like, a celebrity fantasy league.

And, you know, Turtle got skinny. Audio listeners missed the air quotes he put on celebrity. That was not supposed to be here. He, you know, when he got skinny, that lost, like, an important aspect of his character. And then, like, a major subplot is he's, like, in a dalliance with Ronda Rousey. Yeah, it was a very intriguing plotline. It was a very intriguing B or C plotline. Not in real life in the movie.

He was like a billionaire. Like, there were so many things in the first 20 minutes. He was a very industrious businessman dating Ronda Rousey. You're trying to. I think you should see it, Dan. I tried to watch it one night. 20 minutes in, I had a shot of dad. Greg, you should see it.

Rhonda Rousey's my neighbor. For real? She lives in Venice Beach. Have you seen her? No. I don't think we frequent the same places. Before we move on, I got a shout-out to give. We were talking, we were talking Ozzy, some Ozzy listeners.

You think you could jump in with random shout-outs? No, it's not random. We were talking Jared Haynes. Your first show in a year. I know. This is my... The tension between Greg, well, it's one side of Greg at Sully is profitable, by the way.

Yeah. So Aaron McNaughton, one of our listeners, sent me some AFL gear, some Aussie football gear, because I like Australia. Handle it offline, buddy. I got to give him a shout-out. I'm just saying. We might never talk Jared Hainer Australia again.

That's a great story. Where's the rest of it? That's it. Did you bar that story from Russell Wilson? Yeah, I did. I'm just saying. Guys, stop being mean to Sully. I'm just kidding.

Sorry. Sully knows I love him. He still. I put in the request. We've got to have Sully. Sojourn back in the fall. No, no, no. By the way, to button up Sammy Watkins,

Ian and various reports saying he could be back for the start of training camp, but it's a Jones fracture. Same injury that kept Kevin Durant out for the whole season, and it's a tricky one because you just need to rest it. There's no real way to get over. It's a total nightmare scenario. It's a good situation for them. All right, that's what's happening in the news.

All right, let's move right into it, guys. This is a segment called. called, is it time to freak out about? Aw. Wes is from your era. I'm the one who sent it to Sully to play. I knew it. I could see you like disco dancing and roller skates.

It's called Lafriek. Roller skates. I was not a good roller skater. All right. So let's go around the horn a couple times here. We'll stick with NFC teams today. And maybe we'll do AFC later in the week. or maybe not, you'll have to find out.

But Mark, get us going, name someone, or, you know, but of course, start it with, is it? Is it time to freak out about the Rams receiving core? Got a question for you guys. I mean, they have a quarterback, but they haven't had an 800-yard receiver in eight seasons. That's hard to do. That's depressing.

Wait, let me do the math. 800 yards. So, like we've walked 800 yards today. So, like, no, I can't do the map. But it's really bad. So they drafted. That's like 40 yards a game you have to average or something, right? Yeah, I mean, it would be an unremarkable thing for someone to do in today's stats-driven NFL.

For a second, I was like, well, what about Tavon Austin last year? Did he get anywhere close? He was at 4-73. It wasn't even in the ballpark. He had almost a thousand total. Total, right. They drafted Farah Cooper in the fourth and Mike Thomas in the six. But it's basically the same group of, as Dan would say, ham and eggers.

They had last year. I mean, Kenny Britt is still a thing in Ramslammed. Time to freak out. Question mark. Yes, there's no reason. You've got to win with passing at some point in the NFL. And it's weird how much continuity this group has. Really for three years here, Austin, Quick, and Britt are their guys.

And that is not a good one, two, three. And you lose Jared Cook, which is not a loss at all. But you have Lance Kendrick says your tight end. It doesn't get any better at tight end either. So it's not a lot of people to throw to for Jared Gough. I think that's a big problem for that. I think Brian Quick is the big wild card here. He had a shoulder injury so serious that it basically took out two years of his career

and he's finally healthy again. Yeah. He's got the most ability and size out of all those guys. Wow. Well, I mean, Austin. Yeah, he has more ability than Kenny Britt who lost it on the operating table. I was going to say, you should not be counting too much on a Kenny Britt. He's more like the guy if he could surprise you and give you a couple good games during the year.

But when you're asking him to be like a number one guy, I mean, this is, a unit in desperate need of a makeover. I thought they might go receiver early, but then you forget they have no early. Well, that's... Because it's Jared Goff. So that's just what you signed up for this year. They would have been one of those teams that took Dots

in or Treadwell, I think, had they stuck where they were. But then we'd be killing them and asking to freak out about their quarterback situation. So you had to address something. Look, I think you could survive without a great wide receiver core. The Patriots certainly have, if your quarterback's good enough, they're going to be a running team. They're going to be a defensive team. Another thing

with them, I think is big, I guess it's a different, it's a different topic, but they drafted five offensive linemen last year. And if those five guys get better together, three, three starters, 23 and under, it's like that's maybe where they can get better. You protect Gough, you find these, these Hammondaggers, as you say. Wes. Carolina Panthers, for a 15 and one team that was in the Super Bowl, well-coached, well-run organization, I've found two areas that we might freak out about. Their secondary has lost three of their four starters from last season, Charles Tillman, Josh Norman, and Roman Harper. I mean, we know they have a great front seven, but is this going to be the same defense issue? Well, I'm not freaking out about that because on paper it's not good,

but on paper going into last year, it was not good. I guess they had Josh Norman. That's a difference, although we didn't know Josh Norman was quite Josh. Norman yet. But this is something they've done under Gettleman has almost changed their secondary every year. Football Outsiders did an interesting article about it that they think that's their advantage, that they can basically not spend in the defensive backfield and make it work. And so far they have. I mean, and they addressed cornerback in the draft hard. And forget rookie mini camps are not a time to get swayed by stuff, but the word coming out of Carolina was that they really feel like they got some good help at that position.

And they drafted, you know, James Bradbury in round two, Daryl Worley in three, and then someone in the fifth round, too. So they're going youth. And Gettleman teams are, let's build up the middle on both sides of the ball, and it's not overpay defensive backs. The other freak out is 29-year-old injury-pruned Jonathan Stewart as you're starting running back. And all you have behind him is Cameron Artis Payne and Fosie Whitaker.

Woo. Yeah, that is, I think that's expecting too much of Jay Stu. One of my favorite players in the last decade or so made a top. 100 debut last week. That's a big moment in anyone's career, but I think it's expected too much for him to do that season all over again. And even if he did, that's not a good couple of backups. I will now throwing out there, the Washington football team, is it time to freak out about their backfield? Because Matt Jones, who's been talked up a little bit, I remember a couple of weeks ago or about a month ago. We're confident that Matt can handle the load. And I know we were high

on them a little earlier last year, but five fumbles last year and 169 touches averaged less than three and a half yards of carry. So really maybe there were some flashes, but this guy did not put out good tape. You let Alfred Morris go, and I guess he had fallen out of favor in Washington and wasn't maybe the same guy when he first came into the league. But, you know, behind Matt Jones, you have, talk about Hammondaggers, Chris Thompson, Mac Brown, Keith Marshall? I think I went to high school with that guy. Rob Kelly? Who the hell is Rob Kelly?

It's a time to freak out about Washington's backfield. We just talked about the Panthers backfield. These might be the two shallowest backfields in the league. It is a position where suddenly, by week six, we're talking about someone that the year before you knew, had no idea who it was, a rookie. I mean, I think Matt Jones can be, if he plays. at his better moments from last season and he stayed healthy, you've got a good running back.

You lose them. You might be in the running to go, you know, take Trent Richardson away from the Ravens. We don't even have evidence he can be on the field at this point, Matt Jones. If you're putting the ball on the carpet as much as he's done, I mean, that could ruin his career. So we have to see if you can hold on to the ball.

But I don't know. I mean, Alfred Moore, I guess Alfred Morris must have, they must have no viewpoint on him as a guy in the future to let him go because there was really nothing left behind. I'm surprised about that. I'm surprised they didn't add more. I guess they like Chris Thompson. Who is their third down back?

He's a good third down back, but you're not going to use him as a starter if something happens to Jones. By the way, shallowest backfields in league, I'll take your redskins. I'll raise you the dolphins. J. J. Jai and Kenyon Drake won two. That feels a little funner and lightning.

I like Jai, but. Yeah, but you're forgetting that they're going to overspend for Aaron Foster in about four to eight weeks. All right. You're up, Greg. Is it time? And I know this is strange Because look, this is our team last year

The team of around the NFL Uh-oh, I'm going to get Wes angry, I can tell. It's also the team that football outsiders project That's what I like to hear It's also the team football outsiders The relationship between Greg and Sully Slowly coming back in here Well, it's frosty, let's not lie

Football Outsiders projected them In their recent rankings previewing the season As the best team in the league, the Arizona Cardinals, getting the most win. So they're very good in a lot of spots, but I have two spots. Is it time to freak out about their tackle situation?

They have one tackle on the roster that has ever played in an NFL game. That seems crazy. That seems almost impossible, but that is true. That's Jared Valdeer, a very good left tackle. They're going to be starting their first round pick DJ Humphreys from a year ago at right tackle. And this isn't the same Cardinals

of the 38-year-old quarterback coming off double ACL surgeries in his career. Oh. 36-year-old. Well, he's not coming off the injury right now. Coming off a runner-up MVP. My point is that it's not a fleet of foot guy behind center. He had better pocket mobility last year than any season in his career. That's true.

Well, we saw a couple. It's a little strange that they don't have like a third tackle at all. I guess. Earl Watford can play tackle. Yeah, he has before. I guess he's slated. But you're talking about a problem where, okay, that's fine. Our offensive line, we just picked up an all-pro guard in Evan Mathis,

and we're sliding in a first round talent at right tackle. And you've got Mike Yupati at left card. I mean, here's the thing. If DJ Humphreys comes in and he can start at right tackle and he's solid, you have no problem. Not with the rest of this line. You have no problem if it stays healthy. If you get hit with injuries, like a lot of NFL lines,

you're running for the hills. Okay, well, how about this? You guys aren't buying that. Are you guys freaking out about the fact that Justin Bethel is their number two cornerback? And their number three cornerback is, I have no idea. I really don't see anyone on the roster that's played quality snaps at cornerback. That is as thin a cornerback group, very deep at safety,

but as thin a cornerback group as any team in the league. Greg's got the Cardinals at 7 and 9. No, I like the Cardinals. I'll buy that one, but I think they're probably counting on Tyron Matthew playing some cornerback. And I had a well-placed team source tell me that he wasn't too happy with Justin Bethel as the starting cornerback. And he just had surgery, by the way, too, Justin Bethel. Hey, I go on airplanes. I talk to coaches like Mark does.

Is this your first dropped source on the podcast? It might be. What an MVP move. Yeah. All right. How do we top that? Greg, Mark Sessler, you're up. All right.

Is it time to freak out about something we have been freaking out a little bit? Should we still be freaking out about the 49ers quarterback situation? I want to tell you why. Greg forwarded to me a very fascinating. What I would call it a column, an editorial, Greg? It was a column. Basically, here we go. Grant Cohn from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat raised an interesting question about the 49ers.

Does the team want Blaine Gabbard to win the job in an effort to punish Colin Kaepernick? Cohn points to the fact that you can barely find a photo of Kaepernick on the team's website currently. And this is during a bunch of rookie mini-camps. Not a single picture of Kaepernick anywhere in any team activity. writes our man Cohn. We see Blaine Gabbard walking to practice as the sun sparkles on his face and his smiles. Well, he's hot. Happy Gabbard.

He's wearing a backward hat. A few pictures later, we see serious Gabbard practicing his play action fake. And then we see him throwing a football. We see him with his hands on his hips. Gabbard, Gabbard looking at the camera. Gabbard jumping in the air. Gabbard's standing in the pocket. Gabbard scanning the field.

I hate saying this guy's name. We see a lot of Gabbard. The creators of this game bombard you with the blonde-haired quarterback, but where's Colin? He suggests that the Niners want Colin Kaepernick to fade into the background in croats and drop off the edge. Does he agree?

Doesn't he have, is he recovering from shoulder surgery? He's at, that's the thing that, he seems like he's stretching here a little bit. The same my theory. A little bit. He's at the practices, but he's not playing. He's just kind of watching. The part that was interesting,

he says, I bet the Niners want Colin to lose the quarterback coming. Okay, I could buy that. I think the front apprists is tired of him. Teammates are tired of them, too, and they basically want to stick it, and Kaepernick's nose that this is what happens when you go against the Big Bad 49ers.

We're going to rub your face in it. Wait, you don't believe it? That seems, maybe. He says he thinks he wants to embarrass him and make an example. I think that's a terrible way to run a franchise. Nobody said it was a good way to do it, but the hatred is real between these two sides,

and I've been saying that for months. Are you citing a team source? Well, I think I'm citing common sense. I think get them. If that's how you feel, get him off the roster. I know the money's guaranteed. That's your fault. Wait, look, they lost their leverage play.

Copernick lost his leverage, and John Elway beat both the 49ers and Kaepernick. Who do you guys pick to start week one? Gabbert. Dan? Now after Mark read that, now I'm really thinking it could be good. Well, I don't think Grant Cohn is some great scores. Well, in fairness, Grant Cohn, if you look back through his archives, has an anti-Capernic agenda through the year.

Well, one thing, if Brady were nursing a shoulder surgery but he were on the sideline, do you think Patriots.com would have, oh, no, can't have a picture of Tom Brady. Wait, because he's not participating. This is in 49ers.com, is it? Yeah, yeah, 49ers.com. I think if it's an actual competition, I think Kaepernick has a good chance to win it. But I don't even know if he's going to be healthy enough to really compete. And, you know, that will. The one thing I'd say matters is the locker room matters.

And I know that it's the time of overly glowing reports. but the teammates of Blaine Gabbard have been talking him up saying that he's been plugged in. He's been their leader where Kaepernick's off on this different quest. That can all change between now and the season. Kind of the off-season trope, though, right? It does. I just said. I agree with that, but.

Chip Kelly's quotes on Gabbard last week? I don't listen to that guy. The one thing that jumped out right away was just how athletic Blaine was. We did not play against him when I was in Philly, so this is really my first exposure to him. But I think his athleticism is the first thing to jumped out in. How are you furnishing Gabbard? place in your stable of boys. I don't, he's not in it.

Carpet or? He's not in it. I just think he's going to win the, I, Colin, Colin Kaepernick got benched for a reason last year. And I, and I think that. Blaine Gabbard. I kind of agree that the organization is not sold on him and he doesn't want to be there. There's still, I agree with that.

And I, and Gabbert might be the week one starter. I don't think it matters that much because I think they'll both start at least five games each. Don't you want to think back to what you thought about Colin Kaepernick in 2013 and think a little bit back to what you thought of Chip Kelly in 2014 or 15 and putting those two guys together, couldn't that at least have a chance to be something cool? Yes, it could. But I would also... At least can't we have

that as a possibility? I think it's possible. I would also factor in that these aren't just chess pieces that when your quarterback spends all offseason trying to get out of your organization, that people, especially in the front office and the coaches and your teammates take this stuff personally. This is meant to be your leader, and he

doesn't want to be there. That's poisonous. That's negative. What makes Do you think that Colin Kaepernick is a better fit for Chip Kelly system than Blaine Gabbard is? Nothing. I mean, just that I've seen Kaepernick succeed at the NFL level, and I haven't seen. I think Gabbert played had moments last year. I think he got a little overplayed, especially if you watch his last few games. You said that you wanted Kaepernick to, or you could see Kaepernick wanting to stick it in their nose.

I think it's sticking in their ear. I said that? Well, they would both hurt depending what it is. That would not be pleasant. That's what the orifices is. Wes, you're up. Well, I think we look at Greg. To answer Mark's question, yes, it is time to freak out about the 49ers' quarterback.

I don't care who's playing. It's time to freak. Kepernick does have a prominent beak, by the way. I mean, so maybe that's what's subconscious. Wow. That was a little over the line. Greg's favorite team, the Seattle Seahawks, the best in the league. Stop.

Should we be freaking out about the fact that their offensive. blind will not have a single starter playing the same position this year as last year. I'm going to say no, if only because their offensive line has been lousy this whole Carroll run. Someone wrote it, I'm not sure who, like it. It's almost been like an experiment to see how good can your NFL team be without a halfway decent offensive line. That's what the entire Carol Schneider era seems like it's been.

It's weird how bad it is, how little they fix it year after year. Well, I think they've decided. A lot of teams decide we have to give up. We have to surrender some part of our roster, putting resources into that area if we're going to do it in other areas. And they rely totally on Russell Wilson's elusiveness and Tom Cable's ability to coach up in offensive line. Maybe they're offensive line proof,

which is not something you hear a lot. Because Russell Wilson was literally unstoppable in the last half of last season. Thomas Rawls, before he broke his leg, was running like one of the top five running backs in the entire league. And that was behind not a great line either. So maybe they just have to run. Well, one, I mean, only two quarterbacks were sacked more than Russell Wilson last year. So there is a cost.

And if it ends up with Russell Wilson getting injured because of faulty protection, then the season is basically a disaster. I mean, they've invested picks. They took a first and a third round pick this year. They took a second round pick last year, who's now moving to center. They're moving their right tackle to left tackle. I went through this for projected. There's competition at all five positions. I don't think there's one locked up spot.

It's just like wide, wide open. They'll see what happens. Tom Cable. That offensive line is more jittery than the GOP. Am I right, guys? Whoa. Political podcast coming up a little later this summer. Tune in.

Greg, last one. Oh, well, you don't have a second one? No, we're on time. We're short on time. Okay. This is how I got the MVP awards, selflessness. That's smart of you. My thing.

Whatever works. My thing that I'm not, that I'm going to ask. Let's do it again. Well, you're confusing me. All right. Is it time to freak out about? Is it time to freak out about the Cowboys Front Seven, especially their defensive line?

DeMarcus Lawrence, suspended, coming off back surgery. Randy Gregory suspended. I have no idea who's going to be starting for them at defensive end. You have Tyrone Crawford, who's a pretty good player. Cedric Thornton's from Philadelphia. No depth. You took a couple mid-round picks. You also have guys like Sean.

Lee and Rulanda McLean, who are great players at linebacker, but those are boomer bust guys that have had injury problems or suspension problems. It feels like this whole thing could be great or it could just blow up. It's a boomer bust front seven. It's a time to freak out about the front seven. Their top two edge rushers are suspended. That's horrible. Yes.

Right? And I say yes. I don't forget about Jalen Smith, too. I mean, he's going to sit out of year. Yeah, he's not in the equation. Right. He's done. And I'm going to take it even further, Greg. You could freak out about their entire defense because their secondary kind of stinks

too. I mean, you're keeping branded Carr, what else needs to be said? I mean, this whole defense is potentially Swiss Chiefs. Yeah, when you get to this point in the offseason where free agency and the draft have passed you by and you had a lot of plans in place and a lot of things have now gone wrong and you don't have a way to address

it, it's freak out time. I think their offensive starting lineup is maybe as good as any in football or they can certainly believe that, but they're going to have to score 30 points a game again, be an offensive team. And pray their quarterback That stays upright.

I'm not anything you could assume. Going against the grain here. So they have to just make it through the first month of the season without those two top pass rushers? Well, if they do that, then we can lower the free count. Well, I think Lawrence looks like he's going to be a good NFL player. Is he a guy that's the best pass rusher on a team that goes deep in the playoffs? We'll see. Randy Gregory hasn't shown anything yet that we have no idea if he's going to be what kind of player.

They did pick up Benson Mayoah, however he pronounced his name, as a restrictive free agent from, I believe the Raiders. I agree. Pass rushing is an issue. I think this team is going to rely on what they did in 2014, convert a bunch of third downs on offense, keep the other team off the field, and decrease the exposure of their defense. A lot of pressure on that offense. A lot of pressure. Luckily, they play in a horrible division. It will help. Football outsiders, for what it's worth, I'm getting them a lot of free plugs. I just thought this was interesting. They projected the Cowboys to have 9.6 wins, which is pretty high for them. It's conservative. No one else in the division above six six so they have a huge gap between Dallas and the rest of the division which is really i have the same thing you do i think the cowboys are the clear favorites in this division so

washington they they win the division last year have a breakout season from the quarterback they go get george josh norman who falls into their laps and they're going to collapse and be a far worse team well they're not going to have a really easy schedule this time around that's part but neither neither will the rest of the division neither will the rest of the division okay i just think the Cowboys are a much better. I don't disagree in the sense that you're getting your starting quarterback and a healthy Des Bryant back in the house. That's a completely different offense than last year. Right.

There's not a time. And a first round running back. There is more to clearly be excited about with the Cowboys than any other team in that division. They're flashy as always. So it's like we don't know if there's substance there, but there's reasons to be compelled by them. Are they gotten very good at that? Is their defensive personnel any worse than it was two years ago when they ran away with the division? Because their offense is better, in my opinion.

Wow. And I thought you were going to go. Is there defensive personnel any worse than, let's say, the Redskins? Which I would say no is the answer. I might take the Redskins defense over them, but it's not a huge difference. It was not going to an MVP award. No. And who didn't, unfortunately, Greg, he is seven minutes late for a meeting that he said he had to get to on time.

All right. That means we should go. Got to keep Greg employed. that's important. The boss nominated us. Now, we would never be MVP's if Greg didn't nominate us. And for that, we should be eternally great. When you use those gift cards,

wherever there for it to get like a yogurt down the street. We should all use our gift cards to buy Greg presents. Well, that's already what I would do. One of the all-time moves by Greg. What a mensch. If someone didn't spend it on you, I think you know, you know what you have in that person. It only took me three years.

Anyway, Mark had one before. It caused a lot of controversy. Yeah, it was not worth it on any level. That was not one of your better management moves. Well, there were extenuated circumstances. I'm not even going to get into it. I got to go to a meeting. I'm out of here.

Greg's gone. Started the last show without you. I'm leaving this show. Yeah, it's probably for the best at this point. Now you did remind me that it took this long to get one MVP. Been with the company for almost six years. Thanks, buddy. We will be back on Wednesday with another show.

And we'll talk about football, I assume. We'll talk about our personal lives probably a little bit. A little mirth will be in there. It's that kind of, it's that mix that people like Wes. And the softball team, I'm sure, is going to come up as well. Oh, yeah, softball team. We've been, there are moves happening. We can feel the momentum building.

We need to see some. Wins happening. Momentum's building, Mark. Don't give up. on his dad. This is Dan Hansa signing off for The Quiet Storm, The Mailman, The Boss in Absentia, and Sully behind the glass. Thanks, buddy. Till Wednesday.