NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL Around the League: AFC South - August 19th, 2013

Episode Date: August 20, 2013

Gregg Rosenthal, Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling bring you the latest headlines from around the league as well as break down the key takeaways from the Week 2 preseason action. The crew also previews the AFC South. Don’t miss Marc Sessler’s heartfelt apology to Cleveland Browns. Join the conversation and tweet us @NFL_ATL or #NFLATL.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. 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 give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the League podcast. Didn't come here to make friends. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. joined by a room full of heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wesseling, and Greg Rosenthal, the boss.

What's up, boys? What is happening? How are you? I love that intro. Thank you to Matt Money Smith, who we didn't give credit to last week for voicing that introduction, and it's just fantastic. He actually gets $1.3 million in royalties for every time we use it, so I think he should be thanking us, you know?

The regular season is fast approaching today, Monday. Greg, we're going to start with you. What are the top headlines? I think you've got to start with A.J. Jenkins, the trade to Kansas City. Jonathan Baldwin going to San Francisco. Maybe not making the biggest football impact, but it's interesting. How often do we see two first round picks traded for each other, basically just in a challenge trade? I think my guy's better than your guy.

Right. I don't remember anything like this, especially didn't they play against each other the other night too? Yeah, they did. They saw Jonathan Baldwin just mangle a pass over the middle and yet they still tried to acquire him. As he is want to do. It is funny to imagine these two GMs calling up each other and, you know, kind of moaning to each other about what a mess they have in these first round picks and like, hey, do you want my guy? Do you want my guy? It's almost so clean to imagine that this could happen, but it is. And now it kind of makes sense though. I mean, what does either side have to lose? You take on two guys that have, I guess, good measurables but haven't shown anything. And now

they get at least one more chance to start over. I'd like to know who actually picked up the phone first. I would guess Kansas City, though, because I think they are just completely done with Baldwin. And I don't know. For me, I think the 49ers get a little bit more of an edge in the trade, but it is a complete wash on some level. I wouldn't be surprised if neither made the team. Well, A.J. Jenkins doesn't have any production in the NFL.

Jonathan Baldwin, we've seen make a few plays. He's actually guaranteed money this year, I think a million. I think he could play for that team just because they don't have anyone at wide receiver and we're seeing Chad Hall lining up with the starters the other night. Maybe Baldwin plays and Jim Harbaugh, you know, sprinkles his magic offensive dust that seems to work on some of those players. I would look at it the other way. We've seen John Baldwin play a lot of games and we know he's not good.

We know he's kind of a bum. He can't get off the jam. He has bad hands. He's slow after the catch. We haven't seen A.J. Jenkins. play. Maybe there's something there. It is a little strange to me though. And by trading Jenkins away, it's an admission of failure on some level by the Niners for a team that has Harbaugh entrenched up top and they've made so many good decisions that they could have missed so badly on that. It's really surprising how

that played out. What's interesting about them though is they are so confident. They have the most confident coaching staff and the most confident front office. And if they make a mistake, they don't worry about what the rest of the league thinks. They just move on. It reminds me of the Patriots. I think they do, one thing they do really well as self-scouting, and they make as many mistakes, almost as anyone, but when they make a mistake, they just give up on it right away, and they cut the guy. So I like that. And as clean as the Niners are, draft-wise, they've made a lot of savvy moves. It is such an imperfect process that it's good to see or it's refreshing to see San Francisco

just basically say, we're moving on, we've washing our hands of it. You look perfect today, Mark. Thank you. I've rested. I slept till mid-morning. Yeah, you look great. Chris Wesseling had the Mark Sessler appreciation shift today with me. You're in that 4.45 in the morning.

It was a rough morning. I attempted to go to sleep at 8 o'clock last night. It didn't come close to happening. It's tough to shift into that schedule. I apologize, Wes. All right, Greg, what else is going on? We got Rob Gunkowski some news that he's doubtful for week one, which isn't a big surprise.

It's his back, it's his arm, it's a little bit of everything. But we haven't heard a lot about Grunkowski this preseason at all. Now we know for sure. And I think with the Patriots, were we expecting him on any level to play week? one? No. No. I mean, I don't know if we're going to see him for all of September. At this point, it doesn't sound like he's close. We also learned Blaine Gabbert is out for the rest of the preseason. We'll talk about him upcoming in our AFC South preview a little later in the show,

but he's going to be the starter of the team, but he's going to miss the rest of the preseason. So they announced Chad Henney, lose that job. Not a surprise there. We learned that Alex Barron does not really like football. The general manager of the St. Louis Rams just a few years back, Billy Devani, said on his ESPN show today that Alex Barron really the only thing he likes about football is getting paid,

that he doesn't have the heart to play football, and basically that's your starting left tackle, Oakland Raiders. I find it interesting that this is the same GM that then drafted Jason Smith out of Baylor in 2009. So maybe he's not the greatest judge of character for left tackles who love football. Don't forget the Raiders also have Andre Garad just signed off the street. So Garad and Barron haven't played since 2010. This offensive line is starting to take on the look of like a early 90s sports comedy film.

Like with Ving Rames as Alex Barron and Amin Walker is Andre Garrow. I see like a... Who's Aiman Walker? He played Halen Wolf in Cadillac Records. Big six foot six guy. I see it like a weekend at Bernie's 2 where they have all the line been tied together and they're just like trying to keep them all upright.

Well, it looks like it. Saturday night. Is Amy Trask still in the front office? Can Kathy Ireland play her? No, she is gone. But yeah, five sacks in the first half against... Poor Matt Flynn. Yeah, Matt Flynn.

You want to be the starter, huh, buddy? And then staying with the offensive line, big trade today. John Moffat of the Seahawks, formerly of the Seahawks, traded to your Cleveland Browns. We probably wouldn't mention this, but it is a Browns trade there, Sessler.

So do you feel like now, you know, they're getting it back together. They got a starter from the Seahaw. It's sort of the final piece in the puzzle. You know, by the way, speaking of the Browns, Mark Sessler and our last podcast, when we did a swing around the AFC North in our preview, Mark, despite being a Browns fan, he dropped a 4 and 12 on the Browns.

And I guess upon some reflection, there's been a decision to maybe change that pick. So Mark has, what I understand, to be a prepared statement he'd like to read on the Around the League podcast. I would like to read it. I know this drives Greg nuts because he wanted our picks to be etched in stone,

but that's not how life works. Are you going to read off your phone? I'm going to read off a piece of paper. I had it on a piece of paper. Yeah. And it was soiled by a spilled coffee. All right, okay. It takes a little, all right, go ahead.

Here we go. All right, on behalf of myself, I would like to apologize to the Cleveland Browns. In a rush of judgment last week during our AFC North preview, I called Cleveland a 4 and 12 operation. It is my sincere belief the team will eclipse four wins this season, and I have revised my prediction for the 2013 Browns to 7 and 9. As a Cleveland fan since 1986,

there have been some disappointments along the way, and an attitude of pessimism has been known to wash over me like an ugly rain. But logic tells me this is more than a four-win team. Seven wins are possible, and I don't believe the Browns will let me down this time. After all, they never have before. Wow.

End of statement. I do love you're making this bold, heroic statement to make them a seven-win team. Right, and they won't let you down. They'll get six or seven wins. I have to admit, I'm getting a little emotional over here. Seven wins would be, that would change the city. Yeah, I understand that.

That was a big change from 4 to 7. I mean, that's almost doubling it. Nobody will even think about LeBron James anymore if the Browns can finish 7 and 9. It'll cover many sins if that happens. Of course, I have them going to the playoff, so they might throw a parade for me if I'm correct to that pick. So if you want the updated standings, Mark is updated, so the rest of the division makes sense. We're actually writing out a division preview for each one of these teams, and that's up on around the league right now. So we'll have our AFC South written preview up on Tuesday.

And as Greg pointed out, and he's asked all of us at the ATL team to make sure when we make these record picks that everything evens out in a 500 record. So this is not easy. We're not throwing records around. We want to have this to be a balanced, correct prediction. Right, because the first time you do it and you just go and you estimate it, we all did this exercise, you inevitably have way too many teams over 500. Because you just want to be nice.

You don't want to be too harsh. You don't want to give the Jaguars only two or three wins, but we have to be fair. You have to go out and predict flat-out disaster for a couple clubs. Yes. All right. So, okay, so let's get going. We got the week two preseason now is in the books after tonight. But through the weekend, we covered the Thursday games in the last podcast.

But what did you guys take out of this weekend? And we'll start with Greg. I think E.J. Manuel and Buffalo just having another performance. that impressed, and this time it was more impressive, just running the hurry up. They're a fun team to watch again. Kevin Cobb was exactly as bad as you would have expected, so that just ended whatever competition there was there, and it just made me a little more excited to watch Manuel and this Bill's team this year, and you just hope that he's going to be ready for week one.

They announced after the game the following day that he has a knee injury and his status for week one's uncertain, but I think if he's healthy enough to play, he'll be the starter. It's kind of a shame, too, because the feeling you got on Friday was this was a done deal. You know, all Kevin Cobb had left now was just his concession speech. But now improbably there's a chance that this Cobb is going to start week one. You hope it doesn't happen, though, because the bills need that fresh start, and, you know, Manuel would help give it to them. That was such a brutal quarterback in game.

Cobb and Christian Ponder took turns just backing up 15 yards away from the line of scrimmage and just throwing the ball terribly under pressure. And by the way, the Vikings have. looked awful this preseason off. Just throwing that out. Well, Ponder especially. Wes, what was your big takeaway? Well, I often

find the preseason to be valueless, but my one thing I look forward to is watching rookies who I think can really have an impact, take the league by storm, and even affect division races. I saw one this weekend in Eddie Lacey. The Packers now have a running meck. Even if they have a bad offensive line,

what was most impressive about Lacey is we know him was a big back, you can break tackles. he was making the first defender miss in the backfield and them breaking tackles. We didn't say any Packers running backs do that last week. And Lacey looks to me like a young Stephen Jackson or even a more quick-footed Jerome Bettis. I think he's the real deal.

I thought the same thing with Jackson. I even remember writing that down in my notebook. They thought about getting Stephen Jackson actually this off-season and the Packers. And I agree. It was impressive how he got to the outside, too. He's not just an inside runner. Does anyone benefit more, I think, than Aaron Rogers,

too, because, you know, the Packers were so potent throwing the ball last couple seasons, but still it was like teams knew exactly what was coming, and now you have to finally respect that run game, because if you don't, Lacey is not a guy who goes down after the first hit. He seems to be breaking tackles left and right. He's overpowering smaller defensive backs. It was cool to see in Green Bay. It seems like what Packers football should be.

And we didn't know what their rotation was going to be going into camp, and I think we know now. It's probably going to be Lacey one. Harris, too, as long as he's held. healthy, and Jonathan Franklin, who's been a disappointment, probably number three. It seems like a long time ago that people were starting to pump up Jonathan Franklin at Lacey's expense, but it certainly isn't shaping up that way now. Well, let me just add one thing.

Lacey was impressive enough, and then if you add DeWan Harris, it's change of pace. I am making the Packers my favorite in the NFC just based on what I saw from that game. Wow, I'm a preseason game. Well, I mean, there's other factors. I mean, Percy Harvin's gone from the Seahawks. The 49ers have injury problems, and the Falcons, I'm just, you may have convinced me that they were a little bit lucky last year. I don't like when people are jumping on my predictions.

Packers are my NFC team this year. Yours alone. All right, Tessler, what do you have for a takeaway? Well, I also don't want to overjudge the preseason, but I was concerned with what I saw from the New York Jets defense. And, you know, I talk with Dan over the weekend, and he is tired of the piling on the jets on the offensive side of the ball, and I'm not going to do that. But what concerns me is because what we keep carrying over and over is, oh, this Rex Ryan

turning his focus to defense is going to bring the Jets back to what they've always been. But you know what I saw was the Jaguars of all teams with Blaine Gabbitt running a hurry up offense and the Jets looking like they had never encountered a hurry up offense

in their lives. They couldn't get the right guys on the field. They looked confused. It was like the Jaguars just had their way two straight drives. The final score doesn't show that, but they scored early with the Jacksonville office. offense. And it's like, of all teams, you've got the Patriots in your division. You think that you

would have been built defensively to attack, understand the hurry up years ago. And they just looked completely lost to me. And it's, I think it was a richest of me that basically said, this is the blueprint of how to shred the jets on defense. You're seeing it right here. It seems all a little premature, though. A lot of teams don't have their stuff together in week two of the proceeds. Well, it was their starters. Still, I mean, and you bring up starters. If I had to take away something from the jets, it would be D. Milner who struggled and I found it notable that Cromarty and Rex Ryan both kind of came out publicly and said this guy's got to play better. I mean, you've got to remember also with Revis now gone, this is a different team.

They're trying to move the strength of the team to the front seven where it used to be Cromarty and Revis. It's going to be a process making them a strong unit. I know this is a source spot for you. I agree with Dan. It's the preseason. Well, and Greg is a total Jets defense apologist. I understand that. But it's like I just, I'm saying I went in thinking, yeah.

this Jets defense is the strength of this team. It's the reason they could go 8 and 8 and 8 and they looked completely lost. I just think there's a lot of reasons to get down on Rex Ryan and a lot of them are deserved. But I think on defense he deserves the benefit of the doubt. I hate to gang up on Mark for the second straight podcast. But if we say last week that our trust in Rex Ryan

defensively is implicit, then we can't really kill him for one bad chilling in a preseason game. Plus that was Blaine Gabbard's Super Bowl. Week two of the preseason is where Blaine Gabbard shines. It's where he gets everyone excited. Fair enough. It's what I saw and it concerned. I'm not actually flaming the Jets. I'm just saying it concerned me.

I would just say get that, get another prepared statement ready for week six when the Jets are four and two and flying on defense. All right. Dan has been doing drugs this point. Okay, so in my takeaway would be also the AFC East Dustin Keller suffers

a terrible knee injury, which really bummed me out as a Jets fan, knowing what this guy's ability was if he ever got a chance to be in a system that was, you know, good, and now who knows what do you get? And then from a team standpoint, the Dolphins, he was a guy that was showing good rapport

with Tanna Hill, and now what for the Dolphins? I think it was the biggest story in terms of having an impact on a team winning and losing of the weekend, just because I thought he was going to lead the team in targets and catches. And they haven't had a pass for catching

tight end for so long, and now they still don't. It's right up there with losing. Honestly, Mike Wallace was the big name off-season edition, but it was Keller, I think, that would have changed this offense a lot and really been like a safety blanket for Tannahill. And there's just no way, they're trying to find guys to replace them right now, and I just don't think you can. Charles Clay, step on up.

How about Michael Agnew? Last year is Hard Knocks disaster. Dion Sims. Dion Sims. Yeah, good luck with that. Although Tana Hill and Wallace look pretty good in that game. They'll be fine. There's too much hand-wringing over that connection.

Mike Wallace is one of the maybe two. or three difference makers who got signed in free agency? I think it's going to be tough for that offense to be explosive, though, in general, to be a plus offense. Talent is talent, and Mike Wallace has it. I'm actually surprised, Greg, that you're saying they might not be explosive with your boy, Ryan Tannahill, behind the controls. Well, I think it's the type of thing.

He'll play well. He'll kind of be like an early career Joe Flacco where he'll play well, but it's not going to show up with great, great numbers. Ah, the early period, Joe Flacco, I like that. All right. So, fellas, our award-winning division previews is up next. Now, we haven't won an award yet, but we could possibly eventually win an award. We handled the AFC East and the AFC North.

Today is the AFC South. So as we've done, we're going to have a, each of us will ask a question for each of the teams. And Greg Rosenthal, I will open it up with you and the Tennessee Titans. Yeah, my question for the Titans, because I have a hard time figuring this team out, is why should I believe this team is going to be any good? I know that's kind of a big question, but I can't come up with the one, two, three reasons. It's kind of a team that's in the weeds.

You don't hear a lot about. And what are the reasons to be excited about this Titans? I'll make this case. And I agree with Sheck that this is kind of the one team with the biggest range of outcomes. They could be 10 and 6, maybe 11 and 5 if they get lucky in an Indianapolis Colts 2012 kind of way. they could also be 4 and 12 or 5 and 11

I mean I think we start with the offensive line we knew they were a good pass blocking offensive line last year they overhauled the entire interior bring in levitre who is pro bowl caliber chance Womack and in center they've got three or four guys there who can play so you start with the offensive line it's a massive upgrade they get to a running game

Chris Johnson was boomer bust they bring in Sean Green who can move the chains and sustain and convert short yardage, they'll be a lot more consistent, won't have to rely as much on locker. And when they do rely on locker, now you've got 2012 first round pick in Kendall Wright, 2013 second round pick and Justin Hunter

to go with Kenny Britt. You've got a lot of ifs there, but there's talent. You know, they're a little bit enigmatic there. And on a defense, you've got some interesting young linebackers. They upgraded the defensive line. I don't know that they're even a top 20 defense, but the talent. an offense is intriguing enough to me that they could make some noise.

I would just, now you hit on a lot of different items there. The one I'd pick out though is watching their first couple games. The offensive line does look much improved from last season. I think Johnson was just running scared last year. He couldn't even, he had no trust that he could even get protected well. I think they'd change the offense to some degree to fit locker a little bit better than what we saw before. But I like what I saw in Wormack in the last game, and I do think he's going to be a keeper

there, and that can change a team a lot if you're protecting your quarterback and opening holes for Chris Johnson. And I'll take a page out of the Damashek NFL book. And you do have all those points that West just made. What if Bud Adams was able to successfully acquire Peyton Manning last year? I mean, this type of team that has a lot of weapons, you just need a guy who can operate them on offense, but I don't know if Locker is that guy. My what if what if Bud Adams fires this whole coaching staff halfway through this season, which I could totally see happen. I might be less impressed with this coaching staff than any in the league.

Jerry Gray is never the guy you want running your defense. Actually, Greg Williams, if you wanted to make a case for the Titans, maybe he'll help help them out. Because I don't have a lot of faith in a Jerry Gray run defense over the last year. Are we supposed to trust Munchak after he decided it was a good idea to hire Chris Palmer to run his offense? There you go. All right, Wes, off that dynamic statement, I want you to give us the Houston

Texans. Okay, my question involves Aryan Foster is now just trailing red flags behind him. He's got the calf strain that all of a sudden became a back injury and into his legs. His yards per carry is dwindling. His yards per catch just cratered last year. He's had heavy workloads. The offensive line is kind of a mess now.

This is a offense that is based on the run and play action. Please convince me that Texans can run the ball. this year. So you're not buying Michael Fabiano's number one overall ranking for Aryan Foster, I'm guessing. You have overheard Fabton and I shodding back and forth about that for a couple of months now that you can't take Aaron Foster over Peterson. In Fabiano's defense, that has since been modified after the calf strain turned into the back injury.

But, yeah, there's, I think that I wouldn't, if you want to talk fantasy, I would not touch Aryan Foster with a first round pick. Somebody else will, it won't be me. But from a Texan standpoint, yeah, this guy was the engine of this offense. And then if you look behind them, you have Ben Tate, who had injury issues last year. And then there's really nothing else behind them. So they could be in a very bad situation. Well, on the right side of their line, has got question marks for sure.

And Dan and I on our co-owned fantasy football team, which was last year named Jenna Fisher. Yes. This year will be Allison Brie. Yes. We fell more than once for Ben Tate as a later fantasy pick. and what I found so maddening about him was that we would chronically sit him and that he'd blow up and have one of his

it wasn't so much last year but the year before he'd step in and blow up and we'd start in the next week thinking the same thing would happen and he'd go utterly go ship quiet so I think that he had a more expanded role which I think we're going to see that they have to give him a bigger role this year but is he even consistent

I just I don't know I think the Texans I share Wes's concern on that front the argument to be made with Foster is that it's more about the system And the system wasn't very good last year. They weren't opening up holes, but maybe they can rebound there and they'll find the next Arian Foster. Or they'll just let Wade Phillips and that defense kind of carry the day like they did last season.

And you have Cushing there who they're saying is moving great. You put him there with Watt. And if Ed Reed ever gets back, I mean, there's the guts of a really good defense potentially. And I do buy that. Arian Foster is a good back or was a very good back two years ago. I buy that it's a system, and I buy that Ben Tate can rush for 1,200 yards if he's made the starter. Arian Foster deleted his Twitter account. That was so disappointing.

That's kind of when the trouble started. Maybe it's time to bring back Aryan Foster's ponderous Twitter account. Let me hit the Jags. You know, we talked a little bit about Blaine Gabbard, and, you know, they're going to sit him for the rest of the preseason. He has this thumb injury, or he hit the thumb on the helmet. but they came out and they said he's going to be the starter week one is this the right move nobody even wants to answer because it's a hard one to answer

I don't understand how two weeks after he throws for 19 yards and averages less than two yards per attempt the Gabbard zone the Gabbard now like my Twitter page was in 100% agreement that Gabbitt should be the starter instead of Hennie just because of one good preseason game I guess I am skeptical. I think the team is skeptical,

and I think that what they're doing is, first of all, we're going to see both these quarterbacks this season. But you've got Gabbard and you've got a GM that probably has already decided where he's going with what will be the top five pick in April. I don't think there's any long-term commitment to Gabbard, so it almost doesn't matter. Why not give him one more chance?

I do think the one upside is that he's in his third offense, which is not good for him, but they're shaping that offense, from what I'm hearing, to kind of fit what he did in college a little bit more, a little bit more to his skills, which wasn't the case before. But even what, Malarkey, was it in the middle of the summer, Malarkey no longer with the Jaguar said, if I had to choose today, no way do I start Gabbert, I start Henny.

Yeah, you know, Jed Fish is a first-time offensive coordinator, so maybe he brings some new ideas to the table. And, you know, you talked about the Jets' defense not being ready for the hurry-up, but the flip side of that was the Jaguars, Like you said, played to Gabbard's strength. The ball was coming out of his hand. I mean, he is not a good quarterback when he holds the ball too long. So this is all three, five-step drops.

It kind of looked like he was at Missouri, getting rid of the ball, short passes. I mean, it was fine. That's probably the best that they can do with him, and maybe they'll be that sort of hurry-up team and make the best with what they have. Like, we're searching for positives. That's smart of them. That's what the Dolphins did with Taney Hill last year, and that's what the Redskins really did with RG3.

Quick decisions, get the ball out fast, and they only have to make one reef. Malarkey seems like one of those old school NFL coaches that he's got his system and he thinks there's a certain NFL way to do things and it wasn't going to work with Blaine Gabbard and he was just trying to make it work. It wasn't going to happen. All right, Mark, the cults.

All right, my question, I don't know if you asked, did you even ask a question there? Did we just meld in the conversation? Is it a good idea from Blaine Cabber? My question with the cults, because what I hear over and over is, you know, oh, they overachieved last year. They were on this sort of spiritual ride,

everything went right and there's no way they go 11 and 5 again so my question is if they aren't going to go 11 and 5 if we don't believe this what's the number one reason they can't get back to that record

now if you disagree and you think they can give me the reason they can I disagree and it's because of schedule and luck not the quarterback luck but randomness chance I believe they went on like a 9 and 2 stretch last year where they didn't beat a single

team over 500 and most of the teams were well below that stretch was a who's who of the worst teams in the league that's not going to happen again and Andrew Luck I believe broke the record with seven come from behind victories that's not going to happen again as much as I love Andrew Luck and I think he's I've already written that he's a Hall of Famer and gotten killed for writing that but I totally believe in him but I don't believe the cult are going to be as lucky or face his soft of his schedule I don't think they're going to get that same level of luck but I also don't think they need it as much. I think this might be, and we can get into it later with the division

record breakdown, this might be the worst division in the league. And I kind of can see the Colts not necessarily being a powerhouse, but certainly being good enough to get to 10 or 11 wins and be the division champion here. I think the argument against the Colts are all the pieces on defense being new that they're counting on. I mean, think about, you know, Le Ron Landry's there now, you know, maybe he helps, maybe he doesn't. You have a lot. You have guys starting like Jerell Freeman, you brought in Ricky Jean Francois, you bring in Greg Toler. I mean, you're just bringing in all these defensive players that, you know, the defense really wasn't that good last year, and it's a whole group that's full of question marks.

I think the argument for the Colts is just that Andrew Luck is so good that it doesn't matter, that he is like Peyton Manning early in his career, who was on some flawed Colts teams that would just get them to the playoffs. Is Andrew Luck potential? going to be the level of quarterback where his team is just a contender every year it doesn't matter what's around him. Yeah, I look at them as an example of a team that record won't be the same,

but they're going to be a better football team than what they were a season ago. And I actually think, you know, Wes just talked about shaping an offense around RG3 or shaping, we talked about shaping one around Gabbard. I think Pep Hamilton is actually a good switch for luck because as much as I liked what Arians did last season, I think that was probably one of the reasons

that Luck had some of the interceptions he did and took some of the hits he did. They have fixed that offensive line to some degree, but I don't see them going 11 and 5. Yeah, he's so fun to watch Luck, too. Last night against the Giants. Again, it's week two of the preseason. I know it means a lot to you, Mark. It does not mean as much to me, but he led that team on three straight scoring drives, and just his ability, he looks like a 10-year pro in the pocket,

his ability to move around field pressure, and he can move much better than he gets credit for. and I just think he's the total package and the team is not a perfect team but he's pretty close to a perfect quarterback to me and I think that's enough to make them a playoff team for that skill set he might be the best quarterback in the league already I mean certainly in the top couple

and I mean in terms of avoiding pressure and buying time in the pocket oh it's uncanny how savvy he is in the pocket yeah okay so let's now we've gone through the four questions now let's go records for each team and we'll start with the Great Mark Sessler.

All right, I start up top with the, this is reluctant on my part, but I go Texans, 11 and 5. Reluctant, and then you give them 11 wins. Yeah, I just, I could see them taking a disastrous turn. But 11 and 5 for the Texans, Colts, 8 and 8, Titans, 6 and 10, Jaguars, 4 and 12. All right, Wes. I have the same exact thing for the first two teams. I have Texans 11 and 5 call to vote for the defense

Colts 8 and 8 I believe as Mark said they can be a better team with a worse record Titan 7 9 Jaguars 3 and 13 So Andrew Luck's in the Hall of Fame and they're not winning more than 8 games They can't repeat the luck that they had last year

Okay I have the call I do think luck and luck and luck Will prevail and the Colts will go 11 and 5 they'll win the division Texans and a lot of the ones This does have to go into some of my concerns about Foster and the depth there. They're going to go 8 and 8. They're going to drop.

Titans, they're not going to pull together, 6 and 10, and Jags 3 and 13. Oh, I agree with Dan. He's right. The Colts are going to win this division, and I think Andrew Luck's just going to be that good. If your quarterback is that good, I think you'll find a way to win 10 games. Plus, this is a bad division, so I think they can win a lot of the games in the divisions. I have the Texans falling out of the playoffs. to 9 and 7, although I do want to say I'm more excited to watch J.J. Watt this season

than I think I've been excited about watching any defensive player in any season. So that should be fun. Titans at 5 and 11. I just don't think the defensive roster especially is very good at all. And the Jaguars at 3 and 13 battling the Oakland Raiders, not to give anything away, but battling the Oakland Raiders for the clowny race. Yeah. Okay, so that wraps up another addition.

of the ATL podcast. On Wednesday, we will hit the AFC West. A lot of buzz. A lot of buzz. And if anything happens tonight with the Steelers and Skins, we'll touch on that and then any other news. So until next time. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you 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 Six podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your 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.

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