NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL Around the League: August 7th, 2013

Episode Date: August 7, 2013

Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Kevin Patra discuss the highs and lows of HBO’s premiere episode of Hard Knocks, chronicling the best moments of the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2013 season. The crew wants your help in choosing the podcast’s new intro music. Vote via Twitter between #BarryWhite #Batman and the #Renaissance music selections using the hash-tag #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.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Welcome back to another day. of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I'm joined by a room full of heroes here. I have on my right, the great Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, and then a special

guest, the final member of the ATL team, Kevin Patra. Great to be here. Finally made it to the big leagues. Now, if you're just joining in for the first time, you probably don't know Patrick's name, or even if you read the site, you might not. But Kevin is going to be joining us in a... full-time capacity in a couple weeks. He's actually going to be leaving Los Angeles, moving to Chicago.

And so this is probably the last time he'll ever be on the podcast. But we just wanted to- First and last, baby. Introduce him to everyone before we bid him Bon Voyage. The good thing about this is that no matter how good or how bad Patrick does, he'll never be on again. So if he's really good and it was a position, oh, maybe he should replace someone. It's not possible. If he was really bad, we just don't have to think about it anymore because he's gone.

I'll just try to be mediocre, so it doesn't matter. That's what we aim for here at the Around the League podcast. Okay, so we have a busy show today. Off the top, let's talk about it. All right, so we're on iTunes, correct? So subscribe and download and also rate because the higher the rating, I guess the more successful we are. Tell your friends. Tell your friends about the local podcast.

Also, we have a new logo, which will tie behind the glass. You know, thank you for engineering that. No problem. It's a beautiful new logo, much better than the 7th grade Photoshop version prior to that. So that's good. But the next step up now is the theme song. Right now, we have the guitar lick that's something similar. How would you describe the current guitar lick theme song?

Embarrassing. Will, can you play the current lick? Sure thing. Here it is. It kind of. It kind of sounds like Greg, you and I were downstairs working in DirecTV. We were watching something on the DVR, and then when the show ended, it went to DirecTV's generic guitar music. It's similar to that.

So now what we need to do is find a new theme song. We have Dick Banks, Dave Damashch's trusted music guy working on a new song. But we should probably have a different song in the interim, right, until Dick has his song ready. So, Wilk, do you want to play us a couple options and we can maybe decide what to use before we get the Dick Banks version? Sure thing. I've prepared a couple of options for you. I think you guys are going to really like them. Okay. Ooh.

Oh, yeah. I think that's the backward skaters only theme. I like that. It's going to be hard to top that. We might not need anything from Dick Banks. Wait a second. First of all, that sounds like something Dick Banks would write. Actually, that sounds really sophisticated.

and there's also an air of nostalgia to it almost. It's kind of like, you know, I'm going to treat you right, girl, but we might get a little naughty. You know what I'm saying? I feel like there has to be a hot tub shaped like a heart involved in this. Champagne flutes. I'm getting uncomfortable, so I'm going to say we move on to another option. Whoa.

Did we clear this with HBO, the Game of Thrones team? Yeah. Oh, it's Batman. Huh. Okay. I guess you cut that. I'm not sure the room is manly enough to handle that theme. I like that.

I mean, all I'm thinking, though, is how did the intro that we have in there now get in over these? Because these are all much better. Talk to the producing team. I was not the original producer of the show. I'm not going to throw the original producer under the bus. Like Dan did our graphic designer. Exactly. But I did not choose the theme I've merely.

We're not listening to the podcast. That song to me sounds like everybody in the room has to know how to make a fire or something to be able to claim that as a song. That's Steve Smith's entrance music whenever an opposing defensive back comes up. Do you have anything else? We have plenty more. All right. All right. If you want to be the top podcast on NFL.com, you need something like this.

We needed more bugles. This announces that, like, something important is on the way, you know? There's an era of victory to this song. And of Renaissance. Yes. Well, if you're listening out there, maybe let us know what you guys like out of the three. I think I know which one I like. Yeah.

The first one, that's when you like, Greg. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The first one I like a lot. The second one, again, you know, not enough manliness in the room. The third one, to me, I like the regleness. I like number three. I think we need names for these so that we're not just having people tweet us.

one number two, number three. So we should go with what? Barry White as the first one. Barry White, Batman, Renaissance. Okay, that's fair. Those are your hashtags, people. And I'm open to having this be our permanent theme song. I'm just throwing that out there. As long as it's the Barry White one.

Yeah, I think Dick Dick Banks is on contract, so it would be maybe wasteful, but, you know, this is a $10 billion machine. You know, who cares? You know? Okay, so from a football standpoint, so Patra, welcome to the show and goodbye. Appreciate it.

So we're going to talk a little football. We will get to Kevin Patcher's Detroit lines a little later. But I guess let's start with what was on HBO last night. I know a lot of us in this room have seen it and probably a lot of people listening. Hard knocks, season eight. Greg, I will throw it to you. What are your thoughts? Well, I just wanted to be all James Harrison all the time.

The conversation between James Harrison, and Jay Gruden was just outstanding. And I could just, if it was just a show of James Harrison, that would be outstanding. I'd watch that every week. James Harrison, you'd always heard things about James Harrison being an intimidating guy. You've seen him play. You've read the interviews with him. But to see him in this light was pretty amazing.

Patrick, you saw it, right? Yeah, I did see that exchange. I wasn't sure if he was just going to tackle AJ Green right there on the spot just to prove a point or not. You couldn't really tell if he was going to mess around or not. Yeah, I think his exact. quote, I have it here because I do the hard knocks episode recap. That's a shameless plug. And the line that stuck out to me was, the merchandise come this way, boom, it's going

to get touched. I like touching merchandise. It does not sound right. It does not sound right. So, yeah, James Harrison has... I think you need to read it meaner. Yeah, I know. I can't pull off the Harrison.

I think it's better to not make a James Harrison impression, especially after the Terrell Suggs one. did a few weeks back. I thought the songs was stronger than most people. That was like Christopher Walken reading James Harrison. I want to hear what Wesleyan has to say about his team, the Bengals, in the spotlight, Harrison especially.

Wes pretending he's not a Bengals fan. Well, A, we all know the Bengals can mess up a junkyard. They can mess up a steel ball. You know my television policy, which will have to change according to the boss. So I did not see the show, but I did read Dan's excellent recap, so I'm familiar with the whole show, and James Harrison, of course, carried the day. G.O. Bernard, driving his girlfriend's van seemed like it was pretty cool, too. Yeah, it was a minivan.

Apparently, I had put it was a Dodge Odyssey, and then a Twitter had corrected me that it's actually a Honda Odyssey. Bernard, he's interesting. The other person that kind of jumped out to me was Hugh Jackson, who clearly is trying to leverage his show into another head coaching job, right? That's all he's – I feel like his whole career has been leveraging his jobs into trying to get. head coaching jobs, but it doesn't matter. I still like him. I like Hugh Jackson a lot, and I think he's got a great offensive mind, but I don't know that he's ever going to be forgiven for the Carson Palmer trade.

That's fair. Right. It was that bad of a trade. They're never going to let him run an organization, but that was kind of like he saw this vacuum in Oakland. It was just like, I'm going to drive this ship into the ground. Right. And just watching yesterday's episode, you can totally picture how that trade happened now.

the way Hugh was such an enthusiastic guy and you could tell him getting amped up and he's remembering back to Carson Palmer's glory days and says, oh, that's the missing piece and it all came together quickly and who was going to say no, there was that vacuum. I did not see it. I'm on the West Train with the television payment restrictions

in my household. No, it's not a hipster thing. I actually, I honestly thought I had HBO and then I found out I do not. But I attempted to track the proceedings on Twitter, which I found to be, you know, Twitter for all its qualities, when you have 45 sports journalists and fantasy geeks and everything else watching the same sporting event, it goes down quickly.

All I saw was Mike Zimmer hit my timeline in like, you know, 10 count at a time. Everyone's saying the same exact thing. And I cannot wait. I got to read Dan's recap. I want to actually watch it in the flesh. It did not come across as entertaining to me on Twitter. I told you. You're invited over to my place because I can afford cable. I think you can too

So let's check the budget And you know Get in there HBO Home Box office I'm coming over to Dance House To watch it next week I like it when it makes you start

Thinking about the team itself Like Harrison was It was weird to see how he was Integrating with everyone How he was sitting Not paying attention Inside the linebackers mood Sitting totally separate

From the rest of the team Which is insane You're wondering how is this going to work And I started thinking Is he just going to be Incredible and angry And actually make a difference or is it going to be a total disaster and be divisive?

That was one football take. The other was G.O. Bernard, man, just watching him cut in practice was incredible. You can't fake that, and it just got me excited about what he's got to do this year. And I don't know if it's because it's HD on HBO, and it just shot so beautifully. But I don't think I've ever seen a man look quicker and faster than that guy. And actually, it popped in my mind if Bernard looks this way, I wish we could see Tavon Austin with this type of, you know, cinematobes. It was pretty amazing to watch the guy move.

And we'd written all these posts about how Bernard, and it was coming from Hugh Jackson that, listen, you know, don't be surprised when we line up Bernard outside and we use him as a wide receiver and all over the field. And then it seems as he's lived up to the billing so far. You can't fake that. I mean, that movement, they show guys every year, and you don't see that movement.

The only other person that kind of reminded me of a little bit totally different was San Antonio Holmes just being incredible in that jet season and just everyone just saying he's the best player on the team. pretty much played out that he had an outstanding season. Wow, you guys have sold me on Giovanni Bernard. You weren't a buyer. No, well, he intrigued me how they were going to use him. I didn't know he was quite...

It sounds like you guys are calling him a first-round talent. It drives an Odyssey. Well, the thing I like watching this is the coaches don't fake their enthusiasm. They're not faking it, and they are so excited about Tyler Eifert and Bernard, and it gets you, you know, maybe you're just buying the hype, but you start getting excited. So that makes the Bengals, the NFC, North favorites if Ifer and Bernard are the real deal.

Well, when you have a quarterback wearing a rubber wedding ring, you can't lose, right? Yeah, exactly. I don't think they're the favorites, but... They have more talent than any other team in that division, especially on defense. All right, we should keep moving forward because there are four more episodes

of Hard Knox. Just cut off with his hands is his tight shit. Well, listen, Wilk, behind the glass, we've got to keep moving, right? The debate club is over, guys. There's no debate. Can't have any... It started to edge into debates. I had to bounce out real quick. No, I don't want to cut you guys up, but we have a lot to talk about.

And a lot of people, you get a lot of buzz on Twitter. A lot of people are excited that our show is generally about a half hour, not those 90-minute journeys of the ear that some of these other football podcasts are. You just cut out 30 seconds there. Yeah, I know. Yeah, now I'm bloviating. But, okay, let's move on. Mark, you were the first one in the office today. what is the big news going on regarding the New Orleans Saints?

Wait, Patrick, nodding his head. Actually, can I say what I appreciate about Patra is that when I come in at 45 in the morning, I walk over, and Patra, and if people haven't seen Patra late in the day, it's because his posts arrive roughly, what, 2 a.m. Easter? Usually I get one out by 3 a. 3 Pacifics. He gets us cranking early.

We appreciate it. And we wonder why he's moving away. Well, I've always said people always at 1 a.m. Pacific. People always ask me how I do it. I just say I pretend like I have an East Coast job that starts at 5 a.m. I just happen to live on the West Coast. But that's terrible.

Having a 5 a.m. East Coast job. Did Jedi mind-tricked yourself? Yeah, you've got to just keep saying it eventually. So I'll open this up then to both Kevin and Mark. The biggest news of Wednesday morning. Mark, go ahead. New Orleans Saints. Well, I think that they've lost Kenyon Coleman.

for what the season, which after what the Saints have already been through, they lost Victor Butler earlier in the year, and you have to look at what Rob Ryan wanted to do with his 3-4. He wanted to bring in certain guys, A, that a Coleman guy is not an all-star player, but he knows the system, and he always, everywhere he's gone, he's brought teachers to teach the younger players, the 3-4. They're shifting away from a very different scheme from last season. So Butler's gone, Coleman's gone, and it's like,

this is what plagued Ryan last year with the Cowboys. So many injuries, we never got to see what that team could do. Personally, they weren't a very good defense last year. I'm concerned. And they don't have a lot of depth. Their defensive line now, they're going to have to have Akeem Hicks start. Joseph Morgan, they lost their third receiver. They were hoping he would step up now.

Probably next in line is a fifth round pick, Kenny Stills. I mean, these aren't big, sexy names, but to me it just makes a very, a team that could go in two different directions. We don't really know what they're going to do. it just makes you doubt them a little more. What do we think about this Saints team? Is Sean Payton coming back just being there back to being one of the Super Bowl contenders, or could they just be mediocre?

I'm one of the people that fully gave the Saints of Mulligan off last year. That was such an unusual circumstances, and you take the coach out of the mix. There's just no way to replace that situation and come out on top. What I'm thinking now is, you know, you're going to have Breeze back in there. You're going to have the coach there. I see them to be a playoff team. Do I think that they're going to be better than the Falcons? No, but I still think even with these injuries,

we're talking about a five or six seats. The subtext here being that Dan is completely fine with the bounty program. I like how you read the two of the lines there. I picked the Saints to finish last in that division. I just don't see the talent on defense. It looks like Junior Gillette may be the most important player on that defense. Speaking of Bloviating, Rob Ryan had one of the best quintessential Ryan quotes.

Let me give you what he said on Junior Glet. I know one thing. I'm betting on Junior Gellet. I think he's going to be special. I do. People can say whatever they want. He ain't sneaking up on anybody, but they're not going to be able to block him either. Junior Gellet, ladies and gentlemen.

Junior Glet also called himself a diamond in the rough today. Well, you know, we like to encourage that kind of thing. I love when people call themselves diamonds in the rough. Ryan also called Kenyon Coleman the best three-four run-stopping defensive end in the league. Now that I just flat out don't believe. See, I watched him in Cleveland for two seasons, and I am struggled to understand how Coleman still has work, to be honest. He doesn't this season.

I like Keenan Lewis at cornerback, though. I think that he needed that. Ryan needed those strong corners last season. And I think Keenan Lewis isn't under the radar free agent signing. Speaking of Keenan Lewis and Rob Ryan isms, he said that Keenan Lewis was the best free agent signing. Right. In the NFL.

So we should stop listening to Rob Ryan. The Ryan should have like a coffee table book with Just all Ryan is. I'm so fascinated to see, though, what this team does because it's such a great test of is Sean Payton and this whole organization he's built up with Mickey Loomis over the last seven years now. Is it an organization like the Patriots

that they're just a contender each and every year that they're going to be in the mix as long as Drew Brees is there? Or is it on shakier footing? And now that everything's going to happen, that they're just going to be just another one of those teams. because before this happened, they were one of the teams that you could count on, and there's really only a couple to win 11 or 12 games every season. That's a good point because the Saints had a horrible defense last year,

and if we questioned their defensive talent, a team like the Patriots has had one of the worst secondaries in the league, one of the worst pass rushes in the league, and still manages to go deep in the playoffs and reach the Super Bowl. Let's see if the Saints can do that too. My look at Peyton, and for me, just from a football sense, I'll say two to three more wins just because he's back in the building, running the show, and yeah, you still have one of the game's best

quarterbacks in Breeze. He didn't regress, in my opinion, at all in Peyton's absence. But for me, that division is nasty, and I have to go with Dan and putting the Falcons at the top slot there. See, I think the Saints are going to bounce right back. I guess I believe that they have built it up, and if Rob Ryan just makes them the 22nd defense in the league, that they're going to go back to being one of the top teams in the NFC. Did the Falcons not get better this offseason?

I don't think so because they were a lucky team last year. I don't think they were as good as people think they were. They were a 10-win team that won a ton of close games against bad teams. They were one play from the Super Bowl. I mean, that's how it goes, but to me, they're more likely to... If Michael Turner's replaced by Stephen Jackson in that game, they run the ball in the second half, take the air out of the ball and keep that lead. And they're using Jackson as much more of a receiving runner this year

than they ever could have with Turner, obviously. I just think they're going to have a hard time getting all the breaks that they got last year. People forget going into the playoffs that they were considered. I mean, no one really took them that seriously as a one seat, and I think there was reason for that. It's because they won every game by seven or less points. You're not going to go seven and oh in one score games again. Didn't they beat the Giants 41 to nothing in the most dominant game of the year?

It's a freaky division, though, because the same team has not won the South two years running in what? Is it eight or nine years or something? Yeah, and it's so deep that you could see any one of those four teams winning the division. All right, fellas, sorry to cut you off, but we should get going. You know, it's time to go. You can't go on forever, as I was saying earlier. You keep on getting on me, but we've got to do this. Kevin Patra, thank you very much for coming in.

I'm glad to be here. Glad I could add to the fun that is this full filled room. You sound excited. Everyone can read Kevin, starting in a couple weeks. He'll be cranking outpost just like the rest of us, Just from a different location, we're excited to have you. Did you get a headshot yet? I did, just last week.

I just haven't published it yet. I think they're going to Photoshop most of it. All right, did you go to tie? I did not go tie. Is it a collier? Unless I'm mandated, I do not wear a tie. All right, good. We're getting there.

The ATL debate club, now the ATL podcast. We keep moving forward. We'll be back on Friday, and we'll catch you there. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to 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 Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you

crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. This is an IHeart podcast.