NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: 2014's most unpredictable team

Episode Date: July 21, 2014

A room with some heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler -- are joined by former NFL player and fellow podcaster Ross Tucker to break down the latest news from around the league. Chris Wesseling then calls in as the guys list their nominations for the most unpredictable team entering the 2014 NFL season.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. The Around the League podcast tries to live up to the gold standard. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I'm joined by room filled with some heroes, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys? How are you, buddy? Welcome back.

What's happening? This weekend. This was the weekend. that I told my wife, training camp is here, as Dan just said, I will not see you until roughly mid-February. That's a good way to put it. I like that. Say hello to the boys for me.

Did you even say goodbye to them or you just, you know, you have heard of the work. It is easier to just whisk yourself out the door. Mark is alluding to the fact that training camp has begun. The bill's reported Friday. Now everybody else is reporting today and this week. And we are in the swing of things. And as we said last week, we're back to three times a week. So we will be doing a show this week, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

So you're going to get plenty NFL high-octane content all year. We're very excited. It's fun. Fun to do the podcast, so we're happy to do it. We started doing some, you know, TD and I were talking about some planning for the season and our Sunday night shows and our Thursday preview shows and all sorts of stuff we've got hooked up for you. Yeah, so get excited. We're excited. We're getting ready to kick into training camp. We got a great show today. We are going to Chris Wessling still out. Actually, back in the office sense. He's working remotely from Cincinnati this week after his vacation. He'll be back in person next week. But we're going to get him on the phone today and talk to him, catch up with him. See if, you know, first, he's still alive. That's important to check in as he's still setting it. We'll check in on that. Just all these different things. And then we'll talk a little football with. him as well. Does that sound like a good idea, Mark?

Yeah, I think the first two points are especially salient. We have no concept of where he is. Right. Well, if he's not alive, I feel like we probably shouldn't even try to talk football with him. Did we just drop sentient and salient in back-to-back? What is sentient in mean? I don't even know.

I think he was sentient. Sentient? Yeah. Like a sentient to living a true genuine being. All right, whatever. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. And we're going to do news, as we always do. And I just want to say hi to TD. How are you doing, buddy?

What's going on, guys? How are you doing great? How are you? Doing all right, fun weekend. Played a lot of sports, but we did. Buddy's a little bit sore right now. We did. In fact, yes, on Sunday morning, TD and I, as well as a collection of other NFL media comrades,

hit the hard court and played some basketball. What? Yeah. Why are you so? surprised tears. Well, I don't know. TDA, who saw me raining long range shots out

on the court next to NFL network. I have a schoolyard, three-point percentage shooting percentage career that dates back to the late 80s. It's stunning. Do I get a call? Doesn't sound real. Guys are getting together and playing basketball? Oh, you weren't looped in? The percentage of your shots going in is

high, but if you take away ones that go off the backboard first, it gets much lower. You're a big glass guy. You're a big glass from straightaway. I'm a technician. But let's see the people that were on the court, and you're invited, you know, going forward. Yeah, post-h, you know, after the fact, sure. I didn't hear anything about it either. But I get it as, you know, as the boss. No one wants, it's not going to be as fun. Okay. I get it. See, I knew, I didn't organize this, by the way. T.D. who calls himself young Kobe,

uh, going, dating back to his days in Nigeria and, uh, Atlanta, calls himself young Kobe. And I will say, I was a teammate with TD. and T.D. carried us the two wins just based on his dynamic athleticism. Well, that's a stretch. I was never the most athletic type. But, yeah, a couple of comfort behind wins

that have to pull the team through. I hit a couple of shots to win it. But I did not call myself Young Kobe. I'm saying, growing up, gyms and places I would play at, they would always somehow come back. Oh, that's, that's Ian Kobe. It was, you've mentioned

this on Twitter, and you only have 140 characters to work with. So you made the choice to bring up how they would call you young Kobe. Ultimately, that's you calling yourself. Well, not really. You're putting it out there. We never would have known if you didn't put it out there. That was preceded by the fact of me saying young Kobe is the only Kobe Bryant I'm a fan of.

So I just wanted to give context of why I have that connection somewhat. Real quick, go Daniel Jeremiah on us, scout Dan's play. Who would you compare him to? I said this last week on Twitter, actually. Dan has a little, you know, has a little J tool. You know, has a little Jee, but he hugs the ball. bit much when he catches it. You know, sometimes you don't want to pass it and go.

He's more like Carmelo Anthony type. Volume shooting. Dan compared himself to Arvita Sabonis, which I really liked. I was playing less than 100%. I didn't like that that was the first time TD saw me. I had bad left knee because my career is winding down. When I look at Dan, I see Kevin McHale gone to seed, an old Brad Miller. I like all these are all great.

This is great analysis. I'll tell you this, though. Dan does not like to lose. He doesn't like to lose. That's great. You know, you can see, we played a game of horse afterwards. We actually played a game with ATL. ATL, we called it ATL, and went down to the wire.

I ended up winning again. However, though, Dan was, you know, he did not like to lose. Are you allowed to set up your own drops? Yeah, that's pretty fun. That's well done. Yeah, all right. So, yes, good job on the Victory TD. It should be noted that I dropped a hook on him,

that he had a match just to stay alive in the battle before we moved on. But good job by you, buddy. We're going to do some news, but we're going to do a little special bit of news because we're going to get Ross Tucker on the phone. Of course, Ross Tucker, former NFL player, now works at NBC Sports Network. There's a bunch of other stuff, has the Ross Tucker Football Podcast. A lot of stuff going on with Ross. We've had him on the show before.

So we're going to get him on the line, and he's going to do news with us. So why don't we do some news? We all we got. We're all we got. We're all we got. We all we're all we got. I like that. Training camp is back, guys.

Teams are getting in the huddle. Teams are ready to go. My man Richard Sherman right there on the call. All right, I like it. Speaking of on the call, Ross Tucker, are you there, buddy? I am. There he is.

Ross Tucker, of course, as we said, he has his own podcast, which is called the what? The Ross Tucker Football Podcast. Makes sense? I'm good at football. I'm talking about football. I'm just not really that imaginative.

fortunately. That's quite all right. We would love to have you back. The second time, Ross, has been on the show. And we were thinking, Ross, because we value you as a football mind, we were going to go through our headlines and just do some NFL news, and we're going to get you in the mix and, you know, take part in the headlines with us today. How's that sound?

Let's do it. It's like I'm a regular NFL around the league writer right now. It's getting real. Well, we're looking for someone, Ross. So you never know. Hey, let me know. I'm open right now. You're too expensive for us, but...

All right, so let's start in Buffalo, where over the weekend, Marcel Darius, who's had a pretty discouraging offseason, was placed on the non-football injury list because he failed his conditioning test. We learned that, yes, he failed the conditioning test. That's why he's not there. And Doug Morone, obviously, Bill's coach,

are not happy about it. Here's a quote from Doug. He needs to focus on getting himself ready. You don't have to read very hard between the lines to see that the bills can't be very happy with a guy that made strides last season of course but now is obviously in a tenuous spot with this team there's no question and let's let's let's let's let's everybody's talking about e.J. Manuel and the offense but they've lost the best guy they had

at the second and third levels of the defense I mean alonzo tore his ACL he's out for the year jarius burton went to new Orleans and free agency you guys already know that but they also brought and Jim Schwartz, who, quite frankly, I don't think is as good of a defensive coach as Mike Petten was. And we only know one thing for sure about Jim Schwartz's defenses, which is he basically bases the entire thing on the D-line, right? I mean, he basically says, I'm going to have a beastly D-line, they're going to dominate, and we'll get it done with the other guys. This is a problem. I mean, this guy, you mentioned the offseason he's had, he's had some issues with being overweight. He's very

inconsistent. He makes a bunch of splash plays, but he's very inconsistent in the run game. And this to me, as if the drag racing and the possession of a controlled substance and being benched for parts of the last two games last year, as if that's not enough

of a red flag, failing a conditioning test is just crazy to me. I've seen it happen and you're either lazy or you're careless or you're both. I mean, any guy that takes the job seriously and cares about it, you're going to pass those things.

There's a bunch of different ones. I mean, there's shuttles, there's, you know, 72 yards. What we used to do in Buffalo, but whatever they are, they're designed to be difficult, but so that most guys make it. Like, they don't want guys not practicing. I mean, they want the guys to practice. It really is just for the guys that are totally out of shape so that they can point them out.

fact that he is in that list is highly disconcerting and just really excited to think about how close this guy is to a big second contract going in the year four and the mess of an offseason he's had so you didn't fail any conditioning test ross no and i'm not exactly come on ross being dan failed his last week i don't want to talk about it you did we showed up we each had to make a three-point basket um no i don't know we not None of us are in great condition. I'm just making things up. No.

No, but seriously, guys, I think the fastest 40 time I ever ran was a 5-4. And Darius was 4-9 at the Combine and the 40. So for him to not be able to pass a conditioning test, I mean, we could say that this means nothing and he'll be ready to go week one. And I'm sure it will be out there week one, but it certainly makes you wonder. Well, I don't know if he'll be out there because what's hanging over him still is to a rest from the off-season. and it's a little unclear if the NFL is considering suspending him, but it wouldn't be that big of a surprise considering he was arrested twice

that they consider taking him out of the mix for the first game or two. And you mentioned, as you said, the bills count so much on that defensive line. It's a great one on paper, but it wouldn't shock me if he's out of the mix the first few weeks of the season. In fairness, though, which one of us hasn't ever gone drag racing gotten an accident left to the team of the crime? That's good to bring that. up because that applies to all of us.

The NFL is taking a break from the Big Apple. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday that the league is narrowed down its 2015 NFL draft options to Los Angeles and Chicago. The event has been held in New York City every year since 1965 and has been at Radio City Music Hall since 2006. What do we think about this gentleman? What's amazing to me is nobody cares. Really?

I talk to all my listeners. on Sirius XM NFL radio. Nobody cares. They're watching it on TV anyway. There is a small group of people that fly to go to it. I don't really understand that, but they do. This is something that the NFL is going to make money from and good for them, I guess. I actually hope it's in L.A.

Because I just want to see the amount of buzz that it would generate and how much excitement there would be in L.A. I know maybe it wouldn't be a great indication of the readiness for an NFL franchise there. But if there's no buzz and totally dead, I think that would certainly hurt L.A.'s chances. I think that having been there at Radio City this past May, obviously this was a little bit of a different draft because of the big names and Mansell and all that. But I got the distinct feeling, having been a three of these now, that it's starting to outgrow Radio City.

And Radio City and the NFL seem to not be on the same page with this. It makes sense that it would move to a different venue. The thing that I find interesting, I guess, as people that cover the draft closely, They're going to move it to four days, it sounds like, instead of three. And it's just the NFL is going to make this a bigger event. So get ready for the NFL draft to become an even bigger part of the league calendar. I think what they're trying to do here is I think they want to be able to identify who the real sickos are. And the people that are then on day four, they want to be able to point those people out either to make sure, like, we're all aware of them.

We have a list of who these people are. or to try to just milk those people for every dollar knowing how crazy they really are. You asked what the excitement level would be in Los Angeles. I'm sure they'll manage to fill up whatever venue they choose and they'll get some big football fans that'll make some noise or whatever. But the overall excitement level in Los Angeles, I can give you a preview. It's not going to be very high.

I mean, I live here. You know, we all live here. And I feel like the sports culture in general makes a pretty low dent on the overall. overall population. And that even goes to, like, there's just a Stanley Cup team that won the, you know, won at all and the Lakers. Of course, people are into the big teams, but compared to the cities like Chicago or New York or Boston, it's just, it's not even close.

If you had planned to take your child to a Giants game this year to say, hey, this is your chance to see Chris Knee play, it's not going to happen anymore. Chris Knee announces retirement Monday. And as I make that joke, I feel weird because I feel like Ross Tucker might get add that I'm disrespecting an offensive lineman. There are things weird, Ross, the way I've started this new segment. No, I understand. People don't go to the game to see an offensive lineman.

I get it. But there were a bunch of years when the Giants were really good on offense, in large part because the offensive line group that. I haven't wrote this on Twitter, which is at Ross Tucker NFL. Bang. I'd say since 2000, I think that the old line, Giants had from like 06 to 2009, maybe 2010. That wasn't my favorite offensive line.

I mean, deal at left tackle, soybert at left guard, O'Hara at center, snee at right guard, Kareennyn at right tackle. You know, not a first rounder in the bunch, a couple of free agents. And they were awesome. I mean, there was a couple years there where they were the best O-Line in football. Jacobs Bradshaw would dominate. Eli would get in sacked like eight times a year. And what's awesome about that is I don't know that any of those guys.

None of them are Hall of Fame type guys. And, you know, a couple of them went to a couple Pro Bowls. But I actually think that that was as much a result of the unit success as anything. Those guys, to me, kind of embodied what the offensive lines about, which is it's not about one dude. It's about five guys working together. They really liked each other. They got along. They hung out.

They spent years together, and all those things, for whatever reason, go a long way towards success in that group. Yeah, and O'Hara actually just tweeted out a photo of the five of them walking through this, like, sunlit field together. So maybe a little more legendary than we're giving them credit for. But, you know, for you because you played the line, you know what it's like, I guess, at the end of your career to have accumulated various nicks and surgeries. and for the amount of pain that these guys deal with. And Snee, obviously, surgery was an issue for him. Can you enlighten the listener that's never stepped on the field what that's like? Well, I think this is a smart decision by Chris.

I can tell you, I mean, he's 32. He's played a lot. You know what the problem is? Every guy knows when you're playing that you're doing damage to your body. But when you're 28, you're not able to know how you're going to feel when you're 38 or 48 or 58 or 68. I mean, you hear things and you think about it, but you don't know for sure. I mean, right now, as I'm talking to you guys, my back from the surgery I had in Buffalo

slared up this month. And so I've got a lumbar pillow in my back right now so I can sit down and talk to you guys. It's just, and a lot of guys tell you it's about five to ten years when you're done that these things crop up. And the fact that he said that his elbow was hurting him, even just trying to punch guys in OTAs. that to me is a red flag that's probably something he'll have an issue with

forever and that's the mindset you don't get till late in your NFL career high school college, they go I tore my MCL okay, I'm out six weeks you don't think about the fact that you know what like I'm not a machine that doesn't mean it's going to be healthy and feel good for the rest of my life and I have things crop up all the time

I mean I get like I got a massage I mean rough life right I get a massage when I was at the rookie symposium and she did sit with my foot And, like, my turf toe on my right big toe from Buffalo in 2004 flared up, and I, like, screamed. I'm like, oh, nothing, just turf toe back in 2004. I thought like I was like a soldier, like back in November. Yeah, Turfto, 04.

Back in 2004 in Buffalo. This is when I remind you that Greg Rosenthal, to my right, has never been to a gym. He's acknowledged to us. Fun fact. Well, I said lifting weight. I've been inside. But he has been to spas and massages. Two quick thoughts on Christy.

You mentioned none of these guys were Hall of Famers in that line. That's true. Snee might have a chance at a Ring of Honor in New York. He was almost definitely the best offensive linemen on two Super Bowl champion teams. And then second, yeah, he's hardcore. He's always known as a tough player. How tough do you got to be to walk into the Giants locker room as the father of Tom Coughlin's grandchild? You're not married.

I don't want to get too deep into it. But Coughlin and Snee have talked about it openly. It's a complex situation. It wasn't something that was planning that they wanted. Now he's got three grandchildren. He's married. He's in the family. You've got to be tough to walk into that locker room.

That situation. Watch out. I would have been like, no, any team but Tom Collins team. And yeah, Tom Cawthon of all people. And by the way, Chris Ney will be inducted, included in the New York Giants Ring of Honor. Get excited about that. And Ross Tucker is in the ATL Ring of Honor,

which must be a very high honor for you. Ross, congratulations. and thank you for coming on. So let's see. Let's see. Let's get these plugs in because Ross got so many things going on. At Russ Tucker, NFL.

You have the Ross Tucker Football Podcast, and you're on about 17,000 other channels. Is that correct? Yeah, don't worry about them. Don't worry about the other channels. The only thing I care about these days are Twitter and my podcast. I've got a new one starting, by the way, a fantasy podcast.

I'm going, it's called the Fantasy Feast. I'm going all in a fantasy. You know why? I miss having a stake in, like, what's going on. I go to these games. on Sunday, then I'm broadcasting, and I really just want to make sure it doesn't go to overtime so I can catch my flight back home. I need something where I really care about the outcome, so I'm going all in on fantasy football

this year as well. Well, you got the right guy with you, Evan Silva, who I worked with a long time at Roadworld. He is the very best, so I'm going to be listened to that. I don't know anything anymore. Yeah, he's a real sicko. He's one of those people that would sit there on day four of the draft. Oh, he's one of those guys. All right, Russ Suckett.

Thank you very much for joining us. and we will be listening to your podcast, and we hope to hear you again on ours. My pleasure. You guys are an awesome job with the podcast, and I am all over the blog every day, every morning. You guys are like one of my two or three go-toes for all my information.

So thanks for what you guys do, so I can just read your three-paragraph things and have totally knowledge of everything that just happened. Thanks, Ross. Take care. That was the main reason we had him on just now was for that last. I'm liking it more and more by the minute.

That's how you get to the Ring of Honor for ATLs. You just shower us with compliments. Yeah, endless accolades about our work, both online and on the cast, can get you very far. Who else would be in the Ring of Honor? K. Rich. Of course. The Gold Standard. A lot of pressure on TD because, really, it's kind of like being a commissioner always makes the Hall of Fame.

It's like, if you're the producer, you're kind of supposed to make the Ring of Honor. Which, by the way, guys, shout out to the Gold Standard. It's his birthday. Yeah. Happy birthday. 19 years old. 19 years young. If only cared enough.

about football to listen to this podcast. You would hear it. We miss you, buddy. I miss you every day. Gentlemen, we roll on. We're going to talk about teams. Roll it right along here. We're going to talk about teams.

This was one of the features, daily features on NFL.com, it's called The Instant Debate, where they throw out topics. Then then we all chime in with our opinions. One last week that got us thinking and thought, oh, we should talk about this on the podcast. Who is the one NFL team right now? or multiple NFL teams that you can't really make sense of. Now, this is hard for me because I immediately can size up a team and know exactly how they'll do in July.

I mean, that's one of my gifts or whatever, but also at the same time, I'll try to bring myself down and try to figure out how other people would think. So let's go around the table and we'll share one or two, perhaps, different teams we can't figure out. And Mark Sessel, we're going to start with you. You are the sizzler. All right. Thank you, Dan, number one, for indulging us, Greg and I, and the rest of the population.

You got it, buddy. I didn't even have to get out of the letter A to get my team. The Atlanta Falcons. I didn't think of doing this alphabetically. Well, that's how I operate systematically. Atlanta, a team that, you know, two years removed from being a couple plays away from the Super Bowl. Yeah. Then bang, last season, you know, I think that's too much as made of the,

heights that they fell because when you take Julio Jones out of that pass offense and they got racked with injuries. Roddy White wasn't healthy. They don't have a great running game and so they were exposed entirely. But then still you have Matt Ryan. Julio Jones is healthy again. There's questions on defense, but there always have been. I just think that people have overlooked the Falcons because of a what have you done for me lately scenario. You know why that is though? because none of us ever really bought into the Falcons as being one of those top four or five teams. So it was kind of like last year when the bottom fell out, it almost was confirming everything we thought. Not that they should be that bad, but oh, they were never really that top two or three team.

And I agree that's why it's such a good choice is they could do anything and it wouldn't really surprise me that bad. They could be mediocre again, which would be interesting to see how that shook out or they could win that division again. And in that division, you know, when they were dominant for, you know, in terms of regular season, win total, we now, Carolina's not necessarily a team they were last season, but they're a tough defense to deal with. And Tampa's beefed up. And the Saints look outstanding. So that adds more complexity. Carolina's an interesting team, too, to go down that road if you wanted to.

Some of them might be tough to figure out. Greg Rosenthal, give us one. Well, I'm going to go with the team that has the toughest player in the NFL to figure out. and I've said this before. That's Robert Griffin III, and to me, the Redskins are going to go as he goes. In a lousy NFC East, we've been saying this now for a couple of years, and it keeps being true. It's not a great division.

I mean, the Redskins have a shot to have a really explosive offense and compete to win, but they still have Jim Haslett as their defensive coordinator. It's a lot of changes on offense. None of us are really sure if RG3 is at the level of, let's say, Luck and Russell Wilson, or if he's going to be well below that. Like, nothing with this team would really surprise me. So I'm probably going to pick them to be mediocre or submediocre, but it wouldn't stun me if they go out there and play really well.

They have enough talent to do it. I think, yeah, I think that you're right. And the division is what makes it wide open. And I'll get into my team, which is a bit of a tease for that. But, yeah, I think RG3 is extremely hard to figure out. Like, who is this guy? Is he going to be 2012, 2013, or something in between? If he's something in between, let's say that.

Let's say he doesn't get all the way back to what he was as a rookie. Would that be enough for this team to win nine or ten games get to the playoffs? Or does he have to be that guy? I think he has to be special because the defense, if it does well, is going to be a little better than average. I don't think you can even hope to have a top 10 defense there. So I think they can win based on Griffin and Deshaun Jackson and Garsohn. I mean, it really struck me when I was doing the best wide receiver rankings.

how I had Garsohn very high up, and Deshawn Jackson, I think, right near him. I mean, that's as good a starting combo, and you have Andre Roberts. I mean, you've got a lot of people. There is talent. One quick thing on them that concerns me more than maybe where RG3 is physically or what everything else. Jay Gruden, I just, I went back last night on NFL Network. They had a Bengals game from last season.

I just did not into Jay Gruden, the play caller. And I would say that Kyle Shanahan was the perfect coordinator for RG3 because he was willing to completely. blow up the machine and design an entire offense around the skills of his players. Is Gruden going to do that? We don't know. He's got better players to work with, which helps a lot, at least at quarterback. I mean, all this talk, I think, is getting to Griffin, too. He had some quotes today.

Someone asked him, you know, what he would say to, you know, the first year version of Griffin. And he gave himself a new nickname. He said, if I could go back and talk to Kid Rob, let's say, I would tell him basically never. Kid Rob. Kid Rob. That's Griffin two years ago. Kid Rob. So he's come up with a past 10th third person nickname, which I like.

That's creative. If I could go back and talk to Kid Rob, let's say, I would tell him basically, never let them steal your joy, man. Never let anyone or anything steal your joy or the joy of your teammates for this beautiful game. What would you name the young? Don't steal my joy. I won't steal it. Only if I could go back.

I couldn't even begin to figure it out. To talk to a young Kobe. A young Kobe Let him know how he would one day be ridiculed For being called Young Kobe And if I could go back in time And talk to a young kid rock I would tell him to not even attempt

To become the next generation's Bob Seeger Because it would be a huge embarrassment Don't abandon that day You were on a stage with a little person Rapping your white dude from Detroit And now you're trying to pretend like you're a heartland rocker I would go back in time And tell him to leave that career left turn

In the background I see, I couldn't disagree more. Kid Rock went about as far as you can go with as little amount of talent as possible. He maxed out. And then he kept on common at us, and he won't leave us alone. Anyway. Not to be proud of. Moving forward.

So, yes, I said there's an NFC East team that I can't figure out and that is the New York Giants. Oh, that's a good pick. And I will also say that, Greg, you, I think you opened up your Redskins rant there with saying that RG3 is the hardest guy to figure out right now. I think Eli Manning has been that guy for almost 12 years or so now. And I don't think anything changes. If nothing else, I think he's even harder to figure out coming into this season after what was easily the worst season of his career since he really, you know, grew up from being a kid. And I think that, you know, they have a new offensive coordinator, which they needed. I think McAdoo was the right time to get Gilbright out of there.

They invested in Odell Beckham in the first round, which they needed to do, get a weapon in there. replace knicks you know we're just talking about the offensive line which doesn't get stronger with chris snee out of the picture and the defense i think is going to be better with especially in the secondary with the the additions they made there so i think in a weak division with a two-time super bowl winning quarterback coming off a terrible season with a roster that in mind mine is approved and we also learned that david wilson has been cleared so maybe he could be an x-factor on that offense. I think the Giants, I wouldn't be surprised if they won 11 and 5. I would not be surprised if they won 5 and 11. It's really about what happens with Eli and the offense. And it's the

perfect team to say that about because the two times that we've seen him win the Super Bowl with the Eli Coughlin connection, totally out of the blue campaigns where they weren't the dominant team going into the playoffs and then bang, they have, you know, whenever you have a quarterback like Eli Manning, he can completely mess things up as he did last season, but it can also go on a major role. Do they have the defense to go on a major role, I think is the question. That's a big question. That's what's similar about their two Super Bowl teams. You know, the offense was a little up and down.

The running game wasn't really there the second time, but they had the pass rushers. I don't know if they have them now. That back end of the defense, though, is something to watch. You know, I think there's a lot of pieces there, and I think with Prince there also, he's now become a guy. I just call him Prince at this point, mostly because his last name is hard to pronounce for me. Amukamara. Yeah, Amukamara.

But I think he's a guy that's gotten better. And you add those additions with him. I think that's potentially one of the better secondaries than the NFC. So the New York Giants is my pick. We got another one? I'm going to get creative. Do it. I'm going to throw out a division.

I thought you're going to make up a team saying you're being creative. That would be fun. Yeah. I'm trying to think of the names of the teams in any given Sunday. The Miami Sharks. Big bounceback season. How about the AFC North as a division? All of these teams, you could, if you kind of catch them on the right day and you're in a certain

mood and you squint real hard when you look at game rewind you could say oh this team could be 12 and four i like the young pieces they've added and this and then if you look at them a different way they've all got problems the ravens the steelers i think you can make a strong case either way the browns look frisky the bengals i'm not really buying there it's a whole division so it's my division that i can't figure out anything nothing would surprise yeah and every year inside that division a couple things happen that throw it all on its ass and it's like uh you Pittsburgh to me on paper, right now, I would say Pittsburgh is the team I would anchor to. Cincinnati, you can say they have more talent, but I don't buy it because of what's happening at quarterback.

I hear you, and I agree. Mark hates Andy Dalton, by the way. Like you're basically two steps away from John Malkovich in the line of fire. Here's what I don't like. When an organization says, and they actually haven't said this because he has not signed a new deal, we're satisfied with a totally average performer at the most important position in sports. I hear you, by the way, on the Steelers, and I agree with you that on paper they're looking the friskies. But wasn't it just in February or March when we were doing the roster resets and we're doing the predictions for the draft that we were like, man, this team has more holes in it than they have in 10 years?

They're kind of one of those teams that the offseason has a rhythm to it. It's like they've gotten a lot of momentum during the off season. And even though I do like them, there's a lot of questions. I just don't want to gamble against Big Ben, the guy, I mean, of any quarterback in that division. Sounds like Mark is thinking team of ATL. I am not thinking that necessarily, but I am willing to acknowledge that they're much more interesting than they have been of late. And not to go into some, you know, Mike Florio indulgence, but your point, Greg, about the AFC North, the Seinfeld episode, The Two-Face. I was wondering where you're going with the Floreo bit.

It makes sense now. That guy loves Seinfeld references in 2014. But the two-face episode where you can't tell if the girl is hot or not, depending on the light of the room, that's the AFC North. I like that. There you go. See? I'm basically a PFT writer now.

Get excited, folks. All right. You come through with that line of that analogy? Sounds good. I like it. Former writer. Okay. What do we want to throw out any other teams?

Well, I said I didn't get out of the A's. Wow, you're still in the A's. I'm still in the A's. Arizona to me, because there's a lot to like. The way they finished last season, no one wanted to deal with them. But let's remember, you have Carson Palmer at quarterback who he could do. He can throw the ball anywhere in the field if he wants to potentially. He can also completely self-destruct at any moment.

And we may not, we may see a younger quarterback in there before the year ends. They lost Daryl Washington for the season. I just think that there's a lot of, you know, X factors and pieces here that we get to see how they come together. But I love Brousalians. I don't think they're going to be six and ten. I think they're going to be six and ten. to be the most, you know, confounding nine and seven or eight and eight team in the league. I think they could be.

I think that's a tough division. I thought they overperformed a little bit last year. I think they're going to come down. It's a tough division to go above 500. I'm declaring Mark the winner. I think the Cardinals, that's the best answer. I like it. And that's your potential team.

Because 6 and 10 sounds good, and yet there's a little part of me that thinks like, would it be that crazy if the Cardinals made the Super Bowl? Congratulations, Mark. Hey, you're on. When the boss declares you the winner, you just seal it up and go home. the winner, but you can't go on. Who is the artist? The recording artist, sir.

I should know this. It's definitely DJ College. Okay. And he just talks and he's a DJ, so a bunch of other people on track that I can't recall. Lil Wayne was probably on there. Drake was probably on there. It's such a great song because there's no hidden levels to it.

It's just straight up. Zero nuance. I am the best. And, you know, you cannot defeat me because all I do is win, win, win. And it's fitting that you. you chose that as your basketball song. You're a man of great confidence. We wouldn't know.

Weren't there to see it. Next time, you guys are both invited. But, you know, when you come on the hard court, you've got to be ready to perform. Listen. Pick up the phone first. How about that? All right.

Before we do that, let's pick up the phone. Nailed it. And get Chris Wessling on the line, who, of course, is the man that we miss. Another guy you didn't call us, he wanted to play basketball. Yes, I said, Chris, do you want to get on your private jet from Cincinnati and join us?

Another guy who sees in totally unpredictable upcoming. Yeah, Wes is a year-by-year talent. We keep on signing West to one-year $25 billion deals. He's definitely the late period, Jordan. He's definitely the RG3 of the Around the League group. Can we get the man on the phone? Mr. Chris Wessling, are you there? I am.

There he is. All right. Hey, buddy. Build a clean landline. Is that a landline you're on, buddy? No, it's a cell. Oh, well. How is Cincinnati?

Let's start right there. Let's just get into the personal aspect of things. Oh, I've been having a great time. I've been out every single night with family or friends. Just enjoying it. Just got, went down to the softball park with my old buddies from a team I played on for 15 years last night. Had a great time. Chris Wessling, actually in Tybee, his number is retired in a bar for softball.

So this must be some other. What a Hall of Fame career you've had. That may not be because of softball. Your accent seems to be accentuated when you're on the road. That's one thing I've noticed. It comes out even more strong. Very observant by you. I think that's correct.

All right. So we're going to let's just catch up with a couple of things. Number one, your thoughts on the career arc of Kid Rock. He was always terrible. He's probably more terrible now than ever. Yes, see, you nailed it. Good answer. Wesleyan nailed.

See, we've missed you, Wes. I miss your voice, by the way. Thanks. I miss you so much. I'm wearing your little sweatshirt here, just because I want your... His p-coat. Or as Mark calls it, a p-coat.

Well, I was calling it a head coat, and I learned that that is a dress from, like, the mid-century, so... It's a blue fleece jacket that was described as a purple sweatshirt on the... Does it smell like Wes? Yeah, a little bit. All right.

So, Chris Wesleyan. Like softball and Jack Daniels. That about covers it. We just wanted to check in with you on a couple football topics because it's always good to have the man's insight. And I just want to start, since you're in Cincinnati and you're doing a lot of time, I assume, at watering holes with your 17,000 brothers.

Did you happen to be in Nashville in the past week at any point? I did not punch Zach Nettenberger. I see you. very good very good yeah that's apparently like you're a man you've been around fights and bars the dialogue which is great Zach Mettenberger of course the Titans draft pick goes sucker punch steady as Sessler puts it in his ATL post a Nashville saloon on Saturday a saloon called losers by the way which is I can't decide that's the greatest name or the worst name ever it's yeah I'm going to losers hey mom I just opened a new business called losers you are

Names is a very cool city. I don't know how many losers there are there. Yeah, so yeah, this basically is a situation. I'll read the line. This is the tavern owner, Steve Ford. Here's the truth. The guy said something about Roll Tide to Zach, and Zach turned around and said,

good luck with that. And the guy's buddy then sucker punch Zach. Does that sound like a familiar life experience at all, Wes? I believe I've heard the phrase roll tide at least a thousand times in my life, and probably half of those times a fight ensued sometime afterwards. And the guy... Grow up, college football fans, all right?

Yeah, the guy who sucker punched Bettenberger, punched him, and then he ran out of the bar. Pled the bar. Oh, cowardice. High-level cowardice. Wait, Wes, when I called you to see if you'd be interested in joining us here at nfl.com, weren't you at the time considering moving to Nashville? Am I remembering that correctly?

No, I was not considering there. What was it? That was your first choice before West. I think Wilmington, North Carolina. He was going to move somewhere. Come on. Wilmington, the site of Dawson's Creek. Also Michael Jordan's hometown.

Very good. All right. Hey, by the way, we wanted to throw some NFL news by you. David Wilson, your boy, famously, we're going to say Chris Wesleying's boy, has been fully cleared by the New York Giants, as we mentioned earlier. And I just want to, because we wanted to touch base with Wes and this, because I want to mention something that a line West used and a making the leap story from L. year, just to give you an idea of how excited Wes is about David Wilson at one point. I don't know if he still feels that way. And this was the line that started Wes's ATL, making the lead post from last summer.

Outside of Adrian Peterson and C.J. Spiller, there might not be a more dynamic athlete at running back in the NFL. Now he's back on the field. Should we be excited about David Wilson, Chris Wesley? I think we, yeah, we can be excited. I think he's a much better talent than Rashad Jennings, but the Giants believe. that Jennings is more suited to the leadback role because his body can handle it

and Wilkins probably can't. But I think he has the ability to get hot and I think we'll see about 10 carries a game and some kickoff return. He got everyone excited with that preseason long touchdown against the Jets. Remember that? It was like 89 yards

and then everyone was like, he went from people were thinking of him as a breakout to people started taking him in the third round of fantasy. Third round is funny. I'm pretty certain. Allison Brie, Mark and I's fantasy team last season, spent a third round pick for David Wilson. Well, we did. We did.

Then it exploded in our face, Unabomber style. Not good. Wesley, you're on. Wesley, when you made the comments about Wilson being, you know, an athlete up there with Spiller and Peterson, this was before Willis McGahey got back in the league. Did you, would you, would you abridge those comments after he had returned? That's a past question. I don't know. But I would say maybe Christian Michael is up there.

Oh, interesting. Another making the leap candidate. Wes, before we let you go, we talked about the team in the NFL that was the hardest to figure this season. And I chose the Redskins. I threw out the entire AFC North. What is the team to you that is the most unpredictable this year? I think you nailed it with the Redskins. We talked about this a couple weeks ago.

they could be the biggest surprise or the biggest disappointment of the NFL. I found it interesting that Greg chose to only bring up his choices for disappointments. What's a lead to lead the answer? Look, I was looking for a different answer. Shake it up. Who knows what would have happened if you would have heard Mark's choice, which was, I don't remember anymore. Did Cleveland Brown? No, I went down the road of Atlanta and Arizona.

And I went with the New York Giants. But you believe the Redskins. I think the Falcons are a good one, too. I see them bouncing back, but I don't know if their defense is good enough to win more than 10 games. Let's circle back one more time, and then I'll give you mine, the New York Giants. Did you like that one, too, Wes? The Giants don't exist in my world. Wes hates the Giants.

I knew I wasn't going to get to support. You know what else does not exist? I was on IM, which is a messaging technical tool for people on the – I don't know who's listening to this. So, Wesleyan and I are on it before the sun rises, and he is. is stationed at someone's house where the Today Show is on in the background? You think I don't like the view.

This guy just went off on the Today Show for about 25 straight minutes. I loved it. My mother-in-law is a big avid fan of the fourth hour of the show in which Hoda and Kathy guzzle wine at 10 a.m. in Midtown Manhattan and

talk about Brad Pitt's beard. Which you find out was a Saturday Night skit that was accurate. That's what scared me. I know this is old news. decade old, but Al Roker looks laughable. He looks like an 11-year-old. That's weird. He's like 70.

This show has gone off the rails like a Kathy Lee and Hoda episode. Wes, this is the only thing I'm going to say. I want you to stay sentient, stay alive, and get back to California so you can, again, grace us with your presence.

I will. I'm planning on doing that. I'll be back next Sunday night, I guess. we'll see you next week west i'd like uh i'd like to dispel the rumors that uh there's a contract to speak going on and that's why i'm not in l a yeah got some tweets on that yeah there's some heat online we're looking for a new writer it's not to replace west let's just make that very clear west is still gainfully employed by NFL media properties thanks west for clearing that up all right boys see west see you i like west seeing those tweets and maybe even for a split second

wondering if there's something going on. All right. So we will be back on Wednesday with another episode of the Around the League podcast. So get excited. We're going to, oh, we have any guests? I think we got our big NFC training camp preview. So popular, people were asking when it was coming this week. It's coming Wednesday.

Who asked? Just one guy, Peter Stregor. That's people. You know, it's a guy. He's on TV, too. He's a guy on television, so you should believe him. Yeah, so we're going to talk about that on Wednesday. and all the other NFL news and other stuff.

It's going to be a fun show. So signing off, this is Dan Hansis, for The Mailman. No, not the Mailman. He was here. Yeah, okay. For the Mailman and the Sizzler and the Boss, and of course, date date. All I do is win, we, win, no matter what. Until Wednesday.

This is an I-Heart podcast.