NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Andre Johnson rumors & 'Top 100' review

Episode Date: July 10, 2014

A room with some heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- react to the latest news from around the league including Andre Johnson trade speculation, Brian Cushing's return from injury and chances Jermichael Finley continues his NFL career. The trio also review the top ten players on NFL Network's The Top 100 Players of 2014 countdown including a discussion on how to improve the list in the future. Lastly, Kevin Patra joins for the latest "Making the Leap" installment.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. Wishes you weren't a liar. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I am joined by a room filled with some heroes. Mark Sessler and Chris Wessling. What up, boys.

Hey, Dan. We, well, as, you know, we don't have the boss with us. Greg Rosenthal, not in the room. No. A lot of strange behavior out of West during Greg's absence. Like what? And yourself as well. Oh, really?

My behavior has been in line. You've been running a tight ship and we... You know, continue to be productive. I'm a little concerned about... We're a mutiny on the bounty here with you as our fearless leader? Mark Sessler speaking nonsense up top on the show today. It's very exciting because you know that might mean we're in for a wildcard Sessler show. Those are the best words.

He says disturbing a lot. He talks about the wilderness, choppy seas. We're having a Cessler about Cessler at the beginning of the podcast. Greg Rosenthal is on vacation, out of the picture, doing father-type things and husband-type things. That's good. We said we were going to have Bucky Brooks on today. Turns out Bucky's in Oregon. I didn't know that.

We didn't know that. So Bucky's not going to be here, but we'll try to get in Mr. Brooks soon to give his takes on the NFL and insider-type things. things as a scout and man that knows things. We have a nice show for you today, people. I'm happy with today's show. I am too. It's kind of juicy. And it hasn't even started. So let's, I'll tell you what we're doing. We are going to, the top 100 is over.

Rejoice, people of America and the world with Peyton Manning landing at number one. So we're going to get into a little bit of Manning, a little bit of what the top 10 that the players picked was. and then we'll go around the table and talk about how we might try to fix the top 100 because I know, God knows we complain about the top 100 a lot. Let's do something about it. You know what I'm saying? Be proactive. Yeah.

Be the change. Be the change. You want to be. You want to see. See in the world. Also, we will be hitting our Making the Leap series, now down, gentlemen, to the final four names. So we're going to hit two running backs today. of high-octane fantasy football players here.

Yes, sir. We actually should talk some fantasy at some point before training camp because we have Chris Wesleying and Greg Rosenthalen to a much lesser extent, Mark Sessler, fantasy minds of the nth degree. So at some point we'll get into that, but not today. But yes, we're going to talk two running backs that will make the leak, one in the AFC and one in the NFC. Before any of that, however, we have a man.

Fiddling with buttons, dressed in all black, with a black headset, dark black hair. He's like the black Johnny Cash. He's a beautiful man. His name is TD or black tie. What's going on, fellas? How you guys doing today? We're doing great. You sound a little tired.

Long story. Did you have an extra long massage? Do you want us to keep you kind of out of the loop conversationally today while you recover? No, no, no. I'm just working in a few things. It's a big day today. I have recording a damn chick podcast as well. Also recording money tax recording the session.

Oh, yeah, money tags. Yeah, excellent news. Recording the session. So I actually just tweeted that out a couple of minutes ago, a photo, you know. You know how, like, JJ Abrams tweets out behind the scenes, photos of Star Wars, you know. So I kind of did one of those, like, you know, the script, so to speak. Oh, I like, oh, yeah, that's, this is what we got going on. Dan, who's J.J. Abrams?

He is a man that does things in the movies, I believe. No, I do know him. He's the guy from, uh, director of Star, Star, yeah. Star Trek. Star Wars. Oh, really? Yeah. I made the mistake yesterday on Twitter last night of trolling Star Wars fans. It was awesome.

I mean, I thought so, but then immediately I realized I had made a huge mistake because there are roughly 7 trillion Star Wars fans on the Internet, including Mark. I wouldn't classify myself as like an Internet Star Wars fan. It's just that I think that you certainly did poke the bear on that one. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done it. But then you recovered with a great tweet about Luke Skywalker's. Invisibility cloak. Invincibility cloak.

People didn't like that one either. Anyway, TD. Oh, and yeah, Matt Money-Smith, who I bumped into yesterday in the makeup room of NFL Network. You know, we're doing some testing rehearsals for the NFL Now launch, which is a new kind of network website-type venture for the NFL media conglomerate. Is that correct? Perfectly summed up. Well, the upshot here is that your NFL, your way. Oh, yeah, my name that paycheck.

The upshot here is that Arennally podcast fans will see a lot more of Dan Hanses' his face. I don't know if that's quite an upshot, but we will see a lot more of Mark Sessler and Chris Wessling, who was the only person to do his rehearsal yesterday without makeup because he's a man's man.

Or he forgot to go. By the way, Money Man, Money Tag Man, Matt Money Smith was in there. Well, he's got many names. He was getting a haircut in there. In the makeup? If that's a service that they provide, I'm going to drop by. Only when you get in front of the TV cameras.

I could use a haircut. Hey, let's do some news, TD. Omaha, Omaha, Omaha. Love it. Just a little love for, you know, as you said, Top 100 is done. Peyton Manning was number one. So respect to Peyton Man. Always putting in the homework on this.

We'll start with a Houston Texans, things with Andre Johnson. We got a report yesterday, actually, it was from our own NFL media's Marcus Smith, who spoke with Andre Johnson, and Johnson said he hopefully planned to be at training camp for the Texans. And now an interesting report on Thursday morning from NFL Media Insider Ian Rappaport. Johnson, of course, missed workouts,

but he had wanted the opportunity to earn back some of the money workout bonuses that he had lost. He had approached the Texans about that opportunity. The Texans told him no, Part two source is informed of the situation. This has led to an additional schism between the two sides. That caused Johnson to tell the Texans he wanted to play for another team. He is now working out, quote, not thinking about the Texans, a source said.

And Rappaport also reported that four teams have reached out to the Texans interested in trading for the All-Pro wide receiver. I can understand why the Texans don't want to set a precedent by paying. him a bonus that he didn't work out for. He skipped workouts, so, okay, if you pay him. But it fails the common sense test. He's been the face of the franchise ever since they've been a franchise. He, at three times in the last three years, he's restructured his contract at their behest. So he's done them a favor, and he's like, he wants a little bit back, and they tell him no.

It does seem that if your overall goal, if you're Bill O'Brien and you're the Texans, and you want to get this guy happy and back in part of your system, that this is getting stuck in the details for a guy that has given up money for Houston in the past. And Wes, you said downstairs you're a former disgruntled or, yeah, you're a disgruntled former Bengals fan that this was kind of like a 90s bangles move by the Texan towards their marquee player. Well, I think this is the closest holdout or whatever it is to what Carson Palmer did with the Bengals. Palmer was just, people kept trying to figure out why he wasn't going to play for them.

and as a recovering Bengals fan myself, I knew exactly why he wasn't playing for them. He was just tired of the losing, the ineptitude, the dysfunctional nature of the franchise. So he said, I'm not coming back. And Andre Johnson's almost at that point now. Mark Sessler, because this is what the Sizzler does, quickly jumped onto his laptop and hammered out

some potential landing spots for Andre Johnson if he were to be traded. And, Mark, I guess before we go through the teams that you threw out there, a caveat that it's going to be pretty hard to move a player considering his salary well you know yesterday NFL media's marcus smith talked with and that point it sounded like he was johnson was hopeful in getting back to can as i said earlier in today's podcast as you mentioned before thanks for listening well you know by the way when

you snuffed me on the fantasy football front i turned my ears off to you entirely let's continue all right go ahead all right so i think that though we've said all along from the around the league perspective that we just don't see a trade being very feasible because of the roughly 12 million the Texans would need to absorb and cap them to move them but things are getting thorny and if there are teams calling and we've talked about what Wesleyan of a second round pick along with maybe a later pick is a potential asking price I think that's fair I mean it doesn't it feels like this is becoming more possible so we were like yes let's come up with a list so let's go through I'll just throw out the list and you know we'll take it from there we'll bat around

By the way, is this in order of, like, most likely destinations? When I was told by our program director to write this up, we had about 20 minutes before the podcast started, so it is in haphazard order. I would say the top three are the three most likely. All right. Here are the top three, New England Patriots, the Cleveland Browns who pop up on every list about speculation on this site, no matter what player we're talking about, and the Carolina Panthers. There are your top three, followed by the Seattle Seahawks. the New York Jets, the Baltimore Ravens, the Kansas City Chiefs. So, Wes, you said those top three teams, Pats, Browns, Panthers seem like the most likely destinations.

I have no inside info here, but the Browns stand out to me. I always like to look at connections whenever these things come up. And Kyle Shanahan was the offensive coordinator in Houston a few years back and did a really good job. He and Johnson worked beautifully together. And the Browns obviously need a wide receiver. they've got the Bill's draft pick next year. They've got extra draft picks. They seem to make the most sense to me.

The sticking point for me a little with Cleveland is, I don't know how Houston would handle this with Johnson if they want to honor his wishes to go to a contender. It would be fair that anyone that's been in the league for 10 years would not view the Browns as a contender. We are, yeah, as a group, the ATL group, and I feel like a lot of people that follow the NFL closely as a whole view the Browns as an organization

that is very close to potentially turning the corner. corner. But, you know, the bottom line of the situation, and Mark, you are the first to attest, this is a franchise that's lost 11 or 12 games every year since 2008. So really, what the Browns need to take the next step probably is Mansell becoming the quarterback to Browns hope they will be. He will be. But if he isn't, or if he struggles as a rookie or for some reason they stick with Hoyer too long, what does that do for Andre Johnson? I mean, I just feel like the Browns are a situation where it could go badly for Johnson if he wants a contender.

The Panthers, to me, make the most sense for both Johnson who goes to a team that, you know, has a chance at the Super Bowl and the Texans who can ship him out of the conference. Panthers are interesting because that's a position of need for them. And aside from a couple of questions on the offensive line, if you get Andre Johnson and better than expected play out of your secondary, you're back where you were last year. And you team him with Kelvin Benjamin. Suddenly, Cam Newton has by far the strongest. receiving core he's ever had.

And I would imagine if that's another situation where the Texans say, here's an option, Carolina is a place you could go. He might be willing to rework that contract to help Carolina's past situation. That often happens in these situations. And by the way, if Andre Johnson goes to the Patriots, I quit. I quit this job. I quit this podcast. I quit being a Jets fan.

I quit everything. I might quit life. Well, you'd have to say a team that found a way, if they find a way to add Derell Revis on defense and Andre Johnson to that all. offense. It's a scary time for a Patriots fans that I've already been seeing on Twitter like, oh, go get Andre.

New England, Boston fans who have for years chastised Yankees fans for always saying whatever the big athlete that comes up on the market, all the Yankee fans are, go get them. You are the Yankees, Patriots fans. That's true. You don't always get what you want. You try some times.

You just might find. Get what you need. Bang. All right, let's move on. Let's do another Texans note. Brian Cushing, this is obviously at a much lesser news level than the Andre Johnson situation, which has become a very real story at this point. Brian Cushing, however, of course, suffered another season-ending knee injury or a season-ending leg injury last year.

A broken leg and a torn LCL suffered last October. Cushing speaking positively and optimistically about being ready for the Texans opener. In fact, the linebacker said, I know I'll be ready. I've included this in the run. for one reason. I just want to throw it out to you guys. Andre Johnson wants out of town and all that, and I know they don't have a quarterback, so there's issues there. But are we sleeping on the Texans defense chance to become like studly very quickly

if Jadavian Clowny hits immediately, and then you have the best defensive player in the world and J.J. Watt, and if Cushing comes back and Cushing is the guy that he was before he started getting hurt, this defense could be very good, correct? I think July is if season. Well, yeah. I get tweets all the time from fans saying. well, if this happens, and if that happens, this could be the team to beat. All right, let's go over the if Texans are, yeah, if Cushing stays healthy,

if Clowny becomes a double-digit sack guy right off the bat, a generational town. I'm not talking about a six-round pick. If DJ Sweringer becomes a Pro Bowl caliber safety, which he has that potential, if Jonathan Joseph plays like he did three years ago instead of the last two years, yeah, there's a lot of ifs there. And if they've read. If Whitney Merciless actually sacks a quarterback for the first time of his life. And if they've replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick's body with a bionic super wonder that looks like a bearded Ryan's Fitzpatrick.

All right. But, I mean, I'm talking about the defense. I just wonder, because a lot of people aren't going to be picking much or aren't excited about the Texans. If this defense becomes what it has the potential to be, they might not be as bad as people think. And if Fitzpatrick ever plays even half decent, which I'm not going to bank on, they could be in the running for a playoff spot. I don't think any Ryan Fitzpatrick quarterback team is ever going to have more than six wins in a season. Well, the dark course situation there is that they have a coordinator who is one of the better in football when he has the tools. He hasn't really – Romeo Cornell hasn't had the –

Is he? I think he did an excellent job with the Chiefs before they made him head coach. I mean, I think he is a good defensive coordinator. I think at a head coach, that's a whole different situation. But when he's head coach, he's still running the defense. I think we know it's a little harder when you have to do everything that they asked Romeo to do, that he wasn't really capable of that. But you give him these tools with Houston.

He's capable of flipping the switch there. Mark, put your Ternard Jackson jersey back in the closet. Wasn't aware I owned one. The Washington Redskins safety was reinstated by the NFL two months ago after his third suspension for substances abuse violating the league's policy. It was announced on Wednesday that the Redskins safety had again been suspended this time indefinitely for again violating the league's policy and substance abuse. Wes, as you said downstairs, this wasn't a guy that probably was in the mix to make a big difference for the Redskins this year. But they thought enough of him to give him a chance and bring him back or at least into camp.

It's more kind of, to me, like a sad story, a guy that just cannot get it together. To me, it's a reason to make fun of Redskins Homer, Mike Coppinger, and our night. newsroom. Every July between Independence Day and Bastille Day, he erases to Nard Jackson's name from his projected Redskins starting lineup, even though the guy hasn't played since 2001. Yeah, he played

five seasons with the Bucks as actually a half decent player with them. Here was the quote that he told to the Tampa Tribune last month, going from playing football to working in a warehouse at a 9-to-5 job as a humbling experience. It's taught me to never take anything in this business for granted.

Good job by you, buddy. Dr Michael Finley Mr. Michael Finley still hoping to return to the Green Bay Packers, the tight end, who of course has suffered a career-threatening neck injury in October, one that required surgery, told ESPN Wisconsin's Jason Wildy on Wednesday that his neck is in great shape now

and he still hopes to return to Green Bay. Here's the quote, this is the best I've felt in this entire crazy process. Tell everybody I'm working as hard as I can to get back to PAC Nation. Mark was shaking his head there. I want to hear what he has to say. No, I mean, I would love to see Finley get back,

but in terms of reuniting with Green Bay, he can say his necks in great shape. There obviously hoops to jump through. He's got to get cleared by a team that historically has been really tough in terms of clearing players with neck injuries. They're not willing to do that. Cecil, you have a track record of making judgments upon injuries and predictions of injuries.

I will ask you now, give me a Cessler. Dr. Michael Finley, will he play in the NFL again? Yes. I hope you're right. I took a lot less from him saying he feels better. To me, he's been saying that all along. This was the first time I thought, if he comes back, it will definitely be for the Packers and not someone else.

Right. Do you think, though, that the list of teams that expressed interest, and there were a couple of them? Packers, Seahawks, Steelers, Raiders. To vary a very level. It might be just the Packers. Those teams have decided they're not interested. Yeah, I think that's a tough.

Those teams have gone in other directions, whereas the Packers have said, McCarthy has said, I still picture Finley as a Packer. Someone in the front office said we're keeping the door open. Now, their third round rookie Richard Rogers was also deemed one of the MVP's of offseason practices. So maybe the Packers aren't in any hurry to get Finley back in there. All right. It's July, so we'll move forward with some positive hype.

The hype train, the if train is rolling. Theo Reddick has Pro Bowl potential. This according to Detroit Lions, teammate Joach Bell. Here's a quote from Bell. his body is in great shape probably 7% body fat you see his route running from out the backfield it's really crisp he looks like reggie bush lion's quarterback dan orlovsky also raved about riddick saying that he could play the darren sproll's role in the detroit lines offense your thoughts on this chris wessel riddick has my attention now you know i've been chalking this

all up to hype uh they they have a crowded backfield joick bell's good they gave him an extension in the offseason, Reggie Bush is there. But if Joe Lombardi comes in from the Saints offense, he's now the coordinator, and it looks like they want a three-headed backfield, teammates have said to a man that Riddick was uncoverable in off-season practices. To me, that's not a huge surprise because he's a guy who does well in space, and those guys tend to shine in the off-season when there's no contact. Let's see what he does in tight quarters.

But if you look at this offense now, you've upgraded running back with Riddick taking on a bigger role. Reggie Bush is healthier. You've got Golden Tate, a major upgrade opposite Calvin Johnson. You've got Eric Ebron as your pass catching tight end. They might have a better offense than the Saints. You never know. Well, and it is another example of how when you make a coordinator switch and they come from a proven program like Lombardi has,

that it can change the fortunes of a guy like Riddick because there probably wasn't a role for him last season or what would have been had they continued on with their staff. But now suddenly he's being used the right way. And that Saints team had a crowded backfield forever, so they've shown they can make it work to some degree. It's going to drive fantasy football players absolutely nuts because you have no idea what's going to happen to Reggie Bush week to week or really any of these guys in terms of consistency. The Lions have my attention a little bit in the team of ATL talk. I wish they had upgraded their defense a little bit and I know that Mark finds them to be a kind of a boring team.

In addition to the dome, they've just always been kind of a boring team. And I agree with that. I don't know if I'd call them boring. AIS, I wish they did not play indoors. Secondly, last year they just absolutely crumbled. But you know what? This is an entirely different coaching. Early last season, I was really excited about them.

Defenses were having a hard time covering Reggie Bush and Calvin Johnson at the same time. Now if you throw in Tate and Eric Ebron and Riddick, you're talking about an offense. Remember a couple years back when Stafford closed out the season, averaging like 400 yards a game for a five or six game stretch into the playoffs as well in a loss to the Saints? This offense could do that kind of stuff. One other thing, Jim Caldwell, don't sleep on what he did for the race. Ravens during the Super Bowl run. And I think that he's being discounted for what he did with the cults as a guy that

maybe not one of the more electrifying coaches, but you're right, the talent upgrade in a few months is. That's an understatement. Well, no, but you know what? In person, because we've got the chance to see him in person a few times, I would disagree with that assessment. He showed a considerable passion, and he was quite, he was. Was he like, just like, his eyes bugging out, and he's pumping his fists as he's talking to you?

He's a charmer. Next topic, move on. Outranges. Like, listen, he was, for instance, in Orlando, he's one of the few coaches that actually answered questions directly. Ooh, I like that. He didn't mince words. He gave direct answers, and I think he knows what he's doing this time around. That's a page on the Gettelman book.

By the way, I like that you guys, for people that don't listen to the podcast or new listeners, I should say, when you matter-factly mention that they play indoors as a reason why you shouldn't be excited about them. I like that in a vacuum, people that maybe haven't heard you talk about that before. They're like, wait, what? Very fair. I think anyone who has watched football for any amount of time would connect with that comment immediately. Mark doesn't like indoor teams. Who wants to watch football in a grade school hallway?

Nobody. I mean, that's the same thing as a dome. It's the same ambiance. Finally, no players were picked in the supplemental draft on Thursday. Our own handsome Hank, the notorious DOP, wrote his annual mock supplemental draft, which is always the greatest piece on NFL. He predicted, I believe every team would pass, but won. Turned out everyone passed for the second straight years.

No players were picked. All four of the players that were available in the supplemental draft are now free agents. Hank's accuracy rating still over 99% on the supplemental mock draft. Well, the highest guy he had rated was a running back that had like 197 yards last year and was leaving school because he had been essentially kicked off the team. So not a guy you're going to, you're not going to drop a fifth, six-round pick for this. Last player to be taken in a supplemental draft? Josh Gordon.

Good call. Trude at. It worked out well. Don't forget Harvey Unger. He swaps cause of people. Josh Gordon, I mean. Yes, he does. You guys hear that?

Yeah, that was a weird thing. All right, let's do some top 100. Talk. Peyton Manning came in at number one on the list voted by the players. Omaha! Omaha! The top 10 of the list is as follows. Peyton Manning, Calvin Johnson, Tom Brady, Adrian Peterson, LaShawn McCoy at number five, Drew Brees, Richard Sherman, Jamal Charles, A.J. Green. And at number 10, Jimmy Graham. I believe, Wes, you had Jimmy Graham 10 on your list that we discussed.

I had a ninth. Or you had a ninth. You and the players, same mind. Yes or no? No. They have A.J. Green, ninth and Holyo Jones out of the top 100. Outrageous. Oh, yeah. I wanted to set you up on that, Wes, because you obviously were very upset. that yesterday that, because you did the top 10 snubs list of the top 100, Julio Jones, you didn't have on the list just because, and this is totally understandable, you would never even fathom that he wouldn't have been on the list at some point this season, but he wasn't on the list. It blows my mind. Julio Jones is one of the top 10 players in the NFL. I think if you talk to a lot of people, they would put him right behind Calvin Johnson on the wide receiver pecking order. He makes the Falcons offense go. You saw what happens when he was out of the lineup.

And for all the listeners wondering if this is just a compilation of 2013 stats, it's not. This list is about expectations for the 2014 season. There's no reason why Julio Jones would not be expected to bounce back to where he was before. When Manning was, when he missed the entire season, he came in on the next top 150. So that logic doesn't hold true apparently for Julio Jones. There is no logic here. There's zero logic. And Mark, you wrote up a reaction piece to the top 10.

reveal you have mentioned up top that there were, what was it, three running backs in the top 10, which was interesting because at a time where, as Chris Wessling wrote about a few months back, running backs are getting paid like kickers and punters, 30% of the top 10, according to the players, running backs. Well, I think that they, I have no problem with players looking at Atrian Peterson and saying, I don't care what position he plays, this is a once-in-a-lifetime special talent. They obviously think highly of LaShawn McCoy and Jamal Charles, but I don't know. I go back to the fact that this voting process netted a result where three running backs are more valuable than Aaron Rogers and a fleet of other players that came in lower.

But what about not so much your opinion, but your thought of why the players might, is there a situation where the players understand the value of a running back in a much different way than front offices do? The value of a franchise type foundation back like an Adrian Peterson. and, you know, Jamal Charles was a potential MVP candidate last year that did it all for that offense for, you know, three quarters of the season. As you could say the same thing for LaShawn McCoy. Those seem like three guys you can't go crazy about being in the top ten. You could almost say they play a different position than running back because they're the only, there's only, what, four or five running backs in the entire NFL who play three downs now, and those are three of them. So they play a position, and then you have committee backs who kind of come in for 20 snaps. Dan, I don't disagree that the players are, I don't have an issue with the players seen it that way.

I think it's just that the parameters of this list, no matter who you are, you're going to see it differently than the guy next to you. Maybe that's what they want. It's good fodder for conversation. I did a piece on Thursday, kind of looking back on the last four years of the Top 100, which started NFL Network started it in 2011. Some interesting notes here, Manning is one of 24 players who have cracked the top. top 100 in all four years. He, however, is not the player with the most consistently high-rate ranking. Of course, he finished 50, as Mark said, in 2012 coming off that neck injury.

Tom Brady has really been the best player consistency-wise for the rankings going three, four, four, and one in the last four years. Brady and Adrian Peterson are the only players who have placed in the top 10 every year. I find that interesting. What other interest note that we've touched on? nothing sticks out in the minds of these voters like a Super Bowl winning quarterback Russell Wilson 20

Joe Flacco 19 Eli Manning 31 and Aaron Rogers 11 all received the big pop and moved up the list after hoisting the Lombardi finally gentlemen we talk a lot about we talk a lot about what's wrong with the list

so let's talk about how to fix the top 100 and I start with Chris Wessling You could take it out of the hands of the players. Entirely. Yes. I mean, I don't really, you guys, I've said this before. I don't really care what they think.

How are they qualified to vote on who's the best? They're not. Well, they're the players and they share the field. They watch the film of the, like, the team coming up, but they don't watch the film of most of the players in the league. So how do they know? I mean, how is it all right that Joe Flacco is rated 19th a year ago? Or that he's on the list and, Matt Ryan's not.

I mean, these people, I don't even know which players they're interviewing for this. Or how is it right that Charles Clay is on the list, but not Jordan Cameron or Julius Thomas. Okay, so how would you fix it? I would, personally, if you're asking how I would fix it, I would put it in the hands of the Round of the League podcast. Woo, doggie! Look at you. I like you're thinking.

Mark. I agree with Wesleyan on the first part that the players are going to vote, and I think it's interesting to hear their perspective because they plan for these guys and they see some. certain players differently than we do statistically or on film potentially, but it's unclear to me who's voting and how many for certain teams who obviously are going to be tilted towards certain opponents, it's just muddy. You're calling it a list for the top of 2014, but at least half the people voting are just judging on what just happened based on your quarterback winning Super Bowl.

So what are you saying? What should be done? I think the best process would be a mixture of some players, a mischief. a mixture of some coaches, some general managers, and maybe a mixture of analysts as well, where you get different eyes, different ways of seen. I completely agree. I thought that the piece that Mike Sando did last week for ESPN

about figuring out like a tier system for quarterbacks, I thought the way he did it would be a good way to do the top 100 where you're taking in, like you said, Mark, a lot of different voices. And I think if only to keep the players from, you know, you know, casting doubt on the list by saying, oh, they don't know anything and they never play. You know, you get them in the mix, too, and you, and, but you get more consistent about it. I think a problem, and Richard Sherman even hinted at this when talking about his issues with the top 100. Yesterday, he told NFL network that, you know, he's never seen a ballot.

So, you know, things, they need to do a better job getting the ballots in the hands of people that vote, not just one team that votes heavily and gets Charles Clay on the list, which is something I believe happened. And one thing to note, it's, we're not. going after the players here, I don't think anyone complains about this list more than the players. So they can't be happy with how the process is unfold. If the players are involved, you need a select group of studious players. Not every player who doesn't take the list serious. There's a lot of them that I'm sure aren't taking this that seriously, just voting for teammates, you know, stuff like that. But I actually don't know that, though. We don't know how they're voting.

Charles Clay getting on the list tells me that people are either are taking it seriously or throwing in the damn thing. He had to have gotten a top 20 vote to be that high on the list. And if anybody put Charles Clay in the top 20, look, Charles Clay's a fine player. He's probably one of the top 150 players in the NFL, but he's not better than Matt Forte. Checks and balances. That's what they need.

Like if NFL Network gets a list back from the player voting and Matt Ryan isn't on the list, or Julio Jones or whoever else has been snub badly, you have to rectify and there's got to be away. I like this. You have just equated us with the founding fathers and turned the top 100 into the U.S. West Constitution.

Bang. And one last thing. Go ahead. Well, like, to Dan's point, yeah, you need. The TV barely alive right now, by the way. I'm hanging in there, guys. You should be hooked up to monitors. What you need is a panel.

Like, if you're going to get players, get players involved, get, you know, a rotating panel of 10 to 15 players each year and make that a big deal, too. Like, who are the players being? Who are the players on this panel? And I kind of like it. Make it transparent, you're saying. Exactly. Yeah.

It's like the nomination process to be changed. going to complain, then you're on the panel. And give them and whoever else votes a chance to know what they're actually voting for because the most maddening aspect of this list is last year when Jimmy Graham isn't on it. But then like we said, when Peyton doesn't play, he is on it. But then suddenly, bang, Julio Jones isn't on it. So what are, how are we judging them? Is it for right now over their careers?

Is it last season? Is it going forward? How did Jimmy Graham go from not one of the top 100 to 10th overall? What the heck is going on here? we've made it exceedingly clear that we should be leading the charge here. That's, I mean, that's it. Get out the pitchforks and torches. Let's go.

TD, can you clip out this podcast and send it to Ragh? Send it to other high-level figures on Park Avenue, as well as other boss figures upstairs in this very building. I believe in us, guys. I believe it. Yes, we can. All right, let's move on. I like that the boss very strategically not here for this conversation. Hey, you would have kiboshed the whole thing.

Let's move on to our Making the Leap series. We are down to the final four, gentlemen. We'll start with, as we said, two running backs, two fantasy entities, if that's your thing. We'll start with number four on the list. He's the Pittsburgh Steelers second year back, Levyon Bell. I wrote about Bell yesterday in a post that went up on the Around the League page. By the way, you can access all the Making the Leap candidates by the ATL team, NFL.com slash

making the leap and so we'll start with Bell who you know I did my last making the leap candidate was Monte Ball and I came away a little bit hollow on Ball in terms of

being all in on his talent I thought he was a situation where he was in a great system and that's going to lead to him thriving Bell I thought differently when watching the tape I think that this guy is a stud I think he came back from that foot injury and it spoke

volumes that the Steelers instantly made him a key part of that offense. He got better as the season went along as he learned how to play the position, how to play with Ben Rothesberger. The offense, which took off using a more no-huddle approach, Bell's ability to hang tough in that type of offense, which has to be

tough to learn as a rookie, is impressive. The guy's a receiver out of the backfield. He could block. He has great, great cutting ability and great vision. And you see a lot of plays where his athleticism was clearly on display. He's also, you know, he's got some size to him where, you know, he could maybe be that three-down-type back.

You bring in Lagart Blunt as a nice backup. I'm not worried about a timeshare there. I think that Bell is going to be the man. And I think this guy's going to be a big-time player for the Steelers. Sort of an evolutionary Steelers back. He's not like a scat-back. He's not a home-run hitter. He's not going to hit big plays.

But if you put him out there in cold weather, he's going to run the ball 20 times a game. He's going to have 100 yards at the end of the game. And what I meant by evolutionary is he catches the ball really well too, which traditionally Steelers' backs haven't done. Mendenhall was okay at it, but this guy could be a little bit better than Mendenhall. I agree with Dan in the suggestion that he's not going to deal with a timeshare.

I don't think the Steelers are going to make him a guy that sees the only touches in the game because, you know, if Pittsburgh, and we expect him to be a much better football this team this year, Blunt's the perfect guy to spell him down the stretch to get him, you know, rested for the playoffs. But I went back and watched Bell last year myself towards the end of the year, and I hadn't gotten a chance to watch a lot of Steelers games live. Very impressive. What you say is true about him, Dan. And I think that their season turned around largely because he was healthy and part of that offense down the stretch.

I made no secretive that in my personal power rankings for Team of ATL, the Steelers have a secretariat type of lead on the rest of the pack. And part of the reason here is that people don't understand how good they were at the end of the year. They had the best record in the AFC in the second half of the season. Once Bell and Heath Miller got back in the lineup and got healthy, they were a different team. They averaged four more points per game than the Saints offense did in the second half of the season. And, you know, one thing you also want to keep in mind is that the Steelers, uncharacteristically, they finished 27th in the league in rushing. And you hear, you heard all offseason Tomlin and Todd Hadley, Todd Heidel.

have spoken about the team committing to the run and making sure this is an offense that was more balance. And I think that's going to lead with them making a concerted effort to make Bell a featured aspect of this offense. Or continue to be really because I thought they had done a nice job of that last year once he got healthy. So I ask you, gentlemen, a little time, a little projection time. Everybody loves projections. Levy on Bell, I think I've made it clear that I'm very excited about him. So these could be on the high end, but I don't know. Maybe you guys are on the same page as me.

300 touches over under I'll go over because you said touches yeah you don't mean carries well I mean touches Mark I would go over then on that 1300 rushing yards I'll go under on rushing yards

I'll go under one thing that we heard about them is that they ran two back sets during the entire offseason practice sessions 70 receptions I'll go way under for that yeah that number that's bold By way under, I mean 50. I'd go under on that, too.

12 touchdowns total. I'd go under because I could see he got concussed last year on a goal line carry. I could see them. That was a bad one, too. Thanksgiving night. Right. I could see them using Lagaret Blunt as their goal line hammer. You know what?

That's a fair point. I do believe that Bell is going to be their guy, but Blunt could be one of those guys that pilfer's touchdowns and drives fantasy owners crazy. I guess one thing to keep in mind there. But yeah, I think we're all on the same page, though, this guy can be a Pro Bowl-level player. I'm going push on your 12 touchdown. I love when you go push.

You've got to throw that in there. Mark, what do you do with Jim Caldwell this weekend? Listen, I just don't like a guy being dismissed without information. See what you're saying about Jim Caldwell by week eight? No, Jim Caldwell is not a bad coach. He was the offensive coordinator when the Ravens went to the Super Bowl. I just think he's dismissed as like a dull guy, and I don't think that that's accurate.

Oh. Well, that I'm going to challenge you on, because I actually spoke with him as well at the Super Bowl, after they won the biggest game in the world. I remember I was standing next to you. And he's in the locker room with me. I don't think he was wearing a shirt. And it felt like I was talking to Stanley from the office.

I mean, you know, very slow talking, very, you know, obviously well-spoken and had great insight and was honest with me. But, yeah, I'm not. I was doing cartwheels out of the locker room. I did not get that impression of him when we were down in Orlando. But Dan does bring up one of the weirder things about an NFL locker room that you don't expect to see if you haven't been in one before is there's always these little tiny cubicle area rooms off the way from the big room with all the assistant

coaches walking around in underwear together that takes I mean that's what Dan confronted so I don't you know maybe that did that you know a lot of nudity a lot of nudity um all right let's get it's been a while since we heard from Kevin Patra so we'll close today's podcast because we have number three on our list. A Cardinals running back, Andre Ellington. Kevin Patcher wrote up the making the leap on Ellington. So Kevin Patcher on the line. Hey, buddy. How's it going, folks? I don't know. How are you doing? I'm doing phenomenal. I already got an early button push, which, you know, sometimes happens at a bar when we talk to Kevin late on Sunday nights. And in this case, where are you right now, buddy? Oh, I'm in my kitchen. No word. Okay, good. Very good. Hey, so making the leap number

three, the bronze medalist, I'm going to call it. Tie in third place, Olympic stuff. Cardinals running back Andre Ellington, who, you know, showed a lot in a little bit of time last year with a average rushing attempt, or rushing attempt average of five and a half yards per carry in just 118 carries a lot, of course. Bruce Ariens has hinted of a much bigger workload. or Andre Ellington, which means he's going to make the leap, according to the ATL team. Kevin Patrick, tell us more. Yeah, I mean, I think we were begging all last year to see more of Ellington, and Ariens kept walking at it, although he did promise a couple times to get him above 20 carries,

even though he never touched the ball more than 17 times in a game last year. And then this off season, he changed his mind, apparently, and decided he was going to revolve the running game around Ellington, which is the smart move with Shard Mendehall out of the way that made him easy that decision much easier for him. And this was, in his 118 carries, as you said, he was a big playing machine. He had eight plays over 20 yards,

which is up with the likes of Adrian Peterson, who had double the amount of carries that he had, well over double the amount of carries he had. And I just love the way he plays the game. He can make moves and he's shifting in tight spaces. He can break tackles on the outside. He's a gamebreaker. Patra, here's my reaction to Bruce Ariens saying Ellington will get 25 to 30 touches a game.

I wish you weren't a liar. What is your reaction? He absolutely is a liar. He admitted after the draft that he was good at lying when he talks about the quarterback situation. Oh, I do not think he's going to get 30 touches a game. You don't think that he'll get close to 500 touches this season? Are you going to go out on a limb, Kevin, and say that Ariens is a little off there? All right, I got a better question.

Tell me why Andre Ellington isn't the next Gerius, Norwood, or Felix Jones, or Leon Washington, where he's undersized. The team admitted he didn't even have the right build. He was high cut, more like a wide receiver than a running back. How is he now going to be able to handle a heavy workload? Well, first of all, I think it depends on what you define as a heavy workload. I mean, I think he's more of a Reggie Bush to get 230-carry workload, and he's going to catch a lot of the backfield. He had 220 of his 400-some snap.

where he ran routes, either out of the backfield or they put him in the slot and they put him in the wide-out. So I think when you say workload, I think it's going to be dispersed across the field, which will help him stay healthy. And health is one of the obstacles that I talked about. He has to stay healthy. But there are other bats that have done it. Reggie Bush, not exactly a paragon of durability. No, but I mean, I don't think he's going to have a shortened career where he only gets 300 yards next year. I think this is a major issue that the Cardinals need to think seriously about it.

I don't think Ellington can handle this many touches and stay healthy and productive. Well, question. I mean, are we, have we as an around-the-league team put them too high on this list if there's all these concerns about them? I think that there's one concern. The one main concern is. No, we're never, we don't tell ourselves. I don't think that, I don't think he can have 230 carries going too far. I really don't.

I think that's about the right amount. All right. So with that in mind, let's do some over-unders, $225 carries for Andre Ellington. Chris Wesley. Way under. He'll be injured by October if they put him on that kind of schedule. Okay.

Mark Sessler? I will go under, but not with his aggressive nature as Chris just mentioned. And Kevin, I assume you're going to go over. I'll go over. I'll be able to a little. That's 14 carries a game. Okay. That's what that is.

That's 14 carries a game. I don't even know. I have to ask Westies anymore, but 1,050 rushing yards, Chris Wessling. I would go over on total yards, but not rushing yards. Okay, Mark. On the rushing yards under. Okay. I will go over on both carries and yards.

I'm in. Kevin Patrick. Oh, yeah. I'm over. You're going right around where I had guessed he would go. All right. And then finally, seven touchdowns, Chris Wessel, total touchdowns. I'll go over for that.

I will go under. I will push. Can you throw out receptions? Yeah. Can I answer? Can I answer? Yeah, you know, I actually think under on the touchdowns only because he doesn't get carried inside the goal, inside the red zone very much, inside the five-yard line. He had like three last year, so I think that'll shut them out for those.

All right. Unless he breaks a ton. 44 catches. Chris Wessel. I'll go over. Mark. He will have 44 catches. He pushed on catches.

I will go under slightly. Kevin. I will go over. Yeah, I think he's going to be used. He needs to be used more as a receiver and less as a running back. Do you agree with that, Patrick? Yeah, no, I don't disagree with that. And I just don't think that the workload that I'm considering it's too much.

Because it's not the 330 carries that somebody with Sean McCoy is going to get. He's going to go out in the past patterns. So, Aryans talked about having a lot of two-back sets this year. And I think a lot of that is to get, to be able to fake the run and use Ellington out of the backfield as a past catch or more. But at the same token, he can run the ball in those tests. He'll have a running back into block, and Ellington can go out on a pass with two wide receivers in two-wide receiver set. I really think you're going to see that a lot. We'll see how it all plays out.

Kevin Petra Bullish on Andre Ellington. Hugely bullish. Yes, the bronze medalist in the Making the Leap series. Or the Brazil in the Making the Leap series. Oh, too soon. Too soon. Oh, sorry. Too soon.

Kevin. Kevin, Patrick, thank you very much. Go back to your croquet game with John Legend. Appreciate it, fellas. Have a good one. See you, Patrick. All right, boy, so that's it for today's edition of the Around the League podcast. We will be back on Monday with Greg Rosenthal back in the chair.

Chris Wessling heads off. off on vacation. Heads off to the Cincinnati land, I believe. Yes, sir. So Chris will be out of the mix, but we will soldier on. Mark and I are going to be all Cal Ripkin and up this piece every day. Uh, so until Monday, this is Dan Hansa signing off for the Sizzler, the mailman, and take day behind the glass, not behind the glass. Until Monday. This is an I-Heart podcast.