NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Annual Meeting roundup, offseason 'what-ifs'

Episode Date: March 26, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, and Kevin Patra -- catches up with heroes-in-exile Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal, who check in from the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando.  The Sizzler and The Boss discuss the rule changes approved at the yearly summit -- and, more importantly, report back on Bill Belichick’s wardrobe.  Elsewhere, Studio 66 rounds up the latest headlines and goes through a set of hypothetical offseason transactions that would transform the NFL for the better.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 is the cure for locker room cancer. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I'm joined by a room filled with some heroes. Chris Wessling and Kevin Patrick coming at you. What up, boys. Hey, Dan. What's going on?

Patra. Coming at you. the house Kevin Patrick coming at you are around the league our fifth member typically based

out of Chicago Sugarland but out here in California for the week why are you even here Kevin because I do what I'm told Greg said do you want to come out to L.A.?

I said sure they told you to sport a winter beard yeah that I did Patrick has a thick like Game of Thrones type beer like you were climbing the wall to escape the white walkers that's what we're working with right now it's cold

out there it just snowed the other day you got to keep your face jacket on what is what is snow it's true what west actually does not have a beard but he told me that when you moved out here you did have one which i don't remember but i did a lot of atl posted uh beards uh beards seemed to be encouraged on tiby island georgia where a lot of hippies hang out your previous residence End of the rogue kind of place, but L.A. is very image conscious, and beards are not really part of this scene out here. It doesn't seem like you, though, to sense that and then immediately reach for the razor. I think it was more of a starting over kind of thing. It wasn't really concerned with what people thought.

It was more along the lines of, I'm going bald all over my face, head. You look great, though, buddy. Thanks. Kevin Patra in the studio I can't tell you how excited I am to have Kevin in the studio

we have them on the phone during the season and then occasionally in the off season just because the audience deserves to know more about Kevin I want to throw something

out there a little getting to know you with Kevin Patcher one thing about yourself that no one on the ATL team and by extension society like everyone I know

knows about you no not outside you nobody other than me can know Exactly. Maybe your closest confidants. I'll give you an example. Like, I'm Kevin Patra and I'm a gifted bass player. I'm Kevin Patra. I have a pet python named Doug. Things of that nature. My roommate's name is Doug. He's kind of like a python. Bang. One thing about me. All right. Before I came out to L.A. about five or six years ago, I actually coached girls track and field. Really? I did not know that. High school. Yes. How did you land backing? I was bumming around doing nothing, and I knew the coach, and he said, I needed an assistant.

So I had ran in high school, so distance. Wait, so you. So I got to be in charge of the female distance runners. I was going to say you were also the coach, the type of coach that's also three years older than the students, one of those situations? Yeah, yeah. I don't like the sound of five. Three to five years. Sounds a little shaky.

It's a very nebulous area. Is it? But that's good. That's interesting. That's something we didn't know about you. I didn't smile ever. You're a strict disciplinary. Because, well, I mean, and you're five years old.

You can't be. You can't be. You didn't buy them beer? No, I did not buy them beer. Seems like a missed opportunity. See, Wes, this is why it doesn't matter if you're in Tybee or in L.A. They don't let you within three miles of schools for that type of commentary. Because I dropped out of all of them.

The Gold Center behind the glass. How are you, buddy? Doing great. A couple things, actually. I should have said this off the top. This is a surprise podcast. It is. We were supposed to do it on Thursday, but we decided with Kevin Patrick coming at you being here, let's get in the studio.

It was all about me. And the lying continues to the listeners, and I hate this, and this will not happen again. It wasn't really lying, but maybe we misled. We said Win West's Toaster would be played at the end of the week. And the gold standard, you don't feel comfortable at this point that you have a crew ready to take on Chris Wesleying, right? So we're going to bump it back a day. Yeah, we just need some more Rocky 4 training montage-type enthusiasm for the game in our camp. We have a stable of guys who are up for it, but we just need to get them a little bit more boned up on the Weeb-U-Bank questions.

So we'll do the game on Monday. When you say Rocky 4, do you refer to your team that you're training up as the guys that are working the state-of-the-art USSR lab? Exactly, where you punch the thing. Yeah, exactly. And it shows you the grid of how hard you. That's fine because my guys are out chasing chickens and lifting railroads. That's fine. That's West.

Yeah, you guys go with the two-by-for-us. That's what your guys are doing. I do have many. How many Westes are, though? I have minions. Oh, good. Gold Standard. We have a lot to get to today.

A lot of news. The annual meetings in Orlando have wrapped up. So we're going to get into that. We're going to talk a little bit about, we're going to get a little spacey and talk about some potential possibilities that could happened, but probably won't, a hypothetical game, if you will. But before that, we need to, if we're going to talk about the NFL annual meeting, we should get our two heroes from ATL that are in Orlando on the phone, Mark Sessler and Greg Rosenthal, on the phone, talk to him. Can we do that? Let's do it. Greg and Mark, are you there? We are here. We are standing now outside in

beautiful Orlando and some kids are playing paddle tennis nearby. It sounds good. It's roughly the same acoustics as a Kevin Patcher regular season bar restroom hit on the ATL podcast. That's troubling news, but honestly, we've been kicked out of about three rooms at this point, so this is the best you're going to get from us. All right, the NFL annual meetings in Orlando have wrapped up. You gentlemen were on hand for all the actions. So I guess why do we start with Wednesday?

What were your big takeaways from the day? I know today was the NFC coaches breakfast, I believe, which started sometime around 5 a.m. Your time, yes. There was so much that happened today before Dan Hansa's even thinking and thought about waking up. My takeaway from that was probably Jim Harbaugh. It's a new day in Jim Harbaugh land where he's funny.

He's entertaining the media. He's politicking for Colin Kaepernick to get a contract extension. He's talking about how he laid awake at night, wondering what it would have been like the bashed the Broncos like the Seahawks did. It seems like somehow there's a new Jim Harbaugh. How is that different than the old Jim Harbaugh? Well, that's a fair question. I think, you know, I sit by him for a couple minutes.

He seems to enjoy the process of kind of going back, sports with the reporters, maybe a little bit more than he used to, but I agree that some of the old traits are still there. I'm not sure, Greg, what do you mean by New Day? Well, like there was a moment that you listened to, Mark, where he started going off the rails a little bit, and then he made this new agey guru phrase that, like, oh, I'm losing my emotional center here. Well, he said he started to go off the so-called expert, which essentially is, you know,

all of us, pretending to know how football works. And he went down a rant. He's going on a wormhole, and he just paused. He collected himself, and he said, I'm not going to allow myself to become emotionally hijacked. Emotionally hijacked is a therapist. Is he seeing a therapist, do we think? That totally sounds like a therapist talk, you know, spit back out.

Maybe him and Balchie are having group therapy sessions together. Wow. One thing about Balchie is he had a funny quote on that, too. He said that these little, something like these little mini-controversies that are just made up have literally no meaning to the 49ers. You know, whatever. I'm not sure we believe that at all, but he dismissed it completely. I don't buy a word of it. No.

All right. Also, I'm looking through, Greg, I'm using as the guide on the Around the League page, Mark Sessler and Greg Rosenthal together, 24 takeaways from the NFL annual meetings last day. This kind of jumped out to me. Ron Rivera, Carolina Panthers coach, admitted that Steve Smith probably could have helped the Panthers this season, but the team made a tough decision to let him go away. And then Wes, you just wrote a post on something else Rivera said, correct?

Yeah, he gave a very Billy Bean, Brad Pitt, Moneyball explanation to his wide receiver problem, saying all we have to do, we don't need a number one receiver. We just need 10 catches of game. So what's going on with Ron Rivera in Orlando? Well, I was sitting there for that, and all I could think was, well, that makes sense if your defense is in the top three in the league and your Russian game is as great as it is, was last year or even better. But the reality is that's probably not going to happen again. It was a strange back and forth. He was in a good mood.

You know, when they asked him if Smith was a distraction, he said, well, no, because Steve is Steve. And that's generally code for you. Exactly. You know where I'm going with this man. That's code for you're a jerk That's the same thing when the guy's like Someone's like that guy I know you think he's a little bit

You know of a jerk but he would give you the shirt off His back of it was the last one he had That's code for You know he's not a good guy But he's he's loyal The saying that Steve is Steve means that You know That he's Manny Ramirez

It's not I also like that it's in that realm He said that Derek O'Cotry That they made a list of all their free agent desires, and Jericho Cotry was number one on that list, and they would have signed him the first day of free agency, but Jericho was not available because he was on a cruise with his family. Was that handicapping, like, who they thought they could get, and then they did it that way? I don't know. They're really aiming for the middle, I feel like right now, the Carolina

Pants. And tell me a little bit about Bill Belichick. I know, Mark, you wrote a great behind-the-scenes type post, setting the scene. Belichick seemed to be one of the lead characters in Orlando, both in his behaviors and his workout routines that I know you guys got a glimpse at. Tell us about a little bit about Belichick the last couple days. I thought Belichick was, on the whole, rather delightful because during that breakfast, when you're forced to come and sit and deal with the media people on what otherwise is sort of a vacation for you and your family or for him, in his case, Linda Holliday.

He came in. I thought that he was self-effacing. He, you know, threw it back in the reporter's face as a couple times. And, yeah, like, we would see him throughout the day, like, wandering through and what looked like Phil Belichick's version of tennis clothing, which to anyone else, I'm not sure what it was to another human being,

but it was Belichick playing tennis. Were the sleeves cut off? Yeah. Were the sleeves cut off on the tennis clothing? No, that was the weird thing. It was like he had short. on and one of his patent advisors and then like a like what you a kind of shirt like a three-year-old would wear where it's like a long-sleeve fake football type shirt that you know attached to no real team and he's wandering around the hallways and that so i don't know i'm you know i'm not in charge of his wardrobe but it needed a fix they were very sweaty and they were clearly lost in these labyrinthian hallways which mark and i have been lost in as well because they were going for one direction they they pulled oh yeah 360s trying to see if anyone looked they were looking for water it's great it it was like a fun

sport at this big NFL party we went to uh on monday night after we taped the podcast just checking out everyone's significant others and families was half the fun it sounds like you guys might have been leering uh i would say evaluating and just see what's going on i don't know just it kind of checks out by the way i was thinking about this just so you guys know, um, what do you think about your name, name as a team? Sessenthal? Hmm. Or, or, or, you know, I'll let you in on a little secret.

Greg and I went jogging together yesterday. Oh, my God. It's 33 minutes run. It was the first time we had actually been outside in three days. And, uh, Greg is happening. Solid runner. That's like the cheesy 90s commercials with, where the chemo on and, uh, who was it a shack where they're running a tandem bicycle.

to go together, they're playing cheesy music in the background. I'm literally speechless right now. You guys got up in the morning. No, no, not the morning. It was late afternoon. It's 6.30, and Mark says the word

literally almost every sentence, but in this case, he was telling the absolute truth. We had not been outdoors because the two hotels are connected since Sunday afternoon. At this point, it is Tuesday night, and I suggested, I think we'd feel a little bit better, with a little exercise.

And maybe if you guys could take this advice, your life would be a little better as well. Wow. We need the romantic comedy music montage in the background with like clips of them feeding each other ice cream and stuff. Well, by the way, we were inspired by the fact that as we were walking back from the media area to our room, we passed Chip Kelly, who, I believe, was with his son, we thought. Someone looked at Chip Kelly. Yes, he was in, like, tight jogging shorts walking around, so we thought, listen, if this guy can take time out of whatever his schedule is. I don't think he needs to be wearing tight jogging shorts.

I don't think anybody's making fun of you jogging. I think it's the fact that you were jogging together. Oh, running's better with other people. I disagree. To Marst point, would win. He would be in the top five of the sneaky, in-shape NFL coaches. You know, a pleasant surprise. Listen, all right, so Sessenthal was the one name.

And the other one I had in mind was Grak, and that would be G-R-A-C-C. I like Sessenthal. How about Rosler? We decided that what didn't have the same punch. We already went through that. Cessenthal it is. Before you guys go, and again, I'm rocked by the jogging thing. That's going to take some while to, like, really.

Can you give us a brief rundown, Greg? Or maybe I should, and then you guys could chime in on some of the new rules round up. The first up, the Patriots proposal to extend the goalposts five feet has passed. It is such a day that so many kids and myself and Adam Carolla fans have been dreaming of for years ago. You know, he had this dream and the dream went through me and it's meant so much. And now it's here. It's like, it is pretty amazing that of all the Belichick proposals, this is the way. one to a pass.

We talked to Jason Garrett after, and he kind of wouldn't want to go into detail about much of the rule stuff, but he said this one passed very easily. There was almost no discussion about it. Right, because it's a no-brainer. It did have been years ago, but now that it comes up, they're like, oh, yeah, of course. Are they, are the post getting longer, or are they going with the lasers? They're going to extend it five feet a little higher. Wait, wait, guys, I want the post to be shooting.

Wait a second. and you let the laser sound effects soak in first. Go ahead, Gold standard. Sorry, guys. You don't just talk over that. I like that. I don't know what the explosions are. All right, go ahead.

Shooting goalposts. I mean, I think the explosions and the sound effects really say it all. Now it's on to my next pet project. Oh, you're going to have a next pet project? I thought you were going to be like Alexander the Great and sit down and cry because you had no world's left to conquer. Well, this one was a great victory, and I think it'll change to face the NFL. Next is going to be tougher.

It's my scheduling proposal to play an NFL game at least one, possibly two, every night from September through December. Mark Cuban will not like that. No. That means total debt for those who cover the game, by the way. All right, I'm going to go through some other rules here. The Navarro Bowman rule was passed. That is the rule that will allow a fitness.

to make the recovery of a loose ball in the field to play a reviewable call. That makes sense. The game clock will now continue. This is another rule. The game clock will now continue after quarterback's sack outside two minutes. I had no idea that the clock had stopped at some point in the time of this game.

Let's see. Failed proposals. Let's see. Sorry, Greg, the Patriot's suggestion that allow all plays to be reviewed. Not happening. I didn't like that. The Redskins... I'm happy. The Redskins wanted personal fouls reviewed, not happening. The proposal to move the kickoff to the 40 was shot

down. Also, the extra point proposal by your boy Belichick to move the extra point back to the 25. That failed, but they're going to experiment with it in the preseason. So you know, those are the kind of like the big takeaways from that. Anything else,

guys? A bunch of things were tabled, like putting the cameras on the go line and the sideline, they're going to vote on that later. I think there's a chance that that eventually gets done that's common sense to me a couple of the roster proposals to make the practice spot bigger and bigger rosters on Thursday night that was tabled so later what do you guys think of the extra point kind of experiment that they're going to try i think we talked about this in the last

podcast or previous podcast what's their to experiment yeah it's not like it's gonna we know the accuracy on a 35 or 40 yard field goal it's probably going to be around 90 percent there's your experiment. Yeah, I hate it. Leave on the data. Either do it or don't do it. This doesn't make sense. I don't know why you need, like, the concept that they're going to be so cautious is we're

going to take two preseason games to try to put this in the lab. I don't know who that's sold on because, as West says, it's such a home run that these kicks are essentially good at a high percentage. It's a little bit conservative. All right, guys. Thank you very much, again, for joining us. One second before you go. Yes.

Are you guys going to go challenge the kids of play? Play paddle tennis now? Is that what you're going to, so you can stay outside? That would be of use in our 80s montage along with the running and perhaps the jumping slowly out of a pool. Honestly, the only thing I took away from this phone call was the jogging thing. That will live forever as an image in my mind. Thank you, gentlemen, and have a safe flight.

We'll see you soon. Jogging together. Listen, there's nothing wrong with living. a healthy lifestyle. And we, you know, we should all try to do that. But when you, when you step onto that asphalt together, it's kind of next level stuff. I'm picturing them in like hot pink tank tops, by the way. Amazing. All right. All right, Gold Standard. Let's get through some other news. Let's do it. Some sad news that came out of the NFL owners meetings on Tuesday.

Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, Jr. died at the age of 95. Wilson, of course, owned the bills for many years and was an original founder of the AFL, one of the original owners, a member of what was known as the Foolish Club. A lot of people thought the AFL would fail up against the mighty NFL, but obviously that was not the case, one of the league's pillars, and now he has passed away. And I guess if you get away from it a little bit, this really, the Wilson family, they are not keeping the team. They're going to sell it. And then the questions are, are the bills going to remain in Buffalo? I mean, that is that is the big question now facing that franchise. And the bills are everything up there.

Almost all moves in the history of the NFL relocations have been stadium related. The NFL's policy now requires any owner to act in good faith and bargain in good faith with the city to see that a suitable stadium gets built. That will be the next event on the horizon here, I imagine. If the bills do move out of Buffalo, it will be the longest any team has been in one city and then ended up moving. They've been there since 1960. Ralph Wilson originally was a minority partner with the Lions and tried to go to Miami. But they didn't have a stadium in Miami, so he ended up in Buffalo, ended up spending the rest of his life there for 54 years.

So that's a long time to be in one city and then uprooted. I would imagine they stay there. He really is the reason that they stayed so long. I mean, his family has already said they're going to sell the team to the highest bidder. So whether that highest bidder wants to stay in a market, like Buffalo, or, I mean, there's a chance that a Toronto corporation could buy it, move it across the border. If Buffalo, Buffaloans, how are we pronounced it? Buffaloians?

If they want to look on the bright side, market doesn't mean as much in the NFL as it does in other sports, and it doesn't mean as much in today's NFL as it did 20 years ago because so much of the money now comes from TV and Internet. Right. But is that, so now is it on the Bills fans to make sure they sell out every game now? next year and support the team to show like a potential owner, new owner that, hey, we're going to come, we're going to spend money at your stadium. I don't think it's going to come down to attendance. It's going to come down to whether a new stadium gets built.

Right. And, you know, Wilson was such a major figure there. And, you know, let's call it what it is. I mean, if they were to leave Buffalo, to me, that would be a disgrace. I mean, you don't need to move every franchise to a big market, like Wes is saying, you know, it could thrive in small markets. look at the Green Bay Packers. So hopefully whoever does by the team does right by Ralph Wilson Jr.

Because he left behind a great legacy. Moving on, the Eagles, the Philadelphia Eagles, some news, always news out of Philadelphia right now in Orlando. We learned early Wednesday morning that Evan Mathis, the guard who really had a breakout season in 2013, the Eagles have made it be known that Mathis is available via trade, according to NFL Media Insider Ian Rappaport. and Mathis has been placed on the trade block due to his high salary of a $5 million, $5.15 million,

and the fact that the 32-year-old is seeking a new deal after a strong season. So I guess what, if you're an impact player on the Eagles and you ask for a raise, is that your quick ticket out of town? Trade block automatically. You're done, son. I mean, Mathis is not a young guy, but he would probably have a nice market if they put him on the block in earnest, right? has been pro football focus's number one related guard for, I think, three years running now. They love them.

And, yeah, I think as one of those players where the dichotomy between pro football focuses ranks and NFL team's ranks shows up, I don't think, Evan Mathis is probably a pro bowl level talent, but he's not quite as dominant as pro football focus makes him out to be. And the fact that the Eagles would trade him at $5.15 million is kind of evidence of that. and also Chip Kelly at the NFL NFC breakfast in Orlando sidestepped the Deshawn Jackson comments, but I thought the quote he had was interesting. He said, I like Deshaun,

but we're always going to do what's best for the organization. He said he has no issue with Deshaun, but when he says that, we're always going to do what's best for the organization. This still, to me, seems like it's going down a certain road, even if the Sean Jackson seems to think he might not be going anywhere. All of it to me says that they're in backpedal mode because they still want somebody to give them a third-round pick to trade for him.

They want to make it seem now that they are willing to keep him that they have no problem, that it's a media-driven problem, and they're just asking another team to pony up before they cut them and make it seem like they're not going to cut them. Yeah, I mean, this is what teams do and players. They blame the media when there's something actually going on here. Every national and local outlet has reported these trades. I mean, the media didn't make it all up.

It came from the Eagles. Right. Moving on, Jared Allen has a job. You know what, Wes? I think we could breathe easy because there was a time when I was worried that Jared Allen might not get the multimillion dollar contract that he so richly deserved and would be forced to head into the cold wilderness. But no, Wes.

Jared Allen and the Chicago Bears on Wednesday struck. a four-year $32 million contract. The team announced it on Wednesday. This gives the Bears, they were, you know, looking to upgrade their pass rush. I already got Lamar Houston. Now you get Jared Allen, who could really, you plug him in at where Julius Pepper's role is, and the guy is proven over the last decade. He gets to the quarterback.

Seems like a really smart move in one that kind of came out of nowhere. They got Willie Young, too, didn't it? Yes, and that's the interesting thing. Like Willie Young, I think, thought he was going to start. No, sorry, sir. But I think the three of them upgrade that pass rush immediately. Shane McClellan moving back to linebacker where he probably should have been the whole time. I think that the rotation between the three of them,

and you talk about Jared Allen's age. And he still played, I mean, he played much better than Peppers did last year on tape. So I still think he has some productivity there. But I think that getting those three in the rotation, Willie Young's never really been in Detroit at least. He showed a lot of flash, but he was never an every down player. So he can kind of go back to that role. So I think the bears, whether it cost him a lot in the short term, I think in the long-running.

I've been assuming Lamar Houston slides into the three-technique tackle rule. Well, there you go then. The role that Henry Melton was supposed to play. So they're upgraded tremendously on the defensive line. I think it's a great deal. Alan, you know, there's the belief that he's maybe a step slower than he was a couple years ago. But this is a guy who's just turning 32. the contract voids after three years and 24 million,

so you're not hung up too deep into his mid-30s. It makes a lot of sense to me, especially a Bears team that seems to be pretty close to being bumped into that group of true contenders in the NFC. I think they just got better. Yeah, I think they should compete with the Packers have to be considered the favorites, but the Bears should be right there in competition.

Well, what this also tells me is that the Bears brass basically said we're not going to, we haven't upgraded the second very much so we better get after the quarterback because md jennings to me i'm sorry is and he's not the free agent solution at safety at least to me so this tells me that we got to get up the quarterback if our secondary isn't going to be much improved upon last year uh moving on west i thought we needed to touch on this on tuesday night i was sitting at the desk uh came across some quotes from raiders gm reggie mackenzie i know we we gave the raiders as did a lot of people a lot of grief for left tackle Jared Veld here and Lamar Houston letting them out of the building.

Those are homegrown guys. And according to McKenzie and Wes, I'd love to know your thoughts on this. It wasn't an issue of not being able to realize these are guys you want in the building. It was an issue of these guys didn't want anything to do with the Raiders. Here's the quote. He was asked by Vic Tarfer of the Bay Area News Group if the botched Roger Saffold signing was a setback that hurt the Raiders, and the McKenzie pointed it back to Velde Here and said, no, it really wasn't a setback. The setback was the one that got away from us. Losing Velde here was a blow to me.

He didn't want to come back. It wasn't about finances. The kid didn't want to play for the Raiders anymore, and I struggled with that. And then regarding Lamar Houston, he said that Houston was, quote, in the same boat as Velde here, but was, quote, a little more sincere about wanting to come back. In the end, it's the player's decision. Do we give him, cut him any slack that these two players didn't want to be Raiders? I can sort of see both sides of this. I understand why they don't want to be Raiders to be in a forever rebuilding mode.

And part of that quote, Lamar Houston said he wanted to go play with a team with a quarterback. So I understand that. But Reggie McKenzie, I could see a lot of other general managers saying, sorry, bud, you're stuck. We'll whip out the franchise tag and you're here. Yeah, if he felt that way, why didn't he just tag him? tag one of them. Lamar Houston

if there was any inkling that he might be not be a pain if he came back, why wouldn't you just tag him if you really did want to keep him? It sounds like it's about the principle. Reggie McKenzie wants you to be happy and eager to play for the Oakland Raiders. Right. And yeah, the biggest problem for

McKenzie, if this is true is how do you change the culture? Why is it the case that you have these guys that should, a lot of guys when they're drafted into an organization, they get comfortable, they like it there, even if the team maybe isn't hasn't thrived but for whatever reason there's a culture in Oakland where guys don't want to be there well you can that needs to be changed well take

it further you can you do you really believe Justin tuck Lamar Woodley and Austin Howard really were dying to play for the Raiders they went where the most money was that that could also explain why he paid those guys too because he wanted to change you want I mean people would wouldn't mind playing along with the Charles Woodson or Justin tuck in the future not not this year obviously but in the future but and he he he he didn't tell Eldeer in Houston that he was going to go out and get Matt Schaub? That wasn't his big selling?

Think that would have changed everything. Oh, everything, obviously. Everything. All right. That's it for news. Gentlemen, I was thinking, Wes, you wrote a post on Tuesday about the Cowboys situation. Jerry Jones, a team owner, was asked if the Cowboys would be ready to kind of concede the NFC East

under the umbrella of this is a rebuilding situation. now in Dallas because they've lost some key players. And Jerry Jones said, no, not at all. You don't rebuild with Tony Romo. Got me thinking. Think about a transaction or a trade or a draft move that will never happen just because these things don't happen in the NFL, but it would actually make some sense if the team's ever had the guts to do it.

So I'm going to go around the room. I'm going to go to Kevin Patrick coming at you. Let me bring up the rear. I've got one that might bring the house down. Wow. Nice build up. All right. So you're on deck, Patrick.

I'll start. This is bad. How about Tony Romo doesn't have to be part of the Cowboys future? You trade your quarterback and you cash in on what you would think, even though the salary could be prohibitive in a trade. He's a star quarterback. cash in on that you get the picks you rebuild the right way none of this halfway in halfway out stuff we're almost 33 is in a win now situation

you trade them you get a whole bounty load of picks and you build it the right way in jerry jones who's now 70s probably last few years or last decade to really build a championship contender how insane is that pretty insane where's ramo getting traded to

where's the bounty full of picks that's what i wanted to know Is this, he's now handing off to Adrian Peterson? Ooh. I like that. I didn't think that far ahead. I put him in Arizona. I put him in Arizona for in place of Carson Palmer. That's a Super Bowl team with Tony Romo there.

Well, it depends what you think about Romo. To your point about it, it's not going to happen. Jerry Jones is saying it's because of Romo, but isn't it because of Jerry Jones doesn't want to rebuild? Well, I can see why he would not want to rebuild with Romo. He's still a top 12 NFL quarterback, and he's still a good player. If you have a quarterback, you have to try. to win. But I'm just saying I don't think that Jerry Jones would ever want to use the words

rebuilding in Dallas Cowboys. I don't think he ever would want to admit to that at least. I think that's a fair point. What kind of value do you think Tony Romo would get on the open market for a trade? Third round pick? What? Really? Second round pick, maybe?

I don't know. I don't think anybody's giving up a first round pick for a mid-30s quarterback coming off back surgery. With a pretty big contract, too. I mean, he's not mid-30s yet. Sure he is, isn't? Look at his numbers. I mean...

Isn't he 34? I think he's 33, age 33 season. That three? And he's not 37. Andy comes with a $20 million contract. Right, that could be an issue. Well, listen, I'm throwing it out there. I think it would make some sense.

I think the Cowboys that would lead to panic in Arlington, but ultimately it might be a smarter way to rebuild with the young players they do have. But I'm going to pass it over to... Kevin Patcher now. Your turn. I was trying to go away from being typecast as the Lions only guy by our boss usually Kevin Patrick and Lions, man. But you know what?

Everyone on Twitter is kind of getting annoying with this whole Sammy Watkins thing. The Lions trading up. So I'm going to have the Lions trade up to the number two pick with the Rams and draft Sammy Watkins because putting him on the field with Golden Tate and Megatron with Matthew Stafford and you've got a good offensive line and you have two good running backs. I mean, I don't see how you stop that offense. That is fantasy football talk, but I kind of like that. Can you imagine just saying, we don't care, we're going to score 40 points a week.

That's our goal. Score 40 points a week, and if we get outscored, we get outscored. Sort of like the cold-sold approach with Bill Pooley, and we need to add a new weapon for Peyton Manning every single year. Now, I don't think it will happen because I don't think Mayhew's going to give up picks, but I would make the argument that his second round picks never pan out anyway. The jury's still out on Dariuslay last year, but you look at Lashore, Delmus, who he got, he didn't want to re-sign, he cut Titus Young.

I like this. I mean, if you're not going to use, if you're going to bot on the second round pick anyway, you might as well trade it. Give it up. The first and second round pick this year, maybe a second round pick next year. Get that number two overall, and away we go. Because I don't think Watkins is making it past the Raiders at three or the Jags at three, the Raiders, the Browns, the Bucks. I mean, he's not getting there anyway.

I mean, they don't trade up there. You watch a lot of college football, right? Yeah. How good is Sammy Watkins? He's very good. He's athletic, he's quick. He can, he high points the ball. Mike Evans might be a better high pointer than Sammy is, but I think at this stage, Samuel Watson is a better route.

What kind of, what receiver is he most like in the NFL? Oh, I don't, I'm not going to go there. You must go there. I'm not going to go there. Oh, no. No, I was just kidding. Come back. Yeah.

I keep hearing like a, maybe a better version of Torrey Smith. I think he's better than Tori. Yeah, a better version. It better be a much better version of Tori Smith. Tori Smith's awfully good. He's a nice player, yeah. He's good. All right, Wes.

That was good, Patrick. You know, you come in here, you come in from Chicago, got a crazy beard, but you came in and you made some salient points. Somebody's got to bring the beard to the, I mean, nobody in the studio where is the beard? I cannot do it. Greg's probably still got the razor from his bar mitzvah. It's true. I mean, there's no... Wes says he can grow a beard.

I believe him. You're a rugged man. Sessler doesn't... He's not a beer type. Gold standard, definitely not. Even Damashek, you know, rich. Yeah. Nobody in studio...

Using Studio 66 is... That's true. Reping the... Gold standard has a little bit of a beer, but it's more like a hipster beard. I'm doing the awkward middle schooler patchy thing. More than that. anything. It's in right now.

Yeah. All right. Chris Wessling. Blow us away. Okay. Remember right after the Bengals failed again in the playoffs? Which year was this? And owner Mike Brown distanced himself from Andy Dalton

and said, you know what? I wanted to draft Colin Kaepernick. But Jay Gruden wanted Andy Dalton to fit his offense. Andy Dalton first round pick this year since the Redskins are missing their first round pick.

Keep going. A second round pick next year for RG3. Wow. So the Redskins get a quarterback, the one that Jay Gruden drafted himself, a first round pick to replace their missing first round pick, a second round pick next year. The Bengals get a dynamic quarterback that puts them clearly in the driver's seat in the AFC North. Wow.

That's a good one. Who says no? I'd imagine the Redskins say no. Absolutely. The Bengals would have to probably add more draft picks. Don't you think Jay Gruden, though, secretly, he'd never say this, of course, but he jumped out of the, uh, jumped off the Andy Dalton bandwagon just in time before it careened off the road?

Like, he has to get the feeling that maybe he got everything to get out of that guy, and instead he would make a trade to bring that guy back behind him. That would be a little shaky. I don't think he thinks that. I think Mike Brown, if you listen to his comments at the meetings this week, was It's a little shaky on his support of Andy Dalton. Marvin Lewis was fully supporting Andy Dalton, but Mike Brown was like, yeah, we got a little bit of a problem here.

We don't know who he is. Called it a dilemma. Right. I think Jay Gruden has always supported Dalton and has always really liked him and thinks he's perfect for his offense. RG3 to me is one of the most fascinating figures entering the 2014 season, seeing what version of that guy shows up

because people forget it now because it was such a horrible nightmare. season and he was in the press constantly and was always for a negative reason but that guy was so special when he was a rookie and he went on he had this that stretch of play before he heard his knee where he was just outrageous on almost weekly basis i don't know if we'll ever see that guy but if you give him the full see that guy again in terms of that speed and that ability in the pocket just because teams adjusted and he's had another major knee surgery but if he gets a full off season to get his mechanics right, he could be a guy that... Doesn't he seem like somebody that Hugh Jackson would rather work with than Andy Dalton?

Absolutely. But also to Dan's point, I don't think you would be surprised by either his continual downslope or him coming back and being phenomenal again. I don't think either for RG3 would be a huge surprise. We don't even need to play out the season. Just give him the comeback player of the year award right now. It's going to happen. Yeah, no, it seems...

The stars seem aligned, and I hope it happens, because he was a lot of fun to watch that first year. All right, gentlemen. Good work. Kevin Patcher, you really did a good job here in the studio, I thought. I try my best. I can only give beef. You know what, I'm going to stay out of this.

I'm going to throw it to West. Did Patcher do a good job? Sure, yeah. Yeah. I thought so, too. So, yes. I appreciate it, guys. Gold Standard, who really has a chip on a shoulder about you personally.

Let's see what he thinks. You know, I think you earned your keep for another episode. It was well done, but it was mostly the anecdote about being a high school coach. Yeah, that's what's did it for me. Got to get in early. You always did have that glow about you of being like a leader of tomorrow's leaders. Yes, absolutely. That's why the beard speaks mostly to that.

All right, and then the gold standard. So, yes, thank you, Patrick. And you will actually also be here on Friday. I will be out of the studio. I'm moving, guys. I'm moving from a condo to a house that is a big process. I got a pregnant wife. She's not helping much.

This is all on me. A lot of heat on me. Growing up, getting mature, can't do the podcast on Friday. Patcher will be sitting in with the rest of the heroes. That will be exciting. And the gold standard,

the pressure is on you now, buddy, because, you know, I know you did a lot of phone calls and you're working hard, but Win West's Toaster is coming up on Monday. It's all about results. And it's a results-driven business behind the glass.

I mean, everybody talks about it behind the glass. It's not about being affable or being a hard worker. It's about being a start- and this is your chance. I'm collecting home addresses from all participants so that I can send hate mail forever

if they let me down here. It's fine. Ten years from now, Gold Standard is still going to have nightmares about the man from Saskatoon. Laces out. It's going to be one of those. The man from Saskatoon.

So yes, Win West's Toaster, which, as we all know, is the great trivia game of skill and valor. Gold Standard is screening potential contestants that take on Wes. On Monday, Wes is undefeated, of course, has never parted ways with this toaster under, well, once, but under a controversial.

You are the champion. You are the toaster champion. You will remain so. I am the disputed, undefeated champion. So gold-centered, keep at that, and that will be Monday, but we will be back on Friday. And until then, this is Dan Hansis, signing off for the mailman, Kevin Patrick,

coming at you, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal, and the gold standing behind the glass. Until it. I'm alone, I'm alone. There's no hope for me.