NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Best receiving corps, OTA roundup with Bucky Brooks

Episode Date: June 6, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- welcomes Bucky Brooks into Studio 66 to rank the top receiving corps in the NFL and deliver his first-hand observations on OTAs around the league.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 IHeart podcast. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. So you can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors.

For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth, high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. The Around the League podcast would follow Mike Tomlin anywhere.

Welcome to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by some heroes. Dan Hansis and Dan Hansis. What? What? Oh, sorry. Yeah, that was inventive.

Well, Dan complained over text messaging that he was not mentioned early enough in the show, and he sent it where he sees where we're at in our thinking, and he said hashtag noted. So I just wanted to make sure if Dan's listening to today's show that we mention him a lot at the top. You've checked that box. I'm happy that Greg is immersed in a book that Mark and I really, I feel like it's my favorite football book ever, and I know you've read it, a fan's notes by Fred actually,

kind of a cult classic, but speaks metaphorically about football and life. Seems like just a classic in general, not a football book. There is that great feeling when you're just starting a book and you can tell quickly that it's going to be one that you always remember.

I don't know. For a big nerd, that's a great feeling because I can tell this is going to be a winner. And it was a book from my shelf that I, it was the version out of my household that I lent to Greg. points for my career potentially having gone down that road. How close is your

bookshelf to your shirt closet? It's within a yards distance. All joking aside, we do miss Dan Hansis, but yeah, I like you better, Mark. That's fair to say. Let's get into it. We're going to have a big show today. We're going to talk a little news, and then

we're going to bring in Bucky Brooks here, our favorite recurring guest, really our only recurring guest right now, but he's coming back. He always brings the heat, and we're going to have a big, juicy conversation about a lot of NFL topics, but in the meantime, gold standard. How are you doing? I'm good.

How are you, Greg? I am doing fantastic. Were you okay with that open, the handsest bit? Yeah, you took a risk, and I'd say you came out well. You know, we can't just do the same show and fall into the same routine week after week. We've got to shake it up. But let's do some news. Let's do it.

All right, let's start with the Colin Kaepernick. contract. More details have come out since our last show on Wednesday. We learned that $61 million guaranteed is not really guaranteed. The 49ers can get out of the contract at really almost any year. Only $13 million is guaranteed. They can essentially make the choice after three years. If he's not playing well, they'll have only played Colin Kaepernick $43 million at that point. There's a lot of details here, Chris Wesseling. What do you make of all the criticism that the contract has gotten now after the fact? The criticism's crazy because it comes at a point, and we have this almost every major contract in the NFL. Everybody weighs in on it before the details come out.

And to me, I like to look, I know you do too. You like to look at the three-year window. Who's getting paid what in the next three years? Kaepernick's total is 44.17 million, which is behind six other quarterbacks, including Matt Ryan, Aaron Rogers, Flacco, Romo, and Cutler. So it's not really what everybody said it was on Wednesday. And it's not really guaranteed either. The whole thing with guaranteed money is, no matter what happens, you're going to get that money, if Colin Kaepernick really struggles and Jim Harbaugh goes to another team, or even let's say Kaepernick is just a disappointment, not really struggling,

but he just doesn't fit the new coach's style and he's not playing well. They can get out of the contract very easily in two or three years. And there's this in these years where they can get out of the contract where they only need to decide by April 1st, which gives the 49ers really in terms of off-season planning a massive window to have a contingency plan to bring someone in to replace Colin Kaepernick down the road if that's what they choose, while leaving Kaepernick completely out in the woods. That's where I think, I agree with Wesleyan that,

too much is made of all of this, but in terms of an agent coming in and really playing a savvy role here, this is the one nugget that kind of struck me as odd. Yeah, and I think we talked about on Wednesday that it was a weird, it was maybe not a weird contract for a guy that was still improving, but this contract makes all the sense in the world to me, and it makes sense why Colin Kaepernick took it as well, because he's confident he's going to earn that money. Maybe he's not going to make the Super Bowl or be a first team all pro and he needs to do that to make some incentives but he's going to make plenty of money and they can always revisit it and i think all the criticism that the agents are taking is mostly overblown

because it's up to the player and the agents to decide what's important to them and maybe it's not the most important thing to every single player and every single agent that you squeeze every last dollar and you get the perfect market value maybe Colin Kaepernick's like hey 18 19 million dollars a year i have only started a year and a half i'm okay with that And doesn't it seem like Kaepernick's the one quarterback at times that can't catch a break for who he actually is and what he's done? Why not spin this? Hey, this guy maybe doesn't care about just money over other things. That's exactly the story that no one's saying about Kaepernick.

It's let's kill the agent. Let's kill everyone else. This is a disaster. And it's quite the opposite. I like that it gives the 49ers a little wiggle room financially with Crabtree, Vernon Davis, Mike Yuppati, Alex Boone, Alden Smith, all these guys either talking about a contract already or will need a new contract within the next calendar year. Another surprising story that came up on Thursday

was from the Washington Redskins tight end Jordan Reed, a guy who I'll just throw it out there we've been talking about for our Making the Leap series. So you'll have to tune in and check to see if he makes it. But he talked about his concussion at the end of last year and he admitted that he had suffered a concussion two weeks before the publicized concussion. And he said, I didn't tell nobody when it happened.

So when I took a shot to the side of my head against the Eagles, it made it worse. I was in a bad spot for a long time. I didn't know if they would ever go away, but I'm past it now. He actually talked that this concussion problems lasted for two months. He's had four concussions going back to college that we're aware of. Is this a big concern for Jordan Reed in the Redskins offense? I think it should be a concern long term. I think the Redskins have to be a little bit leery of that.

But I don't think, like, it's not the end of the world. For instance, we were saying the same things about Shady McCoy at the end of a couple of years ago when he was still showing symptoms a month and a half, two months later. I agree with that. And in terms of Reed, there's a very good reason he's in making the leave candidate when he's on the field. And if he can get past those problems, the guy has the ability. to be a star. But, you know, he's the current embodiment of what old NFL players dealt with

week after week, where concussions weren't even something that you talked about out on the surface, and you probably had to hide a lot of issues. Well, he is proof that the current system is vastly improved. There's so much more concussion awareness. I think players come out of the games earlier, but there's still a lot of players hiding concussion. There is an NFL executive patting Greg on the shoulder right now. No, I'm concerned.

Criticizing. I mean, I'm saying that it's not full-proof, at all, because ultimately a lot of players, I think, are hiding concussions because they think it's good for their career. Jordan Reed said that he had a concussion two weeks before, and he didn't tell anyone. And you know what happened? A couple weeks later, he suffered another one, and he said he started to get a little scared,

maybe like I'm going to be like this forever, but it ended up going away, and that was after two months. So he didn't follow the normal protocol, and it's sort of on the players to tell, their team doctors and everything that they're getting the concussions or this type of thing happens. Moving on to a happier story,

let's talk a little Kristen Michael. Another guy that we're thinking about for our Making the Leap series. Watch out for that. We weren't sure if he was going to get enough carries to really make the leap, but some comments made at a Seahawks town hall. I didn't know teams had town halls.

Oh, yeah. What is a town hall when it comes to a team? They meet with the fans, and the fans have the opportunity to kind of voice their opinion and ask questions up front and close. It's smart for winning teams to hold this type of event. What about losing teams? It can go awry. You don't want a shoe thrown at your head. Is it literally held at a town hall, at a city hall, or is it in a...

I think it's just a colloquialism. Do people go to town hall meetings? You know how they have those things? Do they still have that? Do people go to the meeting and they sit and they make a... and they make complaints about the community? I have a friend who is a reporter in a different city where that is true. He has to walk up and down the halls of a town hall.

I can tell you that the Wednesday town hall meetings on Tybee Island get nice and rabid. Do you go? Have you ever been? I made a deal. I've told you guys that the mayor of Tybee Island is a guy I grew up with and was my roommate right after when I was delivering mail, basically. And when I moved to Tybee, I had to make a deal with him that I would not get involved in politics. or attend the town hall meetings. Why do I have a feeling those meetings veer away from simply, you know,

quaint political discussion on Tybee Island? Many a wayward soul wonders into these meetings. Gold standard. Have you ever been to a town hall meeting? We're really off the rails here. I haven't, but I watched the town hall with Pete Carroll today, and my favorite part was the fact that people didn't even have concrete questions prepared. They just really wanted to talk to Pete Carroll.

So a bunch of hands would go up, and cheerleaders were going around, handing out the microphones, ill-prepared but like meeting their hero and they were like do you um is there uh do you like you like football like those were the kinds of questions he was getting do you remember that time when richard sherman batted away the ball and then we went to the super bowl that that was awesome that was awesome uh one of the things that carol did say by the way i think town hall meetings are going going by by extinct i can't imagine anyone in our generation ever going to a town hall meeting 20 years from now.

If you live on an island, you probably still go. That is extremely cynical and probably accurate. Pete Carroll said, and Darrell Bevel, their offensive coordinator, said that this is a team that's going to be looking to be a little more running back by committee. Kristen Michael, getting into the mix, taking some carries from Marshawn Lynch. Are we buying it? Yes, and I'll tell you why, because I think that the Seattle Seahawks are the NFL's

version of the San Antonio Spurs. They're bold, they're unconventional, they do their own thinking and now they've reached the portion of their franchise building where they can almost count on being a playoff team and whereas the Spurs are the first team in the NBA since 1976 not to have anybody play over 30 minutes a game. It makes all the sense in the world to extend Marshaun Lynch's career and at least make sure his legs are fresher in January.

So why not get a guy like Kristen Michael whose Vine videos in OTAs are starting to look like Pamela Anderson videos. People are just dying to get their hands on this guy. I was wondering where you're going with this. I like it. I feel like Kenny Britt's vines are a little more like Pamela Anderson videos. No, I mean, just the quench to have these videos where he's just leaving defenders that can't even catch him.

One of the privileges we have where we got to go to Orlando, for instance, and talk to a guy like John Snyder behind the scenes where he was a little more relaxed, he explained one of the reasons that Kristen Michael saw, what was it, 18 carries last year, was that his game was very incomplete, like a lot of young rookie running backs where he wasn't doing the small things they needed him to do. And one thing they mentioned last couple of days is he's doing those things now. His role is going to increase. And a lot of people said, oh, this sounded like a mechanism to get Marshaun Lynch back into the building.

He's skipping OTAs. Right. And I think that that is actually not the case. because there's no real threat of Lynch not being a part of this team. They know what he can do. Chris is right. This committee is the plan, and they picked Michael as an heir apparent. They love his game, and it's not a transitional game away from what Lynch does. He gives you more of that.

Lynch wasn't as good last year. He was still very, very, very good. But wasn't as good. It was good in the playoffs. Yeah. I'm just saying overall, he was at a point where you were talking about maybe the clear number two running back, in the NFL probably wasn't at that level so why not give some love to

Kristen Michael. I like the town hall thing if only because it gives Pete Carroll a chance to just take a little dig at Jim Harbaugh. Most coaches are so afraid to throw shots and he said Harba you know he hemmed and hot he gave a bunch of politically correct answers when asked

about Harbao but then he said he's a great coach and he's a great coach and we love beating him. Why wouldn't you love beating him? Yeah why wouldn't I would love to beat Jim Harbaugh. He has to be one of the most guys that you would love to beat. Oh, yeah. Tell us you done your homework if you do.

The best part of all of it, though, was that Pete Carroll had like the old man laugh at the end of it. He was like, hey, that was a good one. So that's the news today. And we're going to keep the news pretty short because I'm so excited for our next guest, a former second round draft pick in the NFL, former scout, has worked in the front office.

And we love having them back on the show to tell us what he is hearing around the league. Let's welcome into the podcast, Bucky Brooks. Great to have you back in the studio. And I wanted to start talking about something you wrote on the site. And you ranked the best duos of wide receivers in the NFL. And you put Pierre Garsohn and Deshaun Jackson number one on that list. I was very surprised to hear that.

And then actually this morning, Thursday morning, Rather, on NFL AM, Garsohn said, that's our goal to be that number one duo to pass Alshan Jeffrey and Brandon Marshall. So Pierre is on your side. Make the case for the Redskins. Well, you know, the thing about the Redskins is what I was doing, I was trying to look at the entire receiver course. So from one to five or how many they have on their squad. And so making the case for the Redskins as opposed to the Chicago Bears, the Chicago Bears tandem is obviously outstanding. Alshon, Jeffrey, Brandon Marshall, a dynamic.

Both guys had over 1,200 yards. You have Martellus Bennett, who was fantastic, in the middle as a tight end. But they let Earl Bennett go, and you have a guy in Marquise Wilson who was an unproven threat. When I looked at the Washington Redskins, the fact that Deshaun Jackson and Pierre Gasson are both outstanding playmakers, Deshaun Jackson, we know what his big playability is. Pierre Gasson led the league in receptions. And then you had Jordan Reed, who's kind of flying under the radar. But this guy, 67% of his boss, his receptions went for first downs.

And they signed Andre Roberts, not knowing that they would get Deshaun Jackson. So you have three starting receivers plus the tied-in. I think that separates them from other people because of the depth and diversity and all the pieces of the puzzle complement one another, which I think is essential to a good passing game. So you would give the best duo maybe to another team, but the best group to the Redskins. Complete group, I think Washington Redskins would do that.

I think Andre Roberts flies under the national radar, but Bucky will probably tell you he's excellent after the catch. You know, I mean, so now, man. All three of those guys are actually. excellent after the catch. I'm really excited to see what Jake Rudin. And he said something yesterday, I thought, that was really outstanding in his press conference.

He talked about, we want to have an offense that has the ability to run counter to anything that the defense does. So we can give you the zone read with Robert Griffin. We have the ability to run the ball powerfully with Alfred Morris. And now we have this receiving court where we can do any number of things in the passing game. And with the John Jackson being able to stretch the field vertically, Pierre Gasson, being able to do bubble screens and underneath stuff, and Andre Roberts being a talented

rot runner. plus, I mean, Jordan Reed in the middle. They just have a lot of weapons. Can he get it all done in terms of calling the plays and managing the game? That's tough, but I think I like the weapons that they have. I mean, the best thing for Gruden is he goes from Andy Dalton to Robert Griffin three. I mean, I think that is a quarterback you can do everything with. With Deshaun Jackson, though, are those numbers from last season?

Is that a product of Chip Kelly's offense to some degree? Can you expect them to come in and duplicate that? Well, I mean, I think obviously some of it's inflated by the way that Chip Kelly used him. But when you look back, in six years, he has 35 receptions over 40 yards or more, which is crazy production for a big play receiver. And now putting him in Washington, where you have Alfred Morris, you have to commit an extra guy to the box, he's probably going to see more one-on-one coverage than he's seen during his time.

Because before, when he was in Philadelphia with Andy Reed, Andy wasn't committed to running the ball enough to really force people to have to respect the run with Shady McCoy. Now he goes to a situation where they have the ability to line up And really make you respect to run with Alfred Morris And so because of that, he will see the one-on-one coverage that he lives for And even though he's a small guy and people will walk up and press All he has to do is slip it once or twice and those are big games

He may not catch as many passes But I think his career average has always been around that 16 to 17 yard mark He would have that kind of production in Washington Is Jay Gruden an upgrade from Kyle Shanahan? To me, Jay Gruden's a little bit of a mystery I think he is a mystery And I think you could really knock him in terms of his ability to call players because I wasn't overly impressed with what he did at Cincinnati.

I felt like he underachieve based on the talent that they had. But I think sometimes you fall into a situation that's too good to mess up. I don't think he can mess it up. He has a quarterback that is a dual threat. He has a big running back in Alfred Morris. He has three wide receivers we've talked about. I mean, if they can find a way to cobble up protections just to keep Robert Griffin upright, I don't know how he can mess it up from a play calling standpoint.

He's a huge accent an upgrade from Jay Grude. Yeah. Huge upgrade. Yeah, I think we all think that. Yeah, I think so. Huge upgrade. I've got two counters for your Redskins have the best group argument. All right.

All right. Green Bay. You got Jordy Nelson. You got Randall Cobb. You got Jared Boykin. You got their second round draft pick. Devante Adams. Devante Adams slipped out of my mind there.

That group. Maybe you're going to add your Michael Finley. You don't quite have the tight end right now. That's a pretty strong group right there. And then you go to Denver's another. another one you at least have to look at, right? DeMarius Thomas, Wes Welker, Emmanuel Sanders. Julius Thomas, Latimer. Julius Thomas, Cody Latimer. I like that. I bring them third. Here's the problem with the Denver Broncos in terms of like putting them one. DeMarius Thomas is in his prime.

He is a guy that is a stud. West Welker is on the backside of his career and I would say that his production is slipping. And at 33 years old, I don't know how much he really scares people. The system that Peyton Manning run really overwhelms and overshadows what the wide receivers do because you talk about Eric Decker having their production everywhere that Peyton Manning has been Blair White had production when he was there, Austin Colley, Anthony Gonzalez. Blair Wright, well, let's back out the Blair Wright. I mean, yeah, everyone. So in terms of just the pure talent, I don't think those guys rank.

And with the Green Bay Packers, I like Jordy Nelson, but if we were sitting out and about to go play pickup, I don't know if I would pick Jordy Nelson over Deshawn Jackson. It's debatable whether I would take him over Pierre Garcant. But I think Deshaun Jackson, when you look at the consistency and the track record, I'm just a D.Jax fan over Jordy Nelson. I think Jordan Nelson is a stud. I'm taking Jordy over anybody on the Redskins. Does this playground have a sideline?

Because if you need a guy to catch a ball on the sidelines, Jordy Nelson. No, I thought you were offering yourself for that. But then even outside of that, like Randall Cobb hasn't had a thousand-yard season. He would be good on a playground, though. It would be good on a playground. He's a do-it-all playmaker. I mean, boy, I can't even really talk about it

until I see more consistency. And then, you know, the tidings situation is in flux because we don't know if your Michael Finley is coming back. Well, I hate to disagree with our, you know, honored guest here, but I'm going to take the Packers out of that group. Are you taking the Packers, Redskins, or the Broncos? I think it's on paper at this point. I go Redskins.

I think that's a strong group. Wesleyan? I can't take the Packers if they don't have Jim Michael Finley, no. I can't do that. I would probably take the Broncos. Yeah, that might be the safest pick. The Redskins do have some injury concerns. The quarterback doesn't come included.

Like it's one of those toys. The quarterback doesn't come included. So then we're just talking about trotting it out. So if we trot it out the Packers receiving core, and we had Andy Dahl in that quarterback, do we feel good about that team being a competitive team? Maybe we should talk about the Bengals wide receiver core. Greg assigned some Marvin Joan tape last night.

I was impressed. What a job. making plays. He was a good player. He was a good player at Cal. And I don't know how he was a fifth round pick, but he was a very good player. Yeah, he was one of my guys. Does he talk about Marvin Jones, like a bigger role for him this year? You know, I think with Hugh Jackson, here's what Hugh does. Hugh kind of pokes the bear with every receiver there. He's going to tell them guys privately, you're the guy. You can be my number one guy. He did it with Denarius Moore with the Oakland Raiders. He builds those guys up like they feel like they're

superheroes. What he's going to do is create a very competitive environment outside of A.J. Grant, where those guys scratch and law to get the football thrown their way. But what he's going to do to really help those guys, they're going to run the ball differently than they've ever done before in terms of being a powerful football team. If you go back and look at the way the Raiders ran the football when he was the offense coordinator and head coach, always a top 10 running game. And so anytime you're able to run the football effectively like that, he's really going

to make the game very easy for Andy Dahl and to have success. Consequently, those guys on the outside have success. All right. So no consensus here on the best receiver group. That's all right. Let's switch to defense. Let's talk about Greg Williams, who is a guy that's relatively been under the radar, considering what a spotlight he was under after the Bounty Gate scandal,

and people said he would never return to the league. And now he's back in the league because he's got a good buddy and Jeff Fisher, and because he's a good coach on defense. He's certainly got a lot of talent to work with. What do you expect his impact to be on that Rams defense? I think you have a significant impact. This is the most talented team that he has taken over from a defensive standpoint. He has never been given this much talent up front and in the back end to do what he likes to do.

So understand he's a disciple of Buddy Ryan. I mean, he wants to heat it up. He wants to bring pressure. He wants to do a lot of blisses because he wants to really make the quarterback feel the heat. And so last year, the Rams had 53 sacks. 46 of those came from that defensive line. They did a lot of four-man pressures and really relied on those guys to get it done. Well, Greg Williams wants to dial it up and bring pressure.

And the thing that I've learned about people that bliss is you're not. necessarily blitzing to get the blitz at home, but you're blitzing to make sure that your best guys get one-on-one situations. So with Robert Quinn and Chris Longs and Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers, you're now sending extra body so those guys can win one-on-one. And the fact that Robert Quinn has been able to sack the quarterback 19 times last year without having that, I think it'd be scary for people in the NFC West. And with Greg Williams, one common denominator he's always had, he's always had a dynamic safety. That guy will now be T.J. McDonald will come in. Is he good enough for that? He's absolutely good enough.

You know, they gave him a little bit of that role. He blessed him a little bit last year. He had a sack. He had an interception. He can do a little bit of everything. But more importantly, he's a physical guy. And his best defenses, Deshaun Taylor's, the Blaine Bishops, even in New Orleans when he has Sharper and Roman Harper, those safeties are always incorporated into the mix, not only as blisters, but in the run game and also in terms of sending those remember me shots over the middle to field, T.J. McDonald can do that. Greg Williams, is a guy you're right, hasn't always had the greatest talent,

and this group is about as talented as any in the league. Is this the most talented defense in that division? Wow, that's... Seahawks? I mean, that is... This might be the best defensive division. Well, the Cardinals have fallen off. You know, I mean, gosh, you know,

from top to bottom, their front seven is as good as anybody. And then when you look at the back end, I like their two corners, Genoise Jenkins, Jermaine Johnson is underrated. You have T.J. McDonnell in the middle. Gosh, I wish they had a free safety that I really love. The guy they drafted in them.

I like Lamarke's joining. And he's also, if you think about Honey Badger, he can do some of those Honey Badger-like things. Blitz, he had five and a half sackses last year at Florida State. They have a lot of talent. I think you can make that argument that they're right up there. They may be the best because I think San Francisco has fallen back to the pack a little bit. And I think Seattle is just so unique.

But from a talent perspective, St. Louis has a lot up front. So you think the Seahawks is more coaching them up a little bit in the system and the Rams might have a little more talent? I think the Rams may have more talent. I think those guys in Seattle absolutely believe in the system. They've done a great job of simplifying and developing those guys. But you really look at that defense,

you're dealing with a lot of late-round graphics. And that doesn't always mean something. But when we're picking them off the playground, and you're talking about one of the more talented guys, the St. Louis Rams are probably more talented in most areas of that defense. One thing with St. Louis, it's tough to get overly excited about the overall operation because of the other side of the ball for me. Wesleyan made the point in print yesterday that, what was it, they're doomed to mediocrity? They're doomed to mediocrity as long as they have Sam Bradford at quarterback.

You know, they've got Brian Schottenheimer, and some of us, we've talked about up here that we feel like potentially it's Schottenheimer's philosophy that's maybe holding guys like Tavon, Austin, and others back a little bit. What is your take on what's going on on that side of the ball? I kind of fall right in line with you guys. I do wonder if Brian Schottenheimer is creative enough to maximize what they have on offense. I know there was a lot of conversation about the guys need a receiver. They need to go and get a Sammy Watkins or somebody to juice it up. But, I mean, the eighth pick in the draft, you're expecting Tavon Austin to be a difference maker. So now the onus really falls on Brian Schottenheimer to show that he has the ability to craft game plans to maximize the talent.

We can say whatever we want to about Jim Harbar and what the San Francisco 49ers do. They're proven that Greg Roman is creative enough to create big play opportunities. Arizona, we know what Bruce Ariens does, what he did with Carson Palmer last year, what he's done traditionally with his offenses. Brian Schottinheimer has to step his game up and show that he has the ability to craft game plans to not only make Sam Bradford look good, but to generate enough points to compete in a tough NFC West. They've pumped a lot of resources into that wide receiver court. Jared Cook got a monster contract.

All of their wide receivers, Brian Quick, Givens, Stedman Bailey, Pettis. These guys are all second, third round draft picks. Yeah, I mean, it's time for those guys to grow up. And, look, ultimately, we will judge them by the way their quarterback plays. But the way the quarterback plays will be determined on how Brian Schottonheimer crafts it around. He should sit down with Sam Bradford and figure out what he does really well and make sure that he does that over and over and over again. That's what the great play callers do.

They take the strengths of the quarterback, and they find a way to recycle those same concepts over and over again by giving you window dressing with formations and motions. I feel better now. I was feeling guilty for a while that we've, you know, just to the entire Schottenheimer family, that we've unfairly disparaged him for months in this studio. But now Bucky says it's cool. Well, I mean, I can keep him. I play for his dad. So I understand. And Brian and Brian was always around the program.

Brian, coached in San Diego. He did some stuff at SC. So he's been exposed to a lot of things. And he was, you know, obviously. Bucky's showing off his back pedal right here. I know. No, no, no. But no, I'll come at him because I completely believe that in New York, he killed him.

I believe the Jets had a team that was worthy of being a team that could go farther than they did. But offensively, he never figured out how to maximize what Mark Sanchez was or what he wasn't. He asked him to do too much. Part of being a good coordinator is understanding clearly what your guy can do and only put him in a situation where he's, he's asked to do that. So we should almost be thankful as football fans that Robert Griffin 3 and Mansell didn't wind up in St. Louis. Yeah, because I wonder. I mean, I don't know. I like the new nickname for RG3, by the way. Sorry. What did I call? Robert Griffin 3. I don't know. That's twice now. I just see things in print. Yeah, because it takes, it takes a creative mind.

It takes someone that can think outside the box, and he's very tied and rigid to the West Coast system. But also understand, he learned it from Paul Hackett. And Paul Hall Hackett is a guy that has experience in the West Coast, but he doesn't strike you as a creative, innovative mind when it comes to drawing up plays and trying to create these game plans. So for Brian, it's a challenge to think outside of the box. And also, he also said at the dinner table every night with his dad

who was like, like, we're going to run it, and I turn it over, and find a way. That kind of ceips into your thinking. It's interesting that you mentioned asking Mark Sanchez to do too much because in the book, Collision, Low Crossers, which is about the 2011 jet season, it's funny during the lockout Rex Ryan invites John Gruden in

to talk to the coaches and he got all over Brian Schottenheimer wore him out said defend your point why are you asking Sanchez to do all this exactly same point you made it was all too complicated it's funny because I had that conversation with a coach on their staff about how

they always brought coaches in to try and help him they had not only John Gruden come in they had Tom Moore come in right they tried to really show him how to call a game, how to structure a game, all those things. And there's an art to play calling. And we always talk about how the best play callers kind of have a stone cold mentality.

When you watch this New Orleans Saints play, Sean Payton will go off the grid to dial it up to find the way to create a big play. Mike McCarthy, to me, is one of the best play callers I've seen in terms of the way that he attacks the game from that standpoint. Brian Schottenheimer has to understand how to set the table so that he can create those counterplays to what they do in a game plan. That's what Gary Kubiak has done. that's why they're able to create those big plays in the offense.

I think Bucky's got a, you got a great opportunity to write a NFL.com play caller power rankings. I like that idea. I would say the Schadenheimer family should not read that or listen to anything that's happened here. Something weird with sons and families in that organization. You got Schottenheimer, you had Blake Williams running the defense last year, right? Basically, Greg Williams' son. I'm not sure what was going on there while he was suspended. You know, just as hire some new blood in the NFL.

So we like to shine a light, not just on the big-time teams like the Cowboys and all that, but talk about some teams like the Rams and the Chargers too. They haven't gotten a lot of attention this off season, but they're having a change in their offense. No more Ken Wizz and Hunt. What are you looking for from the Chargers offense in Frank Reich this year? So I made the ride down to 405 to go to their first OTA. And, you know, surprisingly, when I got there,

They were very organized. And I really dawned them. Why was that surprised? Well, I was just surprised that they were as sophisticated as they were the first day of OTAs. Watching them, that entire practice, they ran no huddle. Philip Rivers was in complete control of that offense. And I noticed, because I looked back, I was like, oh, Frank Reich is running the offense. So Frank and I played together in Buffalo.

And really quickly in practice, I noticed that some of the K-gun principles were in play. Some of the smash routes, some of the level concepts that you saw, Buffalo run way back in the early 90s, they were running. But those same concepts were also a key part of what Indianapolis did for years. And because Reich spent a lot of time up there working with Peyton Manning and doing some of that no-huddle stuff that was very simple, but it was very, I guess, an attention to really execution. I think they're going to give Phillip Rivers more leeway than he's ever had,

and they're going to trust him to get it done running that no-huddle system. I think you'll see them play at a pace that we haven't seen them play at, and I think they're ramping up, and they'll be far more exciting than we used to see in the charges in terms of the passing act. While you're here, we have to ask you something. We've been debating Ladarius Green. We love his talent, but I guess we're debating, like, is he going to be a 600-yard receiver? Or if he breaks out, could it be an 8 or 900? Could he actually overtake Antonio Gates in production?

Yes. You know, gosh, what's so tough is because Antonio Gates wasn't there. He's the veteran, he's established, but at some point you have to kind of pass the torch. I think Laderie's Green is ready to be the guy that assumes it. The key will be will they use 12 first nail? Will they use one back, two tight-in, some? How much would they use that? And how comfortable are they with trusting Laderie's Green

to be the key playmaker between the hashes? When you look at that team and the way it's constructed, you have Keenan Allen on the outside. They're trying to get Malcolm Floyd back. You have Vincent Brown. You really don't have a proven commodity outside of what I'll say is Kenan Allen. So maybe they go with two tight-ins early in the year, see how it works,

Maybe Laderes Green takes it over. Well, you're talking about this hurry-up offense. That means more plays. That means more stats. Plus, you can't have an old 34-year-old Antonio Gates running up and down the field on this fast break. You got Laderius Green. That's a good point.

You don't want him to be the Shaquille O'Neill waiting for him to come back on offense when you're trying to fast break. This is good stuff, Bucking. Settle down, gentlemen. Breaking some news on the fast break charges often because that's a change from last year. Yeah, and, you know, last year they were so run heavy down the stretch. And it's, I think that's what paved the, the way for them to sneak into the playoffs and that Broncos game and that night game was

interesting the way they attacked them. But also a guy like Danny Wood had fit so well into Wiz and Hunt's offense. We saw him go get Dexter McCluster in Tennessee. What happens to some of those roles? Is it going to all change? No, I think those roles fit well. I think the big thing is they also got Donald Brown. And so understand, Frank comes from, Frank Wright spent a lot of time in Indianapolis. And so if you think about how the Indianapolis coach offense ran when Peyton was really doing it. The running back was like a secondary option. They ran the football, but they were never like this rough and

rugged. We're going to grind it and pound it. It was to supplement what the quarterback did. I think they're going to put the ball in Taylor Rivers' hands. A major change from their last six weeks of last year when Ryan Matthews was getting the ball 30 times a game. And he may still get it because here's what you have. You have different philosophy because Mike McCoy was with me

in Carolina under John Fox and the way that we ran the ball there and went to the Super Bowl was we pound it, pound it, pound it. I think it really depends on each week what they see the weaknesses of the defense are. And really, like, now that we've seen Philip Rivers kind of go back to the good Phillip Rivers, maybe they now have a more trust in terms of, let's let Philip Rivers do his deal.

He's an older guy. Let's give it to him and allow him to throw balls in the yards. There seems to be a philosophy in all of these offenses you're talking about. Is the new thing in the NFL, we saw how many resources the 49ers are put into the passing game now. They got Stevie Johnson. They're a run-heavy offense, but it's a new thing you mentioned. you want to be able to have your offense be able to counter every single thing the defense does so you can't be just run heavy or just pass heavy it's all situation on there yeah absolutely you want

to be able to be balanced um i think the old philosophy they always talk about is you have to throw to score or run to win you have to be able to run the football when people know that you're running the football you also want to be able to run the football because it gives your team a a grit a toughness that it needs to be able to win in December in January when you get the playoff football and the game kind of changes and slows down but Ultimately, the way the league rules are, you want to open it up and really put it to those big bodies on the outside because you're basically playing basketball on grass. You miss a tackle here or there. You create those big plays.

So when you talk about San Francisco going and getting all of those wide receivers, those guys that can win those one-on-one matchups, you're now saying that Colin Kaepernick is ready to advance his game. So let's make sure we have enough weapons on the outside where we can build a passing game that allows them to play to his strengths. Well, you mentioned Kaepernick. We've already discussed the Kaepernick contract and all the details and, you know, where are the guarantees? What was your thoughts when you heard about the Kaepernick contract? You know, I think it's a good deal for both sides. And I know some people kind of take him to ask like, oh, well, he doesn't have all those guarantees. But I think the one thing that I've learned in looking at Derrell Revis the last couple of years,

it's okay cashing $15 million checks every year and earning your keep, particularly while you young. For Colin Kaepernick, he gets an opportunity, maybe. Maybe if they don't like, he gets to go back to the table and they have to re-up. And we know that the money always goes up, it doesn't come down. He's a young guy. He's a guy who has really done great things outside of when he's had to play Seattle, that now they're trusting him to be able to be the man. And so if he has an opportunity with those receivers to really advance his game as a pass

and really show people that he's more than this dual threat runner that people are pegging him to be, I think he could be a dangerous thing. And I think he is really the future of the league at the quarterback position. in terms of this. When you look at the high school game and the college game, all of these guys that see on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons are guys who are mobile, who are athletic enough to make plays with their feet, but also have the wherewithal to make plays from the pocket.

Colin Kaepernick did it. He's one of a couple guys, I want to say, in NCAA history, 10,000 passing yards, 4,000 rushing yards. He's a unique specimen, a unique athlete, and as they expand their playbook, I think we'll have a greater appreciation for what he does. It may not be reflected in the numbers per se. He may not be a 300-yard passer each week.

But he's so dangerous that he makes it really tough for defense to the game plan for him. Well, if you're working Friday and Saturday watching games and Sunday, of course, when you get some time off here? Oh, man, it's football all the time. I mean, you got to know, you got to know what's coming. High school, college, it all works. I mean, are there any more pocket just stationary, Drew Bledso, Peyton, Manning, looking guys that are stuck in space?

Or are they all just got, everyone always like, oh, this guy is surprisingly athletic or he's athletic. Well, if they're all athletic, that's not surprising anymore. You don't have to tell me that he's surprisingly athletic. I expect him to be athletic. Well, I think what we have to do is get past the traditional view of what we envision our quarterback. Man, because for so long we saw Dan Marino and Jim Kelly and those guys as our pocket quarterback. I guy who is, that's the franchise quarterback.

That's what he looks like. But the game is changing. Like, when people talk about Andrew Luck, they always overlook his athleticism and how much he ran the ball at Stanford. He is, in essence, like the new school quarterback. He's a guy that if we asked him, we put him in. Washington's offense and asked him to run the zone read. He absolutely could do it. You don't want to expose them to those kind of hits,

but he's capable of doing it. I've always been taught in the West Coast offense that you want an athletic quarterback, from Steve Young to Brett Farf to all the quarterbacks that I was around in their system, Rich Gannon and Kansas City, all those guys could extend plays because when you go through your progressions,

one, two, three, and four, if it breaks down, you have a quarterback that can still get you a four-yard game. Staying ahead of the change. Bill Walsh always talks about climbing in the pocket, trying to minimize the negative, yards. That's what those athletic mobile quarterbacks do. But you can't be a guy that is run heavy, run only. You have to

be able to throw from the pocket. But anytime you can run the ball, it creates problems for the defense. Before we let you go, let's get your thoughts on the revamped Steelers defense. The team of ATL. Oh, stop. That's the team of ATL? No, well, I'm campaigning

for it. No, well, we're holding a competition. None of the teams are aware of this. But last year, we chose around week, five, six, we decided the Carolina Panthers were going to be the team of around the league. We were in early on them before they really ran off. That's the team we're going to root for as a group. This year, it's now back open to competition. We're going to choose a new team most likely. And, you know, it has to be unanimous. And, and Wes, he likes the Steelers as an option. As May I could say, I'm standing on the table for the...

Standing on the table. Standing on the Steelers. It's not a bad team. We're banging on it. We're standing on it. They finally have flipped their roster where they're now young and athletic at linebacker. It took them a while to get to the point where they were able to have these young athletic guys. You have Jarvis Jones, who's a second-year player, who should be more productive. You have whirls coming off on the other edge. You have Lawrence Timmons, who we still want to consider him young, but he's eight years in the league. But the guy that they drafted, Ryan Shazir is a carbon copy of Lawrence Timmons. So now what you have, you have, you have four guys in that linebacker core that have the ability to rush the passer. And so when you think about Dick LaBoe

and the way that he wants to dial up that old Blitzburg package and all the stunts and games, they want to run, they may have four guys in the second level that can do that. And with Mike Mitchell coming over from Carolina, I was one of the ones that laughed when the Oakland Raiders took him because he was an unknown player from Ohio. Al Davis takes him in the lineup. He goes to

Carolina and he kind of shows up and makes place. They did a lot of blitzing with Mike Mitchell back in the date with Carolina. I believe he will be the new Troy Palomalo in terms of the way that they use him. Watch him near the box, watch him coming down, making big hits in the passing game, and maybe Troy goes to the

deep metal and doesn't play the role that he customarily played. If you're Johnny Mansell and you win that quarterback competition and your week one start is against that defense in Pittsburgh, could you possibly have drawn a worse scenario for a rookie quarterback to deal with? Oh, it's absolutely a nightmarish for a young quarterback because, one, they're a three, four team. You never know which guys are alive in terms of coming. And part of the success that still has had back in the day because they're one of the few

three, four teams. So when they were bringing pressure, you had a tough time figuring out. out how are you going to block it for their week? So for Johnny Mansell, who is maybe not used to making checks, making hot calls, seeing sight adjustments, it's a lot to process. In that first game, if he's a quarterback, I expect to see a lot of Ben Tate, a lot of Terrence West, and then punting a lot on fourth down because I can't imagine them allowing him. A lot of fourth downs.

I can't imagine them. Punting on third down. Why not? I can't imagine them asking him to Thor it 25 more times. That's a recipe for disaster. One quick one. Isaiah Crowell, we talked about him on our last cast. Why undrafted because of character issues, I'm assuming?

But what's your take on this guy? Because, well, Wesleyan used to watch him in the old college bar, and they loved him, right? And on Tybee Island, Georgia, you know, all out of UGA fans down there, the bar was crazy about this guy. I like that Mark's now using the podcast to get personal scouting reports for his own team. He doesn't care about the listener. I find him, he's enigmatic because it's like to not have a team even take a seventh round flyer on him. You know, sometimes that character thing gets in the way. and it prevents you from making a pick.

But for him, it's an opportunity to really go in and show what he is. Sometimes when you're drafting the seven-round, it works against you because you don't have an opportunity to pick and choose where you go to, where you have your best opportunity to make the team. He was a talented running back in Georgia. He goes to Alabama State. He's certainly good enough. He's quick enough.

He's physical enough. It's about can he find a way very early in the preseason to show people that he can be not only necessarily a belkout, but a guy that can contribute in a role, but also play special teams because where he is, he's going to have to find a way to make a contribution as a cover guy, maybe as a returner, to buy himself enough time to get on the field as a running back. I love it. That's some great stuff from Bucky Brooks.

To recap, if you guys missed or you kind of were zoning out over the last few minutes, we got some takeaways. Philip Rivers, it's going to fulfill his destiny as the up-tempo next-level Peyton Manning. It seems like something that's perfect for Philip Rivers. The Washington Redskins, Bucky Brooks says, is the best receiver group in the league. and he's smarter than us, so we'll have to agree with him. Mike Mitchell. I hadn't really thought about his impact on Troy Palo,

but it might change Palomalo's role and maybe it's just planning for life without Palomalo. This could be his last year. And then shut up about the Colin Kaepernick contract to everyone. Bucky Brooks says so you just shut up about it. Right? Stop criticizing. That's all I'm saying.

I'm going to just say it. I think that was another A-plus, another home run. I think Bucky's now locked in as a recurring guess whether he wants to be or not. Right. Yeah, we definitely... Not good news for Kevin Patra. Wow. We might not even have Dan back.

Who knows? Bucky, thanks so much again. Thanks for having me. It was great. Out of the park. Great having you. And we'll talk to you soon. I feel like I just soaked in a giant sponge of like behind the scenes whispers.

You don't feel like a dumpster? You know how he likes to talk about dumping off his knowledge. Some of that stuff was really new. The Chargers, you know, I know, Mark, your shift is up today, so I guess I'll assign this one out to Chris Wesley. I think we need to do a post on that Chargers information, the up-tup bill offense. That was good. That was good stuff.

We will be back on Monday, and our humble host, Dan Hansis, will be here, and we can't wait for him to get back from Texas, and we're going to be doing some Win West's toaster next week. Zach, I know we're going to be in a different location next week at some. point. This is all, yeah, we got technical difficulties, but that's what the ATL podcast is all about. Yeah, we're moving studios. They're going to be fixing up this studio during the summer, so we'll come up with something, but we'll be back for three shows next week for Zach the Gold Standard, Mark Sessler,

and Chris Wesleying. I'm Greg Rosenthal. We will see you, Mike. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit.

So you can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors. For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com.