NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Combine takeaways, who's on the rise?

Episode Date: February 25, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling -- discuss their observations from a weekend at the NFL Scouting Combine and break down what the proceedings mean for teams around the league. The gang picks apart all the latest NFL headlines and gets The Boss on the phone from Indianapolis to get his best stories from the event. Which players from this draft class impressed the heroes most? Where do they see Johnny Football going in the draft? There’s only one place to find out -- the brand new “Around The League Podcast.”  So grab a seat, tune in and join the conversation on Twitter: @NFL_ATL or #NFLATL.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the League podcast is footloose and fancy free. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansen, and I'm joined by a room filled with some heroes, Chris Wessling and Mark Sessler. What up, boys. Hey, Dan.

Well, we're back. You sure are. And I really, I appreciate you guys, especially West. on an off day mark not so much it's part of your job you're on the schedule you come in and that's what you do uh both you gentlemen were in indianapolis as of yesterday uh for the combine uh while i held it down back uh in california and now you're back welcome back thanks yeah it's good to be back you both look like different levels of dead like walkers well yeah uh saturday night was a very fun night five of my brothers made the

trip in from Cincinnati and had a few, um, had dinner and a few drinks with Mark and Greg and a couple of my friends came in too. So that was a fun, fun night. We're going to get to that. But more importantly, I just wanted to ask you, both of you first, um, did you miss me? Absolutely. We missed you and we missed you on the podcast. It didn't feel right to, uh, not have you in the seat with us. Second question. At one point did you guys kind of look at each other collectively and you know you just kind of thought man this is a fun professional experience it's about an eight out of ten but we know where that missing two is oh yeah i think that was that was looming over our heads the whole trip yeah that was the you know if you want

it was the black cloud hanging over what otherwise would have been a successful week um all right good see now i can sleep at night i haven't slept in seven days wondering the answer to those questions well i don't think there's no uh there's no fibbing going on here we really did miss you and it could have been a 10 out of 10 with our fourth member. All right, so there's plenty to get to here. Greg Rosenthal, I should say, is in Indianapolis still. He'll be back on Tuesday, and he will be on the Wednesday show. So he's holding it down, and we might get him on the phone in a little bit just to check in with him.

So big show today. We're going to talk Combine, some more takeaways from the Combine. Go down a couple different categories. We'll get Greg on the phone, as I said. but before we do any of that the gold standard behind the glass how are you buddy yeah doing great thank you

and you know before we get to news I do want to say something that yes we missed you if you're about to ask that question again damn it no gold standard sat in on the Damashik podcast the other day and was

went by gold tie never corrected never corrected Dave on that I just felt it was a bit of a traumatic time for him not having black tie there I thought I'd ease the transition as best I could. Right, which I understand that, but I thought maybe you could pull them aside afterward and be like, hey, just so you know, I'm the gold standard. I should have, I've actually had a series of horrible experiences recently where I haven't corrected people in the first conversation when they get my name wrong, and that's just a horrible

slip to go down. So you're right. Yeah, and I did air this grievance via Twitter with Dave, who didn't think much of it. But yeah, so the gold standard is behind the glass. Let's do some those. Let's do it. All right, let's start with the story of Monday at the Combine. Of course, University of South Carolina, defensive end, Jadavian Clowney, running a pretty magnificent 40, posted a 4.53 officially after unofficial times of 446 and 447. This was obviously the buzz of the day. You know, we even did a post on the Iran League blog with NFL players and Twitter, you know, getting all amped up about this. How unusual it is to have a guy that's 6-6-266 running like a wide receiver

and beating some running backs. I mean, it's pretty crazy stuff. I will, one thing I'll say, and I'll throw it to you guys, is how come a big storyline today is still people kind of unhappy with this guy because he sat out a couple of these other drills? I mean, it seems like people can't get past this idea of this guy is so talented and he showed it again with his 40, but we don't know about him. That seems to be the prevailing narrative here. Well, I thought I watched all this stuff on my phone because NFL. Wow, look at you.

NFL.com, NFL media. We have this great phone app and I was able to track all of this on my off day. So what stood out to me was... By the way, Wes wearing a green shirt because it's the color of money because he's a corporate chill. Go on. So what stood out to me was Sapp's comments after the 40-year desk basically calling him a dog on tape. Yeah. That he takes too many.

plays off. Sap said he was almost ashamed to watch the film. It's funny that you bring that up because a day earlier, it might have been Saturday. Again, I was alone in the office for most of the week, but Sapp rolled in at one point. I believe it was on Saturday, and he was talking shop with one of our producers,

who goes by Giant. And they were going over some tape of Clowny, and Sapp was saying the same things. He was watching the tape, and he was saying he was literally getting mad watching it because the guy is such a stud, but then you look at what he put on tape this year, and that's what Sapp is speaking about,

why he's so frustrated, right? Well, isn't the issue there that people, I think, are knocking him for? You knew that if you were to get hurt, you've got to play this season out if you're going to stick around and play college football for another year. But what's the real upside for a guy in that position

other than you suffer a terrible injury and lose millions as your draft stock tumbles? I feel the same way. I feel like people are not looking at this from the human level, which is this guy, when he had that huge hit where he blew up the guy in the backfield, at the end of the previous season, before his final season at South Carolina, everyone knew this guy was special.

And he had literally nothing to gain, at least in a big picture sense, in a macro sense from coming back and going 100%. So I think he pulled back a little bit. And I understand why some people get mad at that, but I totally get it at the same time. It's his life. Yeah, I could see how football people would say, you know what, a lot of people have nothing to gain by playing in college.

But you do it anyway because that's what football is. You go hard on every whistle. So I could see the issue there, but I could also see this guy's a freakish talent, and you win in the NFL with difference makers. He's the kind of guy that haunt you if you pass him up. It reminds me of when the Jets took Muhammad Wilkerson, and there was concerns that, again, immensely talented on one play, but then would vanish on others.

And I think if you get them into the right locker room with other guys that battle hard in that position room, that, you know, Clowny, it's going to be hard for a team to pass up on them. Yeah, it's a good point. And I will say also, I get excited as an NFL fan imagining. I don't know how this is going to play out. But J.J. Watt and Jadavi and Clowny on the same field together, there has to be people in that building that just salivate thinking of the upper, upper, if this guy reaches his potential, how well set up this defense and that franchise would be

if they had two of the most premier players in the league in their prime lining up to them. Yeah, as long as Romeo Cornell doesn't use his ends as like space-eating run stuffers versus, I mean, they're talking about him potentially being an outside linebacker in that defense. Dan, are you think they have a possibility to be almost as good as JJ Watt and Mario Williams on the same defense? Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I get, no, it's, it's, it's fair. I just, yeah, I guess. It's a scary proposition.

That's, yeah, and I think that that's, I think ultimately the Texans probably will go the quarterback route, but I can't, is there any way that Clowney drops beyond pick five? I can't see that happening. I don't think so either. And I think this guy, it shows so much how the drafts and inexact science, you can take these, takes plays off things on tape, and you can say, all right, some guys have done that before and gone into the NFL and become a bust. Some guys have taken plays off and come into the NFL, and then,

played balls to the wall and have become all pros. So, I mean, how is Clowny? We don't know how Clowny's going to work out to that extent, but I just have a hard time saying you're going to pass up on the guy who's obviously the most talented player in the draft. All right, moving on, the San Francisco 49ers, Jim Harbaugh, Cleveland Brown's triangle of Doom is really, it's becoming a big story now. Obviously, as we know, Jimmy Hasam, the Brown's owner, came out yesterday and told the

USA Today reporter that they had an opportunity to acquire Jim Harbaugh. He didn't specify how, you know, what that opportunity entailed. And now Jed York, who initially denied the PFT report that this was a deal that was in place, he came out and told Peter King that, and here's the quote, the Browns reached out to me and we had no interest pursuing it. So it's kind of hard to say how far that got and maybe. Maybe we'll never know. But one thing we do know, it seems like something is up in that building in San Francisco. Yeah, I think, I mean, it's time to stop worrying about the Browns or Texas or USC side of this.

It has much more to do with the fact that those teams felt like this guy can be pried away from the 49ers. That there's something that we're all hearing about that suggests he's for sale. No one went and tried to do this with Pete Carroll or someone else. So it's probably one of the oddest stories we've dealt with in a long time. But for me, and we've said that it's right at the start, it's a 49er story. It has nothing to do with these teams that really tried to go after him. There's a suggestion that, you know, we know him and Trent Balky are, they're at odds at times, which can be healthy, I guess. That's sort of how Ian painted it, that at times it's seen as a healthy conflict maybe.

But long term, if they don't value him the way he wants to be valued, we know how this works. He won't be there long term. I read Mike Silver's column today, the one that came out today, and he talked a lot about this. The 49ers believe they can win without Jim Harbaugh. They think that Trent Balke should get a lot more credit for how he's built this team, that a lot of coaches can win with that talent. And we had an agent yesterday in Indianapolis tell us basically the same party line that Harbaal's good, but they think they can win without him.

I don't know. It's not either way I look at it, it hasn't been so long since you have Mike Singletary and a cast of other coaches who couldn't get the job done. And we talk about why do coaches get hired and stick around because they do something special. And there isn't a coach out there, I don't think, the coach's quarterback's the way that Harbaugh does. And you can't just remove him and put in Jim Tom Sula or some other guy

and expect that to go as fluidly. I think that's a tremendous loss of talent if he went elsewhere. Mark, I have to ask you, since West brought up the silver column, what is the deal with the Cleveland Browns presenting to some of these prospects a paperclip and asking them how many ways it can be used? You know, at the Senior Bowl, this first came out at the Senior Bowl where people were saying that whoever's asking these questions for Cleveland, scouts or whatever, have been asking the weirdest questions going on months now.

and I initially thought that has to be an old regime issue but it's clearly not and they used to ask people what can you do tell me everything you could do with a brick and now it became this paperclip thing I just find it odd I don't have any deeper

Are we looking for football players or the next MacGyver? That is a fair question You know what's great about McGiver jokes is that show's been off the air for like 23 years and people just drop McGiver and it still works Yeah. Rubber van, paper, clip, and hairspray.

You could blow up a building. And that doesn't work with other things. You couldn't, like, drop a Mr. Belvedere reference. And everybody was like, oh, yeah. I know where you're coming from on this one, big boy. Wesley. Or perhaps you can. One, I did love, by the way, Silver's take on what he would say.

It was great. And I'll read it right now. We'll give Mike a shout out as my computer, which loads at a 56K rate. I can paraphrase it for you. I want to get, this deserves a word for word action. Mike wrote, here's one. I can straighten it out the paperclip and stick it right through my eardrums so that I don't have to hear another one of these brilliantly constructed esoteric queries.

Bang. Drops Mike. Drops Mike. Well done. Moving on. Michael Vic could land with the New York Jets and Free Agency. NFL Media Insider Ian Rappaport reported Monday. that based on conversations in the past week,

it's clear the Jets are viewed as a legitimate possible landing spot for the Eagles quarterback, according to a source informed of the team's thinking. One thing that kind of stood out to me, because I think, Wes, you've been, you've said before that maybe the Mornwig Vick connection could be a problem with that. According to Rappaport, the understanding is that there is a, quote, mutual respect between the two men, and this could be a good match. Well, it was actually Schefter that reported that a year ago

about potentially It was that Vic and Morningweg parted not on ill terms but it was strained and that might block it it but it sounds like that's not the case now

It sounds like a very sensible fit to me We talked about this last week that the Jets and Vic seemed like a kind of the most sensible fit of all the landing spots for him they're built to win now on defense I think So I think why not go with the veteran over a guy Gino Smith

I didn't think was ready to win And the New York Daily News Mniche, one of the friends of the podcast, had reported that Josh McCown was also targeted to the team Ian came out today and said the same thing. So he's another guy that would be a sensible fit. Maybe Vic has a little more upside for the team. I will present this to you, Fells. And I agree with both of you guys, you're thinking.

As a Jets fan, I think it makes – Vic makes plenty of sense. Get an actual player in there behind Gino Smith, not – In front of Gino Smith. That will potentially – well, get to that. You know, last year they had – After Sanchez went down, they had David Garard, the remains of David Garard, and Phil Sims' son and not the good one. And that's really saying something as well. It wasn't a good one.

Right. So the less not good one. So this is important to have someone real in there. And I will throw it to both of you gentlemen over under. Let's say, let's go with Mike Vick for this exercise. Mike Vick signs with the Jets in a couple weeks. Over under that he's in the starting lineup. up. I'll set the over under at week four. Wes.

He's going to start opening game. Really? Why would you pick Geno Smith to start over Michael Vick? Well, I think personally, John Idzick, well, what do you think? Well, I would really agree because the other thing that we keep hearing about the Jets is that they're going to go hard after guys like Macklin. They're going to go hard after potentially a guy like Julian Edom. And they're going to look for receivers. And if you're going to want to spend a lot of money to change your offense and you add Michael Vick to the,

the puzzle. We don't hear about a team going out and trying to find veteran competition to push Andrew Luck. Right. You only hear about this when it's clear someone or some group of people in New York are not happy with Smith and are looking for ways to revive that offense sooner than later. Right. I mean, it was obviously, you know, they rode the Gino coaster last year, but that was also a guy that was kind of pushed into that spot and wasn't ready and didn't have the weapons. And now now he's going to potentially have some weapons. That's a second round pick by John Isick, the first quarterback he's taken since taking over the team.

I would think the organization would, even if they have doubts about them, which is pretty clear they do, they would be very open to at least giving him a chance at first and then not waiting too long and then bringing in whoever that backup is if Gino gets out to a slow start. That's just kind of how I see it,

but I totally understand the other side. Isn't it a tough scenario if you're Gino Smith and you're not playing well like any young quarterback who's not, Andrew Luck, might not play well out of the gate, and you've got Vic on the sideline. The fan base is going to go crazy. They're going to be calling for Vic by the third incomplete pass that sails over a bad receiver's head. Rex Ryan doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would do with just whatever John Idzic said,

even if it meant his team was going to be less competitive. And yeah, and you bring up Rex, and it's a good point because Rex's job is again on the line. Who cares what the contract was? He needs to put up a winning record and probably make the playoffs. So he's not going to stick with Gino Smith. Well, and real quick, it reminds me of what Marone said in Buffalo about E.J. Manuel. I don't think these coaches, they all know, they don't have five years to develop a passer anymore. Right.

If Gino Smith looks like a chaotic, half-baked quarterback, you've got to move on quick. All right. The gold standard behind the glass. Yes, sir. Why don't we check? We have one more ATL soldier out in Indianapolis. He is the boss, Greg Rosenthal. We were thinking, let's get him on the phone and talk a bit with Greg.

see what he's got. I like that. Leave no man behind. Leave no man behind. All righty. Here we go. Greg, are you there? I am here.

I am at Lucas Oil Stadium. Watching an empty field. Beautiful thing. I watched Greg do some work on camera, NFL.com, live today on my internal monitor. I saw Mark do work this week. Chris Wessling did some work, but I did miss that, but I'm sure it was great.

You guys really have a lot of talent on camera. And I'm happy for you, all of you. I feel like there's an air of madness in this compliment, but I'm going to take it for... You missed the top of the show, so... Yeah, you got it. Greg, so you are, like you said, you're on the ground, still in Indy, you're back tomorrow. What's going on over there? You want to give us any, you know, any nuggets?

You have any stories for us? Let's do it. Well, today was the Devean Clowny Day. Right. I like to say Chedevian, not Chadevian. That's how you pronounce it. And people were talking about that. I was in an elevator on the way down to the field.

It was well after Clownie was done for the day. And Mike Rable, the new Texan defensive coach, was on the elevator and some other Texan staff. And there was also some Colt staff on the elevator. No heat between them. Everything was nice. But the second Rable got off the elevator, you know, I said, stayed on, yeah, I heard one of the Colts staffers say to the other guy,

man, I hope they don't take Clowny. And I think that's pretty much the attitude that the teams around the Texans have, that they're afraid of basically facing Clowny

a couple times a year. Very interesting. The upside would be that if you take Clowny, you potentially are still stuck with Case Keenamor, an increasingly fast aging match job. well so you're still killing the thing that the other team doesn't want you to do it's like when you're deciding whether you go for fourth and one or punt if the other team would rather you punt then you should do the opposite so if that's how the colds are thinking right and

clowny and uh one thing one thing while the fellas were with you Greg um you all bumped into a certain owner didn't you oh my that was I have never seen Mark Sessler melts, as he said, like a piece of chocolate more than when he met Brown's owner, Jimmy Haslam. The man that not only his favorite team and the owner of the team, but also the man that Mark has often said is the best-looking owner in football. Oh, confirmed. Confirmed. Yeah, listen. By the way, the PR guy told him that I was a Browns fan, and then Haslam came over, and I think he did.

He looked very closely at our name tags. probably to go back through our history of writing about the team to find out which one of us will be assassinated You are a factory of sadness He gave you the fist spot You got the fist pound?

You got a fist pound from Jimmy Hazel Yeah because he asked you know I explained how I became a fan of the team When I didn't grow up in Cleveland And he laughed and he gave me a fist bump And then we you know he vanished into the mist With Mrs. Hazel Not before you swooned like a schoolgirl

Was Mark levitating Awu God? Well we should thank you. It was thanks to Ian Rappaport that it even happened because he noticed Ian and talked to him and then Ian introduced us. So that was a mensch-like move from Rapsh. Yeah, I actually got a tweet from Ian as it was happening, said something along the lines that Mark was in love. Well, hold on here. This was the exact tweet.

Had Cessler just meet Haslam, I can't say the rest of the tweet, actually. Well, it's probably accurate to some degree. The second part of the tweet is you had a crush. all, Mark. You were positively glowing 20 minutes after it happened. It had been like something inside of you had changed. And I've never seen you really. I've seen you with your kids and your wife. I've never seen you as happy with this. Well, it was a special moment. It's quite a statement to make, by the way. I'm not, listen, I'm going along with this. It's accurate. It's not maybe accurate quite to the degree that Greg is painting. Greg, before you go, anything else? You're on

the ground there. I know you're shaking hands. You're in the mix. Anything else? Well, did you guys bring up the Joan Osborne story yet? That's the thing I'm most proud of this week. Joan Osborne. Wait, what if God is one of us, Joan Osborne? I'll take us through this story. So this involves all of my brothers. We hit a bar, I would call it close to a dive bar,

and it was basically two contingents in there, the Westlings and Mark and Greg on one side, and then a group of lesbians. Very attractive lesbians on the other side. This is the time during a podcast, Sometimes it's starting to get nervous when Wes is talking. We've hit that moment. Let's just keep moving.

And there are two singers of the lesbian acoustic folk variety. So we hadn't even know they were all lesbians. No, it was advertised as a get-together, a musical get-together for these women. Gotcha. Go ahead. So we all guessed, like, which 90s-era Lilith Fair type of song would be the next one played? And Greg nailed it. on Joan Osborne right off the bat.

Literally, the first one, he said it's going to be what if God is one of us. Starts playing. Wow, Greg. That's pretty impressive. Of everything I've accomplished this week, really, adding this year, I was never more proud than that moment. To hit it on the first song, I mean, it was the next one played. So at that point, I was happy with my week.

That is the song I remember when it was popular. The Catholic Church, and Wes is a fellow, at least you were once Catholic. The Church made a big deal. deal out of Joan Osborne calling God a slob like one of us. I remember that. The church often gets bogged down in these issues that are very important. Greg, last thing before you go, I am holding a paper clip. How many things can you do with this paper clip?

Oh, that's the stupid Brown question. You've already been talking about that or why? We had to talk about it, yeah. We had to get to that. We had to. I don't know. Did you guys, you already talked about the whole Harbaugh story, right? Yep.

Oh, well, I don't, I have nothing. All right, that's good. You'll be back on Wednesday, and it'll be fully plugged into the machinations of the podcast. I can't wait to be there. All right. Safe journey home, boss. See you guys. Hey, go on.

John. Joan Osborne. It was a classic. It was almost a premonition. I wonder how much of our audience knows that song. Gold Standard, you don't know that song. No, I know that song. Oh, you do? Yeah.

I remember I went with... It's a relatively famous song. I went with Concrete Blanche Joey. Oh, who did? I went with a Jewel song. Yeah, I think... Which, by the way, these songs were ultimately played most of them. We weren't that far off.

If I had to guess, because I know a fair bit of the Jewel single catalog, I would guess the Jewel song that got played was, you were meant for me. I think it was these foolish games. Oh. Foolish games. Well, and I also requested Foolish games, and that's what got played.

This is foolish games. Mark made quick friends with the lesbian folk duo. I requested two songs, and they played both. I cannot believe I missed this night. Above all other nights. It was epic. All right. So, good Combine Talk there by Greg.

Why don't we just stay on that topic for the duration of the show? I want to ask you, gentlemen. You were feet on the ground. the team, after being around all these teams, all around the personnel, the team that you feel better about after a week in close proximity, and I'll start with Mark Sessler. This is a weird answer because there's maybe not concrete evidence that we might be for other teams. But I'm going to go Jacksonville Jaguars.

And I think what we're starting to hear is that they're open to, they were going to maybe not take a quarterback at number three, but they feel like a real strong candidate to go Johnny football. And if that were to happen, right, if that were to happen, that's a team that's defense played well down the stretch. I really liked what Gus Bradley had to say this week. I think they've got a good general manager as well. They're kind of falling into one of the end of the group of teams where a coach and GM are of the same mind on almost everything.

And that bodes well. I think they've got some young talent on both sides of the ball. If you ever plugged in Johnny Football and he clicked, everything changes and they're in prime position you know I went into the offseason annoyed because Cleveland and Jacksonville have the same record Cleveland lost to Jacksonville and is picking one spot later which I know that's how the draft order thing works

that that irritates me in the sense that if Johnny football works number three at Jacksonville where that they're the first team that I think will take him right and it could change everything for them I there's a lot of hope I think yeah I think I agree with you just because shot con you know from the moment

moment he took that team on, you could tell like he's going to pour all his efforts into raising them out of obscurity and trying to make them something that people care about, which they clearly don't. And this could like decide the fate of whether they stay in the United States as an NFL football team. Who knows? And if you get an electric guy like Johnny football and if that works out, that is the home run that he needs to get the franchise back on its feet. So it makes a lot of sense to me. Wes, I ask you. Same question. I would say, it's hard to say I feel better about any team because you get very few concrete answers out of these coaches and GMs. We don't know what their plans are.

We can only speculate. I guess I feel good about the Cardinals because I liked Ariens and Steve Kime so much listening to them. And one concrete example I would point to is the bigger plans for Andre Ellington. He's gained 10 pounds and it sounds like they're very excited about him playing a major role in their offense. You're saying that these teams are playing foolish games that are tearing you apart. Are you concerned about the commitment to Carson Palmer long-term? You just walking over my Jewel lyric there? To answer Dan first, it would be inaccurate to say I'm torn apart by these answers.

Like Jewel was by her handsome soccer bow. Right, I don't think I'm as invested as much as Jewel was as a 19-year-old Alaskan singer. Say what you will about Jewel, but she was never not invested. Oh, listen, she slept in her van going from city to city. She wore her heart on her sleeve. Mark, sorry. What were you saying? No, I just, are you concerned about what seems to be like an almost an overcommitment to Carson Palmer?

Who is still Carson Palmer, by the way? I wouldn't say I'm concerned about it because I don't know that I have confidence that they would find a quarterback in the middle of the first round or in the second or third round that would come in and beat him out. So I think they're kind of, when you're picking in the middle or later, you're kind of stuck at quarterback anyway. Yeah. Is there a team either of you men feel worse about after the week? Well, I don't want to go through this whole thing again, but you're thinking long term,

I just see like John Schneider and Pete Carroll in a room just like, zz, zz dancing as this 49ers thing breaks. Like, they've got to be thrilled. This is their... Was that house? Yeah, they were like in there doing like a techno. They're just, they just turned up the techno music, and they are, you know, Greg Rosenthal,

we found out this week is a very, is quietly a gigantic, techno music fan, by the way, and he told us of a time in the 90s when he died his hair jet black and he claimed it was a Nirvana era hair change, but I don't, it's a hard thing to picture. He had long black hair parted in the middle. Pictures are it didn't happen. He claims it happened. We hear a lot of stories about Greg's past. It's a little nebulous.

It's a little bit, and I feel like we're reaching the point where, although we obviously believe him, We take him out his word. He's never done anything to prove us that he's not trustworthy. At some point, we need some type of evidence that augments the things that he says. Well, I'm sure we can work on that. I think that he gave them, you know, John Schneider and Carol, one of the mixtapes that he probably listened to back in the day. Just a trance heavy anthem. I don't know if any of this is true.

And they're loving it because my team's the Niners. I think that's long term. I'm concerned about that coach situation. I would echo what Mark said. And also echo Greg's point that if other teams are happy, you're doing this, that's a problem. And I think I wouldn't have as much respect for the 49ers if Harbaugh wasn't their coach. You can't argue with three consecutive NFC conference championships. All right.

Let me ask you guys, and I'll start with West this time. Again, you're around these GMs, you're around these coaches all week. Name me a guy that made a striking impression one way. or the other, striking impression. I like Dave Gettleman. Interesting. Like a 60-year-old guy who got his start late in the game. I mean, he came up through the system as a scout, worked his way up, was in the game a long time,

but didn't become a general manager until late in his life. He could tell he has concrete ideas on how to run a team, and he's not really worried about what anyone else thinks. That confidence shines through. He's a straight shooter. My kind of guy. I mean, the guy tells it like it is Steve Smith. We don't even know if he's going to be on the team because they didn't want to give you any phony answers.

Yeah, he would answer the reporters and say, look, and then he'd explain an intricate detail why or why something wasn't going to happen. But on matters of players specifically, he would say that's part of our evaluation. And he would, you know, you believed him when he said, that is ongoing. We're still studying the tape, looking at our plans. So, yeah, I don't think he gave us any big yes or no answers. But you could tell that he's working hard behind the scenes and he's confident in what he's doing. You like the old guys. I love old guys.

Happy birthday, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. Old guys are great. Old guys underrated. Make that the headline gold standard of this podcast. Just old guys underrated. I'm already on that trend.

Yeah, I know you were probably going to go something jewel-related, but now it's just about the old. We can stick them together. They're not fully incompatible there. That's fair. Did I ever tell you my Crisco story about old men? Is that the Thong song guy? No, no, no. Oh, Chris Go.

Crisco is in the stuff you cook with. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was working the front office at a thriftway, which was a grocery store chain in Cincinnati in the early 90s. And this old man walks in and he has a canister of Crisco with a cherry pie on the front of it. And he says, listen here, son, I need to return this. Get one with a chicken on the front of it. I said, okay, sir, that sounds good.

But you know that a Crisco with a chicken does the same thing as a Criscoe with a cherry pie. And he looks at me and goes, son, you know that, and I know that. But my wife, she's making chicken tonight and she don't know that. Oh, my God. That's awesome. That was one of my opinions solidified that old men, you know, they just have this hard life. They just have to do whatever their wives stay, even if it means trudging out in the snow to go pick up a crisco. That's awesome.

Wow. A striking impression, Mark Sessler. Well, we already talked about. Ancillary story about old men. Right. I'm going to have to come up with something on that front. We already talked about Petton in the last show. I thought that he impressed all three of us.

No, I should have qualified this by saying you cannot talk about Mike Pet. All right. Well, so I've got a 1B answer or a 1A, I guess I can call it. John Schneider, not that I am unearthing something that people haven't noticed, but two things about him. A, extremely comfortable in his own skin, seems incredibly wise to me and measured in his thinking. You know, all these reporters are trying to get these guys to say something.

Now, Wesleyan actually did get him to say something about Michael Bennett and his future with the team. But that's one of the few times that he really gave information that they wouldn't have maybe wanted out at that time. But Schneider, to me too, every time that we see him with Carol, they are enjoying each other and hanging out. They're cracking jokes together. I don't think it's that complex with some of these teams. if the people making the decisions enjoy being around each other and we just saw what happened in Cleveland

while that whole thing melted to the floor because you found out they didn't. In Seattle, I just think that's a long-term marriage that works because those guys just like hanging out together. And you bring up Michael Bennett, we should pour some out of a gentleman that was sitting in the chair across from me a couple weeks ago, Red Bryant.

There are talks that he will be released by the Seahawks to make room to sign Michael Bennett. Red Bryant, one of the great podcast guests either, ever. He will land on his feet somewhere. He will find another job. There's no question. You want my striking impression for the last week?

The guy that cleans the restrooms here, I went in to the bathroom and he was in there with his stuff, and usually when that happens, you got to leave, but he said, come on it. Is this an attempt of contrast to try to suggest to us that you've not had an interesting week? No. Also, another striking impression. I got two. Taco Tuesday. in the NFL cafe

striking. It was great. Cool. All right. Awkward. Yeah, so let's... That was awkward? No, no, no.

Not at all. No, let's keep moments here. Oh, okay. All right, before we get out of here, I do want to hear a little bit more about Wes's brothers. I mean, are they all like West? They are.

They are. They are. So five brothers showed up, and I, it's weird because they all look nothing like West, but they all look so much like Wes all at the same time. And none of them are the same height. The height differential goes from Wes's...

I think you are the shortest. I'm the shortest, yeah. But he has a brother that's probably 6'3. 6.3 and a half? 6.3 and a couple of them are 6.2? Honestly, it made me, because I have two sons. One thought that came into my mind, I want to go have like six more boys.

Because these guys like hanging out, but also real with each other where I was given information by one brother to drop like a hot button topic that I knew they had been arguing about for two decades and just walk over and be like, agree with me that Michael Jordan is overrated. Like an argument you can tell

they've had 4,0008 times and Wesley was at a point in the night where it worked every time and these guys just... Yes, they just went at each other. They were so fun to hang out with. I hope we get to see them again. They honestly were great.

Yeah, I thought it was hilarious. And they... You know, I think Mark, he told me, you know what? It's great how different. everybody is but they're all interesting people and you know i take a lot of pride in that that all my brothers are fun to talk to sure when i was at the super bowl and talk to your brother i felt the same way your brother kevin is that his name yes yeah i really enjoyed talking to him and

and they uh were big fans of mark and gregg as well hmm good i'm glad it was a big kumbeye they asked about you by the way dan and i'm not kidding they asked multiple times i didn't want to i didn't want to say anything no your name even the girlfriends and wives asked about dan yeah well you know what i'm just happy you guys are back because I did miss you. Sincerely, I missed you, gentlemen. But now we're all back. Greg will be back on Tuesday night, so our next podcast

will be rolling four deep. The Gold Standard, not the gold tie. We'll be behind the glass, and it's going to be very exciting. Gentlemen, that is it for today's podcast. We'll be back. This is Dan Hansa signing off for the Mailman, the Sizzler, Gold Standard,

and the boss. Until Wednesday. This is an I-heart podcast.