NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Free agency winners and losers

Episode Date: April 21, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler -- breaks down which teams performed best and worst in free agency and, as always, picks apart the latest headlines from around the NFL.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the League podcast. Summers in the neutral zone. 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. Mark Sessler and Greg Rosenthal.

What up, boys? Hello, Dan. I'm looking into your eyes right now. And it makes me uncomfortable. We were sworn, actually, we had our first, we spoke about it a few weeks ago on the podcast, the voice coach. We mocked Jeff Darlington about listening in on his voice exercises. If you remember, Gold Standard, they sounded like this. and then we found out our boss John Marvel

let us know that same day or maybe two days later that he had just signed us up to meet with Arthur Joseph who was a renowned speaking coach or that might not be the great term for him he has his own website actually and he kind of created this business of teaching people how to speak and we had our first sit down with Arthur today in this very studio

And he meets with a lot of big-name individuals. Big names. I mean, heavy hitters. And now us and Adam Rank. I'm not going to say a word on the entire show today because it was clear getting his feedback that the three of us, and especially Dan, have a lot of work to do.

No, I noticed that he didn't have a lot to say to me. He studied you, Mark. He stopped you several times. And actually, he also said we weren't supposed to speak too much about what happened in the room, so we won't. because the man seemed to have a certain level of gravitas that you don't want to mess with. But, Mark, you struggle. Let's be honest.

Well, I think he had a few little fixes for me. Then he said, you know, you're fine. Just go about your way. And with Dan, it was like, I don't even, I'm looking at a big lump of clay. We can form something out of this, but where do we go? I don't even know where to begin. That was the look on his face. Lump being the operative word.

You live in a world of denial. You're a strange man, but I love you. a new shirt? It is newish. A guy on Twitter noted that you have your own what was it, a shirt closet, separate from... You know, I saw that yesterday and I appreciate the guy... Mr. Fancypants.

I... You want to come take a look at my collection of clothing? It is minimal and obscenely without space. I mean, I absorb maybe one-eighth of our closet. All right, so today's show, Chris Wessling, as you know,

noticed at the top you didn't hear anybody say hi diane that's what west says at the top of every show what how would you say he says it did you do the whole intro today i feel like i blacked out during your intro because right when you finished it i i thought did dan do it did he do the whole thing you did it this got all the way through this happens to me in my life it'll be suddenly 15 seconds later and i don't know what just happened sorry did you ever see that suddenly that became the listener's issue sorry that's that's right that's right that's I apologize. Do you ever see that Michael Keaton movie where he were all of a sudden he started to have these health issues?

My Life, I think it was called. That was the beginning of the end for Mr. Keaton's career. Anyway, what were we talking? Oh, yeah. Wesleyan. Sorry. Hey, Dan. What were we talking about before Greg hijacked ruined the last minute?

Chris Wesleying is not here. He is on Huckapoo's, was a Huckapoo Island? He's on Tai B Island, which houses an establishment known as Huckapoo. that he spends all of his time at. We actually called randomly on Friday, and he called the establishment, and he happened to be there at 3 p.m. So it just gives you an idea of what Wes has been doing

during his time up. Wes will be back on Wednesday, and we missed the man, and of course, his hi-d-dian. You're saying... That's how he sounds. How would you say he sounds? I'm not going to attempt to mimic his voice patterns,

especially after what we've just been through. Hey, Dan. Yeah, that's good. Hey, Dan. Thanks, Greg, for getting a shot. It's close. Arthur Jones would be proud. Okay.

So we got a nice show coming up today. Arthur Joseph. Arthur Jones is the Colts defensive end. Excuse me, Arthur Joseph. I thought that's who we met with, the Colts Defensive End. Our roster reset, winners and losers and free agency. We had a post last week on the Around the League page. We were going to talk about a Friday.

We pushed it to today. So we're going to talk about it today and get into that. Teams that did well, teams that didn't do so well during the first, I don't know, three waves. a free agency. But before we do any of that, Gold Standard, how are you, a lot of football this weekend? So much football. Seriously, I assume you, how many hours? I did.

It was a disgusting amount of time. I took a break to watch some other sports. Do you have any responsibilities outside of work? Generally not. A few errands every now and again. I've relegated the social life to very much the backseat, if not the trunk of my life. And you said a player. on Twitter on Sunday that I recognized as a goalie or a goalkeeper.

It was really good. What was his name, Tim Howard? Tim Howard. He knew that guy. Yeah. Big World Cup for him coming up. Yeah. He is the goalkeeper.

You'll be tuned in. For America. Yes. Indeed. All right. Let's do some news. Let's do it. Rolando McLean is calling it quits once again.

The on again, off again linebacker. bombed his workout with the Baltimore Ravens last week in which he showed up late and then wasn't able to make it through the conditioning portion and now he wrote in a text to ESPN.com Seth Wickersham, I'm done. So Rolanda McLean, who improbably has been featured on the Around the League website

multiple times over multiple months despite doing essentially nothing in his career, I think he might finally be out of the picture, right? It's over. This is one of those moments that we come to work for that we'll remember years from now the minute Rolanda McLean sent the text to Seth Wickersham and it all ended.

So I think we should just take time to reflect on that personally. And yeah, I feel at one... Wait, you did trumpet this as like a big story, though, like an hour ago. We're leading the show with it. It's the best we got in the beginning of April. People are very interested in these stories about Rolanda McLean. No lie, it was the most

red news story on our site last week. Greg, for people that maybe are not aware of the McLean backstory, can you give a Cliffs notes version? Well, of course he was drafted I think was number eight overall by the Oakland Raiders, didn't really pan out there, his attitude, his aptitude for picking up the defense. He was always known as a smart guy

who really was maybe the smartest guy Sabin coached to Alabama. huge leader, but it didn't work out for him at the pro level. The Ravens picked him up. That didn't work out. He retired prematurely over a year ago. He's been talking up this big comeback, and people were into that. And for some reason, last week he shows up, he's completely out of shape. He shows up late for a workout. The Ravens reinstate him, surprisingly, on Friday, and then we learn this on Monday. What a roller coaster of emotions. Dan's looking at me as So I should.

Save me. Anything else to say about this, man? I think it's a warning. It's a warning type of narrative for the Gold Standard in his young career. Definitely. Not resting on my laurels nor retiring early. Well, he also, Rolando tweeted out today, follow your heart. So that's something to keep in mind, Gold Standard.

Also, yes. That could have been about anything. Hashtag Rolanda McLean, Words of Wisdom. And one other thing I guess a side note Do you think the nemesis of ESPN.com Seth Wickersham I think he's like, hey Wickerham

I'm sure that's come up in his youth Probably happened Thank you All right Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported Sunday that the Rams are strongly considering finding a quarterback in May's draft This, of course, is the same Rams

who also say they are fully behind Sam Bradford as their quarterback, both now and in the future, but if they are strongly considering finding a quarterback in May, it makes you think. Well, and after we wrote this up this morning, Les Sneed, the GM is back on the air, told what, Mad Dog, earlier that he... He was on Sirius XM.

He was also on the Rich Eisen podcast this week, which we got to hear a little ahead of time. That's going to be posting on Tuesday. There's some corporate synergy. And he said Bradford is definitely his guy for now and the future. All right. And they've been saying this. That's been the consistent party line here for months and months.

Because what else can you say right now? But what we've heard through back channels and it's all over the newsroom is basically the Rams. Not only would they consider drafting a quarterback higher than some may think, they may even go number two with the quarterback position. It's not out of the question. And I don't think that Sam Bradford is on this. None of these guys inherited Sam Bradford. What about his game makes you think long-term extension?

Nothing. I don't know why they're talking about two years down the road with this quarterback. Jim Thomas, the St. Louis Dispatch Beat Rider, and these things don't get put in basically a one newspaper town. he's the guy, Jim Thomas, who's writing about the team. It's there for a reason. Now, he puts it out there that maybe they're looking for a mid-round option, so a guy that could be an option to take over in a year or two,

which is a little different than the Johnny football rumors that have been out there. You're saying, you know, the Rams have been rumored to be interesting quarterbacks. It's really a quarterback, Johnny Mansell, and this has been bubbling beneath the surface, and I think it's going to be a bigger story as we get closer to the draft. I know Charles Davis for instance mocked Johnny Mansell to the Rams in his upcoming mock draft on NFL.com

so this is something that's a little bit of a conversation. It'd be a lot of fun if this was for real. See, we asked Sneed in Orlando if there was when the whole Mark Sanchez availability was bubbling up he shot down the idea of taking a guy high at number two that wouldn't get on the field at any position and play right away.

But then you see that they've gone and talked to Tom Savage, this guy Connor Shaw from South Carolina, Taj Boyd. Mid-round guys. Yeah, that, you know what? A guy that would benefit by sitting for a year. And then suddenly you get rid of Sam Bradford's massive salary locked in money, guy is gone. I just don't see Bradford on the Rams two years for now. Am I wrong?

Yeah, Bradford is now the poster child of what the old rookie wage scale was because the numbers are just startling when you see them. He counts $17.6 million against their cap in 2014. And, you know, this was a $78 million contract. He signed as a rookie, and the Rams can cut $13 million off their 2015 cap if they release or trade them next off season. So he'd only have $3 plus million of dead money if he were released after this next season. I don't think the Rams know. I don't think they're ruling out Sam Bradford being their quarterback in a couple years. I think they just know they have.

have to be prepared for the possibility that he's not on their team in 2015. If this season doesn't go well, they're going to need to have some sort of options. Oh, and by the way, he's coming off in ACL tear and won't even be throwing until June. Have a nice day. It is, as we know, it is silly season in the NFL with the draft. I guess it's less than a month away now. And the Texans, here's a interesting report from Monday morning quarterback.com editor Peter King, who reported that a quote friend of Rick Smith said the Texans general manager

likes Buffalo's Khalil Mack over Jadavia and Clowny who's a lot of people assume that Clowny will either be the number one overall pick or go right after that but I think the popular thinking is that Clowny is one is it possible that the Texans would pass on Clowny to pick another defender? It's hard not to think of our friend Charlie Casserly choosing Mario Williams over Reggie Bush. It's a very similar setup.

Who had more hype coming out of college than Reggie Bush? Mario Williams was a guy you did not know about that much going into that draft. And then the Friday night before the draft, I think it was a Thursday night, and the nights are different now. Suddenly we hear the Texans are going with Mario Williams. That would be what Cleo Mac going number one overall would be like. Well, what about our friend Kevin Costner, who says, stunned his version of the NFL universe by going linebacker much higher than people thought.

Sonny Weaver Jr. But wouldn't this, this would be a tough. Draftee, by the way, had a good second week hold relatively. You know, people kept going to drafty. Yeah, it wasn't bad. Well, it still hasn't in two weeks combined matched what Wessling's prediction of the opening weekend was. Or Mark, for that matter. I think it's made about $19 million through two weekends.

That's an I at 18.8 over a two-week projection. That's what I thought you guys had mentioned. And then you came back with opening weekend sandwiches. The one difference, though, of course, between the Mario Williams, Reggie Bush situation, was that Casserly decided to go other side of the ball. This would be passing one guy that people think has like Lawrence Taylor-type talent

only to take another defender that everyone else seems to think is, though, while very extremely talented, is not in this guy's ballpark in terms of natural ability. Yeah, and we have to remember what Reggie Bush was at that time. in a period when the running back position, number one, was more valued, obviously, than it is today. But Bush was considered a plug-in-play superstar. And I think it was just...

He was called, like, the future Gail Sayers. Right. It was a tough, tough PR cell. This would be a little bit different than that, I think. This would be a tough PR cell, too, I think. And it would show some stones from Rick Smith. I always like it when guys go out of the box and surprise you and just say, we believe in this pick so much.

Let's do it. Let's drop a little Cleo Mac. Mike Mayock was talking about Mac over Clowny. two months ago. So maybe the media and we're just catch it up. I'm telling you, you should have seen Draft Day. That was the whole crux of the film. Am I wrong, Mark?

You're correct. Koster was like, I just want to do it my way one time. So you would have, in theory, really liked, had you ever stepped foot in a theater to watch this? You would have admired what the GM in the film did. At no point have I regretted not seen draft day until now. Now I do. I wish I had. Hey, Gino Smith believes he's still the Jets starting quarterback.

The Jets opened up their offseason. and workout program on Monday, and of course the questions were about Michael Vick and whether he still thinks he is the starter. Smith offered a simple yes when asked if he believed he was the number one guy and added the comments with the experience I've

gained. I feel like I'm more than capable of being the starter. And Gino, for, you know, some of the heat he got before the draft and even the strange airline incident and he's gotten some blowback on his attitude, but he's always said the right things. He faced the media the way as a rookie and he's handling this the right way they asked him about vic i look forward to

working with him i look forward to competing with him as well blah blah blah saying all the right things but he has to understand and my my whole viewpoint and i know chris wessling feels differently i think this is gino smith's job and the question the only question to me is how long it will remain that way and how much rope he gets if he struggles i think it's a competition they say it's a competition, and I don't think you bring in Mike Vic to definitely be a backup. I think it's as much a competition as it was a year ago when Smith had to answer the same questions about him and Sanchez. And, you know, it's, like you said initially, Greg, weeks ago, this is on Gino Smith in OTAs through the preseason to come in and blow the doors off and prove,

yes, I am the guy you drafted. And the thing that tilts it a little bit is the Jets have done a nice job of adding some interesting pieces all over their offense. And Vic, it's going to be hard for Vic to be on that sideline week one, two, and three of Gino's struggling. Tie goes to Gino. So if that's what you're saying, I agree with that. They want Gino Smith to win this job. Of course they do. I think the deck will be stacked against Vic in training camp in the preseason.

I think Gino will have to really falter, which he did last preseason, by the way, with Little Unfair as a rookie to put that against him. but the only reason he won the starting job is because Sanchez got hurt. It was by default. I think if Gino really, you know, crapped the bed in the preseason, Vic will get the job. But as long as he is okay, I think that he's going to get the chance. And I think a lot of it goes into that was John Idick's first draft.

That was a second round pick. And I think that matters. See, I would disagree on one thing that you've only got Michael Vick for a season two tops, and you're just going to have him sit on the sideline. Well, I don't think if you name him the week one started, that means Michael Vick is locked in as a backup. I think all it would, to me... We're going to see both of them, aren't we? Probably.

All it would promise, my thought would be all it would promise Gino was maybe three weeks. And if the Jets weren't playing well and he wasn't playing well, we would see Vic by October. Gino answered everything perfectly today, the right mix of confidence, but, you know, he's not throwing Vic under the bus. But let's see how he's handling it when he gets these same questions next week. and all throughout July and August, and this is a story we're going to be tired of writing about, and that's where it's got a great on him a little bit. And most importantly, let's see if he can play,

because I'm not even sure if he could actually play the position at this level. Seems like a factor to consider it. Yeah, I mean, and that's going to hang over everything, whether he's going to make those loops, because there's been a lot of talk inside that building, and you heard it again today on Twitter, everyone's saying how great or how much better he was down the stretch

that's been a little blown up to me as well I think he made strides turned to ball over less but this wasn't a guy that had hit some type of Alex Smith I like to see that from you as a Jets fan there's a little bit of realism here because this guy was an occasional massive crash and burn film

week to week you don't know what you're going to get with this guy yes sir sorry Dan just no I think you were just agreeing with me for seeing that as well I'm giving you some credit, but I just, I still, I don't know. And he pulled back a little bit. Let's just, you know, Gino Smith, I'm not excited. All right, whatever, Brian Hoyer in the, in the pool, feeling great. This is cute watching you guys battle over your lame quarterback.

Did we just spend six minutes talking about Brian Hoyer? By the way, and Greg, as you say that Tom Brady just got older as that was happening. That's fine. I'm going to enjoy the next year or two and then stop watching. And Goldstander, what are you laughing at? Rolando, he's getting older too. True. I'm broken up about it. Ronaldo, is that it?

Yeah, I was going with Rolando McLean. I was just going to let you have that one. All right, so that's it for news. Let's move on to the roster reset, winners and losers. Greg, how do we want to start this? How do we want to talk about this? Because I think there are teams that jumped out to everyone immediately as winners. The Denver Broncos definitely jump out at you.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers jump out at you. But is there someone to you, Greg, that really got better in free agency and people aren't talking about it. No one sticks out like that because I tend to believe free agency is a relatively minor part of the team-building process because really even the teams that do well in free agency,

they're going to get a couple of starters and a couple of other contributors and it's really more about the coaching and the drafting and the development and everything like that. But one team, and we talked about them a little last week, was the Green Bay Packers that I believe is a winner, if only because no one else in that division made a big leap.

They're getting a ton of talent back on the field. I like that they picked up Julius Peppers. And I think the rest of the NFC North had a chance to make a move last year and they didn't do it. Yeah, it's hard to disagree with that because I guess in a sense you want to look at players added, not as off the street, free agents, but they are getting a completely new wave of talent back,

that barely played last season. Their defense particularly looks interesting heading into the year. And I think that, you know, one team to me that got a lot of heat early on and not the good kind of heat was the Raiders and Reggie McKenzie. Greg, you wrote about it in our piece that we have up on the site. You know, everybody laughed at how the beginning of free agency started, but then all of a sudden you look at what they did, and this is a team with a ton of holes,

and all of a sudden they have filled some of these holes with some veterans that can play. They had to find starters. And they did. They signed more starters by far than any other team. So if you're just looking at nuts and bolts, who got better? Well, it was who got better from the worst roster in the entire NFL? I think the Raiders and Jaguars had that title going into last year. I think the Raiders probably had it going into free agency.

James Jones is a fine starter. Lamar Woodley and Justin Tuck between the two of them. I think you get some production. Tuck was a decent signing. Kevin Booth, Terrell Brown, Austin Howard, Donald Penn, Carlos Rogers. maybe even you throw an MJD and Antonio Smith. Those guys are reserves. These guys can contribute.

And if you hit 50% out of those 10 starters or so, this is a better team. And they're a team, I think, punched above their weight last year because it was such a bad roster. So I'm giving Dennis Allen a little credit and a little bit of chance to make this team respectable. The quarterback with Matt Schaub is really the one part. It's hard to get it behind. Who do you think of the guys?

And, you know, we have James Jones. Elmar Woodley, Justin Tuck, Kevin Booth, Austin Howard, Donald Penn, Maurice Jones, Drew, Antonio, a lot of guys they brought in. Who do you think will be the guy that makes the biggest impression immediately? Jones and Woodley. I'll give Woodley a chance to bounce back because he's still in his upper 20s. He's shown he can be an elite type of pass rusher. If he's just good across from Tuck, they'll be solid. And I think James Jones has been a guy that's always deserved to have more balls.

He's not a number one receiver, but he's going to improve that receiver core a lot. That M.J.D, Darren McFadden, Backfield is very intriguing. It could either go one or two ways. It could be something that makes them like a seven or eight win team, or it could be something where we're laughing about it by October. It's a very combustible situation there. You, Mark, added the Baltimore Ravens as your big winner. Yeah, I think there's some weight in C to some degree,

but they went out and, you know, that offense last season stuck in the mud. I feel like they had the Super Bowl win. They lost a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but the offense especially left Flacco kind of vulnerable. The middle of that offensive line had him on the run. He was sacked in an ornament amount of time, second most in the league. I think they set up Flacco. Their goal seemed to be to set up Flacco for a better season

and to force him to not do what he had to do last year when he was throwing 55, 60 pass attempts a game. You get Owen Daniels in there. Now, again, we have to see the guy could be done. We don't know if he'll even make the roster, but he's shown to be paired with Pitta. That's an interesting couple of tight ends. They add

Steve Smith as kind of the possession guy they didn't have last year. And they went out and they got Jeremy Zuda at center and their center issue with Gino Grikowski last year was a big issue. That's three areas. Sort of, you know, you add some talent and you give Flacco a chance to under, I think,

under Kubiak, not be put in a situation where he's got to do everything himself. The running game's still an issue, though. They're still looking for running backs. And in their division, they watched last year's division champion get worse. I think the Bengals had the worst offseason of anyone in that division, losing the coaches and losing some talent and not really being too active in free agency. They almost lost your boy, Andrew Hawkins. No, they did lose it.

They did lose it. What am I talking about? Well, the AFC North, it got to be, of all the divisions, the one that is just purely up for grabs. And to me, the team that, based on free agency, and I agree with you 100%, Greg, people put too much into free agency as an indicator of whether a team will be good or bad. But the Bucks, to me, did a lot of work here that could make them maybe put them in the direction of being this year's chiefs, a team with a lot of talent that now is some corrective steering here. And getting Durel Rivas out of the picture was a gutsy move. they brought in Vernon to replace him, which is a nice fit at a much cheaper cost. You have Michael Johnson, who underperformed last year, but you put him with Gerald McCoy,

and there's a lot to get excited about. I think Josh McCown is the one guy. You know, how do you feel about him? Is he that type of quarterback that can sustain what he did last year? I don't know. Well, I really think with McCown, number one, he's not going to completely regress and become a disaster because he's been in the league for a long time, and I think some of that experience. translated last year, but what the Mark Trussman factor and what he's able to do with

quarterbacks, we're going to find out the difference when you suddenly take McCown and put them on a completely different team. I think the week-to-week preparation helped McCown become something he's never even been close to in his past. Well, what's the Jeff Tedford factor? He is the new offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers, and to me, he is one of the biggest wild cards in the entire NFL this year. He has not been an NFL coach. has been lauded as one of the best quarterback gurus of the last 25 years in all of coaching. High school, college, and NFL.

People made a list of guys that coached up quarterbacks. Jeff Tedford is near the top of that list. So I have no idea what this guy is going to be like at the NFL. For all I know, he could be the new Mark Tressman. He could be the guy that has some solutions and really is a great quarterback whisper, and they suddenly have a great offense because the good thing Tedford has is he's stepping into a terrible spot. in terms of their offense was awful last year, so anything's going to look like an improvement.

I like that you called it the Jeff Tedford Factor. It's like a show that would come after Temptation Island on Fox in 2002. The Jeff Tedford Factor. Sounds like a good show, Dan, one that you would probably log on your television. Well, it doesn't have Eric Decker on. Yeah, I have that on my DVR. I have to see episode three of Nice Catch. You've watched two episodes of this.

This is taking your weeks. Project. It's now a potential project. It's been downgraded to potential project. It was a project that you said was going to be completed, I think, a week or two ago at one point. You haven't seen the show. I don't blame you. It always sounded a little bit like a suicide mission. Yeah, and it's starting to feel that way, but I wanted to give them one more episode, maybe to the birth of their child, their baby girl, and see if they're out. Then you're on that train and turn around. See if the show takes off at that point, but I'm a little nervous about it. You know what Jeff Tedford also sounds like, like a fictional principal in a high school show? Jeff, I mean, Jeff Tedford just doesn't even sound like a real name or maybe a businessman in office space, something like... Take heart, Bucks fans.

Hey, Jeff Tedford. Damn glad to meet you. Good Tedford riffing by everybody. Mark, you not so much. You didn't really run with it like I thought you would. You're not really taking the lessons from Arthur Joseph. he actually remember he had that whole segment on Tedford riffing

yeah I must have uh right let's move to the losers sorry fellas nice let's move to the losers I think the Carolina Panthers as a group were all very disappointed and a lot of people are wondering about their wide receiver situation so why don't we start there

the Panthers are going from a number two seed and now it seems like they're going to need to hit on this draft or there's going to be a lot of doubts about whether they can back up what they did last year and truly build on success. Dave Gettleman, their general manager, had one of the best drafts in the league last year. You can't do any better with the first two picks than Star Lottalele, your favorite guy. Star Lute Lely.

And Kwan Short. So he did great last year. He's going to have to do it again. We also picked on the around the league site the biggest holes to fill after free agency, and that's at NFL.com, backslash. roster reset and I picked the wide receivers of the Panthers which seemed obvious but you could have picked the Panthers cornerbacks you could have picked the Panthers left tackle they don't have anyone at any of these positions if the season started today their starting cornerbacks are probably

Antoine Kaysen and Josh Norman I don't know does anyone know well they went out to the opposite of Baltimore it's like you have a young quarterback there and they're taking weapons away from the guy and suddenly Cam Newton's not the guy that you want to say you have to go do everything now. We're not going to continue to give you more and more help. We're going to take it away from you

and by the way, four or five position groups have been depleted entirely. Good luck with that. And not for nothing, Cam Newton who's coming off surgery to repair a chronically injured ankle. Just a lot of like black clouds over Carolina right now. I mean, Gettelman has said and he has been one of the more honest

GMs in terms of, listen, guys, we are in the muck right now. A year from now, their salary cap situation is much better. He just didn't want to keep them in that place. But that fan base needs to hang on tight because it could be a long year. What a weird team, if you just look at them. Their front seven on defense, I think, is the best in the league. And they have five or six premier players there. And then the entire rest of the roster, there's no premier players. other than Ryan Cleal and Cam Newton. It's just a black hole. Marvin McNutt, too.

Oh, McNutt. Good pull. The gold standard. You know a team is struggling when our lads, who I use a lot for depth charts, and it's a great site, just starts throwing in random guys as starters because they have no idea.

They put in someone named D'Andre Presley as the starter. This is a guy who has been waived four times in the last couple years and has barely ever played in the hour. Not even a real person. DeAndre Presley's mother's ear. Yours just perked up all she was listening to this stuff. You know, the Panthers are one team that was double-digit win team that made the playoffs. Really?

And how about, it's called a setup, Mark. Welcome to class. There's some heap between you guys today. How about this? How about this, Greg Rosenthal, the Kansas City Chiefs, another team with double-digit wins. You said they didn't have a very good free agency. They had a terrible free agency, although I feel like you're only going to me with this one to get back at Mark. I think you guys have some sort of tension here.

You're just not throwing it to him. Well, you wrote it. Oh, okay. So I thought that probably made more sense. Our guy, Chris Wessling, did the math that they lost 6,000 snaps from starters this offseason. Their best signing, most impactful signing, was Vance Walker. The best player they re-signed, so they weren't even bringing back people, was Hussein Abdullah, a special teamer, essentially. They lost tackle Brandon Albert, John Osamoa, Tyson Jackson, Dexter McCluster, Kendrick Lewis, Jeff Schwartz.

These guys aren't superstars, but they were starters, and you have to replace all of that. And by the way, you still have some problems in terms of wide receiver, other positions that they haven't filled from last year. I believe in Andy Reid, though. I think that, you know, with him at the helm, I think they'll be able to, they know what their roster is about. and I think the draft, they'll be able to plug some of these holes. And I don't, I, loving the way their offense looked by the end of last season, I, I don't, I'm not worried about the chiefs the way I'm worried about the Panthers. Yeah, but except that everything broke well for them last year.

Right. They had a fantastically easy schedule where they played, what, a backup or a third string quarterback five weeks in a row or something? Like, that's, people are going to measure this year's chiefs based on what happened last year. And I think they may be a better team with a worst record. They feel like a team that's very much in transition, not a team that's returning from a playoff spot and is an established team. They're more like a typical team that's only going into year two of a new coach and a new GM that have a lot of players coming in and a lot of players going out. Mark, my friend.

Yes, sir. Why don't you throw one out there, a team that regressed here? You know, the one that came to me is the Dallas Cowboys because, A, now I understand that they couldn't go out. and hand to Marcus wear the kind of money he could have made on the open market, and they couldn't even pay his salary. They had to let him go, and that's business. But you are saying goodbye to arguably maybe one of the best defensive players in the history of your franchise.

You also watch Jason Hatcher walk out the door, and in return you get Henry Melton, who is a quality player, but coming off a major knee injury, so there's some question marks there. You have Jeremy Mincy as a defensive lineman that you signed. addition you have, and honestly, probably a bigger name than Mincy, not for his accomplishments, though, is Brandon Whedon, who, if they have anything at the position, he won't be on the roster come opening day. Dallas, for all the much-ballahood nonsense about the fact that they need to be on TV 10 times a year, great outfits, blah, blah, blah. Listen, I'm tired. I am tired of Dallas,

and Jerry Jones is under as much pressure as the parents. or anyone else to knock it out of the park in the draft because this defense got worse. They have a chance. The Cowboys have a real chance to go in the tank if they don't have a good draft. I agree with you. I mean, there have been a team that's been sitting at 500 year after year after year. And now it seems like they've hit some real adversity potentially. I don't know what's in what direction that franchise is going.

They're not even a trendy pick anymore. Maybe that's good for them. Yeah, that's true. I don't know. another bad thing for them. It's off-season Dynasty Week on NFL Network. And it was just a reminder to everyone that that's the last time the Cowboys were any good. And Jerry Jones wasn't picking the players.

And since then, they are essentially the Jaguars and the Browns. That is what the Cowboys have been. I mean, they've been more in the mix, but that's about how many playoff wins they've had, one playoff win. But America wants to continue to watch them seven Sunday or Monday nights a year. Great quarterback. I also feel like we talked about this all during the season, I feel like on this podcast,

but the Dallas Cowboys love or hate them. They play in a lot of entertaining games in those primetime matchups that you hate. And there's a difference between an uninspiring 8-and-8, which, yes, they've been uninspiring. But you're right, three years in a row, they're in a Sunday night game that decides the division. But are they over-marketed and under-delivering?

Yes, that's what they are at this point under Jerry Jones. And I'll throw out a team that, you know, this is almost the opposite of the Dallas- Cowboys. The Cowboys are always in the spotlight, whether they earned it or not. The Tennessee Titans to me are the flattest team in the NFL right now. There's just no sizzle there right now. And this offseason, to me, nothing was done that makes me more excited about the Titans or would make me think the fan base is more excited. Chris Johnson that decide to let him go. I understand financially that made some sense and he has been

in regression statistically. But now, you know, you're asking a lot of Sean Green and, you know, what are you really expecting out of Dexter McCluster, who they signed? They gave up on Kettie Britt, which, again, I can't really disagree with. It was the right time to do it. But who's going to fill that void as a guy that, you know, once was a potential big-time playmaker for them? They also lost Al-Taron Werner, who's a big loss for them, and now it leaves a huge hole in their secondary. So that's another team that's going to need a big draft just to kind of hope to have some hope going into the new season.

They bore you. They bet you are bored by the Titans. I would say that's fair. It's a fair point that they are teetering towards the type of team that starts losing ticket sales. Did you just try to use a word that begins with T like 20 two times? That was impressive. That was just natural alliteration by the Tennessee Titans.

Look, they're a team that people aren't going to renew their season tickets if this goes for another six and ten. You're right. They're vanilla. There's nothing. And if Jake Locker doesn't look good. What if they go out and add a Johnny football-type guy to the mix? Is that a death-nail?

Or we never hear from him again because it's an excitement vacuum? That would be great. It would be better if he went to the Jaguars than if he went there. That's my ultimate fear. I've said that when I was on the Damashik show last month. I love Johnny football. I'm excited about the Johnny Football era. If he ends up in those stupid uniforms playing at Everbank Stadium and Chad Khan is, you know,

waving, a banner. I'm just going to be really disappointed, to be honest with you. I want him to go somewhere. Tennessee is not a lot better. I want him in Cleveland, Mark. I want him in Cleveland. I'd sign up for that. In Tennessee, you could call him Johnny Nashville.

I kind of like that. You don't like that? You know it would have made them a lot more relevant? They'd sign Golden Tate. Oh, yes. It would have been a lot better. A callback. A callback.

I know everyone who are big Gold Center fans, that was his big prediction at the start of free agency, his sandwich gambit it did not work out though sad very sad where are both the big uh gold standard fans living yeah i don't know i think they're actually stuck in the internet they don't have a physical location do you have more followers from this podcast than from nfl or just from your soccer music i got it i got a ton of them from you guys definitely um i don't know i don't really have the analytics in front of me right now let's get that up for the next podcast all right all right So that's it for looking back at free agency, as we now really, in earnest, we're looking at the draft.

That's it. Can we put free agency in the rearview mirror? I'll ask you, boss. We have squeezed every last drop out of free agency possible. It's time to move forward. Are you sure? Because we could still talk about the Carolina Panthers a little bit more. We joke, but this article we talked about was people were loving it.

People started a lot of conversations, a lot of buzz around the country about. winners and losers Where are your analytics on that? It's true. It's a true fact. All right, good. Before we go, we called Wes at,

what is that place called Cooters? Huckapoo's. It is not Huckapoo's Island. It's Tybee Island. It actually would be awesome if they renamed the island after Huckapoo's. It'd be an exceptional brandy.

It is spelled multiple ways on their website, which I like that. It's mysterious. And Wes did send a short video via his iPhone last night of the bar in full bloom on Easter Sunday night some bad

I guess reggae type music playing and a bunch of silver-haired men and women hanging out just enjoying the town and the bar it just seemed like a really nice place to be make it sound like a hangout for elves I don't know

silver-haired men and women there were some younger people there I believe there are five different spellings, which is actually hard to imagine that that's possible, but there are five different combinations here when you Google them. That's for SEO purposes. They have an SEO manager that's ahead of the curve. Hey, so we were thinking Wes is supposed to be on a plane right now, at least that's what the

ticket that was sent to him via email, sending him back to California from Tybee Island. But just to make sure, why don't we once again reach out to Huckapoo's and see, you know, if Wes is there, maybe he missed his flight. didn't it? Well, just make sure. Just a little check-in on him. We care about the guy. Gold Center. Can you get Huckapoo's on the line? Yeah, let me dial him up right now. There we go. Hi, Chris.

How you doing? Is Chris Wessling there? He's not. Oh, he's not. This is Dan Hanzas with the Around the League podcast. We were just seeing if Wes had a good time when he was visiting. I'm sure he did. Okay, good. Well, we just want to thank you guys for taking care of him while he was home. Absolutely. All right, man.

Later. Sounds like a guy with business to handle. It sounds like a guy that wasn't really interested maybe in getting into the nuance of West's visit home, but still delivered the pertinent information. Or he's such a big fan of the podcast that he was starstruck and he didn't know what to say. You know what I mean? Like, wow, that's really Dan Hansis on the line. He, I don't know.

I feel like he threw down that receiver pretty hard. Like, I'm sick of you using my bar as a prop for your stupid. podcast felt that way to me I got that by it. In theory we're giving them a lot of you know publicity Huckapoo's I don't know if anyone can just drive over you know most people listening can't just drive over from Australia

to go check out Huckapoo's you know what I'm saying You can take a boat though I think someone needs to tweet at us with a Huckapoo's picture if they get out there though Oh yeah there was an Austrian fellow that went all the way to Georgia to go to Huckapoo's based on the podcast That's a great that's a great idea Zach If anyone that has ever listened to the podcast ever goes to Huckapoo's, please send us your picture, and we can collect those, I think.

We can put that on the board, too. Call it like the heavenly ground of the ATL podcast, if you ever get there. You make sure you document it. It is. It's pretty much our Jerusalem. That's good, though. That means West is on his way back. And he will be sitting in the chair directly to my right on Wednesday when we're back with another edition of the United League podcast.

But until then, this is Dan Hans is signing off for the Sizzler. The boss and the gold standard behind the glass. See you. Backtash. Backtash. Hold on. Let me start that over. That's ridiculous.

Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey,

Hey, Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies

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