NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Gronk's return & mailbag

Episode Date: June 23, 2014

A room with some heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal and Chris Wesseling -- react to the latest NFL news including New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski's expected return to action and Cordarrelle Patterson's potential rise to no. 1 receiver for the Minnesota Vikings. Later, Marc Sessler calls in to reveal new "Making the Leap" candidates and the guys answer your mailbag questions.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 starts now. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm joined by a room filled with some heroes, Greg Rosenthal and Chris Wessling. What up, boys? Hey, Dan. What is happening? No Mark Sessler.

He's on vacation, but we're going to get him on the first. the phone a little later. We are in the mock studio, more like mockery studio. They've now dropped the temperature down. I'm thinking it's about 40 degrees in here, and I'm not even joking. I'm wearing a hooded sweatshirt, hood over my ears. Wes is literally shivering like a dog that just got out of the tub in the middle of winter. Greg looks fairly comfortable. Well, this is how you know that Dan Helly, the host of Total Access, is truly a warrior. and a badass that he braves these conditions every day to produce such a fine television program. Yeah, people that maybe are not associated with the television industry are familiar with how it works.

They usually cool down a studio because we are a part of the studio right now where they do Total Access and other NFL programming. They cool those studios way down. I think it has something to do with the lights and things of that nature. They have to keep it cold. So we are suffering for our craft. But who cares? Because guess what? great show today big show big show what could be bigger today's really the start of our soft time

I mean this is we should enjoy this time mentally you got about a month to get ready for actual football this is the one month of the year it's just quiet in the NFL dark the offseason program is over for all 32 teams coaches and players and everyone is recharging before training camp begins at the end of next month but we will take you through all the latest news that crop up over the weekend. We're also going to check back in on our Making the Leap series and get into two more players

from that list. We will dip into the mailbag, folks. I don't know if you saw on the written portion of the Around the League Empire. I wrote our latest mailbag on Friday, and there are always a bunch of spillover questions that I like to save for the show,

so we're going to hit that as well. But TD, not behind the glass. A great man. Nigeria, looking very good in the World Cup to get through to the next round. How you doing, buddy? Doing good, guys. Just so you know, we're all behind the glass in this studio. You know, stage four, we're all behind the glass.

It is pretty cold. The studio could definitely use some of the, some heat. We're going to warm it up with our hot takes. We should get one of those, that was good. We should get one of those Dura Flame logs. I find them quite practical. If we could just get one of those little logs just put. it next to us. It'll be a little cozy. I would like that.

By the way, you, T.D., you're the biggest soccer fan in the room right now. I would just would like your thoughts on a pretty gut-wrenching draw for the U.S. It was, let me, let me, full disclaimer here, you know, being born here. I hate America. I don't know, no, no. But my international soccer team is Nigeria. So that's, and I feel like it's one of those things you can only choose one. So I ride hard for Nigeria. You don't have a second, second place?

I mean, I do. but I'm a big fan of Christiano Ronaldo because I'm a big match United fan and that's we first know that works for his career. So I was more team Ronaldo yesterday than I was Team USA. Wow.

That said though, it was a great game to me USA Canaan play. Quite frankly, honestly you probably deserved to win especially since Portugal's first goal was a complete mistake. That's part of the game. Very impressive showing. And, I mean, they should not fear Germany

and any other teams. They're really good. And, but that's football. It's a cruel sport, you know? Things, you know, you think you're right there and you get snatched from you, you know, right at the end. We're not dead yet, and we've taken down Germany in our past America. And we will do it again. If you had said before the tournament, you're going to beat Ghana and tie Portugal in a game you out played them.

I'm in tune with this World Cup right now. I'm going to be excited if that's true. I mean, this is my third World Cup while living here, and just the atmosphere, the energy here is by far the most. I mean, look at NFL teams on Twitter now. Every time before the game, they're, you know, supporting Team USA. It's great seeing, you know, the support. And you know what you need, you know, you need to build up a sport. You need a little heartbreak.

You need to see what's great about the game, and the comeback yesterday was very excited. And then you need to get you, it builds a little character. You need that hope. You need that hope, the allure of hope, like Bain and the Dark Night Rises. You need that allure of hope. I like that. And then when it gets snatched away, then you really cherish it even more. Poor Chris Wessling was at a bar watching the game.

And after the game ended up having half the bar spilled in his last. from what I hear via reports. So not only a crushing equalizer score leading to the draw that keeps the U.S. out of the next round, you also had to deal with a messy situation. That establishment went from being the most excited I've ever seen for any sporting event on television. The place was just going bonkers, and within three seconds it just got totally deflated. You could hear it in Wes's voice, and it has nothing to do with anything else but the soccer game, I'm sure.

You sound a little less than 100% right now. There was some screaming and yelling. That really was. I was there for the first half, had to go back, watch my daughter in the game for the second half. It was the loudest sports bar I've ever been at for things not actually happening. Just when they were building up towards a possible goal, it was like, I mean, it was pretty awesome. TD, can we do some news? I believe that we can't.

That was a little throwback to the team USA ran I believe that we will win over the weekend Some might go more topical with these The whole bar was chanting that before the game As some people should be aware of T.D. is trying to as he replaces the gold standard Behind the glass, he is coming up with a new catchphrase When I throw it to him for news

And I think that was my favorite so far All right, Rob Grankowski We'll start there, the New England Patriots tight end fantastically talented tight-end that has not been able to stay healthy in recent seasons. Some good news. We have our first timetable for Gronk, according to NFL media is Albert Breer. The goal is for Gronkowski to be on the field for the season opener at Miami. The rehab process for Gronk has been less complicated than last season when, of course,

he had the back issue in addition to the forearm that needed the multiple surgeries. Breer reports that it's possible that Gronk's knee will be ready for the start of training camp in late July, but the Patriots won't do anything to jeopardize his chances of being ready for week one. So we have a timetable. They're aiming for that first weekend or second weekend in September. Good news for the Patriots, right? Very good news. I think if any of our listeners are familiar with Dave Damashek's Jenga theory, Grunk is one of those players where if you take that block away, the whole offense crumbles. I was looking up some stats last Friday night. And Tom Brady actually had the high-scoring offense in the NFL for a five-week span with

Gronkowski last year. He was better, Grankowski, that is, I think last year than he ever had been in his career. So despite all those surgeries and the back problem, it didn't seem to slow him down. And this is great news for the Patriots because you just got the sense for much of this offseason. They were being very conservative about when they thought he could be back on the field. Maybe he would miss a chunk of the season. but this news only gets out to Breer if they're feeling pretty good about things.

I don't think he would say they're targeting training camp or targeting week one unless they felt very confident it's going to happen because they're the king of trying not to set expectations too high. And I guess just to get Greg a little more excited about the Patriots, here's a little update on Dorel Revis, not so much an update, but here is news about the cornerback who was asked recently if he believes he needs to prove anything. now that he's a full season removed from the torn ACL in his final year with the Jets. Here's Revis's quote, no, I don't feel like I have to prove nothing to anybody. The only thing I have to prove is to my teammates that I'm there for them and there to win games and help us win. Revis, Grong, two guys with knee history, but if they're both at the top of their game, what do you have the best cornerback in football and the best tight end in football? All bets could be off for that team in terms of expectations.

It's odd that in an era when a day doesn't go by without hearing from Richard Sherman, everybody's already forgotten that Dorel Revis was, I think outside of Lawrence Taylor and maybe Reggie White, the most dominant defensive player I've ever seen for a few years. Right. I don't really expect them to get back to that or to get even that close. My expectations are measured. Dan as a Jets fan and I think some other Jets fans are worried Revis is just going to turn back the clock.

You know, cornerbacks age faster than other positions that torn ACL. He's another year removed, but it happened. I think to expect him to return to a top cornerback level is probably expecting too much. Yeah, but he's still, even in a hyper-accelerated position, I guess when you talk and you read about Revis and everything you hear is what a competitor he is and the motivation factor and not only the motivation to be against, as the best cover corner in football, but also the motivation, and it must be pointed out, Dorel Rivas is motivated by money,

unlike any professional athlete I've ever been associated with or followed in my life. You're not associated with him. He doesn't even know you. We were very close at a time on some level. I think there are a lot of things in play. The stars are aligned, which made it such a great signing by the Patriots to me.

I think he really can, he has the potential to be that guy still. We'll see. I hope so. I'm just trying to set expectations low, But to me, if he's a top... I see what you're doing there. Yeah.

If he's a top five cornerback in the league, I think that'd be a win for them. I just think to expect him to ever return to that level is too much at his age. Greg Jennings was signed a year ago to be the Vikings number one wide receiver threat. But according to Jennings himself, that might not be the case if Cordell-Carterrell Patterson progresses as some believe. Here's a quote from Jennings himself, who had a conversation recently. with new offensive coordinator, Norv Turner. I wanted him to know that coming in, the expectation of you is no longer rookie. It's, you got to go.

We saw what you can do. We're going to showcase this. Patterson, we were talking about him at the end of last season, what he was capable of. He maybe didn't get a really chance to showcase it. But is it reasonable to think that he could be the number one receiver on that team by the end of this season? I think it is. I think one of the things people don't really know about Cordarrow Patterson was Last year, almost all of the receptions came within five yards of the line of scrimmage.

He wasn't coming into the NFL as a polished route runner at all. That was the big knock on him. So it took a long time for him to get into the offense. And then over the final five weeks of the season, he scored – he was in the top five in fantasy points for wide receivers. And he was playing in an offense run by Bill Musgrave. I'd like you all to just think back of all the exciting plays over the last 10 years that Musgrave has dialed up.

Classic musgra. And Norv Turner was the offensive coordinator for Josh Gordon last year in that breakout. And he's been a part of so many receiver breakouts, and he's known as a great teacher. And I don't know whether his system is just easier to pick up or whatever it is. I think Teddy Bridgewater has a good chance to be starting, if not week one, early in the season. And I agree with Wes. I think Patterson, by year's end, will have passed Greg Jennings. Although Greg Jennings, you know, it's not the old Greg Jennings.

Cordero has some Julio Jones to his game. Right. That's pretty good. He's a tough guy to figure out because he runs very physical. He doesn't look like he should be. He's not quite as big as Julio Jones, but just if you're kind of creating that prototype freak wide receiver in a lab, it's pretty much Cordarelle Patterson, which is how you get drafted that high. All right, quick over-under game. I'll throw to both you gentlemen.

Mr. Patterson, 50 receptions. I'll take the over. Yeah, I would take the over. 1,000 yards receiving. I'll take the over on that, too. Eight touchdowns. Wait, I don't get to pick the over on yards? No, I'm sorry.

Let's go under. All right. Let's go under. I apologize, Greg. Because the Vikings' passing attack overall, I don't know. Eight touchdowns. I'll go under. He might have seven.

I'm going to go under as well. So, but overall, we're feeling bullish about his abilities, and if he eventually gets with a quarterback that proves himself, there really are no limits to them. Spoiler alert, we will be talking about Cordero Patterson. That's a good point. He's the Leap guy. Actually, I should say I'm changing my answer over for yards because not to.

Now he's one of Greg's guys. Not to spoil it too much, but not only is he on our list, he's got to be pretty high. We'll just say that. He's going to be pretty high on the list. And if he went under 1,000 yards, that would be considered a loss at this point because we're projecting big things. Let's talk some technology. Because we've got a lot of brainiacs in the mock studio right now. TD, when you produce this after the show,

if you can put in some futuristic sound effects, as I discuss and set up this story and throw it to the two scientists. So it's good to throw technology-based questions to scientists I found. Here we go. We'll start in Pittsburgh, where the Steelers are one of 33 NFL and NCAA teams to use shut vision helmets. The full-contact helmets are embedded with HD video cameras that allow coaches to review what the players see during practices.

Hubba, Hama, fellas. Does Chip Kelly know about this? I bet he does. I bet he does, and he was going to use him, but now he sees that the Steelers are using him first, and he'll no longer be seen as this brilliant mind. So he'll just trash him, throw out tens of thousands of dollars of equipment. He definitely read this article and was like,

those goddamn mother, you know what's like, I can't believe that that's my thing. He's like, there better not be any remote-controlled cars on that field. Is this technology more or less impressive to you, Dan, than remote control cars on a football field? Remote control cars on a football field are a menace, and they should be eliminated from even the thought process of any NFL coaches or front offices that was a blatant attention grab in my mind.

Stop. Keep them out of the game. Mike Tomlin talked about watching some of the videos, and as you would expect, he said it kind of looked like a car crash. I mean, I can't imagine other than quarterback rack, how this is going to be too helpful, a lot of shakiness. Yeah, I agree with that. I don't think this is all that impressive.

It's like the first people to buy the new technology before it's really ready to go. You know, they're kind of wasting their money, wasting their time. I like that. Hot take there. Hot take. Bunsen Blurter burner blow torch on that entire operation. Next, we move to Green Bay, where the Packers have found out how to travel through time. The Green Bay, no.

Next we travel to Green Bay, where the Packers are using a GPS system, they hope will reduce injuries, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette. The Packers have imported GPS technology from Catapult Sports. There's a plug. An Australian company that, ooh, hello to a shout out to all our Australian listeners, that introduced GPS technology for monitoring athletes in the early 2000s to help keep track of their players' workload during practices. Wow, the team hopes the information provided by the GPS system can yield some insight into how to tailor workout regiments and avoid injuries.

Wow, gentlemen. This one I do believe might have some merit. I like this one. What is it? Turn left at Lambeau Field. How many, there's two stop signs in Green Bay. It can't be that tough. I was thinking that it sounded a little weird having GPS technology, but if it does help monitor a workload, that seems like it would have some merit.

For the directionally impaired, which definitely counts me, and certainly Greg, who admitted that he took 15 minutes to find his car after leaving the bar yesterday. Right, after one beer, too. Yeah. In fact, and Greg, I don't know if I'm putting you on blast here, but you said you got so frustrated with yourself. You started running to find the car to end this. It wasn't so much frustration is I wanted to see the second half. I had to watch my daughter when she woke up, but I wanted to lock into the second half, so I was wasted time. Oh, I thought it was more like, you fool, find the car.

It was more. I had gone two blocks this way, two blocks that way. I had no idea where it was, and I thought, saved some time, get a little exercise, start jogging. So, Greg, like myself, and I don't know about Wes, directionally challenged the GPS changed the game in traveling places. And I don't know who invented GPS for cars, but it sure beats, remember when you have to print out map quest, and then you'd follow those directions, and they were always a little bit off. Well, change this city to GPS guys. More than anywhere else in the country. I lived here in 2001, 2002, and they had these things called the Thomas guides.

I don't know if you know about those. It's basically a binder filled with thousands of pages, and you're trying to change on the highway, flipping through that. It's a nightmare. It's a disaster. This is not at all what the Packers are doing, by the way. As you can tell. You can't be that hard, this GPS thing. I've got this technology on my iPod.

I mean, I go running. It tells me how fast I ran. Some calories burn. Maybe just stick one of those and everyone. pocket we got all this stuff figured out right that's it by the way if you've noticed that that was our third and final news item of the day there's not a lot going on in the NFL on today june 23rd 2014 uh all right what do we want to do next do we want to get cessler on the phone to talk making the leap or do you want to go to the mailbag let's call mark you want to get mark

on the line yeah mark is on vacation mark but he also is a man that he doesn't like to disconnect from the NFL brand in fact In fact, he was tweeting this morning at about 7 a.m. about different NFL matters. He sent out a link to one of his making the leaps that we're about to talk about. The guy's plugged in, and he's calling in on his vacation. You there, Bada? I am. How are you, fellas? This is the shortest distance call in around the league history.

Aren't you like a mile away from us right now? I am roughly about a six-minute walk from the studio, but I could not be bothered to make my way over. As you can see, Mark has decided for his vacation, summer vacation. to keep it local. He's not going anywhere. So we figured we didn't feel too bad about looping him in on the podcast today. Mark, the Making the Leap series. I don't know. Are you aware of this? I'm hearing rumbling.

It kept me up at night as a writer, too. Yeah, so the Making the Leap series, number 15 on our list is a Philadelphia Eagles tight end. Zach Ertz, who, of course, came into the league last year as a second round pick, showed some signs. but as a guy who could turn into a big-time playmaker in Chip Kelly's offense with his remote-control cars and such. Now, you believe, Mark, that Zacherts will become the guy that the Eagles thought they were getting when they drafted him. I think so. I think it's a position number one that you'll often see guys bloom in year two and year three.

And I think he's a player in that system that Chip Kelly's already cited as, hey, he's going to see a lot of work. He's going to make up for some of the production left behind by Deshaun Jackson. And after watching really all his targets, I was more impressed. I don't think he quite got on my radar during last season because he didn't play out of the gate. He saw a lot more snaps as the season went on. And I think that his game was incomplete because he's not really a blocker. And the thing that kept him down numbers-wise is that offense moves so fast that you can't shuttle tight-end on and off the field.

So when they would lean on their run game, he often wasn't the guy they'd lean to first to really be on the field. I think they said he's gotten bigger, stronger, that he's more of a complete guy, and they can use him the way they wanted to at this point. Who do you see if you had to, say, a player

in the league right now that you could compare Ertz to or Ertz's upside? Everyone, Tony out of college, made the Witten, the Jason Whitten comparison. I read an article where someone, compared him more to Kyle Rudolph, and that's who he looks more like to me on tape. He's an interesting guy because he's not incredibly fast, but he's a tough guy to bring

down. Like I saw that over and over that he would take one or two guys on him to pull him down, and he's quicker than I thought he would be after initially reading about him and saying this guy's just not, he doesn't have the speed. So, you know, I think he may be his own type of comparison a year from now because of the way he'll be used. Wow, people will just be comparing everyone to Zach Ertz. The measure by which everything's

what stood out to you the most. Yeah, the Witten thing doesn't make sense to me because isn't Ertz a little more athletic catching the ball than Witten? That's what I saw too, and you asked what stood out. I thought he did a nice job of continually giving

foals, but earlier on Vic as well, a nice window to throw. He'd get right in between defenders and showed nice hands. Now, he's just the guy that they didn't use as much as they could. I feel like we haven't really seen what he's capable of, but his quickness impress me. But he's not a guy that's going to, like, beat people down the field. It's going to be to see how they use them in the passing game because he's not a deep threat. I've seen you write in the obstacles under the

in the making a leap piece, which you could find at NFL.com backslash making the leak. That's what they call a vanity URL in the business. You know, one of our Twitter followers pointed out to me that it's not a backslash. I always say backslash. He just says, it's a slash. I guess that's true. I have no way to fact-check that, but that seems that. How about let's get it together?

Wait, so does that mean it's a forward slash? I guess. I don't know. Whatever. It's a slash. Anyway, you... I have no idea, but he pointed it out, and it sounded like he knew what he was talking about. So Sizzler mentions that, you know, Ertz's blocking has come into,

question during his rookie season. It's something that needs to be improved. I was thinking maybe in our NFL offseason tropes file, we might have to add any young pass-catching tight end. You'll see the story that, oh, he's worked a lot on his blocking and he's gotten stronger.

That's a major trope, and that's what we're seeing with Ertz, too. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, I think, though, that he himself said that was something that he knew was an issue coming into the league. Kelly fell in love with him for his past catch and ability because he, when he was at Stanford, tried Oregon.

He kept them out of the national title game with an 11-catch game, 80-something yards, and a pretty controversial touchdown at the end. It was actually 106 yards, but that's cool. I'll just fix your mistakes. Thank you. Well, again, you're in front of the computer. I'm not. Mark, yeah.

Do you think his development is one of the reasons they were able to let Deshaun Jackson go? That's interesting. I look at the whole Deshawn Jackson removal as something pretty specific to Deshawn Jackson from the neck up in terms of how Kelly really wanted to build that locker room. But I think it eases it for sure. He mentioned Ertz by name more than once whenever he was asked, who fills the void? I do think that they wanted a guy that from the tight end position can make plays. And that's what I saw on him down the stretch for sure. The opportunity is there.

They don't have a number one receiver. People want to make Jeremy Macklin, I mean, he's not that guy. So they're going to have to spread it around. Could be chaotic waters for the defenses facing the Eagles this year to use a cesslerism. Chaotic rivers. Oh, chaotic rivers. Excuse me. All right.

Well, that's it then. Mark. You know, I sort of ran on a gas there at the end. I have nothing more to tell you about anything. Go lay by the sea, Mark, or wander into the wilderness. You know, do a Sessler thing, just disconnect, and we will hold this thing down, and we won't know you anymore. That's a promise. How about I'll see you in about a week.

Oh, I like that. Thank you, Mark. See you, Mark. Bye. So we have some breaking news. I'm just going to go off the script right now. I love that. And it's not the biggest news ever, but more bad news for the Miami Dolphins offensive line and Mike Pouncey, expected to miss at least the next three months with hip-soumonds.

surgery. So we talked last show that the Dolphins offensive line, you know, Bill Lasers really intrigued and thinks that'll be the turnaround story there and now here their center and kind of their leader of that group supposedly. If they're saying at least three months, that usually means more than three months. They picked up his fifth year option, right? They did. I wonder if this is something that happened during the minicamp season or something that

had been lingering. It would be odd to have hip surgery in late June. If it was already an issue, I would have to think it has to be something that came up recently. Yeah, because you want to get that out of the way, and it's not huge, huge breaking news, but this is a team that had major questions on the offensive line already, Pouncy, who's had a pretty rocky road of late. And he's the best offensive lineman. Right. And he's probably the best Pouncey on the field, right?

Marquis is all like, what? That's all I got for you. He's clenching his fist right now, the Steelers Center. Marquise Pouncey. Gentlemen, let's keep rolling. Another making leap candidate, number 17 on our list. We like to keep you on your toes, even though we just did 15. We're going to do 17 now, and we're going to talk about another playmaker.

This is the wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. His name is Marvin Jones. I know him well, and when he faced the Jets last season, he had four touchdowns in a game, including three and one half. I did not like that, but I did like his talent. I will start. I will throw it to Greg because you'll be. always want to give credit for good writing, and I liked Greg's lead here. Marvin Jones is an uncommon talent trapped by a common name and a, wait for it, common quarterback.

Yeah. Knockout. The boss. Even in a piece as glowing and positive as possible, I wanted to get a shot on Andy Dalton right on the first sentence, just so Bengals fans know where we're at. Marvin Jones is a great example that Chris Wesseling, the mad scientist, can change his mind on a player because, you know, I was kind of talking them up. We were back and forth on a lot of top 25 guys. And once Chris Wessling laid his eyes on the beautiful Game Rewind and whatnot for Marvin Jones,

he just couldn't leave him off the list either because this guy can do it all. It's a true story. I actually wanted Tyler Eifert to be the Bengals Breakout candidate. Then I went and watched Game Rewind, and all Marvin Jones does is, make plays. Yeah. He is a guy who's totally complete as a player, and that was what impressed me the most watching him. He pulled off so many spectacular catches on the boundaries in terms of diving and tapping his toes out of bounds and catching touchdowns and jumping. And usually with a guy that can pull off that many highlights, maybe he doesn't have the greatest hands, or he's not

the type of guy that's going to break tackles after the catch. But Jones, even though he's a lanky, receiver. He broke a lot of tackles. He was very good in the open field. They gave him the ball as a running back. He made a nice play, I thought, against the Jets. One of his plays in that game that wasn't a touchdown. I think it was a 40, 50 yard catch and run where he made about four people miss. There's just a lot to like with this guy. He's number 17. He might be number one in my heart. How about that? Well, I was going to say I'm a little surprised. I think the scientists got together and decided the actual order of the making leave candidates. I would have pegged him as a top 10 guy if someone would have asked me. Yeah, sometimes we don't watch all the film until the numbers are set. I would be totally comfortable having him higher. And part of it is because he's in such a

nice spot. Look, part of the reason he's getting open on all these plays is he's playing opposite AJ Green. Well, let's talk about that. Wes, you are our may show when it comes to wide receiver duo rankings. Is there a possibility by January of next year that we're talking about Jones and green as a top five wide receiver duo. Absolutely. Top three. We could be talking about that by September. Or now.

Oh, wow. Drop it. Where did you have him entering this year in your most recent post? I don't even remember. Were they on the watch list? Do you remember? I don't remember. I do because I went back and looked.

And you had them number 10 the last time you wrote this. So they were on the radar already. And Jones, he barely played last year. I mean, he played only 40% of the snaps in the first half of the year. Late in the season, they finally let him play over Muhammad Sanoo. I mean, I don't know what they were thinking with Sanoo. So much playing time over Marvin's doing. The last four games of the season, when he finally played like a starter,

about 70, 75% of time, he was on pace if you pace out those four games for about 1,300 yards. It's an interesting point about ranking him higher on the list because it's hard for a number two receiver to really have a huge break. out, but Alshon Jeffrey did it. Right. And really, look, one of the reasons why Jones is so productive, like you pointed out, AJ Green, I think as a season went along, started to draw even more double coverages than normal, and then Marvin Jones just feasted off of that.

You got to make them pay, and the one thing I'm worried about is that Andy Dalton's the quarterback, and that they're going to dial back the pass attempts there. And that could be the one thing that gets in Marvin Jones's way of a monster season. Otherwise, I'm thinking a thousand yards. 1100 you're stepping all over my toes in that as you was just about to set you up in a beautiful way over under time we'll start with receptions and i will set the number at 73 receptions that's a pretty high number i'm going under yeah i'm gonna go over just because i just talked up this guy uh yards i will set it at 1100 yards i'm going under on that too i'm going over on that though the thing i like about him a lot of a lot of yards per catch so But the 73, I'm not feeling too good about the 11 under, I like.

Eight touchdowns. He had 10 last year, but touchdowns can be fluky from year to year. Yeah, I'm going to go under for touchdowns. I'll go under. I'll say this, West, you went under on all three, but you also said they could be a top three wide receiver duo. He needs to be better than that for them to become that level, right? True.

His thing is the Dalton factor. Am I right? I mean, they're not going to throw 32 touchdowns again this year, probably. I went under on all those, but I wasn't going way under. I mean, it could be like 68 receptions, 10, 50 yards, and seven touchdowns. You know, that's still a good season. He's a tough player to come up with a comparable. We were doing it in the office.

We kind of thought maybe a young Greg Jennings or Donald Driver, because there aren't many guys kind of like with the Randy Moss build a little shorter than that for sure, but just that can make the athletic, you know, plays that can also run. Usually those guys get tackled and they just get thrown all over the place. All right, gentlemen, before we leave, let's hit up the ATL mailbag. Got a lot of great questions this time around. Probably the best questions I've gotten since we started doing the ATL mailbag last year. And I had some spillover, so we're going to hit a few.

And why don't we start? Oh, hell, it's start in Buffalo. This one I actually answered in the mailbag, but I wanted to see what the other heroes thought about it. This is Michael Sebring at Sirea Bills Lichen, weird handle. Here's the question. Clearly, little confidence in E.J., referring to E.J. Manuel. If he improves to 25 touchdowns and 12 interceptions and 4,000 yards, do Bills take the AFC East with their otherwise ATL certified talent?

That's like saying, you know, if Gino Smith wins the MVP, do the Jets win the division? Like, it's a ridiculous ceiling that they just set there for E.J. Sure. If he throws for 4,000 yards and 25 touchdowns, they should win the... Well, I'll say this. Before Wes answers also, I'll say that I think Michael got back to me this morning with a comment that Ryan Tannahill hit those marks last year. This just in, E.J. Manuel is not Ryan Tannahill. Right. This just in. He's not... Which isn't a good sign because Ryan Tannel hasn't even proven himself to be much other than Ryan Tattahill at this point. I said I would eat all my softball pants if...

if E.J. Manuel reaches those numbers in one of the run-heavyest offenses in the league. What are the odds that E.J. Manuel throws for 4,000 yards in 25 touchdowns this year. Let's say one out of 100. I thought you're going to say in his career. Wow. All right. Well, that'll let you know where we're at. We can just move on from there.

I'm going to say 2%. What about that? Less than that. Less than that. I'll put it at 15. Wow. Come on. 15.

Oh, you know, giving up on E.J. Manuel is a big ATL podcast trick, but he's a rookie that went through an injury plague season. Let's not count the guy out yet. E.J. Manuel has some strong qualities, but among those is not passing. You're saying, like, he might not be bad. That's fine. 4,000 yards is another matter. 4,000 yards.

That's a lot of yards. 2014. That's like Brandon Whedon-Weed in 2013 projections by you right there. Whatever. Among his good qualities, though, body language. Eaging. Our listeners might not know this, that TD is an expert on quarterback body language.

And in general, all body language, I believe. And you say he's giving off good flavor. Yeah, you know, the story goes back to combine, his combine. And it was him and Gino Smith. And I could have told you there and then, Dan, Geno was not the way to go, you know. Okay. No, that's fair.

E.J. might not have the talent. I agree. He doesn't have the arm. It doesn't have a talent. But he's a nice kid. And I can see a guy, a guy like that leading the team. I buy that. And when you listen to the people around them and just listen to him,

you can see that. Christian Ponder, you kind of know, maybe he's not the guy. Gino Smith, mixed feelings about him. E.J. Manuel seems like he commands the room. He's got the intangibles. I don't know if he has the tangibles. Now, speaking of Gino Smith, and we all know that there are people on the ATL podcast that do not believe in Gino Smith, I will ask this question.

And this comes from Vincent Petty at Vinny Petty, who asks, if the Jets are 3 and starting strong with Gino as their starter in September, could they be a strong candidate? for the team of ATL. Team of ATL, of course, is the team that we will choose and get behind, just like we did the Carolina Panthers. That's coming up later this summer and into the fall. Jets 3 and O, Gino playing well. Do they enter the discussion?

No. Why not, Wes? The Jets don't excite me. The team of ATL has to naturally excite us. I think you're missing the big picture, which is he's saying they start 3 and O, they're playing really well. And Gino Smith is like to. Keep your mind open.

All right. I'll keep my mind open, but I don't see it happening. It doesn't sound like you're keeping your mind open. I don't see it happening. Yeah, we'll revisit it. I'm really looking forward to seeing who the team of Wes is this year. I know. I think if a team of ATL is going to be one of the teams to be root for, it's weird that we haven't talked about it.

I still think if I had to guess which team will end up as the team of ATL, I think it's the Browns. Wow. I think it's the Browns. Because that would be a lot of fun. All right, we'll move on. This is from Aqpo Onos at Snow the Ghost. Snow the ghost What team is most likely to pull a Spain

World Cup analogy Be very good one season Then just be bad the next I will jump in first I answer this question And I wrote in the mailbag I thought that the chiefs would be

This team I think they would drop down Safe answer To seven and nine Eight and eight range Safe answer Spain is one of the greatest teams Of all time

They just won the World Cup You're picking a team That couldn't get out of The Saturday afternoon NBC game. You can't construct the answer that way because then I have to then answer the Broncos or the Seahawks. You pick a bigger, better team. Okay, go ahead, pick one. Hot-shot.

49ers. Of the top sort of team. Bad the next, by the way. What? It says it just be bad the next. Well, 8 and 8 at kind of as bad for a team like the 49ers. Panthers are another pretty obvious one, I think. A very strong candidate.

I agree. The Chiefs, Panthers, and 49ers are three best candidates. Well, I don't know if I don't know if I don't know if I'm. as much down on the 49ers as much as Greg is. No, I'm actually not, but I think if you're asking the question which of the top five teams in the NFL could fall, I think just because of the division

and the schedule and other things 49ers best. Sneaky answer. The cults. If they weren't in the AFC South, because the rest of that division is so bad. Come on. Why can't say, no one wants to get some stones and go against the Patriots? Bring it. They still have Tom Brady.

This one is from Harry Kerr at Kerr-H-D. you coming to London week four to the ATLT? Greg? I need to work on that more. Terrible answer. We don't have any update on that situation. This is from Joe at J.Tray 3. This is a time of increased equality across our great nation. This is a question that I like. So I'll put it out there in TD. Please keep your ears open on this one. At Dan Hansis, will you finally, I like that finally is in here. Will you finally allow a male producer. to say Seduction Friday

of course one of K. Rich's great comments. I don't think we want that. Right. It's up to you. You know, you're the

clearly the commissioner of this issue. But I'm fine with no one ever saying that again. Well, it's almost like how let's do it was,

what was this name? Gold Standard's name? That would be, that's K. Rich's thing, one of our great producers of our past.

So for, for TD, in this, he's the most obvious example to be dropping, Hey, fellas, it's a seduction Friday. I don't know if that's good. Totally agree. And my idea of seduction Friday is not in a cold room with, I love you guys, but yeah, that doesn't work that way.

That's fair. Moving on, Brian Thompson writes, at McLevin, 5042. Obviously signed up for Twitter after seeing Superbad several years ago. At NFL ATL, what are we going to have the Mailman Stories podcast from Wes or the Peter King versus Chris Wesleying no-holds Bard match. We can do some mailman stories.

I'll have to think up a few good ones. There are plenty of them. Maybe we should, for the rest of the quiet season, the NFL, maybe have a mailman story dropped into each podcast. I was on double secret probation at the post office for most of my time there because I was 21 years old and I would always come in late on Saturday mornings. Awesome. Also, I like the use of No Holds Bard.

I recently watched that movie on Netflix, an old Hulk Hogan movie from 1989. One of the truly the most wretched films ever produced. And if you're looking, if you're somebody that loves awesomely bad movies, it's on Netflix streaming right now. Greg, I can tell you're going to be racing home. I'm more of a ready to rumble guy. All right, what do you want to do one more? Yeah. All right.

We have the question about MVP talk, but I think maybe we should save that for the next. show okay so let's save that we'll do one one more uh this is good at nflat atl you guys versus ddfp of the dave damshick football program in a game of five aside soccer who would play what position at producer td that's of course td's twitter handle will referee of course i want to play first of all we don't even know the positions well you talked about this yesterday i played soccer through high school oh i don't know the i played soccer into high school and i was a goalie so that's where I will play with these hands. Back when I played, we called it front line.

I don't know if they still call it. Do they still call it front line? You can have your front line. Who runs the most? I'm not, you know, I think I can outrun these guys in terms of endurance and long distance. So whatever position is right. Yeah.

Left back and it really doesn't matter, by the way, how we line up because the Damashik football program, not a bunch of athletes over there. And I don't imagine Damashik's doing much damage. Right. I can see Henry maybe being a bruising midfielder. Do they have enforcers in soccer? Henry hates soccer That's the other

Henry is the English one that hates soccer Elliot's his makeup is going to start running during the show Elliot will refuse to do anything like that So I'm feeling good no matter really how we line it up Actually let's do one more Because I mentioned downstairs to the fellows And I wanted to give them some time to think about it

This one comes from Isaiah At Isaiah 151519 If all you guys had an entrance song What would it be? And I guess when I picture entrance song, a lot of times I think of either wrestling or at least a walk-up at bat in baseball, but

in football, if you had an entrance song, what would it be? Chris Wesley. We did this when I played softball back in Cincinnati. We did it once. Such a Cincinnati softball move. I did it once, and I picked, I want to be sedated by the Ramones. Why was that? Were you dealing with a chemical

dependency at the time? Good beat. Yeah, good beat. It starts out really. I think I might choose Cool Mo Dee how you like me now. So all I want to say is how you like me now. That's good. That's solid. Greg.

I'm going to go, Simon says, parentheses, get the fuck up by Farrow Munch. Now, you might not know this song off the top of your head, but if you heard it. I would have put money on Greg choosing a song I had never heard. Well, if you listen to this on YouTube. It'll get you fired up. It is some entrance music. It's got, you know, some expletives, so that's an issue. But it's something I think, you know, you come out to.

It's going to get you hyped up. I like that. I would probably go, because I liked it when I think of my youth and when I felt alive and there were possibilities were endless when you'd watch the Chicago Bulls. They had that song. Remember that cheesy 90s song? It sounded, you know, can we play that today? Oh, yeah.

Remember this? And now? Remember the crowd? I remember Horace Grant pulling down the specs and everybody getting excited That would be That is getting the blood pumping

Yeah and I would What I would play was I would wait Like probably I don't know I still don't understand Quite the specifics To the question Where we're coming from

I guess the tunnel And what are we coming out for? I don't know A podcast? Maybe for the podcast itself I guess I would wait like a good 45 seconds

Until the crowd was just going nuts And they couldn't take it anymore And then I just Yeah And if Or maybe maybe i would do young monday song oh yeah get your den hands get your dan hands you already have your own entrance yeah this is the best part here this is that beat that's percussion this is that

close up on mj on the bench getting it come out talc powder oh man i feel like the guy who did the nbc NBA on NBC theme song maybe also did this john tash oh this john and you do you have young monday that would be a backup for me get you dan hanses get you dan hands Hansis is the man's best radio read. Now listen to the sounds from around the lead. And then failing all those, failing all those, I would go with something from Amy Mann off the Magnolia soundtrack. Just keep people on their toes.

All right. That's good. Good music choices by everyone, except for Greg, who would get an FCC fine for his. Nah, be great. Be worth it. It would be awesome. It would be worth it.

All right, that's it for today's edition of the Around the League podcast. We will be back on just one more show this week. We're doing two shows this week, and I guess most likely for the rest of the quiet period until training camp, but we'll play it by year. You never know what will happen until Thursday. This is Dan Hansa signing off for the mailman and the boss and TD, not behind the glass. Until then. This is an I-Heart podcast.