NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Offseason forecast, "Win Wess' Toaster"

Episode Date: February 14, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal and Chris Wesseling – discuss Friday’s news, including the latest on the Ted Wells report involving Miami Dolphins teammates Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito. The gang forecasts the free-agency frenzy set to begin March 11, plus potential landing spots for the league’s top unsigned wide receivers. Finally, find out if a lucky podcast listener could take down Wesseling in a battle of football minds called “Win Wess’ Toaster.”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 are heavy-legged waistbenders. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes, Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys? Hey, Dan. How are you? Friday.

It's Friday. Get excited. Big day, Win West's toaster. Yeah. Later in the show, everyone's excited. The tension in the room right now, waiting on the results. And you got, when you have Tyson and Tokyo, that's what I think with Wes. I feel like he's gotten a little overconfident.

We'll see if that comes through or whether he's actually Tyson in the, you know, Michael Spinks era of his career where he's just destroying everyone and he's just on a roll. One note on Wes, he came into this as raw as anyone on the phone. He's had a chance to go through the crucible three, four times. now. I think he's becoming a veteran. It's like Jeopardy. The more you win, you have an inherent advantage.

You know when to time the buzzer. You know what kind of questions they're asking. You kind of know the format. I feel like I've earned this. There you go. Maybe you're Tyson just out of jail, just facing a bunch of tomato cans who have no business being in the rent. You're like, yeah, it's Wes against Peter McNeely.

I'm a Tyson without a Robin Givens and without a Buster Douglas. A couple other things. It's, as you can tell, listeners, it seems like everyone. one is hunky dory in the room after the heat over the browns at the end of the last podcast. Mark, now that you've had a chance to simmer down, would you like to say anything? Well, you know, I left the studio feeling that I might have gotten a little hot, but I texted West right after, because you guys were hanging around, but he left, and I just said, listen, pal, we're talking football, got a little crazy in there, but I did, right?

It's like, I mean it. It's like I didn't want it to bubble over, but I listened to it later, and you know what? I think we need more of that heated debate. It was honest. It wasn't manufactured. It was just good football debate. That was hashtag legit heat. Yeah.

And I liked it. And of course we had, before we get into the show, we're going to do some news. We're going to go over a couple off-season forecasts. And then, of course, we're going to get to win Wes's toaster at the end of the show. One last thing I was thinking about when we had the Seahawks in, we had Michael Robinson, Brandon Mebain. and Red Bryant. ATL podcast, ATL Debate Club, Mount Rushmore is a big topic right now.

Who's on the Mount Rushmore of guests to date right now? If you're going to take it all the way back, I'd put Jim Brown's face on that. Jimmy Brown's on there. Richard Sherman's got to be on there. My favorite was Brandon Marshall. Brandon Marshall. I'm sick of the Mount Rushmore's in general.

This has to be the easiest one to get on ever. There's only been eight to ten guests, so it's almost 50%. Brandon Marshall's my favorite. Yeah, but Brandon Hartline's listening right now, like, what the hell? I mean, David Ely is almost in the conversation for this. Didn't you guys talk to West Welker? I thought you guys had him on the debate clip. No.

That's true. We talked to Welker. That wasn't too great. Heartline should be happy. We just don't mention his involvement in today's other news, so relax. Which is a nice transition. The Gold Center behind the glass, let's do some headlines. And we'll start with the Ted Wells Independent Investigation.

It was released early this morning on the West Coast, about 10 o'clock, on the East Coast. And the findings do not paint a very positive picture on Richie Incognito, but also Mike Pouncey, John Jerry. It appeared like Jonathan Martin or the findings by Ted Wells is that Jonathan Martin really was the target, as were other people in the building. and there was a toxic culture that incognito seemed to be the ringleader of. Is that safe to say? That's fair to say. It's odd to me looking back that there were so many reports and the feeling from Incognito's camp that the report would help exonerate him and perhaps everyone would look bad.

And I guess that's true to a degree in that everyone also included a couple of Incognito's teammates that we didn't hear as much about. But Martin was believed to be fully credible. All his accusations they believe were to be true, and it detailed some other troubling behavior from teammates and from offensive line coach Jim Turner. Overall, just, you know, rough. It was about as bad a day as it was going to be for the Miami Dolph.

It sounds like NFL mandated gumshoe slash league mandated Jonathan Martin Prober. Ted Wells has released a bombshell that he spent many, you know, days and months putting together. 144 page report. that finally landed and yeah I mean there's what's let's take a step back and and what is going to be the fallout of this report I mean Richie Incognito is no way he's going to be back we kind of knew that Jonathan Martin it doesn't seem like there's any way he could come back just just how big this was is Joe Philbin in trouble I mean the report what it should be I mean it seems like Philbin it says in the report that he didn't even realize this was happening I mean that's

quite an indictment for the head coach it should be you know we keep hearing we heard a lot that coaches don't always head coach doesn't always know what's going on in the locker room he can't control everything you ought to know what your position coach is doing and if this is extending even beyond the offensive line to an entire culture where there's just no leadership whatsoever i think that's the most damning thing when a guy like incognito is your leader it's going down a path that shouldn't go down it's interesting in the report they Wells was very supportive of Philbin, and they found all of his comments and leadership and things that he tried to do credible. They supported Philbin quite a bit, but then there's

the angle that you're taking, West, which I think makes a lot of sense. Judy Batista wrote about it in a good column that basically this is an indictment of Philbin and lacking leadership. And there's an interesting back and forth on November 2nd between Philbin and Incognito, and that's the first time Philbin really confronts incognito about it that's pretty late in the game incognito totally denies it then he talks to the offensive line coach turner who also totally denies it and philbin is quoted in the report telling turner these you know accusations better not be true turner is still employed by the dolphins at this point i would think the first fallout as you said would be turner is no longer employed by the dolphins but he is at this point i mean yeah he's still

employed as of right now. I can't imagine that's going to last too much longer. And one thing about Philman also, the dolphins were the subject of hard knocks two summers ago. And I remember watching Philman, this is ahead of his rookie season. I mean, he's very polished the things that he says

and he's kind of by the book type guy. And it seemed like so meticulous that he would be picking up gum off the turf of the practice field and, you know, getting on guys for the shoelaces not being tied properly. It just seems a little bit there's something, there's a disconnect that he would be so attention-oriented and then completely

unplugged from his own team and his own coach, Jim Turner, who was taking part in some of this hazing that was going on of incognito, excuse me, of Martin and other players. I mean, it's outrageous that he'll probably get off the hook for this, but at the same time, it doesn't seem right that he would have no idea. And Philbin is that, his background is offensive line. I mean, you think he would be with those coaches closely. My assumption, not only that, but that he personally brought in Jim Turner. That would be my assumption. I think it boils down to, you know, when we saw the Denver Broncos under Pat Bowlin sweep Josh McDaniels out of there, largely because he was embarrassed by what happened with that meltdown. And, you know, even last week,

when you get to the point where Haslam was embarrassed by what's happening to his organization, Ross has not enjoyed this ride. And if his level of embarrassment or if the front is serious enough, then yes, I think Philbin is in trouble. I mean, it's a tough thing for him to have to tackle as a second year head coach, but he seems to have been lost in the mix here in terms of awareness. I don't think he's in any trouble, though, whether that's right or wrong. I don't agree with that, but I think Ross has decided Philbin's his guy and he made an entire GM search knowing partly what's going to be in this report

and made sure that GMs were on board with Philbin. So it's a mess, but I don't think there's almost. almost any chance, Philbin, what if the report had been released in November 15th versus February? Maybe that would have changed it, but I think he has dug in and Philbin's his guy. Just to put a cap on this situation, you know, this is very deflating, the Ted Wells report, because this was a story that really challenged people's preconceptions at every twist and turn. That, you know, maybe we had incognito all wrong, and maybe we had Martin all wrong. And, you know, the conclusion is

The Incognito was a bully all along. This is such an embarrassment to the NFL. The things that the players did to the assistant trainer, that was really what was new and the other unnamed offensive linemen that we didn't really know about ahead of time. You just almost can't believe that it was happening. It was worse than the text messages.

If you want to read, obviously, more about the situation. We can access the entire report. Yeah, we have that. We have the original newser, and then we have, I did a summary, which is basically just a collection of quotes of the, I guess, low lights or takeaways from it. Yeah, so check that out on NFL.com backslash ATL. Moving on, the Detroit Lions cleared some cap space on Thursday, releasing both Lewis Delmus and also Nate Burleson. The two moves clear about 10 million in cap space. This is the time of the year when this stuff is getting done, and these two gentlemen now are on the street.

Delmus is a good player Not a great player It wasn't worth the money He's kind of a dying breed in the NFL The hard hitting strong safety That's not great in coverage But I think some team will find him He's a starter

He's an interesting free agent out there Only 26 years old New defensive coordinator Terrell Austin I think Right Mentioned Delmus by name Just a few days ago In his introductory press conference

So it's a little bit of a surprise I wonder if his He seemed to have chronic knee problems and he even admitted before the start of last year his knee just wasn't feeling that well. I wonder if that plays into it a little bit. They've talked about it as a possible target for Buffalo if Bird were to go elsewhere. But yeah, it seems like 90% of what we've written about him over the last three seasons are can't stay healthy, can't stay on the field, and they don't even practice the guy during the week.

So it's a bit of a risk, I think, if you add him. And it opens up one of the best spots in football, the number two sidekick to Calvin Johnson. Maybe it'll be Eric Decker, maybe it'll be someone interested. They're going to have to sign a free agent. And, yeah, about that. I mean, Nate Burleson, he kind of was in that role longer than he should have been. He even said it himself a year ago when he came into NFL Network Studios, and I spoke to him, name dropper.

He said that Titus Young was the guy that was going to replace him, and he was just keeping the spot warm and trying to teach him how to play the game. That never worked out. And now Nate is history. Burleson's reaching the stage of his career where he's going to have our time finding a job because he's not good enough to be a number three receiver is after the catch skills are gone. and teams don't employ veteran number four receivers

who don't play on special teams. We have talked about Decker, like where could he go where it would work, where you don't stick him into a number one role. And you mentioned Detroit, and I agree with that, that that's one complimentary role for him where it's a Broncos-type position potentially.

On paper, I totally agree, but just thinking about it now, I mean, they're paying Calvin Johnson how much money and they're going to, it's just a little crazy to pay. They've got to get a number two. Right, but are you going to pay a guy $9 million a year to be in that spot?

You probably pay Nick's a fraction of that. Go get Julian Edelman. No. You're not going to overpay for an injury pro guy who's a system wide receiver. All right, moving on. Interesting tidbit of, interesting bit of reporting from Ian Rappaport on Wednesday, I believe it was. He reported that the Packers, who usually kind of sit out the free agency signing period in terms of importing guys from outside their system.

They're going to get aggressive this year, sign as many as five players as they attempt to remake their defense, especially their defensive line in a way that best suits the philosophy of defensive coordinator, Dom Capers. I ask you, gentlemen, and also B.J. Raji, because of that, could be a guy on the chopping block. Mark Sessler, you brought up a good point yesterday, which I will tee you up on now. Why did it take six years, which is how long Capers been there, for them to come up with this plan to build the defense to his strengths? Number one, it's an organization that's set all along, we're committed to not making a huge splash and free agency. And I'm all right with them pivoting on that philosophy because it's overdue and they need help

and they need help quicker than what they're getting in the draft. But I feel with Dom Capers that it's this continual late January narrative where we have a Mike McCarthy presser where it's not anything to do with my coordinator. He's sticking around for another year. This defense to me stands out as one that's underperformed. And now, half a decade in, you're going to go find players that fit his system? What have you been doing? I love the original wording of the report. We're going to remake our defense in Dom Kaper's image.

So you're going to remake your defense into a 63-year-old white hand with a side part that looks like bucks ceiling. Yeah, that's a bad idea to try to do that. And whose image was it in before? Yeah. Well, you know, when I did my roster construction piece, breaking down how each roster in the NFL was was composed, the Packers are so staunchly anti-free agent that the only free agent on the roster was signed in 2006, Ryan Pickett.

Every other team in the NFL had at least three or four free agents, some as many as 20. Packers had one. You shouldn't be so married to any philosophy that you can't look for value in some way. I tend to think coordinators are overrated in terms of their importance in that if Capers is a good coach, he's a good coach, and it's more about the players. Have they been well-coached?

I just think the difference between a great coordinator. I don't know if there's great coordinators that make that big a difference one way or another. I think he's a good one, and it's really more about the players. All right. That's it for news. We're getting closer to win Wes's Toaster. Wes, he's got a glow to him. It's a confident glow.

Feeling overconfident right now. I am feeling overconfident right now. There's a hubris about me. See, I've been saying that all week. So it's just a matter of can we find an opponent that is worthy of you. All right, moving on, we've been doing some looking back at our off-season forecast. We're doing a forecast on all 32 teams on the Around the League blog. And I guess we're pulling out certain teams.

We're probably not going to hit all of them, right? But we're going to pick some teams, pick and choose. Sounds right. We like to keep the listeners guessing, you know? We don't know. That translation is we have no idea. We haven't really thought that far. But we're going to hit up two teams today.

I'm very excited because might as well start today with the runner-up in the AFC East that means second place that's a silver medal that is a silver medal tie into the Olympics the New York Jets All right so I guess the big picture with the Jets right now obviously the Keprex Ryan

he's with John Edzick still and now what they have to do after what was a positive season and a surprising season in terms of finishing eight and eight, which no one predicted, is to rebuild their offense. Wes, I know you made note of it in your breakdown of the organizations, how they've built their teams. The Jets have been, how did you put it, Wes, almost aggressive? They have aggressively ignored offense.

Yeah, they have aggressively ignored offense, especially at the top of drafts. The past five draft picks, first round picks have all been defensive players, right off the bat with the combine coming up and on the draft. I think the top of this draft, the Jets are going to focus on offense and most likely a wide receiver. They have to completely redo their wide receiver corpse. So look for the offense to be built up. And then you have...

They really put the corpse into core. Corps. Corps is a word C-O-R-P-S-P-S. It's pronounced core. No, core is different than corpse. No, I understand, but it's pronounced core. You guys think, you know, things and that's what I find

funny. But it's funny because Corpse has another meeting too so that adds a level of humor to the whole thing. I don't follow any of the humor. I don't think any of it's funny. All right, let's get back on track. The biggest

free agents, there's not a ton of big free agents but Austin Howard, their right tackle, he's been a 16th game, started the last two years. Manish Meta of the Daily News reported yesterday that the are actually have begun. Contract talks with him.

Calvin Pace, who's a 10-sac guy. He's a free agent. He's also 34 in October. I don't know how much money they're going to want to invest in that guy. None. And then you have some other free agents, Willie Cologne, the Guard,

another 16-game starter, Nick Folk, who was an excellent kicker. Willie Cologne is about 52 years old. Tight-end Jeff Cumberland. I call him Cumbie. I would put him over Cologne. You got to keep Cumbie around. This is the worst of so much of free agents I've ever seen.

Wow, it only gets worse. Ed Reed, speaking of corpse, Ed Reed, Kellyn Winslow, and Vlad Dukas. So there's that, again, this is kind of, to me, tells you, how did they get to eight and eight if these are impact guys that are hitting free agents? One thing about, that's great. Like that book that we've all been talking about, Collision, Low Crossers, and I know Dan hates the title. At a certain point, we've got to stop plugging this book without getting paid for.

Here's what it is, though. It's an in-depth look at how much, I guess, conflict there was, between the defense and offensive coaches, you know, just a couple seasons ago. And it is because Brian Schottenheimer, and he's no longer there. That whole side of the ball, though, and that, no, but a lot of the personnel are. And Wes is right. They aggressively refuse to add playmakers on offense. They finally have cap room.

I'm going to make a prediction. Julian Edelman will be a jet next season. Somebody's going to overpay for Julian Edelman. Well, and I think the Jets have the ripe. look of we need to, A, let's get someone who's burnt us over and over. He kind of fits what they do, I think, in terms of that offense. Well, before, yeah, I just also want to mention there are some guys that are also on their way out potentially. Antonio Cromarty has a $15 million salary cap charge, so they might cut him and then try to resign him. I think it would be a mistake

to let him go. Santonio Holmes is gone. They're going to cut him and take the cap money. Mark Sanchez also will almost definitely be a cap cut. So those are two, three big names from their past that are probably going to be out the door. Maybe Carmardi's back. They're reportedly interested in Jeremy Macklin and Emmanuel Sanders, both of whom I think make more sense than Edelman. I think it's not just that they ignore the offense and it's such a defense heavy organization. And Rex is always looking for ways to improve and make his defense great while almost ignoring, and, hey, this other half of the ball is important.

When they do invest in offense, they keep San Antonio Holmes too long. They trade up for Mark Sanchez. They draft Stephen Hill. So it's a combination of that they haven't known how to look for these players. Do you keep – are you comfortable, Dan, with Gino Smith for 16 more games? No. I think – well, yes and no. I think they definitely need to bring in a veteran quarterback,

and I don't think the fan base is going to get excited. If Matt Schaub comes in, I don't know how logical it is – West laugh. I don't know how logical it is for Michael Vick with his baggage and his inability to stay healthy. Vic, who else is there? I know. There's not a lot of other options out there. That's what I was going to say.

But I don't agree with the idea. And Greg, we talked about a little bit yesterday, I believe, of the Jets drafting quarterback high again this year, like using another second round pick, for example. I think you bring in the veteran, even if it's an underwhelming guy, and you push Gino. And hopefully Gino wins the job. and then shows you something and year two with more weapons around him and if he doesn't and you feel like you put a decent offense around him

then I feel like you're confident you could move on and find a real quarterback next year. Right, after you get fired because that's what will happen if Gino Smith is a disaster. It's still not a great position for us. It's hard to look at the Jets with all the holes until we know

what they plan to do to film and say yeah, they're going to improve on 8 and 8. Cormardi, I don't think is going to end up staying. They really love them and maybe they'll value them more than anyone else, but they'll cut him and he'll be on the free agent mark and he'll be an interesting guy that other teams will be interested in. Yeah. This defense was ready to win last year, at least the front seven. If you make a few changes in the secondary, it makes a lot more sense

to have Michael Vic under center than Gino Smith. If I was a five games until he goes out with a rib injury. I would want Vic. It's kind of a perfect, I like it. And you're right. If it does get injured, they have Gino Smith there. They have Morning Wegg. Why not, you know, why not pair them again? It is funny because I was looking back, as I was, Dan and I were saying too, oh, Michael Vic definitely goes to the Jets. It makes sense. But there was a report last off season that Morning Wegg and Vic don't connect these two because they left on rough terms and they don't actually want to work together again. That was a year ago, though, so maybe that's all nonsense at this point.

And also, you know, I think that you need to, I know the Eagles hit the bowl and they dealt with the PR backlash of signing Vic. I don't know if the Jets are going to want to welcome that circus in town because if he signs all that past stuff with the dogs is going to come back up in the tabloids. and I feel like it's going to be something that's going to that just are going to have to deal with that negative spin. And I don't know if there is Sanchez slash Tebow slash fill in the blank. I mean, I think the Vick thing is so far.

I think the Vick thing is so far gone now that there's enough time has passed that I don't think it's going to be a huge circus. Plus you have to account for overcoming the emotional loss of no Cumberland around. That's true. That's a void. And Vlad Dukas, who is on my all medieval evil villain team. Big Ugly? I think that was his name in a hardknock.

Sounds like he came from Transylvania. He won the King Ugly Combat. Actually, he was... I think he was second, actually. I don't remember. He was. He finished first, second. I think, yeah, first and second.

All right, so that's the Jets. We'll see what happens with him. It is exciting to follow him this offseason, though, because they have money. It's very annoying when you follow a team in the offseason when they're, quote, unquote, capstraft, because you know that you're not going to get anything sexy and free agency, and then you just plan on the draft. But here we go. Moving forward, the Dallas Cowboys of America's team, Chris Wessling,

you wrote up the off-season forecast on that. So I will throw it to you now. First of all, what's changing and what's going on with the Cowboys? Well, what's changing is Monteciffin has kind of been dethroned by Rod Marinelli, who's taking over the defense. And Scott Linnehan, the former Lions offensive coordinator, has been brought in to call plays. Those things are changing.

They probably will not have Miles Austin next. year, which, you know, they haven't had him for the most of the past three years, so that's not a huge deal. And Jason Hatcher is the big free agent to watch. At mid-season last year, Greg and I had mentioned that he was a defensive player of the year candidate. At age 30, he's coming off his best season of his career. He wants to get paid.

And stop me if you've heard this before. The Cowboys have salary cap problems, major, major salary cap problems. But Greg said that doesn't matter. I don't think it matters that much. They can get around it. I think this is a team where it matters. They don't have many obvious candidates to cut to free up salaries. Could you ever see them cutting to Marcus Ware?

No. We talked about this last week's podcast. Greg and I both said that we didn't think he'd be cut. It's just, it doesn't make sense to me for them to cut him. But there are other areas of this team where the salaries are a little bloated. They pay too much to their stars. And that's the problem when you take Jerry Jones's approach. you have a top-heavy roster in the middle of it is not that good.

This team is not built on free agents, but like Greg said, their problem is they just re-sign their own players to contracts that nobody else would sign them to. Even the kicker got a monster deal through 2020. I know that was, you know, in some ways created to help the salary cap, but it still seems a little absurd. Also, you know, they could lose Hatcher and Anthony Spencer. So they're both free agents. Their defensive line was supposed to be.

be a strength last year. It turned out to be a big weakness because they're injury prone and old. You have to wonder if they're willing to keep spending big money on these guys who can't stay on the field. And as much as I like Hatcher, you mentioned, he's entering his age 32 season. And that, you know, that's the type of contract that tends to come back and haunt you. Well, you say, will they be willing to keep doing this? Yes, they will. Because the core issue and the reason that Dallas remains one of the more depressing teams to ponder each off season is because Jerry Jones is the guy that

is miscalculating these moves over and over, and he is a guy that will not be replaced because he won't fire himself. He said he would if his performance were duplicated by another man, but he won't fire himself. I don't think Jarrah's going anywhere. They're another team in the market for a wide receiver.

Not a big name guy, but maybe like a Burleson or a low-level free agent that can get on the field. They're better off at Cole Beasley than Nate Burleson. I agree, but I think they need to sign someone that can just take snaps, because it's a very thin position. Tonyo Holmes. And for the record, I don't feel sorry for Cowboys fans, just because

Jerry Jones has run the show. You know what? You got a good 8-and-8. You could be the Cleveland Browns or the mid-90s Cincinnati Bengals or the lines for a while ago. Quit crying. You got a decent GM. You will be hoisted up on national television 14 times next season, no matter what you do. And you have those titles to

look back on, so give me a break. Mark, are you okay with West citing the Browns is a franchise that you'd be less off? I think that was factual. Oh, okay. You're more docile today. Just dealing in facts, Wes has provided information. Dan is now standing in the middle of the pot stirring it.

We actually talked out this plan ahead of time. Right towards the end, Wes, just throwing that brown jab and set off Mount Sessler for another explosion. That's totally accurate because we do have a few people in our own office that walk around moping about the cowboys. And it's, you aren't even in that zone. You aren't even in that nation. And Jerry Jones isn't the worst GM in the league. He's just not He's like 29th

No, he's probably in the middle I liked it better when Mark Didn't have a tranquilizer dart sticking out of his jugular All right Everybody get excited It's that time we've been waiting for it It's really one of the most successful games In the history of the internet

That's unsubstantiated But I like to think that The Best of iTunes and the Stitcher A lot of it goes back to this game Which is as we all know win Wes West's Toaster I'm excited So I've been saying Wes

You downstairs the man is very confident On Mark, Greg, I don't know if you've noticed this Oh yeah There's a Tyson in Tokyo February 1990 glow to him And I feel like he's ripe to get picked off I think we could call it a gleam I'm barely paying attention at all

I'm not sure why Greg is now Greg has progressed to the stage Where he's pretending not to like it It went from legitimately disliking it to indifference and not showing up for the podcast on those days to now pretending to be out but secretly in. By three months from now, you'll be jumping out of your chair during the second. I don't know if secretly in is it, but I'm tolerant. All right.

The gold standard behind the glass, this is the gold standard's maiden voyage of Win West's toaster. How are you feeling? Because there's some pressure on you as well, Zach. Yeah, a little bit. Let's hope for smooth sailing. Okay, so you screened, I know we got some tweets both Mark and I, I don't know, Wes and Greg did, but some people that did not make it out of the elimination chamber, the gold standard elimination chamber, the screening process. Is that true?

Yes, they're not in my basement. Don't worry. Okay, and they seem pretty distraught about it. Yeah, no, I mean, look, it's a doggie dog world out there. I can't help it if you haven't got the chops to step to the best. I like how gold standard over the course of like a month and a half has become utterly Machiavellian. I'm sorry. It was always there.

It's just we need to get to learn. How do you think you got here? Yeah, he used it out. All right. So the gold standard. Got another job. Yeah, right. Do we have someone on the line to start the game?

We do indeed. And I will bring him up right now. His name is Kevin, and he is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Kevin from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Is that being pronounced correctly? I'm a little off on my Canada stuff. How are you, buddy? Welcome to the Around the League podcast and Win West's Toaster.

I'm pretty nervous Don't be nervous Let's start with an easy one Kevin Who is the greatest player in Rough Riders history I don't know Come on, you're from Saskatoon I know I don't know what any of this means

How could you be nerd You've already survived an upbringing in Saskatoon You're tougher than any of us I try to forget most of it So Kevin who's your NFL team Green Bay All right the Green Bay Packers Who knows that might be a question

and Win West's Toaster. Kevin, do you know the rules of the game? Yeah. All right. I'm going to go over them anyway to our new listeners of the show. Win West's Toaster is a game of skill and valor in which the contestant attempts to win West's Toaster that the ability of the toaster, Mark, and correct me if I'm wrong, is to emblazen a team logo like the Packers against Toast and then consume that toast.

Yeah, and it's a device that promises not to burn bread ever. It almost has mythical powers. It can imprint the logo of all 32 teams. I've heard from a listener that they didn't think the toaster was real, that the toaster doesn't really imprint logos of all 32 teams, that it's just kind of one of these things we make up, which we do make up some things from 10. This is real.

This is an unbelievable toaster, and you can't buy it anymore on the internet. It's out of print. It's out of sale. It also has a 33rd imprint for the London. team. There's a shadowy league figure upset with you about letting out there's a rumor that the Lombardi Trophy will soon be replaced by this toaster.

And that could be yours, Kevin. So here are the rules for people that haven't listened before. Both Kevin, the contestant, and Wes will get six questions. The same six questions, and they will answer them. Wes will be in a soundproof other side of the glass scenario. He will not be able to hear Kevin, who will go first. whoever gets the most questions right in the 62nd time limit

wins the toaster if the two players tie the tie is broken by the time in which the questions were answered so keep that in mind Kevin tell us when to stop the clock if you want to go back to something or if you want to stop the clock because that breaks the tie

all right let's do it Wes be gone there he goes the gold standard as we know Mark Sessler is the official timer of Win West's toaster. There's a lot of pressure on Mark. You could feel it.

Well, I botched it the first time out, hoping to do it correct this time. All right. Mark's going to set the timer at 60 seconds. And Gold Standard, at the start of the music, I will begin the questions. Let's do it. Thurman Thomas is the all-time leading rusher in Buffalo Bill's history. Who is second? Pat.

Who was the head coach? of the Cleveland Browns in their heartbreaking losses to the Broncos in 1986 and 1987 NFL playoffs? Pass. Who was the Raiders coach during the team's blowout loss to the Bucks in Super Bowl 37? Gruden. Who led the NFL in receiving yards during the 2013 season? Uh, 2013 season, Josh Gordon.

10 seconds. What former Saturday Night Live cast member was critically panned analyst on ABC's Monday Night Football in 2000 and 2001? Time. Uh, pass. Oof. All right. You got one. Eh, that was rough.

Let's bring Wes in. And let's not reveal how he, how Kevin did, anything could happen. Wes has been summoned back into the room. This, we'll see what happens. Wes, looks like a man that is confident. You ready, Wes? You're not going to tell me how many I need, are you? Of course not.

Okay. Start the clock. Bang. Thurmond Thomas is the all-time leading rusher in Bill's history. Who is second? O.J. Simpson. Who was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns and their heartbreaking losses to the Broncos in 1986 and 1987 NFL playoffs? Marty Schuttenheimer?

Who was the Raiders coach during the team's blowout loss to the Bucks in Super Bowl 37? John Gruden? Who led the NFL in receiving yards during the 2013 season? Josh Gordon? What former Saturday Night live cast member was a critically panned analyst on ABC's Monday Night Football in 2000 and 2001? The Misunderstood Genius of Dennis Miller? The Atlanta Falcons selected Michael Vic with the first pick in the 20th. 2001 draft.

What team did they trade with to acquire that pick? I believe it was the Chargers? Stop the clock. Got it. Five out of six. Chris Wesleying, you keep your toaster. All right. What can admit?

You missed. I'll tell you what you missed. You said Gruden was the Raiders coach. Think about that. Bill Callahan. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gruden actually went to Tampa that year and won the Super Bowl. Yeah, that's true.

That's interesting. Is your competitor said the same thing? Wasn't he traded for first and third round draft picks? That's correct. And they used that first pick on Ladani and Tomlinson, the number five overall. Kevin, thank you very much for trying. It's a very difficult game. Kevin got one out of five.

You know, this happens. Well, Wes shook me off my game when he asked me about the riders. That was my strategy. It's tough. Once you get into the arena, it's not the same as if you're just hanging out and getting the questions. I've always said that. and Greg, you put it very well. Goodbye, Kevin.

All right, goodbye. Thanks, Kevin. Impressive, though, you got the Chargers. See, they thought that question was too hard, and I said, that's a good one. Tomlinson involved in that trade? What's up? No. Yeah, but he got it.

No, but Tim Dwight was. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't Tomlinson, but it was Merriman and Nate Cating and... Cleveland passed on drafting Ladinian Tomlinson to pick big money, Gerard Warren. All right, we have one more contestant. Is that true, the gold standard? It is indeed.

Gold standard's feeling a little heat right now. I know. His handpicked contestant there was not competitive. You know, Chris. Kevin seemed like a nice guy, but it just didn't work out. That was Goldstander's Joe Banner right there. I'd hate to see the riffraff that was eliminated from the elimination chamber, if that guy made. Well, it is tougher.

Well, he apparently, he must have done well to get to this stage. Right. He was like. He was nervous. He was like Bill Callahan. in his first year, got there, but then after that, it all fell apart. Well, we wish him well, Greg. All right.

Our next contestant is Bernard from... Brooklyn. Bernard from Brooklyn. I love that. Are you named after Bernard King? No. That's a fair question. That's a fair question.

It's a whole lot cooler if you were. He and I are about the same age, so there's no possibility of that. Bernard, I want you to know that we try to call you. call you once and the gold senders is going to move on and then I heard that you were a jet fan so I said let's try him one more time so just being a jet fan is already a victory right there Dan I appreciate that I am a jet fan like you I am a long time jet season ticket holder oh wow here we go we suffer together and much and much like Wes I am a former male man so I understand oh sweet who's not rooting for Bernard right now I certainly

Wes is on his toes and end this game Bernard I have a good thing for Bernard he sounds awesome All right, Bernard knows the rules. Wes is going behind the glass. And we are about to play another round of when Wes is toaster. At the start of the creepy music, we will begin. This quarterback was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985, despite throwing 47 more interceptions than touchdowns in his career. Dance out.

Who was the MVP of Super Bowl 48? Oh, Jesus Christ. Pass. Name the well-traveled safety. He was low hit on Tom Brady ended the quarterback's 2008 season in week one. Pass. How many interceptions that Joe Flacco throw

during the 2012 postseason? Five. What Patriots defender was credited with the tackle of David Tyree after his famous helmet catch in Super Bowl 42? Pass. This wide receiver has seven 1,000-yard seasons since being drafted third overall in the 2003 NFL draft. Anquam Bolden. All right.

Stop. Do you want to go back? Yeah, let's go back. All right. Name time. All right. What was the name? Sorry.

What was the name? Which question did we pass on? Passed on two. The first two. All right. We'll give you one more. Who was the MVP of Super Bowl 48? Jesus Christ, man.

I just saw it. The MVP of Super Bowl 48 is a live backer from the... Five seconds. Oh, God. Time. All right. Oh, God. You know, why couldn't I think of Malcolm Smith?

Why is it? It's tough. Bernardi, you're going to die when you hear the answer to number one also. All right. Okay. Let's bring in Wes. Wes, Wes, Wes. Here he is.

Wes, I will not tell you how Bernard did. Just know you better, you've got to perform. That's the only thing I'm going to say to him. You have to perform. Okay. Start the clock. This quarterback was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985 despite throwing 47 more interceptions than touchdowns.

Joe Namath? Who was the MVP of Super Bowl 48? Which one was 48? I don't know. Malcolm Smith. Name the well-traveled veteran safety whose low hit on Tom Brady ended the quarterback's 2008 season in week one. Bernard Pollard.

How many interceptions that Joe Flacco throw during the 2012 postseason? Zero. What Patriots defender was credited with the tackle of David Tyree after his famous helmet catch in Super Bowl 42? Rodney Harrison? This wide receiver has 7,000-yard season since being drafted third overall in the 2003 NFL draft. Sounds like Larry Fitzgerald. Stop the clock.

five correct that's a five nothing win over bernard at a brook him wow wow weslin you are you are unbelievable thank you bernard and bernard even though you got joan ameth wrong we will not will never let anybody know at the medal ends that that happened please don't all right thank you for playing bernard and thank you for listening just again this was west's day there's a this is a dynasty coming together right now. Which one did I get wrong? You got Andre Johnson wrong.

I like Bernard. Bernard was a good guy. And he's a Jeff fan. It all checks out that he'd be a good person. Tortured person. That's it for this episode of the round league. Wait, let me just do this. Wes, congratulations.

Thank you, Dan. Feeling pretty good about this. I mean, this is dominating. He had a 5-1 win and a 5-0 win. This was 89-49ers right here. Well, he has no control over the quality. and people calling in how well they do. We're bringing K. Rich back.

That's on Zach. It would be more impressive to have a pair of five-four victories. We got to start opening this up. Let me and Sessler take a crack at him, and I don't think Wes will have a toaster anymore. I think I feel pretty good about that. There were no corporate stadium names on that list. I studied all of them.

That's what I like to do. I know all of the stadium names, and you'll never be forgiven for this. All right, Gold standard, we'll give you a pass this time around. Listen, there's only so much you can control. as well. You're very kind. And, you know, we'll bring this game back one month from now.

Could be sooner because Greg might be like, oh, get it back. Get it back in the rotation. But for now we have to go. That's it for today's episode of the Around the League podcast. We will be back on Monday. And we'll get into more NFL goodness as we lead up to the combine. This is Dan Hansis, signing off for the mailman, the sizzler, the boss, and the gold standard behind the glass. Until Monday.

This is an I-Heart podcast.