NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Pre Week 1 winners & losers

Episode Date: August 11, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- recap Week 1 of the preseason by selecting their winners and losers which includes Johnny Manziel, Blake Bortles and much more.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 crashed their remote control cars during practice. 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 heroes Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys. Hey, Dan. How are you? You're going to miss this voice?

How are you? Yeah, we have to ask how. this is a big day in around the league podcast history that's right preseason week one's over no it's dan's eve of having a baby yeah what do you call that this is baby eve we'll call it just go with it uh boy hansis will soon be born i will be out of the office for a little bit this will be my last podcast for uh for a little while i will return and i will leave it in your capable hands i feel comfortable it's and i talk to great Greg about this, like Greg will be stepping in writing the hard caps of the, excuse me, the hard knocks recaps on Tuesday.

Hard caps. Maybe we'll call them that. Would that be good? And there's a, there's a level of, you know, responsibility that that falls on to Greg, even though he is the boss. Now he's going to do some hosting duties on the old podcast. I said I'm going to be like the Ryan Mallet to your Tom Brady so that everyone just appreciates the legend of Dan Hansis while he's gone. But, you know, let's not change the subject here. How are you feeling? I mean. I'm good. I have some anxiety. David Ely, one of our great editors downstairs, really our greatest editor. He left me a bottle of champagne on my desk, says, from Ely, scrolled like he's in sixth grade, which he might be. Note, do not give to baby, bottle of champagne. Well, he is a responsible editor. Yeah. And so, yeah, that's what's going on in my life. But, you know. Do you have any tips? Any advice? I had, well, it's not a tip because you'll just have to learn on your own about being a dad. But I have a name suggestion. Oh, go ahead.

It's a little off the cuff. Just before you go on, know that I absolutely will not take your suggestion. That's fine. I thought long and hard about this, but I am thinking Spoonie 6. Spoonie 6 handsis? Six is the middle name?

Like from Blossett? No, it would be like a Spoonie, uppercase v, uppercase 1. Like a Roman numeral. Spoonie 6. Hmm. It's the first thing that came to mind the second ago.

Spoony 6 hands. I'll run it by the wife. Throw a buyer. I know she's, you know, she can think for herself. Yeah, I'll throw a buyer. I'm going to give you some advice. You know, the birth itself,

horror show. You know, you're worried about the wife. The best part of the whole thing is when you get to go home. The first day after the hospital, that's, as Damashik would say, a little slice of heaven. All right, that's good to know.

I'm ready for this. I'm ready and not ready at the same time. But in the meantime, we've got to do one more great pod together before it. Oh, Wes is holding his hands out. I noticed she didn't ask me for any advice on child rearing. He didn't ask us either. Wes, I would love to know your advice.

Do not let your baby around people like me because I don't know what to do with a baby. I might shake it or something. Also noted that I will definitely tell my wife. Yeah. Just to give her a heads up. I have five little brothers. I know how to handle it. Oddly, that was the best advice I've gotten so far.

Yeah. Keep the baby away from Wes. Yeah. That's good. All right, big show today. And I'm looking for, I'm going to really savor this because I won't do it for a little while. We have, you know, the preseason week one is over in the book, 17 games, and plenty of stuff to talk about. And we're going to get to all that.

We're going to go through every game. We're also going to spin it around and go around the old horseshoe and talk about winners and losers from week one of the preseason because God knows there were many. Sessler, by the way, a lot of feedback. about your descriptions of the Dallas Cowboys defense I saw on social media that seemed to really connect with the populace. Yeah, I heard about it as well. I mean, we considered putting it in print, but it seems a little edgy, is that right, Greg, for our website? Cowboys have enough issues right now to deal with.

You know, we don't need to pile on. Yeah, and we will. We talked about the Cowboys game that Mark covered on Thursday night. Mark's go and listen to the end of the last podcast. I have a solution for you. Yeah. You don't need to put it on the web. website, you could just create a Google Doc.

Put the names on there and then send out the link. And then people who want the transcript of your brilliant essay on the Cowboys, what have it. I'm going to have Wes sit down with me technically and walk me through that and we'll get that done. All right. So that's good. Good job, guys. We're rolling now.

TD behind the glass. How are you, buddy? What's going on, fellas? And just to note that, yes, Sessler, I got a lot of tweets and saying, hey, we want the whole thing because we had to fade out the podcast. guys we ran out of space you know i had to fade it out at the end didn't have enough so if you ever put out that google document please shoot it out is it true is this an example td when you sit with me privately and you tell me how the life of a producer can be difficult this is an exact example of when the job maybe isn't so fun what is this ran out of space i noticed that some other

podcasts can go for like an hour and a half or two hours that's my story and i'm sticking We're recording on a 60-minute cassette, apparently. Hey, TD, we're not even going to do any news today. So there's so many games to get to, but we wouldn't want to deny you your big moment that you have every show with us, T.D. So let's not do some news. Yeah. Back at him. Yeah.

Was that Spoonie Six? That was the daughter of Spoonie Six? Payton Manning and Eli Manning, the new director TV hip-hop video. They shut it down, guys. Yeah, they really did. You should. I thought that was like mob deep. That was pretty good.

That's the problem to Peyton Man and Eli. That boys returned. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they were. Hot fire. And I will say that it is a huge, a huge, and you could watch this video. It's a direct TV video, a music video. You can watch it on NFL.com slash ATL.

We did a post on it. That much better than last year. video, which was football on your phone where Eli Manning disrespected the legacy of Alexander Graham Bell famously. So check out the new video. Why do I imagine it's still being tedious? I don't know. I mean, I would think this is what I'd say, because I know where you're coming from on that. Check it out. I will. Just check it out, man. Mark. It might be the first funny thing Peyton Manning's ever put on video. Two comic geniuses on the other side of the table today. Let's get into the...

Why do we do? Let's do some winners and losers. And where do we want to start, fellas? Who wants to get things going? We have so many winners and losers to get to. I'll start. How about the boss gets it going? How about a little Blake Bordels?

We've heard a lot about the other rookie quarterbacks all camp. Blake Bortles through more impressive throws. And granted, we're working off a limited skill set, limited sample size. He had more impressive throws than the rest of the rookie quarterbacks combined. He had five pro-quality down the field, people in his face, big arm, very accurate. He had a great performance. Which makes sense because he's the guy according to the script we won't see until 2015. Well, I came away watching it.

I said if he does that again next week, I think they must reconsider. They're not going to. I don't know. I think if he played that well and Henny did nothing by the first. I don't think we're going to see him before October no matter what. What if Hennie goes in the tank? I just, I don't remember a team ever being this adamant about when they're going to play him and when they're not going to play him.

I just, I can't see. I mean, I don't believe he's going to sit all year, but I don't think we'll see him before. It has to be a mandate then from ownership on down, where everyone is completely on the same page, which wouldn't shock me coming from that trio. But honestly, what if Hennie is an absolute train wreck? week one and two. They know what Chad Henney is. Well.

Wait, how confident are so off the one game? Are we really confident this guy is ready to roll? No, but it was very intriguing and made you want to see more. It's the type of performance that a coach would see. Wow, that was in a live game situation. I want to see more of that because Chad Henney, they left in there for four or five series, didn't have a point. And what was Gus Bradley's response? Didn't have a point about this.

Maybe Bortles will see first. team snaps in the fourth preseason game. Right. Which would be shocking if it did and if you have a starter and play. Is there a first team in the fourth preseason game? It's not totally unprecedented to not start a rookie quarterback in the preseason and then start them in the regular season. It's happened.

I just can't think of who. Do we want to stay positive with winners and then roll back to losers? Or do we want to hear Greg's loser now? What do you guys want to do? I think TD suggested we just roll through winners. All right. T.D. nodding his head. All I do is win.

That seems a little bit, you know, maybe not necessary. That was a victory for you today? No, we're just doing winners. Oh, I thought you were celebrating that week. Your Lordy Nover us is the producer and then playing a winner spot. Chris Wessling, your winner. I saw this year's Ryan Matthews. What is that?

Mark Ingram. Hubba, hubba. Looks better than I've ever seen him since he left Alabama. He looked quick, had great balance, had some power, breaking through arm tackle. spinning around, knocking defenders over. Mark Ingram looks fantastic. What's a difference between now and two years ago with this guy? Well, he's battled a lot of nagging injuries, knee injuries since he's been in the NFL.

He looks healthy and maybe he's a few pounds lighter. Maybe he looks more motivated. Who knows? Contract year? Well, they wouldn't. They didn't give him the option. Maybe that lit a spark under him. I thought he played well in spots last year, too.

That Dallas game, for instance. Playoffs, he looked good, too. That's what the pre-season's about. I'm not going to get carried away with team performance overall, but people say, oh, well, Ingram, a lot of that was against the backups, or it's only the preseason. It doesn't matter. Either he's running with explosion, he's fast, and you can see that, or he's not.

I totally agree. I don't care about what stats he put up compared to other running backs, and I totally agree. You can see he's more explosive, and this is exactly what you could see from Ryan Matthews last August. It's the same thing with Bordels. I mentioned how well he played on Twitter at one point and got a lot of negative feedback.

Oh, it was only against the backup. When he is about to throw the ball 25 yards down the field on the sideline with a guy just about to hit him in his face and the receiver is well covered, it doesn't matter if he's facing the second or third team. That's the same throw. That's a throw that half of the NFL quarterbacks can't make.

Bortles made a couple of those. Mark Ingram, you're saying, you know, look pretty good too. Yes. The Saints have a pick your poise. an offense issue. Does it concern you? Not a concern really, but I mean, in terms of playing a major role for them, they have a committee backfield at this point. Right. I'm not saying fantasy guys should run out and pick him up. Yeah. I don't really care about your fantasy team listeners. Sorry. I just don't, but no one's asking. I'm telling you, he looks good. That's all I'm

telling you. Pierre Thomas, I wrote about it today on the around the league blog. He had the most touches for them last year, most carries. That looks like it's going to change this year. Is he now Darren Sproles in this offense? I don't know if they have it, Darren Sprouls, but I would think he plays mostly on passing. Kyrie Robinson looks good on passing downs. Only caught one pass last year, but they know he can do it. I think Ingram will be mostly on first and second downs. Mark Sessler, how about a winner?

Well, you know, I think we spent the last couple months on our radar. Certain young guys, rookies get on our radar, and we write articles, you know, based on the glowing reports coming out of camp. I think I wrote three or four, you know, a couple of us did as well. about John Brown in Arizona. And there was always a part of me that thought this could go very poorly if he's a guy that in practice with no pads, he's flying past cornerbacks that aren't jamming him.

This could be a non-issue by October. But goes out in the first game against Texans' defense that is apparently sort of a disaster beyond J.J. Watt. Maybe they get 50 names, 50 descriptions as well. You know, 100 names for Texas is where we're going pretty soon here. But, I mean, Brown, you know, team high 10 targets, had 87 yards. And again, it's not about the stats, I think, in this situation, too. He was out there with the ones.

He looked very smooth. His speed is, I think he created a 39-yard pass interference penalty because cornerbacks just don't know what to do with the guy right now. That's where penalties come from. I think it's encouraging that, you know, he's not the biggest guy. He's a slight guy, more like a T.Y. Hilton build. That he's going to have a chance to contribute right away for an offense, it's intriguing, might be ATL Team of the Year candidate potential.

Team of ATL. I was checking out the fancy new search function on preseason live. There's a lollipop for you. I know. That was done on purpose. And when the John Brown plays came up, it was interesting to hear color analyst Ron Wolfley, who we love because he sounds just like Jesse the Body Ventura.

And he was comparing, he basically said John Brown, This guy is Marvin Harrison. The way he moves, the way he jogs, the way he gets in and out of his cuts. I don't know if I'd go that far. We don't know how he is as a boundary receiver. We don't know if his hands are great. But he was open all game. I thought that was the best part.

Well, and so he's been compared to T.Y. Hilton. Now to Marvin Harrison, we just got to get someone to draw a Reggie Wayne link, and we got the entire. Blair White. There we go. Well, they used them like Hilton, too, which I would find very encouraging. If I was thinking about throwing a little late-round pick on John Brown or something, and they swung the ball to him

after he motioned out of the backfield so it was a play that they threw it to him right at the line of scrimmage and then they threw it deep to him and you only do that with a few types of receivers T.Y. Hilton's one of them. I guess I'll throw it out as my winner because somebody's got to bring it up.

Johnny Mansell, Cleveland Brown's quarterback, winner of the week for me. Not so much for what he did because I don't think he lit it up. Why have it be merit-based? Well, you know, merit is overrated I've found in my life. But in this case, you look at what Hoyer had the opportunity to do was maybe really get a real lead in this race

and be in position where Mike Patton would feel almost compelled to let him start the second game too if he played really well. But instead, Mansell makes some plays. Hoyer doesn't really do much to get people excited. So now we're in a situation. I know NFL media is Dan Harris. Kelly is reporting that Mansell is going to be starting the second preseason game. Pettons has said no decision has been made.

But listen, I think it's pretty clear Manzell will be starting that second game. And the fact that he's in this position now, Wes has to be feeling good. And Cleveland Brown's fans that want to see Johnny Manzell, week one, have to be feeling good. Because after one week of the preseason, Manzell's closer to the starting job than further away. You didn't do that much, though. I mean, I thought Hoyer had the best couple passes in the game. Manzell had one nice pass. of them were hurt by drops.

Each one of them had two drops that killed drives, penalties. I thought Hoyer looked good. It looked like Brian Hoyer, not like a great starting quarterback, but just the workman-like, you know, league average, below-league average, sort of 25th best starting quarterback. Get excited for that. No, I know. But Mansell didn't do anything. I think we're all waiting.

Who is who we thought he was? A very good backup. Yeah, I agree. But Manzell, to me, also didn't pop off the screen. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't good either. A little slow in his decision. He made some plays happen, which this offense is going to need because they're going to be a bad offense.

But how many? He had a 16-yard scramble. He got away from pressure quite a few times when nothing else was going on. I mean, they didn't make that many plays. Brian Hoyer probably made the best couple throws of the game. Maybe, one that wasn't caught by Miles Austin. And there was another good one down the field. To me, it was hard to pull much out of this game.

I just thought. You had a pretty exciting one-yard game. It was really exciting. And again, it goes back to even the players on the sideline saying, like, when Menzile was in a game, the guys are standing up watching, doing the money sign. Like, you got to pay attention to that. Like, yeah, the locker room is. He also was wincing for part of the game after he tried to run over two defenders on a third and one, didn't get the first down. And that reminded me immediately of RG3.

Like, if he is seeking out contact, it could be a problem. He's not seeking out contact. And to his credit, he's always very well-spoken. it after the game. Look, I know I can't do that. And let me have a few more games where I get my reads down and can go through my progressions and I won't be doing that kind of stuff. You know, one thing I think of, if you're Kyle Shanahan, and to go back what Dan said about Dan Helley's report where he's going to start, if I'm Kyle Shanahan, run out of town because my offense didn't suit our star quarterback. Nothing makes more sense on a couple different levels.

One, Mansell deserves to start because he playing behind Cleveland's second offensive line, which was an absolute shambles. He was pressured on 7 to 14 dropbacks, and most of them very quickly, not even a chance to do much with it. Give him a chance behind the number one line. But two, if you're Shanahan, go into Washington and say,

excuse me, I'll show you what we can do with it with a playmaking quarterback in my attack. And Tad, you're referring to, was that the fourth and short scramble for the first down? That was the fourth and short. He can't have passed. He had a wide open fullback for a 10 to 20-yard game, potentially. But he knows that.

He did say I've got to make those. Right. But yeah, that's kind of if you want to make the case for Hoyer still. It's like this kid still has a lot to figure out how to play at this level, why rush him? You could make the case for Mansell. He's not going to learn that play sitting from the bench. But he learned the other night that, look, that guy was open. I need to hit it. In Wesleyan, this is where I differ with you a little bit. I don't know if you're on the Blake Bortles, but the idea of sitting a guy like Bordels who shows a lot of promise. You don't learn that much. I don't want to hear about Aaron Rogers from now until the end of time.

get these guys on the football field. That's how you learn to play the game. And I think with Manzelli is going to grow and learn about his progressions by being there, not by sitting alone in meetings. I don't think the Jaguar should sit portals. I'm saying I believe they will because I've never heard a team that adamant before. All right, because for positive folks around here, we're going to do another round of a winner.

So let's go back around the horseshoe. Craig Rosenthal, the boss, a winner. Matt Castle is a winner because we've said that preseason is what matters. Practice is not what matters. apparently. I think practice matters somewhat because sometimes the preseason, there's not much to take for it. Mansell, for instance, and Hoyer, they were pretty even. Castle and Bridgewater were not even in this one game. Castle had a really good first touchdown drive. And more importantly, for Castle, Bridgewater was very slow in his decision making, missed a couple

throws. It wasn't the worst performance in the world, but wasn't a good two quarters out of him. He looked like a rookie that still had some things to learn. And it made me think Bridgewater needs a big week two of the preseason to end up starting week one of the regular season. And I think this is why preseason games do matter because it's very hard for a head coach. You want to get your fans excited. You want to get, you want to have the season mean something, and it's not really going to mean anything if castles your starting quarterback. But it's also a challenge because you have to sell the locker room on the quarterback,

and if Bridgewater can't get an offense going, I guess you have to go into the season with the guy who does get an offense going. And it was just a handful of drives, and he made a nice play. Mark, you and I talked about it, where he rolled out, and it was called back from penalties. I mean, he did a few nice things. There was a penalty in this weekend? There was. We'll get to that.

I didn't realize that. The problem that he had, and that Mansell had a couple times had a lot of rookie quarterback that, he just froze a little bit. He just got back there. He kind of looked around. He wasn't going through, and he took some sacks that he didn't need to. Castle got lucky that essentially Cordarell Patterson, who maybe should really be the winner, had two great catches on third down where he was in traffic.

Cornel Patterson running NFL routes. Well, that stood out. We were going to see him play a role very different than last season in terms of how he's used. He's going to have a big year. And a nice job by Castle on that touchdown drive. He hit Patterson twice.

He hit Kyle Rudolph for a near touchdown. Got Greg Jennings involved, so he showed the ability to spread it around with some pretty good weapons as well. If Patterson is catching those third and nine move the chains type of, passes where he's out-muscling cornerbacks, which he did in this game

on top of the big plays. Forget about number one making the leap. Number one in the NFL. Ow! Hold on for it. I'm kidding. I don't believe that. Cleveland's offense from last year, we're out of nowhere you get Jordan Cameron, and they've got that and Kyle Rudolph, and you've got potentially

Patterson. It's not seeing as Josh Gordon, but he's going to maybe eat and have a huge amount of yardage and catches. That pass attack was dead on arrival a couple years ago. It's more interesting now. If we're talking about their offense, why don't we go to your second winner? Well, I liked, and I'm not sure.

See, you don't need me here. This was, that was well done. I just got the chills. I like Jerich McKinnon. They're running back. Adrian Peterson obviously didn't see a second of action in this. And, you know, with McKinnon, maybe we don't see much of them for a big chunk of the early portion of the year.

But I think that they should put him out there as a guy in situations because he showed great vision. He had some nice cuts. He's faster than I thought he would be. You know, and Adrian Peterson talked this guy up all off season. I thought he's just being nice to his young teammate, building some confidence. But he looked good to me, and I want to see more of him. It's only a small sample size one game, but it was promising.

A lot of good running backs, rookie running backs this year. He could be a third downback for them. Sure. I'll also remember in that game, Matt Aziata, one of our favorite players from a year ago, absolutely undressed Charles Woodson on some play. Oh, yes, he did. I didn't think he had that sort of. of moves on him where he shook Charles

Woodson. Why didn't you think he had those kind of moves? I don't, I took more about Woodson out of that play than Oziada. I did too. Asiata, 20 carries 40 yards in his one start. That's why I... Actually, three touchdowns. Wait a second. It was 30 for 50.

Okay, I just was making it. 30 for 50 with three touchdowns. The greatest stat line that's through the position. That's a McGahey. Who's up? Is it my turn? Go for it. Okay. Have we brought up Ryan Tannehill? Can I talk about No, no. Your boy. Bill Laser. Mark Sessler, offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins.

He did something very smart, I thought. He set up a nice game plan, their first drive against the Falcons on Friday night. They went right down the field at 10-place, 73-yard drive, easy touchdown pass from Tannahill to Brandon Gibson, and then seizing on this good moment, laser or, you know, and the head coach, obviously, Philbin working together. Pull Tannhill out of the game, six for six touchdown drive, good spirit, carries through the week. For one day at least, Bill Lasers, the greatest offensive mind in the history of the NFL. And Cessler, speaking of chills, I was sitting across the mark. You should have seen him hopping in his seat. He was so excited about it.

That is not accurate. But I did think they did a nice job. And he promised a couple things. He said, we're going to be a faster offense. From what little we saw, they were faster. And Tanna Hill, you know, he looked to be in control, which was comforting because when we actually talked to Laser, couple months ago, he said that Tanna Hill was, his mind was swimming with all the new stuff they were doing.

So that, a few steps were made there. Little peek behind the curtain for the listeners. Bill Laser was supposed to be on the Making the Leap list as one of Mark Sessler's guys. Yep. But he was outvoted at the last minute. Someone else was shoehorned in. But you are a huge Bill Laser. I don't know.

Marcus Stakey's entire professional career on Bill Laser's success. I'm not sure I even have a professional career. But, like, here's the thing. My feeling all along is why I get bothered with the group of coordinators that are, like the Mike Sherman's, that are so married. Right, to the old school things they grew up and that they're unable to change. And Laser didn't just come out of nowhere and work under Chip Kelly. He came from space. His last name's Laser. Laser tag.

He worked for Gibbs. He worked for Hungren. He worked for a bunch of guys. And he decided, that's right, with Kelly's like, this is what I want to take with me now that I have this chance. That spoke to me. And I don't know why 20 teams aren't using elements of Philly's offense. Well, let's see. We talked about this Friday night.

If the Dolphins offense takes off, which I still, I'm not convinced, but if it happens, a lot of teams are going to start doing this. It will become the new copycat offense. We'll see what happens. All right. This is the best part, though. Oh, did you go west? I need to say my winner.

Winner number two. You were so good transitioning that I thought you were the host, you didn't have one. That happens to the host sometimes. Chris Leslie. Let's hear your winner. One of the reasons why I am so fascinated by the Steelers is because they were a team on the brink. They were either going to go really old and really slow and stay that way and then have to completely rebuild or with one draft class and some remnants of last year's draft class turn their team around and become young and speedy.

And I think that's what they've done. Dree Archer, that 46-yard screen pass, I mean, that was just blinding speed. They're going to use him on returns, maybe three or four touches a game on offense as a gadget player. And then Ryan Chazir and Stefan Tewitt on defense. And Jarvis Jones had a really impressive sack. These are three guys who are probably going to enter the starting lineup together. And all of a sudden the Steelers' defense is young legs. I think they're going to be one of the most fun teams to watch this year.

Has Rathlisberger and his Steelers' career ever had a guy like Archer? Willie Parker was really fast, but he wasn't that involved in the passing game out. They're running backs haven't been that kind of running back. Unless you want to go Moweldy Moore. I guess Chris Rainey doesn't count. No. Chris Rainey was supposed to be the original Dree Archer in Todd Haley's dreams. They had Antoine Randallel L for about a minute.

Gadget player. Losers. It's fun to talk about losers, people that fail. And I don't know what makes that fun to talk about, but it is. We don't root for this, but we're going to talk about it. Who are the losers from week one of the preseason? the boss, get his going. Let's start with Josh McCown and the Buccaneers offensive line.

It's only the preseason, but it was the worst possible effort you could have out of an offensive line. He was under pressure every single play against Jacksonville. If I was voting for a preseason MVP on defense, right now, it's a little early. A little bit. Send Eric Marks from Jacksonville.

Look like the best defensive tackle in the NFL. Right. They left McCown in there for four. series just because they wanted, you know, him to get something going and it just kept getting worse. And it just got me thinking, McCown has made a career out of improvising. He's the poor man's Brett Favre. He's definitely not a guy that...

The very poor man. The vagrants, men. Yeah, you know what I mean. Destitute. Playing behind a terrible offensive line, I don't know if that's going to work for him. You know what I mean? Last year in Chicago, he had pretty good protection. Wes, answer to that, he is your boy.

That's a concern. I didn't realize when I wrote the Making Elite piece that Carl Nix would be out of the picture completely that Jamam Meredith would be benched after one preseason game. Maybe they can convince the 49ers to play with Alex Boone. You can't. And they've been rumored to

be one of the teams involved. They're a logical fit. I think if we have a making-the-leave candidate where the world around them melts to the point where we can't really get an actuar. You can't get a real picture of McCown in this offense with what's going on with their offensive line. You know, Jeff Tedford, all off-season,

wouldn't tell reporters any about his offense. And it was, everyone down in tip, come on, shrouded in mystery. We don't know what we're going to get. And in fact, his players weren't allowed to speak about anything either. What we learned was incredibly disturbing. It's that you actually don't have an offensive line. That's not the secret you want to wait to spring on people at this point in the off-season.

We don't want to get too carried away with the preseason. It almost, the pre-season results sometimes can just remind us of a story we just hadn't thought much about. Because if you look at their offense line, it is terrible on paper. too. It's not just terrible in those couple of series. A year ago at this time, they had three of the highest paid players at their positions in the offensive line in the NFL, Davin, Joseph, Donald, Penn, Carl Knicks. None of them are on the team anymore. A lot of times with offensive lines, a lot of teams go into training camp or into the preseason with two or three question marks. But,

you know, as time passes, you find somebody that you could play and somebody steps up, that whole next man up. But sometimes nobody steps up. And then it's a disaster show. And I feel bad, not just from McCown, but if he struggles and they're one and four because the line is terrible, then Mike Lennon goes in and all of a sudden he's got the deck stacked against them for a second straight year. That's how important an offensive line is, and they left themselves highly vulnerable.

Lovie Smith is like, I refuse to take ownership or a commanded team that has a competent offensive line. He's like, if you look at my resume, that never happened in Chicago, I'm going to pick up right where I left off in Tampa. I'm not comfortable with that. Speaking of highly vulnerable offensive lines. Are you doing it again? Bring it.

My biggest loser is the Colts offensive line. They had already lost Donald Thomas for the season, starting left guard. Starting center, Colette Holmes goes down with a, looks like a major ankle spring, could be out two to three weeks. Rookie Ulrich John, who was going to be quality depth. Ulrich. Broke his leg, he's done. Mark has that jersey, too.

He just bought it. Very annoying name because anyone would think it's John Ulrich trying to write a story. I feel you there. That's horrible. Anyway, so Andrew Luck hit more than any quarterback in NFL in two straight seasons. He has no idea what is like to have pass protection, and he's not going to know what it's like again this year. Trent Richardson, no holes to run through as a slow running back.

It's a problem. And to me, this is what separates. The Colts like to think that they're one of the six best teams, but they're not. They're way behind the Patriots and Broncos for reasons like the offensive line and a defense that wasn't fixed they have no one but Robert Mathis who can rush the passer they have major gaping holes on this team

and that's why they're still going to win the NFC South but they're not a realistic contender there are a team like built from the outside in versus let's get a strong line up front. They're built to just rest on Andrew Luck's shoulders dangerous 10 and 6 maybe sneak out of the first round and then get

wiped out by a true contender type situation repeat of last year Mark a loser a Big old loser. Mine is an animal. Oh. And that animal is a zebra. I am exceedingly annoyed with the officials and the referees.

I understand that there's this league-imposed thing where we've got to clamp down on defensive holding, and we've got to teach the cornerbacks how to play a new type of defense after you spent your all 20s and 30s playing defense a different way. Now, well, listen, Dan did it. an article here and put the stats together from ESPN. Basically, there were 27 illegal contact penalties in 17 preseason games. 27. There were 37 all last season.

You project that out. That is a killer for viewers. It's 712,000 penalties. I added it up. No, I didn't. By the way, that's John Clayton's research. John Clayton. And they had 53 defensive holding calls this weekend.

there were only 171 all last year. It's grim. First of all, these referees, Mark, because you're putting it on these poor fellas, they're not acting out of their own volition. This is coming down from Park Avenue, the shadowy league figures say, hey, we want to clamp down on this situation.

You do our bidding. How about they say, excuse me, Mr. Person coming down from your league office, we are going to argue you on this because it slows the game down. And it's taking away from the viewer a product that they value. You know what they say? You fired Trump.

Allow me to temper your concern on this issue. Okay. This is not Major League Baseball we're dealing with. We're dealing with an entity that understands entertainment. Major League Baseball will do anything to make the game slower. They encourage that. Oh, we can have replay to look and see if a second baseman left the bag too early on a double play. NFL doesn't do that stuff.

Is it really that time of week where West just takes pot job? It's at baseball. I love baseball. The minor leagues run a great sport. Now, wait, so do you think so? So wait, what is your point? The NFL in the end will get it right. They're just setting the tone for the season,

but once the season starts, they're not going to sacrifice entertainment. Wait, so why is this such a brilliant idea by the NFL to crack down on something that they have no business cracking down? They're putting it in the cornerbacks head for the season, and then they're going to allow some of that to go, but they want them to change the way they put.

I think they're trying to change behavior in the preseason. And that makes sense. was a drive at the end of the Browns-Lions game where Kellan Moore, who's getting, you know, touted as this fantastic third-string quarterback, they suddenly find themselves on Cleveland's 35. Well, no, I read things. I read these. He's like the fourth-ranked quarterback and pro football focus. It's like, hold on.

Don't bring up pro-football focus round. Half of the preseason off the three series use it. They find themselves on Cleveland's 35-yard line, having not even gained a yard because it was like three or four straight defensive holding calls. Let's get Pete back on the line from Pro Football Focus to talk to Mark about this. Not necessary. Wes, do you want to take any shots at Pete about this? No, Pete and I are on good terms. Great job by Pete, by the way.

He just studied in. Wes, who is, while Mark is the intrepid reporter, Wes is like the reporter that the attack dog. I'm the inquisitor. Yeah, you're the great inquisitor. He's like the New York Post reporter at the Super Bowl that doesn't care if the coach there, you know, likes him or not and just starts going at him. But Pete and I like each other.

There's a mutual respect. I can tell that. I can tell you're like the reporter where someone's like, hey, what's your problem then? And you're like, I'll do anything for his story, anything. Except I won't. Yeah, I wish you did. T.D., you seem like you really want to jump in on this official things, by the way. I just, it's just funny to me how Cessna goes on these rants, you know.

He just picks a topic and this goes for it. I love it, you know. This got me annoyed over the weekend because I have so much time to watch football. It's what, to West's point, is what league. do the NBA does this as well where in preseason they start off of this new rule that they're going to implement and like as season goes along no one cares you know they they pull back td are they're uh speaking of mammals in nigeria yeah are there zebras no that's a huge misconception i've never seen a zebra for my life i've never seen i've probably seen a line southern south of

south of a sydara awkward yeah i just did a uh transition away from that man i just did a cursory search and I see the zebras of northern Nigeria. I've never well, I lived in the west of Nigeria. I did ride a lot of horses as a kid though. No zebras. Yeah, I was a big horse guy. Not a horse, no saddle. I used to love Zorro.

That was my thing. That was like my superhero. Big horse, no saddle. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Like Zorro guy. I got a loser. My beloved New York Jets, the secondary. We got major problems, guys. We have major issues. We'll start with the preseason game, which was an issue.

D. Milner looked great, and that was great. He knocked away a pass intended for Hakeem Nix. He appeared to be up to the task of being the Jets' number one corner from what we saw. On the other side of the field, Dmitri Patterson, struggled, got lit up a couple of times, fell down, just did not look good. So you're thinking yourself, oh, they still have an issue in the second cornerback, but D were on the right track. Fast forward a couple days.

D. Milner, high ankle sprain, it looks like, so swollen a Monday that they couldn't even do an MRI, so his availability for week one is in doubt, so you lose your number one cornerback, your number two cornerback, who I said to meet you Patterson. He has three separate injuries at once, apparently, as well as being bad at coverage. So he's out of the picture, Dexter McDougal, their third round pick cornerback, I believe the same day DeMilder went down, blew out his knee. So bye-bye, nice knowing you, buddy, see you next year, lead you in a situation where they came to practice on Monday, one cornerback.

A journeyman safety, or not a journeyman, but a safety, Antonio Allen, played cornerback. Ellis Langster, get excited people. The other cornerback. I like the name. We heard a report from the Daily News that the Jets reached out to Asante Samuel, who doesn't have a job, but that's probably not happening. I love that report, by the way, because it was so Izzick. We reached out to him, but we won't be signing him anytime soon. And speaking of Izik, Wes, again on fire right now, cueing me up.

They spoke to Izik. He came out from the glacier. he climbed off the glacier to speak and stated that he has no regrets about how he handled the offseason in terms of courting free agent secondary members and now the Jets have a major issue in their back end and it was already an issue and now with these injuries it's code red loser.

Wow, they should be fine with their leading outside, you know, pass rusher Calvin Pace. They're 34 years old. Hey, come on. Let's stick to the secondary right now. Can I change my vote on the team most likely the threatened the Patriots and the NFC. Maybe they can sign Ed Reed to play cornerback.

It's the worst cornerback group Rex Ryan's ever had that's not even... And it's not even close. It's not even debatable. And you just wonder, he's always constructed his defenses in a certain sort of way. And Bill Belichick has found this out the last five years. You can't be as creative when your players aren't as good on defense. You can't, you know, start throwing out all those magical little formations. Rex tried to downplay this on Monday, saying it's about the defense, not a

about the certain way I coach cornerbacks. But he is a coordinator who relies almost implicitly on cornerbacks who play press man and can hold their own. Revis not signing, resigning with the Jets, didn't bother me. There was almost too much in the relationship at that point. It's like when a boyfriend or girlfriend break up, sometimes they get together, but it never works out. And it was too much as done.

The guy that said he wanted to go to Broadway plays, but then ended up signing out there on Verner. I want to live in a city full of culture and theatrics. Yeah, yeah. Have fun down there, buddy. Theater vulture. What do you call those people? Culture vulture.

Culture vulture. And then, Akieb, I wasn't going to go crazy about. But when they didn't get Dominique Rogers Carmardi and he went to the Giants on top of it, I knew that was bad, and now they are in a bad spot. Bad job, Glacier. If there's any silver lining, if they can find anyone to get that second cornerback spot. Milner, I rewatched the Jets game. Again, one game, but he finished last year strong.

he did look good. And I wear a high ankle sprain and you know it was a bad injury. You don't know if you could be those things where next summer you're seeing the reports, oh, I never was 100% healthy the whole year. I pray that's not the case, but if that is the case, they're in a tough spot.

He can still backpedal better than Jadavian clowning. He clenches that D. Snyder will be the number one ranked D for at least another year. Twisted sister mentioned. Good job. Eddick climbs back into his glacier consults actuary tables and abacus. Pets is penguin on the head

All right, we have another round of losers Well, I'll pick a loser Jumping off of Mark's zebra rant It's rules-related This extra point thing Which I didn't like last week I like it even less After watching it play out

They're kicking the ball From 33 yards out for extra points For a couple weeks in the preseason Shocker, almost all of them were made Because that's a very, it's way too easy Two were missed though Three were missed in the end that's 95%, which is better than 99%.

But why not just have a play where something different happens? Why not make it further back or just make them go for two or something? It just seems like a half measure. Exactly. Wes, another loser. Raiders fans. Still? You're not all losers, guys.

I mean, some of you are big-time losers. Scar is one of the great Raiders fans, not a loser. I love Raiders fans, passionate. Yeah. Unfortunately, they've been led to believe these passionate fans. fans by the coaching staff and the players that this is a playoff team. It's nowhere near a playoff team. It might be the worst team.

You have to have a quarterback that you did not have a quarterback. Shob didn't look good. I mean, you couldn't see too much. But this is a guy with an arm he doesn't trust. And to me, he still looks like a guy with an arm he doesn't trust. Derek Carr didn't look like he was ready. Offensive line blew too many blocks. Receivers dropped a lot of passes.

I just think the Raiders are way far away. from what they've been selling their fans on. A team with no identities, the way I watched the Raiders in that game. Smells like 5 and 11 again. Darren McFadden, only one run in the game, but it was an explosive run. Yeah. They're something good. MJD looked pretty good, I thought.

In the limited work, he looked a little spry. Does he look taller in a Raiders uniform? The thing is, I've heard some people killing Shob, and they asked Dennis Allen whether he's going to change his plan after that game, and anyone killing Shob didn't watch the game. He had four incompletions. Dennis Allen. Literally two of them of the four. were drops, and one of the other two was a play where it sure looked like a rookie didn't

break off a route when people were blitzing. So he basically had one bad throw. The sideline throw, you're supposed to throw it through your receiver, not have it dying on the way down. That wasn't a good throw. That was the one other one. See, Dennis Allen, you can't trust him because he's delusional when it comes to his quarterback.

He has no idea that Matt Schaub is a broken quarterback, and he keeps touting him as a great quarterback. By the way, his first pass was nearly picked off. It was like a pick six for the ages for capital. that Marlon he didn't hold on to the pass. Yeah, I think that's the one West is talking about. That would have been, that would have blown the world. That was like the bad pass.

But Michael Rivera killed two drives with third down drops. And like, all right, he's in the, he's in the game for three drives. Two of them ended on three, third down drops. Sessler, loser, not you. Shab on the, thank you. Shop on the bench, what is that a, that's your. Shop on the bench by week three, I'm starting right there. He wants the music.

That was Sessler's cue. He's like, this is my thing. I don't think that's even bold. Anyone in Northern California can come up with that prediction My loser, my number two loser And it pains me to do this And I know you'll think that I'm kidding, but I'm not I root for this guy on some level

But come on, Trent Richardson All right, and I thought we actually did a nice job Getting on this guy You know, the reason I went back And the reason I saw Milner was to watch Trent Richardson Because I saw stuff bubble up about him Blah, blah, blah, blah, still the same guy a nice run out of the gate

and then it's a bunch of I think Wesleyan put the phrase this guy can't find his way out of an elevator that's what I'm seeing I understand they have their line issues and against arguably a top three defensive line in the NFL I'm not sure it matters

and I hope to be proven wrong I'm not saying this is true but it seems to me it doesn't matter who he's facing or what sort of line he has in front of him this guy is not the player we saw at Alabama You're a brave man if you predict he ever becomes like a 1,300-yard rusher at this point. I would have liked to see him come in about 15 pounds lighter

and maybe he looked like Mark Ingram with some more burst. But to me, he looks like the same guy as last year. I have one final loser myself, and it is, I have a Cessler about this. And I don't root for these things. But Bill O'Brien, won and done for the Texans. I just feel it. I just feel it in my bones. Well, they didn't set...

I mean, they set him up with Ryan Fitzpatrick. And that's what I mean. They set him up with a built-to-lose situation. And Fitzpatrick, it's similar. It's on some level there's some parallels to the Jets secondary situation where it was already a loose base. And then if things go wrong, and in this case, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and then they turn to Case Keenham,

and he doesn't do it. And then Tom Savage, if he's something that's a real entity, Those guys are all guys you're not going to count on to make plays I just, you know, 4 and 12 They don't like what's going on The owner McNair doesn't seem like the most patient man You thought this was going to be an AFC contender this year He gone

You are known in Houston as a Texan's hater So this is kind of a concern Or as a team as a seer Realist I went on a Houston radio show And predicted 8 and 8 And they literally laughed at me I wrote it.

They called me up to get me on the show to make fun of me about it, and then said, we'll have you back on after the season. And then we'll talk about this. And I was like, all right, buddy, they went 2 and 14, never heard back. One lesson for me. Good job, guys. Good job, I do. When everyone says, like, oh, the Texans, they have to take Jadavia and Clowny.

They just have to. There's nothing else you can do. They don't have a quarterback, but how can you pass on Clownie? You know what? So you're saying this Clownie pick, bad idea. I'm not saying it's a bad pick at all. He's totally worthy of the top pick, potentially. But if the result is, I'm a first-year head coach that has no quarterback, you're not going

to be a coach for long. What if they don't believe in any of the rookie quarterback? If those quarterbacks aren't good either, it's even worse because you're sunk with them. That's fine. But then we hear the owner saying, I wasn't up for taking Johnny Mansell because it would have been too much fanfare. That's true. That's an owner to me that wants to have Ryan Fitzpatrick.

That's the quarterback you get. Have a nice time with 4 and 12. We've heard a lot of reports. Sessler literally angry, spitting into the microphone. It annoys me that the Texans, this is the stuff. And it's just like Shab, when you have to sit there with three or four months of a coach and a front office telling you that these broken down quarterbacks that we've seen enough. What are they going to say?

I totally disagree, though, that they should have just taken a quarterback because they need a quarterback. Then that kills the entire organization for three years instead of waiting a year. The expectations this year really aren't the high. They could have gotten a better veteran than Ryan Fitzpatrick. That I agree with. I think they set their ceiling very low with Fitzpatrick. That's my issue. One thing we've heard out of Houston practices is that someone wrote, I think,

was Stephanie Strattley, that the best day of Bill O'Brien's practices was worse than the worst day of any Gary Kubiak offensive practice that they ever saw. Now, I don't know if that's true, but it gets you thinking. Talking about practice. If you just think about offensive personnel and then the production that you got out of that offensive personnel. Gary Kubiak is one of the best offensive coordinators in the NFL. He's one of the best five. He pretty much maxed out and was very consistent year to year with okay quarterbacks. He pretty much made the, you know, offensive line very good on, you know, running

the ball. He took Arian Foster undraft. They were a very consistent good offense for seven or eight years. And now you're changing everything. And the players don't fit. I'm rooting for Tom Savage to play at some point this season because I've never seen a Chupacabra play quarterback. Someone with the Savage jersey was in that game. He took a couple sacks,

I'm just saying. All right, that's it for today's edition of the Around the League podcast. We will be back as an overall entity on Wednesday with another show talking about everything

that's going on in the NFL. I will be stepping away for a little while, as I said, gentlemen, hold us down. Thank you. I really appreciate that,

Mark. Well, we have to stop by the Hanzas household, I think, at some point, and visit the new edition. Apparently, I won't be invited. Well, you've disinvited yourself, essentially. But maybe if we can, I don't know, keep you, like, in the car or something, I could hold a boy. You could turn your son into a bubble boy.

So, yeah, best of luck to you, gentlemen, holding the ship down. I have total confidence in the operation. I wish you weren't a liar. Your face belies that remark. And I will be listening very closely. So you'll be up late at night, killing some time. Yep. If you're trying to, you know, put them to bed or whatever, you know, just don't really listen to the crying.

Just pop in those, you know. Ignore my newborn child. Yeah, pop in the earbuds. Listen to this voice. I like that advice. Which would you rather hear? Fatherhood tips from Greg Rosenthal. All right, that's it.

This is Dan Hansa signing off for the mailman, the sizzler, the boss, and Tay Day, on the glass. Until Wednesday. This is an I-heart podcast.