NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Who will be the 2014 Team of ATL?

Episode Date: May 21, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- whittles down its candidates for 2014’s "Team of Around the League," introducing the franchises who seem to have the most intrigue and heaviest fun factor surrounding them this preseason.  Elsewhere, as always, the gang discusses the latest headlines from across the NFL.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the League podcast. Always goes for it on Fourth Down. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hennis, and I'm joined by a room filled with heroes, Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys.

Hey, Dan. He's back. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Wessling is back. And Greg Rosenthal's, hey, Dan, is a cheap knockoff. Yes, we all knew that. Just so you know, we are all on board with that. Yeah. It never said it wasn't.

I had a few bones to pick when I was listening via the car. Do you have any of you want to throw out off the top of the show? Well, first of all, my copy is cleaner than yours. and the desk tells me that is so. So your copy is not the cleanest. It goes back to what I was saying, that different people say different things. I would like to know who your source is.

The whole desk. I don't know who that is. Except for the one that I don't talk to because she's new. Okay. Well, we're going to get to the bottom left. So whoever asked the question is told they're the best writer. Right. I think that's what we're on to here. Well, that means if someone's lying to you or someone's lying to me,

because I have a lieutenant on the desk that says that my copy is cleaner. I am usually in a place where they would not be lying to me at the time. What are you saying? At a bar? Or another place where honesty is usually happening. All right. What other problems do you have? You come back all fired up.

Well, you know, this trip was a good time and it was, you know, it was all about having a good time. I didn't know it was a referendum on my relationship with this woman. It certainly wasn't, you know what, we're going to get into Wes's personal life at the bottom of the show but uh we just want to let you seem to have a little edge to you but we are happy that you're back we want to get that out there i'm happy to be back um all right gentlemen so oh were you okay with Woody harrison as uh the actor playing you in the ATL movie yeah that one's fine some of the other ones didn't seem to make sense like john ham wait no that checked that obviously checked out more than a few people checked in on the

john ham right it was everyone was universally on board with it's what you're getting i like the suggestion from one of our Twitter followers of an early Oliver Platt. Early period, Oliver Platt, was, that was a little hurtful, I thought. Maybe that's not accurate. Maybe that's why Emily didn't want to throw anything out there, because if she said that, that could be grounds for divorce or something. At least a conscious uncoupling. Gentlemen, we have a very nice show.

We're a four-cross, and of course we have the gold standard behind the glass, as always, doing his thing, managing his way through some. technical difficulties behind the glass before the show started. He got it done. It just shows so many levels the guy is just operating at full capacity. Gold Center, we appreciate you. Very kind to you. Thanks. On today's show, we're going to get into

a lot of news. There's a lot of news. We're going to supersize the news and go through everything that's going on in the league over the last couple days since we were last with you. We're going to do a little top 100 talk focusing on Tony Romo. And then we're going to get into the discussion that we had been meaning to get to

before Wes left on. left on his great romantic sojourn. We're going to get into the team of ATL talk and the group of us coming together and deciding who will be the 2014 team of ATL. Of course, last year was the Carolina Panthers, which turned out to be a good team to get behind. So we'll see if we can hit the nail on the head again.

But before we do any of that, Mr. Goldstandard, let's do some of that news. Let's do it. All right, we'll start with two rookie quarterback news hits here. And I'll start with one as an appetizer. Greg, I wanted to throw this one out to you specifically. Gus Bradley said on Tuesday's edition of NFL Total Access that the Jaguars are comfortable with Chad Hedding coming back for another year in the system.

And he added, we do feel good about where Blake's at, referring to number three overall pick Blake Bordles. But we feel like this time that he has undertaken. chat a year to develop will be really good in the end result so jaguars are sticking with it that blake bordels will spend his rookie year learning and not playing great do you buy it no i don't buy it maybe there's a better chance that bordels is sitting week one compared to most top five picks i could see them sticking with this plan but i don't think it'll last very long i think once they're oh and three and chad hennie's playing like chad hennie they would go to bortals gentlemen

I agree. I think the plan is for him to sit and develop. Those plans get torn asunder by October or November when the starter isn't playing well enough for the fan base to stomach it or for the team executives to stomach it. Which takes us to Johnny Mansell. A lot of Johnny Mansell news, as you might expect out of the draft. It continues to be sent down a road where the Cleveland Browns are making it known that Mansell will be handed nothing. And at Brown's OTAs, Mansell took third team reps with the Browns. That's behind both Brian Hoyer, who was the starter last year before injury, but also journeyman Tyler Thigpen, who was signed earlier in the offseason. And then he had general manager Ray Farmer, who said on Wednesday that Hoyer is ahead of Manzell by a, quote, substantial margin. The exact quote is, I want the best quarterback to start. Who is the best quarterback, Brian Hoyer?

What do we take from this? I think we take that it's May 21st, and they're four hours into OTAs. Would you be worried if he's substantially ahead of Johnny Mandel in the middle of August? Do you think that they're a little heavy-handed with all this? Oh, Johnny Mansell's a backup. It's not holiday. Why are they going so far out of? Well, I guess they don't have Chad Hennie on the roster.

Why are they going painting this message? You know what I mean? Why are they being so aggressive? It's silly, but it's silly because you drafted him to be your franchise. I mean, you didn't. If you believe Brian Hoardier was that good, substantially better, you wouldn't have drafted Johnny Mansell. So it's a silly message, but it helps Johnny Mansell in the long run.

Because it tells his teammates, it tells the public that this guy's going to have to earn it. So when he does earn it, he's not going to have anybody saying, well, you got handed the job because you were, I know Dan doesn't like this phrase, a Hollywood type of guy, or however they portray him. Right. And he was just making the case that Hoyer has experience, he said, I would say here's a guy that's a five- or six-year veteran

who's been in the league that knows defenses, reads it quicker, understands it. Hoyer has an advanced calculus degree. Johnny's good at math, but I don't know if he's in the advanced calculus stages. And Mike Patton kind of echoed the point saying he was inconsistent today because the mental part of the game just hasn't cut up. I would say that both Jacksonville and Cleveland from the minute they drafted, guys said we're not going to announce these guys as week one starters. We want to let this process play out.

I'd be really concerned if Cleveland, like, begrudgingly keeps Mansell down come the season just to prove a point. But I think both the Jacksonville and Cleveland has been consistent. and with their messaging. They have been, but they've gone about it in different ways. It seems like to me that the Browns, it's been heavy-handed in the sense that you could almost picture them being in a conference room and coming up with this plan of how they're going to show Johnny Mansell that they're

in charge of the situation, not just show Johnny Manzell, but show the media and everyone out there that we're not taken by Johnny football, and this guy is going to start at the bottom and he's going to have to work his way all the way up to paraphrase from one of Mansell's friends, Drake's, one of his big songs. But, you know, to me, it seems unnecessary that farmer would come out and make that statement today. And in general, I would just think that they should maybe tone it down a little bit with this. Mansell needs to, you know, earn his keep talk. It's the first round pick.

Lewis Riddick, former pro personnel director for the Eagles and Redskins, had a great tweet right before we came up here to the studio. When training camp arrives and you are battling for a roster spot or starting job, how you looked or played in a May OTA means nothing. Nothing at all. I feel like we should stamp that across all off-season articles. Yeah. Nothing that we write about in May really means anything.

These teams that went out and got quarterbacks, that's what matters. They went out and they found quarterbacks in the draft. I couldn't care less depending what team you root for, what happens here in May. I think it's good to split up snaps, give everyone a chance to compete. And the whole first, second, third team, I wouldn't be surprised by the end of O'Don. OTAs that they've flipped that order around to some degree and give everyone a chance at everything. Do you have, Mark, an issue with how the Browns have publicly reflected their situation with Mansell so far? I just said it. All that mattered to me as someone that grew up following the Browns is that they had the Cajonese to go out and get that quarterback and to move up and down the draft to get Mansell.

I don't care about who gets snaps in May. This thing is going to sort itself out. But not the snaps, the handling of the situation. I think you want me to. I don't. Well, no, I mean, I think that Cleveland is going to be treated as a clown car until they win. I don't think anyone's treating them like a clown car. I think it's fair for Mark to say that. On this issue, at least.

I don't really, heavy handiness, like I said, I think it's silly. It doesn't bother me too much, but it gets to be a problem when you have Manzella who will probably play in somewhat of a pistol offense. And Kyle Shanahan has shown a proclivity to do that with RG3 when they took the league by storm his rookie season. So it gets to be a problem when you have two quarterbacks with different skill sets and need different offenses. So this should be the installation period. And if Johnny Manzell is going to be your quarterback, you need to start running some pistol, which brings me to my point that I think by September, Tyler Thigpen will be. ahead of Brian Hoyer on the depth chart. Yeah, I forgot, we should mention that we've been doing this series

projecting all the starters for week one. And Chris Wessling did the AFC North, which is up on the site. He projects that Johnny Mansell will be the week one starter, and he has some softball pants on the line. Will Chris Wessling eat his softball pads? And not only does he have Johnny Mansell, number one, you think Tyler Thigpin will be the backup.

That seems a little wacky to me. Why? It checks out. I mean, what's happened in the last 12 months? Brian Hoyer's had one good start, one decent start, and I asked you this downstairs. Last May, at this time, you told me you would take Hoyer over Thigpen. I don't think that's true. Listen to what Hoyer had been through in the previous months.

Listen to what Hoyer had been through in the previous months before last May. Cut by the Patriots Sat out two and a half months Before the Steelers took him Sat on his couch nobody wanted him Steelers sign him He lasts two weeks Waved

Cardinals claim him starts one game Cardinals release him in May So he's been released three times In less than eight months But he had a good start He had one start Thick Penn had 11 starts Out of the pistol

So he is that pistol Kind of quarterback Thigpan had a lot more experience than Hoyer and hadn't been kind of bounced around as much as Hoyer had previously. He was struggling to find a job, though, and Hoyer, I would say even league wide had a little more juice to him at this time a year ago. Either way, we're picking nits.

Hoyer's not even 100% healthy. That's what I'm saying. Nobody wants to talk about the fact that he's a guy coming off in ACL. And there's plenty of snaps to go around right now because Hoyer's not going to be able to do everything. He might not be able to do everything on August 1st when they're opening camp. So, Wes, the same rhetoric from the Browns is a concern you? When it comes to softball pants, at all, even a little. No, I think what we said, nothing in May should concern any fan.

But they should, you especially. I mean, you got some nylon, composite parts, metal zipper. Will Chris Wesleyan eat his softball pants? No concern. I mean, Petten mentions Mansell's inconsistency. He did not mention the Hoyer's first pass he threw was an interception. Fair enough. All right, moving forward.

Now some sad news for our own Greg Rosenthal. And really, all NFL fans who believe New Orleans and the Super Bowl are TLF. Super Bowl 52 was awarded by the league's owners. What is TLF? Do you guys know this? True love forever. True love forever. I had no idea.

West, okay. If you had a girlfriend in middle school. Which I didn't, but. TLF, by the way, you can draw it, and I'm drawing with my hand. The L curves in to be the middle row on the F. Zach, you can break the tie. Did you know TLF? I had no idea.

All right. But again, like Dan. Yeah, but he's the different generation. Not a lot of girlfriends in. Yeah, I was still throwing rocks of girls. I have no. TLF, New Orleans in the Super Bowl. Who are you people?

New Orleans had been 10 for 10 in bids for the Super Bowl, and they were up for the game in 2018. They wanted to tie it in neatly with their tri-centennial, is what they call it? Yeah, 300th anniversary. But it didn't work out. Top-that Minneapolis. Minneapolis wins it in a very, what seems to be a close vote. They win Super Bowl 52, so Minnesota gets its first Super Bowl since 1992. Greg, you were very upset about this downstairs on Tuesday when it was announced.

You were, you know, as a two-lane graduate and someone that has connections to the city, we now turn it over to you. I was surprisingly... This isn't some bit where sports writers... All right, cut the music called standard, a little... punk? I told you he was pumped up about it. Little punk.

You know, you kind of look like a little Johnny Mansell back there. Wow. Wow. Hover, hover. All right, Greg, go ahead. This isn't, you know, I hate it when sports writers complain about, you know, where they're going to get sent to the Super Bowl or the way. It's not about that.

It's just about, you have two cities. One is one of the greatest American cities. One of the great international cities. in the world. And you have Minnesota on the other line, and you're just giving it to them because they have a stadium, and that's how it worked.

And it takes a lot for me to get upset. I was surprisingly, genuinely upset about this. Is the door locked? What is that supposed to mean? Shadowy leg figures. Because I have something to say that the shadowy and the league figures like that. All right.

Let it rip. Minneapolis does not get the Super Bowl if Oakland and Buffalo did not need new stadiums. It's a message sent to those fan bases to pony up and will reward you. That was Chris Wessling who sits in the NFL media newsroom about midway

through the room. And that stark realization sent the Saints owner tumbling down a small staircase. Well, that's not true. Well, I, listen, Tom Benson took a fall. Let's be honest. But I don't think it was related. Your chance to host another Super Bowl

in your lifetime is in danger. Well, I think New Orleans will get another Super Bowl very possibly the next one, 209. or 20-20, it should happen. I just, hey, what a great place to go visit New Orleans. Minneapolis is great, too. But in the middle of February,

come on. New Orleans is a treasure. We should all be treasuring. It should just be there every three or four years. Brush up on your polka before. And this was a substantial upset because Benson, who had knee surgery and sat out the draft war room, he traveled to this spring meeting in Atlanta.

just to ensure that this was a done deal. Here's a quote. He went to the event just to shake a few hands just to make sure. So I'm sure they were stunned. And then if you watched and we got it on the live raw feeds in the newsroom, we had them on the quote. By the way, they call the rooms where all these stuffy people in suits were bidding for these soup rolls, Minnesota, Indianapolis, and New Orleans.

There's a camera trained in these conference rooms. And it's just they're called war rooms, which is one of the most absurd things I've ever heard just absolute nonsense. It's a bunch of people sitting around drinking bottled water and I have to say I was watching the... A lot of awkward high-fives too.

Yeah, when the Minnesota Vikings were when Minnesota's granted, the celebration was beyond awkward, lots of like fist bumps and like a lady texting and then hugging a stranger and then there was like a moment of awkwardness after that hug. And then I switched over to the New Orleans room

and they just showed them like one guy waves them and they're all walking out single file. Then the last guy walks by the craft service table, like grabs a sandwich as he walks out. And it was very sad and also highly entertaining. You know, Dan and I have been to, we've been lucky enough to go to three Super Bowls, and strangely, two of them have been in cold weather.

Mm-hmm. It looks like it's the new thing now. It's no longer something that's going to be limited to warm weather cities, which is kind of a bummer for not just, not for us, but since the Super Bowl is such an event that people spend a lot of money for, you know, there was a woman that was interviewed on NFL Network

that was in that, quote, war room, which is ridiculous, who said that, you know, get ready because we're going to have the ice festival in town in conjunction with the Minnesota Super Bowl. It's like, what? You're just in New York. And that's when there's stuff going on in New York. New Orleans, there's stuff going on in New Orleans, Miami.

You know, the ice bowl? See, to me, it's not so much a shot at Minnesota as ignoring what, New Orleans has to offer. Part of their presentation was that there was going to be a Mardi Gras parade for the Super Bowl, essentially, or as part of one of their parades, where all 32 teams would have had a float on the parade. And all the teams could have, you know, they all get spots to be on the float.

Well, that sounds, that's America right there. That sounds tedious to me. Get excited. I don't think if you're New Orleans, you don't even need to make a pitch. Right. You are who you are. They should have it every year. Just give it to New Orleans every single year.

From now on, that's their tradition. You think a power outage had anything to do with it? I don't think. Well, I think Chris nailed it. It's not, that stadium in general is an issue compared to, hey, look at us. We're a city that just pumped millions into a brand new venue, and now we're going to reward you for it. I think that's all it comes down to. It's established.

If you build a stadium, you are getting a Super Bowl. If it's got a dome on top of it, you know, you get it, period. If Minnesota get one, it's just a fact. If you build a stadium, you get a Super Bowl. And while the Superdome is a historic landmark down there, and obviously with the Katrina, what happened there, it's a big-time place down in Louisiana. But the difference in the Superdome and some of these stadiums are where they're holding the Super Bowls now,

you can't really ignore that. MetLife Stadium is a beautiful place. The Phoenix, where they're having it this year. They have a great venue. They're going to do it in San Francisco is a brand new venue. Minnesota. You know, it's something that comes into play. You get the venue.

You're going to get the game. Moving on. MetLife Stadium is beautiful. It's like in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere. It was well put together, I thought. It's nothing stunning. Football stadiums in general. I'm not going to go too crazy.

Well put together. It's really, really sold. It's Camden Yards. I didn't see you guys in Jersey hammered it together. I didn't see any bolts out of place. Yeah, it's fantastic. Moving on. The Buccaneers are now perhaps sold on Mike Lennon as their long-term quarterback or so were being led to believe.

General manager Jason Light had this to say about the quarterback who was reportedly being shopped before the draft. We looked at all the tape of last year having him in the building and going through that first mini camp with him and seeing how he was in meetings and interacted with the team and more importantly how he was on the field just secured our feelings of how we evaluated him and felt about him. That really helped with our draft strategy. Are we buying this gentleman? No, if you're going to get on, if you want to get on Ray Farmer and his every word, this Mike Glennon narrative from the start, utter nonsense.

I wish you weren't a liar. They wanted to trade this guy. First of all, when you are a new coach and a new GM coming in, it would be important to lace your young quarterback with confidence and strong words that are positive right away to establish this is our guy the future. That's exactly what they didn't do until their draft day plans didn't happen the way they thought

they could. I don't buy a word of this. We looked at all the tape of last year, they said. And then they determined that Josh McCown was their preferred quarterback. And then they saw him in meetings and said, well, this guy's got some moxie. Now he's our quarterback of the future.

Well, he's a great note taker. Yeah. Shouldn't the tape mean more than note-taking? He sits right at the front. He pays attention. He didn't slobber on his desk. Speaking of offseason nonsense, Indomacan Sue has been in the headlines a lot and unwarranted for missing some voluntary workouts on Wednesday. He had some interesting things to say that, speaking of kind of unnecessary comments, he came out and said this, probably a lot of you guys don't know.

I could have gone elsewhere when I was drafted, Sue explained. Had that decision in my hands, I chose not to take it because that's just the way I saw it. the Lions had taken, Sue with the, when was it? Number two overall pick in the 2010 draft. Number two overall pick in the 2010 draft. Why would, why is he saying this? Why is Sue coming out with us now? He's probably just as tired as we are about hearing all the speculation,

why he didn't show up for voluntary off-season workouts. Why do you not like Detroit? So he was saying, look, Detroit's fine with me. If I didn't want to go there, I wouldn't have gone there, which seems perfectly fine to me and logical, but the media ran with it and called him bizarre and called him a different cat. It seemed just like a really logical answer to me.

Look, if I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be here. It is my choice. It is for sure my choice, but like I said, that's water under the bridge. This is a product of the NFL needing to stretch what could be a serene, quiet time for 32 teams into a year-round operation where we have stories like this. Who cares if Nadamika and Sue shows up to voluntary workouts in April and May? Is he going to be on the field of week one?

Yes, dumb story. And it brings up my least favorite type of question, which always comes up with this sort of thing, which is, what do you think of all the negative reaction to you about missing OTAs? Or do you think that the media is making too big a deal about it? You're asking the question, just own it and ask it. Just say, and if you think the media is making too much of it, then shut up. Don't say anything.

Right. Thank you. Moving forward, this is a, there's a Chip Kelly remote control car story that I'm about to run by. You guys, I don't really understand what's happening with it. So a seventh round pick named Bo Allen revealed late last week that Chip Kelly introduced himself by running a remote control car into the nose tackle, the rookie nose tackle. Wes, you wrote this story, so I would like you to. tell the public what this is all about?

Well, offenses and defenses cannot face each other in phase two of the off season, which is what we're in right now. So in order to gauge the reaction of defensive players, Chip Kelly has a remote control car which he uses on the line of scrimmage to simulate motion. And then he judges the defensive player's reaction by that. I thought it was kind of fun. It was a fun story. It's a Chip Kelly type of thing to do.

Oh, it's definitely a fun story, but isn't it? kind of reek of and smack of Chip Kelly doing this just so people will write about how ingenious Chip Kelly is. It worked. Well, yeah. I mean, I'm not saying it wasn't effective. Because it came out of a random seventh round pick in an interview. No one actually saw this on the field.

It just sort of... Oh, these things happened to leak, though, when there's a reporter sniffing around looking for anything to write about right now. I think that's fair from Dan. What? You think this is some Machiavellian here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get them to be talking about the remote control cards. Chip Kelly. Genius.

And I'll use Bo Al. I don't think it's Machiavelling on any level, but I think Kelly enjoys his reputation as a... Because one thing, I love Chris's story, but the Eagles, you know, in the source material that you took it from, are touted as this, like, high-octane, high-tech outfit because they're recording meetings and sending them to people on their iPads.

So, what's so important about recording a meeting? I mean, that's been done for years. I think I made that point. That they're probably not the only team doing it. But that's the whole point. And the source Mitchell is like, and Chip Kelly, for some of you, the original source, like for some of you that are over the age of 25, get this. They're sending meetings online to their players through recorded content, police.

You know what, Chip Kelly, you're not as brilliant as maybe you think you are. Maybe he's an offensive mind. Wow, you've been kind of anti- Chip Kelly from the beginning. You know what, though? It's just like, even though he's proven to be kind of ahead of the curve. You use iTunes Genius to pick your music selections and now all of a sudden you've cracked the human code for how to get guys to operate and practice

and you have smoothies that have vitamins in them and now you're the guy that understands fitness and by the way Chip Kelly Fitness, come on, let's be serious here. I don't know, come on. You know, Chip Kelly comes down. Who do you think iTunes Genius is named after you? That's a Chip Kelly production.

I just, the only thing that strikes me as funny about this is if you're a defensive player and okay, there's no motion across from you on the line in this part of the off season but now you're seeing this remote control car is that genuinely helping you you're like sitting there in your stance and you're just like oh there goes Lashon McCoy

oh no that's a one inch tall like four wheel that I might step on does that really gonna help you in the season starts how smart will Chip Kelly look when one of his players steps on that freaking car and pops in Achilles you know the only thing the only person that helps this whole thing is Chip Kelly well the Eagles

were the least injured team in the league last year But watch out for remote-controlled cars. Maybe his science is working. His personalized protein shakes and his customized sleep schedules. If we know one thing about the NFL this upcoming season, they could be the most injured team in the league. That's true. That's fair point, Dan.

Chip Kelly. Win a title. All right. What an NFC that used title. Made some strides last year, I'd say. Coming last to first. Back to me when you're an Obama's company. in the east room of the White House.

Well, maybe, maybe then he'll, like, deliver the jersey with a remote-controlled car. And then I'll be like, this guy's a genius, because that would actually be pretty cool. Speaking of people that probably won't ever get to the White House, Tony Romo was the top 100 players of 2014 in NFL Network weekly special during the summer and spring and summer that's kicked off. on Wednesday's show which ran down the number of 71 through 80 Tony Romo was in that group that put him as the 12th

quarterback on the list so there are 11 quarterbacks ahead of him and I believe there were two behind him Kaepernick and Matthew Stafford correct mistaken I ask you gentlemen Greg wrote a nice piece on the around the league page about Tony Romo is it fair to put Tony Roma at number 12 among quarterbacks

I think that's about right There's a couple guys in front of them I might not have in front of them Or that I'm guessing they're in front of them Okay, I've seen the list I'm not going to pretend It doesn't matter There's a couple guys in front of them

I wouldn't have chosen And there's a couple guys behind him That might be better than him I've always been such a Tony Romo believer And yet at this point in his career That sounds about right to me In terms of where he is in the NFL pecking order This is one where with the players

Doing the voting It's always interesting to me To see where a guy like Tony Romo shows up because you've heard even in our own office former players come out and they seem to have no more of a in-depth view of Romo than a lot of us do as just fans and people that follow the game where they look at his late game meltdowns and they seem completely affected by that but number 11 feels about right for me I have to give the boss some credit here how refreshing to see a Tony Romo article that's fair and balanced

all right I mean it's not it's not an apologist acting like his late late game failures never happen. And it's not a detractor just totally ignoring the fact that all of his rate stats rank in the top five in NFL history. So yeah, he's somewhere in between that, and I think you nailed it. Well, and Greg also fairly points the blame

at Jerry Jones in the way that team has been run during Romo's tenure. Well, that was why I wanted to write about it. I think Tony Romo has been blamed unfairly throughout his career. And in general, I've probably leaned on the side of that he gets too much grief and that he is better than most people believe. But I also recognize they might have missed their window with Tony Romo at his peak.

He is turning 34 years old. He is coming off of a back surgery. He's coming off a season where he had the lowest yards per attempt of his entire career. His yards per attempt have dropped significantly over the last two years. He plays it a little safer, less than interceptions, but he's not as accurate. And the numbers match up with what I see. And I don't think Tony Romo is as good as he was five years ago. I think his worst two seasons in the league were the last two seasons.

So I just worry, even if the team around him gets better, I think they've missed that window where Romo was at his peak and one of the five or six best quarterbacks in the league. So they should have followed Dan's advice and gone out and gotten Johnny Menzel. Well, it's too late now. I ain't getting no sandwiches. That I don't know, because he's still good. He's got a couple of good years left.

Oh, yeah, don't get me wrong. I still think he's better than Joe Flacco. Better than Eli Manning, better than a lot of good quarterbacks. What speaks to, Greg, what you're saying is he probably has two or three nice Tony Romo seasons left. But even if the Cowboys were a well-run organization, which you could definitely say they're not, it might take them two or three years to be back in the conversation as a real threat in the NFC. And then Tony Romo's 37. So maybe you should have drafted Johnny Manzell.

He is ninth in NFL history. in yards per attempt. There was a period, and he was great the moment he stepped in for Drew Bledso, which is very different than most quarterbacks than he was older. He was a pro-ball type player the moment he stepped on the field. And from that moment, for the next six or so years, he was a top seven NFL quarterback, and I just don't think he's at that level anymore.

All right, gentlemen. So, team of ATL. It's time to talk about it. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, And I know this all means a lot to us. I know we really enjoyed rooting for the Panthers as a collective unit last season. And we picked the Panthers about week four, I'd say. That seems accurate.

Right at the end of September, early October. So I guess the first thing I want to run by you guys, and this is all open conversation, was the idea of potentially getting a little more brave. I'll say it. and picking a team before the season starts. I'm going to start there, and I'll throw it out to the room. I feel the same way about this as I did about the softball pants discussion. It has to be organic.

I don't think we want to be pressured into picking a team to fit anyone's schedule. I liked how it happened with the Panthers. We just grew to like them, and I think that's how it works. Nobody would care about this. Nobody would bring it up on Twitter if it didn't happen organically last year. All right, how about this? Because I'll throw this out there then. What if we picked a team to enter the season

and then we gave ourselves one Matthew Mulligan and we could bail on that team and pick a team in late September and run with that team? I think you pick your team. You've got to stick with them through hell or high water. I kind of feel that way too. That's your team.

Even if they lose games, they're still your team. for that year. All right, well, I just am throwing things out there. My thought is, how do you know the team until you see them play? And that's the thing I love about the NFL teams change so much. You don't really know their personality until they play some games. Yeah, no, and that's certainly fair. I'm also thinking about the podcast and having something locked in.

I'm thinking of us as a product rather than something organic, which I apologize for. We didn't know the series existed when the season began last year. That's true. Now we do, and so obviously it's let's. think ahead, but it's hard right now to zone in on one team. It's a fun exercise, but you talk about organic. It's hard to know where we are. I have one team that is already organically become that team for me,

but I don't expect that the three of you do in May. All right, let's hear it. The Steelers are that team for me. Oh, that is rich. See, we already got it. Because I think one thing we all agree on is that this needs to be a unanimous vote for team of ATL. I want to hear them out. I'm not, I didn't rule it out myself.

I want to hear it out. Sessler rooting for the Steelers. This has been kind of an interesting team to me. I've explained this a few times on the podcast where they were a team that was a perennial contender that took on the look of a rebuilding team early last season. They were abysmal. Since then, they're just now getting to the point where some 2013 draft picks can come in to contribute.

They had, I liked what they did in the 2014 draft. Ryan Shazier was one of my favorite players. So that automatically has me interested. that looks like they're a lot speedier a lot more athletic and I want to see if they can turn it around and regain contender status I don't think the rest of the country

sees them that way anymore and we should probably clarify what a team of ATL is we're not necessarily picking the team we think is going to win the Super Bowl it's more and correct me if I'm wrong gentlemen just the team that we enjoy

and yes they're a good team and they're going to be a competitive team but also a team that's easy to root for and fun to watch and there's some Chip Kelly on us which is what we want to see things before they happen and then get rewarded for that that's fair i like the stealers idea i mean that's intriguing to me you don't have to sell me on the whole idea of you know ben rothusberger having one final glorious season i i picked them to win MVP last

year before the year that didn't work out too well but i tried i'm curious uh mark i'm pretty sure the steelers aren't your initial pick maybe you'll come around on them is there a team that maybe you're interested in right now. The team that came to mind right away for me is the cults. A, Chris, you love Big Ben, and I respect Big Ben as a player. I think he's fun to watch. I feel that way about Andrew Luck, where I can sit down and watch a Colts game, and because of him, primarily, I'm plugged in right from the start.

I think they've got some interesting weapons on offense. I think Hakeem Nix is in for a bounce-back year in that offense. I want to see what happens with Trent Richardson in the backfield. The defense, potential disaster zone, but that could create some high-scoring, interesting games. There's something about the cults that for me. Proved offensive line. That's my team.

Fun team to watch. I've got others, but that's my number one. Because of Andrew Luck. There might not be a player I enjoy watching more than Andrew Luck. But I've kind of, I still like the Colts. I'll enjoy watching it, but I'm not wild about their off-season. And now if they're going to pass our early season test, they're going to have to do it without Robert Mathis.

Right. And teams don't necessarily have to win either. We pick the Panthers when they were struggling a little bit. Bounce back. I just see a team that has the same issues on the offensive line, the same issues on defense, and the same offensive coordinator who prefers his philosophy to gearing it towards the personnel.

I don't disagree at all, but I think that luck is going to be an example of a quarterback that kind of overrides all of those on-paper issues. That would not surprise me. Greg oh I've got so many right now this is like it's like we're single here

and there's just so many beautiful women out there you don't even know these babes hot babes everywhere save that for seduction Friday one one hot babe Greg no I can't just limit it to one

Haba hubba I think the bucks are going to be a team to watch for it's on my list maybe a little too trendy could be fun trendy trendy trendy the Raiders would be a fun one

now get out of here bear with me here It will never happen A little too much shop here But there is nothing I would enjoy more this year Than the Raiders coming out of the gate And being feisty And just battling their way to a 9 and 7 type of season

That no one saw coming That's something that would get me excited And that's a type of thing that the team of ATO They're like the bad news bears Different guys are showing up One guy came from jail Another guy came from, you know He's been out of work for 10 years

It's not quite like that But 11 or 12 different people different cities coming together. I like that in the sense that last year's ATL team seemed like a from the wilderness group that no one saw coming. Cults are not that, and frankly, sorry, Chris, the Steelers are not an underdog team on any level. It doesn't have to be an underdog team.

No, but the Raiders would be about, we go from a team that prevented Chris from eating softball pants to talking nine and seven, that's wacky. I don't, yeah, I mean, unfortunately, I will say, Greg, that the reason why you shouldn't get your hopes up is because during your entire rant, West said nope, like five times. Unless I get a written apology from at least 100 Oakland Raiders fans, I will not. I will exercise my pocket veto. That's a good point.

How about this one? Bruce Ariens in the Kangle Hat, Steve Kime and his converse, Patrick Peterson, Darnel Docket, Calais, Campbell, Andre Elton. Forget about that. That could be a fun little team. That's a fun team. Cool. If Greg would have stuck to doing one team, he wouldn't have taken my team, which was the Arizona Cardinals.

I'm going to go with four more. Can the ATL get behind Carson Palmer? That's a tough one. That is tough one. I can get behind that team. Everybody else. What if Drew Stanton takes over? No, I can't get behind that either.

No, I could. Do you have another team? I'm sorry, I didn't know. No, it's okay. I mean, I thought you set it up pretty well there. Throw out another one. I like the Packers. Oh, yeah.

I thought the Packers were playing very well. That team excites me. Before Rogers went down, I think they, you know, they made some moves that are nice. And Aaron Rogers, if everybody thinks Andrew Lux's their favorite quarterback to watch in the league, he's probably in my top three, but Rogers is still my favorite personally. So I'm kind of feeling the Packers as a bounceback team that could do some things this year and maybe won't be a popular pick now that they've kind of gotten some distance. Roaring back from their 15 and one campaign of two seasons ago.

Yeah, but you got to admit, that seems like a long time ago. Let me throw one quick out. I know Dan is going to veto this. the Eagles I find them Forget all the Chip Kelly I agree with you About the little bit of

No there's a How could they be a team of ATIL? There's a bit of a pompous B-line to Chip Kelly Which bugs me But the team is fascinating To watch I think they're going to

Be a major player In the NFC That's my thing I feel like half the Pundits will pick them To get to the NFC title game How could they be a team of a team of a Well you just said the Packers

The Packers are going to be One of the top three or four favorites They don't have Chip Kelly involved Yeah Chip Kelly I feel like we haven't even Remote control car. Who do you hate more?

Chip Kelly or Teddy Bridgewater? I like Teddy. He just seemed to... He's a kid. He's a little confused. He's mixed up. But when you take a remote control car and you're driving across the field

and basically, you know, pointing to reporters, hey, look what I'm doing. I'm cool. He didn't point to reporters. I think he probably would have preferred if that story never even came out. Yeah, right.

We haven't even mentioned the elephant in the room here. Bo Allen. All right, go ahead. I feel like if I was going and making a sandwich proposition on this. And I would predict, of course, I'm part of the decision, but I was predicting what team would be the team of ATL.

I think the leader in the clubhouse right now, you're Cleveland Browns. You got Johnny football. You've got a team coming out of nowhere. You've got a feel-good story. You've got Kevin Costner. You've got it all. Tell you what, Josh Gordon really took the air out of that balloon.

No, whatever. He's a wide receiver. Do you really want to watch Nate Burleson and Earl Bennett all year? He's a wide receiver. Calvin Johnson has not helped the Lions escape from being the Lions, and he's Calvin Johnson. He's just one player. The Browns are bigger than that.

When I woke up Friday morning after the draft, I thought they would been, Vegas would take them off the board as the team of ATL. And when Gordon went out of the lineup, or we don't know what's going to happen with Gordon. Maybe he'll get banned six games, and he'll still be in play for them. But that was painful.

I can't get behind that team anymore because I think their ceiling is probably eight wins. I can still get behind. I'm saying I'm not ruling them out. This could be a possibility come August. What if Miles Austin looks rejuvenated? Yeah, no, I wouldn't rule them out by any stretch. But Gordon, that was killer. If you look at Cleveland's defense, for instance,

and with Mike Penn as the coach, there's not an area of that defense that's a major issue. They are going to be, I don't see a 3 and 13 type year, but putting all our money on the Browns in May. We're not predicting they win the Super Bowl. We're just predicting there'll be a fun team to follow. Yeah. What if Charles Johnson emerges?

I like this guy who I've never seen a snap of. What if he emerges as a player? Here's how I define what. Who's Charles Johnson? He's a guy the Packers drafted in his seventh round. He's a favorite of draft next because he's like 6-2, 2.30. Highly athletic, ran a 4-3-something. And then the Packers, they thought he tore his MCL in training camp.

It turned out to be his ACL, so they stashed him on the proud. practice squad. Right. Browns claim him up to practice squad needing a wide receiver and discovery as a torn ACL. Well, he didn't know if he had a torn ACL. Oh, yeah. Well, nobody's, you know, the in quotes size speed freak. And it's this like dark horse candidate that's in the back of the depth chart.

But he's like the Ricardo Lockett of this off season. You mentioned, you know, you were trying to figure out what is the team of ATL? I think this is my definition. It's a team, it's what Wes said. It's a team you want to root for. It's a team you have no choice but to root for. That's pretty much it. Sounds like the Jets to me.

Not going to happen. Yeah. Sounds like the game green. Permanent veto. Permanent veto. I know where my veto is going. I love Rex, but I can't stand the way the media covers that team. All right, all right.

Just threw it out there. Back off everybody. So we're going to be tracking this all off season. You know, we're going to be figuring out who this team will be. You know, we might end up picking the. team later into the regular season if we want to take a more cowardly route but we can we'll figure it out um and gold center behind the glass uh i was thinking this seems like an exercise that needs a theme song and i was thinking the man for this is the great dick banks

who of course has some experience with the atl podcast or the original incarnation oh you mean this Hands do to Mr. Fancy Pants The flames need NFL news And here's their chance It's ATL Around the League Light of Flame Boys Pickskins hot tonight

Burn, baby burn The Great Dick Banks And you know Dave Davishack Who we owe Dave a lot because he put us on the back end of the Damshack podcast, I guess about two years ago now, really try to start this movement making Mark Sessler,

Mr. Fancy Pants, because his Twitter handle is Mark Sessler underscore ATL or NFL, excuse me. Well, Mark Sessler was not available. Yeah. Someone out there jumped on that, and so I used my name with NFL at the end, and he found that to be a headache. And, you know, what do I have, like,

I have, like, maybe a closed closet that has, like, six, items in it, tops, and I'm getting labeled fancy pants. You've got an entire shirt closet. You do. So anyway, obviously, that had to be retired when we became a larger group. But Dick Banks did a great job of that. So we're thinking maybe put him in charge of some type of song about who will be the team of ATL. So Gold Standard, as our producer, do you think you can get on that?

I'll get on that. I don't know where Dick Banks is. He could be at the top of a castle. He could be in a dingy apartment in Venice. I know nothing about the man, but he's talented. His fee will come out of your non-existent salary. Yeah, incredibly nominal salary. That sounds good.

You have a non-existent salary? I just do this your fun. You've got to get out of you. From bono. All right. So that's it for today's edition of the ATL podcast. Before we go, Wes, just one update. We'd love to know there was a lot.

It felt like it. And maybe this was just more my feeling. If there was a lot riding on this weekend with your significant other, Aaron, are you now in a committed relationship and are you thinking wedding bells? What are you? No, I mean, just could be something that's happened. I think you have misread this trip from the beginning.

It was a way for me to go up the coast and to bring someone along with me and she was a very... We have always traveled well together, the two of us. I've always had a good time. We get along well. We have 2,500 miles separating us. We've realized that from the start

that we're up against this. So I think we've been realistic from the beginning. This wasn't something that we thought was going to result in wedding bells, you know, right away or within, you know, I don't know what will happen. But I think we're both realistic about it. Right. You're the first guy I've ever heard to ask another guy that question. Wedding bells. Does she have an issue with Dan turning your whatever status is relationship into a ratings grab?

She listeners tuning in right now. What's going on with West? You did get some backlash about this, Dan, not just from West, but, you know, people were coming up in the newsroom being like, well, you know, people were coming up. Well, I think some people misconstrued my conversation with Aaron, but I see, it sounds like Aaron's a very nice girl, and West is a very good guy, so I'm sure it's a nice team. I did catch heat from her because you forgot her name. And I must not be talking about her enough around the office. Yeah, because you forgot. I'm just bad of names, which is a sign of, like, self-absorption.

That's exactly what I told her. Data is so self-absorbed. You were deemed slightly insensitive. Eh, that is what it is. But we know you and we know that's not true. Of course not. No, but I'm looking forward to meeting Aaron one of these days. She seems like a great girl.

And we're glad that you're back and didn't just settle up in some shack. I thought about maybe joining the Esselin Institute up there by Big Sir. What do they do? It's a, they are very big into kind of, um, Mark would love it. They're very organic. They're into poetry. They don't like food.

They like French fries and olives. It's like a new agey type of thing. But it's discovering human potential. And it's a little off the beaten path, which, you know, like I said, I'm not a freeway guy. And this was a good reminder. I think we need to recharge every once in a while. Maybe if this doesn't work out with this woman, we could go up and start a new life up in the S-O-Long Institute. Not together.

That's a good way to end this show. Let's cliffhanger to Friday. We'll keep Mark's wife out of this podcast. We'll tell her there was no podcast today. Gentlemen, that's it for today's edition of the Rundleak podcast. We got a lot of info in there. We'll be back on Friday with a special guest, Bucky Brooks, who will, Friday morning, in fact, we're going to get the podcast.

We're going forward at least through the rest of the spring and through the summer. We're going to get the podcast up. Friday morning on the West Coast. So look for it to land earlier than you typically see. So get excited for that. Bucky Brooks, draft analyst and scout extraordinaire, will be back in the studio with us. He says he has some goodies to unload,

and he will do it here. So that's good. Well, that sounds pretty good, I guess. But until then, this is Dan Hans, signing off for the mailman, the sizzler, the boss, and the gold standard behind the glass. Until Friday. Mm, tasty.

Well. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed,

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