NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL Pantheon Players

Episode Date: June 20, 2016

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Colleen Wolfe – discuss the latest NFL news including the Rams' quarterback battle and if Cam Newton has already peaked as an NFL player. Then the heroes discuss the all-time best players in the NBA and NFL before wrapping the podcast by sharing some “Now What?” scenarios for certain NFL teams.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 IHeart podcast. Hi and hello football fans, your old pal, Dave Damasek here. Make sure you check out the Dave Damashek football program. You can watch it on YouTube, NFL.com. You can listen to it on iTunes or Stitcher or NFL.com slash podcasts. We look at the world of pro football and the game called life. The Around the NFL podcast are two ladies. lazy to write their own money tags.

Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by room filled with heroes. Colleen Wolfe, Chris Wessling and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? And woman. Hey, Dan. Hey, hey, hey. A lot on.

Hi, Colleen. Hi, Dan. A great stint to the last couple of weeks on HQ NFL Network's morning show. Thank you. Which kind of took you out of the podcast. podcast rotation a little bit. And also that's what you're telling yourself? Well, you took yourself out of the softball lineup.

That's true. That's true. Well, I was sleeping during that time. It's not an easy schedule, as we've talked about. But you did very well. Thanks. I think you're going to be a star in this industry. Is that right?

That's what I think. That's wonderful. All right. I'm glad you think that. It's big to get Dan's stamp of approval. I'm still waiting for it. That's not true. How's everybody doing yesterday?

It was Father's Day, of course. and now we are in the dark period amazing we'll talk about a little bit one of the great sports events of recent times game seven of the NBA finals Cleveland Cavaliers coming out on top that was fun how's everybody else doing couldn't be better dude Mark on vacation by the way for everyone oh again is somewhere cool all week I thought that was a joke he's in he's in New York oh yeah yeah all right that's definitely not cool it's hot is heck i saw a lot of people tweeting at him that they were happy for him and all other clevelanders yeah common misconception mark not from cleveland no connection to as he points out on this podcast all the time but it just still he might have spent like six days of his life in cleveland yeah um so mark is away Colleen filling the chair we have a lot to get to not a lot of stuff going on in the NFL and yet we continue to find things to talk about there's so much of I know.

Today's show, we will be talking about a segment called, Now What! In which we each lay out a plausible scenario that could put a team that is involved in said scenario in a very difficult position when it comes to organizational decision making. Greg, is that a good way to put that? That is correct, and we should give Christopher Bonner some credit here, because that was just a text or a tweet he sent me over the weekend, which this, with this segment.

You got hit with a bon bomb. He called it, what do we do now? So we shortened it a little bit, same idea. We took his idea, changed it a little bit, and took all the credit, and we will monetize it eventually down the line, and he'll have no footing in the court of law. Bone dog, 1978. Great handle.

Bone dog. Bone dog. Good for you, Boney. Yeah, so we'll talk about that. Now what? And we will get into a little NBA and NFL talk because, and just to pull back the curtain a little bit, and Colleen, this will be news to you as well. When we were putting together the show, initially this morning, initially Wes was a little underwhelmed.

Okay. I gave the show a pre-show grade of D. No. And, you know, that rubbed Greg the wrong way. Uh-huh. And I don't know, you know, one day Greg might not be our boss. and we'll look back on these times. And this will be like one of those times like,

oh, wow, Greg, good boss work. Yeah. Because what did Greg do? He shouted down upon West. He said, well, if you don't like the show, make it better. Come up with a seg. A challenge.

I like that. Threw down the gauntlet. It's a LeBron-level leadership out of Greg. Well, yeah. Very masculine. To pull the curtain back, there's been a power play with it. We already pulled the curtain back. There's so many curtains in here.

There's another curtain being pulled back. Behind this curtain. That's a weird stage setup. And there's been a power play going on. within the company where another boss has, you know, decided to take over and be Wes's boss. So I'm trying to step up my game. Wes is kind of sneaky subservient. Really?

Yeah. Well, because now you've got all these different levels of bosses. There's a lot of bosses. And you're answering to all of them. I never consider myself sneaky subservient. Yeah, I don't think that's true. I think I'm a team player, though. Yeah.

For sure. Whether it's on the diamond for the shield, whether it's. in the office. Chris, that's the guy you want on the hill. That's true. I'm back. Give him the sword. I'm coming back.

I know. I know everybody was worried. I'll believe it when I see it. Thursday night, I'm there. I have not seen Colleen in two months. I had HQ. I was away. You remain the only teammate I've ever played with who has attempted to have postmates

deliver a case of beer to left center field. We were losing. Yeah. It was glory. We needed it. It endeared you to me forever. But before we do any of that, let's check behind the glass. And I will give the, even though Wes is not thinking highly of the show, pre-grade show.

Pre-show great. Uh-oh. Pre-show grade. It's going well. A minus. Wow. Wow. No way.

Do you feel confident about it? Nope. Okay. Irishman behind the glass. What's up, buddy? Did you just give that high grade because Mark isn't here? His little minions can report it back to him Okay

Well here, hold on Let me write this down real quick then Wow Just outed yourself Or did I? No, you did You know what? I wish I was hired

He didn't even think of me too higher Okay, all right, Brent Let's get out of the weeds here A couple things Number one A lot of, Irish is now on Twitter What is your handle? At the ATN Irishman

At the ATN Irishman We did We kind of gave, you know, Brandon's a young millennial. He wasn't on Twitter before? No, after the softball game, we sat him down over some beers and we said, Brandon, you are the producer of the best NFL podcast on the internet. Get on Twitter. All in.

You got to get out in front of this if you want to build the Irishman brand. And he took us up on it. Good job. I'm proud of you. It only took about three months, but. So the Irish is on Twitter, so make sure you follow them. Three months, it's been like six, seven years since Twitter's been popular. Yeah, but.

A challenge to all our listeners to follow the Irishman. What is it again? At the ATN Irishman. At the ATN Irishman. I think his first set of tweets will all be based around the complete discography of Sugar Ray. I had to defend myself against some people. Yeah, we're trying to get on Twitter, by the way, right after you like went to the post. for Sugar Ray in an unironic way.

Yeah, let's just say, I'm glad I missed that part of this show. He's been getting it from all corners. Let's do some news. Football is like rock and roll. It's less and, and basketball is like jazz. Nice drop. That's a good one. Pick up the chisels.

Let's start with the Los Angeles Rams, our local football team. Here in Los Angeles now, Steve Weish, who is a reporter for NFL media, was on total access on Thursday. And he said that Goff, the number one overall pick in the 2016 draft, has a long way to go before he's ready to be an NFL quarterback. Weish had this to say, Jared Goff is nowhere near being ready to start week one. He's only had off-season workout practices, but he's swimming in it. Greg, what does that mean? Do you put any stock into that or is that a little bit of a red flag for you? I don't overrate it and panic that he's not ready to play after non-padded practices.

But I think this situation is so much different than a normal first round pick situation where you know he's supposed to be out there day one starting. You're in a new city. And so he has to be ready sooner than Carson Wentz should be ready. And from what Steve said, I think Jared Goff is struggling to adapt to the NFL and struggling to convince those around him that he's going to be ready anytime soon. And that's normal, but you still got a game to play in six or seven weeks and you don't want Case Keenham playing that game. Yeah, it worries me that he's not ready and defenses are going to be stacking the box because they know that Todd Gurley is basically they're going to be running the offense through him. So I'm worried about how many interceptions Jared Goff is going to end up throwing the season.

and if that's going to mess with him mentally, too. Well, the worst case scenario would be he throws zero interceptions because he can't beat out Case Keenham to play. And you don't want to panic, but you don't trade what they gave up to have Jeff Fisher say this sentence going into training camp. Case is our starter right now. So Case needs the first team reps. Oof.

You traded all his picks so you can give golf the first team reps and get him ready to play. Right. So on one hand, I think don't overreact. You know, Aaron Rogers had a miss. miserable first training camp, you know, in his NFL career. And there's many stories like that. On the other hand, I don't think you should ignore it either.

When Jeff Fisher says he doesn't want to mess up the reps, to me that is saying, we don't think case that Jared Goff is playing well right now and is ready at all. Like that quote alone confirms Steve Weish's report, not that I needed it. You know, we talked to Steve, too, off the air. And I think it's just something that it's clearly coming slowly to goff and that everyone around the team and on the team is kind of noticing so far. I was going to cue you up for that. Didn't you think talking to Steve behind the scenes that he could have even been stronger in this report?

Sure. I mean, this was from a NFL total access. And he did say he's nowhere ready to start right now and that he's swimming. And that's essentially what he was telling me as well. So things are not going according to the plan. they would have laid out. Well, Gough, I think one of the pluses is he was more pro-ready. And that's always, you know, tricky to-

I never know what that means. I don't know what that means either. Because you would think that means intellectually, but it's different learning a pro-sit. Would it show anyone that you draft is pro-ready? You would hope so. You would like that. I mean, regardless, it means that hard knocks is going to be that much better.

If it starts getting soup, yeah, it's a great point. If it starts getting awkward where he's drowning in the practices and then the preseason, he's turning into what was that guy in San Francisco, Brino Gio Kami or whatever? In the Brady draft, that would be, that would be Greek tragedy. Oh, Giovanni Carmazzi. Brino, Gio. That's the tackle for the jet.

Yeah, it's the right tackle on the Jets. Let's move on and talk about another quarterback that does have his stuff together. He is Cam Newton who had this to say. He told the Charlotte Observer about where he has to grow After winning the MVP in the NFC title last season I haven't peaked I haven't climaxed as a player I'm phrasing And that's what I need to get better at

Wes A big Cam Newton fan you are Do you think Cam Newton can get better Or did we see the best Cam Newton has to offer last season I have no idea I really don't I mean I don't How's that drink, Dan?

A lot of ice. I don't have a hot take on whether Cam Newton's going to get better or worse. Like, no quarterback in the history of the game has ever stayed at an MVP level for like eight straight years. So you would think by his age and his obvious talent, he should be ascendant. But how many things went right for the Panthers last year, just about everything, outside of Calvin Benjamin's injury? I think the inclusion of this item was what really impacted Chris's pre-show D plus grade. Well, I just have no idea. opinion like it's it's hard for me to imagine anyone having an opinion on this well i think we haven't

talked about cam newton all offseason i do think it's interesting to think that he took a big big step forward last year and that's part of you know what made the panthers so great so is he going to be able to maintain that sort of level of consistency especially in the second half of the year he was a house on fire or is he going to be somewhere in between 2015 and where he was the rest of his career, which is still a great Pro Bowl type of quarterback, but they're going to have to improve elsewhere. Plus, we have opinions all the time on players, whether they'll regress or take the next step. My superstar club, we just had a conversation.

From where I'm coming from, though, like what about Cam Newton would, what news coming out of Charlotte or what's happened to him this offseason that would make you think he would be any different than last year? Maybe it's just like a mental thing, though, too. I mean, even if it's not physically because he had such a great year and he improved on so many things, maybe just the experience of going through all the highs of last season and then the lowest low and then everything that he got, all of the slack he sort of got after the Super Bowl for that. Maybe that is going to help him improve. Well, I'm just taking it from the

vantage point of the last two years when we were entering the season. It's a debate. Is Cam Newton a top 10 quarterback? Now he's the unquestioned MVP. And I'm just curious as a fan. I've been, I think, among the biggest Cam Newton fans out there since the day he entered the league. I think he's going to be great, but I think it's always tough to follow up the year that you truly broke out. And he truly broke out last year. If he does take another step, he's now encroaching on the territory of an all-time great-type player. I mean, last season, 35 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, he ran the football well.

He always did that. 10 touchdowns took his team to the Super Bowl. I mean, if he goes up another level, we're talking about a potentially historic player. if he's not already that now. And somehow all of that clicked without having Kelvin Benjamin and all of, I mean, all of his guys. That all depends when we looked at it. We were like, at least I was.

I was like, how is he going to do this at the beginning of the season? He's going to be throwing to Ted Ginn. And then it ended up working somehow. And Devin Funchis, and we'll see, it's just OTA reports, but people watching the Panthers practice think Devin Funches is a totally different player than he was a year ago. So you get him, you get Benjamin. Those guys will help Cam Newton look better.

I think the highest compliment you can give Cam Newton is, is this sentence he uttered last year about this time and everyone laughed at it. But he backed it up. I don't think people have seen what I am or what I'm trying to do. And he went out and backed it up and had one of the most unique seasons

in NFL history. So we don't think that he's climaxed. I mean, do you really have to use that word, Cam? It's like a weird word. Did Cam Newton climax? That's the question. I'm phrasing. I think you could send your eye or Colleen

towards Dan, who's now said it three times. by bringing it up over and over again. They just climaxed already. Do you think this podcast has climaxed? Maybe. The pod, no. Let's move on. No, let's move on.

Move on. The Carry Underwood song, for Christ's sake. No, wrong one. Put down the chisels. Why we have a. This is a mess. Oh, my God. This is because climax.

On our, on our Slat, no, on our I am client. All right. I didn't hit any. Oh, you're all baboons. Now, all right now. All right. Sad news. Lower that mess.

Waiting all day for Sunday night is dead, guys. The Sunday night football theme song, which has been used, various iterations since NBC took over the Sunday night football package of 2006. They're dumping the song in its place, guys. Colleen, I know you're a big country music fan A number one hit on the Billboard charts In 2014 It will be a variation of this song

Something Bad Oh God, no Why can't we update this? How is that country music? It's not really It's very poppy Yeah Well that's, there's nothing country about this song

Wait listen, there's a little twang though That's Miranda Lambert There's no bent note beauty. Come on. I mean, it's fine. Carrie Underwood is great. She's very talented. But if they're updating the song,

why don't they update the person doing it too? Maybe they do something. Maybe they switch it up a little. What about, like, throwing Beyonce in there? She would never do it. Why don't we get all, like, the living members of Wu-Tang Clan in there? Oh, I like that. Get Wu-Tang in there.

That's possible. Beyonce? Too big for Monday night, or Sunday-Nine-Foot. She would never. Beyonce is the biggest star of the world. She would never do it. Football's the biggest. star in the world you wouldn't have enough money two big stars coming together

dude she you know football's huge but she is she is now ascended past doing some TV or or you bring back someone that's already shown that she succeeds in the in the space you're going to say it Priyanka I mean Priyanka's done it what a great song wait you hate the JT song would you like this this is great this is the best like TV You are a walking contradiction, Wessling. This is all just a giant map. You're going to like it in my scene. Colleen.

You guys dancing right now is like, I'm sorry that all the listeners cannot see this. I know. It's so good. I'm stopping. All right. Colleen, you might not even remember. Do you remember this song? No.

All right. Okay. But I don't remember a lot. It was the famous intro for NFL Network. Not famous at all. I mean, famous around the world. People tuned in just. to watch the Priyanka intro for a couple seasons on NFL Network Thursday Night Football

a few years back. So I was partial to that, Greg, you love that song. That was a Thursday Night Football song that disappeared after a couple of years. And now we have something bad. That will be the new theme. They're going to rework. Something bad? Yeah.

Really? So the truth. Oh, that's great. They're going to rework the lyrics. That will be the new theme song. By the way, listening to that song, in all honesty, something bad. I could hear it as like a TV show open. I could hear it.

Yeah, but it doesn't get you guys dancing. Well, and that, oh, ooh, maybe it does. This is brutal. Can't you picture it, though? I can picture it now. So it does kind of work like that. My concern, though, is that they'll lose the integrity of some of the greatest lyrics that have ever happened. Like the NBC Sunday Night Football song, like Al and Chris are the best on TV.

You know, whoever's writing those sort of lyrics. Well, the best was when they, the best was when they shoe. horn Michelle into it is like Alan Chris and Michelle are the best on TV I know it's all awkward all right so anyway new song coming up starting with week one Patriots Cardinals let's move up the Cleveland Cavaliers are the NBA champions they claim game 7 9389 over the warriors wiping out a 3-1 deficit historic win really sad that Cleveland's native son, Mark Sessler, is not here to share his feelings on this game or the series. But Cleveland ends a sports drought for their major pro teams that stretched all the way back to 1964.

Ending that curse. People said it was a curse. It wasn't a curse. It wasn't a jinks. But it was a long, long, dry spell. And by the way, I have a Sessler. I just want to share right now. Speaking of Marks, Suss.

This win by Cleveland, the karma around the city will lead to, now you got the title for the NBA team. The Indians, no one's paying attention, but they're in first place. They're going to go on a deep run because all this good buzz around the city, all the way to the ALCS and the Browns, yes, on paper, perhaps. a 2 and 14 team, they're going to squeak out seven wins and have some meaningful December football games. Bring it, Cleveland's back in the house, baby.

Seven wins. I wish you weren't a liar. Wow. If karma was only capable of giving a seven and nine season, I would not be very impressed. Right. Karma just gave them a pain. You know who I'm talking about? A painful playoff loss for the baseball team and an under 500 football team.

They're used to that. What, do you want me to send them to Super Bowl 51? I'm not going to do that. Changing the karma. That's quite a sessler. Jose Mesa comes in and I don't know. Joe Table. Seven wins would be miraculous for this Browns team.

Correct? Yes. Yeah. I think they have probably the least impressive roster in the NFL. So I'm just saying there's going to be a lot of buzz and that will be one of the biggest sports stories. The Browns are going to be like seven and eight and a surprisingly watered down AFC North fighting for a playoff spot.

And then, you know, they're not going to pull it off. but they'll be in the mix. Yeah, Joe Hayden said he's using it as motivation. I love that. And since we're on this topic, we'll now throw it to Wes, who, you know, he had some negative things to say about today's show

and then the boss put him on the spot. Why don't you set this up, Wes? What are we talking about next? Well, I think, in my mind, LeBron's performance in the finals cemented his status as the number two basketball player of all the time behind Michael Jordan. Wow.

This is coming from Wes. who's always been very critical of LeBron. No, I'm critical of people who would put LeBron in the same conversation with Jordan when he had no business in that conversation. But I think now he's number two. Jordan is so far alone at the top. The NFL does not have a Jordan.

A lot of people consider Jim Brown, but some other people consider Joe Montana or Tom Brady or Lawrence Taylor the best. But I think in the pantheon of the NBA, to me it goes Jordan, LeBron, Bill Russell, Kareem, and then kind of a bird magic tie at five. in the NFL. No love for Wilt.

Well, I think Wilts right in that next conversation. Well, where's your boy Tim Duncan? He's right there with Wilton, Oscar Robertson, right after that. And I'm not putting Kobe in the top eight, sorry. Okay. I put a chemelage one over Kobe. Did you put Kareem in there? I put Kareem fourth.

You could put him third if you want to. I don't know. But I think LeBron's number two. In my mind, and what he was able to pull off, I mean, this is the stuff of, like, classic literature. like Homer's Odyssey, every culture on earth has a hero's journey kind of myth. And LeBron starts out, goes to Cleveland. He's a native son.

He stars in his hometown, has adversity, kind of quits on the game against the Celtics. Everybody's down on him. He has the decision, which was a bad idea. No kind about it. He's got all these battles you have to fight before you slay the final dragon, and last night was the final dragon. He emerged victorious. That's the stuff.

And not just to come back, not that I like to bring it up, but like the 2004 ALCS with the Red Sox, they didn't just get the monkey off their back. They had to do it in a grand way, like coming back on the Yankees. That's what LeBron did. Not only did he come back to Cleveland and fulfill his prophecy or his promise, he wiped out a 73 win team, winning three straight games, including two on the road and the block, the legendary play. I agree. I got to put him in the top three. How about this? You've got in Cleveland, the drive.

John Elway's drive, the fumble, Ernest Biner's fumble, the decision, LeBron's decision, the shot, Michael Jordan's shot that knocked the cabs out of the playoffs, and now you've got the chase down block. Yeah, LaBlock. LaBlock? Is that what they're calling it? Some people call it. The Blanc.

You'll get some of my love of friends, the television. Oh, that's right, yeah. I've a lot to contribute to this whole conversation. I do like that you have Dr. Jay on there. I want to. You're not an NBA fan? I mean, not really. John's more of an NBA fan.

I mean, I would say... Sixes are pretty depressing franchise the last... So that hasn't helped. But this game, and it definitely... Yeah, Alan Iverson. It didn't hurt that, you know, I was rooting for Cleveland. I was jumping on, you know, bandwagon. I have no history there.

But this was one of the most enjoyable non-NFL. You know, I'm putting NFL to the side. But most enjoyable fun sporting events to watch that I can remember in the last 25 years. I'd be like this year's playoffs. I say to several moments like that. Right. A lot of blowouts too. But the game, but game seven, which it was a weird final five minutes,

but the game itself was fantastic. In the last five minutes are so tense that, you know, you're not worrying about some, you know, strange plays going on. I mean, that was one of the most exciting, just awesome things. It had everything. I've ever watched as a sports fan. What better Father's Day gift, too. Like, that was something that looked forward to all day.

And I, just by luck, my wife's best friend was visiting from Texas, and her husband was at the house yesterday. yesterday, an Ohio guy. So he was wildly plugged in. So then I was able to jump in through that. There were high fives. Oh, that's cool. High fiving about a Cleveland sports team.

It was just that exciting. I do love the finals, though. I mean, like, that's the finals. That's what actually pulled me into sports because I didn't grow up around sports. My dad doesn't know anything around about sports at all. Wait, figure skating is not a sport now? I mean, you know, I don't, do you watch it and root for figure skaters at a bar? That's a arrogant, bro.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I do love Aksana Bayul. But, yeah, it was the finals that drew me in. Oh, that's cool. I liked her before DUIs. But one nice thing to put a bow on it. I think the coolest thing about what LeBron did was he purposely set out to make a legacy play.

When he left Miami and went to Cleveland, he had a vision quest to come back and deliver a championship and a 50-something year sports drought. And he pulled it off. Like, he could have gone anywhere. And he's like, no, I want to put this on my shoulders to give my city or my neck of the woods as the native son. That'll be a good 30 for 30. Yes. One day. Hopefully better than believely.

They just burned it. They just burned too much. I know. They say that they're adding a new ending now. So they were ready for that. They ought to add a new beginning and middle too. Ouch, burn. All right.

Here is the top three NFL players of all time, by the way. Top three? Curious. Yeah. I'm curious. Yeah. So this is a pantheon of NFL. Yes.

Okay. But this cannot be disputed. I'm thinking about it right now. Number three. Tom Brady Number two Jerry Rice Number one

Jim Brown I it's hard to quibble I mean No cumberland Lawrence Taylor would be in my top five And I think No Joe Montana Number four Joe Montana

I think Lawrence Taylor has to be top five Yeah he's in I have I have similar But I'd go Jim Brown number one See, the order, I didn't really work out the order completely.

But I'm going to go, Tom Brady, 2, Lawrence Taylor 3, Johnny Unitas, 4. I have Johnny U. It just seems like he has to be in that group. I don't know. You know, we didn't see him play. We don't know, but he's in that sort of Mount Rushmore. And then it's a two-minute drill and took the NFL from an afterthought in the 50s to the number one sport in the 60. Plus, he can't only have one quarterback in the top five.

That's what I see. And Jerry Rice, fifth, I guess. But I'm not that excited about that. It's interesting if you ask Paul Brown, who coached Jim Brown and Marion Motley, he says Marion Motley is the greatest football player in NFL history. Wow. Belichick always talks up Motley as an underrated guy. A lot of people who saw him play talk him up as the guy.

What about like Walter Payton? Where does he end up? He's in the top ten. They're both in the top ten. He was on my slightly longer list when I was coming up with it, but not quite there. I think Peyton Manning should be in the top ten. I got to think about that list a little bit longer than just throwing it out there. I'll tell you what, J.J. Watt and Aaron Rogers are going north with a bullet, too.

That makes sense. Yeah. All right. Good talk. Let's move on. Oh, no. Another one? I thought we were out.

What happened this time? One of Mark's ten favorite people ever, this woman. Kobe Fleener is now a member of the New Orleans Saints, and Drew Brees is excited about the young tight end. Here's the quote from the Times Picayune. We watched a lot of film on him last year just because we played in the AFC South, Breeze said. It felt like every time we turned on the film

to watch an opponent that we were about to play, I'm watching Colts film or Fleener film. It was like, man, this guy has an uncanny ability to separate. He's always open. There's always a place to throw the ball where he can get it. I feel like this is a trope because we've heard this about Fleener since he came into the league that he's a dynamic pass catcher, but we haven't seen him put it together yet.

You don't want to get caught watching that Fleener film. All right, Wes. Describe why or explain why. Well, it doesn't surprise me that a guy who is fast for a tight end and pretty athletic but never catches the ball when anybody's within three feet of him is starring in off-season practices when no contact happens. Exactly. He's kind of averse to contact.

Pretty soft. Whoa. Yeah. The always open guy in the off-season, Chris Hogan, Nicknamed 7, 11 is famous for being graded off. This is the time of year, and this doesn't make Sterling Shepard any worse. I'm sure he's, you're right, I would think he's off to a great start. It's good, but this is the time of year that really favors guys who are quick,

quicker than fast that can make, come in and out of breaks quickly. Absolutely. And Drew Brees is hoping that he's always open because look at his receivers, Brandon Cooks and Michael Thomas. Yeah, I'm always reminded of a Rex Ryan quote about Chris Ivory this time of year. He's a power runner. nothing you can judge him on before the tackling starts. And my

take on it is I think Fleener will be a useful player there, but if he had five or four seasons with Andrew Luck, one of the best quarterbacks on the planet to become a star in that type of offense, I think it would have happened by now. I guess it could happen with Drew Breeze and other great talent, but I don't see it happening.

Breeze uses his tight end. Look, he got Ben Watson paid this year. And he'll probably go right to him. He could definitely be his number one guy. Good place to go to. Yes. It wouldn't surprise me if statistically he has his best season. All right. Over under game, real quick, Wes.

All right. Kobe Fleener, 65 catches. I'll go over. 900 yards. I'm going over again. Eight touchdowns. Under. So you're saying, you know,

borderline pro bowl. I'm saying the Saints offense manufactures numbers. I'm not saying Kobe Fleener will be a great player. Okay. I'm saying the numbers will be there because of that offense. He's got to hold on to the ball, too, a little bit better. That'd be a, it'd be happy. They'd be very happy if you were right about those numbers, Christopher.

That's what's happening in the news. Before we move in, I just want to touch on this because it came up before the show started. We did our segment last week, Unsolved Mysteries. Yeah. Of the NFL. And you told us, Colleen, that your hub, the Big Gonzo. There's a connection there. Actually was on Unsolved Mysteries or his family was.

Well, Robert Stack, who you guys were talking about, he talked about. a case that has to do with John's family. So John's family, John's grandfather actually disappeared in Las Vegas in the late 80s. And so they talked about it on the show. And like his mom and his grandmother were all over like local news and stuff. And basically he owned a bar out there and he would call his wife every night before he left the bar and then every night when he got home because she was living in Philadelphia at the time. and one night he called her before he left the bar

and then that was it and then they found his car and it's just been a cold case ever since for 30 years well that's a sad story so if anybody has any tips you can tweet me I don't know but yeah I mean it's a really outrageous story they still got him working in shifts on that case

all right if you if you know anything about this there's no update that we could throw up that would make it No update whatsoever. Email us at find Godzo's grandpa at gmail.com. Great. Thanks for helping in this. We're just doing our part. Yeah.

Not to make light of a missing person's game. No, it's just like, it's such a weird and crazy story. And when you guys started talking about Robert Stack, it's obviously like the first thing I thought of. Right. Mark confirmed on the last show he still did. Do you ever draw any parallels? because you've been doing a long-distance marriage, too. Do you call when you're about to leave NFL now for the day?

Call Philadelphia where John Gonzalez, your husband is, then call when you get home. You know, I think that this is a great suggestion. I should probably start doing that. A stack-in question by reasonable. Just got eerie. Yeah, so hopefully I will not have any more connections with the show. All right.

Find Gonzos grandpa at gmail.com. Oh, man, Vegas, too. Vegas. Why are you putting your hand over your face? I don't know. It just got a little, it's a little, something a little bit not right about it. Yeah. Well, John will be the judge.

I know. John's going to be thrilled about this, I'm sure. All right. Moving on. Moving on. It is time, again, this segment, this next segment. This will not be unsolved because we're going to give, well, I guess it is kind of unsolved mysteries. Yeah.

This will be a game where we go around the horn. Each of us will lay out a plausible scenario that could face a team this upcoming season, and then we discuss how that team would go about, you know, dealing with the situation that has arisen. The name, is that a word, arisen? Yeah, yes, it's a word. Nailed it. The name of this segment is, uh-oh, now what? What do you guys think of that one?

It's perfect. car maybe you can try it all right we'll try I need that no it's perfect I need that in my life that should stick uh oh now what that's perfect think up the chisels Irish are the great job with the I asked Irish and I need something like kind of like clowny and that's what he came over

oh that's as clowny as he's got a good shot of getting on Rushmore that's Chedevian all right listen that's that's a type of joke by West that usually we'd miss and then all his followers back oh wes they don't pay attention to you good bit west i like yeah you're like one for 400 now in your career for for recognizing my bits jadevi and connie former first round pick of the houston texans all right colin okay so get us going this might be i know you said it's got to be a plausible scenario this might be a little bit of a reach okay but i didn't want to go with um a quarterback situation so after carolina's front

seven can only mask so much. The Panther secondary gets picked apart. Kirk Coleman, he tries to fill that leadership role lost by Roman Harper and Charles Tillman when they left, but the young guys, they're pressing too much, there's too much pressure, and they end up getting shredded. So you're left with Dave Gettelman and Ron Rivera, sitting in a dark, hot room together. Now what? Uh-oh.

Now what? All right, Cliff's notes. All right, so it like, it really worries me. me. I know that Dave Gettleman drafted three straight corners. He drafted the one guy, James Bradbury, who is sort of like Josh Norman, same stature, big guy. But you have Kurt Coleman is the only returning veteran there. And you have Ben A, Benwickery, who's, I mean, he went from nickel. He's now playing full time. But you have a lot of young. Day, Benwickery. Oh, okay. Thank you. I stand corrected. But he has a lot of young guys here. And, yeah, the front seven is really

awesome but it worries me i wasn't correct you i was making a bidet joke bidet no i'm just going to go bidet ben wickery from now on so now what is you place a phone call to charles tilman who just came out over the weekend and says i only want to play for the panthers he's not ready to return from his torn ACL yet but by the you know early in the season i guess is when this meeting's happened after the secondary gets shredded bring old chuck tilman back in now what is i like chuck tilman I like Chas Tillman being involved. Now what is you find a time machine and get over your own ego and keep Josh Norman in town for one more year

because you never know how open your Super Bowl window is. That's not realistic. Okay, that's fair. It's not plausible. All right. Well, that's what you say. Well, I think the other thing that you do is you're like, all right, we still play in the NFC South

and we're still 10 times better than any other team. So we're just going to sit on this and see how it plays out. Yeah, now what I think is you don't do anything. You don't do it. That you expect the system to eventually correct itself they get better by the end of the year you count on cam newton the MVP and kelvin benjamin and funches to just score more points and now what might just be you win nine or ten games or eleven games you're not as good as you were a year ago but i don't know if there's going to be some

magic solution in the middle of this season for this if this happens fair all right west you're up so early december kirk cousins is exposed as greg rosenthal wrote during the 2015 season as a guy who basically have one good half season played poorly in the first half of last year had one good half season against miserable defenses soft soft defenses he's exposed in early december as a mediocre quarterback who's not going to be getting a long-term contract deshawn jackson and pierre garsohn contracts expire after the 2016 season you're planning for the future in washington now what now what These pretzels were making me thirsty

That was the dramatic rendering Let's hear it one more time Now What How long did you spend Recording these Yeah That was my morning

You still need to finish You know your classes At the Istuk School of Voiceover Pretty good Now what I believe is you offer for Kirk Cousins, a two-year $26 million contract, that sub-premier quarterback money. You fits him.

Yeah, you fits him. You see if he takes it, and Kirk Cousins is the type of guy, I think that might just take it because that situation with the talent that's there, you stick around. Is the talent still going to be there? If Deshaun Jackson and Pierre Gorsone leave?

Well, maybe they keep one or the other, but you still have Dotson. You have Dotson. You have Jordan Reed. Those are guys that are going to be around. Either way, you're offering him that contract. If he doesn't want to take it, that's fine. He can go out in the open market because you're drafting some quarterbacks either way.

Because that contract should not prevent you from drafting another one. What's the hardest fine commodity in the NFL? A quarterback, right? And this guy, you're saying he's still going to have an okay. It's going to be an okay season, but it's going to show that he wasn't really as good as he was. We're talking about a guy who before the middle of last season had the highest interception rate, I believe in NFL history. So does he becomes that guy?

He turns back into a bucking at midnight. Wow. Okay. If he's actually bad, I think Greg has the right play on this. If he's actually bad, they don't know him anything. Right. You're now what. That's what happens.

They do a trade for a veteran quarterback to have there for a young guy too, just to have the year so they're not in the Jared Golf Rams situation. I mean, you forgive. At this time last year, even August of last year, when he outplays RG3 in the first. first preseason game and people are talking about him being the better quarterback. Conventional wisdom around the league is Kirk Cousins is one of the worst quarterbacks

in the league. That he's not a viable starter. Year can change a lot. Maybe Scott McLuhan, the Redskins GM, Go calls up his old buddy, Colin Kaepernick. That's what I was just thinking. There you go. That would be, by the way... I don't know if that would work with Jay Gruden or what, but... That would be brilliant work by the front office.

It would be a bummer that if he came down to Earth, but that they were able to dodge that long-term deal. If he would recall, Mike Brown wanted to draft Colin Kaepernick, and Jay Gruden basically convinced him to draft Andy Dalton instead. Maybe you send the Godfather offered a Cincinnati for Andy Dalton. That would be so weird. Godfather offered for Dalton in the world. Meanwhile, on the throne of sleaze.

Oh, no. Shocking. I had to know we were going here. Which one is this? Macbomb one? No, it's not the worst situation. Got it. Sleezy, yes.

Stormy. Yeah, this is the throne of sleaze. I don't know if you've heard, but Tom Brady is suspended the first four games of the 2016 season. I do believe, in my capacity, is someone that follows the NFL very closely, that this suspension will stand. And Jimmy Garoppolo, their former second rep pick, was he? Yes. Yep, in the 2014 draft. We'll make four starts.

and here it comes. So what if Jimmy Gropolo plays lights out for four weeks. Pats go 4-0. He pulls like a LeBron in the finals where he leads all quarterbacks in every relevant statistic. All right. This is a plausible scenario? Why not?

It's not plausible at all. He won't do that. But they go 4-0. He plays lights out. He's leading the league in pass a rating. He's not throwing picks. He's playing exactly best. scenario how they hoped he would play that this time spent seasoning under brady would lead to him

stepping to the lineup and almost playing like brady when he took over her blood so but much better statistically in a new era and then tom brady comes back and like my other part two of my prediction about the patriots he's still very good but we start to see some signs of decline real signs of decline where his interception rates up his yards per attempt is down his completion percentage is down He still performs at a high level, but he starts to show his age at age 39, which isn't completely plausible. Then you go to the offseason, 2016, 17 off season. Brady's under contract through 2018, I believe. What do the Patriots do?

They have a young quarterback who is ready to be a star and a Hall of Fame veteran who is showing some signs to decline as age 40 approaches. They pick up the phone and call. Wait, let me finish. Now what? Now what? Now, now what? What now? Oh my God.

They pick up the phone. Yeah. That was beautiful, by the way. I didn't think that was. That was the, that was like the Euro dance version or something? That was the Euro. That was like Eddie Murphy, Beverly Hook. Cop.

Yeah. Harold Pultemeyer version. It was a dance club in Germany in 2156. Listen. Now what? What now? Now what? What now?

You're wearing neon. I'm seeing that in it. Yeah. They call Scott McLuhan. Oh. This is getting meta. Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine.

To trade who? Brady. Whoa. Here's what you do. You do what every coach in the NFL always does. You delay the decision until you have to make one. And Tom Brady's under contract. Garoppolo is under contract for another two years after that.

So Brady remains the starter and you have the best possible insurance out there. But you'll never have Garapolo at a higher value. for a trade because if you if you wait it out i see what you're saying and let's say brady does kind of crash at age 40 then gropolo steps in your guy you're an annual super bull contender you don't go out making trades just to compile draft picks you keep your best roster possible yeah but you got to this is a golden opportunity to build for the future because the tom brady days don't last forever well in this scenario i think there's one thing you can't do and that's trade jimmy garapola keeping jimmy garoppolo is the thing you absolutely must do

because you've identified a franchise quarterback for the next X amount of years, and that's the most valuable thing out there. So if you do anything, you very under the radar, only with teams that don't let it out into the media. Maybe you listen to see what the Godfather offers are for Tom Brady. Most likely there weren't even be good enough. You don't even listen because he's earned more respect than that. Maybe that's true.

You can't trick me into saying you're going to trade. Brady, I won't do it. I already got you. I already got you. Greg getting caught in his own headset. You didn't get him. It was yanked off your headset. You got to a woman.

You're trading Tom Brady for a bag of footballs. I got you, baby. A bag of deflated football. Underinflated football. Please. I think you're right, though. The flake ain't reference. Scott McLuhan and the Redskins might be a good team to call.

Think how much Dan Snyder would give up for. Subject changer? If they give up five, six first round picks, hey, it's a cold world. What if the Jets, what if Big Mac picked up the phone? Can't train them. That would never offer it. It offered three number one picks for Tom Brady. Oh, that's not enough.

Not from the Jets. You can't trade them to somebody in the division. Because you wouldn't want Tom to go there and potentially. You can't do that. You can't do that. Okay. Why not? If Tom Brady really wanted to get out and you got some great offer,

three or four first round picks or something, you know. That's what I just said. But not to the jet. I can't imagine he would want to get out. That's getting out of the division. Well, I don't think Tom Brady would be thrilled to be in this conversation. He would want to make it clear. I mean, this guy that we just put on, you know, the top five players of all time was traded away.

Not only that, he was benched in the middle of his prime at one point. I mean, there's very. Joe Montana. Oh, yeah, benched. That's what I'm saying. Just as a sports fan, these things, there's very few. you know, Derek Jeter's. These things don't always end smoothly at the end of a career.

It can get sloppy. It could get sloppy. By the way. By the way, that's reason number one why Tom Brady's better than Joe Montana. You know, hear about him getting benched for some backup. I do like. Until next season. So hypotheticals.

Montana was like 34 years old when it happened. I do like, by the way, that Dan's scenario to make a messy end to Tom Brady's career involves the Patriots finding another great franchise quarterback. That's the best you can do. They're going four and oh. This sounds great. Not to mention him trading Brady the Jets and then Brady sucks with the Jets. Totally blows up in my team's face.

Finally, Greg. Well, you know what? I had a Falcons-related one, but that doesn't seem so excited. So I'm going to take the one. I'm going to take the one that. Don't shoehorn the Falcons into our pod just because you feel bad for. No, I had a scenario, but this one's more exciting. It's more, more.

I thought this one was really good. Well, this was the suggestion from the man, old, bird dog who's bird dog you know Chris right what's that his name bone dog

oh bone dog Chris Bonner right yeah Chris Bonner this was his this was his idea but it makes all the sense

in the world Sam Bradford leads the Eagles to the playoffs with a playoff victory you got Carson one sitting back

there on the bench what now oh man oh man now what That's my favorite. The clown one is perfection. That's really good.

All right, let's do a turn and let's pick the best one. First clown. Uh-oh. Now what? All right. Then the other finalist, the Panic Man. Oh, man. Now what?

I'm definitely voting for the second one. I don't even think it's close. Panic Man. I love the clown one. Panic Man. If we could get the horn, the clown horn on the Panic Man, that would be really great. It can be done.

It can be done. Yes. All right. So Howie Roseman picks up the phone. He's feeling good about himself because maybe Carson Wentz does show some like really good things in relief of this like amazing Sam Bradford performance. So maybe people are like, oh, now they're interested in Carson Wentz. So maybe Howie Roseman now calls his old friend. Chip Kelly

maybe there's a scenario there or Trent Balke I guess it would be Well who does he trade Carson Wentz He trades Carson Wentz Oh no wow You'd have to get a lot of picks Yeah you trade Sam Bradford

This is a good I mean is this a how good is Bradford What are we talking here? We said he made the playoffs He won a playoff game He was a top 10 quarterback Like at the back end Like a good Eli Manning type of season

At the very like Matt Ryan last year's? Yeah, a little bit. He trade San Bradford as soon as human possible. And you keep in mind that he can't stay healthy, that he's been average for his entire career, and you factor all that data in with the one playoff victory he just came off of, which was basically Carson Palmer over the Packers. What if you see nothing from Carson Wentz, though, during that time?

Right. And this is an NFL where it's always win now, and you got a guy in Bradford who's 30, you just start, you know, right in the middle of what. what would be his prime stuff to give up on. But I tend to agree that you see what's out there for Bradford. You can probably get a lot more picks, get some of those picks back that you gave up for whence. History is instructive.

The Chargers did this with Philip Rivers and Drew Breeze, and they let Drew Breeze walk. Well, but he had a separated shoulder. Well, Sam Bradford's going to have a separated something in a few minutes. Separated something. I don't know if it was separated. You know, he, that would have been interesting to see what they do. Actually, Breeze is probably going anyways,

but that's another podcast. Wow, that was fun, guys. I liked it. You covered your paper with a ton of doodles. Lived up to your pre-show. A lot of check marks. Well, I think that was during the Patriots discussion. He was just like maniacally making check marks on his paper.

Before Tom Brady retires, he will drive me mad officially. It's getting close. By the way, you had an unfair advantage with your pre-show grade. You knew all the now what theme songs that you had. pre-recording that's what that's what juiced it up i knew i knew i had that in the back of my back pocket but it also was just a feeling that once west challenged the group that the group would like take it up a level and i knew west by having look at west's card here he was going to go all in with his NBA segment and put a lot of effort into it to stick it to us so i took all

these different factors and i added them up and it tasted like an a yeah do you still feel that way i don't decide okay i feel like people were robbed they didn't even hear your whole list it's not even our show anymore we give it to the audience is their show okay you had Oscar Robertson 8th Jerry West is in there at 11 Shaq I'm just saying you did this work want to get it out there well I didn't think that reading off a list was going to make for great podcast I blew my wife and uh wow phrasing good show everyone I'll just leave it there yeah I'm going to say what it is uh I'm letting me to finish the point oh can we go back to giving them

BPs for the show that was TDs. I'll think Colleen wins it. That was great. I'm not even going to finish the point. Where was that going? You'll never know. Colleen's deeply perverted mind. Sent the whole thing down.

And I'm proud. Down. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. Here we go. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Coddy Fox. I need the panic man now. The mailman, the boss, an Irish behind the glass. Follow him on Twitter till Wednesday. This is an I-haired.

This is an I-Heart podcast.