NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Nothing Seems Certain...but we're still certain about THIS

Episode Date: December 19, 2018

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal break down all the news heading into week 16 including Nick Foles being named Philly's starter again this week (06:41), Cam Newton's status this season (10:30) and Frank Gore's foot injury this season (14:38). Don't miss Pro Bowl snubs (20:48), Nothing seems certain anymore, (26:27) and iTunes reviews (43:46).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Visit nautica.com to find a store near you. That's Nautica.com code football. The Around the NFL podcast is day to day. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm joined in a room filled with Heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wesleying, and Greg Rosethal. What is up, boys? Hey, Dan. Woo-wee.

Can't even do the open intro. That's the morning after the holiday party, of course. how's everybody feeling rough i feel better than i ever have after any work function ever because i was home roughly three hours earlier than any other work function ever i feel great you know we had a fun time but we had a babysitter i had so did mark and so i was home by 1115 it was nothing too too wild i think uh it was good like the NFL really what they were trying to do uh yes it cost them money but the NFL's got plenty of money but what involving the spouses does is keep certain individuals on a leash.

I think they got Mark nice and behaved at the holiday party. On some level, there's probably hundreds of other people just like you last night. I really enjoyed actually having the plus one. I didn't know how that would go in general. I thought the plus ones... She has a name, doesn't she? Well, I'm saying, Simone, yes, but I'm saying the plus ones in general had a aspect of humility to them where there were a lot of people at that party

that got on my radio that were just sort of showcasing themselves and having a fascinating time with themselves. I don't know. It was a nice, it was a nice event. But I found myself hanging out just sort of in the corner for large chunks of time. Yeah, the early, Mark had a terrible time. I did not. I thought maybe it warmed up after Reggie Bush from the Twitter show, you know, came through with his promise and bought some shots. I thought that might have warmed you up because, yes, early on, it was on your radar that there was a few too many people too impressed with themselves

was the way you which I couldn't totally disagree I felt awkward you said that multiple times too like you really did I said you went around yeah like multiple times he was trying to poison the party from within

no I was not it was just I couldn't help myself with that observation and I was quite fine to leave when I left I thought the Reggie Bush moment he did fulfill he could have avoided us entirely but he walked right over bought us shots and it was It was a nice moment captured on a film on my phone.

And if you, good, we'll have to check that out. Maybe put it up on the old social media. Twitter show. Twitter show, maybe. Speaking of the Twitter show, we had on this most recent show with Connie, do's and don'ts of the holiday party. Let me just quickly go through what I broke and what I followed. Do pregame before the party.

We did do that. There you go. Eric was drinking last night, too. Don't forget to drink water. I did not do that. a bad job by me. Save friends from awkward conversations. I did have to rescue Colleen at one point. The earlobe tug. Good for you. I did. I left the perimeter. I broke perimeter and was wandering around and that's what I knew I had to get in the car and home. So I Irish

goodbyeed out of there as I want to do Wes. That's your move. You're going to use it. Yeah. How about you, Wes? You sound like you had an enjoyable evening. Mine did not end as early as yours. And it ended up, I believe, at some diner. Oh, boy. All right. Although you can't, you know, the paramour was in for a 6 a.m. shift, that takes some guts here. She is a rock. Coming up on today's show.

Temposi wants to say what she did, by the way. Erica, you got any thoughts? I mean, no. Just don't talk. Just leave me alone. Told a good joke. The last few weeks of the NFL landscape, there's been some changing, some shifting beneath our feet. the tectonic plates of professional football.

And all of a sudden, not a lot seems so certain. But we're still certain about certain things. Certain, certain, certain. And we're going to get into that a little bit later. We're going to catch up on some iTunes reviews. We haven't done that in a while. But before we do that, let's dig into the news. Well, understand this.

Stats are like bikinis. They show some things, but not all things. Yes, he's completing a hopper. We get to the Monday night in a second. Can you just play just the clip? Listen for Jason Witten's subtle, like, kind of Beavis from Beavis and Butthead, Snicker, and then his commentary on Booger's comment. Well, I understand this.

Stats are like bikinis. They show some things, but not all things. Yes, he's completing coppers. Yeah. That's my favorite part. I mean, if they could be more like Beavis and Butthead, I would enjoy the telecast, one of the great television achievements. of the 1990s.

Some of the pearl clutching that, why would Booger ever make a bikini commentary? It was like, everybody calmed down. Pearl clutching. But I did find Jason Witten's response. Well, it's not so much the pearl clutching is just as a stupid phrase that it's not a clever or good phrase.

It doesn't really tell you anything. That's not what they specialize in on that broadcast. So. So we'll get back to them in a moment. But let's start with the defending Super Bowl champions who, of course, had a, breath of fresh air. I mean, I mean, everything shows some things, but not all things.

You know what I mean? Like practically everything. I mean, let's. Shirts. Let's not be obtuse here. He's, he's getting into the specifics that any of the female form. I get it. I just, I think it's.

Did we need to continue on with this topic? Anyway, the, the, the Eagles got a shot of life into their season. You thought it was over when the Cowboys beat him in overtime two weeks ago. But then they shocked the Rams in L.A. and coupled with a Cowboys shutout loss to the Colts, there's a race. There's a wild card race for the Eagles and a division race. I'll be at a slim hopes, but they can do it.

The Eagles can get back in the playoffs, and it will be Nick Foles attempting to keep their season alive on Sunday against the Texans. Foles will make his second start in his many weeks, and I believe it is his fourth start overall. Do you start the first two weeks? That's like a long time ago. Yes.

But anyway, Carson Wentz, who's dealing with a back injury, he's not going to injured reserve, according to Doug Peterson, but Foles is the guy. And what do you think, Wes? I know this is kind of deja vu. You're doubting Nick Foles again, but we have been down this road. I want this bad football team to lose to the Texans and go away,

so we stop hearing about their playoff chances and how Nick Fools, everybody's memory only lasts to his most recent good game. Well, this is his time of year, though. I mean, it's a magical time of year. It's a magical time when all the boys and girls in the land believe in St. Nick enough. He comes, and he's coming early this year. I mean, I'm believing.

I'm saying, like, open your heart and believe. Because if you believe in Nick Foles, maybe he'll deliver a win. It's not a hard to ask what they're trying to do here. I don't think the Texans on the road are an unbeatable team. I think the Texans are a better team than the Eagles. But if Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham play as well as they did a week ago, if Nick Foles plays as well as he did a week ago,

I think at worst, that's a coin flip game. And I think then you're going up against Josh Johnson in week 17. If you win those two games, you're probably getting in because I am not trusting the Vikings to win too straight here. I get where you're coming from West, but I just sit on a different island than you on this one because I think there's some nice symmetry to opening the season with Nick Foles, closing it with them, and it is reminiscent of what he did last year.

It was this time last year that we were flaming him. They played that Raiders game right around Christmas and looked about as bad as a football team could look. And what happened next was one of the more unpredictable, to me, intriguing runs in all of football fandom. And so I know you don't like hit the player, but we also have to remember the good things he did. I understand there's this.

And we've said this so many times. Nick Fools has some of the worst games we've ever seen. and some of the best games we've ever seen. But nobody ever talks about the worst games. Right. He's only ever. Who knows? Maybe it somehow helped him that, okay, he started off the season poorly.

The Eagles offense wasn't great the whole season. Now he's coming in almost with nothing. House money, baby. Yeah, nothing to lose again. And he is a unique player in NFL history because it's not just that his good games are good. I think you can make a pretty good case that he had the greatest performance in Super Bowl history by any quarterback. So that's something special. And that wasn't five years ago.

That was February. Right. And I don't think it was totally fluky. I just think it's unpredictable. And it matters to him because he's a free agent. He could, in theory, some team, whether will he meltdown as a starter? Yes. But he could, in some front office his eyes, hop scotch someone like Joe Flacco and get a job somewhere.

I wonder if there's any chance, even if he plays well, he would choose to stay in Philly. Because it's a player option on his contract. I don't know. He just seems like he's kind of happy. Something about like if this. goes okay and the player options for a decent amount of money, he might just like kick the can another year, stay one more year and then just enter free agency.

Let's move on and talk about another quarterback situation, an injury situation. Cam Newton's 2018 season is over. NFL Network insider Ian Rapp report reported today Wednesday that the Panthers are expected to sit Newton now that they are essentially out of the playoff race. There is some type of insane. Greg, maybe you can break it down with this with your mind calculator.

how they get to the playoffs. But apparently it's so slim and Cam Newton's shoulders so banged up, the Panthers are punting on the balance of the season. Yeah, it's beyond slim. It's so out of their hands. And very possibly they're eliminated before they even, you know, suit up on Sunday.

According to the New York Times, they have run 92,608 simulations, and the Panthers have made the playoffs in 2% of those. In 2% total? So they have not as bad as I thought. went out and 1700 things probably ties involved all sorts of a lot of a lot of nonsense they didn't drill down into how that would happen uh and mark keep in mind now newton's season ends born 1989 came into the league in 2011 his age 30 season will likely begin with new newton coming off two shoulder surgeries so that will be something well back throughout the off season and maybe a new coach well we don't know we don't know he's going to have surgery that is something to watch we'll see right i mean that is one of the big off-season stories, does he get shoulder surgery? Because then he could be looking at an Andrew Luck in 2017 type situation.

I mean, he's the one that's going to put it out there that surgery is a possibility. Absolutely. Yeah. I bet the team and Cam would love to avoid it if at all possible, but maybe it's not possible. This is a bit of a repeat from the 2016 season when down the stretch he had one of the least accurate six game spans that we've seen this century under 50% passing because his shoulder was injured, and he's throwing the ball even softer now than he was then. Don't give them much, wouldn't have given them much of a chance to win in New Orleans in

week 17, but now they're going to have Taylor Heineke starting. And so that could be an important game for the Saints. If the Saints can't win this week, they might need that win in Week 17 to get the one seed. And if you saw Monday night football, it was tough to watch Cam Newton. So that makes a lot of sense that they are ending what turned into a loss season for the Panthers, who have lost six in a row. Moving on, the Atlanta Falcons,

big change is coming. NFL networks Tom Pellarcero reported Tuesday and up to the minute live that Dan Quinn, his job is safe. Arthur Blank believes in Dan Quinn doesn't think he's the problem, but there is a strong possibility

that both offensive coordinator, Steve Sarkisian, and defensive coordinator, Mark Juan Manuel, will be out. And this is, I guess, Wes, if this is how it plays out, the product of a team that almost got to the Super Bowl, got back to the playoffs, got picked off,

had a bad season, and now they're scrambling a little bit to figure out how to get the magic back, and it starts with the staff changes possibly. Yeah, I'm fine with keeping Dan Quinn. I mean, he was good enough to get to the Falcons to the Super Bowl. He didn't just become a bad coach just because he had his two best players on defense got injured, his starting guards on offense got injured, his starting running back get injured.

I don't need to see heads roll because of that. It reminds, they've had a few different, you know, remakes in Atlanta in the Thomas Dimitroff era and this feels like another one. It sounds like Tom Pellisero mentioned Darrell Bevel as a very likely offensive coordinator candidate.

They work together in Seattle. Well, and these guys just recycle and go around and around and around and get rehired by their friends essentially. I think it's good though. I think the Falcons are a good example of not blowing it up. A lot of people wanted them to get rid of the front office structure and everything four years ago after

a couple bad seasons. They didn't do that. and they got back to a Super Bowl and a divisional round. I think it's good not to blow. I also think that because of this season, it's easy to forget that the Falcons were correctly being praised as one of the teams that quickly and successfully developed players, especially on defense before this whole year. And, like, you don't want to,

Dan Quinn, we got hired in two seconds that they let him go. Moving on. Greg, have we seen the last of Frank Gore? Probably not, but let's track how this plays out. The ageless veteran running back got carted from the field on Sunday, and the Dolphins lost to the Vikings with a sprained foot. X-rays negative, but the injury is serious enough to end his season. And it was a good season at that, Greg.

722 rushing yards. He kind of improbably became the guy maybe even more over Kenyon Drake in that backfield. And he averaged four and a half yards of carry. But he will be 36 come next September. You expect to see him with a team next year? Yeah, I mean, he had his highest yards per carry since 2,000. 2012, his highest yards per reception, although he wasn't as active in the passing game

of his entire career. And if he does go out, it's sad that it might be on an injury, but I kind of like, as just a guy who I love watching him play, it's cool that he had this memorable, great season in his hometown. My guess, not knowing anything about it,

is I feel like it's dolphins or bust for him. I don't know if he'll have a lot of interest around the league, and I think the dolphins are the most, likely team to just want to bring them back. And he played for minimum salary this year to play at home. So I hope he comes back. But if not,

at least he's going out kind of cementing a Hall of Fame Canada to see that two years ago, I don't think anyone really saw him that way. And now it's like everyone seems to see him that way. I thought he ran harder this year with the Dolphins than during any time really with the cults. And he's the perfect employee. He hadn't missed a day

of work since 2010. And he's racked up almost 15,000 career rushing yards. He's now 4,000. on the all-time list, and he might need surgery. That's the other thing to track off that is. So it doesn't sound like a pleasant injury. We'll see if Frank Gore is around in 2019. And finally, yes, Monday Night Football,

the team of Jason Witten, Bougar McFarland, Joe Tessitore, has been widely criticized by all corners, whether it's sports media, the people that track the industry, fans, Chris Wessling, you name it. everyone is down on the Monday night football team but don't expect them to go anywhere in 2019

in a report by the athletic published on Monday it was said that they they remain committed ESPN to the three man booth not just for the rest of 2018 but into the future for decades into the future and and Greg this was kind of I think I brought this up in the newsroom a couple days ago it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out because it's been they've been so widely, let's face it, reviled as a team, but to bail after one year would probably be admitting a major, major mistake and that would be viewed internally as a fiasco. So I'm not surprised they're going to give it a one more try, but it could be too and done. Yeah. And even reading this article by Lindsay Jones, who did a good job, it was kind of like one of those votes of confidence

that I want to see what happens in the offseason. Because the guy who said that, you know, they're going to be likely back, literally said, well, you know, there are people above me that could, that could make decision. That's, we see how these things go. It's sometimes it's people at the very top who aren't too involved in the day-to-day operation. And if I'm Jason Witten reading that article, it's like, I'm not loving what some of those, the way that they're talking about the telecast and Witten especially is like kind of talking about a rookie quarterback who's had a rough year. And yeah, that's just being real, but it's also kind of tough to hear them have regrets by saying, well, we really wish we'd put Witten on TV more.

That's the one thing we wish we did throughout the off season. We have all these shows and we didn't put him on and he would have been more comfortable that way. And that's probably true, but it's like, eesh, I don't know. I didn't say that about Tony Romo, you know. I think it's tough to do what they do and much tougher than viewers realize and it's much easier to tweet about them and destroy them than it is to go in there with a group of people and have chemistry.

But you can't, you also cannot manufacture chemistry. and you cannot take adult men and make them be interesting if they are not interesting. That is a quality that you've nurtured over a lifetime. And that's what's... How do you do it? I mean, you're just... You were born interesting and we're following you. You're like our pied piper.

No, I find them, like, I want to listen and learn and have them dip into humorous moments and bring something more than they did this year. What's going to happen in the off season that's going to change that? That's what I'd want to know. I found it interesting that there was a criticism of Jason Witten in that article. No criticism of the executives who hired him or the producers who every week really strained so hard for this ESPN, black versus white, liberal versus conservative, contrived arguments in the booth. And I learned a long time ago that ESPN is not targeting me as their audience, so I just won't watch them anymore. I have gone mute, which is I feel like totally fine.

Like, people, I think people say they put on mute, but they rarely do. I don't think I have almost in my entire life. But the last couple weeks, I put them on mute, it makes you focus a little more on the game. I don't know. I never quite understood the, the kind of outcry that gets to the level where people, like, I need to mute this. It doesn't bother me that much. It's like, in fact, it's become part of the telecast for me to see, like, how bad they might be or when there's another, like, Jason Witt. and misspeaks or something happens

like it's kind of become a little fun for me I don't have a huge problem Tessator does get on my radar with his his zeal yeah there's just no you know it needs to be a variation in how we describe certain events not everything is the biggest thing that ever happened to

the you know to earth and to earthlings yeah that's well put and Will Lutz does it again the Lutzinator wow 37 yards rip open his chest crack is ribs and look at that heart it's incredible the extra point is good finally the pro bowl uh rosters were announced on wednesday and uh and the usual suspects like a tom brady uh made it

patrick mahomes uh saquan barclay got his first pro ball not philip lindsay is going to the pro bowl uh there were some notable snubs west which you'll undoubtedly get on your radar oh yeah i've got four right off the top of let's hear him well nick shook did it a good job with the snub list. You can read his at NFL.com slash shook. I have four different ones that were not on his list. By the way, before you come on. I think it's I'd be shook is what is.

This is Wes after a long night out. And Wes is about business and knocking out a tight 54 and getting the f*** out of here. I just like your tone right now. You're a businessman right now. Darius Leonard was the biggest snub on the list. And Greg made this rule a few years ago. if you're going to complain about snubs,

you have to say who you're going to take off the list. Bernardric McKinney of the Texans. Bye, bye. Not be on this list over Darius Lenders. Andrew Luck over Tom Brady. Yeah, that's a bad one. Jared Cook should be in over Eric Ebron, and I'm not even going to argue with anybody about that.

Jared Cook has had a much better year than Eric Ebron, even with Eric Ebron's touchdowns. And Kareem Jackson from the Texans should be in over Jalen Ramsey. Those were some good surprises. The Brady one seemed obvious, but yeah, I like those other ones. good thing is at least 20 to 30 of these players will opt out of this game. So you're probably going to see all the players you just named in some form unless they also opt out once they're named as alternate. I do wish we could come up with a different way to categorize that. I think

you should only get credit for the Pro Bowl if you're on this initial list. Like in terms I did a little research. And I also wish you could not divide it by conference because you get situations like Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Camerer didn't make the Pro Bowl. And yeah, And I was like, oh, wow, that's too bad. What snubs? But no, they weren't snubs because they're behind Gurley, Sequin Barclay and Ezekiel Elliott. I'm not really, I don't think they're way behind them, but I'm not going to argue like crazy for those guys. But then you look at the AFC and as great as, you know, Philip Lindsay is, you know, I would certainly take those two guys over him and even James Connor or Melvin Gordon.

So I put them all in over any of the Aves. Well, your boy, Leighton Vandereche did not make it. Is that, is that keeping you up at night? No, he shouldn't have. He only played half the season. Most snubs issues are like people that would want the Pro Bowl roster to balloon to 7 to 800 people. And there's sometimes a rookie tax and he'll probably make it next year. Darwin James got the free safety nod, which I think says a lot as a rookie.

My boy, Jamal Adams made the Pro Bowl. And people that, one biggest snub obviously is even though I love it because it's a jet. Jason Myers made the team over Justin Tucker. Come on now. Let's calm down. How does that even happen? On the field because part of it is narrative and Justin Tucker missed a huge extra that essentially ruined his season in the eyes of people.

But otherwise it's been just as great as ever, but that's life. The all pro team, just for this you don't know out there, does not break it up by conference and is voted on by writers and reporters. The Pro Bowl team is selected by, it's one third each, three groups. There's fans, which only came into existence 10 or 20 years ago, players and coaches. And when it's time to vote for the Hall of Fame, the voters consider all pros much more than Probles. Right. And that's the very top of the league, too, because only, you know, one tight end makes it as a first team or only, you know, to make it at all in terms of second team. It's harder. It's exclusive. I think your boy, Jamal Adams, is going to be first team all pro.

I think, ooh. I think Wes should, Wes is all pro team, which he's now been doing on NFL.com for five years. That should be taken into consideration by. the Hall of Fame voters. I'm serious. Why not? Better than the Pro Bowls. For real. It's like that's a good document.

What are you going to do? That's, by the way, no arguments from us. In four years on the job, that's Mike McCagnan's first all pro. So at this rate, he'll have a whole field of all pro players in about 100 years.

That works. Poor guy. The long snapper, by the way. I know people are up at night. It will be to be named by the coach at a future date. Okay, good. So in case your pro bowl pools, we're hanging on that.

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football and then you gone and i respect it you got the eye of the tiger it's like a angry tiger like not an angry tire but a little bit like a tiger that's over a little bit and I just want to kill my prey and go take a nap in a cave somewhere that's that's good analysis or a jungle where do the tiger sleep and you're wearing like a Steve Jobs like kind of a roll-up sweater and it's kind of like jobs like a few days before the big product launch and he's not taking any no he's sleeping in the office put it that what product are you and he's not too happy about how some departments are performing he's like if this if this show is going to go the way I need to this show when we roll out our next product I need you guys to raise your game to where I'm at. Right, exactly. He wants other people to be at his level. Yeah, and in this narrative, Steve Jobs was out drinking until 3 in the morning also.

I don't think it was quite three. Not quite. Was it? Pretty close. You guys were still I don't think she was there at the end. She was busy too, but that's a different conversation. Wes, on the Tuesday Twitter show, I thought it was well put as so often is with you, Wes.

You were breaking down our Monday night football game between the Saints and Panthers and a game that didn't go, how a lot of us expected it to go. And that has kind of been emblematic of what's been happening in the NFL since about Thanksgiving. So to set up our segment here, can you kind of go through that again? Yeah, I think that Thanksgiving to Christmas gauntlet we just went through. or are currently going through. It really, even the playing field for January, it got rid of the teams.

As Greg said, the aura of invincibility surrounding the Saints, Rams, and Chiefs is gone. So I think they're all, you know, if this truly does, if the season truly does start at Thanksgiving, the teams we thought were unbeatable aren't really unbeatable at all. All right.

Nice setup there. So, hence the segment, nothing seems certain anymore, ellipsies. But I'm still certain about this, this all capitalized. Mark? I mean, this is almost like a philosophical segment about, you know, certainty in life.

What is certain? I agree. Pretty deep question. I mean, for today's show after the holiday party, it's kind of a little heavy. A little heavy. We're going to do our best. Stick to the football. Mark, you want to get us going?

Okay. I am certain. I am deadly certain about this, that the Seahawks will, invariably meet Dallas in the playoffs, and Seattle's coaching staff, as I will not be surprised by one bit by this, will out scheme, out coach, and out duel a Dallas coaching staff that will be totally overwhelmed and probably lose at home. So you are going all the way into January and predicting the outcome of a playoff game that has not even been scheduled. It does seem it's pretty locked in that they're going to play each other barring a massive meltdown. And if one

of them were to totally meltdown, no one's going to remember. that I said this. And by the way, I'm not doubting you because you've had a really good season with prognostication. Really good's a little bit better than really good. It's been fine.

It's been Hall of Fame worthy. But I will say. That Falcon Super Bowl title is coming up. Outside of that, right around the corner. Who are they playing against? The Steelers. That's still in the play. But you've done a nice job.

Better than my giant Super Bowl win from last year. A little bit better. So it could happen. And it still feels like it might happen. the Cowboys and the Seahawks coming off bad losses. What this is for me is total trust that Pete Carroll will enter the postseason realms as one of the league's better coaches and the Dallas Cowboys do not have that at head coach. I love that.

And you're right because if you look at the Seac schedule, they have the Cardinals in Week 17. Most likely that's all they're going to need is to get that win. And the odds are that they would still have the fifth seed. and that Cardinals team is going to be the ultimate dead team walking heading to Seattle in week 17. Sometimes I feel like Cowboys coaching stuff

and Jason Garrett is like a convenient punching bag. Like when things are going wrong or they're coming off a loss, people just talk about how bad Garrett is. But then when they win five games a row, all of a sudden, there's no credit given to Jason Garrett and his coaching stuff. I like Ron Marinelli. I think that's fine. I agree with that strategy of credit.

I think they've held them back. Okay. What about Chris for short? That defense has impressed me this year, and I actually think the Cowboys are a better team than the Seahawks. They may be a better team. I just trust Seattle's coaching staff overall. And by the way, I could be totally wrong. This is just the sense that I feel certain about it.

Game would be in Dallas, correct? I don't care where it is. It doesn't even more. It's going to be even more impressive when it is in Dallas. You sound certain. I'm very certain. Wes? I am certain that the Saints are the best team in football and the Super Bowl favorites.

yummy. Wow. Interesting commentary, Wes. You just said that the gauntlet is really evened out the playing field, and yet you still believe you're certain in fact that the saints are heads and shoulders

above the rest. Why? Well, get to business. Several reasons, but all of these struggles in which they've won two out of three happened on the road, and they, as always,

are much better in their dome, which they will be playing in if all goes well, until next September, at least. I mean, they don't have to, have, they don't have to go outside of New Orleans the rest of the way. They've done the work to create that path. Right. And in theory, they could lose it to the Rams, but it is very unlikely, especially

when all they need is a win over, even if they lost to the Steelers somehow, they, all they'll need is a win over the Panthers and Tyler Heineke. Furthermore, the Bears are the only defense in the league that is better than the Saints right now, I believe. And their offense is way too talented to stay in this morass. They will be getting Tehran Armstead back at some point, and that should help an offense line that has not played as well lately. Right. That was going to be one of mine,

so I'm just going to jump in just in terms of, I'm certain this is the best Saints defense I've seen. They're definitely better than the Super Bowl team, which was a playmaking group, but really relied on turnovers. This is the best Saints defense I've seen. And it's funny how when offensive linemen get hurt, it's like, that's never mentioned as much

as if a wide receiver or running back is out of land. Try and Armstrong might be the best left tackle in football. Max Unger got hurt in the last week's game, too. Those are two pro bowlers. Those are maybe two all pros this year. And you take them out of the mix and they're not going to be as good. But when I'm certain that the Saints have the best events I've ever seen them have, I think Wes is right that the offense will figure it out.

And they don't have to be as good as they were. And the offense is no doubt going through a little bit of a funk right now, but you guys are right. Like with the Rams, for instance, another team that's going through some things right now. I'm a little worried about the Rams. That's triggered losses for them. Yeah, because they don't have a defense that is performed. right at the level of the saints thee is kind of covering it's like what's that old thing was i'm

sure you had it hanging in your house or your catholic household uh cross well no not across but i don't know the cross the old thing with the the footsteps and it's like jesus when i need to do the most there was only one set of footsteps the sand is like bro i was carrying you bro yeah straight up because i was carrying you the whole time i was carrying you the whole time that's when there was only one step i don't remember what i was talking about it's like i'm just so caught up on christmas The defense is now carrying the offense the way that Jesus would carry someone when they're in trouble. We didn't have this in our house. This is funny.

Shocking. I'm getting deja vu like we've talked about this before. So this dude, he's talking to Jesus. We had to explain to Greg what Easter was yesterday. No, I knew what it was. I was confirming it because we were, there was very little. We were talking about the upcoming sequel to Passion of the Christ, Passion of the Christ resurrection. And I said, well, that's Easter, right?

You know, that was just confirmed. No, this dude. He has these footsteps in the sand that document his life, as I recall. And then at the part where his life is really bad, it looks as if there's only one set of footsteps and Jesus had abandoned him in his time of need, but Jesus had actually been carrying him.

It was Jesus' footsteps. That's the big reveal, the M. Knight-Shammelon level reveal. That's it. It was, it's a very, it is definitely a wall-hanging thing, and it always has the sea and just one pair of footprints. And so there's a lot of drama. Maybe this God has just left you nowhere,

but instead he has not, according to the... Maybe saving us for the theology. Like, can you, can people study that and, like, see how fast they're, like, because to me, Jesus has got to have some quick feet, like, short area quickness, like... He's 2018 years old. But he can carry people. Quick twitch, no doubt. Where were we?

Oh, yeah, Saints' defense good. Rams' defense not as good. So, Saints carrying their offense at their time of need. spent there's they have not a band this is so not business like i mean i i i blame myself more than anyone but um all right here's what i'm certain of and whatever greg you're going oh you're so predictable whatever i am certain tom brady is not tom brady anymore i'm certain i'm in your head i'm certain the hashtag gradual decline is now fully back on and this time it's working this time it's not going to be uh confetti raining down on Tommy boy and his friends

in the first weekend in February because that Steelers game and Wes you've mentioned it for weeks now that he's not quite the same guy that he was in his MVP level when he was at his MVP level as recently his last season but now for the first time ever

I can honestly say because I really did obviously I was rooting for the Steelers last week because I don't like the Patriots I locked up the Steelers and for the first time I felt okay when Brady had the ball at the end. I was like, I don't know if he's pulling the rabbit out of his head. He almost did, but he didn't quite do it. There was a report out actually today.

I don't know if you saw this, Greg, by NFL media's own, Mike Giardy, that he was speculating that there is a knee injury that Brady is now dealing with. He has a tear or a partial tear in his MCL and his lower half has been off dating

back to Tennessee. And not to pile on on the old Bill Belichick, but after that disastrous decision with Gronk and the Miami Miracle, the belief is that that injury occurred on one of those silly trick plays that they sent Brady out as a wide receiver

and he caught a pass and injured his knee on that playback in the weekend against the Titans. Yeah, the people been talking, Greg Bardard's been writing about this since that happened. He believes Brady's been playing through an injury. I mean, Brady's been on the injury report. He's been limited in some practices,

so I think there's something to that. I do think, though, The finger pointing at Brady last week felt off, you're right in everything you're saying, that he's not at the same level. But to me, Brady wasn't the problem in that game. Gronk is a bigger problem. Receivers that can't get open against press coverage are a bigger problem. A pass rush that doesn't exist unless they blitz is a bigger problem.

I think Brady's good enough to win with a strong Patriots team around him. And I don't know if they have there right now. Daniel Jeremiah said he's never, you know, he watched the tape on Gronk and he said George fan. The Seahawks offensive lineman who caught a pass last week is moving better than Gronk right now. I mean, it looked like Gronk's feet were stapled to the ground on a couple of those

classes that he couldn't change directions. And he certainly seems to be playing through some level of injury. And he's not the same. And Edelman is absolutely playing through a foot injury right now. And so it's kind of what happens to teams. An older team. They're getting old. Yeah. And Brady's one of those

people that is getting old. He's like the least of my concerns, though. I really You should be higher unconcernly. Compared to the rest of the team. There's also another reality that would not surprise me where this somewhat broken down team wins two playoff games

and winds up right back in the AFC championship again. Because, well, let's say today, if it went in today, they play the Ravens. They can beat the Ravens. I think they're getting picked off before the AFC title game this year.

It would be a fresh, nice change. I mean, I've come around. It's not a great team. I agree, but I'm not sure who, I think the chiefs and the Chargers and the Steelers are probably better teams on balance, but it's not an, like Wes said, I don't think any of them are invincible.

So I have come around to your guy's point, though, that the home field matters, the buy really matters. And so I think a week off and then a home game in the division round, if the Texans would lose this week and the Patriots could win out, could give them a much better chance. Winning two road games and three in a row for this team with no break, that would be tough. You know what bothers me the most about Tom Brady right now?

He's no longer fun to watch. It's really annoying to watch him bail in the pocket so often. How about that throw to Cordor L. Patterson a couple weeks ago? Really, that whole game. Every quarterback makes those throws. I mean, if that's all you're getting out of Tom Brady, you're not getting the feeling of invincibility when he has the ball with a minute on the clock and 80 yards to go.

Like, I don't think it's automatic that Brady's going to score anymore. It's no longer that fun to watch him in a two minutes. Well, if you look at how they have to manufacture offense. They have to do not just trick plays, but especially with the tempo in which they're awesome and I wouldn't put them past coming up with a great game playing in the playoffs so that tempo in terms of quick snapping teams

and slowing it down and speeding it up and like teams aren't ready for them. But that's kind of like because their players can't beat the other team's players. I just wonder if this is the last few games we have with Tom Brady because does he want to come back? There's a lot of family stuff where it's like do they want him to play again?

And if he's self-aware and noticing his own body not responding the same way, Do you come back and do this again? Well, he doesn't want to get hit. Nobody wants to get hit. But you could hear it, and it's passing that test. I mentioned in the newsroom on Sunday. It was same thing with late period,

Peyton Manning, late period, Dan Marino. When the pass rush closes in, you could actually almost hear them going, eh, get away. That's a slow pass rush. I mean, he's been trying to avoid hits for a long time. It has accelerated, though. I do think Gronk is much more like,

to retire at the end of the season if you had to guess than Brady. But I'm probably a rare Patriots fan that I don't want to see a gradual decline with Brady. I agree. I would rather have him retire and just whatever, you know, figure it out than

then have to watch him have a Manning or Marino like late career because he hasn't had that yet. I don't count this season as that at all. That's too depressing. He's a pro bowler this year. Maybe it shouldn't be. That doesn't mean anything. He's a top 10 quarterback this year and that does mean something. I don't want to see the decline. If he retires after this year, the Garoppolo situation goes,

it's just a terrible, terrible trade. Well, it already was. You're not comfortable handing the reins over to Brian Hoyer? But if they would have known that he only had when they made the decision to trade a year and a half less of his career, there was no way they would have done that trade. So they were expecting him to go deeper into the career. And maybe he still will.

He probably will, but we'll see. The first great old quarterback was Y.A. Tittle. There's this famous picture of him on the ground on his knees with blood coming off his bald head. And he got injured on that play and was never the same again. And here's the quote. He said, it made me one thing I never was. It made me gun-shy.

For the first time in my life, I didn't want to get hit because I couldn't get up. It is worth point. I mean, he's 41. He might be one of, if not the best 41-year-old quarterbacks ever. That's a thing. It's like, what do we expect? He is. So it's like, what can you do?

Yes, he is. You know, I guess the difference is now he's showing signs of mortality. Which even last year, it was like, oh, my God, this guy's going to be great forever. He was MVP. Yeah, but it wouldn't, it shouldn't surprise anyone as great as he's been. If just when he's showing signs of mortality, he goes and, you know, defies expectation and leads a long playoff run. Probably will. All right.

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the 24th, which is Monday. That's nautica.com code football. All right, boys. Before we go, haven't done this in a while, so why not? Check in with the iTunes reviews because you know one of the, it's very hard in the podcast industry to determine where you fit in in terms of, because there's not like a It's not like television ratings with the Nielsen ratings. It's not like everyone knows what we get in terms of numbers.

But one thing I did in some... We know we're better than those other NFL podcasts. Some industry research tells me that... Just how much. Well, yeah, I don't know about doubt, but it's just better. Better. Well, you brought me in. You're asking for it.

Okay, I got you. But some people in the industry say, well, it's hard to deal with metrics. But if you go to a podcast, iTunes reviews, and you see how many ratings they have, how many reviews they have that's an indicator of a show's popularity so help us out go to iTunes support the around the NFL podcast because we love you and we love doing this and it makes sense if we're calling out for people to to leave reviews we should read some of the reviews so this segment is called iTunes reviews all right this from Jared 91 hilarious and informative five stars this is the pod to get all the news from the league and

at the camaraderie, the four guys share. They are true friends and it shows in their podcasting style. I haven't missed an episode in two years. Bingo, segment over. Very nice. How about this? Give yourself a treat. Five stars.

Give yourself a treat and listen to these guys while avoiding any images of them. Listen long enough that you did, well, it's not going to go where you think it's going. Listen long enough that you develop a mental image and then have it blown out of the water by how they actually look. I did this by accident and I wish you the same happiness gave me. Happiness because we're like...

I don't think. I don't think... I didn't take that as a positive. I feel like I look like how I sound. Maybe you guys are different. Listen with that. What is this? Can you lower that just a little bit? Long night.

Frank it. Listen to that axe work. Oh, I'm going to die. Yeah, take this apart. Take it off. Make it go away. This is like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniforms of music. This from JD 146666, mostly meh, two stars.

What? If you like Morning Zoo, Frat Boys, Snark, Style, Sports Talk, this show is for you. Not all, a lot of thoughtful commentary way to write, idiot, goes on in the show. They like their sound buttons and talking over each other on a regular basis. Frat Boys. Has anybody in this room been in a fraternity? No. No, I was actually.

Greg's the Frat Boy. Room full of zeros Two stars Two stars Yet we get We're zeros Who are these people How do they have jobs

Talking about football Mark you can answer that one It's probably somewhat of a upset that we do I thought you would Defend us But The cable news

Mark's like Yeah that seems fair The cable news Of football podcast One star Why are you up picking out Because the average is very high. Are we an average of five-star?

I think it's good to be humbled and to refocus to come back. Horrible. This isn't going to help. But a bunch of talking heads vomiting. They're weak-to-week-checks. You want a good one, Greg? Do you want a thought-provoking one, yes. You want a one that makes you think?

All right, how about this? That helps good criticism should help us see ourselves in a new light. Best Football Podcasts, No Question, by Chuck Boris, five stars. As a diehard football fan, I've always dabbled. football podcast. I've tried many. I've gone away from all of them except this one. It's been a mainstay for going on nearly five years. One of the few podcasts

I look forward to listening to every time a new episode comes out. Don't go anywhere, guys. The football world needs you. And with that, Greg, we would like to make an announcement about his future. Yeah, this is tough for me because we have been here for five years.

But this WTA Courts of Thunder job that I've been offered to follow Naomi Osaka and Elise Merton and Angelique Kerber around the globe is it's too good to pass up. I love you guys, but it's been fun. All right. So this is, it's not good for us, but I know that you put a lot of thought into it. And this has been a, you know, a passion that now has bubbled up for you and you have to. Yeah. My family is leaving me because I have to take a 400% pay decrease and I'm going to be traveling. for 40 weeks a year.

Is this on BlogSpot? But it's all worth it. It's all worth it to watch those ladies play in Lynn's Luxembourg. There you go. So Greg is done. No, Greg's not going anywhere. He's locked in. I don't know.

You put me on the spot there. Real quick, two more. Mark the exception, one star. What? A majority of meatheads cavalierly ranking animal flesh. Watch a few YouTube videos. What does Mark the exception? Because you don't eat meat.

So that was a meat, a vegetarian. Oh, I see. Okay. And then just to even out the scales, the stories about random people are just a waste of time. Rhonda Fontaine? I don't know who that is or how it was relevant to anything. Find me and I will get you.

Whoa. Who wrote that? G. Blankley. G. Blankley? Yeah. Coming after G. Blankley. All right. That's going to be my Quartz of Thunder.

Oh, I love it. I love it. All right. I mean, we might need to edit that out because it's evidence. Yeah. Threat. There'll be plenty of evidence by the time I'm done. All right.

Interesting. What a happy holiday section of the podcast that was. We'll be back tomorrow earlier. The show will go up earlier than usual because why? Well, there's no Thursday night football for the first time in a couple of months. Right? Am I right? Yeah.

You're right. And that's good because. The football is coming a little earlier in terms of some games we're previewing the Saturday games. Exactly. So we're going to go through all the week's 16 games. So stay tuned for that tomorrow. Let's get out of here.

This is everybody okay, by the way? Everybody feeling okay? Good. I feel great. All right. Professional job, guys. Stan Hans is signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss. Ricky Hollywood dying by him.

Until Thursday. Like something the Brams would do, though, is just like... Well, they've got the Cardinals in 49ers. Just shut up and do the fresh off the wire. Just do it. It's three-minute. Be a fucking pro. Tim Psy.

Sorry, I'm not in a suit. Podcasts.