NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Offseason storylines to look forward to

Episode Date: February 10, 2017

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling & Gregg Rosenthal – discuss all the latest news from around the NFL including Kyle Shanahan’s first official press conference as the 49ers head coach, and the newest inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Plus, the heroes release their top 5 play calls of the 2016 season, and settle their Super Bowl sandwich props. Finally, the guys discuss which storylines they’re looking forward to as the offseason gets into full swing.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast is searching for Tom Brady's jersey. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosethal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Back in Culver City.

from Houston, all together as a group, our first show since the Super Bowl 51 super podcast, which, by the way, is the number one downloaded podcast in the history of NFL media. So thank you to everyone who said, hey, I want an informed hot take on one of the greatest games in Super Bowl history. Let me go to some four saucy white. Wow. How many downloads?

I don't like to say the number. It's just a lot. Is informed hot take an oxymoron? No. No, actually, I think you can have a hot take. Wow. That's logical. And this is my opinion.

This is the most downloaded by far. This is like a 28 to 3 lead except, you know, we're not blowing this. No one's ever coming back. Like the MASH callback. Super Bowl, nailed it. This is like the MASH series finale. Oh, right. MASH.

Okay. I mean, the numbers were so jarring that my first thought was technical glitch, that it's not accurate. The number is 7 million downloads, which we are so, so proud. And, you know, I took a couple days off after the Super Bowl. And I spent half of one of my off days fielding media requests after I broke the story on Tom Brady's jersey. That is how, that is the tenor of the off season that you're beginning, which is essentially Dan promoting Dan Walt wall to all. Cut to 10.30 this morning. Guys, I got to go upstairs and tape something.

Oh, is that how I talk? Yeah. That's when you're a little sheepish. I don't even know if I did ask for permission. Not that I would have to. That was Mark this morning. What happened this morning? I don't have any idea what you're referring to. Oh.

Wow. What are you referring to that felt like a slight, but I... This morning you said I have to go and do something for the... Oh, well, but mine was not just... It wasn't just a giant one-minute-long sound bite about Mark. It includes another human being other than just myself, as Sidney would attest to. See, Mark likes to shield his ego.

But it's all there. Well, you can frame it however you'd like. Speaking of Mark and his ego, he wrote a banger that we're going to talk about today. And I like this idea, this conceit, Mark. And every word I enjoyed it. I didn't come up with it. It is the storylines will be tracking

and we're excited to track this offseason other than Tony Romo. obviously that will be the dominant storyline in a lot of ways but that is something else including a bonus section of 10 storylines i refuse to report on the obvious follow-up question here is mark is there any off-season storyline that you could possibly be excited to monitor the word excited was a tad strong but you know you've got to roll with the the assignment as it's given i see it in your copy i'm excited well this is like when west home us that he's in character. I guess it is this.

It is relative to Tony Romo. Excited relative to having to do 4,000 Tony Romo. That's not in the copy. Yes, it is. Read it. In a world, all right, here's the copy. In a world beyond Romo, here's what I'm excited to track this. So I think it just says you're excited.

That sounds like it's in the copy. We like the topic so much. We did a segment about it on Friday. It's going to be on Friday. up to the minute. And I think that's going to be weekly that they give us a few minutes here. So people should watch

Up to the Minute Live 4 o'clock Eastern daily. Excellent, Greg. NFL Network's Greg Rosenthal, in fact. Water to wall coverage. It can't be. That's NFL Network's Greg Rosenthal. Look at you too.

Well, isn't up to the minute on NFL Network? This is where you get this whole bit from, right? Well, that's fair. And then you guys are, we're all going to be on this. As a force. So, I'm just saying, does that, you know, you all need your own drop. Well, hold on.

Let's turn it around. Do you feel a little annoyed that we're now joining you on NFL network? I think it's nice to class up the joint. I think it's cool that there's room enough on your coat tails for three of us. Actually, I looked over. I peeked into Greg's cubicle when the news broke. We'd be doing this. He was just grinding his teeth.

He was so angry. All right. So we'll be talking about those off-season storylines to track. we are going to settle up our sandwich props I don't even remember that one Whose voice was that? That was professional Yeah, I went searching through the archives

That was a good one We're going to settle that up I'm actually thrown off by that All season We were tracking the best Radio and television calls of the season We now, we've whittled that down. It was originally going to be a top ten

And some of them didn't pass the smell test when we revisited them you know, outside of the moment. To say the least. And we settled on a top five calls, but I'm feeling really good about the top five calls. They were thoroughly vetted. I would say most of the room is very excited about this segment.

I turned to Greg. He's just nodding his head. Very good for podcast. Well, I thought you were going to go to the whole bit of, you know, Wes. It wasn't the most enthusiastic. It's not really a bit, Greg. Especially number five, but we'll get to that. And we'll touch on the.

sound effects and the Patriots win over the Falcons and Super Bowl 51. Chris Wesleying wrote a banger there. But before we do any of that, let's start with the news. And to do that, we check behind the glass with new money. So good to see her again. The first lady of the Around the NFL podcast, how are you, money? I'm good. Hey, guys.

I missed you. Missed you, too. I missed my board. I had to do everything post last week. Yeah, that was terrible. We're in a cool around the NFL shirt right now. A good story, yeah. Got some swag.

Yeah. A lot of stuff happened while we were gone. Big thanks for staying up until about 2 p.m. If not later, 3 p.m. 3 a.m. In the a. m. Yep, that happened.

On the night of the Super Bowl show. I mean, you know, a lot of sacrifice. That's how you get up on Mount Rushmore. There you go. That's all. I mean, it wasn't, I'm sure. Why are you about to, why are you about to marginalize what you're doing? I'm not.

All I'm going to say is I will never forget Mark Sessler showing up at the airport still in his suit from the night before at 7 in the morning or whatnot after he just left my hotel room after polishing off a 12-pack. Well, that's, I wish I had 12-year-old years. You guys drink? You were there. Pepsie. All right, let's do some news. Francisco, that's fun to say.

Let's start in San Francisco where a new brain trust is in place. Kyle Shanahan, who was most recently seen blowing. the Super Bowl with the rest of the Atlanta Falcons. Wow. Wow. And listen, let's keep it real around here. John Lynch to the new general manager who was an analyst for Fox a couple month ago or last week.

Actually, I saw him at media night doing some media stuff. Now he's a GM. That's interesting. So the two men were on Adais together discussing the new direction of the San Francisco 49ers. Jed York was also on hand. The team owner he was quoted saying, I believe in these guys. We aren't where we want to be.

We're a two-win team right now, and we need to make sure these guys have everything they need to get up and running. And I believe in these guys, and I believe they're going to be here a lot longer than that. Well, you better be right because six-year contracts are not that common. And gentlemen, one of the questions that came from the Bay Area Press, which is not happy with the 49ers regime, was about Kyle Shannon.

Who was the offensive coordinator of the Falcons, who, as I said, were not able to close out the Super Bowl. and there was a report out there after the game that Kyle Shanahan admitted that he thought he blew the Super Bowl and he was asked about that in his opening presser with the Niners. You know, when you're the coordinator of an offense

or you're the head coach of a team, you're responsible for what happens out there. And I did believe we had a very good chance to win that game, especially at the end. And we didn't get it done. In terms of the, when you use the words, I blew it, I don't look at it that way. I believe it's an opportunity.

And, you know, we didn't get it done. I'll go back. through every play through that for the rest of my life. Thoughts, gentlemen, on the beginning of a new era in San Francisco. I thought he came across in the press conference like he did with the media on throughout the week, which is very forthright and impressive. And he, in another answer to that question, he was very forthright saying, look, I'm going to relive every single one of those plays the rest of my life.

Of course, I think there's things that we could have done different. I would think that about any loss. But he also said, I didn't coach any differently in that game than I did the rest of the year. That's how we got there. I don't think we coached scared. I don't think we played scared. I'm paraphrasing a little bit here. And I think that's true.

You wrote about it in your get-off my gridiron article this week, West, that Channahan, the blame that he's gotten to me has been outsized for his place in that collapse. I loved hearing that response from him today. That's the way he's always coached. It's the way he's going to continue to coach. And just because a bunch of couch jockeys who never watched the Falcons once all year tuned into a series. You never played the game.

No, you didn't watch the Falcons all year. You slept on the Falcons all year. And now you want to criticize him for a couple plays in the Super Bowl. That's how he coaches. It's also why he's the best offensive coordinator in the NFL and perhaps the best offensive mind in the NFL. Well, if anything, it is practice for what's to come. Because, you know, when you're the offensive coordinator and you don't face the press

for more than about a half an hour a week tops, your head coach deflects and has to handle all that, and your players do too. It was an easy season media-wise for Shanahan, but now you're with San Francisco. They have got a long rebuilding job. It's not going to happen as quick as it did when you roll in. You have Matt Ryan as your quarterback and Julio Jones,

a wide receiver. We'll find out who he is. He said he hoped he had six Julio Jones is on this team, but that's not the case. A lot of work to do. And the team that he left, the Atlanta Falcons, major shakeup there because, of course, they have to replace Kyle Shanahan, and they do that, naming Steve Sarkeesian, the new offensive coordinator, Sarkisian, who had a tumultuous

era at USC as the head coach, undermined by some personal problems. Later moved on to Alabama, was briefly their play caller in their BCS title game. Well, they got rid of the BCS. I think it was the college football playoff title game. Whatever. Loss to... They lost to Clemson. The Clemson, the Tigers, Seth Ryan's team.

He is now the new offensive coordinator. That's how they're known around the country. I know him. The Seth Ryan team. I know Clemson is the team. Rex changed his truck from Bills to Clemson. Look, we're around the NFL podcast. Get off the college business.

So Sarkeesian takes over as the OC of the Falcons. And showing you what a savage business the NFL is, Richard Smith is no longer. the defensive coordinator of the Falcons. So you go from up 283, late in the third quarter, people saying what a genius scheme you planned up. Maybe you got head coach written all over you. Now you're out.

Defensive coordinator, Richard Smith is being replaced with defensive line. Oh, it's being replaced while defensive line coach, Brian Cox is being let go by the team. A team source informed of the moves told Rapsheet on Wednesday, Smith could stay on in the Falcons in an advisory role, Greg. But it is the end of his tenure as the D.C. And that's just wild to think how savage the NFL can be. You got to think they were going to make these moves regardless, which is weird.

But talk about moving fast. I mean, when Robert Alford's running down the field for that pick six, it's Brian Cox, who's holding back Dan Quinn, and then they end up kind of embracing and jumping up and down. And a day later, he's without a job. I mean, I think on the offensive side of the ball, which is you're probably more concerned with what's going to happen to last year's offense, that by all indication, instead of trying to bring in Chip Kelly and have him do something that's not akin to Chip Kelly, Sarkesian, I talked to Chase Goodbread from 24-7 on our site, and he basically said you're going to see an offense that's similar because they, Sarkeesian may be a little bit more into the running game, but loves running back screens. He's aggressive with certain past concepts that are similar to Shanahan's. And they said today, it's going to be a similar offense. We're not going to depart. from what we did. That's the best news for Falcons fans. You don't want to try to change what happened. The talent is there and they're going to keep the zone running scheme. That's good. They're going to adjust to what the talent is. Right. But he's never coached in the NFL. It's an

extreme, I mean, he did, I believe, he was a quarterback coach of the Raiders in 2004. If he was a player, he would have major red flags. He basically, you know, you have sympathy for a man that struggled with addiction, but he almost kind of, you know, help ruin his career on some. level because of that. And he just was at Alabama for a couple weeks and left the job because he didn't get along with his boss. So to me, it's a very risky hire. There's no reason to believe that this is going to work out smoothly.

It reminds me of Bobby Petrino practice. Maybe it's a bridge hire because it's so late in the year that you don't get the guy you want. But also, you know, P. Carroll, Dan Quinn, and Sarkisian are all friends. And that's how this business works. Nick Sabin, too. Let's move on and talk about the Arizona Cardinals. They're getting the band back together.

one last ride out of Carson Palmer confirmed Thursday that he would return for a 15th NFL season. He's now 37 years old. He told the team's official website that he wanted to make sure that he was physically ready for another NFL season. This

comes a week after Larry Fitzgerald informed the public that he would come back for another season. So the both key players in Arizona's offense are back. And Chris Wesleying, do you believe that this is amazing news for the Cardinals who view themselves as a contender, but are they really?

They are a contender, and if not for a few breaks, would have been in the playoffs this year. Who knows what happens once you can get in the playoffs? Carson Palmer played the best ball of the season in December at the end of the year. Larry Fitzgerald was one of the best slot receivers in the league. That is excellent news. They have some decisions on defense, especially, with three key free agents, Chandler, Jones, Cleas, Campbell, and Tony Jefferson. So this is a team that believes it's in a Super Bowl.

window. They just have to make some really good decisions this off season. They're in that window. This is great news. I think you could win a Super Bowl with Carson Palmer if he played like he played. If you want to get people on Twitter upset, mention that Carson Palmer played well the last half of the season. Because everyone's like, no, you ruined my fantasy team. I got a million responses. Same people who right away. No, he played well. He played well. Yeah. And I, you know, I really enjoyed all or nothing last year with Cardinals getting to know that team better. They had a rough year last year.

So I think it makes sense. You put them, see if the old band can still play the guitar, Mark. I like that. That was well done, Dan. Moving on, the Hall of Fame voted in their 2017 class. The whole band's playing the guitar? It's a very strange band. Very guitar-oriented.

No bass player, no drummer, no singer, just all guitar. I mean, let's keep going with this. What's the next chapter in this bit? Can we keep? Is there another angle we can come from potentially? All right, Mark, let's talk some Hall of Fame. You know, comedy ombudsman. You're not right.

I mean, Mark wants to get out of here. He's already looking at the club. Not at all. It's February. Not at all. Let's keep the listener engaged. Ladenian Talmondson, the headliner of the 2017 Pro Football Hall of Fame class revealed Saturday at NFL honors, which Greg gets goosebumps,

just thinking about being at that event for another year. The other inductees, Kurt Warner. Terrell Davis, Kenny Easley, Jason Taylor, Morton Anderson, and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, notably snubbed, you boy, Greg, Terrell Owens. He's my boy? I don't know. I mean, I'm not the one who wrote a banger about him this week. West feels stronger than, look, I think he should have been a Hall of Famer.

I think they have questionable decisions every year. Some good players wait. It's just as outrageous to me that Tori Holt is not in the finalists even as to T.O. didn't make it. So they're punishing him from what we've heard for ex-coaches and teammates basically burying T-O behind the scenes, that they've been running, almost like talking to his ex-players and teammates and coaches, that they've been anti-companying. They're colluding a man out of the Hall of Fame.

That is some petty stuff if that's what's actually happening. It's a definition of petty. It's ridiculous. and Tori Holt, fine, he had a good career. He's not a guy where, with the eye test, you know Torel Owens is a Hall of Famer. You know right off the bed. He's one of the best players in the history of football.

Tori Holt is a borderline Hall of Famer. He was really good. He was never the best receiver in the NFL like T.O. was. This is ridiculous. And they want to talk about how teams couldn't wait to get rid of him. This isn't Brandon Marshall where they were like, oh, maybe we can salvage a third round pick for him. Teams were lining up to get Tio as much as they.

were running up to get rid of them. That is ridiculous. I don't like that at all. I'm with you, and let's not act like T.O. would be the first person that got into the Hall of Fame with some personality issues along the way as a player. I mean, Charles Haley deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. No questions asked and had to wait a long time because of this kind of stuff. You have Andre Reid in the Hall of Fame. Good player, not a better player than Terrell Owens. You've already blown it. You've got to get him in there, and it's just a farce and a joke that carries on for another year. It might carry on further than that based on the fact they didn't make the final 10. I mean, the surprising thing, and when people complain about the Hall of Fame, you always want to

say, well, who are you taking out of this class? This year probably wouldn't have been that tough. You take out Morton Anderson. I think it was a year where there weren't as many locks, and it felt like a year, it's like, let's get in some of these guys, because if you start looking at the next few years, it starts being loaded. I think Terrell Davis and Kurt Warren, were two guys that have kind of been waiting. They're very well liked. And sometimes with these years in the Hall of Fame, it's like, let's put these guys in now before it's too late.

And all due respect to Morton Anderson, who played his position very well for many, many years. But he is not a more vital, important, charismatic, productive player than Terrell Owens was for the long career that he... Well, I don't think it's fair to put those... I see what you're saying, but like, if kickers are going to get in, and I think they should,

It's easy to forget about these guys. Morton Anderson played for like my entire life up until I was in college almost. But that's, to me, that's not. I'd rather- He was good, by the way. That's why I like Kurt Warner getting in because he defined the NFL for a couple of years. He won two MVPs, whereas Morton Anderson was like a B-plus kicker, B-plus A-minus kicker that just played for 25 years. He was better than B-plus. If you think about the reason Halls of Fame exists. You cannot tell the story, just like in baseball. You don't have the home run king or the hit king in your Hall of Fame.

You cannot tell the story of baseball without either of those guys. You can tell the story of football without Morton Anderson. You can't tell the story of football without Terrell Owens. Moving on, gentlemen. Good talk there, guys. We really enjoyed that. Jason Taylor and Kenny Eadley. I knew we needed to get past the Hall of Fame.

Jason Taylor and Kenny Easley are just like, what do we got to do to get a little attention? Mark and I both love. Yeah. Mark and I both love the Kenny easily pick. When we were watching in the 80s, was a better player than Ronnie Lott. Okay. He shouldn't have had to wait. Like, he's almost a comparable player to, maybe not quite six or seven years. But that he was a first team all pro four or five times.

It's crazy yet to wait. It's like the safety version of Gail Sayers. It's a big win, and this will bring it around to baseball, Dan. I know you love that. You know I am the defender of the hard ball. It's a year for great, brilliant primes. over the compilers. We don't need the compilers.

That's why Terrell Davis is in. I get it. Good corner and easily. Brilliance is always better than that. Let's a little, ooh, this is fun. Well, not for the men involved with this. The release roundup,

I'll start with the Green Bay Packers who part ways with both running back James Starks and cornerback Sam Shields. Wes, any surprise there? Not one bit. James Starks is nearing the end. Maybe if his legs come back. But Sam Shields had concussion issues.

the entire season, he might not ever play again. Maybe this clears the way for Eddie Lacey returning to play. Well, McCarthy wants him back. We'll see if Ted Thompson goes. They need some cornerbacks there. They're still recovering from that playoff loss and the sick burn from Jordan Peel at the NFL Honors Award against the Packers secondary.

Who will ever forget it? By the way, what was it? All-time best host of the old NFL honors. Not that there's been that many. Get off Al Baldwin's. Subjective. No, it wasn't even close. Brah.

Wasn't even close. Anyway, what was the sick burn? Well, if I could remember it exactly. Here is the sick burn. The playoffs got really great ratings this year. They really did. For instance, the NFC Championship was watched by 46 million people and the Packers secondary. All right.

Now let's react as if we had heard it. Glorious. Wow. To quote Mark Sessler, excellent showmanship. You weren't wrong, Greg. You know what I'm saying? All right. And we got Josh McCown, released by the Browns.

It didn't work out for Josh. He's always hurt. And then here comes the predictable bit. Oh, there's the quarterback of the Jets. Good one. I hope not, because he's always hurt and he's not that good. And he's old. Well, if there is going to be, as we mentioned on our NFL network segment,

a potential bidding war for Jimmy Garapolo, I think there'll be a little bit of a bidding war in coaching staffs to get Josh McCown and as a quarterback coach. Well, you laugh. But it is someone that has been talked about. by multiple guys out there as a coach in the making. He was a coach for a while, as a coach. Okay.

He wants to play. That's why he's leaving Cleveland. Well, he'll play for another year, but if he can't get a job or if he doesn't like that, and he is going to be a valued coach and a good coach in the NFL. I got a plan. The Browns franchise McCown. Like that?

And then trade him for a first round pick. Bidding war. I mean, that would be great if that's how you would have a bidding war. And you franchise a guy you've just released. Well, no, you take that back. You pull it off the wire. Franchise them, make them a top five paid quarterback. Because once you franchise somebody, you can trade them, right?

You could. I mean, you're tag and trade. You're fired. You know, Dan, this is not an argument for your front office, you know, potential work. Speaking of, you know, annual bits. You said bidding war. You know, you've got your gradual decline of Tom Brady. Eventually, you'll be right about that.

I will be right. The inverse of that bit, though, is Chris Wesleyan's Josh McCown will eventually be good again bit. And that's, I don't know if that's going to end up being true. There are two things going in opposite directions, but both cratering. Moving on. Josh McCown, still a better quarterback than some quarterbacks who start in the NFL. He's still in. He is a good player.

He's a great player. I'm sorry, you missed the Blake Bortles and Brock Osweiler seasons this year. Justin Gilbert, another former Brown. He has been let go by the Pittsburgh Steelers, a short, uneventful stay there. Oh, is this another former Brown? DeQuelle Jackson. He is no longer with the cults. They cut the linebacker.

after he signed for a nice amount of money, I believe, in 2014, now 33 years old. One thing, Joe Thomas, I thought, had the best way to sum up Justin Gilbert's career in Cleveland and Pittsburgh. He tweeted, and Joe Thomas, by the way, not holding back on Twitter or in general with his comments. He don't care. I like his honesty. He said, if you don't like football, it doesn't matter how talented you are, your star will burn out quick. And Justin Gilbert was so poorly scouted by the Browns that they never actually. met in person to find out where his passion

level was and that's why that team is picking first in the draft right now. There you go and finally in the news in transfer of power news Bob Costas being replaced by Mike Tariko my boy as NBC's Olympics host

that ends a Costas tenure mark pay special attention that spans way back to 92 as the Olympics guy but into the 80s with NBC and here is a statement from Costas, who's handled this pretty well, I believe.

It has been both a privilege and an incredible personal and professional experience to have been part of NBC's Olympic coverage all these years. I'm especially appreciative of all the talented and dedicated people I worked for and with on those broadcasts. Class act, Mark, as he steps into the shadows forever. Well, he has no bigger fan than Mike Tariko.

Well, no, but I think the thing is that it reminds me a little bit of at the end of Al Davis's career when everyone went Click Beatty and look how terrible Al Davis looks and what a joke he is. And his actual, the substance of his career, completely forgotten unless you were of a certain age and you remembered the bulk of his work. And I'll tell you why. Who is taking those shots at Bob Costis?

Everyone all the time. He's an easy target and I get it. But Bob Costis was one of the youngest people ever hired to announce Major League Baseball. He blew it out of the park. He did a great job. He was one of the better broadcasters of all time. I don't think I grew up watching him. And I know the four of us like two, three of us out of the four like to joke about it, Wes doesn't, West thinks it's idiotic. I don't think it's, well, I think Wes is mystified by it, understandably. I honestly think that guys like Costas, guys like Al Michaels, some of these guys that are at the end of their

career, a lot of people in sports media journalism would not be here. If it were not the prime of their careers and how they made you love sports more. Bob Costas, I grew up, I loved football more because of what he did on NFL, NFL live back on NBC, and the whole crew of them. So to me, yes, maybe I overvalue him now, his late work, but I wouldn't be sitting here if it weren't for a collection of those guys, Marve Albert, the rest of them. They're all in cahoots. They love each other because they are good at what they do. I love the analogy because Bob Costis is a luminary in the broadcasting business, just like Al Davis, is one of the greatest figures in NFL history.

Now I'm picturing Bob Costas drafting Jamarcus Russell and Rolanda McLean and then burying Lane Kiffin in a press conference. Do you? I'm going to write the blog post about Mark's speech and it'll say Sessler colon, costus. I mean, this is Greg, this is classic. This is classic, like, minorly post-millennial nonsense from Greg,

who basically has never, ever appreciated Costas because he didn't, you know, good good for you. Greg. I didn't even fit. NFL Networks, Greg Rosenthal, telling us how broadcasting works. Costas like a late period, Al Davis. That's the headline.

You, I feel sorry for you, Greg, that you cannot appreciate what Bob Costas brought to the world of sports. Well, he's not leaving. He said he's taking on a Tom Brokaw-like role. This is the right time, well, Tom Brokaw, who is on television about once every 80 days right now. It is the right time,

and NBC had enough foresight to bring in what is the best broadcaster of today. They're going from best to best. This is manning to luck. This is Montana to Steve Young. Do you... Brady to Brissette? Do you still think that...

Ooh, slides me off a piece of that, Jake Brisk? Do you still think that somebody's a bigger Bob Costas fan than you, though, after that? I appreciate him. Maybe it's because I'm a little bit older than some of you guys. Like, I don't... I understand the... I love Costas.

Well, I've never detected that on any level from you, but that's that. That's breaking news. Now he's breaking some news. I mean, I just feel that it's just utterly smarty nonsense. I'm the insider now. I'm the insider now. How dare you? I'm bad.

No, not his late period, Casas, he was on the soapbox talking about gun control during Sunday night football. Right. That stuff, and that's what, that stuff's from, we have to move on, but that stuff was fine in the 1980s and early 90s. And one happened with him, and it's going to happen to all four of us. some point, too, if it's not already happening, is you're not moving on with the time. You're stuck at a certain period. Those soapbox things don't fly with 95% of the audience now.

They did back in 1980. Why do you think Chris Furman's out of work now? Well, exactly. Things move on. Without you if you don't adapt. All right. Wes, you wrote a banger. It's about the NFL network in conjunction with NFL films. Their sound effects, they wire up players for many games during the season. but none there are no more wires the most wires i should say come on that final sunday in

february and you had some takeaways from the sound effects edition of super bowl 51 i must confess that when david ely put this assignment on my desk i thought i've never even seen the show sound effects i'm not trying to watch it i guess i'll just go through the motions and write something and you know somebody must have said something interesting i'll write that up And then I kept a notebook throughout the program, and it was a masterpiece theater of football broadcast from NFL films, I guess, who does this production. And it was the anatomy of an epic comeback, just watching Julian Edelman is the star of the show chatting throughout the game. But you get to hear from Tom Brady, and there are several soundbites in here that they might give you the chills a little bit. Well, let's hear some of them, Wes.

Cue it up, their new money. We go through multiple channels to get things done here. Let's go score and win this thing, baby. For your mom. For your mom, bro. Who's that? That was Julian Edelman right after the Patriots win the coin tossing over time. Dan Rose decides it, though.

Turns to Tom Brady and says, for your mom, bro. I get it. I mean, the mom thing, I love my mom. We all love our moms. But, you know, it wasn't like if he would have thrown an interception, which he very nearly did, by the way, Tom Brady, would it mean that he let his mom down? No.

Well, I'm reining on. the parade a little bit. Let's hear something else. What else, Wes? Let me set these up. That would be a better way. That's what I was doing. You're a pro, and I totally fumbled. You still have time. We could get this on track. You're down 283, but you've got to come back in you. Mark set it up. Here we go.

It's 28 to 3. Let's hear from Tom Brady trying to rally the troops after it's 28 to 3. There you go. Let's show now. Let's go show it's a fight. Come on, now let's go. Got play tough for harder tough for everything. Everything we got. That was good. That was good.

That reminds me a lot. I'm trying to think of it's one NFL films clip they use all the time. I actually set it to you in the Super Bowl press box at one time. They always use it for Brady. Exilary. Are we going to lay down? Are we going to fight? That's the Tom Brady clip that they always use.

Now they can always. Yeah, I saw that this morning, actually. He's stalking up and down the sideline. His teammates are sitting down. And I would think that makes a big difference when you have the King. a number one guy in your team a call to arms like that. What else we got, Wes?

That was a good setup. That was when the number one guy in our team, David Ealy, had me start to write an article that went a thousand words in and was never seen by another human being. I don't know if this is going to catch on, but Kevin Patrick challenged me on my use of ankle catch for Julian Edelman's catch.

So I've come up with Incredelman. Okay. The Incredelman is the name of the catch. But here's what's cool when he catches it. As he's trying to pull it off of... I like it. Robert Alford's ankle, they catch him on Mike going, I caught it, I caught it, while he's still in the motion of catching it.

Let's hear it, Sid. I caught it. I caught it. Crazy. I swear to God. That's cool. It's him and Brian Poole looking at opposing scoreboard screens, and Brian Poole, the falcon quarterback is like, no way, no way.

And he's like, no, I swear to God, I caught it. I liked, it made me think higher of Dantahita Hightower, not that I didn't think high of him, but that he was really like the vocal sort of leader of that defense. And at one point, I think it was 28 to 9, and he was just like, no more mistakes, no more my bads. Like, we have to be perfect now. There's no more margin of error at all. And that was basically the point where he gets the sack fumble.

I liked Anta Hightower, by the way. Was that setting up your last one? No, I could still set up. He did not go to the parade. Yeah. because you said he's had enough of cold and wind and rain and sleet, which I get it. It'd be a terrible mailman, by the way. And he's not going to the White House.

I don't know if that team's going to the White House when it's all said and done. I didn't want some sandwiches. But he'd go to the White House for Obama either a couple years ago, so there's no political tie to that. He just doesn't want to go. He already did it with Alabama. And you have one more, Wes, right? Jackie Slater, Hall of Famer, and Matthew Slater's father passionately testifying on I'm Tom Brady's greatness.

I got the best quarterback in the history of the national football league, bar none. I don't disrespect anybody, but Tom Brady is the best quarterback to ever play the game. I wish I talked like that. I know. I know. I like Bar Nones. Ever played a game. Let's bring back Bar Nun.

Let's start using it all the time. I want to talk better. The best line in that whole episode, though, was Mos Sunu was one of the guys miced up. Oh, yeah. A lot of him, and he's feeling his oats in the second quarter after Robert Alford's pick six. They go up 21 to nothing. They ain't never met nothing like this. And he's talking to Taylor Gabriel, who has a nervous look in his eye.

And he goes, it's Tom Brady, though. Oh, wow. Yeah, and he goes, we're going to put 40 up on them. And Gabriel's just like, we got to. Hey, if that didn't hook you in, here's the good news. If you're upset that you missed it, this will be played seven million times. No, sound effect five months. This show every year the hour-long sound effects after the Super Bowl really is one of the best things NFL films does every year.

It's always awesome. And the saddest, the one that stuck with me the most from that entire show was after Jake Matthews's hold, after that play, you know, Matt Ryan thinks he got them into field goal range again. And he just goes, he goes, what the fuck guys? He's like, did you hold? And he asked Lvitre that. And Lovitre is like, no, and Matthews is just kind of a foot away from him not saying anything. And it was rewatching this game, I felt for Jake Matthews. For people that killed Kyle Shanahan, I think Jake Matthews, a couple colding calls, a lot of pressures.

If you're looking for, there's a million different people that struggled when they collapsed. But to me, Jake Matthews, especially in that offensive line, is going to be living with that for the rest of his life. I'll have an end around column tomorrow about the different things that the Falcons, if they just would have pulled off, one of them probably would have won the Super Bowl. And Matthews, sadly, is a starring role because he had two holding calls. calls one after the onside kick after the first Patriots touchdown and then of course the killer a couple of plays after Julio's big catch in the fourth quarter because I love our listeners so much look at you I've included links to all these videos too so if you don't get a chance to watch

it on NFL network pull up my article nfl.com slash wesling the sound effects article the links are all in there to the videos if you want to see the beautiful work west well done uh so there you go sound effects check it out airing over and over this off season on NFL network now this is the gift that keeps on punishing you well dan you know you were out yesterday you uh that was not an accident by right good day to be out i think it was a eight or nine times in a row with these various million uh football lives with the patriots what's it called the america's game over and over one super bowl then the next football lawyer maloy patriots dynasty day on nifil network

yeah i steered clear of that channel on my direct tv at home as well all right let's settle up by the way, some sandwich props from Super Bowl, 51, our annual preview show. We do some props. And so let's go through them. Sandwich props. Sandwich Proposition update. Oh, my God. People really hate that drop.

No, you know what happened was? That is the new sandwich drop. And I'll tell you why. Because I got several tweets from people saying I had to turn off the podcast because the apple chomp. Do we still have that one? That was it. No, this is different, Greg.

Trust me. I'm the one that it was sitting. So this is a punishment to those of you that are so weak will that you couldn't handle the last chomp. This one's even more gross. I don't know what the end game is here, but that was hideous. Let me tell you something. That's a pickle being eaten. If you cross me, if I get one more tweet from somebody saying they can't handle that drop, what are we going to do, Sid?

Something about a banana. The banana chewing drop You don't want anything Close to the banana drop No you really don't After that it's someone chewing On someone's human femur I mean where are we going with this?

Don't at me bro I'm just saying Tough up You have you pay literally nothing For this podcast Deal with an Apple You're saying millennials are a generation That lacks toughness Dan

Maybe You know who you are If you're listening right now And you came at me on Twitter About having to turn off the podcast I don't know who you are but you know who you are all right here we go we'll start with mark sessler mark you finished four and five for the super bowl uh which is about where everybody else

finished none of us got anything right yeah uh here's the first one there will be no super bowl 51 winner oh yeah we all not true it did go to overtime so there was a moment where there was you know and of course leading up to the game some of the uh the unrest social unrest around this country. It seemed like you had a shot at this. A lot of people thought there was a shot and in the end there was no shot. Okay, so that cost you three. Your next one, Lady Gaga will do something during the halftime show that will immediately qualify as legitimate breaking news beyond the sports world.

And this is a fun person to ask this. West, we had decided that you would be the independent arbitrator on this. Did Lady Gaga do anything that really have the entire world talking? No, I mean, she jumped. She acted like she jumped off a roof but didn't really jump off a roof. She did some spider monkey crawl. I don't know. He's right.

There's no breaking news. If she would have jumped off the roof, that might have qualified. No, I think something would have had to have gone wrong with jumping off the roof for it to go breaking. That's what I always thought that you were like hinting at Gaga suffering some type of mortal injury. It's more like I feel every time I do one of these, it's like, oh, that wasn't onion-y enough. So it's like I'm now just resorting to like natural disaster and like massive issues. Very strange. And here is your big winner.

And it was a big one. Super Bowl 51 will go into overtime. And we discussed that. And it is. The finally Super Bowl 51, the first Super Bowl. So you won sandwiches off both Dan and Greg. Moving on to Greg Rosenthal, who came in under 500. Three and four, Greg.

That will hurt you in the standings. Well, that's a good tease for later. happy to go over the overall standings after this is... Okay, good. Dionne Lewis will... Yeah, you and Bob Costas and go over it. How about that?

Dionne Lewis will finish with over 100 yards from scrimmage. Right, church, wrong pew. You know? Where did he finish? He had about 27 yards or something like that. I mean, James White, who has a very similar role, obviously, basically, you know, the receiving back ends up getting jobs for the MVP award. I don't know about getting jobs.

I think Tom Bernie earned that sucker. I agree. Let me just get. I'm just saying he had the most catches in Super Bowl history. He had 130 yards. He had a game winning touchdown. He had a pretty epic. Just for G.

Just for us, Deon Lewis had 27 yards rushing and two yards receiving. And he got injured in the fourth quarter, 29 yards. Okay. Matt Ryan will throw for over 350 yards. He only threw the ball 23 times. And that's what cost you. 17 completions for 284 yards, which is pretty interesting.

Who knows, Greg, if you would have won the Falcons would have won that coin toss and they marched down the field, maybe you get that 350. You'll have to settle for a fifth Lombardi trophy. It's not exactly like second prize to have your team win the Super Bowl. That would have been tough. But I do thank West for not jumping in on either one of those. So that helped me. I don't think he had a choice.

That wasn't there. Oh, yeah. Finally. I forgot that. That was the bit. Finally. Thanks guys. Finally, Dan Hansis.

That's me. NFL Media Insider, Dan Hanses, I should say. AT&A, AT&E, Inside, Inside, Dan, Hanson, Handis. For the truth, go to the suits. Good day, ma. The zooms are in the morning. Was that a chimp in the background at one point? Ask Sidney.

She put it together. No, no, there was a dolphin. Oh, a dolphin. ATN Media. insider that even the title doesn't make any sense around the NFL media none of that makes sense four and three um the falcons will score an opening drive touchdown greg and mark took me up on that and that didn't work out i believe they went six and out uh and then uh the super bowl 51 winner will not have an official white house visit and it's funny i don't even remember this

even though it was a week ago Greg you did not take me on that no i i don't think they will and i I think it's looking good for you and I that we were right there. I would have to get it. I just think that with so many players not wanting to go, if half the team, if you get it to the point where it's at least half the team doesn't want to go. That's still an official visit. No, no, no, I'm saying that.

Oh, they'll pull out. But you would say, though, let's say Brady, Belichick, and 19 players go, we're calling that an official. Oh, of course. Well, Brady and Belichick are going to be on the Joint Chiefs of Staff soon. That's their point. I mean. Yeah, congratulations on that, by the way, Greg.

Big win. What are you talking about? Hey, look, if they, yeah, they could improve things. Oh, here comes more tweets. I haven't heard enough sandwich bites, by the way. I've got to punish those people. Punish. I love it.

Keep your politics, sell the podcast, man. Have fun with your new podcast. That's it. So where are the standings at, Greg? And now three or four years into the race? Wesleying, 75 and 6.76? No, Wes got one right because Wes took Mark on the Super Bowl will not have a winner.

So Wes is Stephen Stephen. This is the all-time winner. This does count. Oh, it counts everything. It's counting the Super Bowl. Okay, good. Mark, I guess, would be bringing up the rear of the four of us at 62 and 68. Yeah, I've had quite a comeback, but I was awful out of the game.

It shows with the less wins and losses, you just don't jump in as much. Well, it reflects the early stage in my play. Not to say that I got a whole host of things completely wrong, so I'm not getting any better. Dan doing well, 82 and 72. That's what I'm talking about, baby. And I am at 89 and 75. All right. So I picked up a little ground on you, but you're still first place.

And this game ends the moment of us, the moment one of us quits gets terminated, where the podcast mysteriously disappears when someone on the third floor listens to literally one episode. So whenever that happens and the show either is no longer the four of us or we're canceled outright, which I'm not saying,

this is not me hinting that something's going on. I'm just saying if that were to happen, that's when the game ends. If people are looking for what is the end game here? Right. Then Nick Fortier, who runs this wonderful sister site is out of an unpaid job. Oh, I thought you were going to say he,

takes, you know, one of our chairs after we get let go. That's good. It's like him the gold standard. Go get my lunch.org, by the way. I think a football podcast might be beneath the gold standard. Sydney, by the way, is 0 and 4 all time. So you either need to jump off the Ziggyanza trailer. All right, moving on.

We've got to keep moving, guys. A lot to get to the supersized edition of the Around the NFL podcast post-Super Bowl edition. the top five calls of the 2017 season. Oh, I love this. We took it seriously. If you're a listener of the podcast and you listened all season long, you know that when we would play different radio calls on our Sunday podcasts and our Tuesday podcast for the primetime games,

we would mark them off, or Sydney, I should say, would mark them off when we let her know we'd like the call. Out of those markoffs, it came to a nice group, a dozen calls, and then the four of us got together in a pre-prod meeting, I call it. Pre-prod. And we whittled that 12 down to five. And here now got the paper in the hand. This is the list.

If you are in the business in the play-by-play business or the Color Man business, this is the piece of paper you want to be on come February. Because that means that you are doing something. You're standing out from all of your peers. That is absolutely right. They don't even know this podcast exists. Well, they will. We had 7 million people, listen, 8 million people since we started this.

Another million just joined. Listen to the show on Sunday. So you don't know. Zoli might have been listening. Old shirtless, Hansl Zoli. It's worth mention you have to be a radio, man. You're not going to be on a television show and get in on this. You're not, we have a TV calls.

Yeah, every once in a while we would. I think Zolli's got a kegger right now. Zoli is bombed. All right, here we go. Number five, the call is from Mike Keith of James. WGFX. The play call was the game-winning field goal by Ryan Suckup in Kansas City to keep Tennessee's playoff hopes alive and send the Chiefs to an unlikely loss.

Brinkley to snap, turn to hold, snap, set, kick on the way. God! Ryan Suckup has given the Titan. A 19 to 17 win at Arrowhead. Oh my goodness, 8 and 6 has never felt better. And I don't think Ryan suckup has ever felt better. Wes, now this was a major source of consternation in the pre-prod meeting. You didn't think this belonged to the top five.

Well, generally, who would have thought that in the year 2017 radio calls wouldn't be that compelling? That was my general sentiment. And the second sentiment was really tough to get on this list when that makes it. Wait a second. I loved how he was like, God! In fact, Cindy, can we clip off when he goes, God! In fact, I just want to hear that part one more time.

God! So that was number five, and you know what it beat out. By hair, it beat out the Kansas City play-by-play guy, noting that someone had found the sweet nectar of the end zone. And Bob Costas announcing the preakness. And Costas. the preekness. Best moment of suckups life.

Even better than being Mr. Irrelevant back in the NFL. And some of these are sad in hindsight because the next week the Titans played like crap and then Marcus Marriota broke his leg. But these teams, in the moment, there's special moments for the teams. Number four, special. Eight and seven never felt so bad the next week. Number four, the Cleveland Browns make the list. And you know the only way the Browns are making a list like this is if,

something really bad happened to them or their one victory of the season and that's what we're talking about. Jimmy Donovan of WKRK. God bless him. This was his call when the field goal was missed by who missed the field goal mark. Little Brown's trivia.

The Chargers field goal kicker. Nick Novak? Josh Lando. Oh, Josh Lando. Lambo. Lambo. Goes wide right ensuring on Christmas Eve of all days that the Browns would not go winless in 2016.

Nine seconds and the clock is running. It's down to seven seconds. They set it down at the 35. It's down to four, three, two, one. They got it off. The kick on the way, end over end. The kick is up, and it is no good. And the proff have won it.

A 45-yard field goal, no good, at the absolute last tick of the clock. And it's 0 and 14 no more on Christmas Eve. The Browns are a winner. People, yes, there it is the applause. People will be surprised to know this. And Mark, tell me if I'm wrong. That was the angriest I ever saw you in the newsroom when that happened. Which people would be surprised by.

They didn't like the celebration around your team. No, I don't even remember what all the nuances were, but it's not a pleasant place to watch Browns games in general. I hear you on that, I hear you. Especially this season because it was. became part of the newsroom culture was the Browns, the winless season and how close they came to it. So there was like a fun kind of cathartic celebration in the newsroom. But for you, Mark, a very serious-minded Browns fan, it was kind of still kind of sad. I don't claim that it was,

you know, I mean, every day I'll say this about at least one or two my reactions. They're a mess. And that was not a, that was a messy reaction. That reminds me of what you said during the Super Bowl, which is that if the Browns ever did make it to the Super Bowl, you're actually going to have. have switched places with Simone. You'll sit in the crowd and Simone will cover the game. Right. Simone is my wife. She will be forced into writing articles during the Super Bowl while I enjoy it and set things on fire.

I'm just going to set myself on fire. I am not working if the Jets make the Super Bowl. Thank you. I'm going to the game. Right. But I am not working. It's not like you have an option. You don't have an option.

Oh, I'll have an option. Well, it's not going to happen either. Right. Yeah. It's fantasy. That's why it was a weird. Yeah. Number three, the New England Patriots.

They deserve to crack this list. And you would think the play call that we play call that we play on Sunday night of the Patriots winning the game in overtime would get it. But no, Bob Sosie and our boy, Scott, totally comfortable with public nudity Zolak with the call on Danny Amandola's two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter to tie the game. 57 seconds to go, a two for the tide, drips to the left. Brady undersheder. Tom takes the step.

Quit through to Amadola, screen left. A flag is he reaches across the goal line for a score. There is a putty marker on the play. They're off sides. That's in. It's a tight game in Super Bowl 51. High fives for everybody. Give me some.

What are you looking at, Beatle? I can't believe it. Someone that's familiar with that market can let us know who Beatle is. What are you looking at Beatles is my favorite line? Yeah, we got a fighting. If someone follows Scott Zolak or knows the answer to this. Just get the information. You almost not want to know, too, and just forever be curious, like, who he's taunting there.

That makes the list because of unhinged homerism. It's not because it's the cleanest call. It's just you can't believe that anyone in a booth is behaving this way. Zolak proved himself to be the number one homer in the NFL this season, without a doubt. So this was a little nod to him, giving him the bronze medal. I will say it is interesting that's coming out of New England. Because I know in New York, at least, and Mark, you know this. they're very

there's not a lot of homers not at all in New York because that's for whatever reason that market has always been more along the lines of playing it down down the middle even if there is a slight leaning one way or the other because there's not one team either I think that's part

of it because there's Mets Yankees there's Jets Giants so why would that affect? I think New York is legitimately like it is the launching pad to national work national careers Boston TV wise it's not that way but you might I guess I mean partly because like there's a lot of non-Yankees and Mets fans there listening, you know what I mean?

Far less provincial of a city. But every call we're listening to has a tinge of homerism. And New York, you're right, does not. Moving on. Number two, and this is going to surprise people because I think a lot of people when they heard this call and it came very early in the season. Week one, in fact, said, oh, the race is over.

And, you know, we thought it was over, too. People were saying that. The street's talking. Give it to Kevin Harlan because in a game, a wipeout of a game where the 49ers embarrassed the 49ers and a shutout win on the late Monday night game in week one. Harlan set the country on fire the next morning on social media with his call of an idiot fan who had run onto the field.

Hey, somebody has run out on the field. Some goofball in a hat and a red shirt. Now he takes off the shirt. He's running down the middle by the 50. He's at the 30. He's bare chested and banging his chest. Now he runs the opposite way. He runs at the 50.

he runs in the 40 the guy is drunk but there he goes the 20 they're chasing him they're not going to get him waving his arms bare-chested somebody stop that man here comes the blue coat oh they got him they're coming from the left oh and they tackle him at the 40-yard line that was the most exciting thing to happen tonight i always like because it's a professional call of a fan on a field but then he's like to the 50 to the 40 this guy is drunk to the 30th, that's what I always love that. He loves. It's an example of someone I think just absolutely loves what he does.

Like he turned that into something so special. It's like very few people have that kind of fun with it. And it's a reminder. And since I'll never get a chance to really talk about Jeff Fisher's, you know, head coaching career maybe ever again. It's a reminder. How did the Rams lose the only two games of the season that the 49ers won were against the Rams? And they did their offense didn't get 200 yards in either one of those games.

That's almost impossible. Horrendous, horrendous. And check out Kevin Harlan. He'll be all over March Madness. So that guy's got a good career, and he deserves it. But the man who takes the cake, and I'll tell you what, he's the one man in the list. Probably doesn't want to be on the list, but we love him.

We say this with peace and love that Bob Lamy of WFNI in Indianapolis earned the number one spot of our calls of the year with this gorgeous gem in week three against the Chargers. The Colts win it. 26, 22. Game's over. Game is finally over. Round of applause for everybody.

Bob Lamey, people. Drops an F-bomb live on air. It's like every Sunday night football game in this room. Lamy. I'm glad he didn't lose his job over that because people have lost their job for less. All right, finally. This is what you came here for.

Mark Sessler wrote a banger. What we're looking forward to, this offseason besides Tony Romo blather yeah blather so Mark came up with a nice list here I think it goes about

10, 12 deep with a bonus section entitled Ultra Tidious Storylines I refuse to entertain We'll get into what exactly That was really the article I was going to say It almost felt like the whole thing

was a preamble to set up that that just leading you to water Yep All right So let's go down the list And we'll decide Whether Mark's on point

Or completely just writing it About his ass Well that's very possible First one And by the way Why beyond Romo Why did why the conceit at the top Explain to us

I'm already completely exhausted With the handling of Tony Romo At one point he's going to be traded That's one article Let's keep it at one Why do we need to have 4,000 think pieces and lists and other landing spot bits. I mean, we get it.

I think you're right. You're absolutely right. All right. So, no Romo talk, but you know what? One of the storylines, we talked about this one, Shanahan's Fix It Upper by the Bay, how does Kyle take that two-win team and turn it into a respectable bunch? You're excited, according to your copy,

attract this off-season. I do think it's exciting. New coaches actually are one of my most, I think it makes the off-season interesting. Treasured institutions. I think you find out who they are real quick because we all think, I think Kyle Shannon's riding in. I get the Super Bowl thing,

but as this sort of Wonderboy based on his entire lineage and career and everything else, and this is a very tough job to turn this team around quickly. And this is a pretty exhausted, angry press corps that covers the Niners that don't have six years of patience in them,

so it'll be an interesting dynamic. Although I think they're kind of impressed that Jed York pulled off, even though John Lynch is a strange hire in a lot of minds, I think you're kind of like, wow, Jed York got John Lynch and Kyle Shannon. That's actually pretty good.

Their roster, though, I mean, they're going to have to, they're starting from scratch. Especially if Jeremy Curley sneaks out of the building. 80 million under the cap, and I was looking at the free agent list this year. It is the weakest crop of free agents I've ever seen because the salary cap keeps going up by a decent amount every year.

So teams are signing their good young players. This is a bad year to have a lot of money under the camp. As such a lover of coordinators, though, what do you think about the decision that Kyle Shanahan's not even going to have an offensive coordinator? Troubling. I think Connor Orr wrote a great piece about first year head coaches when they go through all this and then they sit in their chair and they think, I don't know what I'm doing. Like adding a lot of extra responsibility onto your plate when you haven't been a head coach for Kyle Shanahan,

who's going to find that there's all these other things he has to do. By the way, he comes from a father, Mike Shanhan, that probably told him everything. So more experience than other. Next up, what becomes of Jimmy G? I like this one. In fact, yes, our NFL network hit that you could watch on Friday. On up to the minute, this is the subject.

Garapolo, the backup quarterback of the Patriots. The Pats have a position here. He has one year left on his deal where they can make a play, trade Garapolo with Tom Brady, obviously still playing so well. and the Patriots defending champions now, the question becomes, Mark, and I'll start with you. Where does he end up?

Where is he come September? Is he in Cleveland, Mark? Cleveland's going to have to give up a lot because it sounds like there's at least three teams that are very serious about making a run for him. Which three teams, 49ers, Bears and Browns? Top three teams in the draft. So there isn't a team sitting at 20 that has no,

I mean, they all have great position to outbid each other. Kyle Shanahanham, one of the reasons he left the Browns is because they disregarded his analysis on that quarterback class. He had Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo rated above Johnny Mansell and Teddy Bridgewater. They didn't pay attention to him. He left. Kyle Shanhan now in San Francisco, we've seen reports that the Browns are already planning to trade for Garoplo. We've seen reports that the Bears have made him their number one offseason priority. And Thomas Dimitrov, who had Shanahan for two years and had his ear, said it best,

until you find a quarterback, the search for him consumes you. There will be a windfall of draft picks in New England, I think. I think he's going to bring more than a first rounder. And once the bidding gets wild, I think it could go out of control. He is the most attractive guy on the market in terms of, you know, Tony Romo or Cutler or Tyra Taylor could be in the mix. I don't know. I feel like if the Brown said today will give you the number, what is it, 12 or 14?

12 pick for the draft. I don't know if the Patriots would wait around. I think they would just be like, all right, let's do it today. Well, here's that offer, Mark. You tell me if you do it if you were the GM. Not the first overall pick, but the Brown's number 12 pick, which they obtained from the Eagles, of course, and a third rounder next year for Jimmy G.

And a fifth rounder in 2018. I would do it in a second. And I'll tell you why. Because if it works, then it doesn't matter what the cost was. If it doesn't work, it's no difference. different than going into the season with RG3. They've got a ton of draft picks. Browns keep having...

Well, it's a big... It's a whiff if it doesn't work. Are the Browns going to draft? They have a million picks. Are you going to keep 15 rookies again? You can't... I like their idea, but like at one point, you have to go for the quarterback. And Jimmy G.

has been well trained. By all indications, it's not Brock Oswald or Part 2. And you've got to swing for the fences. You cannot go into the season with nobody. I guess my point was that it's just because they have... X amount of roster space, it's still, there's a lot of risk involved to give up a number 12 pick. But I think it's worth it.

Daniel Jeremiah in his latest mock has the Browns taking a tight end at number 12. So do you want not, who wouldn't even be your number one tight end or do you want to go for the quarterback? I give up the 12th pick for Jimmy G plus a third or whatever in a second. These rebuilding teams at the top of the draft, the Browns, the 49ers, the Bears, they don't want Tony Romo, they don't want Jay Cutler, they don't want Tyrod Taylor. The Browns offer that. The Patriots are going to shop it to the 49ers and Bears and say, beat it.

And keep an eye on the Saints. I really think the Saints were one of the teams that were really high on Garapolo going into the draft. Sean Payton, the Eastern Illinois connection. They've been looking pretty hard at trying to find their next quarterback. I don't think that's crazy. I don't buy it for a minute. You're going to trade a first rounder when your defense sucks every year? And one point on the Patriot side.

Is there any thought in that building that we could have a Montana to Steve Young transfer of power? Why would we give that up if we think that highly about Jimmy G? Now, the good problem to have here is that Brady doesn't look close to the end of the line, but he is going to be 40. I think that's interesting, too, because they are so well set up for another decade with a backup they believe in. But Brady obviously isn't close to the end yet, but he is 40, so the end could come quickly. They traded Richard Seymour. They traded Drew Bledsoe for obvious reasons.

They've traded all sorts of guys when value is there. It's never going to be this high ever again. Right. I think they would have thought about offering Jimmy Garapolo a weird sort of contract where it was, the bases were low for a few years and then it spiked up with an option. If Tom Brady wasn't this good this year, if he was just, if he had that gradual decline where he was like the eighth best quarter, but he was, he was too good for them to do that. Right. The cost of keeping Garapolo instead of trading him is messing up your salary cap by paying too high end quarterback. Moving on, another quarterback. This is really well put mark. the courting of Cousins. Nice alliteration.

I don't even remember writing that, but apparently I did. Yes. So, Mark, you don't expect Kurt Cousins' plan for anyone but the Redskins. But at the same time, Wes, it seems like things are not, things are a little choppy in D.C. about the quarterback position. Does it surprise you that this is something that's even something we need to be tracking like this? Yes. I love that Mark put that quote in there because I think this is one of the most overblown

storylines of the offseason. He's going to be the quarterback for the. the Redskins, and the GM's quote is telling. I don't think it's as complicated as everyone wants to make it, and we'll get together with his agent, we'll come up with an agreement. That's what's going to happen. He's going to play for the Redskins. It'll probably be on the tag, though, right?

They said that last year, too. Bruce Allen said, well, we're very confident we're going to get a contract. This idea, he didn't. He didn't. So this idea that other teams want Kirk Cousins, so the Redskins will just say, oh, take him. That's fine. And someone remind me of the rules of this because I feel a little uncomfortable about

this idea because if you franchise a guy the first time, I think it's the average of the top five salaries at the position and if you do it a second time it's something even more extreme, isn't it? It's a 20% bump, I believe, which would make Kirk Cutt would be a one year. Like $24 million or something. Yeah, 24, 25 million.

And if anyone wants to come get them, they have to give up a lot drop. Is it two firsts, I believe? Yeah, if you don't make them the exclusive, I think they would just make them even the exclusive tag where you can't even give up. And if that happens, if he makes $25 million, you know who's doing really well for himself. Kurt Cousins, who will have essentially signed a two-year

$45 million contract. Right. Kirk Cousins. Curtsons. Crazy. It's good to be a quarterback. Cleveland's off-season strategy next up on Mark's list. And we talked about that with Jimmy G. But what else Mark is something to watch?

I think that's really the big part of it. Are you going to use the picks to get a quarterback or are you going to try to continue to build around a non-quarterback? Next up on the list. Adrian Peterson on the move? That's a question mark. He's turning 32 next month, was hurt and, you know, really we didn't get to see much of it at all last year.

Where would this guy end up, Greg, in your mind, if he hit the open market? And would he have a healthy market to choose from? I mean, he'll have suitors. He's not going to make a ton of money because he's an aging running back. I mean, it depends what you count a ton of money. I'd take six or seven million dollars, you know, in a one-year contract or, you know, two for 12. Give it to me, baby. The Giants make a lot of sense to me.

That just pops off my head. He's a fascinating player because I think we don't know how, what percentage he is of what he was a couple of years ago. I think he can still play, but the NFL has moved to an era where his skill set doesn't fit most offenses. He's a net negative in the passing game right now. Look at the Super Bowl. I mean, look at the Patriots. Exactly. All right.

And finally, then you could read all of Mark's piece on NFL.com slash cessler. That's the plug that you'd ask for privately, Mark, before the show. Well, that just throws you to a rather jumbled an author page. Anyway, here's the bonus. Mark, I would love for you to read this list in full. Ultra tedious storylines I refuse to entertain. Let's hear it, Mark. All right, number one, Blake Bordels, a quote, new man in Jacksonville.

We're all tired of that. Number two, Browns haven't lost faith in RG3. Give me a break. Number three, Rathusberger's still toying with retirement. Give me a break, part two. Number four, Dom capers building in quotes, tougher Packers defense. Teflon, Dom. That's coming.

Number five, Hackenberg, ready to make the leap in Florham Park. Number six, Bill O'Brien, we can rock with Brock. He's not same. Well, number seven, Tom Brady. colon, cantalope terrible for human digestive system. Number eight, E.J. Manuel, in quotes, Peyton-like in Bill's minicamp. Forget about it.

Number nine, Brandon Marshall, colon, Josh McCown will take Jets to Promise Land. And number 10, Nadamik and Sue, Patriots vulnerable after free age in Exodus. Never. Not writing about any of that. This is definitely everything was building to that paragraph. That's all. That's why you wrote this.

And I'm a very entertaining, Mark. Good stuff, everybody. That's today's show. I'm going to track that list and see if Mark writes anything on any of those. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing the off-season articles. He writes about the Chargers' comfy confines. He's very excited. I really want to go there.

I want to say, I'm late June when we're looking for it. What's going to happen in the off-season at the conval? Well, I will feign sickness. Oh, I just realized. Well, Mark will be not at his desk. Where's Mark? He's on the phone with the operations officer of the Chargers, and you're doing a long forum on this new soccer arena.

I can see it. Whatever it takes. I can see it now. Whatever it takes. All right. Good stuff. All right. And people who are curious, what is our off-season taping schedule?

All right. I think what are we doing next week, guys? What do we want to do next week? We're going to do two or three shows. This is a conversation we want to have on here. We're going to do it right now. Let's settle this. Let's sell it.

Pull back to curtain. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. That's typically what we did in the off-season. In very quiet time, sometimes we'd back. back it off to twice a week. Sometimes, but not yet. We're not yet. We're going to do probably three shows next week unless we do two.

But we won't do less than two, but we won't do more than three. And then, you know, once we get close to the comment, we'll be three shows a week until late June or so, mid-June. Then it's a total shutdown mail. No, then we back it off to two a week. But you're not. People coming in and out. We're not going to be gone along long enough for you guys to like start to miss us. This break from Sunday to today's show, you'll never have to.

to wait that long for a show. That is correct. I promise you. Unless something terrible happens, at which point go get my lunch.org becomes finalized. By the way, stick around after the show for some real breaking news. There you go. That's a good tease.

All right, let's get out of here. This is Dan Hansis, signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss, and new money behind the glass. Till Monday. Mark Sessler of the Around the NFL podcast here. It's a bit of a post-show breaking news scenario. We learned recently that internationally acclaimed economist Hans Rosling passed away this week. And sad news, of course, the world mourns.

And we have on the line, our economic expert, Mr. F, high school economics teacher in the Hague, the Netherlands. Mr. F, are you there? I'm here. Hi, Mark. Mr. F. Obviously, sad news. Can you maybe talk a little bit about the reaction among your fellow economists and maybe talk a little bit about who Hans Rosling was and why he was important? Sure. I think the reaction was shock. He was pretty young, 68, and he had a short illness. So I think there was surprise from the people I talked to about it because we hadn't known how ill he was. And I think

his importance is, it's hard to quantify for me because I really appreciated what he did. The most important thing for me from his work was he was able to change people's opinions about what was happening in the world by using facts and figures and data statistics that he compiled to make you really rethink your opinions about development and the poor and how the world was. And he was extremely practical. He worked in human health in Africa for years and just a couple years ago, he went to Liberia to work to help fight the Ebola outbreak that happened there. I mean, he really put in practice his knowledge of economics and statistics, and that was of great health, of great help in public health as well as in economics.

Where was he living at this period? So he's been in Sweden teaching at the Carlotta, sorry, the institute there, the main university, Carlinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, the capital for probably, boy, it's probably been like eight years he's been there. And before that, he was in public health in, in sub-Saharan Africa. And have you ever had a chance to meet him? Yeah, I was fortunate enough to meet him at an education conference, the ECIS conference in Lisbon, Portugal, about five, six years ago, I think it was. And he gave a presentation that I've already been teaching now for 20 years at the time, 15 years, it's probably the best

presentation I'd ever seen in terms of use of visual information and sharing ideas and getting complex concepts across to every person there. It was fantastic. And speaking of teaching, you have your own high school. We sat in the front row. Yeah, really? We sat in the front row, myself and another economist sat in the front row, and then we got our picture taken with him.

It was kind of a hero, another fanboy moment. Well, I was going to say that, I mean, I didn't realize that you'd have that kind of contact with him, that he was very important. I mean, to your students, you teach high school students, do they find him inspiring? Was he someone that was able to reach them on this topic of economics worldwide? Well, they always thought that his presentations were better than mine. He's just a great speaker. So when you watched his interviews, you could really tell both his understanding and his joy of the subject, and he was both funny and knowledgeable, and he really was able to share information.

And my students have always enjoyed his presentations. And actually, we talked about his death, and we will be watching a video for the introduction to development economics with my seniors in next week. So, yeah, he's still, you know, it's a great loss. Yeah, I'm here with Mr. F, and we're talking about the passing of Hans Rosling, a very well-known economist worldwide, died at a young age, too. Very sad news. One, I mean, it is an NFL show, and we've probably thrown our listeners for quite a loop at this point. Would you compare him? Is there any NFL figure that you could compare Rosling to? Is there anyone out there? This is tougher, because I'm not as knowledgeable, but I went to Westling, and I asked Chris for a little help, too. So I thought Wade Phillips, you know, an X's and O guys, and funny.

And Chris thought maybe his dad, bum Phillips. Ooh, I like that. And I also thought that really smart lineman from Baltimore, the mathematician, Ershel or something like that. Oh, yeah, the guy that's on all the commercials. Yes, the overly mathematical guy, yeah. Yeah, so I guess Hans Rosling was a really good X's and O's guy who was also funny. So whoever you got in your head for that, that's Roblin. Love the comparison.

Final question, and maybe you'd end up here someday if there is, is there an Economics Hall of Fame out there? I won't end up there, but I think the Nobel Prize in Economics is probably the top Hall of Fame honor. That's been going on for almost 50 years, and there's some incredible figures in that list. And there's some other lists, probably some historical lists, but that would be one for sure. Well, you never know. Hopefully, by appearing on this podcast, it's setting the path ahead for you to get the Nobel and more. Thank you for joining us. It's always great to talk a little economic theory with you, and we'll have you on the show again to talk some football, I hope. Thanks, Mark. As always, thanks so much for the pod. And congrats to Greg and all of you for a great season.

Greg on the Super Bowl win, but also for all of you, just fantastic work, as always. Yeah, it's really all about Greg in the end, so we're very excited about that dynamic. We will talk with you soon. Thank you so much. This is an I-Heart podcast.