NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Peterson reaction & Team of ATL debate

Episode Date: September 18, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- react to the latest news including the Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy situations. The guys also engage in a heated debate about the "Team of the ATL" and take a deeper look at Gregg's Week 2 "Winners and Losers" column.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 concerned about the effects of global warming on John Insick. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I'm joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys? Hey, Dan. What is happening?

We're still here. I was a little worried the entire operation might be shut down after the last couple of weeks. Why? There were rumors and confirm them, if you will, Greg, the boss, that Mark Sessler was going to be placed on the exempt list. That's never happening. Oh, good. So you're in the clear, Mark. You're in the clear of getting paid vacation.

If I remain hyperproductive as I currently am, I will not be put on any list that sidelines me. You're a threat to be put on that kind of a list. How dare you, sir? Just dealing in facts. We're talking after the show, you and I. We have an excellent, excellent podcast for you today, Wednesday, our second of three shows this week. We're going to get into the team of ATL discussion, which is very important that we touch on it and check in on our nominees, see if maybe we'll bring to vote. We talked about on Sunday, maybe getting to a vote to see if we could lock down a team today as soon as today.

Who knows? Wes, Wes, has got a poker face right now. I like that. Purple shirt, a poker face. Here's Wes. Yes. Did you wear that shirt? What was the thinking with that shirt?

Are you going to work out afterwards? I never understood that shirt because it's an underarmor shirt with a collar. Like, who's going to work out in a collared shirt? Gregory, I did not create the shirt. I just wore it. It was hanging in my closet and it involved no ironing, so I picked it up and put it on. Greg is the full name. The extragy at the end just ends up.

By the way, also, it was free. Yes. Yeah. Which half of my wardrobe probably is free. Never turned down free stuff. If you live in L.A. and have to pay sky high rent and a lot of money for everything else, it helps to have free clothing. Noted and a good point. We're also going to get into Greg's winners and losers.

You wrote about Greg every week, actually. You write about the winners and the losers, whether it be... Right. It's not just a list of the standings. Yes. You could also find out that way. That is NFL.com slash standing. This is NFL.com slash around the NFL slash vanity URL winners and losers.

We should work on that. Yeah, there is no vanity URL. However, every week Greg breaks down, whether it's a trend or just a weekly thing, who won, who lost. It's real good stuff. So we're going to get into that as well, some big takeaways from week two as we approach week three. But before we do any of that,

we're going to talk to the man behind the glass for a moment, the great Tay Day. What's going on, fellas? How are you? I'm doing well. Chris wrestling shirt, peacocking. Oh, yeah. Why do you say that?

Showing up the guns. It's a little bit tight, showing up the guns, and it's purple, you know? I don't even have guns. You've been working out a little bit. A little bit, buddy boy. Just a little. And let's, speaking of peacocking for the second show in a row,

So this time, TD has a muscle shirt with two pockets. But where the pockets are, they're zippers, which is good for going on roller coasters, I would assume, and other things where you need your valuables tucked away safely. But, you know, maybe not that practice. Like, you know, the roller coasters that go upside down. So you just put them right here. TD, why are you peacocking at the workplace? What is the end game and who are you hoping to attract?

On a Wednesday, no less. And not to get too far off track, but your wardrobe often reminds me of my daughter as she's outgrowing that stage and we're still trying to milk like a month or two more until we have to get her some new clothes. She's like 18 months old, right? Better on TV than Ely. Too short.

All right. Sorry, buddy. So what's going on? I just want to get some news, man. All right. Let's do some news. All right, cool. Let's do some news.

Oh, too soon. Yeah. And there's screams from everywhere. Rihanna, her intro on Thursday, Night Football got pulled because of the issues going on in the NFL right now. She hit out at CBS for pulling it. And then CBS said, well, goodbye to you, young lady. Griano no longer a part of Thursday Night Football's opening package, which opens the door up, I think, for Pianca to make a big comeback.

Good luck going up against a massive corporation when you're one individual. All right. Yes. All right. Okay, Mark. All right, so let's do some news, and we will start with the big news of the day. Adrian Peterson will not be with the Vikings in week three. He has once again been deactivated this time indefinitely moved to the exempt commissioner's permission list.

This is essentially a – he leaves a team. He cannot have contact with a team. He could be paid during this time. But now this is a way for Peterson to be moved out of the picture. While his legal proceedings play out, of course, he has the – child abuse allegations that he's facing charges for. Ziggy Wolfe, the owner of the Minnesota Vikings, had this to say on Wednesday during his press conference.

We made a mistake, and we needed to get this right. We embrace our role in the community and the responsibilities that go with it. It is important to always listen to our fans, the community, and our sponsors. So the Vikings under increased scrutiny, and what he said there at the end, listen to our fans, the community, and our sponsors.

You know, Radisson pulled out. There was a lot of stuff going on with the Vikings and the fan base, and now the Vikings have reacted by eliminating Adrian Peterson from their game plan indefinitely. And you wonder when he's going to come back because the key part of the Vikings statement when they released it after midnight Minnesota time

was that he would not return to the team until the legal proceedings are resolved. And we've heard from the district attorney that there's probably not going to be a trial until 2015. So I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. But if they stick by that, that he's going to be taking care of this until the legal proceedings are resolved,

we're not going to see him this season. In general manager, Rick Spielman was specifically asked, is there a scenario where he's done as a Viking? And he wouldn't respond to that. I mean, it's fair to ask if he'll ever play again in Minnesota. How crazy is this? What's happening right now? I mean, from that angle.

A week ago, Adrian Peterson was held in high esteem by everyone associated with the NFL and was viewed widely as the best running back in football. And I'm paced to have one of the greatest, one of the greatest careers of any running back in the history of the game, nearly set the single season rushing record. Now, in maybe what could be the final year of his prime, it might be completely wiped away,

and we don't know if he's ever going to play for the Vikings again. It's incredible what's happened right here. This is a serious, crazy story. He could also be back in a month, though. Two days ago we thought something completely different, so I don't want to get too deep into speculating just because this story and all these stories have been so unpredictable.

We keep hearing the phrase, current climate, which is kind of apt because human beings have no control over climate. The NFL has no control over the current climate. They're just building shelter until the storm passes, and then they'll have to try to figure out what the storm did to their lives. Peterson is someone they activated on Monday. I think that's the thing that stands out is that they change their mind so quickly based on, I think a lot of things.

I think the sponsors pulling out was big. The governor makes a statement. and the public outcry. I don't know. I think a lot of smart people are making comments on these stories. I think a lot more not-so-smart people are making comments on these stories. Like, I'm interested in listening to some of the unique takes, but I don't feel like I'm in that great a position to make it.

I am in position to say that the Vikings are not built to have Matt Cathill carry them. I mean, we saw that or Matt Azata. Yeah, and we'll get into that with the week three previews about what this means for the Vikings going forward. And then the other news on Wednesday, kind of the Panthers who seemed to be following the Vikings' lead on all this decided to put Greg Hardy on their exempt list, the same exact list.

So he will be away from the team getting paid. Panthers General Manager, Dave Gettleman, said Wednesday, Greg had the option to do this and he took it. This is what he chose. This is the option he chose. So the Panthers very specifically said this was Greg Hardy. decision, but really, you know, this was an organization-wide decision that Hardy took the best available option and that it does not involve playing.

And the agent for Peterson, and really it sounds like Hardy's agent echoed, it thought it was the best possible circumstance that they step away right now under the circumstances. They're continuing to get paid so the union goes along with this and they see how this quiet's down. He actually can be around the team. They said if he wants, he can come, he can't practice. but he could come be around the facility, and he might take advantage of that. I think echoing your thoughts, I think the writer's job, our job, is to impose order on chaos.

And that's hard to do in normal times. It's sort of what you do with your winners and losers column. You put order on what happened over the weekend. But when the world won't sit still long enough for you to read it, it's an impossible job, and that's what we're tasked with right here. Well, that's why when we've written, and I've done a lot, of the writing of just the news articles on the sites just we've kept it pretty simple

tremendous work on your part it's probably the most boring things that you've ever read because we're just sticking to the facts we're in that position because a we write for the NFL but even if I didn't I don't really want to be having hot takes on this stuff and Wes one of you spoken very eloquently on your part but I just want to say you said humans

can't control the climate ask Al Gore what he thinks about that I I read a book when I was a little kid Culbert yes we No, not him, but okay, same realm. Not Al Gore, but the Smurfs. I had a book when I was a little kid where they made a weather-making machine. I thought it was pretty ingenious by them.

I think Gargamel somehow foiled their plans. Do we think Hardy's loss? Again, we don't know how long it's going to be for. Wait, what about the Smurf stuff? You don't want to get into that anymore? I never really liked the Smurfs that much. It was before your time. No, I watched it a little bit, but.

The Smurfs. Not good enough for you, too, as children. Well, there was this whole weird, creepy thing of, like, the kid that was, the kid that was like, oh, yes, Smurfette, she's hot. I mean, there was something weird going on here, buddy. There was something weird of that whole of that. SmartFet was hot. Like a 10-year-old Greg reading like that.

See, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with the mini blue girl with blonde hair is hot? No, because the same kids that are the ones that are at the brony conferences that are my little pony fans. It's an evil seed that gets planted in these children. Well, sometimes you just leave that stuff alone once you get to. to be like eight years old. I was going to take the conversation more to Connie Ely and Mario Addison, and then we ended up on Smurf.

Were you ever a child, Greg? That's a good question. I loved cartoon. Laugh Olympics. The really rotten? That's a lot of fun. Yeah, Greg Hardy is the best defensive player on the Panthers. Is that fair to say?

Luke Keekly won defensive player of the year. Well, he's in the top two at least. Top three. How big is the loss? Is this loss? Well, the Panthers said it all when they decided to pay him over. $15 million this year, one of the highest paid players in the league. Look, they looked good last week against Detroit, even without them.

They're pretty deep on the defensive line, but it's a huge loss for them. Moving forward, more fun news to talk about the NFL and the NFL Players Association have finally reached agreement on a new drug policy per official, an official release from the NFL and the NFLPA. They've agreed to changes to the substance abuse policy, and this will leave. lead to immediately Wes Welker of the Broncos, Orlando Scandrick,

of the Cowboys, Stedman Bailey of the Rams, all being eligible to play in week three. This gets HGH testing in the mix as soon as this season and it also changes some of the other just the methods and the mythology of this system and I guess

they're all viewed as improvements. Josh Gordon, 10 game suspension now instead of we believe as we tape, we don't know about the substance abuse policy 100% yet so they're going to announce that officially we know officially that welker scandrick and bailey are back and actually they're going to be matching up this weekend in st louis get ready scandrick and bailey facing off in the slot rams cowboys suspension lifted contest how about this mark wow you can't call you third grig how about

this mark the cleveland brownie is sitting at six and four and here comes the best wide receiver in the NFL, back to the lineup, and away we go into the playoffs. Yes or no? No. The takeaway for me is that when it's the month of May, you can go to a horse race and behave any way you want. West Welker.

All right. That guy gave out money. He's a generous man. It's crazy because I remember when the new collective bargaining agreement was signed that there was a lot of back-slapping in celebration that players were, going to finally start, you know, getting tested for HGH. That was over three and a half, that was three and a half years ago.

And it took that long for it to actually happen. That's the big takeaway for me. And then they get Welker back for the big Super Bowl rematch. Hube, hubba. Moving forward, Tony Romo sat out practice on Wednesday with what was deemed or termed back tightness. Romo downplayed it in the locker room afterwards saying it's going to pop up. I'm sure it will happen throughout the rest of the season. You'll see a day here or there.

Greg, you were saying downstairs that in your study of the film, Tony Romo does not look like himself right now. He struggled both weeks. The first half against the 49ers was one of the worst halves of his career. And then his game against the Titans, he didn't have the big mental mistakes, but he just didn't look right. He didn't have a lot of heat on that fastball.

I'm not a doctor, but it just... You're not? It seems like he wasn't throwing deep and he missed a ton of throws. I try to chart bad passes, and he was wildly inaccurate in that game. He just didn't have to do much for them to win. He's approaching the position like Alex Smith. He won't pull the trigger on throws that other quarterback's throw. That's a good call because he's also been very hesitant.

So he'll like you look like he's about to throw it and then he'll stop and then he'll kind of run around and he'll get sacked. A lot of the sacks have bit on him. And he's just missing throws. As someone that's loved Tony Romo, love to watch him play, I think this is one of the worst two game stretches of his career and now he's missing practice. It's a concern at this stage because if, this is a skill set going forward, that's the beginning of the end.

That's when you see guys like Matt Schaub not pulling the trigger because they don't trust their arms. That's what's going to happen to Tony Romo. But that being said, week three could be a new Tony Romo. We don't know what week three will bring. When that decline hits, sometimes it is rapid and they're suddenly gone a shadow. But Greg, whether or not he is a good or poor player, it won't matter. You'll still get to see them five, six times on national television every year.

Mark just subtly airing all his personal grievances throughout the podcast, peppering them into every analysis portion. No, you're right. And Romo seems especially ill-suited to transition to a part of his career where he doesn't have the physical makeup. Because I don't think of Tony Romo that as a guy who always beat you with his mind. You know what I mean? He was more of an improviser.

I don't know if he's... I know what you're saying. You're saying he's stupid. No, I'm just saying guy like Philip Rivers or Peyton Manning. And they can live with losing some office fastball. I don't know if Romo can. Don't eat football. Don't he back hurt.

Don't he needs surgery. Oh, that is a bleak scenario you painted for the Cowboys, Dan. Hey, by the way, Greg, what was, when you listened, because remember, you had to sit out that pod with the sandwiches, go get my lunch. Propositions. That last part's supposed to be implied. Apologies. Who appeared to be the most gun-shy in terms of their propositions? That was Mark.

Yeah. And I guess it's ironic that right off the board, we already know you owe some sandwiches, Mark. Bad news. Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley said the team does not, never consider moving Blake Bordels as their starting quarterback this week and week three. You had a proposition on that that he would be starting by week three. Mark, you're going to owe some sandwiches on this. Well, I'm disappointed, number one, in the Jaguars organization. But listen, it's Wednesday, it probably be third.

Thursday or later when people listen to this, there's still 24, 48, 72 hours left for an engine to detach from plane and land on Henny or Henny's household and prevent us from happening. Now you're just outright predicting death. I have, listen, this comes down to either I feed Greg and Wesleyan, either I feed Greg and Wesleying or the two toddlers in my house. I have a few newsroom sources who have informed me as to your plans on this, and apparently Greg and I will not be receiving high-octane contraptions. They will be more

like finger sandwiches. I never declared the size, but I will honor you and give you your giant sandwiches from some store up the street. Relax. Wes and I are notorious meat eaters, too. You don't even need to give the bread. Just give us a bag of delicious meat.

I'm sure you'll get what you need. You give Greg bag of meat and I'll have a lunch. You'd like some bread with yours? And that's what's happening. R-R-R-A-T-A-N-A-R-S is a very special honor Wow! Greg has been singing this song at his desk all morning.

I have, too. I can't get it up, man. Get to see White Snake getting some work. Hey, listen, you would think it's White Snake. It's actually Dick Banks, the one-man house band, and I should point out, could find him at Rich Banks Music and Rich Banks.com.

I thought he went by Dick Max this whole time, but it turned out it was a Damashek thing. Well, that makes sense. In 2014, nobody, but that's what Damshed calls him. Just like Damshed calls me Hans-Zus, but that's not how you pronounce my name. Rich probably doesn't even know this is happening. Yeah, probably not. Anyway, oh, by the way, because someone on Twitter pointed it out, people said, I'm a new listener. Why is it the team of ATL?

What's ATL? How quickly times change. Nobody even knows. We used to be known as around the league. now we're around the NFL and team of ATL was the one thing Big Brother couldn't take away from us

Well let's be honest We had that song made And we didn't want to lose it That's really what it was We paid Richard Banks for that song And we didn't want to pay him again To re-recorded It's not a huge budget around here

So we'll probably be different next year But for now it's a team of ATL Okay so let's check in We talked about this on Sunday Because there's some people excited about the Chargers Who are one of our nominees for a team of ATL as being the team to move forward with,

just ending the whole charade and picking a team and moving forward starting in week three. Who is the team of ATL who is, Wes, why don't you describe what it means to be the team of ATL? Well, for those who are new listeners, we sort of jumped on the Panthers early last year while they still had a losing record because we just liked the way they were playing. And this is, to me, the most important part. We were organically excited to watch them. This was the team.

when we finish up Sunday nights and we go home and watch Game Rewind, I'm immediately putting on the Panthers because that's the team I want to watch. So we're taking something that was beautiful and organic last year and giving it rigid limitations this year, which is usually how you make things better.

I'm fighting that. That's how things develop in a corporate world. Yeah, well, that's where we are. Squeeze as much money out of it as possible. Exactly. We're looking for a sponsor. We're getting money out of this? If the Radisson is looking to throw some money around,

come to the podcast. You're on the NFL podcast. Anyway, so yes, the Panthers with the team last year. A couple of weeks back, we announced our nominees. We each had one. Wes had the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mark had the Minnesota Vikings, rough. I had the San Diego Chargers, and Greg had the Arizona Cardinals.

I look at this list, and it looks like, Greg, you're the only one that has an undefeated team still in the mix. Yeah. And I know some people sitting around here aren't as enamored with the Cardinals, Never Say Die Spirit. But the fact that they're winning with Drew Stanton in crazy situations, that just makes me like them more. I wasn't even aware of their never say die spirit. So basically, the way we have it in our rule structure, and Greg, we talked about this downstairs. You were excited about it. Every team has the opportunity, every one of us has the opportunity to use a Matthew Mulligan on a team, get rid of your team, and bring on a new team, or join forces with one of the ones we have.

as Wes points at the TV screen showing Levy on Bell tearing up. Levy on Bell, who Greg said just the other day, wouldn't be surprised if he was the consensus top running back in the NFL at the end of the year. Right. I was saying is he already a top five running back in the NFL. I personally think he is. I would take him. Sounds like a team of ATL kind of player.

It sure is good. It's not the player of ATL. We have spun so far out the runway. It's not a player of ATL. It's a team of ATL. They've got a lot of guys like that. Marcus Wheaton looking good. They're all in the head there.

All right. So, let's start here. We have the four teams in the mix. Does anyone want to use their Matthew Mulligan and get rid of a team that they have gotten behind? I'm kind of looking at you, Mark, because the Vikings are now without Adrian Peterson for God knows how long. A lot of bad juju are on that team, and you might want to go in a different direction. Or you could, and you don't have to say who your team is, but do you want to let go of the Vikings at this point? Yeah, well, I mean, number one, part of this is trying to present a candidate that's going to get through Congress, as they'd say.

And I have, the team I had is a windmill of total chaos right now. They're out. I love their first album. Okay, so they're out. You don't need to, maybe we'll save it a little bit so you announce your new entry. I have a new team. You only get one mulligan, too, so you sure you want to put it in right now? I put some thought into this.

I have a new team. Okay, good, very good. Greg, Arizona Cardinals, sticking with them? I didn't know. You're just making these rules up as we go along. You only get one mulligan per player. It's too complicated. It's not.

This is like the CBA you've got to study up to figure it out. You became the boss for a reason. I'm sure you're keeping up with the game right now. That is what it is. Those are the rules. Every society needs rules. Are you keeping the Cardinals for now? Yeah, for sure.

All right. I'm keeping the chargers, obviously, because I know there's some heat for them right now. Wes, are you sticking with the Steelers after that bad 26-6 loss to the Ravens last Thursday? It's week two. If this happened in week seven, nobody would think twice about it. Yeah, I'm sticking with them. All right.

West digs in. A stunner. West taking his heels in. All right. So, gentlemen, the Chargers we talked about it on Sunday. Greg, you were calling for it. You said we should make it right now. So why don't we take a vote?

Yeah. Do we want to make the Chargers the team of ATL? And I will start with Mark. Will you make the Chargers the team of ATL right now? But I have my own team in my hip pocket. Why am I suddenly going to jump bait on that and go join Greg? Well, this is Greg's idea. It is very confusing.

Well, actually, though, the Chargers are technically dancing. Yeah, because I'll vote yes. I'm ready to move forward. I'm voting, no. They're not exciting. I don't, like, go to bed at night wanting to watch the Chargers. And to me, their most fun player to watch was Ryan Matthews, and now he's out for five weeks. You know what?

You must not like quarterbacks that move in the pocket and get away, and are really tough, like, Phil. I don't really, I don't know, like, poor man's Peyton Manning isn't really my favorite quarterback to watch. No, Peyton Manning isn't dodging defenders and moving around and throwing crazy things. Sure he is. He's not tough in the pocket. what you think of when you think of Peyton Manning. That's probably Rivers' is defining trait. West's not convinced you.

Thoroughly nonplussed here. So one no vote and is the conversation. The vote's over for now. And now Mark, real quick, though, we had a Twitter listener who chimed in for 10 reasons why the Chargers should be the team of ATO at Jeremy Cox. He has 10 reasons. I'm just going to give you one of them. His main man, he was like, hey, we have Brandon Flowers.

You want to make flowers today? Big fan of the job. Check it out. Well, at Jeremy Cox. That cannot be ruled out because, let's hear that one more time. You want to make flowers today? That's 100% woman right there. That's a woman?

Oh, yeah. True detective, man. I don't have HBO. HBO go? No, I need a race. Flowers. Part of a revamped defense that's fun to watch, Melvin Ingram, Dwight Freeny playing well.

A hot-a-o-choo, or however you say his name. Our old Making the Leap guy, Corey, Legitian. Looking pretty nice. Now they're fun to watch on both sides. How about that Christmas one? He's not too legit to quit because I just quit him. All right. So, all right.

Okay, so we're not going to get a team this week. Mark, who are you throwing into the mix? I'm curious. Team that I landed on, I'm even surprised by this. New York Jets. Wow. Everyone wants to write them off. Because why?

Because they lost to the Green Bay Packers after giving them a run for the money in Lambo they've got a quarterback that we are starting to believe into some degree they've got some skill players that they didn't have last year

more interesting on offense they've got a Rex Ryan defense I don't see something about the Jets that for me would say all these other teams there's something going on where I'm like nope not happening for whatever reason the Jets for me they work the same way the Vikings did

a few weeks ago I am on board with a lot of this I do not want to watch a wide receiver core without Eric Decker, and he has a hamstring injury. Yeah, but we're talking about two weeks here. And then long term with some things and then long term with others, like with the Steelers example. I can't think short term because this is a race here where all these teams are trying to get in

it and early in the season it matters how fun they are to watch. The Steelers aren't fun to watch right now. They're incredibly fun to watch. They've been outscored like 50 to 6. Have you seen Levill play? Have you seen Marcus Wigman play? Ryan Shazir play. These are dynamic young talents who are fun to watch.

Mark's history picking teams Not exactly stellar here The Vikings were embroiled in one of the ugliest scandals Days after he picked them Well it does it is potentially ominous And now if you're in the New York organization Something's probably coming away Number two, this feels like some sort of strange misdirection voodoo

Because you're an actual fan Diehard fan of a team that's a terrific candidate That we could all get behind the Cleveland Browns I mean that's a fun team That will not pass the board because of the man in purple to my right. The Jets are playing at a lifeless MetLife Stadium. They can't even get Fireman Ed back in.

That place can get loud sometimes. Fireman Ed is addition by subtraction. I need my quarterback to do more than complete play action passes, which rules out Brian Hoyer and E.J. Manuel. Otherwise, the Bills would be an interesting team. Bills would be fun. And Mark, we're apparently not into a quarterback that can rip off 24 straight points on the team of ATL's defense.

You're proposing. No, I'm not at all. I'm not into that quarterback, you're right. Because Terrence West and Crowell were doing most of the work. Hit him with another one, TD. Come on. A lot of fire. By the way, this is a deft move by Mark Sessler,

because you know full well if the jets spank the Bears on Monday night football, you know I'm jumping ship from the Chargers. Even if the Chargers look great, I'm going to end up joining you. So a very nice job, are you? What? Oh, yeah. You're kidding me?

You know where I am. Unflagging support means nothing to you? What? you're just going to leave the charges by the side of the road. Says the man who has a binder about why he left the childhood team. He grew up rooting. Right. That's how painful it was.

I went through all that work to come up with reasons why I was doing this. Unflagging support is sticking by your team no matter what. I'm happy that I chose the charges. Feel good about it. Feel good that they seem to be a favorite right now. But I have no loyalty to the people of San Diego. Except for the listeners. I still have loyalty to our team last year,

although it's a little harder to choose the Panthers right now, but they are fun to watch. I have no problem choosing the Panthers right now. They do feel underrated here. There's nothing about them. They've created a whole new system in the NFL where you can pick up anyone's trash at cornerback and safety, and they turn into magical players.

Does that solve this family squabbles if we just go back to the Panthers? Well, keep in mind, Greg, per the rules of the game, there are three Matthew Mulligan still in play. So the Panthers can absolutely be brought back. We all sat around two weeks from now. There are no roles in this game. It's entirely organic. And we chose, we all just decided some other team that we were just like,

we got to have that team. That's going to be recognized by the board. Our friend Josh Norris from Rotor World pointed out to us on Twitter, we should be watching Ben-A. Ben-Wikir, who is a cornerback who caught my eye in the first game. He was playing really well. For team of ATL? For name of ATL, Ben-A-Ben-Wikier.

all right so gentlemen so we got nowhere that's good that's good that we got nowhere but uh guys i don't mean to do this yeah what if what if this year that just isn't a team of eight oh there will be didn't happen oh dare you what is this lost with just no resolution nothing never happens there will be we finished the job around these parts td yeah we didn't pick the panther still about week six to be honest so we're we're fine we're good um all right moving on by the way we have west we have nice attempt by our producer to Deep Six a major segment

He smelled some extra work As they always say Because coming off the Stitcher Award They always say the disease of more You know You a team that wins the championship You guys have You want more

And you guys are looking for too much now I'm ready for like five different teams Browns Chargers Cardinals I don't care Just do it Greg's an anarchist of the game I'm proud of our group That we've resisted the disease of more

We are a cohesive unit What Mark Cuban said about the NFL does not apply to this room. We are not the hog being led to slaughter. Actually, Pat Riley, but carry on. No. Actually, TD, I'll have you know just yesterday. My mom told me, you guys all really get along so well. That's why the podcast is fun.

Sometimes. You know what? She's right. And by the way, it was Mark Cuban, not Pat Ryan. No, Mark Cuban came out with a laundry list of critchies. Well, there are two different things. The disease of Moore is a separate theory. Pat Riley has been peddling for a while.

All right. That's correct. But the hog thing was Cuban. All right, there we go. Let's move on. Anyway, speaking of hodz and pork and meat products, I have an update on the West softball pants situation. Oh, boy.

Chris Wessling will eat his softball pants. So I still won't name the restaurant, but it is one of the more popular brunch eateries in Hollywood, all of Hollywood and Los Angeles. The head chef and the owner and proprietor of that store, we reached out to him, have some connections and he wrote back an email and this is what he said when asked would it be possible first of all would you be open to cooking up some softball pants uh west of course has now agreed to eat

his softball pants because johnny manzell did not start in week one uh those were the terms he's sticking to them and much respect to him for that so i reached out to this gentleman and said would you cook softball pants and if if you could how would you do it i had a friend reach out to him This is the response via email. The only way I could come up with is to make goulash, cut up the pants and braze it along with brazed pork. You know, like goulash soup I have here at blank. I'm keeping a little mystery with the restaurant.

I don't know why. America's dined to know some restaurant they've never heard of. Exactly. It would taste like the lining of cow stomach. And then he wrote, he's outside the country. He's not a native of the country. What is it called in English? Thin strips.

But it would take two hours. So let me know if that is possible, and we can make it happen. So we have a goulash, a softball pants gulash set up. It's just the matter of now putting the wheels in motion. This sounds so delicious that I think our listeners are going to be jealous that they're not going to get to try my softball pants goulash. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up eating some of this. I like gulash.

And you didn't even make a bad prediction. I like, what is that, Ukrainian, Hungarian? It's Hungarian. I love those little restaurants. By the way, I should say, the restaurant is, Blue Jam Cafe. It's a very popular restaurant here in Los Angeles. And Camille, who owns the restaurant, is the man behind it.

Everything he cooks is amazing. In fact, Kevin Patra coming at you emailed when I sent this email out, forwarded out. He said, Best Brunch in L.A., and he's right. So you're in good hands, Wes. It's not like we sent you to some low-grade Korea town place where the health code standards are in question. You're going to get some high-level cooked up softball pants. Probably keep my mouth shut here. but it feels a little bit like I'm getting off easy.

Yeah, I agree. Well, you're still eating nylon, elastic, polyester. But you guys are saying that you're going to want to try some of it. The flip side was you perishing, and we're not into that necessarily. Yeah, I said downstairs that I might try it. It's been a dark enough month. But I'm not going to eat it. You've got to eat a bowl of soup.

Fair enough. All right. So that's the update. We move on. Chris Wesleying will eat his softball pants. All right. So. winners and losers

very popular metrics grabber on the old NFL.com Do you know that? I don't know. I don't know that if that's true or not. Let's say it is. Let's say it does very well

and people are clamoring for it. I'm looking at your most recent post which you can find on NFL.com slash ATN. Yeah. You could go ATL too. It'll still redirect you back.

Okay, great. It has 240 comments. I'm sure they're all well-reasoned and thought out in comments. So that means someone's reading it. So we're going to go through Greg's list. He has going up and going down from week two.

And I'll just get going by one that jumped out to me from a negative aspect because it's fun to skew negative, always. Andrew Luck's accuracy, moving down, according to Greg Rosenthal, coming off of course, the Monday night game

in which the Colts were upended late and defeated by the Philadelphia Eagles. Well, I think Andrew Lux, one of the most, if not the most fun players in the league to watch, but I think he's one of the most misunderstood. He's a very streaky, flashy player. He pulls off more wow throws than just about anyone,

and he is just as streaky as Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton, who are more known for that. His accuracy can come and go, and I think Colts fans would recognize that, that he'll miss high for a couple quarters at a time, and then he'll be on fire for a couple of quarters. at a time, and he started off this season a little bit slow, especially in that game. I think if he had the game he had against Philadelphia, if, let's say, Tony Romo or Tom Brady

or Kaepernick had that game, they would be getting criticism for a pretty bad game. I mean, I feel like it's a good point because luck does seem to get a little bit of the benefit of the doubt from analysts as someone that's more of a polished product than these other younger guys. And I guess he is on balance, but he does have – there are a time. where he isn't quite as accurate as you would expect. And Monday was certainly an example. He's wildly talented, but I think he's far from a finished product.

They all are working on different things, but he still is a young quarterback in a way that I think Brady and Manning and all the guys that we've put up there at the top, they don't have these cold streaks that luck does. Well, what about Brady's first game this year? There's only one, there's only two games. That's fair. I mean, Brady is someone who started off last season.

and slow as well. I think it's just with luck that we remember all the great comebacks, but sometimes we just forget that he put them in the position to make those comebacks sometimes. Here's a question. Is Andrew Luck actually more like Tom Brady than Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton that he struggles because he doesn't have a great offensive line? He doesn't have great surrounding talent.

And that's usually when Tom Brady has struggled. And it's when Colin Kaepernick struggled last year at the beginning of the year too. I think that's part of it. but you can isolate his throws when he actually does have good throws. And he misses open throws, I think, more than people realize. Like, in this Philly game, protection wasn't a problem. They weren't rushing him well. And since you bring up the Philly game,

I also, you can make a case for Nick Foles being on this list, too, moving down. I thought you look at his numbers, he's thrown over 600 yards. They have two wins. He's had some, you know, flashy plays when you watch the highlights. But he's not playing well either. No, he's been terrible through two weeks. been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league through two weeks. It's only two weeks.

I watched that game with my friend Philadelphia and Eagles blogger and a few Eagles fans. And one guy in particular was really down on fools and, you know, said outside of that seven touchdown game against the Raiders last year, really hasn't been that good. And he missed a lot of throws again Monday night. He holds the ball too long. He missed a lot of throws in the opener. Stay warm on. He had a mental meltdown in the opener that you just don't see.

too often, and he missed a ton of throws. This is why you can't just look at the box score, because his numbers were great, but it was all just from dump-offs to Sproles. It supports my theory that Chip Kelly, Dan, is genius tag is well-earned. He has created the quarterback-proof offense. It doesn't even matter who the quarterback is.

That is ridiculous. He was genius enough to trade for Darren Sproles. You know what? There you go. He traded a pick for Isaac Sopalaga. He got that pick from the Patriots, And then that ended up being traded. You know why this doesn't check out

because all these bad throws and bad decisions Nick Foles is making? He's getting lucky, too. There could be a lot of interceptions or fumbles that he lost that should have been recovered. All this stuff catches up to you. The bill always comes due. It hasn't through two weeks. But if he keeps playing like this, it's going to cost them.

I agree. Then they just turn to Mark Sanchez. Turn the season around. I will say this again. If Mark Sanchez comes in and performs well, I will send a bouquet of roses to Chip Kelly and say, you're a genius, bud. That would be slightly creepy.

I have to veer negative too, you know, looking at the moving down category. I wasted on my vacation during the summer about four hours watching film and writing up a piece about Toby Gearhart making the leap. You should have known a running back named Toby and the Jaguar is never going to work out. I should have known because that coincidental. one-sided with an off-season that saw them swing and miss on the big piece they needed, which was Alex Mack, a center to anchor that line. When that deal didn't happen, I think that a lot of what Jacksonville hoped to do in terms of

the progress with the ground game went south because that offensive, the reason I owe two sandwiches to these guys right here, Greg and Wes, is because they don't want to put a developing and young rookie quarterback behind that line. They gave up 10 sacks to the Redskins who are not exactly last year's Seahawks on Sunday. And Toby Gerhardt, I believe, has one rush over 10 yards all season. He has been, it's hard to get a read on him. I'm not going to go kill Toby Gerhardt.

I didn't put him moving down. It's the line. Right. I said move it down, Gerhardt, fantasy owners. Because their line is so bad and he's not the guy that can overcome. Well, and because it's hard to, you know, get a read for an offensive. line in the offseason. We just can't do that. But we went around talking about Gearhart as a guy that's going to lead the AFC or the NFC or NFL and general and touches. Well, that's a disastrous

idea because they can't get anything done on offense right now. Here's an idea, Jaguars coaches. You might want to shelve these stretch runs and pitches to the outside when Gerhardt has no lateral agility and they can't open up any holes. Run him up the middle. He's a power back. Tell the cult's the same thing about that with Trent Richardson, by the way. I don't know. He might be beyond salvageable. That's another thing that should have been moving down. Pep Hamilton calling runs for Trent Richardson in a tie game with under three minutes to go. Gutless.

Gotless. Guess what? You would never have traded. You would never have traded for Trent Richardson and wasted that first round pick if it weren't for this internal belief that Pep Hamilton's run first offense wasn't going to lead the day. By the way, he didn't look half bad before with the runs up the middle. That's the first time he didn't. It was the fumbles and the bad play calling on that stretch. The crazy thing is they gave him the ball on those two snaps, in theory, to waste time and because it was safe.

But what is less safe than giving the ball to a guy who's fumbled twice in the game? That's fair. They coached that roster like it's the Seahawks or the 49ers. And the roster is a lot closer to the Jaguars outside of Andrew Luck. You can't do power football with what they have. They're tied with the Jaguars. Big last place matchup this week. How about Ryan Grigsin on your moving down list?

Before we get out of here, we should talk about something positive. So Chris Wessling, what do you got? I like this one on Redskins' off-season spending. One of the best defensive players for the second year in a row. Greg had Jason Hatcher last year on his mid-season defensive player of the year watch. And no one's been able to block him since he came back from his knee injury in the third preseason game. He put a clown suit on Marshall Yonda then, and he's putting clown suits on offensive linemen now. Jason Hatcher, one of the best defensive players in the NFL.

Whoa. He's right. Through two weeks, he has been. and I was critical of that move just because of the injuries that Hatcher had and the amount of money, and I couldn't be more wrong. So maybe getting Shanahan out of there was good luck for their personnel moves. I know it was the Jaguars, but 10 sacks and a beat down that good is usually a sign that you're going to have a pretty good season.

Teams don't win games like that unless they're a halfway decent team. So I'm like this Redskine team for now. 18 quarterback hits too. So are you two saying that just because Jim Haslett is friends with the head coach, it was still a good idea to keep them around after last year's train wreck? I have no opinion on that. Let's see what they do in Philly. Let's see what they do in Philly this week.

That's a really interesting matchup early in the season to get the temperature. The person is better this year. Jason Hatcher, Keenan Robinson, they've got better players this year. Dan, if you ever fail horribly at some point in your career, and I'm given an opportunity to hire. someone I will bring you aboard. Oh, thank you, buddy. He's your Jim Hanslett?

I like that. That's like the biggest backhanded compliment I've ever heard. Hey, buddy. I look out for him career-wise. By the way, Jimmy H probably has about $3.4 million in the bank. Dan is a father. We need to look out for the guy. Maybe more.

Head coach. So that's it. We'll be back tomorrow with... I have a request for some of our die-hard listeners. So Mark often throws out these phrases like, Windmill of Total Chaos. I feel like we should have an album full of these that Mark has said over the years. These are album names, and I really liked him.

I think maybe Tristan or someone else could come up with a list of all Mark's greatest hits. Or our producer, even, if he decided to buckle down and, you know, do some sidework. Wow. I'm just happy he's listing today. Let's just end the show. All right, so that's it. We'll be back on Thursday. after Thursday night football, by the way.

That's how on top of this situation we are. Could be Friday, depending on where you live in the country. But it'll be up. Depending on the time zone situation. You're right, Greg. We're going to have a podcast where we break down all the week three games and also recap the Thursday night game. That is our third and final podcast of the week.

That's how we do things. And then we're back on Sunday and we recap all the week three games. And then we do it again and again and again. forever until February Buckle up. All right. That's it for today's edition to be around the NFL podcast

is Dan Hans is signing up for the boss, the mailman, the sizzler, and tape date. This is an IHeart podcast.