NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Players Due for A Renaissance

Episode Date: June 4, 2018

A room filled with heroes- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, & Marc Sessler- assemble to give you all the latest news around the NFL including Mychal Kendricks signing with the Browns (08:23), Clay Matthews needing surgery (14:15) and Patrick Mahomes turning down endorsements until he earns them (18:20). The heroes round out the show with a segment called “Who is Ready for a DERNAISSANCE?” (29:09).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast always gets their man. Welcome back to another disson. of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined. I'm in a room that's just filled with heroes.

It's Mark Sessler. It's Chris Wessling. It's Greg Rosethall. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Ow! Happy Monday. Oh, yes.

Dan is bringing the Monday jokes back down in the... There were two or three of them down in the newsroom before the show, which is... That's an interesting genre to operate in in 2018. Isn't it feel like we're a little overdue for a little bit? You know, oh, Monday. Oh, sounds like you're having a bad Monday. Monday is my right. I feel like there's room.

I think it speaks. I mean, everyone kind of gets it. So it's a ripe area to go down joke-wise. I think all the people that used to make all the Monday's jokes have died by now. So it's ready for a comeback. Oh, so I think at this point in time, it's more like, oh, every day. Yeah. Oh.

Okay. Well, that's a bit of a cynical world. Right. To Greg's point also, everyone has died that used to make Monday's jokes. But it's been like Final Destination-style deaths. Not like old age. More like the tractor-trailer in front of them falls over or, you know, they get caught on their shower head

and they hang themselves, just like really bizarre deaths. What, you might want to abandon this effort then? No. You're going to stick to this. Okay. You get like tossed off a blimp. Exactly. What are you doing out of blimp?

I will not go on any roller coasters or fly in any planes. another reason not to leave the country. Welcome to the round. What do you mean another? What's the first one? I love this country. He's got a lot of, I'm busy here. Colors don't run.

That's the thing. I'm busy here in America. It's not just, it's not being xenophobic or something. Too busy to travel. Got two kids. All right. All right. Good show today.

We got some stuff to talk about. Yeah, just like bringing back Monday chatter. It's going to be a Monday Renaissance. A little later in the show. Greg you know we did a think tank should I save this for when we get to the segment I mean why save it now just yeah we had a think tank meeting and an ideas generation meeting at an off off campus site and and kicking around ideas Greg said hey how about durnasance and we all looked at Greg you know what the hell are you talking about what's a durnissance and what is a

Dernesance, Greg? Well, I saw, you know, the big billboard on Overland on the way to work, which I'm sure Mark sees, it's right near his house, just Laura Dern, another big show. Laura Dern's been having the Dernasance. Hadn heard from Laura Dern in a little bit in a while, and then suddenly Dern's everywhere. She's, she's popping homers out of the yard. I'm so out of touch that the-hopping homers out of the yard. The number one movie I remember from Laura Dern is Wild at Heart from 1990 with Nicholas Cage. To me, that's the greatest Laura and Norman performance that I've seen. Well, it's also following in the tradition of the McConaissance,

which is kind of a famous return to. Both of which are copying off of John Travolta in his return with Pulp Fiction after being out for a decade. Travolta doesn't sound as good, though. No, neither is Dernasance, by the way. I think Troultza was more buried than either McConaughey or Dern. Also, Dern has a long way to go to match what Travolta did in a short period of time. In any extent, did he do that movie, Michael, where he's an angel and stuff? It became a little bit too much.

Remember, surfer dude? That was the thing. McConaughey was on pre-McConnoissance. But to what Wes was saying, he loved a Dern, Tinsletown's own Laura Dern. He loved a Dern film from 1990, 28 years ago. And Greg was looking at billboards with a starry-eyed gaze in 2018. How about Blue Velvet? I mean, that's...

There you go. Jurassic Park? How about that? Really kept that film grounded with her performance. Let's say they could have done away with that franchise a long time ago. Jurassic Park? Yeah. Save it for the Jurassic Park podcast.

It's Jurassic Quality. Oh. Save it for the passing up printing money podcast. Anyway, so the Durnessant's segment on today's show will discuss players that were prominent, players, coaches, GM's owners, whoever. Prominent, maybe went into a little bit dip, either statistically or just kind of went off the radar. A little funk. Maybe a funk. maybe just we kind of forgot about them a little bit

and now here they come, surging up like Laura Dern during the star of what? Who is, what's Dern's big show? Is she on a television show right now? I think she has one of those limited It's a HBO film. Right, and then she's got a second season

of the other, Big Little Lies. Big Little Lies season two coming out. Excellent. And I know she was in The Last Jedi. I did not really appreciate that performance as much but I know Jurassic Park. And people loved Enlightened. Oh yeah, that's true.

My wife's. Great picture. All right. So we'll do that. It's a series. It's not like Dern, like, went 10 years and didn't work, by the way. Great picture. Love it.

I tried it for an episode of true. It didn't take. But before we get to the Dernasant, let's do some news. Luce Cannon again behind the glass, alongside a new intern here, Cameron from Pitt State. How's it gone? Sully's back there. It's a whole thing going on. Hey, how are you?

Good. How are you? Well, we never talked about that you didn't come to my party. Yeah, we invited you to. Yeah. I'm really sorry. Like the, this is the time to do it.

The trust tree. Remember, you know, the trust tree? No, no, no. I really was going to. No, I could text. I mean, you were out with some of your friends, I believe, that evening. If I'm to believe your Instagram story.

Unless I'm wrong. And I believe that there was other stuff happening that even. Married in a big spot. Pretty sure you're wrong. Why did I even open my mouth? No, I'm pretty sure you're wrong. You know what happens now. I mean, you're not going to keep giving out invites to people who don't show up.

It's one thing not to show up, a simple text. Like, hey, actually, I got other plans going on. Oh, no big deal. really messed up. Maybe a second chance is in order, though. We're cool. You know what? Remember when I invited you to come to the bar in West Hollywood and you said

ha ha in a text? And then Mark and Colleen came and you didn't text me saying that you weren't going to come? I didn't get invited. So this was a deeply orchestrated revenge mission by you. No, no, no. I'm just saying that we're even. Like it's cool. We're starting over like it was a total mistake on my part.

Yeah, you guys, it sounds like everything's real clean. That particular incident I actually had to get home to take care of my two children. That sounds like a personal problem. No big deal. But I guess it's the same thing. Right. Let's do some news.

I'm disgusted. Any old school Nintendo fans know what that is from? clue i posted it on insta i actually owned that game it was not a very good game it was uh yeah i found the old nintendo cartridge and and posted a photo a ridiculous photo of john elway's mug and then somehow they photoshop him holding an old nintendo controller right by his face it's not it's not a great shot the game was very poor and it reminds you that tecmoble before tecmoble you were searching for if you love football and there there was always a solid baseball nintendo type game hockey somehow had better operation than football.

But if you were a football fan, you would search in every six months, like a low-level football Nintendo game would come out, and you'd go drop your, what, 35 bucks, you'd convince someone to help fund that, and they were all C-minus games

until Tecmo came out. Sometimes much worse. Ten-yard fight was a disaster. That was no good. The first NFL license game was like 87-88, unplayable, and then Elway was bad,

and then Tecmo Bowl and Super Bowl saved everything. That's the same music as baseball all-stars. Remember you could make your own team and play like in town or outer space or even in Russia? Baseball stars.

Baseball stars are a great good. All right. Let's start with some news involving Marks Cleveland Browns had started with a report from Ian Rappaport that the Browns were signing Free Agent linebacker Michael Kendricks to a one-year deal.

Ian added a little bit of his own take in his tweet along with Jamie Collins. and Christian Kirksey makes up one of the most talented linebacker groups in football. So all is good, Mark, you're feeling good. This team keeps on looking saucy saucier and saucier as a season approaches. But then

Kendrix, who of course was released by the Eagles in a somewhat surprising move recently, replied to that tweet, you will never have my respect. And then that was weird. And then when a reporter from the St. Paul Pioneer Press

reached out to Kendricks on the situation he had this to say. No, it's not accurate regarding Rapidport's report. I don't know who the blank said that. That blank is blank. Whoever said that blank is blank. That's all I have to say, man. I'm not really talking to anybody else about it.

It's blank. I don't like people like that. I don't respect people like that, and that's all I have to say. Thank you. Later in the day, Mark, it is confirmed via multiple reporters that he has indeed signed with the Browns. So I don't know what's going on.

I don't know what the heat between Ian Rappaport and Michael Kendricks is all about, but he is a brown. Well, it felt like inside baseball, but I saw the Kendricks firing off at Ian. A, don't appreciate that. Ian is a coworker and, you know, a friend of the show, obviously. So settle down, please, Michael Kendricks. But maybe just the timing between the agent and Michael Kendricks and Ian tweeting it, something seems like it got lost in translation there. But it's, it's, he, they basically, our site, NFL.com, never moved off the story and said as of early yesterday that this is happening. And it did happen.

I mean, maybe he's just a Schefter guy, you know? Everyone's got to make a choice. It's like red, blue in this country. It's like you're either a rap sheet guy or you're a Shepter guy. Or you go to the independent guy. Or now he's a Schefter guy, that's for sure. Jason Lanf, Lock In 4 is kind of like the Ralph Nader. Right.

If you want to like kind of split the boat, isolate that drop. Anyway, but Kendrick's, we just talked about He was his solid role player in Philly. So good signing by the Browns, right, Wes? It is, and to me this, as much as any move illustrates why left tackles get paid and off-ball linebackers don't. Because the Browns have money burning a hole in their pocket

cannot find a left tackle for anything. They overpay for Pittsburgh's backup tackle, but now they've got more linebackers than they can use and they sign a really good one for very little money. Yeah, and they have four linebackers on the field sometimes, and Kendricks is a versatile guy. He's not going to be on the field every down, but you just kind of look at the totality of everything they've done,

and they've got eight or nine likely starters that they picked up this offseason. Tyrod Taylor, let's say he's, you know, the week one starter. Jarvis Landry, Carlos Hyde, Kendricks, T.J. Carey's going to start. Demarius Randall's going to start. You mentioned Chris Hubbard. He's probably going to start E.J. Gaines. It's like a lot of the Browns and a lot of the hope are on new guys joining that team. Yeah, and if you look at what John Dorsey did, to your point, Greg, I mean, they, adding a linebacker,

they touched every level of the defense and offense. Now, all those signings work out, but they addressed every aspect of the team outside of, like, kicker and punter. Moving on, Des Bryant still doesn't have a job, but now the story around that is being reworked, it feels like. Of course, the Ravens had made an offer. to Brian, a multi-year deal that he turned down. And as far as we knew, we being the public, it seemed as if his market had dried up. That's not the case, according to Rapsheet,

who, after speaking with sources close to the wide receiver, Rapshirt reported that Brian is not expected to sign until the opening of training camps in July, and he has received plenty of interest, actually. Several phone calls from teams that want to sign him, but he's looking for the right fit. And he also, in something the Ravens weren't willing to do, He wants a one-year prove-it deal.

So, Greg, I ask you to tell me if this is actually what's going on, or is this just a spin, baby? I think it's spin with a dash of truth in all. I'm sure teams have been calling him. I'm sure teams are willing to give him a one-year offer for very little money, and he doesn't want to take that. I think he might still wind up regretting not taking that Baltimore Ravens deal because whatever the money was in the first two years,

I don't know if he's going to be able to replace that with this one-year prove-it deal and what he can make next time. He's hoping some team that has an injury in camp. That's his best chance to make real money at this point. He's hinging on desperation, and then the money goes up, and then you can have some leverage. I mean, his leverage right now appears to be essentially nothing. Well, it reminds me of Adrian Peterson last year. In a perfect world, you want to be on a contender with a respected coach who promises you a huge role. And if nobody offers you that stuff, you have to start being willing to seed some of that.

And I think that's where Des Bryant is now. He can't get everything he needs. Now he just wants to get something he needs. And I think he had that with the Ravens offer, everything you said. Everything went south after that. And it's tough. When you were set to make the money that he was making, I think it all happened so fast. It's an adjustment to think, oh, I'm going to make about half as much money and I don't get back to free agency.

But now he might wind up making half of that. charity softball disaster alert oof I wish we had a drop prepared for that should have thought about that before Erica bad job by me Clay Matthews the linebacker for the Packers was pitching you know mistake number one get off the mound bro

aluminum bats you know you're playing with other bulky athletes you know I we won back to back titles with the shield we're taking a year off a hiatus and our pitcher or the shield dessons next year shield us Our pitcher, Brooke, an excellent athlete, was a college athlete, a gymnast, and a real bulldog on the mound, although she didn't like me calling her that.

She didn't understand the baseball connotation of it, that it makes you tough and you don't back down to things. But that's beside the point. I always was fearful that Brooke was going to get smoked by a line dry because in softball, it is very hard to react to a ball that's really hit right back at you. and that's what happened to Clay Matthews. Lucas Patrick. I've been knowing about Lucas Patrick? Nothing. An offensive lineman on the Packers, not for long.

He hits a line drive right back at Matthews, clocks him square in the face. And if you watch the video, it's not too nasty a video, but you could tell immediately he knew he was messed up bleeding, so he goes to the dugout with his glove over his face and then towels. And now he gave an update, Matthews, on Twitter.

I busted my nose pretty good, and we'll have surgery once the, The swelling subsides, thankful as it could have been much more serious, which is true. I've seen, you know, guys break their orbital bone and all sorts of bad stuff. So Matthews will be okay. It looks like nothing that will complicate his 2018 season by, but. Mar-on, yikes. In the late 90s, when I was playing way too much softball and playing in these, like, traveling tournaments every other week or so,

you would see pitchers starting to play with, like, those hockey goalie masks. Yeah. Out on the pitcher's mount, shing guards all up and down their legs. That's how hard people are hitting the ball, and these aren't professional athletes. They're pretty good, but I also had to step into pitch a few times. I had my fingernail ripped off on a ball that was coming straight from my forehead, and I had to throw my hands up at the last minute and block it. Mike McCarthy was asked, like, do you want a deep six this charity game?

What's the outside of the good work of the charity? What's the upside for your players? And he said, no, we're not going to cancel it, but he did say that Matthews needs to work. quotes, on his offhand midside on the release of the ball. Do you agree softball coaches and players? I don't. Good bit. It's all reaction. It's just either, and he's a elite athlete, but sometimes the ball just comes back too fast. The bigger problem is you should have had Lucas Patrick on the mound. And, you know, no disrespect to this reserve offensive lineman. Is he a reserve? Is he a reserve? Is he a star for them? I don't know the days. He's definitely a

reserve. Probably he's been reserved for a CFL team. Yeah. And he actually approaches Matthews immediately with concern, and Matthew gives them the old, you know, get away. Well, you know how it is in softball, Dan, because even the coach, it's very hard to find someone who can put the ball over the plate. That's very difficult. So you kind of have to go with the guy who can do it. I mean, the real concern, I would imagine, Clay Matthews makes as much money on endorsements is just about any NFL player.

You know, he's, I think, generally considered a handsome man, nice hair. Is he going to be the type of broken nose guy? So it's like, oh, actually that adds character and he looks pretty cool. the broken nose, or is it kind of, you know, kind of hurt his game? I will say he took that hit as well as any third basement or pitcher I've ever seen take a ball off the head. Yeah. Are you saying that you're worried about whether Clay Matthews will be as good looking?

Is that what you're getting at? Yeah, that was pretty much. You want them to go as sort of the Owen Wilson route. Right, yeah. Sometimes it kind of looks cool. Like people that have their broken, their nose is broken and you can kind of tell for the rest of life. Sometimes it kind of adds character, it looks cool.

Or sometimes it's just going to mess your face up. Like on a certain guy would make. you look instantly manly and kind of like a dude you wouldn't mess with the wrong type of male face and you're you're done you're out basically a monster it's over well he i don't think he's going to struggle in the like looking manly department no i think he'll be he's a candidate to have to be fine off of this is probably the um the biggest long-haired handsome white tragedy since that seagull flew into fabio's face I was going to say it reminds me of when broke his nose too reminds me of what Costanza burned his hand model career

before it ever really got a chance to start. Another long blonde-haired white, George Costanza. Speaking of endorsements, Patrick Mahomes, oh, the world is Patrick Mahomes' oyster right now. He's entering his first year as a starting quarterback with the Chiefs. But you know what? Don't expect to see Patrick Mahomes, you know, like Clay Matthews doing right guard ads or, you know, what's that other one?

The insurance ads that Clay does with Aaron Rogers, Red State, Red Farm, whatever, State Farm. Because we're just letting you work through that. Yeah, because Patrick Mahomes says, I'm not doing any of that until I prove myself on a football field. Here's what his agent Lee Steinberg had to say. We talked about how the first year the goal was to integrate into the team. And the only way to do that is to pay deference. to the incumbent veterans and try not to go into the situation

with a high profile. We intentionally didn't do endorsements that would run in the Kansas City area even though they were offered. We didn't want to be on the billboards and everything when he wasn't playing. Hear that, Laura Dern? Wow.

I mean, I think it's HBO running these ads for the show. An angelic move by Patrick Mahomes in his camp. I mean, you want to talk about a leader. You want Patrick, you want a guy like this. No, no, no. Get the cameras off me. Get all the other outside accolades. All I want to do, I want a ball.

And then everything else can follow. This is kind of a trope. I feel like this has popped up. Did Russell Wilson do this once? It feels very Andrew Luck with the flip phone and all that. Brady definitely, this was a narrative around Brady in the 2002-2003 area where he hadn't quite proven himself, even though they would win a Super Bowl. I bet we've written about Andrew Luck turning down endorsements.

Somebody did. I thought it was Russell Wilson, but I could be... Russell Wilson's on every commercial. Well, this is when he was younger. It feels like a Russell Wilson statement to make. I don't... Russell Wilson has never turned down a dollar. Come on.

I mean, I think that A, would be a wonderful approach to a response to not getting any offers, to say that you simply aren't taking them, but I'm sure that he actually has gotten offers. It's a similar approach that the four of us have taken. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we haven't earned it yet, and so we're turning down things, maybe, here and there. Yeah, sorry, Adidas. We're not going to do a whole new line of sneakers based on each one of us.

Nope. Like we're literally one of the most listened to professional football podcasts in the world, and yet we haven't had a sponsor for it feels like months now. Obviously, that's a decision we're making and the people upstairs. It's our decision. It's like we will leave that obvious, easy money on the table as a corporation and as a podcast because we need to earn it first. It's perfectly said.

Moving on. Chuck Pagano, you know. fired after a 4-12 record in 2017, had a nice little run in Indianapolis, maybe not a totally fruitful run because they never made it to the Super Bowl, but they had some nice seasons with Andrew Luck and Pagano appearing on first things first.

Anybody check out that program on FS1? What? Does anybody ever seen an FS1 program? What's FS1? Nick Wright, it's very early in the morning, our time. I mean, I think it's over by the time we wake up. Greg is friends with Nick Wright, obviously. Oh, yeah, Nick Wright.

He's a good Twitter file. I'm watching Good Morning Football at that time. Like a loyal employee would be doing. And I'm sure Nick does great work. I'm sorry. He used to be, he used to kill it on a Chief's coverage. He was really good Chief's coverage guy. Okay.

Way back when. Okay, guys. I get it. I apologize about the Nick Wright semi-dig. Anyway, this is what Pagano had to say on FS1, maybe to Nick Wright. I love Andrew Luck. He got me more years than I probably deserved. He's a phenom.

and he also said that he believes that luck is prime for a comeback in the Frank Reich era. He's in a great place mentally, great place physically. I expect Andrew to be the old Andrew. Wes, you wrote about this on the website. No, you didn't. Let's talk about it anyway. You noticed that Pagano hasn't been eaten. No.

He was able to record that show because, look, they can fire you, but as he said, they can't eat you. He is doing just fine in his retirement. Yep. Don't let the corpos get you down. They can't eat you. He's a millionaire. He's also got two years left on his, two or three years left on his contract that they gave him.

I was surprised you didn't choose Dan a different portion of the quotes, which really caught my eye, which is where Pagano said, he's strapped, he's ripped, my wife, my three daughters, my granddaughter. They all thought he looked great. Sounds like a heavenly body. Whoa But just like Throw it in the granddaughter

I thought was really Right Really interesting I mean why couldn't he just say He thought Andrew Luck looked great But you know what they had the photo Did you got to do that? Yeah that's what he was talking about

He's a brick house man He's ripped big yeah And then you can imagine On FS1 Skip Bayliss in another program That's not even close to Nick Wright What he's doing in his program You know saying

Oh he's way too muscular You have to have pliability like Tom Brady to be successful. I was like, calm down with that. I like that Andrew Luck looks like a stud, and he looks like an athlete to me. He looks like he's ready to take a beating from 300-pound defensive alignment.

Ouch. Let me ask you one thing, though, because he goes 11 and 5, three years in a row. Then in 2015, they go 8 and 8, but that's the year luck missed nine games. When would you have fired Pagano? Is it after that season, despite losing luck? When they were going to fire him,

and he went in and fought for his job and got it back. And the GM coach, new life, new relationship. Luck got Grigs and were years than he deserved, too. You're saying after 2015 then. Yeah. Yeah, when Pagano went into Ursa's office and came out instead of being fired with a new contract. Part of Pagano's issue where was that he was a defensive coach. And at no point, even when they were winning games, did their defense really improve very much?

Do you have to say the least? I also think the GM didn't do anyone help in that scenario. Absolutely. Why are you looking at me like that? I'm just waiting for it, see what you're going to say next. Oh, I figured it was the next topic. Yeah, I was doing a little chess work. I was looking ahead to the next story.

But it sounds like you guys were having a nice. We had a nice chat on that, and we've wrapped it up now. And we are on to the next topic. We're looking to you, our host, to move us along. Moving along, Hall of Fame quarterback, Jim Kelly, who, as we know for years now, has been dealing with cancer. He's now on his third bout with cancer. And it was announced, or he announced on Monday at his annual golf

tournament that he'll be given the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at next month's SB Awards in L.A. He spoke about the honor and about where he is right now a little bit, and I believe we have that audio, right, Erica? I was just told about a week and a half ago that I'm receiving a Jimmy V. an S.B. Award for the Jimmy V. Award. And to me, people are saying, that's awesome. I said, yeah, it's awesome. The only thing bad about it is you have She goes a lot in order to get that award. But I just know in my heart that the good Lord has put me in a situation to help. Not only the people out there are suffering from cancer, but little kids too that are going through tough times

to never give up to keep fighting so you never know. You can hear it obviously in Kelly's voice, the battle he's in against the Big Sea, Wes, and it's an honor that's obviously well-deserved. Yeah, he also said that he won't. be able to eat solid foods until at least September, and he talked about loving pizza and chicken wings and trying to put it in a blender and grind it up, and it doesn't quite taste the same. And I'm sure he's losing a lot of weight. I went through all that I totally understand, and now he's got to go through it, I think, a third time. It's incredible. I can't, I admire him

so much because he has to be incredibly tough to go through something like that, and his family, too. And, I mean, I think he's, his playing days are far enough in the past where a lot of younger football fans know who he is but never watched him. But watching him in the AFC, this is one of the toughest quarterbacks that I think is often overlooked for what he endured as a Bill's quarterback to go to those Super Bowls and lose over and over and keep coming back every year. But you see it even now that the toughness is just part of who he is. I mean, it's telling he announced it, you know, that interview was from his charity golf tournament.

So here he is just a couple weeks before his neck surgery and he's out there raising money and doing everything he can. even while he's recovered. Yeah, total badass Jim Kelly. Best of luck to him. One last thing on that. For our younger listeners, Jimmy V. Jim Volvano. There's a 1993 Sports Illustrated feature from Gary Smith,

who is one of the greatest sports writers in history. And you can find it in Sports Illustrated's Vault. I'm Fighting to Live is on the cover of the magazine, and I believe the article is called It's Time Runs Out. It's one of the best articles I've ever read from a sports writer, and it really gets into Jim Valvano's battle and what he finds to be the redeeming aspects of sports. And stay with that article to the end, and it will be a reward.

I promise you. And if you've never seen the speech that Valvano gave at the, I believe it was the first or second SB Awards shortly before his death, the never give up speech. It's incredible. Check it out on YouTube. I ended up taking a class on public speaking, like, at Xavier University, right about when he did that.

And I ended up, I think I forgot to do my homework, so I had to do something. And I think I ended up doing some rambling, like, how great Jimmy V's speech was right at the time. It was incredible to watch. Very cool. That's what's happening in the news. Tinseltown's own, Laura Dern, shows that whether it's in Hollywood or Joe Blow down the street, a career ebbs and flows, ups and downs.

I think we could all speak to that as well in our own lives. And in the NFL, it's no different. Sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. The goal is to get back up. That's when you've actually built Greg Rosenthal a real career. When you could really, you know, survive the valleys and get back to the peaks, yes or no? I think that's accurate. I mean, Laura Derns, she's got the talent.

So when the directors start calling, she had some, you know, personal struggle. She had a divorce from Ben Harper. Right. Ben Harper back in the day. But now it's like she's never been, she's never been better. No, I mean, the divorce, the breakup with Ben was very difficult. I believe they had a child or two together. the diamonds on the inside guy that dude a big Napster star uh if you were around during

Napster's heyday Ben Harper was everywhere he was every late 90s yeah very popular um okay anyway so what we're going to do we're going to go around the room we already explain what this is don't need to go over it again uh who is due for a big big big uh uptick Greg Dernisances renaissance how about the JJ Wattisonan Wad of Sunts. That's pretty good, actually. I mean, I don't know if that's pretty good or not. He's going to start using that, though.

Sounds nice. The difference between him and maybe some others that you guys, you know, will bring up is that, you know, for the most part, JJ Watt that we've seen on the field has been productive and been incredible. But his injuries situation over the last two years is unique. I mean, we really haven't seen the J.J. Watt that we came to know and appreciate. for, you know, nearly three years now, two full regular seasons, and even last season when he was playing, he was still coming back. And the reason I'm hoping, you know, for a J.J. Wadissant is,

I mean, this is my favorite defensive player I've ever watched in terms of a snap-to-snap basis as dominant, I think, as any defensive player in this 20th first century. And really that I've ever seen, at least watching on a week-to-week basis. And I think everyone knows it's like, okay, JJ Watts, great. Yeah, we all know J.J. Watts. Great. But I'm talking like highest levels of the defensive players that have ever played the game of football ever played. And then right in the middle of his prime, he's struck down by these injuries in back-to-back seasons. And I'm just

hoping for him to come back at least close to that form that he used to because he was such a fun player to watch. And I would love if the football gods would set us up with that and Jedevian Clowny healthy in the same season for the first time together. Because we haven't seen that together either. Do we have any concerns? He came off a serious injury, as you said, Greg. Two years ago as well, the back injury, came back and was really, at least from a counting statistics standpoint, invisible for five games.

He was getting better towards the end of it. I do remember the point when he came back, he wasn't J.J. Watt. Then he hits the shelf again with a serious leg injury. So does that little sampling before the second injury give you more cause for concern that old JJ is not coming back. I think it's the severity of the injuries that give me because, and throw that in with your point, but he, his first half of his career is up there with Reggie White and Lawrence Taylor.

That's who you speak about, like the greatest to ever do it. And then is the second half of his career going to be like almost a pro bowler or is it going to be defensive player of the year? Right. And he's not that old, but he is 29 years old. That's pretty old. I mean, that's, it's to the point where you wouldn't expect him. to reach the levels he was at.

I love watching him. I remember watching his games week after week last year very closely, trying to watch him every step. And I actually thought the last few games before he did get hurt, even though it didn't show up with the sacks, he was very disruptive. And he was playing at a Pro Bowl level again. And so I was thinking he was going to kind of crest into a dominant second half of the season.

Hopefully you could do that this year. I will throw an out there. Did you have something to say, Mark? No, I thought you guys did an excellent job with that. Sort of sitting back and drinking it in. Greg, you kind of pointed toward Mark. Well, he looked like he was about to say something. What do you got, Mark?

I'll chime in on one of the next ones. All right, here we go. All right. Well, how about this one? How about a little bit of a... This better be good, by the way. I don't think it's going to be received well in this room because I'm reading the tea leaves of where this...

Is this going to be Sam Darnold? I'm thinking about a Carassant's. Derek Carr, quarterback Oakland Raiders. You got to love Derek Carr. You got to love the Oakland Raiders. One of the great. Wes, I know you're a football head, a real historian. What's better than the silver and black when you think about history?

Just win, baby. Just win, baby. Al Davis, baby. Carried on with his son, Mark Davis, baby. Las Vegas Sports, baby. Commitment to excellence, baby. Vegas, baby. Anyway, Derek Carr was a borderline MVP candidate two seasons ago.

He had thrown 28 touchdowns. almost 4,000 yards, broke his leg in week 16, ruined the Raiders postseason chances. And then I think what gets overlooked last season and what was a bad, bad year for the Raiders was that Derek Carr broke three bones in his back in week four last year. He was supposed to be an injury that was going to cost them maybe a month. He came back in a week and he finally acknowledged after the season that I got to keep it real. I came back probably too early. I was never really feeling great.

And you probably are not going to feel break when you literally break your back, like Bain putting Batman over his knee, little comic book stuff there of TD's listening. But so this is what I'm saying. Now he's healthy, okay? And everyone's so healthy and feeling the best they've ever felt this time of year, sure. But now he's a guy legitimately buy into, all right, Derek Carr is back to Derek Carr health-wise and the John Gruden factor,

which you either hate it or you love it. It doesn't seem like there's any in between with football fans. But I choose to buy into Gruden being a guy that could potentially get more out of Derrick Carr, not less. I know the weapons maybe are a little suspect around it, but I think Amari Cooper is going to eat. And we'll see what Jordy Nelson can do. But I think Derrick Carr is going to be closer to 2016 Derrick Carr than 2017 Derek Carr. I think it's a good one. In the entire Raiders experience, going forward for the next decade, honestly, because that's how long Gruden's contract is.

But especially the pressure this season, Carr sits at the epicenter of that pressure because everything that we know about John Gruden says that he's going to come in and turn the quarterback into the best possible version that we've seen of car. And if anything, if you get 60 or 70% of that, it's going to be a big problem in that town and Raiders fans everywhere. Because you've just handed John Gruden a massive King's Ransom to make your quarterback at least the guy he was when they went to the playoffs.

I mean, you need a Gruden sense. A little bit? I mean, he's been out of the game for a while. He's going to come back in. You need a Gruden Sons. They're tied at the hip. Do you believe more in a Karasance or a Gruden Sons? I feel like this is getting hard to say.

The Gruden Sons is the one that everyone seems to be ready to shoot down as having no chance of success. So I've decided now to park my camper in the other side of that argument. Let's see if John can do it. I'm in. I like John Gruden. I like the spider two came down. I feel like it is kind of split on Gruden.

Really? I don't sense that. I think maybe this show has been kind of rough on Gruden. I don't think it's just the show. either. Doesn't it feel like there's a level of Schadenfreude? Shotdenfroid? There's also, like, for some reason, there's a lot more snark attached

to the Raiders now. But doesn't Gruden, hasn't he invited some of that where he's like, I'm going to be 1998? It's like, well, why do you need to say some of these things that are getting on people's radar? That's a good example of what I'm talking about. Like, actually that was kind of taken out of context, what he

was trying to say, and people just ran with it because it was fun to run with that. Also, because it's Twitter, and that's what people do. They don't dive deep. They just grab what's easy and then run with it. He was referring to with the 98 comment. I think when he took over the Raiders, literally in 1998, there were some veteran guys that he brought in because he thought that was good for the core of the team.

And people just ran with that with him saying he wanted football to be 1998. And that's the way journalism works in 2018. But that's kind of my point, that people seem to want to take a bad angle with him and run. That's fair. I think he's also a guy that sort of stuck his nose up. at the concept of analytics and is essentially shut their GM out of the operation. So there's a lot of pressure on him

from a personnel stand. No, McKenzie's on a pressure. No, McKenzie's gotten the Howie Rose treatment right now. He's back in that Oakland-based shed somewhere. He's in whatever the Oakland equivalent of the Poconos Mountains are. These John Gruden Raiders are like religion to me. They're so mysterious that I only have questions and not answers.

But it's a good kind of mysterious, right? Put that on a bumper sticker. They still have this? Bumper stickers? Yeah, they're still in there. Maybe not at their peeking. Not widely used. I don't see a lot of them.

Yeah. Go ahead. What else do Andrew Luck and Laura Dern have in common other than their Renaissance sees? They were both in Jurassic Park 3. Taller than you expect. They both represent the advantage of having a parent with expertise and lots of experience in their industry.

Both have gone on to higher levels than their fathers. And it's like, Isleseons. A little Bruce Dern shot there, but okay. Hey, Bruce, Bruce Dern isn't getting billboards. Bruce did a nice job in his career, though. He did. Yeah.

Got that late, sneaky, nice job. Late career academy, uh, okay. Well, it's like, I like it. Isaac Newton said, if I can see further, it's by standing on the shoulders of giants. So they've used their parents for success, but also. Another bumper sticker. A late period oasis album standing on the shoulder of giants. Yeah, like some people might know it from Isaac Newton before Oasis.

Yeah. I learned it from Noel Gallagher. Okay, good. Go ahead. This is a guy who in 2014 playoff, January 2014, I had our video department make a highlight clip of his two playoff games. And in that highlight clip, were more jaw-dropping plays than I've ever seen

from a two-game span any quarterback. He was that good. The next year, regular season, he leads the NFL in touchdowns, flirts with 5,000 yards, and then everything goes in a tank. 2015's a disaster. 2016, he plays like a top five quarter.

quarterback, but the only people who know it are Greg Rosenthal on pro football focus, because they're the only ones chart in every throw. But, like, he had a top five season and everybody act like it didn't happen. You apparently know it, too, by the way. You sound like a third person in the, in the category. That's the old hat trick, three of you. Well, I get smarter by reading Greg, you know. Oh, we all do.

We all do. Absolutely. But I think we forgot that he was that good. And then last year is like a debaucculus fiasco to quote Dr. Seuss. It couldn't have gone any worse. Noel Gallagher. Yeah, Noel Gallagher came up with that one too. But I think, like, to me, what makes Andrew luck great and what we're going to see again

is that he puts on a performance. He doesn't play cautious. And he learned that from Bruce Ariens when he came into the league, never pass up a home run to go for a short pass. If Ty Wyatt Hilton's got a step, throw it deep every single time. That's the way he plays, and it's why his numbers might not ever appease some people. There's going to be incompletions. There's going to be turnovers.

But he's getting the big play. he's going for the juggler and that's how I like my quarterback's ask yes that's how you play quarterback i love it i we we talk about watt and is there concern about like coming back and being the same guy i mean andrew luck specific injury if it's one thing if it was like a oh he's got a bum like shin and it's finally better but it's this is like the part of the body he uses to do his work and it's been one of the most elongated frustrating baffling injuries that we've dealt with we've written probably 800 articles about no one knowing when he'll be ready exactly and you're him I mean what's the lingering concern about him reaching those heights again that's the question

yeah I think I'm invested because he's turned into kind of a punchline you can't have any kind of Andrew Luck update without everybody on Twitter acting like he's never going to be able to throw again kind of on the Colts I feel like the butt of the joke with that is typically the cults though right like yeah it's everything surrounding you. I don't know if people think he won't. Personally, I just don't I love Andrew Luck. I'd love to see it happen, but like this

is one of the more concerning injuries out there. I mean, that we've dealt with in the last 10 years. The two biggest concerning injuries is a football fan. Well, if, I'm not saying this has any bearing on Andrew Luck, but if you remember, like, this was the first few years of Matthew Stafford's career, repeated shoulder injuries

to his throwing arm. Drew Breeze had kind of a similar thing in which famously the Dolphins don't sign him. Yep. I mean, and just to circle back around, Bruce Derns, 11 productions that have gone into productions this year, this season. Active career. He's still going. Bruce, don't give up. He was in Nebraska, got the academy nom, and now he's working.

11 productions this year, including Lesbom, white boy Rick, the peanut butter falcon. They're all real. These are real names? Wait, so we're going to have to have a bruise and sons? And inherit the Viper. That's just four of the 11 movies that he's a part of this year. So the wrong Dern is being celebrated for a Dernison. This segment is about someone who's being completely outworked and outshund by their own father.

I got to see Peanut Butter Falcon before I really decide. How about Bruce Dern greater than sign Bruce Ariens? No, at circa 2018. Yeah, so we're at, in my opinion. Whoa. No. How about Bruce Ariens greater than sign Chuck Pagano? We just talked about Chuck.

Let's bring Aryans back. All right, Mark, close us out. All right, well, I feel like on this show that we, like, appropriately recognized and celebrated John Elway back in the day as the finest example of a former player who had become a general manager next to Ozzie Newsom. And he had the gravitas to pull in Peyton Manning.

They go win a Super Bowl. And John Elway looks like the absolute snake charmer that can do no wrong in Denver. You know, even post-car dealership, you know, era. The guy doesn't need to sell you's cars. He's selling you a Super Bowl champion in a stadium in your own town. Have a nice time with that. Now, now today.

Bad video games, but we'll give him paid. Awful video game. I feel like you probably didn't have a huge hand in that. Am I wrong there? I don't think he sat down. I don't think he sat down with the programmers and said, here's my vision for John Elway football for Nintendo. You put your name on it.

You got to make there. It's good. Again, that shows you that he is prone to the occasional misstep. and it popped up again in recent years, I think, that they feel like that the perception right now of Elway is that he's fallen off a cliff a little bit. He's swung and missed on Paxton Lynch. And I think we like Trevor Simeon.

Simeon did not work out in the end. They move on from Trevor Simeon. He's had a handful of drafts that people view is very suspect because they have been. And you have to almost wonder, you go out and hire this coach that after one season looks like maybe he wasn't the best higher in the league. And was he just simply propped up

by the final heyday run of Peyton Manning, or is he a good general manager? I think this is a great setup for him to show everyone, F you, I'm John Elway, I am good at this, and I'm going to, number one, you've got Bradley Chub falling right into your little lap, and you've got... It's a big lap, though.

It's a big lap. You've got great pass rushers. I think if you get Case Keenham to play, he's not going to do what he did last year. That was a perfect setup, and they're not that offense. But if you get 80-something percent of Case Keenum, and you just reduce some of the hideous turnovers that that defense looked a lot worse than it was last year because of the field position, the turnovers, everything that happened. This is not a Super Bowl-type team right now,

but I think they are due, they were 5 and 11. They are due for a bounce back of some sort. If you can get, if you can get Canem to play at a decent level and he plays 16 games, that solves a huge issue from last year. The offensive line is not pristine, but if you can protect them just a little bit better, the Broncos, if they, number one, they would have been viewed as hitting this draft, he would have been viewed as hitting on the quarterback to some degree. I think he's still a bit of a patch, but you can get your quarterback next year, and Elway survives

this. If they don't, I don't know what happens to John Elway. How about the... Elway Sons. I have friends in Denver that they call him John Smellway when they're unhappy with him. I think he's not Smellway this time around. How about the Broncos defensive coordinator saying that Bradley Chubba's

Khalil Mack and Von Miller put together and said he nearly passed out when you the Browns passed on Chubb for your corner. Well, the Broncos have been making the Browns look bad in many ways for decades. This would be another way for Elway to do that to take the guy that people say Cleveland should have taken. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those picks that if you, they, it fell to Denver and they just did the logical, you know, obvious move. But that, so what?

This Renaissance is for John. This one's for John. This one's for John. This one's for John, this song's for John. This one's for John, and that one's for John. Also, this one's for John, and all right, that one's for John. Come to think of it, this one's for John, and also that one's for John. I mean, it was really just a way to get that shoved into the show.

Carlson. Nice drop there, Erica. All temposy on the glass. Hey. Is we, you know. Are you guys better? Are you doing a little bit? Now we are.

Yeah, we're great. Playing my bits. Yeah. Things are great. Cool. Cool. Yeah, we have dinner plans this week, right? Right, Dan?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Saturday. Yep. Very transactional relationship. I'll be tracking to find out if that happens. I don't think it's going to work out for John L.A., but I believe that. As I was saying all that, I was looking at around the room and I was like, Nobody is buying this at all.

I can buy it. I can, they need a few things to go right for them, but I think John Elway looks at this roster, and he sees all the ways it can absolutely work, and I can see it too. They need a few things to go right, but I think it can work. I thought he was grassmen at Strauss up until the draft.

In January, you've got persistent rumors that Vance Joseph's job was on the line, that L.A. was considering firing him. You didn't want Case Keenum for $2 million last, year but now you won him for a lot more money and you to fix your offensive line you go out and sign a right tackle that the cardinals benched last year so yeah it seemed like he was grassman at straws and then i thought he had a great draft so maybe there is maybe he does send some magic and and like greg said it takes one specific route to get to the top but he sees that route

all right there you go hey mark before we go you should plug your u s o piece give it a little pop Give it a little love. Tell people what to look for, where to find it. It's the vanity URL, so it would be NFL.com backslash. It's backslash, right? It was like never know if it's forward or backslash. But it's back. It's one of the slashes.

USO 2018. And it kind of, I couldn't, you know, you're trying to. Sell it, Mark. Don't do the marketing. Here's the thing about that piece. You are honoring many masters with that kind of a piece. And so I could not get into everything that I witnessed and Saul on the trip, but I tried to include

as much color as I could about the characters that we travel with and... Which included Mark Ingram, pre-suspension, Rex Ryan, Carlos Dunlop, Mario Addison, Ben Garland, Latavius Murray, cast a character, but we had a great time. I think

those guys got a lot out of it and I tried to just mix... You did too, right? I did too. I mean, and also, the thing that, like, is kind of unusual that I don't think will ever happen again is like you get access to these like not secret but military bases that no one would be allowed on and you just see and experience things that were pretty incredible and so it came out of Memorial Day and we're well past that at this point so it's it's still it's evergreen though it's still on the internet you can find it you can find it what is that URL again uh it is NFL

dot com backslash USO 2018 like the spelling of that is self-explanatory yes there you go nice nice stuff mark good sell you could have left out the thing that you couldn't say certain things but um that was a good sell but that's true though because you're like you have to you know it's got to go through a lot of i would have said if i were you i would have lied i would have things that i wasn't supposed to talk about i talked about and wrote about in this piece and you could find out for yourself well you know maybe i'll like open a wordpress site and you know have sort of a director's cut of that all right well keep an eye out for that uh we will be back on Thursday with another banger of an episode.

So make sure you check that out. Also, Connie Fox will be with us. So we're going to have some fun. Until then, this is Dan Hansa, signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss. Loose Cannon behind the glass. We're going to work through this together. So we always do. All right.

Till Thursday. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit, so you can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors for the next era of gaming. Upgrade to smooth, high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E

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