NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Playoff Expansion & Hard Knocks Eligible Team Rankings

Episode Date: February 21, 2020

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all of the latest news around the NFL including the recent developments with the playoffs, (8:10), the Redskins keeping Peterson (30:11), and Tony Romo making a decision about broadcasting (35:57). The crew ranks the Hard Knocks eligible teams (47:18 before getting to some mailbag questions. (59:15)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. Oh, yeah. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am coming to you from a room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys?

Hey, Dan. Got the whole gang back together. First time since Super Bowl night, I believe. Whoa. Awesome. And yesterday was a special day, Wednesday. It was the birthdays of both the man to my right, Greg Rosenthal, and the man to my left. Chris Wesleying, happy birthday, gentlemen.

Thank you. And also, you know, the, well, who I consider the shadow fifth member of the around the NFL podcast, Roger Goodell. Ooh, Big Rock. Well, I'm a little disappointed because we had a big, we had a really actually, and this is not fictitious. This is really a big surprise planned for the two of you. And I spent probably two plus hours of my day yesterday. You were like really about it. I was about this.

And I went online to look for, it was like, what could we? get for Greg and Wes that they would both equally enjoy and we were going to try to get you guys into some news entanglement, some issues, some football head scenario and then have waltzing into the room a singing telegram

a woman named Angela was going to dress up as Marilyn Monroe and sing happy birthday Mr. Presidents. The American icon Marilyn Monroe. The icon. And I at the last minute I was just going to pay for it to my own and try to get it expensed later because it was semi-affordable.

That's when I was like, I took a step back and I said, I hope that works out for you, Mark, but I wouldn't hold your breath. Well, Erica was very smart. She said, run this up the flagpole to at least one shadowy league figure to see what they'd think. And the response I got was a pretty decisive no on the basis that a Marilyn Monroe-esque figure would be, in quotes, two-sexual. Too sexual. So the whole thing got, the whole thing got, which I find that to be absurd. be her coming in and singing a song.

I'm so offended, again, as an American, that Marilyn Monroe, who represented really, in some ways, yes, the sexual revolution of the middle of the 20th century. But she is not some, like, overly racy character that must be kept in the shadows of society. I mean, an actress and a singer, multi-talant. That scene with her singing, Happy Birthday, Mr. President, has been replayed. so many movies and TV shows that are not racy or... Yeah, you're not sending the kids out of the room when they're playing the old clip.

Too hot for this production, apparently. I think, though, what my big takeaway is, we know what to get Mark first. Well, there were a lot of options of singing telegrams, and for some reason, this seemed like it would have stopped you in your tracks, yes. Right, that would have been perfect, but again, the shadowy league figures err on the side of caution.

And in lieu of that, we've gotten you enough. I think that's appropriate. I think that is consistent with every birthday we have in this room. Yeah, and now Greg is deeper into his 40s. Wes is closer to 50 than 40. I'm a few years, like Mark, I'm a few years away from my AARP card. And here I am, still in my 30s. I'm 41.

Well, you're the one who couldn't survive a couple of sleds without tearing your shoulders. It's barking. You got to heal that shoulder up before you turn 40. and enjoy the final days of your 30s. The shoulders are gone, buddy. They're just gone. Get used to it. You're throwing arms gone.

Your swing's going to be gone soon. It happens. It's all happening. Speaking of which is offline this west, but it is sign up time for softball. We have to figure out what's going on there. Oh, I threw my cleats away. Oh.

Whoa. Well, that's a way of like making sure you can't even change your mind, although you could buy new cleats. Okay. When you start out the championship game, 0 for 3 as the lead off hitter. You got to walk away. It's just time.

Wow. I mean, doesn't the entire team need to author some sort of a comeback story? That's what I thought, but it sounds like the competitor in Wes died when he turned 46. Well, I just don't want to be a liability. And I, like, with my scout, I watched that performance in the championship game and said, your weakness was your lead off hitter. You taped dogged yourself? I taped talked to myself and said, your weakness was your leadoff hitter.

the whole team set that set the tone for the whole team and everybody got a little too tense because I wasn't getting on base. It was disappointing, but the reason it was so disappointing is because you had another rock solid season. And yes, you had a bad 60 minutes, but I would say that would not be the reason to walk away because you went 0 for your first three. I mean, listen, it's your decision. I'd love to talk to you privately about this because I want to bring the gang back for one more run at it. But I just can't see doing it without my consigliary, my Don Zimmer. I will try to keep an open mind, but I took the cold analytic knife to my performance. And it said, look, the guy just doesn't have it anymore.

His body is broken down. Yikes. Oh, wow, that was sobering. All right. Territory. All right. Stick a pin in that. Today's show.

Kauai was nice. Oh, yeah. You just got back from Hawaii. We ran into Kaleas Campbell at the airport coming back from his own baby moon. and Keisha will be happy to hear this. Throughout the entire island of Kauai, everybody in the service industry knows what a baby moon is and basically caters to it and says, oh, you know, congrats you know.

Kaleas Kimball, one of the nicest guys in the NFL. Absolutely, incredibly friendly, incredibly nice. As nice as you think, he was very... One of the deepest voices in the NFL. Very deep. And when you say ran into, as in the minute he saw you and Lakeisha, he came up to you two saying, how are you doing? Or how does that work?

I don't feel like he would recognize me on the street. We were tagging our bags right in the same area on the way from Kauai to L-A-X on the way back, and Keisha just said hi. He stepped over and said hello, and we chatted for a bit. Hello, Lakeisha. He's like deeper than, remember the guy and boys the men with a cane where all he did was the talking parts of the song? Clyse Campbell makes him sound like David Beckham. It's crazy.

Also, a full head taller than anybody. else at the airport giant though Greg and potentially uh changing teams this off season see how he brings it back that's why schreger has him at number one because he's out of this BS about talking about the airports and baby moons let's talk ball it's good to have a Greg I didn't know what else to say I'm gonna we're gonna hit the mailbag that's been a few weeks since we did that also uh the zooser even with the bum shoulder a banger the teams that are hard knocks eligible i rank them in order for new listeners to be clear you are the zeus it's not a guest we're bringing on to the show just i just want to let if

anyone's join in hopefully we're getting some young uh young listeners no it's me uh ranking the least to most uh compelling teams that have to be on the show potentially mandatory inclusion there's five of them uh but before we do that i know mark has a little countdown that we're going to get to after news? Yep, I wouldn't call it a banger, but I would say that it's packed with information. Yeah, so stay tuned for that. Before we get to any of that, though, let's do some news.

Some folks call her Connie Fox, others say it's tiny box, but no matter you know who they mean. She's here today on ATN, talking with your favorite man, NFL's lone wolf, her name's Colleen. Oh, this is like the Obrother Where Art thou sound sounds like I'm way into that one I'm glad we saved that for when Wesk returned

because that felt like it was right up Wesleyan Lane. I love it. That is outstanding. Yeah, we could put that into the finals, I feel like. Let's do it. Sort of like the Gord's version of gin and juice? Yeah, I really do think that's special or different and unique from what everything we've heard so far

That, of course, being the great competition, the Connie Fox theme song Sweepstakes. And as I said, you have to get in submissions by the close of business tomorrow Friday. We're going to seal it off. Even if you send something in on Saturday or any time, we're not even going to look at it. Too bad. I'm deleting it. I'm personally deleting the Gmail entry. So the ATN podcast at Gmail.

Send in your submissions. Connie Fox theme song, 30 seconds or less. That's another good one. Good job, Ricky. How's the curation going? It's going well. There's a lot of, there was a few, I grabbed a few for later. So if you want to listen to a few more at the end of the show.

But they're good. Some are pretty bad. Yeah. They're pretty bad. Do we know who was the artist for that one? For that one, I do not. That's got to be professional. Well, we don't want to, yeah, we keep everything closer to us.

I did hear, I got a little bit of pop heat on Twitter that the last entry, the one we really liked. We loved the first and the fifth from Tuesday's show. Fifth one, which had a really nice hip-hop sound to it, a great beat, and it was called, it's a wolf stupid, I believe? Stupid in parentheses. That that beat might not have been original, and we have to talk about that. Was it that one or the rap one?

The rap one was clearly stolen. Yeah, we used some tweets. But people were saying Greg, who loves rap so much, didn't even notice the M&M beat, so maybe you don't like rap that much. Yikes. I don't, yeah, I'm not familiar with. with late period M&M. Unmasked.

I'm not apologizing for it. All right, let's get into a huge news that came out yesterday, a report I should clarify, that when the collective bargaining agreement is finalized, and there's hope that that's going to happen in the next week, which would be very good for everyone involved. Part of that agreement will be an exchange to the NFL's playoff structure. and the change could come as soon as the 2020 season under the current CBA proposal that the NFL owners are pushing for,

and this report is from Adam Schefter of ESPN. The playoff field would be expanded to seven teams from each conference while the regular season would be increased to 17 games per team and the preseason shortened to three games per team. As part of the proposed playoff format, only one team from each conference would receive a first round buy as opposed to the two that currently do. That would mean a revised playoff schedule.

That would give us six games on Wild Card Weekend, three on Saturday, three on Sunday, which that sounds like a lot of fun. And like I said, the changes to the playoff format would take effect for the 2020 season, and then any change in the amount of games in the season, moving from 16 to 17,

that would happen at 20, 21, the earliest. So there could be a situation here where you're having the seventh playoff team in each conference, but it's still a 16-game season, but that might only be one season that we get that. Your initial thoughts to that, Mark, when you heard about this change that seems to be coming. Initially, annoyed, because to me it translates to football, in some cases people feel like it could stretch into mid-to-late February, depending on what happens, which I find unnecessary. For the 17 games.

The playoff won't change, the playoff schedule won't change for that first year or two. No, the playoff thing, I'm warming up to it because, essentially because it just feels like this stuff is inevitable. But I thought it was interesting that Warren Sharp noted that of the 20, of the last 10 years, the 20 teams that would have made it, five were 10 win teams, nine were nine win teams, and you had six, eight and eight teams that would have been shoved into the playoffs. even looking at the last most recent round of playoffs, and certainly going back a few years,

there always seems to me to be a team or two that I just don't buy on any level that are in the playoffs. So what are we adding? Are we adding quality opponents? In some cases it feels just because you'd get that team that heated up at the end of the year and snucked into a nine-win season and you want to see them with a chance to go against

the rest of the playoff field. But largely to me, it feels unnecessary. but unavoidable. So I will just simply drag me and bend me and shape me as you wish. Do with me as you wish from September through February because it's going to get longer. It's more. I'm not sure it's necessary.

I want to clip that for the future. Drag me and bend me and shape me as you. We are getting just sort of pulled along in this. If you're saying, yeah, why fight it? It's going to happen. Yes. I mean, it's being reported that it's happening. I don't get upset about it.

But I did think that the NFL of all the sports leagues had the perfect formula of teams, divisions, playoffs, 32 teams, eight divisions. I just, whenever I say 32 teams, eight divisions, four teams per division. Right. When the 2002 alignment happen, realignment happened, that made it perfect. Two, two playoff buys, I liked that, 12 overall playoff. It just seemed perfect. And when you look, like you said, Mark, at the teams that are being added, like last year, you know, would have been the Rams and the Mason Rudolph Steelers.

And you go back the last five years, it's a bunch of teams like that that I didn't feel like I needed to see another round of. The biggest exception I found was the 2018 Steelers, who could have done some damage and cost themselves at the end of the year. But other than that, it's a bunch of teams that I was ready to say goodbye to. I find it unnecessary too, but I'm not the one trying to grow. the league to $25 billion per year. So I have that luxury of saying it's unnecessary.

It doesn't bother me like replay review for pass interference of the old catch row where it's clearly upsetting the integrity of the sport. I don't find the integrity at stake here. I actually think it could be kind of interesting to see how it changes strategy at the end of the year. I don't have a problem with the seven teams from each conference. I actually like the idea that only one team gets a buy. I think that creates more stakes. and obviously teams will probably have to play guys week 17 more,

things like that if you're near the top of the standings. I don't love, as somebody who loves one of the things I love about sports is record books and the pursuit of various things. When we go to 17 games, and it does seem like this is going to happen, last time they made a jump in games, they went from 14 to 16, and that was in the late 70s. So we're going on 40 plus. years since they made that change.

And adding that extra game does change certain county stats to me. And I care about that stuff. Things like 100 catches or 2,000 yards or 4,000 yards passing. You screw around that a little bit. Or the symmetry of an 8-and-8 record. But that stuff changes in football anyway. It's not like baseball. That's fair.

That's fair. I get that. But I guess I just, I liked the way it was. And the other thing that really is just on my radar a little bit and just seems silly is that when you have an odd number of games in the regular season, that means half the teams are going to have nine home games and the other half are going to have eight. And I text about this yesterday,

and Greg, you mentioned that they're going to alternate at AFC Ennesty. It just seems so silly. It just seems ridiculous. Well, I think the other, the push is probably at some juncture in the far off horizon to have 16 international games where there's, or a neutral site at least. And that's my speculating. You know, no one's reported that.

That to me is, that's my speculation. but it makes sense that then you would do these neutral-site games. I think initially, like if they do this 20, this 17-game season, and it sounds like 2022 would be the most likely first time that that would happen, that, yeah, the AFC will have eight home games, whereas the NFC will have nine. It'll be a little weird, and no one's reported yet whether, and I've asked, so I don't think people know whether you're going to have a second buy week, too,

in terms of player safety. So I think the season could very well be two weeks longer. you get the extra game and you get an extra buy week. There will be people with OCD picketing, Dan. The 17 week thing. The 17 week thing is driving me crazy. The only thing it really helps is fantasy sports because you chop off week 17

and the regular season ends three weeks before. So now you can have an even number at the end of a fantasy season. I actually thought about that earlier today. That's nice. That's all nice. It really hurts the two seed. I mean, that is the biggest takeaway.

I don't mind that, though. That doesn't bother me. That doesn't bother me. If you don't want to be hurt. No, no, it doesn't, that doesn't kill me. It's more I just, like, there's a reason why those teams at the bottom rarely make runs. They're not good. You know, we always see, as you mentioned, one or two teams in the playoffs that are kind of like,

they don't really have a chance to win the Super Bowl. So I don't think you're adding compelling teams to the mix, but it's not a big deal. We're going to watch it. I mean, we would watch anything. Of course you, like, that's not the point. They know that. Of course we're going to watch it. But it's still, I like that how meaningful every regular season game is.

And it chips away at that just a tiny bit. And I think Connor Orr wrote a piece for SI that the lead was, shut up nerds. Shut up nerds. Letting another team into the postseason is a good thing. And you know what? I see his point of it. I would love it. I would actually be all in.

The 2015 Jets would have been a playoff team. I know. A noise. I know they would have. Fitzmagic, baby. but if they would keep it as what it's going to end up being this year where we have the extra playoff teams and it's still 16 games that would have been wonderful but that's just not going to happen.

There is pushback, I mean... Maybe it will. There's pushback on the 17 game thing though. The playoffs, I think everyone kind of can get behind that a little bit. But I think it's easy to forget in February through June that there's a lot of bad football happening in after Thanksgiving and a lot of crappy third string quarterbacks dueling second and third string quarterbacks.

Do we need an extra week of that? I would say we do not. And that's part of the argument. I mean, it's mostly just money. It's all money. But part of the argument in terms of the playoff seating is, yeah, more teams will just be alive with the seven game. You know, if you're the type of person that goes crazy, that there's too many teams

in the, like, in contention, you know, playoff little standing thing. Like everyone's, you know, it's going to be hard not to be in contention for the seven seat. We just said, by the way, Mark, on Tuesday's show that they're going to figure out a way to get this thing into June and end of July and close that opening of quiet time in the NFL. This is just another big thing. I am committed to trying to not complain about what is ahead because you cannot essentially shut down a vastly multi-trillion dollar giant

that just is going to trudge over you and trudge over the land and step on houses, step on your face. And they're meeting right now and there's so much optimism that the CBA could get done in the next week that it might even be presented to the players as early as Friday to start voting on. If that actually happens and all this optimism from the last few months and years is well-founded, that would be a major win. Because I just sort of, after going through, you know, anyone that was around the last lockout and everything, it's like that was an absolute nightmare for the sport and if they can do it good job by both sides avoiding that sort of lockdown you want to talk a little sliding doors mark and i had just recently joined the company back in 2010 and then the lockout hit and our old boss jim loftus very nice guy uh called me mark and all the other part timers into his office and said hey guys just a heads up if this lockout goes on much

longer. I think he put a matter of weeks on it. Dead men walking. We got to let you guys all go. Sliding doors, bro. And that whole time with the lockout, and you remember with,

who was it the big bohemath that was hugging Robert Kraft? His wife had just died. Who was the big bohemath? Remember the famous photo after the lockout ended? Kevin Moai? Nobody remembers this?

He helped. I remember there was a photo. There was a bohemath. Yeah. There was a photo of Robert Kraft getting a hug. Who was that one of the top union guys? Was it Maui?

Yeah, it wasn't Hawaii. It's probably not Hawaii, but that whole, that was very contentious. And if you are a younger football fan, you don't really have a lot of experience with the labor doubt, it becomes the overriding story. It hovers over everything. It was a terrible offseason at pro football talk. So if we can avoid that. Was it not Jeff Saturday, by the way?

Jeff Saturday, maybe. I believe it was Jeff Saturday. No longer a behemoth. One quick point on this. So much of football in the NFL is cyclical. And I guarantee you this point, everyone's. making about the Mason Rudolph Steelers would have made the playoffs. If you go back to the early day of this podcast, you will hear Greg Rosenthal saying,

well, look, the trend is that the wild card teams are getting to the Super Bowl. The Baltimore Ravens just did it. Who knows what happens in five, six years what the trend will be at that time? Just saying. There was like a four or five year period where teams were making it as six seats. That was kind of an anomaly in the history of the NFL. and then at that door, for whatever reason, has been shut. Well, or you're going to get a seven-and-nine seed that knocks off a two-seat.

It helps the one-seed quite a bit. That's kind of the big takeaway, is you go get that one-seed. I mean, it's not going to change, like in this last season. Sometimes it'll change things. Sometimes it won't. The Ravens would have clinched, you know, regardless and been able to rest their players. Jeff Saturday.

There is. The big lug, Holden Robert Kraft. It was an emotional moment. All right. Let's move on. Greg Olson has a new home. It's in the Pacific Northwest. The three-time Pro Bowl tight end is signed a one-year $7 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks.

Mike Garifolo reported this on Tuesday night. The team later announced a signing. Olson went on a free agent tour, went to D.C., Buffalo, and this is all set against the backdrop of his broadcasting career. He's been doing XFL TV coverage. but he lands with the Seahawks immediately because I grew very fond of the man speaking of hard knocks I thought oh this is the end of Luke Wilson

in Seattle you got a veteran tight end and I don't know Thank you Ricky Wes did Greg Olson have anything in the tank last year He sort of moves like Witton at this point Oh no I think the biggest problem with him is he's just never healthy anymore He's reached the Chris Wesleyan as leadoff hitter stage of his career

And it might be time. You know, he has shown the ability in the broadcast booth where we know you put him in there. He's going to be one of the best color guys in the business. I'd rather see him do that, but I understand that Russell Wilson seems to be taking a more aggressive stance towards let's pass the ball in Seattle. Let's really do this. And maybe they're finally listening to the quarterback. He was pretty productive, 597 yards in 14 games.

In 14 games. I don't think his feet were fine. That's Jimmy Graham, 2018 production, 500 yards for a titan. is nothing. Quite as slow as Witten. But it should be fun. I think it's a great landing spot in the sense that what Will Disley, Jacob Hollister last year,

tight ends were productive in that attack and if they're going to throw the ball more. Yeah, hopefully Will Dissley can get healthy towards Achilles. He was having kind of a breakout season last year. Had Luke Wilson eating breakfast next to us at the Super Bowl, by the way. He's much bigger than I realized in person, but was with another man, not a football player, who was got to be amazing. Maybe six foot nine with a gigantic beard and, like, tattoos all of her his body.

Jeff Saturday. That was not Jeff Saturday. Athletes always bigger in person. Oh, yeah. Celebrity is always smaller. Just general rule. Almost always. You remember when we were talking about how Rhodo World did a bad job calling Tom Pellasero,

NFL.com, Tom Pellasaro, when clearly most of us were a bad job with it. They needed to clean that up. They had to clean it up. Well, guess what? They have a report. Ponselero writes articles for NFL.com. Primarily is an NFL network. I missed that signal.

It felt like a potential slight. I don't think that's where they were coming. I feel like we, Wes, all three of us were in lockstep that rode a world had stumbled here. But guess what? They cleaned it up because they had a report on Stefan Diggs where they refer to Tom Pelliserro's NFL networks. And you just have to wonder if someone listened and took note.

I hope so. Or they got a sternly worded letter from the Pelliserro PR agency. Anyway, Pelliserro reported that Stefan Diggs who apparently seems unhappy being a member of the Vikings, but according to Pelsero, it's a long shot for the Vikings to trade the talented wide receiver. I think the logic here, of course, is that the Vikings are close

and they want to see what they can do. If they can get over the hump, West, and losing Stefan Diggs, barring them bringing in somebody to replace him that's at his level or better, the team will just get worse, and they can't afford to get worse. They've too much invested in this current squad. I agree.

The logic is why should we trade one of our best players, one of the top 20 wide receivers in the NFL, and I think a better player than Adam Thielen, so why would you trade him? And why make it clear that if you want off the Vikings, simply be an agitator or be just annoying enough for us to move you whether you're very talented or not? I think you just got to put this out, though, if you're the Vikings to calm this down, because people are just like checking, you know, he deleted all his Viking stuff on Instagram and he's like writing these cryptic rap lyrics, which could maybe mean that he wants out.

And it's just like, you got to comment down. And people are going to be trying to calm things down at the Combine next week, too. But I also think other people covering that team have reported that they would maybe listen and it doesn't make sense to me. But they are a rare team that doesn't have a ton of cap room. I'm going to throw the Everson Griffin news now because I think it's connected. Everson Griffin voided his contract on Thursday it was reported. That opens up $12 or $13 million.

And maybe that makes it a little easier to keep Stefan Diggs. They might cut, they rerode, they might cut Lynn Val-Jose. They might bring Everson Griffin back. Who really knows? But they're a team that, like, has a lot of commitments. And I think would want to sign Kirk Cousins to a deal, too. 32 years he spent his whole career with the Vikings. On the Diggs note, there has been a subtle shift over the last couple of years.

certainly we saw it last year where just because a team wants to keep a player, if he's at a certain level, he might make it happen that they want. Antonio Brown comes to mind with the Raiders, Jalen Ramsey, of course, with the Jaguars. Could Diggs just by his

force of will get himself out of Minnesota just by continuing to put things out there in social media or talking to the right person at NFL network or ESPN and turn this into an untenable situation for Minnesota? I just think in today's NFL don't put that out of the equation

that that's how this. Or he inspires just by being vocal about this, he inspires a very attractive offer from a team to Minnesota that Minnesota then actually has to consider. Yeah, if someone's willing to give up a first round pick. I would listen to that though. And then you're like, okay, maybe. Adrian Peterson sticking around with the Redskins.

The Washington Football Club has picked up the option on his contract for 2020. It will be the age 35 season for Peterson who has rushed for over 1,900 yards and 12 touchdowns in two years with the Redskins. He was never supposed to get this much work, but the problem is that Darius Geis, the 2018 promising draft pick, can't stay on the field. And I guess Greg, we're viewing Washington's decision here, a bit of insurance and also a reward to Peterson,

who continues to be somewhat productive at the stage of his career. It was good last year. 4.3 yards per carry, ran hard. They could still cut him in camp. There's no real big guarantees. But I think he looked at the landscape and he heard one man who believed in him always, who never gave up on him. And that man was Chris Wessling.

And he decided, hey, I've had a Hall of Fame career, but I need to do Chris proud. And I need to run hard in Washington. And he's earned it. He had this. Do you feel that too? Way to back story. I do not feel that whatsoever,

but I did see a good tweet from Kevin Patro who said Peterson had more 20-yard runs last year than Alvin Camara, Ezekiel Elliott, Todd Gurley. He looked pretty good. Aaron Jones. He had the same number of 20-yard runs as Christian McCaffrey. And also on a team that by, you know, after the coaching changes happened, you knew they were going to run the ball like 45 times a game. Chris Thompson is also a free agent.

He's been there forever. He'll be gone. And Geist looked good in the very small sample size we saw. saw him, but I think it's fair to question, or at least for the Redskins to make sure they're prepared to have another runner there if Geis doesn't. Yeah, he has 40 career carries. Yeah. And anybody who listens to this podcast knows I was tremendously moved and caught up in the pursuit of Walter Payton's touchdown, rushing touchdown mark, which Peterson caught Peyton. He has 111 rushing touchdowns. Peyton 110. He also passed Jim Brown, who's at 106. Next up on the list,

Peterson wants to get into the top three, Marcus Allen at 123. That's a big ass. He's sitting at one-11 right now? So 11-13 touchdowns next year? Emmett Smith number one, Marcus Allen number three, win Wes's toaster, Wes, who's number two with 145 career rushing touchdowns? I don't know. I was not thinking.

I don't know. Still in Hawaii, huh, bud? I still am. The Danian Tomlson, 145 touchdown rushes. All right, bad news, not really for the Browns because they were moving on anyway, but bad news for the man, Greg Robinson, the former number two overall draft pick of the Rams, who is in a West Texas jail without bond after federal agents said they found 157 pounds of weed

in a rented vehicle in which he and two other people were driving. This is unbelievable this story. He's 27 years old. He spent the last two years as the starting left tackle, as the starting left tackle of the Browns. And he's driving around near the border with 157 pounds of marijuana and if convicted him, this other bro. And the third guy in the car was an Uber driver,

who apparently didn't even know what was going on. He didn't realize he had an entire drug shipment. Wait, really? They were taking an Uber? He paid a guy to be a driver for this journey. The guy did not get charged because he said that he did not know what was in the car. And he showed federal agents a text from Greg Robinson that said, hey, if you take the fall for this, I will compensate you financially.

And the guy was like, here you go, DEA or whatever. Anyway, if convicted, both men, including Greg Robinson, a 27-year-old starting left tackle in the NFL a couple of months ago, could be sentenced up to 20 years in federal prison. So we'll see how this goes. Well, you know, we can cite precedent here. What is it? Anybody of a certain age immediately calls back to Nate Newton, who was arrested, I believe, in 2001 for 213 pounds of marijuana in a giant van. Then paid his bail and five weeks later got arrested. He lasted for 175 pounds of marijuana, and he said, look, athletes are competitive.

I saw a chance to make money, and I wanted to be the best drug dealer on the market. That's what Nate said? He said he wanted to be the best. This one, though, I thought of Sam Hurd, which was a little more recently, which was, I think, seven years ago, a Cowboy Special Teamer, who was basically like a kingpin. He was running, you know, big time deliveries, you know, trailers. you know, thousands and thousands of pounds. This seems, for a guy in Greg Robinson who's made almost $30 million in his career,

it seems too in between to me, like the juice isn't worth the squeeze here. You know, this is a small time, whatever's going on here is not a big time. You're taking a lot of risk for not a lot of payoff considering the income you're making. According to Dre, our former right fielder on the shield. Oh, yeah, Dre, who...

She's knowledgeable on this front. One of the great newsroom personalities of all time and the author of maybe The Defining Play in Shield history. Absolutely. Not arguably the defining play, the shoestring catch with the bases loaded in our first title year. We were heavy underdogs. And if that ball gets down, everybody's running around the bases and we probably lose in crushing fashion.

Instead, she makes the catch. We get out of the inning. We hold them off in the last inning and we win our first trophy. And it doesn't happen without Dre-Day. All that is well said. Dre-Day says you could expect between $90,000 and $320,000 on the street value, depending, of course, on quality of product. Right.

And she is someone with quite a bit of innate knowledge about the movement of those substances. I'm citing her as an expert. The top 10 in the 2014 NFL draft, just for fun. Jadavian Clowning, number one, Greg Robinson. and two, Blake Bordel's three to the Jags, Sammy Watkins, four to the Bills, Khalil Mack, five to the Raiders, Jake Matthews, six to the Falcons,

Mike Evans, seven to the bucks, Justin Gilbert, eight to the Browns, Anthony Barr, nine to the Vikings, and Eric Ebron, 10 to the lines. A lot of swings and misses there. Kaleel Mack at five. I want to make Mayak's shining moments as a draft analyst.

Finally, let's keep tracking what to me is the most important free agency saga of the offseason the one that really affects all of us and the most people connected to the NFL. It's Tony Romo who has of course this opportunity to leave CBS

and sign a massive contract with ESPN to become the face of their NFL analysis. And Romo talked about his decision-making process on Tuesday, an interview with Beninskin on 97-1, the Eagle. Let's listen in to Romo, who sounds like a guy ready to go somewhere.

As someone who's making a decision in their life, like you guys just did, you just want something to be very straightforward and make it simple so that you just say, yeah, let's do it. Here we go. And I feel like that'll, I think I'm already there a little bit, but we'll see how it plays out, even though I think I kind of know, I'm just not telling you guys. I think he's done. I think he's gone. I think he's breaking up with his boy, Jimmy Nance, and he's leaving this life he had. And we talked about...

Wait, why is that your takeaway? I just hear the way, because he's already made his decision. It sounds like he's conflicting, and he's like, I made my decision. I think he's taking the money, and he's going to greener pastures. That's just my... Based on just the inflection in his voice, I don't know. Nothing else other than that. All right.

It's fair speculation. I mean, Nance needs him more than he needs. Right. Well, the logic being, yeah, if he was staying, why wouldn't he just say he was staying? Kind of like if you're going to keep the quarterback you have, why not just say it? When you don't say anything, it invites speculation. But I didn't know if there was more to it. I have not heard that interview.

That would break, you know, it would break my heart. Break Jim Nance's heart. That's what's happening in the news. I figure we're going to get an announcement on that soon. It feels like something that could come out, Combine. It's not about, I saw something, it's not about money, because he's going to get all the money he wants, I think, either way. Maybe it's about the schedule.

CBS is going to match. Yeah, maybe it's other. Maybe he doesn't want to work on the weekend. He's going to miss the golf. All right, that's what's happening in the news. Mark, Wes, you were on your wonderful baby moon when we did a bit of a power rankings who Peter Schreger respects. And we kind of came down at.

Very strange. Well, we know, because we asked him. Greg's number one. Right. We asked him in person and he did not. Why did this come up now? Because that was back in May and suddenly. Because I think about it. I think about it like probably five times a day. But we kind of came down. The rankings that we had was Greg won because we knew West 2 was a football head. Me 3 because of my work with Good Morning Football.

Erica 4 because of the great stuff she's doing on Instagram. And Pete has a tremendous amount of respect for women. And number 5, Mark. I love this segment. And only five because there's not a six person involved in the race because I would quickly stumble down to number six. If we wanted to include Connie Fox, she might fly all the way to number one. I mean, she's a real...

Let's keep her out of that, though. She's a real TV head. Oh, but we had Mark Brady, too. Mark Brady was in there. He's five and then Mark... Yeah, because he's worked with him in terms of setting up different things. And, yeah, he... I think you nailed the analysis.

Yeah. So now with that background in hand, Mark wanted to offer up his... Top five people he respects in the football industry. So you're talking cognizanti? Really, it could be anyone who covers football, but it has to be someone that I... Is it outside the NFL media empire? In some cases.

Okay. In some cases, in some cases they're within the empire. I mean NFL media like our company we work for? There are a couple people attached to our company from places beyond. Got it. What about us? Are we in the mix? So you would all make my list without any questions.

Take us out. You're not in it. That's not interesting. I don't want to rank you right now. That's going to open up a whole list. Yeah, we'll save that for season 12 maybe. All right, let's go. Number five.

Number five. Yeah, number five. Kyle Brandt, I think he's someone who's just grown immensely over his run with Good Morning Football. I find him creative. He's willing to take risk. He doesn't take himself too seriously. an engaging football man. Kyle had a great year.

And also, by the way, I can tell he's been lifting weights because he is jacked right now. He's a little bit annoying because not only is he in fantastic shape, as Damasek has often pointed out, like the thing that jumps out to you with people in Hollywood are just good-looking guys, it's the jawline. When you have the jaw line, it's really a huge asset. And nobody's got a better jawline in NFL media.

I mean, outside and inside this company, than Mr. Brandt. But he's also tremendously funny and a nice guy. He has a great reputee. You know, he's a nice guy. He's creative. I mean, he's putting us all to shame. I'm surprised there's four people ahead of him. Well, no, and I struggled to.

Yeah, who's number four? Number four, obviously, is Nate Burleson. Who I, again, someone who's just absolutely, you know, five years ago, who knows what would have become of his career. But he is a climber who can do anything. You know, I think he's great in the booth. and he's been part of a color. He's multi-talented.

He does everything. And he's able to communicate what he knows very well. I mean, he's on CBS, NFL Network, and Extra, the Hollywood show. Very versatile, a raging talent. Number three. Number three, I mean, how I have to go Kay Adams, because she also, she does everything as you could ask. She does it so well.

And all, you know, the three people that I've mentioned so far, the fact that they get up and do this show every day, multiple hours, and they keep that enthusiasm and that love for the game going. I mean, it's impressive. And she is a, I don't think she's a delight. She's a delightful talent. She's a very nice woman and she's also, yes, tremendously talented and a grinder. Number two.

Number two. And I, you know, I wanted to look a little bit beyond the NFL media community because this grinder has been doing it for a long time. D. Orlando Ledbetter, who covers the Falcons, I love reading his stuff. The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Yeah, when we go, you know, when we were at the combine kind of grinding away those years, he often would do the pool reports and he'd get up there

and he'd kind of tell other reporters I need someone else to get up here and do this too. He gets people, he rallies his fellow veteran reporters and a lot of respect. If I ever want to know the Atlanta Falcons roster,

I know where to find it in D. Orlando Ledbetter's blog every day. I'm going to be very upset if Larry Fitzgerald Senior is not number one, but this is your list. Here we go.

And the number one media NFL media personality that Mark Sessler respects is it is Connor or how come nobody knows how to do the timpany you wait until the timpani stops it is Connor or number one a friend but I I seen in Connor his football abilities his writing abilities just double and triple since the time I'm I mean his most recent lead says right we mentioned him today because he

aggressively and creatively attacked the biggest story of the week and he did it in a way that no one else but Connor or it could do I think that when you sit down and hang out with Connor or for half an hour. He's going to always tell two or three stories that are beyond insane. He had, we, before- You don't have to explain Connor Ores. I know. I think anyone listening who's-

Can I just say, though, I just, I'm taking a step back. I'm divorcing myself from knowledge of anyone on this list or not on this list. And my relationship with you and this podcast, it does come off a little bit like some score settling to not have Shrager on the top five. I'm just going to say. Well, because you didn't put anyone else from NFL on. network on the list, except for his three co-hosts on Good Morning Football. I think they do great work. And I, you know, it would be, I would be, you know, remiss to leave

them off the list. I am happy to talk with Peter. I was going to say, I'd be remiss as the host of the show not to get Schrager on now. We have to, we got to, this is becoming a, this is now a thing. It's now a thing that we need to address. I think probably, you know, we could have a chat at some point. It wouldn't be too much of an effort for him to do that. Some people might deduce from your list that you have the three other Good Morning Football people at 5, 4, and 3. Maybe Schrager just missed, and he was number 6. You could deduce that if you wanted to. He might have been very close.

Wes, this is going to make... Forget Trager. I won D. Orlando on the show. This is making the Hansus Jeremiah if you would look like tiddly winks. Well, that one, you know, some people might say the percentage of which it's genuine. It's K-FAB? Yeah, it's a little K-Fab. This one appears to be real.

Well, I'm not calling it more than it is. It's in progress. It has been something that's been sitting with you like a rock in the pit of your stomach since we were at poolside at that talent conference. He didn't rank you last. No, he just said great. He didn't need to. He didn't need to.

He didn't need to. He didn't need to rank me last. I think we knew where we were going with that one. All right. Let's get into it. Hard knocks. Let's talk a little hard knocks. Actually, you know what?

We got a little breaking. Oh, we do. The NFL. owners have officially approved terms of the collective bargaining agreement. Read on everything, the owners have agreed. Their proposal. Everything is set from their standpoint. They are now sending that entire proposal over to the players who will probably vote on it,

maybe as early Friday. So it needs to be a, what is it, a three-fourths vote from the, two-thirds. The NFLPA heads, the guys that lead each team. And then it just has to be a majority vote for all the players. So we're not there yet. We're not there yet, but the owners are basically done already. They already decided what the proposal is.

They're raising, you know, the percentage that players make and a bunch of off-season stuff. And a million things actually hasn't been reported yet, but it's being sent and the players' representatives will have a vote on Friday after. This might sound boring to some listeners, but this is important. If they can get this done, we don't have to think about labor peace for another decade. And the owners were not unanimous. There's no details on what the vote was. But something tells me Mike Brown was involved. Wouldn't any basic history of sports labor negotiations

suggest that there will be negotiations before this is agreed upon? Well, this whole thing has moved along way faster than anything I can remember, and certainly much differently than the last time. I kind of like the holdout, though. I thought it was spicy. Oh, my gosh. It's so boring. Well, it was like, oh, I mean, if a season were canceled, it would be a very interesting time.

Now, the post-holdout free agency thing was one of the wildest seven days of transaction history. That is a-old. Got us the Eagles dream team. Are you angling, Mark, for a furlough? Sounds like I got angling for a furlough. What is a furlough again? Furlough is where they say, go home. Oh, yeah.

And then. But you're not paid, though. You do get paid after the fact, potentially. Would you roll the dice on that? Yeah. Sounds great. If there was, like, a long holdout, people would be, people would lose their jobs here. They'd use it as a.

I mean, what would we talk about on the show? Call this Furlowe City over here. Oh, Theology podcast. There it is. Furlow City. Okay. All right. Let's get into it.

Hard knocks. 15 seasons now. This is going to be the 15th season. And I wrote about it in the piece that within football circles, Hard Knocks is now Saturday Night Live. It's an institution. It's venerable. It's the type of thing that people love to complain about it. They like to say that it's not as good as it used to be or that it's just kind of the same stuff recycled over and over or it should be canceled.

And yet, so many of those people then watch the season, just like so many people of SNL. And I love it. And everybody listens to this podcast knows I love it. been the beat writer for NFL.com since 2012. My goodness, been here a long time. So, as I do every year around this time, I take the five teams that can be compelled, forced to be on the show, which is always an interesting little hook, that this program exists and there's an NFL rule in place to make a team do it.

What does that mean? What does that say? I don't know. I kind of like it. But I can understand why the owners are like, why is this show? show still exist when you need to put in a rule to make us do it. I hope that that's not in the CBA, getting rid of this rule, because there is mandatory inclusion rules, and here they are, to avoid being picked for hard knocks.

And again, any team can volunteer, and that does happen occasionally, but to avoid mandatory inclusion on the show, they would have to fall under any of three exemptions. One, have a first-year head coach. Two, have a playoff berth in the past two seasons. Three, they have appeared on hard knocks in the past 10 years. So they're going to have to adjust these rules with the seventh seed. Oh, good call. Good call.

And that leaves five teams, believe it or not. And I'll go five to one, least compelling to most compelling. I'll start with number five, the Detroit Lions. This is the second straight year the Lions are eligible for this. They were one of five teams last year, and they're one of five teams last year. one of five this year. Of course, Hard Knocks producers went with the Raiders, which is kind of a no-brainer. And, you know, simply put, and we've talked about this on the podcast, that they lack juice. And I think they still lack juice and barring, let's say, a Matthew Stafford trade

or something wild this offseason. This is a team that's probably going to pour some resources into improving its defense. And is there anything to be that excited about, a team that you would want to cover throughout the training camp? I don't know. The Detroit Lions? Detroit Lions? No, nobody wants to see a show on the Detroit Lions? Yeah. The only thing is if it, because I have these, like you, these ingrained sort of opinions about the Detroit Lions

as an overall experience, like, change my mind. Like, I'd like to see something like that happened, but no, they're number five for a reason. They're already, you know, forced on, you know, a public that doesn't want it once a year on Thanksgiving, you know? Well, that rule needs to talk about a CBA rule that needs to be waiting. I walk that back. I walk that back.

If you're pointing to me coming after the lions. I was just taking a shot I don't even believe in. I like the Lions on Thanksgiving. Sure. Keep them on Thanksgiving. I just hadn't spoken in a while. I just needed to get a shot on me. Just looking for airtime. Number four of the Jacksonville Jaguars, the big get here, of course,

Gardner Meenshu, who, you know, with that personality, he's going to do well on a show like this. And he'll be there. He'll be in the building. I don't know if he's going to be their starter, but I know he will be on the roster. I liked your piece. You did a very nice job.

But this sentence, give me a break with this. We don't know if Minshu will be Jacksonville's week one starter at quarterback. Then in parentheses, Minchew Maniacs didn't overlook that their leader was only a tick or two above OK as a rookie. Come on. That's just propaganda. He was exciting. I was so hoping you were going to read that. He did everything you could ask.

You simply put it in there to annoy me. You know, it's a nice little bonus. But I do believe it. I mean, I know you guys think I'm wrong, but I do believe it. Yes, I think you're wrong. Yeah, I understand that. But I think Minchu is a big draw for that reason. And Doug Marone is the hottest seat.

Come August, when I write the piece about hottest butts in the NFL, I think it's safe to say Marone's going to be at number one. And the fulls Minchew thing, depending on where we are with it, would be compelling. The Jaguars are that team, though, that's always raised their hand, which in wanted to be on hard numbers, doesn't help. It's like for some reason. You know, I was going to write about that in this piece,

and I did a cursory Google search looking for that, and I couldn't find anything. They say, is that just been speculated upon, or do we actually know that? There was back in the day Shod Khan wanted in. Yeah. Number three, the Arizona Cardinals. I think this could be a potential match

if they don't get the team that I have at number one, because the Cardinals, they agreed to the All or Nothing show back in 2015, where they documented that entire season. And that's essentially a hard. Knock Spinoff Series, and they seemed to really like that experience. They gave me the assignment back in the summer of 16. I took our buddy Jason Zumwalt to the premiere and everybody from ownership to the GM to head coach Bruce Ariens at the time to the players.

I still remember Carson Palmer taking long pulls of his bud heavy at the side of the bar for about two hours, and he was just like, he was a very cool guy. I know he's not there anymore, but that just was a fun little memory. But anyway, they seemed to like it. And then Michael Bidwell, the team president, had this to say this past week. We're always going to listen to everything. We'll see what comes up. And we've always done a good job being available and volunteering to do things.

He sees it as a way to elevate the brand. So Hard Knox feels painted into a corner. Perfect marriage. Kyler Murray and Kingsbury feel very hard noxie. Yep, I could see that. Just in terms of the history of the show, the young team with the young quarterback and the young coach. It just feels like... James Winston.

It's a team they've, the type of team they've picked. Yeah, and he seems like, Murray seems like the guy that could be on, like, you know, Lamar Jackson track where he has a huge year, too. So if you can document that training camp, that's fun. Number two, the Denver Broncos, and this is all about John Elway, because I find him as, I do come after him on the show, but he's also a very compelling figure just because he's one of the icons of the sport. And this is a big year for the Broncos, who've gone four straight years about the

playoffs, and I would imagine if the Broncos were on the show, I want to see a lot of Elway. I can't have Elway in the shadows. I don't think you'd have him in the shadows. And if he was out of the shadows, I'd be very interested in the show. If he was in the shadows, I would kind of just do it as a work assignment, basically. Because I'm not tremendously into the rest of the Broncos, but I like the idea of the day in the life a summer with John Elway. Poncio is a wildcard. He's one of the few NFL coaches of this era who speaks his mind.

I think people would like him behind the scenes. Mm-hmm. You never know who you're going to like as a head coach. Remember Bill O'Brien, who's not the most popular guy. He was very likable on the Texans hard-knock season when you learn more about him and his personal life. I do wonder if the Broncos, they have a very, let's call it, unsettled ownership situation. I think that could prevent that from happening.

The NFL might be like, let's just, I'm going to steer. clear of Denver for the time being which would take them out of the mix finally a lot of hard knocks like the push is to make the owner seem they like to be in the mix typically although mark davis was not really in the mix but the owners like it uh usually uh they like to be on the camera number one the pittsburgh steelers this one's easy and gregg you you like to uh well you don't like to bet the ponies but you're a man who's interested in what happens in the desert not allowed to be you're not allowed to me as a league employee. But I will tell you,

you'll like these numbers. You tell me. You know who else is interested? Like all the teams signing sponsorship deals with, with casinos and different things like that. I mean, it's coming. It's happening. Yep. So according to Bavada, what's that? What's Bavada? That's one of the online places.

The Steelers are at minus 120. The heavy favorite here. The Cardinals plus 225. Jags plus 450, Broncos plus 600. And Lions plus 700. And the Steelers, they're a Blue Blood franchise of the NFL.

They have a huge, passionate fan base. I would love to learn a little bit more about Mike Tomlin. You got Big Ben coming back from that serious elbow injury. You have great human interest stories around guys like Ryan Chazir

and James Connor. You've got Wiz Khalifa coming to camp. You got the old school, La Trobe, Pennsylvania. They're one of the ones. of the few teams left where they go to this small college, St. Vincent College, that they've been going to. Love that. You have the Rooney family. Do we have that Mike Tomlin? Yes.

Mike Tomlin. Here's Mike Tomlin at his end of season press conference back on New Year's Eve had this to say. I'm a short list of the teams that are eligible for Hard Knocks. Are you, do you have any thoughts on that? I don't. Would you do it if they have? asked. A nice little moment of levity there at the end of a rough Steelers season. So obviously Mike Tomlin wants nothing to do with it. His coaches take him so seriously.

Adidi Kinkabwala tweeted out yesterday that I want to get her exact tweet actually because she obviously has been embedded with that team for a while and she knows the vibe of them. But she said this, I rarely doubt the weight Mike Tomlin and the Steelers pull.

But if they manage to evade hard knocks, I may change that to never doubt. P.S., if they don't, Dan Hansis has to make a road trip to La Trobe. There you go. I should spin this hard knocks angle to me going to the hard knocks. That's a home run.

Hey, like you could have been doing that half a decade ago. Bad job by me, never thinking of that. St. Joe's College, right? And by the way, what family has been documented more by NFL films? What family has supported NFL films more? I went and looked. I thought I remember Dan Rooney was on the board of directors and was a big part of making NFL films what it is.

So you can make your jokes or whatever. It is very much in the tradition of the Steelers to like have a little promotion for themselves and like get into it. Get on board, Mike Tomlin. Do not ask Hard Knocks producers. Just go, show up. I think that's got to be it. It's got to be.

And if they're not it, they're not the choice. Do not think for one second NFL films and HBO We're like, well, we like the Steelers as an option, but we want somewhere else. That will be proof that this whole idea that you have to be, you can be picked, is all phony. And BS. And if you are a blue blood team like the Steelers, you have more power than other teams. Yeah, Mike Tomlin's got bosses. And I would think the Rooney family would be okay with you.

And how successful have the Steelers been? If you took these current inclusion rules and put them all the way to the start of Hard Knocks, which is 2001, and Brian Billick of the Ravens laying on a hammock during training camp, they would have been eligible for mandatory inclusion once before this year. They've been one of the best, most consistent NFL franchises. This is their chance to do it. All right. You know, one of the first money drops ever on this show was the around the NFL podcast.

We'll follow Mike Tomlin anywhere. Yes, that's true. NFL.com slash Anzis. All right, before we get out of here, let's open up the mailbag. asked for people to, you know, get involved, and they did. First up, Kenny Law, would you consider it around the NFL after dark podcasts where you all consume copious amounts of alcohol in the throwback studio and discuss many things with non-bleeped language, that would be the best?

I don't think we'd be allowed to do that. Yeah, I don't. I think we'd be fired if we did that. Not a great idea. And it's a terrible idea. It's a danger. on some level, sometimes the rule, the rules you're stuck in,

like the box you're forced to play in, creates some tension. That's good. It's like when Howard Stern, and people are like, wow, it's really going to be crazy when Howard Stern goes to,

you know, terrestrial, you know, off a terrestrial. Was it really? Like, people were just like, no. Part of the fun was him battling the bosses.

That's a good call. Tom Marshall says, what's more likely? A Tom Brady-led team beats the Patriots in the playoffs. or Kirk Cousins wins MVP. Tom Brady beats the Patriots in the playoffs. I would think the odds would favor Kirk Cousins.

I just feel like the odds would be higher that he would win MVP. A couple of different things would have to fall into place for Brady to beat the Patriots. I'm with Mark. I don't, I just, I'm standing on the ground that Kirk Cousins will never and can never win the MVP. So the Brady.

Wait. Kirk Cousins can absolutely we've seen this I just don't think he could throw 37 to 42 touchdowns in a season and throw for 5,000 yards and the Vikings go 12 and 4 and that type of thing could get you an MVP Hey, he's done it before, statistically. I think he's a good quarterback. He's a top 10 to 12 quarterback, but I don't see a world where that is possible. How much more likely was it that Matt Ryan could have that outlier season than Kirk Cousins? More because his highs are higher, I think. And he had some seasons, but that's a fair point.

I think it depends on how you vote with stats. I agree with Dan. I could definitely see a 42 touchdown 5,000-yard Kirk Cousin season. He hasn't been too far off that already. Well, they've both been with Kyle Shanahan and Matt Ryan's version of Kyle Shanahan was much better. And on the other... I just don't see him as an MVP.

I think he's... But the other side of his, Tom Brady would have to sign with a team, most likely in the AFC. And also, that team would then have to make the playoffs. The Patriots without Tom Brady would have to regroup, get into the playoffs. Then they would have to meet each other in those playoffs.

And then Tom Brady would have to win. A lot of things that happened for that song. I don't think that's impossible, though. I'm given 50 to 1 for that, maybe. 75 and 500 to 1 for Kirk. You're the expert. All right. Settled.

Charlie Harwood asks, if Mark Sassler could redesign one uniform, who would he choose? Bucks or Browns? Well, I mean, I know the Browns are being redesigned. And the Bucs as well, I believe. The Bucks as well. And I think they're more critical,

for me, it would be Browns because I need that uniform to be changed. But the bucks, the fact that I just learned, I think we just learned last week that they're changing it. Good for them. You talk about time to self-scout yourself. Like, that uniform has been impossible to observe.

And their fans were a uniform in the green that they did not like them. Their fans were vocal about it. It's a close horse race, but I'd go Browns by a nose. You would take the bucks on it pro bono. Just do it for free. Absolutely. I want to just throw one thing out there with the bucks.

They're kind of in the current uniform is a mess. But they are similar, not at the same level as the Patriots. So the Patriots have a terrible uniform that they can't change because it's all their glory is packed into this. Who is the guy? What's the head? Elvis, Flying Elvis or whatever it's called. But you can't bring back Pat Patriot because there's no rings for Pat Patriot. The Bucks had all their glory in the Tony Dungey years with that redesign.

But it's been redesigned since, though. But yeah, I'm saying, like, maybe you go back to that. The one thing I don't want them to do is get character. away and be like, go back to Creamsicle, which is just not, I mean, come on, maybe for a throwback week, but to make that your color scheme, be careful about turning back. Like I said, though, I think these teams should have 12 to 15 uniforms. And, like, the Bucks can decide what they're feeling that year or that month. I love that. I like that. I agree with that. Fifteen. Okay. Sure. Why not? I don't care.

John Perry asks, given the choice with what Mark again, Mark, knows to this point, would he do a straight swap of Baker Mayfield for Jimmy G? Right now. No, I would not. What about you, boys? I wouldn't either. I agree with that. I think Baker's ceiling is higher. I'm a little disturbed by some of the things I'm hearing about him and his maturity level,

but people mature at different rates, and if it clicks for him, I think he can be great. One little thing on that. I think that last year... It's an interesting question, though. It is close. But Jimmy G. was probably in one of the best mixes of coaches and environments and, you know, team togetherness and game planning. And the Browns, the more things you hear from players describing what was happening on a

weekly basis that Baker Mayfield was in a disastrous environment. We are, Mark and I, I remember Mark and I doing shots at Cozy after Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield went one and three in the draft three years ago in April. And the one thing that you always fear and was thrown out there, these guys are great talents, but you have to surround them with a good organization making good. good decisions, and we are not getting that with either guy so far. No. And it really is disturbing to think that after years of the quarterback abyss, that you

would actually potentially find a guy that has the ability, and then you're such a mess everywhere else in the organization, that you botch it. And then one of those guys goes somewhere else and thrives later in his career. It's all stuff that's in the ether, and I don't even like to think about it. But I agree, like Baker Mayfield, if he was with the Niners last year, and he does have grown up to do, and apparently he's working trying to improve his footwork. because a lot of things went wrong with him on the field last year. I bet nobody's worried about Baker-Mayfield.

I think he would have been fine, but he's stuck in a dysfunctional team. Ugh. Lastly, which team is poised to steal the off-season's champions crown from the 2019 Browns? Who is the team that is going to win the off-season? I'll go first here. I like the cults.

I like the cults as a team that is, going to go get one of these high-profile veteran quarterbacks, which will get people super excited. And I believe I'll have to double-check this. Over the Cap. Greg has it up because that's why Stranger loves them. I believe they're near the top of the league in Cap Space. Yes, they are right behind the Dolphins. So they're going to then supplement that Phil Rivers acquisition with maybe a big wide receiver.

Maybe they give the world to Mari Cooper. I don't know, something like that. Go get a tight end. And here we go. We're flying. I think the Colts are the team that people are going to talk about as the favorite in their division after this. They always,

I thought they might be last year, too, and then they didn't really spend the money. They love rolling that money over. Like, people love saving all that cap space, rolling it over. Like seven, eight years ago, everyone was all worried about cap space. No one's got cap room.

And now all these teams, like the Colts overcorrected. Don't roll it. What's the point of rolling over $40 million every year? You're not using all the possible resources that you could. There's a bunch of things. teams like this, they have too much money and they can't spend it because they can't find enough good players to spend it on. Right. I think you're not being very generous to the Colts as far as their plan. And I think they were willing to spend the money. They just, after that first wave

of free agency, they said, who's worth it? Right. I just mean the plan where the teams were trying to build up these gigantic war chests ended up, I think, being an overcorrection because there's a bunch of teams that have it. And what are you going to do with that all? That said, I'm going to pick a team. I'm just going to go right into it. Who's also near the top, which is the bills. I just think the bills are going to get super aggressive and realize this is a nice window for them.

And they did a really good job adding free agents last year that didn't have big names, Mitch Morris and John Brown and Cole Beasley. But this time around, I could see some of the defensive players, maybe a clownie. Who knows? Can you get the... Spending big time pop. They got Mario Williams once upon a time

when he was the number one free agent on the market. Can you get the top, top guys to go to Western New York? I guess money talks. That's been an issue. That's been an issue with multiple. I would say this, because the Browns thing happened, it never would have happened at all without O'Do Peckham. It was that, and then everyone just kind of looked beyond everything else

and some of the issues on the team and said, Super Bowl. They just became a really compelling story once you did. Now, what if the Packers, and this is not some dark horse team, but with Aaron Rogers, that everyone already is obsessed with Aaron Rogers, and if they went out and signed two, like, game-changing skill position players on offense, I think everyone just says, you've done it,

you've completed the chore, Your issues from last year are solved Super Bowl. Well, I like all of those choices. There's a team out there with more cap money and more draft picks, the Miami Dolphins, a coach now who everyone respects, and you get to live in Miami. And you're going to get a hot shot quarterback most likely. Hey, no income tax. There's no income tax.

It's a beautiful city. Property taxes is great. It's a haven for O.J. Simpson. I mean, what is not to like about Florida? That's where OJ is at? Yeah. The pride of the bills is hiding out in Florida. A haven't.

The Nicole Brown family and Ronald Goldman's family can never collect. Why am I still mad about OJ? I watch that documentary. You are passionate about it. That's fair. Drive by near, you know, where O.J. Leas to live. You think about him all the time.

I think about him all the time. Rocking him. I think that house has been raised, hasn't it? The OJ house? Privately, Greg, has said to me, well, the DNA, I don't know. Can you trust it? I did. I do.

I would know. It was 1994-95. People didn't understand DNA yet. And Greg's like, well, you know, what about the gloves? They didn't fit. And I said, come on, man. You know that's to quit. You know.

Big Cochran head. I mean, you're always on this. The two of you were always. He was a great, he was a great teacher of a truth that lives on today. If you have enough money, they have the law. The law is pretty negotiable. Don't worry about it. You can break all the laws you want.

Merica. You got enough money. Thank you to everybody that sent in mailbag questions before we go. And before we head off to Indianapolis, speaking of the cults for the 2020 NFL scouting combine, how about hear a couple more of these entries for the Connie Fox sweepstakes. Just for fun, Erica has been combing through our Gmail, and now she's going to play another one for us. Let's hear it.

Here we go. It's Connie Fox, y'all. It's Tiny Fox, y'all. One of them heroes with the news and all their... locks y'all she got that cardi flow married to gonzo she rep in philly and miami traveling all the globe is calling wolf the history is very very rich like it a lot first gonzo ref first gonzo ref you're also playing to gregg as soon as he hears that hip-hop beat his head starts nodding so that's good Greg is a bit of a gatekeeper on this.

Like he sort of had one of the artists from last time executed. I mean, you were so against that person. Well, he took shots at Colleen Wolfe and he was the worst rapper I've ever heard. So why would we want to listen to that over years and years? This was fun. I think we've got some really strong entries already in the clubhouse. I'm impressed with the talent level. Yeah, it's amazing.

I mean, we are nothing without our listeners. And this is also just a reminder that in addition to be a great at pushing play. They are also multi-talented individuals in their own right, many of them. Many of them are. Wouldn't say all, but many. I got one more for you guys. This one is a little bit of a twist on sort of what we asked for. That's smart too.

But I'm digging it. Is it under 30 seconds? Of course. Okay. Here we go. That's all I care about. I'm Lakeisha Wesleyan and this is the beautiful, intelligent, funny. Keep going.

Keep going to go and bad ass when we're working this force today. Colleen Wolf, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Oh, everybody. You guys have a hard time booking tiny boxes. Very rich here. Hey, it's so great to be back. What a stop?

Miami. 100% box. I'm there in spirit every week. Ooh, I love it. That is like off the Prince Batman soundtrack, 1989. We don't stuck picking one ever listening to any of the others ever. Again, is that how this is working? There's too many good ones, but we have to make a choice.

I imagine that some of these, even if they don't win, will be a part of our program going forward, but there can only be one winner with a prize to be determined, but certainly not locked in legally. That prize is going to be, that'll be attractive. It won't be the 2011 Tennessee Titans media guide, which you've sent to someone as a gift before. What about the, what about the Sean Peyton? It's young on the cover. The Sean Peyton book signed by Sean Payton and dedicated to a show. another famous talent.

I don't think we can work, I don't think we can give that away. It somehow could come back to haunt us. All right. I like that last one. I don't know if it's a winner, but it's, I really enjoyed it.

The effort levels. Wes, you should go back and just skip and listen to the Colleen section because some of the entries that we've... The last 15 minutes of our Tuesday show. You didn't listen to...

You assumed that when I was in Kauai, I was not listening to you. I would hope not. I would hope not. Yes, we are leaving for Indianapolis early next week. It's on Mark's radar that I'm staying at a different hotel than him. No, I just don't understand. You're a little nervous that it's a better hotel?

No, I'm not because I've been to both hotels and I actually am happier staying where we're staying. But you wrote, oh, look, like an end of an era because we're staying at this other hotel, but then it winds up just you are or some of you are. I'm just saying it seemed in the, and yes, it could get lost in translation on text, but you seem to be a little upset when I first. Then you meant, well, you mentioned that it, well, I'm not going to, we don't need to go. I have a little insider info on that too. Dan, you were sort of psyched about where, you know, I'm at that same hotel with you.

I'm psyched that if that means we're together in the same hotel. I don't really have any information about this other hotel. Okay, because the way that you phrased it was sort of like, yeah, like moving up. Well, I heard that the one Mark is in is considered the higher one. the better one. That feels right to me. And that's fine. I've stayed in the Weston.

We've stayed at there for seven years. Many, many years. And I texted actually privately with Greg yesterday that I was going to look to maybe get into the Weston as well. But the Combine is such a groundhog day event for us where we do the same thing every year. Help me in a different hotel. Let's get crazy. But to her point, like you acting in communicating with Erica, like it was this like positive sea change, You said end of an era, we're staying at the name of the hotel.

And not all of us were. So I didn't take that to. I assumed that we were all staying at this other hotel. Hey, step it up. You know, when I was with NBC, they had that, we stayed at the J.W. That was a nice one. We've been there before. Yep.

Super Bowl 46. I mean, you can't really go wrong in the way Indies set up. It's all the same. It's one block. They're all connected to the convention center. Wait, are we still taping? Okay. But it's confirmed that I've,

in the preferable of the two. But I'll also confirm that you were annoyed and it was on your radar that you somehow had been left behind. Because of your wording, end of an era. Like, we've gotten out of, you know, we're not just like chumps anymore. We're staying at this hotel.

It's like, actually, I'm not. So how was, how would I have taken that? I didn't mean anything about it. What is, end of an era wasn't like we've been bumped down a notch. You would have been furious if you thought that you had been put into the lesser of two hotels, which you have,

and that feels good. And the show. So we'll be an indie. We will have a show on Tuesday, Wednesday, wow, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I believe Friday when we get back to town. And in fact, we will do our free agency 101, the Chris Wessling Greg Rosenthal joint, will be unveiled next week. We're like Spike Lee now. How contentious. Exciting.

It can get. You want to talk about actual bad blood. that's when the scientists have to you know fight for their dream picks what they believe their list should be and sometimes it's not pretty is there any guys that have really caused an issue for you no we haven't got we don't know yet

Ali Ban Puri has not given us back the master spreadsheet that combines our list but I will say that I thought I had more lucidity during this year's iteration of this exercise in any other year interesting good to hear that all right let's go thanks for everybody for listening we really really uh happy to have you stand hans is signing off for quiet storm the mailman the old boss rick hollywood behind the glass till indy

You know, So, Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find

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