NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Preseason Takeaways & ATN Mailbag

Episode Date: August 14, 2015

A room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Colleen Wolfe – break down the latest NFL news including Jimmy Garoppolo's  preseason debut and the Ameer Abdullah's breakout game. Then, heroes check in on RGIII and Johnny Manziel before ending the show with another edition of ATN Mailbag.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, 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 anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Around the NFL podcast dominates at Cornhole. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with some heroes. Colleen Wolfe, Christopher Wessling and Greg Rosethall.

What is up, boys and girls? Hi. Hey, Dan. Ooh, jumped Wes's Haydan with a high. I like that. Whoa, Wes, your thoughts? That doesn't confront me. What do you think about the fact that the entire group dominates at Cornhole?

Because I don't really know if that's really true. I've seen Colleen throw. That is true. I almost hit myself playing. That's true. Pretty much impossible. Colleen is a lot of fun to hang out with. She's very outgoing and funny and smart and knowledgeable and football.

Awful. Not good. Cornhole. I mean, it's almost like you're trying to be. bad when you play i know it's really upsetting but i can testify that she's good at beer pong i am good at that you would think those skills would match up but i think she has a lot more experience in one over the other if i practice more at corn i think i could be good he could probably beat j j wott within a couple of weeks that's true yeah he was not that good in hard knox by the way uh so you saw

hard knocks west i did saw his form it was all over the place it was hurting yeah as the sports junkies would say, yeah, JJ Y, that's bad for him. And not to turn this into the Cornhole podcast, but I also will mention that, as you know, for Jack's birthday party, I purchased these American flag cornhole boards, but when I called around to the different sporting goods stores and said Cornhole,

I think people thought I was prank calling them because they don't call it that around here. They call beanbag toss. That's pathetic. L.A. L.A. runs on batteries. And then I went to, this is last summer. I was in Texas.

My wife's family is from there, and I was driving around looking for boards. And when I said, do you have Cornhole, they were like, what are you talking about, Yankee? They didn't know what Cornhole was either. Well, it emanated from the Midwest, and it's still trying to reach these outer reaches of America. I feel like if you have the history of it, right? The full history. Well, it started in Cincinnati. If you've accomplished nothing at the NFL, you've at least started spreading the word about Cornhole.

You're basically an evangelist, not just locally, but now nationally, people listening to this, kids all over the country are using the spin because of Wes. You've heard of Johnny Appleseed. I'm Johnny Corn Seed. Is this a long term? Johnny Corn Feed. In the works? By the way, we got a great show tonight and we got a lot to get to.

I do want to right away send out the teaser. Fantasy drafts are starting up. Hopefully you haven't had yours yet because next week on the Around the NFL podcast is our second annual fantasy spectacular, perhaps first, because it's a fantasy spectacular week where we'll have all three shows. of segments dedicated to it with Chris Wessling, Greg Rosethal, really the founders, when you think about it, of Roto World, which is really the number one fantasy side. And I know that Greg didn't like that I said West First.

That was an accident. It's not true that we found it. Greg made sure I knew before the show he actually did. He was the first real football fantasy writer on that website. Matthew Poliat really started the whole thing. Matthew Barry was there for a minute. He was. He was there when I got.

You know, he was a writer for Crocodile Dundee. Matthew Barry? Yeah. Yeah, the second one. The one was like, The one nobody watched. The bad one. Wait, is this a knife, the second one?

Yeah. That's not it. No, that was the first one, wasn't it? That ain't a knife. That's a knife. Oh, yeah, you're right. That is the first one. So, yes, next week, three shows,

dedicated fantasy segments. If you don't like fantasy, you're still going to like it because it's still football talk, but it's going to have that tinge. Mark Sessor will also be here. Greg's already fired up. We were just looking at average draft position.

Yeah, we were doing some crap. Greg was moved to send out an email and chastise America. Well, Owen Daniels. ranked insanely high for a guy that can't move. It's like the entire country fantasy football nation has experienced a collective seizure. But that's the kind of analysis you'll get next week. People are drafting Owen Daniels over Jordan Cameron, which makes no sense whatsoever.

And C.J. Anderson is so high still. Yeah. Well, that's just a teaser of what you're going to get. We have a lot to get to the show. We have preseason kicked off, you know, in earnest on Thursday. We had some games. What? We had four games yesterday?

Five. Six games. I have a sick boy at home, so I was a little. My hands were full. But I did catch up. Great reading all around the website. And we'll get to those preseason games. We'll also talk about maybe, I know the team of around the NFL, we've talked about some favorites,

but maybe some under the radar teams. We'll get to that a little later in the show. And then we'll hit the mailbag. There is a new written mailbag on around the NFL or on NFL. dot com slash dan's latest hot piece that you should read that's a great vanity you are and perhaps go to management levels to tell them about Dan that will be up a little later today or we'll be up by the time you hear this so check that out and we'll and we'll share some more questions and go around the horn here hit the

mailbag which is always fun but before any of that let's start and go through the preseason games and the big big happenings around the NFL yesterday and we'll start with Washington where, you know, I know half of America at least had to be tuned in Browns Redskins week one preseason. So you probably already know what I'm about to talk about. The big injury, Niles Paul, the tight end who just early this week head coach Jay Gruden had anointed as kind of the starter ahead of Jordan Reed, which turns him heads. That's not going to happen now. Niles Paul out for the season after suffering a ankle fracture dislocation, which, you know, I did my gross injury power rankings last week.

and that could be on the list because that's pretty gross horrible injury out for the year is Paul he tweeted life can be cruel sometimes thank you for thank you for all your well wishes and prayers so a 2017 Redskins win

who cares now is Paul done Wes yeah it's a sad story it was a little bit poignant the guy put on 27 pounds in the offseason worked his butt off he's a converted wide receiver to become an all around tight end up to 252 pounds they were counting on him to start

and when the injury happened fullback Darrell Young who's one of his good friends on the team came over and Niles Paul looked at him and said D Y this was supposed to be my year he started crying just a really poignant moment from a guy who's worked really hard

and had been voted one of the team captains a really well like I learned more after this injury just from the reporters you could tell were big big fans of him they said if this is the last guy that you would want this to happen to If you wanted to be positive about it, he did sign a three-year contract in March.

So it's a better time to sign. At least he got that contract before this happened. And I immediately started thinking about what they're going to do at tight end because Jordan Reed's got a hamstring injury right now. He's pretty much always hurt. Logan Paulson has a toe injury that might require surgery. Maybe they give Chris Cooley a call. Oh, I like that.

I know it's such a shame too because Jay Gruden just came out and said that he's the most complete tight end on the roster. And as you said, those are the two other options. right now. I never bought that he was going to have a bigger role in the passing game than Jordan Reed, but he's a much better pass blocker and run blocker. I don't believe that Chris Cooley can move well enough to play tight end in the NFL. I don't, but the Redskins left open the possibility before this even happened earlier this week. Jay Gordon was asked about it and he said, right now we're going to see about Paulson and how these other injuries go. And, you know, he basically

said, well, think about it. And so that made me think, at least they might give him a chance. And the other takeaway we should hit from this game, the RG3. Let's check in with RG3. Both Mansell and RG3 played, obviously, in this game. Robert Griffin III finished the night. Four of eight passing for 36 yards at just four and a half yards per attempt. So nothing flashy from RG3. That yards per attempt figure would have looked a lot better if Pierre Garsohn just didn't flat out drop.

It was a perfectly thrown deep ball. It was beautiful. It probably would have been about a 60-yard touchdown. And there were two plays on the night that reminded you, oh, my God, RG3 has a hose. I mean, he had another play where he got creamed by Paul Kruger and completed it for about a 15-yard pass down the field. And it showed off his arm. Then you also saw him get hit really hard three separate times in a small series of events. So that's kind of the good and the bad of RG3.

He also scrambled for that first down too. So you saw when the opportunity presented itself, he would run for the first down there. I think that was a third and two situation. And also on that pass to Pierre Garcin when he dropped it, man, did Justin Gilbert get burned. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Gilbert had a bad night overall. I don't think RG3's arm is in question.

I think he has to stop being the worst decision maker in football. He has to stop getting hit hard. Yes. I mean, that's having three. Well, that's locker room decision. I mean, for that to happen three times in a quarter and a half, that's supposed to be the big, you know, stress of RG3 in the office. Don't get hit as much. And you got, you got.

Guys still can't do a baseball slide. Manzell also played in this game. Any thoughts on that? Well, Manzell, he came on for Josh McCown, who, by the way, McCown is Wes's boy. Five-for-five, 33 yards on a touchdown. Also had one of the all-time great Greg Rosenthal fired up moments in the newsroom.

He sat over like, yeah, boy, to Mark. Mark was fired up. The two of them were having their own little party. I kind of came up from behind. You know, McCown's scrambling around. and he throws a touch that. I might have been third down. And, you know, as the preseason.

Sorry, I missed this. And basically, I gave him the same sort of, you know, shake from behind of the shoulders and we're dancing around as it, just kind of like he did for me when Tom Brady, I mean, when Michael Butler had that interception at the Super Bowl. One of these was the preseason week one. I don't want to be a rain cloud here,

but Washington's defense was awful. Whatever. As Mark said, in response, he said, this was my Super Bowl. So he was going to enjoy the moment. That's funny. And let's not, two things. First of all, Mark's piece on Manzell is dripping with hope.

He's still all the way in. Second of all, let's try. I know, Greg, it's one of the great moments of your Patriots fandom. But that really was Wes and Greg turning into, or Wes and Mark turning into Patriots fanboys at the Super Bowl. And jumping for joy was around the podcast 9-11. This is, oh, my gosh. Let's not talk about it.

Greg's face is so disgusted right now as you say that. Well, because that's ridiculous. You know what? It showed it that they like football. Exactly. How do you not get swept up into that moment? You might as well had silver and blue pom-poms. This is where your Jets fandom is coming out.

The paradigm of professionalism, Dan Hanses. I was watching the game and being like, wow, what a play. That was really interesting. And they're like, yeah, they did it. Way to go, Patriots. When Larry Fitzgerald split the Steelers defense to score that touchdown in the Super Bowl six years ago, I stood up in the press box because I couldn't contain my excitement. And I said, holy, you know,

what and everyone around me looked at me like I was a jerk because I like was a fan of football that's who you're being now you're old crusty guy by the way I'm okay with you doing it Greg let me make that clear it was Wesson how does that how does that doesn't make any sense to me that was bad also one last important thing about this game we are we have to watch bad quarterbacks all the time in the NFL Kirk Cousins should be starting for somebody played well go get him buffalo bills go get Kirk Cousins by the way I watched every man's L snap hoping to have some sort of takeaway there was nothing to really say. He didn't do anything too bad. He didn't do anything great. It was okay. It looks like moving on to another game, the Detroit Lions took care of my Jets

quite easily on Thursday. But the big takeaway was who is the fantasy darling that everyone in the NFL is talking about it is Amir Abdullah, New York Jets coach Todd Bowles. After Abdullah tore up the Jets on 67 yards on just seven carries, including a really nice 45-yard touchdown run bowls had this to say he looked like he did in college uh via the detroit news this was said he's quick as a cat he's about as quick as yeah barry sanders i'm not saying he is barry but he's a good running back todd bulls who's a respected defensive mind probably doesn't hand out compliments like that often amyra abdula hype train is rolling it should be rolling and kevin patra wrote that article on todd bulls comparing him to barry sand and you can tell that patra is a

beaten down lines fan because he would not allow the comparison he just said amir abdala is amir abdala when i watched amir abdala in in uh july in mid-july barry sanders entered my mind for his cutting ability and odel beckham i'm not saying he is those guys but he has you don't see running backs who have the ability to pick up speed when they cut and amir abdala looks like that yeah and when we hear terrell austin say that the defense when they tried to tackle him was basically just grasping for air. That was so true when you watched him. Chris Wessling had a tweet about Amir Abdullah, as you can see here.

Excited for Lions' offense after studying up on Amir Abdullah this afternoon. Seems to pick up speed when he makes a cut. Oh, look at a prediction. A new Stable of Boys member. This guy's been in the stable of boys for a month already. All right. Wes saying I invented the hype dream for Amir Abdul. Is that what you're saying, Wes?

I think a lot of people who watch college football probably have liked him a lot longer, but I was on Amir Abdullah a while ago. Barry Sanders would have scored a touchdown on that 40. That's true. That's what I'm saying. It's probably the one thing that he misses, but his movement, I mean, he's shaped, I don't know what

defender it was. I wish I could. Calvin Pryor on the one in the middle. Calvin Pryor. I mean, he took him out of his shoes. It was great. Is he rooming with anybody in the stable? No, he's got his own already.

Really? Whoa. That's big news. Wow. He's already got his own room. Breaking. Has that ever happened before you get a room in the stable of boys is based on just hype.

Oh, Randy Moss had the Penn House before his rookie year. Good times. By the way, the Jets season is also breaking. It's not, well, I don't care. They might be more boring to watch than the Chiefs. Can I just tell you something? First of all, give the Jets a little break.

They're trying to figure out what to do. Ryan Fitzpatrick doesn't have a lot of preparation time for that game. The offense wasn't going to move, but, you know, nothing looks good right now. Ryan Fitzpatrick looks like he put on a couple pounds. Wasn't expecting to play. Belly.

You get to some of those Manhattan restaurants, a little Italian. I disagree. I thought his body looked great. All right. Moving on to the throne of slees, the Patriots who don't have Tom Brady for the first four games. This thing currently stand. But in the preseason he could play, Tom played a little bit. But the real story coming out of this game, a 2211 loss to the Packers for the Patriots was Jimmy Garoppolo, who took seven sacks, average just over the Gabbard zone.

on a 5.3 yards of tent and had trouble moving the offense after the game. Mr. Nice Guy, Jimmy said, I've got a long way to go, obviously. 11 points is not by any means good enough. There's room for improvement. Nine possessions, Greg, for Jimmy Garapolo, 55-yard Jonas Gray touchdown was really the only big play of the game for them. Took a ton of sacks. Best throw was probably the first throw of the night, a nice out route. I think if you look at the stats, it looks worse than it really was.

I totally disagree. What do you think? I put up the stat of Jimmy Garoppolo's nine possessions on Twitter, and Patriots fans swarmed to his defense. He held the ball too long on his seven sacks, and he underthrew Josh Boyce several times. Look at this, though. If the official doesn't get in the way,

we're watching some clips here for anyone that can watch on video. You know, the official gets in the way. That was a nice deep ball. The next couple plays after that, he throws a beautiful deep ball where Boyce doesn't even go for it. Boyce didn't help him out. Those would be 40-50-yard plays. Boyce played terrible, but Garoppel, I mean, he was a checkdown machine. Yeah, he didn't show much.

They also didn't have any of their starting offensive linemen in, any of their starting wide receivers. And so the whole thing, the preseason, it's always a little tricky. For me, he looked really skittish in the pocket. So any time that any defenders were coming towards him, he just looked like he was panicking and he was lost a little bit. I'm not going to get too, as a Jets fan. I won't get too excited about Garapolo having no chance if he's going to play games here.

But, you know, again, a reminder that Jimmy Garapolo, has no experience, and there's a chance this season start, and he plays multiple games, and he's terrible. And everybody, like, oh, don't worry about the Patriots. They'll go four and oh or three and one. It could go poorly because Jimmy Garoppolo might not be ready. People got to think about that. Well, not to mention they don't have a running back.

Their number one cornerback played about 200 snaps last year. That's Malcolm Butler. I mean, they have a lot of things on paper that you worry about. Two other quick takeaways from this game. The official that got run over there, that was one of his first plays. as an NFL official, Sean Hockely. That's Ed Hockely.

Bad job by Sean Hockley in a big spot. You got to earn that name, Hockyly. A lot of pressure, though. Take off that name. And then the other thing, you don't deserve that Hockely name. And then the other, my other treat watching it last night afterwards was Kevin Harlan, the announcer, just delight of saying Andy Malumbo's name.

He just would go, Malumbo, just over and over. He just started screaming out Malumbo. Lumbo, as if no one was watching at home. Those were some hot takes right there. Some scorching takes. Malumbo. Malumbo! He just kept saying it because it was fun to say. Greg, this from our research department,

Tom Brady was sacked seven times in his last seven regular season games combined in 2014. It's a new world on the throne of sleet. Stan Hans is beaming right now. Is this the first time you've changed it to Throne of Sleese? Well, listen, it's, you know, I don't hear any of our music. that we usually play during that segment. I thought the Jets were this. Is that a shot of TV?

Maybe. Some of our Twitter followers came up with that thrown a sleaze. I think they were talking about the Jets. I don't think so. I think it was almost certainly about the Patriots. All right, moving forward. So let's talk with the rest of the preseason action. Wes, is there anything that you wanted to hit from the rest of the preseason of what you saw or what you read?

I would say out of the games I watched, Melvin Gordon, was the other thing that stood out to me, the Chargers' first round running back. You know, my friend, the spice rack, who I, is my go-to source for college prospects. Spice rack at the crossroads. Loves Melvin Gordon famously predicted that if he was drafted by the Cowboys would have a 2,000-yard season as a rookie. I was not impressed at all. Too much stutter stepping, hesitant to hit the hole, not impressive.

And these were the same things that were reportedly dogging him in camp as well. I'm not writing him off, but I just wasn't impressed. He's a big guy that doesn't necessarily run big. And that's what one of our best draft analyst Lance Zierling said going into the draft. He reminded people of it last night. He's a big guy that he's more of a boomer bus guy, not a four or five yards at a time guy. Yeah. And for me, I was looking at Brandon Cooks last night.

And I mean, he had such a good preseason last year. And I thought his yards after the catch were great. And also he was so fast. So I think that this is going to be a big preseason for him again. Making elite candidate. Yeah, that's right. I watched some of the Cowboys Chargers game to get a little feel of Connor Orr's boy, Gus Johnson,

who has a chance to make the Cowboys. He might be there, week one starter. No, he got hurt. Who the heck knows? He actually looked pretty good despite some bad numbers, but then he hurt his shoulder. So right now Joseph Randall's banged up. Darren McFadden hasn't practiced yet.

Gus Johnson, who apparently they want to play is hurt. Lance Dunbar is hurt. You've got to get Cowboys are running back. But they'll be fine because the offensive line is so great. Great. That's all I hear over and over again. I don't know about that. By the way, drunk on their own hype.

This is how much NFL owners are stealing money from paying customers in the preseason. Dustin Vaughn was playing that quarterback with 10 minutes left in the first quarter for the Cowboys because Brandon Whedon was too valuable to keep out there. That's a true statement. There is no worse market. There is no worse seller's market than preseason tickets that you have to buy to get. your regular season, season tickets. Those things are always floating around. When I was a kid, my dad, we would always go to Jets preseason games because out of his office,

there was always like, yo, does anybody want these Jets tickets? I'm just trying to get rid of them. My dad would like, right. Where did your dad work? Exactly. Underground in a coal mine. Keith Henses. All right.

That's it for the preseason for Thursday. And we'll, again, we got more games coming up tonight, Friday. and tomorrow Saturday. So a lot more coming. Let's do a TD that we're going to hit some news, right? I like this kind of party. All right. Let's hit some news.

It is wide receiver signing season. Everybody's getting signed. And T.Y Hilton is the latest. He agrees to a contract extension with the Indianapolis Colts, NFL media insider Ian Rappaport, whose hair might not be natural. Heard about that. reported it's a five-year contract extension worth 65 million with 39 million

and guarantees Ryan Grigson, who's known to make a lot of bad decisions. I wouldn't call this one a bad one. Would I, Colleen? No, not at all. I like that the Colts are locking up these core players for Andrew Luck because it's just, you can tell that they trust in Andrew Luck, obviously they should. But these guys will be able to grow together just like Peyton Manning was able to do when they signed Reggie Wayne.

It's interesting that he's getting paid in the same ballpark, though, as Demarius Thomas and Des Bryant. I think, yeah, and I read some of the local coverage. A lot of money. And I agreed with it. Was that, okay, T.Y. Hilton, you have been great, but you have to live up to this contract. I don't feel the same about T.Y. Hilton's career moving forward

as I do about Demarius Thomas and Des Bryant, where I would be stunned if they weren't one of the five or six best receivers in the league. Is it always been this easy? Maybe I only now I'm tracking contracts a little closer, but like where one guy signs, and then all these other guys signed basically the same contract or something close to it. Is it always been that way?

Well, I think because of the Calvin Johnson outlier, he got paid as a face of the franchise, face of the NFL type of contract, and no one else ever came close. So they needed someone to come along and set the number one receiver market. Ty Wight Hilton, it doesn't seem like he should be paid like Demarius Thomas and Des Bryant, but I believe over the first.

three years of his career, Randy Moss is the only one with more 100-yard games. They also have a ton invested in one position because that's a ton of money for Hilton. Then the third round pick in Moncrief, first round pick in Philip Dorset with a lot of money too. And Andre Johnson, even though he's not going to be there for long, he's still eating up a lot of cap space. That's a lot for one position on the team. Especially when you have Andrew Luck is going to make people look better. That's the thing. If you put T.I. Hilton on every team, is he going to be as good?

It's still a great contract because to answer Dan's question, I think the biggest answer there is There's money. There's money everywhere now. Salary cap keeps rising, and teams know that it's going to keep rising even more when the new TV deal kicks kicking in. It's not as hard to stay under the cap. One point we've been making lately that people, you have to have a hot take on contracts now. And that's like the thing. Who cares?

People ask me on Twitter, was this a good signing? Well, they kept a good player. An ascendant young player who was a nucleus guy. Of course it's a good signing. And they have three other guys in that class that they want to sign. Andrew Luck, obviously, being number one, and they will sign him, but then Dwayne Allen and Kobe Flaner. So you get one of them out of the way,

and you probably choose one of those other tight ends. You probably can't keep it. Randall Cobb, T.Y. Hilton, and Jeremy Maclin all have similar deals. If we're going to do power ranks, I know Macklin's third on this, but who's a better player, Randall Cobb, or T.Y. Hilton? I think T.Y. Hilton plays outside and the slot. That gives him an advantage. He's a deep threat and a slot guy, whereas Randall Cobb is more of a run-after-catch slot guy.

You're not going to, he's not really outside the numbers downfield threat. Although I do remember that one game in Soldier Field that clinched a playoff berth for the Packers two years ago, Randall Cobb deep. So he can do it. Memory does that. Yeah. I'd go Hilton. Yeah.

I think. And I love Cobb is not as versatile. As much as I just talked about, Hilton's not there with Demarius. I do think you could put him on the outside for every team he's going to be a third. Look at Hilton's postseason number sometimes. They're crazy. So who would you rather take when you look at the quarterbacks,

Andrew Luck or Aaron Rock? We had that conversation in a Qualis 2 Fantasia over the summer, I believe. Back in early April, it was when I went back to Tybee. It depends how long, I think, if it's for the next three to five years. If they were the same exact age. Rogers. No one's ever played quarterback at a higher level than Rogers did last year. Do you disagree?

No, that's exactly who I would go with. So I would almost go with Cobb because of that. We did it. I don't know what that. That was. I don't want to. Elsewhere, the St. Louis Rams drafted Todd Gurley with a tenth overall pick. They see him as a guy they can, you know, hand the offense to, essentially, and lead them to the playoffs.

Don't expect him to see him at the start of the season. Rapsheet, whose hair, by the way, might not be natural, wrote in the dispatch from Rams camp on Tuesday that the team expects their first round pick to miss the, quote, first couple games of the regular season inside. Ram's camp, he's viewed as about 90% recovered from his ACL tear. The ligament is sound, but the area around the knee isn't quite all the way back yet, so they don't want to rush them back. This makes a lot of sense, obviously, for a guy you're investing a lot in. You don't need them to be ready for week one. You need them to be solid for 10 years.

Does this drop them to the second most exciting backfield in the NFL? When they're healthy, they could be the most exciting backfield. This is spin, because they expected them to be ready for the start of the season. And they said that multiple times. And now they say, oh, he's looking great. He's 90%. The reality is they're a month out, and they already know he's not going to be ready for the start of the year.

And so that's concerning. There has to be a concern. It doesn't bother me as much because, yeah, all right, if they start. They're moving the goalpost, Colleen. It is the Rams. And if, yeah, I mean, if they don't start, you know, good, then whatever. But I would rather have girly to the middle and later parts of the season because when a team gets hot, that's when you want them to get hot.

I mean, are we talking about the Rams getting hot, but still. I think what Greg's saying, though, is that maybe you have concerns that we might not get top shelf early this year because we don't know what's going on. He's not all the way back and they thought he would be. It's never good when they moved the date back. It's just not. We were all excited. You know, you passed a test to start training camp. He wasn't on the PEP list.

But for them to kind of put this out there this early, I mean, there has to be some concerns. And they are, as you said, looking long term. And that's what they should. Zach Stacey's like, oh. my gosh, why did I leave? Why did I say anything? Where did he go to? Geez.

And finally, in the news, we talked about in our review of Hard Knocks, our recap in the previous podcast that DeAndre Hopkins and DeAngelo Hall of the Texans and Redskins, respectively, had a really great back and forth on the show. Greg called it one of his favorite Hard Knocks moments ever. The two guys jawing at each other. It ended with DeAngelo Hall down on the ground with a groin injury. after Hopkins stuttered him to death almost on a pass route. So, Greg, you said it was humiliating for DeAngelo Hall.

He stole his manhood. People talking about rap beefs. I mean, this is a real-life beef, and they just put the guy on the ground. You're done. And it speaks to DeAngelo Hall's Twitter feed blowing up with probably insults that he came out and tweeted about it. His tweet, when the highlight of your career is catching a 10-yard pass on a DB while he slips and you feel like you did something hashtag in this.

hashtag sad day in football who gave him that one RG3 DeAndre Hopkins then shot back on Twitter Hope treatment is going well yes oh that is so good one two three he just knocked him out again we asked for a rematch and he got knocked out again and and for the record it wasn't just a slip he slipped because Hopkins move was so dynamic let's let's be let's be cool about that and then DeAngel Hall finally he got back off the mat after getting knocked out and said, I'm good to go, young fella. Here's some advice.

Don't stutter on your comebacks. They're too easy to read. Take it or leave it. Oh, by the way, DeAngelo Hall. DeAndre Hopkins had the most impressive game any wide receiver had all of last year against the Titans when he made a series of diving catches, had over 200 yards. I'd say that was a pretty big highlight to a career. DeAngelo Hall, big hat, no cattle, as they say in Texas, Dan.

I like the Texans. I mean, Hard Knocks is really selling. Well, that's, that always happens. I know. You always talk yourself into the team on Hard Knocks being better than they are. There's a great guy on the news desk, assignment editor, Tony Garcia. This is an interesting strategy. He doesn't have a team like Chris Wesleyan,

and he just roots for whatever team is on Hard Knocks every year. That's not a good team. How do he like the Falcons last year? Well, it didn't work out too well. Yeah. That's an interesting strategy. That means he's had to root for Cincinnati multiple times. That's a really sad strategy.

Usually the Hard Docks team is kind of like a down on its luck team That's looking for a little publicity So he's going after an underdog He's not going to get the Patriots or anything Well, you got the 2010 Jets They were supposed to be good Yeah, well they were You know what?

They went to the AFC championship game I thought it was the next year they were on Hard Knocks, my best You're right Leave me alone. I'm going through a lot right now as a Jets fan I don't need it I certainly don't need errors in memory That was a nice time for me

soon. All right, all right. Okay, so that's what's happening in the news. And we will now hit the mailbag, which, you know, the listeners and the readers always do such a great job. Sending us a lot of stuff. I can't get everything into the mailbag, which, again, you can see on NFL.com. But we have more time here on the podcast. Time, Colleen.

So much time. That's time is all we have. What does that mean? I don't know. Best song, Chris Lessling. We don't have that much time. Best song about. Time.

What? It got so dark. Cindy Lopper, time after time? That's a good one. That's a good one. I'll go with a 90s classic Time by Hootie and the Blowfish. Time, why you punish me like a wage crushing to the shore. My dentist is just calling me right now.

I had an appointment today that I forgot about. Dr. Pivo. We should answer. Isn't there a Pink Floyd Time song? Yes. Clock. What about, yeah, the cold play. clocks it's a little bit yeah that's a stretch all right let's do some mail and uh we'll get things

going i thought this is from p salado at p salado what's so funny no not that i was just thinking of the song still of the rendition and rkelly that's it just going back good times from a minute ago in my mind you could hear it though in his voice where like the emotion is like it's that karaoke emotion after a couple uh sockie bums uh p salado at p salado I am in a tipping contest, I don't know what that means, some type of contest, where I need to pick the highest scoring team for the season. Who do you suggest I pick? I'm thinking the Colts.

All right. I'll start with Colleen Wolf on this one. Okay. So I'm going to go with, I'm going to mix it up a little bit. I'm going to go with one that maybe not everybody's thinking of. How about the Steelers? Some people are thinking that. But Ben Rothesberger, I think that he's looking.

looking more comfortable than he ever has in his career. He did last season. And I think that that continues. He carries that momentum into this season. He just signed that new deal. Antonio Brown is outstanding. He's a total stud. Lev Bell, yeah, he's suspended, but.

Lev Bell. You know what? Sheck might be rubbing off on me because I'm a little hyped about the Steelers and the offense. That's a great offer. And they're all offensive line. All five starters are there. And I feel like that consistency is huge. and it's so important for that offense.

I think on paper they're a little more talented than the Colts, which is hard to do. Really? Just a little more. But I'm going to go with the Colts. The Colts are a lot deeper. But the Colts are playing doors, and the Colts defense stinks, and the AFC South stinks.

So I think that all of you add it all up in a bowl, that creates 40 points a game or whatever it is. Not 40. That's impossible. You're both wrong, by the way. And I think Wes will agree with me on this. I think so. The Green Bay Packers will. have the highest scoring offense in the league.

They led, I got this from Evan Silva's. He writes those great off-season overview pieces. At Roto World. At Roto World, yes. Which Greg found it. Greg basically broke ground. He had one of those oversized scissors when Roto World opened up. And a golden shovel.

And a golden shovel. Roto World was a building? It is now. According to Evan Silva, you know, the Packers had the number one scoring offense. Most yards per game, I believe. and they were, I believe, 24th in plays per game on offense, which spoke to how many times they took their foot off the pedal, blowouts, things of that nature.

This is a historic offense that brought back all their pieces, so I expect them to easily clear 500 points a game, which is like 500 points. The game would be amazing. 500 points a season, which would be about 31 points a game. I think they could even sniff 35, which would put them potentially in historic territory. Better than the greatest show on turf?

They're in the realm with the 2007 Patriots with those ramps. I think this could be a special, special season for that offense. I think we've covered the three teams that have a chance to break records this year. Colts, Packers, and Steelers. I side with Dan. It wouldn't surprise me if the Colts did. The Steelers, I don't know missing Lev Bell for a couple of games. I don't think they're quite as deep.

But the Packers, like you said, the most important thing is, can somebody keep the game close up in Lambo this year? Right. Because, like you said, there were a lot of second halves where they just took the foot off the gas pedal entirely. They could have scored 40 or 50 points a lot of those games. They were indeed 24th in offensive snaps and led the NFL scoring yards per play.

I don't know if that's ever been done before to lead those two categories and that. New play caller, though. That's a fair point. Do you put a lot into that? I mean, not really, but. Play coins are a pretty important job. Yeah, but wouldn't McCarthy step in

if things started going south? It would be too late to salvage a record? by then? I figure Rogers is the key. Yeah. Key part. Next up is Benjamin D. At Patriots fan 1057.

It just shows, by the way, that I'm magnanimous. I'm not going to cut him out of the podcast because he's a Pat's fan. Greg, you've got to respect that. Like calling yourself classy. I think calling yourself magnanimous eliminates you from the word. That's fair. Okay. Based on what you have seen, are there any teams that are front runners slash dark horses

for the team of ATL, ATN now. But good question, Benjamin. Now, it should be known that we've had a lot of Cardinals talk. And I would say Cardinals and Vikings are the clear front runners. Those are the front runners. But the question is beyond the Cardinals and Vikings, that's interesting, who are teams that maybe will sneak into the conversation and could end up being that team?

I'll start with you, Greg, since you have some issues with the cards now. Well, the cards I don't see as being as good as people think, so that's going to hurt them when they start losing games. You asked for a dark horse. So it's hard to come up with what would be a real dark horse. How about the team that we wouldn't even acknowledge was in the NFL last year, the Tennessee Titans? You used to really struggle with them.

The Titans? Just even recalling who they were. If I'm trying to think of a surprise team that could start off kind of fun, West likes Marriota, that division is bad, just, you know, just that would be a good story. if the Titans were interesting. I could see us kind of liking the Titans. In a micro sense, that would be one of the biggest

turnarounds in NFL history that they go from the team that we won't even say their first name to being the team of ATN. That would be incredible. Certainly it would be the biggest turnaround around the NFL history, and that's more important than the NFL. I will definitely be tuning into Game Rewind or Game Pass every week to watch Marriota. It would be nice if they had someone else step up. I don't care for Bishop Sanky.

They're going to need, like, Dorio Beckham Green to become an interesting person. How many losses will it take to start the season for you guys to completely forget their name again? Well, it really comes down to how Marriota looks for me. Yeah. If he's a bust, they're going to be as forgettable as ever. True.

Any other dark horses? What about the Texans, too? All right, we'll start with the Lions, Wes. Well, Amir Abdul is going to be one of the most fun guys in the league to watch. I think they have a chance to be a top five offense. You've got Stafford's the key. Is he going to be consistent? I mean, a couple years ago, he had 41 touchdowns.

Right. Now they've got, Calvin Johnson was hurt most of last year. People forget that. Golden Tate is phenomenal after the catch. He's basically Heinz Ward. E. Brons had a better rapport with Stafford this year, and he was a top 10 pick. This could be a loaded offense. I thought about throwing a team out there that plays indoors, the Atlanta Falcons.

But then I thought, oh, these guys on the other side of the table, they don't like the domes. Also, the Falcons have like five good players on their entire team. A couple of them are pretty fun to watch. You got Dan Quinn. That's beside the point. My point is I'm surprised that Wes would go for an indoor team as team. I brought up the lines several times last year as a team of NFL. I will also, before we go to Colleen with her pick of the Texans,

throw out a little, an old Bill Simmons line, the Ewing theory potential with M. Domican Sue out of the picture. Who knows? Maybe the lines actually are better on defense. Well, they shut down that vaunted Jets offense last night. You know what? It's too soon to be taking shots at the Jets season from an on-field perspective. It was time.

Revis and Crivari were both in in those early plays, too, when they scored. It's week one. I won't do it. Texans. Oh, all right, fine. You know what? I feel like I'm being persuaded by Hard Knocks. But the Texans, I kind of liked them.

And last year, nine and seven. And I feel like, you know, this year I'm a little worried about Arian Foster. They're getting hurt. I mean, that is a huge deal, and obviously they don't have a quarterback. So this is a major underdog. They're going to be hard to watch unless Mallet steps up as a guy who's interesting. Alfred Blue, though. I am kind of falling for DeAndre.

Oh, yeah, DeAndre is great. That's good. And J.J. Watts is always easy to watch. Yeah. I love DeAndre Hopkins. I love everything about him. He's great. And Bill O'Brien.

I'm loving right now, too. Bob. Mm-hmm. I like Bob. Billy O'Bee. All right, we won't rule the Texans out. And that's rare because a team without a quarterback is usually not going to be in the discussion. You really got a route for this team.

All right. Moving on. This is from Garrett Coulter at Garrett Coulter. More disappointing season, 2015 Jets or Season 2 of True Detective. Wow. I feel like you're the man to answer this. Yeah, well, first of all, too soon, Garrett. You know, I'm still processing what's been a.

a hellacious week for any jet fan. But I would say season two of True Detective, if we, a little bit of a detour, season one of True Detective pulled something off that you don't see often in television anymore, which is a communal group experience. Everybody was watching that show on Sundays are a large majority,

and then it would be a water cooler show on Monday. It was a legitimate phenomenon, if you like TV. And then season two lays a big old turd right out of its butt. Well, it's a shame. Mark's not here because he's the only one unless you liked it he's the only one who liked it I bailed on it I just couldn't watch it anymore it was unwatchable to me I'm not going to lie I still have not seen the finale which says a lot right there that you haven't made time to watch it I know and I started watching hard knocks before I watched the finale so that is telling it became a chore to watch

it it did I felt like I had to do it which was the exact life's too short to watch shows that you know I'm knocking over I agree with you life's too short to watch boring shows. It's never too short to watch Greg knock over his 4,000 coffee of his life. By the way, Greg is on two strikes within the NFL conglomerate. This is a good story. Because he's ruined two laptops, not one. And phones.

Laptops, phones by spilling water and coffee. Is that how you got an apple? No, I had that, but I was told after the second one that I was on. Double secret probation. A true story that that's my last one. That if it happens again, because it happened, I've never done that before my life. and twice within six months of starting here before I even moved out here. They said if that happens again, you're buying the next computer.

That's awesome. And then, you know, back to the Jets a second. And I wrote about this question, you know, I led the mailbag off of it. So I'll parrot it a little bit. But, you know, I got heat when the Jets were too high in the power and the pain rankings. But they deserve to be there for this reason. We talked about that. And I also say, you know, I was thinking about what it's like to be a Jets fan and how, you know,

it builds character. I like to tell myself, but it's also kind of like being on the blackjack table and you're getting killed on the table, you're getting 11s and 12s and you're down money, but you refuse to get up because you think the moment you get up, the table's going to heat up.

That's where I feel like as a Jets fan. At some point, this is going to turn. It's a terrible place to me. And I thought things are going to turn this year, and it looks like I'm still getting. Walk away. Don't give up in the first thing. Hold on.

The Jets did not invent humiliation. The Bengals have a loyalty clause. Don't forget about... Corey Dillon threatened to flip burgers rather than play for the Bengals. By the way, the Bengals didn't invent it either, nor did the Jets, but the Jets perfected humiliation. I don't think so. At least the Jets have been, for me, exciting.

Like, there have been major plot twists, and that was not the case. From an outsider standpoint, okay. Well, that's true. So I'm, like, all in on watching the Jets for all the wrong reasons. More disappointing, if the question, the core question from Garrett, more disappointing season, it is true detective. because let's be fair to the Jets. The season is not over yet.

I agree. Three preseason games and 16 regular season games to go, but I think I know how it will end. Three detectives, a comprehensive failure. Yes. All right. Finally, before we hit a little speed round, this from Bruce Bruce Wayne,

at L.A.X. Nedrick. I thought Mark had a, Cessler, had a nice tweet or was a Facebook that he thinks that L.A.X needs to disappear from the world. It's from society. That's the worst error in the world.

if the airport is in society. So for Bruce, Bruce Wayne to use ALX and his handle is interesting. But here we go. Steve Smith's retirement, of course, coming up. Who are the best five best wide receivers ever under 510? And I like this question. I'm going to alter it a little bit to say just your favorite short guy. Favorite short guy could be 510 or below,

but a guy that was an underdog NFL player past or present. Greg, do you have one? I can start with you. Ray Rice. No, I'm just kidding. Wow. I thought it was funny. I always like Darren Sprouls.

I mean, for someone, you know, people talk about short Olo, 5-9, 5-9, 5-10 that he's made in the NFL. Darren Sprouls is like me. He's under 5-6. That guy makes it to the NFL? Give me a break. I mean, that's, you have to overcome a lot to be 5-5. And I know his legs are probably bigger than my entire body, but that's amazing. That's the thing when you go to league events and you see these guys.

Even the little guys, their legs are absurd. Or he's a Jones Jew in his prime. I just. Insane person to be around because he was barely taller than me and his legs were just trunks. He was a gymnast. I met him in the Green Room yesterday. Yeah. Extremely nice guy, but his arms are bigger than your head.

Yeah. He is huge. Yeah. I know. I was shocked when I first met him because, I mean, it's obviously great. I don't have to stand on any boxes or anything in the studio. because everybody else is like seven feet taller than me. But he said that he was a gymnast growing up.

And I think that really helped him with his balance and everything when he was running. By the way, Patra is going to listen to a segment about MJD's body and he's going to be just completely nude in a mirror, just like lifting weights and doing pull-ups, just sweat pouring off him. You and MJD both played Olympic sports. Yeah, I was a figure skater. He was gymnast. Yeah.

You were an Olympian? I was an Olympian as well. They both played Olympic sports. I'm accomplished, Dan. Connie Fox. Connie Fox was... 88 soul. How old are you?

I can totally see you, by the way. Now that you brought it up, I can totally see you as a figure skater. Oh, my God. Yeah. I cut all my hair off. It was crazy. What were we talking about?

Was cutting edge your favorite movie girl? I did like it. All right. Favorite figure skater ever, Wes. Now that's true. Katerina Vitt. Oh. What about short football players?

Uh, the proto Darren Sprouls. When I was, when I first became a football fan, Lionel Little Train James for the San Diego Chargers in the mid-80s. This guy was five foot six, was a dangerous kick returner running back and had a thousand yard season in, uh, in, the mid-80s. He was, I think Mark was a big fan of the Little Train too. I'll go with, uh, I'll, of course, I'll go with a jet, Wayne Krabet. I liked Wayne, so undrafted, a great story about Wayne Krabet, who ended up being one of the

greatest receivers in team history was not drafted and was not even scouted by the team, but at the time the Jets practiced in Hofstra, or they held their camp in Hofstra, where Krabet went. He's a Garfield, New Jersey native, exit 157 on the Garden State Parkway. And part of the deal with the Jets was that one Hofstra player could walk on to camp. And that was Krabet. He was the guy that walked on camp. He made the team, instant impact player.

Kishon Johnson hated him because the family. fans gravitated towards Corbett over Johnson, the first overall pick in the draft. But it turned out Carbett was the better player and one of the all-time fan favorites. Hold on, man. I would not necessarily say. I think Keishon was much better than Wayne Cribet. I think you could debate it, but that's. I would take a look at Keishon's stats.

He was a disappointment ultimately. What about Deshawn, too? He's got to be in the mix, right? Sean, everybody's like, no, not. Oh, no, absolutely. Look at his yards per catch. He dwarfs everyone in football. Great player.

Yeah. I just said favorite. Miracle at the Meadowlands, too. But he's not your favorite? You're an Eagles Homer. I mean, yeah. I'm not going to deny it. All right, before we get out of here, let's hit a little rapid fire session.

TD, do we have any type of music we can play behind this? Just get things moving. Okay. It will work. Here we go. Colleen, your first up. All right. Surprise benching firing that happens midseason.

This from Funny Handle, Adzoid Bird. Predictable would be RG3. Surprise is Jay Cruden. Yes. Jay Cutler, back to the well on that one. Second time in two years he gets benched for Jimmy Clause. Greg. Tom Coughlin, they don't even let him finish out of the year.

You don't believe that. No, you're asking for a surprise. Joe Filman. He gone. Next up, Jimmy Toons. At Choose Choose Choose. Dan Hansis is I'm joined by a room filled with heroes deliberately grammatically incorrect.

No, I f*** up. Next up, this one, at Dan Hanzas. When was the last time you punched a colleague and was it over more or less $600? Colleen, any fights in your life? No. No physical fights. No physical fights. Wes, how many fights in your life?

And was it ever over money? A lot and never over money. Greg. I've never been to a fight. It was arrested for being on the outskirts of a fight. Nice. I like that. Arrests would be a different story altogether.

I've never actually been in a, we are wimps, I've never been in a hardcore, or not West, a hardcore fist fight, but my best buddy from high school, Bob was in a fist fight at the playground in ninth grade. I was his manager. I once had a guy, I was punching him on the ground and I was bleeding all over and he's like, man, stop bleeding on me. Gross. All right, next up. That's awful.

FGH-H chaplain at Edward Northie. Who is the, who is the Penn House suite of your stable of boys and who might be a, Now, Colin, we've never gotten into your stable, but who's your... That's a tough one. I'll put you on the spot. I don't know. I don't know. We know you, Wes.

Odell, me. DeAndre Hopkins, welcome into the penthouse. I love you. Pierre Thomas, and I don't kick anyone out. You know, you're there for you. Lifetime membership? I'm loyal. Des Bryant probably isn't my suite, but DeAndre is knocking on the door.

So get out, Des. I'll do, um, I'll do... Calvin Johnson? Oh, I know. This is a panic move. This is a panic. Oh, I know. Whoa.

You know what? It's actually kind of, I was going to say my fault as the host, but I'll bang it on TD. He should have let you know that this was coming up. So you could have prepared. I would like to think about it further. Can I take that back and get back to you guys on that? All right. I had just evicted him.

Don't think about this all weekend, please. I will. How many rooms are in the stable? Do I just? It's a normal stable, but within the stable, there's a penthouse. If you go up one of those ladders and there's hay, And then in the corner, there's actually a suite to every stable. And that's where our favorite boy is.

Oh, I'll go to Marius. Oh, there you go. Yeah. We keep our boys in stables. I like, you'll probably have a binder Saturday. I know. Stable of boys. All the research you're putting into.

Yep. Thank you for everyone that sent in questions. And thank you for listening. We'll be back on Monday with another round of three shows. Like I said, the fantasy spectacular week is now upon us. So make sure you tune in. for that and make sure you subscribe on iTunes and all that

good stuff. This is Dan Hansa signing off for the Wolf Woman, the mailman, the boss, TD, and everybody else behind the glass. Enjoy your weekend. Until Monday. You are not alone. I am here with you.

Though we're far apart, you're always in my heart. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On move to six, we take you inside the game from breaking down. college prospects and NFL rookies. To evaluate 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 anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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