NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - RB Rankings And No Deal For Bell

Episode Date: July 16, 2018

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler & Chris Wesseling - are all together again to bring you the latest news from around the league, including the Steelers & running back Le'Veon Bell not being able to work out a new deal (7:40), former Giants coach Ben McAdoo goes HAM (11:57), DeMarco Murray retires (17:00), Patrick Peterson gives his nod for Cardinals’ starting QB (20:00), ROE-KWAN Smith not with other Bears rookies at start of camp (23:00), Todd Gurley gets inspiration from LeBron?!? (30:00) and Joe Theismann loves Pitbull (36:00). Plus, the heroes debate Gregg’s running backs rankings for 2018 (42:00).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. Loves the counting crows. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast, presented by New Era. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined in a room filled with heroes. Yes, filled. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys?

Hey, Dan. Two things there. And I'll, even though Greg, welcome back from vacation. Great to be back. I'll speak on behalf of Greg real quickly. Not a fan of the Count of the Crows. Wes, not necessarily a fan of Count of Crows either. I do like the Counting Crows.

Okay, but I think it back. It's sort of like best left in its era. Yes, I understand where you're coming from. What I was really waiting for, Mark, was kind of like a ellipsies of sorts and then money to drop some type of hammer. But he does not editorialize with those openings. I mean, we know that Matt Money Smith is not a Counting Crows fan on any level either. But this show within this show, you and I have been to multiple live Counting Crows concerts. I don't think you could drag Greg or Wes to a Counting Crows concert.

Well, Wes won't go to any concert. We know that. So you're starting right there. They were like one of those bands that like my brother's friends really liked at the time, too. Not that they were too. And it's just like, that's your stuff, buddy. It's another like sign, I think, of that we've been doing this show, perhaps two. long is that I feel like we've had this exact conversation right down to Greg talking about

his brothers, friends. Yes, we're all back together for the first time in probably what, almost a month, four weeks or so. It's been quite a bit. Greg, you were back east. How was your vacation? People want to know. It was fantastic. Yeah, Massachusetts. And then back here is pretty low key. And this is our final week of two shows in the week. So fans. you diehards out there who we appreciate we'll be happy to know that we'll be going back to three shows next week as training camps kickoff and well just hint perhaps more in 2018 that's all say right now can't say anything else guy thought a lot of plans been cooking up while i was going that i've heard about so you know something to look forward to and and i think that that's a wrap on

vacations by the way so we're all back we're all back oh three shows from now until the end of time. In fact, I was going to say, Mark, there was kind of a running gag, but it was also very true last season or four months ago where you're saying, oh, the season doesn't really end at the end of football season. There's our season continues. Is today or maybe Monday a week from today the start of the new season? I think it's next week, but it's all for us because we're all back and we're all locked in now for months and months and many more months. I think today feels like our unofficial. I think it's next week.

It's like a 28, 28 week season starting next week. Keep grinding, Sessler. So the grind is on. It's grind 30. Let's roll. I'm ready to grind.

Yes, this is, yeah. And we can't really get into it right now, but this is going to be maybe the biggest season ever for the around the NFL podcast. I say that with great excitement. We're excited to share everything that's coming up, but not yet.

For now, though, we are going to dig into what's happening in the NFL podcast. NFL, a decent amount of stuff to talk about considering where we are in the calendar. Whenever there's a golf pro-am of any kind, and especially the Lake Tahoe one, guys are going to be chirping. So we're going to have some things coming out of there, including a big win for Tony Romo. Whoa, Romo is pretty good at golf.

That's all I got on golf. He has a pretty nice overall life right now. Yeah, things are going nice for Tony. Ben McAdoo speaks, a prominent former rushing. champion retires. And then we will talk some running backs because Greg hits the ground running up on the NFL.com with a piece of breaking down all the projected starting running backs where he puts them in order from 1 to 32.

So we're going to talk about that and just running backs in general. And one last note before we throw it to Lindsay in the news. The Kissing Cousins, Sessler, Wessling, the old Zusser. and the Paramore, who now gets a name. She's engaged to be married. Keisha. Keisha. We watched the World Cup final.

Not a very good match, if you will, but it was nice seeing you guys. And everyone's always like, oh, man, the World Cup. It was so fun. Let's watch more soccer. Me? No, good. See in four years. That was perfect.

It was very odd. I mean, we've been out together in many places and at many different times, but I was struggling a little bit at roughly 6.45 a.m. leaving my house to walk to a bar where you knew that we were going to be asked to be ordering beverages at around 705 a.m. Asked. I mean, you can't just go in there and do nothing. So it was just an... People just come in by pleading with you. Please, Mark. I'm not saying that we weren't easily convinced. It's just, you know, by 10 a.m., I think the mind was on fire. Now that the catch rule has been fixed, my next crusade is to, fix the handball rule in soccer that you just basically give somebody a goal for a glance off the

hand. And it's so hard to score in soccer. And then you say, oh, here, shoot from 10 feet in front of the goal and just take a freebie. Wes's animosity to certain people on social media when they get on his bad side is legendary. It was fun to actually be there in real time where we were all having a good time drinking beers. And then about, I would say for about eight minutes of the match, Wes was just checked out. And you just saw him holding his phone just like. Block Destroying people, blocking people. It was silent fury is how I'm trying it. Well, like fans of any sport, you get to a point where you just assume that the rules are there for a good reason and you don't question the rules.

So you just go along with what the people in charge tell you and that's what's happening in soccer. That's fair. West is the man to change it. Yeah. I mean, why not push the kickback 10 yards, say, and the percentage of convergence fails to a reasonable amount? Get ready for endless mentions. Dan Endless blocks

Went on some soccer rant or two About the British song And I noticed I got pulled into some mentions Endless Endless stuff about this And I don't need to know I say it with peace and love Because you know that we love our English listeners

I don't care I don't care about the It's Coming Home thing Like I referenced that it was something That I felt like it was bad juju For the team But I don't really care about the history of it Or anything else

In fact Soccer's going in the top dresser drawer and it's going away for four years. So that's good. It's this and this. Hey, we run. The NFL Network's

greek a good. Rosen tall. I am a half-ness. I find what those are the worst that they are, the better they are. Yeah. Was that Gaelic? That sounded Scottish, I think.

Anyway. Let's start. Since this is kind of our running back show today. Let's start with the big running back news. That of course, the Pittsburgh Steelers and star halfback Lavian Bell unable to come to terms on a long-term extension by today, Monday's 4 p.m. Eastern deadline that according to Rapsheet, Bell will play on a $14.5 million franchise tag. And this is important for Steelers fans and anybody else tracking football. The final sentence from Rappaport in his tweet,

likely won't show up for a while. So there you go. Of course, Bell, Greg, came very close to a deal with the Steelers last year. Didn't get done franchise tag. So the most important thing here is playing on the one-year deal. He will hit unrestricted free agency next year. And he's still not happy.

The tone, though, I'm noticing is different this year. As we just started the show, the Steelers and Levion Bell release statements at the same time. Bell on his Twitter account, the Steelers official statement on it. Both expressed basically hope and respect that they did try to work it out,

that they're going to try to make a long-term deal after 2019. And most importantly, Bell says in his tweet that I'm sorry we let you down, but 2018 will be my best season to date. It does not sound like a guy who could possibly skip half the season, which was being threatened by, I think it was Schefter mentioned it as a possibility early.

It sounds like he'll do what he did last, which is show up late in training camp and he'll be out there week one. And he's not going to pass up a weekly check where he's getting paid, you know, more than any running backs gotten paid in a year in a long, long time in the NFL. I mean, the messaging from early this morning was that this is probably not going to happen. And then Bell's agent, Disa Bakari, basically said they wanted to pay the position, not the player. And ultimately, I think it hurts Bell for multiple reasons.

But how is this value going to be higher a season from now a year later into his? career than it is right now. Well, he's still only 26. Like, he's maybe a little younger than some people realize. And he also, Wes, he didn't have his best year last year. He could have a better year this year and potentially have more leverage going into his age 27th season. Yeah, when he says he's going to have a best year to date, I don't believe that.

He's, first of all, he's had some great years so far. And second of all, last year we saw that he was rusty. Because of his running style, he takes some time to get into synchronicity with his offensive line. And in September last year, that synchronicity wasn't there. So if he skips training camp again, is he really going to have the best season to date? Right. Maybe he'll come a little earlier.

He came September 1st last year, which is really late. He did have 85 catches, 655 yards. The reason his value could be higher, Mark, though, is you'd have 31 teams bidding on you. And so we'll... Well, that would change things significantly. Will a couple teams decide to make? Not all 31 are going to be bidding on it. Probably not.

But you know what I mean. other players notable players with the deadline looming Lamarcus joiner of the Rams he will play under his tag they don't come to a deal to Marcus Lawrence and the Cowboys he will play on a 17.1 million dollar franchise tag good work if you can get it and also Zeke Anza of the Lions same deal they couldn't get a long term deal done how often up against this deadline do we see deals rarely I remember the year demarius Thomas was a free agent we saw one for him. Let me give you two stats that are hard to reconcile for Levi-on-Bell. He has the most yards per scrimmage in his first five seasons of any running back in NFL history. Yards per scrimmage per game. In the five years he's been in the NFL, over that half decade, the Steelers have averaged more points without him in the lineup than with him in the lineup. And that's over 16 games. I think he's such a unique talent that if he can just stay healthy and they don't

overwork him. His value, he will reset, I think, the running back value. And I think, so will Zeke and so will Gurley on their second contracts. But is that $17 million a year, or is it going to be less than what the Steelers have been offering him? We don't really know guaranteed money, how the deal was

structured, what the Steelers have been offering. I think in the back of their minds, they've probably been fine playing, you know, running along, you know, doing this franchise tag because it's year by year. They're safe. DeMarcus Lawrence is the other guy that really stands out to me because he had a career year out of nowhere. And he, if he gets the free agency and has another big year,

it's going to be coming after the Jedevian Clowny contract, Khalil Mack, and he is going to be tough for the Cowboys to keep. Moving on, Ben McAdoo no longer with the New York Giants, of course, was fired last December as that team spiraled after really a quality, first year when he went 11 and 5 with the team. But things did not work out. The benching of Eli Manning probably was the thing that did him in. in. Now McAdoo is doing the press tour, trying to put it out there, essentially, that he's trying, he's trying to change who he is. He's learned from his experience. But there was an interview with the New York Post and Paul Schwartz that really jumped out to me. Let's, let's start. There's some bullet points in here because Ben, who didn't say anything interesting when he was the Giants coach, had a lot to say that was interesting now. We'll start with what he thinks about the Giants. I think they're going to win this division. I think Philly, how much six.

success is Philly had. I think they're going to have a hard time handling success. Dallas is like anybody in a bar by the way. Dallas, I like their offensive line, but how long have we been saying that? Their defense, they got a bunch of young guys playing DB. Sean Lee is banged up a lot. And their D line, they got a bunch of guys getting in trouble all the time. And Washington is Washington, right? I mean, I can't really disagree with anything he said.

I love that he's just calling out the Redskins. Washington is Washington. That was just the start, though, Mark. He had a lot to say. I mean, here's where I start with with Ben McAdoo, because it was a multiple wide-ranging interviews where he dumps on almost all the college quarterbacks. I think he was very positive about the Giants,

and this was an image makeover deal for him, where he talked about, he grew up viewing the media as a total enemy, and he's learned he's not to do things much differently. But when it comes to all these opinions about the rest of the league and player X and player Y, my question would be, after what we saw from Ben McAdoe more recently, why do we care? Because it's nice to hear an honest opinion.

This is how they talk about players, I think, in general. Like, the thing that struck me the most was he said Nate Solder wasn't a very good player. Don't think he's a very good player. I don't know where. Must to watch him in Super Bowl 51. It was a drive-by-shooting. Look, Nate Solder has had some pretty bad stretches in his career, and there is probably some debate.

He's up and down. He's maybe closer to average than a standout. But it was just interesting to hear such a- But he also calls it a great move. that they went out and got them, too. I just find that contradictory there. I was thinking the same thing, even when we were talking about it this morning,

that I was just reading it again just now. I think what he's saying is that Eric Flowers and the left tackle situation for the Giants was so bad. And he killed Eric Flowers. That bringing in an average player. That bring in an average or even a below average guy, whatever he thinks sold her to be, is still a huge upgrade for Eli,

which is probably true as well. He doesn't have good things to say, like you said, Mark, about Sam Darnold. He doesn't like his throwing delivery. He thinks Baker Mayfield's a college quarterback. He likes Josh Rosen. because on Sunday you give me a prick and I'll take him. Okay.

He's called Lamar Jackson, his second favorite quarterback. I mean, I do find his opinions interesting. It's just that there is, it's not like listening to Bill Belichick espouse his opinion for four hours. Our buddy, or at least three of our buddies, Daniel Jeremiah, move the sticks. Clearly Dan's, you know, long-term enemy. He said something very wise, which he says things he's seen before.

recently hired coaches set expectations low recently fired coaches set expectations high for their former team so he might be being up front about his player evaluations but it's a stinky davis move to say that your former team is going to win the division all of this stuff he learned that he told peter king about i learned this i learned this i learn this why does it take an off season to learn so much why didn't you learn this during the season to which you were the how about he's he's writing a manifesto that's all all already over 200 pages. About what he did wrong. Yeah, it's like... I like that, though. He was trying to learn from. Belichick coming out of Cleveland had to go through the same self-evaluation process. And the only reason why he didn't learn during the season is that's when the bullets are flying

and the Giants were in total chaos. I mean, why didn't you learn after your first couple of seasons? Why did it take this particular offseason to look back and say, hey, I need to change things? He said he, especially on the media side, because I think he really hurt himself with the Giants on that front, obviously. He was terrible with the media. He regretted it. He asked a friend. He said, I asked one of my friends in the game about it, and he said, you're smart,

but when you answer questions from the press, you sound like an oath. And you know what? When you lose your job and you have to actually self-examine why that happened, I do think you can learn. And a lot of these coaches are much better the second time around because of it. But has Ben McAdoo, someone whose stock at this point is so damaged that a head coaching job would only come after he absolutely sizzled as a play call or somewhere else? I don't think it's ever coming again.

I don't think his hair ever helped him either. from the weird part of season one to the slick back recent look in season two I mean I thought that was a microcosm of his struggles moving on DeMarco Murray did you know DeMarco Murray

led the league in rushing two seasons ago true story and that wasn't even his best season he was three seasons it was 2016 I thought four years removed from an eighteen hundred yards he played for the Eagles and then he played for the Titans

and he did not lead the league in either one of those So anyway, he had a nice season the first year with the Titans. He was great with the Cowboys for a couple of years then there, but he kind of burned out a little bit. So the 2014 offensive player of the year announced Friday in a live ESPN announcement. It was a little weird watching it. I don't know if you saw it. He's retiring at the age of 30, third round pick by the Cowboys in 2011 out of Oklahoma.

He ends his career with over 7,000 rushing yards, 49 touchdowns, went to the Pro Bowl, three times. and Wes, you know, just we're talking about Lev Bell and you never know, the window for these running backs to be truly elite players. Murray, he went from nearly the best in the business to just another guy very quickly. I think he, as much as any player in recent memory,

illustrates, I guess the frustration with evaluating players outside of their teammates, coaching staff, health, because when he's healthy and running behind the Cowboys Offensive Line, he's an MVP candidate offensive player of the year. When he's healthy running behind a Titans offensive line that was really good, he's a Pro Bowler. The next year he plays through a hamstring injury. The offensive line isn't quite as good,

and he looks like one of the worst running backs in the league. I just think it's so challenging to extract a player from his system and surrounding talent, and DeMarco Murray is the best example. Yeah, it's a great point And his career wasn't the same Everyone said it in the moment When he had 392 carries And 57 catches that year

And some playoff carries That like they're trying They're going to ruin the rest of his career And they basically were right Play it out that way And if you want to draw up the winners and losers Column for this life choice that he's made Mark Sessler, a big loser

How? A third person here Yep, had a sandwich bet on this Said that he would land in the NFC East and he's not landing anywhere. So just another round of food that I must purchase for you all. I would call myself a loser.

I do like how hard. DeMarco Murray, it's like the hardest thing. How can you evaluate for college players who's going to run hard every down? I feel like that's a hard trait to know. And DeMarco Murray ran hard every down in his prime. That was really what set him apart. because he didn't have maybe the greatest skill set in the world.

But he was kind of an old throwback who punished defenders. They didn't want to tackle him. And he always ran hard. And other news. So happy trails, DeMarco Murray. Patrick Peterson, the all-pro cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals. He was at, I believe. Was he at that golf thing?

He was at that golf thing, yes. He was at a golf thing. Don't ask me the name of it. It was the celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. which seems like a really fun thing to go to if you're a famous rich football player. Unless you're Ben Rathesberger. Well, that's fair.

That's an old story. That's an old story. Yeah, Ben. Well, maybe you shouldn't laugh, Ben. Serious business. Anyway, he was on Total Access on NFL Network. He told James Jones his feeling on what the Cardinals should do at quarterback. Of course, they have the rookie Josh Rosen, who's a prick,

I guess, maybe, according to. to Ben Mac do? That's what he'd like him to be? Is that what he wants him to be a prick? Or he's hurt he's a prick? It doesn't matter. You're not a prick, Josh Rosen. I've never met you, but maybe you are.

Anyway, here's what he said. You've got the rookie there. You have, of course, Sam Bradford in the house. Greg's boy, Mike Lennon's also in the house. Who should start a quarterback? As of right now, I probably would take Sam due to his experience, due to some of the records that he have in the league.

Because when Sam is healthy, he's on the field and have talent around him. He's the top tier quarterback. So there you go. Mark, you agree with this? Well, I mean, we're at a point now. We have literally no information on what Josh Rosen is going to look like or how quickly he's going to develop. And if he comes in there and he blows you away,

I think Rosen's probably the guy that we feel like is one of the guys that could become a pro-ready quarterback quicker than the others. But I agree that if you're a Peterson, you want to go with the veteran who you know and understand. And Bradford, when he's been healthy, has been good. So their first five games, lions, cults, 49ers, Cowboys, Eagles. Is there a need or a reason that you have to throw Rosen into the fire right away? I just don't see – they've prepared their roster in a way where the answer is no, I think, right now.

There's a litany of support for Sam Bradford coming out of Arizona. Patrick Peterson. David Johnson has said that the Cardinals would have the best offense in the league if Sam Bradford stays healthy. Christian Kirk, the rookie wide receiver, said based on what the coaches have said throughout the offseason. Sam Bradford's going to be the starter. Steve Wilkes told Adam Shepter a few months ago that they brought in Sam Bradford specifically to direct

the offense because, quote, he's one of the best in the business right now. To me, everything coming out of Arizona says this is Bradford's job, not Rosen. He's east starting week one if he's healthy because he's just going to know more and know how to play quarterback of the NFL level more than Josh Rosen. But him

being healthy is not a given? A complete. Certainly. I mean, Peterson's other point in this interview was, because I think we've been down on the Cardinals. When in doubt go French. We've been down on the Cardinals all offseason. They could surprise. I think they've had a pretty good off season.

You talked about how their lack of health as a team over the last couple seasons. Think about what we thought of this team in December compared to where they are now. Like it could have been a full-blown, tear it down, rebuild it. 2018 is going to be a year that nobody's going to even want to watch the Cardinals. And now, like, would it surprise you if they go 9 and 7, 10, and 6? Wouldn't surprise me? What was that again, Greg? You're going nine and seven, ten and six.

Feta complete, you're asking about it. It's pretty good because I was in the middle of like handing right a piece of paper. Yeah, the pregnant pause in the podcast was because I was reading something Dan just handed. I think it could have been that, but it also could have been like, I want to make sure I pronounce this correctly. Sometimes that pregnant pauses are a result of that. You're right. Sometimes they are. Anyway, I liked it.

Moving on. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Roquan Smith. Greg helped me out with the pronunciation of the name during that pregnant pause. See, we take it behind the scenes. It's not just about let's just like roll through the news. Let's knock out another pod like our 700th podcast.

No, that is how the sausage gets made. How else would one pronounce Roquan Smith? Rayquan. But it's, no. That's how you would pronounce it before. Most people would not go down A. I thought I had heard at some point Rayquan. Oh.

And I'm not a, I don't follow the college game. Dolphins linebacker who got hurt last year. There is a Rayquan McMillan. There is also the guy from the Wu-Tang Clan. Yes. That guy, he was in my head. That was Rayquan, right? Yeah.

Well. You built a steady mounting hill of evidence here. Anyway, what is it again? Roquan Smith, of course, the first round pick. People are very high in this linebacker. Love Rayquan on the cover of Bulletproof Wallet's a ghost face kill. album just one of the all time album covers people check it out is this the gregg likes rap interlude of today show i forgot it

can't get out of an episode out there break one's not coming up again maybe ever i enjoy the gregg likes rap interludes i i miss them and i'm happy they're back um anyway rocuan smith uh rap sheet reports the first round linebacker is not what the team is rookies report smith currently hasn't signed his rookie contract staying away until a deal gets done uh the bears are playing in that hall fame game which is coming up in a couple weeks. So the rookies reported to training camp today, veterans not until Thursday. You know, I'm surprised this is still a thing that's happening.

I don't think Donald's deal got done yet either. I thought we were out of this, but every once in a while something pops up. It's July 16th. I think that we should like check back in a couple weeks and then show concern at that one. Yeah, come back to us with rookies reporting a week earlier. Like the Ravens rookies reported last week because that was the early. as possible day. I'm not into the rookies reporting earlier.

No, that was... Give everyone more time off. It's like a false alarm where we start... Wait, should we start covering this on inside training camp? The rookies are reporting, no. Unnecessary at best. Let the record state I am extremely nervous about this situation, and I am tracking it very closely.

Let's talk about another second round pick bust by the Jets, but this one's not named Christian Hakenberg. This is Devin Smith, the wide receipts. receiver was taken in round two of the 2015 draft. ESPN reported on Monday that he's been cut loose. This Devin Smith was supposed to be a guy that was supposed to take the top off defenses, but he kept on ripping up his knee, could not stay on the field, ended up with only 10 catches for 135 yards and one touchdown in three seasons.

So, and if you're tracking at home, by the way, because the Jets have done very poor work taking making a hay out of second round picks David Harrison round two of 2007 very nice pick had a really nice career but since then Vlad Dukas Stephen Hill Gino Smith Jason Marro Devin Smith it was just cut and hack so not a great track record and when you're building a roster as we know it's not just about the first round pick you got a hit on those early draft picks and the Jets oh by the way haven't been to the playoffs in about six or seven years Devin Smith, for me, will always be a reminder of why fan is short for Fanatic. A particularly zealous Jets fan in Devin Smith's rookie year berated me on Twitter

for not acknowledging that he is just as talented as O'Dell Beckham. One of the most talented players ever to set foot on a football field, Devin Smith is just as talented as him, and I'm wrong for not admitting it or acknowledging it. So that person got the, look, this is why blocks are necessary. I think you got the last word on that. Yeah, you lost, buddy. If you need, if you want to have discourse on your Twitter account,

you have to exclude all the people who just can't, don't have an eye at all for football. Just get them out of it. The people who say Andrew Luck is overrated, block them. In fairness to this guy, I went back to look at the Rotow World post when he got drafted. I sometimes I'll do that just to see what the feel was at the time. Mike Mayock, as this draft went on,

said Devin Smith tracks the deep ball as well as any college wideout I've seen in years. Some bad luck here with him. Well, he entered the league as a guy who would be a deep deep ball specialist. Not O'Dell Beckham. I just want to get that shit. Right. But we have no idea what kind of a football player he is, though. Also, just in general, that's one person like in the entire world that thinks that.

Oh, there were a lot of Jets fans that thought he was like, not, not O'Dell. Not O'Dell, but they thought he was going to be a great wide receiver. This is not on Mike McCagney because it's an injury. situation. But Dan, I get that you were massively in love with Sam Darnold and he fell to them and they took him and that could be great. But are you concerned at all about McCagnan's track record drafting players? Of course. Yeah. He didn't take. Did McAgnon take Devin Smith? I don't know if he did. He wasn't there yet. Was that the glacier? The iceberg? I think that might be the glacier? The glacier. Yeah. It would have been in. Are you concerned about the glacier's ability

to pick players then? I did. I really did. I really did. I did not like the glacier, but yeah, we'll see what happens, Mark. McCagman's in a hazy year. Yeah, they need to. Good rookie quarterback can buy you many more years, we'll say. All right, we've reached peak off season. We finally made it here. There's always one story every year that runs on our website that you see it.

You see the headline and you say to yourself, oh yeah, peak. It always happens right around this time, too. You ready? headline. And God bless Kevin Patrick, who wrote this up because hell, what else he going to do right now? On his first day back, I believe, from his honeymoon and beautiful trip around the world. Congratulations to Kevin Patrick. Well, he's been here for a week, but okay. Yeah. I mean, by the way, this is the end of the honeymoon, this article. Before we dip into that, yeah. That is a Mike McAgnon draft pick. It was. The pressure is mounting.

It is. He's in trouble. All right. Here we go. You ready? Thank you for the correction mark. Todd Gurley colon LeBron referring to the basketball star LeBron James coming to L.A., referring to LeBron signing with the Los Angeles Lakers is quote, motivation

for Rams. Oh my God, hit the alert. We've reached peak off season. Todd Gurley, how is this motivation? Wes, you're probably curious, aren't you? How the hell is this motivation? for the browns got a few thoughts on this story okay uh here's a curly told the l a times while

at a youth football camp at san an monica college you know greatness is coming and you want to be part of that it's like motivation it kind of makes you want to work harder and get to that point to where he is so what todd girlie's saying chris wessling is that the rams despite making the playoffs and having a fine season last year despite everything that's built up around them and everyone's saying this could be a Super Bowl year. No, no, no. The real motivation and part of the motivation to be successful this year is that LeBron James is now playing basketball in the same city.

Here's my take on this. Todd Gurley's comments are irrelevant. The story is irrelevant. The only reason this gets written is so you can run the headline. The story is totally irrelevant. You just want to run the headline that has LeBron, L.A. and Rams and motivation in the title. And it probably, people probably read it. Well, of course they read it.

I mean, it certainly worked in Cleveland. LeBron brings a title to that city, and the Brown systematically go one in 31. I mean, what is the, if that's where your motivation's coming from, you better find a better source of it. In fairness, we're not impugning Todd Gurley at all here. He is donating his time to kids and was clearly asked a question about LeBron. And then he has to answer it. Right. It's the question.

Also, not impugning Kevin Patra, who. who is an MVP and works his butt off. And him writing stories like this allows us to not have to write them. Or not imputing Santa Monica College. Great. I mean, everyone in this is great community pool there. I was there a couple of times.

Everyone's great. Everyone's great and learn out of swimming. May I ask who is being impugned? Nobody. Everyone's great. I would like to see metrics in this building that would allow us to say whenever we encounter an article, No, that's too much headline versus story.

I'd like to see more story than the headline. The editors. The editor is making the choice to run this story. So ultimately, David Ely. And then the, I think Ely was on vacation. Well, okay, he's in charge of the. The aggregation machine, a bit impugned here as well. Yes, absolutely.

We, I think aggregation came along 10, 15 years ago in this industry as far as Twitter and RSS. All that should be out the window. Now, let's go to a new form of news writing. Wow. I'd say this, David Ely, who is my supervisor. He was on vacation, my fault. Clean and excellent job every single day from the minute he checks in to the minute he goes home. Update on the best man race.

Look, we're going to keep doing this, but he really put himself behind the eight ball for not the first time in his adult life wearing a romper. Oh, no. And putting it on social. My best man is not going to be a romper clad man. Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave. The mistakes he makes just drive me nuts. All right, maybe we'll have to touch base with Dave a little later. I walked by his desk today just to say hi.

It's been a few weeks. And at the time, he was shopping for couches. And I just thought this is like the perfectly on. Well, he came in today openly saying that this was a shift back into work mode day and he was going to accomplish very little. And that tomorrow he'd start digging in with real assignments. That work above Dave as well before we let out some of this information. I mean, I often do the same thing.

So I find, I thought it was a fair straight. They work above us too. They don't listen. We're covered. We're covered. Also in the news, Aaron Rogers, is add him to the club of famous quarterbacks who would like to play to 40. But Rogers a little different in terms of whether this is something worth talking about

because he expands on it a little bit in an interesting way. This to Peter King in the King's debut column for Football Morning in America. Okay. With editor Dom Bonasavutio. Formerly of our newser. Yeah. And formerly of MMQB. It's like Peter's guy travels with him everywhere.

brings him along bon visuto i believe is you nailed that that pronunciation here's what rogers had to say i'd love to play to 40 i just think that number means a lot obviously tom is kind of rewriting the book brett had a good season when he turned 40 my goal is to be able to move like i do or close to how i do and still be able to do that at 40 just because nobody's ever been able to do that and still move around the same steve young's career was cut short in his late 30s john elway the same he didn't really move the same as when he was younger so to be able to a move the same way at 38, 39, 40 would be cool. That's my aim.

My question, Greg, would be not many. The reason why you don't see that and these guys train and they take care of themselves better than ever. The reason you don't see that is when these guys get into their late 30s, their bodies get creaky. It just the clock runs and they get beat up and they get injured. I wonder if he's not moving as well, if he'll change his mindset and be like, well, as long as I can still sling it and read defenses. Because what he's saying right now, we'll see if his body cooperates with that. The hope would be like Tom Brady that he is moving as well or better, you know, at that age. It's a new era.

I mean, Tom Brady is moving better now than he was. That was never his game, but just the way he can slide and move his body in the pocket. It has been better at 3940 than it was. But Rogers is a different type of moving. It is. But I guess I'm saying maybe the technology and all the work that goes into it and the health, maybe Rogers can take all those lessons and keep his He hasn't gone on Skade, though. He's suffered, you know, a series of injuries in his career.

He is right about Farv. That in 2009 season, age 40 for Brett Farv, I understand that the mid-90s action was peak Brett Farv, but, like, I honestly think that 2009 season was one of the most fan, like, amazing quarterback seasons I'd ever watched. Within a calendar year later, he was an ultra-disaster. Yeah. Also, Farv, I feel like people of our generation, Mark, we know that he was. Not you, too.

Us. Well, there is a divide on Brett Farv's career where people about Dan and Greg's generation feel like he's overrated. We're in a different generation now. I love it. All right. People your age feel like he's overrated. They talked about him too much during games. They praised him too much. He was a pocket quarterback. No, he was an improvisational wizard and one of the best mobile quarterbacks in history. I mean, we were in high school when he won the three straight MVP's. That was really what you're talking about, which has never been done before. Right. Maybe it'll never be doing it. I quite liked Brett Farb's game. I feel like I'd never heard

complaints about him until people your age started complaining. We hear too much about this guy. People got sick of the coverage I know what you said. He was talked about in reverential tones because he was that damn good. But Mark is right. That season he came back when he destroyed the Packers two straight times

one of which I believe was on Monday night football, it felt like a holiday and like I've never, I didn't have that much invested in him but it was just like awesome to see it was. And finally in the news This comes from Joe Thaisman, a former quarterback for the Redskins. I believe he's a Hall of Famer.

No. He's in the King. He's in the Hall of Fame of Awful announcing. Okay. Well, he's a very well-known Super Bowl winning quarterback. And Joe had this tweet over the weekend. Can you get a little music to accompany of this? Pitbull is a concert you can't miss.

So, Mark, Joe Thysman, former Redskins quarterback, defines Pitbull as a must-see live experience. As someone who, on occasion, will tweet something out when the bloodstream may have some alcohol in it and other things, I feel like this might have been that kind of a tweet from Joe Thysman. Not accusing him of that, just seems like... Did we check the time step? It also just uses you, the letter instead of YOU. It's a bit of a messy tweet all around. Familiar with Pitbull only because before cancer, several people had tweeted me saying

I looked like this character. No, you do not. So I asked Keisha to play a few songs for me so I would know what to say. And all I can say is his music sounds like the background to an awful Boz-Lorman movie. Well, let's listen to what Pitbull kind of sounds like. Turn it up. Okay. So that's kind of what he sounds like.

This is a cowboy take me to your radio? Well, no, that's not actually. Who wrote these lyrics? This is one of the cases where the house music is basically the same. It is similar. Lindsay alerted me today, which I was kind of fascinated by, that actually in our music library that we could use, although the fact that we're talking about pit bull,

fair use covers, we could play a little pit bull, but the powers that be in this building have foolishly decided that we cannot do anything like that. So we have to do this music But when you do a search Fair use is a defense It's not a policy I don't want to hear it

That's not from Lindsay That's from upstairs But if you search in our system You could search an artist To hear fake artist music From that artist It kind of makes my head spin a little bit Wait they've authored

They have the fake pit bull So if you do a search for pit bull Yeah It will bring up what Lindsay Yeah And it'll be that pit bull like music Okay And it's just interesting to me.

And one other note. If your broadcast, if your podcast is completely clamped down by corporate rules, here's an out for you. Right. Right. Pipbo had a great run, though. I think there was about a four-year run where he actually closed out every award show. It's just like, all right, and take us out. Pitbull.

And it's like the credit start rolling. The credits start rolling, and he comes on and people just start me. Two things. Pitbull has never said no to anything. And that could make you successful and busy. Two, I actually can say that I saw Pitbull This year at a Super Bowl party And while I won't go as far as Joe Thaisman

That he's a like a must-see experience for a live music fan He puts on a nice show He had several songs that I was like Oh, that's a big hit You're like, if you had to choose Between him and Sting and Shaggy playing together Before the Super Bowl You might have to go pitball

He got to go pit bull Guy, that guy's party music The Sting Shaggy Sting shaggy, that was a bit of a struggle. That's what's happening in the news. All right, before we move on, a word from our sponsor, Solo, New York is one of the biggest bag brands in the country. So you know this already. But they started in 2008 with a commitment to shake up the boring industry and make cool, thoughtfully designed bags to keep everything moving.

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Yes. I believe you're referring to the Varsity Elite Backpack. Absolutely. Gifted. I mean, I don't understand why Greg and I should be compelled to say anything nice until we're given the same products that you used to were. I didn't even, I missed all this. No, they gave someone upstairs, it's not Solo's fault, nice company, good stuff, came over and gave Dan and Wes a bag. and you and I were not considered as receivers of that product.

As I said, the last time we did this read, this is a situation that you should read into. Well, we're a week later and nothing's been done. That's what I'm saying. Head to solo dash ny.com slash around to shop from hundreds of designs and get 25% off your order again. That's solo dash ny.com slash around for 25% off. All right, back to the show. Barry Sanders turned 50. How about that?

How about the passage of time? Speaking of MVP's in the 90s, he split one of those awards with Brett Far. He sure did. Barry Sanders, one of the great running backs ever. And I also saw him at a flag football event before Super Bowl 46 back in 2011, where he lost touches to Maria Manunos. Makes sense from a coaching standpoint?

Just thrown out there. Is that Macadoo? Life comes out to fast. Magadu may be involved. I think Snoop might have been the coach. That makes some sense. Snoop put on a athletic display in Indianapolis that day, my friends. But that's beside the point.

We're going to talk about running backs in 2018. And Greg, great timing because you hit the ground running with a piece up on NFL.com, ranking the top 32. So let's kind of go through Greg's list and then talk about maybe some guys that aren't on the list. or maybe Greg should have put them high or lower. I don't know. But I want to start with number one, Greg. Why don't we just start right there?

Because I guess I was a little bit surprised. Ezekiel Elliott, your number one running back. What is your thinking behind that? It was a last minute switch. But the ranking was supposed to be who I'd want this season. And so between Zeke, Labion Bell, Todd Gurley, and David Johnson. I don't think there's a ton of room between those four. I think Bell, for what he's done, had the respect.

He was sort of in my top two. But I think Zeke has just shown he's maybe the best natural runner there is in football already. And he's only 22 years old. And you don't get the sense that he's really hit his top gear in between that. And the offensive line helps. But this is supposed to really just be the running back. I think he is ready to go up another level. And his power, I guess, is what kind of put him over the top over Bell.

because he can still catch it. They're all great on all downs, but his power and his just natural running ability is unique, so he's my number one. I like this call. He is the best pure runner in league. I totally agree with that. And Levi-on-Bel would have been the safe pick,

but I think it's a little inspired to put Zeke in there. I like it. I also think when you do these lists, and invariably they're going to retweet it, they're going to put this out in multiple ways, and they won't include this line. These are the players I'd most want on my roster for this season. Right.

That's the key to why I think that also, even we talked about with Bell, when he hits the ground in September or something, Ezekiel Elliott is a massive, after what was a troubling season for him last year, we're going to get the best version of him. Exactly. I think also he's coming, he's going to be fresh, but I also think he's coming into a season where we are going to get his best. We're going to get his most motivated Ezekiel Elliott. He showed up to camp out of shape the last couple years or not in great shape. Are we sure he's going to show up this year? And still led the league in rushing yards per game.

Right. And he still played great. I'm just, I just think between him getting a little more mature and the heat that was on him last year that he's going to be even better. And even if he's not, he should still be at the top of this list. I mean, that's how good. I mean, if he stays healthy, there's almost no way he doesn't finish with over like 1,600 yards. Yeah.

Total office. He's that type of star. I'm just curious, did you do this exercise last year? No. Who would you have had going into last year as number one? Bell. So he's still at number two. The guy that I know probably moved up

because he had a tremendous season last year, Todd Gurley. Is he a guy you were tempted to even put a little higher than three? No, just because of the other two. If we had done this a year ago, I would have been so stupid because I was talking about on this podcast. Like, I'm not sure if I,

who do we like better, Melvin Gordon or Todd Gurley? You know, I mean, Todd Gurley. That's the Jeff Fisher effect. It's another great example of what Chris said of trying to separate player from the team around him. And it was difficult two years ago. And I think he bore some of the blame of his 2016 season, but you saw last year what he can do. Players can fall into bad habits when they're surrounded by poor talent and poor coaching. But David Johnson, to me, at number four, this is kind of why if you had tears,

I think it would be fair to say David Johnson is closer to number one than number five. Yeah, when I went to West for some feedback and he didn't like seeing his boy David Johnson at number four. I am a scientist. You were on vacation, in fairness. It was literally the last day before my vacation that I wrote their last couple days.

One thing you didn't miss while you're on vacation was that Wes had a little slip of the tongue and insinuated or outright stated that it was your call, Greg, to keep Mark out of the lab. Yeah, which is troubling. I clarified that I was purely joking. Right, but not the way your face is acting. Well, but I'm not in the lab, so something's happening.

Yeah, so now, Greg, I think it's only fair that the floor is yours to respond to that allegation. Wes says it was a joke, but Wes's face after he made the comment, was one of those faces where you said something that you knew you shouldn't have said and then you have to quickly, quickly spin. That's how I read that moment. I think you read that correctly. On the show. So, Greg, you could clarify the situation.

Well, as a scientist. and as all great scientists, no, what we're really after, and I believe it was best said by the doctor in the movie Concussion, we want the truth. We just, we're looking for the truth. I want Sessler down there.

No, no, no. I want Sessler down there. We're just trying to look for the right answers. We're searching for knowledge, and Mark can help us. Did you just, like, name drop concussion, and then do, was that Will Smith's accent and concussion? I don't know.

It's been a while. It's been forever So I'm in Now you can't hold that over He's in the lap Yeah you can come down See It's all about what you want to put in

It's no longer your thing alone To kind of hang over my head I'm not gonna We're not gonna be exclusionary I notice Wes isn't cheering loudly About this decision Oh no I encourage you to come And being a scientist

It's all about peer review You can put out your work And then we review it for you I think everyone It's what you put into it Is what you're gonna get out of it Let me say certain people in this room Maybe are a little rusty

about how to really have a bit play out beautifully. Because right now there's nothing else to play out. Now everybody's in. What's left? No, because I actually don't really feel that invited. And it's like so in that case, you don't just go because you're kind of, oh, I forgot to invite you, but please come over. Please come to the party.

It was the, it's maybe the, you know, the start of the end of that bit, but the beginning of my Will Smith concussion. Oh, it's wrong to, in fact. Everything, yeah, everything ends. And there's always something new. We want the truth. Was that what it was? Was that the exact line?

I'm trying to remember what because it was every commercial leading into that. But it wasn't, you can't handle the truth because that would have been a few good men. That would have been a weird accent for a few good men. Tweet it Dan with the actual line, please. It was tell the truth. Tell the truth. That was it. Yeah.

Okay. Anyway, you have Alan Kamar at number five. Who's going to, who's going to deny you there? You have Shady McCoy at six and obviously given his current issues and we, again, don't know if he actually has legal issues on the way, but there's a lot of speculation around him right now. This could take him out of the mix entirely, but it's a good reminder how good Shady McCoy is and how Lashon McCoy's presence on the field separates the bills from being okay to being terrible. Yeah, this was written before all of the off-field stuff happened, but I was just thinking

about McCoy reminded of like, remember earlier in his career he was like a third down back that people thought couldn't handle more. And now he's turned out to be the total opposite, which is basically the most durable running back of his generation, in terms of staying healthy, getting the touches year after year. One thing on Alvin Kamara, I like this line. Camara has a flow so sick it makes you want to throw your food up. Oh, yeah.

I forgot about that. Greg wrote this like four weeks ago. Well, I did something in... I read this. piece from end to end, by the way. I did something in that ranking just to amuse myself. I wrote, you know, since you bring it up, his whole blurb with a variety of different Little Wayne.

Okay. That was going to be my guess. And I would, that would not have gotten my radar. Interesting. You know, you got to, you got to just keep, keep yourself fresh. I think the word no ceiling popped up naturally and then I just just went with it. Is this the start of your veering away. from sports writing into a new genre

that combines sports writing with art. What is the... I figure no one's really going to notice, maybe like three people. I'm curious, what's the end game there? What would deem that a success? Like how many tweet mentions? Oh, it's just to...

It's already been deemed a success. I enjoyed it while I wrote it. That's really all I was searching for. Sometimes you have to keep yourself entertained while you're right. The rest of the top 10, Devanta Freeman at 7, Cream Hunt at 8, Leonard, at 9, marking them at 10.

If you're curious, the bottom of the list, because I like that. And then we could jump in with any other thoughts. These are the bottom, the bottom five, according to Greg Rosenthal. And to be clear, these were just the top 32 running backs in league. So it wasn't necessarily one from every team. There you go. March on Lynch at 27.

So Greg not buying Lynch continuing to thrive and deeper into his 30s. Isaiah Crowell of the Jets, 28, Theoridic of the Lions, 29. Chris Thompson of the Redskins 30. Aaron Jones of the Packers, 31, and James White, the guy that had like 37 catches in the Super Bowl a year and a half ago, 32. Why? Why at the bottom of the list? Is that just a little joke?

No. It doesn't even run. Little joke. No. I don't know. He's a great, like, a compliment player. Yeah, I thought it was giving him some love to put him on the list at all. I mean, he is a guy that only had 43 carries last year.

So he's a little more one dimensional, like pretty much the top 20. guys on this list were guys that can play all three downs. And he's not necessarily a guy you're trusting for that. I got you. Can we jump around a little? Jump. One guy that I loved last off season and the idea of him, I think there were moments in games where you saw everything everyone had talked about was Joe Mixen. But ultimately, like, I was pretty underwhelmed by his rookie season, not his athleticism, but really just maybe it's maybe again, that's part of being in that offense, what was going on with that offense. last year that was missing parts and had a terrible offensive line.

They played a lot of good run defenses. But, I mean, is that someone at number 11 that I feel like he could really go higher up? I mean, after this season, he could pick a big jump or he could tumble. I know West loves Nixon. Yeah, you mentioned during the DeMarco Murray discussion about how hard he runs in his effort level. I think Joe Mixon is a lot like that. And he's, I don't think you can evaluate him behind that offensive line last year. I mean, 11 to me, there was a kind of a clear line of demarcation.

Mark Ingram was 10, Fournett was 9, and that was kind of the top backs. And there was a pretty decent drop. And it was who I'd want to have, and I think Mixin is going to be much better. And I think if you watch the last couple games, really the last month, but especially the last two games. Early in the year, he was trying to make every play a big run. But later in the year, he was kind of being a little more trusting his blocks, taking two to three yards. his numbers were pretty good at the end of the year and he looked really good in that week 17

game again. You know what to pull him off the field on third down. He's a great pass catcher too. One guy that jumps out to me and you have my think in a good spot kind of right in the middle of the list. Christian McCaffrey who had kind of an interesting rookie year kind of a hard to discern what direction he's going. Of course he was drafted to be a superstar

he was I think eighth overall pick in 2016 and he was obviously very good out of the back field but as a runner left a lot to be desired. I'm wondering if kind of what we saw in year one It's basically who the guy is or if there's room to grow. Don't know. I can tell you that I would definitely take him above the guy who's number 14 on the list,

Kenyon Drake. And Drake was the one to me that I would move down about five spots of anybody on this list. I would definitely, I think it's disrespectful to Jordan Howard to put him below Kenyon. I took a lot of your advice in terms of your advice. Taving Coleman, there's no question I'd rather have him than Kenyon Drake for this year. Dionne Lewis, I'd rather have than Kenyon Drake and Christian McCaffrey. So I went back and watched Kenman Drake's last month of the season, and he's elusive.

He has a suddenness. I would not call him explosive in any way. And I think he works best out of shotgun spread. I've seen too many Jerome Harrisons and Sam Congottos and Mike Bells and Jonas Gray's have great Bryce Brown. All these guys who have great Decembers. Jonas Gray. Jonas Gray didn't lead the league. in rushing for five straight weeks.

I mean, Kenyon Drake's was the leader in the NFL in rushing. Jerome Harrison, Sam Congano. I know those guys did any of that. Yes, Bryce Brown had two games better than anything Kenyon Drake ever did. And Jerome Harrison had rushed for 290 yards in a game, I think, or something like that for the Browns. Welcome to the left. I'm just saying like these late season flurries, you haven't proven that you can handle

a workload yet. It's a small sample size, but you're right. I'm putting my, I'm putting my neck out that I think he's going to make the leap. Like if we did it individual players making the leap, Kenyon Drake would have been one of my top two or three players. You drop those five spots like you want. You put them and that puts them at 19 where Jay Ajai is the player they got rid of in favor of Kenyon Drake.

It's fine. My other quibble would be Isaiah Crowell does not need to be on this list. But CJ Anderson does and Adrian Peterson does. Sometimes NFL personnel guys get it wrong. And Adrian Peterson is an example. He can still play. Well, CJ Anderson might get a chance to play. quite a bit.

Where would you put Peterson? Yeah, did you consider? I didn't even think about it. I would put Peterson right around 21 before you get into the passing down specialists. There you go. Mark, Greg, excuse me, NFL.com slash Rosenthal.

Do you have a vanity URL? No. Where's the respect? Every piece should have a vanity URL when Greg's name's attached to it. I don't know what the vanity URL really does. does for you, but we talk about it a lot. Remember everyone that we are trying to beat the system.

Hashtag, let's get crooked, the around the NFL podcast nominated for the podcast awards, the listener podcast awards, which I guess is a thing. I don't know. We don't even know what it is. It doesn't. I've been to the site. It is a real thing. And we better be doing well.

So just head to podcast awards.com and nominate around. the NFL in the quote sports category we'd appreciate we got a lot of feedback from people that have done that so it's stuffed the ballot let's get crooked and uh we'll fly and keep in mind everyone gregg's piece up okay mark it's coming up later this week five reasons why the patriots will make the playoffs in 2018 so keep your by the way tomorrow five reasons the bills will make the playoffs and i hate you talk about having to get creative it's going to be your best work of fiction yet to get a little bit of creative on that one Ray Bradbury over there.

All right. We'll be back on Thursday with our second show of the week. So make sure check it out. It would also, of course, be a video show presented by New Era. So that's fun. Oh, Fiseman. He'd picture like Thaisen with like glow sticks completely out of his mind, just sweating profusely in the front row.

Anyway, so we'll be back Thursday. Stan Hans is signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss, and Lindsay Fulton behind the glass. Tell Thursday, take it away, fake football. This is an eye-on to your saddle When you buck me on the wall And then you shake it like a ratler You a wild-wow girl

Like a tail by the way you dress This is an eye heart podcast