NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Schedule Release & Revenge Games

Episode Date: May 11, 2020

A bunker filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all of the latest news around the NFL including the upcoming 2020 schedule release and the ESPN MNF booth making some changes. Marc Sessler talks about teams with the biggest chip on their shoulders.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. Make way for my man coming through. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. I'm coming to you from a city filled with heroes in bunkers. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, Greg Rosenthal. up boys. Hey, Dan. Of course, the iconic quote right there, Mark Sessler at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, making room for the coronavirus-ridden, Sean Peyton. Well, we didn't know at that time at all what was going on with Sean Peyton. And he didn't have it then. He didn't have it then. We don't. We, that's unclear, Dr. Rosenthal. That is unconcerned. But I, you know,

I've never tested myself for it, but I'm symptom-free if I have it roaming inside my bloodstream at the moment. You can get the antibody test, perhaps, Mark, if you want to make sure that Sean Peyton didn't do your wrong there. Wouldn't have been Sean Peyton's fault. No, I wouldn't have blamed him directly. They got tests for anyone in L.A. if you want it, Mark, you just got to sign up online. Go for it.

In retrospect, because everyone got caught, you know, excuse the term with their pants down when it comes to COVID-19. I mean, if the NFL or the world knew what was coming, the Scouting Combine would have never happened either. And that was quite a hotbed of activity in Indianapolis. And now you look where we are now. Still in the bunkers. Had an unnamed friend who wouldn't shake hands or want to hug at a dinner event.

And at the time seemed like it was a little much. And look at him. He was a head of the game. He knew. No, we didn't say anything. I didn't, you know. I also remember. I just called him a fool.

threw wine in his face. You weren't even there. There was also a lunchtime work, lunchtime meeting where Greg, this was probably 10, 14 days before, you know, the stuff hit the fan. And Greg kind of dismissed coronavirus as a petty little illness

that would float away by June or July as the sun warmed up over L.A. That is not true at all. I don't know. Am I that far? I remember your thought of that. I feel like there was a comment, Greg,

you made that this was going to really stick it to capitalism. Like you were saying capitalism was overdue take a shot to the gut and well unfortunately so maybe you yeah maybe you had some good takes mixed in as well that don't know if that's a good take I don't want I don't like that being out there at all happy belated Mother's Day to all the mothers you know we we joke around that it is a male dominated audience for the show and it certainly is let's be honest but a few weeks back when I did that little exercise on DM spurned on by Mark's truth or dare segment on this podcast there was as it turned out when I went through all of them there's a bunch of women that listened to the show and so all of the women who are moms many of them mothers well that's that's not necessarily representative like the I'm going to open my DMs and come come at me I mean you are looking to get I see what you were doing you were definitely

and that's that I do got my guitar here I'm going to do little daughters by John Mayer father no I'm not I would have believed it. I would have believed it. Get a few titos in you. You will do that. All right. This is the Monday edition of Around the NFL podcast. I hope everyone checked out the Around the NFL broadcast or NFL Network show, which returned on Friday.

And it will be back on the airwaves again this Friday. And hopefully, each Friday for the foreseeable future. Now, are we on the air when and if the season begins? We'll find out, Greg. Are we more like a plug-in-play desperation scenario here? Or are we part of the network schedule going forward? We're going to find out. And the listeners and viewers will find out as well.

Are we desperate filler, TBD? I mean, yeah, it only took a pandemic to get us on, but we're happy for it. It's like anything right now. They're just playing it by ear. It's week to week. They can change your minds. Indefinite, like an usual Josh Gordon suspension.

You never know what could happen. We are the Josh Gordon of the NFL network schedule right now, but we're happy for the opportunity. So check it out this upcoming Friday, 6 p.m. Eastern 3 p.m. Pacific, the Iran-the-Fel broadcast. Coming up on today's show, we're going to just get caught up. We haven't had a podcast since Wednesday. So we're going to check in on the schedule release, which dropped late last week.

We're going to check in with Mark Sessler, who wrote a banger. Mark, I read it. I really enjoyed the pros, as always. And we're going to dig into your teams with a chip on their shoulder, entering 2020. Right, I would label that a scientific study, if nothing else. But before that, let's do some news. Oh my God.

She had a known. Mark and I have a longstanding tradition of occasionally sending each other old commercials that aired in the Northeast in the early to mid-90s. And that was a Stetson Cologne ad that ran excessively. I don't know if that rang a bell, Greg up there in New England, West. Yeah. Oh, I recognize that. Oh, yeah.

Definitely. And that was one of the clones my dad had in the cabinet, Stetson. A little brute by Fabergerie. Got a lot of NFL play, if I'm not mistaken, back in the day. I mean, to the point where, yeah, I mean, to the point where. Yeah, I had friends and I where that, you know, that choral chime at the beginning. We would walk around. My brother and I would sing that to each other playing Legos.

You know, my friends and I would walk later on, walk down the high school hallways singing that like groups of seven or eight. I mean, it really registered for some reason. It aired regularly during commercial breaks of WWF programming in the early 90s also. And I was just talking about it with Mark before the show. If you break down the lyrical content, first of all, it's a very pure female question. choir. And the lyrics are Stetson makes it easy for you, easy for you. So basically it's about scoring with chicks, but it's coming from this like church choir. It's a bit of jarring in retrospect. Doesn't it sound like the background vocalist and Rolling Stones? You can't always

get what you want. It could be one and the same. All right. Let's get to the news starting with a bizarre, bizarre incident involving Earl Thomas of the Baltimore Ravens. I know a lot of A lot of people had their jokes on Twitter involved regarding the situation. But it was quite serious when you're reading into it that Earl Thomas was involved in some type of escapade with a woman. His brother was also involved. And then Earl Thomas's wife caught wind of it. This is all from a police report.

This is not speculative reporting. And she barged into the house with a firearm. And it led to essentially a standoff. The safety was off on the gun. all this like really dangerous, scary stuff where what's a kind of quote unquote funny internet story could have turned into a huge tragedy. But as it turns out, Earl Thomas wasn't arrested

or charged his wife, a different situation. And the Raven said they became aware of the Earl Thomas situation on Wednesday night when TMZ reported the incident. And this could have Greg, some actual big-time ramifications for Earl Thomas, a man who fought very hard to get the big contract he felt he deserved from Seattle, didn't get it from them, and got one from the Ravens.

Yeah, I immediately thought, you know, it's different because obviously his wife's involved, but is this something that could affect his employment? And Pro Football Talk reported on it, or Baltimore's son, rather, reported on it, that the Ravens looked into whether he could void the contract. And then Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio, my old boss, followed up with a report saying, they can't do anything with his contract related to it, that the people high up in Baltimore knew that. And, you know, Mike essentially intimated that maybe if they could do something about his contract,

they would look into it. But that since there's nothing they can do, they expect nothing to come from it and that he'll be a member of the team this season. I thought it was interesting that there was some side reporting, too, that, you know, the Ravens weren't totally thrilled with aspects of the Earl Thomas experience last year. Someone mentioned that he didn't totally buy into. to the team concept at times and that he kind of struggled to grasp the defense,

which annoyed some of his teammates. I don't know to what degree, but I mean, the vibe of the voiding the contract suggested to me that the Ravens would like to, but cannot. What were the analytics of Earl Thomas, the advanced analytics last year?

And what did you guys see on tape? Was he still Earl Thomas? He struggled early. We talked about it on the show that he lost foot speed. a couple of steps, but as he got to know the defense, and as they changed their defense to be more back-end heavy with a lot more defensive backs, that defense really jelled from the second half of the season on, and it surprised me that they weren't happy with him because that secondary played so well and was the strength of that defense down the

stretch. He changed his role a lot. You know, his towards the end, and Chris is absolutely right, it seemed like he started slow and then he was part of one of the best groups in the league. he wasn't necessary that deep center Earl Thomas safety trying to read the quarterback's mind. It was a lot about run support and rushing the quarterback

and a guy near the line of scrimmage, so they found a different way to use him. But it seemed like he was helping them. And yeah, PFF had him as a top 30 safety, which is good, not quite the Earl Thomas of old. I mean, unfortunately, the last visual that we have of him is Derek Henry just blowing him up into another hemisphere. Good point.

That's true. Thomas will turn 31 this week on Thursday, a four-year $55 million contract with the Ravens and God, yeah, crazy stuff. A gun held to his head. Moving on. The Saints have made a move that many people expected. Moving on from Guard Larry Warford.

This comes after they drafted a young prospect last month, or was it this month? What month is it? What year are we in right now? It's last month now. It is last month. Okay. Anyway, they drafted Cesar Ruiz, who was, you know, interior lineman, first-round pick invested.

So it seemed like Warford, with a bloated salary, would be squeezed out. And sure enough, he was. He turns 29 next month, Wes. This seems like a guy who not only will get a job, but could end up starting because he wasn't terrible last year. No, he wasn't terrible. And sometimes we get caught up in the rumor mill that ever since they'd, drafted Ruiz, this move was expected and got me thinking that maybe Larry Warford was past his prime and just fell off a cliff and there's no good anymore. PFF graded him slightly below

average and teams seem to be lining up to sign him now. I'm not sure he earned that Pro Bowl birth last year, but there will be interest in him. Basically hasn't missed a snap in five years as a starter on the best or one of the best offensive lines in football. This is one of those moves where, yeah, maybe there's something else going on behind the scenes, whether he fit in or I don't even know. But it absolutely is a money move. There are very few, like usually I just think, well, it's more about the, they don't want the player.

In this case, they drafted someone and they free up $10 million where they were like having to move things around for every little move that they make. And that helps them in this regard. In other news, Mike Lennon has got a new job. He is signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Glennon spent last season with the Raiders. He threw 10 passes last season and two appearances with the team.

Gardner means you, Mark Zessler. Good news for him because Glennon is not anybody that you would think the franchise is going to think, ooh, we got to get a look at this dude. They're going to ride with the kid. Yeah, I guess you could have, you know, initially it was a landing spot for Andy Dalton. you could suggest that Cam Newton could probably go there and steal a lot of starts away if the offense fell off a cliff. I mean, guys like Joe Flacco are out there, Trevor Simeon.

And so this to me, they sort of said all along like we believe. Yes, Gino. Sorry to admit that name. They believe in Gardner Minshu, at least giving him a full year to see what happens. I just don't love the situation for Gardner Minshu. And I hope he doesn't get, you know, there's a lot of quarterbacks in the draft next year in one of these scenarios where, you know, in a handicapped,

capped offense, he's blamed for it. Our old buddy, Michael Lombardi, saw this move. I think it was when he tweeted this out and just said, like, it's official. Yeah, oh, yeah. You know, we used to be colleagues. We're, you know, us and Lombardy. What a joy that was. Especially you guys, you know, writing up his copy.

I've heard that story a few times. What a treasure. And he tweeted out right after this. Like, it's official they're tanking. And, you know, I don't, of course, I don't think the coaching, you know, we've been through this with the Dolphids. I don't think the coaching staff is. trying to lose, but yada, yada. Is there a team, you know, running the Jaguars high up that

might be thinking, well, worst case scenario, if we lose, we're in a good spot next year. That doesn't seem that crazy to me, that they would hold on to Marone and Caldwell for like one more year, because why blow it up and start over when we might just not be ready to really compete this year? The football world has lost its grip on the concept of tanking, just completely lost touch with what it actually is. Nobody has any idea anymore. Teams did this all the time before the Dolphins last year

with the Jacksonville Jaguars are doing. They've signed eight veteran free agents this offseason. That's not what a tanking team does. They had a huge draft. I just, like, what do you mean they're tanking? They're just not good. They're rebuilding. Well, if you have Mike Lennon,

who I don't think anybody thinks can play at this level, at least at a starter level, although has he ever really been given the chance? I mean, he wants some games. He wants some games with the Bucks. How many games did he start? Did he start like a full season? He started like more than half of the season in Tampa, didn't he?

And then he started more games in a different season. And then the Bears started to do a huge contract. Right. We were writing Mike Lennon, Fantasy, you know, Team X wants to trade for, you know, intriguing Mike Lennon back in like 2014 mid-decade. So, I mean. He's officially six and 16 as a starter. He played almost every.

He played 13 games for the Ducks one year as an injury replaced. So here's the Lombardi tank theory. Mike Lennon, we have evidence. He's been in the league for a while now. He can't really play. If Minchu stinks and he was a flash in the pen, they have no quarterback to keep them above water and they can very quickly become one of those three and 13,

two and 14 outfits. Yeah, that's what like seven teams a year have done for the last, I don't know, 75 years. What are you talking about? Yeah, I'm with Wes. It's probably just the wrong word. They're like rebuilding with a young team. And they probably have their eyes wide open that, you know, they're not likely to be a playoff team this year.

But that doesn't mean they're tanking. Did the Dolphins tank last year? The team didn't. I think the front office did last year. I think that was like legit reporting from well beforehand that that was a concept they were, you know, considering. And I think that it's unfair to ask a coaching staff to play along with that. And the Dolphins coaching staff utterly refused the notion of it. It does suggest that the state of quarterbacking is entirely different than it was five years ago when Mark and I were writing these articles about some unknown quarterback in Tampa who was a third round pick.

It might be the savior for other teams. And now Cam Newton can't get a job. All right. In other news, the shoe is finally dropped over at ESPN. Richard Deich of The Athletic.com reports that Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland will not be back on Monday, night football. Da da da da da da da da da da da da da de did de de de da um yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah wow were you adding some lyrics to that jingle I thought I heard words there yeah Deitch adds that the replacements will come from within ESPN decisions have not been made on that part but Tess and

Bougar are out, not it out at the company, they will remain in, quote, prominent roles at ESPN just did not work out over two years for Tess and Bougar. They put McFarland in the Bougar mobile, which is one of the infamous follies in the

history of really NFL broadcast television. I mean, that will be remembered forever is one of, like, the great gaps, just how silly it looked, and the man was wearing a seatbelt calling a football game. I mean, unfairly so. I mean, the bugger mobile was not nearly as bad as just hiring Jason Witten, but that it's not as funny.

Yes, well, yeah, I don't want to, yeah, overshadow that. Jason Witton was the, I mean, that 2018 setup is the worst ever, because Witten, despite good intentions, was completely overwhelmed and not ready for the job. He was green. He didn't have the it factor. Tessator rubbed people the wrong way with some of his histrionics. And then boogers were in a seatbelt on the sideline going 15 miles an hour up and down the field. I mean, what are we doing here? Anyway, they tried to rain it back in last year.

Witten, the Cowboys gave them a nice out by signing Witten back into the league. And then they went two-man booth, brought Bougar upstairs, threw the Bougar mobile into the ocean. But the two just didn't work. So we'll find out. I know our friend Andrew Marchand of the New York Post floated some internal names, including who was it? Do you guys recall?

Steve Levy, Dan Orlovsky. Lewis Riddick. I heard Brian Greasy. All in the mix potentially. So we'll find out. But there will not be no Peyton Manning, no Tony Romo, no Al Michaels. And we'll see. We'll find out.

Kurt Warner's been thrown in the mix, too. And Nate Burleson as two guys they looked at from the outside. But it sounds like they're more leaning on just staying internal. Right. Exactly. And your boy, Mike Florio, Greg. Who, by the way, he's filing stuff. This caught my eye over the weekend.

Florio's filing stuff. 4.08 p.m. on a Saturday, my night. He just does it all the time, huh? Oh, yeah. How does that work? Is he just doesn't, he never... It's one of the reasons I wanted to leave ultimately, because... I mean, I respected it in a way, but it's... I totally respected it, but it was... There were no days off, like, literally. They're just... It was a seven-day-a-week operation, and with kids, that was tricky. And, like, if the boss is doing that, then you're expected to do that, too. So, I don't know. You know, what else is he going to do? He's in West Virginia and

quarantine. That's true. That doesn't explain the other 10 years of that. Well, that's true. I don't know. He loves it. It's a grinder. And I mentioned Florio because he does mention at the end of a post that he wrote about this,

that the change, whatever ends up being the booth, could be temporary. There are rumors that the next deal for Monday Night Football, which starts in a couple years, the game could move back to ABC from ESPN. And if it moves back to broadcast television, will they again load up looking at? for a big-time name talent, we shall seek. I thought it was interesting. I know we're going to get to the schedule in a second, but it related to Monday Night Football.

They got a better schedule this year. Not only did they get Ravens Chiefs, they got some big-time games, and that's the biggest game of the season, and they got it, Ravens Chiefs. Ooh, great segue, Greg. Let us check in on the schedule release. It did it rolled out Thursday evening.

It's our first chance to talk about it. On this show, we talked about it in pretty good detail. detail around the NFL broadcast and NFL network. But what was a big takeaway for you, Greg, from the schedule, if any? This is kind of the last big rollout of the league that they had control of. They rolled it out on schedule, but we all know changes could come. A few things. One, they're doing a Friday Christmas game, Saints, Vikings rematch leading in.

You love it. It's interesting. I mean, yeah, I think it's fun. A little bit of a food. I don't think it's great. No, I don't love it because I like spending the day completely. with my family, but it's interesting. A little bit of a middle finger to the NBA, though.

Yeah, that's been the NBA's breakout day for a long time. Well, part of it that's interesting to me is that it's right before a Saturday full of NFL games, too. So it's not, it's Christmas, and then it's like a triple header probably on Saturday, and then Sunday. So I'm just thinking that's week 16, which to me is kind of the biggest regular season week where it decides so much. And so that, that's a prime time game? Yeah, I think it's 630. Eastern, so it's sort of in between. I don't think that conflicts with the ESPN.

No, it is. I read it a class with the second half of one of their games or something. Yeah. It is, yeah. Wow. What a shot across the bow. Your move, Adam Silver. There's only so much I can care. Oh, speaking of which, any other, oh, how about you, Wes?

You got any schedule takeaways? I know you have to. Give me one. I'm thinking. People put way too much stock and strength of schedule in May. It doesn't mean anything. That's my takeaway. None of the strength of schedule stuff means anything.

Week one wipes everything out. I want Peter Kay on one good point that it was, you know, it makes sense that it was by leaps and bounds. Because I think creating this, you know, you've got to go into that war room with like 88 people and 4,000 charts and deal with concert. and live events and all this other nonsense that's on the slate for autumn. But none of that exists right now.

And they said it was the easiest schedule to make by such a large degree. And also that, you know, Dan, our Browns and Jets play in Week 16 in New York. But what happens there is the Browns play the Giants the week before. And there's a lot of instances where I think they're trying to, if travel's going to be involved and we're going to do this, that teams going to the West Coast might be there two or three weeks in a row or vice versa to, you know, prevent unnecessary Ziggy. zigging across the country.

Yeah, that's true. Greg, you love the Thanksgiving schedule. You love chopping it up. 11, 26, 20. Yeah. 12.30 p.m. Texans at Lions. 130 p.m. Redskins at Cowboys. And then primetime, the Ravens show up again against the Steelers.

I'm into that. You know, that slate's okay. But I do have takeaways from it. One, they gave Deshaun Watson some big pop in this schedule. They're in prime time a lot, but they're also, you know, they're in the kickoff game. that's a big that's a big nod to Deshawn Watson and they're in Thanksgiving so that's it's kind of

putting some you know it's putting some faith in the star power of Watson and Bill O'Brien and that is the only national game of the year that the Redskins are in what a fall from grace from that franchise there's been some good Thanksgiving ones and that is it they don't have a single prime thing that's a bit overdue let's be honest right can't just keep

pumping that organization in the prime time until they're interesting and then finally I wrote a revenge games piece I'm going to cycle through these I think we might get West fired up on one of these. Here we go. Week 12, Carson Wentz against the Seahawks. Week 6. Oh, Mark, Miles Garrett, Pittsburgh Steelers. Which they essentially put in an anonymous early game, early slate time spot.

I think they don't want to pump that up as much as you choose to. They cut down the Brown's prime time. Yeah, as they should have. As they should have. They got two and they don't deserve more than two. Okay. I wonder if that The Gareth thing has anything to do with that? I don't think so. I think so. I mean, I'm more appalled that the Saints have fewer prime time games than eight other teams.

Odell Beckham, Jr. plays the Giants for the first time in week 15. The Chargers against Tom Brady. Tom Brady was, you know, accorded by the charges. The Bucs have more. The Chargers wants a little bit of revenge. You don't want to come to us? Here's our boy.

I mean, Dan, you wrote that. you seem puzzled by your own entry there. I don't know, man. There's a pandemic going on there. Packers, Niners, dolphins, patriots, Texans, chiefs,

Titans, Ravens, Vikings Saints, all great revenge matchups. And now we just wait to see if any of it happens. And that's what's happening in the news. All right, Mark. Did you write a banger?

Subbanger? Actual banger Where you at? The weird NFL article that I, because it was due, you know, you get these monthly, look ahead for the month

and here's what you're going to write and here's when they're due. I noticed this, you know, got on my radar a while ago, due Monday morning at 7 a.m. Okay, so that means I'm going to be right, that means I'm going to be writing that.

I wrote it on a Saturday morning in our, you know, in my backyard. And the Sunday is Mother's Day. Right. So I knew that I was dealing with a strict window to, you know, turn this text out. But I had kind of enjoyed writing it because

it wasn't one of these ones where you have to dig in and look at, you know, PFF and all this other stuff for four hours in a row. It was just kind of like pick some teams that seem like they might be a little on edge or feel a little dismissed by people. And I guess to me, that would equal having a chip on your shoulder as a franchise. All right. So you started with the New England Patriots. Why? Well, my first words there were bellic lives. I just think that it's funny to me that, you know, we have no idea how any of this will go. They're fascinating to me because anyone ticketing them for 5 and 11, fine. That's a reasonably logical outcome because of what's gone. But I still think you have the best coach in football

who, yes, I realize he's, you know, trotting around with his little dog and doing these nice segments. But I would imagine. They're 70 years old. Right. I would imagine behind the scenes that Belichick would like nothing more than to take whoever's starting a quarterback and just stick it to the rest of the league. They have, I think, five primetime games. And, you know, it's fair to think they could be disasters. But I think the opposite. On that, on that note, you said stick it. Remind me of Jared Stidham. Great. Wes, excuse me, you read something in the Boston Sports Journal. I did indeed. Joint where he essentially dug in a little bit on where Stidim actually stands

with the Patriots right now. And your takeaway is that a lot of people have this all wrong about what's actually going on at the quarterback position there. The entire football cognoscenti has been misreading this quarterback situation for three months. Greg Bedard. Godbom. Who told him, the Patriots view Jared Stidham as another year away as not ready,

as basically as ready as Jimmy Garoppel was after one season, which means they just need to see a lot more before they can determine that he's the guy. And Belichick's comments have backed this up that our quarterback room of Brian Hoyer and Jared Sidham is not by design. That's just the way it's played out. Who knows if Jared Sidham can play?

I just think this idea, we all think that the Belichick persona now is he's so sneaky, he's got everything figured out, and he's always waiting to drop some surprise on the NFL. And I don't think that's what this is. I think they just haven't found a quarterback that suits them so far. Andy Dalton was making too much money. Maybe they don't think he's a major upgrade.

I don't know why Greg might have info on whether they like Cam Newton or not. Andy Dalton's making too much money? Well, when the Bengals were trying to trade him. Right, but he was a free agent. From an action standpoint, I get by design, they don't just think this is what would be Hoyer and Stidham, but what's the action item to add someone? here in May. There was plenty of options.

Right. I agree with everything West said. And I think that's how weirdly Bellet, a lot of times people say, okay, Belich's got all this master plan and here's how he late, like, I think he is a very in the moment, reactive, doing the best decision that he thinks for the team. It's like, I don't think this was part of their long-term plan. I think they wanted Tom Brady back on some level, and he wanted to go. I mean, I think, or at least they, they were.

were caught a little flat foot. Yeah, I know. I'm just saying, like, they didn't necessarily think he was going to have a strong market, and they almost were right there, but not right enough. I think they like Stidham, and they like them more than Andy Dalton, or else they would have found a way to sign Andy Dalton. Salary cap is significant here. It's also, you know, the season hasn't started. They could add someone. The only thing I think that's clear, though, is Stidham did beat out Hoyer last year. You know, they got rid of Hoyer because of Stidham's performance and training camp. So that was something that. Now, you did that with Tom Brady being the starter, but they still made that decision. So I just don't see Hoyer having a very good chance

at winning the job if it's between the two of them. If this is true, if this is true that internally they don't think Jared Stidham's going to be ready for at least another year. Well, it was more that they don't know that, like, how could they know? That he's played a year. They liked where he was at, but he's a young player. Just the risk of it all, though, that if you're the football czar slash GM as Belichick, principal job is to have the team prepared roster-wise and then the coach side of it takes over after that. But there certainly seems like a very real chance because who thinks Brian Hoyer can really

lead anything at this stage of the game that they'll be completely caught with their pants down. And then you get into the whole theory, I can't believe I said pants down again in the show. Then you get into the theory that would Belichick be kind of cool that if they ended up being terrible because maybe that leads to their quarterback of the future. and he is looking two steps or two paces ahead, as many people often assume he is.

I think he's going to adapt and he thinks once he gets into the season and he sees what Stidim has or doesn't, like he thinks there's other ways to win games and that's how he's operated. I think he looks his offensive line as a total strength. I think he likes his running backs.

I think he loves his secondary, you know, and I think there's things he likes about the team and he's going to try to play to those strengths, but you've got to see if Stidim's, can play or not. Like, if you just can't, then you might have to go with Hoyer. It's also in May, and we may not play football until November. I mean, who knows. So I don't think that the quarterback room now is the same as going to be by the time the season starts. Well, he's also in Nantucket. I do wonder, like, he's been in this football grind. I've

thought about this, like, which teams are going to benefit? And it's hard to really know. But, I mean, it's a totally different off season for all these coaches, too. It's like, he's just in Nantucket, like, cooking up, who knows what? Are they going to be totally different than like are a lot of teams going to be totally different from because these coaches are in their bunkers just coming up with crazy ideas that would be fun is there greg is there a nantucket martha's vineyard rivalry up there i don't think so i've never been um what like elites on elites right this work right i mean ntucket's like a really small place i don't know how you get blue blood yeah i don't know how you get there you know martha's vineyard's got like

a hundred thousand people in the or 7580 thousand people in the summer i don't think like nantucket Tuckett has much in the way of even stores and stuff, but I don't really know. I think they've got some stores. It's just, you know, not like a, you know, not a ton. Advantage, Martha. The vineyard also has the Kennedys, right? I feel like that's some. No, neither.

They're on Cape God. Well, oh, yeah, let's bring in Ricky on this. Ricky, you are a blue blood up there. Of course. You come from an incredible amount of wealth. Tell us more. I know, Erica's like the only one of us who truly is a blue blood and she never gets any. Erica's told the stories of sitting on the lap of Ted Williams.

and other great history figures. Right. And frankly, I thought he was inappropriate, but, you know. Oh, stop that. No, Nantucket is the bomb. There's a ton of fairies, even from Martha's Vineyard, to Nantucket. Okay. I've never been.

I don't know. And the downtown is so historic and beautiful Nantucket over Martha's Vineyard any day. Wow. Rikki coming in with some info. Some tinks. That downtown with the cobblestone streets, I know Martha's Vineyard has a lot. They're very similar. but Nantucket, oh, you get the, you get the red, you wear your Nantucket Reds,

you're just on the boat, you know, shark fishing, whatever. I mean, Nantucket. All right, bye. Snipe in a shark from the top of the deck. That was good info. Yeah. That's our street smart correspondent, Erica Tamposa. All right.

Who else? Mark, you have the entire AFC North has a chip on their shoulder. Now, talk this one out for me. It's a big chip. Well, that's how you do these articles. Do they share it? Do they share it? You know how this works. You can't just pick six teams.

One of them has to be a little bit different and kind of like, well, that kind of is a good point. Is it one giant chip collectively on the division itself or do they have four separate chips? Yeah, I think the imagery was troubling. I mean, kind of a tough imagery to begin with. I've gotten a lot of tweets like a team doesn't have a shoulder, blah, blah, blah. So it's like, I hear what you're saying. That's not sweet.

But I would say, if you're the Cleveland Browns, you have a chip on your shoulder because of everything we've talked about over. talked about on the show with what happened last year. I think they were embarrassed, and they have a lot to prove that you can't go out and do that again, and I would say there have to be some people, some fairly angry individuals in their Steelers. I mean, they went eight and eight. They lost every quarterback possible.

Things couldn't have gone any worse for them, and they still see themselves completely as a playoff team. I would say the Ravens for the way the season ended. It's not that they were, that's two years in a row where the playoffs equaled. shocking departure for Baltimore, but especially last year. I mean, they just got totally punked in the weirdest way. I still feel like that playoff game was one of the weirder experiences I've had in a while watching a game and just feeling like everything that you didn't expect is happening right in front of our eyes in Baltimore. I believe it was never really

in question. The Titans were in control of the game from the very beginning. There was the insane stat speaking to the weirdness of the game. I believe the Ravens got stopped done fourth and short three times, something that had not happened once in 16 games over their 14 and 2 campaign. So it was now, is it fluky? I will, I'll pull it back. I don't know about the entire team,

but I certainly could see Lamar Jackson having a chip on his shoulder, which you usually don't get for him in MVP, because fairly or unfairly, a lot of people are going to remember that season for, oh yeah, he was this amazing dominant player, rushed for 1,200 yards and threw for 3,500 yards, whatever it was. and then, again, two straight playoff of years, he didn't get it done.

He needs to kind of lose that, quote, unquote, narrative, which might have been unfair in the first place. I mean, Peyton Manning had that tracking him for a while in his career. And, like, one thing I noted in an overly long intro to this thing was that I don't think that certain players would even care about this, no matter what team they're on. It's the certain type of guys. And, like, you look at how Bill Parcells knew how to rile up Lawrence Taylor five minutes before kickoff and deal with another player completely differently. So, you know, you can't just slap this label on. entire teams or frankly an entire division but i think the bengals might be stay strong mark don't back down but the bengals like you know they've been a

they even when they use a little chip i mean i don't know zach taylor doesn't strike me i again i'm not i have quite we've got a bag of chips we have questions about the coaching staff but um they the from a maybe i would go bengals fans who i think have just taken it um you know for years and they have just there have been a laughing stock the team doesn't seem to want to do much to get them out of that situation so you know things got change here for the fan base totally uh throw one more out there mark uh let me look here that ravens that raven's that raven's titans game by the way it's one of three games on my dvr and walker just likes the my son likes to watch football sometimes so i've seen that game now

a handful of times it's that it's bill's patriots week 15 and the super bowl from last year so i've seen these games over a decent amount of times that game is i don't know we're incoming i'm just saying it's like an amazing football game that was like that titan body rock there's just there's something about a divisional round game like that and it was it's fascinating to watch like they just hit them and the ravens didn't know what it happened it is it's like an amazing thing to to rewatch imagine going to that game as a ravens fan oh you think you got a ticket punch to the super ball and you're walking home like wait did we just score 12 points and essentially get our butts whipped that's when they would rather have the old mouser

made the old mouser in that spot i mean when when tana hill hits uh caliph raymond on that bomb and it's suddenly 13 nothing that was like one of that was one of the moments of the season i feel like hello condi it's monday moward day oh yeah yeah i can hear that the great condolario rolls through here who candelario like john candelario well it's his first name he's a good guy i give him a handle of captain morgan's for Christmas every year he's he comes and cuts the grass he tends to the yard for us nice what a classy gesture right and for those who think that's some type of sign of me being an upper crust

person that's fairly normal uh if you rent a house in Los Angeles yeah I don't know you guys I think it's almost sure it's very normal yeah it's part of rental agreements in in the LA area that the the owners have to take care of it yeah I don't know if the I don't know if I would want him swilling Captain Morgan's before uh in the lawn, but who knows? I feel like you could do that with a little bit of... I mean, it's not that hard. Juice and you?

Not up for crust. Going back to my mailman days, I appreciated anyone who would leave a tip in the mailbox or give you a gift certificate. I never got a handle of Captain Morgan's, though. Yeah, I gave him a handle of Captain Morgan's and a half a rock. Nice.

$50 is the way. Oh, I was like, you gave him cocaine? I was like sort of like, it seems to fit right in. It's a little thing. you and then we have we have a drink there you go and well what do you talk about that would be that would be more of digging into where you see yourself with there's a bit of a language barrier but we we talk about we talk baseball he's a dodgers fan you asked me about the yankees yeah it works all right um anything else i don't know i get this does not feel like um i'm trying to remember

a segment that was interrupted by two or three like super deep dives you're you're searching for a team to talk about. I thought we all had to come up with teams. Oh, do you have one? Oh, yeah. One more more. Okay, Greg, go ahead. Give us one.

Well, mine was on Mark's list, which was the Saints. Just like a team that's been a top five team in the NFL, three straight years, as heartbreaking playoff losses as humanly possible. And as all in like one last year as any roster I can think of for a long time. So that's a chip on your shoulder. It's also a lot of pressure. But when you look at what Mickey Loomis has done with his financial jiu-jitsu, keeping this team together and the depth chart at every position looks awesome.

I mean... Balancing both an NBA team and an NFL team. I've always thought that was... He's done a great job with those dual responsibilities. They've got to be coming into this season feeling like it's title or bust, which is dangerous, but that's just where they're at. Doesn't it feel like that's been where they've been, really, for the past four years now? The entire Drew Brees era?

I get it. But this time, it's like it's his last year. I'm just feeling like this is his last year. There's no more guaranteed money. He took a job with NBC. Everything's going to be different after this year. Oh, yeah. Well, you wonder if he has another great season if he's going to want to walk away.

And Tom Brady over in Tampa is like, no, I'm going to take all those counting stats records if you quit. These guys care about that stuff. I would. No, you're right. Those records are really important until Matthew Stafford breaks all of them. We'll say. I mean, no, it's easy to say that all. all those records will be broken.

But the longevity is necessary. That's the way football works. They matter to breeze. It's a big part of his calling card. Brady, you would think it would matter a little less at this point. He's got all the rings. Makes sense. Anybody else got one?

Well, Mark mentioned the Rams. I want to hear that. I do like always hearing Mark on the Rams. The Rams to me, I mean, it wasn't a super bowl hangover. Some would say Mark has a chip on his shoulder about the Rams. Not what the way they are right now because I suddenly find them less everybody's favorite and more intriguing.

They've really transformed the coaching staff and the roster and I think Sean McVeigh suddenly is in sort of the second phase of his time there and has a big challenge and I have a lot of questions about Jared Goff not to the same degree I would about other guys but you're in a crazy division where you're no longer the class of that division

you're in a top heavy NFC, you went 9 and 7, missed the playoffs, kind of like fizzled out at the end there. They were 8 and 5 at one point. I think there's a bit of a chip on the shoulder there. I would say that you were the bell of the ball a year ago, not now. What's interesting about the 2020 Rams, I think, is that Sean McVeigh, just a couple of years ago, was the next offensive whiz kid genius.

And the defense looks better than the offense. To me, in fact, by far the two best players in the team, are Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey. But they have a totally, you know, but they lost some starters and they have a totally new defensive coordinator. You're right, they have a lot to prove. I mean, they're rebuilt, you know,

they took over a bad franchise and they won a lot of games. You know, going 9 and 7, if that proves to be a down year, it isn't the worst down year. It's just they didn't expect that to be the step back year at all. Like, this makes more sense as a step back year.

He does have a lot of proof. I mean, it's, I think about it like driving around the city. I mean, there was Todd, God Gurley, billboards everywhere. It's Todd Gurley, you know, for Subway, there's Jared Goff and all this stuff. I don't know if he's getting that Banana Republic money again. It's like, you know, they're not the bells of the ball as they were hoping quite as much going into the new stadium.

There's been a lot of goff dunking by, you know, the football pundits out there this offseason after what was a down year. I wonder the Rams are in a lot of trouble if he continues to regress this year. he's due 31 million and 27.5 million guaranteed salary in the next two seasons. His cap number jumps up over 30 million from 2022 to 2024. I mean, you want to talk about regrets. There's no way they give him that kind of deal again. Now they just have to hope it doesn't turn into a huge disaster if he kind of becomes a rich man's Mark Sanchez or something over the next year. Ooh, see, I'm not that concerned.

I don't think they're that concerned. He's paid like a superstar. Right, he is. It's not exactly what you want, but I think even the way he played last year, man, his bad games were just awful. But I don't think he was much worse than an average starting quarterback.

I don't think he was like a huge problem. The problem is, you know, you want with that. He's drafted number one overall. He better be better than the average starting quarterback. Well, I don't think he was last year. I think he was about average or a little worse. I guess my measure of. He just wasn't, he wasn't Mark Sanchez.

Yeah, my measure, I said rich man's. My measure of a disaster is if he goes below average. So if he's not only a guy that's sitting at the table and he's not bringing things from the table, when he starts taking the salt off the table, the pepper, all of a sudden some forks and knives are missing, he's taking things off the table, then it's like, oh, my God, what did we do? We just shipwreck the franchise over this guy. Right. And it also would point fingers at the Rams front office and coaching staff.

for mis-evaluating him. I mean, and paying him with the wrong evaluation. I think they got some good young rookies on offense. But, yeah, he's got to be better. I remember that Cowboys game, which kind of, man, Jared Goff was terrible. And that, I don't know if it was week 14, week 15. But it was kind of the moment where you're like, oh, the Rams are just not going to do it. And Goff was a huge, huge part of the reason why.

How about that Ravens game? I mean, there were just too many instances of the Rams just not showing up last year. They've got to turn that around. Sometimes it feels like with being a team builder and less need is a great example because he's been in there forever now. It's like that old Batman thing, you die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. He was a guy that seemed like, this was not going to work out. And then he hit on some moves.

And all of a sudden he was the face of like the young industrious GM that teams would love to have connected to them. And now things have come back around. and he's facing a lot of pressure, I imagine. I think McVeigh has more, what do you think is it fair to say? McVeigh has a lot more job security than less need right now. Yeah, but I think they both have pretty good job security

because we're talking about this like there was a disaster. They, you know, they went nine and seven last year. I mean, they weren't good, but let's see how this season goes, I guess. Right. Even if they struggled, I think, I think this is kind of their team for, this is their group for a while. Well, I would say, though, McVeigh, if you want to say someone has more, I mean, McVeigh is sort of the centerpiece of the organization and a brilliant coach that you're not just going to let walk

because of even one bad year. I wonder if he's a potential guy, because this is going to be a tough year for them, and McVeigh will be really tested with all their losses and free agency and their salary cap issues and lack of draft picks and all that. If this year doesn't go well, I wonder if Peyton could end up being, or McVeigh could end up being a Sean Peyton type down the line where he is the czar of the whole organization, the Andy Reid type role. Right now, that is not the case. But maybe in the future.

Mark, you did it. Vanity URL? No, I don't know what's happened to those. It's just the NFL.com last name, Sessler, and hope it's the last thing I wrote or you're going to have to scroll down and look for it. All right. There you go. Anything else? Anybody else have anything to add today?

One final thought. Yeah, people can, if they missed it, by the way, it's on Game Pass, our show, I think. Oh, yeah. That's what I heard. Check it out. I never did. Check out the around the NFL broadcast. Personally, verify it, but yeah.

Also, the last dance is getting better every week. What a show. Really enjoying it. I've actually, I kind of, I'm doing a new thing now where I watch the first one on Sunday. And then I save the one. Second one. Oh, I like that. It's like a Reesey cup.

Well, treat. And then it gives me another reason not to go on Twitter because God knows it's good to get off Twitter every once in a while. A lot of takes always connected to Jordan in the last dance. All right. Stan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman, the old boss. Ricky Blue Blood Hollywood over in West Hollywood. Until Wednesday. Thank you. 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 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. This is an IHeart podcast.